Alrighty, here comes number two from last week!
So the context of this battle: I asked last week what people thought would be the toughest opponents for this particular setup. One of the responses (I think it was Dabber) was a well rounded Lizardmen list with a Lore of Light Slann. I happen to know quite a few Lizardmen players, so I set up a game with one of them. I say to him "Write a well rounded list with a Lore of Light Slann". Naturally, he assumes it's a trap, and this is the list he comes up with:
Lizardmen
Slann, Focused Rumination, Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, BSB (Lore of Fire)
Skink Priest, Dispel Scroll (Chain Lightning)
30 x Skink Cohort w/ 2 Kroxigors
30 x Skink Cohort w/ 2 Kroxigors
11 x Saurus Warriors, Full Command
10 x Skink Skirmishers, blowpipes
10 x Skink Skirmishers, blowpipes
6 x Chameleon Skinks
2 x Salamanders
2 x Salamanders
Stegadon
Stegadon
Ancient Stegadon
Ok, not quite what I was after, but some scary stuff nonetheless. Serious target saturation for my Banishments and a Slann throwing fireballs at my vulnerable T3 troops.
Also interesting, for whatever reason in this game we managed to draw a bit of a crowd, all of which seemed to be rooting against me. I had to explain plenty of rules, including: Why I get to double up on Banishment, why Banishment was S7, why Pha's protection effects stacked, and on and on. My opponent is a friend of mine, so he just laughed and took a bathroom break while I had to look things up for people in the rulebook lol.
For my spells, I get the following:
Archmage: Pha's, Net, Banishment, Timewarp
Level 2: Banishment, Pha's
Level 1: Light of Battle
Noble: Shem's Burning Gaze
Deployment
Well that's certainly an interesting looking army on the field. With enough impact hits, blowpipes and firey breath to raze my army before I could even do anything, I had to be very careful with deployment. When he dropped a unit of salamanders behind the rock, this was the point where I decided to commit more heavily to the Western front - I could use a combination of Pha's protection and two unit's charge arcs to deter the salamanders from exchanging a good firey breath shot for providing me a great launching pad into what I could only assume was going to be the Slann's bunker behind (11 Saurus). Ethereal doesn't matter much with S7 banishment flying around!
His glut of drops really gave me trouble this deployment phase, as I ended up having to make some tactical decisions before him. With that, I focused around deploying centrally, with a very modest refused flank in the form of all my heavy hitters in the West.
We roll off for first turn, and with my oft-sought-but-rarely-achieved +1 to my roll, I take the first turn.
Turn 1, High Elves
I fly the Western eagle up and together with the two units of swordmasters, I create a huge area that the skink skirmishers cannot approach within - between the charge arcs of the two swordmaster units and the eagle, the skinks would have difficulty positioning themselves without surrendering a charge or overrun to one of those units.
The Eastern Eagle and Dragon Princes move up (even with a 2+ save, I could see him drooling at the opportunity to blast 32 poisoned shots at my princes) to threaten the salamander advance and the easternmost archers reform to face the chameleon skinks.
In the center, the swordmasters are just out of optimal range for the salamanders, and I can tell he doesn't like the idea of me banishing them very much.
Magic is 8 v 5 - True to form, I begin with a 2 dice pha's (single target) on the Western swordmasters - they're under imminent threat from those salamanders, and I'd very much like for them to neutralize that threat. He dispels this with 2 dice of his own. I then go for a 3 dice banishment on his stegadon, which he dispels with his remaining dice, and another 3 dice banishment which he scrolls.
Shooting I manage to kill a chameleon skink and a Saurus Warrior, so we move right along to his turn.
Turn 1, Lizardmen
The western salamanders move up full distance to generate a long, but still possible shot on the swordmasters.
The skink trap in the West works, and he moves up *very* modestly, with him vocalizing exactly what I was trying to create ("there's really no safe spot for these guys... If I put them there I can see you leapfrogging into my units which would be really bad").
His Slann's unit moves up into Cogitation range, and the stegadons stay put for some bolt thrower shots (I screwed up which stegadon goes where, the ancient is in the East). His Eastern Skink cohort moves up very aggressively to force the hand of the Dragon Princes, and the middle salamanders don't want to risk a charge by getting into position to shoot the swordmasters.
Magic is 4 v 5 (thank you annullian crystal and 4 attempts to channel
) - He throws all 4+1 at a full powered fireball on my swordmasters, but I manage to dispel it by just matching it with the high elf +1 to dispel. Phew.
Shooting sees him short with one salamander shot, and kill one swordmaster with the other, just nicking the unit. The bolt throwers all miss, and the chameleon skinks fail to wound the Dragon Princes.
Turn 2, High Elves
I charge my Dragon Princes into his cohort with a sigh - forgot those guys have Movement 6 - and I position the eagle in the bottleneck to avoid any salamander nonsense. The spears move up to clean up the mess that the Dragon Princes are going to make, and my swordmasters move up to threaten charges, but still make for long charges on his behalf.
My Western great eagle positions 1" in front of his salamanders (I got the angle wrong, a shuffle sideways wouldn't have provided a shot on my swordmasters).
The archmage pops out of the unit of white lions to avoid cogitation, and the lions advance to threaten any aggressive movement or failed charges by the stegadons/Slann unit - not that he was going to charge with the Slann bunker.
Magic is 11 v 8 (Boxcars for channeling on his behalf) - I start off with a bubble Pha's (3 dice) to protect against the inevitable salamander bombardment. He allows this. My next spell is a Banishment from my level 2 on 4 dice, which goes off irresistably on his stegadon - when the dust settles, a skink is killed from the howdah and a wound was done to the stegadon (only 5 hits), and the miscast drains me of 1 dice and kills 3 archers + a wound on my mage. I then throw the remaining 3 at another banishment, but he uses his remaining dispel dice to dispel it.
In shooting, I kill another 2 chameleon skinks, and another Saurus Warrior.
Combat sees the Dragon Princes kill 11 of the skinks (hey what do you know, horses can actually do something vs skinks!), and lose 2 of their numbers due to the high strength attacks of the Kroxigors. The skinks hold on steadfast.
Turn 2, Lizardmen
With few options, his Western salamanders charge the great eagle, and the skink skirmishers move out of the way of the skink cohort.
His stegadons declare charges on my swordmasters, however I flee the second one, resulting in a failed charge for both. His eastern salamanders move up near my eagleand the western ones charge their eagle. The Ancient Stegadon moves up to threaten charges on anything that moves up in the wake of the Dragon Princes.
The Slann's unit backs up to avoid the incoming elites and I think he forgets about his eastern skinks here.
Magic is 3 v 4 and he once again throws it all at a powered up fireball. This time I fail to meet his value, and he rolls his hits on the swordmasters, giving him 10 total. Out of those 10, he gets a whopping 9 wounds, and I fail to save any of them. This leaves me with 5 swordmasters, who thankfully pass their panic test.
With shooting, he sneakily aims a shot "at the eagle", but the flames soar right over and hit my spearmen, since pha's is only applicable if the unit is targetted. 11 casualties later, I learn another lesson about another one of my limitations.
In combat, we start with the Dragon Prince combat, who naturally get decimated. His unit, however, isn't in great shape either.
My eagle manages a wound on his salamanders, and he fluffs all of his attacks resulting in a tie.
Turn 3, High Elves
I advance centrally, bearing down on the slann's bunker, and my great eagle swoops Westward to position itself to block both stegadons.
My fleeing swordmasters rally, and my spears charge his cohort, who opt to flee (with good reason, this was also a bad matchup with my S3 versus his T2).
Magic is 11 v 6, and things get interesting. The crow gathered around us at this point starts talking about all of the things that his Eastern salamanders can do in his next turn, so I start off by throwing 3 dice at a banishment from my level 2. It's not pictured here, but I squished my mages to the right side of the unit in order to track line of sight. Regardless, he dispels this one with 3 of his own dice. I then follow up with a 4 dice Banishment using my Archmage, leaving him hoping for double 6's. He doesn't get them, and 10 hits later his salamanders are nothing but a charred hole in the ground. (queue questions about how I double up spells and how I achieve S7 - or in this case 6)
With the imminent threats dealt with, and no immediate charges demanding my attention, I put a Net of Amyntok on his slann's unit - I'll take a 1/3 chance to not have to deal with another one of those fireballs lol.
Shooting I manage to kill all but one of the chameleon skinks and fail to do any wounds with the Western Archers.
In combat, the Western eagle manages a wound, and the salamanders do a wound in return. Once again, they tie combat.
Turn 3, Lizardmen
His Stegadon Ancient charges my spearmen, and the Western one closest to my troops charges my eagle. The slann leaves the unit of Saurus Warriors (despite me reminding him of banishment), and the Warriors move up to distract my troops. He turns his skinks in the Eastern forest to rain down blowpipe shots on my spears should the charge from the stegadon fail.
He rolls for his net during the magic phase, and fails his attempt to cast spells. Now, I'd really appreciate it if somebody could fill me in on the rules here for a character leaving a unit that is hexed. It's a bit ambiguous, and we couldn't really figure it out at the time. We decided to 4+ it, with the roll determining that the character remains effected.
In shooting, his javelins and blowpipes manage to kill 3 swordmasters, and his stegadon misses his flank shot on my swordmasters.
Combat sees him finally kill my eagle, and the stegadon whiff its attacks with only a thunderstomp providing 3 wounds. The volume of attacks from the spears results in 2 wounds on the stegadon, causing him to lose combat. He fails his stubborn test, but I fail to catch him.
Turn 4, High Elves
With his Slann becoming ever more vulnerable, I charge my swordmasters at his remaining saurus warriors, who opt to flee. The swordmasters move up 4", which is enough to allow my previously declared charge of my white lions on his stegadon. He has to hold due to being immune to psychology. My other unit of swordmasters charge his cohort, amongst onlookers telling my opponent to "not feed the woodchipper". I lol inside.
My spears charge his stegadon again, not expecting to catch it, but lo and behold I do. I had expected to just shoo it closer to the board edge, but now I'm in a bad spot, ready to take a horrible flank charge.
Magic is 7 v 3 - I get it wrong in this picture. This phase sees me start with a 4 dice banishment, which he fails to dispel. His slann dies a gruesome death, and with my remaining dice I put up a pha's bubble to help in the multiple combats.
Combat sees the White Lions + BSB able to kill the stegadon, and they overrun into the next one. The western swordmasters, now with only 8 left still manage to make their presence known by killing 12 skinks, and taking only 2 casualties in return.
Turn 4, Lizardmen
His salamanders move up for a final shot on my mage bunker, and his cohort charges my spearmen.
Magic is a wash because the slann is dead (again, I got the picture wrong)
Both of his salamander shots get blocked by Pha's protection, so we move to combat.
Combat sees me take out enough of the skinks in the west that they break from combat, only managing to kill one swordmaster in return. I pursue into the salamanders. Predictably, he blasts through my spearmen and catches them when they flee. I do, however, manage to kill the next stegadon with my White Lions/BSB.
Turn 5, High Elves
We basically clean things up at this point - the swordmasters kill the salamanders and my elites charge and kill his saurus unit.
The end result is a massacre for the high elves!
I'm pretty tired tonight, so I'll leave the report with you guys tonight and post my after battle thoughts tomorrow.
As always, thanks for reading!
D