Empire vs Vampire Counts tournament battle report 2000 pts (pictures)

"the knights rallied, the steam tank took 3 steam points and the knights on my right moved past the zombies while the swordsmen moved up to take the zombies on with their detachment (could I actually get to use the detachment rules for the first time ever I wondered?)" [Ed. I agree, the detachment rules can be quite difficult to take advantage of]

(a frenetic sounding pitched Warhammer tournament battle report)

source : warhammer.org.uk

credit : Snail

27-May-2009

2000 point Empire Army List

Arch Lector of Sigmar - 324 Pts
Heavy Armour, Shield , The Mace of Helstrum, Van Horstman's Speculum, War Altar

Captain - 155 Pts
Lance; Pistol; Full Plate Armour, Shield, Pegasus, Aldred's Casket of Sorcery, Pegasus

Battle Wizard - 150 Pts
Magic Level 2, Rod of Power, Ring of Volans

Battle Wizard - 150 Pts
Magic Level 2, 2 Dispel Scrolls

9 Crossbowmen - 115 Pts
Musician, Marksman
5 Free Company

11 Swordsmen - 112 Pts
Musician, Duellist
5 Free Company

5 Knightly Orders - 123 Pts
Musician

5 Knightly Orders - 123 Pts
Musician

Great Cannon - 100 Pts

Great Cannon - 100 Pts

4 Outriders - 134 Pts
Musician, Champion, Hochland Long Rifle

4 Pistoliers - 114 Pts
Musician, Outrider, Repeater Pistol

1 Steam Tank - 300 Pts

Casting Pool: 6

Dispel Pool: 6

Models in Army: 67

Total Army Cost: 2000

2000 pt Vampire Counts Army list ("Rabbit’s Vampires").

Rabbits army consisted on a Vampire Lord L3, Vamp BSB, Thrall with great weapon, Thrall L2, 2x15 Ghouls, 2x20 Skeletons, 20 Zombies, 10 Skeletons, 2x3 Fell Bats, 2x6 Dire Wolves.

Spells

Book – Burning Gaze and Dazzling Brightness
Sword - Burning Gaze and Cleansing Flare
Vampire Lord – Raise the dead, Wind of Undeath, Summon Undead Horde
BSB – Gaze of Nagash
Great Weapon Vamp – Raise Dead
L2 Vamp – Vanhel’s, Gaze of Nagash

Deployment

With Rabbit putting his objectives in-between the 2 deployment zones and mine inside and just outside mine I guessed he’d be coming to get me. With that in mind I deployed my army either side of the wood in my deployment zone so that the Knights could go forward and get in the way and the other units protect the flanks with the steam tank and war alter together to try and double team units. The pistoliers I put on the left flank to sweep round to deal with his dogs on that side then cause as mush of a nuisance as possible.



Turn 1

Rabbit went first and moved up everything forwards with both units of bats flying right in front of my army the unit on my right was ready to charge the cannon next turn. His dogs pushed up on the flanks and apart from that not much happened. In his magic phase he raised a silly about of fell bats into the unit in front of the cannon and did some raises here and there.

So in my first turn I had a major threat of the big unit of fell bats so in went one of my units of knights hoping to at the very least tie them up for long enough and hopefully win in the end. My stank and war alter made a beeline for the centre of his army the lector looking at the units with characters in and stroking his shiny mace. The steam tank on the other hand was planning on slowing up a unit of ghouls while the other unit of knights diverted the other unit on the flank. The pistoliers fancied their chances against the dire wolves so popped out to shoot them and the peg captain flew over to start steeling spells, the mage in the swordsmen didn’t like the idea of being assassinated by some dire wolves so joined the now safeish cannon. In the magic and shooting phase I concentrated on my right hand unit of skeletons and started to whittle them down, the peg captains stole the BSB’s raise spell and the out riders killed a fell bat and the pistoliers shot a couple of wolves. In combat the bats got stood on by horses, the knights once again getting shown how to kill something by their horses but when the dust settled one bat still stood.



Turn 2

Rabbit had a few charges to make this turn with the wolves on my right going into the flank of my knights and fell bats on the left going in to hold up the stank. The wolves on the left decided to be annoying and not charge to hold the pistoliers up for another turn. In the movement phase the rest of his army pushed forwards again. Magic raises some fell bats back which I let off so more knights are in combat, nothing else of importance got off. In combat the knights won leaving a few dogs and bats left and the other bats did nothing to the stank.

In my turn the war alter ploughed into the Skeletons holding the L2 vamp, the stank decided it would use 4 points to crush the annoying bats and the free company flanked the wolves overcoming their fear to help the knights out. The pistoliers danced around the annoying wolves and the peg captain flew over to try and nick the lords spells. My other knights got in front of the ghouls on my left to direct them away from my lines. Magic and shooting concentrated on the skeletons with the BSB again and the war alter fried some skeletons. The pistoliers shot the wolves to leave one standing and Mr Sniper picked out the great weapon vamp in the ghouls on the right and did a wound. I think my captain decided he liked the Invocation of Nehek spell and stole the lords copy of it adding it to the BSB’s he already had, just 2 more and he’d have the full set. Combat saw the war alter run over some skeletons and the champion get a mace to the face (nowhere for the L2 to hide next turn) the stank did a little bit of over kill on the bats and the knights and free company finished off the wolves leaving a lonely bat.

Turn 3

So with only a couple of Invocation of Nehek left and units which really needed some help Rabbit was starting to worry about his units. He charged the ghouls in front of the stank in to hold it up and the Knights with the Vampire in the other unit, the Knights fled and he enemy in the wayed the out riders who were just out of stand and shoot distance, they held. His zombies moved on towards the fell bat combat and he turn the BSB’s skeletons to face the knights fighting the bats. The lords unit just hung around at the back not knowing what to do really. In the magic phase he got off a summon undead horde and helped out some of the units, the Vamp with great weapon also healed his wound. In combat the L2 vamp got a mace to the face and the steam tank took a wound, those cheeky ghouls. The outrider champion died valiantly in a challenge and they won by 1 to see the vamp back down to 1 wound. The Knights finally finished off the bats.

In my turn the knights rallied the stank took 3 steam points and the knights on my right moved past the zombies while the swordsmen moved up to take the zombies on with their detachment (could I actually get to use the detachment rules for the first time ever I wondered?) The Peg captain flew in front of the skeletons with lord in so if the war alter could finish up the skeletons he could have a flank charge if he chased the captain. In the magic phase I killed enough of the BSB’s unit to put a cannon ball through his head and the pistoliers killed the last wolf. In combat the stank killed many ghouls but they were still there at the end and the war alter continued to kill skeletons. The Vamp with great weapon finished off the out riders and ran into the knights.



Turn 4

At this point things were in the balance. Rabbit charged the lords unit into the peg captain and moved the zombies forward turning the last 2 skeletons from the BSB’s unit to face the knights. Not much happened in the magic phase and combats apart from the vampire with great weapon not managing to get through the knights tough armour and popping and the peg captain killing the skeleton champ but breaking and not getting caught.

In my turn my right hand unit of knights charged the 2 remaining skeletons and the swordsmen with detachment charged the zombies, so new was this to me I had to read the rules on what happened but in the end it was not to be as the detachment failed their fear test. My other unit of knights moved up to block the ghouls. In the magic phase the wizards targeted the ghouls in front of the knights to get the numbers down the war alter let rip with cleansing flare and soul fire. Shouting saw some of the Lords skeletons die and a few more ghouls. In combat the steam tank ran over the ghouls and the knights killed the 2 skeletons while the swordsmen won their combat the war alter finished off the skeletons it was in combat with.



Some close ups of the action







Turn 5

Rabbits charged my knights who died either to fleeing or breaking from combat (I can’t recall) and his lords unit pottered around wondering where everyone had gone. Again not much happened in the magic phase and the swordsmen won their combat again.

In my turn my army surrounded his lords unit and basically through magic, crossbow fire and cannon ball to the lord’s head finished off the unit. The ghouls crumbled a bit. The free company had gone into help out the swordsmen and won combat with a few left.



Turn 6

The ghouls and zombies crumbled and my army took all the table quarters and objectives.



Battle Result - Empire Victory !

4-0 Win on objectives 2800 VP’s to me 257 VP’s to Rabbit

Battle Round up

After my peg captain had stolen the raise spells it was very hard work for Rabbit as he couldn’t bring models back and my army was able to whittle everything down with him not being able to do anything. I don’t think I made any mistakes which I was happy about and was also very happy about how well my army performed against vampire counts. Another great game.