Cancon 2019 Aftermath - Part 5

This the continuation of my report of the Cancon 2019 tournament. You can find the previous part here.

Game 5 - Ransack
Darren Holmes - Forces of the Abyss

• Archfiend of the Abyss with Wings
• Ba'su'su
• Mau'ti-bu-su
• Succubi Regiment
• Succubi Regiment
• Regiment of Abyssal Horsemen
• Regiment of Abyssal Horsemen
• Horde of Twisted Victims
• Horde of Molochs
• Troop of Gargoyles
• Abyssal Harbinger on mount
• Abyssal Harbinger on mount (this second one might have been someone else)

That doesn't total anywhere near enough points. No doubt there was a Caterpillar Potion on one of the cavalry units and a variety of other items scattered around there.

There are a lot of objective markers in this scenario, worth varying amounts. They were scattered all over the shop, including 2 that Darren put in opposite corners of the field. I didn't think all that carefully about these rocks in front of me. They were Height 4 and impassable. So apart from the flyer, I was going to have real trouble crossing over those, and no way to see. I had rather carelessly isolated the Order of the Abyssal Hunt during deployment. It might not have been that big a deal, but Darren put a lot of flyers across the field from them.

The centre was relatively open, so of course I was keen to put the hordes out where they would have room to move. I had clearly stacked more forces in the centre, whereas Darren had a lot of points over there to the right.

Cookie Monster kept the Order of Redemption company over on my left.

Gargoyles on the flank, Abyssal Horsemen next to them (I think these ones did have pathfinder), and beside those were some Succubi with some Inspiring lurking behind them.

Again, more Abyssal Horsemen and Succubi with a Harbinger behind. I'm pretty sure the green dudes were Molochs. Tough but not fast. I think that was Mau'ti-bu-su keeping them company.

The Archfiend, Ba'su'su and the Twisted Victims well and truly out-muscled my isolated unit over there, whether I sent the Exemplar Forsaker over to help or not.

So. When in doubt, rush forward to the point where your friends will at least be able to respond, yeah? Realising I'd dug a hole for myself, I focused on at least getting the Abyssal Hunt into a position where their demise would give me a chance to charge their murderers with other units.

I felt like I should have the tools I should needed in the centre, but the question was going to be how to bring the force to bear correctly. That front unit is bait, cunningly disguised as bait.

I let Cookie Monster take point on the left. Absorbing charges was meant to be his job.

Will they take the bait? Of course, with them all being flyers, the danger is there that might just fly right over my unit...

Well they didn't. Mau'ti-bu-su went in to hold up my avenging horde of Order of the Brotherhood whilst Ba'su'su, the Archfiend, and their flying friends all laid into the poor Order of the Abyssal Hunt.

Not really a fair fight, this one.

Clearly my baiting was working. The Abyssal Horsemen accepted the invitation to charge my horde in the centre whilst the Succubi moved into position behind.

The Gargoyles charged Cookie Monster, which screened the cautious approach of the Abyssal Horsemen.

The Molochs decided not to wade straight through the forest and instead turned to work around behind it.

Unsurprisingly, the Abyssal Hunt were unable to hold their ground. The Archfiend carried on toward nowhere in particular, presumably looking to get around the flank faster.

The Abyssal Horsemen did moderate damage in the centre, but were never going to be a danger to a knight horde with a single charge.

Cookie Monster sustained a flesh wound from the Gargoyles. Right, my turn...

It was hard to know what to do on the right. There were an awful lot of threats to try to deal with. I rather optimistically went into Ba'su'su with wild visions of removing him and carrying on into the unit behind. Anyone familiar with Ba'su'su would know how unlikely this scenario was but hey, it was theoretically possible. Failing that, at least he'd be grounded and stuff might take a while to dispose of my Exemplar Forsaker.

The knights nearby had little choice but to counter charge Mau'ti-bu-su. He needed to go.

Excessive force was applied to the Abyssal Horsemen in the centre as one unit counter charged and the other came in alongside. Elmo decided this fight was under control and carried on, as the Exemplar Forsaker decided to gamble on a charge against one of the Harbingers that was floating around. Unfortunately he had a wall to hide behind. If this didn't work I'd probably be flanked, but any flank charge would also be hindered by the wall.

Cookie Monster did not stand alone. The Order of Redemption assisted him in his attempts to search the Gargoyles for any cookies they might be hiding.

Ba'su'su is still there, as is my flying stand (the birdie was taking a rest somewhere). But Mau'ti-bu-su was unable to withstand the number of attacks the knights unleashed, and routed.

The Harbinger survived (wavered, I think), but the Abyssal Horsemen didn't make it.

With the Gargoyles having been searched for cookies, Cookie Monster tried to run forward to block the approach on his friends. It was a bit optimistic, really.

In Darren's turn, Ba'su'su continued the slugging match with my empty flying stand, whilst the Twisted Victims swung around to try their luck against my knights. Really I think they were just trying to hold me in place and keep me from getting up to any mischief whilst the Archfiend and Molochs moved into position.

Cookie Monster's efforts were in vain, however I was pleased to see that so long as my Order of Redemption held, the flank of the Abyssal Horsemen would bounce back into his line of sight.

The Succubi up the back couldn't resist the flank charge on my Exemplar Forsaker, but the other units set about trying to interfere with the advance of my hordes.

My empty flying stand morphed back into an actual unit, however this was a fight I was going to lose. We were doing similar damage to each other each turn, but Ba'su'su has regeneration. Oh well.

The Twisted Victims did modest damage to my knight horde, but they were now stuck in place and would have no thunderous charge for their response, so it was probably still a case of "mission accomplished".

My birdie took fairly significant damage, but held his ground. That was excellent. Now I just needed to get to him to try to rescue him...

On the left, my Order of Redemption took 7 wounds but then shrugged off 3 of them with regeneration as they counter-charged with help from Cookie Monster.

I wasn't really holding back in the centre. Elmo managed to find a way past the Harbinger and into the flank of the Succubi, whilst the knights engaged the units that saw fit to sit in front of them. The Exemplar Forsaker had a second attempt at the Harbinger he had tried to assassinate.

On the right my units had little choice but to keep counter-charging. This was really just a holding action.

The Abyssal Horsemen collapsed under the combined charge, however the Succubi made good use of the forest to survive the charge of my horde. The Exemplar Forsaker finished the job on the Harbinger and turned to face the Succubi fighting Elmo.

They were quite busy with Elmo, however. They elected to counter-charge him rather than attempt a hindered charge into the front of the wounded Exemplar Forsaker. Probably not the choice I would have gone with. My knights with pathfinder had disposed of the blocking Harbinger and decided that the centre was under control, turning instead toward what was happening on the right...

...Because the right was looking pretty grim. That's an awful lot of attacks.

And that's a double 1. In proper bogus fashion, the double 1s turned up at the precise moment they were needed in order to properly destroy Darren's chances of pressing back into the game. It meant the Molochs were about to wear a flank charge from a horde of knights, and the Twisted Victims would cop another counter-charge from the unit that should have been dead...

And that's what happens. It's completely unfair, really. Yes, I was winning the game anyway. But that roll was rubbing salt into the wound.

In the closing stages, the Archfiend mopped up the crippled knights whilst Ba'su'su finally finished off his opponent. But then the fresh knights cleaned up the Archfiend and Darren's desire to fight over scraps with Ba'su'su alone was really not there. He probably could have claimed one damaged unit, but it would have made little difference in the end.

That was pretty brutal really. My forces out-fought Darren's across much of the field, and then the one place where he really had the ascendancy took too long to resolve itself. Honestly his list felt a little less efficient than some of the others I had faced, and too many of his units were struggling with my pretty much universally high armour. 

I'm still not convinced that the element of the unexpected that double 1s and double 6s bring to Kings of War is enough to offset the number of times that they really just seem like a slap in the face for the player impacted by them. They can't be planned for, are not in any way earned, and can have a huge impact on a game. Oh well.

Result: 20-1 Win