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.
As the tournament was being held offsite from the hotel, shenanigans were kept to a dull roar after day one wrapped and we collectively feasted. All too soon, it was time to rejoin the battle for the Mid-Atlantic. Having gone 1-2, my Herd were drifting down the standings, but I was gunning for that day two rally to shore my record up.
I almost never face Goblins, so that’s cool, but these gobs are being piloted by Steve Forster of Dash28 fame! I do enjoy throwing down with people I recognize from the Internet. Steve’s list seemed fine, free of the really egregious shooting spam I’ve heard about and a little more interested in fighting than being trash (i.e. two Troll hordes and double Slashers). The Slashers were the biggest wild card for me, having been freshly buffed in Clash 2023 and a unit I really like in theory.
We played Salt the Earth I think, except neither of us wanted to burn any so we basically played Pillage 😛 I did not go first this game! But not by choice 😉
BATTLE
I approached this game like most of my Herd games: junk wanders forward to prepare counters from my slower hammers, while my Lycan super-hammer hunts down a flank and applies pressure, with the Stampede forcing enemy hammers back. Versus Goblins this seems to run into an awkward situation where they too have a bunch of garbage pushing forward or holding objectives, except instead of hammers they mostly have short range guns. The twist here is that Slashers are very very good, IMO, and Steve’s dice were especially kind to them, in combat or when trumpeting.
The play of the game for me was spotting a Troll flank with my Lycans at almost full charge, which they nimbled into and suddenly Steve has a Lycan horde in his rear. I made the choice to reform the Lycans towards Steve’s center, rather than clean up the left entirely, but then was chaffed and lost the big worm’s targets. My other hammers similarly suffered to get much momentum going – I’d kill a thing, get shot, maybe wavered out of combat (I have a lot of fury that does nothing in that case), maybe fight again, but I’m bleeding to death and the Goblins don’t care. Come end game, I once again have very little left to score, while the Goblins have more than enough to take it.
HALLOW LOSS (4-9)
I don’t know how Steve got 9 points? It definitely doesn’t look like a draw in those last photos! All the same, well played by Steve and I seriously underestimated the Slashers throughout, and paid the price.
GAME 5: LEAGUE OF RHORDIA
Honour Guard Horde Honour Guard Horde Foot Guard Horde (or Dogs of War?) Knights Regiment Knights Regiment Pole-Arms Regiment Pole-Arms Regiment Halfling Archers Regiment Halfling Archers Regiment Battle Shrine [1] Duke on Ancient Winged Aralez Duke Hetronburg [1] Duke on Horse Baron 14(29)
I don’t have John’s list but this is my best recreation. There are 90 points of upgrades missing, which feels right between all the Indomitable Wills and typical upgrades for cavalry or hammers. John was a super nice dude, and a very low key end to the event. If not on the bottom table, we weren’t far from it!
We played Invade to finish the tournament out. The Hallow took the initiative, for a solid four out of five first turns to me. Not bad.
BATTLE
My memory of this game is the weakest of all of them, but I certainly took a lot of photos! Partially because John’s army looked great. The gist of this match is that I woefully undersupported the left flank – the Stampede wasn’t intended to crash through all that fast stuff, but without backup or hot dice it probably wasn’t going to do much, so was essentially delaying the hammers as long as possible … except it’s Invade, so I’m also just letting US3+ walk across the center line and win the game.
On the right, I needed to keep his knights penned in to get my Brutes into play, which only half worked (I wonder if that horde is Dogs of War? To have blunted the Brute charge or clapped back so hard). Plus my Lycans weren’t able to trade for even one knight regiment, a shameful turn of events to be sure. Duke Hetronburg also proved a real thorn in my side, with his Ht 4 hard for my short army to keep in check. In the end, the Brutes and the Lycan Alpha survived, however weren’t enough to offset John’s Honor Guard and couple infantry regiments – all three units that started the game in the upper left! Thanks Stampede 😦
HALLOW LOSS (?-?)
If I had to guess, I’d say I picked up another 3-4 points. Despite getting a trickle of points every game, a single win out of five games wasn’t the best feel to leave with. None of my games felt out of my control, even against Ken, but they all spiraled away in the late game as my soft bodies got bogged down or shot. It was also pretty clear to me that Tribal Spears would have been super helpful in all but possibly the Dwarf game, with so many cav hammers kicking around. Spoilers for the lists ahead.
Sorry for the wait on these Herd reports, and for their brevity. I’ll try to keep the momentum up so we can get back to 2024 🤦♂️
I took my Hallow Herd to four grand tournaments in 2023: Dead of Winter (January), The Pilgrimage (March), Orc Town (June) and King Beyond the Wall (August). You can read about my Dead of Winter run already, but my goal is to finish reports for all of these events before the year ends eventually! Strap in, dead readers, slideshows and recaps are incoming.
The Pilgrimage GT (March 4-5) was five games at 2300 points held in Philadelphia, PA. Of note is that this is a different KOW region from my own, so me and a handful of the Northeastern lads would be raiding the Mid-Atlantic for a change. With decidedly mixed results 😅 It’s worth noting that Pilgrimage used Modified Bullshroud scoring, which gave 10-5-1 points for W-D-L with additions for scenario points and attrition earned, not scenario or attrition differential.
HERD 2300 Lycan Horde – Brew of Strength Guardian Brute Horde Guardian Brute Horde Minotaur Chariot Regiment – The Stampede [1] Tribal Warrior Horde – Brew of Sharpness Tribal Warrior Regiment Tribal Warrior Regiment Tribal Warrior Regiment Centaur Bray Striders Troop Centaur Bray Striders Troop Lycan Alpha – Trickster’s Wand; Hex (2) Great Chieftain – Horn of the Great Migration [1] Centaur Chieftain – Blade of Slashing Druid – Conjurer’s Staff; Bane Chant (2), Heal (2) 14 (27)
In the two months and +150 points between Dead of Winter and The Pilgrimage, all I’ve added is a third regiment of Tribal Warriors and given some tasty upgrades (Wand, Staff, Blade) to the support staff. The concept worked great at DOW, why mess with it? Honestly one of the reasons I went to Pilgrimage was because I wanted to play a 2300 singles event. It sounds weird to say, but those are extremely rare in the Northeast region currently, where we do different points levels or doubles instead.
GAME 1: VARANGUR
The Fallen Horde – Chalice of Wrath The Fallen Horde – Brew of Haste Mounted Sons Regiment – Helm of the Drunken Ram, Guise of the Deceiver Mounted Sons Regiment – Boots of Striding, Guise of the Deceiver Night Raiders Regiment – Bows Snow Foxes Regiment Draugr Regiment Draugr Regiment Magus Conclave – Famulus Magus Conclave – Famulus Frost Giant – Giant Club (!) Magnilde of the Fallen [1] Lord on Frostfang – Snow Fox Skald – Lute of Insatiable Darkness 14(21)
Mike had taken a fairly standard fast Varangur list for this event, with an emphasis on punching as hard as possible but with the usual scenario doers and some shooting of his own. I gave him props for taking a Frost Giant outside of Northern Alliance (with rampage no less!), however he assured me that ‘Frosty the Pillow-Fisted Freakshow’ was mostly a liability. I also took a brief moment to laugh in Herd at his Mounted Sons’ investment in stealth 😅 Note that this is before the Northern Alliance buffs, so the Skald doesn’t grant Ordered March (to the Draugr??) and the Frostlord is still on 9 attaks.
We played Pillage, with the 2 point tokens center and just to the left. The Hallow went first, by design.
BATTLE
The Herd grabbed four of the five tokens immediately and implemented Operation: Bait the Giant All Damn Game on the left. On the right, I used the 19″ charge of the Lycans (1″ longer than Mike’s Sp 9 Fallen, thanks to the Horn of the Great Migration) to force the Fallen to engage, which helped me trade hammers until I had cleared all of the Varangur menace from the board.
HALLOW VICTORY(12-1)
What happens when two hammers smash into each other? The faster hammer with more junk wins, I guess! This was a wild start to the GT and catapulted me to the top table 😐
GAME 2: VARANGUR
Human Clansmen Horde – Norj-Bik (De 5+) Mounted Sons Regiment – Guise of the Deceiver Mounted Sons Regiment – Guise of the Deceiver Mounted Sons Regiment – Guise of the Deceiver Night Raiders Regiment – Bows, Wolf Handlers Night Raiders Regiment – Bows, Wolf Handlers Draugr Regiment Draugr Regiment Lord on Frostfang – Chalice of Wrath, Snow Fox Lord on Frostfang – Staying Stone, Snow Fox Magus – Lightning Bolt (4), Drain Life (6) Magus – Lightning Bolt (4), Drain Life (6) Magus – Lightning Bolt (4), Drain Life (6) Kruufnir [1] 14(24)
So this event had two Australian guests in attendance: Ken Ferris (the then Australian Master) and Jeff Traish (the now Australian Master). After dunking Mike, I had the pleasure of facing Ken Freakin’ Ferris 😵 His Varangur had taken several pages from the elven playbook (recall at the time that Gladestalkers of all flavors had just been buffed, so Night Raiders are doing a pseudo-stalker thing, except with smashier friends), emphasizing shooting with very strong counter-punch and a little sustain thanks to the Magus’ transfusion ability. Again, I took a moment to laugh in Herd at the stealthy knights but let’s be real, it was a nervous laugh.
We played Pillage, with Ken I believe getting the side he wanted. Blessedly, the Hallow got the first turn and took it with gusto, since I had so much shooting to wade through. Note that this game was streamed live – I’m not sure where to or if it’s still around tho, so you’ll have to click thru below per usual.
BATTLE
The first half of the game goes great for me, as I start to roll up Ken’s left flank and remove two of three Mounted Sons regiments early on. I jam hard in the center, preparing to grind in my favor as Brutes pound into the Varangur line. I do have some concern when the Stampede’s early charge into the right Draugr completely flubs, letting a Frostlord start breaking them down, but I’m hopeful that that will hold Ken’s right up until help arrives. All told, the opening three turns have been amazing for me, against the Australian Master of all things!
Then Ken takes a moment to psych himself up – “You’re the fucking Master!” (a direct quote) – and slaps back. His Frostlords heat up and his shooting finally doesn’t have swamp monsters punching them in the face, spelling doom for me. The back half of the game is brutal, seeing my squishy dudes shot off and my harder hitters chased down by Frostlords. I end the game with a single Tribal Warriors regiment cowering on an objective, to Ken’s five.
HALLOW LOSS(3-10)
While it was an honor to play Ken, I will forever remember how close I came to cracking him, on the Internet no less 😤 After the event wrapped, he let me know I was his favorite opponent for taking that rise and fall in stride. What a gent.
GAME 3: DWARFS
Berserker Brock Riders Regiment – Boots of Striding Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff Ironguard Regiment – Throwing Mastiff Sharpshooters Troop Sharpshooters Troop Sharpshooters Troop Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment Steel Behemoth – Golloch’s Fury [1] Steel Behemoth Dwarf Lord on Large Beast Dwarf Lord on Large Beast Faber Ironheart [1] 14(24)
I played Joe in the first game of his first Kings of War event (Keystone GT 2018), and it’s been great to see him do better and better as time has gone on. He’s been riding pretty high with Dwarfs as their star has risen, with Pilgrimage continuing that trend. His version of The Dwarf List eschewed the formation to go the Ironguard + Sharpshooter spam route, with the double Beast Lords, second Behemoth and Brocks giving it a bit more of a counter-punch feel than some versions. Note that this is pre-Clash 2024, so none of those Dwarfs have Ordered March. Thank the gods.
Pretty sure we played Control, with the Herd going first one way or another. Joe’s a largely reactive player, so he may have let me take it, but either way I was content to race into the Dwarven castle.
BATTLE
My takeaway from this game was that I shouldn’t have given the Dwarfs exactly what they wanted. Joe was clearly going to castle around the hill in the deployment zone he chose; I should have clearly gone hard on the other flank and swept in, forcing him to turn his lines as I scored the back end of the lower left section. Instead, I attempted to ford the gunfire on the left while hooking in from the right. That isn’t horrible … but became much harder when his totally incompetent Brocks couldn’t chew through the Centaurs escorting my Lycan super hammer into his lines, snaking them twice! When my Lycans finally did fight, they flopped hard (5 damage instead of 10 with a 3 to rout), dying for their efforts and leaving the right flank to the Centaur Chief to clean up. Fakk me.
Meanwhile, my assault on the Dwarf castle wasn’t going terribly. I had been pounding through all that De 6+ at a good clip, but Sharpshooters on a hill meant my dudes were not only bleeding from combat but being finished off after those combats wrapped. Come end game, I just didn’t have much left to score, with a lonely Tribal Warrior reg keeping me in unit strength.
HALLOW LOSS (3-10)
I’m not sure why I chose hard mode for this game – I vaguely wanted to give Joe a fun match? As fun as being the gallery part of a shooting gallery is! I kind of wanted to pressure test the Hallow as well, since this was one of my few matches into The Dwarf List, if possibly the first? All the same, Joe’s a good dude and a big fan of mine, and I had had a helluva first day.
UP NEXT: Day 2! Back to the bottom third where I belong.
My next tournament was Pilgrimage GT in Philadelphia, PA which marked a welcome return to 2300 points. I threw down a couple times with my buddy Jeff in the name of practice, though in truth I kept my list additions exceedingly simple over my 2150 point list. Here are both games in one post in the name of completeness and mayhem.
Herd 2300 Lycan Horde – Brew of Strength Guardian Brute Horde Guardian Brute Horde Minotaur Chariot Regiment – The Stampede [1] Tribal Warrior Horde – Brew of Sharpness Tribal Warrior Regiment Tribal Warrior Regiment Tribal Warrior Regiment Centaur Bray Striders Troop Centaur Bray Striders Troop Lycan Alpha – Trickster’s Wand; Hex (2) Great Chieftain – Horn of the Great Migration [1] Centaur Chieftain – Blade of Slashing Druid – Conjurer’s Staff; Bane Chant (2), Heal (2) 14 (27)
Compared to my 2150 list, I’ve simply added another regiment of Tribal Warriors and splurged on some casting insurance for the Druid and a spell for the Alpha. She actually had the Zephyr Crown in the first game below, but I swapped to the Trickster’s Wand by the second and ended up using it in the tournament. I do love windblast but hex is a hard counter to the really efficient (or awkwardly tall) casters out there.
Jeff’s list is constantly changing as he learns the game better and/or hyper-fixates on certain units. This iteration sees him wanting to polish a Rev Cav regiment into a functional hammer, while also doubling down on the hot sex that is the Vampasus. He’s also discovered that a vamp with shadowbeast behind it can do 10+ wounds in one swing … possibly an edition too late, but still a menace!
We played Raze, and I think he let me go first out of indecision.
BATTLE
Battlelines! My Lycan Alpha is hard to the left. His Vamps on Pegasuses are repped by the Goreblights in the upper left.
Turn 1: The Hallow sprints off the line, with my right flank beginning the long trek into relevance thanks to the Undead refused flank. The Lycan horde burns a token (1-0). The Undead advance in response, keeping Wraiths to the fore and putting both Vampasuses in a frankly weird position just in front of the house on the left. In Jeff’s defense, I don’t have any true hammer to threaten them, just a lot of chaff to sit them down eternally. Which is my plan anyway.
Herd 2: Mmmm second turn fighting is best fighting. The Lycan Alpha and some Tribal Warriors sit the Vampasuses down; Centaur troops hit the sharp Revenant Cavalry regiment in the front and flank, routing them before Jeff got to see if they’re any good (sorry buddy); Brutes flank and obliterate one of the Revenant hordes; and the Tribal Warrior horde stalls out on some Wraiths but that’s not unexpected given De 6+. Bane chant had gone on the Brutes but failed (no thanks to the conjurer’s staff). The Lycan horde burns another raze token (2-0).
Undead 2: The Undead clap-back is strong. Those overextended Brutes are killed by Soul Reavers and the horse Vampire (who failed his Host Shadowbeast on 1-1-1); the Centaur troops are both driven off by the Revenant horde and other Soul Reavers, respectively; and through the magic of nimble square bases, one Vampasus flanks the Tribal Warriors fighting the other Vampasus. The regiment wavers. Speaking of frustration, the free Wraiths dive into the waiting Brutes, dealing token damage but stripping their TC and dooming them to a game of struggling to clear a De 6+ chaff troop. Spoilers.
Herd 3: The Hallow is starting to bog down but I’ve still got plenty of hammers on the right to get into the fight. The Stampede helps the Tribal Warrior horde out with their Wraith problem, pounding them up to 14 damage before rolling snake eyes. Balls. Elsewhere, the Lycan Alpha flanks her Vampasus but only does a few damage; the wavered Tribal Warriors back up to let the Great Chieftain ground the other Vampasus; more Tribal Warriors jump on some Soul Reavers (5 damage); and the Brutes struggle with their Wraiths. It looks like I healed them for 1 damage instead of bane chanting to get them back in the game (30 attaks on 4+ / 5+ is only 5 damage, me). Heal (2) is proving to never be the answer if there are combats happening.
Undead 3: Jeff capitalizes on my bad dice by flanking the Tribal Warrior horde with his surviving Revenant horde. They die. My Brutes also bite it when Soul Reavers power downfield to help the Wraiths holding them in place. The other Soul Reavers one round their Tribal Warrior annoyance with ease, and the Vampasuses counter-charge the Lycan Alpha and Great Chieftain for some damage. Note that all these vamp units are lifeleeching 2 damage every time they fight, so I’ve done next to nothing to them. Finally, the Wraiths fighting the Stampede do 1 damage, striping its TC2.
Herd 4: I can still dig this out, but I’m going to need really any cooperation from the dice. Vampasuses are sat down again, that’s easy enough. A second regiment of Tribal Warriors hits the Soul Reavers in the woods – snake eyes but whatever (4 damage). I grab the flank of the other Soul Reavers with another Tribal Warrior regiment – snake eyes despite bane chant (8 damage). Sweet hell, can we stop? The Stampede tosses into the Wraiths again – zero damage with 15 attaks on 3+ / 5+. This ensures the Stampede will be flanked by Revs and shattered. Notice the Centaur Chief who could have safely booped the Wraiths in the flank (1.3 damage avg) or the Lycan in their rear (18 damage avg), although that might have exposed the big worm to the Soul Reaver Cav it’s holding back. Regardless, what a turn.
Undead 4: Both Soul Reaver regiments dismantle Tribal Warrior regiments and continue their rampage. The Revenant horde does smash the Stampede in the flank, as the damn Wraiths cruise away to win the scenario – the unit to the left burns a raze token this turn (2-1). The Vampasuses savage their opponents a bit.
Herd 5: We’re officially in damage control now. The Lycan Alpha and Great Chieftain attak the same Vampasus, but 4 turns of fighting (including 1 flank) only adds up to 6 damage, resulting in nothing. The Lycan horde can either die against the Revenant horde or scoot around and threaten the Soul Reaver Cav. I do the latter. The Druid jukes the central Soul Reaver regiment because life.
Undead 5: One Soul Reaver regiment flanks and kills the Lycan Alpha and the other grudgingly claims the center point. The horse Vamp blends the cowardly Druid. Wraiths and the flying Vampasus burn raze tokens (2-3).
Herd 6: The Lycan horde slams into the Soul Reaver Cavalry at long last, dealing a stellar 10 damage but failing the uninspired 7 needed to rout them. Which would have allowed it to overrun and burn another raze token. Ah well. The Great Chieftain sits his Vampasus down, and the Centaur Chieftain finally kills those mangled Wraiths on the right.
Undead 6: The Lycan horde is flanked by Soul Reavers (and countered by the SRC) and strewn across the battlefield. The horse Vampire runs down the Centaur Chief, while the Great Chieftain is cuddled by a Vampasus.
Turn 7: Wheeeeew one more round then. The Great Chieftain stabs his Vampasus up to 6 damage, achieving nothing. She rocks him up to 12 but snake eyes the rout. Thanks Jeff. With 4 points to my 2, this is a clear …
HALLOW LOSS
Three snakes in a row, coupled with the total Stampede flop, really gutted this match for me. It’s especially hard to come back against an army that hits so hard. I’m here to jam and piece trade and generally make a mess against other combat armies, but bad dice set me further and further back and there’s a limit to how much junk I have Anyway, props to Jeff for seizing opportunities I didn’t even see, like the Wraiths into the Brutes, he deserved a win after being a punching bag for so long.
GAME 27
Jeff and I met up at my house a week or so later for another go after the last game’s flop fest. His list had of course changed again:
The single Revenant horde LL3 anvil this time around, freeing up points for even more Wraiths (the dude is now running 4+ troops last I heard) and the return of the Necromancer. I’m not sure about the SRC’s item (I convinced him to do Sp 9 or nimble recently) but I don’t think they had anything that would have helped with Nv. Spoilers.
We played Plunder this game, because it’s great. I went first one way or another.
BATTLE
Battelines! Goreblights still playing the part of Vampires on Pegasuses.
Turn 1: The Hallow scampers forward, the Wraith’s 14″ charge range keeping me slightly at bay after last game. Tribal Warriors central-left grab a 2 point token – I’m pretty sure the Revenant Cavalry could charge them (hindered) but my Brutes are waiting. The Lycan Alpha hexes the Necromancer for good measure. In return, the Undead mobilize Wraiths and advance cautiously.
Herd 2: What did I say about fighting on the second turn? The Stampede and a Centaur troop aggro the poor Soul Reaver Cav, wavering them on 9 damage. The rightmost Wraiths disappear under the fury of the Lycan horde, but not before the bane chanted Tribal Warrior horde nabs a Vampasus and rends it apart. I am not mucking about. The Rev Cav are triple charged by Centaurs, Tribal Warriors and the Lycan Alpha but unfortunately hold on 10 damage. Also I send some hindered Tribal Warriors into the leftmost Wraiths to sit them down … but do no damage on 5+ / 6+ 😐 Finally, the Tribal Warriors on the far right pick up a token, content to win the game for me.
Undead 2: The Unjammening. The Revenant horde (hindered) flanks those Tribal Warriors pestering the Rev Cav, with said cavalry hitting them in the front. The green bois evaporate, the Rev horde takes their token and faces the Brutes while the Rev Cav sidesteps in front of the Lycan Alpha. Meanwhile, the horse Vamp wavers the Centaur troop on 5 damage and the un-disordered Wraiths on the left hop their Tribal Warriors and scoop up a token. Over on murder hill, Soul Reaver infantry and the surviving Vampasus do 16 damage to the Tribal Warrior horde, but it holds solid (I’m not sure why the other Soul Reavers didn’t join in? He might have thought it was a sure thing and wanted them pointed at the Stampede / Lycan for next turn? In which case they would have been able to reform after combat? I dunno). Remember last game when Wraiths dove some Brutes and we hung out all game? Yep, some Wraiths dive some Brutes and disorder them. I guess it’s good to understand how to counter Guardian Brutes, helps them feel a little less god tier 😛
Herd 3: I gleefully flank the Soul Reavers fighting the Tribal Warrior horde with Brutes, with the horde counter charging to they slide and make room for the Lycan horde to charge the other Soul Reavers. 85 attaks turns the one Soul Reavers into red mist, while the Lycan only manage 8 damage even with bane chant. The Stampede detonates the Soul Reaver Cav, however, and turns to face the rest of the vamps in need of pounding. Over on the left, the Lycan Alpha finishes off the Rev Cav, turning to face the center, and I don’t turn the wavered Centaurs around to menace the Wraiths over there. The Tribal Warriors do though. Finally, the Brutes fighting ghosts do 5 damage and are stuck. Oh, and the Tribal Warriors on the right pick up another token. I’m down 2-3 but there’s plenty of time.
Undead 3: Thanks to the Necromancer’s surge, the Revenant horde joins the (host shadowbeasted) horse Vampire in (hindered) charging the Brutes on the Undead half of the board. 8 damage is solid but not enough to matter. Meanwhile, the Vampasus charges down the very damaged Tribal Warrior horde the old fashioned way, and the Soul Reaver infantry one round the Lycan horde. Yeesh. The Wraiths fighting Brutes do 3 more damage (7 total), and the token-bearing Wraiths on the left befuddle Jeff for a while before he just turns them around. So many options if they don’t have a token, so few if they do. On that point, it’s worth noting that the Rev horde had to drop their 2 point token to surge the Brutes.
Herd 4: The violence reaches a crescendo here at the midpoint, with the Stampede kicking things off by flanking and pulping the Vampasus (TC3 off that hill). The Centaur troop who had escorted them in flanks the Soul Reavers, routing them with the help of the Great Chieftain in the front. The Revenant horde is reared by the Lycan Alpha and countered by the Brutes, to the tune of 13 damage. The other Brutes fight their way free of the Wraiths, and the leftmost Wraiths are (hindered) charged by the same Tribal Warriors again, this time taking a single damage and disordering.
Undead 4: Jeff counters the Lycan Alpha with the Revenant horde, trusting in the mounted Vamp to finish off the Brutes – which turns out to be well founded, as they are indeed blended. The Lycan Alpha takes 6 damage thanks to the Necro’s bane chant but she doesn’t care.
Herd 5: The other Brutes flank the Revenant horde in the name of vengeance, with Centaurs in the rear and Lycan Alpha in the front. They are pounded into the swamp upon which they stood. The other Centaurs flank and kill the last of the Wraiths, giving their token to the Tribal Warriors who spent 5 turns trying to get it, and the Stampede deigns to pick up a 2 pointer itself.
Undead 5: Jeff only has his mounted Vampire left, but thankfully he’s a one man army. The poor Centaur Chief is turned to mulch (18 attaks @ 3+ / 2+).
Turn 6: The Lycan Alpha picks up a token and forgets to hex the Vampire. In response, he zips in (hindered), hosts up, and doesn’t kill her. With all 7 points, this is a …
HALLOW VICTORY
The Undead’s over-extension on the right was punished with extreme prejudice … and decidedly functional dice. I myself didn’t expect the Stampede to max out their WC and grab the Soul Reaver Cav in the second turn, but I couldn’t turn it down, especially when I had a shot at removing their inspiring Vampasus as well. Jeff’s list feels really good, elite punchy Undead seems like the way. If you want to do trash, other armies do it better (because they can march), while Undead have some of the most extreme hammers in the game. I think Jeff’s most current version is double Lykanis instead of Vampasus? And quadruple Wraiths, for obvious reasons.
Anyway, that’s all the practice I got before Pilgrimage! The tournament report should be up in a week or two.
(Months pass, seasons change, and yet these reports remain unsung … no longer!)
After a stellar first day, my green Herd are on Table 3 up against another familiar face but with some new toys courtesy of the Big Red Book.
GAME FOUR: BASILEANS
Basileans 2150
Elohi Horde – Wine of Elvenkind, Celestial Fury Ogre Palace Guard Horde – Chalice of Wrath Ogre Palace Guard Horde – Staying Stone Sisterhood Scouts Regiment Sisterhood Scouts Regiment Paladin Foot Guard Regiment – Orb of Towering Presence Paladin Knights Troop – Skirmisher’s Boots, Aegis Fragment Heavy Arbalest Heavy Arbalest Phoenix Phoenix Gnaeus Sallustis [1] Priest – Conjurer’s Staff; Heal (3), Bane Chant (2) 13 (23)
I love Chris’ army, and Kings of Warmachine armies in general. He’s added a lot of shooting since my crabs last faced him, which is somewhat concerning, but fewer Elohi is a win? I tell myself as I prepare to overthink the single horde he has brought.
The fourth round was Booty, a modified Push where each token carried after the first gives -1 Sp down to a minimum of Sp 1. The tokens are otherwise standard loot tokens (so Sp 5 max, no surge, no nimble, no windblast, etc). Basilea\ went first because shooting.
BATTLE
Battlelines! Or slightly after the scouting phase anyway. He’s got two tokens in the hard left Paladin Foot Guard and one in the Sisterhood Scouts near them. I’ve got two in my Tribal Warrior horde and one in the Tribal Warrior reg on the right.
Turn 1: The Basileans form a #murdercrescent, with shooting removing the Centaurs protecting the Brutes and doing 7 damage to the Tribal Warrior horde and 2 to the regiment to the left. Ouch. The Hallow punches it up the center and baits with the Centaurs on the right.
Basileans 2: Chris’ forces largely drift around the left or back up, with the Knight troop flanking the bait Centaurs on the right. Shockingly they survive and are unwavered! Shooting wavers the Tribal Warriors in the central woods but crucially leaves my advanced Brutes holding on 7 damage.
Herd 2: My Lycan Alpha charges off to the left, grounding a Phoenix. The damaged Brutes power up the field into some Sisterhood Scouts, dunking them and spinning to face the Ogre Palace Guard duo. On the right, the Centaurs charge off to bother Gnaeus and the Knight troop is flanked themselves – again to limited effect! I had held the Lycans back as I didn’t want to get charged in response by the Elohi. The Stampede, assuming the right is in my control, heads off to pressure the center.
Basileans 3: On the left, the Phoenix waddles away to let the Foot Guard have a go at the Lycan Alpha. Meanwhile on the right, the Elohi swoop in and one round the Tribal Warriors (with a token), and the Knight troop gets in the way of the Lycan horde, poking some damage through in the process. Gnaeus finished off the Centaurs and prepares for next turn. Centrally, shooting clears off the rampaging Brutes and the OPG back up.
Herd 3: But they don’t back up far enough, thanks to the Great Chieftain’s WC aura. Tribal Warriors and Brutes charge the Palace Guard, with the Brutes wavering theirs thanks to bane chant (and kind of floppy dice). The Lycan horde on the right nukes the Knight troop in its way, with the Centaur Chief grounding the Elohi as the Stampede changes direction again and heads back to the right. Finally on the left, the Lycan Alpha withdraws and rears the orange Phoenix, keeping it disordered.
Basileans 4: The Basilean left slinks backward, with shooting largely whiffing against the Tribal Warrior horde. The Lycan Alpha is lightly pecked by the orange Phoenix and the Tribal Warriors downfield are wrecked by the functioning Palace Guard. On the right, the Elohi and Gnaeus assault the Stampede and only manage to waver it. Hell yea.
Herd 4: It’s officially on, dear readers. The surviving Brutes withdraw and charge the other Palace Guard, making space for the Tribal Warrior horde to plow into the mangled horde of ogres – they had to shed 1 booty token to go back to Sp 5 but worth. Both Palace Guard units are smashed. The Lycan Alpha continues grounding the orange Phoenix, as the Great Chieftain charges and shuts down the blue Phoenix. On the right, the Stampede bips some damage onto Gnaeus (only CS1 when disordered) but the Lycans rear charge the Elohi, decimating them (and taking my token back).
Basileans 5: The Sisterhood Scouts advance to block for the Foot Guard token caddies, but their shooting (and maybe the arbalests’, tho they had been cooling down over the course of the game) successfully wavers the Tribal Warrior horde. Gnaeus finishes off the Stampede and faces the Lycan horde. I’m sure the orange Phoenix slapped away at the Lycan Alpha.
Herd 5: The Brutes leapfrog the retreating Tribal Warrior horde, sadly unable to charge (I might have been able to turn the horde sideways and gotten the Brutes into the Sisters? But this would have offered a flank to the Foot Guard and given them a token, as well as gotten them closer to the central token) but picking up their token in the process, as I can see the writing on the wall. The Lycan Alpha continues disordering the regenerating Phoenix, with the Centaur Chief grounding the blue one this turn. The Lycan horde blends Gnaeus and the Great Chieftain heads off to kill some war engines.
Basileans 6: The Tribal Warrior horde is finally shot down. Phoenixes caw in distress.
Herd 6: The Brutes make contact with the Sisterhood Scouts, detonating them. The Great Chieftain flips over one Arbalest and both Phoenixes are disordered again. The Lycan Horde sails forward 10″ to be on the other side of the table.
Turn 7: We talk things over going into this extra round, and Chris is looking at a loss unless he can roll wildly and kill the Brutes in his turn. He can’t escape their charge with Sp 4 and we’re on his side of the table, so my 2 tokens count double compared to his 2. He goes for it but the Palace Guard don’t work any magic. My Brutes shatter his unit and scoop their tokens up, for a decisive …
HALLOW VICTORY (19-2)
This was a wild game that I didn’t feel particularly in charge of, thanks to his early shooting and the existence of Elohi 😛 I’m happy to have pulled it off, and I think Chris and I are now even in our matches? He might still be a win ahead with his damn Basileans.
GAME FIVE: SALAMANDERS
Salamanders 2150
Rhinosaur Cavalry Horde – Healing Brew Rhinosaur Cavalry Horde Scorchwings Horde – Fire-Oil Scorchwings Regiment Kaisenor Lancers Regiment – Boots of Striding Salamander Primes Regiment – War-Bow Ghekkotah Hunters Regiment Komodon Komodon Rakawas, The Pale Rider [1] Artakl [1] Ghekkotah Skylord on Scorchwing Ghekkotah Skylord on Scorchwing 13 (24)
After a slow start, Eric had gradually pushed up the tables throughout the event, and would turn out to be an exceedingly nice dude (and my favorite opponent). Of the Salamander armies at the tournament, Eric’s was the one I was hearing the most about, in particular the bonkers numbers of shots it has. Obviously, charging into a wall of highly mobile shooting isn’t great for a Herd army but needs must!
The final round was Kill, modified so that units drop loot-esque tokens when they are killed. These tokens have no effect on movement in any way, however a unit must still have US to pick them up. You can hold friendly tokens and indeed should grab them, as the scenario was designed to punish shooting, as units killed at range drop their token into their footprint per usual. Ultimately I don’t like this scenario as it punishes individuals while benefiting US1 heroes, which the meta already does, and could be written to do the opposite but this is all academic. The Salamanders took first turn because shooting. This marks four games in a row where I went second not by choice.
BATTLE
Battlelines! Or rather Scouting Phase, as Artakl has scurried forward.
Turn 1: The Salamanders advance wearily and unleash a startling amount of shooting, with the 10 damage done to the right Brutes being the standout (5+ from the Komodons alone). The Hallow holds firm, then pushes up in response, with the leftmost Centaurs getting the party started by grounding the Scorchwing regiment. I’m a little at a loss for what to do overall but am hoping the Lycan Alpha can dive in from the left and help me open up that flank.
Salamanders 2: Which makes it an extra bummer when Eric 10+ wavers her! Shooting removes the right Brutes and continues hurting Tribal Warrior regiments. The Ghekko Hunters scamper into the right Centaurs and waver them, which is especially annoying when I realize I didn’t put the Lycan horde a full 1″ behind the Centaurs. Bleh.
Herd 2: I attempt to unjam the right by flanking the Hunters with hindered Tribal Warriors, but 24x 5+ / 3+ is too much of an ask and the Hunters are fine. The other Tribal Warriors charge Rakawas for a few damage and to block him up, as 300 points of Lycan mega-hammer picks up the Brutes’ kill token and waits. I think for a very long time about the left, and notice that if the Stampede helps those Centaurs out with the Scorchwing regiment, it can rotate after combat and disappear from the Rhinosaurs’ LOS, leaving only the milksop Lancers to take it on. It’s an easy kill and I go for it … and roll snake eyes. This disastrously gives said Rhinos the Stampede’s flank, and Eric the game. Ah well.
Salamanders 3: The Stampede is obliterated. The other Rhinosaurs flank and explode the Tribal Warriors who fluffed against the Hunters, as Rakawas nimbles around the other Tribal Warriors and helps the Hunters finish off those pesky Centaurs. Rakawas’ abandoned Tribal Warriors are cheerily wavered by the war-bow Primes (off a hill), and the Lycan horde does get shot a bit. Finally, Artakl jams the Tribal Warrior horde, doing token damage in the process.
Herd 3: I melt my clock and eventually realize I can charge Artakl with the Tribal Warriors horde, overrun 5″ into the central Rhinosaurs, and flip them over thanks to the Lycan Alpha in the flank. It’s not great odds (2/3 of a chance the overrun is no good!) but it’s what I got to open the left back up. I make a very real mistake and heal 1 damage off of the Tribal Warriors instead of bane chanting them (I didn’t realize Artakl is De 5+ and not 4+ but more importantly forgot I was aiming to fight the Rhinos, who definitely are De 5+ and I’ve got no TC behind the horde). I do next to no damage to Artakl on 3+ / 5+ yet I hot hand the Nv roll and rout the lizard twice, and I make the 5+ overrun, even if it’s hindered. The Rhinosaurs take 9 damage from the flanking Lycan Alpha, the Great Chieftain in the front, and the overrunning horde (match says 9-11, +2 if I hadn’t messed up bane chant), dread pushes this to 10 and I fail the break. Eric had offered to let me rewind and count the horde’s dice with bane chant on there but I couldn’t, that was well and truly my fault.
Elsewhere, the Lycan horde kills the Hunters (possibly because that was all I was offered, possibly because I didn’t fancy one rounding Rakawas) and turns to be out of Rakawas’ LOS but very much in the Rhinosaurs’. The Centaur Chief disorders the Scorchwing horde, and way over on the left the Centaurs finish off the Scorchwing regiment they had been fighting for 3 turns.
Salamanders 4: Lancers flank and kill the Lycan Alpha, Rhinosaurs (with Skylord in the flank) charge and kill the Lycan horde, Komodons light up the central Brutes a bit, and the Tribal Warrior horde survives the attention of the central Rhinosaurs. Eric hands me two snake eyes of my own this turn, with the blessed Centaur troop surviving against the left Skylord and the Centaur Chief bravely living to disorder the Scorchwing horde again.
Herd 4: The central Rhinosaurs are torn down by the Tribal Warriors and Brutes, as is the left Skylord by the Centaur troop. The Great Chieftain charges the Lancers to hold them down, and that lucky Centaur Chief disorders the Scorchwing horde again.
Salamanders 5: Rhinosaurs run down the central Brutes, the Lancers kill the Great Chieftain (!), and otherwise shooting pummels into the Tribal Warrior horde in the forest, pushing them well into the danger zone. Somebody shoots the Druid to death this turn.
Herd 5: The Lancers are mobbed and torn apart. I continue giving as many kill tokens as I can to the Centaurs, as I know the Tribal Warrior horde is not long for this world and I’m hoping I can get more than 1 point.
Salamander 6: The Tribal Warriors get properly Rhino’d, and the extreme range of the Salamander shooting drops the Centaurs at long last. Their 6! tokens drop in their footprint but even without a Turn 7 the Sallies have plenty of their own, making this a foregone …
HALLOW LOSS (1-20)
Not gonna lie, having a tough match up fall apart so immediately thanks to a snake eyes is a bad feel, but let’s be real, I haven’t been properly boned by snakes in a long, long time. Combined we actually had 5 snake eyes this game, making it all feel very weird, however Eric was a pleasure and I appreciate how accommodating he was as my game disintegrated before it could begin. He would go on to win Best Sports.
Dead of Winter 2023 turned out to be a far more eventful run for me than expected, with a lot more time spent on the top tables than I would have thought my Herd deserved. Ultimately I placed like I always do (just above the halfway mark), which checks out with the big wins and big losses. Great games all the same, and I appreciate my clubmates who pulled the event together with next to no help from me 😅
I’m super behind on reports at this point, but up next I’ll blast through some 2300 practice games, from when my Herd were training for the Pilgrimage GT. Stay tuned!
Gentle readers! I’m sorry to keep you waiting for that sweet, sweet Dead of Winter GT report you were promised a month ago. With the Pilgrimage GT this weekend (!), I find I’m once again up against the wall on my writing duties and well behind on batreps. To that end, I’m going to do full day recaps for this event but hopefully maintain some of the gravitas of what turned out to be a much more successful run than I expected going in.
Dead of Winter was a two day, 2150 point event held here in Albany, NY from January 29-30, 2023, and put on by my very own club, The Shambling Horde. For the second year of this tournament, our club overlords set an added comp twist that no triplicates were allowed, including units of the same size. While you could take 2x Ogre Warrior regiments and 1x Ogre Warrior horde, you couldn’t take 3x Ogre Warrior regiments, for example. I’m not a huge fan of this restriction, as I don’t find triples of units to be bad, but I do think raising it to ban unit quadruplets is cool and good and curtails spam in a more meaningful way, especially when combined with 1995+X style points comp. Regardless, I did appreciate being forced into a little more variety than I would usually run, and was very happy where my list landed. Also note that we used Blackjack Scoring (aka best scoring).
Herd 2150
Lycan Horde – Brew of Strength Guardian Brute Horde Guardian Brute Horde Minotaur Chariot Regiment – The Stampede [1] Tribal Warrior Horde – Brew of Sharpness Tribal Warrior Regiment Tribal Warrior Regiment Centaur Bray Striders Troop Centaur Bray Striders Troop Lycan Alpha Great Chieftain – Horn of the Great Migration [1] Centaur Chieftain Druid – Bane Chant (2), Heal (2) 13 (24)
I’ve talked about the list in other reports but here it is one more time! The Horn did make it into the final list, as a cool piece of tech that gives a useful aura when you want to go fast and occasionally puts dread onto somebody who isn’t being punched by Brutes. The list is basically a bunch of hammers with friends that either get them where they want to be or take care of the scenario so the hammers can focus on smashing face.
GAME ONE: ORCS
Orcs 2150
Fight Wagons Legion – Brew of Strength Greatax Horde – Orcish Skullpole, Boots of Striding Youngax Horde – Orcish Skullpole Gore Riders Regiment – Staying Stone Morax Regiment – Orcish Skullpole Morax Regiment – Orcish Skullpole Morax Troop Morax Troop War Drum War Drum Troll Bruiser – Orb of Towering Presence Morax Mansplitter – Gnome-Glass Shield Krudger – Gakamak’s Bloody Banner [1] Krusher on Gore – Blade of Slashing 14 (27)
That’s right, we’re kicking off the tournament with Skullface! He’s brought his personal battlewagon, as many Morax as the comp allowed, a Greatax horde to hold the line, Youngax to be cheap unit strength, and support staff aplenty. My Herd are very punchy, but would I be able to out punch this Orcish warmachine??
The first round is Invade – you may notice that the scenarios are designed to tell a story of our armies moving into enemy territory, taking their stuff, fighting their way out, etc. The Herd went first, probably by choice given that it’s invade.
BATTLE
Battlelines! I don’t have a strong plan for the Youngax and US2 Troll Bruiser pushing down the right flank, but I assign some Brutes to keep them occupied. On the whole, sending just the Brutes that way is a mistake, I should have used them to break the center harder and then spin to face the US6 worth of invaders late game. Spoilers.
Turn 1: The Hallow moves up, flexing its charge ranges across the board. The Orcs present a unified front across the line, with the exception of the Gore Riders jamming the Stampede on the left and the Krusher venturing out on the right. First blood goes to the Mansplitter, who picks up his ONE throwing axe then hits and wounds a Tribal Warrior. Game on.
Herd 2: I know from experience that the Greatax need to be killed in one shot, so Lycans and Brutes both pound into them. The Stampede should easily kill the Gore Riders, especially with a little nudge from the Centaur Chief, and the Tribal Warrior horde can very likely one round some Morax, then take the retaliation on the chin. The rest of the Orc line is held in place to buy time.
After a flurry of dice, the Greatax are indeed dismembered, but the Gore Riders hold on snake eyes and the Morax regiment takes 14 damage and may have snaked as well. I try my best to shake it off but the momentum is already slipping.
Orcs 2: Thrilled to be fighting already, the Orcs counter-charge across the line, with both Morax regiments hitting the Tribal Warrior horde. A War Drum blocks the Lycan horde as Orc individuals lend their axes to the fights. The saddest note, however, was the Gore Riders charging the Centaur Chief and overrunning into the Stampede. I hate when I do this 😦
Thankfully it’s all up from there, with the Tribal Warriors holding on 13 damage and the units keeping the Morax troops back only wavering. The Centaurs thrown into the Fight Wagon legion do indeed die tho. RIP to those heroes.
Herd 3: The Hallow plunges its sharpened wooden appendage deeper into the Orcs this turn, as Brutes flank Morax on the left and Tribal Warriors flank more Morax on the right, with a lot of counter-charging happening elsewhere. In a bit of a throwaway move, the Great Chieftain charges the Krudger with the bloody banner, but amazingly he one-rounds him! This removes the inspiring from the left flank, leading to the death of the Gore Riders and War Drum. All the Morax except for the troop with Centaurs in their face are torn apart as well.
You can see I don’t know what to do about the right flank. The Brutes once again deign to charge, not trusting that they can one round the horde or the troll, but knowing they’ll die in return, thanks to either unit getting a flank (and no inspiring to be had!)
Orcs 3: The Fight Wagon careens into the Lycan horde lurking in the pond, crushing it despite the negative to hit. It turns to face the Stampede, letting the Brutes have its flank. The surviving Morax blend the Centaurs at last and prepare to die. On the right, the Youngax take the hindered charge into the stranded Brutes, with Troll Bruiser in the front and Krusher in the back. The green hammer wavers but holds.
Herd 4: The Fight Wagon is dismantled by the Stampede and Brutes on the left, and on the right the other Brutes counter-charge the Troll Bruiser and manage to one round him through weight of dice. In the center, the Tribal Warrior horde chooses to counter-charge the Mansplitter rather than dropping the War Drum (??), but at least they kill the punchy hero. This leaves a Tribal Warrior regiment and Lycan Alpha to deal with the wounded Morax – a shocking 2 damage later and the troop of blenders is totally fine. Yikes.
Orcs 4: Those Morax counter-charge and blend the Tribal Warrior regiment (and their US3), while the Krusher and Youngax finish off the right Brutes. The War Drum tries to clean up the mangled Tribal Warrior horde but can’t land a hit.
Turn 5: The Tribal Warrior horde shreds the War Drum and the Lycan Alpha savages the Morax troop. For the Orcs, the Youngax face their oppressors and the Krusher either launches himself into the Tribal Warriors horde, fails to hit, and is killed next turn, or readies himself this turn and has a go in Turn 6. Regardless, this is a resounding …
HALLOW VICTORY (20-1)
What a smashfest! Slugging it out with Skullface is always a pleasure, and this match was probably destined to come down to whoever hit first and hardest. Snake eyes notwithstanding.
GAME TWO: SYLVAN KIN
Sylvan Kin 2150
Forest Shamblers Horde Sylvan Gladestalkers Regiment Sylvan Gladestalkers Regiment Silverbreeze Cavalry Regiment Silverbreeze Cavalry Regiment Hunters of the Wild Regiment Hunters of the Wild Regiment Greater Air Elemental Greater Air Elemental Tree Herder – Wiltfather [1]; Surge (8) Nimue Waydancer [1] – Fireball (10), Wind Blast (5), Heal (4), Surge (4) Elven Archmage – Inspiring Talisman; Surge (8), Bane Chant (2) 12 (22)
After dunking Orcs, I’m catapulted to Table 2 to face off against Sylvan Kin and my first two Greater Air Elementals. This also may be the first time I’ve ever faced Sylvan Kin? Thankfully no matter what happens, Darek is exceedingly nice and has a very pretty Warhammer army that is satisfyingly FMC.
The second round is Plunder (2 point tokens in green, 1 pointers in black). Sylvan Kin take the first turn, because shooting.
BATTLE
Battlelines! Scouting phase! The Sylvan Kin inch forward, mostly just putting Gladestalkers into range.
Turn 1: The Sylvan Kin deign to move much, knowing I’m headed to them. Some Tribal Warriors cop 3 damage from arrows. In return, the Hallow punches it forward, grabbing a 1 point token on the left and 2 pointer on the right. I’m a little freaked out by the Greater Air Elementals but I give them obvious charges as bait and prepare some redundancy if they get squirrely.
Sylvan Kin 2: Let’s just start with the boogeymen. The left Greater Air hops the wood and is surged 5″ into the Lycan Alpha by the Archmage, bopping her for 6 damage and wavering the beast. Nice! The right Greater Air plows directly into the 2 token Tribal Warrior regiment, doing them 6 damage (5 + Nimue’s cloak of death). Also on the right, Silverbreeze decide to charge the Lycan Horde, doing a respectable 7 damage (6 + cloak). Before all this happened, shooting drops the Centaurs with the loot and puts 2 damage on the Stampede. Not so bad.
Herd 2: Limited by my huge base size, I end up punching the Stampede and Tribal Warrior horde into the left Hunters of the Wild regiment, shattering it and splitting the Sylvan Kin line. The left Greater Air holds from a Tribal Warrior flank (who grab a token in the process), while the right GAE is disintegrated by Brutes (and the 2 token Tribal Warriors). The right Silverbreeze take 10 damage from the Lycan horde, but sadly hold tight. Brutes in the center prepare to deal with the Forest Shamblers, who are chaffed up with Centaurs.
Sylvan Kin 3: Battle is joined across the board!
The Lycan Alpha is driven off thanks to a Silverbreeze flank and a distressing number of waver tokens are handed out – the Tribal Warrior horde, Lycan Horde and right Brutes all waver under a storm of very good Kin rolling.
Herd 3: The Hallow retaliates in kind. Plucky Tribal Warrior regiments remove the Greater Air on the left and the Silverbreeze on the right, while Brutes thunder down the center and rout the Forest Shamblers in one go, and the Stampede rolls out of its mind and one-rounds the Gladestalkers who bloodied it last turn. A sad trombone can be heard in the distance, however, when the other Brutes fail to dunk the Hunters of the Wild scrabbling at them.
Sylvan Kin 4: The Tribal Warrior horde is smashed down by the Wiltfather (and Gladestalkers), as the mangled Brutes on the right are routed by the Hunters of the Wild. Darek spends some time thinking about the Tribal Warriors vs Silverbreeze situation in the bottom left and decides to trust in his shooting dice. This pays off as the Tribal Warriors (with token) are wavered! The right Tribal Warriors (with 2 point token) are also wavered this turn, thanks to Nimue’s fireball.
Herd 4: The Stampede revs up and one-rounds its second regiment of Gladestalkers (!), and the Hunters of the Wild on the right are blended by the Lycan horde. In the center, the Brutes swing into the Wiltfather for 7 damage, after a failed bane chant. Fighting Wiltdad is a marathon not a race, ok? Nimue is also charged and disordered by the Centaur Chief.
Sylvan Kin 5: The Silverbreeze gallop up from the bottom left to rear charge the Stampede, wavering it on 15 damage! The Wiltfather does a perfect 11 damage to the Brutes (10 + cloak)! Nimue tries to drive off the Tribal Warriors on the right but can’t land a wound (but does land her cloak)!
Herd 5: The Brutes drop the Wiltfather, moments before the Stampede turns and slams 7 damage into the Silverbreeze, I believe wavering them. Nimue is sandwiched between Tribal Warriors and Centaur Chief but survives. The Lycan horde grabs a 1 point token and Centaurs scoop up the 2 pointer in the center, with left Tribal Warriors headed for the final token.
Turn 6: Nimue swings at the token-laden Tribal Warriors on the right once again, damaging them this time but rolling snake eyes for the break (13 damage total)! Nimue survives the retaliation, but the Silverbreeze get Stampeded. I grab all the tokens and prepare the Lycan to scoop up the Tribal Warriors’ if Nimue goes ham on them in Turn 7, but the game ends here with a very decisive …
HALLOW VICTORY (21-0)
What a game! I was certainly helped by Darek committing his Greater Airs early and in places I could easily respond to them, but then his dice rolls with low to no crushing/piercing attaks pulled him out time and again. Lots of back and forth kept the game more interesting than I thought it would be vs shooting and GAEs.
GAME THREE: FORCES OF NATURE
Forces of Nature 2150
Fire Elementals Horde – Brew of Sharpness Scorchwings Horde – Brew of Haste Earth Elementals Horde Earth Elementals Horde Water Elementals Regiment Water Elementals Regiment Greater Air Elemental Greater Air Elemental Pegasus Tree Herder – Surge (8) Gladewalker Druid – Crown of the Wizard King, Ring of Harmony; Surge (8), Heal (4) Druid – Conjurer’s Staff; Surge (4), Bane Chant (2), Heal (2) 12 (20)
I’ve only played Corey three times, between him running Crossroads GT and living on the top tables at most events – so here we are at Table 1 😅 I had heard he was printing / painting a new army this winter, and obviously I should have expected Nature. Lots of great sculpts, bright colors, and a powerful toolbox of units. This is a scary list, tho also more tuned than the stereotypical Nature list using the formation (of which there was one at this GT). The anviliest of anvils, an ultra hammer, a Sp 11 hyper flexible flying scoring shooting killing unit, and amazing thicc chaff join the pure value of two GAEs, a Tree Herder, Ringwalker, and budget Druid. Lots to love.
The third round is Salt the Earth, except we mess it up and don’t deploy a central objective. We agree to have the center two objectives be un-burnable. Nature chooses to go first.
BATTLE
Battlelines! It’s worth noting that Corey chose to take the side he’s on. That giant house on the left would indeed prove to be really hard to work with.
Turn 1: Nature sallies forth, offering the Hallow nothing. The Scorchwings spike off the right Centuars with a lucky opening salvo, then burn their objective. In response, I melt my clock trying to overthink the right Greater Air’s landing places, eventually shoving the Lycan up hard and challenging him to have a go.
Nature 2: I was so concerned about surge that I missed that the right GAE could just straight charge the Lycan Alpha. Sigh. She takes 7 damage and wavers. The Scorchwings abandon the flank while the other GAE hops behind the giant building (OH NO) and the Pegasis continues lurking back there too.
Herd 2: We hammer the Tribal Warrior horde and Brutes into the right Earth Elementals, cracking them and facing as much to the left as possible. The Lycan horde tackles the right Water Elementals over a wall but can’t finish the job. In less decisive moves, nobody can sit the Greater Air in the my lines down, but Centaurs and Tribal Warriors face it anyway. I can’t figure out how to stop the left GAE either – it’s going to hop the building and flank my Stampede. Should I have just suicided the Stampede into the left Water Elementals so it at least does something? Let’s find out together.
Nature 3: The Fire Elementals charge the Tribal Warrior horde, with the Tree Herder hanging back to help surge the right GAE into the rear of the Lycan Horde, which works a treat. Water Elementals hit them in the front for good measure. The left GAE is surged into the flank of the Stampede. Water Elementals hit them in the front for good measure. The Pegasus blocks the left Brutes … and then everybody dies. Including the Tribal Warriors, which was *checks the numbers* a mathematical oddity to be sure. The Scorchwings light the right Brutes up for 4 damage because can.
Herd 3: Things are collapsing a little faster than expected, but there’s always vengeance, m’right? The right Brutes launch off the hill into the Tree Herder, one rounding the big tree despite bane chant failing at the worst time. The other Brutes splatter the Pegasus that was giving to them. I’m allowed to touch the Greater Airs, so the Tribal Warriors on the left do 6 to theirs and the Lycan Alpha does 3 to the right one.
Nature 4: Fire and Rocks crash into the left Brutes as Scorchwings and Water descend on the right Brutes. They both die. The Tribal Warriors on the left are ended by Greater Air in the front and Water surged into their flank, and the Lycan Alpha is straight clubbed to death by one hindered Greater Air. At this point I am strongly considering giving her the Wingbane Cloak 😛
Herd 4: The Tribal Warriors try and fail to kill the right Greater Air, as the Centaurs try and fail to kill the Water Elementals (who are well regenerated at this point). If you squint, you can see the Great Chieftain charge the left Greater Air out of spite. Well, that plucky mushroom man with a spear kills the bastard, pushed over by dread 😀
Nature 5: Nature’s fury is vented on the rears of the Hallow’s last remaining scoring units. They die.
Herd 5: The Great Chieftain trips over the fence and doesn’t do much to some Water Elementals but the Centaur Chief kills the other Greater Air. Get some!
Turn 6: Corey grabs five objectives and the Scorchwings whiff on the Centaur hero, who goes on to kick the Druid as spitefully as possible. My Great Chieftain keeps stabbing some Water Elementals but really whatever. There’s no Turn 6, making this a staggering …
HALLOW LOSS (1-20)
I was hoping for a few more points, but you know, I’ll take that one point in a maybe-worst Herd into maybe-best Nature match. Corey is an absolute machine who didn’t move from the top two tables. One of these days, Reynolds!
Walking away with 42 of 63 points at the end of Day One was quite the achievement for me. I celebrated by having a couple drinks with my dog, somehow getting some sleep, then racking up for Day Two.
BLOODFIRE 