Yesterday I participated in another small 9th Age Tournament. This time in Graz. My list was quite similar to the one I played in Steyr:
– Vampire Count: Blood Drake; Crimson Rage; Ogre Sword; Crystal Ball
– Vampire Count: Blood Drake; Shield; Avatar of Death; Obsidian Sword; Divine Icon; Dragon Mantle; Lucky Charm; Dark Charm
– Necromancer: Level 2 Necromancy; Dispel Scroll
– Necromancer: Level 2 Death; Unholy Tome
– Necromancer: Death; The Accursed Book
– 35+25 Zombies: M
– 40 Skeletons: Shields; CMS; Banner of Speed
– 4×5 Direwolves (2xC)
– 2x Vargbeast: Vanguard
– 2x Titanic Bat
Round 1: Paul „Paulizei“ Kohl (Saurian Ancients)
He played the skink/kroxi-death-star, Slaan with heavens and gimmicks, a mounted saurus lord, 2 units skink skirmishers, 2 skink heroes on foot, 2 on flying steed, 2 flying skink units, ancient stegadon and 2 razordons.
My plan as always: rush. The Vargbeasts came via both flanks. I learned fast that my opponent had really strong magic phases. He always had 9+ dice and used 2 dice for each spell. I had to dispel 2 S6 Missiles as well as to hit rerolls on skinks. So my right Vargbeast died quite fast. I had a semigood counter with my Titanic Bat. All she had to do was to get the 4+ to be allowed to scream (heavens hex …). Then the terradons would have to make a panic check on 4 and if failed the skinks behind had to test on a 6.
I was not allowed so scream, so the Bat got shot at and a skink hero overran into her. She managed to kill him but died eventually.
My forward march got slowed down due to scenario and forbidden march. My left Vargbeast „played“ a bit with the skink/kroxis, but since I cannot charge them, while they poison shoot me, I decided to turn back. I did the same with the second Bat and the Zombies.
Just the Carrier tried to get some points. I managed to snipe another flying skink hero and kill a unit of skirmishers with my magic missiles. My carrier got shot badly and luckily in the very last round I could charge the saurus lord with my general (AP(6), holy, reroll to hit/to wound), getting some more points and scoring a 7:13.
Round 2: Gerald „prachi“ Pracherstorfer (Beast Herds)
He fielded: Level 4 Wilderness and BSB in gors, 2 cygors, 2 large units longhorns, a few chariots and skirmishers, a unit ambushing gors. We had a large impassible terrain in the middle. Once he placed his first units and the cygors I decided to go all in for a +3 on the first turn.
Everything turned out as planned: I killed the chariot on the far left side and confronted both cygors with the Vargbeasts. My opponent tried one shooting round on a Titanic Bat, missed with all and in round 2 I killed both cygors and was about to score big in the game.
Longhorns overran into my Vargbeast and my carrier countered right back. I had one round to break through. Due to the ridiculous magic phases the beast herd can pull out, the Longhorns got distracting. At least they failed their hatred test. My crimson rage managed to kill only 3 and the other lord only 1 more. At least my lords survived.
But the next round both got chopped to peaces. I still managed to break the Longhorns and both Titanic Bats survived the loss of the general. I got a charge with the „naked“ carrier into the ambushing gors and with the help of a Vargbeast I managed to run from the board to safety.
The second Vargbeast got a charge into the carrier, killed the level 4 and crumbled to death. The game resulted in a 12:8. I should have stopped after killing the cygors. My army book has nothing against Longhorn-hordes and this ridiculous magic phase …
Round 3: Christian „Sperber“ Braun (Warriors of the Dark Gods)
Lord, BSB, Level 4 Change in Knights, frenzy warrios, 3 crushers, a shrine, a chariot and redirectors. A good matchup for me. My opponent saw that too and tried to deny the game.
I went for the chariot in round one with the bat. He didn’t die and I did a very sloppy job redirecting the shrine, so I lost the Bat (she did manage to kill the chariot in close combat though). The second bat took revenge and caught the shrine.
The Crushers overran to the far right and killed the small unit later, so I didn’t care about them the entire game (they would have been insta-evaporated by my crimson rage lord anyhow). Vargbeasts played a bit on the left flank.
Since the only spell I needed to dispel was the infernal gateway and my magic was quite harmless as well, almost nothing happened on that front. The bat started to scream at the knights, killing them off quite quickly (with some luck). I even tried to charge them in the flank (only the mage in contact), but died afterwards.
In the meantime I pinned the Warriors with a Vargbeast. A round later the second Vargbeast helped out and they killed off the entire unit. The Crushers turned around, trying to counter my skeletons. I simply turned around, turning back the thread. He managed to swift reform away from me, so I didn’t get those points in the end. With the help of the scenario (collecting tokens for VP), I got a 15:5.
Overall I scored 4th place (out of 10). One defeat, 2 wins, that’s quite ok. Though I feel a bit frustrated when I see the gimmicks other armies have. Very strong to ridiculous Units, insane magic phases with lots of powerful 1/2 dice spells and good shooting options. All I have are Vargbeasts, which are good of course but in the concept Vampires are quite weak I fear.
SailorMeni Saves The Day 