Game 1 of WOOD ELVES vs. LIZARDMEN series ongoing. 1500 points.

[jberrysf]

My gaming buddy and I have played a good slew of 40k together at our friendly local gaming store at a number of events, ranging from kill team, to City Fighting, and last night was the first time that I forayed with him into the land of fantasy.

Rolling for magic: His Slann rolled on Lore of High Magic list, yielding Tempest, Hand of Glory, Apotheosis and item destroyer one.

I rolled on Beast Lore and ended up with Amber Spear, Wildform, and Savage Beast and Pann's Impenetrable Pelt.

Deployment: we had, at first a very dense table, with tons of buildings in the way, which we thinned into a moderately covered board, including several sinister structures along the way. Deployment was largely uninteresting back and forth, him evenly spreading his 2 Saurus Warrior squads to each side, with Cold One Riders to his left (my right) flank, with the 2 skink skirmishers taking the middle and his right (my left( flank) I made the mistake of leaving my treekin and Treemen on the table before his salamanders, so he ended up with a good line of sight to both unit, but more on that later. Each of my flanks were guarded (lol) by glade guard, on the left babysat by Wardancers, on the right, by Treemen, Scouts and my Spellweaver General. To the middle I set Dryads, a Treeman and more war dancers along with my compulsory wood. What I did well was to put down my Great Eagle at the end, in response to his Salamanders, to guarantee taking one of them out turn 1.

Lizard Turn 1: After I took my 12 in vanguard move towards his salamander, along the far left table edge, he moved his left squad of skinks and the salamander accompanying them around the sinister building (weirding well) towards my Eagle. The Cold ones on the right got into position to charge my poorly placed scouts on the right flank. Skinks marched up the middle and the Saurus Warrioss fought to position themselves better around the terrain. Slann hovered. With the magic phase, he Ice Sharded the scouts, wiffed on tempesting my Eagle and what ever else he did, I dispelled or it was inneffectual. Shooting proved dangerous with the skinks taking a wound off of the Eagle with their poisoned shooting and the Salamanders failing to connect, or wound. I love the Eagle's 5+ ward. With no charges declared, it was my turn.

Wood Elves 1: Declared a charge on his Salamander with the Eagle. He opted to flee and with swiftstride, I cut them down with good dice. Great. Job well done, but now the eagle was in easy range from the skinks. Dryads, Treeman, and Wardancers entered the woods to my center board and the scouts inched up into good range of the other salamander in the middle, just beggin to get charged by the cold one riders. Dumb choice, elves. Magic saw one skink handler die to Amber Spear, but not much more. Shooting took out the rest of the skink handlers on the salamander ad took him down to 1 wound, where he rolled a Grrrr and sat angrily, blocking the Saurus Warriors behind him from advancing. No other charges.

Lizard 2: Cold ones declare a charge on my Scouts who (OH NO!!!) have my general in the back ranks of. I try to flee to get him to land in my treekin, but (OH NO!!!) I roll 11 on leadership and sit there dumbfounded and receive his charge. All seems lost. His skinks reposition down the middle to take aim at my units lying in wait in the trees and the Saurus Warriors are stuck behind the skinks to the left and the sitting salamander to the right. Magic sees me dispel his hand of glory and a failed attempt to tempest. Shooting with the blowguns takes out the Great Eagle with one squad and 3 dryads with the other. The combat phase is not kind to me, though, with the Cold ones not losing a model to my 7 wounds (5 scouts and 2 on the spellweaver) who falls back through the treemen and the Glade guard. The cold ones advance into a new combat with the Treekin (just as planned) and after a round where I forget to stomp, I take out 2 cold ones and lose 2 wounds on one.

Elves 2: Wardancers fail a charge on the Cold ones flank, but advance 2 inches. General does not rally and falls back another 4 inches, definitely within 12 of the board edge now (cue family guy "oh no") and the dryad declare a charge on the skink skirmishers. NBD, right? Wrong. Poison attacks whittle them down to 1 dryad. I'm not feeling confident. No magic to speak of because my General is fleeing (right choice, though) lots of Saurus closing in, what am I to do? Shooting phase sees the nothing of interest happen and in combat the treemen and the Cold ones draw again with the treemen losing slightly.

Lizard 3: Saurus Warriors shuffle around the salamander trying to get into any sort of position, while the other squad prepares in the middle to charge what ever has the audacity to get into range. The skinks on the left move forward to get some new groups in range. Magic sees the Cold One Riders get the hand of glory and boost their initiative by one, but shooting was boring as only the skinks shot and took out 2 glade guard on the right, while the Grrr-ing salamander overshot his fire breath. Combat was also boring, with the skinks losing by 1 to the dryad, but holding and the treemen and cold one riders failing to do any damage to one another. A bit of a boring round, but I am feeling very little confidence.

Elves 3: Tides turn. My General rallies. Wardancers on the left flank smash hard into the skinks after sustaining 2 wounds to Stand and Shoot and Wardancers in the middle smash even harder into the Cold One Riders' left flank. Magic was cool. Amber spear went off at super strength and should have beaten up 4 ranks of old ones sitting in the backfield, but sadly I rolled a one to wound on the second rank and I got Wildform off on the wardancers coming into combat with the Cold One Riders. Shooting sees the glade guard on my right flank finally took out the last wound on the Salamander. Combat was great! Wardancers on the left took 2 wounds but wiped out the skinks, leaving one dancer out in the open, just asking to be charged and the Wildformed Wardancers massacred the flank of the Cold ones taking out 4 and the Treekin took out another one, which lead the Cold One left to flee, and promptly get caught. The dryad stayed put.

Lizard 4: Saurus Warriors that had been sitting in the middle charged the Treeman and the ones that had been pinned behind the Salamander wheeled about to get to the Wardancers. Treeman ate 5 Warriors and they fled and got cut down, putting the treeman into charge range of the Slann general that had crept up.

Elves 4: Game. Treeman charges and eats the Slann.