Vampire Counts vs Khorne Bloodbound: Hold the line!

My vampire counts face off against the forces of khorne, in a smaller game. Can the undead face a much more skilled foe this time round? The mission is breakthrough, so my undead legion has to hold off the blood frenzied followers of khorne for as long as possible.

Battle Plan

We decide to play the Breakthrough, the attacker is trying to push his forces though the defenders army and get off the table to achieve victory. If the attacker gets 1/3 of his force off the table its a major victory, if he gets ¼ off its a minor victory. The defender has to prevent this, if no models leave the table its a major victory to the defender, and if less than a ¼ of the attackers models leave the table its a minor victory.

We rolled to see who is the attacker, and khorne gets that honour, wanting to smash though the undead ranks. In accordance to this battle plan the attackers set up first, then can decide if they go first or second in the first battle round. As the defender isn't prepared for an assault, his forces are deployed randomly, by selecting a unit then rolling to see which 1/3 of the table it may be deployed.

The Armies

Vampire Counts

Vampire (general)

Necromancer

15 Grave Guard – full command

5 Black knights – full command

20 Skeletons – full command

10 Zombies – standard, musician

Khorne Bloodbound

Mighty lord of Khorne

Bloodsecrator

Bloodstoker

Exalted Deathbringer

Khorgorath

6 Blood warriors – standard, champion

20 blood reavers – full command

Khorne have to deploy first, and so set up in a line. On the right his places his blood reavers, in the centre he places his lord, bloodsecrator and blood warriors. On the left his khorgorath and exalted deeathbringer deploy.

Vampire Counts deployment is a little awkward. On the right I have to deploy the zombies and skeletons. The zombies are at the front while the skeletons are ready to push into the centre. In the centre only the necromancer deploys. The black knights are up on the left flank ready to take the fight to him, while the vampire and grave guard hold the centre of the left flank.

The Battle

Round 1

Khorne

He uses his command ability from the battle plan which lets D3 units roll 2D6 when running and pick the highest, he gives it just to the reavers. His bloodstoker whips the reavers into a frenzy.

Movement and all of his units run forwards towards my line wasting no time at all. Luckily for me his reavers roll terribly for their run, otherwise they could have shot across the table.

Undead

The vampire uses the inspiring presence command ability on the grave guard as I think the blood warriors will hit them hard next turn. Casting his magic, the vampire gives the black knights an arcane shield while on the right the necromancer raises some more zombies next to the existing unit, and roll an 11, letting me raise an extra 20.

Movement and the black knights push up ready to charge the khorgorath. The grave guard and skeletons push into the centre while the necromancer and vampire hide behind the units.

Charges and the black knights smash into the khorgorath and the zombies shamble into blood reavers. First the black knights activate but fail to do any damage to the monster, but the nightmares kick him in the shin for 1 wound. He activates his blood reavers and they cut down 7 zombies before they can do anything, but its not enough. The zombies strike back and their numbers help them in dragging down 4 of the reavers, and one of the dead reavers gets back up to join the zombie ranks. Final activation and the khorgorath kills a black knight, healing itself back up to full wounds.

Battle shock, and no one runs.

Round 2

Undead win the initiative and go first

The magic in the banners brings back the slain black knight and 4 of the zombies. Again the vampire makes the grave guard immune to battle shock, then casts arcane shield on them. The necromancer attempts to shield the zombies but fails to cast the spell.

The grave guard block the advance of the blood warriors while the skeletons move up to plug the gap between the grave guard and ruins.

Combat and the zombies go first and kill off another 4 of the blood reavers. The khorgorath strikes at the black knights and again smashes another knight to bits. They attack back and deal a single wound to the monster. Last the blood reavers attack the zombies and kill off 9.

Battle shock and 2 zombies crumble.

Khorne

The lord boosts the charge range of the blood warriors, and the bloodstoker whips them into a frenzy. Shouting into the sky for khorne, the bloodsecrator plants his banner, giving units close extra attacks.

Blood warriors move towards the grave guard ready to punch a hole straight though the middle of the undead line. Needing support, the chaos lord gets close to the zombies to help the blood reavers. On the left the exalted deathbringer supports the khorgorath.

Charges and the blood warriors charge the grave guard, the lord charges the zombies and the deathbringer charges the knights.

First his bloodreavers activate and cut down 12 of the zombies thanks to the banner being planeted this turn. But so many zombies die the chaos lord is taken out of combat range. Grave guard are the first undead to activate and manage to kill off a blood warrior and wound another. Khorgorath attacks the knights again and kills 1 of them. In a poor attempt to deal damage to the monster they manage to deal another wound. The exalted deathbringer fails to do any damage. Zombies attack the blood reavers and kill 1, then the blood warriors attack the grave guard only killing 1.

Battle shock and the zombies crumble down to 1 model.

Round 3

Khorne win the roll and go first

The lord of chaos boosts his own charge range and the the bloodstoker whips the lord into frenzy.

Movement and all of the heroes move up, with the lord taking point. Every one else is trapped in combat.

Both the chaos lord and blood stoker charge into the skeletons.

First the chaos lord activates and swings at the skeletons, killing 6 of them with ease. Grave guard strike at the blood warriors and kill two of them, but suffer two mortal wounds in return. Bloodstoker next, and he slashes out at the skeletons but they manage to block all of his attacks. The lone zombie tries to do some damage before he dies but misses. Deathbringer attacks the knights but all of his attacks miss, the knights strike at the monster and deal a single wound to it. Enraged the khorgorath attacks the knights, kills 1 and heals its lost wound. Finally the skeletons attack the heroes back and deal a single wound to both the stoker and lord. Last its the blood reavers and they rip the zombie apart.

Battle shock and a single blood warrior runs away.

Undead

Forming back together, 3 grave guard, 3 knights and 5 skeletons rejoin the fight against chaos. The command ability of the vampire gives the grave guard an extra attack, then she casts mystic shield on them. Using her foul necromancy powers, the necromancer casts dance macabre on the skeletons so they can attack twice this turn.

Both the vampire and necromancer move around.

Combat and the skeletons strike first, dealing 2 wounds to both the blood stoker and the chaos lord. Next the blood warriors strike but they fail to get past the grave guard 3+ save. Again the skeletons strike this time finishing off the blood stoker but unable to hurt the lord. Deathbringer finally finds out which side is the sharp end of his axe and kills 2 knights with no trouble. The knights strike the khorgorath but do no damage to it. With all the fury of khorne the lord attacks the skeletons and brings down a whole 1 model, not impressive for a follower of khorne. With horrific precision, the grave guard strike out against the blood warriors and kill them off with ease. Last the khorgorath attacks the knights and kills 1 more, again healing itself.

Round 4

Khorne again go first

The blood reavers, no longer held up run for my table edge.

First the lord strikes the skeletons and kills 5 of them, a better result this turn. My lone knight deals a single wound to the khorgorath which is rather irrelevant as it will heal itself. Deathbringer attacks next and again misses all of his attacks. Skeletons attack and bring the chaos lord down to 1 wound. Then the khorgorath kills off the last knight.

Battle shock and a single skeleton crumbles.

Undead

Casting arcane bolt the necromancer kills off 3 of the blood reavers reducing their number enough so he can't get a major or minor victory if they are the only unit to leave the table.

Movement and the necromancer moves back so she is harder to charge next turn, while the grave guard and vampire go after the bloodsecrator.

The vampire attempts to charge the bloodsecrator but fails the charge.

Combat, the only one left and the skeletons go first, killing off the khorne lord.

Round 5 – possibly the last turn

Khorne again win the roll to go first.

Everything that is left runs for my table edge apart from the bloodsecrator who plants his banner, ready to receive the charge from the vampire.

The blood reavers charge the necromancer but neither side deals any wounds.

Undead

Preparing for the assault, the vampire gives herself +1 attack but fails to shield herself.

The skeletons move to support the necromancer while the grave guard move towards the khorgorath.

Charges and the vampire charges into the bloodsecrator.

First the vampire strikes first and deals 3 wounds to the bloodserator. The secrator attacks back and deals 3 wounds as well. Necromancer attacks the revers and kills 1 of them, but thankfully the necromancer takes no wounds back.

We roll to see if the games carries on.... it does.

Round 6

khorne go first... again.

The blood reavers escape the battlefield while the khorgorath runs 10 for the table edge.

The deathdealer attempts to charge the grave guard but fails.

Combat and the bloodsecrator attacks the vampire and cuts her down.

Undead

The grave guard get close to the khorgorath and charge it.

In combat the guard deal 7 wounds to the monster but leave it on 1 wounds. In return the monster kills 1 guard.

We roll to see if the game carries on... Game Ends

As just under ¼ of his models escaped the table, its a minor victory to the undead.

Post-Battle

This battle was very interesting, I liked the mission a lot more than the last vs the skaven. I can't help but feel that the smaller board helped me as the defender, but we didn't have much time or room so it was a necessary evil.

The undead were very powerful in this scenario, being able to create new units in this mission could have been very game breaking, just blocking his units forever forcing him to cut though masses of bodies. I felt that wouldn't be very fun for my opponent so I boosted the zombies (because I can, zombies aren't great) and left it at that. Plus the other spells that the necromancer and vampire have aren't terrible so I might as well use them with out being a dick. If we were playing on a larger table I might have summoned a few more units to plug the gaps as my units only have a move of 4, so quite slow compared to every one else.

Overall I enjoyed this game and I think my opponent did as well, but he did mention that undead are rather scary to face, a mass of never ending bodies that just come back to life. Which is what undead are supposed to be about in the end, so well done GW for making the rules fit the background.

Writing battle reports for AoS is a little awkward so I probably won't do too many in a row, more so I can have a break writing other reports or articles instead.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the report.