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8th Ed. 2000 Points Invasion Scenario, LM Defenders, O&G Attackers

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by Scalenex, Aug 30, 2017.

  1. Scalenex
    Slann

    Scalenex Keeper of the Indexes Staff Member

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    Last time @eron12 d I played Invasion, I was attacking and Eron12’s Warriors of Chaos was defending. It did not occur to me that Eron12 would choose to play something other than Warriors of Chaos. It did not occur to Eron12 that I would build a strategy around the Lore of Undeath. Both of these were mildly obvious in hindsight, but we essentially built our armies as if they were all-comers lists for this scenario rather than a tailored list based on what we expected the other person was likely to do.


    Defending Army of Scalenex

    Slann, BSB, Standard of Leadership, Channeling Staff, Focus of Mystery, Harmonic Convergence, Soul of Stone, Becalming Cognition
    Skink Priest, L1 Lore of Undeath, Dispel Scroll

    43 Cohort Skinks, Skink Brave, 2 Kroxigors
    43 Cohort Skinks, Skink Brave, 2 Kroxigors
    13 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields and Patrol Leader
    13 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields and Patrol Leader
    37 Temple Guard with Full Command and Banner of Eternal Flame


    Attacking Army of Eron12

    Orc Warboss, modest magical items, basic armor and stuff, war boar
    Orc Big Boss, Luckstone, war boar, maybe a few other minor stuff.
    2 L1 Goblin Shamans with the Lore of the Little Waaggh! One had a dispel scroll and one had the Ruby Ring of Ruin.

    3 x 20 Night Goblins with spears and shields, no command
    2 x 20 Night Goblins with short bows, no command
    2 x 5 Goblin Wolf Riders, no upgrades or command
    1 x 10 Goblin Wolf Riders, no upgrades or command
    21ish Savage Orcs with two hand weapons and no command
    21ish Savage Orc Big’uns with two hand weapons and no command
    6 River Trolls
    1 Goblin Rock Lobber
    2 Mangler Squigs


    No Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy….Here’s my plan!

    So I’m taking a gamble basing my strategy off of the Lore of Undeath, but I’m not taking Undeath on the Slann, I’m taking Focus of Mystery with the plan to swap out a bunch of spells for Undeath. I actually wrote not to do this in my Undeath Tactica, but this is not a standard scenario. Invasion lasts eight turns game rather than six, I can get all the swaps I need in, hopefully.

    So I’m playing to the scenario. One point per table corner. One point per watch tower. If I can maintain control of the back half of the board (with two out of the three towers), I win. That’s my plan, forget the other three objectives. Last time we flipped a coin who was attacking and who was defending, I had the plan to garrison all three towers but after playing on the attacker side of an Invasion Scenario, it seems like a waste of points to put anything in the watchtower closest to the attacker’s deployment zone. Maybe a 20model strong Skink Cohort speed bump but I opted not to do this. I have a lot of models, but I’m not made of Skinks. I’m already taking 113 Skinks, that’s plenty.

    The Skink Skirmishes can theoretically deny points to the enemy, since to control a table quarter, you have to double the enemy. I’ll be lucky to hold onto both Skirmisher unit all eight rounds, but I can summon chaff to back them up. Hopefully Skink Skirmishers will be mobile enough to tip the balance in a quarter if I need it, assuming they don’t get plastered by magic or shooting.

    So the Skroxigor’s only job is to hold the tower (the Kroxigor are there mainly for the leadership boost because I can’t guarantee a Slann will be there). The Slann and Temple Guard are there to smack around mobile and non-recycling units with magic missiles then swap to summoning road block units to slow down the Chaos hordes. I don’t have to stall them for eight turns. I figure five or six turns will be long enough to keep them from taking either tower unless I get an unlucky break test.

    Set up

    We tried to set the table as close to exact what it was last time when I was attacking and Eron12 was defending.

    The table was smaller than an Invasion set up, we basically played a normal table but the Orc starting position was in a cramped zone at the far end like Battle for the Pass. The defender pretty much got to set up wherever he wanted and in this scenario, the Defenders deploy after the attacker’s total force is down. For those rusty on how Invasion works. The defender gets a more advantageous starting position but the attacker can replace all destroyed Core units as reinforcements endlessly. It’s in the defender’s interest to let severely depleted and fleeing enemy Core units live as long as possible. This is why Eron12 opted to NOT take a Battle Standard Bearer, which I think was a reasonable move.

    Up to seven victory points. One point for dominating a table quarter which means having twice the units as the other guy (or being the sole occupant of that quarter). Single models that are not monsters do not count, but fleeing units do with the RAW. Last time it seemed silly that fleeing units could contest objectives. We decided if we play Invasion this time to house rule that fleeing units do not get to hold objectives. We could get one point for occupying the three watch towers. If a tower as empty the closest unit counts as controlling if the closest unit is within 12 inches.

    Not too far from the attackers deployment zone was a watch tower surrounded by a small river segment that as Necrotic ooze. This was my easy pickings. Opposite on the other end of the table was a watchtower on a hill almost as far as it could be my lower right. My lower left had a watch tower with no hill just slightly closer to the enemy than the back tower but still a good ways away. Behind this watch tower was a house we never bothered with.

    The dead center of the board had a Magic Circle (bestows MR 2 to units near it). The upper left corner had a nice useful feature for the attackers: Arcane Ruins (boosts channeling attempts). Just outside the attackers deployment there was an ordinary forest which did not matter.

    The watch towers were 3 stories tall allowing up to 15 Skinks or Night Goblins to shoot out of them.

    Two Goblin Shamans rolled Itchy Nuisance and Night Shround. Eron12 found these spells not useful enough and took the signature spell, Sneaky Stabbin’ twice.

    My Skink Priest rolled Sulekhim, which in my opinion is the worst Lore of Undeath spell there is, so I chose the signature spell Ryze.

    It was a tight fit, but everyone fit in Eron12’s deployment zone.

    Front lines left to right: 5 wolf riders, Mangler Squig, 10 wolf riders, Mangler Squig, 21 savage orcs,
    Center lines: Archer Night Goblins, River trolls and Warboss, more Savage Orcs, Big Boss on Boar, archers, 5 wolf riders
    Back Row: Rock Lobber, 3 Night Goblin Spear men blocks.

    I plopped a Skroxigor unit in both back towers, put the TG between them around 24 inches from the Orcs and Goblin front lines. My Skink priest occupied the left tower. My Skink skirmishers hugged my back edge, each deploying behind a watchtower so as not to give line of sight to the rock lobber.

    We forgot to give the Wolf Riders a Vanguard move, but in hindsight, Eron12 is unsure if he would have taken the option if he remembered.


    O&G Turn 1

    One unit spear men fails animosity gets a “6” which would be a free move and charge (if possible) but that unit had another unit in front of it, so only gets an extra 2 inches or so. Trolls pass their Stupidity test.

    Manglers go 9 and 11 inches respectively. Everyone marches forward, naturally the Wolf Riders are much farther up than everyone else.

    9 PD versus 6 DD (2 channels each), stopped one spell on wolves, another one went on another pack of wolves which didn’t really matter.

    The rock Lobber aims towards the center-left of my TG block, deviates a tiny bit and ends up killing three Temple Guard.

    No close combat yet. It’s only turn one after all.


    LM Turn 1

    On my left side, my Skink Skirmishers squeeze into space between my left most watch tower and the table edge bunched up in ranks of four, so only eight out of 13 can shoot the nearest wolves. My Temple Guard back up two inches from the advancing greenskin horde.

    3 PD versus 2 DD. I decided to make my top priority to be the Mangler Squigs since they are fast and do not recycle. I cast Soul Quench to quench a Mangler to death. A lot of greenskin units were nearby but no one panicked. I used one die to cast Hand of Glory on the Skinks in my left tower to boost their BS by 2 points. I swapped Hand of Glory for an Undeath spell, and got Khizzar which I opted to keep figuring it would be good for killing Manglers Squig, trolls, or goblins.

    The tower Skinks were BS 5, so they put 8 wounds on the wolves and obliterated them

    No close combat yet. Still Turn One after all.


    O&G Turn 2

    Animosity is brutal this turn. The Savage Orcs and Archers Squabble among themselves. The Savage Orcs big’uns get into a rock throwing contest with a unit of Night Goblin spear men and somehow lose. 2 Savage Orcs die while only one Night Goblin dies (the Goblins somehow cheated). Trolls fail their stupidity test and amble forward 3 inches.

    Surviving Mangler Squig rolls a 9 and will be in striking distance of my skirmishers or Temple Guard next turn. Most of the Squabbling or Stupid units are up front, so the Orc and Goblin line cannot advance a whole lot except for the wolf riders. Note, Eron12 forgot to recycle his 5 wolf rider unit this turn.

    7 PD versus 5D, Eron12 decided not to bother casting anything.

    Rock Lobber targeted my Temple Guard but deviated widely barely stopping short of one of my watch towers.

    There was no close combat yet. This is a little slower start then usual.


    LM Turn 2

    TG march forward eight inches. My Skink Skirmishers stand firm and cowardly, hiding behind the watch towers. My Skroxigor have no reason to leave their watch towers.

    7 PD versus 5 DD. A dispel scroll stopped me from blasting his Mangler Squig with Khizzar. Then I hit it with Soul Quench. The Squig was near the Magic Circle, but I managed enough unsaved wounds to kill it. I tried to cast Walk Between Worlds bit the Goblins dispelled this with dice. I opted not to swap out Soul Quench for an Undeath spell because it’s a very useful spell.

    Nothing was in javelin range.

    There was no close combat yet. The Lizardmen seem cautious.


    O&G Turn 3

    The Night Goblin archers that had edged up the board the farthest (my left side, they were barely in short bow range of the watch tower) were now squabbling which slowed down the spear Night Goblins stuck behind them.

    The trolls behaved as did everyone else, so the right side of my board saw a green skin surge as did the center. Both Savage Orc units hugged the magic circle and advanced around it in opposite directions. We remembered the reinforcement move so Eron12 deployed them on my left and walked them 9 inches right in front of my left most tower and the Skink Skirmishers flanking said tower, five wolf riders. The other two wolf rider blocks (five and 10 Goblins strong) advanced well into my left side and were now contesting my dominance of my back right corner. Trolls and remaining Night Goblins advance where they can. The Orc Big boss loops around the arcane circle in an opening the Savage Orc Big Un’ kindly left for him.

    Eron chooses to skip magic. The Ruby Ring of Ruin Goblin had no line of sight and there was nothing to cast Sneaky Stabbin’ on.

    Rock lobber clipped four TG but whiffed damage.

    Still no close combat. What is with these cowardly lizards?


    LM 3

    Skirmishers on my left back up a little. Still in javelin range though. Skirmishers on my right angle towards the nearest of the 15 wolves threatening their personal space. TG swift reform to change their angle and back up two inches. Am I brave or what?

    8 PD versus 6 PD, Slann attempts casting Fiery Convocation with five dice and fails. Skink tries casting Ryze with three dice and fails.

    Skirmishers flanking my left most tower kill three out of five of the wolves, the remaining two hold position. Not wanting to waste their shots, the tower Skinks instead attack the River trolls managing two unsaved wounds. My right most tower kills five out of ten wolves threatening them which causes the remaining five to panic off the board, leaving the nearby unit of skirmishers with nothing to shoot at.

    What is this close combat phase you speak of? Sounds interesting.


    OG 4

    Two Night Goblin units on my left squabble, one spear and one archer block. Trolls are okay with their mental faculties.

    The remaining two wolves on the left charge my Skink Skirmishers and are killed with stand and shoot javelins. Trolls charge my Temple Guard and fail moving a mere 4 inches, Big Boss charges Temple Guard and makes it. Savage Orcs march forward on both sides of the arcane circle with the non-squabbling Night Goblins following in their wake. Reinforcement time, Eron12 puts all his recycling wolf units on my right side of the board, clearly hoping to gain dominance in my lower right corner, so he can move reinforcements there later.

    Once again, Eron12 decides playing out the magic phase would be a waste of time.

    One of the goblins gets strangled to death by the Rock Lobber ropes. They lose their shot this turn and next turn.

    The Orc Big Boss issues a challenge and the Revered Guardian accepts his challenge. The boar gores my Revered Guardian to death. Then the Orc Big Boss assesses the Temple Guard’s deep ranks and impressive banners and chooses the better part of valor. The boar was not on board with this plan and ran away quite slowly. My Temple Guard had Predatory Fighter forcing them to pursue. If a Skink can restrain pursuit, you’d think a Slann could, but I guess Slann had better things to do than restrain a pursuit. The Temple Guard run the Big Boss down and ALMOST reach the trolls.


    LM 4

    The Temple Guard charge the trolls one inch away. Emboldened by their leader’s example, my skirmishers on the right move forward not back and close to short range. Since the Orcs and Goblins seem to be prioritizing my right most watch tower and the lands around it, my left most skirmishers march towards center leaving my left tower to fend for itself.

    5 PD versus 3 DD, I cast Tempest which deviates well away from any Goblins. Since Tempest is not worth much I chose to swap it out for an Undeath spell. I failed a one die casting of Soul Quench. I rolled Khizzar again which gave me a choice. I chose Rhazkar, as this is my favorite Undeath spell.

    My Skink Skirmishers and tower garrison on the right side of the board threw down enough javelins to wipe out all wolves in their vicinity. My other Skinks have nothing in range.

    Armed with the Banner of Eternal Flame. My Temple Guard butcher four trolls who need snake eyes to hold. Whenever Eron12 needs snakes he tends to roll a “3.” Cruel are the dice gods. The trolls and general run 5 inches versus my Temple Guard’s 4 inches. I lost three Temple Guard in that little tussle. Still had about 30. The Temple Guard’s pursuit carried me within a few inches of the left most Savage Orcs (not the Big Uns).


    OG 5

    The right most archer unit of Goblins squabbles. The leftmost block of Night Goblin spear men squabbles.

    The Savage Orcs charge the Temple Guard. Fleeing trolls and the Orc general rally. Non-squabbling Goblins advance when they can, so do Wolf riders. Once again all the replacement wolves come on my right side. One of them had to deploy conga line style so they could fit. No biggie, fast cavalry get free reforms.

    6 PD versus 5 DD, Slann beat 6 die casting of Sneaky Stabbin’ with five dispel dice.

    Stone thrower cannot shoot this turn.

    Big Stabbas whiff their impact hits. Orcs choppa up three Temple Guard. The Temple Guard answer back killing five orcs. Savage Orcs need snakes and fail to get snakes. Orcs run 8 inches versus the Temple Guard’s terrifying 2 inch pursuit. Some nearby Night Goblins witness this, but the Warboss is watching, so they refrain from fleeing.


    LM 5

    Temple Guard Charge the flank of the recently rallied trolls. My Skirmishers do some minor re-positioning.

    11 PD versus 5 DD. Slann gets Irresistible Force on Rhazkar with three dice. I lose two PD. Skink Priest and Slann each take a wound from Magic Feedback. I now had a Spirit Host defending my left most tower. My Skink uses three dice to on Ryze and also gets Irresistible Force. The Skink rolls the same miscast the Slann does. This kills the Skink and wounds the Slann again, but I now have ten Tomb King Archers from this swap (archers deploy behind and to the side of the Spirit Host). That burned my last power die. I now have two Raise the Dead Tokens.

    Skeleton archers and tower Skinks kill 8 Night Goblins between them. The Night Goblins choose not to panic “‘cause da boss is watching!”. The right side tower kills three models off of a ten strong wolf rider block. These guys panic off the board.

    I was flanking the trolls, but the General makes way over to the Temple Guard. He issues a challenge, and my Slann refuses. The Orc general kills two Temple Guard, and I inflicted no unsaved wounds back, but I beat him by 5 with static resolution. General and trolls flee 7 inches, I pursue 12 inches obliterating them. This pursuit carried me into a block of Night Goblin spear men.


    OG 6

    5 Wolves near my right side tower get “6” on Animosity chart, they must charge the tower.

    Big Un’s try long shot charge on tower, and lose an impressive six models to stand and shoot. Then the wolves complete their compulsory charge on the tower. Then the Night goblins on my left flank opt to charge my newly summoned Spirit Host hoping to break it with static CR. Savage Orcs fail to rally, run some more. More reinforcements swarm the right side the board.

    9 versus 8 DD, skip.

    Rock Lobber kills 3 of my Skirmishers which I had earlier moved to the center. Since they started the phase with 13 models, this was not enough to generate a panic test.

    Spirit Hosts fail to kill a Night Goblin. With the charge and an extra rank, I lose two wounds to crumble. Still two wounds left.

    Meanwhile, a nearby block Night Goblin spear men got chopped up by Temple Guard and flee four inches. Temple Guard pursue four inches. Booyah!

    Meanwhile, the Wolf riders fail fear test, and they had to dismount from their wolves to assault my right most tower. Despite all this, I don’t do very well. Skinks kill 1 Goblin. Goblins kill 2 Skinks. Kroxigor splat 3 Goblins. That leaves a survivor. 4 Skinks and 2 Kroxigor could not kill off five buck naked Goblins Note, because they are still technically cavalry, the Kroxigor’s stomps do not apply and it’s a building assault so attackers cannot break.


    LM 6

    Temple Guard Swift reform and advance towards my right side where most of the Greenskins are converging, but the Temple Guard are still over 12 inches away. Both my skirmishers move to solidly occupy my back right corner. There are now five enemy units in my bottom right corner. That’s the Savage Orc Big’Uns, two Night Goblin blocks, two wolf rider units. Since I have both my Skirmishers and the Skroxigor Cohort in this quarter, I have three units. I just barely denied him dominance next round. Whew!

    On the neglected left side of the board, my ten skeleton archers reform to face the right side of the board. They are barely in range of them, and the Orcs and Goblins enjoy hard cover from the Magic Circle stone hinge. But with Tomb King shooting, long range and hard cover is nothing.

    7 PD versus 6 DD. I tried to use Rhazkar to summon some Carrion to fly at the Rock Lobber, but it was dispelled. Then the Goblin shamans dispelled Soul Quench as well. Then I cast Apothesis to recover one of the lost wounds on the Slann. Rolled Morkhan for my spell. Yuck! I’ll take Ryze instead, after all my Skink Priest who had that is now dead and I want to have Ryze again.

    The Skeleton Archers kill a savage orc Big Un’. The right side tower Skinks kill 5 more. The left tower has nothing to shoot at.

    Only close combat is my wounded Spirit Host versus the slightly depleted Night Goblin archers on the left. I kill one Goblin, the Goblins have one extra rank. Battle is technically a draw.


    OG 7

    No animosity problems this round.

    The lone wolf from the ill-fated tower assault charges the nearest unit of Skink Skirmishers, and they reduce it to wolfy paste from a stand and shoot. Savage Orcs rally near back end of table, Eron12 would have probably preferred it if they fled off the table. 20 Night Goblin archers choose to occupy the empty watch tower. The Orc Big Uns stay put, rather than charge the watch tower. Two Night Goblin Spear men blocks advance behind them. Reinforcement phase has all three wolf units and the second wave of Night Goblin spear men enter on the right side as far forward as they can. Fortunately, I’m contesting my own bottom right corner, so they can’t deploy in my backyard.

    Once again, Eron12 opts to skip the magic phase. At this point both Goblin Shamans were alive. I forgotten where they were, so I asked Erron. One Night Goblin Shaman was sitting in the newly captured tower with the archers. The other Night Goblin Shaman was locked in combat with a Spirit Host with the other archers. Mystery solved.

    Rock Lobber aims at some of my Skirmishers. Rolls a mild misfire and loses this single shot.

    Spirit Host kills two Night Goblins who break and run 8 inches. Spirit Host pursues a paltry 4 inches.


    LM 7

    It might have been better tactics to just let the Night Goblins keep running, but sometimes you just got to feed the blood lust of your undead minions. The Spirit Host charges the fleeing NGs and rolls high enough to run them down. Scalenex restrains himself from evil cackling.

    I temporarily beaten back the hordes contesting my bottom right corner, so I redeploy one of my Skirmisher units towards the center just in case Eron12 make a surprise play for the left corner. Other Skirmishers re-position a little for better shooting. My skeleton archers point towards rallied Savage Orcs because they don’t really have anything better to shoot at. Temple Guard march towards distant backs of the greenskins trying to overwhelm my right corner.

    Box Cars, 12 versus 6. A nice solid magic phase and I have two Raise the Dead tokens. I cash in said tokens to summon a unit of two Spirit Host base behind my Temple Guard in case the waves of reinforcements inching up on the Temple Guard get any ideas. I gained a new Raise the Dead Token, which I cashed in two summon four Crypt Horrors and point at the Night Goblin occupied watch tower. I gained a new Raise the Dead Token which I never got to use. The Crypt Horrors were summoned with Irresistible Force, and for the third time this game, I rolled Magical Feedback (Soul of Stone helped). This time, the Slann did not take a wound, but that ended my magic phase early.

    Skeleton archers whiff their volley. Tower Skinks kill two Big Uns.

    Flashback! There is no close combat.


    OG 8

    The one unit of Night Goblins that might have been able to assault a tower or my archers squabbled.

    5 wolves are forced by animosity to charge the right most tower. The remaining Big Un’s charge the tower as well. Stand and shoot sees 5 Big'uns dead. There are now two left. Now it’s time for reinforcements. Since this was the last turn, instead of piling in on my right flank, the newly arriving wolves and Night Goblins split 50/50 so Eron12 could secure his half of the board’s dominance. The 10 Goblin block of wolf riders cleverly angled themselves to prevent my Crypt Horrors from assaulting the Night Goblin controlled watch tower.

    7 PD versus 6 DD, I six-diced a sneaky stabbing away. Then he surprised me with the Ruby Ring of Ruin, fireballing two wounds on my Crypt Horrors. Neat trick, but too little too late.

    Night Goblin archers in the tower inflict two wounds on Crypt horrors taking them down to 3 models. Rock Lobber hits a unit of my skirmishers dead on, but only kills a single model.

    Attention, this is weird. While perfectly legal, it makes zero sense. If anyone can come up with a fluff based justification for the turn of events, please let me know.
    The Wolf Riders fail their Fear test. The Savage Orcs are immune to psychology. The Skinks go first but fail to kill any of the dismounted and fearful wolf riders. The Savage Orcs kill four Skinks. The Kroxigors killed both Savage Orcs with wounds to spare that did not count for my CR. I lost combat by two. The unit was stubborn and tested on the Kroxigor’s Ld 7. They rolled a 9 and exited the building opposite side of the fearful wolf riders and fled seven inches. The Wolf Riders could not actually enter the tower because they were cavalry, but they were one inch a way, so they were technically controlling it for victory point purposes.
    If the Orcs did all the killing and the Orcs are all dead? The wolf riders were all pissing themselves in fear. Why would the thirty-odd Skinks and two Kroxigor decided to evacuate the building? Please help me make sense of this.


    LM 8

    The Temple Guard charge the back of the nearest Goblin spear men. The Goblins flee but I catch them anyway. The Crypt Horrors cannot assault the occupied watch tower, so they charge the nearest wolf riders. The Spirit Host charges the Goblin occupied tower. My wounded single basic Spirit Host charges the Rock Lobber. My idiot Skroxigor rally. I moved one of the Skink Skirmishers one inch away from the watch tower so the Wolf Riders could not gain a point for it, worst case scenario. The other Skirmishers moved to get a good shooting angle.

    5 PD 2 DD. I Soul Quench the (lucky?) wolves near my tower. Four out of five of them die and the remainder panics off of the table. Skeleton Archers and tower Skinks plink six Night Goblins off a block of spear men who flee but are still on the table. Cannot contest a table quarter now though.

    Close combat sees a Spirit Hosts inflict 1 wound on war machine. Crew does not break. Other Spirit Horsts inflict one wound on the Night Goblins occupying their watch tower. Tower Goblins hold fast. Crypt Horrors kill five out of ten of the wolves they were facing and the Wolf Riders flee off the table.

    I destroyed or routed nearly all the Orcs and Goblins contesting my back two table quarters. Two points for me. My left side tower never left my Skroxigor’s control. One more point. I briefly lost my right side tower but My Skirmishers were able to reclaim it, Turn 8. That makes four points in total.

    My Crypt Horrors, Skeleton archer, and two base Spirit Host were all on my opponent’s side of the board, but they were all outnumbered at least two to one. So Eron12 got two points for table quarters. The Night Goblins remained in full control of my most distant watch tower. That’s three points in total.

    4 to 3 Lizardmen victory. Contrast with last game which was 3 to 3, because my fleeing Skink Skirmishers were technically controlling a nearby watch tower. I felt like I stole that previous tie, but I think I earned this victory. Still, while I played well I must admit Eron12 had below average luck with Animosity and rolled subpar starting spells.


    Afterthoughts

    I packed a lot of zombies but never summoned zombies once.


    Eron12 and I both really like the Invasion scenario, and we are more than happy to play it again some time. Not next time, but it will probably enter our rotation. Given that our busy schedules give us four games a year give or take, we’ll try this again in 2018.


    Eron12 gave me much flattering praise for my strategy. Two well garrisoned towers, a sliding pair of Skirmishers to switch table corners as needed, a mega unit to smack enemies who advance too far and a series of summoned soldiers to both stall advances on the tower and contest table quarters. I do not think I would make any major change this set up for a different opponent.


    Here’s a question: would the outcome be the same if Eron12 played Warriors of Chaos? Chaos is a tough opponent to defeat with Lizardmen, but my overall strategy would not be very different. I would avoid combat as long as I could and try to use shooting and magic to soften up or ideally destroy anything that is not Core first. Then as I gradually got more Undeath spells summon as many roadblocks as I could. I probably would not be able to keep my towers unmolested forever, but they had 49 wounds each, so they could hold out three rounds against an elite force if they do not fail a break test. 15 javelin shots every LM shooting phase and every stand and shoot will take a toll, even on Warriors of Chaos. 37 Temple Guard would probably not be breaking Chaos units round after round, but they could probably hold their own as long as they aren’t outflanked.

    One disadvantage Chaos has versus Orcs and Goblins is a lack of numbers. As long as my Temple Guard are playing goalie, it would be difficult to gain dominance in either back corner. With good Winds of Magic letting me summon enough undead chaff and my two trusty Skink Skirmishers avoiding the Hellcannon’s annihilation (easier said than done), I could theoretically contest every table quarter and prevent Chaos reinforcements from coming in for a turn or barring that, at least limit them to the one corner that contains no watch tower.


    I cannot personally think of a better set up as Lizardmen, than what I did. Two Skroxigor garrisoned towers, two Skink Skirmisher units to run interference, and one really strong Slann bunker. It doesn’t have to be Lore of Undeath, I just have to play Undeath at every opportunity because I’m me. I think a Light Slann, High Magic Slann, or Life Slann would be reasonable defenders. Shadow might work too. I would not play Invasion defenders without a Slann, though I think Lizardmen attackers could get away with a non-Slann list in this scenario.


    I don’t see non-Lizardmen defenders being much different. It’s risky at best to try to contest all three watch towers when you only need to control the back half of the board to win. Put a solid unit in both back edge towers, preferably one that shoots. Have at least one strong mega unit. Back up with magic, artillery, or Monsters depending on what your defending army has to offer. If your army has mobile light chaff, keep a few hiding in the back to contest quarters if necessary.


    Attackers, you want at least one, preferably two units well suited to assaulting buildings. Flaming attacks are good. So is Hatred, Choppas, Frenzy, or anything that provides a bonus on the charge, first round, or rewards base-to-base contact because every building assault is “the first round” and everyone is in base-to-base contact.

    If the Attacking force has long range shooting, probably want to take the nearest watch tower early and plant some shooters in there early. Attackers want a few units that are fast to contest or dominate table quarters. Cavalry, swift stride monsters, or flyers. Though mobile units such as this are rarely what you want to be assaulting the enemy watch towers, they can still remove enemy chaff to help dominate table quarters.


    Lizardmen attackers, I probably want some Cohort Skinks to occupy the “freebie” tower. You probably want a block of Temple Guard with the Banner of Eternal Flame to conduct building assaults. Terradons are a bit brittle, skirmishers are probably good enough for contesting quarters, and they recycle if killed. A few Saurus blocks wouldn’t be amiss. Maybe a small unit of Cold One Cavalry or a Cowboy for some mobile muscle. I’m not very convinced that our warbeasts or Monsters would earn back their points given that they are subpar for assaulting buildings, do not recycle, and are a tempting target for enemy artillery. They don’t recycle like Core Skinks, but Chameleon Skinks can deploy in your enemies backyard, so that’s nice. Especially if the enemy has static war machines.

    High Magic offers chaff removal and mobility. Fiery Convocation is nice on an enemy watchtower, but that’s a hard spell to get off when you need. With eight turns rather than six, you can get more Contemplations spell swaps than you can in an ordinary game. Lore of Fire can give you a second unit with flaming attacks if you roll the right spells. Lore of Light gives you stronger units and a little bit of mobility plus a little bit of Flaming attacks. Lore of Undeath can summon chaff units to gain early dominance of a distant table corner. I’m sure the other lores will work with the right army builds, but I’ll stick with High Magic, Fire, Light and Undeath.


    If we army swap, I’d rather play Orcs and Goblins. If you are going to an unending expendable horde, come on, is there any better choice than Orcs and Goblins? What would I do if this was flipped? I think Savage Orcs with two hand weapons remain a good baseline for muscle. We are talking potentially 30 attacks from 10 models in a building assault and +1 Strength every attack. Yes, please! I think I would swap some of the wolf riders for spider riders, they are pretty good at assaulting buildings. Maybe make the units a little bigger.

    The wolf riders are cheap and fast and can help claim or contest quarters, but it seems liked that’s all they did. I would spring for the extra points to give the wolf riders bows. Units cannot charge when they show up as reinforcements but they can shoot. That gives them something to do. They wouldn’t kill a lot of Skink Skirmishers, but the Spider Riders replace their losses and the defending Skinks do not.

    Eron12 rolled subpar spells, but I think the Big Waaagh! spells would be more useful than Little Waaagh! spells, but what I would really want to play is….Lore of Undeath! Spam the enemy with hordes of units that much faster. Recycling units each with Goblin Fanatics sounds tempting but I think the whirling Fanatics might be as dangerous to the attacker as the defender but I do think Night Goblins would be well to take Netters. I think Eron12 was right to not take a BSB, the only place it might have mattered was with the trolls’ stupidity tests. I’m not sure the Mangler Squigs added much, I’d probably drop them to pay for the aforementioned upgrades (bows for riders, netters for Night Goblins, more Savage Orcs, etc). Then again, maybe it caused me to waste valuable early spells. I pretty much ALWAYS target Mangler Squigs first when I fight Orcs and Goblins.


    If we had a regulation size Invasion scenario table and 3000 points or more, I’d probably pick the same general strategies, just more units and bigger units. Two Temple Guard blocks and two Slann using Telepathic Confabulation to make sure both have the ideal spells worked before in our last 6000 point game (until I lost for unrelated reasons). Probably want three or four units of skirmishers. Maybe make some of them Chameleon Skinks or Terradons instead of Core. More points means you want bigger units garrisoning or assaulting the towers. If you make the point size for invasion large enough, I’d consider placing a speed bump force in the most vulnerable tower. Maybe I’d actually take some more fighty characters either to lead building assaults or add hitting power to my Temple Guard blocks.

    In a grand army I’d consider taking some Monsters. Not sure if I want to, but I’d think about it. After all, no matter how many points you have, there are only three watch towers, so there are other things you can be hitting. As either attackers or defenders, I wouldn’t mind a Solardon, but the lack of Stubborn bothers me, so I think a support Stegadon is my Monster of choice here.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2017
  2. blackrainbow
    Saurus

    blackrainbow Member

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    Wow, that was pretty in depth! Do you take notes as you play, or just consult each other afterwards on how things went down. I would imagine that doing such write-ups afterwards really helps your strategies. I usually just roll dice and charge forth. Nice to see some thought really put into it, and hopefully I'll pick up a bit or two from these reads. More please :)
     
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  3. Scalenex
    Slann

    Scalenex Keeper of the Indexes Staff Member

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    Eron12 and I like to take things slow and I do take fairly detailed notes as we play though I end up making a lot of typos and other issues, so what you are seeing is my battle notes with two revisions and some afterthoughts.

    Sadly, we are both busy adults, Eron12 more than I, so we don't get to play as often as we (or at least I) would like. Though if you run a search you can find a fair number of Scalenex-Eron12 battle reports through the years.

    EDIT: Our most epic battle report 6000 points LM versus Dwarves includes fluff excerpts from witnesses to the battle. I am very proud of that one.
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2017
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  4. discomute
    Terradon

    discomute Well-Known Member

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    The skroxigor were like 'wow these riders are so badass they aren't even bothering attacking us, let's get out of here!'
     
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