Tag: northern alliance

THE HALLOW 40-42: KING BEYOND GT DAY 1

On By SalvageIn THE HALLOWLeave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

GAME 1: FORCES OF NATURE

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

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

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

BATTLE

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

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

HALLOW VICTORY

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

GAME 2: NORTHERN ALLIANCE

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

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

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

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

BATTLE

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

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

HALLOW VICTORY

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

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

GAME 3: RIFTFORGED ORCS

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

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

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

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

BATTLE

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

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

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

HALLOW LOSS

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

Saber-Toothed Hunting Cat Count: 2 (Riftforger)

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

FREEFORGED 5-6: CROSSROADS GT DAY 2

On By SalvageIn FREEFORGEDLeave a comment

Round 4 dawns and, after some shuffling of match-ups, Cuddle Time is facing off against the cruel embrace of Venereal Taint! Yes, this does mean there’s a chance that Mikael and I rematch, but because he can control his fate this time, I’m matched into the new and improved Northern Alliance. I choose Loot as it’s the best option of those available (only six scenarios are in the pool each round).

Game 4: Northern Alliance

Frostfang Cavalry Horde – Tundra Fighters, Staying Stone
Ice Elementals Horde – Blessing of the Gods
Human Tribesfolk Horde – Tundra Fighters, Chalice of Wrath
Half-Elf Berserkers Regiment – Boots of Striding?
Ice Kin Hunters Regiment
Ice Kin Hunters Regiment
Ice Kin Hunters Regiment
Frostclaw Riders Regiment – Ice Bombs?
Snow Foxes Regiment
Hrimm, Legendary Ice Giant – Icy Breath (12)
Serakina, the Ice Queen – Surge (8), Wind Blast (6)
Ice Queen – Blizzard (2), Bane Chant (2)
2300 (12/26)

I don’t have Brad’s list, so have made some educated guesses. There are 5 points left, so maybe the Berserkers had something else? The birds may not have had bombs either. All the same, loads of shooting and heaps of frozen to make me go even slower, with wind blast in there to make me go negative inches forward when possible. And I’ll say it right now: Serakina really is the worst.

Craggoth scouted up onto a token, at which point Mikael informed me he couldn’t pick it up, which was fine. Sad for what’s about to happen, but fine. Brad’s Ice Kin Hunters scouted into range, then he won and took first turn, and I begin to have a concern.

BATTLE

Turn 1: The Northern Alliance advances on the wings, forming the classic death crescent. Ice Kin Hunters and the Ice Queen with blizzard spike 4 damage into the central sharpness Earth Elemental horde, freezing them down to Sp 4. Oof. On the left, the Ice Elementals and Serakina do 5 damage to Craggoth, freezing him to Sp 5 and wind blasting him several inches to the left (if he could have picked up the objective he would be immune to wind blast). Double oof.

The Freeforged shamble forward in response. Mastiffs provide some cover to the sharp Earth horde in the center, as well as stop them when the Stone Priest surges the slow horde forward a couple inches. Craggoth skitters back over to the token and picks it up. If his fireball was in range to the Ice Elementals, it completely fluffed.

Turn 2: Brad hardly moves, simply adjusting a couple facings and pulling the Frostclaws and Frostfangs back as reserves. Ice Kin Hunters and the Ice Queen deal 12 damage to the central Mastiffs, removing them. Serakina wind blasts the orb Beast Lord on the left backwards, freezing him to Sp 6, and the Ice Elementals push Craggoth up to 10 damage, freezing him again.

With Brad’s Ice Elementals rolling so well, I decide to evacuate Craggoth while I still can, scuttling him back towards my lines with token in tow. The rest of the iron line powers forward as fast as it can. Mastiffs on the right pick up another token, as the sword Beast Lord plows through the wood and charges the Berserkers (hindered). He does 2 damage (…) but has stripped their TC and is out of Hrimm’s LOS.

Northern Alliance 3: In which I discover that the Frostclaws can in fact fit into Craggoth’s flank. Good eyes, Brad! The birds charge the giant metal scorpion. The Berserkers counter-charge the sword Beast Lord, with the Frostfangs joining them. Hrimm’s frozen aura freezes the Free Dwarf hero for chad for good measure.

In shooting, the Ice Elementals, the blizzard Ice Queen and Serakina do 5 damage to the left Greater Earth Elemental, shoving him several inches backwards. The sharp Earth horde in the center goes up to 7 damage and is frozen thanks to the Ice Kin Hunter firebase, and Hrimm breaths on the Mastiffs, freezing and wavering them on 4 damage. In combat, the Frostclaws tear Craggoth apart, scooping up the token and overrunning 2 inches. And the Berserkers and Frostfangs do 8 damage to the sword Beast Lord, wavering him.

Free Dwarfs 3: Determined to rest some control back, I charge the orb Beast Lord into the Ice Elementals (hindered over the wall) and an Earth Elemental regiment into the waiting horde of Tribesfolk. The Greater Earth on that flank pushes up to the wall and hopes he gets to charge somebody at some point (Brad later told me he would have surged the GEE forward, and while I could maybe have gotten my Sp 4 caster into range, I think it would have pulled his inspiring away from dudes who needed it? Spoilers.) Neither combat is brilliant (3 damage to the Ice Elementals and 4 to the Tribesfolk) but those units are in one place now and not shooting.

On the right, my sword Beast Lord fails his headstrong (the Dwarven Curse strikes!), which sees an Earth regiment charge the Berserkers unsupported as the right Greater Earth charges the Frostfangs. I roll pretty great but 5 damage and 7 damage respectively isn’t enough to do much. You can see I’m already preparing to scoop up tokens with my rear Earth Elemental horde once the sharp Earth horde pops, which has claimed the center token for now.

Northern Alliance 4: Brad begins by backing up 2/3 of his Ice Kin firebase. Success 😤 Otherwise everybody counter-charges their dance partners, as the Frostclaws drag their token towards my table edge and Hrimm and the Snow Foxes mill about. Serakina freezes and wind blasts the left Greater Earth back again (*sigh*), before the Ice Kin Hunters and Ice Queen push the central sharp Earth horde to 11 damage, freezing them of course. Hrimm breaths on the Mastiffs again, and once again freezes and wavers them (on 6 damage).

In combat, the orb Beast Lord takes 2 damage from the Ice Elementals, losing his TC2. The Earth regiment next to him is, however, utterly dismantled by the Tribesfolk horde. On the right, the Berserkers chip 3 damage onto their Earth regiment, and the right Greater Earth takes a sterling 9 damage from the Frostfangs. Note that thanks to Hrimm’s chilling presence both units were frozen, which triggered tundra fighters (vicious) in the NA troops. Nice.

Free Dwarfs 4: A turn too late, I send the left Greater after the non-flying, non-nimble, Sp 5 birds carrying the token. It isn’t wonderful but I feel like it’s better than getting aced by the Tribesfolk when Brad feels like it. The orb Beast Lord hits the Ice Elementals again. On the right, the Berserkers cop a combo-charge from a Earth Elemental horde and regiment, as the Frostfangs receive the combined attention of the slayer Beast Lord and the right Greater Earth. The Mastiffs drop their token and the reserve Earth horde picks it up. Finally, the sharp Earth horde sidesteps 2.5″, dragging their token closer to my deathball.

Combat is decisive on the right, with both NA units bludgeoned into the snow. The orb Beast Lord on the left successfully disorders the Ice Elementals (4 damage total).

Northern Alliance 5: Serakina signals that it’s time for the Alliance to move this turn! Mostly! The Frostclaws drag their token into the leftmost woods, the Tribesfolk saunter towards the central token and melee, as the Ice Kin Hunters mostly decide they’re good where they are, except for one unit that charges into an Earth Elemental horde before they get charged. Hrimm plows into an Earth regiment (freezing everyone within 6″) and his pet Snow Foxes leap on the right Greater Earth.

Serakina freezes and wind blasts the left Greater Earth sideways, ensuring it can’t catch the birds this turn or next. And the two Ice Kin Hunters with the help of the Ice Queen’s blizzard finish off the sharp Earth horde after 5 turns of shooting it. Result. In combat, the Ice Kin Hunters do a single damage to the Earth horde (respect), before Hrimm obliterates his Earth regiment and the Snow Foxes preposterously drag down the wounded Greater Earth! Best Swarm 2019-2023. Also it looks like the Ice Elementals lost their damn minds and did 10 damage to the orb Beast Lord, but the dude held on 12 damage. Wow.

Free Dwarfs 5: The Greater Earth on the left stumbles forward 5″, honestly to get away from Serakina more than anything. Otherwise, the orb Beast Lord counters the Ice Elementals again, the Earth horde fighting Ice Kin Hunters fights Ice Kin Hunters, the sword Beast Lord gleefully charges into Hrimm (hindered), and the Mastiffs charge the Snow Foxes, fancying a chaff off. My reserve Earth horde scoop up the token dropped last turn, adding it to their other one.

The Stone Priest fails to bane chant the Earth horde fighting elves, then it’s on to combat. The orb Beast Lord continues to do 2 damage a turn to the Ice Elementals (5 total after Serakina’s radiance), the Earth horde does a solid 7 damage to the Hunters, the sword Beast Lord slams 3 into Hrimm, and the Mastiffs chomp 2 into the Foxes. Nobody cares but everybody is disordered.

Northern Alliance 6: Brad draws the noose tight, but will it be enough? The Tribesfolk flank the Earth horde embroiled with the Ice Kin Hunters, as more Ice Kin Hunters flank the sword Beast Lord fighting Hrimm. The Foxes counter the Mastiffs and the Ice Elementals do the same to the mangled orb Beast Lord. The Frostclaws drag their token through the woods, away from their giant, dogged pursuer. Sadly (for me), Serakina finds the angle and shoves the Greater Elemental sideways again, frozen forever.

In combat, the Earth Elemental horde holds on 10 damage! Helped I’m going to guess because bane chant on the horde failed? Hrimm and the Snow Foxes can’t fail tho, dropping the Beast Lord and Mastiffs. But the roller coaster continues as the Ice Elementals can’t wound the orb Beast Lord clinging to life.

Free Dwarfs 6: Unexpectedly, I might have this! I delightedly hit the Tribesfolk horde in the front and flank with Earth Elemental hordes. It lives when I beef the Nv test (IIRC I needed like a 4-6 and rolled very low). The orb Beast Lord hits the Ice Elementals yet again, but I don’t think broke them. And the left Greater plods after those damn birds, having never swung all game.

Thankfully there’s no Turn 7, making this a …

FREEFORGED VICTORY

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeew what a game, and pretty unique for Kings of War, with so many movement debuffs. Pretty sure I gave Brad my favorite opponent vote as well. Overall, it was really cool to see the new Northern Alliance functioning as the combined arms force it was designed to be, and I appreciate that while Frostclaws did technically do some really meaningful work, it wasn’t through spamming them or going hard alpha, but carefully timed play. Also special shoutout to Ice Elementals going to 12″ shooting as being one of the best hidden buffs, it synergizes really well with frozen’s -1 Sp. Finally, Serakina can go straight to hell.

Round 5 puts Cuddle Time up against Barry’s Bathwater Experience, somewhere just below the middle of the pack. I end up against Mike, a dude I actually played in the first round of Pilgrimage 2023, in a battle which some day you’ll get to read about 😬 While I was playing Herd last time we met, Mike is still rocking Varangur, except on the other side of the update.

Game 5: Varangur

The Fallen Horde – Brew of Strength
The Fallen Regiment – Staying Stone
Human Tribesfolk Horde – Chalice of Wrath
Human Tribesfolk Regiment – Orb of Towering Presence
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 – Fire-Oil, Bows
Draugr Regiment
Draugr Regiment
Snow Foxes Regiment
Magnilde of the Fallen
Kruufnir
Magus on Horse – Boots of Levitation, Knowledgeable; Alchemist’s Curse (4)
Skald – Lute of Insatiable Darkness; Bane Chant (2)

That’s 3 AC(4) casters out of 5 games! My plan for Mike’s is the same as the other ones: ignore them unless they get within 14″ of a Beast Lord (they won’t) and try to kill faster than they can melt my large metal children. Otherwise the list is fairly standard Varangur, with more variety than I’m used to but looks like he was trying out some of the improved infantry options. For reference, he had more shooting at Pilgrimage, as well as a Frost Giant which I did my best to frustrate and keep wandering around not doing much 😉

We’re playing Dominate because I chose scenario 😛 Craggoth scoots up a flank and I win and take first turn. Off to a good start.

BATTLE

Turn 1: The Freeforged stomp forward once again, with Mastiffs scampering ahead to be annoying as Craggoth scuttles up the flank more conservatively than usual, thanks to the Fallen’s presence.

The Varangur line advances apace, the standouts being the Fallen regiment cresting the hill and the Magus whipping down the left flank. Using the power of his horse’s magical boots (???), the Magus is able to cast while marching, scorching 5 damage into the leftmost Greater Earth Elemental. So it begins. Also the Night Raiders land a cheeky damage on Craggoth with their bows, the scamps.

Free Dwarfs 2: Declaring my hatred of the Fallen, I hit Mike’s regiment with Mastiffs and the sword Beast Lord in the front and Craggoth in the flank. They explode spectacularly. I overrun the Mastiffs to jam the Fallen horde but they only go 1 inch, which means I have to reform Craggoth in such a way that Kruufnir (and the Night Raiders) are in his flank. He’s a tough scorpion so how bad can it be? In other news, I punch the left Mastiffs up 12″ to be in the way of Mike’s Tribesfolk, who must be within 11″ of my sharpness Earth horde.

Varangur 2: Things start to get messy as the Varangur make contact across the line. The Tribesfolk regiment hits the waiting Mastiffs, Snow Foxes whip into the sharp Earth Elementals, Draugr hit an Earth horde and regiment, the Fallen horde obliges and charges the Mastiffs in front of them, and Craggoth is hit in the front by the drunken ram Mounted Sons regiment (so that’s CS1+TC2) and the flank by Night Raiders (who have TC1). Kruffnir abstains from combat, instead nimbling around the legendary titan. Finally, the Magus circles his Greater Earth target and Magnilde uses her once per game fly to land within the Freeforged lines, glaring at the Stone Priest.

There is a brief pause broken by the shrieking of superheated metal as the Magus curses the GEE up to 9 damage, after which the axes descend. The Tribesfolk deal 7 damage to the left Mastiffs, who hold. The Snow Foxes and both Draugr regiments deal a single damage to their targets, leaving the elementals unphased. The Fallen horde dunks their Mastiffs unceremoniously, and Craggoth takes only 10 damage from his aggressors.

Free Dwarfs 3: Craggoth, very much alive, kicks things off by flanking his Mounted Sons for great vengeance. I send the left Mastiffs in to block up the horde of Tribesfolk, and use that safety to put the central Greater Earth into the flank of the Snow Foxes. Earth Elementals counter the Varangur chaff down the line (Snow Foxes, Draugr, Draugr). I back up the sword Beast Lord to keep the Fallen horde, the Night Raiders and Kruufnir in his front, rather than charging, getting stuck and flanked / reared. On the left, I decide the melting Greater Earth is basically dead, so push him into the woods and invite charges from the Mounted Sons and/or the Tribesfolk regiment. I turn the left Earth regiment around and prepare to surge 4″ into Magnilde. It won’t save my Stone Priest unless they kill her but crazy dice happen … but I roll 3″ out of 8 dice and they fall short (seen in the left photo below).

After this turn Mike wondered why I didn’t charge the central Greater into the Tribesfolk horde? The Mastiffs could have easily protected his flank from Sons or the Tribesfolk regiment, and the sharp Earth horde did not need help against the Snow Foxes. I didn’t have a great answer apart from being scared of the horde killing my big guy … but would now like to know why I didn’t help clear off the Draugr to the GEE’s right? It would have been great to have that horde freed up a turn earlier, and very much looks like he can their flank.

Anyway. Craggoth splatters those Mounted Sons and turns to face the Fallen horde, showing his butt to the Night Raiders and yet again tempting Kruufnir. Those Snow Foxes are turned to mist, and the Draugr get slapped around (5 damage and 3 damage). The Tribesfolk horde takes a damage from the Mastiffs.

Varangur 3: Screaming Herja’s war cry, Magnilde charges into the Stone Priest lurking in the central forest. The cry is taken up throughout the Varangur host as the Mounted Sons launch into the damaged Greater Earth Elemental (they pop boots to avoid hindering), the Tribesfolk regiment charges the sharp Earth horde, the Fallen hit Craggoth in the front with Night Raiders in the rear, and Kruufnir lopes into the flank of the Earth regiment fighting Draugr. The horde of Tribesfolk deal with their Mastiffs and the other Draugr regiment flails against their Earth horde again.

The Magus sears 6 (!) damage into the orb Beast Lord, and then it’s on. The Mounted Sons down their Greater Elemental and the Tribesfolk horde bashes the last of their mechanical Mastiffs down. That’s the end of Mike’s good news, however. The Tribesfolk regiment does 1 damage to the sharp Earth horde, the Stone Priest holds after taking 6 damage from Magnilde, Draugr do 1 damage to the other engaged Earth horde, and Kruufnir only manages to get his Earth regiment up to 4 damage. The heartbreaker tho is Craggoth snake eyesing on 22 damage 🫂 Devastated but at what cost?

Free Dwarfs 4: Time to capitalize on Mike’s misfortune! The sword Beast Lord flanks the Fallen horde as fast as possible, with the mangled husk of Craggoth counter-charging the Night Raiders to his rear. Kruufnir is flanked by an Earth Elemental horde, as the Draugr receive another round of pounding from their Earth Elemental opponents. The sharp Earth Elementals counter the Tribesfolk regiment, the Earth Elemental reg that was trying to catch Magnidle charge into her this turn, and the central Greater Earth thunders into the Mounted Sons that killed its fellow, with the orb Beast Lord lending (hindered) support.

The Tribesfolk, Fallen and one unit of Draugr are brutalized and sent fleeing, but it’s not all roses for the Freeforged. The Mounted Sons waver on 12 damage (that’s me failing to roll a 4 with no reroll!), Kruufnir only takes 5 damage, Magnidle takes none, and Craggoth likewise can’t strip the thunderous from his Night Raiders.

Varangur 4: The Tribesfolk horde vaults the hedge and flanks the surviving Greater Earth (hindered but bane chanted), as the Mounted Sons disengage. Kruufnir has another go at the Earth reg’s flank, Magnilde goes back into the Stone Priest, and the Night Raiders envelope Craggoth and prepare to end the scorpion at last.

The Magus thankfully only manages to curse 2 more damage into the orb Beast Lord, putting him on a manageable 8. In combat, the Greater Earth is cutting down under weight of the Tribesfolks’ attaks, but Mike realizes he’s butted the Skald right up against the unit, making it impossible to reform to face my sharp Earth Elementals 😐 Moving past this, Magnidle decapitates the Stone Priest and overruns to stand in front of an Earth horde, Craggoth is stabbed into submission by Night Raiders, and Kruufnir faffs against the Earth regiment, bringing them to 9 damage but still no rout.

Free Dwarfs 5: The orb Beast Lord charges the very damaged Mounted Sons (hindered), the sharp Earth Elementals flank the Tribesfolk horde, Magnidle is mobbed by a horde and a regiment of Earth Elementals, Kruufnir is flanked by an Earth Elemental horde on one side and a CS3+TC2 Beast Lord on the other, and the battered Earth reg has one more go at the surviving Draugr.

Rocks fall, everybody dies.

Varangur 5: With very little left, Mike takes what he can but in the end we are playing Dominate … The Skald hides behind a hedge, the Magus cooks the orb Beast Lord up to 11 damage (he holds), and the Night Raiders put 3 damage on the sword Beast Lord (shrug).

Free Dwarfs 6: The orb Beast Lord hits the Skald for 2 damage (hindered), and the Night Raiders die to the sword Beast Lord and an Earth horde.

Varangur 6: The Magus successfully melts the orb Beast Lord using alchemist curse, shortly before the Skald fails to hurt an Earth horde. But of course there’s another turn.

Turn 7: The sword Beast Lord and an Earth horde charge the Skald, caving his skull in. The Magus I think tried to curse off the 9 damage Earth regiment, which regardless of the result, this was another heavy …

FREEFORGED VICTORY

What a smasher to end the tournament on. Before we started, Mike commented that he rolled three snake eyes in the game before … and so naturally he rolled four in this one 😅 Only one was really catastrophic but his dice in general keep getting worse and worse, especially around his alchemist curse – i.e. his strongest counter into my wall of iron that I could never touch. I heartily thanked his dice for the gift. Mike took his drubbing well and I suspect we’ll play again the next time our regions cross.

Despite my truly unexpected five out of five wins, Cuddle Time still ended up 18th out of 24 teams, scoring high in sports and solid in appearance even if our overall battle wasn’t great. Hopefully the rest of the lads had a decent time? I’m still riding pretty high from smashing everybody up, glossing over Game 3’s poor Abyssal Dwarf seal clubbing. I’ll always wonder how much I can write off my wins to choice of scenario? I played Dominate three times and Loot / Plunder for the other two, which seems pretty perfect for me (hell, I chose them!) Being teched into didn’t seem to matter a lot – Alchemist Curse (4) on mobile casters sucked but I pushed through. I think more mobile armies would have been more of a pain for me, at least play-wise, but you really need to be able to lift to take this army out.

Somebody averaged out performance by faction for this event, and well:

🪨🪨🪨

Looking to do some sort of wrap up for my 2023 Herd tournaments, I took way too many photos to not do something with them all. Til then, thanks for reading!

FREEFORGED 1-2: CROSSROADS GT DAY 1

On By SalvageIn FREEFORGEDLeave a comment

And a merry Fall to you as well, gentle readers! With a lull at work I’m finally getting around to reporting some battles again, and rather than wade into a year of Herd tournaments, I figured I’d punch out my annual coverage of the Crossroads GT. In its current format, Crossroads is a 2300 point two day tournament using teams of four players, taking place late September in Elmira, NY. There’s some jiggery-pokery involved in determining match-ups, but my goal as captain of Team Cuddle Time has always been to give most of my players the least painful games possible. Not necessarily best, mind 😅

I tend to do quite well at Crossroads (probably because I have some control over what scenarios I play), however personal records are a moot point when the rest of your team is getting slagged. Spoilers for this year: Cuddle Time did just about the same as it always does, although our painting and sports scores keep climbing, even if our round results aren’t. Good on ya, lads.

This Crossroads also saw me premiere a new army, which seems to be a tradition for me as well. Printed last winter and painted mostly in the summer, I present my FREEFORGED:

Free Dwarfs
Earth Elemental Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Earth Elemental Horde
Earth Elemental Horde
Earth Elemental Regiment
Earth Elemental Regiment
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment
Mastiff Hunting Pack Regiment
Greater Earth Elemental – Craggoth & Kholearm, Fireball (10)
Greater Earth Elemental
Greater Earth Elemental
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Blade of the Beast Slayer
Dwarf Lord on Large Beast – Orb of Towering Presence
Free Dwarf Stone Priest – Surge (8), Bane Chant (2)
2300 (13/21)

The main goal was to 3D print an entire army, for which I chose a single set of not-Warforged by Artisan Guild, one of my favorite sculpting houses but one that historically does not print well for me. Originally I was going to stay the course and use a third large robot lad, but ended up using a converted automaton scorpion from Cast N Play for Craggoth, partially for my own sanity and also to stand out. It’s an understatement to say I’m happy with the big critter.

As for the list, I feel like I’m back in the 2E days of Bloodfire, strapped for unlocks and starving for unit strength 🙃 But I also wanted to run some De 6+ skew, in response to the high speed hammers + low pierce shooting that’s flooding the meta, and I’d say that was a success. I sacrificed the Mastiff’s throwing dogs to juice up the DLOLBs, which I knew from facing Dwarfs need some items to really tune up, and splurged on +1 to hit for a horde rather than Martyr’s Prayer on the Stone Priest. As punishing as that would have been with such high defense, I really wanted a horde that could do something.

I finished basing the army two nights before the tournament, so like with my crabs I would be enjoying a single prep game on the Friday before the event. Clubmate Bill likewise had a brand new army he didn’t understand either, so off we went …

Game 0: Northern Alliance

I don’t remember what’s in Bill’s list but it’s a decent mix made from the refreshed NA line. The opening gambit of the game saw me scouting Craggoth into charge range of both of his Frostclaw hordes, daring them to have a go. Surprisingly Bill did just that! The birds very nearly broke my new toy, but the scorpion clung to life and Craggoth killed one horde while the other was driven off by a Beast Lord and some amount of Earth Elementals. Side Comment: As much as I love universal pathfinder on my Herd, nigh-universal brutal is great as well. Ogre players know.

Anyway, Bill’s heart left the game once the birds were gone. I weathered his shooting in the middle, including my first taste of frozen vs Sp 5 units, and felt the pain of Hrimm one-shoting a horde of Earth Elementals to the front, but eventually forced a concession about mid-game. I’m not sure how Bill did in the tournament but hopefully his birds served him better!

After this we had some drinks and played obligatory board games into the AM, as is customary for Kings of War events.

Game 1: Elves

Palace Guard Horde – Brew of Strength
Drakon Riders Horde – Helm of the Drunken Ram
Drakon Riders Horde – Mead of Madness
Stormwind Cavalry Regiment – Quicksilver Lancers
Kindred Gladestalkers Regiment – Fire-Oil
Silverbreeze Cavalry Troop – Staying Stone
Forest Guard Troop
Forest Guard Troop
Tydarion Dragonlord
Elven Archmage – Inspiring Talisman, Lightning Bolt (5)
Elven Archmage – Alchemist’s Curse (4), Bane Chant (2)
Elven Archmage – Lightning Bolt (5)
2300 (12/20)

Round One sees Cuddle Time up against the Ithaca Lakers! The way pairing works, you end up choosing the match-ups for half of your team and the scenario for the other half. My goal was to always choose scenario if possible, on the assumption that that matters way more for a Sp 5 brickhouse of an army. I successfully got myself Dominate this match, and as a reward I was up against Bryant’s Elves. He’s running a pretty late 2E style list with some decent De 6+ cracking power – for those playing at home, please mark a 1 next to the number of AC (4) casters I’ve faced in this tournament so far 😐

Bryant is a good guy who I’ve faced at other Crossroads. He was running OOGL last year (before they were cool) and you can read about our game somewhere on this blog. A game which he’s still kicking himself for, as he told me. Anyway, I won first turn and took it because Sp 5 brickhouse.

BATTLE

Turn 0: Bryant forms a fast wing and a slow wing while I try not to go pure deathball. Then I scout Craggoth up the flank and he suddenly has a concern.

Turn 1: The Freeforged stumble to war! The left GEE must have been surged a bit for extra distance, and Craggoth misses the leftmost Archmage (I want to say the LB only one) with his fireball / tail laser. Boo.

In response, the Elves back away on the left and move into threatening positions on the right. Classic Elves! The Gladestalkers and that LB Archmage tag a solid 3 damage into Craggoth while the advanced Greater Earth suffers 8, no doubt thanks to the loathsome AC Archmage.

Free Dwarfs 2: I send my big boys in to smash while they still can, with Craggoth slamming 7 damage into the Gladestalkers (wavering them) and the melted Greater into some Forest Guard, turning them into goop. The rest of my turn is spent on the right making sure that the only double charge open to the mead Drakons and Tydarion are some Mastiffs. This takes some time but does successfully lock Bryant into one off charges that I can respond to.

Elves 2: The Forest Guard in the upper left flank Craggoth, pushing him up to 11 damage but the scorpion holds. The same can’t be said for the melted Greater Earth, which is finished off by the AC Archmage in a classic flaming paper vs rock situation. Apart from these big guys being aggressed upon, the bulk of Bryant’s turn is spent deciding where and how to dive into the Freeforged lines. Ultimately he chooses to hit the center of the lines, which I think was as correct as it could be, with no Beast Lords in LOS and asked a little more of my surge than other options. Backing up again might have been better? But it is dominate and I was coming to grips with him slowly but surely.

Tragically both Drakons and Dragonlord stick on their Earth hordes, doing 6 damage each.

Free Dwarfs 3: Instead of finishing off the Gladestalkers, Craggoth counters the Forest Guard in his flank. Only 3 damage dealt but another waver should keep him in the game a bit longer. I send the Mastiffs on the right off the hill and into the flank of the Quicksilver Lancers, for an impressive 5 damage (pretty sure they hindered on that fountain). The Drakons are obliterated thanks to a bane chanted surge flank off a hill from the sharpness Earth horde, while Tydarion only takes 5 damage from his own Earth horde. Finally, I spend some time preparing a landing spot for the helm Drakons coming in from the right flank. There only charge is into a Greater Earth, with a slide that will hinder them on terrain. I’ll take it.

Elves 3: Craggoth is flanked by Gladestalkers and I pay for my hubris as they finally pull the machine down. Elf violence continues as the Palace Guard horde scatters a Mastiff pack and the AC Archmage dunks 6 damage onto the sharp Earth Elementals. The Quicksilver Lancers see their own Mastiffs off as Tydarion wallops his Earth horde to 13 damage, then flubs the Nv test. The play of the turn, however, is Bryant using the Silverbreeze to keep the Drakons from hindering on the terrain when they charged my last Greater Earth. My 5 damage calculation becomes 9, which Bryant spikes extra hard to one round the large lad. I am gently shook.

Free Dwarfs 4: The sharpness Earth Elementals and orb Beast Lord pound into the Palace Guard, delivering a ferocious 17 damage but only wavering the elite horde. The blade Beast Lord slams into the Drakon horde and is forced to go it alone when an Earth regiment falls 1″ short on their surge. The Lord still hammers 6 damage into the small dragons but that’ll have to do. Also Tydarion Dragonlord is flanked and fronted by Earth Elementals, ripped from his saddle and reduced to a red smear. RIP to that guy.

Elves 4: The Quicksilver Lancers plow into the sharp Earth Elementals’ flank, routing them handily. Elsewhere, the Earth Elemental reg that has been struggling up the left flank takes 2 damage from the Gladestalkers and their Archmage, shortly before the Drakons gnaw 2 damage onto the blade Beast Lord.

Free Dwarfs 5: The orb Beast Lord charges the mangled Palace Guard, finishing them off, as the (bane chanted) Earth horde next to him pushes the Quicksilver Lancers up to 9 damage but can’t seal the deal. Plucky Earth regiments make contact this turn, with the left regiment slapping a couple damage onto the Gladestalkers (wavered again!) and the right one helping the blade Beast Lord end the Drakon menace.

Elves 5: The Quicksilver Lancers disengage from the central Earth horde, letting the Archmages work their cruel magicks. Thankfully they hold on 10 damage. The Silverbreeze, however, slip a damage into the 13 damage horde and pop them! Otherwise the Forest Guard start heading towards the center because we are playing Dominate, after all.

Turn 6: The Gladestalkers are driven back to the glades by a very determined regiment of Earth Elementals, as the Quicksilver Lancers are flanked and wrecked by the orb Beast Lord. I make sure all 8 of my available unit strength is in the center and see what Bryant can do.

The Elves drop the last Earth horde and toss a few shots at the orb Beast Lord for just a single damage. With 2 US to my 5 US, this is a solid …

FREEFORGED VICTORY

Awesome first game against a friendly face, that I’m genuinely surprised went my way. I’d say Craggoth was the big standout for me, despite not killing anything at all. I knew he could be a pressure piece but wow what a distraction and a half. Also, I didn’t really consider how much Alchemist Curse and CS/TC 3+ in the game these days when I decided to run a De 6+ skew list, but as we’ll see my lessons were just beginning …

Next Up: Empire of Dust!

SCUTTLIN’ REALM 36-37: ORC TOWN DAY 2

On By SalvageIn SCUTTLING REALMLeave a comment

After a lovely evening of raiding Cape Cod and playing arcade games at Skull Face’s pad, we were back at the Cape Cod Curling Club for another day at Orc Town. I’m unexpectedly on Table 3 or 4 facing off against Corey Reynolds, a Masters-tier player who also runs the Crossroads GT (which kicks off in just a few days of writing this!) The last time I played Corey was in Philly on the top table in the last round of a WHFB GT, where I conceded because I had no chance of doing anything to his Wood Elves once they broke through my Skaven lines and I wanted to drive home. Coincidentally that was the last time I’ve conceded :X

GAME FOUR: TWILIGHT KIN

Twilight Kin 2600
Blade Dancer Neophytes Horde
Twilight Gladestalkers Regiment
Twilight Gladestalkers Regiment
Impalers Regiment – Brew of Strength
Impalers Regiment
Cronebound Fiends Horde – Brew of Sharpness
Cronebound Fiends Regiment
Cronebound Shadowhounds Troop
Cronebound Gargoyles Troop
Cronebound Gargoyles Troop
Cronebound Mind-Screech – Lightning Bolt (6), Mind Fog (6), Wind Blast (6)
Cronebound Mind-Screech – Lightning Bolt (6), Mind Fog (6), Wind Blast (6)
Cronebound Archfiend – Fireball (10)
Mikayel, Lord of Nightmares [1]
Soulbane on Dread-Fiend

Naturally Corey is playing his Twilight Kin 😐 It’s certainly not the worst TK list, with blessedly zero levels of Host Shadowbeast, plus it looks amazing hobby-wise. But it’s still TK – even his ‘Cool New Model Added to Hit 2600 Points’, the Archfiend, is an absolute unit against me thanks to Stealthy. Corey is adamant I have more of a chance than I think but there’s only one way to find out …

We’re playing Kill, which is a bummer in general and especially against his list. Stealthy will make it hard to kill with my shooting, and that’s how my list usually kills :/ Corey is going first. Here’s the rundown (head back to 34/35):

ORC TOWN GT GAME 4 – Twilight Kin

The Kin pushed hard into the center and then the left side, which involved a lot of playing peek-a-boo around that leftmost forest as grinding happened towards the center. A grind which I didn’t win but I did kill his Archfiend with my Coral Giant, and we all know I love a clash of the titans.

I felt a lot more confident on the right flank, however his shooting was far more effective than mine, and my double Kraken rush got bogged down with Gargoyles and dismantled by an unexpected Impaler counter. I also lost my Placos by woefully underestimating Twilight Gladestalkers in combat – poison melee, even hindered, does work! However you slice it, this was a big …

TRIDENT LOSS

In talking about it afterwards, Corey felt I should have just put all my guns on the right side and really forced down his Gladestalkers, and then put all the titans together on the left and gone full square base monster mash. I’m genuinely curious if that would have worked, as I so often try to spread things out when the game rewards focused aggression whenever possible. Ah well.

With that drubbing I plummet down the tables to face the Glacier King and friends in …

GAME FIVE: NORTHERN ALLIANCE

None shall pass!

Northern Alliance 2600
Frostfang Cavalry Horde
Ice Elementals Horde
Ice Elementals Horde
Huscarls Regiment
Tundra Wolves Regiment
Ice Kin Hunters Troop
Half-Elf Berserkers Troop
Cavern Dweller
Ice Kin Bolt Thrower
Lord on Chimera
Hrimm, Legendary Ice Giant [1]
Ice-Queen – Surge (8), ???
Skald

There are 160 points of missing upgrades which I assure you exist and are smart, I just don’t have a list or much memory of the match left 😛 It’s a very unassuming list piloted by the youngest member of the New England War Kings, however he was in the running for highest attrition so was clearly putting work in the violence department!

The final game was Loot with 3 tokens, with the Alliance going first. Here’s the play by play (start on 41/42 and prepare for glamour shots of Hrimm doing stuff since I love that model):

ORC TOWN GT GAME 5 – Northern Alliance

I felt pretty strong going into this, as NoAl are relatively weak, the list seems a bit unfocused and I’m a more seasoned player. WELL that started to change Turn 2, when he alpha-ed the Water Elementals with his Frostfang and central Heartpiercers with his Chimera and routed both with solo charges. That’s not really supposed to happen, y’all, and it split my battleline, voided the traps I’d set and made me scramble to deal with these hammers instead of having time to whittle down the Frostbound stuff shuffling toward me. The flanking Kraken also ran into embarrassing predicaments, with the right one getting stuck fighting Wolves for half the game and the left one eventually being shot to death by a troop of Ice Kin Hunters and a single Ice Kin Bolt Thrower :O I had to golf clap those guys, but WOW.

Despite these setbacks, the Crabs did take their pound of cold flesh over the course of the game, but losing hammers so early made it hard going. A fun, bloody game to end the tournament. Oh right, and a …

TRIDENT LOSS

My opponent would go on to win a trophy for highest attrition! I’m sure the 2135 points I gave him here helped 🦀

After a meteoric first day, I’m sure I was ending up somewhere in the middle, maybe higher-mid if my soft scores were good. We assembled for the endless raffle as points were furiously tallied up, and I came away with the swag I really wanted, which is always nice.

Finally, Orc Town is known for its awesome trophies, so all that was left was to see who walked away with them:

I’ll cut to the chase: I won Best Sports! As voted by my five opponents, which makes the award even more humbling. Big thanks to all those lads and to the hardworking maniacs in NEWK, I was already looking forward to next year but this time I guess I have something to live up to ❤

Orc Town GT 2022 Best Sports (with Stack of Swag + Bountiful Breads)

Thanks for reading through these recaps, sorry they weren’t the full write-ups I usually do. I’ll make another pre-Crossroads post this week gesturing towards the practice games I’ve had between Orc Town and now, but otherwise get hype for me eventually writing up another set of tournament reports in the near future!

INCOMING CRABS 🦀

On By SalvageIn SCUTTLING REALMLeave a comment

Or rather, they arrived a while ago, but haven’t been batrepped for unknown reasons … Bloodfire is still on hiatus while I explore fresher avenues, however I wanted to give some coverage to my current army, plus those that come after this one, and this seems like a decent, agnostic place to do it.

So welcome to the new, expanded, ad-free blood-fire.com!

CRABS (FEB 2020) – Big boys by Mierce, tiny lads by Khurasan, token Hadross dude by CMON

Late September 2019, I finished up a new crab-themed Trident Realm army, just a couple days before the Crossroads GT (which was a 2250 point KOW 2E team event). I played a practice game the night before against a team mate, crushing his new Nightstalkers with the fury of a bunch of crustaceans (GAME 1: NIGHTSTALKERS). And with practice out of the way – I had literally never played the army before! – we got a few hours sleep and headed into the event. The list I took for that first outing:

Trident Realm 2250 (2E)
Naiad Heartpiercers Regiment
Naiad Heartpiercers Regiment
Naiad Heartpiercers Regiment
Naiad Heartpiercers Regiment
Gigas Horde*
Gigas Horde*
Kraken
Kraken
Kraken
Naiad Envoy – Aura of Heroism (2), Banner of the Griffin
Depth Horror Eternal – Inspiring Talisman
Depth Horror Eternal – Orcish Skullpole
Naiad Wyrmrider Centurion – Fire-Oil
*King Crabs

As captain of Team Cuddle Time II, I was vaguely in charge of working out which armies would go up against each other and/or what scenarios they would play, so I had some control over who and what my crabs faced. My goal for the team was to put myself into harder armies but ideally with better scenarios for my Trident … which was total conjecture since I didn’t really know what they could do! Here’s the briefest of recaps:

GAME 2: ELVES

NWC and Kraken doing terrible things to Elf Archers!

 

Couldn’t tell you what the mission was or how things broke down, but holy hell I won! Biggest revelation was that massed heartpiercers are really good at killing big monsters, as his dragon was deleted in a couple turns as it tried to harry my flanks and rear.

GAME 3: KINGDOMS OF MEN

Kraken resolutely face-tanking a charge from a Knight horde!

Knight-heavy (like 2x hordes + regiments + flying heroes) men largely controlled this game, however through the magic of ensnare + hindering the crabs were able to bog down his momentum and smash their way to an inconceivable draw.

GAME 4: BASILEANS

Another fast army, this time 2x Elohi, 2x Uh-Elohi, 1-2x Knights, token foot troops, Gnaeus Sallustis annnnnd the mega-dragon (who is now just the normal dragon). I should have gotten wrecked, however he was extremely caught up in the dance a Kraken and his dragon were having in some woods, where I kept turning or stepping into and out of wood templates and he had to keep over-analyzing LOS and what was going on over there, all while taking continual Heartpiercer damage. Preposterously I won this one too!

GAME 5: UNDEAD

Crabs busting ghosts!

Dawn of Day 2, and while Team Cuddle Time II wasn’t doing stellar (our Varangur player was getting paired up against very hard armies, and pretty consistently getting smashed for his troubles), my Trident Realm was on a real tear! Up against Undead next, a rather standard 2E affair with some hordes, some knights, some wraith troops, some barrow wights, a dragon, etc. Lowlight was a Kraken getting trapped by Wraiths and dismantled – one troop to the front, then more to the flank, then another to the rear! But otherwise the dragon was shot down and the punchy crabs punched hard, with a somewhat lucky Gigas + Gigas + Eternal charge into a fresh horde that helped me roll his flank up and maul through the rest of the Undead line. Another win!

GAME 6: UNDEAD

“Craaaaaab meeeeeeaaat”

Final round of the tournament, and another Undead grinder for me. Main difference here is the abundance of zombies and zombie trolls. I was in control of this game early on, thanks to shooting, but I still remember how, instead of waiting for Turn 3 to engage, when the zombie trolls had been shot off, I jumped the guns and sent the Kraken all in Turn 2, which got most of them killed – including one to multiple wraith troop charges, again. Once the big hammers were down, I scrabbled as best I could but was overrun, earning the armies first loss.

All told, it was a pretty heartening first six games with the scuttlers! Really quite unexpected … although a bit tarnished as the 3E changes for Trident Realm had been previewed the day before the event, and it was clear that almost all the units I was using were going to lose their COK19 bumps. I had a feeling 3E was about to get bumpy for my new army.

Some KOW-less weeks later, the new edition hit, confirming some particularly distressing developments:

  1. Heartpiercers became irregular, making my 2E list illegal and ensuring I will always hurt for unlocks
  2. Heartpiercers lost ensnare, pathfinder and 2 attaks, for the benefit of steady aim, which gutted the reason I based an army around these little, mobile tarpits happy to grab a 24 attak flank when able
  3. Gigas went up to a larger base, making them unwieldy but more importantly meaning I had to paint more of them and rebase the unit (they also lost 1 CS but gained 1 Def and kept their King Crabs Sp, so meh; the added nimble has yet to matter for me)
  4. Kraken lost 3 attaks, severely hurting their abilities as hammers, ironically at the same time as they gained +D3″ charge range

At first I added a Wyrmrider horde for a third hero unlock, but man they suck now. In my first 3E game I lost against Ogres (GAME 7: OGRES):

Then over Wintermas I leant my brother my Ratkin, who brutally beat me at dominate (GAME 8: RATKIN), but then the next day I narrowly squeaked out a win in raze (GAME 9: RATKIN):

With a 3E win under my belt at last, I took on my clubmate’s Abyssals (GAME 10: FORCES OF THE ABYSS), losing again but at least keeping it close:

Meanwhile, my buddy had finally relented to my arm twisting, picked up a load of Mantic minis and smashed through a Northern Alliance army in record time. In short order he hit 2300 points and found himself facing crabs every other week or so. While I won the first match (GAME 11: NORTHERN ALLIANCE), and his first game of full size Kings –

– Trident’s pillowy fists would come up to haunt me, as I lost both of the next two games (GAME 12: NORTHERN ALLIANCE & GAME 13: NORTHERN ALLIANCE). Including this gem:

Aye, that’s a Kraken (with 2 loot tokens) being flanked by Huscarls (with 2 loot tokens) and Half-Elf Berserkers. While the Kraken is in that predicament because I rolled double ones, the North did not repay the favor 😥 Nor did I ever get those 4 loot tokens away from the Huscarls.

Which brings us up to last week! February 22-23 was the US Masters here in New York, and there was a side GT called the Best of the Rest for, well, the rest of us who wanted to scrum and soak up that Masters vibe. I took my freshly reduxed crabs with me and ended up taking a lot of photos with the intent to blog. So strap in, tournament report inbound!

Side Note: Since I’m covering reports for different armies on this blog now, you’ll be able to use the new Category feature >> to more easily select which army you want to follow. Though I do tend to avoid bouncing between armies, it could happen!