Lizardmen vs Chaos Legions 2k, Full End Time Rules (Magic)

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mcmulligan
Posts: 132
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2014 10:21 pm

Lizardmen vs Chaos Legions 2k, Full End Time Rules (Magic)

#1 Post by mcmulligan »

Just wrapped up a game with a friend, full End Times rules, including both of our first game with the End Times magic rules.

We decided to do 2k, because we knew that the new magic phase would take longer (turns out this wasn't an issue...) Neither of our lists were "hard". He had a couple tough, standard elements. Mine was pretty far from standard, and plenty of sub optimal choices.

We rolled up a standard Battle Line for the scenario. Terrain was there, but played a small role.

My List:

Slann, Wandering Deliberations (sig from all lores, in the End Times, that means I knew every single BRB spell and end times spell), Harmonic Convergence (3 channel attempts), Channeling Staff (channel on a 5 or 6), BSB, Standard of Discipline (LD 10), General

Skink Priest, Dispel Scroll, Lvl 1 Heavens
Skink Priest, Cube of Darkness (another dispel scroll on a 2+, and instantly ends all remains in play spells), Lvl 1 Beasts

28 Saurus Warriors, Spears, Full Command
17 Skinks, full command
10 Skink Skirmishers, javelins
10 Skink Skirmishers, javelins

18 Temple Guard, full command, Razor Banner
Bastiladon, Solar Engine
6 Kroxigor

Pretty weird list. No combat characters at all. I figured I could use magic to make any unit I wanted a heavy hitter, so no need to invest in a character. Also, I had the Kroxigor to do some heavy swinging too. I was pretty confident I would have a massive advantage in magic. My skinks wouldn't really have any targets, but hey, you never know with skinks.

Chaos Legions

Daemon Prince, Lvl 4 Lore of Nurgle, 1+, Sword of Striking
Bray Shaman, Lvl 2 Lore of Beasts, dispel scroll
BSB, Beastman, 1+

26 Warriors, Extra Hand Weapons, I think mark of Khorne
3 Beasts of Nurgle
4 Skull Crushers

Small list. Standard heavy hitters in the DP and Skull Crushers. Beasts are pretty common too. The warriors are different, but he gave them the banner of swiftness, so they could move a bit quicker.

Terrain, the only thing that mattered was that the tower in the Southwest was a Wizard Tower, and that only mattered because of the End Times rule that any Arcane Architecture or Mystical Monument gets the Lodestone rule, which grants +2 to channeling attempts (you can guess where this is headed), and the river which was a boiling one, and managed to kill 1 or 2 chaos warriors.

Deployment:

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I obviously had him out dropped, and he decided to deploy centrally since he wasn't going to dictate matchups any other way than pure aggression. Which was what his list is designed for anyway. Tie up a flank with the beasts, and hammer home with skull crushers and warriors. The river was going to prevent him marching on the first turn, which was a boon to me (he picked that side, I think to avoid a lot of the walls that got placed).

He did indeed get first turn, and the End Times were on.

Chaos Legions Turn 1

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He moves up as much as he can, but keeps the DP close to his troops.

Magic is 18-12 for him after channeling. In the turn, he manages to boost the toughness on every single one of his units, except his DP. Also his winds roll results in everything getting +1 to their ward save. The warriors are at T7, the Beasts at T7, and the Crushers at T8. I didn't want to use any scrolls yet, and since I didn't have any shooting or a plan to get in combat next round, I didn't mind all of the toughness boosts, although it would limit damage I could do with magic in my turn.

Lizardmen Turn 1

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I move up, getting the Slann close to the tower (not close enough for the boost to channeling). I keep my centre pretty static.

Magic is 18-11 for me. I get his scroll on searing doom on his crushers. I get 3 castings of the Bastiladon's bound spell off, and do 3 wounds to the beasts of nurgle and remove their regen (flaming). He dispels the rest of my magic missiles though, and I don't get any other wounds through. I also get the Metal End Times Spell off on my TG, so they have a 2++ until my next turn.

Chaos Legions Turn 2

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Attempts to charge my Kroxigor with his skull crushers, needs a 10 and fails to make it, moves up 6 inches. Flies his DP up to block my Krox from charging the crushers. Advances his other units.

Magic is 14-10 for him. He gets Wyssan's on his crushers, I manage to dispel it on the DP. He gets the Beasts regen up to a 3++, and that's it. I end the phase with 6 dispel dice sitting in my hand. Unfortunately I kept rolling 1 or 2 for the number of dice I could use to dispel. The only successful attempt to dispel I had was when I rolled 2 dice for Wyssan's the second time, and managed to get exactly the total I needed (14, rolled 2 5s).

Lizardmen Turn 2

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I charge across the board. TG into the beasts, Saurus at the Skull Crushers (fails), and Krox into the DP.

Magic is 21-12 for me after channels. He dispels flaming sword on the TG. I get Final Transmutation on his warriors, killing his Bray Shaman, his Champion, and 10 other warriors. I wither his DP, reducing his strength by 3 (down to 3). I buff my Krox to WS 10 and I10 (that doesn't really matter, they're ASL anyway). He dispels Harmonic Convergence on the DP as well. I fail to cast the Metal End Times Spell on 2 dice, targeted at the Krox. Wyssan's also get's dispelled.

Combat, my TG manage 1 wound through the ridiculous regen, which finishes off 1 beast, leaving only 2 to strike back. I got to swing first due to my I2 TG being boosted by +1 I thanks to the nearby Bastiladon. He swung back and killed 1 TG. With combat res, he crumbled down to 1 beast left with a wound on it.

Against the DP, he used his breath weapon, doing 2 wounds. With his attacks, he managed nothing. The strength debuff really hurt him. I swung back and did 11 wounds. He saved all but exactly enough to kill him. I reformed to face the crushers.

Just like that, he was out of spell casters, and pretty much out of hope.

Chaos Legions Turn 3

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He charges the warriors into the Krox and the crushers into the saurus. Winds allow him to again have his ward up to a 4++, but only the beasts are left with a ward.

In combat, my TG finish off the beasts and reform to face the crusher/saurus combat.

The Kroxigor lose 3 of their number to the warriors before I get to swing. On return, I allocate one model against the BSB, and kill him. The other 2 kroxigor kill 4 warriors. Stomps kill another one. But I've still lost by a bunch, and get run down by the warriors.

In the crusher saurus combat, I kill 1 crusher and kill another, while he kills 14 saurus warriors. I lose, but test on steadfast, re-rollable, cold blooded ld 10.

Lizardmen Turn 3

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My opponent concedes the game. Even without magic, he's about to get smashed by temple guard in the rear of his crushers, maybe a bastiladon in the flank too.

Big win for the lizardmen. He scored exactly 300 points for the kroxigor, and I was going to get the table plus bonus for general and bsb.
mcmulligan
Posts: 132
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2014 10:21 pm

Re: Lizardmen vs Chaos Legions 2k, Full End Time Rules (Magi

#2 Post by mcmulligan »

My thoughts on the End Times magic....

Knowing all of the spells in the lore I view as a positive. It gives greater utility to low level wizards. Rerolls for a loremaster is a solid bonus.

The 4d6 is too much. Granted I had around 60 spells to choose from, but a normal army will have maybe 10-20, and that many dice just encourages you to pick a spell and keep spamming it. And that's the most broken part of the new magic. Continuously being able to cast one spell over and over is ridiculous. There are plenty of VERY good spells that are reliably cast on 2 dice by a level 4, and you have a 87% chance to get at least 2 available to cast. Think of spamming Pha's or Harmonic Convergence. You can render the entire enemy army useless. The metal end time spell is VERY good, and pretty cheap at only 15+. Final Transmutation was also well in reach for a lvl 4, and I cast it on 3 dice. We played that if you dispelled the spell, you couldn't cast it again, but technically, that's not the rule, and as long as you met the casting value, you could have still kept casting.

I actually liked the d6 to determine how many dice you could use to cast and dispel. And the limit on high cast value spells, one shot and you're done.

I think High Magic is going to be very strong, because Drain Magic is going to be super powerful. For High Elves, you can spread a couple lvl 2 high mages around, and spam that spell, basically neutering the enemy's buffing and hexing ability, while simultaneously spreading ward saves around your army.

Arcane fulcrums are broken. Especially for certain characters. I didn't bother to summon one, since I wanted my slann in the TG and the Wizard Tower was going to get me my bonus to channel anyway.
Loremaster Avarael
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 1:33 am

Re: Lizardmen vs Chaos Legions 2k, Full End Time Rules (Magi

#3 Post by Loremaster Avarael »

Thanks for posting! I always enjoy watching the Chaos filth getting pasted. With access to all of those spells did you ever struggle to choose which spell to use when?
mcmulligan
Posts: 132
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2014 10:21 pm

Re: Lizardmen vs Chaos Legions 2k, Full End Time Rules (Magi

#4 Post by mcmulligan »

Not terribly difficult to choose.

Fortunately, this far into 8th, I'm pretty familiar with all the BRB lores and didn't need to constantly refer back to the book.

Most of the time there were multiple spells that could be chosen, but that would have had essentially the same effect, so just pick one. For instance in the Krox vs DP combat. I decided to lower his DP strength, but I could have also boosted the Krox toughness. I boosted the Krox WS, but could have just as easily lowered his, or given my Krox enchanted blades for +1 to hit. Sometimes it will be clear which spell is the best choice, other times you'll just pick the one with the lowest casting value that gets you close to what you want.

The hardest part was actually choosing whether to know all the BRB lores, or being a loremaster of High magic.
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