2000pts Clan Skrit vs Vampire Counts : Blood and Glory

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Overview
Scenario: Blood and Glory
Date Played: 22nd September 2011

So, onto the 3rd game in our mini-series. So far it was 2-0 to the Vampire Counts - which were both quite close games. It was time for the Skaven to start clawing their way back (pun completely intentional ).

The Skaven started the game with a fortitude of 6 (general + bsb + 3 banners) while the Vampire Counts started on 5 (general + bsb + 2 banners). With a breaking point of 2, it would prove to be an interesting game!

Clan Skrit

Lord

[GS] Grey Seer, Talisman of Preservation, Skalm (315pts)
[WLR] Warlord, Warlitter, Shield, Warlock Augmented Weapon (173pts)

Hero

[BSB] Chieftain, Battle Standard Bearer, Halberd (72pts)
[WE] Warlock Engineer, Doomrocket (45pts)

Core

[SV] 36 Stormvermin, Fangleader, Standard Bearer, Musician (277pts)
[WFT] Warpfire Thrower (70pts)
[CR] 23 Clanrats, Clawleader, Standard Bearer, Musician, Shields (123.5pts)
[SS] 47 Skaven Slaves Musician (96pts)

Special

[PM] 40 Plague Monks Bringer-of-the-Word, Standard Bearer, Musician, Plague Banner (335pts)
[GR] 6 Gutter Runners Slings, Poisoned Attacks (108pts)

Rare

[DW] Doomwheel (150pts)
[HPA] Hellpit Abomination (235pts)

Total: 1999.5pts

Vampire Counts

Lord

[VL] Vampire Lord, Level 3, Talisman of Preservation, Earthing Rod, Helm of Commandment, Master of the Black Arts, Forbidden Lore (Beasts) (440pts)

Hero

[WK] Wight King, Battle Standard Bearer, Drakenhoff Banner, Great Weapon (235pts)
[N] Necromancer, Level 1 (Invocation of Nehek), Sceptre of Stability (70pts)

Core

[SW] 23 Skeleton Warriors, Champion, Standard Bearer, Musician (204pts)
[G] 39 Ghouls, (312pts)
[CC] Corpse Cart, Unholy Loadstone (100pts)

Special

[BK] 10 Black Knights, Standard Bearer, Musician, Barding, Standard of Strigois (339pts)
[FB1] 3 Fell Bats (60pts)
[FB2] 3 Fell Bats (60pts)

Rare

[V] Varghulf (175pts)

Total: 1995pts

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Deployment


We rolled for scenery as usual. The tower up in the North was a Wizards Tower which could be useful for the Vampire Counts*, while the monument in the South was an Idol of Gork (or possibly Mork). Apart from that everything else turned out to be an "ordinary" version of it's type.

* = we had a rules query around turn 3 - when the VC player finally realised he was close enough to use the tower! The Wizards Tower says it allows a wizard to know all spells from his "chosen lore". Both the Vampire and Necromancer obviously have Invocation of Nehek - which is generally considered to not be part of any lore. The Vampire Lord had chosen the Lore of Beasts which seems to fit the bill, but he already had the Forbidden Lore rule anyway! We ended up saying the Necromancer had access to the full Lore of Necromancy, which seemed reasonable, and that it would have no affect on the Vampire Lord. Would be interesting what others think about this rule combination.

The Vampires started deploying first and ended up bunkering up in the right flank.


The Skaven followed suit, making sure the Plague Monks and Stormvermin were in good positions to punch the Ghouls really hard!


The Doomwheel could either deploy next to the Hellpit Abomination - no no no! So ended up more than 18" away from anything else to ensure it wouldn't do any harm.


Lastly, the Gutter Runners deployed behind the forest, ready to start picking on the Fellbats and if necessary the Varghulf and Corpse Cart with their poisoned slings.


Spells:
Grey Seer: Warp Lightning, Death Frenzy, Wither, Curse of the Horned Rat
Vampire Lord: Lore of Beasts (Forbidden Lore), Invocation of Nehek
Necromancer: Invocation of Nehek

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Turn 1 - Clan Skrit


The game started with a sarcastic comment from the VC player about the Doomwheel zooming off on it's own. And it did...


Not wanting to be outdone, the Hellpit Abomination followed suit and also rolled pretty high for its initial movement.


The rest of the Skaven army obviously couldn't keep up with these 2 rolls. So the plan changed slightly and the three large hordes of rats moved up and consolidated their lines - making sure to stay within 6" of the Idol of Gork (or possibly Mork).


The magic phase saw 9 power dice rolled up for the Skaven. However it was uneventful thanks to my "genius" idea to roll 5 dice to cast the Dreaded 13th on the Ghouls as my first spell - and unsurprisingly failing to cast it! Next time I need to think it through a little more

With the Doomwheel out of range (the Gutter Runners had been the only target in range before they made a quick dash towards the VC lines), the only damage the Skaven could inflict this turn was from the Gutter Runners. They managed 3 wounds on the Fellbats.

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Turn 1 - Vampire Counts


The Vampire Counts first turn started off with a little dilemma - and the realisation of a minor mistake. Here is the situation:

The Varghulf wasn't able to charge the Hellpit Abomination as it hadn't been turned enough to face during deployment. Not only that, but the Black Knights couldn't charge either. Although they could move through the Wizards Tower, and they could see the Hellpit Abomination they couldn't fit in the gap between the tower and the Ghouls.

In the end the VC player opted to charge in with the Ghouls, and use the other units as support.


On the other flank, the Varghulf also elected not to charge anything and took up a position to threaten the Plague Monks and the Clanrat bunkers flanks.


In the magic phase the winds of magic came up with an enormous 3 for the power pool, and both the Vampire and Necromancer managed to channel additional dice! Luckily however the only spell that was cast was Wyssans Wildform on the Ghouls.


In the combat between the Ghouls and the Hellpit Abomination the Hellpit managed to get 4 wounds past the regeneration saves of the flesh eating creatures whilst only suffering 1 in return. The ranks, charging and BSB bonuses meant the Ghouls won (by 1), but the Hellpit Abomination easily passed it's Stubborn 8 break test.


The Black Knights took up position on the flank. While the 2 units of Fell Bats did their job and set up redirecting charge scenarios for both the Plague Monks and Stormvermin.

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Turn 2 - Clan Skrit


The turn started with the Plague Monks charging the Fell Bats in front of them. Although this played into the Vampire Counts hand, it did mean the Plague Monks had a clear path to the Vampire Lord's bunker afterwards. But it also left the Clanrats exposed to a charge from the Varghulf!


The Doomwheel attempted to save the Grey Seer and BSB by moving right up to the Varghulf ready to zzzapp it.


On the right flank I fancied trying out a little trick that I first heard from one of MrMalorian's videos, and the Warlock Engineer went out on his lonesome to distract the Black Knights.

It also happened that from this position the Engineer had a line of sight to the Skeleton bunker hiding at the back of the Vampire Counts lines

Finally the Gutter Runners continued to move up to harass the Fell Bat unit in the centre.


So the second turn's magic phase didn't really go much better than the first. I successfully cast Warplightning, but promptly rolled a 1 for the number of hits.


Then the shooting phase began - and made me wish I had skipped it...

The Doomwheel rolled S6 for it's Zzapp attack on the Varghulf. Then rolled a 2, 1 and 2 to wound!


The Warpfire Thrower tried to shoot the Fell Bats. But misfired. Luckily it rolled a 6 and didn't blow itself up - particularly given how close it was to my big expensive units.


The Gutter Runners then shot at the Fell Bats. But failed to hit anything (in fairness it was on 7's).

Finally, some pretty good luck. The Warlock Engineer released the Doomrocket, and it landed in an almost perfect spot. The template covered every model in the Skeleton bunker except the Necromancer. It also hit the Corpse Cart to boot.


The Corpse Cart managed to regenerate it's wound. However the Vampire Lord failed her Look out Sir roll, but then saved the wound with her 4+ ward save. But in total 17 Skeletons were blown apart by the kamikaze (although not necessarily willing) rat with a big firework strapped to it's back!



The combat phase was a little dull. With the Plague Monks easily wiping out the Fell Bats and overrunning a measly 4". Then the Hellpit Abomination managed to kill 3 Ghouls for no wounds back at all. However the Ghouls still had enough static CR to win, and the Hellpit Abomination still passed it's break test.

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Turn 2 - Vampire Counts


The second VC turn, and the second tricky decision for the Vampire player. Should the Varghulf charge the rear of the Plague Monks to hold them up for a couple of turns. Or should he go for the objectives and charge the Clanrat bunker containing the Chieftain BSB and the Grey Seer general.

This was the decision...


Over on the right flank the Black Knights charged the lone Warlock Engineer.


While in the centre, the Corpse Cart ducked back behind the Skeleton bunker but lined itself up to protect the Skeletons flank in later turns.


In the magic phase the Vampire Lord and Necromancer between them managed to raise 6 Skeletons back, and the Corpse Cart used it's bound spell to grant ASF to the Ghouls (and Skeletons). Although the Vampire Lord attempted to re-cast Wyssans Wildform on the Ghouls it was dispelled by the Grey Seer.


In combat, the Black Knights obviously wiped out the Skaven Warlock Engineer, and reformed to face in towards the main battle lines.


The Hellpit Abomination only suffered a single wound from the ASF Ghouls, before it killed a couple of the critters in return. Their regeneration save (and the Hellpit's fondness for the 1-2 attack type that only hits models in base contact) was proving an issue! However it still held it's ground.


Finally, in a tense round of combat which could potentially end the game, the Clanrats and BSB managed to inflict 1 wound on the Varghulf. When attacking back the Vampire player wanted to try and kill the BSB, but also to win the combat (and break the bunker unit). Electing to put 2 attacks on the BSB, the Varghulf inflicted a single wound. With it's remaining 3 attacks killing 3 Clanrats that meant that the scores were:

Varghulf: 6 (charging, flank, 4 wounds)
Clanrats: 6 (BSB, standard, 3 ranks, 1 wound)

The Clanrats musician meant they won the combat, and the Varghulf took another wound to CR. The Clanrats reformed to face their assailant.


Phew!

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Turn 3 - Clan Skrit


So with the Vampire Counts closing in on the flanks, it was time for the Skaven to push towards the Skeleton bunker - removing the Black Knights and the Ghouls would be a pretty hard task, and wasn't even enough to win the game! The Skeleton bunker and the Vampire Lord had to be killed in order to secure a win.

The Skaven Slaves charged the Black Knights on the right flank in an attempt to delay them - and to avoid being charged themselves! Whilst the Stormvermin got fed up with the Fell Bats in the centre and charged them.


In an attempt to stop the Vampire Lord from using her Helm of Commandment, the Gutter Runners charged into the Skeleton bunker.


Finally, the Doomwheel made its move directly towards the Varghulf to try and make up for it's minor boo-boo last turn.


In the magic phase the Grey Seer attempted to cast Withering on the Varghulf, but it was dispelled. His second spell went through though, and the Gutter Runners were put into a Death Frenzy.

My thinking behind this was that the Gutter Runners were doomed anyway (I was pretty sure the Vampire Lrrd would make way and slaughter them) so I wanted to do as much damage as possible in return. Their main objective was already secured - stopping the Helm of Commandment for this turn!

In the shooting phase the Doomwheel more than made up for last turn. It rolled S8, and despite failing to wound with it's first shot, the second killed the Varghulf outright - and the third shot killed a Clanrat, but who cares about such things!
The Clanrats and Varghulf both reformed to face the main battle - as the BRB FAQ states this is allowed if your only combat opponents are killed before you get to the combat phase.


In the centre, the Hellpit Abomination finally got some decent rolling in and managed to inflict a total of 10 wounds - but this was the VC players roll for the regeneration saves...

Ho hum! In return the Ghouls put another 3 wounds on the Hellpit Abomination. But yet again it held it's ground.


Then we moved onto the Slaves vs Black Knights combat. The Slaves couldn't get past the Black Knights high armour save and failed to inflict a single wound. In return the Black Knights used their Hatred banner to good effect and killed 9 Slaves. The Slaves were still steadfast, and it was touch and go if they were within range of the Grey Seer's Ld bubble - but they passed on their own Ld anyway.


Finally, we resolved the Gutter Runners vs Skeletons combat. The Vampire Lord killed 3 of the sneaky rats, and the Skeletons (who still had ASF thanks to the Corpse Cart) failed to add any more to the tally. The remaining 3 Gutter Runners had 12 attacks in total thanks to Death Frenzy, but despite the Skeleton's low WS, the rats could only bring down 1 Skeleton. Surprise, surprise, the rats broke and fled while the bunker held it's ground - but only thanks to the BSB re-roll.

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Turn 3 - Vampire Counts


With almost everything engaged in combat, the only charge this turn was the Corpse Cart chasing off the already fleeing Gutter Runners - who easily escaped.


In the magic phase the Necromancer finally realised he was in range of the Wizards Tower ( see the comment in the introduction about this) and used this to cast Curse of Years on the Plague Monks.


Then the Vampire Lord cast Wyssans Wildform again. The Skaven had saved all their dispel dice for this, but the Vampire Lord managed to get irresistible force! The miscast killed a couple of Skeletons, but no more than that.


In combat the Black Knights managed to break the Skaven Slaves, who were well out of the Grey Seer's Ld bubble by the time more casualties had been removed. After we'd worked out the casualties for the Cornered Rats rule a total of 2 Black Knights, 2 Stormvermin and a shed load of Slaves had perished.


Lastly, the Ghouls finally managed to bring down the Hellpit Abomination and they reformed to stop the Plague Monks from getting a flank charge.


The Hellpit Abomination stayed dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.

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Turn 4 - Clan Skrit


Here's a quick overview of the board after the Skaven movement phase.


Finally with a decent charge opportunity, the Plague Monks surged into the Ghouls assisted by the Warlord who left his Stormvermin bodyguard behind.


The Stormvermin opted to swift reform to protect their Warlord's flank from the Black Knights.


In the meantime, the Doomwheel and Warpfire Thrower set themselves up for more mischief in future turns - provided they both survived their own shooting phase!


Then it happened...

As with all good Skaven games, the magic phase did it. But almost did it to both sides!

The Grey Seer went to cast the Dreaded Thirteenth on the Skeleton bunker - which was now only 10-11 models strong. Rolling 6 dice + 1 Warpstone Token yielded a double 6 (thanks to the Warpstone Token) which saw the Vampire Lord and his cohort of Skeletons turned into Clanrats.

We couldn't be bothered placing the new unit of Clanrats as this meant the game was over - the VC had hit their breaking point of 2.

We figured it was only fair to work out the result of the miscast before declaring any winners. And this was the result...

• The Grey Seer was sucked into the warp
• The BSB was killed by a S10 hit (having taken a wound earlier against the Varghulf)
• 15 of the remaining 19 Clanrats were also killed
• The Clanrats therefore had to take a panic test on their own Ld (with no ranks left!) but luckily passed!

The Vampires had been reduced to their breaking point (with only the BSB and the Black Knights left), while the Skaven still had 3 (Plague Monks, Stormvermin and Clanrat banners).

Game over - victory to Clan Skrit

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Post Battle Thoughts

Clan Skrit
That was really close! Just like the last 2 games, only the Skaven just had the edge at the end to gain the win.

If the Clanrats had fled from their final panic test it would have still been a win for the Skaven - as I was more than 13" from the board edge, but they were so close to being wiped out by that miscast which would have meant a draw!

It was a really enjoyable game with plenty of tense moments. Although I felt fairly confident in most turns, there were plenty of "oh crap" moments where things could have easily fallen apart. But I did have some slightly lucky rolls for break tests which helped offset the number of times I rolled up the 1-2 result for the Hellpit Abomination's attacks (which meant 3 Ghouls took a hit, and often 2-3 of these were saved!).

Overall I was pretty happy with how the game panned out. The original plan was to send in the Hellpit Abomination against the Ghouls supported by the Plague Monks, while the Stormvermin/Slaves would handle the Black Knights which just left a Skeleton bunker to handle with whatever survived.

The Hellpit Abomination's early surge in movement obviously changed this - as it ended up in combat a turn sooner than expected, with no way for the other units to support it properly. But this movement meant that the Black Knights and Varghulf were a bit stuck for things to do on turn 1. And despite lots of bad rolling against the Ghouls it still held it's ground through 5 rounds of combat. Definitely deserves the title Rat of the Match.

I'm still struggling a bit to get anything worthwhile out of the Warpfire Thrower in these games. But I'm sure it will do something eventually!

Vampire Counts
...

[ftayl5]

Damn you, master of suspense!!!
Very exciting battle so far...

[SevenSins]

nice rep and a really close-fought battle (which of course is a good thing)

(now get painting!)

[w3rm]

Wow that was really close there in the end!!

Great report and gratz on the victory!

[TheDrugLordX]

Congrats on the win!

Why didn't the varghulf thunderstomp when he charged the clanrats? Would probably given him the win (in that initial round of combat).

Also, I believe you're not allowed to exceed the 6 dice limit when casting spells when using warpstone tokens (see the skaven FAQ).

Anyway, nice report! Looking forward to next one

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Why didn't the varghulf thunderstomp when he charged the clanrats? Would probably given him the win (in that initial round of combat).

Good point - looks like we forgot! Stomp/Thunderstomp, and fear are the things we usually forget to do. This game in particular I made a point of putting 2 dice next to any of my units which got charged just to remind me to roll fear tests later!

Also, I believe you're not allowed to exceed the 6 dice limit when casting spells when using warpstone tokens (see the skaven FAQ).

That's one I hadn't heard about. I checked the FAQ and it says:

Page 108 – Warpstone Tokens, third paragraph
Ignore “although this does allow users to roll more dice than is
normally allowed by their level.”

My interpretation is that this means ignore the sentence because it refers to a rule which is no longer applicable in 8th - where wizard level determines the max number of dice used to cast a spell (as it was back in 7th).

I can see how this could be read as applicable to the "max 6 dice to cast" rule in 8th, however I don't think that is what is means.

[Far2Casual]

It is

Excellent report as always, I love them !

[Dralack]

Nice report of the battle . To bad the Vamps lost . But hey i am vamp player. Nice Table btw .