They came from the north: VC vs Empire

Hi All,

WOW an actual battle report! I havnt done one of these in ages (and didnt write up Homecon 3 because I kept forgetting to take pics).

Team O.M.E.N. team mate Glen was in the area so naturally a game was arranged. To make sure pics were taken, Ryan decided to drop by and was promptly handed pen, paper and camera to record the events.


DISCLAIMER:
So in a way, this is my first "guest post"...however on reading his write up it was horribly biased (being a VC player himself), so I have tried to "correct" the bias where possible.

My list:
Arch Lector on Waralter: HA, GW, 4+ ward, charmed shield
lvl4: light, scroll (was tempted to go heavens....maybe one day)
BSB: Full plate, enchanted shield, luckstone, warriorbane
40 Halberds: M, SB
2x5 archer detach
10 Inner Circle Knights: M, SB
10 Archers
4 Demigryphs: M
35 Great Swords: FC (first run out of new book)
Cannon
Stank
Hurricanum

So trying something a little different to my usual style. Stank is getting another tryout (mainly so I can get a 2nd cannon in the list!)  and no hellblaster makes me a little nervous.

Glen's List:
Flying Ghoulking thing of hurt
2 flying vamps of hurt-one with death
2 wraiths "good thing I have a token magic weapon"
block of ghouls
too many doggie units
2 units of varghiests
unit of fellbats
2 Terrorgiests (should have left the stank on the shelf!)

A very different approach to the VC book-in a good way not a "hey look how many mortis engines and coven thrones I can fit in" sort of a way.

We rolled up battleline and deployed.

Basically my entire army was down before he had placed anthing worth more than 50pts. Then vanguard: The GW forest was stupid.

TURN ONE:
Despite my army being ready to go before anything of substance was deployed by the Vamps, the Vamps got first turn.

Vamps moved everything forward.

(bat thing is non death magic vamp on hellstead, crypt horrors are really varghiests)

Screams then take 4 wounds from Stank (didnt see that coming...O_o) and 8 frickin wounds from Demigryphs because SOMEONE (looking at you lvl4) failed to stop doom and darkness.

So I took noble advantage of the situation and eyeballed the field for charge opportunities.

 "Chickens" (to use Ryan's language) charge the top terrorgiest while Waralter and hurricanum charge the bottom one. Stank then "fails" to do anything due to mishap that  = lose d3 steampoints = no steampoints grrrrrr.

My magic phase consists of IF s6 burning gaze on the death vamp (had no dragonhelm) = dead vamp. My cannon then eyeballs the other and only does a single wound (much swearing ensues at this point). The archers might have killed a doggie or 2.

In the combats my knights take out the doggies in front, overrun into flank of next unit (who had archers in the front) = another unit of doggies dead.

Vs the Terrorgiests: "Chickens" do 1 wound and win combat and my impact hits manage 4 hits for a single wound before the ArchLector GW's another wound off. Charmed shield and ward then fail on Archlector. End result: both Terrorgiests take 4 wounds each from combat and crumble.

TURN TWO:

Glen charges flank of halberds with vargiests and Vamp on 1 wound (I managed to get my lvl4 bunker JUST FAR ENOUGH AWAY for it to be a wasted charge).

Varghiests fail flank charge on stank while Ghoul King flies out to beat up my chariots (along with a doggie flank charge).

Magic = vamp on 1 wound heals itself. Halberds then win combat thanks to Muso and the fact that Glen's dice seem to favour 1's when rolling to wound (while my Halberds do a number on the varghiests) = loses that wound just regained. Halberds reform to face. Ghoul King smashes face (well, TBH it was more of a case of "failing to pass every wardsave without needing to resort to the other trickster's shard) = dead Lector and waralter down to 1 wound. Chickens finish off the other Terrorgiest. Both Chariots then decided to run (and be run down). Doggies overrun into archers, Ghoulking overruns into stank and (naturally) Great Swords panic and run 7. (pic pre panic run)

So my Greatswords rally (relying on Muso for ldship 9 rally...). Chickens charge terrorgiest flank. Stank mishaps again, but gets 2 steampoints to use yay! Phas is scrolled but speed of light gets through = dead Vamp and Varghiests.

Chickens finish off Terrorgiest and reform to face the ghouls (pic pre-reform)

Knights kill the bats and ghoul king does lots of hurt to stank, but takes 2 wounds from grind in return (another case of "fail the save syndrome).

TURN THREE:
Ghouls declare charge on Demigryphs. I measure it up and gamble that a flee of 1-9 = save, but 10+ = off the board...so naturally I roll a 10 and Demigryphs tactically retreat having done what they came to do (kill monsters). Varghiests now actually make it to the Stank's flank.

I scroll a 6 dice invocate from ghoulking. Stank dies :( and on the (my) left flank starts a hilerious fluff fest: 5 dogs vs 5 archers that lasts all game.

I then charge some dogs with my knights (seeing an overrun into varghiests to  force ghoulking into awkward sandwich). Greatswords take on a doggie speed bump. I burning gaze off some vargiests and pha's up the knights. My cannon vs Ghoul king  = falls short grrrrrrrrrr

Knights kill dogs and overrun into varghiest as planned.

TURN FOUR:
Ghoul king takes bait, ghouls fail support charge (was iffy on distance so not a "OMG snake eyes" moment). Dogs into cannon. Ghoul king then IF's invocate-gets wound back, takes wound from miscast (HA!), kills 3 knights and raises back 2 dogs vs cannon. Dogs kill cannon with Combat res and Ghoul king does a number on the remaining knights.

Glen then has a dilemma.  Does he overrun towards halberds (in stupid forest with BSB), or reform to face the Greatswords (closer, but also in a stupid forest). The next wee while can be summed up like this:

 While Ryan off to the side was trying to keep his mouth shut. Eventually it was decided to overrun towards the Halberds

So: Great Swords fail stupidity and Halberds need the BSB re-roll to pass stupidity and then roll exactly the amount needed to charge the Ghoulking (9 on the dice). I then throw all my dice (4) at timewarp and succeed thanks to lvl4 vs lvl1.

Then the nervous dice rolling. From 12 attacks I manage a single wound...AND GHOUL KING FAILS TO REGEN! = armywide crumble...boom! Now, being a friendly game, I overran into the varghiests (exposing flank to ghouls). If this was a "serious" game I would have reformed as a bus to face instead. With Timewarp I would have had 6 ranks and 13 s4 and 4 s4 magical fro BSB to the front, and enough s4 to the side to deal with 2 varghiests (only 4 wounds between them left).

TURN FIVE:
Yup, more crumble goodness. Ghouls with 2 wraiths charge the halberds. BSB vs Wraith = 1 wound to wraith (so 1 less attack thanks to warriorbane) whose attacks bounce off BSB's 2+ as. However, ghouls kill "heaps" of halberds who have no steadfast, break and run off board. In other news the halberds killed off the varghiests.

So perfect opportunity for Great Swords to flank the ghouls and finish off the game...Nope (Chuck Tesla). That stupid fungus forest strikes again! Instead I burning gaze a number off.

TURN 6:
Ghouls reform to face GreatSwords and crumble.

My Greatswords recover from stupidity and charge, Rocky Horror it up to lose ASL (speed of light stopped).

21 attacks with no re-rolls, wounding on 3's = 9 ghouls dead to no wounds in return = ghouls crumble into nothing for a victory to the Empire!

RESULT:

Tallying it up I killed "everything + General bonus"
Glen killed 1972pts of stuff (incl banners, BSB, and general bonus)

= 528pt difference. If I had not overran into varghiests that might have been a bit more favourable to me (ie double that to 1000ish pt difference), but meh.

For fluff: A victory had been won, the corpse-eating horrors had been cleansed from the land. But victory had not come cheap. Sigmar's finest had been slain by the greatest of the horrors and the local engineers will have to re-construct the machines of war that keep the undead at bay. The watchmen will have to be extra vigilant over the coming months as the dead have an uncanny habit of coming back to life in alliance with the unholy powers that dwell in dark places.

Thoughts on list:
Once again-failing to see the benefit of the Stank over 4 more Demigryphs. I guess in a list like this you need the 2nd cannon and small frontage to get everything in. Stank did have to deal with being screamed at though and in the 1 round it got to grind it took 2 crucial wounds from Vamp...Loving the GreatSwords...but not enough to change up my "usual" list. Losing the artillery is dangerous vs lots of armies out there (especially the new WoC....5 korn chariots core, 3 chimeras, 2 beast things in rare and Demonprinces....).