Year in Review for 2022

I have been a bit spotty at writing these, and just as bad at giving them similar titles. These "Year in Review" posts have looked to loosely track my Kings of War goals for a given year: how much I get painted up, how much I play, and how much I wanted to get in for both categories for that year. Thus summarized for the old year, I would then look at what I was looking to do in the coming year. 

Big Recap for 2022 and Prior

The blog kicked off pretty strong, but I was in a Kings of War slump for a few years there, with very few games, leading to unmotivated hobbying, and just a little blogging. This lull can only be partially blamed on the pandemic, as it started before then. Things just were not coming together for me. I didn't really have any Kings of War goals over the last few years, so I don't have much to refer to as a  good benchmark for this post. 

For gaming, when I did have stated goals, I had been shooting for 12 games a year, or ideally once per month. That seemed like a good pace to start something going. Since the blog started in 2016, I never hit that goal once. In 2022 though, I nearly doubled it, and that's been great. It has been a ton of fun playing this game and seeing armies that I have not painted up myself. Not having to arrange the game, build both lists, and then teach the game as we go for every game I play has been wonderful. With less effort needed from me, this has let me explore writing battle reports more, and actually learn the game more, as opposed to kind of stumbling through it. Additionally I am often on the back foot and surprised by opponents, which is exciting and probably more entertaining for a battle report. 

For hobbying, for the years I was stating my hobby goals, I was largely porting stuff over from WHFB, repainting and rebasing it for Kings of War. Knowing what I already had around or had purchased, it was easier to set  those goals and track. Now, that is not the case! I have a nice variety of armies, and more than enough to play with and explore. While all will get new units here and there, I am not actively looking to greatly expand anything these days, and things will just be added as the mood strikes, so this goal and metric is probably past its usefulness.

New Goals for 2023

For Kings of War, I have four goals for 2023.

1. Play 24 Games, and write 24 Battle Reports. I have reported on everything I have played, and I got close this year, so think if I can do it next year.
2. Travel to an Event. Doesn't need to be a big one or even a full on tournament, but traveling for wargaming event is not something I have ever done, and think it could be a fun experience. I am likely going to have a lot to do this year, but we'll aim high here.
3. Run my own event again. The July beat and Greet I put on was alright, and I think I can do something like that again this year, and hopefully with a few more attendees.
4. Run a Mega battle. We'll count it if I can get 5,000 points per side. I don't know how likely this will be, but we'll see. 

So that's where I am at. I considered checking in with all my various armies, but would have about doubled the post length. Maybe we'll do some armies on parade or showcases or something in the future, but we'll keep it short and sweet for now.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, and thanks for stopping by. See you in 2023!

Kings of War 3rd Edition: #021: Varangur vs Brothermark [Smoke and Mirrors]

With the big holidays upon us, normal schedules upended, and my own free weekends scarce, I was very surprised (but very happy!) to get a last-minute game in before the year ends. Cartwright was in town again for work, and we managed to fit in a quick afternoon game before he headed home. 

Lists

I didn't have a good list ready, but I had a few old ones sitting around. After some consideration, I decided to take a draft for a mounted Varangur list for a spin this time. I didn't think it was particularly good, but it did have a lot of things to test out, so I figured I'd just take it and see how it did. 

I have a few regiments of Draugr and Night Raiders assembled and primed, but not painted up yet. At the same time, I had decommissioned all my old Warband since they looked too naked for Def4 Clansmen, so I lack the cheaper supporting infantry options right now. With that being the case, I didn't want to bring a lot of elite infantry like Huscarls, as I figured they would get picked apart without proper support. The list is skewed a bit towards cavalry hammers then, with a lot of chaff. Hopefully the chaff can screen and die and the cavalry units can carry me to victory.

This is my second time playing the Varangur in 3rd Edition, so up to test with this game is basically every darn thing I am bringing.

• Reavers. I like the idea of a Lifeleeching unit to grind something out, but have generally failed to do that with my Abyssal Horsemen kit. This is a little better on the Lifeleech, and is an infantry unit with many more attacks and better Nerve, so we'll see how the unit feels.
• Mounted Sons. I also like the idea of cavalry with CS. Again, I've tried this with the Abyssal Horsemen, but I only have the one unit of those. Perhaps they work better the more you take?
• Horse Raiders. I like my Mounted Scouts from the Kingdoms of Men, and these are a step above them. They look like a very versatile unit! I am trying out the Throwing Axes option, to see how that fares. Will I measure distances correctly and use this option, or just charge in?
• Frostfang Cavalry. They were blown apart last time with an open field and lots of enemy artillery. I'm only running one this time, in order to run the Brew of Sharpness on them, and increase their killyness. They are very expensive now! Is this kit the right call, or should I be running them without it or even just leaving these at home next time?
• Snow Foxes. These were the main sacrificial chaff of choice, and I brought a bunch, thinking they might help compensate for not having any infantry support. They seem like great chaff, so we'll see how I use them in-game. Will they be sacrificed well? Will any survive to play any late-game objectives?
• Frost Giant. I have one painted up, and figured I'd test him out here as another hammer unit. How will this monster fare? Will I remember to use the breath attack? Will I be able to get him a good match-up and utilize the Slayer special rule at all?
• Magnilde. I liked her last time and definitely understand the hype about her. She's my third source of Inspiring and will probably be a bit of a wildcard here. Given her versatility, I am expecting her to do well, but we'll see what trouble she gets up to.
• Lord on Frostfang. They are a very solid unit and my opponent has made good use of these in their Northern Alliance list. Will I be able to return the favor with my Varangur versions?

Cartwright chose to run his Brothermark, making this a bit of a rematch of Battle 015. As is becoming usual for this army these days, he has a trio of  powerful Siege Artillery to help target monsters and soften things up from afar. Running multiples has proven to be a sensible way to run the war machines, as the additional shots make them a bit more consistent with damage output. The Penitents return, but as two hordes this time, alongside a horde of Spearmen, and a horde of Bowmen. None of these are particularly scary, but that is a LOT of Nerve and bodies to chew through! I am in a lot of danger of being tar pitted if I am not careful. 

The unique Oathsworn Guardians are around as a more elite combat regiment, and reading their stats, I'm a bit jealous! My Abyssal Oathbreakers are similar in theme, but lack Duelist. Duelist shouldn't really come into play against my list, though the Rampage might. A lot of the Brothermark has a Rampage / Slayer rule tacked on. These seem like neat ways to differentiate units and reward a player for smart match-ups.

My opponent has tried it a few times, but ultimately has not been happy with the "Defender of Righteous" formation. So no dragon this time, and the puny human knights have been promoted to those of the Order of the Abyssal Hunt, gaining Crushing Strength and a bunch of buffs and special rules. including Slayer. Unfortunately for me, his CS cavalry are actually better than my CS cavalry, kinda throwing cold water on my tests here, as I was hoping to have the advantage in the cavalry department. His cavalry also got items, making them even more scary.

There were only a few heroes along to support. The Dictator with Wings should interdict, and Chaplain and Priest are around to heal, and with all the hordes, this should do very well. The War-Wizard is a nice offensive caster,  with Lightning Bolt and and the Alchemist's Curse spell. I remember that  spell being released back in 2nd Edition, but I had forgotten all about it. Bouncing from army to army, I haven't really explored magic much, so props to my opponent for doing so! Alchemist's Curse should be rather potent to all my highly armored cavalry units, so I'm interested to see it in action.

Surprisingly, my opponent also brought an Ancient Phoenix. The double aura effect with both Radiance of Life and Cloak of Death seems really strong, so we'll see what mileage my opponent can get from it. As we've seen in games against the Salamanders, this monster is great... so long as it doesn't get into combat! 

About the only potential list shortcoming I can possibly point to are the Villein Skirmishers. They are not bad units, but they are the only sacrificial chaff unit around, so my opponent might struggle to initiate good fights or to block out my charges, and so I may be able to set up some good trades and blocks with my more numerous chaff. The counter-argument to this critique is that he has 4 infantry hordes. These can all take a charge or two or three, and two have Phalanx to negate my cavalry... so perhaps the chaff isn't as badly needed in this matchup. We shall see!

Table, Scenario and Deployment.

The shop's terrain assortment has ballooned since I started stopping by here over the summer. Their trees and "difficult terrain" are a bit lacking though, so we used my terrain, with the normal height 3 hills, height 9 building, height 6 forests and some height 2 obstacles. We generated a layout, and I won the roll, picking the side with the building.

My opponent brought along his nifty bluff counters again, so we chose Smoke and Mirrors as the scenario. We have almost made our way through the all of the book scenarios together! The bluff counters are deployed face-down, and treated as objectives. At the end of each round, we flip one token over to see what it will be worth if we control it at the end of the game.

As with the other bluff counter scenario, generally this is a cool mechanic, and I think there is a lot of fun mind-game potential here. We mostly kept to a long, snake-like deployment of these, but the tokens just need to be fully on the opponent's side of the board and 12 inches away from each other, so you can cluster them far more than either of us did. As before, since I am again switching over to a newish army for funsies, attempting mind games would just confuse me more than anything else, so I shuffled up the tokens, and dealt them out blindly. 

For deployment, I opted for a few Foxes early out on each flank. My opponent placed the Penitents down early as well, and by my third drop I had decided to just ignore my right-hand side. 

My opponent had very little for chaff, and more drops than me, so he went pretty wide. His Artillery came down late to counter my Frostfangs, and his Dictator with wings came down late as well to counter Magnilde. She was only individual in my army, so she was his best target.

From my-left-to-right my opponent deployed, the Dictator with wings, three Artillery in the rear, an Order of the Abyssal Hunt, Villeins screening the mounted Priest, the second Order of the Abyssal Hunt, Spearmen horde, Oathsworn Guardians regiment defending the Ancient Phoenix, the War-Wizard, Penitents, more Penitents, Exemplar Chaplain, and lastly the Bowmen horde out securing the flank with their ranged attacks and Phalanx rule. As always from my opponent, this was a thoughtful deployment with some good battle groups. 

View from my left. Should have deployed the early units juuuust a bit closer to the table edge.

Unfortunately, being a newer army for me, I stuffed up my deployment a bit. With fewer drops and a more elite list I figured I would need to deploy more compactly, but I hadn't figured out the particulars, especially since this was a pretty unfamiliar army. On my left, I had Magnilde, a Lord on Frostfang, and doubles of Foxes, Horse Raiders and Mounted Sons, all in a jumble. I could have gone double-wide and gotten around the trees had I both measured and gone in with that plan. But I did neither. The center got my Frostfangs, second Lord, Frost Giant, a unit of Foxes, and the Reavers. On my far right, all alone, was my last unit of Foxes. My hope was that between the Reavers, Giant and Lord, I could interdict things, to let my messy left win. Then I could engage / avoid the infantry as the late game demanded.

View from the right corner. The foam dice turn tracker returns, and I took one note per turn, so I should be better figuring out what happened when.

And with deployment done, we are into the game! I won the roll-off, and eagerly took the first turn. The Siege Artillery were a big concern of mine, so I wanted to try to be aggressive and get into combat in Round 2 if I could.

Top of Round 1: Varangur

On the right, my Foxes pivot, move, and nimbly pivot back to camp the nearby bluff counter. Being here also puts them behind the hill, and safe from any bow shots. Even with Stealthy... these are just Foxes and not likely to survive against anything that actually gives them attention.

Good Foxes. Playing the scenario all smart and stuff.

In the center, the Frostfangs aggressively move up, I believe at their full movement. The Foxes scamper ahead, trying to screen for them. The Giant lumbers alongside. The Lord hangs back and pivots. I think I wanted to set up a possible cross, should the enemy cavalry on the flank advance. This is probably an error. I wasn't going to have the range to charge anything over there next turn, and there are plenty of things to fight here, so I think he would have been better facing forward, and charging in and making good use of his Strider ability in the coming turns.

Pretty aggressive, though not the maximum potential move. I have charges for the next round though, so that's all I can really do this turn.

I knew I needed to be aggressive, so the left moves up, looking to pick some early fights with the enemy cavalry. Everything moved it's maximum food, though some things were hampered by the trees. I decided I was going to toss Magnilde at the artillery, so she tucks in behind the Lord on Frostfang. This will probably hurt her own line of sight a bit, but I am not expecting her to charge anything next turn, and instead just trying to fly her over the enemy lines. 

The left, with a bit of a staggered appraoch. 

While I do technically have ranged attacks on the Giant and Horse Raiders, they all moved at the double, and also have no targets in range. So, some aggressive moves from the Varangur for turn 1, but that is all from me.

Bottom of Round 1: Brothermark

Well, I am off to a good start for the report. I apparently didn't snap any pictures for this turn. Over on the right and in the center, the infantry hordes cautiously move up in an arc, slowly zoning out that size of the board.

On the left, the Dictator flies over the Foxes and into the Horse Raiders, who take three damage and are wavered. In his wake, the Villein Skirmishers then charge the Snow Foxes, who take 3 damage, but hold. Not how I would have guessed that would unfold, but dice are dice it seems.

Every war machine shoots at the Frostfang horde, and the bombardment is seconded by some Lightning from the War-Wizard. I learned that screening the Frostfangs with the Foxes actually did nothing, given the height difference. Lesson learned! The Frostfangs should have gotten some Horse Raiders to support them instead. While the war machines Ignore Obscured, this would have helped with the  botls of lighting. When the volley subsides, eight damage has gone through, and the unit... is Wavered. Ouch!

At the end of the round, two tokens are flipped up, both near the middle of our lines. Behind the Spear horde is (apparently) the 2 Pointer I placed. Under the Frostfang horde is the 2 Pointer my opponent placed. I would hazard to guess that this reveal doesn't normally happen so soon! In effect, whoever won the big engagements here would likely win the game. 

Top of Round 2: Varangur

I started my turn with two very unfortunate Wavers. On the left, the "first wave" of Mounted Sons are traffic-jammed by the Horse Raiders, and sidestep to get around in the coming turns. The wavered Raiders then move back, to free up a little more space. Meanwhile the second wave of Mounted Sons move up and out of the woods, hoping to contribute soon as well.

Blech. Very well done by my opponent.

The unfazed Foxes and untouched Horse Raiders attack into the Villein Skirmishers, who take a few damage but hold. 

My opponent had measured, but forgot that my Lord of Frostfang has Wild Charge, so I am able to make a bit of greedy charge into a regiment of the Order of the Abyssal Hunt. I think 3 damage made it through, which isn't a great showing, but they are disordered at least...

In the center I look to stymie the Spears, moving a group of Snow Foxes up. I was not aggressive enough with the second Lord last turn, so he has no charges. Not wanting to try and solo three in fantry hordes, he does cross over, looking to help out on my left. Since I wasn't aggressive enough with the Lord last turn with movement, the Giant is forced to go in alone against the Oathsworn Guardians. He rolls up 2 for his extra attacks, and doesn't do a lot of damage, dishing out just 3 or 4 damage as I recall. I didn't think I would break them, but this is less than I was hoping for.

Snow Foxes scamper up to mess with charges.
I should have pivoted the Lord back towards the Frost Giant a bit.

On the bright side, some Foxes accompany the Giant, scampering over the obstacle, and are zoning out the Frost Giant's flank from the nearby Penitents, so he'll have another chance next turn.

The wavered Frostfangs sit there, hoping to get lucky and stick around and do something in the turns to come, and the Reavers move and Pivot facing off against the three lightly armored infantry hordes, looking to charge and buy some time in the coming turns.

Bottom of Round 2: Brothermark

The Brothermark's Penitents move up and the Villein Bowmen score a point of damage against the Reavers. Most of the artillery fire into the Frostfang horde again, dealing 4 more damage and wavering them again. The Ancient Phoenix flies over to support the Spearmen, and making use of its auras. 

The War-Wizard shuffles over, and casts Alchemists Curse against my Lord. The Phoenix joins in too with the Firesparks, and 5 damage is done. 

Not going great in the center.

The Spearmen charge and obliterate the foxes, pivoting in victory to close off the Brothermark's line of battle, which was a pity, as I was eyeing a nimble charge into the Phoenix next round. Meanwhile, the Oathsworn Guardians get healed from an aura and a spell, and strike back against the Giant, dealing 4 damage. The Frost Giant only did 3-4 damage last turn, and most of that was healed back now. I was hoping to crack them in two turns to then face the Penitents, but that is not the way this is going! And speaking of the Penitents, they charge and rout the Snow Foxes in front of them, opening the way to the Giant's Flank next turn...

Very messy on the flank. This seems to be a common theme in my games.

On the messy left flank, the Dictator disengages from the spooked Horse Raiders, and flies over the Snow Foxes to charge Magnilde. I was partially obscured by the mounted Priest, but I was not careful enough there it seems. Snow Foxes are still Height 1, and I keep forgetting that. Only 1 damage is done though, which she heals back with Iron Resolve.

We talk out the mess surrounding the Skirmishers. With nothing routing here yet, the angles of the units and the board edge are messy. If the Skirmishers counter-charge the Foxes, there is not enough space for the knights of the Order to charge the Horse Raiders - they'd be hanging off the table. So we rule that we can't get a 125mm cavalry unit through that gap, if the Skirmishers do charge the Foxes. Well, the Skirmishers do charge the Foxes, and then victoriously back up, narrowing the gap further. While they had help in round 2 with the Dictator getting a bit of a lucky waver, this one darn unit has stymied my whole push. It's obviously unfortunate for me and my efforts, but I really can only be impressed. My opponent has gotten some incredible mileage out of this one unit of chaff. 

The only other thing that happened here was a countercharge by the Order of the Abyssal Hunt into the intrepid Lord on Frostfang. Bane Chant missed a few times during the game, but I believe it stuck for this combat. The Lord took a point of damage from the aura of the Ancient Phoenix, and the counter-charge from the Order takes him well into double-digits of damage and my Lord is routed off the field. 

This was a pretty long shot play, and wasn't my first choice of combats for the Lord on Frostfang, as the Order of the Abyssal Hunt do have Slayer, but having disordered them I expected to survive the attack back. It was a lot of attacks though, and I forgot about Bane Chant. I think this highlights how powerful having CS on the cavalry is so you don't absolutely need the charge, and just how handy Bane Chant is to have around.

At the end of the round, two more Bluff Tokens are flipped. I believe a 0 Pointer out by some Penitents, and a 1 Pointer near my "second wave" of Mounted Sons, further emphasizing how important the fights between our main forces are.

Top of Round 3: Varangur

Still all gummed up, the scrum on the left continues. I can't charge around the pesky Villein Skirmishers, so the Horse Raiders move up and I try some of the throwing axes against the two Order of the Abyssal Hunt regiments. I am too far away to focus fire. I think the ones that just felled the Lord are safe with no damage done, while the ones out on the flank will take 2 damage, healing down to 1 with Iron Resolve when they are tested, and found to steady.

The better play would have to have the Horse Raiders near the table edge join the melee charge, in order to try and manipulate the spacing and prevent the Order of the Abyssal Hunt in the corner from charging out and into my Mounted Sons next turn. The thrown weapons was done for testing. I like having the option, and Piercing 1 is great to have, but yeah, this was not an optimal play, and not a great idea against the Brothermark. Their Iron Resolve is really good against incremental chip damage. 

Round 3, and my cavalry are finally charging... chaff. Yeah, this game is not going according to plan!

The "first wave" of Mounted Sons finally arrive, and will finally shoo off the pesky Villein Skirmishers. Given the looming Spearmen horde, the "second wave" of Mounted Sons actually back up, keeping out of their charge range. So much for a speedy push from the Varangur!

"For testing purposes!" - Reavers

Elsewhere, the remaining Lord on Frostfang charges the War-Wizard, whiffs a bit again, and fails to rout them. The Giant lurches back against the Oathsworn Guardians, but again fails to do much. To protect the Giant, the Reavers make a hindered charge into the Penitents. They deal a surprising 10 damage, but that is nowhere near enough to rout a horde.

The wavered Frostfang Horde does nothing, but I should have actually moved them back, as they have been within the charge range of the Spearmen since Round 2, and that was why I threw the Foxes in front of them. I simply forgot this situation, so that is an error on my part.

The Foxes again. Still playing the objectives. These two have yet to be revealed. 

They may look like they have been cowering a bit, but my Snow Foxes out to the right are actually playing the scenario. This is the token farthest away, so they pivot, looking to hold this or more easily scamper up and claim a point later in the game.

Lastly, Magnilde decides to ignore the Dictator's advances, and charges and crushes a war machine instead. Silencing them seemed important, though they have admittedly done a lot of damage to my units and plans already, and this may be too little too late. 

Bottom of Round 3: Brothermark

I look to have missed out on pictures for this turn again. I was too busy removing units. 

The Penitents counter-charge the Reavers, dealing upwards of 10 damage in return, and his crazies rout my crazies. The Oathsworn counter-charge the Frost Giant, roll a little hot as well, and will rout the Giant. The War-Wizard disengages, opening up my remaining Lord to another round of artillery shots and the Firesparks of the Ancient Phoenix and in the end, the smoke clears and the other Lord on Frostfang is now missing in action. 

The two cavalry regiments from the Order of the Abyssal Hunt charge out as well. One goes in against the Horse Raiders on the hill, routing them, and the other goes into the regiment of Mounted Sons that shooed off the Villein Skirmishers on my turn, rolling below average and dealing just 5 damage to them, and the Mounted Sons hold. This could have gone far worse in retrospect.

Since I forgot to move them back and out of danger, the ever-wavered Frostfangs are charged by the Spearmen horde, and put out of their misery. 

The Dictator pursues Magnilde, dealing 3 damage this time, but she will Iron Resolve down to 2 damage. He's got Duelist and is rolling 8 attacks, but just not quite connecting as he statistically should. His noodle arms and the lackluster charge into my Mounted Sons are about the only things that have broken my way this game.

At the end of the Round, more Bluff Tokens are revealed, but I don't know where or what they are worth. I felt behind since the beginning, and none of the riskier plays to try and claw myself back into the game paid off. My turn this round saw me remove a war machine and a troop of cavalry; my opponent's turn saw him remove half my army, so this was not a great round for me.

Top of Round 4: Varangur

Magnilde charges and removes a second artillery piece. Definitely a little late, but I'll take it.

Two rounder later than desired, my Mounted Sons can finally meaningfully contribute. They each charge a regiment of cavalry from the Order of the Abyssal Hunt, with the remaining Horse Raiders getting a flank charge in against the one nearer the table edge.

Finally! A proper combat for the Varangur cavalry!

I was expecting to rout one but not both, but was surprised by the outcome. The "second wave" regiment of Mounted Sons minced their opposing unit one-on-one, and turned to have the center of the board and all those infantry hordes.

I rolled the combat with "first wave" regiment of Mounted Sons and the supporting Horse Raiders second, dealing 14 damage between them, bringing the Order up to 15 damage and then I roll up Insane Courage. The Order heals for 1 from Iron Resolve, and sticks around.

Bottom of Round 4: Brothermark

I am down to about a third of my starting army, and haven't really made a dent in the opposition. The implacable Brothermark are just moping up. Even unsupported, the surviving regiment of the Order smashes the opposing regiment of Mounted Sons, and then turns to face the upstart Horse Raiders, not wanting to give them a rear-charge, and confident that something else will deal with the Mounted Sons.

The other regiment of Mounted Sons take shots from the remaining artillery piece, the Alchemist's Curse magics from the War-Wizard, and firesparks from the Ancient Phoenix. While starting at full health, they accumulate a good amount of damage and are routed when the smoke clears.

The Dictator lands a few blows against Magnilde, slowly accumulating the damage and bringing her up to 6 damage or thereabouts as the turn ends.

More Bluff Tokens are revealed. I believe a 1 Pointer near the Horse Raiders and a 0 Points out by the Snow Foxes on my right.

Top of Round 5: Varangur

With no real units left, I decide to duel with Magnilde dealing a fair amount of retaliatory damage and largely evening the fight, but I roll low don't even waver the stalwart Dictator.

The Horse Raiders charge the remaining Order of the Abyssal Hunt, but land no damage, which is unfortunate for me, shall we say.

My remaining Snow Foxes abandon their dud objective to claim another unknown one near the building. 

Bottom of Round 5: Brothermark

The Order counter-charges and obliterates the Horse Raiders, and the Dictator fells Magnilde, finally getting some more average dice results.

The Varangur are finally brushed aside.

At the end of the Round, the token near the Foxes flips, and they are found to be guarding a 1 Point objective here. So I have that going for me. Unfortunately, that is my only unit left on the entire field.

Top of Round 6: Varangur

The game is essentially over, but my opponent lets me abandon my 1 point token to rear-charge the Spearman horde with my last remaining unit, the Snow Foxes that started all by themselves on the far right-hand side of the board. They do roll up a fair bit of damage (a rear charge is triple attacks after all), but the unit is in no danger of routing.

Bottom of Round 6: Brothermark

Aside from the charge of the Snow Foxes on my turn, we don't actually play out the final round. The Spearman horde can countercharge the Snow Foxes while still controlling a 2 Pointer. The rest of the field belongs to my opponent, so he'll win no matter what, it would just be a matter of how many tokens he can grab. Since it's a pretty casual game here, suffice it to say, the Brothermark win!

Game Conclusions

Going into the game, I knew I had a drop, Unit Strength and Nerve deficiency, so I would need to be aggressive and decisive to have any chance at winning. I made the right call largely ignoring the infantry. My deployment wasn't great, but most things were set-up for Round 2 charges, which was the best I could do. Getting multiple Round 1 wavers then was pretty crippling. The little that made it into combat on Round 2 underperformed, and none of my more desperate moves to gain some traction paid off given the quality of the units I was facing. My opponent didn't really make any mistakes, so in the end it was a very one-sided affair. Kudos to my opponent for playing a very solid game!

Testing Conclusions

Despite the end result, it was still very enjoyable to roll some dice, and I got some some good testing  in for the Varangur! Refining and perfecting a list is not really my style, and I do feel I am learning a lot bouncing between armies a bit, despite the poorer showings. 

• Reavers. These are not good grinding units - yes, you can give them Lifeleech, but their Defense is just too low to really grind out a combat. I think these are something you throw them at something scary in the hopes you damage it enough to take it out later with something else. And for this role, troops would seem like a better option. I think the Reavers would also generally pair better with infantry, so this was good to explore and test, but not a good showing for them.
• Mounted Sons. I think I salvaged my deployment goofs ok, but the lucky wavers Round 1 just crippled my advance. Once they finally got into combat several rounds later, they had some good damage output though. My opponent brought some even better  CS cavalry in his list, and this style of unit performed pretty well for both of us. Having multiples is good as they can work alongside one another easily.
• Horse Raiders. I like the versatility! Having both TC and a ranged attack is great, but don't think I used these well at all. These should be disrupting, not screening, and they don't need to be deployed stacked with anything. That heavy stack was my downfall I think.
• Frostfang Cavalry. Unfortunately for me, this game was basically a repeat of our previous battle, where the Brothermark artillery shot them off before they could do anything. My opponent suggested these are a points trap. I gave them a more charitable "match-up dependent" label, but the more I think on it, the more I think maybe my opponent is on to something there. They do have pure CS and Strider, so can have a more distinct roll. However, in an open field situation, they hit on 4's normally, so all the extra attacks shouldn't result in that much extra damage compared to the cheaper Mounted Sons. However, in the open field, most things are going to be able to see the Frostfangs with their Height 4, and they should draw a lot of fire. 
• Snow Foxes. They died to protect flanks and one even stuck around to the end. Unfortunately, their sacrifices were in vain as the rest of my army didn't do well, but I actually feel like used these pretty decently. 
• Frost Giant. I know his combat was unsupported due to my errors in positioning, but that was the worst showing for a Giant that I have seen to date. Dice are dice and the Oathsworn were just rolling much better than him. I didn't get to try out the breath attack since combat seemed like the better play this time. Frost Giant breath plus Magus Circles seem like an interesting idea, though the line of sight could get tricky. 
• Magnilde. She got lucky with the Dictator missing some early hits, and arguably did ok. She's still very nice to have around and was one of the few bright spots this game for me. My mini was hobbied up as Herja though, and is old GW Finecast resin (very flimsy and brittle), so I think I'll look to swap out this model in the future, as I'll likely be taking her in most lists.
• Lord on Frostfang. These did not have a good showing and were not used well. I definitely overestimated their combat effectiveness. Neither accomplished anything and were at a general disadvantage with their Height 4 vs the enemy artillery. Good units, but not a good showing here for the Lords due partially to the match-up but mostly to my errors. I need to have a better plan for these in future games.

I did not think I was going to get in another game in before 2022 ended, so many thanks to Cartwright for reaching out and fitting this in over the afternoon! My opponent played a solid game, earning a well-deserved crushing victory as I learned a lot about the Varangur. Cheers, and I'm looking forward to more games in 2023!

Hobby Update: Herd Hunters of the Wild

Over the last few years, I picked up a fair bit of plastic (some 200+ models), with the intent of making a multi-system Elf army sometime, in the vein of classic High Elves. We'll see if that plan ever comes to fruition. I have more than enough armies as it is right now! And not a ton of time to devote to any other game systems. So for now, I dipped into that pile of shame to make some Hunters of the Wild for the Herd, an army I have a bit of, but has generally not been well-represented in the blog. The collection is a little wonky, with a huge allotment of Lycans, so I'm hoping some more generic unit additions like these will help balance out the collection more, so I can run a more sensible list, and the army can then see the table a bit.

We'll kick things off with a group shot.

The models are GW Dryads. Everything I got came second-hand via ebay, though some of these were new on the sprue. It's not a bad kit, and via ebay again, I was even able to pick up a few spare bodies to make my existing sprues go further, since they come with extra arms and heads and such.

We'll call this Regiment 1 for the sake of the post. The units should be interchangeable though.

Honestly, the minis were a pain to work with. I remember a fastidious friend building some of these up years and years ago for his Wood Elves and that cleaning all mold lines took him forever, as there are a fair number of mold lines, especially on all the branch bits. Normally, mold lines are quick to remove, and here, even though it is tedious, I would recommend you take the time to remove them all if you choose to hobby these up for yourself.

A Troop from Regiment 1.

Assembly is a little better. As already mentioned, there are a good variety of heads and arm bits and such, so that's all great and you should be able to get a good variety of poses despite just having four basic body options.

The other Troop from Regiment 1.

These are very fun to paint though. There are a lot of details like leaves that you can zero in on, or, if you are like me, these work fantastic with just drybrushing, so long as you remove all the mold lines. I originally started with a complete base coat of Citadel's Rhinox Hide, but eventually decided (after I had base coated everything, of course), that I wanted these to look more like living terrain.

And we'll call this Regiment 2.

To help get that effect, I switched over to more generic craft paints like Apple Barrel, as those are the same kind of paints I use for terrain. I restared with a generic burnt umber color as a base coat, though I wasn't too picky on the coverage, since I was painting over the darker Rhinox hide, and any missed spots would (hopefully) just give the illusion of more depth. This step ended up being more of an overbrush. Then I went to Citadel's Deathclaw Brown to help tie the units to the rest of the army, since that color is used for stumps and such in the rest of the collection, and then a generic gray as a final, light drybrush to create a bit of a weathered effect on various limbs. Leaves got a generic tan color and then a brown wash, and other bits (like brambles) got other colors as needed. 

A Troop from Regiment 2.

These were a ton of fun to paint once I got going though. All the bark ridges take drybrushing very well, so even newer painters should be able to get these looking fairly good, provided they take the time to remove the mold lines! I was leaning towards a more verdant and vibrant green and white color scheme for my theoretical elf list, with the dryads as mean birch trees. I still have a dozen or so dryad minis left, so we'll see when/if those hit the hobby table sometime for a new elf army.

The other Troop from Regiment 2.

Overall, I like how the units turned out. I put in 6 minis per troop, but I think I could have bumped that up to 7 models. The dryads were a little thinner than it seemed they would be, and the ponds and stumps and such didn't take up nearly as much space in the end as it seemed they would when I was trying to plan everything out. If I find I have some extra dryad minis down the line, I may bulk these units out a bit more, but everything is good enough for the table right now.

This is already a long post, but stumps are the next hobby bit to discuss. Previously, I've hacked apart cheap, spent, pen casings and covered the husks in green stuff to make broken stumps. I felt like the lack of a woody core to the pen-stumps gave them a bit of an older or decayed appearance. That was the hope at least. I wanted to have stumps here, to help wysiwyg the Pathfinder special rule, and tie this unit in with the rest of the army. Unfortunately, I only had one pen stump made already, and couldn't find any more casings.

I used wire, pliers, and aluminum foil to build the stump, then covered with green stuff.
The finished Dryads/Hunters lurk nearby, waiting for their bases to be hobbied up.

I have tried sculpting things a few times over the years, but never with much success. However, I have seen a number of additional videos over the years now, and so attempted to test out some methods for some new low-risk stumps. First, I haphazardly cut some small lengths of some old armature wire. Second, I found two similar lengths and held them with the pliers, twisting the lengths round and round, with the ends splayed for an attempt at roots. I then used some aluminum foil to bulk out the armature "skeleton" and soften the edges. This was the big improvement over my previous attempts.

When I have used wire before, typically it moves around, complicating the sculpting I am trying to get done. Adding padding like the foil helps cushion everything, minimizing accidental movement and provides general stability, as well as bulks out the model with something more lightweight than the clay or putty. This worked well, though some of the ends still tended to poke through and rip the foil. Were I to do this again, I would start with one long section of wire, fold it in half, and then twist and such. The roots should be left even longer, so they can be bent backwards against themselves as well.

Once the foil stumps were covered completely with green stuff, I let it sit for about 20 minutes to firm up, and then tried adding some lines / gouges to the putty to suggest bark. It kind of works, but not really well, if you compare the stumps to the miniatures. I think I need more of a flatter, chisel-like tool to make indentations along the putty instead of gouges. Still, it's all vaguely tree-shaped, painted, and I think most folks will know what it is supposed to be. 

Last up on the hobby-side of things is the snow. I opted for two layers this time, using a bottom layer of a softened ivory color with the glue and baking soda, followed by a top layer of the same mixture but with white. I thought that multiple layers should provide a more realistic appearance to the snowfall, and the difference in color should hopefully add some sense of depth to the base. This is working out well and will likely become the new norm for my snow as long as I am not dealing with miniatures with stands. 

All-in-all, I am very happy with the units. While there is always stuff to improve upon with my hobbying, like the texture to the stumps, I think all these units turned out really nice and should look just spiffy on the table. ... though I honestly have no idea how they will perform on said table though! The last time the Herd saw play was a pair of intro games back in 2017.

Generally though, the Herd seems like a quick and glass cannon-style army, able to apply quick pressure to overwhelm a zone early, and  then hopefully capitalize on that to snowball into victories elsewhere on the board in order to take the game. I wouldn't call myself an aggressive player, so I am not sure the presumed playstyle is a good match for me, but it will be fun to mix things up I think and should lead to some cool battle reports. We'll see when they might manage to hit the table!

Hobby Update: Abyssal's Second Chroneas and Herd Moonfang / Lycan Alpha

In addition to my Archaon purchase, which is more for fun and personal reasons than for actual gaming, I made a few purchases specific to Kings of War as the year has started wrapping up, including a few discounted 3d Prints via an ebay storefront. The first of these was a second Chroneas miniature, since I was buying from the same shop I got the first miniature from. 

The Green-Flame Chroneas.

I still feel like he should probably be a bit bigger to better fill out the 50mm square and space, but I still like the freaky gait and look of the mini overall, and the smaller size has been great for transporting, so I don't feel bad doubling down on this particular miniature. I can always upgrade these at some point in the future. 

For this one, I tried a green flame effect instead of the blue, as I am still considering a repaint of all of the Flamebearers and Efreets and such from the old blue to this new green. I have really liked the green effect elsewhere, but with this done I am doubting the necessity of significant repaints now. The blue looks good, and so does the green. The aesthetic difference isn't all that great, and I don't think I can justify the time needed to repaint everything. A color split might even be desirable for some of the write-ups to help differentiate units. I'll get some more games in and see how a mix of things look in report pictures and such, but yeah, no repaints planned anymore. 

The second print was a werewolf mini, Willveris Werewolf. The print needed some very minor cleanup  removing printing supports, and after a quick wash and dry, which I would recommend you do for any print, I popped outside for a minute to prime. The weather hasn't been great, but on the day it was both dry and above freezing, so priming wasn't too troublesome. 

Honestly this mini was a lot of fun to paint up. Looking at the picture now, I think it needs one more pass of blue to highlight some of the brow and muscles, but it's table-worthy in my book. I'll add that last touchup before he goes in the army box. This fearsome mini will be used as some kind of Inspiring Lycan character for the Herd, either a simple Lycan Alpha or as the unique Moonfang. 

The new Lycan hero.

On the table, the Alpha is pretty basic. It's got Pathfinder, a 5+ Regen, decent Nerve and stats, and 5 attacks. It's not amazing, but with 9 Speed and Nimble, it should be able to move quickly to threaten things, and be able produce a damage or two against the enemy when needed. The 45 points for the named character gives a bump to a 4+ Regen, a slight bump to both Nerve values, and an extra attack. Moonfang also has Vicious, and grants a conditional Vicious to friendly core units engaged with the same target as Moonfang. All those buffs should give him more staying power, and make him a better supporting character. My mindset is usually "cheaper is better" for evaluating units, but I think that is my Kingdoms of Men bias talking, since they don't have a ton of special rules and upgrade options. I am trying to shake that thinking up. An additional 45 points isn't a ton to commit, and gives a fair amount, so I will try to run Moonfang over the generic Alpha whenever possible, if only to try and force a bit of a new gaming perspective on myself.

No matter how I end up running him though, I am glad to have a Lycan hero. I have tons and tons of Lycans for the Herd, so thematically I really want them to have their hero, because that's fluffy. I think one thing Mantic could do to encourage list variety is lean into the sub-factions for future editions. Not every faction needs sub-factions (the generic Kingdoms of Men can probably do without as they are  built currently), but having heroes like Moonfang or the Alpha Inspire only units that share a keyword, would make player's need to look more at the sub-factions when list building instead of just picking from the very best of every type of unit they need. Having a lowly Ghoul Ghast able to Inspire the elite vampiric Soul Reavers seems a bit silly to me, so emphasizing the sub-faction, or introducing a hierarchy of inspiring heroes through the keywords could be cool, and they already doing it with some of the upgrades. Running parallel to this, Mantic could also make the generic Army Standard Bearers inspire all the units in the roster, giving them more of a niche to fill in an army list, or they could add a one-off "Inspire All" magic item or similar upgrade to help smooth things out for players. Somethings like "Diadem of the Unifier" or "Bangle of Command" or something. I donno, I appear to have gotten off on a game-design tangent now...

Getting back to the point for this particular post: I have a second Chroneas now, as well as a new Lycan hero for the Herd. The Abyssals are in a pretty solid spot right now, with a good collection and a good amount of table time, but the Herd hasn't seen any tables in a long time as I feel like the collection is a bit unwieldy for a larger game, and I want to try and provide a good game for my opponents. I've made a few purchases and dipped into some old piles of shame recently though, so I am hoping I can get them in a better place for 2023. They seem like a very speedy and very aggressive army, which should hopefully make for some interesting games whenever they do hit the table. 

Hobby WIP: Old School Archaon

I gave myself an early Christmas gift this year: Archaon the Everchosen. 

If you've spent much time reading through my ramblings over the years, you know that Warhammer Fantasy Battles got me into wargaming, and that I played Empire for a bit at the start before picking up Warriors of Chaos to close out Eighth Edition. While I had some success as the edition wrapped up, I would argue that I never quite "got" proper list building in the game, and never really picked up any legit centerpiece models.

However, I may have timed this purchase a little poorly. Apparently GW had reset him in late November to be "made to order", an event which I missed entirely since I don't follow their announcements. Instead my "new" Archaon popped up on one of my ebay searches, and while I was mulling it over, the seller offered him at a discounted price, and so I took it. So, oddly enough this may have been an instance of a used ebay mini being more expensive that a new one, but I can't seem to find how expensive the new GW model would have been. So I'll count this as a win.

 

From the front. 

The paint job is actually passable for the tabletop, with multiple colors and such, though I will obviously be redoing it. It's now my little commemorative centerpiece model after all. Not sure yet if I will strip it down the the metal and start completely fresh or just repaint it or how best to approach this all yet. So far I've just scraped around and freed it form the plastic base, and given the model a light rinse to clean it up a bit. We'll take it slow and see how much we need to undo.

From the side. Scraping and separating the base got be down to metal, so I'm not even sure if this is primed or what. I'll need to figure all that out before I start. If I need to re-prime, this will probably turn into a longer-term project, as it is winter and generally bad weather for priming with my rattle cans.

I have only seen the model in person once before, when I borrowed one for an Mega Battle that our local Warhammer Fantasy group ran to conclude a our lengthy months-long End Times narrative campaign. Our  old "club" forum is now defunct, but I did find a recap of that event over in the WiscoDice blog archives, written up by the player across from me. 

The Mega Battle was one of the first events I had a real hand in organizing and running. Things didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped for on the day, but I learned a lot and generally speaking, I had a great time. I think this will be a fun hobby side project to remind myself of that mega battle, how I got into wargaming, and how far I've come as a hobbiest. Typically I paint to what I would call a decent tabletop standard, but I think I'd like to try and push my hobbying a bit here, and make this a legit centerpiece unit. Things like adding more highlights and such. So, we'll take it slow and see how I end up doing on hobbying up the ol' Lord of the End Times here.

More to come!

Hobby Update: Ogre Sergeants with Heavy Crossbows

Spoilers if you haven't read it, but my Battle 020 with the Stormcast Ogres wasn't a great showing for me. I had a lot of fun trying out a more elite army and had a whole lot of fun exploring the quirks of large infantry, but the Ogres definitely require more finesse than I had anticipated.

In the game I was exploring Shooting Hordes. They cost 230 points, and need another horde to unlock them, since they are irregular units. Given the investment, they need to deliver, and I do not have the skills to make that happen yet, so when writing up the report and thinking about what to run next, I looked at shrinking down the Shooters into regiments, so as not to rely on them so much.

Regiments are a little better at 140 points, though they still need something to unlock them. The regiments gets 9 attacks, and with Heavy Crossbows those are at 30" and with Piercing 2, but the unit also has Ra5+ and Pot Shot. The Pot Shot is crippling, as if you move, you need 6's with half your attacks. You do not really want to move these if you have any other available shots.

Sergeants with a Heavy Crossbow cost 120 points, have Ra5+ but also get Steady Aim. The downside being that they go from 9 attacks down to 5. But Steady Aim is still a significant buff. The Sergeant not only has the same Unit Strength as a regiment, but also gets a +1 boost to Waver and Rout values, and is a source of Inspiring as well. 

Seeing all this, I opted to buy some Ogre Sergeants. The minis were second-hand, found on ebay, and were under $20, which is my cutoff for impulsive purchases like this. They came assembled and primed in the Retributor gold color, or something close enough! We've had a few nice days, but I wanted to paint these up quickly and did not want to try any cold-weather priming. The minis look to be a unit of Vanguard Raptors, assembled with the crossbow option, which works very well for me, as the crossbows look the same as the other shooters. These also have neat ornamentation on the helms, which should make them look more like individual heroes.

The new trio. They do look rather heroic, don't they? 

The Sergeants got the same slapdash paint scheme as the rest of the army: Dark pauldrons and hanging skirt strips, a light wood color for parts of the crossbow, and some brown and grey bases with tufts. So long as they are primed gold, its a very quick process, and these were done over a few hours, including the dry time for the basing paste.

I could have just taken a few minis from a unit of Shooters, but figured three more minis for the army would not be too terrible... I think the units and Sergeants should probably fulfill different roles, so new models would let me do some side-by-side testing too and see what those might be. We'll see how that  testing goes and when, and if getting new minis was a foolish call...

At 140 points I think the Shooter Regiments could be good for some light area-denial, and chaff-related duties (clearing enemy chaff, taking a charge, etc). I think my plan would be to set them up early to lay claim to a firing lane, and see how that works for them.

I think the Sergeants here are going to be little anchors and damage dealers, sprinkled around the battle line, functionally similar to the Warlocks, but more expensive and slightly less dependent on  their deployment. The Sergeants can inspire, and with Steady Aim and 30" range, they should be able to put a point of damage where you need it, but probably not much more than that, so if you focus-fire or supplement with other ranged attacks, so much the better for chip damage. As needed they can move up, alongside other units, to extend their own reach, like Warlocks. Unlike the Warlocks though, the Sergeants can threaten things in melee with their CS2.

The Ogres were are a pretty unique army to field. I am looking forward to giving them another try sometime, and these heroes should give me a few more ranged options to explore in the future.

Hobby Update: Abyssal Archfiend and Second Abyssal Fiend

I made a number of purchases in November. Honestly, most of these were probably not great or timely acquisitions, though thankfully nothing was particularly expensive. I've been trying to rein in my hobby spending again, especially now since it's gotten colder and started snowing during November... Winter is the time to fight the grey unpainted legions, not add to their ranks!

The Abyssals got the bulk of the recent reinforcements. I saw a used Archfiend, assembled and primed for sale online some months ago. When I stumbled upon him again recently, and even discounted now, I decided to pick him up. I also picked up another 20 used Flamebearers, also assembled and primed, as those have been working for me lately, and would let me use up the last few Lower Abyssal bodies I have sitting around too. All this for under the MSRP of a normal Mantic Archfiend. Used miniatures are great! The Flamebearers will take some time to work through, but since they are already primed, I can hopefully get to those over the winter. For now, I just hobbied up the big things. 

The Archfiend if a very big model!

The mini is made from a hard (but thankfully not brittle) resin, which has proven to be nice. The model has a long, devilish tail which seems like it should snap, but the resin used has enough "give" to have not broken yet. The mini was purchased secondhand so came assembled, but it looks like the pieces needed a fair amount of cleanup that was not done. The upper shoulders have a bit of a gap with the rest of the body, and there were a few small circular spots here and there that looked like leftover nubs to sprue attachments. Just behind the skull was one, so I added a small greenstuff boney spike to disguise it. If you buy this new-in-box, definitely consider dry fitting everything before you glue it together!

The Archfiend is nice, big "heavy flier" for the Forces of the Abyss. This kind of monster is an inspiring flier on a titanic base with great combat stats like CS3 and Me3 and Def5, usually has 17/19 Nerve, about 10 attacks (the Archfiend has 9), and a special ability or two, one of which is usually some kind of ranged attack, like a breath attack. The Undead's Vampire on Undead Dragon is one of these, as is the Elf Dragon Kindred Lord. Many armies have access to a similar heavy flying unit. They all cost about the same, and are one of the few units in any roster to exceed 300 points, weighing in around 305 points usually. They are all big, flying hammers, which will do a lot of damage if you can protect them. 

The second titan was another Abyssal Fiend, made from another Minotaur Labyrinth Guardian. I got mine on sale - it was just too hard to pass up another big toy for $12. I used cheap Reaper Miniatures things for years, but all these newer pre-primed D&D-style minis are pretty slick too. I like purchasing something from the FLGSs I play at, just to support them a bit and thank them for the table. Many shops have had a selection of these kinds of minis these days, so they are definitely worth checking out given their prices. They do technically come primed, but I'd suggest at least giving them a rinse and a dry before you do anything with them. Some have had a bit of hydrophobic ... coating, residue, film, or something on them that interferes with paint thrown directly on them. A rinse and dry has worked, and you can always prime them again if you want to.

Second Fiend.

I have used the lesser Fiend I think at least twice on the table, but neither attempt was noteworthy. They have decent combat stats and abilities and Nerve, but I have tended to over-estimate their combat effectiveness on the table. They only have 7 attacks - so you really don't want them charging something in the front, nor being the main damage dealer in a melee. They just don't have the attacks to swing that in your favor. I think their usefulness might actually lie in them having a Fireball attack, letting then advance and threaten a bit at range (especially in conjunction with things like Flamebearers), though using the Fireball and attempting this approach is something I have yet to really use in-game. I'll just need to test and play more I suppose!

A trio of titans for the Forcess of the Abyss.

The various Fiends are probably too expensive to all run at once, but I would still like to attempt some mega battles at some point, and the Forces of the Abyss seem like great antagonists, so they'll be good to have around I think. I will get some use out of them eventually!

More miscellaneous Reaper Kobolds to run as Imps. 

The last addition to the Abyssals right now are more Imps. This was not a necessary purchase - I don't need more Imps, but I saw a neat pack while killing time in a shop, and decided to pick them up. A lot of Abyssal players don't like the Imps, preferring Gargoyles and other units (like Ghouls, and even more expensive Seductresses and Tortured Souls) to complicate the enemy movement phase and act as chaff to set up good trades, but they are cheap and I have liked having a regiment or two around in my games, so I will continue to run the little guys when I have the points to do so. 

And that's it for the Abyssals for now! I have a few more lists done up to test, so we'll see what December is like for games!