Kings of War 3rd Edition: #116 Herd vs Halflings in Pillage

Intro and Lists

For the second game of the day, most of the group disbanded. We got a bit of a lateish start, and only had two hours left before the shop closed, and most folks opted to pack it up. I figured I could get a second game in though, and Rob and his ravenous Halflings obliged me. He brought the following, all ready for Adepticon:

As-ever, it is a very scary, very versatile list, utilizing the available Auras from both the Muster Captain and the Sauceror to let the halfling units punch above their weight. Things on his side will look much the same as in all our other games, as he has been perfecting this list over the last year. The biggest recent change was the addition of the Engineer and his long rifle, which we have seen before, and the dropping of the Wild Runners and their guns for a third regiment of Juggers, which is the latest iteration of the list.

Being the second game of the day, I continued with the Herd, but me being me, I ran a slight variation on the day’s list, swapping out the Wiltfather for the Avatar of the Father. As we get back in the swing of things generally, and using the Herd specifically, up to evaluate and comment on is everything again:

• Tribal Spears. I still like Tribal Spears, but points were tight, and they don’t get an item this time either. The goal would be to protect them early and use them reservedly, so they could perform for me in the late game.
• Tribal Trappers. I think the Trappers are probably best alongside a few other shooting units, since just a few bow shots aren’t likely to do much on their own, but Scout and TC has made them a very fun unit to play, so we’re taking them again.
• Hunters of the Wild. We’re taking a lot of troops, so grabbing a few of these as well. They can pressure with Scout and might hold things up again. Rob and his Halflings actually showed me that Def5 chaff could be worthwhile, so we’ll see how I do against my tutor.
• Harpies. Quick, flying chaff is amazing! I have had a tendency to throw my chaff away though, so we’ll see how wisely I actually use these this game.
• Lycans. The new unit! Aas mentioned in their hobby post, we’ll try to pressure and play a positional game with them first, and charge things second. If we use them properly, we should hopefully get some nice flank charges with them.
• Forest Shamblers. We’re running a quick list, so I wanted to include a Horde that might be able to endure some damage while exerting some pressure. In this iteration of the list, they get the Aegis of the Elohi to hopefully increase their survivability a bit.
• Stampede. My Herd has struggled against Phalanx and obstacles. Phalanx will still strip my TC, but the Stampede should hopefully find some good Striding charges.
• Great Chieftain with horns. As-mentioned in some of the last Herd games, having tried triple Spears, triple Brutes and the like, I wanted to shift away from duplications and spammy lists over to some more precise or “balanced” lists. With no Brutes and no Brutal to go against his Dread, I’m hoping the Chieftain will be more impactful than before. I thought Dread was an aura, but it lacks the keyword. We caught this as we were going over lists, so played Dred with the correct bubble this time. 
• Druid with BC and Conjurer’s Staff. Druids are nice, but with only one horde of Tribal Spears to worry about, duplicates didn’t seem like a good call. We weren’t playing with Command Dice, and with just one Druid, I opted to give them the Staff. Hopefully our Bane Chants connect!
• Forest Warden with Tricketer's Wand. I opted to take a Forest Warden as well. Being a non-individual, they can score, which is highly valued in our region. They can Surge, which I hope plays nicely with the Forest Shambler Horde, and they can hold items too. Points were wonky, and I wanted to be aggressive with the list, so opted for the Trickster’s Wand over a more supporting item like Shroud of the Saint or my go-to Lute.
• Avatar of the Father. Unfortunately, he has never had good luck, usually getting a nice charge in only to not deal enough damage, or find the unit to be insanely courageous, or even both. I still like my model though, so I’m still trying to find a home for him as I explore different styles of lists. We’ll see how he does here with a lot of troops get in the way and speedy Lycans to help out with pressure and fights.

Table and Terrain

We were out at Gamer’s Realm in the Milwaukee area, which had moved into new building with a much larger store area as well as an absolutely labyrinthine play area with multiple, large, dedicated areas for card, board, role, and war gaming. It’s a great spot, and you should check it out if you are in the area!

With some folks leaving, we packed up some of the tables. The arctic one remained, but we rolled up a new table arrangement from the packet, and we were using our typical terrain rules, running the cabin and tower 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 neoprene pieces as Height 0.

View of the table.

We rolled up Pillage for our scenario. Apparently for Adepticon if there is a variable in the scenario, one is to use the maximum result, so we had the full 7 tokens to fight over and really put my troops to the test. My opponent put his tokens in corners while I scattered mine centrally.

As-ever, the Halflings had a lot of units to deploy, and were able to save the Juggers for their final drops. Left-to-right we have Grenadiers in reserve, both regiments of Poachers already on the hill, with an Engineer and Harvester nearby to support. A building broke things up, but the line continued with a Stalwart troop, the Iron Beast, the Heroic Stalwart Horde with the Hammer and Iron Resolve from the Engineer’s Gizmos, and with the Sauceror nearby. We then had a Harvester and two units of Juggers, then the other troop of Stalwarts, other Grenadiers, Strider Captain, and the final unit of Juggers out on the far flank.

Deployment.

Things are a bit spread out, but left-to-right for me we have a stack of Hunters of the Wild, Forest Warden and Tribal Trappers, angled Forest Shamblers ended up nearby, with Harpies in reserve. Tribal Spears with the Druid occupied the forest nearby, and then we had both Lycan hordes in the center, but spread out, with Harpies in reserve on the right. I debated putting the Stampede in the center, but it ended up on the right, angled, and babysat by the Great Chieftain. More Hunters and Trappers ended up on the right. I wanted to put the Avatar on the far, far right, but that was the edge of the table, and I didn’t want to knock him off, so he ended up in a more reserved position.

It's an odd deployment, and it's because I am experimenting. Seeing tokens in corners, I wanted to try and put Trappers and troops on the flanks and try out the Lycans in the center, the thinking being that they should hopefully be able to double- or triple-team something with the Avatar and punch through, and if nothing else, their long charge range might dissuade the Halflings from early aggression, and give me a positional edge.

Scout moves.

I had Scout moves, and even remembered them. My opponent did as well, but the Poachers stayed put, since their leader points started on the hill. On the left, the Hunters of the Wild moved up, with Trappers moving up a bit as well. The Trappers should be able to back up to score the token here when the time comes. The Warden holds, as I want to protect my source of Inspiring. The angled Forest Shamblers zip up, but are safe, and they are looking to project threat and slow the Halflings down. On the right, both the Hunters and Trappers move up greatly. I don’t expect the Juggers to stay put, so want to use these to instigate some piece trades instead of holding for 4 turns and then getting charged by the Halfling heavy cavalry.

I win the roll for determining turns, and seize it. The Herd likes going first.

Top of Round 1: Herd

On the left, I generally liked where I scouted to, and the stack of Hunters, Trappers and Warden all hold, pressuring these tokens. I am always wary of the Grenadiers, and think this troop stack zones them out nicely for now.

Movement for the Herd on the left.

The Forest Shamblers move and pivot towards the left, hoping to pressure these shooters.

Facing off against infantry, my horde of Tribal Spears zips ahead 10 inches, projecting threat. The slower Druid is able to keep pace.

Movement for the Herd in the center.

The Lycans move ahead as well, but I don’t think they even utilize their full speed on the move. The left Harpies hide behind the woods, since they are facing shooters. The ones on the right flutter up to keep pace with the Lycans.

Movement for the Herd on the right.

On the right, the Stampede moves and pivots to zone out and threaten any Jugger unit that should advance next turn. The Avatar uses the woods to help screen himself, but also stays out of the maximum charge range of the Juggers. His pivots, threatening flank charges if the Halflings move up too far.

Since the Avatar is likely flying away soon, the Chieftain sticks close, ready to Inspire. The troop stack on the right moves up slightly, but is also out of charge range of the Juggers.

Bottom of Round 1: Halflings

The Sauceror chooses Wild Charge for her Aura.

On the right, the nimble Juggers don’t have a charge, but back up and pivot to create space project threat as the other Halfling units position. The nearby Grenadiers hold, and the troop of Stalwarts start heading over to try fight the Hunters of the Wild. The Muster Captain can just barely draw line of sight between the Stalwarts and the woods into the Hunters, and lands a Mind Fog. The dice spike, and my trees are shaken.

Aftermath of the fighting.

I was sort of cautious in the center, but not nearly enough. The Wild Charge successes from the Sauceror are enough to let two units of Juggers hit a Lycan horde. One flubs, but it’s still 20 damage that lands, and the horde is routed. In victory, one sidesteps, allowing the other to change facing a bit.

In the backfield, the Sauceror and Muster Captain repositioned to make use of their auras. The Harvester moved up, the Stalwart Horde and Iron Beast shuffled ahead slightly. With the move ahead, the towering Iron Beast is just in against the Harpies, and lands one damage with its guns, and gets a waver here.

The Stalwart troop takes the hill, complicating potential charges into the Iron Beast.

The Harvester charges out to occupy the Forest Shamblers.

On the left, I thought I was out, but I am in, and the Harvester kicks it into gear to crash into the Forest Shamblers, landing a hot 5 damage, but the Fearless trees hold. Later, I will remember that they have the Aegis in this list, and they will Iron Resolve down to 4 damage.

The Grenadiers move up a bit, and the Poachers and Engineer shoot into the Hunters of the Wild. It’s a troop, but Def5, and I figured I could survive. Dice are indeed low, with just 3 damage slipping in, but the Nerve check is hot and my troop is uninspired, so it’s routed.

Top of Round 2: Herd

On the left, the Trappers move up and shoot, but are penalized, and land nothing into the Grenadiers. Wary of the fliers, the Forest Warden moves to zone out the Grenadiers and deny them good landing spots.

Positioning out on the left.

Tripped up, the Forest Shamblers strike back at the Harvester, and with a successful Bane Chant from the Druid, will land 6 back despite the heavy plow shied affixed to the front of the contraption.

The Tribal Spears hold. The Harvester and Lycans are both Height 3, so they cannot help there. I send the Lycans into the Stalwart troop and deal just 4 damage, but do manage to rout them and then back up and off of the hill. They are in arc of the Stalwart horde, but the horde cannot see them.

Charges for the Herd.

The Harpies on the left continue to wait in reserve. The wavering Harpies on the right just hold. They can’t really contribute anywhere.

Reforms for the Herd.

The Avatar of the Father hits the flank of one, will do me proud and land 14 damage to devastate and rout the heavy cavalry, as is proper. The Juggers are a little isolated here, so the Stampede hits the other unit in the front. They underperform ever-so-slightly, landing 7 damage, which gets Iron Resolved down to 6. The unit is uninspired, and I did bring the Chieftain close up for Dread, but the Nerve check is low and they hold, unbothered.

On the right, the wavering Hunters of the Wild hold, as they are safe from the Juggers and Stalwart troop this turn. The Trappers hold, looking to layer up and prevent the Grenadiers from having too free a hand out here.

Bottom of Round 2: Halflings

On the right, the Stalwart troop moves up to threaten the Hunters of the Wild, and the dissuading Juggers in the corner, remain.

The Stampede takes a multicharged from the Juggers (5) harvester (5) and Grenadiers in the flank (6) and are routed. The Harvester spins around

The Stampede is scattered with a triple charge.

The Strider Captain draws another narrow line of sight to the damaged Harpies, lands another Mindfog and wavers them again.

The Iron Beast rolls up 4 extra attacks, and lands a ridiculous 11 damage on the Lycans, who are routed. The contraption claims the hill.

The Heroic Halfling Horde moves up and pivots to threaten the hill, making sure the Avatar of the Father is just barely in front-arc.

The Harvester goes into the Forest Shamblers again, joined by the Grenadiers. More dice spike, and the Shamblers are ignobly popped.

On the left, the Poachers and Engineer shoot into the Trappers, landing 8 damage and rout them too.

Top of Round 3: Herd

The Forest Warden cowers, sidestepping behind the building to at least claim a token for me as the game continues.

The Tribal Spears don’t want the fight the Def6 Harvester, so they charge the Grenadiers instead, and will mange to rout them.

Fighting on the left.

The Avatar of the Father has no great charges, and the game is very quickly slipping away. It's not a wise move, but I charge the Muster Captain for fun, and Avatar fails. Most of the hit rolls are 1’s. A total of 4 damage does slip through though, but the Nerve check is low and the Captain is around and unbothered.

Ineffectual push-back from the Herd.

The Great Chieftain also doesn't have great options. A 5-attack individual isn't going to move much on his own, but he hits back at some Grenadiers. He's got Dread, but only lands 2 damage, and fails to move them.

The wavered Harpies block for the other unit as it tries to flee. Things are not going well, to put it mildly.

Resistance out on the right.

Out on the left, the Hunters of the Wild charge the Stalwart in a skirmish, but land just 1 damage.

The Trappers in the right corner pivot to face the Grenadiers, but I think they are out of range for shots, but they also cannot shoot since the Chieftain went into the Grenadiers.

Bottom of Round 3: Halflings

I manage to take just one picture this round. It’s a bloodbath, and I’m too busy taking units off the board to pick up my phone.

On the right, the Stalwarts land a few damage and pick up the Hunters of the Wild with a hot nerve check.

The Grenadiers excuse themselves from the Chieftain to charge the Trappers in the corner. They land some damage, and pick them up too.

The Harpies are completely outmatched.

The Avatar’s back corner is exposed, and the Juggers are just in range, the Halfling heavy cavalry take a flank charge, landing 8 damage. The Harvester that beat the Stampede can just reach the rear of the Avatar, and joins in with another 7, but it’s still enough to pick the Avatar up.

The other Juggers charge the wavering Harpies and will pick them up.

The Iron Beast takes the hill, and just has the inches to fire into the fleeing Harpies, landing 3 and picking them up too!

On the left, the Haverster moves into a more threatening position, and the Poachers and Engineer all shoot into the Tribal Spears, landing 5 damage combined.

With just the Tribal Spears, Warden, and two individuals left, I concede. We've barely made a dent in the Halfling numbers, and there is no way I can win the scenario at this point.

Game Conclusions

On the bright side, I was right! I was able to fit in a second game within the two-hour cutoff (we finished this in about 1 hour), and start making progress again on my yearly game goal.

The Halflings have always been a tough match up for my Herd. Striding charges beat Pathfinding charges, wild charge makes it hard to pressure as the speeds are variable, and there is a lot of armor on his side of the board that I always struggle to deal with. He’s also really refined his list over the last year, while I continue to try new things. It’s always fun, but this match-up is always an uphill battle for me. This match-up was particularly tough though, as he never rolled below a 9 on his Nerve checks, so everything of mine just seemed doomed.

Testing Conclusions

• Tribal Spears. I still think this is a good starting unit for anyone interesting in trying out the Herd. It’s not flashy, but Spears are nice to have and it is able to pressure a bit as well with Pathfinder and Thunderous Charge.
• Tribal Trappers. Overall, I still like them as troops. Lacking Steady Aim or Stealthy, and with just 18” range and Def3, these are not good defenders, and will struggle in a shooting war. I think that is why the Silent Hunt formation was so tough for me to use –regiments of these, even with the formation’s special rules, just don’t increase the survivability or offense of these at all enough to justify the extra points spend.
• Hunters of the Wild. Overall, I still like these as troops relative to regiments as well. I tried experimenting with them a bit, but didn’t keep them inspired or otherwise supported, so they struggled this game.
• Harpies. Given the shooting opposing me, I wanted to keep these in reserve to zip out and die at the right time. It was a good goal, but unfortunately I misjudged things, and everything important from the Herd died before I got to use them as chaff.
• Herd Troops. Against an elite list, the troops really shined, but here against a list with some ranged pressure (and very hot dice), all the troops proved to be a huge liability as I lost unit after unit. For an all-comers approach, I think I need to rethink some things.
• Lycans. I experimented and put them both in the center, but they got smoked. Wild Charge caught me out, and it was too easy to contain them. One in the center and one on the flank could work, but I think these should be starting out on the far wings of a deployment whenever possible.
• Forest Shamblers. It’s a middling unit, with decent-enough stats, but it struggled here as it got caught out and I couldn’t support it with anything. I’ve struggled against these, but just can’t seem to get the results my opponents do. As I play around more with the Wiltfather, I want to bring these hordes back. Regiments of these are looking better to me though, possibly replacing the Hunters of the Wild troops. Scout is very fun to use, so despite being mediocre, we’ll see where these pop up next.
• Stampede. As it is one of the few things in the list with Strider I want to like the unit, but with its odd speed and no Nimble it keeps getting stuck with just frontal charges, and then often flubbing dice with so few attacks. I’ve got a few more ideas for it, but with how I’m using it right now, it seems too expensive and unwieldy.
• Great Chieftain. Again, the Sacred Horn doesn’t work with Dread, so that’s not as good an item for him. I’ve seen him with Wings of Honeymaze, so you can drop Dread in right where you need it, so that could be something to try in the future.
• Druid with Conjurer’s Staff. As-ever, a good pick for the Herd, especially alongside the Tribal Spears. With no Command Dice and no duplicates, springing for the Staff seems worthwhile, as this army needs the help landing damage,
• Forest Warden. He was cowardly here, and probably should have moved up behind the Hunters of the Wild to keep them Inspired. The Lute is a go-to item for me because it interacts with my lists. The Wand is a neat item, but it blanked in both of these games, and I think I need to take a page from the Halflings here and take the Talisman of Silence on him by default. If I run a second Warden, he can take Hex or something else.
• Avatar of the Father. The charge into the Muster Captain was the least bad option to do something, and with so much else going wrong, I decided to risk it. My opponent did a great job of isolating and punishing him. The opening moves and flank charge into the Juggers was sound though, and they weren’t Insane, which was a bonus. Overall, I think there could be some play alongside Lycans, with several speedy threats on the board so he is harder to deal with. I still like my mini and will still continue to swap him in and try to find a spot for him.

The meetup was geared towards practicing for the upcoming tournament at Adepticon, which is at the end of the month and apparently the last qualifying tournament for US Masters? I don’t keep tabs on these things. I’m not attending the tournament, and don’t think I’ll get in any more practice games before it for anyone. Going into the tournament, Rob is apparently ranked 9^th in the Midwest, and apparently the Master’s cutoff is for the top 8 players. We’ll need to take this moment to wish him and his Halflings well at Adepticon!