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.

So, I went to the Bugeater tournament in Omaha last weekend, and figured I'd share how things went. I had originally planned to go with a human horde style army, but after painting up tons of viking infantry, I realized blocks of troops just didn't have the punch I needed. Tough troops and fast troops repeatedly tore me apart, surgically hitting weal spots and avoiding effective counter attack.

So, I figured I'd go with the nightstalkers. They seemed unusual, so at least I'd be the guy everyone wants to play to face something different, and I could get whatever models I wanted. I went for an army that was fast, with lots of bane chant, so I could multi-charge units and obliterate them, and try to be the surgical fast strike force that gave me trouble. Also, this did not include the KoW tournament rules. I went whole-hog crazy, painting it in two weeks and getting about 3 practice games in. I learned a lot AT the tournament, let me tell you!

Bloodworm legion with brew of strength
Fiend Horde with quicksilver rapier
Fiend Horde with flaming oil
Fiend Horde with potion of caterpiller
Fiend Horde
Fiend Horde
Fiend Regiment
Shadow Hulk
Shadow Hulk
Horror with Bane Chant, Scrying Gem
Horror with Bane Chant
Horror with Bane Chant
Planar Apparition
Planar Apparition

I think there were a total of 16 players, and everyone was great, terrain was good, and there were some BEAUTIFUL armies there.

Game 1- Played a dwarf player with scenario of loot. He had 2 cannons, a volley gun, a tank, riflemen with jar of four winds, ranger regiment, and a few regiments of troops and beserkers. Objectives were one on each extreme edge, along with the center one. He deployed fairly evenly, so I focused on both edges. Very quickly I was able to the two edge objectives, while he marched up the center. I was able to hide the fiend regiment on my right behind a forest, while the bloodworms moved in to cover, while on my left I traded fiend hordes for the dwarf beserkers, and eventually to hold up the tank and rangers while a third horde ran off with the objective. Ultimately, I had two objectives to one, but he killed a few more units than I did, so I lost a point on attrition (I think) and ended up with a 14-6 win.

Game 2- Played against goblins, which I'm not too familiar with. Several goblin regiments, 2 war trombones, several giants, shredder machines, mawbeast herd, flea bag riders...millions of units. Unlike my original army plan of refused flank and focused fire, I spread out more and tried to attack a lot simultaneously. I killed a lot, but he killed a lot back, and the goblin regiments proved to be a little tougher than I assumed, which made it tough for a fiend horde to reliable kill alone on the charge. Ended up a loss 16-4 or so.

Game 3- Next up was an undead player, which the scenario to hold the center (I think). Fortunately for me, one of my regular opponents plays a fairly similar undead army, so I kinda knew what to expect and how to counter it. Revenant horde, vamp on zombie dragon, zombie horde, werewolves with brew of strength, wraiths, some faceless character, a liche king, some wights. Worked out on my right, trading units to my advantage...werewolves kill a horde of fiends, double charge kills werewolves. Zombie dragon charges, fiends counter charge (and shadow hulk flank charges), lots of bane chant, and we nuke it. Lose some fiends on the left to the revenants and wraiths, then blood worms kill them. As before, with terrain and such, I wasn't able to focus like I had planned, but spreading out worked in this case, as I could setup counters and trades that worked. Eventually wore down the center with what was left of my army, and won 16-4.

Game 4- Salamanders, invade. This was my son, and the tournament directors had avoided having us play for the first few rounds, but we were close in the scoring and it couldn't be avoided any longer. Two salamander hordes with +1 to hit and +1 strength, horde and regiment of tyrants, horde of rhinosaurs, allied tree herder with regeneration charm, and air elemental, 2 mages with bane chant and heal, standard bearer with heal charm, hero with wings, 2 kommodons. Very close, with the center stalled, some luck for my opponent on my right as his rhinosaurs killed some fiends, a shadow hulk and my bloodworms. My fiend on the left with the rapier were double charged by his air elementals and hero, then killed the hero on the counter charge and then overran and killed the elementals. Ultimately, after several stalled turns, my left flanked the center, front and rear charging the tree herder and wiping it out. Speed let me do most of the fight on his half, so I had 500 more points on his half, but only killed 400 more points for a 16-4 win, I think.

Game 5- Brotherhood, kill. 3 regiments of various knights, regiment of flying knights, lord on flying beast thing, horde of regenerating infantry, horde of archers with jar, I think, and a horde of ogre archers with bows (thankfully). Couple characters as well. Opponent was from Witchita, and plays in Texas and other tournaments, and it showed. I thought I had this game, deploying heavily in my left, while he was spread out a bit more. A large piece of impassable terrain was in the middle of the table, to my left a bit, which I hoped would stall him while I focused. Instead, he redirected his army towards the center. I ran up a horde and regiment of fiends, destroying his archers and giving me a edge in the points, which I thought would force his hand as turns ran down as he redirected to the center. I backed away to make a C-shaped envelopment for him, but his charge range screwed me up, and I ended up having to charge out. with combo charging, fliers, etc, he got the best of these exchanges, and walked away with a loss (I think just 16-4).

Final game was against beastman, with loot and kill(?). VERY unfamiliar with them. One move really screwed him up, as he was unfamiliar with my army, too. He made a long charge with a beastman horde against my bloodworms, assuming they were a weak unit like zombies, while his giant charged my shadowhulk instead of supporting with a flank charge. That didn't workout well for him, as the bloodworms wiped the beastmen in their countercharge, and my fiends with the fireoil flank charged his giant. I quickly whittled him down, although he did luck out when my bloodworms charged his stampeded, nuked it, but rolled snake-eyes to break them, and then the stampede squished my poor worms. I think that was towards the end, and a planar apparition charged hoping for the last wound...sadly, I can't remember if I got it! Still, won with 18-2.

Overall, I was very surprised when it was announced that I was second best general! In general, everything worked as planned: fiends double charging with bane chant nuked just about anything they touched, and shadow hulks proved handy a tying things up while the rest of my army did its thing. 2-3 times they proved instrumental in helping out with a charge, or getting flank chrages on tough enemies. Planar apparitions kept units fighting turn after turn, focusing on whatever critical point the enemy had. Plus, they could tie enemies up, grab objectives...I hate expensive units, and was on the fence about these guys, but they were beautiful. 3 horrors was right...a bit pricey for just bane chant, but bane chant was critical for killing enemies quickly, and 2 wouldn't have been enough to support my army as needed. Bloodworms killed things VERY quickly, but proved a bit more squishy than I expected.

Problems I uncovered- my army had a large footprint. I had originally planned on denied flank deployment and speed to overwhelm an enemy flank, maybe with the bloodworm holding the center until the fiends can swing around to help. Instead, I couldn't get enough of my fiends in to overwhelm quickly, so I either had several hordes in a second rank waiting, or spread out more, and the fiends, while good, aren't great at a drag-out fight. 17-20 nerve gets a decent number of wavers after one good hit, so it's not as reliable as I'd like. The fiend regiment was originally meant as an (expensive) screen unit. This was a poor choice. It didn't have the punch to kill other chaff quickly, but had too much nerve to die and get out of the way. 2-3 games had it tied up in the center, stuck with some other, holding up my whole army while wavered, while the enemy closed the distance, nullifying my speed advantage. Flaming oil worked in 3 games, well worth it for 5 points. The silver rapier only hit once, and in general I had an impossible time killing individuals.

Solution: I think in general, to keep with the theme, I should drop a horde or two of fiends and the fiend regiment. The lightning-bolt monster seems tempting, but not killing individuals wasn't a major problem (although war trombones and the salamander mages with 10-15 elite fireball were annoying). I think a void lurker or two would overcome the problem I had with fiends bunching up in a refused flank, and open up more multi-charge possibilities. They aren't too pricey, but they don't hit quite as hard, and are a little squishy.

Sorry I couldn't give more detail...we did the 55 minutes a player with chess clocks, which was plenty of time to play, but not enough for many pictures or note taking!

Thanks for the report! Nicely done with the Stalkers

Do you happen to have a shot of your own army? The various DIY NS armies out there are one of the many joys of KOW modeling right now, and I'd love to see your take on the gribblies.

- Salvage

Well, I'm no artist, and I was a bit rushed trying to finish my army, so hopefully you'll be forgiving when you see my units!

I used Reaper Bones "Bathalian" models for my fiends. Originally I had intended to use them as butchers, but fiends work, too. There are 3 different styles, which helps avoid one of the issues with Bones (units of identical models).

I also had some Bones "Ankheg" (I think), along with a D&D minis one. The Bones ones are burrowing, so I used them as my fiends with the caterpillar potion.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I like the D&D miniature Nightwalker for the Shadow Hulk, but I only had one.


I had ordered some Bones Wolf Demons (or similar name), and they worked very well. Vertical, so they fit the base, and tall, so they look very "height 4". Not quite the creepy, shadowy look I wanted, but good enough.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I used fishing worms for bloodworms. I used wire to make some of them rear up. I was worried about the whole "3-color minimum" thing, so I used these multi-colored ones instead of the purple with sparkles!


I used this Bones model for the planar apparition. Can't remember the name, but it's some wispy-energy stuff will skeletons inside. I like the models, but they weren't much higher than the fiends and ankhegs.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Finally, for the horrors, I used D&D miniatures called Lemurs.


Overall, I liked all the models I used. The worms and Lemurs got the most positive comments, while I just wish the planar apparition was a little taller. Most opponents weren't very familiar with the army, and it just didn't jump out as "monster".

Cheers for the rundown! Lots of smart choices throughout. Those Bathalians are becoming the new go-to Fiends, but dig the burrowy critters for the pathfinder unit. Special props on the Nightwalker for Shadow Hulk, hopefully you can find another, as bizarre as the wolf demon is (he's slated to be a Brutox in my Herd army, if I ever get around to that). And is your basing colored foam core? Certainly high vis

- Salvage

The basing is foam core sheeting. Usually, I use normal thin metal or wood on top of a smaller piece of foam core, but with my limited time I just went straight foam core for this tournament. I like to have a thick base so it's easier to pick the unit up and move. As for the bright colors...I didn't want plain flocked grass, and thought maybe some kind of psychedelic pattern would be neat, but I ran out of time to execute.

Ha! I never would have thought of using fishing worms, that's a really neat idea. Fishing lures in general got some really creepy shapes, now that you got me thinking of it.