Mizzard Wodel Strikes Back!

Time for another Age of Sigmar battle report. This time it's between my Wood Elf force against a similar number of Donal's Empire army. As my last threesome took ages we had decided that a 75 wound battle would be sufficient to get through fairly swifly with a possibility of a game of *something else for dessert. In the red corner - Donal's destroyers, an Empire army consisting of: An Empire general, 5 Outriders, Celestial Hurricanum, 20 Halberdiers, 10 Handgunners, an Empire Artillery Bloke, a Great Cannon and Hellstorm rocket battery. In the blue corner - Jason's Juxtapositioners, Minty (forest dragon with an Elf hero on his back), Mizzard Wodel Wood Elf Spellweaver of previous battle report fame, A Treeman, 10 Wild Riders, 5 sisters of the Thorn, 8 Waywatchers, and **Squawkie II. Scenery wise (***) in the picture below the woods are all Sylvaneth forest type things and the two rock formations on either end were inspiring, whereas the central rock formation was sinister. We didn't actually roll for the amount of scenery just placed it so it looked aesthetically pleasing.

A view of the battlefield after set up

A Cunning Plan.....

Well generally I don't have a generally solid battle plan but I was looking at the Shadowdancer battlescroll and saw he has a rather nifty spell that can double the movement of any unit. couple with the Wild riders ability to run & charge in the same turn I figured I could, (Dizan willing) get into the face of Donal's artillery in turn one, hopefully wrecking it, leaving Minty and the Treeman carte blanche to curbstomp any feeble humans that came their way. Most of my force was pretty mobile so I was hoping a lot of magical movement mayhem would be Donal's undoing. 

Wild Riders were a major part of my dastardly plan!

The Empire army - are they doomed? Hopefully.

My valiant Woodies!

Turn One

After listening to Heelanhammer's podcast regarding the benefits of going second I won the initiative roll and elected to go second, the reason for this was twofold, firstly it would hopefully get the puny humans nearer to me and gave the me the possibility of a double turn which seems like a fun thing for me! In the hero phase Mystic Shield was cast on the Outriders. Donal advanced his models forward with his aforementioned Outriders outriding out on my left flank. Annoying as I intended on sending Squawkie II, Mizzard and the Sisters round that way to do stuff. The Empire shooting phase was unpleasant. The Riders of Out shoot two wounds of Squawkie II. The Hellstorm Rocket blows a 5 wound hole out of Minty and the Cannon  kills two Wild Riders. At the end of the first turn Donal had severely compromised my dragon!

The Empire goes forth

In the Elf hero phase the magic users got busy! Bridge of Shadows was cast on the Wild Riders, 3 Halberdiers were Arcane Bolted and 1 wound was similarly taken off an Outrider. I move the wild riders up 27" including running but I wasn't convinced I could get them into the artillery (mainly because I hadn't deployed them centrally and as far forward as possible). In the shooting phase (again due to bad deployment) my Waywatchers couldn't target anyone ****properly. In the combat phase the wild Riders charged the Handgunners, Mizzard and Squawkie II charged the Outriders. The Wild Riders killed 5 Handgunners then the Ourriders splatted Squawkie II, Mizzard Wodel did absolutely nothing (probably had feathers in his eyes) and a further 2 Handgunners flee from BATTLESHOCK™.

The Elves go second

The view from the other flank

Turn Two

Donal wins the initiative roll off. Comet of Cassandora gets dispelled by Mizzard Wodel using his blessings of the ancients for two reasons (a) because it sounded like there would be mortal wounds involved and (b) because he was rolling abysmally in combat and I didn't trust him to survive for that much longer. The only movement was by the Halberdiers (towards the Treeman), the General (towards the Treeman but also using the Halberdiers as a shield) and the Hurricanum which sort of span around to shoot magical death at my Wild riders. The Hellstorm Rocket hits Minty again - for 5 wounds again! The cannon kills a Waywatcher and then Storm of Shemtek takes 9 wounds from the Wild Riders! Apologies for the exclamation marks but Donal's wound rolling was hideous (for me). Mizzard manages to survive combat with the Outriders mainly because the goat Donal sacrificed for luck was good for one phase only. Phew! The much depleted Wild Riders killed a few more Handgunners for no loss leaving one handgunner not in contact with the wild riders.

Some foliage.

In the Wood Elf hero phase 6 mortal wounds are Arcane Bolted from the Outriders as Mizzard was proving to not be up to the task, a pity really as Spellweavers are really pretty tasty to be honest. My Shadowdancer failed to cast his bridge of shadows spell on Minty. The Sisters shoot a wound of the skulky general and my Treeman who moved towards the Halberdiers strangleroots another wound off him. The Waywatchers shoot dead the last handgunner leaving a clear route to the Hurricanum, which the grateful Wild Riders took. Minty charges into the artillery. The Treeman and sisters do likewise to the Halberdiers. in the assault phase (close combat, nuggie, tickle fight, whatever) it seems to go well. The Treeman absolutely does one on the Halberdiers causing 12 wounds,  Mizzard kills the last two Outriders. The Hurricanum manages 0 wounds on the Wild Riders, the Dragon gets the cannon down to one wound (regret that later I bet), the Wild Riders cause 3 wounds on the Hurricanum. the Sisters kill another Halberdier and the small number left evaporate in the BATTLESHOCK™ mist.

Age of Sigmar hasn't stopped big monsters hiding from cannons.

Who said AoS isn't all about a big scrum in the middle?

Dragon vs Artillery - should be a piece of cake.

Mizzard Woddle struggles against some Outriders

Turn Three

Donal wins initiative again (yawn). Minty is blown away by the cannon. The general attacks the Sisters. Close combat and the Hurricanum kills the last two Wild Riders. The General kills a couple of Sisters and the rest flee due to BATTLESHOCK™.

How Nigh is the end?

After some quick botany Mizzard Wodel  Rides again!

I think Arcane bolt from the Shadowdancer takes a wound off the general. Mizzard is out of range.I advance what little force I have left up towards the centre. The Waywatchers shoot 6 wounds from the Hellstorm and the Treeman kills the cannon with strangleroots. In the attcking people with weapons at close range phase the Shadowdancer kills the enemy general. The now semi wrecked Hurricanum gets pulverised by the Treeman (really must name him).

End of Turn three

Turn Four

Something wonderful happens! I win initative! I cast Mystic Shield  (Mizzard actually - I just rolled the dice) .In the movement phase everything advances to within the Hellstorms minimum range. Waywatchers and the Strangleroots kill the Engineer. Both the Treeman and Mizzard get into combat with the now defenseless Hellstorm. Mizzard performs the Warhammer equivalent of punching a puppy in the face and the game is over. The empire force is wiped out but without much left of my own force. 

So thanks to Donal for the game and being a good sport, and on the the post match analysis;

Waywatchers laugh in the face of cover!

Not looking good for the Empire

Mizzard stands on his trophy

Conclusion

The star of the game for me was the Treeman, closely followed by the Shadowdancer. If I had had a bit more conviction in my own cunning plan I would have deployed the wild Riders on the edge of their deployment zone to the centre where I may have got them wrecking artillery in turn one, as it was I had to settle for Handgunners. As our own house rule about shooting into combat is a nono I don't see any point whatsoever in taking Glade Guard. Pity, as for me they were the backbone of the Wood Elf army. I'm beginning to think the missile troops are only worth taking if they are allowed to shoot into (and out of) combat as their woefully unlethal weapons (Glade blades ffs) make them a liability. I think my next AoS Odyssey will involve a Sylvaneth host or I may even dig out my Skaven for a change. 

Thanks for reading.

The End of Game congratulatory picture.

*Something else was a game of infinity.
** Squawkie I's demise is documented here.
*** We both pretty much forgot all game that the scenery had special powers so in actual fact it was pretty mundane scenery instead.
**** Damn you Games workshop and your 20" shooting range!

Minty Rides Again (or the Curious Case of The Trans-Specied Dragon Ogre).

Last week a game of Age of Sigmar was enacted by myself, Pat and Vinny. Here is the report about it.

But First, An Apology

Firstly before I get to the hacking and slashing of the battle report I have to apologise for some of the shoddy camera work of yours truly. In my eagerness to play, I did very little reviewing of the pictures until 2 days later so lighting is poor and many pictures were unusable due to the piece of paper I was using to cut out glare also put large squares of shadow all over the shop.

On the plus side I had Aaron writing notes for a lot of the game so a lot of details were caught as opposed to me forgetting pertinent stuff.

The Armies

Three members of *C.L.A.W. showed up to play Age of Sigmar. I took a **suitcase full of Wood Elves, Vinny brought his Undead horde and Pat brought his small but deadly Warriors of Chaos. 

I decided to take the following: Elf Lord on Dragon (Minty), mounted spellweaver, Branchwraith, 10 Wild Riders, 10 waywatchers, 10 Dryads and 5 sisters of The Thorn. Vinny took a Vampire Lord, a Necromancer, A Wight King BSB (or whatever they're calling themselves in AoS), 3 Vargeists, 3 Crypt horrors, 10 Grave Guard, 30 zombies, Corpse Cart and a Terrorgheist. Pat arrived with a Mounted Chaos Lord, 2 chaos sorcerors with a familiar each, 10 Chaos warriors, 3 Skullcrushers, 3 Dragon Ogres and a Chimera. All told the armies were approximately 100 wounds each. 

The Cast

Jason - Elven Hero.

Vinny - Pale Undead Monster.

Pat - Twisted parody of a human.

Aaron - Hunched Scribe.

Stuart - Age of Sigmar Skeptic.

Phil - Null Zone of 6's.

Set Up

Chaos Deployment

Undead Deployment

Elven Deployment

Turn One

I won the roll for initiative and got the first turn. In the hero phase my Branchwraith cast Mystic Shield on the Treeman as I thought a 3+ armour save was a bit crap. My wizard cast the same spell on the dragon, Coupled with his command ability of rerolling ones in combat it made him a very unattractive target for my opponents. I advanced most of my stuff fairly carefully (or in Aaron's notes - wimps). My only offensive act was to ***double tap with my Waywatchers on the nearest chaos chariot taking 3 wounds. So at the end of my turn I had advanced well within the threat rage of the chaos forces.

After Elf and Undead turns

Vinny's hero phase saw him use Blood Feast on the Vargheists (giving them an extra attack on each weapon). The Necromancer summoned 3 ****"Spikey Ghouls".  The terrorgheist moves towards the Wild riders hoping to give hot screamy death to them. The Crypt Horrors take up position in the centre of the board. The Graveguard shuffle forward 8" as they rattle their bnes to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Crypt horrors.  The zombies advance forward in an uneven semi circle (Vinny wholeheartedly got behind the lack of ranked up units. The Vargheists move towards the Chaos warriors. The Terrorgheist shrieks like a girl at the Wild Riders doing no damage. At this point, the Terrorgheist realised, he fucked up........  The Vargheists charge the chaos warriors , the Terrorgheist also decides to charge the Wild Riders but decides against it when he rolls 3" for his charge range. The Vargheist's attempt to muller the Chaos Warriors causing 6 wounds (3 warriors) then in return a Vargheist is swatted like a bug and no one gives a monkey's about BATTLESHOCK™.

In 8th Ed, a nightmare Flanking

In Pat's hero phase he used his  general's command ability to make sure his Chaos Warriors didn't take BATTLESHOCK™ tests for the turn. The BSB plants his standard in the dirt to anable rerolls for charges (and claiming the table end for chaos). ***** The next few minutes consist of rules debates and misunderstanding. Mystic bolt takes 3 mortal wounds off the Vargheists. The Juggernauts advance towards the crypt ghouls. The Dragon Ogres advance towards the middle ground between elf and zombie. The chariot's Don't Spare The Lash rules gets them moving 14" and 11" towards me (eek). The Sorceror advances but stays within range of the Arcane hill (with his look out sir dog familiar staying close - Sorceror's true best friend). In Pat's shooting phase (I'm generally against all shooting phases except elven ones) his other sorceror fails to kill the last Vargheist. The Chimera then does a number on my Treeman with his smelly breath causing 5 mortal wounds. I found this particularly annoying as he has a 2+ armour save than availed him naught! In the running towards the enemy with fire in their eyes and lead in their belly phase, the Juggernauts hit the Crypt Horrors, a chariot charges the Waywatchers, whilst the Chimera and Chariot decide to sit this one out with low charge rolls. In combat a Crypt horror is Juggernauted to death and another takes a wound. The Vargheists remember to frenzy and then do nothing in combat, the Chaos Warriors then kill the last Vargheist. The Waywatcher/Chariot ruck causes one wound on the Chariot and 4 elves to either die or BATTLESHOCK™ it.

Vinny's zombies embrace their new found freedom of movement

Turn Two

Once again I win the initiative roll (yay me), Pat second, Vinny brings up the rear. My Dragonlord uses his command ability to reroll 1's in combat (to hit and wound anyway). Mystic Shield fails. My Spellcaster gets all Necromancery and summons 3 Waywatchers back from the grave, or at least from the figure case. I stroll my Waywatchers out of combat with the Chariot (with a nyah nyah probably). Dragon, Dryads and Spellweaver advance towards chaos whilst the Wild Riders and Sisters of the Thorn go towards the Undead. The Sisters wound the Crypt Horrors with Blackbriar Javelins. The Waywatchers double tap the Chariot to death. Strangleroots fails to damage the Chimera. In the charge phase, Wild riders go for the Terrorgheist, the Dryads charge the Chariot whilst the Treeman and Minty decide to tag team the Chimera. The Treeman causes 4 wounds on the Chimera. The Terrorgheist kills two Wild Riders. The Chimera then takes a wound off the Treeman leaving him with 3 left. In return the Dragon narrowly fails to finish the Chimera off. The Dryads cause 2 wounds on the Chariot but lose the combat.

The Sinister Darkness Hides a Terrorgheist!

Chimera vs Dragon & Chariot vs Dryad Scrap

Wild Riders are not what they were in 8th

Pat uses his Knights of Chaos command ability on the Chariot. Arcane Bolt takes a wound off the Treeman. The Chimera breathes another wound off it. The Chaos Lord charges in to combat hoping - presumably- to get a nice big dragon skull for you-know-who's throne. Also the Dragon Ogres bowl in to the exciting bundle going on too.  In combat the Chimera does one more wound on the Treeman. Minty aided but the little fella on top kill the shit out of the Chaos lord (that'll learn 'im). Dryads cause 3 wound on the Chariot. The Dragon Ogres get the Treeman down to 2 wounds. The Dryads get wiped out by the Chariot. BATTLESHOCK™ is not a factor in this turn.

In Vinny's turn we get to find out just how bad a Vampire is and just how good Zombies are! As my scribe went home I have no notes on what Vinny did in his hero phase, but summoning he did buff the Zombies (+1 A) to unpleasant proportions. The forces of undeath move forward merrily (as they always do) to play practical jokes and sing ribald songs - or whatever it is they do. The Zombies charge the Dragon Ogres and the Crypt horrors go at it with the Sisters. The Vampire also charges in to try to save the Crypy Horror battling the ******Skullcrushers. The Grave Guard fail a charge on the Sisters and end up looking sullenly at the ensuing combat. In the combat phase something terrifying and at the same time wonderful happened, the Zombies caused 14 wounds on the Dragon Ogres, unsurprisingly killing them, then one of the dead dragon Ogres miraculously came back as a Zombie! The Wild Riders get the Terrorgheist down to 1 wound and the final Crypt Horror fighting the Skullcrushers dies.

The Blender Zombies Advance!

A Shadow Falls over the Grave Guard

Disappearing Dragon Ogres

Turn Three

The initiative roll roll is rolled and I win again! Pat next, Vinny last. In the hero phase I cast mystic shield on the Sisters and the now clinging to life by a thread Treeman. By this time it's getting late so we've already decided this will be the last turn. A total brainfart on my part makes me completely forget about my Wild Riders who could very probably get into combat with the Crypt Horrors beating up my Sisters of The Thorn. I shoot a few Zombies (simply to try to even out the playing field - I thought Vinny was at this stage ahead so it was time to try to drag him back into the mud). In combat Minty kills the troublesome Chimera. Minty is now sitting in a pile of Chimera gore waiting to see if anyone wants to come and play with her*******. It is, I'm pretty sure the turn the Treeman carks it, but I can't find in my notes who the culprit is. Ah well, I'm sure it was an heroic end.

Chaos Warriors come to save Minty's bacon (unintentionally I bet).

In Pat's turn he casts a spell (Bolt of Change) to turn a Zombie into a Chaos Spawn. I am sure it was the Zombie that was previously the Dragon Ogre. So Graknark (or whatever his name is) after living for thousands of years as a big burly Dragon Ogre decides that Zombification is for him, spends a short unhappy time as a Zombie then leaps at the chance of being a Chaos Spawn instead! The Chaos Warriors, and BSB pile into the Zombies to give them a kicking. This combat is convoluted and ends up a stalemate. Elsewhere on the battlefield the Vampire finds out that he's really not all that and takes a wound from the Skullcrushers, causing none in return.

Free Chaos Spawn!

Minty tries to look inconspicuous!

The Unblender Vampire vs Skullcrushers

In Vinny's hero phase the Unblender Vampire casts Spirit Blight on the Skullcrushers. He then summons a Terrorgheist (on an eleven I think). The Grave Guard who had spent the last 2 turns in a state of indecision charge into the Sisters of The Thorn. In combat the Chaos Spawn that was a Zombie that was a Dragon Ogre is killed again and is reanimated as a Zombie again! The large combat with the Chaos Warriors ends up a stalemate again -  Zombies are pretty much immune to BATTLESHOCK™  and the Warriors didn't take enough casualties to be effected by it. Vinny's Vampire makes ********3 saves on his last wound to stay in the land of the unliving in the Skullcrusher combat. The Sisters of The Thorn are wiped out.

The continuing Chaos Warrior/Zombie tete a tete

Wizards relaxing in the woods

Where's my 4+ Ward Save? Where?

Free Terrorgheist!

We then have to total up casualties and work out who won. Games Workshop have cleverly made a much simplified game whereby the complexities of the game have shifted somewhat to finding out who wins the game. If there is no obvious winner then we go by the percentage of models lost. As you don't count models summoned in game as part of the original number but count them as part of the casualty percentage there is a certain amount of bookkeeping involved. So wind speeds were checked, as were humidity levels and so was my astrological charts. The final votes were in the the scores on the doors are:

Jason 54% lost,

Pat 56% lost,

Vinny 49% lost.

A win for Vinny albeit not a crushing one.

Conclusion

Well, I enjoyed that game, but it wasn't an accurate representation as I find when you're playing against two opponents both have to be considered in your movement phase and that leads to a more conservative style of play. I learnt a bit about the importance of sequencing your close combat attacks and other tactical aspects of the game. My failure to move the Wild Riders may have been influenced by my 8th edition habits of not considering models behind me as targets. It is also possible that if I had gotten them into combat with either the Crypt Horrors or Grave Guard, then it could have swung the kill ratio in my favour. I also learnt other things.  For example the correct use of a light diffuser(?) would have made my photos much better. It is also imperative that you have some form of a plan - there are strategies despite what you hear on the forums. Simply mashing your stuff into your opponents just isn't enough. So until next time when I write up my next battle report against Donal's Empire army - I also have a bit of a plan - Thanks for reading!

Upside-Down Chaos Warrior on the ceiling watches impassively

*Cavan Longford Associated Wargamers!
** Interestingly the order of placing models and the ability to stop placing stuff is one of the tactical considerations of the new game.
***I completely forgot for every to hit roll of a 6 with the Waywatchers I got another shot! Probably missed out on a couple of wounds, this may (or may not) have altered the games result drastically.
****Anything written in yellow denotes Aaron's comments.
***** Can't remember why, probably about who gets to attack, and when in a 3 way.
****** In AoS the world is turned upside down.
******* Yes I've decided she's a she.
******** This is probably due to Phil - host of the game - who has ungodly dice probability manipulation powers. He'd been playing Warmachine earlier so he couldn't interfere with our game until near the end.

Half A Game Of AoS

So 8th edition Warhammer is gone! Well sort of. The general consensus in my gaming group is that AoS is a pile of simplistic shit that 'is the anal rape of the fluff' or something like that. I said from the start I'm not going to judge it until I've had a couple of games to ascertain it's worth. I downloaded the battlescrolls for my Lizardmen and Wood Elf army. I saw lots of fun things in both armies but I decided on Lizardmen as the Slann seems to now be the pre-eminent casters in the game (of course until GW invent a new copy writable uber wizard). Plus I had a blast last game with the aforementioned so I thought I will take a pretty similar force. My opponent Pat, brought his Warriors of Chaos to do battle. Now a lot of the time I add some prose to the battle report to give it a place within my own mental fluff masterpiece as to provide a narrative. Unfortunately I haven't read any of  about the new world(s) so I'm at a loss to come up with something.  

The Armies

Another staple of the battle report is the army list. As GW have decided to do, apart from the anal raping, was toss the salad of points values. This was, at first I thought aimed at tournament play and the destruction of it, but then I thought it was more about a friendly atmos than a fairly balanced game. So here's what I used: Slann Mage Priest, Scar Vet BSB, Skink Priest, 2 x 20 Saurus units, Kroq gar on Carnosaur and 2 units of 10 skinks. For what it's worth a grand total of 87 wounds. Pat took a Sorceror Lord, BSB, Lord on Daemonic Mount, 3 chariots, 3 Skullcrushers and 20 chaos warriors. 97 wounds in total. So by the rules pamphlet my 64 models gave Pat the sudden death option, but he decided not to use it as a we thought we'd see how the game played without trying too many rules. This is also why we didn't use the rules for mysterious landscapes as having to note down every piece of scenery and it's abilities seemed like hard work.

My Simple Plan

Not knowing how the game would play, all I had in mind was keep the Slann at the back summon some extra models and see what damage I could do. As the Seraphon (??!!??) army is now effectively good daemons I can summon all game. This was cool as it was the first game in The Palace of Righteous Justice which is what I'm calling my garage at the moment. This meant I had all my Lizardmen models handy so (in theory at least) I could summon my entire army! another nice touch was Pat brought round a printed battlemat  that really made the battle field come to life. It certainly beats the blue of my table tennis table! 

Le Battlefield Sans Armies

Le Battlefield Avec Armies

I deployed  Saurus unit #1 unit to the left with Skink Priest, Skink unit #1, Saurus unit #2, Slann, BSB , Skink unit #2 and Kroq Gar on the far right. Pat's deployment was chariot #1, chariot #2, Sorceror, BSB, Chaos Warriors, Chaos Lord, Skullcrushers and finally chariot #3.

Ready for the off!

Turn One

Pat won the first turn and in his hero phase cast Mystic Shield (+1 Armour Save) on the Chaos Warriors. the Gift of Foresight (Rerolling saves of a 1) was also given to them from the Sorceror Lord and the Chaos Lord used his command ability The Knights of Chaos (rerolling charge distances and +1 to hit in combat) on Chariot #3. Then the entire Chaos army advanced forward.

Chaos Turn 1

In my hero phase the BSB plants his standard into the ground giving the Slann standing next to him +1 to all his casting rolls. I summon a Saurus Oldblood on a Cold One, and then fail to summon both a Stegadon and an Ancient Stegadon. Good job really as if i'd gotten all those spells off it would've been pretty tough for Pat. I advanced my Skinks up to shoot some followers of the ruinous powers only to find that Skink unit #2 didn't have the range *. Skink unit #1 just proved to be inept. Then I went all out for the assault phase by declaring charges by Saurus unit #1 (failed) on chariot #1, Skink unit #1 (suceeded) on chariot #2 and Kroq Gar (failed) on the Chaos lord. the only reason I charged with the skinks was to deny a charge from the Chariot. So the assault phase saw 4 skinks die. it was then I found out that the Seraphon army is pretty much immune to BATTLESHOCK  **. They have a bravery of 10 so they need to lose 5 models before they even think about running. It was at this point that I realised I really, really needed to win initiative for the next turn or there was going to be a lot of frothing chaos maniacs chopping up Kroq Gar.

The Seraphon aka Lizardmen turn 1

Turn Two

There was a bit of drama at the start of turn 2 when the roll for initiative was at first drawn (leading me to hope I win the second roll), then Pat getting first turn again. In the hero phase his BSB planted his Battle standard, giving some rather tasty benefits (any SLAVES TO DARKNESS within 20" reroll charge dice and get +2 bravery). The Sorceror casts Daemonic Power on chariot #1. All the units that could advanced forward making a lot of short charges. Then the assault phase arrived and there were lots of charges. Chariot #1 charges Saurus unit #1, the sorceror charges into the skinks fighting chariot #2, the Chaos Warriors charges into the other skink unit, and the icing on the cake was the Chaos Lord, Skullcrushers & Chaos Chariot #3 all bundle into Kroq Gar. 

Things are not looking rosy for my Lizardmen

More chaos Death!

The skinks have a job to do - DIE!

One thing I will say for chaos chariots in AoS, they are nowhere near as deadly as in 8th ed. There are no impact hits. This goes a lot way to explain Kroq Gar survival in the ensuing close combat phase. Admittedly the whole combats went the way they would in 8th, but without the running away. The numbers break down like this :
 Chaos Chariot 4 - Saurus Unit 5,
 Chaos Chariot & Sorceror 5 - Skinks 0
 Chaos Warriors 6 - Skinks 0
 Chaos Lord, Skullcrushers & Chariot 5 - Kroq Gar 2.
Now the above numbers would suggest a rout test for the Chariot, both units of skinks (due to charge bonuses) and Kroq Gar. What did happen was none of my units lost anyone to BATTLESHOCK, Carnosaurs have this ability called Bloodroar that causes any unit within 8" that has lost models in the turn can lose another d3 after a roll off. I had directed my attacks on the Skullcrushers and I won the roll - 2 frothing maniacs of Khorne flee like goblins!

The as yet unnamed Slann watches impassively

In my turn we rolled for Celestial Configuration (something I forgot in the first turn) which basically meant all the SERAPHON units added +1 to running and charge rolls (what I could have done with last turn, D'Oh!).  The BSB didn't bother pulling his standard out as it was doing a good job and the Slann summoned another Oldblood on Cold One. The Skink Priest (whom I had positioned appallingly badly for the first turn - making him unable to shoot or have spells cast through him) shot a wound off the Sorceror fighting Skink unit #1. Kroq Gar shoots a wound off the Chaos Lord. in the assault phase Saurus unit #2 charged into the flank of the Chaos Warriors (not that flanks matter anymore) and Oldblood on Cold One #1 (or OboCO#1) jumps in to cause death and destruction on them too.  I have 33 Saurus attacks on Chariot #1 and fail to take either of it's wounds off it! This is actually harder than it looks as at least half those attacks were hitting and wounding on 4+. Chariot #2 aided by the Sorceror finish off the skinks in the centre.  The large scrum in the centre is a pretty ineffectual slapfest with the Chaos Warriors proving to be hard as nails. I direct all Kroq Gar's attacks on the Chaos lord only to fail to wound the bugger. Kroq Gar is chopped up forthwith.

33 attacks vs 9

I must glue my cold One Rider to his steed

The End is Nigh for Skinkdom

End of Lizardman turn 2

Turn Three

Once again Pat wins initiative. The Sorceror casts Daemonic Power on the Chaos Warriors, making them even harder to deal with! The BSB, seeing how my BSB did nothing for two turns and got away with it also leaves his standard in the ground and lights up a cigar. The Chaos lord uses his command ability on Chariot #3. Both chariot use their Don't spare The Lash rule to get uncomfortably close to the Slann. The Chaos Lord also tries to get within kissing distance but his Daemonic Mount doesn't respond to slaps as well as chariot horsies. Both chariots assault the Slann but the Chaos Lord fails. This would normally be a death sentance for good Ole Slanny but after all their attacks it's a 4 - 4 draw (Slann are WAY harder in AoS). A wound is inflicted on Chariot #1 meaning it remains alive. The large fight in the middle continues with a couple of casualties on both sides and no one fleeing to BATTLESHOCK. 

End of Chaos Turn 3

As time is getting on we have agreed that turn three will be the last one. In the hero phase I cast Arcane Bolt at the annoying Chaos Sorceror killing him (the skinks, in fairness had taken a few wounds off him already). My other two Slann spells were summoning a unit of Skinks and a Bastiladon. The Oldblood on Cold One #2 and the BSB charged the Chariot to the right of the Slann (had I a bit more foresight in the previous turn I would have directed my Slann's attacks on the left hand chariot instead). Due to the rules for positioning summoned units I couldn't get the Bastiladon close enough to shoot either the Chaos Lord or Chaos Warriors. so both it and the skinks shot up the nearest chariot taking a few wounds off it. In combat  Saurus unit #1 finally ended the chariot #1. The large fight in the middle ground on. without any sign of a result. chariot #3 was mangled by the double teaming Saurus hero charge and the Slann got chariot #2 down to 1 wound.

Summoning Shenanigans

Last image of the game

Models were totted up and unsurprisingly it was a victory for Pat filthy Chaos. If the game had gone on then I think I could have swung it a bit more in my favour. That said after reading the Daemons of Chaos battlescrolls then the Chaos Sorceror could've been summoning daemons all game as well.

Conclusion

Well, after one game it's hard to give a definitive opinion on AoS but it's certainly better than I had originally thought. We hadn't played with many of the rules: sudden death, mysterious terrain, but I thought there was plenty of tactical options for spells, command abilites and unit rules. The piling in and 360 degree charge arcs will take getting used to but I'm sure it will become clearer. Shooting into and out of combat didn't do very much but that's probably more to do with the armies involved. The amount of terrain certainly did affect the amount of clear lines of sight for shooting too. One thing I did notice is pretty much everything can dish out damage. I had taken the Skink Priest as a spell extension but had I properly read his rules then he would've been played a lot differently. I also think my next game with lizardmen will use a few different battlescrolls as I'm now clearer as to how the game plays. Next game of AoS I intend using my Wood Elves, to see what they have to offer. At the moment one of the best things about  AoS is how the points values has eliminated the use of the word optimal*** on gaming forums. Many, many armchair generals spend more time trying to break a system**** than actually play for the craic. So summing up, I think I will play AoS again, but not at the total expense of 8th ed Warhammer. Ultimately is more about who you play with rather than what.  

* We decided that as we hadn't really studied the weapon options on some of the models that we'd count all models as armed with the first one listed on the battlescroll so as to eliminate confusion.

** BATTLESHOCK is without doubt the thing I dislike the most about AoS so far. It's a stupid (imo) term that is presumably put in the game as a trademarkable bullshit word, that makes rout tests a thing of the past.

*** Optimal-Schmoptimal. Fluffy is fun, although I have no idea about fluff in the new Bust-A-Move universe.

**** Yes you can take Kairos Fateweaver and a Screaming Bell to get you an instant win, but then you're just a cunt if you do.