Vampire Counts vs. High Elves

Terrain was randomized as BRB 8th page 142. My oppoent won the first placement roll. We replaced any magical structure with simple impassable stones. Terrain placement order was following:

- Settlement ( 1 building, 2 fences and stone)

- Pond

- Forest (in the middle)

- Building near the pond

- Statue on the middle

- Settlement ( 1 Building, 1 fence and a stone)

- Tower

- Forest

DEPLOYMENT. My opponent won the table edge choice and I won the first deployment choice

- Spearmen

- Skeleton Warriors

- Sword masters

- Ghouls

- Dragon Princes

- Hex Wraiths

- White Lions

- Vargheist

- Sisters

- Grave Guard

- Phoenix Guard

- Zombies

- Reavers

- Varghulf

- Great Eagle

- Vampire Characters

- Rest of Helfs

Necromancer generated ( 3 , 3 ) and chose Invication of Nehek and kept Gaze of Nagash.

Vampire Lord genereted ( 2 , 3 , 5, 6 ) He took Dance Macabre with the choice, and swapped Wind of Death to Invication of Nehek. He had Hellish Vigour and Curse of Years.

My Archamge generated ( 2 , 2 , 5 , 5 ) I kept Flesh to stone and chose Throne of vines with the other two. I chose Dwellers with the choice of Regrowth and swapped the Regrowth to Earthblood

My opponent won vanguards and moved Direwolfs first, then I moved my reavers to 22 inch from frenzy gheist and finally his hexwraiths moved as much as possiple towards in to the pond.

My opponent won the first turn.

DEPLOYMENT TERRAIN ANALYZE:

- First of all I shouldn't use mounted BSB on such a infantry heavy list. Secondly when placing those terrain pieces mainly the pond I didn't remember my biggish Silver Helm block. That middle forest that my opponent placed really annoyes me.

- I don't know why an earth I placed Spearmen first. I really should have waited for him to place his skeleton warrior / zombie blocks first and place spearmen to that end. To be honest I really didn't think this through.

- Secondly I made couple mistakes also for not measuring things properly there was no room to field phoenix guard between white lions and swordmaster. And on retrospective those swordmasters should have being on more left and phownix guard in the place so it can go past the forest.

- I was probably little bit confused what I was going to do with the different units and I really didn't make clear roles for them. This is probably due that when I play with my usually Shield of Saphery lists I have tagged all units for some purpose or role.

Vargheist failed frenzy test and failed charge. They moved right in front of the stone.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic: 2 + 1, + 1 PD

- Curse of Years to White Lions 3 PD ( 14 ) 2 DD dispeled

- Danse Macabre to Necromancer 1 PD succesfull

Failed charge with spearmen to direwolfs. My plan was to take Great eagle to redirect Grave Guards should the spears managed to make the charge.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic: 6+2, no channels

- Throne of Vines 2 PD ( 11 )

- Earth blood 2 PD ( 12 ) 3 DD dispel

- Flesh to Stone to Sword masters 2 PD ( 13 )

- Fury ring to Hexwraiths 2 PD ( 5 ) dispelled

SHOOTING: Sisters killed one hexwraith.

Vargheist failed frenzy again and failed charge. Skeleton warrior charge slightly through river caused 5 dangerous terrain deaths (only 10 models went through so pretty bad roll)

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 6+3, no channels

- Curse of Years 3 PD ( IF ) -> 3 Dead master and feedback wounded both Vampire and Necromancer. 5 Dices was sucked out of dice pool

- Dance Macabre 1 PD -> Dispelled

CLOSE COMBAT:

Silver Helms vs. Skeleton warriors

- I Did total 7 wounds and won the combat by 6. He didn't manage to do anything. He rolled fairly good armour saves.

Hexwraiths vs. Sword Masters

- Naturally I couldn't do anything to those ethereals and they couldn't do anything for my stone fleshed masters. As I had rank and he charge the combat was draw. I managed to combat reform little deeper.

I charged to direwolfs with Dragon Princes. I failed swift reform with phoenix guard and passed it with Spearmen. I packed up with spearmen as much as possible. Reavers came to redirect ghulf and the front rank was placed 21 inch from gheist so still doing frenzy baby sitting.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 6 + 5, no channels

- Flesh to stone to Sword Masters 3 PD ( 14), 3 DD dispel

- Dispelled Curse of years 4 PD

- Dwellers below to Vargulf 5 PD ( IF ) throne of vines saved from miscast. Varghulf survived the blast

- Throne of Vines dispelled 3 DD.

SHOOTING: Sisters managed to wound Corpse cart and kill Necromancer.

CLOSE COMBAT:

Hexwraiths vs. Sword Masters

- 2 Master were killed but they holded with steadfast

Silver Helms vs. Skeleton Warriors

- I did 7 wounds again and he managed to score one. I won the combat by 5.

Dragon Princes vs. Direwolfs

- Wolfs died and dragon princes overrun to ghouls and two of them died in Dangerous terrain

TURN ANALYZE:

- I think my spearman swift reform was just plain bad choice. When I did it I somehow simple forgot I had reavers (or even eagle) to do redirecting. Eventhough there is chance terror test could have caused varghulfs target to run then ld 4 check for redirecting charge. I would have loved the odds. Besides spearmen would have being steadfast regardless would they have varghulf on flank or not. I would have liked to use dwellers on ghouls this turn

Varghulf charged to reavers, passed terror test but I chose to do tactical flee. Varghulf failed to redirect charge. It doesn't show here as well but Great eagle was so close to the corpse cart that it couldn't turn.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic: 6+3

- Curse of Years to White Lions 3 PD ( fail )

CLOSE COMBAT:

Silver Helms vs. Skeleton Warriors

- 5 Skeleton survived and they managed to do one wound to Silver Helms

Sword masters vs. Hexwraits

- 2 Masters died and they broke. Wraith restrained pursuit to avoid going in to phoenix guard flanks due high combat resolution

Dragon Princes vs. Grypt Ghouls

- I did total 4 wounds and he failed to do single wound. I managed fairly low on armor saves but saved with dragon armor 6+ ward the rest.

TURN ANALYZE:

- To be honest I don't know why did I chose to flee with reavers. I think at the time I made the choice I though I had flesh to stone or earth blood on the spears, as they could have won the gulf with static resolution. Or I though that I want to make the gulf to go more in to the middle and hoped that he cannot do ld 4 restrain. At the moment it seemed too risky to allow him to strike my mage. On bright side reavers went so far away that their death didn't cause any panic tests. Or perhaps I though that I need those reavers for redirecting duties later on and hoped for fleighned flight. Seriously speaking I have no idea.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 5+2, no channels

- Throne of Vines 2 PD ( 9 rr +1 ), 2 DD dispel

- Earthblood 3 PD ( 12 rr - 1 ), 3 DD dispel

- Flesh to Stone to Spearmen 2 PD ( 11 )

SHOOTING: Sisters killed hexwraiths.

Close Combat:

Spearmen vs. Vargheist

- I did 3 wounds with the spear attacks. He only did one and I crumbled them all to dust.

Dragon Princes vs. Ghoulds

- I managed to do only 2 wounds to ghouls and they simple killed them all with tons of poison.

Great Eagle vs. Corpse Cart

- I was feared and failed to do the wound needed to crumble the cart. Overrun would have being to the rear rank.

Silver Helms vs. Skeleton Warriors

- Helms cleared rest of the warriors

Phoenix guard / White Lions vs. Grave Gurads

- My White lions failed fear test.

- I issued a challenge with my champion and his champion took it. Neither of them died.

- Phoenix Guard did 7 wounds to Grave Guards and they received 3 in return.

- Vampire Lord killed 5 white lions before they could strike.

- Remaining 10 lions managed to do 3 wounds and received 8 from grave guards. (there was only one 1 in the roll rest would have hit if I hadn't feared...)

- I had combat resolution of 13 (charge, banner, Warbanner) and he had 17. He won the combat by 4. Stubborn lions holded but Phoenix Guard failed break test with a roll of 6. Unfortunately my flee roll was only 3.

This picture is little bit off. The starting situation was the Varghulf couldn't charge the Phoenix guard and with the corpse cart situation was that both Gulf was infront of ghouls that could have charge spearmen and ghouls blocked the possibilty for gulf to charge great eagle. The way I interpret the rules you still do them sequencing so he couldn't come to eagle. Zombies tried long charge to Silver Helms.

MAGIC: 5+5, no channels

- Invication of Nehek 2 PD ( 11 ) 2 DD disp failed. It resurrected 8 grave guards and 11 zombies. He used lore attribute to heal the Vampire Lords wound from miscast earlier.

- Curse of Years to Sisters 3 PD ( fail )

CLOSE COMBAT:

White Lions vs. Grave Guards / Varghulf

- Lions died to vampire count and Ghulf overran.

Great eagle vs. Corpse Cart

- Eagle managed to crumble the cart to dust.

Spearmen vs. Grypt Ghouls

- killed 7 ghouls and received 4 wounds. I won the combat by 5.

Phoenix Guard rallied. I took my BSB out of the Silver Helms to give Phoenix Guards much needed reroll for break test.

MAGIC: 4+3 + 1 PD

- Throne of Vines 2 PD ( 9 rr+1) 3 DD dispelled

- Earthblood 3 PD ( 12 rr +-0 )

- Flesh to Stone to Phoenix Guard 3 PD ( IF ) Power Drain I lost 2 levels and Flesh to Stone and Throne of Vines.

SHOOTING: Sisters managed to kill Varghulf

CLOSE COMBAT:

- I lost 1 Swordmaster and 3 Spearmen. Combination of wounds and crumble destroyed all of the Ghouls.

TURN ANALYZE:

- I apparently was majorly tired. Why an earth I didn't use eagle to redirect Grave guards?.

Long charge failed to Silver Helms

MAGIC: 3+2

- Danse Macabre 2 PD, dispelled with 3 DD

- Hellish Vigour 3 PD

CLOSE COMBAT:

Phoenix Guard vs. Grave Guard

- My champion issued a challenge and his champion took it. I did no wounds and he managed to score wound on both of his attacks generating one overkill.

- I did total 5 wounds to his unit and he did 3 wounds to unit. My combat score was 5 and his was 7 (charge and banner). My first roll was break, but thankfully I took BSB to range I got another chance and this time it was worth it.

This diagram is again little but off. Those swordmaster managed to complete the charge bu just clipping one end to the grave guards. (and after combat reform the managed to snatch little further. Also eventhough in my picture great eagle looked to be in rear it was actually in flank. On retrospective I should had placed it behind the unit.

I tried a long charge with Silver Helms to Grave Guards. I needed like 11 to complete it.

MAGIC: 6 + 5

- Earthblood 5 PD ( 21 )

- Dwellers Below to zombies 6 PD ( 24 ) 6 DD Dispell. ( I take you can cast direct damage spells from combat. But not in to combat)

CLOSE COMBAT:

Phoenix guard / Sword Masters / Spearmen / Great Eagle vs. Grave Guards

- I apparently Didn't take any notes from the battle ;) But from memory I issued a challenge with spearmen champion and he died.

- Phoenix guard did nice enough damage but I rolled very badly my Ward Saves. I won the combat by something like 5, pretty much due the spearman static ranks. I reformed to have maximum possible number of swordmasters to base contact. Great Eagle dropped out of combat.

TURN ANALYZE:

- Perhaps I should used Great eagle to redirect zombies and just move Silver Helms to closer position for last turn fun. Well luckily that didn't happend. All in all I should have placed them to the rear position to gain more static resolution.

MAGIC 4+3, no channels

- Invicaton of Nehek 4 PD, 4 DD dispel

- Hellish Vigour 2 PD

- Danse Macabre 1 PD

CLOSE COMBAT:

- I killed exactly 8 grave guards and the unit died. As spearmen were able to nudge forward my archmage was base contacted with Vampire Lord that directed all of his attacks to the mage and killed the poor bastard, before crumbling to dust.

I had good position to make multiple charge to the zombie block during the last turn. I didn't do exact match but I needed about 20 - 25 wounds to crumble the zombie unit in one turn. Perhaps that might have being possible. We concluded that I would win the game anyway so we didn't play it as it was so late.

Final score was 2381 - 865

AFTERTHOUGHS

- For first game I think my opponent had a good match to show many different aspect of this game. I also think he had all the possibility to turn this battle in to a victory.

- I think I made tons of mistakes during this game in deployment, in terrain placing etc. My friend said to me that I used almost all the time to explain him stuff, rules etc. so it was only natural to make some rookie mistakes. Also our game time was extremely long so atleast in the last turns we both were quite tired. One thing what I did in this game I almost always said to my opponent what I was doing, why did I do this first and this second. I explained challenge rules both from game mechanic sense and also from tactical sense and said to him that in tactical sense he shouldn't take the challenge with the vampire lord etc. But I also didn't say everything out load ;)

- I liked this type list with 3 special infantry, basic idea was that phoenix guard is anvil that both white lions and sword masters will support. Spearmen were supposed to be my tarpit counters, however I played them rather differently. I also seemed to forget what a mage bunker really means as I have played so many games with my Shield of Saphery tactic. Lore of Life was neat lore, it was alongside with shadow my preferred lore during 7th edition armybook. This list wasn't probably the best for life perhaps shadow or heavens might be better for it.

LORE:

Settlement of Tordenham was saved and undead incursion was seized at the time being. This victory will provide rest of Loriel's army a significant upperhand in upcoming battles due increased supply from local population. Seregnir fell during the battle, but his valor and memory is preserved. A local human count that oversees the Tordenham section issued an order to construct a statue of the hero.