The game so epic I don't remember most of it

 Biiig game this weekend. It took 14 hours to do including setting up, so yeah, big game. I didn't take any notes, so this will probably just devolve into a "highlights" battle report. And also mainly from my end of the board.
2500 points each 2v2: Daemons and Vampires vs. Warriors and High Elves, we played on an 8x4 board to fit everyone on.

For environment we rolled a tornado which freaked out at the start of every player turn because we re-rolled for size on a direct hit as well as a misfire; I think we should just go with the direction of the tiny arrow on the direct hit.

Terrain was the most unusual I've ever seen, with no forests in 8 rolls. We got an Earthblood Mere, Mist-wreathed Swamp, Mystery river, Sphinx, Brewhouse, Elven Waystone, Grail Chapel and a Tower of Blood.

 In deployment I learned that you shouldn't just let your ally take the whole centre, otherwise your guys will all be crammed together on one side and tripping over each other. As you can see I went with a very Nurgle build, using Plaguebearers, Nurglings, a Great Unclean One, Epidemius and a Beast. They were joined by Boobs the Fiend, some Flamers, Furies, some Horrors and a Tzeentch Herald with Lore of Shadows.

Vampires had some fun models, with a Mortis Engine, a Wight King (I think) on a Terrorgheist, Banshee, Hexwraiths, Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls, Chorrors, Bat Swarms, Grave Guard and a Necromancer (again, I think).
High Elves got 3 Eagles, a few sets of Swordmasters, Phoenix Guard, a big pack of Spearelves, Archers, Mage, Archmage and some BSB guy.
Warriors got a mounted Wizard, Hellcannon, a Chariot, some GODDAMN Knights, and 2 packs of Warriors.

For magic I rolled from Nurgle: Miasma, Pit of Slime and Plague Wind :)
Vampires got some Invocations and one other spell I don't remember.
High Elves got the entire Lore of Light except for Net of Amyntok.
Warriors got.. well it doesn't matter what he rolled, he got the magic of everyone he could see. New LoS rules make that a bit insane.

The tornado moved in front of the Phoenix Guard and they walked right into it like a boss, losing a couple. They got first turn and did the usual shuffling forward.Magic phase was very uneventful with nothing getting through, and the Hellcannon did nothing.
Tornado moved off the Phoenix Guard and killed a couple more. Our turn had our own shuffling, putting the Chorrors in the Tower. Furies charged an Eagle and the Mortis Engine double-sixed, taking a wound. Magic had plenty getting through, but also 2 miscasts, killing 16 Grave Guard in exchange for an Invocation, and I lost a Horror to get the Withering on the Spearelves. Shooting killed a couple of Spears and wounded the Chariot, while combat was a draw between the Furies and Eagle.

Tornado did nothing at the start of turn 2, but the Chariot charged the Flamers, Knights charged Furies and Swordmasters charged Boobs. Magic once again did very little, I think they hurt some Zombies and the Hellcannon did nothing again. All of my forces were annihilated in combat and the Knights reformed to face my Nurglings.
Tornado looked intimidating again but did nothing. Beast charged spears (a very bad move) and Nurglings charged Knights (also bad). Zombies charged the Phoenix Guard over the river of Light and got ASF. Chorrors left the tower.  Magic did nothing much, but the shooting from the Undead took out a few Warriors and the Flamers damaged some Swordmasters. Beast and Nurglings died horribly, but the Zombies fared very well against the Phoenix Guard, who lost and only just managed not to flee, which would've been a domino effect that wiped out the Elves. If we'd remembered that the tower gave the Zombies hatred and frenzy the Phoenix Guard would've lost by more and fled. Big mistake forgetting that.

 Tornado moves menacingly toward the Hellcannon.
Knights charge Plaguebearers as the Eagle flies behind. People move up to prepare charges and the Warriors Sorcerer explodes during magic. Hellcannon takes out a few Skeletons while the Archers shoot with a little effectiveness at the Terrorgheist. I missed my chance to do Miasma on my Nurgle BSB, and he died in a challenge with the Knight Champion. Phoenix Guard won this time, shrinking the Zombies slightly. We called it a day there and came back the following morning.

Our turn had the tornado move into empty space as the Terrorgheist charged the Archers, who fled in terror and were overrun. Ghouls and Mortis Engine charged a pack of Warriors and my guys sat around waiting for me to actually carry out the only one of my plans that I followed through on.
And so in the magic phase I 6-diced Plague Wind on the Spearelves, who never had the Withering removed for some reason. Each hero took a wound and the vast majority of the T1 Elves turned into 10 Nurgling bases in a flash. The miscast made the Necromancer take a wound, and that was all.

In shooting, the Undead screamed at the Warriors while the Flamers shot at the rest of the Spears, leaving us to consider whether it is still considered a unit of Spearelves when it is made up of only 3 characters. After another round of combat the Zombies were reduced to a single rank while the Mortis Engine exploded to surprisingly little effect. Chorrors cut through the remaining Warriors in one unit.
Despite now poisoning on a 4+, the Plaguebearers were torn down a bit more.



The tornado moved into the edge of the board and pretty much stayed there until the end of the game.
Warriors left their house, while the Hellcannon frenzied at the sight of the Hexwraiths, charging a couple of inches. Giant charged Chorrors. The shock of losing all of the Spears led to the Elf characters scattering as the Eagle moved to get in the way of the Nurgling swarm.The Archmage made a Pha Bubble. In combat the Zombies were torn down to a single rank and the Plaguebearers were left with only the champion and Laverne, while a Chorror sidestepped the Giant's club and bopped him on the head, causing him to fall over and cause a wound on a Chorror.

GUO charged the Phoenix Guard and Nurglings charged the last Eagle. Chorrors lined themselves up with the Warriors. Not much magic went down but I picked on the Dragon Princes a bit. Flamers shot at the Archmage, but did nothing. The last of the Plaguebearers died and the Knights turned to face the GUO, who took 5 wounds from the combat res thanks to the Zombies dying (it was this turn that we remembered frenzy and hatred). On the upside, the Eagle died and the Nurglings reformed to face the Knights.

5 Archmage joined the Swordmasters and the Knights charged the GUO. Elf mage toasted my Flamers, leaving only the champion alive. 3 Ghouls were left after combat and the Warriors tried to reform to face the Chorrors, leading to arguments over whether you could reform to put someone on your flank, among other things.

Chorrors charged the Warriors. Archmage Swordmasters fled from the Nurgings, who redirected into the other SM unit. Hexwraiths flew over the Hellcannon to little effect. In magic my Horrors pulled off their first Flickering Fire ever, killing the Elf BSB. I forgot to move the Flamer, so he just sat around. Nurglings did some damage to the Swordmasters, and the Ghouls were finished off. Warriors reformed to face the Chorrors. GUO also died and the Knights reformed to face the Nurglings.

Hellcannon charged Terrorgheist and Knights charged Nurglings. SMs rallied. Not much magic again and no shooting; the Hellcannon died in combat.Nurglings were reduced but took some SMs with them, Chorrors died out after rolling terribly:

Hm, there are only 11 dice in that photo. Anyway, Terrorgheist didn't reform after winning, so he couldn't charge the last Warriors. Flamer moved up to attack the Archmage, but he fled after the SMs were cut down by more Horror Fire and left the board. Nurglings were finished off and the Warriors survived shooting.

After adding everything up, we lost by 214 points (initially we thought it was just 164, but the 10-block of Nurglings was worth a whopping 50 points). I made huge mistakes during deployment and across the game, so what did we learn?

Spread out your army. Don't get anywhere near Chaos Knights.
Withering and Plague Wind work very well together.
New LoS rules make 3rd Eye of Tzeentch very good.
Horrors take a miscast very well.
Grave Guard do not.
Use Miasma before it's too late.
Mortis Engines are large and scary, even when they're not complete and falling over all the time.

Not as bad as I thought. Might be a few less posts over the next weeks; with 50 hour working weeks I have to choose between posting and painting each night, and I really want to make some progress. Hopefully have something up on the weekend.

"That's ridiculous."
         -Pretty much everyone at some point in the game

Daemons are OP Part 2

Following my debatably undeserved victory against the Elves, I was so happy that lasers were coming out of my eyes.

Cheery's Vampires had slain their own High Elves, so we played off to determine the winner of the tournament.






                                    VS.

 Determined to win and maintain his winning streak, he was so focused that he had also gained laser-eye status.



 He was using 3 Vargheists, 2 Bat Swarms, 60 Zombies, 20 Ghouls, 6 Crypt Horrors, a mounted Necromancer (Master?) by the name of Snide, and a BSB Wight King.




In terrain we rolled 3 forests, a misty swamp, a banestone and a perfectly harmless farmhouse. Cheery deployed on the farmhouse side, allowing his Zombie horde to emerge from the freshly tilled soil.
After deployment we looked like this:

Everyone on my side was stuck down with yellow, but that didn't stop that flamer from falling over (and my Bloodletter standard bearer gave me grief for the entire day). My Furies were in the opposite corner of the board.

I got first turn again, so everyone did their standard shuffling; the Furies moved next to the banestone on their way to the battle. Magic left me with Throne of Vines on my Tzeentch Herald and both Shield of Thorns and Flesh to Stone on my BLs. A miscast got through the Throne and killed just one Horror. Flamers destroyed the brains of 5 Zombies.

Vampire turn 1 led to the Vargheists moving to protect the flank from the Daemonettes and Boobs the Fiend. Snide joined the Zombies and the Ghouls and CHorrors stayed put behind the swamp. Throne and Stone were dispelled during magic, and I was lucky to knock back Winds of Undeath.

My second turn had the Flamers moving to closer range, and Boobs and the Daemonettes moved within charge range of the Vargheists. Everyone else moved up as much as they could.

Magic went VERY well, with Throne being recast and a long range Dwellers being cast on the horde. 32 of the 55 remaining Zombies failed their strength test and were pulled into the ground, as well as both of his characters. Crumbling began to erode the rest of his forces.
 One unit of Flamers shot at the Zombies a bit more, killing a few. The others shot at the CHorrors through the swamp, and we decided that it counted as hard cover since it would work that way in reality. No damage done there.

On his turn 2, crumbling continued and the Vargheists frenzied toward Boobs. CHorrors charged one unit of Flamers while Zombies did the others. Standing and shooting took out some more Zombies. Bats moved to face the Daemonettes. With Snide gone, magic was skipped and dispelling was forgotten. Close combat between the Vargheists and Fiend ended with a wound on the fiend, instability cost it another. Zombies were finished off by the Flamers and combat res, while the CHorrors squished the flamers.

My turn 3 had the Daemonettes joining combat and both the BLs and Furies turning to face the CHorrors. Flamers moved up to shoot at the CHorrors and to set up a rear charge on the ghouls (assuming they charged the BLs next turn).

Throne was dispelled then recast, Flesh to Stone failed, and Flickering Fire from the Horrors was dispelled. Shooting at the CHorrors had little effect, and combat ended in a draw.

Crumbling continued in his turn 3, and the Ghouls and CHorrors charged the BLs, while the remaining bat swarm charged the Daemonettes. Throne was dispelled again. Damage was done to the BLs, but not before they did their own damage to both units. Despite losing combat by 3, only one BL destabilised. In the other combat the Vargheists and Bat Swarm were cleaned up by combat res.

Turn 4 for me had the Furies charging the CHorror's rear, with the Flamers doing the same to the Ghouls. Daemonettes and Boobs moved to get into position to charge in case something went horribly wrong.
Throne was recast again and Thorns were put on the Bloodletters. This did significant damage to both attacking units, and at the end of combat (prior to combat res) it looked like this:

Combat res left him with a single ghoul left. We called  it there and Cheery's winning streak ended. There's not a lot he could have done better and some very significant damage was done to my main unit despite him crumbling from turn 2. The luck involved in my wins (and this one in particular) was insane, with huge help from knowing the entire Lore of Life. Yeah. Master of Sorcery again next time.

With me winning the tournament I'm now able to set the rules for next time, so things are going to be... bigger.

"Winter is coming."
                     -George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones 

War were declared

Without further ado, the promised post on my first weekend of assembly and battle is here.
I'd been asked to put together a 1600pt list by the weekend for a 2v2 battle, despite not having any assembled models. Vampire counts collectors have no patience, but seem to love numbers easily divisible by 4 for the 25% list limits.

We got a production line going working on bloodletters and horrors: clipping, filing, gluing and basing them (torsos and legs was the goal of the day, heads are for the weak). Managed to get 40 BLs and 20 Horrors out in a couple of hours.

Here's the list I brought for those interested:

40x BLs (FC)
2x10 Horrors
4x Flamers
5x Flamers
4x Screamers
5x Furies
Herald of K with armour of K (General)
Herald of T with BSB of sundering, Flames and Wings

Originally I had 3x3 flamers, I thought it was 3 of a kind for rares, not 2 (although the team point total was 3200, so we were arguably a grand army).

I took the Sundering banner (aka F*!@ up Lore of Light banner) because the game was VC and DoC vs Empire and HE, and this particular HE player always goes LoL. And honestly, who wouldn't against both Daemon and Undead enemies?

The battle had a bit of a twist: each side had an extra wizard (Order had a Truthsayer, Destruction had a Dark Emissary) who was worth double points. On top of that, we had objective markers worth 200pts to the holders at the end of the battle. Instead of being a 'closest army' objective, these could be picked up by finishing movement on them and were only lost when the carrier was killed or fled. Finally, we had 3D6 power dice, with the highest and lowest going to dispel dice.

I didn't take notes during the battle, so this'll be a very sketchy report.
 

Here we have the battlelines just after deployment: my army wasn't exactly small and VC went for his usual "ridiculous number of small units" strategy, which has worked well for him in the past. If it ain't broke...
Empire went for 2 cannon and 2 mortars. Having no artillery access myself, they are strange, different and terrifying to me. Also a couple of units of pistoleers, one of knights, some halberdiers (I think) and another core unit.

HE had 3x7 Swordmasters, some phoenix guard, 2 eagles and some archers. Last time he had a horde of archers, so I was relieved to see only 10 this time.
Some specifics on VC: 3 vargheists, 4 fellbats, a black coach, hexwraiths, grave guard, a banshee, skeletons and zombies and 2 small yet annoying packs of direwolves.

  Direwolves vanguard out and almost take the objectives right away.

 End of turn one and there's been a bit of shuffling. Destruction took first turn and were keen to avoid the river, which led to us tripping over each other more than a little as we funneled into the centre. A lucky roll of the power dice and channeling gave us 18 to play with, an even luckier roll of those charged up the black coach to lvl 6. Ridiculous.
I rolled only 18" magic, so I was out of range of everyone, but the head Vamp grew his skeletons and zombies, then miscast while raising another unit and  made a net loss on zombies.
No combat on ours, but the direwolves moved forward an inch and took the objectives. My flamers also killed 4 swordmasters.

Order moved up, charging the furies with an eagle. Furies did nothing and lost combat, destabilising and going back to their Chaotic home. The eagle overran and discovered that the forest was in fact a blood forest.
An unluckier series of rolls occurred for Order when a pistoleer's horse dipped his hoof into the river, which turned out to be one of Light. The river went on to cast Net of Amyntok and wiped out all but 1 of the unit. A few spells were slung and one of the Archmage's Light spells backfired thanks to my BSB. He was fine, but his protection broke.

End of turn 2 here, and things weren't looking too rosy for Destruction. Elven spears demolished the direwolves as they tried to make off with the objective. The other direwolves turned but couldn't move out of the way for my BLs to charge next turn, turns out they're not fast cav.
An annoying eagle placement made my right Horrors fail a Ld test and not march, leaving their magic just out of range of a cannon. Knights charged screamers and tore them to shreds.
5 Flamers fizzled out to phoenix guard after a failed attempt to make spears take a 25% test, but the BLs stood up to mortar fire with a lot of luck in ward saves.
Order learned to play it safe with Light magic, so they had the LoBeasts Truthsayer turn himself into a Goddamn dragon.
I tried not to smile too much when I saw their eagle placement next to the river there, you'll see why below.

We called it a day then and came back to it in the morning, though VC and I planned our next move after the others left. I didn't take any more photos until the end unfortunately, but the rest I remember pretty well.

Us: Direwolves charge the eagle, river casts light of battle to no effect, eagle flees and gets caught.
Grave guard and skeletons both charge spears and archmage.
The way is now clear for BLs to charge the phoenix guard.
Coach and bats go for the knights while the remaining flamers move away from everyone's forward arcs.
The last vargheist charges a mortar.

The knights lose combat, flee and get caught by both the Coach and the bats (bats chase off the board). Similar deal for the phoenix guard and the elven spears, who now lose their archmage too. BLs overrun into the Truthdragon and his unit.

Them: Not much movement going on due to combat, but the halberdiers and pistoleers charge the skeletons.
 We were planning on dispelling the dragon at the end of their magic, but they rolled poorly and didn't give us enough dispel dice. BLs sh!+ themselves, but survive quite well, doing enough damage to the unit to only lose combat by a little. (BTW, try resolving the "make way" rule when the character is as large as the rest of the unit. Arguments.)

 

Grave guard join the Truthdragon battle and the zombies charge the pistoleers. We dispel the dragon, leaving not enough power for most other magic, but making things less intimidating.

Vargheist finishes off the mortar and the graveguard overrun the Truthsayer's unit while the BLs reform to face the archers and some swordmasters.

The Flamers finish off the swordmasters they halved at the start, while the hexwraiths charge the other mortar.

In an unfortunate bit of scheduling, we did the bigger combat first. This ended with the vampire dying and the hexwraiths crumbling before they did any damage to the mortar.

We called it a game after Order attempted and failed a few charges, although the archers did kill the last Vargheist.

It ended with a victory for the forces of Destruction, HEs were almost wiped out and we killed the Truthsayer while holding both objectives. The pistol, halberd, zombie and skeleton battle could have gone either way, but the coach, 4 flamers, grave guard, and the horrors were all still going strong. Well, they were alive; they didn't get a bit of magic through all game.

Overall an epic game and we've got a tournament scheduled in a couple of weeks. My guys will need heads by then. I should have something more up before then; my army just keeps growing :)