A little update, a little sidetracked

Obviously it's been a while since I've posted an update here. No, I'm not dead. I've just been a little focused elsewhere. 

In gaming terms, I have played a few games of Warhammer 8th edition with my 8 year old son, who persists in wanting to play despite not really yet having the attention span to make it work properly (and refusing to let me dumb most of it down in ways that I know would be helpful). He also won't try Kings of War for some reason, despite that being a clearly easier game for him to grasp. I think he picked up somewhere that the armies were originally Warhammer armies, and decided that anything else would just not be the same. I'll keep working on it. As a priority I'm trying to get some pre-made army lists set up with the armies ready to go on trays in the cupboards. That way when he decides he wants to play, we won't waste so much of his precious attention span on mundane setup concerns.

I haven't played a game of Kings of War in a little while, and have missed a couple of recent events that I would quite like to have attended. There's just been too much going on. I have made very slow progress on a few additions to my Dwarf army, however I don't have a huge amount of motivation for that army at the moment because there seem to have been a glut of Dwarf armies at local events, and I hate feeling like part of "the problem" (the problem in this case just being too many players using the same thing).

Some Earth Elementals using MOM Miniatures. They're still a work in progress. They need another wash, probably some cleaner highlights, and they need some runes and gemstones picked out before finishing the basing. As I say, a work in progress. But they look just about usable now, even if they're not how I want them to stay.

Fair warning: what follows has absolutely nothing to do with wargaming. It just explains what I've been up to recently. If you don't like Lego, you might want to stop reading...

KoW Battle Report - Ogres vs Kingdoms of Men

After my flurry of posts following Convic, there has been a long period of silence here on the blog. This is partly because I was overseas for a period, but it's mainly because I'm a lazy blogger...

In the meantime my hobby activity has been limited to a couple of games of Kings of War with Tim, who basically hadn't played the game properly before. Both games were with my Kingdoms of Men and Ogres. The first time I used the Ogres, and I lost. The second time I used the Men, and this time I actually took photos. I figured I might as well share them here. Let's see if I can remember what happened based on these pictures...

The first game we had used pretty normal sized lists. This time we had more models with us so we decided to up the game size to 3000 points. More toys for us!

My list: Kingdoms of Men (3000 points)

• Horde of Foot Guard with 2-handed weapons and Blessing of the Gods
• Horde of Heavy Pike with Brew of Strength
• Horde of Heavy Pike with Hammer of Measured Force
• Legion of Militia with Brew of Sharpness
• Legion of Militia with Banner of the Griffon
• Horde of Berserkers
• Horde of Arquebusiers with Jar of the Four Winds
• Regiment of Knights with Potion of the Caterpillar
• Regiment of Knights with Brew of Haste
• Troop of Mounted Scouts with Pistols
• Troop of Mounted Scouts with Carbines
• Siege Artillery
• Siege Artillery
• General on a Horse with Blade of Slashing
• General on a Horse with Mace of Crushing
• Army Standard Bearer on a Horse with Lute of Insatiable Darkness
• Wizard on a Horse with Bane-Chant and the Inspiring Talisman

Tim's list: Ogres (3000 points)

• Horde of Warriors
• Horde of Warriors
• Horde of Siegebreakers with Brew of Haste
• Horde of Siegebreakers with Blade of Slashing
• Horde of Shooters
• Horde of Boomers with Blessing of the Gods
• Horde of Red Goblins
• Regiment of Red Goblins
• Troop of Red Goblin Scouts
• Troop of Red Goblin Scouts
• Warlord on a Chariot with Dwarven Ale
• Warlord on a Chariot
• Boomer Sergeant with the Inspiring Talisman
• Grokagamok
• Mammoth with Ballista
• Giant

Given that I didn't have the Clash of Kings 2018 book on hand, we chose a scenario from the CoK 2017 book. It was Capture or something, where you had to control all the terrain pieces at the end of the game. Given the size of our hills, we decided to ignore those. So the fight was to control the walls, buildings and forests.

<EDIT: I've just noticed that Blogger seems to be locking down images do you can't click to make them bigger when I use captions. I'm moving the caption text outside the images for now. Can't be bothered digging at code to find another way around it now>

All lined up.

Convic 2018 Aftermath - Part 7

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

Game 7 (2150 points) - Push
Josh Angel - The Herd (Cloven Stalkers)

• Horde of Tribal Warriors
• Horde of Spirit Walkers
• Regiment of Tribal Longhorns with Brew of Haste
• Regiment of Tribal Longhorns
• Troop of Beast Pack
• Troop of Beast Pack
• Horde of Giant Eagles
• Horde of Giant Eagles
• Horde of Tribal Chariots with Potion of the Caterpillar
• Great Chieftain with Wings of the Honeymaze
• Shaman
• Chimera with Wings
• Great Totem

There was another item or two in the list, but I don't recall what or where. It's not really that important.

After the previous game I felt like I had restored a little respectability to my overall performance. For the final game I would again be facing something I had never faced before - The Herd. Having said that, I'm not sure this game was an accurate reflection of what playing them is normally like. This army was fast. Like, really really fast. The Cloven Stalkers formation meant that Josh's Tribal Warriors, Longhorns and Chieftain all got to vanguard at the start of the game. Between that and a ton of stuff with flying, it would be fair to say my list looked pretty slow.

No no, the game hasn't started yet. This is just Josh using vanguard to take liberties during deployment. Those guys are awfully close...

Convic 2018 Aftermath - Part 6

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Kings of War tournament at Convic 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 6 (2150 points) - Control
Rohan Dowd - Night Stalkers (The Butcher's Block)

• Legion of Blood Worms with Brew of Strength
• Horde of Butchers
• Horde of Butchers
• Regiment of Reapers
• Regiment of Reapers
• Horde of Fiends (maybe with Caterpillar?)
• Shadow-Hulk
• Void Lurker with Darklord's Onyx Ring
• Void Lurker

Right. So we had completed 5 games, and I had won a grand total of 1 of them. Titan of the KoW battlefield that I am. But there were still 2 games to go. Still some time to salvage something approaching respectability. First up I would need to beat Rohan with his Night Stalkers. An army I had never played before, but at least I knew of them. That counts as preparation, right?

Rohan's entire army was Alien-themed. These evil twins are the Void Lurkers. They're basically dragons, but let's just assume they are good at jumping rather than needing wings. They were lurking on my right flank.

The big Alien on the left is the Shadow-Hulk. Basically a Giant. The hill on the side is level 4 impassable terrain, so made a good place for things to hide. The icy pillar things are a forest.

Another impassable hiding spot hard on my right flank. Good for sneaky Warlord Chariots. Honestly the pair of Void Lurkers concerned me. They were key to this game.

I believe I gave Rohan the first turn, knowing that being able to respond to which table segments he moved to claim at the end could be key (if we had anything left by then). The Void Lurkers shot up on my flank, ensuring nothing could see and reach them.

A number of Rohan's units were Shambling, and his list was without Surge. My hope was to try to deal with some of the quicker elements before the shamblers caught up. But those things behind the forest are Fiends. Those are really quick.

At the start on the left I decided I could be a bit cagey. With some of the enemy lagging behind, I had enough units to control the tempo. The hiding spot for the Chariot was very handy.

I did what I could to try to respond to the Void Lurkers. My units stopped where an enemy charge would see them landing on the obstacle, and the Warlord could respond with a flank charge.

Rohan was a bit impatient on the left and decided to fling his Fiends into my Warrior horde. Wavering me was a realistic possibility, but breaking me would not be easy. With the Warlord watching their flank, this is not a charge I would have gone for.

On the right, so I had carefully placed my front line of Ogres. But I honestly had failed to account for just how far 20" is. I subconsciously assumed the Siegebreakers behind my front line were out of range. No such luck. One Void Lurker to the front (which was acceptable), and another in the flank (most unacceptable)...

On the bright side, I did have things that could respond provided that Rohan duffed the combat. Meanwhile a unit of Butchers was closing in, with Reapers sneaking along behind them.

On the left, with the Fiends getting excited and grabbing all the attention, the Blood Worms were advancing at best speed whilst the shamblers did their best to keep up.

Any hopes I had of the Siegebreakers surviving proved forlorn. They got properly eaten, and the Void Lurkers set about trying to decide which way to face. So many targets, and quite a few threats...

As expected, the Warrior horde fended off the Fiends, and they did it without wavering. This was not good news for Rohan's unit.

At least at this point the Void Lurkers had committed. That was better than having them floating around on the fringes, waiting to pounce. This is how I decided to respond. My Warlord charged the one that was within range of him, whilst I turned the Boomers and Boomer Sergeant to face the other (which the Shooters could already see)...

On the left, the Warriors counter-charged the Fiends with the Warlord coming into the flank for support. The Siegebreakers decided they might as well start work on the Blood Worms, as they were not really in a position to back off to buy another turn.

The combat went according to script and the Fiends routed. Nearby the Giant had moved up so that he could now see (and be seen) through the forest.

On the right, the sheer weight of shooting proved too much for the unengaged Void Lurker and he vanished. The Warlord did minimal damage to the one he was fighting, but the important thing was that he trapped it on the ground for a turn.

You can see a careless mistake in this picture. I got distracted with something or other on the left (photos I think), and forgot to reform the Warlord after the Fiends were gone. That might cost me...

Man, that is a big Alien. Good thing I managed the 1 wound I needed (would have been pretty bad rolling otherwise).

At this point the Butchers rolled in, charging my Boomers despite having their flank watched. The Reapers held back, no doubt watching the flank of my unit that was watching the flank of the Butchers.

The Siegebreakers made a reasonable start on the Blood Worms, but then Rohan unsportingly sent in another unit in the shape of the second Reaper unit. That's hardly cricket.

Look at them, mocking my Warlord and the fact that I didn't fix his facing. They're so mean. The Giant could have gone in alone, but he would almost certainly get flanked for his efforts, and that would likely be the end of him.

The Siegebreakers took 10 damage, which was probably more than I had hoped for given their massive defence. Fortunately they stuck around. Unfortunately they wavered.

Likewise the Boomers survived their charge, but also wavered. Well, the important thing was they were still there. That meant the flank charge was on (and maybe the flank charge of the flank charge)!

In we go! I sent in the Boomer Sergeant for good measure. He's not completely inept in terms of combat. Should be good for a couple of wounds, which is important when you really need to rout the enemy and the Warriors were hindered thanks to clipping the wall.

Wasn't much I could do on the left. Back off with the Warlord to try to reset his flanking position, step back out of the forest with the Giant to avoid getting multi-charged. Everything felt poised over there.

The right flank was actually going pretty well. My units did enough to rout the Butchers, which meant the Warriors were free to turn and face the oncoming Reapers.

In the meantime, my Shooters were trying to whittle away at the Blood Worms. So much Nerve...

Despite the right flank feeling under control, I had made another mistake. I had backed up with the wavered Boomers, but in so doing I had moved into line of sight of the Void Lurker. It then executed a "corkscrew charge" by pivoting 90 degrees and charging them in the flank. That was most uncool. Of course, if the Void Lurker somehow stuffed this up, I would get a flank with the Warlord...

The standoff on the far left continued, but the Reapers and Blood Worms felt no such hesitation in having a second crack at the Siegebreakers. As you would expect, this was too much for them and they routed this time.

The flanking Void Lurker made short work of the Boomers, however the Reapers had to settle for attacking the Warriors in the front and did relatively modest amounts of damage.

With the Siegebreakers gone, the Blood Worms press on toward my Shooters whilst the Reapers turn into the forest.

Given the damage the Blood Worms had already taken, I decided to charge them with the Shooters rather than standing my ground and firing at them. In the forest, I decided it was time to try to take control and charged the Reapers with the horde of Warriors and the Giant. The Warriors were hindered, but it was a lot of attacks. And I had the Warlord Chariot still lurking on the flank for reinforcements.

On the right flank, my Warriors counter-charged the Reapers whilst the Boomer Sergeant charged into the flank again. I think he was developing a taste for clubbing things from the side with his big gun. The Void Lurker had turned back to face my Warlord, who promptly charged into it yet again. He wasn't really making progress, but at least he was keeping it pinned in one place...

...or was he? This time I rolled so badly with the Warlord that I didn't do a wound at all. This meant the Void Lurker would be free to fly off the following turn. Seriously man, you had one job... At least the Reapers crumbled to my combined charge. That was obviously better rolling.

Right, so you know how I decided the forest charge was a calculated risk worth taking? Well... I inflicted 2 wounds on the Reapers. Combined. From both the Warriors and the Giant. It was utterly abysmal rolling. And now my flank and rear (and front) were all exposed...So much for trying to take control of the left flank.

Rohan put the Butchers into the flank of the Warriors, and sent the Shadow-Hulk into the rear of the Giant whilst the Reapers went into the front. As you can see, it was too much for both units. Which meant I hadn't even bought my Warlord a solid charge target with the loss of my units - everything had turned to face him. I think I might have wavered the Blood Worms the previous turn, because nothing untoward seems to have happened to the Shooters here. 

Freed from the shackles of the Warlord, the Void Lurker re-positioned itself in search of better prey. This is what I had been working all game to avoid - a flying monster threatening every flank within 20".

It was my turn 5, and it was at about this point that the scenario really started to kick in for both of us. We needed to control the 6 segments of the table, and got double points if we controlled our opponent's central segment. At this point my Warriors gave up trying to have any further influence on combats and instead headed to a position from which they could claim or challenge Rohan's central section. I ended up charging the Warlord into the flank of the Blood Worms as well as going in again with the Shooters. It was the neatest way to have things in the right position and give them the reform to ensure the Void Lurker couldn't do something unpleasant. It was risk, however. If I rolled double 1s on the nerve test I'd have been boned. Thankfully I didn't.

The left flank devolved into a bit of a game of cat-and-mouse. I refused to give Rohan a favourable charge, and the remaining units danced around each other as they decided which table segment they needed to be in. The key here was that even my Army Standard and Boomer Sergeant could claim table segments. Rohan realised that he had a serious issue as a result, and that a gamble was needed.

And this was the gamble. The Warlord in the centre was my key to taking control of the central segments, so he needed to go. And Rohan needed a turn 7. So a few things needed to go his way. A risky charge for the Void Lurker with the Shooters watching its flank was an indication that it was now all about the scenario.

The Butchers scrambled back into Rohan's central zone whilst the other units edged around. The Shadow-Hulk cancelled my Warlord's control of my left zone, but the Army Standard was free to float around and swing things as was convenient. Going second in a scenario like this is a huge advantage, so long as you still have units to move around.

The Void Lurker charge had been a risk, and it didn't pay off. The Warlord didn't even waver (or if he did, he shrugged it off with Headstrong), so he was free to head into Rohan's half of the table to help me claim the centre there. The Shooters went into the flank of the Void Lurker and removed it from the equation.

With the Void Lurker gone and me having an even greater advantage in terms of units at this point, whether the game went to a 7th turn didn't really matter. As it happened, the game ended after 6 turns. I think the scoring ended up 5-1 or something in terms of table control. It had been an entertaining, up-and-down game. 

Result: 17-4 win

You can find the next part of the report here.

Convic 2018 Aftermath - Part 5

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Kings of War tournament at Convic 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 5 (2150 points) - Eliminate
Tony Lee - Kingdoms of Men

• Legion of Militia with Hammer of Measured Force
• Legion of Militia
• Horde of Foot Guard with two-handed weapons
• Horde of Foot Guard with two-handed weapons
• Horde of Knights with Potion of the Caterpillar
• Regiment of Knights
• Beast of War
• General on Winged Beast
• Wizard with Bane-chant
• Army Standard Bearer
• Siege Artillery
• Siege Artillery
• Siege Artillery

After a rather questionable performance on day 1, I was back for day 2 with a larger army. Maybe this 2150 point list would perform better than my 1750 point one... My army was pretty similar to what I had in that smaller list, but with a Giant and a Boomer horde.

My first opponent on day 2 was Tony, whom I had played in the final round of Cancon. This time he had a normal Kingdoms of Men list instead of the historical Conquistadors he had confused me with previously. Couldn't help but feel he would have a better chance with what he had brought this time.

The scenario was Eliminate, which means you get a point for destroying each of your opponent's 3 most expensive units. You get 2 points if you destroy the unit in combat. My targets were the horde of Knights and the 2 hordes of Foot Guard. For my part, I needed to protect the Boomers and the 2 hordes of Siegebreakers.

Wow, I actually got a photo before things had started to move. I didn't really like my chances of getting to the artillery in this game. It was a pretty solid wall of infantry between me and them. Hopefully the artillery would just miss all game. That's what I'd expect mine to do...

Convic 2018 Aftermath - Part 4

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Kings of War tournament at Convic 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 4 (1750 points) - Dominate
Damien Madigan - Ogres (Hell on Wheels formation)

• Horde of Boomers
• Horde of Boomers
• Regiment of Chariots
• Regiment of Chariots
• Regiment of Berserkers
• Regiment of Berserkers
• Warlord on Chariot
• Warlock
• Warlock
• Troop of Red Goblin Scouts
• Red Goblin Biggit on Fleabag

I'm afraid my memory of some of the finer details of the list is failing me. I know one of the Warlocks spent his time casting Aura of Heroism, but I'm not sure what other spells or items were scattered about. This game was my second introduction to formations. This time the Chariots in the list got boosted nerve and the Warlord got Rallying(1). It's all very cute. At some point I'll read up on what I could have been considering when I chose a list...

I kinda of stacked my left flank a bit, but Damien had more drops with which to stall, so he was able to respond appropriately. He got the first turn. Or I gave it to him. I don't recall.

Convic 2018 Aftermath - Part 3

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Kings of War tournament at Convic 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 3 (1750 points) - Take and Hold
Staks - Dwarves (Herneas' Hunting Party)

• Regiment of Herneas' Rangers with Brew of Keen-Eyeness
• Regiment of Herneas' Rangers with Heart-Seeking Chant
• Herneas the Hunter
• Regiment of Berserker Brock Riders with Brew of Haste
• Regiment of Berserker Brock Riders
• Ironbelcher Organ Gun
• Ironbelcher Organ Gun
• Troop of Sharpshooters
• Troop of Sharpshooters
• Berserker Lord on Brock
• Regiment of Elohi

We were up to the third round now, which meant it was time to switch to the middle-sized list. This meant I traded out one horde of Warriors for 2 of Siegebreakers, the Giant subbed out for another Warlord on a Chariot, my Shooters got upgraded to a horde, and I got an Army Standard Bearer with the Boomstick. 

I don't know what was in Staks' 1250 point list, but I can only assume it had less shooting than the list I found myself facing here. How exactly was I going to deal with this list? Getting the first turn might help. But no, I didn't get the first turn...

The scenario was one I hadn't played before, where you score by controlling the objectives each turn from turn 3 onward. I like that - it forces people to play differently. Or you know, forces them to hurry up and kill you faster.

That's Herneas and 2 regiments of Rangers, deployed in a forest. Could I shoot back at them? Sure, on 7+ to hit...

Convic 2018 Aftermath - Part 2

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Kings of War tournament at Convic 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2 (1250 points) - Pillage!
John Healy - Dwarves

• Horde of Ironclad with Healing Brew
• Horde of Ironclad
• Regiment of Shieldbreakers with Kevinar's Flying Hammer
• Regiment of Shieldbreakers
• Herneas the Hunter
• Regiment of Herneas' Rangers
• Flame Belcher
• Regiment of Elohi

John introduced himself and explained that this was only his second or third ever game of Kings of War, a situation not at all helped by him having a bye in the first round. His army was apparently cobbled together from the limited range of models that he had ready, and I admit it probably wasn't the sort of composition I would have gone for. Anyone who goes in without any real Inspiring at all is very brave in my books.

This game was the first time I met Herneas the Hunter and his ranger bros. It would not be the last...

John took the first turn (or I gave it to him very generously; I don't recall which) and moved up a little, mainly with the Elohi slinking up behind the trees. Herneas and friends shot my Warlord a bit, but he survived.