So, I had a game against my friend Drakim's Vampire Counts yesterday and the Cauldron finally saw combat. (yay!)
I decided to use the same list as I did against the WE.
Dreadlord, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Giant Blade, Enchanted Shield, Crown of Command (General) - 254pts
Supreme Sorceress on Dark Pegasus, Lvl4 Life, Cloak of Twilight, Dispel Scroll - 345pts
Master, Heavy Armour, Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, Ring of Hotek (BSB) - 157pts
Death Hag on Cauldron of Blood, Rune of Khaine, Sword of Anti-Heroes - 345pts
Characters = 1101pts
34 Witch Elves, Full Command, Razor Standard - 449pts
5 Dark Riders - 80pts
5 Dark Riders - 80pts
Core = 609pts
4 Reaper Bolt Throwers - 280pts
5 Shades - 80pts
5 Shades - 80pts
Special = 440pts
5 Doomfire Warlocks - 125pts
5 Doomfire Warlocks - 125pts
Rare = 250pts
His list:
Vampire Lord, level 4, Master of Dark Arts, Black Periapt, Talisman of Preservation
Necromancer, level 2, lore of death, Dispel Scroll
Necromancer, level 2, lore of death, Scroll of Shielding, Obsidian Trinket
Necromancer, level 2, lore of death, Book of Arkan
20 Zombies
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
47 skeleton warriors, Spears, Full, Command, Banner of Swiftness
29 skeletons, hand weapon & shield
10 Crypt Horrors, Champion
Spirit Host
Spirit Host
Spirit Host
Terrogheist
Varghulf
DeploymentI rolled up Awakening of the Wood, Flesh to Stone, Throne of Vines and Shield of Thorns on my level 4. This was probably not optimal, but something I could live with. He rolls up 3xSpirit Leech, Caress of Laniph, Soulblight and Doom of Darkness on the necros as well as Raise Dead, Gaze of Nagash, Vanhel's and Invocation of Nehek on his vampire. That is a lot of snipes.
He had so many drops that by the time I was finished, he had placed almost no units of any importance at all. Well, at least the support elements of my army are fairly mobile, so I could always redeply a bit. I had some trouble finding places to put my RBTs and I am not completely happy with their placement. I realised that I had to be effective in clearing out his chaff units early on, so that the Witch Elves could find meaningful combat with the big blocks as nothing in his army had any chance at all of dealing with that unit.
After VanguardWith four units of Fast Cav on my side and two units of Dire Wolves on his side, this proved to be an interesting start to the game. Drakim moved his Dire Wolves forward, while I pulled my Warlocks back a bit to be out of screaming distance, in case he got the first turn. I let my left unit of Dark Riders stand back, so that I could get a charge if I got the first turn. I did.
Turn 1The left Dark Riders charge the Dire Wolves. They were probably going to get countered by the Varghulf, but I did not care. I needed them out of the way. My Warlocks move up to get in Doombolt range of his Spirit Host, and the rest of the army moved up aggressively.
Magic was 10v6 and my Warlocks decided to cast Doombolt with IF on the Spirit Host. With the 2d6s5+2d6s1 hits, they only managed three wounds however, and in return, two of the Warlocks died. This was really bad, as 1 or 4 wounds on a Spirit Host doesn't really matter at all. He dispels soulblight twice with dice. Halfway into my second turn, I have killed more of my own stuff than of his.
In shooting, the Shades combine to take out the Dire Wolves, while the four Reapers miss ALL of their shots. Every single one!
In combat, the Dark Riders easily dispatch the Dire Wolves and overrun.
Drakim doesn't declare any charges, instead opting to Move the Varghulf forward, as he was afraid I would only flee with the DR anyway. His terrorgheist moves in to howl at one of the Shade units, leaving its flank wide open for the half-depleted Warlock unit! If they only had not blown themselves up last turn...Otherwise, he shuffles around a bit.
For the Winds of Magic, he rolls a 6 and a 1. Luckily for him, he has the Master of the Black Arts power. He picks up the 1 and promptly rolls another 1. His dice are all drained after he IFs Gaze of Nagash on one of the Dark Rider units and kills a bunch of skeletons in the process.
His terrorgheis takes aim at the Shades. He need a 7 to wipe them out, but he rolls Snake Eyes and the Shades are still very much alive.
Turn 2The Warlocks find the flank of the Terrorgheist all too tempting, and I declare a charge. I also make sure to redirect the Varghulf with the last remaining Dark Rider, in case he survives all the shoots coming at him this turn. The other Dark Rider unit zips around the skeletons to be used later.
Magic is 9v5 as I manage to channel twice. Both Warlocks both tries to cast Soulblight at the Terrorgheist. The ones not in combat is stopped with dice, but the ones in combat gets IF and blows up another one. I now only have two left to kill the beast... Flesh to Stone on the Warlocks is scrolled.
In shooting, the Shades don't really have any decent targets, so I shoot of some zombies, reasoning that his Vampiric caster is such a long distance away and that he can't really raise any. The reapers combined do 3 wounds to the Varghulf, but fail to kill it.
The Warlocks put 1 wound on the Terrorgheist in combat, and win by 3. Only two more wounds to go!
His Varghulf charge the lone Dark Rider, the big Skeleton unit charges the Witches in the flank, and his units redeploy a bit. (I forgot to take a picture this turn) His Spirit Hosts all fail their charges against the central Reapers, needing 7", 7" and 8".
Magic is 12v7 and the first casting of Gaze of Nagash deals 2 wounds to my Supreme Sorceress, despite the Cloak of Twilight. This means I have to scroll Caress of Laniph and dispel Spirit Leech with dice.
The terrorgheist fails to wound the Warlocks with its scream and were cut down by the poisoned blades. The Witch Elves win the combat with the skeletons comfortably and reform to face them, knowing that I will wipe them out this turn and can then reform back to facing the Crypt Horrors/Skeleton bunker.
Turn 3As my Warlocks are now free, they charge the depleted zombies to snipe the Necromancer. The other warlocks move around to be within range of the Varghulf. I need to get rid of him this turn.
Magic is 10v8 and I start with castings of Throne of Vines and Flesh to Stone, just to heal my lvl4. He dispels them both, but uses all of his dice in the process. I now have 4v0 and his scroll is gone, and I decide to cast Awakening of the Wood to heal back one of the wounds I lost. A double 1 later, my Sorceress still hasn't healed at all, and I can't cast Shield of Thorns to heal either. The warlocks also fail a two dice Soulblight on the Varghulf.
My shooting finally kills the Varghulf and the Witches kill the Skeletons in combat and reform.
He doesn't declare any charges and just shuffles around to prevent any charges on his skeleton bunker.
In the magic phase, he gets 6v4. I dispel GoN on the Sorceress and he casts Vanhel's Dance Macabre on the Crypt Horros in case I want to charge.
The Warlocks kill some more zombies in combat. He kills one of the Bolt Throwers with Spirit Hosts.
Turn 4My Witch Elves charge his Crypt Horrors, while my Dark Riders flanks the Skeletons, ensuring that a 4" or more overrun move will bring me into contact with the skeletons.
In my magic phase, I get 8v5 dice and cast Doombolt with IF on one of the Spirit Hosts, killing it, as well as one Warlock. Flesh to Stone is dispelled.
In the combat phase I make short work of his Crypt Horrors, overruns into the skeletons and kills the General as well as the remaining skeletons. The Warlocks kill the rest of the Zombies. The Spirit Hosts crumble due to the loss of the general.
The game ended here as he did not have any models left on the board. He had killed one RBT and one unit of Dark Riders, giving him 150VP. I killed his whole army, giving me 2550 VP. Even though the numbers are high, I did not feel that this was an easy fight at all and he had me on the back foot during deployment. I really think the Ring of Hotek helped me a lot here, as he could not simply snipe my General and BSB for easy points. It was also completely essential that I took out his chaff so early, so he could not redirect the Witch Elves. The (wo)men of the match were the Witch Elves who took out all of his big points, but they could not have done so without the Dark Riders and the Shades, who cleared the way for them. The RBTs did for once not do very much, while the Warlocks were solid as always.
It is worth noting that there were a lot of strange rolls in this battle. I could not cast one spell with my Supreme Sorceress, and all the spells that were cast by me were with IF. He also failed to charge a Bolt Thrower with two units of Spirit Hosts two turns in a row, needing 5" the second time.
Anyway, it was a crushing win for the Dark Elves again! Comments and criticism are, as always, very welcome!