Battle Report (8th) - Vampire Counts vs Dwarfs

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LadyLoec
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Battle Report (8th) - Vampire Counts vs Dwarfs

Post by LadyLoec »

The four horsemen have sallied forth from the realms of hell, summoning the starts of their undead legion to wipe the living off of the face of the old world. The brave Dwarves of Karak Norn muster to battle. May they stand, as failure will lead to the end.

Armies
Dwarfs:
Runelord on Anvil of Doom (3 runes of warding, 2 runes of iron and a rune of shielding)
Dwarf Lord with Shieldbearers and Oathstone (2 runes of fortitude, a rune of iron and a rune of parrying)
Thane BSB with 3 runes of slowness
2 Engineers
2 Cannons (entrenched), one with flaming rune
1 Organ Gun, rune of accuracy.
30 Irondrakes, FC & 2 runes of slowness
30 Longbeards with Great Weapons
20 Thunderers with full command and shields
20 Thunderers with full command and shields

Vampires:
Pestillence: Strigoi Ghoul King Lv1 (Vampires) - master of the black arts, dark acolyte, book of arkhan
War: Vampire Lord Lv1 (Shadow) - heavy armour and shield, barded nightmare, quickblood, dread knight, red fury, sword of strife, talisman of preservation, dragonhelm, luckstone (TL;DR - blender lord)
Death: Master Necromancer Lv4 (Death) - barded nightmare, nightshroud, staff of damnation
Famine: Wight King BSB - barded skeletal steed, enchanted shield, dawnstone
10 Dire Wolves
60 Skeletons with standard and screaming banner
34 Crypt Ghouls
15 Black Knights with lances, barding, standard bearer and banner of the barrows
8 Blood Knights with kastellan, standard, and the flag of blood keep

Pre-game:
Spells:
Pestilence - Invocation of Nehek (plus bound spell Val Hel's Danse Macabre)
War - Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma
Death - Caress of Laniph, Doom and Darkness, Soublight, Fate of Bjuna (plus bound spell Staff of Damnation).

Ancestral Grudge: All Dwarf characters hate all Vampire Counts characters.
Vanguard: Dogs move up to just outside of 24" of the irondrakes

The Game
Dwarf T1
Movement - Dwarfs settle in and get comfy.
Magic - Rune of Hearth and Home for Immune to Psychology. I dispel Wrath and Ruin on the dogs.
Shooting - Cannonball plonks on one black knight, but doesn't plough. Other cannon ploughs through all 10 ranks of skeletons, squashing 9 (we call this "Dwarf bowling"). I had deployed so all my stuff was just out of range, so no further shooting.
No combat.

Vamps T1
Movement Dire wolves march form a meat shield in front of the iron drakes.
Everything else advances, Black Knight bus staying behind the ghouls and Blood Knights behind the dogs, angled so the cannons could hit a bare minimum.
Magic. First of a spate of low winds of magic (4 dice). Master of the Black Arts on the Strigoi lets me reroll one, but I get the same roll again. I cast Miasma on the Irondrakes for -1 BS. He dispels Van Hels on the skellies.
No shooting or combat.

Dwarfs T2
Movement - Thunderers deployed on the far side start the long march to become relevant.
Magic - He gets a whopping number of dice. I let the Immune to Psych bubble go, and fail to dispel +1 armour to Longbeards.
Shooting - Cannon aces Crypt ghoul. Other cannon and organ gun get 7 dire wolves. Thunderers get 6 skellies.
No combat.

Vamps T2
Movement: Dire wolves charge and get barbequed. Blood Knights fail charge thanks to annoying rune shenanigans (After rolling my charge, I have to roll 2 dice and subtract the highest result).
Ghouls and skellies continue their implacable advance. Black Knights wheel and move forwards, as I'm unsure where they'll be needed most.
Magic. I get 4 dice again, despite a reroll on one of the dice. He dispels Miasma on the Irondrakes. Van Hells make Ghouls move forwards so they're right in the face of the ongbeard unit (I know there's a triple rune of slowness in there, so getting up in his grill is the only way to get them into combat).
No shooting or combat.

Dwarfs T3
Movement - Longbeards charge Ghouls, Thunderers on the far flank keep marching up.
Magic - Rune of Wrath and Ruin kills one Blood Knight. He gets +1 armour to Long beards. I save everything to dispel the Immune to Psych bubble, which I do (as I aim to get my screaming banner into the Longbeards in my next turn)
Shooting - Far flank cannon misfires, cannot shoot this turn or next. Thunderers kill 3 skellies. organ gun kills 1 blood knight
Combat - I accept challenge with my Strigoi. I'm striking last due to the irritating banner. We do one wound each. Ghouls Kill 6 Longbeards, who splat 14 in return. Ghouls Crumble to 6.

Vamps T3
Movement - I know I need to get some static combat res into the ghouls to keep my general alive and kicking, and want to try and fell that lord. I charge the skellies, aiming to try a combo of screaming banner and -3Ld from Doom and Darkness. However, that bloody standard means I effectively roll nothing for my charge, and stop just short.
Blood Knights charge the Irondrakes, who take 2 down with the stand and shoot.
Black Knights wheel, reform, and inch forwards, ready to plough in when the ghouls die off
Magic - A 3 for my winds of magic, including the reroll (I am on fire today with my dice rolling, clearly). I use it all on the Staff of Damnation to give the blood knights +1 attack. This affects the mounts too, so is really neat.
Combat - Blood knight unit minces 13 Irondrakes, losing 1 in return, because I am physically incapable of passing an armour save (this is why I take wood elves). They remain steadfast because they still have a rank.
Ghoul king and dwarf lord fail to wound one another. Longbeards finish off the ghouls. Strigoi implodes from combat resolution, but because my army is chock full o' characters, I don't lose anyone to crumbling.

Dwarfs T4
Movement - Longbeards charge the skellies, and can't fail because they are literally 2" apart. Thunderers march up again.
Magic - I dispel the Immune to psych bubble again, letting him have +1 armour on longbeards, and wrath and ruin on the black knights kills 1
Shooting - Cannon still can't shoot. Other cannon misfires and explodes (even with the engineer reroll). Organ gun kills 2 black knights, and the other thunderer unit has it's line of sight obscured by combat.
Combat - I accept the challenge his lord against my wight king. Skellies kill one, longbeards have eaten their weetabix today and reduce the unit down to 16. His flank is open, so I just need to stick it out!
Blood knights kill some more iron drakes, they kill one in return, but now lose their steadfast and flee but escape (asthmatic horses and super nippy dwarfs).

Vamps T4
Movement - Blood knights charge the organ gun, black knights charge longbeards
Magic - I finally roll a respectable 7 dice. He dispels doom and darkness on his lord's unit. but I get Miasma and Soulblight off, so they are -1 WS, S and T. I use the shadow lore attribute to teleport my combat vampire in and get my master necromancer out of there.
Combat - Blood knights squash the organ gun and overrun into the runelord.
Wight king and lord fail to wound one another (unstoppable force + immovable object). Vampire lord also has to challenge, but he doesn't want to lose his BSB. He accepts with the unit champ to save his guys, who the vampire obviously turns into a red smear on the battlefield. His banner means the black knight unit is always strikes last, so he kills most of the remaining skellies and one black knight. I kill 9 longbeards. I win combat by 5 thanks to the challenge and flank charge, and he isn't steadfast as I'm in his flank. He flees and is overrun.

At this point, he conceded.

Dwarfs score 905 VP to Vampire Counts 2121

The thunderers balked at the sight of their most stalwart champions ridden down by the spectral knights. Knowing there was nothing they could do to halt this tide of death, and that more would surely follow in it's wake, they left the battlefield to spread the word, knowing their only hope was to muster the clans to unite against this evil. The distant figure of the vampire clad in blood red armour turned to face them, and even over the vast distance, they fancied they could see her fearsome smile.

Post-Match thoughts:
The match was far closer than VP's tell, as outside of characters and the black knight unit, there were only 2 blood knights and a handful of skellies left. Having 3 low magic phases in a row really knocked me (especially when master of the black arts makes it so unlikely), but once I got some magic off the army came into it's own a bit more.

I have made some tweaks to the army since the last time I fielded it - I dropped Scabscrath (the screaming sword) on Pestillence and a black knight for the flag of blood keep, which was key in getting the blood knights across the field, and to make the wight king a BSB, as the army needed more standards in case of blood and glory.

This army has to be character-heavy for the theme, but it's scary having so little on the table. However, the army being so compact and having no shooting makes for very quick turns. This game was done and dusted in an hour and a half I think! I've had good games and bad with it (my wood elves would destroy it without breaking a sweat), but it's a fun army to field, and I really enjoyed converting up and painting the characters (see this thread)

Thanks for reading!

(EDIT: almost forgot there are pictures to go with this report! Pictures are at the start of each turn)
Attachments
Dwarf deployment
Dwarf deployment
Dwarf flank
Dwarf flank
Vampire deployment and vanguard
Vampire deployment and vanguard
Turn 1
Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 3
Turn 4
Turn 4
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Mollesvinet
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Re: Battle Report (8th) - Vampire Counts vs Dwarfs

Post by Mollesvinet »

Thanks for the write up, even if it wasn't wood elves playing.

What do you think about the iron drakes? Would he have been better off getting more units with great weapons or some hammerers? Strength 5 shooting is scary though.

And how about the forge? As I remember it was pretty poor in 8th. What was your thoughts on it?

Beautiful use of shadow magic attribute, even if the game ended!
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LadyLoec
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Re: Battle Report (8th) - Vampire Counts vs Dwarfs

Post by LadyLoec »

Mollesvinet wrote:Thanks for the write up, even if it wasn't wood elves playing.
My hubby is getting a bit sick of facing the wood elves, so thought I'd give him a break! Next batrep will be fluff based wood elves to make up for it!!
Mollesvinet wrote:What do you think about the iron drakes? Would he have been better off getting more units with great weapons or some hammerers? Strength 5 shooting is scary though.
Their shooting is truly horrible to face - knights with a 2+ and 4++ still lost 2 to a stand and shoot! (and I've had far worse happen). I always chuck whatever spell I have to hand on neutering it (I always have a shadow, dark, or heavens caster, so something to tone it down a bit), so against me, anyway, they are a great "spell sponge".
Mollesvinet wrote:And how about the forge? As I remember it was pretty poor in 8th. What was your thoughts on it?
He likes it, and I have to admit the bound spells are pretty good (easy to cast, and you will probably get 2 or all 3 off). 2d6 s4 hits, immune to psychology for everything in 24", and +1 armour save for a unit are all very, very handy and versatile. Downside is, of course, that your opponent is usually adding +4 to their dispel and you aren't, so you need to throw more dice at casting. His runelord is also basically unkillable - I've thrown pretty much everything at it at some point or another and he just doesn't die!
Mollesvinet wrote:Beautiful use of shadow magic attribute, even if the game ended!
Thanks! I know a lot of people don't put much stock in it, but it has some great applications. I use it with my wood elves to move the moonstone around between units, my vampires to get my death caster out of combat (or, as in this case, my blender lord into combat), my empire to move short-range casters into range, and in any army if I have a unit that's probably going down that turn, and I'm desperate to save my caster. Miasma is a fab spell and useful for almost any army, so at least a level 1 shadow mage is a must-take in any army for me.
LiveWaaaaagh
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Re: Battle Report (8th) - Vampire Counts vs Dwarfs

Post by LiveWaaaaagh »

It hurts to see Dwarfs go down :(

How come a Thunderer unit was far away and had to march a few turns? I couldn't follow that part?

Irondrakes are great, but I wonder if Dwarf needs to bring more melee next time? I mean on one hand, 30 LBs with GW is close to as powerful as Dwarf melee gets (after Hammerers). Otherwise, I'm just thinking about this battle because that's a good gunline there. Perhaps exchanging 20 Thunderers for some Ironbreakers will do the trick? A rune of penetration for the ORgan gun, in addition to accuracy could help as well vs black nights and blood knights.

Anyway, thank you for sharing!
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LadyLoec
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Re: Battle Report (8th) - Vampire Counts vs Dwarfs

Post by LadyLoec »

Thanks LiveWaaaaagh. The thunderers were one of the first units he put down, but he soon realised I was going to be deploying very compactly, and they kind of ended up on their own.

I've talked with him about additional combat oomph with this army, and he argues (quite rightly) that thunderers are basically dwarf warriors with guns, so with a quick reform and the +1 armour bound spell thing, they can fulfil a dual role. Against my other armies, this works well enough, but unfortunately for him, they were basically just excluded from the game by my deployment this time. If they had been close enough, they probably could have finished off the blood knight unit, netting him over 500pts for the unit, 100pts for the banner, and maybe even 300-450pts for the character depending on which one was in it at the time. This would have made it a very close tie. I agree, rune of penetrating on the OG would definitely be better.
LiveWaaaaagh
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Re: Battle Report (8th) - Vampire Counts vs Dwarfs

Post by LiveWaaaaagh »

Yea, that makes sense! An entire unit was unable to do much after deployment. That explains it!

Can't wait for next battle report~
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