8th Ed. Meeting engagement vs VC @ 2400pts.

[Mahtis]

Hi all, I have a friendly tournament that's about to start soon. Because we have lack of time we decided we play open lists and play 2 pre-games before the tournament. My first match is against Vampire Counts. Because of the open lists I'd like to ask about some words of advice from here. So here are both of our lists:

•Vampire Lord (389pts)
The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric, Heavy Armour, Lore of the Vampires, Quickblood, Shield, Wizard Level 2, Dragonhelm, Ogre Blade - Talisman of Preservation

Cairn Wraith (60pts)
Chill Grasp, Ethereal, Terror, Undead

Necromancer
Undead, Lore of Death, Wizard Level 2,Dispel Scroll

•Vampire (228pts)
The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric, Barded Nightmare, Lore of the Vampires, Quickblood, Shield, Wizard Level 2, Armour of Fortune, Dragonbane gem

•Wight King (160pts)
Killing Blow, Undead, BSB, Enchanted Shield, Gold Sigil Sword, Talisman of Endurance

36x Crypt Ghoul (360pts)

5x Dire Wolf (40pts)

5x Dire Wolf (40pts)

5x Dire Wolf (40pts)

35x Zombie
Musician

Black Knights (274pts)
FC, barging, lances

5xHexwraiths
Champion

Terrorgheist (225pts)

Varghluf (175pts)

And then the lizards

Slann Mage-Priest
Lore of Shadow, Focus of Mystery, Focused Rumination, Higher State of Consciousness, Becalming Cogitation, Fencer’s Blades, The Divine Plaque of Protection, Tricster’s Shard

Saurus Scar-Veteran
Scaly Skin, Great Weapon, Light Armour, Battle Standard Bearer, Dragonhelm, Glyph Necklace, Venom of the Firefly Frog

Saurus Scar-Veteran
Scaly Skin, Light Armour, Shield, Cold One, Sword of Battle, Talisman of Endurance

Skink Priest
Aquatic, Level 2 Upgrade, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of Ruin

Skink Priest
Aquatic, Cloak of Feathers


30x Saurus Warriors
Scaly Skin, Shield, Spawning Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

23x Skinks
Javelin, Shield, Aquatic, Skink Brave, Musician, Standard Bearer, 2 Kroxigors


5x Chameleon Skinks
Blowpipe, Skirmishers, Scouts, Aquatic, Stalker

5x Chameleon Skinks
Blowpipe, Skirmishers, Scouts, Aquatic, Stalker

10x Saurus Cavalry
Spear, Scaly Skin, Shield, Stupidity, Standard Bearer, Musicant, Banner of Eternal Flame

2x Salamander hunting pack
Causes Fear, Skirmishers, Scaly Skin, Extra Skink herder

So what would u suggest I'd do? Wait for him to come in a corner and have all my units on the board, or should i have the slann and saurus warriors and salamanders on the board and then add skroxigor and Coc as reinforcements. Priority is to get the vampires down, but what with lore of shadow is it possible? I think the vampires have enough initiative to dodge pits of shades and others..

 

[Switchblade]

Cairn Wraith (60pts)
Chill Grasp, Ethereal, Terror, Undead, Necromancer, Undead, Lore of Death, Wizard Level 2,Dispel Scroll

Cairn Wraiths are not Wizards.

•Wight King (160pts)
Killing Blow, Undead, BSB, Enchanted Shield, Gold Sigil Sword, Talisman of Endurance

If a Wight King is a BSB, he CANNOT have magical items.

Saurus Scar-Veteran
Scaly Skin, Great Weapon, Light Armour, Battle Standard Bearer, Dragonhelm, Glyph Necklace, Venom of the Firefly Frog

If a Scar-Vet is a BSB, he CANNOT have magical items.

So what would u suggest I'd do? Wait for him to come in a corner and have all my units on the board, or should i have the slann and saurus warriors and salamanders on the board and then add skroxigor and Coc as reinforcements. Priority is to get the vampires down, but what with lore of shadow is it possible? I think the vampires have enough initiative to dodge pits of shades and others..

As a VC player, what I'd suggest you do is outgrind him. Combat Res is the enemy to VC due to Unstable. His list is built on the Black Knight Bus Meta currently, so watch out for that unit, they'll be hitting on three and wounding on 2s, with atleast two chars in it, buffing it with serious magic. Terrorgheists are glass cannons, yes, they're high toughtness, but only have a 6+ regen save. Hit it with the Cold Ones to negate it's shriek. You can run lore of Shadow, but i'd suggest Light in this instance. Light does extra damage vs. undead, and it's buffs will put you ahead on Init and WS, and let you be more mobile to counter his BK Bus.

Beware Ghouls and Varghulf, they're nasty units. That Varghulf can take on anything in your list but the SC with great ease. It's a killing machine, it'll prob be run either alongside the BK bus, or on the other flank. Hexwraiths are a waste of points on his end, they're way overpriced for what they do. Dire Wolfs are misdirects and chaff, they're too easy to kill. Don't let him charge if he gets 1st turn, they have vanguard.

 

[Wistrel]

•Wight King (160pts)
Killing Blow, Undead, BSB, Enchanted Shield, Gold Sigil Sword, Talisman of Endurance

If a Wight King is a BSB, he CANNOT have magical items.

Saurus Scar-Veteran
Scaly Skin, Great Weapon, Light Armour, Battle Standard Bearer, Dragonhelm, Glyph Necklace, Venom of the Firefly Frog

If a Scar-Vet is a BSB, he CANNOT have magical items.

Yes they CAN have magical items, provided they don't have magical banners pg 93 for scar vet.
"A saurus or skink Battle Standard Bearer who carries a magic banner cannot carry any other items.

 

[Mahtis]

Cairn Wraith (60pts)
Chill Grasp, Ethereal, Terror, Undead, Necromancer, Undead, Lore of Death, Wizard Level 2,Dispel Scroll

Cairn Wraiths are not Wizards.

Ups, quite missed that one, it's supposed to be a necromancer, who has the undead, lore of dead, wizard lvl 2 and discpel scroll. It was quite a mess to clean my opponents post so I did a miss there.. I've got to fix that

 

[Mahtis]

So what I should do is drop pit of shades on the knight unit and then try to snipe varghulf with the penumbral pendulum. Chameleon skinks to poison the terrorgheist. Slow the ghouls down with miasma so they will take longer to reach my units. Should salamanders aim at the ghouls for massive damage or the knights to try to take them out. Or shoot at varghulf first to take away regen and then pepper with poison darts?

EDIT:
I almost forgot that I have Ruby ring of ruin with one of my skinks priests, so that can take away regen for the penumbarl pendulum sniping ^^

 

[Moniker]

Varghulfs are pretty nasty, but you've got enough fire to help you out. The Terrorgheist will kill a unit of skinks per round generally, so if you can take him out sooner rather then later that would be ideal.

That said, with the Terrorgheist, do what you can but it won't be a make or break thing. One of my main opponents takes him in every list, and he rarely makes his points up, though he is a major pain.

 

[Rhodium]

Varghulfs are pretty nasty, but you've got enough fire to help you out. The Terrorgheist will kill a unit of skinks per round generally, so if you can take him out sooner rather then later that would be ideal.

That said, with the Terrorgheist, do what you can but it won't be a make or break thing. One of my main opponents takes him in every list, and he rarely makes his points up, though he is a major pain.

Although he can be a bit of a pain, I really find terrorgheist never make up their points.

Have two units of skinks sit outside his charge arc and pepper him every turn, 40 poison shots will wound him with his 6+ regen and not only that it reduces his shrieking ability too! Even if he gets one or even two units of skinks (that has to be lucky 2d6 rolls!) that is only 140 points and normally I find they kill him easily enough

 

[Mahtis]

Thank you all for the tips! The game is tomorrow (gasp!), but I came up with a crazy idea of charging slann into the unit of black knights to tie them down, and cover the slann from being charged by something with magical attack or more ranks. I think with coldblooded and the bsb nearby the slann can handle the rank and and the standard in combat resolution and hold them still. I thought about also charging with my bsb, cus with good as and with dragonhelm giving 2+ ward, thanks to the flaming banner they have, but I'm afraid of the killing blow. Any thoughts on this? And what should be my main targets, the two blocks, the two monsters or the dark knights?