8th Ed. The Sacred Host of Xaxlachaq (Tournament Report)

[Xtapl]

So the annual GenghisCON IndyGT was this weekend, and I've been working hard for months now to get my army ready to play in it. I'm pretty happy with the way the army turned out in terms of how it looks, but more than a little nervous about how it would play. If I faced some of the uglier stuff, I might be in trouble. If I faced relatively mild armies, I thought I could certainly challenge for the top tables.

As I walked around pre-tournament, I noticed quite a few things:

#1: Walking around the room, I was really intrigued by the field. Exactly -one- Skaven army (Pestilens/Plague Furnace themed at that). Exactly -one- Dark Elf army (double Hydras, and he ended up getting Best General). The field was totally dominated by Lizardmen, Warriors of Chaos, and High Elves. I would say about 50% of the field was made up of these three armies. There was also a good showing of Empire. I only saw one Dwarf army all day, one Wood Elf army, one Bretonnian army, and there was no Ogre army in attendance.

#2: There were multiple Teclis appearances, which made a lot of people very sad faced. Even the organizer admitted that next time around, named characters are almost certainly going to be restricted. That said, I didn't hear anyone talking about Power Scrolls, so I'm not sure there were many in the house.

#3: I have to say, I played against an Empire army, and as I walked around and looked at the other Empire armies, I found myself a little jealous. Seriously, what is Empire missing? It has good magic, good war machines, easy access to big units of cheap troops, decent cavalry, decent leadership (or ways to get better leadership or get around leadership altogether through ItP), a great chariot...the only thing I can think of is they don't have a big centerpiece monster, but who cares? Empire is -definitely- envy-inducing right now. I'm not sure how the Empire players actually did this weekend, but I know I kept thinking, "Man. What I could do with this army..."

#4: For all the talk of Deathstars and giant hordes, I really only saw a couple of them all weekend. Except for one of them, most of those armies didn't perform all that well at all. Most of the people who ended up in the top five were using units no bigger than about 30-35 models. Only one of them was actually using the Horde rule.

So all in all, I felt okay about my army. One of the funnier things that happened was that multiple people stopped by my table as I was getting my army out of the case and onto the display board and said something to this effect:

Where are your Saurus? What in this army is going to do the fighting for you? I mean, those mixed Skink/Kroxigor units are terrible. Yes, you get the Kroxigor attacks, but I'll kill so many of the Skinks that you'll never win a single combat. And what if I hit that unit in the flank and kill your Kroxigor first? Then what?

I just nodded and smiled. People, seriously, if you are one of the math majors who think that, you should maybe recheck your figures. Because if you have ever uttered something like the above, you are a CRAZY PERSON.

So. At the beginning of the day, the setup was thus:

The name of Xapati, ancient Lizardmen god of vengeance and retribution, is called down by the denizens of Lustria upon the enemy before striking a blow of revenge. While not as well-known or as revered as Sotek, Tepoc, and the other Old Ones, Xapati has his own legion of followers and the ruins of temple cities dedicated in his honor still litter the jungles, particularly in the south. Of all of the temples of Xapati, only one still stands relatively in tact.

The city of was once the home of a powerful and dangerous Slaan Mage Priest named Tiqtiqlan. His visions would often spur thousands of skinks and saurus into the thickest jungles to retrieve stolen temple artifacts and punish those thieves who would dare to defile such ancient and arcane items.

However, even the might of Tiqtiqlan could not hold off the dreaded diseases and plagues of the Skaven during the Great Blight. As spawning after spawning of Saurus was sent to its inevitable doom, Xaxlachaq's defenses became weaker and weaker. Finally, Tiqtiqlan gathered his own personal temple guard and took to the field himself. In one of the most brutal and devastating battles of the Great Blight, Tiqtiqlan's magicks dismantled the Skaven threat in the southern horn of Lustria and obliterated all traces of their foul diseases. However, Tiqtiqlan himself was infected, and in just days, fell deathly ill.

He summoned his most faithful and promising Skink Priest, Xtapl, to his side. With his last ounce of energy, Tiqtiqlan imbued Xtapl with knowledge of magicks and gifts of sight far beyond those of a normal Skink Priest. With that last act finished, Tiqtiqlan died.

Xtapl, Blessed Son of Xapati, set about rebuilding the defenses of Xaxlachaq. However, most of the spawning pools were poisoned or destroyed. The ground over these failed pools was consecrated, and no further spawnings were brought forth from them. Eventually, they dried up. Not a single Saurus has spawned in Xaxlachaq since the day Tiqtiqlan died. No Kroxigor spawn either. It is left to the Skinks to protect Xaxlachaq, under the watchful guidance of their Skink Mage Priest, Xtapl, and to exact Xapati's wrath upon those who would trespass in Lustria.



THE SACRED HOST OF XAXLACHAQ

Xtapl, Blessed Son of Xapati, Defender of XaxlachaQ
Slann Mage Priest (515) : Focused Rumination, Becalming Cogitation, Higher State of Consciousness
Lore of Light, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Divine Plaque of Protection, Dragonbane Gem
Battle Standard Bearer: War Banner

Ixitchtl
Skink Priest (110) : Cube of Darkness, Ironcurse Icon

Spawning of the second Harvest
24 Skinks/3 Kroxigor (307)
Full Command

Spawning of the bloody sun
24 Skinks/3 Kroxigor (307)
Full Command

Spawning of the locust summer
24 Skinks/3 Kroxigor (307)
Full Command

Spawning of the flowered canopy
5 Terradons (150)

Dart frog scouts
6 Chameleon Skinks (78)
huitzli:Stalker

burning rain scouts
6 Chameleon Skinks (78)
chaquax: Stalker

venom fly scouts
6 Chameleon Skinks (78)
Tlixi: Stalker

Infernoraptor hunting party
2 Salamanders (160)
Extra Handlers

Infernoraptor hunting party
2 Salamander (160)
Extra Handlers

Standing in line with my friend Jason, I said to him, "I think I'll be all right as long as I don't have to play one of the Teclis kids."

NEVER, EVER SAY SOMETHING LIKE THIS OUT LOUD. Just FYI.

 

[Xtapl]

ROUND ONE: MAX'S GOBLINS AND ORCS

Max was a sweet kid who was all of about 14 years old, and I felt pretty bad for him, getting matched up against me round one. I was a little annoyed that he didn't have any movement trays at all, and that deploying his army took literally almost a half an hour of our two hour time limit because of it, but I figured he was playing uphill in this game, so I didn't complain. His army was also unpainted, which is a huge pet peeve of mine at a tournament. So three strikes against him right off the bat, but it was hard to stay mad at him because he was such a good kid.

In each scenario, you were supposed to have a relic. The relic acted like a battle standard, except that you needed 10 core infantry or 4 core monstrous infantry to carry it. It didn't take up space in the unit, and if you dropped it (like by falling below the required number of models), it was treated as impassable terrain until another eligible unit picked it up. In this first scenario, the objective was to capture both relics - yours and your opponents. I put my relic about 11" in front of my deployment zone. Since you had to stop to pick the thing up, I figured I could get mine without sacrificing a march move. He figured the same, and put his about 7" in front of his deployment zone.

His list, as I recall, was something like:

Black Orc Warboss with stuff
2 L1 Night Goblin Shamans with stuff (one of which had a dispel scroll)
Night Goblin BSB with stuff
3 units of 35 Night Goblins with nets, full command, and 3 fanatics each
2 units of 10 Spider Riders with Full Command
5 Spider Riders with musician
18 Black Orcs with Full Command
2 Bolt Throwers
3 Trolls

He deployed a little more spread out than he probably should have, and the Trolls to the left on the hill were precariously placed; I had the feeling they were a little more than 12" away, but figured he was measuring while he was deploying so he knew that. Left to right, he had Trolls, BT on the hill, Spiders, Black Orcs and Warboss behind the NGs w/BSB, Spiders, NGs with Shaman, BT, NGs with Shaman, Spiders. My deployment was, left to right: Terradons, Salamanders behind the hill, three units of Skinks with the Slann behind them (Priest in the rightmost unit), Salamanders on the flank. If you look, you can see my Chameleons scouted into the little oasis pond at the far left, and one unit of Chameleons on either side of the little monument at right.



I vanguarded my Terradons straight up, and he vanguarded all three of his Spider units straight down.

LIZARDS TURN ONE

Xaxlachaq seized the initiative and made a demonstrative move straight across the table. I swooped my Terradons over the heads of the Spider Riders, killing five of them with rocks, then landed on the other side of the Trolls to threaten the flanks of the Goblins (although I made sure to stay out of 8"). Chameleons moved up the left to threaten the Bolt Thrower. My left salamanders went to the left flank to finish off the spiders there, while my center moved right into the face of the Spider Riders at center to grab my relic and dare him to charge. The right salamanders moved up to handle the spiders, and the Chameleons there turned to lend their support.

Not much happened in the magic phase. I got off a Speed of Light and that was about it.

In the shooting phase, the left Salamanders liquified all but one Spider. On the right, three spiders died and the other two fled. Chameleon fire downed the Bolt Thrower there.



ORCS AND GOBLINS TURN ONE

Just as I thought, the Trolls were just out of Black Orc range, and stumbled forward like dummies. Also, the Night Goblins with the BSB and the ones at the back of the table both squabbled. That was bad for the Black Orcs, as they were totally trapped with nowhere to go. They were too close to the board edge to reform in any useful way, and I had his one place to turn and burn blocked off with Terradons. Out on the right, he moved his Night Goblins up and pitched three fanatics at my Salamanders, but they weren't juiced up enough to make it to me. Interestingly, he took the bait, and charged his spiders into the front of my Skinks. I'm just chalking that up to inexperience. I warned him it was a bad idea; he went ahead with it anyway.

With one of his Shamans squabbling, it was pretty easy to slap his magic down. He paid me back by putting a giant sharpened stick through one of my Kroxigor, wounding it twice.

Combat went how you think it went: Spiders killed a few Skinks, then Kroxigor smooshed them like a big thing smooshing a little thing. The few survivors turned and ran ran ran.




"Hey! Get back here! These velociraptors are hungry!"

LIZARDMEN TURN TWO

With the middle in good hands and the left all but cleared, it was time to turn my attention to other matters. I decided not to charge the spiders at center, figuring they were making a good charge block right there where they were. Instead, I moved right up next to them. I turned my left unit to go through the water, so they could pick up his relic. The unit at right turned to help out with the NG block over there. Chameleons snuck to the flank to start popping shots at the now pretty defenseless Night Gobbos. On the right, I moved everyone to start messing with the Black Orcs, still staying away from the fanatic draw.

Don't really remember what happened in the magic phase, but it wasn't anything too important.

Sallies at right peeled off a few Night Goblins, but a double 10 on the arty dice put the templates well beyond the NGs so they only hit a few. Chameleons missed spectacularly. A handful of Black Orcs went down to the combined firepower of two units of Chameleons and the Terradons.



ORCS AND GOBLINS TURN TWO

The Night Goblins at left charged my Salamanders in the lake (although it doesn't look like it here - because he didn't have any movement trays, I was just like, "Just leave 'em there and we'll know they charged."). His NGs at the back squabbled yet again, and the front NGs with the BSB thought better of charging at my Skinks in the oasis, choosing instead to move up enough to launch fanatics. However, none of them made it to my lines. It did buy him enough room to reform his Black Orcs, though. It was actually a pretty smart move; if he came up and got his relic, I could charge his NGs and possible break them and run them down and take the relic. If he waited until I got his relic, he could counter charge me while I was still in the water, get the charging bonus, and maybe break me since he'd have ranks and I wouldn't. But his dice crapped out on him and his fanatics were again anemic in their distances.

One fanatic at left splattered itself against the monument, while the other two went in the right direction but didn't have the distance to hit my Salamanders. The two spiders left rallied, while the other ones at center did not.

Oh. And stupid Trolls were stupid.

In the magic phase, nothing happened as I slapped down his one Shaman pretty easily again.

He tried to pay me back by rolling a hit and a wound on my Slann with his Bolt Thrower, only to find out I am totally ethereal, bro.

In combat, the NGs wounded a Salamander and took a couple in return, but I held.



LIZARDS TURN THREE

Charge! My big block at right charged into the now conveniently placed Spiders. My Terradons prepared to sacrifice themselves by leapfrogging the Black Orcs and drawing out Fanatics. I was hoping he'd pitch them at the Terradons, which would necessarily shoot the Fanatics through the Black Orcs as well. Instead, he threw only two of them my way, and one out front at the blocks. Then, as had been happening to him all day, the two fanatics weren't up to the task of getting to the Terradons. Sallies at left close in on the Night Goblins and Black Orcs, as the Chameleons also boldly get into the face of the Black Orcs and dare them to charge out of position so my Sallies can flank.

I also moved up and snatched up his relic.

I cast the Speed of Light bubble again.

In the shoot phase, the Chameleons at right knock the Bolt Thrower down, which panics the Night Goblins behind them and sends them running in a stupid direction. Have I mentioned I really hate that "from the closest enemy" flee rule - was the "from the source of panic" rule really that bad?

Anyway...

I blew some fire across the Night Goblins and put some darts into the Black Orcs, but that Warboss's leadership kept them both hanging around.

Quickly, the Skinks plowed through the couple of spiders that were left and barreled into the flank of the Night Gobbos. Although they managed to kill one of my Sallies, it was too little too late. Velociraptors and Salamanders gleefully gobbled up the Goblins.




"Hey...guess what, Night Goblins? We got yer relic! Nah nah!"

At this point, because my Max took so long to set up and had to move his army with no trays, the time limit was called. When we counted it up, I had a solid victory. I also picked up nine of ten bonus points. So 14-6 to me, plus bonus points put me at a respectable 23 points for round one. That was enough to play winners in round two, but not enough to have to play the truly ugly stuff, I hoped. I think if we had gotten in the whole game, I probably would have gotten a massacre, but no worries - a win's a win to me. Max was a great kid who went on to have three games he said were really fun, and I hope he had a good time at his first ever tournament.

I was also kind of hoping I got to play a grown up in round two, because while I think it's great kids get to go to tournaments, I honestly don't really like playing against them in a tourney situation.

Oh, and before I forget: # of skink cohort members killed in the whole tournament so far: 8/72.

More to come: In which we face down the scariest army Skinks have ever seen, Chameleon Skinks win themselves an MVP award, Xtapl plays catch with a cannon, and some earlier words come back to haunt me big time.

 

[Arli]

Very good battle report. Of course, I expected no less. I look forward to the rest of the reports.

 

[Xlcontiqu]

Great report! Glad to see a Skink army doing so well. I notice that you run your Skrox unit is ranks of six. What does this offer as opposed to running them in ranks of eight or ten to protect the skinks? I am currently thinking of switching my units to a smaller frontage, so that might the way to go.

 

[Eladimir]

Just getting started reading, very cool so far and wickedly painted army theme.

So I assume those are the Kroxigors in the second rank. Cool model what are they (really over version) or just an alternate model?

 

[Xtapl]

@Xlcontiqu: I think the advantage to running them in 6s is footprint. I can fit more guys into less space. Plus, they're exactly as wide as the Kroxigor, which means if I have models in contact, I have at least one Krox who can fight for free. I don't really think the Skinks need as much protecting as one might assume. They're actually not as bad as they seem on the surface.

@Eladimir: They're not GW models at all. They're from Tamiya's Prehistoric range, and I think they work really nicely with the rest of my units.

So...on to game two!

ROUND TWO: JUD'S EMPIRE

Ah, Empire. Land of a Thousand Ways to Kill Skinks. When I saw Jud's stuff walking over to my table, I gotta say, I was excreting rectangular building materials out of my anal orifice, so to speak. Jud was another really great opponent, but his army was scary scary scary:

Archlector with stuff (5+ ward in there)
L4 Shadow Wizard on a Horse with stuff (4+ ward in there)
Battle Standard Bearer w/ 4+ ward
Master Engineer w/ Repeater Pistol
28 Flagellants
30 Swordsmen w/ Full Command
6 Knights w/ Full Command
24ish Greatswords w/ Full Command
2 Cannons
2 Mortars
Steam Tank

So let's see...two pie plates per turn, plus Shadow Wizard reducing my S/T, plus Archlector kicking in extra dispel dice, plus big block of stubborn Greatswords, plus cannons, plus a Steam Tank that against me is pretty much unkillable. Awesome.

The scenario this time was to carry your relic with you and try to outflank the enemy. The deployment zone was set up so it was a standard 12", but for 24" in the opposite corners, the zone was 18" instead. As he had decided to refuse flank against me, I decided to refuse to be refused and put one of my Skink units a bit ahead of the others to close off the flank to him.

His deployment (as left to right as possible): Swordsmen, Cannon-Mortar-Mortar-Cannon w/ Master Engineer right behind all 4/ Flagellants with the Relic next to Steam Tank, Knights behind Greatswords. All three characters were in the Greatswords - BSB to the far right, Archlector and horse wizard to the far left.

My deployment left to right was: Terradons, Salamanders, Salamanders, Skinks w/ Priest, Slann, Skinks w/my Relic, Skinks. Chameleons were scouted 12" away from the Swordsmen at far left, and 12" from the Knights at the center top. Because of the Knights' angle, we determined if I lined my Chameleons up on the board edge, they couldn't be seen. Keep this sneaky maneuver in mind for later, because where they are becomes really important.



I vanguarded the Terradons straight forward.

LIZARDS TURN ONE

I started off trying to close the distance between myself and the castled Empire. Everything shot forward with serious march moves. At left, I was incredibly aggressive, moving both units of Chameleons and the Terradons right up into the face of the Swordsmen, threatening the war machine battery. In the upper center, I move along the board edge to stay out of LOS but close in on the Knights so they'd be march blocked.

The magic phase was super eventful: I threw down a Pha's Illumination bubble with six dice, IFed it, and rolled up a dimensional cascade. With an evil grin, I used my Cupped Hands to launch it across the table at his level 4. Sweating bullets, he placed the template over his Wizard and determined way more Greatswords than he would have strictly enjoyed were under it. A few dice rolls later, eight Greatswords lay dead, the wizard himself was wounded, and I was protected by a nice anti-war machine shield. The wizard didn't die, though, which was not a blessing for me, but it'd do. To follow up, I pitched a Net of Amyntok over the Greatsword unit, and he failed to dispel it. Not a bad first magic phase at all.

The shoot phase started off awfully shaky. The Chameleons at left combined to kill exactly two Swordsmen, much to my dismay. I was hoping to cause a panic check there, but the 1s and 2s just kept on coming. Grr. The other Chameleons only dropped two Greatswords, which wasn't great either. However, the Salamanders more than made up for it:


"Umm....weren't there a lot more of us a second ago, before a bunch of dinosaurs lit us on fire?"

I could see in Jud's face that he understood the reality of his situation: if he didn't get rid of the Salamanders quickly, it wouldn't matter much what the rest of my Skinks did: the Sallies would make quick work of his lightly armored army.



EMPIRE TURN ONE

Charge!

The Swordsmen took the bait and charged my Chameleon Skinks, who prepared to, as GW usually says, "sell their lives dearly for the cause." The Flagellants charged the left Salamanders, and I chose to flee them. The Flaggies needed about an 8 to get to me, but I didn't want to risk it. I needed them later. Ditto for the Sallies against the Steam Tank, which would have been just plain bad. The Greatswords were nervous about that glittering net over them and chose to stay put, while the Knights reformed to box out the Chameleons at center.

The magic phase consisted of one spell, thanks to the Net. I put a stop to the Archlector casting by cogitating his 6s, then the Shadow Wizard got off a Withering on my central Skink unit. Nervous about having to take more wounds, he stopped casting there.

In the shooting phase, he dropped a mortar round on top of my Terradons, which killed two of them and caused the rest to flee. The other mortar was 4+ stopped by Pha's Illumination, the first cannon misfired (using the Engineer's reroll) and then sailed over the heads of my Skinks into Xtapl, who promptly turned to mist and let it sail on through. Jud was dismayed at this revelation and turned the second cannon at the leftmost Skinks, but putting the counter 8" from my unit, then rolling a 2 and a 4 on the arty dice made me super happy he had already used his Engineer earlier.

The Swordsmen had no trouble with my Chameleons, but the others next to them were stout and held...exactly as I had planned it. Would I have been happy to have my Terradons also over there? Of course. But this would do. Now, all I needed to do was pass a march check, and my plan was still on...



LIZARDS TURN TWO

I had a crazy plan that was so simple, if it actually worked, I'd be amazed: I flank charged the Steam Tank with my Skink block. I figured, he can't hurt me on my turn, and on his turn, if I can weather the grinds, I might be able to pin it in place forever. I wouldn't kill it, probably, but I could at least take it out of the game for a while. Maybe forever, if the dice were good to me. It was risky because I had to commit my Relic to do it, but since the thing was a BSB too, I wouldn't have to babysit them as I moved the rest of my army across the table.

The Chameleons at center moved into the trees to try and force the Knights out of position and to charge into the dangerous forest. The Chameleons left thankfully passed their march check and quickly edged around the Flagellants into an open look at the War Machines.

My far left Salamanders rallied, but the others had seen enough Steam Tank for one day and fled the table. Boo. Terradons rallied, though, so that was a bonus.

I didn't get a ton of dice for magic, so I settled for pitching all my dice at another Pha's Illumination, which went off, and for dispelling the negative Toughness on my center unit.

The shoot phase was pretty good to me. The center Chameleons peeled off a couple of Greatswords, then the left Chameleons fired up the center Mortar, killing the crew outright and destroying the machine. The resulting panic checks forced the left Cannon crew to abandon their machine, which YAY ME.

My Kroxigor managed to put a wound on the T10 Steam Tank, and subsequently won the combat. Operation Pin It successful, for now...



EMPIRE TURN TWO

The Knights went ahead and charged my Chameleons, who fled away quickly. The Swordsmen took off across the board after my rallied troops, the now Net-less Greatswords turned to get into a little action, and the Shadow Wizard spurred his horse on to get the mothereff out of Dodge. In an act of shameless heroism, the Master Engineer stepped between his war machines and the Chameleon Skinks, loading up his repeater pistol.

This time, the Shadow Mage reduced the Strength of my rightmost Skink unit, and that was about all Xtapl let him do.

In the shoot phase, the Mortar placed an absolutely perfect shot right on top of my middle Skink unit. At the end of the dice rolling, I had a double-wounded Kroxigor and 14 dead Skinks on my hands. Ouch. Xtapl soothed their troubled minds, though, and the Skinks didn't panic. Instead, he cast a wicked glare at the Cannon crew, which caused them to misfire their machine and blow themselves up. That'll teach them.

The Master Engineer killed one of the Chameleon Skinks, despite them being awfully hard to see.

The grind killed off four of my Skinks, and I couldn't get a wound through in return, but no worries. We won the combat easily and held on.



LIZARDS TURN THREE

Charge!

I sent the rightmost Skinks into the Greatswords, hoping for the best. The Terradons finally rallied, as did the Chameleons at right. I moved the Salamanders out of LOS of the Swords (it looks in the pic like they're in LOS, but remember: handlers don't count any more) to put some more pressure on the Flagellants, and moved the middle Skink block up to charge and finish them, just in case. The Chameleons at the back moved around the Master Engineer to get a clean shot at the last Mortar.

In the magic phase, I dispelled the negative strength on my Skinks and got off a nice Speed of Light bubble for my troops (only the Skinks in with the Greatswords mattered, but everyone else thought it was neato too). The Salamanders reduced the Flagellants to 4, forcing them to drop their Relic (bonus scenario points for me!), and the Chameleons at the back continued their MVP run, wiping out the last war machine.

Chameleon Skinks are worth their weight in gold.

I took a few casualties to the Greatswords, and killed a few in return, easily winning the combat, but they held. Stupid stubborn.

The Kroxigor put another wound on the Steam Tank too, just for good measure.



EMPIRE TURN THREE

The Knights flank charged my Skinks, losing one to dangerous terrain in the process. The Swords charged my Terradons, but came up just short. The Wizard moved even further away.

The Wizard miscast, doing another wound to himself, so that was nice. The Archlector was then easily beaten down by Xtapl's defenses.

The Master Engineer blew away another Chameleon Skink, but to no avail.

In combat, the Steam Tank grinded hard on my unit, killing a few more Skinks. However, I put a third wound on it and hung in there. The Greatswords were not so lucky, as the WS10/I10 finally helped out, I took only one casualty, then killed off his BSB. Without the reroll, that 10 he rolled for his break test was too much, and the Greatswords turned and ran. I couldn't quite catch them, but the damage was done.



Of course, then time was called. Grr...

So because of the stupid new 8th edition rules, I got no points for the GS or the Archlector, which turned my sure massacre into a minor victory. 12-8 to me. With bonus points, that 12 was a 20. Good showing for round two.

Jud was my favorite opponent for the day, and got my vote for both Best Painted and Best Sportsman.

Total tally, for those keeping track: Skink Cohorts killed so far: 29/72 in this game, for a total of 37/144.

Coming up next: I'm on the #2 table. Yikes!

 

[Puhnupetteri]

Thank you Xtapl for very high quality battle-report!

I must say your tactic and armylist is quite different to what i have used to play but it seems you got me inspired to test your tactic. It seems you played very well and i like your "good sport attitude" you show to fellow players and opponents. As for first battle againts that ork player im glad to hear you behaved politely and it shows your wisdom.

As what comes your army i think its very well painted and unique. Very good job there!

Looking forward to see more BR:s from you.

 

[Eladimir]

Nicely done, I look forward to round 3 and your final tournament finish

 

[SeBM]

Ok so I'm gonna say it since I've been keeping it to myself for a while now. I'm very angry at you!!!!! Every day, I log on and check to see if you've finally posted the end of your tournament only to find that it's not here yet!!!! You better post it soon or else.... !!!

On a more serious note, those are the kind of reports I like to read. I really am looking forward on reading the end though!

 

[Arli]

SeBM,

You got me excited thinking the next one was up!!!!

I too am looking forward to the next update.

 

[theodmino]

HA! No update! Just lill ol' me commenting saying that I too am very exited to see the next part of this wonderfull battle report

 

[Xtapl]

ROUND THREE vs. MIKE'S HIGH ELVES

Okay. Remember back to when I was standing in line to turn in my army list at the beginning of the day, and I turned to my friend Clymer and said, "I'll be all right as long as I don't have to play against one of the Teclis kids?"

Remember how I said you should never, ever say something like that out loud?

Yeah. Don't do that. Because when you do that, you end up on Table 2 having to face:

Teclis
Level 2 Mage
24 Archers
25 Seaguard w/ Flaming
20 Swordmasters
20 Phoenix Guard w/ Banner of Assholery
5 Dragon Princes
RBT

And are you pisssed off about that? Why, yes. Yes, you are. Especially when you are, once again, playing against a half-unpainted army. And the table assignments get shuffled weirdly, and you're assigned to the same table you just played on. I started out this game a little grumpy. So grumpy, in fact, that I completely forgot I was taking pictures, and didn't remember until the bottom of the first turn.

So let's see if I can catch you up to the pictures...

The scenario was a sort of Battle For Skull Pass sort of affair (except, as we learned later, no it wasn't. We read the deployment chart wrong. But it turned out to be all right for both of us; our armies are both pretty fast.). You had to place your Relic outside of your deployment zone, and then it couldn't move for the rest of the game. Bonus points awarded for capturing both relics. Being within 6" of a relic gave you MR2.

His side of the table went Archers, RBT, LSG, Phoenix Guard w/Teclis, Swordmasters w/L2, Dragon Princes. I realized as he was putting his army down, he had no BSB. Yay me.

On my side, I went Sallies, Sallies with Terradons tucked behind, three Velociskinks with Xtapl tucked behind (Priest in the left unit). I was able to infiltrate two units of Chameleon Skinks into the far left corner of the field, and the other unit, I threw to the wolves and put behind a wall just in front of the house. I figured, soft cover + chameleon might save their lives for a turn until I could get them out of harm's way.

Skeinsliver (of course) + finishing deploying first gave him the first turn. With Teclis. Joy.

I vanguarded the Terras straight forward.

HIGH ELVES TURN ONE

He swung the Dragon Princes out to the flank and turned his archers around to face my advancing Chameleons. The PGs advanced so they could get into range for Teclis, because that MFAhole had Life, of course.

He rolled up 12 power dice, thanks to Teclis and the Banner of Assholery to my whopping 4 dispel dice. Teclis's first spell was Throne of Vines, which I dropped Cube of Darkness on and ended the magic phase, because screw that.

The RBT thinned a couple of Skinks from the left unit. The LSG, despite some negative modifiers, still killed one Chameleon from the wall. The Archers didn't fare much better, killing many fewer Chameleons than they had hoped. Only two, in fact. Panic was passed easily, and I settled in to do some damage of my own.

LIZARDS TURN ONE

Advance! I moved the Chameleons into short range of the Archers, and slid the other Chameleons into the open so they could target the RBT. They might die, but if they take out 100 points of RBT in the process, I'd be okay with that trade. I moved all the blocks up, especially the left one to take my Relic and get the MR2. Terradons advanced quite a bit up the left flank.

I was really far out of the way for my spells, so I just Pha'sed my units up and hoped for the best next turn. Teclis failed to dispel it, so there was a moral victory.

The Chameleons in the open accomplished their mission, riddling the RBT with -five- wounds and dropping it easily. Poison is the cureall for war machines, I swear.

The other Chameleons combined to drop an awful lot of archers - nine of them, in fact. But they passed panic. Boo.

And that is where we find this photo:



HIGH ELVES TURN TWO

The Dragon Princes thought better of things and moved back a bit, not wanting to go thumbs-up with a giant block of Velociskinks. The Swordmasters advanced, the LSG advanced slightly, and the archers turned once again to face Chameleons.

Once again, Teclis rolled up 12 dice. Thankfully, I was still out of range for the ugliest stuff. However, he still was able to Throne himself up, and Shield of Thorns his PG unit. The only spell I was able to stop was Flesh to Stone, which was good, because T7 Phoenix Guard I do -not- want to face.

Thankfully, the dice gods repaid Mike's Karma by making his archers' shooting abysmal, and only one Chameleon fell to their arrows.



LIZARDS TURN TWO

So. I had a plan. That plan was: KILL TECLIS. NOW.

Everything shifted left. All the Chameleons made a break for the open area behind the house, the Salamanders rushed to the center of the table, and the Terradons moved to shield my artillery batteries. All the Velociskinks moved up, with Xtapl holding up the back.

Magic was definitely eventful. I called down a Speed of Light with Irresistible Force, pulled a 3 on the miscast chart, and pitched it at his level 2 with my Cupped Hands. The bomb detonated, and nearly half of the Swordmasters vaporized. Because screw Teclis. That's why.

Unfortunately, the mage didn't die. Boo.

So I settled into my shooting phase on Operation Sack the Quarterback. Although one of my Salamanders ate three of his handlers, the rest of them hooked up with the Chameleon Skinks and thinned almost the entire unit of Phoenix Guard off the table. Unfortunately, not enough to get rid of Teclis, though. Stupid. I hate that guy. At least I wounded him once...which won't matter when the Life lore's special rule kicks in next turn, of course.




WHY WON'T YOU DIE ALREADY?!


We were asking ourselves the same question...

HIGH ELVES TURN THREE

Well. The Dragon Princes again changed their minds, in light of the fact that I was blasting away at the High Elves with deadly force, so they were compelled to engage. He drove them into the front of the far right Velociskinks unit. Archers reformed to face the deadly Chameleons yet again. LSG charged the Terradons, who fled, but the elves didn't have the distance to get to the Sallies, fortunately.

The magic phase consisted of him tossing everything he had at Regrowth, IFing it, and putting half the Phoenix Guard back on the table. Bleh. At least that let me beat down Dwellers on my Salamanders.

The archers took aim at the Chameleons and did a little damage, finishing off the three man unit. Panic passed, but boo. I need those guys...

The Dragon Princes carved through 8 Skinks, my Velocikrox couldn't seem to get past elven armor, and that combat ended up parked. WAY better than he could have hoped for, considering I was WS10 at the time.


WHY ARE YOU SO LUCKY?!



LIZARDS TURN THREE

Now. Would you like to learn a lesson?

The lesson is this: if you think that math will save your army, you should play a different game. Because sometimes, the dice take your math and they pee all over it. Mathhammer is all well and good in theory, but in practice, the world has other plans.

I advanced the Chameleons right up behind the newly alive Phoenix Guard, and then brought the Salamanders in close as well. The Terradons rallied with Xtapl right there to encourage them and flew off to get back into the game.

Magic was uneventful, as Teclis used somewhere on the order of 42 dispel scrolls to stop all my magic.

So here's what happened: when you have 4 Salamanders and 10 Chameleon Skinks (who have point blank range) vs. 9 Phoenix Guard and an unarmored T2 wizard, bad things are going to happen. The absolute barrage of firepower completely annihilated the Phoenix Guard, and then, guess what? Guess who killed Teclis?

Tlixi, one of the Chameleon Stalkers everyone told me to take out of the list.

Hooray for him!

Now, as I was saying about Mathhammer:

Seeing Teclis bite the dust was unnerving for everyone in the High Elf army. So much so, in fact, that the Swordmasters turned and started to run away. And then, so did the Lothern Sea Guard. On consecutive rolls of 10 for LD. Guess that BSB would have come in handier than Teclis, huh?

Then, to top it all off, even without my WS10, the Dragon Princes killed not one Skink, the Velociraptors ate one of them, and they turned tail and ran.

So, at the end of Turn Three, everything in the HE army except the archers were making a break for it.



TAKE THAT, MATH!

HIGH ELVES TURN FOUR

Wow. Turn Four. I had never seen a Turn Four all day. Kind of cool.

This was a fast and easy turn. The Swordmasters and Dragon Princes turned around. The LSG kept on running. The archers turned to face their fates.

I was able to put down the HE magic now that Teclis was gone, so that was good. The Mage didn't have any good spells anyway, since High magic isn't exactly wonderful.

The archers tried their hardest, but only two Skink Handlers fell, and that meant the archers were in some serious trouble.



LIZARDS TURN FOUR

Time for cleanup. Velociskinks went into the Dragon Princes, Chameleons shifted to take on the Swordmasters, Salamanders turned their jets on the archers.

Another Speed of Light dropped onto the Velociskinks. Game on.

Chameleons poured poisoned darts into the Swordmasters, killing four of them. They held on through panic, though. On the other side of the table...well...


WHAT THE EFF, PEOPLE? DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?

Can you believe that guy passed panic?

Meanwhile, despite killing a couple of Skinks, the Dragon Princes were not long for this world. WS10 Velocikrox are no joke, and they beat the remaining four Dragon Princes into the dust. Overrunning, they charged at the Swordmasters, but it didn't matter, the Swordmasters had panicked anyway, and were on the lam.



HIGH ELVES TURN FIVE

Guess who rolled two consecutive 9+s?


Bye, guys! Maybe we can grab some beers and a pizza next time, huh?

And with that, Teclis and crew had been tabled.

Massacre to the Lizards, plus maximum bonus points.

At this point, I want to point something out. See this?:



That's one full Velociskinks block, one with only a single casualty, and one over half. 12 total Skinks were killed in this game. That means, for the entire tournament, I lost 49/216 Skinks or 23% of them. Can we all PLEASE shut up now about how bad mixed Skinks/Kroxigor units are, and about how you have to take Saurus blocks to win? Please? Because you are wrong. If I -let- you get into combat with me, then sure. But why on Earth would I be stupid enough to do that without whittling you down first?

And now...

JUDGMENT

At the end of the day, all the votes were tallied, and announcements were made. And guess what?

I won Best Army. I was really happy with that, because that's the award I usually show up trying to win. Winning games is nice, but really, it's just gravy. I'd much rather be the prettiest girl in the room.

When it was all said and done, I came in second place overall. With Skinks. Yay me!

But that wasn't the end...

When the spreadsheet was mailed out, I noticed something interesting:



Wait for it...wait for it...

Did you notice it?

In round one, my score got recorded in reverse. And it stayed that way through the end of the tournament, and through the prizes, and right up until now. I actually came in first by a few points.

I'm not mad or anything, since 1) I got a ticket to Vegas anyway; 2) Kevin is a former clubmate who I know well and like, and I'm glad he got the trophy; and 3) the tournament was over two weeks ago. I took second. But inside, I have the moral victory of knowing that based on real scores, I won GenghisCon two years in a row: once with Dwarves (in 7th!) and then with Skinks.

Yay me!

Thanks for tuning in. Comments and such, blah blah blah.

 

[theodmino]

Man, that sure was something! Gratz to you good sir.

Btw, I agree with what you said about the Skink/Krox cohorts. They are very, very effective if used properly, which you showed.

 

[Arli]

Awesome! Great job. I look forward to more battle reports from Vegas.

 

[Coatl]

i agree with the skrox sentiment. why people think having great weapon attacks without having to weather the attacks against them first is bad is beyond me. pick your targets better and combat res will work in your favor. good job on the 2nd*(1st). always good to see a lizzie player cleaning house

 

[Eladimir]

Thanks for posting the final round, quite the ass kicking.
I agree Skrox can be good, but in this 3rd round his whole army was broken by the time you rolled in.
Again wicked looking army and grats on 2nd/1st and the trip to Vegas.