Snake Eyes Aftermath - Part 2

This is the second part of my report of the recent Snake Eyes Warhammer: The Old World tournament. You can find the first part of the report here.

After our glorious showing in the first round, we were at the back of the pack. Time to see if we could maintain that, or if we were going to slip up and actually get some battle points...

Tom Stockdale
Vampire Counts

• Master Necromancer [425 pts]
• Level 4 Wizard
• General
• Mortis Engine
• Sceptre of De Noirot
• Crown of the Damned
• Tomb Banshee [90 pts]
• Wight Lord [85 pts]
• Lance (when mounted)
• Heavy armour
• Shield
• Battle Standard Bearer
• Skeletal Steed
• 25 Grave Guard [343 pts]
• Seneschal
• Standard bearer - Drakenhof Banner
• Musician
• 32 Zombies [96 pts]
• 5 Dire Wolves [46 pts]
• Doom Wolf
• 5 Dire Wolves [46 pts]
• Doom Wolf
• 9 Black Knights [310 pts]
• Hell Knight
• Standard bearer - Standard of Hellish Vigour
• Musician
• 3 Spirit Hosts [147 pts]
• 5 Blood Knights [271 pts]
• Kastellan
• Standard bearer - Rampaging Banner
• Musician
• Varghulf [140 pts]

Ben Yuill (C)
Bretonnian Exiles

• Baron (307pts)
• General
• The Exile’s Vow
• Virtue of Knightly Temper
• Royal Pegasus
• Shield
• Frontier Axe
• Gauntlet of the Duel
• Falcon-horn of Fredemund
• Baron (279pts)
• The Exile’s Vow
• Virtue of Heroism
• Royal Pegasus
• Charmed Shield
• 2x Lucky Heirloom
• 10 Mounted Knights of the Realm (311pts)
• The Exile’s Vow
• First Knight - Antler’s of the Great Hunt
• Standard Bearer - War Banner
• Musician
• 15 Peasant Bowmen (85pts)
• Skirmishers
• Standard Bearer
• Musician
• 12 Peasant Bowmen (65pts)
• Skirmishers
• Musician
• 12 Peasant Bowmen (65pts)
• Skirmishers
• Musician
• 5 Pegasus Knights (321pts)
• The Exile’s Vow
• First Knight
• Standard Bearer - Banner of Honourable Warfare
• Musician
• 4 Pegasus Knights (266pts)
• The Exile’s Vow
• First Knight
• Standard Bearer - Banner of The Zealous Knight
• Musician
• Border Prince Bombard (100pts)
• Border Prince Bombard (100pts)
• Trebuchet (100pts)

Peter Reilly
Tomb Kings of Khemri

• Tomb King (441pts)
• General
• Necrolith Bone Dragon
• Great Weapon
• Shield
• Armour of the Ages
• Talisman of Protection
• Mortuary Priest (85pts)
• Wizard Level 1
• Lore of Nehekhara
• Amulet of the Serpent
• Mortuary Priest (55pts)
• Wizard Level 1
• Lore of Nehekhara
• 39 Skeleton Warriors (235pts)
• Thrusting Spears
• Master of Arms
• Standard Bearer
• Banner of the Desert Winds
• 42 Skeleton Archers (210pts)
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archers (55pts)
• 6 Ushabti (301pts)
• Ancient
• 3 Ushabti (147pts)
• Great Bow
• Tomb Scorpion (70pts)
• Tomb Scorpion (70pts)
• Necrosphinx (195pts)
• Casket of Souls (135pts)

I ended up matched against the Vampire Counts, after we led with our Chaos army so that he could avoid the monster-hunting Bretonnian army. Tom was using a borrowed army, which became apparent when he went to roll for a break test with his undead... That's OK, we sorted that out pretty quickly. They were also on the wrong sized bases. Very old school. Not at all like my much older models on new-fangled base adapters! Moral high ground for me!

This was one of 3 Vampire Counts armies in the field, which is more than you might have expected given the character and magic limits. Dire Wolves vanguarded forward on the flanks, and Tom got the first turn.

He proceeded to charge the Squig Herd on the flank. This seemed a dubious choice, and my feelings were vindicated when the Squigs wiped them out and overran forward. I don't think Tom had fully grasped how bitey the Squigs were.

The rest of his army advanced relatively cautiously.

In my turn I decided to send the Wyvern into the Spirit Hosts in front of the Necromancer on his Mortis Engine. It was the only thing I had with magic attacks, and it would free up things like my Giants to engage things they might actually be able to kill. The Warboss managed to kill one of the Spirit Hosts, but the nearby presence of the enemy battle standard helped limit the damage.

I was being cagey over on the left because of all the enemy cavalry. The Blood Knights in particular were a concern.

Clearly I wasn't being cagey enough, because things got charged. The Night Goblins netted themselves and lost several models, but I think it was a draw. The Boar Boyz counter-charged after considering letting him potentially fail the charge roll. A few Orcs fell, and only 1 Black Knight in return. In other words, I should have sat back and hoped he failed the long range charge. I didn't realise how incompetent we were planning to be. We fell back in good order, getting charged again for our troubles.

A cycle began of the Wyvern being affected by Spirit Leech, followed by the Mortis Engine screaming horribly at him. The Grave Guard charged the Giant and beat him easily (because he was a potato and killed nothing), but that resulted in him being shunted back into a gap that they couldn't enter.

Over on the right flank, the Zombies and Varghulf advanced. I have a feeling we forgot that the Varghulf was frenzied. Not sure it would have changed much.

In my turn I found a combat that might actually go OK, and hit the Zombies with all the Squigs. It was quite good fun... for us. The Zombies all got eaten in a round, and we used overrun to incompetently get nowhere fast.

My Black Orcs were trapped behind my own forces, and I think the Giant failed to charge the Varghulf.

The Night Goblins dealt with the Dire Wolves, and the Boar Boyz took less damage on the second attempt by the Black Knights. They got shoved back and the Black Knights restrained so they could launch a fresh charge in the next turn.

I was still being cagey over on the left flank. I figured if it was keeping the Blood Knights out of trouble, it was probably worth it.

Unfortunately at this point we have a lack of photos. I was probably just distracted by what was happening, or maybe I was curled on the floor in the foetal position... Let's sum up what was going on.

• The Night Goblins took the opportunity to try to save the Boar Boyz by releasing their Fanatics and sending them through the Black Knights. Unfortunately it achieved little. They then got charged by the Blood Knights, who somehow went straight through them and into the flank of the Boar Boyz. I must have done something silly in terms of angles.
• The Varghulf charged the unengaged Giant, and with the help of Curse of Years, killed it in 2 rounds of combat. The Giant did no wounds in return, and neither did the Squig Herd, which had charged it in the rear to try to help the Giant. So then I lost the Squigs as well.
• The Banshee and Mortis Engine continued to scream together in a horrible chorus at the Warboss on his Wyvern. He should have finally broken through the Spirit Hosts, except at the critical moment he decided to roll a fistful of 1s and fail to wipe them out. Had he done so, he would have carried on into the Necromancer and thus stopped the casting of Spirit Leech. Instead he was free to cast it, my Shaman was free to watch him cast it without bothering to dispel it, and the Warboss died. 
• The Squig Hoppers also had the opportunity to potentially flank the Necromancer, but rolled nowhere fast. I don't remember what they did after that, but it didn't help.

Right, so we're now back to having pictures. We have arrived back just in time to see the Boar Boyz get flanked by Blood Knights. It was very bad. The Boar Boyz did not survive.

Next on the list of victims was the Black Orcs. They might have been OK if the charge was in the front, but it was not. Whatever had happened to the Boar Boyz clearly caught me off guard. The Giant actually worked his way through about half of the Grave Guard, but then the Necromancer started passing leadership tests, and with the help of the Sceptre of De Noirot, brought back the whole lot in a single turn.

Out of shot, I have a feeling my Shaman somehow found a way to die. I'm not sure how. The Mangler Squig finally managed to corner the Black Knights and hit them, then just bounced off them uselessly. It was that sort of game.

By the end of the game, I think the only points I had actually managed to accumulate was for the Dire Wolf units and the Zombies. For my part, I had lost nearly everything. It had not been a good game for the Orcs and Goblins. We had been thumped.

Result: 0-20 Loss

In the other games...

Tim: Game two also involved opposing dragons, but what made me most nervous was the casket. With very little magic protection, it could do horrible things to my smaller units, or even the dragon. 

Then deployment happened, the casket was hidden behind a forest, and my heart beat a little easier. With that threat removed, it allowed me to be as aggressive as I wanted to be. Having the first turn let me put the dogs in awkward spots and threaten his dragon with mine. Peter’s first turn involved the dogs getting flanked by the Skeletons. Importantly, however, he measured to see if the dragon could fly forward out of my dragon's arc, found he couldn't, and chose to stay still.

So charges happened, my dragon into his dragon, knights and horsemen into his archer block and dragon ogres into his warriors. Many bones returned to whence they came. All three units survived the charge, but the bone dragon and warriors weren't so lucky in the Tomb King's turn. Even the scorpion who tried to save the warriors was popped by the combat res as the dragon ogres reaped the skeletons. 

Man, Tim's dragon looks a little small compared to its friend there...

With the death of the Tomb King, my lord was able to reform and put the hierophant in his sights, which didn't stand a chance and was quickly dispatched along with any resistance, as the rest of the TK army disappeared back into the sands with the assistance of chaos blades.

 

This game felt pretty one-sided from pretty early on, I was too fast and too much hitting power for the poor skeleton blocks. 

Result: 20-0 Win

Pete: The Exile army had two large units of Pegasus Knights with a nasty character in each, a Lance of Knights of the Realm, assorted peasants with bows and some artillery. Sadly no monsters for the Wizard Lord to hunt.

The Demigryphs held up pretty well despite constantly giving cannons flank shots. The Grand Master decided he’d have a go at holding up some Pegasus Knights and died like a chump, despite some pretty spectacular saves. The Steam Tank actually killed some knights with the steam gun, amazingly, and I think it lived to the end? Assorted other knights managed to kill off the artillery, peasant bowmen and I think the Knights of the Realm. The Pegasus units were untouched, and that’s where most of the points were. 

Result: 9-11 Loss

Wizard Lord kill count: Necrosphinx 

Total Match Result: 29-31 Loss

Basically a draw overall, so an improvement on the previous round. No thanks to me...