5→ Thomas Aleksandersen’s Twilight Kin
Scenario: Loot
2300 points
Thomas has been trying out the new Twilight Kin and writing up battle reports on how the new Twilight Kin actually do “on the table”.
Which has been interesting and I enjoyed our last game, so I thought that I would like to see how The Fools do against the new scary stuff, with our new shiny stuff.
I wrote my thoughts on the new Twilight Kin in Thomas’ battle report thread.
My list changes and thoughts on the dwarf changes in CoK 2024 are here.
Lists
Some scary big stuff. The terror and big shield look difficult to deal with.
The mutants look like a significant threat. I can usually deal with a hammer units like that, but this list has other concerns that make coordinating against these mutants more difficult.
There are a load of tricks; all the individuals have tools to be disruptive. While I’m not relying on expensive hammers that can be messed with to do the work; I need my units to coordinate and work together.
In light of the CoK 2024 changes and the new Counter Charge Dwarf army review, I have changed my dwarf list a bit. Dropping bane chant to upgrade the lord on brock to a lord on beast.
There was a dark feeling looming over the hold, almost like when nighstalkers are close, but less hungry and more… malicious.
There were reports of elves capturing villagers and dwarf foresters, which sounds like the Twilight Kin have returned, it had been a long time since the last battle with them, and these were not the same foes.
The Fools met elves that had become part nightstalker on the battlefield; chasing down a few groups of villagers that were trying to escape.
Deployment:
After scout moves.
My intention is to be able to do something about it if the elves try to jump on loot tokens turn 1 and run away.
Which is the worst case for dwarfs in loot.
The brocks and potentially behemoth can charge anything that grabs the left token (dwarf right flank) and the rangers can do similar on the right. Anything that goes for the middle token has a lot of piercing (2) guns aimed at it.
The concern here is that I have split my attack, going for the side tokens and opting to shoot at anything that comes into the centre.
With the graveyard in the middle of my deployment zone it’s the most difficult to threaten, take and hold the centre objective though.
The right token looks like a job for rangers. Involves advancing into terrain and the blocking terrain makes it hard for my opponent to attack effectively on that flank.
I wanted to keep the flame priest away from the assassin and the beast lord is the only non-induvidual inspiring, so the lord on large beast deployed with the rangers.
The terror on that flank is a problem that arose during deployment. My list can’t deal with tough monsters.
Usually I mitiage the damage they do while having more unit strenght, but US doesn’t matter in loot.
Twilight Kin Turn 1:
The Twilight Kin move up. Threatening the token on the right and assuming defensive positions on the left.
The void skiffs put up their bloodhex (De 5+ for a turn)
To mitigate shooting while, out of cover and the only Twilight Kin unit that isn’t stealthy.
The brock troop on the right, that’s supposed to support the rangers takes some shooting damage.
They’re not going to last long, further unravelling my hopes for the right token.
The Twilight Kin hold back in the middle to avoid the organ gun. Which I actually prefer.
With the stealthy auras the organ gun would hit on 6’s.
It’s unlikely to do much, 1 or 2 damage, but is keeping troops off the centre token.
Dwarf Turn 1:
The dwarfs advance cautiously.
Weary of the dangerous units on the left; the impaler horde hits hard and the mutants harder.
Sharpshooters take aim at the phantoms on the hill.
I want them out of the way so that I can coordinate against the impaler horde and thier nerve is low enough that they might get shot off in one turn, but they hold.
Rangers don’t move to shoot better and don’t do very well anyway.
The brock troop charges before it gets shot off, only just breaking the assassin’s gnome glass shield.
The lord on large beast moves so that he can grab the loot if my opponent doesn’t.
Hopefully detered by the rangers in charge range.
Realistically, though, ranger regiments and hindered lord can’t do enough damage to deal with ensnare and regeneration.
They would need two turns with a poor regeneration roll and none of the units being routed by the terror or nearby units.
The terror has good odds or routing a ranger regiment in one go.
Twilight Kin Turn 2:
The Twilight Kin seem very bothered by my shooting.
The phantoms charge sharpshooters.
Dealing no damage on a hindered charge and routing the unit in the open.
The organ gun is denied targets again.
La’theal peeks through the woods and windblasts a regiment of rangers out of the game, dealing 6 damage to boot.
The other rangers are weakened and the assassin fights some brocks.
The terror grabs the loot.
Which means I’m not getting that token.
Not with a unit of rangers out of the count and the brock troop tied up by individuals.
The danger with going for the side tokens is that if something goes wrong with one then the units to help are on the other side of the table.
Dwarf Turn 2:
Heroics ensue!
A troop of sharpshooters rout the phantoms that failed to damage them!
I also start chipping away at the impaler horde and one mastiff gets under the big shields and does half of the 8 damage the impalers end up on.
Shooting at the impaler horde is part of putting pressure on the left flank, I need to get that token and move on to the middle.
Units move up on the left and a brock troop screens them and the loot on the left.
On the right flank the brock troop beats the assassin and the beast lord eyes the middle token (in hindsight, a turn too late).
The organ gun repositions, again, but gets a little too close to the terror…
Twilight Kin Turn 3:
The organ gun becomes a free pivot for the terror, which then traps the beast lord.
The to add insult to injury; the poor ranger regiment (that was covering the organ gun) gets windblasted even further out of the game.
The brock troop on the right succumb to dark magic.
The free phantoms slink behind the sharpshooters.
The fleetwardens on the left challenge the brock troop and do a lot of damage, but the brock troop likes it.
Dwarf Turn 3:
The solution to the phantoms behind my army it simply to keep going!
The brock regiment sidesteps out of charge range and everthing else moves up so thet the phantoms can’t get LoS past the sharpshooters.
The sharpshooters are not in as much trouble as it might appear. They’re in terrain and De 5+, so the triple attacks from the phantoms would be on 5’s and 5’s, doing an average of 4 damage. So probably a waver, 50/50 odds of a rout.
I’m behind on the scenario now, so I need to move to the loot tokens anyway.
For the scenario, the brock troop counter charges and is joined by the steel behemoth snd a regiment of ironclad.
The ironclad make the spacing so that the steel behemoth can grab the loot in the process.
The fleetwardens are crushed.
The ironclad and brocks advance too far and the behemoth turns to the centre.
In the centre the standard bearer takes 4 damage from hex to shoot with the sharpshooters, but the impaler horde holds.
The lord on beast opts to go down swinging.
The windblasted rangers ordered march to get back in the game.
Twilight Kin Turn 4:
Impalers spring into action!
The soulbane and horde engage in the centre, but the ironclad hold.
The regiments grab the centre loot and prepare to screen the left flank.
The phantoms sneak around in my backfield to keep the left ironclad in place.
On the left the ironclad don’t fare as well, getting shredded by mutants.
The navigator tries to tie up the behemoth.
The beat lord meets a tentacled end.
One regiment of rangers holds, but the windblasted regiment wavers.
Dwarf Turn 4:
The behemoth is taller than the navigator’s skiff and twice as long as it’s wide, so pivots and charges the mutants with the brock troop. Crushing them too.
Which makes room for the brock regiment to remove the navigator.
The ironclad don’t achieve much, but the shieldbreakers put 1 damage on the impaler horde and get a rout.
The ironclad that counter charged carefully turn out of the impaler regiment’s arc, which gives the soul bane a rear charge. 
The phantoms are seem off by my individuals.
The rangers on the right flank waver the void skiffs.
Twilight Kin Turn 5:
The impalers break through the dwarf infantry line as the terror gets involved (leaving the loot to the fleetwardens). Allowing the impalers to get in the way of my attack from the left.
The impalers with loot turn to run away, but turn their big shields away from the dwarf shooting.
The Twilight Kin are in full delay and run away with loot mode.
Dwarf Turn 5:
The steel behemoth keeps stomping and brocks keep munching.
If the rangers were hoping to break through and intercept the loot, but the skiffs held.
With the loot slipping away though, so my best bet is to shoot the impalers with loot and hopefully pick it up or draw.
The shooting isn’t enough.
Twilight Kin Turn 6:
My opponent sets out to neutralise my shooting.
The fleetwardens and void skiffs rout the rangers and turn to be useful in a potential turn 7. It has not been a good game for rangers.
The terror finishes off the shieldbreakers (and regenerates their work) and then backs up the block sharpshooter LoS to the impalers that are running away with the loot.
The cone puts weakness on the right sharpshooters for good measure.
On the left the standard bearer takes one damage from windblast and hex haunts him for a waver.
The soul bane stands in the brock regiment’s way.
Dwarf Turn 6:
I move everything up as far as I can for turn 7.
In so doing my individuals line up to give the terror a potential triple kill, but thst would get it out of the way of the sharpshooters, so fine by me.
My only hope is one shot at the back of the impalers though.
They have cover and stealthily, the sharpshooters are suffering from weakness…
I get one damage through and don’t get the nerve roll.
Turn 7
The void skiffs fly out of the woods to effectively block LoS to the impalers.
The fleetwardens go after the sharpshooters to get out of arcs and range.
The brock troop gets shot off (like I did to the phantoms).
None of my units can attack Twilight Kin loot holders, so I call it there.
Twilight Kin win.
After game thoughts:
As I have already alluded to; when aiming for the two side tokens in loot it’s difficult to help it if something goes wrong on one flank.
In addition to it being hard for dwarfs to help a plan gone wrong at the best of times. Ordered march really helps mitigate that though.
Loot is also a struggle for dwarfs that I am far from figuring out. 
Vengeance on brock riders feels right. Their damage was a little bit underwhelming before.
Low De enemies like in this game is where they really shine though.
For the list: I think I need hex.
It made a difference against lightning bolt (3) for my opponent and spells have given me a hard time.
La’theal’s windblast was effective this game, as was the crone’s weakness. I also ran into an Alchemist’s Curse mage recently. 
I can get hex from the library on my flame priest or a trickster’s wand for the price of Fire Oil and the orb.
Fire oil has never come into effect, but the Orb of Towering Presence seems like it might swing a game.
The question is which.
Putting the Trickster’s Wand on the lord of large beast gives great LoS from H4, but can be turned off by another Trickster’s Wand and he may have better things to do.
The flame priest is H2, but is in the list to inspire and cast spells.
So you don’t have to scroll up, my thoughs on the new Twilight Kin is here.
Mendeleev grumbled at the fel magic the Twilight Kin were using. It bodes ill. As does the word of a spell called Alchemist’s Curse.
He has always favoured the “flame” part of his profession over the "priest"part, but it seems that it’s rime to dust off his books and see if Fulgria can help him counter some of this magic.