Tonight was my third 8th edition game using my Lizardmen. So far I have only played against the Bretonnians but this time I played another opponent who uses Skaven. This was his first 8th edition game ever, so while we probably still made a few mistakes I think I am getting the hang of it now. As I had no idea what I was up against I changed my list to make it more combat orientated, going for a hard hitting army that would hopefully make the ratmen flee on the charge. Here is the army I used: 450 - Oldblood on Carnosaur - Sword of Bloodshed, Armour of Fortune 382 - Skink Chief on Stegadon - War Spear, light armour 238 - 20 Saurus Warriors - musician, standard 285 - 24 Skinks with 3 Kroxigor 80 - 10 Skink Skirmishers 80 - 10 Skink Skirmishers 96 - 8 Chameleon Skinks 84 - 7 Chameleon Skinks 150 - 2 Salamander Hunting Packs 150 - 2 Salamander Hunting Packs Total: 1995 Here is his army list: Greyseer - Skaven Brew Warlock Engineer - warp lightning condenser, 3 warpstone tokens Warlock Engineer - warp lightning condenser, 3 warpstone tokens 25 Clanrats + Ratling Gun - full command 25 Clanrats + Ratling Gun - full command 25 Clanrats + Ratling Gun - full command 20 Plague Monks - full command 12 Night Runners 4 Rat Swarms 6 Jezzails 8 Giant Rats + 2 packmasters 4 Rat Ogres + 2 packmasters Warp Lightning Cannon Doomwheel Total - 1995 Both his Warlocks had Warp Lightning, the Greyseer rolled: Pestilent Breath, Wither, Vermintide & Cloud of Corruption DEPLOYMENT I won the roll for deployment and chose him to start setting up first. I was the last to deploy because of my scouts, at which point the board looked like this: From left to right: Rat Swarms, Plague Monks, Cannon, Giant Rats, Clanrats (Warlock behind), Clanrats (Greyseer behind), Clanrats (Warlock behind), Doomwheel, Jezzails, Night Runners, Rat Ogres Chameleons (top left wood), Salamanders (just off shot), Skink Skirmishers, Saurus, Stegadon, Chameleons (scouting forwards), Skinks & Kroxigor, Skink Skirmishers, Carnosaur, Salamanders At this point we rolled for first turn. He won but he handed the first turn to me (probably because he didn't know the 8th edition rules at this point) TURN 1 LIZARDMEN Taken at the end of the turn. On the left the Skink Skirmishers marched up and the Salamanders you can't see followed them heading towards the rat swarms. The Chameleons in the top left marched out to the edge of the wood to get into close range of the Plague Monks. On the right, the Saurus & Kroxigor units stayed still while the Stegadon moved up. On the flank the Carnosaur led the way with the Salamanders and Skink Skirmishers in tow. The Chameleons there moved through the wood to march block and shoot. I had no magic at all this game. In the shooting phase, the Chameleons on the left killed 6 Plague Monks and those on the right killed 2 Night Runners. The Stegadon missed the Rat Ogres with its bow. TURN 1 SKAVEN Pictures taken at the end of the turn. His Night Runners declared a charge on the Chameleons, who used stand & shoot to kill 5. The last 5 fled rather than charge, through the Jezzails who held. On the left the Plague Monks, Rat Swarms and nearest unit of Clanrats all turned to face the Chameleons. The Warlock Engineer moved up to get into line of sight too. The Giant Rats advanced on the Skink Skirmishers by the marsh. On the right, the Doomwheel only trundled forwards 8 inches, and the Rat Ogres closed in on the Carnosaur. The other two Clanrats units moved up towards my army. In the magic phase he rolled a 6 & 3, leaving me enough dispel dice to stop both attempts at Warp Lightning. His Greyseer was out of range of all his spells except Vermintide, which he did not want to cast. In the shooting phase, the Jezzails only managed to kill one Chameleon thanks to their cover, skirmish formation and Chameleon special rule. His Warp Lightning Cannon then blew the back rank off my Saurus unit, who passed their panic test for 25% casualties. I think his Doomwheel also had to shoot bolts the nearest unit which was his Clanrats, (this would be the first of many Skaven mishaps), but it failed to do any damage. TURN 2 LIZARDMEN Quite a lot happened in this turn and I forgot to get an end of turn photo, but I did take several throughout as things unfolded. The only thing that could charge was the Carnosaur Oldblood, or I could hold him back and shoot with the Salamanders but let them get charged next turn. In the end I went for the charge, and he reached the Rat Ogres. Elsewhere my Skink Skirmishers on the right moved through the wood to the flank of the Doomwheel, while my Chameleons moved up onto the hill beside the Jezzails and fleeing Night Runners, out of their arc of fire. The Stegadon I considered heading towards the Rat Ogres too but I didn't want to leave it stranded behind the wood, so moved it back towards the Saurus instead. The Kroxigor unit moved up slightly. On the left I moved the Salamanders closer to the marsh after the Skink Skirmishers had marched up again. Both then fired at the Giant Rats but only succeeded in killing a packmaster and couple of rats. The Skink Skirmishers that had moved through the wood on the right however shot at the Doomwheel, and thanks to poison inflicted 4 wounds! The Chameleons on the left followed their example and knocked 2 wounds off the Greyseer! The other Chameleons managed to kill a single Jezzail team rolling no poison 6's. My luck quickly ran out however, as in the first combat of the game my Saurus Oldblood dished out 2 wounds to the Rat Ogres before they tore the Carnosaur apart before it got to fight, inflicting 6 wounds! This meant I lost the combat and had to take a break test, which I promptly failed on 3 dice (I'm getting good at that!), the Oldblood fled 6'' and was caught and destroyed by the frenzied Rat Ogres. This left them ready to ruin my plan of sweeping around the right flank with the other units positioned there. (I'd like to try this Lord again to see how well he actually plays when he doesn't die on the first charge, on paper he is a beast.) TURN 2 SKAVEN These are the end of turn pictures of each side of the board. On the left, his Clanrats charged the Chameleons who used stand & shoot to pick off a few before combat, not killing as many as I hoped. The Warlock moved onto the hill next to the Cannon as the Plague Monks and Rat Swarms reformed and started coming my way again. The Giant Rats I think were forgotten about, as with one packmaster dead they are supposed to charge the nearest unit or something. On the right, the Jezzails turned slightly to get the Chameleons into their forward arc and the Warlock Engineer moved towards them too. The Rat Ogres had charged the Salamanders who fled and got away, and the Doomwheel moved up to just 1'' away from my Saurus, phew! In the magic phase I shut down his magic again, thanks to the dispel dice and him failing to cast with one of his Warlock Engineers. The Doomwheel then used its special shooting ability, but misfired and went 3d6'' in a random direction. This turned it around and took it straight back up the board into his Clanrats! It bounced off doing enough Impact Hits to cause 3 deaths. His Jezzails then failed to hit the Chameleons, while one of his Ratling Guns blew up! The other one in the centre then miscast too, spinning around to fire into its own unit, killing four or five of them! The Warp Lightning Cannon however did fire again, blasting into my Saurus to kill four more. Once again, they passed their break test and held. In combat, the Clanrats wiped out the Chameleon Skinks, as seen below... TURN 3 LIZARDMEN These are the end of turn pictures. At the start of this turn we had less than an hour left to play, so I decided to advance on his army rather than wait any longer for it to come to me (or sit back and watch as his warmachines blew each other up). On the left the Skink Skirmishers crossed the marsh while the Salamanders edged up towards the Giant Rats. On the right, the Saurus and Kroxigor units moved up to hide their flanks from the Rat Ogres, the Salamanders there had rallied so had to stay still. The Stegadon then decided not to risk charging the Rat Ogres in case they did to it what they had just done to the Carnosaur. Instead it moved up out of their charge arc but did not march, allowing it to fire. The Stegadon shot at the Clanrats ahead of it but once again missed (if you have read my other reports that bow has never hit, this was the third miss this game). The Skink Skirmishers however took the last wound off the Doomwheel, despite not rolling any poisons this time a single hit got through the high toughness to cause one wound, which my opponent promptly failed to save. The Chameleons then shot down all the Jezzails, making up for their last attempt when they only killed the one. On the left the Skink Skirmishers shot at the Giant Rats and only killed a couple more plus the packmaster, rolling most of their hits on the one guy and killing him several times over. The Salamanders then fired and, despite one just eating a Skink, the other shot over the Rat Swarms and killed four or five Plague Monks. (NB: we did remember panic tests for units being destroyed within 6'' but despite Skaven nature my opponent kept passing them!) TURN 3 SKAVEN I forgot to take pictures this turn, but not much happened anyway. The Rat Ogres charged the Salamanders again, who fled again and got away. On the other flank, the Rat Swarm and Giant Rats both charged the second unit of Salamanders, who fled too and managed to outrun both units despite a low roll, I think he rolled a 4 for both units pursuit. In the centre, the Clanrats closest to the woods charged the Skink Skirmishers, who used stand & shoot to kill a few before taking the charge. His magic was again unsuccessful, which had probably helped me a lot thus far in the game since I took no magic at all. In the shooting phase, the Warp Lightning Cannon misfired and blew itself up, whilst the Ratling Gun with the unit of Clanrats on my left which had killed the Chameleons turned and fired at the Skink Skirmishers. It was just in range and it dealt a nicely rolled 13 hits, which killed all the Skinks bar two. Those that were left passed their cold blooded break test. In the combat between the Clanrats and the Skink Skirmishers, both sides killed 3 and I lost on rank and charge bonuses, but passed another break test. TURN 4 LIZARDMEN This first picture was taken just after charges. The Stegadon saw the side of the Rat Ogres and in it went, while the Kroxigor unit slammed into the flank of the existing combat between the Clanrats and Skink Skirmishers. The Saurus too charged the other unit of Clanrats, who used their Ratling Gun to stand and shoot. The crew promptly misfired, spinning around to face the empty board behind them and firing at nothing (except my opponent himself!) Elsewhere that turn, both my Salamander units had already rallied again and had reformed to face the nearest opponents. The Chameleons moved around the combats to get into close range and line of sight with the already wounded Greyseer. The last two Skink Skirmishers on the left stood their ground and threw a javelin each at the Warlock Engineer, but missed. The Chameleons however did me proud once again, killing the Greyseer numerous times over with a handful of poisoned hits. In the combat phase, the Stegadon thanks to the War Spear rolled 10+1 impact hits and slaughtered two Rat Ogres when it inflicted 6 wounds. The Stegadon itself then took the last wound off another, while the Rat Ogres could do nothing in return. At this point everyone else at the club was packing away, and with the Kroxigor about to smash their way into the unit of Clanrats to take the centre, and his general having just been shot dead, my opponent was happy to concede defeat. Here is a photo of the game board at the end of my Turn 4, before we had resolved the two combats in the centre, one of which at least I was almost certainly going to win. My first victory for the Lizardmen! Me and this same opponent will be playing another game in 2 weeks time, only this time he will be bringing his Orcs & Goblins for me to try and beat. In the meantime I intend to get as much painting done as possible, so be sure to check out my painting log as well for updates on that side of things!