Quake City Rumble – Round 5 – Jay Joye - Lizardman

The Mission: I Want it All

Deployment: Battleline

Special Rules: Generals Hate Each Other

Bonus Points: 1 point for killing general.  1 point for having more “character fortitude” with Lord=3, Hero=2 and Champ=1.  1 point for winning by >500 points.  1 point for having a unit in your opponent’s deployment zone.

The List:

Slann, General, BSB, Lore of Life, Focused Rumination, Becalming Cognition, Focus of Mystery, Book of Ashur

Saurus Scar Vet, Cold One, great weapon, dragon helm, dawnstone

Skink Priest, Level 2, Lore of Heavens, Plaque of Tepok

10 Skinks

10 Skinks
Jungle Swarm
Jungle Swarm
20 Saurus Warriors
19 Saurus Warriors
32 Skinks, 4 Kroxigor, musician

32 Temple Guard, full command

5 Chameleon Skinks

2 Salamanders

I think I typed this list mostly by memory.  Jay is a club mate of mine and has been playing basically the same exact list since the beginning of 8^th edition.  He plays it really well.  I think the only reason he hasn’t gotten bored and shelved it is he has little else and he plays only rarely.  This is also basically the exact same list as last year’s QCR, where Jay scored a 5.  This year I believe he scored an 8, which shows that the expansion away from just Leadership 2 people doing composition scores added a little mellowness to the system; at least in this case.

For the mission we decided that assassins were hero level characters since they are not champions and are core.

For spells the Slann of course got all the lore of life, while the skink took iceshard, chain lightning and thunderbolt.

 
My metal wizard took searing doom and transformation of lead.  My death wizard took spirit leech, soul blight, doom and darkness, fate and purple sun – OMG and different spell list (well, sort of).

For deployment Jay lined up a saurus unit on the left, put the skink block and temple guard in the center and the skinks and other warrior unit on the right.  The priest, chameleons and salamanders took the back area.

My deployment was my standard break down with harpies towards center.  The shades both went on the left as I decided I wanted to focus on the skink/krox unit and the left saurus unit first.  My characters went center to try to focus on the slann and 3+ save temple guard.  The bolt throwers took the hill.  We rolled off and I got the first turn.

I moved up, staying out of charge range.  A 5/4 magic phase which includes him channeling twice and I once has my phase ending without much as I rolled enough 6s for my spell not to go off.  My shooting was horrible, only getting me 1 saurus warrior on the left, 1 chamaleon with my general, 5 off the two skink units (2/3) and 6 skinks off the large mixed unit.

For Jay’s first turn he moved up.  He also zips up his character.  A small 3/2 magic phase is the best for him, as he 2 dies all his spells with free dice, so that’s 3 spells with me only being able dispel once (and him still having +1 when comparing wizard levels).  I have to allow throne, and do because he doesn’t have the dice to try to force another spell with 6s (like dwellers).  I then dispel awakening and scroll flesh to stone on the large mixed unit.  I’m not really sure why I did this.  I wanted to be able to put the hurt on the unit early as I thought they were points I could get.  I probably should have been more conservative and just focused more on the left saurus warriors for a turn.  His shooting killed 1 harpy.

On my second turn I charge both a unit of dark riders and harpies into the mixed unit.  I lose one dark rider to the stand and shoot and two to the trees.  Once again, not really sure why I did this, I was exhausted.  I was hoping they would all die in combat, which is silly, but do some wounds on the way.  He was in the forest so he wouldn’t be steadfast should I have won, so maybe that was it.  It could also have been because my shooting was so horrible and I didn’t want him reforming and opening up with poison on my characters.  Who knows.  I also have a unit of harpies charge one of the right skink blocks.  I roll a 7/6 magic phase and once again do nothing as the lack of 6s leaves me unable to compete with his dispelling.  For shooting, I am once again very frustrated.  The knight makes 2 saves from the assassin, then one bolt thrower misses while the other rolls a 1 to wound.  I kill 6 warriors on the left and 3 skinks on the right.  IN combat I kill off the skinks and run them down, leaving my harpies toast in front of the warriors (who have reformed long last turn).  In the mixed unit combat, the skinks save 4 of 6 wounds from the harpies, and the dark riders kill 3.  The skinks then kill the harpies and the krox the dark riders.

Jay’s round 2 and the saurus warriors charge the shades on the left hill.  They take 4 more wounds on the stand and shoot but pass their panic.  He then fails 3 charges.  The rider doesn’t catch fleeing dark riders.  The mixed horde doesn’t get to the shades but loses 6 skinks to the stand and shoot and the swarm in the center fails to charge the rear of my general (so hard to see which way they are facing!).  The long unit on the right also charges the 3 harpies.  Another 3/2 magic phase (with throne still up) has me failing to dispel awakening the woods which kills a shasde.  He then fails to cast flesh to stone on the horde.  In shooting the salamander eats three skinks and the other misses.  My general takes 2 wounds from the chameleons.  1 harpy dies in the combat on the right and the other two escape.  The shades kill 2 saurus, the assassin kills 2 more and he kills enough to lose, but holds.

On my turn 3 the dark riders flank the salamanders.  The fleeing dark rider unit rallies and the harpies keep running a mighty 11.  I roll an 11/6 magic phase, remove his throne and then he dispels my purple sun with 8 dice… I roll 3 6s.  I figure if I had broken up the 8 dice into 3 spells he still would have dispelled them all.

My general kills 2 chameleons (so 6 shots, 3 dead so far).  His rider makes 3 saves from my assassin (rerolling 5s).  Both bolt throwers miss him.  I put a wound on his wizard with the unit I’ve snaked past on the left.  With the breath weapon from my BSB I kill 8 skinks and put 2 wounds on the krox.  In combat I kill off the saurus unit on the left.  My dark riders fail their fear test with the salamander, but still put 1 wound on the salamander and kill 2 skinks.  I then lose 1, he passes his break test but not his reform.

On Jay’s third turn his skink block flanks into the salamander combat.  He rolls a 5/3 magic phase and then rolls 2 1s on throne.  With the Slann done, the skink casts thunder bolt, but I dispel it.  The general saves his chameleon wound to stay on the table.  The skink block takes off the BSB’s charmed shield.  The dark riders do a wound to the salamanders and they get their butt kicked.

My turn 4 and another dark riders charge the salamanders in the rear.  The harpies keep running to the board edge.  I get a 7/4 magic phase, cast purple sun with 2 6’s, keeping it low enough for him to dispel my cast.  My BSB kills his skink priest.  The shades together take the mixed unit down to 1 skink and 3 krox.  The bolt thrower finally takes out the rider.  The only bolt thrower kills of the block skink unit that had flanked the dark riders.  My general only kills 1 chameleon (9 shots, 4 wounds).  The dark rider kills off the skink handlers and leaves 1 salamander.  I lose a dark rider and he holds and turns around.

Jay’s turn 4 and a swarm flanks the dark riders in combat with the salamander.  The krox unit charges the left shades, lose the last skink and a krox.  In then rules through my BSB taking a dangerous terrain wound.  An 11/7 magic phase and I brace for the pain.  I dispel the casting of throne as I don’t want a strong dwellers to take off an assassin.  I allow awakening on my general because he rolls really high and I don’t want to devote my dice.  She dies.  He then regrows the chameleons to full (I fail my dispel attempt).  He casts thorns the salamanders, which kills 3 dark riders.  He casts stone on the salamanders.  In combat my remaining dark riders do another wound to the salamander.  Jay flubs, but holds (banner+wound+musician>charge+flank).  The swarm takes a wound.

My turn 5 and the dark riders on the right charge the other swarm.  I lose 2 to the dangerous terrain but thankfully don’t panic.  The 2 harpies go on vacation.  A 5/3 magic phase has me 2 dice PoD with my metal wizard (7/3).  He attempts to roll 1 die to dispel my attempt but fails (I rolled only a 7 total, meaning he needed a 3).  I then dispel thorns and do a wound to the krox with searing doom.  IN shooting the krox makes 5 of 6 saves from the unit of shades but then the assassin cleans it up.  The bolt throwers together only kill 3 warriors from the incoming line.  I kill the swarm in combat on the right, leaving one guy.  In the center both the swarm, salamander and dark riders fail to wound, letting me win on musician and giving the swarm a second wound.

 

Jay’s turn 5 and the warrior line charges the bolt thrower.  A 6/4 magic phase has me allowing throne, allowing thorns (which kills the 2 dark riders) and has me dispelling awaking the woods.  The camis clean up the last dark rider from the swarm combat.  The warriors kill the bolt thrower.

In the end I was down just over 300 points.  I think I could have played better in this game.  I was exhausted and allowed early bad choices and dice rolls to further frustrate me and inhibit my play.  I think this is a game I should have won.  I just should have focused more on my metal magic, out of range of the slann instead of keep trying to pick the slann out to earn better magic phases in the future.  Despite its soft composition score of 8 this list was a much tougher nut for me (and I think overall) than the 4.5 lizardman list I played in round 4.  Jay is however a solid player and I feel no less for having lost to him.