This past weekend I had the enjoyable experience of participating in the Dragon's Den 2-day tournament, hosted by @SirMC2015 and the Green Dragon gaming group. I was really impressed with how the Green Dragon gaming group with plenty of help from @Kazandu pulled together to put on such an enjoyable event. Various people chipped in to help with everything from making terrain to painting prizes. Thanks, fellas! The venue is an outstanding one and I'd encourage anyone in the Mid-Atlantic to check it out. Gamers Haven in Pheonixville, PA has a whole bunch of tables for wargaming as well as a full service kitchen, arcade room, set up for video gaming, card games etc. I'd never seen a gaming store that had so much to do and I'm looking forward to returning in the future.

It was also great to meet new T9A players from New York, Maryland and all over really. Also, alot of WHFB players who switched to games such as Malifaux are coming back to the reincarnated community... welcome back! I hope you had a great time at the event and enjoyed T9A. On that note, establishing "Gold" for the main ruleset is paramount at this moment in time. Let's all hope it happens in time to take advantage of the lags in other gaming systems and aid recruitment efforts for the best Fantasy Battles game; T9A.

As for the actual tournament, the usual suspects occupied the top table spots with Chris Mince's VC dominating table 1 from round 2 onwards. However, it wasn't all blood and glory for the Vampires. There were 4 VC lists and the other 3 lists all finished in the bottom 10 of the 45 person tournament. Below is the list I took, my results (note there were max 22 points in a game) and MVP's and LVP's in each game:

THE LIST
Independent Vampires

VC general, dead arise, wizard Master (occultism), eternal duelist , spectral Steed, LA , Reapers Harvest, Destiny’s call , potion of speed - 975
Courtier, adept (evocation), steed, mask of innocence, HA, shield, lance, Talisman of shielding, supernatural dexterity(lance), BSB – 540
Necromancer (evocation), skeletal steed - 145

49 skeletons FCG , relentless co.- 535
Bat swarm 105
Bat Swarm 105
10 Dire wolves, ch. 155

10 Barrow Knights, FCG, flaming banner – 505
Great bats - 90

Wraith x 5 - 170
Wraith x 5 – 170

5 Vampire Knights , FCG, Banner of Speed – 530
6 vampire spawn, ch - 474

Game 1: vs. HBE 4-16 LOSS
Style of game/play: standoff and positioning battle
MVP: Vampire Spawn Reason: Chased a unit of Ryma Knights off the objective, getting me half points for the unit and then redirecting to kill a bolt thrower. I would have scpred 0 points without them.
LVP: Vampire Count Reason: I misplayed her a bit. Having gotten off a Marked for Doom earlier in the game doing a single wound to my opponents Mage (who did not have a save), she flew out the unit to try and finish the job. However, Marked for doom only did a single wound again which was saved with a veil token. I would have needed to roll a 3 on the d3. To make matters worse, she then died to ap 0 bows and Pyro as I could not make a single 4+, 4++ save

Game 2: vs. OK 0-20 LOSS
Style of game/play: Chaotic
MVP: Vampire Knights Reason: They did the most work for me. Beat Bombardiers in combat and overrun in to a Frost Mammoth and did a number on it. Then turned around to flank Mercenary veterans. Unfortunately by this point, the rest of my army had collapsed. Although the knights won combat they did not break steadfast so that your choice of hard hitting Ogre units could get the charge on them!

LVP: Vampire Count again! Honorable mention to the Barrow Knights. Reason: My Barrow Knights could not make a single save against a moderate amount of shooting, allowing hits to start being allocated to my characters. For the second game in a row the count did not make a single save and bit the dust before so much as touching an enemy unit. My BSB also did not make a single armor or aegis save (failing 3 5+, 5++ saves) At least he killed a chariot.

Game 3: vs. DH 1-19 LOSS
Style of game/play: Aggressive
MVP: Vampire Spawn Reason: They ripped a hole through the enemy flank, going right through a unit of vanguarding Greybeards on a turn 1 charge (aided by breath of corruption and no rallya round the flag). They then took a flank charge from a vengeance seeker and had no problem disposing of him before flying on to destroy a catapult and the dreaded Dwarven organ gun.
LVP: The Vampire Count general (again)! Reason: So, thanks to the vampire spawn, it seemed like I had medium sized win at hand. However, at this point in the day I was playing a bit carefree and declaring a few risky charges. Once such charge was a corner to corner charge which pitted my general against a vengeance seeker with one barrow knight as a supporting attack. As the seeker was part of a multi-combat, I had to kill it in order to overrun out of the combat. The supporting barrow knight put 2 wounds on the seeker thanks to the multi-wound against standard size model so… [Read More]

So, having just played 5 games at the Colonial Carnage Team tournament I wanted to put some thoughts to paper whilst everything is fresh in memory! I played one of 4 Vampire Covenant armies at the event (32 players) but was the only one to choose the Lamia bloodline. The other 3 VC lists were Brotherhood of the Dragon. With a lot of luck I went 2-1-2 (my 2 wins were largely due to running out of the generous playing time given). Below I give my review of how well the elements of my list did in each game as well as other important game notes. Unless otherwise noted, the magic I took was Spectral blades, glory of gold, along with 3 instances of "arise!" and the mandatory dead arise. Also, feel free to skip ahead to get to the quick and dirty ratings I gave every unit!

Game 1 vs. OK - Hold the center

Count, Gen, Dead Arise, Adept(Evo), PW, LA, Blessed Inscriptions, Destiny’s Call, Dragon Staff, Dragon Fire Gem, Commandment: Did not do much except for just survive! She was caught in a combat where she could only allocate attacks at the Ogre Khan general. The OK allocated all his attacks at the Vampire and did 4 wounds! Luckily, I made 3 out of 4 Aegis saves and a 1 was rolled for the multi wound. The vamp also did a wound. After seeing the tactic of allocating attacks on the vampire, I challenged with her in the next round. With 1 less attacks and hitting on 5's the OK did not successfully hit me in the challenge but I could not kill the Khan either. The game ended before the challenge could be finished.
Necromancer, Adept (Alchemy), Skeletal Steed, La, Necromantic Staff: Raised skeletons above starting size. Nothing else of note.
3 Tomb Banshees: I split the banshees up between the ghouls, skeletons and Phantom host and they were ineffective.
35 Skeletons, FC, Spears: The skeletons won me the secondary objective by holding the center for 3 game turns. However, they were the recipient of an awkward charge. The Ogre Khan general and his unit of 9 tribesman managed to wheel around my phantom host and hit the skeletons in a way that took away 2-3 files of my attacks whilst not taking away any of his. To make things worse for me he rolled out of the box to hit and with battle focus he did more hits than he had attacks! After crumble I was down to just command models! This was the 5th turn and no doubt if the game was finished that the rest of this unit would have been vanquished along with the likely crumbling of the vampire and court of the damned.
20 Ghouls, Ch: Nothing of note but were about to be crushed by Mercenary Veterans!
2 Bat Swarms: 1 unit chased the cannon/chariot but never made it as time ran out and the other died to merc vet shooting.
Altar of Undeath: I can't remember of it died or not but it definitely didn't do anything helpful!
Court of the Damned: The court of the damned mustered the only significant damage I could do against the big tribesman unit.
5 Dire Wolves: Chased cannon with bats... They may have been killed by an intercepting ogre dart.
8 Barrow Knights, Mu, Std, Zagvozd’s Banner: One of the few games this unit did not die but they also were not able to do anything useful.
4 Vampire Spawns: Passed their frenzy check and were able to dance around and eventually charge the frost mammoth. They kept the frost mammoth away from my lines even though they were slowly being ground down. End of game they gave up half points and did not do enough to get half from the mammoth.
3 Vamp Knights, Ch: Misplayed them but in their sacrifice they kept the mercenary veterans away from the center of the table allowing the skeletons to easily hold the objective for 3 turns.
1 Phantom Host: Unsuccessful chaff attempt (see skeleton entry).

Game notes: This ended up in a small win because of securing the objective but surely I would have lost big had the game played out. I think the skeletons would have done much better against the tribesman if both units were maximized and the tribesman did not go flipping crazy with battlefocus! A fun game but would have preferred to play it out!

Game 2 vs. UD - Secure Target

Count, Gen / Court of the Damned / skeletons - Picked up points for an ethereal scarab swarm but the overrun took them out of position where they were comb charged by Shabti, skeletons and another ethereal scarab swarm. The Shabti did most of the damage and it was enough to crumble everything... this was more to do with a horrendous mistake I made than to the performance of the list elements. Ouch! The court may have actually killed his wizard master (my opponent was being a great sport and mentioned to me I could attack him - I wouldn't have seen this otherwise as my chariot was sideways and I couldn't see what was in base contact).
Necromancer - Was foiled by the casket and could not get a spell off until he was about to die. When he did finally get a spell off (Glory of gold on the vampire spawn) he rolled three 6's on a 5 dice casting attempt. I'll let you look up the miscast table
3… [Read More]

Version 2.0 Beta is upon us! And with that there are a host of new spoilers to talk about. However, it’s only fitting that the Court of the Damned blog provide a summary review and basic tactica for recently spoiled Court of the Damned entry in the VC 2.0 Book.

The basics of what you need to know (copy and pasted straight from the thread which you should visit for further detail):

1)Gains War Platform and base change from 50x100mm to 60x100mm
2) Unholy Dominion: All models in enemy units within 6" of one or more models with this Global Rule suffers -2 Agility and -2 Defensive Skill
3)Ghostly horde attacks changed from 2d6 to 8
4)Court of the Damned gains Mounts Protection (6+) (mounted version only) but loses innate defense (5+)

The biggest, most meaningful change for the court is its switch to a war platform. This role allows it to provide a big boost to VC core units or create a death star type build in a unit of barrow guard. With that said, let’s look at the main candidates:

Ghouls: Ghouls are our naturally most agile infantry unit so seem like a good synergy fit for the CotD’s unholy dominion. This unit will put out a high volume of S3 wounds at a high agility step due to their having 2 attacks a piece and poison as well as a new boon (hatred that kicks in after the first round of combat). With these abilities, I see this unit as an anti-elf unit. They will often strike simultaneously with elves and the output of S3 with poison makes them a fantastic unit to deal with lightly armored troops. Furthermore, this unit does not especially need character support. The best counters to this unit will be still be the units that can normally counter ghouls. I expect ghouls to do very well against 5+ and 6+ armor, average against 3+ and 4+ armor and be countered hard by units that possess 1+ and 2+ saves. Like all VC core, ghouls will experience losses in droves but provided the right match up and having great enough numbers by the time the second round of combat arises, this unit has potential to be effective.

Skeleton spears: Similarly to the ghoul unit, the CotD should synergize well in providing attacks at a high agility step in combination with the new agility buff for spears. Whether or not this unit charges or takes the charge it should put out a high volume of attacks (due to fier and horde) at a high agility step in the first round of combat (this will diminish somewhat when first round agility bonuses subside). The defensive skill debuff will also help the skeletons to hit whilst it won’t reduce incoming damage. Compared the ghouls this unit will benefit more from character support, most notably Lamian vampires will be able to reduce enemy agility by a further -1 or make the skeleton unit offensive skill 6 with commandment. This can also be done in a more expensive unit of barrows. All things considered, this unit is very solid and will counter the units that spears counter well e.g. cavalry. As there is no getting away from t3, light armor dying in droves (especially when striking at lower agility) this unit would benefit most from additional character support. With a lord level character in the unit, this unit becomes something just a level below a death star and many units might choose to simply counter by ignoring this unit. Imo, this plays in to the VC players hands by denying the opponent core points which are usually the easiest points to get when playing VC.

Barrow Guard with halberds: I have specified halberds in this entry as this is the weapon that will make the most use of unholy dominion’s initiative debuff. The already “elite” skeletons can be stacked with further synergies, including commandment (in a Lamia list), a cadaver wagon and the new banner of the barrows. This unit with a character is likely to cost around 40-45% of 4500 point army and what you get is a unit with the potential to hit on 2’s with a high volume of S5, lethal strike. Pretty deadly! Unlike the previously reviewed core units which might tempt a few charges, there is no way an opponent will willingly charge this unit if it is fully tooled out with the requisite synergies. Whilst not much is touching this unit in combat, you can’t get around the fact you are movement 4 and have put the vast majority of points in this unit. In this build, armies that can excel at the chaff game will cause problems as will armies with other means of out maneuvering. The surefire way to defeat this list is to avoid the deathstar, pick up points for the unbuffed VC core units and everything else that is not in this unit. Other tactics include looking to take out some of the unit synergy – war machines will likely be perfect for this role. However, other ways to mess with this unit include use of dangerous terrain, whether on the battle field or spells that force DT’s. Pinning the unit with rear and flank charges should also be possible in lists that rely on a variety of MSU-medium sized combat units that work in tandem.

As a mount:… [Read More]

I discuss the magic items in the VC book version 1.3 and do some looking forward to version 2:

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I try out some new list elements: 4 x Vampire Knights and 2 x Tomb Banshees.

Will I get some long overdue revenge against my most regular opponent @chtay001?

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Enjoy and thanks for watching

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Follow my continued foray in to war band games of The 9th Age. My Sylvan Elf army is not a world beater yet but I'm having plenty of good games whilst my Lamia army is undergoing renovations

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