A map campaign log updated: Cancelled 5-27-12 :(

My first Campaign Month, (other players second but I got a few extra things to make up for it)

Current Realm Allowance: 1500 points
Current Army: 1498 points
Slann, extra power dice, lore mastery, Divine Plaque of Protection (I can change Slann’s lore turn by turn if I choose)
Skink Priest, Cube of Darkness
25 Saurus FC
24 Skink, 3 Kroxigor FC
10 Javelins + Brave
2 x 7 Chameleon Skinks + Brave
2 x Salamander Team + Snack
Potential New Units: Jungle Swarms, Skinks Cohorts (no Krox), Skink Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders, Razordons, Max 3 Skink Chiefs, Max 2 Temple Guard
Warchest: 0 Soft Resource units, 0 Hard Resource units, 0 Magic Resource units
Production at the end of the month: 67 S, 40 H, 28 M

Realm Tile Count (does not factor in productivity of tiles or standing army)
Ogre Kingdoms 4
Warriors of Chaos: 3
Dark Elves 3
Vampire Counts 3
Chaos Dwarves 2
Beasts of Chaos 2
Dwarves 2
Lizardmen (Me): 2


State of the Lizardmen Realm
Tile One (river through forested hills): Keep, Village, Temple, Mage Tower, Animal Farm, Mine
Tile Two (mangrove swamp): Guardtower, Herbalist


Me and seven other players are contesting around 100 hexagons on a big map. There is an underdark map too, but I’m not allowed to look at it until I control an entrance to the Underdark. The objective is to get as much territory as we can. Each tile has a rating in Elevation, Vegetation, and Hydration that affects productivity of a tile and units able to produced. The map is very realistic. A mountain range splits the Western third of the map from the Eastern two thirds. The thickest mountains are in the spine of the mountain and then it levels off to the west and east. The west borders an ocean and there is a realistic rain shadow so the areas to the west of the mountains have a lot more water than the eastern two thirds. Pretty much the whole coast is low lying wetlands described narrative-wise as mangrove swamps.


Most of the map is controlled by independent armies. If a player tries to conquer an independent army, one of the other campaign participants or the game referee who has many different armies will make a small force to oppose them. The independents either control one Hexagon with a 500 point army, or two Hexagons with a 1000 point army. Each player currently has a 1500 point army. We can move armies every week. Every “week” we can roll dice to heal casualties on units that aren’t completely destroyed. Every “month” we buy new units from the production in our territories, but we don’t get anything until then so while a 1500 point army can own a 500 point army, if they take too heavy losses in one week, their conquest options are poor until the end of the month.


We get 500 points maximum units per hexagon, plus additional points for villages, towns, cities, and metropolis improvements. Military and religious buildings give us bonus garrison troops that don’t count towards our maximum army allowance, but can’t leave the territories they guard. Our initial 1500 point army is whatever we want, additional constructions are based on the territory’s basic terrain (Salamanders require controlling wetlands, Terradons require highlands) and building improvements (Temple Guard require a Temple, Cold Ones require a Stables). Apart from our first 1500 points, our units aren’t free and we have to allocate resources we gather from our territories which can be spent on more units or more buildings. Unit champions cannot be bought except for our starting armies. From here on out we get free unit champions if a unit gains experience points from performing well in battle. If a unit with a champion performs consistently well, the champion can eventually be swapped for a free hero. If a champion slays a character in a challenge they get promoted to hero for free.


I started a game week later than most, the other guys mostly have three territories and I have two. I got a nice consolation prize. I got to more or less pick where I started so I have a nice swampy spot in the NW corner. A lot of my units require “wet” hexagons, so I have my most basic needst met from the start. Other players are stuck with subpar terrain for their favorite units and have to expand in very specific directions. The Chaos Warriors have wet low lying territories and they are moving towards the mountains. Very few other armies’ units need watery territories, so I don’t expect people to be gunning to steal my swamps. As an added, plus player armies risk a small number of casualties when moving through extreme terrain (dense forests, swamps, and high mountains). LM are immune to those casualties for moving about “wet” territories so I have an added layer of defense versus invaders staking out the swamp land. The downside is that with low lying territories, is tha I don’t collect the resources used for building production as fast as people in hilly dryer regions. We harvest resources to build armies and realm improvements collecting soft resources or S (food and animals), H resources (minerals and timber) and magic resources or M (rare herbs and precious metals). Rather than go through all the tiny details. My S is good right now, my H is adequate, and my M is very good (compared to the other players anyway, no one has lots of M right now).


I don’t have any players bordering my realm yet. A short distance south of me is a player realm of Warriors of Chaos. On the South campaign map edge is a Dark Elf Player. There are Chaos Dwarfs near the middle of the board. The NE corner has Ogre Kingdoms and Beastmen bordering each other. I believe they fought once and the Ogres took a tile from them. The SE corner has a Vampire Counts player, and below him somewhere on the underground map is the Dwarf Player’s Realm.


Short Term Plan: My two territories aren’t linked, they are separated by independent territories. Independent LM territories have a 1 in 3 chance of joining me without a fight when invaded and there happens to be an independent LM territory separating the two tiles in my realm, so I invaded that one. The LM there decided NOT to join me, so I have to play out the battle next week. The same 500 point army list inflicted about 600 points of damage on an attacking 1000 point army of dark elves before dying. I’m not too worried with a 1500 point army.

Then we have another campaign turn, I plan to take a 500 point Skaven territory. Unless the two 500 point armies inflict extremely heavy losses on my army, I’ll go south again after the reinforcement phase and take the two Hexagon 1000 point Lizardmen realm after building additional units and hope they join me without a fight. I want to make sure my army is pretty strong before I take it in case they fight back. That expansion would give me a shared border with the Warrior of Chaos player. If I take heavy losses moving there, my army would be a very tempting target for the WoC.


Long-Term Plan: When I play Risk, I am often too aggressive and I end up angering people and making too many enemies too soon. I plan to play conservatively and not make waves. I don’t plan to attack a non-independent realm until I run out of space or I am attacked by someone else. I plan to solidify control of the NE corner and control all the territories that make up the northern most river (rivers give nice bonuses). Once I have my corner, I don’t know where to go from there, and no plan survives contact with the enemy. By the time I have the corner conquered, there will be very few independent territories left so I will make future plans based on the moves of rival players. I need to hoarde some H resources so I expand my capital’s village to a town. A town is a prerequisite for Saurus Warriors and Scar Vets.


Except for the Ogre player (who is far away from me), the other players seem to be concentrating on taking easy independent realms as opposed to attacking rival players at this early stage. Once our armies build up larger I’m sure that will change. If attacked, I will proportionally respond, but I do not want to be the aggressor, until I have no more independent realms to expand into. My main concern are my Warriors of Chaos neighbors to the South. The Dark Elves are my second closest neighbor, I don’t know the DEs require for their units, but they are the most likely army besides me to be after wetlands and may get some campaign bonuses for controlling the coast. I’m a little worried about the dwarves taking the underground realms without a fight, but I’m not in a position to stop them. The risks are high and the payoffs small for me venturing into the Underdark and the nearest entrance to me to the under dark is fairly distant. Hopefully the Dark Elves and Chaos Dwarves will head underground and keep the Dwarf player in check. The Ogre player is theoretically in first place, and the Beastmen in last place. takes immediate steps moves on the Beastmen capital, I’ll take it as a sign of a more aggressive gain.


I’ll update the state of the campaign “week” by “week” if people are interested in reading about this. We are likely to play about one campaign “week” every two weeks in the real world. It’s fairly complicated I left out the math that calculates production and a description of what all the buildings do.

 

Re: A map campaign log is born

Hydration, Elevation, and Vegetation are rated on scales of 0 to 6. Each blue spot represents 1 Hydration level, each tree one Vegetation, Elevation is color coded. The ocean is zero, the grey mountains are six, the rest fall in between and are pretty easy to figure out.

We have 3D model the GM lovingly crafted, here's a photo of it.

 

Re: A map campaign log is born

Very interesting, do you have a link to the official rules that you guys are using? I know some exist online and it would be interesting to see all the rules.

 

Re: A map campaign log is born

We are using a homebrew construction by the GM. I'll ask him if he wants to post it. This is the first play test of his campaign rules.

 

Re: A map campaign log is born

I guess it seems the Beastmen have two realms left, not one so they aren't as hard pressed as I thouhgt. I included a political map showing where the player realms are. The red LM marks the spot I have just invaded and the 2, 3 and 4 represent where I plan to go next assuming I'm not interrupted by an unexpected setback or a juicier opportunity elsewhere. The little gold stars mark the capital, the only realms with a major building improvements at this time.

 

Re: A map campaign log is born

Unfortunately since a campaign week takes us two weeks to play (one week to move forces on the map and arrange meetings for battles, another week to play the battles) updates will be slower than one per week.

-Skink Skirmsihers require I have at least one tile with Hydration 4 or higher
-Chameleon Skinks require I have at least one tile with Vegatation of 3 or higher and one tile of Hydration 4 or higher.
-Terradons require my realm have at leat one territory with Elevation 4 or higher and a bestiary somewhere in realm.


My total army is limited as if I were fielding it all at once, Max 3 Special until I pass 3000 points. I can split my forces into Banners containing pretty much whatever I want so I can field a banner of all Terradons if I wanted but I can't field several Banners of all Terradons. If I could field extra units of chamo skinks I would

 

Re: A map campaign log is born

Banners refers to split-offs of our army led by a unit champion, hero, or lord.

Here are the full basic rules.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DEQHfHXtKezDu0utlM36J344ulcPS2v7h_9KD1d5NOg/edit

Lizardmen army rules are here. EDIT: I removed the points values so not to draw the wrath of GW

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HiPNXJsL6w6sS_6J0aXpZuu2DS-xOdFn1Sv-3WVDShY/edit

 

Re: A map campaign log is born

I took my whole 1500 point army against 500 points of independent LM. I chose to give my Slann the Lore of Fire for this battle in which I planned to bring the rebel LM to heel. I was up against two groups of ten Saurus, one Skink Cohorts with full command, 5 chamo skinks and a L2 skink priest. Because it’s LM vs. LM I’m calling my force the Loyalists and their force the rebels. A turn by turn break down is probably unnecessary.

It was my 1500 points versus the game masters 500 points, so the outcome of the battle wasn’t in doubt, but I needed to play conservatively because my same 1500 has to last me for another battle after this, if not two more battles. I’m assuming a 3-to-1 pile on isn’t worthy of a turn by battle report so I’m .

My plan was simple. Delay close combat as long as possible and let my shooting units and fire spells wear the enemies to next nothing then obliterate them with my Saurus and Skroxigor block.

The Rebel LM went turn one. The rebel chamo skinks were perfectly positioned to shoot mine at short range and scored an amazing five sixes on ten shots killing most of my unit. To prevent more mischief from the rebel chameleon skinks I charged them with my skirmishers (and priest who was tagging along with them). The rebels held out two turns of close combat and took down a skirmisher before being wiped out.

Other than the rebel scouts, my plan went perfectly. My shooting and magic wore down the enemy and my Skroxigor and Saurus block were able to take out the rebel cohort (and the enemy skink priest) and right flank Saurus respectively. The remaining Saurus block was too far away from my combat units to charge but due to shooting and magic was reduced to two members by turn four. The game master chose to have them flee off the table edge to deny me the modest amount of spoils I would have gotten from the last two.

Most of my losses were recovered and my war chest is expanded considerably. Unfortunately my skink skirmishers and one of my chameleon skink units got knocked below minimum legal field-able size for their respective units. This means they will be unavailable for future conquests until my reinforcement phase (until then they are going to chill in my capital’s garrison). I also have to leave a unit behind as a place holder on my newly conquered territory until I can build a settlement or watchtower there (also during my reinforcement phase).

Current State of Realm at End of Week One, Beginning of Week Two
Current Realm Allowance: 1500 points
Projected Realm Allowance*: 2,000 points
Current Army: 1392 points
Active Army: 1217 points
Slann, extra power dice, lore mastery, Divine Plaque of Protection (I can change Slann’s lore turn by turn if I choose)
Skink Priest, Cube of Darkness Successfully cast spell, 1 exp
22 Saurus FC (wiped out unit enemy Saurus, survived battle 2 exp)
23 Skink, 2 Kroxigor FC (killed hero, broke and destroyed cohort, captured standard, survived battle, 5 exp)
6 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (survived battle, helped break unit 2 exp)
Salamander Team + Snack (survived battle, helped wipe out unit 2 exp)
Salamander Team + Snack (survived battle 1 exp)
Grounded Units
2 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (survived battle, 1 exp)
9 Javelins /w Brave (survived battle, killed chamo skinks. 2 exp)
1 Kroxigor
Potential New Units: Jungle Swarms, Skinks Cohorts (no Krox), Skink Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders, Razordons, Max 3 Skink Chiefs, Max 2 Temple Guard, Max 1 Slann**, Max 1 Skink Priest**
Warchest: 0 Soft Resources, 52 Hard Resources, 2 Magic Resource
Production at the end of the month: 67 S, 40 H, 28 M
*The newest realm with a theoretical 500 points of support won’t be technically part of my realm until I put a building on it during the reinforcement/building phase. Until then it’s only mine as long as I have a unit occupying it.
**I can’t build an additional Slann or Skink Priest right now but I could replace them during my reinforcement phase if they die between now and then.

 

Re: A map campaign log is born, Weeks One and Two finished

I took my active army from before on another conquest. I had to leave my skink priest behind in my newly conquered territory to prepare the area for development by my forces next building phase. That left 1112 points of LM to evict the 500 points of Skaven occupying the valuable river territory.

My opposition was two big unit of slaves, one unit of clanrats led by a hero with mundane equipment, and a detachment gun crew of kind. A recap, my force was 23 Skinks/2 Krox, 22 Saurus, 2 Salamander Team with snacks, and 6 chamo skinks with a brave. A very abbreviated recap follows.


Turn One: The Skaven advanced, I did minor damage with shooting ate two handlers, killed two or three slaves). Due to a poor first casting roll on Throne of Vines I wasted my whole first magic phase.

Turn Two: Slaves charge my Saurus, Slaves and Clanrats charge my Skroxigor. On my turn the Chamo Skinks kill the skaven gun team before they can succeed in doing any damage and my Salamander teams flank charged a Skaven Slave block each to support the Saurus. Close combat was indecisive boosted a little by some spells.

Turn Three: Saurus and Salamander team continued their fight with their big block of Slaves continue their fight. I get a series of bad rolls and the other unit of Slaves and Clan rats break my Kroxigor and Salamanader. The Clan rats ran down my Skroxigor and the Slaves failed to catch my Salamander. I chose to not rally my Salamander team so it would flee off the table (and thus be available next campaign week unwounded).

Turn Four: Saurus and remaining Sally team break the skaven slaves, who then explode and take out the Salamander. The Salamander crew remained on my roster (since they weren’t wounded) even though they were eliminated from the table. The Saurus reform to face the Clan Rats. My Slann finally got a good spell off and avenged the fallen Skroxigor by slaying 22 Skaven slaves with Dwellers, panicking them off the table.

Turn Five and Six: The Skaven Clanrats attempted a desperate charge on my Saurus who proceeded to break and run down the Clanrats. The GM allowed me to roll out my turn on turn five and six with an empty table so I could cast Regrowth on my Saurus and prevent the losses for next campaign turn.

Recovery and Spoils: I got a very good roll with my Salamander’s recovery and it came back at full health (though the team no longer has a spare handler). I got very poor rolls for my Skroxigor. I ended up recovering one Kroxigor (though he is still missing a wound) and having my unit champion recover. I more than doubled my warchest so the skinks didn’t die in vain. Sotek was well pleased with the deaths of many ratmen.

The Skaven realm is a very productive tile with a river. I also discovered the tile has great strategic value. It contains an entrance to the Underdark. Scouts tell me that the hexagon directly below my newly conquered territory is unoccupied and has a vein of gold ore (Magic resources). Building a mine there would turn my M production from slightly above the other players to well above them. Even without the mine it is helpful. The trade off is I don’t get to loot an unoccupied tile before claiming it. Also with a big pile of Hard resources I wasn’t expecting, my new limiting factor in the short term is Soft Resources. Claiming the gold ore would help me get more magic items but the negligible food down there means I couldn’t use the tile to produce many soldiers. As long as I control the entrance to the gold ore, I can claim the territory whenever I choose and I don’t have to rush to claim it before I have adequate food.

 

Re: A map campaign log is born, Week One and Two updated

Here's the current map, red labels mark territories that are conquered but not developed, they require a character or unit with a champion to hold them. We're still waiting for moves from the Beastmen and DE players. It seems likely that the Dwarf player (who is in the underdark somewhere in the south) is likely to drop from the campaign having only attended the first meeting and none since.



EDIT: Before I didn’t realize my Slann now has to be in the grounded unit section. Even if he leaves his divine plaque of protection on display at his home temple, he’s still worth 325 points which is more than 25% of my current army. Therefore he is grounded until I rebuild my army up to at least 1300 points. I was planning to move my forces to capture the other river valley northeast of my capital but I don’t think my puny active forces, the cost in scaly lives would be too great. Instead, my chamo skinks are going to scout the Underdark to map it for me in weeks 3 and 4 but I have no other actions planned. I don’t plan to do a week by week update for the next two weeks because that’d be a little dull.

Most of the other players have also stretched their armies so thin they can barely use them at this point, so it’s highly likely that the next group session will involve weeks 3 and 4 the GM can fast forward us through the next two campaign weeks quicker than usual, so more exciting updates should follow fairly soon. I plan to put most of my resources into improving my realm so next month my army will be only around 1500 points give or take but the improved realm will help me a lot in the future.

I have two goals for next month. First, I want to conquer at least two of the three remaining hexagon tiles containing the northern river to cement my control of the valuable resource (unless the chamo skinks mapping the nearby underdark find something better to conquer). My second goal is to acquire enough resources to boost my army to over 2000 points. Once I read that threshold I become eligible to convince a nearby independent realm of 1000 points of Lizardmen to join me without a fight. That would be a very powerful swing of troops and land in my favor and make me the strongest power west of the mountains if not on the whole board.

Current State of Realm at End of Week Two, Beginning of Week Three
Current Realm Allowance: 1500 points
Projected Realm Allowance*: 2,500 points
Current Army: 1213 points
Active Army: 965 points
Skink Priest, Cube of Darkness (1 exp total)
22 Saurus FC (9 exp total)
6 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (3 exp total)
Salamander Team, 4 handlers (3 exp total)
Salamander Team, 3 handlers (3 exp total)
Grounded Units
Slann, extra power dice, lore mastery, Divine Plaque of Protection, Lore not set (6 exp total)
1 Skink (Brave), 2 Kroxigor, one healthy one wounded once (3 exp total)
2 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (1 exp total)
9 Javelins /w Brave (2 exp total)
Potential New Units: Jungle Swarms, Skinks Cohorts (no Krox), Skink Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders, Razordons, Max 3 Skink Chiefs, Max 2 Temple Guard, Max 1 Slann**, Max 1 Skink Priest**
Warchest: 0 Soft Resource units, 115 Hard Resource units, 2 Magic Resource units
Production at the end of the month: 67 S, 40 H, 28 M
*The newest two realms with a theoretical 1000 points of support won’t be technically part of my realm until I put a building on it during the reinforcement/building phase. Until they are only mine as long as I have a unit occupying them.
**I can’t build an additional Slann or Skink Priest right now but I could replace them during my reinforcement phase if they die between now and then.

 

Re: A map campaign log continues, first campaign month compl

Current State of Realm, Beginning of second Campaign Month
Current Realm Allowance: 5,000 points
Current Army: 1,625 points
Active Army: 1,625 points
Slann, extra power dice, lore mastery, Divine Plaque of Protection, Lore not set (6 exp total)
Skink Priest, Level 2, Cube of Darkness (1 exp total)
Skink Chief, 2 Hand weapons, light armor shield, blowpipe (0 exp)
Skink Chief, 2 Hand weapons, light armor shield, blowpipe (0 exp)
Skink Chief, 1 Hand weapon, light armor shield, blowpipe, BSB, Banner of Eternal Flame (0 exp)
22 Saurus FC (9 exp total)
10 Skink Skirmishers with Javelin and Brave (2 exp total)
16 Skinks, 2 Kroxigor, FC (one Kroxigor has to start with a wound) (3 exp total)
6 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (3 exp total)
6 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (1 exp total)
Salamander Team: 1 Sally, 4 handlers (3 exp total)
Salamander Team: 1 Sally, 4 handlers (3 exp total)
Grounded Units
None so far!
Potential New Units: Jungle Swarms, Skinks Cohorts (no Krox), Skink Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders, Razordons, Skink Chiefs, Max 2 Temple Guard, Max 1 Slann**, Max 1 Skink Priest**
Warchest: 0 S, 3 H, 18 M
Projected Production at the end of the month: 117 S, 87 H, 48 M
**I can’t build an additional Slann or Skink Priest right now but I could replace them during my reinforcement phase if they die between now and then.

Realm Tile Count (does not factor in productivity of tiles or standing army)
Ogre Kingdoms 6
Lizardmen (Me): 5
Warriors of Chaos: 4
Vampire Counts 4
Dark Elves 3
Chaos Dwarves 3
Beasts of Chaos 3
Dwarves 3

State of the Lizardmen Realm
Tile One (Capital): Keep, Village, Temple, Mage Tower, Animal Farm, Mine, River
Tile Two (mangrove swamp): Guardtower, Village, Herbalist
Tile Three (damp forest): Village
Tile Four (river valley): Village, River
Tile Five (underdark realm): Village, Gold Ore

I finally found out what the win condition for this campaign is. The first player to twenty territories wins. While planning for the extreme long term I only wanted to bother occupying especially productive tiles and settle the less valuable territories later. I’m on a little tighter schedule than I originally thought. I need to grab every territory available when they become available. Thus I was a little more aggressive with new settlements than planned.

I can either claim a territory by building a village on it or a watchtower. A village will pay for itself in less than two production cycles. Also a village is prerequisite for additional improvements. A watchtower only pays for itself if the territory is attacked (and if I’m expecting an attack I should probably upgrade it beyond watchtower to a stronger defensive building). The village doesn’t cost much more and has more guaranteed benefits. I only really need to fortify tiles adjacent to rivals and none of my current realm tiles are bordering another player’s at this time.

I claimed three new territories and built a village in each. I built a village in the tile I took from the rebel Lizardmen and the tile I took from the Skaven. There was an occupied tile in the underground reachable from the Skaven tile so I built a village there. Originally I was hesitant to do so because it had very weak food production, but I need all the territories I can get. The mangrove swamp I started with the campaign could be potentially very fertile if improved with enough farms. It currently only has a guard tower so I built a village there to allow farms to be built their later, this should fix my food shortage in the future.

Combining what I produced at the beginning of the month with the stuff I looted from independent realms last month I don’t have enough to make everything. Building four villages ate up two thirds of my Soft resources and half of my Hard resources. One random event temporarily boosted food production (S resources) in my capital and another random event reduced food production in my mangrove swamp temporarily. The result is a very small net gain for me that translated into me buying an extra character.

My army size is limited by my population, every civilian I have can support one point of army. With five villages I can thus support an army of 5,000 points. That sounds impressive but I only have enough resources to support a small fraction of this after paying out so much resources to improve my realm. Most of what’s left has gone towards boosting my damaged units recuperating at my capital to a field-able size again. I didn’t have much left over afterwards. Points wise, a skink chief costs about the same as five chamo skinks, so by that measure they are overpriced for what they contribute. Resource-wise, a skink chief costs the same as a mere two chameleon skinks. This makes them a bargain. Thus I bought three skink chiefs. I also need to leave behind characters or whole units with champions to occupy any unsettled territory I conquer, and a skink chief is an excellent way to claim a territory without leaving essential parts of my army behind.

I spent a measly 1 M to boost my skink priest to level two. Magic items are a bit more expensive, but I realized with the gold ore I obtained my M production is going to skyrocket so I don’t need to horde gold like I originally thought I would. Just for kicks, I bought a battle standard for one skink and the Banner of Eternal Flame. I realize a skink bsb is not the most competitive choice but it’s the best I can afford right now, and I’m allow to transfer the battle standard to a Saurus or Slann later or even upgrade it into a stronger magic standard.

Thus after over a month of real time playing the campaign, I’ve boosted my starting army from 1498points to 1,625 points. The growth of my actual army may be modest but I’ve roughly doubled my production value and more than doubled my realm size. My realm population has gone from 1500 civilians to 5,000. Each civilian can support one point of an army. My ceiling of 5,000 points is pretty irrelevant. Army is limited by resources allocated to the military and by my civilian population. As my realm expands, my resource pool to draw on and my population will both increase, but my civilian population will surely increase at much faster rate than my resource pool. I expect my army to be hoving between a third and one half of my theoretical max for the rest of the campaign.

H resources are hard to produce, but relatively easy to loot, but it’s still unknown how much I’m likely to acquire this month. As a bare minimum I plan to Upgrade my capital’s village to a Town and build a village or watchtower in any new territory I grab. The town will let me recruit new Saurus warriors and Scar Veterans. I also need to boost my army to 2000 points. That’s the minimum army I need to convince the nearby independent LM realm to join me without a fight. I could really use two free territories and 1,000 points of free reinforcements! If I wait too long to recruit the LM realm, the Chaos player to the south of me may wipe them out to prevent me from getting the free troops (I myself plan to knock out the nearby Beasts of Chaos realm to prevent him from getting 500 points of free troops).

Any resources I have leftover will go towards building agriculture improvements in my realm or possibly gold mines to exploit the ore I claimed last month. Basically the fewer troops I lose on this month’s battles, the more resources I’ll have free to buy improvements rather than replace casualties. I’m starting with taking my whole army and attacking the two tile 1,000 point O&G realm. Assuming my casualties aren’t terrible, I’ll take what’s left of my army and go underground to oust the independent Chaos Dwarf tile. The tile is a fungus cave, which means unlike the rest of the Underdark it’s actually very good for food production (though the skinks will have to get used to eating all the mushrooms). There is an unclaimed underdark tile behind the Chaos Dwarves (under the sea!). Assuming that tile isn’t barren, I can grab that too and get two tiles from one conquest. Four hexagon tiles in a month would be a good haul, any more than that would be spreading my armies and next month’s resource budget too thin.

I’m probably toast if I lose my capital, but the thought occurred to me to eventually build a temple and a town under the sea. This will give me a backup capital (that’s very hard for enemies to reach) to fall back to incase I lose my current capital. Eventually I want to recruit a second Slann and that will require me to build a second temple and I might as well put it under the sea.

 

Re: A map campaign log updated: new battle report + map 5-8-

Battle Report, Month 2 Army vs. 1000 points of Orcs and Goblins

So I tried to converge all my units on the orcs holding the mouth of the river. My chameleon skinks had the farthest to travel trying to resurface from the Underdark. They failed their dangerous terrain test and got lost underground, so they had to sit out this battle. Hopefully they’ll find their way next round. So my entire army for the month minus the Chamo Skinks went up against 1000 points of Orcs and Goblins controlled by the Game Master. My Skink Priest got Comet of Casandora and Curse of the Midnight Wind.

Savage Orc Shaman with the Lucky Shrunken Head, Spells were Fist of Gork and Brain Busta
Savage Orc Big Boss with Fencer’s Blades
19 Savage Orcs, FC and Big Stabba and two hand weapons
50 Night Goblins, Full Command
3 Trolls
Mangler Squig
Doom Diver Catapult

Left to right facing me were the Doom Divers with the Trolls in front of them. To side were the Savage Orcs with both characters, the Mangler Squig in the center, and then the Night Goblins. The Greenskin battleline was pretty compact.

Left to right I had my Skirmishers with the BSB and one of the generic skink chiefs. Then my Skroxigor with the other two Skink characters, my Saurus, my Slann, and the two Salamanders. The Chamo Skinks showed up in the upper corner of the Orcs deployment lines. Orcs win the first turn.

O&G Turn 1

The Mangler Squig lurched forward a lot, and the two blocks advanced. Despite being near the general, the trolls failed their Stupidity test and lumbered forward making it real easy for my Chamo Skinks to move in on the Doom Diver.

The Cube of Darkness shut down his first magic phase, and then the Doom Diver hit around four skinks and four Saurus off my blocks and wounded a Kroxigor (he had started with a wound from his last battle).

LM Turn 1

I moved my blocks up a little bit, but I didn’t march them. My Chamo Skinks closed to short range with the Doom Diver and my Salamanders lined up for shots on the Night Goblins just far enough to not trigger Fanatics. There weren't any fanatics, but my opponent was a good bluffer and made me sweat up to the moment I finally proved there were no fanatics.

I got 12 dice this turn. Thrones of Vines was dispelled, then I cast Regrowth to get a few Saurus back. Then I cast Dwellers to kill many Night Goblins. My Slann failed his next casting rolls so my Skink priest took over….and failed to cast Comet of Casandora. I used the Lore attribute of Life to heal the Kroxigor.

The Chameleon Skinks killed the Doom Diver. I tried to have my Skirmishers throw flaming javelins at the trolls but forgot we were using a house rule that forests block line of sight so only one of the skink chiefs could shoot them at all. He inflicted a wound though. My Skroxigor block threw some javelins at the Mangler Squig and inflicted one wound. The Salamanders took out a few night goblins and panicked them.

O&G Turn 2

The Savage Orcs were forced to make a charge on my Skink Skirmishers. I chose to have them flee. My Skinks rolled very poor to flee and the Savage Orcs rolled exceptionally well. Thus my ten skirmishers and two skink chiefs were run down. The Trolls turned towards the chameleons Skinks and the Night Goblins rallied. The Mangler Squig almost reached my Saurus.

He cast Fist of Gork, I dispelled Brain Busta.

LM Turn 2

I moved my Chamo Skinks away from the trolls towards the Night Goblins. My Salamanders also close in on the Night Goblins positing themselves on both sides. My Skroxigor were in charge range of the Savage Orcs (minus the Mangler). So my Saurus reformed to get a flank charge on my Skroxigor. Had I not misjudged the positioning I would have realized that the Savage Orcs were going to the Skroxigor’s flank, not the front so they had no chance of holding long enough for the Saurus to hit their flank.

I cast Throne of Vines. Healed my Saurus back to full strength, and took out the Mangler Squig with Awakening the Woods. I cast Flesh to Stone on my Skroxigor. My skink cast Curse of the Midnight Wind on the Savage Orcs.

The Skroxigor killed a Savage Orc or two. The two Salamanders roasted many Night Goblins causing them to panic. By fleeing one Salamander they ran through the other losing several to dangerous terrain tests. Then they ran into a swamp losing more. Unfortunately, their good fleeing roll took them out of the firing arc of my chamo skinks.

O&G Turn 3

The Savage Orcs charged the flank of my Skroxigor. The Trolls charged my chamo Skinks who fled off the board. Were this not a campaign game, I would have chose Stand and Shoot, but I get to keep any units that flee, so I preferred them to flee off the board as opposed to dying while slightlly weakening the trolls. The Night Goblins failed to rally and fled off the board (denying me the plunder for about one third of them, oh well).

He already had Fist of Gork up, so the only thing his shaman magic phase he could do was dispel my Throne of Vines.

I remember Curse of the Midnight Wind, but forgot I cast Flesh to Stone on my Skinks. My Skink champion bravely issued a challenge hoping to absorb attacks from the Big Boss or the Savage Shaman (who still had Fist of Gork) but he ended up fighting the unit champion instead. All four of the Savage Orc champion’s hits missed. I think my Skink Brave leads a charmed existence, last time he was the only skink among 23 to survive the battle. Without Flesh to Stone, many skinks died. Only the two Kroxigor, skink brave, and the two characters in the unit survived. They fled through my Saurus and Slann and popped out behind them. The Savage Orcs failed their pursuit roll and stopped just short of my Saurus.

LM Turn 3

I didn’t want to charge the Savage Orcs, so I could try to whittle them down with shooting and magic but I positioned my Saurus for a more advantageous frontage. My fleeing Skrox unit rallied.

I cast Throne of Vines, I cast Regrowth on my Skinks to bring back the command crew and several others. (normally the SB wouldn’t come back, but the campaign houserules that they can). I failed to cast Dwellers on the Savage Orcs forcing my Skink priest to take over my magic phase. I used my remaining power dice casting Curse of the Midnight Wind on the Savage Orcs.

One Salamander burned two or three Savage Orcs. The other ate a handler.

O&G Turn 4

The Savage Orcs charged my Saurus. The Trolls failed their Stupidity test and stumbled around a bit, still distant from the main fighting.

Magic phase, he once again had nothing to do but dispel Throne of Vines.

The Savage Orcs enacted a savage toll on my Saurus. My Saurus champion declared a challenge. The Savage Orc Champion was embarassed about not being able to kill the skink brave last turn, so he was out for blood now. In rare form and inflicted two overkill on my poor Saurus. I killed very few Savage Orcs but I inflicted a wound on the Orc Shaman. I was steadfast so I held despite the heavy losses.

LM Turn 4

A Salamander team charged the flank of the Savage Orcs. The other one lined up to try to burn the trolls. My Skink priest detached from the Skrox to move out of harm’s way. My skink chief also detached, but in order to put a supporting flank charge in if the close combat continued next turn. The Skroxigor (now one Skink, two Kroxigor) moved towards the trolls.

I cast Throne of Vines and cast Regrowth on the Saurus bringing several back. The rest of the things I cast were dispelled.

My Salamander took a shot at the Trolls and failed to wound.

On Initiative 4, my Salamander team killed the Savage Orc Shaman who had a magic item that boosted the Ward saves of the whole unit, and I prevented the augmented attacks from Fist of Gork, so the Salamander made me very happy today. The other Savage Orcs killed a few more Saurus, but the Saurus killed more Savage Orcs in return. The Savage Orcs broke. Both pursued, this Salamander could do no wrong, and ran the Savage Orcs down.

O&G Turn 5

The trolls miraculously passed their Stupidity test, but he didn’t have anything he wanted to do with them. He dispelled my Throne of Vines during his Magic Phase with his free Power Dice.

LM Turn 5 and 6

I had two things I wanted to do the last two rounds. One: kill the trolls. Two: cast Regrowth as much as possible. I managed to kill two of the three trolls and bring back a few skinks. I probably should have gone after Saurus instead but I didn’t want my two Kroxigor to be grounded.

Recovery and Spoils

I recovered a few more cohort skinks and no Saurus. Unfortunately I still only raised my Cohort total to nine. Since that’s below legal size, my Skinks and both Kroxigor had to return to my capital. Of the ran down skirmishers, I only recovered the Brave. Both the characters in the skirmisher unit survived, but they sustained injuries. The BSB managed to save the battle standard but lost an eye (-1 BS). I decided to transfer the heroic skink to a civil service job at the first opportunity. The other skink chief sustained a hand injury (-1 WS). He’s going to have to tough it out a little bit longer in this campaign.

I looted 2 M Resources from the dead Savage Orc Shaman and looted 70 H resources from the various models I killed. I failed to get the Lucky Shrunken Head. It’s normally Savage Orcs only normally, but the GM said I spend some M to convert it for Lizardmen units. In theory if my Slann dies to another player, someone could similiarly spend M to convert the Divine Plaque of Protection or Cupped Hands for non-Slann. My lucky d6 failed me many times today, but it redeemed itself on the last roll of the day by rolling a six and letting me successfully recover the Fencing Blades!

Slann got two exp, skink priest got one. The Skink chiefs either almost died or didn’t do anything useful so they got nothing. The surviving Skirmisher didn’t get any exp either. The Saurus got 2 exp, giving me enough exp to promote thme to veteran status. From now on that unit is T5, and they have the Honorary title Jade Spawning Saurus. The Skroxigor got 1 exp. The Chameleon Skink got 3 exp, the female Salamander got two and the male Salamander six. Yes, my Salamanders are gender divided. My Salamander males are bright colored to attracted attention and the females are camouflage colored to better conceal their nest location from other predators (like with some species of birds).

I misinterpreted how the two realm independent realms work, I thought I’d get both tiles with one battle, but the Savage Orcs get to hold on to the southern tile (with 500 points rather than 1000). I’m okay with that but the northern tile had the river and taking both tiles would give me a wider border to defend versus the Warriors of Chaos player than I’d like.

1,489 points is too small for me to use all my magical gear and keep my heroes and lords at 25%, so I’m going to put my battle standard, and cube of darkness into the temple vault temporarily and play musical chairs with the skinks. The skink with missing fingers gets the Fencer’s Blades (which makes his WS penalty mean nothing since it’s automatically ten, and he’s going to give his spare mundane hand weapon to the one eyed skink. Time to take what’s left of my surface army underground to assault the Chaos Dwarfs underground. Hopefully the six chameleon skinks lost underground will find their way and be able to join the battle.

In an unrelated note, I found out the dwarf player did drop out so I’m the only player with underground ambitions at this time.

Current State of Realm, Beginning of second Campaign Month
Current Realm Allowance: 5,000 points
Projected Realm Allowance*: 5,500 points
Current Army: 1,489 points
Active Army: 1,232 points
Slann, extra power dice, lore mastery, Fencer’s Blades, Lore not set (8 exp total)
Skink Priest, Level 2, Cube of Darkness (2 exp total)
Skink Chief, 2 HW, shield, light armor (0 exp)
Skink Chief, HW, shield, light armor, Fencer's Blades, -1 WS (0 exp)
Skink Chief, 2 HW, shield, light armor, -1 BS (0 exp)
17 Jade Spawning Saurus FC, +1 Toughness (1 exp total)
6 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave, still underground (3 exp total)
6 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (4 exp total)
Salamander Team: 1 Sally, 4 handlers (9 exp total)
Salamander Team: 1 Sally, 3 handlers (5 exp total)
Grounded Units and Vault Items
1 Skink Skirmisher Brave (2 exp total)
9 Skinks, 2 Kroxigor, FC (4 exp total)
Battle Standard, Banner of Eternal Flame
Divine Plaque of Protection
Potential New Units: Jungle Swarms, Skinks Cohorts (no Krox), Skink Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders, Razordons, Functionally unlimited Skink Chiefs, Max 2 Temple Guard, Max 1 Slann**, Max 1 Skink Priest**
Warchest: 0 S, 73 H, 20 M
Projected Production at the end of the month: 117 S, 87 H, 48 M
* Assuming I build the minimum improvements to settle what I’m occupying.
**I can’t build an additional Slann or Skink Priest right now but I could replace them during my reinforcement phase if they die between now and then.



This is the most current map from level of understanding of what’s going on. Black labels on the map represent settled holdings of campaign players, Pink labels represent independent realms. Parenthesis mark known underground realms. Red labels represent forcibly occupied territories unless there is a red and pink label, in which case there is a battle that I’m not aware of the results yet. The Chaos Dwarves are the exception. They are peacefully passing through the independent Lizardmen realm. You can see that the Ogre Player has split his army into several pieces are invading many places. I hope the Chaos Dwarfs are moving to counter him because I’m too far away to do anything and he’s already in the lead and he appears to be on a winning streak and there’s nothing I can do about it from the other side of the map.

 

Re: A map campaign log updated: new battle report + map 5-8-

Good stuff, I am really enjoying this. Keep it up and hopefully you can overtake the OK player.

 

Re: A map campaign log updated: new battle report 5-14-12

I have a non-aggression pact with the WoC player with an indefinite duration. Despite the vagueness, I’d be at least semi-dirty if I attached him now. His offensive army is far away right now so he couldn’t retaliate anytime soon if I attacked his capital. The problem is every capital has a Keep which comes with a permanent garrison made up of at least 30 Tier 1 Core troops which I believe in his case are Marauders. Add to this garrison every unit main army that’s “grounded” plus 5-20 additional Core troops depending on how many religious and arcane building he has since they come with guards when built.

He has enough troops to keep me from taking the tile, but not enough to defend all his tile improvements, but he should be able to hold on to his important ones. I could theoretically sack a farm or mine and then run away, but that would leave him very angry and only mildly weakened.

I don’t want to move on anyone’s capital till provoked. I also don’t plan to move on an enemy capital with anything short of overwhelming force. I can switch my lore battle to battle. I believe when it comes time to lay siege to something, I should take the Lore of Fire. That will let me reroll wounds on garrisoned enemies and get +1 S to damage buildings (the latter is a campaign rule). I’ll need a lot more than 17 Saurus and two Salamanders to back up my Slann though.

I don’t want to pick a fight with the WoC until I’m in a stronger position, there is little question the WoC is better at Warhammer than I and has a slightly stronger army book to boot. I’ve played a lot of Civilization II, III, IV, and V. My strategy will be similar: use careful management of my productive resources to give me an edge over my rivals. While it may make my posts less exciting, the longer I can delay a major confrontation, the better I figure my chances at winning a war with another player are. If I have 1,000 more points my tactical shortcoming well matter less.

Now for my latest battle report. The Chaos Dwarf campaign player obliged me by playing the role of the independent Chaos Dwarf realm near me. While outpointing the realm slightly over 2:1 is hardly the stuff of legends, I couldn’t afford to be cocky. I knew this player was very good, while I knew he couldn’t beat me outright with a 700 point dearth, I knew he could give me a pyrrhic victory if I got sloppy.. I saw him take out a 500 points of Wood Elves with around 1300 points of CDs and not lose a single model in the effort.

Battle Report Taking the Underground Independent Chaos Dwarf Tile

My chamo skinks found their way through the underdark finally while the rest of my army went underground. Thus my whole active army went up against 500 points of Chaos Dwarfs.

I found myself facing two Deathshrieker Rocket Launchers, 14 or 15 Infernal Warriors with hand weapons and shields, and a level one daemonsmith with Lore of Fire (he chose to take Fireball). The GM set up the board, it was bare save a non-consequential hill, but the GM ruled that all underground battles had to fought on a narrow playing field with impassable sides. As a subterranean race the Chaos Dwarfs got +1 Leadership and +1 Initiative.

Opposite right corner to me had the two Rocket Launchers and his daemonsmith. Then his warriors. Despite the narrow battlefield, I had enough room to stick a unit of chameleon skinks in the opposite left corner. The other chameleon scout unit I put boldly in front of his big guns as close as possible. My two Salamanders were facing his Infernal Warriors across the table. The Jade Spawning Saurus formed up my center. I didn’t want my characters to get singled out, so I tacked the Slann on to one side of the Saurus and all four skink characters onto the other side. My skink priest got Ice Shard Blizzard and Harmonic Convergence as his spells. I got first turn.

LM Turn 1

All my nonscouts marched forward. My Chamo Skinks ran forward to get close range shots on a rocket launcher and the flank of the dwarfs.

Throne of Vines got dispelled. I was out of range of my attack spells. I cast a large number of buff spells I didn’t really need.

One chameleon skink unit ran forward and shot at a Rocket Launcher killing a crewman. The other shot at the infantry unit, but the Infernal made their armor saves on all the blowpipe wounds they received. The Salamanders were beyond their maximum range for burning things

Chaos Dwarf Turn 1

The Infernal turned to face the Chameleon skinks that had been shooting them.

The mage/engineer threw a fireball at the Chamo Skinks attacking the war machines, roasting three.

He rolled poorly with his artillery and only killed a single Saurus

LM Turn 2

The chamo skinks in front of the rocket launcher stayed put, the others wheeled around the dwarfs threatening them to line up a shot on the other rocket launcher. My megablock swift reformed to give my skinks a line of sight on the dwarfs and the block advanced.

I cast Throne of Vines, cast Regrowth to get slain Chamo Skinks back and used the life attribute to heal my one dead Saurus. I took out two or three dwarfs with Dwellers. The rest of my spells either failed, were dispelled, or didn’t have any meaningful impact on the game.

The Salamanders nicked the dwarf block and maybe killed one or two. The high toughness and 5+ ward save versus fire made my Salamanders perform below par but the artillery die was giving me exactly the distances I wanted. The two chameleon skink units each killed a crewman off their respective war machines. My skink chiefs shot at the dwarfs a bit, but all their darts bounced off the dwarf’s peerless armor.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 2

He figured he wasn’t going to get a bead on my chamo skinks and straightened out his dwarfs to more properly face the advancing Saurus.

I dispelled his Fireball. He used the rest of his power dice to get rid of my Throne of Vines and Shield of Thorns.

The rocket launchers rolled exceptionally poorly and killed nothing.

LM Turn 3

I was getting frustrated with my chameleon skinks slow progress via shooting, so they each charged a rocket launcher. My mega block advanced without marching and my Salamanders circled behind the Infernal warriors.

I cast many spells but the only one that mattered was Shield of Thorns on one of the Chameleon Skinks. The shield of Thorns wiped out one of the war machine crews for me before close combat began.

I killed another dwarf or two from the Salamander fire and the three skink chief’s blowpipe shots that killed maybe one Chaos Dwarf.

The other chameleon skink unit was still engaged in close combat. All six skinks failed to inflict a wound, and the remaining rocket crewman also failed to kill anything.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 3

He pivoted his dwarfs towards the Chameleon Skinks with Shield of Thorns.

He rolled very few power dice and I got a channel dispel die. I dispelled his latest fireball attempt with great ease.

The remaining Rocket Launcher was engaged in close combat and couldn’t shoot, but his daemonsmith shot and killed a chameleon skink (I healed it back next turn).

Close combat between the Chamo Skinks and crewman was again a wash.

LM Turn 4

I charged my Chameleon Skinks with the Throne of Vines into the daemonsmith. I maneuvered the rest of my troops a bit. If I was smart I would have switched my Slann and skink character’s places again, but I wasn’t looking far enough ahead to the eventual close combat and was too focused on letting my skinks keep shooting.

I recast Throne of Vines (or it was up from before, I don’t remember). I tried cast Dwellers on the Infernal again but it was dispelled. I was spoilt for dice so I cast Flesh to Stone on the chameleon skinks fighting the daemonsmith and Ice Shard Blizzard on the Infernal (who could either charge the chameleon skinks fighting the general or my Saurus). The end of the magic phase saw the Chaos Dwarf general die to Shield of Thorns.

The Salamanders and skink chiefs killed either one dwarf or zero, I don’t remember.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 4

The Infernal charged the Chameleon skink’s flank to try to avenge their fallen general.

He used his magic phase to remove my two Remains in Play spells.

Flesh to Stone and Iceshard Blizzard are not Remains in Play. Thus, he only managed to kill a single chameleon skink (which I got back later) and failed to break them. I reformed my Chamo Skinks into forward facing ranks of two and to give my megablock as much frontage as possible to charge.

LM Turn 5

My megablock charged the dwarfs front while the Salamanders charged their rear. Due to poor planning on my part, the Slann was engaged in close combat. I wasn’t worried about him killing the Slann but this denied frontage to some of my Saurus and all of my Skinks chiefs.

I cast many buff spells. One or two dwarfs bought the farm due to Shield of Thorns.

A gambling man, my opponent wanted to try for the off-chance of killing my Slann and directed as many attacks into him as possible. The campaign has a special rule that Regeneration and Ward Saves can be used in tandem. Between the Regeneration 5+ (from Earthblood) and Ward 4+, the Jade Spawnings Toughness 5, and the Flesh to Stone on the Chamo Skinks, only a single wound was inflicted on the Slann and no one else. I didn’t killed very many dwarfs though.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 5

He used his magic phase to remove Throne of Vines and Shield of Thorns in what had become a familiar routine.

He wounded the Slann twice and killed a Saurus, I killed a few more dwarfs.

LM Turn 6

My magic phase saw me casting several buff spells and healing all my lost wounds up to full.

I finally won close combat enough to break his mighty Ld 10 and run down the remnants of his unit with a Salamander. I lost a single chameleon skink in the effort.

Aftermath and spoils

My only casualty was a single chameleon skink which I failed to recover. I got a mighty haul of 53H and 35 M from the small amount of troops I defeated. Loot is based on the resource cost of slain troops and Chaos Dwarf armor is expensive! There were no magical items to attempt to recover.

The tile I took has a fungus caves. Whereas most of the underdark has no food production value, fungus cave are the single most fertile crop land available. The gold ore I took last campaign month and the fungus caves I just took are what enticed me to go underground but the real prize is the undersea tile I just opened a path to. It has four additive natural features.

The Slann got one exp as general and another for casting a spell. The skink priest also got one for casting a spell. The skink chiefs once again got nothing, though they all avoided being maimed this time.

The Jade Spawning Saurus got two exp, one for surviving the battle, one for helping break the Infernals.

One Chameleon Skink units got two exp each. Both got a point for surviving. One killed a rocket launcher in close combat and the other participating in the grand melee that eventually broke the Infernal block.

The male Salamander’s team got two exp for surviving the battle and participating in the grand melee. The female Salamander’s team got two points for that as well, and two additional points for running down the broken unit and capturing the standard.

Current State of Realm, Beginning of second Campaign Month
Current Realm Allowance: 5,000 points
Projected Realm Allowance*: 8,000 points
Current Army: 1,477 points
Active Army: 1,222 points
Slann, extra power dice, lore mastery, Divine Plaque of Protection, Lore not set (10 exp total)
Skink Priest, Level 2 (3 exp total)
Skink Chief, 2 HW, shield, light armor (0 exp)
Skink Chief, HW, shield, light armor, Fencer’s Blades, -1 WS (0 exp)
Skink Chief, 2 HW, shield, light armor, -1 BS (0 exp)
17 Jade Spawning Saurus FC, +1 Toughness (3 exp total)
6 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave, still underground (5 exp total)
5 Chameleon Skinks /w Brave (6 exp total)
Salamander Team: 1 Sally, 4 handlers (11 exp total)
Salamander Team: 1 Sally, 3 handlers (9 exp total)
Grounded Units and Vault Items
1 Skink Skirmisher Brave (2 exp total)
9 Skinks, 2 Kroxigor, FC (4 exp total)
Battle Standard, Banner of Eternal Flame
Cube of Darkness
Potential New Units: Jungle Swarms, Skinks Cohorts (no Krox), Skink Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders, Razordons, Functionally unlimited Skink Chiefs, Max 2 Temple Guard, Max 1 Slann**, Max 1 Skink Priest**
Warchest: 0 S, 126 H, 55 M
Projected Production at the end of the month: 117 S, 82 H, 48 M
* Assuming I build the minimum improvements to settle what I’m occupying.
**I’m planning to settle three new tiles (1500 points) with a Watchtower (0 additional points), Village (500 additional points), and Town (1,000 additional points)

I plan to increase my army to a little over 2000 points, build a new town on the tile under the sea, build a village in the fungus caves, and a watchtower to guard my new border with the WoC player and claim the mouth of the river. Any resources left over after that are going to build farms. I need to boost my S production a fair bit if I want to be able to afford dinosaurs.

I also can promote my male Salamander’s team to veteran status but I don’t know which basic trait I should raise. Raising the Saurus’ toughness seemed obvious, but the Salamander’s don’t really need their basic stats the way everyone else does.

Like me everyone else is army is stretched as thing as they dare. Everyone else is on their last battle this campaign month, and I’m waiting on everyone to finish their battles. Then we have two campaign turns with no battles to play out. That’ll take almost no time to run, so we can fast forward to the next campaign month when everyone has fresh reinforcements again.

The next campaign month will be a new season which means lots of random events to effect the map and, also we can use ritual magic for the first time (we can cast ritual spells ever three months at the start of a season). My plan is to use my spell to receive 250 points of free Core from my next conquest. I plan to use the spell to recruit 50 Cohort Skinks. Point for point they are the most expensive troop I have resource wise.

I’m going to build my force up to over 2000 points (before the free skinks), try diplomacy to convert the two independent LM realms. To convert a LM realm, I need to move in with an army at least double their size (in this case 2000 points) and then roll a 5 or 6 on a die.

If that doesn’t work, I’ll attack move my troops out and attack one of the nearby orc tiles. That’ll give me my 250 points of free skinks (because I’m required to make a conquest to collect them) which should prevent me from falling below 2000 points and let me try diplomacy again the following turn. I plan to keep the pattern of up of attempting diplomacy then attacking an orc tile if they refuse. Once I convert the LM tiles to my side, I’ll have roughly 3000 points of LM and I can split my army in two without diluting my force too much. One force will stay in the south to sweep what’s left of the orcs off my Southern border and then take out the HEs, Beastmen and Demons sitting on my northern border.

That should put me in a strong enough position overtake the Ogre player in the tile count and make my army big enough that I could successively fend off the Warriors of Chaos player or move across the mountains and capture the Beastmen capital, if I choose to be a bully (the Beastmen have the smallest army of any player on the board). The Beastmen are big enough to bloody the victor who destroys them which means if I take them out I’ll be exposed to the Ogres or visa versa.