The Mission: Battleline
The List
Vampire Lord, General, Aura of Dark Majesty, Barded Nightmare, Level 4,
Lore of Vampires, Quickblood, Shield, Armor of Destiny, Ogre Blade
Necromancer, Level 2, Lore of Vampires, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of
Ruin
Necromancer, Level 1, Lore of Vampires
35 Crypt Ghouls
5 Dire wolves
5 Dire wolves
37 Zombies, banner
34 Zombies, banner
9 Black Knights, full command, lances, banner of the barrows
4 Crypt Horrors
4 Crypt Horrors
2 Fellbats
2 Fellbats
2 Fellbats
Terrorgheist
Varghulf
Nate started off our game by telling me he is a newer player. I would have to say, that by looking at
this list I would have disagreed.
I think this is a really well balanced list. I think that if Nate sticks with this list, once he picks up
more experience he will do really well.
I think the only reason Nate didn’t beat me was due to some of the
choices he made. He and I talked
about it afterwards, and I think next time he will get a solid victory.
Magic
For magic I picked up searing doom and transmutation of lead for my
metal caster. For Death I picked
up Spirit Leech, carass, soul blight and doom and darkness (once again, would
have dropped but I rolled that damn fear spell). I miss tome of furion.
Nate took Raise Dead, Gaze of Nagash, and Hellish vigor on his level 4
(yes, I know, that’s 3… be patient).
His level 2 took wind of death.
All three wizards took invocation (see, I can count!).
I wasn’t too worried about his magic, just the damn healing. Gaze could also be something I wouldn’t
like. He could raise as many
zombies as he liked; without purple sun I couldn’t touch those units.
Deployment
For deployment Nate leaves me space on the left for my shades (very
nice of him), but in order to use it I would have to move through both units of
zombies and the ghouls. No Thanks!
But good play as it blocked off a bunch of the board for me. Fortunately, those zombies would sit
there all game, only moving up the few inches needed to grow larger. The center of the table consisted of the
knight unit, flanked on both sides by the crypt horrors and all the chaff. The terrorgeist took the right flank,
pushing out my shades.
Having like half his drops, I went with my normal split, dark riders
everywhere, hydras and characters in the center. With the terrorgeist outside of the general’s 12” bubble, I
put my shades up just outside of 18” of the terrorgeist, free from screams but
also in range to step up and open up with both assassins should I get to go
first. I vanguard up, keeping
movement in mind and getting into fire positions. I wanted to shoot the fellbats, so not having that -1 for
movement was key to compensate for skirmish.
Once again, I don’t get to go first… BAH! For the third time in a row.
Turn 1 – Vampire Counts
Nate advances strongly, putting his chaff way out in the open, all
angled towards his center. He said
that he normally uses his chaff to funnel to his knights, horrors and
terrorgeist; and that’s what it looked like he was trying to do. I think he was doing it a little early,
and trying to funnel too many units at once and didn’t set up his units to
really take advantage of it.
He rolls an 8/4 magic phase.
I dispel Gaze at a unit of dark riders. I allow hellish vigore on the terrorgeist (not being afraid
of reroll wound on 2s any more than just wounding on 2s). He fails to raise dead. I then don’t care about adding zombies
to the two bunker units – so many that he hits the board edge. I can see this being his normal tactic,
but I was obviously not in a position to threaten them so it seemed kind of a
waste.
Scream is out of range and there is no combat.
Turn 1 – Dark Elves
Since it was my goal to kill all his chaff on this round, I accept his
invite to charge. Harpies go into
the dogs up front and center. The hydra
goes in some bats, the shades go into some dogs, and the other shades into
bats. No having shades to shoot
the terrorgeist with sucked, but I had this unit of dark riders on the hill so
I charge forward to see if I can’t get lucky with some static combat and at
least knock his scream down for later turns and shooting clean up.
I make sure to move my BSB into a position so that every combat gets
his benefit for the fear tests. I
also try to chaff up the knights, knowing that the Varghulf causes terror and
my harpies will be on their own.
I roll a 7/5 magic phase.
He dispels my metal casters power of darkness. I fail a 3 die searing doom on the knights. I then get of soulblight into one of
the shade combats.
I shoot with what little shooting I have left and put 1 wound on the
left crypt ghouls.
In combat I blow through all the chaff, only losing 1 harpy. I don’t over run, and since my charges
hasn’t been that far he didn’t really suck me in much. In the terrorgeist combat I manage to
put 2 wounds through, and lose 2 but thanks to the banner, hill and charge I
put 3 more wounds onto the beast.
Turn 2 – Vampire Counts
My prediction comes to pass and the Varghulf terrors away the blocking
harpies. It then redirects into
the other unit of harpies, which also fail their terror test. The hydra flees from the knights, which
redirect to push the second unit of harpies even farther back. One of the crypt horrors charge the
harpies again, but fail to redirect.
All of his charges now fail thanks to the single unit of harpies being
so far away – but they all charge at the same target, keeping their line fairly
well.
A 5/3 magic phase sees me allowing gaze of nagash on the BSB, which he
charmed shields and saves all wounds.
I then fail to stop a bubbled hellish vigor (which misses the
terrorgeist).
The terrorgeist, now neutered, fails to wound.
In combat, my 4 dark riders roll 4 1s to hit. The terrorgeist kills 1 dark rider. Wound versus banner make means my
musician wins me combat and the nasty crumbles to dust at the cost of half a
dark rider unit (yay!).
Turn 2 – Dark Elves
With the chaff all gone, I have no charges to start my second turn.
One of the harpy units runs off the table, but the other – and the
hydra – rallies.
A mighty 2/1 magic phase sees me cast power of darkness for +3 dice
(5/1). I then put it all into
searing doom on the knights which draws out the dispel scroll.
3 dark rider units fail to even wound a crypt horror. The egg likewise doesn’t do any
wounds. The assassin and shades
shows them how it’s done by putting 5 wounds on the left horrors.
Turn 3 – Vampire Counts
The knights charge a harpy unit, which flees to the table edge. There is then a redirection into a
hydra.
An 8/6 magic phase sees me dispelling hellish vigor into the hydra
combat. I also dispel raise
dead. I also him to invoke in the
corner to put 11 zombies onto each unit.
In combat, the hydra takes 2 wounds and then gets run down after doing
nothing. He overruns into the
fleeing harpies, killing them and reforming to face my army (with a hydra on
his back).
Turn 3 – Dark Elves
I charge a unit of shades and my BSB into a unit of crypt horrors. I do not put my hydra into the rear of
the knights, as tempting as it was.
I roll an 11/6 magic phase.
I spirit leech the Varghulf, which he allows. I get a lucky 7 wounds through and he dies. I get back 2 dice (13/6). I then irresistibly cast soulblight on
the horrors. It costs me my death
wizard. He then dispels searing
doom.
In shooting I do 1 wound to the other crypt horrors. The hydra blows kisses, killing 3 knights. 1 put a wound on the fellbats hiding in
the back.
In combat the shades get 4 wounds through, losing a shade. He pops and I overrun out of the
knights vision.
Turn 4 – Vampire Counts
With no charges available, Nate moves the ghouls to try to block off
the far dark rider unit. The bats
keep trying to hide. He rolls a
9/2 magic phase and gets off raise dead, putting 14 zombies in front of the
hydra (he only has 12 models left though).
Turn 4 – Dark Elves
The hydra takes his challenge and charges into the 12 zombies. The BSB and shades go into the second
horror unit. I try to put a dark
rider unit into the flank (since I won’t have soulblight this time) but they
fail their charge.
After he channels 3 times, I get a disappointing 7/9 dice phase. I throw it all at searing doom, getting
my needed 6s and taking off the knights.
I then take off my second wizard thanks to the wonderful warp.
In shooting I manage to put 2 wounds on the general.
The hydra blows through the zombies. The BSB, shades and Assassin mange to get 3 wounds through,
losing 3 shades for their effort.
I win, but leave 4 wounds behind.
Turn 5 – Vampire Counts
Nate moves his general around some. His ghouls keep trying to pin down that dark rider.
With a 5/4 magic phase he irresistibly casts invocation. The spell heals a wound on the horrors,
and a wound on the general. He
then does a wound to himself with the miscast. Phew!
In combat, I manage to get 3 wounds through, and the ghouls crumble.
Turn 5 – Dark Elves
On my turn I move around to surround the general from every angle but
the ones he can see. I’m pretty
sure that Nate is ready to just pick up his 1 wound general, but I convince him
you always need to get the full story.
So we count out the shots to roll them all together.
29 repeater crossbows hit – that’s 2 units of shades, all the remaining
dark riders and my BSB.
I manage 7 wounds on his T5.
He makes 3 armor saves.
And all 4 ward saves… poop.
I then shoot with both assassins…
I hit 5 times, wound 4. He
makes 1 armor save… and then only 2 ward saves.
The fell bats then crumble, leaving 2 huge units of zombies and a unit
of ghouls. As I can’t touch those
units, and he can no longer touch me, we end the game.
Yuck… two casters sucking themselves into the warp. Made me grateful that the scaled system
only mattered for tiebreaker and not actual placement.
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