For my second battle, I got to play against a new opponent playing the same brotherhood army as my first battle. Lists are:
Kislev Scouting Force
Ice Queen, ensorcelled armour (Duke on Ancient Winged Aralez)
Ice Sorceress, bane chant, inspiring talisman (Wizard)
1x Winged Lancers Regiment, potion of haste (Household Knights)
1x Winged Lancers Regiment, potion of caterpillar
1x Winged Lancers Troops
3x Ungol Horse Archers (Halfling Ranger Cavalry)
Brotherhood Crusade Vanguard
Devoted, inspiring talisman
1x Water Elemental Horde
1x Order of Redemption, mace of crushing
2x Martyr Troops
1x Order of Brotherhood Regiment
1x Order of Forsaken Regiment
1x Swains Rangers Troop
1x Ballista
This time, I had learned the hard way that Swain´s Rangers are bad ass, so I noted the most likely spot they would vanguard to and decided to not give them good shots from there. The mission itself did not feel great for an army of cavalry, since units go down to speed 5 and lose fly and nimble while carrying loot.
I setup with the weight on the right flank and in the center, thus avoiding giving Swain a perfect location in the left-hand forest. Except for the troop of lancers, everything was also in cover. My opponent ended up with pretty much a mirrored setup, but with more power in the center. Swain was denied his wanted position in the forest and ended up in the middle instead. I was happy with my deployment, with my right flank clearly having a dominating position on the forsaken.
Turn 1, the brotherhood forces moved up as fast as their Martyr chaff would allow, threatening the left and center loot tokens. On the right flank, the Forsaken saw that they were in a very bad position and redeployed towards the middle. Brotherhood shooting did nothing, with the Ballista missing it´s shot this time, and Swain fishing for 6´s against lancers in cover after moving towards them.
I shuffled the units in the center, needing to get rid of the chaff in front of the brotherhood knights so I could pounce on them with my haste knights. On the right flank, the Queen and pathfinder knights moved up into a flanking position, while the Ungols grabbed the loot and fired at the Ballista. They managed to rout the Ballista in this game too, good boys! I think it was a mistake to pick up the loot, as those Ungols then spent the rest of the game bumbling about, trying to turn around with the loot, but also wanting to join the battle. I should just have kept them in the proximity to keep their speed and nimble. In the center, I am not able to do any serious harm to the Martyr chaff, which is really bad news.
Turn 2, the Martyrs jam up my left flank, while the brotherhood center braces for impact, not giving me any great charges. Swain puts some wounds on some Ungols, but cover and moving stops most of the damage.
I feel pressured to go in, and send in the haste lancers on the left against the Martyrs, the pathfinder lancers hit Martyrs in the flank, the Queen charges the Redemption knights, while the troop of lancers go in to block the water elementals from participating. The Ungols put some wounds on Swain.
Here, I think I made some mistakes, getting too bloodthirsty. I think I should not have charged on the left flank, instead putting the Ungols in the way of the Martyrs and try to shoot them again. I had my Sorceress with Ice bolts and two Ungols units, so it is not unlikely that I might have killed them, and even if they stuck around, the Ungols would block them from robbing the lancers of TC. If I killed them, the brotherhood knights would be the ones dealing with a chaff trap.
On the right, I could also have hung back with the pathfinder lancers, and charged the martyrs with the troop of lancers. The troop might have killed the Martyrs, and the pathfinder lancers would then be in position to take revenge on the elementals when they would charge the troop next turn.
Instead, I murdered both Martyr troops horribly, and I ended the turn in a poor tactical position, as can be seen from the above image. On the left, I could have gotten a great position with a 5 or 6 on the overrun, but I didn´t get it. The Queen had managed to waiver the Redemption knights, so if they just stayed waivered, she was unchargable and in a good position.
Turn 3, the brotherhood punished my mistakes. The knights on the left plowed through my haste lancer regiment in a single combat. The water elementals killed the troop of lancers, while the Redemption knight made their headstrong test, and together with the Forsaken put some wounds on the Queen, robbing her of flight and TC, and pinning her in place. Very sadface 😦
My pathfinder lancers routed the Redemption knights in return, and I charged Swain with my Ungols, managing to put some wounds on them, and actually wavering the annoying bastards! The Queen unfortunately did poorly against the Forsaken, which again left me in a bad tactical spot.
Turn 4 the brotherhood sealed the game, with the elementals rolling hot and knocking out the pathfinder knights in no time. The brotherhood knights caught the Ungols in the rear and predictably routed them with their 48 attacks hitting on 3+, wounding on 2+. Forsaken again put some wounds on the Queen, pinning her down.
I didn´t manage much more with my limited remaining units, and Swain walked over to grab the other loot token to win the game for the brotherhood. The Queen took out the Forsaken eventually, but not fast enough to not get charged and wavered by the Elementals. I ended with one Ungol troop, the Sorceress and my waivered queen on the board, but with no loot tokens. It was a clear loss for Kislev.
Although I lost clearly in the end, this could easily have gone the other way with some vital rolls going my way, like the headstrong check of the Redemption knights. I also did several mistakes that cost me my two regiments of lancers for little gain.
Army performance:
Queen – Decent performance, she is very resilient, taking something like a combined 5 charges to the face and still hanging in there (barely). Her 7 attacks let her down this game, although she was one failed headstrong test away from being able to rampage through enemy lines, so a bit of bad luck this time.
Lancers with pathfinder – Again it felt like having pathfinder opens up so many options. They took out two units, but once again felt surprisingly fragile, routing from a single charge.
Lancers with haste – Fell right into a trap and routed from a single charge. With something that can reliably remove chaff, I think these guys can see many good opportunities. Speed is king in KoW!
Lancer troop – Misused in this game, not their fault.
Ungols – A good performance, although they were less well used than last battle. They once again showed that artillery killing is something they can do. I often saw possible flank charges, but since I was standing around in cover, they didn´t pan out, wish they had pathfinder. The long charge into Swain that wavered them was nice though!
Sorceress – Again a surprising amount of use of ice bolt (fireball), while bane chant didn´t feel very necessary. She couldn´t hit the broadside of a barn this battle though.
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