I was able to get in another game of Kings of War! It was against the same splendid foe as the previous game and played on March 20th, 2022. While coordinating, we had each floated the idea of potential double-header and each came up with two lists, but only got one game in due to other responsibilities.
Lists and Set-Up
My opponent opted to run the following, as they wanted to test out the Ice Kin and their Scout move over his typical Pack Hunters and their javelins. (And a quick plug here for the list builder from Tactical Wargames.)
I rolled off to determine which list I would pick, and I ended up running the above. (And a plug as well for the Easy Army list builder.) For better or for worse, my list here was also pretty similar to my previous list, leaning on two Pike Regiments, two Giants, and the General on Winged Beast, though about 1000 points of this was new stuff. With this list I wanted to test:
- Fanatics instead of Foot Guard. (With all my upgrades, these are the same cost, so let's swap and compare.)
- Knight Troops. (I wanted to see how these worked. With De5 and 13/15, they seemed relatively tanky, so perhaps I can charge out and pin something in place.
- Militia. (We lost the wonderful 50 pt troops from 2nd, but I was curious how 65 pt chaff regiments would work. Would they still die on command?)
- Mounted Scouts Regiment. (Will the extra shots do anything? What about using it as a melee threat?)
- Bowmen / Outlaws. (Formations can be fun. This doesn't look all that impressive, but we'll see. The Volley Fire seemed interesting.)
- More Indomitable Will / ASB tests. (I don't really count the flying General as a source, so I am mainly using the Brigand and 20 pts of Indomitable will. Will that be enough?)
My opponent's list was going to be tough for me! The quality of his archers are way better than mine (though quite expensive), and all the Snow Foxes could easily chaff me up. These new units were going to be high on my list to try and kill off first. I had the drop advantage and if I could pick off those elements off early on, I felt pretty good I could isolate and best his various hordes units.
Speeding through the various pre-game rolls, we ended up with the Pillage Scenario. I don't remember the order they were placed, but my opponent ended up dropping three all very close together, off on my far-right. I dropped one in each deployment zone on the left to try and spread things out, figuring with more drops, I could probably take a few objectives while contesting the rest.
I had the drop advantage, but ended up spread a little oddly and a little thin. While deploying I regarded the Militia as chaff, and deployed them first, followed by the knights, and then was able to deploy more of my units to match up against my opponent, with Pikes each ready to oppose the Naiads and Huscarls, and Fanatics vaguely nearby to offer support. The layout isn't terrible, but could have been better had I given it some more thought.
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I tried to slow-play my own interest in the right flank a bit, deploying my Giants quite late. I expected a lot of fighting here over these closer objectives, and with both Snow Trolls Hordes already deployed here, I figured this was a good place for the Giants, as they could easily make use of their Slayer rule. They could hopefully counter the darned Snow Trolls and contest the objectives here without too much additional support early on.
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| Post-deployment, post-scouting move. Vantage from the General and the left flank of the Regnum and showing 4 out of 5 objectives. |
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| View from the Center-Right. I deployed the Brigand in the middle of deployment. |
With a lot of violence expected on the right and with the left planning on sweeping around to reinforce things later on, that meant that my center just needed to occupy space and drag things out. My idea was to commit some troops between the building and the forest, so as to be opposing the Naiads and Huscarls and their Snow Foxes. This would hopefully create a bit of a no-man's land and occupy their attention while more interesting things happened elsewhere.
Despite knowing I wanted to prioritize the Ice Kin Hunters, I deployed the Bowmen oddly, with only one troop taking the forest. I think I was wanting to zone out the center a bit from any early Snow Foxes or aggressive play. In retrospect, I should have put both in the forest, as well as the Brigand, even potentially committing the Scouts here instead as well.
I won the roll-off for first-turn decision. My opponent had ended up smartly deploying the Snow Foxes behind other units. But the Ice Kin Hunters had used their Scout move to get into the terrain in front of them (height 0 difficult terrain, but would provide cover). Going second has some nice benefits with objectives, but I decided to risk it and go first, hoping to score some early ranged hits against the Hunters. Troop-on-troop seemed like a good test and a good opportunity, so I opted to go first and see if the Volley Fire rule from the formation would do the trick.
Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men
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| Right Flank, Giants screened and advancing. |
On my right, the Giants moved up, screened by the Militia and Knight Troop. The Bowmen in the forest would be issued a Halt order, triggering their formation abilities from Volley Fire and gaining Indirect Fire and Ignore Cover, and would score two points against the Ice Kin. I think 1-2 damage is probably the best I can ever expect of a Bowmen/Archer troop? That feels about right. The formation rules help here for sure, but their stats just aren't great. The Bowmen staying put meant the Fanatics were kept safe and in reserve behind the forest, which was probably for the best.
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| The spacious center. |
The plan involved sweeping wide, but I think I held back on my left hoping to get the Naiads to commit elsewhere first, but I don't know how realistic that is. With so much deployed here I probably should have just been more aggressive from the start, at least with the General and Scouts. As it was, the Scouts just moved 9" and did nothing. Going further for a better position next round would have been a better call.
My other Bowmen moved up just a few inches to help threaten the center area in the future.
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| Another shot of the far-left. Inching forward... |
I also bumble around a bit with my infantry here due to poor deployment and planning. In retrospect, I should have taken this turn to reorganize, and just parked the Militia back on the objective and forgotten about them. But I had deployed them pretty forward as an early drop, and did not have a plan for them or the Fanatics early on. So a slow shuffle began as I tried to figure things out.
Bottom of Round 1: Northern Alliance
My opponent's line moved forward on his turn, with Snow Trolls skulking just outside of charge range of the Militia. The Ice Kin troops split their attacks, and loosed at each of my Bowmen troops. The Bowmen in the forest took 4 damage and were Wavered. The ones outside took more damage than that were Routed. The dice were a little hot, but overall, this was a misplay on my part. I forgot the Bowmen in the open gained Steady Aim from the formation, so they could have taken some shots last turn, though having moved, would not have gotten the benefits from Volley Fire and would have been firing either into the Ice Kin in cover, or against the Huscarls, and neither option was great. My opponent definitely outplayed me here with the ranged engagements!
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| The Northern Alliance moves up in a really disciplined line. |
The Huscarls hopped the fence, followed by some foxes. The Naiads took the hill, which tentatively committed them to the center and not the left flank. Hidden behind the hill was the Ice Queen and a troop of Foxes. On the far left, the Dwarfs inched back.
Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men
On the right, the Militia moved another inch towards the objective, supported by the Giant and daring the Snow Trolls to commit. The second Giant crept up to zone out the center as their knightly escort took a gamble. The Ice Kin were troops and squishy, and even hindered, I thought I had a decent chance to hurt them. I figured I could probably take the crack back for a turn, even with the lurking Lord. In reality, I seem to have forgotten how punishing hindered charges are to my Knights, and they only squeak in 2 damage against the Ice Kin, whose nerve check is easily passed.
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| From the right, featuring a pretty foolhardy charge by the Knights. |
Wavered, the Bowmen do nothing, and I opt to keep my Fanatics in reserve still. The Pikes near the forest do nothing, holding off until the Naiads or Huscarls commit more first. The Brigand enters the forest, a looses against the injured Ice Kin troop, dealing 2 damage to them, and I believe scoring a wavered result against them, which is pretty good!
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| And the left flank is sorta kicking it into gear. |
On the left, the General flies over, threatening the Dwarf unit. The Knights and Scouts move forward, keeping out of the charge range of the Dwarfs, and the Mounted Scouts can finally shoot at something. Not wanting to go after the armored dwarfs, I opt for the Snow Foxes lurking with the Ice Queen behind the hill. Here I learn that the Snow Foxes have Stealthy and of the 14 attacks, the Scouts only score 2 damage on the Foxes, which is about right statistically as hitting on 6's is not fun. Ouch.
Bottom of Round 2: Northern Alliance
Snow Foxes lead the charge against my right flank, nipping at the Giant but doing no damage. A horde of Snow Trolls and the Prime follow, creeping around the ruined building while the other horde of Snow Trolls brutalizes the Militia screening the giant on the far right. These were all great moves by my opponent, and he made good use of the Foxes here for sure.
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| The Regnum is getting a little boxed in on the right flank. |
The daring troop of Knights actually get obliterated by the countercharging Ice Kin and Lord and routed, with the Lord choosing to overrun. The victorious Ice Kin move backward, to join their fellows who, while Wavered, also inched backward into the safety of the terrain.
In the center, the Huscarls move forward to secure the objective there, still followed by their faithful Snow Foxes. The Foxes trailing the Naiads turn to try and screen out the Ice Queen, and in return, she Heals them for 1. The Dwarf Clansmen continue to scoot backwards.
Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men
The Knights again creep forward out but of charge range of the Dwarfs, and I send the Militia up to help the knights dislodge them from the objective. Meanwhile, the General flies overhead, looking to commit to something against the Naiads or Huscarls in the coming turn.
I don't remember if I had an open flank charge on the Dwarves here or if they were able to scoot out of range. If I did, not charging was a big mistake. If I did not, I think it was a mistake, but smaller. I should have actually secured this flank with so much committed here over the last few turns. Cutting and running with the General right now was a bad plan. I need a lot to destroy the Naiads and nothing was close to being prepared, and it was the same situation with the Huscarls. I should have taken out the Dwarves and consolidated this round instead.
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| The Scouts charge! |
The Scouts have had enough of shooting, and decide to charge the Foxes. In melee, the beasts are easily routed, and the victorious Scouts move back, not wanting to get too far ahead of the General or other elements. Perhaps I should have overran to gain more ground and threaten more and possibly block some possible "change facing" reforms of the Naiads? I am not sure what the best move was here.
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| Movement top of Round 3. |
In the center, the Pikes still are screening out the area between the building and forest as planned, though with no real "killy" support units, this feels more like doing nothing than an actual plan. The Brigand is able to sneak another point of damage in against the wounded Ice Kin and is able to rout them though. Small victories!
I send the Fanatics through the edge of the forest and into the Foxes, along with the Giant, while the Bowmen charge the Trolls and then shuffle to the center. The Fanatics are hindered, but the Foxes are obliterated easily and victorious Fanatics and Giant step back, hoping to draw the Prime and Trolls away from the objective before the next clash.
On the right, the other Giant is facing down something he is intended to counter. A staggering 10 extra attacks are rolled up on the 2d6s from Slayer and the normal Giant attacks, and of the 18 attacks, 12 attacks miss, though the remaining 6 do go on to damage the Snow Trolls. That was disappointing! That was low rolling, but I think I was overestimating the potency of Giants by themselves.
Bottom of Round 3: Northern Alliance
The Dwarfs continue to scoot back, and are now far enough away to not actually control that objective, though the Naiads now turn to help contest the back objective with them in the coming turns.
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| Movement on the bottom of Round 3. |
From the safety of the forest, the remaining Ice Kin unit turns and shoots, and with the Ice Queen's breath attack too, my opponent rolls a bit hot, and is able to pile on the damage on my Scouts from nothing to healthy double-digits. The Scouts are shooed off the table easily despite being inspired, which was a shock to me. I don't think I used the Scouts particularly well in this game, so we'll see what can be learned from additional games. The regimental-size seems intriguing, but they seem more difficult to use than I was expecting.
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On the right, the Snow Trolls counter-charge while regenerating 3 of the 6 damage taken last turn. They also have 18 attacks, but lower Crushing Strength, but still somehow manage to sneak in 10 damage against the Giant. My opponent had some good dice rolls this game! Thankfully the Giant holds. The Prime could not see the Bowmen, so opts to chill and just be Inspiring to his kin while the other horde of Snow Trolls easily beat down the upstart Bowmen.
The Lord on Frostfang charges in against the Fanatics, again shuffling down to align and dealing a fair amount of damage, but not enough to rout them. We had a lot of unusual charges on this flank, but that was neat to see and really ingrain that "shuffle down" section of the charge rules.
Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men
Seeing how well the Snow Trolls were handling an (alleged) counter unit, both Giants opt to charge the injured unit of Snow Trolls. Together, after a bunch of dice rolling, the Giants are victorious. The Fanatics counter-charge the Lord, dealing 4 which I guess is not bad considering the armor of their foe.
The Brigand weighs his options, and opts to shoot against the Ice Kin, though none of the shots connect. That is unfortunate, but they have been in cover all game, and he's been doing surprisingly well with his shots so far, continually slipping in a damage in the last few turns. Shooting still seemed like the best option. Charging him into the Snow Trolls seemed like a waste. I considered a charge against the Lord, though not being a Mighty hero, I'd have likely just be setting up a "kill the hero and overrun into a unit" combat for my opponent next turn with the Snow Trolls coming to join.
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| The Regnum hits back, and we look to be swirling around the ruin with our forces. |
On the right, the Knights and Militia continue to press in against the Dwarf Clansmen, though I am now starting to realize my mistake in not committing to just take them out earlier. They are waiting to charge together, but even together I don't think they have what it takes to bring the dwarves down. Hard to say what the best option would be here right now after all the sub-optimal moves on this flank so far!
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| The Pikes hop the fence, trying to pressure the Naiads a bit, and the General swoops down. |
And speaking of sub-optimal moves, after moving everything else, I am left with just my General and these creeping realizations about how badly I utilized him this game! Lessons were learned for sure. Having flown over the Clansmen last turn I don't have a lot of good options. Currently, I can't reach the Huscarls or far away Foxes. I could get a flank charge on the Naiads, but this seemed like a waste, given their regen and high Nerve and nothing else charging in. So I opt to attack the Ice Queen, hoping at least remove something from the table. The Ice Queen has ensnare but that seemed ok to risk here. The General swoops down and with talons and sword, lands one damage against the frosty mage. Oops.
Bottom of Round 4: Northern Alliance
The Horde of Naiads descend from the hillock, pushing out towards the objective in my opponent's deployment done. They are finally committing somewhere! It was hard to effectively pressure them since I had my Fanatic back camping the objective, and the Pikes were therefore unsupported. Again this all comes down to my bad planning. Had I parked the Militia here instead, the Fanatics could have moved out and been used better, either taking the objective from the Dwarf Clansmen or actually threatening the center. With no actual threats posed by me, the Naiads make the right call to help take that objective. I think that was a good decision by my opponent.
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| A surprising twist for the General! |
From the woods, the last Ice Kin Hunters charge out against the General and are joined by the Foxes. The foxes I was figuring on, but the Kin were a surprise. They are speedy! The Foxes get two wounds in while the Ice Kin are apparently pumped up and deal 6 damage. Yowza! More good rolls from my opponent. The Ice Queen slinks away and casts heal on herself, removing the one wound, though, I believe this is a goof as I am writing now. Having taken damage last turn, I think she should be Disordered this turn and unable to shoot or cast spells. Oops.
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| I am liking this Brigand guy. |
As the turn wraps, we start looking more at objectives and discussing the game, and it is actually pretty close. The fighting has been fierce on the right. Now unsupported, the Giants have at least claimed one objective, and can threaten another that is currently unclaimed. The center is controlled by the Huscarls. I am controlling the objective in my deployment zone with the last regiment of Fantatics, and the Dwarf Clansmen have back-tracked enough to be off of the objective in my opponent's deployment zone.
Top of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men
The Brigand stands his ground, striking back at the Snow Troll horde in front of him and dealing 1 damage. The Giants reposition, hoping to dissuade moves on the unclaimed objective. With the positioning of the Prime, I was a little afraid of a "back-cap" from him scooting around the ruin to contest the objective. The Giant only has a Unit Strength of 1, after all, same as the Prime. But the best option for him still seemed to be to face the other objective.
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| Attrition across the board has been high. |
The Militia and Knights make a desperate charge against the Dwarfs, but only deal 2 damage to them, confirming plainly that I do not have enough to secure this objective, and definitely won't once the Naiads arrive. Perhaps I could have just charged the Militia in, leaving the knights to screen out the objective a bit? That may be been a possibility if this was the final turn, but I think my opponent definitely has enough time and power to secure this now.
The General is disordered, so cannot fly away. He opts to retaliate against the Ice Kin and does indeed finally drag them down. We originally do the counter-charge incorrectly, leaving the General engaged with both the Ice Kin and Foxes, instead of shuffling down to properly face the Ice Kin. We eventually catch that on my opponent's turn, and the General will reform to face the Naiad's rear.
I immediately regretted this decision, feeling like he should have turned towards the Huscarls and Pikes instead. I had botched this far objective several times, and even flown away on a previous turn. I had also declined to charge the Naiads just last turn. To about-face now and try for that back objective was scatter-brained to say the least. I need to plan better with my flier going forward.
Bottom of Round 5: Northern Alliance
On the left, the Dwarf Clansmen countercharge the Knights, and shuffle over. The Naiads flank charge the Militia, and with 50 attacks, the levy is easily routed. The Naiads will overrun, eyeing the flank of the knights now.
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| After movement and after fixing the General's positioning. |
Since we corrected the General's counter-charge positioning, the Foxes are no longer engaged. We agree that they juuust have the Pikes in their charge arc, and so scamper down the hill into the Pikes to delay them. Charging down the hill should have given them Thunderous Charge, but I forgot about that. I don't know if my opponent remembered or just ignored it, as the Pikes have Phalanx which would negate it anyways. The Foxes are quick, but land no damage against the Pikes.
The Ice Queen turns, and Icy Breath's the General on Winged Beast. The damage is quite severe and the General is routed easily. The breath attack has proven to be a pretty strong ability these last few games and I think I need to read up on it. This hurt, but his loss was definitely deserved. I misused him all game and this just drives that point home. Lesson learned.
Top of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men
The Fanatics continue to sit on their objective in my deployment zone. They're technically helping, but this wasn't a great use of the unit, and this stems from all the earlier errors on this flank. This would have been the ideal role for a Militia Regiment!
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| The Pikes finally commit! |
The Knights soldier on against the Dwarf Clansmen, dealing one more damage to them (bringing it to 3 damage total...), but this is a lost cause. After the General few away in Round 3 I don't think I had sufficient strength to ever take this, and I probably should have attacked earlier.
Hypothetically, I could have maybe denied the objective distance-wise since the Clansmen have back-pedaled so far. But with the Naiad's arrival last turn, contesting this objective is very unlikely now.
In the center, the Pikes charge, route the Foxes and I think just change facing, as I did not want to overrun out of line of sight of the Huscarls. Speaking of, the other unit of Pikes counter-charges the Huscarls, but do no damage. They pop Indomitable Will, as I remember I have it, and this seems like a good use for it.
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| The lay of the land at the end of Turn 11. |
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| The Dwarves definitely earned their victory there. Well played. |
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| Super-close, super-clutch nerve check... but still not enough. |
We roll for a potential Round 7, but it is not to be. A surprisingly close 3-2 victory for the Northern Alliance!
Game Conclusion
My opponent brought a pretty tough list and played a fantastic game. The Giants were definitely still a hurdle for him and his plans, but he made good decisions throughout the game that focused on the objectives and those decisions paid off overall. The Snow Foxes were a fantastic inclusion to the list and his used them very well, keeping them back until he had a use for them, which is a great habit. The Ice Kin Hunters also proved very potent here, and greatly outclassed my own shooting this time. My opponent continues to make great use of terrain, something I need to keep in mind!
On the other hand I seemed to bring just enough stuff to bleed my way into a close game! Big-picture I should have prepped a bit more, and taken a minute to think up a real plan for the scenario before we started deploying units. My plan was ambitious, and I think focusing on just a few objectives would be beneficial to me in the future. I think no matter the list you bring, a little more effort in these planning stages goes a long way in-game, and I came up short here, which then complicated my decision making later in the game and generally led to many units not being used optimally. Still, this was a great game and a surprisingly close one! A big thank you to my opponent for fitting in this game in over a busy weekend!
Testing Conclusions
So, I had a lot to explore with this list! About half of the list was new things for 3rd Edition, and I definitely learned a lot! I think I can point to any unit in my list and come away with either a lesson learned or a goal for using it better next time, which is great for me as I am still very much exploring the roster. On the stuff I wanted to test this game:
- Fanatics instead of Foot Guard. These are indeed relatively comparable it seems! I like the Foot Guard for fluff (more orderly), but I would definitely bring the Fanatics again. Their innate Fearless is nice and means I don't need to mess with Indomitable Will if I run them instead.
- Knight Troops. Not nearly tanky enough! When they charged the Ice Kin my opponent was writing off the unit, but the Kin survived easily thanks to the hindered charge. I think we both are over-estimating cavalry a bit, and I need to recalibrate my expectations.
- Militia. I definitely did not utilize them well this game - sitting them back on objectives would have been the better plan. I deployed them first, and seemed intent on thinking of them as sacrificial chaff until the game was just about done. They can still block scary things with their faces well enough, but with some planning, these could be really, really good additions to any list dealing with objectives regularly.
- Mounted Scouts Regiment. I don't think my list was a good fit for a regiment of these guys, so I will run them again at some point. The buff to the Melee stat is nice, but with the short range coming from 2nd to 3rd Edition, these are an odd unit and I need to rethink their use.
- Bowmen / Outlaws. I really liked the Brigand! Being able to shoot and inspire was great. I'd take this again for more testing, as I definitely didn't use these optimally. I was really hoping for a game two to try and redeem myself a bit with them! Having so many points tied up in Bowmen troops seems bad as their stats just don't seem there to perform how you need them to based on the points committed... but they could easily make another appearance for fun and more testing.
- More Indomitable Will / ASB tests. This arrangement (Brigand, 2 Indomitable Wills + General) actually didn't feel bad. The Brigand was a lot of fun and most things were inspired when I needed them to be. This ability is still really neat, and I am looking forward to testing it out more.