4800 Doubles game (Orcs, Ogres, VC and WE)

[Tarsus]

I recently played a game at my mates house and for a change we thought we would record it for a battle report. The game was 2 v 2 with 2400 points per player. This was only the 3rd time i have ever played using the new vampire counts and my previous 2 outings were both defeats, the army list isnt what i really wanted but i was limited by the models i had.

The teams are:

Ogre kingdoms (Adam)
Orcs and Goblins (Dave)

versus

Vampire Counts (Chris - me)
Wood Elves (Jason)

All the directions and facing are told from my perspective as the vampire player, so left and right are reversed from the opponants side.

Dawn Attack mission, 10 pieces of scenery are used, 9 forests and an idol of gork over an 8 x 4 board. Orcs and ogres win roll for sides and deploy first. Orcs and ogres are spread very evenly across the board, most of the major units are in the centre with a strong right flank. Vampires and elves on the other hand get some shocking rolls for deployment, the vampire lord is stuck on his own to the left away from the large blocks of undead infantry and the right flank is completly empty apart from a block of zombies.

Waywatchers deploy behind the large unit of ogres, along side the goblin chariots and spear chuckas. Direwolves and wild riders both make vanguard moves to set up ambushes for turn 1.

Here is what the battlefield looks like at the start of the game:


Units are -

Vampires and elves in blue;

1 - 30 zombies with level 2 necromancer
2 - 5 Wild riders with noble on stag and helm of the hunt
3 - Highborn in giant eagle with spear of twilight, hail of doom arrow and stone of crystal mere
4 - Level 2 Vampire on hellsteed with ruby ring and scroll of shielding
5 - 20 Ghouls
6 - Level 4 Spellweaver with opal amulet and channeling staff
7 - 6 Treekin
8 - 44 skeletons with screaming banner
9 - 10 Dryads
10 - 28 Grave guard with great weapons and banner of barrows, Vampire BSB with book of arkhan and Wight king with enchanted shield and sword of battle
11 - 10 Glade guard
12 - 5 Blood knights with warbanner and Vampire lord on barded nightmare, tricksters helm, redfury and quickblood.
13 - 10 Glade guard
14 - 10 Dryads
15 - 10 Dire wolves
16 - 5 Waywatchers
17 - Treeman
18 - 5 Wardancers
19 - 5 Glade guard scouts

Ogres and Orcs in red;

1 - 32 Goblins with 2 nasty skulkers, Goblin shaman, Goblin big boss
2 - 20 Orc boyz, Orc big boss BSB
3 - Mangler squig
4 - 23 Night goblins with 3 fanatics, Night goblin shaman and Night goblin big boss
5 - Doom diver
6 - Spearchucka #1
7 - 20 Black orc immortalz with Grimgor ironhide and Savage orc shaman with dispel scroll
8 - 12 Ogre bulls, Bruiser BSB with razor standard and Greasus goldtooth
9 - Goblin wolf chariot
10 - Goblin wolf chariot
11 - 20 Savage orcs
12 - 4 Mournfang
13 - 4 Ironguts, Level 2 firebelly with dispel scroll and power stone
14 - 4 Lead belchers
15 - Spear chucka #2
16 - Thundertusk

[Tarsus]

Ogres and Orcs turn 1;

No animosity rolls are failed which is a miracle for Dave, no charges are declared. The entire battle line marches forward more or less staying in formation, the mangler squig surges forward 3 quarters of the way across across the board.

Magic is reasonable 7 vs 4, the firebellys first spell is stopped and he fails his second, the shaman gets of the hand of gork moving the mangler squig just a couple of inches short of the treekin and ghouls.

The 2 wolf chariots shoot the waywatchers with no effect, spear chucka number 1 gets of a super long range shot killing 5 skeletons, spear chucka number 2 and the doom diver both fail to deliver, and the leadbelchers pick of 2 glade guard.

Vampires and Wood elves turn 1;

The waywatchers charge the doomdiver, and the glade guard scouts sacrifice themselves to the mangler squig for the good of the army. Everything moves forward to meet the oncoming hordes, both flying characters advance together using the forests as cover to set up shots against the oncoming goblins on the right flank.

Magic is good, 11 vs 7, unfortunatly we have to split the dice between us unlike the ogres and orcs. 3 skeletons are revived and everything else is dispelled or fails to cast.

The 2 units of glade guard on the left both score 1 wound each, 1 on the leadbelchers and 1 on the mournfangs. The highborn on the eagle lets of a hail of doom arrow killing 7 goblins, just short of causing panic.

The waywatchers defeat the doomdiver crew easily but its all for nothing as the combat brought them too close to the night goblins who released their fanatics, 1 came right at the waywatchers reducing them down to a single model, the other 2 shot forward towards the highborn and the vampire.



Ogres and Orcs turn 2;

One of the wolf chariots squabbles with itself. The ironguts charge the glade guard who had foolishly moved forward, they flee resulting in a failed charge. The mournfang charge the bllodknights and the vampire lord, who have no choice but to hold, and the huge unit of ogre bulls led by greasus slam into the treekin. The fanatics turn on thier masters killing 3 orc boys.

Winds of magic come up 9 vs 7 and all spells fail or are stopped.

The leadbelchers kill 3 direwolves but the shot of the match goes to spearchucka number 1, at a distance of only 1 inch short of its max range and looking down a thin column left by about 5 or 6 other units it sends a spear flying and knocks the vampire riding the hellsteed out of the sky with 3 rolls of 6, one to hit, one to wound and 1 for multi wounds, without a ward save the vampire goes down, paying back the spearchucka almost quadruple its original cost.



Out on the left the mournfang and bloodknights beat each other bloody, 3 knights are killed and 4 wounds back to the ogres, the ogres lose by 1 but dont flee. The original result was actually 5 dead knights and an ogre win by 3, which would have killed the lord, but much to my relief we discovered that stomp attacks dont work against cavalry. The ogre bulls kill 2 treekin and take 3 deaths in return but the banners and greasus give the ogres a win by 1 point, the treekin hold.

Vampires and Wood elves turn 2;

In what it turns out is going to be a common occurance adam decided that greasus is going to make my ld3 skeletons stupid, and much to my suprise they fail thier test, the grave guard are also stupid but they are led by a king giving them ld9 and so they pass just fine.

There are lots of charges and counter charges for us, the dire wolves and wardancers both flank charge into the mournfangs, the treeman and the dryads in the centre both join their medium sized cousins in the battle against the bulls, the zombies charge the right most unit of goblins to begin what turns out to be the most bloody fight of the game, the grave guard attack the savage orcs and finally the Highborn on giant eagle charges into whats left of the night goblins in hope of a quick victory. The ghouls try to charge the squig herd but the roll comes up just short, and even more annoying, they are just half an inch to far from the idol of gork to get the reroll.

Magic is very poor for us, 6 vs 5, the necromancer with the zombies goes for an invocation and misscasts, wounding himself and the vampire carring the battle standard but raising up 7 zombies.

The gladeguard on the far left shoot and kill 3 boarboys.

Dave and myself both take huge hadfulls of dice and throw them, the end result leaves 4 goblins and 12 zombies dead, no matter theres plenty more where they came from.



The highborn on eagle kills 6 goblins for no damage to himself but thanks to their ranks they actually hold postion leaving the elf general looking worried. The grave guard demolish the savage orcs, easily breaking them and running them down for only 8 casualtys to themselves. The vampire lord and his mixed reinforcements make short work of the mournfang, winning 9 to 6, the ogres flee and are run down, but theres a problem, the lord is now sat out in the open with a pair of angry units on each of his flanks.

[Tarsus]

Ogres and Orcs turn 3;

The orc boys on the right flank fail animosity but its all good for dave as they charge head first into the highborn vs goblin conflict. Adams gorger arrives and immediatly sets itself up for a rear charge into the zombies or the wildriders.

The squig herd charges into the ghouls as expected, and even more expected is the vampires lord demise in the form of a unit of ironguts into his left flank and boarboy biguns into his right.



Magic is below average, in fact its awful, we actually have more dispell dice than they have power dice thanks to lots of channelling. 5 vs 6. Dave puts all his dice into the curse of the bad moon, casting it on a 22 and we actually fail to dispel it by just 1. The spell hits about a dozen elves and just clips the orcs but the characteristic test comes up as initiative, meaning only 1 wound to the elf nobel on stag and all 3 orcs are killed.

The spearchucka takes a shot into the flank of the graveguard but its luck finally fails as the graveguards high toughness stops the bolt at just the second model. The second spear chucka as usual does nothing.

The vampire lord is beaten on combat resolution and crumbles but not before killing an irongut. The ogre bulls who look like they are in a forest lose the combat 8 to 3 but hold position. The ghouls kill almost all the squigs but still lose the combat by just 2. The Highborn is actually wounded twice by the goblns, but kills the shaman and a further 2 goblins, he loses the combat but holds position. And once again its wounds galore over to the right with the zombies and goblins, its 14 to 5, the zombies remain with just 6 left.

The death of the vampire lord leaves the undead in ruins, all the units take losses but my rolls are good and its not as bad as i thought it was going to be, the necromancer takes over the duties as army general.

Things are not looking good for the vampire and wood elf alliance at this point.

Vampires and Wood elves turn 3;

Once again the skeletons are stupid, and once again their mighty leadership of 3 lets them down.

On the right the wild riders led by the noble on stag hit the orc boys in the flank hoping to save their general. The grave guard reform ready to take a charge from the black orcs led by grimgor and also to put a more favorable facing towards that pesky spear chucka. Over on the left everyone tries to untangle themelves and gain the upper hand for next turn with the dryads charging the leadbelchers.



Magic is 8 vs 4, Dave and adam know that my necromancer is now the general and he is trapped in combat, so they make sure to dispel both attempts at invocation, this left jason free to cast both his spells without fear of being dispelled and he casts both regrowth and flesh to stone on his tree kin.

Both units of glade guard on the left shoot the thundertusk wounding it once.

The clash of the monsters in the centre finally comes to an end, the ogres take down half the dryads and wound another tree kin but take 9 wounds in return giving a final score of 10 to 6, the ogres break and are run down, greasus is killed. The ghouls wipe out the remaining squigs and herders for just 2 casualties. The dryads on the left massacre the leadbelchers winning 8 to 1, the ogres break and are run down. The tangle of unit of the far right comes to an end, the Highborn kills a goblin big boss while the wildriders and noble kill a dozen orcs, the elves win 14 to 4 and both the orcs and the goblins break but they both manage to escape. The goblins are reduced to just 5 models and so cannot rally. The zombies are finally beaten in combat and the necromancer is killed by combat resolution, once again the undead general is slain.

10 undead crumble to dust, and this time the only remaining caster is a battle standard bearer who cannot take over as general.

[Tarsus]

Ogres and Orcs turn 4;

The goblins who had been locked in combat with the zombies decide its time to squabble.

Grimgor and his black orcs charge into the graveguard but with the positioning of the spear chucka they are unable to put their full facing into contact and have to make do with just the boss and grimgor getting any attacks in. The Orcs in the right rally and turn to face the wildriders while the remaining night gablins and one of the fanatics leave the board. To the left the now lone firebelly, boarboyz and thundertusk postition themselves to recieve the charges they know are coming next turn.

Magic is bad this turn, no spells are even attempted.

The thundertusk riders shoot and kill 2 dryads, the monster shoots but misses. Both remaining bolt throwers also miss.

Grimgor hacks down 5 grave guard but is then cut to pieces by the combined might of the wight king and the vampire swinging a great weapon, the combat goes 10 vs 9 in favour of the undead and the holds hold their ground. Grimgors death spells almost certain defeat for the orc and ogre team but they arent going to go down without a fight.

Vampire and Wood elf turn 4;

The undead army, without a general, slowly begins to crumble, 7 ghouls dies wiping out the unit and 5 more skeletons join them. The high leadership of the wight king keeps the grave guard safe.

On the left the dryads charge the firebelly while the wardancers charge into the boarboyz flank. The wild riders go head first into the orcs and the right and in the centre the treeman goes into the side of the black orcs to help out the grave guard. The highborn on eagle, now down to his last wound flys right across the board to safety, away from the spear chuckas.



Magic is good, 11 vs 6. All the undead attempts are dispelled and the elves get of flesh to stone on the wild riders.

The pair of glade guard units once again pool their shots and score another 2 wounds on the thundertusk reducing down to just 2, while the elf mage takes out his trusty long bow and snipes the last fanatic.

The dryads kill the firebelly, taking 2 wounds themselves, and sweep right into the other flank of the boars where together with the war dances score just 1 wound winning the combat but failing to cause the boar boyz to flee. The wild riders defeat the orcs 5 to 3, the orcs break and are run down by the elves. The grave guard and treeman together absolutely demolish the black orcs winning the combat 15 to 2, the black orcs flee and are wiped out.

Even though its clear that the vampire and elf alliance is going to win we decide to play once more final turn.

[Tarsus]

Ogre and Orc turn 5

There is no animosity, and as the only caster left alive only knows 1 useless spell, no magic either.

The ironguts charge into the rear of the dryads creating an incredibly complicated 4 way combat on the left flank. While a goblin chariot makes a brave charge into the graveguard.



Spearchucka number 2, who has so far managed to miss every shot of the game finally scores a hit on a unit of glade guard peircing both ranks scoring 2 dead elves. The thundertusks rider with the harpoon manages a single wound on the treeman but it passes its ward save.

The ogres v dryads v boarboyz v wardancers combat gets underway, and just to make is more complicated the thundertusks ASL aura is in play too, after lots of dice and arguing and adding up its a draw, 8 to 8. The brave little goblin chariot runs down 4 grave guard before being hacked apart, the amount of damage caused actually suprised us a bit and made Dave wish he had used them earlier.

VC+WE

Once again a handfull of skeletons are removed.

The grave guard charge the spear chucka that has been plaguing us all game with its lucky shots.

Magic is bad this turn. Really bad. 2 dice to 2. Yes folks thats right double 1's with the defenders getting a channel dice. The last vampire rolls his 1 dice and nothing is cast, what a shock. The elf though suprises us all and not only casts his spell on one dice, but it isnt dispelled even with double the number of dispel dice! The dryads in the annoying combat get flesh to stone.

Every elven bow on the table fires at the thundertusk but not one finds its mark, the thundertusk is going to survive, and its annoying ASL aura will once again be in full effect.

And for the final combat of the game, the dryads get wiped out by the ironguts and the wardancers flee and escape after losing 7 to 6. The wight king being the only model without a great weapon in his combat strikes first and wipes out the entire crew of the spear chucka.

Final scores are Orgres and Orcs 1828, and Vampires and Elves 3918 and a table overflowing with piles of dead models.

[Fle]

Cheers for writing this up - I didn't realise how close some of those combats were. Dave was unlucky with the orcs when making those break tests - and Grimgor didn't really have a good game.

You deffo need to invest in a charmed shield for your vampire on the dark pegasus lol

[Tarsus]

Despite the loss of about two thirds of my points value on turns 2 and 3 i think my army performed well, the grave guard were absolutely devastating in combat making back about double their value, the lord with the blood knights was a let down, the last time i used him he did very well but despite being one the best heavy cavalry units in the game my bloodknights are just no match to being hit in the flank by a unit of boarboy big uns. Maybe next time my lord should ride along with the grave guard.

My necromancer and zombies were stuck out on their own, usually i would use them to back up my skeletons and guard but the mission rules ruined that plan, if i had cast a few more invocations they could have lasted another turn for the wildriders to help them, but unfortunatly dave and adam knew this too and made sure to dispel it every time.

The mangler squig has in the past put the fear of god into all of us when playing and so we make it our number job mission to kill it early, the first time it was ever used it did around 1500 points worth of damage, killing a manticore, several bolt throwers and konrad along with numerous infantry who were stupid enough to get in its way. It will probably never do this well again but that one historic game as frightened us all too much to take the chance.

[Sexiest_hero]

Yeah good game. Never let your blood knights get flanked. It's their one weakness. Crumbling to combat res is the bane of undead heavy troops

[Tarsus]

I was unlucky with the blood knights, they were more or less on their own on that flank, the only backup they had wasnt capable of withstanding charges from what we were facing at that end of the table. Looking back i think i should have just ran them behind our lines to join up with the guards or skeletons in the middle rather than risking them against the mournfang. But that tactic would have left the mournfang with a free charge into the flanks of our main battle line, in the end their sacrifice was worth our victory even though i didnt like losing my lord and my knights to a stupid flank charge and combat resolution crumble.

[Spazo]

Great battle!

I was thinking, that only at least 5 men strong models have to test animosity. Are you sure that lone chariot also have to test?

[Tarsus]

I actually have no idea about the chariot having animosity, Dave just rolled for it and seeing as he had the orc army book we just assumed he knew what he was doing.

[thrawn]

thanks for the great battle report!

also, the WE player, where did he get that model for his highborn on a great eagle?

[Fle]

...we just assumed he knew what he was doing.

Why do keep making this same mistake

thanks for the great battle report!

also, the WE player, where did he get that model for his highborn on a great eagle?

From here http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/inde...mm_cha_055_000

It's a resin model and it comes with a metal Elf lord who can be given either a spear/shield or bow. It also comes with a smaller base so you can use the elf without the eagle.