This Warhammer blog is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.
eBay auctions ending soonest great eBay sales WFB (US) WFB (UK) WFB (Aus) WFB (Can) eBay storesregister on eBay
http://2d6.blogspot.com is an approved affiliate of eBay, all auctions are current and hosted securely by eBay

Friday 24 October 2008

Lizardmen vs Vampire Counts 1250 pts

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report summary:-

Do not underestimate the Banshee's ghostly howl ! (snappy, descriptive, exciting report)

source : battlereporter.freeforums.orgcredit : Zombie388324-Oct-2008

Vampire Counts Army (writer's army)

20 Zombies w/ SB
20 Zombies w/ SB
10 Grave Guard w/ full command and Banner of the Barrows
5 Black Knights w/ Hell Knight and Standard Bearer
10 Crypt Ghouls one of which is a Ghast
3 Fell Bats
1 Corpse Cart w/ Unholy Lodestone
2 Wraiths/1 Banshee
1 Necro w/ all three Necro Spells and Sceptre de Noirot
1 Vampire w/ Dark Acolyte, Avatar of Death, Helm of Commandment

Lizardmen Army (opponent's army)

15 Saurus w/ Full Command & Sacred Spawn = Immune to Pysch
15 Saurus w/ Full Command & Sacred Spawn = Immune to Pysch
1 Salamander w/ 3 Skinks
1 Salamander w/ 3 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
3 Terradons
3 Kroxigor
1 Skink Priest w/ 2 dispell scrolls
1 Scar Vet

Deployment:-

I had placed two pieces of impassible terrain about 18 inches away from one another, and i put my main block of troops between them. My Fell Bats were wide right and my Ghouls/Wraiths/Banshee were out on the left flank. The black knights were held back in reserve, hoping to catch him off gaurd by charging through the impassible terrain (Yay Insubstantial Steeds)

He sort of makes his army semetrical. Two Saurus blocks in the middle, flanked by the salamanders, then skinks. The Terradons/Priest/Scar Vet set up in the middle. The Kroxigors set up on his left/my right.

Turn 1

Lizardmen: He pretty much spends his whole turn moving forward. One unit of skinks moves into a piece of forest terrain on my left flank.

Vampire Counts: The main block of my army stands still. The Wraiths/Banshee move foward toward the Skinks in the woods. She ghostly howls and kills four of them, and the remaining squad panic and flee. Fell Bats move foward and land so that a hill takes away line of sight. Vamp tries to cast Winds of Undeath (to get rid of one of his spell scrolls) but it gets dispelled the natural way. Necro adds 7 zombies to one unit.

turn 2

Lizzies: Skinks rally. Rest of his block moves foward. Terradons fly behind my battleline and land near my Necro. He throws three javelins but miss. One Salamander fires at my Ghouls but rolls and scores no wounds. The second Salamander fires at my Grave Gaurd (unit of 10) and scores 10 hits. I amazingly make all but one save.

V to the C: Fell Bats fly back from their position to try to deal with the Terradons but will need another turn to close the gap. Ghouls move to try and get into position to make a flank charge once the Saurus get to my zombies. I move the

Banshee/Wraiths so that they are between my ghouls and the Salamander and she Ghostly Howls and kills all three Skink handlers. Monster reaction table = wimper. The monster defends the bodies of its former master. It no longer moves, is

stubborn, will fight whatever engages it, but can still fire at the closest target. Necro uses Invocation of Nehek on Grave Guard (I used Necro incase of a miscast because I used 2 dice to ensure the GG came back, they are important) and restore the lost wound. Vampire creates a unit of 5 zombies behind the Necro to act as a screen for the Terradons, then adds 5 zombies to the second group of zombies that had not been previously bolstered.

Turn 3

Green Boys: Main Block of infantry is closing in and will be able to charge next turn. The Kroxigors and Skinks on the side of the board where my Fell Bats were are about to round the corner of the impassible terrain that I placed. Terradons move past the zombies and take another pot shot at the Necro (but now at least with a penalty for moving hehe aren't I a b@st@rd?) and misses. Salamander that's still full strength fires at my Grave Gaurd but roll a failure and eats one Skink.

The second Salamander must fire at the closest target, which are my Ethereal Banshee/Wraiths (again, aren't I a b@st@rd?---Note: I keep the Banshee/Wraiths the closet target the rest of the game, probably one of the most important move I make because even though it didn't matter he still rolled the artillery dice, and each time rolled a ten or higher.) Both units of Skinks fire but one is out of range, the other is firing at a Ethereal unit, so nothing happens.

Dead Boys: I charge the Terradons with the Fell Bats and they fail their Fear test and flee. But for the time being my Bats are out of action. I move the unit of 5 Zombies that were created perpindicular to my battle line to deal with the impending Skink/Kroxigor advance. Ghouls are moving through difficult terrain so it is taking them awhile to get into position, but luckily for me, or so I think, he is ignoring them. Two important things: 1) I create a unit of 13 Zombies (Sceptre De Noiroit) infront of my main battleline and place it so that it is infront of both units of Saurus. 2) I move my Banshee/Wraiths so they are still closest to the Salamnder but also so they can get a shot off at the Saurus (and take out 4) and are close enough to the Skinks so that they will have to make a Terror check. Vampire tries to add Zombies to the new unit, but is dispelled through dice. I always made the Vampire go second and held three of my five dice in reserve so that he would think I'd cast Winds of Undeath again, and he would not use Dispell Dice on the Raise Dead/Invocation. Corpse Cart

pops the Miasma of Deathly Vigour (gives all units w/in 6" Always Strike First til my next magic phase)

Turn 4

Now it starts to get interesting for the Cold Bloods: Skinks fail their Terror check and flee. Skink Priest tries to cast spell that lets all units reroll failed to hits and wounds, but I use all of my dispell dice to stop it (Note: He never got that spell off all game.) Due to the position of the terrain both Saurus Units are getting bottlenecked and are forced to charge the new group of Zombies, but thanks to the Corpse Cart the Zombies actually take one Saurus warrior with them before they get obliterated. They overrun, the weaker group into my Grave Gaurd and the stronger into the larger group of Zombies.

Grave Gaurd get a round of combat off and take down four more (thanks Great Weapons and Helm of Commandment) The Zombies take down one more warrior from the other group. The Terradons Rally. Skinks comming around the impassible terrain move foward, the Kroxigors right behind them. Oh, and I almost forgot. The Scar Vet by himself charged my ghouls but only manages to take down one. The two that are in base to base contact with him miss. (And stupid me I forgot they come with two attacks each)

Starting to love Banshees: Fell Bats are out of charge Range so I move them in a way so that if the Terradons come back they won't have an easy shot at the Necro/Vamp. (He kept targetting the Necro all game, saying later that he thought it would be too tough to deal with the Vamp...but with Posioned attacks it would be at least a bit easier, and if he took down my Vamp...well bad news bears. So I think that was a flaw right there, but it didn't boether me. ) The second unit of Zombies charge into the flank of the Saurus engaged with the Grave Gaurd. But by doing this I cut off the flank charge for my Black Knights, which I had actually forgotten about. So instead I wheel the Knights and prepare them for the Kroxigor. I charge the Banshee/Wraiths into the Scar Vet, which was directly behind them. She Ghostly Howls and KILLS the Scar Vet before combat is even reached. Necro casts Van Hal's Danse Macabre on the unit of five zombies that had been marching toward the Skinks/Kroxigor, which allows them to charge and the Skinks flee. Vampire again tries to create more zombies to charge the rear of the Saurus but is dispelled through dice. Corpse Cart pops Miasma of Deathly Vigour, and the Grave Gaurd/Flanking Zombies cause the weaker group of Saurus Warriors to Break, and the Grave Gaurd pursuit and catch them...which is both good and bad because now they are about ten inches away from the other group of Saurus. At least the Skink Priest also fled. The Vampire and Necro were also moved from behind the battle line, to the side of it to protect them from Terradons/Kroxigor.

Turn 5

Just when I thought I had this wrapped up in terms of Victory Points: Skinks and Skink Preist Rally. The second Salamander is still kinda stuck behind the one building and can't fire at anything because the only units it can see are in close
combat. Terradons move behind my Black Knights and throw javelins and thanks to three posioned attacks, take down one of them. The Kroxigor charge the unit of five Zombies, take them out (Yay easy 50 Victory Points for him) and then overrun into the Black Knights and kill all but the Hell Knight. The Hell Knight does one wound to one Kroxigor. The Saurus Warriors put a hurt on the one Zombie unit, I think with the wounds caused, plus wounds taken from loss of combat, 16 Zombies went down.

The flanking Zombies strike first with a weapon skill of 6 (Corpse Cart/Helm of Commandment) and take down one more Saurus Warrior.

The Balance of Victory Points getting more toward even: Fell Bats charge Terradons so that they can't get shots off at Necro/Vamp and cause one wound, but in the process I also l lose one Bat. Starting to get nervous about losing more Victory Points, I keep the Ghouls still. I move the Banshee/Wraiths so that they are still closest target to Salamander, but are now again in range of the unit of Skinks that were earlier paniced and terrorized. She Ghostly Howls and reduces the unit to one skink. He passes his panic test. The Hell Knight causes one more wound, but is killed. Not wanting to Miscast, and wanting to restore wounds to the unit of zombies that took a big hit, I had the Necro and Vamp roll 5 seperate times to try and cast Invocation of Nehek and fail every single time. He uses dispell dice to cancel the Corpse Cart's Miasma. Grave Gaurd Charge the Skink Priest, and it flees. With Simultanious attacks the Zombies get off one more wound, before they are destroyed and their standard is lost. The Saurus then reform to face the flanking unit of Zombies. Fearing the Kroxigor, I move the Vampire and Necro so that they are actually now on the other side of the original battle line.

Turn 6 - Final

He he, I might have pulled a draw out of my ass: Skink Priest Rallies. Terradons kill off the remaining Fell Bats. Kroxigors can't get a charge off because of either difficul terrain, or don't have enough movement to wheel. The one remaining Skink tries to fire a blow dart at the Grave Gaurd and actually kills one. Every single Saurus warrior hit with both of their attacks, but only two zombies are taken down. Resolution is a tie so since he has a musician, I lose one more zombie. I am not happy.

Considers doing nothing so I don't lose any more units: Grave Gaurd charge and kill the Skink Priest giving me his delicious Victory Points and that corner of the board. I have the Banshee Howl at the Salamander that's been wimpering all game (Thank God it wasn't actually me, since I hate being cruel to animals) and kills him, rather than the one Skink...who makes it through the battle. I take about five minutes to consider charging my Vampire into the flank of the Saurus. If I don't, it's likely a draw, If I do, I might be able to pull off a minor victory--or--The Vamp could die, and I could probably hand the victory to him. I say to myself Go Big or Go Home, and make the charge. Before Combat the Necro and Vampire try again (two dice each for effectivness) to increase the number of zombies remaining, but he pops his two dispell scrolls. The single dice invocation restores one zombie. He uses all of his dispell dice on the Corpse Cart's Miasma. But luckily for me Vampires don't need no stinking Corpse Cart, and he Kills three Saurus, and the Zombies take down one more, before dropping down a rank. But the Saurus lose combat resolution and break, the Vampire pursues and catches them, taking them out of the game, and giving me back my zombie standard. Those Saurus also had fled into the remaining Salamander, and it fled thus making it a nonscoring unit.

Battle Results

With the last turn Vampire charge taking out a 315 point unit and taking 100pts away from him by recapturing the zombie standard, and causing the Salamander to flee, the Banshee killing the other Salamander, and the Grave Gaurd killing the Skink Priest and capturing a corner, I went from Draw to minor victory to MASSACRE all in the bottom of the sixth.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Lesson learned: Helm of Commandment = Good Zombies that actually hit sure help out. Also....use Black Knights better.

Most valued : Banshee! OMG very worth the 75 points. By herself she took out

-9 Skinks out of a unit of 10
-4 Saurus Warriors
-1 Salamander and all three Skink Handlers
- His Scar Veteran General
(ALL IN THE SHOOTING PHASE)

The Cairn Wraith made it into close combat once, but they never actually had to fight because she killed the Scar Vet before the close combat phase. Their etheralness almost didn't matter, save for that the Salamander couldnt' hurt them with this ranged attack. She was the best flank support I've ever had ash she practically kept 1/3 of his army out of my hair for the rest of the my forces to focus on killing Saurus.

No comments:

Warhammer armies for sale - click "view all items" to hunt for a bargain
2d6.blogspot.com is an approved eBay affiliate, auctions are current and are hosted securely by eBay