The Grey Seer Skerrit Warp-touched was in a fouler mood than normal. These lizard-things had foiled his every move, and were clearly being fed information by a traitor in his ranks. Two skirmishes and one major battle later, and he had still gotten no closer to the Warpstone said to be hidden in this section of the Lustrian jungle, and had twice seen his smaller scouting forces routed entirely. His Screaming Bell had been pounded to within in an inch of his life in the latest engagement with the tough, unyielding lizard-things. He was convinced he was being betrayed and had hanged an entire contingent of clanrats for good measure, but was still uneasy. This time, however, he had the mighty Rat Ogres of Clan Moulder behind him, opting to break his promise to share the spoils with the Clan Pestilens fools who had failed him so abysmally in the past.
He eyed the battlefield, a large clearing in the Jungle, with two small patches of forest around the centre and a wrecked man-thing tower in the corner. This was a far better location to finally feed the lizard-things to the great maw of the Horned Rat!
So to quickly sum up the battlefield, we were short of terrain, so our 4'x6' battlefield had only three pieces of terrain, two mystery forests and a watchtower in the corner. I was determined to finally beat these Lizardmen, who had hammered me in a 750 point campaign battle, a 500 point tournament and had held me to a draw in a 2500 point grindfest. This time, it was personal.
My list consisted of;
Lords - 525 points
Grey Seer with a talisman of preservation and channeling staff
He took 4 rolls on the ruin list, had a six, four, one and one and swapped one of the skitterleaps for The Dreaded Thirteenth (muahahahaha!). He got 3 warptokens.
Throt the Unclean - now rat ogres and giant rats would be core!
Heroes - 237 points
Chieftan - BSB with shield and storm banner
Warlock Engineer - Level 1 wizard, warp-energy condensor and doomrocket (which I duly completely forgot about)
Core - 1048 points
2 x Rat darts (Packmaster + 5 rats)
2 Slave units
1 with 24 and musician
1 with 25 and musician
Stormvermin 30 with full command, fangleader with poisoned attacks, warpfire thrower and war banner
Rat Ogres - 8 rat ogres, one master-bred, 3 packmasters, master moulder with poisoned attacks and the mighty Skweel Gnawtooth (who rolled a one to give my rat ogres REGEN! DOUBLE MUAHAHAHAHA) They were deployed with five rat ogres, skweel and the master moulder in the front rank, and everything else in the back.
Special - 90 points
5 gutter runners with poisoned attacks and slings
Rare - 555 points
HPA
Doomwheel
2 x Warp lightning cannons
I'm not overly familiar with the lizardman codex, but here is essentially what I was up against.
Salamander with 4 skinks
Stegadon with blowpipes
fifty-odd saurus (horded)
thirty-odd temple guard (horded)
Slaan with all signature spells
Skink priest
An evil looking character who's name I can't remember, with fighting claws in each hand
A scarvet on cold one
4 ripperdactyls
Lizards won the roll off for deployment, we were playing battleline. He took the side with the watchtower, there was otherwise virtually no difference in sides.
Deployment ended with most of our troops on the side opposite the watchtower. Saurus and rat ogres squaring up just off centre, avoiding the mystery forest, temple guard to their flank, with a rat dart and the 25 model slave unit opposite, the stegadon, salamander and rippers on the other flank (in that order from the saurus), facing off against the HPA, doomwheel, the 24 model slave unit and another rat dart. The stormvermin hid behind the rat ogres, one warp-lightning cannon in the centre of the table, the other in the temple-guard corner. The gutter runners scouted into the watchtower, just within range of the rippers, and his rippers vanguarded into one of the forests, which was rolled as an abyssal forest.
His evil looking character and slann went into the temple-guard and the skink priest and scarvet went into the saurus.
My grey seer deployed in the stormvermin with the BSB, Throt went with the rat ogres and the warlock went with the smaller slave unit on the ripper flank.
Lizard turn 1
Movement
Lizards then won the roll off for first turn and went first. The storm banner was activated. No charges in the first turn.
The rippers moved up in front of the slaves and out of range of the gutter runners. The salamander and steg marched forward their full movement, and the temple-guard and saurus moved forward their normal movement.
Magic
Summed up, earth blood went on the temple-guard and one flaming wound landed on the HPA (I forget which spell exactly), removing it's regen and too horrible to die. So far, so good.
Shooting
Entirely forgot the -2 to BS for the storm banner and he failed to hit the HPA with any of his blowdarts.
Close Combat
None
Skaven turn 1
The storm banner sadly ended.
Movement
The gutter runners left the watchtower to get within shooting range of the rippers. One rat dart moved into the second forest, which was rolled as a wildwood, attacked the rats and killed the packmaster and two rats who then panicked. The warlock + slaves wheeled to face the rippers. The second slave unit and the rat dart moved up the flank to redirect the Temple Guard. The rat ogres moved to 13 inches from the saurus and the stormvermin came up behind them. The HPA moved six inches towards the steg and the doomwheel went 10 inches towards the salamander. The warp-fire condenser left the safety of the stormvermin ward save bubble and hid behind the slaves.
Magic
The dreaded thirteenth (+1 warp token) failed and warp lightning was dispelled.
Shooting
The gutter-runners got one poisoned wound on the rippers and the warp-lightning cannons earned their points immediately, shredding the stegadon to tiny pieces. The doomwheel failed it's leadership test and threw 3 str4 hits at the HPA, only wounding with one.
Close Combat
None
Lizard Turn 2
Movement
The rippers moved further up the flank of the slaves, out of their charge arc and ready to hit the centre warp-lightning cannon, the saurus pondered forward another 4 inches and the templeguard failed a charge on the rat dart. The salamander reversed as far from the doomwheel as possible.
Shooting
The salamander happily misfired and ate a skink.
Magic
Two fireball wounds on the rat ogres removed one model's regeneration.
Close combat
None
Skaven Turn 2
Movement
The rat ogres successfully charged the saurus. The doomwheel hit the poor salamander and the HPA fell short of the flank of the saurus. The fleeing rat dart rallied, and reformed to face the saurus (the closest unit). The warlock + slaves reformed again, to include the rippers and the other warp-lightning cannon in their forward arc. The stormvermin moved up to have the BSB in range of the rat ogres and the slaves and rat dart protected their flank from the temple guard, cunningly deployed to redirect any overruns away from everything. The warpfire thrower marched up to the edge of the board, just out of the temple guard's charge arc.
Magic
Once again a failed dreaded thirteenth and warp lightning.
Shooting
The Doomwheel scored some str 4 wounds on the salamander unit, taking out another two skinks. The Warp-lighting cannon took out a few temple guard, but weren't rolling fantastically unfortunately. No misfires as yet though! Woo!
Close Combat
The rat-ogres were effective, taking out around 14 models. They then hit back, taking out 3 rat-ogres and the master moulder, but taking only one wound off skweel. Combat res was a draw, and he cursed not having a musician! Rat ogres stay frenzied! The hellpit was somewhat disappointing, taking the salamander to one wound. He broke, but wasn't overrun unfortunately.
Lizardmen Turn 3
Movement
The rippers moved into position for a charge on the warp-lighting cannon. The templeguard charged the rat-dart/slaves and revealed their Skavenpelt banner thing, making them frenzied with hatred. The salamander failed his leadership test and fled off the board.
Magic
I can't even remember anything happening in this round. I think I dispelled an augment and a miasma went off on the rat ogres, essentially doing nothing.
Shooting
None
Close combat
The rat dart was shredded and the slaves taken to three models before exploding, taking no templeguard but two stormvermin! The frenzied templeguard overran a paltry 5 inches, exposing their rear nicely to the warpfire thrower. The saurus/rat ogre grind fest continued, with another two rat ogre models taken out, skweel holding somehow, and throt's regen saving him from death, leaving him with one wound. The rat ogres took another 10 odd models off the saurus unit, but it remained steadfast and held.
Skaven Turn 4
Movement
No charges, but a fantastic random movement result saw the doomwheel AND HPA in the saurus' flank. The giant rats were now closer to the rippers, so turned to face them, the stormvermin turned to face the templeguard, the remaining slaves turned to face the rippers again and the gutter runners lay forgotten in the corner.
Magic
FINALLY THE DREADED THIRTEENTH WENT OFF! And was duly scrolled. Luckily I had Crack's Call to throw down the temple-guard's flank, removing EIGHT models. I was happy anyway.
Shooting
Warpfire thrower threw fire into the templeguard, killing two, whilst one warp lighting cannon misfired, throwing a strength ten template into the wall. The other took off a couple of temple guard. The doomwheel launched 3 str 4 hits into the saurus, killing maybe two.
Close Combat
The poor saurus did not do well. Through impact hits, 2d6 automatic str 6 HPA hits, and some excellent shredding from the rat ogres and some lovely thunderstomping and stomping took out TWENTY saurus, leaving them on nine models. Two rat ogres fell, but combat was fantastically won, and there were no longer and ranks! Finally, I thought, some broken saurus. But then the crown of command was mentioned and I was sad. The saurus held(!) and the doomwheel was no longer in combat.
Lizardmen Turn 5
Movement
The rippers charged the warp-lighting cannon. The temple guard turned to face the stormvermin.
Magic
Once again, I remember little of the lizards magic. I think they may have earth-blooded the templeguard again, but nothing exciting. So much for the dreaded Slann magic!
Shooting
None
Close Combat
The rippers unsurprisingly took out the warp-lightning cannon, which somehow took one wound off them in the process, taking them to three models, which reformed to face the rat ogre rear. The saurus were shredded to just the scarvet remaining, who resolutely stood his ground.
Skaven Turn 5
Movement
The slaves once again wheeled to face the rippers. The giant rats were forgotten slightly, as were the gutter runners. The stormvermin bravely charged the remaining nine temple guard, slann and character. The doomwheel was also forgotten slightly at this point.
Magic
The dreaded thirteenth went off with irresistible force, killing the templeguard, slann and evil character, replacing them with clanrats. I can't for the life of me remember how I killed the rippers, but I think warp lightining took them out. Either that or the other warp lighting cannon.
Shooting
The warp lighting cannon may, or may not, have killed the rippers. I forget.
Close Combat
The scarvet was shredded to tiny, tiny pieces, leaving no lizardmen on the board! Finally!
Final Scores:
Skaven - 2498 points killed/fled
100 points general killed
25 points captured standard
Total: 2623 points
Lizards - 90 points WLC
52 points Skavenslaves
23 points rat dart
Total: 165 points
Next time I'll try to include pictures and have some more memorable magic phases...
Skerrit eyed the shredded carcasses of the pitiful lizard-things. Revenge had finally been his! The Horned Rat would be pleased. If his Clan Eshin scouts had been correct the Warpstone would lie just beyond the ridge the lizard-things had been defending. He ordered his remaining troops over the ridge, naturally before him so that should any further dangers lie ahead they would take the hits. When he had finally decided there were no further ambushes lying in place he made his way up the ridge with his elite stormvermin bodyguards, and slowly the large chunk of warpstone came into view. Finally he had found it! He would be one of the most powerful of the Twelve! He would command armies the likes of which this jungle had never seen! He let out a hideous, high pitched squeal of excitement! "Forward-forward! No other is to touch the warpstone or they shall answer to me!" and to demonstrate he launched a missile of warped chaotic power into one of the surviving rat ogres, felling the mighty brute in one shot. Throt would not be happy, but he would have his share of the prize. After all, even with his newfound riches Skerrit was not bold enough to risk the wrath of Hell-pit. Not until he had assembled a new army, anyway.
