Disclaimer: this is not a highly competitive match. Both my opponent and I were focusing mostly on having fun and we may have played a few things wrong. However, we had fun. My list: Lords 616 Channeling Slann (Focus of Mystery, Harmonic Convergence, Channeling Staff) Old Blood (Gambler's Armor, Shield, Talisman of Preservation) <shield comes in handy against RxBs> Heroes 362 Beast Priest lvl2 (Dispel Scroll) Beast Priest lvl2 (Power Scroll) Scar Vet Cowboy (Halberd, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Endurance) Core 795 30x Saurus (Spears, full command) Skrox (25 skinks, 3 Krox, musician, banner) 10x Skink Skirmishers (Javelins) 10x Skink Skirmishers (Javelins) Special 228 5x Chameleons Bastilodon (Solar Engine) Rare 512 Ancient Stegadon (Unstoppable Stamp, Sharp Horns) 2x Salamanders (extra snack) 1x Salamanders (extra snack) Total 2500 on the nose. SoM: Dawnstar Sword (for the Old Blood) Venom spitting Hydra (just because the Dark Elves shouldn't get all the Hydra fun) Chimera (with Chomp attack) My Opponent's list Lords 600 Malekith Heroes: Lvl 2 Sorceress (Staff of Sorcery, Lore of Shadow) Core: 20x Repeater Crossbowmen (full command) 20x Corsairs (full command, warbanner) 21 Warriors (full command, Lichebone Pennant) Special 10x Cold one Knights (full command, Banner of Swiftness) 18x Executioners (Tullaris command, Banner of Murder) 20x Black Guard (Kouran command, Standard of Slaughter) Total: 2482 SoM: Hydra Great Black Dragon Total: 610 We played the Reign of Magic scenario from the Storm of Magic book. Terrain was fairly sparse. Dark Elves won the roll off for deployment. Lizardmen won the roll for first turn. Turn 1 Lizardmen Movement: All units move forward their full move. Hydra marches. The black Skink Priest march to the east Fulcrum (thus becoming a Beast Lore Master due to the Wizard's Tower next to him) while the white Skink Priest marches to the west Fulcrum (I have since learned that this was an illegal move. A model may not enter a building on a turn in which it marches). The Skrox play King of the hill on the Temple of Skulls while the skirmishers cautiously advance. Magic: Winds of Magic rolled up 11/8. Reign of Magic roll was a 2 (all forces of destruction and bound monsters are frenzied). Beast magic is ascendant (+5 to casting rolls), thus improving High magic casting attempts by +3. My mighty channeling Slann throws three dice, needs 5+ and manages to get a single die. The Sorcerous Portal casts Speed of Light on the Stegadon. The Slann casts Tempest, but Malekith succeeds in dispelling. Slann casts Fiery Convocation on the Black Guard unit containing Malekith. Malekith fails to dispel, thus breaking his concentration. Black Guard take 13 unsaved wounds! Malekith is unscathed and the unit passes its panic test with an 8. The Bastilodon's skinks fire the Solar Engine, but it is dispelled by the Sorceress. The black Skink Priest launches a boosted Amber Spear at the Dragon, but his ambition got the better of him and he breaks concentration. The Slann attempts to cast Soul Quench, but breaks concentration as well. No shooting (nothing in range) or close combat. Turn 1 Dark Elves Movement: The Great Black Dragon charges the Slann (we couldn't really decide if the charge was legal or not, but I decided to trust in the Old Ones and called it valid). Hydra charges the Chameleons who promptly flee. Hydra redirects to Slann and succeeds in the longer charge. The Black Guard frenzy charge the eastern Fulcrum with the black Skink Priest. The Warriors frenzy charge the white Skink Priest on the western Fulcrum. Both charges are successful. The Cold one Knights pass their stupidity check only to fall victim to frenzy and charge the Skrox on the Temple of Skulls. They succeed in their charge. The Skrox hold. The Repeater Crossbowmen move into the Watchtower. Magic: Winds of Magic rolled 19/11 with no channels on either side. Reign of Magic rolled a 5, thus reviving a single model (one Black Guard is replaced). Malekith irresistibly dispels Fiery Convocation with four dice. He then casts Blade Wind on the western Salamander Pack, killing one Salamander. Malekith attempts to cast Soul Eater, but the Slann successfully dispels his foul sorcery. The Sorceress attempts to cast a boosted Withering on the Saurus, but she is no match for the might of the Slann. She then casts a boosted Occam's Mindrazor on the Warrior horde. Malekith attempts Black Horror, but the Slann is having none of it and dispels with prejudice and the phase ends. Shooting: The 20 Crossbowmen in the two level Watchtower take 40 shots at the Chimera. Only seven hit and none wound. Close Combat: Malekith steps up to fight the black Skink Priest on the eastern fulcrum. He hits four times, with four wounds. However, the mighty Skink uses the vast potential of the arcane fulcrum to protect himself and saves all four wounds with a 3+ ward save. The Skink, thus exhausted from wielding such mighty magics, fails to land a hit against Malekith. The Slann completely whiffs his attack against the Dragon. With a mighty swipe of his fore claws, the Dragon hits and wounds the Slann five times. However, this is contrary to the will of the Old Ones and three wounds are saved by his 4+ ward save. Meanwhile the Hydra hits six times, wounding four times. Once again the Old Ones are not pleased and two wounds are saved. The Slann passes his break test with a 5 and one wound remaining. The Warriors send their Lordling up to face the Skink in single combat. He manages two wounds on the Skink, but the priest takes advantage of the fulcrum's protection and saves one wound. As the Lordling stood in shock at the fact the Skink was still alive, the mighty Skink retaliates and kills the Lordling. The Cold one Knights unleash their might on the Skrox. The front rank killing two Krox with six hits and six wounds. Two mighty Kroxigor toppled during the mighty impact of the lanced fiends. The second rank lay waste to the skinks in the confusion, hitting, wounding and killing five skinks. The Skinks retaliate, hitting twice, but only wounding once, killing one Knight. The Krox unleashes his fury, hitting and killing a single Knight. Unfortunately the Skrox lose combat by a huge margin, flee and are run down. Turn 2 Lizardmen Movement: Saurus with Old Blood charge the Hydra. Ancient Stegadon charges Dragon. Hydra and Chimera charge Warriors. Scar-Vet charges Black Guard. Chameleons rally. Bastilodon moves to face Cold one Knights. Western Salamander pack moves forward six inches. Both units of skink skirmishers move up, with the western unit turns to face the Cold one Knights. Magic: Winds of Magic 15 vs 10. Reign of Magic is 2, again. All forces of Destruction and bound monsters have Frenzy. Slann channels one die. Slann casts boosted Hand of Glory on Saurus. The black Skink Priest casts boosted Transformation of Kadon and becomes a Fire Dragon. Slann casts Apotheosis on himself and heals three wounds. Slann attempts to cast Fiery Convocation, but breaks concentration. Bastilodon fires Solar Engine at Cold one Knights, but gets dispelled. Shooting: Western Salamander fires at Cold one Knights. Hits five, wounds one. They panic off the table! Eastern Salamander fires at Executioners, hits six, kills five. They pass their panic test. The white Skink Priest dies at the hands of a lone Warrior. They hit the Hydra, but fail to wound then wound the Chimera once. The Chimera then proceeds to eat three Warriors while the Hydra eats four. They both thunder stomp the warriors killing an additional three and four respectively. The warriors break and flee for all they are worth. The Chimera, dismayed at seeing his snacks run away, pursues and catches the Warriors. The Stegadon fails miserably to wound the Dragon with impact hits. The Dragon hits the Stegadon four times, wounding twice. The Slann fails to wound the Dragon again. The Old-Blood, with a negligent swing of the Dawnstar Sword, kills the Hydra outright (Dominance meant the sword not only double his attacks to ten, but also added auto hits, auto wounds and the multiple wounds D3 special rule). The Hydra was hit with 10 attacks, saved 2 and died before we bothered to multiply the wounds. I have a new favorite SoM weapon. Malekith hits the recently transformed Skink Priest/Fire Dragon four times, wounding once. The Fire Dragon saved the wound then hits Malekith four times, wounding four times. Unfortunately he lacked magic attacks so Malekith saved all four wounds on his 2+ ward save. The Black Guard attack the Scar-Vet, hitting three times and wounding once. The Scar-Vet saved the wound with armor. The Scar-Vet attacks back, hitting four times, wounding twice and winning combat. The Black Guard pass their break test and hold. At this point it was getting pretty late and we called it done. My opponent seemed to think I was going to win, but I don't think it was that close. It could have gone either way in the remaining four and a half turns. Thoughts and Ruminations: Neither of us played a very smart game in regard to the Storm of Magic rules. I should have used Cantrips to deal with the Dragon and Hydra (though the Old-Blood handled the Hydra well enough). I should have concentrated on killing Malekith (with Old-Blood) and the Sorceress with the rest of my eastern units. That would have wrapped things up nicely. My opponent should have used Magic Duel with Malekith to clear out my black Skink. Malekith would have had a four point advantage. It would have been insta-fail for the Priest. EDIT: There were a couple of things that I've been wanting to do for a while that I finally had a chance to do. The biggest one is use Transformation of Kadon to Hulk Smash something. I can't think of anything less squishy than a Skink Priest to use as a test subject. It worked wonderfully at keeping Malekith off of the fulcrum. One other thing was using a Hydra against Dark Elves. Just so they can see how it feels.
I liked the Skink Priest going toe-to-toe with Malekith. Malekith, the only elf in history to have Toughness 4.
Yes indeed! that Skink Priest is my HERO! I'm tempted to name him Bob. In regard to Malekith, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that his skin is pretty much fused with his armor since Teclis fried him in magical combat.
He got fused with armor centuries before Teclis was born. He sustained burns trying to pass through the fires of Assuryan, duh
You nerds... Anyway, that was an interesting read. I don't know anything about the Storm of Magic, but I really like your list. It's something I'm definitely going to play some day... soon. Thanks for sharing! Oh, and two thumbs up for the Fire Dragon Skink! They are perfect recipients of that spell, if you manage to get them that.
If you want a chaotic romp of a battle, Storm of Magic is the way to go. In a nutshell, it doubles the power/dispell pool limits, doubles the number of dice for Winds of Magic, adds three Cantrip spells to each wizard on the table, adds lore/race specific Cataclysm spells for each wizard on the table, adds Arcane Fulcrums (3+ ward save granting scenario objectives/terrain features) and +25% points for use on Pacts, Bound Monsters and/or Artefacts. It's like Warhammer on Steroids, complete with rage fits. If nothing else, it's a way to take a more or less competitive list and add monsters to it. One nice thing about our new book is that the Slann now has access to the High Magic Cataclysm spells. Before they were limited to the High Elves, but now Slann get High Magic too.