Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The Joust! Finished this up this evening.

Most of my 100 kingdoms are complete. I probably want to do another unit of archers and get my tactical retinue done at some point. I just need a break to get to some battletech and... I'm not looking forward to 12 more bow strings haha.

Nice to see this finished.Looks great and i like the painted details that you have put onto them.

yeah man they look fantastic. Exciting you have plans for that killer retinue as well. Lovely sculpts on those. Are they primarily produced for First Blood, or do they serve a model purpose in the full game as well?

Thanks!

They were originally the very first founders exclusive and they came out right when Retinues became a thing.

So they were actually for the full game but you can use them in First Blood as well.

Retinues are not REQUIRED (at least right now) to be modeled but its nice to have them with your characters to represent those upgrades.

Excited for the release of Old Dominion rules, I think the playtesters did a fairly good job this round.

Disappointed to see that mounted squires are going to mainstay and that they are more and more embracing all cavalry style armies.

In a game that often centers around capping objectives, making your fast units capable of being your only units for the most part is not a good thing IMO.

Additionally in a rank and file game, the absence of meaningful infantry other than your mandatory token couple of longbow units that often arises from letting people take all cav in a game where speed to cap objectives is crucial makes things less rank and file and more... AOS.

I remember from whadrun testing that there was a desire from a lot of the playtesters for all brute and all monster type armies (AOS style). I think thats only a matter of time :(

That's the type of list I started gravitating towards due to the relative power of it compared to taking any amount of infantry.

However, as of 1.5.1, my experiences with gimmicky Blooded infantry as the core of my army have been good. As I, too, prefer infantry in my rank and file games, this is good news.

W'adrhun I feel is less problematic for cavalry-based armies because you can't add scoring characters to your regiments (without taking Brood of Omgorah on a character who doesn't have cavalry mainstay), so you suffer on the scoring. Mounted Squires can take Noble Lords though, so...

At least Nords and Dweghom will always have a place for infantry...

Raptors used to be medium until I and a few people raised holy hell. That was probably the last fight I had in me because it was a heated one lol (and it seemed the side that wanted them scoring had more people I think I just cried the loudest =P)

Raptors got swapped to light as a concession to let people run all mounted but not be able to score everywhere.

There was a call to have an all jotnar / blooded brute list last year as well.

 auticus wrote:
Raptors used to be medium until I and a few people raised holy hell. That was probably the last fight I had in me because it was a heated one lol (and it seemed the side that wanted them scoring had more people I think I just cried the loudest =P)

Raptors got swapped to light as a concession to let people run all mounted but not be able to score everywhere.

There was a call to have an all jotnar / blooded brute list last year as well.

1) Thank you that raptors aren't Medium. Glad somebody was advocating for what's "right" over what's "cool".

2) You *can* bring an all jotnar/brute list right now... Blooded can take a mastery to become a Brute (curse of the Vargr) and you can take Ugr as mainstay so... woops.

Yeah sorry I misspoke. It was more... they wanted like the AOS giant army. So jotnar and ice jotnar being mainstay.

Agreed that that all giant army is a bad idea. I like player choice but that isn't fluffy nor is the game system equipped to handle it. Jotnar are powerhouses right now anyways. I find it comical how much an ice Jotnar gets done, playing against him I always get the sense that he's carrying the team and dealing with the rest of the army is an afterthought. Huskarls just seem to pay a lot of points for nothing in particular.

Honestly whenever I look at Huskarls I can only think they really, REALLY value the combo of Clash 3 and Throwing Weapons on a Mainstay pick?

I can't find any really comparable units. Clash 3 seems to be an "elite" value and basically every unit with it has cleave and/or wildly incomparable stats/special rules to the point that comparison is pointless/impossible.

I will say, PB has done an excellent job of making units hard to compare. Special Rules on top of similar stat-lines really change what a unit is/does.

Huskarls can put out a lot of hits as when they are inspired they are Clash 4. They do a number on lighter units and anything without a ton of defense.

Throwing weapons gives them impact hits as well so they could pump out a lot of hits that your opponent had to save.

They are like veteran men at arms. Their problems are... they are infantry so slow and their zone of control is limited because of that. However I have used them to great effect and seen them used to great effect... its just that they are grossly overshadowed by other things so from an optimization standpoint its hard to want to include them when you have things that are so much better.

My group's current campaign is in its 2nd turn. The forces of King Alfred push the spires further north, securing a pair of victories against their nordic mercenary allies and the spires themselves in a Take & Hold scenario over the weekend. King Alfred has eyed some important ruined buildings to set up a forward base in, but to do that his army must take it from the spires...

Take and Hold
A heavy building sits in the center of the table. Other terrain as players agree.

Objective - take and hold the building. Medium units garrisoning the unit at the end of the turn earn their side 1 point. Heavy units garrisoning the unit at the end of the turn earn their side 2 points.
Additional points: 1 point for slaying the warlord. Draw 2 random secondary objectives from the race specific card deck. Armies can score those two as well (redraw impossible objectives if applicable)

Turn limit: 10
Points to win: 10

Both games were pretty heated and close so far. The group has until the last saturday of march to continue contesting this tile.

Terrain and painted parts of the armies look great.

Blue team skipping right over territory 56 seems ominous Seems like a critical point for ensuring supply lines!

56 was a nord capital for nord players but as there isn't a dedicated nord faction - it just functions as a normal territory.

We actually played it wrong, the army couldn't have moved diagonal but... fog of war lol

This snippet here is one reason I still support this game. Its very refreshing to see the timeless "it works fine on top tier tables so its fine for everyone else" to get slapped down a notch. So very few people are actually "top tier players" and casual games being made to eat it unless they build a certain way is certainly not a fun experience (for me anyway).

https://youtu.be/xAMxjp98pZE

Going live at noon Arizona time / 2:00 EST to discuss:

The helldrake and where he lands on the baseline algorithm, my opinion on top down design (designing games for the tournament crowd and then the casuals underneath can just get good) and some Old Dominion thoughts from playtesting.

This is another game I desperately want to play but can't get anyone to play with me... doesn't help I bought a bunch of nord minis and then immediately decided against playing that army, heh.

RIP! What made you decide against Nords?

Tabletop simulator is a good place to get games if you can't find a group to play with.

I'm waiting on the Weaver Courts myself. Even if I don't get to play, I at least want to paint some nature fusion aliens.

 Rihgu wrote:
RIP! What made you decide against Nords?

I kinda panic bought them wanting to get into an escalation league, and as soon as i got home i was like "man I don't even like the viking aesthetic." I really prefer 100k/Old Dominion.

 cole1114 wrote:

 Rihgu wrote:
RIP! What made you decide against Nords?

I kinda panic bought them wanting to get into an escalation league, and as soon as i got home i was like "man I don't even like the viking aesthetic." I really prefer 100k/Old Dominion.

Same with me bulk buying the Dweghom. Loved the art style, but then the minis didn't look/feel right to me. I really like the look of Old Dominion and what we've seen of the City States.

I was at another town's LGS for an AoS tournament and saw the Hundred Kingdoms and Spires 2-player box. Love the look of Spires, so I bought the box and I'm currently looking for someone local to split.

For what's probably going to a small group, is there anything that a couple of new players doing Spires and Hundred Kingdoms ought to know, beyond the core rules? Specific things to avoid to ensure good and interesting games?

Working my way through the core rules. Struggling to find an answer to a rules question. If I have a Heavy Monster that makes a Volley action, and it has to draw it's line of sight over one of my Light Infantry to target an enemy Light Infantry, is that an Obscured Shot?

Use the organized play scenarios (not the ones in the core rulebook) and skip secondary objectives entirely.

If either the shooter or the target have a height greater than what's between them it is a clear shot.

I just started painting up some of the resin Conquest characters. These are a joy to paint, the best resin ever. Even a bit better than Carnevale minis which I love.

Agreed. I recently built the Lineage Highborne and the High Clone Executor, and started painting the Executor. Great resin, didn't feel like I was at risk of snapping pieces if I put more pressure than a feather.

Can't say the same for the plastic Marksmen Clones. The arrows they come with are so so very thin, and Parabellum's sprue gates are just absolutely massive and unwieldy. It had been annoying to deal with before, but with the Marksmen's arrows, even trying to be as careful as I can, I haven't managed to not snap one when cleaning the sprue gate or filing it down.

My plastic horde grows, and yet, I haven't had a single game. Though I've roped a local friend and AoS player in to playing the game, since he too was sucked in by the models and the premise of a new gameplay style.

So finally got to try the new First Blood rules. A number of good improvements and a good core ruleset there but again suffers from strange pitfalls and errors. Stuff like the core scenarios having entirely broken VP thresholds (one of the four is easily winnable turn 1 with no dice rolling, provided one player has a slow army and the other doesn't) or units falling victim to their bloodlust and being forced to... walk up to enemies but avoid actual melee, or units with high resolve being super fast on retreat moves. I am again left absolutely baffled as to how these things get through a basic editing process let alone playtesting.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
So finally got to try the new First Blood rules. A number of good improvements and a good core ruleset there but again suffers from strange pitfalls and errors. Stuff like the core scenarios having entirely broken VP thresholds (one of the four is easily winnable turn 1 with no dice rolling, provided one player has a slow army and the other doesn't) or units falling victim to their bloodlust and being forced to... walk up to enemies but avoid actual melee, or units with high resolve being super fast on retreat moves. I am again left absolutely baffled as to how these things get through a basic editing process let alone playtesting.

Good to know. I watched a few battle reports on YouTube and was not interested in First Blood at all.
It's like AOS light. I wanted a cool true skirmish game, like 10 -12 models per side. a reason to paint some of these awesome minis.