Intro and lists
I was fortunate enough to be able to stop by and play three League-adjacent games over the weekend. Not being officially part of the League, I don't get benefits like upgrading units and such, but I also am not stuck running the same list over and over! Up for the second game of the day was Rob and his Halflings, who I played back in Battle 056, in another league game. A new month meant a new list, and he brought the following:
The Halflings have a lot of intricacies, and look like a lot of fun to play. Last time Rob's list made very clever use of Auras and the Ravenous-keyworded units. The aura's and combined arms themes continued into this month, while the Halflings adding some speedy things and things with reach to take advantage of the larger board, and I should be in for another tough game! The Sauceror and Muster Captain duo returned, as did the mighty "Son Slayers" Juggers, which popped my Varangur Mounted Sons regiment in one go in our last meet-up. The disrupting Grenadiers returned, and the Stalwarts ahd been given upgrades and accolades, and also sported the Hammer of Measured Force. Spearspikes and Rifles were around, but in a diminished role to make room for a new Volley Gun and a regiment of Wild Runners with blackpowder weapons. Last time, Rob's list and his clever use of Auras utterly destroyed me, so I hoped to give him a better game this time!
I brought the Herd, looking to explore some more "neglected" that I haven't gotten around to exploring much yet. My second Herd list had the following to test:
- Tribal Spears with TC and Chalice. So far, I am liking the Tribal Spears. Wavering has been a bit of a problem though, so I wanted to try them with the Chalice of Wrath. This won’t help against wavers from shooting, but should help get a little more out of them once combats start.
- Harpies. I have new chaff to test! They should function pretty similarly to Gur Panthers, but should be able to fly out and disrupt stuff as well, provided I have room to land. This extra functionality could help chaff up the layered battle lines of an enemy… though I am not expecting too much out of them in this smaller game.
- Guardian Brutes. I am still figuring out how best to use them. On paper they look strong, but I am still struggling a bit to get good use of of them. Playing more games against a variety of players and opponents is the way! We’ll see what insights I can gain here.
- Minotaur Chariots. In my complaining about a lack of hammers for the Herd, I forgot about Minotaur Chariots. They basic unit doesn't have Pathfinder, but these could be something to explore more in the future. We’ll see how they do!
- Flying Beast. I want to get a little more testing out of him. Summarizing things quickly, a lot of his value in a list seems to be in positional pressure. The Beast isn't going to break things on its own, and for 200+ points, it doesn’t have the best hitting power, with just 7 attacks and CS2 (and Vicious). It seems one needs to get use out of Pathfinder and unusual situations to make him a good buy, so while I do like the pick generally, we'll continue to test and evaluate it here.
- Druid. I need Inspiring, and with my lesser unit quality, I feel I need Bane Chants. Thankfully, the druid does both for cheap, so has been making for a good "default" pick.
- Lycan Alpha. I think I need to be making long charges to get the most use out of him, so we'll continue to try and pressure and disrupt with him again, instead of keeping him nearer my main lines.
Table and Terrain
We were out at Oddwillows, a fabulous little gaming store, and were making use of my opponent's personal board. The Halflings have a fabulous farmstead going on. They even have some crops planted! The tops of he autumnal trees are kinda draped on, and come off, revealing the branches below. Neat stuff. Rob also cut (and lugged around) some plywood boards, allowing us to play on a regular 6 foot by 4 foot table. This was a "quality of life" thing the store was looking to adding for us, but they haven't done that yet. Thanks Rob!
We followed our usual terrain rules, playing the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, the field as Height 0 difficult terrain, the fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and the Hills as normal Height 3 hills.
Plunder was the league scenario for the month, but since Rob just got one of those in already, we decided to mix things up. We tried rolling for the scenario, but got Loot (our previous game), Fool's Gold (no bluff tokens), Fool's Gold again, and then Kill, which we settled on.
 |
| The halflings secure the homestead, grabbing some elevenses before going to war. |
The Halflings picked sides, and dropped the Riflemen out early on the left. The rest of the list layered up near the center. Try as I might to entice them with my own deployments, the Halflings deployed very conservatively, with the building shielding a lot from view. Roughly left-to-right we have the shiny new Volley Gun, the powerful Juggers, the Muster Captain, Saucerer, very dapper Stalwarts and the Wild Riders. The veteran Gernadiers and Spearspikes sat in reserve.
I loved the amount of terrain on the board, but two obstacles ran down the center would make it difficult for the Herd. Obstacles will disrupt and hinder my Pathfinder, while the Halflings and their Strider-granting Captain won't care. I was going to be out-deployed and likely outmaneuvered this game, so I tried to castle up, with everything deployed out on the left.
 |
| Deployment for the Herd, and a view of the table. |
Left to right the compact Herd has the flying Beast, the Tribal Spears with supporting Druid, the Guardian Brutes, Harpies, basic Minotaur Chariot, and Lycan Alpha.
Top of Round 1: Herd
With so much of the Halfling list on the far side of the building, I try to be aggressive, hoping to close the distance before the Stalwart Heroes and such can swing round the building to pincer me.
The Tribal Spears and Guardian Brutes both move up at the double, crashing through the woods, with the Speed 5 Druid trying to keep pace.
 |
| The Herd opt to move up, hoping the pivot can be achieved with a later charge... |
The Beast of nature is able to fly its 20" and nimbly pivot, spying the Halfling Rifles.
The Lycan Alpha slightly pivots and moves up a long ways, and my goal is to throw him into the Volley Gun, or disorder the Juggers next turn, depending on what my opponent does for move orders.
The Harpies fly up to screen for the Minotaur Chariots, who also move up quite far.
Bottom of Round 1: Halflings
The Sauceror chooses a Rally 2 bubble.
The Stalwarts move up cautiously, starting their trek around the building. The Wild Runners occupy the field, and shoot into the Lycan Alpha, and are joined by the Volley Gun. They deal 5 damage, but the Alpha holds. The Juggers back up, getting out of line of sight of the Lycan Alpha.
 |
| Opening moves and volleys for the Halflings. |
The Rifles opt not to ender the forest, denying charges to the Spears and Brutes, who can't see through the woods. They shoot and land 2 damage in against the Beast of Nature though.
Top of Round 2: Herd
The Herd needs to close in and do damage, but the Halflings are being very clever positionally, and are so far doing a good job at creating the space they need instead of coming out to meet me.
 |
| A trio of charges from the Herd. |
The flying Beast goes into the Rifles, dealing 4 but thankfully getting the rout on the uninspired unit.
The Brutes enter the woods, moving and pivoting. The Spears try the same, but don't have the inches, so won't be able to see through the terrain.
The Herd Chariots are hindered, but deal 7 to the Grenadiers, and will rout them. They will pivot slightly to get the Wild Runners into their front arc. I don't think they'd take the flank, but that would have been a clear charge too, so it's better to play it safe.
The Lycan Alpha charges the Volley Gun, and connects with 7 damage, but the crew is found to be insanely well-fed.
Bottom of Round 2: Halflings
I look to have missed a photo. Sorry!
The Sauceror chooses a Brutal 3 bubble, and the Juggers flank charge the stalled Lycan Alpha, easily devastating and then routing him. The Spearspikes hang out to offer moral support. Or maybe they are still snacking.
The Stalwarts continue trekking around the building.
The Wild Runners continue outflanking, and will land 4 damage into the Chariots with their guns.
Top of Round 3: Herd
The Beast of Nature now goes into the Volley Gun to remove it. The Chariots started on the obstacle, so are going to be hindered again. They opt to go into Juggers, if only to disorder them. They deal a pitiful 2 damage, but get a hot 11 on the Nerve Check to waver them.
 |
| Charges 'round the building from the Herd. |
The Tribal Spears and Guardian Brutes continue to reposition, slowly, as Speed 6 isn't giving them a ton of inches to work with. I maybe should have pivoted them more in a previous turn, but these major repositions always seem rough no matter what.
Bottom of Round 3: Halflings
The Juggers Wavering is huge for me, but the Halflings have still have some clever responses. The cavalry need to stay put and so are engaged, but the Spearspikes can charge past them and into the flying Beast of Nature, dealing 4 damage to it. Meanwhile the Muster Captain will charge the Chariots, and deal the 1 damage needed to disorder them, which was a smart play, as like the Juggers, the Chariots really need their Thunderous Charge to deliver the damage.
 |
| The Halflings dish out some damage! |
The Wild Runners will continue outriding, and will land 3 damage into the Guardian Brutes.
The Stalwarts will finally swing around the building to face the Herd. I say finally, but it seems like the delaying has been working out for my opponent.
Unfortunately, the Sauceror didn't get any successes this turn, and Brutal 0 doesn't contribute anything, and he swings around to hide behind the Stalwarts.
Top of Round 4: Herd
Since the Juggers didn't disengage, the Chariots countercharge them instead of the Muster Captain. Removing the Captain would be nice, but I think I need to focus on removing units.
The flying Beast of Nature doesn't want to be fighting a unit with Phalanx, so it disengages, and takes a penalty to charge into the flank of the wavered Juggers. The Chariots contribute just 2 damage, and the Beast contributes 4. This isn't great output for anyone, and with a low Nerve check to top things off, the Juggers shake things off and emerge fine and ready to fight in the coming turn.
 |
| The Herd finally squares up, with the Brutes just out of reach of the Stalwarts. |
Fortunately, the facings are a mess back here. With the Beast disengaging, the Spearspikes have nothing to charge next turn.
I'm getting whittled away, and the Guardian Brutes are forced to offer themselves up. If memory serves they are just out of charge range for the Stalwarts, which should force the Sauceror to go for the Wild Charge Aura instead of Brutal, which might give them a slim chance. The Tribal Spears slowly swing around, looking to support something in the coming turns.
Bottom of Round 4: Halflings
The Sauceror does pick Wild Charge 2, allowing a charge from the Stalwarts into the Guardian Brutes, which resolves in 7 damage. I think the Stalwarts were just out of range for the Muster Captain's buff. But, like the Juggers earlier in the game, the Brutes catch a reprieve with a low Nerve check, and will be able to fight on my turn.
 |
| The fancy Stalwarts go in and go hard! |
Not wanting to charge in yet, the Wild Runners will continue to outride, and will take shots at the Druid, trying to remove my meager source of Inspiring. I believe we rule she has cover due to the intervening Brutes, as just 1 damage is done, but she holds.
The Spearspikes will turn to face the flying Beast, while the Juggers and Muster Captain will charge in. They deal just 5 damage more, but a 9 on the uninspired Nerve check will see the Chariots off the field!
Top of Round 5: Herd
The Beast is free, but angles-wise, can't see the Stalwarts. It opts to charge into the Juggers, deals just 2 damage, but this brings them to 10 damage total, and we are able to see the unit off the field.
 |
| Charges for the Herd. |
I am able to get a clear double-charge into the Stalwarts, but Bane Chant fails into the Spears. A respectable 16 damage is done from the 60 attacks, but the Stalwarts are wavered.
Bottom of Round 5: Halflings
The Sauceror gets Brutal 1, looking to try and close things out.
The Stalwarts have Regen6+ from a league reward, and will regenerate 2 damage, taking them down to 14. They hold firm while the Wild Riders commit to a melee combat, hitting the Guardian Brutes in the flank, and bringing them to 17 damage total. With Brutal in the mix as well, there is no real chance, and the Guardians do fall.
 |
| The entirety of the battle at this point. |
The Spearspikes and the Muster Captain go into the flying Beast, and each deal 2, bringing him to 10 damage total. The uninspired Nerve check is a 10, and the Beast is done for.
Top of Round 6: Herd
The Tribal Spears get a Bane Chant for the grind, and with some hot dice, will bring the Stalwarts from 14 to 28 damage, and will devastate and then rout the horde.
 |
| The Tribal Spears grind it out. |
Bottom of Round 6: Halflings
The Muster Captain will charge the Druid, and deal 1 to disorder her, and gets the waver as well.
After some finagling, we determine that the Wild Runners can't get away, so they opt to move onto the obstacle, and shoot into the Tribal Spears, landing 1 point of damage.
 |
The Spearspikes move up at the double, in case their is Round 7.
....and there is!
Top of Round 7: Herd
The Tribal Spears take the charge into the Wild Runners. it is hindered, but we are able to pick them up, and spin around to face the Spearspikes.
The Druid is wavered, and does nothing.
Bottom of Round 7: Halflings
We talk things out, as there was some confusion, as Kill uses a lists points to determine victory, contrary to the scoring methods for a lot of other scenarios.
 |
| The final combats of the game. |
The Saucerer goes for Brutal but gets no successes. The Muster Captain goes into the Druid again, but still routs her. The Spearspikes regiment charge the Tribal Spears cleanly, but don't pick them up.
As round 7 concludes, we are looking for a 120 point differential for a victory. The Halflings have killed 970 points of Herd, with the Herd killing just 860 of the Halfling's list. Our differential is 110 points (in the Halfling's favor), but this is just short of what is needed, so this is a tie!
Game Conclusion
Seeing all the obstacles in the midfield, I tried hard to telegraph my commitment to my corner and draw my opponent over. Even with the scenario being Kill, Rob wisely refused, and was able to greatly mitigate my Pathfinder, while putting his list to great use.
I have tried to get mounted ranged units to work on-and-off for a while now, with even some additional hobby projects paused, to get more units like them on the table to test. The hypothetical versatility is just so enticing! Jumping from a 3’ table to a normal 6’x4’ table, the Wild Runners were a brilliant inclusion by my opponent. Most lists aren't going to be able to spread out to effectively contain them, and in this game, while I had better tools than most armies would (Lycan Alpha and Flying Beast), both deployed far away, and I felt like I needed to prioritize shutting down the Organ Gun, since my Defense wasn't great. They had free reign this game, and were used exceptionally well.
The Defense in my list was pretty low overall, and I felt like I had to prioritize removing the Volley Gun. The insane result against it was probably more unfortunate for him than for me in the long run though, as being out on the table edge, it ended up gumming up his line, and with a numerically inferior force, I was able to actually piece trade up there a bit before he was able to swing around the building and reinforce as the game went into the final turns.
Finishing up Round 6, the Halflings were winning, but with a Round 7, the Wild Riders just couldn't quite get away due to the angle of my Spears, letting the Herd catch them and even it up, if just barely. I think Rob had a good and interesting list, deployed wisely, and overall, played a better game than me, again. The dice weren't egregious, but writing up the report, enough bounced my way, including a Round 7, that the Herd was just barely able hold on for the tie result here. Well played Rob!
Testing Conclusion
- Tribal Spears with Chalice. The Horde and TC is definitely the way to go, despite being a bit unwieldy positionally. If you have the points, the Chalice seems like a nice way to keep the unit fighting just a little longer.
- Harpies. They needed to be chaff this game, but then got out-chaffed by the Grenadiers and their gizmos. They did fine, but nothing spectacular.
- Guardian Brutes. They really suffer from chip damage, and I need to figure out how to protect them just a bit better. They did get to fight stuff here though. It wasn't decisive, but it was nice. Running them near Spears has been fun as well. Throwing 60 dice at a unit tends to leave a mark!
- Minotaur Chariots. The Stampede and its Strider would have been nice here, but I don't think it would have been enough to turn the tide for me. The basic option is ok, but still rather expensive. Lacking Pathfinder is a good balance call, but makes them just a bit more difficult to use, as while their stats are good, they aren't going to break anything on their own.
- Flying Beast. Unfortunately, I felt pressured to use them against the war machine, and so couldn't utilize them elsewhere. Still, I was able to get some good use out of them as the game went on, and I was happy with them.
- Druid. I wasn't able to keep anything besides the Brutes and Spears Inspired regularly. These worked out ok, but more Inspiring sources is something I need to look into for larger lists.
- Lycan Alpha. I tried being very aggressive with him today, charging out and trying to hold stuff up like a speedier Kruufnir, and boy can he move quickly! The Nerve isn't bad, but he kept getting picked up early, before Regeneration had a chance to contribute. Aggressive might not be the way to run him, and he might be better as a cheaper version of the Flying Beast, primarily providing positional pressure instead? We'll see.
I usually don't prefer the Kill scenario, but my opponent had a really tactical and engaging approach to it, and I quite enjoyed this game! The Halflings, especially with all this combined arms play, are a really engaging army, and my opponent has been putting them to some great tactical use. Well played Rob!
No comments:
Post a Comment