Lost colony in 9th age - 2500 vs. VC

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Amboadine
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 10.4. Dwarves (ETC)

Post by Amboadine »

Nice report. A few mistakes as you have mentioned, but learning too, especially with a new list.
Still not convinced of the need for four RBTs. But that is a personal choice. If you feel you need to eliminate champions, have you considered a lvl1/2 mounted death sorceress to snipe them out of the units?
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 10.4. Dwarves (ETC)

Post by T.D. »

Marchosias wrote:
T.D. wrote:This is an illegal double talisman build!


:shock: :oops: :oops: :oops:

Back to the drawing board, then. Thank you very much for pointing out!


It wasn't mistakes. It was karma :P
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 10.4. Dwarves (ETC)

Post by Calisson »

The Dwarf player really failed to make any good use of his air force. Gyros can be unsane against Elves, with M10 and one breath every turn. He should have made kebab from all your agile troops by turn 3.
He seemed not to have a plan for using his battleline, and could hope only for you to charge him.

In such a large table with so few troops, far reaching and agile troops have an edge.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 10.4. Dwarves (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

@ T.D.: I am afraid it was mistakes, after all. Karma was when my dreadlord was killed with so few attacks. :D

@ Calisson: That was my impression, too. On the other hand, with four bolt throwers and three pegasus characters on the board the aircraft did not have many safe places to land. Yes, he could have burned the harpies and shades and landed behind the hill; in the following turns he would either return to the cover behind his infantry or stayed there and preserved points. This is not much of a win for him, though. I think he hoped the helicopters would survive to bomb witches and execs.

You make a good point, though, that the aircraft would make an excellent backfield protector. If a gyrocopter bombs harpies and then lands in front of the cannon to block the shades... Ouch.

@ Amboadine: Well, the main advantage of four bolt throwers is that I am able to field them.:D Strategically speaking, swapping two of them for a warlock unit for example would probably be better.

The death sorceress is an interesting option but I am not sure how well she fits into this particular army. Hero points are tight and I would have to let one other character go - but dismissing a pegasus master would kill the whole idea of the list and the beast sorceress adds a nice variety to the army, I feel. More importantly, a mounted sorc would have no solid bunker and safe spots behind impassable terrains are already occupied by the three mounted fighters.

I will leave the list as it is for a while (save the BSB equipment of course), maybe the whole champion issue is actually not that much of a problem. If it is I will try to find points for executioner champs and then we will see.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

Lost colony vs. Lizardmen (ETC)

Lost Colony:

Dreadlord, pegasus, ogre blade, cloak of twilight, dragonhelm: 301
Supreme sorceress, lvl 4 heavens, obsidian lodestone: 265

Master, pegasus, sword of might, dragonbane gem, potion of strength: 177
Master BSB, pegasus, great weapon, 4++ talisman, charmed shield: 211
Sorceress level 2, dispel scroll: 140

2x 5 dark riders, shields, crossbows, musician, champion: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, ahw: 90

This is exactly the list I used against dwarves in the last report, just with charmed shield and dragonbane gem swapped to make the BSB's loadout legal.


Lizardmen:


Slann, lvl 4, knows all signatures, channels on 5+ throwing three dice, 4++ ward, both BSB and general

Skink priest, lvl 1 heavens, dispel scroll
Skink priest, lvl 1 heavens, cube of darkness (dispel scroll on 2+)
Skink chief, 2+ armour, 2++ against fire, egg of quango
Skink chief, 2+ armour, 2++ against fire
Hero on cold one, 1+ rerollable, S6

24 saurus warriors
28 temple guards

4x 10 skink skirmishers, champions
2x 8 chameleon skinks
3 terradon riders

This is meant as a defensive list. There are enough skinks to shoot down chaff, they cost only a couple of points themselves so even by clearing all of them one cannot expect a big win. And the big blocks are not that easy to get points from.
Knowing all signatures, the slann can do all sorts of unpleasant things to his opponents; besides, he can use the skink priests' line of sight for his spells. It seems to me he might be a bit vulnerable to death magic (ld9, only a 4+ ward, defences against the other spells are probably not that well either), but otherwise, it is very hard to get to him as he can be hidden in the second rank of his temple guard bodyguards. And death magic is probably not that problematic, either, as everyone and the mother of their dogs wants to play it in ETC and so the list surely has some kind of answer built in.
On the other hand, this matchup should be hard for him as my flyers can hunt down his skinks quite effectively. Rallying them on Ld5, even if cold blooded Ld5 (roll three dice, use two lowest), is hardly guaranteed but on the other hand if they are held near the general they can block their own troops.

All in all, a fun game with much positioning was to be had.

My spells: blizzard, comet, chain lightning, thunderbolt on lvl 4; wildform and curse of anraheir on lvl 2.

One skink priest had blizzard, the other comet. The slann knew all signature spells.


Deployment

Image

I knew the big lizardmen blocks would try to cover each other's flanks. The position showed on diagram was probably the only one to achieve this. Therefore, I deployed my combat units across: should they come to me, only one unit could make it between the house and impassable terrain and that could get tag-teamed easily; should they stay, I needed to be near to reach them.
At the same time, I did not want to engage as long as there were skinks in the way as they could ruin a combined charge badly. This was the reason to place my infantry further back instead of on the 12 inches line.
As you can see, my western bolt thrower was quite exposed. I should have probably placed something between the hill and the table edge to protect it better.
Western dark riders forfeited their vanguard: they retained the possibility to charge on turn 1 instead and there was no pressing job they would have to accomplish.
The PoS master partly restricted scouts from going behind my lines, partly tried to scare off terradons.

Lost Colony, Turn 1

Image

Dark riders used the option to charge some chameleon skinks. Other units tried to cover as much space as possible to restrict the movement of skinks. Spearmen advanced to get my sorceresses in range for some nice casting. The remaining infantry shuffled cautiously forwards, not wanting to engage to early.
In magic I got through a blizzard on the slann's unit in expectation of many panic tests. Not much else happened; I think there was a dispelled comet involved.
Then a rather successful shooting phase came. Terradons suffered three wounds (one and half models) and panicked, some skinks died as well.
Dark riders lost one to stand and shoot and then killed four skinks for no casualty in return. Their enemy broke but they stopped their pursuit in front of the forest while skinks continued behind the saurus warriors.

Lizardmen, Turn 1

Image

Three units of skinks decided to use dark riders instead of practice targets. Fourth one hid behind a hill. A skink chief on terradon flew over my BSB and threw a rock on him but did not wound. Chameleon skinks moved in the open to shoot at the nearest bolt thrower while the scar-veteran covered they flight. Last but not least, the skink chief with egg of quango flew right in front of my unit of executioners.
Winds of magic allowed one of the skink priests to summon a comet in front of my battleline. He gathered more power than he could handle, though, and a miscast caused him to forget the spell and drained all remaining dice from the pool.
Shooting killed two dark riders from one unit and all from the other. Besides, the western bolt thrower was destroyed.

Lost Colony, Turn 2


Image

BSB decided not to care about some lousy saurus hero and chased the chameleon skinks off board, exposing himself to countercharge. PoS master charged another unit of skinks who fled: while the dreadlord would almost surely catch them I wanted my opponent to roll some panic checks. He passed all of them but I tried. Subsequently, dark riders chased them further away.
Then I tried to flee from the comet. Executioners were still able to get in position to support my BSB but witches had to go away from the enemy. The other executioner unit backed off to give my eastern bolt thrower a clear shot. Harpies and dreadlord flew forwards as they wanted to chase skinks from another angle than the rest of my army.
In the magic phase, the comet landed and hurt nothing as it only had a radius of 7 inches or so. Then I managed to cast a cheat lightning™: it started on Skinks 3 and hopped clockwise to all the units in vicinity. It killed the remaining chameleon skinks outright and severely depleted skinks 2; otherwise the results were not that spectacular. Still quite a success.
My shooters managed to down the egg of quango skink chief and probably some other skinks as well.

Lizardmen, Turn 2

Image

The scar-veteran charged my BSB.
Some skinks tried to shoot at harpies, others at dark riders. The remaining chief threatened my bolt thrower. Temple guard reformed so that my dreadlord was unable to flank charge his slann and saurus warriors advanced to protect the guard's flank. Terradon riders, having rallied the turn before, flew forwards to threaten my backfield once more; in the process they managed to wound my PoS master once with a thrown rock.
Shooting only killed one harpy and magic did little, too. I saved some dispel dice by letting a spirit leach on my dreadlord through.
The combat between my BSB and saurus hero was tied as each combatant wounded his adversary once.

Lost Colony, Turn 3


Image

Executioners were sent to support my BSB. Harpies spotted a vulnerable skink priest and flank charged the saurus warriors in a suicide mission.
Spearmen left the house again as they were in a reasonable charge range from the saurus. Witches and execs closed to the enemy cautiously and the other units tried to deny options for skinks and terradons. Notable are dark riders who could have charged the skinks right in front of them but would be in great danger afterwards.
Magic did little (sorceresses had a bad forwards arc this turn and my opponent used his scroll as this was his last opportunity to do so) but shooting destroyed the remaining terradons as well as the skink chief.
What is more, combat saw no wounds but the impressive flag of my BSB and chearing of his new fans caused the opposing hero to lose his nerve. The pegasus hero ran him down, executioners reformed. I think it would have been probably better to pursue with them as well, though, as it would have helped to encircle the saurus warriors.
In the other combat, harpies killed the skink priest. Three of them died, then, but the last one stuck.

Lizardmen, Turn 3


Image

The cold bloods were running out of units capable of crazy shenanigans. One unit of skinks hid behind impassable terrain and remained there for the rest of the game. The other tried to shoot at BSB without success.
The slann had sufficient supply of magic missiles to destroy the remaining unit of dark riders, though. The last harpy was killed in combat. Pity, a pursuit (that is mandatory for saurus not joined by any skink) could have led the warrior unit out of position.

Lost Colony, Turn 4


Image

Now was a time to prepare some nice multicharge. I decided that the temple guard was probably too tough to defeat and so I wanted to destroy the saurus and to keep temple guard out of the equation. To this end, I moved executioners and witches up, hopped BSB to them and swift reformed spearmen to go around the house. Dreadlord went to the side so that he could charge the saurus without landing in the forest (though it would have been probably better to do a normal ground move of 8 inches right to their back – but he would have still needed to make that DT test should he have tried to charge temple guard after all).
I am not sure about my intentions with the PoS master, though. He could have assumed a nice position in the back of the temple guard.
Magic was unimportant, shooting killed some lizards.

Lizardmen, Turn 4

Image

Skinks shot two execs. Temple guard backed off a bit to make flank charges more difficult to pull off; I think the warriors actually backed away as well.
This time, the unit of shades was destroyed with magic.

Lost Colony, Turn 5


Image

Dreadlord charged saurus. Thanks to this, they were pinned in place and could have neither retreated nor charged any of my units separately.
All my units closed to the two blocks, BSB joined spearmen in the process. Executioners reformed to three wide as there were only eight of them remaining and more were likely to fall before finally engaging. It was not possible for the TG to charge in the south-eastern direction as it could not squeeze in the gap between house and impassable terrain.
My dreadlord killed the saurus champion with glorious overkill but the unit held on steadfast.

Lizardmen, Turn 5

Image

My opponent reached for desperate measures and reformed his temple guard to a really long line, two wide. This way I was unable to charge his saurus with anything.
The combined might of shooting and magic destroyed my western executioners.
More importantly, dreadlord killed a skink priest in challenge but lost combat anyway (three wounds versus banner + two ranks means losing on musician). He broke and was run down. I should breed swifter mounts, it seems.

Lost Colony, Turn 6


Image

Glorious last turn charge! PoS master drank his potion and aligned to the slann, spearmen and executioners both made it to the side of temple guard, witches to the front.
I had a very nice magic phase. I got off wildform on witch elves and probably curse of anraheir on the lizards. Blizzard got dispelled.
Many lizards died, the slann lost three wounds but the unit held on stubborn.

Lizardmen, Turn 6


They were stubborn and did not run. :(
Due to shrinking numbers of the enemy I was not able to attack with everyone: for example, my PoS master got released from combat the turn before.
One interesting thing was that my opponent cast earthblood on his unit. It helped only against a few spearmen attacks, with witches being flaming, but it healed the slann a bit at least.

In tourney scoring I would have achieved a narrow 11:9 win.


After battle thoughts:

This time I am more or less pleased with myself as I do not see any major mistakes. One could find many smaller things that could have been better, though.
This matchup was quite hard for the lizardmen. Dark elves in general have lots of shooting – get enough arrows in the air and even skirmishers are going to fall – and with all the fast stuff at our disposal we can clear their skink clouds very fast. And it would have been even faster if I had two units of warlocks like any proper power player as doombolt is deadly here.
I was surprised how well the fight against temple guard went. Of course, they were not in an ideal formation and I had a good magic phase but still, there were some six of them remaining after two combat phases. I should have not feared them that much, they are tough but beatable.
It would have probably been better to launch the assault on turn 5 instead of the last one as it would have given me two more combat phases to finish the job. I should have tried to keep my units far closer to the big blocks probably: in this game when I decided to rush for the kill on turn 4 but needed two turns to set it up. I should have moved the PoS master towards the enemy one turn earlier, too.
Another thing that would have helped would have been to walk the dreadlord right behind the saurus block as I have mentioned. This way he would stall their retreat without risking his life in combat and he could have attacked the temple guard if needed. A dangerous terrain test is actually not that bad as the dreadlord would have only suffered one wound at maximum this way. He would have survived the game provided he would have only fought enemies from the flank or rear.
Leaving the house with spearmen might have not been needed. The saurus would have won but I would have been steadfast and even if I would have been broken (possible on Ld9 without reroll) I would have had enough time for rallying. And the saurus would then have been open to retaliation. I am not sure if I could have really positioned my units to a nice countercharge – if the lizards would have stayed outside the house they would have been quite far from my troops – but it is worth considering as an option.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Amboadine »

Thanks for taking the time to write up the report. Congratulations on the win. I think your analysis is fair. An early combo charge may have won you the game by a bigger margin, but the cautious approach you took allowed you to keep a fair number of units intact.
The list like any triad peg list appeals to me and the only thing I might change, other than the aforementioned Warlocks, would be to swap the spears for shards. Although if I was running warlocks I would drop the second caster.
I have never played against a skink full Lizardmen army, so you have given me some food for thought when that inevitable day comes.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Rowena »

Alas, darkshards are also something we don't have models for. :( We're working on it and I even have most of the bits already, but dark riders and warlocks have priority at the moment.

(Also, thank you for writing this up. :) )
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

@ Amboadine: Thank you for commenting! I have considered swapping the lvl2 for warlocks, too. Soulblight has a very similar effect to wildform, after all. Lore of beasts has some nice spells that are fun if they work, though (making everything dangerous terrain, for example; and turning your cute sorceress into a mountain chimera which retains ASF and MP could be fun in some cases), so I am enjoying this combination while it lasts. :)

Swapping spearmen for crossbows could prove problematic. You know, I do not expect my spearmen to do anything. If they do like in the LM game it is a nice bonus (a bonus which I am trying to receive as often as possible but still not something they are expected to do every time). With crossbowelves I might be inclined to think they have to shoot something and so I cannot place them behind houses or at the table edge. It might lead me to expose them to danger.
Of course, a good player is able to balance such risks and benefits and crossbows would almost surely be a stronger choice, indeed. Just some thoughts.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by LordAK »

Love this batrep. That final move by the lizardmen was really unexpected, but it worked for units like the Temple Guards.
Congrats for the win.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Thraundil »

That last move by the lizardmen was incredibly dangerous... Sure, he is stubborn, but the fact his Slann didnt die from all the wounds you would be able to pump out... Also, that moment when a dreadlord flees from combat because of darned combat resolution is just so sad to behold :P in my opinion, seeing as your BSB was not really in danger, you should have kept him close to the dreadlord to give him rerolls; ranks just mess up solocharacters hard.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

Thank you for comments!

@ LordAK: Yes, I was expecting a routine cleanup phase and suddenly the juiciest target of all presents itself in this manner. :D The game was worth it just for this manoeuvre only. :)

@ Thraundil: You are right. I should have let the PoS master join my warriors instead of the BSB (some pegasus needs to be here to protect sorceresses) and sent the BSB north. I think of the BSB as the hero that should always stay closest to the infantry force while the other two hunt god knows where and this is the result.

I am not sure the lizardmen reform was that dangerous, though. I was quickly losing on attacks as the unit was shrinking. For example, the PoS master could not attack in the last round of combat anymore; and I think his pegasus did not get to strike even in the round he charged as the witches in front reduced the number of temple guards significantly. The slann can survive many attacks with five wounds and 4++ ward. I think it was indeed a huge gamble but rather because of the many points he could have lost than because of the probability of this actually happening.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

Lost Colony vs. Warriors of Chaos (ETC)

I have just returned from a little practice game. My opponent is brand new to fantasy, this was his third battle ever (but he is quite experienced in 40k); therefore this was the first occasion ever where my opponent was even slower than me. :D No surprise we did not got past the third turn; this is one reason why I do not provide diagrams (the other is I forgot to take pictures :oops: ).

Lost Colony:


Dreadlord, pegasus, ogre blade, cloak of twilight, dragonhelm: 301
Supreme sorceress, lvl 4 heavens, obsidian lodestone: 265

Master, pegasus, sword of might, dragonbane gem, potion of strength: 177
Master BSB, pegasus, great weapon, 4++ talisman, charmed shield: 211
Sorceress level 2, dispel scroll: 140

2x 5 dark riders, shields, crossbows, musician, champion: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, ahw: 90

As before.


Warriors of Chaos:


Chaos Lord on disc, mark of Tzeentch, 3++ crown of command, some weapon most probably
BSB, demonic mount, mark of tzeentch, 4++ ward, great weapon
Sorcerer, lvl 2 tzeentch, dispel scroll

2x 5 marauder horsemen, flails, javelins
2x 5 dogs, vanguard
3x chariot, mark of Slaanesh

4 skullcrushers, full command, ensorcelled weapons
8 trolls
Hellcannon

So it is fast, dangerous in combat and nearly immune to panic tests. The downside of this army is that it only has leadership 9 general (as all chaos armies) and only two levels of magic. Not that it really needs high leadership when everything is stupid, frenzied or Slaanesh marked.

Spells: for me, it was wildform, amber spear, blizzard, harmonic convergence, comet and curse of the midnight wind.
For my opponent, glean magic and infernal gateway.

Deployment

I chose a nice hill, placed two bolt throwers on its top and a third one in vicinity and put the sorceress bunker in vicinity for some nice boost from harmonic convergence. Witches and one executioner unit paired to tag team trolls hopefully (with the help of some pegasus heroes that can arrive quickly).
Others were scattered around the deployment zone to provide some support.
The enemy put his troll unit in the centre, joined by sorcerer and BSB. Skullcrushers managed to position themselves across my sorceress bunker (but at least there were some impassable terrains in the way so they could have not run at me at full speed). Chariots were evenly spread around the table and together their threat range was quite good.

I managed to get first turn!

Lost Colony, Turn 1

My BSB and dreadlord walked forwards and stayed just at the edge of enemy's charge ranges. Executioners advanced, too, and together the three protected my bunker with a nice variety of countercharges. Then I sent my PoS master to chase one of the chariots. Otherwise I remained relatively static.
I was able to get through a comet. Near the trolls, near one chariot, in possible range from hellcannon.
I was able to shoot down one unit of dogs and some marauders. Bolt throwers did not do much but I think they left one of the chariots – the one near comet epicentre as this was the only one accessible - on only one wound.

Warriors of Chaos, Turn 1

Everything advanced forwards at full speeds. What a surprise. The only exceptions were trolls who failed their stupidity test and the remaining dogs who retreated in reserve.
Both units of marauder horsemen were able to charge my dark riders. I shot down two from one unit, leaving it on one man, and fled from the other. The former was then able to reach me, though. Stupid me.
The sorcerer was unable to cast due to stupidity but my comet landed. I rolled a nice ten inches for its range and so the chariot vanished as did the remaining dogs and, hellcannon was wounded and one troll suffered a scratch, too.
In the shooting phase, hellcannon misfired and ate all dwarfs.

Lost Colony, Turn 2

Noticing that time is running out quickly I decided to throw caution away and charged the skullcrushers with BSB, dreadlord and executioners. Otherwise I did not do much.
I managed to cast wildform on my dreadlord. My lvl4 failed to cast or something.
Skullcrusher champion challenged, my BSB accepted but neither of them caused a wound. Dreadlord killed two crushers singlehandedly (I love CoT) but the execs were only able to inflict two wounds from eight attacks which meant the last crusher survived and got to attack. Together, four executioners died, the crushers lose by five but held as the general was near.

Warriors of Chaos, Turn 2

Chariot charged executioners, chaos lord my general. Ouch! Hellcannon passed its rampage test on Ld4.
Trolls were this time thinking clearly and got dangerously close to my positions.
Magic did nothing: I used my scroll at infernal gateway targeting witches (yes, we were this much out of time) and then found out glean magic was not a threat actually as my mages were out of range.
Four executioners died to impact hits, the remaining two did nothing and perished. BSB with skullcrusher champion did nothing again and so my BSB broke from combat.
The dreadlord (who was outside of this combat as he killed too many enemies and could not shuffle sideways due to intervening executioners) fared better, though. Despite he was hitting on fours (chaos lord has WS 8 ), the reroll saved him and he inflicted enough wounds to kill his foe outright.

Lost Colony, Turn 3

This had to be the last turn. My dreadlord charged the remaining skullcrushers, killed the champion with a ton of overkill and the standard bearer broke and died. And just for fun, I attacked the big unit of trolls with witches and executioners, knowing I would not win but curious by what margin. I also sent my PoS master but he failed to roll the 8 needed.
In magic, I got through curse of the midnight wind on the troll unit. Other things were dispelled with the help of scroll.
My bolt throwers brought a chariot to one wound.
In the combat, witches caused eight wounds, executioners another three (they only hit three times out of ten on 3+ - but I had some overaverage rolls that game as well). Then, after the attacks of remaining trolls and both heroes and their mounts, only four executioners were standing who fled.

And this is where we had to call it.

After-battle thoughts:

The troll unit is really nasty. 24 wounds with regen and T4 means shooting it is painfully slow. They are very capable in combat both against numerous troops and heroes (each one of them can exchange all of his attack for one vomit attack that automatically hits and ignores armour saves) and this prowess is boosted even higher with the presence of characters. I would need to send in so many troops that the return attacks from trolls lose significance. This is possible of course but not that easy.
I really like the selection of spells I have at my disposal. It allows me to cast with few dice knowing that something has to go through. I have many nice combat buffs as well as ranged threats among my six levels of magic. I should just take care what spells do I get through. In this game I forgot both wildform in the dreadlord vs. crushers fight and curse of the midnight wind when fighting the trolls. I am not sure but it could have made a difference, for example by inflicting one more wound on the crushers.
I got really lucky when I killed the chaos lord. OTS would have made a very big difference but where to find the points?
I am a bit nervous that I suddenly have far less chaff than I am used to. I miss my dual medusas in this regard. :) I only have dark riders and harpies and then I am forced to place infantry or bolt throwers. Too many points in heroes. Maybe I could use shades as another drop? Sometimes I do not need them to scout that much. This game was an example.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Amboadine »

Thanks again for the write up. Troll units can be a pain, generally why I will put the flame banner on shards, knock off regen and follow up with the reapers.
I think the chaff situation will change once you get some warlocks. The only other suggestion for more drops would be to split the spears, or look to get a couple of smaller units of witches or corsairs in there instead, both however require different models you may not have as yet.
I like the shades as scouts in general but if your opponent has no way to prevent your vanguard moves then as another drop is definitely an option.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

Lost Colony vs. Dark Elves (ETC)

This one was my first match using Universal Battles. While this tool is very good for finding an opponent just when you have the time and testing your list against a great variety of foes (though no one can guarantee you get to play an opponent of your level) I think I was a bit more careless than usual: first, exact measuring can be a real pain, and second, no real models are going to die so why bother?
I forgot to make screenshots so only a written summary.


Lost Colony:


Dreadlord, pegasus, ogre blade, cloak of twilight, dragonhelm: 301
Supreme sorceress, lvl 4 heavens, obsidian lodestone: 265

Master, pegasus, sword of might, dragonbane gem, potion of strength: 177
Master BSB, pegasus, great weapon, 4++ talisman, charmed shield: 211
Sorceress level 2, dispel scroll: 140

2x 5 dark riders, shields, crossbows, musician, champion: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, ahw: 90

I am thinking about squeezing TOTS somewhere in the list but am not yet decided if it is worth it.


Dark elves:

Lvl 4 beasts, ring of hotek, 5++ talisman

Lvl 2 metal, dispel scroll
BSB on dark pegasus, cloak of twilight, lance
Master on dark pegasus, talisman of preservation, charmed shield, lance

20 black arc corsairs, FCG
2x 5 dark riders
10 crossbowmen, banner of eternal flame

4x RBT
25 black guards, FCG, razor banner
2x 5 warlocks

Quite an unusual army here. I would not expect a beast supreme sorceress with only two fighting heroes (though buffing a sorc at the right moment can save you game, of course). Neither corsairs nor black guard are staple choices, either. I would be quite interested what this army does against a larger variety of foes.
For this particular matchup, I was worried about the bolt throwers singleshotting my heroes or devastating the foot units. Similarly, doombolts can really hurt. What is more, I am not sure if there is a combination of units in my army that can defeat the black guard. Witches to one flank and a hero to the other, I suppose – but they are stubborn, reroll to hit every time and leave the pegasus heroes only with a 3+ armour and so it is quite likely I would suffer a couple of wounds even when attacking their flank. And they are stubborn.
On the other hand, a medium block of corsairs should be relatively easy prey for my heroes, there was not that much cavalry or shooting and the big block could probably have been avoided.
More importantly, while my opponent's heroes were only strong on the charge, attacking only with S4 after that, neither of mine is bound to that. This was a good advantage for the inevitable mutual chasing.

The plan was to first take care of dark riders and warlocks (and possibly crossbowmen as well); then the bolt throwers if possible; and then consider a final charge. Heroes had to hide from single shots while threatening with countercharges if possible.

Deployment went relatively nicely: I had my bolt throwers in a nice cluster so that three of them could benefit from harmonic convergence, and everything else was deep in my deployment zone, mostly hidden behind a hill or at least a forest. Both big blocks of my enemy were put to the far flank; therefore he needed several turns to get them in action and I was out of range of some of his spells (amber spear most notably).


Notable things from the game:

The first turns were not ideal to put it mildly. I was probably too aggressive with my riders – I hoped I could sneak to the bolt throwers quickly. Sadly, one unit was completely cleared by a single salvo of crossbowmen (20 shots, 11 hits, two of them allocated to an accompanying master, the nine remaining killed five riders, oh well), the other by a flanking singleshot. Meanwhile I was unable to scratch the warlocks – in the first round, only one fell. Yes, the unit was behind a wall but still my opponent passed far more ward saves than he should have.

My PoS master found out he was alone almost in the backfield as his escort was shot down unexpectedly quickly. He defeated and ran down the crossbowmen and then got shot down by bolt throwers.

My opponent's metal sorceress had plague of rust. I have mostly let it through in fear of worse spells like amber spear or savage beast of horrors but this meant my BSB's armour save got worse by two during the game. This begins to be significant as later when fighting S3 corsairs I was only saving on 4+.
Savage beast of horrors is quite interesting as well. The mere threat of it means many other things go through.

After failing a frenzy check my witches were charged in the flank by his BSB. They were very lucky though and sneaked two wounds through his armour before they were defeated. The hero was then hiding the remainder of the game; sadly, he was still able to provide rerolls while doing so.

My opponent advanced with corsairs in the front (with both masters in them initially) and black guard behind. I once managed to cast curse of anraheir on the corsairs. It was too late, he just reformed them, let the black guard go around them and it did not slow him much; still, making a blocking unit unable to march was nice.

His wounded BSB fled from mine who then redirected into corsairs. My hero then remained there safely for several turns. The unit was always steadfast and did not run but BSB survived.
After the flight of his battle standard bearer I spotted a chance and prepared my dreadlord to charge him next turn in which he was only able to rally. He was then forced to reform his corsairs so that the dreadlord could have not landed; this prevented them from doing anything for the remainder of the game. I charged their flank then with my BSB but even if I did not they were badly out of position.

In turn four or so I moved my spearmen out into the open hoping to set up a combined charge on black guard. The opposing bolt throwers quickly explained to me this was not going to happen as they reduced the unit to laughable size in no time.

For a time I was using harpies as meat shields, providing hard cover for my unit of executioners and partly spearmen as well. Then the harpies were flank charged by some dark riders, though. A result of my inattentiveness (I have completely forgotten about the unit hiding behind a hill) but it paid off as I subsequently countercharged with executioners and cut the unit to pieces; the harpies even survived. Sadly, one dark rider got away in a successful flight. Executioners failed to restrain.

Then I found out that spearmen were reduced to unusable state, executioners out of position in the open where bolt throwers could easily pick them off and other units mostly destroyed while my enemy's unwounded hero threatened my backlines. Therefore, I moved both sorceresses into the intact executioners and used spearmen to lead away the black guard should it try to get to my wizards.

As a side result, the executioner unit, together with two expensive squishies, was in an easy charge distance for his backfield hero. He decided not to risk, however, and destroyed some bolt throwers instead.

In a last attempt to save the game I charged his blackguard: in the flank by dreadlord, bringing him in base contact with his lvl 4 general, and with spearmen to the front. I had to send the poor spears as otherwise the dreadlord would have been challenged by the champion and then the lvl 2, preventing me from collecting any meaningful points; this way, it was the lvl4 who challenged (not sure why actually – my opponent probably thought that she was dead anyway and wanted to save a few black guards from my dreadlord's wrath). In the end, he only killed her in the second round as he had no rerolls and she got somewhat lucky with 5++ wards. The spearmen got predictably butchered.

In the end I only had some 20 models on the table but they were still holding some 1000 points. Thanks to the dead sorceress (worth 400 points swing or so as she was a general as well), I only lost 8:12. This was far better than I have expected.

A honorary title of the sneakiest model on the battlefield belongs to a last warlock who hid behind a hill after his unit was destroyed but then, after some of my bolt throwers fell, was still able to blast good fifteen elves with two doombolts while staying out of sight of my remaining artillery.


After battle thoughts:

I have already mentioned that I have probably exposed my fast units too much. I have adopted the habit to keep harpies in reserve until they are needed but I am somehow convinced that dark riders are insanely cool and can handle anything. While in reality, they are without doubt insanely cool but not that much. The proper strategy was probably:

Phase 1: stay in cover, kill opposing dark riders and warlocks (or chase them away at least)
Phase 2: send all fast units after the bolt throwers and hope some of them make it
Phase 3: think about defeating the black guard somehow

Or maybe I could have ignored the bolt throwers completely and stayed in cover the whole time. This would have been risky and my manoeuvring would have been limited but I am worried even an assault by the PoS master, two dark rider units and harpies could have been shot to pieces in the one round they would had to be in short range and outside cover. Sure, sometimes you can partially hide behind terrain or something but sometimes you cannot. This is something I will have to think about more as it is likely I will face bolt throwers often.

The black guard is a surprisingly difficult enemy as well. If my numbers are correct witch elves to the flank are only going to kill three or four of them per phase, executioners a similar number, while suffering two or three casualties in return. Now I understand how the lesser races feel when their enemy has rerolls and they do not. (Which also shows nicely how powerful hatred is – I should remember that next time an Empire priest tries to grant it to his unit.)

Overall, I made several mistakes and was punished for them. Good think I was playing as a “GuestSomeNumber” and remained in anonymity.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Amboadine »

Interesting write up thanks. How do you find UB? I think about signing up, but never gotten around to it as yet.
I think you have covered your issue fairly well. Always good to remember that as good as Dark riders are, they are not invulnerable :)
I don't think you could afford to ignore the RBTs. They are going to cause our lightly armoured models problems and need to be swiftly dealt with. Really you need to be hitting them turn 2, or 3 at the latest.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

Good thing to know you are reading all the walls of text! :)

Destroying RBTs: leaving them alive is very costly of course. It can happen that assaulting them would be even worse but the decision to leave them be should be not taken easily. I was just thinking. When you only have one unit of riders and one unit of harpies left, is is almost impossible to reach them. Maybe if you add a hero or two but risking a single shot is nothing I would like.

Universal Battles: I am not sure that after one battle I am the right guy to judge it. :)

+ you can (it seems) find an opponent relatively easily
+ you can play someone from a fully different meta and thus learn about new tricks and combos
+ you are not restricted by the models do you have
+ the battle is easy to set up: you do not need to travel in some club or to your friend's place, you do not have to make sure there is a large enough table available and so on
- the battle takes even longer than a regular one
- you are staring into the computer screen all the time
- the models in UB are cute but the real ones are cuter
- exact measuring is be a pain (though this might get easier with experience) and so playing with milimetre precision could be difficult.

So my recommendation would be:
- if the people you know do not give you enough battles or enough challenge, use UB.
- if you often want to try out some army or army list you cannot build from your models, use UB
- otherwise, a "real life" battle is probably better

The good thing is you can play without registration. It just takes longer to set up your army. You can come by when you have a free afternoon and see for yourself.

As a final remark I should add that most often opponents are sought for ETC matches (from what I have seen).
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 22.4. Lizardmen (ETC)

Post by Amboadine »

Cheers, helpful to have a quick insight. Boils down to time really, and whether I can commit.
Will definitely take a proper look however.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 15.5. TK + battle of the pass

Post by Marchosias »

Lost Colony vs. Tomb Kings (ETC + battle of the pass)

This game took place some three weeks ago, right after my battle against lizardmen, on the same table. It was only my laziness that prevented me from posting this sooner – but better late than never.

We played ETC armies as I wanted to get to know my list as much as possible. My opponent then suggested playing this particular scenario to make the game a bit more unusual and I had no reason to object. It basically only meant that we deployed on the shorter sides of the table.


Lost Colony:


Dreadlord, pegasus, ogre blade, cloak of twilight, dragonhelm: 301
Supreme sorceress, lvl 4 heavens, obsidian lodestone: 265

Master, pegasus, sword of might, dragonbane gem, potion of strength: 177
Master BSB, pegasus, great weapon, 4++ talisman, charmed shield: 211
Sorceress level 2, dispel scroll: 140

2x 5 dark riders, shields, crossbows, musician, champion: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, ahw: 90


Tomb Kings:

Hierophant, lvl 4 nehekara
Tomb King

Necrotect
Tomb herald BSB
Lvl 2 light mage

A horde of skeleton warriors
20 skeleton archers
6 chariots

20 tomb guards
3 ushabti warriors, ahw
Warsphinx, fiery breath

Screaming skull catapult, skulls of the foe
Casket of souls
hierotitan


Seeing this, I almost felt bad. My opponent was a nice guy who just likes the look of his models and plays for the fun while I brought the nastiest combo I was able to.
This is not to say his list cannot bite. The skeleton horde is very dangerous – as long as all characters are alive, they strike with hatred and WS6 and the characters themselves have some strong attacks as well. Tomb guards are solid fighters, too, and killing the sphinx takes some time. But with all the mobility I possessed, with the many units I could have used to block and combo charge I think he was fighting an uphill battle.
Therefore I tried not to play completely nasty – though it was difficult and I am not sure how much I succeeded. I could have deployed everything as far back as possible, rained comets on him and let my heroes wreak havoc but such a game would have been boring.


Deployment

Image

The first unit deployed was his block of skeletons, because as he said, “the main unit has to go through the centre”. I have placed everything on the northern flank to avoid this big block, knowing the impassable terrain would help in this regard. Dreadlord + BSB were prepared to take care of chariots. Witches with their flaming banner are a good counter to tomb guard so they went there, too; this meant I had to come with some other means to handle the warsphinx. I have placed harpies as far forwards as possible to fly towards the casket.

I do not remember our spells. Notable were timewarp and speed of light on the light wizard, 5+ ward, +1 attack on hierophant, savage beast of horrors on my small sorceress.


Tomb Kings, Turn 1


Image

Everything raced forwards at full speed – which means it barely moved at all. Neither shooting nor magic was of much consequence.


Lost Colony, Turn 1

Image

Dreadlord + BSB moved to intercept the chariots. The BSB was in a reasonable charge range of the skeleton block, though, so I had to screen her with my dark riders.
Harpies had nowhere to land safely and so they backed off a bit, staying in reserve. Witch elves went forwards (not shown in diagram, my apologies), ready to intercept the tomb guard; executioners prepared to support them. PoS master flew right in front of the ushabti, confident he would hack them down easily without suffering any damage from their S4 attacks. Spearmen advanced to bring my sorceresses in range but I do not remember what was actually cast apart from an insignificant comet.
Shades decided they hated the catapult even more than the casket so they ran for it.
Shooting wounded the hierotitan slightly.


Tomb Kings, Turn 2

Image

The undead pushed. First, the skeleton warriors charged my dark riders who fled according to plan. Then the warsphinx chased one unit further away. Chariots found out they were close enough to assault a RBT but luckily did not manage to cross the distance (otherwise they would have escaped me). Finally, ushabti warriors took the bait and attacked my master.
In magic my opponent managed to cast a timewarp on his tomb guard and 5++ ward on the ushabti.
Then a very successful shooting phase came. First, five witches were shot down. Then a catapult shot scattered from the witches right in the middle of the nearer executioners, killed two and panicked the unit. They fled through harpies who lost their nerve as well and left the field.
In combat, my master wounded the ushabti only once as two wounds were saved by the 5++ ward.


Lost Colony, Turn 2

Image

Dreadlord and BSB charged the chariots and turned them to dust (it is not clear from the diagram if there was enough space for my BSB to land but it did work). I did not fancy charging the timewarped tomb guard, though, so I sent executioners forwards as a bait and prepared witches for a flank charge next turn. Or that was the plan at least, sadly I angled them wrongly.
Shades made short work with the catapult and overran, getting closer to more action.
Executioners rallied, dark riders not.
Spearmed shuffled backwards in case the tomb guard would have defeated my execs and overrun.
Not much of importance in magic and shooting. I picked a few wounds from the warsphinx and hexed the tomb guard.
My PoS master scored three hits, three wounds, two were saved by a 5++ ward.


Tomb Kings, Turn 3

Image

Tomb guard successfully charged my executioners who held. The hierotitan found out there was a possible charge to the witch elves flank and decided to go for it (my mistake, I did not consider this was an option – I should have angled the witches properly).
The warsphinx turned to face my BSB, skeletons advanced further.
In the magic phase, the light sorcerer cast an irresistible speed of light on his bodyguards. He then left the battlefield for a trip in the realms of chaos and as a last sign of love caused a big detonation after which only some eight tomb guards and two executioners were left standing. 5++ ward was renewed on ushabti, bringing the dead model back to life with one wound.
Tomb guard easily finished the remaining executioners. The one witch elf who could have struck wounded the hierotitan once more but it remained functional and stomped the girls to dirt. My master sent the freshly reanimated ushabti back to the ground but no other wounds were inflicted.


Lost Colony, Turn 3


Image

First, I sent the recently rallied executioners against the hierotitan. I only needed to cause one more wound so was quite confident.
Next, my BSB attacked the warsphinx. I was thinking: I do nothing to him, he does nothing to me, I win by banner, he crumbles slowly. Too bad that animated constructs crumble one wound less than the difference in combat results and a nearby BSB substracts one more wound from the crumble. Therefore, the two remained locked down for quite a long time.
Most importantly, I had to think about what to do with my spearmen bunker. The skeleton horde was quite near and while I could have backed off again there was a chance they would have crossed the distance. Therefore, I decided to charge the tomb guard instead. It was risky, sure – two squishy wizards against S5 KB with WS 10 I 10– but there were only a few of the undead left so I hoped it will work out somehow.
Dreadlord and shades raced to casket and hierophant.
Shooting had little importance. The buffed up tomb guard proved to be a hard foe, I barely won combat and lost my small sorceress but almost no undead were remaining. Hierotitan got smashed and executioners overran. PoS master did nothing to the ushabti.
I hoped to buff a sorceress with savage beast of horrors this turn but sadly it did not work. Turning a cute sorceress in a combat monster would have been hilarious.


Tomb Kings, Turn 4

Image

My opponent had little options. I think he tried to charge a bolt thrower with the skeleton block but failed. He then renewed the 5++ ward of immortality on his ushabti.
Tomb guard, now without buffs, was wiped out easily. Master did one wound to the constructs, negating the healing effect of the spell that had targeted them before.


Lost Colony, Turn 4

Image

Executioners charged the ushabti, dreadlord and spearmen the skeleton archers (my sorceress was still on full three wounds and there were only three archers in contact with her, this seems quite safe to me).
For the first time I concentrated shooting on the skeleton warriors and was surprised how quickly they fall. I think I killed ten, maybe even more.
Skeleton archers died, hierophant died (four attacks with cloak of twilight was quite an overkill), ushabti finally died.

Here we had to end the game as it was getting late. It could have been quite a fight against the skeleton horde if it reformed to face my units but with the TK army crumbling, I think I should have been able to defeat them in a last turn charge.


After battle thoughts:

Those 5++ wards!!! It was insane how long the ushabti were tying my master. And he (with the pegasus) got at least two wounds through every phase. Most often more.
There was quite a lot going on which is always nice. For the whole game I was under the impression that I was quite pressed – harpies panicked turn 2, witches destroyed by the flank charge, sorceresses forced to charge a buffed tomb guard to avoid an even worse foe – and so I was very surprised when I found out I only lost some 500 points. This was the first time I noticed how much of a points denial I am able to pull off if my characters survive (this is even better to see in the game against dark elves but this one was played sooner).
The best counter to the sphinx is probably massed small arms fire. It does not take that many sixes to get it down. Witch elves are a good possibility, too, of course, as is a chillwind or flock of doom (though chillwind would probably be better used on archers). A hero should probably not be wasted on it if not necessary.
I was quite lucky when my opponent failed the chariot charge against bolt thrower. Had he succeeded it would have put me under a much bigger pressure.
What I have only realized later is that I can even let the chariots charge my heroes. If they only have one rank (this means if I destroy at least one chariot from the big unit) they have S4 impact hits – even if they inflict 12 of them (which is the maximum) only six should go through toughness and one through armour. Even S5 impact hits (inflicted if the chariots have two full ranks) are not a guaranteed disaster, just slightly risky.
I am almost convinced tomb kings can only be really strong as a defensive army with lots of shooting and magic. But Jimmy on ulthuan.net documented quite a lot of successes with different TK armies so maybe it is possible to make a close combat force work after all? Though granted, he plays in a different meta so his successes might mean nothing here.
And I really like how my spearmen escaped the skeletons. I will probably claim that this had been my plan all along.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 15.5. TK + battle of the pass

Post by Amboadine »

Nice write up, thank you again, ever enjoyable.
Points denial can definitely work well and at least you choose to give him a game on seeing the comparisons of the list.
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 15.5. TK + battle of the pass

Post by Jvh792 »

This is great! Thank you for taking the time to do this for everyone!
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 19.5. WoC (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

Lost Colony vs. Warriors of Chaos (ETC)

This is the same player as in the last WoC report; he tries to get in as many games as possible in preparation for a team tournament in June (where we will be in the same team – I still do not know how to explain it to my models that they will be allied with Chaos) so I was happy to give him a bit of practice. Besides, I really wanted to know if I could do something with his army.


Lost Colony:


Dreadlord, pegasus, ogre blade, cloak of twilight, dragonhelm: 301
Supreme sorceress, lvl 4 heavens, obsidian lodestone: 265

Master, pegasus, sword of might, dragonbane gem, potion of strength: 177
Master BSB, pegasus, great weapon, 4++ talisman, charmed shield: 211
Sorceress level 2, dispel scroll: 140

2x 5 dark riders, shields, crossbows, musician, champion: 2x 120
20 spearmen, FCG: 210
10 witch elves, FCG, banner of eternal flame: 150

4x bolt thrower: 4x 70
2x 10 executioners, musician: 2x 130
5 harpies: 75
5 shades, ahw: 90


Warriors of Chaos:


Demon prince, sword of striking, mark of Nurgle, general
Demon prince, mark of Nurgle

Chaos sorcerer, lvl 2 death, 5++ (?)
Exalted hero on juggernaut, BSB, 4++, mark of Khorne (?)

3x chariot of slaanesh
2x 5 warhounds
2x 5 marauder horsemen

8 Chaos trolls, ahw
5 skullcrushers, ensorcelled weapons


This is almost the army he is going to play but with some minor tweaks. Here he had no dispel scroll and the mark on sorcerer and BSB should have got unified to allow them joining the same unit, at least.
So, there was no ranged threat (apart from some spirit leach). At least I could have safely hung back and shot and magicked for a few first turns.

The demon princes were given almost no equipment (there were some little things like 2++ against fire but nothing major) but even then they had 5 attacks at S6, WS9, I8 (I think) and 5++ ward. And while they did not fly their base ground movement is 8. Combined with mark of Nurgle it meant that killing them in close combat was extremely hard (most elves are going to hit on 6s, executioners on 5s but after them, heroes on 5s). So my best chance was to hope for a lucky single shot.
On the other hand, I noticed that my dreadlord would have retained his rerolls at least (and my heroes against his). Hitting on 5s with reroll is not ideal but better than nothing.

Trolls are able to soak a lot of damage if their enemy possesses no flaming attacks. I had flaming witches but this meant I could have hardly thinned them down prior to engaging. This was not such a big deal as I needed to shoot so many other things as well but still, dropping some two of them would have made them far more manageable.

Then there was the skullcrusher unit. Five of them are a lot. It is a unit that should be first thinned down a bit and then engaged. I could have only sent my heroes as executioners attack at the same initiative as them and so would have suffered some casualties and witches or spearmen can hardly scratch their 1+ armour.

Chariots had to go down before they could have charged an infantry unit. Otherwise they are not that tough and if it is me who gets the charge they should die easily. Well, easily in the context of a Chaos army.

I had superiority in chaff, at least. The four chaff units could have hardly withstood fire from my dark riders and shades and I think harpies should be able to defeat dogs in combat anytime.

Spells:


Chaos sorcerer: spirit leach, doom and darkness
Lvl 4: blizzard, harmonic convergence, thunderbolt, chain lightning
Lvl 2: wildform, savage beast


Deployment


Image

There was one hill on the table, several impassable terrains and some ruins in the south east part of the table.

I needed as clear fire lines as possible for my bolt throwers so because of the hill I had to choose a flank; I decided to go east as the ruins could have harmed my opponent's units before they got to me. Dangerous terrain on 1 and 2 does not interest the trolls much but every wound counts. I was thus worried the placement of most of my points was going to be blatantly obvious (an alternative would have been to spread my bolt throwers evenly and put the infantry in the western corner).
In the end, my opponent weighted his western flank which suited me well.
I was not much worried about vanguards, confident that my chaff was going to defeat his before a bolt thrower gets attacked. I placed the shades far to the east to win that flank quickly; they were in the front rank of warhounds but not marauders. They would have easily defeated one unit should it decide to forfeit vanguard and charge first turn but two of them could have been too much. I was not overeager with vanguards, either; the chaff had to protect my bolt throwers, nothing more at this stage. (Double flee manoeuvers would have been difficult with so many chariots on board though it was probably a possibility, too.)

I finished deployment first and won the first turn.


Lost Colony, Turn 1

Image

On the eastern flank I spotted that dogs were close to the marauders but far from their general so I stood still with shades, moved dark riders closer and shot the horsemen down. Dogs panicked as expected and ran behind the impassable terrain.
Then my BSB spotted a safe place just in front of the other marauders. She could have been charged by them but who cares? And neither the chariot nor demon prince had enough space to get in the fight as well while other units did not see her. So she flew far forwards, hoping to get some interesting target soon (too bad I did not turn her to face east).
The remaining heroes advanced as far as possible while staying outside of all charge ranges.
Infantry shuffled a bit and dark riders shot and panicked the other unit of warhounds.
One bolt thrower got lucky with a single shot and scored three wounds on a chariot. The other three did little, just a wound on skullcrushers and maybe one on trolls.


Warriors of Chaos, Turn 1

Image

Eastern warhounds rallied as they were now inspired by their general. The western ones continued their flight and eventually left the board.
Everything advanced at (almost?) full speed, the chariots and demon princes turning to protect the flanks of the two big units. Everything managed to stay out of my BSB's front arc, rendering my cheeky move ineffectual.
The sorcerer just barely cast a spirit leach on my PoS master with a very low roll. I answered with snake eyes on dispel and subsequently rolled a “one” in the leadership contest; luckily, this was enough to avoid any wounds.


Lost Colony, Turn 2

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So both of the big Chaos units could have positioned themselves in their turn 2 for a turn 3 charge. I could have set up a trap for trolls but would have still needed to deal with crushers – not speaking about the nearing demon prince. So I decided to charge the skullcrushers with my two heroes (the master drank his potion). Risky without doubt; I am still not sure how much risky actually.
As I could have not count on breaking the crushers in one round I needed to delay trolls with harpies. (I have acttually broken the Worst Play document here: a charge of trolls against the peg master was impossible as it was a rear charge and harpies were blocking; a charge against harpies was impossible as the peg master was blocking; we decided that should the charge happen the harpies would have closed the door towards the trolls; this would have allowed an overrun into the pegasus master but only sorcerer would have been in contact which was fine by me. Or do you have another suggestion how to resolve this? And how to arrange the harpies?)
Infantry units prepared to meet the trolls. BSB flew in the enemy's back to hopefully charge something next turn at last. Shades panicked the remaining dogs away; eastern riders tempted the demon prince to a charge; western ones moved outside of the chariot's forward arc and shot at the marauder horsemen.
I had nice winds of magic. However, I failed to bring my beast sorceress in 12 inches of my dreadlord (only an inch or so was missing). This meant first, no savage beast of horrors (Which is very sad, just imagine seven attacks with S9 causing D3 wounds! Juicy.) I tried wildform on three dice but failed (I should have used four as rolling a “11” on three dice needs too much luck). Then I saw the only spell I really wanted was blizzard but first I had to draw dispel dice. So I cast a chain lightning with four dice on the demon prince… and miscast. Damn. Only three spearmen died from the result at least but it meant no magical help in the combat at all. The spell did nothing to the prince but finished off the wounded chariot at least.
Three bolt throwers aimed at the general and accomplished nothing (hard cover most of the time); the last one helped with clearing the marauders. I think at least. Only one of the horsemen was remaining at the end of the phase.
So, to combat without any buffs. His BSB challenged, my master accepted. He had rerolls to wound and strength 8 which was enough to kill the Chaos hero outright. Lucky me. Dreadlord caused five wounds together with his pegasus. Nice but the returning attacks killed him (I was slightly unlucky with my 3+ armour saves) and the skullcrushers still had a rank. They failed their steadfast, though, and my master ran them down. This was a really big relief.



Warriors of Chaos, Turn 2


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My opponent charged with everything he could have: The remaining marauder attacked my bolt thrower. More importantly, a demon prince charged the PoS master who had overran in his front arc just a while before and I fled (the empty blue square is the master's original position after overrun). Then the trolls charged my harpies who attempted a flee as well but were caught; this brought the trolls closer to my lines than if the flying girls had just stood their ground. And finally, the general took the bait and charged my dark riders who fled as well – and then found out that there was not enough room behind the shades for the unit and so it left the board. Well, things happen.
Both units of dogs ran out of the table. Chariots then shuffled to deny some options.
Magic failed to do anything and there was no shooting.
Out of all the charges, only the marauder got to his foe but was killed by the crew.


Lost Colony, Turn 3

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With trolls dragged close I decided to attack. I sent in witches and the western execs; I am not sure about the eastern ones as they were quite far away, needing some 10 or so to get in. And for good measure I added my BSB, too; here his great weapon would have been an asset as he would have struck on his initiative, after the flaming attacks, not caring about regeneration. Sadly, only witch elves and executioners made it while the BSB only stumbled forwards a bit.
There was not much going on otherwise. Pegasus master rallied, shades fired a few shots at the demon prince without effect, dark riders managed to sneak two wounds on the chariot. Bolt throwers were unsuccessfully sniping the demon prince. I cast a harmonic convergence, otherwise I have no idea – most likely it was contained somehow.
In combat I was very lucky as the witch elves alone scored fourteen flaming wounds. After executioner attacks only two trolls and an unwounded sorcerer were remaining; still, four witches and five execs were slain in retaliation. Nevertheless, the trolls lost by a ton, were not steadfast (only two were remaining and I had a rank anyway) and run. I pursued with both units and managed to catch them.
The sad thing was that despite my successes there were still enough enemies to roll over me in a terrible way.


Warriors of Chaos, Turn 3

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The chariot slammed in my BSB's back, but luckily did no wounds and suffered some in return. My master lost but held. He failed his combat reform, though.
A demon prince charged my PoS master and now I did not dare to retreat again as I did not want to leave the battlefield (I probably should have, I was still quite far from the table edge). The master got massacred as expected. He did not manage to wound the demon prince.
The remaining chariot hid behind a fence and the Chaos general decided to please his gods with his boldness and marched right between my troops.


Lost Colony, Turn 4

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Executioners backed off to make a charge less likely. Heavens sorceress left her bodyguard unit and went as far from the demon prince as possible, ensuring that she would not get caught in an overrun after a combat with executioners. Beast sorceress managed to run outside of the demon prince's forward arc.
The western executioners swift reformed and closed to the chariot in case my BSB would need their help. Witch elves backed a little.
Shooting brought down the demon prince general. Hurrah!
My BSB won combat this time but the chariot held. I reformed at least to face it.


Warriors of Chaos, Turn 4


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My opponent hat to go and so he only charged my witch elves and butchered them unsurprisingly. He suffered no wounds as he was only being hit on 6s.
I could have challenged and held him for one turn on steadfast but decided against it. This way, the demon prince was presented on the hill as a very nice target practice for my bolt throwers. We had no time to find out what would have happened but still.
The combat of BSB vs. chariot was still undecided. I was winning but very, very slowly.

In the end I scored some 1900 points and gave up some 1000 which was a nice 16:4 victory.


After battle thoughts:

This went surprisingly well. I think I was very lucky with having the first turn. It gave me the time to prepare the double pegasus charge. I deployed my master behind the hill so he would have been unable to charge if the Chaos won the first turn and advanced as aggressively as in the actual battle. A position next to the hill would have been probably better.
I am still unsure if this big charge of dreadlord + master was a good idea. I rather think it was – my opponent had no dispel scroll and only a lvl 2 which meant from blizzard, savage beast and wildform at least one spell should have gone through had I played it correctly. Each of them shifts the probability in my favour quite heavily. More importantly, I would have gained little by waiting one more turn. My BSB could maybe have joined the fight then but there were enough chariots and demon princes to scare her out of this.
I am quite convinced, however, that attacking the trolls was the right thing to do. Probably with the other executioners as well. Statistically, I should have only reduced their size and died but finishing the remaining three trolls or so would have been considerably easier.
Range is actually a big drawback of my sorceresses' setup. Most things have only a range of 24 inches and some only 12 – this is not much given that the girls want to hide somewhere safe.
I think I should have kept my dark riders more centrally where they could have delayed the trolls or something. Their ability to shoot dogs would have not been reduced.
I kind of like how I left the spearmen unit with my sorceresses in the last round. I even think about if I should not have done this sooner. There was no ranged threat and in my turn 3, not many enemy units were remaining that could have attempted a charge.
This game was unusual as I lost two of my flying heroes but not much else.
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Amboadine
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 19.5. WoC (ETC)

Post by Amboadine »

Thanks for the write up, very enjoyable and congratulations on the win.
Attacking the trolls was definitely the right thing to do. I would have probably hit them with a flank charge with the other Executioner unit, especially as you already had flaming attacks on the witches.
Not sure if centralising the Dark riders would have done much more to help, they were doing well on the flanks.
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Thraundil
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 19.5. WoC (ETC)

Post by Thraundil »

Nice battle! Well fought :) DP's are scary to meet in melee, for sure. You did the right thing delaying them and taking out everything else.

A few notes.

Your BSB agressive forward move was super bold, and nicely placed. She should have faced the table centre, though, as you yourself also mentioned. Joining her into the skullcrusher fight would really have paid off, I feel. But one thing to keep in mind! BSB that far away = no rerolls. Try to keep your fliers together more. If the BSB and potion master had changed places, the move would have been perfect!

The harpies "worst play" move - yeah, this is a pickle. As the units were set up, there really was no way you could avoid a charge into your master. I would potentially have waited a turn - you where not in any immediate danger, and could have set the combat up more in your own favour. The key to a character heavy army is patience! Strike only when you are sure of winning.
In relation to this: I actually do think the charge was a mistake. In order to remove steadfast, you had to kill 4 whole models! (for MC, 3 models is a rank - and you having no ranks with heroes, you cannot break his steadfast). The pot master killing the BSB was rather lucky since 3 wounds should see at least one, maybe two saves by his ward. In other words, you relied on your general to kill 4 models on his own... Or suffer the full return attacks. And with BSB and steadfast, odds are he would've stuck around, and fought again in his turn. Without potion, and without d3 wounds on the general. All in all a super risky move on your part, since you pretty much relied on him to break despite being steadfast.

In relation to this, your general not having a ward save shows here. The multiple wounds really does wonders with a magic weapon. However, he is actually very vulnerable to return strikes without a ward save. Sometimes it is worth the risk; here, had he held (which he should have), your master would likely have died on your next turn, and you give up 2 characters worth of points for nothing.
Since your biggest strength is mobility, an alternative dreadlord build is cloak, lance, dawnstone and maybe dragonhelm if you want the anti flaming ward. You still get S6 on the charge, but you get to reroll armor saves in melee. Granted, the lord can no longer sit somewhere and take a charge on the chest, but risk vs reward I simply cannot find a good argument for combining a magic weapon and the cloak on my general, personally.


So basically. I think you should have waited one turn with the combo charge, OR your BSB should have joined in from the flank. Then suddenly, the odds of actually removing steadfast becomes a lot better. The rest of the game you played out very well, and your opponent was rather reckless with his army movement. He obviously wanted combat ASAP ;)

Oh and one more thing. Supreme could have ring of hotek instead of lodestone if you can find 5 points somewhere? The miscast bubble on your entire backfield is a pretty strong deterrent for opponent magic.
In addition, you might consider death magic on your lvl 4. Or some warlocks. Just talking optimum army setup here; you have no really strong hex. Beast is gold, for sure, at buffing your own guys, but sometimes hexing the other guys can be even more lethal. And daemon princes fear the lore of death! Suddenly toughness nor armor means nothing. (And since the snipes ignore armor saves, you can even target out single MC models if you have no other good targets! ;) )

So that ended out being a very long response. Hope you can get something from my feedback which is, as always, positively meant :)
Name: Ladry (female)
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Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Marchosias
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 19.5. WoC (ETC)

Post by Marchosias »

@ Amboadine: It is nice to see a commenter as dedicated as yourself. :) It is a strange thought: when fighting against regenerating monsters our army-wide ASF is actually a drawback as only one unit can benefit. Thus, the cooperation of witches + execs is very nice - even more with my BSB thrown in the mix. Thank you for all your thoughts!

@ Thraundil: Wow, this is a serious study you have written here. :) So, point by point:

- death magic on my supreme sorceress: I am rather against it. One reason is that everyone and their dog is using it in their avoidance lists and it is boring. :) But the lore has rather short ranges, too, which is not good with a supreme sorceress on foot that is protected by unit that has hide from many foes. Another reason I am sceptical is that with the list I have I am forced to engage sooner or later and lore of death has no support for close combat besides soulblight (which is extremely strong but very predictable as well). Heavens is a good lore as it has a lot of utility - a spell for every occasion.

- warlocks vs. lore of beasts: I am basically decided that once the models are available I will indeed swap the small sorceress for warlocks. Alas, it could take some time. :) On the other hand, I really like lore of beasts and start to think that with this many heroes even a lvl 4 could maybe prove interesting. Something to explore in the future I guess.

- ring of hotek: Yes, I would love to have it but I seem unable to find the points. Basically, I would have to either reconfigure my heroes or delete a musician somehwere. Or strike out a whole unit. Neither of these changes would make me feel comfortable. Though it might be reasonable to give the PoS master a cheaper magic weapon.

- magic weapon on dreadlord: One reason to have it is ethereals (though granted, one master should be enough). Another is that if the dreadlord does not break his foe on the charge I want him to continue doing some harm. Sure, your dreadlord gets stuck forever while mine dies so yours might be at a slight advantage. :) On the other hand, I feel confident my dreadlord would be able to chew through bretonnian lances or silver helm units (provided characters would be contained of course). Or finish the enemy character that somehow survived the initial assault on last wound. I really do not know. I think it boils down to the question if I expect to face rather big units with weak attacks (like silver helms) or smaller units with nasty attacks (like skullcrushers).
On the other hand, your build is 15 points cheaper - this is all I need for ring of hotek, potion of foolhardiness for dreadlord and gleaming pennant for spearmen. It is worth thinking about for this reason only.

- charge on skullcrushers: You convinced me, it was a mistake. :( It would have been risky even with the magic support I was hoping for. I was kind of desperate to destroy some of his threats as soon as possible as I could have hardly hoped to achieve it all in one or two turns.

- BSB on the loose: I have noticed this many times but her task to destroy nasty enemies is important, too. What I could try in future games is to deploy her as the closest of the three pegasus heroes to my spearmen - this makes it more likely that her following tasks will keep her there while it is not a big change and therefore hopefully achievable. It should not happen often that I would need her specifically to achieve something.

Again, thanks for your input, it is very appreciated even if I not always follow your advice. :) Please keep it coming!
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Re: Lost colony chronicle - 19.5. WoC (ETC)

Post by Jvh792 »

Man you have been hauling ass getting these reports out. Thank you for all the work you're putting into them.
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