Intro and Lists:
I was able to get in some wonderful weekend games with Cartwright! Since we were out at his place, he decided to run his Northern Alliance, which have not seen on the table in quite a while. They are in the midst of getting rebased (sheets of ice, with magnets!), and have not been travel worthy for our last few bouts. The Northern Alliance are the Master List for my Varangur, so maybe I can learn some things if I pay attention. He was getting away from his old Ice Elemental builds and brought the following:
It was a list with a lot of variety, and does a nice job showcasing the various factions that make up the Northern Alliance. Returning from some of our earliest bouts is the Ice Naiad Horde with the Hammer of Measured Force, a very resilient unit with both Ensnare and Regeneration, making it difficult to chip away at them in-game. Also returning are a duo of Ice Kin Hunters and their frigid arrows. The elvish contingent was well-represented today, and brought a little Blade Hero berserker to disrupt along with an Ice Kin Bolt Thrower too. Units hit by the ranged attacks of all these elves are "Frozen", providing the two Ice-Queens with some potential rerolls against the shivering targets, and this arrangement should reward focusing fire and smart activation orders in the ranged phase, which is neat to see design-wise. Several packs of Snow Foxes are around for chaff, and rounding out the infantry choices are three stout regiments of Dwarf Clansmen to block and grab objectives, an expanded choice for the list.
In a surprise move, my opponent brought his own horde of Frostfang Cavalry, which were some really neat miniatures of Winged Hussars riding bears. Very cool! When I've brought my own version of this unit, he's brought triple war machines, and they've been wavered and shot off before being able to accomplish anything. We'll see how the Frostfangs do here against me and what I can learn!
Lastly, he has two Lords on Frostfangs. On their 50mm square, monster-sized bases, they can score for scenarios, and with Nimble, have a high skill ceiling with a lot of unorthodox charges available to them. Utilizing Nimble is not something I have been doing well and am trying to work on. My own Lords have seemingly struggled to land 3 hits in most their last half-dozen combat encounters too, so we'll see if I can pick up any insight from my opponent on using the Lords as well as the cavalry horde.
I brought the above, taking a more typical Abyssal's list of Molochs and Flamebearers and Gargoyles and then jamming a bunch of Tortured Souls and unique army options into the mix. About half the list (points-wise) is up to test:
- Tortured Souls. They seem really interesting, and I am not sure how to use them or what to expect. So we'll just drop them on the table and see what happens during the game.
- Seductress with Bane Chant. The Seductress has given good utility in other games. Flying and decent stats lets her do a lot as the game unfolds. I wasn't sure what to do with 15 spare points, especially with so many unique units in the list, so we're trying out Bane Chant on her. Will it be used? Will it make a difference? Or will the Seductress be too busy doing other things to cast spells?
- Zaz'u'szu the Betrayer. The non-individual spellcasters can be hard to use, especially alongside other units. The goal is to have him have a shot every turn. I think boosted Lighting is going to be the typical move for him, so we'll see how Betrayal works again too.
- Manifestation of Ba'el. The Manifestation has brought a great deal of utility in other games, throwing Lightning Bolts around before charging things. I've liked the flexibility he offers, so hopefully he will continue to impress this game.
- Well of Souls. For it's second-ever outing, we have the Well of Souls. It's a flier with the ability to hoover-up wounds from nearby friendly units, and then heal them back with a ridiculous Lifeleech 5. It is a really interesting unit, so I wanted to try it out again.
It felt like it was going to be a difficult match up. I had 14 drops and 23 Unit Strength to my opponent's 16 drops and 27 Unit Strength. Since I couldn't out drop him, I figured I couldn't be that reactive to his deployments or all that sneaky with my own. I resolved to try and do my own thing in deployment and then focus on the scenario when we got into things.
Table, Terrain, Deployment
We generated a table, with everything pretty normal. The Buildings were Height 9 Blocking Terrain; the Forests Height 6 Difficult terrain, the Fences were Height 2 Obstacles and the Hills Height 3. I won the roll-off, sticking with the side I was already closer to. I had decided that I wanted to stick the Flamebearers in the woods, and these woods didn't have a hill directly in front of them, so this side seemed more desirable.
We have played through everything buy Kill now. Still, neither of us really wanted to play Kill, so we used a d12 and rolled up Invade.
From left-to-right the Northern Alliance had their Ice Kin Bolt Thrower, Snow Foxes, and the Lord on Frostfang. Between the building and the forest was the Ice Queen with Blizzard, and Snow Foxes behind some Ice Kin Hunters. In the woods were more Ice Kin Hunters, a Lord on Frostfang, and the mighty Frostfang Cavalry, as well as the Blade Hero on foot. Past the forest and out on the right was mostly infantry, with the Naiad Horde, some Snow Foxes in reserve, the other Ice Queen, and the three dwarven regiments of Clansmen.
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| From the left corner of my deployment zone. |
The Abyssals were far more spread out. From left-to-right we have Tortured Souls in front of Gargoyles, Molochs, Well of Souls, triple Flamebearers, a stack of Zaz the Betrayer and the Manidestation of Ba'el, more Molochs, another stack of Tortured Souls in front of Gargoyles, the Seductress, and more Tortured Souls.
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| My opponents large commitment. |
I had opened with the Tortured Souls, dropping them around the battlefield nice and spread out. My opponent committed pretty hard pretty early on my right with all that infantry. The Lord on the left came down just in time for me to react to, I got spooked and deployed my last Molochs and the Well to counter him, lest he run up and buzz-saw through the Flamebearers entirely unimpeded.
The scenario seemed like it was going to be a difficult one for me. I don't really have a great plan for dealing with all these infantry units on my right, which, if not contested, will easily win my opponent the game. My overall plan was to ignore them for a while (Dwarves are slow). If I could rack up a few wins elsewhere, I was hoping I could swing back around and deal with the infantry before the game ended.
I lost the roll for first turn, and my opponent decided to have me go first (and waste a round of my Flamebearer shooting). They also declined to Scout their Ice Kin Hunters.
Top of Round 1: Forces of the Abyss
On the right, the Tortured Souls moved up behind the hills, hiding. With all the infantry over here, I did not have great line of sight, but neither did he, so the plan was to delay, and hopefully hop the opposing line if they came too close. The Garyogles and Molochs moved up, but only tentatively.
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| Messing with hills. The Lord on Frostfang can see over the hills though, so the more central unit held back. |
In the middle, The Manifestation and Seducress move up to pressure things. Zaz and the Flamebearers took to the forest, with one unit stuck a little bit back to let Zaz get in. With no shots, and Steady Aim, this jumble isn't too bad. The Manifestation throws into the Ice Queen, landing 2 damage from its Lightning Bolt. Unfortunately, Zaz has little legs, and is a few inches shy of reaching her too, so throws some boosted bolts at the unobscured Ice Kin, dealing just 1 and injuring the very Flamebearers that had made way for him with his Betrayal ability.
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| Pretty crowded in the forest. |
On the left, the Garyogles hopped over the slower Tortured Souls, but both went towards the Bolt Thrower. War Machines can be swingy, so I wanted to shut that down before it could get any spikey rolls. That seemed like a decent job for some Tortured Souls or the Garyogles.
Bottom of Round 1: Northern Alliance
Seeking to defend the war machine, the Snow Foxes nimbly scamper away, and the Lord on Frostfang pivots to threaten a counter-charge
Both of the Ice Kin Hunters, Bolt Thrower and then the Ice Queen fire everything into my left-most Flamebearers, and remove them in one go. They weren't quite enough in the woods to get any cover bonus, so a lot of shots end up landing. Positional error on my part.
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| Elf shooting is scary. Especially when you are only Defense 3. |
The center of the Northern Alliance's lines with the Frostfang Cavalry Horde mostly holds, with the other units of Snow Foxes scampering up to bait charges, and the Blade Hero moving up to lurk behind the central hill. On my right, the infantry line of Naiads and Dwarves move at the double.
Top of Round 2: Forces of the Abyss
The Tortured Souls spookily jump over the Dwarves, but they don't appear to have Nimble with their Fly, so that is the best they can do, unfortunately. They needed just about every inch to hop the line.
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| That is still a lot of infantry. |
The other Tortured Souls slink sideways, hoping to charge out and disrupt the Dwarves next turn if they continue advancing for the scenario.
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| The Abyssals push out on the left. |
The central Molochs are still hesitant with so much opposing them and hold back. The Seductress flies close to her full range to potentially threaten a few things next turn. I decide to use the Manifestation and Zaz to Bolt the Ice Queen with Blizzard, and three more damage lands, with Zaz doing 1 to her and then the other Flamebearer unit.
With so much around to protect the Bolt Thrower, I opt to only commit the Gargoyles, who do manage to claw apart the machine. The Tortured Souls move up and pivot, looking to bait out a charge from the Lord, and the Well of Souls and Molochs move up, looking to pin him down in the coming turns. Needing to hop the fence though, the Molochs are a little slow to advance.
Bottom of Round 2: Northern Alliance
Both the Lord and Snow Foxes decide to charge the Gargoyles, and shred them. The Ice Kin Hunters and Ice Queen again focus on a unit of Flamebearers. With cover this time, they still take some damage, but weather the storm, and my opponent gets a lucky Waver against them.
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| The Naiads make good use of the hill. |
The other Lord takes the central hill, looking to start a fight, and the frighening Frostfang unit has their Lord's back. They still haven't quite made it out of the forest, but have Strider, so it's not as big a deal and they are still scary. The Naiads slow their advance down a bit, hiding behind a hill while the Dwarven regiments continue on their way. The Ice Queen here does an about-face to hit the Tortured Souls with a Breath Attack, and then removes them with a spikey Nerve check.
Top of Round 3: Forces of the Abyss
The Tortured Souls hit the flank of a Dwarf regiment as it takes the hill. As it turns out, I didn't have great chances to rout them without spikey dice myself. I land 5 damage and with the Nerve check being quite low, they stick happily stick around to fight some ghosts. At the time, this seemed like it was worth a shot, but really, they should only do about 6 damage on average here. This was a waste, and the Tortured Souls don't seem likely to rout anything on their own. But this was still good for learning purposes.
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| Worth a shot, especially in a debut game, but no spikey dice for me. |
I move the Gargoyles over to get they away from the Naiads I think. They aren't going to be able to block the nimble Lord on Frostfang. The Molochs back up, avoiding a potential flank charge from the Naiads, and hoping the Lord charges them. The wavered Flamebearers regenerate 1-2 and are down to three damage. The unwavered Flamebearers and Zaz shoot into the Lord atop the hill, but only deal 2 damage to him, even with Zaz boosting all the way.
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| Not a great amount of damage done to the Lord on Frostfang on the hill. |
The Blade Hero has been chasing after the Seductress. I decide to try and charge him and let the duelists fight it out. The Gnomish shields pops when the Seductress lands a few blows. She didn't have as many options as I was hoping for here. I think she was just shy to reach the Lord on Frostfang, and didn't have line of sight to the wounded Ice Queen, who had withdrawn around the building. Sending her into the Hero seemed like the best play at the time, since the Hero could potentially disorder my fliers next turn.
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| Not going great on the left. Molochs are pretty slow. |
On my left, the Molochs pivot and move to avoid the next fence, and the Tortured Souls do the same. I have not used either of these units well, so the hope is to pin down the Lord here soon and accomplish something out on this flank soon.
Bottom of Round 3: Northern Alliance
Out on the left, the Lord and Snow Foxes decide to multi-charge the Tortured Souls, and manage to cut their way through the ghosts. Even with -/14, the Tortured Souls just are not sticking around! I'm not quite sure if Def4 is showing or Cartwright's rolls are hot. The Snow Foxes overrun a good amount, and the Lord victoriously side-steps just 1", which I constantly forget is an option. They will have the range, but this is still enough of an impediment to prevent a charge against the Lord from my Molochs, as they would need a second pivot to scoot around the Foxes, which they do not have.
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| Positioning on the left. |
Ice Kin Hunters and the Ice Queen again throw into the wavered Flamebearers, deal three more damage to them, and again get the waver against them. My opponent really focused them down this game and they have not been regenerating too well under fire.
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| Positioning on the right, with a lot of infantry moving over the line now. |
The Lord on the hill doesn't take the bait, and instead moves his full move down into my deployment zone, and nimbly pivots, to threaten the Molochs in their flank. With nothing to support or relieve him, avoiding the combat here and forcing a reaction from me is a great move.
The Frostfang Cavalry merely pivot in the woods, trying to get the Well of Souls and Manifestation into its front arc.
Out on the far right, two of the Dwarf Clansmen Regiments easily dispatch the Tortured Souls while the Naiads swing around the hill, and a third unit of Clansmen soldiers on towards my deployment zone.
Top of Round 4: Forces of the Abyss
I opt to have the Well and the Manifestation fly into the Woods too, eyeing up the flank of the Frostfang Cavalry again. The Manifestation throws some lighting into them too, landing three damage.
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| Ensnare, as always, is pretty good! The Naiads are still formidable, and unfortunately the angle just wasn't there for the Manifestation to get them in the flank. |
The Manifestation has a charge into the Naiad Horde, but it would have just barely been a frontal charge as the angles shook out. A hindered 7 attacks in the front didn't seem like it would do much. So I send the Molochs into the front of the Naiad's alone, hoping it is enough for now, and I can relieve them on the next turn.
I opt not to throw the Gargoyles out to block up the Dwarf Clansmen. I think both units have a charge into the Molochs, so I'd be giving the Gargoyles up for free. Blocking the Lord on Frostfang also seems futile - I don't think there is a way to do it unless I post up directly in front of the Flamebearers, which I do not have the inches to do. So, not sure what else to do, the Gargoyles hover nearby, looking to contribute more against the infantry next turn.
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| The Flamabearers regenerate a few damage in a sunbeam. |
The wavered Flamebearers look regenerate a few damage. The other unit and Zaz desperately fire at the Lord on Frostfang, but continue to land precious few hits. A new 4 damage is done, more average this time, and bringing him up to 6 damage total, but the Nerve check is unfortunately still quite low.
The Seductress does some work and carves up the Blade Hero after two rounds. This seems about right. Duelist added a lot of neat interactions in 3rd Edition, but you still don't seem likely to Rout another individual in one go, especially without a great Nerve check.
Out on the left, the Molochs take their only legal charge, and smash on through the Snow Foxes to continue their chase after the enemy Lord on Frostfang.
Bottom of Round 4: Northern Alliance
This Lord doesn't take the bait either, and wisely swings past the Molochs with some nimble pivots. At least the Molochs are scoring I guess? I have not used them well this game.
The Ice Kin Hunters leave the woods, getting out of the charge arcs of my fliers, and together with the Ice Queen, will land a fresh 9 damage onto the perpetually-wavered Flamebearers, routing them this time.
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| The Flamebearers just keep taking hits. |
The other Lord takes a long charge into the unwavered Flamebearers, but even with Strider, is only able to deal 3 damage, and fails to faze them.
The Naiads regenerate 3 damage, rolling pretty well. They countercharge, dealing 4 to the Molochs and a unit of Dwarves joins in as well, also dealing 4. The Nerve check is a hot 10, and the Molochs are bested in one go, which I was not expecting.
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| Disaster Strikes! |
The Frostfang Cavalry finally make it into a combat, and stampede the Seductress, victoriously turning about to eye up the Well of Souls and Manifestation of Ba'el.
Top of Round 5: Forces of the Abyss
We're getting into the end game, so I need to start trying to deal with all this scoring infantry. The Manifestation and Well were hoping to be getting flank charges or better positioning this turn, but with the failing of the Molochs, are somewhat forced into frontal charges against the Dwarf Clansmen, who had reformed to face them after mincing the Molochs. I only deal 6 damage (about average it looks like... yikes), and the Nerve check is again low, and the Dwarves hold.
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| The arrival of the fliers is less resounding with the Molochs not that. Front charges just aren't that great. |
Not wanting to fight Naiads, the Gargoyles hit the flank of the wounded Dwarven regiment atop the hill and actually shred them. They unfortunately have no way to avoid the other unit of Dwarves, and opt to victoriously back up, but only get 1" from the roll.
The Flamebearers counter-charge the Lord on Frostfang, and should land a single blow. The Lord holds, seemingly eager for more. I don't know what to do with Zaz. Bane-Chant seems lackluster given the bad stats of the Flamebearers. Hitting the Lord in the flank seems like it won't do enough. The fluffy move turns out to be Zaz "betraying" the Flamebearers here to boost some Lighting Bolts at the Frostfangs... but only 1 damage goes through and the Nerve check is low and unimpactful.
Thoroughly juked, my remaining Molochs change facing, again eying up the Lord, though have little chance of catching him.
Bottom of Round 5: Northern Alliance
The Well and Manifestation are just out of the charge arc of the Frostfang Cavalry horde, so the horde if forced to wheel around, to try and score as the game concludes.
On the right, one Dwarf Regiment charges the Gargoyles, and routs them. The other Dwarf Regiment charges the weaker Manifestation, dealing a whopping 7 damage I believe, but it thankfully holds. The Naiads are scoring, and reform to face the Manifestation and Well of Souls in order to not give up a flank, like I've been trying to get for most of these last turns.
The Lord on Frostfang finally bests the Flamebearers, and the other Lord on Frostfang joins him nearby, leaving the Molochs far behind.
The Ice Kin Hunters and Ice Queen with Blizzard sneak some damage onto my scoring Molochs.
Top of Round 6: Forces of the Abyss
My Molochs move up, skulking around the building in the Northern Alliance's deployment zone.
The Manifestation countercharges, regenerating a dew damage while doing so. Unfortunately, the Manifestation of Ba'el seems to be simultaneously manifesting elsewhere, and no damage at all is done to this unit of Clansmen.
The Well of Souls activated second, absorbing all the remaining damage from the Manifestation, and then charges into the other regiment of Dwarves. It rolls on the warmer side, dealing 5, Lifeleeching back all the damage it had just syphoned up, and even routes the unit, overrunning an inch.
I don't recall what Zaz does here. Whatever it is, he doesn't look to have left a mark.
Bottom of Round 6: Northern Alliance
Despite moving up, the Molochs are out of the Frostfang's charge arc. I believe they charge and route Zaz, though the injured Lord Frostfang might have done that too.
The Ice Kin Hunters and Ice Queen continue their tag-teaming barrage at range, landing 8 damage with the arrows and Icy Breath, but the Molochs hold.
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| End of game shot. |
The Ice Naids reposition, shifting sideways, I think to "chase" the Well of Souls, moving their arc and making it harder for the Well to just fly away and score should we roll up a Round 7.
The surviving Dwarf Clansmen count their blessings and disengage from the Manifestation of Ba'el, and then back up two more inches, scoring now that a majority of their footprint is over the line.
Thankfully, we do not roll up a bonus round. I don't have much left.
Only the maimed Molochs (3) and flimsy Manifestation of Ba'el (1) are scoring for the Forces of the Abyss (4 points). This is against the Frostfang Cavalry Horde (3), both Lords on Frostfangs (1 each for 2 total), Ice Naiads (4) and Dwarf Clansmen (3).
It should be a commanding 12 - 4 victory for the Northern Alliance.
Game Conclusions
This was a pretty ideal test outing for the Dwarves and my opponent played a great game. With a bit of a poor deployment for me, the smarter play and better list won out, so congrats to my opponent! It was good to see the Northern Alliance on the table again.
I don't think my plan of ignoring the infantry was sound. Given the scenario, they don't need to move too far forward to score, and they aren't shambling Zombies, so are going to make it across pretty easily. They deployed early, but I was wary of dropping stuff like Molochs to face them, as I didn't want the Frostfangs to then drop here too. Essentially, by ignoring the infantry I was hoping to avoid a slugfest out on the right, as I figured the NA with so much more Nerve would easily win. In retrospect, with this scenario, I think I should have taken the early cues from my opponent and gone more hard on the right as well. I don't think I can ignore all that unit strength and still hope to have a prayer at winning.
Testing Conclusions
The Lords on Frostfangs did not have a high kill count, but they survived to the end and complicated my movement phases for sure. I think my personal takeaway is to have these as "extra" units? My opponent had 5 sources of Inspiring, which let the Lords do what they wanted as the game developed. In my Varangur lists, I've tended to hover at around 3 sources of Inspiring, putting a lot of pressure on the Lords to stay close to my lines when they should be out pressuring.
My opponent did not like his Frostfang Horde. I think it was probably used too passively, but would agree this was not a great showing. I was thinking it would come down on the far right or in between the building and the forest and just be thrown towards my lines, looking to cause a ruckus. Instead, it was held back in reserve, and the angles were not kind to it in the late game. Sadly, neither of us have been impressed with the unit.
The Bolt Thrower got a discount just like the KoM Ballista. Both are more attractive now, but the line of sight issues in a typical game can just be too much. It is worth trying out, but it seemsvery dependent on terrain and thus hard to make a consistent and reliable part of a list.
The Dwarf Clansmen did good work and performed well. This seemed like a pretty ideal outing for them though where they just needed to walk a bit and survive. Having some sturdy, cheap, Def5 units around does seem great for scenario play though.
As for the Abyssals and my tests:
- Tortured Souls. Going into the game, we both just assumed they had Nimble, but as we got into it, discovered that they do not. (The beefy Undead Wights are in a similar boat as well, which I do like). Design-wise, I like that Fly doesn't automatically grant Nimble now, but this does limit the uses of the Tortured Souls somewhat. Jumping lines is harder, as we saw. They are more like medium cavalry troop that flies? If that makes sense. They should be able to make some sneaky charges to exploit haphazard stacks (with spaces), but are not going to have complete freedom on the field. Additionally, as regiments, they like are not likely to break anything on their own, as we saw in the game. Lastly, they were not as survivable as I was hoping, though that may have been some spikey dice. They are neat, and will get more testing.
- Seductress with Bane Chant. I didn't read through my list carefully, and forgot she had Bane Chant, not that there was a great moment to it in game. I think if you want the spell, there are much better ways to get it in the army (namely the cheaper Warlock, Zaz, or giving the Lute to something). You want her flying and disrupting. This game I committed her to fighting the Blade Hero and hopefully preventing my Fliers from being grounded, which was probably a good call, but felt a little boring. I like her, but don't think I'll run her with Bane Chant again.
- Zaz'u'szu the Betrayer. I don't remember what he did at the end of the game. He was taking boosted shots all game, but the dice were uncooperative. With 8 bolts, often on 4's and 4's, he was typically just doing 1 damage, and whiffed entirely a few times, if I recall correctly. He is a neat unit at a great price point, but had an underwhelming performance here.
- Manifestation of Ba'el. There is still a lot of utility on this thing. He survived all the way to the end, which is good for a flier, but ultimately, he was not all that impactful. He flubbed repeatedly, as I am tending to do with my single entity monsters. his only saving grace was having the Well of Souls nearby, but together that is 500 points that was doing the same thing.
- Well of Souls. Sadly, the damage syphon didn't come up much, but I still think it has a lot of neat interactions with the army and very high skill cap that I am in no danger of hitting anytime soon! It was mostly carrying the combats with the Manifestation with its few additional attacks and rolling better.
- Molochs. Adding these down here because I did not use them well! They should not have been off on the flank chasing. They are only Def 4, so really should be part of a battle line and supported by other units. Losing the other unit in Round 4 was also unfortunate, but I didn't have much to spare for them. I figured they would be maimed, but survive, and things were looking great up until that Nerve check. My opponent does "battle groups" really well, and I really need to take a page out of his book next time I run these. Next time I run them, I think I need to figure out where they are going first, and then plan the rest of my deployment accordingly.
I had a great time and learned a lot. Thanks to Cartwright for hosting and for the wonderful game!
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