Hey guys. This is my first attempt with Battlechronicler so hopefully you can forgive the occasional strangely angled charge.
My opponent is a long time Vampires player and he made the NZ Master with them last year, but this is his first time using the new book. For me its the first time facing it and I haven't even read though it yet so it should be interesting. Our last match was a bit of a downer, it was Watchtower, he charged the building turn 1 and smashed up some Skinks I had in there with his Grave Guard, taking control of the tower. My turn 1 I charged the building with a Temple Guard unit, cast some buffs and bounced a miscast on to his General with Cupped Hands, who promptly fell down a hole. We called it after two when he raised a total of 4 Grave Guard back, his army was crumbling and he had no chance of getting in to the Watchtower held by 30 Temple Guard. Hopefully we get a more even game this time.
Unfortunately I don't have an exact copy of his list but it was basically;
Choppy Vampire Lord on Coven Throne (S7, re-roll successful wards, pushing 600pts)
Necromancer, Bound Fireball/Flaming Cage spell
BSB Vampire
2 x 30 Zombies, Std, Musician
40 Ghouls, Full Command
2 x 5 Wolves
10 Black Knights, Full Command, Screaming Banner
4 Vargheists
Mortis Engine
Terrorgheist
He had picked up pretty much one of each new kit and was trying all of them out. None of his blocks present any real threat to my Saurus, as usual its the bigger stuff which will be an issue.
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My army was a bit of a departure from the lists I normally run. Its mostly based around the Beasts Slann who I have been wanting to try out, he takes Ethernal and the Fencers Blade and can cause all sorts of issues for people in combat even if its just as a tarpit. Unlike most of my other lists its also partially been made with the local tournament comp/hard cap systems in mind. These vary a bit but all completely cripple Rumination, no more than 12 used per phase (rather than no more than 12 in the pool at once) and usually your maximum pool is reduced by 1 for having Rumination and another 1 for having Loremaster. It also usually bans Cupped Hands together with Rumination and Loremaster, and since I don't like running Life this means Temple Guard based armies don't work (as I'm not running that with no miscast protection). Anyway my list was;
Slann, General,
BSB, Higher State, Becalming, Fencers Blades, Plague of Tepok
Oldblood, Sword of Striking, Shield, Cold One
Scar Vet, Sword of the Hornet, Light Armour, Shield
Scar Vet Sword of Swift Slaying, Light Armour, Shield, Ironcurse Icon
Skink Priest, Cube of Darkness
2 x 29 Saurus, Full Command
10 Skink Skirmishers
5 Saurus Cav, Musician, Standard Bearer
3 x 5 Chameleons
2 x 1 Salamander
2 x 1 Razordon
Essentially its two big blocks of Saurus each with a Scar Vet, supported by the Slann, Oldblood + his Cav escort and then a whole bunch of chaff. The Razordons are there because 2 x 2 Salamanders is banned with the Hard Caps, although I was pretty happy with them in this game anyway since they are better diverters than Sallies anyway.
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Magic:
I automatically get spells 1-5 on the Slann (since I always swap 6s) and then swapped Pelt for Wildform. Skink Priest takes the signature knowing that he will almost certainly not get a chance to cast it.
He takes Invocation on everything (they are all Level 1s) with a couple of Bound spells for support.
Deployment ----------
Standard Battleline game, everything apart from the forests are just standard non magical terrain, by coincidence all the Forests ended up being Blood Forests, but it never came into play
He won the roll and being Vampires went for a fairly central deployment. His fliers are facing the flanks to try and chase off Chameleons. His
BSB and Necromancer both went in the big Ghoul block with the two chariots just behind his main lines.
One Scar Vet in each block of Saurus, Oldblood with the Saurus Cavalry. My Slann went in with the Skinks since I was worried about being sniped by the Terrorgheist (since the scream is magical). Chameleons avoided the Terrorgheist but were happy out on the flank facing the Vargheists as with Frenzy they would still get pulled well out of the way.
He didn't Vanguard the Wolves, I grabbed the first turn with a 6 and we were off
Turn 1 - Lizards ---------------
Pretty much everything moves up. The Chameleons on the right hurry out of the charge arc of the Vargheists. The Slann leaves the Skinks after some careful checking to ensure that the Terrorgheist can't get to him, but can't float into range for Amber Spear on the chariots at the back without exposing himself.
I get a decent roll for Winds but then manage to miscast on my first spell of the game, a Flock into the right Wolves which did no damage (I think I got 3 hits), with the miscast wounding my Skink Priest and draining a dice. With nothing much else to do due to range the rest of my dice went into Amber Spear at his Ghouls, hoping to snipe a character, but it was easily dispelled.
The Salamander and Chameleons on the left managed to kill 2 Wolves, and on the right the Chameleons + Salamander managed to kill 4 Wolves and tag a wound on the Vargheists. Not a bad start but those Vargheists could be a problem.
Turn 1 - Vampires ---------------
The Zombies on the left charge the Chameleons, who flee, but irritatingly only go 4", which is enough to avoid being caught but leaves them in an annoying position in front of the Saurus.
The Wolves on the left wisely avoid charging the Chameleons (behind a wall + stand a shoot) and move up into the face of the Salamander, with the Terrorgheist moving into range to scream at it. The lone Wolf on the right does the same to the other Salamander and he reforms the right flank to face the Chameleons properly, bring the Engine over to help. Everything else shuffles around.
His magic gets completely shut down, with Becalming crippling his casting of the bound Fireball/Flaming Cage spell (can't remember the name) so I can easily dispel it with less dice than him thanks to my Level 4, leaving me with dice to spare to shut down Invocation.
Shooting really hurts, with the Terrorgheist killing all the handlers from the Salamander and leaving it on a single wound. Monster reaction came up with can't move/Unbreakable, which meant I now had a major jam on the left flank when combined with the Chameleons.
Turn 2 - Lizards ---------------
The Saurus Cav attempt a long charge into the Zombies on the right but fail. The Salamander on the right charges the Wolf standing in front of it so I don't have to waste Chameleons on it.
Razordon on the right runs up into a perfect blocking position in front of both the Zombies and the Ghouls, both of which will have to turn side on to my army in order to charge and generally messes up his battleline. Chameleons line up his Vargheists but stand in terrain to force him to take terrain checks when he charges (since I'm way to close to stand and shoot and wouldn't be able to get out of charge range). The Chameleons on the left rally and start trying to work out how they can somehow get out of the way of annoyed looking Saurus behind them. Realising he has to be wary of the Vampire Lord the Slann joins the Saurus to stay out of his arc and also keep out of range of the Terrorgheist.
Not much happens with magic, I get 4 or so dice, toss them all into Amber Spear at one of his chariots and he Scrolls it.
Shooting is dissappointing, with two units of Chameleons on the right not able to even finish off the wounded Vargheist. The unbreakable Salamander on the left has to breath on the Wolves (who were the closest unit even if it doesn't look like it here), which is fine as the Black Knights are behind them, but I can't roll a 5 to wound. The Razordon on the left might have killed a Zombie or two but no one really cares.
In combat my Salamander kills his Wolf and stays put to avoid getting run over by the Engine.
Turn 2 - Vampires ---------------
His Zombies charge the blocking Razordon, which stands and shoots killing a handful. The Vargheists charge one unit of Chameleons (no deaths to terrain) and the Mortis Engine goes into the other.
Everything else shuffles around to try and clear up charge lanes.
The magic phase sees Becalming drop two 6's off his Necromancers bound item attempt so I easily dispel it, but he manages to sneak a one dice Invocation through with his
BSB, which raises 10 or so Zombies into both the Zombie blocks!
His Terrorgheist swoops around and screams at the Skinks, killing all but one!! Unfortunately I don't have much on that flank in position to deal with it since the Chameleons didn't run far enough to end up behind the Saurus and protect my rear. On the other side the Engine causes an AOE damage effect which kills all of the Chameleons it is in combat with before we even get to combat, as well as 3 from the other unit the Vargheists are about to smash.
In combat not surprisingly the Chameleons get completely diced apart by the Vargheists, although somehow they manage to cause a wound and finally finish off the one they wounded with shooting in the process. Due to Frenzy the Vargheists had to overrun and got pretty close to the maximum overrun possible, which put them firmly in the top right corner. The combat between the Zombies and the Razordon went amazingly well for me, I killed a couple of Zombies, he did a wound back and I managed to hold on -4 thanks to the Slann/
BSB beind in range.
Turn 3 - Lizards ---------------
The Saurus and Saurus Cavalry happily charge the expoused flank of the Zombies which didn't break the Razordon, expecting to crush them in a single round. The Salamander moves to try and keep the Mortis Engine out of the way and lines up a flank shot on the Ghouls. The unengaged Razordon blocks the Lord + Throne from getting to my Slann. On the left the Saurus shuffle right to let the Chameleons move back behind them to target the Terrorgheist.
In the magic phase both Savage Beast and Wildform are blocked, but Curse gets through on the Ghoul block, which should keep them well away from the right flank for a turn since the small rock in the way would cause a decent chunk of casaulties and they would struggle to do any damage in any case with -1 to hit.
Shooting sees the Salamander on the right toast a bunch of Ghouls. The unbreakable one on the left has to shoot the Terrorgheist this time and understandably does nothing. The Chameleons and the lone Skink do manage to drop a couple of wounds from the Terrorgheist, but its still in position to cause me a heap of trouble.
Combat goes pretty well for me, with the Saurus and Saurus Cav demolishing the Zombies in a single round of combat through kills and combat res. The Cav overrun since I thought I could hit the Mortis Engine, but in fact I hit the Salamander I placed in front of it to block it so don't get into combat with it. The Saurus reform to face the Ghouls.
Turn 3 - Vampires ---------------
His Wolves on the left manage to squeeze past the annoying Salamander and get into the flank of my Chameleons. The Mortis Engine charges the Salamander on the right and the Terrorgheist charges the lone Skink, who fails Terror and gets run down. For some reason he doesn't charge his Lord into the Razordon in front of it and everything else continues to move for position, with the Vargheists quickly getting back into a threatening position on the right.
Magic is again completely squashed, with his 6 dice bound spell at the Saurus + Slann having 2 6's dropped from it and easily dispelled, and his remaining dice into Invocation failing to cast.
Shooting from the Throne kills off the handlers from the Razordon in front of it, causing it to gain Frenzy and Hatred (this might have happened next turn from something else, I can't remember).
In combat the Wolves easily win combat against the Chameleons and run them down never to be seen again (the Wolves ended up right next to my accumulated dead pile in the bottom left corner and got forgotten about for the rest of the game, not that they could have done much). The impact hits + Scream from the Engine kills off the Salamander it was facing and some crafty use wheeling let it overrun into the right hand corner of the Cavalry unit.
Turn 4 - Lizards ---------------
The Saurus on the left charge the remaining Zombie block. The Saurus on the right with the Slann are unfortunately blocked from getting to the Ghouls by the Razordon in front of them, even if I charged the Razordon in as well they weren't going to be able to wheel past it and get into combat. As such I just move both Razordons into blocking positions in front of the Throne and reposition ready to charge next turn. The Skink Priest hurrys foward to avoid the Vargheists and the Terrorgheist, I haven't had a worthwhile chance to use his Cube yet but he is probably going to have to just use it next turn to make sure it does something.
I get a good Winds roll and somehow get Savage Beast at my Oldblood through on 4 dice even though he threw 6 dice to dispel it, the lack of a Level 4 is really hurting him here. As the Saurus can easily take the Ghouls without any buffs the rest of my dice went into a boosted Amber Spear at his Lord, which hits and wounds his Lord but doesn't get through the 4+ ward.
Shooting is pretty minimal, one Razordon spits at the Vampire Lord but does nothing and the stupid unbreakable Salamander breaths on the Knights and still can't roll a 5 to wound.
Combat goes pretty well for me, the Saurus on the left get stuck in to the Zombies killing more than half the unit after combat res. I think I might have lost 1 Saurus in return. On the right the Oldblood makes way to the other end of the unit to get into contact, and then has 8 S8 attacks with +1 to hit which take a big chunk out of the Engine (he rolled pretty well for saves though), causing 3 wounds. He kills a Saurus and loses by 2 but avoids exploding thanks to the
BSB in the Ghouls.
Turn 4 - Vampires ---------------
Before anything happens this turn his Engine, which is down to its last wound, manages to blow itself up with pretty spectacular results (it had been throwing out fairly minor AOE stuff like 6+ regen until now). It kills a Saurus Cav, a couple of Saurus, finishes off the Skink Priest (dammit), kills a handful of Ghouls, kills a Vargheist and wounds another, kills one Razordon and all the handlers from the other (Hatred/Frenzy again)!!! I was totally not expecting that and it seriously limited my options by blowing up my remaining diverters, the fact that it died outside of combat meant my Cav were stuck facing the wrong way as well.
His Black Knight finally realise they need to charge something, and go after the Salamander (I think they were avoiding it before since they didn't want to get jumped on by the Saurus). The Vampire Lord decides he has had enough of these stupid Razordons and charges the remaining one. The Terrorgheist swoops round into range of the Saurus and the Vargheists move to block the Saurus getting stuck in to the Ghouls.
Again I shut down his magic, he gets a fairly low Winds roll, Becalming cripples his bound spell attempt and without the Mortis Engine my level 4 easily stops his Invocations as well. I think the Terrorgheist kills a couple of Saurus with shooting.
In combat the Vampire Lord predicably smashes the Razordon to pieces (I did nothing with stand and shoot) and the Black Knights do likewise with the Salamander, they both reform to face the nearest Saurus blocks. The Saurus vs Zombies fight ends rather quickly, with the Saurus chopping them to pieces and exploding them with combat res. They reform to face the Knights.
Turn 5 - Lizards ---------------
Both of us have now basically run out of chaff units so the heavy hitters and big blocks are going to end up in contact with each other in the next 2 turns one way or another. The Saurus on the left charge the Knights, the Saurus on the right charge the Vargheists and the remaining Cav + Oldblood reform to get a final charge in next turn.
I make a real mistake here which could easily have cost me the game, through Make way in the previous combat the Slann had ended up in the middle of the Saurus and next to the Scar Vet. I got a good Winds roll, and cast Wildform on the Saurus which was let go, but then miscast Curse on the Vampire Lord which wounded the Slann and the Scar Vet, killed 6 or so Saurus and drained the rest of my dice.
In combat on the left I kill a Black Knight or two (Scar Vet rolled terribly even with
ASF re-rolls), win combat and kill a couple more. The combat on the right quickly goes my way, the +1T proving a real pain for the Vargheists, who are wiped after combat res. I decide to overrun into the Vampire Lord (the angle isn't quite right in the diagram) to prevent any impact hits, as no matter what I did with reforming I was still going to take something in the flank, and the Thrones impact hits + the Lord could easily kill the Slann and decide the game.
Turn 5 - Vampires ---------------
Everything charges in. Due to a slight miscalculation on my part the Saurus ended up with the Terrorgheist in the rear rather than getting hit on both flanks but not much else I could have done anyway.
In magic I stop the Throne bound item giving the Lord re-rolls to wound mostly thanks to Becalming, he gets off one Invocation from his Necromance which raises a few Ghouls back and heals a wound on the Terrorgheist.
The Terrorgheist starts things off in the big combat and screams into combat, killing a bunch of Saurus. I decide not to challenge as it would just get accepted by the Ghouls, but make way with the wounded Scar Vet and have him cut the Vampire
BSB in half. Overall I don't fair too badly in terms of damage, T5 means not much gets through from the Ghouls and Curse on the Throne stops the Vampire Lord and Co from chopping too many Saurus into pieces. In the end I lose by 2 and I'm not Steadfast thanks to the Ghouls in the flank, but easily hold (Cold Blooded is awesome).
In the Saurus vs Black Knight combat I fail Fear but we each lose a couple of guys in total, which is fine by me since I have 3 times as many guys as him.
Turn 6 - Lizards ---------------
The Saurus Cav charge the rear of the Ghouls (again apologies as the angles don't match up here) since I wanted to kill off some ranks. The alternative was the flank of the Terrorgheist but I was worried about killing it then having the Saurus and Slann stuck in combat against the Lord for the final turn.
Magic is a complete disaster which completely changes the complexion of the massive combat. Obviously Savage Beast is going to be the big threat with 3 characters in that combat, so with an 11 (1 channel) dice Winds roll I save 5 dice for that (with my opponent likewise doing the same). Unfortunately I somehow failed to cast Curse on his Vampire Lord on 3 dice (needing 5+ factoring in Wizard level), which ended my magic phase and left me feeling very uncomfortable about keeping the Slann alive.
The Scar Vet fighting the Black Knights finally gets his stuff together and kills most of the remaining Knights. My champion finally kills his in a challenge and the Knights are finished off. With no more charges possible the Saurus turn to face the big combat to watch.
Since we were both slightly confused about what would happen if my Oldblood challenged (since the game would implode if the Vampire Lord somehow accepted and was warped away from the Slann/Saurus, and his Necromancer would end up in the back rank fighting the Oldblood if he refused anyway) I didn't challenge and just chopped in to the Ghouls, dropping off a rank. Anything which had to go into the Vampire Lord bounced and I think I did 1 wound on the Terrorgheist. In return a heap of Saurus died as they no longer had the +1T buff to keep them going. This meant that despite the rear charge by the Cav I again lost by 2, but again past with Ld7 Coldblooded (had to use the
BSB this time though). I only have the Slann, Scar Vet and 2 Saurus left but they only need to hang on for one more turn!
Turn 6 - Vampires ---------------
Nothing moves as we are all in combat. Magic is crushed by Becalming and the Level 4 advantage yet again, I was lucky with his final Invocation from his Lord on a single dice rolling a 6 (when I had no dice left) so nothing got through.
Shooting (into combat) is once again incredibly painful, the Terrorgheist causes 8(!!!) wounds on the Saurus, which finishes off the unit, kills the Scar Vet and does a wound on the Slann (who is re-rolling all his successful saves because of the Vampire Lord in
BtB).
I cross my fingers in combat and hope the Slann lives, he just manages to hang on with 1 wound remaining since its only the Throne/Lord which can hurt him, I manage to wound the Necromancer in return. At the rear of the unit the Cav and Oldblood keep chopping Ghouls to bits. Strangely enough despite the Slann almost dying I actually win combat by 3-4, as the Saurus are now completely gone and not giving up combat res. This doesn't kill anything off so we end the game.
We add up the points and I come out ahead by a very narrow margin.
LIZARDS WIN. The Slann managed to just hang on to give me the win, his death would have swung things 600pts the other way to give him a solid win. Another turn and he almost certainly would have been dead even with an incredible magic phase, although the other Saurus block would also have taken the Vampire Lord in the flank.
After Battle Thoughts: That was a very even game and one which I really think showcased the way chaff units can control the way a game plays. Nothing of any real importance died until turn 5 or so when everything finally engaged, all our sub 100pt units killed each other off leaving us pretty even on points and forcing the heavy hitters to engage to actually get a result.
Aside from the Slann hanging on at the end, the key moment in the game way probably the Engine exploding in such spectacular fashion. This killed off my Priest and one of the Razordons, which basically evened out the diverting battle on the right. If that Razordon had lived I would have been able to divert his Lord for another turn and probably get a solid charge into his Ghouls with the Saurus. I was also very unlucky in my turn 6 magic phase, where I rolled a total of 4 on 3 dice and failed to cast my first spell. Savage Beast was probably a long shot to get through, but even just Wildform and Curse on his Lord would have kept me alive a bit longer.
My biggest mistake was probably the positioning on the Slann in turn 4/5. If he had reformed himself to the right hand corner of the unit when they turned to face the Ghouls then the miscast would have killed less Saurus and not hurt the Scar Vet. In retrospect I could also have sent the left Saurus after the Terrorgheist instead after they killed off the Zombies, since its screams into combat did a huge amount of damage. This could well have ended up with them taking the Black Knights in the rear but I would actually back the Saurus to take it, since they would have had a round in combat with the Terrorgheist already and hurt it with combat res if nothing else. At the time it was purely a question of points, since the Black Knights were worth more than the Terrorgheist.
Overall I was fairly happy with how the list went. The chaff did its job despite the Salamander + Chameleons on the left causing a bit of a roadblock. I was also very happy with how the Razordons went, in terms of damage output they don't compare with Salamanders against hordes, but as a blocking/redirecting type unit they are actually much better since they can stand and shoot. You can run into someones face, shoot at them, then stand and shoot with double shots and direct them off somewhere.
His list had far more magical attacks than average which meant that the Slann couldn't really do much on his own, notable the Terrorgheist and his Lord could both easily kill of the Slann in one go. He still did very well in a purely supporting role, Becalming kept a lid on his magic (the Level advantage was huge as well) and the few buff spells he managed to cast were very effective. Wildform is a very expensive signature spell but it is unique in that it buffs both the offensive and defensive abilities of Saurus at the same time, you still hit on 4's (unlike with Light) but you aren't losing many guys (same as Life) and wound on 2's or 3's, which makes up for the harder roll to hit.
His Terrorgheist was easily his MVP, clearing out most of the chaff on my left flank, threatening my Slann if he went solo and then making it into the big combat and causing even more damage. His tight deployment crippled my ability to shred it with Poison/Chameleons and the only other thing which could deal with it was Amber Spear from the Slann (which has a frustratingly short range), since he wasn't going to let me catch it with a combat block. The only real change I want to make to my list is swapping the Skinks Skirmishers for Terradons, since the Slann can just jump in with a Saurus unit if he needs to, but I'm not sure how else I could improve the list to deal with it. His list is definitely going to see some fine tuning in the next few weeks, despite the fact I shut down his magic the power of Invocation was pretty clear to see and could easily be pumping out 40+ Zombies a turn. He also really needs to try and find points for a Level 3/4 Mage, the Mortis Engine helps with casting, but defensively I was frequently getting spells through despite him attempting to dispel with 4-6 dice.
