Regnum Aeternum - Written Battle Reports for KoW 3rd Edition

Kings of War Battle Reports / Games
345

Thanks for more reports! Wading into them now.

A terrain thing that I noticed a while back but haven’t commented on, in the Northeast / Mid-Atlantic, the standard height for woods is 9 and impassable (houses, etc) is 6. Functionally pretty similar depending on your physical terrain sets so eh but a difference I keep wanting to point out at least anecdotally!

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346

I got three more Ambush games in over the holiday weekend, and all are up now.
Battle 124 Varangur vs Dwarfs
Battle 125 Ogres vs Varangur
Battle 126 Varangur vs Halflings

As-ever, it doesn’t take much to get an advantage and snowball it to a victory in Ambush, so I’m not dwelling too long or digging too deeply on any of these. My quick takeaways…

  • To Boss’s terrain point… Ambush tables are cluttered with terrain, and in retrospect, all these games would have been a great opportunity to have run some unusual terrain… Height 3 Blocking skulls; super-tall forests; weird hills; etc. I’ll need to keep that in mind for next time the odd skull terrain hits the field, or whenever we do circle back to Ambush games again.
  • I like the Bows on the Varangur Night Raiders as the default. I will revisit axes now and then to see if I can find some niche uses, but as the games get bigger, I think the bows will get more and more attractive as the Raiders can pressure a bit and be more difficult to engage.
  • I am undecided on the default loadout for the Varangur Horse Raiders. If you need to force fights, axes could be worthwhile, but Snow Foxes are likely better chaff, and I think bows are probably still better as the default here as well, since it gives you the option of being cagey, but more testing is needed.
  • The middle game featured my Stormcast Ogres. I liked the Warrior-focused MMU, though it is only viable in Ambush, since you need hordes to unlock much more. They are the large infantry army though, and always seem popular, so it’s probably beneficial to keep a working familiarity with the roster. I don’t think my collection is deep enough to really explore the army fully (that’s just talking about Stormcast minis and Ogres; but I also lack Goblin equivalents currently as well), but I’ll try to get them on the table a few more times during this year’s league, and explore them a little more.

League games tend to dominate meetups, but I’ll try to fit in some larger games when I can. We’re at least escalating quicker this year, and the games in June will be 1200 points, and on larger tables, so those should be a little more exciting and engaging.

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347

I agree on the bows for night raiders.
12" shooting is nice to instigate a charge with other infantry or to deal some damage when moving into charge range.
It has to be on something that can take a charge though.
Like dwarfs with mastiffs or historical heavy infantry with thrown weapons.

“Light troops” that want to harass the enemy with some plink damage, but don’t want to take a charge are much easier to use with longer range.
Piercing and steady aim is tempting though. Something nimble and fast enough to get out of charge arcs could work with 12" range. So the horse raiders look like a better fit for throwing axes.

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348

The best matchup for the throwing axes. :upside_down_face:
Note, though, dwarfs only charge 8" and ironclad is a different unit to ironguard.

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349

Aw geez. Nearly a dozen games against the Imperial Dwarfs and now I start donking up my terminology. :sweat_smile: Thanks for pointing that out! All 30ish goofs should be corrected now.

For the Night Raiders, if the axes could be finishing off a unit, things change, but I feel like that would be a lot of setup and rather unlikely in this army. (Though I will try that approach when I can run triple Magus Conclaves) The majority of the time, I think they’re only going to get one round of tossing, so overall, I feel like the axe / throwing mastiff comparison you make is really astute.

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350

One of my clubmates is headed to Masters this summer with his incredibly ravenous Halflings, and was asking to sneak in some big games at the June League meetup, ideally against alpha-strike, flying circus, or otherwise mean and speedy lists. I was already set on bringing the Abyssals to the meetup, and not wanting to lug around multiple bins, I tried to split the difference between a number of competing factors, and ended up trying out some aggressive Abyssals. Battle 127 can be found here.

Battle 127
Battle 1271920×1440 146 KB

  • The shiny new Berserkers underperformed on their rolls, but even still, dished out good damage. Chatter about them late in 2024 got me interested in the Herd Lycans, and I think there might be a parallel there, in that they really want to use their speed to flank stuff, but table space is limited, so there might be diminishing returns the more of them you run. (Ray Shields offers a bit of a counter-point from his affiliated channel and from the top table at a recent tournament, though player skill is a factor in him getting to that point.) I ran them stock here, but I think giving them items is the way to go, as they are expensive and central enough to most game plans that you really want them standing out and doing well for you.
  • The Horsemen gained Fearless in the revamp, and it did save a unit from a waver. I like the change, but they are just a grindy cavalry unit, and one needs to support and protect them better than I did.
  • The Sacrificial Imp change is neat but niche. I did not get first turn, and had a unit get shot off before I could activate it. I then popped it on a few units, which were then ignored in the subsequent round. Technically this influenced his targeting decisions, but still felt underwhelming. Thankfully it is cheap! It’ll take some experience to see what feels right though and not every unit can take it (Yes to Berserkers and Guard and Flamebearers and Lowers, No to Molochs and Succubi…),
  • I took The Manifestation of Ba’el and Zaz the Betrayer to bully a flank with lighting, and then pressure with the flier. Lightning doesn’t work well against ravenous Halflings with Spellward, but can work as intended against the Tinkerers, like the Grenadiers, which is what I was banking on this game. Each legendary pick is fine on its own, but I think they are better together, but more testing is needed if this is the way I want to run the army typically.

Overall, not a good showing from me! I tried to build a unique list a little out of my comfort zone with a rusty army, and that fell completely short against such a well-oiled list and a precise player even before we factor in the dice. These aggressive lists need to work in concert to be making multi-charges, and that is not how I played it. I am learning more what I need to be doing, but have yet to really internalize it during the deployment phase particularly, and I have a long road ahead of me for working on aggressive lists!

3 Likes
351

Don’t be so hard on yourself. The dice didn’t help and it sounds like your opponent is an excellent player with a tuned and practised list.

On the list, I think that leaning into what a list offers is a good rule of thumb.
Abyssals have regen and fury, so being aggressive and getting in a slog is takes advantage of what they offer.

I got into KoW with Forces of the Abyss, so I have a soft spot for them, but it seems very different to the list I used to play.

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