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I enjoy reading the Relentless Battle Reports, so here is my attempt at it, minus pictures:

Watchtower Vampire Counts versus Beastmen (2000pt)

Vampire Counts

Vampire Lord, Armour of Destiny, Black Periapt, Helm of Commandment, Dark Acolyte, Master of the Black Arts, + lvl 3 upgrade, Lore of Vampires
(Raise Dead, Vanhel’s Danse, Gaze of Nagash, Summon Undead Horde)
Necromancer, Invocation & Vanhels
Necromancer, Corpse Cart w/ Balefire Invocation & Vanhels
25x Skeletons w/ HW FC + Banner of Everlasting Death
25x Skeletons w/ Spr FC
20x Ghouls
40x Zombies
20x Grave Guard w/ GW FC + Banner of the Barrows
Vargulf



Beastmen

Wargor BSB, +2 S weapon
Bray Shaman, Lvl 2, Manhide (? Gives him Scout), Lore of Shadow (Pit o’ Shades, Pendulum)
20x Gors w/ +1 HW FC (ambush)
20x Gors w/ Shield FC
40x Ungors w/ Spr FC
10x Ungor Raiders
5x Harpies
19x Bestigors FC
3 Minotaurs w/ +1 HW
Tuskgor Chariot
Tuskgor Chariot
Giant

I found out after the match that his Wargor was his BSB and General, which is a no-go, but now he knows for next time. He also didn’t realize that the composition was split between Lords and Heroes, and told me next time he’d bring a Beastlord. Apologies for the lack of pictures, I took a bunch but they’re all horribly blurry. Will try again next time.



Deployment:
Watchtower is in the middle, and I win control. Since you can place a Core unit with no more than 20 models inside, I had to use the Ghouls (I wasn’t too upset about this, and in retrospect I’m going to try and keep a unit of 20 in armies now for this). From left to right on the Beastmen side it’s 2 Chariots on the flank, his Shaman, harpies, and raiders on a hill, the Gors with shield, Bestigor unit (joined by his BSB Gen) and 40 Ungors staring down at the tower, and his Giant on the right flank behind a forest. My left to right was Spear Skeletons, Grave Guard, Corpse Cart, Zombie Horde, and HW Skeletons all between 2 hills and near the tower in the center of my board edge. The Vampire Lord and Necromancer on foot were behind the Zombies and Spear Skeletons respectively.

Beastmen Turn 1
Ambush attempt: Gors roll a 1, and I get to decide the board edge and naturally pick his own side, they squeeze on behind the Ungors. Everything surges forward with the Bestigor making their charge into the building (they needed 8). Magic was uneventful with an attempt at Pit of Shades dispelled by my Vampire Lord. Combat was interesting. Wargor kills 1, Ghouls kill 3 Bestigors, Bestigors kill 8 Ghouls… 5 Ghouls crumble (6 left!)

Vampires Turn 1
I bring my units into a arc with the HW Skeletons and Grave Guard protecting the left flank against the Chariots, and my Zombie Horde and Spear Skeletons protecting the right flank from the Ungors and Giant. Magic was decent, with Black Periapt and Master of the Black Arts my Vampire reliably has +3 power dice, so even bad Winds of Magic roles aren’t so devastating. I manage to cast Summon Undead Horde irresistibly (Vampire Lord took a wound from the miscast) and raised back 10 Ghouls in the building. The Necromancer on the Corpse Cart then cast Vanhel’s Danse Macabre on the Ghouls so give them Always Strike First and reroll misses. The combat round went a bit better this time, the Vampire was close enough to give the Ghouls WS 7, and they ended up winning combat by 2, causing the Bestigors to take off 5” even with a reroll Break test. (At this point we both forgot that BSB’s never run, and so he kept his standard for the rest of the game. Oops :-/ )

Beastmen Turn 2
The 2 Chariots both charge my skeleton unit, and the Minotaurs charge my Grave Guard. The Ungors charge my Zombie Horde and are ½” from the Spear Skeletons and Vargulf. The Gors with shields charge the building and the Bestigors rally. Magic is again uneventful for the beastmen, since he couldn’t cast his spells against my units in combat. The chariots both fail their Fear check and are WS1, the Ungors also fail. The Skeletons cause 1 wound on one of the Chariots while 5 of them are slain, but due to combat resolution and the Magic banner lost none to crumbling. Minotaurs kill 6 Grave Guard, who then proceed to utterly destroy them and use their reform to face the Chariots. The Uber Ghouls again perform well, causing the Gors to bounce off the building. The Ungors, oh the Ungors. They kill 13 Zombies, I lose another 14 to crumble and only have 13 left! I kill….. 1

Vampire Turn 2
The Grave Guard elect to charge the Chariots, and I foolishly laugh “I need anything but snake eyes”. Yep. Snake Eyes. They stumble forward. The Corpse Cart moves a bit closer to the Watchtower and the Vampire moves towards the tower outside of a potential re-directed charge from the Ungor Horde. The Spear Skeletons and Vargulf charge their ½” into the Ungors. Magic goes well for me, with 5 raised Skeletons to fight the Chariots, 8 more Zombies added to the remains of the Horde, and a new unit of 14 Zombies right behind the Ungors courtesy of the Vampire Lord. Combat was horrible. I managed to break one of the Chariots but the other held in there. The Ungors, however, killed 15 Zombies, 6 Skeletons, and 1 Wound on a Vargulf while I killed…. 2. 2! I lost combat by 5, enough to bring down the Vargulf, drop the zombies to 1 left and further reduce the Skeletons. That hurt.

Beastmen Turn 3
His giant can charge into combat with the Spear Skeletons to help out the Ungors (not that they needed it!) and his second unit of Gors with +1 HW charge the building in an attempt to gain control while the chariot fails to rally and keeps on going. The Bestigor unit moves around the tower right behind the new Zombie unit that was raised behind the Ungors. Harpies swoop in and charge the Corpse Cart’s flank. Magic again was uneventful with the Bray Shaman failing to cast anything. The Ungor Raiders pepper the Grave Guard with arrows, needing 5’s to hit and 5’s to wound, and kill 4! Close combat sees the the HW Skeletons break the second Chariot but fail to catch it, the Uber Ghouls continue to hold the tower and break the Gors off again, and the Ungors and Giant almost destroy the Skeletons (1 left to keep the Ungors in combat), while the Harpies fail to wound the Cart, 3 are killed and they break and run off, never to rally.

Vampire Counts Turn 3
At this point my numbers are getting pretty low across the board, so I need a decent magic phase. I attempt to charge the fleeing Chariot with the HW Skeletons, he rolls a 5, I roll a 9 and end up just barely catching him, destroying one Chariot. Unfortunately that unit is done to 8 skeletons left and is too far from my Vampire/Necromancers to get replenished any time soon. The Grave Guard march towards the lone Bray Shaman, and my Necromancer on foot gets out of the Giant’s charge arc. Magic phase nets me 11 power dice! I cast Summon Undead Horde and raise 4 Grave Guard, 6 Spear Skeletons, and 7 Ghouls (ghouls are now up to 18… almost full strength). A new unit of Zombies is raised in front of the Ungors and is Nehek’d up to 16 models. The Corpse Cart then casts Vanhel’s Danse on the Grave Guard and they stop 1” from the Bray Shaman. Combat sees the Zombies attack the Ungor’s rear, and with only 3 Ungors able to attack, it goes rather well… only 4 Zombies bite the dust.

Beastmen Turn 4
The Bestigors charge the rear of the Zombie unit in the rear of the Ungors while the giant awkwardly meanders to try and get the lone Necromancer. The General fails his Fear check while the Ungors pass, which gave us a good laugh. The two fleeing Gor units both manage to rally before running off the table, and the Bray Shaman attempts to march away from the Grave Guard but fails to keep his cool enough to march, and so he doesn’t quite make it out of their charge arc Winds of Magic grant the mighty Bray Shaman 2 power dice, not enough for him to want to risk a miscast to try to get Pit of Shades, so he folds. The Ungor Raiders light up the remaining Skeleton unit chasing the last Chariot, and kill 3. Combat sees the Ungor/Bestigor double team destroy the Zombies sandwished between them and the Bestigors then reform to face the Watchtower.

Vampire Counts Turn 4
With the Ghouls unchallenged, the Helm of Commandment went to the Zombies who charged into the front of the Ungors. The Grave Guard charged the Bray Shaman, who held his ground in the hopes of bringing a couple Wights down with him. Magic was again decent, but the Vampire Lord failed to cast Summon Undead Horde and was out for the rest of the phase. The Necromancers were casting Invocation of Nehek furiously and got the Zombies up to 22, and the Ghouls back to full strength. Combat saw the Zombies kill 4 Ungors and the Ungors killing 8 Zombies, causing 5 crumbles. The Grave Guard survived the Bray Shaman’s attacks and scored 4 Killing Blow hits against him.

At this point in the Watchtower Scenario you start to roll to see if the game continues. You roll a D6, add the turn number and if it’s 10 or more you stop. Being turn 4, we needed a 6 to stop. Again I joke “Anything but a 6 and we keep going” and the die came up 6. With the Ghouls holding the tower the Vampire Counts claimed victory. However, after calculating Victory Points for the fun of it, the Beastmen would have come out on top, a close game overall.

Aftermath
Man of the Match: Ghouls. They held the tower the entire game and bounced off 3 units of Gors and Bestigors. Ok, they had a lot of help from the Lord, but they still proved too tough a nut to crack.
Villain of the Match: Ungor Horde. Seriously. They took out almost 400 points pretty much single-handedly. Very tough unit. I figured two big units in the front and one monster in the flank would break them. Nope!
Chump of the Match: Vargulf. He killed 1 Ungor then folded like a wet tissue. He usually enjoys eating Ungors for lunch, but today he just wasn’t in the mood.
Opponent Chump of the Match: We agreed it had to be the Bestigors and their lackluster performance in the tower. They also routinely failed Fear checks at the worst times.

We had a nice discussion after the game, and agreed that a Beastlord would’ve served the Beastmen well. He’s been disappointed by his Bray-Shaman’s performance overall. In all the games he’s played his wizard has successfully cast a spell 4 times. True he was going up against a tooled out magic-based Vampire Lord, so it’s understandable in this game. The Giant also severely underperformed, only killing 6 Skeletons the entire game. His deployment behind a forest though contributed to that… he was constantly in an awkward position and unable to charge.

For my list, I was overall pleased with how it did… minus that nasty Ungor Horde disaster. Had my Grave Guard been over there it would’ve gone much differently. Next time I won’t underestimate the mighty Ungor again. Between the Horde and the Raiders they did quite a bit of damage. The Balefire really never came into play in this game, as the Shaman was always outside its effect range. I think giving it the Unholy Lodestone and Switching Vanhel’s Danse with Raise Dead would be effective, perhaps also giving him the Book that raises D3 +9 Zombies. I had a lot of fun with Zombie tactics in this game, and plan to order a lot more for larger point levels.

Thanks for sharing! Interesting encounter, and as I don't get to play against VC or Beasts very often, it's very handy to have other people report their experiences for my edification.

One note:

Cirronimbus wrote:I bring my units into a arc with the HW Skeletons and Grave Guard protecting the left flank against the Chariots, and my Zombie Horde and Spear Skeletons protecting the right flank from the Ungors and Giant. Magic was decent, with Black Periapt and Master of the Black Arts my Vampire reliably has +3 power dice, so even bad Winds of Magic roles aren’t so devastating. I manage to cast Summon Undead Horde irresistibly (Vampire Lord took a wound from the miscast) and raised back 10 Ghouls in the building. The Necromancer on the Corpse Cart then cast Vanhel’s Danse Macabre on the Ghouls so give them Always Strike First and reroll misses. The combat round went a bit better this time, the Vampire was close enough to give the Ghouls WS 7, and they ended up winning combat by 2, causing the Bestigors to take off 5” even with a reroll Break test. (At this point we both forgot that BSB’s never run, and so he kept his standard for the rest of the game. Oops :-/ )

Attackers never flee as a result of attacking a building (and defenders are always Stubborn, but that doesn't help the undead). If the attackers lose, they just push back 1 inch.

Ahh good to know Janthkin , that would've made quite a difference! I believe he did the 1" with his Bestigors but with the Gors they actually fled 2d6". Still rusty on building rules myself.

Cirronimbus wrote:I enjoy reading the Relentless Battle Reports, so here is my attempt at it, minus pictures:

Thanks!

Good read, this. Always enjoy reading about beastmen, as I don't get to see them all that often.

How did you feel about zombies taken as a starting unit? It's almost ideal for them to get killed down to a single model- then you can counter charge with a harder unit, and the enemy can't rack up tons of kills on the zombies to crumble your other units.

Sounds like you had a good game of Watchtower. A lot of people don't like this (folks around here won't even play it) and I understand the sentiment, as there's certain matchups that are just miserable. However, some of the most enjoyable games I've had were watchtower matches. Perhaps its something about the random game length, or everything hinging around that one unit passing its leadership check.

Janthkin wrote:
Attackers never flee as a result of attacking a building (and defenders are always Stubborn, but that doesn't help the undead). If the attackers lose, they just push back 1 inch.

The side note to this is that it means units only fight in the assaulting unit's turn, so there wouldn't have been an ongoing combat for Vampire turn 1...


Anyhow, thanks for the report- I look forward to more to come!

RZ

I actually liked fielding the Zombies to start out with. The drawback was that I only have 40 Zombies, so I couldn't start making new units until that Horde started to die. I'm looking to remedy this, however. I think in retrospect I shouldn't have raised more Zombies in the Horde during that combat. There was only 11 left in the unit, and more Zombies just meant more Combat Res. for the Ungors. I was also hoping the Vargulf would do a little better. In a previous game against the same guy, he killed 10 Ungor Raiders, 2 Chariots, and finished off the Giant by himself. I had high hopes...

I also enjoyed Watchtower, and it'd be very interesting to try again doing it properly I like that after turn 4 you start getting desperate to take/keep the tower because the game could be over at any time. Plus, as in this game, the Beastmen scored more Victory Points on me, but it didn't matter with the building in my hands. I do enjoy games where there's a bit more than just "Run over and beat face". I think he might have been able to take it from me had we done the 1" bounce rule. The Ghouls were pretty fragile to S6 Primal Fury.

At my local store we won't play Battle for the Pass, mostly because of the way our tables are set up, it makes it extremely annoying to move your whole army. My favorite though is probably Meeting Engagement, although I've never done Blood and Glory. I keep rolling 2's and getting Dawn Attack

Thanks for the write-up. Always fun to read about beastmen. Plus fun to see someone actually making use of zombies and getting okay results. Don't worry about supplying pictures. Theyre just a bonus . Looking forward to future battle reports!

Thank you for this

An awesome read. Very well written, edited and concise.

And as for the game, very exciting, when I got down to the end of turn 3 I couldnt wait to see who was going to win. Exciting game. I'm off to go read the rematch post right now.

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