Northern Alliance vs Northern Alliance

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On the Left flank of the Human clansmen, their wavered foxes backed up after a nimble direction change to protect their rear and make room for potential attacks. The regiment of wolves did likewise, freeing up enough space for the Clarion to attack the Half Elves, and the Giant attack the Elven bowmen. The Frostfang Cavalry could not find sufficient room to join the fray.
The Skald knew he was no match for the duelling Ice Blade, however, he could ignore the multiple threats around him and charge at the annoying Bolt Thrower, hoping to prevent further bolts being fired from it.
This left the horde of clansmen to charge down the hill, despitethe hampering stakes at the hill base, and charge the … no wait… not the Snow Trolls, but the Ice Blade instead, hoping to wipe her out and then continue the charge to the Snow Trolls. She was barely in their front arc, but enough to allow a charge, nonetheless. This is an unusual charge so i’ll go through the process. Firstly , LOS checked, and allowed, then check the leader can see the enemy unit, check. now it gets tricky, as this is a horde here against an individual. The Skald is facing them, so the horde must pivot 90 degrees. and to do that, the Lord needs to get out of the way of the pivoting horde, so he moves out first. hoping to be inspiring once the charge is complete.
Then the horde has one 90 degree turn before contact , which is close but possible, without hitting either the regiment of Snow trolls, or any of Orlaf’s raiders. it was close but doable. Next Align… ok done. finally, Shuffle to centrewhich again looks possible. Talk about a squeeze though!.

As you can see, it was a tight squeze, but it passed all checkpoints.

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and the good news is, that because of the early pivot to turn and charge, the horde did not have to clamber over the stakes, so did not end up hindered, and gets +1 for the hill charge.

Orlaf’s raiders are next to charge, and with the horde out of the way, they too have multiple charge options: Hrimm, Horde of Trolls or Regiment of trolls (with stakes causing hindered charge off the hill. ) All of which the Clansmen get an additional d3 attacks for Aura Berserker Slayer thanks to Orlaf.
Tempting though this is, the risk of flank charges is too great, so they opt to all charge into the horde of Snow Trolls, hoping for a quick kill
This meant that the Cavern Dweller would have to charge Hrimm, to keep him busy while they sorted out the other threats.

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The Clarion managed 2 wounds on the half elf berserkers. which was not enough to waver or rout them.
The giant only got 1 additional attack on the Elven archers, but scored 5 wounds to make it 9 in total+ brutal=10 which was enough after nerve test to route the archers, who had no inspiring presence to save them. That flank was now getting overrun, with only the troop of berserkers to defend it, and the bolt throwers on that side.
The horde of Human Clansmen were now going to make it worse, by killing the Ice Blade. They managed 12 wounds, and the Ice Blade was routed, giving the horde a chance to pivot and prepare for the Frostbound retaliation.
The Skald normally gets two attacks, but even heroes get triple attacks against war machines, so he gets 6 attacks. of which 1 hit, but didn’t even chip the paint on the Bolt Thrower, nor cause it to be Disordered.
The Cavern Dweller attacked Hrimm next, doing 4 wounds, so life leeching to heal itsself of all previous wounds. Hrimm shrugged off the wounds.
Orlaf started first, hitting the Horde of Snow Trolls, pulling out all the stops with Unstoppable whirlwind , and causing a respectable 10 wounds, then his raiders attacked with their own two handed weapons. 16 hits + crush 2, got 14 wounds thanks to viscous, bringing the total to 24 wounds . Even with Hrimmm’s inspiring presence , it was too much for the Snow trolls.

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Turn 3: Frostbound’s revenge.
The Ice Kin Hunters and the Master hunter reposition in the woods, in order to get better shots at the Raiders on the hill, and fire at the regiment that is on the top of the hill. The Naiads disengage from the Thegn and follow Serakina towards the hill, hoping to assist Hrimm in killing the Clansmen there, leaving the Ice Elementals to blast at the wounded thegn. The remaining Snow Trolls and their Prime charge the horde of Clansmen, leaving the Bolt Thrower to shoot the Skald as he didn’t inflict any wounds. The third Bolt thrower fired at the Giant. The half Elf berserkers countercharge the Clarion, hoping to defeat him and continue the momentum into the wolves.
The Ice Elementals icy Shard the Thegn into oblivion, clearing the last of the humands in that piece of the board.
The Ice kin master hunter does 1 wound to the Raiders, the hunters do an additional 5 wounds , but the bolt thrower missed with both bolts. but it is enough to waver the regiment in nerve tests, plus it is frozen too
The middle bolt thrower hit the Skald at point blank range giving him 5 wounds and frozen too , and even with re-roll he fails his nerve check. The final bolt thrower hits the giant and gives him a second wound and frozen The Half Elf Berserkers inflict three wounds to the Clarion, but fail to rattle him.
which resolves all shooting.
in combat, the trolls attack first , only inflicting 2 more wounds. The Prime hits with 4 , adds 2 more wounds. bringing it to 5 wounds, sad!
Which leaves Hrimm to show the other Frostbound how to do it. he rolled for 6 additional attacks this time, so 16+an additional 1 for Slayer as he was attacking the Cavern dweller. He causes an additional 7 wounds + Brutal+8 on the nerve roll is enough to waver the Cavern dweller,

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Turn 4 Clansmen . Initially, the Clansmen plan was to use their fast cavalry units to race up the ‘poorly defended, left wing, taking out war machines as they go, and threatening the Frostbound from the rear, whilst the ’ anvil units’ congested the centre and dominated the hilltop.
Their right flank should hold the line, given the narrow point behind the longhouse.
However, the stalwart defence of the left flank over the last three turns has put paid to that plan, and more annoying still, the half elf berserkers were still protecting that flank, but not for much longer.
The anvil in the middle was creaky to say the least, and all resistance on their right flank had been defeated. All was not lost though, with 8 units still in the fight and 3 characters too , vs Frostbound 's tally of 6 units , 3 siege engines and 3 individuals. The battle was starting to tip in their favour.
With this in mind, and two rounds to get units in place to challenge for territory, the Clansman needed to revise their plans to dominate the board.
The Clansmen Giant was slightly outside of any arc to charge either the Half Elvres or either of the bolt throwers , so it would need to wait until next turn , but it could move into position, which it did now so it would be facing towards the centre of the oppositions territory, behind the middle bolt thrower . I almost forgot that the giant had a breath weapon, but hadn’t advanced at the double so he could still use it. The Frostfang also pivoted in readiness of a race across the Clansmen back field centre, with the wolves doing similar for their left flank of the home territory. This left the snow foxes and Clarion to deal with the half elves, the foxes attacking their flank.
The horde of clansmen opted to countercharge the Snow Troll Prime, rather than the regiment, hoping to defeat it and continue on to the snow trolls afterwards, next turn. Sadly, the prime was not a character, so they couldn’t attack both this turn.
With the Raider regiment on top of the hill wavered, it left Orlaf and the other regiment to charge, but what? Hrimm was outside of front arc,as was the Ice Kin Master hunter but the Ice Kin Hunter troop wasn’t., so they both charged into the woods at them , hindered or no. The Lord also opted to charge into the flank of the Snow Troll regiment,
i’d forgot that the Cavern Dweller was wavered., so Hrimm was not getting any charges this turn.
The Clansmen giant breathed on the middle bolt thrower, doing thre wounds. but failing to even waver the crew.
Combat . The Snow foxes hit the Half Elf flank doing more wounds, (go foxes!) which, with the addition of Dread was enough to waver the half elfs.
The horde of clansmen did 11 wounds on the Prime , but he got snake eyes on his nerve roll, so remained in place.
However, the Lord managed to wound the regiment with 2 wounds, but it was enough to waver them.

Orlaf and one regiment attacked the Ice kin hunters, but both were hindered due to charging into the woods. Orlaf scored 3 hits then rolled 3 *6s for wounds. and his raiders did a further 6 , but 2 rolls of 11 for nerve wiped them out.

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4th round Frostbound.
The Half Elf Berserkers were wavered, so backed out of contact with both the Snow Foxes and the Clarion, but the Bolt thrower missed when trying to hit the foxes.
The Snow Trollls were also wavered, so the Snow Troll Prime had to fight the horde of Human Clansmen on its own, after regenerating 3 wounds. The second bolt thrower ’ s line of sight was blocked , seeing no enemies apart from to the horde of Clansmen that were in combat with the Prime. It managed 2 further wounds onto the horde of clansmen but wasn’t enough to even waver it, deespite a nerve roll of 10.
The final bolt thrower managed to hit and wound one of Orlaf’s Raider regiments, but the regiment passed morale checks.
The Ice Kin Master hunter managed 1 wound on Orlaf.
Hrimm managed to get 2 wound s on the Cavern dweller, and the Ice Naiads had charged it too, hitting its flank and gave it 3 more wounds. which was just enough to waver the cavern dweller.

And that was that. The Frodstbound were now being picked off one by one, and the Human clansmen had units spare to claim territy for the Scenario.

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Turn 5. Clansmen.
Firstly, the Frostfang Cavalry and Tundra Wolves continued to claim to sections of the board, with the horde of Ice Elementals claiming the other section of the Clansmen side of the battlefield, with the three sections of Frostbound territory still under contention.
The Cavern Dweller had been wavered, but remained in place, blocking the way forward for the Naiads and Hrimm, but without assistance, it was doomed. Therefore, the regiment of Orlaf’s Raider still on the hill and currently free from combat, raced down the hill into Hrimm’s flank.
The Clansmen’s Snow Foxes had no line of sight on the Ice Kin Bolt thrower in the far left corner, but did have line of sight on the Half Elves. The Clarion could see both, however, currently his charge on the bolt thrower was denied by the Snow Foxes, so the foxes had to charge first into the berserkers, which they did. Then the clarion charged the bolt thrower.
The Clansmen’s Frost Giant charged the second Bolt Thrower as it was in the way.
The horde of human Clansmen had two possible targets, a much battered Snow troll Prime, or the regiment of trolls so targetted the Prime. If they could kill it, the regiment of trolls would be without its inspiring presence when the Lord attacked them again.
The second of Orlaf’s raiders attacked the third Bolt Thrower, and Orlaf attacked the Master hunter.
With no shooting or spell casting, we got straight into combat, targetting the leaders first.
Orlaf took the lead, giving The Ice Kin Master Hunter 4 wounds and wavering her.
The horde of human Clansmen went next, doing a further 11 wounds bringing it to 19. Could the Prime roll snake eyes again? … nope. gone.
Next up was Hrimm, and the downhill charge by the regiment of Raiders. With a d3 roll for additional attacks giving them 1 extra die roll, they had 13 dice , of which an impressive 11 hit. Hrimm was defence 5, but with two handed weapons Crushing 2 and the hill charge they only needed 2s to wound, and viscous to reroll the 1s. All 11 wounded, bringing Hrimm to 15 wounds … and they rolled two 6s to check his nerve… ouch! So either way, Hrimm is automatically wavered. but with 23 in total he would fail, so he can get a re-roll for his own inspiring presence. The second roll was nearly as bad, 11, so Hrimm was defeated.
The other Raider regiment attacked a bolt thrower , 24 hits out of 36 dice, and thanks to Viscious 24 wounds, and one less bolt thrower .
Next , the Lord attacked the regiment of Trolls in the side, but no bonus dice for his efforts, but the new Lord profile gave him 6 attacks +1 for his snow fox, all hit. 6 wounds , making it 7 in total. and 7 rolled was 14, enough to waver the Snow Trolls at least. With a giant about to do the nasty on the middle bolt thrower, in triplicate, the Snow trolls were doomed .The giant rolled badly, only getting 30 die to hit, but despite this, he gave the thrower 8 wounds+ Brutal and rolled 9 for nerve test, which was more than enough. Satisfied with his day’s work, the giant turned around the way he had come, hoping to find a tasty half elf to eat .
The Snow foxes were ahead of him there, and got three wounds into the Berserkers, making it 19 in total, surely that was enough…with a nerve roll of 10, it certainly was. Fair credit to the Half elf Berserkers though, they had achieved an awful lot for a troop.
The Clarion attacked the final bolt thrower, with his new look of 5 attacks hitting on 3s,. Ironically, he rolled a lot of twos, but still got 9 hits in, for 5 wounds. plus Dread. so neding 9/11 . he rolled 6, so total of 12 wiped the last bolt thrower out. (again, credit due that all three bolt throwers survived to round 5.
Which left it up to the Frostbound to pull a miracle out of the hat .
Snow trolls wavered so did nothing. Ice Kin Master Hunter likewise wavered. That left Ice Naids, Ice Elementals, which were too far away to be helpful and Serakina, with no combative spells. Her radiance of life was useless even to heal the Master hunter. The best she could do was surge the Ice Elementals into combat, or near to it at any rate, as the naiads were in the way whichever unit theey declared a charge on. The Naiads opted to attack Orlaf’s raiders that had just defeated Hrimm, in the hope that Serakina did enough to get the ice Elementals to Ice Shards spell the Cavern Dweller.
That part of the plan worked at least. The shambling Ice Elementals were surged an additional 3 " , which was enough to give the Cavern Dweller a nasty case of frostbite. causing 6 wounds. bringing the Cavern Dweller to 18 in total. The nerve roll wiped him out.
The final attack was the Ice Naiads regiment, who really needed to be a horde to be effective. They were more an anvil unit, not a hammer, and managed two wounds, bringing the Raiders to 8 wounds. Enev then, the nerve roll failed to waver.
With Turn six to go, it was blatantly obvious that the Human Clansmen had already won. They dominated 4 of the 6 areas of the battlefield, and contested strongly in the other two.
So Frostbound accepted defeat.
Had you asked me at the end of round 2, i’d have put good money on a Frostbound win, but the dice gods were not on their side.

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Conclusions.
First and foremost, i would say that both armies could have won, and a few dice rolls made all the difference.
Secondly, What did i think of the changes from Clash of Kings.
Ice Elementals were decent before, but they certainly pack a punch with the new version. The Icy Shards ranged attack on 4 is similar to Icy Breath, but the added bonus of Steady Aim will do a lot to this Shambling unit, especially in horde format. 18 shots hitting on 4s with piercing +1 is pretty sweet.
I had always liked Orlaf, prefering him over the Ice Blade, even though he doesn’t have Duellist. his one off Unstoppable Whirlwind usually sufficed. He rarely had to fight two heroes in a battle, and Ice Blade’s Duel only worked on Individuals, not big dragons or Giants etc. The Ice Blade is a sweet model though. Orlaf’s formation is a serious boost. They are seriously a nasty hammer. with no extra cost for the two handed weapons apart from the lowering of defence for the abandoned shield. An important question though. Is there a typo here as the stats for 2 handed weapons says 0 points to upgrade, but the formation says 10 each? with 420 overall cost of the formation.
The extra attack for the Lord helped too, giving 7 attacks with Snow Fox additiional bonus, is handy, and the option for mounted, although i’m not sure how beneficial that is when compared to a Lord on Frostfang.
My Elf Clansmen were never being used, as they were utter rubbish compared to the Ice Kin, but the upgrade might change that, although they are more expensive.

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with missile fire like the Ice Elementals, it makes buying Bolt Throwers farcical, at 2 shots a turn, and unable to move and shoot in the same turn for 95 points, and you get to use up one of your precious unlocking units war engine/monster/hero/titan . i have 3 Ice Kin Bolt Throwers now!

[Cartwright]

Thanks for posting all this. Ice elementals are pretty solid. The question is always whether they or snow trolls are the better value. I’m not totally sure at this point.

Agreed on bolt throwers. I’ve been practicing with one but don’t see it as remotely worth it yet.

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Thanks @Cartwright . I would have gone with Snow Trolls up until now, due to the shambling and the need for Surge to hurry them up, but I am now looking more at Ice Elementals

[Cartwright]

That’s the trickiest part. Point for point, they’re close. Ice elementals are shambling/fearless with a ranged attack, while trolls get cs(2), regen 5+, and have typical troll nerve issues. If you go ice elementals, you have to pay for ice queens, though, which makes them even pricier. It’s a close call.

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With either you are going to need an inspiring presence loitering about, but yes, either /or. At this point i’ve ended up with 10 Trolls including the Prime, and 6 Elementals. a bog standard Ice Queen is 80 points with the option to just have Surge, which could easily end up making her obsolete if the Elementals are wiped out. i’m still on the fence about Serakina , again, it’s a tough choice