Woodies vs VC - cleansing a plagued land

Hi all,

Had a game vs Ryan's VC last night. Since the woodies list I wrote for Cody to take to NZTC wasstill all packed up in a take-to-work friendly way, I decided to show Ryan how a real woodie general rolls.

My list:
Highborn: bow of loren, arcane bodkins, (I think he also has charmed shield and opal amulet-didnt come up!)
lvl4: Beasts, scroll, moonstone (BEST. ITEM. EVER.)
BSB: asyendi's bane, HODA (possibly light armour too)
18 Glade Guard: FC-flame
4x10 Glade Guard: Musician
4x8 Dryads
5 Wildriders: (Musician)
6 wardancers
5 Waywatchers
Treeman
2 Eagles

Ryan's list:
Netlist mounted vamplord lvl4
Quickblood lvl2 vampire on horse
Quickblood lvl1 BSB vamp on horse
wraith
block of ghouls
block of zombies with musican and standard
4x5 doggies
5 Hexwraiths
1 billion Black Knights: FC and the MR(1) banner
Terrorgiest

We rolled up the diagional deployment mission. I deployed first-only 1 unit of Glade Guard and a unit of Dryads slept in.

Ryan had less luck than me. His Vamplord, Blackknight bus, ghouls, and 2 units of doggies all slept in resulting in a very defensive deployment:

To add fluff (and compensate for Ryan's criminal lack of forest terrain) the craters are "counts as forests". Fluff justificiation is that this area was once a lush forest that has been defiled by evil undead and the woodies have arrived to defend the last patch of green (the free forest) and claim back the area for the living stuff.

TURN 1:
I get first turn. My free forest makes me cause fear (oooooooooooo) and the crater is a venom thicket (gotta love forest strider!). So seeing some rather exposed vampires my waywatchers pop up to do what any honest woodie would do and move into KBlow range on the lvl2. The rest of my army shuffles up to get shots on the terrorgiest, while a unit a dryads moves to block a board edge knight bus flanking move.

My magic phase is very exciting. I cast savage beasts on the highborn (successful) and then casually IF the big amber spear...roll a 1 to wound the terrorgiest (GAR!) and lose 3 levels-the only spell remaining being savage beasts. Oh well. On to shooting. The waywatchers shoot-5 hits, 2 LoS! onto the hexwraiths. Tension in the air as I roll to wound....no KBlow :( I then roll the dice 10 more times and Kblow the vamp 8/10 times...coulda, shoulda, woulda. 10 Gladeguard shots later and he is on 1 wound though + the rest of the archers put 3 wounds on the terrorgiest and kill a couple of zombies (every little bit counts!)

Ryan's Hexwraiths were in a fungus forest...AND FAIL STUPIDITY! and then stumble forward 1 inch into the very-lucky-to-be-alive lvl2 vamp. The rest of his army pops onto the board in a very, very defensive position that buys me a few turns.

His magic phase results in 2 wounds back on Terrorgiest from raising a unit of 9 zombies right infront of a unit of dryads and vanhels'ing hexwraiths out of the forest and the terrorgiest into scream range...and waywatchers are screamed off (as expected sad face).

TURN TWO

Well. My wildriders go flying into the doggies that have blocked a charge into the terrorgiest (gotta pin that thing at the back of the board!) and the dryads get a taste of zombie. The rest of the army starts crescent bowlining it up with a view to hurt the ghouls.

Magic phase is very exciting. IF treesinging on the black knights AND KILL 2! Shooting phase-the token archer unit hanging on the right puts another wound on the terrorgiest (forcing defensive spells). Long range shooting fells 8 ghouls and then I have the biggest fail moment EVA. 14 HODA shots and 4 arcane bodkin shots = 4 dead Hexwraiths...yup 18 shots, 16 hits and 4 wounds...that's a 3+ to wound btw...In the combat zombies die and the doggies crumble-taking down a wildrider in the process.

Ryan then gets a turn to do his worst. Bus moves up, infantry walks up, Terrorgiest hangs back (yes!) to scream at wildriders. His magic phase = 2 dead gladeguard from my unit on the right to gaze, and 1 wildrider dies to scream (2 wounds, 1 successful 6+ ward boom!).

TURN THREE:
What to do, what to do. Zombie eating dryads move up to die for the greater good. Treeman moves up to tempt the ghouls, the 3 remaining wildriders charge the terrorgiest, dryads charge in the zombies (with wraith) and the rest of the army continues to keep the shootin' pressure on.

my magic phase continues on a theme IF'ing savage beasts, the lvl4 taking a wound. Shooting phase is exciting with the highborn killing 3 black knights (once again, keeping the pressure on defensive spell casting), and a doggie unit dies. I probably also continue to thin the ghouls (was 1 inch out of strangleroot range). In the combats Wildriders win by 1 and the dryads fluff (surprise, surprise) only doing a single wound to the wraith and losing due to SCres, however they hold.

Ryan had a huge turn 3. The bus smacks into the dryad roadbump, and he refuses to take the treeman bait (might have something to do with ldship 10 re-rolling stubborn and a dryad flank charge set up...). His magic phase is made of win (read, Joel fail). I fail to dispel raise dead by 1, then fail to dispel invocate by 1 = all the black knights back (grrr) and a unit of 22 zombies for me to deal with. The wildriders a screamed off, and the dryads die to ASF vamps. The bus reforms instead of overrunning. The other dryads manage to kill the wraith, but crazy good zombie rolling = dryads down to 2 models, and flee needing insane courage to rally :(

TURN FOUR:
I apologise for the next few photos. It was getting dark = artifical light = camera not so quick to focus and I didnt realise.

Basically, to show that I learn from experiences, I did a John and set up a double flee trap on the bus-complete with flying stuff! (cant wheel past the first eagle).

 

(Now all I need to do is turn1 IF comet :P)

While the treeman and dryads go smack into the  rather depleted ghouls.

The shooting phase = the newly raised 22 zombies worth a massive zero VPs were pin cushioned and the unit of 8 archers kill 4 doggies from one of the 2 units bearing down on it. The treeman and dryads vs ghouls = I win by a tidy 4.

Now, I blame the movement trays but it looked to me in the pic above like the zombies were in the front....nope in the flank.

 The 2 doggie units charge the Glade Guard and the bus does not charge BECAUSE to do so = Terrorgiest out of march bubble (remember that whole "pin it at the back" thing?). Terorgiest then flies up to scream at treeman.

(ignore wardancer counter charge-that happens next turn!)
The lvl2 then IF's vanhels (3 knights dead) and wounded scream vs ldship 10 from general (rules say "leadership", not "unmodified leadership") = 2 wounds on Treeman and Terrorgiest in a bit of a pickle. Treeman and dryads still win the combat by 3 (now 2 ghouls and 8 zombies left). While the gladguard vs doggies = fail fear...lose combat by 1 aha steadfast!....nope...run off board sigh.

TURN FIVE:
Rather short effective turn for me. All archers move to short range (or as close as they can get-the odd back rank couldnt make it) and pin cushion the terrorgiest while the wardancers + highborn charge flank of zombies and I win the combat by wipe out! HUGE turn for me and a very positive points swing in my favour.

So the bus then triggers the double flee trap-the doggies also try to help and fail.

Notice how one of the eagles lands in an amazingly convenient position? No Lizardman double flee trap could pull that move off (no...I'm still not bitter about that!). I scroll a gaze at the BSB (been waiting for that) and some knights come back from the dead (more than happy for Ryan to risk a miscast).

TURN SIX:
The dryads charge the doggie flank (conveniently getting them out of the way for my next trap), Eagles rally (yay!) and the BSB and highborn move to provide their leadership and re-rolls to the units setting up the trap so I dont do a John and flee with my Slann/Saurus/Scar vet unit.

Dryads kill doggies (overruns to get as far away as possible), the other last doggie is shot and token shooting at bus kills 1 (strangleroot of course misfires).

So the 1 flaw in my trap this time round was that I didnt quite have the sideways movement to block the Vamp Lord. However looking at the photos all I had to do was use the swift reform into a single file conga line facing right (in pics) and then move forward 5 inches. DUH!
So the Vamplord solos out JUST reaches the dryads. Ryan risks another IF down the hole moment to give his Vamplord re-roll to wound. This of course means that the Vamplord's attacks kill this many:

But  sadly break from combat res and run off the board.

did that mind fart turn 6 affect the outcome of the game??????

RESULT:
Joel lost 664 VPoints
Ryan lost 910 VPoints
= 246 points difference
= 12-8 to JOEL

Not sure if that would have been a 13-7 if I had set up the trap properly, but I was rather happy that all Ryan left was the bus + 1 hexwraith (well, I wasnt happy about that!).

I was very much helped by the mission forcing a defensive deployment. I was expecting a Vamplord lead lance to run down my back line-hence the move to block board edge. I also had the moonstone up my sleeve to get my serious points out of trouble if need be. Losing my lvl4 put me in a very tricky position as I would have liked the odd amber spear, curse, or wildform to back the bowline, but it was also nice to see the army perform without the magic support.