Fall of the Old Ones

It was over.
Gorthmaw slid his blade out of the back of the Saurus Oldblood, and turned to survey the battlefield. All around he could see his beast herds harassing the few bands of lizardmen still alive. Most of them were dead though, and Gorthmaw was pleased...

It was a interesting battle, we played a pitched battle of 2250 points: Sean had decided to change the way his army worked, and plonked for more infantry units. Here's his rough list:
- Characters: Oldblood, Scar veteran, Scar Veteran Battle Standard, Skink Shaman.
- Units: 4 units of 20 Saurus, 2 Salamanders, 3 Kroxigor, 6 Chameleon Skinks, 10 Skinks and 5 Saurus Cavalry.

I changed my style of play too for my beastmen: I decided to change the composition of my army, deciding to forsake individual unit sizes for more smaller units, added more punch by adding characters to my herds. Here's what I had:
- Characters: Beastlord, Wargor, Wargor Battle Standard, Bray Shaman.
-Units: 4 units of Beast Herds, 3 Chariots, 4 Minotaurs, 7 Centigor, 12 Bestigor, 3 Dragon Ogres, 2 units of 5 Warhounds, 1 Chaos Spawn.

It was during one crucial turn that killed the Lizardmen. With 3 of the Saurus units deployed in a line supporting each other, stretching from one edge of the flank to the centre of the battlefield, it would be hard to find a way through. Deciding to send in a sacrificial wave to do as much damage as possible, I bravely advanced my Centigor and one unit of Warhounds towards the Lizardmen line, exposing them to wicked Salamander fire.

In one turn of shooting, 4 Centigor were reduced to burning horses carcasses... In order to get the charge in, I had to make a spate of leadership tests (now I know why Beastmen are tough to use). Fortunately, my Beastlord was nearby, making my leadership an impressive 8! First my Centigors had to pass a panic test, which they did! Then they had to pass a fear test to charge the Salamanders, which they did again! And finally I also charged my Warhounds into the Salamanders, this time the Beastlord was to far away to holler at them, so the dogs had to pass on leadership 5... which they did!!!! hahaha, I rolled a 4.
What happen later was bizarre, the combined charge broke the Salamanders (interesting because he had a BSB nearby), and it caused one of the Saurus units nearby to panic! Yay!

Sadly for Sean, as he picked up his 3 dice to rally the Saurus, the fleeing unit was within 12 inches of my ambushing Wargor who was carrying the Bloodhunt Horn, which I used to make his Saurus fail his rally test! And that left a massive gap in his battleline, considering it was the unit in the middle of the three that ran away.

In true Beastmen fashion, the gap was exploited as the Beastlord with his accompanying beast herd skirmished their way through... Sean's main unit of Saurus with the oldblood was then charged with the Minotaurs in the front, Beastlord and Beast Herd in the flank, Wargor and Beast Herd in the rear... it's good enough to say it was a sad day, ten Saurus were slain in one brutal charge.

His third unit was bullied by the Shaman and BSB led Beast Herd and 2 centigor in the front, and a tuskgor chariot in the rear... He did much better losing only 4 Saurus to the whole attack, but by some twist of fate he failed his break test again, despite needing to roll 6 or under. With 3 dice. With rerolls from his battle standard.

On the other flank, Sean had a unit of Saurus and Saurus Cavalry. But they were held in check by the Dragon Ogres. Seeing his other flank threatened (this happened after the middle Saurus fled, but before being exploited), he advanced his units. Only for his Cavalry to be charged by the Dragon Ogres. In one round of magnificent thumping, none of the Saurus Cavalry were left alive...

So all in all, the Lizardmen surrendered the field by my turn 4, and I went first! Hahaha!

Bwaaaaaa! Beware the sounding of the Bray horns!