Champions of Destiny - Game 3

Round 3 - Vampire Counts vs Dark Elves

Onto the third game, where I was facing Julie Stevens army of Dark Elves. I don't think I've ever played against Dark Elves before. I've had them as allies in a couple of games, once whilst playing Vampire Counts and once with my trusty (but few) High Elves (both of which my ally and I won).

I even had a go at playing Dark Elves against my son's Empire army in a Storm of Magic game, using proxies for the Dark Elves. That one didn't go too well for me. We were playing the Mad Mage scenario, and the mad mage and his moving tower kept moving towards MY units and zapping them with a horrible spell. I can't remember the name of the spell off hand, but it did 3d6 Strength 2d6 hits (ouch!)

Anyway, back to the battle report. After the battle with the Dwarfs in round 2, my Vampire Lord had managed to return to the Black Coach in gaseous form and regenerate back to full strength. In both of the previous games, he had been denied the opportunity to prove himself in actual combat, and was becoming hungry to taste battle first-hand.

We were up to 2,500 points for this round. My army was as follows;

General: Luga Belosi - Vampire Lord

Level 1 Wizard (Lore of Vampires)

Heavy armour, lance, barded nightmare

Charmed Shield, Staff of Damnation, Talisman of Preservation

Red Fury, Quickblood

Vampire

Level 2 Wizard (Lore of Shadow)

Heavy armour, shield, barded nightmare

Obsidian Lodestone

Fear Incarnate

Wight King

Skeletal steed, barding, shield

Sword of Anti-heroes, Potion of Strength

Necromancer

Level 1 Wizard (Lore of Vampires)

Dispel Scroll

39 Skeleton Warriors

Full command, spears

The Screaming Banner

30 Zombies
Standard bearer and musician

20 Zombies

5 Dire Wolves
Champion doggy

Another 5 Dire Wolves

14 Black Knights

Full command, barding, lance

Banner of the Barrows

3 Vargheists
Champion

10 Stormvermin

Standard bearer and musician

Storm Banner

Poisoned Wind Mortar

Fire Dragon

The Dark Elves army, was something like this. Again, I've only got a rough idea of what upgrades they had, Some of the units are a 'best guess'. I'm not entirely sure whether Julie had Black Ark Corsairs or some other infantry unit.

General: Malus Darkblade

Warpsword of Khaine

Sorceress
Level 2 Wizard(ess) - Lore of Dark Magic
Dispel Scroll

Death Hag
Chariot of Blood

20 Black Ark Corsairs

30 Witch Elves

9 Cold One Knights

2 Reaper Bolt Throwers

5 Doomfire Warlocks

10 Sisters of Slaughter

2 units of 5 Dark Riders
Repeater crossbows

Black Dragon

Here's roughly how the battlefield looked after deployment.

On the left I had a unit of Dire Wolves, with the Stormvermin and Poisoned Wind Mortar nearby. Left of centre was the Fire Dragon, the big block of Skeleton Warriors, and twenty Zombies. Right of centre, on the hill was my Black Knight bus with all the cavalry heroes in it. To their right was the main unit of Zombies, with the Necromancer in it, the other unit of Dire Wolves, and the three Vargheists.

The Dark Elves (in purple, of course) were, from left to right, a unit of Dark Riders with Doomfire Warlocks behind them, then the Black Ark Corsairs (or other infantry if I got this wrong), in front of one of the Bolt Throwers. Next to this was the Black Dragon, and the big block of Witch Elves with the Cauldron of Blood, the Death Hag and the Sorceress. Roughly central (and in the early stages somewhat hampered by the terrain which for the life of me I cannot remember was where) was the unit of Cold One Knights with Malus Darkblade in it. Over on the right was the other Bolt Thrower, the unit of Sisters of Slaughter,and the other unit of Dark Riders.

It looks as though the Dark Elves are a bit sparse over on the right, but it was a while now since we played this, and they were probably a bit more evenly spaced than this. Next time I'll have to set up a camera or something to record the game.

The Sorceress had the spells Doombolt and Arnzipal's Black Horror. The Doomfire Warlock had their usual spells of course. For my wizards, the Vampire Lord had Curse of Years, the Vampire with Lore of Shadow had Pit of Shades and Okkam's Mindrazor, and the Necromancer had Invocation of Nehek.

After we did our vanguard moves, the Dark Elves got to go first. The Dark Riders and Doomfire Warlocks moved into missile and spell range, with the Black Dragon also moving down the left side of the board. The Cold One Knights were holding back a bit, I guess so that the Witch Elf/ Cauldron of Blood unit could keep pace with them. Between their spells and repeater crossbow fire from the Dark Riders, as well as being peppered by the Bolt Throwers, both units of Dire Wolves were taken out.

The Dark Riders on the right were now in charge range of the Vargheists. Although they passed their Frenzy check, I had them charge anyway. I was expecting them to make a feigned flight manoeuvre. Instead they chose to stand and shoot, and managed to wound one of the Vargheists. This was the last valiant action by the Dark Riders, who were ripped to pieces by the rampaging Vargheists. However, they were also drawn slightly out of position by being forced to overrun due to Frenzy.

The Black Knight bus with the Vampire Lord, Vampire and Wight King, though hungry for combat, weren't going to recklessly march towards the largest units, namely the Witch Elves and the Cold One Knights. Rather, they wheeled towards the Sisters of Slaughter on the right, while the Skeletons moved forward to hold up the larger units.

Due to some poor dispel rolls, the Vampires were able to raise some more Zombies in the Necromancers bunker, and the Vampire Lord got Curse of Years off on the Sisters of Slaughter, killing two of them. The Poisoned Wind Mortar took a shot at the Doomfire Warlocks. The shot was a bit of target and actually hit the other unit of Dark Riders instead, killing two of them, though they passed their Panic test.

After this, the Dark Elves managed to wipe out the Stormvermin and the Poisoned Wind Mortar, using spells from the Doomfire Warlocks, crossbow fire, and a breath attack from the Black Dragon. It should be worth pointing out at this stage, that given the cowardly reputation that Skaven have, these guys fought and died to the last rat in every single game of this tournament, without ever fleeing off the board.

The Sorceress whittled down the block of Skeleton Warriors with spells before the Corsairs and Witch Elves moved in to finish them off.

On the Vampire Counts side, my Fire Dragon, after flaming the Corsairs and managing to kill about four of them before they had charged the Skeletons, had gotten behind the Dark Elf lines. From there it could either close in to take out one of the Bolt Throwers, or threaten the flanks of the two large units. The Bolt Thrower on the left had taken several shots at the Fire Dragon, but only managed to inflict a single wound throughout the whole game.

The Sisters of Slaughter were wiped out by the Black Knights, already weakened by the Curse of Years spell, which had slain another three before finally being dispelled, and the Bolt Thrower on the right was taken out by the Vargheists, though the brave crew did manage to put another wound on one of the undead beasts.

By about turn three, the Witch Elves held the centre, with the Cold One Knights and Malus Darkblade in range of the Black Knights. I had three choices; back off with my main unit (and get whittled down by spells and missile fire), charge the Witch Elves and get charged in the flank by the Cold Ones, or charge the Cold Ones and get charged in the flank by the Witch Elves. The Wight King had downed his Potion of Strength and I had the Black Knights, Vampires and Wight King charge Malus and his Cold One Knights, assisted by the Vargheists charging into the Cold Ones flank.

They made their charges easily enough, and even made all of their Dangerous Terrain checks for charging through or landing in woods. Then came the magic phase, and I had the baby Vamp cast Okkam's Mindrazor on the unit of Black Knights. Irresistible Force! The resulting miscast was Power Drain, and the baby Vamp was reduced to a level 0 wizard with no spells. In every game of the tournament, I had had an Irresistible Force spell go off, and had now run the full spectrum of miscasts.

Funnily enough, it was at last years Champions of Destiny tournament, in the third game as well, that a High Elf player had done exactly the same thing to me, with the same spell (though it took the Book of Hoeth to turn a 1 into a second 6 and get the miscast).

Malus Darkblade issued a challenge, which the Hell Knight champion accepted (you never know, he might have got a lucky Killing Blow and won some Underdog Challenge points). Malus Darkblade slew the Hell Knight, but didn't get any overkill (some poor rolls were made). The Cold One Knights managed to finish off the wounded Vargheist, slay a Black Knight, and put a wound on the baby Vamp. The Vampires and Wights, with Red Fury and Quickblood on the Vampire Lord, the Banner of the Barrows and Strength 10 attacks from the Mindrazor, wiped out the entire unit of Cold One Knights, leaving just Malus Darkblade. Needing snake eyes, Malus broke and fled, but made a good flee roll and the Knights and Vargheists just couldn't catch him.

The problem now was that the Witch Elves with the Cauldron of Blood were now staring at the flank of my Black Knight bus, somewhat depleted from missile fire and combat, whereas the Witch Elves were virtually untouched. They charged into the flank, and the Vampire Lord and Wight King made way to the flanks to fight them off. The Black Dragon, which was in the bottom left corner of the battlefield flew towards the centre ready for a rear charge into any surviving Black Knights.

What happened next should go down in the annals of Warhammer history. All I can say is that (cue Conan music) Two Stood Against Many! Aside from two Black Knights taken down by the impact hits from the Cauldron of Blood, the Witch Elves failed to score a single wound on the two heroes. In return, they felled a number of the Witch Elves, turning what could have been a massacre into a drawn combat and allowing the unit to reform to face their foes.

With the tide of battle turning in favour of the Vampire Counts, the Fire Dragon charged into the Witch Elves flank. The Zombies, led by the Necromancer attempted a long charge into the flank of the Black Dragon, hoping to hold it up and prevent it from affecting the battle between the Black Knights and the Witch Elves. I needed an 11 to make the charge, and I rolled....11! The Dragon now had some sixty odd Zombies to chew through, by which time the Black Knights and Vampires would with any luck be well out of the way,

The battle between the Witch Elves and the Black Knights and Fire Dragon was brutal and swift. The Witch Elves managed to fell the already wounded baby Vamp, but the damage had already been done. The Vampire Lord, Wight King, Black Knights and the Fire Dragon slew a great many Witch Elves. What was left, including the Sorceress and the Death Hag, were now so few in number that they were no longer steadfast. They broke and fled, but were hacked down by the bloodthirsty Vampire Lord and his victorious Black Knights.

At this point, time was called. I think we only had another turn each anyway. We tallied up the points. I thought it was going to be close, and it turned out to be a 12-8 win to the Vampire Counts. An enjoyable end to a thoroughly enjoyable tournament.

Results from Round Three

                 Players                                                      Victory Points     Tournament Points

Table 1     Phil Rossiter (High Elves)                                950                           12
                 Luke Stout (Dwarfs)                                           240                            8

Table 2     Alex Hogan (Empire)                                       2305                          17
                 Matt Stafford (Warriors of Chaos)                   305                            3

Table 3     Charles Hart (Wood Elves)                             2827                          19
                 Andy Wood (Dark Elves)                                     425                           1

Table 4     Nathan Bradley (Vampire Counts)                 1036                          13
                 Warren Stevens (Vampire Counts)                    225                           7

Table 5     Andrew Hogan (Vampire Counts)                  1435                          12
                 Julie Stevens (Dark Elves)                                  817                            8

Standings

        Player                         Tournament Points          Victory Points

 1     Alex Hogan                              46                                 3888

 2     Phil Rossiter                            41                                 2773

 3     Luke Stout                                41                                 3288

 4     Charles Hart                            38                                  3562

 5     Nathan Bradley                       30                                  3248

 6     Andrew Hogan                        24                                  1915

 7     Matt Stafford                           23                                  1429

 8     Warren Stevens                       23                                    845

 9     Andy Wood                               21                                  1702

10    Julie Stevens                           13                                  1557

Finale

Well, I avoided winning the wooden spoon for the second year running. That honour goes to Julie Stevens. Middle of the table is quite respectable for me. But look who went and won it! So proud of my boy, who's come a long way since he played in his first tournament (also mine) a few years ago at the Rollcall 2013 Tournament at Cranfield. He also won the Best Painted Allied Unit award for his brilliantly painted High Elves!

Again, thanks to Mark Peat for organising a wonderful tournament and persevering to keep 8th edition Warhammer alive. Hopefully there will be many more tournaments like this in the future. In fact, Mark is involved in running an 8th Edition Warhammer League, in which the results of this and future tournament results that are run in the UK can be shown and used to show overall tournament rankings of all participants.

Don't take my word for it though. Have a look at Eighth Edition Warhammer League (EEWL) Forum.

Oh, and if you want to know how I did the little diagrams of the battlefields, there's a great piece of software that you can download for free at http://battlechronicler.com. It's a little tricky to get used to, but once you do get the hang of it, it's not half bad.

Thanks again to all the players, and to my opponents who provided me with three great games in this tournament.