Check out the last post for my list and list tactics going into Clash of Kings 2024. There were about 190 players total, with lots of the best from UK, Spain, France, Poland, Norway and more in attendance.
Game 1 – Stockpile
For my first game, I was up against Mark and his forces of nature.
Mark’s very nice looking elemental army.
2x Naiad heartpiercer regiments 3x Earth elemental hordes 1x Scorchwing horde 1x Greater air elemental, lightning bolt 3 1x Greater fire elemental 1x Pegasus 1x Gladewalker druid, ring of harmony, heal 3, surge 8, shroud of the saint 1x Winged unicorn, heal 5, lightning bolt 5 1x Wiltfather 12 drops / 21 US
Straight into def 6+ wall with a decent amount of shooting and decent amount of fliers. Greater elementals + surge is a serious threat, especially the greater air elemental. With no bane chant, I don’t have the hitting power to get through the wall of stone head on, and he has enough firepower to force me to commit early.
I knew that Mark would very probably like to have the three piles of tokens as close together as possible, so his def 6+ wall could just march onto them and then the monsters could surge into my stuck units. As such, I made sure to place one of the stacks on the far right side of the board, so he would have to split off a section of his army to fight for those tokens. Mark, as expected, placed his pile 12″ from the centre pile.
Deployment and my plan. On my right side, I had four cheap units that should be able to handle his lone unit of scorchwings, which should give me 3 points over there. In the middle, I was outmatched in a head on fight, but the impassable anchored my right flank and gave me a place to be annoying with a bully. Meanwhile, the left flank planned to move up aggressively and hook into the middle. Mark won the roll and took first turn, moving up. My left flank took the hill, while my centre stayed out of charge range. Early game, the scorchwings vs my 4 units face-off started off cagey. I was able to make it hard for them to get off much shooting without being in charge range in return. I kept his winged unicorn hexed for several rounds, lowering the amount of shooting damage I took on the way in.Mid game, the scorchwings went for a shot against my scouts, failed to kill them, and got wiped in return, letting me whip that entire flank around to threaten the centre. I managed to avoid giving any flank charges to surge, and with my flanking force from the left side coming in quick, I knocked out two units of earth elementals with no serious losses on my end. With the decisive mid game action, Mark was quickly running out of pieces, and he was surrounded on three sides. Wiltfather hung in there for a while, but was eventually felled by the siege breakers and various other units. It was a total wipeout, with me scoring all 7 scenario points and taking out 2300 pts for a loss of 500ish on my side. Mark ended up in 176th place. IMO, he had a good army list, but I believe he lacked a bit in experience wielding it. He was a joy to play against.
Game 2 – Fool’s gold
After game 1, I shot up to table 1 for a live streamed battle against Kacper and his undead. Stream can be viewed here if you want the full play-by-play. His list has some untraditional choices, like Zuinok and lots of ghouls. It has a ton of killing power in the soul reavers and wights. 5 hammerers. The revenant hordes are the anvils, and the ghouls are cheap enough to chaff, but are also quick and with TC+1 from the ghast, they can hit hard too.
I’ve never played the scenario before, and let me tell you, 10 tokens is a lot! Kacper quickly locked me out of placing any of my tokens close to the center line. My only plan was to put some objectives far into his zone in places where he was unlikely to want to put any of his units. But then I quickly forgot where I had placed the real objectives. A good tip is to place all of your first tokens close to the center line, if nothing else, to block your opponents placing options. In hindsight, I should have done so with some bluff tokens, to force his tokens deeper into my half.
For this game, I really struggled with the clock, so most of the pictures are off the stream, and as such, terrible quality.
Kacper deployed with an extremely heavy flank on my right (bottom), and a solid center. The right flank had the ghast, 2x ghouls and 2x soul reavers. The centre had 2x wights, 1x soul reavers and 1x ghouls. The left flank was anchored by two revenant hordes. I had a very heavy centre, with all three hordes, 2x warriors and 4x hero. My right flank was very weak compared to his extremely heavy attacking force. On the far left, I was planning to wrap around, as well as securing an objective placed there.Kacper went ahead aggressively. Neither of us having any shooting to talk about. I pulled back out of charge range on the bottom, and kept any serious charges off in the middle. My top flank started wrapping around. Kascper charge in on turn 2, taking out a unit of warriors and blocking me up some places. From here, an intense piece trading started. I double-charged the middle revenant horde. Unfortunately, I did not tell Kacper that my hunters were on the hill (from my point of view they were 50+% on the hill, but it was a close call) before I charged, so when I charged down off the hill, he said they were not on the hill, and as I had not marked their position, it was too late to contest that. I still did 17 wounds, but lost 3 wounds from not getting the hill bonus, and then I rolled a 5 on the nerve, missing the break point of the horde by 1! That slowed down my cleaning of the centre by a lot, giving the edge to Kacper.I also messed up a bit on the left flank. I tried to trap his other horde of revenants, overrunning my hunters into their rear. However, he was just able to walk forwards and turn to avoid any dangerous rear / flank charges. We kept jocking around, but in the end, nobody died, and the objective was contested, while my bully ran off to capture a different one. If I had time left on the clock, I would have charged them in the front with the hunters in turn 6, and likely been able to kill them turn 7 with a flank from the blaster. However, I timed out turn 6.I think Kacper though he had me for a lot of the game. The stream hosts certainly thought it looked bleak. However, on turn 6, I won 4-2 on objectives. However, I was out of time, so my siege breakers could not roll to kill the soul reavers, my hunters could not try to kill his revenants, and his other soul reavers got a charge on my bully holding a 2 point objective. He killed the bully, thus making the score 2-2 in turn 7, for a draw. Kacper was a fantastic opponent, tactically strong and a funny guy. He ended up finishing 27th overall. With stronger time management, I would have had this game, so it was a bit painful, but at the same time, there were many moments were it could have swung both ways and Kacper was a very strong opponent, so a draw was a good result.
Game 3 – Control
For round 3, I got to play against one of my fellow Norwegians, Jørgen. We usually end up meeting in tourneys, and always end up with very tight games. I think Jørgen has the better stats in our matches so far. He plays undead as well. His list is fairly quick, and has the good option to take a far flank with the quick and nimble werewolves, lycan alpha and pegasus vampire, something other undead lists often lack.
2x Zombie regiment 1x Revenant horde, brew of strength 2x Wraith troop 1x Werewolves horde, boots 2x Wights horde, mead of madness / healing brew 2x Revenant cavalry troops 1x BSB, tome of darkness 1x Mhorgoth 1x Lykanis, blade of slashing 1x Vampire on pegasus, mace of crushing
This was another extremely tight game where I struggled with the clock, so I only have a single picture, so not a very detailed report from this game. The left flank was a dancing competition between his lycans + lycan alpha and some of my faster units, with the end result being us taking one table sector each on that side with few casualities either side. The middle and right was where the decisive action happened.
Jørgen got first turn and took the hill. With neither of us having any shooting, and both trying to goad the other into bad charges, we both just lost one unit of chaff each in turn 1-3. Then turn 4, it all happened. I saw an opportunity to get a good trade going, and charged in along the front. One of my crocodogs killing Morgoth, who had taken 8 wounds from spell-casting while hexed.
One extremely critical piece of my plan was one of my crocodogs charging his Wights, tying them up, and stopping him from hitting me back seriously. Unfortunately, even with 7 attacks on 3+, wounding on 4s with vicious, my dog failed to wound the wights a single time. That meant that he could still fly and surge them. They both charged crocodogs, and then they needed 4+ on the overrun to flank my siege breakers. Of course they got it, and the game turned completely upside down.
From there, it was only damage control. In turn 6, I had actually managed to contain things to a draw. However, once again, the undead got another turn, and it ended in a loss instead. Jørgen ended up in 16th place. I think my play in turn 4 was really good, and I think I would have crushed his army if the crocodog had done it’s job. Sometimes the dice just betray you. Still a really fun and super-tactical game as usual against Jørgen.
Game 4 – Push
Day 2 started against Ben and his halflings. I’ve never played against halflings before, but I have a decent overview of the list, as I am eyeing the list for an empire engineer themed list. Ben’s list has enough shooting to force opponents to commit early, but also a ton of flyers with 21-23″ threat range.
Ben’s very well painted steampunk halflings
1x Braves horde 3x Poacher regiment 2x Ej grenadier troop 1x Jugger regiment, boots, relentless 2x Aeronaughts, haste / slashing 1x Iron beast, pride of the shires 1x Engineer, long rifle, wild charge aura 1x Sauceror, inspiring talisman 1x Greedyguts 2x Muster captain on winged aralez, relentless 15 drops / 24 US
My plan was to push the left flank with my three tokens, and hold the centre token for a win. As such, I had a very heavy left flank. Ben loaded up his entire army in the centre, giving me an easy walk with my tokens, but making the fight for the centre token hard. I got first turn and moved up to threaten. He moved slowly up in return, only placing his braves and greedyguts in my charge range. He shot the hunters off, even in cover, in turn 1. However, he had probably missed my crocodog, who could also join the warriors in their charge against greedyguts.And crocodog + warriors was too much for greedyguts. He was slain, and the warriors and dog overran into the poachers behind him, taking those out too. Meanwhile, with drainlife 14 support against the braves, the siegebreakers crushed the horde on the charge. Now the pressure was on Ben, as I had started trading in his disfavour. His list was very mobile, with a ton of fliers with 20-23″ range, nimble juggers with strider and more, so he hung in the game until the end, even with my right flank wrapping around to threaten from that side as well. However, the low nerve of the halflings meant that all my units were very dangerous to his as well, and in the end I ended up with a comfortable win, I believe I had 5/6 tokens to his 1-2. Ben ended up 84th.
Game 5 – Hold the line
On my upwards trajectory, I now get to face Jon G and his Twilight kin. I’ve played a handful of games against TK, and am well aware of their very powerful units. The impalers are similar to my siege breakers, the fleetwardens are surprisingly resilient and can dish out damage, and the mutants are just insane with their threat range and killing power. One of his has 2+ to hit, and with some hill bonus, they are at 2+/2+ with elite and vicious, absolutely insane.
1x Corsair fleetwardens horde, bloodhex, veterans, boots 2x Voidtouched mutant regiments, sharpness / dwarven ale 2x Bound phantom troops 1x Impaler horde, brew of strength 2x Impaler regiment, fire oil 1x Gore drake 1x Navigator, sacred horn 1x Summoner crone, bane chant 3, hex 3 1x Soulbane on nightmare, blade of the beast slayer 1x Mikayel 13 drops / 23 US
The board was nice however, with two impassable houses zoning off the board into three sectors, perfect for the scenario. Nimble characters love to hang around impassable terrain, as it is often easy to be unchargable. Jon won the roll for sides and picked the side with hills, and he won first turn and took it. My plan was to overload the left flank and hook into the middle from behind. Jon seemingly had a similar plan on the other flank.
Jon got first turn and choice of side, and took the hills and moved aggressively up. My plan was to halt him in the bottleneck in the middle, while my left flank swung around. My right flank kept backing up, never giving him double charges, and with a lot of flanking if he took a single charge into anything. A sergeant and a bully covered the bottleneck from each side.Turn 2 was decisive. Jon pushed the horde of fleetwardens in, and protected their flank with an impaler regiment. Mutants and an impaler horde were on the hill behind, ready to engage me in return. But he had made some mistakes. One bully could see the impaler horde’s flank from behind the right side house, and with 16 attacks at 3+/2+, he killed them on his own. The impaler regiment protecting the fleet wardens had also presented a flank to the sergeant, and combined with a front charge from the siege breakers, they were killed as well. On the left flank, I pushed hard, daring the gore drake to charge my hunters. With the massive loss in the centre, Jon was on the backfoot. His 2+ to hit mutants cleaned out some siege breakers, but that was it from the middle. Everything else was rapidly pulled apart. I could then swing around to threaten his heavy flank. I did some mistakes here, like forgetting to move two bullies for a turn, and not just moving more units into the right hand zone, so I didn’t max my score, but it ended with a comfortable 3-1 win on scenario, and me up a lot on killpoints. Jon ended 83rd.
Game 6 – Pillage
Last game is against Steve from France and his salamanders. His list hits like a truck (for example Tyrants with 30 attacks and easy access to CS3) and has a decent amount of shooting. Also many speed 10 flying nimble units to pick up tokens late game.
1x Fire elemental horde 1x Greater fire elemental 2x Phoenix 1x Tyrants horde, effigy of fire, boots 1x Rhinosaur horde 1x Ember sprites regiment 1x Mage priest, amulet of the fireheart, bane chant 3, veil of shadows 3, surge 8 1x Clan lord, raptor, staying stone 1x Ghekkotah skylord 1x Rawakas the pale rider 2x Salamander primes regiment (whispering scales) 1x Zoelkifiki the unseen (whispering scales) 14 drops / 24 US
I got first turn and took it to get into threat range with the least amount of shooting taken.
I had more units on both flanks, so my plan was to overrun them, securing an objective on either side, and threatening into the centre. However, that lone skylord on the right was extremely annoying, so it took a long time to catch him, and on the left, I found out that Rawakas could shoot, quite a lot actually, so I was pushed on the defensive there. In the middle, I crushed the entire whispering scales formation on the charge, but then the trading turned against me. Steve was really good at blocking me from taking out his hammer units, while crushing through mine. Def 6+ isn’t that great when your opponent has a lot of attacks at CS3. One important moment that kept me in the game was when he charged my crocodog for an easy overrun into a warlock, but rolled double 1s, giving me another piece to mess up his plans with. Also worth mentioning is the phoenix at the right there, who I put probably 20+ wounds on during the game, but just couldn’t do more than waver. He regenerated again and again, and in the end flew off to take an objective the bastard. Overall, my nerve rolls in this game were less than stellar. We had very cagey play going on in the middle, with both of us just giving up unit after unit to avoid the other one getting to charge our big unit with something painful. Unfortunately, it was my turn to provide a crucial double 1, and the rhinosaurs were still in the game, taking out my siege breakers in the end. On the left flank, Rakwas kept three of my units busy. In the end, I think we ended up with one objective each after a lot of dancing around each other, and some combats bouncing off. On turn 6, I had the game by two objectives, 3-1 I believe. However, he had a free phoenix that could fly up in range of one of mine. With US2, he needed to kill one of my two heroes on the objective. Unfortunately, he just managed to kill the warlock, thus stealing the objective, robbing me of one and getting one for himself, ending the game in a draw. Steve ended in 21st place overall.
Summary
I ended up 33rd place with 3 wins, 2 draw, 1 loss. With very little playing time the last year, my goal for the tourney was to just get 3 wins, so I am happy with the result. All my opponents were really great people to play, providing tight, tactical games with a good attitude. I would love to play any of them again.
The list itself worked fairly well. I had the tools to fight a wide variety of opponents with all my nimble units and the three survivable hordes. Having no shooting is a big weakness, as I was very often forced to just go in and engage as early as possible, but of course not spending points on it gave me more units. I think the main drag on the list was my lack of experience playing it. I lost on time in game 2, partly in game 3 as well, and my objective placement in game 2 was terrible from not actually having played the scenario before. Day 2 went a lot better with the clock, so just a few more practice games would likely have improved my game a bit more.
Overall, CoK24 was an absolutely fantastic time. The tourney ran very smoothly, the tables and armies looked great, the venue was great. Last time I went to Clash was 2018 or 2019 (in Manchester), and I will say that this time was a lot more professional, even if last time was good too. If I can convince the wife, I am certainly going back for another round.
mandollies.com 