COK23 – new lease on infantry heavy lists?

I’ve been doing renovation work on my house for the last 1,5 years, so gaming has fallen to the wayside, and especially kings of war gaming has been very rare. However, I got a tournament coming up in january, and the newest clash of kings book finally seems to have delivered on infantry buffs, and that is reigniting my kings of war drive.

I’ve been playing infantry heavy lists with earlier version, some with success, others with frustration, primarily with my Norscan chaos army, playing as Varangur or Kingdoms of Men. With the big buff to clansmen (melee 3+ and def 5+ now) and the addition of ordered march to the Skald, that is where I will start.

I got two different list concepts that I will try to get some games in with. The lists try to build on the strength of infantry, which is generally good grinding ability and unit strength, while reducing the weaknesses. The main weakness is the terrible speed and general mobility, which leaves infantry open to being alpha struck, multi-charged, shot off the board, flanked and outmanoeuvred. Yes, it’s a serious weakness 😛
There is a reason that nimble, fast and flying units are popular in Kings of war.

Concept 1 – annoyance + infantry

3x Clansmen horde, boots of striding, 2x tundra fighters
1x Cavern dweller
1x Mounted Sons regiment, drunken ram (+1 TC)
4x Tundra wolf troops
1x Snow fox regiment
2x Skald, lute of darkness
1x Cursed Son, mount, boots of seven leagues (scout), mask of the reaper (LL2)
1x Lord, mount, brutal, snow fox, duelist blade
2300pts

The first list tries to neutralise the mobility issue by bringing a lightning fast skirmishing screen of its own. The scouting Cursed Son can disrupt shooting, ground flyers and generally be a real nuisance, easily charging the first turn. The lord, the wolves and foxes are the second wave. They can charge in to stop the enemy in their tracks, attack shooters, threaten flanks, and generally get in the way and buy time for the infantry line to get in position. Any of these fast and nimble units that survive can pick up scenario points late game.

I initially had huscarls as a fourth infantry unit, but the upgrade to mounted sons looked like better value. They will stay with the infantry, giving the third line a better threat range. The hope here is that the chaos caused by the quick part of the force will let the heavy infantry line secure the objectives and grind down the enemy. The Skald gives the infantry some extra mobility with the “ordered march” ability, which is very nice.

I have played one game with this list, except I had Magnhilde instead of the mounted Lord. In that game, against Sylvan kin, enemy individuals really plagued my army, with Nimhue consistently putting 4-5 wounds on my army each turn just with cloak of death, and 2-4 more with her fireballs.

I managed to win and almost wipe out the entire Sylvan army, but I was saved by getting first turn and having some clutch luck, like Magnhilde actually surviving against an Elf duelist prince. The Lord, being practically the same cost as Magnhilde, gives me an actual answer to nasty individuals and can still fill pretty much the same role as Magnhilde did.

The list was really fun to play, having lots of tactical options with the fast skirmish screen, and the infantry did what they should, taking hits, sticking around and grinding down the enemy.

No shooting, no heal for the infantry and only one source of bane chant are weaknesses of the list, but I think they can be overcome with the strengths. I will continue playing and refining this list for a few games.

Concept 2 – Healing grind

The other option I’m considering is leaning hard into grinding. I have not found a list that I am very happy with yet, but I have some thoughts about the core of the list:

3-4x Clansmen horde, tundra fighters, strider boots
0-2x Draugr regiment
1-2x Cavern dweller
2-3x Magus, drain life, mount
1x Skald, lute of darkness

This core should be able to grind very well. The cavern dwellers are tough and with life leach 3, they are hard to take out. The clansmen hordes with drain life, transfusion and vicious both hit very hard and can last a long time.

However, to be able to grind, I have to make sure that the heavy units can’t just be multi-charged out of existence, so I need a serious screen. The list is also very slow for now, so I either need quite a lot of shooting to force the engagement, or I need mobility of my own. Since the first list plays the mobility game, I am leaning towards going heavy shooting, just to challenge myself to try a totally different thing. It is a style I am not used to, so I am struggling to find a list I want to play.

Evaluation of Concept 1

I’ve played in a tourney with the first concept list. Unfortunately, I had to drop out after the first day for family issues (nothing serious), but at least, I’ve gotten a total of five games with the list against a variety of opponents.

The list works. I’ve won 4 out of 5 games, four of them against very good opponents and tough lists. I kept myself at table 2 in the tourney, and I believe I would have had a good chance at the podium had I been able to play day 2. I’ve played against twilight kin, 2x undead, abyssals and elves.

The tundra wolves (+ foxes) are integral to making the list work. Since my main fighting force is so slow, I need to be able to impact the options my opponent has. When I get first turn, they allow me to project threat far up the board, which has made my opponents have to spend a lot of time to avoid giving me flanks. If I go second, they are a great help defensively to limit the alpha strike on my big units. They are also really good at keeping flying heroes in check. Both undead players for example had pegasus vampire, who just had to stay in one position for 3 turns because I dedicated one unit of wolves or foxes to limit their landing spots.

The scouting son is a great piece as well. In some match-ups, he is an absolute menace. In others, he is merely decent, but never bad. He has fought even big units like werewolfs to a stand still, buying time for the infantry to close in. Regiments have folded to him.

I started the list with Magnhilde, but I believe the mounted lord with duelist is much better. There are so many amazing individuals running around that he can threaten, and brutal + his attacks is often clutch in wiping something out.

The infantry themselves do well. I’ve managed to never get alpha-ed off the board without getting some strikes in myself. They have walked all the way into my opponents deployment zone several times. Tundra fighters on two units is a bit much with only one unit to freeze enemies though, so got 15 points freed up there. Positioning of both objectives and the infantry themselves is critical to getting something useful out of them, since they are so slow. I generally pick an area to fight based on terrain, and place accordingly.

I have considered switching one horde to a regiment of reavers with brew of haste and LL2. Having another long range heavy hitting unit should impact my opponents actions even more. I’m a bit worried that their def 3+ could leave me more vulnerable to shooting though, so not sure it is a good trade. I do have too many unused reaver units though, so will probably try it out.

Cavern dweller is good, he has mostly pulled his weight, but he does not feel critical to the list, so I might look at testing other options for his points. With the 2x tundra fighter upgrades, it is 240pts, so maybe even more tundra wolves, or the above mentioned reavers could swap in.

Skalds are also really good for the points. Ordered march is super nice for the big infantry blocks, bane chant is of course critical. Would love to have one more bane chant, but very inspiring has also been very important to give me blend of deployment options and keeping everything inspired.

Mounted sons are also good, hard to argue with CS/TC 3 and 16″ threat range for the points IMO. Although the increased use of phalanx does hamper them to the point that I feel one unit is enough.