Intro and Lists
We had two big wins and two big losses so far, and in a very tough room, we were still somehow in the middle of the pack. Our opponent f-+r the last game was Dan, the only Chicagoland player that was able to make it up to play in the GT. He had a wonderfully painted Mantic army that really pops on the table with the pale basing and bright skin, and he was running some very fun Orcs:
It is a scary list! My prediction was that folks would be starting the edition with regiments, but move over to hordes as builds got more optimized, but Dan was there already! Two hordes of Riftforged are scary with Rage involved, not to mention four Regiments of Morax! The Gore Riders and Tundra Wolves were smart additions, with some nice speed to interdict as-needed to protect the infantry.
I was running the Herd, and gave some more detailed thoughts on the list here. The Hordes and cavalry were going to be trouble for me here. I’d need to apply pressure with the Herders, hope they survived, and then try to pounce.
Table and Terrain
The event was in Reedsburg, WI, and we were throwing down at the neat, multifunctional community center. The Forests were Height 10, the Buildings Height 7, Hills 3, Obstacles were actual sticks as Height 2, but just for cover purposes. Being a Northwoods event we had an extra hill or forest, getting the former in this case. It looks like we're missing a flat piece of terrain here, unless it is under my notes or something.
At some previous Northwoods events, we had used a nifty veto and pick system for scenarios here, but that was tossed this time. If players were playing different scenarios, scoring needed to distill things down to just Win / Loss / Draw, and led to a lot of ties, even with a separate attrition score. This time, we were using the Mantic Companion, the most okayest tournament program, and all playing the same scenario, which was revealed as the match-ups were announced.
Game 5 was the final game of the GT, and we were ending things with Control. The board is split into six 2’x2’ squares. The middle one on your opponent’s side is worth 2 Points to you, everything else is worth one point. After some ties, I won the roll for sides. I was indecisive, so I was lazy here.
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| Deployment on the left and in center. |
On the line, the Orcish left had the Stormslayer, with the horde of Riftforged, and Morax ni the field. Gore-Riders were on the flank, and Morax, a Riftforger, Tundra Wolves and the Godspeaker were all in reserve. The line continued with the second Riftforged Horde with J-Boots and Morax on the line, with Tundra Wolves behind the horde, and Morax and Thonaar in reserve, with more Gore-Riders on the flank.
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| Deployment on the right. |
My gut said to commit hard to the left, and not but anything to the right of the building on my side… but I’ve had a good run, and wanted to experiment a bit with the list. We’re going a little rogue as the GT concludes…
For the Herd we have Tribesmen with Critters in reserve, angled Brutes with the Unicorn Druid and the big Heal in reserve. The Chieftain is in the woods nearby, with Longhorns, Brutes, and a Tree Herder to the left of the building, with Critters in reserve.
My right had Brutes, Longhorns, a Tree Herder, and Critters all on the line, with the Druid and the Banner in reserve.
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| Scout moves! I remembered in 4 our of 5 games. |
I remember my Scout moves, and then win the roll for turn-order. While there is an argument to be made for going second in a scenario like Control, especially with Pathfinding units now, against the speed of the Riders and Wolves, I think I want to try and apply my early pressure.
Top of Round 1: Herd
On the left, Tribal Warriors take the hill, and Critters take the inside track. The building is more or less the dividing line for the left zones, so we’re trying to pressure a bit here while scoring.
The Unicorn Druid hides behind the building. We’re a supporting spellcaster, so just trying to keep her protected for now.
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| Positioning on the left. |
Guardian Brutes move up and out of the woods, as do the Longhorns, and the second unit of Brutes. We’re all threatening charges next turn, and I don’t think we even need the Wild Charge from the Chieftain. The Tree Herder gets up to threaten as well, and should be just over 10” away, so my opponent would need to use his Wild Charge Command instead of Green Rage, if he’s going into the Herder. I also make sure to keep the Horde with the J-Boots in front arc.
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| Obstacles slow the Herd down on the right, because I am a forgetful dummy sometimes. |
On the right, I go to move up and am called out for going at the double-over an obstacle. After several days of gaming, my brain is mushy, we pause, check Pathfinder, and indeed, obstacles still trip me up, so these moves are less aggressive than I’d like.
Bottom of Round 1: Orcs
My opponent spends a fair bit of time thinking. On the right, the Gore Riders get just atop the hill, trying to threaten the Tree Herder. The hills on this table are Styrofoam and slippery, so despite several attempts, we leave them off the hill. Even the blank base wouldn’t stay where he wanted it. Morax get onto the hill to see better, with more Morax in reserve.
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| The Orcs inch up on the right. |
The horde of Riftforged with the J-Boots inch up, insuring that the Tree Herder will end in terrain (though I don’t care, thanks to Strider on my barky monster). The Wolves and Thonaar alight in a tight, flush stack.
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| On the left. We are doing great for clock time. |
The orcs on the left back up, getting out of my maximum 13” charge range. The Moraxes and Riftforged horde are still in terrain, as are the Tundra Wolves, who again, are aligned flush up with the horde.
Top of Round 2: Herd
On the left, the Tribal Warriors adjust slightly on the hill, and should be safe from the Gore-Riders. I am ok with a bit of a standoff out here, as it takes a very speedy thing out of the engagement equation, so the Critters flit over by the building, will stay protected, and will be ready to run up to help me gain some ground next turn.
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| Positioning on the left. |
I don’t need much, so again, the Brutes inch up to threaten charges. We keep things in front arc, and the weaker Longhorns stay just a bit back so the wide Riftforged Horde on the left can’t somehow get in against them with a spicy wild charge. I think the Horde on the right would get in with a spicey Wild Charge, but the math feels like I should still survive that, since they won’t be getting any Rage to help them out. Rallied and Inspired, that seems like a risk worth taking.
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| Positioning in the Left and Center. |
The Tree Herder finagles his positioning a bit. I don’t recall the specifics. The Morax on the right on the hill can’t see him, and I think he’s just over 10” to force the J-Boot horde to both use their boots and get a Wild Charge Order if they want to engage.
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| Stuff out on the right. |
On the right, we try to pressure a bit more, hoping to draw something out. Critters hop up, easily keeping the Gor-Riders in front arc, and are blocking for the Tree Herder. The Brutes inch up, but I think are still on the fence, though we toss the terrain to the side. The Longhorns move up, staying just out of 16” from the Gore-Riders, who technically have a front face on the hill and can see things.
Bottom of Round 2: Orcs
After more consideration, the Orcs continue to back away. This is not the game I was anticipating, and we seem to have found the most conservative Orc general ever! In chatting, he admitted he is often against Ogres, and with my Brutes very reminiscent of Ogres, he’s wary of engaging.
The Gore-riders on the hill back up, as do the Morax regiment in reserve, and Morax regiment on the hill.
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| Sheesh, more hesitant orcs. |
Thonaar sidesteps, and the Tundra Wolves blink through the line. I point this out, but my opponent asserts that we ignore friendly units in the movement phase. Consciously trying not to sweat the small stuff for the weekend, we let this slide, but with the Riftforged horde also backing up, and the Wolves and Orcs starting the turn stacked and flush, there is no way the pivots for the Wolves could be clear to get them here.
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| Bottom of Round 2, I was trying to take pictures exclusively on my turn, and have advanced my die already. |
Again, the Morax and horde of Riftforged inch back to safety, and the Stormslayer, Morax, and Gore on the left all move to get safe if they need to as well.
His turn order tracker fell off the building in Round 2 here, leading to some eventual confusion later on as to what round we're on. Thankfully, I have notes.
Top of Round 3: Herd
I consider suggesting very gentlemanly draw game with no losses… but c’mon, it’s Orcs and Herd in Game 5! We should be brawling here! I try to force the issue this round.
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| The Critters screen for the Tree Herder. |
The Tribal Warriors on the left pivot, move, and pivot, getting out of arc of the Gore Riders, and with Pathfinder, they should be able to get into a nice position next round, either to threaten, or to play the scenario. The Druid tucks in harder behind the building.
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| More screening Critters in the center. |
The Critters hop up and pivot, and the Brutes get behind them, keeping the left-facing flush to deny the Stormslayer a cheeky charge. The Longhorns inch up to threaten, the Chieftain stays safe. More Critters hop with Brutes bulling in flush and behind, and the Tree Herder adds to the geometry puzzle up here as well. We’re so close that the Orcs have lots of options, but with hindered charges and no great spots for the horde, I’m mostly happy here.
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| The Tribal Warriors can't quite reach yet, but set-up to be annoying later. |
On the right, the Brutes inch up and clear the obstacle, and I remember that I do have some old official Kings of War sticks with me, and use them to mark the footprint of the obstacle. The Longhorns inch up as well, but stay just behind the Brutes, to try and prevent the Tundra Wolves from getting into the Weaker Longhorns. The Druid is in-tow. The Critters and Tree Herder inch up as well, looking to keep the pressure on over here, or at least try to keep the Orcs in their corner.
Bottom of Round 3: Orcs
The pivots through friendly units comes up again, and we pause the clock early in the turn to nail this down. You can move through friendly units, but pivots need to be clear, and this is clearly stated in the accompanying picture for Unit Interpenetration on p17. After the event, Dan shared with me the source of his perspective, which was a FAQ in process, coming out of an Australian group, saying units ignore friendly units entirely in the movement phase. I get trying to let players make the moves they want, but the FAQ is not official, and I don’t think likely to stand or get much traction or adoption if it ever is published. Fliers could be making these pivots as long as they are still landing clear, but not ground units, and we’ll hold my opponent to that this round.
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| Aftermath of the orc clashes on the right. |
On the right, the Gore-Riders and Morax units go into the screening Critters, and the Tundra Wolves, who made it to the front-line last turn cleverly decline to charge, and instead just move up to gum up responses from the Brutes and Longhorns. Nice move! The Morax regiment stays in reserve, and Thonaar moves into the woods to aid the Horde of Riftforged.
The Gore-Riders and Morax easily pop the Critters, and the Gore-Riders reform to try and make things awkward for the Tree Herder. I have front charges into both, but could be exposed if I engage and don’t break something.
The Horde of Riftforged with the Boots pop them, and makes their front charge into the Tree Herder, and the Orcs have more tools here than I anticipated. Fortunately, I luck out a bit. A Rage fails, but another attempt succeeds, and importantly, Bane Chant fails over here as well. The Blasts are big and the damage rolls hot though, and even with Def6, I’m taking 8 damage, and I am a little scared.
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| Orc breakthroughs in the center. |
The Tundra Wolves are hindered into Critters, and I think I should be good, but they land a ridiculous 6 damage of 7 attacks, will break them and overrun to block me up. Things get a little jumbled, but I concede that my Brutes can’t pivot around here.
The Longhorns take a hindered charge from some Morax, and a charge from the Stormslayer. I have a copy of the list, but was thinking that the Morax hit on 4’s innately. They hit on 3’s innately, and I am in trouble. I think the Riftforger lands a Rage, and the Morax spike, landing 19 hits despite being hinndered, and the Longhorns will be shredded between those and the Stormslayer. Yikes! In victory, one of the units sidesteps to create a little space, but I don’t recall which one.
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| View from the left. |
On the left, the Gore-Riders have a flank charge into the Critters, and the Morax have front charge, but both will be hindered by the obstacle, which was replaced with another one of my sticks. A silly 18 damage lands against the Critters, with the Gore-Riders side-stepping towards their deployment zone, and the Morax overrunning to face the Brutes.
To allow all these charges, the second Horde of Riftforged, out on the left of the formation, need to spin awkwardly in the terrain to make way.
The Movement Phase took around 30 minutes as my opponent hemmed and hawed. I think he passed the turn here with something like 18 minutes or less left. I still have 45+ minutes on my clock, and make the decision that I don’t want him clocking out in the last game of the event, and offer to share time or figure out some kind of other accommodation so we can actually get a full game in and end the event more properly.
Top of Round 4: Herd
I wanted to fight Orcs, but may have bitten off more than I can chew here with those darned Morax regiments… All the overruns have made things a bit awkward for me, and I’ll need some luck to punch back effectively.
On the Left the Tribal Warriors move up as far as they can, staying safe for now, but applying pressure , and threatening charges next turn. The Unicorn Druid near the building stays put, trying to help where evert she is needed.
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| Charges from the Herd. |
The Brutes charge the Morax, and I need to pick them up to be save here. They fuddle slightly, landing just 8 damage instead of the expected 10. I have Brutal, but can’t manifest the 6’s twice to break the unit. Fortunately, the Stormslayer is just in front arc here, so I still have a chance to survive.
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| ....and only a troop is picked up on the left. |
I need to try and utilize sticky combats and lock things down. The Chieftain charges another regiment of Morax, lands 5, but expectedly also doesn’t break them. The nearby Brutes blow through the Tundra Wolves, and pivot, to face the left, though I arguably turned them a little too hard, and could be threatening the nearby horde as well… oh well.
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| Some risky combats for the Herd. |
The Tree Herder is in a bad spot, but can reform, to align to the Riftforged Horde and prevent a wraparound. He is also out of arc of the Morax regiment out on the right. We have Radiance of life, and toss a 3-dice Command Heal and a 6-dice Heal spell at him, and the Tree will end the round on just 2 damage.
I could probably argue the contrary, but the intent was to box my Brutes aand Longhorns with the Wolves, and I accept this. The Brutes hit the flank and Longhorns in the front. We’ll pick them up, and the Longhorns will sidestep to create space and the Brutes change facing.
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| Lucky breaks, and the Herd keeps the pressure on! |
I opt to send the Tree Herder into the Gore-Riders, and slide down with my corner in front of the Morax. I land 5 damage, thanks to the Mace of Crushing, and do luck out and pick the troop up, allowing the Herder to reform.
For reforms, I was just trying to present front faces and possible reprisals to the Morax regiment, but I think we accidentally boxed them out rather effectively. While they can pivot past the Herder to charge something else, they shouldn't be able to fit and align against the weaker Longhorns.
Bottom of Round 4: Orcs
On the right, the Morax staring down the Herder makes a charge into the Guardian Brutes, and gets some great Rage rolls here, slicing 9 damage into the Brutes. However, I am Inspired and Rallied, and do hold.
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| The Orcs fight, but don't break through. |
The reserve Morax then get a rage and charge the Herder out here. There are a staggering amount of 6’s to hit, and the Tree Herder ends on 7 damage, but does thankfully holds as well.
The Riftforged Horde fights the Tree Herder again, gets a super-rage from Thonaar, and blasts out into 23 hits, but Def6 comes in clutch, dragging that down to just 5 more damage, and on 7 damage, the Herder holds.
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| Guardian Brutes fall to the Morax and Stormslayer. |
The Morax regiment fights the Chieftain, without Rage or spells, and hacks just 3 damage into him. The Riftforgers lands a Rage into the Morax fighting the Brutes, and the Stormslayer gets in to help. Rage continues to be spikey, and the Guardian Brutes are Inspired, but slaughtered.
The second Riftforged Horde inches around, and the Gore-Riders pivot and run away to create more space.
Top of Round 5: Herd
Well, we have a proper game on our hands, and the Orcish Rage is strong!
The Tribal Warriors go in against the injured Morax, and get a Bane Chant from the Druid. They land just 3 damage, but they are already injured, we’re luckily still able to pick the unit up. I forget that the Gore-Riders are still in-play, but they are facing the wrong way, and I sidestep, toward the opposing deployment zone, trying to contain the horde.
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| Charges from the Herd in the center. |
The Chieftain fights on against the Morax, and the Guardian Brutes choose to join with a flank charge here, and we’re able to pick the unit up. If memory serves, The Brutes try to back up out of arc of the horde, but get just 1 inch, and are still able to be seen. I would have loved to have sent them in against the other horde and helped out the right, but due to my earlier reforms, that is just not an option.
The Treed Herder is on 7, Radiance of Life takes him to 6, and a Command Heal from the Chieftain helps for 1, getting him down to 5 damage. He’s still soloing the Riftforge horde ok, but I am losing ground here.
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| And charges on the right. |
Guardian Brutes get the 1 from Radiance of life to go down to 8 damage as they thump against the Morax regiment. Technically, I have a sliver of frontage that I could use to help the Tree Herder’s fight, but I hate those tiny charges, so the Longhorns make the charge to help the Brutes, and we’ll easily pop this unit and reform.
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| Reforms from the Herd. |
The other Herder starts on 7 damage, with Radiance taking that down to 6, and a Command Heal from the Druid with the Banner gets him down to 5, but the Heal Spell fizzles entirely. The Herder will land 6 damage, but not move the Morax regiment.
Bottom of Round 5: Orcs
Thonaar runs to the hill on the right, granting his super-rage to the Morax fighting the Tree Herder. The Blasts continue to be nuts and the dice hot, and the Morax will land more hits than their base attacks, and take the Herder up to 11 damage. It’s essentially even, but the Herder is found to be Insane!
It’s been several rounds, and the Riftforged Horde are on something like 15 damage? They opt to Withdraw, and try to make sure they hold the center for the scenario. They pass their test, and roll ridiculously high to escape. The Tree Herder should technically have a charge, but the intervening forest gest them safe from the Guardian Brutes.
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| The Herd is Insane, and largely holds. |
We’re chatting, and as he’s waffling, I suggest he send the Stromslayer into the Brutes, to you know, make use of Slayer. He agrees, and the monster goes in, with the Riftforged horde making a hindered charge. A Rage lands, but not Bane Chant for them, and 14 damage combined lands, with the Brutes also being found to be Insanely Courageous.
Top of Round 6: Herd
We are one of the three final tables, though I still have 20 minutes on my clock. We’re are one of the last three games going on still, and the other tables are being broken down to get a head-start on the cleaning up after ourselves. While we have time, we are both getting a little anxious, and I suggest we just call it at the end of Round 6? That will make it a full game, and it’s been fun regardless of the outcome. My opponent agrees.
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| More fighting from the Herd. |
The Druid on the left casts no orders, and simply moves into my left zone to score it. The Tribal Warriors make a rear charge into the stalled Riftforged horde. I think I’m clean, but in the melee phase, my opponent points out that I should aligning just a smidge more towards him, and thus be hindered, and we’re a little too late to back this up and let me Druid issue an order, unfortunately. In my defense, it is on the far side of the table, but this is still obviously my error for moving too quickly and not checking.
Hindered now, their output is minimal. The Tree Herder charges in the front, and with low damage accrued so far the Brutes are forced to throw everything into the horde as well, and we will pick the horde up.
The Chieftain charges the Riftforger, landing 6 damage, but failing to break him, even with the Brutal Pipes. It is close, but when we’re taking quick measurements, the Chieftain and Riftforger are found to be just barely on my side. The Druid from the right hops into this zone as well to bring here unit strength here as well.
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| Reforms from the Herd. |
The Brutes and Longhorns join the Tree Herder against the Morax and will pick them up. The Herder slides down to accommodate, and we do pop the unit. I spin the Brutes for my first reform, and realize I should be measuring and thinking ahead... The spin blocks out an overrun for the Longhorns. The Herder and Longhorns sidestep, but if we’re ending it in Round 6 here, the centerpoints for the Longhorns and Brutes are still stuck on my side.
Bottom of Round 6: Orcs
Thonaar holds, and is bringing his Warlord US to the back right corner. That is US2, which should equal the Tree Herder’s US for a wash, but we miss this, and give this zone to the Orcs. I had several chances to take this zone, and just failed to.
The withdrawing Riftforged horde hold the center, along with the Godspeaker and Stormslayer for 7, beating my Tribal Warriors (and Herder), as the Insane Brutes will be picked up by the Stormslayer oin the second attempt.
The Gore-Riders reposition, staying in the back left corner to control that for the Orcs.
Nothing can threaten my home zones, and messing up on the back right zone… we record this as a tie game!
Game Conclusion
I think my gut was right, and I should have deployed harder on the left. The Gore-Riders and Wolves both outrange my charges, so overloading one flank would probably have been wiser, but hey, we still put up a good fight, and it was a good game.
Unfortunately, I seem to have had several ways to win the game and failed to grasp any of them.
The first way was clock time. We were very good on swiftly pausing as our few questions did arise, but as-mentioned, Round 3 drained my opponent’s clock time. If memory serves he clocked out either late in Round 4 or in the movement phase of Round 5, probably the latter, but I don’t recall exactly when. A round, or two, or even three, with a potential Round 7, without Orc reactions would have been a cakewalk for us. I could have been a jerk or stickler here, but I’m glad we played it out.
The second one is math. I forgot about the Tree Herder and Monsters being 2US now, and didn't realize our goof until writing the report. With that zone tied-up, that's a win for us. That’s a bummer, and literally a bookkeeping error that literally cost me the game.
The third is positioning. Even with the above, I could have been smarter in Round 6. We could have, for example, flank-charged with the Brutes, and just the Longhorns out and into the back right zone instead of charging in and making reforms messy. And then even with my choices as-is, we could have tried to reform better since we shouldn’t need much to win this, overrunning with the Brutes, for example.
The fourth is playing for a Round 7, which is what I was doing when I went to reform the combat on the right, despite having agreed to wrap-up in Round 6. One more round of fighting, or just Pathfinding moves could have enabled something here.
All this to critically point out that this was my game to lose at the end, and we did. Oh well. We report the tie, and despite killing slightly more this game, Dan has the better records, and does inch ahead of me in the final standings. It’s definitely a bit of a bummer, but I’ve had a great time and had done well enough all weekend to be very content with how things played out here. It was a great game to end the event with, even if we were both a bit frazzled. A win is better, but a tie, particularly against a new face, is completely welcome. Thanks for the game and for making the trip, Dan!
Testing Conclusions
The list largely worked as intended, fighting very well against regiments. Unfortunately, like my earliest games with the list in 4E, we struggled against speedier lists and didn’t quite get the match-ups or scenarios we would have liked for a super-strong showing. Previous Northwoods Events used a veto-and-pick system, which was not in use here as it greatly complicates bookkeeping for anyone looking for Masters points, so being unable to avoid something like Stockpile made things a little tougher for us.
- Chieftain. I need him to make this a legit Herd list now, but I still like him. I was worried the Pipes would be redundant, but it really helped with solo-charges and kept guiding him into helping Longhorns and adding Brutal there, which generally worked out well for me. I like the Warlord and the item!
- Mounted Druid with Shroud, BC, and Heal. Great kit, and although I am not making use of the Elemental Rally, the Druids are great buys for the Herd, and miles ahead of the odd Songweaver option. I didn't track this too carefully, but the Big Heal only had one or two big payoffs all weekend with 4+ successes. But those are my dice, and it still seems like a fine buy, particularly with Def5 Brutes and the Def6 Tree Herders.
- Mounted Druid with Banner, BC, and Heal. She usually ended up on the weaker wing where I wanted that third die for any Command Dice. I think Heal could be something else (Veil, Barkskin, Scorched Earth) if needed, but this kit was also fine, and a little extra Heal definitely helps things go smoothly in the list.
- Tribal Warriors. They just never seemed to attain even average combat results, but that's biases again, I suppose they were still fine, as the list didn’t need them to do any hard carrying for me. They took up space and that’s what they needed to do.
- Longhorns. They do great on the charge, but Def4 was a little dangerous at times! I’m still very happy they’re back to their fighting form with 20 attacks though. Rally is nice too.
- Guardian Brutes. My pet units all got to see a tournament table! If only the Avatar of the Father survived the edition change… They were very strong here, though did flub from time-to-time with greedy solo charges from me.
- Critters. I’m taking them because I have to, not because I like them! Ouch. Slow chaff makes instigating very hard, and Speed 6 was a drag all weekend, and really made me miss the Panthers and Harpies.
- Tree Herders. High-performers for me all weekend, as-expected. Defense 6 is still Defense 6, and these are hard to reliably crack in 4E. Add in Command Orders and Druids for healing, and these were doing great work for me all weekend.
Event Round-up
I had a great weekend-plus. The Doubles event was very casual but also very enjoyable, and was quite happy with how the GT went for me! Looking back at my goals:
- Enjoy all 5 games. I definitely did! The big losses just meant more to learn, and it was very enlightening to fight the Elementals in particular. I got a little food for thought from each game, and just had a blast overall.
- Play one new person. We got to play two new people, each with splendid-looking armies too!
- Win one game. We won two games, with a third that should have gone our way if we weren’t rushing to finish up. Still, we’re after fun not wins, and I am 100% ok with our record.
- Be the Best Herd / FoN General. Despite a massive loss in Game 2 to Patrick… we actually finished just a bit ahead of him, as well as ahead of the other two FoN players, who were all running Elementals. Somehow, we not only pulled this off, but we were also the highest-finishing Wisconsin player at the event as well, and in the top-half of all players. It was a tough room, and this was a great performance from us overall.