Played my first ever game as a VC general with my newly assembled Lahmian army (the Silver Pinnacle Garrison) on Sunday. It was a 2000 point pitched battle versus Dwarves.

My list:
Mistress Tyrsheya - Countess (lvl2,quick blood, innocence lost, sword of might, beguile, black periapt)
Necromancer (lvl2, book of arkhan)
Necromancer (lvl2, staff of damnation)
Necromancer (lvl2, power familiar)
The Palace Guard (25 skeletons upgraded with spears, light armour, full command)
Nehekharan Volunteers (25 skeletons upgraded with spears, full command)
The Foreign Legion (25 skeletons with full command)
The Fallen Mercenaries (10 skeletons upgraded with light armour, standard and musician)
The Necromantic Guard (10 skeletons)
The Jackals Light Cavalry Squadron (6 dire wolves)
The Vultures Light Cavalry Squadron (6 dire wolves)
The Scorpions Light Cavalry Squadron (6 dire wolves)
Banshee

My opponent (not totally sure of his list):
Lord
Runesmith
Thane bsb
Master engineer
20 warriors
20 long beards
20 quarrellers
15 slayers
15 hammers
Cannon with runes
Bolt thrower with runes and engineer
Organ gun

Deployment (left to right from my perspective)

Opponent:
Long beards (with runesmith)
Organ gun
Hill with impassable rocks at each end with quarrellers and bolt thrower between the rocks
Warriors (with bsb)
Slayers
Hammerers (with lord)
Cannon with master engineer

Me:
Ruins
Foreign Legion
Jackals Light Cavalry
The Palace Guard
Vultures Light Cavalry
The Palace Guard with the Necromantic Guard back behind them
The Fallen Mercenaries
Nehekharan Volunteers
Hill
Scorpions Light Cavalry with Banshee behind them

Mistress Tyrsheya went in the Palace Guard while 3 necromancers went in the necromantic guard.

Spells: IoN x 4, HV, GoN, VDM, CoY

Turn 1
Opponent went first. Everything that could shot at the Palace Guard
I responded my marching forward everything that could and then trying to repair the Palace Guard but I rolled poorly with the IoNs that were not dispelled. I vanhels the Fallen Mercenaries further forward.

Turn 2
He advanced his infantry forward a bit. Shooting wiped out the Jackals and Vultures Light Cavalry. He tried to shoot the banshee with the cannon but misfired (even with the master engineer!).
I charge the cannon with the Vultures Light Cavalry and silence it. Everything else continues to advance. I repair the Palace Guard and raise a unit of zombies in front of the bolt thrower and quarrellers and Vanhels them into combat. I loose combat but enough zombies remain to occupy the quarrellers and bolt thrower.

Turn 3
Long beards charge the Foreign Legion. Warriors charge Fallen Mercenaries. Organ gun damages the Palace Guard. I lose both combats but remain in combat. Quarrellers and bolt thrower defeat the zombies who crumble away to nothing.
Palace Guard advance toward quarrellers. Nehekharan Volunteers back-up into position to charge Slayers should they flank charge the Fallen Mercenaries. Vultures Light Cavalry and banshee move towards this combat. Raise a unit of zombies and rear charge it into the warriors. Repair the Palace Guard and Foreign Legion. Zombies and Fallen mercenaries still manage to lose combat to warriors – only 1 zombie remains.

Turn 4
Slayers charge Nehekharan Volunteers. Hammerers advance forward to threaten flank. Organ gun damages the Palace Guard slightly. Quarellers and bolt thrower also shoot the Palace Guard. Long beards continue to hack away at the Foreign Legion. Warriors finish off zombie.
Mistress Tyrsheya charges out of the Palace Guard and butchers the crew of the bolt thrower, over running (I didn’t think to try and restrain). Banshee on the move across the battle field. Vultures Light Cavalry position themselves for flank charge on Hammerers if they flank charge Nehekharan Volunteers. Try and repair units. Not a very successful round of magic. Last of the Foreign Legion fall to the Long beards.

Turn 5
Quarellers charge down off hill into the Palace Guard, now out of sight of Mistress Tyrsheya behind them. Hammerers flank charge Nehekharan Volunteers and the Warriors charge the Vultures Light Cavalry whom I hand wrongly thought I had positioned out of range. Hammerers move towards the “battle” hill. Organ gun decimates the Necromantic Guard – only the necromancers remain. Vultures Light Cavalry and Nehekharan Volunteers are destroyed. Quarrellers and Palace Guard locked in combat. Palace Guard win but unit strength is equal.

Mistress Tyrsheya moves into charge range of the rear of the quarrellers. Banshee moves into scream range of the organ gun. Necromancers split up and try to move away from the slayers and hammerers. Summon a unit of zombies but can’t vanhels it into the organ gun. Repair the Palace Guard, unit strength now greater than quarrellers. Book of Arhan used to move Mistress Tyrsheya into rear of Quarrellers. Banshee’s scream does nothing to organ gun crew. Mistress Tyrsheya slices up 4 quarrellers. Quarrelers try to flee combat but the Palace Guard catch them, with Mistress Tyrsheya a bit behind.

Turn 6.
Long beards charge banshee, she crumbles and they hit the flank of the Palace Guard. Warriors claim a table quarter. Slayers and Hammerers hunt necromancers, claiming a table quarter. Organ gun fails to wipe out zombies.
My last turn and things look very bad – all I have left is my characters and one infantry unit plus some raised zombies. All my opponent has lost are the quarrellers, a bolt thrower and a cannon with master engineer. Mistress Tyrsheya charges the Long beards. Zombies charge the organ gun. Magic phase goes well with three successful IoNs and the book of arkhan goes through. A newly created big unit of zombies hits the flank of the long beards and the zombie unit in combat with the organ gun is now big enough to overwhelm it. Mistress Tyrsheya kills two long beards. The long beards are immune to fear (banner?) but lose combat by 4. They run and manage to out distance the three units chasing them (fast dwarves!), dropping the banner they had taken from the Foreign Legion in the process and I get that table quarter.

Result: my last turn got me 700+ points, enough to scrape a draw in my first battle as a VC general. I was happy with this. I made lots of mistakes so there is a huge amount of room for improvement. Some of the mistakes include not building up the Fallen Mercenaries before combat and forgetting I had a power familiar for the entire game. I had played this opponent and his dwarves before with my lizardmen army and he had thrashed me in that game so it was good not to come out on the wrong end again.

MVP: Mistress Tyrsheya killing 9 dwarves. The weekend beforehand my brother-in-law, who doesn’t play, helped me build a gaming table. Afterwards I showed him how to play with me playing my lizardmen and he this VC army on the new table. In that game, which we stopped after turn 3 with a lizardmen win a foregone conclusion, she killed 6 saurus warriors in the two rounds of combat she got to see. She seems to be a bit of a killing machine (much better than my saurus characters anyway).

Interesting point: during the game I tried to cast at least 24 spells, the majority on 3 dice. There was not a single IF or miscast and I never rolled a 1 for the book of arkhan or staff of damnation either!

EERM! Seems as if you've been hogging all the good luck! :P Please send me your dice through the post immediately! :whistle: LoL

Nice read but didn't see how you used beguile. In fact I am very interested in how people have used the Lahmian bloodlines such as Transfix, beguile and the like as when I read a battle report I hardly see players mention their use - yet they invariably plug one of these on the count. You mentioned that their longbeards were immune to fear - this could be the rune of Courage on their banner (also makes them immune to terror), however I'm sure this does not make them immune to Psychology. So I think you could have used beguile there. They are immune to panic which makes them a tough unit as it is.

Well done in drawing with the dispel hungry stunties!

In games like against Dwarves, or Dark Elves/High Elves/Wood Elves, with their high leadership, you will find that most lahmian players won't mention the use of the pysch bloodline powers much as how many times do you want to read 'tried beguile against dwarf/elf in front of my countess/lady but they passed their leadership test..' :lol:

Now if you actually manage to have your opponent fail a leadership test against beguile/transfix, then you should definitely see it mentioned!

Against Gobbos, or Empire, then you should see it mentioned several times in a battle report. I always take beguile personally. Doesn't work often but pays for itself when it does work.

Nice report by the way Adrilocks.. and we all make mistakes as we learn our new armies.. when I saw that you said you charged your countess out of the palace guard.. I was like 'oh dear.. ballsy, but she could get into trouble running around out there by herself!' Seems like your opponent was never able to get a bead on her though, so luck was definitely in your favour.