It's been a while since my last battle report!

Currently I'm not playing Warhammer at all, I promised myself to not throw any more dice until my army was completely done. Actually I was a bit tired of seeing my bad painted carnival models from the ages of 4th and 5th Edition mixed along with some early 6th Edition models (awfuly painted as well) and a lot of unpainted metal and plastic guys sitting over movement trays made out of cornflakes boxes... So now, instead of playing a lot of games every week I'm more into stripping paint, rebasing and starting to do a great painting job thanks to The Army Painter range. Quickshade and colour sprays are simply amazing, in case you haven't tried these yet (look at this amazing army which was posted in the forge not so long ago).

However, last Saturday a friend stopped by my house and told me 'Dude, you owe me a rematch since 7th Edition! Today this will be settled with some pizza and beer, so cancel out any plans', and so I had to break my promise. This will be the last time I do such things, but the offer was so temptating to even trying to resist!

Here are the armies involved, we went for a really big battle after all!

Vampire Counts (3500 points)

Vampire Lord (Level 4, Lore of Vampires, General) with 2+ Armour Save, 4+ Ward Save, Sword of Kings, Black Arts
Vampire Lord (Level 3, Lore of Light) with 2+ Armour Save (BRB), Staff of Damnation, Black Arts, Loremaster, Lord of the Dead
Vampire (Level 2, Lore of Vampires, BSB) with Magic Banner (Renegeration 4+) and Avatar of Death (Heavy Armour and Great Weapon)

40 Crypt Ghouls and champion
60 Skeleton Warriors with spears and command, Magic Banner (up to +4 from ranks)

40 Grave Guard with Command, Magic Banner (+1 to hit)

5 Cairn Wraiths with Banshee
5 Blood Knights with Command and Magic Banner (4+ Ward vs Shooting)
1 Black Coach

Dwarves (3500 points)

Lord on Shieldbearers (General), Runic Great Weapon (MRoKragg, RoMight, RoFury) and Runic Armour (RoStone, RoPreservation, RoResistance)
Thane (BSB) with Runic Armour (MRoGromril, RoResistance, RoPreservation)
Daemon Slayer with Runic Weapon (MRoSmitting, RoMight, RoFire)
Runesmith (RoSpellbreaking)
Runesmith (2xRoSpellbreaking)

40 Warriors with Great Weapons and Full Command
40 Warriors with Great Weapons and Full Command
30 Ranger Warriors with Great Weapons and Full Command

40 Hammerers with Full Command and Runic Banner (RoBattle, RoDetermination)

Stonethrower with Engineer (2xRoPenetrating, RoAccuracy)
Stonethrower with Engineer (RoPenetrating, RoAccuracy, RoFire)
Stonethrower with Engineer (RoPenetrating, RoAccuracy)

Cannon with Engineer (RoForging)
Cannon with Engineer (RoForging, RoFire)

Gyrocopter

DEPLOYMENT

Ok, here are the armies already deployed.

This scenario differs from Pitched Battle both in victory conditions and in deployment issues. Maybe you are aware that the separation between armies is a bit smaller (18" instead of 24", although I didn't deploy right in my 15" line but in my 12" one) and that you can't place units at 9" from each border of the table. That's the reason of Cairn Wraiths deployed inside the forest and of my Rangers deployed at exactly 12" of Blood Knights on that position (if he had deployed more into his flank things wouldn't have been so easy).

We were playing in a battlefield generated with the random chart, and we rolled for three forests, a mysterious river, an encampment of destruction (here comes the three buildings, three fences and the central tower of blood --which grants hatred to all units at 6" and also frenzy to the bad guys) and a Nehekharan Sphynx (near the river at 6" from the statue units get 1d6 S4 hits on a roll of 4+). Because Blood Knights and Cairn Wraiths deployed inside the forests we rolled to see what kind of them we were facing, getting abysal forest for Blood Knights (double fear causing knights? LOL) and blood forest for Cairn Wraiths (if magic is cast inside the forest, bad things happens and trees start to move like in Lord of the Rings movie).

Our main objective was to break enemies' fortitude points down to three before the end of turn 6. Vampires started with six (two for general, one for BSB and three for standards) and I started with seven (two for my lord, one for my BSB and four for my units' standards).

We rolled to start and Vampires went first!

TURN 1 (VAMPIRES)

First thing in the turn was Blood Knights passing Ld to not charge my Rangers because of their frenzy, then advancing with his army full speed while hidding the Black Coach behind the tower to try to absorb some magic before starting to move towards my battleline. I think he wanted to force me to take a decision with my Rangers, or try to support warriors in their task to defeat Ghouls or try to reach Blood Knights and get counter-charged far from my own battleline and unable to provide support anywhere near. The sphynx awakened, but wasn't able to kill a single skeleton and the roll in the mysterious river chart left us with a normal river (what a pity!).

Magic phase started with a double 1 roll, for a total of 3 dispel dice against 7 energy dice (he channeled one dice and get four from black arts). I really feared a lot the Lore of Light Vampire, because he could cast double movement on his skeletons to make up from the river's effects (can't march) and, with some Danse Macabre on top of that, complete the wheel around the statue and threaten my flank next turn with Cairn Wraiths! He started rolling 4 dice to cast Birona's Timewarp with casting value of 19 (I let it through) and then rolled three dice with a Danse Macabre which I dispelled with my saved dispel dice.

TURN 1 (DWARVES)

I decided to try and charge Blood Knights, which were at 14" away, and rolled 12 in the dice!! I started laughing like a maniac while dancing around the table searching for a beer to celebrate this (true story) while my friend had a face absolutely priceless. I decided to charge BK because, well, the perspective of a flank charge from BK wasn't so appealing to me, marching 6" forward wasn't an option and I didn't want to try to charge with both my warriors and my rangers against crypt ghouls without some softening fire before and finding that only my rangers made it and were absolutely doomed next turn (remember standards mission? I didn't want to lose one there). I never thinked I would succeed, but the fact is I did!

I moved my Gyro in position next to the tower, waiting for a next turn flame attack against ghouls, and then I repositioned my blocks a bit. I opened fire with my two cannons against Cairn Wraiths, killing the very five of them and then destroyed the Black Coach, 13 Grave Guards and 18 Skeleton Warriors with my stonethrowers. In combat I managed to only lose six rangers while killing two knights (the damned vampire player saved seven out of nine 4+ armour saves!).

TURN 2 (VAMPIRES)

Grave Guard charged my Daemon Slayer and, because of clipping, had to charge my hammerers as well. I believe this move was to get rid of the Daemon Slayer with the higher initiative and Killing Blow of his Lord (who were deployed in the right corner of the unit, just in front of my character) preventing a flank charge next turn if he went directly to my hammerers or even a crazy hold of the massive horde of skeleton warriors. I set up the slayer last turn with all this in mind, and my intention from the beginning was to fight hand to hand against the general (2 less fortitude points if I were lucky enough to score a wound on him). Grave Guard and Hammerers were both in range of Blood Tower, so we had hatred this first round of combat (sadly my DS wasn't in range) but Grave Guard and all characters also had frenzy!!

Crypt Ghouls advanced towards my block of warriors ignoring Gyrocopter (beign 40 and gyro wounding on 5's wasn't a great threat I think) and Skeleton warriors completed a wheel around the statue (which remained silent this turn). Thinking of supporting my hammerers with a flank charge would have mean receiving in exchange a rear charge from skeletons, and going directly towards skeletons to abandon my poor hammerers to a horrible death... Damn! On top of that there was a ton of light spells still uncasted, my rangers were too far from any useful position and my other block of warriors was really near of that giant block of ghouls which prevented them to do something useful in the right side (the tower and the position of hand to hand combat didn't benefit them at all).

Magic phase was insane, with a total of 11 energy dice against 6 dispel. I shut down a lot of spells with dispel dice and one rune of spellbreaking, but couldn't prevent him to raise 5 more grave guards and 7 skeletons when he started to cast Nehek with only one dice without rolling any 1 or 2. Combat phase was the bloddiest I ever lived, with a total of 24 hammerers dead in one round of combat (a total of 37 attacks with +1 to hit, rerolls to hit and killing blow from grave guards plus attacks from BSB) and only two wounds scored against my Daemon Slayer (luckily) from his general. In return I wounded his general once with my slayer, but when rolled 1d6 wounds I only obtained a two! My hammerers and characters struck back and were able to only kill 9 guards (damn regeneration), but I also killed his BSB so next turn they wouldn't be able to benefit from this huge advantage.

By the way, I killed the remaining knights and reformed, ready to advance with my rangers in my turn.

TURN 2 (DWARVES)

Without the banner on the knights and his BSB, Vampires were at 4 fortitude points. The problem was that, beign unbreakeable, it was nearly impossible to take a banner from an undead unit. My only choice was to kill his general (with only one wound at the moment) to win this battle. I flank charged his unit of grave guard with my warriors, only to find myself failing a fear test and the BSB reroll!!! Shooting phase was disastrous, with one of my cannons exploding trying to make grapeshot against skeletons and two of my stonethrowers scattering badly. The one that hit killed only 13 skeletons, and the other cannon and the gyrocopter were able to kill 15 ghouls.

On combat, my slayer finally died to the Vampire Lord and the rest of the unit killed all my hammerers except the champion!! In return, the coward warrior unit only managed to kill three guards, and my characters and gate keeper five more. I losed the combat by a lot, but luckily my warriors had more ranks and were steadfast, while the only hammerer survivor granted stubbornness to my characters (with my hammerer standard dead losing both characters were the same as losing the battle).

TURN 3 (VAMPIRES)

Well, skeletons rear charged my warriors (they passed fear tests, though) and ghouls charged my great weapon warriors on the left. The ghoul unit was barely in range of Nehek, but a Summon Undead Horde with IF and a nice miscast result and some nehek here and there surely could have been put me on serious danger. Besides, there was the staff of damnation waiting to be used and grave guard was still in range of blood tower's frenzy...

Magic phase started with (surprise) a summon undead horde dispelled with a RoSpellbreaking, and Birona's Timewarp with full strength casted with IF!! (All friendly units at 12" receive +1 attack and Always Strike First, so this means rerolls against my poor dwarves due to same or higher initiative...). Luckily, he rolled a 3 in the chart and then a 1 so his vampire (with staff of damnation) was instantly destroyed, killing 18 skeleton warriors and 16 dwarf warriors in the process (ouch). After this, the rest of the energy dice were used to cast Nehek, and I was able to dispel most of the magic and only could return to life 5 skeletons and 2 grave guards. When I run of dispel dice he tried to cast Nehek to regain wounds on his vampire, but I used my last RoSpellbreaking and he only could add one wound instead of two.

The combat phase was really bloody. With 22 skeletons which survived he did 33 attacks of S3 hitting on 4's and rerolling to hit against my warriors, while the general and a grave guard on the right did 6 S5/3 S4 attacks with Killing Blow rerolling to hit. I thinked about challenging his general, but with champion still alive it wasn't a nice idea. I lost 9 warriors to the undead rage, but I was able to score a wound against his general and to kill 4 skeletons from the unit on my back. In the combat against my characters Grave Guards killed my gate keeper and wounded my BSB once, but in return I killed 5 grave guards with my powerful Lord. I lost the combat by some points, but hold with both units thanks to Ld10 of my Lord and rerolls of BSB!

Crypt Ghouls killed eigth warriors, but they killed back 12 of them. Because of CR four more of them vanished (remained only 9).

TURN 3 (DWARVES)

I moved my Gyro to try and charge next turn (if we played next turn, that is) and advanced with my rangers while I was asking myself what were they exactly doing so far (drinking beer like us, I suppose). With no more RoSpellbreaking left I was in serious danger, in special if finding myself unable to dispel Nehek on his general to regain wounds... The plan to kill his skeletons to destroy the banner only with my back rank of warriors was a dream with 18 skeletons left, and the same went to my two lone heroes trying to kill a character without beign in base to base contact or to kill 15 grave guards. My BSB was with a single wound and I had 16 warriors left, so they didn't need to kill my unkillable Lord to begin with... Oh, "I swear too much", I hate Vampire Counts and units that drinks on the other side of the table!

I killed all the remaining ghouls with my warriors, only losing four more of them and reforming. In the important combat I killed five grave guards with my character duo while skeleton warriors, grave guard on flank and vampire lord killed seven of my brave warriors. With only nine warriors and my Runesmith left I attacked the skeletons trying to win by combat resolution to kill even more models, killing eight of them and winning the combat by 6 points! 6 grave guards and 6 skeletons vanished and now I was in base to base with his Lord!

TURN 4 (VAMPIRES)

The decisive roll this turn was winds of magic, but only rolled double 4 to get 8 energy dice and 4 dispel dice. After channeling, black arts and rune lore we ended with 11 energy dice against 6 dispel dice without any RoSpellbreaking left. He started with a three dice roll for Summon of Undead Horde and I needed 4 dispel dice to shut the spell down. After this, he rolled four two dice roll with Nehek bolstering his ranks, and I couldn't be able to dispel even one of his attempts. The result was 4 grave guard and 9 skeletons added to the mix, plus one additional wound for his vampire lord (now with 2).

The combat ended with the vampire lord, flank grave guards and skeletons destroying my unit of ten warriors (one standard less), while my characters attacked with all their might against Grave Guards trying to compensate wounds to not flee for CR and killing five of them. My Lord hold, but my BSB fled and thus was destroyed for the last stand rule (they were no longer in a unit and I thinked were separate units, while my friend argued they were a single one. We rolled a dice to see what version were going to apply, because we didn't find conclusive evidence in BRB. I don't know if this was the right decision or not). This could have been the end of the battle, but thanks to this roll...

We ended the turn with 4 fortitude points each!

TURN 4 (DWARVES)

I charged with the Gyro, but I destroyed the skeleton warriors with shooting winning the battle. We, however, finished the turn, where my gyro was destroyed with Killing Blow and my Lord took down the Vampire Lord with his Runic Weapon.

CONCLUSIONS

Well, that was an interesting and very fun battle (on top of pizza and beer!).

Depending on the correct answer to the lone character duo question this battle should be counted as a victory or a defeat, and this shows how hard was to play. I had a huge help of luck when his Light Lord miscasted, I don't think I would've won this battle (or even had the option to) with this guy alive, well, at least walking in the battlefield. It was the first time I used rangers, and I have to say they're awful. For the points I was better going with more magic defence and an organ gun or two to protect the flanks. Sure, they can deploy in good positions and cause some ruckus, but that's all. Or they die in front of the enemy or they kill some nasty stuff and then are lost forever trying to get into the action in the other side of the battlefield. I could've been killed those Knights with some organ gun and cannon fire (even with 4+ ward save, it doesn't matter) and then try to play a bit with them using Gyro and one big block of warriors.

Vampire Counts have some nasty characters and can go very magic heavy this edition with Black Arts and Loremaster easily available with vampiric powers. A horde of skeletons with some Light buffs are an enemy I don't want to face, but I don't know if Ghouls with same buffs can do the job better even without full command and magic banner. Only thinking in a big 60 horde of Light Buffed Ghouls can give any general some nasty nightmares...

Hammerers are great if deployed in such big blocks and I never deploy them in narrow formations because for the points I can easily deploy warriors which can deal more damage if in horde formation. However, even if this is true, against fear causing units a RoCourage or a Lord can change your day (remember when I failed two consecutive fear tests) and make you win some decisive combat instead of losing it. I think hordes of great weapon warriors are great, but when I go with an offensive army like this I miss my Ironbreaker unit for some anvil support... I don't know, maybe it's time to start looking to some HW&S warriors or Longbeards to this role, too.

I hope you liked the battle report, this is probably my last game in some months (painting, painting!)

You can use this information, conclusions or discussions along with my other battle reports here in the battlegrounds to make some tactic threads or whatever you like. I feel we are still a bit far away from having solid knowledge about 8th Edition, but there's something to begin work with. I'm looking forward to read more battle reports and less theoryhammer and lists, but that's up to you guys!

Here are the links to my previous threads:

2500 vs Lizardmen (Battle 5)
2500 vs Daemons of Chaos (Battle 3)
3000 vs High Elves (Battle 2)
2000 vs Dark Elves (Battle 5)

Thanks for reading
--purpledtentacle