Kings of War 3rd Edition: #010: July Beat and Greet: KOM vs Abyssal Dwarfs [Invade]

So, I organized a very tiny "meet and greet" sort of event at the end of July. The goal was three games at 1000 points, against three different opponents to try and get some local connections made and nurture a budding Kings of War community a bit. I got to play as well, and this was the first game.

Lists and Scenario

My first opponent for the day was Kenny Lull from the Combat Phase Podcast. He is a good friend of the Nightstalkers player from my Battle 009, and they had played a quick game over the last week. While a very knowledgeable wargaming veteran, he was still new to Kings of War. However had put together a pretty reasonable list and was eager to try things out.

He admittedly was taking "a little bit of everything" to try and learn the game. The Lesser Obsidian Golems, being a shambling unit without a source of Surge is an obvious weak point in the build, but he's got the basics covered with a recognizable anvil unit (Blacksouls), hammer unit (Halfbreeds) and a nice variety of supporting elements to test out.

I brought the above, building around a Mammoth with more regiments and oddities to explore. Seeing some of the chatter leading up to the day, it sounded like there would be a fair amount of Large Infantry and Large Cavalry units - so the Giant would have been a better choice. Stats-wise, as I've pondered previously, the Giant would likely be a better choice, (likely dropping the Pikes for Foot Guard to make that happen). But me being me, I had stuff to test and compare and I opted to try out a Mammoth instead. I wanted to explore the following things:

• Mammoth/Rampage. I haven't used it in third yet. I think it is a bit of a bummer relative to the Giant, but could I make use of him and Rampage?
• Pikes vs Foot Guard. These are my go-to defensive units, but I wanted to test them out a bit more. With Regiments, I should get better at deployment and threat assessment, and wanted to see if I could use these well.
• Knights. I liked the triple regiment list. I figured they might be able to bully something in a small game like this. I need to get better at positioning them, so let's take them and see what I can do.
• Hero & IW. I am still really liking this pick. I am still not great with IW use, so we'll see how I do with him, and when / how I use IW.

I had tried to organize the event games into Kill, then Invade, then Dominate, but the other table started playing Invade, so we followed suit. We traded deployments as one does, with my Knights and Dino (Mammoth) coming down late. Overall, I was ok with my deployment. The other lists at the event had far fewer units that would trigger Rampage, so I wanted to prioritize trying this out, so the Dino was hidden from the artillery, which was the big thing I was concerned with, for testing. 

Pre-emptively removing the trees for my Pikes to move into the woods.

With a smaller game, we shrunk the table down to a 4 foot by 4 foot area. The playmats were from Mats by Mars, which I had ordered with the Kings of War overlay. It worked great for shrinking down the table size, as that overlay has some 2 foot by 2 foot markings. For terrain we had some Height 6 palm tree forests, Height 3 Hills, two small obstacles and the Height 9 Blocking Tower that would hold our turn counter, which I actually used pretty competently this game!

My opponent won the roll off, but decided to make me go first, as he wanted to see a turn in action and how I might approach the game. With his artillery piece, that might have been an error, though it can indeed be good to go second in these scenarios. Regardless of the logic, that was their decision, so off I went.

Top of Round 1:  Kingdoms of Men

Given the scenario and the short legs on the opposing army, I had deployed uncharacteristically far forward, and now tentatively advanced. I am still playing humans, so don't want to get into fights all that early. The Scouts and Dino hid behind the tower, with everything else moving up a bit.

Cautious advances by the Kingdoms of Men.

The Hero remained behind. He's quick, and I figured keeping him more central and in reserve until I needed him would be a good idea. I didn't have a plan for him yet, so figured doing nothing should be an ok use of him for now.

Bottom of Round 1: Abyssal Dwarfs

My opponent had positioned a few units for "at the double" moves, but held back a bit. The obstacle protected the flank of the Halfbreeds, who moved pretty far up. Their movement tray was a bit large. I still don't know why, but most of the grey space should be extra space, allowing the Halfbreed Champion to sit nearby, despite what it looks like. (I think he might have been using a monstrous infantry horde tray (150x100) instead of the cavalry regiment tray (125x100)? That would explain the 25mm wide extra space.)

The Decimators are out of range, and the artillery misses against the Foot Guard, and so it's a pretty quick turn for my opponent.

Top of Round 2:  Kingdoms of Men

I actually move the Knights back. I am hoping to draw the Halfbreeds out a little bit more next turn in order to hit them with both the Knights and Foot Guard. 

Tying to lay some traps Turn 2.

My center mostly holds, looking to keep it safe this turn. I decide that the Hero should aim for the war machine or the Decimator Troop, depending on what my opponent does on their turn, so I move him up to get him ready for his sprint. 

The Scouts slide down to harass the Decimators, but their arrows don't land. The Militia back up a bit, looking to occupy the attention of the Golems in the coming turns, and hopefully keep them from doing anything significant this game.

Bottom of Round 2: Abyssal Dwarfs

I fail. The Golems can just barely see the flank of the Scouts, and have the inches to get there. Caught unawares, the Scouts will rout. 

The Decimators are just in range of the Foot Guard, and though the blunderbusses sound ominous, only one damage slips by their shields. The infernal artillery chooses to reposition this turn.

With the exception of the Immortals and the war machine, the rest of the Abyssal Dwarf line squares up juuust on their side of the battlefield, with the Abyssal Halfbreeds pivoting slightly to get the Knights in their front-arc.

Top of Round 3:  Kingdoms of Men

I oblige my opponent, and charge the Knights and Foot Guard into the front of the Halfbreeds. My ASB strums with menace and Bane-Chant connects, boosting the Foot Guard. The Halfbreeds are routed. The nearby Immortals are out of position with an odd facing, so it will take a turn or more for them to get back into position. The Knights decide to overrun and the Foot Guard pivot to face the center of the Abyssal Dwarf line. 

The Dino should have slid over to the center. We did catch that later.

The path to the artillery blocked, the Hero charges against the Decimators, miraculously wounding with all three attacks and wavering the blunderbuss-toting dwarves. The Militia flank-charge the Golems, doing no damage, but do seem get their attention.

The Pikes are about an inch shy on their charge, so the Dino charges in alone against the Blacksouls, which are very generic as it turns out. I figure this should be a good test of Rampage! I roll up a whole one extra attack, and end up dealing 5 damage. My first rampage is a bit underwhelming, but the rest of the turn has gone quite well for me.

Bottom of Round 3: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Dwarves do a lot of counter attacking. The Blacksouls attack the Dino, dealing 6 to it through the weight of numerous attacks. The Halfbreed champion rears up and turns into the Footguard, dealing 3. The Immortals decide to play the scenario, advancing at the double to get clear of the fighting and set up scoring in the coming turns.

The Obsidian Golems counter-charge the Militia, dealing 3 and Wavering them. Looking at the pictures now though, the Golems should have a possible flank-charge against the Pikes here, which might have been the better choice. My Pikes didn't turn to face the Golems, so I missed this play myself during the game.

The heavy mortar thwumps a release, landing squarely on the Knights. Five damage is done, and a strong 10 is rolled for the Nerve check, bringing them to a wavering 15. But we realize the the Mortar has Shattering, and the Knights are instead frightened off the field!

Top of Round 4:  Kingdoms of Men

The wavered Miltia opt to move back, hoping to draw the Golems away and out of position from any future combat.

Beginning of the top of Round 4.

I thought the Pikes joined the Dino this turn, but that doesn't look to be the case, looking at the next few pictures. I think I measured poorly and didn't move them up enough last turn. So I think the Dino continues, rolling a 1 or 2 for Rampage, dealing 6 damage this time, with the unit holding again.

The angry strumming grants the Foot Guard Bane-Chant again, and the soldiers land some good blows against the enemy Champion. The Mounted Hero whiffs on all his attacks against the Decimators. 

Bottom of Round 4: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Halfbreed Champion regenerates a few wounds, and continues his assault against the Foot Guard, dealing another 3 damage, but the humans hold. The Decimators back off, and shoot at the Hero, wounding him once. 

Another pip of damage appears on the Dino, and 4 damage on the Pikes.  Leading me to think that the artillery hit the Pikes and the Blackguard counter-charged the Dino, whiffing heavily. I know remember my opponent had one really bad combat, so I think this was it. 

The Golems change facing. Looking at the picture now, I think my opponent might have thought he was limited to a 90 degree pivot in victory? I think I used the term "pivot" instead of "change facing"  when going over victorious options for units. There is nothing to threaten where the Golems ended up. At the time I thought we was just playing the scenario, like the Immortals were, but I think this was me explaining things poorly, so my apologies to him if that was indeed the case.

Top of Round 5:  Kingdoms of Men

The Pikes should finally join the Dino now, and break the Blacksoul Horde. Both will choose to overrun. The Pikes get within the safety range for Indirect Fire, but the Dino isn't as quick, surprisingly. The Hero slashes against the Decimators, and routs them too. The Foot Guard again press against the Halfbreed Champion and drag him down as well, and then turn around to face the Immortals.

Mid combat. So far, I've rolled a 1, 2, 1 for my Rampages this game.

It's another big turn for the Kingdoms of Men, removing a lot of scary stuff from the table.

Bottom of Round 5: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Shambling Golems try to give chase, but are too slow. Had he about-faced with them, he may have been able to charge the Dino given it's low overrun. I think I explained the victorious repositioning options poorly, so again, apologies to my new opponent.

Top of Round 6:  Kingdoms of Men

The Dino slams into the war machine, and the Pikes move at the double to make sure they are scoring and safe as the game concludes. 

The very start of my Round 6.

The Foot Guard are not scoring. I don't know if moving back or to the side would have gotten them there. I think so. The ASB will get out of the way of the Golems, menacingly strumming again for the Foot Guard, who decide charge the Immortals. They do some damage but don't rout them.

Bottom of Round 6: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Immortals strike back, and the Obsidian Golems wave their shackled fists at departing humans, with nothing in range I suppose.

The Pikes (3) and Dino (1) are scoring for the Kingdoms of Men, with the Immortals (1) and Obsidian Golems (2) scoring for the Abyssal Dwarves. A narrow 4-3 victory for the Kingdoms of Men!

Game Conclusion

Props to my opponent for making it out to dive head first into a new game! Despite some sub-optimal plays for both of us, we both had a great time and it was a nice and close game.

I definitely misplayed my Scouts early on! The Obsidian Golems should not have had a chance to get  into combat with anything until I was ready. I should have been less bold with the Scouts and prioritized moving and surviving over shooting. The Pikes were also used poorly, snared a bit by terrain and moving 5 inches at a time. They should have joined the Dino a full turn sooner if I was smarter. It's a moving scenario, so I should have used the forest for screening and ignored it otherwise.

Testing Conclusions

• Mammoth/Rampage. So far, underwhelming. I forget they and the Giants hit on 4's normally, so they really want those extra attacks. I picked a good target and was dealing pretty average damage, but unsupported this felt underwhelming.
• Pikes vs Foot Guard. I do like them both, and like having both. If I am paying for regiments I think I should probably run both, and I think I'll run a 2-1 split in larger games. 
• Knights. I used them ok? The positioning of the Halfbreed Champion meant that the knights weren't grabbing a ton of space against the Halfbreed unit, and the obstacle would be troublesome in victory. I rolled like a 1 or a 2 on the overrun though, and ended up on top of it. One more inch and I think I clear that. Getting blasted by the artillery was unfortunate, but that's the game sometimes!
• Hero & IW. I did not pop IW at all this game, so no great insights here...
  

Props again to my opponent for diving in! With four people in a very casual setting, we just swapped to whoever was free and we not tracking win/losses or anything like that. On to Game 2!