G’day Goonhammer readers! Welcome back to Urr’s coverage of his time at the pre-eminent Kings of War tournament down under: Clash of Kings Australia 2024. Day One was a blast, but there’s six more games to go. A quick reminder of where I am at; I’ve managed 2 wins and 1 loss, and I’m looking for one more win at the minimum to keep that record positive.
Urr’s 2300 points of Nightstalkers
3 x Scarecrows (Regiment) 2 x Phantoms (Troop) 2 x Ravagers (Horde) - Blessing of the Gods, Fire-Oil 3 x Soulflayers (Regiment) 2 x Mind-screech - Singing Aberration 1 x Terror 1 x Banshee - Zephyr Crown 1 x Esenyshra, the Wailing Shadow
Game 4 – Plunder – Alex’s Forces of Nature
3 x Hunters of the Wild (Troop) 2 x Hunters of the Wild (Regiment) 3 x Forest Shamblers (Horde) - Brew of Sharpness 2 x Pegasus 1 x Gladewalker Druid - Shroud of the Saint (Heal 6) 1 x Kapoka, the Hidden Saviour 1 x Forest Warden - Lute of Insatiable Darkness, Surge 4 1 x Tree Herder - Orb of Towering Presence 1 x Tree Herder - Wiltfather
Alight, alright, alright – Game 4 was against Alex’s beautiful Forces of Nature army, in which basically everything is a tree. The big worry here for me is Kapoka, the Hidden Saviour. Kapoka has an aura of Phalanx for all Verdant units, which is everything in the list except the Pegasi. That’ll be a real blunting of most of my combat units, so that little Kapoka is Number 1 priority to take out. The Tree Herders are very hard to kill at Defense 6+ and fearless, so I’ll try to mostly ignore them, while focusing on taking off the rest of the scoring units (i.e. everything else with Unit Strength).
For Plunder, we have the central objective and the next one to the left as those worth 2 Victory Points, while the leftmost, rightmost and second from right are all worth 1 Victory Point.
Alex concentrates all his forces on my left, aiming to get all the valuable tokens on the left half. I’ve got the two 1 Victory Point tokens on the right entirely uncontested, so I have deployed just two Scarecrow regiments to plod along there and claim them both. This leaves the middle 2 Victory Point token as my primary target to secure the win.
Alex doesn’t use his Scout move to go full steam ahead, but does move up enough to threaten all three of the leftmost tokens. Before we know it, we’re already into the bash on Turn 1.
The Pegasi flies up to get in the way, one gets shot off since nothing else is in range, and the Terror fights the other one, devouring it by the following turn. Turn 2 sees the Wiltfather pop up and grab the 2 Victory Point token directly in front of him, while the Hunters of the Wild have secured the leftmost token. That’s three Victory Points held by Alex already.
I throw some Phantoms into the fray to slow down the Wiltfather and both the Forest Shamblers hordes. I shoot out some damage here and there, but I’m not quite in range to unleash to the full effect of the Ravagers. By now, I’ve also got the two tokens on the right, and am setting up to grab the coveted one in the middle.
On Turn 3 all the tokens are claimed. Alex heals damage where he can, and clears off the Phantoms that were impeding his army. Cheekily, I jam him up again, with the last unit of Phantoms and one of the Soulflayers. Sidenote: This turn is the first time Kapoka’s aura question has come up; if the unit has Phalanx when it is charged, and then Kapoka is Wind Blast-ed away, or killed, does the Phalanx persist? We talked, and decided it doesn’t, so Kapoka gets blown away. However, thanks to the healing, the Sharpness Forest Shamblers survive the Soulflayers, yet I’ve got my own two point token now. Shooting is once again ineffective, as I’ve only got the Wiltfather to shoot, but I do keep putting damage on him.
Turn 4 is when Alex realises he has to commit; otherwise, I’ll block off my Scarecrows who have a token, run away and be uncatchable. The units on the middle hill all go in or prepare to go in on the following turn. The Forest Shambler horde easily clears the Scarecrows and takes their token, the Brew of Sharpness-imbued Forest Shamblers stomp some Soulflayers, and the final Forest Shambler horde together with the Wiltfather absolutely wreck the Phantoms.
On the “clap back,” there’s not much of one. The remaining Soulflayers execute the rightmost Forest Shambler horde, taking back the token. Kapoka gets Lightning Bolt-ed off, and the Sharpness Forest Shamblers also (finally) fall to shooting (Timberrrrrr!). The Terror just backs up, keeping everyone in the front, and the Mind-screeches pop out to block charges into Ravagers.
The Mind-screeches can’t stop all the charges, however, and the Wiltfather goes all “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” into one Ravager horde. The rest of the army pours in as well. The other Tree Herder has to fight the tokenless Soulflayers, thanks to the double charge lining up the Tree Herder in the flank, but also making the flank unreachable. The troop of Hunters of the Wild go after the token. Forest Shamblers engage the Terror, a Hunters of the Wild troop hunts a Mindscreech. The Forest Warden even joins in, tagging in with the regular Tree Herder.
Unfortunately for Alex, going into so many different units, and a bad nerve roll or two really blunts the effect. Nothing pops, though a lot of damage is dished out.
For me, there’s only one combat that matters, and that’s Esenyshra and the Soulflayers into the Hunters of the Wild troop, and together the two claim the kill, freeing up the Soulflayers to flee with the token next turn.
And that is the game. There’s more turns and more kills on each side, but the Scarecrows with the token are long gone, far into the horizon, and the Banshee and Esenyshra spot any hope of catching the Soulflayers in the end.
We finished up as 4-3 to me, with a close attrition score. It was a good game, and I really like Alex’s list, and all the models. It was good for me to focus on the scenario, too, and not go all in for the kill, which, spoiler alert for the next game, did not happen there.
Game 5 – Stockpile – Ken’s Forces of the Abyss
1 x Lower Abyssals (Horde) 3 x Flamebearers (Regiment) 1 x Gargoyles (Troop) 2 x Molochs (Horde) - Despoiler Champion 2 x Tortured Souls (Regiment) 1 x Abyssal Fiend 1 x Efreet - Diadem of Dragonkind 1 x Seductress - Gnome-Glass Shield 1 x Abyssal Warlock - Drain Life, Bloodboil, Amulet of the Fireheart 1 x Abyssal Warlock - Drain Life, Torc of Dissonance 1 x Zaz’u’szu the Betrayer
Game 5 sees me up against former Australian Kings of War Master, Ken, and his shooty Forces of the Abyss list. It’s not too far off from what Cytoplasm has played before, so I’ve got a pretty good handle on what it does, which is to shoot you off while the Molochs, Tortured Souls and Lower Abyssals horde block you up and grind you down. Luckily, Stealthy helps a great deal with mitigating the shooting, and I’ve got decent firepower of my own.
We both deploy our shooting battery and support units in the middle. I’ve got a strong right flank with Soulflayers and Scarecrows, and the left is guarded by one more Soulflayers regiment and the Terror. My left side is matched against the horde of Lower Abyssals, a Warlock, a regiment of Tortured Souls and the Efreet. The Abyssal Fiend and one Moloch are closer to the middle, while the right flank has the other Tortured Souls and Molochs, and the Seductress.
I luckily got the first turn, and pushed up – hard. Ken moves up as well, but we both keep most of our armies out of range of each other, yet Turn 2 already sees casualties. I drag in with Enthrall and shoot off one Molochs horde, and Waver a Warlock with the Banshee’s Windblast. Ken picks up a Mind-screech.
Suddenly we are in combat.
The Soulflayers and Terror on the left run into the Lower Abyssals horde, put a ton of damage on them but roll the dreaded double ones on the Nerve Test. They’re still nicely pinned in the corner, but would have been nice to get rid of them entirely.
Going forward, this would be one of the few bad nerve checks I get in this game. Seriously, in just about everything that matters I roll a 9 or 10, and even the ones that don’t roll that high still feel hot.
That’s not to say it all goes my way. Ken unloads the awesome firepower of his whole army and takes off one Ravagers horde on his Turn 2, then Wavers the Terror with the Lower Abyssals and Tortured Souls in the flank, but then I’m up in his face rolling hot.
On the left, the Terror regenerates a bunch of wounds, but is stuck and can’t do anything. Despite this, the Soulflayers fail to finish it off. Ravagers shoot off a Flamebearers regiment, while a pair of Phantoms regiments Wavers another. Two Soulflayers decimate a horde of Molochs, and with a pivot and Windblast they’re safe from retaliation thanks to a forest. That pivot also picks me up a token, and there’s one on the Terror, acquired on Turn 1, and the remaining Ravagers are sitting on the middle pile picking them up each turn.
Ken’s Turn 3 sees a bit of chip damage here and there, and another Waver on the Terror (sad void noises).
This is where I get greedy, and focus too much on the killing. The red mist has descended, so to speak. I have the Soulflayers drop their token and flank and kill Zaz’u’szu. Phantoms are still fighting Flamebearers, and Esenyshra is taking on the Abyssal Fiend. The Efreet has been Lightning Bolt-ed off by now. The Succubus is giving me a little trouble, as I can’t roll a 6 to break the Gnome-glass Shield, but she’s also not doing much damage. Scarecrows get in the back of the Tortured Souls on the left, but being Hindered they don’t achieve much.
Ken finally kills the Terror after two turns of Wavering it, and grabs the token off its deflating corpse. He also gets a flank on the Soulflayers after the Zaz’u’szu overrun, but rolls double ones on the Nerve Test. There’s a Waver on the Ravagers, who are holding three tokens now, so that’s a little scary, but I’m still feeling ok.
I drop the tokens off the Ravagers and pick them up with an undamaged Mind-screech, then finally roll hot and take off the Succubus. I Waver the Abyssal Fiend with more shooting. Critically, I make another token-related mistake; the Scarecrows go to Disorder the Flamebearers, leaving two tokens sitting there, ready for Tortured Souls to fly over and grab.
The left side also sees me not jump on tokens, thinking they’re safe. I forgot that Warlocks can simply go and pick them up. They have Unit Strength! Oops.
Unfortunately, one of my bad nerve rolls is now, and I can’t kill the Tortured Souls. We also don’t get a turn 7, so there’s no second chance, and Ken gets the win 4-3.
There we go, defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Always focus on the scenario, kids!
Big props to Ken for playing as well as he did and pulling out the win, even when seemingly nothing was going his way. I had a lot of opportunities to make sure the victory was mine, and did none of them, so Ken deserved it here. But I am happy the game was clearly winnable, I just have to play better next time.
This isn’t the first time this has happened, you can read that here, so maybe Ken’s just got my number?
Game 6 – Dominate – Scott’s Undead
2 x Revenants (Regiment) 1 x Revenants (Horde) - Undead Giant Rats 1 x Soul Reaver Infantry (Regiment) - Staying Stone 1 x Zombie Trolls (Horde) 1 x Wights (Horde) 1 x Revenant Cavalry (Troop) - Skirmisher’s Boots 1 x Undead Standard Bearer - Undead Horse, Shroud of the Saint (Heal 3) 1 x Mhorgoth the Faceless 2 x Revenant on Undead Great Burrowing Wyrm - 2 x Plagued Breath, Brew of Haste, Mead of Madness 1 x Revenant King on Undead Great Flying Wyrm - Mace of Crushing
The final game of the weekend and it’s Scott’s Undead. I don’t do too well historically against Undead, and the scenario, Dominate, is a bit of a toss up. I’ve got a nice hill overlooking the Dominate zone in the middle, but Scott’s list has a lot of Unit Strength and a lot of resilience with everything being Defence 5+. There’s also enough Speed to give me issues with the new and improved Undead Standard Bearer giving Wild Charge (D3) to the Revenants on Undead Great Burrowing Worm and Revenant King on Undead Great Flying Wyrm (also all the Revenants, but that’s less worrisome).
Scott has deployed with most of his strength on my right flank, with the Revenants and Zombie Trolls heading to the middle. I’ve got my strength to the middle-right, with two of the Soulflayers to pressure the left.
Scott clearly wants to break my right side and turn his victorious forces inwards to flank the rest of my army, and I don’t want that. The Soulflayers won’t kill anything by themselves on a front charge, so I need to blunt the assault on the right, shoot down some Undead with the Ravagers, and wait for the time to strike.
Scott gets Turn 1, and everything just moves forward. He knows my plan, and has done his best to have everything set up to make Windblast as ineffective as possible, layering up everywhere. He does have to commit the Standard Bearer to sit in front of the Wights or they’ll get pulled out and destroyed, but because of this I manage to remove the Wild Charge Aura in my Turn 1, which is a big relief for me.
This demonstration of my army’s firepower worries Scott. He spends a lot of time trying to work out what to do. He ends up focusing on his positioning again, trying to come further around on the right, and re-angling to face the Revenant into the Soulflayers on the left. He does make one little mistake, half hanging Mhorgoth out from behind the Wights in the woods. Esenyshra charges in, doesn’t kill him, but critically Disorders him. There’s also a bit of chip shooting, but I can’t afford to push up into charge range, so it’s just a small scattering, mostly chipping away at the horde of Revenants.
Scott is very worried about Esenyshra now. Outside of Mhorgoth, there’s no Surge in the army, and so there’ll be no fancy tricks if he keeps getting chased down. So the Flying Wyrm takes its shot at her, as Mhorgoth runs away. The Wyrm is unsuccessful at killing, but does Disorder.
With the Wyrm in the middle and distracted by Esenyshra, that means it’s go-time for me. The chaff moves up to block up Scott’s lines while everything else gets ready. The Terror eats the troop of Revenant Cavalry, and is ready to face down the Soul Reaver Infantry. Esenyshra and the Scarecrows disorder the Wights, so they’re stuck, as is one of the Burrowing Wyrms. Even the Soul Reavers are stuck behind the Phantoms. This turn also sees the removal of the Revenant Horde, leaving a big hole in Scott’s line.
Scott gets some revenge on his Turn 3. Esenyshra falls to the Wights, and the Phantoms are removed by the Burrowing Wyrm and Soul Reaver Infantry. Scott fully jumps on the middle Phantoms, too. They were hanging out there in case the horde of Revenants lived, ready to block them from getting anywhere important, but now the Zombie Trolls and the Flying Wyrm both pounce on them, unsurprisingly destroying them.
Now the Soulflayers can finally see some flanks. Two of them commit to combats along with the Ravagers, and the Banshee pops down to spread some Dread. The Wym goes off, but the Trolls live. The Scarecrows manage to disorder the Wights (Phew!), a Mindscreech sacrifices itself to the Burrowing Wyrm. The Terror manages a Waver on the Soul Reavers, even with their Staying Stone. Not killing the Trolls is a bummer, but everything else went great, so it’s looking very good for the Nightstalkers here.
Now I miss a turn of photos, and it’s been a while, so here’s a broad summary of what happens for the last few turns. Essentially, Scott kills the Scarecrows facing the Wights, as well as one Mind-screech and two of the three Soulflayers. I get the Soul Reaver Infantry, the Wights, the Zombie Trolls and the Wyrm on the left. Scott ends up with 6 US in the Dominate Zone, and I end up with 11, so it is reasonably close given what it looks like on the table.
So that’s a final win for me, giving me a 4-2 record, and 12th place! It’s easily the best I’ve ever done, and I had a blast doing it. It definitely felt like I had a shot in both the losing games too, especially the game against Ken, so now the pressure will be on to do better next year!
Thank you!
A big thank you to Matt, Nick and the rest of the Canberra Team for hosting and Soul Cartel for the excellent food and drinks.
Congratulations are in order to Jeffrey Traish for taking out the win again, and Damien and Matt Curtis, two Victorian locals in second and third (final standings for the event can be found here).
Our mates Dan and Yan got Best Mantic Army, and Judges Paint Award respectively, while the Best Painted Non-Mantic went to Ben Rantall, of Direct Misfire fame (you can check out their coverage of the event here).
A big shout out to the other Dan (Dan Matters), who drove me up and back. Despite playing only four games of Kings of War over the last year, he managed a very respectable 32nd place. A final shout out to the Team Shed boys, who Matters and I stayed with and made the trip outside of Kings of War a blast.
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