Army List and Battle Report 9-10-11 Heroes 347 points Saurus Scar Veteran (85), Cold One (20), Great Weapon (6), Gambler’s Armor (20), Iron Curse Icon (5), Dawnstone (25) 161 points Saurus Scar Veteran (85), BSB (25), Armor of Destiny (50), Great Weapon (6), Cold One (20) 186 points Core 1000 points 30 Saurus Warriors (330), Full Command (30), Spears (30) 390 points 25 Saurus Warriors (275), Full Command (30) 305 points 25 Saurus Warriors (275), Full Command (30) 305 points Special 991 points 23 Temple Guard (368), Full Command (35), 403 points 8 Chameleon Skinks (96) 96 points 8 Chameleon Skinks (96) 96 points 8 Chameleon Skinks (96) 96 points Rare 160 points 2 Razordon Hunting Pack (150), 2 additional handlers (10) 160 points We played a Battleline. I should point out that due to a preexisting setup we determined that 1-3 is battle line, 4-6 was blood and glory. I built my list with lots of units that use standards on the 50% chance of a blood and glory scenario. My opponent uses a runelord or two runesmiths minimum per game to counter my SLann so I go no magic once in a while to throw him off. We used my Lustira terrain generator and got two rivers (both raging torrents), two undergrowth sections, and two ordinary jungles. Only the river really mattered. They slowed down my Saurus advance and I lost several Sauri to difficult terrain tests. Left to right my end Hand weapon sauri (blue), temple guard (and BSB), cold one riders (and general), spearmen Saurus, hand weapon Sauri (green), razordons. I held my cold one riders back a bit so they wouldn’t be able to take charges. Left to right foes 30 great weapon warriors, 30 great weapon warriors (in river), organ gun, grudge thrower, cannon, outside of forest cannon, 30 great weapon warriors almost in river, organ gun on other side of the river. 30 Hammerers in front of forest, great weapon warriors, entrenched organ gun with runelord behind him. My opponent well used to the antics of my chameleon skinks gave me little room to stick my chamo skinks in save on the far side by the entrenched organ gun. LM Turn 1 I advanced my Saurus line, took out a crewman on the organ gun and fired a volley on the rune lord and failed to wound. Dwarf Turn 1 Runelord charges a chamo skink unit, who stand and shoot one wound. The other dwarves either stay put or back up slightly Lucky shot on the grudge thrower takes out my bsb. No lookout sir because he’s mounted amongst infantry and he failed his Ward save. A razordon is wounded twice by a cannon ball. Then another cannon ball finishes him off leaving one razordon with eight handlers. The two organ guns together take one group of 8 chamos down to 3. The master engineer took a difficulty 7 shot on some chameleon skinks and missed. CC, no one inflicts any damage in the grand melee between the rune lord and the chamo skinks, but the skinks are varied impressed by his charge and flee off the board. The runelord followed them off LM Turn 2 I advance my line some more limited in marching ability by the river. My undepleted Chamo skinks charge organ gun. My three remaining skink sneaks into river between organ gun and flank of a group of warriors. Razordon and three chameleon skinks take out three warriors between them. In close combat, the other chamo skinks wipe out the organ gun crew. Dwarf Turn 2 Dwarves move sideways a small amount or stay put. The runelord returns to the field. Grudge thrower kills eight temple guard, Two cannons together inflict a mere one wound on my surviving razordon, the engineer fails to hit with his hand gun again. The organ gun gets a misfire preventing it from firing this turn. LM Turn 3 I advanced my line leaving my generals cold ones off diagonally pointed for a supporting charge for one of the Saurus groups they are beteween. My Razordon lines up for a shot on the rune lord. My chameleons moved towards the nearer cannon crew My razordon two shots failed to hit the runelord, my 11 chamo skinks killed a single cannon crewman. Dwarf Turn 3 Runelord charged my razordon who ate a handler on his stand and shoot. A group of warriors charged my green Saurus unit. The warriors parallel to the river advanced, everyone else stayed put. Grudge thrower kills three Saurus, master engineer shoots and misses again, cannon kills three spearmen. Rune lord wounds the razordon pack who fails to inflict any wounds, they run a mighty 11 inches over the river (they are river strider so no difficult terrain test). Luckily for the rune lord his pursuit doesn’t take him over the river. My blue Sauri kill four warriors in close combat, lose nine to enemy attacks then breaks and successfully outflees their pursuers. LM Turn 4 My temple guard and cold one riders charge over the river towards a group of warriors. I lose four temple guard and three cold one riders to difficult terrain tests. My spearmen attempt a failed charge against his hammerers. I lost two spearmen in the river. My other Saurus group charges a unit of warriors, losing two in the river. The river is very pro-Dwarf. My blue Saurus kept fleeing, but my razordon rallied. Surviving Chamo skinks stayed put and kill a crew on the other cannon. Cold One Riders and temple Guard kill 12, lose two temple guard. The dwarves are steadfast and hold anyway Green Saurus kill 4 warrior, only lose two (got amazing saves). They win combat by 3, dwarves hold on a 6. Dwarf Turn 4 Runelord charges razordon, hammerers charge my spearmen, warriors charge fleeing Saurus who flee well out of range. Razordon gets off 20 shots off with a stand and shoot and inflict one wound The cannon and grudge thrower aren’t taking any chances and fire on my fleeing Saurus killing ten. The organ gun obliterates what’s left of my chameleon skinks. Cold One Riders and Temple Guard kill 9 and take no casualties themselves. I meant to pursue with the COR and reposition the Temple Guard to face the war machines, but the Temple Guard failed their restraint roll. The Cold One Riders caught the dwarves but unfortunately pursued them off the board. Razordon kills the runelord and reforms to face the melee between the green Saurus and dwarf warriors Green Saurus kill four in close combat, lose six of their own, break and are run down. The pursuing dwarves ALMOST reached my razordon. Saurus spearmen kill five hammerers, lose nine of their own, and hold rolling snake eyes. LM Turn 5 Fleeing blue Saurus rally, cold one riders arrive on the board again move towards the back of the big melee. Temple guard reform to face the war machines. Razordon moves around flank of the warriors near them to get a shot and stay out of their charge arc (they whiffed shooting). Spearmen get really bad rolls wound no one (though I probably would have got one or two wounds if I didn’t try to kill the BSB). Saurus are knocked back to their command alone, and they break leaving me with a musician and champion. The dwarves didn’t feel like pursuing through a raging river to get two guys so they restrained pursuit. Dwarf Turn 5 Hammers attempt charge on Cold One riders and fail. The warriors near my razordon reform to face their spikey nuisance. Warriors in front of my blue Saurus reform towards cold one riders. Minimum range grudge thrower shot on Temple guards deviates to the cold one riders who get lucky saves and don’t take any wounds (yay Iron Curse Icon!) Cannon takes out all my cold one riders but the standard bearer (including my general). The master engineer finally hits someone with his hand gun but fails to wound. LM Turn 6 Temple guard charges the organ gun. The last cold one rider recklessly charges the hammerers. My fleeing pair of Saurus spearmen rally Razordon plinks two warriors dead in the shooting phase. Cold One Rider kills two hammerers then dies. The Temple Guard kill the whole organ gun crew and overrun into the grudge thrower Dwarf Turn 6 Warriors charge razordon who stand and shoots one dead. All the dwarves make their difficult terrain tests across the river that I made sure to keep between us. Hammerers charge my temple guard’s flank. Cannon kills the musician from the surviving Saurus pair. The engineer tries to kill off the champion with his handgun and fails to wound losing out on 390 points. Razordon kills two warriors then dies. Temple Guard loses one member to the BSB, then kills the grudge thrower before being wiped out by the hammerers. He got 2028 points with bonus points from my general and the standards of all my Saurus blocks, the Cold One Riders, and Temple Guard. He didn’t get any bonus points for my BSB who died from a big rock to the face. I wiped out a cannon, grudge thrower, organ gun, runelord, and a unit of dwarf warriors. I got bonus points from his general, and one standard. I got 1198 points narrowing avoiding a decisive defeat.
Interesting that you charged an organ gun crew with a unit of chameleons. Seems like a desperate move (only 3 can fight), vs. the potential double tapping 16 shots you could have had. Curious why you did that.
I'd charge an organ gun too. You get 6 skinks to attack his dwarf crew. Not 3, p.110 of the BIG red book, you choose 6 models to choose from your own models in that combat. If you have multiple units this becomes relevant, otherwise: pick 6 that can fight. Since all models are assumed to be in base contact with the war machine (and it is the machine that you attack, at the crew's WS and T), you get to strike with 6 skinks. 6 skinks striking first: 3 hit (WS 2 vs 4), 1 wound (S3 vs T4). With only a 6+ save, this dwarf is very likely to be dead. 2 dwarves striking back (WS4 vs WS2), 1 hits, wounds (S3 vs T2) and kills a skink. You now have charge+1 wound vs 1-2 wounds. Next turn you kill another dwarf, leaving the last dwarf standing. He might or might not kill a skink, but that doesn't matter. You would win by 1 or tie the combat, he is stubborn 9 (dwarf crew is stubborn) so you are likely to go into another round of combat. In that round, you will kill the last dwarf, wiping out the organ gun. 16 shots produces 2.666 6's. So you might or might not kill the crew with shooting. If you don't, the OG gets to fire another shot. And you don't want to take another round of fire from the Organ gun! So the safe option is to charge, and just duke it out with the crew. An organ gun does not have the option of adding an 'engineer', which is basically another crewmember with a higher BS. So you only get to fight 3 crewmembers unless there is a Runesmith or Master Engineer with them. If that is the case, you don't want to charge in at all . Charging means he does not get to fire the gun, whatever happens (bar very bad dice). I'd charge my chameleons in pretty much any war machine crew, you are likely to win (losing 1-3 skinks in the process), kill the crew and prevent it from shooting. I also like mages being with war machine crews ^^, then you can choose to shoot or charge...in which case I trust my chameleon skinks and most of the time just charge for the fun of watching skinks in close combat killing stuf! The Hunted
The organ gun in question was entrenched making it harder to shoot at. I probably should have mentioned that.
Thanks for the replies. My mistake about only 3 being able to fight - I think I am confusing the rules about Terradons/monstrous cavalry...in which case it is only 2 that can fight, so I'll shut up now