Cancon 2018 Aftermath - Part 7

This is the final part of my report of the recent Clash of Kings tournament at Cancon 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 7: Control
Tony Lee, Conquistadors

You what? Conquistadors? I did think I remembered someone asking if you could take Kings of War Historicals in the event, but I didn't realise someone had actually gone and done it! How interesting. I actually looked at Tony's list properly, on account of not recognising a single thing in it...

Hernan Cortez leading an army of Conquistadors with Aztec assistance. I don't know what I was expecting in my final game, but this was not it.

I used Vanguard to start closing the gap using a hill as cover on the left flank.

A convenient forest in the centre of the field was a good place for my other Vanguards to go.

Little dudes with nowhere near enough clothing for the weather on this battlefield decided to hurry up and block my advance. I think they were Slingers.

The Heavy Pikemen seemed by far the most capable threat in Tony's army, especially sitting in difficult terrain. On the bright side, it seemed unlikely that he would want to move from there.

In my turn the Tree Herder left the Forest Shamblers to deal with the Slingers (which they did). My shooting wavered one of the Arquebusier troops, whilst a Bolt Thrower removed one of Tony's Mortars.

Things were going very well on the other flank. Some of the Conquistador cavalry had shown themselves on the hill to take a pot shot at my Stormwind Cavalry. It did them little good, and they got ridden down. Here you can the next unit making the same mistake. I'm pretty sure they could have charged me with Thunderous(1). They certainly should have - their pistols are well and good, but my regiment hit too hard. He needed to knock off my own Thunderous Charge. There was another unit of Slingers on that hill in front of the Palace Guard, but I shot them off with the Sea Guard.

Conquistadors moved up to take a shot at my units on the other side, but there was not enough shooting to work its way through my relatively tough units.

Cortez himself had run up behind the hill to spray pistol shots at my Cavalry. Wasn't doing him much good, unfortunately.

Another turn, another unit of Conquistadors down. But there are still more coming. The Drakon Lord bounced off the flank of the Arquebusiers, which surprised us both. I suppose there was drumming and Inspiring going on to help them. The Green Lady was doing her best to ignore the attentions of Cortez, he had charged her ineffectually.

I sent the Tree Herder in to handle the Pikemen. Sure, they had lots of attacks. But what were they going to do against Defence 6? The Forest Shamblers dealt with the Conquistadors who had parked themselves directly in front of them, then turned to face the flank of the Pikemen.

Some time had passed by this photo. The little drummer boy had run over and parked himself in front of the Forest Shamblers in the interest of hopefully preventing them from making it to the flank of the Pikemen. He then proceeded to shrug their charge off without even wavering, in a grand display of rhythmic resistance (I think he took maybe 5 damage and then I rolled low on the nerve). So not only did I not make it through to the Pikemen, but I got rear charged by the Jaguar Warriors who had been lurking wide on the flank! This was a bit of a concern, but in the end they didn't land enough damage to rout my unit. Then the Jaguar Warriors crumbled when the Forest Shamblers predictably spun and retaliated. Those poor Aztecs really didn't wear a lot of armour.

Things were going pretty smoothly, really. The Drakon finished off the Arquebusiers on the second attempt. The final regiment of Conquistadors actually held its ground against the first charge of the Stormwind Cavalry, but were no match for the second. With the Forest Shamblers busy dealing with Jaguar Warriors and stubborn little drummer boys, I decided to send the Palace Guard into the Pikemen. I figured the Tree Herder had it under control, but needed help if he was ever going to rout them. I didn't think about the fact that the Tree Herder didn't care about their counter-charge, but the Palace Guard surely would. I was getting careless. I got away with it, but there was a moment of doubt when I realised how sloppy that decision was.

The Pikemen and Conquistadors were gone shortly after this photo, as was the drummer. Cortez got shot to death, and the Drakon flew off to deal with the remaining Jaguar Warriors who were lurking in the corner over on the left. Last to perish was the little standard bearer (who was meant to be holding a big cross but who had presumably lost his religion somewhere along the way). He fled manfully toward the table edge and then stood with his back to the wall, wailing as my army rode down upon him. No, I'm being mean. I'm sure he died well. But he was still gone by the end.

I was left wondering about whether KoW Historical armies are really a good match for the fantasy varieties. My list was not exceptionally capable, but it made very short work of the units Tony was wielding. I think if I was going to try it, I'd be looking at using the odd Mythical Creature to add some answers to some of the more exotic tools that the fantasy armies have at their disposal.

Result: Win, 20-1

So after finishing with 2 wins on the second day, my performance felt marginally better than it had half-way through the tournament. I was still well down on the tables, but I had enjoyed my games and survived the hot and sticky conditions. The event was very smoothly run, the tables looked great, and there were plenty of good looking armies on show as well. All in all the event was a smashing success. Thanks to Matt for running it and everyone involved in making it happen, and to all my opponents. 'Til next time!