1500 vs Lizardmen- close battle

[Fuzzydeath]

My army:
Death Hag w Rune of Khaine and Manbane, Cauldron (general)
Death Hag w Rune of Khaine and Manbane, BSB (Fear Banner)
Assassin w xhw, Rending Stars and Manbane (in Shades)

Core:
19 Spearelves w shields, full cmd (hosting BSB)
15 RXB w shields
5 Harpies

Special:
10 Shades w XHW
5 CoK w full cmd (Ring of Hotek)
10 Executioners w champ

His army:
Skink chief general on Stegadon (w spear of doom-y impact hits)
Skink char hero leading Pteranadons
Skink shaman on Stegadon w Engine of the Gods

3 swarms of 15 skinks w blowguns
3 Pteranadon riders
2 Razorbeasts w handling pack

Deployment:
I successfully tricked him into 'screwing over' my 'obvious' artillery and shooty strongpoints by putting woods near them. I furthermore stymied approaches to (and more importantly, FROM) that side with plenty of walls. I won the roll to set up first, but had I lost I'm sure he would have taken 'my' side I set up for him to deny me from having it. It worked out nicely that he had to deal with a DZ with awkward routes of egress while having plenty of places to put my scouts for early bushwhacking.

But despite swindling my opponent into taking the bad side, he did put me on my heels before the game even began. His skinks were in a line across the entire table, with the 2 stegadons on either flank. My Spearelves formed my strong center, with RXBs on their left and Execs on their right. The CoKs lined up in an attempt to sweep up a Skinky flank, which proved to be well anchored with characters dropped... When it came time to deploy my scouts, I saw that my stegadon-killing assassin could in no way deal with both of them. Since I had CoKs opposite one, the scouts would go to deal with the other lest it roll up my otherwise vulnerable flank.

Round 1: My opponent wins initiative, which makes me glad I placed my scouts back away from the pteranadons instead of going for the cheesy round 1 charge.

His Stegadons lumber forward and begin to pincer my army, each shadowed by a skink swarm with the other 2 swarms covnerging on my center. He gets off a comet of casandora smack in the middle of my army, which I prove to have been unwise in putting my CoKs too far off to the side- it would have otherwise been a miscast thanks to the Ring.

The comet doesn't explode, so I begin to move out with a sense of purpose. Unfortunately my CoKs are stupid, and in my rush to move out I forget to use my Cauldron. I advance my cauldron straight ahead, ending up directly on the comet's impact point. (maybe it will catch and extinguish the falling star, harmlessly!) My RXBs wheel to face the left Stegadon, and when they open fire they score 1 wound that sticks. My Spearelves and Execs advance into the center, waiting to see what happens with my shades. They light up the stegadon, but the dice are not with me as the assassin only scores 1 wound on the monster.

Round 2: Comet still doesn't explode.
His stegadon charges my shades, who gamely stand and shoot. His other stegadon marches again, menacing my CoKs but a wall seperates our units and prevents the relatively short distance from being charge-able. His Pteranadons fly into a wood inside my deployment zone and his skinks march into missile range of my melee center. The Skink shaman uses his Uranon's Thunderbolt on my CoKs, and scores a misfire, wiping all spells in play off the board (whew!) I find out to my displeasure the 'impact' of that war spear, and the shades are decimated to a man by the impact hits. The assassin gets to attack back, and he deals 2 more wounds, well short of enough to kill the thing. He's slain by the melee strikes, and the Stegadon blows thru into my Executioners.

This time I remember to use the cauldron- Ward saves for the Execs! The CoKs aren't stupid this time, and they reform, figuring the stegadon still can't reach due to the wall in the way. My Spearelves right face to line up for a juicy flank charge into the Stegadon, or at least its attending skink swarm tailing it. My cauldron moves laterally behind the Execs, in case they bolt the beast will hit them and stay chargeable by my warriors. My RxBs kill 2 crewskinks off the Engine of the Gods, but the stegadon itself escapes without further injury. My harpies interpose themselves between my RxBs and the Stegadon, tailing skinks, and razordon pack. When it comes to melee, the execs suffer too many casulaties (champ was deliberately picked off, too) and they get no strikes back. They're outweighed by a terrorcauser- need snakes to stay! I get it! I'm feeling not so put off by the dice now after my assassin blew the cheese.

Round 3:
Stegadon w Engine of the Gods moves nice and close to my CoKs, while the one with the Impact Spear of Doom is locked up in melee with my Execs, and looking to be done in by my block of spearelves. So his skink swarms focus fire on my spearelves, and I manage to panic and flee. Uh oh, nothing stopping the Stegadon now.. His Pteranadons loop around over my CoKs and drop rocks on their heads, killing 1 knight. His engine unleashes fire on my harpies and CoKs.. my harpies panic and flee while the CoKs are unhurt. Annoyed by this, my opponent unleashes another Uranon's Thunderbolt at my knights- and it misfires again! His skink shaman suffers a wound, and his razordon pack proves to be too far away from my CoKs to breathe fire upon them.
When it comes to melee, his Stegadon kills enough Executioners again that they have no strikes back- and this time they flee. The stegadon follows thru into my Cauldron, but the 3 surviving Executioners escape.

In the bottom of the round, my Knights are blissfully not stupid on this critical charge round. The cauldron gives them bonus attacks, and all 3 of my fleeing units rally. My CoKs charge the Stegadon, having to forfeit their charge bonuses due to the wall. They direct all their attacks on the shaman, who they kill. The crew and stegadon botch their rolls and cause no wounds- I win combat thanks to the standard. The stegadon furthermore botches the leadership check (general is on other side of the board) and away it goes, to be run down by my pursuing CoKs. They blow thru into the skink swarm shadowing that Stegadon, who react by fleeing and are not caught. On the other front, both of the attending hags are killed by the brutish 2d6+1 impact hits, but the General herself lives thru everything to attack back. I unwisely decide to gamble and direct 2 attacks at the character riding the stegadon, to be resolved after my 6 attakcs on the beast itself. I cause no wounds, and lose combat. Lose frenzy, but stayed in combat.

Round 4:
His fleeing skinks rally, but my CoKs are hot on their heels. His Razordon pack moves alongside my CoKs to rain fire. His Pteranadon riders charge the flank of my stretched out RxBs, and his skink swarms move about to gain shots on my infantry as I bring them back into the battle. His razordons breathe on my Knights, killing another one. The high init on my general allows her to go first, and this time I don't take any chances. All the attacks go to the stegadon, and she brings it down. The skink hero doesn't do any damage back, and flees from combat. My RXBs end up trading wounds and losing combat by 1, but remain stalwart and locked in combat.

I decide to gamble on getting my execs into combat with one of those skink swarms, so I have the cauldron give them the ward save. But the stand and shoot ends up killing all 3 anyway. The CoKs are too close to their prey to suffer a stand and shoot, and the combat goes as one would predict. No Knights killed, skinks routed and enslaved. My Cauldon moves brazenly amid the skink swarms, subjecting both to terror.

Round 5:
The skink swarm about to double-team my RxBs fall victim to the cauldron's terror, but the other does not. The hero rallies as well. His Razordons continue to chase my rampaging CoKs, breathing fire harmlessly again. His last remaining skink swarm joins up with his dismounted hero and they pepper my general- after 30 shots she suffered a single wound, much to my opponent's disgust. My RXBs score another wound and elminate one of the Riders before they can swing.. the melee is a draw this round!

One round too late, I break my BSB out of the Spearelves and march her into a charging position on the Pteranadon riders. If I had done that last round, she'd be eating their lunch right now.. The CoKs reform and face the razordons. My RxBs lose combat again by 1, but again the plucky elves stay in combat.

Round 6:
His fleeing skinks fail to rally, and effectively are removed from the game.
My opponent charges his hero out of the skink swarm into the other flank of my RxBs. His razordons light up my CoKs, killing one and finally whittling me down to just the champ left.. and his skink swarm tries to get that final wound on my general. He ends up getting 4 wounds to allocate to her, but I make all 4 ward saves and greatly frustrate my opponent. Howver my RxBs finally fold and are run down by the pteranadon riders.

My CoK isn't stupid this turn, and I decide I shouldn't be either. He'll just sit out the last turn of the game and NOT provoke a stand and shoot from 2 razordons. Unfortunately my non-stupidity proves to be temporary, and my eyes get the better of me. I convince myself that my BSB has 10" to the pteranadons still, so she gets the Ward Save from the Cauldron. She charges, and comes up almost an entire inch short. She suffers a wound from THAT stand and shoot, and I hand over over 100 points for 50% wounds on that model. Merry Christmas.

Tallying points: He can claim a corner, I killed his general. 100 points even. After tallying up the troops, the score worked out to a draw:

Lizardmen 1052, Dark Elves 1025