Monday, April 18, 2016

Khandallah Kings of War Group - Battle Report

I recently established an informal KoW group to meet up at the Dunn-geon on Thursday nights to get some games in. There is enough room for three tables.

On the inaugural evening there were three of us - Tane, Hugh and myself. As two had travelled I suggest that they play and I'll take the photos.

They rolled up Pillage with five objectives. The first of our protagonists, Hugh had brought his Elves. His list was reasonably standard with a good mix of unit types.
The second General Tane brought a nicely themed list. Effectively everything was De6, vanguarded or was buffed by special items. So he had a honeymazed De6 King, Berzerker Lord on Brock with Beastslayer sword, Brocks with Caterpillar, individual drill team monsters.
The objectives were spread across the centre line - three in middle and one on each flank.
Tane vanguarded up towards the near objective. The Elves got first turn and came tentatively forward. In the Dwarf first turn the honeymazed King hides behind the obstacle outside charge range. Tane's whole centre is wall of De 6+ - Behemoth, Iron Guard, Earth Elemental Horde and more Iron Guard. Brocks are sitting behind.

Here the vanguard dwarfs have concentrated fire on the Stormwind Troop. Behind them are Silver Breeze and a Drakon Lord.

Tane adjusts to ensure that the Dwarfs are more than 20" from the Drakon so that Stormwind will need to charge by rhemselves.
The Elves continue to come forward and at this point overcommit IMO.
I felt Hugh could have held back here rather than run into the De 6 wall.

The Honeymazed King does the little seen trick of charging head long into the Stormwind Regiment. Eventually he dies but not before holding them up a turn or two. My view was that this shouldn't really achieve much other than give Hugh his points unless Hugh rushes his army forward - which he then did. I felt he could have sat on the two objectives on his side, left the second Silver Breeze and Palace Guard Toop the other side of the impassable and manoveured the Drakons to jump on the third centre counter (especially as Tane had to leave a unit to guard it).

On the right the Elf cavalry was taking casualties but with Hugh had three scoring units that were far more manoveurable. Felt there was an opportunity to use that manoverability and by sacrifing Silver Breeze can dominance.
This was the fatal mistake. Down come the eElves into the implacable wall.
Tane points to the Honeymazed King who if Hugh had been more patient would have sacrificed himself for naught.
And he's gone. But so have the headstrong Elf Spearmen and now the Palace Guard are flanked.
However Hugh has a chance to seize glory. Tane has left two individuals in a line running onto the Earth Elementals' flank. Hoorah!!
Unfortunately after going through the first Drill Team the Stormwind fluff against the second leaving them stranded.
Here it gets messy - Elf Nuggets for tea. This frees up the Berzerker Lord to go help the Dwarf right.
From here it is all wrapping up. The Elves have the left but it is effectively held by three units. There depleted centre is now under real pressure.
There is still a chance for a draw if it ends Turn 6 and the Stormwind contest the right. However they are removed by Berzerker Lord and Dwarf block.
As it moves into Turn 7 the Dwarfs move forward and eventually take it 4-1.

From the outside it was an interesting game to watch. I felt the Elves were well placed if they exhibited patience and sacrificed units to hold up slow Dwarfs. Deployment wise I would have had the two units of Silver Breeze in centre Dwarf shooting there meant that the could have held things up for Elves to sit on objectives in their half. They also needed to concentrate their shooting more than they did.

As for Dwarfs they really just reacted other than throwing away the King. That could have been a mistake but the rashness of the Elf centre meant it went unpunished.

I didn't think that the Elves used their strengths well and ended up playing to those of the Dwarfs. Fun to watch and offer sage advice after the fact.



  1. Thanks for hosting Pete and organising the group :)

    I am looking forward to more games and improving my playstyle, so the discussion after the game was very good.

    1. Yeah, thanks a lot for hosting Pete.

      Firstly, I thought that the terrain density and type really favoured me, with the buildings and the impassable dividing the table into three sections with limited corridors between them. This allowed my 'Wall of De6+' to advance with protected flanks. The large hill for Hugh's shooters balanced this a bit, but in the end I think it favoured me.

      I agree that Hugh advanced when he didn't have to. His bolt throwers could have spent 4-5 turns pinging off my units, followed by an advance onto 1-2 objectives. However, my King would have charged these instead of the Stormwind, so maybe not such an advantage.

      Speaking of the King, I was unlucky to lose him (7 damage in one turn for a De6+ character is unusual), but it was worth it to unhinge Hugh's line and stop his Stormwinds charging in with the Spears. This allowed me to win the infantry battle in the centre (thanks to the Battle Drillers), and do so before Hugh could pivot the Drakons to come in on the flank or reinforce with the Stormwind.

      But overall a lot of fun as usual playing Hugh, and a great idea to make this a regular thing.

  2. I like how they both wore sporty-looking hoodies so that they look like athletes/Russian gangsters...

    1. Both have spent extensive time in Palmerston North. This has shaped their undenied fashion sense

    2. Plus, we are athletes Jeff. Feel our power.

  3. Really interesting Dwarf army build. Would be great against lots of low TC / CS armies - like the Ratkin maybe?