Kings of War 3rd Edition: #003: KoM vs NA [Control]

I was fortunate enough to get a pair of games in on April 30th against my usual Northern Alliance  playing opponent. They wanted to explore their army's ranged options more, and brought the following for the first game:

Making their debut in these reports are a pair of Ice Elemental Hordes, supported with double Ice Kin Hunter Regiments and double Bolt Throwers - all of the ranged options to test out. The rest of the list was pretty typical for my opponent, with some pesky Snow Foxes and the ever-present horde of Naiads, and the stalwart regiment of Dwarf Clansmen. He took the usual Lord on Frostfang, but also took Serakina, a legendary casting hero with only Surge and Windblast, but came with some nice special rules too, letting her passively heal some units, for instance. The list has 13 drops, 23 Unit Strength and two sources of Inspiring, those being the Lord and Ice-Queen. Overall this seemed like another very solid list from my opponent, and all the various ranged options seem quite strong. Finally here, a quick plug to Tactical Wargames and their list builder, which my opponent used. They've had several recent updates, and that program just keeps getting better and better!

I brought the list above, made in EasyArmy. It's a pretty wide list with 16 drops and 33 Unit Strength. I was hoping being cheap and wide I could lose some units and still have enough to multi-charge in and win fights. I had the following things in mind for things that I wanted to explore:

• No Giants, only Knights. The Giants had gone very well in previous games, but I don't want "crutch" units, and wanted to see if a similar number of Knights could shoulder the burden of killing things.
• Pole-Arm Regiments. These are cheap and have Crushing Strength. How would they perform though?
• Bowmen Regiments. Cheap unlocks and ranged attacks. No piercing... and unlikely to do too much, though I wanted to test them out, and was hoping to draw my opponent into an archer war, as mine are cheaper by far.
• Mounted Scouts with Hammer of Measured Force. This loadout was suggested by a reader on Facebook. I was brainstorming lists at the time of the suggestion, and decided to fit this in. At 175 it's only a little less than a knight regiment, which should hit way harder, but we'll see.
• Low Inspiring. I took no Indomitable Will, and only two sources of Inspiring, one being a Flying Lord who was likely to be out on the offensive. Would that be enough?
• Wizards. The list lacks much actual chaff, and I figured the mounted Wizards with Lightning Bolt may be able to provide some good utility and even roadblocks as needed.
• Going Wide. The Kingdoms of Men can field a lot of bodies. Are infantry regiments viable?

With lists out of the way, let's get on to the game!

Deployment and Set-Up

My opponent and I are still interested in trying to work our way through the established scenarios without repeats. So after all the rolling off here, we ended up with the Control, where the board is divided into six 2'x2' squares and if you have the most unit strength in a square you control it, getting points at the end of the game. 

The left flank had my General, a Regiment of Knights and a Regiment of Militia squaring off against  some Snow Foxes and the Dwarf Clansmen, protecting both Bolt Throwers. With both Throwers in the corner, I decided it was worth it to plop the General here. I wanted to "use him better" this game, and in my head, that meant giving him an immediate task to work for turns 1-3, and anything that happened 4-6 was a bonus. I figured if I was aggressive on the left, I could hopefully silence the Bolt Throwers quickly, and then could play for the scenario, securing zones or contributing to fights elsewhere.

The left. Kinda split off by the building from the center.

In the center, my opponent had his two Ice Kin Regiments, and his three hordes, with the two Ice Elemental units flanking the Naiads. The legendary hero was behind the Naiads and some Snow Foxes behind the Ice Elementals. I knew I couldn't do anything against these in their front without taking immense damage back. With Surge, it was debatable if I could even get around them to engage at a different angle, since they could just change facing and then get surged around. Surging units are great anti-flying tech, so that factored into where I placed my flying General too.

The center, where most of my opponent's stuff is.

Facing off against the Ice Kin and hordes were regiments of Foot Guard, Pole Arms, Pikes, and my two units of Bowmen, hiding in the forest. A Wizard on horse lurked on the left of this grouping, with the inspiring Wizard on foot to the right around to support either my center or my right. 

The right, though most of this could be counted as part of a very long center, I suppose.

And finally on my right, gathered nearby the Inspiring Wizard, is another grouping of Foot Guard, Pole-Arm and Pike Regiments. On my far right, the second Mounted Wizard looks to apply pressure to the Lord on Frostfang hiding behind the hill with regiments of Knights and Scouts looking to secure this flank.

With deployments done, I believe one of the Ice Kin had a Scout move, creeping about. My opponent  then won the roll-off for first turn, and with shooting on his agenda to test, my opponent did indeed elect to go first. 

Top of Round 1: Northern Alliance

On the far right, my opponent's Lord crested the hill, tentatively, of which I sadly did not get a good picture, either of it or of the view of the battlefield.

His strong center advanced in concert, presenting a unified front. Both Ice Kin units loosed against the weaker Pole-Arm regiment, dealing 9 damage to them and seeing them off the table.

On the left, the Snow Foxes and Dwarfs had advanced to hopefully zone out my aggression with threatened charges. The Bolt Throwers fired against my General, dealing 4 damage to him, and getting a "Wavered" result on the Nerve check.

I believe I may be off to a "less than ideal" start.

In-game, we had the height 3 Knights giving cover to their height 5 General. But it wasn't until later in the day that we reread / rediscovered the other part of the cover rules, where if the base face is mostly obscured be intervening units or terrain, that situation would grant cover as well. Here, one Thrower was penalized by cover, but the other not. I should have deployed the General firmly behind the Knights anyways in retrospect, but it bears mentioning that the Throwers might have been a tad more effective in this game than they probably should have been.

Bottom of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

With the General Wavered, the left pressed on still. I felt like aggression could still be the answer here. If I could tie up the other units, perhaps the General could recover, or perhaps I could get lucky and break on through to the war machines anyways.

In the center, the Foot Guard went to advance, but we found that they would clip the tower, so they moved and pivoted instead. This is a little unfortunate, and an error on my part. I wanted them, especially with the Pole-Arms gone, moving up to threaten the Kin. This delay meant it would likely be another two turns to pin them in a combat, which isn't great. Doing his best, the Wizard threw a Lighting Bolt against the Kin outside the forest, dealing two damage to them.

View from the center.

My Bowmen didn't have any great targets. While the Naiads were softer, they also had regen. I don't remember the target I picked, but looking at future pictures, either nothing landed or it was healed away, either by regen or the legendary hero's radiance special rule.

View from the right.

To take on three hordes of things, I would need a lot of attacks and a good number of units. On my right, I figured the building here would divide the field a bit as well, so I started to move the infantry up to face my opponent's strong center. The Pikes here didn't move too far up yet, as for now they just hoped to zone out and dissuade the quick Lord of Frostfang from blitzing past my cavalry next turn.

As I recall the Inspiring Wizard shot along with the Bowmen, but everyone missed everything. The Scouts and Mounted Wizard targeted the Lord on Frostfang, sneaking 4 damage in. The Knights advanced, hoping to bully the Lord into a fight soon.

Top of Round 2: Northern Alliance

The Lord on Frostfang did not commit, instead nimbly descending from the hill to end up facing the flank of my knights. Pinning down a nimble thing is a bit of a pain...

An aggressive center from the Northern Alliance! The Ice Elementals are no joke!

The lurking Snow Foxes moved up ahead of each of the Ice Elementals. My opponent then chose to Surge the Elementals on my right up, to get them in range for their ranged attack. The Snow Foxes blocked the Elementals from getting too far ahead. The Elementals then unleashed their ice shard attack at my other unit of Pole-Arms, and dealt them 5 damage.

Elsewhere, the second unit of Ice Elementals moved, and threw their shards into the Pikes, dealing 7 damage and getting a Wavered result on the check. I do not recall if the Foxes provided cover for those rolls, but I don't think we caught that rule until the following game though.

Very potent shooting from the NA. Though my units are pretty soft overall.

Both Ice Kin loosed against the Foot Guard near the tower building, dealing 7 damage to them, though they held. That's a lot of damage, and I am a little concerned that the Foot Guard are not going to make it close enough to charge them two turns from now... 

On my far left, the Snow Foxes moved to intercept the Militia, and the Dwarf Clansmen charged the Knights, dealing 2 damage and disordering them. The Bolt Throwers again fired at the General, one getting cover from the Knights, the other unimpeded, though probably should have been penalized by cover as well. Three more damage lands, but the Nerve check is passed this time.

Bottom of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

Freed from his little bout of hysteria, the General gently pivots to fly up to hide behind the Knights fully now, and this move is why I don't think we realized the other conditions of cover until later. He is still wounded, and is also a few inches shy of reaching either Bolt Thrower, unfortunately. He definitely had a task this game, and I think this is the right way to use him going forward... but he is not having much luck this game.

The Knights counter-charge the Clansmen, but without Thunderous Charge... deal only 1 damage to them. The Militia gladly take the fight with the Snow Foxes, and will dispatch them, getting my first unit kill. I decide to reform to threaten the Ice Kin, as the nearby mounted Wizard hurls a lightning bolt against one of the Ice Kin units, dealing two damage.

On the right, most everything scoots back to get out of charge range and to make my opponent work for any more shard volleys, and the Inspiring Wizard moves back even further to prevent getting trampled during any potential charges from my opponent. Preserving units seemed like a good call, so I opted to move a Wizard up to chaff things up, and I believe he scores two hits against the Foxes with another lightning bolt. The Bowmen do both shoot at something, but having moved are now hitting on 6's and neither scores any damage. 

My Knights and Scouts on the right both move and pivot to threaten the center, with the Scouts scoring another point against the Lord on Frostfang with their bows, taking him up to 5 damage, but the nerve check is easily passed.

Top of Round 3: Northern Alliance

The Lord continues to nimbly dance around, and again generally just sidesteps to threaten the flank of the Knights. Nimble was very worthwhile for my opponent here, who was continually able to both move and then threaten my knights each turn, regardless of how they were being positioned. My opponent expressed a smidge of dissatisfaction with his Lord this game, but really he's typing up around double his points of my stuff each turn and keeping it from combat. 

The Snow Foxes charge the chaff Wizard, dealing one point of damage. Given spacing and positioning, my opponent can't charge with the nearby unit of the Ice Elementals. I believe they do, however, use their ice shards against the Pole-Arms dealing 7 damage. This brings them up to 12 damage, and although inspired, they are easily routed at the end of the Phase.

Charges abound elsewhere this turn. The Naiads risk a hindered charge against the Foot Guard and they slam in, dealing 6 damage. Nimble Snow Foxes charge a regiment of Bowmen, though no damage is dealt here. The second horde of Ice Elementals use a shard attack against the wavered Pikes, dealing 9 damage, and are then surged into combat.

Near the end of the ranged phase.

We had a rules query here, with the Ice Elementals against the Pikes. As I understood it, and how we played it, the Pikes took damage in the Ranged Phase, so even if they are going to be in combat now, they would take a Nerve check at the end of the Ranged Phase. We did so and the Pikes were routed. This meant though that the Ice Elementals could not be victorious in melee, and so would not get a reform here. If we played this wrong, let us know. We did spend a few minutes looking in the rule book, but didn't come up with anything definitive quickly.

Over on my left, the Ice Kin surprise me, both charging against the Foot Guard. I was not expecting charges from the elves here! Both would have been hindered, as one was charging through the forest and the other off of the fence, but the Foot Guard starts the fight with 8 damage, and they are easily obliterated by the end of the close combat engagement. Their lack of good deployment did them in, and that is an error on my part.

Before the melee phase, unfortunately.

After the melee, my opponent was going to pivot both units to face the Militia and stuff on my left flank, but we figured that would not be possible without some illegal overlap. So one unit of Kin tried to advance to allow the other to pivot. Unfortunately both had been jostled at this point, so we just did our best on positioning.

Ta-da! 

The Bolt Throwers continue to target the General, and although all rolls are made with cover this time (from the Knights), the war machines deal another 2 damage and Waver him and his bird again. 

Fortunately, the Clansmen whiff their attacks against the Knights this time, meaning the Knights were not Disordered, and should get their Thunderous Charge ability back on my turn. Despite this, it was not a great turn for the Regnum here. I lost three more regiments with nothing besides a group of Northern Alliance Foxes to show for it.

Bottom of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

On the left, the Knights fight back against the Dwarf Clansmen. Now with Thunderous Charge, the Clansmen are utterly obliterated, and the path the the Bolt Throwers is open, but the plan here is behind schedule. The General is Wavered again, and he isn't even in charge range yet. I have him do nothing. Arguably, he could have used this chance to have him change facing, to (possibly) threaten the center in the coming turns. He doesn't have great Unit Strength, but might be able to remove something that does if he gets a good charge. However that seemed suicidal with his damage so far and the Bolt Throwers online, so for now, he's still on Bolt Thrower dispatch duty. The Nerve on the war machines is pretty low though, so my mounted Wizard here attempts a shot, but misses everything.

The path to the war machines is clear! Though only the Knights can charge next turn.

The Militia charge the wounded unit of Ice Kin Hunters, and surprisingly rout them. In Victory, the Militia reform slightly, facing the flank of the other Ice Kin unit.

A general overview of the battle.

In my floundering center, the Bowmen counter-charge the Foxes in the forest, dealing 3 damage, but the Foxes live. The Foot Guard and other Bowmen attack the Naiads, but only slip in a few damage, given the Ensnare.

The Pikes pivot and move, looking to run to the back end of the field. I elect to have the mounted Wizard here do nothing, as they are disordered, and I want this area gummed up for a while still. The Inspiring Wizard on foot though sneaks another 1 damage in against the Lord on Frostfang, 

Unfortunately, the Lord on Frostfang has done a great job slowing this flank down. I would have been able to breeze past him, but with his nimble ability, his little spin moves have let him not only avoid my knights but threaten in return, creating a game of cat-and-also-cat.

Alas, the Knights find that they cannot legally charge the Ice Elementals, as it would need to be a flank charge giving the starting position of the units, but there is no space to fit in such a charge with the building in the way. So they have no charges, and simply move up and out of the way of the Lord again, this isn't great, as they are not good in a grind.. The Scouts are unfortunately boxed in a bit too. With just a move they can't get away from the Lord on Frostfang in any direction, so with Nimble, I use one pivot to move them their full 18" away. 

Top of Round 4: Northern Alliance

The Lord finally completes the dance, and circles behind both the Knights and Scouts. 

The gummed up Ice Elementals change facing, and after a chat, I encourage my opponent to be greedy. The ice shards are flung into the weaker Mounted Scouts, and then the elementals are surged towards the Knights. But, my opponent rolls low on the Surge spell, and they do stop a little short. 

Just a few inches short of combat. Unfortunately, the black dice was not damage, but denoting that this unit had the Blessing of the Gods magic item, giving them the Elite special rule.

The Naiads choose to charge the Foot Guard, and rout them too. The previously pinned-but-safe Bowmen are now charged by the other Ice Elemental Horde in addition to the Foxes, and are routed too. The Foxes continue to chomp at the mounted Wizard, but no jaws find flesh.

On the left, the Ice Kin charge the Militia, but only do three wounds and my Militia hold. However, the Bolt throwers twang again, targeting the General, do some damage, and finally dispatch him. 

Bottom of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

Things are looking a quite grim for the Regum. I brought a lot of units, but have seemed to have lost of most them already. The Knights charge the Ice Elementals and deal 10 damage. The Nerve check is high, but they are inspired, and the reroll lets them stick around. Unfortunately, the Lord on Frostfang is lurking nearby, so they are not likely long for this world now.

A valiant try by the doomed Knights.

On the left, the Militia bravely charge the remaining Ice Kin unit, though deal only 1 damage against the Kin. Unfortunately, their performance last turn was not to be repeated! Still, that means the Kin are disordered, and can't simply back up and shoot at me, though their Melee hits is better than their Ranged hits, so melee is where they want to be anyways.

The Regiment of Knights finally make it into the war machines, and the mounted Wizard lands a few damage on the other, and both are destroyed. 

Untouched last turn, my remaining Bowmen are a bit trapped, and instead of backing up or changing facing, they opt to charge the Naiads and go out swinging.

My mounted Wizard made a withdraw move, and then as an individual, a pivot and then a normal move off to the side and then a final pivot to take a shot at the Lord on Frostfang. Unfortunately, nothing landed. We haven't had these kind of skirmishing fights much, but my opponent insisted this was doable for me, and the Disengaging rules seemed to support that. Neat little addition for Third Edition.

The Wizard on foot threw against the Foxes, dealing one point of damage and bringing them up to 3 damage total, but they stuck around.

Top of Round 5: Northern Alliance

And the Northern Alliance are on clean-up duty now. The Knights are pincered and removed. The inspiring Wizard charged by Foxes and wavered. The remaining Bowmen are massacred too. The Foxes overrun, and the Ice Elementals change facing so they can support the Ice Kin later on, though if memory serves, the Kin annihilate the Militia as well.

Bottom of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

And that is basically the last nail in the coffin. I have the Knights control one square, but all three hordes of my opponent are intact, and there is no way I am salvaging anything in this game. My army has been bled out. I take one last pot shot with the mounted Wizard against the Lord on Frostfang, but even that small victory eludes the Regnum as nothing hits. I concede.

A victory for the Northern Alliance!

Game Conclusion

Neither of us have a ton of experience with the various scenarios (hence our aim to play everything once), so we're both largely winging our strategies when it comes to that. Unfortunately, the scenario didn't really come into play here.

My opponent brought a solid, elite Northern Alliance list and played a very good game, which is proving quite typical for him! We did get the cover rules a bit wrong here, but overall the shooting was still very effective against my low-defense infantry spam. Against my low-defense humans, the Ice Kin also performed very well overall, though they are indeed quite expensive. The Ice Elementals seem like amazingly versatile units, especially when supporting one another so they can share surge/inspiring sources. Keeping them both together along with the Naiads was smart, and made for a very tough grouping to try and tackle.

I think this list had potential, especially in this scenario. But I lacked experience to really play this list well. For example, I could have played for the scenario smarter, deploying aggressive stuff to deal with the Bolt Throwers still, but then deploying the rest way back and spread out. The bulk of my army was Defense 3 and 4, and I should have protected them better with distance. By deploying everything more forward and aggressively, more of my stuff was in danger sooner, and I started bleeding units away too quickly and at too great a rate to be competitive as the game went on. Deploying back was a hard-learned lesson in 2nd Edition. I am not deploying on the line, but probably farther up than I should be with such a weak list. Lots was learned and this was still a great game!

Testing Conclusion

• No Giants, only Knights. The Knights are ok hammers, but can't grind combats. Which is kind of as expected as they only get Thunderous Charge! I think I would need to run three regiments to overcome this combat shortcoming, but I think this could be viable hammer alternatives in a no-monsters version of the army.
• Pole-Arm Regiments. These got shot off before they could do anything this game. Conceptually I still like them, but against an army with shooty options, they are coming across as pretty weak. With their weak defense, they should probably be deployed back more or even as a second line. Still, if I have points or need an unlock, these seem like a great option, theoretically. 
• Bowmen Regiments. Here, I think I made a mistake putting them in the forest as part of the battle line. I think either a) in the forest but ahead of the rest of the line back makes sense, as does b) just sticking them in corners/wings and playing the given scenario. I still like these conceptually as cheap unlocks as well, though I shouldn't expect much damage out of these, especially against a high-armor army like Northern Alliance.
• Mounted Scouts with Hammer of Measured Force. Unfortunately, this test did not go too well. I used the regiment slightly better this game, getting a few volleys out and generally making a bit better use of the unit this time, but the Hammer item never came into play. I think I was getting greedy with them a bit, looking for a flank or a rear charge, but I also think searching for those charges is required to make the best use of the unit, otherwise you're looking at just doing 3-4 damage, which though likely more than it would usually do, is not enough to be great. I am still intrigued by this, and will see if I can fit it in again down the road. 
• Low Inspiring. It wasn't bad, but wasn't great. Most of the stuff I lost already had a lot of damage, which is ideally how it should be! Inspiring is around to keep away those fringe cases. I think wider, regimental lists will want less Indomitable Will and more sources of inspiring since popping the Will can be hard to time, and regiments and their multitude of base have a more awkward footprint to cover than the fewer, larger hordes.
• Wizards. I was honestly a bit let down with the wizards, though most of their shots were against a Defense 5, high-Nerve lord, so they were up against a pretty hard target. Hitting and wounding on 4's isn't bad, but you need to be lucky with only three shots per model.
• Going Wide. I think this list had potential, but the infantry was a little too wide, compounded by some poor deployment. Making bowmen part of the battle line is probably not a good call, nor is having weak the Pole-Arms near the front. With some tweaking and experience, this kind of "combined arms" list has some potential I think.
• General on a Winged Beast. While not on the list of things to test, I figured I could chat about him a bit here. I think my plan of "give them a task turns 1-3" is a good way to use him going forward. Unfortunately, the Bolt Throwers had other plans for him this time and he was continually caught reflecting on his own mortality instead of moving and fighting. 
• Militia. Well, these were probably the MVP for me this game, being one of the few things to not only take out an enemy unit, make back their points! Very unusual for Militia, so kudos to them.

Thanks to my opponent for hosting and for the great game!