SFG 5/29 Battle Report: Game 1

Hey folks! So this last weekend Sci-Fi Genre hosted a 2250 WHFB tourney that myself (and Ben) participated it. The tourney was one day, 3 rounds. It was a smaller turn-out, with 10 people showing up, but it was actually pretty nice, and a lot of fun. SFG usually hosts its tourneys with an "anything goes" attitude, and this was no different. Shane just checked to make sure the lists were legal, but other than that you could bring special characters, nasty item combos, or your fluffy squig hopping Orc squad if you wanted. All of the games were also pitched battles, so no scenario points or objectives, just straight up face-smashing. You were also awarded the most BPs for massacres, then solid victories, then major victories (are those switched?), etc.

Anyway, I wrote up my battle report for Game 1. The other two will follow. Enjoy!

My List:

Vampire Lord
Level 3 Wizard
Flayed Hauberk (2+ AS)
Helm of Commandment (give WS to one unit during combat)
Black Periapt (save magic die for next phase)
Dispel Scroll
Forbidden Lore (know all of one lore)
Master of the Black Arts (2 extra PD)
Summon Ghouls (raise ghouls beyond starting on 3+)

Vampire
BSB
Cadaverous Cuirass (heavy armor, immune to KB and poison)
Talisman of Protection
Talisman of Lynci (M9)
Ghoulkin (ghoul units get free march before game starts)
Avatar of Death – GW

Vampire
Dark Acolyte (level 2 wizard)
Summon Ghouls
Book of Arkhan (bound level 3 Vanhel’s Danse Macabre)

Necromancer
Nightmare
Dispel Scroll x2
Know +1 spell

3 units of 10 Ghouls w/champ

2 Corpse Carts w/Balefire (-1 to cast on wizards within 24”)

2 units of 5 Dire Wolves

4 Fell Bats

14 Grave Guard w/champ

5 Cairn Wraiths w/Banshee

Varghulf


Game 1 – Bart – Daemons of Chaos

Bart normally plays dwarves around SFG (at least it’s the army I’ve seen him play the most), but for this tourney he decided to break out the nasty daemons. His list was roughly:

Great Unclean One

Herald of Nurgle on Palanquin, BSB

Herald of Tzeentch

Bloodcrusher on Juggernaut

Unit of 20 Plaguebearers, standard

Unit of 20 Pink Horrors, standard

Unit of 10 Bloodletters

Unit of 5 Flesh Hounds

Unit of 5 Flamers

So not too bad of a list, daemons can get much nastier than what Bart decided to bring. In the end though, it’s still daemons.



See picture for deployment. My free march saw the left 2 ghoul units move forward at an angle toward his flamers/horrors, and the right ghoul unit go pretty much straight forward.

Turn 1:

I won the roll and elected to go first. Most of my infantry just moved straight forward, with my grave guard just moving a bit to the right. My wolves on my left flank moved up toward the flamers, but stayed just out of their charge range. On my right flank I moved my bats and wolves up to annoy the flesh hounds, with my varghulf and wraiths hanging far to the right to really threaten that flank. Magic was pretty pitiful; I think I only raised 4 ghouls.

On his turn he moved his flamers and plaguebearers up a bit. His horrors and GUO hung back, though did move a little forward. His flesh hounds also came over the hill. Surprisingly he moved his bloodletter unit backward, though I’m not sure what he was fearing. Magic was also a dud for him, with my balefire proving its worth. His flamers shot the heck out of one of the ghoul units though.

Turn 2:

On my turn I moved my left-most ghoul unit and the wolves up to screen the flamers. My other left ghoul unit moved right in front of his GUO. On the right flank I moved my dire wolves in front of his flesh hounds, swung my bats around behind his bloodletters to march block, and slid my varghulf and wraiths up the right side of the board to get into charge range of his hounds. Magic went better, and I raised a good amount of ghouls in the left 2 units, and also raised a block of zombies behind the dire wolves on my right flank in case the flesh hounds decided to try and get a big overrun roll. Banshee scream did nothing.

Bart’s turn saw him charge my ghoul block with his GUO, and charge my dire wolves with his flesh hounds. His bloodletters found their daemonic courage and trudged forward, though slower now. I pretty much shut down his magic again, though he did get the spell that drops all stats to 1 off on his GUO. Shooting saw his flamers fireblast my dire wolf unit, though rolling poor and only killing 3. In combat his GUO chewed up some ghouls, but didn’t get rid of them and so was stuck. His flesh hounds ripped apart my wolves though, and overran into my zombies; which was a bad position for them as the varghulf was now staring down their left flank.



See picture for Turn 2.

Turn 3:

My go again. I was now able to get some charges off. My varghulf went into the flank of his flesh hounds, and my free ghoul block on my left flank went into his horrors. I moved my remaining 2 wolves up to screen his flamers, and my bats hung around behind his units. My right ghoul block moved forward to get at his bloodletters later on. Magic just saw some raising, and my banshee screamed 2 bloodletters to death. Combat saw my left ghouls fail to wound the herald, and lose CR by 3, leaving 2 ghouls in the unit. My varghulf also did fairly poor, and only killed one hound. He struck back at the zombies, and managed to kill 5. This allowed him to win CR by 3, which put a wound on the varghulf and allowed him to reform, negating my flank next turn. The GUO ate the rest of the ghoul unit.

On his turn he charged the dire wolves with his flamers. The rest of his infantry just kind of shuffled around, though his plaguebearers were starting to get close to my grave guard block – something I didn’t want happening. He also moved his bloodcrusher out of the bloodletter unit. Magic was pretty uneventful again, and his flamers were in combat so no shooting. Combat saw the flamers eat the wolves. In the ghoul/horror combat though, I had one ghoul left in BtB with his herald. He swung his slimy arms out and rolled BOXCARS, so 2 poison wounds to the herald…and the herald FAILED both ward saves. Both ghouls popped due to CR, but at least they went down with a fight. The varghulf/hound combat also went in my favor, with the varghulf doing 3 wounds and the flesh hounds popping with a poor instability roll.



See picture for Turn 3.

Turn 4:

My turn again, and a pretty close game so far. I charged my remaining ghoul block with BSB into his bloodletters, along with the varghulf. In moving chargers, however, I found that my bats were blocking my ghoul unit from charging into the bloodletters by just ¼”, so instead they failed and now had an exposed flank to the plaguebearers. I shuffled my grave guard back a bit, hoping to delay the plaguebearer block. My wraiths also moved around to hopefully get into the flank of the bloodletters later on. In my magic phase I was able to raise about 20 zombies in front of the GUO to hopefully stop him up. My banshee scream sounded more like a hoarse whisper, so nothing there. In combat, my varghulf did well, and won CR by 1, but the bloodletters passed instability.

On his go he charged into the zombies with the GUO, and the plaguebearers went into the flank of my BSB-ghoul unit. The flamers moved around all the combat to get LoS to my grave guard, and the bloodcrusher was trying to dance away from my bats in order to charge in somewhere. His magic fizzled again, and shooting saw the flamers char 4 grave guard. Combat saw the GUO stick to the zombies. His plaguebearers put some hurt on my ghoul unit, but with the helm working the palanquin was hitting on 5’s, so I stuck around, even with the banner of re-roll to wound nonsense. The varghulf killed a couple more bloodletters, and they passed instability again.



See picture for Turn 4.

Turn 5:

My go. I charged into the flank of the bloodletters with my wraiths, hoping to wipe them out. Magic went well for me this turn, and I was able to really bolster my ghouls and zombies. I also cast a Gaze on his bloodcrusher, hoping for some luck, and managed to put a wound on him. In combat, the zombies held out for another turn against the GUO. The wraiths and varghulf finally wiped out the bloodletters, but the wraiths didn’t quite roll high enough to overrun into the bloodcrusher. My ghoul unit held again, and I even managed to put a wound on his herald.

On his go he charged the flamers into the flank of the zombie block that was tar-pitting his GUO. We’ll just skip to combat, as nothing really happened in any other phases. The GUO and flamers wiped out the zombies, and the flamers overran in position to shoot my grave guard again. Plaguebearer/ghoul combat didn’t result in much.



See picture for Turn 5.

Turn 6:

Wow, really close game. I don’t think either of us has gotten more than 200 or 300 points away from the other. I charged my wraiths into his bloodcrusher. The rest of my movement was spent making sure none of my units could come to any major harm. Magic saw me boost my troops again to make sure the ghoul unit didn’t pop. In combat, he smartly challenged with his crusher, and so we ended up drawing. The ghoul unit stuck around with the plaguebearers, nothing exciting there.

Not much happened on his go. His flamers shot a couple more grave guard, but his horrors and GUO didn’t really have anywhere to go. I failed to get through the bloodcrusher armor with my wraiths, and so it stuck around.

So game over, and a pretty intense one at that. I ended up coming in ahead of him by about 270 points, which was still a draw. It was an extremely fun game though. My MVPs were definitely the balefire carts which stopped up most of his magic, and my one assassination ghoul killing his herald. After the first round of the tourney there were 2 wins, 2 losses, and 6 draws, so everyone was still really lumped together.