Temple Guard
Stegadeth
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This is a re-match from last week. My friend is gearing up for a 2250 tournament with his Warriors of Chaos. He has wanted me to play him to work on his tactics and list. So, I was happy to oblige. Last week he massacred me (I didn't check the points, I only had my Slann and maybe 5 Temple Guard left and he had, well, too many units.) Of course I let him get away with a failed stupidity roll on turn on so he could get his Chaos Lord on Dragon into contact and I failed to move in the first turn before I started on magic and so I left it at that.
I stayed bottled up in my deployment zone the entire game. I also hadn't checked the FAQ on Rule of Burning Iron to see that you could indeed fire it at a model engaged in Close Combat. In other words, he got off light last week. I wanted to see what his Army could do if everything went his way anyway, so it was cool. I claim I was massacred. He claims it was a draw since I was nice. This week I was going to show him how it would go if we played by the rules all the way.
The Legion of Zec-Xa
1 Slann Mage-Priest
General
Battle Standard Bearer
War Banner
Cupped Hands of the Old Ones
Dispel Scroll
Disciplines: The Becalming Cogitation, Focus of Mystery, The Focused Rumination
Lore of Metal
1 Level Two Skink Priest
Ancient Stegadon
Engine of the Gods
1 Level Two Skink Priest
Plaque of Tepok
Cloak of Feathers
16 Temple Guard
Musician, Standard Bearer
18 Saurus Warriors
Full Command, Spears (I chose full command because his characters have to challenge. That's a lot of wasted wounds!)
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
4 Terradon Riders
1 Razordon
Extra Handler (his units are all pretty much immune to Psychology, Frenzied)
1 Razordon
Extra Handler
1 Saurus Scar-Veteran
Light Armor
Piranha Blade
Enchanted Shield
Cold One
5 Cold One Cavalry
Full Command, Scar-Vet goes here.
Total Roster Cost: 2248
His Army, Frenzied pretty much all around, only his warshrines were Tzeentch
1 Chaos Lord
General
Helm of Many Eyes
Hellfire Sword
Chaos Dragon Mount (He got a nice roll off the shrines so he did a total of 15 attacks with this set up)
1 Level Two Chaos Sorcerer
Daemonic Mount
2 dispels scrolls
Lore of Shadows
1 Level Two Chaos Sorcerer
Chaos Steed
No idea on magic items
Lore of Shadow
10 Chaos Knights
10 Marauders
Great Weapons
10 Marauders
Great Weapons
10 Marauders
Great Weapons
1 Warshrine of Tzeentch
1 Warshrine of Tzeentch
Roster Total: Something around 2250
He rolls a 6+1 to go first, so I didn't even have to roll! I Bane Head his General. So, he makes his stupidity check for his Chaos Lord and fails just like last week. This time, I let him stay put not pulling any punches. His sorcerer on Daemonic mount tries a spell, I forget which, rolled 3 dice and got snake eyes! That happened to me last week, so I figure it was karma or the Old Ones just sticking it to Chaos.
He rolls two dice for the Miscast table and... whoops! Snake eyes again! I chuckle knowing he loses all of his scrolls as the sorcerer implodes taking 4 Chaos Knight with him. He also wounds his other Sorcerer. The other Sorcerer tried to cast something with three dice but fails. I never even use a dispel die in the first turn and my scroll never got used the entire game! Clearly the Old Ones are smiling on the Legion of Zec-Xa this day.
He advances all of his units forward, Dragon in the middle (stupidly lurching forward) flanked by the War Shrines of Tzeentch with a unit of Marauders on my right and a forest next to them. On my left of the other War Shrine is the Chaos Knight unit, what's left of it anyway, with one Sorcerer which has two Marauder units further left of it bordered by some impassible terrain.
I was set up from left to right thusly: Razordon, Skirmishing Skinks in front of my Priest on Stegadon and Cold One Cavalry, Saurus Warriors, Skink Priest with Cloak of Feathers, Skink Skirmishers screening my Temple Guard, and a Razordon out front on my right hand flank.
I move my skirmishers on both sides forward about six inches, keeping them out of charge range of the marauders, I move my razordons up on their outside flanks to cover them, move my Cavalry up real close behind the Skirmishers and get the Stegadon out on his own and on the flank of his Knights. I move the Saurus up slightly and move the lone Skink Priest with Cloak of Feathers up in front of everything, knowing his Lord on Dragon will have to charge it and knowing darn well I was going to flee back into range of my Slann bunker which moved slightly up and angled itself to make sure Chaos Lord would be in arc of sight in case the Priest didn't turn back around.
At this point the Engine of the Gods can only do a buff, so I give it to my skirmishing skinks allowing them to reroll ones to hit and wound. My solo flying Priest is within 24" of his Lord on Dragon so I open up. I got off Forked Lightning and he let it go. I ended up with one wound on his Lord and not a scratch on the Dragon. Next came the Slann. I threw 3+free dice at Bane of Forged Steel. It wasn't the greatest roll. He threw all of his dispel dice at it and beat my roll.
I had him right where I wanted him. No dice left and no scrolls, I cast rule of burning Iron with 1+1 free dice. I get enough hits and I get one wound and with Bane Head that's enough to kill his General in turn one. I then cast Distillation of Silver at his Dragon, which passed its Leadership test, hit but failed to wound.
End of Turn 1
Turn two see things going my way still. He advances forward moving several units into range of blowpipes and Razordons as well as the Burning Alignment if I get a lucky roll on the range. His Dragon, free of his stupidity check and since he is Frenzied has to charge the only thing he is in range of, a lone Skink Priest. I gleefully declare a flee and move back 3 inches leaving the Saurus out front of him but not screening. Two turns and he hasn't actually engaged anything and has lost a Sorcerer, 4 Knights and his General. Now he is in range of shooting and has to take another round of magic. I am getting cocky.
Never get cocky. The Old Ones will remind you that you are a mere gnat to them. My Skink priest rallies and turns around. I might have charged the dragon with my Saurus, but I was hoping to get his Knights into them, or maybe a Warshrine at least. I know exactly where his Dragon is headed, so angle my bunker a bit more. I cast all kinds of crap at his Dragon. I get all kinds of hits. Wounds, however, not so much. Rule of Burning Iron, Distillation of Molten Silver, Bane of Forged Steel, Forked Lightning. Not one stinking wound. As I said, never get cocky.
By some miracle my leftmost unit of Skinks wounds the dragon with a blowpipe. Only five more to go. My rightmost unit of skinks and the Razordon over there all get to shoot at his marauders. I drop 4 of them. Out on my left flank my Razordon kills another. Now I know I am going to have to fight and I am not looking forward to it so much. My opponent sees this as his last chance to really turn this around.
End of Turn 2
This turn sees the Warriors of Chaos getting to do what they do best, Close combat on the charge. Dragon again charges the Skink Priest. As luck would have it, I flee again to within one inch of the edge of the table. Poor Dragon is hungry and cannot eat. His Knights charge my Saurus, one Warshrine just moves into range to charge something next turn, his Marauders try their luck with the Razordon on the right, One Warshrine can't hit anything because it's pretty congested and on my left the two units of marauders think they can handle the Razordon over there.
The combats go about as you would expect. I am really fortunate because the rightmost Skirmishers are within range of the Slann's Leadership. The Stand and shoots are atrocious for the Marauders. The leftmost decimate his unit but get charged, beaten and the two surviving skinks flee and stop right beside my Cavalry keeping them out of a very favorable charge. I lose four skinks on the right and the razordon on that side actually misfires, killing a skink. The close combat actually saw the rest of the unit hold. My Saurus hold and actually kill two Knights.
At this point the Dragon is set up for another charge on my skink Priest who rallied again, somehow. I decide that now that my Cold One Cavalry are blocked from charging the Knights by two Razordon Handlers, who rallied, that they will simply move up a little out of the way of the Marauders and that my magic would have to deal with them. I magic away two more knights and manage to get a wound on a Warshrine (seriously, T6 with Armor AND Ward saves?) My Stegadon goes in for the kill on the leftmost Marauder units and tears them up. They end up outnumbered by Terror, flee into combat and go bye bye. Stegadon gets close to a Warshrine, not close enough.
End of Turn 3
The Dragon again charges the Skink Priest (at this point my opponent was desperate to take away any magic and VPs he could) which again flees right off the table. I figured the failed charge was worth not holding as it kept the Dragon on the table for some magic. The poor Dragon is now back pretty much behind everything I have, not having had a single combat and down a wound. Combats go about as expected. His Knights beat on my Saurus who end up beaten and flee off the table. However, he is flanked by those two lone Razordon Handlers and he didn't put one attack on them. He's stuck in Close combat and I have set up the Cold One Cavalry for the charge previously.
At this point, I'll sum up for your sanity and mine.
I keep getting tons of hits with spells and few wounds. A Dragon charges the Temple guard on turn five. His Knights get hammered and he loses his last sorcerer as he gets crushed under an angry Stegadon. Slann manages a miscast! Woohoo, Cupped hands of the Old Ones and not a single enemy wizard on the table, much less Line of Sight. Slann blows up 6 Temple Guard (apparently I can only wound myself!) and gives himself a wound. Now I feel even less guilty for his Wizard blowing up on Turn One since I have had four miscasts against this guy in two games!
The Stegadon ends up against a Warshrine and the Priest gets murdered but the four crew all survive. I got one more Burning alignment off against both warshrines before the Priest bit it and cause a couple of wounds. The Dragon ends up getting charged by my Cold One Cavalry and those two skink handlers. Yes, it was lame. He was flanked and rear charged, the Scar Vet did some wounds and he lost combat and fled into another unit. Dead Dragon.
The Final turn saw me trying to kill the warshrines. They both fled and got either run down or ran into enemies.
Aftermath and Victory
He was tabled but had ended up with a banner, all my Saurus, plenty of Skinks, Razordons, both Priests and I think I may have lost some more TG along the way, giving my opponent half points. I had two table quarters, barely.
Final Verdict was a Massacre. That miscast cost me dearly. If my opponent had gotten 101 more points I would have only had a Solid Victory. In the end I was grateful for a really fun game. I think my opponent has decided to tweak his list a bit more before the tournament too, which I am glad for. I really felt like it was a bad list but he felt good about it last week. He is now thinking about taking out the Chaos Dragon.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this.
I stayed bottled up in my deployment zone the entire game. I also hadn't checked the FAQ on Rule of Burning Iron to see that you could indeed fire it at a model engaged in Close Combat. In other words, he got off light last week. I wanted to see what his Army could do if everything went his way anyway, so it was cool. I claim I was massacred. He claims it was a draw since I was nice. This week I was going to show him how it would go if we played by the rules all the way.
The Legion of Zec-Xa
1 Slann Mage-Priest
General
Battle Standard Bearer
War Banner
Cupped Hands of the Old Ones
Dispel Scroll
Disciplines: The Becalming Cogitation, Focus of Mystery, The Focused Rumination
Lore of Metal
1 Level Two Skink Priest
Ancient Stegadon
Engine of the Gods
1 Level Two Skink Priest
Plaque of Tepok
Cloak of Feathers
16 Temple Guard
Musician, Standard Bearer
18 Saurus Warriors
Full Command, Spears (I chose full command because his characters have to challenge. That's a lot of wasted wounds!)
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
4 Terradon Riders
1 Razordon
Extra Handler (his units are all pretty much immune to Psychology, Frenzied)
1 Razordon
Extra Handler
1 Saurus Scar-Veteran
Light Armor
Piranha Blade
Enchanted Shield
Cold One
5 Cold One Cavalry
Full Command, Scar-Vet goes here.
Total Roster Cost: 2248
His Army, Frenzied pretty much all around, only his warshrines were Tzeentch
1 Chaos Lord
General
Helm of Many Eyes
Hellfire Sword
Chaos Dragon Mount (He got a nice roll off the shrines so he did a total of 15 attacks with this set up)
1 Level Two Chaos Sorcerer
Daemonic Mount
2 dispels scrolls
Lore of Shadows
1 Level Two Chaos Sorcerer
Chaos Steed
No idea on magic items
Lore of Shadow
10 Chaos Knights
10 Marauders
Great Weapons
10 Marauders
Great Weapons
10 Marauders
Great Weapons
1 Warshrine of Tzeentch
1 Warshrine of Tzeentch
Roster Total: Something around 2250
He rolls a 6+1 to go first, so I didn't even have to roll! I Bane Head his General. So, he makes his stupidity check for his Chaos Lord and fails just like last week. This time, I let him stay put not pulling any punches. His sorcerer on Daemonic mount tries a spell, I forget which, rolled 3 dice and got snake eyes! That happened to me last week, so I figure it was karma or the Old Ones just sticking it to Chaos.
He rolls two dice for the Miscast table and... whoops! Snake eyes again! I chuckle knowing he loses all of his scrolls as the sorcerer implodes taking 4 Chaos Knight with him. He also wounds his other Sorcerer. The other Sorcerer tried to cast something with three dice but fails. I never even use a dispel die in the first turn and my scroll never got used the entire game! Clearly the Old Ones are smiling on the Legion of Zec-Xa this day.
He advances all of his units forward, Dragon in the middle (stupidly lurching forward) flanked by the War Shrines of Tzeentch with a unit of Marauders on my right and a forest next to them. On my left of the other War Shrine is the Chaos Knight unit, what's left of it anyway, with one Sorcerer which has two Marauder units further left of it bordered by some impassible terrain.
I was set up from left to right thusly: Razordon, Skirmishing Skinks in front of my Priest on Stegadon and Cold One Cavalry, Saurus Warriors, Skink Priest with Cloak of Feathers, Skink Skirmishers screening my Temple Guard, and a Razordon out front on my right hand flank.
I move my skirmishers on both sides forward about six inches, keeping them out of charge range of the marauders, I move my razordons up on their outside flanks to cover them, move my Cavalry up real close behind the Skirmishers and get the Stegadon out on his own and on the flank of his Knights. I move the Saurus up slightly and move the lone Skink Priest with Cloak of Feathers up in front of everything, knowing his Lord on Dragon will have to charge it and knowing darn well I was going to flee back into range of my Slann bunker which moved slightly up and angled itself to make sure Chaos Lord would be in arc of sight in case the Priest didn't turn back around.
At this point the Engine of the Gods can only do a buff, so I give it to my skirmishing skinks allowing them to reroll ones to hit and wound. My solo flying Priest is within 24" of his Lord on Dragon so I open up. I got off Forked Lightning and he let it go. I ended up with one wound on his Lord and not a scratch on the Dragon. Next came the Slann. I threw 3+free dice at Bane of Forged Steel. It wasn't the greatest roll. He threw all of his dispel dice at it and beat my roll.
I had him right where I wanted him. No dice left and no scrolls, I cast rule of burning Iron with 1+1 free dice. I get enough hits and I get one wound and with Bane Head that's enough to kill his General in turn one. I then cast Distillation of Silver at his Dragon, which passed its Leadership test, hit but failed to wound.
End of Turn 1
Turn two see things going my way still. He advances forward moving several units into range of blowpipes and Razordons as well as the Burning Alignment if I get a lucky roll on the range. His Dragon, free of his stupidity check and since he is Frenzied has to charge the only thing he is in range of, a lone Skink Priest. I gleefully declare a flee and move back 3 inches leaving the Saurus out front of him but not screening. Two turns and he hasn't actually engaged anything and has lost a Sorcerer, 4 Knights and his General. Now he is in range of shooting and has to take another round of magic. I am getting cocky.
Never get cocky. The Old Ones will remind you that you are a mere gnat to them. My Skink priest rallies and turns around. I might have charged the dragon with my Saurus, but I was hoping to get his Knights into them, or maybe a Warshrine at least. I know exactly where his Dragon is headed, so angle my bunker a bit more. I cast all kinds of crap at his Dragon. I get all kinds of hits. Wounds, however, not so much. Rule of Burning Iron, Distillation of Molten Silver, Bane of Forged Steel, Forked Lightning. Not one stinking wound. As I said, never get cocky.
By some miracle my leftmost unit of Skinks wounds the dragon with a blowpipe. Only five more to go. My rightmost unit of skinks and the Razordon over there all get to shoot at his marauders. I drop 4 of them. Out on my left flank my Razordon kills another. Now I know I am going to have to fight and I am not looking forward to it so much. My opponent sees this as his last chance to really turn this around.
End of Turn 2
This turn sees the Warriors of Chaos getting to do what they do best, Close combat on the charge. Dragon again charges the Skink Priest. As luck would have it, I flee again to within one inch of the edge of the table. Poor Dragon is hungry and cannot eat. His Knights charge my Saurus, one Warshrine just moves into range to charge something next turn, his Marauders try their luck with the Razordon on the right, One Warshrine can't hit anything because it's pretty congested and on my left the two units of marauders think they can handle the Razordon over there.
The combats go about as you would expect. I am really fortunate because the rightmost Skirmishers are within range of the Slann's Leadership. The Stand and shoots are atrocious for the Marauders. The leftmost decimate his unit but get charged, beaten and the two surviving skinks flee and stop right beside my Cavalry keeping them out of a very favorable charge. I lose four skinks on the right and the razordon on that side actually misfires, killing a skink. The close combat actually saw the rest of the unit hold. My Saurus hold and actually kill two Knights.
At this point the Dragon is set up for another charge on my skink Priest who rallied again, somehow. I decide that now that my Cold One Cavalry are blocked from charging the Knights by two Razordon Handlers, who rallied, that they will simply move up a little out of the way of the Marauders and that my magic would have to deal with them. I magic away two more knights and manage to get a wound on a Warshrine (seriously, T6 with Armor AND Ward saves?) My Stegadon goes in for the kill on the leftmost Marauder units and tears them up. They end up outnumbered by Terror, flee into combat and go bye bye. Stegadon gets close to a Warshrine, not close enough.
End of Turn 3
The Dragon again charges the Skink Priest (at this point my opponent was desperate to take away any magic and VPs he could) which again flees right off the table. I figured the failed charge was worth not holding as it kept the Dragon on the table for some magic. The poor Dragon is now back pretty much behind everything I have, not having had a single combat and down a wound. Combats go about as expected. His Knights beat on my Saurus who end up beaten and flee off the table. However, he is flanked by those two lone Razordon Handlers and he didn't put one attack on them. He's stuck in Close combat and I have set up the Cold One Cavalry for the charge previously.
At this point, I'll sum up for your sanity and mine.
I keep getting tons of hits with spells and few wounds. A Dragon charges the Temple guard on turn five. His Knights get hammered and he loses his last sorcerer as he gets crushed under an angry Stegadon. Slann manages a miscast! Woohoo, Cupped hands of the Old Ones and not a single enemy wizard on the table, much less Line of Sight. Slann blows up 6 Temple Guard (apparently I can only wound myself!) and gives himself a wound. Now I feel even less guilty for his Wizard blowing up on Turn One since I have had four miscasts against this guy in two games!
The Stegadon ends up against a Warshrine and the Priest gets murdered but the four crew all survive. I got one more Burning alignment off against both warshrines before the Priest bit it and cause a couple of wounds. The Dragon ends up getting charged by my Cold One Cavalry and those two skink handlers. Yes, it was lame. He was flanked and rear charged, the Scar Vet did some wounds and he lost combat and fled into another unit. Dead Dragon.
The Final turn saw me trying to kill the warshrines. They both fled and got either run down or ran into enemies.
Aftermath and Victory
He was tabled but had ended up with a banner, all my Saurus, plenty of Skinks, Razordons, both Priests and I think I may have lost some more TG along the way, giving my opponent half points. I had two table quarters, barely.
Final Verdict was a Massacre. That miscast cost me dearly. If my opponent had gotten 101 more points I would have only had a Solid Victory. In the end I was grateful for a really fun game. I think my opponent has decided to tweak his list a bit more before the tournament too, which I am glad for. I really felt like it was a bad list but he felt good about it last week. He is now thinking about taking out the Chaos Dragon.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this.
