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I think I'll start adding NEW! to the title of my reports, until the next week. Or maybe I'll start numbering the games like other people do.

Anyway! Andrew and I tabled our Elves and Lizards once again. We have had some crazy games lately, and this one proved to be the zaniest.
The craziness started with my list, testing out a couple of things: Level 4 Metal Mage and NO Shooting phase! Wooaw boy.

Lists
Archmage (General) - Level 4 Metal, Staff of Solidity (Glittering Robe, Enchanted Blades of Aiban, Searing Doom, Transmutation of Lead)
Mage - Level 1, Silver Wand (Shield of Saphery, Fury of Khaine, Drain Magic)
Noble (BSB) - Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield
19 Spearmen - Standard Bearer
19 Spearmen - Standard Bearer, Banner of Arcane Protection
19 Phoenix Guard - Musician, Standard Bearer
19 Swordmasters of Hoeth - Musician, Standard Bearer

Slann Mage-Priest (General, BSB) - Level 4 Life (Throne of Vines, Flesh to Stone, Regrowth, Shield of Thorns), Focused Rumination
Skink Chief - Stegadon w/ War Spear, Giant Bow
30 Saurus Warriors - Full Command, Spears
20 Temple Guard
Salamander Hunting Pack - 4 Handlers

Initial Thoughts
I was very skeptical about this list from the beginning. No Shooting? C'mon, that's just nuts. But I wanted to see what a fully CC army can do. I missed out on the hard hitting Swordmasters last game, and I liked the survivability of the Phoenix Guard (even though they didn't survive THAT much last time), and I wanted to use the Spearmen properly this time.
And the Level 4 Metal Mage was also a test. I didn't get Final Transmutation, which would have been great.

Set Up and Deployment

We rolled up Meeting Engagement, and brought out 8 pieces of terrain: a Forest, two Marshes, two Rivers, two buildings and a Charnel Pit.
Andrew chose his side and deployed everything except his Slann and Salamander. This was GREAT for me, as it meant he would not get the Temple Guard or the Salamander into the fight early on.
Only my BSB Noble rolled a one.
I rolled the "steal initiative" roll...and got it. First turn to me.


Elves 1

*Movement: I decided to move up slowly and let Magic do its thing, what with some good spells against armoured foe. I also wanted to make sure I could support any of my units that were charged, so I set up some counter-charge lanes. Well, at least I thought I did. We'll see shortly that I need to work on my manoeuvring a bit more
*Magic: I started things off with Searing Doom! Well, it was more tepid than searing, really. And less doom than one would hope. Targeting the Saurus Warriors, I only got 3 hits. And then, needing 4+, I rolled a 1, 2 and 3. Nice. Fury of Khaine and Shield of Saphery were both dispelled.


Lizardmen 1

*Movement: As if Andrew wanted to show me the errors of my planning, the Saurii charged my rightmost Spearmen (probably aiming for the Archmage) and the Stegadon charged my Swordmasters. What!? This was NOT how it was supposed to go, man. Oh, and if mucking about my plans wasn't bad enough, the Stegadon gained Always Strikes First and an extra Attack from the River of Light it charged through (Birona's Timewarp), and the Saurii, who just clipped the river, gained a -1 to hit against them (Pha's Protection). Oi. Yeah, well, not all Light spells are good! The Salamander found this out the hard way, taking two wounds and losing two Handlers thanks to Banishment.
*Magic: So, first the Slann gets off Throne of Vines. Great. Then he casts both Flesh to Stone at +4T and Shield of Thorns at S4 on the Saurus Warriors. OUCH. The Thorns, thanks to my Banner of Arcane Protection and some lucky rulls, only manage to kill one Spearman.
*Close Combat: Combat goes a little differently, as four more Spearmen fall. But wow, I was slightly lucky as he had 16 rolls to hit against me. Oh yeah, I also speared three Saurii in the guts. The Spearmen stayed. Next door, the Swordmasters, best fighters in all of Ulthuan...sucked. Not only did they suck, but the Skinks they were fighting rocked. Maybe they were jealous that Birona's Timewarp was good to the Lizards. My first mistake was not aligning the bases up properly, and only getting three Elves on the Steg instead of four. Oi. Next...that dang War Spear chewed up a tonne of guys. I can't recall exactly how man, but after all of the attacks were said and done, the Swordmasters had lost a whopping THIRTEEN guys. Thirteen, and did only...ready for it?...one wound on the Steg. That was my second mistake, targeting the Steg and not the crew. Dang nammit. How come my less-skillful, less-powerful Phoenix Guard ate the Steg for dinner last game, and this game the all-mighty Swordmasters did diddly? That's it...I'm renaming the Swordmasters to the Diddlymasters. Masters of Diddly.
They fled, by the way. I'm almost ashamed they did not get run down. They're lucky the do not have shields, 'cause you know the Spartan saying...


Elves 2

*Movement: With all of my plans shot to shoot, I double charged the Saurii with the other Spearmen (flank) and the Phoenix Guard (only a few models touching). The BSB moved in closer (in the open), the Mage moved around so the Salamander could not get a free shot at him. The Diddlymasters fled some more.
*Magic: Another Winds that gave the Slann just slightly less dispell dice than I had power dice. Transmutation of Lead: Dispelled. Enchanted Blades of Aiban: Dispelled. Shield of Saphery: Went through, surprisingly! Went on the Archmage's unit. Oh, and I dispelled the Thorns, 'cause that was annoying. Andrew and I talked here about how I should have dispelled Flesh as well, which is true, I should have. Duh.
*Close Combat: After what felt like a million dice coming at the Saurii, only ONE fell. Yes. One. I definitely should have taken down Flesh. The Saurii didn't fare too much better, to be honest, doing only four wounds among my Elves. When it came to Combat Res I had 5, while the Lizards only had 4 (no ranks or Steadfast), and with the Charnel Pit nearby they were at -2. Even Cold Blooded, not being near the General/BSB, he managed to fail by 1. And fled. And got caught. Andrew's game went from REALLY high, to pretty low. It was definitely not over, but he had just lost a huge chunk of points and was down to only three other units. It was going to be a tough fight, that's for sure. I felt that the Fates were just trying to comfort me, after such a poor outing up until now. The three units moved up. The first Spearmen gained Pha's Protection for a turn, while the second Spearmen lost three to Banishment. I don't think I attempted Ward Saves from my Banner...crud.


Lizardmen 2

*Movement: The Stegadon chose to spin and take some shots at the BSB, who was still right in the middle of nowhere. The Temple Guard moved into the river and received nothing of significance. The Salamander however, who left the one river and touched the other, got Banished a second time, and died. Andrew got a little greedy, but he had a 2-in-3 chance of something good happening. But chances mean nothing, apparently, as out of I think seven rolls so far, three of them were Banishment. I think Han Solo was right to not trust the odds.
*Magic: I think this was another low-Winds turn, or I dispelled well, because I think the only spell that was cast was Flesh on the Temple Guard.
*Shooting: The Stegadon's Giant Bow missed the BSB, but the Skinks managed to hit him with one Javelin.


Elves 3

*Movement: Free from the threat of the Salamander, the Spearmen and Phoenix Guard shuffled around to get ready for the Temple Guard's eventual charge. The other Spearmen flipped around to worry about the Stegadon (not reforming ranks, which is just silly of me, really); the Archmage and Mage moved up to help against the Temple Guard; the Diddlymasters rallied; and the BSB moved up, out of charge-arc of the Stegadon, but still where he can be shot. I really don't know what I was doing with that guy. Seriously.
*Magic: All I did was dispel this turn, both Throne of Vines and Flesh to Stone.


Lizardmen 3

*Movement: The Stegadon charged the Spearmen and the Temple Guard charged the othe Spearmen. Why do the Lizards hate my Spearmen, so?
*Magic: I could only stop Flesh this turn, but the Slann did get off Shield of Thorns and Throne of Vines again. In that order, as Andrew didn't realise Throne was not retroactive. Four of my Spearmen fell to the Thorns.
*Close Combat: Another five Spearmen died at the hands of the Temple Guard, who took no losses. The remaining 8 Spearmen fled, while the Temple Guard restrained themselves and turned to face the Phoenix Guard. The Stegadon annihilated the other Spearmen, between Impact Hits and those dastardly Skinks that continued to kick butt. The Steg's Overrun took him to less than 1" from the BSB, but not enough to tough him. That was funny. But not really.


Elves 4

*Movement: My plan to flank-charge the Temple Guard failed because the Spearmen failed to hold. So instead of charging them, which I probably should have, come to think of it, the PG stood still. The Archmage moved across to Magically aid the PG, and the BSB moved so the Steg could not charge him. The picture makes it look like the Steg could still charge the PG, but it's a little inaccurate there, as the PG were a little lower I guess, or the Steg's angle was higher. Anyway, the Diddlymasters moved up and the Spearmen rallied.
*Magic: This is when I realised that charging would have been a much better idea, among many others I should have had this game. I THINK all I did was dispell Throne of Vines again. I should have known the Winds were going to be cruddy again, and I should have just charged.


Lizardmen 4

*Movement: Well, the Temple Guard charged in. The Stegadon backed up so he could shoot at the BSB.
*Magic: I don't think Andrew got Throne off again, as I think Flesh was just regular. Oh yes, wait, that's right. I think I dispelled Throne with all of my dice, just to be sure, and then he cast Flesh with Irresistable Force. I was looking for a 2-4 to get rid of that Slann, he rolled a 7 instead. The ensuing Detonation! ripped apart ALL twelve Saurii touching the Slann. Not a single 1 was rolled. This included the Champion, who took it like a Lizard. And died. Once again all of my bad luck was being balanced by REALLY bad luck for Andrew. The rest of the dice were lost. It did not help that the Phoenix Guard made all of their Thorns saves.
*Shooting: He dropped my BSB with a Giant Bow shot to the head.
*Close Combat: Severely depleted, the Temple Guard managed to kill three Phoenix Guard, who killed only one Temple Guard (aww yeah, Guard on Guard action!). The Phoenix Guard stayed put.


Elves 5

*Movement: The Diddlymasters needed to get back in my good books and charged the flank of the Stegadon. The Spearmen charged the flank of the Temple Guard, gaining the Speed of Light as they went through the river.
*Magic: Another turn of just dispelling, so now there were no spells anywhere. Thank goodness. Oh wait, I couldn't dispell Flesh. I hope that didn't make a difference...
*Close Combat: Regardless of mistakes, five more Temple Guard died, as did one more Phoenix Guard. The Temple Guard, stubborn as they were, stayed put. The Diddlymasters once again pulled an Epic Fail and got dead down to one guy who took off running. The Steg took two wounds.


Game End and Final Thoughts
We had to stop the game here, sadly. The last turn and a half, I'm sure, were going to be a doozy. Since we know where our units were, we're going to do the rolls and see what could have happened. I'll update you with that "Alternate Ending" ASAP.
So...
Shooting: Never leave home without it.
Metal Magic: Probably better left for Bretonnians. Or at least don't put all of your Magical eggs in one Level 4 basket.
Facing the Stegadon: Maybe it's better to hit the crew, sometimes, and try and force a Monster Reaction out of him. I'm going to look up that chart and see if it might be worth it next time.
Overall, this game was silly. My list was silly. I manoeuvred silly. The Rivers of Light were silly. The Saurii failing by one and getting chopped down was silly. The Irresistable Force eating up TWELVE Temple Guard was silly. Man. Lots of silliness here. From now on I'm going to test things out with a little more thought put into it, I think
Oh yes...I apologize about the "Guard on Guard" action...I couldn't help myself.

Thanks for reading. Comments and the such of course are welcome.
I will try and get the ending up as soon as we roll it.

Nice report again.

Strangely enough, I would say that my best performers were: The Stegadon Skink crew (#1) and the River of Light (#2) ... followed closely by the Stegadon itself.

It was an odd game. Everything bizarre that could happen, did.

"Wow, look at what that magic river did for our larger brethren! Lets guide the Salamander over there..." - ZAAAP!
"Ouch, I'm thirsty now..." - ZAAAP!

No one every said Skinks were particularily smart...they did, afterall, volunteeer to poke a big fire breathing lizard with a stick.

I don't think I have a unit of the match. They all performed sub-par. I guess when your guys often have 6 or 8 Toughness, you can't expect too much out of them. Yeesh.

At least you got to see what a Steg can really do!

Thanks for the report. It's cool to see people using out-of-the-book terrain rules. They've fallen a bit by the wayside here, which I think is a bit of a shame. I don't think they're appropriate at all times, but I think they can add something fresh to the game, for sure.

You should bear in mind that you can only dispel ongoing spells that are actually classified as Remains in Play. So Throne falls in this category, but Flesh to Stone does not. If Flesh to Stone goes off, its staying until the next lizard magic phase.

Nice report, been waiting for new batreps - have been writing a paper for the last four days and officially drained the Internet of warhams reports

Perhaps one of the first times I've seen the warspear complete a charge (though I rarely see it in 8th at all), about as hideous as expected!

A few mistakes, which may or may not have been caught:
- models coming on as reserves start with their base edge on the line, then can only move, not march (looks like your BSB scampered 10" first turn)
- the ancient steg has machine gun blowpipes instead of its giant bow (mandatory replacement IIRC)
- flesh to stone is not RiP, so can't be dispeled, has to be suffered through for 1 full turn*

*Ninja'd by RZ!

Interesting you're working with Metal, hope you have some more luck with it (and let us know about it )

- Salvage

Boss Salvage wrote:
- the ancient steg has machine gun blowpipes instead of its giant bow (mandatory replacement IIRC)

I could definitely be wrong about this, but I think the Skink Chief can take a Baby Steg as a mount. He isn't required to go ancient like the Engine. That could be why the Giant Bow is still there...

Red_Zeke wrote:

Boss Salvage wrote:
- the ancient steg has machine gun blowpipes instead of its giant bow (mandatory replacement IIRC)

I could definitely be wrong about this, but I think the Skink Chief can take a Baby Steg as a mount. He isn't required to go ancient like the Engine. That could be why the Giant Bow is still there...

Correct, the chief is allowed to ride a baby steg.

Nice report as always mrborges

Interesting. I am a fan of the Lv 4... did you find the smaller lv 1 useful? or just a drag when it came to PD.

At 1500 pts are 2 major blocks + support the regular? Have you considered lion chariots?

Whoops, my bad on the baby steg! Definitely never seen the warspear on a S5 impacter, 2D6+ S6 impacts I just assumed was the auto-include for it. Maybe 1500 keeps things too tight for the extra points?

- Salvage

Thank you for the catches, guys.
I realised while writing the report that I had dispelled Flesh to Stone (I mentioned it on High Elf Turn 5). While writing I was looking at the cards and went, "Oh crap." I think I dispelled it once or twice in the game, and we never caught it, even though last week or the week before we talked about not being able to dispell non-RiP spells.
I did in fact go too far with the BSB! Yeesh. I guess him getting killed was payback for my cheating!

We definitely are not cheating on purpose. We're constantly forgetting things, especially me, I think, and especially when it's in my favour to remember...things like alignging properly and reforming after combat.
More and more we're getting things right the first time (we think, at least), and our games are getting faster.
Heh, just when we think we've got it, we're starting new armies in a few days...that's not going to make things easier!

And I also fixed the italics problem.

I like having the Level 1 High for the +1 to dispel and Drain Magic (which I haven't used lately). I like having +4 to my casting and dispelling, but I will probably split those points next time.
This was just a test list for me, which I was not happy with. I will definitely bring shooting back in. I think one of my next tests will be chariots, as I have one of each.
I'm not a fan of BIG blocks. With Skaven the most I ever tried, I think, was 35 guys, and even then I wanted less...and that's Skaven! When I get to Empire, I really don't want to get past 25, to be honest.

Thanks for the comments! If you see any more errors or have any more questions, please do ask/note/etc.

Very nice batrep. The graphics really help.

Love to see some fun/silly games! Makes a change to some of the hardcore tournament reports you get here, keep them coming!

One minor gripe, to quell my inner grammar nazi:

It's Sauri, not Saurii. Saurii would be the plural of Saurius.

Heh, thank you Vitruvian.
I'll admit that I am aware of the plural ending for Saurus (I managed to retain just enough of my high school Latin courses), but as soon as Andrew took up Lizardmen I started writing it as Saurii. I think I just like the look a lot better

mrborges: Please don't take *any* of the corrections as criticisms of you or your opponent. As a(n occasional) writer of battle reports, I can tell you that comments frequently end up pointing these things out. I consider it a good thing, though- sometimes a local group will all be playing something a little wrong and not even realize it. Early on with the Relentless I had some good corrections that I was able to introduce into our local group.

Which is all to say, great reports, thanks for posting them, and don't take the corrections as a bad thing!

Hehe, you are right, it does look and sound better!

Keep these reports coming, theyre giving me my fantasy fix even when no-one round here wants to play

Of course not, RZ! I definitely want people to point out the errors we make. We fully admit that we are still learning the game, and figuring out more and more each game we play. Sometimes we make silly mistakes, sometimes we just forget things that we should know, sometimes we come up against new rules we have to figure out on the fly. Sometimes we'll do something wrong, even if we normally do it right (like my BSB moving up too far...I'm usually quite aware of this, especially when we had JUST talked about it before I did the move).
I blame the other people hanging around the table, distracting us

The more people point out, the better.

Out of curiosity, did you guys remember that being in rivers makes steadfast impossible (unless you are stubborn) and takes away CR bonus for ranks? I didn't see you mention it at all, and I kept thinking to myself "GAH! Get out of the water with those blocks!" I wasn't sure if the Saurus didn't have ranks or steadfast due to that or just having piles of men on their flanks in ranks on the river's banks. (Driving tanks.)

Good report though; very interesting to see such strange lists.

We did indeed, Wehrkind.
The Saurus Warriors didn't mean to get into the river, but because they had to slide a bit they got their corner in. Later on, my Spears that got charged by the Temple Guard shouldn't have been there, that was my fault.

Good show then It still annoys me how well they hid the various rules for terrain; it makes it very hard to remember or even find.

Another note though, his stegadon is obligated to maximize the number of models in your unit he is in contact with, so you should have had 5 whether you remembered or not. One of the nicer rules I think, since it saves you from having to muck about with lining things up. I love rules that keep me from having to remember stuff

Thanks for this and all the other battle reports you have written, I have really enjoyed them and your light-hearted approach to WFB.

I was hoping to see how the Lore of Metal worked for you, so its a shame your wizard did mostly defensive work. I would like to see if the metal spells got around the high toughness of the stegadon . . . maybe another time.

Last GT I went to the lizard player that got best general took lore of metal...