Kings of War 3rd Edition: #093 Kingdoms of Men vs Halflings in Plunder

Intro and Lists

The band of Ravenous Halflings have a tournament coming up, and Rob was looking for practice games! I believe this is the Renegade GT, and the event’s gimmick is heroes. I don’t have a player pack for the exact details, but the gist is that you need to pick a nonlegendary hero from any other list, which is an “exchange hero,” otherwise known as a Renegade. You don’t need to take an unlocking ally unit for it, and can instead use a normal unlock from your Core list. Keywords carry over, but the Renegade counts as a Core unit for you, will Inspire your core units and such, and is even able to magic items. It’s a neat, albeit awkward idea to monitor. As I understood things then, it seemed like there were four ways to approach this event with your Renegade:

• Assassin. With more individuals around, and Duelist on the horizon to be tripling attacks as of the time of the tournament, hero hunters could be something very nice to grab. Something like the Abyssal’s Seductress came to mind immediately, though this could also be something like a Host Shadowbeast Vampire. The ability to take upgrades and even items in the tournament really opens the door to some strong and interesting picks.
• Defender. Assuming tournament points are on the line for surviving with your Renegades, one might want to hunker down with something like a Undead Pharaoh or a Dwarf Lord and focus on preserving your own points.
• Minimalist. If you like what your list does, one might just go cheap, with something that could help but isn’t strong of a big investment, such as a Herd Druid (with or without Bane Chant) for just another source of Inspiring or even something like a KoM Mounted Hero for an extra drop.
• Wildcard. If your list is already tuned and doing something cool, it could pay dividends to play around with some keywords or add something unusual into your list to give yourself another angle of play.

The Wildcard space seems like where most of the fun will be had, and is what we both tried to focus on for our practice game. Rob brought the following for the Halflings:

The core of Rob’s list should be pretty familiar to frequent readers. He’s got the Heroes of Haagen-Dazs, the upgraded and Inspiring horde of Halfling Stalwarts with the Hammer of Measured Force to hold the line, two Def5 Stalwart troops to interdict. Two Poachers, two Grenadiers, and a Regiment of Wild Runners are around to pressure, and two regiments of Juggers are around to do much of the heavy-lifting. An upgraded Iron Beast and two Harvesters provide some additional hitting and grinding power, and the list is supported by his classic Hot Pot Sauceror and Muster Captain to provide a variety of Auras to the Halflings, the most impactful usually being the Captain’s Strider.

Rob went went with the “wildcard” route with the Halflings, taking a Twilight Kin Summoner Crone with Weakness, Bane Chant and the Amulet of the Fireheart to let her double-cast once during the game. The GT would be using the newest Clash updates, which he was told has Weakness losing its Piercing value, so we played it without Piercing here as well.

The Kingdoms of Men are pretty versatile, so I wanted to play around with keywords a bit, and ran a pretty experimental list with Chariots, the Formation for extra drops, and Fanatics, for the Berserker keyword. 

My Renegade was the Orc’s Morax Mansplitter, to provide an aura of TC1 to Berserkers, which includes the 3+ Fanatics of the Kingdoms of Men! Rob put this event on my radar a few weeks back, so I tried to be extra sporting and hobby up the Mansplitter, but didn’t quite finish him or the Chariots up prior to our game. Up to test are: 

• Spear Phalanx. I need something to hold ground. While I had had these hobbied up for literally years at this point, I don’t think they have hit the table in 3rd Edition yet? Taking cues from my recent Herd game, Def4 and 20/22 isn’t that durable, and with just the one horde, I’ll need to protect my horde this game. 
• Crossbowmen. I need unlocks, and like my one-off shooty infantry hordes, so we are taking the Crossbowmen again. They gave Rob a rough time at Dragonfall, so we’ll bring them again here for the practice game and see if I can scare him a bit. 
• Charioteer Regiments. Newcomers! I have been wanting to try these out for quite some time, but lacked the motivation to hobby any up for years now. I started them up in September, and they aren’t quite finished, so we’ll save the deep dive discussion for their Hobby Update post. The gist is I think they could be great instigators and pressure pieces, provide some extra fire with the cheap bows, and I opted for Regiments because that was easiest for points.
• Triple Giant. I wanted to get the three Rampaging Giants on the table, and the halflings seemed like a worthy foe to bring them out for.
• ASB, mount and Wand. Rob and I had discussed the gist of the GT a few weeks back, and he was leaning towards the Summoner Crone at the time. I try not to tailor my lists, but this was sort of an exception. It would blank against the Halflings normally, but is a decent general pick, and since I figured the Crone would appear, and I chose this and the horse as a way to try and lock his Renegade out, and give him some experience playing with and around Hex, which is a rather complex spell.
• ASB, Lute. A classic for me, and should play nicely with the Fanatics, or with the extra attacks on the Spears.
• Outlaw Formation. I have tried this before. Previously, I’ve loved the hero and hated on troops, but wanted to explore the formation again after my positive experiences with the Herd’s Tribal Trackers. I wanted to use these as extra drops against the Grenadiers, to try and screen them out and prevent them from jumping my lines like usual, but we’ll see what happens. Fliers are hard to contain without multiple units.
• Regiments of Fanatics. I've run them before and they’ve gotten shot up before, but we’re trying Regiments again. Death by Dragons had a Fanatic-focused list for a while, and he eschewed hordes given their high base price point, made even worse by trying to give them items. Against the Halflings, who are known for clever positioning and multi-charges, I also did not want to bring expensive hordes, but ran them stock to save points. 
• Morax Mansplitter. Berserker is a prevalent keyword, so it’s what I decided to play around with for our game. The Mansplitter gives an TC1 Aura to Berserkers, so it seemed like a neat way to cheaply boost the damage output of a bunch of Regiments

Table and Terrain

We were out at Valhalla Hobby in Verona, WI. I ran at least one demo game here previously, though that would have been almost two years ago, when the shop was literally half-built. It’s come a long way since then, has an awesome selection, and a great online storefront as well. Check them out!

The meetup was organized by Kenny of the Combat Phase Podcast, who has been dabbling a bit with Kings of War these days. He beat us out to the shop, and as a TO himself, had dumped a few boxes of terrain out for us to use. I used the Dash28 terrain randomizer to help us with our table. We were using our typical terrain rules, running the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and Hills as Height 3, and the ponds as Height 0. Kenny plays a variety of wargames, and while the pieces seemed a bit larger than we were used to, but we rolled with it.

Deployment was a little weird for both of us. Two buildings on the left and two ponds on the right made for a bit of a weird dynamic. We spent a good chunk of time in the deployment phase. From left-to-right for the Halflings we have the Wild Runners screening Grenadiers, a Stalwart Troop, some angled Poachers, the Muster Captain behind the building, and more Poachers. The center had the Heroic Stalwart Horde supported by the Sauceror, then the Harvester, Iron Beast, and other Harvester, with the second Stalwart troop out on the flank, screening for the other Grenadier unit. Both Juggers were late drops, and ended up pretty far back as reserves.

Deployment.

For deployment, my goals were to spread my giants around, get the Chariots on the hill, get two Fanatics near the Mansplitter, and lastly try to "counter" the Grenadiers with my Outlaw Bowmen. In the left corridor, we have Fanatics in reserve, angled Bowmen ready to pressure the token, a Giant to threaten the hill, and the Outlaw Hero to Inspire. The building split stuff up, and in the center we had the Giant, Spear Horde supported by the ASB with the Lute, Chariots with their Leader Points on the hill, Fanatics and Mansplitter in reserve, a Giant threatening the forest, the ASB with Wand hiding behind the Giant, and the other unit of Bowmen. Isolated on the right and in the pond were the Crossbowmen. They were going to end up on either flank, with the Muster Captain coming down early and behind the building, these were a late drop to try and pressure these tokens. Things could be tidier, but overall, I was pretty happy with my deployment.

Scout moves for the Halflings.

The Halflings make their Scout moves, getting both of the Poachers up in range of my Chariots. They are not majority on the hill, but with the big unit base, the Halflings can indeed see the flank of my unit and will be able to shoot it. The Halflings then win the roll for determining turn order, and decide to get on with it.

Top of Round 1: Halflings

On the left, the Wild Runners cheekily get their leader point on the hill, they have safe shots into my Outlaw Bowmen, and land 3 damage against them. It's a puny troop, but luckily they stick around.

Movement on the left.

In the center, the Poachers hold, as they do not have Steady Aim, and already cleverly Scouted up to get the early shots they wanted. They each shoot into the Chariots, and deal a combined 7 damage, and two 8's on the check will rout the unit!

It's my fault. I should have painted them up fully.

The Crone slinks out from behind the Iron Beast, gets a narrow line of sight, and lands Weakness on the Chariot Regiment, landing 1 damage due to her special rules.

The Juggers come marching around.

Out on the right, the Juggers start to shuffle around the Halfling contraptions, and move slowly towards the 2-Pointer, with the Stalwart Troop pivoting and moving out into the pond to make way. We'll see how deep the water is.

Bottom of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

Out on the right, the Crossbowmen have ensconced themselves in the opposing pond, but have clean shots into the first unit of Juggers, and land a hot 5 damage, which gets Iron-Resolved down to 4.

View from the right.

The Outlaw Bowmen here don't have shots, so I move them up a bit. Given the deployments, I think these are just going to be blocking for the Crossbowmen, so getting them up to create space will be important.

The Giant moves up a smidge and pivots. He's looking at the woods, but can still see a bit around it on either side. The goal is to hopefully slow down the advance of the halflings generally and the Juggers specifically.   

Zoning out the woods with the striding Giants has been a good way to use them.

Centrally, my ASB with the Wand lines up a Hex onto the Crone, which lands. My remaining Chariot regiments takes the hill, threatening a lot of charges next turn. It looses into the Heroic Stalwarts, but lands no hits. Arrayed a bit awkwardly, the Fanatics around the central hill shuffle around.

The Moreax Mansplitter moves 10" to try and get ready to zone out the Grenadiers. The Spear Phalanx moves up but stays out of charge range. 

The Giant puts its leader point into the woods to threaten charges. I don't expect the Grenadiers to stick around, so my goal would be to pincer the angled Poachers with the Giant and the Chariots, who have an amazingly long charge range.

Movement out on the left.

Out on the left, the Giant moves up to threaten charges, and the Fanatics move up to try and scar the Runners away. The Outlaw Hero moves up to help Inspire, and the Bowmen troop hold, loosing a volley at the Poachers, who are stealthy, and I land ho hits. I expected as much, but I thought I might be able to zone out the Grenadiers or get a charge against them if they tried slipping in.

Top of Round 2: Halflings

On the left, the Halflings have a ton of options. My opponent came prepared though, and started setting measuring sticks out to gather information. 

More precise than an eyeball.

Eventually, the Grenadiers slip between charge arcs and grab a token. The troop of Stalwarts move up to cover the retreat of the Wild Runners. With just one pivot, the Giant won't be able to connect with against the cavalry like I had been hoping to. But they aren't shooting me this turn, so that's a positive.

Precision allows for some extra clever plays.

One unit of Poachers pivots to get the Giant in the woods into front arc. The Poachers loose again, and with additional shots from the Iron Beast, will collectively 6 damage and bring the remaining Chariot regiment up to a familiar 7 damage, and get some more 8+ checks to ignobly rout the second regiment as well. Shucks.

Yeah, the chariots definitely needed a better paint job.

The Heroic Stalwart Horde pivots, ready to fight should anything charge in, and the three halfling contraptions jostle for positioning to allow the Iron Beast to shoot into the Chariots.

Out on the right, the Juggers continue their awkward swing around. There was a lot of difficult terrain over here to to deal with.

Movement out on the right.

The Crone hides behind the woods to let the Hex wear off, and the Muster Captain makes his way over to this side of the board to start enabling striding charges for the Juggers. The Stalwarts and Grenadiers swing around as well, looking to support in future turns.

Bottom of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

I want to support the Giants, but cannot given the charge distances and my lack of chariots, and so all three titans make solo charges this turn. On the right, I can see around the woods, and my closest point is with 14" so I can charge. My opponent says this was a misplay on his part, as he had measured from my leader point when positioning the Juggers. I am probably not going to break them, but with the Harvester and the other unit of Juggers unable to help, I am feeling good about this charge in terms of grinding and piece trading. 

The Giant gets in, stripping Thunderous Charge!

In the ranged phase, the Outlaw Bowmen and Crossbowmen land 6 more into the Juggers (the Outlaws didn't contribute at all...) and at 10 damage, I am able to pick the unit up.

In the melee Phase, the Giant lands 9 damage, but I fall 1 short of wavering them on the test. I realize on the following turn that I neglected the Giant's Brutal. Oops.

Assuming the Juggers weren't going to be routed, I had started bringing the Fanatics over to help. There are tokens over here, so hopefully they'll find a way to contribute. Unfortunately, I forgot that the formation give the Bowmen Steady Aim, so positioning is far messier than it should be. 

All that remains of the chariots is the damage tracker.

Centrally, the Spears scooch back. The Saucerer can go for Wild Charge, and I don't want to risk it against the Heroic Stalwarts or the Poachers. I have one horde, and feel like I need to really preserve it this game, so I try to. I should be out of charge range of the Grenadiers and their token, but I don't actually recall if I measured. The ASB and the Mansplitter move up behind the horde to support.

The Giant charges in against the Poachers, lands 8 damage, and while I forget about Brutal here as well, I only roll a 3 on the dice, so it does not matter. The Poachers hold.

The last Giant charges the Stalwart Troops, lands a familiar 8 damage, but the troop is found to be quite Insane! Nuts.

Not a great turn for the Giants, as it turns out.

The Fanatics move up onto the hill. The Outlaw Bowmen are just out of charge range to get into the Grenadiers with a flank charge. I could but the Outlaw Hero into the unit, but shooting seems like a better option, since there are more dice. The Outlaws here land 4, but I roll another 3 on the Nerve check, and the uninspired unit sticks around without a worry.

Top of Round 3: Halflings

The nimble Wild Runners will about-face, and head back. We go to measure the charge arc of the Fanatics. My opponent thinks he is out, but I think I will be able to see their corner for a charge, but the Fanatics are a little precarious being not quite on the hill, and in the middle of the table, and I bump my unit, so to be sporting the Runners are indeed out of charge arc. They've returned to fire into my Outlaw Bowmen again, and will pick them up this turn.

Pre-bumpage. I should be good to charge, right? Oh well.

The insane Stalwarts will land 1 damage into the Giant, and the Grenadiers will try and make a break for it, but do lose Fly and Nimble and a lot of speed while holding the token, so their escape isn't as easy as my opponent was hoping it would be.

Centrally, the Poachers will collapse in to fight the Giant, and the Heroes will join in against the flank. The Giant is brought 21 damage, and the he is found to be insane, but devastated.

The Giant holds! Mostly!

 A Harvester peels off from the other contraptions to come support the center and the Heroic Stalwart horde.

The Crone pops the amulet and slips out to cast Weakness into the Spears, landings 1 damage, and Bane Chant onto the surviving Juggers.

The Giant holds, but is outnumbered.

The other Harvester peeks into the woods, and the Iron Beast lumbers around it. Facing Crossbowmen, the Grenadiers nope away, and the Juggers and Stalwarts counter-charge the Giant, landing 7 damage. If only I had remembered Brutal!

Bottom of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

With both the Iron Beast and the Harvester nearby, the Giant is not long for this world. I decide to trade for the maimed Juggers, as my shooters can't shoot into them cleanly if I counter-charge the Stalwart troop. 

Movement.

The Giant lands enough to just devastate the Juggers, and then pivots to face the oncoming contraptions.

The Crossbowmen and Outlaw Bowmen shoot into the Stalwart troop, but armored chaff if strong, and only 3 damage manages to slip in, and the unit easily holds, though with the victorious pivot, my Giant is out of their charge arc.

More awkward movement with the Outlaws.

I have not used any of the Fanatics well this game, so out on the right, this unit pivots around, as I am going to need to make a play for the center if I want to win. I am feeling ok on the right though, and have been pressuring well here.

Combats for the Kingdoms of Men.

The mounted ASB scampers around the hill some more, and Hexes the Crone again.

With the Giant holding, the berserkers charge in! The Mansplitter ends up in the front, Rampage triggers, and he's got his TC Aura for Berserkers. Unfortunately, he flubs some hits, and lands just 3 damage. I meant to Bane Chant the flanking Fanatics, but spaced, and Bane Chant the Spears instead to get rid of Weakness. Still, the Fanatics are in the flank, with a clean charge, TC1 and CS1. They don't spike, but deal a more respectable 12, to take the Heroic Horde up to 15 damage. I need a 5 to waver and a 7 twice to rout, and I get another darn 3 for my Nerve check.

The insane but devastated Giant opts to charge in and finish off the injured Poachers. He rolls 11 extra attacks off 2d6 for 19, but we round that down to 9 attacks total, due to devastation. Some damage is done though, he picks them up, and turns to face the other unit.

Unfortunately the third Giant can only charge the insane Stalwarts, and he doesn't particularly want to fight them. He disengages and withdraws, then pivots to moves to get down off the hill and start threatening the center. This is a scenario for tokens and I need to be making plays for them.

The Giant departs, tagging-in the Fanatics.

Speaking of, my weakened Spears don't really want to fight the Heroes. They actually have a charge into the fleeing Grenadiers, and to charge that unit, catching the aforementioned Bane Chant. They are hindered, but their damage rolls are normal now. I land an underwhelming 2 damage (5ish is expected, 3ish if I was still weakened), but this does bring them to 6, and uninspired, I finally get a finally get a good Nerve check and scatter this unit. I claim the token, and about-face with my horde.

Reforms for the Kingdoms of Men.

With the Giant departing, the Fanatics go in against the insane Stalwarts, and will pick them up. I choose to spin them around to face the Wild Runners. We're making a stand out here, and I don't want them around to pot shot or rear charge me.

I believe the Outlaw Hero goes to shoot at the Runners, but misses all his shots. He tucks in under the hill, looking to shoo them out towards my opponent's deployment zone.

Top of Round 4: Halflings

The Wild Runners are indeed shooed away, easily getting out of charge arc of my Fanatics.

The Poachers take the charge into my insane and devastated Giant, deal a few more damage to bring him to 27 damage total, and fell him, overrunning in victory. 

Post-combat, for the Halflings.

The Heroes counter-charge the Mansplitter, landing 8 damage against the renegade. I am a fearless 14, but the checks are good and my exchange hero is bested. The Heroes attempt to overrun, but just get 1 inch, falling short of the token, as well as an overrun into my Spear Horde.

The Harvester will hit the flank of my Fanatics, will bring them to 15 damage, and get the rout.

The other Harvester and Iron Beast will multi-charge the Giant on the right. He started the turn on 7 damage. That number will double or thereabouts this turn, and uninspired, this giant will be routed. 

The Giant falls!

Out on the right, the Stalwarts move up, but don't angle to grab the token. The Grenadiers wheel about and return, pulling in behind the Stalwarts.

Bottom of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

I want to shoot the Crossbowmen into the Stalwarts, and the Bowmen into the Grenadiers, but splitting fire is greedy, and with my stats, unlikely to do anything effective. The Outlaw Bowmen hop up to interdict and delay so the Crossbowmen can keep shooting. Both units try to shoot into the Stalwarts, but a combined 2 damage is done, short of what is expected. The Nerve check is good, but at just 5 damage and thanks to the Inspiring Aura from the Iron Beast, the troop just wavers.

The humans struggle to hit the halflings.

The right is essentially lost; I'm not going to be able to fight through the Harvester and Iron Beast. The Crossbowmen are just trying to delay, to force them to stay over here and pick up tokens. The Fanatics on the right run out to make a play for the central token.

Moves in the center.

The Spears catch a Bane Chant and make a hindered charge into the Stalwarts. The Halflings Lifeleeched a bit back last turn, but my dice are a bit closer to the average this time around, and we are able to pick them up, and then back up 1". It's not much, but this does put the center of my unit well into the woods, and the Harvester should be hindered next turn.

With one pivot, the Giant couldn't sneak past the Poachers to help the Spears, and instead charges the Poachers. The Giant rolls up 2 extra attacks, and comes far short of doing anything impressive. Still, the Poachers are occupied and disordered, which isn't a bad thing.

The Fanatics spin around to threaten the Runners if they don't flee far enough, and are angled to line up a charge into the Poachers, as I didn't think my Giant would break them in one turn.

The Outlaw Hero takes the hill, and looses, landing 2 damage into the departing Wild Runners.

Top of Round 5: Halflings

The Wild Runners cheekily nimbly move back, avoiding the charge arc of the Fanatics, and shooting them for 2 damage.

The Poachers counter-charge the Giant, landing 2 damage on him as well.

The Harvester crashes in hard.

The Harvester makes a hindered charge, but with max attacks, still rolls pretty well, landing 7 damage onto the Spear Phalanx.

Centrally, the Muster Captain charges in to stall up the Fanatics. The Crone powers through Hex to cast Weakness on them, and they end the round at 5 damage. The Iron Beast lurches forth to grab a token, and them, looking to pick up the berserkers up next turn and stop my play for the middle.

The Halflings start collecting tokens.

On the right, the Harvester charges the Outlaw Bowmen on the right, with the Muster Captain lingering earlier in the phase to make it a striding charge. Rolling up max attacks, the contraption will shred the bowmen. It overruns, but not far, and is still in front arc of the Crossbowmen.

The Stalwarts don't make their Headstrong check, and so stay put. They are still blocking line of sight from the Crossbowmen to the Grenadiers though, so still doing their job out here.

Bottom of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

The Crossbowmen land a few more damage into the Stalwarts, and will get the rout this time, but it's just a smidge too late.

The Stalwarts are shot off.

The ASB on the hill hexes the Crone again, and the weakened Fanatics try to push through the Muster Captain, but land just 4 damage. They should have Lifeleeched 1 back, but go-figure, I forgot about the ASB's special aura again.

Combats on the left.

The Spears catch another Bane Chant and stab at the Harvester, landing 5 damage against it, despite the Big Shield 

The Giant goes into the Poachers again, joined by the Fanatics coming off the hill, and the unit will be devastated and routed, as is proper. Unfortunately, I rolled this combat first, which is an error. The Giant will back up to make sure he can smack the Harvester next turn, but then the Fanatics are in a bind, and opt change facing, to threaten the Wild Runners. A rear-charge, even just a hindered one, into my token-carrying Spears would be very bad.

The Outlaw Hero won't get off the hill turn turn, but will charge the Wild Runners, and will slap another 2 damage on them and will get a wonderful waver. I was worried I wouldn't even disorder them! It was a pretty big error on my part, and I should have rolled this combat first. I realized my error a bit too late to do anything about it.

Top of Round 6: Halflings

The wavering Wild Runners back up, and then nimble themselves against the board edge. 

Charges from the Halflings in Round 6.

My opponent is playing to win, and so the Muster Captain charges the Spears alongside the Harvester. The extra attack dice aren't great this time, and the Captain is snagged by Phalanx, and only 4 damage slips in. The horde holds strong on 12 damage.

The Halflings tie it up!

The Fanatics had been stalled up by the Captain, allowing the Iron Beast to make a flank charge against the unit. The Beast does 10 damage to take them to 15, but the Fanatics are found to be insane now, keeping me in the game and able to contend for a win.

The Harvester makes a hindered charge into the Crossbowmen, and lands 4 damage, but does get the disorder against them, and allowing the Grenadiers to grab the 2-Point token safely, making the game 2:2 as we go into the Bottom of Round 6.

Bottom of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men

The Crossbowmen counter-charge the Harvester, and deal 2 damage. It's not much, and they never crazy hot dice, but the Crossbowmen did a great job zoning out this side of the board all game.

The Insane Fanatics move out to grab the central token, putting the Kingdoms of Men in the lead. There is always the chance of a Round 7, so I need to protect them if I am going to sneak in the win against the Halflings.

The Crossbowmen push back and the ASB charges.

The first threat is the Iron Beast. The Fanatics are out of charge arc, but it does have a shooting attack. The mounted ASB charges in, but is not able to land a damage to disorder the contraption, so the first threat is unaddressed.

The Kingdoms of Men take the lead!

The second threat is the Crone and her possibly damaging the Fanatics with her Weakness spell. She's been power-casting through Hex, and I have no way to threaten her, so I gotta take my chances there, and the second threat is unaddressed.

The third threat is the Muster Captain just wheeling around and charging the Fanatics, so the Spear Phalanx opt to counter-charge the Muster Captain.

Out on the left, the Giant would clip the Fanatics, so they need to change facing to let him pass as he makes a flank charge into the Harvester. It's on the far side of the table, and I missed that angle on my last turn, so these fanatics mostly just spun wildly around all game.

Silly Fanatics.

I do have the presence of mind to roll the fight against the Muster Captain first. The Spears catch a Bane Chant, and stab the Captain for 10, bringing him to 13 damage. The Muster Captain is then found to be insane, and so there is no overrun into the Harvester fight either.

Speaking of, the Giant rolls abysmally and it looks like only 3 damage is done, but a hot Nerve check gets a waver on the Harvester.

The Round ends with the Kingdoms of Men in the lead 3:2, but I am a glutton for punishment and after all the literal insanity of Round 6, we do roll up a Round 7.

Top of Round 7: Halflings

The Harvester grinds against the Crossbowmen and the Grenadiers jog away with their token, but I don't record the details, and this isn't consequential.

The Iron Beast lurches away from the mounted ASB and readies its gun. Shots ring out, but no hits land!

The Crone casts Weakness on the Fanatics, does get 1 damage, and then gets the rout. I drop the token in the front part of their footprint, behind plane of the back corner of the Harvester. The plan is to withdraw with the Giant and then go pick it up.

The Crone get the rout to even things up again.

The Muster Captain continues on against the Spears, but isn't able to land the damage due to Phalanx, and the Halflings again pass the turn with the game a 2:2 tie.

Bottom of Round 7: Kingdoms of Men

I was eyeballing it. The Giant withdraws, then pivots... and as it turns out, no matter where I dropped the token, the Giant wasn't going to be able to reach. 

I meant to take a better closing picture, but apparently did not. Not the actual positioning, but I am definitely too far away.

I do have a juicy flank charge into the Harvester again, and can probably remove it and the Muster Captain this time, but unable to win the scenario, I just call it here.

Tie Game!

Game Conclusions

Four Insane Courage results? Four? No combat unfolded as we expected it to this game. The Nerve Checks were very unpredictable, so we tried not to read too much into those. 

Discussing it all afterwards, we both felt like the Juggers should have deployed more aggressively, even in the pond. The concern was Inspiring them, as the Muster Captain deployed pretty early and behind the building, much to my surprise. I think Rob had the harder deployment, and I think I got the better of him in this regard. I was pressuring every Loot Token, but mostly just playing for the left-side of the board. That has been a decent approach to playing this scenario, and the Halfling's tentative deployment let the Crossbowmen really pressure those tokens all the way to the very end.

Testing Conclusions

• Spears. I had a conundrum in 6 whether to pop their IW, and ultimately I did not. I overthought it. Indomitable Will grants Fearless as well, and the unit was Inspired, so I did not need to play around a possible waver in Round 7 and I could have popped it at either point to get the same result. Overall, the Spears were used well, and I think it was wise to hold them back for so long.
• Crossbowmen. They didn’t really spike their dice at all this game, but still did well overall, chipping away at things, and really controlled that side of the board for most of the game. 
• Charioteers. I obviously should have painted them up better! I figured they would draw fire, so I guess they did the job alright, but it would have been nicer to get some more turns in with them. I could have hidden them behind the hill more, but I wanted to make use of their long charge range, so I wouldn’t count that as a mistake or misplay. 
• Triple Giant. Losing the Chariots, I wasn’t able to support their initial charges. Each dealing 8ish damage is an overperformance, but a strong start. I forgot about Brutal on those early charges, and wavering the Juggers would have been huge, but so it goes. They were used pretty well, the charges were pretty sound options, and they ultimately traded well.
• ASB, mount and Wand. This was a nice setup, as the Mount gave him the height to see his target and the speed to hit those angles. There was one instance of Lifeleech I forgot for him to aid the insane Fanatics, but so it goes. 
• ASB, Lute. A babysitter, but the rolls were solid and I don’t think he missed a Chant at all. I did forget Lifeleech for him as well, which would have saved 3 on the Spears. Since I held them back for so long, the Spears didn’t accumulate enough damage to be scared of routing, but this is still a misplay on my part and something I need to get better at. 
• Outlaw Formation. I have a better appreciation for the formation now. I remember thinking around and considering Volley Fire, but it never came up. I am 100% sure I forgot they gained Steady Aim from the formation though, which is a pretty big error. They should have been more mobile. A good experience, and worth trying again I think.
• Regiments of Fanatics. I was hoping the Chariots could instigate and then these claim the hill and then charge in once the chariots had fled the field, but with the Chariots shot off… I didn’t have a great backup plan, and they started skulking around the hill. One got a flank charge in, but I spaced and forgot to Bane chant them. These were not used well, but still did ok.
• Morax Mansplitter. I was hiding him and so he was not able to make use of his throwing axe at all. He is a neat hero, and he tried, and at least got to go down fighting! Not a super-powerful Renegade, but this was a fun experiment. The Kingdoms of Men get a Fanatic hero too, but on a shock unit like this, I would rather have the TC aura instead of Rally.

I didn’t play the best game, forgetting Brutal in the early combats, as well as my usual Lifeleech, but leading for most of the game against Rob and his Ravenous Halflings, I will still most happily take a draw. I learned a lot, and as-usual, I had a great time. A big thank you to Rob, and if we don't squeeze another practice game in beforehand, best of luck to him at the Renegade GT!