Vampire Counts vs. High Elves

Terrain was randomized as BRB 8th page 142, I won the first terrain placement pick and order was following:

- Pond (Mysterious River)

- Elven Waystone

- Swamp

- Banestone

- Sinister Statue

- Ghost Fence

I won the table edge choice and first deployment rolls. Deployment order was following:

- White Lions

- Zombies

- Reavers (right)

- Corpse Cart

- Reavers (left)

- Vargheists

- Silver Helms

- Grave Guards

- Spearmen

- Direwulfs (Right)

- Phoenix Guard

- Direwolfs (left)

- Helf Characters

- Rest of Vampires

My Archmage generated ( 1 , 1 , 4 , 6 ) I swapped tempest to Drain Magic and chose hand of glory.

His Vampire Lord generated ( 1 , 3 , 3 , 6 ) He swapped Wind of Death to invication and chose Hellish Vigour

My opponent won the vanguard roll and moved Hex Wraiths first.

I won the first turn roll.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 3+2, no channels

- Drain Magic 1 PD ( 10 )

- Apotheosis 1 PD ( 8 )

- Upgraded Hand of Glory to White Lions 3 PD ( 15 ), 3 DD dispel failed. Increased stats by 1

CLOSE COMBAT:

Both Silver Helms and Phoenix finished their opponents right on and reformed.

Passed terror test but chose to flee. 1 Reaver died due dangerous terrain test. Varghulf failed charge.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 6+5, no channels

- Upgraded Dance Macabre 4 PD ( 17 ) passed

- Upgraded Gaze of Nagash to Reavers 4 PD ( 20 ) passed, so high roll so I decide to trust my chances

- Hellish Vigour 3 PD, 6 DD dispel

I tried long charge to Zombies with Phoenix Guard. Phoenix failed march test so it couldn't move much.

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 6+2, +1 PD

- Drain Magic 3 PD ( 16 ) -> 4 DD failure

- Apotheosis 2 PD ( 12 rr+2 )

- Upgraded Hand of Glory 3 PD ( 18 rr+2)

- Fury Ring 1 PD ( 5 ) 2 DD dispel

CLOSE COMBAT:

White Lions vs. Grypt Ghouls

- Lion champion called for challenge and Grypt Ghoul ghast took it. Neither of them did wounds on challenge.

- Annointed did 2 wounds, Archmage did 1.

- Vampire Lord failed to do single wound due ward saves

- White Lions 21 attacks, 14 hits and 9 wounds

- Grypt Ghouls directed all attacks to unit. 36 attacks, 16 hits / 7 poison, total 13 wounding hits, 10 after (5+) armor saves and 5 after (3++) ward

- I won the combat by 9 and total 21 Ghouls died.

My opponent attempted combat reform but couldn't roll snake eyes.

TURN ANALYZE:

- I really didn't "understand" that corpse cart is actually chariot that does impact hits and even str 4 is bad for us elves ;)

Zombies couldn't make the charge when Corpse cart was in front of them so corpse cart charged and it was at the flank of Reavers. ( I said to my opponent that I probably should just flee with reavers and cause failed charge for his zombies, but I didn't do it). Varghulf failed march test.

MAGIC: 1+1, +1 PD +1 DD

- Invication of Nehek 3 PD ( 17) 2 DD failed dispel, 7 ghouls and 8 zombies risen

CLOSE COMBAT:

Corpse cart impact hits killed all of the reavers.

White Lions vs. Grypt Ghouls / Zombies

- Lion Champion killed the ghouls champion without overkill

- Annointed did 3 wounds and Archamge did 1 wound.

- Vampire Lord originally did 3 wounds and with Red Fury another 1 wound (total 4)

- White Lions did 1 wound to zombies and 15 attacks, 8 hits and 7 wounded Grypt ghoul

- He directed maximum 9 attacks to Mage and he managed to do exact 3 poisons, but I saved them all with crown 2+ and after that with 3+ ward

- Zombies failed to do any wounds

- I lost the combat, but managed to hold due stubborn. My opponent reformed both of his units zombies to gain more attacks as zombies had only clipping charge and vampire to hunt for my archmage

TURN ANALYZE:

- I told to my opponent that one of the most important things he should attempt is to ruin Phoenix guard charge. Unfortunately Varghulf failed march test and fell bats were simple too far away. I told him that many times when vc players charge zombies in to combat it might ruin them completely allthough in this particular battle zombies will prove worthwhile.

Sinister Statue damaged Phoenix and killed one Silver Helm. I managed to charge with Phoenix Guard and Frosth Phoenix to zombies and with Reavers to rear of the Grypt Ghouls.

MAGIC Winds of Magic: 5+4 +1 PD

- Drain Magic 3 PD ( 16 )

- Apotheosis 2 PD ( 13 rr +2) dispelled with 6 PD

- Upgraded Hand of Glory 4 PD, Dispel Scrolled

CLOSE COMBAT:

- White Lion champion called for challenge and Vampire Lord was "forced" to take it. Against all odds Lion champion survived with 5+ ward saves

- Annointed did 3 wounds

- Reavers did 2 wounds

- Phoenix guard+noble had 18 attacks / 14 hits / 12 wounds zombies

- White Lions did 2 wounds to zombies and 8 wounds to grypt ghouls.

- Frost Hearth phoenix did 2 wounds with regular attacks and 4 with thunder stomps

- Ghouls maximed attacks to Archmage and did 2 poisonois wounds to him. Ghouls did 4 wounds to white lions

- Zombies failed to do single wound

- My opponent lost the combat by something like 30 - 35 so all of including Vampire Lord died due crumble. As result Corpse cart even with reroll and -1 was destroyed. Fell bats received 1 wound.

TURN ANALYZE:

- Those Phoenix Guards were diamond. They did 12 wounds, gave 3 rank bonus, +3 banners (bsb, banner, warbanner), disruption (effective -3) and +1 charge. Effective 22 combat resolution.

- This battle was the rare one where I truly missed of having extra caster for either more ward save or more spells to use. Level 2 support to give miasma etc, would have being really interesting addition for this particular situation.

LORE: Loriel was badly wounded by ghouls infectios bites and the blood thirsty Vampire Lord forced his way right next to exalted asur champion. Loriel knew that he couldn't do much against the fierce vampire. He heard how the beast taunted him "I will suck your blood!". The silent Annointed of Asuryan was too occupied to protect his commander. Loriel allready fell to the ground and while the Vampire Lord laughed and raised his swords for final blow a young promising champion of the White Lions dashed and pushed the Vampire away. The fierce beast only laughed when he launched a flurry of blades. Loriel crawled little bit farther away, but he saw how the magical Shield of Saphery blocked each of the Vampire Strikes. Loriel almost lost his concience, when he saw "Leo The Untouchable" blocking the final blow of the vampire before the lord was crumbled to dust. "Leo..." Loriel said with weak voice...

Grave Guards tried to charge to phoenix guard, but distance was too long.

CLOSE COMBAT:

- Vargulf directed all attacks to BSB and killed him. additionally 1 phoenix guard was killed by stomp, but I did couple wounds and the static resolution was simple too much.

- All vargheist was killed before they could swing. (we rolled just for kicks if one would survived and the Mage would have being killed.

TURN ANALYZE:

- My opponent had a real chance of ending the game with this turn. If those grave guards would have managed to complete the charge they would have most likely break those Phoenix Guards and possible overrun to the rear of white lions, and got another turn of combat. In addition my phoenix couldn't come to aid in next turn due facing and Silver Helms would have most likely being too far away.

(Picture is little off, but Silver Helms couldn't charge the grave guards)

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 4+3, no channels

- Apotheosis 3 PD ( 21 ) healed Archmage

- Upgraded hand of Glory to Phoenix Guard 4 PD (20) Dispelled with irrestible force

CLOSE COMBAT:

- Phoenix guards did 4 wounds and received 6

- Frost hearth did total 2 wounds combined with thunder stomps.

- My opponent directed all attacks he could to Frostie and did 3 wounds leaving the birdea with only 1 wound.

CLOSE COMBAT:

- My phoenix guard did over the top 7 wounds

- Frostie did also tons of damage.

- My opponent wanted to make sure that frostie dies and directed maximun number of attacks to it. He killed the birdie with 2 excess wounds. When the frostie died reavers paniced and ran off board. only 3 Phoenix guard was killed

MAGIC: Winds of Magic 3+1

- Drain magic 2 PD (13)

- Apotheosis 1 PD (10)

- Hand of Glory to Phoenix Guard 1 PD ( 10 ) failed dispel with 3 dices.

CLOSE COMBAT:

- My annointed one shotted Wight King and with the combination attacks from Silver Helms, Phoenix Guard and White Lions only 1 grave guard survived to strike back, before he was deadened.

GAME ENDED High Elven victory 2650 - 645

This was really good game and I think my opponent had really chance of winning the battle. Those big multiple battles are really fun to play. For the second game ever I think my opponent played quite good eventhough his left flank was little mistake.

LORE: Knowledge of High Magic managed to seal all the festering wounds and when the battle was over Loriel had only couple white scars to remind him how close of eternal sleep he was. They needed to make sure every dead stays dead. A huge pyre was builded and all the dead was burned to ashes. Loriel watched the flames and smoke. Some say that fire didn't reflect from his eyes. How many needs to die before there is peace, he asked him self. Later that night during a grand feast hosted by Tordenhams people Loriel didn't stay with the other nobles, but ventured to the commons festival. Laughter and music seized when Loriel entered the tents. All standed up and saluted properly. Loriel commanded all to ease up, but the mood was tense. Loriel seeked out the champion of the White Lions. Loriel remembered that he saw Leo, but the young elf didn't look anything like Leo. He was youngest White Lion ever to raise as Champion and was named Ilmyr. Loriel jumped on top of table and said "Meet Ilmyr Shield in Darkness!" All hailed the Shield!