Leadership 2

so all is said and done and another great trip to texas is complete!  out of the five games i played, three were really enjoyable, one was so-so, and one was probably my favorite game of warhammer ever!   

i took a casty, MSU lizardmen list, and placed 34th out of 72. 

slaan: becalming, mystery, rumination, stone, dispel, bane head 490 

skink priest: EotG, amulet of itzl 385 

scar vet: cold one, glyph necklace, burning blade, light armor, shield 163 

2 x 12 saurus w/spears 144 ea 

2 x 10 skink cohorts 50 ea 

1 x 10 skink skirmishers 70 

16 TG, champ, standard, shield 284 

4 kroxi 220 

3 terradons 90 

2 x 1 salamander, extra crew 80ea 

game one: 

ben watt, wood elf spirit host 

hmm. lots of fast cav, two treemen, treekin... all of the thing i hate. we deployed, and my left (his right) was obviously the flank he was going to try and roll. 

picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402303381454883394 

picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402303421835036642

so, my deployment worked pretty well. i hold in the center and left, but he starts to roll my right with cav, spirits and a treeman. on turn 3, i move up the EotG and roll for my stegadon fart: 11". i roll for hits on the 7 units: cav, both treekin, tree spirits, both treemen, and a lone wizard. i then roll a series of 5s and 6s, with my lowest roll being a 3 on a unit of treekin. after many wound rolls and models taken off of the board, my right flank is safe! 

after this, my TG get in to combat with his ancient, and with no WE flank support left, i charge in w/my hero and start burning blading him. the terradons pop one of his mages, and that opens up the magic phase. the grind begins, the stegadon farts, and i kill pretty much everything. 

i leave him with 9 or so models on the table and a 20 point win for me. 

game 2: 

tony meyer (best sports winner), orks 

this should have been a good, but relatively simple win for me. he had the "2 giant/general on wyvern rush foward and beat on stuff" army. it was as hard a list as any ork could be. 

top of turn one, two bolt throwers at my steg... two hits, five wounds. dead steg. everything else moves up... i decide i have to fight for a draw. 

long story short, the big fight was in the middle of the table. for the first three turns, everything went his way and i was really worried. i miscast three times (yay miscast rerolls), and was rolling horrible. i started to stabilize my line on turn 4, and by the end of the game, i'd eked out a 275 point draw by concentrating on slowing his giant advances with fleeing and countercharging. after casting the hell out of the giants, i picked off a few other things. close game with a fantastic opponent. 

best game ever. i had a great time while he was whipping my tail, and a great time when i started whipping his. 

8 point draw for the lizzies. 

game 3: 

dark elves, steve chapman 

he had a pretty standard guardstar army w/a cauldron. the objective, which was important for this, was that a core unit was nominated to be 'special', and they became stubborn. he gave it to his corsairs, i did to some spearmen (something like that). there's a building in the middle that i hoped to use to delay the arrival of his guardstar with. i deployed w/a strong left flank and moved up, hoping to envelop him. i stick my hero in the far right spear unit, hoping to confuse him. 

http://picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402303906031126978 

things go pretty much as planned, with the right spear unit holding up the guardstar until i could get a flank in w/my steggie. a well-planned hold on pursuit from my kroxies left *barely* enough room to squeeze my TG in. see: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402304159978469154 

vs 

http://picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402304203957364290 

at this point, i was expecting to grind down the corsairs, but due to an excruciatingly slow play style, we barely finished turn 4. 

8 point draw for the lizzies. 

game 4: 

billy mondragon, wood elf treekin 

this was a hard, but relatively un-tuned list that i wasn't too worried about. lots of fire magic, plus stegadon farts (s5 vs forest spirits!!!) would mean that if i survived a charge or got them in, i'd wear down both his regular units and treemen... 

this army also had the best ever treeman "conversion". i will let the picture do the model justice: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402304360407302354 

i brought him in, rolled both flanks, and this was the table at the end of turn 6: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402304532510953138 

fun game, and a 20-point win for the lizzies! 

game 5: 

jordan braun, nurgle daemons 

hmm. this was going to be tough. a great unclean one, lots of plaugebearers and heralds spamming the "pass T test or die" spell. he was on me like a prom date in a limo, and took advantage of a big mistake (forgetting to cast the spell to make my spears cause fear, them losing and him overrunning in to my steg's flank). that, and killing off every skink unit early on, led to a solid loss coming my way. 

http://picasaweb.google.com/incomplete/Alamo2009#5402304777353214514 

turn 6, i tried to pull something tricky by reforming my TG and aiming them at the nearby flank of his plaugebearer BSB herald unit and then magically charging them... however, i miscast and a draw slipped away... 

20 point loss to the lizardmen. 

the list worked out well, with me dominating the magic phase and for the most part, controlling my opponents'. i needed, and used, miscast protection and would never leave home without it again (not after my showing at QCR, with my slaan going to the warp and taking half of my TG with him...  twice!).  the EOTG did great, and was a crucial player in 3 out of 5 games.  spear saurus are the best, particularly w/a roaming mounted hero to jump in as needed.  my TG were the rock on the table. they make a great anvil and allow for nice countercharging. the 4 krox were ok, not really worth it imho: hard to maneuver that wide and missing a lot of attacks. they did their job though. all my skinks did well: both sallies and the terradons drew a lot of fire and provided critical assistance during fights. the cohorts and skirmishers acted as perfect redirectors and screens... i will take them again!

big changes for next time: the slaan gets a WB, one unit of 18 spears w/FC instead of 2 x 12, 17 skinks w/FC and 2 kroxis instead of 4 kroxis, 1 cohort and 2 x 10 skirmishers, and everything else stays the same. 

all in all, i had 4 great games, 1 so-so and ended up mid-pack w/a 2-2-1 record. the alamo is a great stop on the GR circuit, and ld2 tends to have a large crew visit.