We are just over a week into our Tale of Gamers challenge (
taleofgamers.wordpress.com). It seems as I'm the only one putting as much effort into it in the early stages as I can, which is understandable because I want to get as much done before my wife delivers. The other players also run busy lives, and the only one who would have been ready for a battle last night was away. So, we instead took the opportunity to invite a couple of friends to the store (
www.meeplemart.com) to learn the game. Over the course of the night I played two games with my Tale of Gamers Empire vs. Andrew's Lizardmen.
Game 1
Game 1 was against Les, who I'm trying to convince to get into
WHFB. He's eyeing Beastmen, and I was hoping learning the game would help push him over the edge. Right now he's on the fence mainly because of the hobby time involved, and the big buy-in (whereas other games he likes are quite cheaper to get into). I keep trying to come up with fancy excuses as to why it's worth it. I think he's almost ready to come to the dark side.
Anyway, we set up a 4'x4' table with minimal terrain (I actually rolled up two forests and two buildings on a
d6+2 roll).
My Empire list was pretty shoddy, but I wanted to start testing out various aspects of the army. I had a General on a horse in a unit of 5 Knightly Orders. A Light Battle Wizard with
Shem's Burning Gaze. A unit of 20 Swordsmen and a unit of 10 Handgunners. Totally basic stuff.
The Lizards had a Skink Priest with
Iceshard Blizzard. Two units of 10 Saurus Warriors with full command. 6 Chameleons with a Stalker. And a Salamander Hunting Pack. I knew this would be quite a match for my ragtag Imperials.
As it was such a small game, and I want to get this report out of the way quicker than I usually take, I've folded the turns together. It'll be a little more confusing, but I think I can explain it well enough.
Turn 1
Getting the first turn I simply moved my Knights and Swordsmen up, and pulled my Wizard away from the Chameleons, who had deployed in a
*gasp!* Venom Thicket. Ouch. My Wizard's attempt at the
Gaze was dispelled, and my Handgunners only managed to kill a single Chameleon Skink. Those camouflaged buggers are hard to hit!
In his turn, Les moved up the Salamander to shoot flames at the Swordsmen and the farther Saurus unit towards the battle. The Chameleons made a move through the Thicket...and took FOUR losses to the dangerous terrain test! Four. Including the Stalker. That really stunk. "Welcome to Warhammer...this is how you lose." In Magic the Skink successfully cast the
Blizzard on my Handgunners. The final Chameleon darted a Swordsman, while the Salamander misfired and roasted his own handlers. All three of them. "We hope you like this game...having fun dying?." Oi. He got the Frenzy and Hatred result as his reaction.
Turn 2
I kinda felt bad for the way things were going, but there was nothing I could really do good or evil at this point, so I just shuffled forward. I brought my Wizard back and in sight of the Priest. Well, I guess killing him with Magic could be considered evil. The Wizard hit the Priest successfully, but only managed a 1 on a
d6, so his nemesis stayed alive with a wound remaining. My Handgunners, hexed as they were, could not kill the remaining Skink.
The closer Saurus unit somehow managed to charge into the Knights. I was not expecting this, and did not like it one bit. The Frenzied Salamander failed his charge and moved up a few inches, and the other Saurus unit moved in closer. The Priest, that dastardly villain, got the
Blizzard off on the Knights this time, while the Skink was out of range. In close combat, the Knights (and the horses) killed 3 Saurus Warriors (the General did nothing), who killed two Knights in return. With the charge and a standard, the Lizards won the fight, and the Knights, led by the General, broke! C'mon! The Lizards could not chase them down.
Turn 3
My Swordsmen charged the Salamander and the Knights rallied. The Priest I think got dispelled again. The Handgunners, free of the hex, were able to shoot down half of the remainig Saurus Warriors, bringing them down to four. The Salamander managed to kill 2 Swordsmen, taking only 1 wound himself, but the charge and extra ranks meant that I won, he fled, and got cut down. The Swordsmen pursued right into the Saurus Warriors.
The very small Saurus unit had no other options, really, and threw them into the Knights again, negating next turn's lance bonus. The Wizard Irresistably dispelled the Priest's spell. In
CC the Knights (and horses, and not the General again) killed three more Lizards, leaving only the Champion who managed to kill one more Knight, before not breaking from combat, like any true Cold-Blooded Lizard would. On the other side of the field the Swordsmen failed to do a single wound to the Saurus Warriors, took three hits themselves, which was just enough to send them packing. They broke, got caught, and got dead.
Turn 4
My Wizard moved up and with the help of the Handgunners managed to kill 5 Saurus Warriors. The Knights took care of the Saurus Champion.
Les decided at this point that we could call the game, having gotten a good idea of both how the game works, and how important things like maneouvring and dice are. Other than a few horrible rolls here and there (my two breaks, his dangerous terrain, etc.), Les seemed to enjoy the game's outcome. We started discussing the Beastmen Battalion afterwards, so I'm still hopeful about him getting into the game.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
I ended up playing a second demo game last night, this time against Chris. We used the same lists, with slightly rearranged terrain.
Turn 1
Chris started the game off by sending all of his units, except for his Priest, up forward. The Priest put the
Blizzard on the Handgunners. The Chameleons got two Poisoned darts through, killing my Wizard easily (for some reason I felt like I was going to get the first turn and be able to move him). The Salamander's flames landed just shy of the building with the Handgunners.
I moved up a little, but just outside of an average charge roll for the Saurus Warriors. Miraculously, having needed I think 8s to hit, three Handgunners managed to hit, wound and kill a Skink each. "Kill our Mage, will you!?"
Turn 2
After a long discussion/analysis of what the different outcomes of successfully charging, failing to charge and not charging at all, both Saurus Warrior units charged their respective Empire units successfully. The Skinks and Salamander moved up closer to the building. The Priest IF'd his spell on the gunners again, then rolled a 7, saving his scaly hide. The Skinks took out two of the Handgunners, while the Salamander Misfired, eating one of his handlers. In
CC both the Swordsmen and Lizards lost a pair of fighters, and stayed. In the other combat, the Lizards lost two while the Knights lost one, and stayed.
The Hangunners, once again hexed, managed to drop one of the Skinks. In combat, the Knights lost another, but could not kill any enemy warriors. They stayed. In the other combat another Lizard fell to the Swordsmen. The Lizards inflicted 5 wounds on the Men, but one armour save of 6 and FOUR parry saves of 6 later, they took no losses. Seriously, I rolled 9 dice and got 5 sixes. It was craziness. Actually, here's what it looked like.
Anyway, the stalwart Swordsmen proved to be so awesome that they made even the Cold-Blooded warriors break and flee, but were 1" shy of catching them, which was a real shame, to be honest.
Turn 3
The Saurus Warriors rallied, and the Skinks and Salamanders changed tactics to come and hurt some Swordsmen. Which they did. Between the two shooters another 6 Swordsmen died. In combat the Knights, who had been hit by the
Blizzard this time, managed to inflict one more kill. While the Lizards could not kill any Knights this time, their standard tied the combat and their Musician won it for them. The Knights, General and all, once again fled from combat, this time running off the board. The Lizards reformed to face the rest of the battle.
The Swordsmen could only charge into the Warriors in front of them. I don't think the Handgunners did anything. Neither did the Swordsmen in combat. And neither did the Lizards. Everyone stayed put.
And we ended it there, as I had to literally pack up and leave in, like, 2 minutes. Thankfully there weren't many more guys to pack
So there you have it. Two demo games, same lists, different outcomes. But both games had some crazy rolls. I forgot to mention that in Turn 3 of the second game, the Priest once again IF'd his spell and once again rolled a 7. Oi. I don't know Chris' thoughts on the game, although I'm pretty sure he had learned it once before from Rob...who tends to get Rob-ify rules often so that they're less..."as written."
