Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 2

This post is part 2 of my account of a recent tournament. You can find part 1 here.

Game 2: Blood and Glory

Corey Leslie, Lizardmen

My Boast: Breakthrough (have a unit into the enemy's deployment zone at game's end)

• Slann Mage Priest (Level 4, High Magic) with Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, BSB, Standard of Discipline
• Saurus Oldblood with Crown of Command, Light Armour, Great Weapon
• 40 Saurus Warriors with Spears, Full Command
• 26 Temple Guard with Full Command
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 3 Kroxigor
• Bastiladon with Solar Engine
• 5 Chameleons
• 5 Chameleons

Comp score: 5

This match-up worried me slightly with the magical prowess of the Slann, and at least one unit I couldn't face. With the Oldblood at their head, those Saurus could take my entire army...

This is me almost remembering to take photos before the game began...

On the left flank, we have the regular Ogres all by themselves. They are bait, really. Or at the very best, a distraction.

And on the right flank, the Sabretusks find themselves facing numerous Chameleon Skinks.

I wasn't really sure how to approach the game, and ended up putting the unit of Ogre Bulls off to my left flank in the hope of distracting or delaying the enormous Saurus unit. The Sabretusks went way off to my right, on the other side of a big rocky thing near my deployment zone. Both units of Chameleons blocked their path, preventing me from really considering a vanguard move.

The Chameleons close in, brandishing their blowpipes.

A wave of Skinks advances across the field to take pot shots at my units. Blood and Glory put them close enough to do it comfortably.

My units wait patiently before they respond.

Ow, that hurts! Next time we bring armour.

Corey got the first turn and was pretty cautious, although the Skinks moved up pretty fast. Most of their shooting was unexciting, although the Hunter took a wound, and his Sabretusks took 3 more. The Slann threw Fiery Convocation on my Mournfangs, and did a wound.

Revenge! Shoot those things at us, will you?

Destruction of Skinks is the order of the day. Excessive force has been authorised.

My lines advancing.

Those same lines after pursuit and overrun moves.

In my turn I got to cleaning the junk out of the way. The Sabretusks charged the Chameleons nearest the rock and wiped them out, hoping to panic the other unit off the table. Unfortunately they passed their Leadership test, and now they were behind my unit as the Sabretusks overran. They were joined by the flying Tyrant and Mournfangs, as they each crushed a unit of Skinks and swept on through. The Mournfangs went far enough that the Temple Guard couldn't see their flank – a low roll would probably have left them needing to flee a charge. I still lost a Mournfang to the combined efforts of the Skinks and Fiery Convocation, which I forgot was in play (we should have put the card down).

Breakthrough, eh? We got this!

The Leadbelchers and Firebelly both tried fairly ineffectually to damage the Kroxigor, and the Ironblaster fired at the Bastiladon, wounding it.

In his turn, Corey continued to just hold the line with his Saurus blocks and Kroxigor, although the latter waddled forward a little to show off their aquatic skills in the swamp. The Temple Guard backed away a little in order to face the forces approaching from their left. The Chameleons started to chase my Sabretusks, shooting darts at them as they came. Magic was largely forgettable, although Fiery Convocation had been swapped for Final Transmutation the previous turn, so there was a new great menace I had to watch for.

I was pretty happy with the passive approach of the enemy units, given that I would have been in real trouble had they swarmed across the table toward me. I responded by charging the Kroxigor with my Ironguts. If they broke through, they were in line to run into the flank of the Temple Guard, out of sight of the other Saurus. It was a good plan. 

Duel of the great weapon-wielding big guys. I might have had weight of numbers on my side.

Look at that lovely exposed flank! Need to make sure I wipe the Kroxigor out, though. Can't be pursuing survivors in the wrong direction.

I did indeed smash and destroy the Kroxigor, however I failed to make the 5” I needed to reach the Temple Guard. Curses! The rest of my forces in the area had begun circling the unit, expecting it to be pinned in place. I think I failed to dispel Fiery Convocation because I rolled too few dice in the magic phase. I did cannon off the Bastiladon, however.

How could you not make it? What am I paying you for? The best of plans...

The Temple Guard spun on the spot again to face the threat of the Ironguts, whilst the enormous Saurus horde shifted its facing a bit to look at their rear. Corey rolled an enormous magic phase, and we began a dance as he tried to suck out my dice so he could cast Walk Between Worlds and get his Temple Guard out of the trap they were in. I let Hand of Glory off on the Saurus Warriors (big deal), and had to allow Final Transmutation on my Ironguts. Thankfully my Firebelly and BSB survived, although 2 of the Ironguts were less fortunate. Finally Corey had too few dice left to force Walk Between Worlds through my defences, and the Temple Guard were trapped.

The Saurus Warriors decide they should be paying attention to what's going on next to them.

But I have my own forces lurking in the background!

Those Chameleon Skinks just won't leave me alone.

Final Transmutation culls my numbers a little.

I managed to pass all the Stupidity tests for a couple of my Ogres having been turned to gold, and charged the Temple Guard with the Ironguts in the front, the Tyrant and sole remaining Mournfang in the flank, and what was left of the Sabretusks in the rear (they'd been shot a bit). My Ogre Bulls moved to block the wheel of the Saurus Warriors, selling their lives in order to keep the Temple Guard isolated. The Ironblaster turned and fired at a slightly bizarre target – the Chameleons behind my Sabretusks were running in a single line, and I decided to try my luck. In a great display of cannon-shooting skill, they were wiped out by a single shot. Problem solved!

Everybody in! No prisoners!

There's no kill like overkill...

My Ogre Bulls takes one for the team and block the wheel of the enormous regiment of Saurus. The Leadbelchers offer moral support and shoot maybe 1 of them.

The combat was a bit messy, and all my units apart from the Tyrant took significant damage. The Hunter had his remaining 3 wounds hacked off by just 2 of the enemy warriors! Despite that, I killed about half the unit and won the round, although at Stubborn Ld 10, they were never going anywhere.

The Slann and his buddies are a little besieged. 

Corey started his 4^th turn by announcing his new Grand Plan – the Slann would drop himself down a hole, and take all my stuff with him! I could only congratulate him on the simple brutality of his plan, not realising that he somehow had the dice-fu to pull it off! Throwing 6 dice at Hand of Glory on the Saurus (who had indeed charged my sacrificial Ogres), the Slann rolled a 3 on the miscast table, and the blast from the resulting Dimensional Cascade obliterated most of the things in the area. A Sabretusk and my remaining Mournfang were felled, as was my Firebelly. 

Cop this, muggles!

Corey rejoices at the devious destructiveness of his Master Plan.

Only 2 of the dozen or so Temple Guard survived, and then the froggy himself vanished down the hole by failing his 4+. After they had recovered from the shock, my remaining models quickly disposed of the remains of the Temple Guard unit.

Corey suddenly remembers it is a bad thing that his Slann and all the Temple Guard are dead.

The Saurus Warriors made predictably short work of my Ogre Bulls, hacking down most of them before running down the survivors as they broke.

The magically-enhanced Saurus charge the completely non-enhanced Ogres.

It goes about as well as you would expect.

But then it was time to call it quits.

At this point it was apparent to us both that I couldn't possibly deal with Corey's remaining unit, and it in turn would not be able to catch any of my surviving units. So it was time to call the game over. I had achieved my boast of getting units into the enemy deployment zone, and whatever Corey had chosen (maybe it was Bodyguard), he had failed to fulfil it. I had also broken his army for the Blood and Glory points. So bonus points for me! The boasts turned a 15-1 into a 19-1, and then comp was applied. I felt like I had dodged a bullet a bit with this match-up. If Corey had been more pro-active in bringing his Saurus and Temple Guard to bear and used his Skinks to divert or delay some of my better elements (rather than letting me charge and kill them in turn 1), things would have been very different.

Result: 19-1 (21-0 after comp)

2 games and 2 solid wins. It was not a bad start to the tournament.

You can find game 3 here.