Jarrett's Necronomicon 2007 Battle Report
by Jarrett Messing

Game 2

I think it's always a relief not to drop your first game, but I knew that with my first win I would be shifting towards harder armies. I was curious to see I would be playing yet another Empire army when I saw my matchup posted, this time against a fellow named John Adams, a relative local. With the fair number of familiar faces at the tournament, I was glad to be meeting new people (and it shows you that all the bastards I know bring harder armies!).

Upon seeing his list I recognized that the tiered comp system was running smoothly, as John's list was a nice mix, themed but hardly soft. I'd stepped up. John took: Archlector on War Altar w/ a 1+ rerollable save and Sword of Might, Luthor Huss, Warrior Priest w/ Armor of Meteoric Iron & bound Burning Head, Level 2 w/ Rod of Power, 2x 7 Outriders w/ hochland rifle champion, 1 Great Cannon, 15 Flagellants, 5 Knights w/ Music, 10 Knights w/ Command, 20 Swordsmen w/ 10 Sword Detachment, 15 Greatswords w/ 10 Sword detachment.

Here's John (not my type) and his wonderful looking army (clearly the hotel's foundations were a bit lopsided):

The mission this game was to Kill the Heretic! Spellcasters (and dispelifiers) were to be hunted for bonus points. One thing that was obvious was that we were on a pretty strange table, utterly lacking in traditional terrain like hills and woods. We agreed that the fortress was off limits, the rocks impassable (except for a small set you could move troops over) and that the rips in the ground were difficult terrain. This seemed to have its ups and downs for both of us as it limited the mobility of our ranks, I could skirmish over the rents, but he could set up gun-lines directly behind.

John outclassed me in magic by far, and after a review of his priest spells I knew I'd have to choose combats carefully. Enduring a fire mage on top of 3 priests was not something I was looking forward to so I had a mind to eliminate him ASAP. Game one taught me about outrider firepower, so these were also a priority for the terradons, as much because of their frailty defensively as their offensive output. My 'dons would be working harder than a Vegas hooker at the World Series of Poker.

I won the roll for table sides and forced John to take the narrower deployment zone. Between the lack of space, impassable terrain, and fissures I was hoping to narrow his fire lanes. There was also a nice big rock smack in the middle of the board in front of his zone to split his army.

With all this in mind I took to deployment. Naturally I sprinkled my skinks evenly across the board, committing to no one side. I wanted at least 2 units available for wherever the knights went, guessing they'd take the more open route. Saurus deployed central-right, squaring off against his infantry. I waited to deploy my steg until I saw that cannon, and stuck it behind a rocky outcrop - this was less than ideal, but I wasn't willing to lose it turn 1. It was in the middle so I could send it left or right, and I knew it could take a charge from nearly anything. Both kroxigors deployed left, one central, one far, to face off against John's collective of knights and altar. There were skinks near each to run interference and redirect. Sallies deployed right, behind my skink screen, both to avoid untouchable knights and gouge the Empire infantry. Terradons arrived last, committing centrally and right, a single move from a variety of targets, priority going to the fire mage, then cannon then possibly outriders. Did I mention I was afraid of his magic? My oldblood went way left to really stack the odds against his knights, my bsb near the steggie, and my scar vet joined a unit of skinks to keep the 'dons well led in the face of impending panic.

The lines are drawn:

Empire got the first turn (d'oh!) and several units shuffled up, John careful not to block LOS. He opened up with a great cannon shot that took out a skink and a kroxigor, causing panic. The kroxigors booked it (I knew right there I blew my load game one) and ran right off the table!

Aaah! Get the fuck out of here! Back to the swamps!

Outriders took pot shots at the terradons, doing some damage, but they stayed put. A hochland failed to wound my bsb. The fire wizard drew a bead on the screening skinks with my general, and I gathered my dispel dice in anticipation. Can anyone say total power Conflagration of Doom? I failed to stop this after four or five rolls, and the skinks were annihilated by the 20+ hits. My general kept his cool, and my shaman made his best effort to dispel any relevant bound spells (burning head ring, immune to psych, etc.) I let a couple through that I would dispel in my turn.

Oy! And that was without any pressure from the priest spells, which I knew would come into their own once we got to grips.

The battle had naturally divided into two portions, the left being a far more intense cat and mouse scenario. I made my general advance, Kroxigors on the far left angling to threaten his flanks, squared off against his 5 knights. My oldblood joined skinks, shifting within 18" of both his knight units. I wanted to put pressure on him and to be able to dispatch that 5 man unit so I could isolate the big knight block. Passing my stupidity test, my single saurus block on the left edged up, a shooting bunker for my bsb. Skinks took a screening position in front of them. My stegadon advanced behind his anti-cannon rock and skinks slunk forward.

On the right my terradons hopped forward behind a crevase, careful to keep those outriders at long range. My saurus moved up, one filling a gap between terrain, the other on the outside heading towards the outriders. The salamanders moved up enough to keep the outriders at long range and stay out of charges, but with the next turn's 6" in mind. Mwuahaha...

Just had to endure 1 more round of shooting.

John again moved conservatively, shifting his ranked units towards the impending confrontation with saurus, mage along with them. The altar moved alongside his flagellant congregation, with some care keeping them between him and the steggie. His outriders kept still, unloading on my units again.

John opened up at kroxigors with a cannon misfire result of a 2. Fyew! Dodged that 20 pound bullet. Outriders plinked away on the left, blasting several of the skink screen, but they decided to stick around. Hochland again failed to wound my BSB - tough bastard, him. On my right the outriders did minor damage to the salamanders.

John opened his magic phase with another irresistible Conflagration! This time I stopped it early and it only cost me some skink handlers and a sallie wound. I tried to mitigate all but his irrelevant bound spells, and believe I let an immunity to psychology and unbreakability slip through.

Little worse for wear that round, it was time for me to do some damage of my own.

My salamanders slithered up through a crevasse unhindered, and targeted the outriders on my far right. Easily within 15" now, they unloaded a volley and wiped the fried horsemen off the table.

Another unit turns to ash!

Also on the right my terradons performed a great charge on that blasted mage just inside their 20". John's swordsmen had moved up to a crevasse, but it notably did not cover their entire front. Several models were hanging out including the mage dangling off the corner! I could only fit two terradons in base to base due to the difficult terrain, but both were in contact with the level 2, and ripped him to shreds. They took a wound or two in return and swept off using their hit and run ability.

In a less clever moment my other terradon unit charged an exposed priest. I had asked John what save he had and he said "he has heavy armor". What I didn't realize was that he actually had a 1+ from meteoric iron, and this was after exchanging lists! Drats! And the list was right next to me! Double drats! Fucklips! Turdblast! Curse my forgetfulness, clearly I needed a fresh cup of coffee! I did no wounds, lost one of the two terradons in return, and hit and ran away (a great ability for the idiotic).

Both saurus units on the right advanced, the one with scar-vet general moving up after the 'dons, and the other coming around the opposite side of the difficult terrain. The general's move was to prove a smidgeon too far, and John took full advantage in his turn, charging his greatswords at the hit and ran terradons (who fled) and barely making a redirect into the saurus. In the subsequent combat many saurus died, much due to priest rerolls, and my general failed to make up for the significant losses, ranks, standard, and outnumbering. I broke and was run down along with the terradons, losing a decent chunk of vps in one fell swoop. The greatswords did their part and were now in my backfield well out of salamander range.

On the left, my Oldblood leapt out of the skinks to hit the 5 knights. I elected to use my wiffle bat. A wiffle and some armor saves (despite 6 attacks, strength 7, and 2 rerolls) left 4/5 knights standing, and though he failed to wound, John won the combat with a musician. The lord stood his ground, and dug his old, bloody sneakers in.

My kroxigors on the far left moved further up with the 5 knights locked in combat, and I alotted them a screen of skink skirmishers. These skinks moved up into a redirecting position, such that a charge against them would expose the flank of Luthor Huss' knights to the Kroxigors. This was a delaying tactic as I was waiting for my Oldblood to stack the combat. My stegadon moved out from behind his rock (the cannon due for another turn of repairs) to threaten a 12" zone, and my smart BSB moved to join skinks behind saurus and get out of sight of the hochland. The steg fired its bolt thrower at the altar. It hit the Archlector, wounded, and John failed his 4+ invulnerable. The shot did a single wound.

Subsquently, John advanced his altar and flagellants towards the steggie and saurus. An unchecked Altar bound spell and outrider fusillade reduced my saurus to 2 models, but they, dumb and stoic as always, were unphased. These 2 remaining saurus moved directly in front of the flagellents to redirect their charge to my rear, and avoid getting the steg stuck in a quagmire of flagellation. The nearby javelin skinks cut to the right side of the flagellants, and began their saga of poison. The stegadon moved around past the saurus to again threaten the altar (who seemingly wanted none of him), and my BSB trekked leftward as insurance against my potentially precarious combats to come.

On the right, a bold swordsmen detachment moved to confront my remaining, advancing saurus. They charged in wounding the saurus, who in turn carved a big 'S' onto the swordsmen's shields in an apparent attempt to demoralize them. The detachment, demoralized as it was, held, and ground with the saurus for several combats, proving an incredibly resiliant solution to multiple rounds of 10 strength 4 attacks.

Finally I broke the bastards, and they ran off the table.

My last terradon hopped John's infantry for a late cannon charge. It was beaten to death by two of the crew using the other crewman as a giant, screaming swatter.

John reformed Luthor Huss' knights to face the kroxigor charge, and withdrew the altar away from the Stegadon, hoping to finish it with the newly repaired cannon. The flagellants attacked the 2 saurus, and blew through them into my backfield, effectively out of the game. My javelin skinks followed, instead shifting their attention to the greatswords and reducing them below half. They could not do the same to the flagellants, but merrily danced their infuriating dance between these two infantry blocks.

John's critical cannon shot nailed the stegadon just. He rolled a six to wound... And a 1 for the number of wounds. My stegadon was free to finally slam into the altar, ramming it for 7 impact hits, putting a single wound on its structure. More importantly this potentially game changing chariot was locked down. My stegs outnumbering kept things mostly even as the altar had trouble putting more than a wound on the beast. Unbreakable wimp, meet super-tough dinosaur.

My newly free Oldblood and kroxigors hit Luthor Huss' unit head on. With a combination of mediocre hits (forgot to deactivate wiffle bat) and 5+ armor saves, I didn't win heavily enough to break the knights. Subsequently I added skinks to the mix gaining me a flank and outnumbering, figuring that to gain res through skinks John would have to sacrifice Luthor's attacks.

Luthor cast his holy fire, I failed to dispel, and blew the skinks to bits, costing me the flank bonus, and also damaging the kroxigors. Another round of combat saw only 2 knights dead. and with their number now even with the kroxigors I failed to autobreak them.

My BSB then came to the rescue with a timely flank charge. I drew Huss out of the combat with a challenge, hitting him and wounding him 3 times. With a 6+/4+, he failed his saves and was slain! The knights broke though I failed to catch them, pursuing with only the kroxigors to prevent the Oldblood contacting the speculum hold lector. My lone surviving kroxigor rolled 2" inches, needing about 4" to hit the Altar, and was denied an additional round of attacks in that unfought combat. A subsequent krox charge into the altar saw no wounds dealt on either side.

Time to squeeze for some points!

My Oldblood declared a flank charge against the outriders who had to hold or die (tough choice!). I again elected to use his wiffle bat, one-handed this time, for fancy points. Despite killing 4 in two rounds, they held to close the game at half points.

On my right my salamanders advanced with the saurus, "handling" the remaining swordsmen (ie, I have no flippin' clue what happened) and heading towards the big gun. A final turn charge saw the cannon dead.

A tight finish:

When we began to tabulate victory points it was apparent it was tight. I had only a single standard, he had my general, and we both lost some big chunks. My most expensive characters and units were still on the table, and late game point grabs held promise. One big difference was that I had managed to kill more witches than he did between Huss and his mage. In the end, by pure victory points, I won by a bare 32. The witches put me well over.

John was a good player, clearly well versed in the strengths of his army. He put the pressure on from turn 1 and we both agreed it was a chess match throughout. I hadn't played anything like his army before, and priests proved to be a strong build in good hands. I got a bit of a taste of my own medicine in this regard, John taking something atypical but effective. We both played solid games, exploited each other's mistakes, and in the end a few dice rolls could have put it in his hands instead of mine; these are really the best kinds of games. In the end stacking my odds in the right places paid off. Barely.

A satisfying 26 point victory for the lizards!

Game 3! >>