Dogs of War vs. Vampire Counts Battle Report

In this battle report, my faithful Dogs of War face the undead might of Frank’s Vampire Counts army. This was our first time to play each other as part of the Outpost Gaming league, so I was excited to finally get a chance to face off. One of the very cool things about the league has been the folks playing in it. We have a very relaxed crowd that just wants to play and hangout. Thursday nights have become a great night to just hang at the store and talk with a growing group of buddies.

One of the things that I am finding interesting about 8th edition Vampire Counts is that people seem to have dropped cairn wraiths in order to include a black coach. The ability to drain magic dice each phase is a huge boon and one that seems to payoff very quickly. Across all the games I have played against them, it seems to me that it is required now to include magical weapons in anticipation of having to deal with a fully charged coach by turn two.



Looking back at my game with Frank, another thing that I noticed about his army, and something I really liked, was that he fielded large blocks of zombies. They are just a unit that I don’t see being played, so it was a nice change to know that there were a couple good blocks of them coming my way. They are not the strongest unit, but a horde of them can make for a great tarpit.

Early Turns

The game begins with Frank’s forces advancing. I counter with Vespero charging his giant bats and wiping them out.



Middle Turns

Vespero dies to the Vargulf. Black coach is fully charged. Cursed Company hits a block of zombies and proceeds to grind them down in two turns. One of my cannons drops a corpse cart.



Late Turns

Black coach runs along my lines, chasing away the paymaster and Marksmen. My wizard dies to a freshly raised unit of zombies. The Cursed Company destroys two Corpse Carts.

Conclusion

This game came down to the end. Frank had won it clearly, but it was close until the last turn. I still had a massive Cursed Company on the board, which was just fun to see, but it was out of position to reach Frank’s general before the game ended.

Lessons Learned…

1. I need to build a unit that has the sole purpose of generating flaming attacks on a consistent basis. I continue to struggle with enemy units that have regeneration. The Vargulf was a monster and forgetting that he had no armour save meant that I had no effective means of destroying him.

2. The espringal needs to be made into a unit of them. A single one is just not that effective. I also need to reread their rules as I forgot that they have a 4+ armour save.

3. More ogres… I need more ogres. I want more ogres.