Battle 16: Eldritch Domination

I recently found myself in the unprecedented position of playing two games in two days! My girlfriend was looking for ways to procrastinate last Saturday, and agreed to break in my new nerding/gaming tables with some Kings of War!

While building the lists for Game 15, I did up an Undead list as well, just to have on hand. I didn't think I'd be using it so soon! The Undead list was the following:

Unfortunately, I forgot to add the Wraiths! My girlfriend likes those, and I goofed. I thought I had... but it was close to midnight when I was writing all the lists up. My bad. I'll include them next time! This list has lots of repetition, so I'm hoping it will easy to use. Not a really internet-approved competitive list though. Last I checked most folks stayed away from Wights and Soul Reavers in favor of Zombie Trolls and Revenants (the cheaper alternatives). And infantry-based shooting from regiments isn't really used by many armies either... Oh well. It's still got some good things going for it, and should have some good interactions with my list.

I don't really have a good feel for Undead lists yet. Three heroes may be a bit much for 2k, but I think it'll give great Inspiring coverage, and give my opponent some good options. The Liche King can really help her abuse Surge, and the Revenant Kings a good all-rounder heroes it seems, able to contribute to combat and/or Surge antics, depending on the situation.

The list really doubles down on melee combat; putting just over half its points into Wights and Soul Reavers. The Crushing Strength 3 of the Wights will smash through anything (if they hit; they're only an average 4+ to hit), and the Soul Reavers are insane! The Warriors and Archers should be enough support to let the heavy hitters get the job done. The Archers in particular (with their higher Nerve) should interact well with my list, and be able to counter the Mounted Scouts somewhat if they are positioned well.

I think biggest shortcoming in the Undead list is speed. That's largely a function of my models though; they have options, I just haven't purchased many (basically just the Wraiths). The highest speed is 6, so I may be able to outflank the Undead, depending on deployment and the like. Outflanking can be mitigated by the "pivot and Surge into combat" trick. If the Wight regiments are on the flanks... trying to get around the undead could be a very dangerous proposition for my small mounted troops.

I'll be using the same Regnum list from Game 15, restated here.

I forgot the Wraiths for the Undead, and the Militia for the Regnum. That's about fair, right? I need to keep a closer eye on my lists...

I think main strength of this list is maneuverability. The Mounted Scouts should be able to pick away at the Skeleton Warrior support troops, and allow the Knights in particular to better dictate when fights break out with the Undead's heavier hitters.

My General on Winged Beast would usually be a benefit to the army, but last game proved that I'm not great with fliers. I couldn't avoid the one easy counter to him on the field... Additionally, the Undead and their pervasive Shambling/Surging provide a rather difficult obstacle for fliers, as the "Pivot and Surge" trick covered above makes it hard to get behind them. I'll definitely need to play better with the General this game.

The last major strength of my list are the Beasts. They are just great in combat, and their Ballistae could definitely do a number on enemy units... if they hit. I only hit once last night with these... though admittedly I only fired them a handful of times. We'll see how they do today!


My opponent agreed to roll up a scenario. Unfortunately, she rolled up a 4, 6, 6, 1, 4... all variations on the Kill and Pillage game I played the previous night. I was selfish and wanted to try a different scenario. Harrumph. Between Invade and Dominate, she chose Dominate, so away we went.

Ta-da! Tables! Mat! Terrain! Taken before we rolled up the scenario. 

For clarity, we dropped a marker in the middle of the playing field. For Dominate, at the end of the game, we'll add up the cost of all our units entirely within 12" of the monument to Great Cthulhu. If the difference between our scores is over 200, we have a winner! Otherwise, it'll be a draw.

Looking left-to-right, from the Regnum's perspective. 

My opponent basically matched me drop for drop. The Undead are pretty cheap as well! Since she went first though, she ran out juuuust before me.

Generally, she went wide. She was afraid of being outflanked by my Knights, which, to be fair, was a goal of mine here, even with the scenario. Holding her right flank (the left end of the table, from my perspective), is a Wight Regiment, an angled Skeleton Troop, Skeleton Archer Regiment, and Wight Horde, and overseen by a Revenant King. Her goal seemed to be to use this group to prevent being outflanked, which should allow her central group, comprised of Skeleton Warrior Regiment, both Soul Reaver Regiments, a Wight Regiment, and Revenant King, to secure dominate the central obelisk. On her other flank is a Skeleton Warrior Troop, Zombie Horde and Skeleton Archer Regiment, supported by a Liche King.

Not a bad deployment. She's definitely got a plan! My only critiques would be to set the Skeleton Warriors up as chaff; both are deployed awkwardly, and look like they will take a lot of effort to get them into any real kind of supporting or blocking position. Additionally, the Archers could be up more so they can actually shoot something! She was trying to prevent being outflanked, but I think she deployed a bit too conservatively.

I deployed in roughly two cohorts. The first cohort, on my left flank, would absolutely try to outflank the Undead's lines by swinging around and past the tower. Hopefully, I could either catch the undead in the rear, or spook them enough to take the objective.

I mean, she's not wrong to be worried about getting outflanked.

Leading the efforts would be my General on a Winged Beast. Two Knight Troops would support him, as would one of the Mounted Scout troops. Hanging around for a little added weight is a regiment of Shield Wall. Lastly, a regiment of Knights hangs around, ready to contest the middle with my second cohort.

The second cohort wanted to threaten the middle, and more-or-less play the objective. The goal was to hang back most of the game, and let the shambling Undead try to advance under ballistae fire. I'm spread wide enough here that I hope to surround and contest the objective in the later turns for the win.

My center and right.

The Knight regiment is just out of the shot above, but with this cohort in spirit. The two Beasts are opposite the Soul Reavers and a Wight regiment. I'm hoping to get some good shots in. They are supported by a regiment of Foot Guard. On my far right, the ASB is leading a troop of Mounted Scouts, a troop of Knights, a Regiment of Foot Guard and a regiment of Shield Wall. The infantry are around to help counter the Zombies, and I'm hoping the Scouts and Knights can quickly dispatch the Skeleton Archers and swing around.

With deployment finished, my opponent had won the roll off, and decided to go first. Good call on her part.

Turn 1: Undead

On the left, the Wight Horde inches around the tower; the archers scoot up, the Regiment of Wights advance, and the Skeleton troop pivots and moves. She's still wary of being flanked, and again, that's very likely a rational fear, given my general and all the nearby knights! Can't fault her for being cognizant and cautious.

A cautious opening move form the Undead.

On the right, there's a lot of similar movement. Everything basically advances, but her deployment was a bit jumbled, and things are moving or surging as quickly as they could.

The Skeleton Warrior regiment is stuck shuffling around, blocked by the tower, and the troop has complicated her movements on the far right. Things are Surged around by all three heroes, but it's not an orderly line of battle. I wanted the Undead list to have some chaff, hence the troops of warriors. But they are causing more harm than good.

The Undead are already playing the objective.

Still, generally, it's not a bad opening for the Undead. The regiment of Soul Reavers, protected by the tower, are already in scoring position, securing a win if I do nothing. The Undead are being quite aggressive.

Turn 2: Regnum

My whole plan is to sit back until turn 4 or so. In these early turns, I'm hoping I can rough up all the Skeleton units, leverage my dino-artillery, and then converge on the middle for a victory.

Some light fighting on the left.

I advance on my left, hoping to win the flank quickly. I don't think the Scouts hit anything, but the wizard manages to land some lightning on the Revenant King here. The Undead generally have good Never and Fearless. If I can remove their source of Inspiring here... it'll go a long way to securing this flank.

I'm quite hesitant to commit with my General, so he advances, acting tough, but is mostly around to Inspire right now.

The dinos shoot! ...and miss.

On my right, the Scouts shoot at the Skeleton Warrior Troop and score a wound. The Knights advance; hoping to tie up and eventually grind out those Skeleton Archers. In the center, the dinos shoot and miss.

Turn 3: Undead

The Liche King Surges the Skeleton Archers up, and they shoot at the Knights, scoring an astonishing 3 wounds. Not bad for needing 5's and 5's!

"Magically scuttle forth and shoot!"

The rest of the line (well, the Skeleton Troop and Zombie Horde) move up, looking to support the expensive Undead units moving into scoring position and securing the eldritch objective.



On the left, the Wight units shamble forth and the Skeleton Archers are Surged another inch or two into the graveyard. The shoot at the Mounted Scouts, though nothing lands.

Turn 4: Regnum

I continue to pressure the left. The Scouts fire at the Skeleton Warrior Troop, but fail to do anything. The Wizard sneakily ducks behind a small tomb, and releases more Lighting towards the Revenant King. The lightning is going great today! An crazy-high nerve check wavers the fiend.

In the center, another volley of Ballistae shots fall short. Out of 8 shots so far, I think I've rolled 5 1's! Thus is the fickle nature of war machines...

I know they only cost 10 points each, but how about some love here?

On the right, I charge my Knights into her Skeleton Archers. The Knights roll great for damage, and then great twice for the Nerve check. They manage to rout the Archers! They reform to face the middle.

Turn 5: Undead

The Skeleton Troop on the right moves and Pivots to crowd the front of the Knights. The Liche king Surges them the last inch into combat to delay them. The Zombies shamble around. Positioning them has been an issue all game, complicated by Warrior troop mucking up the lines.

The eldritch obelisk however, is well controlled. The Revenant King moves into the woods, and the Warrior regiment is Surged into position. The Undead have commanding control of the objective.

That's like... 800+ points securing the center. Cthulhu is most pleased.

On the left, there's some damage control going on. My opponent is (justifiably) concerned that the Revenant King has been wavered. If he goes down this flank becomes much easier for me to take.

Heh. It's the Undead's turn to be spooked!

The Wight regiment moves up to challenge the Mounted Scouts, and the horde moves up as well, but nothing decisive happens yet. The Waver was quite lucky for me; the King hasn't got nearly enough damage on him to be too concerned... though it will be hard to hid him from the fast Wizard.

Turn 6: Regnum

On the left, the Scouts move up to block the Wight Regiment. The Wizard is largely trapped, but will poke his head out and join the Scouts in shooting at the Skeleton Warrior Troop. Together they will deal 4 damage, which isn't bad.

Traps are set for the regiment of Wights.

The leftmost Knight troop will move and pivot and join the Wizard. The Scouts are toast, but the knights should be able to occupy the Wights for a turn or more.

Everything else shuffles back. The second Knight troop can't handle the horde of Wights, and I don't like my chances with the General against anything by himself, even the Revenant King, who is sitting at 4 damage. Even if I put 3-4 damage on him, I would still need to roll above average (8-9) waiver him again. After his feeble attempt to fight the Varangur Chieftain the previous night... It's too risky. Better to play it safe for a turn and see what happens.



I feel like it's time to start pushing forward and playing the objective. My infantry need time to position, and so pivot and move, lumbering into position to face the objective and the occupying undead.

The Knights counter-charge the Skeleton troop, and rout them! They will overrun a few inches into the graveyard.

In the center, the Ballistae miss all their shots. Again. We are zero for twelve right now. In total defiance of my plan, the Undead are untouched in the middle...

Turn 7: Undead

One could say the Undead are dominating the central objective! Har-har-har. We add a few tokens to better define the scoring area before things get too messy in the center.

This is how the turn starts. Again, over 800 points of scoring units. The Zombies don't count as they are not fully within the 12".

My opponent decides to try and box me out. The scoring units push up a few inches to try and prevent any of my units from making it in to score in these final turns. Making matters more difficult for me is the Revenant King leaving the woods, Inspiring all these jerks. The Zombies will pivot to better absorb the charge from the knights, and are Inspired by the fleeing Liche King, who is also scoring now.

At the end of the turn, this is how the center looks.

On the left, the horde of Wights moves up, barely into the forest, to try and occupy my focus on that side. The regiment charges and destroys the Scouts. Unfortunately, the Skeleton troop had advanced behind them, stopping an inch away. Victorious, the Wights didn't have the space to reform well or to back up. They decided on an overrun move to try and free that zone up a bit.

Dumb skeletons ruining everything.

This was quite unfortunate for the Wights. The Skeleton Troop definitely screwed this up. Definite misplay with them.

Turn 8: Regnum

On my left, I make the most of the misplay. The Knights charge the flank of the Wights, but are unfortunately unable to move them due to exceptionally low rolls. The Wizard, however, is able to use his lightning to blast the Skeleton Troop away.

Thanks Skeleton Troop! I almost feel bad blasting you away...

Although he's been moving cowardly all game, and backing up the last few turns, my General spies an opening. He can see a bit around the woods, and at Height 4, can see over the Wights. He spies the wounded Revenant King, and has the space to get there! He deals four damage to the King, and wavers him.

Pictorial proof I can use a flier! Hopefully I got the rules right.

It's high time to contest this obelisk, and I decide to basically charge all the things.Trying to box me out is a good idea, but maybe a bit mistimed here. The extra inches here and there from her advancing will make my life easier, it puts a few things in charge range of my supporting infantry. I have a few turns to try and hack my way through the Undead and lay claim to the obelisk.

The knight troop charges into the Skeleton Warrior Regiment. I roll really well (lots of 6's), pick up the dice, and then remember the charge should have been hindered. I reroll, and it is decidedly less grand. I think 2 damage still gets through though.

My Knight regiment and a Foot Guard Regiment charges the daring Soul Reaver regiment. I think their advance let my Footies get in there. My regiments deal 9 damage, and roll great twice for Nerve, and obliterate the vampires.

I decided to charge both Beasts into the Wight Regiment. Unfortunately, they roll abysmally, and only 6 damage is inflicted on the unit total, about half what one would expect. It holds, unfazed and unimpressed.

On the right, my Knights opt to charge the Zombie horde. A few damage is inflicted. I didn't have any illusions about this attack, but it should tie them up on my opponents turn. My infantry on the right advance. They lack Crushing Strength, but their attacks could help turn the tide in the final turns here.

Turn 9: Undead

Despite a commanding control of the center all game, I think my opponent over-extended a bit oh her last turn. If the Soul Reavers had hung back a few inches, I don't think my Footies could have made it in to contribute. She's still in control, and in a decent spot, but I'm very actively clawing my way back to contest the objective.

On the far left, the Wights counter charge the Knights. Despite some low to hit rolls, Crushing Strength 3 let those hits stick, and the knights will be wavered.

Unfortunately, I think she did 3 damage total. Fortunately, the Nerve Check wavered them.

She opts to shoot at my General with the Archers, preferring the 5+ to hit instead of the 6+ in melee. I don't blame her. He's not going anywhere and doesn't need to be pinned down. A wound slips in.

The center is quite congested. One wonders what would have happened if the Skeleton Warrior troops were deployed more centrally to block my units. I had offered up the Shield Wall to distract the horde of Wights, but they refuse. They eye up the my Knight regiment instead, and are joined by the Revenant King, whose options are limited. He doesn't want to fight the Footies by himself, but maybe that would have been a good alternative?

Way to pull your weight leader guy.

The Wight Horde rolls quite well dealing 10 damage with the first round of attacks and 12 damage on the second. The King contributes 1 damage. The knights are scattered. The King backs up D3, and the Wights reform to face the Shield Wall, deciding that they didn't want a flank or even potential rear charge from them.

This could be considered a misplay? Up for debate. While 24-36 attacks coming your way is nothing to take lightly, the Shield Wall aren't exactly known for being dangerous, and the high nerve and defense of the Wights should let them take it. I think it may have been better to risk it and overrun, actively threatening the flanks of the potentially scoring units next turn.

The Undead center tries to hold the line. The Skeleton Regiment counter charges the Knight troop, but finds itself unlucky. It fails to do any damage at all...

The Wight Regiment charges the left Beast of War (who is uninspired at the moment). Five damage comes through, but at 15/17, the Beast shrugs it off.

The remaining Soul Reaver regiment charges my Foot Guard on the right. My opponent reads their stats and laments the loss of the other regiment. She rolls and "only" deals 12 damage to the Foot Guard. This puts them in a dangerous position for the check, but luckily, the ASB is around. The Nerve Check reroll turns from near-certain wavering and rather likely routing into a game-changing call to defiantly hold their ground. Good on you, ASB.

"Fleeing? Not while I'm around. Harrumph."

The Zombie horde tussles with the harassing knight troop, as expected. The Knights are wavered as a result of all those grasping hands.

Turn 10: Regnum

The Kingdom of Men Knights have the Headstrong special rule. Unfortunately for my opponent, luck is on my side. On both ends of the table, my wavered knights pass and are merely Disordered, ready to push pack.

On my left, the Knights attack the Wight regiment again, but are unable to move them. That's ok.

Continuing along the left, my General's charge on my last turn brought him into scoring position. Again he attacks the wounded, wavered Revant King and slays him.

The lucky knights charge the unlucky Skeleton Warrior Regiment. A little damage is done, but nothing telling, yet. However, the knights too are scoring right now... and they're worth more than the skellies.

The Foot Guard that helped slay the Soul Reavers eyes up the other Revenat King now. They charge him, and while they don't slay him, the charge should bring them into scoring position too. The tide is starting to turn!

The Beast of War counter charges that Wight regiment and will rout it.

The scuffles in the center have been a bit imprecise, with lots of things charging in and bouncing off and everything trying to remain an inch away from everything else. As it stands on my turn, the second Beast can both see and maneuver into the flank of the remaining Soul Reaver regiment, and so they do so, joined by the indomitable Foot Guard. This will be enough to obliterate the poor vampires.

On the right, the Knights valiantly charge the Zombie horde again. This time they are joined by the Shield Wall regiment, who crash into the flank of the Zombie formation. While neither unit has Crushing Strength, the number of attacks is devastating against the low Defense of the horde. After combat, I only need an 8 to rout it, and I succeed twice, breaking the zombies. The Knights will overrun.

I am part way through resolving my victorious combat moves (moved the overruning knights and Foot Guard, and reforming Beast so far) when my opponent concedes.

The Undead are shattered and my opponent concedes before I finish my post-combat moves. Victory for the Regnum!

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I felt bad about the flank charge on the Soul Reavers. Math-wise, that felt like that probably should not have been viable, but the line of sight, movement area, etc was all there. In rereading the rules on combat for the battle report hehe... the Beasts should only have had a few millimeters between them when they fell back from their failed first charge. That shouldn't have changed as the turns went on.

The pics from Turn 8 show the howdah's preventing the bases of the Beast from getting as close as they should have been. I think that accidental extra space got amplified over my opponent's turn. Indeed, that charge against the Soul Reavers should very likely not have been viable. My bad. I'll need to position more exactly in the future.


Even if the vampires hadn't been obliterated, and the Zombies were able to get lucky stick around for another turn, I think I had enough converging to win, as I had a whole additional turn to push the objective. 

Overall, I think I played well. I had a decent plan from the start, and despite no ballista shot hitting ever, things generally worked out. I think my only strategic error was not starting to converge on the center sooner. I needed both my cavalry and infantry around to force my way in, and when infantry need to picot and move... they're not going to get anywhere quick. I could have deployed with better facing or started moving sooner. 

On the other side of the table, I think my opponent made two strategic errors.

The first error is minor, and was just bad use and positioning with the Skeleton Warrior Troops. They consistently messed with her movement phase, and ended up doing more harm than good I think. 

The second error probably cost her the game, and that is her choice to try and box me out when she did. The box out was a brilliant move, but the timing was off. She already had 800+ points scoring, but by moving up when she did, she closed the gap a little too much and allowed me to attack a turn earlier than I otherwise would have. Great idea, but executed a turn too soon.

She liked winning over the halflings more than losing to the Regnum, but she still had fun. Hopefully more matches against the Undead will be coming soon!