Recommendation: Death by Dragons

A recent Data and Dice post pointed me towards the Death by Dragons youtube channel, and I gotta say, I was not disappointed! He (Steve) is a quick-witted commentator and a pretty clever player, so the reports have been rather entertaining, with plenty of things to learn from, as he's going to tournaments and giving his play-by-play thoughts. I’m not sure how I missed this channel previously, but I am quite enjoying catching up on his recent exploits, and recommend you do the same!

…and I don’t normally deep dive in my recommendations posts, but he’s been playing his “Kingdoms of Meh” recently, and has a lot of insights worth exploring. I’m not sure when else I’d discuss these, let alone cover in a timely manner, so I guess we’ll tackle them here. I won’t critique the efficacy of the lists, I just want to point out some cool things and some general points of agreement.

This is the initial list that caught my attention, and yeah, as you can see it is infantry-centric and a little wild. He discusses it more in the videos, but essentially he’s using triple Ballistae to exert pressure and force the enemy to close in, then using the Monarch to rally the Foot Guard holding the line, with oodles of Fanatics around as a second line to deal the damage. As he notes his list has a very hard time dealing with high defense lists, so three (often more) units are usually needed to break something, and multi-charging and clever positioning is paramount for the Kingdoms of Men. 

• Triple Ballistae are solid picks. As war machines they have an additional bottleneck compared to missile units (hit rolls; Blast rolls; and damage rolls), but in my opinion are still our best shooting options. The Kingdoms of Men should usually be running several hordes, so they should be easy to fit in for unlocks, and are quite cheap in points. 
• Flying Generals are great. Their killing power isn't all that impressive, but multiple fliers are exponentially more difficult to contain a single one, so like Ballistae, they tend to perform better the more you run. Unfortunately they are prone to wavering, but are one of the few “hitty” things in the KoM list, and are very maneuverable, so very much worth taking, as you can see from my own reporting. 
• The Monarch seems slept on a bit? I have an “elite/knightly” list I’ve been wanting to test out for a while myself (oof checking my notes... this list has been ready since February yet is still untested, due to all the League stuff dominating my table time recently), as I had noticed the same interaction DBD is exploring with his list. The Monarch has a few modes, and an optional Fly. Even with no upgrades at all, it is a Very Inspiring titan with damage output similar to a Giant, which isn't bad. 
• Foot Guard are a bit of pet unit of mine, and when buffed by the Monarch like they are here, seem quite fun, and the regiments have a lot of staying power. It's nice to see a lot of these units on the table, and the interaction with the Monarch seems fun.
• Fanatic spam. Mine have typically just gotten shot off, but I will admit that I haven’t used them particularly well historically, as longtime readers can attest. One thing to note here, is that he is running multiple regiments, and they are getting the items, contrary to conventional wisdom. He expressly didn’t want an expensive Death Star unit in the Fanatic horde, so opted to make the regiments more threatening. They seem to be a pet unit for Death by Dragons, and he’s making them work here pretty well, so I should take note!

In Game 4 here, he played the Monarch list against another Kingdoms of Men list. He comments on things more deeply in the video, and seemed to take the lessons to heart. He’s got a new video up with a new list, utilizing triple Balliastae to pressure again, numerous Pike units to hold now, and triple flying Generals to help kill things, with support from a few Fanatic units still.

• Hero on Pegasus. He ran one in the previous list; played against two in Game 4 linked above, and ran zero in this new list. At 90 points, these seem just ok? I've tried the Heroes on Horses version before, and they are in a similar place. With just 3 base attacks, just 1 CS and no TC, they can reliably disorder most things, but aren’t going to be dealing very much damage. In combat, they do have a neat interaction with the Flying General, in that they are shorter than General, so even with one in front of the other, both can still see and fight. Damage dealing isn’t the reason to take these though, which is that the Pegasus mount gives them a Unit Strength, letting them score in scenario play.
• Ballistae. Again, triple ballistae are splendid. If your opponent has titans, these can be good late drops, otherwise, as DBD shows, if you have a game plan going into the game, deploying them all early to zone out parts of the board is a great option as well.
• Pikes. Mine have mostly just been shot off, but the more melee-focused your meta is, the better Pikes will be, and Indomitable Regiments can hold scary things up surprisingly well. Hitting either a critical mass of regiments or just running a horde that can’t be ignored seems to be the way to go with these, which was a shortfall of my previous approaches. 
• Flying Generals. He went from one to three, and these add a lot of options to the list and the army as a whole. I’ve kept my own lists down to just two to be on the friendlier side of things, but three is the better and more competitive choice.
• Fanatics. DBD is down to just two regiments here. Again, they seem like a pet unit for him, but are doing well enough, it seems.
• Beast Cavalry. These became the new hotness for KoM once you could tool them up with all the options. Expensive, but they are fast and maneuverable and gives them a better hammer unit, due to the CS and all of the minor buffs adding up.
• Pegasus Wizards. These are an older hotness for the KoM that I have yet to explore, due to a lack of models. The Pegasi are resin, but Fireforge makes a great looking box that has been sold out forever it seems. I might try these at some point myself, because they do look to be that good. Two seems like a great number, and if you utilize the Tricker’s Wand, you can get two flying Hexing units into a list, which seems strong. 

So, in summation, Death by Dragons is a great youtube channel, and especially worth exploring if you like the Kingdoms of Men. Check him out!