Warriors of Chaos Versus Vampire Counts

We were going to play 3K and I had a couple things I wanted to play...Prince Sigvald, since I had the model painted, and Wulfrik with a big band of Marauders.

In any game, I pretty much always take my BSB build with the Banner so I have stubborn units.


Knowing I would be facing the Vampire Counts, and fearing the Wind of Undeath, I needed some Dispel scrolls...4 sounded about right.

21 Chaos Warriors with full command and War Banner should have me taking on and crushing any big blocks of skeletons, ghouls, zombies, etc. he might have roaming around.

24 marauders with Light armor, shield, standard bearer and Mark of khorne coming on with Wulfrik should be able to go Vampire Hunting.

5 marauder Horsemen with throwing axes should allow more Vampire hunting.

10 Marauders could be home to my Scroll Caddies.

I also wanted to try out the Chaos Cannon and a big block of Knights..9 of them with my BSB gives me a rank bonus.

A Chaos Warshrine is something I always think costs far too many points for what it does and my beloved Great Weapon wielding Shaggoth rounded it out.

Then he changed the total to 3500.

So I added a Sorcerer Lord with 4 Dispel scrolls, changed one of my Scroll Caddies to dude with Infernal Puppet, and time to go.


He basically spread out in a line. His General was Mannfred on some flying mount or other. I did the same, except the Stone Thrower....err, cannon was up on a hill.


Warriors of Chaos Turn One
Wulfrik rolled on, and I brought him on behind the enemy. Perfect! They are all march-blocked and, if they do not turn, I will charge their rear and do lots of damage. If they do turn, Wulfrik and Co. Will do lots of damage.

I move everyone except the cannon forward, some very little...because Sigvald promptly fails his Stupidity test and moves forward 3". I want to keep everyone within range of the Banner so it limits my advance. On the bright side, the Cannon passes its test.

Magic goes better as my Sorcerer Lord gets Infernal Gateway off with Irresistible Force. Good start as I dial up 7 hits on his Blood Knights...but then they turn out to be only S3. He takes just 1.

Then I fire the cannon and I hit almost dead center on a unit. 16 are covered. 9 of them are slain but...the one directly under the hole somehow survives! The Warshrine, inspired by Sigvald's talent, managed to give me an "Eye is Closed" result.

Vampire Counts Turn 1
He makes no movement at all. Then comes time for the magic phase.

He raises back 8 of the Grave Guard I hit with the Cannon. He adds 6 Skeletons to a unit. I use a scroll to twice dispel Wind of undeath attempts. He then adds 3, 6, and another 3 Ghouls. Finally, one of his Corpse Carts brings back the last Grave Guard I had hurt. Then another 8 Ghouls pop up in the unit he had not been adding to.

So yeah...turn one I do 10 casualties, and after his first turn, he has 26 more models than he had when my turn started. This could become a problem.

Warriors of Chaos can cause a lot of casualties, but not so many that seeing your opponent raise 35+ models per turn is not going to cause some HUGE problems. It would be imperative to start whittling down his Power Dice ASAP.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2
Sigvald and the Cannon both pass their tests this turn.

And now his not moving shows its flaw. Wulfrik's unit could not charge...but he could charge out of them!* So he charged Mannfred.

This presented him a problem. If Mannfred fled too far, he would be in my charge range next turn...or off the board completely. If he did not flee, he would face the fury of Wulfrik...which he elected to do.

For a second consecutive turn, I get Irresistible Force on Infernal Gateway, and this time 7 Blood Knights are wiped out, essentially rendering that unit a non-entity with just one member left.

The Warshrine is useful this time, adding +1S to the Knights.

The Cannon slays just 5 Grave Guard this time.

Since Mannfred was close to his Corpse Cart which had done the Miasma of Vigor or whatever it is called, he got to strike first. I saved one of 2 wounds, so Wulfrik still lived. Then I did 2 wounds to him and he died to Combat Resolution.


Game.

Conclusion
That removed something like NINE power dice from him. I had Marauders, Chaos Warriors, and Knights ready to charge his units, his Blood Knights were all but gone, and I now had more Dispel Dice than he had power dice.

Furthermore, he would be losing guys to the dead general thing every turn so we called it a game.

Lessons:
1) I made a HUGE mistake with Sigvald. I had a cramped deployment zone and, having taken Sigvald specifically to make use of any Difficult terrain, I then did NOT start him and his unit in the forest, leaving plenteous room for the rest of my army, I put him in the open, which forced me to deploy my Marauder Horsemen wide left, essentially out of the battle.

2) having no fear of Mis-cast due to Infernal Puppet is awesome.

3) I need to remember special rules...like Frenzy on units I do not normally put it on, remembering to roll on the Eye table when I win appropriate combats, etc.

4) The Stone Thrower is much better than I thought...it actually sticks a third of the time, not a sixth. I might try that again.

5) Regardless of it having been an illegal death for Mannfred, he was only going to live one more turn anyway. I had my Marauder Horsemen and Shaggoth deployed to where they could cover anyplace he could reach. The lesson here; if you have a key part of your army (like, for me, the BSB), put him in a unit that can protect him unless you are positive, positive, positive that you can protect him.

6) Wulfrik can be very powerful or very weak. When he works, he is worth the 185 he costs, maybe even 10 - 15 points more. When he doesn't, he is worth 40 or 45 points at most.


* As I typed this, I realized the Marauders had khorne...which means they were frenzied...which means they should have charged the rear of his Grave Guard. Which means Wulfrik could NOT have charged. Though I would actually have charged his Vamp who was off to the side. Oops.

The Power Gamer in me

First, the requisite preface. Played 3 games; 2 were Warriors of Chaos, 3500 versus Vampire Counts 3500 point lists. The one i am about to discuss was the middle game, the second WoC vs. VC 3500. If you wish to skip the preface and get straight to the game, skipping my meandering personal reflection, look for the line of asterisks ***********************

Going into the first game, I had a plan in mind that would ensure fun game all around and hopefully end up in a close outcome. Instead, an opportunity arose to deal with a huge problem for my army that, when I conceived of the solution, did not seem like a big deal. However, after I enacted it, not only did it keep my army from facing one huge problem...it completely destroyed the VC army because I ended up killing the army general...

So I was already miffed at myself. Mostly over that.

And that a little incident for whatever reason set me off and in the second game, like an idiot, I went power-gaming. For the first time ever, I took the Black Tongue. I went cheesy with my core, 4 basic Marauder units that I deliberately placed where they would never get involved in the game. I loaded up on Kholek Suneater, a flying Prince with Tendrils, 4 2nd level sorcerers, the cannon, a warshrine, and two units of Knights; 5 and 15.

Then, when I won the roll to choose table sides, I did something I also should not have done; either side would have worked for what i\I was trying to do, but one would put the VC in a very disadvantageous position...and I made him take that side.

Anyone who has not read this blog for a while might not see the problem. I played smart and hard, put together a list that was well set up to win a game, then took advantage of a field set-up that exacerbated the situation.

here is the problem; it speaks to one of my personal flaws that I have worked very hard on but that sometimes comes back and rears its ugly head. In the past, I was hyper-competitive. I would push every advantage, every edge.

And I regret that. I have worked hard on just enjoying the process, ignoring the results. The hobby should be about hanging with friends, having a good game, enjoying time. I want everyone to have a good time.

What I do not want to do is smash people into a hopeless ball, to crush their armies (or, in other games, completely dominate them in whatever the competition is) and win at the cost of them having a good time.

So when I let irrelevant things bother me and I move from enjoying a game to trying to win by massacre, the flaw and problem belongs to one person; me.

That is a problem with me, one that has been a problem for years that I keep thinking I have gotten rid of but keeps rearing its ugly head. Grr.

And even though I regret it as I do it, it doesn't stop me.

That is strike two on my career in Warhammer. If I cannot avoid doing things like that, I will have to think long and hard about whether I should play. I do not want to be a power-gamer, a winning matters more than making sure everyone enjoys the game person. Right now I feel lower than a night crawlers belly. I suck.


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So anyway, here is the power-gaming result.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 1
The Cannon passed its leadership test. Cool. No charges. I advanced Kholek, the Prince and the unit of Knights onto a hill on my right flank. Most of the VC were crowded into their corner on my right flank with a forest in front of them and village on their right (in the center of the table) so I could take on one unit at a time and keep them bottled up coming out of there.

Meanwhile, my wizards took the hill in the center of my deployment zone. This meant all but one of my wizards (who had Pandemonium and Baleful transmogrification, so needed no line of sight) had line of sight to almost the entire VC army, as did the cannon. I advanced my unit of 15 Knights a bit, far enough that if he moved his Blood Knights (alone on his left flank with 2 Vampires) very far, I would get the charge. If he didn't, then the forces I had concentrated on my right flank would take out his other units one at a time.

As you can see, the power-gaming was in full effect. Just like a good chess player controls the center of the field to limit the options their opponent has, I had it dominated.

Time for the magic phase. I first loaded up Infernal Gateway at his Black Knights...and got Irresistible Force. rolled up 7 attacks but only 1 Knight died. Then got off Pandemonium.

Now, in a normal game, I would warn my opponent of how dangerous it is, particularly for an army packing about 20 power dice. This time I instead emphasized how many other power dice I had.

So he let it go. A few Flickering Fires and the bound spell in my Banner of Wrath got thrown and time for shooting.

I deliberately guessed about 2" short, not realizing the scatter dice hits 1/3rd of the time. I thought it was 1/6th. Well, if it had scattered even 2" in any direction except back towards me it would have been lethal. Instead it...stuck.

My Warshrine got an "Eye is Closed: result, but Kholek ripped into his Blood Knights but could only put one down.

Vampire Counts Turn 1
He moved the vamps on my left flank over behind a fence. (If I were playing normal, I would have pointed out my Prince could fly over it. being a jerk on this night, I did not.) He advanced some Grave Guard up to draw the charge of my Frenzied Chaos Knights and put his Black Knights in the forest to my right where, after I charged the Grave Guard, he would hit my flank.

Magic then wrecked the phase. He tried Wind of Undeath and I used a scroll. He tried a couple other things to no effect, and then he mis-cast something with his second vamp...and failed the roll. So I used Black Tongue and Infernal Puppet to wound his Vampire who had cast it, make him lose a level and that spell.

I then let him Ven Hels Danse Macabre forward his Black Knights. Now, instead of being ready to flank, they were trying to draw the charge of my Knights who, if they over-ran, would get stuck in the forest.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2
I had a real debate. If I were playing normally, I would play weakly: I would charge my Prince into his general in a one-on one duel, charge his Grave Guard with Kholek, charge his Black Knights with my Chaos Knights and have some epic and fun combats. But, being in idiot mode, I did none of these things. No charges declared.

Then I foiled his plan. Using the FAQ contradiction (it allows a wheel the rulebook does not) I avoided his Black Knights and charged the Knights into his Grave Guard. This put them out of line of sight of his Black Knights, made sure none of his other units could get past our combat, and basically pinned him in place. I then got Kholek and the Prince in position to shoot his pinned units.

Magic saw my second consecutive Irresistible Force on the Infernal Gateway and this time I did 11 S8 hits on his Blood Knights, killing all 9. Kolek then had no target for his shooting. The Warshrine then gave my engaged knights Stupidity. Bwoohahaha. I deserved that.

The Cannon I fired at one of his Corpse Carts and landed it dead center. It "hit" yet again....and did no damage. Whatever.

In close combat, I struggled. Despite having 16 S5 attacks hitting on 3+ and 8 S4 hitting on 4+, I could only do about 6 casualties. By the time the dust cleared, I only won the combat by about 2.

Vampire Count Turn 2
He tried to charge my 15 Knight unit but failed, leaving him about 7-1/2" away. There was no other movement he had the option of doing because of the cramped corner conditions.

Magic got painful as Pandemonium turned Mannfred's Irresistible Wind of Undeath into a mis-cast, and Infernal Puppet turned that into a 2 which means he was killed. He then had 2 or 3 more mis-casts when he rolled doubles, which allowed me to stop both of his Corpse Cart Vigor Miasmas easily. Also, one of them let me cast my own spell, which naturally was Infernal at his Blood Knights, whacking about 3 of them. Yeah, game was pretty much over at this point.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 3
Chaos Knights charge his Blood Knights (by now down to about 3 from all the Kholek shooting, Infernal Gateways, and so forth). Kholek and Prince hang out on the hill for no apparent reason.

Again the Cannon hits dead center on a Corpse Cart...except this time it mis-fires. And I roll the one where I roll 3d6", and every unit in that range takes d6 S5 hits. I deserved that. It hit every unit I had except Kholek and the 5 Knights. I lost 2 or 3 Marauders from all 4 Marauder units, lost a wound from one level 2 sorcerer and the prince, but got away without losing a Knight.

I then forgot to roll for the Warshrine.

In close combat I destroyed the rest of the Grave Guard except his standard Bearer who somehow, even after combat resolution, survived.

His Blood Knights did not.

About this point we called it. I missed a turn somewhere, because it was after 4 turns that we called it (and after the Warshrine FINALLY gave me something useful....a +1 Attack on the 5 Knights). He could not get out of the corner, it would be turn 6 before I got over there to attack them, and frankly...in a game like this, is it really fun anyway?

He had no Vampires or magic-users left. The only thing I had lost that mattered was the Cannon, and that I had done to myself. he never did a single casualty to me in the entire game.

Conclusion
So, yeah...power-gaming is a bad, bad idea. It is not fun for me and I seriously, seriously doubt it is fun for the opponent. When I do it, I feel like a jerk while doing it and after. It is a game i look back on in disappointment in myself, not in joy.

It does not bother me if other people power-game because everyone should enjoy the game in their own way. But it does bother me when I do it and I am going to work hard to ensure it does not happen again.

This is the first time I have set out from the building of an army list to do so and it will be the last.

My apology to my opponent and I hope you forgive me. My bad, it will not happen again.

The Might of Chaos Verse the Wimps of the Vampire Counts

Prologue:







I put together several army lists for my 3K point game against the Vampire counts. When putting the lists together, there were several things I wanted to try out or ensure were in the lists.



1) I had 3 painted units of 5 Knights apiece.

2) My Dragon Ogre Shaggoth

3) I wanted to work in a Chaos Warshrine

4) I wanted to try some new stuff with the Chaos Spawn



That meant points were at a premium. This also caused some internal debate.



See, the Vampire Counts armies played hereabouts center around tough Close Combat fighting Vampires and mass quantities of magic accompanying them.



So I needed to deal with close combat monsters and with magic.



That meant I would need to put a premium on mobility for my heroes. I considered Wulfrik the Wanderer and a squad of 20ish Marauders to come on behind or on the flanks of the VC and go after their tough heroes.



I also considered going with something like Galrauch and a Prince, both of whom fly, have excellent WS, S and T scores. Of course, they are also both magic users so that would pretty much mean I was going a magic heavy army with lots of low-level sorcerers to carry Dispel Scrolls, Infernal Puppet, the Black Tongue, etc.



So at one point I had a completely close-combat oriented army with lots of Exalted heroes to go after the Vampires and slay them in one on one combat.



I also had a magic heavy army where every hero was a Wizard, the Banner of Wrath was in attendance, and I would have a long magic phase.



But then I settled on a combination; Galrauch and the Prince would give me 10 total power dice and just 6 Dispel Dice...which would leave a nice magic defense hole for him to potentially exploit while giving me a rather questionable opportunity to do some magic damage of my own.



These would also be my only two heroes, meaning they would be the Vampire Hunters.



It meant for core units I was reduced to 4 units of Marauders at 10 guys apiece, no upgrades to allow me to fit in the other stuff I wanted. This game would be won or lost by the Knights and 2 heroes.



Set-Up

My set-up was pretty basic. I put two units of Marauders on either flank. Their sole duty in this battle would be to contest table quarters. Inside of each of them I placed a Chaos Spawn. My plan was to advance my Knights whatever distance the Spawn advanced to protect my flanks. The Spawn would try to keep any spare units of Skeletons, Ghouls, or what have you from flanking my Knights if they got into a "tar pit" type battle.

My three Knightly units were in the center in a pure blunt force trauma, here I come, stop me if I can deployment.

Behind them were my two flying heroes and my Warshrine.

Facing me would be a rather unusual VC build. He had 4 units of Skeletons...but each unit had just 10 of the buggers. He had one large unit of Blood Knights, a Vamp riding a dragon, a flying mounted Vamp, 2 Vamps on foot, and a unit of Wraiths.

Turn One

I won the roll and elected to have him go first. He marched everyone he could, though the Skels on my left flank were out of range of Vamps and thus could only walk forward. His Magic Phase then started, and it would be key.

He used a bound item to Danse Macabre some skeletons closer to me. He cast Curse of Years on a unit of Knights gaining a "9" to cast. Decision time: I have just 6 Dispel Dice. He has about 10 power dice left at this point and has "Wind of Undeath", one of the two or three most potent spells in the entire game. I figure the dice to average rolls of about 3.5 which means I need 4 dice to reasonably expect to dispel Curse of Years.

There is an 18% chance of losing a Knight or two to Curse. But I can dispel it on my turn perhaps...I let it go. He rolls 5 dice...and no 6s. My gamble paid off.

He then casts Wind of undeath...and miscasts! Rolls on the chart...an 11. He loses the spell, loses a level, and takes a hit which goes through, wounding him. Whew! Breath of relief from me.

But he still has more dice and after I dispel some random spell from one guy, he gets irresistible force and casts Danse Macabre on his Dragon...which propels it into my Dragon Ogre Shaggoth.

This was unexpected. He got all the way across the board in one turn and attacked my favorite model. I was about to see it go down in flames without doing a thing for the second time in three tires. What is it, a great unit or more Wardancers?

(I have used the Wardancers 4 times. 3 times they have gotten the charge, including twice with a coinciding flank charge by another unit. 4 times they have broken and run. Wardancers suck.)

Well, he has some ability where I must pass a LD test at a minus or he can re-roll to wound. I need a 6 but roll a 7. Bad news.

His Vampire goes nuts with his Frost Blade but misses completely. He has Hatred so re-rolls. 2 hits, no wounds. Then his Dragon wounds three times.

I allocate my return strikes against his Vampire and wound him twice. I lose the combat but, being close to my Battle Standard Bearer (BSB) who has the Banner of Chaos, he is Stubborn and has a re-roll which he passes easily.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

Galrauch passes his test (as he will do every turn) and declares a charge on his Dragon and that Spawn makes it into contact as well. My right flank Knights, who have the Mark of khorne, charge his Skeletons that advanced via Danse Macabre.

Meanwhile, my Marauders must test for Panic because they are within 6" of his Terror causing dragon. They test on a 9 since Galrauch is right there. They have a re-roll due to Will of Chaos. They proceed to run anyway...2". Whatever.

Magic: this phase has typically been my downfall, doing little good and massive harm to me. This game will be different as evidenced by his mis-cast in turn one.

I now cast Infernal Gateway at his Zombie Dragon. Uh-oh...mis-cast. Fortunately, I gave Tendrils of tzeentch to the Prince (who I was casting it with) and the re-roll gives me Irresistible Force. I end up killing his Vampire and wounding the Dragon once.

I then use 3 dice I saved to Dispel his Curse of Years so I have limited stuff to cast and on to Close Combat.

My Shooting Phase was the best I have ever had; I used the Chaos Warshrine on my left-most unit of Knights so they could go after the Dragon if needed and gave them an additional attack. This meant the line guys, with that bonus and Frenzy, would have 4 attacks and the Champion would have 5. Look out world!

The Spawn gets about 4 or 5 attacks but misses them all. The mighty Galrauch can only manage one wound in his 6 attacks. The Dragon then attacks the Shaggoth, putting a 4th wound on him. But then it is the Shaggoths turn.

I had planned the Shaggoth to go after the Vamps and gave him a great weapon which meant he had a S8 on his attacks...and he hit 5 times. He wounded 4 of them and the Zombie Dragon was dead in one turn.

There is a lesson here: no matter how powerful a unit is, if it charges alone into the enemy line, it is going to be a casualty sooner rather than later.

Anyway, the other combat went even more my way. My Knights killed 9 Skeletons with their Frenzied charge and the 10th crumbled to Combat Resolution which allowed me to over-run into his flying Vampire...a character he did not want in combat.

Vampire Counts Turn 2

His Blood Knights were able to flank charge my Knights who had charged his Flying Vampire. His Wraiths charge my Knights who had received the additional attack.

Magic: I Dispel his first attempt to advance Konrad but he then does it with the bound spell. He makes what I think is a mistake, charging my un-engaged Knights instead of joining the Wraiths in their assault. He is counting on Konrad being great in Hand to Hand.

Unfortunately, I start ahead by 2 for Banner and Outnumber and with an Armor save of 0+, he will be hard pressed to do 3 wounds.But we will see what happens.

I have to save Dispel Dice for his inevitable Wind of Death so allow Curse of Years, which he casts at Galrauch successfully but fails to wound. He then fails to cast Wind of Death.

Shooting: His Banshee screams and kills one Knight. I have to dispatch her ASAP as that scream could do a LOT of damage.

On the right flank, my Knights do three wounds to the flying Vampire hero and kill him, but the Blood Knights exact bloody revenge by slaying all 5 of them. Hmm...I killed one unit of Skeletons and a Vampire Hero but got slain...believe it or not, I am happy. Mostly because I got off two charges.

Konrad, being alone, must accept the challenge from my Chaos Knight Champion. He hits 3 times, all three wound, but I save all 3. My Champion has 4 attacks, 3 hit, all wound, Konrad dies.Because the Shrine is on the table, I get to roll on the Eye of Chaos table and he gains +1 Strength.

Meanwhile, the Banshee is also forced to accept a challenge: she cannot wound me. My Champ has a mighty 5 attacks needing just 3s to hit. I get overkill. The Wraiths fail to wound the Knights and take 5 wounds in return meaning they crumble to CR and I over-run into the unit of Skeletons holding his General.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2

The game is more or less over at this point. I can bring overwhelming force to bear against every one of his units. I have achieved the classic "divide and conquer" and my superior movement means I can concentrate on each unit in turn and wipe them out.

Still, he gets points this turn as I (illegally) test for my Marauders on the Generals 9 to rally...fail...and here is the illegal part, use the BSB to re-roll needing a 9. And fail again. 4 tests needing 9 or below, all failed and they flee the table. Awesome.

I charge my Shaggoth into the unit holding his General, fly Galrauch behind his skels on my left flank intending to breathe on them, and move my Marauders forward to engage in close combat with his skels, figuring to give him a chance to do a few casualties.

I cast Infernal Gateway on the Blood Knights and do 12 S6 hits. All 12 wound. He armor saves just 3, but then Regenerates 5 so "just" 4 die. Those Blood Knights are TOUGH!

My champion wounds his General once, takes none in return. The Knights kill only 4 skeletons, and a horse kills another, The Shaggoth wipes out 4 more, I win the combat by something like 11, the General and last skel crumble to C.R.

Vampire Counts Turn 3

He has no vamps left. Not much to do:turn his Blood Knights to face my Knights, his Skels to face the Dragon...whom I forgot to breathe with. Bwoohahahah.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 3

Charge, yadda yadda yadda.

Infernal Gateway takes care of 6 skeletons.

In the challenge, I do 3 wounds to his champ, he saves two and regenerates the other. He wounds back 4 times, I save all 4.

My Knights do 5 wounds, he saves 2 and regenerates 2 so I do just one casualty. The Spawn wounds twice but only one slays. The Blood Knights respond by killing two Knights. Then their horses go to work and kill 2 more...I lost the combat!

Meanwhile, Galrauch kills 3 Skeletons, wins the combat by one, one Skeleton crumbles.

VAMPIRE COUNTS TURN 4

The skeletons on my left flank charge into the Spawn. I am not too worried...their low WS and S combine with my high T to mean I should be in great shape.

But then something strange happens...they hit the Spawn 4 times and wound him twice! He rolls up 4 attacks back...and whiffs completely. Fortunately he is Unbreakable but still...

Galrauch meanwhile can kill but one Skeleton with his 6 attacks. Fortunately, he is not wounded in return and between the wound and outnumbering, he kills 2 more with Combat Resolution.

Meanwhile, my last champion facing the Blood Knights can only wound one time and that one is Regenerated. My Spawn can do no damage. On the bright side, the Blood Knights do no damage either. On the dark side, they have rank and standard...and my Knight Champion breaks. Being down to 20% of unit start, that means he is done for the battle. Fortunately, the Unbreakable Spawn holds the Knights where they are.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 4

I charge him with my fresh Knights from the front, my Prince charges from behind, and the Shaggoth charges the skeletons on my left flank that wounded the Spawn last turn.

My Warshrine might as well try again since the unit with bonus attacks has now been wiped out. So it gives the Knights facing the Blood Knights something pretty worthless...+1 to their armor save. In close combat they already have a 0+ and it cannot improve the save past that. Oh, well.

Galrauch tires of toying with the unit he has been working on and kills tha last three.

The Shaggoth manages but 3 kills...against a Dragon he can wound 4 times but against Skeletons 2 or 3 at a go? Whatever... and the Spawn kills the last one. All the VC have left is their Blood Knights.

My Prince challenges his unit champ who accepts. I do 3 wounds, he saves one and Regenerates one, so one wound on him. The Knights meanwhile do 6 wounds, only to see 3 saved by armor and two more to Regeneration. The Horses wound 3, one saved by armor and one by Regeneration. He can only do 2 wounds in return, both of which I save and then the Spawn wounds just one...but it kills.

So I did a massive 4 kills and his last two fall to Combat Resolution. The VC are done in 4 turns.

Recap

First, what went right?

My Shaggoth was a terror, surviving an attack from a Zombie Dragon riding Vampire with th Killing-Blow type power equipped Frost blade that, had it done a single wound, would have slain the Shaggoth outright. Instead, he slew the Dragon with a little help, then rampaged around killing skeletons when no better target appeared.

His mobility, striking power with a great weapon, and ruggedness were awesome. Quickly becoming one of my favorite units.

The Spawn were awesome as well, pinning down units so I could attack them at my leisure with the appropriate amounts of force. They did little damage but they kept him where I wanted him.

The Knights, as always, were stunningly awesome. Especially when they got the +1 attack from the Warshrine. His Wraiths were easy meat for them, they rampaged through his General like a tuba blast through crisp mountain air and even did a bit of damage to the Blood Knights on their way out the door.

Other units of Knights were equally destructive. Love those Knights!

The Warshrine was a fun toy. Ultimately, I think the best feature was letting my Unit Champ roll on the Table, always one of my goals for the game.

And Galrauch and the Prince were simply awesome, dominating the magic phase and controlling the field through their superior mobility.

What went wrong?

Very little. The main thing that went wrong is I think the build is a little bit cheesy. Taking 10 Marauders with no upgrades just to fill a core slot seems a bit weasel-like to me. The problem is, my other troops are so expensive that i can do little else. I could take 2 small units of Chaos Warriors and just one unit of Knights...but that army would be excessively weak. Knights are easy to outnumber and defeat with static combat resolution. There is a happy medium somewhere.

For my hapless opponent, what went right?

His Blood Knights being punched up with two heroes including their Battle Standard Bearer and having Regeneration were a tough, tough nut to crack.

What went wrong?

Everything else. The brutal mis-cast on turn one, for example.

I tend to think he made tactical errors with the Danse Macabres as well. It was great getting the Dragon into combat on turn one and moving Konrad into combat when I was not prepared for him.

However, they were unsupported. That meant they were easy prey as I was easily able to bring vastly superior force to bear on each one in turn and wipe them out before turning my attention to the weaker troops. By spreading out all across the field, he made it so I determined when, how, and who would have combat which led to easy victories for me except in the one combat where Frenzy Forced me to charge his Flying vampire and allow him the flank charge with his Blood Knights.

And even there, being able to take out one of his spell-casters was well worth losing the unit to me.

Overall, this was a great game for Chaos...and I feel sort of bad about what I did to the VC. But hopefully fun was had by all.