BATTLE REPORT: LIZARDMEN (vs) VAMPIRE COUNTS (3,000 points) My army: Characters: Slann (Lore of Light, Loremaster, Extra Power Dice, BSB, War Banner), Oldblood (+2 Extra Attacks), Scar-Veteran (Great Weapon, Venom), Scar-Veteran (+1 Attack), Skink Priest (Engine of the Gods) Core: 25 Saurus, 25 Saurus (Spears), 10 Skinks, 10 Skinks (Javelins) Special: 20 Temple Guard, 6 Kroxigor, Stegadon Rare: 3 Salamanders His army: Characters: Vampire Lord (Blender-ish), Vampire, Vampire, Necromancer (Level 4), Wight King (Great Weapon) Core: 40 Zombies (horde), 40 Skeletons (horde), 25-30 Ghouls, 10 Dire Wolves Special & Rare: 20 Grave Guard, Mortis Engine, 6 Crypt Horrors, Varghulf So the line-up across the table looks like this (with little space between the flanks & centre, or any obstacles- the units just kind of headed this way): LEFT FLANK: Zombies, Dire Wolves & Vargulf (vs) Saurus (w/ Scar-Vet +1 Attack) & Skinks CENTRE: Crypt Horrors, Grave Guard (w/ both Vampires), Necromancer & Mortis Engine (vs) Kroxigor, Salamanders, Temple Guard (w/ Slann & Oldblood) & Skinks RIGHT FLANK: Skeletons (w/ Vampire) & Ghouls (w/ Wight King) (vs) Saurus (w/ Spears & GW Scar-Vet) & Engine of the Gods My idea was basically to have a strong centre, with the flanks made up of a Stegadon and powerful Saurus blocks. The Skinks & Salamanders are out front to wreak some havoc, with Kroxigor behind the Salamanders so they can flank whatever hits either them or the Temple Guard. I knew my Saurus blocks could mostly handle the infantry blocks, so I was focused on the Grave Guard since it was clearly the money-unit of my opponent's. ROUND ONE (he went first): The Wolves & Vargulf moved way up to flank my Saurus, so I sent Skinks out to lure charges (mistakenly thinking Vargulfs were Frenzied). The Wolves busted up the Skinks but carried over into the Saurus and got killed in my turn quite easily. The Sallies got hit with an anti-Movement spell so didn't get up very far, but my other units held pretty steady because I was planning on getting more shooting done (and Undead have bad shooting anyways, so why should I hurry up and get there?). Their Flame Breath (2 dead Skinks & a short shot) and my Light Magic spells killed only a tiny handful of guys. The Javelin Skinks actually did TWO WOUNDS to the Necromancer (2 out of 10 shots went unsaved with all his gear), but got charged by the Mortis Engine, which skooshed all but one Insanely-Courageous guy who failed to live through the next Turn. ROUND TWO: I overestimated the Vargulf a bit, so I was hesitant in moving my Saurus around (I shoulda just kept going into the Zombies). The dang Necromancer healed back ALL of the wounds I'd done thanks to the Engine and his own natural spellcasting, darn it. In response to his speedy oncoming, I turned the Salamanders towards his Grave Guard diagonally- this served two purposes. 1) it gave a good angle for shooting, right along the length of the unit, and 2) this left them diagonal-ish to the Crypt Horrors that were coming up, meaning they would be out of position to charge through other guys and be pointing flank-first at my Kroxigor & Temple Guard. My Magic & Shooting phases were REALLY devastating... for all of Light's power, the spells did little, but HOLY COW Salamanders rolled perfect distance three times in a row, getting the ENTIRE Grave Guard unit. Basically I killed over 10 guys in one go, all thanks to some good Artillery rolls and bad saves by my opponent! The other units were moving pretty slowly, with the Ghouls being especially slow due to being out of Vamp range- this left them being unable to support the Skeletons. ROUND THREE: As expected, the Crypt Horrors charged the Salamanders (Worst case scenario: they kill them and turn to face my Kroxigor), who lost a model, but actually manage to hold at -3 to a break test (thank you, Slann). This left them open to the Kroxigor charge into their flank, which did away with half the unit, but I lost the Salamanders in the meantime. The weakened Grave Guard attempted a super-Regenerative thing, but I used a Dispel Scroll to empty it out- this would have allowed them a MAJOR game-changer so I was prepared for it. The fact that he rolled snake-eyes in this magic phase (and had generally weak ones altogether) left him vulnerable. They then charged into the Temple Guard, with the Vampires doing some hellacious damage (at least 1/3 of my unit dying), but my Oldblood did some blending of his own and I won combat dramatically (2 ranks, War Banner, Command, etc.), killing everyone by CR but the Vampire Lord (who had 1 wound left). The Saurus & Stegadon charged the Skeletons and did away with 3/4 of the unit (the Thunderstomp & Area Damage thing did little, though), partially thanks to a Light spell that made the Saurus harder to hit (I would keep using that buff spell a lot). ROUND FOUR: The Vargulf & Zombies charged my Saurus, sandwiching them, but Zombies are so easy to kill that I handily undid the Vargulf (who still killed four guys) using CR. The Kroxigor finished off the Crypt Horrors (with some help from two Light buffs), while the Vampire Lord challenged my Oldblood (I advised him to do this, since it meant nobody ELSE could hit him) and actually killed him in the challenge, but CR finished him handily anyways. The Ghouls charged the Stegadon and the Mortis Engine charged the Saurus (in the flanks), but failed to do too much damage. The Skeleton unit & the Engine (which took 2 wounds from Saurus) was soon CR'd away, and the Ghouls would be soon as well. ROUND FIVE: The finishing touches- the Saurus dusted off the Zombies and the other Saurus (down to around half-strength now) & Stegadon finished the Ghouls (but not before the Wight King popped off my Skink Priest). By that point, that was the game- my opponent's army was entirely dead. Total victory for the Lizardmen! SUMMATION: A fun little battle, and went very quickly, though largely because I got lucky at points and won nearly every combat. Seriously- Slann & Salamanders are FRIGHTENING, and it's no wonder the combo makes Lizardmen a top-tier army. There were a few combats I shouldn't necessarily have won as well (the dice rolls were HEAVILY in my favour, with NO Grave Guard using Killing Blows, and the Saurus almost always hitting), but most were skewed a bit in my favour since Saurus are so much better than Undead at fighting. A few lessons learned: * Mortis Engines & Level 4 Wizards make for a super-regenerating combo. Kill one or the other as soon as possible. * Salamanders are as good as everyone says- the changes to the way Flame Templates work is a bit overwhelming, especially if you role correctly. The fact that they're a bit fighty makes them even nastier. * On a 1-to-1 level, Saurus are definitely better than Undead units. * Vampire Characters are much better at solo combat than our guys. Therefore, I focus on blending the weaker units to eat them up via CR. * Make Vampires come to YOU, and prepare for their charges using positioning and the like. Their shooting mostly sucks, so there's less risk. * The Lore of Light rocks. Though less for the damage (I was expecting 2D6 and 3D6 to finish many Undead), and more for the buffs. It's hard to assess my mistakes since I rolled very well and won fairly handily (my friend is still learning the way VCs work in 8th Edition), but there's a couple things. My Skinks were more or less speed bumps, but honestly, Vampires don't have a lot of small things Skinks can kill. I didn't have to be so tentative with the one Saurus unit, since Zombies & Vargulfs aren't really a terrifying combo (the whole 40-Zombie unit was gone in two rounds of combat), though I didn't want to eat a triad of charges like I was worried about facing. I wonder, what could my opponent have done to do a bit better? He'll inevitably get a lot scarier with them.