We had pushed the November monthly meetup back a week to accommodate the exciting Northwoods Melee. Unfortunately, holiday conflicts are starting to creep in for folks and 4th Edition existing in this weird, mostly-revealed-but-not-actually here-yet state is killing for the third month now is also having an impact on attendance and interest. Fortunately, Joe answered the call, and was ready to throw down and see off a few of his armies in style. For our second game, he brought his magnificent Forces of Nature army:
It's just a gorgeous army. Everything is vibrant and all the bases are packed full, which really sells the "verdant" theme, and the basing with the grasses is top-notch and something I want to try and emulate in the future. It's all 3d printed, with many different files printed at different scales to "sell" the dense overgrowth of lush vegetation. It's a little visually busy, but that is limited to the Hunters: the Forest Shamblers are actually full but dull trees, and only they and the Air Elementals can be surged around, so once you understand that, it makes more sense on the table.
I brought out the Kingdoms of Men out for what will certainly now be their last game of 3rd Edition. We are still goofing around with Chariots, but at the wider horde size now, and per usual, up to discuss is everything in the list:
- Pike Regiments. Even at the regimental size and even with Def4, Pikes have done very well holding things up. This list is only slightly more sensible than the previous list, and with some extra points, we were able to fit in Indomitable Will this time, which should help them be even stickier, provided we keep things hitting their front facing!
- Foot Guard with Hammer of Measured Force. The Hammer has been a very common pick in our meta for anvil units, as it turns them into something that can grind and usually get some value back against hammers. I had the points for it, so we're taking it here.
- Crossbow Horde with Scrying Gem. I haven't run the Gem in a while, and decided to take it, as the list has a good number of drops and pressing this likely advantage might be worthwhile for me. We'll see if it pays off. Otherwise, the Crossbowmen are a pet unit of mine, able to hold ground and can actually do work in many scenarios, as they are a horde with good Nerve.
- Chariot Horde with Bows. We're trying out hordes of chariots this time, and continuing to take the bows. Hordes are wider, and chariots rely on TC to deal their damage, so we'll try to prioritize their positioning, and aim for clear charges. Like in my other chariot games, with just middling stats they can struggle to actually deal damage, even in ideal conditions, so we'll likely be using them as deterrance.
- Triple Ballistae. It's still third edition, so we're taking all three. I still quite like any of the bolt thrower war machines, as hitting on 4's makes them more consistent, and they are a cheap source of good ranged pressure.
- ASBs with Lute and Shroud. I like ASBs, and thought the Aura buff was a neat idea for them, even though I don't like Lifeleech on my humans for fluff reasons. Still, my ASBs need to do a little more on the table, so we are taking the trusty Lute and trying out the Shroud, hoping to make that Lifeleech a little more impactful.
- Wizard on Pegasus with Lightning Bolt. We're taking a pair of Wizards because we can, and adding in Lightning Bolt to hopefully play well with all the rest of our shooting. Any shooting damage will likely be a bonus though, as they are absolutely splendid units for many scenarios and chaff units as-needed.
- Triple Generals on Winged Beasts. Again, it's still third edition, and fliers are better in multiples, so we're taking all three. I love the units, though they have not always performed well for me. They are quick and can apply a lot of pressure, so the goal will be to do that, and hopefully get some multi-charges when I actually want to break units.
Our monthly meetup was back at Gamers Realm in New Berlin, which continued to tempt me with more super-affordable used minis... For my wallet's sake I kept the purchases to a minimum. We were the only real wargame going on during the day, and made use of the shop's terrain and mat. We set up a quick table with the Kings of War App from Data and Dice, and 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 fields as some Height 0 difficult terrain.
Neither of us had strong opinions of a scenario to play, and when the app gave us Control, we opted to roll with it. For this scenario, the board is split up into six 2'x2' square zones. Whomever has the most Unit Strength in a zone controls it, and each zone is worth 1 point at the end of the game, with your opponent's center zone worth 2 points if you can seize it.
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| Overview of the table, and deployment. |
My opponent won the roll for sides, and I had the Scrying Gem, and even remembered it! So down came several Hunters of the Wild, all on the line, to kick things off for our immediate rematch. On the left we have his late drops, with the Air Elemental regiment and Greater Air Elemental. We then have Shamblers on the hill, with a Warden close behind, three Hunters of the Wild Regiments on the line, the second Warden nestled an inch back, and a fourth regiment on the line as well. Behind the front line was the Wiltfather behind the hill (white bark and purple leaves), the very nifty Kapoka with an aura of Phalanx and spells, and then the normal Tree Herder out on the right. In reserve were two more regiments of Hunters of the Wild.
I had a great advantage in drops, but struggled to make use of it, given all the terrain and my wide and unwieldy list. My center came down first, then the Pikes, then the rest.
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| View from the left. |
Left to right the Kingdoms of men have a flying General in the woods, along with the BC ASB, because I again forgot I have the hammer over here, and a second flying General lurker on the line, wary of the Air Elementals.
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| The weak human center. |
I knew enough about the army to know that it really wanted to scout up. I had two forests on either flank, so with so many Hunters coming down centrally in a great lane, I felt like I had to commit my shooting to the center. We have angled Chariots ready to interdict, Pikes in reserve, the three Ballistae, the Crossbowmen with healing ASB, and more angled Chariots.
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| The right. |
On the right, we ended up with two Pikes, both Pegasi Wizards, and an angled flying General. Ideally one Pike would hold this corner, and one would march up into the opposing corner, and with no surging units out here, the General should have a free hand to pressure.
Overall, my deployment felt risky. I really wanted to get the Wizards opposite the Air Elementals, but the Foot Guard came down before the Elementals, and there just was not space out on the left. We have a lot of wide frontages with the Chariots, and things could get messy quickly. We've got a lot of shooting, and we did deploy back a bit, but it's mostly bow fire into mostly Def5, which doesn't bode well, even before we consider all the Scouting moves to come.
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| Aggressive scout moves! |
And scout they did! Everything that could Scout ahead did, but inches of the speedy Tree Herder types were limited by the slower Hunters of the Wild in front. Wary of a flanking General coming from the far left, the Shamblers held back as well.
I am incredibly fortunate and secure the roll for determining turn order, and up against all this scouting, gladly take first turn to try and leverage my shooting.
Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men
On the left, the Foot Guard, flanked by the flying Generals, all moved up a bit, though we are careful not to give the Air Elementals any charges. The Shamblers don't have a charge either, and will need some significant Surge successes to reach anything, and will still be coming over the obstacle and in the front, so that seems fine.
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| A tentative advance on the left. |
In the center, everything holds, and I try to leverage shooting as best I can. The Chariots on the left hold, and loose into something, but land no hits. Everything else shoots into the Hunters of the Wild on the hill. That's the only real unit out there, so the hope is to pop this and then pressure from the right while securing both zones on the right with the Pikes.
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| The center holds and shoots. |
The Crossbows land 5 damage, the Ballistae land a combined 2, the Chariots on the right land 0. Coming from the right, both Pegasus-riding Wizards zap as well, landing another 1 damage, combined. On 8 damage, we get a waver on them, but this is not great output for such a high investment into shooting elements.
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| A waver. Good but not great. |
On the right, Pikes shoot the gap between the building and the woods, and more Pikes secure the woods. Slowing figuring out the details of the army, he only has a few Surge-able units, so the angled General is able to safely fly ahead his 20" and start pressuring the flanks of the trees.
Bottom of Round 1: Forces of Nature
On the right, the wavering Hunters on the hill change facing, to help protect the flanks of the rest of the Forces of Nature as they continue their central push. The Tree Herder, apparently with Brew of Haste turns, as well, trying to zone things out. Kapoka joins the Hunters on the Hill, Healing them for 2 while the Herder's Radiance of Life heals them for 1, taking them from 8 down to 5. Before we pass the turn back to me, I check to make sure that the Warden is actually safe from the General on the right, as my opponent did not check, and did not vocalize it, and I know this is a potential blunder that would drive my opponent nuts if he's actually giving up a flank. With a very slight nudge, we'll prevent possible alignment from the General.
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| The verdant push slows and fans out. |
Centrally, two regiments of Hunters of the Wild move up, threatening charges into my shooting and forcing decisions from me next turn. One of the reserve units moves up as well, creating a second line and even more pressure.
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| The trees on the left slow down. |
On the left, the remaining regiment of Hunters move ahead slowly, along with the Shamblers, as they are wary of the Generals and Foot Guard, and the Shamblers pivot to protect the flank of the Hunters.
The Warden and Wiltfather and reserve regiment of Hunters pull up immediately behind to support, and are joined by the Greater Air Elemental, who stays just over 20 inches away, and is just threatening surging reprisals.
In the back, the Air Elemental Regiment side-steps, just zoning space out.
Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men
I think I am actually ok with the standoff between the Air Elementals and my Generals. I have shooting, so any reduction in pressure along the line feels ok. My General shuffles and pivots. The Foot Guard are threatened, but have the obstacle in the way. They side-step, which should complicate the angles for any Surge charges into them. The ASB sidetseps as well, and the tan General repositions, backing up for the moment.
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| A flank charge from the chariots on the left. |
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| The shooting continues, but continues to struggle to be impactful. |
The other horde of Chariots simply move up to block and protect my shooting center, and loose into the Hunters in front of them, landing no hits. The Ballistae fire, contributing 4 damage, and the Crossbows land 4 damage as well. On 8 damage, the Hunters hold firm.
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| A concave on the right. |
Out on the right, the fliers all reposition slightly, and the Pikes leave the forest. The Wizards throw lightning into the Hunters on the hill again, landing 2 damage to take them up to 7, but they hold firm this time. Shooting has yet to really deliver results yet and the pressure is still ramping up as the trees close in.
Bottom of Round 2: Forces of Nature
On the right, the Hunters move to the edge of the hill,q threatening charges next turn, and the Tree Herder out here adjusts slightly. Radiance of Life heals the Hunters down to 6, and a massive Heal 4 from Kapoka brings them down to just 2. The Hunters are admirably holding the line here and outpacing my damage with all the support. The unit is doing work out here.
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| The Hunters on the hill brace themselves. |
The Hunters of the wild in the center multi-charge the delaying Chariots, and overperform a bit, taking them up to 13 damage, and then will break the unit. The one nearest the building overruns for the full 6 inches, while the maimed unit gets 4. The Forces of Nature have broken through!
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| Movement on the left. |
On the left, we have many edge markers at our disposal, but are not using them, and everything is getting bumped and shuffled around. The Air Elementals to just sidestep again. The Forest Shamblers move up and pivot, and originally both Hunters charge the Chariots, until I point out that with the moves and angles, the surge would have the Shamblers hitting his own unit right away.
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| Surges on the left. |
Several attempts later, the Chariots are charged by the just one unit of Hunters, with the other waiting in reserve. Shamblers do move and pivot, will be surged into the corner by the Wiltfather, and align into the flank with a hindered charge. The Greater Air Elemental will fly over and be Surged into the front by the Forest Warden.
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| And then reforms on the left. |
In victory, the Shamblers pivot and barely get out of arc of the Foot Guard, while the Hunters and Greater Air Elemental overrun for one inch apiece, which is lucky, considering the positioning of the tan General.
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| And the Hunters of the wild trounce the other Chariot horde. |
Both Chariots are gone, and I've only claimed a unit of Hunters so far. Shooting has not delivered yet this game, and is being hampered by the Healing from the Forces of Nature. The pressure is on!
Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men
On the right, the Pikes take their double charge into the Hunters of the Wild. They start on 2, and the Pikes underperform, dealing a combined 3 damage to them, taking them back up to 5 damage, and failing to even waver them, due to all the healing they have received so far this game.
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| It's a real scrum on the right. |
The General does not want to fight the Tree Herder, and so hops the line, and pivots, to threaten flank and rear charges into other things.
I also don't want to shoot anything out on the right, so the Pegasi Wizards retreat, They try to zap the overrunning Hunters of the Wild, but I believe some cover penalties are in play for at least one of them, and nothing connects for hits.
Ballistae shoot into the maimed Hunters of the Wild, will land 2 damage to take them to 10. The Crossbows are greedy and shoot into the Greater Air Elemental, landing two damage. The Hunters are uninspired, but only waver, and on 2 damage, the Greater Air Elemental is obviously completely unbothered. It's greedy, but the Greater Air Elemental is just Def4, and there is no healing out here, so any early damage against it might snowball into something later.
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| Charges for the Kingdoms of Men. |
The overrun last turn does expose the flank of the Hunters to the tan General, and he is miraculously able to land a clean flank charge into them, will over-perform to land 9 damage and will get the rout. We are just safe of the Wiltfather, and turn to face the reserve Hunters and Air Elementals.
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| Reforms for the Kingdoms of Men. |
The Pikes charge the Shamblers, and will poke 3 into them. The Foot Guard have no charges, and will move ahead and then pivot, keeping the Air Elementals in front arc.
Things are a little exposed for me, but there are only a few Surge casters, and think I just need to try and weather this. My shooting has been a bit ineffectual so far, but the core of it is still online, and we might be able to pick something off yet.
Bottom of Round 3: Forces of Nature
Over on the left, the Air Elementals are still lurking, and don't take the bait against the Foot Guard. I don't remember if they hold or just shuffle about again.
The Hunters of the Wild make a hindered charge into the front of the tan flying General. The Air Elemental will nimbly position to have his flank, and then be surged in by the Forest Warden. In a surprise move, the Forest Shamblers change facing, so spin about, and then are surged into the rear of the flying General by the Wiltfather. It is a very clever move, and one I did not see coming! The General is obliterated.
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| Several Surge charges from the Forces of Nature. |
It is almost 3x the points of the General bearing down on him in the combat, plus over 400 points of Surge casters enabling this move. This is clever, but a crazy amount of overkill, and a huge investment.
In victory, the Shamblers spin back around, and the Greater Air Elemental just holds. The Hunters on the obstacle look to get a very generous pivot that should not be possible, given the positioning of the charges and the Great Air Elemental. They should be able to back up, but not pivot here. The obstacle is goofing us up.
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| Reforms for the Forces of Nature. |
In the center, one of the Hunters does not have any charges, and so makes a break for it, moving and pivoting out towards my right to control that zone for the scenario. The wavering Hunters hold, looking to take yet another round of shooting.
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| The Hunters of the Wild are struggling. |
Out on the right, Hunters go into the outer unit of Pikes. They are ensnared, but will roll hot and land 6 damage, and we have a hot boxcar on the Nerve! As we are going through the victorious reforms, though, I realize that the General is Very Inspiring over on his griffon, and my opponent is a good sport, and we rewind this, and the Pikes will hold, but I think are wavering.
The Hunter unit out here gets another Heal 1 and Radiance of Life, to end on 3 damage. And the Tree Herder will spin around to face the flying General.
Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men
On the right, the very lucky Pikes pop their Indomitable Will and counter-charge the Hunters. The other Pikes have their leader point in the flank, and will pivot to connect and slide down.
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| Charges from the Kingdoms of Men. |
The General has a rear charge into the unit, but reforms will be tough. With the Tree Herder pivoting to face the General, I think the best move is to fly away, and go fight elsewhere. He instead makes a rear charge into the maimed Hunters looming large in front of the Crossbowmen. He will break them, and pivot to face stuff out on my left.
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| Mid-combat for the Kingdoms of Men. |
Throwing us for a loop out here, the Pikes will land a combined 6, taking them up to 9 damage, and we will get lucky and rout this unit. The maimed unit sidesteps, thinking the Herder is in front-arc, and hoping to draw the Herder away, and the other unit will to their best, changing facing, and threatening the characters on the hill, and the Herder if he engages.
The Ballistae all fire into the exposed Forest Warden, will spike some dice to land 8 damage. I think that's good enough to risk, and we will indeed pick the supporting spellcaster up.
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| The Forest Warden falls as the Kingdoms of Men charge in. |
Out on the left, I need to utilize the Foot Guard, but will be hindered no matter what. We measure, and relative to the Shamblers, the General's leader point is actually closer to me than the Foot Guards, so a multi-charge will put my flier close to me. With the Flier protected, I do want to make that double charge into the flank, with the Pikes hitting the front for good measure. Bane Chant will miss, we do land enough to devastate and rout the horde of Forest Shamblers, and then reform.
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| Reforms for the Kingdoms of Men. |
Reforms are quite the bother though. The General sidesteps, and gets a lucky 1 to create space for the footmen to change facing, but just the 1 inch does not expose him to any easy flank charge from that looming Greater Air Elemental.
Bottom of Round 4: Forces of Nature
On the left, the Greater Air Elemental doesn't like his charges, and I have multiple flying Generals and shooting arcs making things difficult. The Surge sources are few and far between, so he hopes the line and flies away, safe from charges next turn.
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| The Foot Guard eat a triple charge. |
The Air Elementals charge the Foot Guard in the front, joined by the Wiltfather, and Hunters of the Wild, who end atop the obstacle and are hindered. Cloak of Death hits the Foot Guard, nearby General, and the Pikes, and then the trio will land an additional 11 damage onto the Guard, but they will hold firm, as they are a pretty sturdy horde.
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| The Foot Guard hold. |
On the right, the Hunters in my deployment zone move ahead, and the pivot 90 degrees to see past the building, and could swing around to fight Pikes as the game concludes, but are otherwise claiming my back right zone.
Kanoka hides between the arcs of the Pikes, and wwill tap the gray flying General with Weakness. The Warden abandons the hill as well. The Tree Herder runs away escaping the Pikes with his greater speed, and additional bonus from the Brew.
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| ...and the Pikes cause a Tree Herder to flee. |
...this scattering confused me at the time, as I was expecting the maimed Pikes to be charged. But as figured out above, the Herder had turned to face the General last turn, and has rear and flank charges open from the Pikes, and no charges himself. With just Kanoka around, this makes more sense, though is an unfortunate predicament to be in. I still think against Pikes, he should be staying and fighting though.
Top of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men
Out on the right, the maimed Pikes pivot and move towards the far right corner, and the Pikes trudge onto the hill, and should already be scoring the center zone on my opponent's side.
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| The Pikes transition into playing the scenario. |
The Wizards fly 10" and pivot to see the Greater Air Elemental, they'll flick bolts but land nothing. The Ballistae don't have good arcs, and only one shoots into the Elemental, also missing. The Crossbows land 5 damage though, to take the tricky Elemental up to 9 damage, but it holds.
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| Charges for the Kingdoms of Men. |
The orange flying General does not have great charges here. Yes, he can charge the nearby Hunters, but it'll be a mess. Instead, he pivots and flies past the Crossbowmen. He's threatening the Hunters in my back right corner, and I'll just force a move from him next turn.
The ASB steps up to prevent a slide from the Pikes as they charge the Hunters. Bane Chant fizzles, but there is a flying General helping out in the flank, and we'll bring the Hunters up to 10 damage, with some nice rolls. They do stick around, but are wavering.
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| Reforms for the humans. |
While it is very tempting to thump on the Wiltfather with the Hammer of Measured Force, I need to try and remove unit strength, so the Foot Guard counter charge the Air Elemantals instead. We should deal the expected 8 damage, and do get the rout out here. In victory we change facing.
In good news, I remember Lifeleech! The Pikes remove their damage from Cloak of Death, and the Foot Guard end the turn on 10 damage.
Bottom of Round 5: Forces of Nature
In less good news, the victorious change of positioning was a probably a mistake for the humans. ith the close quarters, we had the Wiltfather penned in, and now he has options.
The wavering Hunters want to disengage and withdraw and back up, but are fighting on two facings, and cannot. After some thinking, my opponent chooses to remove unit strength, and flank charges the Pikes, hitting everything over here with Cloak of Death.
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| Great use of Cloak of Death. |
The Greater Air Elemental flier behind the Foot Guard, but with the Wiltfather charging, has no Surge spellcasters around to help make good on the threat this turn. The Wiltfather will pick up the unit. In victory, he turns to face the Foot Guard, and ends on the Obstacle. The General is in his flank, but cannot align, and the Foot Guard will be hindered if I take the bait.
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| The Pikes scatter. |
The other Tree Herder continues to flee from the Pikes. He unfortunately did not have the inches to reach the gray general this turn. We decree that he should not be in arc of the gray General either. So he's still fleeing, but safe.
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| The Tree Herder continues to flee. |
Out on my right, the threatened Hunters move ahead and pivot to face the building. They are safe from the flier, and still scoring the zone, and I'm not quite sure what the thinking is here.
Kanoka pulls close, and heals the Forest Warden as it turns again to escape the Pikes by doubling-back.
Top of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men
Out on the right, the Pikes are safe from charges, so stay put in my opponent's corner. The other Pikes are also safe, but continue on, traveling along the hill to be well into my opponent's center. Each with US3, it will be tough for my opponent to contest these zones at this time.
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| The Pikes fan out, easily securing two zones. |
The orange General nimbly pivots around and flies 10", I believe just looking to help in a potential Round 7. The Crossbows hold, and I don't think anything happens with shooting this round. The store closes early on Sundays, and we are running short on time. With my positioning, and against Tree Herders, moving the trees at all seemed unlikely. Still, the shooting battery survived, and the Crossbowmen are indeed holding my center.
Wizards on Pegasi fly into my left zone to claim it.
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| The Kingdoms of Men are taking a lot of zones... |
The Foot Guard choose to cleanly flank charge the remaining Hunters of the Wild, who start the round on 10 damage. The horde will pick up the regiment, and should be scoring my opponent's left zone.
The General that had been fighting the Hunters charges the Greater Air Elemental. My opponent thinks I should be taking a withdraw penalty here, but I did not think so since combats are not sticky. I do see where he's coming from though.
In the Top of Round 5, the General charged the Hunters, didn't break them, so stays engaged. The Hunters couldn't withdraw since they were engaged on two facings, and could, but did not disengage, meaning in Top of 6, the General still starts the turn engaged.
Our meta has tended to shorthand this to "I disengage, and I withdraw. I get my 1" and then do my actual move." However, there is no move order to formally disengage. Any move order (other than Halt or Countercharge) will break engagement as you do on to do those other things. The Withdraw move doesn't need to be used if I don't need the inch to do what I want to do (like pivot). Here, the General is not disordered, so he retains fly, and meet all the criteria for a normal charge move. Even the blurb in the Disengaging section (Big Red Book p 18) warns about monsters getting away into other combats. So, no penalty, and he's fighting other things now.
The dices are 1's, 2's, 5's and 6's so the disagreement doesn't actually come into play. We land a few damage, and will pick the monster up.
Bottom of Round 6: Forces of Nature
The Wiltfather angrily charges the Foot Guard, and will smash them to bits. This gives the Forces of Nature their left zone for a point.
The Hunters of the Wild and Forest Warden control my right zone for a second point.
However, the Kingdoms of Men claim my left zone, my center zone, my opponent's center zone, and my opponent's right zone for a total of 5 points.
It's a victory for the Kingdoms of Men!
Game Conclusions
Given all the aggressive scout moves, I felt incredibly lucky to get first turn. Even if the early shooting wasn’t as impactful as I would have liked, just being able to adjust the inches and angles gave me a fighting chance as the trees sprinted across the field.
Joe’s army is neat and impressive, and I can’t hype up how much I like the hobbying approach he took with it. The list as well is super interesting to me, as I have tried Double-Herders and Hunters of the Wild in several forms with my Herd and really struggled with both, but somehow it all works very nicely together here, and even Kanoka is a really intriguing option that I had never heard of in detail before today.
Setting all this hype aside, I disagree with how he played this. He applied a lot of great pressure early, only to take his foot off the gas in Round 3 and 4. Keeping things brief, I don't think he utilized the Wiltfather / Tree Herder well. Both started out back, in a supporting role, and struggled to transition out of that role. They continued to be reactive all game, casting, and pivoting to zone things out instead of applying pressure and dictating the pace of the game themselves. Those supporting actions are roles for cheaper Wardens, not Tree Herders. I don't think I had any business winning this game, and if he was just a little more aggressive he would have crushed me.
Testing Conclusions
- Pike Regiments. I felt bad with the one sticking around, but we do try to be accurate with our games and did catch it basically immediately. The Hunters rolled hot there, but 2v1 and with a flank we were able to get lucky, and run away with the zones on the right. The Pikes did their jobs all game and had good showings today.
- Foot Guard with Hammer of Measured Force. The unit again did fine, taking hits and holding ground, but I again struggled to get use out of the item. Fighting the Wiltfather would have been a more worthy or exciting match, but it was smarter to remove the Air Elementals so they couldn’t possibly hop over and Surge into the rear.
- Crossbow Horde. They were largely left to their own devices, which I think was a mistake from my opponent. Their shooting did do ok as the game went on. They shot some stuff, played the scenario, and even survived! You can’t ask for much more than that from a unit like this.
- Chariot Horde with Bows. I still wish Chariots could pick up Loot tokens without reducing their speed. I think that would have been a neat buff. The unit is still interesting to me, but still really struggles with a “master of none” role on the battlefield. I think hordes are my least favorite size, but I used them well enough here.
- Ballistae. They were also left to their own devices all game. Shooting wasn’t great, but they were able to get a nice pick on a Forest Warden, and apply good pressure all game.
- ASB with Lute. Again, I managed to deploy him next to the Foot Guard, but again, I managed to squeeze some use out of him this game.
- ASB with Heal. They did just ok here, and I think he needed to be with the Footies and if I have an ASB with the Crossbowmen, he gets the Boomstick or something that can help them out.
- Wizard on Pegasus with Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt 3 was all over the place again, but as in the previous game, the spell was more of a bonus attached to a phenomenal scenario-oriented unit. They did the jobs they needed to do here.
- Triple Generals on Winged Beasts. These were both great games to see them off. As always, minor misplays from me, but in each game they proved to be winged terrors once the lines started clashing.
My Kingdoms of Men really leaned into unlocked toys as Third Edition rolled on. Triple Giants, Triple Generals, Triple Ballistae were all pretty common in my lists, and will not be viable. I think 4th Edition is going to drastically change how this army is played, but they still haven't been covered or spoiled yet, so we'll have to wait a bit longer to get any ideas about how I might play them in the future. Outside of tournaments, I've overwhelmingly kept to my style of never running the same list twice, so I am excited to tackle 4th, whenever it drops, and see what can be learned and shared!
Again, a big thank you to my opponent Joe for taking the time to play juuuust a few more games of 3rd Edition with me. It was a wonderful day rolling dice and pushing models around!
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