Never turn your back on a Vampire. 2000 point WHF battle

This Sunday I arrived at Lano's to a bit of a surprise.  . . . . . . . A vampire army sitting in my territory!

Now you might be asking yourself why is this a surprise?

Well it's a surprise because Macca and I DID have a non-aggression pact!

With Lano splitting my Empire in two I guess Macca saw an opportunity and pounced!

The armies are deployed.

I vanguard forward my hounds. I hope to give Macca a nice surprise thanks to 'blades of Albian'.

Macca thinks his Specters are safe due to their ethereal nature. What he now knows is that 'Blades' gives the targeted unit magical attacks. This allows my hounds to rip the Specters apart!

Over on my right Macca unleashes his forces!

My Nurgle warriors are also set upon.

Back on the right I am hoping I have worked the angles correctly and should be able to negate Macca's left flank once the dust has settled.

Chunk manages to pin down the Undead hounds but the varghulf breaks free.

Despite it's compact size the varghulf hits like a truck and makes a massive dent into the Nurgle warriors!

Over on my right my shenanigans are starting to click into place. Chunk has the zombies pinned and I am hoping to pull off a 'one-two punch' combo into the Vampire and his body guard. . . . .

In the centre I have a moment of indecision but decide to continue to hold back my central forces.

Macca charges with his zombies!

My flanking forces make Macca reform his lines and I have to stop my self doing a little dance as he has now split his forces and more pieces are clicking into place!

It's time to strike!!!!!!!

Both my Chaos Knights and Ogres Charge. Macca has a little smile on his lips at the thought of his Vampire ripping the Chaos Knights apart, but . . . . . . .

The Ogres rip through the zombies like a hot knife through butter! The plan is to now have them over run into the flank of the Skeletons and the combined attacks of the Chaos Knights and the Ogres who now get to fight again should be able to destroy the Vampire during the 'combat resolution' phase by causing the Vampire to crumble due to the losses his unit has suffered. This will bypass all the Vampire's saving throws and win me the game!!!

I hold my breath and roll the dice for the Ogre over run into the Skeleton flank . . . . . . . The dice settle and I roll a two!!!!!!

The over run is short!!!!!!

Undeterred I crash in my Gorebeast Chariots and get to work on the large unit of zombies before my Warriors of Tzeentch.

The zombies disappear in a mist of gore!!

At least that puts a smile back on my face.

The last of my Nurgle warriors are destroyed and the Vampire kills my Chaos warriors with absolute distain!

My Gorebeast chariot makes short work of the surviving Crypt Horrors but the varghulf makes the charge into my Ogre's flank and rips them apart as they turn to flee!

With our forces currently even and a draw on the cards Macca attempts to raise some zombies to block my charge lane. . . . . . and rolls a miscast . . . . . and then rolls a two on the miscast table!! I literally can't believe my luck!

This is how Macca's unit looked before the miscast . . . . .

This is what was left after the detonation . . . .

Macca JUST rolls enough to save his Necromancer. Had he failed this I would have nicked the game!

In my final turn I destroy the zombies raised to block the charge and have a final fling of the magic dice with 'final transmutation' but it is not enough to take the win and Macca and I shake hands on a hard fought draw!!