27 Jan 2018

 

Initial Thoughts:

So, it is the start of the new UB Campaign, and the opponent I draw for first round is my old adversary Lord Avondale. Now John had just come off a fairly decent showing at the GT in Georgia using, of all things, orcs. I wasn’t sure which I’d be facing today until he started loading up his beloved Brotherhood. One of the neat things about playing against John is that he never loads up the same army twice. I can’t tell you how much I’d like to see his Brotherhood army on an actual table, it’s got to be impressive. That said, the first things he loads are a horde of spears with the Dragonshard Shield and a horde of archers with Jar of the Four Winds. Where the hell did those come from? One thing I really hate facing is hordes of infantry. They really are hard to shift, and anyone who knows me knows I prefer an alpha strike to a grind. Those hordes are gonna be trouble, and I’m going to have to dedicate resources to getting them. Then the more normal stuff drops; 2 regiments of brotherhood knights and a regiment of redemption knights. Swain’s Rangers come out as well; guess I’m going to lose my gars quick this game. A couple characters roll out and 3 troops or recon, and that’s it. Wait! There’s no Forsaken on the table, also no Hunter knights. Can it be? It is. Wow, this is definitely a different look for him. But we are talking 2 infantry hordes with phalanx, so I’m going to have to be careful about how I approach them. Also we have like 30 piercing shots, some coming in at 36 inches away. Got to be careful.

 

Set Up:

The scenario is Push. This is one of my least favorite scenarios as it means my succubus regiments are going to be slowed to Sp 5. Everyone knows this because who else would I give the tokens too? I win the roll for sides, and choose the top. Looking at the terrain, those 2 hills on the left center are going to offer me the best chance to advance the girls towards the center without getting too badly maimed. The top hill is close enough that I can get my lightning onto them on turn 1 and pick my targets. That is going to be my weak side though. I want horsemen, souls, and Sophie running down the right to get into batlle quick. Thus my forces, from left to right: (Please note this list is officially Clash 2018 compliant, so I changed some items around.) Gargoyles (newer weaker version) troop, harbinger with boomstick, Lord of Lies (LoL), Succubus regiment with the Griffin Banner, harbinger with the Lute of Insatiable Darkness, and another Succubus regiment. For the fast flank, we have Arch Fiend Sophie in the field, hellhounds with brew of courage followed by tortured souls with brew of haste, abyssal horsemen with Macwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar, and the final gargoyle troop. Arrayed against me, Lord Avondale has divided his forces into left, center and right battle groups. The left group is recon troop followed by brotherhood knights, and recon troop followed by Swain’s rangers, who vanguard onto the hill, and redemption knights with brew of strength. The center group is an adjutant with Lute of Insatiable Darkness, Spearmen horde with Dragonshard Shield followed by brotherhood knights, and forsaken beast with ensnare followed by a recon troop. His right has another forsaken beast with ensnare and a horde of bowmen with Jar of the Four winds. We roll for tokens and distribute 3 each: me on my 2 succubus regiments, him on the right side beast, the redemption knights, and the spearmen horde.

Turn 1:

The Brotherhood win the roll off and opt to go first. They advance very cautiously. John knows that I will do a first turn charge if I think I can get away with it, so he tries to make sure he stays clear of my heavy hitters. His shooting draws first blood of the campaign as the rangers tag the hellhounds for 3 wounds, and the bowmen horde manages just a single wound on the gargoyles to the far right.

So, his extreme caution means he will likely get at least a second round of arrowfire off. On the left, the LoL and harbinger stroll up the hill to shoot and the gargoyles hop to the other side of the hill to absorb a charge if necessary. The girls also advance on line. Actually I pretty much advance online across the way. The horsemen breach the forest but are out of range of the forsaken beasts. The only unit who really scoots are the right side gars who regenerate their 1 wound and hasten down the line out of the arc of the bowmen. For the record, I completely missed that Brotherhood bowmen have reload! I ran the gars down to try to get the archers to shift out of position to shoot at them, and set up the horsemen for a possible flank charge. My first round of shooting goes wildly good as the harbinger manages to bane chant the LoL who goes on to waver the left recon troop with 5 wounds. The Boomstick harbinger hits and wounds with all three of his shots on the next recon troop over, and Sophie does 4 wounds to the rangers on the hill.

Turn 2:

The recon troops decide they’re feeling froggy and leap. The unwavered troop on the left charges the gars at the bottom of the hill while the troop in the center charges the hellhounds. Again, forgetting that the bowmen have reload leaves me a bit surprised. The bowhorde holds fast. The right side beast advances into the woods while the center group advances in front of the hill. The other forsaken beast ranges forward, and turns towards the succubi. However it plays out, combats will be joined, and it looks like the succubi will be right in the thick of it. Shooting sees the bow horde tag the pink succubi for 2 wounds and the rangers tag the tortured souls for 2 as well. The left side knights don’t advance. This worries me a bit, because I’m just not sure what he’s planning on that side. The left side recon troop easily routs the gargoyles, and turns towards the succubi. The other recon troop must not have done very well during cavalry training with the knights. It appears the knights only trusted them with rubber spears which manage a grand total of 1 wound on the hounds, who easily hold.

Wow, the enemy is in charge range everywhere. With so many options, I decide to be a bit cagey with my choices. The horsemen are the first to move, but do the unexpected. The lead forsaken beast has exposed his flank to them, and that is way better than charging one with ensnare in the front. Sophie and the Souls (Wow, that sounds like a musical group, doesn’t it?) double charge the brotherhood knights at the base of the hill, and no one else charges. The girls move forward a bit to face off against any threats while the LoL and harb stay on the hill and elect to do some more lightning. The hellhounds counter charge the recon troop, and the gars, still not knowing the bowmen won’t turn to face them sneak around the rock formation to the right. The harbinger bane chants the hellhounds while the LoL blasts the recon troop at the bottom of the hill into their component atoms. The Boomstick finishes off the other troop as well. Sophie and the souls Waver the knights with 10 wounds on them. The horsemen rampage through the forsaken beast and turn to face the spear horde and archers. The hellhounds do their best, but fail to rout or waver the recon troop. This might be all for them.

Turn 3:

Well, the hellhounds are looking weak as the recon troop charges them again. The brotherhood knights fail their headstrong test, even with the new rule reducing it to a 3+. The Rangers shift just a bit on the hill to make space for the redemption knights who decide to hold their position instead of cresting the hill. The right side brotherhood knights do advance though. The Forsaken Beast makes his way through the woods to a place where he can charge out. The archers are forced to move with the gars threatening their rear, but instead of turning to face them, they just move forward out of the charge arc. The spear horde does charge the horsemen though. Unfortunately their right side breaks into the forest and they will be hindered. The adjutant bane chants them as well. The rangers take aim at the pink girls and manage to waver them with a lucky roll of an 11. The spears manage 5 wounds on the horsemen and waver them (thank the gods for fury.) The recon troop who did so poorly last turn do even worse this one, and fail to even hit, much less wound the hellhounds.

The LoL decides it’s time to commit to the fight, and charges the far left knights. The purple girls move forward to support her. The wavered pink girls turn to face the threat of the beast in the woods. The hellhounds realize their lease on life has been extended and they have another go at the recon troop. The gars move to again threaten the rear of the archers and the spearmen. Sophie moves to assist the horsemen against the spear horde and the tortured souls have another go at the knights. The only shooting available at this time is the Boomstick which wounds the rangers and wavers them. The souls finish off the knights and turn to face the beast in the woods since the hill and wavered rangers are protecting their flank and rear. Sophie and the horsemen do 12 damage to the spear horde, and thanks to brutal manage to waver them. The hellhounds also manage to finish off the inept recon troop and face off against the beast as well. He’s going to charge something next turn. The LoL does 3 wounds to the knights, but they hold, as expected.

Turn 4:

Out of the woods comes the beast, straight into the tortured souls. The Redemption knights decide to stop hiding behind the hill. They drop their loot token and move towards Sophie and the horsemen. The archers take aim and shoot the horsemen, but cover is their saving grace and the arrows cause only a single wound that doesn’t waver them. The beast’s blunted attack does a few wounds to the souls, but they hold easily.

Sophie and the gars attack the archers in the front and back. The horsemen hit the spearmen again, who despite being given an opportunity, refuse to use the Dragonshard Shield. The souls countercharge the beast, and the LoL and purple girls charge the knights on the left. The hellhounds, suddenly left without much to do, meander over and grab the center loot token. The Boomstick harb takes aim at the rangers and zaps them for another 2 damage, but they only waver again. The Lute harb bane chants the purple girls and between them and the LoL, the knights are handily routed. Sophie and the gars also erase the bowmen, then turn to face center. The horsemen finish off the spears and turn to face the redemption knights. Ensnare on that beast is a beast. The souls manage only 2 wounds on it, and it holds easily.

Turn 5:

The redemption knights charge the horsemen. The beast again attacks the souls. The horsemen are wiped out by the redemption knights, but the souls hold. The knights now have a conundrum. They have to expose a flank to someone, and decide the helhounds are less of a threat.

Here it is, the dreaded triple charge. Sophie, the gars and the hellhounds all commit against the redemption knights. The LoL charges the rangers. The purple girls move to claim the token dropped by the redemption knights, while both harbingers hasten onto the central hill. The souls manage another paltry 2 wounds on the beast, who holds, but the combined might of the triple charge (accented by the gars scoring 4 wounds by themselves) eradicate the final knights. The LoL again only wavers the rangers (man those guys are tough as nails.) At this point the Adjutant, who really knows where his towel is, throws it in, and the game ends there.

After Thoughts:

Several times John forgot that the loot markers slowed his units to Sp 5. This hurt him in the game. There were opportunities that his placement of his loot markers severely hindered him. I think that he also wasn’t watching certain things that he would normally have caught. His beast in the woods for one; he was certain my horsemen would charge, so he put his other beast further out front, leaving me a clean flank on it. I knew the fight was going to be in the center, I wasn’t originally going to commit to it so early though, until he offered that opportunity. My biggest error of the game was on the right, not realizing his archers were move or fire. I danced around them for 3 turns, allowing them to fire each time, instead of committing against them. I really expected them to turn and kill my gars, instead the gars lived the whole game. Their crowning achievement being 4 wounds on the redemption knights in turn 5. The other gars died in exactly the way they were supposed to.

I was very happy with the way the army played in this game. I don’t think the nerf on tortured souls and gargoyles really did me any disservice this game. He also didn’t have any fireballs or lightning, so the stealth bonus also played no part either. After a year of using Blood of the Old King and Ram’s Helm on my succubus regiments, I had to come to terms with them having less damage output. That is something I will have to watch out for in future games.

John’s 2 infantry hordes was new to me, that one was bows was pretty normal for other players, but the other being spears with the shield was disconcerting. I think once he gets used to that unit, it is going to be a hellified unit to shift. The normal infantry hordes I face when playing against the Brotherhood are the Villein Martyrs. I hate fearless hordes. I really didn’t understand why the redemption knights were given the token and then held behind the hill, except that they were intended as a tactical reserve to exploit an opening. I respect that, but they kind of ended up tangled up and useless for most of the game. When my succubi moved to assist the LoL against the brotherhood knights on the left, the redemption knights were in a perfect position to capitalize on the effort, instead they turned towards the other flank. Granted, they were able to score 240 points of kill against my horsemen, but they were killed in return. At that point of the game, it was a trade I was more than willing to make.

 

Still, Kudos to John for trying a new list for the campaign, and it will only get better as he figures out the synergies of the list. It really is nice to face a more infantry centric BHood army.

 

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