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...