We continue our journey thru the Old World. Another game of 6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. With square bases and proper formations, as it was meant to be.
Once again I face my friend Lou across the table. He has brought his lovely old old Dark Elves, circa
3rd to 4th edition. I take my "still has a new car smell"Vampire Counts army. Only painted in the last year and only on the table one time,
last week. I recently picked up some Spirit Swarms from ebay for a good price, so I quickly got them repaired and painted for the game. I also took a loose Spirit and mounted it as a single for a Banshee stand in.
I also spent a lot of time pouring over the rules. I made a lot of mistakes last week and unfortunately a lot of them went against my opponent, Lou. My bad. After spending a week brushing up on the rules we were ready to take another crack at it.
Here are the forces involved. The Dark Elves with with full Commands and lots of unit upgrades. I went with minimal to no command and very few upgrades.
Here's the set up. Vampire Counts in the foreground, Dark Elves on the back edge.
The unit deployments
Dark Elves go first and Take a hill for Ranked fire. Other than that, they are very cautious.
Cold One Knights on my left fail there Stupidity roll. Warriors in the center move up behind the woods with Witch Elves.
First blood to the Elves. I lose 2 doggies.
My turn, I move everything forward full.
Banshee's screen the Crypt Guard.
I'm struggling to keep things with in 12 Inches of my Necromancer for marching. I swing one unit of Wolves to the center to screen my my Necromancer.
Next Turn, DE player sits still, his knights go Stupid again!. That slows him down on the left. I almost lose the game on turn 2. The wolves get destroyed by the repeating Xbow on the hill. Uncovering my General to the Bolt Thrower. Lou wiffs the "to wound" rolls.
Magic phase sees Chill Wind get a hit on the Spirits and kills some Skellies on the left.
Crypt Guard also takes a hit from the Warriors
My dead piling up.
My turn, Spirits charge Xbow, they fail the Fear test and flee, I do not catch them. My Banshee moves into the flank of the Warriors, I think kills one or 2 with her Scream.
Xbow fail to rally and run off the table!
Cold Ones finally get their shit together and charge. I lose take lots of casualties (combat and combat resolution), but am still in the fight. My Vamp Thrall in the unit kills 2 Knights.
Warriors and the DE General on the right charge my Crypt Guard. The DE player rolls HORRIBLY and I win the combat. His General Wiffs all his attacks. I should have lost. He breaks, and I pursue and catch the warriors, destroyed. The General gets away.
I charge all over. Skeletons into Warriors in the Center, Banshee on Flank of Warriors. Wolves onto flank of Cold Ones, Spirit Swarm charges the Bolt Thrower. Crypt Guard at The DE General, he flees.
The Spirits
I lose the combat again to the Cold Ones, and all the Skeletons are killed, but Vampy is still alive( well not alive 😋)
My other Vampire Thrall with the 2nd Skeleton unit charge and kill and break the Warrior unit. At that point the Dark Elf player threw in the towel.
Wrap up. Again fun was had and we got to GAME! Something that happens way too seldom. I didn't get a single spell off for 2 games now. No free skeletons for me! On the plus side, only having 1 Wizard but 2 Vampires, really really helps in Combat. The amount of Psychology tests that a VC army generates is staggering. Even really elite units are gonna break sometimes. For most of my Warhammer life I played Empire. And I did everything I could to limit the incoming damage. But with VC, you have to grit your teeth, take the hits and push on in.
The game really came down too 2 moments. The shots on my General, would have ended the gae for me, and the DE General whiffing against my Crypt Guard. Luck is a great ally.
I will expand the army some more. I have a Black Coach too paint, and Knights. The fine folks on eBay will be sending me a Banshee and another Skellie unit. I love those plastic skeletons.
That's all for now, Cheers, Xin
