Played my mate, yesterday and here is how it went:

Thane BSB RO stone, RO preservation, MRO spite, shield, oathstone 177
Master Engineer RO stone, GW 79
Dragon slayer 50

25 longbeard GW, Full command 350
25 warriors shields, Full command 250
25 warriors shields, musician, standard 240

40 Hammerers Full command, RO battle 535
Grudgethrower Engineer, RO accuracy, RO penetrating x 2 170
Played my mate, yesterday and here is how it went:

His army (approx)

Vlad von Carstein

(NOTE: IN THE GRAVEGUARD FORGOT TO ADD UNTIL TURN 3)

Isobella von Carstein

NOTE: IN THE GRAVEGUARD FORGOT TO ADD UNTIL TURN 3)

Vampire BSB (some banner that gives +1 to hit) and ghoulkin

(NOTE: IN THE GRAVEGUARD FORGOT TO ADD UNTIL TURN 3)

20 Ghouls x 3 all with ghasts
20 graveguard (some banner that gives a 4+ ward save), full command
5 blood knights and a karstellen

Note: the bored had two hills on, but couldn’t find a terrain option for them so they’re not on the bored. Dwarfs rolled to deploy and for the turn, got to choose the board edge and go first. But ignored the lure of a hill in the deployment zone, it was too open to charging.

Dwarf turn 1:

Ghouls advance thanks to some silly ghoulkin rule. Dragonslayer (deployed originally to scupper any possible scouts) moves forward to help dwarf warriors. Shooting phase, decide to ease myself in, suspicious of any magical protection the big scary unit of graveguard might have. Target the visible ghouls and squash 8.

Vampire Counts turn 1:

Entire army advance, bloodknights fail their frenzy test coming within dwarf charging range! Magic phase: Vampires roll 2,2 so we both get 3. (forgot my runesmith generates 1 dispel dice). Vlad casts vanhels dance macabre on the knights, making them charge into the dwarf warriors. Pass my fear test on the 2nd attempt, hooray for Battle standard bearers! No champion in this unit so all attacks directed at the unit. 15 brave dwarfs die! 3 of which were chomped by undead ponies… No wounds returned. Bit of a discrepancy over the armour saves: my friend was arguing shields now only give you a parry save and our other friend insisted this was also the case, so I relented. Thanks to more ranks was stubborn and held fast.

Dwarf turn 2:

Dragon slayer charges (was just in the front arc).Hammerers charge Blood knight flank, the other warriors wheel about to prevent a ghoulish rear charge and to protect the grudge thrower. Grudge thrower aims at the grave guard, direct hit not wounding any of the characters and squashing 5 grave guards after revealing a 4+ ward save against shooting. Baah!

Combat:

The Blood Knight Karstellen issues a challenge to the Hammerers, and putting my eggs in one basket I accept with the Battle standard bearer, each exchanging no wounds. The knights now without those bloody lance’s cause only 5 kills but the ponies continue their assault with a further 2 kills! (We forgot to do the attacks in order of initiative so Hammerers went before the dragon slayer). The hammerers splatter 4 of the blood knights leaving the Karstellen to crumble from a sliding victory in the combat resolution. The hammerers then reform to face the death star unit, but thanks to the dwarf warriors they couldn’t keep their file of 10 so were no longer benefitting from fighting in 3 ranks.

Vampire counts turn 2:

The ghouls charge the long beards and warriors whilst the far ghouls continue their routing. The death star unit charge the hammerers. Magic phase: Vanhels dance macabre on the death star, dispelled post haste! Raise dead also dispelled, hurrah for Rune smiths! The ghasts issue challenges, all accepted by the dwarven champions, whilst Vlad and Isabella issue their own challenges, begrudgingly accepted by the Battle standard bearer (Vlad) and the Rune smith (Isabella).

The Longbeard champion flattens the Ghast, ghouls and longbeards exchange wounds, as do warriors and ghouls apparently I can’t re-roll beguile tests with my battle standard bearer hmmmm… Vlad and the battle standard bearer exchange no wounds, even with failing the beguile test. Isabella and the rune smith also exchange no wounds. The graveguard and vampire battle standard bearer, kill three hammerers, the hammerers then blitz 6 graveguard. 4 more die through crumbling.

Dwarf turn 3:

Dwarf warriors reform, dragon slayer moves with the dwarves to help protect the hammerers flanks. Grudge thrower pivots to shoot the ghouls, flattening 6.

Ghouls, longbeards and warriors exchange compliments. Vlad and the Battle standard bearer continue their stalemate with no more wounds caused. The same goes the Isabella and the rune smith Hammerers kill another 4 graveguard, the graveguard and vampire battle standard kill 3. This leaves just the 3 characters left to fend off the hammerer horde.

Vampire counts turn 3:

Ghouls charge warriors, but have to charge dragon slayer too. Magic phase, Vampire counts roll 2,2 and roll all out to cast curse of years…? Dwarfs dispel.

Ghouls attack the longbeards, kill 2 but then die from a mixture of casualties and combat resolution. The other ghouls also die and finally the far ghouls poison the dragon slayer and kill 1 of the warriors. The dwarfs pass their break test.

Isabella slaughters the runes smith, Vlad causes no wounds on the BSB, hooray for 3+ ward saves! The vampire battle standard bearer slaughters 3 hammerers, hammerers cause two wounds on the vampire (apparently he has 3 wounds). Combat resolution wounds distributed among the characters, I think there were only a few.

Dwarf turn 4:

Warriors wheel to prepare a flank charge, longbeards reform. Apparently I have to target my grudge thrower over an enemy model and since all enemies are in combat I can’t fire. Hmmm… he was very insistent too and since he was losing I relented.

Vlad and Isabella cause no wounds, battle standard bearer still no wounds on Vlad (complete stalemate all the way through) the hammerers smash two wounds on Isabella. The vampire battle standard bearer kills another 3 hammerers but finally gets mashed into a fleshy pulp. Vlad dies, and fails to return. (forgot to swift reform)

Ghouls slaughter the dragon slayer, with only one ghoul killed in return, ghouls kill all but the standard bearer who then breaks and dies due to being a battle standard bearer.

Vampire counts turn 4:

1 ghoul dies to crumbling. Charges the hammerers in the flank and kill 4. Hammerers kill another 4, the battle standard bearer uses the make way rule to get into combat, however forgot I would lose my combat resolution for the standard by doing this. The ghouls crumble some more and we end the game here, agreeing on a massacre.

VICTORY TO THE DWARFS!