Wargames, Board Games, Card Games, Computer Games. Take a deep breath...

Monday, October 23, 2006

Vampire Counts vs Dogs of War Part 4 (final)

Turn 5 – Dogs of War

This turn is probably Aido’s last chance for decisive charging. The zombies, in their haste to pursue the broken Maneater have exposed their rear to the waiting heavy cavalry, who declare a charge. The remaining pegasus rider charges the same unit in the flank. The heavy cavalry promptly fail their fear test, leaving the pegasus rider to fight a hopeless combat.



The other unit of light cavalry (remember them?) charge a unit of ghouls, but also fail their fear test.

Aido looks at the table and lets out a long breath. “You’ve done it to me again, Dave,” he says.

The Paymaster’s unit rallies and turns to face the zombies across the length of the hill. The light cavalry unit (the one you’ve been reading about) fails to rally and flees the field.

The duellists move through the orc village to stand in front to the zombies. Charge if you dare.

In the Magic Phase Burning Gaze, again cast at a Banshee, is dispelled using all five undead dice.

The crossbows kill a pair of Grave Guard again, this unit is now significantly depleted.

In the Combat Phase, the pegasus rider kills a single zombie and flees 15”. The zombies decline to pursue, successfully restraining thanks to the Vampire Lord’s proximity.


Turn 5 – Vampire Counts

It’s not over yet, while the support units have withered and the loos of the Rhinox Riders is a blow, the bulk of the Dogs of War army remains untouched. I declare two charges. The zombies accept the challenge and charge the duellists, and a Banshee charges the fleeing Maneater, now the only one remaining.



The duellists fail their fear test, flee 6” and are destroyed. Serves them right for being cocky. The Banshee proves to be out of range of the Maneater, so the Ogre doesn’t have to flee again.

Speaking of cocky, the ghouls move up to the light cav who failed to charge them last turn.

The Black Knights and the zombie unit continue their breakthrough, now threatening the Dogs of War units clustered on the hill.

The Grave Guard unit turn to face their main threat; the heavy cav who have been lurking on the undead flank, but unable so far to press their advantage.

Now facing the heavy cavalry and pegasus rider, the Vampire Lord sends his magic their way. Dark Hand of Death kills the pegasus rider, dealing the second wound after Drain Life dealt the first. In response the pegasus becomes subject to frenzy and hatred. If it rallies.

The necromancer casts Gaze of Nagash at the heavy cavalry, rolling three hits and failing to kill any.

The Vampire Lord cast Walking Death on his own unit, but fails the required roll.

Turn 6 – Dogs of War

I have to apologise here. It seems that I did not take any images during Aido's final turn, so you'll just have to imagine it.

It’s Aido’s final chance for decisive charges, so he goes for it. This turn, all his units pass their fear tests. The Paymaster’s Unit charges the zombies, the heavy cavalry charge the Grave Guard, and the light cavalry charge the ghouls.

The Maneater fails to rally, netting me more victory points. The pegasus rallies.

In the Magic Phase all attempts to cast are successfully dispelled.

In the Combat Phase the light cavalry kill three ghouls, suffering two casualties in return. It’s enough to win combat, and the ghouls break, running just 4” and being destroyed. 4 on 2D6 was what I needed to pass the break test.

The Paymaster’s Unit rips seven shades of hell out of the zombies. When the dust of shattered dry limbs clears, only six zombies are standing.

In the last combat of the turn, my Vampire Lord declares a challenge, suffering no wounds thanks to the Cursed Book, and dealing back two in response. The Necromancer survives yet again. The heavy cav break. More points to me!


Turn 6 – Vampire Counts

This is the end. The Black Knights, restored in my confidence, charge the Dogs of War general who flees. Their move brings them into contact with a unit of crossbows, who also flee.

In the Magic Phase the necromancer kills the pegasus with Gaze of Nagash.

The banshees kill four of the Paymaster’s unit, but fail to net me half points.

In combat the Paymaster’s unit finish off the zombies – that was what I was writing as Aido rolled his dice. However he failed to kill even a single zombie, and static combat resolution only accounted for three of the reaming six, denying him full points and the standard bonus.


The game was over. The Vampire Counts had won by a margin of 1615 points. Victory!



Final Verdict

We discussed the armies after the game, and Jason and Eddie were back by this time, both a bit stunned by the result, and also eager to play me since they know I’m really an easy beat.

I thought Aido should swap out his fourth Maneater for a third unit of ten crossbows, and Jason agreed, but Aido was unconvinced. Other than that there’s really nothing else to say. That Dogs of War army works. The second turn miscast was really decisive in that it denied his army the way to plug their key weakness against me. The loss of the Rhinox Riders reinforced this.

With my own army, I would say the jury is still out on the Death Magic wielding Necrarch. I was impressed by the effect of even a single Drain Life at extended range, but I’m not sure he’s particularly points efficient. Magical support is effectively gone since additional necromancers don’t provide additional dice to my Lord. In fact they end up fighting with him for the army pool dice, any time they want to cast vahel's or Gaze of Nahash with three dice.

There are several options to consider, including dropping the necromancer with the Cursed Book for a Wraith with the same item. Let’s face it: I got lucky twice in combat with that necromancer; once against the Maneater and once against the heavy cav. I’m not expecting that luck to carry over to the next game. But would a Vampire Count be as effective? I like the idea of having 5 spells, gives me a great chance of getting that Drain Life, and the additional 6” range is just gravy.

All food for thought. I don’t play many games of Warhammer, so it will probably be next year before the Necrarchs come out again.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home