I have a very new Battle Report for you, actually this one is the second game I played against the same player as I was play testing some army lists. Forgot to take pictures of the first one but it was a massacre, by the end of turn 4 only 1 of his regiments was alive and it was wavered. This time around things were much more fun. Let's go for it: DEPLOYMENT Our armies were like this: Salamanders: 2 Hordes of Tyrants 1 Horde of Ghekkotah Warriors 2 Lekelidons 1 Greater Fire Elemental 1 Ghekkotah Skylord 1 Herald with diadem of Dragon Kin 1 Mage-Priest Twilight Kin: 1 Lord on Dragon 1 Horde of Abyssal Riders (He messed up cutting the movement tray and ended cutting one that is twice as big) 1 Horde of Spearmen with Helm of Confidence 1 Regiment of Buccaneers 1 Regiment of Crossbowmen with Wine of Elvenkin (no idea why he did that) 1 Troop of Gargoyles (they are in fact dogs with imaginary wings) We played the scenario called Pillage, in this scenario you have to control several objectives by the end of the game. We rolled for the number of objectives and we got 5, but don't really know why we ended up placing just 4, my mistake. I guess we were a bit tired. We deployed in a very standard way, I made the mistake of deploying one of my lekelidons on the flank just in front of his crossbowmen which was a terrible mistake. TURN 1 He won the roll for turn one and just advanced all of his units except the Crossbowmen and the Gargoyles. The lord on dragon threw a lightning bolt on the lekelidon and with a very lucky nerve roll the poor thing gets routed, its not starting well... On my turn I decide to move all my units forwards near the objective markers and my skylord charges to the flank of the abyssal riders, my thinking was that I could put some wounds on them and after that he could either counter charge my Skylord and destroy it, sitting right next to the objective marker and in charge range of the GFE or charge (hindered) my GFE exposing his rear side to my skylord, both options seemed ideal to me. If I were to play this same game again I would just have moved the skylord to the rear and start to rear charge next turn with him. Anyway he puts 5 wounds on them which is great but the nerve roll isn't lucky enough and they are unaffected. The centre of my line is a real mess, I move REALLY badly and end up giving my opponent a sure victory in turn 1 if he can spot my big mistake, I really think my brain didn't worked well in this game. I move my Ghekkotah Warriors too much exposing them to a triple charge from his combat units, or even a double charge from his infantry and left enough space on the back for the dragon to fly over them and gain my rear, in both cases he could have routed easily my Ghekkotah and then reform to face the tough guys making my life really hard for the rest of the battle. My god I'm playing badly this time. On the right side of the board my lekelidon moves into range and opens fire into the crossbowmen, doing some wounds but not much else. And my Mage-Priest moves into the forest waiting to toast those gargoyles if they dare to jump over the forest. TURN 2 When he starts his turn I fear the worst and pray for the Ghekkos to stand the charge at least wavered. But surprisingly he charges his two block of infantry into the Tyrants leaving the Ghekkos alone and flies his dragon over them into the rear of my line. I really wasn't expecting that. Both charges bounce off my tyrants with no real trouble, just some minor wounds. On the left flank he counters my Skylord killing him and reforming to face the GFE. On the right he pivots his Crossbows to shoot my Lekelidon in a shooting game that I know by now I'm going to regret. Then as I predicted he flies his "Gargoyles" over the trees facing my flank. After the game when I talked to him about his decision to charge the Tyrants he told me he thought I was going to reform the Ghekkos to face the dragon and let his blocks grind mine. I don't do that, as you will see. I can't really believe how lucky I am to have two flanks exposed to my Ghekkos, Choosing the bigger threat I multi charge the horde of spearmen and counter charge his buccaneers. The multi charge goes as expected, 60 attacks hurts even if they are +5 to hit. He needs snake eyes to survive and even with the helm of confidence he just doesn't make it, I reform to face the dragon and the buccaneers. The other charge goes better for him, I bounce off not even wavering his regiment and I can see the blood bath that is coming their way. The GFE does well putting some wounds on the Abyssal Riders that regenerated A LOT of damage, we will see how well he can stand those 24 blows next turn. On the right flank my fireball goes almost unnoticed and the lekelidon is business as usual.
TURN 3 As predicted he triple charges my poor Tyrants and they are routed, but only because of the dragon really, he reforms to face the incoming charge. The abyssal rides counter once again the GFE putting only 4 wounds on him, not even being enough to even roll the nerve test. Finally as I was fearing the crossbow do their job and my lekelidon is slained. I really should have moved him out of there, don't know was I was thinking. I put my Ghekkotah Warriors into the Buccaneers to hold them up and charge my Tyrants into the dragon, hoping their CS2 and Brutal can deal with him. The ghekkos perform great putting some more wounds on those pesky Buccaneers that just don't want to die, thanks to the inspiring from the Lord. But the best part of the turn is my tyrants that just thanks to the Brutal special rule manage to waver the Dragon. The Other hero of the day is the GFE, with his amazing CS4 and a nice nerve roll he routs the Abyssal Riders all by himself, what a beast. My two Fireball wielding lizards manage to waver the gargoyles and that is just the cherry on top of a great turn. TURN 4 There is really not much he can do in his turn, he regens a lot of wound on the gargoyles and moves a bit his crossbows to try to do a lucky shot on my Mage-Priest, but hitting on +7 he misses all his rolls. The bucanees counter the Ghekkotah and do some wounds on them but not much more. On my turn I counter with both my units and rout both of them with ease, the two fireballs once again target the gargoyles but they miss complely. Meanwhile the GFE moves to claim the objective on the left flank. TURN 5 His only chance right now is really to play the mobility card and try to claim on of the two centre objectives with his gargoyles while try to shoot my two hordes with those hateful crossbows. He flyes his gargoyles away from the hordes and in a very lucky shooting phase he routs my Tyrants. In my turn I decide the best thing is to move my Ghekkos to claim the objective to the left and leave those gargoyles to the Fireballs. It works and they are finally routed. Its getting a bit late, the shop is about to close and he knows that the next turn I can hide my horde behind the forest and just sit there so he concedes. But truth be told this game was very close and if he would have charged the Ghekkos in the first place he would have probably won. In the end a great game with BIG mistakes in both sides but real fun and a great adversary all along. He already wants a revenge with a much improved army list, so I'm pretty sure this won't be the last time you will see the Twilight Kin. Thanks for reading!
I've been reading battle reports on youtube and your game went as expected, one mistake and you can win or lose, seeing full units routed and removed is weird at first but allows for a fast paced game which I like, can't wait to get my book.
It also makes you plan your movements more carefully specially in mid game as a flank charge can destroy your whole battle line. Also if you play againts someone that's really good a mistake is all that is needed to loose. In a competitive environment this game can be brutal sometimes, specially as the games are timed with chess clocks and you have to do your turn fast. That being said it has probably one of the best scenes I've ever seen in a game, people are just great.
Indeed, in the end you don't throw so many dice, you do batches and once you reach the point where only snakes eyes will make you stay on the board you stop. Or if you get 108 attacks from the back, specially from ogres you can just say its on snakes eyes and roll for nerve.
Also If you let that happen, well you should really reconsider your strategy. Getting rear charged by a Horde or in that case I'm guessing an Orgre Warrior LEGION really shouldn't happen.