Machiara's Seattle GT Battles II: Necrarch Vampires
My GT army:
Characters
Warleader Aewyn Machiara, "Sword of Loren," Wood Elf General 218 points
mounted on Tahksyr, a Warhawk
wielding A'lir, the Sword of Isha, Lance, Hail of Doom Arrow
armored with Magic War Paint, Shield
w/ Jade Amulet
Kaitani, Priestess of Isha, Prophetess, Wood Elf Mage 65 points
mounted on Elven Steed
wielding Longbow
Alethia, Priestess of Isha, Shrine Keeper, Wood Elf Mage 87 points
wielding Longbow
w/ Dispel Magic Scroll
Nicheyo Iryr, "Isha's Shield," Wood Elf Champion 65 points
wielding Spear
armored with Isha's Raiment (Armor of Fortune), Shield
Dunedos Sarisi, Captain of Equos, Glade Rider Champion 54 points
mounted on Elven Steed
wielding Lance
armored with Shield
Character Total: 489 Character Percentage: 24% Magic Item Total: 75
Regiments
Meadow Glade Patrol:
5 Glade Riders, "Feral Lancers" 211 points
wielding Lances
armored with Shields
w/ Feral Banner (War Banner)
Chariot, "Crimson Tide" 106 points
w/Scythed Wheels, Extra Steeds
2 Crew
wielding Spears
armored with Light Armor, Shields
Chariot, "Emerald Wave" 106 points
w/Scythed Wheels, Extra Steeds
2 Crew
wielding Spears
armored with Light Armor, Shields
Lasin'dril Village Levies:
24 Glade Guard, "Isha's Valor" Company 295 points
wielding Spears
armored with Shields
with Banner of Isha's Valor (Valorous Standard), Musician
14 Archers, "Isha's Judgment" Company 154 points
wielding Longbows
14 Archers, "Isha's Justice" Company 154 points
wielding Longbows
6 Scouts, "Eyes of Isha" Company 80 points
wielding Longbows
Isha's Shrine Guardians:
13 Archers, "Isha's Power" Company 179 points
wielding Longbows
w/ Banner of Isha's Power (Banner of Sorcery)
6 Wardancers, Sacred Glade Troupe 120 points
wielding Two Hand Weapons
5 Waywatchers, "Isha's Shadows" 90 points
wielding Longbows
Regiments Total: 1511 Regiments Percentage: 76% Magic Item Total: 85
TOTAL: 2000 Points
The next scenario would be the "forced march," wherein all armies could set up 18" from their table edge (as opposed to the usual 12") but everyone’s movement was reduced by one. My opponent was Vampire Count Necrarchs:
Necrarch Shambling Hordes ™
Usil, Necrarch Vampire Lord
w/ Rod of Power, Jade Amulet
Nehekara’s Noble Blood, Master of the Black Arts, The Awakening
Spells: Summon Skeletons, Raise Dead, Vanhel’s Danse Macabre
(IIRC, these bloodlines made him a lvl 4 caster with three spells, retain spells on a 4+, and summon d3 extra skeletons with his summon spells)
Mordeth, Wraith Champion
w/ Cursed Book
29 Skeletons w/ Banner of Sorcery, Musician, Shield
29 Zombies w/ Standard Bearer, Musician
30 Zombies w/ Standard Bearer, Musician
25 Ghouls
25 Ghouls
11 Dire Wolves w/ one Doom Wolf
5 Vampire Bats
2 Spirit Hosts
Banshee
SETUP
You can imagine my consternation at viewing one-hundred and fifty odd undead models across the table. They weren’t going to break from charges, they weren’t going to panic from missile fire, and they were going to be getting a whole lot of new friends in the magic phase. Fortunately, they were going to take forever to get across the table because of their sad M3 from the forced march (hooray!). Of course, the forced march -should- have been against an army I could sit back and panic with my missile fire . . .
There was a lot of terrain on the table. I had two forests on my side, one in the center-left of my deployment zone and another on the right, just outside of my deployment zone and just in front of a hill within my deployment zone. He had a large in the center of his deployment zone and a hill with a house on it in the right hand part of his deployment zone (from my perspective). He set up his two huge ghoul units holding the center of his line, with his skeletons (w/wraith) to the left (once again, all directions from my perspective) and the zombies on the flanks. The Dire Wolves and Vampire Bats set up on the extreme right flank.
I set my archers up in the center, with my Scouts deployed to the extreme left and my Waywatchers deployed in the forest in front of the hill. The Glade Riders deployed in the center in front of the archers for maximum flexibility. My Glade Guard, Wardancers and Chariots all set up on the right-hand side; I envisioned a sweeping multicharge flank action in which I would attempt to destroy his slow-moving army in detail through combat resolution casualties. My wizards hung back, the better to try and dispel all the nasty magic I knew would be coming my way.
THE BATTLE
Undead Turn One:
Vampire bats charge my Chariot, since I (like an idiot) forgot that the 18" deployment would allow troops with long charge ranges to charge on the first turn. Rest of the army shambles forward, and the direwolves move out on the flank.
Bats do no damage to the Chariot (hooray). Chariot does one wound, wins combat, and there is one less bat.
Magic: The Vampire Count summons skeletons 3" away from my Scouts and another unit in front of the Glade Riders but is unable to Vanhel’s them into hand-to-hand.
Wood Elf Turn One.
Scouts charge the small unit of recently raised troops, hoping to destroy them. Glade Riders charge the recently raised skeletons in the center. Waywatchers move up to firing positions at the edge of the forest. Wardancers leap over the Waywatchers towards the approaching unit of zombies. Glade Guard maneuvers for a charge into the bats. Other Chariot positions itself to threaten the Dire Wolves.
Some lines of sight are blocked by the whirling Glade Rider melee but a few ghouls fall to bowfire.
Glade Riders destroy the recently risen unit, but the Scouts barely win combat despite the significant disparity in Weapon Skill (WS5-WS2). The bats kill a crew member but receive a wound in return for a push.
Magic: I am using Amber Magic at the consent of my opponent, and attempt to cast "Flock of Doom" (2d6 S3 hits) on the zombies in combat with the Scouts. It is easily dispelled.
Undead Turn Two:
No charges. The restless dead continue their M3 shamble towards my lines. Direwolves continue the cat and mouse game with my unengaged Chariot. The Vampire Count moves toward the Scout combat.
The Scouts whittle down the zombies to around three, and take one wound in return. The Chariot once again defeats the bats by one.
Magic: The spellcaster raises a ton of zombies into the combat with the Scouts, there are now about 13 zombies and 4 Scouts, so I am positive the Scouts will break in my combat phase (as they will be outnumbered by a feared enemy who won combat). He also manages to raise a unit behind my standard bearing archers in the woods, about an inch away from my foot mage who was taking refuge in what turned out to be the dubious security of the forest. In an interesting turn of events, I dispelled his Vanhel’s with "Mental Duel," and my foot mage died, but she had the "Escape" card, which brought her back in a different location. This meant that the skeletons did not have line of sight to my archers in the woods (hooray!), and my opponent did not recover Vanhel’s.
Wood Elf turn two:
The Glade Guard charges the Vampire Bats. My archers move forward, out of the forest, the better to avoid a Vanhel’s inspired charge from the zombies behind them in the woods. The Glade Riders race through the woods behind the Waywatchers to provide support to the flank effort.
Shooting kills some more ghouls, and the unit is definitely starting to look depleted.
The Vampire Bats are completely destroyed, and the Scouts are auto broken and run down, but leave the victorious zombie unit out of position to charge my leftmost archer unit.
In magic, I attempted to cast "flock of doom" on the zombies in the forest behind my archers, but it was, once again, dispelled.
Undead Turn 3:
The Dire Wolves charge my Chariot that has been so recently freed from combat with the Vampire bats. I attempt to flee, and there is some discussion about whether my Chariot can flee through my own units. I say it can, as the rules say the unit simply parts to get out of the way, but he says the Chariot is too big. We dice on it, and he wins. So my Chariot holds and takes a big Dire Wolf charge. The rest of his army moves forward, his skeletons move 1.5" through the woods and still have no line of sight to my archers. The zombies who recently defeated the Scouts turn to face my leftmost archer unit.
The Dire Wolves take my Chariot apart in combat and follow up into the Glade Guard.
Magic: More skeletons summoned, but no new units. Vanhel’s is dispelled and he cannot retain, so no magic phase charges.
Wood Elf Turn 3:
My remaining Chariot charges the Dire Wolves and the Wardancers charge the big unit of zombies, hoping to inflict big casualties with "Whirling Death." My center archers reform to face the wood with two ranks (and standard) the better to withstand the forthcoming charge. My left marchers walk forward, out of range of the zombies 6" charge.
Glade Guard and Chariot destroy the Dire Wolves to a Wolf. In a spectacular display of bad luck, my Wardancers inflict 12 hits with their 18 attacks (average) and proceed to do a grand total of ZERO wounds on a 4+ (S3 T3). That’s right, I rolled twelve dice to wound, should have killed six, and killed NONE. My wardancers took a wound in return, broke due to the ranks and standard, and the zombies followed up 11" (!!) placing them in perfect position to charge my Glade Guard in the flank. This was disastrous.
Magic: Another attempt at "Flock of Doom." Another successful dispel.
Undead Turn four:
Wardancer-immune ToughZombies™ charge the Glade Guard in the flank. Zombies in woods charge the central archers. Raised zombies move forward to bring leftmost archers into charge range. Rest of army shambles forward, and Banshee is now in scream range of my Waywatchers.
Banshee screams at Waywatchers, and causes two wounds, but they make a panic test.
Zombies break Glade Guard with the flank charge, but can’t run them down (Machiara wipes his brow at this point; this was probably the biggest single dice roll in the game). Panic tests all around on that flank, but everyone’s fine. Ranked archers defeat forest zombies in combat.
Magic. Zombies added to units, but no Vanhel’s casting! This could have been nasty if the pursuing zombies could have gotten another charge move . . .
Wood Elf turn four:
Glade Guard rallies. Glade Riders and Chariot turn to face big unit of zombies, which is now looking very out of position. General flies to a position to target the Banshee with the Hail of Doom arrow. Leftmost Archers continue to move away from zombies, but have to worry about big unit of zombies approaching from across the field (which are finally moving into a position to charge).
General fires Hail of Doom at Banshee, killing it.
Archers again win combat with the zombies from the forest. (Ranks and standard).
Undead Turn Five:
Zombies charge leftmost archer unit, which flees. Various other movement, all inconsequential as it is the last Undead turn.
Zombies finally defeat standard-bearing archers, but cannot run them down.
Vanhel’s is dispelled, and cannot be retained! The Vampire Count didn’t cast a single Vanhel’s the entire game!
Wood Elf Turn Six:
Huge charge on the ToughZombie unit, by general, Chariot, and Glade Riders (in flank). The Glade Guard don’t have the move to get there, although they charged as well. Both archer units rally.
Zombie unit completely destroyed by the multiple charge. Wood Elves capture its standard and retrieve the Glade Guard’s standard.
End of game.
CONCLUSION
Well, this was a big tie. He had a standard from my archers, I had a standard from his zombies. He had two table quarters and had killed my Wardancers, a Chariot, and my Scouts. I had killed a big zombie unit, a Banshee, a raised zombie unit, his Vampire bats, and his big unit of Dire Wolves.
Wood Elves: 720.
Vampire Counts: 632.
I was really fortunate to escape from this game with a tie. The forced march was nice because his main units just couldn’t get across the table fast enough to engage. My archery was almost insignificant, as I spent most of the game trying to whittle down a tough Ghoul unit that ended the game with four models left (aaargh!). If he had Vanhel’s his zombies into my fleeing Glade Guard it could have been all over. As it was, everything worked out okay. The Glade Guard once again did good, using their ranks and standard to kill off the Vampire bats, and though they broke from the flank charge that was really the fault of the incompetent Wardancers. In any event, this was a tight, tense battle, what with Undead units popping up everywhere. We both had a lot of fun, but there was only a short break before I met my next foe: Brettonians.