Fred - 2017 Painting Diary

[fred.]

Played a game on Saturday night - Dark Elves vs Lizardmen

Lots of Pendraken figures on the table (although some of the DE are probably Kallistra)


Early game, the DE Hydra rushes forward - and my Lizardmen mages freeze it and zap it, and the skinks throw javelins. Resulting in a rather dead hydra.

Mid game
Turning into a classic turning battle - the DE infantry are charging uphill into a solid line of lizardmen and Kroxigors (think lizard ogres)

The DE spearmen where annihilated by the uphill lizardmen - so badly that virtually the whole brigade was killed.
Mean while in the middle the DE where being whittled down.

Ended up with 75%+ casualties for the DE, and less then 25% for the Lizardmen, I think 7-1 in VPs at the end.
Perhaps the DE where too far out their snowy comfort zone in the jungle  

[Techno]

Very nice, indeed, Forbes ! 

Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sweet Forbes

[DFlynSqrl]

That looks like a lot of fun!

[fred.]

Thanks chaps

Thought I'd managed a stealth post at first!

[lowlylowlycook]

Very cool armies, and battle.

Just missing the snowy twin peeks of Mt. Killahighelfjaro to make the dark elves fit in a bit.

[fred.]

Still not getting much painting done, thanks Real Life!! 

But did manage to get a game in on Friday, which was good fun with 2 players a side. We reprised Dark Elves vs Lizardmen, this time time in the Desert to move both armies out of their natural habitat (and I wanted to get the Desert Fort on the table).

The scenario had both armies deployed on the left to the middle of the table, with a big open flank on the right.

Early on

Both sides have moved their main forces forward. They have attempted to throw mobile troops out to the right, but have generally failed command rolls for this...
In the middle the Lizardmen have attempted to charge the Elves on top of the hill - but needed a good success to get a double move in, but ended up short.
The Elves have managed to get quite a bit of shooting off so far causing a fair bit of damage to the LM, but nothing serious.

The right flank

Not a lot happening here...
The dark riders zipped forward and shot up some Skink skirmishers, and that was about it.

The Elves got flank charges into the stranded LM, killing them. But leaving themselves open to heavy counter attacks. Taking out the cold one knights and quite a few spearmen.
The Manticore attempted a long charge, didn't make it and was cut down by kroxigor and saurus warriors.
The Stegadon shambled into contact in the middle.

Out of picture on the left the DE Cold One knights have smashed the Salamanders

Mid Game


Its a bit empty in the middle now following the above carnage!

On the left the LM had redeployed their Cold Ones, who charged the static DE Cold One knights killing them, while the Kroxigor made short work of the Witch Elves, suddenly tipping the left flank back to the LM.

In the centre the Stegadon got into the archers - which was messy. The big DE brigade of infantry was struggling to move, and was finally charged by Kroxiogor and the Saurus, who caused many casualties.

Over on the right not much was still happening. The Spider riders charged through terrain into the Cold One knights, and rather surprisingly held them for a couple of turns.
The Dark Riders choose to charge the Terradon Riders - probably a tactically poor choice as they would have been better shooting them. The Terradons slowly whittled the dark riders down.

In the end another big win for the Lizardmen. Once the Lizardmen get into combat they seem pretty unstoppable. We aren't quite sure what the DE need to be doing - perhaps its just a match up that doesn't suit them.

[Womble67]

Looks good Fred

Take care

Andy

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Quite some fight Forbes! 

[fred.]

It was pretty brutal!!

[DFlynSqrl]

Fun looking game!

[d_Guy]

Despite not fully understanding the subtleties of who is who (or, maybe what is what) I like looking at you games because they are colorful, violent and fun!   

[fred.]

Despite not fully understanding the subtleties of who is who (or, maybe what is what) I like looking at you games because they are colorful, violent and fun!   

That cheered me up after a crappy afternoon.

In this report its extra confusing as both sides have Cold Ones (big lizard cavalry). Also not really helped as lots of units have bespoke names, which I'm sure means little to anyone.

I'm now thinking colourful is an important criteria in a battle report, and will aim to ensure this happens as much as possible.

[Techno]

Great stuff again, Forbes.

Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

Actually got some stuff painted - even if it was just with a spray can!



Some Pendraken Lizardmen, and flying snake things, large craters, some MM Djinn and Giant Snake riders. And some 15mm tanks and trucks.

Even managed to get a blue wash on the Djinn a bit after taking the photo.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Certainly an eclectic mix!

[Womble67]

Coming on nicely

Take care

Andy

[Techno]

Looking forward to seeing those progress, Forbes.

Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

Thanks chaps

Certainly an eclectic mix!

For me its fairly coherent, just 4 projects...


Game - Lizardmen vs Undead
Although painting is fairly limited at the minute, I am at least getting in regular Friday night games, which are a great unwind from the week.

The Lizardmen got another outing (to see if they could extend their winning streak). This time against Undead of the skeletal kind.

We tried out some scouting pre-game rules, which the lizardmen with their many skirmishers and flyers won convincingly. This allowed a new scenario, where the looser of the scouting game (the undead) had to deploy in a cramped 3' zone. Whereas the winners (the lizardmen) had the full length of the table to deploy into.

I deployed fairly few troops on the left, as the river cut that side of the board, a lot of infantry in the middle, and some infantry and my cavalry on the right (out of shot). I didn't want to spread out too much, as the lizardmen seem to do better when kept as a big block that can chop up the enemy in combat, rather than swanning around the flanks with lots of maneovering - leave that to the Elves!



This is the end of the first turn, with both armies having advanced, and the undead trying to unbox themselves a bit.

At this stage I was a bit worried - I was outnumbered 3:2 in units (although points wise the armies are the same). I thought I would loose the grind of combat.

Battle is Joined


Lots of combat in the middle, going in favour of the lizardmen. Lots of low quality skeletons 'killed', but its the 4 bone giants that are the worry to me.I lost a few units to the long range shooting of the rock lobbers, but nothing too serious.  


I'd ended up pulling my cavalry back towards the centre, while the undead ended up spreading themselves wide, without ever really doing anything.
In the middle the Lizardmen where snapping bones of the skeletons. I'd managed to take out the two bone giants on the right without too much trouble.

The End

The undead through in the towel at this point - we had gone with slightly too big a game so ran out of time before a definite conclusion.
But in the middle there are virtually no undead units. On the right flank, I have flanked the infantry on the hill, and my infantry is available to attack it from the front.
On the left I have blocked up about a dozen undead units with just 2 of mine (and the river).
It was about 2:1 in casualties in favour of the lizardmen.

I think the size of the game was against the undead commander, who had far too many units to deal with, and struggled to make good choices. This size of game would have been more suited to 2 players a side.

[Techno]

Great stuff, Forbes !

Cheers - Phil