Game 16 - 2400 vs. Vampire Counts
Date: January 1, 2014
Opponent: Vampire Counts
Point Value: 2400
Scenario: Dawn Attack
Overview
What a great way to start the new year - a good friend, an army I've not faced with Lizardmen, and a much improved memory of events!
Plus, it's sort of funny that over in the Saurus discussion thread I mentioned that VC can have issues with Dawn Attack and then here we have just exactly that. It's interesting how things work out sometimes. If I believed in fate, gods, luck, or karma, I might read something into this, but I don't, so I won't.
Anyway, off we go.
My army:
1 Oldblood on Coldone - Glittering Scales, Dawnstone, Sword of Battle, Egg of Quango
1 L2 Beasts Skink
1 Scar-vet BSB - Carnosaur (Loping) - Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon, Shield
12 Skink Cohort
12 Skink Cohort
12 Skink Cohort
12 Skink Cohort
30 Saurus - Full Command
5 Ripperdactyls
8 Kroxigore
1 Bastiladon - Solar Engine
1 Ancient Stegadon with Engine of the Gods
His army (sort of) :
Manfred the Lord on nightmare
Wight King on nightmare with Shroud (ASL, no charging bonuses)
Wight King on nightmare with other stuff
All of these were added to a block of 12 Black Knights that had the Banner of Barrows
L2 Necromancer (Invocation and Dance) on Cart
5 wolves
5 wolves
5 wolves
About 50 skeletons
About 50 zombies
About 50 more zombies
5 Hexwraiths
5 Hexwraiths
He started rolling for his units per Dawn Attack, and when it was all done, the black knight unit (with the three characters) was on his right, the hewwraiths were both on the left, and the rest was in the middle. Having his General so far away from his main lines, especially the hexwraiths, would be an issue, but one he could deal with if he marched over and used Dance.
My rolls were pretty good. From left to right: skinks, rippers, bastiladon, krox, skinks+shaman behind krox, stegadon, skinks, skinks, BSB Carno, Saurus+General. This put my magically-equipped cowboy opposite his hexwraiths. Good.
Vanguards popped the rippers toward the left flank to circle toward the black knights (who had a toad in them), and the wolf units just up toward my lines.
He went first.
Summary of Events
Most of his stuff just advanced. Curiously, the Knights
didn't head toward the rest of his lines as fast as they could. They just sort of moved toward me at a bit of an angle. The wolves tried to get in my way as fast as they could, and the cloud of stuff on my right (his left) shambled ahead.
In magic, I let him Dance his skeletons toward me. I was not afraid of them. Manfred tried to Dance as well, but failed to cast, ending magic for him.
It was then my turn, and I saw an opening for the rippers to do their thing. They slammed into the flank of the knights. The stegadon and Krox hit some wolves that were in front of the knights. You can probably tell what I was trying to do. If the wolves died, I could overrun into the knights and pretty much win the game on turn 1.
The rest of my army took up better positions, especially for shooing the skinks.
The only magic that happened was a Total Power blast from the Bastiladon that killed 2 wolves.
In shooting, I wiped out a unit of wolves.
Then it was time for combat. The krox and Stegadon wiped out the wolves. Both were 9 inches away from the knights (btw, all three characters in that unit had made way to the flank to engage the rippers). I rolled for both units and...failed with both, rolling 3 inches for each of them. Damn.
So, it was up to the rippers to fight Manfred and two Wight Kings. Before I could swing (Shroud, Initiatives, etc) I lost a ripper. In return I killed one Wight King, but the other escaped death (got 5 hits on him and rolled 1,1,1,2,2 to wound). That's 3 points of resolution I would not get. After all was said and done, I was down to 2 rippers and failed my break check. That's when my opponent made an error (in my estimation). He opted to pursue them rather than reform to face his lines or get ready to charge my stegadon and then overrun past the krox and into my lines. He did not catch the rippers.
On to Turn 2....
In his turn he charged the rippers with the Knights and charged my skink+shaman unit with his remaining 3 wolves. Other than that, it was a whole lot of shuffling.
In magic, the Necromancer did little, but Manfred tried to Dance his unit back into position. I dispelled that. Most of his other stuff was unable to be effective, but he did put a Doom & Darkness on the Bastiladon.
Combat toasted the wolves, keeping my Shaman alive (stand and shoot had killed 2 wolves on the way in).
In my turn I saw that a unit of hexwraiths had wandered into charge range of my General, but probably not his foot-bound unit. I sent the cowboy in all alone. I ran the Stegadon over toward his lines and swung the (muscianless) Kroxigor in a wide clockwise arc and tried to get some distance between the Knights and them while also getting ready to smash the side of the skeletons.
I opened magic with a blast from the Stegadon, which he scrolled. Then I put Wildform on the General, but it was dispelled.
Shooting killed a skeleton.
In hand to hand I had the mistaken belief that Hexwraiths were wraiths on steeds and would have 2 wounds and 3 attacks each. Therefor I opened the Egg of Quango to ensure my general would not die. It got the big result, but only managed 5 hits, 3 wounds. It was then I found out that they only had one wound each. Oh well. The General hit 6 times and wiped out the unit. As they were wiped out and not fleeing (not that undead can flee anyway) I was not forced to chase them due to PF (which, by the way, did get me an extra attack). I opted to spin a bit and get ready to fight whatever was next - likely a zombie block.
I felt I had the game neatly in hand at this point, but then came...
Turn 3
The Knights spun around and headed back toward the rest of the game. His zombies tried to charge the Cowboy, but failed. The skeletons charged a unit of skinks who, with their totally awesome quick to fire (a trade off for lack of multishot vs blowpipes) did zero wounds with stand and shoot reaction.
Magic. Ah, magic. Mr Loremaster of Death and Vampires tossed a boosted Purple Sun which I failed to dispel by a single point. That sun went 18 inches and killed 7 of the 8 Kroxigor and the Stegadon. Crap. With his power dice thus fully reloaded, he cast spell after spell at a nearby skink unit (that I had positioned for redirection purposes) until it was totally dead.
Well, that was a turn of events. See my post game comments for more on this.
In combat, the skinks killed a few skeletons but only lost 2 of their own. Still, numbers meant needing snake eyes to stay, which the got on the first roll (BSB nearby).
As my Turn 3 came around, I saw a few things I needed to do.
I had to preserve the VPs of the Krox, so I marched that single model away from the Knights as fast as I could, heading for the safety of a tall hill. He would not get behind it this turn, but there was a chance he might live.
The general saw the exposed flank of the Corpsecart and slammed into it. The BSB Carno got behind the skinks that were fighting the skeletons so that when the skinks died or ran the skeletons would hit him.
Magic did nothing.
Shooting did nothing.
Hand to hand put an end to the skinks fighting the skeletons as they ran and were chased down. This did result in the skeletons fighting the BSB carno, as I wanted.
The general rather predictably killed the Necromancer on Corpsecart, but it did come down to crumble.
Turn 4...
He got stuff into better position, trying like the dickens to get those Knights (and thus his general) into the fight. I don't remember which spell he was trying, but he got Total Power and lost 3 levels and 3 spells as a result, and was done casting for the phase.
In combat, the Carnosaur took a wound, but the BSB and his Beast killed something like 8 skeletons, giving the Carno frenzy for the rest of the game.
In my half of the turn, I charged a zombie block with the Saurus, retreated my general back into my lines as to avoid his Knights, and got the last Kroxigor to the safety of this hills.
My shaman put Wildform on the Saurus warriors and the Bastiladon got a Total Power full strength blast on the Knights, killing 5!
The Saurus killed half the zombies in combat, losing one of their number in return. The Carnosaur took another wound, but a lot more skeletons died.
The Homestretch -
Turn 5
His knights got ready to engage my BSB or the Saurus, depending on where they were needed, but still they were not actually engaged. My 200 point rippers had really done their job.
Some sort of magic killed some skinks who ran despite the presence of the BSB nearby.
The Saurus destroyed the rest of the zombies.
The rest of the skeletons died, leaving my BSB free to do something stupid but fun.
My 5 -
I told my opponent and the gathered witnesses that there were things I should be doing at this point to preserve the win, but that I wanted to have an "Aww, screw it" turn. So, I charged the hexwraiths with the Saurus and the Knights with the BSB.
In magic I put Wildform on the BSB, which my opponent failed to dispel due to him being down 3 levels. Ah, fickle magic.
The hexwraiths killed 6 Saurus, but I had 3 ranks, banner and charge, so I held on steadfast.
The BSB callenged. He accepted with Manfred. Manfred swung at the Carnosaur and only managed 2 wounds. The beast was alive to strike! With his 5 S7, multi-wound attacks I managed to get...not a single wound. Crap. That was my chance. The BSB made his attacks and did 2 wounds to Manfred. So close...or so I thought. Turns out the bugger has 5 wounds. Wow. Ok.
Turn 6
My opponent wanted to claim the ability to heal that Manfred gets when he kills models, so he divided his attacks to try to kill the Carnosaur and the Rider. I still had Wildform up and as it turned out, that saved them both. Whew! Swinging back, it was a Manfred snack. Om nom noms. With the death of their general the Wraiths crumbled away and the Knights dropped to just 3 models left + the remaining Wight King.
It was over.
Result: Solid win to the Lizards. Something like 1900 VPs for me and 750 for him.
Post-game Thoughts and Unit Evaluations
It pains me greatly to not use the Troglodon, but their replacement is doing much better than he was doing. At least they are still Monstrous ... something.
I was a little worried at first to face that Knight bus with Manfred and his buddies, but when I saw how long it would be out of the game, I felt better. My opponent really should have rolled for that unit first in deployment. Then he could have adjusted the rest of his army for where they were. The scenario made a big difference, but I was ready for it and he wasn't. I can't fault him too much, though. He's only recently picked up the VC again, so he's learning on the fly.
I said I'd talk about the Sun again, and here we go. When my opponent cast that spell, silence hung in the room, awaiting my use of a scroll. I don't use dispel scrolls. I feel they are a waste, unfair, unfun, and promote sloppy play. My normal Dark Elf opponent was there and took the opportunity to, essentially, say "See, I told you so. Use a scroll." I had to remind him that I've played hundreds of game of 8th edition Warhammer now and I can count on one hand plus one finger the number of games where an UberSpell radically altered the course of the game and handed me a loss. Seriously, the game is meant to have spells like this in it. Why be paranoid about them? Suck them up and move on. And hey, lo and behold, what do you know...here was little old me with a L2 caster and no scroll, loosing an Ancient Stegadon and most of my Krox and what happened? Oh yeah, I STILL managed a big win.
I just really don't see the need for dispel scrolls.
Anyway, enough on that.
The game was great fun, with moments of nervousness and lots of cool action. All in all, a nice showing for my list vs. a new foe.
Skink Cohort
As you've probably read, I've been trying to figure out the best use for these guys. Their shooting is not all that impressive, so that leaves redirection and interference as their main roles. I know I've been saying that if you are going to go cohort, you should take banner and musician, and if not, you should skirmish instead, but now I sort of see the value in staying as cheap as possible. Dunno. More testing is needed.
Saurus Warriors
They shone today! Granted, it was against crap troops and with Wildform, but still. They really don't need PF to work beyond the first rank to do well, but I should point out that a kept a mental note of the 6's I got from rank two, and it was at least eight. I'll take 'em if the rule changes, but even as the rule is today, the unit has its place. Just don't expect them to do what they were bred to do. They are no elite fighters. They are stock basic troops that can handle weak opposition very well.
Ripperdactyls
Granted, it was due in part to what I see as mis-plays by my opponent, but they really earned their keep. They killed a Wight King and held a major unit almost entire out of the game. Had the Krox and/or Steg made it to that combat (especially the Krox), I almost certainly would have had a Turn 1 win. These guys are fun.
Bastilladon
Today was his Day of Glory. That Solar Engine
finally got a 6. It is nice to have this and the Ancient Stegadon in the list to use the power dice the L2 cannot. I can't wait to share photos of my paint job with the community. Soon!
Ancient Stegadon
The Sun ended him early, but not before helping to kill some wolves. He was lined up for a nice charge into the Corpse Cart before that spell took him out. I need to get better with him, and I still don't think the Engine with worth the points (plus the lost 'credit' of the blowpipes), but maybe I just need to get more experience.
Kroxigor
Oh how I wanted them to get their moment in the sun this game...turns out they did.
Ah well. Man, can you imagine the carnage if they had made it to the combo-fight with the rippers? All would have been in contact for 12 S7 attacks with PF and 12 more S7 attacks without it. Even if only 12 hit, that's 10 wound and he saves 1 or 2. That's at least 8 dead Knights, and the whole thing crumbles. Gah! Would have been so cool! Oh well. At least the last man survived, preserving 400VPs.
Saurus BSB on Carnosaur
He was the game-winner today, taking out Manfred and sealing the deal. I can't believe the Carnosaur lived and then _still_ managed to whiff on his chompie chomps that one round. I'm a bit nervous about the lack of magic items on this guy, but he's still a big monster and therefor fits my theme while serving a purpose. Today he hung back most of the game while giving an 18" re-roll boost, only committing when the time was right. I suppose you can do that when there are no cannons on the table. Man, I hate cannons. They really ruin so much fun.
Oldblood on Cold One
You go! Hexwraiths, Corpse Cart, Necromancer...who's next? Having no ward save is scary, since I'm sure I'll face things that bypass my re-rollable 1+ armor save at some point, but until then I'll send this guy into most thing and see what happens. I think folks are right- Cowboys may be our best unit.
Skink Shaman
He does what he does. His Wildform saved the BSB today and made the Saurus better too. He's good right where he is.
Thanks for reading!
