2v2 battle report, 5/29/10

Me, Ben, Frans, and Sam sat down for a bigger two vs two game a few weeks go. We decided to play 2250 points per person, Me (Empire) and Ben (Lizardmen) on one side, Frans (Skaven!) and Chaos Daemons (Sam) on the other.

The lists:

Good guys:

Empire:

Wizard Lord (lvl 4) w/ Grey Wand, Barded Warhorse

Wizard (lvl 2) w/ 2 Dispel Scroll

Wizard (lvl 2) w/ Rod of Power

Captain (BSB) w/ Imperial Banner, Full Plate Armor

10 Handgunners

10 Handgunners

31 Spearmen w/ Full Command

8 Knights w/ Full Command

25 Swordsmen w/ Full Command

Cannon

Cannon

Mortar

5 Pistoliers w/ Musician

Steam Tank

Helblaster Volley Gun

Went quasi-gunline here, mainly because we needed to have some range threat against these foes.

Lizardmen:

Slann (BSB) w/ Focus of Mystery, Focused Rumination, Becalming Cogitation, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Plaque of Dominion, 2 Dispel Scolls

Skink Priest (lvl 2) w/ Engine of the Gods, Dispel Scroll, Diadem of Power

Saurus Scar-Vet w/ Great Weapon, Light Armor, Charm of the Jaguar Warrior

Saurus Scar-Vet w/ Great Weapon, Light Armor, Horned One

12 Skink Skirmishers

12 Skink Skirmishers

12 Skink Skirmishers

15 Saurus Warriors w/ Spears, Musician, Standard

15 Saurus Warriors w/ Spears, Musician, Standard

3 Terradons

16 Temple Guard w/ musician, standard Bearer

You can find some information about Ben's thoughts on this list when he posts about it (soon after this goes up, I'm sure).

Team Evil:

Skaven:

Vermin Lord

Warlock Engineer (lvl 2) w/ Warp-Energy Condenser

Warlock Engineer (lvl 1) w/ 2 Dispel Scroll

Plague Priest (lvl 2) w/ Shadow Magnet, Plague Furnace

25 Clan Rats - with PWMortar Weapons Team
21 Slaves
21 Slaves
30 Plague Monks - Full Command - Banner of Under Empire
6 Jezzails
8 Censor Bearers
DoomWheel
Hell Pit Abomination

Frans finished painting that Vermin Lord the the night before the game, it looked really good! You'll also notice that the evil team had a nearly fully painted army compared to the Good Guys.

Daemons:

Lord of Change (lvl 2)- don't remember gifts (see below)

Herald of Tzeentch

Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut

Blue Scribes

Block of Bloodletters

Big (30 or so) block of Horrors

10 Pink Horrors

Beast of Nurgle

3 Bloodcrushers

Flesh Hounds ('Khorne Dogs')

Sam may have to correct my list, so I may be editing it as he reminds me of things. He took a Lord of Change + Blue Scribes which REALLY messed with our concerns with the game (I personally failed a Ld test), but he ran it as a level 2 with the goal of casting Flaming Sword of Rhuin on it, and sending it in. It actually went pretty well (and really threw me off guard- I loved it!)

On to the battle!

Our Deployment


Their Deployment


Turn 1:

The evil guys won the roll to go first. They started their movement phase by basically moving everything straight toward us, except the Vermin Lord and Lord of Change, who went to our right to work on crushing our flank.



Managed to stop most of their magic, allowing only Flaming Sword of Rhuin to go off on the Lord of Change (followed by 10 minutes of me laughing due to the awesomeness of the idea) and Howling Gale which hindered our movement and shooting some. Their shooting accounted for 3 Censor Bearers from the Doomwheel, and a single Spearmen from the Plaguewind Mortar.

We started our turn by sending the Steam Tank (with 5 steam points) into the Doomwheel, and Ben sent one of his Scar-Veterans charging into the Khorne Dogs. I send my cavalry around to start threatening the evil guys' right flank.




We managed to do a few thing with our magic phase: killed 4 slaves, 6 plague monks, 3 Censor Bearers, 2 wounds to the beast of nurgle, 1 wound to doomwheel. Nothing devastating, but certainly a few turns like that would help. Shooting, however, was another matter. I guess completely accurate with both my cannons, destroying the Plague Furnace, and the mortar drops right on top of a unit of slaves, killing 13, and having them run off the board. In combat, the Steam Tank drops the Doomwheel, whereas the Scar-Vet and Khorne Dogs fail to do anything to one another. So far, looking good for the good guys!

Turn 2:

Frans' Censor Bearers charge the Steam Tank, hoping to deal a wound or two to limit it's effectiveness. The Plague Beast charges a unit of skinks (who I believe flee), the Hellpit goes into another unit of skinks, the Juggernauts charge a unit of Saurus (and fail the charge because the mentioned Beast of Nurgle doesn't get out of their way), and the Lord of Change charges into the other Saurus unit. In combat a little earlier than we would've liked. Their only magic success was casting warp lightning on some handgunners, killing 5, and they managed to put a wound on a wizard with some jezzail fire.

In combat, the Censor Bearers don't do a wound (but will hold the Steam Tank in place for a turn, which isn't a bad thing for them), the Helpit beats the skinks and runs them down, the Lord of Change kills 4 Saurus, still manages to lose by 1, but doesn't take any wounds, and Karnak dies out of the Flesh hounds, but the rest of the unit is fine.



We began our turn by charging the unengaged Saurus unit into the Beast of Nurgle, hoping to overrun into the Juggernauts (saving us from being charged by them), and sending the Terradons over the blue scribes, dropping some rocks (and ending up killing it).



Our magic phase kills 9 slaves (who panic away and are never seen from again), and results in my first miscast, which allows the Vermin lord to 13th spell all over my Spearmen, killing 18. We then follow by doing almost no damage with shooting. Not exactly the strong second turn we needed.

In combat, the Steam Tank wipes out the 2 Censor Bearers facing it. The Saurus do a wound to the Plague Beast, who instabilities to death, and overrun into the Juggernauts. The Lord of Change kills 5 Saurus, who do a wound back, but still lose combat by 1 (but hold). Flesh hounds and the Scar-Vet continue to accomplish nothing.




Turn 3:

They charge their Furnace-less Plague Monks into the Slann/Temple Guard unit, and the Hellpit + Vermin Lord charge into the Saurus block that has been fighting the Lord of Change. Not looking good. Their magic starts to do some damage as well- the Vermin Lord casts Scorch right onto my swordsmen unit, killing 15. Their Jezzails then kill a Terradon, causing the unit to panic and die.

In combat, the Juggernauts receive a wound from the charging saurus... then deal 12 wounds in return, breaking the unit, and running them down (and causing my one wizard in the area to flee from their murderous charge... he doesn't return). The Flesh Hounds lose by one again, but hold, and the Temple Guard lose combat, but hold. The Saurus on our right (with the Lord of Change, Vermin Lord, and Helpit)? They don't make it either. Really just getting a lot of evil guys on our side of the board at this point.




We don't do a whole lot of movement on our turn. Ben hides the Engine of the Gods, I rearrange my infantry blocks some. I start the magic phase off by dealing 4 wounds to the Hellpit with a fireball, then proceed to miscast on my next spell, ending our magic phase (VERY poor timing, as the Lizardmen hadn't cast any spells, really hurting our chances). A cannon finishes the Hellpit off, and the Helblaster deals a wound to the Juggernauts breathing down our backfield. In combat, the scar-veteran finally dies to the flesh hounds, and the Temple Guard lose again, but hold.



Turn 4:

The Vermin Lord looks hungrily at the first cannon he sees, and charges it. The Lord of Change charges the nearest unit of handgunners, who also flee (right off the board). The Flesh Hounds charge my swordsmen. Bloodletters finally get into combat.. vs the Temple Guard. The Juggernauts turn around and make their way out of the forest they were stuck in. They do nothing during the magic phase, but do a wound to the Steam Tank through Jezzail fire.

In combat, the flesh hounds lose by three to the swordsmen, taking three more wounds, the Temple Guard lose as well, but again hold.

Time to counterattack! My Steam Tank runs head on into the Pink Horrors. My Knights attempt to follow... but fail their fear test. My Pistoliers attempt to charge the flank of the bloodletters... but also fail their fear test. L'sigh.

The Engine deals a wound to the Bloodcrushers in the magic phase, and the Slann conflagurates into the Plague Monks, killing 10 (and it turned out we did this VERY wrong... but it didn't matter in the end result). The Handgunners fire point blank into the Lord of Change, dealing three wounds, resulting in it's death. In combat, the Steam Tank gets 12 impact hits... and does 2 wounds. Stupid 4+ ward save. The Flesh Hounds lose combat by 4 and blow up, the Temple Guard finally get wiped out, but the Slann holds.



Turn 5:

The Juggernauts charge the knights, who flee way out of the way, and the Juggernauts happily head into the Steam Tank. The Steam Tank takes a wound during the magic phase, while my sole surviving handgunner unit is brought down to a single man. The Skaven Mortar kills 3 swordsmen during the shooting phase, and their Jezzails take 2 wounds off the Engine of the Gods.

In combat, the Slann take 3 wounds, and ends up losing combat by 6, but rolls double ones and holds! The Steam Tank takes 3 wounds as well.




My Knights rally, and face the Pink Horrors near them. My Spearmen charge into the small unit of Pink Horrors on our right, hoping to break through and claim a table quarter, the Engine charges into the flank of the Bloodletters, hoping to save the Slann.

The Engine deals 3 wounds to the Bloodletters during the magic phase, and Cleansing Flare from my Wizard Lord sends the Jezzails packing. The Helblaster fires at the only target it can see, the Vermin Lord, rolls 18 shots, and deals 3 wounds to it.

Combat doesn't go enough in our favor, sadly- the spearmen win their combat by one, but no more horrors die. The Steam Tank kills a juggernaut, but takes two more wounds in return. The Slann dies in the combat, and the Engine wins by two vs the Bloodletters, but they don't take enough wounds to matter.



Turn 6:

The Vermin Lord charges into the Helblaster, and the plague monks charge a cannon. They wipe out the last of my swordsmen unit (including the BSB) with their magic phase, and continue to pound on us in combat. The Steam Tank doesn't take any wounds, thankfully, although the Engine dies, sealing our entire left closest quarter. The Spearmen once again beat the horrors, causing two more of them to die through instability. My Cannon and Helblaster are destroyed.

Our final turn, we accomplish nothing with magic, but kill the Vermin Lord with skink shooting. I do succeed in blowing up the horrors in the final combat, as well as dropping the khorne herald with the Steam Tank, but the outcome is already clear....

Outcome!

Well, we lost pretty handily. I don't think it was quite a massacre (as we definitely killed quite a bit of our opponent's forces), but it certainly wasn't a draw. There was almost no lizardmen left on the table (a unit of skinks), and aside from my untouched knights unit and badly mangled steam tank, there's not many Empire miniatures on the board either. If I had waited for Ben to do his magic phase before I miscast the one turn, it could have been a lot closer, but I'm not sure it would have been enough to change the outcome.

It was, however, a fantastic and fun game, and it was great seeing the balance of the game shift from us to our opponents as the game wore on (they were none too happy after our first turn, but were significantly more excited later on). A well fought loss is always worthy of a rematch though!