GLWL - Round 3

Round 3 of the 2011 GLWL had me facing Mike Hernandez and his very tough Lizardmen army. Mike got Best General at the Fall Classic that I won last year, he and I traveled to 'Ard Boyz in 2010, and we will be meeting at Adepticon this year for the Fantasy Championships. This was definitely a friendly rivalry game.

Mike brought a Slaan with Light, Temple Guard, 3 more units of Saurus, Engine of the Gods, Terradons, 1 unit of Salamanders, and 2 units of Chameleon Skinks. For my list I added a Grey Seer, Hell Pit, another WLC, a PCC, and 2 rat dart units to my fixed list.

At the start of the game, I felt I had deployed perfectly. Even though we rolled Watchtower (I HATE WATCHTOWER) he had most of his forces deployed on his right flank, so I countered by deploying on MY right flank. It looked like I would be able to spend much of the game shooting at his advanced Saurus blocks with my cannons and catapult. How wrong I was.

I had first turn and a mortar and WLC exploded immediately. The Lizardmen were able to buff up at first, but I was able to get the Hell Pit into their line and cause heavy damage by destroying a unit of Chameleon Skinks and damaging the Saurus inside the Watchtower. The HPA got flanked off of the tower and cut down, but then came back to life in a position to flank charge the unit that killed it!

Through out the game my shooting was ineffective, and my magic was more or less just tame. Although the same can be said for Mike's magic. It really was a game that was fought in the trenches. A battle that was basically a draw going into the 5th round. In the 4th turn I drew a charge from the Temple Guard unit into my Slaves. Then I counter charged with my Clan Rats, Chieftain BSB, and Warlord and did heavy casualties to the Temple Guard, forcing the Slaan to accept a challenge from my Warlord on the bottom of 5. The Engine flanked the Slaves for combat resolution but I knew my goal was to kill the Toad. My Warlord couldn't kill him with the first chance... and there wouldn't be a second.

GLWL rules state that the Watchtower scenario must last at least 5 turns. So after turn 5 we rolled and the game ended. With 3 Saurus left alive in the Watchtower and 4 Temple Guard a long side his Slaan, surrounded by about 20 Slaves and 20 Clan Rats with my Warlord and Chieftain BSB. If the game had gone on even one more turn I would have wiped the Slaan and TG out, as well as taking control of the Watchtower! Also, GLWL rules award 500 bonus points for the Watchtower rather than auto winning.

Final score (about) 1100-700 : Lizardmen win. Curse you, Slaan!