4th Edition: Battle #050 Kingdoms of Men vs Abyssal Dwarfs

Intro and Lists

It had been a ridiculous week for me both at work and otherwise personally, but I had made it to the weekend, and was incredibly happy to be able to relax rolling some dice against Will and his Abyssal Dwarfs, who were practicing for a tournament next weekend. After a tasty home-cooked meal, we set up for a rematch.

As mentioned before, I like Golekh's angle of play for the Abyssal Dwarfs. Again, were were looking to get Will some practice with his list for a tournament, which was locked in already, despite neither of us really liking the fiddly items on the Gargoyles and such. 

Opposing me we have the splendidly painted Golekh on his chariot, two Iron Casters (without Surge) to heal and support things, a Horde of Blacksouls with CS1 weapon-swap, and the Brew of Sharpness to hit harder, two regiments of Lesser Obsidian Golems to take hits, two Gargoyles to interdict, and then Ratkin Death Engine and Tunnel Runners to round things out as other hammer-like units. 

I was running the Kingdoms of Men! While I have a large collection of humans, and considered this my “main” army for a quite a while, I really cannot make that argument anymore. So far in 4E they’ve seen the table just twice for me!

While I like a lot of the underdog human units, a “good” build has been hard for me to wrap my head around. The Warlords and Champions all felt really limiting and underwhelming. Reviewing my collection, I can’t really spam anything – I mostly have a varied collection for the humans, with a single horde’s worth of a lot of different units. Still struggling to find my own footing with the army, I decided to just embrace that variety, and channel some “Mantide” play inspired by things the Goblins or Ratkin can do these days. The Battalions are organized like a crazy person would, but essentially we have two of just about everything, some basic Champions to support us, Dogs of War and Knights as hammers, and a lot of counts-as Siege Artillery for indirect fire. We’re hoping to fill the board up with sticky regiments and hopefully just outlast our opponent in whatever the scenario happens to be. As-usual, up to evaluate is everything:

• ASB, Torc of Command. With a lot of regiments, Inspiring coverage might be an issue, so we’re trying the ASB for Very Inspiring, and the Torc to give out a longer Indomitable Will just in case.
• Mounted Hero, Trickster’s Wand. I like the kit, and the height of the Mount should help the Hero get line of Sight with the Wand. The Wand no longer forces a unit to halt to cast these days, and we’ll see how that feels. The Wand/Hex has shown up in a handful of lists opposing me, but I don’t think anyone has really gotten good uses out of it yet.
• Mounted Hero, Banner of Command. We don’t have a lot of Commands, but I hobbied up a Mounted ASB before realizing that the human ASB’s can’t take mounts, so we’re putting the model to use here. We’ll see how this feels.
• Uninspiring Wizard, Periscope, Celestial Restoration. An admittedly wild pick! Celestial Restoration is a siren song, and I wanted to try it out here. I don’t think it will be great here, but I feel the need to try. If we can have a regiment unexpectedly hold, and then get healed too,
• Shield Wall Regiments x2. I hobbied mine up as individual regiments, each with a standard back in the day, so we’ll put them to use here, and see how these base regiments feel for me.
• Halberdier Regiments x2. I like Halberdiers, as the cheap source of CS is really nice to have around. I’m excited for troops to return, but I just don’t have any hobbied up. We’ll split the old horde in twain, and see if these can’t cause some damage for me.
• Crossbowmen Regiments x2. We’ll split the dependable Crossbowmen horde up as well, and see if a little extra counter-shooting could be fun.
• Militia Mob Hordes x2. I just finished up a fourth regiment, so we’ll take two hordes, emulating the Ratkin Wretches. We don’t have great Orders for them like the Ratkin, but a horde is still a horde, and we’ll try to be a good tarpit.
• Knights, Boots. An odd pick, given the rest of the list. Splitting the hordes up, I needed a fourth Core unit, and just went with these. I felt like I needed some kind of hammer, and if I’m taking a regiment of Knights, I want to take the Boots too, unfortunately. We’ll try to play them more as a second-line or a sweeper.
• Dogs of War, 2H, Stone. I really like the basic Dogs of War. They aren’t crazy-strong, but they are a very cheap horde that you can then customize. Leftover points are wacky here, so we’re just giving them the Stone, to boost their Nerve just a bit. We’ll run these as a second line as well, and see if we can’t survive the game.
• Siege Artillery x4. Eh, we’ll succumb to some support spam here while we can. While the Goblins have been able to use Sharpstick throwers against me, and I would also like to run my old Ballistae, I am not practiced with this kind of list. We’ll try the potentially easier-to-use artillery and their Indirect Fire. We’ll deploy these last and just hope we can see something tall.

Table and Terrain

Will and his wife were kind enough to host the practice session, and we made use of his table, very thematic matt, and home terrain, with the help of an extra hill from the terrain box in my car. We had nifty basalt rock Forests (back left and middle) with Height 10, a ruined statue head and a skull monument for blocking terrain at Height 7, Hills with Height 3, two neoprene mats for Height 1 difficult terrain, and the Obstacles as Height 2. 

It was a weird generation, with the Skull monument largely in one deployment zone, and a hill in the other zone.

Overview of the table, with some units scattered about and not yet deployed.

We got Loot for the scenario, and will have three tokens along the center line we can fight for and pick up. Each token we hold at the end of the game will be worth 1 VP apiece. Nice and easy!

The Abyssal Dwarfs had won the roll for side choice and for tokens. They were lazy for sides, and I believe placed on the far left. 

View of the left.

Left-to-right for the Abyssal Dwarfs are Golekh and the Death Engine in reserve, Tunnel Runners perpendicular behind the woods, then both units of of Golems with the Iron Caster in reserve.

View of the center.

Both units of Gargoyles were hidden behind the skull monument, and then the Abyssal Dwarfs line continued beyond, with both hordes of Ratkin, and the horde of Blacksouls in reserve, along with the supervising Iron Caster, with Bane Chant, Heal, and the Crown.

View of the right. 

I greatly out-dropped my opponent, but without a clear game-plan, struggled a bit. I wanted to play for the narrow in, threatening the left but not expecting to take it, brawl for the center, and sweep through on the right. 

The delaying left got Militia and Shield Wall on the front, supported by the ASB, with Knights and Halberdiers in reserve. The center got Shield Wall, Halberdiers, and Militia supported by the Hero with the Banner, and then the Hero with the Trickers' Wand to the right of the Militia. The Dogs of War continued the line, and we had a strong shooting contingent on the right, with Crossbowmen, all the Siege Artillery jumbled on the hill, and more Crossbowmen on the far right.

Playing many regiments, the main goal was to split them up, so that like units were not fighting alongside each other. With Kings of War, larger units have a discounted price, so having two Halberdier units deployed or fighting next to each other is a very inefficient use of points, and something to be avoided,. I did well on this front, generally splitting stuff up and giving myself some options and a mix of units, but there are some larger goofs of mine to point out.

• I did not do a great job with my Champions / Inspiring coverage, and indeed even forgot to deploy the Celestial Wizard! (I will catch this quickly, and my opponent will graciously let him arrive on my turn). 
• I fixated on the hill. With my opponent giving me this side, it felt wise to put my war machines there, but ultimately do not like how I did this. Firstly, with these having Indirect, I don't need to get center-points on the hill like I was trying to, and just need to get a bit of the front-facing on the terrain to see. I'm ignoring Cover anyways, so I could have deployed these much better on the hill, and gotten a straighter line of war machines. Secondly, I out-deploy my opponent, and could have stuck these anywhere. We're wasting a lot of Piercing by targeting the infantry, and sticking them on the far left to target Golems might have been better. 
• The Knights came down late as well. With Thunderous Charge (3), they were one of my few options against the Golems, and I felt compelled to put them down out here, since the war machines were already down. However, the Scorched Earth Iron Caster is out here as well, so I'm playing into the strength and plan of my opponent, which is generally something wise generals try to avoid.

I bounce between armies wildly, but this was a very hard shift from my more usual playstyles. We've still learned a lot already though, and we'll see how the game unfolds! I win the dice roll for turn-order, and will kick things off for us.

Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

On the right, I'm realizing some of my goofs already. I like the Crossbowmen against the Ratkin, but we've got all of our shooting out here, and don't have great early shots with the hill. The regiment from the far right moves as far as they can with their pivot, eyeing to token nearby. The other regiment just moves up normally, and looses into the inner unit of Ratkin, landing 2 damage.

Human shooters take position on the right.

The artillery have possible shots into any of the infantry, and I choose to focus on the Blacksouls. In retrospect, fishing for a waver at the inner horde of Ratkin might have been a better strategic approach right now, as three hordes is going to be hard to for me to deal with, given my disposition of units out here. The artillery shots hit twice, and will result in 6 damage. 

The Dogs of War squared up opposite the Blacksouls, and inch ahead for now.

The human center trudges ahead.

The Hero with the Wand tries to hit the Iron Caster with his Hex, but the spell flubs and misses completely. Terrain slows me down in the center, but the Militia start their trek forward. The Halberdiers and Shield Wall keep pace, and the Hero with the Banner stays nearby.

The human left is more daring, but probably shouldn't be.

On the left, the Militia sprint ahead with a slight pivot at the end, looking to grab some early space and take some early hits. The terrain good me up a bit here too, with both the Shield Wall and Halberdiers unable to clear it. The Knights hang back on the left, waiting to see what happens, and the Celestial Restoration Wizard joins near the edge of the table, behind the ruined statue head.

Bottom of Round 1: Abyssal Dwarfs

Golekh hangs back, but distributes a Mutated Mastiff to the Death Engine, and it inches up to toss into the Militia. The Tunnel Runners get a Mutated Mastiff from the Iron Caster, and 7 damage total hits the Militia, though they hold.

Mutated Mastiffs maul the Militia.

The Golems shuffle ahead, and one of the Gargoyle units flaps over the skull monument.

The other unit of Gargoyles flies out to the right, looking to cause some future trouble, and out on the right, the Ratkin units move up, though a bit tentatively. With their greater speed, they don't want to give my infantry a chance to charge first.

The Ratkin advance, making good use of their greater speed.

The rounded hill proves to be a bit of a problem for one of the hordes, but was can talk through intentions and agree that they are doing the same, threatening some charges while staying safe.

The Blacksouls keep pace, and get a hot 3/3 Heal gets them down to 3 damage. 

Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

Yeah, against three hordes, we really don't have enough over here. The Ratkin have their choice of charges, so the inner unit of Crossbowmen run up to block, and will get the other Ratkin horde in arc as well for good measure. Unfortunately, the Hero with the Wand will land an Indomitable Will on them to help them out.

The Kingdoms of Men try to slow the opposing hordes.

The other unit of Crossbowmen hold, and take aim at the blocked Ratkin, firing, and landing 2 damage. Clean shots into them seemed better than penalized shots into the Gargoyles.

Overview on the right.

Short on units, I realized I need to be fishing for those wavers to buy time, and the artillery all loose into the Ratkin blocking for the Blacksouls, landing 8 damage. The Dogs of War either hold or adjust slightly. I think the blocking Ratkin do have a charge into them, but there is nothing I can do about that.

The human centers tightens up.

Centrally, the Militia move ahead, and the Halberdiers and Shield Wall consolidate, moving towards them. The Hero with the Banner tucks in behind. With Gargoyles right there, we are trying to limit what they can get into. The Hero tries a Brace Command for the Shield Wall, but fails.

The Kingdoms of Men take a looser approach on the left.

I forget that the Wizard can issue Commands, despite being uninspiring, so he does not help out the cause in this regard. He is able to land a strong Celestial Restoration onto the leading Militia on the left though, bringing them down to just 2 damage. The ASB with the Torc tries to give them Indomitable Will, but fails. I was hoping to move them up aggressively again, but it was not to be.

As a result of the failed Command, the Militia are cautious, making sure to stay Inspired, and the strong heal should test their durability well, I think. The Halberdiers are able to get out of the terrain, and the Knights lurk nearby as well. The Militia adjust to face front a bit, though everything should still be in front arc, even the nearest Golems. The plan here was to eat the charges next turn, and leave open the potential to Withdraw, and let the Knights and Halberdiers cycle into the fights and give the Militia a chance to heal.

Bottom of Round 2: Abyssal Dwarfs

On the left, the Death Engine charges in against the Militia, accompanied by the Tunnel Runners, who I believe pop their Boots, looking for a quick victory out here. The Engine rolls up 10 extra Attacks, and the Militia take 18 new damage, and will break. 

The chariots punch right on through.

In victory, the Death Engine falls back, hoping to let other units block for it, and indeed the Tunnel Runners overrun a fair amount. Unfortunately for me, the Iron Caster is able to get into the woods, and barely glimpse the Knights, and does land a Scorched Earth against them.

The Lesser Golems press out, and we are able to clean things up to prevent some potential flank charges into them. I don't have anything that can really hurt the Def6 units, but I know this is something my opponent really tries to prevent, so we're trying to help him out here.

Ope, a blurry picture, but the only one I have this turn. Sorry!

Centrally, the Ratkin charge in, hindered against the Militia, and the Gargoyles flap in behind them, landing atop the Loot token and grabbing it. The Blacksouls then lock-in behind the Gargoyles. While this is fine, I don't really like this, as this is a heavy stack of units. It's nice to grab the token, but there is no rush right now.

The Ratkin poke 2 damage onto the Militia, who hold. 

And the Ratkin claw through as well!

On the right, the Ratkin get a Bane Chant, and body the Crossbowmen, landing 10 damage (7ish expected, even with the Bane Chant), and the Rats are able to shred the unit and then reform. The Gargoyles from the far right are in range of the other unit of Crossbowmen, and take this charge as well, clawing 3 damage in, though this regiment holds.

Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

Yeah, things could be going better, but we're trying a new playstyle, and the game is definitely not lost yet! We'll persevere. I need to clean up my backfield, so the Crossbowmen fight on against the Gargoyles, landing 3 damage, while the Hero hits the unit in the flank, contributing 1 damage. 

The Kingdoms of Men attempt to push back.

The output is not amazing, but looks to be about as-expected, and the uninspired unit does break, with the Crossbows overrunning for 1, and the Hero side-stepping for 1 as well.

The humans are only moderately successful...

The Heroes are no longer Very Inspiring, so this Hero lands an Indomitable Will onto the Dogs of War, who charge out into the Ratkin Horde ahead of them. This horde doesn't have Last Breath, so if we can pop them here and then face the injured Blacksouls, that would be great. The humans smack 15 new damage onto the Ratkin, taking them up to 17 damage, but the Rats are found to be Insane!

I forget my Siege Artillery, but while it is a practice game, it's still a friendly one, and my opponent lets me backtrack and fire into the Blacksouls as I had intended to. The artillery hits a few times, and takes the Dwarfs up to 9 damage, but they do hold on. At the end of the .. uh.. adjusted Ranged Phase, I realize that in efforts to hurry up, my brain had defaulted to d3 hits instead of d3+1, but I must roll with that mistake now. 

The Militia do as good as they can on their own.

Celestial Restoration heals the Militia completely, as they strike 5 damage at the Ratkin, taking them up to 13 damage, but we don't break them. This isn't great, but at least we don't trigger the explosion.

The hindered knights and Halberdiers struggle against the Tunnel Runners.

The Hero with the Banner hangs around, and I believe issues a Tenacious Command to help out the Militia in their fight. I could have charged in with the Halberdiers, but it would have been Hindered, so I don't. They Halberdiers are close to the Golems, and I don't think I had a good reform to keep them safe, so we trust in the Militia alone, and it doesn't work out. The Shield Wall and Halberdiers don't do much this turn.

Out on the left, the Shield Wall do get a Brace Command, though the Wizard fails and the ASB is forced to try it again, and the regiment gets things into front arc.

On the far left, I feel like my hand is forced. The Death Engine is Height 5, so can see over the Tunnel Runners, and has enough of a channel to get in against the Knights if they hold back, so under the effects of Scorched Earth, they charge the Tunnel Runners, joined by the Halberdiers. The Runners are uninspired, but dealing 3 damage apiece, the Nerve check is not high enough to break the unit and help me out.

Space are tight, but looking at the pictures, I probably could have played this more cagey. The Halberdiers can charge in, and not slide too far. Then then Knights should be able to change facing, keeping the Death Engine in front arc, but denying space for it to align. That said, with Golekh lurking and reforms possible, I could still be caught out here. I opt to go down swinging here, and it doesn't pay off.

Bottom of Round 3: Abyssal Dwarfs

On the left, the Tunnel Runners hold, with the Death Engine slamming into the Knights, and Golekh hitting the Halberdiers, and the Engine and the Runners both get a Tenacity Order, and the Tunnel Runners getting a Heal 2 as well, ending on just 4 damage.

The Knights are broken.

The Death Engine rolls up a lot of extra attacks, and cuts well into the Knights. The Tunnel Runners throw almost all of their attacks into the Knights as well, and will pick them up, with the free Death Engine backing up. A few attacks go into the Halberdiers, but don't wound, and Golekh only manages 3 damage onto the Halberdiers, who hold.

The Golems tentatively press ahead, but don't grab too much ground due to Shambling. 

Centrally the Rats hold, and get Last Breath from the Iron Caster. They'll roll hot and carve up 8 Damage onto the Militia. With the stack of Ratkin, Gargoyles, and Blacksouls, the Gargoyles can't get away with their prize, and my opponent starts puzzling over what to do which puzzles me, so we pause and talk it out.

Referring back, this is why I would not have grabbed the token with the Gargoyles - with everything flush, even with the wacky FAQ saying you can just ignore stuff, the Gargoyles are causing a headache here, and there was no time crunch to grab this. My opponent is trying to create space with the Blacksouls to let the Gargoyles out, which is not a wise decision to me, as he is giving up the huge gift of the Insane Rats against the Dogs of War. 

There we go! The Blacksouls take advantage of the Ratkin's moment of insanity.

The Blacksouls will be treating the Gargoyles and Ratkin ahead of them as Blocking Terrain, but while units can't move straight through this terrain, units can pivot through Blocking Terrain, even while charging, so the Blacksouls should definitely be taking the flank into the human mercenaries. The Gargoyles will sidestep to make this pivot a bit easier, but still keep safe from the Halberdiers nearby, by keeping their corner behind the Ratkin. Then the Blacksouls will come to the aid of the Insane Rats, pivoting through the back corner of the Gargoyles, and then moving straight ahead to hit the flank of the human unit, and then slide down to align properly.

It's hindered, but they'll get a Bane Chant, and will land 24 damage onto the Dogs of War, and we don't bother rolling the Ratkin. The humans are broken, and my other hammer-like unit is now gone. 

Reforms for the Ratkin.

The Ratkin reform, and the Blacksouls initially spin around, to face the center of the field. Again, we talk it though, and I suggest that they stay put or even overrun. He's got enough on the left and right going well, and if he is going for a strong victory, should be prepping for the fall of the Insane Ratkin.

Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

Out on the right, things aren't going well, and I look to have forgotten to move the Hero, but we have some prayers and ideas to keep this competitive? The Crossbowmen charge the insane Ratkin, land 3 damage to bring them up to 20 damage, and do break the horde. While doing so, they end atop this Loot Token, and pick it up, technically tying the game up for me.

The Crossbowmen charge! This isn't ideal.

The Crossbowmen will reform, to face the rear of the Blacksouls. I recheck line of sight, and one of the Siege Artillery actually can't see the Blacksouls any more, and is forced to move off of the hill. The remaining three fire, will land a combined 5 damage, and take that horde up to 14 damage, though we don't get lucky to the waver.

The Militia will get a Celestial Restoration for just 3, and then land 8 against the Ratkin, taking them up to 21 damage. The Ratkin rout, and then explode, dealing 7 damage to the Militia and taking them up to 12 damage. I was hoping for a big heal and low explosion, but so it goes.

The Kingdoms of Men are ... trying.

I think the Mounted Banner Hero tries a Brace Command and fails. The Halberdiers move up, and the Shield Wall attempted to Brace against the Golems and such. There is only three tokens in-play, so the hope is to make things messy, and eventually trap the Gargoyles to get this middle one before all the Abyssal Dwarfs on the left can come and help.

Stuff in the center.

On the left, the Shield Wall do have a flank charge into Golekh... but realistically, that's not going to do anything. The long-shot hope is to just tie things down for a turn or two, so I'm trying to engage as many enemy units as I can, and the other Shield Wall charge the Lesser Golems with the Pipes.

Sheesh, another Insane unit.

On the far left, the Halberdiers land another 3 damage onto the Tunnel Runners, taking them back up to 7 damage, but instead of just holding here, they are round to be Insanely Courageous as well. 

We were unlikely to break the Inspired unit, but this is just putting me further and further behind. The list isn't killy, and I've definitely struggled to take units, but am also not losing mine slowly enough to feel good about the direction of the game.

Bottom of Round 4: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Death Engine can see my ASB, and makes a charge out into the flank of my Champion. It's hindered, but a silly amount of extra attacks are rolled, and then doubled, and the Champ takes 12 damage, being devastated and routed, as is proper.

The bloodied left of the human line basically evaporates.

Golekh and the Tunnel Runners are able to shred the Halberdiers as well, with the runners able to back up several inches to land atop the Loot Token and secure it, and the extra space being enough for Golekh to reform comfortably. 

The Golems manage only three damage onto the suddenly-uninspired Shield Wall, and thankfully, they hold for me. The Golems are healed completely thanks to the Iron Caster's spells.

The Golems clean up the Militia, instead of fight a fresh unit.

Centrally, the Gargoyles turn and run, and the Golems make a surprise hindered charge into the Militia, who start on 12 damage. The humans take 5 damage, and will break, with the victorious Golems turning to face the remaining regiments.

The Blacksouls claim a token.

On the right, the maimed Blacksouls continue on their bloody path, landing 13 damage onto the Crossbowmen while getting a small heal themselves. In victory, they'll claim the token the humans were holding, putting the Abyssal Dwarfs in a strong lead with all three Tokens.

Top of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

It's certainly rough, but I do still see a glimmer of a chance, so we're playing on! Per the July FAQ, individuals can gain claim / carry Loot Tokens, though while carrying them, they can only be given a Halt or Change Facing movement order. The plan is to pen in the Gargoyles now and break them next turn with a hero, as well as waver/rout the Blacksouls this turn, so the other Hero can get their token next turn. The Heroes will be grabbing tokens, and the units will be blocking, and then we pray the game ends.

The Heroes for the Kingdoms of Men get nice and central.

The Celestial Restoration Wizard can't heal anything because it's all dead. He'll spring on, heading out to my right, and will try to help as the game goes on.

The quarter of war machines fire into the Blacksouls, and we'll land a combined 7 damage, taking them up to 20, and getting a waver, as-planned. 

The mounted Heroes get central, and the Halberdiers charge the Golems, looking to occupy their attention. They are given Indomitable Will, to hopefully help them out. The Halberdiers deal no damage, but that's doesn't matter to the plan.

The unengaged Shield Wall sprints after the Gargoyles, looking to pen them in, or charge the Blacksouls next turn.

Humans on the left do their best to delay.

Buying-time for the shenanigans on the right, the other unit of Shield Wall fight on against their regiment of Obsidian Golems, actually landing a few damage against them! Hoping to exacerbate the delays to the Abyssal Dwarfs, the departing Wizard is able to grant them Indomitable Will.

Bottom of Round 5: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Tunnel Runners have done great, and are moving with their token out into the back left corner. I don't think there is any way I can reach them with the artillery, but we're not on a clock and it pays to play it safe and such. 

The Shield Wall will fall. 

The Death Engine slams into the flank of the delaying Shield Wall, and the human unit will be dutifully obliterated, and in victory, the wide Golems hold, to allow the speedier Death Engine to overrun a few inches, getting closer to the final fights of the game.

Golekh scoots around this fight, also looking to get close enough to help as the game concludes.

The Gargoyles turn to face the Shield Wall, and drop their token in their right corner, from my perspective.

The Golems fighting the Halberdiers suddenly roll hot, landing a surprising 10 damage, and will break my regiment. Only around 7 damage is expected, so this is unfortunate, but not the end of my gambit just yet.

The Blacksouls retain their token, and while wavering, turn around, and an attempted Heal fizzles, keeping them on 20 damage.

Top of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men

I was really hoping the Halberdiers would hold. There is actually no Surge on the other side of the table, and Shamblers only get one pivot, so probably just moving the Halberdiers and demanding a hindered charge from the Golems might have been better. Alas, it did not occur to me, and just charging it to get them engaged seemed sufficient.

The Humans make their final play.

With the Halberdiers falling, I cannot devote a Hero to charging the Blacksouls now, and we transition to playing for a draw, playing for the token beneath the Gargoyles, and shooting the Blacksouls off this round.

Positioning for the humans.

The Hero with the Wand charges the Golems to get them engaged. The Shield Wall Charge the Gargoyles, with the Hero and the Banner of Command flapping as he hits the fliers in the flank. The Hero looks nice, but contributes no damage to the fight, though thankfully the Shield Wall roll hot and stick 6, making up for their leader. 

With the token dropped in the corner the Hero is in, I can just pivot in victory to pick it up. However, the Inspired Nerve check results in a 3, and the Gargoyles hold on, though technically without their token.

The Siege Artillery all fire into the Blacksouls, but dice abandon me. Seven of the eight shots miss, and that one only blasts into 3, and while all 3 deal damage, the Blacksouls are just wavered again.

Bottom of Round 6: Abyssal Dwarfs

The Shield Wall take a flank from Golekh, and a rear from the Death Engine, and their blood greases the Gears. The Gargoyles get a Bane Chant, pick their token back up, and claw 4 damage onto the Hero, who holds.

The last Shield Wall falls.

The Golems will land some damage onto the other Hero, and the wavering Blacksouls will hold. 

We do not get a Round 7, and the Abyssal Dwarfs maintain their lead for a 3-0 Victory over the Kingdoms of Men!

Game Conclusions

Across the table, we gotta give Will his flowers. He took the learnings from the previous game, and applied them here, punching through unit after unit for the win. Basically everything in his list worked this time: Scorched Earth nullified my Knights; Golems shrugged off multiple waves of men; Gargoyles were tricky; Ratkin exploded gloriously; chariot contraptions smashed; and the Blacksoul horde was an absolute powerhouse of a unit against me and my lower defense.

On my side of the table, we had plenty of errors, misplays, and little mistakes, which we've touched on already here and there in the report, and I won't dwell on, as this is a pretty new style for me. Overall, we adapted well as the game progressed, and I'm actually pretty happy with this! My list was intended to be a bit scrappy, and despite the errors and incredibly heavy losses, we actually still had a decent chance to claw our way back to that narrow victory right at the end there! Unfortunately for the humans, the dice absolutely forbade it!

Testing Conclusions

• ASB, Torc of Command. It worked ok? We attempted some longer Commands, though they weren't always successful. Not a fantastic pick here, but a sensible one.
• Mounted Hero, Trickster’s Wand. Again, not a bad item, but we just could not successfully cast the spell. Not a bag buy for 15 points, and not a bad kit, even if it was unimpactful in this particular game. I forgot Heroes Rally until midway through the game. It doesn't work with Militia, and wouldn't have saved any combat that I was aware of, but it's a bummer to overlook.
• Mounted Hero, Banner of Command. Again, not a bad item at all, and the Extra Dice should help with the Brace Command and such in the short term. It's a bummer ASB's cannot take mounts, but it looks like we'll get some use out of the model after all. 
• Uninspiring Wizard, Periscope, Celestial Restoration. He surprised me, and overall, I liked ths little wizard. Unfortunately, my plan for him failed. Nothing important of mine could hang around for him to heal, and despite some nice early boons to Militia, he wasn't very impactful. I like the idea, but not great here. Go figure, but the ever-popular Barkskin or Blizzard might have been better choices for me here.
• Shield Wall Regiments x2. The Shield Wall did ok? They took some hits, dished out a few damage, and were generally ... whelming. Which I think is the feeling Mantic wants to have when dealing with Core units - good, reliable, but not the stars.
• Halberdier Regiments x2. They had a rough time against Def6 Golems and such, but they likewise did fine for a basic, cheap Core unit. 
• Crossbowmen Regiments x2. I am a little less sold on these. Honestly, I do like them, and have a soft spot for my Crossbowmen, but they were not used well, and I really needed some other unit on that side of the board to run up and take those hits. 
• Militia Mob Hordes x2. This list didn't quite have the hammer tools to treat these like the Undead would treat their Zombies, and they were awkward, but generally, I liked them. I think some cheap US plopped here or there might be useful nowadays, and we'll keep testing them out.
• Spears. No, I didn't take any, but it does seem worth commenting on. Up against a bunch of Chariots, Spears would not have helped me here at all. Phalanx only works when taking the initial charge now, and at 20 pts a Regiment, I don't think MMU spears is going to be a wise investment, and I think it's going to be hordes of Spears or not at all for me.
• Dogs of War, 2H. I still like the Dogs of War conceptually as a cheap, quality hore, and the item was fine, though not needed. They just got very unlucky this game! We tried all we could, but the dice just weren't there this time.
• Knights, Boots. It was a big conundrum where to put these, and ultimately I chose to play into my opponent's list and plan and try to fight the Golems. That was a big mistake, and the Knights paid dearly for it. Neat to see Scorched Earth doing work though!
• Siege Artillery x4. Admittedly I had one round of Blast errors, but I gotta say these felt very unreliable and underwhelming, but such is the curse of most war machines, even when taken as quartets, it seems. I think these should have been deployed elsewhere, and really leaned into Indirect for a better test, but so it goes. We'll give them another chance sometime, and see how they do with a little more experience! I am a little reluctant to spam war machines, but these definitely did not seem overpowered or oppressive. 
• Goblin-Style. I was just using what I had, and not really pulling deeply from any Goblin lists or tactics. We don't have the Wingits or the Mawpups command or a lot of the little synergies that make Goblins so scary, but I think there are definitely some things a KoM player could learn from studying or emulating a more Goblin-style of play. I don't think 

During some good-natured grumbling about a month or so back, Will had informed me that he had never won a game against me. Despite that apparent record, he's always been an incredibly good sport, and a great opponent. My luck finally ran out against him, and so we'll give a hearty congratulations for the well-deserved victory here, and wish him the very best at the tournament next weekend. Thanks to Will and his family for the game, and for their wonderful hospitality!

Hobby Update: Fourth KoM Militia

Up now is a fourth Militia regiment for the Kingdoms of Men! As before, the unit is comprised of a mix of human kits that I have collected over the years, including bodies from a variety of Warlord Games Romans plus Fireforge Men-at-Arms as well as their Byzantine Auxiliaries, and with head, weapon, and shield bits from those kits and many more.

The newcomers.

Painting-wise, I just emulated my old approach and old colors. Looking side-by-side not everything is a complete match, but overall, these are passable. The only missing components to fully finish this off are grass tufts, as apparently while I have over a dozen of Army Painter's tufts, I am out of this particular offering. The unit is done for now, and I'll add the tufts later.

The same unit.

Long ago, back in 2E I had hobbied up a number of Militia troops to serve as chaff. In 3E we then lost that option and I redid some things, stopping when I was able to field a legion of Militia, as that was already a bit impractical for my tastes, and 2-3 regiments for miscellaneous scenario duties seemed just fine to have on standby. Now with armies built primarily by slots in 4E, unfortunately I think smaller units are demanding even more of a premium in most cases now, as you are juggling and evaluating units with respect to both points and slots. Lists are all balancing acts, but bigger units are cheaper and a more efficient use of slots, and are rather hard to argue against. 

The new unit with the older troops. Looks like a horde to me!

Bolstering the Militia conscripts is a small hobby investment, but I like it. The army doesn't have very traditional chaff (maybe the Mounted Sergeants could qualify?), but two cheap hordes is getting some ideas going while making great use of the Auxiliary slots. We'll try to get the humans back on the table soon!

4th Edition: Battle #048 Nature (Herd) vs Kingdoms of Men in Raze

Intro and Lists

The August meetup for Kings of War was upon us, though there was an ill-timed morning storm that came a-rolling through. While we weren't really rained on all too much, traffic was stop-and-go the entire time following in its wake, extending the commute to a surprisingly harsh 2 hours. Rolling up to the shop later than intended, I was tossed into a match against Rob and his humans, who were practicing for a 2,000 point event.

It's a pretty typical list for Rob's humans, which a few iterations. We have Cannons, Rifles, and a Blizzard Wizard to shoot at range, and Chariots and a Knightly regiment to interdict. A Shield Wall regiment returns to play scenarios, and his Baron on Winged Beast returns as well, with the Brew of Haste to push him back up to Speed 10. Newcomers is a Shrine, which Rallies the shooters and can put out a boosted Lightning Bolt, Knightly troops to also help chaff things up, and a Hero (Bob, obviously), on horse, with the Tricksters Wand to Rally and Inspire.

I brought the Herd, as there is plenty left exploring in the new Fracture update. I am veering wildly between list ideas, just trying to explore as much as possible, and see what might catch my interest. Per the usual, up to evaluate is everything:

• Chieftain. The Chieftain, with his horn of Dread and Wild Charge, was a popular pick in 3E, though he didn't really jive with most of my lists, as my pet unit of Guardian Brutes had innate Brutal. In 4E he was essentially literally mandatory given the limited roster, but was a combat beast and not really a tax. Now, he's gained Strider at the cost of two attacks, and is not required to run a predominately Herd army. Being now optional and a bit nerfed, I don't know how often he will show up in my lists, but wanted to get some more games with him to see how he feels.
• Mounted Druids, with Stuff. I like my Druids. This was a special game, and I am defaulting to some older kits as I didn't have the time to really tinker with the list idea here. We'll see how the old approach fares!
• Tribal Hunters. The odd pick for this list are some regiments of Tribal Hunters. They have a neat bunch of abilities with Piercing attacks, Scout and Stealthy, and can hit on 4's at range if they hold still to take aim. They are neat, but expensive, and I don't know if their price is worth it, so we'll test them out and see how they feel.
• Tribal Warriors. We're taking some Tribal Warriors to help fill Core, as they have done in the past, like with my Northwoods GT list. There though, my list had some more teeth. I think a more durable horde would generally be better, but such is the list and the points. We'll see how they do!
• Critters. There are basically our only piece of chaff, so we're taking my whole collection of three units, and we'll see what we can accomplish. 
• Centaur Strider Regiment. Swapping Centaurs over into Core was one of the wiser design choices the update makes. Recently, I liked Troops a lot, but we're bouncing around, and we'll give a Core regiment another try as well.
• Spirit Walkers. Another weird pick are the new Spirit Walkers. With Traits replacing Keywords, I guess they are not Phantasms anymore? I do kind of like that, as it was a bummer to have Def6 Undead Wraiths and Def3 Herd Spirits. That said, the unit has changed a lot, losing their Wild Charge and the ability to be taken as a horde, swapping Fearless to Headstrong, but gaining Stealthy and Dread. It's a unique mix of abilities, so we'll see how the new unit feels.
• Guardian Brutes. My Hobby Update post isn't finished yet, but these have indeed been rebased for 4E on the larger 150mm base! They've changed a lot over the last year, and this is their third brand-new stat line. They're mostly just Molochs now, which isn't terrible, if a little stale of an idea, not to mention the forced rebase. We'll see how the rebased unit does!
• Great Totem. The Great Totem is a really interesting unit to me. It comes down after deployment but before Scout moves, and has a slew of neat auras and supporting duties. Unfortunately, while sitting down to write the report here, I was rereading things, and see that I have misplayed this here, as well as in the previous game. I got the timing right, but it needs to come down anywhere on my half of the board. I did not do that here, so apologies to my opponents.

Table and Terrain

We trekked out to Warpstorm Games and Lounge a neat store in Greenfield, WI. Check them out if you need a place to play card games, board games, role playing games, or war games! We utilized their really nice wargaming tables and mats, and I brought a box with extra terrain.

And speaking of terrain, I actually proactively discussed this while setting up. We had Forests with Height 10, the blocking Buildings at Height 7, Hills with Height 3, the shallow pond as Height 0, the battlefield as Height 1, and the Obstacles as Height 2. 

Overview of the table.

We got Raze for the Scenario, which has changed since the introduction of Protect and Raze. There is still an immutable Objective Token in the exact center of the field, and now, the three placed tokens go into deployment zones. Oddly, you can place in either zone, but only Raze tokens not in your own deployment zone. I think this oddity popped up previously, but I guess there is the potential to drop tokens in your own zone to force your opponent to drop his tokens into his own deployment zone? But then you're both basically griefing, and I don't really see how this helps. Maybe I'll try this approach one day, but for now, we kept it simple.

My opponent won the roll for sides, and chose to swap. Cannons came down relatively late, and on the far left. There was a Chariot regiment and the Knight regiment nearby and defensively placed, with the Baron on the line. 

View of the left.

The Blizzard Wizard was nice and central, with two regiments of Rifles, the Shrine, and then the third regiment of Rifles on the line as well. Shield Wall were in reserve, but the line continued with both Knight troops, the mounted Hero supporting, and the Chariots on the far flank.

View of the center.

Left-to-right for me were Tribal Warriors ready to grab the terrain, supported by Critters in reserve, and the mounted Druid with the Banner. The line continued with more Critters, the Chieftain, Spirit Walkers, Guardian Brutes screened from the Cannons by being behind the hill, Centaurs, more Spirit Walkers, and the mounted Druid with the Shroud of the Saint. The building split the line a bit, and we have Critters and Tribal Warriors as some token resistance on the right.

View of the right.

Lastly, the Great Totem came down left of center, behind the building. The cannons could shoot it, but that seemed relatively safe. Again, I got Advanced Deployment wrong, and this should be somewhere on my side of the field.

I placed my tokens pretty evenly, but was favoring the right a bit. I wanted to concentrate my forces for a quick push, but overall, I wasn't thrilled with my deployment. I ended up not being able to scout into the forest on the right like I was originally hoping to, and ended up skewed towards the left which only has one token for me.

Scout moves from the Tribal Hunters!

I remembered my Scout moves, and took them, and was barely to get both center points just in to the woods. I don't have and targets this turn, but about we're as protected as we can be.

I win the roll for turns and feel like I gotta take it. I'm against a shooting list, and while there are a lot of Rifles that I could blank this round, he's still got a pair of potent cannons, and my list is at a massive speed disadvantage. I think I need to grab ground early here, especially because of the awkward deployment and sub-optimal token placement. I'll kick things off for us, and let the scrapping begin.

Top of Round 1: Herd

On the left, I am a bit overcommitted, but this could be a good exploration of the Hunters and a test against the Cannons. After playing against them in multiple lists, the frustrating bit is the Grapeshot, as it breaks all the usual interactions with war machines: they play the lottery and blast away from after, but if you get in close, you can disrupt them. Grapeshot lets them move, shoot, and still always be hitting on 5’s, not only punishing things that get close, but also hard-countering things with Stealthy or Individual (or both!), that are usually ideally suited to hunt war machines.

I had posited that something like Halfling Poachers could be good counters to Cannons, though don’t have the models to run that anymore, even as KoM Specialists. They aren’t quite the same, but the Tribal Hunters are close enough. They don’t have a target this turn, so they move their speed out of the woods, making use of the extra pivots to create a little space. One can fling into the far Cannon without Cover, landing 4 damage, and the other with Cover lands 1, and we go luck up and get the waver against the uninspired contraption!

The Hunters of the Herd venture out!

Critters scamper up to support the push, and a Druid enters the woods to keep things Inspired. She’ll try a Barkskin Command on something and fail.

More Critters hop up, screening for the Chieftain. As a Warlord, he’ll land a Barkskin 1 onto the Spirit Walkers on the hill, and eventually, the Rock will land 1 onto the Guardian Brutes as they move up the field as well. The Centaurs advance a bit, I believe moving up far enough to threaten charges next turn. With TC1, fighting a Def3 Riflemen regiment seems like an ideal target, so the Spirit Walkers to do the same by moving full ahead, and then taking a small pivot.

The Herd in the center press onward.

The mounted Druid with the Shroud moves up to support, and gets another Barkskin 1 Command onto the leading Spirit Walkers.

The Herd's token resistance on the right hesitates, barely moving.

On the right, the Critters and Tribal Warriors futz around. Against two Knight troops and a regiment of Chariots, I don’t really have a prayer, so we’ll try to slow this down and make sure it takes a few turns for my opponent to claim this token.

Bottom of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

Unopposed on the right, the Chariots swing in to lead the push with the knightly troops hanging back to avoid a long charge from the Spirit Walkers and be ready to clean up after the Chariot crashes into something. The Hero keeps pace, and the Shield Wall regiment camps around my token on the far right.

Unthreatened, the Kingdoms of Men move out in force.

The drive fried me a little more than I thought. The goal was to move up, but not a lot, to make it harder for the flying Baron to hop the line. The Guardian Brutes and such are back enough to deny a landing zone, but I’ve misplaced the Mounted Druid, and the unicorn is just within range of the speedier-then-normal Baron, and he happily goes in, but flubs a Brace Command for some of the Rifles.

Unfortunately, my positioning mistake is costly, with the Baron rolling hot and smacking 7 damage onto the Druid, and breaking them. The Baron will spin around to wave at the other humans, and be ready to rear-charge any push through the center now.

The speedy Baron spots and opening.

The Blizzard Wizard lands a Brace Command onto the Rifles, and threatened by the Spirit Walkers too, will back up before casting Blizzard into the Centaurs, landing 1 damage and freezing them. With humans boosting it, the Height 5 Shrine isn’t taking cover penalties, and is up to Lightning Bolt 9, and zaps 5 damage onto the Centaurs, with the three Rifle regiments contributing 4, 3, and 2, with the last one taking a cover penalty. It’s a hot round of shooting, but not enough to devastate the Centaurs, who are stuck and wavering on 15 damage.

The Chariots reposition, as a single Cannon fires.

The unwavering Cannon can’t get line of sight to the Centaurs, so fires into the Guardian Brutes, hitting once, blasting into 3 hits, and dealing 3 damage. Barkskin blunts this a bit, and they take 2 damage, and hold.

Top of Round 2: Herd

On the left, the unit of Tribal Hunters with the clear shot holds, and rocks a hot 7 more damage into the damaged Cannon, enough to devastate it and pick it up. The other unit move up, but can’t get its center point into the terrain to avoid a cover penalty. It will land another 1, into the fresh Cannon.

One Cannon falls!

Critters move up on the far left and pivot hard, getting into range of the token to Raze it and put me in the lead! The Druid moves up to Inspire here. Having lost the other Druid, this is probably a mistake.

The other Critters hop ahead and between them and the building, neither the Chariots nor the Knights can fit in against the Spirit Walkers. The Druid lands the Entanglement of Thorns Command on the Critters here.

The Guardian Brutes awkwardly position.

The Centaurs are in trouble, and can’t really do much. They ultimately hold. Unfortunately, the Chieftain is a few inches away from reaching the flying Baron, so he just gets closer, trying to zone him out.

The Guardian Brutes move up to try and help in the coming turns, and use the Great Totem and the building to anchor themselves, and the Chieftain gets them another Barkskin 1.

The Tribal Warriors move over to shoo the Baron away, but only move their speed. I was wary of overcommitting, but should have gone further ahead I think. The Critters likewise awkwardly shuffle around, and get out of charge range for the Chariots.

The Herd on the right also awkwardly arrange themselves.

I feel compelled to throw the Spirit Walkers at some Rifles. I’m at all sorts of disadvantages this game, and they are threatened. With Def3, I don’t think they’ll survive a charge against much. They’ll get a Strider command, though there probably was a way to get them around without needing it. They’ll hit the unbraced Rifles for 10 damage, with Dread in play. The Rifles are Rallied and Inspired though, and hold with a 3 on the second check.

Bottom of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

On the right, with the woods, the Chariots can’t quite get to the token to claim it with their pivots, but it’s Round 2, and they have plenty of time. They’ll reposition slightly, still threatening to charge in while avoiding the meager range of the Critters.

The Kingdoms of Men swing into the midfield.

Bob the Hero presses ahead, as the Herd has nothing that can catch him. He pulls a troop of Knights ahead with him, and a regiment of Rifles moves up at the double to create space, with the Shield Wall departing the token as well.

The Rifles fight back against the Spirit Walkers, landing 3 damage. The Walkers are also flanked by a troop of Knights, who get the Tenacity command, and will land a hot 14 damage. We are uninspired, devastated and routed, as is proper.

The Brutes take a beating.

Rifles land 1 into the Centaurs, whish isn’t quite enough to break them, so the Shrine repositions, and zaps another strong 5 damage into them.

With the Centaurs gone, the Blizzard Wizard throws into the cowardly Tribal Warriors, hitting thrice, blasting into 7 damage, and sticking 4 of it. They hold.

I didn’t have room to position much, and it turns out that the Knight Regiment is just able to fit in against the Guardian Brutes, and get their with their pivot. They’ll pop their Boots, and pivot around the building, and then align. They get a tenacious order as well, slamming 12 damage into them, though Barkskin blocks 1. On 11 damage, the Brutes hold.

Without much to charge, the Baron flies away, hiding behind the building.

The Critters fall, but the Chariots are stuck.

The Chariots crash into the Critters, landing 6 damage, and will scatter them. However, with the Thorns Order, they can’t reform.

The Cannon on the far left pivots and moves to escape the Critters, and then pivots back to Grapeshot them, landing 4 damage, but the Critters hold with the help of the Druid.

Top of Round 3: Herd

On the far left, the Tribal Hunters hold, and thwip 4 more damage onto the remaining Cannon, taking it to 5 damage and getting a waver. The Critters move into the woods, and are just trying to zone out the Baron up here.

The Hunters get a waver against the second Cannon!

The Druid’s Command for Striding fails, and the other unit of Tribal Hunters makes a hindered charge into the Chariots. Entangling them was an ok idea, but with their wide frontage, the Spirit Walkers are still in their front. Still they go in as well, and the Great Totem will land a nice Barkskin 2 onto them.

Reforms, after the melee.

The hindered Hunters still land 3, but the Spirit Walkers flub a bit, landing just 7 damage after a clean charge. Dread is involved, but I forget about it, and I think I forgot about Vicious as well, granted by the Great Totem, though we still break the unit.

Reforms are a bummer with the Baron there. The Spirit Walkers are actually out of arc, and hold. The Tribal Warriors turn to face the Baron, and dare a charge.

The Brutes struggle to effectively push back.

Maimed but holding, the Guardian Brutes are just in range to be Healed, though we only get 1 success. Trying to protect them, the Tribal Warriors offer themselves up to block and isolate this combat, and the Chieftain pushes ahead to try and complicate alignment, should we win, as with positioning, the wide Brutes can’t slide down to let the Chieftain help in the fight, and he’s just stuck. He tries to Barkskin the Brutes, but just gets one success again. The Brutes will slam 10 damage onto the Knights, but they’ll hold.

Critters, getting in the way.

On the far right, the Critters move up, using Pathfinder to get into the woods, and gum up the movement for the Chariots next turn.

Bottom of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

On the far right, the Chariots take their hindered charge into the Critters, landing 2, and the little guys will hold, despite the Brutal and being uninspired.

A hindered charge into the Critters.

Rifles will reform to prevent the Herd from sweeping past the building and into the backfield. The one that moved up to make ways spins around to get back towards the Shrine to help the Lightning Bolt, and the other two regiments form a line to protect the token, joined by a troop of Knights.

Fights in the center

The Lighting Bolt zaps the Stealthy Spirit Walkers, and will land 3 damage, breaking through the Barkskin 2 to deal 1 in the initial attempts to prevent the Herd from swinging into the backfield.

Centrally, the Hero races ahead to raze a token, tying the game up 1-1. A troop of Knights get a Tenacity order, and charge the injured Tribal Warriors, landing a fresh 5 and taking them up to 9, though the Warriors do not break. The Knights will reform to command the center.

The Guardian Brutes fall.

The Knightly regiment also gets a Tenacity order, and rolls up enough to punch a fresh 7 damage onto the Brutes, who will break. The Heal 1, Barksin 1 was not enough, and I think the Bane Chant might have been the better spell for me.

The Baron excuses himself to focus on the token in the corner.

The Baron flies away to my bottom right to make plays for tokens.

The wavering Cannon does nothing.

Top of Round 4: Herd

The Tribal Hunters hold, and fling into the Cannon again, landing another hot 7 damage and seeing the war machine off.

Safe, the Tribal Warriors fling some stones, scattering the war machine.

Critters utilize Pathfinder to flit out of the difficult terrain, and try to gain some ground, with the Druid keeping pace. With the Banner, she’ll land a Barkskin 1 on the nearby Spirit Walkers, and a Heal 2 onto them as well, leaving them with 1 Damage and 1 Barkskin token.

Fights in the center.

The Tribal Hunters run head, staying just over 10 inches away from the Rifles, to mitigate what can charge them, and the Spirit Walkers will jaunt ahead, though they seem awkwardly positioned. I think the Knight troop forced me into a weird spot, lest I be flanked by them.

Well, the Herd claims the knightly regiment, at least.

The Chieftain lands 3 damage onto the regiment of Knights, and will break them, avenging the Guardian Brutes. Wary of being tagged by Bob the Hero, he’ll stay put, and grant a Barkskin 1 onto the Tribal Warriors, who are able to still thump 3 damage onto the troop of Knights.

The Critters are still holding out.

On the right, the Critters land a surprise 3 damage onto the Chariots, but they’ll hold.

Bottom of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

Out on the right, the Chariots will land a solid 6 damage in the scrum, break the Critters, and then overrun a hot 6 to spring ahead and Raze this token, putting my opponent in the lead now, 2-1.

The Chariots break through. It was just a matter of time.

Bob the Hero will gallop back towards the center, while the Knights are assisted by the arriving Shield Wall against the Tribal Warriors. The Shield Wall lands 4, and the Knights still land 5, and the Warriors will break. The Shield Wall pivots, and the Knights hold.

Fights with the Tribal Warriors.

In the backfield, a unit of Rifles runs up to block up the Tribal Hunters. A regiment comes to take their place on the loose line defending the token, and the other regiment adjusts to really box out the token from the Herd's clutches. Meanwhile Blizzard pushes 4 damage through and onto the Stealthy Hunters, with the boosted Lighting Bolt contributing an additional 3 damage.

A lot of action in the deployment zone for the Kingdoms of Men.

Further back in the backfield, the troop of Knights charge the Spirit Walkers, with Tenacity coming in to help from the Blizzard Wizard. Barkskin blocks 1 damage, but 5 still makes it through.

The Baron makes it to the token.

The Baron does go for the token in my left corner, but can't claim it within his speedier 10 inch move, so only gets one pivot. Still, Razing this token, pushes the game 3-1 in favor of the Kingdoms of Men now.

Top of Round 5: Herd

Free of the Cannons, the Tribal Hunters start making their way towards the center, moving as quickly as they can. They can't help the backfield push, but can be making a play for the center.

The Herd continue their push.

In the backfield, the Critters have a flank charge into the Knights, and take it, trying to support the push and help the The Spirit Walkers break through. The Walkers get a Bane Chant and a Barkskin 1 from the Druid, and are able to hew their way through the troop of Knights, getting a strong the overrun, which allows the Critters to change facing. Both the Chieftain and the Great Totem attempt Barkskin commands this turn, but if memory serves, both fail.

Some small breakthroughs!

The Chieftain is able to see around the troop of Knights in front of him, and join the Tribal Hunters in a charge against the Rifles. The Great Totem should be granting Vicious, but the Hunters still land a hot 7 damage, with the Chieftain contributing 3, and the Nerve Checks break my way. We cannot get everything into front arc, so give the Shield Wall a hindered flank, while the Tribal Hunters get a hot Barkskin 3 from the Chieftain.

Bottom of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

From the right, the Chariots start making their way back into the center.

The Rifles that survived the Spirit Walkers in Round 2 get a Tenacity Order and charge the other unit of Walkers now, and will land 2 hits, bashing through the Barkskin 1 to take the Walkers up to 6 damage.

Chariots readying-up to make a play for the center token.

The Tribal Hunters are hit in the flank by Bob the Hero, who is hindered going over the obstacle. We have a Barkskin 3 on them, and ever-in tournament mode and wary of time, my opponent notes this, but doesn’t roll, since he can’t actually move them.

The Shield Wall take their flank against the Chieftain, get a Tenacity order as well, and land 3 damage.

Rifles can ignore the yielding Blizzard Wizard, and pop the Critters for 3, taking them up to 7. Lighting Bolt is down to 8 dice, but still manages another 5 onto the Critters, enough to devastate and break them.

The Kingdoms of Men are fighting fiercely, keeping the Herd at bay.

The Blizzard Wizard is then able to cast towards the Druid, landing 2 damage with the spell and freezing the Herd’s remaining spellcaster.

The Baron flies out towards the midfield. I thought I was out of arc, but both the Hunters and the Knights are smacked across the able this turn. It was something I just eyeballed, and as it is now, they are in, and will take the charge. They get a Tenacity, and have the Blade of slashing, and manage to land 7 damage.

This charge is a bummer, given the bumping but not really determinative. I think I smacked the Baron around three times on my turn, so bumps definitely happen.

Top of Round 6: Herd

The Tribal Hunters get a Bane Chant and a Barkskin 1 from the Druid as they fight the Knights. Surprisingly, are taken from 3 up to 7 damage, and broken. We overrun, but it is tiny.

In the backfield, the Spirit Walkers push through the maimed Rifles, and overrun for another tiny amount this time.

The Herd struggles to keep the push going.

The Tribal Hunters hold to fight the hero, and claw 3 damage in, though the Barkskin from the Great Totem fails.

The Chieftain holds, and smacks 4 damage onto the Shield Wall. He could have reformed, but I did not think to.

Bottom of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men

The Chariots will reach the center token, pivot, and stake their claim as the Herd scuffles around in the backfield.

The Baron flank charges the Spirit Walkers, with Rifles into their front. There was no way to really get them out on my turn with their reforms. The Walkers break.

The Chieftain takes another 4 damage from the flanking Shield Wall, but holds.

The Tribal Hunters take 3 more damage, but are Insane now.

The Blizzard Wizard moves to get a better angle, and tosses into the Tribal Hunters, who are Rallied and Inspired by the Great Totem. Barkskin blunts 1, but they take 4 new damage, with the Shrine moving and zapping for another 4, because who cares about Stealthy, apparently. On 15 damage, the Hunters are still around, but wavering.

As it stands, at the Bottom of Round 6.

We do not roll up a Round 7, and with the Chariots taking the middle, this is a crushing 4-1 victory in favor of the Kingdoms of Men!

Game Conclusions

The meetup was geared towards helping Rob with this tournament prep, but we had a handful of other players out too. I was hoping for a bit of a warm up game before facing him with this jank, especially after a draining drive, but did not luck out in that regard.

A little frazzled, we didn’t have a great plan going into the scenario, didn’t deploy well, make one big mistake with the unicorn Druid, and were just punished all game. I could not effectively take pieces this game, and with fewer to start, was effectively playing from behind the entire time, despite leading the score briefly. To have a chance against Rob we typically need a good plan and some luck, and despite some hot dice on both sides, I scrapped ok, but just didn’t bring enough of anything to really compete this game. 

Testing Conclusions

• Chieftain. I completely forgot about Hann’s, though it ultimately didn’t matter and it wouldn't have swung anything, and the Chieftain survived the game regardless. He was a little too slow to catch the Baron, and really struggled to contribute. The Wild Charge Aura was not really helpful against the quicker list and speedy interdictors, though could actually give me the edge If I had brought more Centaurs. He took hits but couldn't really strike too hard back. He's still useful, but not the little combat dynamo he used to be.
• Mounted Druids, with Stuff. The goal was to really lean into Barkskin and Heal and see how the Herd could grind, but early mistakes cost me the main Healing Druid, and Barkskin really struggled to help out, as it rarely got more than 1 success. These kits became my Herd Standard early on in 4E. It’s not bad, but the approach seems to be wobbling a bit, since I don’t have Tree Herders or Def5 Brutes anymore for the Heals to really feel impactful. I think we need to keep the Bane Chants, but can probably start exploring other spell ideas.
• Tribal Hunters. I think normally it would take three full rounds with both regiments to break both of the the Cannons. They impressed me, but had some very hot dice. It was nice to have some shooting, and to be able to mess with the Cannons, but these just felt so expensive. I think these would be better alongside hordes of Tribal Warriors, where they can operate more on the periphery and not have to be battle line units too. We were asking a bit much of them.
• Tribal Warriors. The one regiment was not used well. Previously, like at the Northwoods GT, it was ok for them to durdle around, as the old Longhorns and such were there to really pick up the slack and trade super-efficiently. Having a regiment like the Warriors, or the opposing Shield Wall is fine, but I needed more meat in the list I think.
• Centaur Regiment. I realized too late that that was kind of my only way to reach my opponent given his greater speed overall. I still like that these are Core now, but I really did not protect the regiment well. Even sticking with just the Herd, we have some nice and varied Core options now, so we'll play around more with those options in the future.
• Critters. Slower chaff can be fine, if you have important stuff to block for. We had a few nice plays with them, but failed to use them in the bigger picture. I spread them around, but not with the Guardian Brutes, and so these really struggled to contribute meaningfully for me.
• Spirit Walkers. They were neat, and better than I thought, especially here with the surprise Stealthy, but I didn’t support them well with this more elite, low-drop build. Like the Hunters, you want these supporting the line and any push, and not be the main line units themselves.
• Guardian Brutes. They were my one big hammer, but not particularly supported well. I should have stuck some Critters with them! This report precedes their Hobby Update and their rebasing post, but I’m a bit down on the new unit as it just seems so darn bland compared to its previous iterations. It still seems like a good hammer though, and like, the only viable unit to get the Stampede order, so we’ll keep exploring these.
• Great Totem. I was taking it as a silver lining that the Rock had deployed well, survived two games, and was finding ways to contribute… until I reread the Advanced Deployment rule to make sure I was getting it right. I write these reports to learn, but ouch. Forcing these onto just your side of the board is a big limitation. The Herd are an aggressive army, so it is a much bigger gamble to take, as you might be leaving it behind. It’s still neat and can definitely still see play, but it is even harder to use now. It won’t be a sure take now, but we’ll keep after it as well.

Opposite me, the updated Shrine looks really strong here, and I was really impressed with how everything fit together, and how nicely the Knight troops worked. It's still a strong list! This was not my best showing, but hey, you learn more from losses anyways! We kept up some decent pressure with a weird list, and were even technically winning there for a little while! 

It has been a while, and I was the odd man out at the meetup, so this was the only game this time. We've still got lots left to explore with the Herd, and this was a good time exploring just a few of the new options. Thanks for the game!