4th Edition: Battle #006 Undead vs Northern Alliance in Loot

Intro and Lists

I had an absolutely splendid time ringing in the New Year. Though my own imbibing was pretty minimal, I was still up way too late and was struggling profusely the next day, when Trevor of Data and Dice and I had agreed to line up a game. After some back-and-forth the night before, we agreed to go big and try a single 2300 point game, with Trevor bringing out the Northern Alliance:

Big picture, Trevor was leaning into math, and had a number of “quality” units supporting the new Ice Elementals, in an attempt to test them out. Despite the ding to their Melee stat, and no longer being unable to Withdraw and Shoot and Surge all at once, their volleys can be more dangerous with the shooting changes, and they can still shoot and surge into something, making them hard to engage and letting good generals deal a bit of extra damage still. Supporting these were his usual Naiad horde (still with Ensnare but lacking Phalanx now) and the double Dwarf Warrior Regiments. These were joined by two familiar Hearthguard regiments, and two new Human Tribesman regiments. The human component are all strong generalist units, with good Nerve and good stats, and things like Def5 and CS. In addition to the Ice Elemtals, the other wildcard here was the New Cavern Dweller (slightly slower than before), and leading everything here was Serakina and a Thegn on Frostfang, with the former to support the Ice Elementals, and the latter to get a nice Rallying and Inspiring bubble for the human barbarians. While heroes are rarer on the battlefield now, many seem to have this Rally and Inspiring combo, which I really like.

The 2300 points level was agreed on the night before. While I’ve sketched out a few larger lists exploring how to navigate the new Companion, I haven’t really developed a backlog of somewhat sensible list ideas yet. So the morning of, I packed up the only 2300 point list I had built in the Companion, printed out, and all rebased and ready-to-run: “Undead Copy Copy Copy.” Slots are making it a little harder to build quick lists! My focus throughout December was on demo games, and then trying to spearhead a meetup for smaller games, so I am a little behind in considering these larger games. It's a new army and a new points values, so up to discuss is everything:

• Vampire Lord with the Blade of Slashing. The Vampire Lord is in a coveted Warlord slot now, but is a little more interesting in the new edition, with and the ability to make Soul Reaver Infantry core units. I think foot characters are going to be in a bit of a rough spot, but she’s got good speed, a nice number of attacks, and Lifeleech 2 to increase her survivability. The Horse is probably worth it, but I don’t have one rebased, and the Blade is just 5 points at the end of building that I didn’t know what to do with, though should be fine on her.
• Revenant King, mounted and on foot. I was fond of the Revenant King in 3rd. He was a cheap generalist for the Undead, providing a little Surge, a little Inspiring, and some relatively good stats to be a roadblock when needed. Like all heroes, he got much more expensive, but has some good play with the dead aspects of the army, so we’re trying him out, both on a horse and on foot.
• Revenant Horde with the Hammer of Measured Force. The Hammer comes and goes as one of our little meta’s favorite picks. The Revenant Horde seems like a holder of the item, with a high number of 4+ attacks. We’ll see what they end up fighting and how they do.
• Soul Reaver Infantry Core. I liked my Soul Reaver MMU previously, but have my doubts about the unit in 4th. While they did get a nice price decrease (and gained Vicious), they are down to just CS1, which can really hurt their output against anything over Def3. With the Lute not being an item anymore, I am a little uncertain they will retain their fearsome reputation in the new edition here, so we’re trying them out.
• Skeleton Archers Regiments. We’re taking a fair amount of war machines, so I figured this would be a good time to test the Archers too. The aim will be to be aggressive with them, then Withdraw back to let other things fight. We’ll see how they do – I haven’t issued a Withdraw order yet in the new edition.
• Zombie Troll Regiments. I came to really appreciate these in 3rd. A few less attacks shouldn’t be that big a deal, as they were more around to get in the way and then grind things out, but we’ll see how they do here.
• Four Balefire Catapults. This is the impetus for the list. Unlocks are a little harder to get, and Battalions are limited to 2 of these per, but messing around with the Companion, I realized early on that I could field two battalions pretty easy as the Undead, and four Balefires looked like something worth exploring. It was powerful, but I was not a fan of Unholy Flames as it was just so clunky, and really liked that it was streamlined into just normal Vicious now. Unfortunately, I will note at the top here that I misread the unit in several ways, all to my detriment! For whatever reason, my brain was telling me that that had 36” range, so that was what I was measuring all day. Additionally, I failed to realize that the new “Indirect” rule now includes the old “Ignores Obscured” rule. Previously they were separate, and I missed this. I don’t think the math really changes for me at all – as-ever, the war machines were feast-or-famine – but target priority would have definitely changed. We’ll just have to test these again!

Table and Terrain

As quite-often happens for us, Trevor was graciously hosting our meetup. He is working on updating his set-up app for 4e, and had generated a table and scenario for us. While we did acknowledge this time that terrain heights shifted… for the sake of our brains we defaulted to all of our old heights. I have since printed out a reference sheet, and we’ll try our best to adjust and actually switch this up next time!

For now, we're still working from our old 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 ponds and fields as some Height 0 difficult terrain. The app gave us Loot for a scenario, and we decided to go with. While the new edition calls for tokens to be 40mm, neither of us have new tokens yet, so we're going with the old little chips of mine. I won the roll and placed to the right, and then my opponent placed to the left. I then won the roll for sides, and was lazy.

An overview of the table, and deployment.

For deployment, the Northern Alliance ended up with a refused flank, favoring the left. On the left we have two angled Human Tribesmen, and the Cavern Dweller, with Snow Foxes and the Thegn on Frostfang in reserve. The forest held both Ice Elementals, with Hearthguard and Dwarfs in reserve, as my opponent really wanted to test out the Withdraw rule as well. Nearby at the edge of the woods was Serakina, and the center had the Naiads, with the second units of Hearthguard and Dwarfs in reserve, again to try and force us to explore the Withdraw rule.

The Northern Alliance, wisely deploying with layers to fight for two tokens.

I had won the roll for sides, but was very tired and a bit overwhelmed. I ended up winging things, and thusly not liking a lot of my choices by the end of deployment. That’s the problem with new lists and armies though! Essentially, the intent was to play for two tokens: the one in the center and the one on the right, since I figured I could use the building to help be fight for that one more easily.

The Undead on the right, with Snow Foxes hiding behind the hill.

I started my deployment from the right, so that’s where we’ll begin too. On the far-right we have angled skeleton Archers, ready to start trudging ahead toward the token. One Balefires with a bit of it in the forest, and a second ended up nearby out of the woods, with both intending to lob into the center. Later on, Soul Reavers were deployed, along with the Vampire Lord to help push out and pressure the center, looking to make use of the extra pivots. 

The dumb center for the Undead.

My actual center had the Revenants back a bit, with the Mounted Revenant King behind to support. The other duo of Balefires ended up touching the field because I forgot a) we weren’t using Hight 1 crops, and so these are actually Height 0, and b) I did no know the Balefires ignored cover, and c) I have 48” not 36” like my brain was telling me. Ouch.

The rest of the list was supposed to delay and grind and fight. The terrain created two lanes on my side of the board. In between the building and field are Zombie Trolls and Skeleton Archers supported by The Revenant King and Soul Reavers, and in between the building and the end of the table are Zombie Trolls and Soul Reavers, which were just able to fit, so I figured “why not”.

And the even dumber Undead left.

Even accepting my rules errors as fact, I was immediately dissatisfied with most of my deployment. My goal is to play for two tokens, and I can reposition to get better Inspiring coverage, but my line is spread way, way out and way too thin. I should be using the building on the left to anchor my line, and should be much more compact, as I am not going to be rushing out to fight with four war machines. All the goofs with the rules for the Balefires and crop terrain are pretty bad for me. I deployed the second battery to give me options, but really just goofed myself up. We're unfortunately giving ourselves a steep hill to climb here.

My opponent wins the die roll for turn order, and having deployed sensibly, happily goes first!

Top of Round 1: Northern Alliance

On the right, the Foxes from behind the hill scamper forth, gaining some ground but mostly nestling into the corner, and waiting for some future options.

The Foxes tentatively explore.

In the center, the Naiads moved ahead as far as they could before being stopped by terrain, bringing the Dwarfs and Hearthguard up with them as well.

The Naiads go as far as they can.

Serakina mostly kept pace, and Zapped the Skeleton Archers on the left for 2 with a Lightning Bolt. The Ice Elementals emerged from the nearby woods, with the Dwarfs and Hearthguard supporting from the glade.

The Cavern Dweller considered hopping up and grabbing a token, but eventually thought better of it, hanging back and ready to counter-punch.

The layered lines of the Northern Alliance move up.

On the left, the Human Tribesmen moved up, taking advantage of the new line of sight rules to mostly see around the hill. The Thegn held back in reserve, and the Foxes scampered ahead, looking to be a nuisance.

Bottom of Round 1: Undead

We need to delay on the left, and spacing is pretty tight. The Foxes are quick, but Zombie Trolls move up, protecting the Soul Reavers, since the wider Foxes cannot fit. Recognizing that I need to support these units more, the Revenant King on foot moves at the double to get over to this flank and keep it Inspired.

A suitable disheveled battle line from the Undead.

The Skeleton Archer scoot up an inch or two. The goal was to move up with them and eata charge, but against the Ice Elementals, I'm not sure if I can really delay with them. The Trolls and Soul Reavers hold.

Thinking the Catapults have 36” and care about cover, everything shoots into the regenerating Naiads, since they are the only thing without cover. This isn't an ideal target. The Archers from the left contribute nothing, and the two catapults on the left also miss. The two on the right land a combined 6 damage, and the horde holds.

The Revenants move up to meet the Naiads.

The Revenant King on horse orders the Revenant horde to dance, and they run up and pivot, staying out of charge range of the Naiads, but heading out towards the center.

The Undead advance while trying to respect the Foxes and sticky combats.

The Vampire Lord on foot makes her way forward, and the nearby Soul Reavers do the same, but are keeping the Snow Foxes in front arc.

The Skeleton Archers over here move up, and shoot into the stealthy Foxes, but the Archers start on 6's and with just half the attacks, don't connect with anything.

Top of Round 2: Northern Alliance

I don't get a picture of it, but the Foxes on the right think they spy an opportunity to hunt catapults, and scamper forth, getting behind the Soul Reavers and out of arc of the Skeleton Archers, and with Pathfinder, can get a corner into the woods to see and threaten things.

Centrally, the Naiads inch up, and will pick up the token from the center. They regenerate 3, and the Radiance of Life from Serakina takes them down to just 2 damage. As demonstrated, not a great shooting target.

The Ice Elementals move up, and easily have range into the injured Skeleton Archers. They'll fling into the unit, devastate it, and pick them up. With the unit devastated, Serakina tries a Lighting Bolt into the nearby Trolls, but not damage connects.

The Cavern Dweller still lurks, and all the Hearthguard and Dwarfs in reserve just keep pace with the advancing line, ready and waiting.

The Northern Alliance continues a confident but measured advance.

On the left, the Foxes don't charge, but instead take the hill, blocking for the Tribesmen and Thegn behind them. Given the tight spacing over here, I can only charge Foxes next turn, as I don't have the inches or space to try any Surge tricks.

Bottom of Round 2: Undead

On the left, I need to delay, so just send the Zombie Trolls in against the Foxes. They slam just 6 damage into the Foxes, but thankfully still pick the unit up. Backing up still have the Cavern Dweller in my flank, so we'll reform to tank as much as we can, keeping both Tribesmen and the Thegn and the Cavern Dweller in front arc.

The victorious, but outnumbered Zombie Trolls.

The Soul Reavers to the left of the building adjust, but hang back, as does the Revenant King, who should be safe back here.

The Soul Reavers and Zombie Trolls to the right of the building inch ahead. I think I am just within charge range of them. I want to delay, but also don't want to eat two volleys of shots for nothing.

The Balefires split fire due to my bad assumptions, and the nearby battery lands a combined 3 damage into a unit of Ice Elementals.

The Revenant horde sidesteps, and the mounted Revenant King tucks in on the left.

On the right, the Balefire battery has clear shoots into the Dwarfs, but lands no damage.

The Soul Reavers out here move ahead and pivot, safe from the Dwarfs but threatening things.

Positioning on the right, with the Vampire Lord doubling back to fight the Foxes.

In retrospect, this is a bit of a gotcha, so apologies to my opponent. The Foxes start out of arc of everything, but the Vampire Lord is an individual still. She gets a free reform before being issues a move order, so she swivels around, and the flank charges the Snow Foxes. Only 2 damage lands with some pitiful dicing, but Dread matters, and we are still able to pick the uninspired chaff unit up. I am safe from any charges, so in victory she scoots backwards, trying to get closer to the fights, and will make use of her reform again next round.

The Skeleton Archers from the right advance again, shuffling forward, and eyeing the token. I don't think I had the range to command them to dance, even if I did happen to remember Command Orders this turn.

Top of Round 3: Northern Alliance

On the right, the Dwarfs move to block the Soul Reavers. The Hearthguard also pivot and advance towards them, and the Naiads back up with their prize, getting out of charge range of the Revenant horde. I was a little surprised by this, but it makes a lot of sense, and now I need to start chasing as the Shambling Undead, which is not a good place to be.

The Naiads back up, with their support units getting around.

The Ice Elementals and Serakina bring the Zombie Trolls near the field up to 13, and it appears they are routed. They are uninspired, but I think we had some muscle memory issues here, as the unit is not devastated, and is Fearless, so it should be sticking around? Oops. The unit closer to the table edge also picks up a Loot token here, putting the Northern Alliance further ahead.

Charges from the Tribesmen.

On the left, was being clever. Things are gummed up, and with the Foxes gone, the Thegn can actually see over the hill into the Soul Reavers. Unfortunately, the Thegn is no longer Nimble this edition, and can't get over to fight the vampires. Both the Thegn and the Cavern Dweller will lurk, menacingly, and the Tribesmen both charge the Zombie Trolls, drumming 9 damage into their rotting flesh, but the monstrosities hold.

Bottom of Round 3: Undead

On the left, the Zombie Trolls reform, allowing the nearby Soul Reavers to hit the front of the Tribesmen, and the other Soul Reavers on the other side of the building to make a hindered charge into their flank. Once these are resolved, the Revenant King is able to charge the Tribesmen on the left, hoping to add another damage or two and test his combat abilities, and he commands the Trolls to rise up, getting them to Lifeleech 3 with some lucky command dice.

 Big combats against the Tribesmen.

The Vampires have a lot of attacks, but CS1 is limiting against all the armor against me. My dice are ice cold, and really don't help matters. I forgot their new Vicious, but the Soul Reavers deal a combined 5 total damage into the Tribesmen. Even without vicious The one in the front should be dealing a little over 6 expected damage, on average. I was hoping to pick both up, but the Zombie Trolls must unfortunately split attacks, tossing 10 into the same unit, and landing 7 damage, and taking them up to 12. The other 6 go into the other Tribesmen unit, landing 3, with 1 contributed by the Revenant King.

Against all my dice, we will pick the more injured unit of Tribesmen up. The Soul Reavers in their front back up for options, but the flanking Soul Reavers are in a dire predicament. There is no good reform for them, so we turn, giving the flank to the Thegn, and fronts to everything else, though the Ice Elementals can be surged around.

The Balefires on the left land a few damage into the Ice Elementals, then boxcar the Nerve, adding a few more damage in to take them up to 9. The other Balefires can't see or reach anything not in combat, but should be tossing into this target as well.

Charges and positioning for the Undead.

The Revenant horde inches up as far as they can, looking to at least keep pace with the fleeing Naiads for now. With the Withdraw move here in the new edition, I am really hesitant to engage them, as they could easily slip away with some clever positioning. I should get around to noting now that the new Withdraw is not the same as the old Withdraw! 

Previously, the optional move let you get out of a combat, and make another move. This could be to turn and run, or even turn and charge something else, and was very popular with fliers and monsters.

Now, Withdraw is still a special move that still gets a unit out of combat, but has a lot of limitations and complications, due to the new sticky combats. First, a unit engaged on multiple facings cannot Withdraw, so if I want to catch and pin the Naiads, I should be trying to envelop them a bit. Second, they must be able to pivot to face their attacker, otherwise they cannot Withdraw, so I could also be looking to make things messy to try and pin the Naiads down. Assuming a unit is engaged on just one front, they are eligible to try to Withdraw. They take a Nerve test. If they fail, they are immediately routed, but if they pass, they can Withdraw, and its a Nerve Test, so Inspiring can help get the result you want. The Withdrawing unit changes facing to face their attacker, then move 2D6 inches backwards. But we still aren't done! Difficult Terrain doesn't impact the distance, but Blocking Terrain will still live up to its name and block you, preventing you from moving through it. If you connect with enemy units you are immediately routed, but there is still more possible interplay here, as if you pass through friendly units , and don't have the inches to clear, you teleport through, and are Wavering. Disordered isn't a thing anymore, so shooters can withdraw and still shoot, and this is separate from a Nerve check, so Fearless units with a shooting attack can't shoot. 

The rule has a page to itself, but that's the gist. There are plenty of ways to interact, lots of silliness going on, and I really need to be clever with how I engage the Naiads, otherwise they could easily slip very far away.

To that end, I am trying to pin the Naiads down, but it will take a few turns to set this up. I look to pressure from the right, and make use of sticky combats for now. The Revenant King makes a hindered charge into the flank of the threatening Hearthguard. The King doesn't land any damage, but they'll be stuck fighting him next turn though.

The Dwarfs fall, and the Vampires eye the Hearthguard next.

The Vampire Lord reforms freely, and then charges the delaying Dwarfs alongside the Soul Reavers. The Vampires struggle out here as well, with the Lord contributing 2 and the unit adding 5. Still, the Dwarfs are uninspired, and a good check still picks them up. It's shaky but things are ok.

The Skeleton Archers make it out to the token, and will pick it up.

Top of Round 4: Northern Alliance

On the right, the Hearthguard halt, to keep the Soul Reavers in front-arc, and throw all their attacks into the Revenant King. Serakina commands them to be vicious, but only 7 damage lands, and the Nerve Check is low enough that the King Sticks around!

More Dwarfs run up to protect the Naiads.

Wary, the Naiads back up and then pivot, running away in slow motion. More Dwarfs pop up to help block for the Naiads.

One of the Ice Elementals peels off to face the center, and flings into the Revenant horde, landing 4 damage.

Charges into the Soul Reavers, with an illegal Surge move to come.

The other moves up and flings into the reserve Soul Reaver unit on the left, tossing over the obstacle, and also dealing 4. They've picked up the left token at some point, and Serakina then surges them into a combat against the other isolated unit of Soul Reavers, getting the Elementals in with a hindered Surge charge into the flank of the vampires, while the Cavern Dweller and Hearthguard smash into the front of the unit. The vampires are dealt 15 damage, and bested. 

I will note that we spaced here, and units with tokens cannot be Surged. They didn't add much for damage, but this is still an error. In victory, the Ice Elementals reform and are off the ostacle, the Hearthguard back up, and the Cavern Dweller overruns until he thinks it clips the Thegn.

Aftermath of the Northern Alliance's assault on the left.

The Thegn charges the Zombie Trolls to help the Tribesmen out, but his vicious order fails to reach their ears over the clamor. The barbarians land a total of 5 into the Zombie Trolls, taking them up to 11, but they are Rallied and inspired by the Revenant King, and barely hold on.

Bottom of Round 4: Undead

On the left, the Soul Reavers opt to charge the Thegn, looking to remove Inspiring out here. We continue to struggle, and the Zombies are forced to toss all of their attacks into the Thegn as well. The Vampires deal 4 damage (looks like 6ish expected, again without Vicious), and the Zombies contribute 6, and we will pop the Thegn. The goal is to delay, and the Soul Reavers have been terrible, so the vampires overrun, looking to block for the Zombie Trolls.

More fighting on the right. At least that's nearly 1,000 points of Northern Alliance stuff occupied. 

The Zombies are still engaged with the Tribesmen, and cannot reform, though the Revenant King does roll hot and takes them up to 6 damage. We get another 2 successes for the Lifeleech Order, though I appear to have failed at math and healed 4 instead of 3.

Even with my errors, all the Balefire Catapults can see the Dwarfs blocking for the Naiads, and the dice spike. First 2, then 5, then another 5, then 3 more damage lands... but it is just short of devastating the Dwarfs, and they are only wavered.

Charges into the Hearthguard.

In the center, the mounted Revenant King withdraws, rolls high, and passes through the Revenant Horde. The Revenants can't fit in against the Naiads, and charging the Dwarfs doesn't seem like it will do much good either. The Soul Reavers have been struggling, so after a quick measurement, we confirm that the Revenants can indeed hit the Hearthguard in the flank, along with the Vampire Lord, while the Soul Reavers assault the elite unit from the front. The Soul Reavers finally deal a somewhat expected 6 damage, the Lord contributes 2 damage, and the hindered Revenants land 5 damage, and we will pick the unit up. The Vampire Lord commanded the Revenants to sap life from the Hearthguard, and they do, healing 2 and getting down to 2 damage.

Reforms for the Undead.

Reforms are a little goofy though. Wary of gumming myself up, the Soul Reavers first sidestep, looking to create some space to maybe run by the Naiads if they continue backing up. The Vampire Lord overruns, and lastly, the Revenants seek to change facing. I realize that I can spin pretty far, and do so, while keeping the Naiads in front arc.

Top of Round 5: Northern Alliance

In the center, the Naiads back up, and pivot, getting the Soul Reavers into front arc. They just need to delay a little longer, and my opponent is agonizing to find a way to make that happen. The Dwarfs fail their Headstrong roll, and shuffle about.

The Soul Reavers get bullied.

The Soul Reavers are maybe 9 inches out from the Naiads, after running through some options, and possible moves, my opponent remembers Serakina has Wind Blast, which will also freeze the target, reducing Speed by 1. It's brilliant and brutal, and he gets three successes to push the Soul Reavers onto the obstacle. 

...Writing up the repot, line of sight might have been an issue, as everything here is Height 2, and both hordes look to be overlapping quite a bit, making it hard to draw line to the vampires.... but we'll assume the Soul Reavers were a legit target, as it was a really clever move. My opponent gets 4 successes, and nearly pushes them past the obstacle entirely! They will unfortunately be out of the fight on my turn.

One Balefire Catapult falls in a hail of icy shards.

The Ice Elementals fling 12 damage into a Balefire Catapult, which is enough to devastate it, and the uninspired unit is indeed routed. 

On the left, The Cavern Dweller and the Hearthguard murder the Soul Reavers, with the later just barely not hindered by the obstacle. The Dweller adds 5 and the Hearthguard 10, and the vampires are pulped and no more. The Cavern Dweller looks to finish off the Zombie Trolls, while the Hearthguard turn towards the center, ready to move out and fight in the endgame.

The Tribesmen land 3 onto the Zombie Trolls to take them up to 10 damage, but they are still Rallied and Inspired by the Revenant King, and hold strong. 

Bottom of Round 5: Undead

We've managed to delay a lot out here on the left, but it's not looking like it will be enough now. The Revenant King commands the Zombie Trolls to leech again, and again we get both successes. The Revenant King contributes nothing, but the Zombies thump another 6 into the Tribesmen, taking them to 12, and getting the rout. The Revenant King overruns, looking to maybe chaff something up with a sticky combat, while on 7 damage, the Zombie Trolls turn to face the Cavern Dweller.

The Zombie Trolls prevail!

Centrally, the Revenants move up and pivot, and make a hindered Surge charge into the flank of the Dwarfs. They'll land a few damage, pick the unit up, and reform, turning to face the Naiads.

With the new 2d6 Withdraw around, I am still very wary to engage the Naiads. I need to either get something behind them to auto-rout them if they try to withdraw, or engage them on two facings so I can grind them out, but I am struggling to do so, though the Vampire Lord springs out as far as she can to try to help.

Still trying to catch the Naiads.

The Soul Reavers hop off the fence, and move their 5. If they aren't frozen next turn, they should still be able to get into the Naiads.

The Balefire Catapults continue to try their best considering my goofs. I'd like to shoot the Ice Elementals, but they are within 12" of the one on the left, so that one lobs with cover into the Hearthguard, landing no hits.  The battery on the right can see the Ice Elementals though, and lands 3 damage, taking them up to 11 damage, I believe. But the Elementals are Fearless, and we can't move them.

Top of Round 6: Northern Alliance

On the left, the Cavern Dweller is angry, and lands 7 damage into the Zombie Trolls, taking them up to 14 damage. They are still Rallied and Inspired, but a 3 on the Nerve check means I'm sticking around... and my 1 damage math error from earlier does matter. Sorry about that.

Movement for the Northern Alliance.

The Naiads back up, getting the Vampire Lord into front arc, and Serakina Wind Blasts the Soul Reavers back onto the obstacle again. I could have also done my move a little better, doing a pivot, move, and pivot to make sure the obstacle isn't directly behind me still, but my brain is fried.

Damage done to a second catapult.

Ice Elementals fling 7 damage onto a Balefire Catapult, but can't rout it.

Bottom of Round 6: Undead

The Vampire Lord can only get into the woods, she doesn't have the inches to get behind the Naiads, and is in their front. A charge does nothing, and I need to play for a Round 7, I guess? My brain is pudding.

The Vampire Lord charges Serakina. Disordered isn't a thing, but I need to find another angle. I'm Ensnared, and the new Duelist is only D3 extra attacks though. The Vampire Lord lands just 3 damage, which is about as expected and fails to rout the legendary Queen, which should also be expected.

The Undead fail about.

The Revenant King on Foot runs up from behind. Again, if I can get a unit behind the Naiads I can pin them down without them Withdrawing, but I am just so far away. He abandons the Zombie Trolls fighting the Cavern Dweller, who land 3 onto the Monster.

The Soul Reavers hop off their obstacle again, though I think the Naiads can just back up to get out of my charge range now. I've taken too long to try and catch them, and again I should have pivoted and moved to get the obstacle out of my direct rear.

The Revenants now abandon the plan, move and pivot, and aim to get a Surging Flank Charge from the Revenant on horse into the flank of the injured Ice Elementals. I think I need 3 successes off the 5 dice, and get 1, and the only real silver lining out here is that the Hearthguard are still in my front. 

I think the thinking was because I'm not charging the Naiads, I should try another volley with the Balefires into them, so soften them up for a potential Round 7? But failing the Surge, the Balefires shoot instead into the Ice Elementals, with Skeletons moving and shooting with cover penalties into them as well. Serakina has Radiance of life which got the Elementals down to 10 damage at the syart of my turn. The Skeletons amazingly land 2, and the Catapults from the right also land 2, though this still isn't enough to move them. The damaged Catapult in the field has no shots, due to indirect, and everything else being Height 2.

I'm grasping at straws here, and mercifully, the game does not go to Round 7, as I am just floundering and sputtering here without a plan.

A victory to the Northern Alliance!

Game Conclusions

With the holiday and some rushed planning for this, I definitely didn’t give myself any time to look through my own list, to think things through or plan anything out, which resulted in several big rules errors from me and some really bad deployment. Hand-in-glove with this has been my miserly reluctance to pick up a physical 4E book. I'm not a fan of this pseudo codex approach, but I also am not doing a great job actually referencing the knowledge in my phone as odd thoughts and questions do arise, mainly because I am taking pictures. 

Overall, a very poor approach from me here. You need good targeting priority with war machines, and I didn't have that here. I would have much rather been shooting Ice Elementals all game. Oh well. All that said, I recovered a bit and scrapped back pretty well, but it was no where near enough to make a difference. The underlying rules errors I made were pretty significant, and they then had domino effects throughout the game, so I won’t linger too long on strategy here.

While we didn't make big use of Withdraw here, the threat of it really warped the maneuvers around the Naiads. Making horde back up two and a half inches turn after turn seemed way better than letting them move 2d6! My opponent played a great game and I just couldn't catch them in the end.

Testing Conclusions

• Vampire Lord with the Blade of Slashing. The dice were a bit cool with her for output, but multi-charging things definitely helped out. Dread was probably the best thing about her though, and in that light the Horse and the extra mobility probably do seem worth it, most of the time, unless say your meta is running a lot of spears.
• Revenant King. The basic King felt ok. The Undead are generally a pretty static army, and anything part of the Decaying Horde (all Zombies and all Skeletons) will love having him around for the Rally. Surge was just ok – the spell is very expensive now and the number of dice for it seems to have trended down. He unfortunately can’t cast any other spells, and some other item (Heal, Hex?) might be the way to go in the future. I don’t think the 3 attacks warrants any of the Rampage / Slayer / Duelist items, though that might be something to explore in the future.
• Mounted Revenant King. Ditto everything above, but having a horse was really nice, as it let me be a little more disruptive and mobile than the Undead normally are.
• Revenant Horde with the Hammer of Measured Force. I probably should have been a bit more aggressive with them for the sake of learning. We used them very conservatively, and did not get to test their durability much, but I liked the horde overall, and it seems like a nice and sturdy core choice for the army, and the item seems fine.
• Soul Reaver Infantry Core. These struggled, though I did forget about Vicious entirely, which did not help matters. They got some decent licks in, but just felt outmatched most of the time. Previously they were on par with the Hearthguard for points and effectiveness, but seem to be struggling on the effectiveness front, given the lack of CS now.
• Skeleton Archers Regiments. It’s neat that they are a Core option, and I’ll definitely test them again sometime, at various unit sizes, but I am not a fan of these so far. Bow shots are not great generally, and really need soft targets to get any traction on the damage output. The opposing list here was anything but soft. I think potentially you could run a bunch of archer hordes and blanket fire, but you’d be very static, and I don’t think the Undead have enough ranged options to really make shooting work. A fun little option, but not really my jam.
• Zombie Troll Regiments. They can still bump and grind, and Rally and some luck finally did save a unit of mine in a game! As Specialists, these felt easy to add and fun to have around. With a lack of CS and TC around, these will probably be mainstays in many lists.
• Four Balefire Catapults. Neither of us really liked the war machine, but as highlighted many times in the report now, I misread these in multiple ways. Once more, with feeling, for whatever reason my brain defaulted to them having a 36” range, limiting options. Second, I failed to realize that the old “Ignores Obscured” rule was rolled into the new “Indirect” rule, allowing them to just ignore cover penalties. I don’t think the output really changes, but targeting priority definitely would have. Hitting on 5's is still not my favorite, but definitely worth another look sometime, due to all my errors this time.

This was a mistake-ridden report from me, but this was still a great way to celebrate having a day off and the start of a New Year. A big thanks to Trevor for hosting and fitting this in!