Hot on the heels of the Doubles Event, we have the second-annual Northwoods GT from Kings of War Wisconsin! Due to scheduling considerations, instead of a standalone event like it was before, the GT would be run in conjunction with the Doubles event, allowing our former local community all-star “Squirmin Vermin” to return to play in the doubles event Friday, and then run the GT over the weekend, and our friend Joe to do the inverse.
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| A group shot! with a display board and everything! |
As you may have gathered from all of the recent reporting … I’m running the Herd! I played with them a lot over the last few years, trying out a variety of builds, even by my standards, and explored almost every unit in the 3E roster. However, they were a very demanding army, and I could never quite get them to work consistently for me and without melting my brain after one or two games. As-such, they never hit the field in a tournament setting, something I had committed in the summer of 2025 to rectify at Northwoods 2, whenever we happened to run it. The surprise Edition change was very worrying, as most of the roster was gutted, but with Longhorns and Guardian Brutes surviving, and the Brutes being a pet unit of mine I had trying to make work anyways, it seemed like kismet to run them now, and so we’ve continued on with our plans, and are fielding the following for Northwoods GT 2026:
The goal of the list was to run all three of my surviving Guardian Brute units, which we achieved, but this demand had ripple effects throughout the rest of the list.
- Chieftain. The mighty Herd Chieftain unlocks the Brutes, so is required, but has been a menace in his own right. He’s got an unusually high 8 attacks, and great stats, able to push combats my way, and he tends to take more punishment than expected, allowing the rest of the list to get work done. He’s also inherited part of his 3E horn, providing a Wild Charge 1 to Herd units. This, in conjunction with the new movement rules, means I can reliably get Round 2 charges against an unprepared opponent. Lastly, we’re giving him the Pipes for Brutal, both to be a bit WYSIWYG, and because it should actually work well for him, and is a better all-rounder pick than the Slayer or Rampage items.
- Druid with Shroud, BC, and Heal. We’re taking the Unicorn, and a strong Heal spell. I like my orders, and the even the basic Druid can pretty reliably get them. Bane Chant is to help things hit just a little harder or grind, if needed, and Heal is my approach to dealing with shooting lists.
- Druid with Banner of Command, BC, and Heal. I like my Orders, and the Heal Order cares about successes, so we’re taking it over something like the Amulet of the Fireheart. The only think I’m not getting use out of is the Druid’s Rallying for Elementals, but other builds definitely could, and this is our best and most versatile spellcaster, and is worth taking.
- Tribal Warriors. I felt that I needed to demote a unit of Longhorns to Warriors to make the build work. These are very middling, but can hold tokens and play the scenario for cheap, and can threaten delaying charges without a big investment. I had been playing around with Dwarven Ale on them, but
- Longhorns x2. All-stars in the Core, and I am digging their return to fighting form with 20 quality attacks. These are my usual instigators along the line, charging in and dealing as much damage as they can.
- Critters x3. I want chaff, but am unfortunately limited to just Critters in 4E. They are not great, but they are cheap, and I’m taking three copies for redundancy.
- Guardian Brutes x3.The impetus for the list. I liked the Brutes in 3E with Pathfinder and Fury, but often struggled to get them into strong positions. They lost nearly half their attacks in the Edition transition, but hit like trains now with a bunch of buffs. The Strider Order is great on them, and with clean charges, they tend to just cleave though an opposing regiment a turn, often all on their own. With lots of folks buying regiments to pay the new Core Tax, these have been great picks so far.
- Tree Herders, with Mace, and Sword. With the rest of the list being Speed 6, I was looking for something to help me instigate better, and the trees do that and so much more. The Herders have Radiance of Life, which helps them, as well as synergizes with all of the other Healing in the list, coming from Druids and Command Orders. Def6 is still pretty strong, and the Trees have Strider and Inspire themselves, making them able to operate on their own. Scout is diminished now, but they’ve still been able to get ahead and apply pressure for me. They’ve been doing well for me, so with the last 10 points, I grabbed items for them, just the Mace and Sword, and hobbied up a sword and a mace to their base to differentiate them. It likely won’t amount to much, but another damage each round could be enough to swing a fight and chew through a chaff unit just a little quicker. We’ll see!
Even with a diminished roster, the Herd (sorry, Forces of Nature) look to be starting the new edition strong, and there look to be plenty of tools in the master list to pull from as time goes on. Goals for the event will be to:
- Enjoy all 5 games. Again, the real world could definitely do with some improvements, so we will try not to sweat the small stuff, and make the most of our escapist event here before heading back to our respective protests and activism and the like.
- Play one new person. We had quite the run last year for new opponents, but this gets harder and harder to do since I’m not traveling to other regions. With the doubles event the day before this, we’re keeping this goal modest.
- Win one game. I think my approach is strong, but I'm dialed in to fight regiments, so I will need some luck and good match-ups to do well. It is going to be a very tough room, so we're keeping this goal very modest as well.
- Be the best Herd/FoN General. I don’t want the millimeter shenanigans of a top table, but attendees and their armies (choices, not lists) were published a week out, and surprisingly, there was going to be a stunning 4 FoN players in attendance. It is a bit of a long shot, as again I think we really need the right match-ups to do well, but we’ll be bold and boastful and aim to champion my Guardian Brutes and come out leaking the pack for the army.
I think my overall approach is strong, but targeted, and not optimized for all-comers play. I think hordes will be taken more and more as the edition rolls on, but for now, most folks (locally, at least) have looked to be embracing numerous regiments in 4E, as ways to quickly pay a Core Tax and get more unlocks for toys. With the Brutes and Longhorns, I think the Herd are uniquely positioned to solo-charge and pick up regiments, making my piece-trading easier, and effectively punishing that line of regimental play. My test games in January had been going well for me, but we’ll need good match-ups to do well at the event.
I'd say wish me luck, but while the above was all written up prior to the event like I normally do, we are posting it after the fact, so that all of the reports and such are all chronological. The Doubles stuffs from Friday are all published already, this is going up now, and links to the GT's games will be updated below as I post all of those reports in the coming days:
Game 1 can be found here.
Game 2 can be found here.
Game 3 can be found here.
Game 4 can be found here.
Game 5 can be found here.
Without spoiling anything, I had a great time, and hopefully you enjoy the reports once they are posted!