Kings of War 3rd Edition: #051 Herd vs Abyssal Dwarfs [Pillage]

Intro and Lists

The army match-up remained the same for our second game of the day, though both of the lists changed so we could explore some other things. Cartwright wanted to drop some shooting elements to explore the Obsidian Golems for the Abyssal Dwarfs, and brought the following:

This list leaned into some of the the sturdier units available to the Abyssal Dwarfs. The Obsidian Golems are Def6, as is the Hellfane, and will all be quite difficult for the Herd to fight through. Two regiments of Blacksouls and a horde of Decimators are around to hold the line, and two regiments of Halfbreeds and a horde of Grotesques make their second appearance today as speedier options for the evil dwarfs. A Supreme Iron-Caster is around to sling spells from the Great Winged Halfbreed, and a Hexcaster and Iron-caster are around as additional magical support.

With my second Herd list, I was looking to run a more compact list than the last few attempts, hoping it would be a little easier to pilot. I also wanted to try out some of the legendary / limited options the army has to offer. Since I am still figuring out how I want to play the army, basically everything is up to evaluate:

• Hunters of the Wild. They have good generalist combat stats, but I have already learned that these can't hold the line by themselves. We'll see how they do with the Forest Shamblers around to do the heavy lifting.
• Forest Shamblers. These Elementals have decent stats and Scout. We'll see if I can get up to any scouting or Shambling tricks with them, and if a -/17 unit is good enough to grind.
• Wild Gur Panthers. Still my only real chaff unit for this army. I tend to go a bit heavy on my chaff units, so I'm trying to slim things down here and see how that feels.
• Scorchwing Hordes. The regiments have been neat, but have not been effective. They require a lot of brainpower to position in order to shoot, and then the shots haven't been that devastating. I am trying to make it easier on myself here by taking some hordes.
• Gladewalker Druid. The Ring of Harmony lets them conditionally cast a second spell each turn, which seems like it could be powerful, and so worth exploring.
• Wiltfather. The Tree Herders did ok last game, but I wanted to check out the legendary option too. He gets some combat buffs and swaps Radiance of Life for Cloak of Death. He doesn't Shamble, so has the potential to get up the field quickly to tie something up. 
• Avatar of the Father. The last outing was definitely disappointing, as his only combat found his foes to be insanely courageous and he was quickly dog-piled. He's a strong flier though, so I am hoping he can redeem himself here.
• Tribal Trappers. I've been back and forth with these. I like the idea of scouting and shooting, but they haven't been terribly effective, and often just turn into speed bumps for my opponent. With the Clash updates, they lose Thunderous Charge, but can buy it back with points. I'm leaving it off and taking the Formation, to see how these feel as speed bumps.
• Silent Hunt. The aforementioned Formation. Deadly Snares is a fun rule, and Ensnare can really trip up enemy units, especially weaker ones. We'll see how the formation fares this game.

Table and Terrain

We were using his typical terrain, and followed our normal terrain rules, running the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, stone fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and Hills as Height 3. 

We rolled up Pillage for our rematch, with just a solitary additional objective token. I won the roll off, to placed one in what would be his forest, then one in my forest, and then the field, with his tokens being the ones in the center.

The Abyssal Dwarfs won the roll off for sides, and we continued being lazy gamers. Thankfully I had some terrain to work with this time!

All the tokens in one picture!

Left-to-right we have Blacksouls on either side of the Hellfane, Obsidian Golems with the ____ in the woods, Decimators, an then both Halfbreed Regiments, the Iron-Caster in reserve, and the Grotesques out on the far flank. 

View from the left.

Left-to-right I ended up with Hunters of the Wild in the corner, Forest Shamblers screening Scorchwings and the Wiltfather watching closely. Tribal Trappers from the formation ready to jump up into the Woods, with the Gladewalker Druid nearby. Then we had Hunters of the Wild screening for Forest Shamblers, Gur Panthers, Softfoot the Tribal Trackers, and the other Scorchwing Horde. 

A pretty empty right flank. 

Out on the far flank, I put the Avatar of the Father. I figured a flier would not do well against Shambling units, and figured having him way out on the flank would complicate things for my opponent.

Cautious Scout moves from the Herd.

This list had scout moves as well. With most of the fun terrain out on the left, I put my tokens out there, planning to fight for them. Unfortunately, my opponent had then done the same. As a result, the Scout moves were pretty reserved this time. The Trappers moved there full amount to get near the edge of the woods, but most everything else moved up about 5 inches.

I won the roll off for deciding first turn, and was very conflicted. I haven't gone first in a while, and that would usually be fantastic for the Herd. But with some hesitant Scout moves and an advantage in my volume of ranged attacks, I figured I should try to play more cagey, and ultimately opted to go second.

Top of Round 1: Abyssal Dwarfs

The evil dwarfs advanced warily. The left and center moved up in a measured lockstep. The Hellfane and Golems are both Defense 6, and the nearby Blacksouls are Defense 5, so it was a pretty sturdy line opposing me. 

Slow and steady.

On the right, the abominations made use of their greater speed. They moved up more aggressively, looking to hit this flank quickly and envelope the Herd.

The abominations move up aggressively.

The Hexcaster had moved at the double to get atop the hill, and none of the other Abyssal Dwarves were in range to shoot, so it was a quick and uneventful turn.

Bottom of Round 1: Herd

I need to stall the abomination wing. The Gur Panthers can see one unit of Halfbreed units, and charges in to delay. Softhoof charges down off the hill into the other regiment, and each of the Halfbreeds will take 2 damage. In a lucky break, the Wild Gur Panthers get a boxcars result on the Nerve check, wavering their unit. Unfortunately for me, all these units have regeneration, and the Halfbreeds have Fury, so even the waver doesn't really change anything: the Panthers will die, but I am hoping Ensnare, the disorder, and being Inspiring will let Softhoof clog up the other unit. The Scorchwings will nimbly move down the line, and shoot into the Grotesques, landing 2 as well while avoiding the possibility of being charged.

Moves to delay the abominations begin. So far, so good!    

The Avatar is able to speed up the line though, and nimbly pivot to see the flanks of these units. I think ideally, fliers should always be threatening something, and forcing your opponent to react, so am feeling good here with the positioning. The Avatar should hopefully be able to occupy my opponent's attention here for a few turns.

And some great shooting over on the left!

With the speedy things delayed for the moment, I shoot both Trappers and the other Scorchwing horde into some of the Blacksouls. Unfortunately the Scorchwings are getting a penalty from shooting over the Shamblers. I roll very hot, dealing about double the expected result, dealing 9 damage and getting the rout! 

Top of Round 2: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Grotesques pivot, hoping to dissuade the Avatar of the Father.

The Hexcaster had taken the hill last turn, and can see for days. He Hexes the Gladewalker druid, needling her for 2 damage as well with his Feedback special rule. 

The Abyssal Dwarfs return fire!

The Supreme Iron-Caster flies up in front of the Decimators, tossing a Fireball into the Hunters of the Wild for 3 and casting a no-look heal the Halfbreeds, though the rolls are a bit low. Still, through Regen, Heal and Radiance of life, the abomination wing is refreshed, with just one damage apiece on the far units.

By hopping up, the Iron-Caster could toss the fireball, but he is small enough not to block enough line of sight to give the Decimators a cover penalty as they fire into the same target, dealing 8. The Hunters of the Wild are blasted away.

The Halfbreeds counter charge their units, obliterating the Panthers. The Shamblers here have the Brew of Haste, and after measuring, could charge the regiment. My opponent decides then to victoriously back up, and gets away. Softhoof however, has Ensnare, and holds strong on the inspired reroll, ready to fight against his unit of Halfbreeds again.

The Hellfane and Golems in the left and center elect to hold, though the Hellfane fires his pistols and lands 3 damage into the Hunters of the Wild out on the far left.

Bottom of Round 2: Herd

On the left, the Hunters of the Wild move up, and pivot, holding the objective in the field for now.

The a unit of Trappers and the Scorchwings shoot into the other regiment of Blacksouls, but only deal 3 damage this round. One unit of Trappers can't reach, so shoots into the unengaged Halfbreed regiment, landing 1 damage. Out on the right, the Scorchwing regiment shoots into the Grotesques, landing 2 damage and bringing them to a total of 3. Unfortunately shooting for the Herd was cooler this round.

The Avatar of the Father hits the Halfbreeds in the flank.

Softhoof charges back against his regiment, and is joined by the Avatar of the Father! The Grotesques left a bit of an opening, perfect for the monster-sized flier. Unfortunately, I used up all my luck for the day last round in the shooting phase. Flanking like fliers should ideally do, the Avatar is hitting on 3's but misses with the majority of his attacks, then misses a few more times on the 2's needed to wound, and lands a pitiful 5 damage. Softfoot contributes no damage with his counter-charge. On a meager 6 damage, the Halfbreeds defiantly hold, ready to counter-charge.

Top of Round 3: Abyssal Dwarfs

Confident, the left and center of the Abyssal Dwarf line pushes forward. Nothing can charge this round, but the issue is being forced.

The disordered Halfbreeds ignore the puny Softhoof, and countercharge the Avatar, dealing 7 damage. The Nerve check is boxcars into Insane Courage, but unable to punch through last turn, the Avatar's days are already numbered.

Even with cover, the Iron-Caster and the Decimators shoot into one of the Tribal Trapper units hiding in the woods, each landing 6 damage, and routing the unit. The Iron-caster gets a no-look heal into the Halfbreeds fighting the Avatar, healing them down to 2 total damage.

The unengaged Halfbreed unit charges my Forest Shamblers, landing 7 damage, but the verdant elementals manage to hold.

Bottom of Round 3: Herd

Softhoof can see the corner of the the Grotesques, and charges in, hoping to delay them. It is absolutely a long-shot play. He is yielding, but could get lucky and disorder them. If the Avatar can punch through (very unlikely now, with the heal), he could potentially overrun and get away.

The Scorchwings shoot while the Avatar swings his fists.

Unfortunately, I am fresh out of luck. Softhoof again hits no times, and the Avatar rolls a little poorly again, only landing 4 damage on the Halfbreeds, and bringing them back up to 6 damage, where he left them at last turn. He gets a lucky waver, but they have Fury, so his fate is sealed.

I did not think the Scorchwings could tip the fight here. They could have charged the Grotesques, but are unlikely to best them. They could have flank-charged the Halfbreeds, but the charge would have been hindered on the obstacle. I opt to preserve them, and both hordes will potion to fire into the Iron-Caster, landing 2 damage apiece, which isn't far off the expected result with typical dice. Dwarven defense is no joke!

Unfortunately, the Scorchwings did not start their turn in this position, and are forced to fire.

I make individual charges down the line. This isn't ideal, but I wanted to tie units up, certain that if I left the Hellfane or Golems unengaged, flank charges from them would clean me up.

Down the line, the Hunters clash with the Blacksouls dealing 5 and getting a lucky waver. The Shamblers hit the Hellfane, dealing 1 but getting the disorder to strip Thunderous Charge. The other Shamblers will deal 6 to the Halfbreed regiment, but they will hold. The Hexcaster missed his spell last turn, and the Gladewalker Druid gets a decent heal into this unit of Forest Shamblers, though no other Elemental unit is around to be aided. The Trappers leave the woods to occupy some Golems, but land no damage. 

The Wiltfather though is on a tear, looking to make up for the failures of the Avatar. Cloak of death hits all the units nearby, his attack deals 7 to the Golems, bringing them to 8, and then he gets 9 twice to rout the horde! This is all very unlikely, but I'll gladly take it. 

Top of Round 4: Abyssal Dwarfs

Let the back-breaking commence!

Softhoof is ignored. The furious Halfbreeds and unbothered Grotesques sandwich the Avatar of the Father, and he is seen off the field. Both cavalry units will victoriously position to mitigate the damage the Scorchwings can do in the coming turn.

The Iron-Caster and Decimators will shoot with cover penalties into my Scorwings on my left, bringing them to 13 damage, and will rout them. Radiance of Life and Heal helps the Halfbreeds fighting the Forest Shamblers.

The Abyssal Dwarves reload, eyeing the Scorchwings.

The Golems smash the Trappers, though I don't think I remembered Ensnare here. The Trappers take 8 and are Wavered. 

The Hellfane counter charges and deals 3 to his unit of Forest Shamblers, while the wavered Blacksouls opt to do nothing. The Hellfane is boxing them in a little, so while they can disengage, that's about as far as they can back up, so they can't do much to draw the Hunters away from the objective.

Bottom of Round 4: Herd

The Wiltfather flank charges the Hellfane, dealing a hot 14 damage while the Shamblers contribute 2. The Hellfane hasn't received heals this game, so the Herd are luckily able to see him off. 

Hunters continue against the Blacksouls, failing miserably. They land a single point of damage against the evil dwarfs, but without the Hellfane to Inspire them now, I am able to take them off with a single good Nerve check.

A desperate rear charge from the Herd.

I don't think the Scorchwings can best either the nearby Halfbreeds or the Grotesques. They've both been regenerating very well, and have been healed by the Supreme Iron-Caster a lot this game. The Grotesques would be a flank charge, but that still seems dicey. The have a flank charge into the Decimators, but the horde is undamaged, and I don't think I can beat them. They also have a rear into the Supreme Iron-Caster, which seems like my best bet, and I take it. They deal 11 damage, and roll a 3 on the Nerve check, just wavering the Iron-Caster. Unfortunately, the Grotesques now have a rear-charge into the Scorchwings for free. 

Top of Round 5: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Grotesques take the rear charge to pick up the Scorchwings while the Decimators move up to claim the central objective token.

Brutal rear charges from the Abyssal Dwarfs this turn. That shouldn't normally happen!

The Golems and the Halfbreeds sandwich the last Trapper unit, removing them as well.

The other Halfbreed unit charges and routs Softhoof over on the right, as he was unable to get away with his moves, while also unable to land any good ranged hits.

Bottom of Round 5: Herd

The game is long out of my reach, but I want to finish the round and get a little more testing in. The Wiltfather charges the Golems, to see if he can go two for two on one-shotting hordes. He doesn't, but still impresses, rolling six 6's to wound, with the seventh being a 1, which Vicious turns into a 6 as well. It's statistically crazy, and a heck of a message, and I guess I need to run the Wiltfather again soon!

The Wiltfather tries to hard carry the rest of the list.

The Hunters of the Wild don't have a possible charge, so they hold the objective, and I charge the last Forest Shamblers into the nearby Halfbreeds for some more testing. Between their Regen, and the Radiance of Life and no-look heals from the Iron Caster, I believe they start the turn on 0 damage though, and the Shamblers are unable to move them. 

I concede here, and its a win for the Abyssal Dwarfs!

Game Conclusions

This was another difficult game for the Herd! I had 56 ranged shots, but only the Tribal Tracker had Piercing, and with the exception of the hot shooting dice in Round 1, what chip damage I was able to do from afar, was frequently negated already on the next turn by good regeneration rolls, and the powerful Supreme Iron-Caster. Even against moderately armored targets like the Halfbreeds, shooting proved to be pretty ineffective both games, and my only real successes were due to hot dice.

I think I made the right call deploying the Avatar of the Father on the flank, and he had an ideal position going into Round 2. Unfortunately, both he and Softhoof choked incredibly hard, and that was the beginning of the end of the game, despite the Wiltfather's best efforts. Looking through the roster, many of my hammers rely on Thunderous Charge like the Guardian Brutes, or top out at CS2 like the Beast of Nature or my favorite Hydras, so I might need to consider an Alchemist Curse caster in some of the future Herd lists as a way to deal with high armor. A wider line might be good to explore as well. We'll see what I end up cooking up for the Herd next time they hit the table! 

Testing Conclusions

• Hunters of the Wild. I still think that they should be a nice, reliable unit like the Blacksouls or the KoM Foot Guard. Compared to the latter, they get Pathfinder, Scout, and 3 extra attacks for just 5 points! They won against the Blacksouls here, but have still felt underwhelming, and I still don’t feel like I have found a niche for them yet.

• Forest Shamblers. I probably should have deployed these side-by-side, but didn’t want to square up against the superior Obsidian Golems, and figured spreading out a little might help me crack open the dwarven defense for stuff like the Avatar of the Father, or tricky Scorchwings to break through. But I think I was overestimating them in both games? They are a decent generalist horde, but lack the punch to be a hammer or the defense to really tie things up. Scouting with them was still fun though.

• Scout / Boots of Speed. Against such a sturdy battle line, I declined to Scout forward too much, as hitting the dwarfs in waves would not have worked. The Boots gave me the option for a Round 1 charge, but the output from the Forest Shamblers is so low I didn’t think it was a good idea here, and probably isn’t a good one generally. 
• Scorchwing Hordes. The high defense of the dwarfs proved hard to overcome with shooting, and I wasn’t able to get much melee use out of them since I was trying to preserve them and make use of said shooting. I did like the hordes better, since they were a little easier on the brain to use, and I think pairing each horde with some Gur Panther chaff might be fun in the future.
• Gladewalker Druid. I deployed a little awkwardly this time, not wanting to square up and go toe-to-toe with the superior Obsidian Golems using my own elementals, which then meant she couldn't double-cast. Also, she happened to be Hexed a fair amount of the time here. If you happen to be more thoughtful or more disciplined, I think the Ring and spells could be ok, but the elemental-only conditionality is a huge hurdle here, and 150 points is a big investment that didn't work out at all this game. Lesson learned!
• Avatar of the Father. This was another very unfortunate outing for him! Poor guy. I like my model but he hasn't had a good game yet. The deployment was fine and the set-up was right there, but the dice abandoned him (and Softhoof).
• Wiltfather. On the opposite end of the probability curve was the Wiltfather, who overperformed several times, thumping through two Def6 units with unparalleled gumption. While he wasn’t able to pick up the hat trick against the Def6 Dwarfs, he was still very impressive.
• Tribal Trappers. It was a particularly tough match-up for Bows, so I am trying to keep an open mind with them still. They had a hot round, but couldn’t take the rebuttal from the dwarfs. I did notice that troops of these are 85/90 points, which is on par with the Gur Panther chaff, so I might try troops out sometime, to block for Longhorns or something. 
• Tribal Trackers/Softhoof. I had given him duelist this time, and he had a good quarry across the table in the Hexcaster, but I unfortunately needed him to distract the Halfbreeds since I didn't have extra chaff units. I remembered Ensnare though! After both games, he doesn’t have enough attacks to be truly dangerous to units. I think the duelist approach is probably better, though I need a wider list or more chaff so he can sneak around more. 
• Silent Hunt. I mostly remembered Ensnare this game, though terrain and Deadly Snares were again unfortunately non-issues. Ensnare was nice, but the formation didn’t have a good showing here, as I had no real hammers to back them up, and they don’t do enough damage at range to really operate on their own.
• Halfbreeds. Again, they worked like I thought regenerating cavalry should work, and I was simultaneously impressed and a little jealous! I may need to give the Abyssal Horsemen another try or give them another unit. I thought I would do more damage to a Defense 4 unit, but they really performed for my opponent in both games.
• Decimators. The horde again performed very well for my opponent, and had some really good synergy with the Supreme Iron-Caster in the ranged phase. They were 
• Supreme-Iron Caster. As before, this guy was frighteningly effective, and I didn’t really have the tools to get him this time. The free no-look heal is really strong and he is quite a tough supporting character. The boosts from the Halfbreed Affinity rule are nice, but not needed, and he seems able to support any list.
• Obsidian Golems. Even without the Magma Cannons these were pretty scary. With Defense 6 and Crushing 2 they outclassed my Elementals, and should be able to grind very well against anything. The Wiltfather did work, and I got very lucky these were not more impactful this game, as I did not have the tools to deal with them. 

Well, it was clearly a couple of tough games for the Herd, but I had a great time, it was great to get these legacy list ideas tested. I definitely learned a lot! Scouting was a lot fun, Tree Herders (and the Wiltfather) are strong, and I am probably going to run my Scorchwings as hordes for a while! I am still a little salty about the Longhorns being redone, but Lycans got a price reduction, and there is plenty to explore still, as well as hobby on! Hopefully I'll get some ideas cooking and we'll see the Herd on the table again soon!

As-ever, another big thank you to my opponent for fitting these games in!