The team names are hilarious!
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Yeah, the stacking, variable Brutal is a bit much imo. I think it usually tops out at Brutal 6 (d3 Grenadiers and a +d3 from Mama, though I think you could add the Pipes of Terror too), but I feel like this interaction gets looked at in the future, to just take the highest instead of stacking multiple sources of d3s. It’s … wild as-is. That said, Rob is not liking where the Halflings are, as that is one of their few tricks now. Trading Auras for Orders is tougher, and more limited, and lots of the nutty units (Juggers in particular) got hit with other nerfs and points adjustments, so he’s struggling a bit. Some of us are trying to get in more games quick before he figures things out again. 
Aha, yeah, that makes sense with the slide in Game 3. Eight games in three days, plus writing is a lot of my brain.
Kenny is … something else. A fantastic human and exactly what my soul I needed for the event. We all lost our minds in Game 2 when he wanted to surge charge out with the Water Elementals to see what would happen, as all of us said that was a bad idea, but him calling and then manifesting the Insane Courage hold was just ridiculous, even if it fizzled in the end. I lucked out, and random pairings was definitely the way to go here!
4 Likes
Alrighty, up now are all the tournament reports! The List Thoughts, and then the list for quick reference.
The Herd finally make it to a tournament table! I think Longhorns + Brutes are uniquely positioned to really punish and crack regimental-focused play, so was hoping to go up against Ogres and anyone trying to run toys over actual hordes. The tournament ditched our old “veto-and-pick” approach to streamline scoring and break ties, so I couldn’t dodge any funky scenarios, and didn’t quite get the match-ups I was hoping for. Still, we did well!
My opponent had Warrior Troops instead of Boomer Troops like some of the other Ogre players (4 in total), so this was a kind of list I was hoping to fight a few times! We had 4 Ogres players in attendance, so I was hoping this would be a bellwether. Not too much to say. My opponent was a bit cavalier with movement, and his dice didn’t help him.
I was hoping for a near-mirror match, and was not disappointed! My list did not want to fight tricky speed 10 fliers, though, and it doesn’t take much to lose a game against a good player. Two positioning errors let him steam roll me, and I learned a lot. Air Elementals might be something to add, if I want to make my list meaner.
We were up against our clubmate Joe and his regimental Orcs, though they had a nice shooting component to them. His Speed 5 Orcs had the same “engagement” issue my Speed 6 Herd have, but I think he was playing and adapting well as the event went on, using Ax regiments to force fights. But, regiments are what the Herd want to fight, and despite my dice making me work for it, we did very well here to end the day in 5th place overall.
I’ve play Jon a few times now, and he is incredibly patient. (It helps that he usually has speed on his side). He had a neat Abyssals list with just one source of Inspiring, since the army Nerve is pretty high. He second-guessed himself a few times, scrapping aggressive moves for a slow spiral, and with greater speed than I, I struggled to engage. Close game throughout, but a blowout at the end against me.
Game 5 vs Orc Riftforged Hordes & Morax
The last game of the event, against apparently another very calculating player! Who was running Orcs for some reason. Unfortunately, while I had several chances to win this at the end, I done goofed it, and we also goof the bookkeeping, and we get a tie.
It was not ideal conditions, but we still did well overall, and it was great to get the Herd on a tournament table after two years of durdling around with them. We finished in the top half of the field; were the best-finishing Wisconsin player; as well as the best-finishing FoN player too!
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It’s been a bit! I recently had the March meetup for Kings of War Wisconsin, and brought the Varangur.
Battle 023 was Varangur vs Abyssal Dwarfs in Seek and Destroy
I like the Abyssal Dwarfs, and my opponent’s army. The Golems are all very tough and the new(ish) slave-angle is neat. It’s any army that makes me think as it has a surprising number of tools. My opponent just overcommitted to my right. I got a bit lucky to pick up a few units and then start snowballing leads where it mattered more, and was able to keep it for the win.
Battle 024 was Varangur vs Halflings in Loot
It is always a tough game against Rob. I have some mistakes and got outplayed early, but the army had the resilience to endure, and I was able to survive and then manifest the Round 7 I needed to grab the win here.
Unfortunately the Varangyr army lost almost all of its uniqueness. Everything is expensive and the bespoke units for taking Magnilde are just decent, being both a bit difficult to utilize well, and hard to run in multiples. I definitely enjoyed myself, but I think plainer Northern Alliance is probably the way to go in most cases! We’ll see what 4E has in store for the Varangur in the coming years though.
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