Intro and Lists
The TO did a nice job all-around, but for match-making there was an extra touch. With 4 Minnesotans and 4 Wisconsinites playing, we all had someone from the other state for Game 1 to mix things up. for all involved. Amazingly, the (overall) less competitive Wisconsinites put up a solid showing, with three victories in the opening match-ups. With my own very solid performance in Game 1, I drew into the only Minnesotan with the win, Tyler's father, Jeff Schiltgen, who had been practicing up a storm for this little event, and was running the following:
Jeff has been to a all of our little tournaments, and at least one monthly meetup we've had over the last few years. He is a very serious player, and had a great run at US Masters this year despite what I believe was the toughest match-ups, in terms of strength of opponents. I had so far done poorly enough to dodge him at all of our previous events, but my luck had run out here.
The thinking behind my list was discussed here. Essentially, I wanted to play around with the terrain, and leverage some Striding and Pathfinding charges while trying to lean into the durability of two Cavern Dwellers with the following list:
I saw the TO's pairing scribbles as we were heading out to lunch, and made sure to really enjoy a nice dark beer before Game 2. Jeff's list was an elite, hard-as-nails list with some good innate healing with Iron Resolve, and getting the jump on it was going to be tough with all that speed. With such a skill differential I expected to lose hard, but hoped to put up a fight and just learn. I have always been a bit of an interdisciplinary approach to life, and even if 3rd Edition is on the way out and some of these specifics voided, I do think just thinking about how good players approach different games has value.
Table and Terrain
The tournament upgraded one piece of difficult terrain to a third forest, as a nod to Wisconsin history, and we were using our typical terrain rules, running the ruined 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 field as some Height 0 difficult terrain.
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| The table, and setting stuff up. |
The tournament used a roll-off into veto and pick system, with three scenarios offered each round. The first roll of the game is for scenario, where the loser nixes an option, and then the winner player picks between the remaining two. Jeff unfortunately nixed Push, and I picked Invade over normal Raze.
Invade is pretty simple, with you just needing to get more unit strength over the center line and onto your opponent's side of the table, than they do to you. I wanted something simple here, to hopefully avoid over-thinking on my part.
Jeff had won the choice for sides, and after a few minutes of consideration picked the one he was on, and despite the low drops, ended up with two very distinct groupings. On the left was the Paladin on Dragon and Julius, the Dragon of Heaven, with Gur Panthers in reserve. I'm not super-familiar with the Basileans and was struck by the small base size of Julius. These were very late drops.
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| The left. |
The center had angled knights and after a quick prod for intent, both apparently had leader points on the hill, its just a little deceptive with the bevel. Gur Panthers were in reserve here as well, and angled Elohi peeked out of the woods as well.
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| And the center/right. |
For the Varangur, I again just wanted to try and leverage difficult terrain, and only play about 2/3rds of the board, and again that meant avoiding the building and the lane on the right. From left to right we have Draugr, Thegn, and Wolves in the field. Then we have Draugr, Kruufnir, a Cavern Dweller, and then Fallen, the second Dweller, and second Thegn all in the woods, along with the Snow Foxes in reserve, who also have their leader point in the terrain.
I won the roll for turn order, and up against so many fliers, and with the scenario being Invade, felt like going first made sense so I wasn't penned in.
Top of Round 1: Varangur
I was vaguely aware of the danger of the building at the edge of the board, and moved up a bit, trying to see past it to threaten, and staying out of reach of everything. Safe from charges and able to see around the building, I felt ok here.
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| My opponent is already computing charge ranges and such. |
Both Draugr just shambled ahead, trying to offer some support.
With the fliers on either flank, I felt like I might be able to push into the center and make something happen. Kruufnir and the Cavern Dweller take the hill.
The Fallen move and pivot, and should be up near the Cavern Dweller to project real threat, but are not, and I'm not sure what my thinking was here. I think I was pushed back by the Elohi? They might have had a charge into the Fallen if they moved up at all, though that doesn't look right. I think it is just an error, unfortunately. The other Dweller and Thegn are slowed by the forest, the the Snow Foxes swing out to have a slightly better angle at blocking something.
Bottom of Round 1: Basileans
On the left, I am punished. I presented rather dead-on facing, which is a mistake, and not measuring things out, the High Paladin and his dragon are about to get out of arc of the Thegn, and put the Draugr into the flank, where that cannot align.
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| Lots and lots and lots of game aids from my opponent. |
A quick measure puts Julius nearby, but also completely safe, as he is out of arc of the Wolves, and the Thegn is in his flank, where I cannot align. Brutal stuff.
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| More game aids. His approach is very clinical. |
I am also greatly punished in the center. Because the Fallen are back, the Knights outrange me, and all the speedy elements coming my way are able to line up some future charges.
Top of Round 2: Varangur
There is a huge skill gap here, and my wheels are off and rolling away already, so we are just going to try and scrap and hope and learn a bit while doing so.
On the left, the Draugr and Thegn back up. This gets them out of arc of Julius. Fighting a Dragon isn't going to go well, but it it takes him a few turns, maybe this takes him out of the fight. It's all I got.
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| The Wolves run away. From some things. |
The Wolves are a more valuable unit here, and are not going to endure a double-charge, so they try to escape. They pivot and run past the obstacle, but inches are tight. They are safe from Julius inches-wise, but just barely, and are out of arc of the Gur Panthers. This move brings them in the center, which is looking like a meat-grinder.
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| The Varangur try a staggered line. |
We give a staggered line, trying to protect the Cavern Dwellers. The Snow Foxes are wary of Elohi jumping the line, but I think this is silly. They are a horde and here to fight. So I hang the Foxes back, safe, zoning out a run-by and ready to scamper up to disorder, when I should be tossing them ahead to block for the Fallen.
Bottom of Round 2: Basileans
The center erupts in violence. With a lot of easy decisions now, the Basileans movement phase is very quick, and they descend upon the Varangur.
The Knights take a very easy charge into the Wolves. They'll land 7 damage and get a waver. Gur Panthers run in against Kruufnir, and will land 2 damage.
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| Lots of charges from the Basileans. |
Just given inches and frontage, I assumed that the Fallen were relatively safe from a multi-charge, but apparently not. With the hill, I was a little imprecise, and am taken to task with a multi-charge from two hammers. I thought the Thegn on the right was up a smidge to prevent this, if the Thegn was angled at all, this is also prevent this, as the Elohi would not be able to align here. Alas.
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| A cramped victory. |
That said, even if I did space and angle things correctly on the right, Kruufnir is indeed back a bit, and my opponent can make this multi-charge into the Fallen regardless of any fiddling on the right. The biggest error was not running the Foxes ahead to block and simplify the whole matter.
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| The Draugr take a beating, but hold. |
Out on the left, the Paladin charges the Draugr, and goes bananas, landing 9 damage, but fails to rout the chilly zombies. Good job, Draugr.
Top of Round 3: Varangur
On the left, the Draugr and Thegn fight the Paladin on Dragon, and land a ridiculous 7 damage back, and even manage to waver him! We're getting a little lucky here. Still, I should point out that the Thegn is too far back. If I am concaved a bit, and more even with the Draugr frontage, I could be threatening a flank charge here instead of a front. Lots and lost of mistakes from me this game, but hey, that's how we learn, and this has been enlightening already.
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| Charging the Paladin. |
The wavering Wolves withdraw, and back up, nimbly pivoting away to prevent a rear charge from Julius. This felt clever at the time, but this is a mistake as the unit is doomed, and I should be trying to get in the way of things.
Kruufnir regenerates nothing, and fights the Panthers, but I forget about Rampage triggering for cavalry and swarm units. With just 5 attack rolls, only 2 damage lands, and the Panthers are fine.
The Cavern Dwellers go into the Knights, will have a varied performance but will land 12 damage, and pick the unit up. Julius can just reach them both. The Nearer Dweller turns to face, and the other stays put, in the flank of the Elohi. This arrangement gives Julius a front charge into one, and prevents alignment into the other.
The Thegn runs in, and thumps three into the Elohi horde. They Iron Resolve down to just 2 damage, but are grounded. With a Cavern Dweller in the flank, we might have a scrap on our hands!
Bottom of Round 3: Basileans
On the left, the Paladin on Dragon has Headstrong, which is passed. He then overperforms again, landing 8 damage onto the Thegn, and breaks him. Hot dice from my opponent out here.
Gur Panthers from the left rear charge the Wolves, will land 4, and will pick the Wolves up. This is a great move as he picks up an important unit a minor commitment. I forgot about the Panthers entirely, and again, should have been gumming things up with the doomed Wolves.
With the Wolves backing up, the Paladins can easily see and flank the Draugr, and will easily hit them, and pick the zombies up, and knights are now in my backfield.
Kruufnir didn't break free, and is rear-charged by Julius, and 13 new damage lands, and the legendary troll is ignobly picked up. The Gur Panthers disengage, withdraw, and charge a Cavern Dweller, landing no damage, but without nimble, my options here with the monster will be limited.
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| Combats in the center as the Varangur are picked apart. |
The Elohi will withdraw in order to make a flank charge in the other Cavern Dweller. I admit I am flabbergasted.
His argument comes in two parts. Firstly, is that this is how it is on the table, and his immediate move shows that he can indeed connect with that millimeter there. To my credit, I do contest this view at the time. The Knights and Elohi were indeed charged separately by me. However, even if we nudge the separate combats away for clarity, you can't nudge for advantage, so this should not have been possible, even if that is how it appears on the table here during his turn.
Getting around this, secondly, he asserts that in victory over the Fallen, the Knights and Elohi pivoted slightly towards each other, giving this millimeter overhang for him to exploit now. Essentially arguing that this exploit, for lack of a better word, was his plan. Getting tabled here seemed inevitable from the jump given the skill difference and all my misplays. It is a disastrous turn for me regardless. At the time, I'm losing, flustered, and still otherwise stunned we're arguing over a charge like this with a millimeter connection for frontage. I couldn't remember how things ended up, and if anything indeed pivoted, and so I simply acquiesced here, not wanting to be a sore loser, as I do see the writing on the wall for me for this game, and do see it arriving this turn, regardless of how this exact combat goes. However, writing the report and revisiting things, the Fallen were multi-charged, with the Elohi and Knights aligning flush to make the charge. Neither side-stepped, so neither gets to pivot at all for a reform there as there is no space between the two units to allow this move.
The nail in the coffin for this game is the result of the dirty combat. The flanking Elohi should be taking a withdraw penalty, as the height 3 angels were grounded by the Height 4 Thegn, so they would lose fly, and will thusly need to withdraw to get the inch to see and to make the pivot in order to make the dirty charge. Hitting and wounding on 4's only 9 damage should be expected here, but they deliver 19 damage, to then break the Cavern Dweller.
I do play through another round, but concede afterwards. We agree that the Snow Foxes will scamper away, but I agree that I will otherwise be tabled.
Game Conclusion
I don't play against a lot of alpha strike regularly. With a relatively new, unpracticed list against what is still a relatively new army for me opposing me, it was a game full of best guesses and attempts, passing the turn, realizing my most egregious mistakes, and then being punished for them, as well as a handful of additional ones I never saw coming! The skill discrepancy was real and clearly evident, and I know Jeff actually prepared a fair amount for this event. I learned a lot tactically, but I think the biggest takeaway for me here was that our respective approaches to the game could not have been further apart. I never want to be passionately arguing for millimeter advantages for myself in a game, let alone for charges, let alone in a game I am already clearly dominating. Even in a tournament setting like this, that uber-competitive approach did not sit well with me at the time, and sat even worse while writing this up and going through the facts and sequence of things.
In a word, Jeff is intense. Even in just chats with him, he leans in and you have his full attention. He was polite but focused at the table, and a real pleasure to talk to, away from it. He generously took the time both after our game and throughout the day as we crossed paths to talk tactics, and share ideas about multiple armies and styles, and like I said at the top, I enjoy thinking about how people think and approach things. As someone who bounces from army to army, I always like learning new things, and as a Herd player, I was especially grateful to get a lengthier discussion and some perspective on his odd loss at US Masters to Keith Conroy's legendary Herd. Before we had even packed up, he was already following up with the TO for detailed info so he could be calculating and updating the US Masters Rankings for his Minnesota contingent, and for Rob. As mentioned in the intro, Jeff had a strong, but difficult run at the title earlier this year, and appears to be a man on a mission for 2026.
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