24 August 17
Initial Thoughts:
Well, I’m playing against a new guy today. I don’t want to play too hard, but I don’t want to go easy on him either. Originally I suggest playing 1000 points, but he wants to go 2000. I’m cool with that. He brings forth a fairly well thought out Brotherhood list, replete with Hunter knights, Redemption Knights, and Forsaken Knights. Well, he has all the tools that give me problems, including a beast with breath weapons, and a horde of those damned martyrs. We played a straight kill game without the Edge of the Abyss special rules.
Set Up:
The terrain really has no favorable side, so my opponent, Sir Andrew, chose the bottom after winning the roll. Since the drop amounts weren’t really significantly different, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go for a single echelon or a double in the game. He deployed his knights split, so I decided on the fly to go double. My gars were going to try to get down the line in a hurry to take out the artillery while avoiding other contact, while the heavy hitters would take on the knights. That was the plan at least. So, with that in mind, my set up from left to right: Gargoye troop, tortured soul horde with haste, the Lord of Lies, succubi with the old king’s blood, succubi with the rams helm followed by a harbinger with the Lute of Insatiable Darkness, alone harbinger with the boomstick on the hill, hellhound troop with brew of courage, arch fiend Sophie with LB7 (LB5 and scarletmaw’s Amulet,) Horsemen with pathfinder, and gar troop. Facing off against me, also from left to right: recon troop, knights of the abyssal hunt, forsaken beast with breath 10, mounted devoted with heal and inspiring talisman, villein siege artillery, villein martyrs horde with brew of strength, exemplar forsaken, redemption knights with pathfinder, forsaken knights with haste, recon troop, and Swain’s Rangers.
Turn 1:
Sir Andrew drew the initiative, and advanced cautiously. His siege arty both fired at, and missed the girls with Ram’s Helm. I’m not sure why the recon troop and rangers on the right held where they were, but it meant the rangers, who have vanguard by the way, chose to remain out of shooting range.
Well, I have an opportunity to bust though early on the left flank, and opt to take it. The souls take wing and crash into the hunter knights. The gars hustle down behind the pyramid, the girls advance. The hellhounds shift left to support the center, while the right flank moves into range of the forsaken knights, trying to draw them into an early, and unsupported and hindered charge. Sophie zaps the forsaken knights to further try to goad them into a charge. The harbinger zaps the forsaken exemplar for a single wound, and the LoL obliterates the rar right recon troop. In combat, the souls waver the hunter knights, but they have fury. Still a pretty solid first turn.
Turn 2:
Well, the flying knights maintain their discipline, and don’t charge into the pond. The flying exemplar does charge the harbinger, and the hunter knights counter charge the souls. The martyrs advance on the succubi, though. Shooting sees a wound healed on the hunter knights, and both artillery miss the girls again. The rangers do shoot this turn, and waver the gargoyles on the right. Combat sees the hunter knights fail to break the souls, and the exemplar wavers the harbinger, leaving its flank open to the hounds.
Those who know me, know I won’t pass up an open flank, and I send in the dogs. The souls have another go at the hunter knights, and both succubus regiments charge the martyrs. The boomstick harb backs away and regenerates a wound. The right side gars back up and regenerate 2 wound while the other gar troop shoots down the flank and lines up to either rear charge the hunter knights or the artillery. The LoL zaps the devoted, though not enough to kill him, and the harbinger hits a sour note on the lute, failing to bane chant the old blood girls. Sophie fails to wound the forsaken knights with her lightning. The souls do some solid hits, but the inspiration of the devoted holds them in place with just a waver again. The hounds have a bad round of combat, and fail to waver or break the exemplar. The combined might of the succubi crushes the martyrs, though, and they reform to protect each others’ backs.
Turn 3:
The hunter knights again counter charge the souls, and the exemplar again charges the harbinger. The beast charges the girls instead of shooting them (thank badness.) The flying knights do finally bite and charge Sophie while the rangers and recon troop cautiously advance. The right artillery piece no longer has a shot, but the left one finally scores a hit on the rams helm girls. The rangers fire on the horsemen instead of the gars, and the devoted heals 2 wounds on the hunter knights. The hunter knights and exemplar both break their chosen targets and the hunters advance out of the gars charge arc while the exemplar turns to face the hounds. The beast does 3 wounds on the girls and bounces off. The flying knights manage 2 wounds on Sophie and bounce off as well.
The LoL takes the frontal charge on the hunter knights, had they advanced just one more inch, it would have been a flank instead. The girls counter charge the beast. The hounds charge the exemplar, and Sophie and the horsemen charge the flying knights, front and flank. Had the rangers shot at the gargoyles, they would have either been dead or wavered, but instead, they flap forward to protect the horsemen’s flank from the recon troop. The other gars take the open charge on the siege artillery. The only shooting I have this turn is to bane chant the girls. The hunter knights die, as do the flying knights. The hellhounds waver the exemplar, and the girls fail to waver or break the beast, despite doing 9 damage. The gargoyles smash the siege artillery, and line up to destroy the other one next. It is a rare thing the gargoyles successfully kill something, especially the thing they are originally planned to eradicate.
Turn 4:
The beast again attempts to rampage on the succubi on the left. On the right, the redemption knights charge the horsemen, and the recon troops takes the hindered charge on the gargoyles. The one siege arty fires at, and misses the hellhounds, the devoted heals a wound on the beast, and the rangers fail to wound Sophie. The beast gets a miserable 1 wound on the girls, and bounces off. the redemption knights crush the horsemen, and the recon troop wavers the gars.
For my turn, Sophie decides that being crafty is better than being dead. The gargoyles back up 5 inches, and Sophie charges the recon troop. The girls re-engage the beast, the hounds go into the exemplar again, and the gargoyles attack the other artillery piece. The LoL zaps the devoted, but apparently grounds out on something, causing only a single wound. The girls, despite lack of bane chant this time crush the beast, and begin preparing him for the after battle bar-b-q. Sophie eats the recon troop whole, and turns to eye the rangers as dessert. The hounds do poorly on the exemplar, and then botch the nerve roll. The gars again succeed in beating down the artillery, and turn to face the redemption knights. They are feeling bold.
Turn 5
The rangers decide to charge Sophie in the hopes they can keep her in place for the redemption knights who reform to face her. The flying exemplar counter charges the hounds, and the devoted moves to heal the exemplar. The rangers actually wound Sophie, but not enough to do anything other than annoy her. The exemplar wavers the dogs.
Sophie counter charges the rangers, the gars charge the redemption knights just to prevent them from hitting the boss. the other gars move in closer to the knights. The hounds again hit the exemplar. The LoL decides it’s time to get some blood on her blades and charge the devoted. The dogs draw a bane chant, and cause 3 wounds to the exemplar, but double 1 him on the nerve. At this point, I recommend my esteemed opponent give this guy a name, since he is amazing. The LoL wavers the devoted. Sophie stuffs the last over the rangers into her gullet, and turns to watch the gars attack the redemption knights. Sensing the eyes of the boss upon them, the gars pull a miracle out of thin air. They cause a single wound on the redemption knights, and waver them (Box Cars, Baby!!!)
Turn 6:
The redemption knights are so shocked by what just happened, they forget how to use headstrong, and regeneration. Still wounded and wavered, they back up. The exemplar again wavers the dogs. Man, this guy is good.
Sophie and both gar troops charge the redemption knights, slaying them to a man, while the LoL and the dogs savage the exemplar. As the dogs munch on the fallen Pegasus, the devoted turns his mount and rides off as fast as he can to try to find another remnant Brotherhood patrol.
After Thoughts:
Orc Lord Badrott caught the tail end of the game, and remarked, “This is why I dislike the brotherhood, and prefer Kingdoms of Men.” Personally, I find the brotherhood is a solid list, and some of the units can really take a punch and come back swinging. I’m glad they didn’t get squatted, even though they were the first casualties of the war. The successors of the Bretonnians have some really colorful unit choices, and were given even more unit options than GW gave them.
That said, it should have been closer than it was. When the Gars wavered the redemption knights with a single wound, it was one of the fluke things that can happen. Andy played a good game, except for a couple of mistakes I pointed out to him, such as shooting the horsemen instead of the gargoyleson turn 3. While I will say the redemption knights are a bunch of wussies, the hunter knights, and that damned exemplar forsaker are hard as nails. Good game, Andy
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