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.
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| Undead Turn 1 |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| End of Undead Turn 3 |
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.
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| End of Undead Turn 4 |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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...
