A Beastmen brayherd, led by their fearsome Doombull, advances into the fringes of the jungles of Lustria. The ancient Slann has long foreseen the intrusion, and his lizard minions are waiting for them...
...an Old World bash, just for fun. We rolled randomly, and would be fighting along a 6 x 4, so tight on the frontage, but with more depth. The basic lists where (roughly);
Brayherd
Doombull (General, leading Bestigor)
Great Bray Shaman (lvl 4)
Bray Shaman (lvl 2)
2 x Wargors (leading Gors)
2 x 30 Gors (full command)
1 x 26 Bestigor (full command)
1 x 16 Ungor (full command, skirmishers)
2 x Razorgor
Chaos Giant
Ghorgon
Cockatrice
Lizardmen
Saurus Old Blood on Cold One (General)
Saurus Scar Veteran on Carnosaur
2 x Skink Priests (lvl 2)
1 x 24 Temple Guard (full command)
1 x 24 Saurus (full command)
2 x 16 Skinks with javs (skirmishers)
1 x 10 Cold One Riders (full command)
1 x Jungle Swarm (4 bases)
1 x 4 Kroxigor
Bastiladon (Ark of Sotek)
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The battle lines are drawn, but scouting skinks are already behind the beasts (sneaky geckos). The discs are our unit actions for the turn - we use a unit by unit activation system... not the RAW turn sequence.
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Little subtlety of tactics here, in the first turn both sides advanced at the march in what was looking like a pitched fight in the middle, with the exception of the scouting skinks behind the Beastman lines after deployment (and a Shaman), who emerged from the undergrowth, ran up to throw their javelins (there would be a lot of that), and the Shaman’s spell slowed the Bestigors down. The Carnosaur riding Scar Veteran lined up the Chaos Giant for a ‘Harryhausen-style’ monster bash - yippee!. The Old Blood on his Cold One (not stupid) had the Ghorgon ahead of him. On each end of the Beast’s lines, the Razorgors ran forward.
Turn two, and the ‘killing-stuff’ would get started in earnest. The Carnosaur rushed the Chaos Giant, who met it and with one almighty Strength 10 swing of its club scored a hit, and a D6 wounds. 6! Ouch. One dead Carnosaur and it hadn’t even had a chance to get its wicked claws out - this is by far the best thing my giant has ever done, beyond getting shot by war engines. Its moment of triumph didn’t last long, because the charging Kroxigor hammered it (literally with big hammers) and did 6 wounds as well, and the giant fell down dead, again! It did wound a Kroxigor as it fell on it though. Still, an epic start.
The monster fighting continued as the Old Blood charged along with the Basilodon, into the Ghorgon, and its mighty ‘killing blow’ swing cleaved the Old Blood in half… one shotted again! The Basilodon’s tail-wacks and poisonous serpents (and skinks) did a few wounds as well… that fight would continue. Good start for the Beastmen, except a Razorgor wen down full of poisonous javelins, and the other got busy eating serpent swarms as fast as it could… which wasn’t fast enough.
Behind, the skirmishing ungor had run back to deal with the skinks, but a hail of javelins killed 8 of them! Ouch… and the Bray Shaman, also targeting them with ‘the Summoning’ magic missile found his spells dispelled, or failing, and was generally useless. The Great Shamans ‘steed of shadows’ carried the central Gor block right up to the Saurus’ and the big central melee would start their next turn, after the Cockatrice vomited on the Saurus, and killed 1 (wow!).
By turn three is was all in (almost), Gors charged, Cold One Riders lowered spears and charged, primal fury saw most get into frenzy and in a landslide of attacks, most did zippo against the Lizardmen’s good (too good?) armour saves. Hand weapons did almost nothing, and the obsidian hand weapons then cleaved down Gors en masse. The Cockatrice had charged the flank of the Saurus block to lend a hand, and did its usual no damage, it did turn 1 Saurus to stone though… nice new statue for the Slann
Behind, the Ungor found themselves complete outmatched by skink skirmishers and broke and ran from the failed panic tests… the Bray Shaman cast again, whiffed, and would be next for the pin-cushion treatment. Skinks move 12”, can still throw with no modifier for the running about, always stand and fire, ignore cover, scout… what! Wood Elves wish they could skirmish this well.
Anyway, turn 4 and the grind was on, and it was only going one way. The central Gors and Cockatrice (now charged from behind by the returning Kroxigor), were badly beaten to a pulp and all ran. The Cold One Riders vs Gors was closer, but still a Lizard win and the Gors FBIGO’d, and would continue to do so, but they had no hope of winning, after their Wargor leader was killed in challenge by the Cold One champion… the Ghorgon was also killed by poisonous snakes, and the wheels had come off completely.
All that was left to resolve was the big Temple Guard vs Bestigor clash, once the serpent swarms had been dispatched. That clash, which I though would be close, with maybe the Doombull’s violence swinging it my way, resulted in a kicking, when the Saurus arrived to aid, and the Kroxgor, (after pursuing broken Gors), again had a flank charge and lumbered in for big hammer squishing time. 15 Bestigors died… and the unit broke… game over. The Beastmen had nothing left, a few Gors had fled the table, but the Temple Guard pursued the Bestigor (and Doombull and Great Shaman) and caught them…
On VPs, it was a massacre… few of those Beastmen ever returned from their intrusion into the jungle! We called it on turn 5… a stonking win for the Lizards.
We used the Old World Renegades rules for the Lizardman army lists for this game,and, well, I have issues! Still, it was fun, which is all that really matters.
The action...
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Skinks and one of their Priests are behind, emerging from the undergrowth, for a javelin in the ass...
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Lizard lines, Cold One Riders on the right, then Skinks and Kroxigor, big blue Saurus block in the centre.
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Beast centre, Chaos Giant, Ungor skirmishers (anti-scouting-skink screen) and central Gor block.
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Razorgor is pepper by javelins... 2 wounds taken, as the two flanks close in. The big pig was shot down next turn.
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Carnosaur scar-veteran lines up the Chaos Giant, for a monster bash... only to be hit, very hard, by a very big swing of the club and one-shotted (this is by far the best thing a giant has ever done!). Bosh! 6 wounds... Stitch that! Kroxigor then got their revenge and beat it down with great weapons.
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Ungor turn around and run back to get those skink scouts... and 8 die to poison javelins... they charge, lose and run... useless.
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They break, and run, even as the Bray Shaman repeated fails to cast 'the Summoning' at the skinks (3 fails), before himself being javelin'd down... also useless!
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Second monster bash, Ghorgon vs Bastilodon's charge... but the Ghorgon can't get the 6 for a killing blow... and again poison does its work, eventually bringing the Ghorgon down.
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Gors go into frenzy and charge the Saurus in the centre, as the Cockatrice is in in the flank...
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Cold One riders are just too tough for Gors, with 2+ armour saves, and the Gors wtih zippo AP... all those attacks, no kills... but they can hold them up and hang on with repeat FBIGOs.
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The Saurus eat more Gors, same story, 3+ armour saves, vs no AP... just a losing fight... these lizards grind hard...
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After slaying the giant with their great weapons, the Kroxigor reform behind the central melee, about the swing it hard (by swinging hard) from the rear charge.
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On the Beast's right, the Bastilodon's many poisonous attacks have done-in the Ghorgon after a long fight, whilst the Razorgor can't eat enough snake swarms and is losing... until the Bestigor charge in an axe those pesky snakes to death. Just the Temple Guard next... a big clash.
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The last stand of the Bestigor, suddenly surrounded by Temple Guard, Saurus and Kroxigor in the flank. They'll kill 12, but lose 15!... it's over... the Beastman herd has been utterly destroyed.
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The unfrenzied Gor hold-up the Cold One riders, but again, they are losing the grind. So far, 1 dead rider (in about 80 attacks!)... eventually the Gors are worn down and break... fleeing the tabletop. The dice is to remind us the Gors needs 5s To-Hit, due to the Sun Banner (we forgot the first turns), but it didn't help the Gors much. Another 1 sided melee, that would be theme of this battle.
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