Cancon 2023 - Game 2

This is the second part of my report of the recent tournament at Cancon 2023. You can find the first part here.

My first game had gone pretty well despite me making a few mistakes. Time to see what the second game would bring.

Game 2 - Get the Thingy!

Luke Littlewood - Vampire Counts

• Blood Dragon Vampire Count (Level 2, Necromancy) on Barded Nightmare with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Lance, Heart Piercing, Master Strike, Red Fury
• Blood Dragon Vampire Thrall with Battle Standard, Flayed Hauberk, (naughty great weapon)
• Blood Dragon Vampire Thrall with Sword of Battle, Cursed Shield of Mousillon, Heavy Armour
• Necromancer (Level 2, Necromancy)
• 19 Skeletons with Light Armour, Shield, Full Command
• 19 Skeletons with Light Armour, Shield, Full Command
• 6 Dire Wolves
• 6 Dire Wolves
• 5 Ghouls
• 5 Ghouls
• 9 Black Knights with Barding, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 3 Spirit Hosts
• Banshee

Fighting undead on the mooooon!! (I'm not sure how we got here). This game awarded something like 400 victory points if you controlled that stone near the orange die at the end of the game.

The Black Knights are still a work in progress, but are obviously going to look pretty fancy when they're done if the BSB is anything to go by. The Black Knights are some fallen order of Knights Panther. I'm sure my Empire should be offended or something.

Look at me deploying my Quarrellers so that they can all shoot! I've grown as a player! Also now my deployment is a damn mess with a weak centre. Oh well. I wasn't really sure what to do with this deployment. The Miners were deployed normally, because Luke was miles from the table edges on the flanks, and wasn't likely to hang back with anything.

I got the first turn and wrapped my flanks in a bit. The Dragon Slayer went off on a mission to control the difficult terrain rocks on my right - maybe he could take a unit of Ghouls. The Stone Thrower fired at the Spirit Hosts repeatedly, as it was one of the few things I had that might threaten it (and if I got lucky, might just about remove it with a single good shot). I didn't get very lucky there, but the Anvil targeted them too, which slowed them down. The Quarrellers tried and failed to remove a unit of Dire Wolves.

When you're on the flanks with Movement 3, you need a head start.

Here come the Dire Wolves, threatening to be annoying as usual. Luke didn't roll Vanhel's. I think he might have had Gaze of Nagash, Hellish Vigour, and a couple of copies of Invocation of Nehek. He did have the Book of Arkhan, but getting that through my magic defence was going to be a big ask. Still, when the Black Knights arrived I wasn't sure what my plan was going to be...

In the absence of a better plan, when Luke moved the Dire Wolves within range of the Miners, I decided to accept the invitation. Maybe I could overrun enough to get out of the arc of the cavalry...

Meanwhile my shooting picked off the occasional Ghoul, and the Anvil pushed the Hammerers into the Dire Wolves on the other flank.I was in about 5 minds about what to do over there. I kind of wanted to make things happen and threaten the key enemy units, before the Spirit Hosts could arrive and ruin everything.

The Dire Wolves all died, the Hammerers decided to stay where they were, and the Miners... They didn't go fast enough. In fact they went barely anywhere. Maybe a couple more inches and they would have been clear of the enemy's front arc...

I suppose you can see us here, then? Well, that's a pity.

Such a nice banner. I think it says "The Curse?" Maybe it says "The Cure"? I guess it's a question of perspective.

Well... That escalated quickly. The Black Knights charged the Miners, who promptly failed their Fear test, fled 4", got caught, and panicked my Ironbreakers. It was not the Dwarfs' finest moment.

Man, if I hadn't panicked, that would have been a glorious flank charge. The Vampire Count is even up the other end! Now I couldn't do it, even with the Anvil if I rallied.

Elsewhere the undead lines were still advancing. The Ghouls were content to float just in front of the Hammerers, and their friends (who I think had tried to charge the Miners before they fled) were straying very close to Dragon Slayer...

The Dragon Slayer was very excited to find himself within charge range, and engaged the Ghouls. It would be fine, so long as he killed the things that could reach him. He didn't really like the idea of their poison attacks.

The Hammerers charged and killed the Ghouls, but declined the invitation to keep running and get flanked by the Spirit Hosts. The Ironbreakers had recovered their composure and turned back to face the Black Knights, but it was obvious they were going to be looking at us by the time we got a chance to charge. The Quarrellers next to them decided it was time to put away the crossbows and pull out their great weapons, narrowing their formation in preparation.

Well, this is still better than getting flanked by those creepy spirits!

Yeah, we see you there. Keep your spooky hands to yourselves! The Hammerers lost combat thanks to the efforts of the Vampire Thrall, but held their ground thanks to the Rune of Courage overriding the scariness of the Skeletons.

The enemy continues to advance, with the Black Knights reforming to face my units. By this point the Banshee got sick of the front lines and headed off to sing some songs to my war machines. Spoiler: She never actually hurt a single Dwarf all game. Not her best shrieking efforts, really.

The magic of the Anvil of Doom! The Ironbreakers charged the Black Knights, but there was no point in the Quarrellers doing it. They'd barely get in, and just get murdered by the Vampire (who was now on the near corner). Instead they marched in alongside, just got into the flank arc, and had just enough speed to wheel in when the Anvil gave them a shove! It really felt like turning the tables on the undead after all those years of magic flank charges. It also felt a bit cheaty, given there was nothing Luke could do about it.

The combat itself was a bit of a struggle. The Vampire struggled to kill the Ironbreaker champion in a challenge, and I in return killed almost nothing. I might have done a wound somewhere - not convinced I did. However, the flanks and ranks were all in my favour, and half the Black Knights crumbled from combat resolution. The Quarrellers lapped around into the rear, looking for a new angle from which they could fail to kill things.

Oh, and the Hammerers are gone. They got out-fought for a second turn by the Thrall, failed their stubborn test and fled... not very far. I think Luke's pursuit roll was terrible, and still enough. The Banshee moved in and engaged the Stone Thrower, given the BSB was now in range - she was in no danger.

At this point I displayed my cowardice and declined a challenge from the Vampire Count, which pushed my BSB to the back ranks. She was my best fighter, but a 1+ re-rollable save doesn't do you much good when your opponent is waving around 5 attacks with killing blow... He did in fact killing blow one of my other Dwarfs that turn, which really just vindicates my decision. But it was a boo-worthy moment on my part.

The battlefield feels like it's slowly constricting in this photo. Yes, that's everything that is still alive (or dead and still moving).

Having dealt with the Ghouls over a couple of rounds, the Dragon Slayer trotted his way across behind Luke's lines, and then got a push from the Anvil to engage the roaming Necromancer! I'm not sure single Slayer characters were what they had in mind when they created the movement rune, but here we are!

Seeing the writing on the wall and knowing that they were about to be overrun, the Quarrellers decided to charge down the hill into the Skeletons. This was intended to be a potential assassination run on the Thrall, but with the Cursed Shield of Mousillon cancelling one of my attacks, that was not really on the cards. We did wound him, though. Then we got spanked, broke, and run down. Oh well.

At this point there were not many Black Knights left. I was nearly onto the Vampire, but he was trying to work his way through the Quarrellers in his flank and rear.

The Dragon Slayer made short work of the Necromancer, killing him on the charge. Very efficient.

With the Quarrellers out of the way, the Thrall turned his attention to my Stone Thrower. The crew really didn't stand a chance.

These are the final moments of the Vampire Count. Fighting alone, he was unable to do enough damage to combat the weight of numbers pressing in against him. He fell, and Luke proceeded to take no damage at all from the couple of crumble tests he had to take. Apparently his general was secondary to his plans.

And this is pretty much how things ended. The Thrall made it to the Anvil but bounced off the Runelord. The Ironbreakers got into the flank of the Skeletons, but did too little damage for it to really make a difference. The Dragon Slayer unfortunately perished when the Spirit Hosts caught up with him, but then they couldn't afford to have a go at the Ironbreakers because they needed to control the stone in the centre of the field as the game was ending.

When we tallied up the final scores, I had done more damage to the Vampire Counts, but I had utterly failed to contest the stone in the centre. It had been very much out of my reach. In the end the points for that evened things up, making the game a draw.

Result: 10-10 Draw

You can find the next part of the report here.