After more than 14 years, I finally played a game of WHFB with Lizardmen again! With two games under my belt using Beastmen while I prepared my Lizards (against the same player and army), I felt ready. Corbin (my opponent) figured he'd try something different from the usual Dwarf tortoise and in turn, accidentally sabotaged his deployment. Knowing that he'd remain pretty immobile and hope to cause enough attrition with cannon and organ gun fire, I went for speed with my list. The Lists: Lizardmen: Scar vet on Cold One, Glyph Necklace, Sword of Might, L Armour, Shield (general) Skink Priest, Level 2, Power stone, cloak of feathers Skink Chief, BSB, L Armour, Shield 10 Skink skirmishers, javelins and shields, brave 10 more Skink Skirmishers, same upgrades as above 2 Jungle Swarm bases 7 Cold One riders, FC, Skavenpelt Banner 18 Temple guard, FC, Haunchi's Blessed Totem 5 Chameleon Skinks, Stalker Salamander Hunting Pack Dwarfs (roughly, I didn't take note of any details. I may be slightly off with numbers too) Thane Runesmith Thane BSB 10 Thunderers, champion 20 Dwarf Warriors, HW&S, FC 20 Longbeards, HW&S, FC 10 Troll Slayers 20 Ironbreakers, FC Cannon Organ Gun The Skink Priest rolled for spells, getting Celestial Shield and Portent of Far. The Chameleon Skinks plopped themselves neatly in a building, out of sight, right next to the Dwarf's left flank (including the Organ gun, which was their prime target). The Dwarfs got the first turn, and were quick to cause some damage with the cannon on the Temple Guard huddled in the left flank alongside a Skink unit, Jungle Swarms, and my Skink Priest. This continued for the first few rounds down the centre where the Temple Guard hurdled forward. During my first turn, the Chameleon Skinks came out of hiding to spit poisonous darts at the Organ Gun crew, felling one as most hit the gun itself. The right flanks Skink Skirmishers and Frenzied cold one riders, joined by the general, rushed forward. My salamander advanced behind some trees to avoid the Thunderers and cannon, hoping to find a prime spot to spit fire the next turn. While still attempting to hit the edges of the Warriors unit, the Salamander instead decided to eat two of his Skink handlers (guess which ones I removed!) For every turn this game, my Skink Priest managed to cast Celestial Shield on the Temple Guard to protect them from the cannon fire, but never with enough power to avoid being dispelled by the magic-hating stunted ones! He became pretty benign pretty quickly. Dwarf turn 2 saw the Organ Gun luckily fizzle out after re-rolling its hits on the Cold one Riders. With that, my cavalry were untouched and ready to wreck havoc on the Ironbreakers next turn! A few more Temple Guard fall to cannonballs, and a few Swarming snakes are shot by Thunderers. With that, it was onto the Lizardmen turn 2, and feeding time! The Cold One Riders and their General charge the braced Iron Breakers, ripping through armour and flesh as if they were made of the same substance. Without dealing any damage in return, the Ironbreakers flee in terror and are swiftly chased down by the Dinos, as they overrun into the last remaining Organ Gun crew (the Skink Skirmishers advanced that turn and took another out with some javelins) who had bravely stood his ground after watching the Ironbreakers be slaughtered, and wasn't going to budge due to the fear-causing cavalry either! On my left flank, the Skinks manage to get close enough to hurl their javelins at the Troll Slayers, killing 3, and down the centre the Salamander moved into a slightly more advantageous location to successfully hit 3 units (including the cannon crew!) and killed a fair few Warriors and Longbeards for it, but the cannon crew were left unscathed. Dwarf Turn 3 saw the Warriors and Longbeards in the centre turn to face the oncoming threat of the Cold One Riders and the Lizards' fierce general leading the, before (to my luck) the cannon misfires and is unable to fire for the next two turns, giving the Temple Guard the much needed break from cannon fire to reach the Dwarf line alive! The Thunderers try taking out some Temple Guard, but only manage 1 wound. I'm sure the Temple Guard's fate would have been significantly different had we remembered about them. After some bite-size fast food, the Cold One Riders reform to the face the Dwarf line, ready to rampage. Lizardmen turn 3 saw the Jungle Swarms charge the Slayers, a combat which ended in a tight draw, as the accompanying Skinks hurl javelins at the Dwarf general, wounding him. The Temple Guard move forward, ready to charge next turn. The Chameleon Skinks, Salamander, Skink Skirmishers, and Cold One Riders all collect on the rear right flank, ready to pile in on the Dwarf units. Turn 4 started with the Dwarf's Runesmith charging the skinks, who stand and shoot, inflicting a wound as he makes his way into combat. He shrugs the wound off and wins the combat, but fails to catchup with the fleeing skinks. Next to him, the Troll Slayers manage to stamp out the remaining jungle swarm. The Dwarf Warriors move but inches away from the Salamander, and the Longbeards move closer to their support. Unfortunately for Corbin we both completely forgot about the Thunderers until after the battle, which would have really changed the Temple Guard's state! With the end of the Dwarf turn, so too came the end of the Dwarfs. My frenzied Cold One Riders charged the warriors, and swiftly cut them down, overrunning but inches away from the Longbeards. With the help of Haunchi's Blessed Totem (adding a sweet 6" to their charge!), the Temple Guard charge the cannon crew, obliterating them and overrunning into the flank of the Longbeards, holding them in place to stop them charging the Cold One Riders next turn. The skinks on the right flank rally, too far from the Runesmith and Slayers for them charge again next turn. With but his Slayers, Runesmith, General, and Longbeards left, Corbin conceded to my nearly complete army. Review Ultimately, this game came down to a few things; One being a poor deployment. Corbin's army was so split up, which is a risky thing to do for such an immobile army. Another is being stationary, with some quicker decisions to move he may have stood a chance to hold a place on the battlefield. He also had terrible luck with his war machines, losing his only chance to cause damage with his Organ Gun on turn one, and losing all use of his cannon in turn 3 (as well as forgetting about the Thunderers, who would have significantly lessened the threat of the oncoming Temple Guard). For me, I found my BSB absolutely useless. He literally just ran around out of line of sight of the cannon and thunderers, staying close to everything, without anything actually needing him! So too did my wizard; I had my 2nd game with Lizardmen yesterday and took 2 wizards, which was more effective but still not nearly effective enough! Maybe I should have just taken another Scar Vet to join the Temple Guard. The Cold One Riders absolutely SAVAGED. They are a damn dangerous unit with Frenzy! I felt like, for the points cost, I may as well have had Saurus Warriors instead of Temple Guard, but then in saying that the 3+ base save from shooting did save me 2 wounds, whereas that would have just been more dead Saurus Warriors. I'm sure had we played on, the S5 halberd attacks also would have been more effective against the Longbeards' 3+ save in combat. As a response to this game, I decided to call my Scar-Vet Boq Dro'Ka'Khanx (Saurian for 'Hurt Dwarfs'), and the Cold One riders 'Loq Hua' (Fierce Hunt). Although they weren't finished for the game, here are some pics of their finished selves I had my second game with Corbin and my Lizards yesterday, and will be writing up the report for that soon. Hope you've enjoyed reading my first battle report on here! I certainly enjoyed making it
Congrats on the win! I have always thought Saurus Cavalry are a solid unit, despite the ravings on here that they are not - they're pretty much Knight-level cavalry with better rider and mount profiles than most actual knight units, what's not to love? Great to see some 7th Edition being played - it's a much-maligned edition due to the OP-ness of three specific armies that I shall not mention, but luckily you and your pal were playing armies that were not those three, proof enough that 7th Edition can still be enjoyed. It was the Edition I started with, through the best-value GW boxed game of all time, Battle for Skull Pass, and I still fondly peruse my 7th Edition volumes in the hope that one day I can play some games of it again. Didn't know you were a Beastman player as well! Thus I cordially invite you to join the Coven of Lustrian Beastlords - we meet at the Herdstone upon this thread here: https://www.lustria-online.com/threads/the-ultimate-beastmen-thread.26457/