CanCon 2017 Project

With my Grand Company of Westhaven project just about finished, I've been thinking about my next army. This will be for Cancon 2017, so I have about 6 months to get it done. I really want to push myself this time to make a great-looking army. I also want it to be fun to play, but I'm mostly going to go for looks.

I wanted something that people don't play in my local meta. That cut out:

• Dwarfs
• Undead
• Abyssal Dwarfs
• Ogres
• Orcs
• Elves
• Goblins
• Brotherhood
• Twilight Kin
• Basileans
• Forces of Nature

Leaving:

• Forces of the Abyss
• Salamanders
• The Herd
• Trident Realm
• Empire of Dust
• Night Stalkers
• Ratkin
• The Varangur

I also didn't want to buy a heap of old WHFB miniatures either, so that cut out a few more, specifically Ratkin, Salamanders, and Varangrrrrr. I also know some locals who have projects in the works, specifically Herd & Night Stalkers, and maybe EoD and Abyssals (if buying the mega armies counts).

So that left only one choice hey! The Trident Realm of Neritica! Since tentatively settling on them I've played a few proxy games, and I'm sold. They have a lot of opportunities for great hobby stuff, and I imagine most people will not have played them often.

My WIP 2k list

• 2 x Regiments Tidal Swarm
• Horde Placoderms
• Horde Gigas
• Horde Naiad Wyrmriders
• Kraken
• Coral Giant
• 2 x Leviathan's Bane
• Placoderm Defender with Wings of the Honeymaze
• Siren
• Trident King

Tidal Swarm: fantastic chaff. Unwavering, nimble, height 0, 75 points. I’ll use these to screen my flanks or to hold objectives. I'll either model up my own tentacle swarms coming out of water, or use Reaper Familiars, or both.



Placoderms: Def 6, 30 attacks, phalanx. I love this unit so hard. Will form most of the front line of my formation. Slow, but hopefully they will be able to take 3+ rounds of all but the most dedicated shooting before they pop. I would swap them for Naiad Ensnarers if I were playing a list I knew had no shooting, but my local meta is pretty shooting heavy so here we go. I will probably use regular Mantic Naiad models to represent this unit, but use some green stuff to make their armour look heavier, and model up a living coral barrier that moves around with the troops, explaining the high defence and low movement. I've never used green stuff before so will be a big learning curve.

Gigas: Slow, tough crab guys that will wreck face if you would just hold still for a minute. Maybe two.Will form the other half of my front line. Trying to clear Def 6 stuff with shooting is difficult, even if you’re using rifles or heavy crossbows. 12 crushing 3 attacks on 3s means most people won’t want these guys to reach melee. It's been hard to find cost-effective models for this unit, there just aren't that many scale-appropriate crabs out there! At this stage I'll get some 4" replica Chesapeake Bay blue crabs and see if I can paint and base them up nice.



Naiad Wyrmriders: A big hammer unit. 18 attacks on 3s with CS 1, TC 1 & pathfinder. I'll sit them behind my placoderm/giga front line so they get cover, and hopefully with their regen 4+ they will be able to survive any shooting long enough to get in. I'm having a hard time finding appropriate models for this unit. At this stage I'm leaning to an assortment of snakemen types: Snake Demon, Snakeman Warrior, but I'm open to suggestions.



Leviathan’s Bane: a great war machine, I think my favourite in the game. If I can get clear fire lanes for this one I’d expect it to consistently land wounds on enemy flyers, which will help a lot. Will keep my opponent honest while my deadly tide rolls up to their feet. I'm thinking of something different for this model, using an Evil Sea Priest to represent the war engine, rather than a balista looking thing. I'll try and do the base up something like this, with glowing runes and crashing water against the rocks. Will be awesome.



Coral Giant: will protect one flank. He's a giant, nothing too spectacular. The iron resolve and ensnare will make him a bit trickier to deal with, but he does have fewer attacks and lower nerve than regular giants. Reaper is bringing out an actual Coral Giant model with Bones 3, but it will be huge, way larger than the 50mm square base I want to put him on. I have a Reaper Marsh Troll already that I'm thinking of using, although he's a touch shorter than I'd like for a giant-sized model. Maybe I'll stack the base up so he's nice and high.








Kraken: honestly I’m mostly running this unit so I can use the very cool reaper model. Will cover my other flank. As long as it doesn't get flanked it will hang around for ages, noodling everything with it's noodly appendages. The model is enormous, and I'll have to get creative with my basing to make it fit up against other units, but I don't care. Look how cool it is.



Trident King: 12 P1 breath attacks is cool, very inspiring is very cool. I’ll sit him in the very middle of my formation and try to pop off individuals or turn and cover flanks/rears if something threatens them. Another unit that I'm struggling to find the perfect model for. I'm thinking a Reaper Goroloth with a mantic Naiad riding on top. The Goroloth model is a bit big really, about 20cm from tip to tail, and it needs to fit on a 50 x 100mm base. Maybe I'll be able to do something to the face tentacles to make them less obtrusive.



Placoderm Defender with Wings of the Honeymaze: shooting horde disruptor, war machine hunter, general pain in the arse. Defence 6 and 6 attacks on 3s make this a very powerful little individual. I saw this model in the cabinet at my FLGS and I just had to have it.



Siren: I love tricky stuff like Windblast, so this is right up my wheelhouse. I’ll use her to disrupt shooters, heavy cav, and enemy flyers (If playing the Clash of Kings comp pack). If we are not playing CoK, I’ll probably run a Thuul Mythician + Bane Chant and throw Brew of Strength on my Placoderms. There are a number of reaper banshee-type models that would be appropriate, still making up my mind.



For my bases, I'm going to use Green Stuff World textured rollers to make up rocks carved with dark runes and broken wooden planks to sit on top of dark rocks in stormy seas. Will have a lot to learn about water effects and resin casting, but I'm excited to learn.

The color scheme I'm still toying with. I want my army to have a menacing, cold & dark feel, none of this bright and flashy tropical stuff. I'm thinking dark scales, with glowing eyes and flashing teeth. I want to try some OSL effects too.









Thanks for reading, and and all suggestions welcome!

Kings of June Game 2 - Kill & Pillage! vs Goblins with Orc Allies

Trolls, trolls, and more trolls

For Game 2 I drew Tony & his greenskins. I've played Tony at every tournament I've attended so far, with a record of two losses and one extremely narrow draw (seriously, I needed a roll of 2+ to win the game). This time he was running his army as Goblins with Orc allies.

His List:

3 x Regiment Rabble

3 x Troll Hordes, one with Brew of Sharpness, one with Blessing of the Gods, one with Brew of Strength

Regiment Fleabag Riders with Maccwar's

4 x War-Trombone

2 x Big Rocks Thrower

Flaggit with the Boomstick

Wiz with Bane Chant and Inspiring Talisman

2 x Mincer

Giant

Orc Allies:

Regiment Gore Riders with Brew of Haste

Krudger on Winged Slasher with Medallion of Life

A fairly elite list, as far as Goblins go. Those troll hordes were going to be tough to deal with unless I could get into their flanks. 4 war trombones and 6 rolls of lightning bolt each turn were another headache. And then there was his flying Krudger. My main reaction on looking at this list was 'gross'.

Deployment 

Deployment

He chose sides. I had 2 more drops than he did, much to his surprise. With the terrain and placement of the pillage tokens, we were effectively playing on a 4'6" wide table. It lead to some tight deployment. Learning from last game, I made sure I had my spears matched up against his TC cavalry. I was mostly worried about his 3 hordes of trolls, 4 war-trombones, and his Krudger on a Winged Slasher. So a lot to worry about. Instead of using his Rabble as chaff, he seemed to be setting them up to take pillage markers. I thought he would put the allied Krudger near his allied Gore Riders, to inspire them. Instead he used his last drop to put it out on the far flank, where it would ultimately cause a lot of headaches.

Turn 1

Goblins Turn 1

He moved up, his Big Rock Throwers trying to snipe my knights.

Westhaven Turn 1

I also moved up, hoping to get my second wave perfectly positioned to counterstrike when he inevitably crushed my first wave. I backed my General up, nervous about getting charged by his Krudger. Took out one of his rabble units with some shooting, and put some wounds on his War Trombones. They were inspired by that flaggit though, so they held steady.

Turn 2

Goblins Turn 2

Oooofft. When the charge came it came hard. My halberd troops routed on my left, as you'd expect. My shield wall took 15 wounds but were only wavered, thanks to my very inspiring Wizard. To be honest I would have rather they routed. My Greatswords took 9 wounds, also holding thanks to inspiring. My spearmen couldn't hold against the double charge from the Krudger and the Fleabag riders. His war trombones took out my Hero as well.

Westhaven Turn 2

My wavered Shield Wall really gummed things up here. All I could do was shift my knights about in what was the most frustrating stage of the game. My spears were also wavered from the previous rounds shooting (thanks to the tromboners). It wasn't all bad. I double charged his giant and took it out, I put some hurt on his Fleabag Riders and Gore Riders, I put more wounds on his war trombones with my rifles, taking out one finally. But it wasn't the devastating counter that I needed. If my purple knights, swordsmen horde, and spears could have charged maybe it would have been enough.

Turn 3

Goblins Turn 3

He predictably routed my swordsmen horde and greatswords. He put a ton of wounds on my steam tank but it held. His Krudger ignored my General to go for one of my rifle troops in the backline. His war trombones peppered my purple knights.

Westhaven Turn 3

I double charged his center troll horde with my two knights regiments and routed it, thanks to getting a flank in. My rifles finally took off a couple more of his war tromboners. I thought I'd play funny buggers with my General and fly into his backlines instead of going toe-to-toe with a couple of mincers.

Turn 4

Goblin Turn 4

This was basically it for me. His trolls charged my Steam Tank and purple knights, routing them. The knights had a bunch of existing wounds from the war trombones so they didn't need much. In the biggest stinker of the day though his Big Rock Throwers ~both~ hit my orange knights, put 9 wounds on them, and they popped. His Krudger continued to clean up my rifle troops, and his remaining war trombone and lightning users took out my spears.

The rest of the game was basically to see if I would get completely tabled or not. We went to turn 7, and I was. 20-0 to Tony.

Result

This was the only time I've ever been completely tabled in KoW. It was pretty brutal. I got a little unlucky with my swordsmen wavering in the absolute worst place, and losing a regiment of Knights to his rock lobbers was just rude as hell.

But I also played pretty poorly. I wasted my greatswords and both spear regiments. I should have held in place Turn 1, letting him come all the way across the table to me. It would have given me at least 2 full turns of shooting before he inevitably charged me. Instead I made it a easier for him. My General did his job ok, tying up a lot of points of troops in a pointless game of ring-around-the-rosy. 

But in the end it was his 54(!) Piercing 1 breath attacks that sunk me. I just had no answer to it.

Kings of June Game 1 - Pillage! vs Abyssal Dwarfs

The resolute men of Westhaven clash with the Legion of Desolation

I drew Tim N & his Abyssal Dwarfs for Game 1, playing Pillage with 6 tokens. Tim is a regular in the Canberra KoW scene, and usually finishes at or close to the top of tournaments when playing his Abyssal Dwarfs.

My List:

Discussed here.

His List:

Horde Blacksouls
Regiment Immortal Guard with Diadem of Dragon-kind
Regiment of Decimators with Heart-seeking Chant
Horde Lesser Obsidian Golems with Brew of Courage
Regiment of Abyssal Halfbreeds with Maccwar's.
Horde of Abyssal Grotesques with Blessing of the Gods
2 x G'rog Mortars
Dragon Fire-team
Overmaster on Great Abyssal Dragon with Medallion of Life
Slavedriver with Healing Charm
Abyssal Halfbreed Champion
Supreme Iron-caster on Great Winged Halfbreed with Surge (10) and The Fog
Greater Obsidian Golem

This was his 'softer' list, for more casual games. Usually he runs three heavy mortars and two dragons.

Deployment:

Deployment

He chose sides, and deployed his units in a modified version of his infamous 'Cube of Despair' formation. The large amount of blocking terrain made things difficult for me to find firing lanes, but otherwise I thought I did ok. I had 6 extra drops, putting down my tank, knights, general and shield wall horde after he was all out.

Turn 1

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 1

He moved his cube slowly forward, and his mortars landed 5 wounds on one of my knight regiments.

Westhaven Turn 1

My shooting didn't do much, a wound here or there. I moved forward, hoping to secure better position to flank his cube as it moved forward. My hero rode off hoping to get into the war machines or Decimators maybe.

Turn 2

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 2

His Cube held in the centre, his flanks advanced, and his shooters put a few wounds on my right-flank spearmen, as well as my wizard. His halfbreeds routed my halberds on my left, but his champion was only able to wound the other troop. His dragon only managed to waver my mounted scouts on the charge, but we was able to move out of my horde's charge arc, the diagram is slightly wrong. The charge on my scouts suprised me, for some reason I thought he'd either charge my shield wall horde or back off.

Westhaven Turn 2

I continued to advance on the cube, shooting heavily at his Abyssal Grotesques. I double charged his Abyssal Halfbreed Champion on my left, hoping to overrun him and get my general to charge into the halfbreed regiment. Alas we were only able to waver the blasted thing. I pivoted my shield wall on my right, setting up a rear charge on his dragon. At this point I thought that I'd definitely be able to get into his flanks.

Turn 3

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 3

This turn I really got to see some innovative maneuvering. On my left he backed his wavered halfbreed champion out of the way, and then charged my General with his Halfbreed Regiment, landing 4 wounds on me. In the centre his blacksouls continued to advance, as did his Greater Golem. His wavered Grotesques gummed up the works though. But on my right he really surprised me. I was expecting him to charge my wavered scouts, kill them, and then reform to face my shield wall horde. Instead he pivoted and backed up, landing beside my shield wall (well out of charge arc). Then he used his breath attack to finish off my scouts.

Westhaven Turn 3

My shooting went pretty well and I managed to take off his grotesques. It really was death by a thousand cuts, my rifle troops just kept peppering away at it, and I think my cannon managed to hit it for 4-5 wounds as well. His healing was very unlucky, I think he healed 1 wound out of 9 rolls.

On my left my General and halberds troop did a few wounds to the halfbreeds, but not enough to waver them. I sent my mounted ASB over there to start healing up my General.

On my right my shield wall pivoted, setting up a flank attack on the dragon. This time, surely. My spears charged his Greater Obsidian Golem, and I think they did one wound.

In the centre I decided to engage his blacksouls. I knew this was probably a mistake, but I felt that with the grotesques gone, I might have a chance. I did 15 wounds to his blacksouls, but they held steady thanks to an inspiring re-roll.

Turn 4

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 4

He shot my spears to pieces on my right, hitting them with his dragon fire team, the diadem of dragonkind from his Immortal Guard, and lightning bolt. I had moved my spears out of inspiring range and they popped. This allowed his Greater Golem to get a flank charge on my Steam Tank ._.

His dragon continued to play funny buggers with my shield wall horde, again flying just out of charge arc and this time fire breathing on my wizard. My wizard is a tough little dude though and he only took a couple of wounds so sucked in dragon.

In the centre his golems charged my greatswords and crunched them, his blacksouls charged my knights and did a couple of wounds, disordering them. His halfbreed regiment routed my halberds troop on my left, and his champion slapped a couple more wounds on my General, wavering him. Things were getting dicey.

Westhaven Turn 4

I continued to chase his dragon with my shield wall. I was parked on an objective, so I didn't think it was a ~total~ waste of time. My General was wavered on my left, so I pivoted and backed him up, out of arc of the halfbreed regiment at least. In the centre I double charged his golems with my greatswords and a knights regiment, while I triple charged his blacksouls with the other knights, my spears, and a steam tank in the flank. That was wasteful overkill, I should have sent the tank into his immortal guards.

I took the blacksouls off, but the golems held. Def 6+ is tough hey.

Turn 5

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 5

Things just started to get ugly now. His halfbreed champion routed my wavered General. His Halfbreed Regiment took out one of my rifle troops, and pivoted to face the rear of my units. His golems crushed my greatswords, his shooters finally routed the wounded knights, his greater golem took out my silly steam tank, and his dragon decided it wanted some of the action too and flanked my spears.

I was expecting Tim's counter, I really was. I did ~not~ expect to lose damn near a third of my army in a single round though.

Westhaven Turn 5

I did what I could. I charged his Immortal Guards, but couldn't pop them in one go. My Shield Wall did their favourite thing and pivoted and sat on an objective.

In a pleasing turn of events my cannon managed to hit his halfbreed regiment for 6 more wounds and they popped so take that.

Turn 6

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 6

He just mopped up from here. We went to turn seven, by the end all I had left was one standard bearer with 4 wounds, my wizard with 5 wounds, and my shield wall with 6 wounds. 

Result

He held 3 objectives to my contested half of one, 17-3 to him. I never expected to beat Tim, even with his softer list. The dude plays his Dwarfs like a fiddle. But I had hoped to make a better showing of myself. I should have placed my shield wall in the centre, and left the flanks to my more mobile spear regiments. I should have made him engage with his blacksouls instead of charging them. I should have backed the halberds troops on my left with something more substantial than a single General on a Winged Beast.

I did notice how patient he is. He could have moved his cube forward quicker (for dorfs lol), but he calmly waited for me to make mistakes. He did the critical damage to me in Turn 5, instead of trying to get in earlier. I could probably learn from that.

My shooting did pretty well, the 4 troops of rifles are a lot more effective than the single horde.

Any suggestions on how I could have won this game (other than 'roll better') would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, Game 2 should be up later this week.

Kings of June Tournament Review

My local FLGS Three D6 runs Kings of War tournaments every two months. I've been attending since I got into KoW in February this year. They are on the small & casual end of the spectrum, and a great introduction to more competitive gaming for players who are used to just playing with friends. Most participants are Canberra locals, but we usually have one or two blokes drive down from Sydney as well.

Game 1 vs Tim's Abyssal Dwarfs

Game 2 vs Tony's Goblins with Orc Allies

Game 3 vs Mark's Elves

Yesterday was a 3 game 2.5k tournament with chess clocks, and we had ~8 players. I ran an MSU Kingdoms of Men list, won best painted (thanks lads) and came dead last. I'll write up reports of each of my 3 matches later, will probably take me a week or so.

The results:

Tied for first were Tim N Abyssal Dwarfs & Rowan K - Undead
Dave C - Brotherhood
Tom N - Twilight Kin
Tony W - Goblins w Orc allies
Matt C - Forces of Nature
Mark W - Elves
Tas S - Kingdoms of Men

Not particularly surprising to see Tim, Roland, and Dave at the top.

My List:

The Grand Company of Westhaven

2500 - Kingdoms of Men - The Grand Company of Westhaven

Infantry

• Shield Wall Horde 
• Foot Guard Regiment (with two-handed weapons)
• Spear Phalanx Regiment x 2
• Pole-Arms Block Troops x 2
• Arquebusiers Troop x 4

Cavalry

• Knights Regiment x 2
• Mounted Scouts Troop with carbines 

Artillery

• Cannon
• Siege Engine 

Support 

• Army Standard Bearer, Mounted, with Healing Charm
• Army Standard Bearer, with The Boomstick
• General on a Winged Beast
• Hero, Mounted, with Blade of Slashing
• Wizard, with Lightning Bolt and Bane Chant, and Inspiring Talisman 
• Beast of War with Light Ballista

While I had a fun day and all none of my games were close in the end, so that's a bit concerning. I'm not sure whether the main problem is my list or my generalship. I really hope it's my generalship because painting in my literally freezing garage of an evening sucks right now.

Anyway, actual battle reports to come.