Hobby Update: Stormcast Ogre Bullys and ASB

While I had no plans to expand the army further, playing the Stormcast Ogres in the Group Game was fun, and I figured I’d give myself another little side project. Up now is an Ogre ASB and some Ogre Berserkers!

More Stormcast.

Like the rest of the army, the minis here are from Games Workshop. The ASB is a new Knight-Vexillor picked up cheap on ebay, and the Beserkers are older blind-buy Liberators, also from ebay. Each are peculiar picks, so jumped out at me while browsing for some cheap additions to make.

Everything got hit with some black primer, and then a layer of Zamesi Desert for a base coat. The armor then got the Citadel Retributor color, and the robes got their orange Speed Paint, and all the leather and other metal bits got generic colors.

The ASB, with a very bland flag.

Crunch-wise, the ASB is very peculiar, so I figured I’d pick him up. He’s Me3+, with CS1 and 3 attacks, which is unusual for ASBs. It pays to be a Large Infantry hero! He is Very Inspiring, though unlike other ASBs, he didn’t get a new Aura.

He’s the cheapest source of Inspiring for the army, costing less than the Warlock without spells, and seems like a neat package. The Ogres don’t get BC on the Warlock, so grabbing the Lute of Insatiable Darkness seems like a decent ASB option for this army as well. The Ogres have a lot of competition for hero slots, and most of their heroes inspire. He’s nice to have around, but I think more often than not there will be better picks.

Hobbying-wise, the head is so close to the flag I think you need to paint him first and assemble him second, which is what I did. The ASB got all the normal colors, but I was at a loss for what to do with the banner. Like many GW banners, this thing was ornate, and would reward ambitious colors and precise painting skills, neither of what I really wanted to be doing. Instead I painted the scroll parts, then a red outline for the flag, and then just drybrushed the interior with a dark gray. This is good enough for now, though I only push-fit the model together, so I can disassemble him in the future if inspiration strikes. 

Berserkers with two hand weapons.

The other guys here are Berserkers, and with three, these could be a regiment of Braves or three Berserker Bully heroes.

Hobbying-wise, I wasn't paying attention when I started on these, and didn't realize each mini was posed slightly differently. The picture has them left-to-right in order of assembly, but if I am honest, I would have loved to have double swords on the left-most figure, which looks more like a sword fighting pose. I assembled the first model, and was originally going to leave it at a singular Bully, but then I thought "why not just do them all up now?" I continued the following day, and then realized each mini was different. Oops. I wasn't a fan at all of the lightning bolt shortsword, so cut another large sword off at the hilt and swapped it over to get my dual longsword loadout. I do like the hammers the old Stormcast have, so mini number three got that loadout again since I didn't want to mix and match weapons.

The Brave Regiments are just alright. At 140 Points, they are on the chaffy and disposable side for Ogre units. They have good attacks but only CS1 and Me4+, so are hitting harder than a comparable CS1 Warrior Regiment, but not by much, and are on par with a CS2 Warrior Regiment in many regards. Their main utility seems to be in being Fearless, as Ogre regiments don’t have the best Nerve scores.

The Berserker Bully hero seems more interesting than the unit. Each is roughly comparable to a regiment all on their own, and carries a similar price tag. Being a Large Infantry hero, each is Nimble, and the Bully is also Inspiring, making him quite the little powerhouse.

Apparently the Bullies were quite the rage when Ogre Regiments unlocked full-time, and one could spam a hero-centric MSU list. I missed that era entirely, but these still look like great heroes to have around, and could be run as unit in a pinch, or for fun!

The Stormcast Ogres are the only multi-system army of mine that really went anywhere. The other armies were given away already or never got painted up. These are wonky projects without a 3d printer and/or tons of magnets, especially if you want to run any cavalry units from GW. On 40mm rounds, the Ogres transition nicely to 40mm square trays, and this is has been a pretty easy army to play around with in this multi-system space..

The haven't seen the table much, but have been a nice, straightforward army to play. With some additions, I'm sure we'll see them hit the table again soon!

Hobby Update: More Abyssal Tortured Souls

Up now are another side project picked up during the Herd hobbying marathon, some additional Tortured Souls for the Forces of the Abyss! 

Three more regiments.

I saw another bundle of 20 on ebay for dirt cheap about a month ago and couldn't resist. This brings me up to 6 regiment's worth of Tortured Souls, which feels a little excessive, but is also in-line with how I hobby and collect things. I guess we'll have to give them all a go sometime and see how it goes!

A dark and brooding aerial view of the lava pool.

Six regiments seems excessive, so I made sure to hobby up one with a shared lava pool, so it could be a go-to horde. The other regiments all have self-contained pools, so can mix-and-match or easily run as solo regiments.

Hobbying-wise, I only primed them once this time! They got a black prime, then a grey base coat / overbrush. Since I was trying to emulate the original minis, I followed the coloring of those models, using the Blood Red Speed Paint for skin, Gravelord Grey for the hoods and Hexwraith Flame for the lower robes. The red skin in particular is growing on me (it's got a slight sheen to it that reminds me of the early Hellraiser movies), and I am liking my paint scheme a lot these days.  

Another group shot.

On the table, these took a while to learn, but I've been doing better with them. Firstly, they are not good outriders! They are "just" Speed 8 but lack Nimble, so it takes them too long to swing out and into position most of the time. They hit on 4's, so can deal damage, but are swingy enough on their output that they aren't a go-to power unit. . They have been doing best for me as the thickest of chaff. They have Fly, and can make some good charges to pin things down. If they get lucky on a Nerve check, they are Fearless with Lifeleech, and can give your opponents quite the headache! They've been fun to use, and have really enabled some good turns with my Abyssal MSU play. 

Yet another side project down! I have yet to finish up the post for the Centaur Striders, but we'll hopefully get to them soon!

Hobby Update: Herd Centaur Chiefs

Up now is another Herd side-project, undertaken in the midst of doing up a ton of Centaurs for various units. Hitting the table soon are some new Centaur Chiefs!

The new trio.

The first mini is Nolzur / WizKids. I picked him up months ago at a FLGS. He was big and imposing and I figured he would make a good Flaxhoof... but after hobbying him up, I discovered that the legendary pick doesn't actually have a bow, or even the option to take one! He also lacks the horns of the rest of my Herd units, which is an aesthetic bummer. I finished him, so he's around, but I don't think he'll hit the table often.

The Nolzur mini is the odd one out.

Finishing up the Nolzur mini actually bummed me out, since I had so much hobby stuff going on and he felt like wasted effort in the end. I have two other Centaur Chiefs already, but those are Reaper Miniatures and don't quite fit my current army aesthetic either. After finishing the Nolzur mini up, I remembered that I still had some sprues of  the RGD Centaurs around, and figured I could easily squeeze out two more minis as I was wrapping up all of these other projects... This wasn't exactly true, but I did get them done.

Two RGD Centaur Chiefs. 

Since these are RGD Centaurs, they match very well with my new units. The ebay bundle had a weird head (I want to say is some kind of masked Dark Elf), which looked cool, so I added it in here. In retrospect it doesn't have horns either though, so maybe we'll replace the head at some point. Whatever. More things can be considered "done" and moved off my desk, which is the important thing right now, and these two fit better with the army, so I am happy with their look.

These weren't finished at the time, so I actually brought an old Chief to my recent league games (Battle 068 and 069). I expected a little more, honestly. Centaurs (Striders in particular) have some odd stats which makes them hard to evaluate, and their heroes are no different.

The KOM General on Horse is pretty comparable. The General gets an extra attack, extra Nerve, a bump to Def5, and a boost to Very Inspiring. For 10 points cheaper, the Centaur is worse in all those ways, but can boast CS2 and Pathfinder. 

The Centaur Chief is small and speedy and pretty cheap at 110 points. Unlike the recent Chieftain on Chariot, the Centaur Chiefs do have Pathfinder and CS2, so he should play nicely with the rest of the list, contributing a damage (maybe 2!) against most things when multi-charging.

At Defense 4, he's not great at taking hits, and with only 4 attacks, he's not much up a damage dealer either. With so few attacks, neither of his upgrades (Duelist via the Hunting Cat, or the 18" Shortbow) feels very appealing. Even against a generic Def 4 Spellcaster (let's say, a Necromancer at 10/12 Nerve), duelist isn't going to be enough to reliably get in break them on the charge; it'll very likely take a few combats. Similarly, non-Piercing bow-fire has generally been disappointing. Combining the two is also probably not going to be super effective either, as Individuals are harder to hit at range, so any damage you do on approach is still going to be very minimal. Even if you get a round or two of shooting off, it will still likely take a few combats to best even that hypothetical Necromancer. I think stock is generally going to be the way to run these. (Bows could be ok, but only if you are running a lot of other shooting and going for a weight-of-fire kind of approach.)

I don't think the Chief is an easy go-to option like I was hoping for. However, they could be nice just to have around to inspire speedier units, such as other Centaurs though. Having hobbied up a lot of Centaur units recently, I am sure we'll be seeing more of the various Centaur units and their new Chiefs very soon!

Hobby Update: Herd Centaur Bray Hunters

I have fallen so far behind on my hobby posts that I had some games sneak in with some brand new units before I could showcase or discuss them in detail. That’s quite unusual for me, so we’ll try to catch up a bit now with some Centaur Bray Hunters for the Herd!

All the units.

The minis are Centaurs from RGD Games, which seems like a neat little company. They designed their Fauns and Centaurs sprues to be interchangeable. So much so, that if you buy a box of one, there are several bonus sprues of the other to encourage some customizability. I don’t think I have seen this level of kitbash encouragement before, nor do you often get free, unadvertised, extra sprues in a box, so this is definitely worth mentioning! There is a lot of value here and the extras might save you a few purchases if you are building up a new army.

The regiment.

I scored a ridiculously huge ebay lot of RGD stuff back in March, and have been slowly hobbying on the Centaurs since.

Despite being designed to be interchangeable, the kits are not without issue. To rattle things off quickly… There are male/female sculpts included, but the arms are not interchangeable, so you need to be aware of what you are using, and use the right corresponding arm, otherwise you won’t get a good fit. The kits have shields in several designs, but are usually just one per sprue type, so are hard to amass. My two biggest complaints though are that the female heads are a nightmare to connect to the neck since the female heads have no notch (the male heads do), and that bows are only found on the Faun sprue, with a measly 1 bow per sprue. Despite my gripes, these still seem like good kits for anyone wanting to cheaply jumpstart a Herd army… just as long as you don’t want much shooting!

All this to say that hobbying-wise, the units are RGD Centaurs, kitbashed with their Faun sprues in order to get the needed bows. The paint scheme is my usual, with MSP Glacier Blue (or close equivalent) for the skin, as the only unique color, as the other colors are mundane, with any dark brown for leather, etc. 

Two troops, with some complementary edges to be run as a good looking regiment.

I have been drawn to these kind of versatile harassing units before, with both the Kingdoms of Men Mounted Scouts and the Herd Scorchwings making a lot of appearances in the early games for their respective armies. This kind of unit has been very hard to use well, but I have gotten some good insights in the recent games (Battle 068 and 069) using the Bray Hunters. 

The Scorchwings have been hard to use because I’ve prioritized using their shooting and just trying to keep them alive, since they are so expensive. Their rub here was that while they are versatile, their stats are skewed towards melee, so hanging back wasn’t a good use for them. Then, while they are paying for Fly and Me3, they still only have TC1, so while they are technically geared towards melee, they still aren’t particularly good at it. 

The Mounted Scout from the Kingdoms of Men have had the opposite problem, where I saw Melee 4+ and Ranged 5+ and had often done work to get them in flanking positions, only to have them charge in and effectually nothing happen. They don’t have any real benefits to damage in either melee or ranged combat, which makes them space holders on the battlefield. It pays to have even a little rules or stats benefit to nudge you in some direction for using them. I think to run this kind of unit in the Kingdoms of Men, I need to invest in the Blackpowder Weapons for the Scouts, and instead of trying to charge in with them, try to keep them back in more of a supporting role, like the Halflings did against me recently in Battle 065.

The Hunters are somewhat splitting the middle. Their stats are middling, but they have TC. They are noticeably cheaper than the Scorchwings, but a step up from the Mounted Scouts, which should be expected. They seemed to do ok, landing a damage or two before charging in, and with me wanting to explore more units, they seem like they could be fun for me! 

The final two troops, also with some complementary edges.

The Herd have dominated my hobbying time over the last few months, with a sprawling 1,000+ points of various Centaur units slowing working its way across my desk. Stalling out, in May I started foolishly adding in new, smaller projects, such as the Abyssal Ghouls, to help keep me motivated out by working with new paints or different units… but this just created an overwhelming sprawl of seemingly unending hobby projects. I put everything away in mid-June, deep cleaned my hobby spot, and am bringing things back one at a time to finish them off while preserving my sanity. More to come! And hopefully soon!

Kings of War 3rd Edition: #070 Kingdome of Men vs Northern Alliance [Push]

Intro and Lists

I haven't played a "properly-sized" game in quite some time, so I was elated to have Trevor from Data and Dice (Cartwright on the Forums) unexpectedly reach out looking for a game, as our schedules have just not meshed well over the last few months. We agreed to throw down after work for a big game, and Trevor carted the following over to Madison:

Sheesh! Trevor came to play! His Northern Alliance lists are always scary, and returning readers should recognize a lot of these units. We have two Regiments of Dwarf Clan Warriors, a horde of Phalanx Ice Naiads, and two hordes of Snow Trolls to hold the line with a Rallying Thegn to bolster them. We have an assortment of ranged threats with two Pack Hunter regiments, an Ice-Queen, and an Ice Kin Bolt Thrower. We have Sno Foxes to interdict, a regiment and a horde of Frostclaw Riders with their ice bombs, and a dirty trio of Snow Troll Primes. At 120 points, these are a steal. The Northern Alliance arrived with a phenomenal amount of unit strength and tools in their arsenal. 

I was using the opportunity to run an odd idea list that I came up with way back in February. At the time, I realized two things: the first being that while the Monarch was a proxy against me back in Battle 025, I had never run it as the Monarch yet. The second was that the Foot Guard had the Knight keyword too, so its Crown of Chivalry upgrade would buff my Foot Guard in addition to normal Knights, which seemed worth exploring. , though time got away from me. I would be in for a hard fight! I had a lot of unit strength myself, but most of it is tied up in infantry hordes, so it was either going to be an epic clash or epic fail for me, depending on how I am able to position everything. Up to test are just:

• Pole-Arms Block. They aren’t great, but they are pretty cheap and have CS. The hope is they can tie up a more powerful unit while still putting some hurt back on them. Kind of like a fighting tar-pit unit? We’ll see if that’s how reality works, or if Def3 attracts too many wounds for them to grind effectively.
• Foot Guard. I like them but need to test them out more. I realized I had a second unit with two-handers comprised of Romans, so I am taking two hordes, and giving IW to the Varangians to differentiate them on the field. We’ll see how and if the upgrade changes things.
• Militia. A little extra unit strength never hurts to have around! We'll see what the scenario is and how they can help.
• Crossbow Block with Fire-Oil. I wanted to try them out a bit more since they lost their Pot Shot rule and repositioning won't be as bad for them. Being a tiny bit more mobile these days should hopefully help them out. Fire-Oil is also a nice 5 point item to have around. 
• Knight Horde. They were strong last time, and I wanted to try them out again alongside the Monarch. Even hindered they should have a frightening damage output, so we’ll see how they do.
• ASB. With three melee infantry hordes, I probably should have taken a second to do some babysitting, but oh well. We’ll see how just one feels.
• The Monarch. I really like the customizability. Wingless even seems viable, as hitting on 3’s he should have decent output while Inspiring, and be a decent anchor for a line. With no breath attack, he doesn’t need to hold back, and can just charge things. 
• Hordes. I am brining 5 hordes, which may well trip me up. We’ll see how I manage!

We traded lists the night before, as we tend to do, and I fully intended to sit down and figure out a general deployment the day before, but was not able to, . One thing that helped me here was putting my box of stuff on the table, to help me visualize things as I went. 

Table and Terrain

We were out at a local Madison shop, making use of their tables and terrain. We followed our usual terrain rules, playing the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, the fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and the Hills as normal Height 3 hills. 

We rolled up Push for the Scenario. We played with the newer "a unit can only score one token" rule, and rolled up 3 tokens apiece.

I won the roll for sides, and opted to switch over from where I was standing and chatting. With so many hordes in play, and knowing I wanted to be moving forward to score, I didn't like the building compressing the effective deployment area and/or splitting my forces into two battle groups.

The main fighting units for the Northern Alliance.

The Northern Alliance had a late Ballista in the corner to hint the Height 6 Monarch. The line of battle went wide, with a Snow Troll Prime, Dwarfs, rallying Thegn, more Dwarfs with Snow Foxes in reserve, the Chalice of Wrath Snow Trolls, the Staying Stone Snow Trolls, the Hexing. The rest of his line (all pretty late drops) were a speedier enveloping wing with more Pack Hunters,  another Prime, and both the Regiment and Horde of Frostclaw Riders. The Staying Stone Snow Trolls, Naiads, and Pack Hunters out on the right received the tokens.

The speedy contingent from the Northern Alliance.

I knew I was going to be out-deployed, and just tried to make the best of it. I ended up with a very oddly stacked line. Left-to-right for me we have a triple stack of Foot Guard Pole Arms, and Militia, with the Knight Horde and Monarch nearby. The Crossbowmen took the forest, with the Knight regiment, and Foot Guard with Indomitable Will nearby, supported by the ASB with the Lute and a Flying General. Out on the far right was my other flying General, and the Militia. The Crossbowmen got a token, as did the Foot Guard and Militia out on the left flank.

The NA Tokens. One with Trolls; one with Naiads and one on the end with the Pack Hunters.

My two deployment goals were not deploying the Knight Horde opposite the Naiads, and getting the Crossbowmen some good early shots or firing lanes. The Naiads were an early drop, so while the Regiment is across from them, the Horde was not. The Crossbowmen were my first drop, followed by the Militia Mobs in the corner. Ignoring the obstacle, the Crossbowmen had some great targets across from them given their Fire Oil. Despite a speedy right flank facing me down, I think I lucked out with deployment. It could have been far worse for me!

Deployment for the Kingdoms of Men.

I won the roll off and opted to go first. I wanted to try and move a little bit before the speedy Frostclaws had a chance to start flanking me.

Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

Over on the right, I don't see a point engaging. The Militia Mob moves up at the double to get its front out of the deployment zone. I want to move the brown General 10" and still face front with some nimble pivots, but the building is in the way. In light of this, I opt to pivot and flee 20". 

The Generals chicken out.

The grey General is closer, so gets up as far as he can while respecting the Naiads and their wild charge.

The indomitable Foot Guard move up but are stymied by the obstacle.

The Knight Regiment moves up a ways, looking to pressure things. The obstacle could be an issue, but they do have the J Boots. The Wild Charge on the Snow Trolls prevent them from moving further up.

The Crossbowmen need to move up to get shots in. I opt to not take their frontage out of the woods, just in case, but this is probably unnecessarily cautious. I take a penalty for moving, and a penalty for shooting while moving through terrain, but land 6 damage on the Wrathful Snow Trolls (the ones on the left which are not getting cover). 

The Kingdoms of Men advance.

I jumble my left wing up a lot. I haven't really run a horde army like this before, let alone so much all stacked up. The Knight Horde moves up a bit. If the Monarch jumps the line, the Snow Trolls can reach him. In retrospect, I think I should jump the line, but don't advance as far to keep things safe for a turn. This would make things more threatening, and reach all sorts of things no matter what my opponent does for his moves. This isn't bad, as he the Monarch can still charge over; it's just not as potent as it could have been! I'm playing Kingdoms of Men and need to squeeze out every advantage I can here!

I do decide to hop the Pole Arms over the Foot Guard though. I think they last got to swing way way back in Battle 016, and I really just wanted to get the horde into combat to see what they could do. The hop does slow up the advance of the infantry stack though.

Bottom of Round 1: Northern Alliance

Out on the left, the hill actually blocks the line of sight of my Knight Horde to a lot of things. One unit of Dwarfs and Wrathful Snow Trolls are able to move up relatively safely using the hill as cover. The Monarch could charge over, but I am hopefully smart enough at this point to not do that. Heavy fliers like him aren't going to break either of those things on the charge.

Moves for the Northern Alliance.

 The other unit of Dwarfs can be seen by the Knight Horde, and backs up to deny a charge.

Over on the right, the Prime moves up aggressively, while the Pack Hunters move up to shoot, and both of the Frostclaws do the same. 

My opponent can't really focus fire much. The Militia Mob on the right takes 3 from the Frostclaw Regiment but holds; the gray General takes 6 from the Ballista, horde of Frostclaws and Pack Hunters holding the token, but holds as well. The Pack Hunters on the right land 3 into the indomitable Foot Guard in the center of the field. 

Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

My stacked left is gummed up due to my inexperience. The Pole-Arms advance! But can only get 5" and then are immediately stopped by the pond water, thus holding up the line and two of my tokens. 

Without charges, the Knight horde moves up, with the Monarch in tow. I decide not to take the hill to keep the Knights out of charge range. In retrospect, I probably could have been a bit "gamey" and finagled a way to get their leader point on the hill. Oh well.

The Kingdoms of Men inch up.

The Crossbowmen hold, and with Fire Oil, manage 4 damage into the wrathful Snow Trolls. The Nerve check is good, but not quite good enough, and I fall short of wavering them by 1.

The injured Grey general can safely charge the Pack Hunters with the token, and do so. I land 3 damage, and fall short of wavering them by 1 as well.

The brown General flies another 20" to come help out the left flank. Given the scenario and where my tokens are, I feel ok sacrificing and delaying with the stuff on my right, but we'll see how long they can hold out.

Turning to face the speedy Northern Alliance.

Speaking of, the Knight regiment backs off, trying to avoid the Naiads. The Foot Guard change facing to get everything into their front arc.

The Militia out on the right move up at the double again, hoping to someday be promoted to nuisance.

Bottom of Round 2: Northern Alliance

I was expecting another turn of before the Northern Alliance committed to any charges, however the Snow Troll prime on the left surprises me, and makes a hindered charge into the Pole-Arms. He lands no hits, and I have Crushing Strength, and I was not really expecting this. 

The Snow Foxes bound forward, looking to chaff up the Knight Horde. Both Dwarf units moves up to block in the coming turns.  

The Northern Alliance send things up to delay me. Not that I've been moving particularly fast.

I think both Snow Troll hordes stay put, opting to zone out the fliers I think.

The Hexing Snow Troll Prime turns to face the gray General, but the Pack Hunters fighting back don't slip any damage through, and the General is miraculously not disordered.

Shooting from the Northern Alliance is more focused this time. The Ballista lands a single hit on the brown General, which then gives him Frozen, and grants the Ice-Queen some rerolls with Blizzard, which brings him up to 3 damage. He's fortunately found to be insane courageous!

The Pack Hunters and Frostclaw horde land 5 more damage into the indomitable Foot Guard at range.

After combats. My fliers are all free!

The Naiads look to back up. I don't know if I had a charge into them with the Foot Guard, but even so, the Knights and Foot Guard would be hindered and ensnared, so the Naiads should be ok. I think he just wanted a bit more of shooting with no easy outs for me. The speedy stuff is all out of charge range for the Foot Guard, and this is just good combined-arms play from my opponent, using the tools he's got to pick me apart.

The Northern Alliance form up just out of range...

Over on the left, the Militia Mob are ignored, with everything moving up towards those indomitable Foot Guard, who end the turn at 8 damage. 

Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

Out on the far right, the Militia don't have any charges, but swing behind the speedy part of the Northern Alliance line, a few rounds in now and they are eagerly eying the Pack Hunters and their valuable token. 

Mid-movement! The ASB will move up into safety.

With the Naiads backing up, the Knight regiment turns, to try and threaten some charges into the fast stuff, and force my opponent to make some hindered charges into the indomitable Foot Guard. The intention was to use angles to deny the fliers a landing space into the knights, and thus prevent a charge. That intention was declared in game, and I should have the movement to make that happen... but this looks like some sloppy positioning from me. It had been a long day, and my opponent was gracious enough not to call me out here.

Unharmed, the gray General will disengage, and nimble slip away, safe from charges, and the Ballista, while starting down the rear facings of several Northern Alliance units.

The ASB is safe, and the brown General and Monarch fly in to help the knight horde.

The Crossbowmen continue firing into the wrathful Snow Troll horde. With Fire-Oil, they spike some serious dice, hitting 11 times, landing 7 damage, and getting a rout against the uninspired unit! This was a lucky break for me.

The Monarch and brown General charge a unit of Dwarfs, with the General landing 3, and the Monarch spiking some dice in his first ever combat, hitting 9 times and dealing 9 damage. Even rallied by the Thegn, the Dwarfs are scattered. The General sidesteps to create space, and the Monarch changes facing to see the remaining Dwarfs.  

The Snow Foxes are annoying, but with the fliers hitting the dwarfs behind them, the Knights are able to dispatch them. The opt to overrun, to gain the hill. TC3 and CS1 is too tempting. The remaining Dwarfs are in the front. 

The Pole-Arms countercharge, turning 8 hits into 6 damage, but fail to break the Snow Troll Prime.

Bottom of Round 3: Northern Alliance

The Snow Troll Prime disengages from the Pole-Arms, and has some nice regeneration rolls. With combats erupting, the Ballista only has shots into the Pole-Arms, but misses.

The knights are unwieldy, and got a special base.

The Ice-Queen whiffs a Blizzard against the grey General, but the nearby Pack Hunters roll hot with their shots, landing 3, taking him to 9 damage, and will secure the rout. No rear charges for me.

The remaining Snow Troll horde drops their token, regaining some speed. They can just reach the Knight Horde, and can connect with their edge, so they charge in to disorder them. The Knights take 5, but hold firm.

The Dwarfs charge the Monarch, but land no damage. 

The Thegn charges the brown General, hits three times, but fails to land the damage, so my flier is ungrounded.

Wavering, but still very much in the game!

The spacing on the right is awkward. The Prime and both Frostclaw units can all see the Foot Guard, but only two things can make it in since the Prime's leader point is the furthest to the right. The obstacle complicates things further, and my opponent opts to send the horde and the Prime in, and both have hindered charges. The Frostclaws land 5, while the Prime trips and contributes nothing. The horde is wounded and wavering, but thankfully for me, has indomitable will!

Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

The indomitable Foot Guard use their upgrade, and countercharge the Prime, sliding down. It was a long day, they look to have over slid way too far! My apologies.

The Knight Regiment will then charge the Frostclaw horde.

Combats!

I roll the Foot Guard first, turning 10 hits into 10 damage, and do remove the source of Inspiring over here. The Knight regiment also turns 10 hits into 10 damage, and the Frostclaw horde is then bested. Victorious, both units change facing to get things into their fronts.

And victory!

The plucky Militia Mob takes the hill, still pursuing the Pack Hunters and their token.

The Crossbowmen opt to take clean shots into the Naiads instead of shooting the Prime with a cover penalty, and with Fire-Oil helping out again, 5 damage lands.

I have choices with my fliers. I opt to disengage with the brown General, moving forward, and then pivoting to see the damaged Pack Hunters and the Naiads, as well as the dropped token. I can't quite reach the Ballista, and can't see the Pack Hunters in the NA deployment zone. This seems like a better idea then spending a few turns fighting the Thegn.

The Dwarfs failed to disorder the Monarch, so he has options too. While he could charge the Ballista, I don't want to give the Dwarfs a free hand here. The Knights will likely best the Snow Trolls, but I don't want to have to spin the horde around. So, the Monarch counter charges the Dwarfs, dealing a measly 2 damage.

A penalty, but the flank charge seems worth it!

The Knight horde declines to countercharge the Snow Troll Horde. Instead, they disengage, and then issue a new charge against them. Given the arcs involved, I take a penalty for withdrawing, but now hit them in the flank, and my shuffling alignment is stopped by the Thegn. The Snow Trolls are brought up to 16 damage and are routed! The Knights opt to overrun. 

The Pole-Arms charge the Snow Troll Prime. Last turn, he had regenerated down to 2, takes 5 more now, but is unbothered on the check. 

Bottom of Round 4: Northern Alliance

The Snow Troll Prime simply disengages from the Pole-Arms, regenerating some damage while doing so, and I am just now realizing how big of a bother he is. I was expecting a drag-out fight with the Dwarfs here too. The Pole-Arms being undamaged should be a good thing, but really isn't, as all my tokens are held up here on my side of the board. 

The Prime charges in to disorder the knight horde.

The Ballista fires at the brown General but misses. The Pack Hunters and Ice Queen each manage 1 damage, bringing him to 5 total, but the Nerve check falls just short of wavering him.

The hexing Snow Troll Prime charges the Knight horde, looking to tie them up for a turn.

The speedy elements of the Northern Alliance finally break through.

Over on the left, the Frostclaw regiment makes a Hindered Charge into the Foot Guard dealing 3, with the Pack Hunters joining with a clean charge and dealing 7. At 23 damage, the Foot Guard finally break. The Pack Hunters turn to face the stalking Militia Mob, and the Frostclaws turn to face the regiment of Knights.

Not looking great for the knights.

Speaking of, the knight Regiment takes a charge from the Naiad Horde. The Frostclaws take up enough space to stop this being a hindered charge. The Naiads deal a hot 8 to the knights, though they hold.

Top of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

The pond is near the middle of the board, and my wimpy Pole-Arms are making hindered charges each turn, and barely keeping ahead of the Snow Troll Prime's regeneration rolls. I had continued to stack up, thinking this would be a quick fight, and am being severely punished for it. 

The Pole-Arms charge back in, dealing a fresh 5 damage, and the Foot Guard pass their token up to the lesser horde. If I can beat the Prime, I think I can get the horde across the center line.

With no real space, the Militia pivot as much as they can. In retrospect, I should have pivoted these 90 long ago, or interpenetrated a bit here to get a more serious angle. It's round 5, and there is just no way to really maneuver them across the line in time.

My own hordes are getting the better of me.

The Monarch charges the Dwarfs, dealing 4, and brings them up to 6 damage. Math-wise, he should be doing about 5 damage a turn, so 6 damage over 2 turns isn't great for me.

The brown General charges the injured Pack Hunters in my opponent's deployment zone. I deal another 3 and bring them to 6 damage, and get a lucky waver!

The Knight horde countercharges the hexing Prime. The Crossbowmen can see them too, and want to get out of the woods and try to score. They will need to pivot to connect, but two hordes fighting a 50mm monster is a little awkward. I think the Crossbowmen's pivot wouldn't have let them connect. We end up like we are in the picture, but in writing up the report, I think the Knight horde should have shuffled all the way down with their countercharge and the Crossbowmen should be centered? Hordes are messy! This all works out somehow.

Thankfully, the Prime is bested. I angle the Crossbowmen so they can move at the double next turn, avoid the obstacle, and score for the scenario. The Knights change facing to allow this, and eye up the Naiad Horde.

The Knights fail to beat the Frostclaws, and get punished.

Even if the Naiads have a few damage on them, the Knight regiment doesn't fancy a charge into them, since they have Phalanx and Ensnare. I instead disengage and withdraw from the Naiads, and then charge into the Frostclaw regiment, hoping to removes a little unit strength here. The ASB contributes a Bane Chant, and the Knights do land 5 damage, but the uninspired Nerve check is unfortunately low.

The Militia Mob finally reach the Pack Hunters and their token, charging off the hill! The Militia will do 3 damage. There is no Inspiring for the Northern Alliance over here, but I don't luck out with the Nerve roll here either.

Bottom of Round 5: Northern Alliance

The Pack Hunters counter-charge the Militia Mob, dealing 6 damage and brining the Militia to 9 damage and getting a waver. Oh well, the Militia tried their best!

The Frostclaws are super extra tricky.

The Naiads first flank charge the stuck Knights, and the Frostclaws stay put to prevent a hindered charge. Then the Frostclaws disengage, and fly out into the flank of the crossbowmen, dealing 6 damage. This is a big error that we missed at the time! The Frostclaws took damage and are disordered, and don't have Fly, and lose Nimble as well. The charge of the Frostclaws shouldn't be possible.

The Naiads make quick work of the knights, devastating and then routing them, as is proper.

End of Round 5.

The Pack Hunters are wavered, and disengage. The Ballista lands 1 damage on the brown General, bringing him to 6 damage. The Ice Queen casts Blizzard, but fails connect. Still, the Nerve check is hot twice, and the General is taken off the field!

The Dwarfs countercharge the Monarch, deal 2 damage and bring him to 5 damage.

The Snow Troll Prime disengages from the Pole-Arms again.

Top of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men

The Pole-Arms make another hindered charge, and manage to get a lucky waver against the Prime. This is the second waver against him. With hindered charges and regeneration, it just doesn't matter. I am not breaking through. The Militia are still blocked up, and even with the new inch, they don't have enough space to clear my own hordes.

The Monarch countercharges the Dwarfs, dealing 4 damage, and is a full turn behind his expected output against them. They are Inspired by the Prime, and the Monarch just gets a waver here too.

The Kingdoms of Men are stalled out.

The Crossbowmen disengage and hoof it, as planned, but are maybe an inch shy of getting fully over the center line. 

The knight horde is able to make a hindered charge into the injured Frostclaw regiment, and do manage to rout them! In retrospect, I think an overrun would be fine here. With the frontage of the various hordes, I think with any overrun, the Naiad horde would not be able to pivot enough to get past the Knights and charge the Crossbowmen on the next turn. 

Victorious reform for the knights.

I do not overrun though, and instead choose to change facing. I think my thinking was to play for a Round 7 and give me opponent a choice. If he uses the Naiads to charge the Crossbowmen, the Naiads are back on his side of the field and facing a knight charge to keep them there. If he's playing for a Round 6, he can just charge the Knight horde and leave the Crossbowmen alone. 

Bottom of Round 6: Northern Alliance

It had been a day, and I was not keeping track of the scenario well. If the Naiads charge and kill the Crossbowmen, I am down to 2 points, and my opponent wins. So he takes this charge.

They were so screwed I didn't even both to add the damage dice.

The Naiads do 19 damage to the Crossbowmen, bringing them up to 25 damage, and devastating them. However, the Crossbowmen are found to be insanely courageous!

The Dwarfs have fury, so the Waver doesn't matter, and they countercharge the Monarch, dealing a few damage.

The wavering Prime regenerates some damage, and disengages yet again. 

The Ballista can't see the Knight Horde, so it's only shot is into the Pole-Arms, and 3 damage is done, and they take their first damage of the game.

Critically, the the Pack Hunters cannot get close enough to pick up the token dropped earlier by the Snow Trolls. 

The other Pack Hunters cut down the wavering Militia Mob, and are fully across the center line.

The table.

It could be a very spicy Round 7, and a potentially landslide win for the Kingdoms of Men, but we do not roll it up.

For the scenario, nothing is fully over the center line to score more for the Kingdoms of Men, but the Crossbowmen, Pole-Arms, and Militia all hold tokens, for a total of 3 points.

The Naiads hold a token for 1 for the Northern Alliance, and the Pack Hunters are over the line for 2 points with another.

It's a 3-3 tie!

Game Conclusions

Setting strategy aside for a moment, I had three Insane Courage results, with the last one being the most impactful and keeping it a tie game. I would have loved a Round 7 here, but I got enough love from the dice this game already, and didn't even deserve the tie I got! 

Running multiple hordes proved to be a bit difficult for me, and I was more or less playing with a 300 point handicap here since I stacked up and was tripping over myself. It was definitely neat to see so many humans on the battlefield, but my approach here could definitely use some refinement!

As-ever, Trevor brought a tough list and played it well. His combined arms approach didn't invest too much into shooting, but it still had some notable successes to take out both of my flying Generals. It felt pretty unimpactful otherwise, but so it goes with blast shooting! Combined arms is still fun to play and play against, and the Northern Alliance seems to do it very well.

Testing Conclusions

• Pole-Arms Block. I was expecting a grinding fight with the Prime and some Dwarfs, so hopped them forward to take those lumps. Against just a timid Prime, and with perpetual hindered charges, my opponent definitely got the better of them. If your meta is light on bow shooting, the Pole-Arms have some good potential as a fighty tar pit, but these did not have a great time here!
• Foot Guard. Still good and fun for me. I think Indomitable Will on both would be a good call. Buying IW on numerous regiments didn't seem like a good call for me in general, but keeping a horde in play for 10 points seems great. Additionally, I could be using this to help mitigate my low sources of Inspiring. A nice, versatile rule for sure.
• Militia. A regiment or two continues to be a great investment in every game. They weren't used particularly well here, but were some nice early drops to see how things developed. 
• Crossbow Block with Fire-Oil. They are still a bit of a tough sell since you can't reliably shoot anything in Turn 1, but no Pot Shot penalty is still nice. Maybe with some different playstyle approaches they could be more viable (maybe Ballistae to give yourself some options, and give your opponent a tougher call if they are deciding turn order?), but they still aren't bad. It's a horde and will take some effort to remove, and it can lock down a section of the field rather nicely if you get some good positioning.
• Knight Horde. I think Visibly Riley was the first I heard to advocate strongly for items to let them do damage in lieu of J Boots. He's right. My opponent did a great job of jamming up and disordering them, and they still mulched through everything. Kind of a fun unit, truth be told!
• ASB. Fliers with Inspiring are hard to count on since they are usually off flying. More Inspiring sources would have been better, but this worked out ok. 
• Monarch. He had a fantastic opening followed by three more very underwhelming combats. I wasn't able to support him as well as I would have liked, to let him break through, and Rally didn't come into play at all, which was a bummer. He's pretty customizable though, so we might see him out for some fun games again soon.
• Hordes. Hordes are hard! Stacking seemed like a good idea, but without a larger, grinding combat to whittle the Pole-Arms down, this ended up really biting me. I did not realize my error in this regard until it was very late, and I did not have the brainpower to figure out a positioning solution on the fly. My opponent got insane value out of that one timid Snow Troll Prime.
• No Giants. The Giants can be hit-or-miss, but CS4 is nice to have around to fight against high-defense things. I was wondering if the Kingdoms of Men would have the punch needed to rout stuff without the Giants, and the humans did ok, with a higher volume of lower CS attacks doing the necessary work. 

This was a very unusual list for me. It was not my best showing, but it was still a great time exploring some new and unusual things for the Kingdoms of Men. If you haven't visited yet, be sure to check out his Data and Dice blog. A big thank you to Trevor for making the drive over at the end of a hot day to fit this game in. As-always, I had a great time, and I hope our schedules align more in the future!