Thanks for the feedback ! Hm I agree, I now focus all my shooting to a certain flank or centre, leaving the others open! It feels much more comfortable to 'castle', when against Skaven in the flank instead of centre the gunline survived, in the centre against Lizzies and VC it got overrun.
Here is the full rapport !
Deployment
I win the roll to deploy, and choose the side with the big hill. I start deploying my dark riders to both flanks, then deploy the crossbowmen in the centre. I respond to the Crypt Horrors with the Cold One Knights and wait with the sisters and warlocks to react to his Coven Throne and Terrorgheist (placed the sisters the oher side) with Shrine as last. BSB Manticore is placed near Cold One Knights while Shrine and Supreme are placed in middle darkshards. His both flanks are mobile combat kick-ass, middle his infantry hordes with his wizards. After deployment I want to bait him to the left flank and then move cold one knights and manticore towards the other flank.
He has +1, but after 4! re-rolls with two 6'es from me I get the first turn.
I rolls for spells
- Withering
- Pendulum
- Pit of Shades
- Mindrazor
After long thinking, I swap Pit of Shades for miasma, as i thought the Pendulum would be very effective against his many monsters, while the pit can scatter or something.
Dark Elves 1
Movement
I really miss the musician with the Cold Ones for a swift reform in my redirecting ideas (used to online strategy gaming like RTW where manouvring is much easier) so can only go forward. So send the warlocks for a threat to bait the horrors so the Cold Ones and Manticore can do a combined charge after that. The fight they were going to take was too much I discovered, but I wanted to see some combat this battle ! The Dark Riders move behind the Dire Wolfs while the other moves to the centre for redirecting + shooting. Sisters march to the centre to combine with Shrine in turn 2, darkshards 1, 2 and 3 moved to create a firing range.
Magic
I roll 8 for winds of magic, he dispells soulblight on the Horrors, and I cast doombolt doing one wound. Miasma with movement on his Coven Throne (but only - 1)
Shooting
Darkshards all shoot but withour any damage, dark riders and shades combined kill three dire wolfs. All reapers hit, two on Coven Throne, first hit the rider but has charmed shield, second hits Throne and does 1 wound, third shoot Vargheists with multiple shoot and do 1 wound.
Vampire Counts 1
Movement
He takes the bait and charges warlocks (who flee) his Varghulf charges the Shades who also flees. The rest of the army moves up, the vargheist facing the dark riders (now I am looking back, it might be better to use the dark riders to bait them as they had frenzy so I could concentrate on the Varghulf and much easier to kill dire wolfs).
Magic
He rolls 10 for winds of magic. He tries soulblight on the Cold One Knights, which I dispell, another hex one the Cold Ones which I also dispell. He succeeds a magic missile on the dark riders, wounding two (but I save them with two 6'es) and one magical vortex ! Luckily vortex only moves up some inches.
Dark Elves 2
Movement
Dark Riders charge Dire Wolfs. Cold One Knights charge his Crytpt Horrors combined with the BSB Manticore. Warlocks rally, Shades keep running. Sisters, Shrine and Sorceress join into Shrine of Slaughter. Here I found out I was deploying my sisters wrong all previous battles as they have to be deployed 2x5 instead of 5x2. Next time I will just combine them at the start to prevent issues.
Magic
I roll 12 for winds of magic ! After deployment my eye fell on the smallish bunker of skeletons of his general and LVL 4. I had read that without their general Vampire Counts start to crumble and more nastiness for him (besides losing his LVL 4 ofcourse which is also a huge blow on turn 2).
What I liked to much about shadow, compared to the other lores is tried, is the synergy with the warlocks. Having so much shooting and access to two tougness lowering spells is very powerfull for every magic phase. If the combat with Cold Ones was within range of the Supreme I could also have access to mindrazor, all spells the enemy really want to dispell.
First, I use 3 dice for soulblight, which he dispells. Second I use 4 dice for doombolt on his Terrorgheist, which he scrolls, and lastly I cast longer range withering with 5 dice on his skeleton unit, which he tries to dispell but lacks the dispell dice. I lower the tougness of his unit - 3 ! Dearon thanks for highlighting the possibilities with magic. 1 big difference before and now, is that altough I rolled high for magic both times, I now not only draws his scoll, but actually cast something important. He had not expected this last spell, all my spells were equally dangerous and it felt I was in control of this phase. Just after the phase I found out I forgot about the vortex. But now the gamble came: shooting !
Shooting
Objective: 20 skeletons of tougness 1 with the LVL 4 Necromancer of tougness 2. I had access to 70 RXB bolts, 18 RBT bolts and unfortunate my Medusa came 3" short. I fluff the RXB bolts hitting on 5's and wounding on 2's, while he throws a lot of 6'es, then reapers kill a lot more to the point I have 1 reaper left and he has 4 skeletons and the Necromancer. I hit with 5. He divides 2 to his general and 3 to the skeletons. I inflict four wounds, general with last wound and 2 skeletons left !! So close !! If I had only moved the Shrine earlier to had that 3", or the Hydra, or aargh haha.
Combat
BSB and Cold One Knights inflict 7 wounds, I save all returning attacks except 1 on the Manticore. I win combat so another two crumbles, only two left ! Dark Riders make short work of the Dire Wolfs and overrun just out of range of the Varghulf.
Vampire Counts 2
Movement
He charges Cold One Knights with his Coven Throne. His LVL 4 escapes to the Ghouls (grr). Varghulf and Vargheist move up for turn 3 charge. Terrorgheist moves up for a scream and placed his fell bats behind combat.
Magic
He rolls 10 for winds of magic and channels 1. He casts soulblight on the cold ones, which I dispell. He uses 5 dice for healing up his units which goes with irreristable force (miscast yes!). He heals 8 skeletons, 2 crypt horrors, 1 wound on Coven and 1 wound on LVL 4, hmm. But then rolls double 1 on miscast so large template on the ghouls and 50/50 to remove his general
. 12 ghouls are killed, and he rolls..... a 4 ! The General lives another turn. He loses enough power dice so end of his magic phase. His vortex scatter towards his skeletons.
Shooting
His scream inflict two wounds on the manticore.
Combat
Impact Hits kill 4 cold one knights outright. My champion challenges (we made some order mistakes here as he forgot his impact hits and I had challenged already). The champion fail to do any wounds, but saves a lot of incoming attacks, to be killed by his last two vampire attacks. BSB Manticore inflict two wounds on the horrors, who fail to do any wounds on the Manticore. Manticore breaks and escapes, ending up in the forest and saving 3 dangerous terrain tests.
Dark Elves 3
Movement
Dark Riders charge his varghulf for possible mindrazor. Two darkshards move up to his Terrorgheist, Hydra moves up for flame template on the ghouls but is out of range. BSB rallies.
Magic
I roll 9 for winds of magic, channel 1. Now I make some tactical mistakes, I forget the dark riders and focus on the Terrorgheist, casting soulblight which is dispelled, casting doombolt which is dispelled, and only three dice left for mindrazor which is not enough.
Shooting
Combined fire inflict three wounds on the Terrorgheist. Other Reapers finish off 1 vargheist, inflicting three wounds in total.
Combat
Dark Riders fail to inflict a wound, and 4 get killed. They flee and he overruns into the darkshards.
Vampire Counts 3
Movement
He charges the Hydra with his Ghouls and LVL 4. Vargheists charge the first Reaper. His LVL 1 escapes danger from Dark Riders and moves to skeletons. Coven Throne moves towards the centre (16" from Shrine of Slaughter). Terrorgheist moves up to shoot Manticore, protected by fell bats in the rear.
Magic
He rolls 8 for magic, I dispell the first soulbight on the Hydra, he heals some wounds, I dispell another soulblight on the Hydra and he gets re-roll to hits on the vargheists. His vortex moves to his skeleton unit, killing 4.
Shooting
His Terrogheist screams the Manticore to death. BSB is still standing unharmed.
Combat
His Vargheists kill the Reaper and overrun in the next one. His Varghulf kill four darkshards but I hold on LD 10 (because of general combined with Shrine). Now the big combat. He only inflict 1 wound, which I save. I use flame attack, kill around 10, normal attacks kill another 4 and thunderstomp kill another 4. 18 wounds in total, crumbling the unit to a size of 7 ghouls with wounded LVL 4. He said that unit was around 700 points.
Unfortunatly we had played for 3 hours at this point and had to stop the game. In my turn I was going to save the BSB by moving past the Horrors (dancing) while the warlocks would had charged the Terrorgheist. Dark Riders would charge the zombies, Hydra finish off his ghouls and LVL 4. Shrine of Slaughter to finish off his skeletons and LVL 1 to rip him from magic.
All in all, very bloody game ! Especially winds of magic were very strong for both of us, so that made the battle interesting. His LVL 4 was teasing death (as a true vampire should do) a lot of times in my turn 2, his turn 2 and his turn 3. I had succeeded killing his general in turn 2, or he himself in turn 2 I guess it would had effected the game a lot.
Again, like in the battle against Skaven, I really like the possibility to concentrate fire in turn 2 and 3 combined with either soulbight or the withering. It feels I can decimate any horde or big unit. Also mindrazor is really usefull in this MSU list as any darkshard unit can become killers. The combined charge of the Manticore and Cold Ones felt really strong, as they did well in combat, but I picked the wrong side as his counter-charge killed me (so enemy should be broken or killed in 1 turn). My Dark Riders felt very effective this turn, as I start to learn how to use theam, still made mistakes but that is called learning
The list felt very powerfull, in movement, magic, shooting and combat. I did not missed the dispell dice, and as I am very short of points I will leave it out. Shrine of Slaughter has still not seen combat, but being in the centre with a 12" LD 10 bubble was effective. I might have thrown away my Shades too early, but I was also unlucky with rallying them.
The biggest problem is the deployment phase. I really don't know that well how to deploy. I like the darkshards being centered to create a firing lane, so I keep it that way. Reapers I am not so sure if this the best way to deploy them, maybe more divided ? Hydra in the middle is a good choice, as the infantry always comes that side. BSB and Cold Ones combined at a flank also. But where to deploy the Shrine of Slaughter ? At the other flank of the BSB + Cold Ones ?