So my first game was against Matt, does anyone else find it remotely funny that he has "howl" in his name and he plays VC? actually thats werewolves not vampires... We were playing the "capture the hill" scenario which is basically just like watchtower except you use a hill...genius. The hill was worth 1000vp's and that's too many in my opinion but then again it does force people into fighting, but it's almost like the take and hold in 40k where Vp's dont matter and its all about the objective...good for 40k not that good for WFB, especially when you have a baseline camping army of Glade Guard.
Matt Turn 4
Matt's army consisted of around 50 Ghouls split into 2 units, one of 20-25 and the other 30-35, 30ish Grave guard, 20 Skellies and 5 Dire wolves, he had a Necromancer with Vanhels, lvl 1 Vampire , a BSB with the stupid arse Drakenhoff banner and a lvl 4 Vampire Lord with Master of the black arts, Fencers blades and possibly the charmed shield, I forget exactly what he had but it was basically this oh and he had lore of the vampires on his lvl 4 shadow on the lvl 1 I think with forbidden lore .
The scenery was ok except for the massive hill in the middle restricting my shooting (a problem I was faced with for the entire weekend) I rolled Flesh to Stone, Dwellers, Throne of vines and swapped regrowth for Earth Blood.
Battlefield + Armies
Deployment (blurry)
I deployed mainly at the right hand side and I planned to whittle the Grave Guard down and then killing blow his Lord with the Waywatchers, I deployed them 18" away (uh oh). I intended to get the Waywatchers in behind him and pester the Grave Guard with their killing blow. I deployed 2 units on the left hand side in the hope of splitting his forces. I had my BSB in the middle and my lord 29" away from his Grave Guard unit. The plan was to decimate the Grave Guard and kill the lord, simple and straight forward, I took the kill the general scenario as if I didn't achieve it I felt I would be in a bad place anyway so it was all the eggs in one basket really.
I won the roll off to go first.
Jay Turn 1
Very little movement from me. A 6 dice magic phase saw me throw 6 dice at dwellers on the Grave Guard which I failed to cast needing 21. In the shoothing phase I managed to take off 7 Grave Guard and 6 Ghouls. Not a great start but at least I didn't cascade.
Matt Turn 1
So here we go then...Matt moves his Ghouls forward to just behind the hill, ready to move forward and take it later. Then the genius reforms his fucking retarded Grave Guard twats into a conga line and ruins my hobby. End of battle report. No but he did reform them into a conga line facing my waywatchers then moved them 4" towards them, they are now 4-6" away. I obviously have an opinion on this and thats that conga lining is totally retarded and I didn't realise it was even allowed in the tournament even if it is NHB... but I shouldn't have allowed him to do it by deploying so close, so many times I have told myself "no need to deploy waywatchers so close" but here we are first competetive game using them and I get the red thirst and think i'll be killing blowing his lord in turn 1. I don't think Matt is a bad person for doing it, he came to win and he saw an opening and took it. To be honest even if I had known congas were allowed I would have still made this mistake.
So the magic phase comes and inevitably he gets an 11 dice phase with +2 for master of the black arts, I manage a channel for 7 dispel dice. Invocation - Lets it go +1 Grave Guard. Miasma Cast on 9 on my big unit, I dispel that with 4 dice. Invocation 11 on 2 dice...meh, I let it go and +5 Grave Guard. Vanhels on the Grave Guard 2 Dice and I dispel it leaving him with another go at it and me with no dice, he casts it and moves in. Now I should have used my scroll here but it was turn 1 and I really didnt realise how badly it was gonna go, I thought I might lose my unit of Waywatchers then have to alter my plan a bit.
DOOT DOO DOOOO come on and join the .....fuck off
Combat saw the Vampire lord make way to the front with the fencer's blades making him WS 10 and +1 attack, he kills 3 Waywatchers and they run away, I think he opts to reform here as the Waywatchers flee and his overun would miss the other Waywatchers BUT WAIT...yeah thats right the other Waywatchers seeing their weakling brothers die in combat decide to leg it too...bye bye off the board total of 432 points.
Jay Turn 2
No movement, I do put a unit in the building though, another hilarious mistake! but I only did it so I could get line of sight to use hail of doom. 8 dice magic phase sees throne of vines dispelled and Dwellers on the big unit of Grave Guard scrolled. Shooting is pretty good and I take out 15 Grave Guard and 5 dire wolves but Matt doesn't even look phased by it, he obviously has a plan, the fact hes been to a lot of tourneys shows as he doesn't panic and make stupid moves he just continues with his plan.
Noble Garrisons up
Matt Turn 2
Grave Guard charge the Noble's unit in the building, who stand and shoot killing a pathetic 4. Sensing victory Matt puts the large Ghoul unit with the vampire in it up on top of the hill, a move I thought wasn't really necessary as he had cover where he was, unless it was to distract me from the Grave Guard unit. Magic phase sees Matt raise 3 Grave Guard and try to cast Wind of Undeath, now I scroll this and you might think thats silly but the last thing I wanted after having used my hail of doom was a 4 wound base of ethereal ghosts in conbat with my unit of 21 Glade Guard. In the combat he decimates the noble and his men and the Grave Guard take over the building as the remaining 3 Glade Guard flee out.
The noble and most of his unit dies
Jay Turn 3
With the Grave Guard in the building there was not much point shooting them so I positioned myself to to attack the Ghouls that had just appeared on the hill. I was in a right state on the right hand side, a unit of 21 Glade Guard dangerously close to the Grave Guard and I had not thought very well about the positioning of the 3 remaining Glade Guard after they rallied, I could have used them to redirect the Grave Guard but it was the first game of the day and I am a noob so I forgot. In th emagic phase though I rolled a healthy 9 and he got 6 dispel dice so usual one trick pony life, 3 dice throne 6 dice dwellers and bang 16 Ghouls die then another 14 in the shooting phase leaving 1 all on his own.
The dwellers + shooting combo can be really devastating
Matt Turn 3
Grave Guard charge out of the building into the 3 remaining Glade Guard on the right and he moved his other vampire in with the skeletons. In the magic phase Matt casts wind of undeath which I let go this time and then he rolls a double 1 to cast invocation and the magic phase dies a death. The combat phase is great for Matt after I gifted him a free overun into my unit of 21 Glade Guard after they wipe out the last 3 from the noble's unit. I really have totally fucked this up.
Oh look the Grave Guard have reached my main units :D great stuff!
Jay Turn 4
I reform my other unit of 21 Glade Guard to try and get away from the Grave Guard, I also move them sideways. I don't know if I can reform a unit in combat before the combat happens? I never thought to ask, if you can then I should have done this. Magic phase is a waste of time as I try to get +4 toughness on my unit of 21 GLade Guard in combat but I roll poorly and he just dispells everything. I shoot off 10 Ghouls out of the 20 strong unit leaving only 2 or 3 left and finish off the Ghoul on the hill. Then in the Combat Phase I lose the 21 Glade Guard and Matt overuns the Grave Guard a bit closer to my lords unit.
This shows the postion I was in now although the ghouls were all dead bar 2 in the unit at the top, the vampire lvl 1 had moved back into the skeletons by now.
Matt Turn 4
The Grave Guard move towards my Lord's unit, the necromancer leaves the dying Ghouls and heads into the woods and the Skeletons move nearer the hill. Magic, Matt casts vanhels and I dispel it with 1 of my 3 dice and then he casts it again both times were on the Grave Guard, it goes off and they move into my lord's unit :( then he casts invocation and gets 6 Grave Guard. In combat I issue a challenge with my Mage purely as he has a ward save and I want to keep casualties down so I can remain steadfast and he accepts with the Vampire lord, who takes 1 wound off my mage as I pass 4+ ward saves he wins the combat but I am steadfast.
The end is nigh!
Jay Turn 5
I move the Glade Guard that are out of combat up by the hill in the hope of snatching it at the death. In the magic phase I go for throne on 2 dice and fail it... I shoot off the remaining Ghouls and a few Skellies. In the combat phase everything dies to the Grave Guard who reform to face the last 2 Glade Guard units.
Matt Turn 5
The Grave Guard charge the rear of one unit of Glade Guard (god the Grave Guard unis has killed my whole army!) In th emagic phase Matt miscasts Vanhels with his lord!!! come one give me some vp's! but he just takes a str 6 hit on each Vampire and loses 6 dice from the pool. Sure as night is day the Grave Guard smash the Glade Guard and reform into a line to stop me marching past and onto the hil in the last turn.
Jay Turn 6
I cant do anything really so I kill the Necromancer then just say "you're go" and he just reforms the Grave Guard and its over.
3653pts to Matt and 526 to me (20-0) Matt's secret mission was to get units into my deployment zone and at the end he reformed into a long line (sigh) to get taht aswell.
I learnt a lot from the game, mainly about movement and positioning, but it's all things I should have known, I got caught out in so many places and played like an utter chump, I don't mind too much because i'm still learning but I made some full on retarded errors looking back, the sad thing is I could have beaten that army, I know how to play Vampires and I ripped the ghouls apart and the Grave Guard were dropping like flies until I let them in combat..in turn 1...with my most expensive units...who overan...into combat...etc etc Fair play to Matt he played it right and I lost to the tournament winner so perhaps it's not so shameful.
The end is nigh!
I move the Glade Guard that are out of combat up by the hill in the hope of snatching it at the death. In the magic phase I go for throne on 2 dice and fail it... I shoot off the remaining Ghouls and a few Skellies. In the combat phase everything dies to the Grave Guard who reform to face the last 2 Glade Guard units.
Matt Turn 5
The Grave Guard charge the rear of one unit of Glade Guard (god the Grave Guard unis has killed my whole army!) In th emagic phase Matt miscasts Vanhels with his lord!!! come one give me some vp's! but he just takes a str 6 hit on each Vampire and loses 6 dice from the pool. Sure as night is day the Grave Guard smash the Glade Guard and reform into a line to stop me marching past and onto the hil in the last turn.
I cant do anything really so I kill the Necromancer then just say "you're go" and he just reforms the Grave Guard and its over.
3653pts to Matt and 526 to me (20-0) Matt's secret mission was to get units into my deployment zone and at the end he reformed into a long line (sigh) to get taht aswell.
I learnt a lot from the game, mainly about movement and positioning, but it's all things I should have known, I got caught out in so many places and played like an utter chump, I don't mind too much because i'm still learning but I made some full on retarded errors looking back, the sad thing is I could have beaten that army, I know how to play Vampires and I ripped the ghouls apart and the Grave Guard were dropping like flies until I let them in combat..in turn 1...with my most expensive units...who overan...into combat...etc etc Fair play to Matt he played it right and I lost to the tournament winner so perhaps it's not so shameful.
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