Jason here with have Frontline Gaming Age of Sigmar Learning League battle report for you guys! This time, fresh off a loss to Reece’s Wood Elves, I faced off against Brandon’s zombie horde of DEATH. This would be a tough battle for Jason, who would have to try and rush up the field to get into assault range of the unending horde and the Vampire Lord master on his Zombie Dragon. This game we played a modified ITC mission 6. Enough chat, TIME FOR THE ACTION!!
Jason’s Khorne Bloodbound
Mighty Lord of Khorne
5x Blood Warriors with Goreaxes
Korgorath
Brandon’s Zombie Horde
Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon
11x Zombies
List Analysis
My own Khorne Bloodbound list had shown it’s weakness to mobile, ranged armies like Reece’s Wood Elves so now we would see how they deal with a brute force list like Brandon’s. At first glance Brandon’s pick for his first 25 wounds seems rather pathetic, a beefy Vampire Lord for sure but 11 zombies? No problem! Oh, did I mention that Brandon’s Vampire Lord can potentially summon a fresh (ahem) Zombie horde during each of his hero phases? That could be a problem. Not to mention his Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon is a compete monster (pun intended) which is incredibly fast and has the ability to regenerate wounds throughout the battle. My own small force of Khorne Bloodbound is assault oriented and while they do have some decent armor saves and multiple wounds I’ve quickly learned that the battlefield of Age of Sigmar is kind to no one.
Mission – Modified ITC Mission 6.
Primary Mission – Objectives
Secondary – Modified Maelstrome
Bonus Points – First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Line Breaker
Turn 1
Unfortunately for me Brandon has turn 1 and was able to summon another unit of 20 Zombies in his Hero Phase, since my Khorne Lord was more than 18″ away and could not use his unbinding abilities. He then moved his Zombie horde up but did not merge them together since he wanted to score his Maelstrome mission of having three units in his own deployment zone and none of mine. The Zombie Lord did not move forward, since he was wary of the Khorne Lord’s magical ax which could remove the model from play if it does an unsaved wound. On my turn I shouted for blood for the blood god and ran forward with the entire force.
Turn 2
Brandon once again won the initiative to go first, which allowed him to summon another unit of 20 zombies. This would be a tough fight indeed for the Bloodbound, but Khorne cares not for self doubt, only blood. The Vampire Lord then used his command ability to allow the zombie horde to reroll their hits. The army, including the Vampire Lord, moved forward in anticipation for the coming slaughter. The Vampire Dragon engulfed the Korgoroth with it’s Pestilent Breath and took a wound off of it. The Khorne Bloodbound surged forward, eager for the kill. The Korgoroth fails his charge but the Khorne Lord slams home into the Vampire Lord. The Blood Warriors, envious of their Lord’s furious assault, charge head long into the closest Zombie horde. The Khorne Lord and faithful Flesh Hound do a respectable 7 wounds to the Vampire Lord before he is able to swing back, now badly mauled, and does no wound in return. The Blood Warriors find their combat with the Zombies not worth their time and just punch one in half while slowly walked through them. A great silence befell the battlefield as the Vampire Lord resisted the pull into the realm of chaos due to the wound from the Ax of Khorne.
Turn 3
The Bloodbound find Khorne approves of the slaughter and win the initiative to go first in turn 3. The Korgorath moves up and shoots his Bone Tentacles at the Vampire Lord but fails to find purchase. He roars and joins the combat between the Khorne Lord and the Vampire Lord. The Khorne Lord smiles and prepares to finish off the arrogant Vampire Lord, and manages to take off 6 more wounds from the Vampire Lord, severely crippling him. The Vampire Lord targets the Khorgorath before it has a chance to strike and promptly rips it in half. The Zombie Dragon targets the Khorne Lord but does no damage. The Blood Warriors, amused by the death of the Korgorath, fail to even try to kill the Zombies, which manage to wound one of the distracted Warriors. Unfortunately, again Khorne did not pull the essence of the Vampire Lord into the black abyss from the Ax of Khorne wound. On Brandon’s turn he fails to summon more Zombies to his aid, and the large mob of already summoned models moves forward to lend their help in the assaults. The Vampire Lord, reinvigorated by the death of the Korgorath and having drunk from his golden chalice, promptly removes the head of the Khorne Lord. The Zombies attacking the Blood Warriors, now surging with fresh dead manage to pull down a mighty Blood Warrior and tear him limb from limb.
Turn 4
Severely reduced as they were, the Bloodbound again won the initiative to go first. Fully engulfed by a Zombie Horde, the Blood Warriors only had recourse to fight, and fully enraged they tear apart 5 zombies. The Vampire Lord then swung his Zombie Dragon around and blasts the beleaguered Blood Warriors with it’s Pestilent Breath and and removes 3 Blood Warriors. The final Blood Warrior is trampled under the unending tide of death and the army of death are victorious.
After Thoughts – Wow, summoning can be quite powerful in the game. After two turns I was already outnumbered by more than 40 models. I did have the tools to stop the summoning but was unfortunately too far away to do anything about it. I actually did have the tools to kill Brandon’s ultra powerful Vampire Lord, with the Ax of Khorne’s ability to remove models from play that take an unsaved wound but failed to roll a 5+ twice. Thems the breaks, though. I had a great time and started the round robin with a respectable 0-2 record.