Proxytablegaming: #1 Vampire Counts vs. Lizardmen

Hopefully there’s no better way to start this Blog than by posting a battle report, fought at Warhammer World, Nottingham, England.

As it was a special occasion, we decided to use two of our armies that we owned painted models for; Vampire Counts and Lizardmen. Therefore, the first report for Proxy Table Gaming is ironically a 2,500 point non-proxy battle! Only a handful of our models were not painted therefore this report has a non-proxy rating of 9.5 / 10. (A report with all painted non-proxy models would achieve a 10 out of 10 score).

Army Lists were as follows:

Vampire Counts – Commanded by Lucky-Sixes (Total 2,500 points)

Lords & Heroes – 1,107 points

Strigoi Ghoul King (Fredericko Von Hesselink) on Terrorgheist

(Level 1, Beguile, Red Fury, Aura Of Dark Majesty, Sword Of Bloodshed, Potion Of Strength, Dragonbane Gem)
Wight King (Izarazul)
(BSB, Great Weapon, Armour Of Destiny)
Necromancer (Toby The Half-Zombie)
(Level 2, Dispel Scroll)
Vampire (Saxon The Merciless)
(Level 2, Quickblood, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon, Other Trickster’s Shard)

Core – 635 points

20x Zombies

30x Skeleton Warriors (Full Command, Screaming Banner)

20x Crypt Ghouls (Champion)

5x Dire Wolves (Champion)

Special & Rare – 758 points

3x Vargheists (Champion)

Mortis Engine (Blasphemous Tome)

Black Coach

Varghulf

Lucky-Sixes says... "Writing my army list, I was just surprised I had 2,500pts of non-proxied Vampires to be honest – despite the non-painted Zombies (although the week leading up to the battle I had fast-tracked 10x Skellies, 3x Vargheists and a few characters just to be able to field a viable army!). Not a standard VC list, but with a lot of rare units, and a blender lord on Terrorgheist it was going to be a fun one to start.

With a lack of cannons (on either side) the monsters/chariots were always likely to have an impact on the game, and would probably mean I had the opportunity to get my Terrorgheist into the thick of things. Not too worried about my core – and if I had the chance I would’ve boosted the Skeleton numbers (by at least double), but otherwise I was feeling pretty good.

My only real concern was getting out magicked by the Slann. Having 2x level 2s & a level 1 against his level 4 and 2x level 2s would be difficult, as VC would normally rely on magic to add the necessary boosters, but I had enough chaff to hopefully be able to pick my battles and block his charges when needed.

Regardless of what was going to happen, it looked like a really fair match up and was promising to be a good start to the PTG campaign…"

Lizardmen – Commanded by Hyper-G (Total 2,496 points)

Lords & Heroes – 965 points

Slann Mage-Priest (Itz’li)

(BSB, Power Stone, Soul Of Stone, Wandering Deliberations)

Skink Priest (Lotyl) on Ancient Stegadon with Engine Of The Gods

(Level 2, Dispel Scroll, Unstoppable Stampede)

Skink Priest (Xotyl)

(Level 2, Cloak Of Feathers, Scroll Of Shielding)

Core – 625 points

40x Saurus Warriors (Full Command, Spears)

15x Skink Cohort & 1x Kroxigor (Full Command)

Special & Rare – 906 points

10x Temple Guard (Full Command)

10x Chameleon Skinks

6x Cold One Riders (Musician, Standard, Spears)

Salamander Hunting Pack (Extra Handler)

Hyper-G says... "Whilst it’s fairly clear that I’m lacking in Temple Guard numbers and Kroxigor for the Skrox I’m not terribly disappointed with the structure of my (non-proxy) Lizardmen army. This is pretty much my entire painted Lizardmen collection! It boosts a combination of speed from the Chameleons (although the models are normal Skinks), Cold Ones and Salamanders with a hard to shift unit of 40 Saurus Warriors and capable magic. The Stegadon will always be handy on a battlefield without any cannons and its 6+ ward save to units nearby could prove very useful. I’m also happy playing the Temple Guard as a bunker for my Slann to cast magic from without expecting too much from them. The Skrox with only one Kroxigor are probably nothing more than a distraction and I’m hopeful that with lots of Vampire Count infantry core about my Salamanders should have plenty to fry!"

Lizardmen army deploys centrally flanked by Chameleon Skinks.

One Salamander is particularly hungry!

Our scribe for the day (Stat-Rat) in the background doing his best to look blurry but the Chameleons can see him!

And these Chameleons feel a bit lonely on the left flank.

This awesome GW terrain piece splits Lucky-Sixes’ deployment zone in two.

On the left side of the building – most of the VC core with the Mortis Engine and Terrorgheist being a juicy cannon target – except there were no cannons!

On the right side – More scary stuff... and Dire Wolves...

A Temple Of Skulls between us, the big building played as a Haunted Mansion / Regen booster and the skulls are a sinister statue on the Lizardmen left flank.

I was commanding the Lizardmen (codename Hyper-G) and decided to stick with the low-casting lore of heavens for both of my Level 2 Skink Priests getting two Iceshard Blizzards, a Harmonic Convergence and a Wind Blast. My Slann had all the signature spells thanks to Wandering Deliberations. Lucky-Sixes rolled Invocation Of Nehek on both his Vampires with the level 2 Saxon also getting Hellish Vigour. His Necromancer Toby (the Half-Zombie) chose the lore of death and all Lizardmen rejoiced when he didn’t get Purple Sun, having to settle for The Fate Of Bjuna and Doom And Darkness instead.

We’d made the huge building a D2 each turn between being a haunted mansion or a Regeneration (6+) to units within 6”. Before anything even happened it decided to be a haunted mansion in the first turn and killed 1 Zombie, 2 Crypt Ghouls and did a wound to the Black Coach! The rest of the game it picked off a few more Zombies and Crypt Ghouls but not much else so it probably won’t be mentioned much more.

Lucky-Sixes says..."With the massive (but extremely awesome!) centrepiece terrain we had I thought it might be an opportunity to try to flank Hyper-G. My deployment saw VC effectively castle up on my left flank and have the Varghulf, Black Coach and Vargheists on the other side. They were pitched up against the huge Saurus block, but my plan would be to try and get the Saurus facing my units and come in their flank with the Crypt Ghouls who were sitting in the middle of the table, to add some combat resolution and negate their ranks. Fredericko and his Terrorgheist would then go the other side and get rid of some chaff with a few screams here and there before coming into the back of his army for some typical Vampire blending! Easy!"

Hyper-G says... "I was pretty happy with my deployment facing off against only half of the Vampire Counts army for the time being. I placed my Saurus block on the left flank knowing that the Chameleons wouldn’t hold up Lucky-Sixes’ right side for long hoping they could at least do a few wounds before they were dealt with. I was also hoping that my Salamanders were going to be on form against the VC infantry decked out in front of them. My main worry as always was the Terrorgheist that I really couldn’t deal with and could evaporate my Stegadon and Cold Ones with ease if it got too close too quickly."

Stat-Rat says… "It was a real treat to see both of these armies in all their non-proxied glory (although not in true PTG style!), and in the home of Warhammer itself! As mentioned previously, the guys had used most of their armies’painted models, and as a result some of the unit sizes were a little irregular. With so many small units about, the bus unit of Saurus Warriors looked particularly dangerous. My prediction?!?!… A CLASSIC!!!"

Lizardmen won first turn and marched the leftmost Chameleons Skinks up in front of the vanguarded Dire Wolves knowing full well they’d be in charge range of the Varghulf and Black Coach soon enough.

“Let’s play fetch – these blowpipe darts totally aren’t sharp... or poisonous! Honest!”

Lizardmen send their Salamanders slightly further forward than the rest of the army.

A 2^nd level Fireball targeted the nastiest unit on the battlefield... obviously the Zombies! And the Dire Wolves were shot too with various lore of heavens spells either not affecting the Chameleons blowpipes or being forgotten when the dice rolling happened! (Harmonic Convergence re-rolling 1’s to hit and wound could have been useful if I’d remembered casting it!)

Burn... dead things... Burn!

Probably didn’t need to get so close to the Varghulf and Black Coach to shoot at these guys...

“Harmonic what? Nah!”

In Vampire Counts turn 1 Lucky-Sixes charged the leftmost Chameleons with the Varghulf and Black Coach, with the Varghulf losing two wounds to the stand & shoot reaction and then failing the charge. The Black Coach succeeded though with ease and made short work of the Skinks, mostly with impact hits!

Vampire Counts move up.

Recently painted Vargheists hope to break the Proxy Table Gaming curse of the newly painted under-performance!

The Terrorgheist makes a mess of the Chameleon Skinks bullying them after an earlier casting of Doom & Darkness... Terrorgheist Death Shriek at leadership 2 is not fun!

I’m sure my army had Chameleon Skinks at one point! At least the Sinister Statue zapped the last remaining Dire Wolf in its one act throughout the battle!

In Lizardmen turn 2 there was minimal movement and after Lucky-Sixes lived up to his name and channelled with 3 out of 3 channel attempts in the magic phase the Slann was out-diced but managed to cast a boosted Shem’s Burning Gaze on the Vampire Counts’ general Fredericko and his Terrorgheist, inflicting 6 wounds between them.

The Terrorgheist is left on 1 wound and Fredericko (attached to its right wing) forgets his Dragonbane Gem 2+ ward save to flaming attacks and suffers a wound as well!

In other fiery news the leftmost Salamander joins in the fun! The other two overshoot and eat handlers quite happily.

Lucky-Sixes charged the Salamanders that didn’t flee in VC turn 2. And the Mortis Engine completed a long charge on the Skrox. Magic was nullified by the somewhat premature usage of Skink Priest Lotyl’s dispel scroll, however, the Black Coach by this time was already charged up by 5 and therefore ethereal – Eeek!

Mortis Engine makes a Salamander flee then re-directs into the Skrox’ flank whilst the Crypt Ghouls charge the still-smoking other Salamander on the left.

I can’t remember why I didn’t flee this one too?!

More bullying on this side of the table!

“Excuse me, Mr. Kroxigor, you can handle that, right?!”

The Cold Ones are well aware that the Salamander will prevent them from helping much!

Stat-Rat puts his pen down for a moment to... well... I’m not sure really...

Lucky-Sixes thinks that beer will save him from the Orc that’s sneaking up behind him!

In the combats the Salamander on the right fought bravely and suffered no wounds but combat resolution was enough to send it fleeing and shortly afterwards run down by the remaining Dire Wolves. The Crypt Ghouls defeated and sent the other Salamander scampering with a bleeding toe and the Mortis Engine killed plenty of Skinks who passed a steadfast test.