For anyone who hasn't read the last few entries, my list for this event is shown below. It's b no means an optimal tournament list, but I really wanted to use the dragon so I designed the rest of the list to support the dragon as much as possible.
2500 Vampire Counts
Vampire Lord: Charmed Shield; Talisman Of Preservation; Potion Of Strength; Quickblood; Level 2 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Zombie Dragon; lance; heavy armour. 616
Vampire: Enchanted Shield; Book of Arkhan; Dragonbane Gem; Level 1 Wizard, Lore of Death; Hellsteed; lance; heavy armour; Battle Standard. 207
Vampire: Sword Of Anti Heroes; Dragonhelm; Luckstone; Potion Of Foolhardiness; Quickblood; Dread Knight; Level 1 Wizard, Lore of Death; Hellsteed; shield; heavy armour. 231
Necromancer: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Dispel Scroll. 90
36 Crypt Ghouls 360
15 Dire Wolves 120
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer. 70
5 Hexwraiths 1505 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer. 70
Terrorgheist 225
Varghulf 175
Varghulf 175
So I rocked up on the Saturday morning with three objectives. I knew that with this list I wasn't going to win the event, but I wanted to win at least 1 game. I also wanted to score at least 20 Tournament Points over the course of 5 games (not a high target I know, but I should be able to pick some up as I lose!) and finally I wanted the Vampire Lord to be on the table for 20 of my game turns over the 5 games. If I could achieve this I would be happy, no matter where I finished in the overall standings.
Game 1 - John Humpage, Tomb Kings
I was drawn against John's Tomb Kings for game one, and whilst this is not a match-up I've played a lot it is a book that I know the capabilities of having played against it with my Ogres many times. John is someone I see at a fair few events, and I believe that I have played against him before - though I'm afraid (especially if he's reading this!) I don't remember a great deal about it.
John had gone for two Level 4's in his list - the Heirophant on Nehekhara and another on Death. He also had 3 Level 1 wizards on Light and a Casket, obviously hoping for a lot of versatility in the magic phase. He had several small units of skeletons and bowmen and a larger bow unit for his characters, and the traditional 2 catapults. Importantly though he had 2 units of 5 Necroknights and Ramhotep - these were obviously the workhorses of his list.
I knew that I couldn't take on both of his snake units at once, so my plan was to draw one unit off to the side and deal with the other as fast as I could. I also wanted to threaten his bunker with something, and some of the fliers should be able to do this.
As the game unfolded, I did manage to draw out the second snake unit, and the dragon and the ghouls went into the first unit of snakes. I thought that the Lord should be able to do a huge amount in this combat, as she had two rounds of ignoring the snake's rerollable armour save. However, the dice let me down a little and though I killed the unit it took far too long. This left the Lord open to a chariot charge and a single Str4 Impact Hit took her last wound.
The crumble was relatively kind, and the Terrorgheist had a shot at the archer bunker. Unfortunately it couldn't quite do it on it's own, and though it killed lots (including 2 of the Level 1 Wizards) it was dispatched.
Final Score: 0-20
Dragon Turn Total: 4
Game 2 - Tom Cowlin, Dark Elves
Having lost 20-0 in the first round, I thought I would be relatively safe from playing any of the contenders. However Tom had been having travel problems and could not make it until the start of round 2, and I happen to line up against his Cold One Knight bus list that has been performing well for him over a long time. This would be my first game against the new Dark Elves, but thankfully there were not the large number of unfamiliar units I might have expected. Aside from a lot of Knights, Tom had brought some Shades, Dark Riders, a large block of Corsairs and 2 units of Warlocks. For the record he had a Level 4 on shadow, but she cast a grand total of 1 spell over the course of the game! ;-)
I knew from very early on when the bus went for the Hexwraiths that I wasn't going to be able to take it on. His characters were well protected and had a huge potential for dealing damage, so the best I could do was to avoid it and try and kill as much of the rest as I could. Unfortunately the mission was Blood and Glory, so once one of my banners had been killed I had lost an additional 500vps. This happened in about turn 4 as the zombies were thrown under the bus to keep it away from the dragon.
I don't think that there was anything wrong with the way I played this one, it was just an unfortunate match up in a bad mission for me. However a few better rolls would have maybe let me get some more points, but that is always the way. Suffice to say I lost as the Warlocks either Soulblighted key units or Doombolted my stuff off the board, and the bus ran around killing the rest. I did get the Corsairs and some of the chaff, but it wasn't enough. The Lord on the Dragon though survived the whole game, so I was pleased with that!
Final Score: 0-20
Dragon Turn Total: 10
Game 3 - Paul Lewis, Orcs and Gobins
After a slight organizational mis-hap, I found my third opponent was running Orcs and Goblins. This was not the expected Orc and Goblin list though - which you might expect as we had both lost 20-0 twice! He had an Orc Warboss on a Wyvern, 3 level 2 wizards, 2 blocks of Savage Orcs and a block of Night Goblins, 2 Doom Divers and a Rock Lobber, 6 Trolls, 2 Manglers and some wolf riders.
The Hexwraiths were the big unit here, as with their Vanguard and first turn move they were able to reach and sit on one of the Manglers. This also triggered the Fanatics from the goblins, leaving me knowing where all the problem units were. The Terrorgheist eventually screamed off the other Mangler after it fell an inch short of it the turn before. The Dire Wolves took out the artillery, and on turn 3 I decided to have a go at the Night Goblins. His BSB was out of range of them, and I thought if I hit the General with Doom and Darkness then I'd have a shot at breaking them even if they were Steadfast. The Dragon went in with the combat vampire and the Hexwraiths in the flank, but in the Magic phase I didn't get enough dice to draw out and dispels so D&D was stopped. In the next turn the Vampire was flanked by the Savage Orc Big'Uns, but surprisingly I rode the storm of attacks and was still standing when the Ghouls could subsequently flank the Orcs. This broke their Steadfast and they were run down.
Whilst this was happening thought the Dragon was taking wounds. It ended up having a single wound left, and the Orc Warboss sensed blood and charged the dragon, calling a Waaagh! This is what proved to be the undoing of the Lord - the Orc did nothing but the Wyvern snuck the final would through and killed the dragon, allowing it to Thunderstomp the Lord. This inflicted a single wound on her, and after the Waaagh was rolled, I had lost by just enough to crumble the Lord away.
Overall though, my army survived the crumble relatively well, and the Necromancer was safe at the back. The biggest loss was the Terrorgheist rolling a 10 and going from full wounds to dead in one stroke. I had slowly taken off the rest of the Orc army though for my first win of the event!
Final Score: 16-4
Dragon Turn Total: 14
So at the end of day one I was on 1 win and 2 losses. I think I had been playing the dragon relatively well, and even though I had lost two games I was having a lot of fun. In the next post, I'll recap the last two games of the day, and also give my overall feedback on the event. Hope you join me for that!
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