This is long, I apologize in advance.
This battle was waged between myself, an avid undead fan, and my opponent, a HE player, and my student. I say he’s my student because I got him into Warhammer last winter, just as the HEs came out, and trained him in the ways of war. Within a couple months, though, he has gotten so good, I can barely tie with him and sometimes lose. In fact, versus his perfected HE list, I have only won once. Dam elves!
Before I describe the battle let me point out a small but relevant fact. His dice are loaded. Not in the illegal sense, but seriously, I’ve never seen anyone roll so many 5s and 6s in my life. He will roll 10 archers shots needing 5s and hit with all 10. And then wound with 8. This is not uncommon for him at all, and it’s just plain disgusting sometimes. However, it can work against him, as it did in this game. I’ll explain how as I replay the battle for you, just keep his “loaded†dice in mind.
My Army: Vampire Counts (woohoo!! Yeah!)
Nathanos, Vampire Count (in skellie unit)
Level 3 upgrade
Master of the Dark Arts
Dark Acolyte
Lord of the Dead
Skull Staff
Helm of Commandment
Ghar, Vampire (alone, scouting)
Infinite Hatred
Hunter in the Dark
Talisman of the Lynci
Wristbands of Black Gold
Bezzeljan, Vampire (With Blood Knights, duh!)
BSB
Walking Dead
Dread Knight
Drakenhoff Banner
Bob, Necromancer (in skellie unit)
+1 Spell - Vahel’s Danse
Dispel Scroll
Power Stone
Corpse Cart
25 Zombies, Std Bearer
25 Zombies, Std Bearer
20 Skeletons, Full Command
6 Fell Bats
5 Blood Knights, Full Command, Flag of the Blood Keep
Black Coach
My opponent’s army: High Elves (Boo! Hsss!)
Lyllandran, Level 4 Mage (with swordmasters)
Book of Hoeth
High Elf magic
Mage, level 2 (with white lions)
Ring of Fury
Fire magic
Mage, level 2 (with archer unit #2)
Heavens magic
Not sure of items, at least one dispel scroll, possibly two.
Hero (with dragon princes)
Dragon Armor
Star Lance
10 Archers
10 Archers
5 Dragon Princes, full command
War Banner
17 Sword Masters, full command
Banner of Sorcery
Item that gives them +1 to go first
15-20 White Lions, full command
A HE gem that makes their attacks magical
5 Shadow Warriors, champion
3 Repeater Bolt Throwers
1 Great Eagle
Turn 1
Well, he got to go first, as he usually does. He has his Princes, Swordmasters, and two bolt throwers on the far right, his first archer unit and the white lions in the middle more, and the other archer unit, Eagle, and third bolt thrower on the far left. I scouted Ghar in the woods, in front and to the side of these last units, and placed practically everything else to the right of a big hill, on the right side of the table, except for the bats, which were in the center behind a forest. The Coach I parked behind my skellie unit to absorb dice and not get shot.
He marches forward with everything except archers. Archer unit on the side turns slightly to prepare for Ghar, and his eagle flies to the center of the table, possibly trying to bait a charge off. He places his knights off to the side of his swordmasters, in preparation for the blood knights. That could be very bad for my knights if he pulls that off. His magic phase he rolls 3 extra power dice with the sorcery banner, but his loaded dice roll 3 6s (out of 5 dice) for the Coach, and the Coach gains 3 abilities. I can tell he is already hating this matchup. However, he makes a good round of it anyway, by using the heaven’s anual spell + vanhual’s unmaking spell + book of hoeth to get an irresistible force and destroying the very expensive regeneration banner on the blood knights. I started to tear up a little, but told him it was dust in my eye. He rolls a very high roll on his conflag of doom spell and keeps out-rolling me and does 15 hits on the skeleton unit. He doesn’t wound a huge amount of them, and I saved two of them. The other skellies pretty much burst into flames. Everything else I dispel. He tries to single bolt the knights but they ward it off, and he single bolts the skellies, but only the first one dies. He shoots ten shots into the zombie horde meandering across the hill, and kills 3.
My turn. I move everything up, including my knights, getting ready to danse them into the swordmasters. The bats fly to the center of the table, Ghar moves through the woods next to the archers. During my magic phase, the coach absorbs another 3 dice out of 9 (count + necro + pool). My deathstar is fully operational! Yes, this is still only turn 1. Isn’t that sick? Anyway, he manages to stop my many attempts to danse my knights into combat (bastard!). Without the banner, I fear they will get two timed by his knights+swordmasters. Ghar manages to summon 6 zombies behind the bolt thrower over there, and Nathanos and Bob summon skellies like crazy. Good ole Lord of the Dead + Cart paid off, as much of the skellie damage is undone.
Turn 2
As was expected, he charges with both the knights and the swordmasters. His general Illyandran or whatever his silly elven name was shouted a victory cry! However, his “loaded†dice fail him, and he begins a trend to fail every Ld test he needs to make from here on out. His knights are too frightened to charge the scarwy blood knights, and they hold. Silly named general frowns as he rushes the knights without support. “Guys? Uh, guys?â€ÂÂ. Note to self and others: mages make poor generals. His magic phase goes a little worse than last time. I dispel scroll another vanhauls unmaking, and stop the ring of fury into the skellies. The other mage succeeds in casting thunderbolt (or whatever it was called) at Ghar. Ghar’s ward and toughness deflect his bolt better than Linda Carter ever could (that’s old school folks!). He shoots up a storm this turn, shooting one bat dead and wounds another with his archers and shadow warriors. The bolt throwers on the side try to shoot the skellies but don’t kill more than 2 each, and the final bolt thrower unleashes into the 6 zombies summoned behind him, but only manages to kill 3. The ten archers try to kill Ghar, the unstoppable, but like before, deflects any hits that manage to make it through the woods and his toughness. Not very good chances of him taking anything. For combat, those bloody sissy elves with big swords manage to cut down 3 knights… that hurt. However, in return, Bezzeljan and two friends manage to kill 10 swordmasters with the help of their trusted steroid induced horses. The elves lose by a ton and run. We run them down, placing us behind the princes now (thank god – I did not want to face that charge).
My turn – fun stuff heading his way as Ghar charges the archers, and the zombie crew charges the bolt thrower. Everything else moves up, and the coach steps out finally getting ready to make a 20†charge into the white lions (little did I know they had magical attacks). The Bats charge the other unit of archers, but sadly, they flee in fear (I mean, who wouldn’t? Giant man-eating bats? Eek!). Everyone else manages to hold their ground for once. The knights turn around, facing the back of the dragon prince’s unit. Time for some payback. I heal back some more skellies, but he manages to dispel my attempts to heal the knights back, or unleash a Gaze at the white lions. The coach did manage to eat Bob’s power die at the beginning of the phase (good job Bob!). I do manage to get off the Winds of Death, as one mage is dead and the other is fleeing. I rack up four wounds total, and form a block of ghosts. Not very useful, but cute. In combat, we see Ghar is unwounded by the ASF elves, but eats 2 in return with hatred. The archers are steady with bravery as they stick around another turn. The zombies don’t take a wound, but fail to kill anyone either. The Winds of Death did manage to eat an elf at the bolt throwers (we somehow forgot to randomize it – doh!), so the zombies win by outnumbering and the remaining elf flees. The zombies can’t pursue so they drool on themselves instead.
Turn 3
My opponent is ready to give up now, seeing that his general and much of his magic offense and defense is a bloody smear on the field, but I coerce him into playing more. He tries to charge his princes into the unit of zombies marching toward him, but once again his dice prove too much for him and they refuse to budge (go-go gadget loaded dice!). His level 4 mage is dead as well as his magic banner, and he has little magic punch left. Still, the fire mage vainly tries to conflagerate the skellies and fails. His ring is dispelled, too. The mage in combat with Ghar tries to cast anual’s spell, but I dispel it. He attempts to shoot the knights with his two bolt throwers, but the banner protects them nicely. Combat goes to my favor this turn. Ghar gets wounded, but eats 3 elves in exchange. The archers run away this time, and Ghar’s 3d6 pursuit pays off. Ghar relaxes to have a peanut butter and elf sandwich. PB & Es are the best!
On my turn, I charge the white lions with my chariot of death, and the zombies charge the princes. As luck would have it, the princes fail their fear test and run for it, running right into the Blood Knights 8†behind them. They get impaled and die. I am feeling super guilty at this point, because I’m not winning based on any amount of skill, really. But I remind myself how many silly times he’s needed to make 6 saves on 5+ and gets them all, and I don’t feel so bad any more. The white lions he elected to run away into the woods (I think he honestly forgot my coach was ethereal and wouldn’t take damage from the woods, but they didn’t quite make it that far anyway). They’re safe for now. Everyone else moves up more, and the bats make their way over to the other two bolt throwers. The coach says it’s full and doesn’t want any more dice, thank you, so I rez back a knight and more skellies. He dispels my second attempt at rezzing another knight.
Turn 4
His luck has finally run out, as the eagle fails his terror test from the coach and flies off, and his white lions fail to rally and run to the edge of the table. When I charge them this turn, they will run off. Seeing how he only really has two bolt throwers, a fleeing eagle and his shadow warriors left, he concedes.
Notes:
I felt really bad for him honestly, because his dice which roll high worked against him with so many Ld tests. He kept complaining about how OP the new VC are, but I think if he had made some important LD tests, I could be in trouble. His knights + swordmasters easily could have taken the remaining two knights + vampire which I carelessly put out there, forgetting he rolled that evil elf spell, leaving a back door for his princes to run around and eventually cause trouble from behind like they do in prison. Fortunately for me, his heavy dice worked against him. His other units would still have a hard time with the coach, but with his level 4 mage and the lions with magic attacks (not to mention his star lanced hero), the coach could be killed nicely in time, even just do to combat results. Those lions are stubborn, if I recall. Even if the chariot managed to do serious wounds, they probably would have stuck around (as they might still outnumber the terror causing deathmobile), locking the poor coach in a heated battle for ages, until the princes or someone could have come around and had unwanted backdoor sex with it. Thank god this wasn’t an episode of Oz, and that didn’t happen.
• As we saw, even with the regen banner, those blood knights are easily killed with the right combination of forces, much like every other knight. Anything with killing blow (war dancers), or any flank attack would be very disastrous indeed, which is so easy to pull off by baiting their frenzy. I am going to use them once more and see how they do, but I will try out the Vargulf and a unit of Black Knights next, to try some more variety, and also free up some points (my god those BKs aren’t cheap!).
• I’m not sold on Winds of Death unless your opponent has a ton of units out there. A single tile of ghosts with 4 wounds isn’t going to do much. It can’t even break ranks. If there are a ton of units on the table, that would be different. Still a fun spell, especially if a lone character or war machines are present.
• The Black Coach. What can I say, except this is my new favorite unit. Especially if your opponent has a lot of power dice. By the end of turn 1, I had a juggernaut of pain that was going to pull some serious hurt on anything within 20â€ÂÂ. Very nasty indeed.
Anyway, that’s two slaughters for the VC now. Looking forward to more battles ahead this weekend! Comments? Questions? Hope you enjoyed it.
This battle was waged between myself, an avid undead fan, and my opponent, a HE player, and my student. I say he’s my student because I got him into Warhammer last winter, just as the HEs came out, and trained him in the ways of war. Within a couple months, though, he has gotten so good, I can barely tie with him and sometimes lose. In fact, versus his perfected HE list, I have only won once. Dam elves!
Before I describe the battle let me point out a small but relevant fact. His dice are loaded. Not in the illegal sense, but seriously, I’ve never seen anyone roll so many 5s and 6s in my life. He will roll 10 archers shots needing 5s and hit with all 10. And then wound with 8. This is not uncommon for him at all, and it’s just plain disgusting sometimes. However, it can work against him, as it did in this game. I’ll explain how as I replay the battle for you, just keep his “loaded†dice in mind.
My Army: Vampire Counts (woohoo!! Yeah!)
Nathanos, Vampire Count (in skellie unit)
Level 3 upgrade
Master of the Dark Arts
Dark Acolyte
Lord of the Dead
Skull Staff
Helm of Commandment
Ghar, Vampire (alone, scouting)
Infinite Hatred
Hunter in the Dark
Talisman of the Lynci
Wristbands of Black Gold
Bezzeljan, Vampire (With Blood Knights, duh!)
BSB
Walking Dead
Dread Knight
Drakenhoff Banner
Bob, Necromancer (in skellie unit)
+1 Spell - Vahel’s Danse
Dispel Scroll
Power Stone
Corpse Cart
25 Zombies, Std Bearer
25 Zombies, Std Bearer
20 Skeletons, Full Command
6 Fell Bats
5 Blood Knights, Full Command, Flag of the Blood Keep
Black Coach
My opponent’s army: High Elves (Boo! Hsss!)
Lyllandran, Level 4 Mage (with swordmasters)
Book of Hoeth
High Elf magic
Mage, level 2 (with white lions)
Ring of Fury
Fire magic
Mage, level 2 (with archer unit #2)
Heavens magic
Not sure of items, at least one dispel scroll, possibly two.
Hero (with dragon princes)
Dragon Armor
Star Lance
10 Archers
10 Archers
5 Dragon Princes, full command
War Banner
17 Sword Masters, full command
Banner of Sorcery
Item that gives them +1 to go first
15-20 White Lions, full command
A HE gem that makes their attacks magical
5 Shadow Warriors, champion
3 Repeater Bolt Throwers
1 Great Eagle
Turn 1
Well, he got to go first, as he usually does. He has his Princes, Swordmasters, and two bolt throwers on the far right, his first archer unit and the white lions in the middle more, and the other archer unit, Eagle, and third bolt thrower on the far left. I scouted Ghar in the woods, in front and to the side of these last units, and placed practically everything else to the right of a big hill, on the right side of the table, except for the bats, which were in the center behind a forest. The Coach I parked behind my skellie unit to absorb dice and not get shot.
He marches forward with everything except archers. Archer unit on the side turns slightly to prepare for Ghar, and his eagle flies to the center of the table, possibly trying to bait a charge off. He places his knights off to the side of his swordmasters, in preparation for the blood knights. That could be very bad for my knights if he pulls that off. His magic phase he rolls 3 extra power dice with the sorcery banner, but his loaded dice roll 3 6s (out of 5 dice) for the Coach, and the Coach gains 3 abilities. I can tell he is already hating this matchup. However, he makes a good round of it anyway, by using the heaven’s anual spell + vanhual’s unmaking spell + book of hoeth to get an irresistible force and destroying the very expensive regeneration banner on the blood knights. I started to tear up a little, but told him it was dust in my eye. He rolls a very high roll on his conflag of doom spell and keeps out-rolling me and does 15 hits on the skeleton unit. He doesn’t wound a huge amount of them, and I saved two of them. The other skellies pretty much burst into flames. Everything else I dispel. He tries to single bolt the knights but they ward it off, and he single bolts the skellies, but only the first one dies. He shoots ten shots into the zombie horde meandering across the hill, and kills 3.
My turn. I move everything up, including my knights, getting ready to danse them into the swordmasters. The bats fly to the center of the table, Ghar moves through the woods next to the archers. During my magic phase, the coach absorbs another 3 dice out of 9 (count + necro + pool). My deathstar is fully operational! Yes, this is still only turn 1. Isn’t that sick? Anyway, he manages to stop my many attempts to danse my knights into combat (bastard!). Without the banner, I fear they will get two timed by his knights+swordmasters. Ghar manages to summon 6 zombies behind the bolt thrower over there, and Nathanos and Bob summon skellies like crazy. Good ole Lord of the Dead + Cart paid off, as much of the skellie damage is undone.
Turn 2
As was expected, he charges with both the knights and the swordmasters. His general Illyandran or whatever his silly elven name was shouted a victory cry! However, his “loaded†dice fail him, and he begins a trend to fail every Ld test he needs to make from here on out. His knights are too frightened to charge the scarwy blood knights, and they hold. Silly named general frowns as he rushes the knights without support. “Guys? Uh, guys?â€ÂÂ. Note to self and others: mages make poor generals. His magic phase goes a little worse than last time. I dispel scroll another vanhauls unmaking, and stop the ring of fury into the skellies. The other mage succeeds in casting thunderbolt (or whatever it was called) at Ghar. Ghar’s ward and toughness deflect his bolt better than Linda Carter ever could (that’s old school folks!). He shoots up a storm this turn, shooting one bat dead and wounds another with his archers and shadow warriors. The bolt throwers on the side try to shoot the skellies but don’t kill more than 2 each, and the final bolt thrower unleashes into the 6 zombies summoned behind him, but only manages to kill 3. The ten archers try to kill Ghar, the unstoppable, but like before, deflects any hits that manage to make it through the woods and his toughness. Not very good chances of him taking anything. For combat, those bloody sissy elves with big swords manage to cut down 3 knights… that hurt. However, in return, Bezzeljan and two friends manage to kill 10 swordmasters with the help of their trusted steroid induced horses. The elves lose by a ton and run. We run them down, placing us behind the princes now (thank god – I did not want to face that charge).
My turn – fun stuff heading his way as Ghar charges the archers, and the zombie crew charges the bolt thrower. Everything else moves up, and the coach steps out finally getting ready to make a 20†charge into the white lions (little did I know they had magical attacks). The Bats charge the other unit of archers, but sadly, they flee in fear (I mean, who wouldn’t? Giant man-eating bats? Eek!). Everyone else manages to hold their ground for once. The knights turn around, facing the back of the dragon prince’s unit. Time for some payback. I heal back some more skellies, but he manages to dispel my attempts to heal the knights back, or unleash a Gaze at the white lions. The coach did manage to eat Bob’s power die at the beginning of the phase (good job Bob!). I do manage to get off the Winds of Death, as one mage is dead and the other is fleeing. I rack up four wounds total, and form a block of ghosts. Not very useful, but cute. In combat, we see Ghar is unwounded by the ASF elves, but eats 2 in return with hatred. The archers are steady with bravery as they stick around another turn. The zombies don’t take a wound, but fail to kill anyone either. The Winds of Death did manage to eat an elf at the bolt throwers (we somehow forgot to randomize it – doh!), so the zombies win by outnumbering and the remaining elf flees. The zombies can’t pursue so they drool on themselves instead.
Turn 3
My opponent is ready to give up now, seeing that his general and much of his magic offense and defense is a bloody smear on the field, but I coerce him into playing more. He tries to charge his princes into the unit of zombies marching toward him, but once again his dice prove too much for him and they refuse to budge (go-go gadget loaded dice!). His level 4 mage is dead as well as his magic banner, and he has little magic punch left. Still, the fire mage vainly tries to conflagerate the skellies and fails. His ring is dispelled, too. The mage in combat with Ghar tries to cast anual’s spell, but I dispel it. He attempts to shoot the knights with his two bolt throwers, but the banner protects them nicely. Combat goes to my favor this turn. Ghar gets wounded, but eats 3 elves in exchange. The archers run away this time, and Ghar’s 3d6 pursuit pays off. Ghar relaxes to have a peanut butter and elf sandwich. PB & Es are the best!
On my turn, I charge the white lions with my chariot of death, and the zombies charge the princes. As luck would have it, the princes fail their fear test and run for it, running right into the Blood Knights 8†behind them. They get impaled and die. I am feeling super guilty at this point, because I’m not winning based on any amount of skill, really. But I remind myself how many silly times he’s needed to make 6 saves on 5+ and gets them all, and I don’t feel so bad any more. The white lions he elected to run away into the woods (I think he honestly forgot my coach was ethereal and wouldn’t take damage from the woods, but they didn’t quite make it that far anyway). They’re safe for now. Everyone else moves up more, and the bats make their way over to the other two bolt throwers. The coach says it’s full and doesn’t want any more dice, thank you, so I rez back a knight and more skellies. He dispels my second attempt at rezzing another knight.
Turn 4
His luck has finally run out, as the eagle fails his terror test from the coach and flies off, and his white lions fail to rally and run to the edge of the table. When I charge them this turn, they will run off. Seeing how he only really has two bolt throwers, a fleeing eagle and his shadow warriors left, he concedes.
Notes:
I felt really bad for him honestly, because his dice which roll high worked against him with so many Ld tests. He kept complaining about how OP the new VC are, but I think if he had made some important LD tests, I could be in trouble. His knights + swordmasters easily could have taken the remaining two knights + vampire which I carelessly put out there, forgetting he rolled that evil elf spell, leaving a back door for his princes to run around and eventually cause trouble from behind like they do in prison. Fortunately for me, his heavy dice worked against him. His other units would still have a hard time with the coach, but with his level 4 mage and the lions with magic attacks (not to mention his star lanced hero), the coach could be killed nicely in time, even just do to combat results. Those lions are stubborn, if I recall. Even if the chariot managed to do serious wounds, they probably would have stuck around (as they might still outnumber the terror causing deathmobile), locking the poor coach in a heated battle for ages, until the princes or someone could have come around and had unwanted backdoor sex with it. Thank god this wasn’t an episode of Oz, and that didn’t happen.
• As we saw, even with the regen banner, those blood knights are easily killed with the right combination of forces, much like every other knight. Anything with killing blow (war dancers), or any flank attack would be very disastrous indeed, which is so easy to pull off by baiting their frenzy. I am going to use them once more and see how they do, but I will try out the Vargulf and a unit of Black Knights next, to try some more variety, and also free up some points (my god those BKs aren’t cheap!).
• I’m not sold on Winds of Death unless your opponent has a ton of units out there. A single tile of ghosts with 4 wounds isn’t going to do much. It can’t even break ranks. If there are a ton of units on the table, that would be different. Still a fun spell, especially if a lone character or war machines are present.
• The Black Coach. What can I say, except this is my new favorite unit. Especially if your opponent has a lot of power dice. By the end of turn 1, I had a juggernaut of pain that was going to pull some serious hurt on anything within 20â€ÂÂ. Very nasty indeed.
Anyway, that’s two slaughters for the VC now. Looking forward to more battles ahead this weekend! Comments? Questions? Hope you enjoyed it.
