18 February, 2018
Initial Thoughts:
Stephen aka Devean is one of my long time opponents, and I’ll say he is a bit better than me, having won more of our games than I have. That said he is unleashing his dogs of war (Kingdoms of Men) army against me, and it is always a challenge. I know that conventional wisdom states Kingdoms of Men are right down there on the bottom tier with ogres and orcs, but in the hands of a good player, they can be a force. The first thing to note is Dev’s shooting. He has a horde of rifles, some lightning, some bows, and some breath attacks. Basically I have to watch out at long, medium and short range. The terrain actually favors shooting a bit with an open center., and hills just out of the deployment zone on both sides. He also has numbers to his advantage. My advantages are in speed and stealth.
Set Up:
Dev won the roll off for sides, and chose bottom. I am hoping he sets his rifle horde early on as that will determine where some of my force will go. I don’t want my horsemen shot out before they get a chance to fight, but I’d also like to keep the souls long enough to get them into the fray. He does drop the rifles early enough, and pretty much where I was hoping they’d be, so the plan is a go. I want the LoL and the souls on the left, the succubi in the center, horsemen and Sophie on the right, but Sophie will start in the lake in the center, and gradually shift to the right when needed. Thus, my deployment, from left to right: gargoyle troop, tortured souls with haste, Lord of Lies, succubus regiment, harbinger with the Lute, succubus regiment with Griffin Banner, Demon Princess Sophie (Flying arch fiend with lightning and Scarletmaws Amulet,) horsemen regiment with pathfinder, hellhounds with brew of courage, and gargoyle troop. Arrayed against me, Devean has from left to right: mounted scout troop with bows, wizard with inspiring, bane chant and lightning, berserker regiment, hero on Pegasus, knights with pathfinder, rifle horde with extra piercing, footguard regiment with 2 handed weapons followed by a standard bearer with the Griffin Banner, Orlaf, mounted suicide bomber (hero with Crystal Pendant of Retribution) berserker regiment, knight regiment, hero on Pegasus, Mounted standard with Diadem of Dragon Kind, and archer regiment. I really want first turn for my plan to gel.
Turn 1:
Naturally, I didn’t get first turn. The pathfinder Knights move up to control the left forest, the footguard move up to control the center, and the rest advance cautiously. Shooting from the mounted scouts and lightning from the wizard waver the left gargoyles, and the archers, despite being half shots on 6’s score 2 wounds on the hellhounds. Realizing I’m already in trouble, I go grab my lucky dachshund, and put her on the couch next to me. That should equal things out.
Not getting firsties was a royal pain, now I have to reconsider my opening moves. Those knights in the woods pretty much scrap everything I wanted to do. I fly the LoL over to the left, where if she is charged, it will be both hindered and ensnared. The gars regenerate their damage, and rotate just a bit, as do the souls behind them. Sophie shifts a little to the left staying in cover. The boomstick harb moves around the hill to the right, while the gars and hellhounds shift over behind it. The horsemen just shift their angle a bit as well. Shooting see’s the Boomstick harb eager to make up for his dismal performance last game, and he does 2 wounds to the bowmen. Sophie does 2 to the footguard, and the LoL scores 6 wounds out of 7 shots on the mounted scouts, obliterating them.
Turn 2:
There was no screen cap for Dev’s moves, but the right side peg hero charges the horsemen. That is the only charge. The footguard back up a touch, but everyone else moves or shifts into supporting positions. This is the way Devean and I always play each other, usually big stand offs which he breaks with the mounted individuals or peg heroes while he plinks away at me with shooting, eventually I get bored and charge, and usually end up losing. At any rate. For his shooting phase, the wizard on the hill zaps the left gars for 3 damage, and banishes them back to hell. The rifle horde manages a single wound on Sophie, and she’s fine. The archers and breath manage a single wound on the hellhounds, thanks to cover, and they are fine, thanks to the Brew of Courage. The peg hero does 2 wounds to the horsemen and bounces off.
Sophie flies over to threaten the flank of the knights while the horsemen counter charge the hero. Everybody else just shifts positions a bit. The Boomstick is really having a banner day, as the harb scores all three hits and wounds on the archers in the woods.
Turn 3:
I guess it’s Devean’s turn to get bored with the standoff as much of his line commits to the fight. The pathfinder knights charge the pink succubi, the suicide bomber charges the griffin girls, and the other knights charge the horsemen. The left peg hero flies down the line to position for later charges. Shooting from the rifle horde and bowmen do an astounding 7 damage to Sophie, which hurts, a lot, but she doesn’t waver. The standard with diadem tries to fry the gargoyles behind the hill, but apparently he forgot to turn on the igniter or something. He only scores a single hit out of 10 shots, and rolls a 2 to wound; no damage. In combat the right side knights kill the horsemen, and open their flank up to Sophie, just hoping she’ll take it and let Orlaf do her in. The suicide hero does 2 damage to the Griffin girls, but they’re fine, and the pathfinder knights do 5 to the pink girls, who are also fine.
Sophie doesn’t take the bait. Instead she charges the archers in the woods, out of Orlaf’s charge range. The hellhounds and gars combo charge the knights. The pink girls counter charge the pathfinder knights, but the griffin girls don’t budge. The LoL flies down the line a bit to get a clean shot on the wizard, and possibly line up a flank charge on the rifle horde. The souls move forward and pivot towards the flank of the pathfinder knights. For shooting, I fail to get Bane Chant off on the pink girls, but the LoL blasts the wizard for 4 and a waver, while the boomstick kills the standard bearer with diadem. Sophie easily routs the archers, despite being hindered, but the combined force of hounds and gars manage only 4 wounds on the knights, and bounce. The pink girls manage 5 wounds on the pathfinder knights, and they’re fine as well.
Turn 4:
The pathfinder knights have another go at the pink girls, while the suicide hero and footguard attack the Griffin girls. The other knights counter charge the gars, and Orlaf charges the hellhounds. The rifle horde advances out of sight of the LoL while the berserkers enter the woods to protect the pathfinder knight’s flank. With no shooting, we go straight to combat. Orlaf wants to be sure the hellhounds are gone, so goes berserk, and sends them back to the pit. The knights however, don’t do very well, and end up wavering the gargoyle troop, leaving their rear exposed to Sophie. The footguard and suicide bomber do a total of 3 wounds to the Griffin girls, who easily shake it off. The pathfinder knights do 4 wounds this turn, and waver the pink girls.
I realize that Orlaf is still a threat, but he can’t go bonkers again, so Sophie charges the knights’ rear. The gars back up and regenerate 3 of their 4 wounds. The Griffin girls counter charge the foot guard, and the pink girls counter charge the pathfinder knights, joined by the hindered tortured souls in the flank. The LoL decides to charge the wizard instead of sitting off somewhere safe shooting at him again. The Boomstick tries to fry Orlaf, but this time it doesn’t work, and no wounds are done. The harbinger does strike the right chord this time, and the Griffin girls get the bane chant. The LoL does 3 wounds to the wizard, who miraculously ends up wavered. The Souls and girls finish off the pathfinder knights, and the souls turn to face the peg hero and berserkers after the girls advance 3 inches. The griffin girls crush the footguard and advance 5 inches. Sophie dines well on horses and riders as the knights go down to her terrible wrath.
Turn 5:
The berserkers charge out of the woods into the souls, the peg hero rear charges the LoL, and Orlaf charges Sophie. The standard bearer moves to protect the rifle horde, and the suicide bomber moves to block the griffin girls. The rifle horde takes aim at the pink girls, who quickly erect a dozen brass poles which they proceed to start dancing around. The effort bedazzles the riflemen, and all but one of them miss, and the girls are free and clear to charge. The peg hero does 4 wounds to the LoL and she is fine for it. The berserkers do 2 wounds to the souls who are also just fine. Orlaf swings at Sophie, doing 3 wounds, but fails to waver her.
Sophie and the gars double team Orlaf. The souls counter charge the berserkers, the pink girls charge the standard bearer, and the Griffin girls charge the suicide bomber. The LoL realizes the absolute largest threat left is the rifle horde, and dashes off into their flank. The boomstick harb now has nothing to shoot at, so hustles towards the center. The Lute blesses the pink girls, and they easily tear apart the lone standard bearer and advance towards the rifles. The LoL does 6 wounds to the rifles, who at least can’t shoot now. The tortured souls rip apart the berserkers and turn to face the wizard and peg hero. Sophie and the Gars play wishbone with Orlaf, who is torn apart, with Sophie getting the bigger half. Finally, the Griffin girls succeed in wavering the suicide hero.
Turn 6:
The riflemen charge the pink girls in hopes of breaking through. Unfortunately, some of them end up standing in the forest, and they will be hitting on half attacks on 6s. They fail to wound the girls and bounce back. The peg hero charges the LoL in the rear again doing another 4 wounds, but failing to waver her.
The LoL decides she’s had enough of this bastard on the Pegasus, and spins around to counter charge him. She is joined in the flank by the souls. The pink girls counter charge the rifles while The Griffin girls back up and the gars charge the suicide bomber. All three enemy units are shattered, and the bulk of the abyssal combat force turns to threaten the lone wizard, who wisely tosses his towel and runs away.
After Thoughts:
Well the main thought here is Dev’s dice really went to shit starting on turn 4. I don’t think he rolled a nerve test above a 5 from that point forward. 20 shots hitting on 6s and wounding on 2s should have caused at least 1 wound to the pink girls, but the one that did hit rolled a 1 to wound. I’ve had games like this too, and there’s really nothing you can do but laugh it off, and come back and crush your next opponent.
For me, I’m starting to like having the Griffin Banner around. The girls are just a little more survivable with it, and that has mattered in the last few games. I almost scrapped the lute harbinger in favor of a temptress with bane chant which would have cut out any item at all for either succubus regiment, but I’m content at present to leave it as is.
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