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Friday 5 December 2008

The Empire vs Vampire Counts 2250 pts

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report summary:-

Ouch, it was just one of those days ! (a quick read for a 5 minute coffee break)

source : warhammer.org.ukcredit : Atchman5-Dec-2008



Grutch and I have been chatting on TWF chat about the Halberdier. He challenged me to take an army of mostly halberdiers for my next battle with Empire just to see how they did. This will hereby be known as the “Battle of Grutch’s Folly”.

Empire Halberdier List:

Lords and Heroes
Grutchlector Grutch (if it was the Atchlector he would be on his beloved Popemobile)
Archlector, barded steed, heavy armor, shield, Holy Relic, Sword of Might
Warrior Priest, Icon of Magnus, Heavy Armor, Shield, Hammer of Judgment
Level 2 Mage, Rod of Power (Light Lore: Burning Gaze, Cleansing Flare)
Level 2 Mage, 2 x Dispel Scrolls, Barded Steed

Core:
26 Halberdiers with Shields, Full Command
10 Free Company Detachment
25 Halberdiers, Musician, Standard
10 Free Company Detachment
25 Halberdiers, Musician, Standard
10 Free Company Detachment
10 Handgunners
10 Crossbowmen
5 Knights, Musician Only
5 Knights, Musician Only

Special Choices:
2 Mortars
5 Outriders with Champion
5 IC Knights, Full Command, War Banner



This is probably the shortest battle report I’ve ever written. The Fell Bats, Wolves, and Wolf Thrall crushed the Empire right flank. My shooting didn’t do much of anything so it was a cakewalk. It did reduce the Black Knights so that they didn’t outnumber my IC Knights. The IC Knights held the charge of the Black Knights and crumbled them; the only success of the battle.

Over on the left flank, the Fell Bats failed to charge the mortar, but landed behind the Grutchlector’s unit. Through some seriously crappy dice rolls, the Grutchlector’s unit ran and was destroyed by crossfire. This took the offending unit out of charge arc of the flagellants and the remaining unit of Halberdiers. These did manage to destroy the Spirit Hosts in short order, but it was too late to save the Grutchlector. When the Grutchlector fled, so did the mortar. The one on the hill had a perfect hit on the Zombies, but rolled a misfire.

A unit of Vanilla Knights held up the Vampire Lord and some ghouls (it was unbreakable), but the game wasn’t in doubt at that point and I conceded. I had nothing left to fight with as I had lost a ton of points and was now deprived of my leadership battery.

Victory to the Vampire Counts on Turn Three!

Summary:
What can I say? My shooting did nothing relevant to the game, perhaps I misdeployed, but I thought I could have reduced or destroyed the Wolf Unit.

The Halberdiers were worse than horrible. The Fell Bats were killing two or three per turn. If those were swordsmen they could have easily shrugged off the attack and perhaps put a wound or two back on the Bats.

To be honest, I’m sure I misdeployed the army. I needed a lot of space for three battalions AND shooters. I think the list could have been more competitive if I had just taken two blocks of Halberdiers and the rest in something else. However the goal was to try an army where Halberdiers were the “backbone of the Empire”. Obviously GW was delusional when they made this statement. I can never see any circumstance where I would take Halberdiers over Swordsmen or Spearmen except as a detachment.

If you really want to make up a good Halberdier army, make the units large. The rest of your army would need to be heavy hitters such as Archlector on the War Altar, BSB with Sigismund Banner, and a couple of maxed out level 2 light mages. I would use either a lot of knights and/or the Steamtank. The mandatory two cannons to help protect your vital units and of course detachments to make the Halberdiers at least some threat might work. Even then the Halberdiers would only be window dressing and not a serious threat to anyone or anything.

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