Thursday 7 May 2015

Filthmongery

Following Aaron's successful crushing of Stuart's Ogre Kingdoms army . It was my turn to feel the filth. As I had been observing the carnage of the game before I started formulating a plan to hopefully minimise damage from the army, my army was essentially the same one as my battle with the Daemons of Khorne with the High Magic Loremaster addition to my force at the cost of a few Saurus I think. To my way of thinking I would hit the WoC army with a few High magic spells then change to a more specialised lore using the Lizardmen Lore attribute. 

Tactical (if any) Considerations

Aaron's army has 3 units that are very fast and very hard hitting - Daemon Prince, Chariot and Skullcrushers, abetted by 2 units of Nurgle Chaos Warriors - slow but highly effective infantry. Mercifully no missile troops. What my game against Daemons of khorne taught me at this size game is Saurus and Temple Guard are both pretty durable units just as long as I don't get multiple charges, I may be able to weather the storm and numbers might help. Of course the army list I made for this game was not optimal - especially as I had very little (read nest to nothing) that could deal with a 1+ armour save Daemon Prince. With this in mind I had to go for Magical Daemon Murder as my #1 plan. Failing that, I'd be in trouble.

As already stated I had a High magic Loremaster backed up by a level 1 Beasts Skink Priest who had Wyssan's which is just a peach of a spell when cast on Saurus. The 1+ Armour Save Daemon Prince was luckily (not for me) a level 4 mage too with Blades of Putrification, Rancid Visitations, Plague Wind & Curse of the Leper. As I find myself fighting Stuart's Nurgley Daemons army I know exactly how much fun Nurgle magic is, none. Aaron won table side (and first turn) so my dice rolling started badly. Would it improve?

Set Up

Turn One

The notes for the Chaos Warriors 1st turn is mercifully brief: Magic - 3 - 2, no channels. Curse of the Leper (doesn't even say who was the target), cast on a 15. Plague Wind failed. There was some moving towards my army as well.

Chaos Movement turn 1
Again the notes were brief, apart from moving the skinks forward and angling the Saurus towards the Skullcrushers there was little movement, mainly bacause I wanted to use the swamp as a buffer that hopefully the chariot would fall into. In the magic phase I managed to cast Fiery Convocation on the Chaos Warriors on my right. Unfortunately it only killed 2 models, but with luck it would keep on burning the bastards! I reasoned that as it has such a high casting value it would be hard for Aaron to dispel so I exchanged it for Searing Doom to try to deal with the horrible Daemon Prince. Arcane Unforging was dispelled and that was pretty much all I did that turn.

Lizardmen movement turn 1

Turn Two

The Skullcrushers try a long charge on the Saurus and fail, managing to stroll forward 2". The Warriors on the left charge the skinks who decide they don't fancy the combat and flee! The Warriors move forward 4". We then get an 8 dice each magic phase (I channel twice). Rancid Visitation is cast on a 24 and I fail to dipel it, to add insult to injury Fiery Convocation is dispelled before it can do damage this turn as well. So my plan of gradually cooking a unit of Chaos Warriors has gone awry.

Chaos movement turn 2
Not being in any particular hurry to get my arse kicked I didn't advance any units other than the Salamander and turn around the now fully rallied skinks. I got a 12 dice magic phase so in my head I made a sinister snigger and announced that the followers of the Dark gods would pay! With that I cast the boosted version of Searing Doom on the Daemon Prince. I rolled so successfully that the slann Mage priest lost 3 magic levels. Sadly when I needed to roll high for 2d6 hits on the Daemon Prince, I didn't. Caused only 2 wounds and caused irreparable damage to the Mage Priests self esteem. Also failed to cast both Walk Between Worlds and Apotheosis. The Salamander fails to hit the Warriors with it's halitosis. All I needed was a 4 or more on the artillery dice and I could've got some preemptive payback, but no, it wasn't to be.

Lizardmen turn 2

Turn Three (Shit Gets Real)

The Chaos Warriors charge the skinks (again), who flee (again), and they only manage a 4" move (again) so Operation Irritate is coming along nicely. The Chariot charges the Salamander (who flees), then redirects into the Temple Guard (uh oh). The Daemon Prince charges the Temple Guard (uh oh X2). The Skullcrushers again fail a charge on the Saurus. the magic phase is 1 + 3 and Aaron manages to cast Blades of Putrification on a 20! Needless to say my now addled Mage Priest fails to dispel. In combat 8 wounds are caused on the Temple Guard for only 1 in return but they don't run.

Chaos  turn 3
The skinks and Salamander rally. The Saurus fail a vital charge on the Skullcrushers, thus bringing them nice and close to the Chaos Warriors and aforementioned unmentionables. Wyssan's is cast on the Saurus unit. The Temple Guard and Mage Priest are destroyed to a lizard. Reforms point the chariot towards the Salamander and the DP towards the flank of the Saurus unit. As if it needed to, the shit was to get even realer!

Lizardmen turn 3

Turn Four  (Realness Goes Up To 11)

The Chariot charges the Salamander. The Daemon Prince, Juggernauts and other unit of Chaos Warriors all make their charges into the Saurus unit. Big magic phase 6 + 5.  Curse of The Leper and Blades of Putrification both successfully cast. In combat the Chariot wipes out the Salamander and his entourage, overrunning into the skinks. The Saurus take a huge number of casualties 7 alone from the Skullcrushers. They flee, neatly concluding the game half way through turn four.

The hands of a defeated man!

Conclusion

Probably my biggest mistake was assuming the game was a 'friendly, learning about the game type list' when Stuart had written a very tough list from a very tough army book. Actual errors I could have done something about was perhaps targeting the Chariot instead of the DP with Searing Doom (it may have been destroyed in the combat) and also fleeing with the Salamander. If the Chariot had done it's horrid bloody thing on it from the front it would have routed the Sally and possibly overran off the table giving me ore time to deal with that other monstrous mound of cack - the Daemon Prince. Once again I was left bemoaning my failed charge from the Saurus unit I'm fairly confident they would have routed the Skullcrushers on the charge, thus giving me some satisfaction. Despite my whinging I did enjoy the game, and as importantly so did Aaron. What it did do was give me a burning desire to get my revenge on them in our next battle. Find out how that went in a week or so.

Thanks for reading.

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