I was lucky enough to get another game with El Duque Azul versus Eric's very strong Lizardman army this weekend. The first battle saw El Duque's army completely annhilated, so I retooled the list a bit, trying to make it slightly more capable in the magic phase without going too over the top. Here's the latest incarnation of El Duque Azul Rides Again! Vampire Lord (1#, 450 Pts) 1 Vampire Lord @ 450 Pts General; Vampire; Level 3 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 The Flayed Hauberk @ [25] Pts 1 Book of Arkhan @ [35] Pts 1 Crown of the Damned @ [35] Pts 1 Dark Acolyte @ [30] Pts 1 Flying Horror @ [30] Pts 1 Summon Ghouls @ [15] Pts 1 Walking Death @ [25] Pts Vampire (1#, 190 Pts) 1 Vampire @ 190 Pts Vampire; Hand Weapon; Undead 1 Dispel Scroll @ [25] Pts 1 Black Periapt @ [15] Pts 1 Master of the Black Arts @ [50] Pts Lord of the Barrows (1#, 115 Pts) 1 Wight King (Battle Standard Bearer) @ 115 Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Battle Standard Bearer; Undead 1 Enchanted Shield @ [15] Pts Lord of the Barrows (1#, 140 Pts) 1 Wight King @ 140 Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts 1 Sword of Kings @ [25] Pts 1 The Gem of Blood @ [25] Pts Squad (1#, 100 Pts) 1 Corpse Cart @ 100 Pts Balefire Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Dire Wolves (5#, 40 Pts) 5 Dire Wolves @ 40 Pts Fast Cavalry; Undead Crypt Ghouls (10#, 88 Pts) 9 Crypt Ghouls @ 88 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead 1 Crypt Ghast @ [16] Pts Crypt Ghouls (19#, 152 Pts) 19 Crypt Ghouls @ 152 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Crypt Ghouls (19#, 152 Pts) 19 Crypt Ghouls @ 152 Pts Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead Black Knights (5#, 199 Pts) 5 Black Knights @ 199 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Barding; Hand Weapon; Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 Royal Standard of Strigos @ [35] Pts 5 Skeletal Steed @ [0] Pts Grave Guard (19#, 283 Pts) 18 Grave Guard @ 283 Pts Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Undead 1 War Banner @ [25] Pts 1 Seneschal @ [24] Pts Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield Fell Bats (5#, 100 Pts) 5 Fell Bats @ 100 Pts Flyer; Undead Black Coach (1#, 200 Pts) 1 Black Coach @ 200 Pts Causes Terror; Chariot; Large Target 1 Cairn Wraith @ [0] Pts Great Weapon 2 Nightmare @ [0] Pts Total Roster Cost: 2249

Eric's list (from memory, forgive me the details I forgot): Old Blood with Blade of Realities on Carnosaur Scar Vet BSB on Cold One with poison attacks Two Level 2 Skink Priests on Engines of the Gods; one with a scroll, other with Diadem 20 Saurus Warriors with Standard, Musician, and Spears 5 Cold One Riders Two units of 10 Skink Skirmishers 3 Terradons and 2 Salamanders

For spells he got the "small" lightning spell and portent; and the "big" lightning spell and portent. My Lord got Raise Dead, Danse Macabre, Gaze of Nagash, and Wind of Undeath. Thrall got Raise Dead. I won deployment and chose the side with the terrain I thought best suited to the game I wanted to run: I wanted to sit the grave guard in the middle, with their flank secured on something daring him to charge their front, while the ghouls with corpse cart advanced and the knights and coach drove in one of his flanks. That was the plan, anyways...

(These maps are done from memory, and things are sure to not line up quite right, but you should get the general idea...)

DEPLOYMENT

Vampires are on the bottom, Lizards on the top.

From left to right, Lizards:

Cold Ones, Carnosaur, Saurus, Skinks, Sallies, Skinks (with EoGs behind), Terradons on the end on hill.

VC left to right:

Dire wolves and Fellbats on extreme left, to left of swamp. Grave Guard with BSB near middle. Ghouls side by side each 7-wide, with Corpse Cart and Bunker ghouls behind. Black Coach and Black Knights with Wight King on hill, with Dire Wolves on extreme end.

VC TURN 1

I won the roll and chose to go first. An unlucky start: The Duke failed his Stupidity test, so they blundered forward 2 inches! I flew the Bats to the extreme left where he had no way to charge them, but they could see down his whole line. Wolf1 moved to cut off his fast-flank. Guard move forward just a tweak, covering the left flank of the Ghoul line, which moved forward and turned towards center. Black Knights and Coach move as fast as they can to threaten Lizard's left flank.

LIZARD TURN 1

Eric passed his stupid tests (and would for rest of the battle, no mention will be made). He moved skinks forward enough so that they'd be out of charge range, but able to shoot without moving if I moved forward. Saurus and fast stuff start to move forward conservatively. Terradon fly over Black Knights, dropping their rocks and killing one! Salamanders breathe but kill nothing. No magic of note.

VAMPIRE TURN 2

Felbats fly so that the Carnosaur and Coldones can't get past without charging them, but if they charge they're stuck facing the wrong way. Wolves move so that overrun will keep them stuck if they choose to. Direwolves move backward on to hill, and Lord flies out and joins them. All else moves forward, continuing to push the flank. Lord gets off Vanhels on wolves, charging the Terradons, killing two and breaking them, but restrain pursuit (I should have gone after them, not sure why I didn't...)

LIZARDS TURN 2

The Carnosaur and Coldones try to squeeze past the Fellbats. Skinks and Sallies move forward to shoot. Engines move forward a bit to support. Skink shooting and Salamanders kill a few ghouls. Terradons rally.

VAMPIRES TURN 3

Black Knights and Black Coach charge skinks on hill, Ghouls charge Salamanders. All choose to take the charges. Terradons again move to block the fast flank, with wolves continuing to play goalie. Wolves 2 move back to top of hill, while Lord moves in to Ghouls 2. Knights and Coach annihilate skinks, overruning in to an Engine. Ghouls break Sallies, and pursue in to other Skinks. A few invocations go through restoring some losses.

LIZARDS TURN 3

Tired of the obstruction, the Carnosaur and Cold ones charge the bats. Terradon moves to shoot at corpse cart. Saurus wiggle past the ghouls moving towards the Guard. Corpse cart is targeted by lightining bolts, and takes a wound. Burning Alignments kill some Knights and ghouls. Ghouls kill skinks and pursue in to other Engine. Coach and Black Knights kill Skink Priest! The fast Lizards blast thru the Bats, frenzied Carnosaur has to overrun in to Wolves.

VAMPIRES TURN 4

Ghouls 2 with The Duke charge the last Terradon, killing it. The Guard move up to allow the Saurus to charge. Wolves are annihlated by Carno and Coldones, Carno again has to overrun. Ghouls on Engine 2 do a wound to Priest, but can't kill him. Coach, Knights, and Wight struggle to do a wound to the Stegadon. Vampire Thrall summons some Zombies to try to guard the Grave Guard's flank. Losses from Burning Alignment restored.

LIZARDS TURN 4

Warriors charge the Guard. Carnosaur marches to threaten the read of the Vampire army! Last priest won't die. Stegadon won't die. Grave Guard enjoy the ASF provided by the Corpse Cart, but still lose the fight by a bit. Coldones reform to try to get in to the fight. Burning Alignment again does damage to Knights and Ghouls.

VAMPIRE TURN 5

More zombies are created to redirect the Carnosaur off the rear of the Guard. Vampire Thrall leaves the bunker to avoid Carnosaur. Ghouls2 gets ready to throw itself in to the Carnosaur if needed. Wolves move forward to try to hold table quarter. Stegadon down to one wound. Second priest refuses to die. Losses restored to Black Knights and Ghouls 1. Grave Guard lose combat by a lot when the Saurus spears in the second rank weigh in. Wight BSB challenged, accepted by the Scar Vet BSB, starting a long series of wiffs in which I couldn't get the Killing Blow I was hoping for before the Wight BSB was killed.

LIZARD TURN 5

Carnosaur and Coldones charge zombies, killing them and both overrunning...Carnosaur in to bunker Ghouls. Graveguard lose combat by a ton, dwindle down to 3 Guard + the BSB. The Stegadon finally dies! Burning Alignment continues to punish Knights and Ghouls, even doing a wound to The Duke himself! The Corpse Cart takes a wound from Lightning and from Burning Alignment.

VAMPIRE TURN 6

Surviving Black Knights and Coach (which, by the way, is Ethereal by this point!) charge the remaining Engine. Carnosaur kills the Bunker ghouls, with small overrun. Knights, Coach, and Ghouls still can't do final wound to Priest. Grave Guard restored to full strength.

LIZARD TURN 6

Carnosaur has no LOS to anything, so moves to threaten the Corpse Cart (which has kept ASF up on all the vampire forces for the whole game!), while the Coldones move to hit Grave Guard flank. Graveguard dwindle a lot again. Burning Alignment leaves just one Black Knight, and barely enough Ghouls for a rank, but the Wight King finally killing-blows the Skink Priest! Man that 2+AS is rough! Wight BSB dies, grave guard crumble to a handful again.

We'd lost track of turns, and ended up a turn off. Now Eric thought we'd been playing forever, but I thought things were going very fast, I was very "in" to the game and didn't notice the passing time, so when we tried to count backwards to see where we were, we ended up a turn off...no big deal, more playing is good! :)

VAMPIRE TURN 7

Ghouls 2 charge the Carnosaur's flank. Thrall vamp moves to get away from Carnosaur. Grave Guard are again restored to full. Second Steg proves as hard to kill as the first, with no wounds done. Carnosaur and Old Blood tear apart the Ghouls, but enough survive to keep him tied up for his next turn.

LIZARDS TURN 7

Coldones finally throw themselves in to the fight, combining with the remaining Saurus (10 left at this point) to crush the Grave Guard, crumbling down to 8 survivors. Carno and Old Blood kill off the ghouls. A wound is done to the last Steg, but not enough for half points.

Eric seemed to feel really down about the game until we actually added up the points. We both took relatively light losses, despite the death of one of the Engines and both Priests. With the points added up, it was a draw! A great game that had me on the edge of my seat through the whole game! While I kept the Carnosaur tied up for the first few turns, it wasn't enough to keep him from rampaging through half my army. The overrun of the skinks in to the Engine allowing the kill of the Pirest saved me from overwelming Burning Alignments, and allowed a fighting chance to get two of the three big point sinks (which I think were needed to win!). Similarly, I kept my high-point value items intact for the most part, preventing a lot of points lost to the Lizards!

El Duque survives to fight again...one day we'll defeat those Lizards!! Thanks for a great game, Eric, I'm looking forward to the next!