Get back Gaming!!!

Its been a long couple of years hasn’t it? As we were on a break between games at Franticon in London in March 2020, a few of us talked about the growing unrest of the spread of Corona in the country and joked about not shaking each others hands…. Little did we know that a week later the country would go into lockdown and I wouldn’t get to play a game of Kings until September. With strong restrictions, the Shroud of the Reaper tournament in Bexley, South London was the only tournament we were going to get for once again, quite some time….

So after another lockdown, or two. Actually, it might have been three. I’ve lost count. Let’s say four to be on the safe side. Anyway, we are back in action! 

As Mantic have been championing the slogan ‘Get back gaming!’ (and who doesn’t love the playful buttock slap of alliteration) in their recent blogs, I thought I’d shamelessly steal it pretty much sums the way we’re all feeling right now. We’ve been mostly vaccinated and the social restrictions that have kept us from our beloved game are lifting so The Southern Crown tournament at the brilliant Tabletop Republic in High Wycombe finally went ahead after several postponements.

Because of the restrictions we were in separate groups which mostly worked.

I was intending to take my Forces of Nature as I said in my last blog but I failed miserably to get my centaurs painted and took Northern Alliance instead. In fact I actually played a couple of games at home on my own against myself to test the army and refresh my brain on the rules. I beat my undead. Twice.

My 1495 points list;

2 troops of Half-elf bezerkers

Huscarl regiment

2 Hordes of ice elementals 

Tundra wolf troop

Lord of frost fang w/snow fox and pipes of terror

Ice-blade w/snow fox and wings of honey maze

Ice Queen w/surge.

Game 1

I came up against Rusty’s Abyssal dwarf list which was a wall of Def6 Golems and 2 war machines. While possibly terrifying it was actually a perfect match up for me, especially for invade. My ice elementals blasted and froze the golems before my battle line charged in and I was packing a lot of crushing strength. My wolves and Ice-blade took out both war machines on turn two and turned to attack from the rear and it was over in short order for a win! Rusty is always one of my favourite opponents to play and after so long I’m glad he was my first game back. We were both giddy with euphoria. 

Game 2

I’d seen Chris Lynchs gorgeous autumn themed elf/sylvan army at several tournaments but not yet had the pleasure of playing it. It was packing 2 hordes of forest guard, some fast cavalry and a tree herder so would be a tough nut to crack. He committed too early with his cavalry and only just failed to break my huscarls. My counter attack took out his cavalry and two troops of panthers and after that it was a dance of positioning and distancing as we slowly wiped each other out one combat at a time. It came to a turn seven win for me but it was closer that id like to admit! I love close games where every dice roll counts and this was no exception.

Game 3 

This was a hard game for me against Mike Smith and his Ratkin Slaves. With hard hitting halfbreed cavalry, a half breed champ and a big flyer he outdistanced me and he had a lot of infantry, especially the 3 units of bezerkers. There was a big stand off, neither side willing to fully commit. A charge from my Half-elves wavered his wretches in the centre and I thought I had the advantage but then I realised I had made two mistakes…. I hadn’t seen that his halfbreed champion could charge them and he took them off. I’d also left my Ice-blade in charge range of his flyer and she died in short order along with the tundra wolves. I finally went for it but my Frostfang Lord fluffed his attacks against the half breed champion and got swamped. The ice elementals did a valiant job on the other flank, taking off several units but it wasn’t enough and he got more objectives by far. Danny is a loser this time.

Day 2, Game 4

As I did so well on day one I went up against the big boys from the other groups and first game was against Matt Gee’s gorgeous ogre army. I sort of had a plan. It didn’t work. Especially as he used Kuzlo’s sticky tongue on turn 2 to lick my half-elf out from behind a wall and boomer them to bits! I now didn’t have enough on my right flank to punch round and I got deleted a unit at a time. On the other flank my bezerkers went up against his bezerkers while my centre was a mass of pain vs pain. Unfortunately I had to use my Frostfang lord as chaff and my ice elementals failed to kill anything with their icy breath….. and then I got charged. I killed what I could but his chariot horde hit like a train and he rolled over me. Loss!

Game 5

Grant Alexander had a fast Twilight kin army which easily outdistanced me. With a horde of fiends, Mikayel and Abyssal horsemen on the right flank…. I did the smart thing and hid on the left! This mission allowed us to destroy objectives so I got rid of the one in front of his fast stuff and took the two on the left, using a tower to cover my ice elementals. The frostfang lord and huscarls stood to take the charge but Grant was unwilling to commit…. Until I noticed he had just left his fiends in range! Both units went through the fiends and then the horsemen. He had a unit of gargoyles guarding the other objective but Mikayal wavered my frostfang and my ice blade got shot off before I could get to them. My half-elves took a last desperate charge to take off his spearmen but to no avail. It was close but ended on a draw.

Game 6

I’m a strong mid-table player so I wanted this last game to be a win or a draw but alas it was against Mike Smiths Ratkin Slaves from the day before. I played a tighter game this time, keeping my units together and holding the loot I pushed hard as a block up the left and turned for the central objective. It was close and brutal in the centre for several turns and I played far better than the day before but coming in the last couple of turns I lost a couple of key combats and couldn’t pull it off. Failure of the match was my tundra wolves getting a perfect flank on his flyer, 18 attacks, hitting on threes and wounding on 4’s….. and only did 2! Bleurgh!

So over all, 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. 4 out of the 6 games were close and could have gone either way at several points. 

As for my army? I was quite happy with the way it performed. It was brutal at short/mid range but I really struggled against cavalry and speed. 

The Ice-blade mitigated this somewhat but couldn’t do it all on her own but she is one of the best things in the game for warmachine/chaff/character hunting. 

The tundra wolves were great. Fast, nimble and punchy and a lot of use. So much so I bought another troop! Tabletop Republic stock a huge amount of Kings of War products so it was fun to finally do a bit of shopping again.

I can’t fault the ice elementals. They’re expensive but with the shooting attack and surge they can put out damage and threaten a lot of the board.

The lord on Frostfang kept a lot of enemy units honest with his 15” charge. He did get wavered twice so I’m inclined to swap the brutal item for headstrong or wild charge so he can either stay in the fight or threaten cavalry. He can’t do a lot on his own but in combination with other units he’s gold!

The half-elves troops are one of the best units in the game. They hit hard, they’re fast and their nerve keeps them around longer than their defence would suggest. I’d have 2 more troops if the models were easier to get hold of. (Oi Mantic! Hear my screams of frustration!).

The huscarls are terrifying and can smack anything good and proper. Again, expensive and the army suffers from not having high nerve so I’d be tempted to swap them for a horde of clansmen but I won’t because I can’t be bothered to paint them!

So getting back gaming…. What’s next? I’m frantically painting my Free Dwarves to take them to the FFS/Troll thing tournament in September. After that it’s possibly the London Grand Tournament and then Clash of Kings both of which are 2300pts. I’ll see how my Free Dwarves go before I decide what army to take. Forces of Nature are looking like a good option at the moment and they’re pretty much painted.

I’m back at Tabletop republic in November for ANOTHER rescheduled tournament and I’ve signed up for Stane of Blood in January (It sold out in about 2 hours!). It was cancelled this year on my 40th birthday so this year I have TWO birthdays to celebrate!!! 

Once these Dwarves are done I think I’ll tackle my Armada and League of Infamy stuff I haven’t had chance to play with yet. 

There’s just sooooo much to do now we’re BACK GAMING! The future is dice!