So here's my blog's very first battle report, Game 1 of the Midlands GT, with my Beastmen against Dan's Vampire Counts.
So this was my (slightly unusual) list:
Beastlord (Armour of Silvered Steel, Talisman of Preservation, Biting Blade)
Beastlord (Heavy armour, shield, Wizarding Hat)
Bray Shaman (Level 1 Wizard, Lore of Death, Shard of the Herdstone)
Bray Shaman (Level 1 Wizard, Lore of Death, Dispel Scroll)
Wargor (Battle Standard Bearer, Heavy armour, shield, Gnarled Hide, Standard of Discipline)
30 Ungor Herd (Full command)
20 Ungor Herd
20 Ungor Herd
10 Ungor Herd
10 Ungor Herd
10 Ungor Herd
Tuskgor Chariot
Tuskgor Chariot
7 Razorgor Herd
7 Razorgor Herd
7 Razorgor Herd
And this was Dan's closed list:
Master Necromancer (Level 4 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires)
Vampire (Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires, Battle Standard Bearer, Lance, Heavy armour, Shield, Hellsteed)
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
18 Skeleton Warriors (Full command, Spears)
50 Skeleton Warriors (Full command)
20 Zombies (Standard Bearer, Musician)
8 Crypt Horrors (Champion)
9 Black Knights (Full command, Barding, Lances)
Corpse Cart
2 Fell Bats
5 Hexwraiths
Varghulf
Terrorgheist
Deployment: I was a little scared of what the Terrorgheist would do to razorgor caught out of my inspiring presence range, so deployed around the herdstone in the centre. My secret mission was to kill the vampire general, so I ambushed the 20 man unit of ungor, and 2 of the 10 man units to threaten him if he hid at the back.
Dan deployed with his chaff to the front, and general and Terrorgheist out of death snipe range. His black knights are further back, and his vampire is in a different unit due to not wanting to give targets to my wizarding hat lord who was toting lore of metal for the game.
My turn 1 was fairly ineffectual, sniping a couple of wounds off the corpse cart and my chariots dancing around his chaff. In his turn 1, he charge the hexwraiths into my right razorgor unit, killing one and pinning them in place. He also put his crypt horrors into long charge range of my left razorgor unit, a charge i didn't want to take.
Here the Crypt Horrors with the vampire, charged my left razorgor unit, who fled behind the herdstone, the skeletons moved to block the razorgor charging the knights. The Kights tried to swift reform to escape the trap formed by the surrounding units but failed and were stuck in place. The purple sun just missed the crypt horror unit, so I dispelled it in case it moved near my razorgor next. Some of my other ambushers came on behind the wizards bunker, and fought zombies raised in their way.
Here is the aftermath of the next turn's combats, the razorgor killing a lot of the huge skeleton unit, and even more with crumble, the ungors rear charging the black knights and winning, killing a couple, and three more with crumble, the knights then turned to fight.
Heres a very blurred pic of the crypt horrors moving to threaten the central combat, if they flank charged the razorgor, they would probably win, and all the skeletons had to do is hold for one more round.
Luckily for me, Dan's combat rounds went well for the Beastmen, with the ungors finishing of the zombies behind the generals unit, and the razorgor in the centre doing a frankly ridiculous 23 wounds on the skeletons, destroying the unit with crumble. The ungors fighting the black knights lost and fled, the black knights failed theirs restraint and chased them off the board, taking them out of the game. This positioned me for a charge from the razorgors into the corpse cart with an easy overrun into the generals unit, which the ungors would rear charge so that it would be already engaged, letting them fight again.
The Varghulf stops wandering on the flank to nobly sacrifice himself to stop the right razorgor unit committing to the fight as well.
The Terrorgheist, who till now had been trying to stay out of razorgor charge range and screaming at chariots, attacked my wizard bunker with the bsb, who reduced their leadership by one.
The Crypt horrors finally got into action, charging my generals unit with help from the bsb, who unfortunately fluffed his attacks, missing his chance to kill my bsb with his lance. My unit held on steadfast, but was in need of rescuing quickly. His terrorgheist rear charged my wizard bunker, who held on steadfast.
My Razorgors had meanwhile killed the general and his unit in a single round with help from crumble, and turned to fight the massive zombie block.
I threw everything else into the big combat, the razorgor unit behind clipping the bsb, the one to the right flanking the crypt horrors and even my wizarding hat beastlord charging in, we knew the game would be decided on this combat, I thought I had the edge, but those crypt horrors are very tough, and the vampire had another chance to kill by bsb.
And then I finally did something in the magic phase, my death wizard ignored the terrorgheist eating his mates behind him and cast purple sun with irresistible force right through the crypt horrors, killing every one. The vampire failed to kill the bsb in combat and was promptly killed by razorgor
To add insult to injury, the terrorgheist fluffed his attacks and thunderstomp to let the wizards and their unit survive the game. Survivors on the vampire side were the remnants of the large zombie unit, the terrorgheist and the black knights, who wandered back onto the table on the last turn.
Result: A 20-0 win for the Beastmen.
Overall, I got lucky at two key points, the razorgor having an epic round of combat and wiping out 40+ skeletons in a single round gave them the perfect chance to charge the general, and took them out of the way of the crypt horrors. The other was of course my amazing purple sun just when it was most needed. Without these two moments the game could have easily gone Dan's way. Dan was a great guy to play, a good sport even as his army was falling apart and has a great painted and converted army, which I wish I'd taken some better pictures of, but if you want to see it, I'm pretty sure I saw Gareth of Bad Dice taking pics of the best painted nominees, so if you keep an eye out I'm sure you can find some.
