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Lord Fear

Master Vampire
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
4,834
So the GT rolled around this year, and after giving last year's a miss because its rules pack seemed somewhat poor and was full of Daemon players (who still genuinely thought that their massive winrates were because of player skill), I caved in and went along to this one. It being the first Heat, we're basically the guinea pigs to see what works and what doesn't. This is what I took:

Vampire Lord, Level 3
Red Fury
Forbidden Lore
Summon Creatures of the Night
Sword of Might
Cadaverous Cuirass
Book of Arkhan
Crown of the Damned

Vampire
Dark Acolyte
Lord of the Dead
Biting Blade
Nightshroud
Dispel Scroll

Necromancer (Knows VHD)
Power Stone
Black Periapt
riding Corpse Cart, Unholy Lodestone

Wight King BSB, Barded Steed
Sword of Kings
Gem of Blood

10 Skeletons
10 Skeletons, Full Command, Hellfire Banner
20 Zombies, Musician
7 Dire Wolves, Doom Wolf
3 Fell Bats
19 Grave Guard, Great Weapons, Full Command, Royal Banner of Strigos
5 Wraiths, Banshee

Game 1 vs Dark Elves
He had a reasonably magic-heavy list, all shooty avoidance otherwise. But, shockingly, no Hydra. So that was nice. One of the Bens almost made him remove his Harpies as they were made from Warmaster Terradons (and looked quite cool!), despite the fact they were bought in the shop at WH World and painted there the previous night, all the while ignoring my probably-not-a-GW-model Lamia Vampire. Hehe. This game was breakthrough, get your nomral units into the enemy endzone and score as many points as they are worth- with no other points available other than for completing your secret mission.

As such I stormed forwards, using the good Book to send my Wraiths forwards early on (If you're not declaring a charge, people tend to let it go), behind my Fell Bats, that I raised up to 5 models. His Pendant BSB, Shades and Dark Riders all charged into them, destroying them comfortably. I then educated him on how hatred means you must overrun, followed by my Banshee educating us as to the one fatal flaw of the Pendant of Khaelth, followed by my Wraiths educating the Shades as to their great weapons. A little too effectively probably- once again I found myself wishing I'd opted to use their hand weapons, as I'd have almost certainly autobroke them, pursuing into the forest from whence the Dark Elves had charged from, and gaining safety from the enemy magic. As it was, they were blasted in the enemy turn, so I had the choice of keep trying to get into the deployment zone with them or head back and send them after his fast cav (who had zoomed past their previous combat).

Special mission-wise, all I had to do was kill either of his Dark Rider units as they were both equally expensive at a whopping 117 points each. This would gain me 400 extra points, as they were his most expensive unit. I made the right choice as my Banshee jogged over and screamed 2 of them to death, and although they didn't panic, and although the Wraiths were killed in his next magic phase, my opponent then miscast, giving me a lucky free spell, Wind of Undeath killing one and panicking them off the table for the massive 400 VP bonus. The game ended with just a unit of my Skeletons in the endzone, as my Lord's Grave Guard had eventually succumbed to his massed shooting, although they and my Lord did take down a fair amount of it. He announced his points- just over 500 for the win! Of course, what followed was about a half-dozen people telling him that the characters in the units don't count, so with only some Shades and Dark Riders he only had 200 points, and hadn't managed his secret mission. Win for me!

Great game, but faaaaaaaaaar too much thought required for the first game. Simple would have been better, but I won anyway, so can't really complain.

Game 2 vs Lizardmen
Triple Engines, 50 Skinks and a dozen Terradons. Interesting army, they looked cool in their Phalanx formation. This was the game where you deployed on the short table edge (Well, up to 24" in) and rocks could fall on units close to the long table edge (They never did in this game). Our armies edged close to each other, I put a lot of attention into killing the Terradons as I had to kill more specials and rares for my bonus, but they always rallied, passed terror, panic, fear, etc (At LD6). My Corpse Cart ended up fighting two units at once, my Necromancer taking one for the team, but I still couldn't get them both dead or fleeing, so failed the mission.

First big shot was an IF Comet crashing down and reducing my Wraiths to the Banshee on 1 wound, but I put her to good use screaming the general off one of his Engines. Grave Guard and Wight King busted through double-stacked Skinks to bash one Engine to death, but the enemy's only failed pysch test of the game saw some Skinks flee in terror from the doomed Banshee and free up an Engine to charge my Vampire Lady's little Skeleton unit, leading to some edge-of-seat moments as I had to pass some ward saves, and succeeded. However she took far too long to kill the damn Stegadon (I had Lore of Fire but only realised to cast Flaming Sword at the last moment- 5 attacks hitting and wounding on 2+ with extra attacks? It would've been like 4th edition) and the third Engine charged her. I finally failed her ward saves on turn 6 and that was the end of that, a bit of crumbling here and there, nothing massive and my opponent got 400 extra points for Assassination mission so won by 800. Jolly nice chap though!

Game 3 vs Dark Elves
This time a Dragon list and hidden deployment. Only a scroll caddy in tow, plus a Cold One unit and usual core, specials and rares. Lord had Ring of Hotek, Crimson Death and regeneration armour. He went for it early, charging in the Dragon and killing my Necromancer and Corpse Cart but getting locked down by the Necro's Skelly bodyguard, until my Wraiths went into its rear and Grave Guard went into its flank and broke it and ran it down. Ranks and flanks for the win! Not too much more to say about the game, my Vampires and Grave Guard happily took a charge from the Cold Ones and Hydra, murdering the cavalry and evenutally chasing down the big beastie, then the scary part of my Grave Guard being blasted almost into their final rest, before one Bolt Thrower sent a shot down their flank killing my little Vampire instantly, and the second one down the other flank, hitting my Lord, wounding, getting past the ward save, how many wounds........... 2. Phew. Win for me then!

Game 4 vs yet more Dark Elves
This flavour was a Dreadlord on Cold One, Master on Steed, Master on foot and a scroll caddy. Black Guard, and the usual suspects elsewhere. This time it was the random deployment, his chararacters mostly going it alone but my army not suffering too badly. A little Skeleton unit was on my left flank with my little Vampire there to raise them up, and the rest of my stuff congregated on the right.

He burnt both scrolls on turn 1 to stop me raising bats, so instead I put out a Wind of Undeath and wounded his lone characters and a fair bit else, before the ethereals wrecked his army. Wraiths into the rear of Black Guard killed them all and ran down the Master- and not a moment too soon, as my Lady's Skellies were charged by the fast Master and Dreadlord, killing them all and leaving her to fight them- the Banshee took the unkillable Dreadlord's challenge, but two 6s for armour saves saved the blasted Master from being killed by my Lady. Corpse Cart joined in purely for unit strength and I ground the two characters down, eventually breaking them from terror-outnumber. God bless Wraiths. To finish off a near-perfect game I moved my Skeletons off a hill on turn 6 and accidentally gifted him his objective in the process, me am smrt!!

Game 5 vs Daemons
This felt like my first "proper" nasty GT-quality list and opponent with Siren Keeper, Siren Herald and unkillable Khorne Herald with Sundering and flaming S7 sword. Then add 10 Flamers, 6 Flesh Hounds and a decent amount of core and you have a scary army! This was the table quarter mission, we each only had limited number of scoring units, but we both went straight into each others' armies (with my Lord bunkering up until the Siren Songs were gone). We both had a great start as my Lady failed stupidity (for the only time in the tournament) while he miscast turn 1 allowing me to cast Summon Undead Horse and boost my Skeleton units handily. The Keeper called over my Fell Bats then regretted it when there was 8 of them by the end of my magic phase. S/he eventually wiped the bats out then went after my Necromancer and getting bogged down in Skellies all game, failing one of the many instability tests and losing 4 wounds. Go Skellies once again!

In the middle Daemonettes raided my Zombies then Sirened in my Wraiths to annihilate them, but that was ok as it cleared up my Skellingtons and Vampires to charge in and bust their chops- although it took too long to get into his quarter. I literally had no movement phase for the last 3 turns, as my chaff was killed and Grave Guard bogged down in another massive combat with Flesh Hounds and Bloodletters with Herald in the front. The Letters didn't have enough charge to get in properly though, so once my Wight King introduced the Flesh Hounds to the Sword of Kings they were no more and the Bloodletters were taking a few casualties every now and then.

I risked taking the Lore of Light, and indeed he had the Sundering Banner affect it, but my Lord tried a couple of castings anyway. Best moment of the tournament: rolled a double 2 trying for the big boomie Light spell so was a miscast, then I proclaimed Double Six as I rolled the dice and thus so it was: killing a few models here and there but sadly not killing the Keeper. Eventually I ground down his units to below US5, but we were fighting in my half, so I claimed my quarters, and his Horrors and Flamers claimed his, neither of us achieved our missions, so it was a dead draw. But what a game!

So onto the last game, a draw would see me definitely through, but who wants to play it safe? Get in!!

Game 6 vs Lizardmen
Standard Lizardmen list, magic Slann with Guard, 2 Engines, JSoD, some Skinks, Spearmen, Terradons, that's the works. Straight pitched battle for once. I sent my Bats forward to cause trouble so he charged in with the Temple Guard and an Engine, then overran far... okay, so my Grave Guard with BSB and Lord will charge and kill your Priest then, fine by me. It took 3 rounds to get the blighter, with my Wight Kin eventually freaking out and rolling 3 Killing Blows on him. By then the Temple Guard had joined in and my opponent's tactic was to cast Burning Alignment and Cleansing Flare as much as possible. However he botched it royally by going straight for Cleansing Flare, miscasting and ending the phase without having used the Alignment. I didn't remind him as I had already done so a couple of times, not my responsibility. Then I took advantage of his remaining Engine's placement- at an angle by his other Stegadon, so only 4 out of my 5 Wraiths could fit. This meant that I could decline the inevitable challenge... and that was it, he didn't like the game any more and let me know it! They killed his poor widdle Skink Priest, while my Lady and Wight King brutalised the Temple Guard... slowly. My Lady should have been killing 3-4 of them a turn to have them all dead within 4 combat phases, let alone the Grave Guard and Wight King's attacks, but an amazing number of 5+ ward saves meant it took until turn 6 and another miscast from the Slann to kill the last 2 Temple Guard, followed by the big fella breaking with no chance to rally. Good thing my final secret mission was to assassinate his general- but I'd won by well over 1000 points anyway, so it was the icing on the cake!

And so 15th place, surprisingly high. It was a great tournament for me, as I stayed just beneath the stupid armies- if I had won my second game and faced my victorious opponent's next opponent instead, it would have been a Kairos/ Scribes/ Skulltaker list for me, so a good "tactical" loss really Looking forward to the final! Just a shame that not many others from my team made it in, and I could have done with a bit of variety. But very pleased with the result- now on to the final! :D
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
Another great report on the GT. It looks like our VC armies are doing pretty well. I look forward to hearing your next report.
 

Johnny B

Grave Guard
Sep 21, 2009
283
London
Nice report, you beat me by 1 place xD I think I was next to you last game? My mate ran a double engine list with double miscasts in the last game and he was on the next table.

Vamps again for the final, or do you have something else planned? I'm not sure whether to take VCs again or do something completely different.
 

Lord Fear

Master Vampire
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
4,834
Yep, we were side by side... I think your mate might even have managed three miscasts, he was that good ;)

I might try and borrow the Goblin army that won the Best Army award for the final, cos I sure aint gonna win it anyway so might as well have some fun while I'm at it...
 

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