Another Warhammer battle for me, this time a game of Triumph and Treachery with three players. Faced off against Roger's Wood Elves and Tom's Lizardmen. But first, I got some considerable painting done! Not only did I manage to add a second Grudge Thrower to my army (not pictured as complete, because I'm still working on the crew), but I also painted up six Irondrakes to add to the force.
The six new models. My rule with the dwarfs still stands: each model must be different. You can see it on one of them, the little braid of his orange hair. The others are more divided by what they're carrying on their backs and waists: different odds and ends like a beard comb, a pipe, etc.
I'm also pleased because it completes my full unit of twelve Irondrakes (pictured above). They're one of my favorite units, and I'm glad that I have them painted up. They're a defensive marvel, between standing and shooting at charging foes and their tough armor and ward saves.
The battle proved to be a clash over six objective markers, one in each quadrant. We used small tokes that looked like enormous golden nuggets--a good sign for the Dwarfs and their love of all that glitters. The game was victory points as normal for Triumph and Treachery, plus 100 points for each of the six objective markers at the end of the game awarded to the force with the unit closest to that marker.
My Dwarf Throng
I fielded a somewhat generalist force that was inclined to hang back a bit from fighting and discourage units assaulting it--supporting their already strong units with magic phase effects from the Anvil and Lore of Metal to make their armored units even harder to slay. The center of the force was a block of Warriors with great weapons in horde formation, supported by Ironbreakers on their left and my shooting elements (Irondrakes and Quarrelers) on their right. Behind was my general on his Anvil of Doom, supported by two Grudge Throwers. For my mercenaries, I used my Dwarf Ancestor Statue (also known as a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with Chaos Armor and Level 3 Lore of Metal spells).
On to my foes and the description of the battle:
The Lizardmen Host: led by Kroq-gar, a Lizardman Oldblood on his Carnosaur Grimloq, the force had three nasty big units: a Skink Cohort packed with Kroxigors, a block of Saurus Warriors, and the now-dreaded Saurus Cavalry containing an Oldblood on a Cold One. Some skinks and a block of Dwarf Ironbreakers as mercenaries rounded out this force. My Dwarfs were puzzled by the appearance of their fellows, but then they remembered: "Oh right, the Gold." They know that any reasonable Dwarf could side with Lizardmen if there was gold to be had from it.
The Host of the Eternity King: led by Alarielle, Incarnate of Life, this force was all Wood Elves but using the new End Times rules for them. May as well be called the "Give all the Elves every special rule" list, not that I'm bitter or anything. It was Alarielle in a block of Eternal Guard, two units of bowmen, a unit of Wildriders, and unit of Waywatchers, and a rather short Treeman (more like Stump-Man!). For mercenaries, the children of the forest had recruited a Tomb Prince mounted upon a massive War Sphinx. I utterly love the conversion that Roger did with this model!
The opposing generals before the battle began. They were both sitting there grinning eagerly at the forces, I had to take a shot.
The battle began with the War Sphinx rushing forward, getting right up to the Skink Skirmishers. The beast towered over them, it's sun-bleached tusks shaking in fury. The charging War Sphinx was injured by blowpipe fire, but it ultimately decimated the Skinks under the weight of its attacks. It struck and they fled before it, being run down as it crashed deeper into the Lizardmen battle line.
At the same time the Wild Riders rushed forward and engaged with the Ironbreakers. Alarielle used her magic to increase their toughness by four--allowing them to be nearly impervious to the attacks of the Ironbreakers. Yet, that's only if the Wild Riders remembered. Everyone at the table forgot the buff spell was in place, and the Wild Riders died in droves. The fight took three turns to resolve total, with significant losses on both sides. The riders were finally slain, but eleven Dwarfs had perished as well.
The Lizardmen responded to the assault of the Wood Elves with counter-charges of their own. The Saurus Cavalry surged forward and crashed into the Treeman. The rather short and squat Stumpman managed to kill one of their number with his stand-and-shoot reaction of strangling animated vines, but was quickly slain by the Oldblood and his supporting cavalry. The Oldblood had endeavored to use the Egg of Quango: a magic item egg about to hatch into a beast that randomly does something between a single minuscule strength three hit and twelve strength five hits. This time the young Quango proved to be rather listless--the Oldblood probably placed the egg into a bird's nest in the Treeman.
At the same time, Kroq-gar and his Carnosaur had charged the War Sphinx. While the War Sphinx was certainly a match in damage, it was sadly not a match in speed, and it was torn apart by the Oldblood's magic spear and the Carnorsaur's gnashing teeth before it could damage them.
Kroq-gar proved to have even more surprises in store, as on his next turn he faced the solitary Wood Elf Battle Standard Bearer. A Skink Priest cast a strong spell--Wyssan's Wildform--on the advancing Saurus Cavalry, which would have helped them make mincemeat of the remaining Wood Elves. Seeing that the Lizardmen were out of spells and wizards with that casting, the Wood Elves scooped up all their dispel dice and crushed it. With a triumphant laugh, the Lizardmen player then revealed the Hand of the Gods on Kroq-gor, a bound item containing the spell Shem's Burning Gaze. With an unstoppable blast of flame, a line of fire appeared from Kroq-gar's fist and damaged the Wood Elf character.
At this point, you might be wondering: where were the Dwarfs? They were there and advancing, but as often happens in Triumph and Treachery, the other generals were focusing on each other. The first big sweep for the Dwarfs was cleaning up after the sneaky casting of the Lizardmen general. They sent a shot from one of their massed Grudge Throwers high into the air, which came down with unbelievable accuracy directly on the head of the Wood Elf rider, killing him instantly.
However, the Dwarven participation proved continually limited. In some cases, like this one, even my mercenary Daemon Prince found himself out of action even before he could fight due to a sizable bribe paid to him by the Wood Elf commander. With points being tight, I couldn't answer the bribe from my own paychest and combat was nullified. The archers were safe for at least one more round, as was the rest of their line.
Finally the Dwarfs found a quarry to attack: the remnants of the Skink Cohort that had been subject to all the brutal gunfire and war machines from the Dwarf lines thus far. The Thane carrying the battle standard killed two himself, but then the great weapons of the rest of the unit proved faulty--not a single other wound. However, the massed ranks helped the Dwarfs win the day and run down the remnant unit.
The clash of the titans from the match: Alarielle, Incarnate of Light (she's the floating one with the pink hair) versus the Old Blood on Cold One and his humble Berzerker Sword. This fight lasted for round after round, even to the point where the Eternal Guard around her was down to just a few models and were brought back to life with her Regrowth spell. Her regeneration ability proved enough to keep the force present, and their Stubborn leadership kept them in the battle (they did need to use their Gleaming Pennant to re-roll once). And so the Oldblood won the combat about five or six times in a row, each time the Wood Elves hung around and continued the battle. Even the closing Dwarfs and their Ancestor Statue never got involved enough to settle the fight before the end of the sixth turn.
It had seemed like the Dwarfs didn't do much in the battle: a few shots here or there, and a couple of under-strength units mopped up with shooting or desultory charges. Yet their Runelord had a plan. Those formations of purest gold, the objectives of the battle. The Dwarf units had hung back at first, then moved into position to capture each of them. Like the patience of working with metal, the Dwarf leader knew that sometimes things had to cool down a bit before moving into position. And thus, the battle ended with five of the six gold deposits controlled by the Dwarfs. Quickly producing their shovels and picks, they extracted the resources at the end of the game and returned to their army center with minimal casualties: I only lost three Dwarf models during the whole game.
The final tally was very close. I won with 1650 points, with the Lizardmen in second place with 1350, and the Wood Elves scoring a respectable 1050. The control over the objectives proved to be the entire difference, as that accounted for 500 of my victory points (the Wood Elves got the sixth objective marker with their board-edge slinking Waywatchers). It was clear, the Dwarfs don't forget when there's gold to be had. They kept their eyes on the prize, and managed to sneak out a victory accordingly--as for most of the game it had appeared clear to all of us that Tom's Lizardmen were going to win the game.
Battles
Total 2015: 14 (Win/Loss/Tie: 8/4/2)
Total 2014: 15 (Win/Loss/Tie: 8/6/1)
Skaven:
7 Wins (Undead 2, Empire 1, T&T Daemons and Dwarfs, Siege Dwarfs and Bretonnians, T&T Daemons and Empire, T&T Dual Undead)
8 Losses (Lizadmen 1, Skaven 1, Empire 1, Dwarfs 1, Daemons 1, T&T Daemons 1, T&T Dwarfs 1, Special Game Nurgle)
1 Tie (Empire 1)
Dwarfs:
7 Wins (Lizardmen 1, Dwarfs 2, Wood Elves 2, T&T Undead and Dwarfs, T&T Lizardmen and Wood Elves)
1 Loss (Dark Elves 1)
1 Tie (T&T Dual Undead)
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