Re: The Defense of Konquata
Lord Xlcontiqu felt a new presence in Lustria, one that he had not felt for many years. He felt the presence of their runic magic throughout all their bodies. But beneath all that magical feel, he felt the power of a different magic, one that he was much more in tune with. Could it be a Plaque? Well, he was about to find out.
Lizardmen Army
1 Slann Mage-Priest, Focus of Mystery, The Focused Rumination, Higher State of Consciousness, Bane Head, BSB, Warbanner
1 Saurus Scar-Veteran, Great weapon, shield, Light armour, Charm of the Jaguar Warrior
1 Saurus Scar-Veteran, Light armour, Burning Blade of Chotec, Enchanted Shield
1 Skink Priest, Dispel Scroll, Curse-Charm of Tepok
2 x 12 Saurus Warriors, Spears, Musician
1 x 12 Saurus Warrios, Spears
2 x 10 Skinks
2 x 10 Skink Skirmishers
4 Terradons
3 Terradons
1 Stegadon
3 Kroxigor
2 x 1 Salamander
The Dwarf Army
1 Dwarf Lord, with runic equipment
1 Thane, Rune of Preservation, and Strollazs Rune, BSB
1 Runesmith, 3 Runes of Dispel, Shield
2 Bolt throwers, each with an engineer with brace of pistols
2 Gyrocopters
2 x 15 hammerers, full command, one unit with rune of courage, one unit with rune of slowness
15 Longbeards, full command, rune of battle
20 Warriors, full command
8 Slayers, 2 champions
10 Quarrelers
My plan was to hold off the main Dwarf blocks with some redirecters units they were at more managable sizes. I knew my Saurus may not be hardy enough to hold off the Dwarves. I was hoping my magic could reduce his numbers into more manageable sizes. I took Lore of Metal on my Slann and the Skink rolled Forked Lightning.
Deployment
From left to right he deployed a gyrocopter, the quarrelers, slayers, hammerers with courage, longbeards with thane BSB, warriors with Runesmith, hammerers with lord, both bolt throwers, and the other gyrocopter.
After deployment he used his Strollaz's Rune to move his whole army forward. He then proceeded to get the first turn and rush forward again. Even with their stubby legs, I was still afraid they would get to my lines too soon, before I had my redirecters there. Even with his movement, I had very little room to maneuver if I did not want to charge. His bolt thrower put a wound on my Stegadon, but the rest of his shooting did nothing.
I decided to try and set up my skink units to redirect the Dwarves, but the low movement, but possible high movement made it hard to judge where he would end up. I shuffled my higher movement Kroxigors into a charging position, hoping the overrun would end up in charge range. Both units of Terradons flew over the Gyrocopters on both sides and managed to destroy them both with their dropped rocks. The rest of my units did very little, maneuvering a little, but keeping things in positions where they could help. The first magic phase did not damage, but managed to draw out two of his three dispel runes. My shooting phase did not do anything either with the giant bow way off.
End of Lizardmen Turn 2
The Dwarves charged into both units of skinks, the leftmost fleeing the warriors, and rightmost holding, hoping to get killed in the pursuit or ensuing combat. The rest of the Dwarf line shuffled around, the Slayers going into one long rank and the other hammerers moving up. The shooting phase saw the death of three Saurus and the impenetrable hide of the Stegadon sustaining no damage. In combat, the skinks were broke, but were not caught and did not flee far enough, unfortunately blocking the Kroxigor from charging in.
The Saurus declared a charge on the flank of the Hammerers, but no other charges were made. The skinks fled out of the way of the Kroxigor and did not panic anything they ran through. The rest of the army made very small movements, except for the Skink Skirmishers and Terradons, both sprinting (or flying) towards the enemy as fast as they could go. Magic accounted for some Hammerers, but Spirit of the Forge did just as much as Distillation of Molten Silver. Shooting took out a couple of Longbeards, with a large overshot of the Salamanders flames. The giant bow did nothing again. In combat, the Saurus won, but being Stubborn the Hammerers did not break and their lord moved to combat the Scar-Veteran.
End of Lizardmen Turn 2
The Dwarves did very little this turn, just a little backwards shuffling. Then disaster struck in the shooting phase! The back shuffling had opened LOS to the Slann and both ballista took aim, the frog in their crosshairs. Luckily, a strong breeze was going by and the first ballista failed to hit, missing the Slann completely. The second ballista however, managed to hit, but failed to wound. Lord Xlcontiqu, realizing that he did indeed have sweat glands, thanked the Old Ones for his survival. The crossbows took a wound off the Saurus. In combat, the lord challenged the Scar-Vet, scored no wounds with his measly S4, but weathered the Scar-Vet's attacks back. With that the initiative turned to the Lizardmen.
Lord Xlcontiqu's skink attendant gave the order and everything charged (well almost everything). The Stegadon went into the Hammerers, the Saurus into the Slayer conga line, one Terradon unit into the Quarrellers and the other into a bolt thrower. Finally, the Kroxigor charged into the lord's Hammerer unit, my opponent finally realizing he had the Rune of Slowness, but the Kroxigor still make it in, even with their charge range reduced by five. The Slann failed to make any of spells and even miscast Spirit of the Forge (triple 1s do that to you). My opponent got to cast one of his spells and the doom that was unleashed from this spell destroyed the rest of my army (just kidding, Dwarves don't have magic). Lord Xlcontiqu laughed at the lesser life forms and their inability to master the Winds of Magic, even when there was a huge hole in his defenses. Shooting did nothing, and then it was on to combat. The Scar-Vet and the Dwarf lord exchanged blows, neither wounding the other or gaining the upper hand. The Kroxigors on the other hand, slew three Hammerers and easily weathered the pitiful counter attacks. The stubborn dwarves stayed though, unwilling to yield any ground to the Lizardmen. The Stegadon crashed into the other Hammerers, and slew five, leaving nothing to strike back. The stubborn (and fearless) Hammerers fought on though, still refusing to give ground. The Saurus killed a single Slayer due to the silly conga line (a pile of almost naked dwarves in a conga line *shudder*). The Terradon units both managed to hold, even though they each sustained a casualty, effectively neutering the Dwarf shooting for the next turn.
End of Lizardmen Turn 3
No more charges were made by the stunties, and both their unengaged blocks wheeled to face the big combat. The shooting phase accounted for no causalities, the single bolt thrower completely missing the Saurus block. With that, we went to combat. The near naked conga line managed to kill two Saurus, neutralizing the attack back, but finding out that the Saurus were indeed resolute lizards (the Slann helped a bit). The Stegadon continued crushing Hammerers, still sustaining no damage. The Terradons were broken from the Quarrellers and went off the board, but the other Terradons managed to tough it out for another round. In the big combat, the lord and the Scar-Vet still did not take any wounds, but the Hammerers were squashed again, the Kroxigor receiving only one wound in return.
With most of the Lizardmen units locked in combat, there was not much the other blocks could do. The Saurus maneuvered to face the Longbeards and the Skinks Skirmishers maximized shooting. Magic and shooting accounted for nothing this turn, not even a scroll. However, in a desperate gamble to stall the warriors, the Scar-Veteran took to the skies and flew into them, hoping to hold them for a turn. It was not to be, as he was broken, but he managed to save some dignity and not be caught. Luckily, the combat they pursued into was already fought, the monotony of Hammerer squishing only broken by a single wound on the Scar-Vet. None of the other combats went well, with the Terradons being broken, the unkillable Stegadon suffering two wounds, and the Saurus sustaining another wound. Suddenly, things were looking a little bleak for the Lizardmen.
End of Lizardmen Turn 4
This turn marked the critical point of the game. At this point, I believe I was up in points, but with some above average luck, my opponent could completely turn it around. The Longbeards charged the Saurus and the Quarellers turned around. The shooting phase saw a dead skink handler and a loss of two wounds on the Salamanders with some ace shooting by the bolt throwers. The Engineers shot at a Skink unit, killed three, then caused it to panic. Then on to combat. The Slayer combat went predictably, with the Lizardmen losing a couple more Saurus. The Stegadon managed to kill all but one Hammerer, sustained no damage and caused the survivor to autobreak. The Longbeards beat the Saurus and caused them to flee, but did not catch them. In the large mashpit, the Kroxigor finished off the Hammerers, the Saurus took no casualties from the Dwarf Warriors, and the Scar-Vet finally put a wound on the lord. However, the Dwarves won on number, causing the Kroxigor to flee, but the Saurus to still hold strong.
The Skinks failed to rally, but everything else did. The Stegadon moved towards the Warrior block, hoping to save its cold-blooded brethren in time. In magic, the last dispel rune was brought out, but no other damage was done. The shooting phase saw the giant bow miss, the left Salamander to not kill anything, and the right Salamander to eat all its handlers for not allowing it to do anything all battle. It passed the leadership check though, so it was ready to fight again. In combat, the last Slayer champion died, and the Saurus were finally, unfortunately broken and run down.
End of Lizardmen Turn 5
The sixth turn for both sides was another critical point. The Longbeards charged the rallied Saurus who fled too far and ended up back at Konquata. The lord charged the Kroxigor, who fled out of the way and rallied the next turn. Both bolt throwers failed to touch the UNKILLABLE STEGADON! He somehow managed about three turns or more of both thrower shots, and only managed to take a total of one wound from them. He lost a couple skink crew though. The crossbows killed the last two skink handlers and panicked the remaining Salamander. The Slann then proceeded to make a small stain where the lord used to be with his magic, and the warriors got triple charged by the Scar-Vet, the Stegadon, and the Salamander. He called it there because I was already too far ahead and the Warrior block was done.
End of Game
MVP: Scar-Vet with Enchanted Shield. Holding off a Dwarf Lord by himself for about three turns was more than I could ever have wanted. Congrats on actually surviving this time.
LVP: Skink Priest. He did absolutely nothing. Really in this game he could not do much, but it still was a whole lot of nothing he was doing.
In the end I won by about 1000 VPs, so I scored a solid victory. My biggest mistake was a couple of misplacement with my units. One of my Salamanders did next to nothing the entire game, which was a big mistake on my part. Also sacrificing my Scar-Vet may not have been a fantastic idea. The Skink Priest did nothing all game, but he never really does, so that is fine. Overall, I am happy with my performance, a few errors with positioning, but the end result reflected the battle well. It was a very enjoyable battle, with swings both ways and some very intense fight. The fact that my Scar-Vet managed to live for most of the game in combat with a lord makes me happy I chose the Enchanted Shield. He is much more survivable now. I am quite enjoying the list and will continue playing it before I make any changes. As always, comments and criticism are always welcome.
Lord Xlcontiqu floated over to the dead Dwarf lord. A glimmer caught his eye and his skink attendant ran to grab something from the body. It was the Plaque! Finally, the Plaque had found its way back into the rightful owners hands. Lord Xlcontiqu hoped he could get some rest now. But would that rest have to wait?
