Lizards vs Empire

We played a spur-of-the-moment game of Age of Sigmar this past Saturday.  We didn't do any planning or preparation - just "hey, wanna play?" "sure!"

We finally decided to try out the points values from the new General's Handbook and went with Empire vs Lizardmen which would prove to be interesting because we hadn't really given the Lizardmen a true run through.

We used the points as a "framework" to guide us for the army sizes. The armies weren't perfectly matched - we played about 1100 points, give or take a few. More thoughts on that later.
We played the Blood and Glory scenario with 4 objectives in each quarter of the table.
One thing to note - when we set up the army lists, I accidentally paid the points for the Empire general on griffon (not the general on pegasus...which doesn't have points in the GHB).   We realized this after deployment, so we talked about either the Empire removing the griffon and adding more units, or just bumping a few of the lizardmen units up to balance it out.  I recommended this approach because I had a sense that the griffon was a little too powerful for such a small battle, given recent experience with with an Orc Shaman on a Wyvern...(to the recent detriment of the Rookie Wargamer).  In the end, we decided to reinforce some of the lizardmen units instead of adding units after deployment.

deployment overhead shots

Empire deployed with a heavy left flank

chameleon skinks used hidden deployment...

saurus and kroxigors

The skink priest general hanging out in the trees

The kroxigors swarmed the Empire general on the Griffon/Pegasus.
Updated: I almost forgot to mention that we had back-to-back double turns!  The Lizardmen finished deployment first so had the option and made the Empire go first.  After the first turn completed, the Lizardmen won the initiative roll and got the double turn.  This is what allowed them to swarm the empire general on the griffon.  Then after the second turn, the Empire got the double turn.  Bam!

 The empire general barely survived this encounter, taking 7 wounds in the initial combat and then deciding to fly away and retreat from combat.  Of course, we had Monty Python's Holy Grail playing in the background, and Sir Robin had also decided to "bravely run away" at the exact same time...


Few turns later, the Pistoliers and rest of the left flank shot the swarm of snakes off the far objective, but then the Saurus block made a right turn and swarmed them.  They were annihilated.

The crossbowmen helplessly watch the slaughter from a distance

the left flank after the pistoliers were removed to the dead pile on the left

 Back on the right flank, the chameleon skinks (no longer pictured) had popped up and basically shot the greatswords off the table, with only 2 left. The greatswords turn around and charged the chameleons, with support from the general. These were wiped out.  The kroxigors surged forward and captured the abandoned objective, securing a minor victory for the Lizardmen.

the final look at the battlefield

Final result after 3 turns (or four; i forget): minor victory for the Lizardmen!  They controlled 3 of the 4 objectives. We took a look at the state of the battlefield to see if there was any chance for a draw or a minor victory if we had played another turn or two. In all likelihood the results wouldn't change so we called the match.

It was a super-fun game - probably one of the funnest games of AoS I've ever played.  I think it might have been a combination of factors: the framework from the GHB (reasonably balanced armies, not perfect, but reasonable); Lizardmen were a fun army to play against, they have some interesting rules, and they're really, really tough so the present a different tactical challenge; and the smaller sized armies that we used.  Something tells me that AoS really shines when using smaller sized armies.  They were just big enough that we had plenty of tactical challenges, but not too big that they were cumbersome to use.

Anyway, it was a great game and I can't wait to play again.  I also need to add a few things to this army...