Regnum Aeternum - Written Battle Reports for KoW 3rd Edition

Battle Reports / Games
284

I am very far behind on writing and posting and sharing here. I’ve gotten 5 games in with Command Dice. I’ll hold off on the majority of my commentary for now, but quickly, if one person has the physical dice, it’s not as big of a barrier to entry as I thought it would be. It’s still too messy and too complicated for the impact it has on the game imo. More testing (and blabbering) to come as I stumble forward and learn more. Up now though are two games from my Undead, playing two very different lists, and trying to explore the army roster more.

Battle 095
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Battle 095 was the new Protect and Raze scenario, with Undead MMU (regiments of Skeletons and Soul Reavers) against Def6 Imperial Dwarfs.

  • I didn’t even Shamble much, but the movement phase one turn broke my brain, as the Def6 Dwarfs had more units, speedier units, and killier units than me all at once. Rude. I should leading in the first category most of the time; I was just getting out-played a bit.
  • Still, MMU looks viable (and fun), as cheap skeletons and zombies looks like a great way to get drops, board presence, and unlocks.
  • They didn’t have good luck as the game progressed, but triple Soul Reavers seems viable (and fun) as well. Not so sure about Hann’s, but Chalice for Fury and Ale for Headstrong seems like two good takes for these. My opponent definitely underestimated them to start, which is unlikely to happen again, so we’ll see how they do in the future. Relative to other hammers (Wights), I think these are easier to hide, so a mix of hammer might be a good call in the future.
  • Revenant Wyrms continue to impress. Non-shambling, Striding, and a longer charge-range is great, and they continue to play very nicely with Undead ASBs.
  • Revenant Cavalry continue to be a nice pick for the extra threat too, and also have the nice interaction with the Undead ASBs. I really like the keyword interactions in the Undead list, and hope to explore that more (Zombies/Necromancer aura; Skeletons ASB aura; even Ghouls and Ghast aura) in future games.

Battle 096
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Battle 096 was the new Compass Points, with my data-driven Undead (building off of the army review from Data and Dice blog) against the blog’s author and his jack of all trades Sylvan kin.

  • The army analysis only addressed units, so there was still plenty of points to play around with, and I think I did a good job filling in the spaces. I think taking those analytics as a starting point isn’t a bad idea at all. Looking forward to some more army reviews!
  • In both games I struggled with positioning and the Undead Skeletons in the mid-game. They are starting each game out ok, and think that’s a viable way to run them. More practice is needed to squeeze a little more juice out of them as the games go on though.
  • I’ve been playing around with Celestial Restoration for a while, and this is the first game it’s really popped off. Towering monsters and units are good recipients, but have the main targets being higher defense units really helped out as the Resto could spike and keep good pace with the incoming damage in ways it couldn’t really do with the generally Def4 Herd.

Two great games against two great dudes. I had a blast exploring the Undead some more!

I just broke 100 games, so I’ve got more reports coming soon!

3 Likes
285

I like the skeleton theme and trying out regiments.
I’m taking spear regiments for the same reason.
I’ve been eyeing a giant skeleton model for my revenant on burrowing worm, as it’s basically a giant profile. So it’s interesting to see how they do.

The lich seems like a lot of points for one spell that’s tricky to use. I’d want more utility or to get cheaper healing.
Like a necromancer with periscope, drain life, surge and maybe veil of shadows.

That was a tough dwarf list.

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Strong agree on the under-equipped liche, a hero I’m otherwise more cool with than actual Undead players. Upon reading that report I was inspired to tweak the list, which has sat in my notepad until now:

Undead [2300]

Skeleton Warriors (Infantry) Regiment [85]
– Two-handed Weapons [0]
Skeleton Warriors (Infantry) Regiment [85]
– Two-handed Weapons [0]
Skeleton Warriors (Infantry) Regiment [85]
– Two-handed Weapons [0]
Skeleton Spearmen (Infantry) Horde [185]
– Undead Giant Rats [10]
– Hann’s Sanguinary Scripture [10]
Soul Reaver Infantry (Infantry) Regiment [245]
– Chalice of Wrath [15]
Soul Reaver Infantry (Infantry) Regiment [245]
– Dwarven Ale [15]
Soul Reaver Infantry (Infantry) Regiment [235]
– Staying Stone [5]
Revenant Cavalry (Cavalry) Troop [115]
Revenant Cavalry (Cavalry) Troop [115]
Liche King (Hero (Infantry)) 1 [175]
– Talisman of Silence [15]
– Mind Fog (2)
– Surge (10) [40]
– Heal (6) [40]
Liche King (Hero (Infantry)) 1 [170]
– Surge (10) [40]
– Heal (6) [40]
– Mindfog(2) [10]
Undead Army Standard Bearer (Hero (Infantry)) 1 [80]
– Shroud of the Saint [25]
– Heal (3)
Undead Army Standard Bearer (Hero (Infantry)) 1 [80]
– Lute of Insatiable Darkness [25]
– Bane Chant (2)
Revenant on Undead Great Burrowing Wyrm (Hero (Titan)) 1 [200]
Revenant on Undead Great Burrowing Wyrm (Hero (Titan)) 1 [200]

More healing! But the kind that allows you to be within 12" :stuck_out_tongue: Also the liches have other things to do when they aren’t healing, and while I think Surge (20) feels like more than the list needs, since it’s relying on vamps to do the lifting, it’s also on two very good chassis and allows for some jank with those CS1 skellies and, of course, the rev cav. By the by, really dig the bonky skellies, nice work on the modeling too.

Anyway! Enjoying the reports, nice to see command dice make an appearance. Saw you caught the limit on duplicating orders in a single turn :+1:

One other rules thing, if an attak has a set value (like the mansplitter’s throwing axe), you can’t add +D3 to it using the scythe/axe. This was an errata some time back targeted primarily at Goblin bangits IIRC.

2 Likes
287

That game was amazingly close.

A data driven approach sounds like a good idea!
It was interesting to see how well the cost-effective zombie trolls and worms did. Definitely makes me more interested in those units.
I’ll try out a skeleton spear horde too. Although I think multiple regiments offers tactical flexibility that’s hard to quantify.

4 Likes
288

Thanks gents! Covering a lot with my replies here…

With Speed 7, Inspiring and Spellcaster 3 to start with, I am very interested in trying out the Liche, but I think you are both correct in that the Celestial Resto is just too finicky a spell, and given his steep base cost, he needs to be doing more than hanging back and lobbing out weird heals. If I tool him up too much I might as well take Mhorgoth, but I’ll definitely experiment with him more going forward. Thanks for the feedback on him.

Lol, thanks for taking notes @Boss_Salvage ! And thanks for the Scythe/Axe correction. I always appreciate pointing out these rules foibles. I’ll hop back and add a little disclaimer there.

Our playgroup are all slowly wrapping our respective brains around Command Dice. I think there is a little more stumbling in the upcoming reports, but we’re all doing better. We have a local tournament in January that will be using them, so for whatever it’s worth, we’ll hopefully have some more informed opinions on them after that. I want to see if we can slip in a survey question or two for the attendees to try and quantify feelings at all… but we’ll see what can be worked in.

I have a few oddball Undead list ideas to test (a Ghoul-heavy list and also a Wight-heavy list), but I dig the Liche idea and the duplication, and I will try to fold that and some of your suggestions into testing soon. Higher Surge would play better in with the Wights and stuff anyways. :grin: I think the Horde is probably the better way to run the Skeleton Spearmen as a way to really block off a section of the table, and I really like your idea to use Rats and Hann’s to give them some more staying power.

I want to agree with @DarkBlack that multiple Spear Regiments have value. I think in terms of deterrence, I think there is a better-than-usual case to be made for the Undead, as 100 points for a Fearless 15, US3 regiment with Phalanx is pretty nice, but depending on both your list and the opposing list, it can be hard to keep them around as your late drops to get them where they need to be. I’m going to try to fit in some Spear Regiments a few more times, but my meta is mostly no cavalry / TC or super-extra scary Halfling cavalry (especially with the Command Orders for the Halflings…) with very little in between, so it ultimately they might not work for me. I’m currently hobbying up a few more units of Warriors with two-handers, which I think will be the direction my army goes for trashy space-taking regiments, but we’ll see. Spears may have a place.

A long while back when I was looking at getting into Free Dwarfs, there was (I think) a UK list that was using Spear Levy troops as its chaff, which was quite interesting. I ultimately decided not to emulate this with the Undead, since the draws for the Free Dwarfs in that list were that they could Scout (and did not Shamble). Skeleton Spear troops are -/11 for 65 points though, and a little picket line could be a wild alternative to try out down the road to throw in front of some cavalry units or help extend lines to connect battle groups of the Undead.

Overall, the data-driven basis was a very interesting jumping off point. I’m looking forward to digging into that a bit more with other armies as he (hopefully, nudge nudge) continues those, but even the general “meatgrinder”
summary had some neat things to consider, especially for the Forces of the Abyss. Keeping with the Undead though, both the Goreblight and Burrowing Wyrm popped up as efficient takes, so I would definitely recommend the Burrowing Wyrm to DarkBlack! A boney giant would fit right in. Striding charges, CS3, and the ASB interaction has made it a really strong and enjoyable pick for me so far.

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Battle 097
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Then, catching up on a little more reporting is Battle 097, with the Kingdoms of Men facing off against some Abyssal Dwarfs in Pillage. This was some tournament practice for my opponent, with the tournament being the Renegade GT (which was several weekends ago now… I am still very behind on everything), where you must spend an unlock slot on an allied hero (a Renegade), with a handful of special rules and such.

  • The Chariot Troops were pretty good at instigating and starting the piece trade, but did not have the luck to actually make the trades I was hoping for. :sweat_smile:
  • The Rampage Giants did not have great luck, with one getting maimed and wavered by shooting, and the others ultimately used recklessly. In retrospect, since charges into the Greater Golems would have been a better choice I think.
  • Outlaw Formation was neat. One of my mantras is to not run regiments, as the larger the unit the better the discount. This applies to troops as well, and I spread the Outlaws out this time. The Hero is usually great but had poor targets here, but the Troops are growing on me. With other shooting in the list (mainly the Crossbow horde, which continued to do well), the additional bow shots feel more impactful, and running them a ways apart felt much better too. They are still not the best formation as the troops still feel so expensive for still just hitting on 5+, but the formation has more uses than I gave it credit for a few years back. I could see it being used more often.
  • The Spear Hordes held ok, but were clearly outclassed, mostly fighting various Golems. The Def6 was tough, and the Golems have CS2 (CS3 with the titans), so were quickly losing combat instead of grinding. I think the double horde could be ok, provided I make better decisions in the early game.
  • Fanatics. The TC aura from the Mansplitter was neat, but the Fanatics are mostly a one-use unit and can’t really grind either, which was really needed against the Abyssal Dwarfs here. It was a fun build, but warping the list to include these was not a competitive choice.
  • Renegade Mansplitter. Boss already noted that the Scythe won’t trigger on the ranged attacks, so I got that interaction wrong. I did not use him well (should have been multi-charging with him a little more), but it was a fun build to try out, and a neat idea for a tournament. I have yet to see either attendee yet to ask how most people approached the Renegade option, but will try to update the reports with those thoughts, in the coming weeks, whenever I happen to see them next.
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:laughing::laughing: If only I could convince my boss that this is truly where my time should be spent…