Tuesday 7 August 2018

Bring out your Lead - Friday 2018

This year I had the opportunity to play a bit of a special game, not just because it was at my first BOYL since 2014 but because I travelled up with my Dad, against whom I haven't played Warhammer in the better part of 15 years despite us both painting a significant amount of models in the interim!

Our game wasn't planned out particularly well - we did rather just throw down whatever we had, but it was a cracking day and we managed to wrap it up in a single day!



The Lizardmen army arrayed for war.



The eventual forces were my 5,000 points of Lizardmen, pygmies, zoats, slann and other odds and ends plus a friend, Kevin, who joined us with another 2,000pts of scaly creatures. This was put up against around 7,000pts of Conquistadors, aztecs and a menagerie of beasts including ogres, giant scorpions, temple dogs and hawk riders.

The rules we played, including army selection, were some indescribable mess of 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th editions with a bit of Warhammer Ancients/English Civil War thrown in for good measure and house rules to taste. All of us being out of touch and remembering things differently meant we largely made it up as much as possible so as not to be bogged down by flicking through rulebooks.

I'll post up some full army shots and some unit close-ups in the future, along with a complete set of the expanded rules we used for the Lizardmen army, but for now here's some pictures of the battle as it unfolded. Apologies that some have come out a bit blurry.

Our thanks to those who helped us out during the day to finish the game off and took command of the right flank!

Our 12'x6 table. Plenty of space to fight over.

Slann move up on the left flank, backed up by Pygmies and Culchan cavalry.
The Lizardmen centre consisted of ranks of saurus warriors and the general on palanquin.

Whilst the cavalry could be found on the right flank.

Pike being ranked up for the coming battle.

Eagle Warriors ready to get stuck in!

Zoats being re-positioned to shore up the left flank as we weren't counting on the skinks to hold out.

Conquistadors massing...

Battle is joined. The Old Blood crashes into tribesmen with Spanish muskets.

And our cavalry is intercepted by giant hawks.

Greatsword march out to meet the saurus with spears head on.

Kroxigors rout the gun crew before being destroyed by a monstrous counterattack.

Reinforcements move in to secure the flanks of the spear unit.

The lines about to clash.

"Don't shoot until you see the white's of their eyes."

The spear saurus are routed but outpace the Greatswords

On the right, the next wave of lizardmen move in.

A coordinated attack decimates the battle-standard bearer's unit, but they hold strong.

Eagle Warriors rout and run down the Slann warband.

All remaining troops are committed and the grind begins in earnest.

Eventually the tenacity of the Lizardmen was enough to hold the field. On the right flank the pike and cannons were shattered for the loss of our Oldblood on Carnosaur, all our cavalry and a significant amount of infantry. Two fresh units of muskets and a number of tribesman also held out, but were cut off from the main force and in no real position to rejoin the fight.

On the left and centre the Conquistadors were largely broken and fleeing. Where they had made headway, their pursuing units were surrounded and peppered by various skirmishers. Eventually the Greatswords and a unit of muskets were broken and fled the table and although a few units retreated in good order, they battle was largely over. This was at great cost to the Lizardmen though as we had lost all our saurus on this side of the table, all but one Zoat, the culchan cavalry, half our skirmishers and all the slann. There really wasn't much left and the scavengers would have a feast that night...

Still, the Conquistador general had successfully escaped, albeit wounded, and would no doubt be seeking revenge.

It was certainly a bloody affair and a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Hopefully this will become an annual tradition and we can try round two next year!

8 comments:

  1. Truly magnificent, I love it all :) So envious!!

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    1. Next year you'll have to join us! I think we will try and make this a Friday tradition. :)

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  2. I love your comment about the mishmash of rules. Truly Oldhammer (fun>rules)

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    1. It was a glorious mess. The Ogres with light cannons were a particularly nasty surprise though!

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  3. It was a great looking game and set the Lustrian tone nicely. :)

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    1. Come join in next year. I'm sure there would be room for some sneaky skaven...

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  4. Looks like a great battle...I love the old school lizardmen :)

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    1. Mme too. Some of them look a bit silly but I love them all. :)

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