Vampire Counts vs Daemons of Chaos

[Kayosiv]

This was made mostly for Gokamok but anyone may feel free to enjoy it.

My list was a very "experimental" list with minimal magic, too minimal I've decided, so I plan to modify it a bit. The list featured a fighty lord on a Zombie Dragon as the centerpiece and theme for the army.

My list, 2250 Points.

Lord:
Vampire Lord, Army General: Kayosiv Level 2 Wizard
Vampiric Powers: Infinite Hatred , Red Fury +1 attack for each unsaved wound. Walking Death +1 Combat Resolution.
Magic Items: Walach’s Bloody Hauberk : armor and ward saves. Book of Arkhan . Sword of Might
Mount: ZOMBIE DRAGON, Rupert
4+ Armor save, 5+ Ward save,
Spells: Bound Spell, Power level 3. Vanhel’s Danse Macabre. Roll after each use, 1 prevents further use
Curse of Years
Raise Dead

Heroes:
Vampire: Kanzul von 'siv Level 2 Wizard
Vampiric Powers: Dark Acolyte Lord of the Dead
Magic Items: Black Periapt
+1 to cast invocation of Nehek on Skeletons, can raise units larger than starting size.
Can save one of his casting or dispel dice and add a casting/dispel dice to his pool in the following phase.
Spells:
Raise Dead
Gaze of Nagash

Vampire: Alistair von 'siv Level 1 Wizard
Vampiric Powers: Flying Horror, Avatar of Death
Magic Items: Crown of the Damned
4+ Ward Save. Heavy Armor. Can choose between 2 weapons, shield, or great weapon.
Suffers from Stupidity and has the FLY ability.
Spells:
Vanhel’s Danse Macabre

Core:
16 skeleton warriors with Full Command.
5+ armor save, 4+ in close combat

10 skelaton warriors. Spears/fight in 2 ranks from front and not charging.
5+ armor save

20 Zombies. Can’t be joined by Characters, can be increased past starting size.
Can’t overrun (rank X D6 hits instead) D6+4 when casting Invocation of Nehek.

Corpse Cart. Bound Spell level 3, all undead in 6” always strike first until your next turn.
with Baelfire (25) (Enemy Wizards within 24” suffer -1 to cast all spells).
5+ armor Save, Regenerate. 2D6 attacks

Special:
18 Grave Guard with Full Command. Royal Standard of Strigos (35) (Hatred).
4+ armor save, 3+ in close combat. Killing blow, magical attacks.

5 Black Knights, Champion. Barding.
2+ armor save. Lances (+2 strength on charge), magical attacks, killing blow

Rare:
2 Cairn Wraiths, +1 Banshee.
The 2 Cairn Wraths have great weapons (strike last, +2 strength)
Ghostly Howl: 8” range in shooting phase, no LoS required. Target rolls 2D6+2, takes 1 wound for every point they are over their leadership, no armor saves allowed. Can use in close combat.

Black Coach, 2 Nightmare’s and 1 Cairn Wraith (driver, has a great weapon)
3+ armor save, 4+ ward save. Terror, Chariot, Vampire.
Evocation of Death: 6” Range, start of magic all magic phases. Roll all power pool dice, and all power dice of wizards within 6”. All rolls of 6 cannot be used and increase Black Coach’s power as follows.
1: Scythed Wheels 2: Hate all enemies 3: Magic resist (3) 4: Killing blow 5: Ethereal 6: Can Fly

His List:

Lord
Lord of Change
ignores first miscast
can pick all 6 spells from any lore in the rulebook (he chose lore of beasts)
Adds an additional power dice to the pool

Heroes
Herald of Khorne, ability to re-roll failed rolls to wound.

Herald of Nurgle, had the bound spell that casts miasma of pestilence level 3.

Herald of Tzeench was the BSB and had a magical banner that caused all spells cast by me to be -2 to cast.

Core
20 Bloodletters with full command

20 Bloodletters with full command and herald of Khorne inside.

15ish Pink Horrors with full command, Herald of Tzeentch and Changeling.

10 Plaguebearers of Nurgle with full commandand Herald of Nurgle inside.

Special
None.
Rare
1 Blood Crusher.

6 Flamers of Tzeentch.

[Kayosiv]

Deployment

He placed a swamp and a crater on my right flank, and I placed some woods and a hill on my left flank.

He Deployed both his Flamers and pink horrors on the left flank (his right) so I deployed my Banshee/Wrath unit as far away as possible in the crater on my right. To combat the screamers, I placed my Black Coach on the left side along with my black knights, who with their ethereal movement could ignore the woods and the vampire rule of the black coach would keep them moving fast.

He put down his 2 bloodletter units in the center so I placed zombies and skeletons in the center as well, with my graveguard behind the zombies. He put down his Plaguebearers on the right side along with his blood crusher, so I put down my Zombie dragon there (also to avoid his flamers) to hopefully breath noxious gas over multiple units on his flank and deal with the blood crusher if need be. I placed my flying vampire with his lord and master, and the other vampire in the unit of grave guard.

[Kayosiv]

*Post concluded further down the page.

TURN 1 Mine

Movement: I was fortuitous enough to get first turn, so my army Shambled forward, each of my core and the graveguard behind the zombies moved up 8" My Black Knights marched up and hit from the Flamers and Pink Horrors inside the woods, ignoring the terrain penalty with their insubstantial steeds rule. The Black Coach that was hiding behind the woods in case I didn't get first turn, zipped around the left side and stood partially out in the open, visible to the flamers (I was planning a charge) but not to the pink horrors.

On the right Flank my Vampire Lord Kayosiv and his ever faithful (but sometimes stupid) lackey Alistair moved forward 10" (hopefully about 1" out of range of that scary blood crusher) and faced to be able to possibly charge some Bloodletters. The Banshee and her wraith posse moved up around 8" while staying within the swamp difficult terrain, which they also gleefully ignored.

*Continued further down the page.

*Continued further down the page.
Magic: My first magic phase was uneventful in the worst possible way. I was informed that his Herald of Tzeench had a magical banner that subtracted a -2 from all my casting attempts... and with such a meager magic phase for a Vampire Counts army, that was going to hurt. Kanzul tried to raise some skeletons to larger than their starting size but the Changer of Ways large dispel dice pool made sure there was none of that. I decided to hold off on further attempts after 2 dispellings and just save his last dice for the black Periapt so I could get more dispel dice. Lord Kayosiv tried casting Curse of years on a unit of Bloodletters and succeeded with IRRESISTIBLE FORCE! Much to my disapointment however, I the spell ended up being about 1/2" short of being within it's 18" range and sadly fizzled, bummer. Alistair tried to case Vanhel's Danse on my Lord but he failed to successfully cast it due to that stupid banner, I had to do something about that thing.

Shooting: The Banshee wasn't in range of anything so my shooting phase was even more uneventful than usual.

Combat: Turn 1 combat, ie nothing.

TURN 1 His

Movement: He moved his entire infantry forward full march distance (I didn't realize Bloodletters were so fast). The flamers got closer to my coach, and the pink horrors moved up a few inches. The Blood Crusher only moved about 3" forward, but angled ominously at where I was planning on sending my Lord in on turn 2. His Lord of Change moved up a few inches.

Magic: As he was using a magic heavy list, I knew this was going to hurt, however it wasn't so bad. His Greater Demon cast the Beast Cowers on my Dragon, which I dispelled. The Pink Horrors shot a Flickering fire at my Skeleton spearmen, which I let pass and he roasted 3 of them. He got off a Wolf Hunts on a unit of his blood letters (Which has been brought to my attention is an illegal move, as it only moves cavalry and monsters, live and learn) without the Herald of Khorne in it, which I let pass because I figured he wouldn't be able to roll high enough. My gamble payed off and he moved a meager 3 inches forward. The Rest of the phase was uneventful.

Shooting: He rolled an absurd amount of dice for his Flamers against my Black Coach, wound a few times, which proceeded to bounce of the invulnerable constructs ward save. Let's see a Varghulf shrug off 22 Flamer shots, man I love my Coach.

Combat: Again there was none, however things were about to get interesting.

TURN 2 Mine

Movement: Go time. I declared a charge with my Black Coach against the Flamers, and 2 more charges, 1 with skelatons against the bloodletters who had failed their The Wolf Hunts charge on me, and the corpse cart charged the unit of bloodletters with the Herald of Khorne in it with a "maybe I'll kill 1 of them" mentality. My unit of spear skeletons angled to meet the flank of the bloodletters in the following turn, hopefully netting me some needed combat resolution to win combat by at least 1 point. The Black Knights moved out of the woods and angled towards the Pink Horrors, their sights on that fracken -2 to cast banner. The Banshee and her entourage glided out of their hindering terrain up just to the left of the Blood Crushers Line of Sight arc, while my Graveguard with Kanzul amoung their ranks shifted to meet the Bloodletters with Herald inside after the corpse cart got hacked into (even tinier) pieces. Lastly, Kayosiv and Alistair (having passed his stupidity check) flew up behind his my opponents entire forces and landing an inch away from the backs of the Nurgle Herald and his unit.

Magic: It was here at the start of turn 2 that I finally realized I should have been rolling my pool dice to power up my Black Coach, and proceeded to tell my opponent, and give it scythed wheels as well. I sure wish that I had remembered that sooner, it would have been nice to get the Coach up to a more fighting level before it reached combat. Kanzul tried to reinforce the zombie unit but was dispelled. He then tried to cast Winds of Undeath on 3 dice but failed because of that -2 magic banner. Alistair tried to Vanhel's Danse Macabre his Lord and Master but rolled an 8, which with the -2 also failed. That banner was going to die ... or the game was over for me. My Lord cast a curse of years, but with so many earlier fails on spells, it was easily dispelled. The Corpse Cart tired to give everybody always strike first, and subsequently didn't.

Shooting: The Banshee screamed at some Bloodletters, causing 2 of them to kersplode. This was followed up by hideous laughter from dozens of severed heads within the corpse cart, which caused 1 more to die a horrible daemon death (in reality the banshee killed 3).

My Dragon took a deep breath and covered nearly the entire Plaguebearer unit in Noxious gas, which they found quite refreshing. This is when I learned that not only did they have the standard 5+ demonic ward save, but they also had regeneration, and I had left my baelfire spike at home. This was going to suck. I immediately changed plans and decided not to attack that unit next turn with the dragon, and instead would go after the pink horrors on the flank to try and take out his BSB with a combined front and flank charge.

Combat: To my ecstatic delight, the corpse cart rolled 10 attacks, and actually manged to wound 2 bloodletters! 1 was save by his 5+ ward, BUT STILL it had done better than I had hopped. It then proceeded to be wounded by 3 of the 4 attacks (+1 from champ) from the bloodletters that were able to fight back, which in turn caused it to lose combat but a significant amount because of 2 ranks, outnumber and a banner. however, the swirling mass of limbs rolled absurdly high for it's regeneration rolls (5 out of 7) and continued to fight on, if you can call that fighting.

The skeletons didn't fare so well and were butchered in droves after failing to wound anything, they heftily lost combat and were reduced to about half their unit size, that could have gone better.

The Flamers chose to stand and shoot but still couldn't hurt the Black Coach no matter how many dice he rolled against it, the armor+ward save combined with toughness 6 was just too strong. When the dust settled, he Coach, Wraith, and Horses and caused 3 wounds, but he had to go and be a jerk and save 2 of them with his ward save, still, that meant a tie combat (he outnumbered me) and that I didn't have to test for crumble. I was confident I wouldn't have to worry about the flamers for the rest of the game.

TURN 2 His

Movement: The first thing he did declare a charge on my Banshee with this Blood Crusher, which I responded with a very innocent sounding "I don't think they're within his line of sight" despite that being my plan all along. We checked and I proved correct, so he just marched his Blood Crusher forward so he could charge the Banshee next turn. That poor deluded Blood Crusher. He has obviously never faced the fury of a woman scorned.

To my surprise he angled his Pink Horrors towards my Black Knights. It seems he was prepared to take their charge head on, or perhaps intended to kill them before they got the chance. His Herald of Nurgle + unit marched... or rather shuffled forward, on account of my dragon and Cairn Wraiths march blocking them.

His Lord of Change flew behind my Graveguard unit (who had turned to the right, so he was on my left) which caused Kanzul, wizard vampire extraordinaire, (but failure as a fighter) to soil himself.

Magic: The Pink Horrors tried to zap my Black Knights, successfully casting a random strength magic missile. His roll of 6 hits had the Knights shaking in their rusted greaves, but when he rolled strength 1 hits, I assumed it was no problem. As is the way with such things, he rolled a 6. After a quick glance through the rulebook at my request to see if strength 1 attacks could even hurt things with toughness 4 (turns out he was right, they can) I proceeded to roll a 1 on my armor save, and I lost a 28 point Black Knight model to a strength 1 hit.

His lord then tried to chuck a The Hunter's Spear into the flack of my Black Knights, which I was quick to dispel considering that had the potential to wipe out the remaining 4. He then attempted to cast The Beast Cowers on them to prevent the charge, however, he rolled those terrifying double 1's. At least, I thought they were terrifying, until he informed me that he had a demonic gift that prevented the effects of the first miscast he suffered in the game.

He must've decided that further spells on the Black Knights would invite more bad karma on his dice, so he decided to cast The Crow's Feast on my unit of Spear Skeletons instead, followed up by a Flickering Fire from his Herald of Tzeench, reducing them to 3 models. With them reduced below unit strength 5, suddenly my brilliant flank charge against the Bloodletter unit engaged with my other skeletons seemed less brilliant and more futile. On the plus side, I failed to roll 13 on 2 dice, so my skeletons passed their panic check.

Shooting: With his Flamers in combat, not much shooting to be had, which I liked, because fighting an army with less shooting than mine was a pleasant change.

Combat: Corpse Cart Explodes, reforms in a wriggling mass, flails ineffectively at some demons, and then explodes again, dying for good this time. Skeletons suffer heavy losses, general suckiness for my side. On the plus side, the skeletons did manage to kill a Bloodletter. Is it wrong that I'm happy about that, because it felt pretty good when it happened?

On the positive side for my forces, The Black Coach continued to prove more indestructible with each passing turn. I was surprised to hear that flamers are strength 5, but even that wasn't enough to phase the wraith on top, who proceeded to wound a demon, but fail to kill it due to ward saves, still, it was a combat that I didn't lose. Didn't win either, but it was something.

TURN 3 Mine

Movement: After seeing how resilient they were, I Decided that the PlagueBearers were a tarpit trap, and Lord Kayosiv declared a charge, quickly followed by Alistair, who again managed to keep the screaming voices of the spirits within his crown silenced. The Black Knights charged forward as well. Their target? The Pink horrors with that accursed banner, the Black Knights hitting the front and my Dragon and his Lord along with lackey in the rear. The Demons didn't have to check for fear because they were immune to psychology, but I was more worried about the player using them. It didn't seem to worry him that 1000 points of my army was crashing into one of his units in a dual charge.

My Banshee moved up and proceeded to get hot and bothered about the Blood Crusher, her wraith compatriots looking worried, as they knew what was going to happen next.

Kanzul and his unit of Graveguard turned around to face the Greater Demon of Tzeench, not with any hope of actually doing anything about it, but more to prevent a rear charge that would surely doom the unit.

Magic: Kanzul tried to reinforce the skeleton unit with some invocations of neheek, but either failed or was shut down by dispel dice.
Kayosiv, showing everyone else why he was the lord and they weren't, brought the 1 black knight that had died from magic earlier in the game back to unlife just in time to smash some pink horror face... or whatever they have instead of faces. Alistair tried to cast Vanhel's Danse Macabre on the dwindling unit of skeletons, but failed to cast it and the phase was over.

Shooting: My Banshee couldn't take it anymore, and leaped full speed at the Blood Crusher screaming "LLOOOOVVVEE MEEEEE" at him. Confused and aroused, the Blood Crusher simply lost his grip on reality, literally, and exploded before she could tackle him. The Wraiths chuckled as she grumbled something about hoping that this one would be different, premature explosions, and all men being the same.

Combat: First we resolved the skeleton/bloodletter combat, which ended with the Bloodletters victorious and snatching themselves a cool bonus 100 points for stealing my banner. The Black Coach actually suffered a wound in combat, but it managed to wound a Flamer right back, sadly they have 2 wounds each and the unit didn't lose any fighting ability.

On to the big combat with the pink horrors. My Hell Knight discovered the hard way that he was in base contact with a "changeling" which I found could swap stats with mine, despite this, my Champion didn't die, and the rest of the unit managed to hack down a couple of pink jerks despite some poor rolls on my part. Alistair only managed to hit with 1 of his attacks, although it did wound, and Kayosiv, tired of everyone's incompetence, did no less than SEVEN wounds into the unit, the dragon doing nearly as good and causing 4.

Even after some particularly good ward saves on his part, I had still won combat by an atrocious amount. Sadly, my victory was hollow, because when he rolled his demonic instability break test, he only rolled a 4, meaning that only like 5 extra pink gumballs exploded, leaving his herald with banner still intact, along with his unit champ, 1 pink horror, and most frighteningly of all... his changeling in base contact with my Vampire Lord.

TURN 3 His

Movement:The first thing he did was Fly his Lord of Change up back to the center of the map; it seemed he had no intention of flank charging me after all, just suckering me into turning around. The Units of Bloodletters, fresh from their victories over the skeletons and corpse cart, both moved forward. One came down and angled to the back of my previously turned Grave Guard, while the other plowed into the unit of zombies in above my Grave Guard. I knew the zombies wouldn't hold for 2 turns and the likelyhood that Kanzul was doomed, was very high. The Plaguebearers changed direction and started moving over to the Pink Horror combat, the demon general confident that the 2 units of bloodletters were more than a match for my grave guard and vampire.

Magic: I once again was able to dispel The Beast Cowers targeted towards my zombie dragon, but the rest of the magic phase ripped into my Grave Guard. Their hefty 4+ armor save and toughness 4 shrugged off many of the hits, but I still lost a rank when the phase was said and done. At this point, I was certain that Kanzul was doomed.

On the Plus side, the demon player's power dice were nice enough to empower the Black Coach even more, giving it hatred.

Shooting: The Flamers tried to do stuff but were slapped silly by the Cairn Wraith driving the Black Coach and thus didn't accomplish any shooting.

Combat: The Bloodletters' ripped into my unit of zombies. Zombies never were any good vs elite troops, and this was no exception. After resolving crumble tests, the zombie unit was reduced to well below half strength and never even got to strike back. To be expected of zombies, but Kanzul was hoping for a miracle. Turns out, Vampires praying for miracles doesn't achieve a whole lot of results. Go figure.

The Black Coach combat sparked some debate, because neither of us were sure what to do with it's newly granted Hatred. It was obviously not the first round of combat, but it was the first round of combat with hatred, so we ended up deciding I would get to re-roll my attacks for this round only, which I found very fair, mostly because it was to my advantage. Anyway, the Coach was wounded again, but he also he also caused a wound to the Flamers. This was a turning point in the fight, because it meant with the Coach's unit strength of 4, I would no longer lose combat by 1 due to outnumber by default, and also that the demons would get less attacks in ensuing rounds. Even though the Black Coach was brought to half strength, I was confident it could win.

In the Pink Horror combat, the changeling took on the Attributes of Lord Kayosiv, which he found extremely amusing until it wounded him. Furious, he hacked it into tiny bits. Now with Outnumber on my side, along with a rear charge, the demons crumbled. Victory was mine, but it came at a price, my Lord was no longer at full Health. Still, the chances for me to heal him were increased now with that stupid banner finally destroyed.

[Dungeon_Lawyer]

cool!!!! looking forward to reading ths!

[EvC]

Good start so far, add more pls!!

For your next game, you should know that Sundering doesn't affect Invocation of Nehek, as it's not part of any Lore. Also make sure your opponent reads through his own chosen spell lores, the clue is in the name with the Lore of Beasts, things like The Wolf Hunts only affect "beasts", i.e. cavalry and monsters- not infantry like Bloodletters. We need all the help we can get against dirty Daemons

[vinny t]

Good start so far, add more pls!!
...
We need all the help we can get against dirty Daemons

Says the vamp player...

I'll second the pictures request!

[Kayosiv]

Good start so far, add more pls!!

For your next game, you should know that Sundering doesn't affect Invocation of Nehek, as it's not part of any Lore. Also make sure your opponent reads through his own chosen spell lores, the clue is in the name with the Lore of Beasts, things like The Wolf Hunts only affect "beasts", i.e. cavalry and monsters- not infantry like Bloodletters. We need all the help we can get against dirty Daemons

You are right on both points sir. He informed me that Invocation of Nehek wouldn't be effected as it was not actually part of the lore of vampires (or any lore) by the -2 result. he just used his old fashioned "I have more dispel dice than you have power dice" approach to stop the invocations. However, him using The Wolf Hunts on Bloodletters was a very VERY big part of the game later, and I'll need to inform him that he was unintentionally cheating. It was very clear that he had never used the lore of beasts before, and selected it at the last second after seeing my dragon plop down on the table.

Also, I will be updating at least turn 2 and possibly more before the night is done.

[Dungeon_Lawyer]

morr more more!

[Kayosiv]

Writing these things takes forever... maybe I'm doing it wrong XD.

Will hopefully have turn 3-4 out sometime tomorrow afternoon.

[selone]

Battle reports do take a while to write thats true, but stick at it matey

[EvC]

I have a whole tournament report using a Zombie Dragon to write up (well most of it's done already, just need to do diagrams), stick with it, we are eager

[Kayosiv]

TURN 4 Mine

Movement: Free from Combat, Kayosiv and Alistair flew down behind the Plaguebearers with the intention of staying out of combat with them and hopefully charging the Lord of Change. The Banshee moved up next to them as support.

The Black Knights Angled away towards the Black Coach, hoping for a flank charge that would finally free up the coach from this seemingly never ending combat.

The unit of skeleton spearmen who had been reduced to 3 models and long forgotten about by both me and my opponent, declared a charge against the Lord of Change, much to his amusement.

Kanzul angled himself and his unit of graveguard towards the unit of Bloodletter's that were going to charge next turn, hoping that he could raise enough zombies through magic to hold the Herald inhabited bloodletter unit for another turn.

Magic: Kanzul tried desperately to reinforce the zombie unit and the unit of skeletal spearmen, but all his efforts were dispelled. Despite several dispel dice thrown to prevent it, Kayosiv managed to cast Curse of Years on the bloodletter unit with the Herald of Khorne inside, with interesting results. Not a single roll of a 6 for any of the rank and file, however when I rolled separately for the Herald, a 6 popped up! He proceeded to then fail his ward save and grant me half his victory points, go Lord Kayosiv go.

Now of course, my master plan was to be enacted. My opponent only had 2 dispel dice left. If Alistair could cast Vanhel's Danse Macabre on Kayosiv, I could charge the Lord of Change, and potentially destroy him, netting me a clean 600+ victory points and shutting down my opponent's magic phase. Even if my opponent managed to dispel it, Kayosiv had been toting around a book of Arkhan the entire game for just such an occasion, so I would be able to get the spell off no matter what.

Sadly, the dice didn't agree with me, and Alistair failed to cast a 7+ spell with 2 dice. I used the book anyway just in the off change the dispel roll would fail, but it was easily dispelled by 2 dice.

Shooting: The Zombie Dragon once again let loose into the plaguebearer unit with his noxious breath, with the same results as before. Needing 6's to wound, that could be saved with a ward and regeneration save, it was virtually pointless to try and wound them. Still, I figured that it couldn't hurt, and it didn't, them or me.

The Banshee screamed into the unit but didn't roll high enough to inflict any wounds.

Combat: As I feared, the zombies, were completely wiped out. This meant that my graveguard unit was going to be flank charged by a bloodletter unit with a herald of Khorne inside... bad news.

The Black Coach decided it was time to kick it into high gear, and did 3 wounds to the demon's, who couldn't hurt the Coach in return. After a failed instability test, there was only 1 Flamer left. This was a double edged sword though, as it meant that I had wasted a turn facing my Black Knights to aid in a combat that was essentially already won, wasting their effectiveness. I should have let the Coach take care of itself.

In by far the most hilarious part of the phase, the skeletons fought the Mighty Lord of Change. Who, in fact, proved to not be so mighty. One slew of ridiculous amounts of 6's later, the skeletons had actually wounded the Greater Demon. We both looked at each other in shock over the fact that 27 points of skeletons had just injured a 600 point Greater Demon. Of course they were immediately destroyed by the Demon's attacks back, but they did their part and then some.


TURN 4 His

Movement: Duel charge declared on Kanzul's Unit by both Bloodletter units, eww. The Plaguebearers turned around to face Lord Kayosiv. Then, something happened that surprised me. I had fully expected the Lord of Change to charge Kayosiv, or to fly far enough away that I couldn't charge him in return, he did neither.

Instead, he chose to charge Alistair, interesting. Kayosiv didn't think Alistair had what it took to take down a Greater Demon, but he didn't let him know that, and Alistair charged into battle ready to defend his master. The poor fool.

Magic: Luckily, the Black Coach sucked up 2 power dice from the Deamon magic pool, so not only was it at full strength, but my opponent had less to work with. I managed to dispel a Beast Cowers on my Dragon, but couldn't stop The Wolf Hunts on the Plaguebearers , who subsiquently charged into Lord Kayosiv. Then, the most outrageous spell I have ever heard of was cast by the Herald of Nurgle. The spell apparently makes every enemy in base contact with him have all of their attributes reduced to 1. I'll only go off on a small rant here, but that is the most overpowered piece of crap I have ever seen. It effectively gives him a free win vs any and all opponents, being able to render any amounts of points, from 5 point trooper to 500 point Lord worthless. Either way, I only had 1 dispel dice left but still managed to dispel it, which I subsequently did every turn thereafter. Still the idea that I HAD to use dice to dispel it or my 700 point Vampire Lord on a Dragon would become weaker than a zombie still makes me mad.

Shooting: Zilch.

Combat: The Bloodletter units ravaged Kanzul's unit, who barely even got to fight back. When the dust cleared, it was Kanzul, the Standard Bearer, and the Musician left. While I was happy that Kanzul had survived so I would get another magic phase out of him, it was still not a pretty sight.

Alistair fought like a bloody whirlwind in his masters name, and not only did he survive the attacks from the Lord of Change thanks to his 4+ Ward save, but he also managed to wound the Greater Demon in return. Still, he suffered a wound.

Kayosiv's combat, simply made me furious. All demon attacks were against Rupert the Zombie Dragon; he took a total of 2 wounds total. In return, Kayosiv scored, 4 hits! Followed by 4 wounds! Rupert did equally amazing and after his rerolls from infinite hatred, hit with all his attacks as well, and then they all wounded!!! Meaning I had just done 9 wounds to a unit that was only 10 strong, and with Red Fury I would get even more attacks. Well, I was dead wrong. I watched in horror as ward save dice were rolled, followed by regeneration dice, and all 9 wounds, were saved, meaning I had done nothing. The following crumble test proved extremely unfortunate, as my both Rupert and Kayosiv were almost dead.

As predicted, the Black Coach finished off the last of the Flamers, finally victorious after so many turns.

TURN 5 Mine

Movement: The Black Coach Angled itself to charge the Lord of Change in the following turn, and the Black Knights wheeled and turned around, angling themselves towards the Lord of Change and also the Flank of the Plaugebearers. If I couldn't beat them with wounds, perhaps I could beat them with combat resolution.

Magic: All attempts at casting were thrown into healing my Lord and Alistair. Alistair healed a wound, and Kayosiv, and so did Rupert. All further attempts and all the attempts in-between to heal Kayosiv or his dragon were dispelled along with Kayosiv's Bound Vanhel's Danse Macabre. It was hard not to try to reinforce Kanzul's unit, but he was losing to a -5 combat resolution from the get go, and I knew his unit wad going to die. An unfortunate sacrifice, but a necessary one.

Shooting: The Banshee screamed into the unit of Blood Letters with the Herald inside. It had taken the heaviest casualties and I was trying to reduce it to less than half unit strength before the game ended. 2 Bloodlettters couldn't take the noise and kindly removed themselves back into the warp.

Combat: Kayosiv's combat this round was much more favorable. Killing 2 Plaguebearers before they got to strike, the number of attacks on him was minimal, and his herald of nurgle fluffed his attacks. I still lost combat by one point due to rank, standard, and outnumber, but neither my Dragon or Kayosiv died, and that was the important thing. Now if Alistair could only hold out for one more turn...

Kanzul was brutally and efficiently ripped limb from limb, personally by the herald of Khourne, as this time there was no champion to take the challenge for him, and no ranks to hide behind. The rest of his unit followed suit.

Alistair continued to fight like a man possessed. After weathering the Greater Demon's attacks once again taking only 1 wound (gotta love that 4+ ward save), he proceeded to wound the chaos demi-god twice. Sadly, his luck had finally run out and the Greater Demon proved that his 4+ ward save was just as effective, and Alistair promptly crumbled to death.

2 Vampires dead in 1 turn, poop on a biscuit.

TURN 5 His

Movement: Fresh from victory, the unit of Bloodletters with the Herald inside angled and marched towards the Black Coach. The other unit flipped around and starting going for my Banshee/wrath unit.

The Lord of Change Declared a charge against Kayosiv and Rupert's flank. Soon the battle to decide the outcome of this fight would be on.

Magic: With 2 vampires dead, my dispel pool was looking rather dismal. I had to dispel Miasma of Pestilence, but I couldn't stop the Beast Cowers despite me throwing both my remaining dice at it.

Shooting: His flamers dead, HAHAHAHA!

Combat: His Lord of Change declared a challenge against Kayosiv, who promply accepted. He wasn't about to so no to a chance at hacking up the monstrosity that had destroyed his loyal minion Alistair. Surprisingly, instead of attacking Rupert (who under the effect of The Beast Cowers would be hit automatically) The Changer of Ways directed all of his attacks on my Vampire Lord. He wasn't trying to win through combat resolution, he was going for the kill!

The spindly two headed monstrosity rushed towards Lord Kayosiv, multicolored fire gushing from the deep wound that Alistair had inflicted upon it's left thigh before it had torn him in half. It appears that the very stuff of chaos, pure magic energy, flowed through this Demon's veins. Kayosiv had wounds of his own, suffered from those disgusting bile monsters, and he had not yet had time to recover. He tried to will his great undead mount to fight, but it was no use, the magic that kept him animated was being disrupted and distorted, and if Kayosiv's magical talents could not overpower the spell causing the interference, it meant that his Dragon was being disabled by none other than the greater demon himself. The monster was upon him, the sickening plague-men backed off, awe on their distorted faces, as they watched their master descend upon the Vampire Lord.

Wasting no time and leaping off his useless mount, Kayosiv's sword met the Great Demonic Entity's staff mid air and awesome power radiated in all directions. Being this close to his opponent for the first time, it took all of his knowledge and will to prevent himself from being ripped asunder by the pure magical energy emanating from the Deamon Lord; Kayosiv knew he fought for his life. Despite his incredible skills and the Demon's seemingly awkward combat style, the Lord of Change seemed to be able to predict the future, and was able to not only ward off any blows, but also counterattack more effectively then Kayosiv thought possible for something of its massive size.

The Bloodletters and Plaugebearers jeered and roared encouragement at their dark master, while the Wight's and wraiths ceased to move, their master far too distracted to give them any commands. Lady Cheree, Long Dead lover of Kayosiv in a past lifetime, before he became a lord of the night and she become an undead specter, wailed as she watched her former lover be beaten to death. Inside his coffin, Lord Kircheck, awakened for the first time in centuries by the radical magical energy absorbed by his black Coach during this battle, watched intently as his brother struggled for his life.

Lord Kayosiv was smashed down to the ground, several of his limbs breaking upon the impact, an impact that would have splattered any mortal into paste. How could it end this way? He had been alive for milenia, never defeated by man or beast in combat, yet here, now, he was powerless. The Lord of Change lifted up a gigantic taloned foot with which to crush him, but it was not to be so.

Lord Kircheck's black Coach flew over the bloodletters and smashed into the greater Demon's hind leg, the wraith driver cutting deeply into his hind quarters. Already on one foot, the demon lurched forward, frantically beating its wings trying to stay balanced; the plaguebearers scattered so as not to be crushed by their master. Temporally losing its concentration on the winds of magic, Rupert was freed by the spell that prevented the necromantic power to flow through it, and promptly snapped it's jaws around the broken body of it's master, and begun to fly away. Black Coach and Zombie Dragon flew into the storm clouds, barely having manged to retreat before completely destroyed.

The last thing Kayosiv heard before lapsing into unconsciousness, was the shrill high pitched squak-laugh of the greater demon, and the sound of his army crumbling into dust. Then, something awoke him... a sound so disturbing, it gave even him the chills.
"You can't leave me here like this, not again, not agaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiinnnn!!!"
If lady Cheree ever found her way back to his castle, he would be in for quite an ear full.

In reality, the Lord of Change straight up killed Kayosiv at the end of turn 5, who died before he ever got to fight back. An enormous bummer, as I was hoping to get a shot at killing the thing, even though I would likely die at the end of combat due to combat resolution. In the following turn the Banshee was charged but didn't die. The Black Coach charged the Lord of Change and inflicted 1 wound, and survived both combats afterwards. The Banshee unit was charged and both wraiths wiped out by bloodletters, and the Black Knights charged the Bloodletters but were wiped out over the course of 2 combats, and that was the game. Massacre in favor of my opponent.

[Kayosiv]

Final Thoughts:

Well the first thing I want to do is apologize to anybody who was trying to follow this thread. It took me forever to finish it, 2 fricken weeks, and that was largely in part because I just picked a bad time to write it. I moved into my college dorm for the first time last week and have just been extremely busy since then.

What I could have done better:
The list is numerous. My shoddy generalship, lack of knowledge about the game and demons, and just general greenery in the game of WHFB contributed more to my loss than anything my opponent did, let me list off what I can remember, and I'm sure there's more.

1. My Graveguard unit had anvils, it was a hammer, yet it just sat back all game and died horribly. I know that situation was preventable, and it was my fault for not having enough foresight and letting it happen.
2. My Black Knights, after killing the Pink Horrors, should have gone with Lord Kayosiv to help out in the Plague bearer combat. Instead, they spun around ineffectively for 2 turns accomplishing nothing.
3. Lord Kayosiv should have challenged the Herald of Nurgle to protect himself from a charge from the Lord of Change. I was hoping for Alistair to hold out for another turn, but that's no excuse for me to not have a back up plan.
4. I totally wasted my corpse cart, it should have been in the back where Kanzul was, not the other way around.
5. I COMPLETELY forget to use Cloud of flies (easily the zombie dragon's most powerful ability) and Lord Kayosiv's Walking Death power (was the first game I'd used it in and just forgot it was there). This would have meant 1 more demon crumbling in the pink horror combat, significantly less wounds taken in the plaguebeaer combat, and although I can't remember the exact dice rolls, the likelihood Kayosiv would have survived against the Lord of Change would have been significantly higher.
6. My Banshee should have charged the Lord of Change to hold it up another turn so the Black Coach could smash into it without my General getting charged.
7. I had no idea the Heralds were the things giving the demon units special powers. I should have directed all of my attacks that I could have on the heralds, now I know.
8. I needed to stop breathing noxious dragon breath on the plaguebearers, they were by far the most inefficient and unlikely thing to wound in his entire army, and yet I breathed on them twice. It could have done so much more on any other unit.

Other issues
Of course the biggest issue was the misuse on my opponents part of "The Wolf Hunts" spell, which as I now understand because of Warseer posters, only works on monsters, cavalry, and monstrous mounts. So, he made several illegal charges that were an enormous turning point in the game that I just didn't have the magic defense to stop. I am absolutely positive that he did not do this knowingly, he had never used the lore of beasts before. Still, I can't help but think I would have done much better if we were both aware of the proper rules for that spell.

All in all, I had a fun game. I learned an enormous amount about Deamons, which was all I wanted to get out of the game in the first place, and became a better player after reflecting on my mistakes and the reasons for my loss. I think if we both took identical lists and played again, the game would be much closer.

Miasma of Pestilence is still absolute BS though, I stand by that.

[iaguz]

Heh, I remember reading Miasma of Pestilence and thinking "surely it's meant to say reduce BY 1, not TO 1." Just checked the FAQ. Holy ****. 4 lvl 1 Nurgle heralds in 4 plaguebearer units here I come.

[Kayosiv]

I'll second the pictures request!

Well since I will not be playing this army again for several months and focusing on my Lizardmen, this thread seems as good as any to post some pictures. I don't have any pictures of the battle, but here are some of my entire army on display.


http://www.warseer.com/forums/attach...1&d=1251530613

The corpse Cart is obviously a work in progress.

http://www.warseer.com/forums/attach...1&d=1251530613

http://www.warseer.com/forums/attach...1&d=1251530613

http://www.warseer.com/forums/attach...1&d=1251530613

[PeG]

Nice report. One important point though, according to the FAQ the banner that gives -2 to cast doesnt work on IoN since it is not a part of the VC lore. This means that you shouldnt have needed to kill his BSB to be able to heal in a good way.

[hawo0313]

great report man bed luck on some of the rules queries I almost thought that your CC vampire would have owned the lord of change but obviously I've never seen daemons before. anyway thanks for the report.

[Zujara]

Good report, nice to see the writeup on yourself and what you could improve in the end too! I would suggest removing the individual points costs on your items and upgrades and just leave the complete total for each character and unit, to avoid possible mod wrath.

[Malorian]

Took you a while, and too bad it had a disappointing ending, but it looks like you learned a lot from this game.

Next time you'll know more about the deamon while at the same time I'm sure you won't forget to use your own items/abilties

[Dungeon_Lawyer]

he decided to cast The Crow's Feast on my unit of Spear Skeletons instead, followed up by a Flickering Fire from his Herald of Tzeench, reducing them to 3 models. With them reduced below unit strength 5, suddenly my brilliant flank charge against the Bloodletter unit engaged with my other skeletons seemed less brilliant and more futile. On the plus side, I failed to roll 13 on 2 dice, so my skeletons passed their panic check.

? I thought Skellies dont panic--am I wrong?/?