When it comes to those stirring scenes that perfectly encapsulate why I love fantasy fiction and wargaming I’m hard pressed to find anything better than the relief of Helmsdeep and the charge of the Rohirrim at Pelennor Fields. For me these movie moments bring to life so many fantasy tropes, stereotypes and archetypes in such a raw and powerful way I can’t help myself but want to field massive armies of cavalry. They also made the time spent on the rest of the trilogy not unwasted (kinda).
So, this year I’m going to give into the temptation and run a cavalry heavy army. However, I understand there is a view that cavalry is (in the politest possible way) a bit suboptimal in King currently. This I can certainly live with, as I’m a confirmed mid-table player and really need to start owning this! All that aside though, massed cavalry looks great on the table and that’s really the thing that’s driving this.
I thought, though, it might be worthwhile just kicking the intellectual tires on the horses before they bolt into a close gate and I end up with a fun, but not particularly challenging army for others to defeat. The first thing I did was think about all the things that let cavalry down in the game, and I’m talking here about the heavy knight profile that has 16 attacks, move of 8, melee 3 and thunderous charge 2.
I’ve decided to call it the Agincourt issue. This is simply a fancy name for getting bogged down. To my mind there are about four things that really cause the knights of the game a bad day.
Terrain – thunderous charge is easily stripped making those all-important charges pretty impotent
Faster units – these beat the knights to the charge, stripping their thunderous charge rendering them pretty useless
The grind – follow up attacks after the charge, without the benefit of thunderous charge, are pretty ineffective
Individuals – with so much freedom of movement their ability to strip thunderous charge means they can really take the sting out of charges
It’s pretty clear that there is a theme developing here. A combination of thunderous charge being relatively easy to remove during the game and no shortage of ways to do it mean knights can be countered relatively easily. So, should I give up? Probably, but I refuse.
In part this is because a Kingdoms of Men army built around five knight regiments turned up to Clash of Kings 2021 and took eighth place, and I’m not even aiming for those heady heights. This gives me a template from which to start wondering what the best way to approach a similar build with Halflings would be.
Looking through the list it’s pretty clear the idea behind the list is to have the knight regiments supported by lots of flying chaff to protect them and set up charges. Importantly though the list also features plenty of Banechant and the Brew of Strength to bolster the wound rolls, and a reasonable amount of chip shooting. All in all, it’s a really nice list, but how does this translate to Halflings? To be honest I’m not completely sure because there are elements Halflings can’t easily replicate, namely the Banechant. Additionally, two of the Banechanters are wizards who have lightening bolt, which I can’t really replicate either, which complement two scout troops and top up the shooting. Whilst I’m not convinced the shooting is a core requirement for the army, I would say the Banechant probably is.
There is another challenge as well, which comes in the form of nerve. Kingdoms of Men knights have a rather low nerve point of 14/16 which makes them susceptible to wavering, but native Headstrong and an option to take Indomitable Will more than makes up for this. The Juggers, that will play the equivalent role of the knights have a 13/15 nerve with no waver mitigation, but just how important is this? And what are the upsides for Halflings, because the Kingdoms of Men feel like they are really well suited for this type of build, unlike the dog riders.
Well, I’m not going to lie, going into this there is definitely more than a little uncertainty running around in my head. I think what Halflings absolutely bring to the table is terrain mitigation with a Strider Aura and the potential for a lot of Brutal. Additionally, plenty of Iron Resolve and some Lifeleech put a bit of healing on the table which Kingdoms of Men don’t bring. Add in the flexibility that Nimble can bring for redeployment and I think it really reduces the key concern down to just how important the Banechant is.
Now, full disclosure, I have played a couple of test games with mainly dog-based armies and the recurring issue seems to be the nerve more than the lack of damage output. What I’m hoping though is a switch from four Jugger regiments, all with magic items, to five, only one having the Brew of Strength, will give me more core punching units so that if one gets wavered there are plenty more available to fill in.
Now I need to get some more dogs painted. Wish me luck!
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