I haven’t made any progress with painting my Vanguard Abyssal army since my first game last week. Truth be known, I haven’t had much of a chance to give Vanguard a second thought much less do any preparation for my second game. As a result, I packed the very same list & miniatures as I used in my first game – ignoring all the lessons of my game against the Trident Realm. (I really wanted to swap out some Grunts & the Blood Masque)
My opponent, Floppy & his Night Stalker war-band, have had a little more experience playing Vanguard than I have. I was particularly concerned about the offensive capability of the Night Stalker “Mind Screech” and his “Spectre” missile troops – if it came down to a ranged attack show down, my two Flame Bearers would definitely be left wanting. Also Floppy’s list was quite resilient. Of the thirteen units in his war-band all of them – bar one – had multiple wounds.
The scenario was Supply Grab; which means the objective is taking & holding three supply loot markers. Turn one had both war-bands taking up positions to threaten all three objectives. I had my Despoiler & Swarm on my left flank to move up to the far supply objective. My fast troops & missile troops (Gargoyles, Flame Bears and Blood Masque) were set up in the middle to move towards the centre objective and my Lower Abyssal grunts on the right flank to move towards the near objective.
In retrospect, having my “big guys” all out on one flank was a mistake that I only realised after I saw Floppy’s Mind Screech take up position in the middle of his deployment zone. Floppy also capitalised on the early deployment of my Despoiler & Swarm by concentrating his Spectre missile troops on the same side with good concealing terrain to use as cover.
The Mind Screech’s devastating lightning attack struck out at both my Gargoyles knocking one down. The knocked down Gargoyle was victim to an easy take out by the Nightstalker Needlefang swarm. The Nightstaker Reaper and Phantoms also targeted the Abyssal grunts on my right flank & they suffered for their 1 wound and lack of resistance. I had to move my Blood Masque up to support his rapidly crumbling flank.
My surviving Gargoyle charged in to the Mind Screech and was quickly surrounded by a Needlefang swarm and the Reaper Souldrinker. Through some amazingly poor attack dice and amazingly successful armour saves, the Gargoyle survived pinning down a significant portion of the Nightstalker’s offensive capability. Knowing my Gargoyle would not last long, I moved my Despoiler towards the mass combat in the centre of the table. It had taken wounds from the sustained fire of the Nightstalker Spectres, and the Spectres followed the Despoiler towards the centre of the table – the Despoiler somehow surviving combined group fire along the way.
The Mind Screech was able to break free from the combat with the Gargoyle, and land heavy blows on both the Gargoyle & Despoiler. Both were soon knocked down & taken out. In return, the Mind Screech was knocked down and taken out, as it failed its nerve test.
Both war-bands were now taking nerve tests to activate. The Nightstalkers had locked down one objective and the Forces of the Abyss were in good position over the other two. Although there were no Nightstalkers threatening the far objective, the Lower Abyssal sitting on it failed it’s nerve test & ran away. The only unit that could move up to re-secure the objective was the Blood Masque which instead failed its nerve test & fled the battlefield!
With the game moving into a sixth turn, the Abyssal Warrior and Flame Bearer siting on the objective in the centre of the table both managed to pass their nerve tests and survived the last ditch missile attack by the Nightstalker Spectres. The final result a 3-2 win to the Forces of the Abyss!
