So with the first September rains, this blog is back in action!

Since the ETC,my gaming focus has changed. Some of you may have followed my list building thread for Dread Elves (link here), where I try to explore how to best put some of the cool concepts of DE to use. So 2019 will probably the year of the Dread Elf, since it will allow me to use a nicely painted army that I acquired a while back!
This first report is from a game I played against our local Vermin Swarm expert and fellow ETC Belgium team mate @valmir. It turned out to be such a great game, that I decided to make diagrams on UB and share it with you!

Our lists:


You can find the reasoning behind the choices in the list-building blog, but the main idea is to make use of fast and hard hitting elements in the Dread Elf book. The list doesn't have any shooting, focusing instead on maneuverability and the ability to focus close combat force in a small frontage. The Acolytes and Medusas provide something to do with the dice in the magic phase, and often they end up helping a bit.

So looking at the lists, two things were clear: I couldn't win this game from afar, and I would have to be very careful of my movement due to the Dreadmills.
We got to play Counterthrust and Capture the Flags. After exchanging some drops, I decided to grab the first turn and put some pressure on the vermin early on.

For magic, my yema acolytes got Pentagram of Pain and Grave Calls, the non-marked acolytes got Crippling Fatigue and Ice and Fire, while my adversary picked an array of close combat buffs (Scrying, Stars Align, Smite the Unbeliever) and magic missiles (Vermin Hereditary, Hand of Heaven, Fate's Judgment and Unerring Strike).

Our deployment ended up looking like that:



Legend:
Vermin deployment, left to right: Dreadmill, Jezzails, Giant Rats, Vermin Daemon, Rat Swarms, Rats-at-arms with Meat Grinder and Machinist, Rats-at-arms with BSB and Magister, Jezzails, Dreadmill, Vemin Hulks, Giant Rats, Footpads (back), Plague Disciples (front)
Dread Elf deployment, left to right: Medusa, Yema Acolytes, Dancers of Yema, Dragon, Dark Acolytes, Raptor Knights, Dark Raiders, Legionnaires, Kraken, Dark Raiders, Kraken, Dread Legionnaires, Medusa

Not knowing where my opponent would deploy the bulk of his forces, I opted for a central deployment, putting my fast units in a position where they'd be able to rapidly relocate if the vermin abandoned the left flank. The piece of impassable terrain and the house close to my opponent's zone acted as flank guards for his units, but also gave me a unique opportunity to box in the rats from turn 1. So in vanguard I pushed both my raider units forward.



TURN 1 - DE

Normally I'm averse to sacrificing redirectors early on, but the long range potential of the vermin meant that I had to be aggressive. So both dark raider units moved up, effectively blocking the entire vermin battle line and leaving no room for redirectors to cross the cavalry line and redirect my hard hitters. The kraken both took cover in the woods, to make the most out of their Hard Target rule: now Jezzails and the Dreadmill would need 6's to hit. With the center pinned down, I pushed the entire army aggressively, relocating the Prince on Dragon towards the center.

In the magic phase I managed to cast the Pentagram of pain on the left jezzails, killing one.



TURN 1 - VS

My adversary responded to my screening tactics by charging! The Vermin Hulks charged into the right Dark Raiders and the Meat Grinder solo-charged out of the Rats-at-arms unit and hit the flank of the second unit (this was something that I could have avoided, by placing my Dark Raiders closer to the rats!). The Disciples took the Medusa bait, and the giant rats closeby turned tail and moved back into the vermin deployment zone and too far from my units for second turn charge purposes. The vermin daemon… [Read More]

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