Hey to all you lovely Conquest-Enthusiasts!
Today I am bringing you another quick tournament report for Conquest:The Last Argument of Kings.
We had a smaller (11 Person) local tournament in the city of Salzburg in Austria, hosted by the local Vanguard Ra (Tom) from GamersFinest.
It is always a joy to come to Salzburg and join Tom’s tournaments, especially now as Tom just moved the location to a bigger venue with much more open space to play. Tom and the whole crew from Salzburg are amazing hosts and players and it shines through when the tournament is played and everyone smiles and all have chit-chat and beer afterwards.
So, I can recommend it to free up some time and try to join those tourneys in Salzburg, I know me and the boys will try to come everytime we can afford it timewise!
The Tournament:
It was not a worlds registered tournament, so we three agreed beforehand we will play lists which we have a) fully painted and
b) with models and stuff we don’t play that often.
The scenarios were Divide and Conquer, Declined Flank and Breakout and players knew it beforehand. Three rounds, one day, perfectly organized for a nice weekend for Conquest with Lukas and Alex!
My List:
=== The Last Argument of Kings ===
The Unga-Bunga-Bois [1995/2000]
Nords
== Blooded [130]: Figurehead of the Naglfar
* Ugr (3) [150]:
* Ugr (3) [150]:
* Trolls (4) [240]:
* Trolls (3) [180]:
== Jotnar Seidr [260]: Skorge (Axe)
* Mountain Jotnar (1) [210]:
* Sea Jotnar (1) [240]:
== (Warlord) Shaman [105]: Ty Jokull, the Rimeheart
* Raiders (3) [120]:
* Mountain Jotnar (1) [210]: Same List I played once against Raphi, the thoughts behind it are simple: Get those Ugr bois up on the table, as well as many Jötnars I could paint up!
I also like playing the Seidr with the axe for objective marker control because I think the Unyielding part of the Spear is rather middle, because he is counting as 6 stands already.
Blooded with Figurehead in the bigger Trolls, Shaman with Ty Jokull for a bit extra Survivability (Tenacious 2 is niceee).
Gameplan wise: Be mindful of not overextending to fast, Round 2 always go for both Trolls to get into position. MJ can come over the flanks. Cleanup and try to counterdeploy with the heavy Jotnars.
Game 1 against Andreas “Andreas91” and his W’adrhun:
=== The Last Argument of Kings ===
|| Birds of Prayer [2000/2000]
|| The W'adrhun
|| == Mounted Predator [125]: Death, Kiss of the Dilosaur
|| * Quatl 1 [180]:
|| * Raptor Riders 3 [180]:
|| * Raptor Riders 3 [180]:
|| * Apex Predator 1 [190]:
|| == Warlord Thunder Chieftain [165]: Conquest, Hide of the Silent Hunter
|| * Thunder Riders 3 [220]:
|| * Quatl 1 [180]:
|| == Winglord Predator [220]: Death
|| * Quatl 1 [180]:
|| * Raptor Riders 3 [180]:First game: many monsters, many Quatls and threats! Looks like an aggressive list and Andreas played it like that. Anyways into the game!
Scenario: Divide and Conquer
My only thought was trying to get one of the zones with my bigger Troll block, while stalling the other, and trying to snipe the objective marker with my Seidr Oneshot to get ahead in points somehow. Scoring against fast Quatls and Winglords can be very hard.
Turn 1:
Opening with Raiders straight in the middle, I was a bit concious about his Raptor Riders because he got all his lights in and moved aggressively forward. 2 Units on the right side with his Mounted Predator, one on the left behind the building.
Turn 2:
We both rolled only one reinforcement, leaving me with my Blooded+Trolls and the other Troll unit, he chose one Quatl. I tried to keep my distance to the Raptors in the middle, he also kept his distance. Both my Trolls come in straight toward the middle objectives. Slow Advance from both of us.
No Score for now.
Turn 3:
I got all my reinforcements in, except one Mountain Jötnar and the Sea Jötnar. He only got his Apex and Thunder Rider as a pick and one Quatl in. I thought getting MJ and SJ a bit later, maybe even over some flanks in would be nice, so I prioritized the big Ugr boys.
Anyway, he won the supremacy roll picked his Raptor right in front of my Raiders and did the old fluid formation into auto-charge trick. 14 Hits with Deadly Blades later my Raider+Shaman were wiped and I had to remind myself again that those pesky Raptors are really really dangerous. I counter charged with my Trolls killing two stands and he also charged with the leftmost Raptors into the bigger Trolls but didn’t do much especially because I regenerated them back up.
I put my Seidr as planned right down the middle to also maybe counteract his Thunder Riders, one MJ on the left objective to contest his incoming Quatl. and my Ugr both on the right side to counter charge his bigger Raptor when they are inevitably going into the Trolls.
W’adruhn gettin on the scoring board for killing my Warlord 0:2 for my opponent.
Turn 4:
Both armys are fully on the table now.
Things are heating up, I won the supremacy and started with my bigger Troll block to regen up and kill the last Raptor stand on the left side with a single clash and repositioned a bit forward to setup a possible open flank of his Quatl, Apex or Winglord if they wanted to charge the trolls.
On the right side he activated his Raptors did a few wounds I clashed back with the small trolls killed the one unit of Raptors and he then charge+clashed with his big Raptor Riders and Hero in them and wiped my Trolls. Damn Flurry+Deadly Blades is just so good against Dread! 🙂
I counter charged with my Ugr but Water and Hindering only accounted for one dead stand, however I atleast pinned the Raptors there.
On the left side, he tried to threaten with his Quatl the zone and wasn’t in range for charge+clash on my MJ and I took the opportunity to reform and charge his Quatl with my MJ because I would win the 1on1 and maybe get over the Flank into his zone.
His Winglord got into position to score the left zone and was quite scared with the Quatl to get into my Trolls (rightly so!).
He positioned his Thunder Riders also more forward to score the right zone, however I put my Seidr far down into my deck and march-charged the TR to bind them and to score the zone.
He had his Apex waiting in the flank of the Seidr but needed a 6 for the charge and failed to do so, so he put his other Quatl as a countercharge on the right flank behind his TR.
My Sea Jötnar reinforced the big Trolls left and my MJ got into position to help out my Ugr on the right side.
Scoring each of us one middle zone.
Turn 5+6+7
(Forgot to take a picture here, sorry!)
The supremacy roll went to me and I gambled anyway to start with my Seidr, because I did not have any other important activation going on.
The Seidr just straight up one-shotted those Thunder Riders with this Cleave 3 attacks and did amazing, more then I anticipated. I cracked his Warlord so no more Shock for his entire army and it all started to crumble for my opponent from here on out.
On the far left side, I wont the battle with my MJ against the Quatl and started to march to the objective zone on his side.
My trolls got tag-teamed by Winglord, Quatl but taking the Winglord with them and the help of the Sea Jötnar. The sea Jötnar got eaten up by the Apex, which left the Quatl free reign on the objective marker.
My Seidr didn’t get charged by the Apex because Andi decided the Sea Jötnar was a juicer target, so he had free reign. My Ugr fell to the Quatl charge, my MJ killed the Raptors and bound the Quatl. And my other Ugr decided to just march into his zone.
We decided to end the game on turn 7, because he had only 2 scoring regiments left and the game was pretty much over. We talked through the remaining rounds and agreed on a final result of
Nords 37:22 W’adhrun
Getting me my first win of the tourney! I was super excited, because I achieved my personal goal (getting my Seidr Cleave 3 to actually matter!) and game 1 was a blast to play! Getting to feel the early pressure from Andreas was tough and I struggled but broke out with my gang of Unga Bunga Bois.
Onto the next game, which got me paired against Lukas “frazni” the boi with whom I started Conquest last year… Boy oh boy I hate being paired against my play group and Lukas is just a tough opponent…
However it was lunch time and the amazing Tom “Ra” served his birthday lunch for us! Schnitzel, Vogerlsalat and Kartoffelsalat, whats not to like! Thanks again for the amazing hosting and venue Tom! We will return to Salzburg!
Game 2 against Lukas “Frazni” and 100k
Szenario: Declined Flank
Okay, so straight up, I knew he wanted to play as many Man-at-Arms as he has painted and do something different. We talked about our more relaxed lists beforehand, however we both agreed that such a big block is just stupid and unwieldy….but fun! I couldn’t crack the block and the only way to do something was to somehow outmaneuver it, but that is not easy against such an experienced player such as Luke. Declined Flank helped a bit with it’s six zones but I really hadn’t much of a gameplan and tried to do my best against his list!
Turn 1:
Standard stuff, Raiders into the middle, he got both his crossbows and stayed farther back.
Turn 2:
He got nearly everything in: His huge MAA block, his crusaders, two Sicarii, leaving only his Archangel still out. I rolled for one regiment, and got both my Trolls and one Ugr in.
Playing with Lukas is always relaxing because we know each other and joke around a lot, asked me how he should bring in his MAA, because he actually cannot reform the block efficiently anymore once they are in the game. We joked and said he should try to score two zones and that’s what he did, which ultimately was a very bad move but he went for it for the fun of it.
On the left side both Sicarii showed up, on the right side the Crusaders. I placed the trolls in march range of the zones.
No scoring for turn two for both of us.
Turn 3:
Reinforcements, his Archangel comes on and for me the Seidr and one MJ. We positioned our units on the zones. I had two zones. He had two zones. We had a passive coming onto the board.
We talked a lot about the game state, joked around that we actually cannot to much to each other, the one who makes a move first usually will lose here: I cannot break his 60 wounds MaA Block, he cannot position himself truly and neither can he go off the zones, because he only has 5 scoring regiments.
Scoring went two zones for both of us this turn.
Turn 4:
So we both agreed we either could shake hands and draw it, or someone has to do something, and I did.
This turn a bit more positioning came into play, I got my remaining regiments on board:
One MJ on the left side, which he threatened with Sicarii and his Archangel charge. Ugr and Sea Jötnar for Reinforcement on the left side. One MJ to the right flank in case Luke decided to go forward with his Crusaders.
And I had more activations than him and decided to move my raiders into his zone, fully aware that his other Sicarii hadn’t yet activated. But two Raider stands would contest the zone, so he had to do something. I still had my Trolls left and Luke debated heavily that he should just stand with his Sicarii on the edge of the zone to just score, but he decided against it and charged my Raiders. Those guys were durable and survived with three wound left (Tenacious 2 baby!) and I could counter charge with the Trolls but only killing one Sicarii stand, and because he wounded the lefthand stand my Trolls got stranded because I couldn’t push onwards into my Raiders, which left my Trolls unengaged, nice!
Scoring was two zones for each of us against, because of the coins and denying the zones!
Turn 5:
Luke decided to use his Theist supremacy with Blessing this turn.
So many things happened here. I won supremacy and went with Shaman into Raiders first, thinking that my MJ would survive a charge by the Archangel or Sicarii on the left flank anyway. Shaman with the Spell and my last stand of Raiders hit like a wet noodle, and didn’t do enough wounds for breaking them, damn! He went with his Sicarii on the left flank first and charged+clashed my MJ but delivered only 9 wounds! I countered with my MJ and killed two stands of Sicarii and he counter charged with the Archangel and with the Smite+Impact hits the MJ died but leaving the flank of the Archangel wide open.
My Ugr went next, straight into the flank of the Archangel and I could smell the blood! C4+6RR on 13 attacks, cleave 2 into the flank nice!…. but the bois only did like 7 wounds, ouch.
My Trolls marched sideways a bit to get into position for either going for his Crossbows and healing Mage or going for the Sicarii.
He measured the distance and angle of his MaA block, but he couldn’t actually move the damn line without blocking his scoring capacity. Nothing else happened on the other side of the table.
We scored each two zones again.
Turn 6:
So I won supremacy here again, went with my Ugr bois to try and finish off the Archangel, however he was still standing with one wound left! Damn! Where is my Unga-Bunga!
The Archangel countered, killed two Ugr stands only thanks to Dread and then fell to the Anchor of my Sea Jötnar.
I decided to charge the Crossbows with my Trolls going for a 3+ charge and made it, killing them.
My Raiders+Shaman were still withstanding the Sicarii and wounding them down to one single stand.
He tried a charge on 6 with his crusaders onto my Seidr on the right flank, failed and then gave up the game.
We talked a bit about it and joked about the unkillable block of MaA, but at the end of the day it is still a Meme-List with such a huge block and only 5 scoring regiments especially if he goes 10 wide onto the table and unable to actually reform or maneuver the block.
Nords 44: 22 The Hundred Kingdoms
Another win for me! Super exciting match, it is always a tense match against Luke because we play each other so often and our normal rate is 85% wins for Luke. He has much more experience at the table than me, however sometimes I eke out a win. And the best time is directly at a tournament!
That leaves me 2:0 going forward and I got paired against Alex, my brother and the other boy from our regular gaming group… Damn! Finals against eachother! And only one can win.
However there also was another player going 2:0 so nothing was decided yet!
To be continued…