I was heading into round 3 strong on two 19-1 wins, and was set to face fellow club mate from the Limerick Dice Chuckers, Gearoid Madden, and his Vampire Counts. Unfortunately for me this was my army's weakest match, Blood and Glory. However fortunately enough it was Gearoid's as well, though his army definitely had the edge going in.
Vampire Lord
Level 1 Vampires, Zombie Dragon, Red Fury, Quick Blood, Ogre Blade, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour
Vampire
Level 2 Vampires, Great Weapon, Fear Encarnate
Necromancer
Level 2 Vampires, Corpse Cart
Wight King
Armour of Fortune, Shield
~30x Skeletons
Spears, Light Armour, Full Command
~30x Skeletons
Light Armour, Full Command
~30x Skeletons
Light Armour, Full Command
~30x Zombies
6x Crypt Horrors
Crypt Hunter
Mortis Engine
Terrorgheist
The way the scenario worked for the tournament was that the game lasted 6 turns and the first person to break their opponent would get a bonus 500VPs. Both myself and Gearoid had 5 fortitude each with solo generals, meaning that overall my Daemon Prince was worth 1100pts in this game, and his Vampire Lord was worth ~1200pts, at least the first one to die was anyway. Unfortunately he had a Terrorgheist and I had no sure-fire way bar Purple Sun to take out his Lord.
I rolled up Spirit Leech, Caress of Laniph, Fate of Bjuna and Purple Sun for the Prince, with Miasma for the Sorcerer. Gearoid had Invocation on all of his wizards, with Van Hels also on the Necromancer and Hellish Vigour on the thrall Vampire.
Important to note before I display the maps is that unlike previous reports my army will be fighting from the North rather than the South for this report, as it is easier to import the previous game's terrain in Battle Chronicler rather than manually recreate it.
Gearoid's army surged forward in the first turn, though being cautious of the left flank's heavy combat units. Magic did nothing, however a Terrorgheist scream took out a Chariot. Nothing panicked and the first Vampire turn ended.
Though I had deployed the Daemon Prince out of range of the Terrorgheist to begin, now that it was closer I sent him into sniping range to try and take it out before it could do much damage. I tried a longish charge on the Mortis Engine with the Crushers to (a) get rid of the regen. buff on the Horrors and (b) get the Crushers into the VC backfield where they would be safer than on front of his units. The Trolls failed stupidity even with a re-roll and the Warriors advanced toward the building using the Hounds to keep them safe.
In magic a lot of power dice ensured the Daemon Prince managed to get off at least Spirit Leech, however even with Ld9 against Ld4 the Terrorgheist only took 1 wound and things began to look grim.
Taking their change the Engine and Horrors pounced on the now exposed Crushers. The Terrorgheist moved out to the flank ready to try and take out the Daemon Prince from a safe position. With nowhere to go the Vampire Lord held his position as back-up and a unit of Skeletons hit the building. Everything else shambled.
Magic didn't help once again, and though powerful, the scream only did 3 wounds to the Daemon Prince. Combat didn't go much better for the undead as the Crushers, though losing one of their numbers managed to survive and win, leaving only 4 Horrors left and 3 wounds on the Engine. The counter charge would now be painful.
Magic failed rather miserably this time around though combat was quite a bit more brutal. On the left flank the Chimera and Crushers saw off the Horrors and Engine, which killed nothing on the way out bar a few Zombies. The Warriors failed to wipe the building completely unsurprisingly, but thanks to their flaming banner but a sizeable 18 models dent in the unit. On the other flank the Hounds and Daemon Prince did the same however the Daemon Prince's Soul Feeder failed to work.
The Zombies tried a charge on the Hounds but failed, bottle-necking the Vampire lines. Instead of taking the Hounds bait to try and get at the Warriors the Lord instead took a more tactical approach and fly behind them knowing that they didn't have the room to turn around. Elsewhere the distraction for the Terrorgheist worked and the Corpse Cart hugged the building.
As was the case with every magic phase for either side for the rest of the game, nothing happened, and in shooting the scream killed another Chariot. In the combat the DP and Hounds killed the Wight King and got the Skeletons down to the command group, but still no wounds back for the Prince.
The DP combat finally ended in defeat for the VC, though through all of it the DP didn't regain a single wound from Soul Feeder. The Chimera chewed through about half of the Zombies, and though there were quite a few still to go, the Warriors managed to take the building, getting exactly enough kills needed to wipe out the unit and Vampire within.
The Vampire Lord charged the building none-the-less, though he angled himself so as the threaten the left flank. The Necromancer chanced his arm with the Hounds, hitting them in the flank to try and get some points back. The remaining Skellies moved back while the Terrorgheist moved in for the kill...
...which it got, taking out the Daemon Prince and netting Gearoid the bonus scenario points. This was as good as it got for the VC this turn however, as the Vampire Lord was challenge blocked by the unit champion, and though the Necromancer broke the Hounds, he failed to restrain pursuit, and hit the flank of the Trolls.
While the Chimera tore the Terrorgheist apart and the Crushers turns bones to dust, Throgg bellowed a challenge to the Necromancer and subsequently broke him and his Corpse Cart apart by splitting his attacks. Both his unit and the Chimera now reformed to face the Lord, giving him something to think about.
At this point both myself and Gearoid agreed to call it once the Crusher/Skeleton combat had resolved itself as he could no longer commit his Lord to combats alone nor could I catch his lord, so we agreed nothing else was likely to die. So his Lord flew away and the Crushers finished off the Skellies, and that was game.
After the Daemon Prince went down I felt the round slip a bit but the brute strength of the Warriors of Chaos was actually enough to pull me through, and though I lost the bonus points, in the end I only lost the Prince, the Chariots and one unit of Hounds while he had only his Lord left. Thanks to this swing of power I managed a 15-5 win despite the loss of my general first.
There's not a whole lot more to say about this game, partly because it was fairly straight forward for both parties and partly because I don't remember much by now. However this win kept me on table 1 to face Dark Elves the next morning, and a run against the tournament's only 5 point nasty list.
Stay tuned.
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