More Thoughts on MSU: Unlocks and ... Hordes

In a recent battle, Battle 014, I attempted to focus on using the various slots I had unlocked. I was still exploring MSU and running regiments max for the Kingdoms of Men, so I ended up with 7 unlocks for the list. This focus on unlocks stands in contract to a previous battle, Battle 004, where I tried to carry the day with regimental spam and units, instead of "toys" like heroes and monsters and war machines. I figured I would try and summarize some lessons learned.

The big lesson from Battle 004, is that regimental spam is not effective! Units have a non-linear cost in Kings of War, with larger units being discounted. You pay a premium for choosing the smaller, more maneuverable regiments, in the neighborhood of 15-30% more, meaning you can bring less stuff to the table. If you take too many regiments, you end up fighting shoulder-to-shoulder anyways, exacerbating a lot of problems. So, the final lesson here is that you should have a reason for taking smaller units, like choosing regiments over hordes.

Battle 014 went better and was a much closer game. The lesson from that battle, as it pertains to list-building, is to use your unlocks. Humans, especially those from the generic Kingdoms, don't have great combat stats or rules. We lack the CS of the orcs, the Nerve of the Varangur, and even the Iron Resolve of many of our cousins, so if we are paying a premium for regiments, we better bring some toys as well. There was another list takeaway buried here though. Hordes are also better at working with unlocks than the regiments are...

It's not much, but the echoes of Battle 004 can still be found here to a degree. My Foot Guard regiments found themselves on each flank of a regiment of Pikes, essentially quite close to being shoulder-to-shoulder in the game. Their independence was nice, but had I run them as a horde instead, I'd have saved 45 points. I ran two giants and two Flying Generals, and multiple Pike and Knight regiments in this game, so the savings from hordes here could have added up a bit.

Sharing the battle in my thread on the Kings of War Forum got a small discussion going, kicked off by Vince. (Vince's blog has been linked in the Other Cool Blogs section for probably a few years at this point, and he is a regular poster on the forum, as well as another Kingdoms of Men general.) Vince shared an old list and post of his which helped crystalize some things for me...

Vince's list, which you can read more about here, ran 4 Hordes, and even gets an extra drop over my list without sacrificing his total unit Strength. This alternate approach was a bit sobering for my MSU endeavors! I'm not sure what I would even do against his list.

I had not done much by way of list analytics across my games, since I am usually running a brand new list each game and that would be a lot of effort. But generally I felt like I was typically out-dropping most opponents by a few things most of the time, which I felt was fine, since I was learning the game and having fun and exploring.

Vince's list demonstrates how close the drop parity likely was in all my games. And the closer that is, the worse it should be for the MSU player. I am reminded of a few battle reports from Warhammer 8th Edition (no clue which forum or blog or player), where the MSU player said something to the effect of "I won the game in the deployment phase." Significantly out-dropping the opponent was a thing at the time, so they were able to deploy all of their potent stuff after their opponent had finished. I realized that this level of decisiveness in the deployment phase was not something I had been achieving in any of my games. My MSU approach needs some work!

Vince goes on to assert that "the best composition of a Kingdoms of Men army is 4 hordes and as many regiments as you can fit in." I'm not there yet, but I think I simply must concede that the Kingdoms of Men need to run some hordes in order to be effective. Our units aren't amazing, so we should be taking that best price point when we can in order to field more things and give ourselves a fighting chance.

I'm not going to abandon the playstyle entirely, but I don't think the MSU approach is right for the Kingdoms of Men as I've been doing it. I will need to experiment with the style more, likely exploring some other armies to get some insights. But I think it's time I added in a horde or two to my Kingdoms of Men lists! Thank you for your insights, Vince!