Tactics Vs our Dusty Cousins

[Johnny-Crass]

So I have played against TK with my Beastmen, Warriors and Empire, and have always nearly tabled them or atleast won. Now playing them with VC I have been struggling. Casket killed my warmachine hunters with ease, my general got KB'd and sphinxs walked through my zombies and skellies. I run 3 single hosts and a ghoul horde also but the hosts died to light magic and screaming skulls and the ghouls died to chariots/arrows.

So how do you beat the other undead?

 

[MadLarkin]

Terrorgheists and banshees are great as undead have generally low leadership.

Don't know too much about them other than that though

 

[bobajelly]

Terrorgheists and banshees are great as undead have generally low leadership.

Don't know too much about them other than that though

Yeh their Ld is pretty low but still a lot better than our average (im guessing because they cant stop the army-wide crumble once its started).

I'm hesitant using a Mortis Engine simply because they have access to some very damaging flaming attacks (skull catapults are a big one).

@Johnny Crass

Sounded like they dominated you in the magic phase (both yours and theirs) which isn't too good if you consider how damaging theirs can be and how essential ours is to survive.

The Casket is an ever-present pain in the ass but that's the reality of an item that constantly generates d3 PD and has arguably the nastiest bound spell in the game. No answer to this besides maybe taking more chaff and just throwing fliers at it (cept for the blood KB tomb guard around it).

I know how you're a strong believer in Ghouls and I think you just had a rough time against the TK coz I reckon your core ghoul horde should have carried your main-line to victory against the big nasties (sadly they didnt). It has for me in the past and should again for you.

Sounds like you need a level 4 death magician with power scroll to get off a sneaky purple sun.

 

[No Life King]

Ethereal units! In my last game VS the Kings, my spirit hosts tied up all his flank monsters and he couldn't do anything to them. :ghost:

 

[rothgar13]

Ethereals do indeed give TK problems. The only reliable sources of magical attacks are the Casket and the Screaming Skull Catapult.

I guess the first order of business is to try and minimize the Lord's exposure to KB's. That means you put him at the corner of the unit and you keep him there, to minimize attacks against him. I'm pretty sure you've already done that, but it's something that should be said. Another thing you can do if you're really worried about this sort of thing is to issue a challenge - while it means your Vampire Lord won't savage his unit, they're also Undead, so CR will still cause crumble in the event of a win. It also has the handy side-effect of exposing your Vampire Lord to very few attacks, and if you happen to kill the unit's resident Tomb King or Priest, Round 2 just got a LOT easier.

Sphinxes you deal with using poison, plain and simple. I recommend Crypt Horrors over Ghouls, since they can't be Thunderstomped or Thundercrushed, and while the Sphinx's Fire Breath will likely negate their Regen, it's not exactly an offensive juggernaut if you've negated the above two options. Your Ethereals can also do a good job of holding them up, provided they haven't gotten flicked off the board first.

Another thing that has to be discussed is dispelling strategy. Light of Death has to be priority 1, 2, and 3 in this phase, because it hits VC like a pillowcase full of bricks. Chances are you can regenerate most of the Wounds lost through any Light spells or through Smiting-boosted Archery, so make sure you keep dice in storage to stop LoD and you should be OK. Don't be afraid to pop out the Dispel Scroll early, though - TK are decent in combat, but they really do want to soften you up a bit before they get in there, so reaching combat at something resembling full strength should be your goal.

Good luck!

 

[Yanda]

What about there Archer's arrows? arnt they magical/flaming attacks?

 

[rothgar13]

Nope. Just plain arrows. The only cool thing they have is that they ignore all penalties to hit, so they'll always hit on 5's. If Khalida's around, they become a lot more dangerous, because then they'll hit on 4's and be Poisoned.