KoW Clash of Kings Doubles 2017 - 5 games, 2 x 1000pts

[BAE]

I'm off to Clash of Kings Doubles this weekend with the mate that got be back into wargaming! I'm taking Sallies (obviously) and he's Kingdoms of Men. The idea is for him to be mostly anvil with some disruptions and me mostly hammer. While standard CoK rules apply (i.e. no duplicates due to 1000pts), the rules state that one duplicate is allowed across the whole 2000pts.

Currently, my list is:

Regiments
Kaisenor Lancers w/ Healing Brew

Hordes
Ancients on Rhinosaurs w/ Maccwar's
Salamander Primes

Monsters
Lekelidon

Heros
Battle-Captain w/ Wings of Honeymaze
Herald w/ Mounted & Sparkstone

At the time of writing I think Jacko's list is:

Regiments
Pole-Arms Block
Pole-Arms Block

Hordes
Pole-Arms Block
Pole-Arms Block

Monsters
Beast of War

Heros
Army Standard Bearer w/ Lute of Insatiable Darkness
Hero on Pegasus w/ Blade of Slashing
Hero on Pegasus w/ Mace of Crushing

In terms of my force, the Lancers and AoRs will be the main damage dealers on a flank, with the Lekelidon (chaff clearance & chaff), Battle-Captain (flyer disordering, wound chipping & potential chaff) and Herald (inspiring & flyer disordering) in support. The Primes will be nearer the centre acting as an aggressive pivot like usual. It's a shame I couldn't fit the Brew of Haste on them as I have found speed 6 to increase their effectiveness far, far more than the increase in points. However, we reasoned that with Jacko's cheaper units we will be able to reduce the number of charges they take through trap setting rather than needing the charge range.

For Jacko, he will just march up slowly and create loads of traps, generally (hopefully) not dying too quickly. His two heros will be chaff for my attackers, while also being an annoyance factor with the threat of jumping over the top. His Beast of War will be part of the offensive force along with my Lancers and AoRs.

Any thoughts? I will obviously be writing up the debrief in a post below on Sunday!

 

[Itepixcauh]

I'm so reading this once it ends.

Good luck, list / lists sound really good, I think KoM complement Salamanders rather well.

 

[BAE]

And it's all over! 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses (W, D, L, W, L), and a final placing of 9th out of 16. That isn't as good as I think we could have got considering the sheer number of knife-edge rolls (quite a few proper double 1s!) that went the wrong way, but I'm still happy! The games (I think!) were Invade, Push, Control, Dominate and Ransack. I think it was the most fun tournament I have yet been to, and I can't see one topping it for some time. The main take away from the tournament is that doubles is far, far more fun that singles. Not only is there more banter as there are 4 at each table, but the stress of having to make sure all your angles are clear, or that your strategy is sound, etc etc etc is alleviated by having another player that you can run things by before doing them.

I think the strategy we went for worked well (him denying (or at least slowing) our opponents' flank while I smashed up the other side) but our lists could have been rather better thought out than they were! That serves us right for making our lists in a 5 minute phone call... Still, I think KoM and Sallies actually make rather the good pairing as they cover each others' weaknesses - we lack any decent cheap options, and Pole-Arms Blocks provide that in spades (CS1!), and KoM lack a proper hammer, which is the very definition of Ancients on Rhinosaurs! The one game that we broke from that strategy was in game 5, where we castled due there being a number of flyers, they caused a few disorders, that held everything up, and we lost. I might start toying with Ghekko hordes to fill the same function as the Pole-Arms Blocks, but to be in any way effective they would need to be Bane Chanted, and I need to see whether than can work in terms of points efficiency.

Something I need to improve on is the assessment of threat. As a player with a naturally conservative and defensive disposition, I often end up over-reacting to the threats of enemy units. Game 5 provides a good example - the best response to an army that is much more manoeuvrable than yours is to castle as this denies charges to your flanks and rear. However, looking back through the pictures, most of their flyers were quite weak in terms of damage output, so it may have been more effective to play a slightly wider game, take the charges knowing that they wouldn't do much damage, and then hit them back to kill them. If I can improve my feel for the threat posed by different units I would hope to reduce the number of times that I sacrifice tactical advantage through over-caution.

In terms of units, the Ancients on Rhinosaurs were the absolute stars of the day. They utterly wrecked anything they touched (except for a when I got a double one against a regiment of cavalry in the 4th game), and I think they only died once in 5 games. These are going to be an absolute staple of my lists going forwards, and I'm feeling really positive about the idea of combining them with my usual double FE & double Mage-Priest setup. The times we struggled was when the AoRs were not properly brought to bear - in the third game they got slowed down by an Ogre standard bearer and our army had started to crumble by the time they could do anything, and in the fifth they got stuck behind a Pole-Arm Block horde so spent 4 turns sitting around doing nothing. To put their power in perspective - in that last game, once they did finally get free to move they charged an Abyssal Dwarf Overmaster on Great Abyssal Dragon and killed him in one turn. In future, making sure that they don't get obstructed is absolutely key. If we'd been cleverer and manoeuvred to focus around supporting the AoRs in getting more charges off I think we would have done considerably better in every game. Maccwar's was rarely (if at all?) used, and with board setups the way they tend to be (2 forest, 2 hill, 2 obstacle & 2 blocking, or something similar) I'm just not sure it's the way to go, even though it is seen as obligatory for heavy cav. I might test out giving them something like Nimble in future - if the extra manoeuvrability gives me just one more charge per game it would be well worth the loss of pathfinder.

The other revelation was the Battle-Captain with Wings of the Honeymaze. His ability to shut down flyers allowed us to gain advantages before that flyer could bring their force to bear. Across the 5 games he held up one lord on dragon for 2 turns, another for 3 turns and grounded a winged monster for 2 turns until my lancers were able to reach and shred it. I had originally started adding a Clan Lord with Wings because of his significantly higher sticking power, but I was impressed enough with the Battle-Captain that I'm happy to move to that and spend the points elsewhere. As Salamanders are a bit stuck against heavy flyers (FEs can only surge so far!), having a hero with Wings is a brilliant anti-flyer tactic.

Prime horde was solid - they soaked incredible amounts of damage each game, and were used in the same way that I usually do - a dangerous tar pit. Due to points I dropped their usual Brew of Haste but some of the games definitely reminded me why I think this item is an absolute must for them. In game 5 we used them as a flank denial against the Kin that were on our right flank while we focused the left. However, with Kin being move 6 it meant the Primes had to keep retreating or face a double of triple charge. More likely than not they would have fallen over had they been tripled, so after the initial move up, spending the rest of the game retreating was the only real option. While this did slow down more than 230pts and allow us to focus the other flank, the slow edging meant their units were able to sit on one of the objectives - if they had the Brew of Haste I would have matched the charge distance of the Kin and given him serious pause for thought before moving forward.

I must also mention the Lancers, who also had a fairly stunning time, but more in terms of what is needed to make them effective. Jacko took two heros on pegasi (90 pts each!) and their ability to move 20" to chaff an enemy unit allowed the Lancers to get significantly more action these last two days that they usually do. Being the hammer they are (even if of the distinctly 'glass' variety), getting a few extra charges in did help considerably. But Salamanders have no access to a similar unit, so as I have said before, Lancers will always be at a disadvantage. The best we have is the Skylord, but at 130pts I would never want to take him as throwaway chaff. Healing Brew was a good shout to try and keep them alive.

And the bit you've been waiting for - the pictures! They are very, very sporadic, and I wouldn't want to guess what turn we were in at the time each were taken, but hopefully they give a flavour of what happened. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll be sure to answer!

Game 1 - Elves & KoM


Game 2 - Elves and Forces of Nature (against Nick Williams and Elliot Morrish)

 

[BAE]

Game 3 - Ogres & Elves

 

[BAE]

Game 4 - League of Rhordia & Abyssal Dwarfs


Game 5 - Abyssal Dwarfs & Kin

 

[BAE]

And a bonus! I got my hands on Artakl (the Ghekko Clutch Warden hero for the summer campaign) rather earlier than the 24th July that he is meant to start getting shipped! The resin cast is absolutely crisp with no deformities as far as I can see. I really love the sculpt as well - if this is the quality Mantic are going for when they release Sallies as a full army I can definitely see myself going on a bit of a spending spree!