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I have Been playing a lot of Nerticans last few days and have quickly come to appreciate the River Guard as a unit. So much so that I have 6 troops of the little guys as standard in my lists.

So I thought I would talk about them since not many people seem to be... yet.

A troop of these guys will cost you 120 points. For this you get a Speed 6, melee 4+, Range 5+ Defense 4+ (With option to reduce to 3 for CS1) with 10 attacks and nerve 10/12. With this comes throwing weapons, vicious and most interestingly fly (Which also grants Nimble).

I won't talk about regiments since in my view they are too big to make good use of their fly rule since their speed remains 6 (the only flying unit with less than speed 10). Since a troop has low nerve and staying power (usually) I find reducing their save to 3+ for crushing strength ideal.

First off their ability to shoot as well as fight in combat is plus, especially when you consider their nimble rule. Against enemies with a speed of 5 you can simply sit out of range and pelt them forcing their units to move closer and ultimately allow you to "fly" over them to harass them later. Combine this with some Placoderms or Naiads and against many opponents you can "wedge" their battle line between your troops and hordes. Of course when the enemy has Cavallry or Flying units or any of the many units in KOW this complicates things and the combined arms approach will be more needed as usual with KOW. These Frogs however have a place in a combined arms list as well as harasser units and combat modifiers. Against fliers or cav their nimble allows them to zoom out of charge arcs and in general become a real issue to your opponent when used correctly.

Having 10 attacks is regiment level shooting for a lot of ranged lists and to get that as standard on a troop is very useful. Often you will find units in KOW who both fight and have ranged get more shots than dedicated range (though of less quality). Nimble and vicious help squeeze an extra few hits and wounds in there too. Speaking of vicious when combined with the CS1 they can inflict a lot of damage. Troops charging an average unit will be wounding on 3s re rolling 1s, since they are troops you can multi charge away, couple that with fly and patience and you can further increase their damage output through getting flank or rear charges.

They are not without their draw backs though, with a nerve of 10/12 they will not take hits very well so be weary of this if the enemy is range heavy. I would say the regiment is not worth the upgrade outside of themed lists as the bigger base size reduces their fly ability with the larger foot print. The nerve increase for this upgrade could be worthwhile but I do not recommend.

They will never hold a line on their own and nor will they hit like heavier units, but when supported and positioned these guys can punch above their weight. If you are a fan of MSU, Harassing light infantry or wacky unit types and happen to be playing Nerticans then don't shy away from having a few of these.

Anyone else tried the River Guard yet? Im having luck running with 6 troops of them personally.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also completely forgot to mention Pathfinder which is always handy to have...

Heh, my next army, after Forces of the Abyss, is likely to be EoD (Empire of Dust) rather than EOD (Esoteric Order of Dagon)....

I met her at the EOD
She sank her dewclaws into me
We stepped out to watch the tide come in
She said "A little swim would do some wonders for your skin"
I shed my old self, slipped into the sea

One glance was all it took
She gave me the Innsmouth look
One glance was all it took
She gave me the Innsmouth look

I dig her batrachian lips
Her bulbous eyes and scaly hips
She's got secrets but they'll soon be mine
Oh, Father Dagon smiles upon me from the bas-relief
And something's fishy down at Devil Reef...

One glance was all it took
She gave me the Innsmouth look
One glance was all it took
She gave me the Innsmouth look

The Auld Grump

Im sorry, I have no idea what this means.

 Swastakowey wrote:
Im sorry, I have no idea what this means.

My apologies - my thinking is Fishmen=Deep Ones from the Cthulhu Mythos.

The Esoteric order of Dagon was in the seminal H.P. Lovecraft story - The Call of Cthulhu.

The Deep Ones were central to The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Sometimes it seems strange that a not all that successful horror writer of the 1920s and '30s has had so much influence on gaming, even after ninety years. (Cthulhu Wars, anyone?)

The Auld Grump - though my favorite Lovecraft story is The Dunwich Horror....

*EDIT* My humor was triggered at EoD and EOD....

How is the army working out?

The River Guard looks to be interesting, on a tactical level, the ability lo leapfrog (sorry) other units and terrain... so it can be used as chaff to protect a unit, or to threaten a unit behind another....

The Auld Grump

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
How is the army working out?

The River Guard looks to be interesting, on a tactical level, the ability lo leapfrog (sorry) other units and terrain... so it can be used as chaff to protect a unit, or to threaten a unit behind another....

The Auld Grump

Great, The Siren is an amazing character able to disorder an enemy unit within 18" every turn (no TC or shooting if I choose to hit you) and the River Guard themselves are amazing too.

Im finding the River Guard to be great for both leap frogging AND shooting. 60 shots hitting on 5's with nimble and vicious is pretty decent, along with the ability to fight in combat. If they survive a charge next turn they will simply leap frog over and then annoy the enemy lines from behind.

Overall the Trident Realms have a huge variety of units and the characters are inspiring to specific units which makes coming up with a ideal army hard. Im constantly tweaking my lists. When I take the plunge I will be sure to do some battle reports or something.

Looking forward to it - and, yes, the Siren can do some nasty things - I look at using her Wind Blast in conjunction with Surge from a mage, to get flanks with water elementals....

The River Guard are trickier, that short range jump....

Have you seen what is coming in the Bones III Kickstarter... looks to be a decent Coral Giant.



$12 for both of those....

The Auld Grump

Thats pretty cool, im definitely using the kraken from this company for an allied dragon or something. Prices are so good.

When is it due to come?

 Swastakowey wrote:
Thats pretty cool, im definitely using the kraken from this company for an allied dragon or something. Prices are so good.

When is it due to come?

Fall, I believe. And you can still get in on the Kickstarter - they opened up their Pledge Manager. (They even added post-campaign stretch goals... things were added AFTER the campaign was officially over.)

Heh, and here I was thinking that the Kraken would make a great Kraken.... (Insert obligatory quote.) 230 points, but Strider, with Regen 4....

Getting back to my poorly executed joke about Deep Ones - would these work for anything?





They have a few other things that I think would be a great start on a Nightstalkers army





The Auld Grump

Some of them look really big, which is an issue as it limits them but im pretty sure you can find a use for them in either Nerticans or Night stalkers lists.

Mythos tentacle monster looks like a depth horror to me haha.