Adepticon Singles – Round 1 – JT - Lizardman

The Mission:

Deployment – Blood & Glory
Special rules – Destroy the highest point magic item – any lord levelspecial character counts as this.
Victory – 100 or more points
Bonus Battle – 3 points for capturing item, 2 points for destroyingmost expensive core unit (anyone if tied)

This mission started off with some confusion, as all the Blood &Glory listed all over the deployment part of the mission.  It was clarified that there would be astandard 100 points for win, which was good for me as my opponent was an autoloss and then I wouldn’t have been able to get all 5 bonus battle points andmany of the objective points (didn’t have 3 terrain features in my deploymentzone).

Before the game I found out that JT was from Canada, and that hisprimary language was French.  We didn’thave any issues communicating in English though.  JT came in costume, a black robe with hoodand a vulture, death mask.  It lookedcool, though not based on temperature. He wasn’t wearing it on day two. JT had made a southlands themed army, which it sounded like he had beenplaying since there was actually a southlands army list.  He also provided me with a one sheet storythat detailed the scene for our match. My rats had intercepted (and probably eaten) a messenger between theLizards and their allies, and the Lizards were out for blood and revenge.  It looked like JT had a one for each army,and probably more than one in case he played the same race twice.  I don’t know that on day two, without thecostume, if he was still passing out the sheets.  It did add a nice flavor to the game andinspired me to perhaps write a short story to explain my horrible losses atthis upcoming SAWS.

Slann Mage Priest, General, Focus of Mystery, Lore of Heavens, FocusedRumination, Becalming Cogitation, Divine Plaque of Protection, Forbidden Rod

Tetto’Eko, Lore of Heavens

Skink Priest, Lore of Heavens, Cube of Darkeness
Skink Chief, BSB, Banner of Eternal Flame

10 Skink Skirmishers

10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers

10 Chameleon Skinks

10 Chameleon Skinks
8 Chameleon Skinks
3 Terradon Riders

3 Salamanders

3 Salamanders

So I had said in my introduction that I hadn’t had time to make a listof the armies I didn’t want to play. Well, if I had this would have been top of that list.  It wasn’t quite as nasty as my friend’sSean’s list, but it still had 239 skink shots a turn, plus 6 salamanders.  It also didn’t have death magic, which atfirst I thought was better – heaven’s isn’t scary right?  Wrong. Tetto’Eko makes it so that for one turn every heaven’s caster is atechlis, just crazy.  He also has all thespells, meaning that there could potentially be 3 comets or 3 chain lightning,and 2 of each for sure depending on what that damn skink rolls.  Normally I wouldn’t be bothered with eitherof those spells, but my army isn’t that big, and 2 or 3 comets can cover enoughspace that it can be hard for me to get out of range. Tetto’Eko also allows fora roll at the beginning of his turn to see if the comet comes down, so 3 rolls,not 2 after my 1 chance to move away.

We roll off for spells and the skink takes the default.  I roll Doom and Darkness, Spirit Leech,Caress, and two spells I never cast.  Themetal caster takes Glittering Robe, and Gehenna’s Golden Hounds.

For deployment, JT floods the board, eventually putting a unit ofsalamanders on each side, both big casters on the left and the other heroes onthe right.  The terradons also go on theright and vanguard up.  I was surprisedthat he pulled his chameleons all the way back into his deployment zone (makingit look like the deployment wasn’t blood and glory).  I deployed 2 units of dark riders on theright, and left them there in the hopes they would tie up his flank while Iwent after his slann.  The center gotboth hydras and the characters.  The leftflank got the last two dark rider units and both units of shades.  The idea was to push on left with the shadesand on the center with the hydras, splitting his army.

Based on the deployment I only vanguard 1 unit, hoping to get some niceturn 1 charges on his chameleons and terradons; I don’t however get the firstturn.

On JT’s first turn, he pushed hard and dropped rocks on the right mostdark riders.  He also pushed hard on thatflank, and middle on the left/center.  Herolled a 7PD/5DD magic phase and then activated his forbidden rod, increasingit to a 12PD/5DD phase.  He alsoactivated his techlis ability and was probably hoping that he would be able toslam me so hard I wouldn’t recover.  Ithink he was a turn early.  Without ableto follow up with the skink shooting, I think he wouldn’t have been able tochop my head off fully.  He managed tocast a comet I couldn’t dispel, and then fails to cast a larger version withhis slann.  I dispelled chainlightning.  The salamanders on the leftall miss, and on the right he kills a few more dark riders.

On my turn 1 I charge and push the left most unit of chameleons off thetable when they flee from the shades.  Ialso charge into combat across the board with dark riders.  The sallies on the right flee from a darkrider charge.  I roll a 9PD/6DD phase andhe cubes on the first spell, ending the phase. A hydra opens up on a unit of skinks, leaving 3 alive.  In combat on the left I kill 9 skinks at thecost of 1 dark rider and run them down. In the center I kill 4 skinks for 1 dark rider and run down the unit,and on the right my solo dark rider (after rocks and shooting) dies in combat.

On his turn 2, he rolled again for the comet, which comes down andkills the hydra that breathed outright. All his fleeing units rally.  Heshuffles around and rolls a 6PD/4DD magic phase.  He irresistibles thunderbolt with hisslann.  The hydra makes his saves, 4 shadesdie and then my general makes her saves. His slann loses 3 wizard levels – chain lightning, comet and harmonicconvergence.  His shooting kills offvarious dark riders and puts 2 wounds on the remaining hydra.

On my turn 2 the Hydra and BSB both charge skinks in the center,pushing back the units and taking over the center.  The shades charge into a unit of skinks,losing 2 and the dark riders next to them charge the left flank salamanders(but fail).  I roll a small 5PD/4DD magicphase.  He dispels doom and darkness, andthen after power of darkness I fail to wound the slann with spirit leech.  IN combat, the shades knock the skinks to 1model, which makes its save.  The hydraand BSB each clear out their combats.

JT’s turn 3 and he starts to shift his right flank to the left.  He tries to movie his characters to safety,but finds the hydra and BSB covering those arcs and the shades about to becomefree and so moves back into his deployment zone on the left.  He rolls a 4PD/3DD magic phase where he failsto cast chain lightning with his special character.  The right flank salamanders fail to wound theBSB, his skinks fail to wound the hydra and he puts 1 wound on the assassin.  The shades clear out the chameleons.

On my turn 3 the dark riders charge the skinks who flee, but only witha 2.  The shades charge the salamanders.  Even with the low flee, the dark riders fail.  The hydra and BSB swing around to be able tocharge the slann.  I roll a large11PD/6DD magic phase.  JT remembers to no6 my slann.  I cast glittering robes onthe shades to give them some buff against skink handler and then fail to castDoom and Darkness because of the lack of 6s. Shoot the fleeing skinks and kill 5 of them.  Hydra breaths on the special character’s unit(which the Slann had joined), and the BSB follows up with the Black Egg –leaving the unit without skinks and killing the special character.  In combat the shades lose combat but kill asalamander and hold.

JT’s turn 4 and the left flank is scrambling to join up.  He does leave a unit behind to claim toterrain features.  His skinks rally, butto far away for his slann to run to.  Herolls 5PD/4DD phase and I scroll chain lightning.  I learn he has flaming banner on his BSB as heopens up on the Hydra, but still fails to wound.  Salamanders flame the shades in the building,which panic and jump out (and prevents the last 2 flame templates from doingmore damage.  The assassin does 2 morewounds in combat with the chameleons while he whiffs, leaving only the assassinwith 1 wound.

On my turn 4 the BSB flanks into the salamander combat.  Dark riders rear the unit of skinks that justrallied.  The Slann flees to the otherside of the hydra from a unit of dark riders. The shades rally on the far side of the building.  My other characters move around to be able tocharge from his back corner.  In a6PD/3DD magic phase I caress and kill the slann (he had taken 2 wounds from theforbidden rod back on turn 1).  I used 2dice and get both back from the wounds caused. I then put Doom and Darkness on his BSB, Power of Darkness to add a diceto my pool, kill the BSB with spirit leach and then power of darkness with mylevel 2 but fail to cast a boosted golden hounds.

My general kills off a unit of skinks with shooting.  The assassin and BSB kill off thesalamanders.  The dark riders kill skinksand reform (either reforming or over running will see them getting lots of hitsnext turn).

On his turn 5, JT charges his salamanders into a unit of dark riderswhich stand and shoot, killing a skink and putting 2 wounds on asalamander.  Just to note, this is thefirst time this game I have shot with a Dark rider unit.  I find that charging skinks to be much moreeffective in the long run that BS 4 shooting. The Doomed skinks fail to march. He rolls a 2PD phase and fails to dispel Doom.  The terradons fail to hid the shades andskinks fail to wound the hydra.  The darkrider kills a salamander and 2 skinks but lose 2 in the process.  The salamanders hold.

On my turn 5 and the skinks doomed skinks fail a terror test.  BSB joins into the salamander combat.  I roll a 7PD/4DD phase, and put glitteringrobes on the dark riders.  I also put 1wound on terradons with golden hounds and 2 wounds in the shooting phase withgeneral and assassin to kill off the unit. Combat kills 2 more dark riders but I win and run down the salamanders.

On JT’s turn 6 he kills the assassin and shade in combat. He also movesto maximize his objectives.

On my turn 6 I try to maximize my objectives.  My BSB charges the building in the hopes ofpushing out the unit.  I roll a 7PD/4DDmagic phase.  I spirit leech his level 1,using 3 dice and getting 1 back (and also scoring bonus points for the cubebeing the most expensive item).  I doomthe unit of skinks near the 2 pieces of terrain in the hopes of pushing themoff.  I do panic the doomed skinks,claiming the forest, but the BSB whiffs and I can’t clear out the building.

So a round 1 win, but not full points. I took 2236 points at the cost of 1116 points.