Black days these, black days indeed.
What more needs be said when dead
men walk. About half of us made it back alive. All you who now hear
me,
prepare for battle as the others will be arriving shortly. The was
battle did not deserve such a name; it was in fact a rout. Everything
that could go wrong did. The cannon fire was very accurate, but of
the
four shots they were able to launch, one landed in the village latrine
and stuck, two passed within inches of the Master Necromancer but each
time he was saved by one of his minions. In all only 5 skeletons were
killed and one had an arm blown off, but kept coming (rolled a 1 to
wound). The last ball seemed to find the leader, a former Count of
Sylvania now turned to darkness, but his quickness allowed him to avoid
the worst of its effects, and his armour absorbed much of the rest
(4
wounds, two saved by quickblood, one by AoP).
Our wizards prove useless
(the first two instances set the tone for the
game, he rolled 6 for his banner of sorcery, my first spell was Fear).
They dispelled not a single spell (all game) , save once through use
of the
a scroll. (This included two 2+ rebound card dispels which would have
let me fire off destruction or move unit). Their spellcasters were
not
so hampered. The Wind of Death (total power 1st turn, 2 inch move,
then
I forgot to dispel it all game) wrecked one halbred unit, the
pistoliers and most of a cannon crew. The Black Gaze destroyed the
Outriders and finished off the wounded cannon crew. Van Hel’s,
curse
his name, allowed some wights to first get around our flank then destroy
in turn some ogres and the mauled halbred unit.
Yet, this should not have
happened. Using the classic
flee/countercharge idea, his vampire count was set to run alone into
a
block of halberds plus champ. hero and wizard, and his wights were
set
up for the charge from my general, another block of halberds in the
flank, and maybe some ogres. Well, the ogres charged the giant bats
in
front of the wights, caused 1 whole wound (wow, let me contain my glee),
and the bats then pass the 4 or less break test on a 2. My general
on
the other hand sees the skeleton of his father in the wight unit and
cannot charge. The Halbrediers seeing his hesitation decide to follow
suit. (10 and 11 for the fear tests). The bats get driven off (a mistake
we made), leaving
the way wide open for the wights to charge the ogres. On the other
side,
the Vamp count slaughters 5 of the 7 handgunners, they break but can
be
rallied. However they flee 5 inches to be right in front of the
halberds. Good. Now he will pursue into the halberds and I will have
him. He fails the roll not to pursue (wow, maybe some luck) then rolls
4
inches (on 3 dice, he was on a steed). Next turn the handgunners rally
(***my question, do I have to rally troops if I don’t want to****)
so my
halberds can’t charge because the handgunners are in the way. Magic
was
the last chance, power up move unit so he needs a 5+ (all my power
cards) to dispel using rebound, he rolls a 5. Instead of move unit,
Gaze
of nagash destroys the last cannon crew.
Final score- Undead-a lot
(he killed a unit of halberds, plus both
detachments, a unit of pistoliers who he forced to flee about 5 inches
from the table edge, they rolled 3 to flee, I thought cool now he must
pursue and end up off the table, then he rolled a 4, arrrrgggghhhh!,
a
cannon, my 5 ogres who are being replaced, and the Outriders) Empire-
0
(I killed 5 skeletons while he raised 2, 2 wight cav, and did one wound
on a vampire bat).
*Note that after reading the rulebook, I now believe that the Handgunners
did not
have to rally as the book says- "You may attempt to rally fleeing units."*