31/7/08

Had a game last night vs Chris and his LM. We both took different lists than we’d normally been taking.

Chris had,

Scar-vet - LA, tepok, itzl, coldone, burning blade of chotec, talisman of protection
Oldblood - GW, LA, spawn of tlazcotl, enchanted shield, aura of quetzl, jag charm
Scar-vet - BSB, LA, tepok, itzl, coldone, sword of might, glyph necklace
Scar-vet – LA, tepok, itzl, coldone, shield, sword of the hornet
2x15 Saurus - FC
3x10 Skinks - 2 with javs, 1 with pipes
4 Kroxigors
3 Kroxigors
3 Terradons
5 Saurus Cav – Std, warbanner
2 Salamaners

I’d been playing with the helm, but have realised that in the lead up to axemaster I probably wont have time to paint all the minis I have to to field the army I need. So to get around this I have to pick a army that most of the minis are already painted and the only ones that aren’t in this list are the dragon and the ghouls, so shouldn’t take much time at all to finish them.

My list,

Lord – Dragon, dreadlance, crown of the damned, red fury, hatred, avatar of death
Vamp – Hellsteed, balefire lance, wristbands of black gold, hatred, avatar of death
Vamp – Sword of battle, the flayed hauberk, talisman of the lycni, hatred, walking death
20 Ghouls – Ghast
2x25 Zombies
2x7 Direwolves – Doomwolf
5 Fell Bats
5 Black Knights
Varghulf
5 Wraiths – Banshee

So I’ve gone from a defensive army to an offensive one. I admit, it felt good to be able to dictate the battle instead of react to it.

Terrain was, two towers, two hills and a forest on the right hand side clogging it up and on the left, in the middle on the edge of the table was the other forest leaving the rest of the left side a big open space.

Chris deployed, skinks, small kroxies, cav with general and hornet vet, saurus with bsb, saurus, then on the right side with all the terrain, lord with skinks, pipe skinks, dons, sallies and large kroxies.

I deployed on the left side, bats, wraiths, hellsteed, wolves, black knights, dragon, zombies, ghouls with nike vamp, zombies, wolves, varghulf.

I won the roll and gave chris first turn.

LM turn 1

The right flank ran past the towers and hills to try and get to my flank as fast as possible. The nike lord ran down as well, 18” is a long way and was able to see most my army for next turn. The left side, both saurus units moved up their full movement and the cav moved up to protect their flank. No magic and shooting was out of range so my turn.

VC turn 1

I had no charges so on to my stupidity test. This is the first time I’ve had to do one of these since I stopped playing DE about two years ago and I failed a hell of a lot of them. So on to roll and….a double one first up, what a great start! The wraiths and bats moved up to sit just behind the forest. The two wolf units marched up to sit in from of, the cav (about 8” away), on the left and the saurus block with no characters on the right (3” away). Both zombies moved up behind both the wolves and the ghouls moved strait at the bsb’s unit. The varghulf ran around and sat in between the left zombie unit and the ghouls, hellsteed vamp flew to between the right zombies and the ghouls and the dragon flew to sit in front of the varghuf, but still letting it see for the plan I had for next turn. Magic I got off a gaze of nagash on the cav killing three of them. The banshee was in range of the skinks hiding behind the other side of the forest and with the general near by only two of them died.

LM turn 2

Chris declared charges against the left wolves with his skinks that the banshee had screamed into, the nike lord charged the flank of the wolves in front saurus and the saurus charge them in the front. His right flank kept on coming round the side and the sallies moved into the forest on the right who were able to shoot my block units. I think chris had sort of figured out what I was planning next turn with my dragon so he moved the the cav back and angled them into the middle, hoping for a flank charge on my big guy. In shooting the sallies spat at the zombies closest to them and killed a few. In combat the lord and the saurus wiped out the wolves, both over running, the lord went right in the middle of my charging lanes and the saurus moved to within a few inches of the zombies. The skinks killed three wolves but the wolves killed two back and it became a draw.

VC turn 2

Charges! The dragon, hellsteed and the nike vamp all charged the LM bsb unit. Chris spent some time deciding what to do about his reaction and after a little while he chose to flee, but didn’t run far enough to get away from the dragon or hellsteed and were run down which put both characters out of sight of the saurus cav. The nike vamp how ever moved up to sit right next to the LM lord and the varghulf moved up to black LOS from chris lord to my lord. The wraiths moved thou the forest to sit on the flank of the small kroxie unit and the bats flew to land behind the saurus cav. The ghouls moved up so they’ll be able to get a flank charge on the saurus unit next turn when they charge the zombies. Not much happened in the magic phase. In the shooting phase the banshee screamed at the small kroxies doing three wounds and killing one of them. Only combat was the skinks and wolves. The skinks killed one and the wolves killed one also. The skinks lost to outnumber fear causing and fled, the wolves ran after them, caught them and moved to sit about a inch in front of the cav unit.

LM turn 3

Chris charged the nike lord into my nike vamp, the small kroxies charged the flank of the wolves sitting in front of the cav. The saurus block and the big kroxies charged the right zombies. In the shooting phase chris spat with is sallies at my hellsteed vamp but failed to do any wounds. Combat saw the saurus and kroxies fluff a lot of their attacks and about fifteen zombies were still alive. The small kroxies only managed to cause one wound on the wolves, but it was enough to pop them and the kroxies over ran. The nike lord swung with his GW and hit four times and wounding with all. I managed to save two on 6+ but the other two got thou and it was enough to kill him and the lord overran to the right to sit in front of the sallies.

VC turn 3

I didn’t have any charges this turn so I moved the wraiths up to sit next to the saurus cav, since the wraith were up there now I moved the bats back down the left flank. The varghulf turned around and moved down to flank charge the saurus unit after it had dealt with the zombies. The ghouls moved up to block LOS from his lord to the varghulf and the hellsteed and dragon regrouped and came back down the board to aim at the saurus and big kroxie unit. In magic I cast danse on the ghouls which allowed them to charge into the nike lord. The banshee screamed into the saurus cav unit, doing two wounds which were randomised and they both landed on his hornet scarvet who died. Combat, the saurus and kroxies finished off the zombies. I challenged the nike lord with my ghast who failed to wound but chris only did two back. The nike lord lost, but thanks to now being itp it held.

LM turn 4

The small kroxies charged into the ghouls flank and the general and saurus cav charged the black knights that were sitting slightly behind the left forest. The saurus block and the large kroxies moved back a bit and formed a v shape to trap who ever charged that unit. The dons flew to sit behind my dragon so they could throw their javs at him but failed to wound. The sallies spat at the varghulf doing two wounds. In combat the small kroxies killed a few ghouls, the ghouls did a wound on the nike lord and the lord killed some more ghouls. When the dust settled there was eleven ghouls left. The general and cav killed four knights and the last knight couldn’t do a wound, crumbled and the cav overran into the bats that were sitting behind them.

VC turn 4

I started with charging the dragon and varghulf into the saurus unit which as with the last saurus unit chris spent a bit of time thinking about the reaction, and just like last time he fled and managed to stay 2” in front of the dragon. The varghulf went its half movement which left it in the middle of some of his hurty units. The hellsteed flew up to support the varghulf next turn if it got charged and was able to survive and the wraiths ran down after the saurus cav. In magic I cast danse on my lord and went at the saurus unit again, but chris managed to roll high enough to get away, but the 8” movement took me into contact with the last jav skinks, who chose to stand and shoot, then passed their terror test and went on to do one wound on the dragon. In combat the ghouls took another wound off the nike lord but were wiped out for their troubles. The saurus cav and general only did two wounds on the bats meaning that a few were still around. The dragon and lord killed all ten of the skinks, overrunning again into the saurus block who was able to flee far enough to be 1” in front of the dragon!

LM turn 5

Chrages! Chris threw his lord against the dragon wanting to take a few wounds off my lord and trying to hold me up for the last few turns. The small kroxies and the sallies both charged the varghulf and the dons tried to charge the rear of the last zombie unit but failed their fear test. The pipe skinks, who were sitting near my dragon failed their terror test and fled and the saurus block rallied. The large kroxie unit moved around the varghulf to get a charge on the zombies next turn. No shooting or magic. In combat the kroxies and sallies did two wounds on the varghulf and one was saved and the varghulf only did one wound back, lost by one for outnumber but it was saved with regen. The cav attacked the bats again only doing one wound this round! In the big combat the nike lord took a few shots at my lord and did two wound and I saved one of them. In return I hit back with my dragon first who took the last wound of the nike lord.

VC turn 5

My dragon charged into the saurus block in front of them, the hellsteed vamp charged the flank of the sallies, the zombies charged the flank of the small kroxies and the wraiths charged the rear of the saurus cav and LM general. In the magic phase I healed one wound on the varghulf and healed the wound taken by my lord. The banshee screamed into combat and killed the last two cav leaving the general by his self. In combat the wraiths failed to wound the general and took a wound in return. I had terror causers which turned to fear cos his general was on a coldone and they a rear and outnumbered him, he fled and was caught by the bats. The combat in the middle saw the zombies do a wound on the kroxies, the varghulf did another two on them to kill one and the hellsteed vamp killed a sallie for only two zombies dead back. The kroxies and sallies lost by a lot and fled, the sallies were caught but the kroxies just managed to get away. The large kroxies who were sitting next to the combat didn’t like what they saw and fled in panic. Chris challenged my lord with a champion and I took up my dice and killed him six times over, which made me win by two but they held.

LM turn 6

Chris charged the dons into the now unengaged bats, the pipe skinks and small kroxies kept on fleeing and the large one rallied. In combat the dons killed the bats and overran off the board safe from the wraiths who were sitting near the combat. I finally had my lord and dragon in a combat! The dragon did five wounds, the lord did four wounds with his four attacks then did three more with the extra ones. So all up twelve saurus died, they fled and were run down.

VC turn 6

Wasn’t much else I could do this turn. I flew the lord back over to the varghulf and with the help of the hellsteed vamp healed the varghulf so he was above half wounds.

Wash up was chris on 820 and me on 2416. I liked the fast moving things. Will be interesting to see how the dragon will go against a heavier shooting army. A real test will be when I play the daemon army on the weekend that has beaten me quite well the last two times I’ve played it.

Great to see the ZD working for you! And congrats on the win!

@Blood Acolyte,

Very well written report. This game sounded like it was a real blast. Lots of close combat makes for fun warhammer. I use the exact same Vampire Lord/Zombie Dragon combo. I've had alot of practice using it now. Don't be afraid to charge the front of blocked units all by yourself. With the 5 hatred attacks from the Zombie Dragon and Dreadlance/Red Fury you can easily generate 7-9 wounds consistantly.

I can't believe how often your opponent managed to flee out of your range. He must have been rolling pretty high for his flee rolls. You have to love how we can now save crumbling wounds with Regeneration and Ward saves. Your Vargulf proved that well.

Your list seems to have alot of flexiblity to it. I think you should do very well against any Deamon Army.

Cheers Alesh and LordCypress for the comments.

Yeah the lord/dragon combo is very powerful. Once you get the champion out of the way you can easily do 12+ wounds to units. Thats also why i try and charge another hero or the varghulf in with my lord so they can accept the challenge and the lord can go to town on the unit, or the lord will accept and the varghulf will have his way. I plan to use the same tactic vs the daemons today, weather phil will let me is another issue all together, plus the 5+ws is sure to be a pain. :P
As to flexibility, i've tried to design the list to take on all comers. I've also put it together with the idea that every single unit, bar the lord, is expendable and if need be shell die a horrible death for the greater good. (Y)