2500 points vs 'New' Vampire Counts, Experimental DoC Army List, Battleline

The experimental rules used for Daemons in this Battle, as well as further TestGame-Reports and contemporary discussion, can be found Here.

General Notations:
Preset opponants (DoC* vs VC) 2500pts. Random Scenario (Battle Line).

The Armies:

The Daemons of Chaos

Playtester's Notes: Due to the 'Phantasm of Slaanesh' naturally lacking an 'official' model I used the model shown in the picture below as 'proxy' in this game. My wife painted it about a year ago for no appearant reason (there isn't actually an 'army' to go with it in our group) -


The Vampire Counts

*Daemons picked side of battlefield and finnished deploying last, Vampire Counts got first turn:

DEPLOYMENT & TERRAIN:

Left Side Bottom To Top: Fence and Earth-Blood Mere (Swamp) - [Zombies & Graveguard] - Elven Waystone & Wall - [Skeleteon Warriors, Blood Knights, Ghouls] - Building.
Right Side Bottom To Top: [Fiends] - Encampment of Destruction: 2 Buildings, Banestone - [Flamers & Phantasm] - [Plaguebearers, Daemonettes, Beast of Nurgle, Flamers & DP] - Mysterious Forrest.

Deployment In Detail (Daemons) -

^Daemonettes & Plaguebearers in the center of the field. Daemon Prince of Slaanesh (General) and Beast of Nurgle just behind the Forrest.

^Flamers & Phantasm inbetween the Destruction-Encampment's two buildings, and Fiends seen on the flank.

^Close-up of Daemonic Core units with Heralds.

Deployment In Detail (Vampire Counts) -

^Zombies & GraveGuard between the Earth-Blood Mere (Swamp) and Elven Waystone.

^Skeletons & Blood Knights next..

^Ghouls on the flank.

Vampire Counts Turn 1

Everything in the Vampire Army moved forward, everyone except the Zombies marching. In the Magic Phase 6 Power Dice were rolled up (3 DD) - the Vampire Lord (General) cast Curse of Years on the Daemonettes but it was dispelled, while [as shown in the two pictures above] the Vampire riding with the Blood Knights cast Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma on the Flamers by the Mysterious Forrest.

Daemons Turn 1

^The Beast of Nurgle passed Stupidity Test (Playful) and moved infront of the Daemonettes in order to block the imminent Charge of the Blood Knights. The Daemonettes stood still, while the Flamers moved through the Forrest (turned out to be a 'normal Forrest') and fired on the Blood Knights (missing all shots), we also see the Daemon Prince of Slaanesh (General) moving up the flank by the Forrest.
In the Magic Phase the Herald of Slaanesh casts Pavane of Slaanesh (21 over 15+ Boosted) which scored 5 hits on the Vampire Lord (General) although he saved all wounds.


^The other unit of Flamers moved up and killed 1 Grave Guard by shooting. The Fiends marched a full 20" in order to flank the Vampire Army, while the Phantasm of Slaanesh moved forward in a more careful manner.

Vampire Counts Turn 2

^The Zombies charged the Flamers successfully (11"), and the 'Immolator'-Flamers missed the (5) shots for Stand & Shoot.

^ The GraveGuard and Blood Knights both charged the Plaguebearers, needing 12" and 17" respectively - both charges were successfull.

^The Skeleton Warriors (with General VampLord) charged 11" into the Beast of Nurgle. The Ghouls, however, failed to roll the 12" required to reach the Beast..

^The Magic Phase generated 7PD (4DD) and the Necromancer in the GraveGuard-bunker 6-diced Hellish Vigour getting Irresistable Force. The Miscast inflicted a S6 hit on every caster in the VC Army where-by the Vampire (Level 2) riding with the BloodKnights was wounded. 'Nurgle's Rot' of the Plaguebearers also kill one Blood Knight (rolled retro-actively in the subsequent turn!).
In the Combat Phase the Herald of Nurgle issued a Challange that was accepted by the Wight King amongst the GraveGuard. The HoN was subjected to 'Beguile' from the mounted Vampire and failed the test, promptly failing to even hit the Wight King who also fluffed his attacks back.

^The Vampire, Blood Knights and Graveguard killed 2 Plaguebearers, and the Plaguebearers downed 1 Blood Knight before 5 metled to Instability.

^The Flamers kill 6 Zombies and took a wound in return - an additional Zombie crumbled...

^The Vampire Lord (General) scored 4 wounds on the Beast of Nurgle but not a single one got through the Regeneration (3+). The Skeletons also did 1 wound that was Regenerated. The Beast itself scored 2 wounds that were also saved by the Skellies, before passing its Ld7 re-rollable 'Stubborn' Instability Test.

Daemons Turn 2
In the Magic Phase Daemons roll 'snake-eyes' for Winds of Magic. Soccour of Chaos is attempted, but failed, on the Daemonettes. The 'Nurgle's Rot' of the Plaguebearers kill 1 Blood Knight and 1 GraveGuard, and wounds the Vampire (Level 2).


^The Flamers charge the Ghouls in the flank, while the Daemon Prince moves in toward the center of the field.

^We found it impossible to determine whether the Daemonettes were in the flank or front of the Skeletons, prompting a roll-off that meant the Daemonettes got to Flank-Charge the Skeleton Warriors (a front-charge wouldn't have been able to close the door and so I couldn't have charged in this turn at all!).

^After the roll-off in favor of a Flank-Charge the Daemonettes charged the Skeleton Warriors thus..

^The Fiends flank-charged the Zombies while the Phantasm of Slaanesh circled them to get a bead on the rear of the Vampire Forces.

In Close Combat the Allures challanges and is answered by the Vampire Lord (General) who directly kills the Allures. The Herald of Slaanesh (BSB) kills 2 Skeletons, while the Furious Deamonettes score a whooping 28 Hits (killing 11 Skeletons!). In return, the Skeletons manage to cause 1 wound on the Beast of Nurgle that goes through the Regeneration, and they also drop 2 Daemonettes.
11 Skeletons crumble to dust!

^These Flamers did little against the Ghouls and Instability saw them returning to the Warp! [I was gambling they'd last for just one combat round so that I could get a flank-charge with the DPoS as well - in hindsight I should have just let them flank-charge my Stubborn Beast of Nurgle]

^On the other end of the field, the Flamers and Fiends had a good round of combat and utlimately 12 Zombies crumbled at the end of it.

^The Herald of Nurgle yet again failed the 'Beguile'-induced test, despite this the HoN and Wight King trade 1 wound off each other. The Blade of Entropy rolls up a '3' so the Wight King survives! The Blood Knights and GraveGuard slaughter most of the Plaguebearers, and the rest of the unit (including the Herald) "pops" to Instability.

^The victorious Undead reform as such..

Vampire Counts Turn 3
The Magic Phase saw 5PD/3DD and the Necromancer attempted the Boosted (15+) version of Invocation of Nehek with all 5 dice - failing!

^Blood Knights charged the Daemonettes from behind, as the GraveGuard slammed into the flank of the 'Nettes. The Ghouls also charged the Daemon Prince of Slaanesh (General).

^Same as previous picture from other angle...

^The Daemon Prince killed 6 Ghouls in total and took 1 wound in return, as 1 more Ghoul crumbled to CR.

^The Herald of Slaanesh (BSB) became engaged in a Challange with the Wight King in the GraveGuard-unit. This picture details the placement of the two models for some reason. The Wight King actually failed the I-check for 'Allure of Slaanesh' and thus couldn't strike at all at the HoS, while the Herald also failed to do any wounds in return.

^The Daemonettes lost this combat by -11CR and 9 models popped to Instability. The Vampire Lord was down to his last wound however!

Daemons Turn 3

^The Phantasm of Slaanesh charged the GraveGuard unit in the Rear.

^'Summary of the Table' after the completed Moving Phase.

^The Magic Phase saw 8PD/6DD (VC channelled 1 DD!). The Daemon Prince of Slaanesh rolled 5 dice on Soccour of Chaos and got Irresistable Force (Boosted Version). The Miscast Result was 'Dimensional Cascade' - sent the Prince back into the Warp for good [notice how he's missing from this picture!] while 1 Skeleton and 17 Ghouls got annihilated as well.

^The Fiends and remaining Flamer reduce the Zombies to a mere few models. The reason I didn't reform the Fiends at this point was because the BaneStone would have gotten in their way - another gamble that turned on me as I failed to finnish off the Zombies because of it.

The Wight King once more fail the I-test for Allure of Slaanesh, and both HoS fluffed its attacks.

^At the end of this combat only a handfull of Daemonettes were left in the mortal realm, but the margin of CR had been slim and only the Phantasm of Slaanesh took a wound from the Instability check.

^The GraveGuard unit reformed (from Victory) to face the Phantasm, which is completely illegal now that I think about it.. *haha* In fact, at the same time my opponant started reforming the Skeleton Warriors (in the same 'illegal' manner) and for some peculiar reason I just didn't register it.

Vampire Counts Turn 4
The Magic Phase saw 7PD/5DD (1 DD channelled). Invocation of Nehek was cast on 6+ but it was dispelled. The second attempted Invocation was on 12+ and this time the dispell failed - healing the Wight King(via Attribute), restoring the Blood Knight Kastellan, 4 Ghouls, 6 Skeletons and 3 Grave Guard.

^The remaining Daemonettes were slaughtered, but the Phantasm did good in combat and thus the Daemons only lost combat by -1CR. The Phantasm, Herald of Slaanesh (BSB), and Beast of Nurgle all pass their Instability checks.

^Fiends and remaining Flamer finally manages to wipe out the Zombies. Reforming as such..

Daemons Turn 4
The Magic Phase was a joke since the Herald of Slaanesh (BSB) only had Pavane of Slaanesh and was locked in Close Combat.

^The Fiends attempted a 14" charge into the Rear of the GraveGuard but as you can see sometimes Swiftstride doesn't help you much..

^Stupid Fiends moving 2" forward examining the BaneStone.

^At the end of this combat the Phantasm and Herald of Slaanesh (BSB) were wiped out by Instability. The funny part was that 'Allure of Slaanesh' had kept preventing the Wight King from getting that last wound off the Herald of Slaanesh. The Beast of Nurgle was still Stubborn of course.

Vampire Counts Turn 5

^The Beast of Nurgle finally goes down. The entire remaining Vampire Army reforms as such!

^Daemons, having only 3 Fiends and 1 Flamer left on the table, concedes the game!

***********************************************************

ScoreBoard:
Vampire Counts Score 2431 Víctory Points
Daemons of Chaos Score 404 Victory Points
Solid Bloody Massacre for Vampire Counts!

COMMENTS:
This turned out to be a very tough match-up. I would have needed a lot more luck than I actually had in order to really sort this infantry-heavy VC-army out. Despite the gruesome defeat, we did get a good feel for the 'workings' of some of the new stuff from our Daemonic re-write however: Most notably the Beast of Nurgle and the Daemonettes got themselves a good round of playtesting.
However, the Phantasm of Slaanesh was never really given the chance to prove himself in this combat (sadly, I even forgot about its Breath-Weapon!) and the Daemon Prince of Slaanesh naturally became a rather lackluster experience.
We will be discussing things further in the main thread, where I have at least 1 'major' little issue that surfaced thanks to my opponant that we need to adress in the current version of the PDF (namely Allure of Slaanesh's status as a 'Shared Daemonic Gift').

Well, personally I must say that it was a damn relief to finally lose a game with my Daemons in 8th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy. Much of that can probably be explained with Slaanesh Daemons being inherently weak against Undead (of all possible opponants) but it should not be ignored that my opponant had the dice rolling well, and he played well too [despite unwittingly 'cheating' when reforming that GraveGuard unit to face the Phantasm while being engaged from multiple sides already!].

I certainly hope this report was entertaining. It's the smallest game I've played in years, and yes - I suck at it!

Cheers!

/DaemonReign

Very interesting DaemonReign, obviously the fact you lost a game wit the experimental rules mean they are completely balanced!

Your right that Slaanesh vs Undead can be a tough match up, they aren't really suited to a prolonged slugfest. It didn't really help that the opposing army was basically 4 bricks + some Knights. Looking at my VC book I think that trick he pulled with Beguile IS legal, but I wouldn't be surprised if it gets FAQ'd away when their errata finally comes out (should be due in a month). Maybe a question worth putting in gjronnh's thread, as its quite similar in a way to the question I poted about challenges and stomps.

You definitely got some stuff wrong though, you mentioned forgetting the breath weapon which might have been good against the Grave Guard. Allure isn't a shared gift, and models that fail their test from it can't attack at all, so the Wight King shouldn't have been able to strike your HoS. Also, when the HoN wounded the Wight King did you remember to roll for the Blade of Entropy's effect? Just wondering because you didn't mention it specifically.

Charging the Flamers into the Ghouls proabably wasn't a good idea, maybe if it had been at least 5 but they'd had been ground down sooner or later. Also, it looks like from the photos that you missed the opportunity for the Fiends to reform when fighting the Zombies and that some of them ended up out of contact. If so, you may have missed the opportunity to finish them off a bit sooner and move up to support your beleagured Daemonettes.

We did get some things wrong alas. Some things are just embarrassing in retrospect (like how my opponant started reforming units in combat when he was engaged from multiple sides!) while other things (Allure of Slaanesh) were actually 'played correctly' although I was beat when I made the report (I have cleared it up now in the report though, if you care to read it again you will see more clearly what happened!).

As I've also added in the report it was a real gamble to send in the 3 Flamers into the flank of the Ghouls. This was a desperate measure where I just wanted to lock the Ghouls in place so that they wouldn't flank-charge my Beast of Nurgle - but the horrible truth is that this is actually what I should have let happened (I underestimated the Beast of Nurgle simply because it was my first game with it - indeed, my first game ever with a Beast on the field!).

We did roll for the Blade of Entropy, I double-checked the notations for the battle and we rolled a '3' for that one.

I should have reformed the Fiends, like you said, but I was afraid the BaneStone would get in the way of a good charge - and in that round of combat I should have wiped out the damn Zombies anyway! *haha*

It's a damn shame I forgot about the Phantasm's breathe-weapon, what's even more of a shame is I believe I forgot about the re-rolled Stomps Upgrade as well in a pretty critical occassion.

As much as I hate to admit it, if we had played everything by strict RAW and if I hadn't made some of these 'mistakes' this game could possibly have turned out rather different.

On the bright side of things: I'd say there were still a good couple of 'new items' in our re-write that got a good round of 'playtesting'.
The Furious Upgrade for Daemonettes.
The 'fully upgraded' Beast of Nurgle.
The 'Allure of Slaanesh Gift'.
Some of the Spells from the Lore of Slaanesh.
The Upgrades for Plaguebearers.
Immolators on Flamers (well, at little bit at least..)

The two units that really didn't get in a position where they could prove themselves were the DPoS and the Phantasm. Well, with the Phantasm I just 'forgot' to much stuff really..

* I will address the issue of 'Allure of Slaanesh' in the main-thread.

EDIT
What really screwed me in this game, ultimately, is that completely golden Charge Sub Phase my opponant had in Turn 2 of the game. Perhaps I was a little bit too eager when moving up my units, I should have kept them back perhaps 1 or 2 more inches so that at least some of those Charges would have failed - but the way the guy was rolling (for everything but the ghouls) that would have meant almost standing "still" in the first turn of the game.
So yeah, we did screw up some rules and I did forget some stuff but over-all I suspect it was a pretty fair victory for VC in the end.

I did notice that he managed to complete a lot of turn 2 charges, which must have helped him a bit. As for forgetting stuff, well I did plenty of that in my playtest game too of course, I think its almost inevitable when using so many new special rules.

Yeah.. That's true JonathanC.. But let me the first to say that both me and my opponant are quite embarrased about his units starting to bloody reform when they were engaged from multiple sides. There is no excuse for that - well.. I could blame the whisky but I won't.. besides, my opponant was 'designated driver' so he really doesn't have an excuse *lol*
I just hope it didn't totally ruin the 'scientific' value of this game.