The next tournament in the Northeast is my club’s own Dead of Winter on January 20 (2024), which is 2150 and has an added comp restriction of no more than three of any unit. At first, I thought this locked me into Herd for the second DoW in a row, which I was mostly ok with but not ultra excited about, as my list is really congealed at this point. I ended up with about 50 or so points to play with after Clash discounts on Tribal Spears, which I finagled into a Forest Warden – a unit I like, and that finally inspires as well. I played a couple games (tabled Undead, did bad things to Riftforged) but it wasn’t all that exciting after a year of Herd.

Then I realized I could take my plan for Freeforged 2300 (spoilers: adding birds) and just dial it back to 2150 really easily and still meet the comp. This keeps me painting and playing my new army, which is 100% where I prefer to be hobby-wise. Here’s the list:

FREE DWARFS
Earth Elementals Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Earth Elementals Horde
Earth Elementals Horde
Stoneclaw Riders Regiment – Grenades
Stoneclaw Riders Regiment – Grenades
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment
Greater Earth Elemental
Greater Earth Elemental
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Blade of the Beast Slayer
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Orb of Towering Presence
Free Dwarf Stone Priest – Conjurer’s Staff, Surge (8), Bane Chant (2)
2150 (13/23)

I was always going to add birds to the army, even before we got Clash confirmation that they would be in Free Dwarfs, and because my minis have guns on them I’m pretty much locked into grenades. These are wild shooting attaks if you aren’t aware of them: 12″, Att: 4, Ra: 4+, Piercing(1), Shattering, Blast(D3). No steady aim means 5+ at best, 6+ most the time, adding to the WTF dice factor. I kind of love it. The other difference between Stoneclaws and Frostclaws is that the Free Dwarf version trade Fury for Pathfinder and don’t freeze the target in melee. This is great by me and the pathfinder has come up in both my games so far. Fury is a lot less useful on regs, but also in general because of TC(2) and no CS.

The rest of the list should be familiar from 2300. I have an alternate load out with two Mastiff Packs that shoot plus martyr’s prayer on the Stone Priest … but I think I prefer having more drops and less points invested in a caster who is slow and can be turned off. On the flipside, MP(7) is really gnarly alongside all that D6+ So I dunno. Going to paint the pups up anyway and see how things fall in January.

My buddy Cory is working on a new Nightstalker army and this would be his first game with his initial list, so forgive the proxies and blank bases (also excuse mine while you’re at it).

NIGHTSTALKERS
Blood Worms Legion – Hammer of Measured Force
Ravagers Horde
Butchers Horde
Butchers Horde
Shadowhounds Regiment
Soulflayers Regiment – Wind Blast (5)
Soulflayers Regiment – Wind Blast (5)
Reapers Troop – Skirmisher’s Boots
Phantoms Troop
Mind-Screech – Singing Aberration (Lightning Bolt (6), Mind Fog (6), Wind Blast (6))
Mind-Screech – Singing Aberration (Lightning Bolt (6), Mind Fog (6), Wind Blast (6))
Dread-Fiend
2150 (21/26)

Sweet baby cats, that Blood Worm legion is going to eat anything it wants 😬 My goal is to feed it trash and I guess never engage it? Yuck. Otherwise Wind Blast (22) didn’t sound great, and Butchers seemed poised to open up some cans. Especially when you consider that I thought they were Me 3+ and not 4+ as is the reality of the situation.

We chose to play Hold the Line! because it’s new and a nice meld of Control and Dominate. Cory won the roll but had me go first, quite explicitly so he could blow me out of the scoring bands in the last turn. (Sorry ahead of time for the early game photos, I kept forgetting to take them and either remembered during his turn or just forgot. We’ll figure it out.)

BATTLE

Turn 0: Battelines! His blanks are Soulflayers, my blanks are Stoneclaws (with drones on them) or the third Mastiff pack.

Turn 1: The Freeforged trudge forward, with the left Stoneclaws getting into a weird position but threatening things? They outspeed the Soulflayers over there so I’m vaguely trying to push them back. I surge the central Greater Earth forward because he’s D6+ and -/19 in a puddle, and if he dies it’ll pull all those Butchers into my clutches. Except I wasn’t planning on 7 out of 8 dice catapulting him forward 😀

That 7″ surge puts the GEE into the Ravagers 12″ range, meaning they don’t have to move and light the big dummy up. Combined with a Mind-Screech’s lightning, he takes a concerning 5 damage, plus is blasted back 1″ or so. The rightmost Stoneclaws also cop 1 damage from lightning, and somebody else must have been pushed back by the Soulflayers? Hard to tell in these shots. The most relevant movement is the Shadowhounds zipping down the left flank and becoming unflankable by hugging the impassable over there.

Turn 2: I charge the right Stoneclaws (hindered on a wall) into the Dread-Fiend for 1 sweet damage, and try to shoot the Shadowhounds with my other birds but 7+ is tough. Otherwise my slow children struggle forward or are Mastiffs being sent into danger.

The Nightstalker side of things is more exciting (and pictured above). While Cory’s army doesn’t move much, it certainly pushes mine around. The left Stoneclaws and Earth Elemental horde are blasted backwards 4-5″ as is the orb Beast Lord on the right. Lightning and another round of Ravager shooting goes into the central Greater Earth, blasting him up to 8 damage. Phantoms block my rightmost Earth horde and the Blood Worms continue oozing through that forest. In combat, the Dread-Fiend chomps 4 damage onto the right Stoneclaws, wavering them.

Turn 3: (The shots above are again from the NS side of the turn, sorry.) It’s largely another delaying turn for me, as I send Mastiffs into the Shadowhounds (they disorder their shadowy cousins but not much else) and hit the left Butchers in the front and flank (hindered) with more Mastiffs, for 3 damage. The smoldering central Greater Elemental crashes into the Ravagers, beefing his attaks and doing just 2 damage. Woof. A combo-charge from the other Greater and right Earth horde rout the Phantoms and I leave the units side by side for Cory to decide what his Soulflayers and other Butchers are doing next turn. In Beast Lord news, the Blade Lord sneaks into the left Mind-Screech, popping decent damage into it, while the Orb Lord cycles into the Dread-Fiend when the Stoneclaws back up and nimble out of the way. Whiiiich I realize now is illegal, because they lost their nimble when they were disordered. (In my defense, I very rarely play flying units!) Anyway, the Orb Lord brings the Fiend to 5 damage.

In response, the Blood Worms continue to slowly press the issue on the left, as the right Soulflayers and Butchers combo the rightmost Earth Elemental horde (for a solid 9 damage). The central, sharp Earth horde is blasted backwards, as are the left Stoneclaws. Otherwise there’s a lot of counter-charging: the Shadowhounds rout their Mastiffs, the left Butchers smash the Mastiffs to their front, the Ravagers finish off their Greater Earth Elemental, and the Dread-Fiend does 2 damage to the Orb Lord. The Blade Lord is unphased by his Mind-Screech (who may have been wavered).

Free Dwarfs 4: Whelp, here we go. An Earth Elemental horde powers off the hill into the Blood Worms, might as well get that TC(1) while I can. The Stoneclaws supporting them are faced with continuing to play it cagey, contributing some wounds to the Blood Worms before being killed by the Shadowhounds, or locking down the left Soulflayers before being killed by the Shadowhounds. I decide to put the Soulflayers on the ground and charge in. Continuing to the right, the Blade Lord charges the Mind-Screech again, the sharpness Earth horde hits the Butchers beset by Mastiffs to their flank, Stoneclaws long bomb into the flank of the Ravagers, the surviving Greater Elemental hits the right Soulflayers, the Earth horde fighting Butchers fights Butchers, annnnd the Orb Lord continues scrapping with the Dread-Fiend.

A quiet farting sound can be heard as bane chant fails to cast on the non-sharp Earth horde, then the heat weapons begin to fall. From left to right: Stoneclaws do a sterling 5 damage to Soulflayers, the Earth horde punches 3 into the Blood Worms, the Blade Lord routs the Mind-Screech, and the sharp Earth Elementals cut down the Butchers, with the Mastiffs reforming to block the Reapers from charging the horde, who reform to face the Blood Worm flank. The central Stoneclaws slam the Ravagers up to 12 damage but biff the Nv check. The Greater Earth slams 5 damage into his Soulflayers, the final Earth horde hurts their Butchers but can’t hot hand the Nv check, and finally the Orb Lord drops the Dread-Fiend and faces said Butchers.

Nightstalkers 4: (The prelude to this carnage was captured in the previous shot.) The ‘Stalkers slap back in what feels like the beginning of the end. Shadowhounds and Soulflayers eat the left Stoneclaws, the Blood Worms take a massive 10 damage chomp out of the left Earth horde (who hold), and the Reapers grind 5 damage out of the Blade Lord. The Ravagers see their Stoneclaws off (THIS UNIT Y’ALL), the Soulflayers fighting the Greater Earth do no damage, and the Butchers break their Earth horde and stay facing forward as it protects them from a charge from the GEE.

Free Dwarfs 5: Nothing tricky for the Freeforged this turn. The sharp Earth horde flanks the Blood Worms, with more Earth Elementals in the front. The Blade Lord swings into the Reapers with just CS(1). The last of the Mastiffs try to finish off the Ravagers (hindered). The Greater Earth Elemental hits the Soulflayers again, and the Orb Lord flanks the Butchers (hindered).

The Stone Priest successfully bane chants the Orb Lord! After the murderizing is done, the Blood Worm legion is no more, the Reapers take 3 damage but hold, the Mastiffs land 1 damage on the Ravagers but can’t roll the 6 to kill (they waver), the Greater Earth wrecks the Soulflayers, and the Orb Lord pushes the Butchers to 11 damage but again can’t land the rout.

Nightstalkers 5: While Cory’s gribblies are looking light on the table, I feel like he’s got some game left in him? The Shadowhounds plow into the 10 damage Earth horde, routing them. The Soulflayers EZ charge into the flank of the Blade Lord fighting the Reapers, which I did not see coming, routing him as well. The Ravagers disengage from the Mastiffs in their swamp, letting the Mind-Screech lightning them for 1 damage. And the Butchers counter the Orb Lord in their flank, pounding him up to 7 damage.

Free Dwarfs 6: With the game ending, it’s time to finish some thoughts. The sharp Earth horde charges and routs the Shadowhounds, claiming the left zone in the process. The Mastiffs charge the Ravagers a second time (hindered forever), sneaking that 1 damage through and this time popping them. What a menace. The Greater Earth entrusts the Butchers’ demise to the Orb Lord, surging into the Mind-Screech’s flank and also being bane chanted for no functional purpose because I thought the Stone Priest still had his stoneshaper rule (turns out it’s optional in COK ’24). I roll like a muppet and do like 5 damage to the Mind-Screech with 24 CS(3) attaks but still waver it. Finally, the Orb Lord does cut the badly wounded Butchers down. He sidesteps into the right zone.

Nightstalkers 6: Cory dives his survivors into the central zone. If there’s a Turn 7 I’ll be able to claim all the zones, but as it is I’m up 4-3 and this is a …

FREEFORGED VICTORY

Credit to Cory on removing so many of my strong metal children! Early wind blast was annoying but apart from that the NS plan was pretty familiar to other large infantry with support style armies I’ve faced. Slow stuff in middle with faster and faster stuff on the flanks, which is basically what I did with the birds too. Speaking of birds, these are really amazing units that can do so much – which shouldn’t be a shocker to hear, I’m just really unused to using meta units and getting so much value. The shooting is definitely weird but I’ll be keeping it around, even if it plays a far distant fiddle to being able to slam in from the flanks and grab unexpected angles. Good stuff.

UP NEXT: Undead (again)!