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Lord Fear

Master Vampire
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
4,834
So today I headed down to Brighton for the Dragon's Tears Warhammer tournament. Playing in a massive pub, three games at 2000 points, organised by a great bunch of guys. Places were limited to 16 but a couple didn't make it, including the guy I was drawn to play in the first round, so instead one of the organisers stepped up with his mate's High Elves, ready to take a beating in the name of all that is unholy.

My list is here:
https://www.vampirecounts.net/showthread.php?tid=190
Despite several people's recommendations, I didn't change a thing. Let's 'ave it!

John's High Elves were shockingly small in size, thanks to some expensive banners:
2 mounted Commanders, one a BSB with Battle Banner and the other with Blade of Sea Gold (ignores armour saves)
2 Mages, Level 1/2, one with Starwood Staff (+1 to cast)
8 Helms, Ellyrion Standard and Musician
6 Helms with Musician
20 Spearmen, Full Command,
20 Swordmasters, Full Command, Standard of Sorcery
11 Shadow Warriors
2 Bolt Throwers
1 Eagle

For these games we were given the scenery to set up as in the rulebook, and then the organiser plonked down a monolith near the middle, which would give extra magic dice to whoever was closest. The High Elves got the first turn and moved their stuff forward, managed to miscast and give me a free spell (10 extra Skellies, huzzah!) while the Bolt Throwers killed a couple of Knights. I can't figure out why but the Shadow Warriors deployed out to the right of the armies rather than make trouble in the woods. Never mind though. In my turn, I moved around and this was the position of our two armies (The Banshee off-screen to the left):

aimg401.imageshack.us_img401_5576_vchexa3.jpg

You can see my Queen waving her swords around right in the middle there. She managed to blast apart 5 Swordmasters with a Gaze of Nagash in the first turn, good stuff! The Dire Wolves went right up to the Shadow Warriors hoping to cause all kinds of trouble- only three were left by the time they got the charge; the Shadow Warriors failed their Fear test, and neither side caused any kills, and the Wolves dissolved in the next combat phase. Great work, guys.

More Bolts and magic hit my units in the second turn, but no major damage. I decided to use a scroll to stop Guardian Light from making most his army immune to psychology, not sure if it was worth it, but it would certainly help soon enough! The Knights carried on forward, convinced the big Silver Helms unit with both Commanders couldn't charge out that far- then I realised he had a magic banner that would let him ignore the difficult terrain, and prayed for a miracle.

And I got the miracle, as the Helms failed their Fear test! Thank goodness I had stopped Guardian Light from working the turn before! The Knights were really taking a pounding by now, and moved right up in front of the right Bolt Thrower, followed by Lahamas and her Skeletons, while the spirit Hosts went in against the lazy Spearmen on the left. They managed to kill the Champion only, but that was okay- the Ghouls would be able to flank the Spears soon. I'd misjudged with the Black Knights at the base of the hill and the Swordmasters managed a flank charge on them. Some awful dice followed, as the Wight Lord's Cursed Book helped him survive for about four turns while he killed the Blademaster, but failed to hurt the accursed Mage the Swordmasters were guarding.

The big Silver Helms finally passed their Fear test and ran out the woods into Lahamas' Skeletons, my opponent confident his unit could take me on. Lahamas beguiled a weak-minded Helm and I used all her attacks on the BSB, knowing that he'd almost certainly have the Battle Banner. The BSB died horribly and the Silver helms couldn't do enough damage to win decisively, so the combat continued, my smaller unit of Black Knights (reduced to two models) also joining in and catching the unit when it fled.

The Ghouls indeed managed to kill enough Spearmen to break the unit, while the Banshee went warmachine-hunting, easily killing the left Bolt Thrower crew, but getting tied up for several turns with the second machine. Eventually she let rip with a massive scream killing the remaining crewmen four times over (And yes I did randomise to the machine)! The Spirit Hosts then went into the Swordmasters' flank and did enough damage to break them. The game was mine, all that was left was to mop up, the other Skeletons being Dansed into the Eagle to send it running by the end of the game.

Finally, Lahamas decided it was time for some personal glory, and charged out of the Skeleton unit into the smaller Silver Helms unit. All they had was outnumber, so in the final turn's combat they couldn't possibly kill her... could they?! The two Black Knight survivors headed into the wood and were also Dansed into the Helms' flank, this was looking like a foregone conclusion... but Lahamas and the Knights all fluffed their attacks, so Lahamas lost a wound and one of the Black Knights dissolved! The game was over, and it was a massacre for me, despite the rubbish ending! To be honest, the result was a foregone conclusion, High Elves are a very weak army that I never fail to massacre, and my opponent made some odd decisions, plus I knew or worked out his sneaky tricks easily enough- if I hadn't gone nuts on the BSB that combat would not have gone in my favour.

So, with such a convincing win I was fighting another guy who'd also massacred his previous opponent (One of the three similar Ogre armies!), a Chaos Khorne player. Hmm, I have a bit of experience with that Chaos army!

His army was:
Chaos Lord, Daemonic Steed, Mathsword, Gaze of the Gods, MoK
Exalted Champion in Chariot, MoK, Blade of Blood, Enchanted Shield
Wargor, GW
5 Chosen Knights, MoK
Another Chariot, MoK
2 x 5 Hounds
6+6 Beast Herd
6 Furies
3 Dragon Ogres, GW
Mutant Giant

So a small but hard army! Putting the terrain down this time I made a nice little wall that could really hurt his frenzied chariots. No picture for this game sadly... the smaller Knights, Banshee and Hosts went left (Facing off against Giant, Dragon Ogres and Furies), my infantry went behind the wall (Facing down Chosen Knights and Hounds), big Knights and Wolves right of that (Facing off the Chariots and Beast Herds).

My opponent took first turn and after some quick and unruly movement (And a nicked magic dice by me of course), it was my move. I decided I didn't want to be boring and so moved over the walls while the Banshee skirted round a house, hoping to scream at the Giant if she had to. The Wolves skirted to the right- they'd be taking a charge soon. As usual my opponent let me raise more troops freely in my first phase, which I always appreciate.

I'd placed the Banshee quite badly and so the Furies managed to charge her, and that was the end of her. The Furies wanted to overrun into my Ghouls but didn't go far enough, and so got charged instead. The Ghouls fought well but insane courage allowed the Furies to stay in combat... and I'd killed just enough so that the Giant's LoS was no longer blocked, letting him crash into the Black Knights' flanks. Oh crap.

The Chariot smashed into the Dire Wolves and overran off the table- no dispel dice from that next turn! Not quite worth 80 points though... the Ghouls passed their Fear test to attack the Mutant Giant, hurting it a little before it finished off the Black Knights, made the Ghouls run and made for the infantry...

Sneaky positioning with the Hounds meant my Black Knights were hampered pretty badly and in the end I charged into them but my opponent held, the Hounds being trampled and the Knights overrunning into the Beast Herd. Fine by me! More sneaky positioning saw the Chariots round by my right flank, so I made the stellar decision to move Lahamas' Skeletons forward out of the Chariot's charge arc (With the Exalted Champion, it was a rank-busting US5), then raised 3D6 more Skeletons... but then VHD-ed them out of dodge again. Thank goodness. The Chosen Knights were also slightly blocked in so couldn't get the charge just yet.

The Giant did however managed to charge the unarmoured Skeletons, supported by the Dragon Ogres. This could hurt! The unit survived and some lucky IF meant I was able to re-raise many of the dead. Good stuff! Another IF sent my Skeletons and Queen Lahamas into the Chosen Knights with their Lord- an earlier conversation had shown my opponent didn't agree with sliding units over, so I was happy to clip in this case since I didn't have enough range. My unit Champion stepped up and offered his head to the Chaos Lord, who didn't hurt him too much. Lahamas slew a Knight to even the odds... the big fight would continue!

Meanwhile the Exalted Chariot smashed through the Zombie bunker (Doubling his wounds in the process), but I'd had the sense to remove the Necromancer who was now running around behind the lines like a scaredy cat. The Black Knights killed all the Gors, but the Wargor fought back and killed a paur of them before running off with four Ungors ran off but I couldn't catch them, and they were in a forest so it would slow me badly. I swore I'd catch them eventually though!

The big fight continued, this time with the Chosen Knights Champion facing down Lahamas and being killed for his trouble. The Chosen of Khorne decided they'd had enough and legged it! Lahamas amused herself by casting Curse of Years on the Knights, who rallied, took another casualty, ran off again and then failed to rally and went off the table. Beautiful! I'd have liked them to have stayed on the table though just so I could laugh as his General became a Spawn...

The Black Knights trudged through the woods to get to the Beastmen, when eventually they decided they were actually insane and went unruly, charging in against them, and being killed for their trouble.

The left flank was lost though, as the Dragon Ogres and Giant destroyed the Skeletons. However the Ghouls rallied and the Exalted Chariot opened up its flank to them, so they went in. Only had to cause a few wounds, just the odd 6 followed by a failed save for the Chariot perhaps? However, about 50 attacks later they'd failed to put a dent in the tank, and legged it. Darn.

The game was over, I'd killed the enemy General and his big unit, but taken heavy losses myself. However, there was about 450 points in it, so a minor victory for me. Mission accomplished, onwards to victory!

Final match, and more Elves... this time of the Dark variety. Make that the Dark, almost all-mounted variety. With a Dragon. My opponent assured me no Albion items however (Gauntlet of Power, giving S8 attacks, caught me out once), instead the Highborn on the Dragon had the Executioner's Axe. When he revealed this I was quite worried, thinking it meant Killing Blow- instead it just meant very high strength. My opponent looked up nearly every magic item I fielded- I should have done the same, cos I've just looked it up now, and at no point did he tell me that it was an always strikes last weapon, grrr!

Had a couple of little disputes here and there (like me saying how the Zombie bunker works because it prevents things from charging the Necromancer, him saying that wouldn't work for flyers because they could still land and then units would get shifted, then me saying no they can't do that, then him looking up a rule that doesn't matter, then me looking up the flyers rule which specifically says you can't land on top of units, him trying to make out that doesn't mean with charging... and my repeating it again louder and clearer to drive home the point. I know how these rules work! He also was adamant that the Black Periapt shouldn't work on his unused dice as well, but them's the rules, and we played it the correct way) but they were out the way eventually.

Accompanying the cheeky Darkling was:
2 mounted Level 2 Sorceresses, 3 Scrolls between 'em
4 x 5 Dark Riders with Musician
2 x 5 Cold One Knights
2 Bolt Throwers
5 Harpies
and that's the lot!

We were playing for control of an important central thingummy worth another 100VPs this time. My Black Knights went in the centre with Knights in front. Ghouls and Hosts went left and Banshee went right. One Bolt Thrower went on a hill in the centre of his deployment zone, the other in the left corner. Then Dark Riders were scattered about, one unit of Cold Ones on the left with the Harpies, the other towards the right. The Dragon went wherever it wanted. In fact, this is where it ended up on turn two!

vcdean3.jpg


And that is indeed my Queen at the corner fighting for her life!

However, thanks to the Cursed Book, both Dragon and Highborn only did one wound to the Queen, who did one in return. The Dragon did not break, however, though my unit turned to face it (And ended up four-wide, losing its ranks. Great work!).

The first magic phase saw my opponent draw out my dice very well to protect my Ghouls, then fire at my Banshee with Dark Hand of Death. My only Dispel Scroll used in turn one, not very nice. Dire Wolves were cut down to size leaving only the Doom Wolf while the Bolt Throwers started earning their points. The Banshee managed to scream at the dragon in the first turn, wounding the beast, before the Dark Riders and their Sorceress tried to charge her. They failed their Fear test, and it all worked out well for the Dark Elves, as the Sorceress again blasted the Banshee, 4 dispel dice not enough to protect her. By that time the Dragon was fighting my Vampire Lady (As above) but on my turn the unit Champion challenged the beastie, being cut down as usual but enough CR saw the Dragon running! Couldn't catch it however, and it rallied before being charged, beaten again and made to run again- still not caught however!

The Dark Riders and Harpies continued making annoyances of themselves, and the Ghouls were whittled down to four survivors. The Bolt Throwers continued to pepper the Knights, but the Cold Ones didn't want to get too close so edged back. The Spirit Hosts tried a dodgy charge on some Dark Riders- I wasn't sure if I was in range, but they fled voluntarily- failing to rally in their next turn and going off the board. Mwhahahaha...

Eventually Queen Lahamas had had enough and charged out of the Skeletons into the pesky Banshee-killing Sorceress, cutting her down and running her Dark Riders off the board, where she'd be safe. A miscast from the surviving mage gave me a free spell and so I raised a new unit of Skeletons by her unit, ready to charge in and kill her in my turn. Only they didn't hurt her and lost combat, the Dark Riders turning to a stupid single file, before winning combat by one again and extending their frontage. However, the opportunistic Ghouls had also moved close and charged in to help the Skeletons, breaking the Sorceress' unit but not running her down. Next turn both units of 4 survivors charged, the stand and shoot not enough, the Ghouls' poison mitts destroying the unit.

Elsewhere the Spirit Hosts edged towards the left Cold One Knights, intent on destroying them. They eventually got the charge, killing a single Knight but not managing to do any more damage throughout the next half a dozen turns, and not breaking them either. Grrr!

The other Cold One Knights tried to defend the Bolt Thrower, but went stupid (Finally!) and moved in charge range of both by Black Knight units. Charge! The gits fled, taking the Bolt Thrower crew with them to start a new life off the table. This was a smart move, as it let the Dragon charge the rear of the Wight Lord's unit (Champion and Standard the only ones remaining), the Cursed Book not enough to stop them from crumbling. Damn!

Only one thing left for it, the remaining Black Knights aligned themselves for a charge in the final turn. My opponent let me VHD them into the Dragon, thinking he'd have an easy time... four attacks later, one hit and...................... one Killing Blow! The General slumped in his saddle, the Dragon chased off by the Knights. Victory was mine! We were the last players to finish as I raised more models to bolster my own units and take the central objective, though we weren't exactly slow.

So all in all, two massacres and a minor victory... and so the tournament was mine! I had a bit of luck, and didn't face any really nasty armies, though a Khornate force more power-oriented than I'm used to and a Dragon force aren't exactly easy picking. And so I happily accepted my first place prize. Oh, one more picture for you all ;)

aimg508.imageshack.us_img508_392_awardfk2.jpg
 

Lord Fear

Master Vampire
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
4,834
Cheers guys. I believe it's called the Berserker Sword, you add up the US of all models in base-to-base contact with the wielder, divide it by 2 (Rounding up) and the wielder gets that many extra attacks. So if his Lord on Daemonic Steed has charged my Black Knights and contacted 4 of them, then he'd get 4 extra attacks that turn. Fortunately he only faced US1 Skeletons so only got 1-2 extra attacks...

Lord Firmshaft said:
Im glad you won over the dark elf player as he sounded a bit of a lawer

I wouldn't be surprised if he's made similar threads to this on other forums saying, "My opponent said he could do this, this and this, oh and he had the audacity to check line of sight after moving near my Dragon, was he cheating?", only he'd just find that I was correct each time ;)
 

logan054

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Aug 16, 2007
2,601
Colchester
hey i thought you said that khorne guy had a army like mine, thats nothing like mine, pretty low on dispel dice for a tournament! well as i said last nice glad to see you won the tournament.
 

Lord Fear

Master Vampire
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
4,834
Well I meant if you went a bit nuts, lost all the infantry and went hyper-competitive. Although things like the Wargor and Giant were there just because he had spare points. 7DD aint too shabby I think!
 

logan054

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Aug 16, 2007
2,601
Colchester
So nothing like my list at all then :P 7 isnt that high for tournament khorne list, 8/9 is more like the number, besides the fact hes taking a lord over two exalted is rather silly, chaos lords are a huge waste of points unless your to lazy to think of something else to spend the points on :p

Anyways the maths sword is awful (like most chaos weapons actually), as i said glad to see you got the tournament win.
 

Lord Fear

Master Vampire
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
4,834
Well that guy fought Ogres in his first game so he was getting +5 attacks when he engaged them! But when I looked at his army I did think that yours was basically a lot more fighty, he had quite a bit of stuff in there just for its own sake (Like using the 4th character slot for the Wargor).
 

logan054

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Aug 16, 2007
2,601
Colchester
yeah i do love that weapon against ogres (that and rending sword, muhaha(! the other great tool against ogres is blood beasts, seriously with flank charges its just so messy! I think next time you go to one of these you really need to let me know so i can come along, i think you need a run for your money ;)

One thing i love about tournaments is that you cant tailor list (i think everyone does it to a degree without thinking about it), its just about using a list you like against different guys, true test of generalship.
 

darknesseternal

Varghulf
Aug 15, 2007
784
Melbourne
Well done EVC...

It's always great to see someone do well with the ladies and show that they are nothing to sneeze at! :grin:

I was a little surprised that your Khorne opponent let you freely raise away (bolstering your smaller unit I imagine) in the first turn.. just shows how many opponents take Invoke far too lightly. That would have been an opportunity to have dispelled your invoke attempts and take away your outnumber advantage somewhat.

I'm also curious as to the model that you use for your Queen? In the first pic, the model looks quite large in comparison to the models around it, but it could just be the pic itself. What model do you use?

Your report really gave me some things to think about which I appreciate. I have a day of gaming coming up at a mate's place next saturday, with four players in total (will be my Lahmians, Dark Elves, Wood Elves, and then whatever the mate who is hosting decides to field, which could be anything from TK, HE, OK, O&G's, or a Gobbo's only army that he likes fielding from time to time), and where the games will be over various pts and scenerios ie. 500 pts each, four players, scenerio based, capture the flag/target, then 1,000 pts different scenerio, 1,500 pts different scenerio, not expecting any straight forward pitched battle stuff. Final game is meant to be a cheese fest, 2,000 - 3,000 pts, try to come up with the cheesest list you can.. I'm taking the opportunity to field Neferata for fun, though I did hear of my mate hosting mentioning him taking Teclis.. :|

It's going to end up being a long day methinks....
 

Lord Firmshaft

Grave Guard
Aug 15, 2007
228
Liverpool
Well done again, the more i re-read the report the more they sounded good fun. At the start of the summer my local store ran a 2 heat + final tournament - i took my dwarves and look what i got:

ai226.photobucket.com_albums_dd254_Lord_Firmshaft_th_mycup.jpg
 

Danceman

The Devil in Pale Moonlight
True Blood
Aug 19, 2007
3,472
Nice show! Seems those scheming ladies can do some damage when they try... nah, just kidding. Nicely done :D

Congratulations on the win too of course!

Cheers
 

FatOlaf

Varghulf
Aug 15, 2007
770
London
darknesseternal said:
I'm also curious as to the model that you use for your Queen? In the first pic, the model looks quite large in comparison to the models around it, but it could just be the pic itself. What model do you use?


It's a lovely Medusa model.


Well done EvC, great Br's and a great result, if I had played 3 battles in a pub there is no way I would have remembered quite so much. Well done!
 

Lord Fear

Master Vampire
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
4,834
Here's a nice blurry pic of the Queen herself:
aimg65.imageshack.us_img65_1894_lahamasbb4.jpg
Nicely, I realised at the tournament that thanks to my brilliant planning, the fact she's at the front of her base means that she can rank up next to my Skeleton Champion (An old Wight) who has a massive mace that sticks out to the side :)

At the tournament she killed:
-High Elf BSB + a couple of Silver Helms in combat plus half a dozen Swordmasters with magic
-2 Chosen Chaos Knights plus their Champion in combat, plus another one from Curse of Years
-A Dark Elf Sorceress and her Dark Riders
I think if you add that all together you just about get her value :D
 

Falahk

Grave Guard
Sep 8, 2007
288
Falun
duchela or what ever that model is called, chaos champion of slaanesh........i remeber when that one was in the army book;)

also great work in thos games and the tourny placing, even if you did not draw any exactly scray armies(even if a dragon is always hard to deal with as a VC player
 

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