Played for the first times in months yesterday, was good to get back into it! Proxied Trident Realms (minis are still in the mail from miniature market’s most recent wrath of kings blowout) against my pal’s Undead. First game was Dominate, 2000pts, and my list was roughly:
- Horde of Naiads with Brew of Strength
- Regiment of Naiad Heartpiercers
- The Hidden Ones (the character Thuul regiment)
- Horde of Depth Horrors
- Regiment of Tidal Swarm
- Two hordes of Gigas in the King Crabs formation
- Two Knuckers
- One Coral Giant
- Two Naiad Envoys, one with Heal and Shroud of the Saint, the other with Weakness and Banner of the Gryphon
My opponent’s Undead:
- Two hordes of Skeletons and a Necromancer in the Army of Darkness formation
- Two regiments of Soul Reavers and Lady Ilona in the Thirstful Coven formation
- A regiment of Werewolves
- Revenant King on Worm (no wings) with the surge artifact
- Barrow Wights (the character Wight horde)
He got first turn, and advanced somewhat cautiously, apart from the Werewolves who went deep to threaten a flank. I moved up, keeping my Gigas safe while threatening the center of the board, but put my Hidden Ones a little too far forward and got them charged by Lady Ilona and one of the Soul Reavers, which popped them and left some real trouble on my right flank. From there it was a struggle to tread water, and I had real trouble concentrating my forces enough to overcome his healing and lifeleech. A Coral Giant made a heroic stand against Ilona, a horde of Skeletons, and the Werewolves, holding them off for two turns, but in the end it was just one unit of Gigas and the Heartpiercers, and I didn’t have nearly enough unit strength to contest the center.
Things performed fairly well, I had trouble getting the Gigas into position with their low speed and overextending the Hidden Ones was a critical error, but I was fairly impressed with most of the pieces. Ensnare in rough terrain is crazy strong, especially with Pathfinder or Strider, and I quite liked having the spell selection on my Inspiring pieces.
The second game was Ransack at 2250, fairly similar lists, but I added Eckter and Teleport on one of the Envoys, and my opponent added a regiment of Skeleton Spearmen and two troops of Skeleton Archers. I got a Knucker on the left flank killed (his Spears managed to do it a wound, stripping its nimble), but it cost him some time, so the Gigas had an easier time getting into the action. I also had better threat projection against his vampires, with Naiads, a Coral Giant, and a Knucker abusing rough terrain. My dice were cold in the first half of the game, but made a sharp turn on round three, when I managed to pop Ilona, overrun into Soul Reavers and rout them, and one of the hordes of Skeletons elsewhere on the board. I’m pretty bad for not thinking about objectives early enough, so by turn five I was quite far ahead on the board but in a pretty bad scenario position, but I managed to charge Eckter and two Coral Giants into his Barrow Wights which were contesting the central 3pt token, and my Naiads and Envoys made a tough enough screen to keep him off of it.
Obviously a better game for me, with the biggest factors being hindered ensnared charges really blunting my opponent’s offense, and that mid-game dice spike saving me from having to grind with his superior attrition pieces. I definitely got too greedy on the offensive end of things and didn’t play enough to the scenario, so that’s something I’ve got to watch for, as well as maybe looking at some smaller pieces to contest more widely. Troops of Heartpiercers perhaps?