Over the past few weeks there has been pretty much only one thing being talked about on the various Kings of War podcast: Champions. The game is intended to replace Ambush (a scaled down Kings of War ruleset for small games) as an entry point into Ranks and Flanks by clapping back (which I believe the young people say) to the main barriers to entry for people, of all ages, interested in Kings of War, but not necessarily ready to commit to painting that full model count Goblin army with the ten legions of Rabble (that’s 600 Goblins if you’re after a quick translation).
From what I understand (from listening to the podcasts, I don’t have a relationship with Mantic other than really liking Kings of War, and I did purchase this game myself so I can be as rude as I like) Champions is meant to address the following reasons for not seeing the Kings of War rulebook and immediately purchasing half a ton of Goblins and five litres of Dulux Rotting Horse Emerald (other paint companies exist, named colour does not):
Needing to purchase loads of miniatures for rank and flank armies
Needing to paint loads of miniatures for rank and flank armies
New players getting overwhelmed by a choice of 28 armies with around 30 different unit options per army
Complexity of a couple of key rules, i.e. multi-charges
Finding space and time for a full game of Kings of War
Reacting to the hype
One of the things I like about Mantic is that they can communicate things really well, which they did on this occasion. Listening to the various podcasts I really felt I understood exactly what the purpose of the game was, and what had driven the choices they made in the design process. As a dad with a child who is just starting to dabble in wargaming this ticked a lot of boxes from me. One thing that I wasn’t sure about was how Champions would relate to me with my more experienced gamer hat on (and I had expected it not to), so when I bought my copy I only did so seeing it as something to play with my son.
Does it hit the design brief?
There is an argument that Champions fills a niche that’s already filled by Ambush. I disagree, because if you believe that all the reasons listed above are barriers to people playing Kings of War (which I do) Ambush doesn’t answer all of them (army selection and rules being two very important ones). I see Ambush as being quite flavourless, as the points limit don’t really let you explore opportunities in the wider lists.
The great thing about Champions is that it not only meets the design brief, answering all the points above, but it also works as a game in its own right. At the heart of the ruleset is Kings of War, but there’s some lovely twists that really elevate the game play. My favourite amongst these are that every unit is essentially Nimble (a rule in Kings of War that allows units to move and pivot twice). Additionally, the restriction on multi-charging that means only one unit can fight on each facing of an opposing unit, brings a core dynamic from Kings of War to life in an interesting way.
One of my main concerns going into Champions was that it would be fairly static, with opponents trying to set up that killer front facing multi-charge that takes out a key unit and unlocks victory (my personal experience of playing Ambush). These alternative approaches to movement make for a really fluid and thoughtful game. So, my view is that Rob Burman, the game designer, has really done a great job. Not only breaking the key barriers but adding in some elegant rules tweaks that make the game a recognisable entry point to Kings of War, and a really interesting standalone game.
What about setting up the miniatures and the game?
This was a great experience, the best I’ve ever had with Mantic models. To get started I’ve just built one of each model and stuck it to the correct size multi-base. All the troops are modern Mantic plastics and are super easy to work with. The Champions are a new type of resin, and frankly they are beautiful and super easy to build, I’m looking forward to getting some paint on them.
Will I ever play the game again?
Absolutely. This is a really smart attempt to bring rank and flank gaming to a small scale, and provided I can get some games in I can quite easily see me justifying picking up more faction packs (I’m already considering painting up troops of Goblins and Halflings to get ready for their faction releases).
What does this mean for Kings of War?
Clearly, I think this is a great entry game in terms of getting people rolling dice. However, I also think this creates a really solid way for future player to make an informed choice about their first faction. The warbands in the box, rules and miniature wise, really capture the essence of their wider army. The Basilean faction tips it’s cap to Iron Resolve and Divine Fervour, whilst the Abyss are all about rampaging and regeneration. If I attended multi day events I would definitely be happy to take a warband along to play a few games in the evening. I’d also be really happy to demo Champions, so I’m hopeful we’ll start to see more players crossing the Kings of War Rubicon.
More generally I suppose there is the question as to whether we’ll see Champions making their way into Kings of War, and I don’t know the answer to that. They are absolutely lovely models and that’s always welcome on any tabletop. I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to see more character models and special characters made available, so at the very least the new models meet the first of these points (although I’m not sure how straight forward it is to find proxies for them in the current rules as Alanis is on a 40mm base and doesn’t strike me as the best representation for an Ogre Palace Guard Captain). The big thing is though, I’m not in a rush for them to cross over. Frankly, I’m just enjoying Champions for what it is, a really solid game.
Congrats to Rob and the team at Mantic.
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After a victory in game one against the Forces of the Abyss and a narrow loss in game two to the Dwarfs the Halflings prepare for game three. As fate would have it, this game would be against the Ratkin Slaves that absolutely tore them apart at The Hinckley Heist in February, but had they learnt any lessons?
I think Ratkin Slaves are a really underrated army (and I’m not just saying that because of what happened in Hinckley). Whilst they certainly don’t have the range of units and builds of other factions, they do have a couple of really sturdy lists, of which my opponent was using one. The army is built around three hordes of nightmares, which I think are often underestimated in both Ratkin and Slave builds because as an individual unit on paper they look expensive for what you get. However, there is definitely a return on investment for multiple units and when you factor in available synergies you can build a truly terrifying battle group. Then there are the multiple impalers, with their massive charge range and chariot bases mean multi-charges are hard to avoid, with rampage making them particularly terrifying for infantry and cavalry. Combining these two elements creates a lot of pressure from the get go.
Kicking off
We played Hold the Line and the Halflings went first. I can’t remember whether it was my choice or not, but I was really happy as the various threat ranges the slaves can deploy allow them to put a lot of pressure on from the first turn of the game, so I wanted to deny them that initial movement opportunity.
Set up had brought some interesting decisions because the placement of a very large piece of blocking terrain made easy access to a third of the scoring zones, on the left, difficult. I decided that rather than contest that section of the board I would let it go and focus on the remaining scoring zones. The plus side of this meant that my opponent would likely use one unit to secure it, taking them out of the game and giving my full force a slight advantage in the killing stakes. Happily, the slaves deployed Cryza’s Impaler and a vermintide regiment in the deserted left flank, meaning that both would be out of the game for at least three turns.
Everything else the slaves brought to the table was deployed in the centre of the board with the nightmares dead centre and the impalers, with Golekh and the flying Overlord, deploying on my right. The Halflings stretched out across the board with the infantry in the centre and the cavalry out on the right.
The first couple of turns were all about positioning. My cavalry make great targets for impaler multi charges and I didn’t want them breaking too early in the game. In addition to this the impaler base sizes make them really difficult to get mutli charges against, so whilst the cavalry were doing their best to keep out of the reach of the impalers, the infantry and the pigs were doing their best to close the gap with the nightmares as quickly as possible, massively helped by stealthy from the command dice.
Engagement
My grenadiers are always the MVPs playing the slaves as they can outrange both the impalers and the nightmares. Dropping them into combat with one of each of these units created opportunities to close. An iron beast and the trolls smashed into one horde of nightmares, whilst the braves moved to block the other two nightmare hordes from getting a flank charge on the iron beast in case the charge didn’t break the hulking rat gunners. Fortunately, the charge prevailed, but in an all too reminiscent pattern of behaviour, the reform resulted in me exposing the protected flank of the beast which was punished immediately by a hindered flank charge from the nightmares and a front charge from some slave warriors.
The follow up charge to the grenadiers distracting the impalers was no way near as successful. My cavalry wasn’t in the best position, and I could only get a troop of wild lancers in with Greedyguts. This game saw me use Greedyguts particularly ineffectively and I threw him away supporting the wild lancers, rather than using him in about a hundred different ways that would have all, in retrospect, been so much better. The wild lancers and Greedyguts failed to do much to the impaler they charged and were then destroyed in the following turn.
The damage they did allowed a charge from one of the Jugger regiments to take the impaler off next turn, but there were still a lot of heavy hitters hanging around that had to be treated with extreme care.
Threats from the flanks
With the battle joined in the centre, both armies were now grinding hard, conscious that the pressure was about to ramp up. Cryza’s Impaler was making its way behind the massive piece of blocking terrain, and my lines, on the left. On the right my muster captain on his winged aralez was hovering just outside the charge range of Golekh and the Overlord waiting for an opportunity.
The presence of these threats created a number of challenges, which resulted in some interesting decisions. In an attempt to break through the halflings Golekh charged the mounted muster captain but failed to break him. This created a golden opportunity to remove a real lynch pin unit (rally 2, dread and inspiring on one unit is so good). The trolls had a flank on him, but I couldn’t trust them to do the job, so the flying muster captain went into the other flank. The angry dwarf disappeared, and I breathed a sigh of relief, which was quickly tempered by the impending charge from Cryza’s Impaler on a regiment Juggers.
In the centre things were getting tense. The iron beast had survived the flank charge from the nightmares, but it was in danger of getting overrun by the remaining hordes and rat warrior regiments. The Pride of the Shires charged the unengaged horde, and I crossed my fingers.
Two turns of fighting saw the Pride overcome its opponents before turning to face the last standing horde of nightmares that had just reduced the other iron beast to a pile of scrap. The slave warriors that had been engaged with the nightmares were now engaged with the forest trolls, and the trolls were not making much headway. This scenario played out across the field where the flying muster captain was butting heads with the final impaler and the last regiment of Juggers were held at bay by a regiment of vermintide.
The bloody battle had cost both sides dearly and as the rats entered their sixth turn it became apparent just how much of a stalemate the game had become. The rats had won the empty left flank with a regiment of vermintide. The combat had kept everything in the central section of the board, but the speed of the Halfling’s advance and their refusal to give ground meant that both armies only had one scoring unit in the central scoring zone. The rats had Cryza’s Impaler and the Halflings had the Pride of the Shires, meaning the Halfings had the win, however the rats had a choice to make. Cryza’s Impaler could take the right flank scoring zone and secure a turn 6 win, but in turn 7 the Juggers, freed from the vermintide would be able to also move into the zone and the chariot would not be able to respond to them as it would be facing the wrong way.
In the centre things were equally unclear, as the Pride of Shires would likely have been able to keep the last remaining nightmares out of the scoring zone and if the trolls killed the rats there was a chance for them to sidestep into the scoring zone. The downside was the Halflings had about 49 seconds on the clock, so lots to do in not much time.
Happily, the dice decided there would be no turn seven. I say this quite genuinely as 49 seconds would unlikely have been enough time to properly do everything I wanted to, as there was also an option for the Pride to shoot at the nightmares, which could have caused further issues for the rats either through a waiver or the removal of the unit. I’m not a fan of losing a game as a result of clocking out, I’d much rather lose it at the end of a game turn. The final photo might suggest the Juggers landed the scoring zone, but that was just a bit of wishful thinking.
All in all, it was an absolutely brilliant game with the rats taking a hard-fought and well-deserved victory at four points to three.
Final thoughts
I’m really enjoying my journey with the Halflings. They’re a very interesting army to play, and I can see why so many people are playing them. Although the wins and losses don’t necessarily bear this out, I feel that I’m definitely improving and every game feels close, which makes the very best gaming experience for me. It might sound a little self-congratulatory, but I think the inclusion of the second pig has really made my 1995 list about as good as it’s going to get, so I’m hoping that stays true for my 2,300 list. I’m already playing around with a couple of changes for the next event, which will be 2,300, because whilst I love the Jugger horde, it does still feel a bit like putting too many eggs in one basket. Interestingly, I feel as though the list I’m now building is tracking back towards my first tournament list back in 2023 (but without the balloons that I will not be putting back into the list under any circumstances – I’ve said it. I don’t like balloons).
All that remains is for me to say a massive thanks to Steve Hildrew for running a highly enjoyable tournament and my opponents for some really enjoyable games.
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Flushed with victory from Game 1 against the Forces of the Abyss, the Halflings found themselves facing off against the might of the Imperial Dwarfs. Until the end of last year I hadn’t played against Dwarfs that much, but I’ve now found myself facing off against them in three of the last four events (including this one).
What’s been nice is that aside from two Lords on Beasts the armies have all been sufficiently different that it hasn’t felt like playing the same list over and over again. Although this list brought the formation, Big G’s Fury and the aforementioned beasts neither of the special characters were there, which made a nice change.
The scenario was Stockpile. My instinct with this scenario is always to try and stretch the objectives out (because I have a few speed ten units I make the mistake of thinking my army is an alpha strike force, when in reality it absolutely isn’t). As a synergy-based army Halflings benefit from being closer together from the outset, and knowing how much punishment a Dwarf army can take I was really happy that the objectives landed where they did as it encouraged me to keep my units closer.
My Juggers and Greedy Guts went on the right flank, whilst the Iron Beast, trolls and braves went in the centre. Fully expecting there to be a beast mounted Dwarf Lord and phalanx regiment at either end of the Dwarf line I did commit the flying Muster Captain to the left, with a regiment of Grenadiers to, at the very least, keep the Lord busy for a short period of time. As it happened the Dwarfs didn’t disappoint with Big G’s Fury in the centre, a horde to either side, the Brock riders in reserve and of course a spear regiment and beast lord on either flank.
Getting started
On my left of the table the aim of the game was simple. I wanted to keep the Dwarf Lord on his bear busy long enough that he couldn’t make an early entry into the centre of the table. The flying muster captain and the Grenadiers made a good start, jumping around the flank and applying pressure on the creature with the threat of highly uncomfortable charges. Through this process the muster captain also found himself with opportunities to jump into the Dwarf’s back field, although the presence of the flame belchers dispelled any thoughts of hopeless heroics.
In the centre, the Iron Beasts and the infantry advanced cautiously, also keen to avoid the flame belchers, as well as early charges from either the brocks or Golloch’s Fury. On the right, similar caution was exercised. I was comfortable that there were more than enough units to manage the beast lord, the spear regiment and the horde of Shieldbreakers, but it had to be managed carefully.
As the Dwarf spears moved forward, Greedyguts broke ranks and charged, putting about four wounds on the unit. Often underestimated, my opponent responded by throwing the beast lord into the Greedygut’s flank. I was more than happy to trade Greedyguts for a combined charge with my Juggers on the defence six lord in the front, but the mighty Halfling survived the charge (far from inconceivable), and my Juggers got a combined flank charge on the beast, taking it down and putting the spears in an uncomfortable position, especially as Greedyguts proceeded to take another four wounds off them and waiver them. Unfortunately, the spears passed their headstrong roll and took their revenge on the cursed creature.
An opportunity presents itself
The flying muster captain and the grenadiers were doing a great job of keeping the other Dwarf Lord away from the fray. By now the poor creature was a bit out of breath and facing the wrong direction to be helpful for a couple of turns. The Grenadiers realised they had a flank charge on the Ironclad horde. They jumped into combat, but the performance was along way from what they had hoped. This started a series of tit for tat combats as the Ironclads and Golloch’s Fury smashed through Wild Lancers that had advanced towards the central hill, and the Brock Riders took down the Grenadiers. Needing to extract as much advantage from the situation as possible the flying muster captain, one of the pigs and the trolls hit the Brock Riders, whilst the Pride of the Shires and the braves took on the Ironclads. Millimetres and dice rolls mattered as the tired bear was turning back towards the centre and the run around it had been forced to undertake had made it angry.
Fortunately, the brocks were run to ground and the pig and the trolls turned to face the bear, whilst the muster captain prepared to jump to the far right of the table, using some command dice based stealthy to deter the flame belchers from wasting their shots on him. Instead, the belchers turned on the trolls and waivered them, and the bear mounted Lord charged the closest Iron Beast.
Into the grind
A successful headstrong roll on the trolls gave the Halflings a glimmer of hope. The trolls flanked the beast mounted lord, whilst the Iron Beast went into its front. Many dice rolls later the Lord had gone and the Iron Beast was bearing down on the Bulwarkers who had been busily collecting counters. On the right flank one regiment of Juggers and their muster captain routed the other spears and claimed their two loot counters, whilst the flying muster captain flanked the Shieldbreakers and the other regiment of Juggers charged them in the front. As the flying muster captain was hindered the double charge was never going to be a sure thing, and in response the Shieldbreakers fought back and waivered the Jugger regiment. In the next round though the flying muster captain put a decent round of wounds onto the dwarfs, but a double one kept them in the fight and kept the muster captain away from the centre for another turn.
In the centre the Halflings also benefited from a double one that kept the Pride of Shires in the fight against the Ironclads. Sadly, the steam powered contraption could do little to hold up the inevitable erosion of the centre ground. If only there had been a flying muster captain and Jugger regiment on hand to help out…
With the Halflings reduced to one Iron Beast in the centre things were looking grim, despite the Halfings holding four of the seven tokens. The pig couldn’t quite kill the Bulwarkers fast enough and received a flank charge from Golloch’s Fury for its trouble.
The flying muster captain slashed at the Shieldbreakers again, this time sending them running, before turning to the centre and driving his golden furred aralez into the flank of Golloch’s Fury in a last ditch effort to recover the tokens stolen from the now destroyed Iron Beast, but it was too little too late and the Dwarfs won the day 4:2.
Final thoughts
This was an absolute cracker of a game, probably the best of the three (and the standard was incredibly high). Whilst Halflings aren’t an alpha strike army they can hit incredibly hard, and their command dice abilities are very useful in supporting the style of play I enjoy with them, which made the Dwarfs far more manageable. I’d also like to add that this Dwarf army went on to win the battle scoring, so really happy to have done so well against it.
Two down… one to go!
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Yesterday I packed up the troops and jumped in the car. We went to the fantastic Bullrun event run by the lovely Steve Hildrew. It’s a 1,995 point event, with command dice, and a real focus on hobby. As a result, before attending all players had to attest to the sort of hobby skills they had applied to their armies. I returned the form somewhat optimistically saying that my army would include conversion work, freehand design and advanced techniques such as wet blending. At that point the only part of my army that qualified was the vomit on Greedygut’s apron, which whilst technically was wet blending, didn’t feel like if fitted with the intention underlying the scoring. This led to a bit of a speedy completion of my Pride of the Shire’s project that has been sat on my desk for about eight months, better late than never I suppose.
Following the last event I’ve decided to experiment with two Iron Beasts, affectionately known as pigs, but to accommodate this I’ve replaced the Stalwart horde with braves and the harvester has gone. As this was a 1,995 event the cavalry horde has gone too, and this was a command dice event I decided to invest in two extra white dice, because being able to add an extra point of thunderous charge to Juggers is just the best feeling in the world.
Unfortunately, due to timings I haven’t been able to write up the whole event, so I’m planning on writing the three games up separately over the next few days. Without further ado let’s get into the first game against the Forces of the Abyss. By way of a little help in the photos the Abyssal Horsemen are the large flying bug things and the Berserkers are the single monstrosities on the big bases.
The game begins
The first scenario was Compass Points. I was more than a little concerned about this match up because of how fast everything was in my opponent’s list. It’s the sort of list that punishes mistakes quickly and terminally. In addition to this there was a bit of a mismatch in terms of styles that felt, in my opinion, more in my opponent’s favour. Halfings are great at delivering loads of chip damage and taking things off over a period of time. The Forces of the Abyss have loads of regeneration and each of the main units could potentially remove each of my units in one shot. Add to that the Well of Soul’s ability to also remove damage for injured units, I knew I had to do my best to get multi charges and remove units quickly. Brain power was going to be required.
Blocking charges was going to be the order of the day and doing what I could to kill off the gargoyles as quickly as possible. I decided to ignore the right flank as I wanted to be able to concentrate my units in such a way as to make multi charges as easy as possible. I was happy when one of the horsemen regiments was deployed on the far right as the terrain meant I probably had at least three turns before they could meaningfully get involved in the fighting.
On the left my Juggers moved slowly forward, keeping out of reach of the Berserkers and the Grenadiers positioned themselves for a blocking jump. In the centre, the fliers supporting the pigs, trolls and braves did the same. By turn two the demons were starting to close and action had to be taken. The grenadiers on the left found an uncomfortable position, in front of the Berserkers and horsemen that gave them only one option in the next turn, whilst the flying Muster Captain went into the central regiment of horsemen and the other grenadiers went into the central Berserkers. Not surprisingly, by turn three there were no more grenadiers on the table. However, careful positioning on the left meant the demons had not been able to stop a double charge from the Juggers into the Berserkers which saw the first abyssal unit leave the table, shortly followed by some gargoyles, thanks to the muster captain and Greedyguts.
In the centre things were starting to heat up as the chaff units disappeared and the core units faced off against each other. Fortunately, the braves managed to resist a charge from the horsemen who had crept up the right flank and even more fortunately the flying Muster Captain survived the first round of combat with his regiment of horsemen.
At this point the power of the Well of Souls became apparent as the five wounds done by the flying Muster Captain disappeared from the dark knights and he was facing another round of combat with fresh faced opponents.
Things start to break
The left flank was not in a good place for the abyssals. The remining unit of horsemen were backed into a corner and forced to make a hindered charge that failed to deliver anything meaningful. The result was a flank charge from a command dice enhanced Jugger regiment that sent them scattering whilst the other Juggers broke off and tried to run down one of the harbingers. Sadly, a double 1 stopped them in their tracks.
In the centre the pigs and trolls removed the remaining horde of Berserkers whilst the flying Muster Captain dug in for another round of combat. It was at that stage the Well of Souls charged the Wild Lancers in the centre and the horsemen from the right broke the braves. This meant all available halflings found themselves facing away from the beleaguered Muster Captain to address the new direction of threat.
Claiming the points
After three rounds of combat the flying Muster Captain was crushed beneath fire shod hooves and the horsemen turned to face the new line that had been created. Seeing the Muster Captain fall the Juggers that had chased down the harbinger turned their attention to those responsible. With a little help from the Sauceror, and more command dice, they spurred on their mounts and together with the Pride of the Shires smashed into the wrongdoers, turning them to mush.
The Pride of the Shires then claimed the three point objective whilst the Juggers turned their attentions on the final stand in the centre where the final horsemen and the Well of Souls found themselves facing off against the other pig and the trolls. The abyssal warriors had all but given up the fight by this stage, and as the Juggers flanked the horsemen and the trolls claimed the two point objective turn seven ended with a six to zero win to the halflings.
Not a bad start to the day.
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With a friend already thinking about what he’s taking to Clash of Kings this year I thought it would be a great opportunity to put together a fun rat list and take a break from the Halflings. I decided to take as much infantry as I have and a bit of rallying, to taste (so to speak). But once I had put together what I wanted to field I realised I was still a couple of hundred points to mess around with. After a little thought I decided I would spend my points in the most rule of cool possible way possible. With that in mind I decided to grab my vermintide legion off the shelf. Not only do I love the model, but I had also decided to take two mutant rat fiends and the Tangle, which meant there were a few synergies I could play around with.
In an interesting turn of symmetrical fate, it turns out the Ogres had bought a legion of their own, this one was a little punchier than mine as it consisted of ogre warriors. The wider list was fairly interesting as it consisted mainly of warrior units, also with a bit of rallying from a paymaster. Looking through the list it looked as though the ogres had a reasonable amount of synergies to play with as well given the number of warlocks that turned up.
We rolled for scenario and got Compass Points. I’ll be honest, Compass Points isn’t my favourite scenario. It feels very easy to get a draw on, but that was the roll, so we set up.
Given my army is largely infantry, slow moving and each individual element is unlikely to kill anything, I decided it would be best to keep everything together in a refused flank set up. I knew this meant I was probably going to find some chariots tearing up my empty left flank, but that was something I was just going to have to deal with, when it inevitably occurred.
I placed spear hordes at either end of my line and then spread my shock troop regiments between them, and the fiends went right of centre with Cryza. The Tangle went in the centre and I held back the weapons teams until I knew where the boomer chariots were going. The boomers went in the centre, so the weapons teams went to the left.
Orge battle lines always look incredibly solid, unlike Ratkin, that look about as intact as slice of Swiss cheese. Seeing the warrior legion in the centre really ramped up that feeling and so it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I made the first move. With no really impactful shooting my units shuffled forward, doing their best to arrange their lines of sight so future ogre charges could be harshly punished. The ogres took similar tentative steps, but did allow a regiment of warriors to range forward to a position where the vermintide legion would be able to get a charge.
What I like about the vermintide legion is how long it is. Taking the charge into the warrior regiment created lots of issues for the ogres on the right flank. Not only did it end up stopping two warrior hordes on the end of the right flank double charging my spear horde, but the amount of nerve it has, with rallying, meant the ogres were going to have to throw a fair amount of stuff against it to clear it out in one go. To add insult to injury the 36 attacks resulted in the removal of the warrior regiment, whilst shooting from the weapons teams started to hurt the ogres. I think all this forced my opponent’s hand and he went all in with warriors and chariots to remove the vermin in one go, which he did.
The remainder of the army advanced cautiously in the centre, and after a little lack lustre shooting readied for the next turn.
Not surprisingly, the vermintide was crushed under smelly ogre boots, which gave me the choice of charges. Multi-charges are where this army excels, and one of the fiends, a shock troop regiment and an enforcer went into the chariots, whilst Crzya got stuck into the warriors.
In a twist of luck, the lone warrior regiment that had taken on the spear horde had managed to roll a double 6 on the nerve check. Unphased, the spear rats simply took a step back and let the weapons teams go to work, which led to the warriors being waivered in their own turn.
The chariots were destroyed, and it was at this point I realised the ogre legion was now glowering at my little rats. There are very definite similarities between an ogre legion and my Halfling Jugger horde. They both hit very hard, and they both look very scary. However, I believe with both units the threat they represent can massively outweigh their impact on a game if they commit at the wrong time.
So far, they had done the threat thing perfectly, keeping my units back and away from setting foot into their half, and away from their 3 point token. But with the right flank flailing the legion committed, charging into the closest fiend and tearing it apart. At the same time the centre of the ogre line, warrior regiments and boomer chariots, charged across rough ground into my other spear horde.
Unlike the spear horde, the fiend fell to the legion, and I realised that whether I liked it or not the legion was going to end up being committed to the right flank, because turning to face the centre of the board would have left the legion with a shock troop regiment ready to charge it in the rear. This did take a massive pressure of the centre though, and I was able to send 2 shock troop regiments to address the chariots that were speeding up the left flank unopposed.
A quick assessment of the right flank gave me some reassurance that I could keep the pressure on the legion using the shock troops and the weapons teams, although it was likely to cost me a unit a turn, whilst Cryza and the spears fought the damaged ogre warrior horde. If I could finish off the warriors, I might even have enough unit strength left to contest the objective.
The game was far from won though, as I still had to break through the centre, and hold onto my own objective. Despite a bit of a quagmire erupting in the centre as rats failed to hit ogres and ogres failed to do enough wounds to shift blocks of vermin the remaining fiend managed to break through, trample the poor crocodog wrangler underfoot and make a break for the ogre’s central objective.
On the left the shock troop regiments deployed their plague pots and successfully blocked the chariot’s charge, waivering it in return, before going in for the kill in the next turn. With the chariots lost it fell to a warlock to try and hold onto the left-hand objective.
At this stage things were looking good for the rats. Even without the two side tokens the game would fall to the ratkin, but the flanks were now where the most exciting parts of the game were being played out.
On the right flank the legion chewed through the shock troops despite a hindered charge into plague pots. However, I had my next sneaky trick up my sleeve – the weapons teams, and it was not so much about the damage they would cause, more the fact that I had three of them that my opponent would have to roll 108 attacks for each if he wanted to silence them (it’s probably worth noting that I didn’t actually force my opponent to roll these dice, and that I got bored of it far quicker than he did! Also, we weren’t playing on a clock, so I turned out to be the only one who suffered, relatively speaking). Despite my dice-based disruption the warriors ran out of turns to take them all on, and settled on the objective, whilst my spears were being held up by the ogre paymaster. In turn 6 the warriors held the objective on the right and the warlock held the objective on the left.
The dice for turn 7 fell in my favour. The legion had taken a reasonable amount of damage to earn their objective and another round of shooting left Cryza holding it. However, the warlock on the left was not to be undone and managed to survive a charge from the shock troops, keeping them away from the objective and scoring the Ogres a point.
All in all, a very fun game, with a list style that I absolutely love, but I’m not sure I have the confidence in it to take it to a tournament. With the Bullrun tournament just a few days way it’s time to put the rats away again and get the Halflings out.
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For a thousand years the tower had stood. On top of the Rigen mountain its views extending across the fiefdom’s rolling green fields and onwards to the snow-capped mountains that had acted as an impenetrable barrier against the outside world.
Seasons had changed in Pannithor. The power of the abyss had waxed and waned, the tides of the void had washed its fiendish flotsam into reality and brought the twisted elves on their soul haunted ships to unhappy shores. Yet none of these events had found their way through the impassable mountains, to the fiefdom of Rigen, to the grey stone citadel with the white roof and the purple silk banners that danced in the warm winds.
Peace and fruitfulness resided in the land until the day that they arrived. How they had found their way through the mountains no one knew. It was not unknown for the odd person, lost in the mountains, to blunder into the realm, but a whole army, marching in perfect order, this was impossible.
Queen Aitero saw them from her chambers at the very top of the citadel as they made their way through the fields. She cast her runes, calmly trying to understand who they were and by what path they had found their way into her realm. Each throw of the bones left her concerned, and more confused. Not one reading could clearly discern anything of the nature of the soldiers, their passage or their intent. All she could see in the falling runes was a cycle as irresistible as the seasons of life and death.
The Queen sent emissaries to entreat with the column of knights that made its way so slowly through the fields. So slow was their progress that it seemed they might take two days to reach the citadel, assuming it was their intended destination.
Over the next few hours, she watched them. As day turned into night they could no longer be seen, and so she ordered her soldiers to prepare for every eventuality the morning might bring. That night she tried to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes, she found herself watching two great dogs circling each other, growling, teeth bared, hackles raised. After a few seconds the dogs would jump at each other. They would fight and one would get the better of the other. The dog that was winning would start to swallow the losing dog, back legs first. But the losing dog was not to be beaten and would twist and turn and somehow get the back legs of the winning dog in its jaws and begin to swallow it whole. When both dogs had eaten each other, the dream would begin again. Gripped by a terror, the likes of which the Queen had never experienced in her life, she quickly gave up on sleep and turned her attention to the day that was to come.
The next morning the Queen watched from her tower as her soldiers stood to face the silent knights in their black and white livery. Without a word the knights cantered forward, lances dipped. The canter became a gallop. The knights closed the gap between them and the nervous soldiers of Rigen. This was the downside to peace in a world of war. The soldiers were untried, untested and unprepared. The knights crashed into them like a bull into a paper house, tearing them asunder. Luck and blind panic pulled two of the knights from their horses, but no more.
The Queen, knowing that there could be no military victory for Rigen made preparations to surrender her lands and herself, in the hope the knights would let her people live, but the bloodshed did not stop with the last of her soldiers’ final gasps. As the knights fought around the citadel, more of the order rode from the mountains and began to cut down those that worked in the fields, lived in the villages and pledged fealty to the queen.
When the sun finally dipped on that fateful day the sky burned an angry red that might as well have been cut from the valley of Rigen below.
That night the Queen cried, unable to comprehend the sheer scale of the slaughter, unable to understand how she had survived, unable to even guess at what horrors the next morning would reveal. When the sun rose, the knights were gone. The Queen ventured out from her citadel, aghast at the slaughter than surrounded her. Within just a few paces the hems of her ivory gown were gore soaked.
Not knowing what to do, she did what any Queen who cared for her people would do. What she could. If she could no longer care for them in life, she would do what she could for them in death. She returned to the citadel and drew a bucket of water from the well, spoke sacred words over it, and set about washing the faces of those who had served her in life, preparing them for their journey to the next world. For the next month she went from body to body, walking the length and breadth of her realm without sleep or sustenance, finding only one survivor.
As darkness fell on the day that saw the last of her subjects cleansed and ready for their final rest a strained voice asked her what she would do next.
The Queen looked long and hard into the eyes of the old man who had asked the question and in a voice that brooked no argument, free from any doubt, replied, “My people will have their revenge.”
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Now I don’t want you to panic, I’m absolutely fine (now at least). Well apart from a bit of a headache which I can assure you has nothing to do with the brandy they serve in the inn we’re staying at. That being said it was certainly a very busy Friday night.
It all started when Grabdistuff said that he’d had a dream about ruins overflowing with treasure. Now I know Grabdistuff has said a million times that he’s not interested in earthly wealth, he’s even shown us how little he cares about it by telling us how much gold he has hidden away. He says someone who really cares about gold would have spent it all on chariots or flying horses and he doesn’t have any of either. However, it does seem to be the case that quite often amongst the gold there are the odd magical items, like gloves and scarfs, that are what he’s really interested in.
On Friday evening we headed east until we came to a rather despairing collage of ruins strung together with rope bridges that zigzagged between tumble down towers. The light was failing, which I’m starting to realise may not be the best time to poke around ancient wraith haunted castles. Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t just us (and the wraiths), there were three other warbands who turned up at the exact same time. I won’t lie, I was hoping Grabdistuff would decide discretion was the better part of valour and we could all make it back to the inn for last orders. Turns out Grabdistuff believes running around blind corners with swords swinging is the better part of valour and after a little pep talk (with quite a lot of fruity language) in we went.
I think the fruity language might have gone to my head a little, either that or the little green pill that Grabdistuff gave me to calm my nerves worked rather better than expected. As we traded blows with some thugs over a treasure chest I think I got carried away with one of my spells. All I can remember is unleashing an elemental bolt that knocked one of the enemy off their feet and into the middle of next Tuesday, and then I passed out. Fortunately, our newest recruit, an archer by the name of Robin Red Cap hauled me to safety, what a proper gent he is.
I’ve spent the last couple of days resting. Grabdistuff was very worried about me apparently. He reckons I might have been hallucinating and has said that if I saw a flying horse at the window, it was definitely a result of the surge of magic through my body, apparently it’s all to do with science, and definitely not a side effect of the green pill, and absolutely definitely not an actual flying horse.
Write soon,
Brergle, the enchanter’s apprentice (turns out Grabdistuff is actually an enchanter)
Last night saw the gnomes undertake their second mission in the frozen city. The scenario involved a couple of wraiths guarding some treasure. Rather excitingly the game ended up involving four warbands. Two necromancers and a Sigilist, as well as my own Enchanter.
The table was beautifully laid up with lots of ruins, towers and bridges. We all took a corner and dived in. One of the big issues was that none of us had a magical weapon on our teams. This meant we were completely unable to deal with the wraiths guarding the treasure. The upshot of this was that an alternative way to dealing with the invincible undead had to be found, which meant everyone resorted to using Push.
Push became very much the spell of the game. All the wizards had it, and the amount of treasure in high, yet exposed, places meant it wasn’t long before wraiths, angry dogs and humans were all flying through the sky. It’s highly narrative moments like these that really make Frostgrave such a massively fun game.
The gnomes managed to avoid too much serious damage. One of the thugs has earned the nick name Bait, having spent the last few turns drawing (and miraculously surviving) a range of nasty creatures off towards the enemy. My poor old apprentice did go down though, although arguably it was her own fault. My archer and crossbowgnome did a sterling job picking off thugs and thieves, but early on left a thief with only one wound left. Brergle decided to try and finish the job with an Elemental Bolt and unfortunately missed the target number by eight. Bravely she decided to empower the spell, which took her down to just two health, so fortunately the gamble paid off. Unfortunately, an enemy archer callously picked her off in the next turn, but she did make a full recovery at the end of the game (good news as she’s the one writing the letters for this blog series).
All in all, it worked out quite nicely with Grabdistuff’s entourage securing three chests, some gold, a magic bow and a couple of scrolls. What’s even better is that Theodore is back to full health and ready for the next adventure.
Last week the Company of Mimos, as my halflings are now officially titled, had their first, and only practice game, ahead of the Birmingham Bull run in March. Now I have less opportunities to play there’s definitely more excitement in each game, but it makes major tweaks to the list a bit more of a step into the dark.
There has been something else to consider as well. Not only command dice, but also a recent tweak to command dice from the games I played at the end of last year. I understand that command dice have now been amended so that players get 3 red dice for free rather than a red, white and blue. Additional dice have to be bought.
To test my list I was going to be able to take another proverbial swing at the nasty Ratkin Slave army that tore me to shreds at the end of the Hinckley Heist. I always find moving from a 2,300 to 2,000 point list harder than going the other way. It’s much easier to find toys to add in than take out. With my rats I tend to design completely different lists, building from the ground up, but with my Halflings I don’t have the luxury of 6,000 plus points painted to do that. I’m fine with that though for a couple of reasons:
1 – I love the units I have and think they’ll work really well together
2 – the efficiency savings I took to Hinckley, such as reducing the number and mobility of saucerors worked really well so it means there’s an easy candidate for deselection.
After a good think it became apparent that there really was only one way to cut down the current list to a not so big list, and that was to remove the Jugger horde. I’m not super happy about it because it is such a cool unit to have on the table, but it does mean that I have a pretty solid core of an army as a starting point and enough spare points for command dice without having to think too much.
That being said though I decided to make another couple of tweaks. I’ve been thinking a lot about my Stalwarts and the Harvester. I love the units but given the way I play I just don’t think they’re quite the right pieces. I like having a chaff horde, and Stalwarts aren’t that. I also find the Harvester needs a little thought when I play it because of the exposed flank and the chariot base. With the resulting juggling of points, I have enough to replace the Stalwarts with Braves and the Harvester with another Iron Pig (if it works well, it means I have a pig to paint up!). I also decided to take a white command dice and throw the Brew of Haste onto the Muster Captain on the Winged Aralez.
This time around the game went significantly better. Remembering just how devastating both the Impalers and the Nightmares could be I deployed far more sensibly. All my fliers went on my left flank with the cavalry. The pigs and braves went in the centre with the trolls and Greedyguts covered the right flank.
One of the great things about the downsized slave list was that there were less Impalers, 2 instead of 4, and the nightmares were broken up, 2 hordes in the middle and 1 on my right flank. I breathed a sigh of relief. Also, the massive flying thing had vanished.
We played Stockpile with loot counters on both sides of the table. This time everything went pretty much to plan. My flying chaff disrupted the Impalers and Golekh, allowing my Juggers to grind them down one at a time before turning their attentions to the centre. On my right Greedyguts munched his way through a regiment of slaves, nibbled at a slave driver, before tearing chunks out of a slave horde and then consuming another slave driver and his chariot. It was a glorious sight to behold. Supported by the trolls and one of the pigs the right flank quickly fell.
In the centre there had been no hurry to engage, but an opportunity in the shape of a saucery fuelled flank charge on some Nightmares with the other pig threw a massive spanner in the rat’s evil works. They found themselves having choose between supporting the Impalers on the left and the slave horde in the centre and at this point things started to fall apart for them. The game ended with all the rats removed from the table.
Being completely honest I don’t think the slave list was as scary as it could have been, it was a first attempt. The most recent version I’ve seen is far more problematic. That being said I was pretty happy with how everything performed, and I can’t see myself making too many more changes.
What was interesting though was the new command dice dynamic. Previously I found the dice to be pretty reliable, which worked well for Halflings because they have some very useful tools. What’s more the amount of iron resolve, rallying and lifeleech in the army makes the capacity to recover a point of nerve a turn pretty meaningful. In previous games I could plan to have a unit with stealthy or additional thunderous every turn. However, with 3 red and a single white dice those four points were much harder to come by. My initial observation is that this is an attempt to balance dice for those armies that have powers they absolutely want to access and those that aren’t bothered. For this game the dice powers were a nice to have and I only managed to pull off two of the big hitters, stealthy on Greedyguts as he made his way towards some Nightmares and extra thunderous on some Juggers. Given the overall flow of the game my first thoughts were that I wasn’t particularly bothered whether those two had come up or not, so did I really want to bother with the extra white command dice at all. I think that’s a reasonable position to hold immediately after a pretty solid victory. However, the more I think about it the more I get that mind worm wriggling around saying “What if… what if?” and I’m starting to think it might just have a point, after all I have a 20 point item I didn’t get to use all game and an extra point of thunderous on just about anything is nothing to be sneezed at.
Have a great week peeps.
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Way back in December 2019 Games Workshop announced that The Old World was being developed. For anyone reading this who isn’t familiar, The Old World is a revised version of the original fantasy wargame, Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
For wargamers of a certain age, Warhammer Fantasy Battle was the first step into toy soldiers and tabletop gaming. For someone who works in product development I found the initial launch a little bit weird. Even the advert at the time acknowledged it could be a few years in the making. I know there is value in teasing products but telling your customers something is coming in a few years just feels a bit unnecessary.
Weirdly this happened at the same time as Mantic’s third edition of King’s of War was released. Coincidence? I have my suspicions, but any way I try to cut it it’s always seemed an odd step. Leaving aside GW’s communication approach, the idea of breathing new life into an old format is not something that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world, and the launch of Heroquest is a great example of where it’s gone well in gaming.
Roll forward several years and we’ve now had the release of The Old World. Personally, I knew I was never going to be interested in the game. Kings of War works for me on a number of levels, and as the releases have followed I’ve been largely unexcited, until a couple of weeks ago when a number of characters for the Empire army dropped. Amongst them was one of the first miniatures I ever bought, the Grand Master of the Knights Panther. I absolutely loved the model then, and I was surprised by just how much I loved it when I saw it again a couple of weeks ago. What was even more impressive though was the fantastic new sculpt based on the John Blanche artwork. I was also suitably impressed with another couple of models in the range, which found their way into the basket.
They are now happily on my painting table, at the start of their respective journeys and the question becomes, what am I going to do with them? The answer – they will be joining my Basileans. I’ve always had a few issues with my Basileans, simply because I’m not keen on a lot of the models in the range at the moment. They have some lovely men-at-arms which I would say are some of the best high fantasy human soldiers on the market, but the more elite elements of the army are pretty old and not great quality (although I love the aesthetic, they’re just a bit of an effort to clean up and put together). All this has meant my Basileans don’t really get the love I think they deserve or the play time. But I have a feeling that’s about to change.
So, whilst the Old World has been, in many respects a non-event for me, at least it’s produced some beautiful models and got me digging out my Basileans once again.
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I’m having loads of fun with the halflings so far this year. As happens with all of us commitments change over time. At the beginning of this year some changes with family routines meant that I am, for the foreseeable future, not able to get to my local gaming club. That means far less gaming time, and now tournaments are becoming the main opportunity to play. So, I was pretty excited to get the car packed up and head off.
What’s even better is that over the past couple of years we’ve seen more events coming to the Midlands, which for a Bristol based boy is a bit easier on the petrol costs than heading down to the Southeast. What’s also brilliant is that there is a welcome consistency between Kings of War players on the tournament scene in the UK, which is that everybody is friendly and relaxed whether its in the Midlands or the Southeast, which means there is little other than location I need to take into account when considering where to play.
The cherry on the top of this particular Kings of War sundae (actually on a Saturday) was accepting a challenge from Jake and his Ratkin. Jake was the other main contender for the Ratkin faction crown last year. Although I squeaked the win, Jake has started the year strongly picking up third place at the New Moon event in January. So I knew I was looking forward to a great game against his rats.
My list consisted of:
Horde of Stalwarts
Horde of Forest Trolls
2 Regiments of Juggers
Horde of Juggers with Brew of Strength
2 Regiments of EJ Grenadiers
Troop of Wild Lancers
Harvester
Pride of The Shires
Sauceror with Hotpot
Greedyguts
Sure Footed Muster Captain on Aralez
Muster Captain on Winged Aralez
Without regular games I felt a little uncertain about the list as I didn’t get a chance to play beforehand. This was a little unnerving as there were a couple of changes I had made from New Moon that were not exactly embedded in my mind. The biggest one being the removal of my Sauceror on Aralez and the inclusion of Greedyguts. Saucery has been a bit of a comfort blanket to me (regardless of how well it actually works) so I had lots of concerns about not only the reduction in number of Saucerors, but also the lack of mobility of my sole source of Gastromancy. Greedyguts worried me because the one time I’ve played with him he did exceedingly well, and that meant, under the strict laws of Sod, he was likely to be a massive let down when push came to shove.
Game 1 vs Ratkin, Control
With 17 drops there were a lot of rats to shift. What was unnerving was the large amount of short-range shooting they could bring to bear. I felt I had an advantage with speed, but having a massive cavalry horde for all that shooting to target was a little worrying, although on the plus side I had a good idea of where most of the shooting would end up if I gave it half a chance.
The Rats set up with Spear Hordes at either end, Tunnel Runners in the middle and Nightmares and Warrior Regiments filling in the gaps, with the Weapons Teams weighted more heavily towards my left, where my Jugger Horde was deployed. I spread my troops out across the field with the majority of cavalry and the flying Muster Captain on my left, the infantry and Pride of the Shires in the middle and a single Jugger regiment and Greedyguts on my right.
For the first three turns things were very cagey as both armies did their best to avoid getting into each other’s threat range, in the end though I decided it was time to push forward. I sent in my Grenadiers to block up some of the shooting and the Wild Lancers and Flying Captain made a double charge on a Warrior regiment, which did not result in any dead rats, but did break the stalemate. Unfortunately, I made a slight mistake which resulted in one of the Tunnel Runner regiments getting a flank charge on my Stalwarts, what made this worse is that the units around the Stalwarts were positioned in such away that the difficult terrain around the flank was completely covered, giving the unit a massive 48 attacks with elite and vicious and seeing the Stalwarts off. Suffice to say this was something of a loss and left my trolls and the Iron Beast battling to save the centre.
Despite the great gap that had developed the Juggers and Greedyguts on the right managed to cause quite a bit of damage. The Juggers knocked a few points of nerve off a Nightmare horde and Greedyguts started munching his way through a Spear Horde whilst also holding off a Brute Enforcer in his flank. His healthy appetite got the spears up to 15 points of damage and there was now hope that a nerve role of 6 or more could save the flank, giving him an opportunity to finish off both the spears and the Nightmares.
On the left the cavalry was making a reasonable job of chewing through things, but there were just too many units floating around and blocking up charges for them to make reasonable in roads. Fortunately, some nifty Gastromancy kept the Jugger horde healthy, and their mission changed from killing to scoring. Backing off from the futile rat swatting exercise the horde took control of the left scoring zone on my table half. In the centre the Iron Beast and the trolls did what they did best, grinding down the Tunnel Runners to hold their scoring zone.
It was unlikely at this stage that a win could be salvaged, but Greedguts held the glimmer of a hope that the win could be minimised to just a point. If some realistic rolls landed that would allow him to finish off the spears and then get stuck into the Nightmares. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Rolling a 4 meant the spears and the Brute Enforcer got another round of combat in and some great spear work resulted in Greedyguts retreating from the field and a 2:4 loss.
Game 2 vs Dwarfs, Compass Points
Dwarfs make me nervous! In particular the Dwarf Lords on Large Beasts. With defence 6 and a lot of mobility they can cause real problems. Couple that with a wall of defence 6 infantry and Golach’s Fury and you have fun times ahead. Fortunately, whilst this list brought 2 of the Lords there was no defence 6 infantry and no Golach’s Fury, which made this a really different list to what I would expect to face.
For this game the Dwarfs spread themselves fairly evenly along the opposite table edge with a Beast Lord at either end supported by a regiment of Ironclad whilst a block of infantry and brock riders held the centre. I ran my cavalry on my left again, The Iron Beast and footsloggers held the centre and on my far right a Grenadier regiment and the flying Muster Captain stood ready for action. My plan was to deal with the lords first and then hope for the best in the centre.
Happily, the Lord on the right was easily outmanoeuvred and both my fliers were able to dodge their way over to the centre to help out with the brock riders heading towards my poor Stalwarts. On the left though it would not be so easy. Keeping himself out of trouble using an infantry regiment meant the Ironclad had to be disposed of first. Greeedyguts and 2 regiments of Juggers later this was achieved, but there was still the issue of the Lord and regiment of Brocks hanging around in charge range. Thanks to some wild charge on the Gastromancy the Wild Lancers managed a few wounds on the brocks and penned them in for a turn. Greedguts then attempted to do the same with the Beast Lord whilst one Jugger regiment stood on guard and the other headed towards the centre.
Unfortunately, the nimble Beast Lord managed to slip away from Greedyguts and rear charge the departing Juggers. This could have been a problem, but fortunately the charge was hindered, and the handful of resulting wounds meant the Juggers remained, and the hapless Lord was left to receive a rear charge from the other Jugger regiment and Greedyguts. The hapless Lord was neither hapless nor a Lord anymore.
Not surprisingly the Wild Lancers did not survive the revenge of the Brocks, however the dwarf cavalry was left in an awkward position where my Jugger horde could charge them, which happily brought my horde into the backfield of the Dwarfs and saw Garrek Heavyhand step up to take them on. Clearly there was a goodly amount of righteous fury in the old warrior as the managed 5 wounds and a double 6 waiver. The dogs came to a standstill.
In the centre things were on a knife’s edge. The Pride of the Shire’s led by example, resisting round after round of damage and keeping waivered units in the fight until the brutal Battle Drill finally punctured it’s steam powered heart, but by then it was too late. The trolls survived the onslaught and claimed the objective on my side of the table. The remaining Beast Lord decided to play for a draw and headed down to claim the Dwarf’s central objective whilst the Halfling Cavalry massed. Juggers flooded in on all sides of Garrek and it wasn’t long before the horde had rid itself of the Dwarf and turned to face the final Beast Lord. They set their spurs and levelled their lances. Despite the strider aura the magics of the Dwarfs meant they hit the massive beast as though they had been hindered, and whilst damage was done, it wasn’t enough to take it down, resulting in a draw.
Game 3 vs Ratkin Slaves, Fools Gold
The less said about this game the better!!! Going into this game I felt reasonably confident. My army had been working well, and I had avoided making any of the standout mistakes that I’d made in the first game, but that all came to an abrupt end in this game which meant by turn 2 it was largely over. There were three big mistakes I made which I’m going to talk through instead of going through the game more generally:
1/ Deployment – a feature of most slave lists are the Impalers. These are pretty hard-hitting chariots that because of their base sizes are really difficult to block from making multi-charges. I should have remembered this and used my flyers to block them up and start taking off wounds. Unfortunately, I deployed them in the wrong positions and couldn’t bring them to bear where they needed to be.
2/ Cryza’s Gore Impaler – this special character is able to kill units and overrun through them as though they are individuals. Having set up one blocking unit in such a way as to take account of this on one of the charges the chariot had, I overlooked another charge it had. This resulted in the chariot removing not only a regiment of Grenadiers, but also a regiment of Juggers in turn 2.
3/ Massed shooting – possibly the costliest mistake, Nightmare shooting isn’t particularly great when the units are on their own, but three of them together cause absolute carnage. I messed up my measuring when moving the Jugger horde in turn 2 and left them in range of the massive rats. Whilst this didn’t kill them it did enough damage that they could then be shot off in turn 3 without contributing much of anything.
To be fair to the halflings, they fought well despite the avoidable mistakes I made in the first couple of turns and managed to score a point, but they were never going to win it back. What didn’t help was the Supreme Overmaster had an absolute field day on his regeneration, recovering what seemed like at least 5 points of nerve a turn! Not a massive game changer, but definitely frustrating on top of all the self-sabotage.
Final thoughts
The day was absolutely brilliant all in all. I’m still kicking myself over the final game, but what can you do?
I was genuinely impressed with the overall army performance and I’m increasingly feeling better and better about the Jugger horde. I would definitely say it’s not the easiest thing to use, I would go as far as to say it’s pretty counterintuitive. Whilst you want to throw it forward it really works well being held in reserve whilst smaller units run around it doing the hard work.
The reduction in Saucerors also went well. It did force me to commit to where I wanted the support, which was usually with the cavalry, but surprisingly the mobility wasn’t an issue. What’s more the hotpot was a life saver. Also, I found myself using a greater range of abilities this time around with Wild Charge really helping in game 2. I might have a go at putting together some thoughts on Gastromancy in a separate article because whilst it’s subtle it definitely adds value.
And finally, the MVP, the mighty Greedyguts. What an absolute beast. I’m really not sure why I don’t see him in more halfling lists, of course I’m willing to put this outing down to pot luck, but for 115 points he really punches above his weight (which makes that a pretty big punch in relative halfling terms).
I hope everyone has a great week.
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The Wizard's Bookshelf 