This was the second edition of the annual 'experimental' Warrior Kings tournament (as opposed to the bigger and more formal Crows Feast 2k tourny, which just converted from Fantasy) held by Group North Historical Wargames in Adelaide, AU. These are the results, everybody opted into having their name public, and they're on WargamerAU already, so it's ok to post. I'll be working from memory on the army lists too
1500 points, 80 minute time limit per battle, Clash of Kings scoring, and everything in the rulebook, Uncharted Empires, the Twilight Kin RC list, and FAQ 1.3 (1.4 came out too late to be included)
My army was: 2 hordes of Warriors, 2 regiments of Red Goblins, a horde of Shooters with the brew of keen-eyeness, a horde of Boomers with the helm of confidence, a Giant, an ASB with the war-bow of Kabaa, and a Captain with the blade of slashing = 1500pts
First battle vs Night Stalkers - Invade
horde of Bloodworms, 4 regiments of Reapers, regiment of Spectres, Shadow-Hulk
He realised I was not going to move into charge range, and with his Spectres - his only ranged unit - putting out minimal damage compared to my Red Goblins and Shooters, I forced him into committing into my charge range first.
Standing firm in the face of Bloodworms
The Boomers only put 3 wounds down, and then they got to hit - those things roll a fuckton of dice, and they one-shotted my Boomers off the table, and the Shadow-hulk took out the giant in one go as well. Thought I'd lost at this point. Mean time the worms hit and killed a Red Goblin regiment, but thanks to earlier rounds of Shooter hits were counter charged off the table by Warriors in my turn. I charged the Spectres with the ASB, and used my shooters to obliterate the nearest Reaper regiment.
The Shooters were toast, and ate a huge amount of dice from that flank hit, but they'd done enough, as my Captain and two Warrior hordes knocked both Reaper regiments out in one go. The Goblins had seen enough, and booked it for the other side of the table, scenario and all. The nearest Warriors got in a glorious rear charge on the Spectres, rolling 54 dice deep within them and then shaking vigorously.
Warriors and ASB just managed to get the last Reaper regiment down, but the Shadow hulk was just way too much
We rolled turn 7, the remaining warriors and the captain made for the scenario win while the ASB kept the Shadow-hulk busy.
A brutal attrition match, where my superior shooting and our same movement meant I was able to do enough damage before he could put too many massive melee attacks down.
Second battle vs Ogres - Pillage
horde of Shooters, horde of Siege Breakers, 3 hordes of Berserker Braves, one Warlock, and one other hero using the Diadem (ASB I think)
Forgot to take a photo after the armies were set but before we moved. Pretty much lined up as you see, but my Giant and Boomers took a risky move out left, starting behind the volcano where the shooters couldn't hit them. I lucked out and got first turn, which meant my shooters were able to do counter-battery on his first, one of two major points in the battle.
The other major point is when some rolls and hero positioning for charges went my way, and the first photo turned into the second and third. Although his shooters did 7 damage to mine in response to the 5 I did to them, in the second turn of shooting I wavered them, and that was it for them.
The giant was jut a roadblock here, holding on and doing damage long enough for my Boomers to get within range and finish off the Shooters, who were unable to defend themselves thanks to the Reload! rule and charge range. My Shooters put some extra damage on the nearest Braves before the warriors ran into them, which was enough, and they remained out of range for the rest of the battle, sitting on an objective.
We rolled up turn 7. The Boomers got the last Braves, but were in turn taken out by Warlock fireballs. Queue a final round rush of At the Double and I won 4 objectives to 1.
Was a close run thing for a bit, but getting out of that tussle at the cost of just goblins and a warrior horde while taking down the breakers and braves was big, and the Captain played a strong part in that. The big drive around the volcano, coupled with wavering the shooters paid off massively as well, was a lot of points to split off, considering they might not have even made it into meaningful combat.
Third battle vs Ratkin - Push
2 hordes of Brutes, 3 Weapon Teams, a horde of Warriors, a horde of Vermintide, Death Engine, War Chief on fleabag, and two Warlocks
Special scenario from clash of kings, like loot but you start with one token in the centre, and then roll to see how many extras are added.
My best formation, everything quick marched up the middle to just short of his charge range, Shooters in an advantageous forest where they were able to murderise the warrior horde and force him into moving forward to use the weapon teams before he lost them.
Hero Goblins combined did 4 damage to a weapon team in one turn, and the Boomers finished it off after it got one shot away at the Giant. Another weapon team got too close to my ASB, and he didn't realise Ogre ASBs have a considerable 3 attacks compared to the 1 attack most standard bearers get, which meant 9 from triples, and one shot off the table. The Warriors were wavered with the second round of shooting.
One of the Goblins went down, and the Giant survived a nerve check on that damage, but then it was all downhill, as everything evaporated under the impact of 4 hordes rolling 18 dice a piece, hitting on 3s or 4s, damaging on 2s and 3s.
The Giant went down and the boss rat did a runner
We finished turn 7, but the result wasn't in doubt, 2 loot tokens to 1.
This guy was up against it from the start imo - his army list choice wasn't all that well suited to fighting mine, his initial positioning wasn't risky enough - I think he needed to bunch the weapon teams together away from my Boomers and helldump on a warrior horde as many times as he could - and on top of that the dice weren't really going his way. I don't think he had a good time, but he was ok afterwards.
Fourth battle vs Varangur - Dominate
A troop of Nightraiders, a horde of The Fallen, two regiments of Horse Raiders, a regiment of mounted Sons of Korgaan, a Magus Conclave, a mounted Magus, and a mounted Chieftain
This was the guy who beat me with Salamanders a couple months ago, and this was also the top table - between those two things, I managed to completely screw up my deployment, as I'm sure you can see just how awfully placed my Shooters are behind the height 5 blocking terrain piece in the middle.
This was an army of all 8 speed, and with a good amount of shooting, meaning it was about to do to me what I'd done to everyone else, so I immediately legged it up the field, pausing only to allow one clean shoot from my shooters at the mounted archers over Goblin heads. My giant took 4 damage from the first artillery shot of the game, which wasn't great.
It got messy fast, as the giant went down under a cavalry charge, and the Boomers followed after deleting one lot of horse archers, while my Warriors rolled a 3 while nerve checking the Fallen for a strong rout chance. When presented with the option of rolling only 9 dice looking for 6s against the only possible target, stealth archers in cover, I sucked it up and did something I basically never do, and moved my Shooters up the field.
The warriors survived an equally lucky set of rolls, and in return were able to team up and take out the fallen; the now freed up shooters removed the other archers, and the Captain stepped up to make his move of the day.
With time running out, the Captain stepped in front of the Warchief, having already taken a lot of damage, and succeeded in blocking him from running into the dominate zone in the last 5 minutes, despite dying himself in the final combat. Between that, and my ASB only just surviving a round of shooting, I won by having more points entirely within the zone, despite having less points remaining on the table - though I believe I would have won with endless turns, thanks to undamaged warriors and the power and range of my shooters.
This was a tough battle, the superior speed meant I had to withstand the first charge, which Ogres aren't great at, and bad Shooter positioning made it worse, but it was a good come from behind scenario victory.
So yeah, I came in first
First prize was the choice between two starter armies, and I chose Forces of Nature, leaving the Abyssals starter to second place, plus a copy of Uncharted Empires was up for random draw from the rest of the field.
Overall, the Shooters were excellent as per usual, and the Goblin shielded warriors proved great value for money, even though on a couple of occasions the Goblins shock wavered instead of routing, and blocked my own warriors from joining combat that turn. The Giant was once again more useful as a roadblock and damage sponge than an attacking unit - though I did roll 6+6 attacks on a flank for 24 dice once, which was nice - but the Boomers were a very effective support/trailing unit to go with it, albeit even the horde of them went down pretty fast once the Giant was gone. Captain proved an excellent inclusion though, several times his extra attacks over an ASB proved valuable, and the blade of slashing added 5 more damage over the day, and on two occasions his huge 15/17 morale made a big difference.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
This is a general album from the event, ie photos of everyone rather than just my battles
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1197135250358525.1073741839.126156844123043&type=3
. The basing really make your army work well together.
