Dwarfs vs. Lizardmen, 2.5k

I used Battle Chronicler to put the report together. It's a really nice application, though there are a few gotchas to it. I really like it though, get it free (!) here.

Army Lists:
Dwarfs

Core
DW1 40 Dwarf Warriors, FC, GW - 425
DW2 10 Dwarf Warriors, Musician, GW - 105
DW3 10 Dwarf Warriors, Musician, GW - 105
Hero
H1 Dragon Slayer, with RoSmiting, 2xRoInitiative 85 points

BSB with Strollaz Rune
Runesmith with MRoBalance + spellbreaker

Runesmith with MRoChallenge + spellbreaker

Runesmith with Spelleater

Special

H2 30 Hammerers, FC - 390
S1 25 Slayers + 5 Giant Slayers - 423
S2 25 Slayers + 5 Giant Slayers - 423

Lizardmen
Core 
S1 30 Skinks + 3 Kroxigors - 337 points
S2 10 Skinks 50 points
S3 10 Skinks - 50 points
SS1 7 Skink Skirmishers 70 points
SS2 7 Skink Skirmishers - 70 points
SS3 7 Skink Skirmishers - 70 points
JS1 Jungle Swarm - 45 points
JS2 Jungle Swarm - 45 points

Special 

TG 28 Temple Guard, Temple Guard - 467 points
Rare 
SHP 2 Salamander Hunting Pack - 150 points
Lord
SMPB Slann Mage-Priest BSB - 300 points
SMP Slann Mage-Priest - 275 points
Hero 
SSV 3 Saurus Scar-Veteran - 160 points

Deployment

Turn 1 - Dwarfs

Turn 1 - Lizardmen

The 3 saurus scar veterans charge the slayers, and start slowly but surely wiping them out, killing 8 this turn. The slayers score only a few wounds, all of which are saved.

The 3 units of skink skirmishers move and shoot at the warriors, amazingly they only kill 6. The warriors don't panic.

Turn 2 - Dwarfs

DW2 Dwarf Warriors on the left flank charge skink skirmishers, killing 4 and routing them. Persuit roll succeeds and runs them down.

S2 Slayers continue to take wounds, while causing none. 1+ armour save, which is re-rollable, or ward save of 4+ (depending on which veteran I target) is very hard to brea.

S1 Slayers charge the Jungle Swarm, wiping the swarm out and overrunning into the Salamander Hunting pack.

Turn 2 - Lizardmen

SS1 Skink Skirmishers kill another 3 DW2 Dwarf Warriors. The warriors do not panic though!

S2 Slayers continue to take wounds, while causing none.

S1 Slayers wipe out the Salamander pack, and overrun for a second time (!) into the Skinks. I think this was a mistake, they should have faced off against the temple guard letting DW1 get into the fight.

Turn 3 + 4 - Dwarfs

S2 Slayers continue to take wounds, while causing none. They reform into a 5x3 with remaining troops. They're not going to last much longer.

S1 Slayers wipe out the Skinks and reform to face the temple guard. They change into a 5x4 with their remaining 21 models.

Turn 4 - Lizardmen

The Scar vets and the Slaan BSB charge the warriors, and do some damage. The warriors fail to cause any wounds against the Scar Vets, but hold as they are steadfast.

Turn 5 - Dwarfs

The H2 Hammerers attempt to charge into the flank of the scar vets, but fail their required roll of a 6 with double 1's. ARGH.

DW1 continues to die slowly to the Scar Vets, they do manage to do a single wound this turn though!

The Scar vets target the BSB in the warriors, killing him very very dead.

The S1 Slayers kill a few of the Temple Guard, but take more wounds themselves. The Slayers went with GW's for this combat (since the combat started that is).

Turn 5 - Lizardmen

The BSB Slaan finally gets a spell off (up until now, the Dwarfs have used roughly a scroll a turn, even with RoBalance and 3 Runesmiths for 3 dispell dice, it's hard to handle a +4 caster). The Slaan has previously been using death magic spells which targetted the BSB in the unit, leadership tests for wounds and damage.

He casts Purple Sun (ARGH!) and it side swipes the DW1 Warriors, and the Hammerers. It lifts about 13 warriors and 16 hammerers.

The Scar Vets finish off the Warriors, the Slaan BSB persues and catches them to wipe them.

The swarm chaff moves in front of the hammerers to block any charges.

Turn 6 - Dwarfs

The H2 Hammerers charge and destroy the Jungle swarm, but the overrun angle means they can't make contact with any other units. Instead the Hammerers reform to avoid any flank charges.

Turn 6 - Lizardmen

The Lizardmen finish off the slayers, but don't charge the hammerers - playing it safe and not wanting to lose any points.

What worked well:

My measuring tape...

My first overrun into the chaff which lined me up nicely with the salamanders.

I like Slayers being unbreakable, but they don't seem quite choppy enough on their own. They did take 3 full turns (~6 turns of combat) to be destroyed by the 3 [SSV] Saurus Scar Veterans, which kept the SSV's away from other more fleshy things.

What didn't work well:

Not having cannons:
I couldn't deal with the 3 Scar Veterans, just couldn't scratch them.

Cannons would probably have dealt with two of them. But taking cannon against 25 scouting skinks that can throw out 50 poisoned shots every turn, means I'd be lifting any cannons pretty quick.

I kept forgetting about the Rune of Challenge, though the Runesmith with it was in the Hammerer unit and couldn't have done much. 

Mental Note: Rune of challenge could be used on chaff which is about to block your unit, to get the chaff to charge or flee during opponents turn. It might be a bit of a waste using it on chaff, but if it means your unit gets a decent charge into an important spot the next turn, then it is worth it.

What I would do differently: 

I was overeager. "RAWR! I have teh Strollaz! I must run as fast as I can at you and do DAMAGE!"

He had no warmachines, and a bunch of shooting which was concentrating on my 10 warriors, I didn't really need to run ahead quite as fast. It's just so tempting when you take Strollaz, to use it.

Dawn attack really screwed my hammerer and warrior unit. They were pretty much out of the battle (though double 1's didn't help for their charge!). I outnumbered the lizards unit to unit, I should have waited in the centre while I brought the Hammerers over to somewhere usable.

Next time, if I know a unit is a bit fooked, I might leave my BSB behind the unit before they charge / get charged. The BSB can be picked out by death magic anyway - though I would be exposing the BSB to a hail of skink fire. It might be worth it for the Runesmith though. They're really just there for the dispel dice, and suck in combat.

I still feel like this slayer build could work, but I'm missing the Anvil. It's just so...expensive, and vulnerable.
This slayer list will be back, I'm not done with it yet. No sir.