What a Duel! Orcs & Goblins vs Lizardmen at the Foot of the Ancient Temple
What a Duel! Orcs & Goblins vs Lizardmen at the Foot of the Ancient Temple
What. A. Game. As Michał put it right after the dust settled: “what a duel that was!” And honestly, that sums it up perfectly. This was one of those battles where the table looked great, the scenario mattered, the river caused chaos, and both sides had moments to shine. And it was the first battle of the entire Border Princes Campaign!
At the foot of the Ancient Temple, 94 wounds of Orcs & Goblins faced off against 46 wounds of Lizardmen, led by a Saurus Oldblood. The greenskins had the numbers, but the cold-blooded defenders had some very nasty tricks of their own.
Stas also summed up the flow of the game with one short classic: fortune is a wheel.
Deployment by the river
The battle began with the Lizardmen advancing up to the water’s edge, effectively inviting the goblins to do the funniest possible thing and drown themselves in the river.
And from another angle, the battlefield looked fantastic. As Stas noticed, the side view even made the river look like it had a beautiful blue gradient.
Goblins forward, salamanders blazing
The goblins moved up as a living green screen for the Orc warbands behind them, pushing toward the riverbank — and straight into the threat of the fire-spitting Salamanders.
And the Salamanders really made an impression in this game. Michał came away seriously impressed by them: a ranged flaming attack out to 18 inches, hitting at Strength 4, AP -2 — basically a nasty little fireball roaming the board.
Black Orcs hit like a truck
While the goblins were busy trying not to become roasted snacks, the Black Orcs got properly stuck in and absolutely butchered 12 Saurus, losing only three models in return.
That was one of the major swings of the battle and a huge moment for the greenskin side.
The river causes trouble
The river wasn’t just scenery in this one — it shaped the battle in a big way.
One goblin unit fled so far it practically ran off the map, while another got dragged by the river toward the bridge, where it was hit in the rear by Skinks supported by Kroxigors.
This was also where some of the Lizardmen rules really stood out. Michał was especially positive about Aquatic, which let them largely ignore the river that caused the Orcs plenty of problems. He pointed out that, for example, the heavy chariot would have had to deal with dangerous terrain in there, which is exactly the sort of thing that makes a river feel meaningful instead of decorative.
Final turn drama
In the last turn, the Chariot finally finished off the Salamanders, while the fleeing goblins managed to rally. After five rounds, the battle came to an end.
And the final score?
Orcs & Goblins win, 347 to 266.
A proper scrap, and much closer in practice than the raw wound count at the start might have suggested.
Treasure in the temple
As a final little bit of post-battle comedy, the Orc Bigboss found a Magic Familiar in the temple.
Which would be a lot more useful if the banner had any wizard at all.
So yes: classic.
First impressions of the Lizardmen
This was Michał’s first battle with Lizardmen, and the verdict was very clear: they are SUPER.
A few standout impressions from the game:
- Cold Blooded felt amazing — rolling Leadership on 3 dice and discarding the highest is just incredibly solid.
- Salamanders were extremely strong and immediately memorable.
- Kroxigors in a Skink Cohort seem like a really cool option, because the Kroxigors can still fight effectively from the second rank, even on the charge, as if they were up front in base contact.
- Aquatic was genuinely impactful because it let the Lizardmen ignore terrain that really interfered with the Orc side.
The one rule that disappointed him was Predatory Fighter. On paper, getting an extra hit for every 6 to hit sounds great. In practice? Dice said no. Michał reckoned he rolled something like 15–20 sixes during the game, and none of the bonus attacks really converted into anything meaningful afterward.
So even in a game full of strong Lizardmen moments, there was still room for the dice gods to have a laugh.
Final thoughts
This sounds like exactly the kind of first outing we love seeing: a cinematic table, a river that actually mattered, monsters breathing fire, goblins fleeing in all directions, Black Orcs doing Black Orc things, and a weird magical prize at the end that nobody in the army can even use.
Big thanks for the game — and based on this report alone, we’re already sold on seeing more Lizardmen on the table.
If nothing else, this battle definitely proved one thing:
fortune really is a wheel.