Forces of Nature - musing on tactics and warband composition

Vanguard
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Inspired by a topic on the Trident Realm, I decided to start a similar one for the Forces of Nature faction. My intention is to provide some basic information on the available models/profiles, faction abilities and warband composition. Using edits I will keep expanding this post adding new material to it, so it serves as a good introductory reference to those interested how the Forces of Nature play in Vanguard.

Profiles
We have 15 profiles at our disposition: 2 grunts, 3 warriors, 2 supports, 2 spellcasters, 3 commands, and 4 large.
You noted it is 16 in total? Well, that’s because the Gladewalker druid is both, the spellcaster and commander. :slight_smile:

faction abilities
Forest Dwellers (1) - when activated it grants pathfinder for all models in the warband till the end of the round; hey this is really good!
Ambush (1) - one support model can hide in terrain at the beginning of the game and than jump out to surprise a foe that approaches the terrain piece; looks good on paper but in my games it has never had a significant impact, sometimes my dice were simply failing me when attacking the (not so) surprised enemy

spells
Barrier of Vines
Vengeful Flock
Tanglefoot - not exactly a faction spell but the Gladewalker Druid knows it providing an easy access to this not so common spell

strong points of the faction
trident :smiley:

weak points of the faction
relatively low number of power dice, no profile has access to a Blue die :disappointed_relieved:
low armor (if we do not speak about the forest shambler) :frowning_face:

MORE TO COME !!! :smiley:

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The warband I have used in a small campaign we had:
gladewalker druid (with lucky charm) - leader
salamander veteran -healer
naiad ensnarer -healer
forest shambler -mauler
centaur bray-hunter - hunter
3x naiad - 1 of them quartermaster
2x salamander unblooded

I will add some more details on how it went later on.

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Forces of Nature - by the numbers!

This might help. For each model, I ran a huge number of simulations vs a target with Armour 5+ and 2 Wounds. Here are the expected outcomes.

Notes:
Attack modifiers: Where legal, I added +1 die to every attack to reflect that most important attacks are made with charge/outnumber/power.
Avg Wnds - how much damage it will deal on average.
Pound - if the unit has Pound/Smash, what’s the % of scoring 3+ hits
Alpha - probability of bringing the target to zero or negative Wounds.
Pts per Dmg - Efficiency. Every X points spent on this model will yield an average of 1 point of damage per turn. The lower, the better.
TTL = Time to Live. How many hits, on average, can this model take before making a Nerve test?

COMMANDERS

Centaur Chief - Melee
Avg Wnds = 1.53
Pound = 78.7%
Alpha = 48.5%
Pts per Dmg = 28.02
TTL = 8.0

Centaur Chief - Melee + Cav
Avg Wnds = 1.78
Pound = 93.9%
Alpha = 57.1%
Pts per Dmg = 24.2
TTL = 8.0

Centaur Chief - Bow
Avg Wnds = 1.3
Alpha = 39.0%
Pts per Dmg = 33.2
TTL = 8.0

Gladewalker Druid - Melee
Avg Wnds = 0.99
Alpha = 26.9%
Pts per Dmg = 40.38
TTL = 6.0

Gladewalker Druid - Lightning Bolt
Avg Wnds = 1.54
Alpha = 47.5%
Pts per Dmg = 26.03
TTL = 6.0

Salamander Veteran
Avg Wnds = 1.27
Alpha = 38.1%
Pts per Dmg = 22.11
TTL = 6.0

WARRIORS

Centaur Bray-Hunter - Melee
Avg Wnds = 0.41
Alpha = 6.0%
Pts per Dmg = 48.47
TTL = 4.0

Centaur Bray-Hunter - Melee + Cav
Avg Wnds = 0.54
Alpha = 9.3%
Pts per Dmg = 36.8
TTL = 4.0

Centaur Bray-Hunter - Bow*
Avg Wnds = 0.8
Alpha = 19.1%
Pts per Dmg = 24.94
TTL = 4.0
*Not including variable Piercing modifier.

Centaur Bray-Strider
Avg Wnds = 1.29
Pound = 60.0%
Alpha = 38.8%
Pts per Dmg = 17.06
TTL = 6.0

Centaur Bray-Strider + Cav
Avg Wnds = 1.54
Pound = 78.6%
Alpha = 48.7%
Pts per Dmg = 14.29
TTL = 6.0

Naiad - Melee
Avg Wnds = 0.8
Alpha = 19.0%
Pts per Dmg = 15.04
TTL = 3.2

Naiad - Harpoon
Avg Wnds = 0.69
Alpha = 13.9%
Pts per Dmg = 17.38
TTL = 3.2

GRUNTS

Centaur Tenderhoof
Avg Wnds = 0.8
Alpha = 19.1%
Pts per Dmg = 18.72
TTL = 4.0

Centaur Tenderhoof + Cav
Avg Wnds = 0.99
Alpha = 26.7%
Pts per Dmg = 15.18
TTL = 4.0

Salamander Unblooded
Avg Wnds = 1.27
Alpha = 37.8%
Pts per Dmg = 8.69
TTL = 4.0

SPELLCASTERS

Druid - Melee
Avg Wnds = 0.8
Alpha = 18.9%
Pts per Dmg = 45.21
TTL = 4.8

Druid - Lightning Bolt
Avg Wnds = 1.47
Alpha = 45.6%
Pts per Dmg = 24.5
TTL = 4.8

Gladewalker Druid - Melee
Avg Wnds = 0.99
Alpha = 26.9%
Pts per Dmg = 40.38
TTL = 6.0

Gladewalker Druid - Lightning Bolt
Avg Wnds = 1.54
Alpha = 47.5%
Pts per Dmg = 26.03
TTL = 6.0

SUPPORT

Naiad Ensnarer
Avg Wnds = 0.81
Alpha = 19.4%
Pts per Dmg = 24.83
TTL = 3.2

Wild Companion
Avg Wnds = 0.8
Alpha = 19.1%
Pts per Dmg = 16.27
TTL = 3.2

LARGE

Earth Elemental
Avg Wnds = 2.06
Pound = 57.5%
Alpha = 63.7%
Pts per Dmg = 17.0
TTL = 16.0

Fire Elemental - Melee
Avg Wnds = 1.05
Alpha = 29.1%
Pts per Dmg = 38.12
TTL = 8.0

Fire Elemental - Elemental Fire
Avg Wnds = 0.8
Alpha = 19.2%
Pts per Dmg = 49.7
TTL = 8.0

Forest Shambler
Avg Wnds = 1.65
Alpha = 51.4%
Pts per Dmg = 20.02
TTL = 24.0

Water Elemental
Avg Wnds = 2.46
Alpha = 73.2%
Pts per Dmg = 12.99
TTL = 10.67

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Wow! That’s a great statistics, many thanks for providing it. :+1: Of course, it should be understood that it reflects only one ability of the models (how they perform in Melee). Other characteristics of the models (special abilities, speed etc.) are important as well. Still, it is very useful to have an idea how the models perform in combat.

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Good to hear someone got inspired by my post.

I have 3 RED and one WHITE dice in my current TR list. Which is not great but enough in most cases so low number of resources is not a bad thing in general unless You do a RES heavy build with no power to support it.

I will write what I like about FoN. Centaurs with bows. Their ability to get extra piercing for low number of hits is great as it keeps their shot consistent.

Those stats are amazing! Yet we have to remember that offensive capabilities is not everything.

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I agree, the centaur bray-hunter is good. That’s why I include him in my warband too. :slightly_smiling_face:

In the warband I mentioned above I have 5 red (including 1 extra the leader gets in a campaign) and 1 white dice which provides me with 6-7 power (2 rerolls!) and still my opponents are usually getting more …

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Alquds i think you mentioned you played a campaign with the forces of nature.
What is you conclusion? (And did you win?)

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My impression is that FoN are slightly underpowered when compared with what other factions can field. Especially, we have no model with blue power dice or 2-3 red dice like some other factions have. Fluff-wise I would expect the faction to be more magical but its not the case, my opponents were usually generating more power dice than me which made the games hard. I was also the only one in our group who did not field a superhero in a form of a strong character on a battle mount with a great weapon. Since then the combination was FAQued but still other factions have access to more powerful models. On the other hand, our naiads with the trident ability can be used with some success. With some luck, I managed to win more games than I lost and at the end of the campaign shared the 1st place together with the abyssals player.

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Eh personally I was thinking about a mainly centaur based army (the only non centaur would be the druid, who would be the dedicated healer of the group). My hypothetical plan would be having the tender-hoofs follow the chief around while the hunters pick off enemies at range. Still trying to figure out what role the druid has in combat besides healing.

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Centaur based warband may look thematic but most likely would not work so well in Vanguard. I see no problem with including 2-3 centaurs but if you compose the warband almost exclusively from centaurs you are limiting your options and versatility. First of all centaurs are reatively expensive, the grunt model at 15 pts, the warriors at 20+ pts, so your warband will be smaller and you may struggle in some scenarios. You may compensate it by not including a Large model but then you are missing on a powerful fighter that may be needed in some situations. Do also note that cavalry models cannot climb, so your opponent can take an advantage e.g. by placing shooters at a top of a building that you may not be able to attack.

I find the FoN druid profile a bit weaker than e.g. the elven or northern alliance counterparts, or it could be 2-3 pts cheaper for what (s)he can do. Still, the Heal and Lightning bolt are usefull spells. The Barrier of Vines is also an interesting spell, though its use is rather situational (it won me a game once). I have also experimented with Tanglefoot on the gladewalker druid. It looks good on paper but I do not recall if I used it even once, either Heal or LB were always preferred in the situations encountered in my games.

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I think the Centaurs are pretty efficient and flexible and could be a lot of fun as a warband focus. I don’t think it’s top-tier, but could still be nifty. I generally find the Druid to be a bit underwhelming, but Lightning Bolt is conditionally awesome when up against grunt spam lists.

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