Author: Salvage

FORCES OF NURGLE: DEAD OF WINTER GT 2026

On By SalvageIn NURGLEKINLeave a comment

I trotted out my Nurgling army a couple times in 3E as Forces of the Abyss and largely hated it. Just a carpet of Lower Abyssals with some cool friends, hindering constantly and getting nothing done. Well, it’s 4E now and I’m back to shine that turd … until I inevitably give up and return to Trident Realm or rebase another army into legality 💩

To that end, I painted up 7 dusty black minis that had been waiting years for attention, rebased my Apostates of Darkness, and brought the following to my club’s Dead of Winter GT in Albany, NY:

Forces of the Abyss 2150
Mau’ti-bu-su
Despoiler
Harbinger
Harbinger
Lower Abyssals Horde
Lower Abyssals Horde
Lower Abyssals Horde
Lower Abyssals Regiment – two-handed weapons
Lower Abyssals Regiment – two-handed weapons
Succubi Regiment
Berserkers Regiment – Brew of Strength
Tortured Souls Troop
Tortured Souls Troop
Chroneas
14(29)

Is it the weakest army I’ve ever made? Maybe! Is it the weakest version of this army? Yes! Every other iteration of this list changes the Harbingers to Despoilers, tripling down on brutal flankers to help the Abyssal carpet get something done. As it was, I had a couple amazing chaff pieces in the Tortured Souls, a very dedicated hammer in the Berserkers, loads of scenario presence, and a warlord that I’ve gotten cooler and cooler on as I’ve played with her. I do still like the fireball on command order, but the amount of clock damage I took rolling 25 dice @ 5+ to hit, 5+ to wound can’t be understated. Also Succubi really need the Hammer of Measured Force or Chant of Hate, which they’ll get in every list that isn’t this one.

All the same, my list was locked in and I was ready to play some games and roll a lot of dice, if not actually win a game or two. As it happened, most of America was slammed with a serious winter storm the weekend of our aptly named tournament, and the decision was made to move from five games over two days to four games in one day. Yowza. I didn’t take many photos (sorry y’all), but figured I’d recap my experience for new edition science. Strap in.

GAME 1: NORTHERN ALLIANCE

The swap to a one day meant Lyra could attend, which was cool as I hadn’t gotten to play her yet. The downside was her list:

Lord on Frostfang
Ice Queen – Bane Chant (2), Heal (5)
Ice Queen – Bane Chant (2), Heal (5)
Human Tribesmen Horde
Human Tribesmen Horde
Pack Hunters Regiment
Pack Hunters Regiment
Pack Hunters Regiment
Pack Hunters Regiment
Frostfang Cavalry Regiment
Frostfang Cavalry Regiment
Ice Kin Bolt Thrower
Ice Kin Bolt Thrower
13(26)

Everything carves your face off, shoots, or is an elite caster. Really competent list without any fat, and my fear of Tribesmen hordes was already strong going in, as was anything with 30 attaks. Whatever I was going to do, I needed time to grind and flank, and this list wasn’t going to give me much of it.

The scenario was Control with Abyssals going first! I run full tilt down the center, despite knowing that I’m yeeting my demons directly into a wood chipper. On the left, I use Tortured Souls to frustrate some Frostfangs, while on the right I plan to do the same to delay the other Frostfangs creeping down the board edge. It took a Tortured Soul troop and the Despoiler, but mission accomplished on the right:

None shall pass! Unless you pass right over my broken body …

Fast forward to the opening of Turn 3, when I jump on the Frostfang on the left and send the Chroneas into half of the Pack Hunters. The Tortured Souls and Abyssal horde slowly begin chipping away at the Frostfang, but the Chroneas will kill both Pack Hunters on that flank, with the help of Mau’ti-bu-su furiously whipping them into submission. Eventually only the Frostlord will be left standing in the bottom left segment of the board.

Here’s the main action moments before my dice roll. The Berserker flank obliterates the Tribesmen, then a unit of Pack Hunters, then the last unit of Pack Hunters, then the Bolt Thrower on the hill. Meanwhile, the Succubi chase down an Ice Queen and 75 Lower Abyssal attaks eventually break the other Tribesmen, thanks in part to Mau’ti-bu-su arriving in their flank Turn 6.

Admittedly, I’ve buried the lead here: Lyra clocked out at the end of Turn 3, giving me 25 minutes to do my damnedest. Turns out even Lower Abyssal doofuses can tear De 5+ hordes apart if given enough time. It truly sucks about the clock out, I’ve been there and the feels are the worst (I clocked out halfway through a game at Orc Town three years back!). I also think it’s telling that I spent maybe 5 minutes moving minis and a full 20 minutes rolling dice, as I too clocked out at the end of Turn 6. With a score of 6-0 and lots of attrition, that’s a …

NURGLE VICTORY

GAME 2: FORCES OF NATURE

My big win puts me against Keith Conroy and his first event outing with the Forces of the Herd! I am justifiably shook.

Chieftain
Druid on Steed – Bane Chant (2), Surge (4)
Druid – Bane Chant (2), Scorched Earth(3)
Tribal Warriors Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Longhorns Regiment
Longhorns Regiment
Longhorns Regiment
Critters Troop
Critters Troop
Air Elementals Regiment – Hammer of Measured Force
Guardian Brutes Regiment
Beast of Nature – Fly
Greater Air Elemental
13(24)

I guess Keith is back and forth on the air elements of the list, but I think they’re valid. What’s left of Herd isn’t particularly fast, and even without nimble I feel like Greater Air are prime surge targets still. I’m still pretty shocked that they buffed lesser Air, especially with the Hammer staying in the game, but here we are.

The scenario was Salt the Earth with Nature taking first, as is their wont. Before I could even snap a photo, the Air force had swept off the line:

Keith rushes forward across the board, breaking off one Longhorn regiment to hang with the Airs and the surge Druid, and sending the Beast down the right flank by its lonesome. Those leftmost Longhorns run 12″ and pivot, giving my Succubi a suicide charge … which I take, dealing 5 damage (which doesn’t stick around thanks to the Heal spell and Heal order combo). Turns out the Succubi don’t stick around either:

Turn 2 also sees my Lower Abyssal chaff regiments beaten down for their troubles:

The Beast of Nature takes my Tortured Soul bait out on the right, one-shotting the spooky ghosts and turning to face my Despoiler, who could have sworn that they’d stick around (Keith rolled double 10s on the rout :P) The Despoiler will charge into the front of the Beast in my Turn 2, then will himself be one-rounded by hot dice (another double 10, I kid you not) in Turn 3. Wild times.

Back to my Turn 2, Nature is in my lap, so I full send. This shot is from the opening of Nature’s Turn 3 but can see how things turned out:

The (hindered) Berserkers overperform and break some Longhorns in one go, but everywhere else we’re trapped in the grind. The Chroneas performs especially poorly into the Guardian Brutes, not really doing enough damage to overcome Nature’s healing abilities. Out on the left, Mau’ti-bu-su throws herself into the Air regiment to buy a couple turns (but since it’s Keith, that’s more like 1 turn with spicy rout rolls). You can see some Critters pining the Berserkers in place here, which is wildly frustrating!

In the followup, the Chieftain pushes over the Guardians vs Chroneas fight, and will go on to push over the Guardians vs Berserkers fight that follows. In both cases it was his 4-6 damage that made the combats tip. Much respect for that goatman. The Longhorns falter into their Lower Abyssal carpets, giving me time to melt my clock rolling 5+/4+. Late Turn 4 I do break the left Longhorns (!), in time to face the Air regiments, and push the central Longhorns up to rout levels … except for:

Natürlich. The Herd troopers devour my center (the Beast having dispensed with the Despoiler and helped the Tribal Warriors clear out their own Lower Abyssal infestation). Keith thinks I can grind the Air Elementals out on the left flank, but I’m not so sure, so I burn that token, a turn before the Air regiment scatters my smelly little demons. By Turn 6, all I’ve got left is a Harbinger, who books it for the objective deep in Nature’s lines, contesting it from the mounted Druid. The game thankfully ends, so I’m not tabled, but with a score of 0-5, that’s a …

NURGLE LOSS

GAME 3: DWARFS

It was Cuddle Time on Cuddle Time violence against my team mate Jason … but then he had to go home to attend to a family emergency, so the TO stepped in to run his army.

Lord on Large Beast
Stone Priest – Surge (8)
Warsmith – Tome of Darkness; Surge (5)
Ironwatch Crossbows Horde
Bulwarkers Regiment
Bulwarkers Regiment
Ironguard Regiment
Ironguard Regiment
Earth Elementals Regiment
Earth Elementals Regiment
Berserker Brock Riders Regiment – Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding
Greater Earth Elemental
Iron Belcher Cannon
13(25)

Mike is no stranger to Dwarfs tho, and the army seemed pretty straightforward. Be tough, do a little grinding, do a little shooting, use the Brocks, Beast Lord and the Greater Earth to put out damage. Repeatedly during this game we marveled at how terrible the Dwarf orders are, and I’m pretty sure that Mike either failed to load mastiffs or failed to wound with them any time they did go off.

The scenario was Plunder with the Dwarfs sauntering off the line first. Let’s pick it up at the top of Turn 2:

On the left flank, the Abyss was able to dismantle both Earth Elemental regiments with a Lower Abyssal horde and the Chroneas, with the Tortured Souls blocking one regiment to buy time and the Harbinger in support. Helluva grind but we walked away with a 2 point token for our troubles.

On the right, a Lower Abyssal regiment took a 1 point token, after being ventilated by the elite Ironwatch on the hill. They were finished off by the Bulwarkers pulling flank duty, before being smashed to pieces by the Berserkers. Tossing the token to the Despoiler, the Berserkers made good to assault the center in the late game, before being wavered by another horrific Ironwatch volley. Running out of game turns and clock time, we were content to slink away with 1 point on this flank, cowed by the fury of 20 crossbow shots (on 5+ with elite) and 1 serious cannon.

Which means it all came down to the center. At the opening of Turn 2, Brocks have made contact with the leading Lower Abyssal carpet, with two Ironguard and one Bulwarker regiment bearing down, the Beast Lord present and a pain, and the Greater Earth looming. The Lower Abyssals take a big hit but hold, and Mike is sure the Brocks are toast … except there’s not much help on tap. Looking back at the photos, I think the Tortured Souls to the left must have a flank on the Brocks, but I don’t remember checking it, because I was too ready to throw them away to buy time to grind. The T-Souls and the Lower Abyssal regiment go into the Ironguard midfield, opening up the Lower Abyssal horde to a flank from Bulwarkers?? I really should have sent the chaff regiment into the Bulwalkers, and flanked with the T-Souls, or double charged the Bulwarkers. Anyway, this sweet charge does no damage to the Ironguard. Mau’ti-bu-su flanks the Brocks to help out but not much happens. And the Succubi prove they need an item by landing 18 hits on the Beast Lord and doing maybe 2 damage. Woof.

The Bulwarker flank decimates the Lower Abyssals, letting the Brocks put all their attaks into Mau’ti-bu-su and kill her despite the odds (5 damage expected) and then later clean up the Lower Abyssal regiment that sailed past them, as the Greater Earth surges sideways into the Tortured Souls. I struggle mightily to get my reserve Lower Abyssal horde into contact with anything, eventually fighting Bulwarkers and being flanked to death by the Beast Lord. The center ultimately falls, giving the Dwarfs 4 points. With a score of 3-4, that’s a …

NURGLE LOSS

GAME 4: BASILEANS

As night follows day and the spring thaw follows winter snow, so too must Chris and I face each other in the fourth game of a tournament. I was happy to play Chris’ Basileans in the new edition, but was feeling really worn down as we went into the last game of the day.

Samacris Mother of Phoenixes – Heal (6), Fireball (5)
War Priest – Heal (3), Bane Chant (2)
War Priest – Heal (3), Bane Chant (2)
Men-at-arms Horde – Spears, Fire-Oil
Paladin Foot Knights Regiment
Paladin Foot Knights Regiment
Paladin Foot Knights Regiment
Gur Panthers Troop
Gur Panthers Troop
Ogre Palace Guard Regiment
Ogre Palace Guard Regiment
Elohi Regiment – Brew of Strength
12(22)

As horrifying as those 330 point Elohi are, the thrust of the list was the Foot Knights, who had received a bit of a glow up this edition and become pretty satisfying little 170 point packages. 15 attaks @ 3+ CS1 feels good, combined with De 5+ Nv 17 headstrong and iron resolve. I can guess why Chris was down here with me – his list is on the whole slow and fairly reactive, with all his heal not mattering much if his regiments are dead – but I really dig it. Also Chris rolls like a maniac, so I always know to brace for spikes.

The final scenario was Protect and Raze with Basilea going first. This game was a tale of two halves. On the left, Sammy, the Elohi, an Ogre Palace Guard regiment, a Foot Knight regiment and some Gur Panthers faced off against the Despoiler, a Harbinger, a Lower Abyssal horde, a Lower Abyssal regiment, the Chroneas and some Tortured Souls. On the center and right, everybody else in a big slogging melee. My Berserkers gave me a bit of an edge over there but we’ll see how that ended up.

Using the power of being quite wide, my Lower Abyssals straddled Chris’ two tokens over here, hunkering down in a wood to ensure the eventual charges would be hindered at least. Meanwhile, I tossed fireballs and generally annoyed the angels, until around Turn 4 when the Chroneas and Despoiler tag-teamed the Foot Knights, forcing Chris’ hand into the above charges. 38 high value attaks later and my horde was dead and Basilea was up 2 points. These beatsticks eventually cleaned up this flank entirely, tho I had claimed my token in the process.

Here’s the shot of Basilea’s Turn 4 or 5, before those Foot Knights obliterated some Lower Abyssals and the Men-At-Arms definitively claimed the central point. My Tortured Souls swooped over and burned that token behind the Foot Knights, then sailed off into the hinterland of Chris’ deployment zone, their mission complete.

My third token was claimed by Mau’ti-bu-su, who first turn charged a War Priest, then failed to kill him despite rolling maximum duelist attaks and maximum brutal. She failed again on the next turn, then killed him in Turn 3 and sidestepped within 3″ of my token, burning it. She would go on to push the other War Priest away in terror, before swinging at Sammy and getting rundown by Elohi.

Meanwhile, my Berserkers were deployed on the right edge of the table, ready to kill knights or ogres and generally be a nuisance. Until they were Gur Panthered, with the Ogre Palace Guard pressing up behind the chaff. We nuked the Panthers (just!), couldn’t escape the Ogres but could force them to be hindered. Chris took the charge, rolled like an insane person and picked up my 260 point ultra-hammer in one go. Oof. Those ogres would go on to dominate that foot of board, helping kill the third Lower Abyssal carpet and claim Basilea’s third token. With a score of 3-4, that’s a …

NURGLE LOSS

So after four grinding games of KOW 4E, my terrible horrible really no good Abyssal list came away 1-3, with the win due to a pretty egregious clock difference :/ I do feel like the (many) dice never fell my way, with the exception of a wild double 11 waver into Basilea in that last game, and I obviously needed a break to free up my many units to help each other out. While I don’t want to be done with the Abyssal experiment (they did win their trial game against Dwarfs, so 2-3 in total), the goal of running many, weaker units is certainly proving harder to execute on as I’m also picking up a new edition and blowing some dust off from the long run up to 4E. I want to give them another shot with more Despoilers before throwing up my hands and going back to Trident Realm, especially given the popularity of the fish people (and the perceived mediocrity of Abyssals, which definitely appeals).

I do think Mau’ti-bu-su is out. Her nerve bump is inconsequential – I honestly think grinding with ensnare only is a trap, everyone so far has hot-diced right through it – and the Brutal D3 is a recipe for heartbreak. I’ll be dropping her to a Seductress going forward, with the Periscope or the Onyx Ring if 5 points are floating around. I can also confirm that Berserkers feel pretty bad. Even juiced up, they barely performed, and they’re slow enough now that they also don’t push the enemy back, giving my smaller dudes space to move up. I’m curious about running 2x Berserker troops … but for the same points I could take 2x Moloch troops. I’m staunchly against the edict that the only good Abyssal lists run 2-3 regiments of Molochs, however I’ve never seen a Moloch troop before and those stats seem great, especially for go-wide Abyssals like mine. More enormous bases to deal with, of course!

Thanks for reading, sorry about the lack of pics. I probably won’t do play by plays again but I’ll work on taking more shots again, preferably at events with fewer games in the day!

KOW 4E ARMY POINTS: TRIDENT REALM

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I’ll be returning to my crabs as we wade into the new edition (not only because my Free Dwarfs and Herd are likely to be more or less compromised upon release 😬), and so have been paying a lot of attention to Mantic Universe Podcast’s Trident Realm coverage. If you haven’t already, you can check out their army preview and list building videos here:

I’ve pulled the transcripts for these videos and used it to update the Trident Realm points:

Points in italics I’m unsure of yet: Naiad Ensnarer troops (+5?) and hordes (-5?), Water Elemental troops (-5 or 10?), the Aquamages spells (20/20/30 if I had to guess), and whether or not the Me3+ CS1 De5+ upgrade on the Placoderms costs 5 points or is free. Sorry for the image, WordPress doesn’t allow pasting into a table, but here’s a spreadsheet version should you need it:

TR 4E Points 112625Download

In their list building video, MUP also told us about some changes that didn’t make their previous video. For example, Tidal Swarms lost ensnare, nimble, and the shooting option, but kept scout and changed to Sp 5+, Me 3+, De 4+, Att 9, Nv 15, H1 large infantry. For 60 points, with the ability to receive at least some of the commands, including casting enthrall.

We also learned that my beloved Heartpiercers went back to Att 12 but down to Ra 5+ (and dropped to Regen 5+ like the rest of the non-axolotl parts of the army). With the removal of steady aim, this makes them more static than they used to be re: shooting stuff, but jokes on them, I use my Heartpiercers for plenty of dirty jobs, including flanking fools for glory and profit.

Anyway, back to scheming up lists and painting Water Elemental regiments!

KOW 4E ARMY PREVIEWS: PART 2

On By SalvageIn BLOODFIRELeave a comment

And I’m back with the second batch of preview army breakdowns! Sadly it was also revealed that these are all we’re getting. I feel like Elves, Dwarfs and Men are the elephants left out of the room, as these are perennial power houses needing reworks or they’re the baseline of the game against which all else is measured; in addition to all being factions with sub-factions. Hearing about even one of them would have told us a lot about how sub-faction players will fare (Orcs kind of don’t count, I doubt RFO will be splitting back out in an expansion book). Which isn’t to say we didn’t get a good look at some tasty reworks! So read on …

https://directmisfire.podbean.com/e/dm-army-preview-4th-edition-undead/
https://www.countercharge.net/counter-chargeccx/815
https://kivrzq.podbean.com/e/25-034-4th-edition-halflings/
https://www.goonhammer.com/kings-of-war-fourth-edition-orcs-army-preview/
https://www.countercharge.net/counter-chargeccx/817

(Kyle P was asked about Voidtouched Weavers, which were left out of the book, and they’ll be added back in the day one errata as a fourth CORE choice. Here’s hoping they’re more useful than before!)

And that wraps up the army previews we’ll be getting. Big thanks to the various sources that reported on them, and to Mantic for handing out previews at all, they could certainly have left us in the dark wringing our hands, instead of in the twilight of dawn probably still wringing our hands 😅

KOW 4E ARMY PREVIEWS: PART 1

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What is up, Bloodfire Nation! A lot of gaming happened in 2025 that I kept from you, almost all with the Freeforged, including another run at the US Masters, this time in lovely Reno, NV where I did even worse than last year 🫠The extremely short version is that my rocks weren’t allowed to interact until very late in most of my games, which as a result put a lot of weight on Turn 7 happening or not. In all cases, the extra turn sealed my fate … or I was on the bottom table smashing local upstarts. Still happy to have gone, and Reno was so much nicer than I expected!

But enough about KOW 3.5E, we’re currently weeks away from the new edition shipping and previews of rules and armies have been flying out. I’ve been transcribing the various army breakdowns we’ve heard about and sending them around, and just now I realized I have a freakin’ website of my own. So without further ado, here are the first six army lists we’ve been told about. I’ve heard a rumor there are now 18 lists? Call this part 1 of 3 in that case.

https://directmisfire.podbean.com/e/dm-army-preview-4th-edition-goblins/
https://srk408470983418454.podbean.com/e/episode-58-the-4th-edition-ogre-army-with-danny-flash-graves/
https://srk408470983418454.podbean.com/e/episode-55-the-salamander-4th-edition-army-review/
https://www.goonhammer.com/kings-of-war-fourth-edition-nightstalker-army-preview/
https://kivrzq.podbean.com/e/25-032-4th-edition-northern-alliance/

Yes, that means that there are only two Varangur units and you can only take two of each in Magnilde’s battalion. Word is that for combined lists the secondary list will hopefully be broken out in an expansion list, giving Mantic time to figure out what they’re doing with the model line, army identity, etc.

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-dwnf8-2897e991

I recommend checking the original coverage out if you want to know more details, including command orders. My goal was to track army comp breakdown more than anything, plus account for upgrades that may have been cut or added.

For an added treat, here are the artefacts as well. If you can’t find an old favorite, consider it removed for now, tho it may return as part of an army’s expansion rules or so on.

https://directmisfire.podbean.com/e/dm-missive-4th-edition-magic-artefacts-cover-and-special-rules/

That’s all for now! I update these live over on the Kings of War Forum (kowforum.com) but will be back with another batch when they’ve been released.

FREEFORGED 28-30: US MASTERS 2024 DAY 2

On By SalvageIn FREEFORGEDLeave a comment

Dear, Long-Suffering Readers: Let’s finish this thing. I’ve made the cut for the 2025 Northeast US Masters Team at this point, plane tickets are bought, housing is arranged, and I’m trying to decide whether I take my crabs (mostly titans and guns) or my rocks (almost exactly the list here) … But y’all have been waiting patiently to see how 2024 went, so enough preamble.

FREE DWARFS

Earth Elementals Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Earth Elementals Horde
Earth Elementals Horde
Stoneclaw Riders Regiment
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Greater Earth Elemental – Craggoth & Kholearm [1]; Fireball (10)
Greater Earth Elemental
Greater Earth Elemental
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Trickster’s Wand; Hex (2)
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Mace of Crushing
Free Dwarf Stone Priest – Conjurer’s Staff, Surge (8), Bane Chant (2), Scorched Earth (2)
13 (22)

Just a reminder of the list. Big rocks, smaller rocks, dogs that shoot dogs, supportive friends large and small.

GAME 4: DWARFS

Shieldbreakers Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Sharpshooters Troop
Sharpshooters Troop
Sharpshooters Troop
Steel Behemoth – Golloch’s Fury [1]
Garek Heavyhand [1]
Faber Ironheart [1]
Steel Juggernaut – Healing Brew
Steel Juggernaut
*Bulwarkers Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
*Bulwarkers Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
*Ironclad Horde – Hammer of Measured Force
*Dwarf Army Standard Bearer – Sacred Horn
14 (24)

Yep, Day 2 opens with me facing my third Dwarf army in a row. Bit of a cursed run but kind of par for the course for the Freeforged. Randy’s a super nice guy, apart from the Me 2+ Shieldbreaker horde stapled onto The Dwarf List we know and love. Yeowch.

We played Control, with the Freeforged going first, one way or another.

BATTLE

Starting with deployment, Randy really under-committed on my left flank, letting Craggoth and the Stoneclaws run roughshod over that part of his army, eventually scoring both left segments as well. The rest of the game was probably always going to come down to if/when his infantry hordes went down. The Shieldbreakers (rightmost of the two) chewed up an Earth horde early on, eventually dying to both Beast Lords and a (surge?) flank from a Greater Earth late game. The Ironclad horde was absolutely piled into by rocks … but I snaked it :/ This cost me another Earth horde before they too were taken out.

Despite the snakes, the pressure from the left flank and barrage of stone meant this was a …

FREEFORGED VICTORY (20-1)

A great way to start the day, and a game possibly lost in deployment – he had never faced Craggoth or the birds, so probably didn’t know what he was in for 😛 Randy would go on to place 54 of 64 and win third best Sports (and my vote as well)!

BATTLE 5: OGRES

Siege Breakers Horde – Chalice of Wrath
Siege Breakers Horde – Dwarven Ale
Siege Breakers Horde – Staying Stone
Warriors Regiment
Warriors Regiment
Boomer Chariots Troop – Sacred Horn; Black Powder Guns
Giant – Slayer (D6)
Giant – Slayer (D6)
Nomagarok [1] – Bane Chant (3+), Heal (4+), Lightning Bolt (4+)
Ogre Warlock – Lightning Bolt (3+), Drain Life (5+)
Ogre Warlock – Lightning Bolt (3+), Drain Life (5+)
Ogre Warlock – Lightning Bolt (3+), Drain Life (5+)
Berserker Bully – Blade of Slashing
13(23)

A big win sends me rocketing back up the tables to Table 4 or so and right into the arms of The Ogre List. In one of those funny tournament twists, I was getting lunch at a sushi place next to the convention when pairings went up … and the dude next to me looked up from his phone and was like, who’s Harry?? Anyway, Justin’s Ogres are/were a highly tuned killing machine, with full Warlock conclave and Siege Breaker horde backbone. He had brought along two Giants instead of the third Warrior reg and additional heroes, and I agree that they’re a great pressure mechanism, demanding you deal with them as the rest of the throng goes to work. Spoilers I guess.

Pretty sure we played Invade, with the Ogres regrettably going first.

BATTLE

Check out how wide I deployed! Bit painful on the review, my right flank spent so many turns dragging itself over to the fight, just to die piecemeal. Justin’s Giants did exactly what we expected them to do, applying immediate pressure with a 14″ kill zone that I dutifully entered, jammed, and failed to break through. Meanwhile his Warlocks kept my birds at bay (and then dead), leaving everything down to the grind.

Unable to break either Giant and shoved back into two square feet of board space, this was a clear …

FREEFORGED LOSS (3-18)

I am still very proud of those 3 points! I didn’t know who Justin was going into this, but turns out he’s quite the Ogre thinker – if you’d like to know his post-COK25 thoughts, Counter Charge had him on for a List Builder Studio in December. Justin would go on to place 2 of 64.

BATTLE 6: ORDER OF THE GREEN LADY

Order of the Brotherhood Horde – Brew of Strength; Banner of the Green Lady, Vial of Sacred Water
Order of the Forsaken Horde – Boots of Striding; Vial of Sacred Water
Order of the Forsaken Horde – Mead of Madness; Vial of Sacred Water
Order of the Forsaken Horde – Vial of Sacred Water
Order of the Forsaken Horde – Vial of Sacred Water
Order of the Forsaken Horde – Vial of Sacred Water
Pegasus
Pegasus
Avatar of the Green Lady [1] – Heal (6)
Devoted on Forest Steed – Inspiring Talisman; Radiance of Life (Sacred Water only), Heal (3), Bane Chant (2)
Druid on Forest Steed – Knowledgeable, Bane Chant (2), Veil of Shadows (3)
11(21)

Headed into my first Game 6 of any tournament ever, I was back in the bottom third against Aaron. I’ve read about Aaron Chapman’s exploits in battle reports for 10+ years, going back through various WHFB editions, so it was cool on general principles to face him at last. But holy hell, not when he was running this list 😅 He admitted it was a bit of an exploit list to out alpha the alpha strike lists … tho it’s worth noting that both he and I were on the same score, so Kings continues to be mostly ok from a balance standpoint. Ignore that both first and second place were variants of The Ogre List 😐

We played Hold the Line, with the Order going first.

BATTLE

Annnnd I start the game getting Craggoth double-charged and killed. He was out of doubling for the left two Forsaken hordes but not the third one in, which I thought was out of arc but those 150mm frontages are wider than I thought. With my large resin son’s untimely demise, my heart kind of left the game, and I struggled to make anything happen into Aaron’s many, many 20+ inch threat ranges. On the bright side, my Stone Priest somehow survived, so I wasn’t tabled! Plus I was able to chip a couple Forsaken hordes to death in the process.

FREEFORGED LOSS (1-20)

I’m pretty shocked I got a point out of this 🙃 Aaron would go on to place 16 of 64.

When both days were done and dusted, I emerged 39 of 64 with second best Sports! While the placing was extremely on brand for my 2024 tournament performance as a whole, the award was very rad to receive, many thanks to my opponents for voting for me. Overall, I was happy to be able to play in Masters, but feel like I might have enjoyed myself more in the Best of the Rest. That said, I’m looking forward to Reno this year, and trying to convince myself that it’s ok to bring the rocks again, because surely I won’t face three Dwarfs in a row, right? Right??

FREEFORGED 25-27: US MASTERS 2024 DAY 1

On By SalvageIn FREEFORGEDLeave a comment

My warforged children and I had a pretty wild ride through the 2023-2024 season, ending up ranked 20th out of the Northeast region. Not too shabby for a player who routinely ends up just south of the halfway mark at tournaments. When it was announced that the US Masters GT would be held at the NOVA Open in Washington DC, I immediately made plans to attend the Best of the Rest side event. A manageable 6-7 hour drive for me, and I could stay at my brother’s place in Northern VA. Seemed like a great way to take in the Masters from a safe distance.

And then Justin Berg had to drop from the Northeast Masters team and I was next in line. I said yes with no hesitation, knowing that I was likely signing up for some serious heartache …

FREE DWARFS

Earth Elementals Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Earth Elementals Horde
Earth Elementals Horde
Stoneclaw Riders Regiment
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Greater Earth Elemental – Craggoth & Kholearm [1]; Fireball (10)
Greater Earth Elemental
Greater Earth Elemental
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Trickster’s Wand; Hex (2)
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Mace of Crushing
Free Dwarf Stone Priest – Conjurer’s Staff, Surge (8), Bane Chant (2), Scorched Earth (2)
13 (22)

If I had been better about logging my Freeforged games this year, this would probably look a lot like the natural evolution of the list. The rocky core is never going to change, the heroes are basically locked in (thanks to having so few unlocks but needing surge), triple Mastiffs just feel too good to quit, and Stoneclaws are rad as hell. I’ve got a possibly stronger alternate build with 2x birds + 2x dogs, and a definitely smoother brained version with brocks instead of birds, but this is the list that was painted and I had more or less practiced with.

My only concession to Masters was taking the Trickster’s Wand over my beloved Blade of the Beast Slayer, and kind of the throwing mastiffs as well. I had only played 2-3 games with shooting dogs at this point, an upgrade I continue to be on the fence about. Yes, it’s great! But the way I use chaff, they’re very often marching, charging, or dead. Not a lot of time to release the bees in there.

GAME 1: RIFTFORGED ORCS

Helstrikers Horde – Boots of Striding
Riftforged Legionaries Regiment
Riftforged Legionaries Regiment
Unforged Orcs Regiment
Unforged Orcs Regiment
Riftwalkers Troop
Riftwalkers Troop
Stormforged Shrine [1] – Bane Chant (1+), Lightning Bolt (3+), Host Shadowbeast (2+)
War Drum
War Drum
Stormcaller – Sacred Horn, Bane Chant (2), Veil of Shadows (3), Mind Fog (3)
Riftforger on Mount – Blade of Slashing, Stormstrike, Host Shadowbeast (3)
Flagger – Lute of Insatiable Darkness; Bane Chant (2)
Flagger – Talisman of Silence; Mind Fog (2)
*Riftforged Legionaries Regiment – Pipes of Terror
*Riftforged Legionaries Regiment
*Reborn Legionaries Regiment
17 (30)

As these things work out, I ended up driving a few hundred miles to face a dude from the Northeast, mercing for another region. Happily I’m not sure that I’ve ever played Nick? Maybe in Warhammer Fantasy days. Anyway, this year Nick was piloting the RFO struggle bus. Loads of chonky regiments, loads of individuals with loads of spells, the shrine, some cats. Very little that honestly concerned me from an offensive standpoint, but for sure a ton of scenario pressure!

So naturally we played Dominate 😉 The Freeforged went first, as I generally am want to do.

BATTLE

Just from the rip, Nick was really hemmed in by deploying in a continuous line of regiments, close to all of them beginning in difficult terrain. This let me really flood the middle and gave me time to complicate the RFO’s ability to get multi-charges. It also hurt that his Reborn were the leftmost regiment of the line, keeping them from being the anchor they want to be (Nv 18/20 with the drums behind them).

Early game, I hexed the Shrine a couple times (obvious target is obvious, sorry Nick!) and did a little preparatory shooting with throwing mastiffs and fireballs towards the middle, as Craggoth and the Stoneclaws worked the right flank and I watched the RFO left flank trip over itself. Despite Craggoth sleepwalking through this first game, my Mastiffs either held when not expected to or flanked Orcs with reckless abandon, ultimately winning me the center once my flankers arrived. On the left, after the Unforged chaff wave had been cleared away, I traded my sharp Earth Elementals for his Helstrikers and proceeded to collapse that flank in my favor as well. With several tons of iron in the center of the board, this was a commanding …

FREEFORGED VICTORY (20-1)

Not pictured above is our clock, which hit zero for Nick I want to say during Turn 5 and in Turn 6 for me. We both had some tortuously long second and third turns, especially with all those individuals and arcs to check. Nick would go on to place 53 of 64.

BATTLE 2: DWARFS

Shieldbreakers Horde
Shieldbreakers Horde
Berserker Brock Riders Regiment
Earth Elementals Regiment – Healing Brew
Steel Behemoth – Golloch’s Fury [1]
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Trickster’s Wand; Hex (2)
Faber Ironheart [1]
Garek Heavyhand [1]
Flame Priest – Diadem of Dragonkind, Fireball (16)
*Bulwarkers Regiment
*Bulwarkers Regiment
*Ironclad Horde – Hammer of Measured Force
*Dwarf Army Standard Bearer
13 (26)

As these things work out, I ended up driving a few hundred miles to face a dude from the Northeast, mercing for another region. This time it’s Mike, the head of my club and long suffering (?!) Dwarf player. He’s brought a list that departs a little from the meta, by bringing two Shieldbreaker hordes, either of which can remove anything of mine in one swing (also he had Brocks but meh). Naturally Golloch, Faber, Garek and the formation (with hammer horde) are all in attendance as well. This may be the army most equipped to crack me in combat, especially any prolonged ones.

We played Pillage, with the Imperial Dwarfs going first.

BATTLE

Mike, the guy who convinced me to take the Trickster’s Wand on my beast lord, kicked off the game by destroying it with the Trickster’s Wand on his beast lord 🫠Thus began a wild scrum for the right flank, with me desperately trying to kill Mike’s hordes before they one shot all my dudes. An early triple charge of Greater Earth + beast lord + birds floundered, drawing the second horde into the fight and, I was sure, sealing my fate … until Mike rolled 3! double ones in one round, all on right flank combats. This let me keep swinging away, eventually shattering both of those Dwarf hordes at the cost of basically everything of mine on that flank. Bulwarkers would go on to hold a couple points because they’re consistently the best performing regiment every time I face them, go fig.

Some of the success on the right was due to going hard into Golloch and the Dwarf center in Turn 2. Not the wisest choice, but it bought me a lot of time and kept Golloch’s guns quiet until Craggoth eventually arrived to end his reign of terror. This after Craggoth had pressurized and pounded through the left flank, with two Earth hordes combining their power to crush the third Dwarf horde in one go. Faber was a major thorn in my side on that flank all game, but I did my best to ignore / mitigate his attentions, for a …

DRAW (10-10)

Ha! Always wild to come out the other side of a slobberknocker with a draw, but I’ll take it, especially against a clubmate. Mike would go on to place 25 of 64.

BATTLE 3: DWARFS

Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Sharpshooters Troop
Sharpshooters Troop
Sharpshooters Troop
Sharpshooters Troop
Steel Behemoth – Golloch’s Fury [1]
Steel Behemoth
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Orb of Towering Presence
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast
14 (25)

My reward for drawing against Dwarfs: more Dwarfs! Joe is a great dude who I seem to be playing with increasing regularity, and who has gotten better and better at the game. He had spent the year eschewing the formation for a more old school take on Dwarfs, which I appreciated from a variety standpoint. Would I be able to pound through my own ocean of De 6+ slowish bois? Only one way to find out!

We played Stockpile, with the Freeforged going first I believe because Joe handed it to me? A true gentleman.

BATTLE

I opened the game up by starting to dig out tokens with my Mastiffs and aggressing some of Joe’s Sharpshooters on the left with Craggoth, and was rewarded with dead Mastiffs and a snake eyes for the Cragster’s efforts 😐 I lost an Earth horde to shooting early on as well, so that when our lines crashed and the grind began in earnest I was on the back foot. I think top billing goes to Joe’s central beast lord, who bounced back and forth, rear charging multiple Earth hordes to death. Despite the early snakes, Craggoth kept an entire flank occupied by itself, shrugging off Ironguard and laser focused on scooping up tokens. It didn’t kill much, but being a tough distraction let the Stoneclaws rear charge through a couple of Joe’s units before behind silenced.

While Joe’s list looked like it was light on heavy lifters, all the shooting chip damage combined with some furious Steel Behemoth melee outpaced what my own wall of iron could output, ending up a …

FREEFORGED LOSS (3-18)

I’ll get you next time, Joe (which is indeed a spoiler for our game at Nerdhammer in December 2024). Joe would go on to place 20 of 64 and win third best Paragon!

So! First day of Masters and I’d smashed Riftforged Orcs, drawn against Dwarfs, and got hammered by more Dwarfs. Would I get a break from Dwarfs in Day 2? Perhaps play someone who lives more than one state away from me? Stay tuned for more lightning recaps of games that happened long ago!

UP NEXT: US Masters Day 2

THE HALLOW 43-44: KING BEYOND GT DAY 2

On By SalvageIn THE HALLOW2 Comments

After a night spent drinking beer from the local Clifford Brewing Co and playing Let’s Summon Demons, I was back at it Sunday morning to continue doing bad things to Canadians. Here’s my list, as a recap:

HERD 2300
Lycan Horde – Brew of Strength
Guardian Brute Horde – Mead of Madness
Guardian Brute Horde
Minotaur Chariot Regiment – Pipes of Terror, The Stampede [1]
Tribal Spears Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Tribal Spears Regiment
Tribal Spears Regiment
Centaur Bray Striders Troop
Centaur Bray Striders Troop
Moonbeak [1]
Druid – Conjurer’s Staff, Bane Chant (2), Heal (2)
Centaur Chief – Sabre-Toothed Hunting Cat
Centaur Chief – Sabre-Toothed Hunting Cat
+
Vine Hydra
14(25)

Go fast, hit hard, kill the enemy colossal and hopefully keep mine alive. While there were no tournament points on the line for those last two, I had made it a point of pride to destroy all monsters whenever able and was three for three on both counts.

GAME 4: HALFLINGS

Braves Legion – Relentless
Braves Legion – Relentless
Braves Legion – Relentless
Forest Troll Gunners Horde – Fire-Oil, Relentless
Wild Lancers Regiment – Staying Stone, Relentless
Aeronauts Regiment – Blade of Slashing
Aeronauts Regiment
Aeronauts Regiment
Ej Grenadiers Regiment – Relentless
Ej Grenadiers Regiment – Relentless
Ej Grenadiers Regiment – Relentless
Iron Beast
Sergeant – The Standard of Hodenburg
Sauceror
Sauceror
+
Titan(ic Ent)
16(32)

Check out that list! Obligatory triple Aeronauts and Grenadiers, but backed up by triple legions (!), an Iron Beast without Pride of the Shires (!), and a single source of inspiring! (His colossal has very inspiring but still.) For those not in the know, the Standard of Hodenburg grants Aura (Elite (Melee) – Infantry only) … which definitely came in handy rerolling fistfuls of dice for those legions, but I can’t say it led to much more damage 😅 All the same, a rad army that looked amazing on the table, really loaded with thematic details.

Yep, another brickhouse of a treeman. He would provide a nigh immovable anchor to the left side of the board, guiding in waves of flyers hovering around his branches.

We played Control, with the Hallow going first. Note that I did choose sides and stuck Nathaniel with the enormous house in his half of the table 😛

BATTLE

Thanks to that imposing gatehouse, this one turned into a real tale of true halves. On the left, my fast chaff escorted a selection of fast hammers to take down Nathaniel’s Ent and every fast mover he had, apart from one unit of Grenadiers on the other flank. I did what I could to ground flyers and piece-trade while sweating bullets about the triple Aeronauts ominously floating towards me. Luck broke my way when double Aeronauts gently caressed the Stampede, allowing my hammers to descend and eventually surround the titanic treeman. That flank ended in my control, with the Ent attaked on three sides by the remnants of the Hallow’s speediest units. Shout out to the Lycan horde for dropping Aeronauts, Grenadiers and the Iron Beast before ending the game assaulting the titan.

In stark contrast, Nathaniel deployed a wall of nerve and unit strength to the right of the house, with all three Brave legions and the Troll Gunners amassed with their support staff. It should not shock readers to hear that, when presented with a line of legions, I spent my Turn 2 crashing directly into it. The sharp Tribal Spear horde (bane chanted) and some Brutes smashed into the central legion, dealing 21 of the 28 expected damage and biffing the rout check. Balls. The legions closed around my assault force, with the unhindered Braves devouring the Brutes (possibly off a hill as well), while the Tribal Spear horde copped a very unfortunate waver (looks like box cars happened). Eventually the Spear horde would shake it off and end the legion it started, before succumbing late game to the legion in its flank.

The rest of the story on the right involved my Vine Hydra powering into the Troll Gunners (with fire oil!) and eventually pulling them apart, regen be damned. The Grenadiers were grounded by a Centaur Chief and finished by a Tribal Spear regiment, and eventually these Spears and the Hydra had a couple goes at Nathaniel’s other Brave legion, who kept backing up (into my central Control zone). The Hallow bois got the Halfling throng well past 20 damage but once again couldn’t manage the pop. All the same, I had more units in more sectors for a …

HALLOW VICTORY

A pretty wild start to Sunday morning, with some dice angst on the right slowing me down but lots of positional action on the left. Credit to Nathaniel’s Ent, the only colossal I didn’t kill all tournament …

Saber-Toothed Hunting Cat Count: 2 (Sauceror)

GAME 5: BASILEANS

Elohi Hord – Wine of Elvenkind, Celestial Fury
Ogre Palace Guard Horde – Chalice of Wrath
Ogre Palace Guard Horde – Dwarven Ale
Paladin Foot Guard Regiment – Orb of Towering Presence, Aegis Fragment
Sisterhood Scouts Regiment
Sisterhood Scouts Regiment
Paladin Knights Troop – Skirmisher’s Boots, Aegis Fragment
Heavy Arbalest
Heavy Arbalest
Phoenix – Heal (5)
Phoenix – Heal (5)
Priest – Conjurer’s Staff, Heal (3), Bane Chant (2)
Julius, Dragon of Heaven – Fireball (8)
+
(Battle Sanctum)
14(24)

And as has been foretold in the scripture, if Chris Murphy and I are at a tournament we will (almost) always play each other at some point. This version of his Basileans featured all the shooting he had added earlier in the year with Julius around to provide a bit more punch, at the cost of Samacris and the Elohi regiment he usually runs. Nifty and never an easy match for me, especially my soft-bodied Herd.

As for Chris’ colossal, I don’t have any details apart from that it was Sp 6+, De 6+, ensnaring and not particularly fighty.

We played Loot to end the tournament. Chris scouted his Sisters up and happily took the first turn.

BATTLE

Looking back through the photos, I deployed very wide, sending quite a bit of stuff down the right flank across a killing field of shooting and Sp 10. I absolutely should have played for the left two tokens and let him drag the other one around. Ah well.

Chris punched his titan forward on the left, picking up an early token and daring me to take it. And take it I did, hitting his walking brickhouse with the Vine Hydra and Brutes in the front, more Brutes in the flank and Lycans in the other flank 😎 It died and I prepared to piece trade the Ogre Palace Guard away … except that Chris juked a horde back to the central token. As far as that token went, I had grabbed it in my Turn 1 with the Tribal Spear horde, challenging Chris to come and get it. His Elohi + Foot Guard bounced and I ate the Elohi horde in return (nice!), but lost the Tribal Spears to the OPG from the left.

Meanwhile on the right, Chris opened the game by shooting a Tribal Spear reg to death before it had moved. I sighed, then scampered the other Spear reg forward to grab the token, before they were obliterated by shooting in Turn 2. At this point Julius pinned down the Stampede and the Lycan Alpha was jumped on by the troop of Knights. Julius eventually KO’d the Stampede by himself (!) and my right flank consisted of the Centaur Chief endlessly sitting down a Phoenix or turning off Sisters’ shooting while the Alpha ran away from Julius until she couldn’t. Brutal stuff to revisit.

By Turn 3, I’ve got quite a lot of power to work with on the left flank, but not a lot to apply it to without marching into the Basilean shooting. The Vine Hydra and Lycans dunk the OPG horde that Chris has distracted me with, and eventually I’m allowed to fight the other horde but the Brutes cock that up and die late in the game (Chris has at this point shuffled the central token into safe hands). At some point I blitz his Arbalest battery with the Lycans and Centaur Chief but it takes a long time to kill them (snake eyes drags the process out) and I lose that tag team as well. Come end game I’ve just got the Vine Hydra wrapped around a token with the Druid babysitting him, for a …

HALLOW LOSS

I hear shooting is strong against the Herd! But I also feel like I played into it, as well as not going first really hurting my ability to saturate the board, which is typically how I handle running full tilt into shooting. Credit as always to Chris’ good play and great dice, and I continue to really love his army (just maybe not facing it :P)

In the end I went 3-2, played a lot of new people, and managed to kill 4/5 titans while never losing my Vine Hydra. Feels good. Sorry for how long these reports have taken to pull together! For some context, I’m a copy editor / ghost writer by trade and the last year has seen me doing a lot of writing for work, so writing batreps in my down time has clearly not been a priority 😛 This does, however, conclude my 2023 run with the Hallow. I’d like to recap with some Herd thoughts but who has time for analysis with more events in the pipeline?

UP NEXT: I’ve got a ton of Freeforged reports for you, including my time at the 2024 US Masters. I’m considering jumping straight to those? If I don’t find the time to speed recap the other events first. Anyway, stay tuned!

THE HALLOW 40-42: KING BEYOND GT DAY 1

On By SalvageIn THE HALLOWLeave a comment

We’ve arrived, at long last, in sunny Hamilton, Ontario for the end of my Herd’s 2023 tournament run. This was the fourth King Beyond the Wall GT (and my first), which was run at 2300 points with a free 300 point colossal titan (The Thing Beyond the Wall) built using the rules from the Legendary section of the KOW BRB. While I had thought about using this as an excuse to finally paint my Mierce Root Beast, painting time is hard to come by in the summer so I defaulted to building a better hydra …

If you’ve never built a colossal before, you start at a very minimal statblock with no special rules and pay for everything as you go. The TO had imposed some restrictions for the event’s things: no flying, no nimble, no shooting over 12″. The downside of restricting long range shooting titans and fast moving alpha strike titans is that virtually all titans defaulted to being nigh invincible tarpits loaded with auras (rally, cloak, radiance). I was honestly pretty frustrated at how many people saw the massive points saving of taking an ensnaring De 2+ titan with big shield and slammed that button … and then didn’t actually bring a titan with a shield or a shell or tentacles or spinnerets or grabby mechanical claws or whatever 2+ defense looks like. What was presumably supposed to be a hobby celebration or an adventure in unit design felt more like an exercise in min/max powergaming to half the field. Feels bad.

Then again, those of us who didn’t go the big shield exploit rout ended up often doing some version of being tough with varying potential for damage too. While there was quite a lot of true De 6+ to be had, I wanted to stick a little closer to the original hydra profile:

My large resin son survives ok, fights ok, and represents his model very well. Game-wise, he would hopefully be the anvil my Herd lack. Which is a whole lot like what I wanted the Hydra to do for me at Orc Town, on top of hoovering up tokens and carrying them around. Not the most exciting colossal, but one that I was happy to put down and felt reflected the spirit of the rules and the hobby.

HERD 2300
Lycan Horde – Brew of Strength
Guardian Brute Horde – Mead of Madness
Guardian Brute Horde
Minotaur Chariot Regiment – The Stampede [1], Pipes of Terror
Tribal Spears Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Tribal Spears Regiment
Tribal Spears Regiment
Centaur Bray Striders Troop
Centaur Bray Striders Troop
Moonbeak [1]
Druid – Conjurer’s Staff; Bane Chant (2), Heal (2)
Centaur Chief – Sabre-Toothed Hunting Cat
Centaur Chief – Sabre-Toothed Hunting Cat
+
Vine Hydra
14(25)

That’s right, I finally caved and took Moonfang to a tournament. Despite being high on most people’s Herd Good Stuff lists, I’m pretty cool on her(/him/them/it). With the way I run Lycan heroes, I rarely get much from her vicious combo-charge ability, and she’s far less survivable than I expect her to be, for a 210 point De 5+ regen 4+ legend. I guess I figured if I weren’t running the Horn of Always Taken, I may as well give the other auto-include a try at my last tournament with The Hallow (for a bit). Speaking of not taking the Great Chieftain, you can see that I’ve baked brutal into the Stampede and wild charge into some Brutes (the ones with wings), both units that would have benefited from the Horn previously. Finally, I took duelist on the Centaur Chiefs for, at this point, unknown reasons. Att 4 x2 isn’t that great and we’ll find out together if it ever came up!

GAME 1: FORCES OF NATURE

Forest Shamblers Horde
Forest Shamblers Horde
Greater Earth Elemental
Greater Air Elemental
Tree Herder – Wiltfather [1], Surge (8)
Tree Herder – Surge (9)
Gladewalker Druid – Wings of Honeymaze, Ring of Harmony, Surge (8), Spell (?)
*Air Elementals Horde – Brew of Sharpness
*Air Elementals Horde – Brew of Strength
*Greater Air Elemental
+
Blocking Terrain
11(18)

The list above is 25 points shy, which must have at least partially been another spell for the flying Gladewalker Druid? That’s a lot of points to only have two surges on command, as rad as that is. All the same, this youngun’ was running a hyper elite version of the Nature list that was still plaguing us in 2023, including double pre-nerf GAE. Along with his colossal, he had quite a lot of De 6+ to hold me up with as he buffeted me with winds both strong and sharp. Which is not at all how his deployment shook out!

We played Pillage to kick things off, with the Hallow going first one way or another.

BATTLE

As it turned out, all his fast windy stuff ended up on the left and his slow tough stuff on the right, with his colossal trundling down the center unsupported. My plan was to smash into the colossal as hard as possible, splitting his line in two, while I kept the air cadre contained and knocked out a couple of the tough units (starting with the Forest Shamblers) and prepared to grind the De 6+ bastards. This was swiftly complicated in the center when I pushed his colossal to 13 damage (of 15 expected) and only wavered it, and then thoroughly borked on the right when both hordes of Brutes failed to break Forest Shamblers on the charge (thanks in part to a snake eyes). The center was less of an issue, even with him regening 10 of the 13 damage, but I was put very behind on the right, where you’ll notice most of the tokens are :/

The left wasn’t super great to begin with either. Air Elementals big and small were a real terror in 2023, especially with combat items on them, and I ended up trading my Lycans to kill both Air hordes. One of the Greaters was eventually worn down by my Vine Hydra, despite originally being flanked for a shaky 10 damage waver, and the other was indeed pummeled by the Stampede, as was the original plan. I never did kill (or possibly even fight?) any of his De 6+ dudes apart from the colossal, but all the same the Herd ended the game on 5 points to Nature’s 2, for a …

HALLOW VICTORY

My opponent piloted his handful of elementals really well, grabbing some clutch flanks with the air portion and supporting the heavy end well, with big guys poised to flank in against whatever got stuck against the Forest Shamblers. On my part, dice kerfuffles slowed my roll a bit but the Hallow was able to smash it out, plus killing my first tarpit colossal felt good. How many more would fall before my run was over??

GAME 2: NORTHERN ALLIANCE

Ice Elementals Horde – Blessing of the Gods
Ice Elementals Horde – Chant of Hate
Snow Trolls Horde – Dwarven Ale
Dwarf Clan Warriors Regiment
Dwarf Clan Warriors Regiment
Cavern Dweller
Cavern Dweller
Cavern Dweller
Lord on Frostfang – Snow Fox, Blade of Slashing
Lord on Frostfang – Snow Fox, Mace of Crushing
Ice Blade – Wings of Honeymaze, Snow Fox
Ice-Queen – Surge (8), Spell (?)
+
Crazy As Frost Giant
13(21)

Was this using the updated NA rules? I know Crossroads did a few months later but I suspect this was the old rules – so no Ordered March on the Dwarfs, no Tundra Fighters to worry about, no Chilling Presence, but +1 attak on the Frostlords. As above, there are 50 unaccounted for points, which must be at least one more spell on the Ice-Queen? I feel like she had blizzard … Serakina would make the points work out but I’m not 100% that I was ever windblasted. Regardless, it’s the pre-Tribesfolk core of large infantry and short range shooting with some great squares scooting around threatening to punch holes in things. Including triple Cavern Dwellers! Man that is cool, and a lot to keep track of.

Note that his colossal, who is not Hrimm, definitely has shambling. Because I certainly did not. Minor spoilers.

We played Push, specifically the pre-COK version. He put all three on his Snow Trolls, as was the fashion of the time, and I put two on my Vine Hydra and one on some Tribal Spears on the left. The Herd went first, by choice or otherwise.

BATTLE

All told, my plan for the left half of the board went swimmingly. Lycans and a Centaur Chief escorted my Tribal Spears reg with one token up the flank, combo-charging some Dwarfs to death and then trapping and killing the Frostlord who had aspirations of doing a flank. This went quickly enough that the Tribal Spears and the Lycan were able to help envelop the Snow Trolls, who I had planned on at least delaying on his side of the board if not outright killing once hammers could be brought to bear. Low and behold, we did them a murder and stole their tokens, giving them all to the Tribal Spears horde who had also grabbed the center token, for a great many Push points.

Rewind to the right half of the game. All those Cavern Dwellers and their Frostlord pack leader were always going to be tricky to contain, and they certainly did work, with only one Dweller dying by game end! Thankfully I was able to mostly pen them in early with one Centaur troop, as they had advanced in a line, which gave me the space to Brute off some Ice Elementals and the other Dwarfs before all his squares descended upon me. And descend they did, including a very surprising surge flank from his colossal into Moonfang, that I felt stupid about as I watched the legendary werewolf get stomped into paste. We did kill the colossal in return but bad feels. Despite that, I enjoyed some low rout checks from the NA side that kept my hammers on the right hammering a bit longer than maybe they should have, and ended the game with the Vine Hydra endlessly chomping on a Cavern Dweller, which was entirely copacetic as he had two of my Push tokens and was across the center line. With 14 points to 0, this was a decisive …

HALLOW VICTORY

I’m pretty sure this was my opponent’s first time facing Herd? And he was a little shook by how aggressively I came at him. We had a bit of a discussion about that Moonfang flank that I can’t remember the details of, compounded by it being an 18″ nimble flank charge which seemed to come out of nowhere, but whatever bruised feelings we had dissipated when Moonfang was surge-flanked and I got to feel dumb too :/ All the same, he took his beasting like a champ and was a total gent at Crossroads soon after. And another round of props on the triple (Mantic!) Cavern Dwellers, very cool flex.

Saber-Toothed Hunting Cat Count: 1 (Ice-Queen)

GAME 3: RIFTFORGED ORCS

Fight Wagons Legion – Brew of Sharpness
Fight Wagons Legion – Brew of Strength
Helstrikers Regiment – Boots of Striding
Tundra Wolves Troop
Tundra Wolves Troop
Ambarox
Ambarox
Ambarox
Thonaar [1]
Stormcaller – Sacred Horn, Lightning Bolt (4), Veil of Shadows (3)
Riftforger on Manticore – Blade of Slashing
*Riftforged Legionaries Regiment
*Riftforged Legionaries Regiment
*Reborn Legionaries Regiment – (10 Point Item?)
+
Riftforged Orcling
14(24)

Is this really my first battle report against Riftforged?? Madness. I’ve played them in a couple practice games (usually UB) and have extensively tinkered with them myself, but I guess never bumped into them at an event. Probably checks out, given their scarcity. All the same, I knew what plenty of his list did or wanted to do, tho I’d be lying if I said double tooled up Fight Wagon legions wasn’t horrifying. What I didn’t know, however, was how good Ambarox are, or how much trouble a single regiment of Helstrikers could cause.

Mathew’s colossal was more like what I expected to face. Big shield means you save points on De, headstrong means you save points on Nv, ensnare means you’re doubly great to the front, cloak of death is always tasty, regen 4+ forever (and is cheaper on De 2+), and brutal 3 is very cool (and what I was looking at for my Root Beast too). The most noteworthy thing is going to Sp 8 at the cost of having more attaks, which if you’re leaning on brutal 3 is less of an issue. The model is the big purple troll, keep an eye on him in the slideshow as he gets around.

We played Dominate, with the Riftforged going first. Boo.

BATTLE

This is a tough game to summarize, so let’s focus on Mathew’s four problem units: the Helstriker regiment, the Riftforged Orcling colossal, and the two Fight Wagon legions. It is crazy-making to see how much effort I put into failing to contain those Helstrikers … So Mat holds the Helstrikers back for his last deployment, then pushes up first turn to neuter my Lycan’s speed advantage, as well as the Stampede’s really. I advance my fast flanking hammers a little bit, getting into range of some Tundra Wolves too but I’m not sure I care. Mat surprises me by double-charging my Lycan with Wolves and Helstrikers, which is mathematically a little shaky but on the whole ok? They do 10 damage and waver my ultra-hammer. The Stampede flanks and evaporates the Wolves, and I kneejerk a Centaur Chief into the Helstrikers to sit them down, which is what these heroes are there for. Except on the counter-charge Mat kills the Centaur Chief (not the most likely result but s’ok) … and overruns into the flank of the Lycan horde. He commiserates with me that it’s a bad rule before removing the Lycans and turning to face the rest of my line with what amounts to a piece of thicc chaff. The Stampede roll out of their mind in coming turns to one round some Riftforged Legionaries but are also killed by the freakin’ Helstrikers (after accumulating lots of shooting damage on the way in). I finally smash the Helstrikers with my Spear horde but what a mess that caused.

The Riftforged Orcling is a simpler story but has its twists thanks to being so fast. Mat’s colossal stalked up the middle of the board, frustratingly wavered a Spear reg with the help of some Tundra Wolves (so I couldn’t use my second line to fight either unit), then murdered that regiment and spun to face my Brutes grinding up the left flank. I had become stuck on some Riftforged Legionaries, then suddenly flanked by the Orcling and exploded. The Orcling spun back to the center, stopping my Vine Hydra’s advance until finally being popped like a balloon when my (hindered) Spear horde flanked it. Turns out De 2+ big shield ensnare isn’t great side-on!

One of the upsides of the Orcling’s foray into my left flank is that I need to put my Brutes into his Fight Wagons to kill them, and thus win the game. This was successful on the right, but wow was it not on the left. I out-chaffed Mat on the left flank … until his Ambarox battered down my unit advantage. I don’t have much time to piece trade over there, when suddenly the Orcling appears and removes the Brutes entirely. Luckily my Centaur Chief over there is a boss, killing the Riftforger, finishing off the Legionaries, and eventually sealing the deal on the left Fight Wagons at the end of the game. However, at that point I’m just out of dudes and Mat’s Reforged can saunter into the scoring zone, for a 1 to 5 …

HALLOW LOSS

Credit to Mathew on the Helstriker play, and whatever the opposite of credit is for the same 😛 Looking back, I can see things I could have done differently – like reversing the Lycan and nimbling pivoting so I could at least trade the Centaur Chief for the Helstrikers – but ah well. Third games be like that and Mat played really well.

Saber-Toothed Hunting Cat Count: 2 (Riftforger)

UP NEXT: Day 2! In which we see the return of a suspiciously familiar face …

THE HALLOW 38-39: ORC TOWN GT DAY 2

On By SalvageIn THE HALLOWLeave a comment

Dawn of the Second Day. I’m hungover, on the bottom table, playing an exceedingly nice dude whose brother had roped him into playing a tournament for a game he didn’t have a ton of experience with but was down to throw some dice. But also here’s his list:

GAME 4: DWARFS

Shieldbreakers Horde – Chant of Hate, Throwing Mastiff
Shieldbreakers Horde – Boots of Striding, Throwing Mastiff
Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
Ironbelcher Organ Gun
Ironbelcher Organ Gun
Ironbelcher Organ Gun
Steel Behemoth – Golloch’s Fury [1]
Stone Priest – Ej Periscope, Knowledgeable, Radiance of Life, Celestial Restoration (3), Hex (2)
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Orb of Towering Presence
Dwarf Lord – Wings of Honeymaze
Faber Ironheart [1]
*Ironclad Horde – Throwing Mastiff
*Bulwarkers Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
*Bulwarkers Regiment – Throwing Mastiff
*Standard Bearer
16(28)

Seems good! A very hearty Dwarf list that shares many similarities with what in 2024 would become The Dwarf List, including the obligatory formation. Note that this is pre-Clash so none of these Dwarfs have ordered march. I hadn’t faced Organ Guns in a couple of years and can’t say I was too excited about facing three 😅 But at least they’re a known quantity, and probably worse than the triple Sharpshooters that have replaced them? Either way, I drank my energy drink and prepared to slam forward.

We played Salt the Earth, with the Hallow going first, one way or another.

BATTLE

I wouldn’t say my plan going in was to roll the right flank up, but that’s kind of what happened. I burnt the two rightmost tokens in the opening turns before ignoring the Beast Lord and churning through the Dwarfs to the right of the Organ Gun battery. Top marks to the Forest Warden who held up an entire Shieldbreaker horde (the CS1 kind) and lived, buying the Lycans time to blend an Ironguard regiment in the flank and then utterly body the Shieldbreakers to the front. We’re talking like 16 damage out of 18 dice. The Lycans would go on to kill the Beast Lord for good measure and score a point, free of damage. Total chads.

If I had a plan, it was to force through the left flank with double Brute hordes (arguably triple on that half of my deployment) and crumple the Dwarf line side on. I kept hitting speed bumps on the way in – Faber threw himself forward, which took two rounds of Bruting to clear up, and the classic flying Dlord did what flying Dlord’s do, blocking another Brute up (for a single round) – but my dice didn’t help. You’ll notice that that one horde of Shieldbreakers over there took the entire game and three rounds of Brute attaks (90 dice total) to go down. The snake eyes was certainly responsible but these guys really blunted my aspirations for that flank.

As for the center … the Dwarfs shot off my Tribal Spear horde first turn, which lit even more of a fire than I already had. I took his Ironclad horde in response, and we started trading back and forth, with Golloch bouncing around running my hammers over. But he got his own when my Lycan Alpha fear charged the big dude, delivering 10 or so damage and dunking the legendary contraption. The Alpha would end the game hard-modeing into the front of the last Bulwarkers, eventually killing them too, as a Tribal Spear regiment waded through the Organ Guns. With the Dwarfs tabled and the Herd on 5/5 points, this was a full points …

HALLOW VICTORY

It’s hard to say what went so wrong for my opponent – I don’t recall his dice being woefully bad (I’m the one who rolled snakes!) and his list has plenty of Dwarf Good Stuff in it. He was going to struggle a bit on the scenario but then again his Organ Guns were deployed to punish the tokens he wasn’t playing for, so well planned there. Mostly I’m surprised by how much I have left on the board, my Herd is usually pretty mangled come end game … All the same, the big win felt good and hopefully the dude learned some stuff from me getting all positional on him. He did go on to win the Best Sports trophy, which was well-deserved (and paid for in the blood of his Dwarfs, I imagine).

GAME 5: EMPIRE OF DUST

Skeleton Spearmen Horde – Hammer of Measured Force
Skeleton Spearmen Horde – Dragonshard Shield
Enslaved Guardians Horde – Blessing of the Gods
Enslaved Guardians Horde – Boots of Striding
Mummies Regiment – Brew of Haste
Mummies Regiment – Helm of the Drunken Ram
Mummies Regiment – Mead of Madness
Mummies Regiment – Pipes of Terror
Soul Snare [1] – Drain Life (9)
Monolith [1] – Surge (8)
Idol of Shobik [1] – Heal (5)
Ahmunite Pharaoh – Eternal Guard, Knowledgeable, Surge (8), Host Shadowbeast (3)
Cursed High Priest – Wither and Perish (3), Weakness (3)
Cursed High Priest – Ej Periscope, Hex (3), Weakness (3)
14(28)

Remember how the Dwarf player last game was roped into this tournament by his brother? This was his brother. Through the magic of tournament rankings, this guy would have the chance to reap sweet vengeance on the Herd what tabled his sibling … and frankly his list looked up to the task. Mummy regiments drive me a little crazy, so four it is. Spearmen hordes are particularly good against Herd (RIP my TC) and he’s got the full allotment of legends (remember that pre-COK Rahs wasn’t taken and (hot take) Sebekh-Rei has always been mediocre). That is a wild number of items but 2600 points be like that sometimes.

We played Dominate to end the tournament, with the Empire going first. The shot below is juuuust into his movement phase, those Mummies weren’t scouting (Mummies didn’t do that in 2023 :P). Also check out that terrain! What a map to play Dominate on when you’re a slow death blob being surrounded by angry tree creatures. Luckily the Stampede strides …?

BATTLE

I’d argue the play of the match happened at the top of Turn 2, when the EOD yeeted the Pharaoh (on foot, mind you!) into a Brute horde, cast Host Shadowbeast, rocked the damage (8-10 out of 10 possible) and then hot rolled the rout twice, removing the Brutes. To make matters worse, I had to put a second Brute horde into the Pharaoh to end his reign of terror, which cost two turns of grinding thanks to rough Nv dice on my part. This severely blunted my momentum down the middle and was all around a great move on the Empire’s part.

Of course, my game was always going to be about hunting for flanks and trying to crush the dusty heart of the EOD blob. To that end, I was forced to take hindered charge after hindered charge, with the obvious exception of the Stampede … who weren’t off the hook tho, spending every turn Weaknessed. Eventually I used the Centaur Chieftain to kick every Cursed Priest he could reach, stopping some of the Weaknessing, but once again my precious momentum had been robbed and the grind fully entered. You can taste my desperation clicking through the photos, especially on the right flank where I just couldn’t get through those Enslaved Guardians and Mummy regiment, even with him snaking the Stampede.

That said, the Herd did get work done, particularly when the surviving Brutes made it into combat. Even hindered, the Lycans were able to lift two regiments of Mummies, and eventually juked Shobik to flip over a Spearmen horde come end game. Thankfully the game ended here, with my 10 US to his 8 (the last of the Mummies were juuuust out). Which by Dominate rules meant this was a …

HALLOW VICTORY

What a grinder to end the tournament. I felt ok going in and was ready to hard roll my way through, but I don’t think I was mentally prepared for how painful that much hindering and Weakness would actually feel to push through. On top of the Pharaoh’s hero charge! Also a note on clocks in this game and last: I’m almost sure we went to time and had some spastic last turns. You can tell by how my dice are everywhere when I’m taking the photos 😉

And that’s a wrap for Orc Town 2023! A fairly cursed first day followed up by trouncing two brothers put me somewhere in the bottom third. So be it. I scored a couple treasures from the raffle afterwards, including this gem from the curling club’s bathroom that now lives in one of mine:

All hail Skullface!

UP NEXT: The King Beyond the Wall IV – The Thing Beyond the Wall

THE HALLOW 35-37: ORC TOWN GT DAY 1

On By SalvageIn THE HALLOWLeave a comment

Ah, the Orc Town GT. Crown jewel in the Northeast tournament circuit. Held at the Cape Cod Curling Club in Falmouth, MA, Orc Town is five big games of Kings of War (2665 points) on a surprisingly tight clock (69 minutes), but with amazing prize support, themed tables and great vibes. I had a banging first day in 2022 with my crabs and ended up with Best Sports, would I be able to repeat some of this success in 2023?

Find out in these especially sketchy recaps. Sorry, dead readers, this was almost a year ago and I was in a rough headspace that weekend due to life stuff that happened the week of. Which I suppose is more spoilers!

HERD 2665
Lycan Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Guardian Brute Horde
Guardian Brute Horde
Guardian Brute Horde
Minotaur Chariot Regiment – The Stampede [1]
Tribal Spears Horde – Chalice of Wrath
Tribal Spears Regiment
Tribal Spears Regiment
Centaur Bray Striders Troop
Centaur Bray Striders Troop
Hydra
Lycan Alpha – Wingbane Cloak
Great Chieftain – Horn of the Great Migration [1]
Druid – Conjurer’s Staff; Bane Chant (2), Heal (2)
Centaur Chief
Forest Warden – Surge (4)
16(29)

I talked about my list changes in the last post, but the summary is: Tribal infantry got spears, third Brute horde was windmill-slammed into the list, Hydra saw his first event outing. Wingbane Cloak drinking game is in effect (but you may want something to sip on while you wait for the cloak to matter :P)

GAME 1: FORCES OF THE ABYSS

Molochs Horde – Despoiler Champion
Molochs Horde – Despoiler Champion
Molochs Horde – Despoiler Champion
Tortured Souls Regiment
Abyssal Ghouls Regiment
Abyssal Ghouls Regiment
Abyssal Ghouls Regiment
Gargoyles Troop
Gargoyles Troop
Abyssal Fiend – Fireball (10)
Abyssal Fiend – Fireball (10)
Chroneas
Chroneas
The Well of Souls [1]
Abyssal Warlock – Staying Stone, Knowledgeable, Celestial Restoration (3)
Seductress – Gnome Glass Shield
16(25)

I hadn’t played Brian in quite some time and wasn’t sad to face him off the rip. His Abyssals looked great, with a very cohesive scheme and almost entirely Mantic, including possibly the only official Tortured Souls I’ve seen in person. As the list went, it was basically perfect. Top flight Abyssals for Summer 2023 with no fat on it. The Celesto Resto was an interesting touch but Brian knew that the Molochs were the lifters and they didn’t really need any help beyond arriving alive.

We played Raze, with the Hallow going first, as is my want.

BATTLE

I won’t bury the lead on this one: I clocked out on Turn 4. My game of positioning and piece trading took way too long to get moving (45 min spent on Turn 1+2), which didn’t leave me enough time to actually execute with my hammers. Despite me being firmly in control of this match, Brian had a cushy 19 minutes to decimate my dudes, who were now disastrously rooted in place, only allowed to turn to face.

HALLOW LOSS

Rough start to the weekend to say the least! Sorry to Brian for the poor time management on my part.

GAME 2: ORDER OF THE BROTHERMARK

Order of the Abyssal Hunt Regiment – Blessing of the Gods
Order of the Abyssal Hunt Regiment – Boots of Striding
Paladin Knights Regiment – Brew of Strength
Paladin Knights Regiment – Blood of the Old King
Paladin Knights Troop – Skirmisher’s Boots
Oathsworn Guardians Regiment [1]
Villein Bowmen Horde
Villein Bowmen Horde
Heavy Arbalest
Heavy Arbalest
Phoenix – Heal (5)
Phoenix – Heal (5)
High Paladin on Dragon – Blade of Slashing
Exemplar Hunter – Order of the Lone Wolf, Mace of Crushing
Priest – Conjurer’s Staff, Heal (3), Bane Chant (2)
15(25)

Mr. Kevin Spear, everyone! Always a pleasure and his army is a joy to look at. He was back on Brothermark from Rhordia last year (we played in a Round 1 grudge match as you’ll recall), with quite a bit more shooting thanks to the Phoenix buffs and everyone discovering that Arbalests are rather legit (the Bowmen were always there). If it wasn’t shooting, it was charging 16″ / 20″ into my waiting arms. I remember not feeling like I had the brainpower to stay in control of this one …

We played Control, with Kevin going first. Last turn is good for grabbing board sections, right? Here’s hoping I have an army left 🙃

BATTLE

This was a particularly rough second game. Losing the initiative and having my left Centaurs wavered held up my left flank quite badly, and you can see the moments where luck slapped my Brutes down. On the right, I failed a 3″ overrun off his Exemplar Hunter into a knight regiment, losing the Brutes next turn. In the center, I snaked a rout into peasants with more Brutes, losing the momentum and eventually that unit to Kevin’s dragon … although it’s very strange I didn’t rotate to put the dragon in their front? I’m guessing this is the moment I clocked out :/ Because that also happened, tho going into Turn 6 this time. Hydra lived at least!

HALLOW LOSS

Going into this I felt like we were pretty well matched? Kevin and I are at similar skill levels and our armies have interesting answers to each other, but he grabbed the initiative and I couldn’t wrest it away from him, between wavers, losses to shooting and some floppy combats that I needed to go my way. Clocking out again didn’t help.

GAME 3: TRIDENT REALM

Gigas Horde
Gigas Horde
Depth Horrors Horde
Depth Horrors Regiment
Thuul Regiment
Thuul Regiment
Riverguard Treeleapers Troop
Riverguard Treeleapers Troop
Tidal Swarm Regiment
Kraken
Knucker
Knucker
Naiad Centurion – Trident of the Drowned Sea [1]
Thuul Aquamage – Rising Tides, Icy Breath (10), Barkskin (5)
Naiad Envoy – Horn of Ocean’s Fury, Bastion (2)
*The Hidden Ones Regiment [1]
*The Hidden Ones Regiment [1]
*Ineesha [1] – Bane Chant (2)
18(29)

Surely this wasn’t the first time I’ve played Chris and his fishpeople? Soft spoken gent and a canny player, I’ve enjoyed chatting with Chris at basically all the NE events since he started coming to them. As for the list, it seems legit. As with most pre-2024 TR lists, the goal is to buff and deliver Thuul where needed, with a backbone of Gigas and sneaky problem solvers in the Knuckers and trident Centurion. Essentially everything ensnares, so I’d have to flex my dice rolling skills. (Ed. note: These skills had apparently not made it to Cape Cod yet.)

We played old school Loot, with the Herd going first. At least I’ve got that going for me.

BATTLE

Walking through my photos, you can see that basically everything took an extra turn to break – Brutes hitting on 5+ are significantly less great, and I was relying on them to carry me through the tournament. Plus there was that one snake eyes once the Stampede trapped a Knucker against the board edge 😛 Anyway, my Hydra grabbed a token and slithered away to hold onto it (doing his one damn job like a professional token holder), while Chris’ Depth Horror horde was handed the left token and was never really in any danger of losing it. Which meant we were fighting for the center token. I grabbed it immediately with my Tribal horde, and had it in control until very late game when the waves of Thuul wore my Tribal spears and then Brutes down. The Thuul weathered my Lycan horde’s late game dive thanks to layer upon layer of barkskin, clinging to life and winning Chris the game.

HALLOW LOSS

Fun fact, I actually clocked out this game too 😅 I had enough to launch the Lycans in and swing but not enough to roll any of the other extraneous combats going on. In retrospect, the clock played less of a role than I gave it credit for in my second two games of the day, but I was definitely scrambling throughout.

So! At Orc Town 2022 I went 2-0-1 the first day with my crabs, ending the day in the nosebleeds of fourth place. Day 1 of Orc Town 2023 saw me 0-3-0 with Herd and literally in last place … but you know what, the bartenders were great and propped up my flagging spirits with plentiful glasses of Orcto Cooler, one of the tastiest damn hangovers I’ve had the pleasure of drinking too much of 💚

UP NEXT: Day 2! The only way to go is up!