Post by stonecutter on Jan 22, 2012 22:26:59 GMT -5
Vamps have always been a tough army for me to play against and Dany has an excellent list with a nice mix of troops and ghoul/strigoi theme. This was the first time Dany had played the new vamps and my first time seeing them in action. Here's a quick breakdown of the armies and how things went.
Vamps:
4th level necromancer, strigoi ghoul king with red fury & giant sword
2nd level necro on corpse cart
mortis engine
terrorgheist
massive block of ~59 ghouls
block of zombies
2 units of 6 crypt ghouls
Woodies:
4th level, BSB with sniper weapons
2 units of 20 archers with FC. One unit with flaming banner
3 units of 15 dryads
1 unit of 6 treekin
treeman
The game started with the woodelves evenly spread out and the vamps centred around the ghoul horde and mortis engine to gain the benefits of its aura. I foolishly vanguarded the wildriders on the right flank and lost 5 of them to the deathly howl of the terrorgheist (TG) - 2d6+6 minus leadership = a lot of dead anything. The TG will be an absolute killer versus any other killer monster or high armour targets like chaos knights, stank, artillery, etc. Magic was uneventful and during the woodelf turn 1, I used the moonstone to teleport the flaming banner archers into the vamps rear area and then shot the crap out of a unit of crypt ghouls with 40 x S4 shots that ignored the regen. The WRs charged the TG and managed to do 3 wounds before dying to shooting in the next round. The rest of the army advanced to keep the focus on the front and not the squishy archers in the rear.
More movement brought the armies closer together and the necro survived two miscasts and a dweller's below attack. The TG died to a combo charge of the treeman and dryads but the ghouls, led by the ghoul king sought vengeance. The treeman died in a single round to the strigoi - yet another awesome slayer of the opponent's big nasties!! In turn, the flaming archers torched the necro and corpse cart and the other archers stood and shot against some crypt ghouls and then finished off the last wound in CC. The treekin, despite striking first with better weapon skill, strength and both armour and ward saves lost combat to the other crypt ghouls and managed to run away and then rally on the left flank. Eventually, the crypt ghouls were killed by a combo of the treekin and dryads but they held up the flank for quite a while thanks to regen, T5 and poison.
The necro survived yet another miscast, killing precisely the number of zombies that he had just raised. The mortis engine was dropped by the combined mass fire of both archer units and exploded to kill a couple rank and file. Another unit of dryads managed to make it across the board (avoiding the ghoul horde) and hit the zombies with the necromancer. At the same time, despite a successful dwellers and multiple close range volleys from archers, the ghoul horde remained strong and turned cornered the archer unit in their rear. Discretion being the better part of valour, the BSB and wizard marched out of the unit and left it to the tender mercy of strigoi & company who promptly slaughtered them!!
We called the game as the necro miscast yet again, killing all but a couple zombies and then being finished off by the dryads and static res.
Overall, my woodelves were almost ideally suited to take on this list thanks to the shooting and mobility. Key observations for my part are:
1. The new vamp big nasties can be really nasty. Although they can be dropped with flaming attacks, the new lore can heal them just like the lore of life attribute, making their T5/T6 last even longer.
2. Vamp characters are unstoppable killing machines if armed with red fury and a magic weapon. Apart from the speculum and unkillable dark elf dreadlord, there is nothing in the game that can take them on IMHO.
3. Vamps can benefit from support troops. The second unit of crypt ghouls was overkill. We discussed it and the points would likely be better buying a few cheap units of dogs and maybe hexwraiths to provide more targets for enemy shooting and, most importantly, several toss away deployments so that the main ghoul horde and big monsters can be placed most favorably.
4. Vamp magic is far more subtle now and even the number 6 spell is nothing to worry about. The dance only helps movement now and cannot be used to charge so it is reduced in utility. Despite that, it is still a decent lore that works well with the army.
Well, that's it for now.
Vamps:
4th level necromancer, strigoi ghoul king with red fury & giant sword
2nd level necro on corpse cart
mortis engine
terrorgheist
massive block of ~59 ghouls
block of zombies
2 units of 6 crypt ghouls
Woodies:
4th level, BSB with sniper weapons
2 units of 20 archers with FC. One unit with flaming banner
3 units of 15 dryads
1 unit of 6 treekin
treeman
The game started with the woodelves evenly spread out and the vamps centred around the ghoul horde and mortis engine to gain the benefits of its aura. I foolishly vanguarded the wildriders on the right flank and lost 5 of them to the deathly howl of the terrorgheist (TG) - 2d6+6 minus leadership = a lot of dead anything. The TG will be an absolute killer versus any other killer monster or high armour targets like chaos knights, stank, artillery, etc. Magic was uneventful and during the woodelf turn 1, I used the moonstone to teleport the flaming banner archers into the vamps rear area and then shot the crap out of a unit of crypt ghouls with 40 x S4 shots that ignored the regen. The WRs charged the TG and managed to do 3 wounds before dying to shooting in the next round. The rest of the army advanced to keep the focus on the front and not the squishy archers in the rear.
More movement brought the armies closer together and the necro survived two miscasts and a dweller's below attack. The TG died to a combo charge of the treeman and dryads but the ghouls, led by the ghoul king sought vengeance. The treeman died in a single round to the strigoi - yet another awesome slayer of the opponent's big nasties!! In turn, the flaming archers torched the necro and corpse cart and the other archers stood and shot against some crypt ghouls and then finished off the last wound in CC. The treekin, despite striking first with better weapon skill, strength and both armour and ward saves lost combat to the other crypt ghouls and managed to run away and then rally on the left flank. Eventually, the crypt ghouls were killed by a combo of the treekin and dryads but they held up the flank for quite a while thanks to regen, T5 and poison.
The necro survived yet another miscast, killing precisely the number of zombies that he had just raised. The mortis engine was dropped by the combined mass fire of both archer units and exploded to kill a couple rank and file. Another unit of dryads managed to make it across the board (avoiding the ghoul horde) and hit the zombies with the necromancer. At the same time, despite a successful dwellers and multiple close range volleys from archers, the ghoul horde remained strong and turned cornered the archer unit in their rear. Discretion being the better part of valour, the BSB and wizard marched out of the unit and left it to the tender mercy of strigoi & company who promptly slaughtered them!!
We called the game as the necro miscast yet again, killing all but a couple zombies and then being finished off by the dryads and static res.
Overall, my woodelves were almost ideally suited to take on this list thanks to the shooting and mobility. Key observations for my part are:
1. The new vamp big nasties can be really nasty. Although they can be dropped with flaming attacks, the new lore can heal them just like the lore of life attribute, making their T5/T6 last even longer.
2. Vamp characters are unstoppable killing machines if armed with red fury and a magic weapon. Apart from the speculum and unkillable dark elf dreadlord, there is nothing in the game that can take them on IMHO.
3. Vamps can benefit from support troops. The second unit of crypt ghouls was overkill. We discussed it and the points would likely be better buying a few cheap units of dogs and maybe hexwraiths to provide more targets for enemy shooting and, most importantly, several toss away deployments so that the main ghoul horde and big monsters can be placed most favorably.
4. Vamp magic is far more subtle now and even the number 6 spell is nothing to worry about. The dance only helps movement now and cannot be used to charge so it is reduced in utility. Despite that, it is still a decent lore that works well with the army.
Well, that's it for now.
