KoW Concentric Game 2 vs. KoM and Nighstalkers

Game 2 was against Chris' Kingdoms of Men allied with Nightstalkers. Saruman managed to convince Gandalf to come to the dark side and together they brought the stuff of nightmares into the world (or it's a splinter hive fleet I'm not sure...) The scenario was pillage.

His list was,  from left to right:

Horde of Heavy Pike with Brew of strength
Mounted scouts
dopelgangers
AsB
Horde of Footguard
Horde Butchers
wizard
troop of reapers
horde of archers with jar of 4 winds
reg of knights
wizard
reg of knights with caterpillar


Deployment

Turn 1
Undead surge forward. I didn't meant to put the wraiths in range of the non-pathfinder Knights but they were, which was actually perfect. On the left, I really didn't know what to do, he has a pike horde screened by chaff cavalry. I didn't move the soul reavers which was a mistake.

Undead Turn 1

Turn 1: KoM

Knights charge the wraiths but being hindered the Wratihs are fine. Archers waver the ghouls. Cavalry and pikes advance on the left. Night stalkers move up in the middle but stay out of my charge range.

KoM Turn 1 

Turn 2:
Undead:  Wraiths and Werewolves kill the knights and then pivot to face the second unit, I was thinking that either unit had a chance to hold and then the other would get a flank. I ran the left ghouls into the middle. Why? I don't know. They would have been much more useful going further left to try and take out his chaff cavalry.  The wights don't want to advance into range of the dopplegangers. The Dragon does not have any good charges. I managed to waver the light cavalry with the dragon and archers. But still haven't moved the soul reavers so can't take advantage of this.

KoM:  Knights on the left charge the werewolves who hold. Wraiths are shot off by the archers (why did I move my Rev king out of inspiring range?) Centre  ghouls are routed by a lighting bolt from the wizard. The rest holds out of charge range.

 

KoM Turn 2 in progress 

Turn 3:
Undead: Ghouls charge the Butchers and do a couple wounds. Werewolves countercharge the knights and waver them . Dragon charges the ASB who is hiding behind the tower and only wavers him.

KoM: Knights are stuck where they are. Archers put some wounds on the Rev King. Butchers crush the Ghouls but then roll double ones Chris decides to use his one re-roll and routs them. The Reapers charge the Revenants, are hindered and only manage a few wounds. The Pike are stuck behind the wavered cavalry. The dopplegangers and Foot Guard move forward.

End of Undead Turn 3 

Turn 4:
Undead: Wights charge the foot guard  who hold. Revenants destroy the reapers. Werewolves destroy the knights. Rev King charges the wizard who holds. Dragon routs the ASB. Archers finally rout the cavalry. But the Soul Reavers have continued to stand directly in front of the pike horde. (One has to wonder what I was thinking?)

KoM: Pike Horde charges the Soul Reavers :( who hold. Dopplegangers and Foot guard charge the wraiths, overkill them but then he rolls double ones (he wished he hadn't used his re-roll earlier). Butchers charge the Revenants but can't rout them yet. Archers shoot the werewolves but roll low.

End of Undead Turn 4 

Turn 5: NO PICTURES
Undead: Dragon has no charges so he flies into the middle and burns the dopplegangers for a couple wounds. Soul Reavers and Skeleton Archers charge the Pike Horde but can't break them. Wights CC the Foot Guard but they hold. Revenants and fighting the Butchers. Werewolves charge the archers. Rev King is still fighting the wizard.

KoM:  Pike horde routes the soul reavers. Dopplers and Foot Guard route the Wights.  Archers CC the werewolves but can't do much.

Turn 6:  
Undead:  Dragon charges the rear of the Foot guard and routs them. Werewolves charge the Butchers and I roll a 3 when I need a 4 to rout them so I buy my re-roll and they rout. Rev King is still fighting that wizard.  Archers are fighting the Pike.

KoM: Dopplers pivot back around. Pike Horde routes the archers.  The game would have been a tie at this point with the Werewolves having an objective, the dopplers and dragons contesting one, and the Pike with an objective. But! we go to turn 7.

KoM End of Turn  5

Turn 7:
Undead charges the dopplers and routs them, while staying  out of range of the pike.
KoM: hold the objective, but can't do anything else.

End of Turn 6 

Undead win 2 objectives to 1, and I believe I killed just over 500 points more than he did. A hard fought battle and one that I think I made some significant mistakes on. Deploying the soul reavers and dragon without any chaff to help them  on a flank where they had limited options really limited my options from the start of the game. They need to be in the middle, where I can win the chaff battle with my ghouls and wraiths and then hit home with the rest of the army in support. Pillage really made me spread my army out, and I could have deployed my pillage tokens much more tactically to create bottlenecks for his three infantry hordes, and to allow me to use my higher speed to seize widely spaced ones toward the end of the game.

Post Game Analysis with Vlad

Once again you have managed an underserved victory through dumb luck and base cunning.  Your best tactical manoeuvre in the entire game was when you mis-measured the knights charge range badly, but not badly enough to allow both units to charge. You once again placed your  unstoppable Soul Reaver  Knights on an obscure flank, and then failed to even move them the entire game.  Your deployment was abysmal in every regard with unsupported units spread out all across the table. After surging the Wights had saved you from you own incompetence last game you might have thought you would have learned to keep them near a character that could surge them, but no... You decided to deploy them on their own, away from any characters that could allow you to use your greatest tactical advantage. At this point impalement is too kind for the likes of you, and I must put my mind to something much worse...  

KoW Concentric Game 1 Undead vs. Salamanders

The University of Victoria games club hosted their games day formerly called "Concentric" which this year included a Kings of War Tournament run by the UVIC Sunday Miniature Games Club. Brindley at the club but a big effort in to getting people out so we actually ended up with 14 players coming out, some for their first games of Kings of War. This made it the biggest Kings of War tournament ever held in British Columbia.

The tournament used the Clash of Kings rules changes and the final scenario was a modified  Kill and Push. You could also buy the re-roll of one dice per game by donating $5 to charity. I rally liked this since it helped take a bit of the  double 1's randomness out of the game, but there were definitely a few games where people used their re-roll early in the game and regretted it.

I had intended to take pictures for each turn but that did not quite happen.  Hopefully I will be able to remember when I forgot and describe the action that happened.

Game 1: I was paired against Gerald's Salamanders. He had a horde of Primes and 2 regiments of Ceremonial guard. A flying (teleporting) Fire Drake with Ancient and boots of levitation, and a horde of Rhinosaurs. He also has the scrying gem which, was popular at this tournament. The Scenario was Invade.

We ended up basically refusing each others flank, although I think Gerald got the better of it since my Soul Reavers were deployed across from a regiment of ceremonial guard (phalanx) and their ember sprite screen.

Deployment. The Dragons are on opposite sides of the table. 

Turn 1: No Picture

The Salamanders moved their main force forward . The Drake  moved to flame the Archers.
Undead: Werewolves and Dragon move towards the flanking force. Soul Reavers come into the centre and the main battle line turns towards the right flank.

Turn 2:

Salamanders:  Drake hops in behind my line and flames my Revenant King but doesn't get a nerve result. The ember sprites however breath attack the dragon get one wound and roll double 6's wavering him. Rhinosaurs charge the archers and rout them. Ghekkotah move to protect their flank from the Wraiths.

Undead: I pivot the wights and with surge from both the Necromancer and the Revenant king surge them into the flank of the Drake who routs. This was my first time using two characters to surge and I think Gerald's first time having it done to him. He was quite surprised and a bit discouraged after the early loss of his Drake. The wraiths charge the Ghekkotah and waver them. Werewolves charge the ember sprites routing them. Ghouls charge the rhinosaurs and do a wound or two.

End of Turn 2

Turn 2: Blurry picture of the wavered dragon. 

Turn 3:
Salamanders: Ceremonial guard charge the werewolves but only do a couple wounds. Rhinosaurs rout the ghouls. Skyward charges the Soul Reavers and does a wound.

Salamanders Turn 3

Undead Turn 3:

Some more fancy surging sees the Wights go into the flank  of the Ceremonial guard and rout them.  Wraiths rout the Ghekkotah. Dragon and Werewolves rout the other Ceremonial guard.

Turn 4:
Salamanders Horde of Primes routs the wights. Rhinosaurs rout the Wraiths. Tyrants run out of charge range of the dragon. The battle had pivoted a full 90 degrees by this point.

Salamanders Turn 4 

Undead Turn 4: The Revenant King stupidly charges the wizard who he of course does not rout but he's now about to get squished by the tyrants.

Undead Turn 4 

Turn 5 No picture : We started worrying about the scenario.

Salamanders: the Tyrants kill the King then pivot to face the Revenant Horde.

Undead: Horde and Dragon rout the Tyrants. Gerald's now int the position where it is going to be hard for his horde to actually get fully across the centre line.

Turn 5 Undead 

Turn 6
Salamanders:
The Horde of Primes charge and routs the Revenant Horde then realign to be across half (the metal models kept falling over on the hill).

Undead:
I move my units clear over half, while the dragon stays on my half and tries to flame the Rhinosaurs, but only does a couple wounds. No Turn 7 and the game ends. I ended up with a win despite it looking  very even. The Dragon and Soul Reavers being such expensive units I actually had quite a bit left points wise. I think it was a 16-4 for tournament points.

End of Turn 6

End of Game thoughts:
If Gerald had of been a bit more cautious with his Drake early on this game could have easily gone the other way. Or even if I had rolled surge badly. I felt lucky to come away with a win in this game .

Post Game Analysis with Vlad 

You call yourself a general? Your best unit the noble Vampire Cavalry spent the whole game wandering through the fields picking daisies while roasting one oversized chicken, that charged them! You deployed poorly and had to rely on the pathetic human necromancer to recover from your silly blunder. Any true vampire would be ashamed. Your grasp of the Dark Dark Evil Ways leaves much to be desired. Hopefully your performance will improve in future games, or you may find yourself impaled! 

KoW Undead vs. Ratkin

Invade Games against Ratkin

This is going to be mostly a picture battle report as I played in a tournament recently and I need to write that up as well.

This was my first game against the Rats. Dale has only started using them recently as a switch away from his usual Dwarfs.

His list had a Horde of Shocktroops, horde of Blight,  Horde of Rat Ogres and the Demon rat lighting living legend.  And then some other light stuff.

Deployment saw his rat demon on my left flank, on the other side of the river, opposite my dragon.

Deployment 

Undead Turn 1: I move forward, and into the centre

Undead Turn 2:The Rats had moved forward, and Dale had accidentally given me a couple charges. The Soul Reavers could just reach the Death Engine and routed it. The Dragon hit the flank of the Shocktroops but they were fine.

Turn 3 Rats: Rat Ogres Charge the soul reavers which hold, and expose them to a flank charge from the Wraiths

Turn 4 Undead: Undead converged on the Right Flank and clean up the rest of the Rats.  

The Blight are in a bad spot with the whole undead Army converging on them. The Rat Demon is finally getting close to the combat having steadily moved into the centre lighting bolting all the way. 

After defeating the Revenant Horde the Blight would last one more turn thanks to a friendly double one. 

The Position at the End of the game. 

Post Game Analysis with Vlad. 

You somehow managed to win a passable victory the Rat's must have been so amused by your buffoonery that they were unable to formulate an effective battle plan against such random incompetence. What idiot would deploy their cavalry next to a rive that ran across the board?  You also foolishly allowed your noble Vampire Cavalry to be charge by a horde of Brutes who thankfully rolled poorly. Where were their screening troops? How about that Revenant King that you brought specifically for that purpose?  I should have you impaled.   

Kings of War Undead vs. Salamanders

Played a game of Push against Gerald's Salamanders. Gerald recently started using his salamander army, and he's trying out different unit combinations. His list contained:

Ceremonial Guard

Ceremonial Guard

Ghekkotah Hunters

Ember Sprites

Fire Drake

Fire Drake

Mage Priest

Inspiring Talisman

bane change

Ghekkotah Skylord

Tyrants

Ember sprites

Clan lorde on Fire Drak

Blessing of the Gods

 and Horde of Ancients on Rhinosaurs 

I switched up my normal list slightly to replace a unit of Wraiths with an Rev King on Horse. And dropped the ASB for a couple magic items notably brew of strength on the Rev Horde.

Neither of us had played Push! before and we wanted to try it out before a local tournament. Which was good because being unable to surge while carrying a token is rough for my small number army. I'm feeling like I might need to change up the list. 

Gerald amassed his firedrakes on the right, while his ceremonial guard were in the centre. The left was very sparse, he had his sylord while I had the  Rev Regiment on its own over there. Across from his Drakes I dropped my soul reavers and dragon. Gerald hasn't quite gotten over Warhammer deployment and putting heroes down last. He noted this during his deployment that he should have deployed them sooner so he could counter my deployment better. 

Turn 1: 

The Salamanders advanced forward cautiously staying out of charge range. While the Skylord flew forward on the flank behind the forest. 

I advanced forward while staying out of charge range of most things and tried to limit what his breath weapons could hit.  I managed to waver his Ghekkotah with my archers. 

Turn 2: 

He decided to come forward into Breath range.  All three drakes targeted the Soul Reavers but with no piercing they only managed to put a couple wounds on them.  

I charged forward with what could. The ghouls charged the ember sprites flank. Wights charged the Tyrants. Wraiths charged a Firedrake. Dragon charged a fire drake.  Wights charged the Tyrants. Soul Reavers charged rhinosaurs. Rev Cav. moved forward and then pivoted to be surged in by the Rev King coming across, who then failed to roll a single inch of surge.  

The Ghouls rout the ember sprites. Soul Reavers rout the rhinosaurs.  Wights waver the Tyrants but they have Fury.  Dragon and Wraiths bounce on Firedrakes. 

TURN 3:

Skylord flank charges the Rev Horde and does a couple wounds.  Ceremonial guard charge the Rev Regiment.  Other Ceremonial guard charges the Ghouls. Tyrants countercharge the Wights.  I think one of the Firedrakes and the Ancient on Drake charged the wraiths, but he was unable to rout them (maybe double 1's?) The other Drake counter-charged the Dragon Ghekkotah charged the Rev. Cavalry and ember sprites charged the King. He only managed to rout the Ghouls, everything else held. 

The undead counterattack this turn would hit the Salamanders hard.  The Rev Regiment counter charged the Ceremonial guard. The Rev. Horde counter-charged the Skylord and routed him. The Wraiths counter charged the Tyrants and routed them. The Dragon flank charged the Ancient on Drake and may have wavered or routed him. Wraiths went into the drake in front of them. Soul Reavers charged and routed the other firedrake. Rev Cavalry routed the Ghekkotah, and the King fought the ember sprites. 

We called the game at this point, in order to have time to get another game in.  I forgot to take a picture of what the board looked like at the end. The Salamanders two ceremonial guard units were doing a good job of carrying the tokens across the board but they were about to have the whole undead army closing in on them.    

Post Game Thoughts: Gerald realized quite early on that he had mis-deployed by setting his shooting across from my fast units. He also spread his units out more than he needed to. When he moved forward to use his breath weapons he thought that the Soul Reavers were only defence 5 not 6. I think that would have changed his plan. Not getting the surge of the Rev Cavalry in the flank, left me exposed to the Rhinosaurs holding, which would have put me in a bad spot. But luckily the soul reavers managed to break them on their own.  

Post match analysis with Vlad The Impaler: So you managed to win a battle against a bunch of Lizards? They didn't even have a dragon of their own. The only Dragon on the battlefield was yours, and what did you do with all that mobility provided by a 20' flying movement? You flew straight forward into the middle of the enemy formation, where you could be flanked by the enemies hardest hitting hero. Who luckily decided to ignore your exposed flank to try and destroy a chaff unit. If your plan was to trick the enemy by making such a silly mistake that he would assume it was a trap then you are a tactical genius. But I suspect that is not what happened... The rest of your battle plan seemed to be to charge directly forward and rely on your heavy armour to hold against the enemies shooting. A plan that happened to work against an army that, conveniently for you, relies on short range shooting. Not exactly a master plan. If you were one of my generals I would have you impaled.

Kings of War Undead vs Varangur

I faced a Varagur list with my standard Undead list. The mission was dominate, which I don't think I have actually played before. My opponent had:

Herja

2x Sons of Korgaan

Horde of Direfang riders with Herja's Blessing, and brew of sharpness  

Horde of Fallen with Brew of Strength  

4x Tundra Wolves 

2x Magus 

TURN 1

My opponent gave me the first turn. I moved my Dragon and Soul Reavers forward on the right. In the centre my infantry went forward into the dominate zone. On the left the archers scored a wound on the Tundra Wolves and wavered them. 

Varanguer turn, on the left the Fallen went into the woods and Herja hoped over them. The wolves in the center charged the ghouls, while the other unit advanced towards the archers. On the right the wolves advanced to block the soul reavers. While the Direfangs pivoted to face the dragon, but stay out of range of the Soul Reavers. The wolves put 4 wounds on the Ghouls but then rolled double 1's for the break test.

TURN 2

On the right I flank charge the wolves with the Revenant Horde and the Wraiths into the front. The dragon flies past the Direfangs while the Soul Reavers angle towards the centre. In the middle the Ghouls and the Revenant Regiment swing ineffectually at the wolves. The Rev Cavalry hangs back. While on the left the Wraiths charge the wolves that were wavered last turn.  I rout both flanking units of wolves and am now threatening the centre of his line with my heavy hitters.

Undead TURN 2 

Varangur TURN 2 Centre wolves charge the archers. Herja (who I forgot about) charges the Rev Cav. Dire fangs pivot to face forward again. Fallen turn to face the wraiths on the left flank.  One unit of Sons turns to face the incoming dragon and Soul Reavers. He makes a crucial mistake by putting his magi between his units and mine. If this was a calculated move where they were just over say 4" away and he wanted to play the overrun odds I would have been impressed but I think he just sort of forgot.  The wolves in the centre rout the ghouls. While on the left the other wolves rout the archers.

Varangur Turn 2

TURN 3
Undead: I back the rev cav up to create a surge path for the wights to get surged into Herja, but she stands up to it well. The wraiths on the left hop the woods. Wraiths on the right move up beside the dire fangs.  The soul reavers charge the magus and overrun into the flank of the sons, routing them. The Dragon charges a magus and also overruns into the flank but the Sons hold firm.

Varangur: The sons charge the revenant regiment and rout them. The fallen turn around in the forest to face the field of battle. The Direfangs charge the Horde and put 12 wounds on them, but they hold. Herja and the wolves damage the Rev Cav but not enough to rout them.

TURN 4
Undead: Soul Reavers, Revenants and Wraiths charge the Direfangs, doing over 20 wounds, but Korgan judges them and finds them worthy (not sure what marking rubric he uses, since they have done nothing all game) so they come back to life, still with a pile of wounds. The wraiths and Wights rout the sons in the centre. while the dragon hops forward to breath fire on Herja (ineffectually, she is Def 6+). The rev cav puts some wounds on the wolves.  

TURN 4
Varagurr: The fallen who were lurking in the woods, see their chance and spring out charging the dragon in the flank, and rout it. The Direfangs charge the Revenant horde and rout them. Herja and the Wolves are still whittling down the Rev Cav. A big comeback for the Varangur but they are still in a bad position.

TURN 5
Undead: The wraiths and Wights team up to takedown the Fallen. Soul Reavers and Wraiths rout the dire fangs.

Varangurr: Herja and her dogs finally rout the Rev Cav but they game is up, they are the last units left.

TURN 6

Undead: Wraiths charge the Wolves and rout them. Wights with a helpful Bane Chant from the Necro rout Herja.

CONCLUSION

A solid win for the forces of the undead. It would have been more convincing if I had not stupidly exposed my dragon to a flank charge. I think my opponent could have been much more effective if he had of used the wolves he had in the centre to screen the dire fangs and been more aggressive with them.  I also need a plan for dealing with Herja, but I'm not sure what that is going to be other than just letting her charge things and then countercharging.

  

Kings of War Mega Game: Picture Dump

The club had an 8000 points a side with 4 players per side a couple weekends ago.  The mission was a simple Kill! scenario pitting the forces of evil with : Undead, Undead, Abyssal Dwarves, and Varangur. Against  the good and neutral forces of: Elves, Kingdoms of Men, Force of Nature, and the Heard.

We probably didn't start deploying till around 11:30 and finished around 4 after 8 turns. The Undead and Varangur near the castle had pretty much routed the Elves and Humans across from them while on the other end the tide of battle was reversed and the Undead and Abyssal Dwarfs had been routed by the Forces of Nature and the Heard. I was really impressed with how the flow of the game was maintained even with that many players and I would definitely do it again.