Drew demands written reports for Uprising, and who am I to refuse? :) This came out a bit longer than I intended, though...

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Army List

Alexei von Carstein – Vampire Count
Great weapon
Level 2 wizard
Ring of the Night
Cursed Book
Wolf Form

Zlad von Carstein - Vampire Thrall
Nightmare
Battle Standard
Sword of Might
Flayed Hauberk

Abel Yemenov - Necromancer
Level 2 wizard
Book of Arkhan
Dispel Scroll

Vargas Raschid- Necromancer
Level 2 wizard
Power Familiar

Bone Legionaries
19 Skeletons
Light armour, shields
Full command group

Dust Legionaries
19 Skeletons
Light armour, shields
Full command group

Legion Militia
20 Zombies
Standard, musician

Flesh-Eaters
9 Ghouls

Corpse-Eaters
9 Ghouls

Night Stalkers
5 Dire Wolves

Night Prowlers
5 Dire Wolves

Legion Elite
25 Grave Guard
Heavy armour, shields
Full command group
War Banner

Option 1

Night Hunters
7 Dire Wolves

Druellagh
Banshee

Cassandra
Banshee

Option 2

Night Hunters
5 Dire Wolves

Creaking Cart of Death
Black Coach

 

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Game 1 – Orcs and Goblins

Opposing army: Quite a balanced one, with a mix of Orcs and Goblins. The Orc units were all worryingly choppy, including a lots of Savage Orc Big 'Uns, unpleasant-looking Black Orcs and a frenzied maniac hooning around on a Wyvern. Not much magic defence, which was handy for my necromantic minions.

The game started pretty well, with sleazy Dire Wolves slinking out and getting in the way of various frenzied units. Pretty soon slavering blocks of Orcs were all over the table and large messy flank charges started breaking out. The Grave Guard advanced on the Goblin bolt thrower battery occupying a hill, getting mildly speared in the process, while the Vampire-led infantry in the centre were busy chopping up greenskins. The Wyvern-riding general fled, rallied, got engaged again and was cut down, while his chariot-mounted subordinate was held up and somehow wounded (physically) by a Banshee before getting sliced and diced by the Vampire Count.

By the end of the game, all that was left of the Orcs was a unit of Night Goblins that stubbornly refused to flee despite a stern shrieking-to from a Banshee. I hadn't lost much except for some noble sacrificial hounds, so overall a good result. Despite some fairly obscene rolling on my part (my casting rolls were over the top, frankly) my opponent seemed to have had a pretty decent time – a good game (I certainly couldn't complain about it).

Result: 20-0

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Game 2 – Dark Elves

Opposing army: This exceedingly impressive-looking Corsair-flavoured army contained quite a few Corsairs (who'd have suspected?), lots of repeater crossbow-toting Elves of various flavours, a sizeable collection of Cold One Knights and a Highborn mounted on a Dragon. The boss Elf was unsportingly waving a huge magic sword, so the tie-up-the-dragon-indefinitely-with-a-Banshee-and-Battle-Standard plan went out the window. On the other hand, zero magic defence made me cackle with glee once again (on the inside, of course).

The large and small lizards deployed on one flank, the infantry in the middle and various sneaky Dark Riders and Shades lurked on the other. I sent various Ghouls, Dire Wolves and the Black Coach to deal with the skulking elves, while the infantry advanced slowly in the centre (slightly afraid of the Dragon). More dogs frolicked out to get in the way of the Cold One Knights, leading the large unit on a merry chase that lasted for most of the game. The Black Coach trundled past the Ghouls as they skirmished with the Dark Riders and Shades, eventually running over a bunch of Crossbowmen and playing chicken with more horsey Elves. The Vampires proved to be a bit much for the Corsairs and wiped them out, but the Highborn and his flying pet were eyed up the Zombies garnished with Necromancer and started chewing their way through them.

Despite the intervention of a unit of Skeletons and a unit of Grave Guard, the Count dancing around waving the Cursed Book and some combats lost by a respectable amount, the damnable Dragon refused to break. The Vampire Count had to leave due to pressing business elsewhere (read: dealing with a small unit of Cold One Knights and almost managing to get killed in the process), meaning that his book-club antics weren't around for the last turn. This meant that when the large unit of Knights led by a Noble (finally getting sick of dog shows in the corner of the table) turned up, they hit with full force, severely maiming the Grave Guard and causing the Necromancers to fall to bits.

The disintegrating Necromancers meant the end result was basically a draw. Definitely a good game with some fairly large swings for both sides.

Result: 11-9

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Game 3 – Dwarves

Opposing army: A large contingent of fighty dwarf blocks, supported by an assortment of characters and a pair of Gyrocopters. Instead of the more common artillery battery, the dwarves had taken a different approach - there was only one war machine, but the thing was runed up to the hilt and only slightly less lethal than a silo full of ICBMs. The Dwarf Lord was waving around a rune weapon that would be murderously nasty for my Vampire Count should he be unfortunate enough to get hit with it (S8 and d6 wounds per hit against him), so that was something to Avoid At All Costs.

The game started with the monster grudge thrower ripping into the Grave Guard with murderous precision while the air cavalry got in the way of things and opened up with their steam guns. The undead legions advanced, but no matter where the Vampire went, the Dwarf Lord followed. On the plus side, he was out of the Hammerers, but that wouldn't help much if the Count got annihilated. The cat-and-mouse game eventually came to a head when a timely Vanhel's Danse Macabre propelled the Count's Skeletons into the Lord's unit without the two head honchos actually being in contact. The Vampire-slaying shield-surfer issued challenge, but was intercepted by a heroic Skeleton Captain who managed to survive thanks to his unimpressive T3 (thankfully Runes of Might don't kick in until T5) and tanky light armour. This was the best I could have hoped for – no d6 wound overkilling meant that the couple of Dwarves the Count sliced up were enough to win the combat. Since the Lord wasn't in a Hammerer unit, he wasn't making anything immune to Fear, and the stunted ones fled and were caught. To add insult to Dwarvern injury, the pursuit carried the Skeletons into the flank of the Hammerers, who were run down in short (har har, get it?) order.

On the other side of the table, the infernal war engine of doom had almost finished demolishing the Grave Guard, a task which was finished off by the Thane Battle Standard Bearer's unit. His blood-sucking counterpart did his best to beat up a unit of Longbeards led by a Runesmith, but the tough old geezer took a lot of killing and the Longbeards absolutely refused to budge, despite a barrage of Banshees and hails of Dire wolves in various vulnerable locations. Having run out of Wights, the grudge thrower was now starting to blast holes in the Zombies and shell-shock the Necromancers. In desperation I finally sent the Vampire Count into combat with the accursed contraption, where he managed to deal with the Master Engineer and company by the last turn.

In the end we'd both captured each other's objectives, but my almost outrageous luck with the Dwarf Lord meant that I'd scored quite a few more points. A good game against a very nice opponent (if only my cunning tactic of distracting him with MC Hammer lyrics had worked better...)

Result: 16-4 (I think?)

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Game 4 – Tomb Kings

Opposing army: A balanced army with a bit of everything – a couple of infantry blocks led by a Tomb King and a Prince, a pair of Liches, some shooting in the form of a Screaming Skull Catapult and some Archers, some Chariots and a hefty contingent of Constructs (Scorpions, Ushabti and a Bone Giant). The usual battery of Incantations awaited, though at least their magic defence wasn't iron-clad.

Things started well for me when I fried the Hierophant (lurking in a building) with a Gaze of Nagash on the first turn of the game. The Chariots and Archers fell apart pretty quickly, but the rest of the army either had good to great Ld and didn't care or was near the King anyway. (I was mainly just thankful there'd be less magic coming at me.) The Grave Guard chopped through the disintegrating remnants of the Chariots and Archers, but were then hit in the flank by a magically charging Bone Giant, who didn't do massive amounts of damage but did hold them up for a while before falling apart. Various Tomb Scorpions popped up and attempted to stab the Thrall BSB and eat some Zombies, but thankfully no killing blows ensued and the horrible things died in short order. A Banshee held up the Ushabti until both Vampires could unsportingly gang up on them and dismantle the choppy constructs.

The main event occurred when the unpleasantly massive mob of Tomb Guard containing every character the Tomb Kings could muster finally Icon of Rakaph-ed themselves past the swarm of Dire Wolves in their way. Since it was either charge or be charged (thanks again to their banner), the Count and Thrall sallied in with their Skeletons. The Tomb King and the Vampire Count immediately started mangling each other with huge weapons. The Count knocked a wound off the King, who fought back and almost converted the Vampire into a handy do-it-yourself multipart kit. After a necromantic top-up the bloodsucker was back on full wounds and had the mummy down to one, but the Tomb King then went berserk and killed the Count in one fell swoop (no mean feat when you're only hitting on 5s). Things were looking a bit bad at this point, but one lowly Skeleton rose to the challenge, stabbed the Tomb King and finished him off. Definitely champion material there. The Thrall was faring better than the Count (he was still upright, for a start). After filleting the remaining Liche Priest, the Tomb Prince had a go at him but came off second best (thankfully the Thrall passed his Ld7 Curse test). On the last turn, the Grave Guard showed up to flank their Khemrian counterparts and helped almost wipe them out, while the only other remaining Tomb Kings unit finally fell to bits after being outnumbered by enemy Skeletons and flanked by dogs who were ecstatic about being able to hit something on 3s.

Another good game with quite a few wild swings. Losing the Hierophant on turn one was a harsh blow to my opponent, which he took well, but killing off my Count almost turned the tables.

Result: 17-3 (I think?)

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Game 5 – High Elves

Opposing army: An imposing-looking cavalry army, consisting of lots of tin-can elves, sprinkled with Chariots, Great Eagles and another Dragon-rider. A lurking mage provided some magic defence, but on the plus side the Prince didn't have a magic weapon, so Plan Tie-up-the-Dragon-indefinitely-with-a-Banshee-and-Battle-Standard was back in action.

Due to the diagonal deployment scenario we were playing, I ended up deploying in a corner of the table, on either side of a wood. The Dragon duly advanced and was pounced on by a Banshee, keeping it tied up for half the game, but this was probably why the rest of the Elves hung back, meaning things sort of slowed down while our troops glared at each other. Eventually the Elf BSB (with a magic sword) charged out to break the deadlock and free the dragon, at which point things started moving again. The Prince and his Dragon flanked the Grave Guard and promptly got flanked in turn by the Zombies (the Necromancers having prudently bailed into the woods and started cowering), meaning it kept losing combat but not going anywhere due to being Stubborn. The Count and the BSB chased off some Dragon Princes, but then got flanked by quite a chunky unit of Silverhelms who'd just run over some Ghouls. Unfortunately for the Elves, both Vampires moved into fighting positions and then had Hellish Vigour cast on them, meaning they got to strike before the Elves did. One was left to fight back and they unsurprisingly ran off. The other large Silverhelm unit was happily grinding its way through the other Skeleton unit, aided and abetted by some dismal undead saving rolls, lethal horses and, later on the BSB. The Vampire Count lined up what would have been a horribly effective chain of pursuits on the last turn, but then manage to screw up the one vital Vanhel's that would have clinched things. The remaining Banshee spitefully clawed back some points by screaming the BSB's head off, but things were pretty much even by the end of the game.

A pretty good game, though (possibly) thanks to my over-enthusiastic Banshee-ing and subsequent incaution around large fiery lizards, I didn't get too many points, though I didn't really give up many either. Have to practice a bit more against cavalry armies, methinks.

Result: 10-10

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Game 6 – Wood Elves

Opposing army: Lots of trees of all shapes and sizes – veritable forests of Dryads, a large thicket of Treekin and an extremely nasty-looking Treeman Ancient. There were also a hefty number of Glade Guard, though thankfully Wardancers, Wild Riders or a Battle Standard (all of which my undead have had unpleasant encounters with before). The army was incredibly nicely converted and painted, and would have won the Best Painted prize had its owner not got Third Overall anyway. Quite a decent magic defence and a legion of angry wooden blender impersonators added up to something I faced with mild dread.

I adopted my standard anti-tree formation, which is to say I huddled in one corner, let the Wood Elves come to me and focussed on pumping out magic until the cows came home or the wizards got devoured by walking trees, whichever came first. I'd taken Death magic on one Necromancer to ensure I got at least one magic missile, which didn't do an awful lot but did draw out dice and a scroll. The forest of Forest Spirits and the actual forests spent a lot of the game shuffling around and encircling my, which made for quite an impressive-looking battle scene. The Thrall BSB and Black Coach (Banshees aren't quite at their best against masses of speedy Immune to Psychology troops with magical attacks) made a break for some likely-looking Dryads and ran them over, while a unit of Ghouls heroically beat off and eventually chased down a large flock of angry Warhawk riders. The infantry advanced, got shot up a bit, decided it probably wasn't worth it to keep going and waited for the big trees to make their entrance.

The Ancient looked like he was keen on dining on Vampire, but the Count wanted to part of this and ran off to keep the Grave Guard's morale up as they practised being arrow magnets. Deciding Skeleton was the best he was going to get, the big tree and the Treekin started to beat up on one some of them, though Skeleton Captains did keep getting in the way. Thanks to a flank charge by the other Skeleton unit and the Cursed Book showing up nearby (courtesy of Vanhel's Express Post), they didn't do too much damage for the few rounds of combat before the game ended. The BSB and Coach tried to charge in to help, but were slowed down too much by another mob of Dryads nobly getting in the way.

Not the most eventful of games, but until I work out some better way of handling tree-heavy Wood Elves on a reasonably wooded table, I'll stick to what's worked so far. (More heroic options have backfired nastily multiple times in the past.) My opponent was very understanding about this, though, and I think it was still a good game.

Result: 10-10

 

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Final Result

I came 4th overall, which I was definitely happy with. I had six good games against good opponents, and the tournament was well organised and run. Thanks to the organisers for running it, and with any luck I'll be back next year.