Vampires Suck (Part 2)

And so, having taken an entire evening to play only three turns of an error strewn game, Pete and I reconvened for round two of our breaking out of the old armies.

This time we opted to go for just 1000 points to speed things up and we also actually studied our army rules before playing, which helped.

We had both clearly spent some time thinking about what went badly as we had both altered the balance of our forces with an aim to improve performance.

Realising that I had struggled to cross the board, I opted for a much faster, if smaller, and hard hitting force. Pete, meanwhile, had reduced the attacking wing of his army which had found itself strung out and isolated (his Lord had only narrowly avoided defeat against my Vampire), but had maintained his infantry line.

High Elves

High Elf Lord - Giant Blade, Heavy Armour, Shield

High Elf Mage (Level 2 Wizard) - Ruby Ring of Ruin

16 High Elf Spearmen - Full Command 

12 High Elf Archers - Champion

12 Lothern Sea Guard - Full Command

15 Swordmasters of Hoeth - Full Command

Tiranoc Chariot

Vampire Counts

Vampire Count - Sword of Kings, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Protection, Heavy Armour, Nightmare

Wight Lord - Charmed Shield, Heavy Armour, Skeletal Steed

Necromantic Acolyte (Level 2 Wizard) - Sceptre of Noirot, Nightmare

7 Black Knights - Lance, Barding, Full Command

5 Black Knights - Lance, Full Command

3 Bat Swarms

3 Fell Bats

Deployment

The armies we'd picked somewhat dictated the nature of the battle we would be having. My hammer units were going to aim to get across the field as fast as possible, and Pete's archers would seek to whittle them down before the arrived.

Meanwhile, my flying units would attempt to get behind his lines, whilst his chariot would seek to plough into my flank.

At least we understood each other.

Interestingly, this is the shape of many of my games against Pete, be they Blood Angels vs Alpha Legion in Horus Heresy, Resistance vs UCM in Dropzone Commander or Soviets vs Flak 88s in Bolt Action.

Turn One

Getting the first turn, I immediately made straight for the enemy lines, angling the smaller unit of Black Knights to address the inevitable advance of the Tiranoc Chariot.

Meanwhile, my Fell Bats flew up the flank of the Elven army, whilst the Bat Swarms loitered behind a wood.

Magic achieved nothing...a recurring theme.

For some reason I didn't get any pictures of Pete's turn, but he moved the Chariot up and opened fire with magic and missiles, killing a couple of Black Knights.

Turn Two

The Necromancer got on with his main task of bringing back fallen Knights, and the Vampire declared a charge at the centre of the enemy line...which failed.

To try to stymie the Chariot, I threw the Bat Swarms in its way, whilst the fast moving Fell Bats got behind the Elves.

Being somewhat out of practice at this game, I hadn't spotted that I'd left the Bat Swarms in the way of a double charge from the Chariot and the Spearmen, an invitation that Pete immediately took.

Meanwhile, a much more effective round of shooting and magic took almost half of the Vampire's unit out of action.

The Bat Swarms could have withstood the Chariot by itself, but a ranked unit hitting their flank led by a hero with a magic blade was too much to bear and the fluttered away into the night sky.

Fortunately, the Chariot fumbled its overrun roll and failed to contact my cavalry.

Turn Three

So far, things hadn't gone amazingly well and that sinking feeling grew as the Necromancer failed to bring back and Black Knights twice!

With nothing else to lose, I issued a charge into the Archers with both my Knights and the Fell Bats. I lost another Knight on the way in but won the combat and drove the Archers back.

Sadly, the other unit of Knights failed it's charge and to add injury to insult a miscast from the Necromancer (who was having an absolutely smashing turn) killed one of the Knights.

Fortunately the stumbled forward enough to be out of the Chariot's charge arc. Small mercies.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the Vampire's unit and they were suddenly on the receiving end of a flank charge from the Swordmasters.

There followed some furious book-flicking as we tried to work out if the rest of the unit could fight if the Wight Lord the were in contact with issued a challenge - we reasoned that they couldn't as they weren't in contact with any other models, please let us know if we were wrong.

Meanwhile the Elf General and his Spearmen charged the Necromancer's unit and things were looking bleak.

However, I hadn't counted on just how resilient Black Knights could be when you'd properly read their rules, and we were both reminded of just how squishy Elves were.

In an amazing turn of events I won both combats, including an amazing use of the Charmed Shield turning aside a cleaving blow destined to take the Wight Lord's head.

I was still surrounded but I had the opportunity to charge one last time. There was still a chance.

Turn Four

I managed to raise a few more Knights into the Necromancer's unit before the charge was sounded again and the ploughed into the Spearmen and the Vampire's unit went into the Lothern Sea Guard.

In other news, the Fell Bat went into the MN age because why not.

Unfortunately, the Elves became a much tougher nut to crack and whilst the Sea Guard were driven back, the Spearmen and the Elven General cut down the Necromancer's unit and turned to encircle the Vampire.

Enemies crashed in around the Vampire who took the opportunity to issue a challenge to the Elven Noble, who bravely accepted.

Despite the Black Knights hacking and slashing their way through Elves, and cutting down the enemy General, soon only the indomitable Vampire Count was left standing...surrounded on all sides...

Turn Five

...I think you know what happened.

Final Thoughts

Overall this was a much more successful game, not only because we were much more competent, but actually there were the seeds of a decent plan.

Had I made the first charge in turn two, I think that things might have turned out differently, as with more Black Knights to play with, I'd have lasted longer and, more importantly, the Swordmasters were looking the wrong way at that moment.

Things might also have gone better if I'd not stupidly wasted my Bat Swarms.

What we both enjoyed was the fact that despite my first couple of turns going badly, I almost dug myself out of the hole, which speaks well of the way the game works.

I still need to get my head around the fact that powerful charges are less likely to blast through enemy units, and I really need to think about how best to take advantage of magic in the game.

I could do with rolling less miscasts too.

We'll probably do this dance again soon, and I suspect that things might get a bit 'scaled' up, if you catch my drift.

Vampires Suck (Part 1)

Pete and I have been putting off (for lots of varied and valid reasons) playing Warhammer: The Old World again for about two months.

Therefore, when we were finally able to schedule a game, we dived in with enthusiasm, picking 1500 point armies and both neglecting to re-read the rules since we last played.

This led to a game that featured probably the most book-flicking, rules checking and take backs that we've had since we played our first game of Horus Heresy.

As you'll read on you'll realise that the image above never happened as I allowed Pete to take back his charge as we realised after the fact that the Black Coach was ethereal and without a magic weapon the Elven Lord was charging into purgatory.

There were many such moments, I shan't be listing them all.

Vampire Counts

I've not fielded my Vampire Counts army since giving them a hefty spruce up earlier in the year and so I'd not really engaged with the details of how different they are in Warhammer: The Old World to previous incarnations.

This ignorance meant that I picked an army which was pretty similar to what I used to field in 6th and 7th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle: blocks of undead troops to lock the enemy in place and fast moving hammer units to hit the flanks.

One thing I noticed is that there's a lot more restrictions. For example you need an ethereal character to include Spirit Hosts, and I like this kind of thematic element.

Vampire Count (Level 3 Wizard) on Nightmare - Flayed Hauberk, Master of the Black Arts, Shield
Necromantic Acolyte (Level 2 Wizard) - Sceptre of Noirot
Tomb Banshee
20 Skeletons - Full Command
20 Skeletons - Full Command
25 Zombies - Full Command
3 Bat Swarms
3 Spirit Hosts
7 Black Knights - Full Command, Lances, Barding
Black Coach

High Elves

Pete's been busy building up his High Elves for some time, replacing the army that he sold a good chunk of after the demise of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

I think the Dragon Princes, Griffon Rider and Spearmen are part of his original army and the rest has been added, but I could be wrong.

Just like myself, Pete went for what would have been a fairly big standard High Elf army back in the day, with a little bit of everything.

Elven Lord on Griffon - Lance, Heavy Armour, Additional Hand Weapon
Elven Mage on Horse (Level 2 Wizard)
25 High Elf Spearmen - Full Command
11 High Elf Archers - Champion
12 Lothern Sea Guard - Full Command
15 Swordmasters of Hoeth - Full Command
6 Dragon Princes of Caledor - Full Command
Reaper Bolt Thrower

Deployment 

We matched up fairly evenly in the deployment phase, with both of us loading opposing flanks with fast, hard-hitting units. My opposite flank was anchored by the Bat Swarms that were aimed squarely at the Repeater Bolt Thrower.

It was clear that the battle would be decided by the cavalry.

Turn 1

Pete advanced cautiously with his Lord and Dragon Princes and stood still with the rest of his line, unleashing a volley into the massed skeletons.

On my turn, the horde began to shuffle forwards and I suddenly realised how slow this version of the army was. If the Elves weren't going to come to me, I was going to struggle to get across the board with anything other than my Bat Swarms.

The few casualties caused were negated by the new way that Invocation of Nehek works, without needing to cast a spell. Broadly, I like this change, especially as the High Elves were repeatedly casting Drain Magic to neuter my magical ability.

Having said that, I did manage to cast a Spiritual Vortex to impede the advance of the Dragon Princes as my own faster troops also edged forward, trying to dance around who was going to get the charge.

Turn 2

Whilst the rest of the Elves stayed put and delivered another desultory round of shooting that was going to be healed at the start of my turn, the Elf Lord boldly charged into the Black Knights and killed the Hell Knight in a challenge and the overkill removed another Black Knight as I hadn't quite got my head around how the Indomitable rule worked.

In my turn, my line shuffled forwards, but the Spirit Hosts and Black Coach pushed forward to threaten a charge on the next turn. The Banshee ran up through the woods and screamed at the Dragon Princes, killing one.

The Vampire challenged the Elf Lord and we very quickly discovered that we had not tooled up our characters effectively as they both failed ineffectually at each other. Technically the Black Knights won the fight through combat resolution but the Griffon rider held his nerve.

At some point during these two turns, the Vampire suffered damage through a miscast. Magical ineptitude was to become a theme.

Turn 3

The Elven line continued to remain immobile and send arrows raining down on the incredibly slow moving horde approaching them.

Meanwhile, the Mage got himself out of the way of potential charges, whilst the Dragon Princes charged the Banshee, intent on slowly killing her with combat resolution.

The Vampire and Elf Lord again failed to hurt one another, but this time the Vampire miscast a dispel attempt. It didn't cause damage, it was just embarrassing.

Desperate to kill something, the Black Coach charged the Archers, who fled rather than face inevitable destruction.

The Spirit Hosts also charged the Spearmen, but failed to make contact.

Meanwhile, the Bat Swarms were finally able to charge the Bolt Thrower and killed one of the crew. Also, the Banshee managed to scream another Dragon Princes to death and avoid crumbling.

However, despite these moderate successes, things were about to get ugly. Not fully understanding hot The Dwellers Below worked, the Vampire managed to wound himself again when he succeeded on casting it and falling under his own template.

To add injury to insult, the Elf Lord managed to sneak a wound through the Vampires various saves, killing him and initiating the inevitable destruction of the whole army.

At this point, we called the game as we'd frankly taken ages to play three turns and it was getting late.

Final Thoughts

The differences between how this army worked and how I thought it worked were quite noticeable, and my main takeaways were as follows:

• Vampires no longer seem to be the blenders that they once were;
• I really need to examine how to use undead magic better, I feel the lack of the old Vanhel's Danse Macabre crutch;
• Fear and Terror ate not the weapons that they once used to be;
• I need to examine the army list to do something about how slow things are.

In fairness, I suspect Pete was feeling frustrated with the reduced impact of his shooting, and he also needs to re-evaluate how he equips his characters. However, I do suspect that if I'd made it to the Elven lines, the Swordmasters would have ripped through my Skeletons and Zombies.

You'll get to see how we both learn from our experiences when we clash again in part 2...

Into the Maelstrom

When Matt suggested a game of 2nd edition 40k, I saw it as an opportunity for my nascent Astral Claws/Tyrant's Legion army to hit the table in anger for the first time.

They would be facing Matt's Squats in what most likely is a pre-Badab War incursion into the Maelstrom to drive out undesirable enclaves, such as Squat prospectors operating without Imperial (or more pertinently, Lugft Huron's) sanction.

My Astral Claws featured all the models I'd painted so far tooled up to the nines to reach 1000 points:

Captain - Power Sword, Combi-Plasma, Bionic Eye, Displacer Field, Melta Bomb

Company Standard - Chainsword, Bolt Pistol, Krak Grenade, Banner of Macragge Badab

Tactical Squad - Flamer, Missile Launcher, Krak Grenades

Tactical Squad - Flamer, Heavy Bolter, Krak Grenades

Matt's Squats were a more varied bunch as he has been working on them longer and had more to choose from.

Warlord with Plasma Gun

Battle Standard Bearer in Squat Exo-Armour

Engineseer Guildmaster with Servo Arm

Ancestor Lord with Power Sword

Attack Squad with Bolt Pistols and Power Axes

Thunderer Squad with Plasma Gums

Thunderer Squad with 2 Lasguns, 2 Heavy Bolters and Missile Launcher 

3 Heavy Weapons Bikes with Multi-Meltas

Matt drew the mission Take & Hold, meaning that he woul have to move into the centre if the board, whereas I pulled the Assassins mission. This meant that unless Matt advanced his Warlord into harms way, the lack of speed in my army meant I would have very little chance of achieving my mission and would have to focus on stopping Matt achieve his.

Mat deployed with his squads and characters directly facing his objective with his Bikes on the flank, clearly aiming to move around my lines and cause all kinds of problems.

Somewhat predictably I split my force into combat squads. Two squads faced the main Squat force whilst one was positioned to intercept to inevitable flank attack.

One of my combat squads, the one with the missile launcher, was delayed by Matts cunning use of a strategy card 

Astral Claws Turn 1

Without the range to hurt the Squats, most of my line advanced whilst the delayed missile launcher squad finally arrived.

Only the heavy bolter could fire and it spat shells at the Thunderer squad with the heavy weapons and felled three of them.

Astral Claws 1 - Squats 0

Squat Turn 1

As the Heavy Weapons Bikes whizzed over the hill I remembered that templates were a thing in 2nd edition 40k and realised that I should probably have spread out my flank guards.

Meanwhile, the remaining Squat squads and assorted characters advanced towards the centre of the table, hugging as much cover as was possible.

Sure enough, the multi-meltas opened up and obliterated my combat squad in a devastating salvo.

That could have gone better...

Astral Claws 1 - Squats 2

Astral Claws Turn 2

Fortunately for me I had the Reinforcements strategy card and so my destroyed unit was able to come immediately back onto the board and take aim at the bikes.

Desultory fire spattered towards the Squats in cover but failed to inflict significant damage barring the Captain, whose Combi-Plasma opened up and fried the Squat Standard Bearer, despite it wearing Exo-Armour 

Bolter fire managed to kill one of the bikers, causing the bike to veer out of control and into some rocks. The gunner still lived, however, meaning that he bike was salvageable.

Astral Claws 2 - Squats 2

Squat Turn 2

Multi-meltas roared again, but the shots went wide and only two marines were killed. The gunner of the out of control bike managed to clamber into the driver's seat and head back towards the action.

Plasma gunners in the ruins failed to make an impact on the power armoured Marines.

Meanwhile, the Squat Warlord lurked behind a ruined temple, risking the occasional pot shot. Without any means to get to him, this subject cowardice meant that my objective would remain totally out of reach for the rest of the game.

Astral Claws 2 - Squats 2

Astral Claws Turn 3

With the battle half over, I was aware that I would need to do something about the cluster of Squats heading for their objective in the centre. If they captured it, victory would surely be theirs.

Therefore I launched an all out attack. The Company Standard's squad ran into the open and hurled frag grenades into the ruins where the plasma team were lurking. The resulting explosions killed all but one of them.

In typical fashion, a fumbled attack saw a grenade detonate in a Marine's hand. Fortunately, power armour saved all caught in the blast.

Grenades also flew out towards the Squat Attack squad nearest the objective, killing two of them as well.

The missile launcher squad turned their fire onto the bikes, killing another driver, causing a second bike to veer out of control.

Astral Claws 3 - Squats 2

Squat Turn 3

The out of control bike crashed into the cargo crate, but the remaining two bikes headed directly for the missile launcher squad aiming to get behind the Astral Claws for the final turn.

However, the remaining multi-meltas shit wide and the twin-linked bolters only managed to kill a single Marine.

Meanwhile, shots rang out across the battlefield as the Squats poured fire into the attacking Marines in an attempt to clear the objective.

When the smoke cleared, both squads had been reduced to half strength, but the Astral Claws were still a threat to the objective.

Astral Claws 3 - Squats 4

Astral Claws Turn 4

I had two goals. Firstly, I needed to get enough Marines close enough to the objective to deny it to Matt, and I needed to kill enough models to win the day.

My remaining troops rushed forward, the closest forgoing the opportunity to shoot in order to get in range of denying the objective. However, enough shots did hit home to reduce the Squat Attack squad to a single Space Dwarf.

Bolter fire dost put towards the bikes, killing the two drivers of the damaged vehicles, and sending them out of control again, but worryingly leaving one fully operational.

I'd made my final play and now had to hope that Matt couldn't manage to kill two Marines and claim his objective.

Astral Claws 5 - Squats 4

Squat Turn 4

In a totally unsurprising move, the Living Ancestor and the last member of the Attack Squad charged the Marines contesting the objective whilst a crew less bike passed behind them to no effect.

Meanwhile, the remaining bike bore down on the remnants of the missile launcher squad and unleashed all of its weapons at them.

The multi-melta struck home and ripped through. The Marines in a devastating display of firepower. A single Marine emerged from the conflagration only to be gunned down by the bikes twin-linked bolters.

This blow swung the battle in the Squats' direction and now the outcome depended on the vicious close combat taking place around the objective.

In an attempt to behead my force Matt opened fire on the Captain only to have the shots saved by his displacer field which then propelled him directly into combat with the Living Ancestor.

Blades flashed and one Marine was cut down before the two champions came to a stalemate. In an attempt to tip the balance, the Ancestor parried and handed victory to the Captain.

His power sword whipped out but only managed to score a single wound, leaving the ancient Squat injured, but still standing.

Astral Claws 5 - Squats 6

A close end to a close game which ultimately could have gone either way. It was a reminder the 2nd edition is loads of fun, and in my opinion especially so when it's not being dominated by psychic powers. I do think the tables will turn in my favour when I have more to play with than just Tactical Squads.

The narrow loss also fits the background of of the Badab War as it exactly the kind of situation that would cause the Astral Claws to petition for more aid in pacifying the Maelstrom and build their frustrations when their petitions are ignored.

Observant readers will have noted the two new arrivals in the form of the Captain and the Company Standard. 

These two were completed whilst I was on holiday and I did something I've never done before and took a small tin of paints with me to keep myself occupied in down time on our cruise, making them the most marine Marines I've ever painted.

The exact format of the Badab War project which is being done by Arbitor Ian's YouTube channel still hasn't been formally outlined but I believe it will focus on building escalating forces for Kill Team, Combat Patrol, Boarding Actions and then finally 40k 10th edition.

Therefore my choices of miniature are being dictated by those parameters and also the Tyrant's Legion list in Imperial Armour: The Badab War.. 

As I'm intending to use Chaos rules for my forces, mainly because they offer a wider range of firstborn profiles these days, but also because they also off Lugft Huron himself, my 'Captain' is destined to serve as an Aspiring Champion in both Kill Team and Combat Patrol, in fact his Combi-Plasma and Power Sword (Accursed Blade) handily matches up with profiles present in both those games.

His iconography doesn't scream Astral Claws, but it does tally with the fact that the chapter's action were driven by a desire to loyally serve the Emperor, but this fanatics devotion ultimately drove them into the arms of Chaos.

I've not finished his base as I'm trying to come up with an optional base system that potentially allows him to also serve as a Chaos Lord later on.

Similarly, this chap will serve as an Icon Bearer in my pseudo-Chaos force. I like the idea that the icon itself is the Maelstrom Warders symbol, as it was dedicated service to this duty that ultimately corrupted the Astral Claws.

My progress numbers have taken another hit as I received another batch of miniatures from old collections which had turned up when they friend that had the previously moved house. 

On the up side, this helped me to resist subscribing to the new Combat Patrol magazine.

Acquired: -16
Painted: 318
Lead Mountain: 719