Dwarfs vs Lizardmen 3500 points

warhammer fantasy battle report :-

"The Ironbreakers have accomplished their initial mission of keeping me from turning the western flank. Of course, this is only because I don't have a western flank, but they feel they deserve a beer." [Ed. Lol] (great report and good insight into writer's tactics)

source : warhammer.org.uk

credit : David L

02-Feb-2009

I played Dwarf vs Dwarf against Paul two weeks ago, so this time we decided to do something different. Since we both had the afternoon free, we also made the game bigger. Hmmmm, more stuff.

Lizardmen Army List

Sacred Host of Quetzl...
2nd generation Slann, BSB, war banner, Tepok, Diadem, 2+ ward
Oldblood, Quetzl, Sotek, Blade of Revered Tzunki, 4+ ward vs S5+
JSoD* scar-vet, Quetzl, Sotek, great weapon, Jaguar Charm, 5+ ward
FSoD** skink chief, Cloak of the Feathers, Sword of Might
Skink Priest, level 2

[Ed. * JSOD = Jaguar Saurus of Doom, ** FSOD = Flying Skink of Doom]

21 Saurus, banner, Quetzl
23 Saurus, banner, Quetzl
13 skinks
10 skinks
10 skinks
10 skink scouts

All skinks have javelins for a 4+ close combat save. I would have put a unit of blowpipes in there, but I only have one unit modelled with javelins and I didn't want to create confusion about which units are modelled correctly and which aren't. Global declaration causes no trouble.

4 Kroxigors with champion
4 Kroxigors with champion
3 Terradons with champion
6 Saurus Cavalry, banner, Huanchi's Blessed Totem
Stegadon
3 Salamanders

Battle Notes:

I brought a list with 2x3 Salamanders, then forgot the other 3 Salamanders. I dropped the 4th Terradon to replace them with the Stegadon.

I generally like the Terradon champion for the extra attack against war machine crew.

I almost never use them for mage assassination, so the challenge negative doesn't come up much.

The Kroxigors champions were there to impose shooting distribution, in the hopes of keeping more models alive to get into combat. Never tried it before.

Dwarf Throng

Since I did not want to gain an advantage by playing magic guessing games, I suggested Paul bring a list with lots of anti-magic and one with none, then choose based on how much magic I took. When we arrived and I told him how much magic I had, he took the list with less anti-magic. (he didn't build a list with zero anti-magic).

Runelord on Anvil with two spellbreakers, re-rollable armour save ???
Thain BSB with MRoGromril, oathstone
Thain with oathstone, weapon of much death
Master Engineer

25 warriors, full command
20 Longbeards
10 crossbows
10 thunderers
10 thunderers

20 Ironbreakers with magic resistance 1
20 Hammerers with MRoGrungi (area 5+ ward vs shooting and magic missiles)
20 Miners
Cannon, engineer, Forging
2 bolt throwers with engineers
Flame Cannon
Organ Gun
Malakai and his Goblin Hewer


Warhammer Battle field setup :

I set up the terrain in my common "perfect for nothing" style, then let him pick sides. Each side had a hill, but they weren't on the table edge and stuck out of the deployment zone. There were also two forests, a building, and some difficult ground. No water.

This GW store doesn't have any small terrain pieces and most of their stuff violates the 12 inch max size limit. I found difficult ground features that were barely legal size, but the hills are huge. In retrospect, I put too much out there. I was mentally locked into putting out 6 small pieces, and failed to readjust after realizing there were no small pieces. I truly gave no thought to the armies involved and what I was playing, and Paul said he was okay with the terrain, but I think I helped myself with terrain.

Warhammer Battle Magic

First spell roll for the Slann was easy - Lore of Shadow.

Lurker is awesome and Pit is game winning against Dwarfs. With two deadly Saurus characters, Steed is awesome. Sadly, the Slann rolled a '1'. Since I think the other three spells in Lore of Shadow are crud, I won't risk a second spell there.

Next roll is also easy - Metal. Now the big toad rolls the '5', but here that is Law of Gold, not Pit of Shades. Especially with no Dwarf Lord, I don't want that spell, so its Burning Iron.

Still looking for a good spell, I move on to death and roll a '2'. Steal Soul is sometimes nice, but with a 12 inch range most targets will be in combat for the Slann to be in range. So I get another default spell.

Last hope for a big spell without risking a worthless one is Fire. Slann does okay now, giving me Fiery Blast.

Last roll and I risk Death, but again roll a '2'. Now I'm stuck with Steal Soul. In retrospect, I probably should have tried for Metal as only Law of Gold would be really bad.

The spell list :

Dark Hand of Death (little magic missile)
Burning Iron (character snipe)
Steed of Shadows (fly character)
Fiery Blast (big magic missile)
Steal Soul (target loses a wound)

The skink priest then rolls perfect - both magic missiles! Guess he's going to be using a common pool dice every turn for the big missile to end the magic phase.


Deployment
My army was built around staying in very tight so everyone gets the Slann's leadership. The Saurus cavalry were the only unit intended to wander away. The only question is how to cram everyone in near the Slann. The 3 skink units form their usual line across the front. Stegadon on the left, using forest as cover from big artillery. Then going west to east, Terradons, Salamanders, 21 Saurus with Slann and Oldblood, other Saurus with JSoD and priest, Krox in front of them, last Kroxigors. I stacked the characters in with the Saurus instead of the skink screens so the Dwarfs couldn't pound the screen down so badly they could hit the characters.

I had a couple more drops than he did, so my Saurus Cavalry got to go last. They were going to go up the western edge. Then a Thunderer unit dropped alongside the bolt thrower over there. Cavalry changed their mind and went on the extreme east. His western thunderers and bolt thrower are going to be ignored and have almost no targets.

On his side, east to west:

bolt thrower, cannon with master engineer, Organ Gun.

On the hill, thunderers, flame cannon, crossbows.
Anvil behind the hill.

Longbeards with BSB, Hammerers with Thain, Warriors, Goblin Hewer.

Somewhat behind the forest, the Ironbreakers faced west (they were deployed relatively early).

Out on the western side, thunderers then bolt thrower.


My scouting skink unit goes in the eastern forest so they can get after the Organ Gun quickly. For no reason I can determine, the FSoD hid behind the building on the west. Terrible terrible location for him.

The east side:-

and west side :-



Turn 1

Still pouting over his spells, the Slann puts the skink priest in charge of grabbing the initiative. The priest's mojo continues and I win the first turn. Whew, less dwarf shooting.

General advance. Scouting skinks race forward. Half the unit is in the woods in range to charge the organ gun, but the line extends out to screen the Saurus cavalry from the bolt thrower and cannon. Stegadon also uses the forest to screen himself from the cannon and bolt thrower. Terradons advance slightly, but expect to receive an Organ Gun shot. JSoD joins the biggest skink screen (in the middle), priest joins the same unit. Western screen extends itself west, so the far west bolt thrower cannot shoot the Kroxigors. FSoD still fails to understand his horrible deployment and flies towards the middle, hiding behind a forest. Should have just landed him in a skink unit.

My opponent rolls poorly to stop Burning Iron on his BSB, and he takes a wound. Other magic is stopped, although he uses a spellbreaker on Fiery Blast.

The east side:-



and west side:-



The Ironbreakers have accomplished their initial mission of keeping me from turning the western flank. Of course, this is only because I don't have a western flank, but they feel they deserve a beer. Anyway, that job done, they turn around and walk east. Then the guns start firing.

The cannon shoots at the skinks screening the Saurus cavalry. He made a totally legit guess, and cleared the skinks with an '8' for the shot and a big bounce. One Saurus cavalry dies.

Flame Cannon get a great '4' for its range, and splashes everything in sight. But the partial Salamander and handler are missed, the Slann is too tough, only one Saurus is killed, and the Slann keeps everyone from panicing.

Organ Gun blows up the Terradons, hill shooters gut the eastern skink screen. Western shooters and goblin hewer kill three off the western screen. I foolishly let them out of the Slann's range, but they pass panic on their own.

Then the Anvil strikes at the Saurus Cavalry, killing one. While that cannon could be ignored, this demonic anvil thing is too much for the cavalry. They fail panic, randomly flee from the Anvil (equal damage from cannon and anvil), and are gone from the table.

The east side :-



and west side :-



Turn 2

Flame Cannon is scary, so the first charge is easy - JSoD into flame cannon. Before declaring this, I suddenly khow dumb I've been. The crossbow and thunderers on the hill are angled (by chance more than plan) so a pursuit will not hit the Anvil. But the Flame Cannon could have given me a perfect line into the Anvil. If only I had put the JSoD further east so he was lined up that way.
Scouting skinks charge the Organ Gun. They should at least tie it up.

Stegadon marches up positioned to kill anything on that hill that survives to next turn. I try to use him to screen the Salamanders from the cannon and bolt thrower, but the handlers have to hang back too far. The eastern screen is pretty worthless now (4 guys), so they jump on the hill to block crossbows from shooting Salamanders.
The main battle line continues its advance, but not full tilt. The western edge gets out of LOS of the thunderers and the skink screen protects the Kroxigors from a flank shooting bolt thrower.
FSoD decides he is never getting to the important shooters on the eastern side, so will engage the west all by himself. He flies behind the hewer, using the thunderers to screen him from the western bolt thrower.

Now with more dice thanks to the Diadem, I hit the Longbeards with a Fiery Blast, roll boxcars for the hits, then he saves everything with MRoGrungi. More importantly, I get Steed of Shadows off on the Oldblood, who flies into the Crossbows. (Oldblood could just see around the west edge of the blue skinks). Their stand-and-shoot does nothing and I look at that hill with high hopes. Salamanders breath fire on Longbeards, and he makes more saves. Net 2 or 3 dead Longbeards this turn despite all my ranged attentions.

Oldblood does not do so well, only killing 3 crossbows. They hold. JSoD does his job, wiping out the Flame Cannon and pursuing into the Thunderers. Scouting skinks kill a Dwarf, make their armour saves, outnumber the Organ Gun crew, and the Dwarfs fail their break test (just out of BSB range). My pursuit is a pitiful 4, but that hits the flank of the Thunderers to help out the JSoD.

The east side :-



and west side :-



The Miners show up, but none of my units are anywhere near a table edge. He brings them up east of the Anvil. I suddenly picture a huge strategic shift, as they anvil into my scouting skinks, breaking the JSoD along the way, and pursuing into the flank of my Stegadon, who is out of BSB range.

The 2 Organ Gun crew fail to rally and flee towards the Anvil.

The Ironbreakers continue their march east and the western Thunderers rank up.

Cannon tries to use the Master Engineer ability and shoots for the Stegadon. He almost overshoots, but just hits and I fail the 'skink save'. Only 2 wounds though and Steggy is still going. Salamander at the end of the bounce takes 5. Eastern bolt thrower then shoots Steggy, I again fail the 'skink save' and lose another 2 wounds. One wound left. I discover I didn't do my western screen quite right, and the far bolt thrower has a shot at the green Saurus. It misses.

Malakai looks at that wierd flying skink and decides to kill him. Whipping out his super handgun/pistol of killiness, he puts two wounds on the poor skink. But the skink has a 4+ armour save, and rolls one '6' to live. The Hewer itself, seeing no point in shooting skink skirmishers again, also shoot the FSoD. Again he rolls a '6' to live.

Finally, the Anvil sends the Miners into my skinks ..... or not. Anvil misfires, no affect.

My luck in the shooting phase switches for the close combat phase. My Oldblood of supreme Dwarf slayage proceeds to roll:-



Thankfully the Oldblood passes his break test.
The JSoD does little better, only killing 2 Dwarfs. The skinks lose one in support, I win by 2, and the Dwarfs hold. The hill is still alive.

The east side



and west side



Turn 3

Looking at the position, I realize there is a way to get to the Anvil this turn. Since I put the Oldblood more towards the east of the crossbows, there is only a partial Dwarf's worth of frontage east of him. The Stegadon is much wider than a partial Dwarf, so will hang off the east side more than an inch. That is enough to take the Stegadon overrun path into the Anvil. So the Stegadon is allowed to line up over there, I charge the remnants of the eastern screen in also, they occupy the western part of the crossbow frontage.

The FSoD has used up all his anti-Malakai luck, so charges the crossbows.

Salamanders move up, using the hill to hide from the cannon. Central screen moves up to bait a Longbeard charge. Saurus catch up to the Kroxigors but the Kroxigors don't advance much since they don't want to get charged. Mainly I want to beat up that Longbeard unit more before engaging.

I start magic by casting Steal Soul. It is really close to being in range on the BSB (who is already down a wound) so my opponent feels he has to stop it. Out of curiousity, we check - it would have been out by a fraction of an inch. He rolls poorly against a magic missile which again does 12 hits. This time the Longbeards saves aren't as great. With him down to 1 (or 2?) dispel dice, I throw 3+1 for Burning Iron and kill his BSB. Salamanders add to the Longbeard casaulties and the western skinks manage to javelin a slayer.

The FSoD does great, killing 3 Dwarfs. They hold.

I then make another bone-headed Anvil-related mistake. Forgetting the entire purpose of my charges (getting the Stegadon into the Anvil), I see a chance for the JSoD to double combat. With the Dwarfs swinging first, he fails both his saves and takes a wound, but then smashes lots of them. Thunderers break and I pursue. Skinks are big, so the Dwarfs flee west. JSoD runs them down and slams into the flank of Crossbows. More killing!! Except the JSoD is now standing in front of the Stegadon. DOH!

The crossbows are mostly stepped on by the Stegadon and the JSoD kills the last two. Slapping myself for being dumb, I have the little skinks overrun since that will get them closer to the Anvil.

The east side



and west side



He sees the need to get into it now, so starts charging. Miners at scouting skinks, Longbeards (the remaining 10) at center skinks. The scouting skinks flee, jumping through half the army going a net 15 inches or so. I had intended to hold with the center skinks, probably break and let the Longbeards charge my Kroxigors. But I realize a potential problem. If I hold, I'm locked in combat. He could then Anvil the Hammerers into that combat and they could pursue into the Kroxigors. Unlike the Longbeards, they have full ranks, numbers, and great weapons. That would be bad, so they flee too. I pass the 4 panic tests.

The Ironbreakers continue heading east. The Hammerers and Warriors continue to hold, which I think was a mistake.

Cannon kills the Stegadon (4 crew still alive), but Aura of Quetzl (ward save) saves my Oldblood. My skink screen having fled, the Goblin Hewer finally gets a shot at Saurus and kills 3.

The Organ Gun crew had just rallied, and the Anvil decides to move them. I didn't remember until typing this sentence that was illegal - Anvil rules disallow moving a unit that just rallied. Since I forgot, he accomplishes his goal - screening the Anvil. The crew is between my characters and the Anvil and the closest one will take my overrun east of the Anvil.

The FSoD only kills one thunderer now and the other one kills the skink. Aren't skink chiefs great?

The east side



and west side



Turn 4

I spend far too much time trying to figure a way to get at the damn Anvil. Only answer I can find is Steed of Shadows, so that'll be the magic phase. In the meantime, its time to take out the rest of his army. Kroxigors CHARGE!!! Eastern unit at Longbeards, western at Warriors. JSoD joins the charge on the Longbeards.
Paul figures the Longbeards are doomed anyway (I agree), so flees. With a big enough roll, he'll force my JSoD to go towards the Ironbreakers. He doesn't get a big enough roll. Kroxigors EitW into the Hammerers, JSoD scatters the Longbeards and also slams into the Hammerers.

Since they are literally worthless, the Stegadon crew charges the Organ Gun crew. If I can break them, I can pursue into the front of the Anvil and have it in combat for the next Dwarf turn. Paul sees this and flees, jumping the Anvil, and I let the skinks hit the anvil now.

Saurus units advance behind the Kroxigors. Oldblood moves west, making sure to be clearly within 12 inches of the Slann and in the flank arch of the now engaged Anvil. Eastern skink screen moves up to block the Ironbreakers. Salamanders give up, and run east to hide from the artillery. Western skinks (and priest) move into the woods near the Hewer.

My fleeing skinks rally, not that anyone cared. They did their job great!!

In the magic phase, I throw missiles at various things, while mentally hording dice. Paul obliges and uses some dispel dice. Then I throw 4+1 for Steed of Shadows and Paul cannot stop it. Oldblood flies into the Runelord!!! Finally the priest magic missiles the Hewer and unlikely dice roll destroys the machine itself. Their javelins then kill the last crew, but Malakai is still there.

The Thain in the Hammerers drops the oathstone (not sure why), and challenges. I accept with the JSoD, who chops the Thain into little pieces without needing to discover what evil runes were on the weapon. Because of the warriors to the west, only 3 Kroxigors can get in. Those three do awesome, killing the unit champion and 5 more. The Hammerers have barely enough left to avoid autobreak and stubbornly hold.
The western Kroxigors, who all get in combat, duplicate that performance exactly - the champion plus 5 more. Those Dwarfs barely hold, rolling an '8'.

Finally the combat that matters. The skinks do nothing, the guards kill 2 skinks. My Oldblood challenges, so the runelord cannot get away. The Oldblood makes up for his earlier ineptitude, and rolls perfect. 6 hits, 6 wounds, one extremely dead RuneLord. Re-rollable armour saves don't work agains the Blade of Revered Dwarf Slaying!

The east side



and west side



Destroying the Goblin Hewer is bad for me, as now Malakai can charge the Kroxigors to help the Dwarf warriors. The Ironbreakers, having nothing else to do, charge the blue skinks, who flee off the table.

Malakai kills a Kroxigor and the warriors do another wound. The Kroxigors pound several Dwarfs back and I make my break test.

The other Kroxigors take a couple wounds and don't hit as well as last round, but they and the JSoD kill enough to autobreak the remaining Hammerers. JSoD hits the flank of the Ironbreakers. The Kroxigors are smarter than me, and pursue 4 inches. This puts them in the rear arc of the Ironbreakers without engaging.

Oldblood finishes the Anvil guards.

To finish things, I send the Kroxigors into the rear of the Ironbreakers and the Oldblood barely makes it into the front. That is 24 attacks that hit wound on 2s with no saves. The Ironbreakers die in quantity and the rest flee.

My other Kroxigor Ancient, annoyed by seeing his friend go down to Malakai, challenges. Malakai does 2 wounds before the Ancient grants Malakai's fondest wish. The other Kroxigors kill some more Dwarfs and eventually the remnant breaks.

MASSACRE FOR THE LIZARDMEN!


After Battle thoughts

I rolled terribly for spells, but by picking lores with good defaults I ended up in good shape. Steed of Shadows won the game and Burning Iron (plus the threat of Steal Soul) killed the all important BSB.

I like units of 4 Kroxigors. 13 attacks, 6.5 hits ... average is to tie or beat a fully ranked unit.

The terrain hurt me in terms of things I couldn't attempt, but overall hurt him more. He was too spread out given the limited LOS.