New Lizardmen vs. Daemons of Chaos, 2000 pts

[Justin&theOldOnes]

Nice tight game right down to the end, hope you enjoy!



Deployment

Demons, left to right: 5 Flesh Hounds, 4 Flamers, 29 Horrors (don’t be fooled, it’s a huge unit) + Herald, 10 Horrors, 5 Furies, 10 Horrors with the Bloodthirster behind, 5 more Flesh Hounds, and 5 proxied Seekers of Slaanesh with standard (I wonder which one?!)

Lizards, left to right: 18 Saurus spears full command, with Scar-Veteran on foot (Piranha Blade + Enchanted Shield) and mounted Scar-Vet BSB (Plaque of Dominion!), 20 Saurus HW, full command, with Carnosaur Lord in unit (Sword of Battle, Shield of the Mirrored Pool, Bane Head on Thirster, Glyph Necklace), 3 Terradons behind spears, Skink Priest (L2, Diadem) behind the other unit, 13 Skinks with blowpipes, 3 Krox behind them, off-camera to the extreme right are 10 Skinks with blowpipes, and a unit of 11 Cohorts with a Krox behind them. Oh yeah and 5 Chameleons in the ‘forest’, as you can see.




Turn 1

OK so off we go, even though my opponent won the roll, he let me go first. I was happy to just to store dice in the Diadem. Right off the bat my strategy was to stall the threatening puppies on the flanks, they scared me lots. Chameleons stay put, Terradons move to the left to eventually harass the left dogs, and the three Krox wheel left to deal with the threat also. On the right flank, I stall and the skirmishers and cohorts simply stay put. In the center, my spear unit’s mounted BSB fails stupidity, which hurts because of the Plaque of Dominion that I want to get into range of his Horrors ASAP. The Saurus block to their right advances at a slightly faster pace.

His turn, Methrin advances the cavalry on the flanks menacingly, flamers inch forward but I think don’t shoot. BT also jockeys into position. Furies roost on top of the tower. Magic is ineffective, perhaps killing a skink or two, after his initial Flickering Fire is bounced back by the Mirror Shield onto a unit of 10 Horrors, killing three.
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For the Old Ones!

[Justin&theOldOnes]

Turn 2

Lots happens on the left flank. My 5 Chameleons heroically sacrifice themelves, getting in the face of the Khorne dog and forcing a redirect away from my spears’ juicy flank. Terradons do a drop rocks on them also, causing a single measly wound. In the center my Saurus line advances, getting my sweet Plaque of Dominion in range. On the right flank (almost off-screen), my throwaway Cohort unit stalls. Side note: I had wanted to do a “slide” 3 inches backwards (About face, move 3”, about face), but then we remembered that mixed units specifically cannot do that! This sucks! Also, my alone and very scared Diadem jockey is hustling for the relative safety of the bottom left corner (I never know what to do with this guy! Engine of the Gods perhaps??).

In the Daemon turn, the big Level 3 unit of Horrors with the Herald fail their stupidity test, which is awesome. The BT swoops in menacingly looking at both my Saurus units’ flanks. Eeek. Furies swoop down to envelop my small unit of blowpipes, an effective move I admit. On the right flank Khorne dogs hesitate to charge, but not on the left. They charge the poor chameleons who get rightfully eaten, and the stratagem pays off as the overrun leaves them a (perhaps too-close) ONE inch away from the Krox. The flamers go flame the 3 terradons off-screen left, killing one and panicking them off the board.
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For the Old Ones!

[Justin&theOldOnes]

Turn 3

Evasive maneuvers. Both Saurus blocks turn to face the Bloodthrister, preventing what could be a game-deciding flank charge. The spears happen to be safe from the big block of Horrors, due to their barely clipping the forest if they decide to charge. The Oldblood makes a move and charges out to the right into a small Horror unit’s flank, popping them after two turns. My three Krox charge the doggies, popping them after two turns also. Skinks put a poison wound on the Bloodthrister, who it is revealed has Armor of Khorne…hm…

In the Daemon turn, the small Horror unit next to the big one fail their stupidity test. I think I have a new favorite magic item! The Bloodthirster repositions himself with a lot of options (Krox and both Saurus units). On the right, the cohorts are finally charged by the dogs, who eat them up, overrun, but do not go off the board, just an inch shy. This panics the skinks ‘enveloped’ by the furies, who run into their encirclers and die an embarrassing death. The unit of Seekers (represented here by primed Tomb King light cavalry) reveal their Icon of You-Can-Only-Hold-As-A-Charge-Reaction on the bigger unit of skinks, who are beaten in CC, but outrun their pursuers when the Seekers only roll a THREE for pursuit! Magic is once again ineffective, perhaps killing some Saurus, and the flamers who had moved into the spears’ flank perhaps roast a few as well.




Turn 4

I didn’t like it, but my now-frenzied Carnosaur had to charge the 5 damn furies barely in his arc of sight. They have to hold, are popped, I overrun off the board and represent his position with 4 dice in a square, not wanting my very metal army centerpiece on the edge of the table! Saurus units realize, hell, the BT is charging one of us next turn, let’s make a bid for the big Horror block after all. My fleeing skinks rally, but, with the Seekers looking right at them with that *&!@ banner, well… At least my Krox turn to face their inevitable overrun.

Big charge, the Bloodthirster charges the juicy VP spear unit with two Scar-Veterans in it. Dark Insanity is revealed, I think he rolled 9 attacks and kills 8 Saurus. Insane courage is failed. In an interesting move, the BT elects not to pursue, which would present his flank/rear to the intact HW block. My Spears unit gets lucky and rolls low for pursuit, emerging safe for now right in between the Bloodthirster and the big block of Horrors. The flamers roast a Krox, who pass their Panic. The Seekers charge the hapless skinks again, killing them to the last, but once again roll a pathetic overrun, right in charge range of the awaiting Krox! On the right, the Khorne dogs reposition in eager anticipation for my general’s return.
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For the Old Ones!

[Justin&theOldOnes]

Turn 5

Krox charge the Seekers, pop’um, and capture that dreaded banner. My Carnosaur re-emerges, and turns to face the inevitable from the Dogs. My spear unit thankfully rallies, facing the BT. My other Saurus block charges the Horrors head-on with an ugly case of clipping (2 models fight each side!), but bounce off them and are Fear-Outnumber autobroken. Thankfully they outrun their pursuers, but the Horrors pursue into the rear of my spear unit.

Another big turn. As above, the big block of Horrors with the Herald buttcharges the spears. The Dogs charge my general. The bloodthirster repositions again, with options of charging the Krox or the two Saurus blocks. Flamers move to roast the Krox, might have done a wound or two. In combat, my Piranha Blade Scar-Vet challenges, and the Herald of Tzeentch accepts (no champ!) and I luckily enough deal a wound, which 2x multiplies, no more 4+ Ward for them. Horrors don’t hurt the Saurus, who kill a few daemons back, but with their massive static combat res, daemons win, and thanks to the Cold One in the unit, it’s not an autobreak. The line holds! In the Oldblood’s combat, the dogs whiff miserably, while in return the Oldblood and Carnosaur don’t, killing a few dogs then popping the rest at the break test.




Turn 6

The fleeing Saurus rally on sweet, sweet Ld 9 (musician!), reforming to face the Bloodthirster. My Oldblood can longer do anything except stay where he is for a table quarter. My spear unit is still taking it up the….ahem…but nevertheless holding, killing a few Horrors and perhaps even winning combat by 1 or 2.

Bloodthirster charges the Saurus, and (crucially) the Horrors behind them are just out of range for their own rear charge. Whew. The flamers move to roast some more Krox, and succeed in killing one, panicking them off the board along with the Seekers’ standard, which hurt in what appeared to be a very tight game. In combat, my spears hold once again, winning combat again and reducing the Horrors to 9. Moment of truth…my champion in the other unit issues a challenge, takes a beating from the Thirster, but in the end they only lose by one and – thank Sotek – pass their Break test. End of game!


Result

Lizards win by 220 VP or so! A draw just a few points shy of minor victory. Key to me actually winning this were my characters (luckily in some cases) remaining intact, which represented almost 1000 pts in VP denial. I got very lucky when my unit of spears fled for the first time and rolled low, narrowly escaping destruction. Also, Khorne dogs did suffer from a little bit of whiffle syndrome (although maybe not as much as Methrin will claim!), but hey that’s the breaks this is a game of dice…We’ve all had bad beats!

A good, tight game and my first time “beating” Methrin’s evil, evil Daemons. I hate Bloodthirsters!
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For the Old Ones!

[Karl]

Good stuff, that was all nice and clear. One question, what was the points value of the game?

Im not sure about your opponents use of the thirster, it seemed to spend a lot of time dancing round not getting into combat when all it really had to avoid was a frontal charge on the Carnosaur unit. Out of interest did you have a plan of how to kill the thirster, or was it a case of damage control?

Having said that I think you handled the hounds well, a classic baiting from the chameleons and then introducing the carnosaur to the others after stalling them with the cohort.

[Justin&theOldOnes]

Thanks for the comments. I'm glad of the way I handled the puppies too, they scare me.

The BT scares me even more though. With that borderline-broken Dark Insanity + re-roll attacks BS, and the fact that it can line up multiple charges with its 20" range and "point and click" which units it will rape...Yeah that was total damage control on my part. Only defense I have against a thirster is clouds of skinks in the backfield, and they don't do too much against 3+/5+ saves.

So yeah I pretty much had to "dance around" like a bull, showing my opponent only the horns ("front") of my Saurus blocks. I think I did a good job of reducing the BT to only two charges and two rounds of CC in the game. For an army like mine, there's almost nothing I can do against a BT except delaying tactics.

And yes this was a 2000 pt. game
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For the Old Ones!