The Land O Misfit Toys: A Battle Report Featuring the New Vamps and My DOC

Howdy gang and welcome back for something new and exciting on the old Land o'Misfit Toys. Dave of War will guest star this post. He and I played a game on the weekend. Dave with his cheesy Vampire Counts list (using the new book) and me with my horrible daemons list. To be honest my list is really rough. A few units of 20 Bloodletters with heralds, 20 Daemonettes with a herald, 20 horrors with a lore of light herald. It also had two individual fiends, 6 flamers, 5 furies and Mr. Huggy the Blood Thirster.

I took a few happy snaps that I will intersperse with Dave's write up and great looking diagrams. Without further ado... Here is the big man:

(Brad's Army Deployment to the right... Dave's below)

Starting the game I thought I was going to have a pretty hard time of this game. I have played Brad on quite a few occasions and without a doubt the Bloodthirster army is my worst possible scenario. After playing Wood Elves competitively for more than a year I have developed a healthy respect for what the big guy can do to an army and I wasn’t to sure how to kill him unless Brad decided to walk into the grave guard. I deployed so that all my units except the black knights were within 12" the necromancer, hoping that I could put the pressure on and make Brad commit his thirster early in the game.

Brad's first turn went really poorly for me. In addition to the gradual advance to three chunky daemon units and a flanking Bloodthirster Brad's magic went wild. Destroying the entire Fell Bat unit and sneaking 3 wounds off a Varghulf. In response I cautiously advance my army hoping to break him into two manageable potions, my knights on one side to deal with the horrors, letters and flames, and the rest of the army on the other to deal with deamonettes, letters and thirster. My magic works ok getting off a raise that brings up around 16 zombies and van hells helps the army get in more challenging flanking positions.

Turn 1

In Brad's turn two he slams Mr. Huggy (the blood thirster) into my ghouls and slowly advances the rest. Realising his mistake he takes the flamers out of his building and casts time warp on his horrors who were facing down the black knights. Mr Huggy gets challenged out by my ghoul champion and takes out 6 ghouls with combat resolution. At this point my hopes are pretty high, I declare a valiant charge with my Black Coach, the Black Knights into the Horrors and my zombies into the Daemonettes. Unluckily the Black Coach fails to make it in. The knights and zombies rumble into the enemy units with a threatening moan. In my magic phase very little goes off. with Brad dispelling the all important invocation on my ghouls. In combat Mr. Huggy does his thing taking down 18 ghouls in exchange for one wound. My vampires whale on the herald of tzentch before my black knights attack taking him out in a blaze of pointy lances. Despite this the black knights do very few wounds and the horrors stick around taking very little damage. The zombies have very little effect and lose more wounds from combat resolution, the deamonetts reform to cause a world of pain.

In Brad's turn three he gets angry in a way that only a bald beardy man from Boston can do and charges in blood letters into my black knight flanks along with the flamers. His fiend marches into the way of Mr Huggy trying to stop my grave guard and varghulf from charging into position. In combat my ghouls are finished off without being able to raise another champion to suck up combat damage. My vampire declares a challenge and is accepted by the bloodletter champion, blocking the Flamers from fighting. The blood letters and herald do three wounds after armour saves to my relief while the vampires kill the champion and a large number of horrors. I win combat taking a few more wounds form each unit. The deamonettes finish off the zombies while taking very few wounds.

In my turn the grave guard and the varghulf wander into the fiend. The black coach finally makes it into the blood thirster. In my magic phase I get van hells off on the grave guard with the help of the book of arkhan while raising back 3 black knights. The black knights perform well taking the horrors down to three wounds and taking a few more wound in return. The herald of khorne refuses the challenge so that the flames can fight. However, as the flamers are hitting on 5s they have no effect. Each unit loses a few more wounds to instability. On the other side of the board my varghulf and grave guard slaughter their foes and overrun into Mr. Huggy. To Brad's horror he realises that as the black coach is already in combat with Huggy both charging units will now be able to fight. Despite facing 7 st6 attacks rerolling to hit on 4s, 5 st5 attacks with rerolls, d6 st 5 his, 3 st6 attacks and 2 st 5 hits Mr Huggy plays like a daemon and takes only 1 wound. After smashing grave guard face Mr Huggy wins combat despite facing a triple charge with ranks and a banner. Ouch.

In Brad's turn four he charges in the blood letters to the black coach and the deamonetts to the grave guard. With very little else left on the table combat begins. Against the black knights the vampire issues another challenge, which is accepted by the Herald of Khorne. In the challenge my vampire I only do one wound with my 4 asf attacks, in exchange the herald luckily fails to killing blow my vampire. The black knights finish off the horrors and sneak a few more wounds to the letters. After the combat a few more knights go down and the flamers are finished off. In the other big combat the blood lettters fail to do a wound on the coach due to its saves and toughness, the deamonetts do a handful of wounds the the grave guards. In response the varghulf mans up and kills the bloodthirster outright, why couldn’t he have done that last turn! I lose combat by 5 which kills off the black coach and varghulf and shaves a few wound from the grave guard. In my turn I charge in the zombies to the deamonettes flank. Magic heals a few wounds on the grave guard and raises about 10 more zombies. I am also able to get vanhells on the zombies hoping to save some combat resolution. Luckily the gambit pulls off the grave guard take a few wounds but aren’t killed off as the zombies sneak a few wounds on the deamonettes and both units crumble a few models. Very few lettters are left against the black knights as my vampire slays the herald with a few pointy jabs.

In Brad's turn five he inches around the blood letters hoping for a charge. Come combat the daemonettes still don't kill off my necromancer but finish off the grave guard with combat resolution. I finish off the blood letters on the other flank and reform. In my turn the black knights inch around the flank getting ready for a charge on the deamonettes. The zombies still fight on with the daemonetts and the necromancer is finished by combat resolution.

Come turn six the furies jump in front of my knights stopping a charge while the bloodletters charge the corner of my zombie unit. Luckily the zombie unit survives as my knights charge into the furies. I raise back the rest of my black knights and heal more wounds on the zombies. At the end of my turn the zombies still haven't been ground out due to some helpful raises.

This was a really hard game for me and I was glad that it ended on a draw. I did get Mr Huggy, but to do that I had to sacrifice my grave guard, my necromancer lord, my varghulf and my black coach. A pretty big price to pay for a 500 pt model. The knight performed amazingly and were able to take much more of a beating than I thought. I am still not convinced by the Varghulf or the Black Coach in the new book, and these units will probably be replaced by small units of hexwraiths and vargeists. It was good to have such a tight game, but I don't think I could have avoided a loss it if Brad wasn't suffering from such a brutal hang over.

No comment on the hang over at this end but I want to thank Dave for his hard work and show ya'll a few happy snaps from the game. Might find some good karaoke shots from Cancon later that show Dave at his very best! :)