The Dragonback Wars 1 -vs Vampire Counts, First of a series.

Alright, so first battle report ever! 3rd game of warhammer 8th edition! I actually planned on doing a youtube battle reoport, but i think i'll wait until i can have some better pics

So first off, sorry that the terrain and pictures isn't better. I'm working on it, so next time will be better


I'll try to keep the text short, cauz I know that otherwise it's just gonna become boring to read. Instead I’ll have loads of pics. So any questions or something you would like to have explained, just ask


Meeting engagement – 2400 pts.
Setup

- Some of the terrain had special rules, but none of it really mattered. The screen slopes on some of the hills did restrict movement a bit though.

Just a look down the line, because i can:


Only thing that enters as reserves is a single chukka (yep, we both rolled pretty well :lol)

His army


- Can't remember all items, but his vampire lord was dangerous as dung in CC, and a level 4 wizard. Dangerous stuff! Oh and the so called ghoul king, is of course a wight king!


My army


There is a small nighgoblin shaman behind the orc mob as well. he's just a scroll caddy and doesn't get a single spell of the entire game. But he did fullfill his purpose!



Vampire Counts turn 1 - Movement

1) Vargheist and terror gheist stalks the flank
2) Fell bats block the trolls path to the coach.
3) Black coach and right skellie block dual charge savages, but skellies fail (BLAST!)

Vampire Counts turn 1 - Magic

Ghaze of nagash slays the Mangler


Burning "something" kills some boys and leaves them unable to move next turn (unless i wanna loose half the unit!).

Vampire Counts turn 1 - Shooting

Deathshriek only kills 3 wolf riders, and the two remaining pass their panic test!

Vampire Counts turn 1 - CC

Loose to savages to the Coach, without doing any damage in return. Some Hex is really hampering my ladz here and the Coaches T6 is mean! I don't loose combat though, but i start to fear, that if I don't get support in, it's gonna be mean once boosted.


Orcs turn 1 - Pre game

I HATE(!) animosity!


Orcs turn 1 - Movement

1) Wolf riders block the skelli lines, preventing a charge next turn.
2) My BSB charge the fell bats, but instead of liberating the trolls to wheel and support my ladz in the comming rounds of combats against the skellies, the maneuver blocks their movement (facepalm!)
3) Giant fail his charge on the black coach Still with the hex on, Frenzy might be lost soon.
4) Arachnarok and Wyvern dual charge the right most skellies.
5) Spider boss shuffles up to protect the orcs flank, forcing the Vargheist to charge through him.


O&G shooting and magic does absolutely nothing the entire game, so i'll just skip those!


Orcs turn 1 - Movement


Orcs turn 1 - CC

Loose 4 savages, but do 2 wound to the coack. drawin combat. Very pleased with that!


I LOVE(!) Wolf riders. I only loose two in combat, and roll 3 on the creak test. bloody amazing!


BSB kill a bat and put a wound on the other. Not really bad but i could have used that overrun.


The monsters go to town on the skellies. The skelli champion challenge the warboss, and gets beatin into dust with 5 overkill. still hampers the overall result. The vampire and skellies put two wound on the spider. It takes revenge by slaying the vampire and a few handfulls of undead warriors though.


Vampire Counts turn 2 - Close combat.
Sorry for loosing movement and magic, but i locked the magic fase down pretty effectively.

1) Vargheist charge spider boss, but is overwhelmed by his combat agility and one is slain.
2) The corpse cart slams into the blocking wolf riders, while the vampire unit swift reforms and move around. Sneaky bastard!


Boosted to 3, the corpse cart is now a dangerous enemy. thankfully Hex-less savages is dangerous as well and the combat ends in a draw again. I'm starting to feel lucky in this combat!


This may come as a shock, but the terror gheist screamed these pour boys to death.


BSB kills the remaing bat.


The monsters oblitorate the remaing skellies in the unit!


...and reforms to face the enemy battleline.


Orcs turn 2 - Movement (yes, new angle. Just to confuse you. I'm an idiot!)


1) Arachnarok, Wyvern and BSB charge into the main undead unit. My BSB did so to make room for incomming trolls, who fail miserably, just like the orc boys, leaving all my heavy hitters stranded without support
2) The giant charge the clack coaces flank

Orcs turn 2 - CC

Giant slays black coach...


Spider boss kills another Vargheist and puts a wound on the third. this guy is on fire!



...Yeahr. Lots of death here!
BSB's are locked in a duel and my boss wounded of his wight king twice, but fails to kill him.
The Vampire goes to town on my spider though and leaves it with 1 wound


Vampire Counts turn 3 - Movement

1) Corpse cart and Skellies charge my warboss in front and flank respectively.

Vampire Counts turn 3 - Magic, shooting and CC

1) He raises zombies, skellies and heals his BSB during the magic fase.
2) Corpse cart grants ASF to most surrounding units.
3) The vampire slays the spider without breaking a sweat.
4) His bloody BSB (now striking first) Strikes a killing blow against my BSB before i can finish him off
5) I loose the main combat, but only because of a musician, and fails my LD 9 (no rerolls anymore!) Thankfully I escape the pursuing vampire and BSB.
6) The Vargheist wound my spider boss, but he sticks in combat.
7) The terrorgheist kills good handfull of orcs with deathshreik.


Orcs turn 3 - movement

1) Warboss rallys on a 9... phew!
2) Orc boys charge the skellies.
3) Trolls fail stupidity.
4) Giant fails charge against vampire.

In combat a few skellies and a few orcs die.


Vampire Counts turn 4 - Movement:

1) Terror gheist charge spider boss.
2) Zombies and corpse cart charge boyz.
3) Vampire charge Warboss.

Vamprie counts turn 4 - Magic and CC

1) Magic sees more undeads being raised.
2) Terrorgheist kills the spider boss and ovverruns into the orcs, who fails their terror test and flees.


3) Everything except zombies pursue into the flank of the trolls.
4) zombies reform to hold of the savages.
5) Warboss calls a challenge and the wyvern slays the vampire! The vampire does leave both the warboss and wyvern sittin on 2 wounds now.
6) army starts to cruble. and the zombies take a serious hit, leaving the as a juicy overrun target for the Savages.


Orcs turn 4 - movement

1) Savages charge zombies
2) Giant charge skellies

Orcs turn 4 - CC

Savages slays the remaingin zombies with ease, and overruns into the half way crumbled terrorgheist.


At the end of combat the terrorgheist, Vargheist and BSB is dead, leaving a small skelly bunker,a level 1 necromancer and a corpse cart, and we called the game.


Soooo.. VICTORY FOR THE ORCS!!!

Hope you enjoyed it, cauz it was one of the best games I've ever had. It swung back and forth throughout the entire game.

CC most welcome here or in my blog! I would love to hear what you think about the monster heavy army build?

/Cheers!

This post has been edited by Morten C on Mar 28 2012, 03:46 PM

Great report, and what a cool list.

However, why did your orcs in combat take a Terror test? It's a panic test, and units in combat don't have to take those. Also, are Vargheists really skirmishers?

I'd like to see more reports, in this format or on Youtube doesn't matter. Congratulations on a game well played.

Theo

Nice litrtle report and its nice seeing your army in action! Just need to get them wolf riders up to scratch with the rest!

Nice report.

Theorox is sort of right. Your Orcs didn't have to take the terror test as the charge was from an over-run.

Nice batrep mate!

Oh Yeahr, you're right. The way we played it, might actually have been a disadvantage to my opponent. If he had broken me normally, I would gave fled away from his skellies, instead I fled into trolls, giant and a savage flank.

And I will have to get some of the cav painted yep. And I just ordered lots of stuff to make some beautiful forest terrain

My opponent was a real sport as well. He had some bad luck some of the time and a few of the combats really went my way.

I was quite impressed with the wyvern actually. What a beast for 160 pts. In a game without cannons, a flying monster is brilliant.

Looks like a great game! The monster heavy list seems like it's really sweet against armies without warmachines, but would take a bit of luck to survive against Empire or Dwarves.

well, not necessarily i think. They rarely have more than two cannons, and those are most likely not killing a monster pr. turn. The trolls should serve as meat shield for what ever kritter needs it (idealy the general). And agaisnt Empire those monsters would be very dangerous in combat. all those S3/4 attacks are gonna bounce right off., while stomps and attacks are gonna wreck havoc.

It would require some tweaks though. I would need a cavalry bunker for the BSB.

The 18" inspiring presence against all the guns, isn't that bad either!

I think it could work. It's probably a real do or don't army. Lots of eggs in few baskets.

EDIT: don't get me wrong though, I know there are far better builds against those type of armies. I'm just saying, that i don't think it's an instant win to the stunties/empire.

This post has been edited by Morten C on Feb 19 2012, 04:38 PM

Nice battle report Morten! i do like seeing those dirty VCs copping a loss, especially in a match that teeters back and forth like that.

That was a sweet battle!
I love that kind of list, but I can't but think that a couple of bits of artillery instead of the giant adds a lot. But then it is not as monster heavy...
I really like the look and feel of your alternate models army. Looks great!

Thanks man Yeahr it was an absolutely excellent game. We both made mistakes and took chances that changed the game - in the opponents favor

Thanks Glad you like my army as well. I've put quite a bit of efford into it

I love this type of army as well. It might not be one of the best, but i catually think some of the synergy that so many hard hitting monster units give is absolutely excellent and underrated. If i could get two monster into a unit of infantry i could remove it almost no time. And they're very mobile!

Only problem is that they fail miserably against canons


Thanks for commenting both of you

Brilliant battle report. So many units locked in combat, looked like chaos in the middle of the battlefield (not the army)

Can't really comment about any tactics, i'm a bit out of touch with warhammer. But visually it was great. I like the look of your army, and that archway terrain is nice as well. Some old school models there, i remember that wyvern figure from way back.

Good victory. Keep up the good work

Thanks Fizzbang, glad you liked it

I am looking forward to making my next report, which will be due, as soon as I've finished my terrain. It'll be nice to have a good looking gaming board

Coming April I'm part of a 8 man campaign of Blood in the Badlands, and my guess is that it'll give me plenty of battles to report on for a whole year

Thanks for the comment

i like ur mangler squig looks nice!