Intro and Lists
August has been just ridiculous for me, but schedules again aligned briefly, allowing for an afternoon game with Trevor of Data and Dice. He surprised me with a Kingdoms of Men build:
Expecting more Northern Alliance ideas out of my opponent, I had decided to bring the Kingdoms of Men myself, looking to keep the match-ups a bit fresh for all involved. Oops. We traded lists the evening before, and decided to just keep this as a human civil war. The humans have confounded me a bit in 4E, but I think there are lessons to learn or inspiration to gain from looking at Ratkin- and Goblin-styles of play, and no matter the outcome, this game should be illuminating!
Opposing me is what I would think of as the Ratkin-style approach. The Humans don't have great commands or must-have Warlords, so in my thinking, Ratkin-style humans would be a one-battalion, with some hordes to control space, a handful of actual strong, fighting units, and some minimal shooting to apply some pressure. Oddly enough, Trevor was thinking along similar lines, and all those aspects are present here in his build. I'd wager this is the stronger approach of the two today, as you have actual fighting units to punch and grind and trade pieces.
So far, 4E competitive Goblins takes two battalions, with a lot of Rabble Regiments, Wizards, and war machines, and that is generally what I am trying out. We are fielding two battalions, minimal Inspiring, lots of regiments, and a battery of war machines here too. Shield Wall, the human-equivalent of Goblin Rabble have never been favorite units of mine though, and I am about a dozen units short of fielding the typical number of Rabble for this points level, so instead I've upgraded a handful of my Core regiments to be shooting regiments, calling back to older Spitter-heavy Goblin playstyles from around 2E, and thus mixing new and old styles together a little bit. This is still a very new approach from me, so up to discuss is everything:
- Hero, Horse, Trickster’s Wand. I like the idea of the Inspiring and Rallying Hero, so we’re giving him another shot, and since 3 attacks aren’t much, we’re giving him a horse for better interdiction, and the Wand for some extra utility. Since it was not addressed with Fracture, Blizzard is still quite popular here, and a Hex should be handy to have. He’s a bit expensive now, but with character costs increasing across the board, it is what it is, and we’ll see how he does.
- Hero, Horse, Banner of Command. We’re mostly just making use of a hobbying oopsies, since the ASB apparently can’t ride a horse like I thought. The Banner is nice for issuing 5+ Commands. Brace isn’t a must-have and we don’t have many Commands anyways, so this isn’t a must-have, but we’ll see how it feels.
- Wizard, Horse, Alchemist’s Curse. Def6 really shut me down hard in my last game, so we’re taking advantage of cheap wizards and taking a few. Blizzard would work well here, and is still very popular in my meta, but it seems too strong and too popular for me, so we’re resisting taking it for now.
- Wizard, Horse, Bloodboil, Talisman. We’re taking a lot of shooting, so this seems like a good time to try Bloodboil again. The spell is short range, so a Horse should give use some more maneuverability to stay safe while casting. I don’t think it is a great pick, but I had 30+ points left over, so we’re taking the Talisman as well.
- Wizard, Periscope, Barkskin. Humans have slightly better Nerve than Goblins, and with so many low-Defense units, this seemed like a good time to explore the Barkskin spell more too. Hopefully we can get the spell off on the right unit, endure, and cause complications for our opponent! With some extra points, we’re grabbing the Periscope, to hopefully target things with a little more ease.
- Crossbow Regiments x2. I like my old horde more, but we need the unlocks, so two regiments it is! Kings really rewards larger units, so we’ll do our best to spread these around the battlefield.
- Bowmen Regiments x4. Calling back to older Goblin lists, we’re going big on Bowmen, and hoping volume of fire can make up for the lack of piercing. Like the Crossbows, hordes would be a more efficient use of points, but in need of slots, we’re taking regiments, and we’ll try to spread them around.
- Militia Mob x4. They don’t unlock, but it seems a shame not to take the Militia if we’re playing around with lots of cheap regiments. We’ll see how regiments do at taking hits for us. We’ll try and spread these out, and take the initial charges for us.
- Halberdier Regiments x2. I think the Halberdiers/Pole-Arms have the potential to be a fantastic unit for the Kingdoms of Men. Crushing Strength is generally more rare now, and having cheap access to it, and access to it in the Core slot can be hard to come by. I have a ton of old WHFB Halbs sitting around somewhere, but I am a little short on models that jive with this army aesthetic. We’re taking regiments for slot needs, but we’ll see how they do, and if hobbying up another horde or two might be worthwhile in the future.
- Halberdier Troops x2. Newcomers, and another throwback to 2E! These were all-stars back in 2E, but now needing Aux slots in the new ordering, I don’t think they will be as good, as they will be less numerous, and thus have less chances to find flanks. Still, we’ll put them on the table and see how they do, and the goal will be to get a flank charge.
- Shield Wall x2. Rounding things out are the Shield Wall Regiments – equivalent to Goblin Rabble, there to pay the Core tax and take up space. Oddly, where some modern Goblin lists run 14 units, we’re just running 2, with the rest of the slots filled by other units. We’ll see have the inversion feels.
- Siege Artillery x4. Hitting on 5’s is rough, but with so many units on my side of the field, taking these to ignoring Cover Penalties still seems wise, especially for my earliest steps in this playstyle.
It was going to be a very interesting match-up. We've similar inspiration, but have quite the variety of units, right down the Core picks! It looks like we're both gravitating to Heroes and Wizards for Champions though, which is intriguing. I like a lot of the Kingdom of Men units, but have been underwhelmed by our Warlord and Champion slots myself. Notably, neither of us was taking Blizzard, though it continues to be a very potent spell and would help either of us. I think we're both on the same page that is is over-tuned, and since we're not prepping for an event or playing hard to win, we'd rather explore other things. Particularly with a meandering blog like this, I have been incredibly fortunate to have a regular opponent like to for so many years.
We were out at Oddwillows Game Haven, in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, and this continues to be a fantastic little shop full of neat things. They haven't typically been big on wargames, but someone had apparently started a 40k escalation league here, and it was simultaneously cool and surreal to hear teens and middle-aged moms talking about purging the Heretic and going through intentions and such a table over.
We had a hanger-on looking to paint and watch and vibe, so instead of the shops big and only proper wargaming table, we took a normal one, and used some of their plywood table extenders. I had donated some terrain to the shop years before, but it did not jump out while browsing, so I dug out some of my own home terrain, opting for my desert mat and an aesthetic home field advantage for my humans. We had some Height 10 Forests, the blocking Buildings were Height 7, Hills were Height 3, two height 2 obstacles, the Pond was difficult terrain at Height 0, and the shields and such was difficult terrain at Height 1.
We got normal Raze for the scenario, again. It's popped up a lot recently. There is an immutable Objective token in the exact center of the board, and then we each place three tokens into deployment zones. Oddly, you can place in either zone, but can only Raze tokens not in your deployment zone. If you control a token not in your deployment zone, you can "Raze" it for 1 point, and ideally, you whittle things down to fight over the center, as you get nothing for just contesting stuff in your own deployment zone. While I generally prefer newer "Protect and Raze", as it has better interactions, I was excited to play the older version here, even though we've played it a lot recently, as it meant I could not camp out, and that my Bowmen would actually need to move around. It should be a good test for me and the playstyle! Despite this coming up in all my recent games, we decided to deploy the tokens in the opposing deployment zone.
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| Overview of the table. |
Left-to-right the opposing Kingdoms had Halberdiers atop a token, Frenzied Rabble, more Frenzied Rabble, a Hero with a big hat, Foot Guard screening for Foot Guard, the Halberdier horde blocking for some Beast Cavalry, then the Wizard, and Captain, more Halberdiers atop a token and blocking for Light Cavalry, and then Light Cavalry blocking for Beast Cavalry. The two Cannons did not have great lanes, and came down late in the backfield. Finally, a Bowman horde held down the far right, atop a token.
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| Starting view of the left. |
For me, we have Bowmen, Militia, the Hero with the Banner, more Bowmen, Shield Wall with a Halberdier troop in reserve, the brown-robed Wizard with Alchemists' Curse, then Militia and the other Halberdier troop.
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| Starting view of the center. |
The building broke up my line, and the purple-robed Wizard with Bloodboil and the Talisman hid behind it. We then have a channel between buildings, filled by Crossbowmen with the Hero and Trickster's Wand supporting, Halberdiers, Bowmen, Militia, and the Barkskin Wizard, with more Halberdiers in reserve, and the quartet of Siege Artillery models behind. My right had Shield Wall, Militia, and Bowmen in reserve.
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| Starting view of the right, with some bonus game aids from me. |
I knew I was going to out drop my opponent. I wanted to avoid dropping any regiment next to a similar regiment, and to keep the war machines for last. The opposing Captain could help with a redeploy, but if I can zero in on a few targets for my machines, like the Beast Cavalry or enemy Cannons, I figured I could mitigate that redeploy.
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| Redeployment, courtesy of the Captain! |
For the redeploy, my opponent moved some Halberdiers from the far left into a supporting position behind the Frenzied Rabble, and moved his Wizard out to the left as well, to try and shore up that side with spells.
I win the roll for deciding turn order, making the setup rolls an improbable sweep in my favor. The bows will have a rough first turn, but can still, shoot, and with war machines aplenty and some Beast Cavalry in my sights already, I do choose to go first.
Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men (Regnum)
On the right, the obstacle is a big bummer. The Shield Wall and Militia came down early, with the Bowmen awkwardly behind later on. I need to try and blitz the uninspired Bowmen horde if I can, but it's going to be tough. The Militia move at the double, and get an Indomitable Will, and later a Barkskin 4 from the Wizard, who can see them thanks to the Periscope. The Shield Wall move up as far as they can, but are stopped by the obstacle after moving just a little bit over their normal Speed. The Bowmen regiment move up at the double as well, and do not shoot this turn. The potential shots were not great, and it seemed better to gain some ground and a future shooting position.
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| Positioning on the right. |
Against Light Cavalry and Beast Cavalry, I could easily be too aggressive. I have a big shooting advantage, and need to leverage that while I can. In between the buildings, the Militia move up to block, and Bows move up slightly, loosing with a penalty into the Light Cavalry and landing 1 damage. The Halberdier regiment pulls up behind, and it's partner regiment stays put while the Crossbowmen move ahead a bit, and fire into the Halberdier horde, but land nothing.
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| A shooting gallery is lined up between the buildings, but the results are lackluster so far. |
All four Siege Artilleries fire on the outer Beast Cavalry unit, though the output of the war machines is rather disappointing, with two hits, we go blasting up to 4 hits, and just 3 damage done.
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| Ineffectual shooting on the left this round. |
On the other side of the building, the Bloodboil Wizard forgets to move, and Militia move up slightly, to get ready to take some future charges, but not wanting to get too far ahead and be unable to see around the forest. The Halberdier troop inches up behind.
Some Crossbowmen take the hill, getting enough Height to ignore additional penalties, but land no hits into the Frenzied Rabble opposing them. Bowmen will join in but will take cover penalties, and also land no hits into the Rabble. The other Bowmen move and come at things from the far left, but I am frazzled, and they end up directly behind the woods, with no shots. A harder pivot would have put their corner past the forest, and they could have got some shots too. However, with how my shooting has gone here, it is not a big deal.
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| A jumbled line on the left, to be sure. |
The Wizard with Alchemist Curse gets in front of the Bowmen, but will be ignored, and ASB with the Banner moves up to assist this push. The Militia out here will make a pivot and big move ahead, looking to start making a play for the token out here in the coming turns.
Bottom of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men (Data)
On the left, the Frenzied Rabble peel off to zone out the Militia. With a Wild Charge here, tehy are threatening the Militia, while staying safe themselves. The opposing Wizard stays central, and lands a Barkskin 4 on them, to dissuade my shooting. The Halberdiers stand ready, and the other Rabble moves as far as they can, wading slightly into the pond.
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| The Frenzied Rabble project threat. |
The Hero with the Hat stays central here as well, keeping tabs the stacked Foot Guard duo as they move up towards the woods.
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| The Halberdier horde moves up, with Light Cavalry leading the way. |
Centrally, the Halberdier horde moves ahead, making sure to stay more than 10 inches away from the Militia. They definitely wouldn't break them, especially hindered, but I would definitely like to be a nuisance to them if he gives me the opportunity to.
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| Light Cavalry threatening stuff, |
Up against so much shooting, even just Bow shooting, my opponent wants to be as aggressive as he can, with both Light Cavalry units galloping up. While staying out of charge range is usually wise, my opponent doesn't want the weaker units Wavering him and showing him down at all so the Light Cavalry press on, daring a few charges from my infantry, and both will end with their center points atop the hill, meaning they are blocking line of sight to some things, particularly the injured Beast Cavalry.
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| A big round for shooting! |
With cover, the one Cannon maxes out, landing 8 damage onto a unit of Bowmen in the center of my line. The other Cannon misses. Sheesh. The opposing Bowmen horde loose into the Militia in the center, just to the left of the building. About 4 damage is expected, but they translate a hot 8 hits into a hot 7 damage. Which one of us brought the shooting list again? The Militia hold, but the Bowmen waver.
Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men (Regnum)
On the right, the Militia run ahead, and pivot. They are threatening the Bowmen now, but not doing much else. The Shield Wall move off the obstacle and get out of arc of the Beast Cavalry though, which feels good. Lastly, the Bowmen move up, and loose into the opposing horde. There is a cover penalty, and I land 0 hits here.
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| A nice flanking charge from the Militia! |
The injured Militia can get a flank charge into the Light Cavalry further away from them, and happily take it, though the dice are fickle and only a meager 2 damage lands. More damage would obviously be nice, but this is still a huge headache for my opponent with minimal investment from me.
The Barkskin Wizard adjusts, and lands a Barkskin 3 into the further unit of Halberdiers. I believe we try an Indomitable Will Command somewhere (I think the Shield Wall on the other side of the building?) but fail. The Wizard will land a Barkskin 3 on the Halberdiers further away, and both regiments will inch slightly ahead. With the flanking Militia failing to break through, the Barkskinned unit is safe, and nestled between the wavering Bowmen and the building, the other regiment should be safe as well.
All four Siege Artillery pieces will shoot into the undamaged Beast Cavalry unit, as I cannot see the injured one. Eager to make up for their performance last round, we hit much better with three hits blasting, and resulting in 11 damage. The Crossbowmen will hold, and shoot with a penalty into them as well, taking them up to 12 damage, but the Nerve check is low, and they will hold, unbothered.
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| A Shield Wall regiment dares a charge. |
The Militia on the other side of the building hold, as do the Halberdiers in reserve. I remember the Bloodboil Wizard, and he gets atop the hill, though can't cast at all this turn. He'll be ignored by the Crossbows as they shoot. I'm on the hill, but don't have great targets out here. I shouldn't, but I shoot into the Barkskinned Rabble, landing 3, with one Bowmen moving into the woods and landing nothing, thanks to a penalty from the intervening obstacle, and the other landing a hot 6 damage onto them. I am fishing for a waver, but the Frenzied Rabble are Fearless, and I am misplaying things.
The Shield Wall move up. I think they are safe from the Foot Guard, and daring a longer Wild Charge from the Rabble. With the angles against me, and terrain, I can't get the Alchemist's Curse Wizard anywhere fun, so he hangs back.
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| A Militia Regiment foolishly moves up. |
On the far left, the Militia were just in range of the Frenzied Rabble. They moved up a bit to threaten their own charge, as I was hoping for a waver from the Fearless unit, which is not a great plan. The Hero hangs tight, keeping these units Inspired, and that seemed more important than grabbing a few more inches. The Bowmen are both in terrain, and should have hindered charges into them, and will each Brace, just in case.
Bottom of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men (Data)
The Fearless, Frenzied Rabble make their no-brainer charge into the Militia. They are a little far, so get an Indomitable Will from the Wizard. I think a Bane Chant is attempted, though I don't think the spell succeeded. They still flub it though, with just 5 damage hitting the expendable Militia when the dust settles. This is about half what should be expected, if the spell did connect.
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| The Frenzied Rabble flub it. |
The Wizard adjusts, and the reserve Halberdiers continue to hold. The Frenzied Rabble choose to play it slow here, and they inch up, and with a kinked line, will be preventing protecting the flanks of the Foot Guard, as they inch ahead into the woods, and peering out and projecting threat. They should have charges into the Shield Wall, but nothing else.
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| The Militia get piled on... |
The horde of Halberdiers inch up, but are careful to keep things in front arc. I have a lot of units, and might be able to do a number on the Def3 horde if my opponent lets me.
The rest of the center is gummed up, thanks to my flanking Militia. After lots of consideration, we determine that the Beast Cavalry are just gummed up, so they do their best to hide this turn.
Meanwhile, the Light Cavalry envelop the Militia from the front and the flank, with the Halberdier regiment joining in the flank as well. They are injured and uninspired, and with brains melting already, we fast forward the combat, and they are not Insane.
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| ...but reforms are minimal. |
The flanked Light Cavalry had reformed to fight the Militia, allowing the Halberdier horde to move up more. In victory, they sidestep towards my line, with just one inch, and the other units hold, since we were measuring things early on, and my opponent liked where things were ending up.
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| The Shield Wall Waver on the right. |
On the far right, the Cannons shoot unimpeded, and roll well, landing a combined 5 damage into the Shield Wall. The horde of Bowmen hold and loose, and roll well as well, contributing 4 damage. We did not get Indomitable Will on them last turn, and the check breaks against me, and the Shield Wall are wavered.
Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men (Regnum)
Managing the attrition of your units seems very important for this kind of playstyle. So far, I've lost just one regiment of Militia, which feels great, though that should change by the end of the round. Our units don't fight too well, so we'll try to be mindful of what is charging in the coming turns to try and reduce casualties.
On the right, the Shield Wall wavering under fire is a bummer, but I am also not supporting them well, so shouldn't be too surprised. The Wizard is able to get an Indomitable Will on them, but Headstrong is failed on a 4+. I really want them to pivot and just run past all the cavalry, as I think I'll probably need them to best the Bowmen horde, but we'll see how combats go. For now, they're still wavering, and threatened by the Beast Cavalry, whom they cannot escape.
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| A few Regnum units charge in. |
The Militia charge in against the Bowmen horde, landing 3 damage. I don't have great shots, and with the Shield Wall wavering, my Bowmen run up instead of trying to line anything up, ready to join the fight against the horde on the next turn. Potentially, there's an area where I could be threatening a charge while getting shots off into the Cannons or something, but even taking the game slow, my brain is mush already and the most clever and most efficient plays are just not there.
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| Fighting in the center. |
Between the buildings, several more delaying charges are made, trying to buy time for the shooting to deliver results. Militia from the left are able to get in against the Halberdier horde, and they'll land 3 damage. My Halberdier regiments will charge, hitting one Light Cavalry unit in the flank and breaking them, and overrunning, while the other will charge the other Light Cavalry unit in the front, land 3 damage, and with a very low check, the opposing troop holds.
Inspiring is an issue here. I have only the Hero over here. He gives Indomitable Will to the Halberdiers on the right, and then moves to get them Rallied. Unfortunately this leave the delaying Militia fighting against the Halberdier horde uninspired. I could definitely be doing better with coverage, though it's a bummer KoM have lost the Very Inspiring boosts in the new edition.
Shooting does a little better for me this round. The Artillery spiked last turn, taking a Beast Cavalry up to 12 damage to start this turn. A few more strikes will land take them up to 18, enough to potentially break them, and indeed they will break, letting me split fire with the rest of my war machines, though I think the other machines both miss.
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| Reforms for the Regnum. |
The Crossbowmen and Bowmen regiments will shoot into the opposing Halberdier regiment atop the hill. Just 4 damage makes it though, which feels low, but is actually about right. It's a great target for me, but hitting on 5's is the bottleneck for these units. The Halberdiers are Rallied and Inspired by the Captain nearby, and hold strong.
From the other side of the building, the Militia had charged out and into the Halberdier Horde, and now the Halberdier troop moves up. The Shield Wall inch over, readying to sacrifice themselves to buy time, and will Brace with a Command. The Bloodboil Wizard in Purple slots in behind them. The Rabble are just too quick out here, and I don't have the shooting necessary to take them off.
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| Positioning over on the left. |
The other troop of Halberdiers adjust and move ahead, offering themselves up so that the AC Wizard can finally get a toss off. I was expecting these Wizards to be more of a nuisance, but my own lines have gummed me up, and with numerous units opposing me, they have not really had a free hand to run around like I had been hoping for.
Crossbows and a unit of Bowmen shoot into the left-most unit of Foot Guard, landing 3 damage, which again feels rough, but should be about right, statistically-speaking. Alchemist Curse lands 3 more, and then Bloodboil spikes for another 4, putting the regiment at 10 damage, and I do get the waver here.
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| Everything available goes into the Rabble, who hold. |
On the far left, I need to capitalize on the Militia holding. My plan is to punch though, units units to block, and then the Hero to go and claim the objective. For now, I throw everything into the def 3 Rabble fighting over here. The Militia fight in the front, landing 2, the flanking, hindered Bowmen land 3, and the Hero rolls hot, landing 3 damage as well, taking the crazies up to 8. The Wizard gave them Indomitable Will last turn, and it's a pretty even check, but doesn't break my way, and now we are really stuck up. Again, hitting on 5's at best is rough.
Bottom of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men (Data)
Out on the left, fighting Militia, a Hero, and Bowmen, the Frenzied Rabble get a Tenacious order from the Wizard, finally get to make use of Retaliate! My Free Dwarfs have gotten to use their special Command Order version of this, but I think this is the first time in 50 games that the special rule has been used/remembered? The Frenzied Rabble roll far better this time, landing 12 new damage against the Militia, devastating and routing them, as is proper, though the Fanatics can't reform as they are still engaged with other units.
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| We got to use Retaliate! |
The Halberdiers in reserve hit the Bowmen regiment in the flank with the Wizard moving to prevent a hindered charge on the slide down, and while 6 damage lands, the archers are Rallied and Inspired, and hold. With a clean charge, this is a big underperformance, with about 10 damage expected usually.
The Frenzied Rabble from the pond make a hindered charge into my Halberdier troop, who catch a Bane Chant as the melee erupts. The crazies will land 7 damage, and will break my troop. For reforms, they could risk it and overrun, but choose to spin around and try and help the other units break through my lines to have more chances at securing the tokens.
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| More Frenzied Rabble claim another unit. |
Speaking of, the Hero with the hat imparts an Indomitable Will to the wavering Foot Guard, who will actually pass their 4+ Headstrong check, and so they pair will make hindered charges into the Shield Wall. They duo will land 9 damage combined, but the Shield Wall are found to be Insanely Courageous, and will hold for me.
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| Militia and Halberdiers fall for the Regnum. |
The Halberdier horde will fight the Militia, who are unfortunately uninspired. The Horde will care 12 damage onto the Militia, and cut them down, and reform slightly, to get everything into front arc. It's only Round 3, but the Halberdier horde is making a strong claim for the center objective.
I was expecting a bit of a grind here, but my opponent is focusing on picking units up and avoiding the grind. His Halberdiers ignore my Halberdiers in front of them, and hit my other regiment in the flank, to aid the Light Cavalry. My regiment folds, and the Light Cavalry sidestep, with the Halberdiers changing facing. Spacing-wise, while I can see the flank of the opposing Halberdier horde, I cannot align at all, and don't have enough space to really pivot at all.
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| The Shield Wall tall. |
The Beast Cavalry charge the maimed Shield Wall, pick them up with ease, and aim to clean up the rest of my push out here, opting to swivel around to face the Bowmen horde, and help them out in the coming turns. Meanwhile, the Bowmen start the grind by dishing out 6 damage to the Militia, and I could be in some serious trouble.
The Cannons take aim at the Bowmen regiment nearby, and fire, but only land 2 damage against the regiment with the cannonballs. I do not recall if grapeshot was an option.
Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men (Regnum)
My plan for the right token is to was to break the horde with a few waves of units, but that is looking tougher to do. The Militia fight on, and reform, to let the Bowmen in too. The Militia add 4 damage. The Bowmen should only do about 2 damage, but miss completely. On just 7 damage, the Bowmen horde is unfortunately in no danger of running. It's not great, but not over yet.
The Siege Artillery fire into the Beast Cavalry, who do already have some damage to start the turn. The quartet will take them up to 12 damage, and will get the waver, which keeps my hopes for this token alive for now.
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| The Siege Artillery waver the Beast Cavalry, while the Militia and Bowmen units all fight. |
After much deliberation, Bowmen and the Hero charge the remaining Light Cavalry. The plan for my center token is to break this unit, and have my hero go and claim it next turn. The Bowmen do 1, and the Hero adds the max 3 damage he can do, taking them up to 8 damage, and we will get the rout here, and the injured Bowmen overrun, making a play for the token as well. The Hero holds to maintain a nicer Inspiring bubble, and either should be able to reach the center token next round for me.
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| The Halberdier troop steps up to the plate. |
Crossbowmen and Halberdiers charge the opposing injured regiment of Halberdiers, will take them up to 13 damage, and we will get the break!
From the other side of the building, the Halberdier troop gets Indomitable Will, and a full Barkskin 5 as it charges the Halberdier horde to tie it up, and we'll see if they can hold.
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| The Insane Shield wall claims a unit! |
The Regnum is clawing back, and the insane Shield Wall bash the injured Foot Guard, dealing 1 damage and taking them up to 11, but we do still get the rout. We can't reform, but that's fine.
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| The Regnum Hero is free! |
On the left, my plan for this token is to get the Hero out to claim it, but he's stuck in combat right now, and this needs to go well. Thankfully, it does. The Hero and the flanking Bowmen are able to pick up the wounded Frenzied Rabble, and and Hero overruns, heading out towards the token as-planned!
Bottom of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men (Data)
The Halberdiers are still flanking my Bowmen, and seeing my plan out here, when theey roll better and best my archers this turn, the Halberdiers sidestep, getting the 2 inches needed to just get in range to control this token with their 2 US. My Hero only has 1, so that's a bummer for me and my schemes.
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| The Regnum Bowmen are engaged, and the Shield Wall enveloped. |
The Hero with the hat charges my other Bowmen out here, but lands no damage. And seeing my character making a play for a token, my opponent ops to do the same with his Wizard, with the Spellcaster heading out towards my deployment zone.
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| Reforms for the opposing humans. |
The Frenzied Rabble hit the insane Shield Wall in the flank, with the Foot Guard continuing the fight from the front, and the brave regiment will be sliced down easily. In victory, the Foot Guard will overrun for 1, and still be stuck in the woods, and the Rabble will turn to face my deployment zone.
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| The Halberdier horde steamrolls the opposing troop. |
In the center, the Halberdier troop has the best chances that I can give them against the opposing horde, with Indomitable Will, and a full 5 Barkskin pips. It is not enough. The horde rolls just a little above average, dishing out 12 damage, which Barkskin blunts to only 7, but it is still 4's to hold, and my troop does not. In victory, the horde swivels, to face the Bowmen and my own Halberdier regiment.
The Captain charges the injured Bowmen regiment, deals a few, and picks them up. The Cannons take aim at my Halberdier regiment, but take some penalties, and only land 3 damage.
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| The opposing horde of Bowmen are out for blood! They've been rolling well all game. |
After his charge, the Captain lands Indomitable Will for the Beast Cavalry, but the Headstrong roll fails. Still, the Bowmen horde continues to roll well, landing another 6 onto the injured Militia, who are uninspired, and do rout.
Top of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men (Regnum)
My plans for the tokens were decent, but are quickly slipping away now. The Bowmen land another 0 damage against the opposing horde. I think this one is lost. Even if this was on-track, we'd still need like, a 10 to rout the horde. We really needed the Shield Wall to make it into combat here, and / or a lot more luck than we got.
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| Fighting out on the right. |
The Siege Artillery fires again into the Beast Cavalry, but can only take them from 12 up to 16 damage, and while the Monstrous Cavalry unit is wavering again, they are still around.
My mounted Hero can reach the middle token, and will run over and Raze it. A bit surprisingly, this is the very first token Razed this game. I'm in the lead! Huzzah!
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| Unit after unit piles into the Halberdier horde. |
The Crossbowmen and Halberdier regiments hit the opposing Halberdier horde in the front, with the Crossbowmen from the hill on the left hitting the horde in the flank too. I need to make a strong play for the center if I hope to keep it, and just don't think I have the shooting tools to block up both opposing regiments out on the left. To try and help this, the Barkskin Wizard lands 2 onto my Halberdier Regiment, and gives them Indomitable Will as well.
The horde starts on 6, the Crossbows in the front do a ridiculous 4, the Halberdiers do a low 3 to balance it out, and the flanking Crossbows to a terrible 2 damage. On average, the Crossbowmen's results should be flipped, so no biggie, and the Halberdiers look like they should do 5, so a little low here overall. However, the horde is uninspired, and a hot nerve check does break them!
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| Victory over the horde! The Regnum controls the center for now. |
With the Crossbowmen charging away, I have kind of abandoned the left. We'll see what the mounted Wizards can do for me. One will grant Tenacity to the flanking Crossbowmen, and the other will do the same for the Bowmen fighting the Hero with the hat. Both Wizards will adjust to get to safe places, and then throw spells into the injured rabble. Alchemist's Curse takes the crazies up to 13 damage, and a Bloodboil will devastate and rout them at range, which feels great.
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| Fights on the right, with the mounted Wizards doing great work! |
Even with the Tenacity Command trying to help, the Bowmen land nothing into the Hero with the hat, and he remains undamaged. This is a combat that could take a full 6 turns to resolve, but for now, is locked into combat and that is good enough for me.
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| The Wizards tear up the Frenzied Rabble. |
My plan for my Hero out here is a bust, and I don't know what to do, so he wheels around, and gets close to the Halberdiers. Charging them is a folly. I do have a charge into the Wizard, but am unlikely to break him, so I am just at a loss here, and unfortunately, a second token is looking out of reach for me. Still, we cobbled together a plan for all three tokens, and I'm pleased with that
The Halberdier regiment jealously guard their token, and pivot and back up to deny my Hero any tricky running around plays for it in the final turns. We both know the regiment won't be shifted with a 3-attack hero.
The opposing Hero with the hat smacks 2 damage onto the Bowmen regiment, but they are Rallied and Inspired, and will hold for me.
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| Scuffles on the left, with the opposing Wizard making a play. |
The Wizard is forced to run out, and Raze my opponent's middle token, matching me with regards to Razed stuffs.
The Foot Guard are slowed by terrain, but are able to see and charge the Alchemist's Curse Wizard. I don't know how. Angles-wise, they should have been safe, and I think we both just blanked after a long game here. The regiment will only land 4 damage, but he is uninspired, and will break with a good check, and the Foot Guard will overrun into the rear of the Hero with the hat.
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| The Foot Guard manage to lay the Alchemist's Curse Wizard low. |
The center is mine for now, but the Captain charges in against the Barkskin Wizard. My opponent's idea is to make a play for the nearby token with the Captain. Even though he's fighting me right now, my Wizard is Yielding, and if he chooses, the Captain can ignore me next turn to run up and claim the token, which is currently uncontrolled.
The opposing Cannon will fire into one of my Siege Artillery pieces, land 2 damage, and get a hot waver over here.
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| The Beast Cavalry get in to butcher the Militia of the Regnum Aeternum. |
The Captain is able to land an Indomitable Will onto the Beast Cavalry, who pass their Headstrong check. They'll rear charge my Bowmen regiment fighting the opposing Bowmen horde, and officially end my push here.
Top of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men (Regnum)
With the Militia falling, my push is essentially over on the right. The Hero is able to charge a Cannon, and is actually able to break it.
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| The Siege Artillery flub. |
I would have liked to have shot the artillery into the Beast Cavalry to remove it, or the Bowmen to open them up for the Hero coming in to possibly break them next turn, but I don't have the luxury of trying to go for a Round 7. With the Captain fighting my yielding Wizard, I need to secure the token here, and prevent it from being claimed by my opponent. The one Siege Artillery piece is wavering, but the other three contraptions move, converging on the objective, bringing their 3 Unit Strength to hold it from the US2 Warlord.
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| The Regnum still controls the immutable center. |
The Barkskin Wizard only has 1 damage, so I risk a Withdraw move, and he rolls well, scooting back near the token, adding his US1 to my cause. Had I been thinking, he could have issued an Indomitable Will order to the wavering Siege Artillery, for a change at Headstrong and a lucky shot into the Beast Cavalry, or moving up to make sure I keep this token on the board no matter what, but this doesn't occur to me. It's been a long day. The Wizard will land a Barkskin 2 onto the Halberdiers on the hill, looking to take some shooting.
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| Fights on the left. |
I hold the center, but my brain is mush. I know I am safe from the Beast Cavalry in Round 6, and don't really move anything over here. The Crossbowmen need to hold to shoot, and I just can't process where the Halberdiers should be going, so they just hold. Spinning around might have been the play.
The Crossbowmen take aim, and each land 2 damage into the rear of the nearby Foot Guard. The Bloodboil Wizard throws as well, landing another 2, but the unit is fine. The Bowmen get a Tenacity from the Hero with the Banner, and do punch 2 against the Hero with the Hat, though he holds, and is actually found to be quite insane.
My Hero realizes what he probably should have done last turn, and charges the opposing Wizard to tie him up. We should be in the flank, but it is a fight between Individuals, so the facing does not matter, and while we only land 1 damage, the Wizard is still occupied, limiting his options.
Bottom of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men (Data)
I apparently fail to get many pictures here. On the left, my opponent cleans me out. Measuring things, I don't have the inches to say, ignore the Wizard and double-back to get my token on the left. Knowing this, the Halberdiers make a flank charge into the Bowmen regiment, and if memory serves, will pick them up.
The Foot Guard pivot past the Hero with the hat, and can charge the flank of my mounted Hero, getting 23 hits, which translates into 15 damage! My hero is pasted, and either the Foot Guard or the Wizard can secure the token here in a Round 7.
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| The Captain swings hard, but can't fell the wizened Wizard. |
I control the center, but the Beast Cavalry are galloping back and hoping for a Round 7.
The Bowmen shoot into the Hero, taking a penalty for him being a rugged individual, but still land a silly 4 damage. The Hero holds.The Cannon shoots with a cover penalty into one of my Siege Artillery pieces, but misses. The Captain tries his best and charges the Barkskin Wizard again, landing 3 new damage and taking the spellcaster up to 4, but the kook holds.
It's been a bloody game, and momentum is on their side, but the Data and Dice humans have only managed to Raze one objective so far. The humans of the Regnum Aeternum have also only Razed one token, but do hold the center, for a second VP. We don't roll up a Round 7, so it is a victory to my humans!
Game Conclusions
The game took about 4 hours, which is easily one of the longer games that we’ve played, if not our longest one ever. The game was definitely fun, and very enlightening, but also incredibly mentally draining for both of us.
Luck felt pretty even, with good and bad phases for each of us throughout the game, and the whims of Lady Luck felt tangible with so many units and heaps of dice rolling around in every phase. I don’t think the scenario heavily favored either of us, though this being normal Raze and not Protect and Raze ended up limiting my opponent’s chances to claw back at the end after being mostly gummed up in the midfield. The scoring for the scenario was tight throughout, and ultimately this could have gone either way, and I just happened to luck out with the lack of a Round 7 giving me the narrow win.
Testing Conclusions
With a civil war, we’re going to take some extra time to unpack my thinking on everything involved, since it is all of interest to me. I was able to cross off 4 whole list / build ideas from just this one game, knocking out the first steps into both Goblin-style and Ratkin-style Humans, so this was definitely worth it for me, providing a trove of things to ponder, while being very enjoyable, as always!
- Captain. I think you still have good chances to trip yourself up with the redeploy if you rely on it too much, After all, your opponent could just execute their own plan and not react to your drops. But I like the changes to the Redeployment, especially that it is a known quantity now, and think that plays really nicely with the new battalion structure, since the fun/scary things are likely limited to 2-of picks either structurally (Cannons, Mammoths, Giants, etc.) or practically (Beast Cav, with points and slots). I like him, particularly alongside the Halberdiers.
- Heroes. I liked the Heroes on both sides. Mounted, mine were a little easier to use for the scenario, but these were all helpful overall, with Rallying, Inspiring, and even in combats. They still feel expensive for what you get, and I still feel like I want an item on most of mine too, making them even more expensive, but outside the Trickster’s Want and maybe the Boomstick, I don’t know if any item really looks that appealing. The Banner is just ok, and not something
- Wizards. The spellcasters were a mixed bag. Tooling one up with a few spells and the Inspiring Talisman is still perfectly fine, especially in a one-battalion list. My approach is also fine, but needed a more finesse. Mounted Bloodboil and Alchemist’s Curse Wizards were not used well, but still seem potent for future games. Barkskin is a decent spell for my list, with its plentiful Def3, and the Periscope a great item, but like the Celestial Restoration from a previous game, this spell fell a bit flat for me, any my opponent’s list was just a little too killy for the spell to be impactful.
- Halberdiers. We have the spectrum of unit sizes covered, and all were fine picks. The Troops were unable to flank anything though, which was a bummer here, but even they felt ok. Regiments were great here, able to add some damage (especially against me), and be reactive, the horde was a strong pick as well. Getting CS in the Core is much more rare these days, and the Halberdiers seem like a great pick to fill Core for the humans.
- Shield Wall. The Shield Wall felt equally great, filling space cheaply, and playing nicely with our limited Commands. The Halberdiers can deal damage out of our Core slot, and the Shield Wall can take hits, which feels nice.
- Bowmen. This was a pretty ideal match-up for my bow shooting, with plenty of low-defense stuff opposing me, but these struggled. With the extra pivot in the movement phase now, lines clash far quicker, and I was not able to utilize these as effectively as I would have liked.
- Crossbowmen. Like the Bowmen, these struggled a bit, despite some good match-ups on paper. I still like the Crossbows over the Bowmen though, and if I was going with a one-battalion Ratkin approach, a horde of these would easily make its way into the list.
- Militia Regiments. These weren’t great, but all things considered they still did ok, as they are so cheap. For Goblin-style, being in the Auxiliary Slot really hurts, and for Ratkin-style, the horde is probably better, as a more efficient use of points.
- Frenzied Rabble. They had some great targets, and really shined against a lot of Def 3 infantry, making use of Bane Chants, Wild Charges, and even Retaliate! They had a good game, but I’m still not a big fan of the unit these days.
- Foot Guard. I have always liked the Foot Guard, and liked the look and feel of them as regiments for quite some time. I tried them as front-liners, and regiments just couldn’t quite cut it for me. They did ok here, especially against my low-defense list, but feel better to me as a reserve unit, not-unlike the Roman Triarii in history.
- Light Cavalry. These were neat, and I like them as speedy chaff / harassers / interdictors, and I think a troop or two would be worthwhile to look at for me in the future. Speed 9 is nice, and would give the humans more ranges to play with, which would be handy with an infantry-based list like mine.
- Beast Cavalry. They had a rough game, and just couldn’t hide from my Siege Artillery, though I unfortunately couldn’t quite break both of the regiments this game. I still like the unit, and the ground form seems to me to be a fine buy, and would be how I would run the unit, if I had the models.
- Cannons. Grapeshot was not used, but the Cannons had a pretty good game, especially early on with a target-rich environment, where the 4+ to hit could really let them shine, even in a fewer number.
- Siege Artillery. The artillery quartet did fine, and was used better this game than previously, despite needing to switch targets between the Beast Cavalry units a few times. Ignoring Cover is a nice boon, but they definitely lucked out with having such a good pair of targets opposite them. If I get better, I think Cannons or even Ballistae would be better picks, as being able to hit on 4’s is really strong for war machines. If things ever shift to a more of a one battalion approach (either through event trends, or my own testing), two of each of these other war machine options might be a strong approach.
We’ll extend a big thank you to our opponent for sticking it out for the full afternoon, and it was a very enjoyable day having these armies clash. The Bowmen/shooting approach was neat, and had some ideal targets, but unfortunately still struggled a bit. It wasn’t a great map for shooting, and the movement in-game is just so much swifter these days, making it harder for these non-piercing shots to deliver any significant results before the lines clash, and with sticky combats and hitting on 5’s at best, struggle to really contribute once the lines do start fighting too.
I think the Bowmen-approach would be worth trying out again sometime, if nothing else to confirm the results and the current thinking in the future after some more experience. The Shield Wall / Halberdier options are looking like a better approach for a spammy, Goblin-style core, and a few hordes looks like a much simpler way to play things for roughly the same results overall. I’ll do my best to keep all this in mind for the future!
It was a great afternoon. A big thanks to Trevor for organizing this, and you for sticking through such a lengthy report! If you haven't already, be sure to check out Data and Dice!
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