Count diBodiz vs Bretonnians

[Gazzor]

Hi all,

Had another entertaining game last night, practicing with my VC army for the tourney in 4 weeks.


Lord Mannfred had ordered me to venture deep into the land of Bretonnia in order to test my mettle vs their knights, to prepare me for the challenge ahead.

A few burnt villages later and the local Lord sent out a small force to take me on.

My army was slightly different from before.

I wielded Skull staff, Helm of Commandment and also used by Forbidden Lore, Mastery of the Black Arts and Ghoul Summoning skills.
2 Drudges with 3 scrolls, periapt and knowing Invocation and Van Hels.
25 Grave Guard with full command
10 Ghouls with Ghast
10 Ghouls with Ghast
20 Zombies with banner
9 Fell Bats
10 Cairn Wraiths


My opponent was fielding.

Lord with magic weapon, 4+ ward, Giant Chicken.
BSB Paladin, Banner of the Lady, Virtue of Duty (With Errants)
2 Damsels with 3 scrolls and the Chalice of Malfleur. With Knights of the Realm and Grail Knights.
8 Knights of the Realm with Banner
8 Knights Errant with Banner
5 Grail Knights with Banner
4 Pegasus Knights with Banner
2 units of 5 Peasant Cavalry
10 Archers with brazier

1) The fools spent time praying to their Wood Elf friends, giving me time to cast a Winds of Undeath (Dispelled) and raise up some more zombies.
There was a nearby house that myself and the 2 drudges started moving towards.
Unfortunately I had placed my Grave Guard out of easy support range of the house. This was due to me dithering between setting up in my usual bunker location, then realising that not a single Bretonnian unit could get into the house, giving me a great vantage point to direct the battle.

The Bretonnians advanced, with Grail Knights furthest forward.

2) The Cairn Wraiths advanced past the Grail Knights. A Van Hels on them was dispelled, whilst a second got through with ultimate power. They caused 5 peasants horses to flee, leaving the Wraiths to stream towards the Pegasus knights who held. Out of range of the Helm, the Wraiths’ ineptitude was exposed as they merely wounded 1 Pegasus. Despite their banner, the outnumbering wraiths caused them to flee. They regained their courage just before they were out of range of the battle.
The pursuing wraiths then slammed into the Bretonnian Lord on Giant Chicken.

Meanwhile, I’d moved the Fell Bats before the Grail Knights to try and hold them up.

The Grail Knights charged the Bats and destroyed them utterly, despite the use of the Helm.
The Pegasus Knights rallied.
The Wraiths nearly killed the Giant Chicken, whilst the Lord merely wounded a wraith. Sadly for me his courage was great and he held. Bah! (-3 break test for the Lord. BSB out of range).

Meanwhile the Errant Knights and BSB charged my Grave Guard. In a stunning display of knightly ineptitude, and despite my helm being unable to assist, only 1 Grave Guard was destroyed.
2 more Grave Guard crumbled as the Banner of the lady disrupted their ranks (No rank bonus against the BSB’s unit).
Luckily for the Grave Guard, the courage of the Knights of the Realm, supposed to assist the Errant Knights, failed them and they did not charge in tandem.
A Damsel wounded herself with the Chalice of Malfleur.

3) A Curse of Years on a Grail Knight killed one.
The Wraiths failed to cause any damage to the Giant Chicken, whilst the lord slew 2 wraiths.
2 Errant Knights fell to the Grave Guard, but the Errant Knights still won and 1 more guard crumbled.

The Wraiths managed to kill the Giant Chicken, but little else.
To make matters worse the Pegasus Knights had found their courage and charged in to assist their Lord.
The Knights of the Realm charged a small ghoul unit I’d not raised up. They burst through them and out the back. Very soon they could threaten the Grave Guard’s flank.
The Curse on the Grail Knights was dispelled.

5 Peasant Cavalry flank charged a small unit of 11 ghouls I’d been unable to raise up much (Wasting too much time casting fancy stuff like Curse of Years). 1 ghoul perished, but 2 peasants were slain and run down. The pursuing ghouls slammed into the 4 Grail Knights behind the Peasant horses.

Also, the 10 peasant archers dared to shoot at me, and one of their arrows actually caused me some discomfort. They what?! They dare!?

4) The zombies charged 5 peasant horses that were protecting the flank of the Errants from my zombies. The Peasants fled.

The Grave Guard and Knights Errant fought on. The Grave Guard were back to full strength, whilst the Knights were reduced to 6 including the BSB.

The Lord, now on foot, destroyed the wraiths, assisted by the Pegasus Knights.
The ghouls failed to kill a single Grail Knight, and were greatly reduced in number from return attacks.

The Knights of the Realm turned to threaten the rear of the Grave Guard.

The Pegasus Knights flank charged the ghouls fighting the Grail Knights. The ghouls did nothing, but die like the wretches they are. Bah! The Pegasus Knights stopped just short of the house I was hiding, er, commanding from.

The Peasant horsemen failed to rally, and ran through the archers, panicking them as well.

5) The zombies turned to face the Pegasus Knights.
The Errant Knights rallied.
The Grave Guard turned to face the Knights of the Realm.
I left the house to better command my zombies and Grave Guard. The Pegasus Knights were in easy striking distance. This was do or die (Again).

A successful Van Hels later saw the zombies charge the Pegasus knights, who fled in fear and splattered like bugs on a Black Coach window against the building.
The Grave Guard moved towards the Knights of the Realm. Both Van Hels on them were dispelled or failed.
The Damsel with chalice killed herself trying to gain dispel power.

The Lord ran very near to the house the Necros were lurking in.
The peasant archers rallied, but panicked again as the still fleeing peasant horse rode through them. Both units fled the field of battle.
The Knights of the Realm were too scared to rear charge my zombies.


6) The Grave Guard charged the Knights of the Realm, killing 3 and routing them. Their banner was captured.
The Necros vacated the building the Lord was very near to.
At last, after having my last few efforts thwarted by miscast and dispels, I was able to cast Winds of Undeath. Magical energies gathered across the battlefield and flew through the enemy. Their lord was wounded, and a feeble one strong spirit host appeared. That was all. Bah! Rubbish.

The Knights of the Realm rallied, whilst the Errant Knights and BSB rear charged the zombies. There was much hacking and slashing and of the 30+ zombies, only 3 remained, still clutching their ragged wooden banner.

The battlefield was very sparse at the end.
I was left with 24 Grave Guard, 3 zombies and both drudges.
The Bretonnians were left with their Lord on foot, a Damsel, 4 Grail Knights, Paladin, 3 Errant Knights and 5 Knights of the Realm.

Neither side had an advantage at this point, so we both slunk off to lick our wounds.

**************************************************

Score was approx 1400 to 1200 due to 3 captured banners. However, using the tourney rules*, it was in fact a 24 point win to my opponent. So a draw either way.
*only get 100 vp for most banners, not 100 for each.

I mis-deployed the Lord and Necros completely, being seduced half way through this stage by the big comfy building to hide in.

I should have had more faith in my Grave Guard. They were nails. Whilst only taking 1 wound was lucky, the average from BSB, 7 horses and 7 Errant attacks is only 3.32 wounds. So still plenty of the unit left after that.

If both buses had made it in, I’d have been looking at taking 6.1 casualties on average, then losing 11 more to kills, outnumber, 2 ranks and Virtue of Duty and Battle Banner. Leaving 8 left to bulk back up to a bigger number.

I’m not sure it’s legal to have 3 characters on their own in a building. Is it just one unit at a time allowed? Still, that being the case, I wouldn’t have bothered with the building and would have deployed in the usual bunker spot behind the Grave Guard.

Also, maybe the Peg Knights could have flown over the building they fled into? I need to check that. Was a lot of VPs lost, but I think still within the realms of being a draw, assuming they didn’t roll low and hit the building anyway, or fail to rally.

I misused the wraiths, again. They could have flank charged the Grails, easily butchering the damsel in the back rank and perhaps beating them off.
Although, they did hold his nasty Flying Lord up pretty much all game. And with a 58% chance of routing his Lord when they pursued into him, things could have turned out very differently indeed.

The fancy magic was rubbish. 2 Curse of Years killed 1 Grail Knight, whilst 1 Winds of Undeath wounded his Lord. Sadly I see no reason to use anything apart from Invocation and Van Hels vs anything but Wood Elves. With 3 scrolls, the big stuff just gets stopped very easily.

I am changing the army yet again, as I am an inveterate tinkerer.

I am dropping the Bats (180 points), both Van Hels off the Necros and 5 Grave Guard to get me a Wight BSB with Drakenhof Banner.

257 points, but he’s worth it I think.

1) 3 killing blow attacks at S4. S6 on the charge. Not bad.
2) T5, 3W, 2+ save, 4+ regen.
3) Unit he’s with gets regen. Means half the casualties taken and half the crumble casualties as well.
4) Gives +1 CR to the unit he’s with, meaning +7 static CR for the Grave Guard.
5) 1 less wound to crumble results.


In the 2 bus charging scenario above, instead of losing 6 dead and 5 extra CR, it would be 3 dead + 4 extra CR leaving 10 crumble, 9 after BSB.
With regen that should be 4.5 crumble, leaving 15-16 survivors.
But if I roll rubbish on that turn, I’ve got fewer models leeway than with a larger unit.

Than again, it’s 257 points in one guy. I think I’d be better buying 10 more Grave Guard and 17 more ghouls.
That gives me 1 uber anvil, 2 anvils, 1 bunker unit and a glass hammer unit to use at the right time.

Not long now to decide before the army lists are needed in…


Cheers,

Gazzor

 

[starscream]

If you go this route, how will your Wight King BSB get a 2+ save and a 4+ regen save? Last I saw heavy armor was 5+, shield adds 1 (4+), hand weapon/shield bonus in melee is +1 (3+). Where's the extra point?

 

[Lord Fear]

A horse of course. Though you'll probably go into band A with the Drakenhof Banner on top of everything else.

Interesting fight, so the Bretonnians can still hammer right through the Vamps. Surprised the Wraiths didn't kill the Lord though. I'd say you can't have three Necromancers in one building unless they're part of a unit, as you can only have one unit in a building, and three separate Necros are three separate units...

 

[starscream]

Strange that you feel that way about Brets. Back in 6th I never had issues with them. Granted, I would usually lure them into traps. That is I'd usually deploy on the very edge of the board and play defensively by marching... but not using all of my movement. Granted, I was better at eyeballing distances then than I am now and could usually move just enough to ensure I was out of charge range but close enough that my opponent would declare a charge, fail by maybe a half-inch to an inch, and then return the favor in kind. My dire wolves and bats would go pegasus knight hunting, along with the wolf form Vampire Thrall in the wolf unit. My created units would be placed to slow marches and present threats to his infantry blocks (archers and maybe one unit of men-at-arms).

 

[Lord Fear]

If you were playing people and relying on them to fail charges however, and they did so, then of course they wouldn't have been that difficult to play against. That's like saying a good tactic is for your opponent to fail an armour save

 

[starscream]

What can I say? People sometimes have a hard time eyeballing distances of an inch or less. It's not so much relying on them failing the charge as it is making the charge look makable only to find out they're short. Barring that, if they don't charge or play it safe, I try to capitalize with a "counter charge". I only use this tactic against knights. Personally, I've had a harder time with Dwarves (for the obvious reasons), Goblins (remember this is 6th - I haven't played any 7th yet), and Chaos Dwarves, though the latter I seemed to miscast a lot and watch necromancers or lone vampires end up in front of a unit if warriors with his general. ><

 

[Lord Fear]

Although we're going way off-topic here, against a good player the Bretonnian should get the charge off against you, since his Knights move faster than yours, unless you try other tactics like diverting with wolves or manage a cheeky VHD

 

[starscream]

*looks innocent* I'll see if I can dig up one of my three army lists from last edition, since I haven't played a game since just before the end of 6th due to time constraints. I did a little more than diverting at times. I will say this: all of my "casual game" opponents built lists expecting to face Necrarchs or Blood Dragons and were surprised. In my handful of tournament games against Brets, they were caught off-guard by other things. In fact, all of my opponents were. =) Ethereal Necromancer army generals standing out in the open, begging to be the object of artillery fire anyone?

As for this report: While I can see why you didn't, my own personal opinion would have been to suck it up and try killing the lord instead of the bird. It's very difficult to do with the armor and ward saves, but at the same time the Lord was the only thing that could hurt the Wraiths. As for deployment, I've learned the hard way myself. Worst thing you can do is change your deployment tactic midstream

 

[Rammstein]

I give the Wight King BSB with Drakenhof Banner a big thumbs up. I've been using it lately with a unit of Graveguard with greatweps and so far they have done nothing but kick ass, especially when supported by the crown of command.

 

[Gazzor]

Hi guys,

I've given the BSB a run out vs Empire. He worked very well, but he's an extremely tight fit into 2000 points. But seems very good at 2250.

At least I can be pretty sure that my GG can hold vs a double bus charge, especially if I properly support the unit with the WS7 helm.


Cheers,

Gazzor