If I do say so myself, it’s been a pretty solid start to the year. The highlight was getting back to Kings of War tournamenting. Putting in a strong performance with my rats at Stanes of Blood was a bit of a cherry on top of an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable day. Right now, I’m working through list options for my next event which will be in March, somewhere in the Midlands. Practice games for March are currently being booked through February and I’m excited to say that the rat ninja scouts, known as scurriers, have made the list (for the moment).
Lots of practice has been put in with the rats.
Whilst a lot of Kings of War has been played this year it’s by no means the only game I want to play this year. I tried out Saga: Age of Magic last year and really enjoyed it. I’m fascinated by the battle board concept and could see there was some really interesting elements to the game that I’d like to understand better this year. I also like the really broad approach the game takes to classifying different elements of fantasy armies. It allows for a really creative approach to army building. It’s something that’s quite prevalent within Kings of War, but as Saga is a much smaller scale game it doesn’t take quite so much to get a faction on the table. I already have an army fully painted, but now I want to indulge in a bit of basing and build out some different units. The army primarily consists of Northumbrian Tin Soldier miniatures, but I’ve also brought in my beloved Mantic Phoenix and some Burrows and Badgers miniatures to provide an alternative approach to ogres or trolls.
Painting this month has really been limited to the badger and rebasing my witch for Saga. It’s been quite relaxing, and dare I say enjoyable?
I have a plan for the legendary war machine that is gently simmering away and want to enlist some Mantic Halfling knights to give me mounted hearthguard options. This is definitely a project that has legs.
Amazingly I’ve also managed to get some writing done, and the first two chapters of The Rose through the Void are just about where they should be. In addition to that, in the name of shameless self-promotion I donated a couple of my books to the local community library.
A book with some other books.
Mostly though January seems to have been a month of admin, which I’m hoping is largely finished for the coming months so I can focus on fun stuff.
Towards the end of last year I was wasn’t sure what faction I’d be taking to tournaments in 2024 and then Clash of Kings (the book) landed and I was once again back on the rats. The changes included in the most recent refresh brought the Night Terror back into the fold and I think the swarm crier is an absolute must take if you’re including the obligatory tunnel runner regiment with the brew of sharpness (spoiler alert… I am).
Amazingly the changes impressed me so much that I have for the first time ever taken a tournament list that doesn’t include Skud. This is truly massive!
The list that I’ve put together really leans into the Ratkin strength that is to be found in loads of rally. I’m hoping that a decent amount of chaff, careful usage of hammers and doing my best not to self-sabotage (the eternal battle that I tend to be on the losing end of) will give me a not unreasonable start to the season. In preparation I have managed to get a couple of games in with this list, and overall, I would say it’s been okay. This year though I’ve decided to commit to playing only rats all year, so that does mean a few opportunities to tweak the list as I go (or just dump it and start over again).
The list consists of:
Warrior regiments (2)
Shock Troop horde with Plague Pot
Nightmare horde
Vermintide regiments (2)
Tunnel Runner regiment with Brew of Sharpness
Weapons Teams (2)
Hackpaw regiment
Mutant Rat Fiend
Night Terror
Brute Enforcer
Swarm Cryer on mount
The Tangle
Game 1 – Invade vs Nightstalkers
Having added some shooting to my list following a recent tournament where I struggled against Trident Realms, you can imagine my delight at finding out that my first game of the day would be against Nightstalkers!
Looking at my opponent’s list I was worried that underperforming shooting and mobs of angry reapers would create absolute havoc in my lines. With that in mind I decided to put one warrior regiment on its own on the far left of the table and everything else huddled together on my right.
The hope was that my opponent would send one of his nasty reaper units off to deal with the warriors and that would effectively keep it out of the game for a few turns. As it worked out my opponent spread out across his deployment zone giving me hope that I would be able to deal with his army one unit at a time and get a good chunk of my units across the table.
On my right the void lurker, Esenyshra and the needle fangs pushed forward. I didn’t want to hang around, so my hackpaws and brute enforcer removed the needle fangs, forcing the fliers to make some decisions. Naturally enough they jumped into my deployment zone where some careful positioning of Esenyshra prevented a vermintide regiment from grounding the void lurker, but did result in Esenyshra being grounded. Fortunately, the void lurker wasn’t able to find any sufficiently juicy targets and ended up getting cornered by the brute enforcer and night terror for the rest of the game.
In the centre, or least ways the centre of the right flank, the portal of despair moved ahead of the butchers, a troop of reapers and a planar apparition. Combined shooting from the war engine teams and the Tangle removed it from the table and damaged the butcher horde whilst the mutant rat fiend and the shock troops removed the butcher regiment. The fiend hurtled forward following the combat and the shock troops moved back and dropped their pots. Scarecrows and reapers pulled the fiend apart whilst the damaged butchers charged the shock troops. Even with the brew of sharpness, being hindered and the pots blunted their charge, the shock troops finished them off in the next turn.
Things were starting to come undone on the right flank for the nightstalkers as the war engine team reduced the reaper troop to embers and the tunnel runners destroyed the planar apparition, but they still had the reaper regiments and shadow hounds. The shadow hounds and one of the regiments had been distracted by the warrior regiment (the plan had worked) but were now making their way to the centre. Not surprisingly the shock troops gave way to a double charge from reapers and shadow hounds, however these units were in turn picked off by hackpaws and the weapons team. The nightmares finished off Esenyshra before, in what I think was my one easily recognisable moment of self-sabotage during the day, reforming to give a flank to the remaining reapers. The ensuing massacre did little to change the course of the game though. The remaining reaper regiment and the embattled void lurker were on my side of the table, however much of the rat army still remained on the table and had crossed the halfway line. Victory went to the rats.
Game 2 – Pillage vs. Basileans
I was quite excited to be playing this list as it’s a version of an army I’ve contemplated trying many times, so it was going to be interesting to see how in played.
My main concern with this army was that if the shooting managed to wear down a couple of my hammer units I wouldn’t have enough in the tank to chew through the nerve on the table, and with almost every unit having headstone it meant these units have to be killed to stop them fighting and moving to grab objectives.
Once we put objectives down and had chosen sides, I decided to take a similar approach to the previous game. This time though on different sides. This was because there was an objective behind a small wood on the right in my deployment zone. I put a warrior regiment here as I knew it would force my opponent to put some resource into winning the token, or he would have to concede it. Happily, he decided to use his mounted paladins with the wine of elvenkind to liberate the objective which essentially took them out of the game.
The shooting started to target my shock troops from the off. With his crossbows on a hill there was little I could do about it, and it was exactly what I had worried would happen. Plague pots protected them for a turn, but I had to address the shooting or there were going to be problems.
I moved my left flank forward as quickly as possible. The hackpaws, mutant rat fiend and night terror headed towards a regiment of mounted paladins at the end of the table, whilst the tunnel runners and brute enforcer had their eyes on the other mounted regiment and the crossbows. To my amazement the hackpaws and night terror one-shotted the knight regiment they charged and were able to face down the line towards the crossbows. The second knight regiment charged, with a foot paladin regiment, into the shock troops and destroyed them, however the tunnel runners made short work of the knights in response whilst the war engine teams took the down foot knights. From that point on the rats dominated the table and wore the Basileans down, capturing 5 objectives and winning the day.
Game 3 – Dominate vs. Halflings
Dabbling a little with halflings myself I knew this would be a fun game. There was quite a bit of brutal in this army, so I really wanted to maximise my rallying and avoid multi-charges of any type. Thankfully our table had quite a bit of terrain in the centre which meant the hordes of stalwarts and the Iron Beast would be slowed down quite considerably.
My plan was to stay back in the centre to minimise muti-charges, knock out the fast moving right flank with my own speedy stuff and then head into the middle when I was in a position to start doing some multi-charges of my own.
The first two dice rolls I made for this game were double 6, followed by another double 6. This is amazing in itself, but when you’re mind fogging EJ Grenadiers with a nerve of 11/13 its simply euphoric. With one source of brutal gone I was off to a great start.
I went second and pushed my right flank forward reasonably aggressively but held back with my hackpaws just in case the muster captain decided to jump into my backfield. As it turned out he did and went into the fully rallied cavalry without much damage being done. A slight misalignment with my tunnel runners saw him kill the light cavalry in the following turn before the chariots could get at him.
Once the flying doggo was dealt with it left the right flank free to advance and pull apart the remaining Juggers and a Harvester. My shooting was largely uneventful with my war engine teams ending up as charge blockers and general distractions, which at 85 points a piece was absolutely fine. I managed to hold the centre in pretty much the way I had wanted, avoiding any serious combats until the closing turns. Juggers took a hindered charge at my nightmares and were swatted for their troubles, whilst a plucky warrior regiment got a flank charge on the second harvester, killed it (with some shock troop help), and then blocked up the Heroes of Hoddenburg meaning that the Iron Beast had to try and block up my shock troops on its own. With banechant failing me twice it took me longer than I had hoped to plough through all the defence 6 distractions, however a turn 7 gave me the extra turn I needed to smash through one of the stalwart hordes, and the iron beast, and flood the circle with rats for a third and final win.
Final thoughts
This is my first event in four years of tournaments with three wins in a row at a singles event (possibly even with two in a row) and it felt pretty damn amazing. Of course, I’m not packing my bags for masters, that would be pure hubris. Instead, I’ve been having a quiet reflection by the fire about my list and what I could have done better.
I have to admit I was surprised by how well the list did. Although I had put some thought into its structure, it sort of felt a little underwhelming, and my practice game before the event had given me cause for concern as to whether I could manage the shooting elements as well as I needed to. My honest answer to that question is that there is definitely room for improvement. Whilst the war engine teams did well, I was less than comfortable placing the nightmares. I think they could have contributed more in both the first and second games. By the third I had a much better idea of where they should fit in the battle line. There are a few other things I want to work on, but for now getting the most out of my shooting seems sensible.
In terms of list changes, there’s nothing that stand out as being overly problematic (other than the person in charge).
As for MVPs, well it’s really hard to decide. The tunnel runners and swarm crier smashed everything in their path, the night terror was a really handy support piece, the war engine teams were great, so who to choose?
After much deliberation MVP goes to the lone warrior unit that stood at the opposite end of the table to everyone else. In the first two games they distracted some really punchy units for far longer than they really should have, and in the third game they helped roll over a harvester and then prevented a double charge on my shock troops. Not a bad day all in all.
All that remains is for me to thank my opponents and the organisers for an absolutely fab day. This was my second Stanes of Blood and I hope it won’t be my last.
Last year did not exactly go to plan. The arrival of a puppy in April and some hectic work schedules towards the end of the year meant a lot of what I wanted to get done just didn’t get done. Will any of it happen in 2024? Who knows, but I’m up for attempting to scratch the surface. So here’s a brief run through of what I’m aiming to get done this year.
The Southwest Clash
In July the third Southwest Clash (at least under my stewardship) will be taking place at Bristol Independent Gaming. I’m looking forward to running this two-day Kings of War event again and will hopefully be raffling off a few Titans again, in additional to the more traditional prizes.
Short stories and blog updates
Having managed another year-on-year improvement on the amount of interest this site has received I’m keen to try and get a little something posted more regularly and expand the content out a little further. I’m not promising, but I’d love to get at least a little something written and posted every couple of weeks at the least.
Painting projects
I’m going to be getting back to a few projects I didn’t get round to last year. There’s a Frostgrave warband waiting in the wings, some Moonstone and I really want to revisit my Saga: Age of Magic models. Then there’s the nostalgia for an empire in an old world to be carefully considered. In addition to all this I have my ticket to this year’s Clash of Kings in September, so I’ll need an army for that.
The Rose Through the Void
Finally, I’ll briefly mention my second book, the next instalment of the Rose of Amzharr, of everything I’ve had going on this is the project that was held up the most in 2023. I’ve been really pleased with the feedback I’ve had about my first book and want to make sure the next instalment is even more enjoyable.
So, with an exciting year ahead all that remains is for me to wish you all a very happy new year, and the best of luck with everything you want to achieve.
It’s fair to say I’ve been pretty excited about the changes to Ratkin in Clash of Kings, so when it came time to select a faction for my penultimate tournament it had to be the virulent vermin of Pannithor.
This might sound a bit odd for a Ratkin player, but I’m not generally one for putting a load of infantry on the table, I’m far more a light cavalry and titan fan. This is mainly because I’m not a fan of painting, although I love having a fully painted army on the table. However, over the last three years I’ve managed to cobble together no less than four hordes of rat foot sloggers that, with some recently refreshed rules, should make a half decent list.
Loads of rats…
The List – 2,345 points
Spear Horde (1) with plague pot
Wretch Horde (1)
Shock Troop Hordes (2) with plague pots, 1 with phalanx
Vermintide Regiments (2)
Hackpaw Regiment (1)
Tunnel Runner Regiments (2) 1 with Brew of Sharpness, 1 with Sir Jesse’s Boots
Brute Enforcer (1)
Night Terror (1)
Warchief (1) with vicious aura
Swarm Crier (1) mounted on Fleabag
Warlock (1) with the Fireheart Amulet, Banechant and Lightning Bolt
Scud
The Reaper and scenarios.
The event had a special character which was a chariot that switched between two sets of special rules determined by a dice role each turn. Either it had Cloak of Death and Crushing Strength 1 or Radiance of Life and Rally 1. Strangely, but happily, most of the time my Reaper seemed stuck with a Radiance of Life and Rally 1.
Scenarios for this event were not book scenarios. I’ll give a brief description of them as I write up the games.
Game 1 vs. Ratkin Slaves
The scenario was to get the Reaper onto the enemy’s side of the table.
The slave list consisted of a lot of exploding rat regiments, eight in all, and a horde for good measure. In addition, there was a flying overmaster, Golek Skinflayer, Cryza’s Impaler, two other Impalers, an overmaster with the strider aura and a slave driver chariot.
I’ve played against this army a couple of times this year and they’ve been brilliantly close games, so this was a great way to start the day. I decided to put Scud and the hackpaws on my left, some shock troops and the tunnel runners in the centre and the spear warriors and phalanx shock troops on my right with my Reaper. Opposite my Reaper was the flying overmaster, the centre contained a massive block of rat slaves with the chariots and impalers being spread across the left of the field with the enemy Reaper opposite Scud.
At first, I was worried about the massive block of exploding rats that was moving towards my centre. Those critters can do a lot of damage. Annoyingly, in order to minimise the damage they do you have to avoid mutli-charges, which means clearing them out can take longer than you would think.
Unfortunately, everything became a lot worse in turn 2 when I very inadvertently gave the flying overmaster and his big beastie a flank charge on my warlock (opportunity of success massively improved by my careful removal of nearby sources of inspiring and rallying to ensure they did not get charged by a big flying beastie). The warlock did not survive, and neither did the tunnel runners with the brew of sharpness that the beast overran into the flank of.
As the smoke settled, I did my best to look on the bright side and miraculously I managed to find it. With the beast moving into the centre, it had opened up a channel down the right side of the board through which I could get my Reaper onto the other side of the table. However, before that could happen my Reaper would have to accept a follow up charge from the beast, fortunately it was hindered, and the Reaper survived it. This allowed my phalanx shock troops a flank charge on it and the night terror a rear charge which quickly took the beast off the table.
On the left flank Scud and the hackpaws were doing their best to get at the enemy reaper. Unfortunately, the abundance of units my opponent had meant he was effectively able to surround the Reaper and walk it over the centre link. The early loss of the tunnel runners meant I had no spare resource to try and help them. After a few turns of dancing around them trying to find a way in Scud decided to head over to the other side of the table where the remnants of the slaves were heading having caved in my centre.
Scud’s timing couldn’t have been better. As turn six rolled around it became apparent that the slave drivers’ chariots would not reach my Reaper in time. It looked like a draw was on the cards, until the dreaded turn seven reared its ugly head. Scud came to the rescue. The multi-talented demonspawn alighted in front of the chariots blocking their line of sight and sealing the draw. The add to the frustration of my opponent, his chariots front charged Scud and would have taken him off, if it wasn’t for the presence of the Reaper and its Rallying.
Game 2 vs Trident Realms
In this scenario 7 presents were placed around the table. You had to pick the presents up and open them in a following turn to be able to score them. If the unit carrying an open present and got killed the present and its score was lost from the game.
There was a little more to this scenario so the complexity of it meant I was expecting a poor outcome, at least for me. When it became apparent, I was facing trident realms I was pretty sure I was about to get very badly beaten. Leaving aside the fact that my opponent is a great player, trident realms is an army I’ve always wanted to avoid with my rats. The reason for this is the high availability of ensnare that makes it really difficult for melee 4 and 5 rats to do damage.
My opponent brought a nice mix of undersea denizens, they included: the thuul formation, an extra regiment of thuul, 2 regiments of heart piercers, a coral giant, a depth horror horde, a water elemental horde, a greater water elemental, Ector, and 2 regiments of tidal swarms.
On the left flank shock troops and the brute enforcer faced off against the heart piercers and coral giant. On the right flank Scud and the sharpness tunnel runners faced thuul and water elementals with the rest of the armies arrayed between them. Having never played this scenario I wasn’t completely sure how to approach it. But I was heartened that by mid-way though the game we both had a single scoring token. My opponent’s token was on the Coral Giant and mine with my brute enforcer who was heading far away from the enemy. What really shone through in this game was the resilience of the rat hordes. Although it was tough going removing the ensnaring fishfolk from the table the rats weren’t being washed away quite as quickly as I thought they would be.
Despite holding their own for several turns, their lack of ability to reliably remove the trident realm units meant the tide had turned by the fifth turn. The fishfolk wore down the rats and jumped on the remaining tokens. Although it was a loss for the rats it was a really enjoyable game and gave me a very different perspective on an army that I’ve not really played very much against and had always considered my best approach against would be to avoid playing it wherever possible.
Game 3 vs Forces of Nature
In this scenario there are two dominate circles on the board at either end of the table. You score points for having the greatest unit strength in the circles. You receive 1 point per circle you own at the end of turns 3, 4 and 5. After that it’s a race to the centre point with the army holding it winning another point in the final turn.
The nature army I was facing went on to win the best army and was suitably impressive. Unfortunately, not many photos were taken. The army consisted of a horde of centaurs, two hordes of forest shamblers, a greater water elemental, a horde of water elementals, a horde of air elementals, a hydra, a beast of nature, a tree herder and a couple of druids.
I’ve played the scenario a couple of times and have always aimed to win one of the circles for three turns and then race to the centre. This time around, having an army with a decent unit strength I thought I would have a go at trying to score at least one point in both circles. Unfortunately, my opponent had other ideas. Whilst I spread my army fairly evenly across my deployment zone, the forces of nature castled up on the left-hand side of the battlefield and waited. This meant my first couple of turns were spent racing my army across the right side of the table all the while hoping that the forces of nature wouldn’t chew through the units on the left.
Fortunately, I had the right units to hold the forest dwellers at bay on the left. Scud blocked up the air elementals whilst the spear horde used their plague pots to blunt the centaur horde and keep them from causing problems.
The units I sent to remove the tree shambler hordes faired less well with an unfortunate double 1 slowing down proceedings. All this meant that by the end of turn 5 both armies had scored 3 points apiece. The race to the centre was on.
By then though the rats had established an important advantage. Because the forest dwellers had castled on the left side of the board as the rats had swept over the right side of the board, they had swarmed over the water elementals protecting the centre of the table. This meant the rats were able to secure the centre and push into the left side creating a wall of vermin that the forces of nature simply didn’t have the forces left to break though. This led to a victory to the rats.
Final thoughts
First and foremost a massive thanks to my opponents. I had three really enjoyable games that each provided really interesting challenges.
Going into this event I had been quite keen to try out a number of the changes resulting from CoK 24. I can honestly say they didn’t disappoint. The swarm crier and the night terror made excellent additions to the army. The flexibility they offer in terms of being able to relocate across the battlefield is brilliant. It’s been a while since I’ve taken the night terror and all the good times we had in second edition are flooding back. As far as I’m qualified to say things like this, I do think he’s a touch overcosted at 135 points, but I feel at 45 points the swarm crier more than makes up for it.
Although you can now choose any spells you want for the warlock I ended up with exactly the sort of warlock I would have taken pre-CoK 24. This was only enabled however by the points of the event, dropping this list to the more commonly played 2,300 I would lose the lightening bolt and item on the warlock in favour of a 3 dice banechant so I can immediately see the benefits for this.
Finally, phalanx. From a tournament point of view, I think phalanx has found about the right points value in the rat list. Across the armies I played there weren’t loads of mounted units, fliers, or thunderous charge, but there was sufficient that the phalanx units had a purpose.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with how this list performed. I do think there are a couple of changes to be made ahead of my next event (not least because it’s a 1995 point event), and a little more shooting needs to be considered just in case of more trident realms.
After last year’s changes, the most excitement being caused by the inadvertent “removal” of the Birthing Daughter who managed to miss her Big Red Book appointment but subsequently returned to us in the Companion App, this year’s update is pretty substantive, and I’m really excited about it.
Whilst I enjoy a good tournament, I’m not particularly competitive minded so my army selection tends to be a lot more based around rule of cool, and what I can be assed to paint. Whilst you’d be mistaken for thinking otherwise based purely on my win to loss ratio, as a faction, Ratkin are in a good place I believe with the usual suspects acquitting themselves well. However, there are a handful of units that need some love. So, it’s really welcome to see that this year’s changes are a combination of core changes that affect most of the other factions (cheaper phalanx, titan unit strength, redeploy, and menu-based wizards) and tinkering to units that sit on my “I’d like to take them to tournaments, but this unit is just more useful…” list.
Plague pots and Phalanx
I’m really happy to see plague pots get a price reduction, this was one of those changes I hadn’t really thought about until I realised the Twilight Kin’s Bloodhex (which gives +1 to defence for a turn) was priced at 5/5/10. Plague pots are great, but are they really more impactful than a defence bump for a turn. I’ve always wondered why anyone would bother taking phalanx for shock troops or spear warriors when plague pots exist, but with the points reductions for all of these I’m certainly tempted to see how much value there is in these upgrades.
I think possibly the best bang for your buck in all these changes is with the spear warriors. Not only do they benefit from more attacks, but also get a boost to unit strength for the 10 points more they cost than warriors, and now have the expendable key word as well.
It will be interesting to see if shock troops bring more halberds to the table. Personally, I see me giving phalanx to regiments because the combined cost of pots and halberds is the same as the old cost of pots, but I’m not sure about hordes. That being said, at 10 points for a horde instead of 25 I definitely see it becoming more of a consideration.
My one question about plague pots remains – was hackpaws not getting a cost reduction oversight or intentional?
Night Terrors, Swarn-Criers and Scurriers
These are the changes I’m most excited about. I really like night terrors, but having them in the heroes section just made them such a stretch to unlock. Having them as a monster now means they’ve already made their way into my next event list. The rally 1 is frankly the icing on top of the cake. Other than using Scud, I’ve found it hard to effectively rally faster moving units, but I don’t always want the demonspawn babysitting my tunnel runners. Being able to sit a night terror and the improved swarm-crier between a couple of regiments of tunnel runners means Scud (now 10 points cheaper) can make a nuisance of himself elsewhere on the battlefield creating two sources of reliable, fast threats for the opponent to deal with.
Finally, the scurriers have gotten their extra two attacks. Thematically I really like to use this unit, but they’ve just felt a bit lacking. Stealthy is a massive bonus. I will still take plague pots for this unit because when they’re fully rallied I have a suspicion they’ll become surprisingly hard to shift with a bit of ensnare.
Vermintide Legions
I have a legion painted up and will definitely be looking to use them at some point. There are a number of changes that have been made to this unit, but probably the best is that it is no longer irregular. Unlocking this unit always felt like a bit of a luxury, however having it as an unlocking unit, not only do I think it has the potential to be a great core unit for an army but also give more of a reason to bring the Birthing Daughter to the table.
A la carte magic
I’m not going to dwell on the game wide change to magic users, but I am just going to sat that a 15 point reduction on a lightning bolt 5 caster is nothing to be squeaked at.
So, what does this mean for my rats in the coming weeks?
All in all, this year’s changes bode well for another year of rat-based antics. The changes will definitely see me dabbling in some alternative builds. List building is already underway for the Christmas Reaper event in Bexley. I’ll be running out 2,345 of rodents and I now have a couple of ideas for lists, one built around tunnel runners, a swarm crier and a night terror, and one list bringing the vermintide legion to the table with a bunch of different synergies; but more on that later.
Last Saturday 18 players gathered for a cheeky day of Kings of War. This was the third tournament I’ve run this year, and I couldn’t have been happier with the turnout, not to mention the prize support provided by Mantic.
After having had a really good showing at the Southwest Clash I decided to take my Halflings again and see if we could pull off a couple of wins. However, in addition to my TO and player duties my young son, eight, had decided he also wanted to come along to watch the first game. So far, he’s given Ambush a try and has developed a worrying fondness for Nightstalkers, today was about finding out what daddy gets up to when he disappears for a box of toys. Of everything that was going on I have to admit estimating how long he would find watching me remove models from the table interesting was what weighed heaviest on my mind.
My halfling list consisted of:
Horde of Braves (1)
Regiments of Juggers (2)
Regiments of EJ Grenadiers (1)
Regiment of Aeronauts (1)
Hordes of Forest Trolls (2)
Troop of Wild Lancers (1)
Iron Beast with Pride of the Shires
Saucerors (2) – 1 with mount
Muster Captains on Winged Aralez (3)
I haven’t played halflings since the Southwest Clash, way back in July, so it’s fair to say I was a little out of practice, but I was looking forward to giving the little people a run out. I find this list really fun to play because of the nimble units and the unpredictable nature of gastromancy.
I remember them doing quite well in their last outing, winning three of their five games. However, whilst the army did quite well at objective grabbing, kills were definitely not their strong point. I hoped I might be able to improve on that this time around.
Game 1, Loot vs Riftforged Orcs
Looking at three hordes of manticore riders, two troops of riftwalkers, Thonar, a storm giant, a horde of thunderseers and a couple of stormbringers on manticores is not the best way to wake up on a Saturday morning. I much prefer a bacon roll and a nice mug of tea. Although I’ve played against ritforged orcs before this was my first time going against the flying circus version of their list. Riftforged orcs, I have found, are a great counter to my halflings. They are durable and really killy, this list gives them tons of mobility as well. My other issue with these orcs is Thonar. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he’s broken, I don’t even think he’s too cheap, but he offers a real issue for a list like mine where there is a chance he could one shot most of my units, and failing that cause me problems by reducing melee stats on units that don’t make too much of a dent.
We both lined our armies up opposite each other in the centre and to my left. The loot counters were set up nice and evenly with one in the centre and one on either side. I decided to deploy a troll horde on the far right. I was hoping putting something like the trolls on their own might tempt the orcs to deploy either one of their manticore hordes on the far right or a couple of smaller units. Sadly, they didn’t fall for it and a lone stormbringer was placed opposite the trolls who I fully expected to ignore them in favour of harassing my flanks.
Given the speed advantage I had thanks to my gastromancy and the muster captains the orcs decided to hang back and shelter in the woods on their side of the table. In retrospect I probably could have waited for them to come forward, but I decided to press the attack and by the second turn I was fully committed on the right flanks with muster captains tying up one horde of manticores and the giant and whilst the grenadiers and lancers blocked the riftwalkers and thunderseers.
In the centre a few shots from the Iron Beast peppered the other riftwalkers, but the orcs shruggered the shooting off. As predicted the stormbinger on the left flew past the trolls, looking for flanks on my central units. The trolls began to follow them, hoping to act as a deterrent.
Things were starting to get messy on the right. Inadvertently I had left a flank open on my aeronauts, which a manticore horde took full advantage of. Worse, two rounds of combat between two of my muster captains and another horde of manticores had resulted in hardly any damage on the orc fliers, missing wavering them by one point and a dead dog.
The one bit of respite I had on the right flank was that Thonar became embroiled in a combat with another muster captain which distracted him from the rest of the table. The halflings put up a brave struggle managing to take down the manticores that had destroyed the aeronauts, but they just weren’t able to kill the orcs quickly enough. As right flank collapsed, and the centre started to fall apart the trolls that had been on the right flank made their way back to the loot counter they had been eyeing up at the start of the game. By the end of the game they had managed to secure the loot and save the halfings from a zero point loss to start the day.
Game 2, Pillage vs Undead
Zombies. Loads of them. There were a couple of individuals, a balefire catapult, two regiments of wraiths and a horde of wights, but mostly just zombies.
I was not overly hopeful about the outcome of this game. As I’ve mentioned before, my halflings aren’t especially killy and this army had a core of three hordes and two legions of zombies, not to mention a horde of ghouls for good measure.
I remembered something I had listened to about detailing with these types of army, which was to not try and kill everything, focus on the scenario, and deal with one bit of the army at a time. To this end I put the majority of my army on my left. There were a number of objectives on that flank that I hoped my fast-moving units could secure. I was also hoping that by trying to clean up on the left of the table and in the centre, his units on the right would be too slow to get over to provide support.
For good measure I also placed a regiment of juggers on the right, behind a hill, close to a couple of objectives, my thinking being that if they could avoid getting killed they might be able to contest, or even win an objective late game.
The plan worked reasonably well. The muster captains and juggers took care of a regiment of wraiths and a horde of ghouls with reasonable ease. However, a vampire on foot threatened to cause problems. With no troops left to command she started harassing my muster captains. Given her number of attacks and resilience I was worried she might end up killing one of the captains, so she couldn’t be ignored. I decided to bite the bullet and use two of the captains and a sauceror to get rid of her. It may have distracted them for two turns, but it was absolutely worth it as by turn four the objectives on the right flank were secured.
The centre was not quite so easy. Here the dead would just not, well, die. A legion and a horde of zombies took quite a bit of shifting, threatening my grasp on the centre most objective. However, a hindered flank charge by wights into my brave horde failing to dislodge them allowed a horde of forest trolls to destroy the wights and turn their attention to the right flank where in the final turns of the game the brave juggers were starting to get surrounded.
The remaining wrath regiment attempted to surge into them but missed them by an inch. I breathed a sigh of relief, as that combat was only likely to go one way. The wrath’s final position gave my knights an opportunity for a flank charge on a zombie legion. They failed to take the legion off, and did not survive the counter-attack, but the damage done meant the trolls that had just destroyed the wights could also remove the zombies, claiming a final objective and giving the halflings a 5:2 win.
Game 3, Invade vs Riftforged Orcs
For the second time I found myself against the greenskin menace once again. This army was a little more varied with the formation, a legion of fight wagons, a horde of thunderseers, Thonar, a shaman, a shrine, a giant, a manticore horde and a stormbringer.
Not really sure of the best way to deal with the angry green menace on the other side of the table I decided to castle up and hope for the best. Whilst I was largely faster than the orcs, I was worried that splitting my force would leave battle groups that would not be sufficiently tough enough to deal with smaller groups of orc units steamrollering them into the ground. In addition to this the scenario meant I needed to have a go at stemming the orc migration before it happened as there would be no time to cross back into my half to fight them once I had made it to the other side.
The game played out in much the same way as the first game as I tried to block up units with my muster captains on the left flank whilst the centre attempted to hold off the worst of their units for as long as possible. Unfortunately, a concerted effort by the orcs in the centre meant the braves were quickly ground down and routed. The halflings on the left flank were far more successful though killing all the orc infantry, their giant, Thonar, and their fight wagons. It was not enough though. Battle damage and magic took their toll (despite spellward). By the fifth turn the Halflings did have more unit strength on my opponent’s side of the table, but it was all in pretty poor health and so easily taken down by what remained of the orcs leaving me with nothing but a single sauceror.
Final thoughts
All in all, today was not a great day to be a halfling. Whilst fun and flexible to field the list just lacks a decent punch which makes rift forged orcs a problematic match up as they can both take punishment and dish it out in equal measure. I do wonder if splitting my army rather than castling up would have been a better option. After all the army has a lot of nimble and didn’t really get the opportunity to use it. I think a few more practise games wouldn’t go amiss. Thos will have to wait though as I have the Bullrun on the horizon it looks as though I’ll be taking the Brothermark.
As to how my son got on… to my surprise he stayed, completely voluntarily, for all three games and helped hand out the prizes at the end. He spent quite a bit of time nosing through the Big Red Book and we are now putting together a 1k army of Nightstalker proxies for his first proper(ish) game next week. So, all in all a bit of win all around.
The day absolutely flew by between the admin, the games and my son. I hope everyone had an enjoyable time, and I look forward to seeing you all at future events.
Last weekend I took my Brothermark army down to the London GT for one of the most interesting tournament experiences ever.
I’ve been flirting with Brothermark since their arrival in third edition, but never quite got my head around the best way to put them on the table, either from a models or army list point of view. Since the refresh in the 2022 CoK book I’ve always thought they’ve had quite a few structural similarities with Ratkin (although everything hits harder), and then about three weeks ago Serendipity struck and I suddenly found myself with a list I thought might be viable and a Basilean army that would make up the core of the force. I also had sufficient stuff in my bits box to cover the units that aren’t supported by Mantic (villains and Initiates). A couple of test games later and I was quite excited about the weekend.
The GT
I’d heard a lot of mixed views of LGT, so I wasn’t overly sure what to expect. However, I figured that whatever else was going on there a few games of Kings of War with any of the great people I meet through the UK tournament scene couldn’t make for anything less than a reasonable day out.
To be fair I was quite impressed. Despite there only being six players, we were on the main floor. For those who don’t know LGT is a massive gaming event where a vast number of systems are represented in the middle of a running track. This weird juxtaposition gave, in my view, the best of both worlds; a small friendly event with the atmosphere of a much larger one. Parking was ample, and free, and there were some great food trucks outside for lunch.
Our little corner of that world was well run by Clive, with some great prize support as it was a Mantic run event. Frankly I couldn’t have wanted more for a relaxed day of gaming. The only slight downside was a lack of woods and walls on the gaming tables (and then I only raise this particular issue because I ended up playing a Varangur army twice that included three Magus Conclaves, a Chimera and mage on a horse with Alchemist Curse). That being said the TO did find some woods for all the tables for the final game (just how much that helped me is questionable, but that’s undoubtedly a me thing).
The List
My 2,300 points consisted of:
Horde of Villain Penitents
Horde of Spear armed Men at Arms with Veteran Command
Troop of Villain Skirmishers
Regiment of Initiates of the Brothermark with Helm of Confidence
Regiments of the Order of the Abyssal Hunt (2) – one with Brew of Sharpness and one with Sir Jesse’s Boots
Ancient Pheonix
High Paladins on Dragons (2)
Exemplar Chaplain – with Fury Aura
Exemplar High Paladin – with horse, duelist, Gnome Glass Shield, Aegis Fragment
Augustus
Game 1 Vs Nature, Control
This was a great match up to start the day, not only is Seb an all-round great person but his army (that would go on to take best painted) is beautiful. Seb’s army is a nice mix of elementals with a couple of hordes of shamblers, a tree herder, a hydra, a couple of druids, and a unicorn.
Seb focussed his force in the centre and to my left. With some really durable units and a lot of surge I was worried a wrong move could open up lots of juicy flanks for Seb’s forest dwellers. I split my army across the board with the infantry in the centre, the Abyssal Hunt to their left with a dragon and the initiates on the far right with the other dragon.
The dragons swept down the flanks and distracted the units on the edge of nature’s tightly packed ranks. On my left air elementals went dragon hunting, but thanks to a well-placed house they were unable to charge me. On the right the hydra and a horde of water elementals responded.
In the centre the cavalry and infantry moved forward steadily readying to charge. As the dragons and initiates joined combat on the flanks, the skirmishers and mounted high paladin rode forward to distract nature’s front before the Abyssal Hunt unleashed their charges. The knights were devastating, splintering forest shamblers and leaving behind trampled kindling.
The Phoenix charged the tree herder in the fourth turn and the two remained locked together in a futile fight for the remainder of the game, meanwhile the dragons broke the flanks before struggling against a greater water elemental and a horde of earth elements. As the Brothermark’s titans deadlocked against their opponents the rest of the army spread out to claim objectives. In the final round the druids surged the greater water elemental into my central scoring zone claiming 2 points, however the knightly order took the day claiming 4 points worth of areas.
Game 2 Vs Varangur, Invade
This was undoubtedly the list I didn’t want to face, but with so few players it was almost inevitable I would. There were two hordes of frostfangs, one with brew of Sharpness, three magnus conclaves, a regiment of tundra wolves, a draugr regiment, a regiment of the Sons of Kourgan, a theign on a frostfang, a mounted mage with Alchemists’ curse and a chimera.
It was during this game that I realised none of the tables had woods or walls on them, which combined with the placement of the hills meant I had very little natural protection against an army that ignored the terrain that was there and had some pretty powerful shooting. However, I was about to see just how durable the Brothermark actually are.
I set up in the same way as before. In the centre, across from my infantry were the frostfangs, to my left were the conclaves and on my far right the sons of Kourgan, the chimera and a regiment of draugr, facing one of my dragons and the initiates.
The shooting was pretty good, dealing out about six wounds to one of my knight regiments in the first turn, however a combination of iron resolve, the phoenix and Augustus quickly removed that.
The Varangur pushed forward hard in the centre, blocking my knights up with chaff and munching through my penitents. Fortunately, though one of the frostfang hordes wasn’t able to wipe out a knight regiment in one go, leaving a flank open to the dragon on the left, and the fight back began.
On the right flank the dragon and initiates played cat and mouse with the chimera and the Sons until shooting started to take its toll on the dragon and wavered it. A successful headstrong roll though allowed the beast to make one final charge into the second frostfang horde and hold it up.
The speed of the Varangur, and them taking the first turn, meant that the fighting mostly took place in my half of the table. As a result, my spearmen were struggling to reach the opponents half of the table despite the enemy being largely wiped out. At the end of the game the chimera and the draugr were the only remaining scoring units for the northmen. The Brothermark still had the phoenix, a dragon and my spear horde intact, however the Varangur had done enough to keep them all out of their area and managed a 3-0 win.
Game 3 Vs Nightstalkers, Fool’s Gold
With two regiments of shadow hounds on the table and a terror I was really intrigued to see just how well these newly buffed units would perform. In addition, there were two hordes of butchers, some needle fangs, a regiment of phantoms, a horde of scarecrows, a regiment of blood worms, a regiment of doppelgangers, a portal of despair, a banshee and a planar apparition.
For this scenario I generally have two ways of distributing my tokens which are dependent on whether I have a grindy horde army (put them all in the centre) or a faster army (put them all around the sides). I still wasn’t completely sure at this stage what type of army my Brothermark was. They have some speed, but none of the 40/50mm scoring units most alpha strike lists can access, they are grindy, but they have a very finite supply of units. So, I opted to put all my scoring tokens in the centre.
I set up as I had done previously. On my left were the shadow hounds, the centre consisted of pretty much everything else, with the terror and phantoms on my right. I had placed my zero point objectives on the right, and my initiates and dragon did their best to convince the stalkers that they were worth something, which failed miserably. So, they switched tactics to giving the phantoms a run around. In the centre my worst fears materialised, and the terror proceeded to devour my two infantry hordes in two turns, with the help of a butcher horde. A rear charge from a dragon put a stop to the butchers but the terror remained. Fortunately, my knights and the other dragon managed to clean up the shadow hounds and scarecrows in the centre before the terror had finished its first course, so were able to avoid the ugly brute for the rest of the game.
The dragon on the right flank eventually got tired of playing dodge the phantoms and ventured into the centre where, after removing the butchers, he worked his way through the bloodworms and dopplegangers. Things were generally looking good for the Brothermark until a couple of issuetes cropped up. The first was that one of the two point tokens was underneath a horde of butchers that had effectively been boxed in by a game long duel between the phoenix, the needle fangs and the portal of despair. No one was killing anyone. For the first couple of turns this had all been good fun, until it became apparent that the deadlock was preventing me from getting other units in to deal with the butchers. Consequently, I found myself having to withdraw my faster units to claim objects my opponent had placed away from where the butchers were placed. Having worked out a plan to grab objectives in turn six the next issuete raised its nasty little head. I had lost track of the turns and my carefully cultivated plan for turn six was now redundant because I made it at the end of turn six.
My opponent rolled for turn seven. I crossed just about anything I could cross. The dice hit the table, I let out a sigh of relief. There was a turn seven. The knights made their way to their objectives and managed to disorder the banshee as they did so, removing the windblast and enthral shenanigans from the game, and claiming a 4:2 victory.
Game 4 Vs Varangur, Dominate
And so, I found myself facing the same army I had faced in game two. It’s never a great feeling facing an army you only recently lost to, it feels like standing at the bottom of a very steep hill. However, I was determined to do better this time. In order to improve I decided to try something different.
I had been quite shocked by the efficiency of the northmens’ shooting in the previous game, and so decided to try a new approach. On one side of the dominate circle I placed my dragons, phoenix, initiates, and mounted high paladin. In response my opponent placed his conclaves, chimera, tundra wolves and a horde of frostfangs. On the other side I placed the remainder of the force. The hope was that my fastest moving units could distract his shooting long enough for the rest of the army to surge forward into a winning position.
As plans go, it wasn’t the worst. The troops on the left managed to heal off most of the damage from the shooting, kill the wolves and even one of the conclaves before heading into the centre. The war of attrition on the right saw both armies take considerable losses until once again a small number of scoring units remained on the table. The Varangur held the centre with the last remaining frostfang horde and the chimera in turn six and a regiment of daugr blocked the last regiment of knights from scoring. Fortunately for me a seventh turn was rolled, and the Abyssal Hunt steamrollered the draugr and finish their follow up in the dominate circle with my last remaining dragon to make the final game a draw.
Final thoughts
Bringing the Brothermark to the table has been an absolutely brilliant experience. I was really happy with the list’s performance overall. What stood out for me was its durability. The combination of healing and high nerve that was possible through rallying really kept units on the table. The Order of the Abyssal Hunt were absolutely terrifying, and to think the first list had included three of these units, I might have another look at that. It’s now put me in something of a quandary as I look towards The Meansqueaks of Bristol as to whether this is the army I take, or do I return to the Halflings?
Whilst only a small event in terms of number my results put me in second place, which is something of a trifling consideration when compared to how relaxed, fun and friendly the day was. A massive thanks to Clive and all my opponents.
It feels like a while since someone last did one of these top five things, so I thought I may as well throw out a spicy tidbit of opinion to kick start a bit of a conversation about a unit type I don’t see very often, but I love playing.
Nimble cavalry such as Gur Panthers, Mounted Scouts and Tundra Wolves are a regular sight on the battlefield, but normally in troops. The are well regarded as chaff units that come in around 100 points, can perform a variety of roles, but are expected to die to a stiff breeze.
Regiments of these units I see far less, and generally they are on my side of the table when games kick off. I’d like to know why – am I playing the wrong people? Is my continuing use of these units what’s been holding me back all these years? Is my perception wrong, is everyone else taking these regiments, just not when they play me?
Ignore them at your cost.
When considering these regiments, I’ve come up with three qualities that I think these types of units do, or should do, really well. Of course, the usual disclaimer applies, all rating to be taken with a large pinch of salt. So, what should a light cavalry regiment do well:
1/ Board control – generally these regiments have US3 and a lot of range due to their nimble capability, which makes them easy to redeploy and reposition which is great at any point in the game, and very useful if they make it to the end of a game.
2/ Capacity to tie up more expensive units – there are a couple of ways they can do this, either by using nimble to force a more expensive unit to chase them around before they can be cornered, or by being a bit tougher than expected, or a combination of both. When going head-to-head with stronger units these units will inevitably die, but used carefully they can often avoid their fate for a turn or two more than would be expected and keep a valuable hammer away from friendly units that little bit longer.
3/ Ignore them at your cost – whilst many of these regiments will deliver little more than a gentle slap to the face of most units they charge in the front, having them in the flank can be an altogether different prospect, particularly if they have used their manoeuvrability to get onto a hill. My Hackpaws have waivered infantry hordes and one shotted large infantry hordes that turned away from them.
So, without further ado let’s kick off with:
5 – Shadowhounds
I really like the recently revamped Shadowhounds. With speed 10 and nimble they are highly manoeuvrable. The +1 to hit in melee on an unhindered charge looks interesting, and with 20 attacks they’re definitely not to be ignored, even on an unhindered front charge. However, as one of the more expensive types of this unit I wonder if the impact of hindered charges makes them a little inconsistent. There are a number of these types of units that have melee 3 and are cheaper, and whilst they will all lose their thunderous charge whilst hindered they’ll still be hitting on 4s rather than 5s. I have yet to see these puppies in action, and may well revise my opinion, but the points just makes me wonder if there are better options out there.
4 – Hackpaws
I was quite disappointed to put my favourite Ratkin unit at only number 4, but I do think that this is a unit that could benefit from a bit more “in army support”. Having synergies like rallying or auras within your army are a really efficient way to buff these types of units, because not only do these units benefit but the source of the buff can provide benefits to the rest of the army as well. Hackpaws are pretty points efficient at 150 points. They lose a point of speed to the Shadowhounds, and 4 attacks, but the points make up for it. They have access to plague pots (giving stealthy and ensnare for a turn) which can make them incredibly resilient against the right match up. Where I think they lack is in the nerve department. At 12/14 they are easily waivered and this, for me, rules out using the plague pots. But the frustration I have about the nerve is more directed at the rest of the army than the unit. With the exception of Scud, there is nothing that can provide rallying and keep up with the regiment. Whilst I love Scud, having him 6” from your Hackpaws does tend to change how the opponent reacts to them. I would love to see a mounted Warchief have the option of rally 1 for Hackpaws as it would, for me at least, open up some different play options, and make taking plague pots more interesting.
They’re great, it’s just the rest of the army!
3 – Brothermark Initiates
This is an upgrade to the scout cavalry that gives regiments melee 3 and an extra point of nerve. What’s more the army provides additional aura and rallying support which can keep up. Chaplains have rally 1 for these units and can take an aura of fury. All this makes them great at tying up the enemy. In short, these are upgrades I’d love to see for Hackpaws, and I am more than a bit jealous.
2 – Goblin Bangsticks
Fleabag riders tend to be one of the few nimble cavalry units I see regularly on the table in regiment form. In they’re natural state they are handy to have around, and although they are faster and have more nerve than Hackpaws the rats have 2 extra attacks and cost 5 points less which just seems a better deal. Of course, the Fleabags have access to Mawpups, but I have yet to see these used, unless they are in the Bangsticks formation. The Bangsticks formation is great fun and seems to find its way into many Goblin lists. The Bangsticks capitalise on the idea of this type of cavalry as a kamikaze style unit with the potential to cause lots of damage, even on a front charge. If I was ever going to start a Goblin army this would be the unit at its heart.
1 – Halfling Juggers
Having recently started playing Halflings I’ve been amazed at how well these units perform, especially when there is a Sauceror following them around. With defence 5 these are one of the toughest types of these units, more so when a Sauceror could realistically keep them at nerve 15/17 for much of a game. Melee 3 and 16 attacks makes them a real mini knight unit. Combine this all round not too bad stat line with the other buffs Saucery brings, brutal and wild charge up to 3, it’s a unit that can be tough to shift and needs to have a firm eye kept on them. I’ve been running two regiments since I started playing the little people regularly and they were instrumental in me winning three of my five games at their tournament debut at the Southwest Clash in July this year. For 185 points they seem an absolute bargain, not only that but other units in the army such as the Muster Captains on Winged Aralez and the Aeronauts compliment them very well allowing them to play a prominent role rather than being “that regiment that goes up the side of the table and gets killed by about turn 3, unless they’re really lucky.”
It’s been a while since I’ve had time to write a blog. Loads of reasons, but juggling a new addition to the family, prepping for Bristol’s premiere Kings of War event, and deciding I really needed to paint a new army on the off chance I got to play left little time for much else.
Not always this sleepy!
Now Southwest Clash is finished for the year I clearly have a hole in my schedule, until the October one dayer, so you get some scribblings.
Southwest Clash
Firstly, I want to say a massive thanks to everyone who came this year. It was great to see so many people return and a bunch of new faces at the event. I would also like to give an extra massive thanks to anyone who lent a hand in anyway over the weekend, it was massively appreciated especially as I ended up playing (which I was really happy about). Kings of War in the UK has a great tournament community, and I would recommend giving a local event a go to anyone. It’s a great way to get some games in and meet some lovely people.
First place went to John Quayle and his three Phoenix Basileans, the less said about that the better, with Jerry Marshall’s beautiful Ogre army taking best painted and Nick Davies voted most sporting. Amazingly I managed to get through the entire event without taking any pictures which was wholly due to my Halflings and the five incredibly closely fought games they played.
My Halflings
I’ve been trying to get my head around Halflings for some time now and about a month or so ago I decided to try using a force that leant heavily into nimble stuff. The outcome was surprisingly good and as I refined the list over the next few weeks, I felt it might actually be worth trying out at a tournament. I’ve become quite excited about this list because it leans into the nimble cavalry and aura shenanigans I’ve always wanted to run with Ratkin but don’t feel they have the right units to do it well with. My 2,300 point list ended up being:
Spot the proxies… and yes, there’s still a good way to go yet on the painting front.
Horde of Braves
Hordes of Forest Trolls (2)
Regiments of Juggers (2) – 1 with Blade of Slashing
Troops of Wild Lancers (2)
Regiment of Aeronauts
Iron Beast with Pride of the Shires
Saucerors (2) – 1 mounted on miniature aralez
Muster Captains on Winged Aralez (3)
How did it go?
Without any photos I don’t really want to try talking about individual games, however with 3 out of 5 games resulting in a win I was really happy with how it all went. I had a solid win, a solid loss and three really close games.
My solid loss was against a Sylvan Kin list consisting of, amongst other things, a bunch of Gladestalkers, 2 hordes of Air Elementals and 2 Greater Air Elementals. My opponent soundly out played me, however what I did notice was that the key combats where the Elementals did what they did best, getting into irritating positions and one shotting stuff, could have been better managed by the little folk. In a nutshell they weren’t lacking in capacity, it was just my lack of capability. I will of course take the “new army” excuse.
Juggers are my favourite Halfling units both visually and rules wise.
My solid win was against Nightstalkers. This was the first time my opponent was trying out his list, which was based around 3 hordes of the new Ravagers (shooty Butchers). I have to admit the new large infantry is going to present some really interesting challenges in the future because of how neatly they work with Enthral and Windblast. Fortunately, Spellward stopped any major issues arising with this particular combination and my dogs set to work dismantling the flanks. The Trolls and Iron Beast presented a sufficiently tough anvil that the Nightstalkers were unable to break through before the dogs started to close in.
The other three games were all thrillingly close. Against Northern Alliance a massive underestimation of how much surge the army had meant I served up a Muster Captain to be shot and surged by Ice Elementals, however another Muster Captain and a Sauceror managed to waiver a Frostfang horde and then kill it before it could do any damage which more than made up for it. The game finished on the sixth turn with a win to the Halflings that would have switched to the Northern Alliance had there been a turn seven. The third win was against Ratkin Slaves, it was a fantastically close game where the manoeuvrability of the army really came into play.
The second loss went to the Goblins. It was another close-run game and one that I went into thinking I had no chance in, but it was certainly hard fought with Groany Snark really firing on all cylinders. I don’t generally like to speculate on what might have happened if I had chosen different units, however this game did make me rethink one element of my army. I lost this game by half an inch. One of my Muster Captains was just short of being within three inches of an objective at the end of the game which would have tipped the game in my favour. In my rush to get my army completed for the tournament I had not fully explored all the options I had for chaff and had gone with two Wild Lancer troops. I then had five points over which went on the always forgotten Blade of Slashing. I now realise I could have taken a regiment of Ej Grenadiers for the cost of the lancers and the item. If everything else in this game had been played in exactly the same way this change would have won the game, and so this is the only change I’ll be making to the army.
All in all, I was really surprised by how well the Halflings played, and how much I enjoyed playing them. I had been worried about a lack of resilience and a lack of killing power, but when push came to shove their resilience was surprisingly impressive. The consistent issue with this army though was definitely the lack of killiness, and that certainly came through in the results. For now, I’m going to put that down to a lack of practice and not taking the Ej Grenadiers. The next tournament I’m going to will be the London GT, and I will definitely be taking grenadiers.
The world of Amzharr was created by the divine elementals, Nature and Time. To almost all the peoples of Amzharr they are known simply as The Creators. Nature delicately weaved the world together with thoughtful fingers, before calling the immortal peoples into existence so that they could explore her miracle and sing praises to her for the wondrousness of her creation.
Tears of joy cascaded from Nature’s many eyes, as she watched her perfect people explore her perfect world, bringing about the first rain. The sacred drops pooled in craggy cradles on mighty mountain peaks. They created crystal clear puddles that grew steadily until the water began to overrun, meet partners and give birth to infant rivers that playfully chased each other down the slopes, zigging and zagging with gurgling giggles, before joining with their playmates to cross planes, cut through forests, and eventually tumble with excited roars into the oceans.
The world turned and Nature smiled. Time stood beside her, as much intrigued by the creation as Nature was besotted with it. Together the Elementals would watch the plants grow, the creatures roam, and the immortals pass their days. Their gaze became the sun’s light. Warm smiles fuelled by the sweet smells of incense burnt, and wreaths of flowers offered, at great altars in Nature’s honour. However, over time exaltation withered to expectation. The immortals became inured to their world and began to look for new distractions. Nature began to feel ignored by the people she had given life to and withdrew from her observations. The sun faded in the sky as Time stood alone, continuing her vigil, uncertain what to make of the immortals’ abandonment of their matriarch.
As Time watched the immortals erratically explore the world. She could not help but wonder if there was something missing. Had Nature overlooked something in her pursuit of perfection? The world had been designed with the attention to detail that only a being with no beginning and no end could bring to bear. Each plant and each creature had a role and a reason for being. Sophisticated synergies, such as those between flowers and insects in our own world, bound species to species, even squirrels with the capacity for speech played an important role in maintaining the delicate balance that Nature had created in Amzharr, with the exception of one.
The only creatures that did not seem to exist in harmony with the world were the immortals. Whilst superior in so many ways to the other creatures their interactions with their habitat were awkward, so much so that both the immortals and their life choices were regularly a topic of intense debate and deeply furrowed brows for the talking squirrels who considered them to be irksome and irrational. It was almost as though the immortals served no purpose in the world other than to worship Nature.
Time reflected upon her hypothesis. She attempted to discuss it with Nature, but the deity felt so betrayed by the immortals that she shunned Amzharr. Nature would not be drawn into so much as the briefest exchange on the subject of either the world, or its people.
Disappointed by Nature’s deep disinterest, Time resolved to restore the connection that had been severed between the world and its mother. The issue, she decided, was not with Amzharr, but with the people who lived in it. They had become boorish and disrespectful of the planet. They spent their days hunting, eating, and sleeping with no thought for consequence or conservation. Time decided that the immortals needed a relationship with the planet that went beyond eating to fill empty stomachs and drinking to placate thirsty throats. So, she set about crafting her own gift for the world of Amzharr.
Nature sat in the cool shade of the Eternity tree. Its mighty branches bowed under the weight of its impossible fruit, each ripe and rotten at the same time. Time approached slowly, a bundle of soft white cloth in her arms. Nature looked up as she heard a discordant, gurgling cry from the bundle. Time rearranged the swaddling clothes to reveal a tiny baby. It was, in almost every way, like the ones the immortals gave birth to, but much smaller.
Nature recoiled from the child, no longer wanting to have anything to do with the immortals who had turned their backs on her. As Time brought the baby beneath the boughs of the tree Nature realised that the child was not an offspring of the immortals. It may have looked like one, but there was something about it that felt different. It seemed to possess the same limitless potential Nature had given the immortals to learn and grow, but it was all squeezed into a creature that was somehow restricted, and around its neck was a tiny silver locket.
“What is it?” Nature asked.
“It’s a he.” Time replied, holding the small boy to her chest to allow him to feed.
“He’s not an immortal.” Nature said.
“No, he’s something different, a child who will live a short life and then disappear from existence.” Time explained.
“What is there to be excited about in that?” Nature asked, feigning indifference as the child piqued her interest.
“In and of itself nothing,” Time replied adjusting the positioning of the baby so that Nature could see the locket that hung around his neck. “Remove it and look inside.”
Nature carefully removed the small silver necklace, doing her best to not interrupt the hungry little child’s meal. She opened the unremarkable sliver box attached to the equally understated silver chain. Inside cogs turned as tiny, misshaped creatures, roughly human in shape, worked away, she assumed, to keep the cogs running.
“What is this?” Nature asked turning the open locket around in her palm, finding it hard to focus on the tiny workers long enough to really see what they looked like. Although she had the distinct impression that this was for the best. From what she could make out they did not appear to be traditionally beautiful.
“It is the destiny of his race. It is their purpose, their reason for being, their future and their place in Amzharr, and it is my gift to you.” Time replied.
“And what is any of that to me?” Nature asked in a dry tone that tried desperately to disguise her rapidly growing excitement.
“It is my gift to you. Their purpose is for you to choose.” Time replied, knowing Nature well enough to know she would not be able to resist this offer. Time turned away from Nature and carried the baby towards the room where Amzharr spun silently.
Two days later the warmth of the sun once again fell on Amzharr, and in a forest an immortal ran towards the urgent cries of a hungry child.
The Wizard's Bookshelf 