I have the double delight of having some much-needed time away from work, and filling some of that time with some Kings of War, recently making an afternoon trip out to the Milwaukee area to roll some dice. Unfortunately, we were unfamiliar with the shop's schedule, and got pinched for time up against a regular weekly tabletop event, and thus only managed to squeeze one game in. It was still a great time rolling dice and chatting with folks. My opponent brought the following:
The list seems pretty typical for my opponent and their process: exploring some new stuff while retaining what has worked well previously. It seems like a great, logical approach to the game, but well, just not my style! The Pale Rider and flying Clan Lord return as menacing combat characters, with some returning Salamander Primes to hold the line. The Tyrants have been shrunk to just a regiment, and despite being one of the more defensively weaker things in the list, should still be a good support unit if something can be the anvil for it. Some Ancients are around to fight an Inspire, and I still really like the design of these kinds of units. The unit should give better Inspiring coverage that a typical character, and it's just fun. Two Hordes of Rhinosaur Cavalry are scary one with the Boots of Striding and one with the Potion of the Caterpillar. We didn't discuss, but neither of us had transitioned into using the Big Red Book yet, so this should be a good sendoff for the potion.
The remainder of his list was new to me. A Greater Fire Elemental, a horde of Fire Elementals, and two Mage-Priests with Surge and one with some bonus healing. The elementals are all surprisingly elite (Me3+ and Def5+), and should do some damage with all that Crushing Strength. At least they are Shambline with only speed 6 and do not fly! I haven't faced off against dedicated shambling much, but know that I'll have to be careful with distance and angles, lest they are able to Shamble into a flank.
I also did not use the Big Red Book, so no points reductions for me. I brought the list above. I thought I had an ASB with Lute in the list, but evidently I did not! I must not have had the unlock open in the list builder when I went to add him in, and never noticed as I built up everything else. That is a pretty big error on my part, as only two sources of Inspiring is stretching me a bit thin! I ran a fair amount of duplicates, but made decent use of the unlocks, and figured this would be an ok jumping off point for trying out some hordes. Speaking of, up to test are:
- Hordes. We're going to give them a go here! Both lean towards being "hammer" units.
- Minimal Inspiring Sources. I am accidentally down to just two flying, fighty characters as my sources of inspiring in a 2300 list... so um.. how will that work out for me?
- Militia Mobs. Pikes have worked well, but are pricey. I wanted to put more points into offense, so I'll downgrade my front line and see how they do.
- Ballista. I still think war machines are some of the Kingdom's most effective shooting options., and I think the Ballistae were overlooked and I wanted to explore them more. Now they have a points decrease and should be a bit better! I could have swapped out one for an ASB with the Lute, but decided to own my mistake and really try out the war machines in earnest here.
Overall, every unit in my opponent's list was ready to rumble, which was scary, but I had him beat on both unit strength and drops, but felt I was going to lose most fights. Hopefully I could save some good stuff (like the slaying Giants) for later deployment drops, as they had no shortage of proper targets.
Additionally, he had no chaffy units, and with the exception of the Clan Lord on Fire Drake, the speediest things he had were Rhinosaur Cavalry at Sp7. I had my Militias and mounted Heroes and Scouts, so with smart sacrifices, I was hoping to be able to dictate important fights and give my wimpy humans the much-needed edge. The Knights, Giants, and Generals would hopefully pair off with one another to hit something and move onto the next thing. I have used my hammers, particularly my knights, poorly in the past, charging in and getting gummed down, so I wanted to make a conscious effort to not get bogged down anywhere if I could help it. Given the overall slowness of the opposing force and my own war machines, I wanted my initial deployment to hang very far back. I figured that doing so should either let my war machines do work over multiple turns, or force my opponent to over extend to try and deal with the war machines. Ideally, a bit of both! But first, we would need to see what the scenario would entail.
Scenario and Deployment:
We set up the table and ended up with Plunder, which we accidentally modified, forgetting these were Loot Tokens and meant to be picked up! I had not done a reread of the rules for some time, and forgot that the scenarios differentiate between Loot Counters and Objective Markers early on, so the scenario descriptions can use some shorthand. So seeing nothing about picking up the tokens on our quick read, these became Objective Markers instead, with us trying to control each with Unit Strength at the end of the game. From the left, the tokens were worth 1, 2, 1, 1, 2.
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| View from my left-side of the table. My opponent was unpacking: no deployment had been made yet. |
We had quite the assortment of terrain, courtesy of the shop. The church and towers were Height 9 Buildings. The craggy thing was a Height 3 Hill. The two blue ponds were Height 0 Difficult Terrain. There were two clumps of Height 6 Forests, and the road was purely cosmetic.
I upgraded a 2-Point token first, picking the one closer to the left-hand side and out in the open. I figured with fliers and cavalry, I should be able to contest that one nicely in the late game. My opponent then upgraded the one behind the church.
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| End of my opponent's deployment. |
Deployment went pretty well for me, with everything ending up pretty far back as planned. His Horde of Salamander Primes came down very early, so I obliged with my own Foot Guard Horde opposite and then both Ballistae for good measure.
From my left-to-right, my opponent ended up with the Rhinosaur Cavalry and Clan Lord on the left flank, the horde of Fire Elementals and Mage-Priest, then the Prime Horde, Pale Rider, healing Mage-Priest, Greater Fire Elemental and finally the regiment of Tyrants.
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| Bird-brained deployment. |
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| A pretty open center. What more could war-machine crew ask for? |
My center had a Giant and Hero, two Militia Regiments, a Ballista, the third Militia Regiment, the Foot Guard Horde, and the second Ballista. I figured the Giant here would peel off to reinforce my left, and the center would lag back and let the Ballista fire, but I wanted him around so I had the option.
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| Tank treads on the road? Halflings must have come through recently... |
My right was a General, Mounted Scouts, Mounted Hero, and regiment of Knights. I decided not to deploy the Generals together in order to spread out the Inspiring bubbles. And I am again shielding myself a bit with the building, though my opponent again has zero ranged threats. I probably could have done better with deployment here as well.
Overall though, I had a pretty classic pincer going. If my center held back a bit to let the war machines shoot, I could hopefully win the flanks and then collapse into my opponent's center, securing tokens and the game. My opponent won the roll off, and elected for me to go first, despite my ranged advantage.
Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men
It was a pretty uneventful turn. My right contingent advanced a bit but not at the double, and everything generally shuffled up five inches. The General on the left sidestepped from behind the building, but overall I was content to generally hold back cautiously and see what the war machines would do.
The Ballistae fired at the Ancients, as I figured targeting the Regiment with the lower Nerve would be good, but the Def6 proved tough, and I only scored one damage.
Bottom of Round 1: Salamanders
My opponent advanced, respecting charge distances. I did not get a great shot, but nothing really happened. Everything moved up a ways, and the healing Mage-Priest easily heals away the 1 damage on the regiment of Ancients.
Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men
On my left, I try to start setting up some trades, but do not do it well. The Scouts move up and shoot, and deal one damage to the more central Rhinosaur unit. The table is a bit precarious with the edge, but the Scouts are positioned on the hill such that the Knights cannot be charged by the Rhinosaur Cavalry- they'd need to go through the Scouts. However, I don't move the Knights up that far, and I move my Hero up, both of which are arguably errors. I think my intent was to offer him up as a way to pick my opponent apart. If the Rhinosaurs charge him, he's a goner, but there should be no good way for the Rhinosaurs to reform.
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| A messy left flank. I am out of what little practice I have accumulated this year. |
Deploying back was good, but I realize now that the terrain will be slowing me down if I don't start addressing it now, so my center moves as far up as they can, trying to get into terrain this turn to free up their moves for the late game. This might not have been an issue, but the first round of shooting with the war machines was a bit disheartening. With no damage to build on, I opt to switch targets, and fire the Ballistae into the Primes, and I think get two damage on them. They are hitting on 4's, but the Salamanders are well-armored.
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| The rather passive right flank. |
The Tyrants had moved into possible charge range next turn - one of the few things to do so. I probably should have been aggressive here, but I decide to inch the Knights and Scouts back, and loose with the bows, scoring a singular point of damage.
Bottom of Round 2: Salamanders
On my left, my positioning mistakes are immediately exploited. The Rhinosaurs charge and the Scouts and Hero are quickly removed. A third charge is made against the Knights. With the Rhinosaurs charging about, the Clan Lord on Fire Drake can suddenly see them. They hold, but the Clan Lord got the first hit in, removing my Thunderous charge. I should have moved the knights up behind the Scouts, even if the Scouts needed to hang back another inch. I gave up a lot of my speedy chaff for free here.
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| Post-combat on my left. |
My opponent's center continues to advance cautiously, with the Mage-Priest easily healing through my pitiful Ballistae damage. So far, this is not going according to plan for the Kingdoms of Men
Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men
On my right, my Scouts move up, screening the Knights from the Tyrants, and shooting into the Tyrants again. The Scouts and the Knights are within charge distance for the Greater Fire Elemental, so I zip my Hero up to interfere with the flaming monster. The General stacks up behind the Knights.
I am not happy with how I played this flank. I believe the full 20" fly would put the General on top of the Tyrants. I figured this would not be enough to break them, so hesitated here while trying to make something happen. I think the Scouts should be charging into the Tyrants and securing me real estate. Had they done that, the Knights would move up and pivot, they flank protected from the coming turn, along with the General. This movement should take the units out of the front arc of the Greater Fire Elemental, who when then need to move and Surge to get into combat, and ending up in my front, which would not be too bad, all things considered.
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| Indecision strikes, letting my opponent advance up and start zoning things out. |
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| My center is mostly through the terrain now. |
The only good thing for me this turn happened on my left. The Rhinosaurs were indeed drawn out of position with their victorious moves, allowing one Giant to catch them in the flank, and the other Giant in their front. The unit was obliterated and out of Inspiring range. The Giants reformed, one to face the other Rhinosaur unit, the other to face the Fire Elementals, so as not to get caught in the rear by them.
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| Pre-combat, though this went well. |
Bottom of Round 3: Salamanders
I didn't get a picture, but the remaining Rhinosaur Cavalry do charge the front of the Giant, dealing 8 damage, but it holds. The Fire Elementals do make it into the other Giant, dealing 6, and it too holds. The Clan Lord on Fire Drake does press the attack against the Knights, and routs them, reforming to face the center of the board and threaten both Giants...
In the center, the Primes charge into the woods and into the flank of the Militia unit there. The Militia accrue double-digits of damage and are scattered, with the Primes reforming to face my deployment zone, and my lines. The Pale Rider gets within range for Firebreath, and torches the Militia unit in the puddle, who hold.
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| All my speedy units are good and boxed in now. |
On my right, the Tyrants do take the charge against the Scouts, and pulp them. It's probably not legal due to the singular pivot and angle needed by the Ancients, who were slightly behind the Elemental, but it is not something I want to contest, and we let the Ancients and Greater Fire Elemental charge the Hero, burning him away.
Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men
The Knights take the charge against the Tyrants, routing them. Knowing the knights are going to be bogged down with the Elemental and unit of Ancients, the General flies up to threaten flank charges next turn. It's be rough, but with the building protecting my flank, I figured that the Knights could probably hold next turn.
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| What is this, a church for ants? As it turns out, this shop is BIG into Flames of War. |
In the center, the Ballistae shoot into the Pale Rider, who has cover. I think one damage is done. I take two hindered frontal charges against the Prime horde. I do that because my other General can see their rear. The unit folds due to the rear charge, and due to the angle, the Pale Rider cannot see my General to retaliate next turn. The Militia overrun to get in the face of the legendary salamander the General attempts to back up, though only rolls up 1". I knew I was safe from the Pale Rider, so I think this backing-up was a mistake, and a reform would have been better, likely to face my left flank and go back to helping out there.
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| The Militia even slipped a few damage in. This was a good fight for me. |
Speaking of that left flank, the Giants retaliate. One rolls pretty hot, and routs the Rhinosaur Cavalry, and turns to taunt toe flying Clan Lord. The other Giant rolls poorly (I think I got 4 extra attacks on 2d6) but is joined by the Militia. Double-digit damage is still dealt, and they get close with the Nerve check. Unfortunately, the Fire Elemental are indeed quite fearless and are unfazed, and this is unfortunate for me.
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| The Giants are fighting isolated battles... which was not the plan. |
Bottom of Round 4: Salamanders
My opponent opts to charge the Clan Lord into the front of one Giant, and the Fire Elementals into the other. This makes sense, but is kind of greedy. The hill is a little goofy, but my opponent likely had line-of-sight and space to pinch the one Giant and ignore the other. That would probably be the better play, but the greed pays off, and both are just barely routed, with the Fire Elementals getting a double-digit Nerve check and the exact 20 needed to rout theirs. The Clan Lord overruns while the Fire Elementals align to menace the Militia.
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| Victorious reforms after barely felling both Giants. The Clan Lord was a little wobblily on the rocks, so we used a spare base to mark down it's position. |
In the center, the isolated Pale Rider lashes out against the overrunning Militia unit that they had scorched previously. The Militia rout, and the Pale Rider withdraws a few inches ... and out of line of sight of my flying General. The inches game was especially rough here. The Militia overran too far, and my General not enough last turn. This turn, the Pale Rider got a great roll and out of danger.
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| Unfortunate. My flier now has no targets this turn... |
On the right, the Greater Fire Elemental and Ancients attack the Knight Regiment, routing them even though my General was in range to force the re-roll for the Nerve check. I figured the Knights would stick around for a turn, but the dice were with my opponent this fight.
Top of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men
Around now, the staff came by to let us know we'd soon be encroaching on some reserved table time, so my opponent and I discussed, opting to play quicker, and ending the game for sure after turn 6.
The Pale Rider was slippery. I opted to charge both hordes into him. I figured weight of attacks might do it, but the dice were not with me. I think the Pole-Arms did 2, and the Foot Guard 3-4? Checking the stats, this is low, but even with an average, the Rider doesn't seem likely to break. I was being too wishful here, and this double charge was a mistake. Charging in both hordes put the flank of the Pole-Arms within 20" of the Clan Lord, so I was banking on breaking the Pale Rider. Instead, I probably should have charged with just the Pole-Arms to get them away from the Clan Lord, and reposition with everything else.
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| A positional mess in the center for me. |
This turn, the Flying Generals did reposition this turn, but awkwardly. I was trying to avoid the Flying Clan Lord, so the only option was to try and bully the right flank on my final turn, but things were not looking great there with losing the Knights.
The only bright point here is my Militia charged the Fire Elementals, and managed to rout them, then overrun out of line of sight of the flying Clan Lord. Small victories!
Bottom of Round 5: Salamanders
On the right, the Ancients change facing, to face towards the center of the field. The Greater Fire Elemental pivots, moves and shoots a fireball into one of my Generals. The nearby Mage-Priest attempts to surge the monster the rest of the way in, but it is a like a 7" Surge, and is not to be.
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| More victorious Salamanders. My opponent was much better with his monster-use than I was. |
Top of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men
The Militia are securing a 2-Point Marker, so I've got that going for me. Both Generals turn their mounts towards the Ancients, though will end up in their front. Such a charge gets them out of range of the Clan Lord and Pale Rider, but the dice are not to be. The rolls are ok, but the unit of Ancients holds.
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| Oh, whoops. I didn't realize the second misfortune of mine until I saw this picture. |
The Foot Guard charge the Fire Elemental, but this does not go well, and I am struck with two instances of misfortune. Firstly, I get a decent number of hits, but then 13 misses to damage, and deal only 4 damage when the dust settles. Secondly, I miss that I am attacking it's flank, and only roll one set of 25 attacks instead of two. The Greater Fire Elemental laughs at just 4 damage, and the fate of my second horde is sealed...
Bottom of Round 6: Salamanders
The Pale Rider and Clan Lord rear-charge the Foot Guard, with the Fire Elemental counter-charging into their front. The Elemental does 3 damage. The Pale Rider 23 and my opponent looses track during the 45-dice for the Clan Lord. The unit does not get snake-eyes and is duly routed. Alas.
The Ancients counter-charge the already wounded General, dealing another 4 to him, but the General holds, helping to contest the Marker nearby.
We end the game with a few minutes to spare before needing to turn over the table. Since we goofed and treated these as Objective Markers instead of Loot Tokens, my Militia is controlling one 2-Pointer. The Pale Rider is just within range of controlling a 1-Pointer, and although I am atop it, my two Generals have a combined Unit Strength of 2, which is less than the nearby Regiment of Ancients, who have a Unit Strength of 3. The Salamanders win 3-2!
Game Conclusions
Many thanks to my opponent for fitting this game in during a weekday afternoon! I had a blast and hope we can arrange another game soon. Congrats on the win!
This game was not without mistakes! It had been nearly two months since my last game and I was a touch rusty on everything. Missing that these were tokens and intended to be picked up was entirely my error - I've played the scenario before and just wasn't thinking as we kicked things off.
My strategy definitely did not pan out. The Ballistae had unobstructed shots for three full turns and delivering 3-4 damage in total was not great, and then that was just healed over by my opponent on each of their turns. So that approach was a bust.
My play was also quite lacking. I gave up most of my speedy chaff for basically free, tossing away 300+ points for little benefit. On the left I was messy, and let the Clan Lord get a free charge. I know how to deal with fliers, and just spaced and did not do that here, and as a result the flank was picked apart. On my right, I was too passive. Instead of pressuring, I gave my opponent time to advance and let my Knights and flier get boxed in. I didn't want to press forward with them and get them isolated, and per the attempted strategy, my center was deployed too far back to support and threaten things themselves, leading to passivity here on the nearby flank.
Testing Conclusions
As always, I feel like I learned a lot! Mistakes were made with the build and with my strategy, which are enlightening lessons for sure. And for the things to test:
- Minimal Inspiring Sources. The bad build did bite me a bit, and I was not able to inspire stuff like the Giants when it mattered. Being my only sources of Inspiring, I was hesitant to use them aggressively as well, so that comes back to bad building and strategy.
- Hordes. I definitely felt some growing pains here! Using them in tandem seemed bad, as it's just a bit unwieldy. My charge Turn 6 was rough, but not game-determining, and I think my opponent enjoy rolling all those dice on his turn.
- Militia Mobs. They just needed to be around, and did that just fine. Three might be too much, but I thought that these worked well, and even overperformed a bit.
- Ballista. They simply did not deliver and the little damage they did do was immediately healed. It was a particularly rough match-up against both Heal and high defense! I am glad they are getting a points reduction, but the performance was disappointing, which seems on par with most war machines these days! I still think they are undervalued, but I think the will be more meta- or match-up dependent choices.
Lots was learned and I had a great time rolling some dice. Many thanks to my opponent for the game!
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