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4:0 with new rules now.
Faced off against 2500 points of dark elves, with 2 infantry blocks, a shooting block, hydra, chariot, level 4, and cold one death star.

Battle for the Pass, which was really battle in the wild woods.
Vampire lord led 36 ghouls into mysterious woods in the center of the table; only to find out they are wild woods.
This faced off against a huge unit of cold on knights, with BSB, and a spare noble.
On the top, 18 ghouls and a wraith faced off against a big frenzied corsair block and hydra.
On the bottom, 18 more ghouls ran towards a building, that had 20 repeater xbow on the other side.
Filling the gaps I had 2x18 grave guard, and I stacked the top heavy with an extra varghulf and 4 bloodknights.

This game was all about the woods.

Vampires go first, move into the woods, and take a loss as the woods go wild(*). Curse of years kills 2 coldone knights(**). Dark elf turn 1, knights charge into woods to take on vampire general, losing a few on the way in (difficult ground) but weather the wild woods. Magic phase sees the level 4 shadow wizard cast an unstoppable Mindrazor on the cold ones, and promptly get turned into a level 1 wizard, with only the default spell and power of darkness.

I take a severe beating for 2 rounds in the center, wheeling and marching in grave guard to come and rescue the vamp lord. Summoning replaces 10 losses, and the thrall starts tossing in his WS6 to help limit damage to ghouls (while also making the lord WS6). Varghulf jumps into the flank.
Just when I think I've got a little breathing room, hydra goes into varghulf rear, harpies go into ghouls backs.
Wild woods kills more.
Ghouls wipe out harpies behind them rather than throwing attacks forward.
Varghulf kills last of the cold one unit, just before the hydra dumps some S5 flames on him.
Ghoul unit crumbles down to just the unit champ, and the Vampire lord (who's down to 1 wound).
Vampire magic heals 10 with undead horde, then 5 with an invoke.
Vampire army comes back from the brink.

Grave Guard with hand weapons take on the hydra (tossed out of combat by the death of the varghulf).

The corsairs at the top get a hot to wound roll, and vap the top ghouls in a single round. 4 blood knights charge in (losing 1 at init 5), and beat the frenzy from the corsairs. The following round they break their backs.
On the bottom, the dual wraiths leading the other small ghouls punish the xbows in the building and chase them out. Then they exit out the back to come in from the bottle.

Around turn 4ish, the game gets called.
The blood knights are about to sweep in from the top.
The vampire lord and ghouls are about to take the whole center.
Grave guard on the bottom and the ghouls+wraith heroes are circling up.
I've got the magic phase pinned down, and the dark elves are on the ropes.
All star was the lone banshee who charged out of a unit and into a chariot. She did 3 wounds with the shriek, and tied up the chariot all game (even doing 2 wounds in melee that it saved).


Mistakes:
* Wild Woods only hit on a 4+, not every round.
** Forgot about curse of years. It should have hit the cold ones before the 1st round of combat. Rolling the proxy dice, it would have done 5 more wounds.
*** Cold one Knights had MR 3, and should have been saving against curse of years.
**** Wraith from the top unit had an easy charge lined up on the hydra, I forgot to make it.

A very good, very close game, but with vampires, when balance shifts, it shifts hard.



Again, ethereal heroes in ghoul units prove very tough for Pre-379 armies to deal with.
With a little more tweeking, the vampires get stronger (dropping the wight king, he in 4 games, has saved 2 ghouls; he isn't needed, and upping unit sized with points saved).

-Matt

Wraith Free Game, lost by ~700 points.

High lights of the game?
Went 4 magic phases without getting a single spell off.
Over the course of the game, I healed a vampire for 1 wound, and recovered 1 ghoul.

Both me and my opponent rolled like crap, but the mobility of the wood elves was greater than vampires with no summoning.

Spell section was horrible for me. Odds of rolling the spells I got was 1:120
Just about every magic phase I rolled a 1 and something else, and with the spite, and channeling, my opponent for most phases had more dispel dice than I had power dice; and with the ability to re-roll them.



-Matt

Who wins?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Who wins?

DreadlordME! wrote:Who wins?

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Who wins?

5:0 with new wraiths, 1:2 without.

Just took on the goblins hero horde. It was a very close game; until my level 1 loremaster laid down the law. Turn turn marching 18" (talisman of Lycni), and firing a 3" purple sun down through 3 units of goblins. Killed 41, gained 12 power dice. Too bad my vampire lord had broken his concentration, didn't get to capitalize on the power dice like I would have liked to. Still, the beat down the purple sun did ensured that in the grind fest, the ghouls outlasted the goblins.

As a support vampire, the M9 death loremaster with crown of commandment and being the BSB worked great. Turn one I dazzle my opponent with vampire lord (from the level 4) and then blast 'em once they are engages with the death master.

The high light was when 3 skulkers tried to jump the Vampire Lord; who had the sword of anti-heroes. 8 strength 9 attacks sounds impressive; except I only did 2 wounds.
Since I'm usually losing my vampire lord to heroes; the 30 point sword seems like a good idea.

-Matt

How are you arming your Wraiths? Obviously magic weapons and armor don't seem worth wile, but are there any enchanted items you've found work pretty well?

I didn't think you COULD arm them with anything but what they come with. They don't have the option.

Is it that the wraiths are that good, or are they more of a good luck charm

Nagashek wrote:I didn't think you COULD arm them with anything but what they come with. They don't have the option.

They can't take any magical items as a hero choice? That seems odd...

Ozymandias wrote:

Nagashek wrote:I didn't think you COULD arm them with anything but what they come with. They don't have the option.

They can't take any magical items as a hero choice? That seems odd...

They got a great weapon, a chill attack, are immune to non-magical attacks, cause terror and have magical attacks.
I'd say you don't need magic items.

What makes wraiths great is M6, ethereal, and 60 points.
The ability to reach out and get in the way is just awesome. Not only are they cheap, but you can't take them out with small support units.
You have to beat them by 3 to kill them (since I keep them near my BSB).

IMO, they are one of the best redirecting units in the game. Can't shoot them, can't sweep them away with fast cav.

-Matt

Yeah, ethreal units are starting to be a real pain, they are the main reason I've started taking fire as my second sorceress. Flaming sword or fireball, both knock them out.

Kura wrote:Yeah, ethreal units are starting to be a real pain, they are the main reason I've started taking fire as my second sorceress. Flaming sword or fireball, both knock them out.

If they are out of a unit, they get the 4+ look out roll. They'll survive most 1 die fireballs and have a chance against 2 die hits.

-Matt

Yeah, but flaming sword still does a damn good job of cutting them down.