Hobby Update: Vampire Lord on Undead Dragon

This update has been a long time coming. Before I even started the blog here, back in my Warhammer days, I picked up a partial Mannfred von Carstein Mortarch mini for a few bucks from an online bits store during the early stages of the End Times. He was missing an arm and a big chunk of his swirly spooky cape, but for what I think was a ridiculous $3, I couldn't say no. It was quite the deal, but he's been sitting in a box for close to a decade now. I have since picked up Kings of War, and over Covid, I remembered Mannfred and then grabbed a Gargantuan Skeletal Dragon. I intended to combine these at some point, but it took me a while to pick up the Undead myself, and the entirety of 3rd Edition seems to have come and gone without this hitting the hobby table at all. With 4th Edition on the horizon, and high-end heroes becoming more impactful for list-building, these minis caught my eye again recently, and I was able to sit down for several longer sessions and knock this project out. Up now is a glorious Vampire on Undead Dragon!

Finished! And stretching the limits of my little light box.

The first piece was the big dragon. The mini is from a line of Pathfinder models, and "gargantuan" should be a mechanical term for the size of the monster, with something akin to a 100mm base when all is said and done.  That's a bit big for a Kings of War titan, but fortunately, the stance is compact, and this something we can work around. The model has three nubs connecting it to the huge base. While messing around, I popped my model off the base. One could just trim the nubs off, but I decided to keep them and hack away at the base itself, until it fit on a the appropriate 75mm square. I used some milliput to build up some "ground" around the base and make it a little less obvious, and after it dried, hit it with some paste, and then after that dried, primed it, and eventually hit it with my full Undead basing scheme of gray rocks, brown mud, and a glazing medium to to get a nice glossy effect. The base was done, and ready for the mini to be attached after it was painted up.

Nubs.

My friend Squirmin Vermin from the Nerd's Tale Blog has done up many wonderful discount titans, sidestepping modeling issues by just putting the rider on foot nearby. While the idea is very clever, and I like it a lot, I wanted a real rider for mine, due to the fog effect I use for this army. 

I had Mannfred, and I had a saddle for him from the same bits store, but connecting them to the model had stumped me for years. The dragon had these big spines along its uh, own spine, which complicated everything saddle-related, as I knew I couldn't really just stick a rider, or even just a saddle on there and have it look good. I was finally really motivated though, and I hacked off a few spines, and just started messing around with the bits. 

Sculpting cloth or something to hide the join didn't feel right with the verticality of the model (and would be a lot of work). I ultimately leaned into loose and lazy fluff to get me over this hurdle. I decided that the dragon was not like a dracolich or any kind of even partner here - it was forcibly raised by this vampire, with no reverence for the beast it was. The saddle covered two vertebrae, so I glued it down, shaving the saddle bit down to match up with the edges of the bones. I then cut up some cereal box style card board, and layered these like little armored plates along the neck ribs, fanning down from the saddle, adding some little rivets from slices of a spear bit, like the saddle was forcefully attached to these fused vertebrae. I took the tip of a spear bit and attached it to the bottom, implying the at infernal saddle was driven through the spine of the dragon in order to control it. The whole saddle part is definitely a bit overthought at this point, but I'm happy with it, and I think it's a nice little reward for anyone looking closely at the centerpiece model.

Saddle stuff. And the worse of the wing joins.

While messing with the saddle, the dragon fell, and broke both wings. I rolled with it, using the lack of stickey-outy-bits to better scrape away at mold lines. I also tried smearing sprue goo on the wings for some extra texture, but I don't think this amounted to anything. While the mini came primed, between the mold line scraping and goo on the wings, I felt the need to prime the whole thing, in black.

For painting, I pulled inspiration from Dev's and Dice. He went with a very deliberate and slow layering approach, something I tried a bit of with my Mounted Revenant King. I didn't want to use shiny washes and wanted to emulate his approach agin, but was also impatient, so settled on dry brushing the heck out of the dragon. The Skeleton was painted brown, then overbrushed with a dark khaki, then a bone color, and then a brighter bone color, with each color applied a little less than the previous layer. To top things off the teeth and nails were painted an off white or ivory color. 

All painted up, it was time to fix the wings. One had popped out of a socket, while the other snapped on the wing bit itself. The socket was an easy fix in the end and just got super glued in, but the snap was a harder fix. I had picked up a little rotary tool over the summer, but it sucks. I ended up using a full-sized power drill to bore into the wing and into the model to try and pin things with a paperclip, but even a quarter inch in the wing is very heavy and the join goofy, despite my best efforts. I ended up super gluing the join with the pin, along with part of the wing and part of the arm so the weight could be spread around a bit. 

Mr. Mannfred needed an arm, and got from from some old Marauder bits. I had what looked like a fitting shield from some Vampire Counts skeletons, and attached that as well. For the cape, he is supposed to have a big cape from the shoulders connecting to two strands coming from his waist, as if he's wearing this weird, ballooning jacket thing. I gave him a marauder cape for the top, and then added some plastic bits to the end of his waist strands, and covered those in sprue good to disguise it all.

Saddle, sword, cape bits and wings.

The wings were painted in a dark red, along with the vampire bits. I did some highlights to the vampire cape and shield, and then drybrushed that color onto the wings, and then followed up with a orange on the wings as well. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but the orange is not as vibrant or overpowering as I had feared, and I really like how it turned out.

We'll just do away with the box.

The last colors were the weird phasing sword and the dragon's mouth, which looked weird all black/brown. I'm sure there is fluff surrounding the sword, but I don't know it, and it's also for another game! I went with a mix of greens and then a thin line of black on the flat parts of the sword to contrast things more. The interior of the dragon's mouth and eyes got similar treatment in greens, just trying to allude to some foul magiks going on. 

Very big, very imposing, and will be very difficult to transport.

There are definitely things to improve on, and even after taking the pictures I have gone back and touched up a few errant brush strokes and bettered the color transition from the body to the wings, since they were painted up separately.. but overall, I'm really pleased with how he turned out. The emphasis  on dry brushing worked well and I was able to build up some neat layers on both the bones and the wings, and the model (excluding the wings... and the arms... and the head) fits nicely on the 75mm titanic base. Everything should be tall enough to avoid clashing with other units though. Transporting is going to be rough, but we'll see what I can figure out, because he needs to hit the table sometime!

But dang that does look cool.

We will see what he can do in 4th Edition. Warlords are going to be rather rare on the battlefield, and this will be a highly competitive slot, but I don't think fliers are going to be bad by any stretch. Sure, no Withdraw and sticky combats means fliers will lose some versatility, but on the flip-side, anything fliers or other speedy things can catch and disrupt won't be able to get away either. It's just going to be a whole new dynamic, and I am excited to start exploring it soon.

Hobby Update: Undead Display Board and 4th Edition

The snow continues, and thankfully, so does the hobbying! Continuing on, up now is a display board for the Undead! This one was also largely done up alongside the first board for the Varangur, and the second board for the Forces of the Abyss. As with the other two, paste was slapped down. Here coverage was very sporadic, as I wanted lots of spots for mud. Once the paste dried, this board too was primed in black, then painted with craft paints using black, a mix to get dark grey, and then a light grey. 

The finished board.

The mud got my similar approach with a variety of browns, applied haphazardly, because it is supposed to be mud. We used mostly crafting paints here, with a variety of browns, and then hit with a brighter Deathclaw Brown to give it some pop. This is the same idea throughout the army as well, so should blend in nicely.

Part way through the initial layer of brown.

Once this was all set, I hit it with a gloss varnish, instead of the usual acrylic glazing medium. Back in October I got a nice angled artist desk and tried rehabbing it (it's holding up most of the display boards in the pictures). I tried a glossy spray for it, but could never get a uniform coverage. Boo. Here though, it works nicely, adding a gloss to all the mud but leaving the rocky parts mostly untouched. 

Finishing up all the brown colors.

I blocked in the edge with more black paint, and then the last step was to smear the acrylic glazing medium in most of the corners, and then use polyfill to add the fog effect. I decided to keep the effect in the corners only, the thinking being that units should have the effect as well, and be able to sell the effect around the board themselves.

The floofs are all under the board's top edge, so this should be all set for now! My only complaint right now is that the floofs were attached as little balls, and you can definitely tell. They can be teased apart a bit and twisted with other floofs for a more convincing look, but my thinking is that this will probably happen naturally over time with normal wear and tear and transport.

The Undead board, with some Pathfinder units.

The board was done up essentially concurrently with the board for the Abyssals, so I chose to quickly stage this one too with my Pathfinding Undead army. As-predicted, the units do help carry the fog effect across the board, and this should look nice and spooky in larger games where the display board should be more nicely filled out.

Unfortunately, 4th Edition is set to do a big number on all of my collections. The Undead are probably the least impacted, but like the Abyssals, my go-to Undead units are taking significant hits here too. The lovely Skeleton Warriors with two handers (which I admittedly greatly over-invested in...) are no longer a thing, and the Soul Reavers are apparently getting nerfed down to just CS1. Harrumph. We'll see if the Hearthguard or Shieldbreakers get similar treatment. Fluff-wise, Mummies and Pharaohs are gone, so my AOE2 Teutonic Mummies are also invalidated, which is a bummer, but definitely makes sense fluff-wise with the Empire of Dust around. My MMU approach might be in jeopardy here as well unless I go very heavy in Skeleton Spears or Revenant infantry, which does admittedly sound appealing to explore!

I recently did up a number of Undead Champions for 4th, upgrading an assortment of individuals to 40mm squares, so we should be set there for now, with plenty more waiting in the wings to be upgraded as the mood strikes me. 

For Warlords, the Undead have lost Mhorgoth the Mandatory and the basic Liche, which is really going to free up competition for this very important slot. I think that how to fill that will be a common concern across all armies. I should be in a good spot overall for the slot with the Undead. With my various Wyrms and Vampires on Pegasi already based correctly, we'll have plenty of neat things ready to test right from the start! 

So far, I am most bullish about the Undead in 4th Edition, especially early on. While competition for hero slots have been steep in 3rd, it's really the only slot the army uses regularly. The strength of the army is units plus an assortment of heroes, and I think that will put them in a great spot for 4th. I will endeavor to get them on the table soon!

Hobby Update: Some 4th Edition Undead Champions

Like many years before it, this year has also been very tumultuous and stressful at times. While I have tried to block off more regular time to relax in my schedule this year, unfortunately even pastimes like hobbying generally, and Kings of War specifically, have gotten in on the upheaval action lately. The new edition was announced a few months back, but the information released has been a bit haphazard and sporadic, and release dates have been quite fuzzy.

While it feels weird to hobby without the rules in-hand, I've still needed escapist moments, and have been sneaking some hobbying in, wrapping up old projects and getting organized as the house shifts into winter and space becomes a little limited. Among other things, I ended up with an assortment of Undead on my desk. So up now, are an assortment of heroes Champions to get me running with the new edition, whenever it drops.

My main ASBs each get a helper.

The first units are my trusty Undead ASBs. These ended up being really great for me in 3rd Edition, as I like ASBs with items, and the Wild Charge 2 aura for Skeletons the Undead ones got was amazing, and while it seemed targeted for normal skeletons, it really shined with other units, and enabled some nifty plays and surprisingly long charges with with Revenant Cavalry, and both the flying and terrestrial  version of Undead Wyrms. Long, long ago I picked up some Skeleton bits online and kitbashed some Skeletons. Most were used for my initial Skeleton Warriors Regiments way back in 2016, but I still had two loose bodies out and about, and it felt good to finally use them up.

And a fully-Mantic ASB.

I snuck in a third ASB. The icon-bearer has been around, but I haven't really needed a third ASB very often. I had a single spare Mantic Skeleton mini around too, so this was a great use for them both, and I can finally clear him out of my bits box, along with the extra guys helping the other two ASBs.

And even a mounted Mantic ASB!

I then have a mounted ASB, which is even from Mantic Games! I believe it is an old reward from mailing in Mantic Points, but I picked mine up second-hand via Noble Knight Games. Heroic unlocks  in the Undead army were highly competitive in 3rd Edition. There were a few times I would have liked one, so I'm glad to finally have the option now.

We'll see how ASBs do in 4th Edition. I have not kept up with spoilers, but by all counts the auras have gone away, making them less impactful and less attractive, but we've yet to see full rules, so maybe they can fight a bit better, or have something else going for them now? They are still a cheap way to keep things Inspired, and should still be able to hold some supporting items well, so even without knowing the full rules, I'm happy to have these all done and ready and waiting.

Revenant Kings, now with spooky fog!

But I didn't stop with ASBs. I then rebased some Revenant Kings on Foot. The Revenants have been fine performers in my lists, able to take Surge, and hold an item, and can still add a damage in most combats too! When I had the points, or didn't need to support Skeleton units with the aura, these were great takes and functioned similar to upgraded ASBs, and were just a nice, rather cheap support unit to have around, and able to do a bit of everything for me. Given the newer, larger base, these can now get the army's fog effect as well, which is nice!

Additionally, I tried out a newer base for them. Our clubmate Rob is a carpenter, and when the change to individuals was announced, showed up at the next meetup with a number of 40 and 50 mm squares cut by him. I snagged some, intending to use the thicker bases for specific armies, and/or for combat characters, but man, I really like these. Typically these individuals have been very light, and can be knocked around the table accidentally, but the heavier base feels really nice and solid. We'll definitely be using some thicker bases in the future!

A kitbashed, mounted Revenant King.

And the last entry here is a new unit, a Revenant King on undead horse! I picked up a Tomb Kings Chariot box years ago to use for Chaos Chariots on the cheap. The horses have been in storage for years, but while doing some organizing, I finally bit the bullet and sat down to kitbash this. I used the more gothic armor  from the Perry Mounted Men at Arms (last used with the Soul Reaver Cavalry), and then a rider with a hand-swap and head-swap. A trophy rack from a Cryx Warmachine unit, and a few extra bits to fill the model out, and we had something I really liked!

The painting here was a bit experimental. Typically, for anything resembling a skeleton, I slap a bone color on the whole thing, and then hit it with a wash. That can look really messy at the end though, so here I went with an approach using layering. We started with a brown, then a bone color as a bit of an overbrush, trying to keep those recessed areas dark. I only used a wash around the teeth and skull, where some of the detail got covered up. Overall, I like this. Not sure how many more skeletons I'll ever paint up, but this worked nicely. The armor was a newer color for my (Sycorax Bronze). It's a little brighter and lighter and really pops, and I think it is a good look overall. I can't wait to get this guy on the table. 

Plenty is changing for the Undead, but they rely on their units, and I think they'll be strong in the new edition, especially early on. We'll get them on the table as soon as we can!

Hobby Update: Pathfinding Armies

Our club had some big changes in 2025. Our main meetup store shifted to the wonderful and newly relocated Gamer's Realm in New Berlin, WI. More importantly though, "Milwaukee Brian", the blogger behind the upbeat Nerd's Tale, the runner our our events, our local Mantic Pathfinder, and overall big heart, brain, and overall organizing force behind the club, moved far far away, way out to the Southwest.

A few of us are juggling FB posts and meetup duties; Joe spearheaded the successful and recent Northwoods Melee 1-day event, and back in very late August I decided to take on the mantle of a Mantic Pathfinder for Kings of War and try to grow our little club in the coming year. The Pathfinder Program sounded neat, but within days of signing, I was swiftly hit with two successive whammies.

Whammy the first was that while I do have a handful of armies and a heck of a lot of points for each of them... Pathfinding armies need to be all Mantic miniatures. Honestly, this makes sense, but unfortunately meant that my Abyssals and Undead needed some heroic additions at least, and my Kingdoms of Men, Herd, and Varangur lists were all going to be essentially useless for this little proselytizing endeavor. Furthermore, my "Stormcast Ogre" collection and their multi system movement trays were also going to be completely out of bounds, which was a bummer, as I thought they might be a good intro army generally and effective mental onramp for newer players as well, since they easily showed how you could port existing models over to try out the system. Oh well. 

While I was figuring out my heroic additions in September, the second whammy hit, which was the announcement of 4th Edition, along with affiliated rumors and spoilers. Given the launch of  the Champions game, I figured individuals were in for a revamp in 4th, so I had started skewing my heroic additions towards the larger options with Unit Strength where ever I could. 

Undead

My Undead army actually has a good number of Mantic models, with a mix of Skeletons, Zombies, and even Zombie Trolls now. Going into this, I could already cobble together a decent 100% Mantic list, with the exception of heroes. 

The Undead, to start.

Heroes moving to larger bases was revealed pretty far along into my efforts, and this type of hero is more difficult for the Undead to field, and I did not want to buy a proper Vampire on Pegasus for this project. Thankfully, I recalled Lady Ilona from a long-ago purchase, and was able to rebase here without difficulty. And then for additions, Trevor provided me with a Necromancer and a Goreblight from the Mantic Vault to help fill things out for this army for now. I also have Zombies to pull from, as well as a Mantic ASB from extra Skeletons, so while I don't have the full army roster yet, I think we should have enough to throw something mostly sensible together for the Undead.

Abyssals

My Abyssals were also in a pretty good spot, due to having a lot of Flamebearers from previous years and many purchases of the box. I also had a lot of Lower Abyssals, from more recent efforts. I decided to donate my Abyssal Ghoul conversions to the Pathfinding cause as Lower Abyssals.

Abyssals

For heroes, I was also in a bit of a bind, but I uncovered and then hobbied up Mau’ti-ba’su from another very old purchase, and finally dipped into some of the Imps from the Lower Abyssal sprues, to give the army some chaff. Trevor again provided me with some goodies from the Vault, including a proper Despoiler Champion, and a Warlock. 

As the spoilers rolled on, it seemed like the heroic picks would impact lists in 4th, allowing certain units to be fielded, so the eventual aim for all this is to have a few set lists for each army, and let the prospective player pick whatever hero looks appealing. The Abyssal collection is a bit hero-heavy right now, but I'm still stalling a bit for the official, detailed army lists. I can give them more Flamebearers, or Berserker regiments as-needed, but the Abyssals also have a good starting point here.

Northern Alliance!

Having played a lot with the Varangur, I discovered I didn’t like the Night Raiders with Axes much. I had two regiments mostly built from Mantic’s kit, which yes, could be Tribesmen as well for the Varangur, but I figured another demo army would be a better use of those minis. No work or touchups have been done on them yet.

My new Northern Alliance.

But I needed some more units. I dipped into the Snow Foxes from the Tribesmen kit, to build up some chaff for the army as well.

I picked up a few ebay bundles of Mantic Dwarfs over the years, with the idle intent of building a demo army, and/or starting an infantry-focused Free Dwarf army. We dipped into that pile for a small lot of heavily-abused Ironclad, which got slight conversions with fur around the weird neck and shoulder armor bits of the models, and per the fluff, more "Northerly," rounded shields, sourced from various human kits. These were my first Dwarves painted. They had a bad priming job, but I just wanted them done, and overall, they turned out well.

In September I also caved, and seeing two, mostly complete NA Ambush boxes for less than the price of one, picked them up on ebay as well, and used a sprue from it to build up a unit of Elf Berserkers. It turns out I do not really like these models! They are dynamic, but the cloaks are very cumbersome, and they have a lot of overhang, making them a bit difficult to multi-base. This troop is done though, and we can add more berserkers or elvish shooters as-needed.

Rounding out the heroes for the new Northern Alliance, Trevor again came to my rescue, with a Thegn on Frostfang, and a Snow Troll Prime, both printed off the Vault. They did not have the best joins, but a little green stuff fur smoothed it all out, and despite some imperfections, on the table, these all look fine.

Imperial Dwarfs!

I wanted at least 4 demo armies around. It seemed like a good number. 

As-mentioned, over the years I picked up a few bundles of used Mantic Dwarfs from ebay. Taking an inventory of them all in the spring, I discovered that I had nearly 200 basic bodies (Ironwatch, Ironclad, Shieldbreakers)! I would still like to hobby up some Free Dwarfs (more on this topic in the coming months), but wanted them to be painted up well. Mantic minis tend to be a little goofy with consistency and details and how things are supposed to “read”, so with Pathfinding coming up, I diverted a bit of each pile in order to make a 4th demo army of Imperial Dwarfs. 

Imperial Dwarfs.

I would like my Free Dwarfs to have more complicated basing, so here I carved away the stands, to see how all that works. Overall, not well. I bought a Dremel tool for this, but I don't know if it's not powerful enough, or I was using it wrong, but it couldn't make a dent here, so I resorted to clippers and then hobby knives to trim off all the stands. Basing was just messing around with stuff. I had some plastic card stock and cut out some rocks, and then added some basic grass. I don't really like the basing here. Despite efforts to texture it, the card rocks look pretty bad. I may rip those out and start again at some point, but no desire to build up Imperial Dwarves much more, we will 

We have two regiments of basic Ironclad, one of Ironwatch with Rifles, and one Shieldbreaker regiment as well. Organ Guns have been a very attractive unit to me, but I have never run them in 3rd, so I hobbied one up here, and then grabbed a metal Warsmith from the Pile to lead the contingent for now. One of the bundles had nearly a dozen conversions, so we should be able to grab anything else we might need to help lead the force, like a Ranger, or a King, should we want those options once we get more of the rules released.

All of these armies were all built and hobbied up in advance of the reveal of the new Core-requirements for list building. Blindly building for a new edition, I think I did pretty well though, and each list has at least two of what should be a Core unit, with a handful of others units around to enlist to spice things up, and I should be able to figure out a few lists for each army... eventually. Pathfinders were supposed to get a version of the rules in early November, but those have yet to materialize. We're now just shy of two weeks past on the revised delivery date with no news. I'll organize these into some actual lists once I actually see some rosters and points... 

Terrain

Supporting all of these armies is a new demo table, since I need/want to be self-sufficient for my demo days. I picked up a 3’x3’ wintery mat and then threw together some more of my homemade terrain over the last few months. I didn’t go overboard since we didn’t need to populate a full, standard table, but we have a few small forests with removable trees, a few obstacles, a hill, and one piece of difficult terrain with some battlefield debris. Overall, this should should be a decent stage for any skirmish game, and give us a little variety for setting up. The mat is a bit small, but I figured we could shrink the deployment zones and have some nice, quick games.

Mat, and terrain for the Pathfinder games.

The last steps are tossing together a demo bag with rules, dice, measuring tapes, and such, and then figuring out how to transport all this! I am set on the former, but the latter is complicating things a bit. I would like to get some small lockable tower bins for all these, with something like a bin for each army, one for rules and game aids, and one for terrain, but haven't found anything worthwhile yet.

Thankfully, all of the units pictured today fits in one of my standard travel / storage bins. The mat rolls up, and rules / terrain can all easily fit into a smaller bin. I'm all set for now, and can upgrade whenever I see something that fits my needs exactly.

While to-date I have reported on every game I have ever played, good-or-bad, errors-or-no, I will likely break that streak here in 4th Edition. The experience of the new player needs to be prioritized, and I think a report is too much to ask of me in the moment, and despite new rules and tactics, the smaller games might also not be as interesting. Hopefully more demos off-screen will lead to more games to properly report on in 2026!

Kings of War 3rd Edition: #155 Undead vs Kingdoms of Men in Loot

Intro and Lists

When I started writing more numerous reports for the Blog, I had a worrisome moment. With each battle report being numbered, what would keep things from posting out of order? Thankfully, the madness was momentary, and reality quickly asserted itself.  I am a one person operation, so I can number things and schedule posts as I darn well please. No worries. Nonetheless, here we are with an odd, secret battle report!

While I have not been able to travel around to tournaments, my clubmate Rob and his Halflings have been all over the place this last year, and we have helped him prep whenever we can. Having placed 1st at the Michigan GT back in October, Rob was already eyeing up his next big tournament, the Renegade Open in November. It’s a 2-day weekend tournament with special character rules, and with a 1-day speed tournament tacked on Friday evening, and Rob wanted to practice for the latter. The speed tournament is three games at 1200 points, with less time on the clock each round. The scoring for the event is a combination of your wins and your remaining clock time. The event and the speed tournament have been going on long enough that a bit of a meta has materialized around it, with speedy and elite lists. Rob played last year, and wanted to bring a list to attack that meta, but didn't want me blabbing about it. I think he overestimates the reach of the blog, but we did accommodate his wishes, and the tournament should be underway (or even finished) by the time this actually posts. For the event, Rob settled on an army dear to me, the very versatile Kingdoms of Men:

The points level makes things a little tight as you can only run one of a hero or monster or war machine. It's a neat list, running two hordes of Rifles, a Giant with Slayer since he’s expecting a lot of monsters, a Chariot Legion (!) with J Boots to interdict things, and then singletons of an ASB for Inspiring, a Wizard on Pegasus with Alchemist Curse, a Ballista, and a Hero on Pegasus. The idea is that all the shooting should be able to maim or even delete a unit a turn, really punishing the very elite builds, and everything else in the list should be able to interdict or buy time for the shooting to do the heavy lifting..

I was not gearing up for this event, nor did I see his message before I left home earlier that day. But after Battle 145, we still had some time before the shop closed, so I cobbled together an Undead list with the models I had, for him to fight and test out his ideas before he spent more time hobbying things up. I brought the following:

I was limited by the models I had with me, but still, a little more insight on Undead MMU wouldn’t hurt for me to have! Up to evaluate was:

• Skeleton Warriors with two handers. These are my pet unit for the Undead. They are a great chunk of Nerve for their points, and a cheap, versatile drop. The two-handers and CS1 are nice, as they have just enough attacks to be able to disorder things reliably, and clever Surges and such can let them punch above their weird. With no Surge casters here... I don't think we're going to pull off anything tricky with them, so they are around to eat a turn of shooting. If they can do that, I'll be happy.
• Wraiths. I like Wraiths, but without Surge, these are also around for chaff and blocking duties., and we'll see if Def6 can eat a round of shooting or catch my opponent off guard at all.
• Soul Reaver Infantry. These were the best units I had with me, so needed to at least double-down on them. Wary of shooting, one got the Dwarven Ale to hopefully let them shake off any wavers from shooting, and the other got the cheaper Staying Stone.
• Deathpack. I wanted more experience with them after their debut, so we squeezed in both units. 
• Lykanis. I was limited by my models, and my opponent was anticipating a meta of speedy things, so I like like the Lykanis and Vampire would be better than something like Mhorgoth, especially given the rest of the list. We'll see if we can utilize the speed to do anything cool.
• Vampire on Undead Pegasus. Same as above, it's not ideal, but it's what we have, and we'll see if we can use these to pressure.

Going up against heavy shooting, I wanted to try and play more of a refused flank, and be aiming for a narrow win on half the table. Hopefully my concentration of force would let me punch through and do things.

Table and Terrain

We set up a full table, but since the event will be played on a square, 4 foot area, we then randomized and voided a chunk of it. We'll be ignoring the left-most section.

I won the roll for sides and was lazy, though this side did give me some nice terrain to hide behind.

Rob had given a lot of thought to his approach. The Kingdoms of Men deployed with a strong brick of Rifleman, Giant, and Riflemen, supported by the Wizard and ASB. With not a lot of firing lanes, the Ballista set up shop nearby in the backfield, looking to shoot around the forest, and the Chariots eyed said forest. The Hero deployed behind the building, safe, and ready to interdict.

Deployment, for everyone! There are some benefits to playing on a smaller table.

Knowing a bit about his plan, the Undead castled pretty hard in the corner, tying to use the terrain to my advantage. We want to push up, grab two tokens, and call it good with a narrow win. Skeleton Warriors and both Soul Reavers, were on the line, with the Lykanis and a unit of Deathpack in reserve. I only need two tokens to win, so this group would push for the center. On the right, I had a stack of flying Vampire on the line, non-shambling Deathpack, and slightly angled Wraiths, and this group would try to push up the far right of the table, grabbing the token here and hopefully negate the enemy flying Hero.

There were no Scout moves, and I won the roll for turn order, eventually opting to go first. Yes, would unfortunately give the riflemen some shots by moving up, but the hope was that the extra ground gained and pressure applied will be worth it, especially with my flying Vampire on the far right.

Top of Round 1: Undead

On the right, the flying Vampire races ahead. The Deathpack lingers behind a bit, with the shambling Wraiths behind them. The layered positioning would hopefully deny the Hero on Pegasus any safe landing zones. At the end of my turn, I ended up pivoting the Vampire pretty hard, in order to face the center, assuming that the rest of the stack can proceeded and apply pressure.

The Undead move up. Some of them go pretty far!

The Soul Reavers trudge forward, keeping the forest between them and most of the enemy shooting.

On the left, the Lykanis stays pretty close, and the Skeletons and Deathpack scoot ahead a bit at speed. Hopefully, the Skeletons could tank a turn or two of shooting, and the Deathpack can gain enough ground to chaff for the Soul Reavers, and get them into a combat.

Bottom Top of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

The Wizard flies ahead and pivots, looking to get safely behind enemy lines before casting spells, and the bloc of Riflemen and Giant reposition a bit. Shots flew out into the Lykanis, but only 3 damage hit, and he was found to be steady.

Movement for the Kingdoms of Men.

We check, and there is actually only about 90mm between the table edge and the building out on the right, so the Hero on Pegasus is able to get in and threaten charges for free now, which is not ideal for me. I wasn't going to be able to reach him next turn, but being able to eventually get past the building is something I had just assumed. Now, the effectiveness of my stack is pretty diminished, especially with the pivot of my Vampire last turn.

Top of Round 2: Undead

I try to keep the pressure on. The flying Vampire pivots and flits over the building, and will have charges into the Chariots, Ballista, or a horde of Riflemen, unless my opponent does something.

Wraiths hang back to deny a landing zone to the Hero on Pegasus, while the Deathpack from the right moves up to block. The Skeletons advance too, and the line is jumbled enough that the Chariots can’t see the Deathpack, can’t fit into the Soul Reavers, and can only charge the Skeletons.

Movement for the Undead.

The other Deathpack reposition, looking to zone out the Wizard on Pegasus for another turn.

The injured Lykanis is brazen, and runs ahead. I am out of the Giant’s arc, so am hoping to just cause some trouble out here.

Bottom Top of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

Trying to play fast, I apparently miss a picture. The Riflemen just unload into the Lykanis, landing a hot 6 damage, while the Wizard veers back and Alchemist Curse contributes another hot 5, and the lycanthrope is obliterated.

The Giant repositions, but is careful not to block the leader point of the other Rifle horde. This other horde will hold, and shoot into the stealthy Deathpack, landing 6 damage. The Ballista tries as well, but lands no shots, and the Deathpack do amazingly hold.

The Chariots change facing, preventing a charge into the Ballista since my flier won’t be able to align. The Hero on Pegasus spins around, landing near my Vampire on Pegasus, to force a decision out of me.

Top of Round 3: Undead

The flying Vampire hops around, getting out of arc of the flying Hero and Chariots.

The Wraiths pick up the token on the right.

The Vampire on Pegasus gets into another threatening spot.

The maimed Deathpack scoot ahead, blocking for both Soul Reaver units, and the Skeletons shamble ahead as well, threatening a charge next turn if they are not dealt with, and to make things interesting, they move far enough to get out of arc of the Chariots.

Movement for the Undead.

The other unit of Deathpack scamper ahead, and should be threatening a charge into the Riflemen on the left, or the Wizard if he doesn’t move. The pressure is on!

Bottom Top of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

The Hero on Pegasus inches ahead but out of arc of my Vampire on Pegasus.

The Ballista shoots and misses at some Soul Reavers as I think it takes a penalty from the intervening melee. The Chariot charged the Deathpath, but did not use their boots. They will sidestep in victory.

Good pick-ups for the Kingdoms of Men.

The Giant backs up, and both hordes of rifles shoot into the Skeletons, joined by Alchemist Curse from the wizard. A total of 9 damage lands, and the Skeletons break apart as I am low on Inspiring coverage with the cobbled-together list.

Top of Round 4: Undead

I guess the Deathpack might not be threatening a charge into those Rifles, as they zip out and grab a token for some reason. This is not a great play from me, and I think an error from clock pressure.

In the back field, the Vampire continues to dance around the hero. We flit around again, threatening other units while avoiding his charge arc.

Movement for the Undead.

The Soul Reavers make a pair on hindered charges into the Chariot Legion. One rolls hot and one rolls cold to end up at the expected 16 damage, and unfortunately we only waver the unit.

The Wraiths and their token move up, ready to assist next turn.

Bottom Top of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

I miss another picture due to time pressures. Thankfully, it's a small game and things should still be relatively easy to follow.

The Deathpack with the token did not get out of arc of the Riflemen, so the infantry horde charges out, beat them and steals it. Oops. Really not sure what I was thinking there.

The Giant and Rifle horde turn to face the flying Vampire. I think the Riflemen shoot, but land no damage into the Vampire.

The Ballista lights up the Wraiths, landing 4 damage and following up with Boxcars to best the uninspired unit.

The Charioteers disengage, and withdraw an inch, to force more hindered charges from me.

Top of Round 5: Undead

I’ve been too weird with my flying Vampire, and with the Hero and Giant starting to constrict him, I fly away, landing on the token so I can pick it up if needed.

Movement for the Undead.

The shooting has indeed whittled me down, and both Soul Reaver regiments again go into the Charioteer Legion, to hopefully pick them up, and I do. In retrospect, this is crazy overkill, and one should have considered doing something to threaten the central token.

Reforms for the Undead.

In victory, one will sidestep towards the center, and the other will back up 2 inches, land atop to token here as well, and pick it up.

Bottom Top of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

The hero can spy the tiniest sliver of the Soul Reavers from around the building, and takes the charge, ending up in the flank of the Soul Reavers. The Giant is also just in, against them, and charges in to bully them for their token. Fortunately, the Hero misses entirely, and while the Giant rolls up some extra attacks, few connect, and the Soul Reavers survive on 5 damage. These have the Staying Stone, and are just shy of wavering, but hold steady, thanks to the item.

Charges and positioning for the Kingdoms of Men.

Both Rifle hordes and the Wizard fire into the other regiment of Soul Reavers, though the Rifles take boatloads of penalties, and Alchemist Curse only lands 1 damage.

Top of Round 6: Undead

It’s top of 6 and I should really be playing the scenario better, but am struggling to do so.

The flying Vampire pivots, hoping to cleanup in a round 7. It's Round 6, and I think he should be flying out and grabbing the central token perhaps.

Movement for the Undead.

In retrospect, I probably should counter-charge the Hero, as I have a better change of routing him and removing opposing unit strength, but I do not. I charge the Giant, land the expected 8 damage, but do not budget the titan. They Lifeleech down to 3 though, and I am feeling ok about a grind here. Having used Giants a lot, 4's are swingy, and he's not kitted out to fight infantry, so this grind could definitely work out for me.

The other regiment of Soul Reavers make a hindered charge out into a horde of Riflemen, landing 9, but do not waver them either. 

This charge is a little dubious as well. It's Round 6, so I should probably be trying to grab the token. However, I don't have any other charges, and am wary of shooting, and think I can keep this evened up and get a tie. 

Bottom Top of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men

The Wizard lands just 1 damage with Alchemist Curse against my flying Vampire.

The Giant and Hero multi-charge the Soul Reavers again, and again we are able to keep the damage low with just 6 new damage. Still, this puts me at 9 damage, and I unfortunately waver, even with the Staying Stone.

Movement for the Kingdoms of Men.

One horde of Riflemen countercharge the Soul Reavers, landing 2 damage, and the other start trudging towards the central token to grab it in a potential Round 7. I had forgotten that units could take multiple tokens, so I'm suddenly really worried.

It’s shaky, but a tie-game in the bottom of 6. I’d be happy with this, but we do roll up a round 7…

Top of Round 7: Undead

I didn’t give myself a great shot here, so there isn’t much I can do with the extra round.

The Soul Reavers butcher the Riflemen horde on the second attempt, Lifeleeching down to no damage, which admittedly feels good. Had this happened a turn or so earlier (like breaking the Chariots on the first attempt), I'd be feeling great, but this is a pretty empty victory now.

The conclusion of the Undead efforts.

The other Soul Reavers are wavering though, and there isn’t much I can do to help them. They back up, and the flying Vampire is able to make a clean charge into the Giant. Unfortunately, I look to have done just 1 damage here. With 7 quality attacks, this feels pretty bad.

Writing up the report, this could also a questionable play, as the Soul Reavers are so very hurt. I could have dropped the token and then backed up, and then picked it back up with the flying Vampire... but the Vampire on Pegasus is exactly what the Giant is geared up to fight. Either move is a gamble, and my opponent put me on the ropes with that waver and the extra turn.

Bottom Top of Round 7: Kingdoms of Men

The remaining horde of Riflemen take the center token, and are now holding two for the easy win. The flying hero hops up to delay the Soul Reavers out of habit.

Pay no attention to the Soul Reaver casualties! The Kingdoms of Men close out the game.

Alchemist Curse finally skews towards average dice again, and the wavering Soul Reavers are melted, dropping their token.

The Giant charges the Vampire Lord, but my opponent realizes that he's playing on auto-pilot. The tournament apparently gives some incentive for remaining clock time, so he taps out in the ranged phase, and we don't get to see how the Giant performs against the Vampire on Pegasus.

The Kingdoms of Men win this 2:0 with a Round 7!

Game Conclusions

Like many of our games, I'm taking a goofy list into something much more thought out. It was fun, but the pressure definitely got to me a few times as I tried to cobble together something resembling a cohesive strategy. Mistakes were made, and I couldn't quite get things done.

Testing Conclusions

• Skeletons with two-handers. They are still a neat unit. They are cheap, and took the hits well enough, with even chances to stick around, luck just didn't break their way this time.
• Deathpack. Definitely a mixed bag, with one getting thrown away for nothing, and the other holding long enough to die well like a good chaff unit. I got lucky with these not wavering, but if the protected unit is back a bit, these can nimble-pivot and back away, creating a space. These are still fine chaff for the Undead, and as long as I am taking Soul Reavers, I will likely take a unit or two of these going forward.
• Soul Reavers. Hiding in the woods and being hindered wasn’t great for their output, but I protected them well enough I think, and got them a decent opening engagement. Giving them items the mitigate wavering also proved very worthwhile this game. They just weren't quite good enough to hard carry me with my other errors.
• Lykanis. Not used particularly well, though he did draw some fire, and that is ok since I was focusing on the Soul Reavers. Of the two speedy units I’ve been exploring, these are budget buys, and clearly struggle. I think they can have their place, but I’ve been asking them to do way too much, and should invest into more units for my MMU.
• Vampire on Pegasus. Not used particularly well either – it’s been a while since I had an aerial standoff! I should have zipped ahead and pivoted to outrun the human Hero, but we ended up dancing all game, and they favored the cheaper hero. Fun to use, but not used well here.

A speed tournament is a really neat idea, and this was a lot of fun to try out. This will probably post mid-tournament, so we'll hope Rob is doing well!

Kings of War 3rd Edition: #149 Undead vs Basileans in Protect and Raze

Intro and Lists

It had been a very long week, but I was lucky enough to end it with a pair of games against Trevor or Data and Dice. Trevor was continuing to explore the Basileans in preparation of his Brothermark being rumored to be folded into the army for 4th Edition. He ran the following:

As we tend to do for our double-headers, we each ran a slightly different list. For the Basileans, we have two green Spearmen hordes, two regiments of Paladins with two-handers, and four Elohi regiments to support the humans. Two troops of Gur Panthers and two titanic Phoenixes were around to support, and we have two Ogre Palace Guard Captains, Samacris, the Mother of Phoenixes, and a Priest with Bane Chant and Bastion around to Inspire. Writing up the report, I noticed that while the Priest can take Bastion as a normal spell of his, it is still a unique spell, so Conjurer's Staff should not interact with it, and I know we missed this and allowed a few rerolls this game.

I too continued with the same army but a slightly different list. The Skeleton Warrior Regiments became three hordes, but the bulk of the list was the same, and up to test and evaluate and discuss is everything:

• Skeleton Warriors with two-handers. The concept for these was blatantly lifted from my own opponent here and his Brothermark Penitents. While we've both preferred regiments for our respective smashy roadblocks, I actually have hobbied up 7 regiment's worth of these, and figured I should try all three hordes at least once. Infantry hordes in particular have tripped me up before, so we'll try to deploy these wisely.
• Zombie Trolls. Coming in at just under 200 points, these are great units to start any Undead army, at least for 3rd. They have good Fearless Nerve at -/17, good Defense with Def5, and CS2 will let them grind against a lot no matter the match-up. 
• Wights. I wanted to run just a basic unit here, and see what shenanigans I might be able to get up to with them. Fly is neat, but they lack Nimble, and are only Speed 7, which can be a bit limiting. I will note here as well that the Wights have Brutal, which we mostly forgot about.
• Revenant Cavalry. The list is trying to flood the board with a lot of durable unit strength, and these regiments are filling that out. I think the Zombie Trolls are probably better overall picks, but they have a nice charge range, and play really nicely with the ASB's Aura, so definitely have a niche in the build here. We'll try to instigate with them, and then see how the fights go.
• Revenant King with Surge. The Revenant King is neat, with good Nerve, and alright combat stats. In spite of a low number of attacks, he should be able to land a damage most of the time, but felt like I needed a little extra Surge in the list. He's a cheap and versatile hero for the Undead, and we'll see what he can do.
• Liche King with Surge, Bane Chant, and Amulet of the Fireheart. The Liche is quite customizable, but you can easily over-invest in them. We have a pretty basic kit here, and we want the Liche to just be a reliable support piece.
• Undead ASB with Surge. The ASB's Aura is Wild Charge 2 for Skeletons, which plays nicely with our infantry hordes and cavalry regiments. The extra boost can be hard to account for, and lead to some surprisingly quick charges from the Undead. We'll be on the look to catch something out with a long charge!
• Mhorgoth the Faceless. I have an aversion to unique/legendary picks, as I am always running oddball lists, and fluff-wise if never makes sense for some renowned hero to be around, but have been making an exception for Mhorgoth. He has a great selection of supporting spells, and having a rather mobile bubble of both Inspiring and Dread has made a big difference in many games. He can be a nice force multiplier, so we're making the exception and taking him here as well. I will note that Dread and Brutal do not stack, so when he is around the Wights, only one of those is being applied. I think we played this right... by accidentally forgetting about the Wight's Brutal entirely.

Again the Basileans had the slightest advantage in drops and in Unit Strength, but as the last game showed, the Undead has some surprisingly long charges, and if we can get some good combats, things can go very well for us! 

Table and Terrain

Trevor was kindly hosting our games, and had set up a quick table with his Kings of War App. We were using our typical terrain rules, running the buildings as Height 9 blocking terrain, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and Hills as Height 3, and the ponds as some Height 0 difficult terrain. 

Prepping the new table. A tough and unusual terrain arrangement!

We got a bit of a weird map, with both buildings on one shorter side, and both forests on one longer side, but decided to keep it and see what happens. I won the roll for sides, and was lazy, thinking the forest might help me hold ground, and push out if and when I wanted to.

We got Raze for our scenario, which we upgraded to Protect and Raze. For Protect and Raze, there is a central objective token, and then we each place 3 more objective tokens on the opponent’s side of the board, 6” from the center line. If we control one of the tokens that we placed, we then raze them for a point, and then that token goes away, so we should be whittling down the points of interest on the battlefield down to a final clash in the center. The new(ish) twist here is that we can control but not raze the tokens our opponent placed, and we can score them if we happen to hold them at the very end of the game. The "protect" aspect provides for a little more interplay than the original version, and we both like the update. Given the buildings, we both went with one token on the left, and two tokens on the right. I placed the purple tokens; he placed the white ones, and the red one is the center token which can't be razed.

Overview of the table and deployments.

For deployment, the Basileans had Gur Panthers and a regiment of Elohi in the small lane created by the buildings. On the other side of the building were more Elohi, more Panthers, and an Ogre Captain on line, with the Mother of Phoenixes and even more Elohi in reserve.

The Basileans on the left.

The rest of the Basilean force committed hard to the right. We have alternating Paladin Regiments and Spear Hordes on the front line, with an Ogre Captain, Elohi and both Phoenixes in reserve, with the titanic fliers behind each horde.

The Basileans on the right.

For the Undead, I immediately donk up my deployment. Seeing the building lane, I dropped a horde without really measuring for my first drop. The intent was to push up with a horde and another unit, and without significant investment from the Basileans, I should be able to hold and eventually take both of these these tokens using just a few units. But the horde is very wide, and I cannot fit two units on the line. Supporting the Skeletons is a regiment of Revenant Cavalry behind, and the Revenant King, with just Surge this time. It's not great, but if we get first turn, we could conceivably move and surge the Horde up a ways and create some space. 

A close-up of the goof. This is a pretty big oops.

As you can see from the other pictures, the Undead units were both wide and numerous enough to span the rest of the table. Another horde went on the other side of the building, ready to get tripped up on all the terrain. The ASB was nearby, with Revenant Cavalry, Mhorgoth, Wights and Zombie Trolls partially behind the hill, more Revenant Cavalry, Zombie Trolls and the third Skeleton Warrior horde in the pond, with the Liche King supporting. The final unit of Zombie Trolls on the far right. 

Top of Round 1: Basileans:

On the right, with no forest or obstacles, all the human infantry is able to march up as much as they wish to. Both Spear Hordes and the Paladins move the full 10 inches. Both Phoenixes move and shift to clearly see around the forest, but won't be able to spray any sparks this turn. The Priest stays safe behind the central Paladins, while the Elohi and Ogre Captain take the hill.

The Basilean infantry move up at the double.

The Paladins nearer the center of the field are forced to hang back. My opponent was making final decisions and realized that he was giving a free flank to the Revenant Cavalry in the center field, which I would have liked, but he caught it.

The speedier part of the Basilean center moved up, projecting threat and playing the angles. 

The speedier left of the Basilean also pushes up.

In the building lane, the Gur Panthers zip ahead, but are careful to stay out of range of the Skeleton horde. The Elohi from the left tentatively move up as well.

Bottom of Round 1: Undead

The Undead are in a bit of trouble on the left. As mentioned, due to my deployment error, I can't fit a second unit right on the line. Shambling also makes repositioning really rough, so we are pretty jammed up here. Technically I should be able to jump ahead eventually, but can't do so now, and don't want to just give up this token for free to Panthers next turn, so we're stuck for now.

The Skeleton Warriors advance. Taking some measurements, the Elohi are both in the front, and any Surge will turn one of those into a flank, so the Revenant King just makes sure he's more than 20 inches away from the Elohi. It's the best we can do out here right now, as we'll be forcing a decision from my opponent next turn instead of potentially just giving the token up for free.

The Skeletons move up, but are boxed in by the threat of the fliers.

It turns out I have a second deployment goof, in that if the Skeletons move ahead, they do not have their leader point in the forest, so are giving up charges while being unable to threaten anything themselves. They sidestep, and than the ASB tries to Surge them forward. I get the successes I need, however I continue to trip myself up, and am stopped from getting into the woods by the Revenant Cavalry. It's not great, but at least I am not in the woods and giving up charges still. 

The Undead also struggle to project into the center.

The Revenant Cavalry had the inches to get out of the way, but held back, as moving any further ahead would open them up to a flank charge from the Elohi nearest the building. I am probably being too cautious, as this would be hindered, and need more Elohi units to have a chance at breaking, but it seems silly to be so reckless, so I choose to trip over myself a bit  and try to be patient.

Mhorgoth gets safely onto the hill, and hits a Mind Fog onto the Gur Panthers, but the check is low and they hold. Wary of distances, he does not Surge anything this turn, so this is his only spell. The Zombie Trolls get a leader point onto the hill, but the Wights are jammed up a bit, trying to make way for the Revenant Cavalry.

The Undead dare some hindered charges from the Basileans.

Given all the other goofs this round, things on the right are going as both as good as they can be for the Undead! The Skeleton horde gets its leader point into the forest, seeing out, and moves far enough ahead to be giving up charges. Against hindered humans, I think I can hold if my opponent is brash, and otherwise, the nearby Zombie Trolls are ready to push back, and I should have enough to hold the tokens for now.

Top of Round 2: Basileans

The Basileans continue to pile on the pressure and exploit my early errors across the battlefield.

On the right, the Basilean line of human infantry twists, trying to limit charges into the fronts while protecting the flanks. The Phoenix on the right sprays 2 damage onto the Zombie Trolls, while the other lands 1 against the Revenant Cavalry.

The Basileans apply pressure instead of taking the bait.

The Priest shuffles to make sure things are still Inspired, and the Elohi and Ogre Captain on the hill survey the lines, looking for openings. On the end, the Paladins move up to protect the flank of the Spear horde, and are able to get the troublesome enemy cavalry in front arc too.

A regiment of Elohi, along with the Mother of Phoenixes and some Gur Panthers push towards the center.

The Elohi charge in, and have already accomplished their task out here.

On the left, the Elohi multi-charge the Skeleton horde, and land 11 damage. Because of where I felt needed to end up, the Elohi are both contesting the token, and when I point out the Basileans actually control it, since the Skeleton horde is only US3, my opponent burns this token for a point.

Bottom of Round 2: Undead

The Skeletons counter-charge the inner unit of Elohi, sliding down just slightly, and are stopped by the building, but this keeps both units clearly in front arc. The Skeletons land 5 into the angels, but they hold, and Iron Resolve down to just 4.

The Undead try to be patient.

The Revenant King cowers behind the horde, keeping things Inspired for now, and the Revenant Cavalry I believe actually back up enough to prevent a fly over. With Surge around, no matter where they land, I should be able to catch the Elohi.

The Skeleton enters the forest, peering out and the ASB gets to their right, while staying out of range of the Ogre Captain and out of sight of the Panthers. The rest of the moves melt my brain.

Elohi in the backfield stayed just over 16 inches away, but the ASB can give them the Wild Charge 2 Aura, and they will make that charge. Unfortunately, my base is slightly wider, and I just barely touch the field, so this is a hindered charge, not a clean one, and the Cavalry will land just 3 damage, which is Iron Resolved down to 2 by the end of the turn.

The Undead set up for a long Surge, alongside several fights.

The hill blocked line of sight for the Wights, so they don't have any charges this turn. They move and pivot, and their gaze falls on the Ogre Captain in the midfield. They'll need a Surge 11 to get there, but I have concepts of a plan.

Engaging the infantry line is going to be tricky. With a lot of likely hindered charges, I am not going to break anything, so need to be very careful how I engage. After some measuring, I send the Zombie Trolls peeking over the hill and the Revenant Cavalry into the Paladins out on the end of the line. With the other Rev Cavalry unit grounding the Elohi in the back field, this seems like the safest way to engage the humans.

With the threat of hindered charges, nobody wants to really fight on the right.

I am hesitant to engage anything else. The Skeletons are skeletons, and a hindered charge to be hitting on 6's isn't going to help matters any. Wary of the Elohi on the hill, the Skeletons move ahead to bait future charges, and the Zombie Trolls on the flank inch forward as well.

The Liche King heads towards the center, and is just able to get into Surge range of the Wights to kick off their journey. Apparently he is enthusiastic about the plan, and provides 8 of the 11 successes I need with his cast. The ASB continues with a strong 4 to get be in with a success to spare!

Mhorgoth couldn't bring Dread to the hindered cavalry charge into the Elohi, but brought it against the Paladins, and was going to finish up the Surging of the Wights, but that isn't needed. He Bane Chants the hindered cavalry and lands a Drain Life 1 into the Paladins, though can't heal anything.

The long Surge connects, and the Wights deliver!

The Wights land 11 onto the Ogre Captain, and then slightly reform, eyeing the Mother of Phoenixes and considering trying to fight their way over to the tokens on the left. As mentioned, the hindered Revenant Cavalry ground the Elohi but bounce off, and the Zombie Trolls and Revenant Cavalry get the Paladins into double digits and then break them, reforming slightly.

Top of Round 3: Basileans

Out on the right, the Humans press forward, with Paladins and the Spear Horde making hinder charges into the Skeletons, and I believe a Bane Chant from the Priest fails. IA total of 12 damage connects, but the horde does hold. 

Brawls break out in earnest on the right now.

The other Spear Horde charge victorious Revenant Cavalry, with the Elohi joining in as well. They are on 1 damage as it looks like I forgot to Lifeleech them from their combat on my turn. They take a fresh 6, but are Inspired, and do hold.

The Phoenix on the hill sprays into the Zombie Trolls on the table edge, taking from the 2 up to 4 damage. 

The Ogre Captain takes a frontal charge into the victorious Zombie Trolls, landing 2 damage and tying them up for a turn. Some Gur Panthers charge in against the Wights but fail to disorder them. Another unit races past the Skeleton horde, slipping behind my lines.

Grinding and delaying from the Basileans in the center.

The Elohi fighting the Revenant Cavalry disengage and withdraw. Fireball from the Mother of Phoenixes will land 4, and the Phoenix on the hill will contribute 3 with a hot round of shooting to take the cavalry up to 7 damage. The first Nerve check is hot, but they are Inspired by Mhorgoth, and the cavalry will hold. 

The Elohi decide to tag-team and delay on the left.

On the left, my opponent already took his token, so is just looking to deny my mine. The grounded Elohi back up, and the other unit charges in, to block up the horde again and keep the Undead line gummed up. 

The Elohi accidentally swing too hard and break the Skeleton horde!

Unfortunately for him, he rolls good, landing 5 more damage, and will break the Skeleton horde. The Elohi are mostly in line, so he can't get too tricky with reforms, and simply changes facing.

Bottom of Round 3: Undead

It's bottom of 3, and maybe we can still chew through two Elohi regiments? We have to try. I can't get any tricky Surge use here, so the Revenant Cavalry charge, and are joined by the King. We'll take the angels to 8, but don't land the Nerve check, and they'll stick around and Iron Resolve down to 7 damage.

The Undead try and fail to break through on the left.

In the center, the Wights are technically free, but I can't get enough Surge out there to really take advantage of this. Lamely, they countercharge the Gur Panthers, and in victory, will choose to spin around and to fight for the center. 

The Undead fight, trying to secure the center.

Long-term, I want the Skeletons in the woods holding the center for me. They need to pivot and move, and will then be Surged into the rear of the Gur Panthers that sipped past them. It's a rear charge with a horde... but I hot on 6's, so we feel the need to roll it all out. We overperform a bit, landing 14 hits and turning that into 12 damage, to devastate and rout the Panthers, as is proper.

Mhorgoth repositions slightly, bringing Dread to the Ogre Captain and two nearby Elohi regiments. He tries a Drain Life, connecting for 1 against the Elohi near the field, and will Bane Chant the cavalry fighting them.

With just an inch between them, I can't get tricky with any positioning for them, even with Surges, so the maimed Revenant Cavalry are forced back into the Elohi, hindered again with another millimeter or so in the field. Sheesh. They'll land another few damage, but hold again.

The Zombie Trolls fight the Ogre Captain, and we'll land 6 damage and get a waver. 

Revenant Cavalry will get a Bane Chant from the Liche King, and then counter-charge the Elohi in front of them. The expected 4 makes it through, but the angels hold and will Iron Resolve down to 3 damage. 

And the Undead fail to break through on the right as well...

Since the cavalry held last turn, the flank of the Spear Horde is exposed, and the the Zombie Trolls make a hindered charge into it. Damage trends low this entire round, but the bottoms falls out here, with just 6 damage making it in against the horde. However, I luck out, and boxcars will waver the horde and keep some momentum in my favor.

The nearby Skeleton horde disengages, forcing more hindered charges next turn. However, the Zombie Trolls will make their own hindered charge into the Spear Horde on the end, dealing 7, which gets Iron Resolved down to 6 damage.

Top of Round 4: Basileans

The Basileans are still trying to hold and delay. On the right, the damaged Spears now disengage from the Zombie Trolls to force another hindered charge. The Phoenix heals them for 2, getting them down to just 4 damage.

Charges for the Basileans..

The Paladins will make a hindered into the maimed Skeleton Horde, land 5 damage to take them up to 17 damage, and will get the rout. They'll back un in victory.

Engaged on just one facing, the lucky Spear Horde will disengage and back away, and the Priest will bless them with a Bastion, and the other Phoenix will heal them for 1, taking them down to just 4 damage as well.

Several Undead units fall on the right.

The Elohi will countercharge the Revenant Cavalry, land a hot 5 to take them to 11, and the cavalry are popped, and the Elohi will reform to face the Wights, and we agree that the Zombie Trolls can't align into their rear. 

The Basileans continue to hold the Undead off in the center of the field.

Centrally, the Wavering Ogre Captain does nothing. The Elohi now countercharge against the pesky Revenant Cavalry, with the Mother of Phoenixes joining in the flank, though only three damage lands, and the cavalry do hold.

The Elohi try to delay with another multi-charge.

Out on the left, the Elohi just need to hold. One counter charges and slides, while the other flies into help, and 5 damage lands against the Cavalry, disordering them. I need to kill a unit per round to make it past them to my objective here, and they have good chances to grind me out instead. 

Bottom of Round 4: Undead

On the left, we send the disordered Revenant Cavalry and their King into the injured regiment. Unfortunately, with the double charge, both slide down, meaning if I don't break this unit, the other Elohi now have a flank into the cavalry. It do or die (die again?) for the Undead over here.

The Revenants try to break through the more injured unit...

Thankfully, we are able to land a combined 4 damage, taking the angels to 11, and we do just barely manage to break them. The King sidesteps to create space, and then the Revenant Cavalry get the other unit of angels into front-arc.

...and do!

Mhorgoth brings Dread to the nearby Elohi and against the Ogre Captain. He'll land a Drain Life 2 into the angels, and a Bane Chant to aid the cavalry, and the Revenants will finally best this unit of Elohi, and then pivot to face the Mother of Phoenixes.

The Undead continue to push in the center...

The Zombie Trolls fighting the Ogre Captain will bring him to 10 with more chilly dice, but with Dread, we will pick him up. 

...and achieve a few more successes here as well.

The remaining Skeleton horde inches up into the center, with the ASB in tow.

The Wights charge the Elohi near the hill. They'll underperform and land 6 damage, but this does take them to 9 and we do luck out on the checks. We sidestep, trying to get on the hill and seeing rears of the human units, but only go an inch. Still, they now control one of my tokens, and will raze it, tying the game up.

Zombie Trolls will move out of the woods, and then the Liche will Surge them into the horde of Spears, and we'll land 8 damage, taking them to 12, which will Iron Resolve down to 11..

The third unit of Zombie Trolls out on the right decides to fight, and will take them from 4 up to 9, but they'll Iron Resolve down to 8. My hand is forced into the fight. The Spears are US4 and still just barely ot scoring, and feel the need to fight and try to keep them off the token. The fighting opens them up to a flank charge by the Paladins, but it is, what it is.

Top of Round 5: Basileans

We're talking things out, and I do convince him to take the charge, as he should have two turns to try and chew through the Zombies, and they are uninspired currently. The Spears counter charge, getting a Bane Chant, and the Paladins make their hindered flank charge. 

The Phoenixes fly out to help play the scenario, putting the Basileans in the lead.

The damage is ridiculous, with the Paladins landing 11 damage (6 expected) and the Spears doing the expected 5. I am just barely devastated, but still easily routed out here. The Paladins overrun, and go far enough to claim the token, and the Spears about-face to try and keep me off of mine way over here.

The Phoenixes also make a play for the final token for the Basileans. While my Zombie Trolls are just barely holding it while fighting, the two titans are able to fly over the melee and the woods to wrest control of it, making this 3:1 in favor of the Brothermark.

And after combats, the Basileans take their third token.

The Mother of Phoenixes makes a rear charge into the Wights, hoping to ground them. Without fly, they can't get past the Spear Horde to do any weird Surge moves. The Mother will roll hot, land 4 damage, and indeed ground the Undead phantasms.

The Revenant Cavalry continue to endure the attacks of the angels.

Out on the left, the Elohi counter-charge, and land a nice 4 onto the Revenant Cavalry, though I hold, so there is still hope out here.

Bottom of Round 5: Undead

I am suddenly very behind on points, and will need to make plays for both of my remaining tokens if I want to win. On the left, the Revenant Cavalry and King charge the remaining regiment of Elohi, hoping to break through. However, that is not my only play for this token.

More charges from the Revenant units.

With the Mother of Phoenixes flying away, the other regiment of Cavalry are facing the general left of the board. With some decent Surge rolls, I should be able to get there. We move, ending about 19" away from the token, if memory serves. 

Positioning in the center, with the horde atop the token.

From the center, the Skeletons move and end atop the token, and the ASB scuttles behind them. The ASB will try Surging the cavalry on, landing 2 successes. I need to claim the token, so Mhorgoth flies nearby as well, to continue pushing the unit on, but he only gets 3 or 4 off of his Surge 10. I was hoping to get there no matter what next turn with this unit, but I am going to be short of what I need with just the move and will need to commit more Surge over here.

A mediocre Surge coming from the center, but the Rev Cav on the left come through for me.

Luckily, the Elohi on the left start the combat injured, on 4 damage. The assorted Revenants land another 6, taking them up to 10 damage, and we will pick the angels up, with the victorious unit overrunning a good amount, and the King a bit less. With the angel bested, I will be able to claim the token with the cavalry on the left.

Back in the center Zombie Trolls move up and are Surged into the flank of the Mother of Phoenixes by the Liche King. The Trolls take her from 0 up to 16 damage with the clean flank charge, and we will devastate and route the legendary character, as is proper.

The Undead slowly push towards another token.

The Wights had left the Mother of Phoenixes behind, and taken their only other charge into the flank of the damaged Spear horde. It's a bloodbath here, with another devastation and another rout. The Zombies overrun 1", and the Wights will sidestep toward the corner, also gaining an inch. 

Going in to Round 6, the Brothermark are ahead, but the Undead control the center and are clawing their way back!

Top of Round 6: Basileans

The Phoenixes turn, and will both cast heal into the remaining Spear horde, taking them down to 6 with some low rolls. The Horde forms up to block up the Wights. They have Flying, but also Shambling, and won't be able to get the angles or inches to get past. The Undead will need to fight their way to the token to claim it..

The Basileans set up to  delay just a little longer.

The Priest hides between the remaining infantry blocks, and the Paladins turn to face the threats for a potential Round 7.

Bottom of Round 6: Undead

On the left, the Revenant Cavalry do make it to the token, and will burn it, and they will pivot towards the center, just in case, though there is nothing they can do in a Round 7. They've done their job this game, eventually chewing their way through two regiments of Elohi to grab my token out here. 

The Undead finally claim their token on the left.

The secondary regiment spins around, and between the Revenant King and ASB, we'll surge them around 3 inches back towards the center. It's not much, but it is necessary. The Phoenixes are free, and with just the US3 Skeletons on the token, I need to prep in case the Phoenixes can fly into the center in a possible Round 7.

But then again, maybe I am over thinking things. Zombie Trolls have a flank charge into a Phoenix, tan take it, thumping 11 damage onto the fiery bird, and getting lucky with the uninspired Nerve check. The center should be secure! That means it's a tie game, and I just need to fight my way through the Spear horde.

The Undead make a final push against the Spear horde.

With no tricky options out here, the Wights go in, hindered, alongside the other Zombie Trolls. The Spear horde did get healed, but the duo of hordes do deal the expected 15 damage, taking the horde to 19, and will break it!

For suspense, the Trolls overrun first, hoping to get in the way of the Paladins and their potential Round 7 charge. Unfortunately, I overrun for a mighty 1 inch.

... and fall far short with a pair of 1's.

We measure ahead, and agree that the Wights will need a 4 to get in range to claim my last token, and they roll up a mighty 1 inch as well. Boo. 

However, I do roll up a Round 7, and the Undead have another shot at victory!

Top of Round 7: Basileans

The pair of 1" overruns is particularly bad for the Undead. Another inch or two from the Zombies and they could be preventing a delaying charge from the Paladins into the Wights. Had the Wights gotten another inch ahead, the Paladins could delay, but we could multi-charge them to hack through the unit faster. 

We talk it out, and settle on the best course for the Basileans being the Paladins charging the Wights to provide more Nerve to hew through, and that the Phoenix should be able to park in front of the Trolls and prevent them from helping with the carnage, as the trolls are pretty wide, and we don't think they would be able to pivot clear of the bird to join the fight.

More and more delays from the Basileans.

The Paladins make their hindered charge, and land 3 damage for the grounding. The Priest will land a Bastion on the Paladins to help, and the Phoenix will spray sparks into the Zombie Trolls, landing 2 more damage. 

Bottom of Round 7: Undead

I do not have the inches to sidestep the Wights and surge past the Paladins. We've got to fight our way through.

The Zombie Trolls want to help, but can't, and vent their frustrations on the Phoenix instead. They spike their dice, dealing 11 damage, and getting the rout here, and another 1" overrun, for what it is worth. It looks like I should have a hindered flank with the other horde, but I guess I didn't take it since this is bottom of 7.

Charges for the Undead.

The Wights... slightly under perform, landing just 9 damage (10 expected). In between the Phoenix fight and the Paladin fight, I realize Mhorgoth had the range to get onto the hill to bring Dread, and being a casual game, we allow it. Even with Dread canceling out the Bastion, the Nerve Check just results in a waver. The Wight's don't get another chance to overrun. 

Mhorgoth joins in late... sort of.

....This is just a pile of errors from me. First, Dread and Brutal don't stack. The Wights have Brutal, so Mhorgoth doesn't need to be here for Dread. However, we forgot about the Wights having Brutal when we retconned to bring Mhorgoth over for Dread. However, if he can get close enough for Dread, he can get close enough for Drain Life, which could have actually swung the fight. So... Mhorgoth should have been over here in the movement phase, and it should have been cast Drain Life. We still only applied the one modifier to Nerve for the check, but only because we forgot about Brutal on the Wights. Again, this is just a wild stack of errors at the end here from me. Oh well, my brain was fried after the long week, and it was a heck of a game! 

The Basileans have razed their three tokens, while the Undead have razed two but also hold the center, making this a very enjoyable tie game!

Game Conclusions

It was a close and very cagey game! While I had a number of errors and goofs, I was able to power through most of them... just not nearly enough of them for the win. With several deployment errors, I am more than happy to have clawed my way back for a tie, and this was a great way to end a very long week for me.

I noticed a while back that the Undead don't have a lot for "toys," only the Goreblight and Balefire Catapult. Everything else is a hero. Rotating between armies, I gravitated towards MMU and Soul Reavers, but running just more units was incredibly viable and a lot of fun in these games too. The Undead are a classic fantasy army, and lots of fun no matter the build. 

Testing Conclusions

• Skeleton Warriors with two-handers. Overall, I think I prefer regiments of the Skeleton Warriors. The hordes do take up space very well, and can be a nice, cheap area-denial unit, but I continue to struggle a bit with hordes, as demonstrated here. They did fine this game, but the regiments are more my style I think.
• Zombie Trolls. They delivered again this game, and continue to be a fantastic unit to start an Undead army with. Just a solid and reliable unit to brawl with.
• Wights. They just lacked a little bit of luck at the end of it all, but normal Wights did good work all game for me. Multiple of the unit are probably a little cost prohibitive, as they aren't the fastest unit, but a singleton can be a good workhorse in any list. And again, they do have Brutal, which can come in handy, if you remember you have it.
• Revenant Cavalry. The regiments proved their worth again here, making the initial charges and sticking around. They didn't get much support this game, and Heals or Bane Chants could really help them out. Three regiments might be a bit much since they do need some support, but they did fine here. 
• Revenant King with Surge. As the stats would suggest, he can contribute a damage or two in combat, and did fine this game in that role. I do think one wants to treat him Surge almost all the time, and as a singleton, I think Surge or Bane Chant or even Hex via items might make him even better. He did well fighting, but I feel like supporting the units would have been better for me overall out on the left this game.
• Liche King with Surge, Bane Chant, and Amulet of the Fireheart. A rather "basic" Liche, but he did well here. A second big Surge caster makes a big difference in a Shambling list, and he was fun to have around, though I did like the kit with Mindfog just a bit better. As a Level 3 Spellcaster, the Liche also takes any Arcane Library spell well.
• Undead ASB with Surge. The ASB is a must-have for me if I are running Skeletons, and giving him Surge was a fine call, as usual.
• Mhorgoth the Faceless. The Arch-Liche still brings a ton to the table, especially for a Shambling list, and he could have probably won me the game had I been a little more mindful of things. 

It was fantastic to get a pair of surprise games in on Halloween. A big thank you to my opponent for hosting our festive get-together and providing the caffeine needed to make it through the second game!