Intro and Lists
We had a nice little 4th Edition meetup recently, aiming to get in some quick games and encourage exploration. Unfortunately the weather was taking a turn, and we had a few potential attendees bail, which resulted in an odd number of players, so I sat the first game out, being backseat general and rules looker-upper. My apologies to the players if I butted in too much! Just trying to spread knowledge and stomp out rules goofs early.
I got to tag in starting with the second round of games, playing against Grant, whom we have played before (back in Battle 100), though it has been quite a while! He pulled a me and brought three lists spanning three armies, trying to get a feel for his various collections. For his second game he fielded the implacable Abyssal Dwarfs against me:
It's a tough list at 1,000 points. The Decimators are still pretty nasty, and are one of the few units that can still move and shoot effectively, and two regiments of Def6 Golems is still going to be hard for anything to fight through. Supporting these is one troop of Gargoyles, which seems nice to have; a regiment of basic Blacksouls; and leading the an Iron Caster with Surge and Heal.
I brought five lists over two armies, since there was a chance a loaner army would be needed. For this game, I was running the Herd, now reorganized under the Forces of Nature. Pathfinder no longer works with charging, and reading through the new army list, I was pretty gutted, and have lots of thoughts. I'll try to organize those for a future post - there is simply too much going on. For better or for worse, with Guardian Brutes still around (if revamped), and my last games with the army trying to make that unit work, I do want to take the Herd to the local GT coming up in February, since they unfortunately never got to see a tournament table for 3rd Edition, despite being one of my more frequently played armies. With that tournament in mind, I need to get units on the table to evaluate, and up to test and discuss is everything:
- Chieftain. We need the Chieftain to get my Guardian Brutes back, so he's leading the way here, though he does look good on his own. He's got a whopping 8 attacks, CS2 and TC1, so he should do fine in combat. Additionally, the unique Horn from 3rd Edition got partially baked into the new unit, bringing the Wild Charge 1 aura.
- Longhorns. I was late to the party, but these were great buys back in 2nd and early 3rd, being cheaper "little brothers" to Hearthguard and Soul Reavers, with a lot of quality attacks packed into a little unit. And now they're back! With a mix of CS1 and TC1. Charges are going to be a big concern, but hopefully these units can still find ways to punch hard.
- Critters. All the chaff for the army was skewered. No more Harpies, nor Gur Panthers. I think we still need chaff, but these are unfortunately all that is left, so we're bringing a unit and seeing what we can learn. Thankfully they did get a points decrease at least!
- Guardian Brutes (Fire Elementals). They kept the name but are completely revamped, skewing a bit towards their 2nd Edition incarnations as well with fewer attacks and higher defense. They are no longer berserkers, and are now more in-line with a generic Large Infantry regiment, but get TC1 atop the CS2 for a rather nice-looking beatstick. For this game, I had some leftover points, and gave them the Sanguinary Scripture, to try and help them stick around... but I forgot all about the item once we started playing.
- Beast of Nature. Also competing for the Specialist slot is the new Beast of Nature. Flying doesn't seem as good with them now, and we never got to run the Owlbear version, so we're trying that out now. The new "Enraged" rule is akin to the Hydra's old many-heads rule, getting additional attacks equal to the damage on the monster, which is neat!
As I detailed, the Herd struggled against a lot of things in 3rd edition, including against shooting and high defense lists. We can unfortunately now add "terrain" to our list of weaknesses, but a lot has changed with the new edition, and while this should be a tough match-up, we'll see what we can do!
Table and Terrain
The meetup was out at Gamers Realm in New Berlin, and I again succumbed to some second-hand purchases. Our game made use of the shop's terrain and mat. While terrain specifics have shifted slightly, we continued with the older rules, running the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and Hills as just Height 3, and the ponds and fields as some Height 0 difficult terrain for our games.
We tossed out a few possible scenarios and rolled for them, getting Invade. While I like that the book has so many, but feel like some curation should have been done. I don't know many that like Compass Points or Bulldog, for example, and having both Raze as well as Protect and Raze just feels like padding, personally.
For deployment, the Abyssal Dwarfs went with a bit of an odd stack, with Blacksouls on the left, both Golems somewhat on the hill flanking the Iron Caster behind it, and the Decimators behind them. Gargoyles hung out on the far right.
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| Table and deployment, with the Herd in a lot of terrain to explore new Pathfinder. |
I had won the roll for sides, and was lazy. I tried castling a bit on the left, with Longhorns, Brutes in the field with Critters in reserve. The Chieftain and Beast nestled in nearby, with Longhorns on the edge of the line.
I deployed to avoid the obstacle... but with the changes to Pathfinder, all terrain is going to hurt my charges, and boy did we have a lot of it! The aim of the game was to try and explore how to possibly leverage Pathfinder for positioning, and see how the changes felt in that regard.
I do not win the roll for turn order, and my opponent seizes the opportunit y to kick things off for us.
Top of Round 1: Abyssal Dwarfs
In typical fashion, things generally moved up, but stayed out of charge range.
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| The Abyssal Dwarfs move up as fast as they can. |
The Blasksouls moved at the double but were safe, and since I did not have any shooting, the Gargoyles flew on up, ready to interdict.
The Golems shambled ahead, but both remained on the hill, still flanking the Iron Caster, and the blinged out Decimator horde brought up the rear.
Bottom of Round 1: Herd
I do not want to overthink things yet, so we largely did the same, moving up and trying to stay safe, though the terrain hurts the former and the opposing Gargoyles confound the latter.
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| The Herd staggers forward. |
I am wary of getting "stuck" by the Gargoyles, so am moving up tentatively and trying to provide fronts. Gargoyles are the only thing that can reach me though. They'll have their pick of things to disrupt, and I'll just have to power through.
Top of Round 2: Abyssal Dwarfs
I thought I kept the Gargoyles in the front of everything, but they end up in the flank of the Critters. If memory serves, we were both eyeballing stuff. We'll treat this as my error, but I think this is ok, though it will be messy now.
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| A charge from the Gargoyles. |
The Critters are inspired, but with a flank charge, Gargoyles will easily scatter my chaff, and then will reform to face a lot of things.
Elsewhere, the golems moved up, and the inner one will be surged with 6 successes from the spindly Iron Caster, though only move around 2 inches to hit the back of the Gargoyles during their fight.
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| Reforms from the Gargoyles. |
The Decimators trudge ahead onto the hill, looking to use it to spy future targets, but don't have shots this turn.
Bottom of Round 2: Herd
It's looking messy, but we're here to learn and try things. My Herd make a record number of hindered charges this turn to see what happens and how the army feels.
On the left, I'd like to multi-charge the Blacksouls. I think can get a sliver of contact with the Longhorns, but I've bumped things around, and with my opponent trying to block with the Gargoyles, this just doesn't feel sporting. We're here to learn, and we'll stress test here.
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| A lot of hindered charges... |
The Brutes flank the Gargoyles, hindered, and I opt to send the Chieftain in, hindered as well. The Longhorns go in alone against the Blacksouls, also hindered.
The Longhorns still manage to deal 5, and the Brutes and Chieftain are able to devastate the Gargoyles and pick them up. In victory, the Brutes pivot, trying to give themselves options next turn. The Chieftain sidesteps, getting out of the terrain.
I debated who to use the order on, and opted for the Longhorns on the right. It does go off, giving them Strider for the turn, and they are joined with a hindered charge from the Beast of Nature.
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| The Herd fail to break through, the result math and common sense would nudge us toward. |
Unfortunately, my dice were cold, and I'm still up against Def6. The Longhorns only deal 4, and the Beast only contributes 1, taking the Golems up to just 5 damage, and they are very safe. Worse, I had forgotten that the unit has the Healing Brew.
Top of Round 3: Abyssal Dwarfs
With the Herd engaging poorly, the Abyssal Dwarfs press the attack, retaliating with a lot of unhindered fighting...
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| Retaliation from the Abyssal Dwarfs. |
On the left, the Blacksouls hold and fight, trying to occupy the attention of the Brutes and the Longhorns. The unengaged Golems flank the Beast, and the opposing dice are hot, landing 14 damage from the flank, which allows the injured Golems to split attacks, I think 4 into the Beast which takes it up to 17, and the rest into the Longhorns, landing 3.
The Golems fighting the Longhorns held, and popped the Healing Brew for 1, with the Iron Casters Heal helping out for an additional 2, getting them down to just 2 damage. The flanking Golems find themselves unengaged at the end of the combat, and will reform to face the Guardian Brutes.
The Decimators hold, and fire into the Chieftain, but will land just 3 damage. They are kitted out with Elite and Vicious, and the hold lets them hit on 3's now... but the Chieftain is an individual, and the intervening Golems should be providing cover, and the Chieftain is Def5. He is able to endure the volley.
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| A victory over the Beast. |
Back on the left, the Blacksouls land a hot 6 damage into the Longhorns, who hold.
Bottom of Round 3: Herd
On the left, the Longhorns continue, but since the Blacksouls didn't reform and slide, things are still a bit congested. If memory serves, the Brutes are barely able to pivot through and have a lane into the Golems. The Chieftain is an individual, and can first change facing, and then slink his way into the flank of the Blacksouls, with the Longhorns choosing to reform.
The Longhorns land and Chieftain manage to each deal 6 damage, and club the uninspired Blacksouls down. Unfortunately with the reform form the Longhorns, they can't really overrun like I'd like to, so my victorious reforms are a bit jumbled, as these combats were so clumped.
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| Small victories for the Herd. |
The Chieftain tries to grant Strider to the Brutes. He's a Warlord, but on 4 dice, I still manage to fail the order, and the expected output is close to halved. The Brutes overperform slightly to land 5 damage onto the Golems, but they will obviously hold.
On the right, the Longhorns continue, landing a fresh 5 against their Golems and taking them up to 7 damage total.
Top of Round 4: Abyssal Dwarfs
The Decimators hold again, and shoot into the Longhorns on the left. My center point is not in the woods, and I do not get any cover bonuses, and am brought up to a staggering 17 damage. Oddly enough though, this equals, but does not exceed my Nerve value, and while the checks are fine, I can only be wavered at range. Hooray?
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| A unit of Golems breaks through the Herd's lines. |
The Golems take their fights. Against the Brutes, the unit slightly underperforms, landing just 4 damage instead of the 5ish, and the Brutes hold.
The other unit will land 6 damage, essentially the expected output, and take the Longhorns up to 9 damage. The Longhorns have a nice 17 Nerve, but my opponent's dice spike, and the Longhorns are routed. If memory serves they were just barely Inspired, so this is a bummer.
The Iron Caster heals the second unit for another 2 as they fight the Longhorns, and both units of Golems will end their turn on just 5 damage, with the victorious unit overrunning several inches.
Bottom of Round 4: Herd
The Chieftain tries to order the Brutes in the back ranks to rest up, but only 1 damage is healed off the order. That's a single 4+ over 6 command dice over the last two turns... my rolls have not been great this game.
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| The Golems take their 6 new damage. |
The wavering Longhorns shuffle about, but there is no way to get them out of terrain. Perhaps sidestepping to their left would have been the play to give them cover? The Decimators will need to target them again, but we're arranging deck chairs on the titanic here. Things are not going well.
The Chieftain charges in to help the Brutes fight the Golems, and the Brutes do not reform, as I think I am just out of arc of the free unit of Golems currently. The Brutes land a nice 6 damage, and on 3's and 3's with 8 attacks, the Chieftain contributes nothing. The Brutes have Brutal though, and on 11 damage, I need 5's to break this unit... and roll up a 4.
Top of Round 5: Abyssal Dwarfs
As should be expected here, this round is a bloodbath.
The Decimators hold, firing into the Longhorns again to easily pick the unit up. I think we fast-forwarded this and just rolled the Nerve checks. With the Longhorns falling, their Rally bubble pops.
The free unit of Golems pivots, and is Surged into the flank of the Brutes. We don't need to keep a 1 inch buffer, but they'll still need one success to connect, and get 5 from the eager Caster. The flank charge is hindered, but again greatly overperforms, landing 13 damage (looks like 7 should be expected with the hindered charge...), to take the Brutes to 16 damage.
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| Final charges and positioning for the Abyssal Dwarfs. |
We have multiple units fighting, and the other golems can allocate all their attacks into the Chieftain, though these dice are better. The Nerve checks are hot though, and the Chieftain is picked up, followed by the uninspired Brutes.
The Herd is tabled, and the game is over. Some Golems are already scoring too, and that's that.
An overwhelming victory to the Abyssal Dwarfs!
Game Conclusions
Dice were certainly dice this game! Sheesh. That was a just bit one-sided, and hard to filter out the statistical noise at the time, but that's what these reports are for!
Terrain was very impactful this game. We had a lot of very big pieces on this section of the table, and there was really no getting around it, especially going second. It was a bit detrimental for gameplay, but very great for learning! The changes to Pathfinder were rough in this regard. I need to be more mindful about positioning now when it comes to terrain. For example, with a little more thought, the Longhorns on the left could have been pointed ahead early on, safe from Gargoyles while threatening a run-by, which could have been nice! Plenty to play around with and consider for the future.
I also need to be more mindful about terrain and charges! I don't think I've ever had more hindered charges in a single round before! I like that the Herd have an order for Strider, but that is limited to one attempted unit per hero, and dependent on dice, so again, I need to be more careful, and save the order for when it is really needed.
Lastly, it is worth a moment to touch on engagements. I opted for a multi-charge in Round 2. I suppose I was hoping for a bit of a lucky breakthrough against that Def6? Multi-charging was usually a good idea in 3rd, but it kinda did me in here, letting the Golems immediately start flanking units and smashing their way through things. Since units cannot both Withdraw and be Surged in anymore, solo-charging looks like it would have been the better play, and would have limited the incoming damage while also spreading it around. That would have more safely pumped up the Beast to get those extra attacks, and might have led to some interesting Withdraw moves from my opponent. Alas, we bumbled into some pretty ideal situations for him, and being a good player, Grant just cleaned me up instead of doing anything fancy.
Testing Conclusions
- Chieftain. So far I have a little down on fighty individuals, but flubbing aside, he's seem kinda good? Eight attacks is great, and with CS2TC1, that's statistically some nice extra damage being tossed into a fight. I like him, which is good, because I need him to get my Brutes. It is worth noting too that 4th's "Traits" reclassified a lot, and while the Herd lost a lot of units, the Traits have picked up Centaurs and the Beast, which should play nice with both the Rally of the Longhorns and Wild Charge of the Chieftain here.
- Longhorns. Dice made Rally was unimportant, unfortunately, but I do like that it impacts some additional units now. The Herd seems to have gotten more love than the Order of the Green Lady... though both have been rather gutted. I liked them, but they are not their old, powerful selves. The Pathfinder change is pretty debilitating. That isn't to say the unit is trash, it just requires some thinking and finesse. I can live with that.
- Critters. As the only chaff choice, I suppose I am either stuck with them or need to invest in a bunch of expendable regiments. The latter might be better for several reasons, but we'll keep after the Critters for a bit.
- Guardian Brutes. I forgot about Hanns, and looking at things again, I think I forgot about Vicious as well. I guess going from 30 down to 16 attacks was just too jarring to get the rest of the rules right! There is a lot changing. I really liked throwing around 30 dice at all my problems, but I think Def5 makes them more interesting, and shores up a weakness of the old Herd, with everything being Def4. These can tank a bit now, and in a list like this I can choose what I need to have Strider: Brutes for armored things or Longhorns for more typical units. Having those choices and options is good, design-wise.
- Beast of Nature. I was a little greedy with him, and he paid the price without accomplishing much. I should have remembered my lessons with the Hydra, and just solo charged him at something and let him grind it out. The Beast definitely needs inspiration and some support, and I did not give them anything at all here.
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