Hello!
Welcome back to another thrilling battle report from my adventures at the UK Masters 2021. We are now over halfway there, Games 1,2 and 3 are done with and it’s time for Game 4. Round 4 is the army swap round, a round I was very much looking forward too as there were some cool armies out there I would happily use,
Warriors,
KoE,
Infernal Dwarves, I would even been happy using some poncy elves. However, fate has a wicked sense of humour and decided to give me the one army out of the 15 that I really didn’t want to use, the bloody
Vampire Covenant! I was drawn against Mikey Newman of England
ETC fame, so he’ll be using my
BH and I’ll be pushing nudging
zombies about.
I have very little experience using the VCs, I once borrowed a friends army and took them to an 8th edition tournament, just so I could use Heinrich Kemmler and Krell because they are so cool but it turned out they were not actually that good on the table top and I lost every game and came bottom. So maybe
VC aren’t the army for me. Who knows though, maybe I’ll be given a decent list with some Shrieking Horrors and some killy Vampire characters and a big bus of Knights, let’s have a look shall we?
490 -
Necromancer, General (
The Dead Arise),
Wizard Master,
Alchemy, 2x
Binding Scroll
405 -
Necromancer,
Wizard Master,
Evocation,
Magical Heirloom
170 -
Fell Wraith,
Hand Weapon (
Hero's Heart)
155 -
Banshee
155 -
Banshee
567 - 37
Ghouls,
Champion
253 - 22
Skeletons,
Spear,
Standard Bearer (
Flaming Standard),
Musician,
Champion
135 - 20
Zombies,
Musician
645 - 8
Ghasts,
Champion
310 - 4
Phantom Hosts
680 - 4
Winged Reapers,
Halberd
535 - 6
Vampire Knights,
Standard Bearer,
Musician,
Champion
4500
WTF is that!?
When I did the army list reviews I initially didn’t think much of this list but there is some nice synergies in it with the
Alchemy Master. The
Winged Reapers are not to be sniffed at, they can pack a punch when they hit, as do
Vampire Knights. I’ve watched a few games with Mikey using it and he’s uses it very well, each unit supports each other on it’s incredibly slow, inexorable push towards the enemy/objective. In the right hands this army is lethal and can easily draw or even get a small win! In my hands however I will be lucky to get a point out of this game. I just can’t play the game the way Mikey does, I need to get into combat as that's the best part of the entire game and I just think the combat potential of this list is minimal. If I can get some flank charges won the Minotaur block with one of the big units then I stand a chance, but how do you get a flank charge when everything has to be the 12” General Bubble? How do I keep the Necromancers alive when there’s going to be Totemic
Beasts and
Ambushers coming on behind my lines?
Where’s the bloody
chaff in the list? The Banshees and
Fell Wraith can be used as
chaff but I’m most likely going to need them to
cover my rear from Longhorns trying to kill my General. I don’t understand why you would take a
Fell Wraith for
chaff when you have
Great Bats available to you?
Oh yeah, I should probably talk about the list that Mikey has been blessed with.
705 -
Minotaur Warlord, General,
Light Armour (
Destiny's Call),
Paired Weapons (Blessed
Inscriptions),
Obsidian Rock,
Crown of Horns
570 -
Soothsayer,
Wizard Master,
Shamanism,
Light Armour (
Trickster's Cunning), Hand
Weapon (
Ancestral Carvings),
Seed of the Dark Forest
475 -
Minotaur Chieftain, Greater
Totem Bearer,
Battle Standard Bearer,
Light Armour
(
Aaghor's Affliction),
Great Weapon
325 - 3
Raiding Chariots
303 - 29
Wildhorn Herd,
Shield,
Standard Bearer (
Legion Standard),
Musician,
Champion
(
Totem Bearer (Gnarled Hide))
273 - 18
Wildhorn Herd,
Paired Weapons and
Throwing Weapons ,
Ambush,
Musician
642 - 6
Minotaurs,
Shield,
Standard Bearer (
Banner of Speed),
Musician,
Champion (
Totem
Bearer (Black Wing))
240 -
Razortusk Chariot
170 - 10
Longhorn Herd,
Ambush,
Halberd,
Musician
160 - 10
Longhorn Herd,
Ambush,
Halberd
150 - 5
Gargoyles,
Scout
140 - 5
Gargoyles
115 -
Raiding Chariots
115 -
Raiding Chariots
115 -
Raiding Chariots
4498
Now that’s a proper list! One mighty combat block, two of the greatest character builds of all time that just want to smash face, ambushing shenanigans for some hot sandwich action, plus some
chaff for taste.
I am so dead in this match up. If I was decent player or had a couple of months to play with
VC then maybe I would stand a chance but as it is I am essentially going into this cold. The more I look at the list the more synergies and plays I see in it but I think that even experienced
VC players would struggle to get the most out of a
VC List with no Vampire characters in.
As the
VC list I have to use doesn’t have an awful lot of
chaff I don’t see how I can stop the Mino block. I can use the banshees and the
Fell Wraith to hold them up for a while but whilst they are being used for chaffing duty how do I stop the
ambushers? It is real a tough call and a choice that I know that Mikey has the…
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