I did not give up on Universal battle. As a matter of fact, I managed to get another game in against Jwg20 ( Gatti ) vampire counts. I had never played against them and barely knew their rules. All I knew was that his list had beaten Brewmaster Light Coven, which was downright scary.
Again, lack of knowledge bited me in the *beep*, and at one point I almost thrown the towel so much I was getting steamrolled. I am overdue for a full reread trough some army books and the BRB.
My own list was the same as in last game, except I was testing out beast lore this time.
Deployment:
Once again, I see myself completely outdeployed due to my lack of drops. And once again I still manage to lose first turn with a 1. In that situation, I simply focus on getting a correct formation were my LD and BsB cover everyone and were my rank and files are paired with each cavalry bus. I also make use of the hill with the seaguard. I deploy the RBT on the far off side, trying to make use of the river cover and draw some chaffs away. The WL unit tag is wrong on the image, these are my 18 reavers bus.
He deploys near the cave ( altar ). I realise how many flyers he have and I certainly don’t like it.
My spells ended up with : Wyssan, Flock of doom ( glorious name for a s2 ), Pan pelt, Savage Beast.
His spells, I don’t quite remember. There was zombie invocation, the movement spell, one for extra attacks and one for wounds reroll.
Vampire turn 1:
His chaff advance aggressively ( vanguard included in this ) while my reavers elect to move toward the other side of the battlefield and try get behind his lines on turn 3 or 4. His cav is more cautious as to not let me get the charge while his skellies march ahead.
With 3 channels, his magic sees him get through a zombie summoning in front of my seaguard.
High elves turn 1:
I decide to leave his chaff alone for now since it screens me from a charge of his cavs. Reavers continue toward the other side while spears and chariot move more aggressively. Dragon Princes position themselves to close the gap.
Magic sees the super s2 manage to take out a unit of 2 bats. RBT fluffs as always with 1,1,1,1,2 and a single kill on wolves. Seaguard volleyfire don’t even bring one knight down. Again, the high elves tooth picks fail me.
Vamp turn 2:
His wolves charge the RBT but 1 of the crewmen survives and hold. His chaff reposition itself to block both cav bus and seaguard( it’s position is a bit off here ). His skeletons takes the building while the second unit shuffle a bit a forward, knowing I need to break trough to get behind his lines. The Black knights move toward the left flank to threaten the seaguard.
High elves turn 2:
Spears elves and chariot charge together. I now commit a grave error by charging both cav bus in the wolves. My plan was to overrun the helms trough the zombies into his Black Knights while I was counting on the DPs to overrun and take the charge from the blood knights and hold. Worst case, if they unlikely broke, Blood knights would overrun past the helms. In all case they would protect the helms flank should they fail to plow trough zombie which was also unlikely with 9S5 and 4S6 attacks.
I needed to declare both overrun at same time I was told, so I did, resolving Dragon Princes. It all came to a Disaster as I rolled a very short overrun... While Helms flank was still protected, they could not squeeze trough to overrun correctly and thus would not plow trough zombies. I still tought DPs could hold but their position now exposed them to an additional unseen threat.
I should have also charged the seaguard in zombie for this whole thing to actually maybe work out, or have stay put with my cavalry as my opponent could not charge trough his own wolves. Meanwhile, magic is useless. Seaguard reposition itself and shoot again to no effect. RBT dies.
Vamp turn 3:
His Vargheists charge my Reavers who, after I read the beasts monstrous statistic line, elect to flee. Of course, blood knights charge the Dragon Princes who hold, still not seeing the threat. As it stands, the Vampire General is mounted on a winged horse and can see the Dragon Prince flank, and fly above the zombies to get in.
I am so taken aback by this that I forget to double-check the bloodknight frontage who looks to me at 5, same as DP, therefore in my head they won’t be clipping the helms if they overrun. I decide to hold to protect the helms and hopefully leave his General overrunning alone or staying put were my shooting and magic might pluck some wounds. I am also planning to use my Dragon Princes champion to challenge him in duel, maybe delaying a critical phase since he has no champion in his blood knights. Another series of bad decision as little did I know that his each of his Bloodknights could accept a duel as a special ability, doubled with an extra attack from berserk for not 2 but 3 each... That’s what you get for just reading the stat line.
You know the rest, but it get worst. All of the 11 Dragon Princes attacks fails to kill even a single Blood Knight. The Champ is locked in duel with a BK and also manage to fail to kill him with 3 wounds from his sword of might, all saved by armor. As I am about to do my BsB, he informs me he’s general have an aura that negates the Great weapons strength bonus and my ASF... So my BsB is at S4, strike last and no reroll but little does it matter as he is cut down before striking. Between the two vampires and the bloodknights, the Dragon Princes are killed to the last elf... As he overrun, his BloodKnight frontage is still 6 having suffered no single loss... and so they do all overrun into the helms flank and my exposed General.
High elves turn 3:
After all this, I am completely demoralised, and about to throw the towel. I barely get a hold of myself, as I still want to play more games and don’t want to be branded a sore loser. It's in defeat that you learn the most. I decide to stick around until my Prince goes down. I have no illusions, as he is also wielding a Great Weapon and now in base to base contact with the Vampire General.
Fortunately, Reavers rally and immediately rush back toward the massacre, reforming in 2 rows to maximise distance between them and Vargheist. Spears and Chariot do a good job at grinding the skeletons blocks and the chariot offers them some form of respite should his Vargheist charge in. Nothing I can really do anywhere, 2 Bats having fly clumsily in front of the seaguard, providing a screen against a counter charge from them into the Black Knights.
I thought of charging bats and overrun into the main combat but feared a counter flank charge from the Black Knights. A grave error led by misunderstanding of crumble rules as I thought the vampire characters weren’t affected. I should have charged sea guard right then and now... Magic saw me cast all my 6 dices at savage beast on the Prince but failed to get IF and then it was all scrolled away... Shooting finally saw a single Black Knight down.
Dramatics: ” The undead knights crushed the bodies of the dragon princes, horses and elves alike, under their infernal hooves barely slowling their charge. The deadly lances punched trough the Silver Helms bodies, slaying the entire back row. Lord Malrik felt his strength sapped but clenched his teeth, challenging the enemy among the deads, both enemies and fallen comrades. His crown of command gleamed on top of the Dragon Helm. A Blood Knight stepped forward but the Vampire Lord paused him, knowing the High elf would stand to the death. He would need to break him himself. Red fury in his eyes, he grinned as both of them drew their sword.
A furious barrage of attacks from the vampire mighty sword almost all wound the Prince but his ward held on despite one severe cut. Wounded and weakened, his elven great sword was deflected harmlessly... Still, Malrik planted his feets solidly into the ground. He was not going to run toward his shame“
Vampire turn 4:
Wanting to finish it once and for all, and not having any clear charge with the Black knights, the vampire BsB join the fray by charging in the remaining helms kept safe so far by Malrik last stand. Bats flew away in an attempt to stop the reavers, who are desesperately trying to come help their Lord. Vargheist, wolves and bats give chase to the reavers. Skeletons gets out of the building behind the spears, suddenly making their situation dire.
In combat, the reavers kill the bats but the BsB finish off the remaining helms, overrunning toward the Reavers, but comes out too short. A first bad decision from my opponent, as he said after the game. Again, Malrik manage to stand his ground, failing to wound his enemy but unscathed this time around.
At this time, my head is now cooling down as my elven general breathed some hope within me. I now realise why he kept the Vargheist from charging chariot. My spears were winning every CR so far and I had time to see the effects of the crumble on them for every point of CR they lost by. The chariot 4 wounds would not have helped in anyway to win that combat and all it would have done is risking destroying them in the process as I was winning by a large margin. Besides, he had the other skellies now behind them.
Still, I also now see what I failed to realise the turn before... Those zombies were part of the combat as Malrik had charged them earlier with the now dead helms. They are a easy and plentiful CR for my seaguard...
High elves turn 4:
This time there is no hesitation or second guessing. Reavers charge the blood knights flank, seaguard charge the zombies. The vampire BsB charge shown is his previous turn overrun. Magic does not produce anything.
In duel, again, Malrik armor and wards saves him from the grave much to my opponent disbelief. The reavers kill the bloodguard but can’t step in due to unengaged BsB in the path, I am informed. The seaguard however does not fail it’s task, killing around a dozen zombies. At least the blood knights are going down due to crumble, I tell myself, thinking vampire characters don’t take crumble tests.
Jwg20 : “well, that sucks. Everything crumbles
“
The result was way more dramatic than I thought it would be: “ Malrik had both knees on the ground, so powerful the Vampire Lord hammering had been. Summoning all his remaining strength he stroke one final blow but it went completely wide, striking trough the wind. He was now standing alone in a cloud of dust and among his fallen comrades bodies and dying horses... The only figure to emerge was Lady Laetitia: It’s not over father... “
Vampire turn 5:
The turn begin by a crumble dust, his General now dead, wolves, bats and a few skeletons join him.
Seaguard had overrun to steer clear from Black Knights, and reavers also did into the vampire BsB. Malrik did not have that option, not having charged. The Black Knights raised their killing blow enchanted wight blades and charged the elven general. The Vargheist charged the Reavers rear. Despite the lethal danger, Malrik prepared for another onslaught. I now had a complete confidence in him but most importantly, wanted my reavers to enjoy his LD10 and did not wanted him to run after such a stand.
Malrik remained true, deflecting all hits and his ward protecting him from a single killing blow... freed from the curse, his greatsword fell a knight. The reavers spears stroke first and true, taking the enemy BsB out before he could react. On the rear it was less successful and almost the entire back rank was mauled down. Still, with a full rank remaining against none, and their lord in range, they held their ground steadfast and reformed to face the monsters.
On the other side of the battle however, spears and chariot were broke after a rear charge but managed to escape the slow skeletons.
High elves turn 5:
Weakest skeletons crumbles totally. Spears and Chariot rally. I could charge the seaguard in but I did not fancy losing my archmage to a killing blow. I should have at least moved her out so they could charge next turn. That or I secretly wanted to see my Prince end it with savage beast spell.
Magic phase 5 vs 4, savage beast is dispelled, despite no enemy casters, due to a weak roll on my side.
Combat see another knight down and their attacks produce no killing blow, and this time at s4, and less numerous, are easily deflected . Reavers lose more of their numbers but kill one Vargheist, holding on steadfast still.
Vampire turn 6:
Skeletons charge the spears but lose combat. Prince fails to kill anything and the 3 Knights don’t get a hit either.
High elves turn 6:
Chariot charges skeletons flank with 6 impact hits, but in the end fails to finish them even with spears help due to failed fear tests.
This time magic is a good 9 vs 5, and see both wyssan on reavers and finally savage beast on the Prince.
The ensuing 7 st9 attacks put down all the black knights. Reavers are now down to 4 from the initial 18, but manage a draw this time around which is won with musician. Its not enough to destroy the Vargheists.
With this, the game ends with an unlikely High elf victory...
“ The Seaguard had their mouths wide open as they saw their Lord walk back toward them with his usual expression full of contempt and a trail of his own blood behind him. They all knew it was only due to him if any of them were still alive. Yet, the old elf seemed unmoved and yelled: What are you standing here for!? Go and help the wounded! ”
Well, I did stole this one from Jwg20. I feel my Prince won the battle and I had nothing to do with it. Loec was definitely protecting Prince Malrik that day. Among all my disastrous calls, I did at least 2 good decisions: Use his own chaffs to protect my Seaguard from the Black Knights and charge them in his zombies to provoke that crumble.
If I had charged the seaguard on turn 3 into bats instead, after my Prince heroically survived that first duel round, the poor elve would not had have to go trough all this epic fight. An overrun would have seen the seaguard in zombies and in the next cc were it would have won the big fight then and there. On the other side, I only understood the implications of crumble later on. Also, it did make for a great story trough the very end.
Should I play against vampire again, I will definitely be on the look out for any such “CR bleeders”. I will have also to rethink my army, having my Archmage in seaguard brought me to much hesitation. My lack of drops and chaffs is really starting to hit me badly, both in deployment were I can’t hope to win it and also giving my opponent too much area to move freely. While the reaver bus was a great experiment, and did do a part in this victory, I underestimated the number of stubborn and unbreakable units out there. The normal rank and files are rare, so while disrupting ranks and breaking steadfast on a flank charge is sound, it’s in practice very hard to pull off due to the rarity of such units. It might finally be time to break my reavers up in several small units, to many of my readers and my own dismay. :/
Thanks to my opponent Gatti (Jwg20), I was very lucky theses few past day to be blessed with 2 great opponents from which I learned alot!