Cancon 2024 Aftermath - Part 2

This is the continuation of my report of a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2 - Reclaim Your Lands
Chris Penwarden - Vampire Counts

• Merneith High Warden of Nefreta, Castellan of Silver Peak
• Lahmian Vampire Lord (Extra level, Lore of Necromancy) with Innocence Lost, Crown of the Damned, Sword of Might, Spell Familiar
• Whats His Face
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Book of Arkhan
• Who Again
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Dispel Scroll, Black Periapt
• The Servants of the Upper Halls
• 20 Skeletons with Full Command, Light Armour and Shields
• The Servants of the Lower Halls
• 19 Skeletons with Full Command, Light Armour and Shields
• The Pets
• 5 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf
• The Song Birds
• 1 Bat Swarm
• The Guardians of the Inner Sanctum
• 24 Grave Guard with Shields, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• The Miserable
• 1 Spirit Host
• The Drained
• 5 Black Knights with Barding, Hell Knight
• The Messengers of Darkness
• 3 Fell bats
• The Mother in Law
• Banshee

(Chris bothered to name his units, so it feels the least I could do to include their names... However mean some of them might be.)

This scenario was a slight twist on the 8th edition Dawn Attack, where you have to roll to see where your units deploy. In addition, the wide zones were 3 inches further onto the field, so you could get closer to your enemy if you so wished. Chris and I then proceeded to roll almost entirely "in the middle", so the scenario didn't really do much to us. The bonus points this time were for controlling the table quarters (and more of them than your opponent).

It's always pretty warm at Cancon, and it was so noisy that I was already feeling my voice struggle after a single game, so I deployed a bottle of water in my zone to try to give myself a tactical advantage.

The Dryads were the one thing that went outside the centre for me. Chris' Dire Wolves and Bat Swarm ended up on either flank for him.

The puddle could have been really annoying and really reinforced my opponent's position, but given so many of my troops were skirmishers, it wasn't really that big a deal. My Spellsinger decided to hide behind the small building. Drycha joined the Dryads right next to her. Looking at the table now, this might have been a good game to deploy one of my smaller units in reserve to appear out of those palm trees on the end of Chris' line. I honestly don't think I thought about it, because I was distracted by rolling for deployment due to the scenario. Man, what a pro.

That Merneith the Vampire Lord at the head of the Grave Guard in the middle. The Necromancers are some kind of liche-y dudes lurking behind the Skeletons and Grave Guard. The whole army was mostly Tomb King style-models in keeping with the Lahmian background, which is something I appreciate.

I got the first turn and bounced my lines forward, confident that Chris was not going to be eager to engage all across the lines.

One of my Treekin units jumped into my (rather out of place) green forest, and surfed a bit closer using Treesinging. The other Treekin and the Treeman also edged closer by clinging to the advancing palm trees.

Unsurprisingly, the undead did not exactly rush to meet my forces. The poor Banshee (who really wished she were somewhere else - my entire army has magical attacks) was shunted further forward, presumably as bait. Gaze of Nagash knocked a wound off the Treekin in the palm trees, and Curse of Years was cast on my green Dryads.

In my turn we continued our advance. The Wild Riders charged the Black Knights (apparently Chris was trying to squeeze their charge into the terrain with the Banshee to stuff them up, but didn't quite go far enough).

The other Wild Riders tried to swing wide enough that the Bat Swarm wasn't going to get ideas about getting around the line. Drycha and her Dryads were already doggy-paddling their way across the pond

The green Dryads were trying to force their way around the other flank, aging as they went (I tried and failed to dispel Curse of Years in my turn - early on Chris' spell dice were hot and mine were... unimpressive. The Treeman did (just) manage to kill the Banshee with Strangleroots, so that was helpful.

The Wild Riders failed abysmally in their charge against the Black Knights, hurting none of them and breaking. They did at least out-pace their pursuers, but it was not exactly an impressive effort. I had expected better.

Chris considered leaving the fleeing Wild Riders in my way to mess with my next turn, but decided instead to chase them off and then redirect the Black Knights into the Treeman. The Vampire and her Grave Guard moved up in a clear show of intent, and the Skeletons covered their flank.

The Spirit Host made a nuisance of themselves, blocking the advance of the Treekin. 

The magic phase was again a problem. I had to allow Hellish Vigour on the Black Knights, because I was determined to shut down Vanhel's Danse Macabre. Chris promptly rolled irresistible force, meaning the Treekin were in a world of trouble. Sorry guys, I was trying to protect you... Meanwhile the Curse of Years (which had done basically nothing in the first round) now killed about half the green Dryads, and another Gaze of Nagash blasted 3 quarters of my grey Dryads to bits. It was not a great phase for me.

The Treeman was wounded twice by the Black Knights, but struck down 2 in return and the combat as a draw. A rescue party of Drycha and her Dryads immediately arrived in the flank.

The Treekin got away with things better than expected. They lost one of their number and broke, but again they managed to outrun their pursuers. Probably fortunately for Chris, his unit stopped just outside the forest. That could have been very painful. The Treekin rallied in my turn, and the 2 Dryads that were all that remained of their once proud unit bravely stepped in the way to buy me time to respond of Chris decided he wanted to finish off the Treekin.

The green Dryads continued to work their way around, given the Direwolves kept backing up and the Necromancers kept dancing around behind the Skeletons. I admit the threat from my unit felt greatly reduce now that half of them were gone. At least I managed to dispel Curse of Years on my second attempt.

Drycha and her friends successfully wiped out the Black Knights, overrunning right along behind the Grave Guard. In the background, the Treekin made very short work of the Spirit Host, but they were not much closer to a meaningful target.

Chris elected not to charge the Grave Guard into the units right in front of them, presumably deciding that Drycha's regiment arriving in the rear could be an issue. Instead they turned to face the other way and cast Curse of Years on Drycha and her friends, doing minor damage.

The Dire Wolves finally gave up trying to evade their enemy and charged the Dryads. It didn't go well for them, and they were wiped out after combat resolution.

This was a big decision. When there's a block of Grave Guard led by a Vampire Lord, the smart money is normally on delaying them and trying to pick off the more achievable targets. Especially when your combat lord is wounded on 2+ without saves if she comes face to face with said Vampire... But then, I had Treekin in the rear, lots of attacks, Drycha is a bit of a blender... I gave in to temptation and charged with everything in the area. The smarter play would probably have been to launch Drycha backward at something, and use the Dryad units as screens. Maybe even send the Treekin into the rear anyway, knowing the bonuses were (to begin with) pretty much a wash.

The Treeman was compelled to engage the Skeleton block behind Drycha to protect her rear, and the Dryads went in too in order to try to ensure I didn't start losing combat and risk the Treeman breaking. The unengaged brown Dryads tried their luck against the nearest Necromancer, but he proved to be about an inch out of range (I think we both guessed that one wrong). The Wild Riders up the back were still picking their way through speed bumps - this time the Bat Swarms.

Now it was my turn to have a spike of luck in the magic phase. I cast Ariel's Blessing on Drycha's unit, giving them regeneration - and I did it with irresistible force. This really was lucky on my part, as Chris still had his scroll, and would most certainly have stopped it. Suddenly my unit would have saves against the Vampire and her friends, and the chances of my charge working greatly improved. 

The combat went pretty well. The Grave Guard lost close to half their number. Unfortunately the second Treekin (who only had 1 remaining wound) was felled, meaning I'd have fewer bonuses in my favour in the following round.

In Chris' turn, he managed to force through Invocation of Nehek. Being a man of style, he elected to raise a new unit of Skeletons. Then failed to get them because he rolled less than 5 to start the unit. At that point he abandoned being a man of style and raised Zombies instead (you get more of them). But by that point, I was able to block Vanhel's, so they didn't get into my flank.

The remaining Skeleton regiment had charged the Dryads for having the temerity to try to get to the Necromancers. Once again my unit broke, but the pursuers failed to catch them. There was a pattern emerging...

After a promising start to the fight with the Grave Guard, things went very pear-shaped in the second round. With all my attacks, I managed a pitiful single wound on the unit. I don't think we took all that many in return, but with my no longer having  rear bonus and the enemy getting back their rank, we lost by 4. All 3 of my units broke from the combat, and the Grave Guard took off after Drycha. But, once again, she got away. I was not necessarily rolling very well in the combats, but pursuing was proving to be Chris' Achilles' heel. 

I feel like some stuff has happened that has been missed by this picture. I think the Vampire Bats went up and sacrificed themselves to slow the Treekin, which is why they're still bogged back there. The Wild Riders were march blocked by the Bats, and so could only swing around slowly after killing the Bat Swarm. All of my fleeing units rallied (because we're trained professionals). Unfortunately, most of us rallied right in front of something that was chasing us. Things were about to come to a head. Drycha tried to pull her regeneration trick again, except she miscast and suffered a wound, and would need to roll a 6 to cast a spell for the rest of the game. Not ideal with the Vampire Lord bearing down on her...

Right, as usual I am missing photos. Things were obviously getting too tense. The Skeletons again charged the Dryads that they had already beaten once. They beat them again, and this time they actually caught them when they fled. This was a first for the game. With the Wild Riders and a pair of Dryads nearby, the floating Necromancers saw the writing on the wall and went and joined their new unit of Zombies in the hope of finding some protection.

The Grave Guard charged Drycha's unit, and this time the 2 army generals ended up in a challenge. It was exactly what I had been hoping to avoid. But then, further dice-related disaster struck for Chris - the Vampire completely missed her first round of attacks! Not a single hit, when she was wounding on 2s with no saves. This was incredibly lucky for me. Drycha struck back, now with 6 attacks thanks to her being extra enraged by her own spellcasting ineptitude. Of course she did no wounds either (I think Chris passed a ward save or two). The Dryads maybe dragged down a Grave Guard, we lost combat by only a little, and we passed our break test (just to mix things up a bit). That meant it was time for a rescue attempt...

Things were really coming to a head now. The Treeman arrived in the rear to try to crush the remaining Grave Guard. The Wild Riders and what remained of my green Dryads (who I think were Cursed again) went in to try to kill off the Necromancers. This attempt was not really as successful as I expected. We wounded only one of the Necromancers, and barely won the combat. 

The challenge continued between Drycha and the Vampire Lord (the arrival of the Treeman was not going to save me from that), but things took another bizarre turn. This time the Vampire landed 4 hits, but then somehow managed 3 1s to wound! Drycha dropped to a single remaining wound, but she was still on her feet! Unfortunately she still couldn't manage to get a wound through in return (which was pretty unlucky at this point after 13 attacks), but it was a miracle she was still standing!

With the Vampire doing minimal damage, the presence of the Treeman was doing bad things to her unit. The Grave Guard crumbled around her, leaving her standing alone. This would normally be fatal news for a Vampire, but it was all happening at the right time. On the third attempt she finally killed off Drycha in their challenge, and was still there at the end of the game on a single wound.

And thus did the game end. On the second round of combat the Wild Riders did manage to kill one of the Necromancers, but only wounded the other one (they were not really impressing with their efforts), and the Zombies were still there. The Skeleton unit continued its advance to claim a table quarter, whilst my Treekin turned back and did the same, as did my Spellsinger (characters were tie breakers or something under the scenario).

At the end Chris had a wounded Necromancer, the Vampire on a single wound and a regiment of Skeletons. I had half a unit of Dryads, less than half of another, a Treeman, a unit each of Wild Riders and Treekin, and another lone Treekin somewhere over in a corner. We had maimed each other pretty badly, and the dice had been a major factor. The rolling was weird. Chris' rolling would have been generally OK, except he couldn't for the life of him catch a fleeing unit, and of course his Vampire spent far too much time toying with Drycha before finally killing her. My units were generally pretty poor in combat, but at least they were getting away when they fled (which they almost always did).

If I had my time over, I probably wouldn't hit the Grave Guard again. It looked alright after the first round (and a lucky regeneration spell), but I could probably have claimed a more convincing win by playing keep-away and killing off things like the Necromancers and Skeletons. Of course, I knew it was a mistake when I charged, and I still did it anyway. Clearly I can't be helped. I regret nothing!

Result: 15-9 (maybe 12-8 before bonuses)

You can find the next part of my report here.