Leadership 2

 

1 Vampire Lord @ 435 Pts

     General; Magic Level 4; Lance; Shield

     The Arkayne: Forbidden Lore [35]

     The Arkayne: Dark Acolyte [30]

     The Martialle: Dread Knight [25]

          1 Barded Nightmare @ [0] Pts

     Walach's Bloody Hauberk [45]

     Power Stone [20]

     Dispel Scroll [25]

 

1 Vampire @ 215 Pts

     Battle Standard Bearer; Magic Level 2; Necromancy

     Flayed Hauberk [25]

     Black Periapt [15]

     Biting Blade [5]

     The Arkayne: Dark Acolyte [30]

     The Master: Summon Ghouls [15]

 

1 Vampire @ 200 Pts

     Magic Level 2; Necromancy; Great Weapon; Heavy Armor

     Book of Arkhan [35]

     Enchanted Shield [15]

     The Arkayne: Dark Acolyte [30]

     The Martialle: Avatar of Death [20]

 

Core

 

24 Crypt Ghouls @ 200 Pts

      1 Ghast @ [8] Pts

 

24 Crypt Ghouls @ 200 Pts

      1 Ghast @ [8] Pts

 

20 Zombies @ 84 Pts

     Musician

 

6 Dire Wolves @ 48 Pts

 

6 Dire Wolves @ 48 Pts

 

6 Dire Wolves @ 48 Pts

 

1 Corpse Cart @ 100 Pts

     Miasma of Deathly Vigor [0]

     Balefire [0]

 

Special

 

24 Grave Guard @ 322 Pts

     Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard

     Banner of Hellfire [10]

      1 Seneschal @ [12] Pts

 

Rare

 

3 Cairn Wraiths @ 175 Pts

     Great Weapon

      1 Banshee @ [25] Pts

 

1 Varghulf @ 175 Pts

     Bestial Fury [0]

 

Casting Pool: 10

 

Dispel Pool: 6

 

Models in Army: 117

 

Total Army Cost: 2250

 

 

 

Rafael plays a solid Pointy Eared list, themed heavily around maximizing his shooting phase: Archmage with the Silver wand for 5 spells, 1 Mage (packing the Ring of Fury), mounted BSB, Noble with Reaver Bow, 2 units of Archers for Core, 3 Repeater Bolt Throwers, 1 Eagle, 3 Tiranoc Chariots, 2 big Blocks of Phoenix Guard (one w/ Banner of Sorcery, 1 w/ the War Banner).

 

He went all High Magic. I understand his reasoning: Drain Magic is uber awesome against VC, and his army is perfectly suited to take advantage of Curse of Arrow Attraction, but if our rolls where reversed, I probably would have gone Lore of Light with the Archmage. Anyway, the default strategy for his army is to blanket the enemy with shooting, augmented by Curse of Arrow Attraction, keeping the hitty stuff away for a while with his Chariots, and then counting on the Survivability of the Phoenix Guard to beat what makes it into hand to hand. However, VC are singularly resilient to this strategy. I was happy I play an infantry heavy build, starting my Ghoul units and Grave Guard at 24 strong. Even so, he managed to vaporize all but 8 of the Grave Guard by T2. If I had a more cavalry/monster heavy list, the game might have gone very, very differently. As it was, I was able to engage the Grave Guard and a large unit of Ghouls with a couple Vampires into the front and flank of the Phoenix Guard housing his BSB and Archmage. They actually held for a turn, but broke shortly thereafter, and that was pretty much game. 16 point win

 

 

 

David was understandably pessimistic. I really can’t blame him. The absurd difficulty of beating VC with Dwarves is well known, and it’s the main reason I don’t play my own Dwarves. This game played pretty much as we both expected.

 

His list: Dwarven Lord kitted out for unslayability, Runesmith with a couple “scrolls”, BSB and second Thane (both also kitted for survivability), Large unit of Hammerers (Immune to Fear/Terror), smaller unit of Hammerers (General deployed in them makes them Immune as well), Large unit of Longbeards (also with the Immune to Fear and Terror Rune), 10 strong units of Warriors X 2, a couple of Flaming Stone Throwers, and 2 Organ Guns.

 

His list is about as Vampire/Daemon resilient as Dwarves can be made, but it’s still an immensely uphill battle. He knows the only real shot he has is to force as many “Look Out Sir” rolls as possible with his Stone Throwers, which he does an admirable job of. In total, I take 2 on my BSB and 3 on my General, passing all of them. 

 

My Vargulf and Dire Wolves take out most of his artillery through the course of our 6 turns, and Curse of Years (a particularly nasty spell for Dwarves, as once it’s in play, they have little chance of getting rid of it) ruined his infantry, with the Grave Guard mopping up what was left (beside his General’s unit of Hammerers, which was uniformly avoided). 20 point win.

 

 

Luis was running a pretty mixed DoC list. From memory: Lord of Change with (1/turn reroll), Nurgle Herald BSB, 2 Tzeentch Heralds with Master of Sorcery on Discs, Big Block of Plague Bearers, 2 smaller blocks of Horrors, 1 unit of Flesh Hounds, and 6 Flamers.

 

Luis took Fire for his 2 Heralds, which I’m not certain was optimal. Flaming attacks are certainly good against the Vargulf, and the highly mobile magic missiles are great for slaying my small unit of Wraiths, but the big money spells in Fire Lore are quite difficult for a level 2 to cast (Wall of Fire is a 12+, Conflagration of Doom an 11+). Again, I can’t stress enough just how much I fear Lore of Light. It packs the flaming attacks too, and Cleansing Flare is a game winner, and is cast on a 10+ (much more feasible for a spellcaster who can only roll 3 dice). Moreover, the Discs would allow Luis to place his casters for optimal 12” Cleansing Flare effect! Light also provides a very strong magic missile (1D6 strength 6) and a healing spell that can come in quite handy for the Lord of Change. I actually took Lore of Light on my own General, as Cleansing Flare is just as good against DoC as it is against VC.

 

I think the game came down to a pivotal early charge on Luis’ part. He threw both of his Disc Heralds into my Wraiths. The Banshee stuck a wound on 1 of them with her Stand and Shoot, and things could have gone badly if he’d been able to get both Flaming Swords of Ruin off successfully. I stopped one of them, and we traded wounds for a couple combats. I killed the Herald which had taken a wound from the Stand and Shoot, and stuck a wound on the other one. He eventually killed the last Wraith, but their loss was well worth it. Most of the Lore of Fire doesn’t do much if the wizard is in close combat, and effectively nullifying that much of his magical offence for so long I think made all the difference. Luis also charged his Lord of Change into the Flank of a large unit of Ghouls. His dice where pretty atrocious here, and again, many of the Big Bird’s spells where useless in hand to hand. I got a little lucky and gacked his Nurgle Herald with Killing Blow on the charge with my Grave Guard, and proceeded to chew through the unit of Plague Bearers pretty quick after that (my General was also in the Grave Guard, and his attacks coupled with Cleansing Flare helped a lot). 20 point win.

 

 

 

 

Aaron was playing a very solid Empire list, pretty well optimized to deal with Vampire Counts: Arch Lector on War Alter, 2 Level 2 wizards, one packing the Rod of Power, BSB with Icon of Magnus, Steam Tank, Dogs of War Giant, large unit of Great Swords w/ Free Company detachment, large unit of Spearmen with Free Company detachment, small unit of Flagellants, 2 small units of Knights, 2 Great Cannons. With the BSB deployed in the Great Swords to make them immune to fear, pretty much everything worth serious points in the list is either unbreakable or Stubborn on an 8 or 10, and immune to autobreaking due to fear. He’s usually got around 8 dispel dice (depending on how the Rod of Power is used) and a couple scrolls. Both Wizards go Lore of Light, and one happens to roll Cleansing Flare. The Archlector, War Altar, and Ring of Volans = 3-4 bound spells/turn as well. The scenario gives us both a magical Cannon to use, which brings his total to 4 including the Steam Tank’s. A tough match for any VC list, though I can hardly blame the build, given the prevalence of all the VC/Daemons in the environment these days.

 

I took Lore of Metal on my Lord, though magic proved decidedly unreliable, for Aaron and myself, throughout much of the game. He sent his Steam Tank into my Grave Guard fairly early on, where it stayed for the rest of the game. I considered this a relatively fair situation, as both units are around 300 points, and they just stared at each other round after round (though the Tank very nearly ground them down to half points, and I had to send a few Invocations their way to keep them around). The Arch Lector/War Alter also smashed into a unit of Ghouls + 1 lesser Vampire on round 2, where it stayed for the duration, and with the help of his Giant, eventually ground through it (though the Vampire ended turn 6 still alive with a single wound remaining!). My Vargulf and Dire Wolves took out most of his artillery, and Aarons own dice took out his Knights (they failed every fear/terror test required of them!). The game really came down to a single Wraith charge. Aaron had deployed both his Wizards in the unit of Spearmen, and despite my best efforts at panic/terrorizing them away, they were still plodding around the battlefield on Turn 5. He advanced them to within charge range of my 2 remaining Wraiths (the Banshee had been gacked by magic missiles earlier). I declared the charge, and managed to slay both Wizards (though the Wraiths eventually evaporated to combat resolution). Ended in a tie, with me getting the extra 4 points for the objective. 12 Points.

 

 

 

Jeff played a rather unusual, but interesting DoC build: Keeper of Secrets w/ Blade of Torment and Siren Song (level 2 wizard), Herald of Khorne BSB on Juggernaut w/ Firestorm Blade and Armor of Khorne (carrying the -2 Leadership Icon), 2 small units of Horrors, 1 small unit of Daemonettes with full command (this unit surprisingly ended up winning Jeff the game!), 2 units of Flesh Hounds, 1 unit of Furries, 2 units of Fiends of Slaanesh. A nifty trick I didn’t see coming: Keeper of Secrets uses Siren Song to suck something nasty into him/her/it (Aaron used it on my Vargulf). It always strikes first with 7 Strength 6 attacks. If it inflicts a wound, the target must pass a leadership test (on its own leadership) with a -3 (a la the BSB’s Icon and Blade of Torment) or it can’t attack the Keeper. Makes it particularly difficult to slay in hand to hand.

 

I again selected Lore of Light with my General. Jeff’s list is a bit light on the magic defense, with just the 5 dispel dice and no Scrolls. He relies almost entirely on close combat to win games, and that meant he had get to close enough with his juicy bits for Cleansing Flare to do it’s business. It hit the Keeper twice, but I rolled a 1 for the number of hits both times (though they did both stick a wound).  My 3 Wraiths where again the MVP’s, single handedly slaying one of the units of Flesh Hounds (they were in the flank, and the Banshee rolled a natural 12 for her scream) and small unit of Horrors. Raise Dead controlled the only 2 units I feared (the second unit of Hounds with the Khorne BSB in it, and the Keeper). The Vargulf made some spectacular regeneration saves, and held up the Keeper for a couple rounds as well. 

 

In all modesty, I’m actually quite certain I had this game all nicely wrapped up until the bottom of turn 5. I had charged into the flank of the second unit of Flesh Hounds/BSB with my General’s unit of Ghouls. I stuck a few wounds and won combat, but it wasn’t enough to slay him to a man. I knew the following round my General would be in base to base with his BSB (who’s a beast in combat, including Killing Blow). I felt safe however, as I knew I could simply challenge with my Ghast champion. Enter the unit of Daemonettes. I admit, I have little game experience against Daemonettes. Not many people play them. I wasn’t worried about them at all, thinking they were 10” chargers. Turns out, they’re 12”. They just barely made it into the rear of my General’s unit. I could have quite easily prevented this by sacrificing my hitherto gallant Wraiths to the Daemonettes… mia culpa! It really wouldn’t have been such a huge problem, since my General’s unit of Ghouls was pretty huge (low 30’s), except for the fact that Jeff runs his unit of 12 with full command. His Daemonette champion prevented me from protecting my General with a Ghast challenge! Jeff hit twice, rolled a 6 for killing blow, and I failed my ward save… gacked Vampire Lord = crumble = game over. I can at least claim I’ll never again mistake Daemonette movement! Beside this rather elementary mistake which ended up costing me the game, it was a highly amusing and enjoyable match. Jeff’s a good guy, and if I was to lose, I’m glad it got him best General. 4 points.

 

To review, I had 5 good games, came pretty darn close to winning Best General, and allegedly interested a hot waitress.

 

The DudeBro abides,

 

Derek