The Crossroads GT is next weekend! Happily I was able to get a couple more practice games in, which also means I’ve got batreps to clear out before the tournament report. Here’s one where my Ogre opponent busted out his other army …
This is almost the final list. Brutal is my preferred Herder upgrade, since they’re the closers of the list, and whenever I don’t have duelist on the Centaur Chief I always regret it. I think it’s a weak army overall, but it’s got some tools for me to work with, which in the end might be enough.
Varangur 2300 The Fallen Horde The Fallen Horde Snow Trolls Horde – Chalice of Wrath Huscarls Regiment Mounted Sons of Korgaan Regiment Mounted Sons of Korgaan Regiment Snow Foxes Regiment Snow Foxes Regiment Draugr Regiment Magus Conclave Jabberwock Lord on Frostfang – Snow Fox Lord on Frostfang – Snow Fox
I love it. Everything scores, everything is great at what it does, or else it’s a Magus Conclave 😉 Great pressure list looking to do a murder, and very often doing it too. I love how item light it is as well (note: I’m guessing on the last 15 points, but I think the Trolls had a Nv fixer, which is what I would have done at least).
We rolled up Salt the Earth, so I’d have another chance to burn my own tokens and then regret it. The Hallow scouted forward but Varangur grabbed the first turn, rapidly devouring the distance between us!
BATTLE
Herd 0: Scouting phase! Varangur units L2R = Fallen, Foxes, Mounted Sons, Frostlord, Trolls, Magus Conclave (the blue screamer), Huscarls, [House],Draugr, Mounted Sons, Jabberwock (the blue reaper thing), Fallen, Foxes. My Beast of Nature is hard on the left.Varangur 1: The Chaos hordes roll forward, doing a threat. The Conclave pings 1 damage on the winged Forest Shamblers. The left Fallen + Foxes are cagily zoning out the incoming Beast.Herd 1: Alright, alright, cool, cool, I got this – chaff is pushed forward to buy me a moment, the Beast hops forward on the left as much as she can to be out of Fallen charge but prepped for Turn 2 jump into the Varangur lines. I overthink the Centaur Chief and cause myself a real problem (spoilers). The goal was to have him not be hindered by that fence for his charge-block next turn, knowing the Trolls are in charge range if they want it but they’d totally clip that fence and have to hit him on 5+, which Kings of Maths tells me is 4-8 damage so maybe he can wear it?? And since there’s no flyer to sit down what else would he be doing?? (So much else :|)
I burn the token on the right by the fence.Varangur 2: Whelp, here they come … Frostlord into Centaurs on the left, Trolls unhindered into the Centaur Chief because I’m dumb, Mounted Sons + Jabberwock into the Brutal Herder (green proxy base), Foxes into his righthand Shamblers, Frostlord + Fallen into right Centaurs. Conclave whiffs. Awkwardly, the left Centaurs take 5 damage from the Frostlord but are fine and the right Centaurs take only 7 and waver The Herder cops 7 as well and the Centaur Chief explodes, particularly gruesomely.Herd 2: The Hallow starts digging out on the right – Tribal Spears into Fallen, more Spears into Foxes’ flank with Shamblers grudgingly in the flank, Shamblers + Brutal Herder into Sons. The left feels more like damage mitigation, but I’ve got a play with the Beast, who has enough to hop the Fallen’s arc and menace the Sons, who some Tribal Spears pin down. More Spears hit the left Foxes, and the Centaurs try really hard to hit the Trolls but end up countering the Frostlord. (I guess I could have sidestepped 1″ or so over to the Trolls? But I really wanted the Herder to slam off the hill into the Frostlord, which wasn’t a thing thanks to the Centaurs living.)On the left, Tribal Spears kill the Foxes and hurt the Mounted Sons, while the Centaurs gore 2 damage into the Frostlord. On the right, the other Sons are broken, the Foxes scattered, and the right Fallen take 6 or 9 damage with bane chant’s help.Varangur 3: It’s a full court press as just about everything gets stuck in. Left Fallen charge some Tribal Spears, Sons counter their Spears, Trolls flank the Centaurs, Frostlord uses the power of nimble to get that charge on the hill Herder, Huscarls switch direction and plow into the central Shamblers, Jabberwock charges the wounded Brutal Herder (+6 attaks!), right Frostlord charges mangled Cenaturs, and right Fallen charge yet more Spears. The Draugr lurk, as is their want.
In what might be the play of the game, the Magus Conclave scoots around and lands 4 damage on the looming Beast of Nature then wavers her. Sorry, Tribal Spears / the left flank.A lot of damage is dished out, but only the Centaurs fall. The right Tribal Spears waver. Shout out to the Spears actually getting to use ensnare against those Mounted Sons!Herd 3: Lots of counter-charging where able, with the fresh charges being Shamblers into Trolls (a charge I hated to take, buy the Fallen must have been just out / I didn’t want the Herder flanked by the brutes), Shamblers into the Jabber’s flank (hindered), and Tribal Spears into the Frostlord to try to pin him down. I’ll tell you right now that I forgot that phalanx removes nimble if you cause a wound …Frustratingly, nothing routs, not even the Jabberwock – that Shambler flank was horrific, especially as I debated bane chanting it but was like naw, they got it, 36 on 5+/4+ is easy. The right Frostlord was wounded once, thanks to said bane chanting.Varangur 4: Loads of counter-charges, including the Jabberwock into the increasingly beat up Brutal Herder. Draugr do zip in to rescue their Frostlord tho, props to the little dudes. Blessedly the Conclave misses the Beast this turn.Sap coats the field as the Hallow is scythed down. All four Tribal Spears die this turn, and the Huscarls finish blending their Shamblers. Amazingly the Brutal Herder holds firm against the Jabberwock’s flailing.Herd 4: The main decision this turn is who the Beast is going to delete. Ultimately I choose the Fallen flank, as the Son’s front was diciest and the Shamblers could spike and drop the Trolls themselves, putting me in some control of the left. The right was more obvious: Brutal Herder into hurt Huscarls, hindered Shamblers (with bane chant this time) into Jabber flank.Happily the right pays out as planned! The left tho … Shamblers can’t get anywhere with the Trolls, while the Beast’s 7 damage into the Fallen doesn’t cut it (9 total). Crap.Varangur 5: Mounted Sons plow off the hill into the Beast’s flank, Fallen surge into the Shamblers’ flank, the Frostlord grinds on against the hill Herder, the other Frostlord nimbles into the Brutal Herder, and the Druid cops a Fallen charge for her trouble. The Draugr caper off to score a token. The Conclave boops 1 damage onto the right Shamblers.The left crumbles, except for the Herder on 7 damage. The Brutal Herder holds on 11 damage, and somehow the Druid lives as well!Herd 5: Herders counter-charge Frostlords, while the last of the Shamblers flank the right Fallen (hindered as ever).The hill Herder drops that Frostlord at last! And those Shamblers wreck the Fallen and prepare to nab that token in Turn 6.Varangur 6: The hill Herder receives Mounted Sons + Trolls to the front, having effectively stood still since he scouted into position. The Brutal Herder is counter-charged shortly before the Conclave ploops 2 damage on the Shamblers.Both Herders fall in the same turn. Now that’s poetry.Herd 6: Shamblers trudge to a token, their damage wicked off by the Druid. Blessedly there’s no Turn 7, so with 2 tokens to 1 that’s a …
VARANGUR VICTORY
What. A. Grind. Writing this up, I’m surprised at how well I almost did. I had a couple good plays and just one monumental misstep with the Centaur Chief. I doubt he had the distance to charge the Conclave and save the Beast, but most of what he was going to do in this game didn’t involve caring about the wall, or could have been fixed by deploying anywhere else so he could double move and go block a charge. He’s a really key piece for me and I not only threw him away, but pulled the Troll tarpit in even closer. Blech. I know blaming dice is also really easy to do, however my Nv dice were terrible. I generally enjoy very good dice on routs, but these were like rolling 1D6 bad most of the time.
Thanks for reading, I’ve got one more practice game vs the Undead to report on!
The Herder cops 7 as well and the Centaur Chief explodes, particularly gruesomely.
BLOODFIRE 