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.

Quake City Rumble – Round 4 – Joey Bravo - Lizardman

The Mission: Greed is Good

Deployment: Blood and Glory

Special Rules: Table Quarters are controlled with fortitude.  Whoever has the most in the quarter holds it and no one does on a tie.  Person with most fortitude gets +1 for determining who deploys first.

Bonus Points: 1 point for controlling any table quarter.  1 point for breaking your opponent’s fortitude.  1 point for controlling more table quarters.  1 point for controlling a quarter in your opponent’s side.

The List:

Slann, General, BSB, Lore of Beasts, Higher State of Conscious, Focused Rumination, Fencer’s Blades, Plaque of Tepok, Crown of Command, Standard of Discipline

Saurus Scar Vet, Cold One, Burning Blade of Chotec, Charmed Shield, Dawnstone

Saurus Scar Vet, Cold One, Armor of Fortune, Luckstone, Venom of the Firefly Frog
Saurus Scar Vet, Cold One, Biting Blade, Glittering Scales, Opal Amulet
Skink Priest, Level 1, Lore of Heavens, Dispel Scroll

35 Saurus Warriors, full command

10 Skinks, Musician
10 Skinks, Banner
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers

5 Chameleon Skinks

Stegadon
3 Terradon Riders

Ancient Stegadon

Salamander
Salamander

This was the lowest comp list that I played all weekend, coming in at 4.5.  Its basic idea is to buff the shit out of the scar vets and have them tank the combats.  I think it would be better in temple guard, with non-mounted scar vets.  Yes they will die easier, but then they couldn’t get cannoned, they would be stubborn and there would be a shit load more of them (like double).  They would also prevent attacks to the unit, who would still be able to step up and attack should the characters die off.  He probably would put the Slann up to just deny the attacks, but that would assume there were no magical attacks in the unit.  The core I would have instead had with more skinks.  But then I don’t think he would have gotten even a 4.5 for that, though I think a 4.5 is much lower than this army deserves.  I think I gave him a 2 or 1.5, which I guess means he should have gotten a 7.5-10.  My version might be a 4.5.

For magic the slann gets wysan’s wildform, amber spear, horror, aminhier and flock (so 2 magic missiles and one don’t march)  The skink takes iceshard.

I roll up searing doom and golden hounds (for the third time).  My Slann, for the fourth time in a row, gets Spirit Leech, Caress, Soul Blight, Doom and Purple Sun.  Joey groans when I roll the purple sun, but how can I default it when I also rolled aspect?  Anyways, its gold against the lizards.

For deployment Joey puts skinks in each corner to deny my scouts back field.  He places his slann just right of center with flanking stegs and then outer flanking salamanders.  The rest of the skinks and terradons take the front line.  I deploy spread out dark riders with alternating harpies in the center and the characters in the back.  The bolt throwers go on the right.

 

We roll and he takes first vanguard, putting his terradons just outside 12 (probably in the hopes that he goes first and can drop rocks and set up to take out both bolt throwers.  Knowing I’m getting the +1 to go first, I don’t vanguard with the center dark riders (nowhere to go anyways but back) but vanguard on both sides.  I also put shades on each side.  He puts his chameleons in line with his vanguard spot for the terradons (I know I said them out of order, but look at the pic!).  We roll off and I get the first turn, yay.

 

On my first turn I of course charge.  Dark riders go into the terradons and harpies into the skinks.  2 harpies die to the stand and shoot.  The chameleons flee a charge from the other unit of harpies.  I move up on the sides, unafraid of counter charges because who cares about skinks?  I roll a mighty 12/6 magic phase.  I Golden Hounds the opal amulet scar vet, doing 3 wounds and therefore voiding his save.  He dispels doom and darkness.  I then irresistiblely caress the slann, doing one wound.  The miscast takes out the rest of my dice.  For shooting I put 2 wounds on the left skinks, panicking them.  Shades do 1 more and the flight put the assassin out of range.  The dark riders pop a skink of the left chamaelon.  I kill 7 skinks on the right without panicking them and kill 1 saurus.  In combat the harpies kill 2 skinks but lose 2, he makes his steadfast.  I kill 2 terradons with the dark riders, and restrain pursuit.  His terradon is now in the way of not only the warriors counter charge but also in the way of the scar vet charging out.  I figure I can clean up the last model later and it’s not worth losing the dark riders.

Due to the terradon being in the way, Joey has no charges.  One unit of skinks flees off table, and the chameleons rally, as does the terradon.  A 9/6 magic phase has me allowing aminhier being cast on the right shades.  With skinks behind them and a salamander and steg nearby, I feel no need to march or charge with them (it’s a shooting rich environment with plenty of support).  He then irresistiblely cast flock on my general but luckily only gets 1 wound through.  I dispel spear at my metal wizard.  The stegs together manage to kill a single dark rider.  The left salamander managers to kill 5 of 6 dark riders.  The other salamander fails to kill even a model from the cursed shades.  The combat sees the harpy killing a skink before dying.

On my turn 2 the left dark riders charge the salamander, which flees almost off the table after being charged a second time.  I then redirect into a unit of skinks but take 2 wounds on the stand and shoot.  The last harpy unit charges that solo terradon.  On the right dark riders charge the salamander into the woods on its flank.  Another unit of dark riders charges the chameleons, which flee towards the saurus.  The single dark rider (and banner) books it back to my left quarter to both live and hold that part of the table.  A pathetic 4/4 magic phase has him dispelling both power of darkness on low rolls.  In shooting I take off 5 skinks on the unit with the banner and character.  I also take off 2 crew and wound the blow pipe steg with the non-marching shades.  My BSB takes off 1 on the small skink unit, which passes its test (my general then takes off two more).  In combat my dark riders kill 2 skinks, not taking off steadfast.  My other dark riders fail to wound the salamander but as he also fails they win the combat and run him down despite being in the forest.  The harpies do a wound to the terradon, but fail to take any, the combat sticks.

On Joey’s turn 2 he brings in the counter charge.  The blow pipe steg (can never remember which is ancient) flanks the harpies, joined by both the saurus rider and the slann (I don’t argue about whether 2 character can charge out of the same unit or not – who really cares?)  The other steg flanks the dark rider/skink combat.  The salamander and chameleons both rally.  A scary 10/5 magic phase has the wounded blow pipe steg getting wild form (I allow it as it only really effects my both thowers – which can’t it – and the assassin who would now need 4s to wound).  I dispel curse on the left shades to hold my options open as that flank collapses.  I scroll flock on my metal as he has the scroll and it would be silly for him to die holding it.  A big amber spear then does 1 wound to my metal caster (phew!) as I fail to dispel it.  In shooting the skinks plink off the charmed shield on the right flank (where the BSB had gone to clean up the unit, if you recall).  In combat both units get smashed (duh!), but I do kill 1 skink with a dark rider.

On my turn 3, dark riders charge the center skinks, which flee, redirecting into the flank of the banner unit (with the scar vet on the wrong side and unable to make way, yay!).  The chameleons flee off the table from a charge, but it costs me a dark rider due to the trees.  I roll a 9/6 magic phase, and throw 2 dice at power of darkness.  He dispels it, and uses 3 dice, making it well worth it.  He then also dispels golden hounds.  Next I power of darkness, but only get my 2 dice back.  I death magic the wounded steg, taking it off the table.  He scrolls Searing Doom on the other steg.  In shooting the shades kill off the salamander on the left.  I put a wound on the rider in the center and kill the terradon.  I also put 2 more wounds on the slann with my general’s magical crossbow.  I kill off the right unit of skinks with my BSB.  In combat I blow through the skinks, making the rider panic and get run down (or off the table, cant recall).

On Joey’s turn 3 he goes into protection mode.  No charges and the two remaining characters book it back into the saurus warriors.  The fleeing skinks rally.  A 7/6 magic phase has me allowing flock on the metal wizard, which does 1 more wound to him.  I then dispel the spear also directed at him.

On my turn 4 I don’t have any charges.  My general moves around behind the warriors, and everyone else moves to surround them.  We all know how its going to go.  I roll an 8/6 magic phase, and Joey agrees that I need to kill the Slann to get all the bonus points and gives me permission to be a jerk.  I then pick up all 8 dice and bowl them at a big purple sun.  I don’t get the 6s but neither does he.  I then roll a 6 for the distance, going all the way through the warriors.  He fails the lookout sir with his slann.  He rolls the slann and he comes up dead.  At that point he tries to concede, but I ask if he minds if we roll it out so that I can finish the story for you, my find readers.  He agrees and we proceed to kill the entire unit with the exception of the champion and the banner.  They then panic.  I get 9 dice back, which would have given me all the metal casting I needed to likely finish off the stegadon, and with my units lined up around the warriors (which would have run towards the center of the table), I’m sure I could have picked off the last 2.

Full points for me and a hard loss from my opponent.  I feel bad for the dick purple sun move.  Note, I don’t feel bad for doing it to Rex in the last round, but I know him and we are friends.  I didn’t know Joey, and so I feel bad for being an ass hat.  I do feel better, in that I confirmed that he through it was the correct move for me to make, not to be a jerk (since I was already clearly up 100 points), but to get the bonus points (and not actually deny him any because I had more fortitude in that quarter than his 4).

Quake City Rumble – Round 3 – Rex Olivera - Brettionians

The Mission: Tectonic Flux

Deployment: Battleline, player with fewest magic levels decides who deploys first

Special Rules: Roll a Die to determine a number.  Ignore any rolls of power or dispel dice with that number.  Assign the Divining Rod (one use only, bound spell 8).  Destroy a random magic item on a chosen model.  Irresistible Forcing this causes the user a ST 10 hit.

Bonus Points: 2 points for killing a caster.  1 point for destroying the most expensive item.  1 point for having more casting levels at the end of the game.

The List:

Lord, general, sword of swift slaying, gromril great helm, potion of foolhardiness, virtue of heroism

Prophetess of the Lady, warhorse, level 4, lore of heavens, silver mirror, crown of command

Damsel of the Lady, lore of beasts, prayer icon of quenelles, ruby ring of ruin

Paladin, dragonhelm, dawnstone

10 Knights of the Realm, full command, standard of discipline

9 Knights of the Realm, full command, banner of swiftness
6 Knights of the Realm, champion, musician
11 Peasant Bowman, musician, stakes, braziers
11 Peasant Bowman, musician, stakes, braziers
40 Men-at-arms, full command

3 Pegasus Knights, musician, champion

Trebuchet

9 Grail Knights, full command, banner of eternal flame

Ah Rex.  Rex and I play often, nearly every other tournament we both attend it seems.  We’ve had our ups and downs as well; usually with Rex getting some horrible luck on the last turn.  One year, when he was still playing his dark elves he fled from an 11 inch charge.  He needed to roll less than an 11 to stay on the table.  He figured that the odds were the same, so he would put his fate into his own hands instead of letting me roll.  He however had missed the second unit lined up to charge, and I recharged him off the table.  There was also me forcing him to accept a plague each turn in order to prevent me from withering his unkillable lord to zero toughness (I killed him anyways with massed attacks).  The next time was at a doubles event, where he and his ally had successfully turtled for a draw until the last turn when an Ironblaster misfired, blew up and panicked two units off the table, handing us the win.

Rex had received a 9.5 judge comp score, and I can see why.  Not having life magic, the large unit of peasants, only one trebuchet and for playing Brettionians which normally get a bad rap (though I think that ALL the armies are competitive, even if those competitive options are limited – but that should probably be another post and one that I likely won’t ever do).  But Rex knows his stuff, so I was sure that his lower composition was only allowing him to club seals – and I was to be next?

Rex’s magic item for the mission was the silver mirror, and he gave his destroy item to his general.  I gave my destroy item to my caster and my magic item was also on my caster.  This made each of our level 4 casters with the bonus point, and probably all 4 points.  Killing the little casters was worth 3 assuming one didn’t also lose their little caster.  This left me with a rough decision.  I didn’t really want to get too many bonus points, and killing his little caster could be worth 3.  The only way for me to get a 2 would be to kill his little caster and have him kill one of mine.  I wasn’t sure how to approach it, but decided I wouldn’t go for his casters early and would see how the game went.

For spells Rex took Flock of Doom on his level 1 wizard who also had the fireball ring.  His level 4 took Harmonic Convergence, Iceshard Blizzard, Thunderbolt and Chainlightning.  Interesting factoid, heavens magic does an extra D6 S4 hits to a flyer when cast on them.  Something I should have known, but didn’t.  At least Rex was kind enough to mention it the first time he cast a spell at me, so I wasn’t surprised after the cast and after my dispel options.

For Spells I rolled Searing doom and golden hounds on my metal caster.  My death mage took Spirit Leech, Caress, Soul Blight, Doom and Darkness and Purple Sun.  This was the third game in a row for the exact same spells on my death caster.  While I am rarely able to go through all my spells, unless I get off a massive purple sun and get lucky otherwise, I think that the extra spell gives me some really good consistency on spell selection.  Also for this mission, it was a magic item that could have been destroyed instead of my reverse ward save.  While I had no interest in denying him his bonus points, I did have interest in keeping my general alive and therefore did not want him losing his ward save.

For deployment I expected Rex to pick a corner, put his trebuchet in it and bunker up.  Put a unit facing every angle and then slowly push out, keeping me away from his trebuchet and hoping that it and his archers would do my damage than my ST3 pew-pew to his 2+ armor saves.  But it seems that Rex had put a little more thought into what he planned to do the next time we played.  He deployed his army without any ranks (beyond the first) with the exception of the peasants.  The Knight unit into which he put his three mounted characters had 2 models in the back rank upon deployment, due to their not being needed to block up the entire table, leaving no gaps.

From left to right Rex put a unit of 11 archers, 3 peg riders, his ITP rare grail kights (with treb behind), his character bus, the peasants, the small 6 pack, the other archers and lastly the banner of swiftness unit.  First, I love the 11 pack.  Most people take 10 because it’s minimum and shooting efficient.  But Rex, being smarter than your average player (no sarcasm), saw that 11 is actually the most shooting efficient as the last guy still gets to fire due to volley fire.  Very clever (for example I always hear now how high elves should have units of 15, as they fire in 3 ranks – but Rex would put 16 since the last guy could still fire).

I had never played against the line of models before.  I have a friend, whom I’ve mentioned here before, who plays skinks.  While trying to figure out how to play him, a group of us hypnotized that going out in a line would work well.  We tried it, but found the salamanders created gaps from far enough away, fast enough that the skinks could flood through.  Also, that secondary units were required behind to catch anything from just flying over.  While I had never played against the tactic myself, I had an understanding of what I needed to do – fly over and open holes… very, very quickly.  I also needed to perform my normal tactic – kill what can hurt me, basically the peg riders, the archers and the treb.

To help accomplish this I still did my normal deployment.  Dark riders on each side, three in the center  with harpies spaced between and characters fairly center.  Once again, couldn’t just start in the center or else Rex would split his center and push me into the two corners.  I decided that my first efforts would go towards the Pegasus riders on the left, and gave them some shades and the metal caster for this.  My second efforts would go towards the banner of swiftness unit, and I gave them a unit of shades as well.  Everything vanguarded enough to get in shots, but not enough to give up any charges – the exception being on the right for the swiftness unit (or perhaps that was only after my first move – they didn’t make it into the pic but it looks like only after move is likely).

Lastly, before I go into the game itself, I have one critique for Rex’s deployment.  Well, at least the order.  I would have put the peasants on a flank.  Rex’s deployment required his entire line to move at 8 inches, otherwise he would make holes in the center.  But if he had placed them on the flank then his other flank would have been able to move faster, roping off a side and even further restricting my safe world.  This may have meant his general and BSB were not in the center but I think that would have still been ok.  Also, I would have helped compensate for this by putting the ITP unit on the far flank instead of the Pegasus riders.  With the scouts and the number of vanguards I had, Rex shouldn’t have relied on them even getting the option of moving forward pre-game.  Instead I would have put them center, behind the actual line as a gap filler and to catch flyers from hoping over.  The peasant horde could have gone out 20 wide and still maintained its full steadfast to make up for the difference and as they would only be walking straight forward parallel to their board edge while the rest of the army hooked I don’t think it would have hurt him.  Then, as the other side came around, they could stop while the knights pushed in from the side.  There my readers is what I believe the key is to beating my army… please don’t use it against me should we play.  Ok, enough strategy, on to the game.

Rex decides to pray and allow me to go first.  I’m conflicted if this was the right call for him, though choosing to roll and losing would have sucked.  But his goal should have been to get to me before I shot him, and going first couldn’t hurt in that, right?  So I move up just with the shades and characters, leaving the dark riders at their vanguard fire points.  I start off with an 8/5 magic phase and power of darkness for 3 dice (9/5).  I then spirit leech and kill of a peg rider, getting 1 die for my trouble (10/5).  I then double 6 Power of Darkness for my metal wizard.  I always seem to do this for Rex.  She takes a wound and I lose 5 dice without getting any back.  I then fail to cast big searing doom with my last 2 dice, but no big deal, if I didn’t roll the 6s his 5 dice would easily have dispelled my spell.  For shoot I take off the Pegasus riders with the shades, assassin and general.  Even needing 8s to shoot I manage to get a wound on the treb with some dark riders.  My other assassin kills 1 knight on the right swiftness unit (I was hoping for more because I knew the charge was coming on turn 1).

Rex’s turn 1 and the swiftness banner unit charges the shades.  I manage to take 2 off, which is now enough to cause a panic test thanks to the 1 I killed last turn.  Amazingly, Rex fails his test and then rolls high enough to run off the table.  Just like that, the flanks are open for some fun and I’m up about 300 points.  Rex tries to move and reform to keep his line as intact as possible, including moving his BSB and General out of the unit to try to cover angles and put pressure.  In the center his knights do fail charge against some harpies (both in fact after a redirect).  A 7/4 magic phase has me allowing flock of doom off on my metal caster.  He then rolls 3 6’s, which would have killed her even if she hadn’t wounded herself.  Sucky, but on average she should have lived this turn.  Oh well.  I then dispel the ruby ring and I then fail to dispel thunder bolt on the BSB.  It knocks off his charmed shield and does 2 wounds.  His shooting is ineffective.

My turn 2 and no charges.  I put a unit of dark riders into treb charging range, and into charge range themselves of the 11 archers.  I put the shades up to shoot said archers (and the ones on the other side as well).  1 harpy unit rallies.  I roll a 8/5 magic phase.  He dispels spirit leech with all his dice (3/5).  I then fail to do any wounds with caress.  A both thrower knocks his general off his horse.  Finally, I only kill 2 archers on one side and 3 on the other, for a very disappointing shooting phase (and leaving those treb charging dark riders in the wind).

Rex’s turn 2 and the peasants flank the dark riders lined up to charge the treb.  The BSB charges the harpy unit that rallied, they flee.  A knight unit pushes the fleeing harpy unit off the table.  A 6/5 magic phase sees a failed cast of ruby ring followed by an irresistible casting of ice shard on my BSB.  The results kills 2 knights and takes away the rest of his dice.  The archers then take down the BSB’s last wound.  The dark riders whiff and get run down by the flanking peasants.  Just like that I’m no longer winning (and possibly losing) and no longer in a good position to charge the treb.

My turn 3 and the shades on the right charge the peasants to which he flees.  They do not catch them.  A 9/6 magic phase has me lined up to purple sun some knights and into the unit of peasants.  I FAIL to cast with 9 dice… really?  In shooting I kill 6 knights with the two both throwers.  Ironically, the big bolt in the flank only kills 1 but the rapid fire kills 5.  I then kill 2 knights on the 6 pack, causing a panic and 2 more die due to the flight through my unit.

On Rex’s turn 3 his BSB charges dark riders.  The 2 knights rally but the peasants don’t, running through the big unit and failing to cause panic.  The grail knights fail to march, keeping them from closing me in much more.  A 6/4 magic phase has me dispelling ruby ring.  Flock of doom kills 1 dark rider and thunderbolt fails to cast.  The BSB kills the dark riders.

My turn 4 and I have no charges.  I move around to get shooting, including the treb and the 2 knights.  A 5/3 magic phase has me irresistible casting a small purple sun with all 5 dice.  I kill 17 peasants, 5 knights and both units passing panic tests.  I get 6 dice from the casting but lose 4 due to the miscast.  With only 2 dice against his 3 I don’t bother casting another spell.  My assassin takes out the treb, and I blow away the 2 remaining knights.  I also kill another knight off the center unit and a grail knight.

Rex’s turn 4 and he has no charges.  He moves around some to try to pin me in.  A 6/4 magic phase has me allowing iceshard and thunder bolt at my general who takes one wound total.  I then dispel flock at my general.

 

My turn 5 and I move around to try to take out what has quickly become a few very small units of knights.  A mighty 11/6 magic phase becomes disappointing when Spirit leach at the level 4 does nothing (I decided to make a try at both her points and the bonus points) and the mirror cancels out purple sun but fails to wound my caster.  In shooting I fail to take out a knight unit and only knock the right peasant unit to 1 model (so close!).  It does do the kindness and panics, running towards the edge.  Also, two single shots from the bolt thower fails to even wound the BSB.

On Rex’s turn 5 his BSB charges the first both thrower.  Neither of the peasant units rally and both stop only inches from the board edge (damn!).  An 8/5 magic phase has ruby ring doing nothing but my failing to dispel it.  I then allow iceshard which does a wound to my genral.  I then dispel flock.  He gets off thunder bolt but it fails to cause a wound.  The bolt thrower dies to the BSB.

The game ends with 2 knights left in the former character bunker, 3 knights left in the grail knights and that damn BSB lined up for another bolt thrower shot.  Also those damn peasants not having run off.  Another turn would have either seen the BSB or the bolt thower die, and probably both units of peasants run off the table.  I might have also picked up one of the units of knights or a caster.  Then he might have killed my general.  After totaling up points we came to a draw, with me up 70 points.  If he had rolled just 2 higher for either peasant flee I would have had that game.  Oh well, it was tight through and ended probably as it should have, very close.  Rex got 3 bonus points, failing to kill my most expensive item and I got none as I decided to late to go after the wizards – and probably wouldn’t if I didn’t feel I needed the points.  It was a good, close game and I appreciated the opportunity to try my hand at that deployment strategy.

And a big congrats to Rex for coming in second place Overall.