Had a couple games vs the vamps and here is how it went.
Empire:
General: Lance, Shield, Pistol, Greatsword, Dawn Armour, White Cloack, Ruby Ring
-on a Griffon.
BSB - Enchanted Shield, Warrior Bane, Magic Resist(3) Went with Halberds
Level 2 Heavens: Crystal Ball
Level 2 Fire: Hex Scroll(turns enemy into frog)
Engineer: Repeater Pistol Went with Crossbowmen
11 Huntsmen: Marksman
15 Crossbowmen
50 Halberds: FC
-10 handgunner detach
5 Outriders: FC + HLR
6 Pistoliers: FC + Repeater Pistol
Steam Tank
Hellblaster Volly Gun
Vampire Counts
Vamp Lord level 3: Master of Black Arts, Dark Acolyte, extra hand weapn, heavy armour, 6+ ward Went with Grave Guard
Vampire: Master Strike, Loremaster(metal), AHW, heavy armour Went with a unit of skeletons
Necromancer Level 2: book of [many spells] Went with a unit of skeletons
Wrigth King: skeletal steed. Went with black knights
2x 30 skeletons: FC
40 Zombies - no command
30 Grave Guard: sword and board
5 black Knights
Black Coach
This battle is a few days old so my memory is fading. Tried to report his a couple days ago on my blackberry but hit the wrong button and everything dissapears....sigh.
We played breaking point(standards) deployment 18" apart, long table edges. We had some buildings and obsticles on the battlefield. Kept it simple since it was first game using then new Vamp rules.
Vamp magic: searing doom, plague of rust, Lord and Necro got invocation of nehek, curse of years, and some other stuff
Empire Magic: Fireball, flaming sword of ruin(woot! woot!) Thunderbolt, magic wind(push enemy back)
This is all from empire players point of view(me)
Vamp Deployment from left to right(my view)
Black knights, skeletons(bus) with necro, zombies(horde), skeletons with vamp(bus), black coach
Grave guard with lord were placed behind zombies(horde)
Empire deployment from left to right(my view)
Pistoliers, fire wizzard in building, hellblaster and Xbows on hill, Halberd Horde w/ handgunners beside and outriders behind, Stank, heavens wizzard in building.
general on griffon was placed behind halberds
Huntsmen were placed top left corner 12" from black knights.
First Turn:
He got first turn and moved his units up. rolled a 6 and a 1 for winds of magic, he re-rolled the 1 and got a 2. Cast a spell from the book of [many spells] - soulblight on my halberds(-1 S&T), I let it go through. Sering doomed my steam tank for 4 wounds - used 3 dice and got a IF. My 6 dispell dice were wasted.
Me: I did not charge because of soulblight on my halberds and I didn't want my general to be stranded out and get beat. I tried to get 2 steam points for my steam tank so I could fire the cannon at the black coach but I rolled high and took a wound.
Pistoliers(didn't use my vanguard) and huntsmen moved into flank postioton of black knights. Halberds moved up a bit.
Magic: Rolled pretty good for winds of magic, flaming sword on xbows, magic wind and thunderbolt got dispelled, used one dice on ruby ring got a 1, failed to cast level 2 fireball on black knights.
Shooting: pistoliers, Archers, Hellblaster, xbows all fired at the black knights. My rolls were horrible. only killed 4 knights. NOTE: my hellblaster got 8,8, 6 on artillery dice - was at close range, got 4 hits, 3 wounds, 1 dead knight. Huntsmen got 4 or 5 wounds and took down 2 black kngiths, Knights saved vs the xbows, pistoliers killed 1 knight.
Handgunenr detatchment killed a couple skeletons. Outrider shot up some skeletons(out of arc for blackknights), sniped the necromancer for 1 wound.
Turn 2:
Vamp:
Black knights charged hellblaster, zombies charged halberds, skeletons(with vamp) + coach charged the Stank. Skeletons with Necromancy tried to charge the Xbows but failed. rest of army moved up
Magic: I think he rolled a 6 and a 5. First he cast invocation of Nechek with lord 5 dice: 26value, I rolled all 6 dice and got 18. Magic phase was now his. Resurected all the damage I had done in the previous turn. Curse of years my halberds - 8 wounds, I made one magic resist save. Rest of magic phase I don't remember so he either got a miscast on cure of years or failed his next casting.
Combat: Black knights, now back to full strength killed hellbalster, reformed to face xbows.
My Halberds beat up his zombies, still a few left. Stank took a wound - master strike failed.
Empire:
Charged my griffon into the Vamp Lord with grave guard. Move pistoliers and huntsmen close to the black knights.
Magic: I got double 6's. Thunderbolted and fireballed the black knights, Magic wind was out of range, flaming sword of ruin on something or it got dispelled.
Shooting: xbows shot at necromancer skeletons, couple wounds. Pistolirs and huntsmen shot at blakc knights. Outriders shot Skele's with necro.
I think the black knights were down to maybe the wright king and a cuple knights after magic and shooty dmg.
Combat. Halberds hacked all the zombies to death, reformed and faced the skeltons with necro, Stank died to master strike - skeles now face my handgunner detachment, coach now faces outriders.
General and Vamp lord: I placed my general +griffon in contact with the Lord and champion(they were close to each other) I did not issue challenge cause I didn't want his lord dissapearing. He challenged with vamp champion, I smashed his bones. Lost combat but only by -1, passed break test.
Turn 3
Vamp:
Charges: black knights into xbows, skeles with necro into xbows, skeles with vamp into handgunners, Black Coach into outriders,
Magic Phase: pitiful. Rolled a 1 and a 2, master of black arts the the 1 into a 3. He failed or I dispelled whatever he tried to cast. heh heh.
Combat: he killed maybe 4 xbows, my xbows hit back with awesomeness and killed a black knight and 3 or 4 skeletons. I lost combat but passed my break test - LD 9 general(18" range) and BSB in range.
Stank and Skeles with vamp beat my handgunners and outriders. Skeletons chased after handgunners so they are now next to bard edge facing away.
General vs Lord: I get his lord down to 2 wounds with general and griffon. General gets killed by grave guard, Griffon says "arrrrgghhh!!".
My turn
time was getting short and the battle looked very much in my favor since my xbows held, halberds ready to flank skeles with necro(necro was gonna die! with all those halberd attacks), pistoliers going to charge into whats left of black kngihts. And the Griffion poised to bead down the Vamp Lord.
We skipped everything and played the Griffon vs Vamp Lord, as we though the vamp lord died. So we called it my victory.
Although he always trys to quit when things start going the wrong way for him, even on the first turn sometimes!!! I never let him quit on the first turn cause I don't like spending an hour making a list, setting up just for it to end in a few miniutes.
Comments:
I deliberatly did not take any mortors or warrior priests, and put together a very friendly list with fun stuff I wanted to try. Main reason i did this was because it was first time me and my friend were playing with the new vamps.
Shooting overall can still be random and against vampire counts can be almost useless if he gets off even 1 invocation of nehek.
General on Griffon is great and fun but soo overpriced.
i don't like hitting with shooting on 4's. Give me 3+ or 5+. 4's are so friggin random its not worth whatever poitns are factored into the unit makeup. I rolled 20 hellblaster shots at close range, I got like one 4. Whole bunch of 1-3's and a few 5+'s
I got a second battle report comming, similar lists, similar terrain.
