2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

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JohnnyM
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2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Hey guys, its finally time for my first game in 8th edition, hopefully you'll enjoy my exploits

My first game is 2000points against my good friend Ambler, who's only played a couple of games of 8th edition. Prior to the game, he reliably informed me that 8th ed is all about big blocks of units, and my Wood Elves will struggle.

Well...them's fightin' words.

I decided to use my 7th edition list, and see where the bugs were. The only change I made was due to not being able to take multiple dispel scrolls any longer, so I dropped a helm of the hunt on my alter noble.

Lords:

Lifeweaver
Lv 4
Dispel scroll
Ranu's heartstone

Heroes:

Alter noble
Great weapon
Light armour
Helm of the hunt
Hail of doom arrow

BSB

Core

10GG
10GG
8 dryads
8 dryads
5 GR's with musician

Special

7 wardancers /command
5 wild riders/ musician/standard
3 treekin
3 warhawks

Rare

Treeman



Amblers Lizardmen

Just adding Amblers list for the sake of completeness

Saurus oldblood
Sword of swift slaying
Armour of destiny
Shield

Saurus Oldblood
Sword of the hornet
Hide of the cold ones
Shield

Scar vet BSB
Gold sigil sword
Enchanted shield
Light armour
Dawn stone

Skink priest
Dispel scroll

Skink priest
Diadem of power

25 temple guard, full command
War banner

31 Saurus full command

20 Saurus full command


We set the table up and deployed (both seeming to want to refuse the opposite flank. My treeman, treekin, wardancers and dryads took up the east flank, the glade riders and war hawks deployed to the west, with my glade guard in the centre for the best field of fire.

Image
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The lizards blocked up on the west flank, looking pretty impenetrable from here!

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I rolled my spells, getting Awakening of the Wood, Flesh to Stone, Regrowth and Dwellers! Very nice indeed!

Onto turn 1!

(edited to add Amblers list)
Last edited by JohnnyM on 17 Sep 2011, 22:15, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

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Turn 1


Ambler won first turn and advanced up the west flank. In his magic phase he attempted harmonic conversion, but this was deftly dispelled.

I started my turn, and got a healthy dose of 8th edition! I advanced my treekin and dryads through a wood, finding it to be a wildwood, losing three dryads and two wounds in a treekin!

Image

In my magic phase, I attempted Awakening of the Wood on the closest Saurus, which cast but was out of range. My Glade Guard were lurking within a potential optimistic charge range, so I cast flesh to stone on them. Irresistible force! My Mage was deployed in a skirmishing unit of wardancers, and rolled Feedback on the miscast table, which affects models in base contact. We ruled that there were no wardancers in base contact, so only the wizard took a hit.

In the shooting phase, both units of glade guard peppered the smaller Saurus unit, killing five.

Image

I wanted to save my HODA, but seeing as he was in short range, I unleashed it, getting 12 shots to kill 4 more Saurus. Enough were gone to cause a panic check, which the coldbloods passed easily. Dammit!

Image

Even the war hawks got a kill, felling a temple guard from the flank.

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End of turn 1, and I've racked up a few kills!
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

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Turn 2

The temple guard advanced into the second forest, which turned out to be an abyssal wood, adding fear to their repertoire. The skink priest attempted harmonic conversion again but broke his concentration. The second priest cast wind blast on my war hawks, which I only just managed to dispel! I realised that lore of heavens spells were bad news for my fliers!

I charged the closest skink priest with my war hawks, who took the charge, probably realising he was dead already.

Image

I advanced the rest of the army towards the centre of the battlefield, it's almost like we're playing down the length of the board by this point! The glade guard moved up to defend the fence, as they were already in charge range for next turn

Image

Awakening of the wood finally found it's range and killed another Saurus. Regrowth brought my treekin back up to full health, and the treeman attempted to tree sing a forest, which failed.

The glade guard continued their assault on the Saurus, killing three more. Happily, the life weaver killed one with his longbow, causing a panic check, which I'm sorry to say they Passed

Proving their worth for perhaps the first time since they fell out of their casting mould, the war hawk riders slay the skink priest and overrun into the second!

Image

[IMG]http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g240/johnm59/4b5a7ada.
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Krofna »

Nice battle report so far. And I LOVE the way you painted your models :D
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Turn 3

The depleted unit of Saurus finally close with the glade guard that had been giving them such a hard time! On the way in, the stand and shoot caused a panic check, which they passed by the narrowest of margins!

Image

The skink priest looked to be as good as dead, but the cheeky fellow cast midnight wind on the warhawks, not worrying in itself, but the Heavens latent ability killed one of the hawk riders! He's not done yet, by Jove!

Image

In the combat phase, the Saurus made short work of the glade guard, who fled and were run down
Image


Once again, the skink priests luck held out! I scored enough hits and wounds to kill him twice, but midnight wind caused me to reroll my 6's! He took one wound and passed his break test! He's still in there!

In my turn, my dryads failed a charge into the saurus' flank. Everyone else moved up into position for a strong charge next turn. The magic phase was similarly uneventful, failing or having my spells Despelled.

Image
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In the shooting phase, the remaining glade guard scored 6 wounds on the last few Saurus, killing one and reducing the scar vet to 1 wound, as usual the passed their panic check.

Finally, the warhawks overcome the dratted skink priest and mash him into the earth!
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Turn 4

An uneventful turn for the lizard men, who struggle to come to grips with the manoeuvring ability of the elves. The scar vet abandons his dying unit Saurus and joins the temple guard.

Image

My turn, however, was very eventful :) the Saurus unit were charged by the treeman, treekin, wild riders, glade riders, and alter noble! The saurus pass their terror check, and all charges hit home, except the alter noble, who rolls double 1 and ambles forward.

Image

Now dominating the magic phase, I cast flesh to stone in the treekin, bringing their toughness up to 7.

Here's one of those idiot moments. I cast Dwellers on the Saurus, and got it off with flying colours! Oh how I jumped for joy when the oldblood failed his strength test! He was just about to roll for the rest of his lizards, when I was reminded that I can't cast Dwellers into combat.

Feeling silly, I shoot down the last 2 Saurus with the glade guard. Those guys really never run away, I had to kill every last one.

In the combat phase, the oldblood, who was feeling very happy about not dying from Dwellers Below, used his ASF weapon, but due to the treekin flesh to stone, couldn't wound anything! I attacked in a full on onslaught, killing 13 for only 1 wild rider lost (the majority through stomping). Despite winning the combat, the Saurus remained steadfast and easily passed their break test.
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Turn 5

The temple guard charge into the fray, and the entire game hinges on this one enormous combat!

Once again both Oldbloods struck first and failed to wound the hardened treekin. The wild riders, with their fury of kurnous special rule, Upped their game and killed three. The treeman smashed four more, taking his total up to ten so far. A few more kills gives me the victory, the temple guard remain steadfast but Saurus break!

Image

The remaining glade rider runs the saurus down and claims their standard! Huzzah!
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Turn 6

The final game turn! In the lizardman turn, both sides trade blows but neither can dislodge the other, a few temple guard fall but as I had been recasting flesh to stone in the treekin, my forces stayed in shape.

In my final turn I charged in a unit of dryads and the alter noble finally made it into combat

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A challenge was issued by the oldblood, which was answered by the alter noble. Heroic stuff! The oldblood had his always strike first weapon, but only managed one wound on our hero! The noble returned with his great weapon, scoring a wound on the grizzled old lizard! Giving as good as he gets!

Image

In a bizarre display, the scar veteran missed all of his attacks!

The treekin felled another four temple guard, but the treeman killing machine slayed 8 more between his attacks and his thunder stomp! Mighty! In return the temple guard manage a wound on him, but he passed his ward save, so no dramas.

Image

Losing the combat by many, the temple guard rely on being steadfast and just pass their break test.

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It's the end of the game, and the battlefield is littered with bodies! The VPs are added up and it's...

Wood Elves: 1273 vps. Lizardmen: 120 vps

An absolute massacre to the Asrai! Woohoo!

Analysis will come soon, when I am less tired! Thanks for reading!
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by dusk1983 »

Awesome report.

Where did you get your skirmisher movement trays?
...So if you're addressing me direct, just call me Lance or Dusk, no 1983 please.
Chaos dwarf tactica: http://www.asrai.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23535
Chaos dwarf plog: http://www.asrai.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=23159
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by HowwwwL »

I still find it ridiculous that for an army that is based around fighting in forests, and have forest stride and other abilities, that they take damage from Mysterious forests. silly. I hope they fix that with the next release...

Good win!
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Ab Ithell »

Wow! Great looking armies and a great battle report!!!! Thanks for posting it.
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Shandrakor »

Looks like a good stompin' for the Lizardmen. Congratulations on the victory! :)

One question though, how did the Treekin slide down from fighting the front of the Saurus Warriors to fighting the front of the Temple Guard when they were already engaged?
Well, my ideas for the next book turned out to be a bust.
But it was still fun working on something of this scale.
For those who care:
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Kulgan86 »

Proving their worth for perhaps the first time since they fell out of their casting mould, the war hawk riders
Epic....
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Noght »

Nicely Done. Thanks for the report, excellent Pics.

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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Shandrakor wrote:Looks like a good stompin' for the Lizardmen. Congratulations on the victory! :)

One question though, how did the Treekin slide down from fighting the front of the Saurus Warriors to fighting the front of the Temple Guard when they were already engaged?
Combat reform. Don't know if we did it right but the treekin were fighting the Saurus and the temple guard. The Saurus fled and were caught by the glade rider, the TK combat reformed after winning a round of combat
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

dusk1983 wrote:Awesome report.

Where did you get your skirmisher movement trays?
http://www.base-x-of-war.com/
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Alor »

Congratulations for this glorious victory! You played a very fair list, including the "weaker" unit types we have, too. Therefore, thank you. And thank you for playing with well painted models - so much atmosphere :) .
This game was a schoolbook example of maneuverability.
Let me give a comment on the lizardmen list. Your opponent has not played that many games with lizards up to now, right? With no more than three immobile units of saurus, there is hardly a chance to make a successful stand against any artillery or fast army list (as yours is). Saurus are tough warriors - sure, but as we have seen you were able to surround any of his units and attack from 3 or 4 sides simultaneously. The list is missing those nasty little skinks. All of them are cheap in terms of points.
- Chamaleons are hard to hit and hard to catch skirmishers with poisoned range weapons
- some normal skinks to cover the saurus from ballistic skill based shooting
- salamanders are ferocious artillery that will hold up a complete flank
- and so on

A balanced combination of saurus, skinks and the bigger models is the key for lizards to be one of the harder armies.
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

I think he's had a fair few successes with his army at 2500 and 2250 but at 2k I think he solely focussed on the big unit blocks, which it's fair to say are the biggest 'safe bet' in 8th edition.

I have to say, I absolutely love the new rules. Sure, there are bugs where army lists haven't been updated yet, but the game was far more interesting.

I played him at 2500 points straight after, where I used a dragonlord and stag rider, and he added a stegadon and engine of the gods, and mainly due to his abysmal luck i wiped him out in 5 turns for the loss of two units of dryads.

And thanks for the positive comments about the models, it's so much better to play with painted armies, the game just comes to life.

Currently thinking about changes to the list, will have some thoughts on that later
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Right, now I've got 5 minutes to myself I can have a little reflection.

Lords:

Spellweaver is surely the way to go right now, purely through access to life and beasts magic. I used a spellsinger in the second game, and the athel Loren spells just couldn't compete. With 4 spells, it's pretty easy to get what you want. In a more magic-heavy list, I was thinking about the possibility of taking a beastweaver and a spell singer, for a Transformation of Kadon/fury of kurnous combo

Heroes:

My BSB didnt do much, mainly due to my own good luck, but Amblers did and I'm still convinced that they're essential.

The Alter Noble was ok, but I don't think great weapons the way to go anymore. I'm thinking about swapping him for a stag rider with crown of command, to join the treekin and keep them stubborn.

Core:

No complaints about GG and dryads, just as good as always. Glade Riders, they didn't let me down, but I struggle to see their niche anymore. For very few extra points I could afford a second unit of WR's, but in this list I think I'll drop them to make room for more treekin.

Special:

Warhawks really proved themselves in this game, but having used a great eagle in the second game (which ran down a stegadon), I'm thinking two great eagles could be even more effective in the same role, for 20 points less. Treekin were awesome before, even more so now. Plain and simple I want more in my list! Wild riders are a precision unit, and performed well in both games, but they drop like flies even then, and I'm unwilling to invest any more points in such a fragile unit, or I'd feel like I was just handing victory points over. Wardancers have always been a personal favourite. 5 basic ones were more effective in the second game than 7 with command in the first, so maybe that's a points-saving method right there.

Rare:

The treeman is just brutal in this edition, why anyone would leave him out for anything other than fluff reasons is beyond me. I am even more pleased now I have a model I am happy with too :)

With this in mind, I need to build more treekin and a great eagle! Head on over to the meadow of arts to follow this army's blog :P
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Dragon halitosis »

Some thoughts re your battle report analysis. Firstly, very nicely done battle report - more like that and I'd read these things more often. Nice figs too.

You make an interesting point re 3 warhawk riders costing 20 points more than 2 great eagles - this keeps things in perspective for all the people who poo poo WHR as being in-effective. Personally I use them in the same niche as GE.

L4 mage is definitely the way to go - WE combat characters just aren't as openly lethal as, say ogre/Dwarf/HE/Chaos melee characters etc. L2 mage spell options aren't worth the points and with 8th edition spells able to wipe out whole units at a time some magic defence goes a long way.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who values wardancers.

Treeman = awesome. Especially when I remember to use thunderstomp. It is, however, a cannon magnet and cannon are more effective in 8th edition. Also, there is an over abundance of heroic killing blow and similar magic items - often being flown about by a hero on something that flys. In bigger games (ehre your lords alotment is big enough) consider fielding a tree lord and equip with annoyance of nettlings... but this needs to be balanced against the L4 mage (or in my army the dragon riding lord).

Anyway, nice job.
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Beithir Seun »

Very nice report Johnny, as everyone else has said. It's great seeing two well painted armies facing off against each other. It would have been even better had the battleboards been painted/flocked as well - that would have added even more atmosphere.


Nice to see some commentary on the list as well, from yourself and others. The only thing I've got left to say is that that Skink Priest would have been a great target for a HoDA ;)
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Skarsgard »

Nicely painted armies and great pictures.

One thing, the Spellweaver can't have both a Dispel Scroll and Ranu's Hearstone. They are both arcane items (unless of course I have missed something)?
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by JohnnyM »

Gah! You're right! Didn't even notice that. He used neither in the game, but the heartstones gotta go! Plus side, 20 more points to play with :)

I asked Ambler about his lack of skinks, he said he used to cover his flanks and rear by nuking anything trying to get around the sides with his Slann!
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by sirkently »

Very nice report. Loved the pics and turn descriptions.

Just a couple of points about your first turn. First, it is detonation, not feedback on the miscast table that hits all models in base contact. And the wizard is not hit. So in your situation, nobody would have taken a wound. Secondly, measure before attempting to cast a spell to check for range. You can measure at any time for any reason so should never end up casting a spell and having it be out of range.

Very nice win, though I agree with the statement that the lizardman list wasn't optimal. Playing both armies, I think he could make his tougher.
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Re: 2000pt vs Lizardmen PIC HEAVY!

Post by Kulgan86 »

The treeman is just brutal in this edition, why anyone would leave him out for anything other than fluff reasons is beyond me.
There are still plenty of ways to instantly kill a expensive Treeman. Cannons, Initiative tests ( Lore of Shadow - second most popular Lore ), Lore of Death spells, ....
On top of that, the Treemen is very expensive, all other armies can have mosters for under 200 points who are better at some tasks then our Treeman.

That being said I'm currently using a Treeman in my 2000 list. Battlerep against DE will be on later today.
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