Game 2 - Vampires take on the might of the Empire.

I missed posting about my first game against Keatons Chaos Warriors, hopefully I'll get around to trying to remember it! However, here's how my second game went against Graeme and his Empire hordes. (sorry for lack of photo's!) I also have a terrible memory for turns, so while the things I write about definitely happened (I swear!), I probably forgot which turn it was in and made it up. Ask Graeme, he was sensible and actually took some notes!

MY LIST

Vampire with Armour of Destiny - Spells (Invocation of Nehek)

 Lvl 2 Necromancer with Master of the Dead upgrade. Spells - Invocation, Curse of Years

20 Skellies, champ and standard

20 Zombies,. standard

5 Dire Wolves

5 Dire Wolves

5 Hexwraiths

DEPLOYMENT

The Empire set up with a Hellblaster Volley gun on top of a big hill, threatening to mow down anything that went near it, along with a horizontal line of swordsmen, outriders and knights. No matter how I approached him bad things were going to happen! To try and combat this, I led with my skellies with the vampire in, hiding my zombies behind them as a meatshield for the necromancer. If I moved quick enough there was a bit of terrain I could use to protect my flanks. The wolves deployed on the side of the volley gun, in the hope that a vanguard move and hopefully winning the first turn would let me threaten the war machine. The hexwraiths started on my right flank, but swept in in front of my skellies on the vanguard move, to offer them an ethereal shield. The Empire Outriders approached cautiously on their vanguard moves, whilt my wolves went full pelt (HAH, PELT!) towards the big nasty gun.

Graeme won first turn with a roll of a six and the plus one bonus. I guess he really wanted to save that hellblaster!

TURN 1 

Empire - The swordsmen advanced, whilst the knights stayed their horses and remained a little apprehensive of moving in towards the hexwraiths. Clearly the lurid ethereal green and purple paint job put them off! In the magic phase the Empire light wizard threw a bolt of energy at said hexwraiths, vaporizing four of them (four hits out of 2d6, unlucky Graeme), leaving a single model standing. As we all know though, when facing undead a single model left in a unit means they can still be a thorn in your side. His outriders shot into a pack of wolves, removing 3 of them, which the hellblaster then cleared up. These dogs were not good war machine hunters that day.

VC - I decided to be super smart and charge my wolves into the outriders, thinking they couldn't shoot me and that I could tie them up for a bit. Turns out they can stand and shoot, oh well! Graeme helpfully dispatched four of them on the charge, leaving a single wolf in combat! I then advanced my army up in a column through the pass, keeping them close together to make use of the powerful magic I had at hand. In the magic phase the vampire raised 10 zombies and a hexwraith unopposed, while the necromancer tried to curse of years the knights, which was handily dispelled. In combat, the wolf somehow survived the attacks of three outriders, and won the combat by one because of the charge! SUCCESS! The outriders passed their break test though and stood firm. It was only a single dog after all.

TURN 2

Empire - The swordsmen pivoted to face my approaching horde, looking to get into their flanks if possible. However the shifting about used most of their move. The knights decided they had had enough of inaction and charged the hexwraiths, hoping to tie up the ethereal monsters. This would turn out to be a turning point for the Empire morale...... for the worse. In the magic phase the wizard's attempt to blow some more stuff up were scattered to the wind by my angry old curmudgeon of a necromancer. "Not on my watch", "I might be old but you cant fool me that easily" and "kids these days don't know they're born, messing around with the light" were all heard to be muttered under his breath. The hellblaster shot some skellies to bits, which was fine as I'll just raise them again. In combat the outriders killed the remaining dire wolf, but his job was done, he'd held them up and stopped them shooting for a turn. The hexwraiths did better, drawing combat with their scythes slicing through two knights. Ethereal, great weapons and no armour save from wounds caused by them actually add up to a pretty tasty package.

VC - I turned my skellies to face the swordsmen, hoping to charge them if they failed. General on general combat please! I charged my spirit host into the knight/hexwraith melee because what's better than one ethereal unit tying up an enemy? Thats right, two! Magic added some more skellies and zombies to the mix, as well as managing to curse the knights, causing one of them to keel over from premature old age! Combat didn't go so well, as I failed to inflict a single wound.... rolling snake eyes on my 2+ to wound check on two hits. Good going me. The hexwraiths lost one of their number and the spirit host took a wound. Bloody standard bearers.

TURN 3

Empire - The swordsmen decide not to charge. I'm not sure why, I think it's to maximise the use of the hellblaster which makes sense. Not much other movement happens as the outriders want to shoot, and the hellblaster wants to shoot too! A hail of lead comes at the skellies from the hellblaster and seven of them fall, along with seven or eight zombies falling to the outriders. I'll just raise them later. In combat, the knights hold out again, losing another 2, but holding their break test again. Magic was uneventful I think, or it blew up a load of zombies/skellies, but I forget. I probably just raised them again later.

VC - I charge my skellies into the swordsmen bus. I figure I can blow him up quicker that way! They elect to hold, the warrior priest steeling his men. I advance the zombie horde, which is now about forty strong. Can't complain. Magic lets me down a bit here, as I fail to cast on my necromancer which leaves my vampire too far away to do anything of use with his invocation. You live and learn. Combat is a blast though, I issue a challenge which Graeme accepts with his warrior priest, stating that "He's a priest, he wouldn't turn down the challenge of a vampire so I better accept". I like that, i love a bit of character in games (especially when they're soft and squishy vampire food). The vampire dispatches the priest before he even gets to take a swing, putting three wounds on him. The swordsmen kill three skellies in return, but take some losses to the skellies swords too. I win the combat by three, he fails his break test and the unit gets run down. No steadfast units against my hordes! This does leave my skellies right in front of the hellblaster, but I figure I can weather a few shots. Over in the hexwraith/knight bus ongoing saga I finally manage to break him, I pursue and run him down, running my wraiths right into his wizard that was hiding behind them. Solo characters are pretty squishy. The spirit host wanders his way up towards the outriders too.

TURN 4 

Empire - The outriders stay where they are and put some shots into skellies, as does the hellblaster. Not enough to inconvenience them though, I'll just raise them again later. The wizard gets chopped to bits in combat unsuprisingly. Not the best of positions to be in really.

VC - I charge the war machine and slaughter the crew. I charge the outriders with my spirit host. Combat is pretty uneventful.

TURN 5 

Empire - Graeme unloads some shots from the outriders before deciding that a five pack of move or fire horsemen probably wont hold off the undead and offers the concession.

VC CRUSHING VICTORY.

A fantastic game (I would say that because I won). However we both had fun and learnt a few extra rules that we probably didn't understand too well before. Great to play against Graeme after a brief meeting two weeks ago. This sort of fun and sportsmanship is exactly what I hope the league fosters as I really enjoyed myself. Outriders are nuts, fifteen shots from 5 troops that have swiftstride? CRAZY! Good fun to play against an army i'd never seem or dealt with before too!

It was also great to meet Andrew and Alex Hogan who had come down to play, but had their games not work out! I'm looking forward to playing against both of them too, as they seem pretty experienced. I'd love to see what Andrew thought of my tactics as he's a VC player too.

POINTS BREAKDOWN

Crushing Victory - 5 points
Fully Painted Army (starting army was, a few skellies/zombies that I raised were not. use your own judgement if I'm allowed the points! - 3 points
Newly painted units - Hexwraiths - 1 point
Battle Report - 1 point
Total - 10 points

I have an army! Visual Proof!

So I finished painting up my 500 point list. I've also been drawn to face off against the hideous rat-men Skaven in my first game! I'm not sure if I'd still come to the same list had I known, but this looks like it could still work!

Here's the proof.

First round, deciding on a list.

So the first round of the escalation league fast approaches, and I need an army list!

With my decision to play Vampire Counts for the league settled on, I had to work around a few restrictions, especially for the first round of the league. These were -

• 500 Points
• No Lord Choices
• Must be 50% Core Unit Choices
• Maximum of 1 Special Unit Choice
• No Rare Choice
• Maximum lvl 2 Mage

Luckily, as the new 50% Lords/heroes rule has been errata'd in by Games Workshop, this meant that I could spend 250 points on heroes and 250 points on core if I wanted to, which is pretty much perfect for Vampire Counts!

The army's strength lies in its ability to muster huge numbers of rank and file troops to 'tarpit' or hold up the opposition, while it uses it's incredibly strong magic and tough as nails characters to hit the enemy where it hurts. Sadly, if/when these characters die, the entire army starts to crumble to dust, but thats the price you pay for cheap troops!

I knew I needed strong magic, so a level 2 necromancer was my first port of call. 'Naked' he comes in at 100 points. It's a fifth of my allowance but really worthwhile. All the lore of vampires spells are pretty useful, and the signature spell lets him ressurect fallen skeletons or zombies. With an upgrade he could even add more to the regiment, but thats for another day!

Secondly, I wanted a vampire as my general. Why play the Vampire Counts army and not take one? They're incredible in combat and will go toe to toe with any other general (chaos warlords can be an issue, but you just hope for good luck on the dice!), or blitz through units of troops. Considering they can get wounds back by rolling a 6 when they wound, they can be pretty resiliant too. A vampire hero with heavy armour and an extra hand weapon on foot was a shade more than the necromancer, but not much.

That left me with a load of points left to fill with core. A block of 24 skellies with command for the vampire to bunker in seemed good to me. Skellies are deceptive when it comes to combat. They aren't the best at fighting, but the sheer number of dice means you always get a few hits through. Add on a large rank bonus, light armour and a shield as standard (with it's amazing parry save) and the ability to regen them through the magic phase and you have a unit that isn't going anywhere. I then took a unit of 20 zombies with a standard for my Necromancer to bunker in. Protecting him is fairly important, and a bit hunk of zombie meat does the job brilliantly!

With 80 points left over I looked at my options. I felt like I needed something a bit faster than my sluggish ground troops. Fell bats were an option, but they don't have a great statline in my opinion. Good enough to go and tie up war machines if you really need them, but they're no Wood Elf eagles, that's for sure! After a bit more reading the answer was obvious...... dire wolves. They can't fly, but they do move 9" a turn, that's 18" with a march, and they get a vanguard move! Again, not the best of statlines, but at forty points for five it meant I could take two packs of five. Perfect for protecting flanks, redirecting charges and harassing things. Great!

So, that's the list so far. I'll be looking to update it to 750 points for February's game, so let me know in the comments what you think of it so far. Would you have built it differently?

Now.... time to get the brushes out and paint the lot!

Choices....choices.

Having played a few games with my Wood Elves and Daemons armies, I realised I could use either of them to play in this campaign. The elves are a great shooty and mobile force, with the daemons providing a solid, hard hitting option with lots of flavour if thats what I wanted. However, I've been a little bored of painting them recently. Add that to the fact that both forces are quite expensive points-wise and I started to re-think things.

I've always wanted a proper undead army since I had a few of the models when I was a lot younger, but could never afford a proper horde size force. Well, now I can within reason!

The Escalation League is the perfect framework within which to build a brand new army....... and I'm a sucker for new things and new toys. I was going to play undead for the league, that was clear now. The choice though..... Vampires or Tomb Kings? I'd like to say that I looked at it carefully and considered all my options, but that would be a lie. After seeing all the great models, it had to be Vampire Counts. Egypt is cool and all, but I'll take Transylvania (Sylvania, sorry!) any day thanks.

Now, time to write out a 500 point list to take on all comers!

Beginning your new life, or unlife as it were.

This blog will detail my attempt at playing Warhammer Fantasy in the Wargames Workshop Escalation Campaign for 2015.

Starting at 500 points and increasing by 250 each month, with a series of structured games, it looks set to be a great way to spend the year painting, modelling and gaming with some good people.

Stay tuned for more.