Friday, December 09, 2016

+ KINGS TOURNAMENT REPORT +

Blogosphere! I haven't played a ton of KOW this year, and I haven't written about all my games, but I did do a writeup for the Crossroads GT back in September, which you can check out here on Dakka. And as a bonus here's another tournament recap, from last weekend!

+++ +++

After a night of clubbing last Friday (Dec 2), I got two hours of sleep and then was whisked away by a couple clubmates to Manchester, CT for a three round single dayer at The Portal – which is a fantastic game store with sooooo much gaming room it’s scary.

I took my smelly green Ratkin, cooked down from the latest 2500 to a very grindy 2000:

NURGLEKIN 2000

War Chief – the boomstick
Blight Lord – bane chant, wings of honeymaze
Blight Lord – bane chant
Blight Lord – bane chant

Blight Horde – fire oil
Blight Horde
Blight Horde
Blight Horde
Brute Regiment
Brute Regiment
Death Engine – vile sorcery
Death Engine – vile sorcery

I had serious misgivings about dropping my Warlocks – I’m usually rocking along at 10-15 lightning shots – but I really love my four Rackham apostates and wanted to use them all again. The flying character was also a very new concept to me, intended to address all the things flying punchy heroes do, at a hefty price tag (like 160 pts!)

+++

ROUND 1: INVADE

RATKIN

Demonspawn – wings
War Chief on Fleabag – two-handed weapon, blade of the beast slayer
Warlock – bane chant, inspiring talisman

Shock Troop Horde – brew of haste
Blight Horde – brew of strength
Brute Horde – brew of courage
Tunnel Slave Horde
Tunnel Slave Regiment
Vermintide Regiment
Vermintide Regiment
Death Engine – vile sorcery
Death Engine – vile sorcery

I liberally applied Monster Rehab to myself and then racked up for a civil war against a beautiful army and deliciously atypical list – i.e. another rat army with zero weapon teams!

While my rats tend to do pretty poorly at Invade (due to castling and relying on shooting), grabbing first turn and knowing this list wanted to grind meant I could shove forward early:


 And grind we did, especially in the center:


His heavy flank was initially a concern, with Vermintide > Brutes > Demonspawn stacked to give each other cover from my Death Engines, but once combat happened things started to slide sideways for him:


Those Brutes held up the Demonspawn for waaaaaay longer than they should have, giving the Death Engines time to hold and flank the Brutes, then double (hindered) charge the Demonspawn into the ground. Props lil'’ Brute regiment!

End game saw our armies reduced to almost identical units:


2 Death Engines, 1 Blight horde and 1 War Chief for both of us … however all of my Blight Lords were alive and on his side, tipping our Draw to my favor by a point.

DRAW (11-9)

Great match and my first time playing against Ratkin. Victory burritos followed.

+++

ROUND 2: PILLAGE (7)

DWARFS

Stone Priest – bane chant, inspiring talisman
Stone Priest – bane chant
Warsmith
Army Standard Bearer
Army Standard Bearer

Berserker Brock Rider Regiment – brew of sharpness
Earth Elemental Horde – brew of strength
Ironclad Horde – amulet of thorns
Ironclad Horde – brew of courage
Berserker Regiment – blessing of the gods
Ironwatch Crossbows
Ironwatch Crossbows
Ironbelcher Organ Gun
Ironbelcher Organ Gun
Ironbelcher Organ Gun

Triple Organs gave me a bit of pause, but after we both stuck markers in table corners I figured one of them would sit back there and be out of the game, reducing the pressure on me a bit, though Blight don’t care as much. Which is indeed what happened.

The game rolled out in three parts: left Ironclad + ASB backed up by crossbows vs Blight waves + a Lord cheering them on; aggro badgers down the middle with shooting support vs Blight waves + a Lord (+ flying lord); right Ironclad, ‘Serkers, Elementals + Priest tanking in vs Blight, double Engines + El Jefe. Oh, Brutes are hiding in the left corner (holding a point from which they never strayed) and the right corner (backing cautiously away from incoming Berserkers).

The middle quickly resolved itself as aggro badgers were baited in and flanked to death (the flanking Blight are back a bit, those ‘hills’ sucked) -


- and flying lord slammed into an Organ Gun and slowly made his way through both guns and the Warsmith, though it took him the entire game to do it (nothing broke on the first charge).

On the right, Engine fire focused the Elementals hard as they advanced -


- eventually killing them in short order, leaving the Blight to (hindered) charge into the Ironclad and begin the grind:


The double Engines turned their attention to the Berserkers, lathering them up with wounds, and right after this photo the Brute zipped up to block the angry stunties from flanking in …... but as it turned out they didn'’t have to die, as the Berserkers popped after a second volley from the Engines. The Brutes would go on to flank the Ironclad and claim the rightmost pillage marker. Like bosses.

The left flank saw a pattern of me bringing up a Blight horde, it getting mildly shot up my fire from the left + center, me charging the Ironclad for a little damage, then getting wrecked in return. Round one:


Round two:


I luckily held that round, then was popped in Turn 7. However that extra turn meant I could get an Engine within 18"” of those badly bruised Ironclad, which was able to blow them off the table. In the end I claimed 6 markers to his 1, plus a lot of VPs for a heavy win.

NURGLE VICTORY (19-1)

+++

ROUND THREE: DOMINATE

SALAMANDERS


Clan Lord on Fire Drake with Wings – ensorcelled armor
Clan Lord on Fire Drake with Wings – fire oil
Clan Lord on Fire Drake with Wings

Ancients on Rhinosaurs Horde – potion of the caterpillar
Salamander Prime Horde – two-handed weapons, brew of sharpness
Salamander Prime Horde – amulet of thorns
Lekelidon
Lekelidon
Lekelidon

Well fakk me sideways: top table on like no sleep and I’m up against triple flying bastards with breath weapons like whoa and me with not a lot of shooting. I told him I wasn’t really sure how I was supposed to do much to him, he told me not to be like that already!

He got first turn and shoved up (two Drakes are flanking down the left). I responded by canting my battleline, gentle advancing and generally squirting the musk of indecision / fear:


Death Engines rock the left horde (no shields). Other Brute unit is off shot to the right, pretending it isn'’t an easy kill for that green Drake (who is the 6+ DEF one).

Turn 2, both flanking Drakes combo charge the left Brutes and tough Drake on the right gets into breath range of the leading Blight, who indeed suffer:


Stunningly the left Brutes held the double charge!! With no Inspiring to help them out! I don’t respond much, besides getting Blight hordes back into charge range of Salamander hordes – the Rhinosaurs have range to the center but don’t want to charge into that mess alone. Engines again pummel the two-handed Sallies. The champion Brutes counter-charge the fire oil Drake, cuddling it a bit.

Turn 3, the Salamanders without wings continue to sit tight (they don’t back up this turn tho, wanting to retain pressure on the Dominate objective). Those with wings counter-charge the Brutes, hop into the ratty backfield, and flank hard while breathing all over rightmost Blight, who hold but are getting heavy with damage now:


The Brute die :’( Oh, the Lekelidon have been targeting the central Blight when able, but having little effect thanks to Stealthy and pretty horrible dice.

Ratkin respond with violence. The central Blight charge into the two-handed Salamanders and shatter them, as other Blight prepare to trap the Rhinosaurs if they come in. The other two Blight mobilize to either charge or wave into the second Salamander horde (or get flanked/flamed by the tough Drake but whatev). However none of this is going to matter if those Drakes in my backfield can still 20” charge whatever they want, probably in the flank or rear:


A Blight Lord charges into the middle Drake, cracking a wound on it and grounding it (thank you CoC comp!), shortly after both Engines + the boomstick unload into the fire oil Drake, wavering it. Whew.

Turn 4 sees Rhinosaurs finally charge the bashed up central Blight, the disordered Drake flank an Engine, the tough Drake flit backwards – pausing to breath on and kill the rightmost Blight threatening the surviving Primes – and the Lekelidon continue to fluff (they may have helped the Drake drop those Blight).


Thunderous Rhinosaur charge gets bogged down in Blight, failing to rout them despite heavy damage! And then the Drake vs Engine combat hardly touches the Engine, despite 16 decent attaks.

Ratty vengeance follows, with the Rhinosaurs vanishing under 90 bane-chanted Blight attaks:


Surviving Brutes pounce on the Primes to hold them in place and bop them around a bit, as flying Blight Lord swoops in and decapitates a Lekelidon. In the backfield, the flanked Engine charges forward into the fire oil Drake (wavering it), and the other Engine + Chief shoot the other Drake in the face (also wavering it).

Turn 5, those bashed up central Blight are ended, likely by another Drake breath + Lekelidon overkill. The Brutes are also beat down by the Primes. In the ratkin half, those Drakes are finally killed by Engines in combat, with the Chief getting his hands dirty too (to the tune of 4 wounds out of 5 attaks!) Another Lekelidon is killed by that Blight Lord.

Turn 6, he consolidates his position around the central point – unfortunately his Prime horde is so long it does not fit entirely within 12”. The flying Lord is vaporized by Drake breath. In the rat turn, Blights make contact with the last Lekelidon (it vanishes) and the Primes (they might actually have wavered). Currently my Engines + Chief are not within 12” of the center, though they’re close.


Turn 7 happens! He doesn’t have much to do, but hops his Drake behind the rampaging Blight. More importantly for me I am able to shove Engines up into scoring range, further cementing a win with a hefty VP lead.

NURGLE VICTORY (18-2)

+++ +++

So I somehow managed to go 2-0-1 and come away with $40 for third place O_O (Although after recalculations happened I actually came in fourth, but was allowed to keep the store cred, which had been spent already :P)

The lads talked about getting BBQ … but I was a corpse at this point and had them pack me back into the car for the ride home. Great day of gaming all the same, happy to have powered through XD

For the curious, the field was:

2x Herd
2x Ratkin
2x Undead
1x Abyssals
1x Dwarfs
1x Elves
1x Forces of Nature
1x Rhordia
1x Salamanders

With the top four going to:

1. Rhordia
2. Undead
3. Undead
4. Ratkin

Cheers for reading!

Monday, February 22, 2016

+ KINGS GAMING UPDATE +


I’ve gotten just two games of Kings in the last month, but they were certainly good ones. In lieu of full reports (someday!), here are two quick recaps:

RATKIN 2000
Blight Lord - bane chant
Blight Lord - bane chant
Warlock - fenulian amulet
Warlock - inspiring talisman
Swarm-Crier
Blight Horde (40)
Blight Horde (40)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Death Engine - vile sorcery
Mutant Rat-Fiend
Mutant Rat-Fiend

VS

DWARFS 2000
King - wings of honeymaze
Stone Priest - bane chant
Shieldbreaker Horde (40) - blessing of the gods, throwing mastif
Ironguard Regiment (20) - throwing mastif
Ironguard Regiment (20) - throwing mastif
Berserker Troop (10)
Berserker Troop (10)
Earth Elemental Horde (6) - brew of haste
Greater Earth Elemental
Steel Behemoth
Ironbelcher Organ Gun
Ironbelcher Organ Gun
Ironbelcher Organ Gun



Kill & Pillage! against Dwarfs for the first time, and more DEF 6+ than I thought was possible O_O While the center was convincingly locked down by all those Blights, the flanks fell apart largely due to monster mismanagement or incompetence. On the right, I misunderstood how the pond was being played (I thought impassable, was just difficult), which led to my Death Engine getting a horde of Elementals surged into it – though admittedly, I need to use its Height 4 to better advantage in general, as I always forget it doesn’t need to be exposed if it’s just shooting things. On the left, both MRFs aggro’d into the Behemoth … and failed to even waver it. It killed one in return, prompting the other Fiend to shoot off into the Dwarven backfield to hunt some Organ Guns. Later on, that Fiend got a rear (!) charge on the Behemoth … and again, failed to kill it by 1. It too was run over for its troubles, and the Behemoth would later go on to flank some Blights (seen here). At which point the flying King was causing problems in my own backfield.

I think the game ended up a minor LOSS for me? But with several points where it was clear I let the game slip away due to misplay or juuuuuuust missing out on a Nerve test here or there. I did manage to pick up significant points in a lucky Turn 7, boosting a badly bleeding Blight regiment onto a point by running over some mangled Berserkers, which was cool.


RATKIN 2000
Blight Lord - bane chant
Blight Lord - bane chant
Warlock - fenulian amulet
Warlock
Enforcer - inspiring talisman
Blight Horde (40)
Blight Horde (40)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Blight Regiment (20)
Death Engine - vile sorcery
Mutant Rat-Fiend
Mutant Rat-Fiend

VS

VARANGUR 2000
King on Chimera - ensorcelled armor, lifeleech
Cave Troll King
Magus on Mount - fireball
Mounted Sons of Korgaan Regiment (10) - lifeleech
Sons of Korgaan Regiment (20) - lifeleech
Sons of Korgaan Regiment (20) - lifeleech
Cave Troll Horde (6)
Reaver Troop (10)
Reaver Troop (10)
Horse Raider Troop (10) - bows


Loot! against another new faction, and a terrifyingly fighty one at that. With three counters, this game roughly divided into three skirmishes. On the right, two Blight regiments, an MRF and the Enforcer took on the Troll King, Trolls and some Reavers, in what became a loooong dragged out battle that eventually ended with the green things left alive and in control of the marker. Credit to the Troll King for making that take as long as it did (DEF 6+ and Inspiring kept him and his Trolls in it for several turns), though my new Enforcer was key to keeping my own dudes holding charges, literally on his Rallying bonus alone.



The left saw the Horse Raiders grab that marker and linger at their board edge all game, tossing out bow shots to no avail. Meanwhile, the Mounted Sons and King brutally wrecked a Blight horde (24 wounds in one charge), which was followed by the King getting charged repeatedly by a Fiend as the Sons were harried by spammed lightning. This would have been more uplifting for me if it hadn’t been for missing rout rolls by 1 over and over – though the King was wavered a couple times, he eventually dodged one and trashed the MRF plaguing him, then shot into the Death Engine pelting his dudes with lasers and killed him too. Not being able to keep the big guy down very much swung the game hard in Varangur favor.


Mid-field was less exciting. Some Sons and the other Blight horde clashed in a forest, which ultimately was decided when the second Sons infantry plowed in to evaporate the horde. One of the units received a Death Engine volley to the grill and routed, but the other just picked up the marker. With so much of mine dead or busy dealing with the left flank (eventually the Mounted Sons were lightninged away), there just wasn’t much to make a play there.

The very close of the game saw me with a single lightning cast left, which I was determined to send into the King to finally end him. My opponent graciously reminded me that the game was only about the loot markers, and suggested I instead try to blow away the Raiders hanging with a marker in his backfield. Grudgingly I admitted he was right, then missed with 5 of 7 shots, wounded the Raiders twice and flubbed a pretty easy rout value. Which sums up the game pretty succinctly.

So another LOSS, but a great game with so many back and forths, because dice. Though I'm not complaining too hard, especially as the opening shot of the game was a volley of lightning(5) into his new Magus, which needed an 11-12 to rout, and I absolutely nailed :D This was a trend throughout the game, where I'd roll an 11 for the first Nerve roll ... then like a 4 on the Inspiring reroll. Magus just lost out because he didn't have the King nearby ;)

On my list, things are pretty congealed right now, really liking how the army looks and plays. It could be faster, and I don't really feel like I have much chaff to speak of (though Blight regiments are pretty cheap!), but I right now I think I can gain more out of playing more games than messing with the list, particularly as I don't feel like I'm getting steamrolled. Except by the dice at times ...