Right, so this was the annual battle against my Empire friend. So far I’ve been on a losing streak since the beginning, but this was the first time we played with 2250 points so I was finally confident to field a Vampire Lord (or a Strigoi Ghoul King to be precise). Also I read a lot of battle reports & tactics discussions on this forum, so let’s cut to the chase and find out if it paid off!
Deployment
My friend usually fields quite a number of war machines (including the stank), so I invested some points in Spirit Host, Fell Bats & Dire Wolves in an attempt to tie them up quickly and also have some cheap drops to put on the table before I had to place my more important units. This paid out really well, because apart from:
First turn (Empire)
My friend won the toss and started his turn.. in which he did nothing.
Okay, well not nothing, but he wanted to maximize shooting so he didn’t move his units. Fair enough, I can understand that. Magic phase was rather uneventful, but he did manage to shoot some of my stuff, but nothing too serious thankfully. Unfortunately for him (but luckily for me) he misfired twice and even managed to destroy his mortar. Not complaining!
First turn (Vampire Counts)
Unlike my fried, I wanted to move real bad so I did. In fact, I even managed to get off a Vanhel’s Danse Macabre which helped immensely.. but unfortunately it was a miscast. To make things worse, my Master Necromancer who casted the spell actually lost three levels (and three spells of course) because of the backlash, so I basically could kiss any subsequent magic phases goodbye. XP
All I could do now was get into close combat as quickly as possible and hoping things would play out as I planned them during deployment.
Second turn (Empire)
Hooray, movement! Except most of it was in the wrong direction.
He repositioned his spearmen & detachment units (ejecting both of his wizards) and attempted to “charge” my dire wolves with his Stank, but failed by an inch. During the magic phase he made an attempt to cast Dwellers from Below (using 6 dice) on my skeletons. I had no more dispel dice, so I had to use my dispel scroll.. which I did of course. There was some more shooting as well, but again the damage was light (although he did manage to take out one of my fell bats units).
Second turn (Vampire Counts)
Things were starting to look interesting. On the left field my dire wolves charged his great canon and because of slavering charge I managed to wipe out the entire crew.
The crypt horrors charged the knights of the white wolf and managed to inflict enough damage to make them flee (but not run off the table). The varghulf was repositioned for assistance, but wasn’t needed in the end. My other units of dire wolves charged his archer attachment to keep them out of my hair for a turn while my skeletons charged his main spearmen unit. I wanted to take out his battle standard bearer as soon as possible with my strigoi ghoul king, but he turned out to have a dawnstone which made him successfully reroll his failed armour saves. Meanwhile one of my spirit host charged his stank, locking it into combat. My other spirit host charged the archer detachment on the right successfully. In a most amusing turn of events the spirit host killed one of his archers, he subsequently failed his break test and the entire unit ended up being chased off the board.
Didn’t really know what to do with my grave guard though, so I reformed and marched towards his reiksguard knights.
Third turn (Empire)
The knights of the white wolf managed to rally successfully and now faced the crypt horrors again. He made another attempt at casting Dwellers from Below (this time on my crypt horrors) and I was unable to dispel it this time. He took out 3 of them.. ouch! Grave guard and zombies got shot again during the shooting phase and he wiped out my dire wolves unit with his archers.
Spearmen & skeletons were duking it out, but this time I focused on his rank & file with my strigoi ghoul king and took out 10 of them (with the help of red fury). In the end he had to do a break test but succeeded (because of the reroll of his battle standard bearer).
Third turn (Vampire Counts)
So far things were going rather smoothly (apart from the unfortunate miscast earlier by my Master Necromancer), so I continued to keep the pressure on. The crypt horrors charged the rallied knights of the white wolf successfully along with the dire wolves. The varghulf attempted to charge the archer detachment, but unfortunately failed. The grave guard attempted to charge the reiksguard knights, but also failed. The zombie unit on the right.. well they just continued to do what they do best, moving forward in a slow manner.
I tried an invocation of Nehek with my strigoi ghoul king, which was another miscast. -_- Okay this was bad, if the dice gods weren't in my favour here I could just as well pack my things and go home. However, I threw a 7 and killed some skeletons & spearmen in the process instead! Phew! However, since it was an invocation (on everything within 24 inch) I actually managed to replenish some of my troops.
During close combat the crypt horrors & dire wolves beat the knights of the white wolf and they fled off the table, after which the crypt horrors managed to reform. The Strigoi Ghoul King brought the pain again on the spearmen and this time they failed their break test. They fled 3 inches, but were chopped down by my pursuing skeletons. Great success.. however, they were so eager in their pursuit that they managed to walk off the table. =\
Turn 4 (Empire)
By this time it was already getting late, but my friend wanted -at the very least- to see his reiksguard in action so he charged them right into my grave guard. Turned out they had lances.. so yeah that hurt. He killed quite a number of them, which as a result killed off a good number more because of combat resolution (18 total). The wight king did manage to kill one off though. =\
Apart from that not much else happened.. zombies got shot again of course.
Turn 4 (Vampire Counts)
Crypt horrors charged the archers, wiping them out with some help of the varghulf. Zombies charged the archers on the right.. although I’m not quite sure why I did this because the archers did far more damage in close combat than they did when they were still shooting from a distance. =S
Grave guard and reiksguard knights exchanged some more blows and were both left standing with only a few models left. My master necromancer did manage to take out his wizard with a gaze of Nagash in the face, which was pretty sweet in the end.
And yeah that was basically it, my friend conceded so victory Vampire Counts. =)
Lessons I learned
I’m not sure whether it was me or my opponent who learned this lesson here, but deployment can be incredibly important.
By incorporating a few cheap drops in my army list I managed to line up all my units the way I wanted to which sure paid off in the end. On the other hand, if you paid attention to the images above you can tell I completely forgot about my Fell Bats on the left part of the field. By tactically placing them behind a building I had completely lost sight of them! Bad move.. -_-
One thing I’m still confused about was the break tests of the spearmen unit, in which the battle standard bearer was carrying gleaming pennant so he gets what, 2 re-rolls if he decides to use both the Pennant and the standard bearer ability? And then there’s also the hold the line rule.. gotta love all these special rules & exceptions. XP
Oh yeah, most important lesson: Don't leave home without your Vampire Lord/Strigoi Ghoul King. He singlehandedly brought the spearmen unit to their knees, I was most impressed.
Deployment
My friend usually fields quite a number of war machines (including the stank), so I invested some points in Spirit Host, Fell Bats & Dire Wolves in an attempt to tie them up quickly and also have some cheap drops to put on the table before I had to place my more important units. This paid out really well, because apart from:
- A big unit (40+) of spearmen (which included a witch hunter, warrior priest and battle standard bearer)
- Two (10) archers detachments (one contained a lvl 4 Life battle wizard and the other a lvl 1 Light battle wizard)
- A unit of (5) knights of the white wolf
- A unit of (5) reiksguard knights (+ his warrior priest general)
- A small unit of (10) archers to protect his hellblaster volley gun
First turn (Empire)
My friend won the toss and started his turn.. in which he did nothing.
Okay, well not nothing, but he wanted to maximize shooting so he didn’t move his units. Fair enough, I can understand that. Magic phase was rather uneventful, but he did manage to shoot some of my stuff, but nothing too serious thankfully. Unfortunately for him (but luckily for me) he misfired twice and even managed to destroy his mortar. Not complaining!
First turn (Vampire Counts)
Unlike my fried, I wanted to move real bad so I did. In fact, I even managed to get off a Vanhel’s Danse Macabre which helped immensely.. but unfortunately it was a miscast. To make things worse, my Master Necromancer who casted the spell actually lost three levels (and three spells of course) because of the backlash, so I basically could kiss any subsequent magic phases goodbye. XP
All I could do now was get into close combat as quickly as possible and hoping things would play out as I planned them during deployment.
Second turn (Empire)
Hooray, movement! Except most of it was in the wrong direction.
He repositioned his spearmen & detachment units (ejecting both of his wizards) and attempted to “charge” my dire wolves with his Stank, but failed by an inch. During the magic phase he made an attempt to cast Dwellers from Below (using 6 dice) on my skeletons. I had no more dispel dice, so I had to use my dispel scroll.. which I did of course. There was some more shooting as well, but again the damage was light (although he did manage to take out one of my fell bats units).
Second turn (Vampire Counts)
Things were starting to look interesting. On the left field my dire wolves charged his great canon and because of slavering charge I managed to wipe out the entire crew.
The crypt horrors charged the knights of the white wolf and managed to inflict enough damage to make them flee (but not run off the table). The varghulf was repositioned for assistance, but wasn’t needed in the end. My other units of dire wolves charged his archer attachment to keep them out of my hair for a turn while my skeletons charged his main spearmen unit. I wanted to take out his battle standard bearer as soon as possible with my strigoi ghoul king, but he turned out to have a dawnstone which made him successfully reroll his failed armour saves. Meanwhile one of my spirit host charged his stank, locking it into combat. My other spirit host charged the archer detachment on the right successfully. In a most amusing turn of events the spirit host killed one of his archers, he subsequently failed his break test and the entire unit ended up being chased off the board.
Didn’t really know what to do with my grave guard though, so I reformed and marched towards his reiksguard knights.
Third turn (Empire)
The knights of the white wolf managed to rally successfully and now faced the crypt horrors again. He made another attempt at casting Dwellers from Below (this time on my crypt horrors) and I was unable to dispel it this time. He took out 3 of them.. ouch! Grave guard and zombies got shot again during the shooting phase and he wiped out my dire wolves unit with his archers.
Spearmen & skeletons were duking it out, but this time I focused on his rank & file with my strigoi ghoul king and took out 10 of them (with the help of red fury). In the end he had to do a break test but succeeded (because of the reroll of his battle standard bearer).
Third turn (Vampire Counts)
So far things were going rather smoothly (apart from the unfortunate miscast earlier by my Master Necromancer), so I continued to keep the pressure on. The crypt horrors charged the rallied knights of the white wolf successfully along with the dire wolves. The varghulf attempted to charge the archer detachment, but unfortunately failed. The grave guard attempted to charge the reiksguard knights, but also failed. The zombie unit on the right.. well they just continued to do what they do best, moving forward in a slow manner.
I tried an invocation of Nehek with my strigoi ghoul king, which was another miscast. -_- Okay this was bad, if the dice gods weren't in my favour here I could just as well pack my things and go home. However, I threw a 7 and killed some skeletons & spearmen in the process instead! Phew! However, since it was an invocation (on everything within 24 inch) I actually managed to replenish some of my troops.
During close combat the crypt horrors & dire wolves beat the knights of the white wolf and they fled off the table, after which the crypt horrors managed to reform. The Strigoi Ghoul King brought the pain again on the spearmen and this time they failed their break test. They fled 3 inches, but were chopped down by my pursuing skeletons. Great success.. however, they were so eager in their pursuit that they managed to walk off the table. =\
Turn 4 (Empire)
By this time it was already getting late, but my friend wanted -at the very least- to see his reiksguard in action so he charged them right into my grave guard. Turned out they had lances.. so yeah that hurt. He killed quite a number of them, which as a result killed off a good number more because of combat resolution (18 total). The wight king did manage to kill one off though. =\
Apart from that not much else happened.. zombies got shot again of course.
Turn 4 (Vampire Counts)
Crypt horrors charged the archers, wiping them out with some help of the varghulf. Zombies charged the archers on the right.. although I’m not quite sure why I did this because the archers did far more damage in close combat than they did when they were still shooting from a distance. =S
Grave guard and reiksguard knights exchanged some more blows and were both left standing with only a few models left. My master necromancer did manage to take out his wizard with a gaze of Nagash in the face, which was pretty sweet in the end.
And yeah that was basically it, my friend conceded so victory Vampire Counts. =)
Lessons I learned
I’m not sure whether it was me or my opponent who learned this lesson here, but deployment can be incredibly important.
By incorporating a few cheap drops in my army list I managed to line up all my units the way I wanted to which sure paid off in the end. On the other hand, if you paid attention to the images above you can tell I completely forgot about my Fell Bats on the left part of the field. By tactically placing them behind a building I had completely lost sight of them! Bad move.. -_-
One thing I’m still confused about was the break tests of the spearmen unit, in which the battle standard bearer was carrying gleaming pennant so he gets what, 2 re-rolls if he decides to use both the Pennant and the standard bearer ability? And then there’s also the hold the line rule.. gotta love all these special rules & exceptions. XP
Oh yeah, most important lesson: Don't leave home without your Vampire Lord/Strigoi Ghoul King.
He singlehandedly brought the spearmen unit to their knees, I was most impressed.
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