A new lease on infantry – pike edition

I’ve had pretty good success with my Varangur infantry heavy list recently. However, I also have a somewhat neglected human army with Empire, Kislev and Dogs of War minis from the 90s and 00s. In the most recent local tourney, there were quite a few lists with lots of points in heavy flyers, cavalry and big alpha striking units, which would all be fighting a serious uphill battle against phalanx. That inspired me to continue my pursuit of infantry heavy list with a look at pikemen, who have also had a nice price drop (why they haven’t touched the poor shieldwall is a mystery though, they were terrible before CoK23, and are relatively even worse now).

Pikemen look good in both regiments and hordes. At only 120pts for the regiment, and with phalanx + ensnare, they really don’t need chaff. They can work as both anvil, unlockers and chaff on their own. Cavalry and flyers are likely to bounce off, and even stuff like siege breakers hordes need some support to ensure breaking a regiment. Damage output is mediocre, and probably not worth investing too heavily in.

In hordes, very little will break through in one turn, and with some item to buff their offensive output, the 30 attacks will allow them to be a damage dealing anvil.

Their weakness is much the same as other infantry, they are super slow, easy to block in hordes, bad on offence in terrain (but amazing in defence), and with def 4+, ranged is an issue. They need protection from nimble flyers and other fast flankers.

Concept 1 – Mercenary ogre support

Pikemen exist in two armies, Kingdoms of Men and League of Rhordia. Neither army has much in the way of pathfinder / strider units. To fix this issue, I looked at possible allies that could help. There are many options, but Ogres looked like a good fit in both the army theme I have and rules, so I went with them first.

Ogre mercenaries
Hunter regiment
Hunter horde
Goblin Blaster
Sergeant, heavy crossbow, chariot

Kingdoms of Men
4x Pike regiment
Beast cavalry horde (pegasus cavalry), wings, +1TC & vicious, boots of striding
Mammoth (steam tank)
Army standard, lute of darkness
Wizard, pegasus, bane chant, mindfog, conjurers staff
3x General on winged beast

With really only 4 regiments of infantry, I’m not sure I can claim that the list is “infantry heavy”, but I really like the look of this list, and the pikes are central to the army. I think I can swap the mammoth for a pike horde with offensive item to make it into a more proper infantry army too, without really loosing much. However, I already have 4x painted pike regiments, and painting up a steam tank is much quicker than another 2x pikes, so I think I will start without.

The list certainly has no troubles with terrain, with the hunters, mammoth and pegasus cavalry all ignoring it, and the three generals also fairly easily going around.
I can see annoying individuals being a pain with no duelist to hunt them down, but the units are not that vulnerable to individuals compared to other lists. 15 drops is cool, and the three generals + sergeant on chariot is a lot of potential angles for an opponent to cover. The beast cavalry can hover behind the pike wall in the middle, threatening 20″ charges or an overjump of the enemy lines.

I like the idea of the wizard setup, he is cheap, but very useful. Pegasus is fantastic for both mobility and scoring, bane chant is a given, and then mind fog gives him something to do early and late game, which can be absolutely clutch. If the ogre sergeant gets in a couple of wounds on some chaff in turn 1, and the wizard adds shattering, you are quickly looking at a needing only a 5-7 to waver, which can be very important. Similarly late game, hunting down hurt units with shattering nerve test can win you the game. Conjurers staff makes it both spells fairly reliable.

Shooting might be an issue for the list, as I would have to hunt them with my generals, something I might not really have time for, as they are needed to control the pace of the game.

Concept 2 – MSU pikes

Since pike regiments and basic humans in general are so cheap, going MSU looks interesting as well. Something like the following:

Kingdoms of Men
5x Pike regiment
3x Fanatic troop
Beast cavalry horde (pegasus cavalry), wings, +1TC & vicious, boots of striding
2x Chariot regiments, shortbows
2x Ballista
ASB, lute of darkness
Wizard, pegasus, bane chant
3x General on winged beast

18 drops is practically like playing ratmen. Again much the same plan with the pegasus horde and the generals, but here the ogres are swapped for some long range shooting in the ballistas, and some cheap, but hard hitting units to exploit anyone stuck on the pikes. Except for the pegasus horde, anything can be chaff, and it should be fairly likely that opponents will have to trade badly into the pikes. Fanatic troops offer good offence for their points. Wild charge D3 gives them enough range to be annoying, and 12 attacks at 3+ CS1 is something nobody want to see in their flank. I like their potential with so many pike regiments to stick the enemy to.

I hadn’t looked closely at the chariots before, but they actually seem like a decent unit. They have a big base, which is a huge downside, but speed 9 TC2, brutal and 12 attacks for 135pts isn’t bad. Adding 6 shots for 5pts for something to ping damage here and there is a decent deal too. I guess their closest competitor is the regiment of mounted sergeants, which gains nimble and +2 attacks, but loses one TC and brutal for +10pts. Both are ok units that the enemy does not want in their flanks.

The list struggles with terrain however, and is much more vulnerable to individuals than the previous one. It looks like a fun list, but I am less confident in this list, and find it likely that it would see some changes after some games.

Concept 3 – Pike and shot

A list theme with some semi-historical twist which could be interesting to explore is “pike and shot”. With the slightly buffed handgunners (no reload) maybe being usable (big maybe) and secured position cannons looking better.

Kingdoms of men – Pike and shot
3x Pike horde, brew of strength, brew of sharpness
Pike regiment
Handgunner horde, fire oil
Polearms regiment
Fanatic troop
2x Siege artillery (mortars)
2x Cannon
Ballista (light cannon)
Assassin, scythe of the harvester, indominable will
Wizard, pegasus, bane chant, mind fog, conjurers staff
The captain, mount
General on winged beast

Now this is a lot of infantry and firepower. If nothing else, it can be a cool semi-historical looking army, and a big change from the armies I usually run. The idea is that the ranged firepower makes up for the absolutely terrible movement ability of the list. The pikes are strong enough to take the enemy alpha, and there are some units to exploit flanks of stuff caught on the pikes. Since the offensive power of the other units is relatively weak however, I have upgraded the pike hordes to be decent fighters themselves.

The list is likely terribly impacted by stealth heavy armies, powerful individuals and super fast nimble heroes, and has practically no mobility, so it is critical to pick a plan for winning scenario before deployment.

I added an assassin to try to counter the inevitable quick individual disordering the handgunners, but with only speed 5, and CS1, even with a possible 16 attacks with duelist, he might not be up to the task. He will likely have to counter charge after the disordering has happened. I think the assassin in general can be an efficient unit with the scythe, shooting with 6-8 attacks at piercing 1 against infantry, and same in close combat for only 100pts, but the hero slot could have been another general on beast, which is a fantastic scenario and reaction piece.

The Captain I feel will be critical for the list, to mitigate some of the movement deficiency and being able to place the firepower in a safe and effective position. Giving him a horse allows him to help stop flyers and nimble characters, or add his weight in combat. Rally and very inspiring is of course always nice.

I think I might have to remove some shooting and infantry to bring in something with more speed to be better able to respond and control battlefield events. Some tundra wolves, wraiths or phantoms would have been fantastic for this list, poor humans with their mediocre chaff units.

Concept 4 – Varangur style, but with pikes

Combat pikes: Rhordia has the dogs of war unit, which can buff one unit of pikes into a 5+ defense, a unit of spears to get 3+ melee and elite, and a non-phalanx unit that gets CS1, pathfinder and fury. All of those look interesting to build offensive punch in big hordes, supported by pike regiments and maybe a bunch of halfling knights and some monster heroes. It is a bit too similar to my current Varangur army in playing style though, and will take a lot of painting time, so this is one for the future.