Hobby Update: Abyssal Succubi

After the doubles tournament back in June (Game 1 here, with a link to the next game at the end of the each post), I was inspired by my partner, Leif, to dig out some old purchases of mine. Up now are a new pair of Succubi units for the Forces of the Abyss!

Both Regiments.

The minis are from Wrath of Kings, a now-defunct CMON game. I picked up two boxes of Nasier Bloodmasks over the Pandemic when a saw the miniatures line being liquidated by an online shop. As I understand it the game had some neat miniatures, and a decent number of factions at launch. They seemed to be a great way to pick up Trident Realms at the time, and I think Chop from way back in Battle 006 approached his army this way. Most of the stock was gone by the time I saw the sale, but I picked up a few of these, figuring that I'd find a use for them eventually.

The minis did not come on sprues. I had heard some horror stories about them, like the injection quality being bad with multiple bubbles, or QA being bad with missing or incorrect bits. Thankfully, I had no issues. While prepping, I noticed that there was a bit of a residue on something, but I was not sure if it was the box’s shrinkwrap, the box, the individually-sealed minis or the minis themselves, so I sorted the minis by type so I wouldn't accidentally mix and match pieces (all the nubs were particular..), and gave them a rinse before assembly. The sculpts are pretty distinct, with each coming in four bits. The body (torso and legs), sword arm, shield arm, and mask. This was kind of slick, in that the arm sleeves were the whole bit, so the arm joins were easily disguised. My only complaint is that they went for a nub / peg on the torso to slide into the slim arms, which did not fit well, and split several bits when I didn’t quite orientate it correctly. I think the GW Daemonette approach with flat joins and the possibility to rotate the arms for greater pose variation would have been better? But with some patience, these were easy hurdles and the units were assembled quickly.

The roughly black / red / white color box scheme on the box was striking and simple, but I felt like I needed to swap things around to keep my army coloring consistent. To do so, the skin was became my usual reddish Pink Horror, and the sleeves and socks and such became a darker gray. I waffled on the colors for the shields and mask for quite some time, but the Masks became golden, and the shields got gold trim and then a white inset to be a bit ostentatious.

I think green stuffing hair onto the minis would have been a nice call, but I did not think of it until the unit was all done, and that was also more work than I was looking to do here and now. We are calling these done!

A bright and shiny shield brings a little more visual interest.

I actually already had three regiments of Succubi readied-up at one point, but soon after finishing them all up, I gifted the two non-kitbashed units away to someone wanting to start up a Slaaneshi army. I’ve run the remaining kitbashed unit a few times now, and while they have continually piqued my interest, I have really struggled with understanding it over the years. In my defense, they are an odd unit!

The first concern is damage dealing. Succubi have good hitting stats (20 attacks hitting on 3’s!), but with no other bonuses, they struggle to get through any amount of defense.

The second concern is survivability, because while they have Stealthy and Ensnare, having just Defense 3 and no Regeneration makes for a quite fragile unit in practice.

The second regiment.

In our prep for the Interstate Doubles tournament, my partner and I agreed to double-up on the  Forces of the Abyss, and he was swearing by his Succubi. When we started getting into actual list ideas though, I found that his Succubi were paying for both the Lurker upgrade and damage-boosting items. I admit that they did do some good work, but with so many extra points invested in the units, it felt almost hard for them not to deliver some respectable damage. They still struggled to survive games as well, so only one of my big concerns was addressed, despite some very big investments. 

Pathfinder is a weird option for them as well. I’ve viewed it as an offensive upgrade, and regarded it as a bit of a trap before. You buy it, and can then make some very nice charges, but without TC or CS, you need to invest further into items (like my partner did), or into supporting units with Bane Chant (90 pts for the Harbinger with Lute) before this upgrade becomes something really useful for offense. That is a big investment, and I tend to think points could be better spent elsewhere.

I think the Lurker needs to be viewed through a defensive lens though? Pathfinder isn’t for charges. It’s primarily for positioning. You use it to get your Succubi up into the woods can start stacking some nice negative penalties for your opponent to engage them. This could potentially pressure them to stay put, or allocate more to fighting them, or start forcing some bad trades.

Unfortunately, nothing else has Pathfinder and only the Chroneas and the Well of Souls have Strider, so very little in the army can take advantage of your opponent’s stuff making a terrible charge into Succubi and them managing to sticking around. And then we are again stuck a bit with the offensive output of the Succubi.

As my Herd can attest, the usefulness of Pathfinder relies a lot on your meta, so I don’t think the Lurker is a go-to or mandatory upgrade if you are running the unit. The nascent Wisconsin meta is still escalating into larger games, and is still a little light on terrain most of the time. After the Doubles Tournament though, I am hoping we incorporate more Height 0 difficult terrain into our tables. Overall, I still think the upgrade is a bit of a trap, but I think this is the logic for how to use it and include it. 

I’ll likely run them predominately un-upgraded for now though, and see where that takes me. They seem ideal for trashing low tier and/or low defense infantry (Zombies, Draugr, Penitents, etc), but a regiment of Succubi costs roughly double any of these units, so the ladies still might not be a sound investment, as not every army has these options or takes them regularly. In short, the unit still befuddles me, but I'll see what I might be able to figure out for these ladies after a fee games. Thanks again for a fun tournament, Leif!

Hobby Update: More Herd Tribal Spears

While kitbashing and hobbying up all of the Centaurs in the spring, I eventually got distracted by the Faun sprues and succumbed to hobbying up a new unit to explore that sprue more. The Herd have received well over 2,000 points of stuff since May, but I am not quite done with additions for them. Up now are some more Tribal Spears for the Herd!

Huzzah! A wild third horde appears!

These are the Faun minis from RDG. Their Centaur and Faun kits are meant to be interchangeable, so much so that each box comes with a few extra sprues of the other! You can read more about that in the Centaur Hunters post, but overall, buying the boxes in bulk isn’t a bad way to jump-start a Herd army. Weapon and shield selection are a little rough though, as the Faun sprues are split into Male and Female sprues, which are slightly different, both in terms of the selection, as well as the arm sculpts. Spears are the most numerous weapon type included, but only in the Faun kits. While pilfering some for the Centaur Striders, I started assembling a new horde as well.

From above. They are slim miniatures, but can still fill out a base ok.

Hobbying-wise, nothing too crazy is going on. My formulae for the Herd has gotten dialed in over the last year or so! For newcomers, the Blue is a MSP Glacier Blue, with a Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade shade paint, and that’s the only standout color. Everything else is pretty generic for the wood and metals and stuff.

The first regiment.

I’ve been using hordes of Tribal Spears as the go-to starting unit for my lists for the last few months. You have to buy TC now, but doing so gives them a lot of versatility on the battlefield, and I have been liking them a lot. This will be my third Horde, and I think that is probably excessive? My recent approach to the Herd has been to try and add more and more units for more staying power though, so we’ll see. Maybe three hordes (one for each table third?) could be viable.

The second regiment.

There is an argument to be made for me to have changed gears and assembled these are a basic Warrior unit for greater variety – but for 15 points more the Spears seem like a much better buy. Phalanx gives them more survivability, and the extra attacks offer a little more punch when they go on the offense or charge in to support other units. With my general aversion to magic items, I can’t imagine getting to the end of a list and wanting or needing to scale these back to save a few points. 

If the Warriors could get 2-handers and some CS (in addition to buying the TC of course!, I think my approach to the Tribal units would change, but weapon-swapping isn’t an option for that unit currently, so here we are. 

The unit was hobbied up in early June and July, lost momentarily with the Great Stampede, and then reattached at the end of the month. Three 200+ point hordes is probably too much, but we’ll try to get the entire trio on the table sometime for some side-by-side testing soon!

The Great Stampede of 2024

While packing up for the July league games, I had a mishap, and a beloved box of Herd went end-over end. You see, I put my armies in plastic boxes, and stack my boxes shelves for storage. There are a maximum of 3 boxes to a shelf, but getting into the lower ones still means I do need to take stuff off and set it to the side. I did so, and set it down on a small square table, with the ends sticking out, since it was just a dinky end table living in the garage for now. I don't have many metal models, but some happened to be in one of the ends. They weren't heavy enough to give me any concerns immediately, but were heavy enough to flip the darn thing thirty seconds later while I was pulling units from a different box.

The box was full of units, so this is about half the damage.

A few thousand points of units were barreled over by my old metal Stampede units and one of my metal Guardian Brute hordes. Among the casualties were the Avatar of the Father, and a brand new 3rd horde of Tribal Spears that I hadn't even started writing about yet. There were a lot of broken units:

• Tree Herder (Broken Weapon)
• Avatar of the Father (head and wings)
• Minotaur Chariots x2 (most of the models)
• Lycan Horde x3 (numerous breaks)
• Guardian Brutes (Broken weapons)
• Harpies (Broken ankles)
• Moonfang (broken snout)
• Druid (Wizkids and safe)
• Lycan Alpha (Wizkids and safe)
• Flying Beast of Nature (Wizkids and safe)
• Beast of Nature // Brutox (multiple breaks)
• Longhorn Troops x2 (multiple breaks, most knocked off of the bases)
• Tribal Spears 3rd Horde (a few breaks, all but one knocked off their bases)

Faced with some surprise projects, I didn't know what the best approach would be here. I quickly opted for some “reverse triage.” I started sorting all the broken bits, and then set about fixing the easiest things first. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I would recommend this approach as a way to quickly get back on your feet and not feel overwhelmed.

The easiest stuff, all fixed up.

Moonfang landed on and broke his snout, in addition to getting popped off his base. Despite being resin, it was thankfully a very clean break. The Harpies got ravaged, with one popping off cleanly but the other two breaking at the ankles for their leaping poses. The Avatar of the Father was knocked off his base, with the wings popping off as well as his head. Fortunately, all of these breaks were clean, and after some dry fitting to confirm, everything here was glued back together the night of the accident. The metal Guardian Brutes lost two of their big axes, and these were re-glued that night too.

All but one fell in the catastrophe! 

I hadn't gotten to even starting to write their Update post yet, but I had finished up a new Spear Horde of RGD Fauns about a day prior. The calamity had broken them all off of their base, save for one horn blower. One head had popped off, one one lost a shield, but otherwise, they apparently luckily popped off like bowling pins, and were just scattered throughout the storage box. I touched up the bases with some white paint to hide the previous glue connections, and then re-glued everything down the following day. I’ll hopefully get to their Update post soon.

The new and third horde. More to come for these soon.

I believe my old Stampede units were the cause of the crash. I used a number of models for these units, in an attempt to have a bunch of creatures. Three of the minis were large metal models, making the units quite heavy. Unused, had been absent-mindedly stuck in a corner of the bin. I guess I’ll need to remember to put metal models in the middle of my storage bins from now on. And / or just keep a tidier storage space! Anyways, the metal models had stands, and survived, attached to the bases. The rest of the minis just had hooves, and were just glued down. Since the Stampede is a legendary pick now, I decided to pry off one of the metal models, and slim everything down to just one unit. At the end of this, we have 10 spare Chaos Warhounds / Gur Panthers, which I guess are going back into storage, as I don’t need more chaff currently. A little extra snow and the unit was rehabilitated a few days after the accident. 

Old units condensed into one, with a lot of spare Gur Panthers now...

One of my Tree Herders was also in the box, and as-predicted, the very long sword bit broke, in addition to a few thorn bits and being knocked off the base. A few thorn bits got lost, but I liked the asymmetrical look better, and I decided to just replace the sword bit. 

A more compact monster. 

I only have some scraps of foam insulation these days, having turn the rest into hills, but found one that looked vaguely hammer-shaped. I covered the foam with some PVA glue to harden it, then attached a small nut where I wanted the hammer to join with the handle. There was a slight nub from the sword breakage, so I figured that a tiny bit of green stuff in the hole of the nut should smush to make a good connection. To hide the nut, more green stuff was noodled out and wrapped around, creating a bit of a Thor “Stormbreaker” vibe. The layer of glue protected the foam from melting, so once all the green stuff dried, this new weapon was primed, painted and then glued on. 

Some rather bright Longhorns.

The damage continues though, and included a regiment’s worth of Longhorns. I had used super glue on them, and there were a number of breaks among the models. Those were all easily fixed, but I decided to do up new bases for these units, as everything had yellowed to an unsightly degree. I am led to believe super glue was the culprit of the yellowing? When doing these up, I tried super-gluing all of the minis and tufts on while the snow effect was still setting, pushing things into the blob to aim for a more natural look and feel . I also don’t think I used much paint back then. I believe the super glue interacted with the baking soda, to form the yellowness. So here, I did up new bases, then added the snow effect, and then once that had tried, added the minis back on. I let the bases dry for a while, so these were hobbied up about a week after the accident.

The last of the damaged units were three beefy hordes of Lycans. They also had a number of breakages on the minis, and a lot of yellowing on the bases. I wanted to do up new bases for them, and maybe reorganize the models into different units for some more flexibility. But I lack enough new large Infantry bases to really get that going. I am not using the Lycans regularly in my lists, so I gathered these up, and we’ll save repairing those for a future project. 

This was an unwelcome mess, but I lucked out, and was able to repair most of the damage within a week or so. I’m down a Stampede / Minotaur Chariot regiment, but I can live with that and like the new streamlined unit. We’ll touchup the Lycans in the future, but for now, we’ll get back to hobbying up some new fun stuff!

Hobby Update: Donated Terrain

Up now is some extra terrain! A lot of the league games and meetups have been out at Oddwillows. It's a nice shop, but still finding their feet with wargaming. We've been bringing our own terrain for game days, and I figured it might be helpful to leave some terrain there, so folks didn't have to lug so much back and forth to the store.

I geared the terrain for Kings of War, fbut tried to make it a little generic, so the shop could get a little more use out of it. I went for a gross swamp theme to make this a bit unique.

I figured buildings are the easiest wargaming terrain to come by, so I slacked here, building up just an outhouse as a bit of a test piece. It's a tiny building, but I figured there might be a skirmish game that needs something smaller, or we might be able to play around with Height 3 blocking terrain or something. We'll see.

Both the outhouse and the obstacles came as extras from the Sprue Dude, a nice sprue shop online and on ebay. For both, I painted the wood up normally with some light browns, and then hit them with a tan drybrush, and then an ivory drybrush to get the aged wood effect. Once this was done, I went back with both a brown wash and then a green wash to get the bottom third of the structures “mucky” and discolored. The last step was going in with the Acrylic Glazing Medium (more on that in the Mud how-to post) to make is shiny and gross. I didn’t take too many pictures of the terrain, but I was really happy with how it all turned out. I’ll try to get some better pictures in some future battle reports.

The hills were all of my larger leftover foam insulation chunks. They were hobbied up like all my other hills, which you can read about here.

The trees were (I think) from a railroad kit, just spindly hunks of plastic. I took flat Wizkids bases, and then used plastic cement to bond the trees to it. Whittled sprues were used as roots and supporting pieces, and bits of green stuff were smushed in to hide the joins here and there. This got primed, dry brushed with all the colors already mentioned, and then some washes were splashed in between the roots to give it the same damp effect.

The larger forest parts were just blobby MDF bases. They were primed to seal them, and then I hit them with texture paste and then PVA glue and rocks, a thinned layer of PVA glue to harden everything up, and then more primer and lots of dry brushing.

The Doubles Tournament last month was fun, and made good use of flat / Height 0 terrain, so I wanted to duplicate that here, to get more terrain on our tables. Wanting the terrain to be a little versatile, I snipped some coffee stir sticks and added them as planks. This should give the terrain some more interest for use skirmish games and such I think? The bubbles were fun, and came from a half-pearl rhinestone “bedazzling” kit I bought online. It’s a neat effect. I had some hands leftover from the Abyssal Ghouls, and added a few in here for some more visual interest. The little bog got a green, splotchy paint job and then the Acrylic Glazing Medium was applied liberally and allowed to set overnight.

Overall, I was really happy with how these all came out. This collection was left at the shop and will hopefully see some use soon. I’m working on more height 0 or flattish terrain (apparently there is a difference, per my questions on the forum) for my existing personal collection and tables. Those pieces are a little more involved, but I will try to get those done soon too!

Kings of War 3rd Edition: #076 Undead vs Sylvan Kin in Pillage

Intro and Lists

Our schedules haven’t aligned well the last few months, and I had to blow up our potential weekend plans, so it was a treat to be able to play Trevor from Data and Dice in a larger weeknight game. We both brought something a bit unusual, with him carting some Sylvan Kin over to Madison.

The Sylvan Kin have a lot in common with my Herd, so it’s always neat to see his army in action, as there has been plenty to learn from! Whereas I have been trying to go more wide with my Herd, Trevor is going tall here, with a very elite list thanks to expensive elves and elementals.  

Nimue has been a go-to pick for my opponent, as he is very fun to use! Being able to essentially just appear somewhere within 20” with Cloak of Death and then still cast spells is pretty strong, if only for one turn. So the legendary wizard returns to lead the army. Alongside him is a Elven King with a mount and a bow, a Forest Warden, and a strong Tree Herder. Three sources of Surge should play nicely with all of the shambling elementals he brought along. We have two very dangerous Greater Air Elementals, and then a horde of Air Elementals to hold things up, and a regiment and a horde of Forest Shamblers, to take up space. The Elves seem like the more dangerous contingents here, with two regiments of powerful Gladestalkers, plus some crazy Boskwraiths and strong Stormwind Cavalry. Running through the list, and still trying to better understand my Herd’s Centaur Striders, I was surprised the Stormwind Cavalry didn’t get the Pathfinder upgrade, but he does appear to be very tight on points.  

I brought the Undead list above. Recently, I shared my thinking that more elite armies could be a good avenue to explore MMU, or regiment-centric play. To an extent, I think trashier armies could do the same? Varangur Draugr came to mind as a cheap unit that could still contribute greatly to games, and that train of thought led me to the Undead, and then to this list. I went pretty heavy into Surge too, to try and give myself more chances to use the spell. I have only played the Undead a few times, so there are definitely inefficiencies in this build, and everything is up to test and evaluate:

• Zombies. Cheap, and if you believe their keywords, literally expendable! At 70 points, they provide cheap US, Nerve, and most importantly unlocks. The Undead rely quite heavily on their hero slots it seems, so the unlocking aspect is probably the most important here, though everything about them is useful.
• Soul Reaver Infantry. I had the points and opted to run them. They have done well in the past for me, and I gave them the Chalice of Wrath to try and mitigate Wavering. If I can keep the Gladestalkers from shooting them, I am hoping that they can deliver some good damage for me.
• Revenant Cavalry. These look like very strong options for the Undead, providing some much-needed mobility and reach. If I can get better at Surge, they should be even better! Height 3 lets them be seen by all of my foot spellcasters, and having taken three units, hopefully I am able to make something happen with these.
• Goreblight. They have been pretty unlucky previously, but I like the models. Cloak of Death is proven to be a powerful tool against certain lists, and I figured it would be fun to explore them more for the Undead as well. They are also Height 3 Shamblers, so that give me even more chances to try out Surge.
• Revenant King with Surge. I wanted to run a mix of heroes as well as multiple sources of Surge. I felt a little shy on sources of Inspiring, so he got the edge here over any Necromancer, and will stick close to my lines.
• ASB with Surge. The ASBs are Very Inspiring which helps with coverage, and Wild Charge 2 on Skeletons is fun, and he should play well with the Revenant Cavalry. I bought the Tome for more Surge, and feel like this should be a pretty nice pick for any standard Undead list.
• Zuinok Iceblood. I hobbied him up several months ago, and the evil little Arkosaur has yet to see the table, since I am not running the Undead very frequently. I wanted him here to play around with Veil of Shadows, a spell I have never run before. He’s got a lot of other special rules, which I don’t think will be pertinent, since I don’t have any basic skeletons. I am not sure how useful his Fireball will actually be, so we’ll give his a test here, and if I am casting it at all, we’ll give him some normal skeletons to play with next time. 
• Vampire on Pegasus. Another newcomer! I hobbied him up very recently for fun, just getting the Hobby Update post about him out the day before the game. On paper, he’s similar to my General on Winged Beast, though more expensive. The parallels are intriguing enough that I wanted to run him here and see what he can do. 
• Revenant on Undead Great Burrowing Wyrm. I found out that he takes a hero slot, which is a bummer as the slot is very competitive for this army, and he does not Inspire. Still, I really like the minis I have for this, and think they should be able to do some fun things, and want to get the on the table. I think they could have some surprises in them because they are not Shambling.

I somehow ended up with both a drop and a Unit Strength Advantage… though that can all be ascribed to my Zombie Regiments. At Def2, they are likely in for a bad time against the Elf shooting, or anything else that decides to pay any attention to them! We’ll see what the scenario is, and if this shambling chaff helps or hinders me! 

Table and Terrain

We were out at a Madison store, making use of their table 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, the Hills as normal Height 3 hills, and the field as a Height 0 difficult terrain.

We got Pillage for the scenario, and we both thought it was something with Loot Tokens, so it's a good thing we rolled it up. The Scenario is actually Objective Tokens, and we rolled up 7 to scatter across the battlefield.

Tokens. The ones behind the buildings should be 3" away and all legal and stuff.

I won the roll off and started sticking tokens behind buildings, and then the other two in the midfield between the hills. The hope was that the hills would protect my Zombies from the Gladestalkers, and I'd be able to leave one unit of Zombies in the back for easy points. Being Sylvan Kin, my opponent's tokens ended up around the trees.

My opponent won the roll off, and lazy-gamer'ed it, staying where he was. Left-to-right we had the Forest Shambler Regiment to guard the token behind the building, then the first Greater Air Elemental, Forest Shambler Horde, Forest Warden, Air Elemental Horde, Nimue and the second Greater Air Elemental, Gladestalkers, Boskwraiths, The Tree Herder, and then the King, Stormwind Cavalry and second unit of Gladestalkers out on the right.

Deployment, as best I can in a single shot, for the Undead. 

For the Undead, left-to-right we have Zombies, Revenant Cavalry, a Goreblight and an ASB out on the left. Some Zombies skulk behind the building, already claiming a token. The line continues with the Soul Reavers, third unit of Zombies, fourth unit of Zombies, second Goreblight, Zuinok, both Burrowing Wyrms, the Revenant King, and then two regiments of Revenant Cavalry and the Vampire on Pegasus out on the right flank.

A slightly blurry shot of all my big stuff out on the right.

I out-deployed my opponent, with the Rev King, Pegasus, Rev Cav, and one of the Wyrms as my last drops. I probably could have done deployment more sneakily, but it is a new army.

Scout moves! The Sylvan Kin are prepared and eager!

The Sylvan Kin had Scout moves. The Forest Shambler Horde moved up to immediately contest a token, the Tree Herder entered the woods, and both Gladtstalker units  moved up a bit too. The Forest Warden remained behind.

I won the determination for turn order, and opted to seize the first turn. I wanted to use Zuinok's Veil of Shadows and figured I wouldn't be able to shamble up far enough to be threatened too badly by the Greater Air Elementals just yet. 

Top of Round 1: Undead

My right pushed up as aggressively as it could, being shamblers. The Vampire on Pegasus unfortunately couldn't find a sweet spot. The Tree Herder could flank him if he stayed out of range of the Stormwind Cavalry; and if he got out of charge arc of the Tree Herder, he'd be range of the cavalry. I don't want to sacrifice him, so I tuck him in behind some of the Revenant Cavalry, wary of bow shots. I think this is a mistake though. I want to be using his speed to pressure. Sticking him behind the cavalry though makes everything out here should have the same approximate 16" charge range, and that uniformity makes it easier for my opponent to move around and avoid me. 

The Undead shamble forth on the right.

Both Burrowing Wyrms move up. I decide I don't really want to bait the Tree Herder with them, and I stay out of charge range. He already has a (frontal) charge into some of the Revenant Cavalry. I think this is probably a mistake as well, and I should have been more aggressive. Veil of Shadows does go off here, protecting this expensive cluster of units.

And the Undead shamble forth on the left as we..

Almost everything else just moved up. The Zombies scoring the token in my deployment zone will stay there the rest of the game though.

Some other Zombies took the hill, hoping to shamble forth and draw some fire or charges in the coming turns. The Soul Reavers moved up slightly, wary of getting too far ahead.

My Revenant Cavalry on the left moved up to get past the obstacle, whatever they do next turn, they should be unhindered. They are height 3, but might be able to make something happen next turn, depending on what my opponent moves. The Goreblight nearby moves it's speed, looking to help.

The Revenant King repositioned to be with the two units of Revenant Cavalry on the right flank. I was hoping to Surge them a bit in the coming turns. The ASB declined to Surge anything, since it would be a forward Surge, and those, as I am learning, are bad. The Revenant Cavalry here could be a target, but where they are, they can see a sliver of the Forest Shambler horde, so I don't want to risk Surging them up just shy of the hill and ruining that.

Bottom of Round 1: Sylvan Kin

The Sylvan Kin back off. The Gladestalkers on the right are able to back up and get our of range of that whole flank, since the speedier Vampire is tucked behind the Cavalry. They shoot with a penalty into some of the cavalry, but the arrows don't make it through the armor. The Elf King has had better training though, and lands 2 damage.

Movement for the Sylvan Kin, inching backwards after the more aggressive scout move.

The Tree Herder backs up and out of the woods, using it to block line of sight from the Burrowing Wyrms. The nearby Revenant cavalry to have a long charge into him, but it will be hindered and in his front.

The nearby Gladestalkers will hold, and shoot into the Zombies on the hill. They land 5 damage, and get a hot 10 on the check to rout the unit, since the Zombies are uninspired. With Zuinok just out of range and one Wyrm in the woods... this is a positioning error on my part. Zuinok should be on the other side of the Goreblight. Oh well. 

Nimue Wind Blasts the Soul Reavers back one inch.

The Greater Air Elementals all start to travel towards the right.

Top of Round 2: Undead

I was hoping I could just bully the right-flank with multiple cavalry units, but my positioning error with the the flying Vampire has trashed that plan. With no charges myself, I try and push up and hope for the best. My hope is that the Revenant Cavalry here will be able to take some hits and then I can counter-attack.

    

Moves for the Undead in Round 2.

The Wyrms and Goreblight moves up to threaten the Gladestalkers here. The Greater Air Elemental out on my left should only be able to reach the Goreblight, and that should be a front charge. 

Veil of Shadows fails to manifest this turn.

I decide to instigate on my left, sending the Revenant Cavalry into the Forest Shamblers. They are Inspired and I am not going to break them, but some pressure here might force my opponent to split his attention and help my right flank survive. The Goreblight and Soul Reavers move up to support. My opponent will either be multi-charging the cavalry and I'll avenge them, or single charging stuff and starting a grind with the undead. I do a slightly underwhelming 4 damage here though.

Bottom of Round 2: Sylvan Kin

The Forest Warden looks on, but doesn't need to surge the Air Elementals into the flank, they are able to get in with just a normal charge. About 10 damage is expected, but they are able to do 13, and pick the uninspired unit up. The Forest Shambler Horde Lifeleeches 1 damage back from their item, going down to just 3 damage.

The Sylvan Kin swarm the undead knights.

The Gladestalkers land 2 damage on the Goreblight, and the Greater Air Elemental near the center just repositions. 

The second Greater Air Elemental flies up, and needing 3, is Surged by the Tree Herder into the flank of the Revenant Cavalry, and gets it. Just in case Surge was needed, Nimue had entered the woods to spy the GAE. Not needing the spell, he tries something else, but I cannot remember what, or if it was successful. The Surge from the Tree Herder was strong, getting 7 successes if memory serves, but my opponent apparently used up all his luck for the turn on that roll. The Revenant Cavalry here take nothing from the King, and surprisingly nothing from the GAE too, though 7 damage would be expected from the monster alone here. Ouch!

The other unit of Revenant Cavalry on the right take charges from the Gladestalkers and Stormwind Cavalry, take 9 damage, and hold. 

Top of Round 3: Undead

Stripped of TC, the Revenant Cavalry on the right counter-charge the Gladestalkers, land 7, and do manage to get the waver. 

A burrowing Wyrm goes for the flank of the Stormwind Cavalry, looking to make use of CS3, but the hit rolls are miserable, and I only land 6 damage. The Nerve check is hot though, and this unit is Wavered as well. 

Charges and counter-charges for the Undead.

The other Revenant Cavalry counter-charge the Greater Air Elemental, landing 7 damage, with some Zombies rear-charging and getting 1. The fewest pivots and most direct rout and such took a sliver of their base through the woods, unfortunately, so the Zombies had a hindered charge, and needed 6's just to hit the elemental.

Instead of helping out here on the flank my flying Vampire makes a hindered flank charge into the Boskwraiths. Getting him out and mobile seemed like a good call. Again, just a sliver of the back of his base is on the pond, so this is another frustrating charge result for me this turn. Six damage is done, which as it turns out, is about as expected, given the hindered nature here.

Combats in the center.

The combatants ignore the Elven King, who is popped free and he takes 2 damage from Zuinok's Fireball, and is singed but fine.

The second Burrowing Wyrm charges the nearby Gladestalkers, dealing 4 and just disorders the shooters.

The Soul Reavers make a hindered front-charge into the Air Elementals, while the Goreblight makes a flank charge into them. The Reavers land 15 and the Goreblight contributes a hot 6 despite not rolling great extra attacks, and the horde is wafted away. The Goreblight pivots, giving a flank to the Forest Warden, but eyeing up some future targets. The Soul Reavers cleared the obstacle on the charge, so they just stay put. I'm giving up a flank to the GAE, but this close... I feel like if he wants it, he'll get it somehow. Still, an overrun instead probably should have been the move, and then force my opponent the roll the dice and commit the spells instead of just giving the flank away for free.

Reforms in the center.

The other Goreblight gets into the Shamblers. Cloak of Death brings them back up to 4, and he lands  just 3 more damage himself. The first Nerve check is a winner, but the second is shy by 1 to rout them.

Bottom of Round 3: Sylvan Kin

The Forest Shamblers counter-charge the Goreblight, and land 7 damage, far more than should be expected normally. The Lifeleech 1, down to 6. The Goreblight holds, but I don't like being behind on the damage fight already.

Charges in the center.

In the center, the GAE flank charges the Soul Reavers, dealing 4 with the Warden contributing 1, and the Vampires hold strong. My armor is holding strong and the Greater Air Elementals have had some terrible luck this game.

The Gladestalkers counter-charge the Wyrm, and land 3 damage on it. 

Nimue hits things with Cloak of Deal, and then hits Zuinok with 4 damage from his Fireball to bring him to 6 damage. I discover the Zuinok is Fearless, which is fortunate.

The right is messy, and it takes some time for my opponent to figure things out. The Wavering Gladestalkers hold, and the wavering Stormwind Cavalry change facing.

Messy combats on the right. 

Eventually, the Boskwraiths so in and hit the flank of the Revenant Cavalry, with the GAE joining in their front. I believe the 2 damage was theirs, but looks to have been picked up by the Revenant King. The unit takes a lot of new damage, and routs.

Reforms on the right.

The Tree Herder hits the flank of the Zombies, does 9 damage, and is able to get the 50/50 rout here. It's a lots of high-CS attacks wasted, but picking up a unit is worth it, given the scenario.

Top of Round 4: Undead

I am not feeling great about my situation, so I opt to try a risky move. The injured revenant cavalry are not disordered, so have their TC2. The Gladestalkers remained engaged with me. I Withdraw from the Gladestalkers, to get 1" of space. I can pivot 90 degrees, and then move to 1" away from the Elven King. I am just able to get in against him with the Surge from Zuinok. I am hoping for good dice, to get through the King, and a 2" overrun to get into the flank of the Boskwraiths. 

Movement for the Undead.

Things don't pan out, and statistically, probably should not. I deal 5, and get the waver against the Elvish King. The first check was good, and the second check is 1 shy of what I needed. This was a neat exercise in trying to spot places and times to Surge, but being boring and picking up the Gladestalkers would have been the better play here.

The Wyrm here crunches the Stormwind Cavalry, and wheels around. 

Reforms the the Undead.

I wanted to send the Revenant King into the Gladestalkers, but can't see them given the intervening Height 3 Revenant Cavalry, instead he goes into the Greater Air Elemental. I don't think he lands any damage, and for sure looks to be carting around the 2 damage associated with the other unit if Revenant Cavalry. Oops.

Combats near the center.

Elsewhere, the other Wyrm and a Goreblight go into the Gladestalkers, and will trounce them. 

The Boskwraiths had extricated themselves from the Vampire on Pegasus. He's got a few options now, but is millimeters shy of flanking the Forest Shambler horde. To get the most ground, he opts to flank charge the Forest Warden, and manages to pick him up, and then overrun. Next turn, I would like to send him after the Forest Shambler Regiment. He can see them where he ends, but distance-wise, they could back up and get away. I overrun just 1, and yeah, they will be able to scooch back next turn.

The Soul Reavers countercharge the Greater Air Elemental, thump it, and then overrun as well, looking to control that very central token. 

Overruns for the Undead.

The Goreblight grinds against the Forest Shamblers. Cloak of Death triggers, bringing them back to 7, but I only land 2 damage with the monster, having rolled up just 1 extra attack. They are just at 9. Still, the horde is uninspired, so there is a decent chance, but the rout is 1 shy again of what is needed to pick them up.

Bottom of Round 4: Sylvan Kin

I don't have good pictures. 

The Forest Shamblers roll hot again, landing another 6 into the Goreblight, and are able to pick him up despite being Inspired. The will turn to face get the Vampire on Pegasus into the front arc, and are sitting at just 8 damage now, thanks to their Lifeleech.

Nimue uses his once-per-game move, and gets into the middle of things here. He then Fireballs the Soul Reavers, and gets a lucky waver against them. They have Fury, but alas, are not in combat.

Our on the right... the Gladestalkers rear-charge the Revenant Cavalry that chose to ignore them in that risky play, and will rout them with ease and save the Elven King. 

The Boskwraiths and Tree Herder will charge the Burrowing Wyrm, both in the front. The Herder does 5 damage, and the Boskwraiths hit with 23 out of 25 attacks, and while the damage roll is slightly less crazy, the Burrowing Wyrm is uninspired, and is felled.

I don't think my opponent has a spare Surge caster for him, so despite not being disordered, the Greater Air Elemental just charges the Revenant King, dealing 5 damage, but the King holds.

Top of Round 5: Undead

I send the Goreblight in against the Boskwraiths. Again, I get to clip the woods ever so slightly, and make another hindered charge. They are damaged, but I only bring them to 9, and am unable to pick them up. 

The Revenant King fights the GAE, landing 1 and grounding the flier this time, while healing down to 6 damage himself, though again, two of that is accidental damage he should not have.

The Revenant King grounds the Greater Elemental.

Zuinok Fireballs into the Gladestalkers. Stealthy hinders the lizard's efforts, but 2 damage is done, and I get a waver here.

We haven't had a picture this blurry in quite some time. Sorry!

The ASB charges Nimue, looking for the disorder. Fireball 10 has been doing more work than I would like. It's a long shot with just one attack though, and the ASB misses.

The Forest Shambler Regiment backed off, so if I want to fight anything this turn, I need to charge the Forest Shambler Horde, who had victoriously changed facing to get the Vampire into their front arc. Still, I go in. The Vampire fails hard, landing just 1 damage, and again, I miss the Rout value by 1 on this uninspired unit.

The remaining Burrowing Wyrm holds. I didn't want to get into the woods to be seen, but I should have backed up though I think, to get a better view around the woods. Right now he's mostly blind.

Bottom of Round 5: Sylvan Kin

The Goreblight takes a gross triple charge from the Tree Herder, Elf King and the Boskwraiths. Despite starting the turn undamaged, he is uninspired, they get him to a easy Nerve check and end him. 

Post-combat for the Sylvan Kin.

The overruns are very kind. The Tree Herder goes first and gets the most, and gets into the woods. With the angles, my Wyrm can't see either of the others units, though they overrun as well. Had the Boskwraiths gotten 1 more inch I should have a charge against them... and again, if I had backed up, I would have been able to see more things. 

Not a lot the Wyrm can see.

The GAE smacks the Revenant King, but being disordered, only lands 2 damage, and the first Nerve check is 1 shy, and Inspiring doesn't come into play.

The Forest Shamblers land 3 into the Vampire on Pegasus, and Nimue Fireballs the Soul Reavers again, though they hold strong on 8 damage.

Top of Round 6: Undead

The Vampire on Pegaus goes back into the Forest Shamblers, brings them to 11, and still fails to rout them! Something for the Sylvan Kin got an Insane Courage result this game. This may have been it. 

Movement for the Undead in Round 6.

The ASB pursues Nimue, and does manage to land a damage onto the legendary spellcaster, disordering him!

I think this picture was for the Insane Courage result.

The Soul Reavers are just within range of the Tree Herder, and are able to back up enough to get out of range, while just barely still controlling the token.

Meanwhile, my Wyrm is able to juke around the Tree Herder, and contest an objective token. 

Again Zuinok tosses a fireball into the stealthy unit of Gladestalkers, lands a strong 3 new damage, and is able to pick them up this time, as the unit is uninspired. 

Bottom of Round 6: Sylvan Kin

The Forest Shamblers roll a little hot again dealing 5 damage to the flying Vampire. The Vampire had healed down to 1, so it at 6... and the Shamblers get a waver against him. 

Nimue rear-charges the Soul Reavers, looking for 1 luck damage to force a Nerve check, but he doesn't get it. 

The GAE will finally pummel the Revenant King into submission, and will turn to face my remaining Burrowing Wyrm.

At the end of Round 6, it's 4:3 in favor of the Undead. But we roll up a Round 7.

Top of Round 7: Undead

The Boskwraiths are a legit charge for the Soul Reavers, so I abandon my token, and charge them to take theirs. They are injured, and I manage to pick them up, and am safe from the Tree Herder next turn. After some discussion, the ASB runs up to keep them Inspired, and the Vampires turn to stare down Nimue for dramatic effect.

Final charges for the Undead.

The Burrowing Wyrm charges in and bests the floundering Greater Air Elemental, is still scoring this token. It will also victoriously reposition, out of habit.

Bottom of Round 7: Sylvan Kin

The Tree Herder needs to move up and grab the token my Wyrm left behind.

The regiment of Forest Shamblers hold, just like my Zombies.

The horde charges in against the Vampire on Pegasus, land a fresh 8 damage, and routs him.

Nimue tosses another Fireball into the Soul Reavers. The first check routs them, but they hold with the Inspired reroll.

End of game. Purple is Undead, teal is Sylvan Kin.

The tokens held are a little different, but it's still 4:3 in favor of the Undead as Round 7 concludes.

Game Conclusion

The reporting was a bit of a mess in some places. I apologize. The camera wasn’t playing well with the light in the shop, and more pictures than usual were blurry. I took decent notes though, and we made it to the end with a relatively unbroken chronicle, but not as many pictures as I would have liked. 

These post-work games always seem a little more exciting and unpredictable, as our brains are a little less tactical at the end of the day. Heavy on Shambling might not have been the best plays for us, but I think we both approached the scenario well and generally each played a good game. However the dice matched our tactics and were all over the place. The Boskwraiths and Soul Reavers did well, but we both had our share of dud rolls too. Neither Greater Air Elementals performed well this game against my higher armor, and that seemed to be the difference maker. With more units (and therefore more options), I was able to bleed a little more and eek out the win in the end.

Dwelling on the Undead side of things, there is plenty to improve on. For deployment, I wanted to try and bully things with double Wyrm as well as double Revenant Cavalry on the flank. As expressed early on in the report, I don’t think that was a wise approach. Multiple monsters can provide some oomph, but running like-regiments side-by-side is generally bad practice as you are paying extra points for the regiments. I would have done better mixing up the line a bit more, and having different charge distances along it. Then with Surge, generally, I think I am charging too early. I think a Shambling army wants to draw the enemy in and then be Surging and making tricky charges, not making the long opening charges themselves. Specifically for Surge the risky play was a long shot, but it was certainly fun to try! That was my only Surge play, and just continuing on against the Gladestalkers would have been the better choice there. Sometimes you gotta do goofy things to see what happens though, and that’s kinda what this blog is about. I definitely learned a lot about the Undead, and had a great time.

Testing Conclusions

• Zombies. Given the scenario, they helped immensely! Having a few just to sit on objectives all game is what secured me the win here. Four regiments is probably too many, but I needed the unlocks, and being Undead, it’s hard to tell just how many Zombie units one should have! This was a good place to start with this kind of a list.
• Soul Reaver Infantry. These have been spoiling me. Hindered? Ensnared? They just haven’t cared when the dice start rolling. They excel against middling Def4 targets, and were able to deliver well for me here. They are still vulnerable to shooting and wavering, and while they are expensive, they pulled their weight this game.
• Revenant Cavalry. I think I was overestimating their damage output, and did not use these well here. I think that they have a ton of potential, I just need more experience with them. I think I need to preserve Thunderous Charge while waiting for the lines to close more and then Surge charge them into things. Easier said than done though. 
• Goreblight. Cloak of Death can only hit units once per turn, so I tried spreading them out on the field, but they ended up fighting nearby anyways. Mixing up my line would have helped a little better in this regard. They didn’t have the best luck again here, but I love the model and like the unit. I think I can be using these better, so we’ll keep after these and see what we can learn.
• Revenant King with Surge. I zipped him over to try to Surge the Revenant Cavalry duo around, but that did not pan out. He was “stickier” than I anticipated, able to juuuust ground the GAE a few times to take it out of any significant fights. I think 1 damage is the best you can hope for with him, but he was certainly nice to have around here!
• ASB with Surge. I still think this is a great utility pick for the Undead... but I didn't make use of Wild Charge or Surge here, which was a bummer. Not used particularly well this game, but he did get a memorable strike in!
• Zuinok Iceblood. He was intriguing! Veil of Shadows was a neat spell, but like most auras, it probably works a little better with some hordes. He actually used Fireball a fair amount once the lines closed, though I only remembered Witchfire once, and he had no normal Skeletons to Heal. Overall, he is a neat little spellcaster, but I think he really wants some skeleton buddies.
• Vampire on Pegasus. Well, he was almost exactly like the Flying General from the Kingdoms of Men: lots of fun to maneuver around and pressure with, but very underwhelming damage output once he actually charged something! Lacking TC1 was noticeable, and Lifeleech wasn’t really good enough to keep him around, as any damage puts him in the danger zone and he has no waver mitigation. Downfalls aside, I didn’t use him well either, and should have been trying to multi-charge things more. He was fun to use, but probably not a competitive pick as he seems less effective than the cheaper KoM General.
• Revenant on Undead Great Burrowing Wyrm. I really like the models I hobbied up, so these will likely be pet units for a bit. They cannot spike dice quite like Giants can, but they function similarly as big brawling titans. They need support, and I’ll see what I can do to get them that support in future lists. 
• Shambling and Surge. I only got to use Surge once this game, and very nearly failed due to some cold dice. I think the approach of having a bunch of Height 3 Shamblers (Rev Cav and Goreblight) was good, especially with an MMU approach I am just unfamiliar with the spell and how to play a Shambling army and set up traps and such. Again, I think I need to draw the enemy in before I start Surging around. We’ll keep at it!
• Inspiring. I took four sources, which seemed like an adequate amount, but I lost a fair amount of stuff due to it not being Inspired. I think most Undead generals play a little more compactly, and with hordes, which are easier to Inspire. Coverage is something I’ll need to work on in the future. Oddly enough, the Revenant on Burrowing Wyrm is classified as a hero, so slapping the Talisman of Inspiration on one of those could be something to consider. 
• MMU vs Monster Mash. It’s obviously subjective, but this still felt like MMU on the table. The monsters and titans ran around, but the units largely won the game by holding the tokens, and did outnumber the fancy picks. 
• Undead MMU and low-quality regiments. The Undead have a huge variety of infantry. The Soul Reavers are super-top-tier, and are likely not spammable due to their high cost. Revenants (both infantry and cavalry) are probably mid-tier, and while you don’t want to spam them since they come in horde-sizes and hordes are probably better, taking a few units to get Def5 and/or longer charges from the cavalry version should be fine. The Skeletons and Zombies are all what I would consider low-tier, and were what I was interested in exploring here with the Undead. I only tested the Zombies out this time, but low-quality MMU seems ok, with units holding ground and the fancier picks dealing the damage. This was a first attempt at the playstyle with this army, but was a lot of fun. I’ll try this again sometime!

I big thank you to Trevor for fitting this game in. The summer has been a bit uncooperative for scheduling, so I very much appreciate him making the trip over to squeeze in these delightful afternoon games. We’ll get some more games in soon!