Intro and Lists
I recently had a wonderfully long day at a cookout with some lovely nerds! The shared interest drawing us all together was Kings of War, so squeezed in between all the eating and socializing, we got two group games in as well. We have the "Interstate Doubles Kings of War Tournament 2024" coming up at the end of the month. It's a small, one-day tournament, with the more experienced Minnesota folks pairing up with us less experienced Wisconsin folks, and then these mixed pairs battle it out. It should be a good time, and with so many of the cookout attendees heading over to the tournament as well, we opted to take the preliminary tournament rules for a spin here so folks could get familiar with things, especially chess clocks.
I did not play in the first game of the day, but did play in the second one, and I decided to try and write up a report from it. Reporting takes a little extra effort during the game since I need to try and take notes and pictures, and I wanted to see how feasible making that extra effort seemed under a time crunch. So here we go!
Some folks came to the cookout after attending a miniatures swap meet. One of the hauls from that was a bunch of old metal Rats: Katz's Rats, if the labeling of the boxes is to be believed. The story goes that the seller had tried to set up a competitor to Warhammer Fantasy back in the 90's, but it never really took off, or make it out of the prototyping stage, and so our lucky buyer came away with a very unique army! You should see it showing up in detail in the wonderful Nerd's Tale blog soon! Wanting to get it on the table immediately, some cardboard trays were measured and cut, and a highly unorthodox army was fielded by the Ratkin:
Just rats, going fast, and living in the moment. Not a source of Inspiring in sight! My notes have the list 5 points short, but knowing how ad hoc the list was, I would bet a gentleman that the balance of points were not actually spent on any items. The list is wonky, but triple Tunnel Runner chariot regiments are speedy and can hit relatively hard, so the list is still dangerous if you can't disrupt it or don't survive the initial charges.
Alignment wasn’t going to be considered for the tournament, so we didn’t try to follow it for our cookout games either. Allied with Rats were the Imperial Dwarfs. Having run his typical Def6 infantry list earlier in the day, he ran a second list here, with a variety of Earth Elementals:
Yes, the Imperial Dwarf infantry fades away, but the Def6 wall endures. The man knows what he likes, and he likes Def6! In his fluff, the elementals are the stores of valuable rocks the Imperial Dwarfs have animated to fight. It may be hubris or ostentatiousness behind this choice, or desperation. I'm not sure he has decided, but it's definitely some nice fluff and it's neat to see these elementals painted up with more vibrant colors than "gray." Crunch-wise, this general had just bought into an Elemental-themed nature army as his next project, and wanted to explore Shambling and Surge more. A tentative rule for the tournament is that you sources could inspire one another, so the Dwarven spellcasters were going to be stretched to the limit here. We’ll call this pairing: Team Impulsive.
Opposing Team Impulsive was Team Ravenous, led mainly by the intrepid Halflings, as I made him stand closer to the chess clock so I could focus on my notes. My ally ran the following:
The Halflings just tickle me in the right way, and his army is really coming along. The Halflings have a pretty hard keyword split between Ravenous and Tinker, and I wasn’t a fan of the Trolls and such when they were announced. My ally has gone mainly for a Ravenous army, but he continues to knock it out of the park with his farm theme. His WIP Harvester (using a tractor) made an appearance, and this army is going to look amazing when it is all finished. Despite actually taking some notes on the list, I appear to be 30 points shy here. My notes missed it, but I think the Jugger's have the Brew of Strength.
And lastly we have me with my Stormcast Ogres. When the tournament was announced, I did up a few drafts for each of my armies, since I didn’t know what I wanted to run. I figured the lists would be good to have for practice games like this, and if nothing else, would get my creative spark going figuring out what I didn't want to run, to approach things that way. Another tentative rule was that there could be interactions via keywords. Given the usual fluff of rapacious Ogres, we actually double-checked my list for the Ravenous keyword, but that appears to be halflings-only, so no accidental or fun Sauceror interactions for me! I'm not sure if this rule will survive, or if there really is much overlap for it to matter. Anyways, up to test are:
- Shooters. Their Heavy Crossbows recently lost Pot Shot as well, so I figured these would be worth revisiting and reevaluating. We’ll try regiments again, aiming to zone things out, deal damage from afar and hopefully keep moving around to a minimum.
- Warriors. Warriors can be great in chaff wars, so we’ll see how I do with them.
- Siege Breakers. These lists were trying to run more "normal" things, not necessarily further my pet projects. I think anyone that takes Ogres is probably going to be running these, so I opted to bring them along too.
- Sergeant. I think the Sergeant can be a phenomenal character with the crossbow, and it’s a bummer I can only bring one here, as he can do a little bit of everything. (EDIT: The Sergeant has Elite, which I forgot all about. The Blade is a poor choice for an upgrade then!)
- Warlock. I felt like I needed a second character, so opted for a pretty cheap Warlock, figuring the Lightning Bolt might let me focus fire things a bit. I have enough regiments around he should be boosted pretty regularly too, so we'll see how that goes.
So far, I’m running into two reporting hurdles: lists discussion and team names. Despite taking some notes on them, holes in the lists have popped up. More "official" team names would also help describing the sides more quickly as the report progresses. I actually think both hurdles should be easier to clear at the event. We should have a repository for lists, and I would be shocked if a majority of the pairings weren’t coming up with fun team names already.
Table and Terrain
We were playing in our host's garage, using his terrain. We followed the usual terrain rules, running the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, pond as Height 0 Difficult Terrain, wooden fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and Hills as Height 3.
Our scenario was Invade, so we just need to get stuff across the center line.
Deployment was one-drop per side, and was mostly a blur. In my previous games with a chess clock, I was reacting to my opponent’s drops with thoughtful consideration, then stepping away to fetch a unit from my travel bin. In short, I was wasting a lot of time. In this game, everyone had their armies in the center of the table, to go over lists ahead of time, and deployment went really quickly. Keeping everything close at hand seems like a great suggestion for new players working with the clock, and being able to let your ally take a drop or two in a row if you wanted a moment to think seemed like a good approach here.
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| Deployment, with many game aids clogging up the midfield. |
For deployment, Team Impulsive had mixed their line, partially to help out the Rats and the lack of their own Inspiring sources. Left-to-right we had a regiment of chariot Tunnel Runners, the Greater Earth Elemental, Earth Elemental Horde, and a Stone Priest hiding around the woods. We then have two more Tunnel Runners, a horde of Shock Troopers, the other Earth Elemental Horde, the Flame Priest with his massive Fireball and Hex, the Ratkin Warrior Horde, and then the Dwarf Sharpshooters out on the far flank.
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| Yeah, it looks like the Juggers have an item. My guess is still the Brew of Strength. |
The battle lines of Team Ravenous were more wary of each other. The Ogres went wide, with Warriors, the Warlock, the Siege Breakers, some Shooters ready to take the hill, the Sergeant, Warriors, and some angled Shooters. I am not happy with the deployment of the Shooters. They were pretty early drops and I just didn't have a plan for them. I wanted the building to protect them, and figured this was an ok firing lane... but the Halfling horde showing up nearby complicates that. Even pivoting them 90 degrees the other way, to cover the Ogres as they advanced would have been a better call. I think the best call though would actually have been to realize I don't have any enemy chaff to shoot off, and to adapt to the fact that we were playing Invade, and offer them up as chaff units to protect the fighter Warrior regiments. So it goes. I think this is my third game with Ogres ever, so we'll cut me some slack.
The Halflings took the rest of the table, with their Stalwart Horde in roughly the center of the table, followed by the troop of Stalwarts, Harvester, and second troop, with the speedier Juggers unsupported on the far flank. The duo of Halfling Heroes were tucked in behind the first troop of Stalwarts, supporting both the horde and the Harvester.
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| Deployment, with most of the game aids getting out of the way. |
Team Ravenous lost the roll, but still got the first turn. Given the scenario, that was fine by me!
Top of Round 1: Team Ravenous
The Tunnel Runner chariots had a greater charge range, so the Ogres cautiously moved up, staying out of range. Going first was nice, as we could gain some ground before being pressured by the chariots.
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| The Ogres move up, firing ineffectually. |
Due to my own poor positioning, my shooting was all over the place. The Lightning Bolt is boosted slightly, and the Warlock lands 2 damage onto the left-most chariots near the table edge. Shooters and the Sergeant take the hill. The Shooters are fishing for 6's against the right-most chariots, but neither land and damage. The Sergeant is not taking any penalties, so.... ouch. The other unit of angled Ogre Shooters moves and then fires over the Height 2 Halflings with a double penalty. I think they were aiming at the Ratkin Warriors, but likewise hit nothing.
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| ....And I managed a quick shot of the Halflings side of the table as we passed the turn. |
For the Halflings, the Sauceror picked Rally as I recall, getting three successes marked by the three red dice, meaning this is Rally 3. Not bad! The Stalwart horde moved up aggressively, but should be barely out of range of the Tunnel Runners. The rest of the line matched their gumption, with the Stalwart Troops and Harvester taking the hill.
Out on the far flank, the Juggers moved up very aggressively as well, and should have some good charge options next turn.
Bottom of Round 1: Team Impulsive
The Dwarven Elementals are all Shambling. With no available charges, they just move up, and the elementals all end the movement phase out of charge range of the Ogres for the next turn. The Ratkin Tunnel Runner chariots keep pace with the elementals, but with their greater speed, are safe from Ogre charges while actually threatening the Ogres next turn.
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| The Rats and Ogres advance. |
Then the Greater Earth Elemental was surged forward, getting something great like 5 or 6 successes, and getting its front entirely out of the woods. I don't think this was a wise move. Even if all the Surge dice hit here, the GEE still wasn't going to "charge" anything. All this did was give the Ogres a charge on their turn.
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| A slightly closer shot of the far side of the field. |
Over on the right, the Sharpshooters should have line of sight to the Juggers. I believe just a few damage is done here, as I think the Flame Priest is too far away to fling into the cavalry as well.
Top of Round 2: Team Ravenous
I had been considering backing up, but the Ogres will instead gladly take the charge against the Greater Earth Elemental, with the Siege Breakers charging in and the Shooters coming off the hill to join them. A total of 8 damage lands, and the Greater Earth Elemental is unbothered.
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| The Ogres punish the daring Greater Earth Elemental. |
Since they can do damage, my goal here is to protect the Siege Breakers and let them work. The Shooters should help cover their right flank, and the unit of Ogre Warriors moves up to block the Tunnel Runners. We don't break the Greater Elemental, but this is still kinda "free" damage since I didn't have a charge this turn until the GEE was surged up. I am happy with this.
The Warlock Lightning Bolts the Tunnel Runners on the flank again, brining them up to 3 damage.
The Shooters move around the hill to fire into the nearby Tunnel Runners, and are heavily penalized again, but do land 1 damage. The Sergeant shoots in as well from his spot on the hill, but lands nothing, for the second turn in a row. Sheesh.
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| The Ogre Warriors move up to block up the Tunnel Runners. |
My other unit of Ogre Warriors moves up to basically prevent the two Tunnel Runner units from moving up too far. It's not a great situation due to my own poor positioning.
It's Round 2, so that means the Halflings are somehow charging things! The Sauceror choose Wild Charge, and gets enough successes to enable the tomfoolery.
With wild charge, the kitted Horde of Halfling Stalwarts unexpectedly charge in against the Ratkin Shock Troopers, landing a fair amount of damage. They are joined by the Muster Captain wielding the Scythe, and rout them! The Stalwarts change facing to look at the Tunnel Runners, and the mighty Muster Captain is to overrun to try to protect their flank from the Earth Elemental Horde.
Unfortunately, the horde reformed before the Captain, and the Captain rolled a 1 for the overrun. So, a mistake here for Team Ravenous: the captain should have reformed first, followed by the horde, to make sure this happened according to plan.
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| A victory! But with unfortunate reforms. |
But there are still more charges! The two troops of Stalwarts and the Harvester charge the Ratkin Horde of Warriors, dealing 15, but these rats are found to be quite insane.
The Juggers choose to charge the Flame Priest, mauling him. In victory, they ignore the Sharpshooters and turn to face the center of the field.
Bottom of Round 2: Team Impulsive
The Sharpshooters decide to rear charge the Juggers, and mange to score a damage to disorder them. The Juggers should be at three damage now, so yeah, I would assume the cavalry unit did not get Fireballed last turn then.
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| The Stalwarts are crunched. |
The Ratkin Warrior horde countercharges the Harvester, and lands a few damage to disorder it.
The Earth Elemental Horde hits the flank of the Stalwart Horde. With Strider, the Elementals don't care, but the Tunnel Runners do care about the forest, and will be hindered. The Stalwarts take 16 damage, but the Nerve check just has them shaking in their boots, which isn't bad, since they will slow things down for another turn.
The other unit of Tunnel Runners makes another hindered charge over the fence and into the Ogre Warriors, dealing 4 damage, but the Warriors manage hold with the Sergeant's reroll.
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| The Ogres take charges as well. Some things even survive! |
The Greater Earth Elemental will counter-charge the Shooters, with the Earth Elemental Horde going in as well. The Stone Priest Bane Chants something, and the Shooters are smushed as the Ogre Siege Breakers are popped out of combat. The Horde overruns and the Greater Elemental adjusts to get the Siege Breakers in his front arc.
The last Tunnel Runners get a clear charge into the other Warriors, land 13 damage, and run them down. If they overrun at all, they are looking at a possible flank charge from the Siege Breakers, so they angle to keep the Ogres in their front.
Top of Round 3: Team Ravenous
The Warlock and Siege Breakers go into the Tunnel Runners near the table edge. The Warlock isn't going to do much, but 1 damage is expected, and I want it. The Ogres will manage to beat the Runners down, and will reform to face the center of the field. I believe they are be "safe" and out of the charge arc of the Greater Earth Elemental, though the Stone Priest with Surge is right there. Still, making my opponent use a spell to get there is better than giving up a normal charge.
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| Some multi-charges from the Ogres. |
The Sergeant charges off the hill to help rescue the Warriors. He does 3 damage, while the Warriors contribute 1 on the counter charge. Not great, considering my shooting didn't really soften anything up.
Elsewhere, the wavering Halfling Stalwarts disengage, and then move backwards, getting both the Earth Elementals and chariots into the front arc, which should force another hindered charge from the Tunnel Runners. This might be an error though, as they were engaged on two facings? I am long overdue for a rules reread. My Ogre Shooters here try to shoot the Tunnel Runners as the Halflings disengage, but the Halflings are still giving a cover penalty to me, and I none of the bolts connect.
The Juggers are disordered, and are on 3 damage. They countercharge the Sharpshooters, but only waver them.
The Muster Captain hits the Ratkin Warriors in the flank while the Stalwart troops and Harvester go back into their front facing. The Ratkin unit is devastated and then routed, as is proper.
Bottom of Round 3: Team Impulsive
The Sharpshooters pass their headstrong check, and counter charge back in. They deal 1 damage to the Juggers, bringing them to 4 damage total. The cavalry are out of Inspiring range... and a hot 11 on the Nerve check is enough to see them off the field! Curses!
The Earth Elementals and Tunnel Runners do remove the Stalwart horde this turn.
The other unit of Tunnel Runners countercharge the Ogre Warriors, and pick them up as well.
The other Elemental horde takes the hill, is scoring, and is now eyeing the flank of my Sergeant.
The Greater Earth Elemental does make it into the Siege Breakers, but it's the Dwarf players turn to deal with Def6, and only 3 damage is done, and the Breakers hold.
Top of Round 4: Team Ravenous
The Siege Breakers countercharge the Greater Earth Elemental, and manage to get the rout, which I think just needed a 4? Something like that. The Siege Breakers rolled well this round. The Warlock maneuvers around the combat and casts Lightning Bolt into the Stone Priest, dealing 1 damage.
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| The Ogres fight back. |
The Sergeant charges into the Tunnel Runners, but fails hard, dealing just 1 damage. Oof.
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| The Shooters charge in, hoping to best the Elementals. |
The Sharpshooters are disordered, and fight back against the Muster Captain, but I don't know if any damage lands. The captain valiantly sticks around.
The remaining Tunnel Runners decide to continue on against the Ogres. One makes a hindered charge into the flank of the Shooters, landing 8 damage, and seeing them off the field. The unit will reform to face the Halflings, who should be scoring at this point.
The other regiment of Tunnel Runners lands 9 into the Sergeant, and routs him too. This unit overruns, looking to score for the scenario.
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| The Ratkin contraptions break through. |
With the Greater Earth Elemental falling, Team Impulsive sends the Earth Elemental Horde back towards the Siege Breakers to try and get rid of them. The Elementals needed to move and pivot, and need a 6 to make a surging charge (off 8 dice). Alas, they only get a 5.
Top of Round 5: Team Ravenous
The Shield Breakers make a hindered charge into the Earth Elementals, landing a good 6 damage onto them, but the Elementals are fearless, and with a 3 on the Nerve check, the Elementals do not care. The Warlock moves around again to throw another Lightning Bolt into the Stone Priest, and lands another 1 damage, bringing him to 2 damage. I have not helped myself at all, but shooting has felt particularly ineffectual this game.
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| The Siege Breakers go back to work. |
The Halflings continue their absolute chicanery. I think the Muster Captain disengages, and heads back towards the Harvester. His aura then allows then allows a slick, striding triple charge into the Tunnel Runners, which are obliterated.
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| The smashy Halflings guide the fearsome tractor in. |
Being Round 5 and having nothing else nearby, the victorious halflings reform so they can run up and be sure they are scoring in Round 6.
Bottom of Round 5: Team Impulsive
The Sharpshooters opt to play the scenario as well, and pivot and move, also looking to get across the line to score next turn.
The Earth Elementals land 5 more damage into the Shield Breakers, bringing them to 8. The Nerve check is average, which isn't enough to move the Ogres here.
Top of Round 6: Team Ravenous
As-is, the dividing line is maybe a half inch up through the corner of the Siege Breaker unit. The Siege Breakers are easily scoring, but the Warlock isn’t. With the angles, that should mean the Earth Elementals are not scoring yet, so I need to try and rout the unit. The Siege Breakers countercharge the Earth Elementals, with the Warlock hitting the flank. If I am victorious here, the Warlock just needs 1” to make it across to score as well.
In combat, the Warlock contributes his 1 damage, while the Breakers contribute 7 more. The Elementals are brought up to 14 damage total. Ogres have Brutal, so the unit needs a three or less to hold, and doesn't get it, even with the reroll. Already scoring, the Breakers just hold, and the Warlock is able to overrun over the 1" to score as well.
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| The Siege Breakers are bruised, but victorious. |
The Sauceror grants Wild Charge, and gets what is needed to fling the Muster Captain back into the Sharpshooters, land some damage and then rout them, preventing them from scoring.
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| Back for more! I did run around to the other side of the table to get this picture. |
As the top of the round concludes, Team Ravenous has the Ogre Warlock (1) Ogre Siege Breakers (3), Harvester (1) and both troops of Stalwarts (2 total) scoring, for a total of 7.
Bottom of Round 6: Team Impulsive
There’s nothing to really do. The Tunnel Runner chariots are scoring for 3, but with the Sharpshooters and Elementals falling last turn, and that’s it for remaining units. A round 7 isn't going to change anything, so we call it here.
The game ends in a 7-3 victory for Team Ravenous!
Game Conclusions
It wasn’t the most competitive game, with regards to lists, but it was still a spirited one, and wow was this a close one too!
The new Rat minis look great and an extra 1,000+ points of stuff won’t hurt to have around. We’ll see what tricky things the Ratkin can field in the near future. Staying with that side of the table, the various Earth Elementals are sturdy, but “elementals only” did not seem strong here. My own use of elementals (and Shambling) is limited, and they continue to confound me a bit, but hoping for long surge charges doesn’t seem like a wise play (unless you’ll be getting a juicy rear charge or something). I think the elementals needed more stuff to get in the way of things. With units already engaged, this helps enable the surged flank charges that the elementals are so notorious for.
On our side of the table, the Juggers definitely had a rough moment, but overall the Halflings continue to perform very well! The Muster Captain in particular had a heck of a game enabling some surprising, striding charges, as well as bouncing around the table the last few turns to help clean up. The Harvester is going to be an amazing model too, and I can't wait to see that army continue to grow.
Testing Conclusions
I was wary of the clock, but we ended the game with roughly a half hour remaining for each side, finishing in about half the allotted time. The previous game had about 20 minutes remaining for each as well, so I think an hour each should actually be enough time for most games to play out
The reporting hurdles of list accuracy and such should be surmountable. Battlefield knowledge and pictures though both remain issues for me and my reporting in these group games. I think there could be a very fluffy “POV style” report that could be done in a situation like this, where one focuses just on their own army, with tidbits of the other battles sprinkled in. But I think I need to try and do the whole battle justice with the style of report I generally do. I didn't get everything here, and tried to show my failings and uncertainties in the report, but still think I was able to figure out most things. I think I should be able to hit a rhythm for figuring out what generally happened over there each turn, and even with the time restraints, reporting on the tournament should be doable for me as well, which is a relief.
- Shooters. Removing Pot Shot is nice, but moving is still quite the impediment to them! A horde would have been better for the Shooters (few firing lanes to contend with), and Boomers would have been better generally, for a more mobile and forgiving list. Overall I did not use these well. Given the Scenario, these should have been my sacrificial chaff instead, with everything else waiting to counter-punch. Still I feel like Shooters might be slept on a bit, and might have to try them out in a larger list again sometime.
- Warriors. Generally Warrior Regiments are nice and versatile, but these were not used very well, with them mostly just offered up to die. One holding against some hindered Tunnel Runners was a plus, but these did not have a good game.
- Siege Breakers. They were the MVPs for me. These were actually used well! I was clever enough to charge away from the GEE and kill something else to even the odds, and that was probably the determining factor in keeping them alive.
- Sergeant. The dice were just not with him this game, but I seem to have missed that he had "Elite" while playing too. It's been a long while since I ran Ogres, so mistakes happen.
- Warlock. Due to bad planning and positioning with my shooters, nothing really got to focus fire anything, and all of my shooting was ineffective. The Warlock is good, but this was not the way to run him! Alongside Siege Breakers, Drain Life would probably have been a better spell choice.
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