Kings of War 3rd Edition: #011: July Beat and Greet: KOM vs Salamanders [Dominate]

On to Game 2 of this tiny event!

I had played my next opponent before, on my trip to Milwaukee. He's unfortunately still waiting on some packages, but is making great progress on the minis he does have, and he has continued to explore his army list. For our game, he played the following:

I thought highly of the Rhinosaur Cavalry regiments he ran previously, and those appeared again for this game, and were even joined by a Battle Captain on Rhinosaur. All three were pretty strong and quick enough that I would need a plan. Supporting the cavalry were some Corsairs, made regular by the Firebrand. The pirates seem like an interesting choice. Not a lot of attacks, but pretty decent stats, and with both Crushing Strength 1 and Piercing 1, they seem like a neat anti-infantry or area-denial choice, especially when deployed closely together. I unfortunately did not look at them too closely ahead of time, so their stats and 18" range surprised me a bit once we got into the game...

I do not say this often, but I brought the same list as last time! It was an event after all. Maybe my tactics would get better with time? One can only hope. So, going into game two, I still have my Mammoth / Dino, and still have the same things to try and test.

• Mammoth/Rampage. 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 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.
• Anything learned or improved upon from previous games?

We played on one of the two "spooky" tables I had packed up. Hills were height 3, the graveyards  were height 1 difficult terrain, and the forests were height 6 difficult terrain. Being a smaller game, we again shrunk this 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.

Deployment. 

I am not too pleased with my own deployment. Generally I think I am focusing too much on the difficult terrain, and ignoring the scenario. We are playing for the middle, after all. With the lists as-is and the scenario here, there is no good reason for me to be in or around the terrain near my deployment zone. 

Having just played the Abyssal Dwarfs, I assumed the pirate-themed Corsairs with their Piercing 1 weapons were Blunderbuss equivalents, namely with a 12" range. Thinking they were 12" range, my plan was to use the Dino and infantry to smash the Corsairs while the Scouts and the Hero to delay on my left. Alas, the range on the Corsairs is 18". With Steady Aim as well, my infantry should be nowhere near this. 

I did deploy back more this time, as with a trio of potent and speedy elements against me, I was a bit concerned and wanted to give myself a little breathing room. And the Dino was indeed opposite from the Corsairs, so I had those two things going for me.

My opponent won both roll-offs, and elected to have me go first, which I think wat the better call, given his short-range shooting. 

Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

I advance, keeping out of reach of the Rhinosaurs. I was hoping to maybe disrupt with the Scouts and Hero, turns 2-3 and hopefully make something happen elsewhere. 

Scooting about. With the graveyards making for some awkward unit positioning. 

I realize now the Pikes aren't going to be doing much hiding in the graveyward, and they start their trek out towards the center. The Foot Guard move their 5" up, getting caught up on the terrain while the Dino lumbers forth looking to menace the Corsairs in the coming turns. The Dino was deployed poorly too, I think. I should have gone a few more inches to the right and tried shooting up the side, or angled it towards the center to get it moving quickly, zipping between the graveyard and the forest. 

Bottom of Round 1: Salamanders

On his turn, the Rhinosaur battle group and the Ghekko's moved up, keeping out of range of my slightly faster Knights.

Ouch! The Corsairs have more range than I thought!

We did discuss lists as we deployed, but I didn't realize the reach and strength of the Corsairs until we had started. With Steady Aim, 18" range, Piercing 1.... they are ideal for blasting away at normal infantry like mine, putting this flank in a bit of a pickle. The Corsairs blast away, dealing 7 to the Militia, but they hold.

Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

With the surprisingly potent fire from the Corsairs, I am feeling the pressure now. I am badly deployed against a pretty solid list. The injured Militia move up at the double to try and tank another volley before going down. I move the Dino up into the woods to threaten the pirates next turn. The Foot Guard move up, but not into charge range. I am indecisive with them, but felt that opening them up to a double-charge from the Corsairs was a bad play. Here, I am giving my opponent some choices to make, and just hoping I can make the best of whatever he chooses next turn.

Go Scouts!

The Pikes advance slowly, and the Hero and Knights reposition, all still out of range.. My general plan now is to hopefully dance and delay with the Rhinosaurs over the next two turns while I try and remove the Corsairs? 

Scouts are victorious!

While my opponent was wary of the Knights, they had ignored the Mounted Scouts. The Scouts decide to charge the Ghekkos. Looking at the math, this was a bit foolhardy, but luckily it works out, and the smaller lizards are broken, with the Mounted Scouts able to overrun out of any retaliatory charge arcs. With the Scouts breaking through, I am hoping that my opponent will have some tough choices next turn, and I can cobble some plays together.

Bottom of Round 2: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Rhinosaurs on the far left sweep down the side looking to exert some pressure on my Knights, while the second unit takes up residence in the forest, looking to draw out a hindered charge from my Knights. The Battle Captain hungrily lurks at the edge of the forest to get line out sight out of it.

The Firebrand takes aim at the Mounted Scouts, wounds them three times, and wavers them. My opponent continues to get great value from their hero slots each and every game, so kudos to him for seeing those plays and making it happen. 

The Militia eat a single Firelock volley and are routed while the second Firelock Volley goes against the Foot Guard.

Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

I am behind, and so opt for some risky plays to get me back in the game. The Hero moves up to block off the spooky forest, allowing my Knights to get an unhindered charge against the baiting Rhinosaur unit. Unfortunately, my tricky play fails. I don't do enough damage and come up one short on the Nerve check. Fearless prevails and the unit remains. 

A tricky charge, enabled by my fabulous Hero.

The Dino rampages out of the woods and into the far unit of Corsairs, as planned. I roll up 1 extra attack, and end up dealing and insignificant 3 to the unit. My big plays fail for now.

Bottom of Round 3: Salamanders

The Rhinosaurs countercharge the Knights, rolling a bit hot and dealing 5 damage to the Knights, wavering them. Due to the shuffle to center, the Battle Captain is able to charge the Hero, something I did not consider, but really should have. It connects with most of its attacks against my Hero, who dies without popping Indomitable Will. Fortunately for me, my opponent plays this out of order, rolling the Rhinosaurs vs Knight combat first. My Knights have Headstrong, and did a fair bit to the Rhinosaurs last turn, so they might still be in the fight.

Disaster!

The ineffective Dino is counter-charged by one unit of Corsairs, and flanked by the other. routed by the Corsairs, who get the beast close to "snake eyes only" territory. On the Nerve Test, the Dino is easily routed. 

On one turn, we forgot the ranged phase and had to go back. I think this was the turn, so the wavered Scouts should fall to the Firebrand's pistols this turn as well, but with the Corsairs swinging, that is it for the ranged stuff. A very devastating turn for the Kingdoms of Men!

Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

The Knights fail their Headstrong test, and that spells the start of the end of the game. We do play through this turn and the next to get some more experience, but I am out of scoring units by the start of Round 6. 

A decisive victory for the Salamanders and an ignoble tabling for the Kingdoms of Men!

Game Conclusion

My opponent had a bit of a drive to make it to the tiny event, but I am glad they did. Congrats on the resounding victory! 

I deployed poorly, and woefully misjudged the Corsairs. Those were two pretty big holes to dig myself out of, but I still had some chances. The Hero assisting the charge of the Knights was a clever play, but it didn't pay off, nor did the Dino charging into the Corsairs. 

My dice also went ice cold, while my opponent rolled amazingly hot on their Round 3. The Firebrand was rolling warm, but that turn the Rhinosaurs countercharging the Knights did about double the median damage statistically expected, as did the Corsairs against the Dino, as did the Battle Captain against the Hero. Not much one can do against such hot dice in a small game.

Testing Conclusions

• Mammoth/Rampage. Still underwhelming, but cold dice make for poor tests. I again rolled a 1 for Rampage, making the results so far, 1, 2, 1, and 1! It definitely underperformed this game.
• Pikes vs Foot Guard. I did get Pikes vs Rhinosaurs late game, but they still managed to do 7 damage off 9 attacks to me on Turn 5. I think we might have forgotten to remove TC that combat? Hot dice all game I guess. Anyways, I still like the mix idea. with their better stats, Foot Guard seem more forgiving, so I'd lean towards a 2 Foot: 1 Pike split to start out this testing, whenever I get around to it.
• Knights. I liked their big play, and it had potential, but was not to be.
• Hero & IW. I didn't pop it this game. This does seem like a mistake to not use it, but I think keeping it open was still the right call with the expected math. Good attacks and good nerve would have just wavered me; planning around hot dice like that doesn't seem wise. So I think I'd agree with keeping it open for the following turn still, since it could remove the possible waver.
• Anything learned or improved upon from previous games? I think I did worse! And that's not just the result.  I had good "micro" moves, like with the Knights, but worse "macro" moves, like with deployment. Underestimating the Corsairs was also a pretty big blunder on my part. 

Not much else to really dissect with my play. I put myself in situations I should not have been in, tried to make the most of things, but couldn't. Congrats to my opponent on the win and thanks again for making the drive over. On to Game 3!