2K vs. Lizards, Sacred Host of Tzeentch, now with pics!

[Noisy Assassin]

Played a 2K game tonight and had an absolute blast! One of the most fun games I've played in quite some time. The dice were everywhere, silly things happened, sillier things almost happened, and most shocking of all, I finally remembered to take pictures!

My opponent had a themed Southlands list, so no Saurus were in sight. It consisted of:

- Slaan (kit unknown, no nasty bonuses to dispel though, and no extra power dice), BSB, running with Life
- lvl 2 Skink Priest on a Steg with an Engine of the Gods: the +1 spell item
- 2x units of Skinks each with 2 Krox and Full Command
- Skink Skirmishers
- 2 Stegs
- Ancient Steg

While I was running:

- Lord of Change: Power Vortex
- Herald of Khorne: Armor of Khorne, Firestorm Blade, BSB
- Herald of Slaanesh: Torment Blade, Siren Song
- 19 Daemonettes, Full Command
- 31 Bloodletters: Full Command, Icon of Endless War
- 5 Furies
- 6 Flesh Hounds
- 4 Flamers
- Fiend
- Fiend

To start things off we rolled up a Blood and Glory, meaning at this level we had a breaking point of 2. This meant I had a game of whack-a-frog ahead of me. The only way I could break his army would be to off the Hypnotoad. Everything else was just a distraction.

Deployment



From left to right we have Skirmishers, Skink Cohort, Skink Cohort, Steg, Steg, Engine, Ancient Steg. The Slaan was sitting behind the Steg wall.



And here I have, left to right, Fiend, Flesh Hounds, 'Nettes, Fiend, Flamers (in a rocky Mysterious Wood), the "Lord of Change" (shhhh, he changed shape into a snakey featherless thing for this battle), Furies and the Bletters.


Lizardmen Turn 1



My opponent won the roll to go first with a mighty 7. Everything moved forward a bit. The Skink Cohorts took up a defensive position in the "river" while the Skirmishers comically discovered a wildwood, took several casualties, and fled.

In his magic phase he got 12 dice and managed to pull off Throne of Vines on the Slaan and Flesh to Stone on one of the Cohort units. I saved my dice for the Heavens spells (Chain Lightning and Comet), but Comet went off on an IF (somewhat in front of my Bloodletters). The miscast drained some nonexistent dice and killed a couple of Skink riders on the Priest's Steg. I was left foolishly holding 12 dice. Shooting was uneventful, with both Steg bows failing to hurt the Lord of Change.


Daemons Turn 1



The far Fiend was exactly 22" away from the fleeing Skinks and didn't have much better to do, so it declared a charge to keep them running. Flamers moved up a bit to shoot, and the Daemonettes prepared a good Siren position to get a Skink unit out of the way. Furies angled to stop the other Skink unit and one of the Stegs. The Bloodletters booked it into range of the Magic Circle for a boost to their MR in light of the impending Comet. Unfortunately that put them only 12" from all 4 Stegs. More on that later. Finally the Lord of Change had a hard time finding a good spot to start frog-hunting. Pushing him to within 1*" would have cut off my Flamers from being able to shoot at the Skinks they wanted to whittle down, so he hung back.

Magic was uneventful, with a Bolt of Change taking a single wound off of a Steg and Glean Magic on the Skink Priest dispelled (really hoping for Chain Lightning!). His Comet did go off though, resulting in a pair of dead Bloodletters and a pair of dead Furies. Shooting was also lackluster, with a grand total of 1 dead Skink. Wee!


Lizardmen Turn 2



I popped Siren Song on one of the Skink units and he obliged with a charge. All of the Stegs minus the one with the Priest Charged the Bloodletters. They all needed to roll 6's to get into combat. All three rolled exactly 6! A quarter inch further away and I would have been safe! His other Skinks charged my Furies, which, it turns out I angled rather poorly.

In the Magic phase I somehow forgot about the existence of Flesh to Stone and decided to dispel Shield of Thorns on his Skinks. He then Flesh to Stoned them (healing the Steg in the process) and tried to cast Curse of the Midnight Wind on my Bletters, but failed to meet the casting value.



Going into the Combat phase. My prediction: this will hurt.



Guess what? It did! With my lone surviving Fury needing to roll a 4 to keep the Skinks out of this combat, what did he roll? A 6, then a 5 on the BSB re-roll. So close! When the dust settled I had put two wounds on one of the Stegs, one wound on the other, and killed the Skink champion. In exchange, well, you get the picture. Poor Bloodletters. On the other side of the table I lost a few Daemonettes in exchange for just a single Skink, but I managed to maintain stability.



Whole battle shot at the end of the turn. Things are looking painful, but the tapestry of Fate has only begun to be woven.


Daemons Turn 2



This time my other Fiend gives the Skirmishers some encouragement, and they flee off the board. Flesh Hounds charge in to support the Daemonettes and everyone else positions a bit.



Flamers and the Lord of Change begin to spring the trap on his Slaan.



In the Magic phase I 6-diced Glean Magic; trying to use the frog's own power to drag him to his doom. Unfortunately, after some tense math, he exactly equaled my casting roll with his dispel. Foiled! My last die failed to net me a successful Boon. Flamers put a wound on the Slaan though.

In combat the Bloodletters were wiped out as expected, but they managed to inflict a whopping 0 wounds before they vanished. Stupid Herald forgot how to swing a sword. The Daemonettes and Fleshies fared better though, breaking and running down the Skink unit they were occupied with. The pair of Stegs facing down my Lord of Change made me a little nervous though. At this point losing the Bird or the Daemonettes would drop me to my break point and end the game.


Lizardmen Turn 3

For some reason I didn't manage to get any pictures of the pivotal charges, but both Stegs managed to engage my Lord of Change, one in the flank, on in the front. One needed a 5, the other needed a 6. What did they roll? A 5 and a freakin' 6! Stupid Stegs. Skinks also charged my Flamers, with both of us looking forward to the epic battle of WS 2 troops flailing at each other.



In the Magic phase he dropped another Comet in front of my Daemonettes but his Slaan broke concentration on his first spell, with a total of 4 on 3 dice and I was able to dispel Chain Lightning. Curse of the Midnight Wind ALSO failed to meet the casting value. The Weaver of Fate was still with me it seems! Shooting saw the blowpipes on the Ancient Steg fail to penetrate the otherworldly shimmer of the Flesh Hounds. My opponent also finally remembered that his Engine of the Gods had abilities that it could be using, but he was too badly positioned to make use of them this turn.

In combat the Flamers killed a few Skinks and took a wound from the Krox, killing 1 (honestly not sure where that first wound came from). They lost the combat and instability melted another back into the realm of Chaos.




The Lord of Change was off to a bad start, taking 4 wounds from a total of 11 impact hits. Ouch! He pulled his act together though, slaying the flanking Steg before it could strike and easily weathering the incoming attacks from the other. He lost combat by 2 but passed his instability test. Importantly, he also passed his combat reform test to turn his insidious gaze upon the Slaan.


Daemons Turn 3



Movement phase saw the Fleshies charge into the Steg to support the Lord of Change, while Fiends quickly moved to intercept the other two Stegs and keep them out the combat for another couple rounds. The Daemonettes merely backed away from the gathering glow of the Comet.

Unfortunately, the Magic phase started with the Comet dropping and rolling exactly far enough (seems like a common theme this game) to hit both the Daemonettes and the Flamers, but not any of the Lizard units. Flamers evaporated in heavenly fire, and another rank of Daemonettes disappeared as well. I only rolled up 5 dice, but my Power Vortex gave me enough to throw a full 6 at Glean Magic. Cackling in triumph (and with some much-needed boxcars), the Lord of Change reached into the Slaan's cold brain and attempted to pull from it the seeds of its own destruction. With a mighty fanfare, a handshake, and the agreement that the game had been awesome regardless of the outcome, the die was cast. A vortex of otherworldly hands and grasping claws exploded from the ground, and when they vanished, the Slaan too was gone.



Its trap fully sprung, the Lord of Change savors its victory.


Afterthoughts

This game was all sorts of awesome. It was super random and there were a lot of die rolls that Paul just barely managed to pull off. The final outcome was something of a surprise, but my gamble paid off, and strangling the infernal frog with its own magic was strangely satisfying.

That said, I made a lot of positioning mistakes this game, especially with the Furies and the Bloodletters, both of whom I was a little too ambitious with. I also chose which spells to dispel rather poorly. My Fiends didn't do anything, which is really telling, as usually I can use them to great effect (well technically they would have helped a lot had the game gone another turn with both generals surviving, but that's another story).

Overall I think I was thrown by facing a list with FOUR Stegs and just wasn't sure how to handle it. Also, having played with Goblins and various proxy armies lately seems to have dulled my Daemonic instincts. I did find the Lord of Change to be a fun change (pun somewhat intentional) and this might just motivate me to finish converting mine and get it painted.

[Lytera94]

Excellent report! Very well-narrated and fun to read, and more importantly both the armies are gorgeous.

Could you have tried to take down the Slann with your Fiends? Judging from your positioning immediately before the Bloodletter combat imploded that might have been a possibility.

Otherwise I agree, the quad of Stegs is terrifying especially all ranked up together

[DaemonReign]

Excellent report Noisy!! A delightfull read as Lytera94 already stated!

Nice gamble there toward the end of the game with the Lord of Change, you're lucky it paid off!

Awesome that you remembered to take pics and yeah just simply damn entertaining to see your unique Tzeentch themed army at work!

[Noisy Assassin]

Thanks guys!

@Lytera: He always had the Slaan at least a little bit outside of my charge arcs. Hunting him with Fiends and hopefully charging with the LoC was my plan A though. Just didn't work out that way.

@DReign: I figure you guys have been asking for pictures with this army in action for long enough that I sort of owe it to ya. And taking pictures against another painted army made it quite fun.