@Cartwright was kind enough to squeeze in an afternoon game with me recently. We threw down in Battle 025 in a game of Loot and opted for a rematch between some of our more unfamiliar armies: Ogres for me and Undead for him. Our lists ended up with the same amount of both drops and Unit Strength, so we figured we’d be in for a tough battle!
The Ogres tried out some Shooter Regiments and a Boomer Horde, as well as the two unique Ogre characters, supporting more typical Warriors and Siege Breakers.
The Vampires tried running a few battle groups: duos of Soul Reavers + Deathpack and Wights + Wraiths, along with a mighty Vampire Lord on Undead Dragon.
These are both still very new armies for us, and I think we both learned a lot. We’ll see what a future re-rematch may hold in store! Thanks to my opponent for fitting this in during the work week!
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Good game! You downplayed how lopsided of a beating this one was 
Hopefully next time I can give a better showing.
I thought I deployed reasonably well, but that was as good as it got. You outplayed me throughout. The dice weren’t too swingy. I think mostly you secured a small advantage early on and kept pushing it so I never had a chance to bounce back. Well played! Looking forward to next time.
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I couldn’t be bothered to figure out how to use the spoiler tags. Plus the scenario result was still just a respectable 2-1 split. 
I am looking forward to the next games as well! I gotta sit down and figure out what to test out next.
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Thanks for the report! Wow was that bloody!
Shout-out to Grok for still being an absolute unit. That dude always blew me away in 2E and I appreciate that he’s still got it, despite being a rare sight thanks to his price tag.
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Indeed @Boss_Salvage! I wasn’t sure how he’d perform, but looked fun on paper. Grok is likely a combination of too expensive and too swingy for more competitive play, but he is a casual player’s dream and was a lot of fun to use here!
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I got some weekend games in against @Cartwright, with the Forces of the Abyss against the Northern Alliance. The report for the first game is up now, and is Battle 026.
The Abyssals had a pretty standard core by my estimation, but a lot of unique army choices to test out, as well as my newly painted Tortured Souls. The Northern Alliance featured some combined arms, including a unit of Frostfang Cavalry, some potent Ice Kin Hunters, and a trio of Dwarf Clansmen Regiments to bolster Unit Strength and to help with scenario play.
We rolled up “Invade” for the scenario, and got to give his new Dwarf conscripts a proper test! My opponent ultimately played a good game and ran a pretty good list, though it was his turn to be frustrated with the Frostfang Cavalry horde, despite some glorious models.
Thanks for hosting me for the afternoon! Report for the rematch will be up soon.
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Good game! Your tortured souls are a fun unit. They combine solid stats and good rules to be a real match-up problem. They don’t pack much of a punch, but they’re good as thicc chaff, I think, that require some dedication to remove.
I’m sure someone is using frostfang cavalry well, but it’s not either of us. The 15/17 nerve means they die to concentrated shooting. You rushed yours forward and got shot off; I hid mine and ended up doing nothing except turning in circles on their massive footprint. Neither was a good use of points.
Fun game! Thanks as always for the write-up.
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It is really a shame about the Frostfangs. They are just too expensive to charge out without support or a plan, and it’s hard to screen or protect them. Your bear-cavalry Hussars looked really cool, but yeah, neither of us has figured the unit out yet.
The Tortured Souls didn’t actually seem to do much either game, but these were still good test outings for them and I am liking their potential. Lacking Nimble, I think early positioning becomes really important to get the most out of them. The Forces of the Abyss have an abundance of chaff options, so I think chaff choice will be a balancing act for the army going forward.
It was a good game and I learned a lot.
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And our immediate rematch is now posted, and can be found here, in Battle 027. Same armies but different lists in a game of Dominate.
The Northern Alliance brought some Snow Trolls and a legendary frost giant to help out all their dwarfish and elfish infantry, making for another pretty nice combined arms list.
I am still fascinated by the idea of multiple small units play, and tried to do up a list for the Abyssals to explore that a bit. For Kings of War, with our discounts on larger units, MSU is pretty hard. My Kingdoms of Men don’t do it well at all, since the only thing they really have going for them is being cheap, and smaller units negates that advantage. Perhaps Abyssals, with their regeneration and so many units capping out at regimental size, could have some luck?
I had a few big setbacks early on, but was able to pull it back for a competitive ending. Writing up the report though, I found I had some rules goofs with the Chroneas, though thankfully the errors don’t look to have swung things too hard.
A special thank you to @Cartwright for hosting and for the games!
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That was a fantastic game. You had a brutal turn 1, and it looked like I’d run away with things. But you then outplayed me throughout and turned things around. I’ll let people read the post so won’t spoil the ending, but what looked like a blowout came right down to the wire.
I don’t think the rules goofs had any impact. That’s the tough part of playing multiple different armies! The flamebearers continue to be a headache–either I invest disproportionate resources to neutralize them, or they each add 2-3 wounds per turn for 6 turns and make me pay the price.
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Thanks for the reports! Second one was particularly solid, nice high-unit count armies on both sides makes for more movement and a more dynamic game.
Bummer about Ba’el getting trapped in place and then splattered! But I feel like the Oathbreakers came into their own, tho as you say, an Abyssal Guard regiment with CS1 might have done the same?
I’m a big fan of the Chroneas, Cloak is amazing and Strider Me 3+ makes me happy, especially on a small square base. On the hammer Succubi, I will point out that brew of strength is a mere 10 points more But then I genuinely do not like the hammer and always do my best to put a De 3+ unit into hammer bearers when able 
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Yeah, with the rules-goofs the only thing I could not remember is if the Oathbreakers got really lucky on their first Nerve check or did need a reroll that they should not have had. Thankfully the over-heal didn’t really matter, and everything else around the Chroneas routed like they should have, from what I could recall. Otherwise, yeah, this was a heckuva game @Cartwright!
That is a good point about the Brew vs the Hammer @Boss_Salvage. I think I need to go back to the drawing board entirely with the Succubi though. A 200+ point Def 3 regiment doesn’t seem like a good purchase. For 10 points over the Succubi + Lurker + Brew, I could get another Chroneas! Despite the goofs this game, the Chroneas is still looking like a very fun monster.
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I got in two games this weekend against the forum’s own @Mitch_novem. The first is Battle 028, with the Varangur vs Salamanders in a bloody game of Dominate.
I’m still finding my footing with the Varangur, but they are proving to be a lot of fun. For this game I ran a list of mostly new things, trying to explore a variety of the army’s infantry options and a pair of Cavern Dwellers.
- The Cavern Dwellers are similar to the Abyssal’s Chroneas, a “mini-giant” but without all the fancy damage manipulation rules and powerful Cloak of Death. They are also pretty comparable to a Lord on Frostfang as it turns out. Their biggest advantage seems to be just being on a 50mm base; able to squeeze in and deliver some good damage. They seem like fun and probably worth playing around with more in the future.
- The Draugr are really growing on me and did great work all day for me.
- -Huscarls do good work against anything if you can protect them.
- -Night Raiders with axes are … intresting? They are flexible, but I’m not quite sure how to use them yet, and this wasn’t a great match-up for them. More games are needed to figure them out.
Thank you to Mitch for the games! A report for the rematch we played will be up later this week.
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thanks again for the games! These last two games are showing me I need to really invest in chaff and smaller units. Big stompy units are nice, but if they get stuck only fighting other chaff then they are basically useless. Built a few new lists, so I am excited to try them out next time!
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Thanks for the report! I feel like this was a textbook game of delaying tactics buying time for hammers to strike, well done. He said without spoiler tags 
Looking forward to the next one!
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I had a great time! While writing I was wondering if Fire Elemental Regiments might work with your more elite playstyle? Kind of fighty-chaff to assist your infantry? Regardless, I’m looking forward to the next games and seeing what you field next time! Thanks for fitting these games in Mitch.
Thanks @Boss_Salvage, yeah, things worked out nicely for me here, and it was a good clean game.
Magnilde tanking units worked better than I was thinking it would, which opens the door a bit to testing out a cheaper Lord on foot, maybe with a fancy banner. The army has way more options than I originally thought and it’s been fun exploring so far. More to come from the Varangur!
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And our immediate rematch, Battle 029, is now up. We got Raze for the scenario and each switched up our respective lists to try out some other things.
The Varangur brought a cavalry-focused list with three regiments of Mounted Sons and two Magus Conclaves to soften up the Salamanders before the charges. The Salamanders brought two heavy fliers and a lot of heals to keep their elite units up.
The final tally ended up being incredibly close, and the dice made the game quite memorable. Thanks to Mitch for fitting these games in!
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March has been stressful for me, so I was quite pleased to get in two games in recently against the forum’s own @Mitch_novem.
The first game was Battle 032, with Push as the Scenario. I brought Jabberwocks, Night Raiders, and several groups of Mounted Sons. Despite not having much shooting to get the blood flowing, the Jabberwocks both did far better than expected, even without their Feeding Frenzy rule coming into play much. Just being cheap, Nimble monsters makes them pretty fun to run.
The second game was Battle 033, with Plunder. This list swapped out the Jabberwocks for a Frost Giant, but kept most things the same, since I was traveling. The Frost Giant was interesting, but a bit disappointing in this situation. He’s got a breath attack ability, but it’s not likely to do much, and here he took the Rampage upgrade and then got stuck fighting monster-sized units, which was a bummer.
In both games, the Draugr continued to get in the way and impress and the Mounted Sons performed well as a cheap but potent cavalry threat. The Night Raiders performed well, but had some hot dice, so it’s hard to say just how good they actually are. The axes seem really hard to use well with only a 12" range, so we’ll need to take them for another outing at some point.
Most of the folks that read and post in this thread have already seen and posted there, but my opponent is soliciting advice in another forum thread, so feel free to check that out, and thanks to those that have already given him some feedback.
Cheers, and thanks for reading.
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Wow I’ve never seen a match where one player just did nothing But I give the Sallies props, since you seem to keep kicking them first turn out of indecision yourself, so well played?
Weird game was weird, with floppy dice in the early rounds keeping the chaff wars from resolving in your favor and snake eyes keeping you from wresting the mid-game momentum. Hard to punch through bad luck some times 
Also, only list comment from me is that this game seemed to validate the prevailing theory that slayer is better on Giants than rampage. Plus it gives him an edge in the wonderfully photogenic titan vs titan match-ups, and we battle reporters know that’s half the reason we’re playing
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I will be completely honest, I was feeling pretty low that day and brought those sour feelings into the games I played. Bad luck didn’t help me at all, and through no fault of my opponent I was not having too much fun. I was a bad opponent myself, and I already apologized profusely to @TastyBagel during the day. The first game hit me pretty hard with the bad dice rolls, as despite what I thought was good placement and tactics nothing worked and I kind of checked out of it pretty quickly.
Honestly the first turn stall was something I learned from Age of sigmar / Warhammer fantasy. My opponent and I both brough cav lists so it was really going to be who moved first. my opponent was a lot slower than me so he just turned it over to me after doing some buffs. It kinda worked for me until the last turn where I got some good units wiped out.
Which is why I opened that thread. Something isnt working right with Sallies, and I dont know if it’s me or my army list. I will probably try out the suggestions you had for a list, and see if that makes a difference, but I may abandon the army all together and go for a list like Northern Alliance or something.
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