by The Chosen of Sigmar and Stefano
Story:
Just before the coast of the Southlands of Lustria there lie two
volcanic islands. For
a couple of years now the Empire has had a colony with a large port on these
Islands, something the original inhabitants of the islands couldn't quite live
with. They demanded their next of kin of the mainland of Lustria for
support in order to drive these intruders of the isles. Since a couple of days
now they were laying siege on the main town of the colony. The colonists demanded help of Empirial forces too strike down this siege...
Karl Franz, who found the port very important, gathered all his military advisors to find a solution for the matter... After some deliberation it was decided that a large armada would be sent to the colonies together with a small army of landing forces. Falco, the Peace Keeper, was chosen to lead these last troops...
And so, a few days later, the armada set of with destination: the shores of the Lustrian Islands... On board the Relieve Force with a secret weapon...
The Armies:
The Chosen of Sigmar chose to field the Empire army he was going to enter for the tournament of Goes containing some major fire power and a steam tank...
Stefano on the other hand chose a "beastie" army : a minimum of saurus and a maximum of beastly units including kroxigor, cold ones, salamanders and terradons (a stegadon just didn't fit in the total points). All of this accompanied by the necessary load of poisonous skinks and heroes loaded with some never-tested magical "outfits" had to do the trick.
Deployment:
Chosen: Seeing the terrain I chose to deploy the bulk of my troop near the hill on my right and my heavy hitters (steam tank, White Wolves and hellblaster and Great Canon) protecting the left flank.
Stefano: Having more units, I had the luxury to adapt my deployment to Chosen's. I positioned my cold ones to take care of his rank-and-file troops, and the kroxigors and saurus with general to deal with the steam tank. To protect these expensive troops from shooting, I created a screen of skink cannon fodder in front of them, and I scattered my troops all along my deployment zone. (Never stick closely together when Chosen brings along his mortar !)
The Battle:
Chosen: Seeing the enemy battle line Falco ordered his heavy hitting troops to advance in order to engage the enemy early in the battle. Kurtz Von Stoff sent his Pegasus forward to provoke the terradons in charging him... As Falco ordered to fire only a couple of skinks and a single kroxigor were killed...
Stefano: And yes, the mortar and cannon did it again, changing a kroxigor into a smashed pulp and some skinks into jungle-colanders. Fortunately, the rest of the shooting was harmless. To block that creepy hero on Pegasus in the middle of the field from charging whatever he wants, I positioned my terradons in front of him, just a mere inch away. My left flank moved full pace, the center and right flank did not march and took aim at the imposing cavalry. After darts and javelins were launched and received, one pistoleer and three white wolves were still standing. Oh how I like the poisoned aspect of my jungle-dwellers ... Respect to the surviving pistoleer, for his nerves didn't break. The white wolves on the other hand panicked and turned tail. Not so bad for a first turn
Chosen:
Seeing the White Wolves
running towards them broke the nerve of the canon crew who fled of the table.
The captain was too tempted by the terradons and charged his Pegasus into them.
They were going to pay for this provocation. The steam tank placed itself near
the bush were some skinks had searched cover and with his hull canon aiming for
the flank of some cold one riders. The White Wolves rallied fortunately and the
remaining pistolier moved towards the remains of the skink unit that had been
hit by the mortar... The steam tank blew a cloud of steam towards the hidden
skinks. The steam was so hot there was no such thing as cold blooded, the skinks
fled. The engineer felt lucky an shot at the cold one riders killing 3 of them...
Some more skinks fell to missile fire of the hellbaster and the handgunners but
with
no real results... Kurtz von Stoff succeeded in killing
a terradon and wounding
another but saw his own Pegasus being wounded also. Kurtz won the fight but the Terradons stayed put...
Chosen:
OK, I had the choice: shoot
or charge my tank into the kroxigors. My remaining White Wolves charged the
skinks on the side of the battle field hoping to survive a volley of poison
darts... Kurtz von Stoff having a charge view of 360° now saw
a lonesome skink chief within range and charged him. The steam tank declared a
charg
e towards the Kroxigors which chose to flee: cowards with great weapons! It
left the steam tank in the middle of the Lizardmen center. At least they would
have to test before they could charge it. The handgunners
fired at the Sauri on Cold Ones not killing one of them... The Mortar and my
wizard annihilated the unit of skinks threatening it to charge in the next
Lizardmen turn while my hellblaster chose to misfire disabling it for next turn. The White Wolves stroke hard into the skinks and Kurtz had no
trouble separating the chiefs head from his body... Blood for the blood god! Oh
Ow, I'm talking like a Khorne player now... :-s. And now for those terror
tests...
Stefano:
Bad luck on my right flank,
loosing my flyable skink chief and the only skink unit in that area. Well,
the mortar was crippled anyway, so ...
quite a frightful sight. Bye-bye general, and bye-bye opportunity to take care
of the steam tank. I still don't understand skinks only picking their nose in
sight of a steam tank, while their bigger, bulkier and more resilient brothers
crying for their mummie (or better : breading pond). On the other hand, the
kroxi's rallied, finding themselves again in reach of the steam tank. Better
not run next time ... Apart from some wood-on-metal-music, the shooting
faze again went unfruitful. Damn mobile armour !!!
But
having more cards up my sleeve, I charged the remaining cold one unit into the
handgunner detachment, surviving the bullets, and killing them outright (what
do you expect from a saurus hero with 7 attacks ...) and overrunning straight
into Falco and his spearmen. Now let's see what these monsters can do !
Chosen:
That Saurus hero was going to
hurt me in the next close combat phase. The steam tank charged into the kroxigors.
The detachment of the spearmen failed their fear test to get in the cold ones
flank. Damn, bad timing... The White Wolves turned
themselves to be able to charge something next turn. Kurtz von Stoff charged 4
skinks that were coming too close... Magic and the detachment handgunners
didn't do much. The steam tank bashed into the kroxigors causing 5 wounds... The
kroxigors hammered of 6 hull points in return making it a draw... Again damn...
If I had won this round the kroxigors had to go running...
Kurtz killed only
one skink which made that the battle ended a draw. The Saurus
hero and his two companions on cold ones butchered of the spearmen. Only Falco
was able to strike back killing the cold ones champion. The spearmen fled of the
table but in the despair Falco tripped and was captured by the Saurus Hero. This
caused panic in the unit of swordsmen and 2 detachments, handgunners and free
companies... Auch...
Chosen: Rally! The keyword for most of my army... At the begin of the turn however I had to make two more panic tests... The remaining Free Companies fled, but my Hellblaster crew stood it's ground... Luckily everything else was able to rally. My steam tank, having lost almost all its hull points, build up to much steam points and blew itself up (I always build up 5 hull points when I'm under 10, a good roll on the steam tank chart can provide me with another charge...). My White Wolves charged the salamander packs... My Hellblaster finished off one of the two units skinks threatening it while magic and the mortar dealed with some of the other skinks. The remaining 3 skinks lost their nerve and fled... On the other side of the battle field the White Wolves truly finished both salamanders and the remaining handlers but chose not to overrun... The Captain finally finished off the two remaining skinks. And was now looking for a new target...
Stefano:
Hmmm, not much left on the
table for me, but let's make good use of it ! I declared a charge with my kroxigors on the white wolves, and one with the cold one riders on the swordsmen
unit. The white
wolves fled (white chickens would be a better name), but the swordsmen unit
received the attack without fear. So all hopes laid in the excellent statistics
of the saurus hero and his cold one colleague ... only to find out they missed
every single attack ! After ranks, outnumbering and the griffon standard, I even
didn't have the chance to stay put (a test with a -7 modifier on a Ld of 8 ...
hmmm ... maybe if I throw a one and the other dice standing up on one corner
perhaps ?). Fortunately the unit fled way out of the charge range of the free
company detachment, leaving me still the option of rallying them next turn
instead of being charged on the run. Both magic and shooting went without even
being noticed, giving me no high hopes for victory .
Chosen: Let's see if I could score some more victory point? I rallied the White Wolves (nice musician) so they kept out of range of the Kroxigors. I moved one of my wizards forward behind my handgunners getting him in range to target the Kroxigors. The swordsmen, who had saved the heavily wounded Falco, and free companies maneuvered out of the way to provide the hellblaster a clear shot at the Cold Ones... The other wizard was moved out of charge range of the skinks and my captain was moved into position to take them on if they would charge him. Both wizard and captain being single targets would take serious hit throws for the skinks if they would shoot at them. No need to worry there... El'Ectr Abel was able to cast Uranon's Thunder Bolt on the kroxigors killing them both. Yes! The Hellblaster opened fire on the Cold Ones Riders only killing the Standard Bearer. The saurus hero escaped the incoming hot lead...
Stefano: Looking at what's left of my battle force, there wasn't much I could do apart from rallying the saurus hero on cold one (which I did successfully, phiew !), position my troops on as many table quarters as possible (three units => only one table quarter to claim by Chosen), try some final magic tricks (again a waste of dice rolls), and shoot with my skinks on the empire hero (also without any result apart from killing false hopes).
End:
The Empire won solid. The wounded Falco and the remaining men of the landing force where praised and cheered at when they returned in the port. Falco and his men stayed on the Isles for several months allowing him to heal from his wounds and restoring the peace and order on the isles. As he was to embark back for the Empire the governor gave him a parchment scroll. The governor had requested the Emperor to give the isles a new name. From now on they would be the Falco-Lands...
Learning Points:
Empire: (Chosen of Sigmar)
- Terror is a mighty weapon.
- Musicians are Empires most valuable part of command groups.
- Don't put your general in spearmen...
Lizardmen: (Stefano)
- The fine-tuned saurus hero on cold one did great against rank-and-file infantry units. He will definitely return on future battle fields !
- Great weapons rock on a steam tank !
- Terror tests costed me more then a quarter of my battle force. I need to take psychology tests into consideration, which I am not used too being a vampire counts player at tournaments.
- Poisoned attacks do their worst in great volumes, even against armored troops, but a steam tank is a bit too tough to kill with only pointy wood chips
Note: special thanks to Zielona Wieza
