#1 Vampire Counts vs. Lizardmen - Turns 3-4

Turns 1-2 for this battle can be found on this link:
http://proxytablegaming.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/vampire-counts-vs-lizardmen-turns-1-2.html

Turns 5-6 & Post-Battle can be found on this link:
http://proxytablegaming.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/vampire-counts-vs-lizardmen-turns-5-6.html

Turn 3 for the Lizardmen began with a contentious flank charge from the Temple Guard on the Mortis Engine.  There was a bit of debate about whether it was a legal charge due to the confined space but Lucky-Sixes was feeling generous and allowed it through.  The Cold Ones and Stegadon shuffled slightly and the Salamander on the left fled from the table to seek aid for his wounded toe.  The Salamander in the middle rallied seeing that it had one more Skink Handler still left to eat.

The more I look at this the more I think it was an illegal charge!

I managed to get through an Iceshard Blizzard on the Mortis Engine but a Harmonic Convergence was dispelled and despite using 4 dice plus a power stone (a sneaky Slann trick) another attempt at a boosted Shem’s Burning Gaze on the Terrorgheist was snuffed out with a dispel scroll.

In the combat the Temple Guard took off all but one of the Mortis Engine’s wounds but only after the Banshee Swarm had killed off Skink Priest Xotyl who had failed to make use of his Scroll Of Shielding before dying.  The Kroxigor attacking last managed to do the final wound to the Mortis Engine at which point all Hell broke loose as it exploded in the midst of both armies.  The pictures show various reforms I made on my Skinks as we weren’t sure at what point the Mortis Engine should blow up.

Amazingly the Mortis Engine was merciful to my troops, only killing a Temple Guard, a Cold One Rider and the Handler for the Salamander who reacted without a care in the world.

Lucky-Sixes lost a bit more...

Stat-Rat consoles him in the usual manner of a Skaven general!

Lucky-Sixes wasted no time in VC turn 3 in getting Fredericko into combat.

There were various other charges made as the Skeletons made the Salamander flee and then re-directed towards the Temple Guard’s flank unsuccessfully.  The Crypt Ghouls, Black Coach, Varghulf and Vargheists all decided to gang up on the Saurus block but only the Black Coach made it in the front and the Vargheists went into the flank.

This could have been worse!

The Black Coach became fully boosted in the magic phase and I reluctantly allowed a casting of The Fate Of Bjuna through on my Slann Mage-Priest.  This left Lucky-Sixes on 2 power dice against my 4 dispel dice and I had the stronger wizards.  I was desperate to prevent any spells from the Lore of the Vampires healing Fredericko’s 2 wounds (2^nd one taken from the Mortis Engine) as his death would yield a very tasty 720 victory points!  I hoped for a low roll of hits from the Bjuna spell... and Lucky-Sixes rolled boxcars!   In our excitement – read dismay – I forgot to deduct the Slann’s toughness from these hits and ended up taking 11 ward saves from the spell!  It didn’t look good for Itz’li but in an amazing display of magical protection he only failed 2 4+ ward saves out of 11 and he remained in the game.

This also could have been much worse!!

It was of course impossible not to predict that Lucky-Sixes would follow up the spell with a 2-dice irresistible force on Invocation Of Nehek and Fredericko was back to full health!

It was actually Saxon The Merciless in the Skeleton unit that cast the unstoppable spell and he took a mere power drain from the miscast only losing one level.

Lucky-Sixes says...”Wow, what a magic phase – so many emotions in this. Firstly, Hyper-G letting Fate of Bjuna go and me getting 11 wounds through (Delight)! Then, Hyper-G managing to save 9 of them to a 4+ Ward (Despair). Then I get double 6s to change Fredericko’s fate from almost certain doom, to a destructive killer (Elation). Hopefully now, even without his Terrorgheist, he could go on a rampage and win the game for me…”

In the combat that followed Fredericko minced the Temple Guard Revered Guardian in a challenge and the Stubborn test was passed but with the Skinks facing the wrong way and the Cold Ones unable to draw a line of sight to the Strigoi there wasn’t much help forthcoming!

Stat-Rat says... “An incredible turn, with really unlikely rolls and big swings in every phase. Probably the biggest swing was Lucky-Sixes getting his irresistible force with his 2 dice to heal Fred. Hyper-G was still to roll his four dice, and when you take into account that Hyper-G has a level 4 against a level  2, then Lucky-Sixes is only winning 3.4979% of the time (and irresistible accounts for 2.7778% of this!).

Had Lucky-Sixes not been able to cast this spell, then Hyper-G might have been tempted not to challenge with his champion and use as many Temple Guard as possible in an effort to take the final wound. Obviously Fred would have killed a hatful of Temple Guard first, but I would expect there to be at least two of the Temple Guard striking back, with one being a champion, as well as possibly a Slann. On average these guys would cause 1.009 wounds against Freddie. This would have been a hatful of points for Lizardmen, and would have represented a HUUGE swing in the battle!

I think this is VC’s to lose at this stage…”

In the other combat Lucky-Sixes (would you believe we chose his nickname before this battle!) rolled 6 impact hits for his Black Coach which had already been upgraded to now include scythed wheels.  However, the Vargheists clearly didn’t get the memo and not only forgot that they were frenzied but also only managed to kill 1 Saurus Warrior.  In return the Saurus could only attack to the side but also didn’t roll particularly well and took 2 wounds away from a Vargheist.

Despite a surge of peer pressure from Stat-Rat for me to declare a charge with my Skrox on the flanking Zombies I instead settled on charging the Cold One Riders into the depleted Zombies in front of them and just reforming the Skrox to face the main action.

The Zombies were a much more tempting opponent than the crypt ghouls.

Reforming the Skrox was not a popular move...

The last remaining Salamander rallied despite not having any Handlers left and in the magic phase I decided to focus on helping out the Saurus block whilst leaving the Temple Guard to their fate against Fredericko.  A Wyssan’s Wildform on the Saurus was dispelled in between my casting of Melkoth’s Mystifying Miasma and Iceshard Blizzard on the Vargheists reducing the cursed Vampires to needing 6’s to hit in combat.

Without the Coaches’ impact hits and an array of spells on the Vargheists the Saurus emerge victorious!

As do the Cold One Riders although we overran them due to the predatory fighter rule even though they shouldn’t have thanks to the Zombies crumbling.

Fredericko was just getting warmed up on the Temple Guard and left a few alive for a stubborn leadership test to hold.

Again most of the charging was going on in the Vampire Counts turns.  The Zombies defiantly tried to charge the Skrox in the rear but fell over their own flailing limbs and the Varghulf was unable to catch the Cold Ones who fled his charge.  One of the riders fatally stumbled on a Skeleton before they completed their charge on the Temple Guard’s flank but that was only after the Haunted Mansion had killed another for knocking on the door too loud.

“I’m sure there were more of us a minute ago”

Both VC core units make their charges, the Crypt Ghouls also fancying their chances against the Stegadon.

After the previous successful magic phase from the Vampire Counts I hoped that this one might be a little less fraught for my army.  At which point a spiral of events occurred...

I hoped Lucky-Sixes couldn’t roll so many hits with another Fate Of Bjuna... and he didn’t... only 11 this time!  Again we forgot to deduct the Slann’s toughness and it was curtains for Itz’li!

Again I’d saved my dispel dice to prevent the follow up spell.  Another silly decision when you’re up against Lucky-Sixes!

Apparently at this point I was feeling (and acting) a little bitter at the success of Lucky-Sixes’ magic phases... not as though Saxon the Merciless would again roll a power drain and not really suffer from the miscast again... that totally wouldn’t be upsetting!

And Fredericko by this time had warmed up very well!  He didn’t even need the reinforcements help on the flank who reformed to face my Skrox shortly before the Strigoi did the same.

The Crypt Ghouls ganged up on Skink Priest Lotyl to take away my last magic user but the dinosaur beneath him thunderstomped some revenge.