Battle report
Scenario Battle for the Pass, 1000pt
My first game of AoS after devouring content online for the last year.
I ran
Legions of Nagash
Soulblight
Vampire lord, (general), flying horror, saccharine goblet, killing blow, necromantic, amaranthine orb
Neferata Mortarch of Night, vile transference
3x vargheist
3x vargheist
20x skeletons with spears
Prismatic palisade
Quicksilver swords
He ran
Hedonites of Slaanesh
Godseekers Host
Bladebringer - Herald on Seeker Chariot
(general), Speed chaser, Cameo of the dark prince
The contorted epitome
10x Daemonettes
20x Daemonettes
1x Seeker Chariot
Dread Pageant
I won the roll for priority, 5 drop vs 6 so I had the choice of whether to go first. He positioned his chariots and Daemonettes as close to the forward boundary of his territory as possible so I elected to let him go first hoping to mostly just avoid being in charge range so I could hit him second turn.
On the left flank I had one unit of vargheist with the vampire lord within 6” angling towards the left hand objective, in the middle I had the block of skeletons within 6” of my starting objective and screening the only likely avenue due to terrain. On the right, Neferata then the other unit of vargheist on the right edge looking at potentially going for the right hand objective or at least a block of Daemonettes or the dread pageant who were opposite.
Opponent positioned chariots and epitome in the centre along with the fane, and had the big block of Daemonettes on the left opposite my vampire lord and vargheist.
Turn one he used the artefact to get battleshock immunity for units with 18” for the rest of the game as well as a command point and then promptly sacrificed the used artefact into the fane to gain rerolls to hit for the general on a 2+ for the rest of the game. He then went to cast a bunch of spells (hysterical frenzy was constantly foiled by not having his target wholly within 18”) and only managed to get mystic shield off on his general. All his units moved up, leaving his starting objective unclaimed but taking the two middle objectives with the Daemonettes on each side for a 4 victory point dividend at end of turn one. On the right the dread pageant managed a long range charge and caught my 3 vargheist out of position promptly decimating them all. (I poorly deployed them just outside of the 6” for Nef’s 6+ deathless thralls save. The seeker chariot in the middle managed to roll a 12” charge and went straight into Neferata who took two wounds but promptly dismantled it in return. Herald and epitome move forward a few inches. End of his first turn.
My turn started with Neferata using the command point to get the 15” -1 to hit aura followed by all three attempts at spells either failing or being dispelled (quicksilver swords, pallisade and amaranthine orb). Vargheist, vampire lord and Neferata all moved close to and charged the bigger block of Daemonettes on the left, reasoning that to leave Nef where she was or to go for the right objective would see the herald charge her next turn and daemonettes plus dread pageant plus epitome also join in.
Vargheist, vampire and neferata all charged in at the 20 Daemonettes with the Varg killing 13, vamp killing 4 and taking two wounds and neferata killing the remainder and also healing back to full health. Giving me 3 victory points and ending the round at 3-4. Block of skelles remained at the starting objective
I lost the roll off and opponent took the first turn for battle round two. Opponent failed to get any meaningful spells off - maybe mystic shield on the epitome. The 10 Daemonettes on the right hand objective just moved forward to try and screen in the direction of my units, the herald moved forward but could only charge the skeletons due to terrain but failed the 10” charge even using a command point to reroll and failing that. He then charged the dread pageant into skelles killing 17 who did one wound in return. Epitome then went for its 11 attacks into the vampire with 3 wounds (who took a gulp from his saccharine goblet figuring he was probably not going to get to hit back anyway) and only managed to do 1 additional wound! Vampire than dolled out 4 wounds in return. End of turn 2 for the hedonites now with 2 more victory points bringing it to 6-3.
A better magic phase for the soulblight, palisade was unbound which I had hoped to block off the herald but Neferata got her mist form off on her self now ignoring save modifiers, and successful cast quicksilver swords throwing the 12 D6 rolls looking for 5+ to get 3 mortal wounds into the herald. Neferata also used a command point for her twilight aura -1 to hit, charged into the herald (locus failing for both heroes) successfully killing it. Vargheist and vampire both charged the epitome, with it splitting attacks, dealing both to the vampire, wounding one vargheist and then being destroying in return by the vampire. 3 more victory points bringing us to 6-6
I win the priority and take the double turn. My quicksilver swords come back at me and do 5 MW to Neferata, which she deathless thrall saves against 2. I then have a cracker of a magic round, Neferata has locus of shyish go off twice, resolve 2x vile transfer into the unit of 10 Daemonettes on the right hand objective, healing her back to full and killing 5. Neferata’s arcane bolt then goes off on a high roll and resolves twice into the dread pageant peppering them with 5 mortal wounds. Neferata charges into the dread pageant killing all of them except one model with 1 wound remaining. Vargheists charge into remaining daemonettes killing them all.
11-6 we call it there with a major victory for the Soulblight.
Obvious lessons learned for this noob:
keep units within range of deathless thralls from heroes where possible!
skeletons without heroes in range and no gravestones like in other legions just don’t seem worth it (my original list had a morghast unit instead)
if Neferata can keep healing, she’s not bad at all
Vargheists really do shred hordes but are indeed super squishy if they get hit first
I’m going to ditch quicksilver swords and amaranthine orb, feels like a lot of set up when I could just focus on palisades for board control, vile transference for little damage and healing and neferatas mist form spell. Might replace it with spirit gale.