Intro and Lists
The first ever inaugural Northwoods GT was underway, but like any event since time immemorial, it was not without some hiccups. Given the unpredictable, but generally cold and inhospitable Wisconsin Januarys, most attendees were arriving the night before, just in case. However, the night prior to the night before, the hotel had a pipe burst, forcing many (including me) to find other last-minute accommodations. Thankfully, we all figured it out, and the event started the next morning on time.
Game One for me was against Hari, who was running a fabulous and heavily converted Empire of Dust army he had dubbed the Empire of Mud. Instead of fantasy Egypt, the concept was of Atlantis being raised from the aquatic deeps, and so while a number of actual EoD models were in the army, they were joined by sea creatures and vibrant foliage, and lots of resin and water effects. While he said that he had played a lot of Kings of War previously, he had stepped away for a bit, so this event and these games were apparently the first games back after several years away. His list was called "First Games in Over 2 Years" and contained the following:
We went over lists a bit, but I have never seen, let alone played an Empire of Dust army before. I knew that we had some unit overlap, and that we both had some Shambling units, and that his Skeletons could scout, and generally that he traded the "trashier" Zombies for constructs, but I had no real depth of understanding of the army or how it worked. It looked like the Enslaved Guardians and the flying, Shambling, monster-sized Wyrms were the scariest units to watch out for, so I'd try to do just that, and figure out the rest on the fly.
I brought my Undead MMU, featuring Skeleton Warriors with two-handers, Wraiths, Soul Reaver, and a pair of Burrowing Wyrms. Rather than blabber again and again for these reports, you can read more about the my thinking and prep here, if you are so inclined.
Playing against a new army is always a fun but difficult task for me. However, I've played games far more recently than my opponent, so we'll see how we both manage!
Table and terrain
The "gimmick" for the tournament was leaning into Wisconsin's historic forests, and running an extra forest, often in place of a flat piece of terrain. Overall, we were using our typical terrain rules, running the mountain and building on the right as Height 9 blocking terrain, all the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and Hills as Height 3, and the fields as Height 0.
The tournament was also using a veto/pick system for scenario selection. Each round has three possible scenarios. The first roll off of the game lets the loser veto one of the choices, and then the winner selects what will be played from the remaining two. The options were not public until the start of the tournament, so one couldn't plan too much, and had to bring a more generalized list. The choices each round were varied, and I really enjoyed this method.
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| Quick overview of the table. |
For Game 1, we had choices between Pillage, Loot, and Bulldog. I don't remember who nixed and who picked, but someone nixed Bulldog and we ended up with Loot. The Empire of Mud won the roll for sides, and got down to it. Game 1 was a little rough for notes and pictures, and thus reporting as well, days and days after the fact, but we'll soldier through.
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| No deployment pictures. We're on to Scout moves already! View from the left. |
As should probably be expected, the opposing flying Wyrms were the final drops for my opponent, and like any good pair of fliers they went on opposite flanks. Left-to-right we have a Wyrm, Skeleton Spear horde, a Revenant Champion, Skeleton troops screening for Enslaved Guardians, Skeleton troops screening for scouting Mummies, more troops and for more Enslaved Guardians. The Monolith was central, with more Skeleton Spears, another Revenant King, angled Wyrm Riders, and the second flying Wyrm out on the other flank.
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| View from the center, with a lot of scouting skeletons. |
Unfortunately, the forest was just outside my deployment zone, so I could not see through it to start. I did not want to have anything stuck behind it, so I decided to try and deploy around it. Being the Undead, I wanted to deploy compactly, and I ended up deploying in basically two chunks. On the left, I have Soul Reavers with the Ale supported by the Healing ASB, Wraith Regiment, my Burrowing Wyrm, and some Skeleton Warriors to block.
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| View of of the center and right. |
With two Spear Hordes, I figured he's probably be wider than me, so I wanted to keep most of my Wraith troops in the center to be reactive. My center blobs had the Liche near the forest to be sneaky, Soul Reaver, Skeletons, with Wraiths in reserve and the Bane Chanting ASB in reserve, then the other Wyrm to zone out the field. The other two Wraith troops and Skeleton Regiments ended up on the right, as I figured I'd need to delay things over here. Lastly, Mhorgoth was out here on the right as well, to try and enable Surging and other tomfoolery.
With deployment complete, all of the Skeletons and the Mummies of the Empire of Mud scouted up, and then winning the roll for determining turns, my opponent wisely chose to go first to capitalize on the scout moves.
I was very wary of the clock going into the tournament. The official rule was if you clocked out, dice are down. No finishing the turn or the phase or even that combat. Dice down, nothing moves and any checks are treated as steady. I wanted good, social games more than wins, and had no problem letting an opponent finish up if they clocked out or something, but did not know if the same vibes would be coming from the other side of the table. Going into Round 1 of Game 1, I had 57:53 left, while my opponent had 54:14 and although the speed was to the detriment of my notes and pictures and such, I was very happy with my clock management to start.
Top of Round 1: Empire of Mud
My opponent was new to Command Dice, since he had been away from the game for so long. The three Revenant Champions all took extra Reds, and he got 6 Swords for his first foray.
Going first, the Empire of Dust was largely able to capitalize on their scout moves, and was able to grab most of the Loot tokens with sturdy units right off the bat.
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| Movement on the right. |
On the right, 4 Swords are used on By the Masters Will to let the flying Wyrm lose Shambling, and it zips forward out of arc and out of range. The other two swords I think go to waste. Nothing needs and Endurance heal and little goes out for spells this turn.
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| Movement in the center from the Empire of Mud. |
The Wyrmriders are stymied by the spacing and angle and terrain, and can't quite reach the token on the right. They are stuck as a second-line unit. The Spear Horde is able to move up and grab the central Loot token though, with the looming Monolith tree lumbering up as well.
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| More movement from the Empire of Mud. |
The scouting Skeleton troops all grab another inch-plus, gaining ground but staying out of range of the Soul Reavers. The Mummies and both Enslaved Guardians move up to reinforce.
And out on the left, the other Skeleton Spear Horde moves up to touch and grab the third and final token, with the other flying Wyrm just moving its 10" forward to project threat.
I can see why folks like the Empire of Dust! I already like skeletons, and scouting does look like a lot of fun! I am definitely feeling the pressure with such a wide line up so far already.
Bottom of Round 1: Undead
I purchased two extra Reds, and roll up 4 Swords for my dice this turn.
On the left, trying to avoid "gotchas", I had emphasized the ASB and Wild Charge 2 interaction, and so the various Skeletons had advanced more early but then eventually backtracked to stay more than 12" away and avoid letting my Skeletons and Soul Reavers get into things this turn.
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| The Wyrm charges. |
It's admittedly reckless, but I do send the Wyrm in against the Skeleton Spears. I am out of arc from the flying Wyrm, and while it could shamble surge to get in, I decide I want to grind and piece trade and see how it all goes.
I think the Soul Reavers are back far enough that the shambling flier can't move 10 and Nimble pivot to get behind me. The Wraiths are around to support. The Skeleton Warriors are in a bit of a weird spot, as they are essentially chaff and I want to move them up to take the hits, but if I just move them up, everything can see them, and the flier would be in their flank, unhindered. So, they inch forward, and pivot, keeping out of the woods and trying to keep the flier in their front arc as well.
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| Charges in the center. |
Centrally, I use all my Command Dice for my own "By the Masters Will" to hop a Wraith troop over the line to hopefully entangle the screening Skeleton troops. Unfortunately, it had no charges, so gumming things up is the best I can do, and I get it as far up as I can.
I also make a triple charge into the Skeleton Spear horde, with a Burrowing Wyrm and two Wraith troops. This is also a bit reckless, as the horde has Spears, so my fliers will be hindered and I am not likely to do too much damage here. My "don't overthink it" approach wants me to capitalize on the Wyrm Riders being slowed, and my thinking is that not everything is likely to be charged, so something should survive here, and the Wraiths might then be able to zip around and get surging flanks with Mhorgoth.
I should have played it slower here. With me charging in now, the Wyrm Riders can now charge, so I'm actually helping them out. I am also charging flying troops into a horde with Phalanx, which isn't a good idea. Lastly, charging all three has some odd spacing, putting the Wyrm at risk. I had extra bases with my game stuffs, and should have been a touch more cautious here. Still, I do ok, landing 10 damage against the horde. It's not nothing.
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| Trying to deal with or otherwise dissuade the flier on the right. |
The Skeleton Warriors are forced to turn to spot the flying Wyrm, and keep him in front arc. There is no surge caster around here, so if we can keep him in front arc and dissuade him from charging, I think I delay for now and deal with it later.
Top of Round 2: Empire of Mud
My opponent rolls up 9 Swords for his Command Dice.
On the right, the flying Wyrm does not charge, and moves and nimble pivots to patiently wait for flanks instead.
I thought I'd gum his line up more, but my reckless charges were apparently quite reckless, and my opponent does a great job at reacting, and getting things shuffling about where there they be useful. The Skeleton Spear horde charges my Wyrm to slide down, and the previously blocked Wyrmriders charge the Wraiths on the end. They have a weird stat-line, but I thought the Wraiths could hold for a turn. It turns out the Riders have Pathfinder, and the coffee is helping both my opponent and his dice. They land 8 damage (looks to be double what would be expected), and although they are inspired, the phantasms do understandably rout.
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| The Empire of Mud collapses into the upstart Undead units. |
I learn a little about the Soul Snare this turn. It's 18" Drain Life hits some of my Skeleton Warriors for 4 damage, and the 12" range on the healing portion of the spell heals up my opponent's more central Skeleton Spear Horde, taking them from 10 down to 6 damage. The extra range on both sides of the spell are really nice and really strong.
Both Burrowing Wyrms ended up pretty exposed, and will take some big rebuttal charges. The central one gets hit in the flank with Enslaved Guardians off the hill, and a Skeleton troop joins in with a hindered charge, mostly to prevent the Mummies from sliding down and being hindered. The Skeleton Spear Horde does 0, the Skeleton Warriors also do 0, but the Guardians do 20 damage in the flank, and the first Wyrm falls. I figured they were around Troll-equivalents, but they hit on 3's! Very cool. Given the jumble of charges, they are stuck though and cannot meaningfully reform. The Skeleton troop is forced to swivel to protect their flank.
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| Mummies, charging Wraiths. |
Mummies charge off the hill into the Wraiths, getting a Bane Chant from the Revenant Champion and the Lute. They are wounding on 2's, but thankfully the damage is low, and these phantasms hold.
I do not get a picture, but on the left, the Spears counter charge my Wyrm, with the Enslaved Guardians joining in with a frontal charge. The Skeleton Warriors can just spy the back corner of the Wyrm too, and then join in with a flank charge. Coffee is kicking in across the line, the Skeletons do a combined 5 and the Guardians to 7, and at "just" 12 damage, the second Wyrm breaks as well.Bottom of Round 2: Undead
I roll up 6 Swords for my Command Dice.
Obviously, losing both Wyrms is very, very bad for me. and I'm wracking my brain to figure out how to drag my way back into the game, but am not in a good position, and the Empire of Mud has higher quality of units that I'd expect from a more typical undead force. I've got my work cut out for me.
On the left, I triple charge the Skeleton Spears as it's the only thing I can reach with all three. The Soul Reavers underperform and do 8, the Warriors do 3, and the Wraiths are hindered by Phalanx, but with Crushing Strength, do contribute some as well. The Wyrm had done a little last turn, but not enough. The Skeletons are brought up to 16 damage, but hold.
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| A triple charge for the Undead that just does not pan out. |
Centrally, the other Soul Reavers charges a troop of Skeletons, and will obliterate them and overrun, to bump into the Wraiths, who are counter-charging the Mummies. The Skeletons that took Drain Life hits from the Soul Snare make a hindered charge into another Skeleton Troop, trying to avenge the Wyrm, and will actually claim the troop with some hot dice. Bane Chant into the avenging Skeletons connects, Bane Chant into the Wraiths fighting the Mummies fails, and the Liche's Heal lands 1/6 onto the Skeletons. It's another bummer turn for my magic.
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| Charges for the Undead. |
Another troop of Wraiths hop the line. I am initially pleased with myself, but am unable to get line of sight to them in order to Surge them around. Using the Command Order, both they and Mhorgoth try Drain Life into things. Neither spell lands any hits.
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| Charges from another angle. |
Two other Skeleton Warrior Regiments charge the Wyrm Riders, so one can slide down and pick up the token. I'm not going to rout them, obviously, but I wanted a token in my possession, even if I'm not likely to hold it for long.
Top of Round 3: Empire of Mud
My opponent rolls up 7 Swords for his Command Dice, and starts turning up the heat.
On the right, the flying Wyrm is just within arc and range to hit the flank of the Skeletons with the token. The hits are average, but 4 1's means the unit is only taking 6 damage, and holds for now.
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| The Skeleton Regiments do its thing and take hits. |
The Wyrm Riders countercharge the other Skeleton regiment, with the Spear Horde hitting the unit in the flank, hindered. Still, the unit is crushed. The Skeletons reform by spinning around, though I do not notice at the time.
The Enslaved Guardians spin to face my Wraiths, and I learn about the Monolith this turn, which can cast a no-look Surge 8 to get them into my fliers. Miraculously, if memory serves though, my opponent gets some crazy cold dice, and they actually do no damage.The Soul Snare hits the Skeletons again, bringing them to 6 damage, and heals the central Skeleton Spears, which should also Lifeleech a bit, and will end the turn at just 5 damage, and trending in the wrong direction for my needs.
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| The combats in the center. |
The Revenant Champ with the Lute charges the avenging Skeletons to hold them up. The front facing for my Skeletons is just out of the field since they overran just a touch too far, so the Champ is not hindered, and lands all four possible damage. This unit got hit with the Soul Snare's Drain life, and is at 10 damage total, but they hold thanks to Fearless and a low roll. The Skeleton regiments are performing as planned, holding on and taking just a little more effort to remove than a normal unit. Nearby, the Mummies continue their fight against the Wraiths, taking them up to 3, and my Def6 troops are holding up and performing ok as well.
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| A surging charge from the flying Wyrm. |
On the left, the flying Wyrm got behind my line, but didn't have any charges this turn. It pivots to face my rear, and then moves to get closer. While he could have pointed the Wyrm at either, he chooses to be greedy, and with a Surge from the Revenant Champion, hit the ASB first and hopes for the overrun into the rear of the Soul Reavers. The Undead ASBs are Def5 though, and only 4 damage lands, and the ASB holds.
The Enslaved Guardians and another Skeleton troop hit and obliterate the Skeletons.
Bottom of Round 3: Undead
I roll up 6 Swords for my Command Dice.
On the left, the ASB excuses himself, and the Soul Reavers and Wraiths go into the Skeleton Spearmen again, and will pick them up this time. The Soul Reavers pick up the token, and turn to face the flying Wyrm, and the Wraiths turn to try and protect their flank from the Enslaved Guardians. Unfortunately, the infantry is wider then they are deep, so both in front and behind of the Soul Reavers there should be barely room enough for the flying Wyrm to hit the rear of the Wraiths, if my opponent is so inclined.
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| The Undead try their best top protect the token. |
Centrally, the Liche lands a good heal into the Skelton regiment, taking them from 10 down to 7 as they fight against the Revenant Champion and his hot dice.
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| Magic continues to fizzle |
On the far right, the Skeletons know they are not going to hold the token for long, and so try to ground the flying Wyrm to buy time elsewhere. I do slip in 2 damage, and do ground the flier for now.
Top of Round 4: Empire of Mud
My opponent rolls up 6 Swords for his Command Dice, but is down to something like 5 minutes on the clock. I have been playing recklessly (but quickly!) and should have about 20 minutes left. I don't want to take full turns, Command Dice and all, while my opponent does nothing, so my goal is to get to a better position by the time his clock runs out, and call the game there. I have two tokens right now, and might be able to juggle things around to keep it that way, even if the actual tokens I hold might be different in the end.
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| Charges from the Empire of Mud. |
On the right, the grounded Wyrm goes into the Skeletons. Wanting to make sure he gets this token before running out of clock time, the Wyrm Riders hit the unit in the rear. The rear charge easily breaks them and the Wyrm will claim the token.
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| Central charges from the Empire of Mud |
The Enslaved Guardians charge the Wraiths in my opponent's backfield, roll poorly, but do officially ground them this turn.
Centrally, the remaining Spear horde has taken some hits, but has also been healed by the Soul Snare every turn, and multiple Drain Life casts have failed to do anything to them. Since I missed their victorious reform, they have a hindered charge into the very mobile Mhorgoth, and gladly take it, though I don't think any damage lands.The Soul Snare attempts Drain Life on something again, and offers itself up to block the Soul Reavers in the center. The Monolith also tries to take up space.
The Revenant Champion with the Lute charges the nearby Wraith Troop, and should land the 1 damage needed to disorder and ground them.
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| The Revenant Wyrm hops the line and gets into position for Surge. |
On the left, with close quarters, the flying Wyrm is able to nimbly hop the line, to see the rear of the Soul Reavers, and get Surged in by the Revenant Champion. The Soul Reavers are not devastated, but they do break, and this flier reclaims the token.
The Enslaved Guardians make a hindered charge into the Wraith regiment, but don't seem to care about it. They land 9 damage onto the regiment, and it holds, barely.
My opponent accomplished all this in about 2 minutes, and has a little less than 2 minutes left on the clock, and my hopes of getting into a better position seem to have slipped away.
Bottom of Round 4: Undead
I roll up 5 Swords for my Command Dice, but struggle to see a way back into the game.
On the left, Heal lands 1 and the Wraiths Lifeleech 1 back against the Enslaved Guardians, but this is not a good position.
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| Ineffectual resistance from the Undead. |
The Soul Reavers effortlessly cut down the Soul Snare, and reform to try and fight for the left token as the game concludes. My hope is that my spells can finally best the central Skeleton Spear horde and that I can cobble something somewhat respectable together.
Mhorgoth Bane Chants the Wraiths behind enemy lines, and they bring the Enslaved Guardians up to 6 damage or so. The rolls have been terrible in this fight for both of us, and this is the first real progress either of us has made towards routing the other. Mhorgoth tries a Drain Life into the central Skeleton Spears, and again the BC ASB uses some Swords to try the same, but nothing connects this turn.
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| Minor progress in the center. |
My Skeletons in the center do make a charge (I believe a flank charge) into the Monolith, trying to shut off easy Surge sources. It is a hindered charge, and I do manage to land a point of damage, but learn that it cannot be disordered and is still online. I'm fighting a new army, and this is obviously an error. Shutting down Surge isn't the play here, and I should have charged the Skeleton Spearmen and made a (slightly) stronger play for the token, even if that charge was hindered as well.
On the right, I have nothing, and the flying Wyrm still holds that token. The Empire of Mud holds both of the other tokens as well.
Top of Round 5: Empire of Mud
My opponent has about 2 minutes on the clock, and tries to layers things to protect the tokens. Luckily for him, he's holding all three currently, and I have a steep hill to climb.
On the right, the Wyrm Riders post up to protect the flying Wyrm with the token.
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| The Empire of Mud sets up some layered defenses. |
The Enslaved Guardians continue fighting against my Wraith troop in the backfield. It's their turn to deliver some actual damage, and the phantasms are brought up to 7 damage, but hold.
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| The Skeleton Spearmen finish off my regiment of Warriors. |
The Skeleton Spearmen make a hindered rear-charge into my regiment of Skeleton Warriors, and will pick them up, Life Leeching from 10 down to 9. The Revanant Champion continues to disrupt and ground the other Wraith troop.
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| More layered defenses on the left. |
On the left, my opponent still had a Skeleton troop handing around, and it charges into the Soul Reavers to tie them up.
The flying Wyrm has a rear charge into the Wraith regiment. It's already pretty badly injured, and the Wyrm in the rear and the Enslaved Guardians in the front seals their doom. The Guardians swivel, again layering up to protect the token in the late game.
My opponent clocked out partway through the turn. No other table is done yet though, so I insist he at least finish up the turn.
Bottom of Round 5: Undead
I roll up 7 Swords for my Command Dice, which is good, because I have a tall task in front of me.
On the left, the Skeleton troop is swiftly pulverized, but their sacrifice is still worthwhile. The Soul Reavers still have multiple units to chew through, they overrun 1 inch, apparently out of steam.
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| Positioning out on the left. |
The central Wraith troop brings the Revenant Champion from 3 up to 6, but is still grounded and stuck up on him.
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| Positioning on the right. |
I spend more Swords on Drain life from the BC ASB into the Skeleton Spears, and continue to try and throw Mhorgoth's Drain Life into them. We should land 2 damage into them, but on 11 damage, they'll hold strong. We've doubled up on the spell for most of the game, but I think we've maybe done 5 damage so far? It looks like 4 damage should be the expected outcome for one round of the doubling-up, so this has been some terrible rolling from me.
Round 5 ends with the Empire of Mud still controlling all 3 Loot Tokens.
Top of Round 6: Empire of Mud
My opponent has clocked out, and refuses to share my time or continue on himself, but adamantly insists that I use up my time. Neither of us thinks that I can win, but as a tournament player, he urges me to try and rout things to at least bump up my attrition points.
So, for top of 6, the Empire of Mud holds fast.
Bottom of Round 6: Undead
I roll up a handful of Swords for my Command Dice, and dutifully do try to kill things, but my luck persists.
Mhorgoth and the Bane Chant ASB fail, again, to land any Drain Life damage into the Skeleton Spears, and the rattling horde of skeletons holds steady.
The Soul Reavers charge the Enslaved Guardians, with a clean charge, but the botch their roll, dealing just 4 damage.
Effectively nothing changes with my extra turn. Nothing routs, and the Empire of Mud still holds 3 objectives for the win!
Game Conclusions
Game 1 was an utter beating, but it was still a pleasure for me. I got to face both a brand new army, and against a brand new player! A big goal of a tournament for me is the social aspect, so this was a great way to start things out. For having such a deep voice Hari was incredibly soft spoken and kind, and again this was a great introduction to a larger, more serious tournament.
Across the table, I really dug his army. All the extra conversion work and basing efforts really popped on the table, and the Empire of Dust really seems like fun army to play. Skeleton troops piqued my interest before, but since they have Shambling, I don’t think you can run them effectively without Scout, so that’s something for the Empire alone. The Revenant Champ spam was strong, and got the King back on my radar. Frustratingly though, the Champ is on par with the Undead’s Revenant Kings for stats… but 15 points cheaper just because. I don’t think King-spam is really viable for most of my Undead lists either. I was purposely avoiding Surge with my list, but he used it really well here, and I think that kind of playstyle, one of taking a charge and then swarming it, is a strong way to play with the Undead, and is something I should be looking at in the future, say if I swap out Wraiths for Mummies or something.
Game-wise, there is not much to dissect. Given the scenario and how things unfolded with turns, I was quickly on the back foot. I made some dumb early plays with the Wyrms, neither of which panned out, and with cold dice, nothing I tried was able to get me back into the game.
It was a loss, but one so big and complete that I could just laugh it off and reset, with the takeaway being that I need to protect my Wyrms more in the coming games and not trust them to grind. The dice will hopefully even out in the future. The early loss also removed any performance pressure. We were roughly split 50/50 between Minnesota and Wisconsin players, and there were a lot of accomplished tournament players from the Minnesota side. Even finishing in the top half of the heap seemed like it would be a struggle, so I wrote off my victory goals and went into Game 2 just ready to enjoy myself and the weekend.
On to Game 2!
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