This is the sixth and final part of my report of the recent Old World tournament at Arcfest. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Game 6: Drawn Battlelines (Strategic Locations (3))
Daniel Griffin - Lizardmen (Renegades)
- Slann Mage-Priest (Level 4, High Magic, General, Battle Standard Bearer) with Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Ruby Ring of Ruin, Becalming Cogitation
- Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur with Heavy armour, Shield, Blade of Revered Tzunki, Talisman of Protection
- 20 Temple Guard with Halberds, Shields, Heavy armour, Full Command, Sun Standard of Chotec
- 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins, Shields, Light armour, Scouts
- 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins, Shields, Light armour, Scouts
- 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins, Shields, Light armour,
- 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins, Shields, Light armour
- Ancient Stegadon with Giant Bow
- Ancient Stegadon with Giant Blowpipes
In a small field, it was nice to see someone actually giving Lizardmen a run. I know they're not the greatest, but the Renegade pack does help quite a lot with a small number of changes.
Yeah, that Carnosaur... I couldn't fight that. Not with anything in my army. The blade ignores armour and ward saves, and frankly that's just not OK. And that's before the dinosaur starts tearing huge chunks off my relatively squishy dragons... No thank you. To be avoided. The Skinks scouted to try to bait my units toward the not-OK Carnosaur...
There were Skinks all over the place, but the main event was obviously the Slann in the Temple Guard block. They were going to take a bit to crack, but they were also where all the points were.
I put the Silver Helms on the flank, in the hope that their armour would be enough to help them see off Skinks.
I got the first turn, and immediately accepted the bait of the Skinks on the left. They had to go, and charging them was the only way.
That didn't mean we needed to over-commit on the flank, however. My general turned and flew away as fast as his wings would carry him.
It ended badly for the Skinks. Only 2 of them survived the combat, meaning they would need double 1s to rally. Even with cold blooded that was unlikely, so I elected to restrain pursuit. We preferred to admire the big chompy dinosaur from a distance.
On the other flank I had tried to charge the other scouting Skinks with the Archmage (trying to clean up the units and take control of the field early), however I didn't make the distance and they passed their terror test. The Merwyrm and the Silver Helms did hurry along though, looking to close the net.
The Sea Guard stepped forward and managed to shoot a single Skink from the unit nearer the Stegadons, whilst the BSB joined my general in heading toward said dinosaurs.
No gracias. The Carnosaur charged the Dragon Princes, and they bravely ran away. I'd love to blame the terror test, but no - this was my decision.
I don't think I realised javelins could march and shoot, but I discovered they could as the Skinks passed the test to avoid being march blocked, and then flooded through the gap I had left between my units. I had been careless - I could easily have slowed up a little with the Merwyrm to prevent this, but it hadn't occurred to me. You can also forget how fast Skinks are until they start moving.
The other Skinks were scurrying around as well, leaving the Temple Guard looking a little lonely back there.
The Skinks opened up on the Silver Helms, and rather rudely killed half of them. They did a lot of hits and I didn't pass enough saves. Well, 3 Silver Helms should still be enough to deal with the unit in front of them...
OMG, what just happened? We declared a charge, they declared stand and shoot, and somehow 10 of the 12 of them hit on 5+ (half with poison). My ability to pass saving throws was not qualified for this sort of punishment, and suddenly I was left with only my unit champion. That was bad - he couldn't even win the combat now, thanks to the wounds on the unit and the loss of the standard. He did not, in fact, win the combat. He killed one Skink, got pushed back, and they just laughed at him as he went.
The Dragon Princes rallied, reformed in a marching column, and simply left that side of the field. No targets for the Carnosaur. That was good. My Sea Guard charged into the Skinks in the centre, figuring shooting them was too hard.
I decided to see if 2 Nobles on Sun Dragons would be enough muscle to kill an Ancient Stegadon. It turned out the answer was yes. It was just enough.
My BSB carried on into the second Stegadon, but my general elected to restrain and turn to face across the enemy line. The Sea Guard did a pitiful job of fighting the Skinks, killing only 2 of them. It was enough to break them, but of course they were likely to rally. We didn't chase because it would have been inviting the skulking Temple Guard into the centre of my line and into the game.
The flame template was out because the Merwyrm had elected to back up and try its breath weapon on the Skinks. No Skinks were harmed in the making of that template.
In Daniel's turn, the BSB acquitted himself reasonably well against the Stegadon, wounding it and pushing it back. But I restrained from following up and reformed to look away from it, because I had a better option.
You see, there were Temple Guard, and... Well, they weren't looking at my Dragons.
The Skinks had come back to be annoying again, as you'd expect. I was starting to lose some Sea Guard. I think magic might have had a small part to play.
The weird dance going on up the top there was where my last Silver Helm had been standing. It was a bit rude. Anyway, he died. The second unit had started shooting at the Merwyrm, and of course it was hurting. A lot. He was a great target for them.
So in my turn, I decided to pull the trigger on engaging the Temple Guard. the Dragon Princes did the best they could with drilled to get around the Sea Guard, but they didn't have enough movement to wheel any more of them into contact. The BSB went into the flank, but my general had seen the chance to go in "via" the Skinks...
My Archmage was on a different mission, and ensured the Carnosaur was slowed and unable to charge the next turn with Miasmic Mirage. She then insolently flew across in front of him, heading for the wounded Stegadon.
The Skink detour worked well (the Skinks all died), and the Temple Guard were in a spot of bother.
A round of combat saw about half the Temple Guard slain, and the unit giving ground. The Dragons followed, but the Dragon Princes decided their contribution was done, and reformed to look the other way - back toward the Skinks on the flank.
I had managed to shoot a couple of Skinks to death that turn, but it was not likely to be enough to save my poor Merwyrm, who was having a miserable game (but hanging back and keeping the Skinks occupied for the moment).
With the Silver Helms dead, the Skinks now swarmed all over the Merwyrm. He did not survive the experience.
The Carnosaur (who was also having a slightly miserable game at this point) moved up and tried to breathe on my Dragon. Unfortunately Carnosaurs don't actually have a breath weapon, so however unpleasant the experience might have been for my Archmage, it inflicted no wounds.
The Temple Guard resistance was short-lived. The Dragons rolled better on the second round, right as Daniel elected to pull halberds in the hope of actually trying to do some damage (I think he also cast Fury of Khaine to give them extra attacks), but we were still in the flank. The Saurus were wiped out, and the Slann was run down as he tried to float away hurriedly.
The final stages of the game saw the Archmage (aided by the BSB) finishing off the remaining Stegadon. The Dragon Princes reached and crushed both units of Skinks over on the right. The Carnosaur did finally get to charge the Sea Guard, but only got to eat the champion on the first attempt and got shoved back. At that point I think Daniel had had enough, and called it quits. The death of the Slann had really been the end of the contest.
That game had really been a demonstration of the greater mobility of multiple Dragons kind of controlling the battle. I didn't handle my right flank very well, but the rest of it had gone very smoothly.
Result: 1811 / 719 Win
In the end I think I finished just in the top half of the small field. I had won 3 games and lost 3, but the losses had all felt like I was in the game, which is all you can really ask for. My army list had been a bit silly and my play had involved a lot of avoidance of threats I couldn't really deal with, but it had generally gone OK. The Merwyrm had unfortunately not had a great time of it. Being the only one wandering along on foot and lacking proper saves had definitely taken its toll. Overall though, it had been a fun experience.
Thank you to the organisers, all my opponents, and thank you for reading!
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