Today me and Gernot managed to play our Grazer Conquest League duel – and let me tell you it was a bloody mess between his Old Dominion and my W’adrhun Tribe! I met Gernot the first time in person and he is just a great person to play with.
I was pretty exhausted because yesterday we arrived home late from a tournament in Slovenia – you will definitely get to read some tournament reports – and i decided to play the same infantry list as in the tournament which, retrospectively, gave me an unfair advantage for a friendly league game as i already knew how powerful this list can be…
Wadrhun marching to Ljubljana [2000/2000]
The W'adrhŭn
== (Warlord) Matriarch Queen [160]: Conquest, Roar of the Awe'khwge, Vision
* Warbred (3) [180]:
* Chosen of Conquest (4) [260]:
* Hunters (3) [150]:
* Braves (3) [125]:
== Chieftain [130]: Death, Death's Gaze, History
* Veterans (4) [210]:
* Braves (3) [125]:
* Slingers (3) [150]:
* Warbred (3) [180]:
== Scion of War [130]:
* Chosen of War (3) [200]:Gernot decided to rework his list he played, a week ago, in Salzburg at a tournament. If i remember it correctly it was something like this:
=== The Last Argument of Kings ===
Grazer League [2000/2000]
The Old Dominion
== (Warlord) Xhiliarch [130]: Skofnung
* Praetorian Guard (5) [250]:
* Praetorian Guard (3) [160]:
* Centaur Prodromoi (3) [150]:
* Legionnaires (3) [125]: Profane Reliquary
== Mounted Strategos [150]: Eleutherea, Giver of Mercy, Aura of Malice
* Kataphraktoi (4) [265]: Hetairos
== Archimandrite [110]:
* Legionnaires (3) [125]: Profane Reliquary
* Bone Golems (3) [210]:
== Hierodeacon [110]: Schemophore
* Cultists (3) [90]:
* Legionnaires (3) [125]: Profane ReliquaryThe scenario we played was Off-Balance.
Turn 1
Not much happened. He had his Hiero with Cultists and i nominated my Slingers and rolled in Hunters. He placed his Cultists defensively behind the Forest so i cannot see them with my Hunters because he was afraid of a massive Turn 2 advance and a volley inside the forest. I think this was a smart move.
Turn 2
I didn´t get any reinforcement rolls but my flanked MQ with her CoC as well as my nominated Chieftain inside his Veterans entered the field. He brought in his 2 Praetorians as well as the Legios with the Archi. He stood behind 24″ so my Slingers couldn´t move and shoot so they chanted and aimed for the objective marker – 1W done 😉
The Hunter aggressively advanced and wheeled a bit so my reinforcement line was at ~21″. I placed the MQ with her CoC rightwards the impassable tower in the middle but with the possibility to move them to the left depending on what he will field. But my goal was to get the objective on turn 3 with a massive 16″ move. (chant +3″ double-move with standard)
I was looking forward bringing some stuff from the flanks and gaining a lot of tempo.
Gernot brought his heavy infantry with the healer in between on his right flank with the plan to march through my slingers shooting, heal and contest my Chieftain. No scoring still.
Turn 3
I nominated my Scion of War and his CoW and rolled in my 4 remaining medium units while he nominated his Bone Golems and rolled in all but one unit of Legionnaires. A lot of “delay-shenanigans” but my last action really won the right flank for me. As my Hunters were very aggressivley near the half of the table they threatened 24″ (with their Momentum chant and possbile 18″ shooting range + 6″ movement). Gernot knew he had to do sth about this flank and massively reinforced but with my hunters and my last action they managed to inflict 7(!!) wounds to his Bone Golems. (i aimed and hit about 8 shots and he saved 4 but 3 6s were rolled so deadly shots kicked in badly). With his last card he brought in the Prodromoi aggressively but my Warbred were both waiting on my flanks for their turns to crush through the enemy lines…
As you see in the picture i think i had by far superior positioning as my Braves blocked a possible charge of the Kataphraktoi with 2 big regiments to countercharge. And on the left my CoC stood before the Zone. I was more afraid of the Praetorians so i thought they´ll survive easily to the Bone Golems and Prodromoi. With his Dark Power being only Tier 2 at this time i wasn´t too afraid of loosing supremacy.
I scored both zones which gave me a comfortable 5-0 lead in this, generally, low scoring scenario.
Turn 4
Blood had to be spilled this round for sure. I had no reason for my supremacy this turn as i lacked chantmarkers to do a greati combo. I also didn´t want to move my CoC and my Warbreds would both be out of position if i charged with both of them. I remember i had selected Warbred as my first card as with the Chant token they`ll create i could either charge the Kataphraktoi or his Prodromoi by evoking their Penitence. I would although need my History + one unit in between to activate the Penitence of the other Warbred. Nevertheless i selected Warbred on 1 and 2 to save either my Hunters or support my CoC by doing a march-charge-action in the Prodromoi. However i still thought MQ supremacy is wasted this turn.
Gernot won supremacy and went first with his Prodromoi. He charged my Hunters followed by a Clash they didn´t do too much. 13 wounds so my Hunters stayed alive. Easy for me as i activated my left-flanking Warbred, evoked their chant, and was auto-in because Gernot came too close with his Kataphraktoi. After the game he said he smelled the charge but then he could countercharge the flank with his Praetorians and heal back up the Kataphraktoi. The Warbred though swung their columns and with cleave (3) – i chanted war for +1 – they nearly pulverized the Kataphraktoi. One stood his ground with 2 wound left. Holy shit the 19 attacks (+3 from Fury) really kicked in!
Gernots Praetorians although whiped my Braves as he needed to come on the zone to get some points with me standing strong on both. My Slingers got to fire in the flank of the Praetorians but the lost stand was healed back up. My Veterans got the flank-charge and with 15 impacts and a clash aided by flurry i killed all but one stand of his Praetorians.
On the right flank my MQ with her CoC managed to deal 1(!!!!) wound to the Bone Golems but they also didn´t suffer that much from Spells, Shooting, Aura of Death and Bone-Golem-punching. They stood their ground and Gernot couldn´t even think of coming on zone. My other Warbred charge-clashed his Prodromoi but the survived with one stand and i got a flank-charge by his Legionnaires who managed to kill one of my brutes.
I scored both zones and lead a 10-0. We traded some units but i think it was highly in favor for me with my CoW approaching slowly to the right zone.
Turn 5
I decided to take my supremacy because i was looking to finish off his Kataphraktoi und Charging into his Legios to cripple him one more round so he couldn´t compete for the zone – with my 2nd unit being the MQ in her CoC to hopefully finish of the Bone Golems.
i thought it wouldn´t matter if i go first or 2nd. If he would go first and activate his Bone Golems i would still stand and heal back up. If he would activate his Kataphraktoi and kill my Warbred i would have activated my other Warbred to finish of his Prodromoi and make some Damage to the Legios. (split attacks) But getting the Kataphraktoi would be huge and my preferred activation.
I won this supremacy so it didn´t really matter. However i went with the save choice to gor for MQ first to heal up if he chooses his Karaphraktoi first and went with Warbred second. I healed, chanted, was blessed, rolled away his aura of death and tried my luck for an uninspired blessed clash so i could charge his Legios or Cultists. (3/4 Clash with reroll doesn´t make that big of a difference anyways) I succeeded in killing the Golems ans charged the Legios to deliver 10 Impacts. Followed by my Warbred taking out his Kataphraktoi the game was pretty much over. I finished off his Xhiliarch – scored another 2 for killing his warlord – while he finished of my 2nd unit of braves and the Warbred on the left.
We decided to call it a game after that round as not much was left standing on his site. The Scion of War was late for fighting, like in my last 3 Games i played at a tournament in Slovenia (report is coming this week) but he would have smacked the last splitters of Hazlia out of my opponents! 🙂
Sorry for the last picture but we started putting away our miniatures. (you see the empty bases on the back, this is were Gernots last Legionnaires were standing) The other units are in place as they were when we ended our game.
Summary
Oh yes i really like how i made this list work and after 4 games i get a good feeling on how to play it. As this is a friendly league game and Gernot also tried a new list it was definitely not a fine move of me to play the same list as during the tournament but i was simply too tired (after working today and coming home late yesterday) to build a new list and pack my stuff for the game. However it was great playing with Gernot as he is a player you wish to play against – everything is done as intended, no “hard discussions” or anything just a nice game on a weekday evening. After the game we talked a little bit and i think he was a bit too afraid of my shooting which gave me the momentum of my reinforcement line being moved forward so hard. He agreed that he should have been a bit more offensively minded because he could have healed up and maybe gathered some more power tokens by loosing units to get to Tier 3 a little bit earlier. For him it was even harder as he played against W’adrhun only his 2nd time. And ofc while we play a very transparent style of Conquest here in Graz it isn´t the easiest thing to remember every shenanigan of every unit – especially the units-special chant activations. Also this isn´t tournament terrain as the scenarios are just designed to have some funny interactions with terrain (you will probably see next rounds as well). And you see the snowmen being used as objective markers 🙂
But i am really having fun with this infantry W’adrhun list and style! It feels so great not having to maneuver against hindering terrain every game with the Thunder Riders. Also i am starting to really like Hunters! They did an amazing job this game and even back at the tournament. I think they compete really really hard with the Slingers for their spot. But their loose formation and sureshot makes them so scary for the opponents and enable a really aggressive playstyle. I think, after this game and after the experiences i made other recent games the only weakness is to run 3 different warbands cultwise. There are just times where you lack the right chant markers! Even if planning ahead the History-Famine-Token does make careful planning even more crucial. I think the way to go would be to run the Chieftains Warband as War and with Kiss of the Dilosaur. We will see!
Over and out, have a nice time in Eä!
Bharion aka Alex