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8th Ed. 1201 point game, LM vs. LM Civil War

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by Scalenex, Mar 2, 2014.

  1. Scalenex
    Slann

    Scalenex Keeper of the Indexes Staff Member

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    My map campaign opponent left early after we did the map part, but without the battle part. I thought today would be a no game day which made me sad. Then I made a new friend who also had time to kill, so we threw together a list based the models we had with us and the time we had to play.

    My new friend collects Lizardmen primarily and Empire as a secondary army. He has very excellent taste in WHF armies but sadly no VC army.

    I had a 1201 point list (he asked me if going over was okay so I altered my list to go a point over myself). He accidentally gave himself an extra Swarm so it was actually 1236 versus 1201, but that was no biggie. The Ark of Sotek was rolling below what it ought to have, so that balanced out.

    Spoiler Alert: Lizardmen win

    My list
    Skink Priest, L2 Beasts (Wyssan;s and Curse of Anaheir), Ruby Ring of Ruin
    Scar Veteran, Armor of Destiny, Halberd, BSB

    21 Sword and Board Saurus Warriors, FC
    21 Cohort Skinks, FC
    12 Skink Skirmishers with Brave and Javelins and shields

    6 Kroxigors with Ancient
    9 Chamleon Skinks

    My new friend’s list
    Old Blood, light armor, shield

    Scar Veteran, BSB, light armor, shield
    Skink Priest, L1 Heavens (Chain Lightning)

    20 Saurus Warriors, FC
    10 Skink Blowpipe Skirmishers

    5 Chameleon Skinks
    Bastiladon, Ark of Sotek
    2 x 2 Jungle Swarms

    We chose a battle line then rolled on the Lizardmen Civil War chart from an old White Dwarf magazine. We rolled two rule changes. First, all Slann are unable to cast spells or fight for d6 turns. Since the Slann were staying at home it mattered not. Second, we rolled that there was a sacred pond in the middle of the board we were fighting over that bestowed Regeneration on all Lizardmen within four inches and was worth 250 points to the player closest at the game end. We dropped it to 150 since the overall points’ size of this game was small.

    We didn't roll any terrain, we just worked to space our available pieces roughly evenly. We used a lot of terrain and joked that tables with a lot of terrain give LM players an unfair advantage.

    We had three or four hills didn’t do much really except mildly inconvenience us when moving and placing units. We had three or four marshes that did little except slightly alter a Bastiladon’s trajectory to avoid a Khemrian Quicksand death pit. There was a building near the sacred pond and a couple mysterious forests. Some forests we never entered. There was a fungus forest that never made anyone take a Stupidity test and two mysterious forests that turned out to be ordinary.

    (As usual, “left” means MY left not my opponent’s left)

    On my left I had my Cohort Skinks poised to rush to the building because Cohort Skinks really like buildings. Then my opponent put down Skirmishers on my far right. I matched them with my Skirmishers figuring I’d have an edge with javelins and shields. Then he placed his Saurus Warriors and I mirrored him with mine though I placed mine seven wide to maximize frontage if the two units met. Then he placed a Swarm next to his Sauri and I placed my Kroxigor to the left of my Sauri on the opposite side not wanting to waste S7 attacks on Swarms. My opponent then placed the other Swarm near the first one and I put my Scar Veteran in the Sauri and my Skink Priest with the Skirmishers. My opponent placed the Arkadon behind the two Swarms. My opponent did NOT want to place the Ancient Stegadon anywhere near my Kroxigor, so he put the Stegadon to the right of the Bastiladon.

    He put his Chameleon Skinks right near my deployment zone to try to get some easy shots on my cohort, so I chose to place my Chameleon Skinks in my deployment zone (as is an option with Scouts), so I could have a nice charge on them figuring nine Chameleon Skinks could be five. (I was right, but they did not make it easy for me). The two Saurus characters joined the Saurus unit. The Skink Priest went solo hiding behind them.

    He won first turn despite me finishing deployment first (he won table side roll off, first scout deployment, first deployment and first turn).

    His Turn 1

    His Sauri, Bastiladon, and Swarms, and Stegadons all marched forward. His Chameleon Skinks went around my Cohort. His Skirmishers only advanced a little wanting to keep their distance from my Skirmishers.

    He six diced cast his Chain Lightning and I six diced dispelled it.

    The Chameleon Skinks killed two Cohort Skinks. The Blowpipe Skirmishers tried some difficulty 8 shooting on my Skirmishers and unsurprisingly did not hit anything.

    Ark of Sotek did not generate any free Swarms.

    My Turn 1

    My Chameleon Skinks charged the enemy Chameleon Skinks who held their ground not wanting to risk being run down.

    My Sauri and Kroxigor advanced a little, not wanting to try a long shot charge and give my opponent an easy charge next turn. I figured I had a slight ranged edge so delaying combat would be a good idea. My Skink Priest left the Skirmishers and joined the Sauri, so he could cast Wyssans where it was needed most rather than on the perhipery. Then my Skink Skirmishers advanced towards their opposites. My Cohort Skinks had no enemies nearby so I marched towards the building near the sacred pond.

    Curse of Anaheir on the enemy Saurus Warriors was dispelled. I cast Wyssan’s on my Chameleon Skinks successfully. I threw a fireball at one of the Swarms inflicting four wounds.

    My Skirmishers failed to kill an enemy Skirmisher with shooting.

    I outnumbered the enemy Chameleons in the flank with six attacks to their two and I had Wyssans. Somehow I only killed one, he killed two. I still won by a single point. I managed to break them, but my Chameleon’s failed to catch their highly competent mirror foes.

    His Turn Two

    Ancient Stegadon charged my Skirmishers who passed their Terror test. The Stegadon did not make the charge distance and my Stand and Shoot failed to score a hit. The Chameleon Skinks failed to rally and fled some more. The Skirmishers chose not to move and the Saurus and snake brigade barely moved.

    Chain Lightning was cast with IF killing a Kroxigor but the spell failed to jump to my Sauri. The Skink Priest had a damage free miscast because he was near the sacred pool and was enjoying the 4+ Regeneration save immensely.

    The blowpipe Skinks were hitting on 6s now, rather than 8 (with single shot anyway) and they killed one or two of my Skirmishers.

    The Swarm I hit with a Fireball before gained a whole new Swarm.

    My Turn Two

    My Chameleons charged the fleeing Skinks hoping for an easy kill but the enemy rolled an eleven just barely avoiding running off the board. My Saurus Warriors successfully charged the flank of the now exposed Ancient Stegadon. My Skirmishers tried to charge the enemy Skirmishers but they rolled Snake Eyes and one poor guy took a stand and shoot to the face. I knew I was exposing my Saurus Warriors flank so I angled the Kroxigor to make a supporting charge next turn if necessary. My Cohort Skinks marched to within an inch of the building.

    I attempted Curse of Anaheir and it was dispelled. Then I attempted Wyssans and failed the roll.

    I had nothing that could shoot this turn.

    My Sauri inflicted two or three wounds on the Ancient Stegadon and lost about five members, mostly from the Thunderstomp. I won due to Static CR but the Stubborn dinosaur did not budge. I then reformed my Saururs down to five models because my extra frontage had become more of a liability than asset. The Stegadon failed his attempt to combat reform so I kept my flanking postion.

    His Turn 3

    One Swarms easily charged my Saurus Warriors open flank. The enemy Saurus Warriors charged my Kroxigors and rolled the above average roll they needed. The Chameleon Skinks rallied with their backs towards the side table edge. The Skirmishers saw little reason to move and the Stegadon couldn’t move. The other Swarm march-circled to the back of my Saurus block and the Arkadon positioned itself to throw snakes at me and cover both swarms with its buff effect.

    I dispelled his attempt at Chain Lightning.

    His Skirmishers failed to wound my Skirmishers. His Ark of Sotek failed to achieve the range necessary to hit my Saurus Warriors.

    My Kroxigor Ancient issued a challenge and proceeded to flatten the enemy Saurus champion (no over kill though). I only took two wounds on my Kroxigor and I inflicted four or five casualties on the enemy Sauri. I lost CR due to ranks, banners, and charging. I held without much trouble thanks to my BSB.

    In the other combat, my Saurus brought the Stegadon to its last wound and killed a Jungle Swarm but the Stegadon and swarms inflicted heavy toll on me. A whole Swarm directed all of its attacks to bear on Skink Priest but only inflicted one wound. I think the overall CR was a slight loss for me but I was steadfast with a BSB, so this was little concern for me.

    My opponent got a Swarm back, almost erasing the wounds I inflicted on his Swarms this turn.

    My Turn 3

    My Skirmishers successfully charged the enemy Skirmishers losing another member due to a stand and shoot. My Chameleon Skinks marched right into the face of their surviving opposites. My Cohort Skinks occupied the building.

    Magic phase was a bust.

    My Cohort Skinks ensconced in the building rained javelins down on the enemy Skink Priest killing him despite his Regeneration save. My Chameleon Skinks killed one of the enemy Chameleon Skinks (without double tapping naturally). The remaining three proceeded to panic off the table. It took me three turns to kill a Chameleon Skink unit I outnumbered two-to-one and had a superior position to. Now my Chameleon Skinks were a long distance away from the nearest enemy unit.

    My Kroxigor Ancient issued another challenge. He got very good rolls and managed to kill the Saurus Oldblood only taking one wound in return. My other Kroxigor did well, inspired by his example. I won CR, but the steadfast enemy Saurus Warriors held. In my other combat, I failed to kill the Stegadon but the enemy didn’t do very good at killing me either. I managed to nearly kill the enemy Swarm unit thanks to “squish.” The Skirmisher fight was a draw. My superior equipment was neutralized by superior dice rolling.

    His Turn 4

    The other Swarm charged my Sauri in the back. The Arkadon charged my Saurus warriors. The enemy Saurus warriors quick reformed and walked towards the center to try to get back to an enemy to kill.

    The Ark of Sotek killed one of my Saurus Warriors by flinging snakes at me.

    My Skirmishers finally managed to win with their superior saving throws. They routed and ran down the enemy Skirmishers. My Kroxigor Ancient issued another challenge but the enemy BSB cut him down with overkill. My rank and file Kroxigor were disheartened by this and rolled very poorly. They lost combat by a fair margin, were outside of BSB range and were run down by the enemy Saurus (though fortunately for me, the enemy Sauri were now pulled WAY out of position). My other combat was either a draw or close to it. I killed off one of the Swarm units entirely and put a wound on the Arkadon, but I didn’t have a lot of Sauri left and.

    The Ark of Sotek failed to generate a free Swarm base.

    My Turn 4

    My Chameleon Skinks and Skink Skirmishers both had vanquished their opposites, but now were in separate isolated corners. I marched them both towards the table center. My Cohort Skinks had no more reason to garrison the building, so they exited out the opposite side they entered in order to claim the sacred pond.

    I cast Curse of Anaheir with Irresistible Force on the enemy Saurus Warriors. Since he was already wounded from fighting the Swarms, Magical Feedback was enough to kill him dead.

    My Cohort Skinks and Chameleon Skinks took some potshots at the enemy Saurus Warriors but didn’t come close to inflicting a wound.

    I concentrated my Saurus warriors’ attacks on the Swarms to maximize CR. Squish killed the remaining Swarms and my Saurus Warriors were able to run down the non-Stubborn Bastiladon. Note I only had four or five Sauri left at this point and the enemy Saurus block had ten or eleven.

    His Turn 5

    The Saurus Warriors charged my Cohort who killed one of them with a stand and shoot. The Sauri lost another two or three models from Curse of Anaheir generated dangerous terrain tests. I like that spell better than Wyssans.

    There was no magic or shooting.

    The BSB flattened my Skink Brave into the ground in a challenge. The Saurus Warriors won, but not by much. I had more ranks for one thing. For another thing, the sacred pond was very nice to me this turn and my Regeneration saves drastically reduced my casualties. The enemy Sauri only had the BSB, standard bearer and musician left. My Skinks were steadfast but they broke anyway. The Saurus failed to catch them, but gained possession of the Sacred Pond.

    My Turn 5

    My Skink Skirmishers and Chameleon Skinks closed into shooting range of the enemy Sauri. My remaining Sauri pointed towards the remaining enemy as well. My Cohort rallied.

    There was no magic phase as there was no longer any Skink Priests.

    Shooting saw the last of the rank and file die, but his badass BSB survived.

    We decided the BSB deserved to live so we didn’t play out turn six.

    I got 1274 victory points. My opponent got 685 or 785 depending on how you value the sacred pond.

    After Battle Thoughts

    This new guy I met was a lot of fun. Hopefully there will be more and bigger civil war matchups in our future.

    Most of my Theoryhammer on LM vs. LM seemed correct. Saurus Warriors are the king of LM vs. LM melees much as I suspected they would. Javelin Skinks outperformed blowpipe Skinks much as I suspected they would. Despite being edged out in melee combat a bit early on, I was able to make up for this short coming by controlling the Skirmisher side of things, again not surprising. Also as I theorized, a Stegadon without impact hits will not be able to beat a Saurus block.

    The Arkadon and Swarms did not meet my expectations however. I expected them to do better. In hindsight, I don't think the "they're everywhere" rule helps us out much if you aren't bestowing poisoned attacks on Saurus Warriors or Temple Guard. You really need the double attack profile and the Predatory Fighter to get enough poisoned hits to be worth it.
     

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