Recently I’ve been giving Rhordia another look, after sort of dismissing it as a battle shrine + honor guard gimmick faction for a long time, and I like what I see! Let’s go over each of the units in the list:
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Crossbow Block: humble, but it unlocks, scores, and shoots well enough to be somewhat threatening.
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Dogs of War (the Shields of Hetronburg): an extremely good anvil. It does pathetic damage for its cost, but has exceptional durability. The question is: how are you going to use that durability to win the game? Needs support from hammers and/or shooting.
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Dogs of War (the Razors of Berlonviche): averaging 23.3 hits, this unit can deal scary melee damage. However, it’s spd5 and pays for phalanx, so it’s tough to say how best to use it.
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Dogs of War (the Beasts of Targun Spire): they have pathfinder, but are otherwise slightly worse Foot Guard. If you want a unit of infantry with pathfinder, here they are.
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Foot Guard: pretty standard elite infantry, useful at De5 or CS1. They’re not very interesting, honestly, so I haven’t thought about them much - I’d rather use a Dogs of War unit.
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Halfling Braves: lousy unit at a very cheap price means great value! They won’t do much damage, but they unlock, and take an annoying amount of effort to kill. Use them for scenario, screening, and stalling.
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Pole-Arms Block: pure melee damage dealers, mediocre but affordable. The change to multi-charges makes it easier to get melee hordes into combat, which helps these. Not really sure when I’d take them, there might be a good swarm build with these and Halflings.
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Spear Phalanx: phalanx is the name of the game here, which is either great or worthless. Good at shutting down a piece of board defensively in some matchups, so think long and hard about what you’ll do against Tyrants and Soul Reavers. The ensnare upgrade is obviously great, but then the unit’s pretty expensive.
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Halfling Archers*: good value stealthy shooting, but it’s an old profile so I wouldn’t get too attached. I’m assuming it will be changed or removed, so not gonna hobby or play them in the meantime.
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Halfling Knights: nimble, def5, kinda bad nerve and no indomitable will, what are these for? I guess putting some pressure and durability where you want it? Like, they don’t hit quite as hard as knights, and they’re a little squishier and much waverier, but they can certainly take care of war engines and gladestalkers.
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Knights: budget heavy cav. 16" threat range, ok damage on the charge, and fairly beefy once they’re stuck in. Use them to bully soft targets and keep enemy hammers honest.
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Mounted Scouts*: it’s hard not to compare them to silverbreeze and scorchwings, and they do NOT hold up. If the enemy has no shooting they’re pretty good, but good luck with that!
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Honor Guard: they hit quite hard on the charge, and they’re fairly tough, especially when rallied. An expensive unit, and spd7 is vulnerable to a lot of other stuff getting the first charge, but they’re definitely a strong hammer, and can also grind competently.
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Cannon: cannons now ignore concealed, while obscured is probably much more common, so I think they’re worse off than they were last year. Still, they can do some good damage, and shattering is very useful.
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Volley Gun: incredible damage for their cost, held back by the 24" range. Since they can’t fire from the back line like most war engines, they’re much more vulnerable to harassment, and can’t threaten nearly as much board space. Still, park 2-3 overlooking a clear part of the table and they can do some terrible damage.
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Mammoth: I think it’s a fair bit worse than a giant, and I personally really hate the chariot base for a unit like this that’s likely to want to combo charge. Can’t imagine ever taking one.
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Army Standard Bearer: 100% obsoleted by…
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Baron: bizarrely good value for an individual, you get very inspiring and a competent melee fighter for 60pts. I always want to keep them cheap, but the horse increases its board presence significantly.
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Duke: a slightly stronger baron with mighty. Can’t see paying the extra points, myself!
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Halfling Master Sergeant: totally outclassed by the baron with the exception of that spellward aura, which is now the only one in the game I think? And can be combined with the sacred horn? Not sure how spell heavy the meta is, but this is a very strong tool.
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Wizard: the only spellcaster in the army, and a pretty generic one, EXCEPT you can give it a pegasus and it becomes an extremely good chaff/scoring piece! 85pts for a nimble flying 50mm base is very good value, and spell support can be good, so definitely these get a big thumbs up.
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Baron on Aralez: kind of expensive for its class of 5 attack large cavalry hero, but spd8 IS real nice. It’s a fast scoring blocker/flank threat that inspires, definitely a good choice.
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Duke on Ancient Winged Aralez: a miniature dragon with some added utility from radiance of life. Even in a flank, it’s not that dangerous, so it definitely wants to act in support of your other units, but it actually grinds quite well with iron resolve and radiance, so feel free to use it to lock down stuff that doesn’t hit that hard.
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Battle Shrine [1]: absolutely faction defining. Rally 2 is a great force multiplier, and lightning 6 is good shooting! It’s not even terrible in melee, so it can contribute sensibly to a combo charge. Seems like you’d absolutely always take it.
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Duke Hetronburg [1]: a slightly tougher baron on aralez with rally 2 (cavalry) for 30pts more. I can’t decide where I sit on this guy, more rally IS good, but at his price point you’re pretty close to another regiment. I wish he had a little more punch, something to set him ahead a little.
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The Loyalists [1]: pretty decent formation, good value for points, but the sergeant doesn’t seem to be able to take the spellward banner which really holds it back in my mind. A fine choice if you want to take lots of halflings for hobby reasons, but I don’t think it’s very competitively relevant.
Now, a question I’ve started asking myself while building lists is “how does this get work done?” I have a real tendency to over-invest in fun utility pieces, but at the end of the day, broadly speaking you need to be able to kill enemy units and score objectives. So:
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Alpha Strike: hit first with overwhelming force so your opponent can’t hit back. Rhordia can’t really do it, honor guard are too slow, knights don’t hit hard enough, you’ll face a list with drakons and have a terrible time.
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Gunline: pure gunlines mostly aren’t a thing in KoW, but a strong focus on shooting certainly is, and Rhordia can definitely do that. Volley guns are trickier to use than longer ranged shooting, but if they get a clear shot on something, they do very efficient damage. Crossbows and rifles maybe have intolerably bad matchups into Elves and Nightstalkers, but their shooting IS pretty solid. Also, Rhordia practically comes pre-installed with 15 lightning bolt (battle shrine and 3 wizards). Ranged pressure will definitely be part of my plan.
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Melee Grind: very little healing in the list, so we can’t do the conventional grind, but the right mix of cheap bodies just might be able to out-value the opponent in the battle of attrition.
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Hammer and Anvil: the list has hammers, and it’s got anvils, so you’re in good shape! You’ve got a lot of options on how to configure it, but I’d start by choosing your hammers and then taking anvils to support. Also, halflings, lots of halflings.
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Scoring is a strength of the list. Halflings are durable unit strength at a budget price, human units are pretty cheap on the whole, and wizards on pegasus are some of the absolute best mobile US1 in the game. Even with a complement of individuals and war engines, Rhordia can bring a pretty good scoring element without breaking a sweat.
