VCL: Group 4 Match 1: no1cafc vs GrandDukeJerot

[gingerninja]

Map: Fields of Brettonia
Top Deployment: GrandDukeJerot
First Turn: GrandDukeJerot

no1cafc's list:

Vampire Lord
-Lv3 Upgrade
-Master of the Black Arts
-Forbidden Lore
-Summon Ghouls
-Skull staff
-Wristbands of Black Gold
-Hellsteed
Lore of Shadow: All Spells


Vampire
-Dread Kinght
-Summon Creatures of the Night
-Blood Drinker
-BSB
Lore of Vampires Spell 3

Vampire
-Helm of Commandment
-Dark Acolyte
-Summon Creatures of the Night
-Hellsteed
Lore of Vampires Spell 3 and 4

Vampire
-Book of Arkhan
-Dark Acolyte
-Summon Ghouls
Lore of Vampires Spell 1 and 2

10 Crypt Ghouls
-Ghast

10 Crypt Ghouls
-Ghast

10 Crypt Ghouls
-Ghast

10 Crypt Ghouls

5 Dire Wolves

3 Fell Bats

3 Fell Bats

3 Fell bats

6 Blood Knights
-Champ, Standard
-The Flag of the Blood Keep

Varghulf

Sorry for the lateness of the tactics.

The lore my lord will take is Shadows.

Deployment will be as follows

Behind the Trees will be the varghulf, lord, and hellsteed vamp.

From left to right the ghouls will line up 12" on with 1 unit placed 4/5" behind to allow for raising. 2 bat units will also deploy behind.

The other bats will be deployed on the right side of my deployment zone with the Blood Knights behind them, the wolves will be deployed just left of the knights screening them as well as the bats.

Plan:-

With 7 dispel dice and +1 to dispel I expect to stop all his magic each turn or at least the prayers that will count, also with my 12D to his 6DD and no scrolls I expect to have a strong magic phase especially with +1 to cast with the lord and +2 for raising.

The first turn I will focus magic on raising the ghouls and bats. The blood knights, bats and wolves on the right will move up that right flank with the wolves and bats placing themselves in a position to divert any units.

The bats on the left will position themselves to charge any warmachines and the varghulf will come out of hiding to go for whats on the hill.

The ghoul block will stay where it is as will the 2 hellsteeds taking care to stay out of sight of ranged units.

Hopefully in turn 2, 3 warmachines will be engaged so the hellsteeds can come out to play and the ghouls move forward. While the blood knights on the flank charge any units near them. This turn will be cagey but 3 warmachines should be killed by the end of the turn and with more magic focused on the ghouls at least 2 of the units should be around 20 models strong depending on how the 1 dice casting has gone, since each successful cast is a 5 or more from the lord which will need 2 dice to stop.

Turn 3 is when i plan to be causing as many terror tests as possible, using the varghulf and casting shades of death on some bats last thing I plan to make a mess of as many empire units as possible when the take a test their turn 4. Now is when I start using the deadly spells from shadow such as creeping death and pit of shades as my ghouls should be a respectable size and only need topping up, he wont be able to stop all 3 of my shadow spells.

By now things should be entering combat and the blood knights threatening to roll down his flank, so with enough invocating to keep things alive that need to be I expect fear will trump over the the empire troops.

GrandDukeJerot's list and tactics:

Lord -
Arch Lector of Sigmar - 300
War altar, Sword of Power, Dawn Armor

Heroes -
Warrior Priest - 119
Great Weapon, Armor of Meteoric Iron, Joins Greatswords

Captain - 76
Plate Armor, Lance, Shield, Barded Warhorse, Joins Knights 1

Warrior Priest - 155
Barded Warhorse, Heavy Armor, Sword of Sigismund, Shield, Joins Knights 2

Core -
7 x Knights 1 - 185
Musician, Standard Bearer, Joined by Captain

7 x Knights 2 - 185
Musician, Standard Bearer, Joined by Mounted Warrior Priest

20 Swordsmen - 215
Musician, Standard Bearer, 2 x 5 Handgunners

20 Swordsmen - 215
Musician, Standard Bearer, 2 x 5 Crossbowmen

20 Swordsmen - 215
Musician, Standard Bearer, 2 x 5 Crossbowmen

Special -
14 Greatswords - 158
Musician, Standard Bearer, Joined by Warrior Priest on Foot

Cannon -

Cannon -

Cannon -

Rare -
Hellblaster Volley Gun -

Position from Left to Right:

3 Cannons on the hill.

Swordsmen w/ Crossbow detachment, the detachment closer to the cannons set far back enough as to put the unit of Greatswords at the front of the battle line next to the hill.

Hellblaster Volley Gun

2nd swordsmen w/ Crossbow detachment.

Arch Lector

Swordsmen w/ Handgunners detachment.

Knights w/ Captain

Knights w. Warrior Priest

Battle Plan:
Lob the cannonballs at the Lord first, hoping to get rid of him quick. If he's on the opposite side of the lineup, I'll go for the Varghulf, or barring that, the Blood Knights. If my crossbows seem in range of any of the Bats or Varghulf or anything fast that looks lined up (and in LoS) by my canons, they'll hit it. Hellblaster won't fire, there's not enough range. Knights and Arch Lector move up cautiously. Greatswords move up 4 inches, less if there are fliers lined up at the artillery.

Defensively, I use my dispel die to stop attack magic rather than their animation spells. That's my first turn game plan, more of it depends on what lines up with what. The Knight WP and the Arch Lector will try to use their ability to hurt undead in CC, the cannons will go after the Varghulf after their first go at the lord.

[ArtificiallyEnhanced]

GDJerot, priests work very nicely vs. undead, I think there's a definite edge in his favour.

[daelrog]

no1cafc will win. Why? Because the real threat of this army are the gouls. The ghouls can beat the Empire marching blaocks, especially when he starts raising zombies for flank and rear charges. Since all the effort will be used to try to get a pot shot off at the general or the vargulf and blood knights, the ghouls will be allowed to close in, and bumped up in size.

[DavidWC09]

Those blood knights can roll a flank on their own. While they have a pretty standard to help them against shooting, there are still three cannons that have the possibility of a flank shot against them. If GDJ goes toe to toe with them, he'll go down in a blaze of, erm, un-glory? If he flees and counters and makes use of frenzy, he can deal with them.

And I wouldn't underestimate the deadliness of the warrior priests or arch lectors against undead. And that war altar is going to be tough to deal with.

No scrolls is tough against this VC list. They can really pump out some magic, and can spam zombies and ghouls quite effectively.

Having run ghouls, I'm not too impressed. Their lack of armor and standard puts them at a disadvantage. Again, GDJ can flee and countercharge.

If a cannon can get past the varghulf's regen, it's has a 1 in 2 shot at killing the beast outright.

Hmm, messy, messy battle. Unbreakable Empire units can cause some problems, too.

Due to magic superiority and the low risk of miscasts, I'm going with Vampires, but they're going to take some licks.

[ArchonFarseerGuy]

Personally, what I'm iffy about in the Empire list are the detachments. I'm not a fan of two shooting detachments at all. If they had at least one cc detachment, I would say Empire would win, due to the extra wounds being dished out, and the potentially combat-tipping rise in CRes for them.

However, all shooting damage will be easily restored by the vampires.

Although they have the first turn, there are six units that the warmachine crew have to worry about. If I'm not mistaken, the bats and wolves can both be healed, the knights have a banner that should allow them to survive two phases. Once those units hit, I wouldn't bet much on the Empire's survival.

If the Terror-bombs work, then it becomes a matter of finishing off the survivors.

WPs tend to be at their best when casting spells. The VCs shouldn't have much trouble shutting them down, and with no support items (Icon/Shroud of Magnus, VHS etc), they won't do as much as people seem to think. I can't see Hatred alone winning the game.

VCs will take the win.

[Exarch Thomo]

no1caf and his VC's. Reasons:
Summon creatures of the night means that those fell bats can get increased by D6 models per casting, more than enough to deal with the cannon and any other pesky units, not to mention march blocking.
IoN will see any casualties caused replenished, and the magic should be shut down with ease.
Combined charges, flanks and psychology will do the rest I think.

[Lore_Colten]

no1cafc

[Brave Sir Robin]

no1cafc winning because of magical superiority.

[kroxigor01]

A Minor Victory to GrandDukeJerot. Those cannons will probably kill the Varghulf and any lone vampires. The small units of knights will case alot of trouble as will the 30 (!) S4 ranged units (bye bye bats and wolves, and a few ghouls). The on knight unit can bait the bloodknights (before rallying) and give the other knight unit a flank. Infantry blocks (despite lack of combat detachments, which I heartily recommend) will slowlydestroy the ghouls. The helblaster is very random, but if lucky could wipe the bloodknights of the board (or blow itself up...). The only thing that makes the game a minor victory is the 12PD no1cafc has.

[gingerninja]

The large magical ability of the VC should see them carry the day so long as the low number castings are kept to low level, so as to avoid miscasts.

ninja out