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:
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!
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 …
(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 😅
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)!
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??
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!
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:
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!
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.
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 …
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-Reihas 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
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!
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)
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.
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 💚
Before we get to the Orc Town GT 2023 recap, I need to blast through the two prep games I played for the event. Orc Town that year was a staggering 2665 points played on a (not) nice 69 minute clock – you’ll note that we are not playing on clocks in these two games, but you should consider this foreshadowing for the event itself. Chekhov’s smoking chess clock, if you will.
Anyway, I played some bloated games of Kings with my buds. Brace for recap!
A surprising amount changed for The Hallow between Pilgrimage and Orc Town. My Tribal bros all got spears (and would never put them down again, especially after Clash 2024), but the horde lost sharpness … because why be a hammer when there’s a third horde of Brutes to do that work? I also used the extra points to get my derpy Hydra on the table, and toss a Warden into the mix for chaff work. I love the current Clash changes to them, but even without inspiring I’ve seen potential in the weird little guy. Plus it gave me an excuse to paint up a larger mushroom dude to pal around with my myconid Great Chieftain.
Finally, take a shot every time my Lycan Alpha uses her Wingbane Cloak 😅 I totally should have kept the Lycans at brew of strength and used the 5 points to give the Alpha her hex back but I guess I wanted her to be extra annoying to the flyers she seems to always be fighting.
NATURE 2665 Air Elemental Horde – Probably Hammer Earth Elemental Horde Earth Elemental Horde Scorchwings Horde Scorchwings Horde Scorchwings Horde Water Elemental Regiment Water Elemental Regiment Woodland Critters Regiment Greater Air Elemental Greater Water Elemental Tree Herder – Surge (8) Gladewalker Druid – Ring of Harmony, Surge (8), Etc. Druid on Steed – Surge (4), Bane Chant (2), Etc. Unicorn – Cool Spells 15(26)
Jason ran Forces of Nature at both Dead of Winter and Pilgrimage and did surprisingly well – remember that this was 2023, so the flying elemental shitshow list was de rigueur for the meta – and figured he’d lean harder into the Scorchwing angle with the extra points. Note that this list doesn’t have enough unlocks as played, which I can’t figure out. If the Unicorn were a Pegasus this would all be good, so maybe that was the plan? But clearly that kelpie is on a cav base still. Weird.
We rolled up Push, and since it’s the old rules for Push, Jason put all his tokens on the Critters on the left, surrounded by Scorchwings, and I stacked mine on the Hydra because that’s literally his only job. I went first, one way or another.
BATTLE
Once his tokens were piled on the Critters dragging themselves down the board edge, escorted by 1000 points of flying hordes, I knew I was just playing for the center token. To that end, I loaded it into the Tribal Spear horde early, which was taken off by a gnarly Air horde flank, then pounded on by the Stampede until my plucky Forest Warden finished off the Air Elementals. The Warden was able to hide behind the Stampede’s big base and weather the storm, winning the game.
A lot of credit for this goes to the Stampede for being a bit of a brickhouse, absorbing frontal charges from Air, Earth and Scorch hordes and a flank from Scorchwings before succumbing. Jason’s extremely weighted flank was an interesting gambit that tripped over itself a little bit – triple Scorch hordes take up a lot of board space – but kept my rampage contained and nabbed some decent kills in the process. I don’t remember his shooting being too crippling but it certainly took a toll on my chaff.
HALLOW VICTORY
It’s interesting looking back on this game from the future, where Nature has been gently nerfed. The list (once you swap Unicorn for Pegasus and make it legal) is still fine? But the GAE is weaker and the Scorchwings cost more what they should. Basically it’s the same, but with fewer spells / items to add polish. More importantly, Push has been blessedly modified since this game happened, so what we did with our token carriers is legal but far less lucrative. Obviously to the detriment of flying nimble elite Nature more than Herd, tho I have felt the squeeze as my stuff is so often dead come late game.
A final note, Jason actually ended up speed painting a Morax spam army in time for Orc Town! He did quite well, and would do so again at King Beyond the Wall. Mad props. His Nature, like most Nature armies from 2023, has largely fallen by the wayside. RIP.
Summer 2023 was peak Wraiths for Jeff. He had figured out how to use them, and all he wanted to do was use more and more of them. I had convinced him to try out a regiment instead of just six (!) troops of ghosts, but as much as I insisted he give them sharpness so they could do something in combat, I’m pretty sure he continued to resist and put sharpness on an SRC reg instead. Talk about putting a hat on a hat, m’right? I’ve guessed on the rest of the list but it features plenty of classic Jeff Undead-isms. The triple Lykanis is a cool thing that I really don’t think he took to Orc Town, or ever ran again for that matter. Which is too bad, I think it has potential, even if it requires more work / clock to get the most from.
We rolled up Loot, taking a break from the Plundering that Jeff and I are usually up to. I scouted my Warden up and went first, possibly because Jeff made me.
BATTLE
Jeff and I play a lot, as you’re well aware, so I think it’s telling that the units that made the most difference here were the new things he had added. The Wraith regiment held me up forever, which let his vamp hammers on the right sort through my blockers and smash into my hammers once they were free. Only my Lycans, as the second wave hammer, survived out of all the units on that flank! On the left, he aggroed my Brutes with two Lykanis and a Wraith troop, which unexpectedly killed my horde in two turns (at the cost of one Lykanis). I had to divert my Tribal horde (loot in hand) over to deal with the SRC over there, except without sharpness it wasn’t to be and that flank collapsed.
In the center, my Hydra scooped a loot then plowed into some Soul Reaver Infantry. Big guy should hold a turn, right? Probably have a bitching counter assault thanks to all the damage? Math said yes, Jeff’s dice said no! Hydra bit it and I had a problem … which I applied Brutes to. Unfortunately his Revenant horde, always utter chads, started eating my Brute hordes and didn’t stop until it got Lycan’d in the end game. With two of the tokens, things were still rosy for me except that the damn left flank Lykanis pounced on the last of my Tribal Spear regs and tore them apart over two turns, grabbing my token and giving Jeff that rare W against me.
HALLOW LOSS
Credit to Jeff, he had some strong plays (that he thought were dumb, like yeeting the Lykanis into the Brutes) that combined with his trademark Great Vampire Dice and Wraith’s insane value worked out once the swirling chaos of melee had ended. I’m quite sure he didn’t actually take all these wolf heroes to Orc Town, instead taking 2x Wraith regs + 4x Wraith troops, which to date is maximum ghost for him.
This cost me another Earth horde before they too were taken out.
BLOODFIRE 