BR: Beasts vs Lizardmen, part 2

Here was the situation at the start of turn 2:


Turn 2a: With no charges, he moved things up more. Including moving his big SMP unit up on the hill to contest both objective markers.
He moved his skinks up closer to the house.
He rallied the fleeing skinks.

For magic he cast Dark hand at my hounds. I was actually glad to see this as I wanted them out of the way. But he rolls a miscast. Then he casts the steal soul on my Harbringer in the lower herd. I let it go and he takes a wound.
He then casts the 12" radius of death spell. I scroll that with my Harbringer who just took a wound. Then he casts forked lightning on my hounds. I almost let it go, but rolled my dice and stopped it.

For shooting, his lower skinks with javelins wound my spawn.
The salamanders spit at my 4 hounds in front of the temple guard and wipe them out. Ouch, 4 panic checks. Made them all except my chariot who was just outside the 12" generals range. Luckily they roll a 7 on the re-roll.

In combat the skinks fail to wound the spawn who kills 3 more. I win by 2, but now without the general, they flee and are run down by the spawn.

And here is the setup at the beginning of my turn 2.


Oh, what was he up to with the temple guard. I had been eyeing this charge since he moved it up there. Stubborn, Ld 9 with re-rolls could be rough, but if I could kill enough and stop any counter charges, I felt like I was ok.

So CHARGE!! Unit of 4 into the Temple guard. Unit of 3 Rat Ogres into their flank. And chariot into the front as well. At the very top I also declared the 5 hounds into the skinks with blowpipes.

He holds with the TG and stands and shoots with the skinks.
My spawn that had just broke the one unit, turns and hits this unit. He still shoots the hounds, and in an impressive display wipes them out. My Rat Ogres make their panic check.
The spawn by the house finds 1 skink he can make contact with and that is all he has to do. They also stand and shoot, but nothing.
Finally my last spawn. Here is the problem. If I roll, really low, it will block the Rat Ogres from charging. So I have only 1 safe move, I move him backwards towards my own table edge.

Then on the charge, the Rat Ogres are all fine, but the chariot fails its fear test. Luckily it gets a re-roll and makes it. I move my hounds to prevent the other Saurus block from moving that way.
I move my furies up to block his Krox from a rear charge on my Rat Ogres.
I move my chariot away from his Krox and move my unit of 4 up to face his unit of 3.

In magic I really didn't want the sallamanders to spit at Ratspawn, so I cast Beast cower on them, so now they can only shoot at the hounds.

In hand to hand, In each of the skink/spawn combats, I killed 1, it was a drawn combat.
In the big one, 7 impact hits. All wound, he saves only 1, needing a 5+. Then with 21 attacks, 10 hit and again, ALL WOUND. OUCH!!! Needing 6's to save, (I totally forgot about splitting out the flank attacks as he should have had no save with them.) He saves 4!! So a breath of life for him. I win by a huge number, but stubborn, fear causing Ld 8, makes it easily.

Here we are at the beginning of turn 3:


Note that the SMP is still in the middle of the TG. We just moved him as he wasn't very stable on the hill.

Turn 3a: My opponent was impressed he took that hard a charge on his TG and was still standing. His Kroxigor units charge my furies and my unit of 4 Rat Ogres respectively.
His saurus refuse to take the hound bait and move up. The salamanders cannot move but can still shoot.

In magic he casts Dark hand on Ratspawns unit, using the priest for LOS. He does 5 hits and gets 4 wounds, killing the Rat Ogre in the back.
He casts his 12" death nuke bomb but I use my other scroll on that.
He casts steal soul again and I dispel that. He casts forked lightning with his skink but fails.

In shooting his skinks and salamanders all shoot at the hounds. Manage to kill 3 after a salamander ate 2 handlers. They panicked (thankfully) and ran away. Through 2 units, but since they are only US 4, no one cares.

In hand to hand. skinks lose to the spawn at the top, but holds.
The skinks at the bottom wound my spawn, and actually win combat.
The krox kill 3 furies, I do no wounds, they pop. He overruns 5" stopping right in front of my herd.
In the SMP battle, he uses a resource to make himself +1 WS, so his Temple guard are WS 5. He does only 3 wounds to the front, killing 1 rat ogre and wounding a 2nd. And 2 wounds on the flank. He rolled no 3's to hit at all. But needing 4's to wound, he rolled a lot of 3s.
The chariot whiffs completely. My chariots really suck after they get past their impact hits I've noticed.
Between the 15 attacks from the minotaurs, I somehow manage to get 10 wounds again!! Where the hell did that come from?? Out of that, needing 6's to save, he saves 4 again!! Wow, this combat is just a friggen anomaly of high dice rolling.

Then finally, what I felt was the biggest combat. Krox on Rat Ogres. With 9 attacks he manages 4 wounds. So 1 dead Rat Ogre. 1 wounded. I get 9 Attacks back. Needing 3's to hit. I get 6 hits and all 6 wound. Sweet. So 2 dead. I win by 4, since I also have the Temple structure within 12". 2 wounds, size, Temple.
Needing a 3 not to break, he rolls it. UGGGhhhh!!!!
If he fails this, then I overrun an average of about 10" and am in perfect position to charge his Saurus block in the flank.

Here was the setup at the beginning of my turn 3:


Time to put it on the line. Turn 3b:
Ratspawn and body guard into Saurus infantry block.
Ratogres at the top into the rear of the skinks.
Herd at the bottom into the Kroxigor.

Everyone holds. Hounds rally.
Chariots move for supporting charges. The one in combat with the SMP is now out of combat. He swings around to face the flank of the Krox in case the herd cannot win that combat.

Magic: Setrad casts Beast Cower on the salamanders again, but it is dispelled.
Sutenrot casts Bears Anger on himself. 3-6's. Sweet.

In hand to hand, I do the SMP first, hoping to break them early on, so he can't use the general's leadership or BSB to his advantage.
He does 1 wound and kills a Rat Ogre to the front. My 3 rat Ogres on the flank get 9 attacks on the SMP and 2 get through. So he is down 1. (remember the drain life earlier.) Then with 6 attacks on the 2 TG, I get 2 hits and only 1 wound. Guess all that good luck came back on me. And he saves that 1 wound on a 6.
So I have 2 wounds, US and flank. He has 1 wound, banner & BSB. Whew, I almost lost that combat. He holds easily.

In the Herd combat, with 5 strength 5 attacks, needing 3's and 3s, the bear's anger Shaman does only 1 wound. Luckily the rest of the herd do 2 more wounds, and kill one.
He puts 3 attacks on my Harbringer and kills him. The other krox does 2 wounds on a couple Gor. So 3 wounds, to 3 wounds. But US, rank, and banner, he breaks and runs. I pursue and catch him.

Skinks in combat with the spawn at the bottom, actually kill the spawn. Ugghhh.

The Rat Ogres at the top of the battle, easily wipe out the skinks there in combat with the spawn.
And the 3 rat ogres with higher initiative, wipe out the lone Krox there.

Finally on the Saurus/Ratspawn combat. Ratspawn challenges. Scar Vet accepts.
With 5 attacks, I hit 4 times. Sweet. Then needing 3's to wound, I do not get a single wound. What is up with Ratspawn and wounding lately?? This is 2 times in a row he has sucked at this.
So I hated to do it, but I used my Hidden Temple League resource to get my 1 re-roll. (you must re-roll all dice rolled for that one roll) I re-rolled the 4 to wound dice and got 2 wounds. Average, thats all I ask.

Anyway, he only saves 1. And I then roll for the extra hellfire damage and get a 6. So the Scar Vet literally explodes into a hundred pieces and I pick up 7 wounds there. 2 + 5 overkill, ouch!!
I then get my other 13 attacks. My dice turned again, as needing 3's and 2s with no armor save, I only get 4 wounds. Should have been around 8. I did take out the champion, so he got no attacks back. He still has 16 saurus to my US 15. Banner, 3 ranks, so he only loses by 7. So needing a 2 not to break, he rolls a 3. He gets to re-roll from the BSB. And fails again. Ratspawn chases him down.

That was the game.


We played on another turn, but we were mainly BSing the rest of the time and I didn't bother with turn by turn pictures.

Turn 4a: He ran his skinks into the house. sallies and skinks shot at Ratspawn, killing 1 of his body guards.
His magic he soul drained a Rat Ogre in base with him.

In combat I kill off his 2 Temple guard, win by 2, but he makes his break test. I now have 4 Rat Ogres on his SMP.

Turn 4b: Chariot and spawn charge skinks. He stands and shoots and does a wound to the chariot. I wipe them out, overrun into the salamanders.
I do a wound to his SMP, he again holds.
Beastherd assaulted the house and kicked the skinks out. The last 2-3 ran off the board, I take the house.

We call it there. Here was the final picture:


Remember the SMP is still up on the hill facing the 2 Rat Ogres there.


Final thoughts on the battle coming tomorrow.

until next time...