2500 Triple Stone Horns - Second Battle

Okay, battle two in the triple stone horn trial, and things got stepped up.  This time my list got thrown up against the guy who took second-place at the QCR with a tough-as-nails VC list.  He's an outstanding player, and we've shared quite a few games in the past; even when I'm running a competitive list our games are always a toss-up and usually come down to the first misstep or flubbed dice. 

My list:
Lords
Slaughter Master w/Sword of Anti-Heroes, Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll, Troll Guts, Brone Crusher, Spine Marrow, Maw

Heroes
Bruiser BSB w/Standard of Discipline, Great Weapon, LoG
Hunter w/Stone Horn, Warriors Bane, Charmed Shield, Opal Amulet, Harpoon Launcher

Core
9x Bulls w/Ironfists, FC
9x Bulls w/Ironfists, FC

Specials
8x Lead Belchers w/musician
Sabertusk
Sabertusk

Rare
Stone Horn w/ Harpoon Launcher
Stone Horn w/ Harpoon Launcher

Vampire Counts List
b]Lords[/b]
Vampire Lord w/Ogre Blade, ToP, Enchanted Shield, heavy armor, quickblood, Red Fury, Invocation
Master Necromancer w/Dispel Scroll, Vanhel's Danse, Helish Vigor, Gaze of Nagash, Invocation

Heroes
Vampire BSB w/Aura of Dark Majesty, Book of Arkhan, Charmed Shield, Invocation
Banshee
Banshee

Core
Crypt Ghouls w/Ghast
46 Zombies w/FC
20 Zombies w/FC

Specials
Spirit Host
Spirit Host
8x Crypt Horrors
2x Fell Bats

Rares
Terrorgheist
Mortis Engine

So, on to the game!
Deployment

So, a mutually denied flank, with a few forests and some rough terrain between us, with Ogres going first.

Ogre Turn 1

Ogres do a cautious advance, hoping to pull the VC forward and hopefully open some holes in their defensive box (unlikely against my opponent, but worth a shot).  Magic saw bone crusher going off (VC failed to dispel), but failing to do ANY wounds to the right-most spirit host (bugger!).  Shooting has the leadies take out a few ghouls, but all three of the harpoon launchers miss.

Vampire Counts Turn 1

I can see the end of the game from here, boys and girls!  Can you?  This is basically a game-deciding situation.  So, I can try to back-up and hope that I can deal with the spirit hosts magically, or I can go for a all-out charge.  If I back up and fail, he can push the spirit hosts (or easily charge) into my teeth, and then control the movement phase until he has ideal charges.  If I go for the all-out charge and pull it off, I'll be in a winning position.  If I fail, I'll be close enough for him to dictate movement and charges.
     Magic has him killing the right sabertusk, and there is no shooting.

Ogre Turn 2

So, I go for the charge.  The Ogre 2 charges the left spirit host, and Stone Horn 1 makes it into the Horrors.  Ogre 1 (with my characters) easily charges the right spirit host, though the lead belchers fail their charge into the ghouls (which would've let me get a nice double combat going from Ogre 1's over-run), and the Hunter makes a long charge into the Zombie bus.
    Magic see's the beginning of my dice woes.  On 3 dice, I manage to miscast spine marrow (triple 6s!).  Why was I casting it?  I had 9 dice and wanted the extra +1 to bubble cast troll guts.  The end result is several wounds on my ogres and my SM getting sucked into the warp!  My opponent however recommended that we pretend I'd made the 4+, otherwise an already-uphill game was going to be effectively over.  I lost 2 dice from the pool, and went for a more modest individual troll guts, but had it scrolled.
     Combat could have been better.  While the Hunter killed and crumbled something on the order of 20+ zombies, the regular stone horn did substantially less against the horrors.  Ogre 1 slaughtered the spirit host and over-ran into the ghouls.  Ogre 2 was by far the worst though.  With a charge, 2 ranks, and a banner, Ogre 2 had to avoid any damage in order to completely crumble the spirit host and be able to help the stone horn with the horrors.  So, of course they take two wounds from the spirit host.

Vampire Counts Turn 2

Fell bats shift to bait stone horn 2 out of position, while the Terrorgheist and mortis engine reposition to scream the life out of Ogre 1.
     Magic had the Danse scrolled and the bound Danse dispelled, but with replacements summoned for the zombie units, ghouls, and horrors (and healing the spirit host, of course).
     Shooting does exactly what it's supposed to, with 4 screams tearing the guts (haha) out of my Ogres, dropping them to the command units and my characters.
     Combat has the Horrors beat the tar out of stone horn 1, while the Hunter kills another 20-odd zombies.  The main attraction, of course, was the ghoul fight.  The Vampire Lord answered a challenge from my unit champ (otherwise he would have been left out of combat) while my SM stepped up to fight the banshees.  While my SM handily killed the banshee it was touching (7 S7 attacks, w00t!), as well as a few ghouls, the vampire lord maxed out the combat res for killing the champion (*shudder*).  I was quite happy to have spine marrow up, and managed to stick the combat.  Oh, and the spirit host caused another 2 wounds, breaking a rank, and taking even less damage 

Ogre Turn 3

Stone Horn 2 doesn't even try to restrain, and charges the bats.  The kitty swings wide, hoping for the chance for a suicide assassination charge, and the belchers run up behind the SM's flagging unit, hoping to provide a buffer for any survivors to bounce through.
     Magic sees me manage to get off a nice, big, bubbly troll guts, which is honestly the only reason this game goes to turn 5 (spoiler!  ).
     In combat the Hunter and Stone Horn 2 both kill their respective targets.  The hunter wiffed, but still managed to take out the last of the zombies with crumble.  Unsure if he over-ran due to frenzy, or got to reform, we just had him reform.  The ghouls kill everyone but the SM, then manage to catch him on the flee result.  Fortunately the Belchers stick their panic, though they catch a faceful of ghouls as a reward.

Vampire Counts Turn 3

The screamers move to deal with the hunter, with the zombie bunker moving up to hold him if they fail (the necromancer wising stepping out).
     Magic is a non-entity, my opponent not willing to push anything and risk blowing up his characters.  The hunter and his mount survives the screams (barely; two wounds remaining on him and his mount) thanks to troll guts.  The spell also prevents the belchers from getting vaporized, but isn't enough to prevent them from being run down; the Terrorgheist helping to prevent the ghouls from running too far out of position.  The Horrors finally finish off Stone Horn 1 and turn to face their next target.

Ogres Turn 4

The Hunter, with nothing else to do, charges the zombies, killing half of them.  Stone Horn 2 turns to face his future killers, and the last sabertusk (sounds like a great title for a movie) moves further, hoping to get at that tasty exposed necromancer.

Vampire Counts Turn 4

The Horrors charge into Stone Horn 2, killing it and reforming.  The ghouls swift-reform, coming after Ogre 2.  The Mortis Engine moves to block the sabertusk, while it and the Terrorgheist scream the hunter to death, though the stone horn lives.   

Ogres Turn 5

The Sabertusk charges into the flank of the mortis engine, dying valiently (if stupidly  ).  The remaining Ogres, winning combat, reform to face the ghouls.

Vampire Counts Turn 5

And I'm sure I don't really need to enumerate what happens next

Lessons Learned:
So, while the lead belchers I think are a more competitive choice, I think I actually would have been better off with the MFC here, to use as a sacrificial flanking unit.  That or I should have flank-charged the 1st spirit host with the hunter, throwing him out of position and sacrificing him instead.  I'm actually asking for a rematch against this list; it's probably the single worst match-up for it, and I feel makes for a great litmus test to learn tactics for.

Hey Nihm

Thanks for the battle report firstly, it is certainly appreciated when people post these up.

I really do love the concept about the Triple Stonehorn list and I have no doubt it the Undead Legions hadn't appeared a lot of my energy would probably be going into this as well currently.  On the list itself I still stand by my comments last game about the Harpoon Launchers, will be interesting to see if this battle changes my mind.

This list will be a real test for you, the ultimate healing infantry grind, you've certainly got your work cut out for you as ideally you need to drop the Terrogheist before it gets close enough to scream away whilst dodging large infantry blocks and of course a blender lord.  Not going to be easy in the slightest.

On your spell selection, what did you drop to get Spinemarrow out of interest?

Turn 1

I'm not sure the conservative approach worked here.  I would have pushed all my chips forward and put the pressure on him from the onset.  Sure the Spirit Hosts were always going to be a problem however it's unlikely they would have wounded the Stonehorns meaning you would have won via combat resolution?  Hunter Stonehorn would have outgrinded the Zombies if charged anyway.

Turn 2

Another possible approach was to charge the Stonehorn into the Ghouls and over run the Ogres into the combat, yes I know about poison etc however I think the rewards outweigh the risks here, you could have possibly tied up the VC with a champion and your SM would have been dishing out 8 attacks at S8.  Leadbelchers charging - was there going to be enough room or are the diagrams slightly out?  On trying to get the overrun this is what the Sabretusks are ideal for, sneaking through the gaps and gaining advantages like this!

Magic - d'oh. 

Turn 3

Not much else to say.

I'm not sure the MFC are the way to go in this list, the provide what you already have in the form of the Stonehorns.  Leadbelchers you may want swapped out in this confrontation however I'm sure you'd be wanting them back versus another opponent is all I'm thinking.

Looking forward to the re-match.  Perhaps the Ruby Ring needs an inclusion for situations like this?  Secondly those Sabres are required up front to ensure that Ghoul unit doesn't get the frontal charge ever.  The only magic missiles and shooting attacks to take things out it shouldn't be too difficult to ensure magic is dispelled and/or the shooting attacks are either out of range or if they do happen the Terrorgheist has over-extended itself allowing you to pick it off with some ease.

Thanks again for the report though Nihm!

I dropped brain gobbler; it's not too effective on undead

The harpoon launchers on the regular stone horns are free.  I usually prefer to set up for a turn 3 charge anyways, so the HLs give me something to do if I don't want to just go balls-out.

Turn 1: yeah, against VC I should have put the sabers on the front lines.  Spirit hosts charging stone horns is a huge issue, because 'horns don't HAVE static combat res.  A spirit host will tie up a stone horn permanently.

Turn 2: yeah, I tried to go for the hat-trick but missed.  Getting any other unit into the ghouls to combine with the character bunker would have been hugely helpful.  The leadbelchers would have been able to get 6 ogres into combat, and still leave room for the hunter to hit the zombies AND for the character bus to overrun into the ghouls.  Got greedy

Turn 3: Actually, vs this list some maneaters would be the bees-knees.  Either as some flaming pistoliers, or as a scouting flank unit to help disrupt his defensive square.  Unfortunately, that would be tailoring, which I'm trying to avoid.  That being said, I'll look at alternate builds around the 3 'horns.