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Munkey

Grave Guard
Oct 6, 2008
257
Up a tree, eating a nana!
Hey Everyone,

Had a game fighting those nasty chaos chaps last night. Tried a different tact in this game. Went for a zombie orientated aspect with lvl 1 vampires but with 3 power dice each. Also dropped Count Mannfred for a level 4. The Helm was on the Lord for the first time too. With a potential 15 power dice (1 from Black Periapt) and 7 Dispell dice and a Scroll I thought I had a good magic defence. For the first time in ages I wuld be rolling for the spells on my Lord. The two vamps got Raise Dead, the Lord got Raise Dead, Gaze of Nagash, Wind of Undeath and SUmmon Hoard! Neither Danse or Curse (my favourite on a levl 2). SO plenty of raising and not much movement! But that was the risk of just 1 spell per Vamp and a random spell lord. I guess the Forebidden Lore and only 5 dice would be more practical in future.

My forces

Vamp Lord, +1 level, Master of the Black Arts, Dark Acolyte, SUmmon Creatures, Skull Staff, Helm of Commandment

Wight King, Barded Skeletal Steed, Battle Standard Bearer, Drakenhof Banner

Vampire, Master of the Black Arts, Black Periapt, Dispell Scroll

Vampire, Master of the Black Arts, Book of Arkhan

20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
10 Skeletons, Full Command
Corpse Cart, Balefire

3 Fell Bats

5 Blood Knights, Full Command, Balefire Spike, Flag of the Blood Keep

He took (roughly remembered!)

Sorcerer Lord, Mark of Nurgle, Book of Secrets, Spell Familiar

Sorcerer, Level 2, Mark of Nurgle, Items...
Sorcerer, Level 2, Mark of Nurgle, More Items...
Sorcerer, Level 2, Mark of Nurgle, Even More Items...

10 Chaos Warriors, Full Command, 2 Hand Weapons
10 Chaos Warriors, Full Command
10 Chaos Warriors, Full Command
10 Chaos Warriors, Full Command
18ish Marauders
Chaos Warshrine

Chaos Giant

5 Chaos Knights, Full Command

I cannot remember the exact equipment on his sorcerers. I do know he had no scrolls! Also he rolled Unseen Lurker for his Book of Secrets! He was eyeing a sneaky move on his Knights with this item... Read on to see if he gets if off!

I deployed, from my left to right as follows...

Blood Knights inc Wight King BsB, Zombies, Zombies, Zombies. Behind the centre Zombie unit goes the Skeleton bunker inc the Vampire Lord & the 2 lesser Vampires. To the left of the bunker goes the Corpse Cart. The Fell Bats were lurking on my extreme right.

I kept the Blood Knights near to the main Zombie line, within range of the Corpse Cart and the Helm wearing Lord.

He set up, looking from my left to right...

Chaos Knights (opposite the BloogKnights) with the Chaos Giant behind. Then the Chaos Warrior units (each with a chaos Sorcerer in, the lord being in the extreme left unit) and finally the Marauders. The Chaos Warshrine was lurking behind his left hand Chaos Warrior unit.

He gets the first turn, so off we go..

WoC Turn 1.
He charged forward, keeping his CKs out of charge range of the BK (with both having a 16" charge, I guessed we would have a 'guess 16"' game!). The Giant shuffled up behind the CK. Quickly things moved onto the magic phase (at this stage I should point out he is an ex-Dwarf player and was using magic for one of the first times in ages! "What are these strange things called "Power Dice?") He used a nasty staff with a bound spell that does 2D6 strength 3 hits on my middle Zombies unit! Not my Zombies... 8 dead again. He then tried several other spells which either failed or I dispelled (the Corpse Cart annoyed him immensly). He did get the Bog spell off on my BK unit! All bar 1 passed the inititive test, then he promptly failed a 2+ armour save! No boggy disasters there then. (I assume we would get the 4+ ward from the Flag and Regen against this spell - as it doesn't mention "No ward saves allowed"). He also miscast, wounding one of his lower casters.
His Warshrine gives his Lords unit Magic Resistance 3!

VC Turn 1.

Hardly any movement. The zombie units shuffle forward a little to allow raising. The FBs power forward, landing alongside the Marauders, to march block and generally annoy. They would get behind his lines on turn 2. Had I had turn 1, they would have done alot more blocking directly behind him. Magic phase. He lets the Corpse Cart cast its bound spell. I then Gaze at one of his units, felling 4 warriors but no failed panic. The middle unit of Zombies is brought back up to 20. I use Summon to raise a brand new unit of 20 Zombies on my extreme right flank. My right hand unit of Zombies is increased to 35. He was horrified by the amount of raising I was able to complete. He had held back his Dispell dice to counter Curses and any sneaky Danses - I told him I didn't have either spell, for next time.

WoC Turn 2.

No charges declared. His entire line comes barraling forward again. Amazingly his CKs march straigh across, stopping 4" away from my BKs! He planned to move them in the magic phase with the Unseen Lurker! The Giant moved from directly behind the CKs, angled the ch arge a Zombie unit! The Marauders were march blocked by the FBs. His magic phase started, I was remembering to keep a dice or two back for dispelling Unseen Lurker. I also had a scroll ready for it too! But once again the CC dampened his plans. The only spell of significance was the Curse of the Leper, which he got off onto my BKs! -1 Strength and toughness! It was at this point he realised he hadn't kept enough dice to cast Unseen Lurker! With only 2 dice and needing 13 to cast, it was looking ominous for the CKs. In his shooting phase the Warshrine gave +1 toughness to his CKs! Yikes my modified strength 6 versus toughness 5 wasn't looking so good!

VC Turn 2.

Well, with a unit of CKs 4" away what could my BKs do other than charge? So charge they did. Only other movement was the FBs into a position behind his units, to march block and generally get in the way. And that was it for movement. Magic phase, first priority to dispell the remains in play Curse of the Leper - accomplished with 3 dice. Then I attempt several raises to increase the size of the zombie units ready for the impact of his CW. I am facing a possible 2 charges the following turn (the width of several 5 fronted CW units is quite amazing). He scrambled to dispell the raising attempts with mixed fortune. Unfortunately for him, this meant he burned all bar one of his DDs by the time it came to the bound items. He chose to dispell the CCs Deathly vigour... leaving me to Book of Arkhan BKS! Combat phase saw the CK champ challenged by the Kastellan - 4 Strength 7 Balefire spike hits later and the CK Champ was removed. Of the 12 BK attacks, 11 wounds were caused, of which he saved approx 2! Goodbye CKs! The BKs were forced to overrun... and guess who's flank was exposed? Yuppers, into the side of the Giant slammed the BKS...

WoC Turn 3.

With my BKs rampaging through his lines, my opponant felt compelled to react. Firstly he slammed his Chaos Sorcerer's unit of CW into the zombie unit in front of my Skeleton bunker. Then one of the CW units being was turned to face the seemingly obvious overrun of the BKs. It would appear he thought the Giant was doomed. His magic phase made little impact as he miscast ending the magic phase completely. His War Shrine gave his Sorcerer's CW unit +1 T! The BKs murdered the Giant in a buzzsaw like motion, overrunning into a CW unit. So, A Chaos Sorcerer Lord, 4 Chaos Warriors including a Champion v My zombies! Did I mention my zombies had weaponskill 7? 11 or so attacks later, a mere 2 zombies have fallen! This gave him a CR of 4. With 3 ranks, a standard and out number, it was victory to the mighty zombies! If he rolled higher then a 7 he would collide with my BK unit but he rolled a 6. His fleeing panicked another unit of CW, who fled into the FBs.

VC Turn3. The NINJA zombies charge the fleeing CWs who are destroyed as they collide with my BKs. My large unit of zombies declared a charge against the fourth of his CW units. My opponant decided to concede.

Conclusions...

I liked the masses of zombies. I felt quite secure behind 60 bodies, that could be raised quite easily. Having my hero vamps with Master of Black Arts, giving 3 dice was also very interesting. If only as a negative factor to the opponants morale, it was worth it. I had poor rolls for spells, both lvl 1s had Raise Dead. But with 4 of the Vampire Count 6 spells realistically cast-able with 2 dice, I think I will take them again. At the very least I can either attempt 3 IoNs with 50% chance or 1 with 2 dice and 1 with 1.

Having the Helm on the Lord was also a boon. WS 7 zombies is simply so funny! The BloodKnights did the business again.

I think I will maybe drop 1 unit of Zombies and replace with 2 units of Dire Wolves. They appeal to me as highly positionable charge deflectors. More reliable than attempting to raise zombies. I think I will also try giving the Vamp Lord Forebidden Lore, rather than Dark Acolyte. It costs an extra 5 points and he will loose one dice. But the payoff is getting 100% of the VC spells or any other lore for that matter!

Regards

Munkey
 
Sep 2, 2008
2
It could just be how you wrote it, but you dispel remains in play spells at the end of the magic phase, just so you know.
Great report by the way, and grats!
 

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