Last week I had what turned out to be my second and third (kinda) games of 8th Edition Warhammer. It was a fairly bizarre experience. So much so that I have huge doubts over whether this edition is going to make much of a tournament game. Anyway, it was 2500 points and a fairly standard pitched battle, my Lizardmen Vs Norm’s Warriors of Chaos. I was using: Slann, BSB, 3 Disciplines (Focus, Ruminate and Becalming), Cupped Hands Skink Priest on Engine, Cube of Darkness Scar Vet, sword of might, Magic hat (+1AS, 2+ ward vs flames) 20 Saurus, full command 3x10 Skink skirmishers 24 Skink Cohorts plus 3 Krox 20 Temple Guard, full command, Razor Standard 2x6 Chameleon Skinks 3 Terradons 2x1 Salamander The forces of Chaos: Tz Lord on foot, lots of armour and wards (2+/3+) and I think a sword of might. Tz BSB, again well armoured and warded. Tz L2 on foot Tz L2 on Disc 13 Tz Warriors with Halberds 12 Tz Warriors with Halberds 35 Khorne Marauders with GW 6 Khorne Kniggets 6 Khorne Kniggets Hellcannon Round 1, Lizards take first turn and move forward a wee bit. Both units of Chameleons tear into gigantic marauder unit and kill a few, Throne goes up on the Slann but there’s not much else happens. Chaos turn 1, everyone moves up. Sorcerer on disk uses the Third Eye of Tzeentch and gleans Dwellers Below from the Slann. He lobs 6 dice at it and casts it irresistibly on the Temple Guard unit, Slann and 10 TG fail S tests and die. Game over. I congratulate Norm on his tactical genius , we put the Slann back in the unit, call it 1-0 Chaos and carry on. I had forgotten to Be-calm the disk guy, but to be honest, the other guy had Gateway so I’d probably have becalmed him first anyway. Carrying on in Chaos turn 1, the miscasting wizard takes a wound. The Hellcannon then snipes the Steg, gives it and the Priest a wound each and kills all the other Skink crew. So, Lizards turn 2, some shuffling goes on, magic doesn’t do much again but Throne is either still up, or back up, I can’t remember which. Yet more Marauders are poisoned and salamander gobbed to death and a couple of Chaos Dwarf crew from the Hellcannon are killed. Chaos turn 2 starts with more piling forward. In the Magic Phase I actually remember to be-calm the correct guy so Norm goes for Gateway with the other guy. Fortunately it doesn’t go off IF and I manage to dispel it. Norm also dispels the Throne of Vines this time. In the shooting phase, the Hellcannon misfires and gets the result where every wizard on the table suffers a miscast. Both Norm’s wizards die from the effects and take out 6 Warriors and a Knight IIRC. The Skink Priest gets sucked into the warp and I thank the Old Ones that I didn’t drop their Gently Cupping Hands on the Slann or it would have been 2-0 Chaos. I’d have had to congratulate Norm on his tactical genius again . Anyway, the rest of the game was much less eventful ending up with 3 giant furballs at the edge of my deployment area. The giant Marauder unit was shot down to a tiny number and actually managed to lose combat to a unit of Skink skirmishers. The Chaos Lord’s Warrior unit was smooshed by a combination of the Saurus and Stegadon but Himself managed to hold both units up until the end of the game. The Skrox unit was gradually ground down by the BSB’s unit of Warriors, but not before the Krox flattened the BSB. On Chaos turn 3, one of the units of Khorne Knights had failed to restrain and gone flying into the front of the Temple Guard. I was looking forward to annihilating them and getting a free reform or maybe pursuit move out of them and gobbling up the other unit. My Temple Guard felt differently for some reason. An appalling two combat rounds later they were flank charged by the second lot of Khorne Knights. I just couldn’t get more than 3 hits (on 4+) out of 14 attacks. Anyway, this combat ground on for the remainder of the game too, eventually seeing two no longer frenzied Chaos Knights Vs 1 Slann by turn 6. So, overall, I lost the Skrox unit and eventually all of the Temple Guard plus a Scar Vet, both Chameleon units, a Salamander and the Terradons. The Slann had to make two sets of Break checks on his own but survived the game. Norm lost the Marauders, a unit of Warriors, a unit of Knights, both wizards and his BSB. His Lord had to make a few break checks too but also survived the game. So, a bloody tie in the end and a thoroughly enjoyable game. Xhequimunqui