Kings of War 3rd Edition: #036: Herd vs Brothermark [Loot]

Intro and Lists:

We both had interesting days at work prior to meeting up, so I was quite pleased to get a game with Cartwright recently to distract me! He brought his powerful Brothermark over to Madison, and fielded the following for our game:

It's an intriguing list, covering the full range in unit quality that the Brothermark can field. On the higher end, we have two strong, monster-hunting cavalry regiments from the Order of the Abyssal Hunt. The elite ranks are bolstered by a horde of Paladin Monster Slayers on foot, and wielding two-handed weapons. On the lower end, we have a few troops of Villein Skirmisher Cavalry to screen threats for the Order, a horde of Villein Bowmen, and four regiments of Penitents. In the middle on the quality scale are a large number of supporting elements. There are three Siege Artillery pieces, a mounted fighting hero, a ranged fighting hero, a towering Ancient Phoenix, and finally two healing Priests, one mounted, and one on foot.

I brought the above for the Herd's 3rd Edition debut. For their first outing, I wanted to avoid most magic items and upgrades, to hopefully establish a good baseline for the units, and get a feel for what units might need from any future items. I also wanted to focus on running more of my older units, so they can get a chance on the table before I go exploring all the fancy new things I've been painting up over the last few months. This choice meant running Longhorns, which then warped the rest of the list a bit. We'll see how all the tribal units fare! It's a new army so everything is up to test:

• Pathfinder. It's the army-wide special rule. Being a new army for me, I think I will need to be mindful of it to have a real chance at winning. We'll see how often the rule comes into play!
• Tribal Spears. They have Phalanx, which is neat. However I don't think they have the stats to really "counter" the very powerful cavalry from the Order of the Abyssal Hunt. I think I want to try them a bit as generalists here. We'll have them around to support and play the scenario, while looking to make the charge more often than not.
• Spirit Walkers with the Brew of Strength. Bring Fearless, the Spirit Walkers are neat. However think their lack of Defense is a huge liability. I decided to make them the focus of the inaugural list, giving them an item to increase their offensive prowess, and a lot of support. 
• Tribal Trappers. They should hit harder than they shoot, but I really like the design of these. They should be able to apply some great pressure, so I'll try to be aggressive with them and we'll see how they do. 
• Longhorn Troops. I very much like the concept of the Salamander Ancients, and these are of a similar design. Unfortunately, Rally is a bit harder to build around. The Rally is conditional, covering just the more "tribal" units from the roster, so no trees or werewolves can get the benefit. It can stack, but has a cap of 2. Hitting that cap seems worth aiming for, but that obviously requires running multiple units. I will run both troops near the Spirit Walkers to try and buff them, and hopefully three killy units working together can get things done. 
• Lycans. More old units. They are quick, but with only CS1, they don't seem likely to steamroll through anything. My opponent should also be uniquely suited to counter these with his anti-monster Cavalry, so we'll see how they do. 
• Wild Gur Panthers. These are my chaff units. The army is quick, but I need things to get in the way of my opponent's scary units. They remind me a lot of Abyssal Gargoyles, but lack fly. They've got ok chances to land a wound on most things, so are an interesting unit. We'll see what trouble they get into and what trouble they save me from.
• Druids with Heal and Bane Chant. I think this is a great place to start with a supporting hero, so I am tying two. We'll see whether Heal of Bane Chant is cast more often.
• Lycan Alpha. Again, the Lycan is lighting fast, but the smaller base-size for the hero should let them get into places my opponent won't want him. Even stock, this looks like a very fun choice!
• Centaur Chief. The centaur has some neat and options (bow, duelist) that seem worth exploring down the line. However, mine is mostly stock for now. I only had 5 points at the end, so gave him the Blade of Slashing. The only goal here is to remember that I have it!
• Battle Report Template. I haven't quite gotten in the number of games I was hoping to the last few months. We'll give the template another try and see how we do with it. The goal here is to not drop any rounds or turns.

I have a very quick army, but it's admittedly a bit of a glass cannon. I don't think my list I take much punishment, and even the Bowmen are going to be scary for me! I think victory for my Herd here will hinge on the scenario, how I utilize Pathfinder, and how I use the Wild Gur Panthers. 

Table & Scenario

We were out at a local shop, and generated the table while getting Loot for our scenario. Three tokens start on the center line, and you will get a point for each token that you hold at the end of the game. The terrain is typical for us: fences are Height 2 Obstacles, forests are Height 6 Difficult Terrain, hills were Height 3 and the mausoleums are Height 9 Blocking terrain.

The view from the right corner of the Herd's line.

My opponent favored the right side of the table (from my perspective), smartly using the building to split things up a bit and wisely looks to focus on just two tokens. From right to left, we have an artillery piece in the corner, Villein Skirmishers screening a regiment of the Order of the Abyssal Hunt screening the mounted priest, Penitents screening another regiment of the Order, Penitents screening the Priest on foot, and two more Penitents regiments screening the Paladin Monster Slayers. The Phoenix proudly preened nearby, and the horde of Bowmen carefully watched the center token, their flank anchored by the building. Out on the left flank, the second troop of Villein Skirmishers waited, along with both Exemplar Hunters. In the left corner, the remaining two Artillery units came down, being his final drops if my memory serves me, trying to get sight on the various Lycan hordes, since the rest of my army is so low to the ground. 

The view from the left corner of the Herd's line.

I went wider with my deployment, hoping to make use of my speedy units to claim the left objective and then collapses onto the other two and win one of those. Let's say that it is a more ambitious plan. From left to right for me, I have a horde of Lycans, two troops of Wild Gur Panthers split by a fence, two regiments of Tribal Spearmen, and the Lycan Hero. 

The center of the field. Buildings broke the deployment zones up.

My right was also a bit stacked. I have a Druid and Tribal Trappers screening some Longhorns, the horde of Spirit Walkers, a Gur Panther unit screening the second Longhorns, then Trappers and second Lycans horde.

Being a new army for me, my deployment goals were just to get the Spirit Walkers next to both units of Longhorns, and the Trappers opposite some of the Penitents, if I could. This was achieved, but I was a little cramped and disordered. With a little more planning, I probably should have aimed to get both Trappers into the woods and shift the line down just a bit. 

Having some units with Scout, I opted to try it out. The Trappers on the left moved their full 12" up to secure the woods, while the unit on the right moved up around 8 to get into bow range. The troop of Villein Skirmishers would have a possible charge, but I figured the Trappers would be able to hold. My opponent seized the initiative, and hoping to leverage his shooting, wisely chose to take the first turn.

Top of Round 1: Brothermark

The left of the Brothermark's line was pensive. The Exemplar on foot stalked into the woods while everything else held. The Artillery fired against the snarling Lycans, landing some hits with the shells and and dealing 4 damage.

Some shells hit! We'll see how the Regeneration rolls treat the lycanthropes.

The Villein bowmen held and loose their arrows into the Trappers, dealing 3 damage. The Ancient Phoenix wheels behind some advancing Penitents, dealing 4 damage with the firesparks, but the Trappers hold. The Siege Artillery on the right takes aim at the Lycans, but misses.

A very aggressive first turn!

The third regiment of Penitents hop the fence, while the fourth advances as well. The Villein Skirmishers take the long charge into the Tribal Trappers, dealing 2 damage to them and disordering them. We've never had a 1st-turn charge before, so this was kind of exciting, despite being on the losing end.

Bottom of Round 1: Herd

The Order are just out of charge range of the Lycans. If I charge anything with the Lycans, they could then be charged by the Order, who are quite adept at killing large infantry and monsters. So, I opt to hold them back for now. 

The earliest combats we've ever had!

The Trappers counter-charge the Villein Skirmishers and are joined by the Longhorns. The nearby Druid heals the Trappers down to 1. The Longhorns land a decent 7 damage, with the Trappers landing a few of the own, and it is enough to scatter the enemy skirmishers. The Trappers overrun a solid 5 inches, screening out my important units. 

The Gur Panthers opt to charge the Penitents on the hill, looking to delay them. I don't think I will win, but it will slow them down and should complicated the moment for my opponent next turn. I do better than I expect, and manage a lucky waver against them!

The Trappers overrun, looking to slow down the Order and limit the options for the cavalry.

The Druid starts drifting leftward, and attempts to heal the very maimed Trappers, healing 2 and getting them down to 5 damage. They charge some Penitents, trying to create some openings for the second line of Longhorns and Spirit Walkers to join the fight.

The center.

I didn't have a great plan for any of them yet, and don't have much to react to with the Villeins staying put, so both of the Tribal Spears and Lycan Alpha near the center just move up about 9-10 inches.

Out on the left, the Lycans and Gur Panthers move up as far as they can, eager to attack the war machines. If I can silence them quickly, I should be able to secure the token here with something and then move on. 

The Herd are very speedy! Something should be able get into those war engines next turn.

The second unit of Gur Panthers hold back, just to deny a possible flank charge from the Villein Skirmishers. The Centaur Chieftain moves up, but is a little slower, so can only threatening some retaliatory charges should the Brothermark move out next turn.

Top of Round 2: Brothermark

The Brothermark strike back with ferocity.

On the right, both regiments from the Order of the Abyssal Hunt crash into the Trappers, obliterating them. The cavalry opt to hold, keeping their line even. The wavered Penitents simply hold, while some of their brethren catch the corner of the offending Gur Panthers, slipping 4 damage in against the beasts and getting a waver against them now. 

The Penitents start pushing through.

A brave unit of Penitents makes a hindered charge into the Spirit Walkers, dealing 2. The final  regiment of Penitents counter-charges the other Trappers, deals 3 damage, and gets exactly what is needed for the rout! My positioning is off and the unit is uninspired and removed.

The Ancient Phoenix and Bowmen shoot into some Tribal Spearmen, dealing 4 and 5 damage respectively, and will eradicate the unit, despite it being inspired. 

Shooting continues to deliver for my opponent this turn The Exemplar on foot lands a few damage against the Gur Panthers on the far left, and one artillery shell finds its mark too. That unit is wavered.

It was a heck of a shot, and not something I had considered.

And then from across the table, the Artillery from the right corner hits the Gur Panthers in front of the forest, dealing a mighty 5 damage and will waver them too. 

Well, it seems the Siege Artillery here will live to see another day...

The remaining Villein Skirmishers charge the Spears on the hill, but Phalanx helps me out, and I hold. The mounted Exemplar is mighty, and charges in to delay the Lycan horde, swinging with gusto and landing four more damage. The Lycans didn't regenerate anything last turn, so they aren't looking so healthy right now...

Round 2 saw all my speedy Gur Panthers neutralized. Two were inconvenienced by the artillery pieces they were meant to destroy! All are Wavered, and there is not much they can do.

Bottom of Round 2: Herd

I think I forgot the Gur Panthers are wavered, for they appear to have slid over in a counter-charge against the unit that smacked them. That's an error on my part! Apologies to my opponent, though thankfully not too big an error, and there would have been ways to still make the big charges. And in any event, the Penitents hold.

Whoops. I must've missed the marker.

I could charge the Longhorns and Lycans into their own units of Order cavalry, but I think that is likely a poor plan. They are very scary units, and with Iron Resolve and heals, I can't grind against them. I opt to charge the inner regiment with both of my units, and will destroy it. 

The Spirit Walkers will counter-charge their Penitents and cut them down with ease. The Longhorns will charge the Penitents that bested the Trappers, and cut down the crazed warriors.

Technically the Alpha is Large Infantry, so it might not be as dumb as it seems...
still, this is not the smartest move from me in hindsight.

The Lycan Alpha has a nimble charge into the flank of the Paladin Monster Slayers. In the Flank with CS2 I figure I could put some good damage on the unit, but in the end, do not. I think the better play may have been to join in against the Penitents, and make sure that unit gets removed. Going in against the Bowmen could have been an option as well, but with Phalanx, 

In the center the Tribal Spears will counter-charge the Villein Skirmishers and best them, overrunning a few inches off the hill. 

The Centaur Chief charges the Exemplar, and remembering he has the Blade of Slashing, is able to land a few damage against the hero.

The Lycans regenerate some damage, and counter-charge the mounted Exemplar. I figured weight of attacks, better Nerve and regenerate would help me here, but the unit struggles to land their blows.

Top of Round 3: Brothermark

The Exemplar strikes back at the Lycans, and benefitting from Slayer, lands a few damage. Uninspired, the hero is able to chase the beasts off with a decent check...

The other Exemplar bashes the Centaur Chieftain, and wavers him. 

.....and much of the pressure on the left has been removed.

Artillery shells claims the hides of Gur Panthers on the far left. In the center, the Ancient Phoenix is flustered, landing just 1 damage against the Longhorns. The wings provide cover from the bowmen's shooting, and they too just deal a solitary point of damage, and the resulting Nerve check continues the trend of ones and sees the Longhorns insanely persevere.

The Longhorns luck out big-time!

The Paladin Monster Slayers deal 11 damage to the foolish Lycan Alpha, and dispatch the heroic beast with ease. 

The remaining regiment from the Order of the Abyssal Hunt charges my remaining Lycans, and will ride them down. The horde is uninspired, and a good Nerve check seals their doom on  the right as well.

The remaining Penitents cut down the Gur Panthers that should not have been able to counter-charge (good riddance!) while the last unit recovers their wits.

Bottom of Round 3: Herd

The Herd is in tatters, but the Spirit Walkers are still around, so we shall persevere. The Longhorns will charge some Penitents and Paladins, but be unable to budge the horde, who are still in single-digits of damage due to the Priests; I'm fishing for a lucky boxcar waver even with the new damage done. The other troop is victorious against the Penitents, and will bravely turn to face the remaining Order of the Abyssal Hunt, protecting the flank of the Spirit Walkers from the fearsome cavalry.

The Herd fights on.

Over on the left, the Centaur Chieftain will be rescued by the Tribal Spearmen, who poke the shooting Exemplar to death. The surviving Wild Gur Panther troop finally makes in into an artillery piece, and will barely get the check needed rout it. With only 6 base attacks and no TC or CS, the beasts have a very hard time chomping through the gears of the war machine...

Top of Round 4: Brothermark

The Brothermark focus their fire onto the Spirit Walkers, who are a bit exposed on the hill. Cloak of Death triggers, and then volleys from the Bowmen, Siege Artillery, and the firesparks of the Phoenix all connect, dealing 10 damage combined and putting the horde at 12 total. The Nerve check is high, but Rallying comes through to keep the phantasms around.

They survive, but it won't be for long, and the Brothermark set about isolating the Spirit Walkers with the ensuing combats. The Paladin Monster Slayers are found cutting down the Longhorns while the Order tramples the other troop. The Spirit Walkers have just a Druid left to aid them...

The mounted Exemplar attacks the Centaur Chieftain, who has one edge just outside of the forest, and making this a clear charge. The Exemplar lands a few damage on the hero, but the centaur is found to be quite insane if memory serves.

Despite shooting into cover, the artillery shells drop down through the trees with expert precision onto the Tribal Spearmen, dealing 5 more damage to them, though they will endure the barrage and hold. 

Bottom of Round 4: Herd

After their victory over the Longhorns, the Paladin's backed up. They did this so that the regiment from the Order could get line of sight around the hill and along the front of the Paladins, so to be able to counter-charge the Spirit Walkers, should the choose to fight the Paladins. The Priest is not mighty, and I am able to charge through the weakling and connect against the enemy infantry. We haven't really run into Mighty all that much in our previous games, so it's been neat to work through a few times this game. I think we got it all right, but if not, please let us know!

The Spirit Walkers are vengeful phantasms it seems, and will deal 17 new damage to the Paladins, which seems high, but is about expected given their magic item. They Paladins have received some decent heals this game, but aren't completely healthy, and ultimately don't get the double 1's they needed to hold. 

This was the match-up I knew I wanted this game, and thankfully, I got the charge off first.

Over on the left, the insane Centaur and Tribal Spearmen charge the Exemplar, and will best him. The Tribal Spears will reform to face the center token, and the Centaur will overrun.

The Herd will push on through the second hero. 

My only real path to victory is to silence the war machines here, then sneak onto some objectives and endure some bowfire. However, with nothing much left on the table, that plan seems a bit dubious...

Top of Round 5: Brothermark

I needed to get my Druid into sight of the Spirit Walkers and into Inspiring range. She ended up on the hill, allowing my opponent to be very clever in delivering the coup de grâce to the Spirit Walkers... 

The bowmen, Phoenix and artillery on the right all shoot into the Spirt Walkers. The lone artillery misses, but the sparks and arrows manage some more damage. Unfortunately for the Brothermark, a low check keeps them around at the end of the Ranged Phase.

The Order of the Abyssal Hunt charge the Druid, claim the token, and then annihilate her. They need a two inch overrun to get into the Spirit Walkers, and do get it. The Brothermark's second attempt at shooing the phantasms away proves very successful, and it is the Spirit Walkers' turn to need double 1's to hold and still be Devastated. Instead, the spirits are disbursed.

...and it's not a real battle report without a blurry picture. You are welcome.

The remaining war machine on the left shoots, I think at the Centaur Chief, but fails to land any hits. 

Bottom of Round 5: Herd

My goal is to tag out my units on war machine duty; having the Centaur Chief charge in. This will leave the Wild Gur Panthers and their unit strength free to nimbly pivot and move their 20" to try to claim the left objective and play the scenario. Unfortunately, the Chief is about a quarter inch shy of being in range for this plan to work. 

I feel I need to silence the war machine to have a shot at holding either token. So, instead, the Wild Gur Panthers remain tasked with dealing with the war engine. They charge, don't connect with many bites, and then fail to rout it too.

The Tribal Spears move up to be able to run in and secure the central token in the final turn, and the Mighty Centaur Chief positions himself to harass or roadblock the Villein Bowmen next turn, since there is not much else he can do this turn. 

Top of Round 6: Brothermark

With just speed 5, the Bowmen need to move this turn in order to be able to claim the central token on the final turn. They scoot up, and shoot into the Spearmen, along with anything else that can. They've had a pip or two healed here and there, but the Spearmen are just annihilated and are removed from the battlefield.

My mad plans are for nought it seems! I concede in the top of the round, making this a 1-0 Victory for the Brothermark!  

Game Conclusion

The score is low, but that is due to my capitulation before it could climb any higher. This was a resounding victory for the Brothermark, with the Herd newcomers essentially tabled. Kudos to my opponent for playing such a strong game!

I was expecting the Penitents as their own grouping, as they have been before, but my opponent's stacked line with them proved very effective in dealing with the Herd and nullifying my speed by bogging things down. I had a lot of Penitents to cut through before I could get to any of the important  Brothermark units! I didn't track it so it wasn't mentioned in the report, but the Priests dutifully cast their spells and made small contributions throughout the game. Special attention should be given to the Villein Bowmen as well. They expertly zoned out that central objective, and stood by to claim it at the end of the game. Even just puny bowshots proved to be a big threat for my low-defense army. Phalanx dissuaded me from engaging the Bowmen, as it shuts down TC. Phalanx also confers a -1 modifier to hit... but only against cavalry, large cavalry, and units with fly. For some reason, I thought spears also handicapped Large Infantry, so I was hesitant to engage them with anything I had, but this looks to be an error in understanding on my part. Still, the Bowmen performed very well, and my opponent continues to make very good use of them.

The Herd suffered from the usual missteps of fielding a new army. I had an imperfect deployment with a few more misjudgments that usual during the game. Still, I was able to apply a lot of pressure with the new army, and learned a lot. I had a great time!

Testing Conclusions

Being a new army, everything I brought is up for testing and discussion. Fortunately, I played a decent enough game for a first attempt, and learned a lot!

• Pathfinder. I charged in and out of the sparse forests a few times, so I think I made decent use of the army-wide rule in this game. There is room for improvement, but it was definitely not a bad start, especially considering there were only two relevant pieces of terrain. Ignoring difficult terrain is pretty great! This will be fun to play around with in the future.
• Tribal Spears. They should be run near other units, and not next to each other. I've learned this lesson with the Kingdoms of Men already. In my head, they were going to be on the wings of my main fighting line: Spears, Longhorns, Spirits, Longhorns, and then more Spears. They would dissuade charges on the flanks so the middle could punch through... but that is simply too long a line to be feasible for most situations. I tried to adapt as we started deploying, and they ended up by themselves getting shot at. They were not used well this game.
• Spirit Walkers with the Brew of Strength. Having the item and all of the support, this game was kind of a best-case scenario for them. The Rally from the Longhorns did actually even save them in Round 4! Unfortunately, they really needed the Brew of Strength to be as effective on the offense as they were. More testing is definitely needed but right now they don't seem worth it from a more competitive standpoint. I like my paintjob though, so will try them now and again. 
• Tribal Trappers. Scout-moves are very interesting, but I deployed them a bit too poorly to make good use of it. I knew that I didn't want to get into a shooting war with the Bowmen, but also couldn't really avoid the cavalry. I think these should be deployed much later if one wants to make any competent use of Scout, so that's what I'll try next time. 
• Longhorn Troops. Admittedly they were lucky to stick around for so long, but I was impressed with the unit. Looking at them a little more closely, they are kind of worse Huscarls? Lower Nerve, a TC/CS split instead of pure CS, and lower Defense. Rally is cute, but I don't think it's worth trying to max it out and build around it (at least not for me and my current collection). I think their next game I'll just treat these as bargain Huscarls and run them as a regiment and see how that feels. 
• Lycans. These units were disappointing, but that is overwhelmingly user-error. I didn't use them well, and failed to support them. Both were taken out with a slightly lucky Nerve check while out of range of Inspiring. With Height 3, Nimble, and an 18" charge range, these could have some potential though, and the Lycans will see the table again sometime.
• Wild Gur Panthers. They are speedy! I like that. Unfortunately, they don't have many attacks and really struggled against the war machines. I was rolling poorly, but those were some sad combats. They are my only real chaff units right now, so I will need to play around with them more, and see what use I can get out of them in the future. 
• Druids with Heal and Bane Chant. I think I used Bane Chant only once, to help the Lycans against the Order in Round 2. Other than that, I didn't need it against Penitents, so it was heal every time, and usually with just 1 damage reversed per cast. These weren't as impactful as I was hoping, but still nice to have around. 
• Lycan Alpha. The unit definitely has a lot of potential, as does any Large Infantry / Monster sized nimble hero unit. The flank charge was cheeky, but ultimately a very bad decision since he was the only combatant. Like the Lycan units, the Alpha was not used all that well, and that just came down to poor decision making. 
• Centaur Chief. Speed 8 was actually a little slow to interdict threats for this list, and he felt underwhelming here. I think the Chief will need to specialize in future lists (probably buying Duelist mostly). Still, I remembered the Blade of Slashing (twice!), and he did get a few damage in when he fought. Not terrible, just underwhelming. 
• Battle Report Template. I struggled a bit to take good notes on my turns, and to take enough photos on my opponent's turns, but muddled through after about a month break from my last game. Not bad, but the written template is definitely not second nature yet. We didn't drop any rounds or turns though, so counting this as a success. I'll keep on with my plan to use up the current printouts and then reevaluate. 

A big thank you to my opponent for fitting this game in on a weekday! The Herd definitely takes some finesse, but I had a great time learning and rolling some dice!