Doubles Story - Written by Sean Smaker

The ruins were overgrown with the tendrils of the jungle.  Sounds of splitting rock and stone filled the halls of the small Lizardmen outpost.  The temple was empty, save for the mage priest motionless in meditation as he had been for the last century.  Suddenly, and quickly, the Slann’s eyes ripped open as if torn awake from a nightmare.  The sky turned black covered in unnaturally dark clouds.  Green glows appeared in the sky like torches in the mist.  Large cracks filled the air that shook the ground as each glow tore open giving birth to rocks falling from the sky.  These unworldly glowing green stones struck the ground with such force and resonance that it threatened the integrity of the small temple.  Immediately skinks filled the great mage priests chamber, rushing him out of the temple, just as hundreds of the warpstones meteors impacted the great pieces of stone turning them to dust.  Just as quickly as the sky had eaten the outpost, so did the storm subside, and a terrifying silence fell over the ruins.  The mist of the jungle was replaced with green ash from the incinerated comets.  The mage-priest and his followers were saturated with the power of the dark heavens.  Infused with the power of warpstone flowing through his body, the past, present, and future seemed so easy to see, in the mind of the mage-priest. The great plan of the old ones was clear.  The slann took his followers and left the decimated temple.  He would take his army across the lands as a wave of death killing all the leaders of the world, like cutting the head off a great serpent.

It had been nearly 300 years since the warp storm.  Loq-Kai, as his followers had called him, meaning ancient death, had killed hundreds of generals and wizards, and thousands of mortals and monsters.  The mage-priest and his army rested after a long battle against a vampire lord and his unnatural horrors.  Loq-Kai sat up in his palanquin made from the bones of his enemies and looked toward the East.  He felt something familiar as if remembering a dream.  The ground began to shake and a resonance filled the air.  Out of the forest burst swarms of Skaven riding mutated rat wolves and herding tortured hydras, charging across the opening toward the Slann.  Above the tree line flowed a wave of flying rat monstrosities, like water running over a stone.  Loq-Kai closed his eyes and reached into the minds of the enemy leaders, seeing their entire lives in an instant.  He began an incantation as he always had before every battle.  It was a dark spell that ripped the bones out of the body, like pulling a rock out of a shallow stream.  He stopped, seeing something in the mind of the enemies dark wizard, and opened his eyes as the vile skaven drew near.  The leader bore a scar across his face.  Two cuts originating from his left eye.  The twin tailed comet?  Loq-Kai had seen a second coming of the heavenly body.  Was this the familiar feeling pouring over him?  Just as the mage-priest stopped his dark chant, the thunder of the Eshin army stopped, as if the rat leader had given the order directly to the minds of his followers.  Curled faces of the skaven began sniffing the air drawn to something.  The essence of warpstone was still in the blood of Loq-Kai’s army, no less so then the day of the storm almost 300 years ago.  The leaders of both armies cautiously entered the small opening between the battle lines.  Loq-Kai fought his urge to tear the rats body into pieces, as he was there hundreds of years ago when the skaven tore the jungles of Lustria and the poisonous swamps turned the skaven into plague fouled creatures of horror.  But this rat had a different essence.  The leader had never been to lustria and has sworn off the council of the thirteen, bent on greed, and destruction of his brethren.  The two powerful sorcerers of death struck an unlikely alliance.  The rat, for reasons of power, and feeling the aura of warpstone from the mage-priest, and Loq-Kai seeing the scar on the face of the rat resembling the twin tailed comet, believing this rat to be the one to aid him in the destruction of the other races, cleansing the planet, and returning it to a sanctity for the old ones.  Whether or not the alliance would last would be something the slann would have to meditate on.  However, one thing would be for certain, tens of thousand more would fall to the tide of death brought about by the two dark leaders.

Adepticon – Doubles – Introduction

This event was 1200 points per player doubles event.  There were no lords allowed and no special characters.  Also, magic items could not be duplicated, nor could BSB.  The normal doubles rules were used, but deployment was done 1 drop per player per turn.  We also did one scout and one vanguard per player per turn, though those weren’t in the rules specifically.

All the terrain was fixed, and pretty much the same per table, with two forests, two hills, 1 impassible or water feature and 1 building (though on some it was a pyramid people tended to use as a third hill).

The points break down was 20 per game with a 20 for win, 13 for draw and 7 for loss breakdown.  There were also up to 3 points for both Battle and Objectives per mission.  There was a 12 point for the event reward for taking different contingents, 12 points for having a story that matched your army (worth only 3 with an unmatched story), 30 for sports and 25 for appearance.

I didn’t see any combinations on display that I didn’t want to play against, though there were a few that I thought would be rough, such as the double organ gun, triple bolt thrower dwarf/high elf pair.  Sean didn’t think that such a list would bother us though.

All forests were mysterious.

This was Sean and my third team event.  For the event we used a story that Sean had written for a previous event that required a story.  It’s one I’m sure we will continue to use as long as we are team Double Death.

Here are some pics of what is the best army I have EVER seen.  They were running it as Chaos Dwarves and Skaven.

Hobby Update - Night Runner Army

Here is a quick update of what will be a night runner themed army.  The picture includes the entire list, including the things that are already painted.  I finished the assembly last night.  I'll be breaking it down into more managable painting sections, but this was just me making sure I had all the models I needed assembled and ready to go.

Adepticon - Arrival

The trip to Adepticon was fraught with trials.  Getting to the airport was smooth.  Thanks to my wife for giving me a ride, and picking up two of my group on the way.  As much as they complained about the flight not being ‘direct,’ the stop in LA did not actually require us to get off the plan and only added time to our trip.  And let’s be clear, that time didn’t matter as they closed the Chicago airport.  Yup, we didn’t go to Chicago, we went to Indianapolis.  Not even in the same time zone, though only a 45 minute drive away.  Initially we were given an unknown time to leave Indianapolis, and we considered making the drive.  But as it was a 5 hour drive, even a 4 hour wait would see us arriving at the same time.

 In the end we were able to get into Chicago a little over 5 hours later then we were supposed to, but that was fine as we got our luggage and didn’t have any plans that evening that we missed.  We ran into Justin of Secret Weapon Miniatures and he was kind enough to not only join us in our limo, but pay the cost.

 Last year Adepticon was only three days, with the Friday having 2 1000 point events and a 3000 point event, Saturday being the 2400 main event and Sunday being the team event.  This year they expanded to 4 days shifting the 2 1000 point events to Thursday, the team event to Friday and leaving the weekend of an expanded singles event.  The 3000 point event was not kept.  Last year I didn’t play in the team event as I didn’t have a partner, but played in one of the 1000 points and the singles.  This year, I was planning on the team event and the singles event.  I therefore decided to not play in either of the 1000 point events as I wanted the day to recover from the flight, check in with friends and hit up the vender hall.

 Next year I will just play.

The same weather system delayed many of my friends from arriving on Thursday.  Also, for some stupid reason, the vender hall wasn’t open.  That left me without much to do after I slept it (which was nice).  I think next year I will play in at least the afternoon 1000 point – assuming I go back (which I want to).  I still won’t play if they put in a 3000 point event, but defiantly the singles and doubles events.  I’m actually finding that I’m starting to love doubles events.

The weather was so bad, that I was woken (for the first time) at 4:00 am with an area flood warning.  I would continue to get these warnings every few hours through Thursday and in early Friday morning.  I guess the rain and thunder had streets flooded and sinkholes causing massive damage.  Nothing that affected the hotel though.

 We were in the same room again this year as we were last year.  I think it’s a great space, and this year we didn’t have to share it with any other events.  I hope next year they keep expanding the fantasy event, and that people keep signing up.

I have to note.  As I write this post, the Adepticon list of posts just keeps expanding, and is becoming a quite daunting task.  Expect these to be interrupted with other posts as they filter in over the next few months.  Odds are I will power through and write them all, and then just set them up for automatic posting.  I will be delaying battle reports for hobby updates – after all, it just doesn’t make sense to have 5 stored up hobby posts all at once a few weeks after the event I built them for has been played.  Battle reports on the other hand age must better – after all, a game is a game is a game no matter when played.

Hobby Update – Warp-Grinder

And here are my attempts at Warp-Grinders, the worst by the rules itemin the Skaven book.  This stupid teamcould easily have been a great addition to the game.  But as it is the last item in the book Idon’t have, I figured it was time to build some.  So I have started to build 6, alongside thenight runners (since that is the unit it goes with).

 

I have used the master mouldor from the Isle of Blood starter set.  When this model came out I saw it and knewthis is the use I wanted to utilize it for. So I stocked 3.  That was 3 yearsago, and when I finally decided it was time to start the project I lookedthrough my stuff and couldn’t find them. So I scrapped, scrounged, traded and purchased my way into 6.  Unfortunately one of them had already beenpainted, though I hadn’t been told that when the trade was arranged.  But no sweat, a little stripping and it wouldwork.  Hopefully the re-spraying willhelp cover up the rest without destroying the final product.

 

For the generators, I used 2 extra Isle of Blood backpacks I hadn’t puton their warlock engineers.  I would haveloved to use this for all 6, but I didn’t have enough.  What I did have were 4 metal engines I hadpurchased a few years ago to be used to make doom flayers, before I purchased aconversion from Blue Table (I did paint them myself though).  In order to make them look like they werebeing carried, I made what will be leather straps out of plastic card.

 

These models will be painted alongside the night runners probably.  Yay massive chain painting.

 

Pic showing the metal engine i used.

 

 

Pic showing the inprogress of the straps.

 

The four i got mostly assembled before having to stop and ship out for adepticon.  My return shall first involve finishing the assembly of the 6 warp-grinders.

Hobby Update – Night Runners

If you look at my skaven collection, I figure I have around 20,000points before magic items and only minor unit upgrades.  From these points I can put on the table anyunit except for a Warp-grinder.  As theseare horrible I don’t feel bad about it. This doesn’t mean however that I can make any list, as some of theselections I am limited in what I can put on the table.  For QCR 2012 I had built and painted 20 nightrunners when I ran 2 units of 10.  Manyof these night runners had since been taken for use as gutter runners/shades.  But 2 units of 10 is not enough, and so Idecided I needed a few more.  I took anight runner box I already had in my ‘stash’ and added another night runner boxand 10 clan rats.  I then mixed up theparts, added a few extra slings I had from previous night runner boxes, shookthe whole thing up and ‘presto’ 6 units of 20 night runners.

 

If only it were that simple.

 

To fill in those 50 models, I added a few others I hadpre-assembled.  A couple of years ago,and in the time since I have tried to keep an eye out for the clan rat/nightrunner models as they are of an older generation.  This project used up a good portion of thosemodels, at least the ones that haven’t been soaking for over a year to bestripped.

 

Over a week I clipped, cleaned and in general got the night runnerparts ready.  I also begged, traded andbummed various bits from my friends and club mates for the conversions I had inmind.  What I wanted was lots of lights,lanterns, candles, etc.  And yes did itwork.  I actually have a few left overfor expansion to the project.

 

In order to have a more fluid unit, and to not have to deal with thedreaded ranking issues, I decided to not actually put 20 guys into my units of20.  I decided that 14 gave a good amountof fluidity to the units, while still leaving enough differences in base sizesto pull wounds off as needed.  Every unitgo one 4x1 I had stashed from some of the early boxes of these clan rats, one40mm and three 2x1, which I created over a few days with various kinds of glue(super to hold, plastic to firm up) and then contour putty to fill in thegaps.  Hopefully once painted they willlook like 1 base without that much difference.

 

I have included a few pictures at various levels of assemble.  I was supposed to go to a tournament thatday, but as it was a 2 hour drive each way and they told me it would probablyhave less than 5 players I decided to skip and go with this instead.  I feel I would have gotten farther, fasterbut my house decided to have a sewage issue and that ended up taking a goodamount of my attention.  I didn’t sleepwell Saturday night, so early Sunday I was up and finishing the project.

 

I figure I will start painting them after I return from Adepticon.

These two pictures are close ups of the units.  You can see the 'stashed' rats already assembled, or mostly along with my additions on non-20mm bases.

Shot of all 6 units with legs.

Bodies

Heads

just slings and torch conversions

All Right arms

All Arms

 

Completed

Adepticon – Delayed posting

I have blown through most of my stash of pre-written posts (SAWS listwill wait until closer to SAWS).  Iexpected the Reno event to be there to post about while at Adepticon and whilewriting the post-Adepticon posts.  Now thatI have a hobby project I’m working on, I will try to fill some space withboring shots of half painted clan rats, but expect possible delays in postingsas I sort through my notes and pictures and get the 8 battle reports I need towrite for Adepticon, well, written. Based on the frequency I post (and expected hobby update interruptions),I expect the Adepticon posts to last most of May and will then be followed bythe SAWS posts.

Next Steps – Adepticon – 2400 Points

For Adepticon, I’m making some slight alterations to the list (besides dropping 100 points). This event is a 20/0 system, like the CoCs. Unlike the CoCs there is no composition score and all special characters are welcome. I’m going to hope for mainly soft wins, though against certain armies (and my wizard not killing herself) I have shown that I can push through to a cleared table. What I’m thinking is as follows:

Supreme Sorceress, Level 4, Lore of Death, Lifetaker, Pendant of Khaeleth, Tome of Furion (no change)

Sorceress, Level 2, Lore of Metal, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon (drop mask, add icon)

Master, BSB, heavy armor, sea dragon cloak, repeater crossbow, black dragon egg, charmed shield, dragonbane gem, warrior bane (no change)

4 units of 6 dark rider, banner, musician, crossbows (one less unit)

2 units of 9 shades, additional hand weapons (upped units to 9)

2 Hydras (no change)

2 Assassins, rending stars, manbane (dropped cloak of shadows and hand of khain).

So the big change in the unit is the loss of the fifth unit of dark riders for the increased wounds on the shades. Coincidently, this raises unit cost to the exact same as a unit of dark riders, though there will not be a chance of my dropping one for another unit of dark riders. I think that the increased wounds will give the Assassin the longer support that he requires, both in terms of killing monsters and in combat, but also keeping the Assassin as a skirmisher. The loss of the cloak and hand were happening either way, as I never actually used them – and not because I forgot. They just weren’t worth it.

I also dropped the terrifying mask of eee! I still like the idea of it in the list, and feels it has a place, but unfortunately I had to cut something to make the points work out. The list is still 7 points shy, and I’m debating between upgrading the Master’s weapon to either causing fear or always wounding on 5s or just leaving him with minimal magic attacks and not giving up the extra 5 points should he die. I would love to give him sword of striking to give him a chance to hit on 2s with hatred, but am unwilling to drop something for the extra 5 points. In the end I think I’ll probably switch to the always wound on 5s over causing fear, after all, he’s designed to kill monsters and wounding on 6s is worse than hitting on 5s with hatred.

Adepticon doesn’t require lists to be submitted early, so I’m free to change the list as I like until the day of.

Davis Doubles - Wrap-up

A strong event, putting us only 3 battle points down from maximum andthe only undefeated team.  The trick leftwas that our comp needed to be good enough to not drop us 8 points (though Ithink we may have had it either way, I’m not sure).  In the end it turns out we were -2, meaningtwo of our opponents rated us the hardest they played for the weekend.  We also got ‘fluff crusher’ as the worstmatch up.  While I admit that Lizards andDark Elves or even Lizards and Skaven is horribly fluff crushing, I don’t thinkit warranted higher than the Vampire and Tomb Kings pair.  Oh well. A top placement for us, and I believe Sean’s first.

 

With three more wins it puts my dark elf record at 14w/5l/0d.

Davis Doubles – Round 3 – Tom/Mark – Chaos Dwarves/Vampire Counts

Top table, and two solid players with a good list:

 

Sorcerer, Level 3, Talisman of Preservation, Lore of Hasut

Vampire Lord, Level 1, Sword of Striking, Enchanted Shield, Talisman ofEndurance, The Other Trickster’s Shard, Beguile

 

Sorcerer, Level 2, Chalice of Blood and Darkness, Lore of Fire

Dark Castellan, Enchanted Shield

Vampire, Level 2, Warrior Bane, Dragonhelm, Dispel Scroll, Luckstone

Cairn Wraith

Cairn Wraith

 

24 Infernal Guard, full command

30 Skeletons, full command, shields

31 Skeletons, full command, shields

 

2 Deathshrieker Rocket Launchers

 

Magma Cannon

Terrorgheist, Rancid Maw

 

This mission was dawn attack, with us deploying first.  I think our list is primed for this mission,as we don’t have any unit that relies on another…with one exception.  It’s really nice to have my general near myhydra to give it that slight boost to its leadership when it gets screamed at.

Sorry for the first few pics being upside down, not sure why that happened...something about how i held my phone i'm sure.

 

For our deployment we put a dark rider unit on the left, then bothunits of terradons, lots of skinks, hydra center behind some more skinks,flamers on the right center and right with the last two units of dark riders oneither side of the center/right line. The magical forest in our deployment was poison in combat and dangerousterrain tests.  My caster hid behind theimpassible terrain within 12” of the hydra.

Theydeployed infernal guard with level 3 and castellan on the left, then the threewarmachines behind a water feature.  Thenthe vampires clustered on the right center with the level 2 chaos dwarf wizardstuck in the right flank behind.  We putthe shades on the hard right flank to move behind the infernal guard to thewarmachines and put up all the chameleons to be able to pepper theterrorgheist.  At the very minimum itwould discourage it from moving up to the hydra (which was deployed just out of28”.  They failed to roll a 6 and we gotthe first turn (after vanguarding strong on both flanks).

For our first turn the army advances aggressively.  A 3 LM/4 DE PD versus 5 DD magic phase puts a48” Doom and Darkness on the terrorgheist, to further discourage it from tryingto fly up for the advancing hydra.  Theshades put 1 wound on a Deathshrieker, after having him make 3 6+ saves.  We also put 5 wounds on the terrorgeist, whomanages to make more than average saves.

On their turn 1, the infernal guard charges the dark riders which fleethrough the impassible terrain (and sees 4 Dark riders dying).  The vampire blocks charge chameleons, whichflee to safety.  Magic phase doesn’t doanything but heal a wound to the terrorgiest on a 3 PD, 0 LM/1 DE DD magicphase.  The scream kills 1chameleon.  The Deathshriekers miss thehydra and then roll a 1 to wound.  Themagma cannon kills 4 of 5 chameleons, causing them to panic.

 

Our turn 2, and the first terradon unit fails tocause a wound to the level 2 (which is booking it to the warmachines).  The shades and shooting continues toadvance.  A 3 LM/3 DE PD versus 5 DDmagic phase allows a spirit leech to kill the terrorgheist.  The hydra walks up and flames the general’sunit killing 22 skeletons (hits 22 and wounds them all!) leaving 3 in theunit.  The shades kill the firstwarmachine.

Their turn 2 and a cairn wraith charges out of the general’s unit andinto the hydra.  The level 2 charges theterradons. An 8 PD, 3 LM/2 DE DD magic phase puts a wound on the assassin, withthe dispel dice being saved to successfully prevent the undead regrowing theircrippled unit.  Shooting kills 8 skinksin 1 unit, and a handler.  Terradons whiffin combat and run off the table after losing to charge.  The hydra also loses by charge only and getsrun down by the wraith.

 

Turn 3 and the shades charge the magma cannon.  Magic doesn’t do anything, with theirchannels giving them more dice than us (4/4/9). Shooting kills the general, which crumbles the unit and the solo cairnwraith.  After shooting the second unitis down to 3 models, with the vampire and the second wraith.  The shades kill the magma cannon and overruninto the last warmachine.

Their turn 3 and two skink units flee from the skeletons.  Even with a strong 10/3/3 magic phase nothingimportant happens (5 raised skeletons I think, putting the unit at 10 modelsincluding vampire and wraith).  Theshades kill the warmachine and overrun into the level 2.

Our turn 4 (the first time we’ve reached turn 4) and we have nocharges.  We move to surround and finishoff the vampires unit and start moving what we can to shoot at thedwarves.  Our objectives for the missionare most expensive units from each army and each army’s general.  We’ve gotten them on the vampires, but needto wipe the infernal guard and the last caster to pick up the last two points(which we know is doubtful).  In shootingwe drop the skeletons to 1 model, but with wound allocation can’t get to thelast one.  Shades kill the caster.

Their turn 4 and another strong magic phase (9/3/3) which allows themto kill 5 of 6 dark riders.  At thispoint we call the game as we are close to time. They earned only 337 points from us while we earned 1376, giving usanother 18 points.

Davis Doubles – Round 2 – Van/Dustin – Orcs/Orcs

Round 2 and a pairing with my club mates Van and Dustin paired up withtheir Orcs.  And what a lovely list thiswas, and my lovely I really mean ‘scared the piss out of us.’  The list was as follows:

 

Night Goblin Shaman, level 4, dispel scroll, crown of command, opalamulet

Black Orc Warboss, crown of command, talisman of preservation,dragonhelm

 

Savage Orc Big Boss, charmed shield, sword of swift slaying, potion ofstrength

Night Goblin Shaman, level 2, dispel scroll, ironcurse icon

 

24 Savage Orc Boys, full command, Big ‘Uns

20 Goblins, musician, standard, shields, 2 fanatics

28 Savage Orc Boys, full command, Big ‘Uns

2 Wolf Chariots

 

8 Trolls

 

4 Mangler Squigs

4 Doom Divers

 

Like I said, nasty list.  Andextra nasty because those fanatics and manglers could wreak havoc and the doomdivers should kill a few units a turn.

 

The mission rolled for is Battle for the Pass, with the Orcs take theside of the table with the two buildings. Also in the center was another of the dice generating terrain pieces (nofactor this game) and a magical forest in our deployment, which we avoided (itwas the one where magic casting triggers an attack and a move of theforests).  They debated how to deploytheir army, and how best to keep their doom divers alive.  I think they spent way too much time on it,and in the end probably would have been better less spread out.  Instead they tried keep us from getting intheir back field and making both sides able to fight, and so accomplished aweakened line.

They deployed from left to right, a mangler and a chariot, a unit ofblack orcs as a horde with all but the little shaman in them (so doublestubborn), then the unit of goblins with the baby wizard and the trolls.  On the other side of the building was theother chariot and the other unit of savage orcs.  Also the last three manglers on theright.  The doom divers lined the back,just above the 6” march (with the special rules of the mission, anything alongthe last 6” could only shoot into the deployment zone.

 

We deployed heavy salamander on the right, then dark riders and shadesat the center with hydra and more dark riders on the left.  We left some units behind because in thismission we chose terrain pieces and units in center for our objectives.

We rolled off and got lucky to take the first turn.  We started off with the terradons moving upand killing two manglers with rocks.  Wethen angled the terradons in such a manner so that when the chariot (left) andsavage orcs (right) charged, they wouldn’t be able to go off the table, andwithout a reform would be forced to be cocked at a weird angle.  We advance along all flanks.  A magic phase of 3 LM/3 DE PD versus 4 Orc DDallowed us to put a wound on the left chariot with the fireball.  With shooting we put two more wounds on theleft chariot, killed the right chariot, put a wound on the front right manglersand killed a troll.

The Orcs started turn 1 already on tilt.  They were not happy with us taking out 2manglers and a chariot, and while they may not have wanted to charge theterradons, they couldn’t allow them to get behind the lines and thereforecharge with both units (the right unit actually failed its animosity and had tocharge, but it would have been the right call). We do kill an orc on the stand and shoot, but don’t take the last woundoff the chariot.  The hoarded orcs chargea center-ish chameleon unit in the hopes that they will flee, allowing thegoblins to launch the fanatics farther afield. We decide to hold, because the horded unit would get stuck behind thegoblins and are unable to overrun.  A 6PD, 1 LM/2 DE DD magic phase sees an irresistible casting of shroud, causing awound to the level 2.  Shooting kills 5chameleons from one unit, 1 from another and a dark rider.  The other unit of chameleons dies to combat.  Both units of terradons die as well.  The chariot on the right is able to reform,but the frenzied unit slams its face into the side.  Also, the goblins had moved up to launchfanatics, but are only able to move a few inches because of a 3” and 4” launch.

On our turn 2 and the 5 man unit of dark riders charges into the 1wound chariot.  The hopes was to movearound the frenzied savage orcs on the overrun. My caster moves up and jumps on the rear, full wound mangler squig.  It does 6 wounds and I luckily roll 3 6’s, killingmy caster.  He wasn’t effective anyways,but the points loss hurt.  I still thinkit was the correct play, and if he had lived he would have been in a primeposition for casting and charging warmachines. A phase of 2 LM/2 DE PD versus 3 Orc DD allows us to kill the lastmangler.  My hydra, having moved upflames the savage orcs, knocking half their number off.  The salamanders kill 5 off the other savageorc unit, but manage to misfire 3 times. The chariot dies to combat.

Turn 2 for the Orcs, and the manglers move back through the goblins,killing 5.  The orcs on the right reformto block off the dark riders and the unit on the right to face the hydra and toprevent maximum overrun angle.  A 5 PD, 1LM/2 DE DD magic phase sees two miscasts. First a vindictive glare that kills 1 salamander and 2 skinks off a unitand the other a casting of night shroud. The miscasts drop the level 4 to level 1, removing all spells but thelevel 6 spell and the other kills the level 2, 5 goblins and an orc.  The warmachines miss, misfire (lose a turn),and in two kits kills 5 of 6 dark riders on the right flank.

On our turn 3 and a series of charges. The hydra charges the right unit of orcs.  The single dark rider flanks the goblins,with a unit of 5 taking the front.  A 5LM/5 DE PD versus 5 Orc DD magic phase sees the orcs using their scroll on afireball casting.  Shooting does a woundon the trolls, and kills some of the hoarded orcs.  In combat, the hydra takes a wound but killsoff the orcs and the goblins all die in combat. Also, that solo chameleon moved up to block off the hoarded (now muchlonger) orc unit.

 

On Orc turn 3, the general charges out of the horded orc unit, causinga dark rider and salamander unit to flee. The trolls charge the shades, which flee to safety through a fewunits.  Even with an irresistible castingof their last spell, nothing happens in the magic phase.  Game ends 1299 to 637 to us, with all bonuspoints scored for a solid 20 battle points.