I opted to bring the Kingdoms of Men, bringing the list above, and trying to explore some combined arms play ideas of mine. Up to test are:
- Pole Arms Block. I don’t think the horde has had a good showing yet (that is to say, I don’t think they’ve gotten any attacks or counter-charges in yet; just beaten to a pulp over and over), so I feel the need to try them out again! Hopefully they’ll get into a combat and we can see how the horde performs on the offensive this time.
- Pikes and IW. I’ve liked Pikes, but have not always gotten the best mileage out of the regiments, due to errors on my part. Indomitable Will should give me a bit of a cushion to play around with these again, and see what I can make of these.
- Foot Guard Horde. I like them, but still don’t have the best feel for them just yet. I had the points for Indomitable Will, so I took it here, since this will likely be an important infantry hammer for the list.
- Crossbows. Pot Shot went away, so I conscripted some minis and increased my Crossbowmen to a horde size, but haven’t gotten to run them yet. Not knowing what army I’d face when I ran this list, they got the Fire-Oil (which unfortunately isn’t impactful here, but it’s just 5 points).
- Triple Ballistae. With the Kingdoms of Men running multiple hordes now, my lists aren’t usually too stressed for unlocks. Point-for-point Ballistae should out perform infantry shooters like the Crossbows, but we’ll see what the table looks like and what they get to see during the game.
- Giants with Rampage. I’ve been pretty committed to Rampaging Giants, and have them again here as hefty counter-punching units. With the Wiltfather and all the Forest Shamblers, Slayer would probably have been more impactful, but these should still deliver some good hits!
- ASBs with Lifeleech and Items. As covered in every Kingdoms of Men post of mine for the last few months, Lifeleech is a buff, but doesn’t have much synergy with our generic list. Still, I need Inspiring units that aren’t my Generals, so we’ll see how impactful and supportive these will be.
We were out at Misty Mountain Games, a Madison-area FLGS, and making use of their tables and terrain. We used the typical terrain rules, with the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, stone fences as Height 2 Obstacles, the Hills as Height 3, and the pond as Height 1 Difficult Terrain.
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| Terrain and the seven tokens to start. |
We generated a map, we rolled up Salt the Earth for our scenario. The generation was a bit odd with two very close buildings, but we decided to roll with it. For tokens, we ignored about a third of the table, with just two of the seven tokens landing on the left side of the battlefield.
For deployment, from my left-to-right, my opponent had the Wiltfather screened by the Greater Air Elemental (which were his last two drops), as well as the Tree Warden, a normal horde of Forest Shamblers, and a regiment of Tallspears. The buildings isolated this battlegroup from the rest of the lines. Continuing on, we have Nimue, the Master Hunter, the regiment of forest Shamblers, both Gladestalker regiments, the Awakened Forest Shambler Horde, gaining an elvish Rally and Elite for themselves, and finally, the other Tallspear regiment.
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| Deployment fore the Sylvan Kin, with all the tokens in view. |
All my pre-game planning went out the window immediately, and I deployed almost everything I had pretty far up. I had hoped to keep everything somewhat stacked and contained on the right, but with the Wiltfather and Greater Air Elemental coming down so late, I needed to spread out.
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| Deployment on the left. With the WIltfather here, I had to go wider than I was thinking. |
My last drops were the General and Knights with the boots out on the left. I opted to put the knights out of the woods, hoping for a first turn to move up and start to concave this flank. The Pikes stood ready to march up into the woods, and the Crossbowmen were angled, with the intent of moving up on Turn 1 to take the hill and control this token while raining bolts in the coming turns. They screened the Militia. The Giant also stood ready to take the hill, supported by the Pole-Arms and the Hexing ASB.
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| The right of the Kingdoms of Men, and back to all the tokens. |
Obstacles don't block line of sight, so the three Ballistae, able to get sight on 5 of the 7 tokens. My right was protected by a nice hill, and had the Foot Guard, Bane-Chant ASB, Pikes, and second General and Giant.
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| The very aggressive Scout moves for the Sylvan Kin! |
The Gladestalkers scouted up ever so slightly into the woods. The Wiltfather, Warden, and Forest Shamblers advanced just shy of about 10 inches, to deny my Giant a turn one charge.
My opponent won to roll off for turn decision, and elected to take it. With such aggressive scouting, I was already feeling the pressure!
Top of Round 1: Sylvan Kin
Out on the left, the Tallspears joined most of the verdant units, hanging out in the middle of the field. The Greater Air Elemental moved up a bit, but was just far enough to deny a charge for my General.
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| Top of Round 1 and the Wiltfather is already doing damage to me... |
The Wiltfather was feeling feisty though, and moved his max to get up into the woods near the Pikes. Since I deployed the Knights a bit to the left to dodge the woods, the Wiltfather is able to avoid their charge arc entirely, while Cloak of Death will trigger for the Crossbowmen and Pikes.
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| The rest of the Sylvan Kin line looks to be pacing themselves for a longer game. |
In the center, Nimue, the Master Hunter, regiment of Forest Shamblers, and Greater Air Elemental all scoot up slightly, with the Air Elemental taking point.
On the far-right, the Awakened Shamblers and Tallspears advance 6". One Gladestalker unit needs to move up to get into range, but my opponent shoots both regiments, the Master Hunter, and both Lighting Bolting Greater Air Elementals into the poor Pole-Arms, and they accumulate 11 damage! They do manage to hold, but the Healing Brew isn't looking like enough to save them.
Bottom of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men
Over on the left, the General flies up to get beyond the pond and roughly even with the Greater Air Elemental. The latter is out of charge arc and greater than 10 inches away, meaning the Greater Air Elemental will need to be surged into the General should my opponent with to fight him. These elementals can be tricky, but that seems safe enough to me.
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| Shuffling about for Round 1. |
I charge the Pikes into the Wiltfather. With Ensnare, my Pikes should hold, and hopefully I can counter-punch with the knights, who pivot, securing the potential flank charge.
The Crossbowmen hold. Advancing at all will open them up to a flank charge from the Greater Air Elemental. Thankfully, they have some targets, and loose into the Forest Warden, landing 4, but the caretaker holds strong.
The ASB moves over, and with Very Inspiring, is able to cover everyone but the Knights. He Hexes the Warden, to limit the Surge options next round. He is also too far away to offer up Lifeleech to the Pikes.
The Giant moves up to the base of the hill, out of charge range but threatening some himself. The Pole-Arms move up, with the Brew healing them for 2. I probably could have moved the horde up at the double, and tried to force the issue and maybe get some use out of them if they survive the next turn... but I do not.
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| Movement for the Kingdoms of Men. |
On the right, the Pikes move up, but hold slightly back, wary of a flank-charge from the Greater Air Elemental. The whirling monster dissuades the General from moving too far up as well, and the Giant is therefore a bit boxed in over here.
The Foot Guard advance and pivot, hiding behind the hill and safe from Gladestalker fire. I think the Pole-Arms are going to take all the arrows again next turn, but I was scared for the Foot Guard for some reason, and was trying to protect them.
The Ballistae all shoot into the towering Greater Air Elemental near the center of the Kin battle line, and land 8 damage! I don't get lucky here, but that felt like good output to me!
Top of Round 2: Sylvan Kin
Over on the left, the Wiltfather trickily takes a penalty, but will disengage to join the Greater Air Elemental in a multi-charge into the Knights. The Wiltfather is able to catch the far corner of the Knights and slide on down to then make room for the Elemental. I didn't not see this multi-charge possibility, and have nothing set up to react to it on my turn. Cloak of Death hits, and the uninspired Knights are brought up to 10 damage, and then routed!
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| Charges for the Sylvan Kin. |
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| Victorious reforms. |
Centrally, the Warden, Shamblers and Tallspears back up, to deny the Giant a charge. Over on the right, the injured Greater Air Elemental will nimbly pivot and fly behind the hill, with Nimue healing it for 1 damage, bringing it down to 7, but it should be scared away for a turn.
The Gladestalkers and Master Hunter loose into the Pole-Arms, and will bring them up to 20 damage, and rout them. So much for seeing what they can do in combat this game!
The rest of the right ambles about for the Sylvan Kin. The Tallspears moves back to deny charge from the Giant. The Awakened Shamblers will move up and burn a token at the end of the turn, bringing us down to 6 tokens to fight over.
Bottom of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men
I am stuck in a very reactive rut it seems. The Giant takes the hill, pivoting to get everything on the left into his front arc. The Tallspears and Shamblers can't reach him, but he can charge them next turn, like he set up to do last turn, and should hopefully be able to catch the Wiltfather, if he commits.
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| The humans spin around, trying to contain the duo. Thankfully, the rest of the Kin are holding back. |
The Pikes are stuck spinning around to face the Wiltfather, and the Militia come up to help block for the Crossbowmen. The ASB Hexes the Forest Warden, and then the Crossbowmen shoot into him, landing 5 damage, and will rout him. A small error but I should have shot first and Hexed second!
My new mantra with fliers is to always be threatening something. I want to put the decision pressures on my opponent whenever possible. Unfortunately, the General didn't have arc to avenge the Knights, and doesn't have the inches to hop the building and still threaten anything. I also don't want to charge him in solo with the Greater Air Elemental lurking near the building. So he moves up a bit and pivots, like the Giant, seeing as much as he can for next turn, and waiting to see what my opponent will do over here.
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| Movement on the right, with the Awakened burning a token. |
With the Greater Air Elemental scared away, the Pikes move much further up, threatening some charges next turn, supported by both the Giant and the General. The Foot Guard get their leader point up onto the hill, so they can see anything that threatens to charge the Pikes. I probably could have been more aggressive with them here as well, but the plan is to initiate with the faster things (Giant and General) and have the Foot Guard come in for the finishing blows.
The Ballistae decide to all shoot into the Tallspears near the building. They land 6 damage, but the phalanx holds. Still no kills for them, but again, this feels like decent output, and it should be noted that the trio has been performing far better than the Crossbowmen so far, with regards to damage output.
Top of Round 3: Sylvan Kin
Thankfully, I managed to complicate things for my opponent over on the left. With the Militia and Pikes, my opponent can't flank-charge the Crossbowmen, nor can find a landing place for the Greater Air Elemental to then be surged into anything, since he needs to land an inch away.
So the Wiltfather goes into the Militia, dealing a whopping 8 and bringing them up to 9 with the Cloak of Death. The Inspired Militia unfortunately melt. With the charge here, the Wiltfather manages to avoid the charge arc of the Pikes, and will reform to face them. Meanwhile, the Greater Air Elemental will nimbly flit about, and throw some Lightning Bolts into the Crossbowmen.
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| The monster-sized Sylvan avoid retaliatory charge arcs for the third turn in a row! |
Nimue Wind Blasts the Giant 3 inches sideways. The injured Greater Air Elemental swings around, lurking behind the Forest Shamblers and Tallspears, also throwing Lightning Bolts into the poor Crossbowmen. It has a charge into my General or Giant next turn, and due to the facing, my General is going to be unable to charge it on my turn to initiate the fight, as he can't slide to connect / land in the flier's front arc.
One of the Gladestalker regiments will reposition, and both, along with the Master Hunter, will shoot into the Pikes out on the right, landing 10 damage between them all, and will rout the unit.
Bottom of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men
In order to set up a charge but not be charged, I needed to be tricky with the Giant on the hill, but Nimue's Wind Blast pushed my out of my own charge range. I cannot move or spin my infantry enough to get him in against the Wiltfather either. He exposes his flank to the injured Greater Air Elemental, and turns to face the Wiltfather and second elemental in my deployment zone. The Pikes can only impotently spin around again to face the towering treeman. The ASB Hexes the Wiltfather to try and prevent him from Surging anything.
The Crossbowmen will change facing to get both monsters in their front arc, and will shoot into the Greater Air Elemental nearby, landing 3 damage. Not bad for needing to move! The recent Clash update removed Pot Shot, and its absence really helps the unit out! At the end of the turn they will burn the token nearest them, bringing us down to 5 tokens.
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| The Crossbowmen are almost into double digits of damage. Not bad for infantry shooting! |
My Generals have good stats, but tend not to roll as expected, let alone well. Over on the left, my General backs up, using the building to get him out of the injured Greater Air Elemental's line of sight, but he is still threatening the Forest Shamblers and Tallspears, should an opportunity present itself in the coming turns.
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| I take the hill with the Foot Guard, slowly. |
My right isn't faring much better. With the Pikes shot off in one go, they can't charge, and I can't really set up a good piece trade. My Giant has no charges since the Spears and Awakened Shamblers backed up. I am shy on units, but choose to move the Giant up aggressively, opening him up to a charge but all but ensuring he will be able to charge something next turn.
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| In goes the General, for an arguably suicidal charge. |
It's not great, but this will disorder some of the shooters for a turn (hopefully protecting the Foot Guard a bit), and he is safe from non-surging flank charges. It's the best I can do, and he lands 2 damage, disordering the Gladestalkers.
The Ballistae all shoot into the injured Greater Air Elemental over on the left, landing another 6 and bringing it up to 13 damage since Nimue healed him up slightly. Thankfully, something good happens this turn, and the war machines rout the monster!
Top of Round 4: Sylvan Kin
The Wiltfather and Greater Air Elemental make ensnared charges into the Pikes. Ensnare does wonders, particularly against the Elemental, who is flying. The Pikes only take 6 damage, and all from the Wiltfather! And they even hold!
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| Pikes doing their thing! |
The central Tallspears move up to burn the token in the exact center of the battlefield, bringing us down to 4 tokens to fight for.
The Gladestalkers and Master Hunter will shoot into the Foot Guard, dealing 5 damage. The Awakened Forest Shamblers move up slightly, needing a 2" surge to hit the flanks of the General. Nimue does his legendary move, but in a stroke of luck for the Kingdoms of Men, only lands 1 hit with Surge. Cloak of Death his the General, and the Gladestalkers countercharge him, dealing 2, but the General holds.The Tallspears on the far flank charge the Giant, dealing 3. Hey, at least he'll have a combat next turn!
Bottom of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men
I continue to trip over myself. A combined arms list takes a little more finesse than I brought to the table it seems! Over on the left, the Crossbowmen need to back up and the Pikes need to charge the Wiltfather in order for the Giant to have the space available to connect with the flank of the Greater Air Elemental. Still, the Giant is able to connect! The extra attacks are good! The hit rolls are poor though, and the Giant lands just 8 damage off 26 flank attacks. It's below the average, but is thankfully still enough to rout the second aerial monster!
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| Pikes facing the wrong way due to pokey bits. |
The Pikes manage 1 against the Wiltfather, and the Hexing ASB successfully curses Nimue.
Still on the left, the flying General finally makes his move, opting to flank charge the Forest Shambler Horde. He deals 8, and gets a very spicy 10 on the Nerve check to rout the horde in one go. He'll overrun a few inches, and burn the token they were guarding at the end of the turn, bringing us down to 3 tokens to fight over.
The other General continues against the Gladestalkers, landing a few more damage, but the archer regiment manages to hold firm. My Generals are not powerhouses.
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| Finally, some proper combats on the right! |
The Giant is going into the Tallspears, who are uninspired. It has Rampage, so should be able to grind them out in two turns, maybe even one if I am lucky. So, the Foot Guard weigh their options. They have a flank charge into the Spears, and also a hindered front charge into the Forest Shamblers. The latter charge would be nice, but even with everything rolling average and going right, I'd still only have roughly 50/50 odds to rout them, and a failure here would open them up to a flank or even rear charge from Gladestalkers (we didn't determine). These seem like bad outcomes.
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| Victorious reforms. |
It will be overkill, but the Foot Guards opt to take the flank against the Tallspears while the Giant rampages into their front facing. Again, the Giant's extra attack rolls are great, gaining 9, but the hits are abysmal, and it barely puts a dent in the phalanx, landing maybe 4 damage out of all those mighty swings. Fortunately, the Foot Guards are charging off the hill, and easily devastate the unit and then rout it. The Foot Guard will spin around to keep the Awakened Shamblers in their front arc, and the Giant will overrun, bumping into his comrades in arms, who repositioned first.
(Lifeleech does not trigger for the Foot Guard. I definitely forgot about it.)
The wavered Gladestalkers do nothing. The others counter charge the General, and the Awakened Shamblers hit the flank, and will rout my leader, then reform to face the Giant.
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| Reforms after dragging the General down. |
The Master Hunter opts to shoot into a Ballista, lands 3 damage, and scares the uninspired war machine crew away with a good Nerve check.
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| The Master Hunter slays a Ballista crew. |
Nimue powers through the Hex, to hit the Foot Guard with a Fireball, and the Guard are brought to 9 damage, but hold firm. Nimue looks to have moved here - I think to get away from the flying General and prevent a possible chain charge into the rear of the Awakened Elementals. With Hex, he shouldn't be able to do that and still cast, but we missed it here.
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| The Wiltfather smashes the Pikes and reforms. |
The Wiltfather pounds on the Pikes, and even though he's ensnared, manages to rout them. They were Inspired, and have Indomitable Will, so I was really hoping for the waver here.
Bottom of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men
The Giant charges the Wiltfather. Again, the extra attacks are nice (12 or 13 attacks total), but the rest of the rolls are terrible, and just 2 damage makes it through the tough bark!
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| The grind is not going well against the Wiltfather. |
The Hexing ASB hexes Nimue again, and is 5/5 on the spell for the game. The Crossbowmen can't see part the Giant to join in the fight, so will change facing, and will shoot into the Stealthy Master Archer, landing 1 damage. They should be able to fight the Tallspears off for that token.
The General rear-charges the Tallspears, and gets the rout.
The two remaining Ballistae try to shoot into the previously-wavered Gladestalkers, but nothing hits with the smaller volley. (And again, this should be 6's to hit instead of 5's, and I should be shooting at other things.)
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| Another multi-charge over on the right. |
I continue to trip over myself. The Giant can't pivot around the Foot Guard to take up the General's fight against the Gladestalkers. Due to pivots and angles, the Foot Guard can't get around the Awakened Shamblers to charge anything else, so the Giant and Foot Guard join forces agian make a multi-charge into the Shamblers, with the Foot Guard catching a Bane Chant. Unfortunately, while the Giant rolls up another 4-5 extra attacks, both my units fail their other rolls spectacularly, and only 10 damage total is done to the elemental horde, and it holds with a 4 on the Nerve check. Lifeleech should trigger here too, but doesn't because I forgot about it in the thick of things.
Top of Round 6: Sylvan Kin
We are down to 3 tokens as the game wraps up.
The Wiltfather countercharges the Giant, rolls well and takes him to 9 damage!
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| Not hearing no bell, the Wiltfather continues swining. |
Nimue's Cloak of Death hits the Giant and the Foot Guard. The Awakened Shamblers countercharge the Giant, dealing 5 more damage to him, and bringing him to 10. The Giant is found to be wavering, but is furious, so he'll be able to counter charge back in next turn.
The Master Hunter charges the General, trying to ground him, but the General's armor holds.
Both Gladestalkers will shoot into the Foot Guard. Nimue powers through the Hex again for a Fireball into the Guard. The Guard ends at 20 damage and is obliterated, but Nimue sits at 18 damage himself after spellcasting through two hexes.
Bottom of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men
The Lute ASB makes a fun play for Nimue, lands a hit, sticks the damage, and clobbers the legendary spellcaster with the instrument!
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| *Musical thump* |
The Giant furiously countercharges the Awakened Shamblers. The extra attacks are good, but I continue to fail to land more than 25% of the hit rolls with the Giants this game. Still, it's enough, and the unit is routed.
The second Giant has a similar story, landing just 3 of 12 hits into the Wiltfather. Those three hits to translate into three damage, but these two combats were so poor that the legendary tree is in no real danger of routing. I think I needed boxcars twice to do so.
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| Final positioning in the Bottom of 6. |
My General excuses himself from the Master Hunter, disengaging and taking a penalty to making a flank charge into the Forest Shambler regiment, who have been babysitting a token all game. I land 8 damage, but fail to rout the regiment.
We are still down to 3 tokens.
- Pole Arms Block. Getting shot off in the top of Round 2 means another lackluster showing for them. So it goes. They are a cheap horde to include though, so we’ll try them again sometime.
- Pikes and IW. Phalanx really shut down that Great Air Elemental, which was immensely satisfying for me. Shooting destroyed them, but they held up ok in the melee fight, as one might expect from Pikes.
- Foot Guard Horde. Under such immense early pressure, I tried to preserve them for a late-game push. Unfortunately, positioning issues dampened their effectiveness and that of the push, and they were eventually brought down by my opponent’s shooting. I think I could have been more aggressive with them, but also think I need to support them better.
- Crossbows. They were my first deployment, believe it or not. Not getting first turn was a bummer, but the angle actually saved them a bit, letting them fire unobstructed into the Scouting Forest Warden for two turns before needing to reposition. They were absolutely not used well, but it still felt like they did ok, which was surprising. Their output is a little underwhelming, but I think their value is contributing a few damage here and there, and then surviving to the late game and helping with the scenario. I didn’t deploy them with the Ballistae, which is something I should be considering in the future.
- Triple Ballistae. Some war machines got the “Secured Position” special rule, letting them help with scenarios. The Ballistae did not. Grouping all of them together makes sense then, letting them focus their fire. They did pretty good in the first half, and then went ice cold when they shifted to the stealthy Gladestalkers in the last half. I know I don’t want to be shooting stealthy units, but the Tallspears and Elementals weren't threatening anything, sothey still seemed like the best target. The dice just weren’t there, despite me accidentally cheating and ignoring some cover penalties! Still, the Ballistae felt strong, and pairing them with Crossbows could definitely be fruitful in the future. I got lucky here in that the list had so little healing, so most of the early chip damage stuck around to be impactful later.
- Knights. Well, they certainly did not have a good game! Originally, I had placed them next to the Pikes with their leader point in the woods. I should have just kept them there, peeking out of the woods while tying the laces to their J Boots. I deployed too greedily with them, thinking I could maybe move up and zone out much of the center field with them. The greedy deployment was doubly punished by aggressive scouting from my opponent, and then seizing the first turn to avoid my knights entirely. I should have deployed more cautiously with them!
- Giants with Rampage. With all of the Wiltfather and Forest Shambler fights, Slayer would probably have been more impactful, but we don't tailor lists here. Struggling to land 25% of my hit rolls, their performance was underwhelming, regardless of their kit! Roughly 2-4 damage a turn is not a good showing for them, but dice are dice.
- ASBs. This was probably the best game yet for either of them! The Hexer went 5/5, and the angry Lutist even got a kill! They were stretched to the limit for Inspiring range though, and Lifeleech was largely forgotten, unfortunately.
- Generals on Winged Beasts. One was forced into a delaying action, but managed to buy more time that he should have. The other was patient, and managed to get two flank charges, a rear charge, and secure two routs for me. Not routing the regiment of Shamblers was a bummer at the conclusion of the game, but that was just a 50/50 roll that didn’t end up breaking my way.
- Waver Mitigation. My Knights had Headstrong, and I picked up a few Indomitable Will upgrades and even a Healing Brew. The Brew was an afterthought, but it ended up being the most impactful, healing 2 back for the Pole-Arms, while all the other units were just obliterated instead of ever being wavered. That’s dice though, and my opponent did a fantastic job of focusing down my units to break them.
- Aggressive Wiltfather. A late drop that is that aggressive proved to be very strong. I had more drops, and did what I could to blunt him, but it was still not enough! He is definitely a strong offensive choice, and really excelled out on a flank.
- Forest Shamblers. They camped objectives and supported things pretty well here. I am still not impressed with the unit for the Herd, but the Awakened Shamblers seemed like a fun unit here, as you get a fair amount for the upgrade, and it should make for a more varied battle line with Elementals and Elves fighting shoulder-to-shoulder.
- Great Air Elementals. My plan was to try and keep them honest with my own fliers, so getting first turn was very impactful for for them, as this let them move up and threaten regions of the board first. They were still taxing to try and manage and mitigate, but I was really pleased with myself to being able to deal with both as the game progressed.
- Forest Warden. He’s definitely intriguing, especially with Greater Air Elementals in the mix, and I think I made the right call prioritizing shooting him off. He looks intriguing outside a shambling list too though. He’s got a Unit Strength, so can play for scenarios, and at 90 points, is still “quick” expendable chaff (compared to Snow Foxes at 80 points; Gur Panthers at 85; Gargoyles at 85…) but his speed comes from his Scout move, so forethought it needed when using him. Height 3 will also let him see things, so he could be a decent carrier of magic items. A neat pick for my opponent, and something worth looking into sometime in the future.
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