Edge of the Abyss

"Pain, how long had it been since he had felt pain? The long absent sensation twisted his alabaster features for the second time this week. And after pain, anger flowed and furrowed a brow customarily as smooth as freshly fallen snow. Karath; young, vicious and foolish, had been slain by the Druid Oak-Thorn. Sarnath, his brother in darkness had gone out find the Druid and drain him to a husk. This was not out of love, or honor. Sarnath had lacked these in life and in Undead their embers burned bright as contempt and malice. Count Corrigan had seen his Bloodspawn depart to finish what Karath had started. The count recieved word of the latest battle from one of his bat swarms. Alas, Sarnath too had fallen but, their forces had accounted for many of the enemy and the Druid Oakthorn and his precious stag lay dead on the forest they so cherished. A victory of sorts, but a costly one. Perhaps it was time for the mortals and some of his lesser servitors to play a more active roll."

We used the same forces as the previous game against Fiona. The scenario was "Kill". My opponent did not take the vanguard move on her Shamblers.

The first two turns were spent covering ground and engaging. Neither force had much shooting, so we both headed up for melee. Again the "hindered" factor and volume of terrain played to the strengths of the Forces of Nature.

Turn three, most of the forces were engaged. The undead hit hard, just not hard enough and the assault bounced.

Turn four, the forces engaged again. One troop of Ghouls was vaporized by the Diadem of Dragon Kind, the other tied up a horde of earth elementals long enough for the Horde of Zombies to flank charge the Earth Elementals. The Wights ate the Gryphon which had attacked them but, they were quite beaten up.

Turn five, the Earth Elementals finished off the Ghouls to their front, turned to face the Zombies and finally were beaten into the Dust. The Vampire Lord and Druid were felled in battle by whole units. The units, in both instances, vaulting over the crumpled body of their foe into a new, unit on unit, combat. The loss of inspiring really came into play in the next round as Nerve Checks were had by all and failed by many.The Werewolves were held locked in combat, in a swamp, by a horde of Forest Shamblers for three turns and finished by a flank charge from the Forest Warden.

Turn Six saw the remaining undead unit, a Horde of Zombies with Dog (rat?) Lumber into combat against two units of Forest Shamblers and a Forest Warden, all of them damaged. The Zombies laid into the enemy but failed to break them. Then they took 11 wounds in the combat and made their nerve check. The roll for a seventh turn came up a three and the curtains closed on this battle. The bats above hardly took notice.

Take aways:
1. Vampires are just not worth it in thousand point lists.
2. Forest Wardens with the Diadem of Dragonkind are TOTALLY worth it. Used on in Flank and rear attacks their CS 2 really shines and makes an impact. Great support unit.
3. A chaff unit either does really well, or disappears like cotton candy in rain. Either way, you have to be prepared to use whatever time they bought the rest of the army.
4. In "Kill" Scenarios, the Forces of Nature seem to do well with Anvils and a few highly mobile units.
5. Disengaging and re-engaging with a flying beast of nature and the Forest Warden worked really well for my opponent.

This was my wife's first game. She won and wants to play again...with her OWN army. I'm calling that a win.