My friend Andrew and I played a team game against a Dark Elves player earlier today. We divvied up the points half and half, but I didn't have quite enough lizards to make 1k points when running my TG as saurus (I just started collecting a few months ago). So, he ended up with about 100 more points than me. Here were our lists (yes, they're mildly illegal. We realized this afterwards, but I don't think it changed much. My priest was certainly 115 points of worthless): Lizards: Scar-Vet - LA, Charmed Shield, Potion of Speed, Sword of Strife Skink Priest - Lvl 2, Channelling Staff 12 Skirmishers - Blowpipes 12 Skirmishers - Javelins & shields 35 saurus - Spears, FC Tomb Kings: High Liche Priest - Lvl 4, Dispel Scroll 20 Skeleton Archers - musician 3 Chariots - Banner of Eternal Flame Hierotitan Warsphinx - Flaming Breath Casket of Souls And facing us, the Dark Elves (I don't know their magic items or equipment): Sorceress - Lvl 4 Dreadlord 25 Corsairs - FC 25 Corsairs - FC and Frenzied 40 Spearelves - FC 16 Crossbows 16 Crossbows Hydra 10 Cold One Knights - FC Our goal was to bait him into sending his nastiest units into the far corner with the Casket, and man, did that work well. His heaviest hitters- the COK and the Hydra - both set up against it. We put the Warsphinx nearby to hopefully tank the COK, and set the saurus brick to go up the center and smash some elves. We were hoping to just kite his corsairs with the skinks and chariots on the left. He got the first turn, and it was painful for us. Dark elf magic is really hard to stop. He was using fire, and sent a boosted burning head at Andrew's Hierophant. On the way, it plowed through the saurus and killed 4, and took out two skeleton archers too. Then he IFed a boosted fireball onto the casket, causing 2 wounds and killing a couple of spearelves. In the shooting phase, he killed another 4 saurus. In our turn, I sent the saurus brick straight forward. We needed to close the gap as fast as possible. I moved up the blowpipe skinks to try to shield the saurus and detached the priest to hide behind the house. The warsphinx took up a threatening position behind the house too. In our magic phase, my priest began his illustrious game by rolling snake eyes for iceshard blizzard on the spearelves. The liche priest gave my saurus a 5+ ward save, and everything else was dispelled or had no effect, like the casket. In shooting, the chariots killed one corsair on the left. The game was off to a great start. In DE turn 2, the hydra failed its charge against the sphinx, stumbling forward a bit. The COK ran past the sphinx to get at the casket. The frenzied corsairs moved up, but the others with his dreadlord stayed back. His magic was painful again. Another boosted IF fireball killed the casket, which failed to blow up on the COK. To our frustration, the miscast just killed another few elves and put a wound on the sorceress. Piercing bolts of burning killed another 2 saurus. His shooting murdered 7 blowpipe skinks, who ran away, fortunately not panicking the saurus too. This actually turned out to be quite good for us later on. In our turn, I charged the center crossbowmen, just making it. On the way in, another saurus died to crossbows, but the elves were going to go down hard. The blowpipe skinks rallied to face the COK, and the jav skinks moved around out of the charge arc of the frenzied corsairs. Andrew's monsters moved toward the middle to help out the saurus against the big spearelf block. Our magic phase didn't do much. The skink priest failed to cast blizzard on the spearelves again, and we found out that the saurus were too far away for Andrew's priest to buff them. Our shooting was largely ineffective again. The jav skinks couldn't make it through the corsairs' armor, and the chariots killed another 2. The skeleton archers whiffed. Combat went better, though the scar-vet was apparently still getting warmed up. He managed to only kill one elf with 6 str 5 attacks. The elves killed another 3 saurus, because I cannot make armor saves. The saurus pulled through, though, murdering another 6 elves and forcing them to flee. I pursued, because sitting in between the other crossbows and the spearelves didn't seem like a fun time. I didn't catch them, but I managed to get out of the charge arcs, saving my lizardy bacon. DE turn 3 was the low point for us. The COK swept around to threaten the hierophant, and the hydra moved toward the middle. His dreadlord and corsairs moved up to threaten the saurus block, and his spearelves stayed mostly stationary. The only good news this turn was that the crossbows fled off the board. Magic didn't do all that much, killing a few saurus with another fireball. The bad part came in the shooting phase. The warsphinx - the model that has given me no end of trouble with its darn T8 - went down to one round of shooting from 16 elf crossbowmen. 5 wounds, 5 failed 5+ saves. I thought we were going to lose for sure at this point. However, we kept going to see how much we could do. The chariots charged the corsairs. The jav skinks failed to march and meandered forward. The other skinks took up a redirecting position to die horribly for the hierophant's sake. The saurus failed their swift reform. Not much happened magic-wise. The skink priest failed to blizzard the spearelves for the third consecutive turn. Not casting and getting dispelled, mind you - just straight up failing to make the casting value. No shooting that mattered. In combat, we had high hopes for the chariots, but out of 8 impact hits, only 2 wounds resulted. The frenzied corsairs had a ball, though, killing 2 full chariots. The last chariot managed to kill another elf and thereby prevented its complete crumbling. DE turn 4, his corsairs and dreadlord charged my saurus. The COK charged the doomed skinks, and the spearelves turned a little bit. I'm not quite sure why he didn't turn to face the saurus, but it was a fatal mistake that probably cost him the game. Not much happens in his magic phase, and his crossbowmen, having annihilated the warsphinx, sit down for tea to celebrate and don't shoot anything (everything in range is dead). In combat, I pop the potion of speed, hoping that I could even it up with the dreadlord some. I underestimated Dark Elf initiative, though, so he still goes first. I cringe, because I've heard stories of nasty DE dreadlords, but this guy wasn't so bad. He only kills about 3 saurus. In return, the scar-vet, now apparently limbered up by mashing the crossbowmen, really gets into the swing of things and squashes 5 corsairs. I immediately begin to love the +2 attack sword. The corsairs kill another 2 saurus, but then take another 4 losses back. They're steadfast at this point, so they pass the break test, and the combat reforms leave a little window open between them and the spearelves that is crucial in our next turn. The blowpipe skinks are devoured by the much larger, nastier lizards that the Cold One Knights are riding. Apologies for this map--this is my first use of Battle Chronicler and I don't know how to show a charge and then a flee. Anyway, the hierotitan slams into the side of the corsairs through that little window I mentioned, making an awesome charge roll. The skeleton archers reform to sell their unlives dearly to save the hierophant, just like the skinks before them. The liche priest himself runs away like a little punk. I forget to move the jav skinks, which actually turns out to be a really good thing later on. In the magic phase, I throw six dice at iceshard blizzard on the corsairs -- no way to fail with 6 dice, right? -- aaaand, I roll badly and it's dispelled with half as many dice. The priest is worthless. Combat goes great for us. The dreadlord whiffs, only killing 1 saurus, and the corsairs add another 2. The scar-vet is really going now and disappears behind a fountain of elven blood as he chops 6 into tiny pieces. The saurus add in another 1, but the hierotitan makes up for them with one combat kill and 4 stomp kills. The corsairs have had more than enough and run away like the pansies they are, stopping on top of the hill. We both pursue. Because of the angle of pursuit, the saurus hit the spearelves in the flank and the hierotitan hit them in the front. DE turn 5: Things go south, fast. His warhydra charges the back of the hierotitan in a desperate attempt to save the sorceress. The COK prepare to run down the skeleton archers' musty bones. His dreadlord rallies. The frenzied corsairs don't move, since Andrew cast Vengeance on them last turn, making them treat all terrain as Dangerous. With his sorceress locked in combat, she casts flaming sword on the spearelves, and fire-cloak is dispelled. There's nothing to shoot at, again. In combat, the elves desperately try to defend themselves, and do pretty well, killing 3 saurus from my rapidly-dwindling group. It's more of a sliver now than a brick. The hierotitan also takes one wound from the hydra. Thank god for T6. The Scar-vet wounds the sorceress once with 3 attacks, and the other 3 murder 3 more elves, while the saurus kill another 3 and the titan mashes 6 more with an awesome stomp. Then: the game-deciding break test. He still has 2 ranks and my saurus only have 1 complete, so he's steadfast. But, he rolls an 11. The hydra also breaks and runs back the way it came. The hierotitan chases after it, and my saurus chase the sorceress, but neither of us catch them. It doesn't matter much, though, since our turn is up next. Skink revenge! The skinks I had forgotten about get their chance to shine and charge the sorceress and her ~20 remaining bodyguards. The elves are run down, scattering in all directions in a torrent of high-pitched screaming. The hierotitan also chases down the hydra and kills it -- no regeneration for you! My last few saurus charge his depleted corsairs on top of the hill, and the hierophant desperately tries to get farther away. In combat, I lose the last non-command saurus, most of them to the dreadlord. The scar-vet kills 2 and the saurus another 2. The dreadlord and his last friends run away and are beaten into the dirt when they roll a 3 for their flee distance. The game is now much, much better, but both Andrew and I are very happy that it ends next turn, because we have nothing that can deal with 10 Cold One Knights and the frenzied corsairs. At this point, the battle's pretty much over. The COK slaughter the hierophant and the crossbows put a few wounds on the hierotitan, but that's it. We win by 100 victory points! Overall, I think we can attribute the victory to a couple of things. Our opponent put way more force into destroying the casket than he needed to. He sent his two nastiest units at it and ended up killing it with fireballs anyway. In the process, it took his COK out of the game for a long time and the hydra as well. Also, he was too conservative with his frenzied corsairs on his right. There wasn't much we had there that could have opposed them, especially once the chariots went down like punks. Also, my armor saves got better once I reached his lines, and the Scar-Veteran is a terrifying beast when fighting puny elves. He was definitely the MVP. Finally, Andrew's liche priest did a pretty good job at stopping the DE magic phases, at least once the IF fireballs were over. My priest, on the other hand, sucked. So, so much. Also, as a final thought: so many of my saurus were dead by the time I really got into combat that I didn't get a chance to use the spears. I think I may just intersperse the ones I have now with HW&S saurus in the future and run them that way.