Blue Based Battle Blog

[Jono B]

Hi everyone.  This blog will hopefully record all my amazing victories for posterity.  But mostly all my awful defeats.

[Jono B]

Battle 1 - 29th Oct 2012 - vs SteveH with Vampire Counts

My first game at 2400 and I was excited at the prospect.  Unfortunately my eyes were bigger than my army and my model collection was stretched to breaking point.  However, it was plenty enough points to include my Dragon Mage, so victory was assured *.

My army is MSU-based;  lots of units that won't cause me too much pain when my poor manoeuvring gets them killed.

Steve claimed he was trying out a fluffy list.  This would be the first time I would fight Vampire Counts, and apart from the obvious skeletons and Ghouls, I had no idea what the rest of the army did.  My plan would be to kill as much chaff as possible, and avoid everything else.

* for my opponent.

Deployment



Steve's 2 bats and 2 dogs meant he had more drops, so to protect my squishy core I hid them behind the building.  Hopefully Steve's units would get in each other's way as they try to get at me, and I could get some cheeky flank charges in with my other units.

Note that the 'Tomb Guard' are obviously mis-labled Grave Guard.  Steve put his Vamire Lord and Necromancer in the unit of Grave Guard, and the Vampire Thrall and Wraith in the big Skeleton unit.

My right flank consisted of all my fast units and my initial plan was to quickly shift everything left, leaving the Skeletons and Grave Guard with a long trudge across the board.  If necessary, throw them in to tie up his big blocks while I shoot everything else.


HighElf – Turn1



I got first turn.  Memories of my units running straight off the board against Tom's Skaven made me  shuffle everything forward slightly.  Eagle and Reavers went far left ready to muck up the Vargheists attack, or to go round the back for some rear charge action.
Dragon flew behind the building ready to blitz the weak VC left flank.  My Swordmasters had been deployed wide left, but they had the banner of swiftness. I was trying this out so they could get around and annoy Steve's flank, possibly chasing his army as they came round the building In the centre.
Magic was weak, PhoenixGuard's Ring of Ruin took 2 wounds off the spirit host and the ShadowWarriors wounded the Vargulf.


Vampires – Turn1



Steve shuffled his big units forward. The Vargulf and the dogs on his right shifted back to protect the ghoul flank.  Magic phase saw Steve read from his Cursed Book, casting doom and darkness which was dispelled.  His Vampire Lord then irresistible forced Gaze of Nagash at the Dragon Mage, causing a wound.  Magical feedback caused a wound on both the Vampire Lord and Necromancer.


HighElf – Turn2



My centre continued to shuffle, still over 20 inches away from anything and out of shooting/magic range of most of Steve's big units.  Reavers ran up to the flank of the Vargheists and Swordmasters ran further forward hunting for Vargulf.  The Dragon Mage turned to hide better behind the tower, ready to burn things next turn.
Ring irresistibly kills the ghost host, shooting kills the dogs and the Reavers amazingly kill a Vargheist.


Vampires – Turn2



The Vampire centre started to get in each other's way as they tried to go around the building, exactly as I had planned.  The Vargheists long-charged the SilverHelms, not as I had planned.  The Varhulf failed a 7" charge into the Swordmasters.
Magic was a miserable 4/1, but enough to Spirit Leech the Dragon to death.  Boo.  In vengence, the strength 3 SilverHelms and BSB kill all but 4 Vargheists.


HighElf – Turn3



Charge!  Swordmasters charge the bats, ShadowWarriors charge the dogs and the chariot flank charges the Vargheist combat.  The DragonMage runs back to the safety of the SeaGuard.

Magic was 6/5 with 2 channels, but not much was in range.  Only real thing cast was Curse of arrows on the Ghouls.

Swordmasters kill the bats, ShadowWarriors fluff their attacks and only kill 1 dog.  Luckily, they manage 2 6+ saves and win, leaving only 2 dogs alive.
Fear tests were failed all over the board, however 6 chariot impact hits and SilverHelms are too much for the remaining Vargheists who promptly die.


Vampires – Turn3



Skeletons long-charge the chariot, Vargulf charges into the Swordmasters and the bats get out of charge arc of the Reavers.  The Ghouls and GraveGuard move up to support the skeletons.
Magic was a reasonable 5+2chan./4 ,but things went against Steve.  Everything was dispelled except Gaze of Nagash on the SilverHelms.  7Str4 wounds caused, 6 of them saved.

Chariot bit the dust and the skeletons rolled into the SilverHelms.  What is the point of taking cavalry if they don't even move?


HighElf – Turn4



This turn is where my inexperience really showed.

PhoenixGuard flank charged the big skeletons, and the eagle tries to make up for 3 turns of uselessness by blocking the GraveGuard.
I successfully cast Flames of the Phoenix on the Ghouls, killing 10.

I challenge with the BSB, and the wraith accepts.  No magic weapon on the BSB means he is now swinging wildly at air for the rest of the game.  Monstrous amounts of saves by the SilverHelms mean the Elves win combat by miles, but this hardly puts a dent in the massive horde of bones.   It does not help that I fail all fear tests.



Vampires – Turn4



Ghouls charge into rear of PhoenixGuard, and the GraveGuard charge the Eagle.

Invocations of Thingy cast by the Vampire Lord  and Thrall raise back 13 Ghouls and 12 Skeletons, and heal back the characters wounded by their 1st turn magical feedback.

The combat was again unlucky for Steve;  I was rolling successful armour saves all over the place and at the end only 2 PhoenixGuard and 2 SilverHelms die.  I win combat by 5, leaving 'only' 35 skeletons left.

The eagle does what eagles do best.


HighElf – Turn5



The PhoenixGuard and SilverHelms were dead, it was just a matter of time.  I decided as long as I killed everything else and avoided the GraveGuard ... I ... might...win..?
Everybody who could backed off or took positions that made sure they couldn't be charged.  The Reavers and ShadowWarriors went after the last bat.

I cast Curse of Arrows at the GraveGuard, and Flames of the Phoenix was still on, killing 5 Ghouls.

The combat saw more casualties – lucky save rolls meant only 4 PhoenixGuard and 2 SilverHelms died, but they took 8 ghouls and skels with them.  Combat results was 11-11 and again a draw.  Steve was not pleased.



Vampires – Turn5



GraveGuard moved but was too far away to have any further affect in the battle.  The bat moved again so it could not be charged.

The Necromancer tried to spirit leech the DragonMage, but failed the leadership rolloff.

The epic challenge of Wraith vs Idiot finally ended badly for the Idiot, and the PhoenixGuard fled from combat.  The ghouls pursued and ran them down, and now were in a position for a last-turn charge into my archers...



HighElf – Turn6



I really fancied charging my Swordmasters into the side of the GraveGuard just for the hell of it, and if I had been loosing badly I would have.  The Reavers moved to get another shot at the bat.

I now had 10 Ghouls in front of my archers, and needed to kill them all to win.  I started off by stupidly irresistible forcing Curse of Arrows, but thankfully my Archmage survived the detonation.

Shooting from SeaGuard and Archers delete the Ghouls and the Reavers kill the last bat.  After 6 turns of standing still, the last of the SilverHelms is finally killed by the Vampire.



Vampires – Turn6



With nothing in charge range, Steve moved the GraveGuard up and tried a last Spirit Leech on the DragonMage.  Again, I won the leadership rolloff and the luckiest DragonMage in all of Caledor survived for another battle.

Result:  Jono: 962    Steve: 842   ... a win to me!*


Conclusion

Steve was a gent to play, even in the face of my embarrassingly lucky saving throw rolls.
I picked this army without knowing what race I would be fighting, but it was stupid to not have magic attacks on my BSB.
I should have run my mages behind my units to protect them from the Death Magic, and closer to the combat to cast flaming sword etc which might have tipped combat in my favour.
My eagle should have got in the way of the skeletons on turn 2;  this would have redirected them allowing me to flank-charged them or something.  That might have saved the chariot.
My aim for next time will be to use my mages more effectively, and try to get the Dragon into combat at least once...

*a draw to me.

[cunningmatt]

Excellent battle report, clear to follow and enough detail to see what happens. Your Reavers survived the game, I am not familiar with this concept!!

[fatolaf]

Only just seen this post, excellent work Jono, hope there are more to come