Played a game earlier today with my very first army, the VC, using the new rules, versus the Skaven. The game was 2250 points, and I expected my opponent would have a lot of shooting and magic (as well as magic defence). I wasn't disappointed. Sorry for the mispellings, as I don't have the book in front of me, and I apologize, I can never remember Skaven unit names.
I had:
VC with Master of the Dark arts, Forbidden Lore, Lord of the Dead, Skull Staff, and Crown of Command. Was placed with Skellies.
Vamp with Dark Acolyte and scouting, Talisman of Lynci, and Wristbands of Black Gold
Vamp BSB with Dread Knight, Dark Acolyte and the Banner of Drakenhoff, placed with Blood Knights.
Necro in Corspe Cart, 2 Dispel Scrolls, in Skellies
25 Zombies x2
20 Skellies
6 Fellbats
5 Blood Knights, with Banner of the Blood Keep
1 Black Coach
He had:
Grey Seer w/Doom Bell, two items which game him regen and ward save
3 Engineers, 2 dispel scrolls each
60 Rats of some kind, 20 strong each, one with the Doombell, the other two with the Engineers.
1 Rat unit or 20 with frenzy with the other Engineer.
9 Jezzails Guns
1 Gun that shoots the flame template (warpfire flame thrower?)
1 Gun that shoots as many shots as he wants, that autohit (talk about broken!), unless he rolls doubles (Rattling Gun?).
3 Rat Ogres
1 Warplightning Gun
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So I pretty much figured the magic phase would suck for me, but it didn't. I tried to cast Summon Undead Horde once, but realized it was just so much better to cast IoN with one die over and over. This drained his dice quickly, as he always needed to use 2 to dispel.
Turn 1
I got to go first and marched everything forward. The scouting vampire ran into the forest to get the Jezzails. I had 12 PD to play with, so I tried to pump up the Coach, giving it scythed wheels, summoned Zombies using IoN twice, buffing up the two units nicely. The mounted vamp attempted a Gaze of Nagash, but it was dispelled. The scounting Vamp summoned zombies beside the Jezzails with Raise Dead, which he let through because the VC still had plenty of dice. Then he tried to buff their numbers up with IoN, but it got dispelled.
He moved his block units up, the Rat Ogres over to take care of the vamp in the woods, and turned the Jezzails around to face the vamp, too. The lightning cannon took a shot at the Coach, and got a ST8 hit, which would have been very bad, but he rolled a one to wound (thank god!). The corpse cart took 2 wounds, though, and only regened one. And a skeleton died. The other guns were all on the right side of the table taking aim at the Blood Knights, except the Jezzails which were on the other side, and moved. The Knights shrugged off over 20 attacks (the rat champions [I think] all had warp pistols, too. What a crock!) between the regen, the ward save, and the armor save. No wounds at all. God that combo is so mean! Magic saw him make one wound, as I couldn't dispel everything.
Turn 2
Turn 2 I charged the Jezzails with both the zombies and the vamp in the woods, the bats charged the lightning cannon, and the knights charged the unit of frenzied rats (had a choice of three units, took the safest one on the far left, in case I botched my rolls and got stuck there and gang banged). Everything else moved forward, the coach headed over to help the knights (who really didn't need it). I tried to buff the Coach again, and it gained Hatred. Gotta love that. I raised more zombies, and ... by this point he was out of scrolls and running low on dice. He dispelled my attempt to bring the dead knight back. Bastard. Despite only needing a three to cast IoN, I failed 3 times! Combat went to my favor, though, as the zombies used my general's WS of 7 and did two wounds with the Helm of Commandment, and the Vamp did another two. They did 4 back to the zombies, and we pushed. The bats chased after the fleeing Lightning Cannon crew, and ate them. The Knights did something like 15 wounds, winning by 17 I believe. Something ridiculous. They ran and we ran them down. One Engineer dead.
The Rat Ogres charged the last remained Zombies at the Jezzails, and his other block units moved into position to handle the Knights. Now that the Knights were running around his units eating everything in sight, it was a mass of confusion for him and I imagine, hard to prepare for their next move. Magic saw him cast a dark vortex spell which did nothing to the knights, and zapped them a couple times, which either got dispelled or did no wounds with regen and ward.
He unloaded again at the Knights with everything he had in the shooting phase, too, except the Warpfire Cannon as it had to move. Again, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 shots hit. This time, luck was with him and two knights died, leaving the STD Bearer, the Kastellian, and the Vamp. The remaining Zombies on the Jezzails were killed, but no attacks back to the Vamp in the woods, meanwhile he did 2 and was still flanking, so another push.
Turn 3
The first unit of Zombies charged the back of the Jezzails and the flank of the Ogres, the Bats charged the Warpfire Cannon, and the Knights turned to face his general's unit. Oh, I forgot to mention! He did fire the Doombell twice. The first time it made his general's unit cause terror (LOL), the second time it gave everyone hatred. I gave up buffing the Coach, and had it charge a unit of rats trying to flank the knights. They fails their terror test and tried to run away but the Coach ran them down. Fun stuff. Magic saw me raise two of the dead Knights after 7 attempts of IoN, and I raised more Skellies just for fun and to try to burn more DD of his. He didn't fall for it, and let it go. The Vamp and Zombies cleaned up big time, with the Ogre killing 1 Zombie. We won by tons, and they booked. the Zombies did 5d6 hits as they ran away, killing the remaining Jezzails, and the Vamp ran down the Ogres with his Mv9. The Bats killed the two rats and overran into the Rattling gun. The Knights once again proved truly glorious and racked up some serious numbers on his general's unit. He challenged, and I accepted with the Kastellian, who did 1 wound to the buff Rat, who did zero in return due to regen and/or armor. The unit was demolished and ran for it, getting run over like a speed bump by the juggernaut Knights. You could almost hear the squeek as the general was stampeded into the ground.
We called it at this point, because he only had one unit of Rats left. So at the end, he managed to kill 3 Knights which were brought back, and a small unit of raised Zombies. Everything else lived. A total slaughter. I'm guessing he only got 50 pts for the raised zombies.
Notes:
I had a couple comments about the game. First, I don't think his list was a good matchup for mine, but he did bring plenty of magic def. Some other comments:
* The biggest change between the old VC and the new is the magic. I love the TK army because of the magic, but the VC army takes that magic system and puts it on steriods. The thing that really just overwhelmed him was the fact that between the VC, the two Vamps, and the Necro, we could cast IoN twelve times. 12! It was just obscene. The TK army, you maybe can cast 5-7 spells max with bound items. This was double that. He just couldn't stop me from rezzing those Knights back. The other big difference between the two armies is that the TK don't have nasty units like Blood Knights running around, and can't raise units fresh or beyond their limits. The Jezzails + Ogres might have taken that lone Vamp, but thanks to Raise Dead, he wasn't alone. They did their job and kept him busy for a turn for my other Zombies to arrive.
* Zombies are way better than before. Someone was trying to convince me they were nerfed, but IMO, they are much better. Being cheaper and so easy to raise, they did their job and then some. That 5d6 attack they make is serious, too.
* Knights of the Blood Keep rock. Though many opponents to the VC will see them as broken, I don't. By themselves, they are fairly balanced, very costly, and very easy to lure around with their frenzy. BUT combined with certain banners, and the fact I could potentially cast IoN to raise them back 12 times meant they were very broken, indeed. The sheer number of attacks they deliver, while being very hard to beat in combat, nearly impossible to shoot at, and "healable" puts chosen Khorne Knights to shame. They would be more balanced if characters couldn't join them, or if those two banners didn't exist, but what sense (or fun) would that make?
* The Black Coach is way better than it used to be, and a lot more fun. Though I'm not sure if a unit of wraiths + banshee would be better or not. I'm still deciding. Then there's the Vargulf. Decisions, decisions! But the Coach can be great, but on average you are only going to get one power per turn. So by the time he's flying, ethereal, full of hate with killing blow, the game is turn 5 or 6 and it's over. So it seems like a great plan, but don't expect to roll a ton of 6s all the time.
* Forbidden Lore does have it's uses, and was really nice to have, but I was so busy trying to raise people back from the dead and buff zombie units, I hardly had time to cast anything else. In general, I'm forseeing the Dark Acolyte would be a better choice. One more magic level, one more chance to IoN, and 5/7 spells.
Comments? Questions? Sorry it wasn't a more fun read. Normally, I add a bunch of flavor to it - fun facts, describing actions with more detail, etc. - but I just wanted to get it out really quick.
I had:
VC with Master of the Dark arts, Forbidden Lore, Lord of the Dead, Skull Staff, and Crown of Command. Was placed with Skellies.
Vamp with Dark Acolyte and scouting, Talisman of Lynci, and Wristbands of Black Gold
Vamp BSB with Dread Knight, Dark Acolyte and the Banner of Drakenhoff, placed with Blood Knights.
Necro in Corspe Cart, 2 Dispel Scrolls, in Skellies
25 Zombies x2
20 Skellies
6 Fellbats
5 Blood Knights, with Banner of the Blood Keep
1 Black Coach
He had:
Grey Seer w/Doom Bell, two items which game him regen and ward save
3 Engineers, 2 dispel scrolls each
60 Rats of some kind, 20 strong each, one with the Doombell, the other two with the Engineers.
1 Rat unit or 20 with frenzy with the other Engineer.
9 Jezzails Guns
1 Gun that shoots the flame template (warpfire flame thrower?)
1 Gun that shoots as many shots as he wants, that autohit (talk about broken!), unless he rolls doubles (Rattling Gun?).
3 Rat Ogres
1 Warplightning Gun
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So I pretty much figured the magic phase would suck for me, but it didn't. I tried to cast Summon Undead Horde once, but realized it was just so much better to cast IoN with one die over and over. This drained his dice quickly, as he always needed to use 2 to dispel.
Turn 1
I got to go first and marched everything forward. The scouting vampire ran into the forest to get the Jezzails. I had 12 PD to play with, so I tried to pump up the Coach, giving it scythed wheels, summoned Zombies using IoN twice, buffing up the two units nicely. The mounted vamp attempted a Gaze of Nagash, but it was dispelled. The scounting Vamp summoned zombies beside the Jezzails with Raise Dead, which he let through because the VC still had plenty of dice. Then he tried to buff their numbers up with IoN, but it got dispelled.
He moved his block units up, the Rat Ogres over to take care of the vamp in the woods, and turned the Jezzails around to face the vamp, too. The lightning cannon took a shot at the Coach, and got a ST8 hit, which would have been very bad, but he rolled a one to wound (thank god!). The corpse cart took 2 wounds, though, and only regened one. And a skeleton died. The other guns were all on the right side of the table taking aim at the Blood Knights, except the Jezzails which were on the other side, and moved. The Knights shrugged off over 20 attacks (the rat champions [I think] all had warp pistols, too. What a crock!) between the regen, the ward save, and the armor save. No wounds at all. God that combo is so mean! Magic saw him make one wound, as I couldn't dispel everything.
Turn 2
Turn 2 I charged the Jezzails with both the zombies and the vamp in the woods, the bats charged the lightning cannon, and the knights charged the unit of frenzied rats (had a choice of three units, took the safest one on the far left, in case I botched my rolls and got stuck there and gang banged). Everything else moved forward, the coach headed over to help the knights (who really didn't need it). I tried to buff the Coach again, and it gained Hatred. Gotta love that. I raised more zombies, and ... by this point he was out of scrolls and running low on dice. He dispelled my attempt to bring the dead knight back. Bastard. Despite only needing a three to cast IoN, I failed 3 times! Combat went to my favor, though, as the zombies used my general's WS of 7 and did two wounds with the Helm of Commandment, and the Vamp did another two. They did 4 back to the zombies, and we pushed. The bats chased after the fleeing Lightning Cannon crew, and ate them. The Knights did something like 15 wounds, winning by 17 I believe. Something ridiculous. They ran and we ran them down. One Engineer dead.
The Rat Ogres charged the last remained Zombies at the Jezzails, and his other block units moved into position to handle the Knights. Now that the Knights were running around his units eating everything in sight, it was a mass of confusion for him and I imagine, hard to prepare for their next move. Magic saw him cast a dark vortex spell which did nothing to the knights, and zapped them a couple times, which either got dispelled or did no wounds with regen and ward.
He unloaded again at the Knights with everything he had in the shooting phase, too, except the Warpfire Cannon as it had to move. Again, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 shots hit. This time, luck was with him and two knights died, leaving the STD Bearer, the Kastellian, and the Vamp. The remaining Zombies on the Jezzails were killed, but no attacks back to the Vamp in the woods, meanwhile he did 2 and was still flanking, so another push.
Turn 3
The first unit of Zombies charged the back of the Jezzails and the flank of the Ogres, the Bats charged the Warpfire Cannon, and the Knights turned to face his general's unit. Oh, I forgot to mention! He did fire the Doombell twice. The first time it made his general's unit cause terror (LOL), the second time it gave everyone hatred. I gave up buffing the Coach, and had it charge a unit of rats trying to flank the knights. They fails their terror test and tried to run away but the Coach ran them down. Fun stuff. Magic saw me raise two of the dead Knights after 7 attempts of IoN, and I raised more Skellies just for fun and to try to burn more DD of his. He didn't fall for it, and let it go. The Vamp and Zombies cleaned up big time, with the Ogre killing 1 Zombie. We won by tons, and they booked. the Zombies did 5d6 hits as they ran away, killing the remaining Jezzails, and the Vamp ran down the Ogres with his Mv9. The Bats killed the two rats and overran into the Rattling gun. The Knights once again proved truly glorious and racked up some serious numbers on his general's unit. He challenged, and I accepted with the Kastellian, who did 1 wound to the buff Rat, who did zero in return due to regen and/or armor. The unit was demolished and ran for it, getting run over like a speed bump by the juggernaut Knights. You could almost hear the squeek as the general was stampeded into the ground.
We called it at this point, because he only had one unit of Rats left. So at the end, he managed to kill 3 Knights which were brought back, and a small unit of raised Zombies. Everything else lived. A total slaughter. I'm guessing he only got 50 pts for the raised zombies.
Notes:
I had a couple comments about the game. First, I don't think his list was a good matchup for mine, but he did bring plenty of magic def. Some other comments:
* The biggest change between the old VC and the new is the magic. I love the TK army because of the magic, but the VC army takes that magic system and puts it on steriods. The thing that really just overwhelmed him was the fact that between the VC, the two Vamps, and the Necro, we could cast IoN twelve times. 12! It was just obscene. The TK army, you maybe can cast 5-7 spells max with bound items. This was double that. He just couldn't stop me from rezzing those Knights back. The other big difference between the two armies is that the TK don't have nasty units like Blood Knights running around, and can't raise units fresh or beyond their limits. The Jezzails + Ogres might have taken that lone Vamp, but thanks to Raise Dead, he wasn't alone. They did their job and kept him busy for a turn for my other Zombies to arrive.
* Zombies are way better than before. Someone was trying to convince me they were nerfed, but IMO, they are much better. Being cheaper and so easy to raise, they did their job and then some. That 5d6 attack they make is serious, too.
* Knights of the Blood Keep rock. Though many opponents to the VC will see them as broken, I don't. By themselves, they are fairly balanced, very costly, and very easy to lure around with their frenzy. BUT combined with certain banners, and the fact I could potentially cast IoN to raise them back 12 times meant they were very broken, indeed. The sheer number of attacks they deliver, while being very hard to beat in combat, nearly impossible to shoot at, and "healable" puts chosen Khorne Knights to shame. They would be more balanced if characters couldn't join them, or if those two banners didn't exist, but what sense (or fun) would that make?
* The Black Coach is way better than it used to be, and a lot more fun. Though I'm not sure if a unit of wraiths + banshee would be better or not. I'm still deciding. Then there's the Vargulf. Decisions, decisions! But the Coach can be great, but on average you are only going to get one power per turn. So by the time he's flying, ethereal, full of hate with killing blow, the game is turn 5 or 6 and it's over. So it seems like a great plan, but don't expect to roll a ton of 6s all the time.
* Forbidden Lore does have it's uses, and was really nice to have, but I was so busy trying to raise people back from the dead and buff zombie units, I hardly had time to cast anything else. In general, I'm forseeing the Dark Acolyte would be a better choice. One more magic level, one more chance to IoN, and 5/7 spells.
Comments? Questions? Sorry it wasn't a more fun read. Normally, I add a bunch of flavor to it - fun facts, describing actions with more detail, etc. - but I just wanted to get it out really quick.
.