Testing out the pikes – battlereport

I’ve gotten a few games in with pike-centered infantry lists. Unfortunately, there have been practically no fliers or cavalry in the enemy army. On the positive side, if the pike list can do well against lists where phalanx is useless, then it will do really well once phalanx comes into play.

My first list was not super competitive, I had painted up a nice steam tank and some pistoleers and wanted to use them, so there were some less optimal choices to fit them in. It still gave valuable insight into pike-based infantry lists. One thing that became very clear, was that a pike list needs some anti-individual. Having combat individuals slipping through the gaps in the pike line and then just adding 5+ wounds from the side will make that pike line fall apart in seconds. In KoW 3.5, there are a lot of those very annoying individuals.

Another finding was that the pike regiments will fold to elite large infantry hordes and infantry. In my first game, with 4 regiments, none of them held when they were charged, which left me with precious few flanks to take advantage of.

With those experiences, my latest game I tried this list:

Kingdoms of men 2300
3x Pike regiment
1x Pike horde
1x Mounted sergeants regiment
1x Flying beast cavalry, TC1 + vicious, indomitable will, wine of elvenkind
1x Beast cavalry, TC1 + vicious, indomitable will, jesse’s boots
2x General on winged beast
1x General, horse, mournful blade
1x The Captain, horse
1x Wizard, pegasus, bane chant, mindfog, conjurers staff
1x Wizard, pegasus, bane chant, knowledgable, host shadowbeast, amulet of the fireheart
2x Ballista

One of the pike regiments has been made a horde. Even the fightiest large infantry horde will struggle to get through a horde in one round. It can still die to multi-charges or from being softened up, but it should generally hold a turn, allowing me to get some flanks. I would have liked to have some item to boost their fighting power too, but skipped it in this version.

The other big new thing I’m trying out is host shadowbeast. KoM / League characters are generally way to weak to hunt individuals efficiently. With shadowbeast however, they are a serious threat to both individuals and to units. The general with duelist in particular can seriously threaten even a def 6 character.

I played against Øyvind’s (I-win) Twilight Kin. I-win is a very good player, and his list looked something like this:

Twilight kin 2300
2x Fleetwarden regiment, bloodhex, veterans
2x Impaler horde
2x Phantom troop
2x Voidtouched mutant regiment
2x Assassin, gnome glass shield / scythe of the harvester
2x Summoner crone, weakness, bane chant, 1x host shadowbeast
1x Navigator
1x Void captain, reaver, item?
1x Mind screech, heal 7, radiance of life

Practically nothing that cares about phalanx. A very solid centre with the big shield impalers supported with a bunch of heal and radiance of life. The mutants have 17″ threat range and hit extremely hard. Phantoms are amazing chaff at speed 10, fly, nimble for 100pts. The fleet wardens are also good, especially when phalanx is in play, which it is against most of my heavy hitters. The assassins are really good units. They have every special rule in the book, can threaten a 28″ charge on turn 1, have dread, and just in general are really annoying to deal with.

We played pillage with 7 objectives.

The game

Post game unit review

Pike horde – It was good to have a pike horde to just push forward into the centre. It would have been nice to have an offensive item on them. I did have “blood of the old kings” in an alternate version of my list, but dropped it. I did end up blocking my beast cav for a turn since my horde was stuck up against an impassible rock, which is something I have to plan better for. In summary, the horde did it’s job, held a charge, killed a unit of fleetwardens, put 8 wounds on some impalers (might have killed them with blood of the old kings), and then died. The idea of going heavier on pike hordes is tempting.

Pike regiments – they generally held for a round or two in this game, but very often ended up wavered. One unit held against the voidtouched mutants, which is really good for their low cost. I think none of them killed anything. Still, for 120pts, against an army where they got little use of phalanx, that is pretty good. Really solid chaff/unlocking unit. Can’t wait to face some cavalry or flier heavy lists so they can really be a thorn.

Wizards – Pegasus wizards are amazing. They give so much scenario power. Never take a wizard on a horse! Foot or pegasus only. Host shadowbeast was really amazing in this game. It allowed my plucky 5 attack heroes to wreck face and take names. The duelist general killed the defence 6+ assassin in one round, and the Captain ensured that the pike horde could kill the fleet wardens, then he wavered the void captain, and then he flanked and finished off a horde of impalers. Host shadowbeast combined with two decent combat individuals really helps the list against one of the biggest weaknesses of KoM / Rhordia, which is individuals.

Mind fog is a really nice spell too, putting shattering on something the ballistas have put some wounds on can often be the tipping point. Same with hunting down damaged units.

Ballistas – My list needs something to reach out and harass the enemy, trying to goad them into bad charges. 120pts for these two is a good deal.

Beast cavalry – The pegasus cavalry I haven’t gotten optimal usage out of for their points. I really struggle with what item I want on them. It is between nimble, +1TC and +1 move. This game, nimble was of low value, and both of the others would be better. I will experiment more with them, trying out haste next. 22″ threat should be very annoying for the opponent to deal with.

The bear version is alright, I fumbled them a bit in this game, but I think their offensive output is pretty good for their points.

General / The Captain – Having a duelist hero is crucial. I have considered the assassin, but at 10/12 def 4+, and only speed 6, he looks hard to play. The normal general boosted with duelist and shadow beast is a good character. I am not 100% sure the captain is worth the extra 35pts for me, but I guess the redeploy can be clutch some times, so I’m keeping him in for now.

Flying generals – Against good opponents, these guys are hard to get maximum value of. Still, they are cheap for the amount of options they provide, so I’m keeping both in for now. 14/16 nerve is kind of sucky, would have loved the iron resolve of the halfling version for +5pts.

Mounted sergeants – These guys were an experiment, and they underperformed. The idea was to use them like a slightly beefier tundra wolf troop. However, they lack pathfinder, which really robs them of a ton of options. There might also need to be more of them to be able to mimic some of the effects I have gotten out of tundra wolves. Still, there is potential in the speed 9 and nimble, so I think I will try them out again, but maybe with +1TC item to make them somewhat of a credible threat, and a real pain if they can get at a flank.

I really like playing KoM with pikes. It feels like this unit really gives KoM and Rhordia something that is faction defining and unique, and it is really nice that it is a very core style unit which gives that faction flavour.

Still worried about shooting heavy lists, but at least I have some individuals and quite a lot of fliers to combat shooting with.