Intro and Lists
The Wisconsin Kings of War scene has grown enough to attract the attention of some neighboring clubs, and a doubles tournament with some Minnesota folks (based out of the greater Twin Cities area) was proposed a few months back. Since many of the Cheeseheads had really only picked up the game with the start of the escalation league, and only a month or two before this was proposed, the organizers agreed on a twist: the pairings would be made across state lines!
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| I think I am sucker for nifty store statues. |
We all met up at pretty new, but very welcoming and very accommodating store out in Reedsburg, Wisconsin known as Three Mountain Games. It is the first time we have tried this format, so leading up, many things were still a little up in the air, and rules and details were getting tweaked since this was originally announced. About a month out, there was another twist: pairings would be announced ahead of time, and you'd have the chance to coordinate and scheme with your opponent on what to bring. Alignment rules were tossed out the window for ease of play. We'd each need to bring 1,000 points of stuff, with no duplication of magic items or other unique spells or options allowed, since we were given the chance to coordinate.
My partner, Leif, and I had agreed to double up on Forces of the Abyss, but very unfortunately didn't get much scheming in otherwise. He joked that the bottom tables were usually reserved for him at the Minnesota events, but that was fine by me. Aside from the numerous but wishy-washy goals of meeting folks, getting some experience with tournament scoring and trying to write up some good reports, I had two quantifiable goals going into this:
- Win one game.
- Not be dead last.
Seeing the list, I felt a little vindicated. I am no meta expert, but back at the cookout game (Battle 067), I ran some friendlier Ogres, figuring that someone at the event here would be running Ogres and some Siege Breakers, and the Wisconsinites should be aware of the unit. Here as well, the list is simple but surprisingly strong. The Siege Breakers are obviously durable and powerful; the Warriors expendable; and the Sergeant and Warlock give the list some reach as well as staying power. I like this list too!
I brought the list above. I figured my Abyssal MSU-style wasn't going to be great fit here, particularly if we weren't going to be doubling up on mundane monsters to do the heavy lifting for us. I kicked around a handful of ideas, but eventually went with this, to try and support my ally. It's a tournament, and while I've run most of these things before, there is still a few things to test out, and everything to analyze.
- Gargoyles. In his draft lists, my ally had no chaff whatsoever, so I felt like I needed to bring at least one unit of Gargoyles. More than that seemed counter-productive, so we'll see if I can get this where it is needed to block up the scariest things.
- Tortured Soul Regiments. I've learned a lot about them with my "Regiments-Maximum" MSU games. Lacking Nimble they are not speedy outriders, but have been nice thick chaff. Having Fearless on so many units, I felt I could live with just one source of Inspiring, and maximize the chaff and disposable units to help support my partner.
- Tortured Soul Horde + Hann's Sanguinary Scripture. I struggled with unlocks, and this felt like the least-worst option, as it was pretty cheap, was on-theme, and provided all the unlocks I was looking to have. A Defense 4 Swarm Horde doesn't seem all that durable, but I was hoping LL3 and the Chroneas and Drain Life could let it stick around and do some work.
- Chroneas. This was the linchpin of my list. I figured we'd have a fair amount of Defense 6 at the event, so Cloak of Death and CS3 would be nice to have, and Temporal Ruptures should play very nicely with the Lifeleech of all the Tortured Souls.
- Abyssal Warlock and Drain Life. The Warlock seemed like a good source of Inspiring. He also scores, has a small 18" shooting attack to help out, and then I took Drain Life to test out. Ideally, once the lines clash, with Height 3, he can start to cast the spell to swing the fights and keep everything topped off.
- The Herd really relies very hard on TC to do its damage. The list needs some chaff to let that happen. Gur Panthers have been wonderful for me, and the Harpies have been good as well. Either of these would be great future additions.
- Since their revision (upping Defense from 4 to 5, but reducing attacks from 20 to 12 at the regimental size), I don't think Longhorns are a great pick for the Herd. Rally does happen to work with Guardian Brutes as well as all of the various Tribal units, which is nice, but the Longhorns are mostly a bland support piece now, so not great in multiples. You want them to be supporting something else, not the starts of the show themselves. I'd suggest Tribal Spears, or even Spirit Walkers as things to consider building around in the future.
- A regiment of Guardian Brutes isn't going to do much, and as Boss_Salvage of Bloodfire gently told me recently, Guardian Brutes have Fury innately, so just like the goggles for Radioactive Man, the Chalice for the Guardian Brutes do nothing. A bummer here, but nice to see that other folks have spaced on this as well, I suppose? Based on my experience, these should definitely be a horde though. Large infantry (Ogres, etc) can be in a rough spot, as they have good output but lower Nerve, relative to equivalent units of normal infantry (that is to say, a generic Large Infantry horde has lower Nerve than a generic 20mm Infantry horde). If you run the smaller regiments, I think you gotta have a good reason and a clear purpose.
- I don't have a good feel for Lycans. The Herd is not a popular pick, but I think most generals would want to give them the Brew of Strength, to get them up to CS2 were they can do some actual damage in combat, but I could see where, given the rules of the event, the TO wouldn't want to pick some of the more popular items. This is probably the best unit in the list, but doesn't synergize well with the Longhorns, so feels odd.
- I see the idea with the Druid, and with the Def5 and Rallying Longhorns, this is probably an alright time to try this out, but I don't think Magic is a strong suit for the Herd, and Heal feels particularly weak. The Herd generally has very low Defense, and it's relying on TC to deal the damage, so it doesn't grind particularly well.
Table and Terrain
The tables were set up ahead of time, with set and static arrangements. We followed the 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 odd neoprene blobs as Height 0 Difficult Terrain. Honestly, this felt like a better amount of terrain than the usual setups! The Height 0 stuff does a decent job breaking up the board. My Herd would have been quite happy here, I think. The only odd piece on the table was the dragon-skull outcrop on the right-hand side, which we played as a building. We were trying to keep it simple, but I think smaller blocking terrain might be a neat thing to explore in the future.
The tournament here was using a ban system for scenarios. The TO presented three scenario choices per round, consistent across all of the tables. The teams would roll off, with the loser nixing one choice, and then the winner picking one from between the two remaining options.
For Game 1, I won the roll-off, they nixed something, I grabbed Control, thinking that if my Tortured Souls could survive, the fliers should probably do quite well in the late game, even without nimble. They won the roll-off for side-picking, and we got down to it! They were dealing with the ups and downs and changes as much as I was, and were exceedingly accommodating for me. They didn't have a good team name, so we'll call them Team Infinite Patience.
Left-to-right, my opponents had The Halfbreed Champion, the Greater Obsidian Golem blocking for the Iron-Caster, the Lesser Obsidian Golem Horde, and then the Blacksouls with the Hammer and Fiery Bulwark was screening the Gargoyles.
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| Deployment for Infinite Patience. |
The Ogres then continued the opposing line with one of the Siege Breaker hordes, a forest, and then the rest of the army jammed in. There was the Sergeant, Warrior Regiment, Warlock, and then a regiment screening for the second Siege Breakers.
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| Deployment for the Herd. I like all his paint schemes. Everything is so crisp looking. |
Having played Herd, I dropped them on the side with no obstacles. I can occasionally learn from my mistakes. Remembering that the skull is treated as a building, right-to-left we have the Guardian Brute Regiment, the Lycan Horde, the Druid, and then the three regiments of Longhorns. With the Ogre player committing so hard in the corner here, my hope was to keep them there, threatening with the Brutes and the Lycans, with the Longhorns likely taking the middle, and hopefully holding for a while with all that Rally.
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| Deployment for the Abyssals. |
I bounced around a bit, but ended up deploying most of the Herd first, since It felt like that needed more planning than my Abyssals, and had a clearer plan. With a bunch of flying and chaffy units, my stuff could go anywhere.
I had Tortured Souls on the far flank, stacked Tortured Souls, Chroneas and Warlock, the Tortured Souls horde, Gargoyles hiding behind a building, and then the last regiment of Tortured Souls before we reached the Herd Lines. With flying, and with the obstacles on my side of the board, I figured I'd be able to mitigate them.
My left was pretty uncontested, so the strategy was fight the Abyssal Dwarfs, leave someTortured Souls to hold zones down, and then hit the center. The Herd would hopefully box in the Ogres, with the Longhorns helping to hold things down in the middle zones.
I won the roll off for deciding the turn order, and opted to be brave and go first. I figured doing so would let me better set the terms and areas of engagement with the Ogres, and hopefully keep them penned in for longer.
Top of Round 1: Team Double Trouble
For the Abyssal side of the table, the Chroneas moved but respected the charge distance of the speedier Halfbreed Champion. My goal was to stick her into the Greater Golem, and I didn't want her being disrupted en-route.
The Tortured Souls regiments all moved up a bit, hoping to zone and pressure. The Gargoyles remained behind the house. I had a lot going on, and wasn't sure what shooting was opposing me. I didn't want to expose my chaff just yet in case I had missed something.
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| The Abyssals move straight ahead! No fancy pivots for us. |
On the Herd side, I moved the Brutes and Lycans up at the double, about 11 inches. While I would have loved to get them into a flank, I didn't think I was going to be able to pull that off.
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| The Herd zips out as well. |
Two Longhorn regiments move into the center. I deployed a little off the line, so they are not in charge range, but are threatening anything that moves up even an inch.
The Druid hopped up behind the skull building. I wasn't sure where she would be needed most, so central seemed like a good call.
The last Longhorn regiment had deployed with the skull building ahead of it. If I went second, moving these either way around the building seemed like a good option to have. Having seized the initiative, I am already writing off the Brutes and Lycans, so I figured we'd get them towards the center zones.
Bottom of Round 1: Infinite Patience
The Abyssal Dwarfs moved up, closing the distance against the real Abyssal army here. His Gargoyles stayed behind as well though, waiting to interdict.
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| A measured and reserved advance. |
The Ogre player wisely held back with the isolated horde. The Ogres and Longhorns are both speed 6, so he didn't want to give out any free damage.
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| The Ogres probe for weaknesses with their shooting. |
The Ogres comprising the rest of the army began a complicated maneuver, with the Warriors moving up to block and screen, with the Siege Breaker horde in the corner lurking in the background. The Sergeant and Warlock shuffled around and shot into the Brute regiment, but the dice were not kind, and only 3 damage was dealt. The isolated Siege Breaker unit just held.
Quite thankfully, my partner arrived as the turn concluded, and our opponents were gracious enough to let us pause the clock for a few minutes while he signed in and then again while I got him up to speed with the game and his substitute army.
Top of Round 2: Team Double Trouble
Leif had fortunately played with the Herd a bit before, and we continued with my strategy. The Brutes and Lycans each charged a block of Warriors, though the results were awful, and both regiments stuck around. I believe Michael was coy with his facing, preventing the frontage for double charges.
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| No multi-charge options against the Ogres. Against the Abyssal Dwarfs however... |
Leif checked, and one of the Longhorns could get into the flank of the Blacksouls, so we triple charge it, with two regiments of Longhorns and one of Tortured Souls. The Longhorns should deal around 16 expected damage, but land just 11 damage. The Tortured Souls should land an expected 3 damage, but land no hits, despite a clear charge. This should have been a quick and bloody affair, but the dice said absolutely not, and the Blacksouls then Iron Resolve 2 back with the Fiery Bulwark, ending the turn at just 9 damage.
The Chroneas charges in against the Greater Golem, with Cloak of Death hitting the various Golems as well as the Halfbreed Champion.
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| The Chroneas makes contact, and gets to work. |
The Tortured Soul horde has some charges, but I opt not to charge them into anything yet. I think if they join the Chroneas into the Greater Golem, it's an easy flank from the Lesser Golems into them, which seems like a bad plan. I also just didn't like the idea of taking the Obsidian Golems head-on, with the Defense 6 and all. So they sit back, waiting to see what happens.
The Gargoyles fly up to block up the Lesser Golems, and the Warlock tries a Firebolt into them, but misses.
The other two regiments of Tortured Souls move up, but don't charge in either. If I sent one into the Greater Golem, the Chroneas could be eating a surged flank charge, and I really just want to see her grind for a turn. So that unit moves up but doesn't charge, and the unit on the far flank just moves up, but I probably should have pivoted somewhere in there, to threaten some flank charges with them.
Bottom of Round 2: Infinite Patience
The Abyssal Dwarfs strike back, and have a much better time rolling hits.
The Chroneas is charged by the Greater Golem and the Halfbreed Champion. The Greater Golem lands 6, and the Halfbreed Champion contributes another 5, off of 6 attacks. Thankfully, the Nerve check is one shy of what was needed, and the Chroneas sticks around, if just barely.
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| Abyssal Dwarfs, like Imperial Dwarfs, can counter-punch pretty hard. |
The Obsidian Golems trounce the Gargoyles, but don't do much for victorious reforms. The Blacksouls shuffle down to beat on the Tortured Soul regiment, since it has the least Nerve here. It gets the expected 6 damage in, and while the Nerve check is decent, it is also just one shy of what is needed, and they stick around too.
The Gargoyles fly up to hit the flank of one of the Longhorn regiments. They get just the expected 3 damage against them.
The Ogre player opted not the take the rear charge into the same Longhorn unit, choosing instead to consolidate his forces for a future push. This horde hits the flank of the Lycans instead, coming to the aid of the wavered Warrior regiment, and looking to remove the unit that can regenerate in one go. The Lycan horde and Guardian Brute regiment will fall this turn.
Top of Round 3: Team Double Trouble
With the Ogres doing their own thing and consolidating elsewhere, we try to do the same here.
The Tortured Souls on the left pivot and move now, hanging around the center line to grab either corner for the scenario.
The Tortured Soul horde will charge the Lesser Obsidian Golems to try and occupy them.
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| Combats are going good for Team Double Trouble! |
On 3's and 3's, the Chroneas has been rolling great against the Greater Earth Elemental, getting a good number of additional attacks in, and the rolls are staying pretty average. Cloak of Death triggers again, hitting the Golems, and the Chroneas is able to deal enough in the second combat to best the inspired Greater Golem with some average Nerve checks, though I am just out of range to use the Temporal Ruptures to heal the injured regiment of Tortured Souls.
We learn from Michael that we don't need to withdraw if we have a different, legal charge, so the Longhorns ignore the Gargoyles, and we go into the Blacksoul Horde again with the same units, and roll slightly closer to average, with the Tortured Souls contributing 1 on their counter charge. This time, the horde is devastated and then routed, as is proper.
For victorious reforms, the Tortured Souls will face the Golems, one unit of Longhorns will turn to face the right table edge, and the other will turn back to stare down the Gargoyles.
On the right, the third Longhorn regiment charges something, I think a fresh Siege Breaker horde, and that goes about how you would expect. Siege Breakers are a very strong unit! Still, this isn't a bad strategic move, as it keeps the Ogres in their corner.
Bottom of Round 3: Infinite Patience
Having consolidated, the Ogres now start their push. The Sergeant, Siege Breaker Horde, and Warrior Regiment charge the upstart Longhorn regiment, and will break them. They are neither Inspired nor benefitting from the Rally of the other units.
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| A strong multi-charge against the Longhorns. |
The Halfbreed Champion charges the Tortured Souls that shook him, and he deals another 5 damage off of 6 attacks, but at least this is not more damage into my Chroneas.
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| The Halfbreed Champion apparently had something to prove today! |
The Obsidian Golems countercharge the Tortured Souls, and land an impressive 8 damage on them.
The enemy Gargoyles now opt to hop the line and look to play the scenario. I do have some possible charges into them, so escaping now to try and claim something as they game winds down is a good call.Top of Round 4: Team Double Trouble
The Tortured Souls counter charge the Halfbreed Champion and land a few more damage, with Cloak of Death helping again. I try a Drain Life here as well, but nothing hits. The Champion is brought up to 8 and then routed though, with a little luck on the Nerve check.
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| The Tortured Souls claw at the constructs from 3 different sides. |
I then make a quadruple charge against the Obsidian Golems. Still, the combat will devastate and then rout them, as is proper. My opponent offered fast-track things and roll Nerve, which I took him up on and then sort of took back, as I need to deal damage for Lifeleesch and the Temporal Ruptures. We still have a few rounds left, so I definitely want to heal up if I can. I made it through a regiment and the horde before this point, so just rolled enough to make sure the Chroneas managed to deal 3 damage and use the Ruptures, which healed up the Horde down to just 2 damage (Lifeleech 3 from the Scripture, and 3 from the Ruptures), and the Tortured Souls got the Lifeleech bonuses.
Victoriously, everything now turns to face the oncoming Ogres, while the Herd tries to delay. Another Regiment of Longhorns throw themselves into the Shieldbreakers. The ones that had been eyeing the Gargoyles find they have no charges, and so change facing to face the Ogres as well. While we would have liked to delayed and multi-charged next turn, I don't think we saw a way to effectively protect the Longhorns, so decided to send them in and go down swinging to try and keep the Ogres in their corner.
Bottom of Round 4: Infinite Patience
The Ogres continue their push, mulching another Longhorn regiment as they slowly gain ground.
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| Another Longhorn regiment is smashed decisively down. |
A Warrior Regiment heads into our right corner to score, and the other charges the Druid, dealing 4 damage. I am just realizing now that the Ogres have not lost a single unit. Sheesh.
Fortunately, the Abyssal Dwarfs have largely fled the field, so we are slightly ahead for Attrition. All they have left is the Iron-Caster and the Gargoyles, who are chilling near the building near our deployment zone.
Top of Round 5: Team Double Trouble
The Abyssals play the scenario, and my strategy seems to be working. One Tortured Souls regiment moves into the left corner on our side; another fights the Iron-Caster in the left corner on their side, and both zone are under our uh... control.
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| Having just lost the Gargoyles so far, the forces of the Abyss move to the middle zones. |
The Chroneas and final Tortured Souls regiment move up.
The Tortured Soul Horde clips the terrain, and makes a charge into the Gargoyles. Still, I am able to best them, and Lifeleech them down to 0 damage. Victoriously, I back up.
The final Longhorn regiment throws themselves against the same Shield Breaker unit, but manages to rout them, and the Ogres lose their first unit! The Longhorns pivot, and I believe any similarly-sized unit is set to align into the woods for a hindered charge.
Bottom of Round 5: Infinite Patience
I backed up, but am like an eighth of an inch in. I had forgotten about Yielding, and since the Warrior regiment doesn't need to Withdraw, they charge through the Druid and into the Tortured Soul horde. That has been a very impactful learn this game. Fortunately, just 3 damage is done.
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| The Ogres try to advance, but are still dealing with Longhorns. |
The Sergeant and the other Siege Breaker horde charge the final regiment of Longhorns, with the latter being hindered. The Longhorns only take 7 damage, but the Nerve check is above average, and they are wavered.
It looks like the Druid is zapped and routed by the Warlock and some Lightning Bolts.
The Iron-Caster excuses himself from the Tortured Souls clawing at him, and as an individual, is able to get into their flank arc to avoid another charge next turn. Given the scenario, and with just Surge and Heal, I am not worried about him, but would have liked to have picked him up for attrition points.
Top of Round 6: Team Double Trouble
The Warlock comes up and tries a Drain Life into the Ogre Warrior Regiment, but lands no damage. The Tortured Souls counter charge them, dealing 7 damage and wavering them while healing themselves back down to 0 damage again.
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| The fight for the middle zones is on! |
The Longhorns are wavered. They should be backing up to force another hindered charge, but I don't think they do.
The Tortured Souls flank the Sergeant, rout him, and then reform, looking to maybe fly into the right corner on our side, should there be a Round 7, or see what else might develop here.
The Chroneas moves up near the Height 0 difficult terrain to threaten any advancing Ogres, should there be a Round 7.
Team Double Trouble ends our turn in control of both left corners, and both central sections.
Bottom of Round 6: Infinite Patience
The Siege Breakers crush the last Longhorn regiment, and turn to face the center. The Warlock charges in against the Tortured Souls nearby. I question this in the melee phase when my opponent pulls out 5 dice to swing, and we realize that he reflexively thought the lowly Warlock was Nomagarok. With just two attacks, no damage lands, and they keep flying for next turn.
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| The Ogres desperately try to continue their push. |
The wavered Ogre Warriors in the center stay put, and the other regiment moves up. The Tortured Souls are only US 3, so the Ogres wrest control of our central zone.
At the end of the Round, Team Double Trouble has 4 (both left zones, and their central zone) against 3 (their right zone, and our central zone).
And we do roll up a Round 7!
Top of Round 7: Team Double Trouble
The Tortured Souls counter charge the wavering Warriors, and will rout them this time.
The Chroneas strides through the terrain to hit the other Warriors. The Warlock moves up and tries Drain Life again, with no luck. The Chroneas beats up on the Warriors to 7 damage, but can't break them.
The Tortured Souls decide to countercharge the Warlock. This keeps the Siege Breakers in the corner. Even with an overrun, they won't be able to make it anywhere else as the game concludes. I land some damage, but the Warlock remains steady.
Bottom of Round 7: Infinite Patience
The Warriors countercharge the Chroneas, and bring him to 13 damage. Somehow, she hangs on.
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| End of Round 7 and the end of the game. |
The Ogre player did a great job mitigating things in Rounds 6 and 7. I did not do a great job mathing things out, but lucked out in the end just having more units.
Disordered but not wavered, the Warlock is able to nimbly get into their center zone to score it, since the Warlock and Chroneas abandoned it. Abandoning it was probably not a great play on my part though.
My notes have this as a 4:3 Victory to Team Double Trouble, but I believe the central zone is only worth 2 Points if it is not your own zone. So this should be 3:2 I think? Still, Scenario-wise this is a victory to Team Double Trouble! I can already cross one thing off my list of quantifiable goals for the day! We also killed more with the Attrition points, and while those bonus points are not scored relatively, that was still good for us, and made for a nice, strong start to the tournament.
Testing Conclusions
I’ll be flipping these sections for any tournament reports I think, since testing isn’t the point of going to tournament games. I think one should run what they know and what they like for a tournament… that said, I didn’t follow my own advice, and this was the debut for Drain Life and for the Tortured Soul Horde, so we have some things to pick apart here:
- Gargoyles. We had just the one chaff piece, but that worked out ok here. If I take too much, I have a tendency to throw them all away. I think my approach of taking one and just trying to block the scariest thing was a good call for me and trying to get better at the game..
- Tortured Soul Regiments. This was a stand-out performance for them. This is generally how things have gone with them, but never quite this well. While I did have experience with most of the list, I wasn’t able to get in any practice games with it, so it was gratifying to see it working very much as intended.
- Tortured Soul Horde. At just Defense 4, I was afraid they’d be a little fragile to be relying so hard on, but they worked out ok here. I lucked out to not be grinding against the Obsidian Golems for long, and was able to heal them up nicely to remain relevant in the late game too.
- Chroneas. I wanted to stick her up into the Obsidian Golem, but that proved to be a little more dicey than anticipated given the Halfbreed and some good rolling. Thankfully, the Chroneas stuck around and she were able to punch through.
- Warlock with Drain Life. The Warlock did fine, but Magic is still a bit of a blind spot for me, and Drain Life felt underwhelming. It turns out that the spell is better than I thought... My printout cut off the mention of it having Piercing 1. Michael’s list here had Drain Life as well, but I don’t recall if it was cast at all. If it was, I didn’t catch any rolls for it that I could have doubled check myself. So I rolled it without Piercing for the duration of the tournament. Yikes. The Warlock is around primarily to Inspire and to score though. Anything from Drain Life or Firebolts was gravy, so this was underwhelming, but still ok in the big picture.
- Longhorns and the Herd. The army is wonderfully painted, and I really like his hobbying “look” and general approach. I see where he was coming from with the list, but I just don’t think Longhorns are good battle line units these days. If one wants to use them, I think the Longhorns need to be in a supporting role, and playing second fiddle to other Herd-Keyworded units, like the Tribal units, Spirit Walkers, and Guardian Brutes.
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