This is the third part of my report of the recent 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament, Bendigo Besieged. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Game 3 - Watchtower
Peter Spiller - Vampire Counts
- Vampire Lord (Level 4, Lore of Vampires) with Heavy Armour, Quickblood, Red Fury, Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard
- Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Vampires) with the Book of Arkhan
- Vampire (BSB, Level 2, Lore of Beasts) with Additional Hand Weapon, Shield, Armour of Destiny
- 40 Crypt Ghouls with Champion
- 42 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command
- 40 Zombies with Standard Bearer, Musician
- 2 Bat Swarms
- Corpse Cart with Balefire, Spear
- 40 Grave Guard with Great Weapons, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
Pete is one of my regular opponents - in fact I've probably played more games of Warhammer against him than anyone else in the last 25 years. Of course, it had been many years since we'd actually played 8th edition together. Time to resume that particular rivalry...
I "won" the roll-off to control the Watchtower, however given I didn't have an eligible unit in my army to actually deploy in there, and I would be ceding the first turn... I really lost the roll-off for it. I put the Swordmasters right in front given they seemed best qualified to fight in the building.
The Vampire Lord was leading the Ghouls directly across from my Spearmen. The Necromancer and Vampire BSB were both in the Skeletons behind.
Using the mystical powers of Vanhel's Danse Macabre, the Grave Guard surged into the Watchtower and then sat on the roof, caressing their great weapons and mocking my troops down on the ground.
This was probably not a good idea given the Grave Guard would be rerolling to hit, but it was why the unit was deployed there. So in we went.
I swept around the right flank with the Dragon Princes and the Phoenix. I should probably have gone through the forest with the cavalry, but didn't fancy losing one to dangerous terrain, so decided to pretend to be patient. I was much more cautious with my advance on the left. Couldn't afford to be charged by all those Ghouls with a blender lord at their head.
I managed to cast Iceshard Blizzard on the Grave Guard, but it did little to limit the damage. I lost 6 Swordmasters. I think I might have killed 7 Grave Guard, but it mattered little. We were pushed back from the building and in the next magic phase, they all got back up again. This wasn't going to work unless I had magical supremacy (and maybe not even then)...
Clearly emboldened by my hesitation, the Ghouls stepped up next to the tower. Thanks to low power dice rolls (which was a theme for most of the game), Pete was able to raise back those Grave Guard, but couldn't get through anything to bolster his units in the next round of combat (which I think he was counting on).
The Skeletons moved about to ensure their flank wasn't exposed to my forces on the other side of the tower.
I decided this was my best chance to crack the Ghouls, and hit them with everything I could. I managed to cast Iceshard Blizzard again, but Pete unsportingly dispelled Wyssan's Wildform on the Spearmen (which was probably a very good idea).
The Frostheart and the Phoenix Guard both declared charges on the Skeletons, but only one of them made it. The Phoenix arrived without his Guard. He wounded the Vampire, took a wound from the Skeletons, and the combat was basically a draw.
This combat went reasonably well. We carved a swathe through the Ghouls, and despite the best efforts of the Vampire Lord on the Spearmen, by the time combat resolution was complete, there were only a single line of Ghouls left.
Pete's magic continued to sputter, but he did get off a copy of Vanhel's on his unit, as well as bringing back a second rank of Ghouls. And healing the Vampire BSB my birdie had so carefully pecked the previous round.
So all those extra Ghouls Pete had... I guess it was just enough. By the time the crumbling was done, the Vampire Lord was still there and all the weak targets around him were gone. Still, he looks a little lonely, doesn't he?
As the Phoenix struggled on against the revitalised Vampire, my Dragon Princes had been a little casual in their advance and managed to get themselves charged by the Corpse Cart. That was my fault, but I figured it would be OK. That was before the impact hits somehow killed 3 of them! They managed to hold their ground, but now they were really going to struggle to break free of the thing.
Arriving belatedly and now in the wrong spot to really contribute much in terms of damage, the Phoenix Guard were now here to help their friend.
Things weren't moving much and I stopped taking photos, but things were still happening. The remaining troops fighting the Vampire Lord were outclassed, and couldn't really contribute. So it was time to start challenging him with characters in the hope of slowing him down and beating him with combat resolution. First up was my Prince. I think we fought 2 rounds of combat, which saw the Vampire drop to a single wound before stealing one back with The Hunger. He survived at least one more time on a single wound, with the presence of the BSB keeping him upright. Eventually I actually killed the BSB, but made the mistake of fighting the combat second, and it meant the Lord survived when he would otherwise have crumbled. Whilst this was happening, he was chowing down on my BSB, then the Silver Helm champion, then the Spearman champion... I realised too late that I needed to reform my surviving Spearmen to go narrower to give me one extra rank. That too would have been the end of the villain, if I'd been onto it quicker. In the end, though... He came out victorious.
Thoroughly demoralised, the Silver Helms break and flee as the Spearmen fight on valiantly (but without hope).
As soon as the Vampire BSB fell, we started working our way through the Skeletons a lot faster.
As the last Skeleton fell (along with the Necromancer), the Zombies finally charged in to assist the Vampire Lord. They had held off until now, shuffling and groaning impatiently, with Pete knowing that their arrival would likely have spelled doom for the Vampire thanks to combat resolution.
I was continuing to get the odd hex spell off against the Vampire Lord, but it had not been enough. Oh so close!
The Zombies ran down the Spearmen as they finally broke, but the Vampire Lord held his ground. This almost didn't work out, as he was hoping to stay close enough to benefit from Look Out Sir...
In the final act, the Loremaster stepped out from the Swordmasters, blasted a couple of ranks of Zombies off the unit with a Fireball, and then levelled a boosted Shem's Burning Gaze at the Vampire Lord. Pete threw everything he had at dispelling that of course, and it proved just enough. The enemy general remained on his feet, after spending so much of the game teetering on the edge.
In the end it was pretty close. I had actually come out on top in terms of normal victory points, but Pete had control of the Watchtower. It was enough to turn a narrow loss for him into a marginal win.
Much of the game had seen us both struggling to achieve things with 6 or fewer power dice at our disposal. We both had plenty of spells that could affect the fights, and not enough power to even try most of them. Planting the Grave Guard in the tower had obviously put it beyond my reach, but the effective absence of that unit on the field had given me the upper hand. I had so nearly been able to capitalise on it. So close...
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