Legion of Blood vs Hagg Nar
Scenario: First Blood (From 2021 GHB)
Soulblight
Grand Strategy: Crimson Larder
Sekhar (Vile Transference)
Vampire Lord (General, Tailored Downfall on the Slaughter Queen, Manticore Venom, Flaming Weapon)
5 Black Knights
20 Skeletons
20 Grave Guard
Daughters of Khaine
Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (General, True Believer, Crone Blade, Catechism of Murder)
Bloodwrack Shrine (Mindrazor)
20 Witch Aelves (Pair of Knives)
10 Sisters of Slaughter (Whips and Bucklers)
10 Khinerai
The little circles are graveyards. The big circles are the objectives with the one with the one in the middle representing the Vantage Point (which is the only special rule for the scenario, you get an extra CP if you control the vantage point and it changes each round.
Round 1
Daughters of Khaine win the roll off but give first turn to the slow moving undead. The only spell that goes off successfully is Mystic Shield on the Grave Guard. They all shuffle forward, everyone running. We still get our Battle Tactic (holding the center) and all the objectives.
Daughters of Khaine buff their Witch Aelves. With Hagg Nar and the True Believer they get army wide +1 to Hit, Run and Charge. With Catechism of Murder they also get exploding 6s. From Mindrazor they get 1 rend on the charge and +1 Damage. They move up but I use a CP to Redeploy the Grave Guard and roll a 6 so they move back quite a bit leaving the Witch Aelves unable to charge them. They redirect into the Black Knights, destroying them in one turn with all their buffs.
The Bloodwrack shrine charges Sehkar and the Kinerai descend from high above to shoot her and then are allowed to move so they get close enough to charge as well. Her 5+ to hit is a huge debuff for the DoK since they hit on 2 or 3 for pretty much their entire army with their +1 to hit buff. Sekhar only takes 4 damage from all those attacks. Without The Hunger she cannot heal after attacking but does manage to do 6 damage back to the Shrine.
They get their battle tactic of charging with 3 units and take back 2 objectives so they get maximum victory points as well.
Round 2
Soulblight rolls a 2 for Priority but Dok only rolls a 1 so Soulblight gets to go first.
Sekhar gets both her spells off. Vile Transference heals her of 3 wounds, which is really necessary without her ability to heal herself. Her personal spell Death's Construction is great for use on the Shrine as it prevents it from doing a lot of its damaging abilities like its shooting attack.
The Vampire Lord fails her Flaming Weapon spell for the second time. She uses the Legion of Blood Immortal Majesty ability to debuff the ability to use command points for the Witch Aelves and Sisters of Slaughter.
The Grave Guard move in and charge the Kinerai and the Shrine. The Shrine is already very weak from all the attacks from Sekhar and they finish it off and manage to destroy the Kinera as well. It's not surprising since the Grave Guard are the best unit in our army 2" range, 2 attacks with -1 Rend and 2 Damage. Very deadly. Especially with All Out Attack.
The Sisters of Slaughter charge the Skeletons but only manage to kill a few of them. The Vampire Lord's Crimson Feast plus the ability to get -1 Rend when attacking a smaller unit means they reply and wipe out the Sisters of Slaughter.
Witch Aelves get revenge by one shotting the Vampire Lord (even with All out Defence!) with all their buffs.
Soulblight gets 2 objectives and gets their Battle Tactics which was to steal one objective from the enemy.
The Cauldron charges into the Skeletons and between it and the Sisters they are defeated. The Black Knights are returned from a Graveyard on the end of the movement phase with 3 units left. They still hold the middle objective and then take the far objective and complete their battle tactic of destroying a unit, getting full victory points.
It's 10 to 10 at the bottom of round 2!
Round 3
Soulblight wins Priority again! All units converge on the Cauldron. The Skeletons return as a unit of 10 from the Graveyard to seize the far objective. Sekhar manages to take 3 mortal wounds from rolling double 1s on her spell.
The Soulblight Battle Tactic, Calloud Overlord, is to have the Black Knight unit die. An interesting tactic to want your own unit to get wiped.
Everyone except the Skeletons charge into the frey. The Grave Guard continue to be amazing and one shot the cauldron. The Black Knights kill 3 Witch Aelves and one of their number die. The Battle tactic fails as not enough of them are killed due to some very good defence rolls. But, all objectives are held.
With only half a unit of Witch Aelves and no real way to get any objectives or Battle Tactics left the DoK concede.
Both armies get their Grand Strategy.
Victory for the Legion of Blood!
Final Thoughts
I didn't use to use Battle Tactics and Grand Strategies because I felt it was too much extra rules. But, I've started to use them and actually they're very intuitive as they give you some direction and help make it easier to focus on what needs to be done rather than being paralyzed for choice.
Sekhar is pretty good in a low point game. But, you really need Vile Transference or some good Heroic Recovery rolls. The Hunger would have made her amazing but that would probably have made her pretty expensive too. Her personal spell seems a bit situational but casting 2 spell is always a good thing, especially with the +1 to cast that Legion of Blood gets when it's not in combat. She also gets +1 Attack with both her and her companion in melee due to Legion of Blood. I don't think you'd ever want to give up her +5 to hit to do her area damage but I guess it could happen if you had her hang back.
Witch Aelves can just delete anything they touch, they get so many buffs. But the Soulblight can just keep bringing back units that die so in the end that didn't end up meaning victory. We can outlast them at least this time.
Scenario: First Blood (From 2021 GHB)
Soulblight
Grand Strategy: Crimson Larder
Sekhar (Vile Transference)
Vampire Lord (General, Tailored Downfall on the Slaughter Queen, Manticore Venom, Flaming Weapon)
5 Black Knights
20 Skeletons
20 Grave Guard
Daughters of Khaine
Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots
Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (General, True Believer, Crone Blade, Catechism of Murder)
Bloodwrack Shrine (Mindrazor)
20 Witch Aelves (Pair of Knives)
10 Sisters of Slaughter (Whips and Bucklers)
10 Khinerai
The little circles are graveyards. The big circles are the objectives with the one with the one in the middle representing the Vantage Point (which is the only special rule for the scenario, you get an extra CP if you control the vantage point and it changes each round.
Round 1
Daughters of Khaine win the roll off but give first turn to the slow moving undead. The only spell that goes off successfully is Mystic Shield on the Grave Guard. They all shuffle forward, everyone running. We still get our Battle Tactic (holding the center) and all the objectives.
Daughters of Khaine buff their Witch Aelves. With Hagg Nar and the True Believer they get army wide +1 to Hit, Run and Charge. With Catechism of Murder they also get exploding 6s. From Mindrazor they get 1 rend on the charge and +1 Damage. They move up but I use a CP to Redeploy the Grave Guard and roll a 6 so they move back quite a bit leaving the Witch Aelves unable to charge them. They redirect into the Black Knights, destroying them in one turn with all their buffs.
The Bloodwrack shrine charges Sehkar and the Kinerai descend from high above to shoot her and then are allowed to move so they get close enough to charge as well. Her 5+ to hit is a huge debuff for the DoK since they hit on 2 or 3 for pretty much their entire army with their +1 to hit buff. Sekhar only takes 4 damage from all those attacks. Without The Hunger she cannot heal after attacking but does manage to do 6 damage back to the Shrine.
They get their battle tactic of charging with 3 units and take back 2 objectives so they get maximum victory points as well.
Round 2
Soulblight rolls a 2 for Priority but Dok only rolls a 1 so Soulblight gets to go first.
Sekhar gets both her spells off. Vile Transference heals her of 3 wounds, which is really necessary without her ability to heal herself. Her personal spell Death's Construction is great for use on the Shrine as it prevents it from doing a lot of its damaging abilities like its shooting attack.
The Vampire Lord fails her Flaming Weapon spell for the second time. She uses the Legion of Blood Immortal Majesty ability to debuff the ability to use command points for the Witch Aelves and Sisters of Slaughter.
The Grave Guard move in and charge the Kinerai and the Shrine. The Shrine is already very weak from all the attacks from Sekhar and they finish it off and manage to destroy the Kinera as well. It's not surprising since the Grave Guard are the best unit in our army 2" range, 2 attacks with -1 Rend and 2 Damage. Very deadly. Especially with All Out Attack.
The Sisters of Slaughter charge the Skeletons but only manage to kill a few of them. The Vampire Lord's Crimson Feast plus the ability to get -1 Rend when attacking a smaller unit means they reply and wipe out the Sisters of Slaughter.
Witch Aelves get revenge by one shotting the Vampire Lord (even with All out Defence!) with all their buffs.
Soulblight gets 2 objectives and gets their Battle Tactics which was to steal one objective from the enemy.
The Cauldron charges into the Skeletons and between it and the Sisters they are defeated. The Black Knights are returned from a Graveyard on the end of the movement phase with 3 units left. They still hold the middle objective and then take the far objective and complete their battle tactic of destroying a unit, getting full victory points.
It's 10 to 10 at the bottom of round 2!
Round 3
Soulblight wins Priority again! All units converge on the Cauldron. The Skeletons return as a unit of 10 from the Graveyard to seize the far objective. Sekhar manages to take 3 mortal wounds from rolling double 1s on her spell.
The Soulblight Battle Tactic, Calloud Overlord, is to have the Black Knight unit die. An interesting tactic to want your own unit to get wiped.
Everyone except the Skeletons charge into the frey. The Grave Guard continue to be amazing and one shot the cauldron. The Black Knights kill 3 Witch Aelves and one of their number die. The Battle tactic fails as not enough of them are killed due to some very good defence rolls. But, all objectives are held.
With only half a unit of Witch Aelves and no real way to get any objectives or Battle Tactics left the DoK concede.
Both armies get their Grand Strategy.
Victory for the Legion of Blood!
Final Thoughts
I didn't use to use Battle Tactics and Grand Strategies because I felt it was too much extra rules. But, I've started to use them and actually they're very intuitive as they give you some direction and help make it easier to focus on what needs to be done rather than being paralyzed for choice.
Sekhar is pretty good in a low point game. But, you really need Vile Transference or some good Heroic Recovery rolls. The Hunger would have made her amazing but that would probably have made her pretty expensive too. Her personal spell seems a bit situational but casting 2 spell is always a good thing, especially with the +1 to cast that Legion of Blood gets when it's not in combat. She also gets +1 Attack with both her and her companion in melee due to Legion of Blood. I don't think you'd ever want to give up her +5 to hit to do her area damage but I guess it could happen if you had her hang back.
Witch Aelves can just delete anything they touch, they get so many buffs. But the Soulblight can just keep bringing back units that die so in the end that didn't end up meaning victory. We can outlast them at least this time.