Tin Soldiers - Round Five vs Lizards (Glenn)

Round Five vs Lizards (Glenn)

By my reckoning I figured to be up against Chris with TKs, Glenn's Lizard's or Kitson's Empire (not my preferred choice - I'm sick to death of getting smashed by Antony :p). I was VERY pleased to draw Glenn in the last round because I was out for vengeance and reckoned I had a good shot at it. I've played Glenn twice and lost both times: once against Brettonians (don't get me started on that army), and once vs this exact same Lizard list about 3 weeks previous. I had a sneaky chat to Dave about what to do and his answer confirmed my highly unoriginal (but surprisingly effective) plan - just shoot him to death. More precisely, shoot the Slann.

Now, even without a 2+ ward that's a tricky proposition. He's still toughness 5 with a 4+ ward, 8 wounds. Yes I know... Large Target blah blah blah, but I didn't expect my artillery to survive for long. Having played me before I also couldn't expect to sucker Glenn into the hammerers (he is ULTRA wary of them now).

Ok, so on with the report.

I basically castled in the corner with warmachines mostly behind my blocks to shoot the frog, Quarrellers and Thunderers up front (to shoot the frog), and everything else positioned ready to move forward at the best opportunity (to kill the frog if at all possible). Best of all was that the Things I feared the most (which would distract me from killing the frog) - the Steg, Krox unit and Cold Ones, were far enough away that they could be ignored for the time being (the Steg was on it's lonesome on the other side of the battlefield - not sure what that was all about). My big stuff-up was placing the Gyro opposite the Steg but no actually forcing it to charge and redirect. I should have put it right at the corner but for some stupid reason (ok, I can't actually think of a reason) but put it behind the Steg and tried flame-grilling 2+ save skinks. Groan!

Glenn took first turn, moved up, shot at me with some scouting Chameleons and skinks, ended his turn. Then he realised he's completely forgotten his magic phase. Ace.

The absolute highlight og my turn was landing a rock square on the frog, Glenn failing his ward save, and me doing 5 wounds. Then I found out he had 8 wounds all up. Still, half-way there and half points already. 5 down, 3 to go. Unfortunately the cannon disn't quite have LOS so had to content itself with pulping a Kroxigor (D3 wounds=another 3 wounds - cannon has been in good form this weekend... almost makes me wish I'd been able to play Tony... almost :p). A skirmishing screen of skinks evaporated from Thunderer and Organ Gun fire. They're accompanying Priest passed his panic check though.

Glenn moved some things around with a general advance, getting the Priest into a position to use his LOS for the Slann's spells. Glenn was fortunate the roll up Pit of Shades adn the magic phases for the rest of the game revolved around this spell going off. he got it off on the Hammerers twice and I scrolled both times. The last time he got it off on the Warriors with irresistable force, nuking 8. Horrible spell for Dwarfs.

My manoeuvring was all about trying to get the Hammerers into combat with the Frog with Saurus block and Glen was trying his utmost to stop this from happening (until he chose the right time). The Hammerers ended up charging the Skink screen which fled, enemy in the way into the frog and Saurus which fled (he was that keen to avoid them!) so failed charge. Fortunately the Gyro was redirecting Kroxigor at that point to stop them from getting into the Hammerers flank.

Eventually the Hammerers Master Rune of Challenged the other Saurus block into combat to tempt the Slann's unit in. It worked... a little too well unfortunately and I thought the Hammerers might have bitten off more than they could chew when they ended up with Saurus to the front, Saurus and frog to the back (thank-you Unseen Lurker, oh how I loathe thee) and skinks in the flank. The Dwarf Lord went mental looking for challenges and overkill, driven to frustration by not being able to get into contact with the cowardly bloody toad. I managed to get Warriors into the flank of the non-frog Saurus block eventually and in the last round of combat Glenn was testing at -2 or -3 to leadership but of course with that 3-dice business and a BSB reroll (and general's leadership!) they were never in serious jeopardy.

Same could not be said for my poor Longbeards who sucked down Scar-Vet attacks and the Stegadon (wondering where he'd gotten to hadn't you?). Luckily the Cold Ones suffered stupidity at the perfect moment and were unable to cancel the Longbeards ranks. Again in the last round the Steg and Scar-vet were testing to break and again they were fine.

I was a bit gutted to lose the game (had the Steg broken... had a Saurus block broken... you know, the "whatif" scenarios) but it was fairly close, better than our last meeting.


Loss 12-8