There were nine players. I got the games I wanted: I did not get stuck with one of the three opt outs, I did not end up fighting Warriors of Chaos guy who I feared and I didn’t play against either my O&G or Dwarf friends (I play them very frequently and was hoping for someone else just for variety’s sake). I was second from the last place. EDIT: The games were set at 2500 points. 1-Vampire A 2-Beastman 3-Vampire B 4-O&G 5-Empire 6-Dwarves 7-Dwarves 8-Me 9-WoC, the guy I thought was most likely to win got last place. Due to the luck of the draw, I never had to move from my table. By chance I had the same side each time. The terrain was set up by the ref. Lower left was a quicksand swamp, exact center was a stepped pyramid, the lower right corner had a barrier (which never mattered) and the upper had a rocky hill that provided hard cover. The first game the building had special scenario rules and was both a Bane head and a Grail Chapel though my opponent and I forgot to apply both those rules. The second game the ref moved the building from the center to the center left. My opponent and I decided to keep it magical and rolled a wizard tower the second game and arcane ruins the third. The scenarios were rolled randomly with a program the referee knew of. Tournament Points were as follows: -5 points for winning, 3 points for drawing, 1 point for losing -1 point for every 500 points of enemies scenario points earned, rounded up -5 points for accomplishing the scenario special objective. My list can be seen here: http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/potential-allcomers-tournament-list-2500-points.9951/ First Scenario, me versus Vampire Count B My opponent made copies of his list so I have the exact list: Strigoi Ghoul King, Ogre Blade, Dispel Scroll, Dragonbane Gem (note he forgot to apply this and I forgot to apply my Temple Guard’s Flaming Banner this likely could have prevented his death), Other Trickster’s Shard, Quickblood power, Red Fury Power. He took the Lore of Vampires Signature spell L4 Master Necromancer with Soulblight, Doom and Darkness, Fate of Bjuna, and Purple Sun of Xerus L1 Necromancer with Lore of Vampire signature spell 4 x 1 Cairn wraith (characters not a unit) 3 x 5 Dire Wolves 40 Skeletons, FC Screaming Banner 2 x 39 Zombies with Musician and Standard 3 Vargheists 6 Crypt Horrors 2 Spirit Hosts 2 x 1 Terrorgheists The scenario rules were odd all around. Deployment rules were odd, we had to deploy in a corner instead of a table side and every non Scout had to be touching a table edge. We both had a lot of units so we had L shaped deployments. I had the lower left and my opponent had the upper right (he won the roll to choose a corner and force me to take the opposite him not that there was anything wrong with my corner). The fact that we were on opposite corners meant we had a greater distance to cover than usual to get to each other. Second off there was a storm on board that penalized everyones attack rolls in CC and shooting and really caused trouble for flyers. At the start of each players round they roll to see if the storm ends, and if the storm does, the player whose turn it is can choose a unit (presumably an enemy unit) to be struck by lightning. He deployed his dire wolves and Vargheists on the left side of the board. On the back edge of the board he had his Spirit Host, then both zombie units, then a Terrorgheist, then the Skeletons with all of his characters then his other Terrogheist, then his Crypt Horrors. On the right edge of the back of my deployment zone I deployed my Temple Guard to give me a shot at the objective building in the center, then I had my two Saurus blocks, then a Salamander team. On my right edge bottom to top I had my Terradons, Kroxigor, Razordon team, and other Salamander team. One Chamo Skink unit deployed in the lower left corner the other in the upper right. All the direwolves used Vangard move to head towards the Chamo Skinks in their respective corner. My Terradons Vanguard moved towards the general direction of the VC line. My blue Skink got Harmonic Convergence this game, my green skink got Chain Lightning. LM Turn 1 Start of the turn I rolled an end to the storm. I aimed the lightning at the dire wolve closest to the Chamo Skinks and killed three of them. My Chamo Skinks in the lower left stayed put. My Temple Guard marched toward the center building. The rest of my forces all tried to move from the corner to the center as best they could. I cast Timewarp on the Temple Guard to allow me to reach the objective building next turn without marching. I cast Banishment at the Crypt Horrors, then I cast Chain Lightning with my green skink scoring IF and wounding himself and the blue skink with a miscast. The Chain Lighting and Banishment inflicted one unsaved wound each and the Chain Lightning did not jump. The miscast sapped my remaining power dice. The Chamo Skinks shot at the lightning depleted dire wolves and eliminated them. My Salamanders attempted to shoot at the Crypt Horrors but failed to wound. My other stuff was out of range. VC Turn1 The two direwolf units charged my Chamo Skinks who killed a couple off the rightmost attacking unit with stand and shoot. One Terrogheist charged my Terradons and the other charged my Chamo Skinks in the upper right who failed their terror test and fled. The Skeleton unit with all the characters headed towards the building. The Crypt Horrors and Vargheists headed towards my green Saurus block from two directions. The zombie and spirit host were the most distant units from me and they moved towards the center. They would not have any impact on the game. He didn’t get a lot of dice and the only spells he successfully cast were hexes on units that he didn’t end up fighting before the spells wore off. Shooting saw a Terrogheist kill a Salamander with their fancy scream. Another one wounded the Razordon and killed a handler or two. Close combat saw the Chamo Skinks fighting the direwolves die to the last man. I took down one of the two wolf units down to two models between CC and the stand and shoot. LM Turn 2 The Temple Guard occupied the objective building. My Green Saurus charged the Crypt Horrors. My Skinks (my most distant unit) moved towards the center. I would have probably been better served holding back and playing at points denial but I thought their poisoned shooting would give me one more thing to throw at the Terrorgheists. My blue Saurus (also fairly distant) moved towards the zombies going around the pyramid. My fleeing Chamo Skinks failed to rally and ran a short distance. I chose this turn to activate my forbidden rod predictably killed my green skink priest. I took out the depleted Dire wolf unit with a magic missile. Two attempts at casting Light buffs were dispelled, then I failed a roll with my Slann forcing me to use my remaining dice to cast Harmonic Convergence on the Temple Guard. The Razordon inflicted a wound on a Terrorgheist, my surviving Salamander missed. My Terradons all missed. The Crypt horrors killed a few Saurus. My Saurus took out one Crypt Horror. VC Turn 2 A Terrogheist charged my Razordon, I didn’t fancy my chances at successfully fleeing and was too close for a stand and shoot, so they held. The other Terrogheist charged my Terradons, if they fled it would have taken them off the table. Their Stand and Shoot inflicted no damage The Vargheists flew in and flank charged the Saurus engaged with the Crypt Horrors. The Skeleton block with all the characters assaulted the building. I shut down the whole second VC magic phase with the Cube of Darkness. One Terrogheist killed my remaining Salamander then other Terrogheist killed three Temple Guard in the pyramid. Combat saw my Saurus inflicting minor damage, receiving moderate damage and holding despite losing by a good margin. The Razordon miraculously survived its fight with the Terrorgheists on his last wound with a single crewman having failed to inflict even a single wound in return partially due to a failed Fear test. The Strigoi declared a challenge making mince meat out of my Revered Guardian inflicting five overkill points. The Cairn wraiths inflicted a few casualties and the skeletons maybe killed one TG. The TG killed a large number of skeletons (with building assault and step up. My opponents plan was to have his Strigoi keep issuing a challenges and filling the other spaces with incorporeals to prevent attacks back but that obviously didn’t work in a building assault). Due to the large number of skeletons I killed I won combat by a modest margin netting me some additional crumble casualties. LM Turn 3 My Kroxigor charged the flank of the Terrogheists fighting my Razordon. My Chamo Skinks failed to rally and kept fleeing. My blue Saurus continued moving towards the zombie blocks. My Skinks decided to show some discretion and not move closer to the Terrorgheists. I took out the depleted dire wolf unit with a magic missile, most of the rest was dispelled either with dice or his scroll. I might have gotten a buff on my Temple Guard off but I don’t remember. My shooters were either fleeing, out of range, engaged in close combat, or dead. My Saurus fighting the Crypt Horrors and Vargulfs were killed and run down. The Terrogheist killed my Razordon then the Kroxigor answered back by killing the Terrogheist. Vampire Counts Turn 3 This time all the wraiths and the Strigoi left the skeleton block and charged the pyramid by themselves. The Vargheists engaged my Skink Cohort in the flank (I keep forgetting to factor flight into my positioning calculations!). I don’t remember the specifics of the magic phase, none of the spells had a huge impact on things. The remaining Terrorgheist took a chunk out of my Skink Cohort with its scream lacking more dangerous targets. The Vargheists killed my Skink priest and several rank and file, winning combat by a wide margin allowing them to break the Skinks and run them down. In hindsight I inadvertently made a mistake which helped me greatly versus the Strigoi. The Strigoi was the only valid target for my Temple Guard (the rest were incorporeal). If it hadn’t slipped my mind that I had the Banner of Eternal Flame I would have said “Ha! I have attacks that nullify your regeneration” and he would have said “Ha! I have the Dragonbane Gem.” I forgot and this turned out in my favor because even a Strigoi can’t only handle 20 attacks. The Temple Guard took significant casualties and lost combat but the Strigoi general was dead. The resulting crumble killed around 14 zombies, 3 of the four Cairn wraiths, a couple skeletons, a Crypt Horror, one of the two spirit hosts, and the remaining Terrogheist (after this the Necromancer with lore of Vampires took over and no more crumbles in subsequent turns). The dice gods made me pay for this mistake in my favor by giving me awful luck in turn four. LM Turn 4 My blue Saurus charged a zombie block. My Chamo Skinks kept fleeing but they were running lengthways across the table and were still quite far from the edge. I took out the last Cairn wraith with Shem’s burning gaze. Then my Slann rolled IF on a buff, I passed the miscast onto the L2 Lore of Vampire Necromancer hoping to take him out but only killing skeletons. I had nothing left that could shoot. Close combat saw me kill several zombies from combat and resulting crumbles receiving only one or two casualties in return. VC Turn 4 The second unit of zombies charged the flank of my blue Saurus. The Spirit Host was still too far away to do anything. The Skeleton/Necromancer block chose NOT to assault the tower given that they had lost their heavy hitters and I had buffed the Temple Guard. There was nothing left on the right side of the board for the Crypt Horrors and Vargheists to fight. I failed to dispel Fate of Bjuna then he rolled very good damage and I rolled very poor saves. Thus my Slann was killed. I lost one or two Saurus against the two zombie blocks but the Saurus won combat easily. The Saurus killed around fifteen zombies between the two units between regular casualties and crumble. LM Turn 5, This was to be the last turn for time constraints. My Chamo Skinks failed to rally again once more jogging almost casually along the back edge of the table. Nothing else moved I had no wizards left alive to cast spells. I had nothing that could shoot. The Saurus killed some more zombies. VC Turn 5 The skeletons made a last ditch effort to dislodge my now Slann-less Temple Guard from the Pyramid to claim the objective. There was no point in moving any other units. He tried several assorted hexes on the Temple Guard getting one past my dispels, I think it was Curse of the Midnight Wind (from the Cursed Book in case you are wondering how he got a Heavens spell). He had nothing left that could shoot. The Temple Guard did not fail their Fear test, so they had little trouble fending off the skeleton assault. I failed to kill one of the zombie units in close combat though the Saurus made a fair accounting of themselves. I lost the battle by a modest margin but in terms of tournament points we were tied because I was controlling the central building which gave me bonus objective points. Second Scenario, me versus Empire (I don’t have the exact numbers or specific magic item allotments) Empire General Empire Captain, BSB Empire Captain, minimally equipped L4 Metal Wizard, Enchanted Blades of Alban, Transmutation to Lead, Glittering Robes, L2 Light Wizard, Light of Battle, Shem’s Burning Gaze Battle priest 2 x ~25 Spear blocks with FC ~40 Halberdiers block with Halbredier Detachment of ~20 5 Pistoliers 3 Demigryph Knights Cannon Steam Tank Celestial Hurricanum (generates a power die, and gives nearby friendly units +1 to hit) This was a standard Battleline in most respects but there was a twist. Each player got to choose a magic item from the OTHER side’s army book of any points value. Because of the theft of a preciously guarded magic item, both sides were suspicious of treachery form their own side. All units on either side not led by a character were at -1 Ld when within six inches of another friendly unit. I didn’t have any great magic items that would help my Slann in the Empire book, so I gave my Slann Van Horstman’s Speculum: an enchanted item that lets the character swap Strength, Toughness, Attacks, and Initiative with an enemy in a challenge. We accidentally misread the item and swapped the WS too (this was against my favor actually). My opponent took Cube of Darkness for his Light wizard. The bonus objective in this scenario was naturally to kill the opposing character with the stolen magical item. I got the first turn again. Left to right: my Terradons, a Salamander team (in the Swamp) Razordon team, Skinks and Skink characters (behind the Pyramid, now a Wizards Tower), Kroxigor, Temple Guard, Green Saurus, Blue Saurus, my other Salamander. Opposite the Salamander and Razordon were the Demigryph Knights, Opposite the Pyramid were the Pistoliers (who Vanguard moved up to the Pyramid). Behind their Vangard position was a block of spearmen, the other spearmen, Steam Tank, the Halbrediers with Halbriedier detachment. Behind the Halbrediers was the magic chariot. The Great Swords were to the right of the Halbrediers right next to the hill. Just on the crest of the hill was the cannon. The general and BSB were in the big Halbredier block. The vanilla captain was in the left- most spearmen block. The Warrior priest and metal wizard were with the Greatswords. The Light wizard and his stolen Cube of Darkness were sandwiched between the magic chariot and the two Halbredier blocks. The cannon was wide open so I put both Chamo Skinks near it. My Terradons Vanguard up the left side avoiding the charge arc of the Chicken Knights while still setting up for a good flanking position of the main line. My Skinks each took Iceshard Blizzard since I was not particularly fond of Curse of the Midnight Wind of Wind Blast. I won first turn again. LM Turn One I advanced my Saurus line. Unfortunately my Kroxigor didn’t have space to join them due to the building and had to try to go around them. My Salamander wove around the left of the Pyramid and my Razordon did the same along the right. The Skinks naturally marched towards the pyramid to try to claim it so I could get the Lore master for the priests and a good vantage point to throw javelins for the rest. The right most Salamander tried to angle a shot at the Sword Masters without exposing itself and the chamo Skinks moved in to get close range shots on the Cannon. I cast the augmented version of Timewarp with six dice hoping to use the movement on all my Saurus at once to get the charges in Turn 2 and use Cupped Hands to take out the opposing Wizard lord in one stroke. I got IF and sent the Metal Wizard the miscast but all it did was hit the Empire’s wizards with S6 hits. I wounded the Metal Wizard but failed to wound the hated Light Wizard. I cast the extended range Net of Amytok to nullify the cannon (the cannon had hard cover, so I was not entirely sure if the Chamo Skinks could kill it). The first Chamo Skink had to fire single shots to still get poison and they rolled five sixes out of seven dice obliterating the cannon leaving my Second Chamo Skink unit with nothing to do (and making my casting of Net of Amytok pointless). The Salamanders undershot the targets. My Razordon marched and my Skinks had no line of sight. The Terradons had no line of sight on anything in range either. Empire Turn One In response to my bubble effect Timewarp, he backed his whole main line up. I’m still torn whether that was cowardly or brilliant. The Pistoliers advanced the Pyramid towards the Razordon without charging them. The Chicken Knights charged the left most Salamander who chose the better part of valour and ran away. The Demigryphs rolled well enough to reach the quicksand swamp but not well enough to catch the Salamander, no one was lost in the muck unfortunately. The Light Wizard tried to cast Shem’s Burning Gaze on a Chamo Skink unit which I dispelled. The rest of the spells he cast were meaningless buffs on units that didn’t get to fight before the castings wore off. The Steam Tank shot and killed a few Temple Guard. The Pistoliers shot and wounded my Razordon also taking out a handler. LM Turn Two With the Empire line backing up I couldn’t really get charges in even with doubled movement rates. My fleeing Salamander rallied. The other one lined up for a shot; the Razordon did as well. I advanced my Saurus blocks and kept moving my Kroxigor to the right behind them. The Skinks occupied the strategically important pyramid. The Chamo Skinks moved to shoot at the Great Swords. I failed a march test with a Chamo Skink block thwarting my plan to get a unit to broadside the magic chariot forcing me to go for the Greatswords with both unit units instead. My Terradons on the left of the board flew towards the center killing a few spearmen with rocks on the way. My Green Skink (now a lore master) cast Chain Lightning on the Steam Tank wounding it twice (the lightning would not jump). The miscast did no significant damage but it costing me most of my remaining power dice. I used what little I had left to kill two Pistoliers with a magic missile. The Terradons fired a non-damaging volley of javelins into the nearest unit (forget what it was). The Chamo Skinks and right Salamander killed around five or so Great Swords. The left Salamander had just rallied and could not shoot. The Pyramid Skinks took out the Pistoliers leaving my Razordon with nothing to shoot at. Empire Turn Two: The left most spearmen block assaulted the Pyramid and the Skinks made them fight in the shade killing three or four with a stand and shoot. The other spear block charged my Razordon who chose to eat his handlers rather than shoot at his attackers. The Steam Tank advanced a little and the Chicken Knight looped around the bottom edge of the Pyramid. No one else moved much if at all. I shut down the whole magic phase with Cube of Darkness. The Steam Tank killed a few more Temple Guard with the cannon. The Spearmen killed the Razordon and restrained the overrun. The captain of the spearmen block killed my Skink champion with no overkill. I killed about two or three spearmen and lost two or three rank and file Skinks in return. LM Turn Three I was still not in a good charge position for much, but I was getting antsy. I charged the Steam Tank with my Temple Guard (a little reckless I know). The blue Saurus charged a block of Halbrediers that was slightly forward while the right most Salamander charged its detachment. The detachment countercharged my Saurus which pulled it out of the effective range of my Salamander causing me to fail the Salamander’s flank charge. My other Salamander moved a little to try to line up a better shot. The Terradons moved to try to get at the Light Wizard worth the Tournament objective points. I activated the Rod of Darkness, killing my green Skink. I cast Timewarp on the Temple Guard hoping the extra S5 would put the hurting on the tank. Then I tried casting Chain Lightning with the blue Skink priest on the halberdiers to hopefully jump the bolt towards the tank but I came up one point short on the casting. Next I cast an augmented version of Phas Protection. I got IF with four dice inflicting only modest damage on my forces but sapping most of my remaining dice. I used the last of my dice to cast a magic missile which faced all my opponents many remaining dispel dice and was easily dispelled. The Pyramid Skinks rained destruction down on the spearmen block who dared challenge them. My leftmost Salamander wanted hit the demigryph knights to make roast chicken impressively inflicting two wounds on the three model unit. Unfortunately the flame template knicked my pyramid. This resulted in me killing four of my own Skinks prompting much mocking from both my opponent and my friend who was watching. 4 Skinks is worth 2/3 of a chicken knight and there was no real danger of panicking due to the nearby Slann, so I didn’t mind. The other Salamander and one of the Chamo Skink blocks killed some Great Swords. The Terradons and other Chamo Skinks inflicted a single wound on the Hurricanum. The Temple Guard inflicted one or two unsaved wounds on the Steam Tank and received no wounds from the engineer. I rolled a little subpar and lost the combat between the Saurus and halberdiers but held. Empire Turn Three The spearmen assaulted the Pyramid again taking more stand and shoot casualties. The right most spearmen charged the flank of my Temple Guard fighting the STANK. The Greatswords hit the flank of my Saurus fighting the Halbrediers. The Chicken Knights kept their seemingly pointless advance going. The Hurricanum positioned to cover all the units with its buff effect and the Light wizard repositioned itself for maximum safety from the nearing skirmishers. I dispelled most of the enemy magic phase but he got Enchanted Blades on his Halbrediers which really hurt later. He had nothing that could shoot. The Skinks once more repulsed the spearmen. Between their close combat, the stand and shoot and my round shooting I was killing about double the number of Empire troops that I was losing in Skinks. My Slann issued a challenge and with the stolen Empire magic item he was wielding, was able to beat the Halbredier unit champion fairly easily though scoring no overkill. I killed a few rank and file but I failed to wound the Steam Tank again and lost many Temple Guard underneath the treads of the mighty tank. The Great Swords broke my Saurus warriors (but not until after I killed the Metal wizard). The Saurus got away but the enemy pursuit took them into the flank of my Kroxigor who were on their way to wheel around to somewhere useful. LM Turn Four This was to be the last turn due to time constraints. My unengaged Saurus positioned to either be able to absorb an overrun by the Greatswords or charge them next turn (I didn’t yet know this was the last turn). My Chamo Skinks and Terradons converged on the Hurricanum. I did not get the buffs I needed. My first spell was blocked with the Cube of Darkness but I did not lose my magic phase entirely. My second spell got IF (a low dice casting Speed of Light on the Temple Guard. The resulting miscast killed a fair number of Temple Guard, Empire state soldiers and nearly dragged my Slann into a vortex. I didn’t managed to cast any more spells due to the reduction in power dice and the fact that my opponent had all of his dispel dice left. The Skinks rained more poisoned death on the spearmen. My Chamo Skinks and Terradons took the Hurricanum down to its last wound. My Salamanders took some pot shots had what few nearby targets they had. The Temple Guard were taken down to two surviving members. My Slann got in a challenge with the Empire general. Since we were misapplying the rules of Van Horstman’s Speculum I accidentally transferred the captain my 10 WS (though since he was down to a single S3 attack the net advantage still to the Slann). No damage was inflicted on either general. My non-Slann forces inflicted insignificant damage to the state troops they were fighting. My Kroxigor killed a greatsword but lost combat by a goodly margin, broke and narrowly escaped total destruction, the chase predictably carried them into my Saurus warriors. Empire Turn Four The spearmen continued their assault on the pyramid this time joined by the Chicken Knights. I inflicted a spectacular stand and shoot panicking the spearmen. The Hurricanum charged a unit of Chamo Skinks. I was too close for a stand and shoot but held anyway hoping to get lucky and take the last wound of the chariot out. The battle priest managed to put a ward saves on the greatsword unit and the Light wizard killed six Chamo Skinks with Shem’s Burning Gaze but the Skink Brave did not panic. The Slann’s unit was in a situation. The state troops in the did no significant damage and the Slann’s challenge with the Empire General once again resulted in no wounds. The Steam Tank flattened my remaining Temple Guard and carried over some wounds to the Slann, one of which was unsaved. My Saurus unit involved broke and barely avoid pursuit. The Terradons fled and were run down. The fight between the Saurus and Greatswords ended with me killing the Metal wizard but losing the combat and then holding steady. Meanwhile in the pyramid the Skinks inflicting two wounds on the Chicken Knights killing a model and only receiving one casualty in return. A morale victory if there ever was one. The Chamo Skinks failed to kill the Hurricanum and were slaughtered to the last model. This was a fun match. The end result was a draw. The body count was very high but very few whole units were destroyed. Just the Metal wizard, The Pistoliers, the Cannon, my expendable skink priest, 7 Chamo Skinks, 3 Terradons and my Temple Guard. Neither of scored the bonus objective because both of our “thief” characters were still alive. Neither of scored a lot of kill points because of the low number of units destroyed so this unfortunately knocked us both down a few pegs on the tournament ladder. Tournament Round Three vs. Beastmen This was my first match against the Beastmen and I usually do relatively poorly against new armies for the first time. It was a learning experience and the player in question was easily the most sportsman-like and gracious player I fought that tournament, so I didn’t mind losing much. The special rules of the scenario involved our leaders really hating each other. No one had the Hatred rule, but we got bonus tournament points for killing the enemy general. Also given the rousing speeches everyone heard, all units without a character automatically fail attempts to restrain overrun or pursuit. Other than that it was a basic battle line game. Beast Lord L4 Death caster, Soulblight, Doom and Darkness, Purple Sun plus a spell he never tried to use L2 Beasts caster, Wyssans Wildform and Savage Beast of Horros BSB Gorbull 2 x 5 Skirmisher archers, one with ambush 3 x 1 “Piggies” 3 x 1 Piggy chariots 40 Gor 30 Bestigor 30 Ungor I had a Salamander and my Razordons on the left side of the board. Eventually one of my Chamo Skink units joined them. My Skinks headed for the pyramid again (this time an Arcane ruins). My Kroxigor was to their right, then the Temple Guard (nearish to the pyramid to get in range of the ruins, then my two Saurus blocks. My far right had my Terradons. I chose not to Vangard in case I didn’t get first turn and wound up being charged by a Swiftstride unit. With the Terradons was a unit of Chamo Skinks. My Skink Priests ended up with Chain Lightning and Iceshard Blizzard. The three infantry blocks, one of his chariots, and all of his characters were lined up along the middle. The various chaff units were on the side with two chariots and two piggies on the left, one chariot, one piggy and the skirmishers on the right. The first turn I advanced my three Saurus units in a line doing my best to give my Kroxigors a gap to get into the action. My Skinks marched towards the Pyramid and my skirmishing units tried to line up shots on things. My Terradon dropped some rocks on the right most piggy inflicting two wounds. With all my wizards in range of the arcane ruins I managed three channels. I had twelve power dice. I decided to treat myself to a bubbled version of Light of Battle to protect my army from a Purple Sun. It went off with IF and I successfully passed the miscast on to the enemy Death Wizard. I got the miscast event that hit hits every wizard with a S6 but only one wizard took the hit, don’t remember which one. Next I tried casting Chain Lightning on a chariot and the Skink got IF and he triggered the same miscast wounding my Slann and my dark green priest and causing me to lose some dice. The actual spell inflicted a single unsaved wound and did not jump. I managed to cast a magic missile at a piggy with my remaining power die. My Chamo Skink units each opened fire on the nearest piggy, one Salamander could only hit a chariot but managed to inflict a wound. The other killed a small amount of infantry off of one of his big blocks. My Terradons shots didn’t inflict any damage. Between magic and shooting one piggy was dead, the other two were on their last wound and a chariot was wounded once. Beastmen Turn One The wounded chariot charged my Razordon who inflicted another wound on him with a stand and shoot. The two surviving piggies each charged a unit of Chamo Skinks and died in the charge attempt from my stand and shoots. His main line advanced a little. His skirmishers had nothing better to do than move towards my right most Chamo Skinks. He rolled a one for his ambushing troops so I got to pick their table edge. I put them on the right side. In hindsight my table edge would have less damaging, but this did not affect thing so I’m not losing sleep on this one. I had enough dice to dispel everything useful he had to cast since he didn’t want to try Purple Sun when I had Initiative 10 on most of my army. Shooting saw the skirmishers take a pot shot at my right most Skinks and inflict a single wound hitting on difficulty 7. The Razordon team was wiped out leaving the victorious chariot on its last wound. Lizardmen Turn 2 I figured between the Arcane Ruins and my Forbidden Rod Skink I would have lots of dice at my disposal letting me get more bubble buffs up so I advanced my troops together basically inviting a mass charge. This was an epic mistake, but I did not know this at the time. My Skinks occupied the pyramid. My skirmishing units lined up for shots on things. I rolled eleven power dice with my channels so decided not to trigger the Forbidden Rod. I rolled a miscast putting a bubbles Phas Protection. I’ve been using conservatively low amounts of dice I swear! The resulting miscast took out of chunk of Temple Guard and docked my power dice pool. With the reduction in my pool my opponent had enough dispel dice to shut down most of the rest of my phase. My right most Chamo Skinks avenged their fallen comrade by shooting three enemy skirmishers dead. Due to lucky armor saves, it took all the shooting of my rightmost Chamo Skinks and my Pyramid Cohort Skinks to take down the wounded chariot and properly avenge the Razordon team’s death. Beastmen Turn Two My Saurus blocks got charged by his blocks and two surviving chariots. Since my Temple Guard were fighting the same unit as my middle Saurus block and my middle Saurus block was fighting the same unit as my right most Saurus block, so everyone was involved in one big melee. Okay not everyone, the two skirmisher archer units charged my right most Chamo Skinks from two directions since the ambushers arrived last turn. The non-ambushing unit took some stand and shoot losses. I shut down his magic phase entirely with the Cube of Darkness. There was nothing to shoot. The Chamo Skinks were outnumbered and naturally did not win but they managed to take out the smaller of the two enemy units before they broke and they pulled the victorious unit out of position by fleeing off the board. Given the scenario special rules, said unit was forced to pursue them off the board. The archers were now too far out of position to contribute to the battle anymore, but they didn’t need to join the main battle. The rerolls from the Beastmen’s hatred bestowing ability was more than a match for my Pha’s Protection. Each Saurus block took a modest amount more losses than they inflicted but since everything was netted into one big CR I ended up losing CR by a lot and needing snake eyes on my non-Temple Guard. Both my Saurus units broke and were run down. One of the victorious units pursued into my Kroxigor. LM Turn Three My opponent and I thought we had a fast paced game, but we apparently were wrong because we found out towards the end of the bottom of the turn that turn three would be our last. Ouch. My shooters tried to line up for shots on things and my Terradons did a desperate supporting flanking charge to try to save my Slann. Once again I got such good channels I didn’t even think about activating my Forbidden Rod. I got another miscast on my first spell, this time with only three dice. I do not remember what the buff spell was, but the resulting miscast more or less shut down my phase as I had fewer power dice and my foe had all his dispels. A scroll might have come out too, I don’t remember My Salamanders and Chamo Skinks attacked the unengaged block and chariot respectively but it was too little too late. Close combat saw the Temple Guard get wiped out and the Slann breaking and auto-dying as the BSB. My three Terradons were reduced to one model and the survivor was run down thanks to a very poor flee roll. The Kroxigors were wiped out, or run down don’t remember which. Beastmen Turn Three All my surviving stuff was out of his charge arcs so we ended the game here. He pretty much tabled me. Closing Thoughts I like units of twenty skinks. Whenever a building is involved they do great for me. A building of two or more stories gives them at least as many shots as they would get otherwise with better line of site and 360 degree fire arcs. As long as the Slann BSB is nearby they aren’t going to break in a building so they have to be killed to the last man. Most things that can kill twenty skinks entirely cost at least double their points value so even if the Skinks lose they still earn their points value by stalling a bigger unit. The Stand and shoots followed by regular shots (short range with no negative modifiers!) adds up. Buildings provide good line of sight for Skink Priests channeling Slann magic missiles (or their own lightning spells). I just need to figure out what to do when I have twenty skinks and no building to put them in. I have not had much success with small Kroxigor units. It’s not really the Kroxigors fault, it’s mine. I’ve played five games with this exact list and in four of those games my Kroxigors had to deploy behind my Saurus blocks and waste time moving to the battle line. In two of those games this resulted in their untimely deaths. I saw S6 hits are useful when they took down the &^#%@# Terrogheist but I couldn’t get them anywhere near the Steam Tank. I think if I want to get S6 hits on large things I don’t like, I need to go back to Skroxigor units and deploy the Skroxigor in place of one of my Saurus blocks or make a unit of six+ Kroxigors and deploy them in place of a Saurus block. Three just doesn’t cut it, not without Skinks. I suffered from not taking a Scar Veteran. My two gaming friends who I play most frequently play lists where a Scar Veteran doesn’t help me much. This put me in a habit on not taking them. I need Scar Veterans in all comers setting though. A Scar Veteran would have given me the means to kill the Cairn Wraiths in scenario one instead of relying on a lucky crumble (which would never have happened if we both remembered what magical items we had). My Scar Veteran substitute, the Temple Guard champion with Venom of the Firefly Frog did nothing. In two scenarios he died before landing a single blow. Against the Empire his hits on the Steam Tank hit automatically without an attack roll so no poison. It’s not unusual for tournament rules to give free bonuses to characters that only apply to close combat. If I had a Scar Veteran in my game against the Empire in round two, I could have given my Scar Veteran a Runefang! Wounding automatically and ignoring saves, the Steam Tank would have been reduced to a hunk of scrap metal in short order. While it’s unreasonable to expect that exact same scenario rule to come later in a game against the Empire, it is reasonable to assume a similar bonus to fighty characters will reveal itself later in a tournament. I like Light, but I need to conservative in turn one. There is no real need for augmented bubble buffs on the first turn against most armies. Cupped Hands is only one use, so I should strive to not use it turn one if possible. Light will remain my favorite lore, but I think I’m going to rely on Death for future tournaments. I played three tournaments and nine total tournament scenarios so far. Five of the scenarios gave bonus points for killing specified enemy characters. Also given my fondness for Salamanders would give me lore synergy there. I’m on the fence about Razordons as viable units. I need to play them some more (in non-tournament games) before I weigh in on them. I’ve established that I need to boost my Kroxigor to either a Skroxigor or a larger sized Kroxigor block. I lost my Temple Guard entirely in two of the last tournament games and one of the two pre-tournament practice games. If I am going to play without the lore of Life, I think I need more than 26 Temple Guard. I also decided I need a Scar Veteran. Putting everything together I need to cut something to free up points. One Saurus block can give way to the expanded Kroxigors but that won’t do enough. I probably need to eliminate one of my Skink priests, the Razordon, and/or one of my three warmachine hunting parties. I got a lot of time to think about this because the next tournament isn’t likely till next year and it will probably be a doubles tournament which changes everything.
Re: Tournament Summary, Fought VC, Empire, and Beastmen (lon Yes, I would never run Krox without skinks in this size game. Happy gaming!
Re: Tournament Summary, Fought VC, Empire, and Beastmen (lon Phew, very long. Sounds like it was a fun tournament! Rules appeared to be kind of loose at times, but that's mostly to the better. And lol at your winner prediction, you totally jinxed them.
Re: Tournament Summary, Fought VC, Empire, and Beastmen (lon Great report Scalenex, have you ever considered a Stegadon instead of the kroxigor? I find them to be as useful as a flanking combat block and is a smaller footprint than a skrox unit while being just as fast. Impact hits and stomps are also nice when you can get them and being naturally stubborn is useful especially when near the Slann. Could be difficult to find the points for it though...
Re: Tournament Summary, Fought VC, Empire, and Beastmen (lon What was the point limits? I read through most of the reports (well done btw) but didn't see a mention of total points.
Re: Tournament Summary, Fought VC, Empire, and Beastmen (lon I play dwarfs almost more than any other army combined. I find Stegadons a liabilty when fighting dwarves. The downside is when I play something other than Dwarfs I have no real practice using them. I didn't want to play something I wasn't familar with for the Tournament. I guess it's not rocket size and the foot print of Kroxigor has caused me problems. 2500 points
Re: Tournament Summary, Fought VC, Empire, and Beastmen (lon Nice battle report with loads of detail and it sounds like a lot of fun with three different opponents who you didn't regularly play. If you are looking at tweaking your list, I would agree with most of the ideas that have been mentioned: 1) join the krox to skinks to make skrox (adds to your core and creates a unit that cannot be stomped) 2) drop the razordon in favour of sallies 3) drop one saurus block to beef up the other, free up points and add more TG 4) war machine hunters - definitely way too many points invested there IMHO. I would drop the terradons and field 2 x 6 chameleons which gives redundancy and enough to tackle all but the most ridiculous of gun lines In addition, the skink priest should really only be a scroll caddy & vessel for magic missiles from the slaan. By dropping one priest and lowering the other to 1st level, you should have enough points to field a solid scar vet cowboy to provide some hitting power, magical attacks and something to go after small units or monsters/special units like chariots/war shrines/hellcannons, etc. There should be sufficient points left over to field a couple units of skirmish skinks or by further tweaking to try out a steggie. Either way, your plan to try it out prior to the next tourney makes sense as it will allow you to get used to using whatever you do field in your new and improved list.
Re: Tournament Summary, Fought VC, Empire, and Beastmen (lon The two skink priests were level one but your point stands that I don't really need two priests. My current plan is to run with just the Rod Caddy and hope that a Death Slann with the Banehead can kill enemy wizards fast enough that I won't suffer from not having dispelling items. I'd definitely going to add an Oldblood or Scar Veteran, though on foot.