The Elven host looked a little different for this match up and I wanted to try out the High magic, shadow magic combo with Lvl 4 and Lvl 2 respectively backed up with the banner of sorcery. The army I took had phoenix Guard, Whitelions, Large spear block, Bsb, Double Archer blocks and chariots, Dragon Princes and singular eagle and RBT. Very magic dependant but lots of models so up for a fight backed up with shooting.
Facing me was the usual Vamp menace but without red fury or blood knights. Instead the Vampire Lvl 4 was leading a Black knight DeadStar with Wight King BSB 5+ I cleave you. Goul host, Zombie host, Necro lead skellie host, Black coach, Vargulf, 2x bat hosts and dogs, and the big monster that I've always wanted to meet the new Terrorgheist. The Terrorgheist is suppose to be a flying giant with a better than Banshee scream causing 2D6 + its remaining wounds (6 usually) minus your leadership of no Arm sav wounds. Truely a terror combined with death magic and its potential -3 modifier to your leadership, it was going to make some more than adequate kills.
So not really having faced a large flying screaming beast I left it alone and concentrated on picking off all the redirectors in the army which was very successful due to some good archery and fury of khaine. After two turns with Flames of the phoenix failing both rounds either to dispell or scrolls the whole Vamp army had surrounded the hapless Elves. The TerrorG had stormed up the flank and unleashed its first scream and even though it rolled a 6 it was plenty to destroy the chariot defending that flank, which left twelve lone archers to hold the left flank push.
The Black Coach is the perfect equaliser when facing high PD magic armies and I saw much of my superior dice get whittled down every phase. This made it very difficult when the Elves were designed to dominate some what this phase. I had to choose carefully which spells I used which I tell you now I rarely do and unfortunately some 6 dice tactics had to be employed to make sure I got at least one spell off a turn.
The battle was thick and fast and after sacrificing the spears to remove the zombie horde and hold up the Deadstar for the rest of the game the Phoenix guard bravely fought the Ghoullish horde whilst the Dragon princes recklessly 1st round charged the black coach hoping to destroy the power sapping Hearse. The Dragon Princes managed to get stuck in combat for 5 rounds doing nothing but sit there and hold it up whilst the Hearse went ethereal. All the while the TerrorG had parked itself on the flank of the Phoenix guard looking for some monster stomp to win the game. So the Heroic fight was down to the BSB facing off with the massive beast and theatrically the over large Ax he was wielding hacked the undead creature to more manageable pieces and sent it to the abyss where it belonged.
Summary: TerrorG is a very handy beast in the arsenal but I'm not sure it would stand up very well against any black powder armies or even Wood Elves with sufficent twangers. It would be best served flying around the fringes picking off expensive units and then it would be magnificent. The vulnerable nature of the beast does explain its relatively cheap points value.
The game was looking pretty grim for the Elves by turn 3. As the game progressed to the 5th & 6th turns, some bad magic phases for the Vamps and some good fighting by the Phoenix Guard led by the BsB running amock with his Ax saw the game taken out by the Elven army by a large margin. The Elven Host had accounted for everything in the Vampire army except for the Vampire Lord and BSB and 1 solitary Skeleton still burning from Phoenix fire that would have been strength 5 next turn. This Elf list doesn't drive as well as I would have thought and more fine tuning will be needed and it may go the route of no chariots and more warmachine hunters and redirectors next time it faces a challenge.
Back to making movies you go Vamp...
I got caught out by the Terrorgheist when I played it - I misread the rules for the shooting attack when in combat, assuming it happened in the combat in initiative order like a breath weapon. I soon saw the error of my ways when half my unit got shouted to death before they could strike. It wasn't that tough in combat though and the remaining models were enough to take it out over 2 turns (helped by a poor decision to send the bats in the flank for some easy combat res)
ReplyDeleteThe big Beastie is pretty low on WS and even lower when you miasma it to WS1, so I agree its not flash in combat apart from 'thunder stomp'. The Scream attack happens in the shooting phase but PG was saved by the ward. I honestly thought I had lost it on Turn 3 but Chris wasn't keen to Engage his Vamp Lord and that let me put more pressure on his army.
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