Friday 25 May 2012

Invasion of the Vampires Part 2


Game 2: Battle of the Pass. Ode to the killer musos

So Ryan only has himself to blame for rolling battle of the pass vs my first ever run with Empire using this list:

Grand Templar Master: Runefang, charmed shield, luckstone, potion of foolishness
lvl4: light, scroll
BSB: bsteed, FPA, sh, SOMight
Warrior Priest: HA, GW
2 Engineers
39 Halberds: FC
10 Xbows
10 Inner Circle Knights: FC
3 DemiGriffs: (lance)
10 Reiksknights: FC
2 Cannons
2Hellblasters

So 4 artillery pieces, 2 blocks of knights and...(somewhat controversially) no steel standard. Most looking forward to seeing how the hellblasters kill stuff and of course the awesomeness of the Runefang-SOOOO EXCITING that it can now be carried by someone who can actually fight.

Anywho deployment:



So VC knights on my right flank being the big concern especially as there was a forest covering their approach. Double varghulf on 1 flank is an exciting chance to see how good knights actually are...

Turn 1:

Due to having  pretty much zero drops I get to go first. My movement consists of the ICKnights swift reforming into a line at base of hill to block the wolves and the demi griffs angling to catch the wolves if they survive the magic/shooting phase and try a sneaky run at my artillery. Ryan casually mentioned that he thought he was playing vs Empire not dwarfs...I pointed out that I hadnt deployed on my table edge, so yes, he was playing an empire army :P


Magic was an epic magic missile fest. Killing the 2 units of wolves on my right. Shooting didnt do much. The cannons opened up with a misfire (6) and a varghulf regening a hit.

Vamps began their turn my moving the left wolves up into the ruin with the varghulfs in tow. Ryan instantly regretted deploying the spirit hosts away from the general as they shuffled forward 6 inch.


The knights moved up using the forest for cover.


In the magic phase the ghouls used the book to move closer (but not the full 8 inch as that would have given my Reiks a fantastic flank charge...). The black knights vanhels'ed into the forest.

Turn 2:

So no pic of my turn. Basically my Riek knights rolled triple 1 for a charge on the ghouls....IF if had the steel standard I still would have failed the charge with my hypothetical re-roll-so points well saved if you ask me! The halberds stumbled forward to line up with the knights. Magic phase was a dud. Shooting phase was more exciting. BOTH hellblasters rolled 1 misfire. 1 re-roll = another misfire, the other a few more shots. Basically hitting on 6's (long range, forest,  bs3) I killed 3 black knights. The cannons then joined in and killed another 4. xbows bounced off (in fact they scored zero kills all game :( ).

Vamps: With 3 units to choose from the Black knight bus decides to choose the hard one and charges the hellblaster. On left flank the wolves moved up to force overrun into double varghulf.


 In the magic phase the vamp decides to IF whatever it cast and get most of the black knights back...and then roll a cheesy IF result.


In the combat the hellblaster dies and the bus over runs into the awaiting engineer.

Turn 3:

GAME ON.  now in the pics the expertly drawn in line is the 24 inch line-ie my deployment zone. Please note that in the following pic my halberds have CROSSED that line.....crazy I know, and proof once again that I am not a closet Dwarf player. So the halberds and Riek knights charge into the ghoul horde. Not sure if aligned right, but had BSB and GTM in the combat and 9 halberds...think that works out. Either way we were both happy with it and I forgot to attack with supporting knights and the BSB only killed 3 ghouls in total so didn't swing it massively in my favour or anything. Demigriffs flank the black knights.


On the left flank I combo charged the wolves to get my awesome on-killing enough to crumble them. Instead of the overrun I passed leadership test and refomed into traditional formation of 5 wide.


Magic phase....I roll up 12 dice with a juicy combat that is in desperate need of buffing. Throw 4 dice at a DISTRACT s6 shems burning gaze on the blood knights....and fail to cast. Instead the warriorpriest takes over and casts re-roll to wound (5++ being dispelled). Shooting...well the hellblaster is my new best friend. Misfire AGAIN...though this time the re-roll = 26 shots....and a wiped out unit of blood knights...Like a boss. In the combat I do epically well Runefang kills a Vamp in a challenge. The other dies to spiky s4 halberds. The halberds to their bit killing heaps, I have my 2nd bullsh*t armour save moment of the day when the warrior priest passes 4/4 5+ armour saves. My halberds took a beating due to vanhels but my re-roll to wound won me the day. Ghouls crumble down to a manageable amount. In the demi griff combat I win by 1 (and engineer lives!)

Vamps: double varghulf charge on ICknights. That combat is good for me as I do enough wounds to the wounded varghulf that I kill it with Crumble. Magic phase Resulted in most of the black knights coming back again and the ghouls getting some new friends...That I ruthlessly kill again thanks to re-roll to wound. Sadly the Warrior Priest dies this time round. Demi Griffs win combat again (by passing heaps of armour saves).

Turn 4:

Not much moving. In Magic phase I cast ws10, i10 on the Demi griffs and then IF ASF, +1 attack on the halberds and avoid the pit. The demigriffs decide to fail armour saves though and run off board with the speed of light... I do a wound on the vargulf due to Cres (he kills 1. I have standard and muso ftw). The halberds finish off the ghouls and everyone reforms to look like this:


Vamps: the vampire then does this:


And promptly IF's raise dead to create zombies to his left suspiciously where my dead pile was (threatening the hellblaster). And then casts the healing spell for good measure (creating more zombies). Spirit hosts ALMOST make it to combat. In the combat the halberds are killed down to Valten who valently flees away! the blood knights rolling a triple 1 to pursue.

Turn 5:

My knights charge into the zombies  (as were now in the front arc of the bloodknights). Magic does nothing to the knights. In the shooting I unleash the hellblaster that finishes off the knights (ANOTHER misfire re-rolling to a misfire...), a cannon explodes trying to kill vamp and the other one gets warded. Xbows bounce off harmlessly. INVINCIBLE VAMPIRE. In combat I kill enough zombies to crumble them and I do another muso wound.

Vamp turn: A SPIRIT HOST MAKES IT TO COMBAT with a cannon (holds) and the hellblaster (fails ld10 re-rolling and dies). Varghulf finally dies-reform to face the flank of spirit host in combat with cannon. Vamp goes and hides, but casts the vortex down the knights killing 4.

Turn 6:

Vortex dissipates. ICKnights vs Spirit host vs cannon = Static Cres FTW. Other one gets runefanged.

Vampire then last turn charges GTM for a fun showdown...heals himself to full wounds and wins the challenge (stupid ward), but doesnt kill my GTM.

Conclusion:

RUNEFANG'ED GTM ROCKS!!!!!!!

Barely left my deployment zone -the Empire way and a comfortable win in a mission that was always going to be an uphill battle for the vampire list that relies on getting the knights on a flank.

I was happy with the 2 knight blocks. For a bit I thought the 2 hellblasters was over kill, but now typing it up I really see the benefit. Was also tempted to drop ICknights for another block of halberds/detachments but vs the varghulfs a block of halberds would have been mince meat. I never had to use the Reik knight stubborn + BSB cold blooded, but that is a good thing. As usual my cannons were a waste of space and are mainly there to scare people (though killing 4 black knights was very, very useful).

Demigriffs were solid holding vs an angry vamp lord, so good first run out for them.

Thinking about how to handle the wider "meta", I think the GTM needs the dragonbane gem, and the BSB could do with the Other Trickster's shard. With these I can rush into flaming units, K'tai's, and warded up annoying stuff and grind them down. I also want to fit the standard of discipline on the Rieks to make them very, very hard to shift. Back to the number crunching I guess. 

A fun game with my wall of Iron, bullets and magic missiles holding out against the undead masses. Now to get my knights looking good...possibly get some new models and all the new stuff painted!




Wednesday 23 May 2012

Invasion of the Vamps part 1


YAY battle reports....with PHOTOS

Ryan the vampire player came round the other day for a couple of games. A great chance to try  my High Elves and the new Empire vs a very fun army (didnt think I would use that word to describe vampires).

His list was something like this:
Vampire lord: lvl4 (vampires), Barded nightmare, HA, SoMight, charmed shield, 4++, powerstone, Master of blak arts
Vampire: lvl1 (vampires), HA, sh, Dhelm, book of Arkhan
Vampire: lvl1 (shadow), HA, 2hw, scroll
43 Ghouls: C
4x5 Dire Wolves
10 Black Knights: FC-banner of swiftness
2x1 spirit hosts
5 Blood Knights
2 Varghulfs

So nice and fast list. lvl4 in the black knights means they will be impossible to kill. Double varghulf also creates problems...should be fun.

Game 1: Watchtower

My list:
Prince: "normal" dragon, GW, Armour of caledor, vambraces of defence, other trickster's shard
lvl2: high, scroll
BSB: Dragon armour, GW, reavor bow
2x10 Archers: m
38 Spears: FC-flame
26 Wlions: FC-amulet of light
26 Wlions: FC
2 Eagles

So good on me rolling up watchtower mission. We deployed like this:

 
Turn 1:
Since I didnt control the watchtower I got first turn. All I really could do was move everything up and keep a tight formation as I was conscious of the very fast flanks. Magic phase was uneventful...drain magic dispelled. Shooting from revor bow took  1 wound from the spirit host threatening the tower. My archers shot wolves and dropped 1 unit to 2 and another to 1.


The Vampires then got the chance to march and I learnt one of the new rules-General range for march is no longer measured at beginning of the phase. The bloodknights with general angled to face off with my spears. The wolves on left side moved to spears flank. Spirit host entered tower.


The right side moved fast. Most worrying part was the 2 varghulfs. Magic phase resulted in the spears getting miasma'ed down by 2.

Turn 2:

The FIGHT IS ON! Eagle charged the wolves. BSB jumped ship from spears (who moved back to allow the wlions to squeeze through the gap). Prince flew into position to smash whatever it could (but out of ghoul charge arc).


On right flank my wlions hit and wiped out the final wolf...40VPS YEAH! 2nd Eagle flies up to die  gloriously.


Super BSB did 2 wounds to the spirit host in the tower...my celebration became quickly muted when Ryan told me they have 4 wounds...sad face. Archers did more wounds to wolves. I think I got drain magic off. In combat my eagle killed a wolf and 2 crumbled. BOOM!

Vampires turn, well...the standoff became even more of a standoff as the blood knights squared off even more and the ghouls moved up to close the gap.


Big fail on right flank. Archers fled a flank charge from wolves...and ran 2 inches to their death...sigh. Spirit host then moved up to force overrun into varghulf to set up varghulf sandwich.


 
Magic did scary stuff that wasnt immediately scary. In combat the Eagle lived! fled 10...and was run down.


Turn 3:

GAME ON. Wlions charge Ghouls, Dragon charges Blood knights.


Spears were feeling left out so swift reformed to go see what was happening on the other flank. IN Magic phase I failed to cast 5++ on the wlions in combat with ghouls. Shooting almost wounded one of the varghulfs. Combat...the real phase. Wlions vs Ghouls is a blood bath for the ghouls. Heaps and heaps died + the 2 vampires. In return my BSB passed 4 out of 4 5+ armour saves and the wlions passed 5 out of 6 5+ armour saves. Only 5 ghouls were left after crumble.


And then I challenged the Vampire to a one-on-one test of martial skill. Long story short...dragon suffered 4 wounds and the general died with no vampires left alive = ARMY CRUMBLE...only 2 ghouls and the spirit host in the building died. Spirit host vs magical wlions = over run into varghulf.

Vampires. ANOTHER crumble test (1 blood knight and the 2 direwolves that run down archers).
WLion sandwich with black knights in left flank, varghulf in the right and varghulf in the front = not looking good for me.


In combat the Dragon finished off the bloodknights (1 wound left on dragon). The wlions finished off the ghouls. The other wlions put up a good fight killing a few black knights and putting a wound on the varghulf in front...though lost all but front rank.

Turn 4:

Not much left to do except occupy building, and rear charge dragon into the black knights. Magic failed me again. in the combat dragon, prince, and 1 wlion killed all the black knights and the wlions leaving only lvl2 left....SNAKE EYES!!!!!


Vampire turn...lvl2 dies and we call it a game.


So a resounding victory to the High Elves due to epic wlion vs 43 ghoul combat (stopping van hels there being key!) and Prince proving his better martial skill...when accompanied by a dragon and the other trickster's shard.

Part two "Ode to the Musician" coming soon.






Sunday 20 May 2012

MUCH DELAYED Horned Gobbo write up


Horned Gobbo-The woodies march again.

First of all-GRRRRRR for Picnik being intergrated into Google + meaning I had to look for a new photo editing thing that was easy to use...


Howdy, I had a fantastic weekend of gaming at the horned Gobbo tournament in Wellington. I took my new look woodies that looked something like this:

lvl4: beasts, scroll, Stone of Crystal Mere, Magical attacks spite
BSB: abane, HODA
18 GGuard: FC-flame
6x10 GGuard: M
4x8 Dryads
2x5 Wildriders: M
2x5 Waywatchers
Eagle

SO lots of shooting, lots of diverting and not many points on offer (except for 430 from the General...).

GAME ONE: Random Deployment vs Tomb Kings



Very exciting...the OTHER lots of shots army. Key difference is the his army had horde of tomb Guard with Prince, and 6 Necro Knights in big unit. Fun....Even more fun when 70% my army deployed opposite the Necro knights with my escape route checked by the Tomb Guard and cluttered by the mission. Game was defined turn 1 when casket IF'ed and killed both units of waywatchers. Pretty much downhill from there as I struggled to get my shots focused on stuff as my shooting got hammered by his shooting. Main bunker getting flanked by necro knights when I accidently killed 1 with shooting, allowing them to charge past my blocking units. oh well. 1-19 to the tomb Kings.

GAME TWO: Diagonal Deployment vs WOC


This game had my advantage written all over it. I deployed first, had 2 big pieces of impassable terrain creating a kill zone, allowing me effectively channel his army into my archers. Also helped that 2 units of Warriors and all characters were off the board. What I didnt count on was how much damage 6 Chaos Knights could absorb...working their way through 2 units of dryads and a unit of waywatchers. They Also distracted 10 archers and the waywatchers before they finally died. Frustratingly I killed all but 1 of the Marauder block. The champ made it to combat where my Glade Guard fluffed, held his round-then support charge from another one of my units = still can't kill it OR run it down.... I was sitting on a comfortable win until Mr lvl4 decided that the realm of Chaos was the more happening place swinging it to a loss. 9-11 to the warriors.

GAME THREE: Watch Tower vs Beastmen

hmmm didnt fancy my chances in this game. uber unit of Gors, Uber unit of Beastigors + 7 characters and chaff. Beasts had the tower and put 10 ungors in it. Turn 3 I FINALLY kill them after 3 horrible rounds of combat from a unit of dryads. Meanwhile I was doing everything I could to kill his big units of stuff the best way I could...with a hail of arrows. The Gors had3 characters of doom in them. After I finally killed the entire unit sans these characters, I tried my luck at killing all/some/one of them. 78 shots later....not a single wound. I shot the bestigors down to standard and champ. I was holding the watch tower at the end of the game, but a sneaky death snipe took my lvl4 to bring it back to a 11-9 win for me

GAME FOUR: Banner Mission vs Skaven.

Banner mission-sitting on a break point of 4 was never going to end well for me. Vs my one of my usual gaming buddies made it all the more difficult I couldn't rely on the surprise factor. The game can be summed up as " everything shoots my bunker unit and it runs off the board"...though I did kill his grey seer...WLC blew up first turn (as it had in every game up to that point. In fact he had had a 10 in a row misfire streak until he finally rolled something different vs me...then promptly continued to misfire until the artillery died to my waywatchers and wildriders.  We didnt even bother adding up the points as with the 600 VPS for breaking me it was pretty obviously a 0-20 loss. But a fun game.

GAME FIVE: Normal battle....FINALLY

Last game and I wasn't duking it out for bottom place phew! I was up against a Orc army that looked like an easy beat for my list....lots of easy points to pick off, 2 blocks and trolls to avoid. So basically everything went to plan....killed the chaff for no loss, diverted the trolls and the blocks and shot stuff to bits. HOWEVER...massive 10 inch diameter forest in my deployment zone was of the hurt your unit on a 4+ type. Finished off a unit of glade guard that had worn a magic missile, killed 10 from my bunker unit that had to go through it to get away, and created a massive null zone. THEN just for the fun of it, my LVL4 sucked himself into the warp turning my comfortable victory into a draw...slightly in my favour.

OVERALL
So lost 3, 1 draw, 1 win. Came 24 out of 30...last of the 3 woodie players...oh well.

The draw and one of the losses was a direct result of my lvl4 going to the warp losing me the win. Heck, my lvl4 died in EVERY game. 330pts + 100pts for the general is a big chunk of points to be giving up in an army designed to not give big points away easily.

THOUGHTS ON LIST

I think the list I took is about 90% solid, 10% work in progress.

The draw and one of the losses was a direct result of my lvl4 going to the warp losing me the win. Heck, my lvl4 died in EVERY game. 330pts + 100pts for the general is a big chunk of points to be giving up in an army designed to not give big points away easily.

The ward (only used once and failed it!) and the magic attacks (not used) are dead points. Also, 2 units of wildriders was too much. I also found that I had no units that could easily finish off stuff that was destroyed by the glade guard. In my warm up games the Wildriders and dryads had done this for me, but I just couldnt get the combos together and the charges off. Also this tournament was VERY combat character heavy-something I dont usually play against (so didnt plan for). Also Wildriders dont really have that "finishing touch" charge as they get more attacks the rounds they dont...

The other woodie lists had treekin and treemen for this task, but I think they got a "free pass" due to the unusual lack of dwarf players and lore of metal wizards who eat treekin and treemen fast. For my list the trees also just create another lvl4 problem-too many points that are easy to take.

My solution is the following:

lvl4: beasts, scroll
BSB: abane, HODA, ICI
18 GGuard: FC-flame
6x10 GGuard: M
4x8 Dryads
5 Wildriders: M
2x5 Wardancers
2x5 Waywatchers
Eagle

Wardancers solve a few problems for me:
·        1 more drop. Not that I need it, but it helps
·        somewhere to hide the lvl4 and bsb that can move fast be flexible on where it goes
·        they are i6, ws6 mini hammers that can rush in and finish stuff off
·        KB on characters in units. This is a biggie for me as it gives me another way to keep killy characters at bay/get the points.
·        would be the two 2nd cheapest things in the list = more chaff to throw at stuff.
·        Gives me an excuse to re-paint them-which I have. Painting post next!