Hello everyone! I’m Conscientious Objector, aka Nick, and I play in the Madison, Wisconsin area. We play at Pegasus Games on Monday’s and at I’m Board Games on Friday’s.

What follows are the first two of what I plan to be a series of battle reports. I can’t guarantee that I’ll have one every week, but I hope to keep people aware and interested in what’s happening in the Madison area. I also welcome any other discussions about the games!

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Hawthorne surveyed the battlefield. The Daqan and undead armies had practically stumbled across one-another. It seemed that he’d caught the bone-pickers in the midst of some light grave robbing, and now they found themselves hemmed in between the ruins and its ancient graveyard. Jarett, Hawthorne’s over-enthusiastic Lance Corporal, had rushed the men to erect a set of archer’s stakes on their right flank, but the inexperienced young man had acted too quickly. The stakes now just served to hem them in. Ah well.

Matchup :

Conscientious Objector playing Daqan vs Jukey (I think) playing Waiqar

Daqan (200)

Heavy Crossbowmen 3 [27]

--Equipment: Tempered Steel [3]

--Music: Marching Cornicen [2]

--Training: Rank Discipline [4]

Heavy Crossbowmen 3 [27]

--Equipment: Tempered Steel [3]

--Music: Marching Cornicen [2]

--Training: Rank Discipline [4]

Spearmen 9 [59]

--Champion: Lance Corporal [6]

--Equipment: Shield Wall [5]

--Heavy: Front Line Rune Golem [7]

--Heraldry: Raven-Pennon Bearer [5]

--Music: Marching Cornicen [2]

Lord Hawthorne 1 [34]

--Artifact: Fortunas Dice [6]

--Unique: Might of Daqan [4]

Waiqar (200)

Death Knights 6 [55]

--Artifact: The Duskblade [8]

--Champion: Empty

--Heraldry: Deathmist Banners [4]

--Training: Combat Ingenuity [6]

Reanimate Archers 4 [32]

--Equipment: Wind Rune [6]

--Heraldry: Raven-Standard Bearer [3]

--Training: Combat Ingenuity [6]

Reanimates 4 [26]

--Champion: Dispatch Runner [7]

--Heraldry: Deathmist Banners [4]

--Music: Empty

Ardus IxErebus 1 [37]

--Artifact: Obscacium (?) Gauntlet [5]

--Unique: Ardus Fury [1]

Pre-Game :

I don’t change any unit’s layout with Hawthorne, being well and satisfied with the base setup.

Jukey wins the flip and goes first . He picks deployment (Cautious Approach) and I pick scenario (Bounty). He picks his Reanimates for his Bounty, while I pick my Spearmen.

Deployment :

No player has more deployments. I deploy my spearmen first to ensure that I don’t make too many mistakes and randomly slam them into my own units. Jukey ends up getting a little clogged due to the significant terrain around his deployment zone.

Daqan Turn 1

Hawthorne yells encouragement and hands out inspiration tokens.

Spears rally.

Crossbows wheel about.

(Author’s note: Marching Cornicern completely changes how these guys handle. I may as well be playing Oathsworn Cavalry for how quickly they’re able to wheel via a 2 bank and a 1 bank.)

Waiqar Turn 1

Jukey starts unpacking his melee units but runs things into themselves due to him forgetting how quickly Ardus moves. The traffic jam isn’t bad yet, but it’ll cause trouble down the line.

Archers successfully fort up in the Elevated terrace.

Daqan Turn 2

Hawthorne waddles out of the way and bumps into archers due to moving so early.

Spears reform to meet the approaching threat.

Crossbows continue to wheel.

Waiqar Turn 2

Jukey keeps unpacking his melee elements out of the annoying little valley that he’s trapped in … only to run into his own stuff again. Whoops!

Archers quickly realize that they’ll do nothing on the plateau and hop out with a move and Wind Rune.

Death Knights rush forward, eager for blood.

Turn 3

Jukey’s critical mistake from last turn makes itself apparent at this point: his Death Knights are just out of charge range, but are in range of my Crossbowmen. A surge-dial attack with Tempered Steel and a late charge from the spears (using Lance Corporal to dial in an Initiative 8 charge to go with the free bank from Marching Cornicern) clears out six of the ghastly cavalry.

Jukey’s archers start chipping in damage on my spears, with me using Shield Wall to reduce a good roll from 6 damage to 3 only kills. Being vile undead, his Knights don’t mind the blighted arrows flying over their heads.

Turn 4

Jukey struggles to bring his units to bear properly, while my Spears pound the Death Knights. His Reanimate Archers bring in some more blight and damage against my Spears, but it isn’t enough to save the Knights. They get in one last attacks before a volley of bolts from my Crossbows turn them into pincushions.

Turn 5

Another note about Crossbows: they’re surprisingly strong skirmishers due to the Initiative 3 reform + 1 march. I do exactly that here: the closer unit of Crossbows jogs out of Ardus’s charge range. The other unit of Crossbows pounds Ardus for a brutal 3 wounds, bringing him to the brink of true death.

J ukey’s archers lay out a few more wounds and some blight on my Spears, but there’s not much else interesting this turn. Hawthorne lines up to provide a counter charge at some point, but I position a little clumsily here and he can’t make it quite to where I want him to go.

Turn 6

The Initiative 3 reform + march lets me lurch into melee with Ardus before he can do anything, due in large part to the extra movement from the Marching Cornicern-granted bank. This forces Jukey to make Ardus attack the Crossbows, transferring the Gauntlet’s curse to the unfortunate soldiers.

The Deathborne general proves even more unfortunate, as he soon meets the same fate as his undead elites: taking the crossbow express back to the grave.

Outcome

Jukey concedes at this point, as I’ve killed over half of his army In return, I’ve lost just over 3 trays of Spears. Even if he can get his Reanimates into a relevant place, I have Hawthorne queued up for a countercharge. The outcome is pretty clear: Hawthorne tarpits and cleaves a few undead , while the Crossbows shoot the rest to pieces.

Thoughts and Comments

1. Careful Approach is a very dangerous map to choose if you know that your terrain pool doesn’t closely match the contents of your list. In hindsight, Jukey could’ve solved several of his problems unpacking his army by marching Ardus through the graveyard and using his white-stance Rally Bonus Action to remove the 2 panic tokens from the spooky terrain’s Taxing 2 keyword.
2. Careful Approach also seems to heavily favor high maneuverability armies: you’re going to need a lot of turns or reforms to get everything into where you want it to be. Any significant amount of terrain just exacerbates this.
3. Careful Approach also seems to favor missile-heavy armies. The lower lateral space means that it’s easier to get bogged down on terrain, particularly with large units. In a disastrous scenario like this one, you can even be forced to create a conga-line of death as your units march into the full firepower of your opponent’s archers.

Lessons learned! On to match 2!

Hawthorne frowned at the assembling Waiqar host. The undead had returned, as they were wont to do. It was rare that they ventured this close to Latari territory, but the wheel of ages seemed to be turning. One ought to expect the unexpected. He’d beaten them while they were unprepared, but this time, he would have to face them on the open field.

Pre-Game :

Again, I don’t change any unit’s layout with Hawthorne, as I have nothing to gain by doing so .

I “win” the flip and go first (we decide to switch after last game) . I pick deployment (Standoff) and Jukey picks Scenario (Demoralize Their Forces)

Deployment:

Again, neither of us have more deployments than the other. Jukey commits heavily to the left (his right) flank, putting only his Reanimate archers on the right flank. I deploy my Spears centrally, with Archers flanking on either side. Hawthorne shores up the right side.

Daqan Turn 1

On the right flank, my Crossbows and Hawthorne march up, only for Hawthorne to stumble into the Crossbows due to a poorly planned bank. This is the beginning of a comedy of errors on the right flank.

On the left flank, my Archers correctly deduce that they’re horribly outmatched and head for the hills, reforming and marching away. My Spears march forward aggressively, using a late Initiative 8 march and a blue-stance charge to threaten anything that pushes up too forward. I end up not needing the charge, so I just turn the 4 march into a 3 bank.

Waiqar Turn 1

J ukey pushes forward and postures around the Forest (you can just barely see the edge on the left) with his Death Knights, while Ardus marches into the Latari … shrine thingy. I don’t remember what it’s called. He gets an inspiration token from doing so.

The aggressive march by my S pears takes him somewhat by surprise, as I’m now prepared to charge his Dispatch Runner unit.

His Reanimate Archers wander forward, getting into range of my Crossbows.

Daqan Turn 2

Predictably, my Spears get the charge on his unit. The resulting damage isn’t crazy despite having 5 Threat this turn: I only roll a single damage. Still, any damage is better than none!

My archers turn around and, disastrously, also advance. This means that Jukey now has an easy lane to a flank charge.

On the right, my Crossbows exchange fire with his Archers, while Hawthorne continues his vain chase. Seriously, dude, you’re wasting your time!

Waiqar Turn 2

Jukey’s Reanimates queue up a retaliatory strike … but he forgets that he can play fun initiative games this turn, attacking with them before his archers. As such they get no attack. On the right flank, he chips off 3 models, with Protected 1 ensuring that I keep my full threat for the retaliatory strike.

Ardus pops out of the shrine and the Death Knights march forward, setting up Jukey for two sweet flank charges … Wait a minute, wasn’t there something about that in the scenario?

Uh-oh.

(Author’s Note: the Raven Pennon Banner ensures that I win the Initiative game here. He can’t queue up a charge because we’re more than 1 away and I can charge a 3, 4, or 5. The safe bet for him is to rally and armor up.)

Daqan Turn 3

I have Initiative this turn, and by god I’m going to use it. My Spears crush his Reanimate unit, using the Lance Corporal to dial in a Damage modifier. I’m “only” threat 4 this turn, but a cool 12 damage is enough to wipe out the smelly zombies. Normally I’d dial in a Defend modifier this turn to double the durability of my unit, but the Duskblade + Combat Ingenuity + Ardus’s Fury combo makes that basically useless. The modifier also makes it relatively easy to guarantee that the Reanimates never get to activate, meaning that they won’t Dispatch Runner Ardus to get two nasty flank attacks.

My left archers get a shot on Ardus, the modifier ensuring that I put up a cool three wounds on the undead general.

My right archers reform and march away, trying not to get shot. They succeed for now.

Hawthorne reforms to join the fight at some point.

Waiqar Turn 3

My Initiative advantage takes a lot of wind out of Jukey’s sails, but he makes the most of what he does have.

The Death Knights slam into the flank of my unfortunate left Crossbows, putting up 10 damage. This translates into 9 kills due to Protected 1. Jukey scores his first objective token.

Ardus gets a flank and rolls 6 damage. Based on our understanding of “while” sequencing rules, Shield Wall lets me bring my defense up to 2 even after he gets an automatic surge to reduce my defense. As I’m defense 1, he can’t reduce me to zero or below. As Shield Wall doesn’t specify a timing, I can trigger it at any point during the attack before Jukey allocates damage for it to work, meaning that I’ll get back up to Defense 2 for the attack. (I clearly don’t have to declare it at the beginning of the attack, as the timing rules distinguish between “while” and “before,” and its card text doesn’t specify a specific step.) As such, Ardus kills 3 Spears. Jukey also scores his second objective token.

If anyone thinks I messed this up, feel free to let me know!

Ardus also triggers a panic-based Immobilize token and passes over Death’s Grip, which begins the saga of gripping death on the Spears.

Turn 4

The Death Knights clean up the left Crossbows with ease and grace.

Ardus scores a few more points of damage on the Spears. A poor roll ensures that it isn’t too exciting.

The Spears swing back and kill him with just the modifier. Threat 4 is a real stat!

Jukey’s Archers plink the Spears and score some more damage, and Death’s Grasp does a bit more.

Hawthorne and the right crossbows durdle around and struggle to get back to the fight. Dang archers!

Turn 5

I miss a picture here.

My Spears rally right before Jukey’s Death Knights crash in on the flank.

My Crossbows fail to damage the Death Knight s , then march forward .

Jukey’s Archers score hits on my Crossbows, reducing them to 2 threat.

Hawthorne continues his awkward chase after the Archers.

Turn 6

Jukey’s Death Knights deliver another severe hit on my spears, including my golem. This clears out enough trays that we’re no longer engaged. He critically chooses not to close in, letting me to charge with my crossbows, scoring me my first objective token.

My Spears reform while, in the north, Yakkity Sax play as Hawthorne continues chasing the Wind-Rune-powered archers. He’s been at this for 6 turns, people.

Turn 7

More missed pictures!

Working together, my Spears and my Crossbows peel out another couple of Death Knights. Jukey whiffs on his swing-back. Being double-flanked sucks!

Hawthorne continues chasing, the Archers failing to either pierce his armor or score a meaningful number of blight tokens. He takes a 4 March + 2 March and stumbles into them without a charge.

Turn 8

I miss the end game picture, too! Oops.

Hawthorne cleaves off 6 archer models with Fortuna’s Dice, and they fail to do anything in return. Wind Rune doesn’t do anything when you’re engaged!

I kill 1 more Death Knight, bringing them down below 4 trays and reducing the Spears’ flank to threat 1. The Death Knights swing back, reducing my Crossbows to effectively 0 trays.

Outcome

Jukey scores 2 trays worth of Death Knights and the upgrades on both his surviving units. I have 3 models left in each of my infantry units, meaning that I only score Hawthorne and the upgrades on my infantry.

After a slow count, Jukey wins by … 1 point! Wow! What a close game.

…

No, wait, whoops, we didn’t count objective tokens. He wins by 21.

Thoughts

I made two huge mistakes in this game. Either one of them might’ve been salvageable, but together they sunk me.

1. I didn’t concentrate my forces. My Crossbows only made 3 total ranged attacks across the course of the game. Instead, I tried to fight uphill into the Reanimate Archers’ Initiative advantage.
2. I misdeployed Hawthorne for the purpose of combating the Archers. Correctly executed, I could’ve gotten a 4 March + 2 March to engage the Archers with Hawthorne on turn 1. On the following turn, both my Crossbows and Hawthorne would’ve been able to get a solid hit on the slippery undead before they could shift out, likely crippling them. Instead, I wasted huge piles of time chasing them.

Letting Jukey score Objective tokens on me was bad, but it wasn’t truly crippling. With a proper set up (e.g. properly staggering my two units of Crossbows so that they both got more turns of shooting), I might’ve won the war of attrition, particularly with his Dispatch Runner dying at the start of turn two.

Death’s Grip scored something like 8 wounds over the course of the game, including a 4 defense Lance Corporal. The upgrade isn’t amazing if you can deny melee for a while, but it’s pretty brutal if successfully triggered.

I’m more and more convinced that teching the “Spearstar” for flexibility is better than teching it for damage. Aside from specific cases like Ardus, which can strip off Defense, using a Defend modifier is much more powerful than gaining an additional die. As Daqan can consistently attack first, you can often halve all incoming damage for an entire turn. There are some exceptions to this (E.g. Initiative 2 cavalry charges from Raven Tabards), but when you can successfully execute this effect, it’s almost back-breakingly powerful (see my first game, where a Death Knight attack and 3 rounds of Archer fire only cleared out 3 trays of Spears).

The value decreases in the mirror match specifically when fighting another Spearstar with the Raven Pennon Banner (as you can otherwise beat even opposing Daqan attacks with your Defend modifier), when facing lots of Stuns (as the Citadel Weapon Master doesn’t care about losing a modifier), against certain Latari armies, or when fighting lots of mortal strikes … But then those mortal strikes aren’t going into Hawthorne or your Oathsworn Cavalry!

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What about you? Do you have any thoughts or questions about my battle reports here?

Good write-ups! Question about the first game, though. Doesn't terrain have to be at least range two from any player's deployment zone? That terrain placement by the undead seems too close.

10 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

Good write-ups! Question about the first game, though. Doesn't terrain have to be at least range two from any player's deployment zone? That terrain placement by the undead seems too close.

Terrain cannot be 1-2 from the edge, or other terrain, and cannot touch the deployment zone.

2 minutes ago, Darthain said:

Terrain cannot be 1-2 from the edge, or other terrain, and cannot touch the deployment zone.

Oops. Played that wrong in my last game.

Yeh, we screw each other really hard with terrain in most games. ?

Good evening, everyone! I've been slacking pretty hard, and I now have a backlog of games to get to. Expect most of them on Friday or over the Weekend.

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"To me! To me!" Hawthorne cried. Crossbowmen rushed to and fro, scrambling to take up their pavises and assemble into their skirmishing lines, while a trio of panting spearmen prodded their platoon's rune golem into formation. In the distance, the hisses and yowls of Leonx echoed with gleeful malice. The humans had overstayed their welcome.

Matchup :

Conscientious Objector playing Daqan vs Jukey playing Latari Elves

Daqan ( 200 )

Heavy Crossbowmen 3 [27]

--Equipment: Tempered Steel [3]

--Music: Marching Cornicen [2]

--Training: Rank Discipline [4]

Heavy Crossbowmen 3 [27]

--Equipment: Tempered Steel [3]

--Music: Marching Cornicen [2]

--Training: Rank Discipline [4]

Spearmen 9 [59]

--Champion: Lance Corporal [6]

--Equipment: Shield Wall [5]

--Heavy: Front Line Rune Golem [7]

--Heraldry: Raven-Pennon Bearer [5]

--Music: Marching Cornicen [2]

Lord Hawthorne [ 34 ]

--Artifact: Fortunas Dice [6]

--Unique: Might of Daqan [4]

Latari Elves (199)

Leonx Riders 3 [24]

--Music: Empty

--Training: Column Tactics [4]

Leonx Riders 3 [24]

--Music: Empty

--Training: Column Tactics [4]

Aliana of Summersong [33]

--Artifact: Malcornes Bequest [6]

--Unique: Ambush Predator [3]

Aymhelin Scions 1 [14]

--Heraldry: Empty

--Unique: Empty

Aymhelin Scions 1 [14]

--Heraldry: Empty

--Unique: Vicious Roots [3]

Deepwood Archers 6 [42]

--Champion: Maegan Cyndewin [10]

--Equipment: Fire Rune [7]

--Heavy: Support Aymhelin Scion [4]

--Music: Rallying Starling [4]

--Training: Close Quarters Targeting [3]

Pre-Game

Jukey has the bid, but he chooses to go second. I pick deployment and choose Stand-Off, hoping for a clean fight where I can leverage the damage output of my Spears and Crossbows.

Jukey picks Demoralize Their Forces, knowing that my Spear block is primarily vulnerable to flanking and trusting that he can get good use out of his Leonx. After all, if he's going to win the game that way to start, he may as well get bonus points for it.

As usual with this list, I choose not to change the layout of any of my units, as they already do what I want them to do.

Deployment

I deploy centrally, as Jukey is allowed to have two last deployments: one from Aliana's special ability (re-positioning a unit of Leonx) and one from going second. I place my Crossbows in front and my Spear block and Hawthorne behind, trusting that Marching Cornicern (and the ability to move through single trays) will allow me to make all the fancy maneuvers that I want. I also want to have more control over terrain so that Jukey can't block off large segments of the table with it.

Jukey counter-deploys as expected: Leonx to threaten my right archers and Aliana and the Archers to wear down my left flank. Aliana isn't scary if I can engage her with my Spears, but Jukey can probably prevent that, thanks to her mobility. If she catches Hawthorne with Ambush Predator still available, I'm in trouble.

Daqan Turn 1

Marching Cornicern, as usual, is instrumental to my plan. I set up my right crossbows to bank heavily right, getting out of the way of my Spears, while my left Crossbows set up to Reform and March 1 away. They literally can't attack Aliana thanks to Ambush Predator, so I instead hope to leverage them elsewhere. Hawthorne surges forward to challenge the Scion before him.

As I often do with my Lance Corporal + Marching Cornicern combination, I queue up a March 4 (on Initiative 8, as usual) with a Charge modifier. Thanks to the Stance conflict, the Charge modifier will fizzle harmlessly if I don't use the Lance Corporal to adjust it into a White modifier, while Marching Cornicern allows me to adjust my March 4 into a banking 3 in either direction if I so choose.

Latari Turn 1

Jukey moves forward aggressively with Aliana and his Leonx, preparing to engage me. His Scions waddle forward to gum me up. Maegan and her archers tag Hawthorne, not doing any damage, but zapping away 2 Spears with the embedded hero's granted surge ability.

Critically, the sharp turn on my Crossbows allows me to completely avoid his central Leonx column. His Reform modifier allows him to get a little space back ... but it turns out that a banking March 3 charge with a 3-tray-wide formation is slightly further than 4 charge. A rune golem slams into the side of the unit, followed closely by a sea of angry spears, wiping out the Leonx to the last cat. I score my first objective token.

Daqan Turn 2

Hawthorne, knowing that he's going to take the brunt of some shooting and a Scion charge, queues up a Skill with a Defend modifier. He hands out inspiration early in the turn, with the theory being that I can use it to refresh critical upgrades.

The rest of the turn is an object disaster. My right Crossbows queue up an Ranged Attack with a Surge modifier, hoping to hit the Leonx in the woods, while the left Crossbows reform and march again, wobbling awkwardly towards the engaged Lord Hawthorne.

The lack of a march on my right Crossbows causes me to prevent my Spears from making an armor-boosted 2 march. I still get the modifier ... but I'm now in perfect position for Jukey to trigger embedded Maegan's surge ability on everything I own!

Latari turn 2

Jukey does his best to take advantage of my mistakes, trying to fight back model count lost due to the mysteriously absent central Leonx unit. The right Leonx dodges out of attack range, wasting my Crossbows' activation, and Aliana pops into the terrain, largely by mistake. The the central Scion charges Hawthorne and does absolutely no damage. It turns out that Defense 4 is a real stat! Hawthorne does get his bells rung pretty good by the walking tree's flailing limbs, taking a Stun and an Immobilize token. Jukey also scores his first objective token.

Maegan's archers tag my Spear block and then Shift backwards with their embedded Support Scion. Jukey kills a total of 3 Spears and clears his first tray. Note that I make a mistake (sorry, Jukey!) with the function of Protected 1, here. It does not reduce the damage from Maegan's surge ability because the Crossbow unit is not the defender in the attack, they're just caught by the affect. I should have lost 1 more model in each of the Crossbow units.

Fire Rune goes off this turn, but it accomplishes basically nothing.

Daqan Turn 3

I learn from my mistakes this turn. Instead of trying to be cute, I march forward aggressively. My Spears surge towards the elven archers, while my Crossbows get the heck out of the way. Hawthorne, sadly, is pinned down, with his Rally Bonus Action cancelled by the stun Jukey passed over last turn.

Latari Turn 3

Jukey activates later than me this turn, and boy does he take advantage of it. While he misses an attack with the archers due to my early march on the Spears, he sets up a bunch of juicy flanks for next turn.

Turn 4

Jukey's right Leonx column crashes in on the flank of one Crossbow unit, while the other reforms in time to face Aliana head-on. The results are obvious below: without having made a single attack with either unit all game, I have 2 surviving Crossbow models. Rest in pieces you poor, shield-carrying wretches.

Hawthorne, meanwhile, wants to make up for lost time. While he can't make a proper move due to the Immobilize token, he still gets a March 2 due to his horse-granted Bonus Action. My Spears bank towards the archer unit, and Jukey reforms them to face me.

Turn 5

As Aliana finishes off the handful of surviving Crossbows, Hawthorne charges Jukey's archers, wiping out a tray. My spears miss a bank, bonking themselves unhelpfully against the side of the board. This gives Jukey the chance to use Close Quarters Targeting to attack my Spears despite being engaged by Hawthorne, clearing out another two models. The Defend modifier is really strong on infantry! Meanwhile, his Leonx prowl closer with a Shift and Reform.

Turn 6

Rather than waste time trying to fit my Spears past the Rock, I reform to face the onrushing Leonx, who accidentally March into combat without a Charge. Hawthorne chops down the support Scion with a good flank roll, and the Archers again tag my Spears, further thinning out the back rank.

Aliana and the remaining solo Scion wheel about, preparing to deliver the pain to Hawthorne.

Turn 7

I have the initiative this turn and I use it, swinging hard with my Spears to clear out all but the last pair of Leonx. Hawthorne rolls well on his attack attack and clears out all but the last two trays of archers.

Jukey hits back hard, demonstrating the difference between 1 and 2 Defense infantry models: seven Spears die, reducing my Spearstar to 5 trays. Critically, however, my good roll with Hawthorne, lets me Close In and avoid Aliana's charge. Hawthorne lives to fight another round.

Turn 8

I attack early with Hawthorne and the Spears again, but to much lesser effect. The Spears whiff entirely, failing to clear out the Leonx Riders even with a single reroll, while Hawthorne only scores 2 points of damage. Maegan gets to live, while two random elves die in her stead.

Jukey's response is similarly mediocre: both his Leonx and Archers only eliminate 2 Spears, while Aliana finds Defense 5 Hawthorne a bit of a tough nut to crack. Jukey does, however, score an additional objective token.

Outcome

Well, could it possibly be otherwise? Elven grace conquers the smelly humans to the tune of 161 to 139. Jukey manages to beat me on both scenario (3 to 2 tokens) and points remaining (101 to 99). It's close on both halves of the game, but together they make a fairly convincing win.

Thoughts

This is exactly the sort of game that I hoped I'd have when I started this series of reports. That is to say, it was a non-stop tactical disaster on my part. This makes it an excellent learning experience!

The good

• I delivered my Spearmen efficiently, taking minimal damage on the way in and knocking two enemy units (Jukey's Leonx) below the tray threshold for scoring ... But, in truth, this isn't that much of an achievement on my part.
  • The turn 1 charge and Leonx elimination largely stems from the superb flexibility of the Lance Corporal + Marching Cornicern combination. It's not otherwise simply not possible to do an Initiative 8 banking March 3 Charge.
  • Loss prevention stems heavily from the power of the Defend modifier. Defense 2 halves incoming damage, rounded down . Note that on turn 7, when I was forced to make a Melee Attack without the Defend modifier, I lost 7 spearmen, which is the same number as in the first 5 turns of the game .
• I protected Lord Hawthorne well, keeping him alive and undamaged until turn 8, while doing good damage with him and supporting my other units with Inspiration tokens.
  • Again, this is less of a testament to my good play than the strength of a high Defense value. The various Scion attacks that Jukey made against Hawthorne were effectively a waste of time. Even with a flank attack (RRBB dice pool), he needs above average dice to hurt me before Lord Hawthorne's easily-applied Defend modifier.
  • Jukey did flub a 3-threat roll against Hawthorne at one point with his Archers, but that's how it goes. Fire Rune never meaningfully threatened him.
  • In my experience, Aliana (or, sometimes, heavy Leonx columns) is the main Latari tool against Hawthorne and other high-armor targets. I avoided her until the last round. Without Ambush Predator ready to trigger, Jukey couldn't break my Defense 5 even with his rear charge attack, scoring only Aliana's single automatic Mortal Strike.

The Bad

• Aside from the sneaky banking March 2 -> banking March 1 which dodged Jukey's Leonx turn 1, I mismanaged my Crossbows to an absolutely horrendous degree.
  • Observant eyes probably already noticed it, but I did not make a single attack with either unit of Crossbows. I only actually queued up an attack once throughout the entire game.
  • It's hard to understate how bad this was. Nearly a third of my list (72 points) wandered around in circles and then died without removing a single enemy model. For the value that I got out of them, two un-upgraded 4-tray (2x2) spear units would've served better, if only by lasting longer.
• I blocked myself up pretty badly in a couple of critical moments.
  • Cutting off my Spears' banking March 2 on turn 2 meant that I had to wait another turn before I could pressure Jukey's Archers, meaning that I ultimately never got to attack them in a meaningful fashion.
  • Hawthorne's awkward positioning around my left crossbows meant that I couldn't use them to target Jukey's Scions. Correctly applied, I might very well have been able to shoot one or both off of the table. Instead, I wasted 2 turns marching in circles and accomplishing nothing.
    • With the Scions out of the way, Hawthorne could've likely bogged down Aliana, potentially causing her to spend Ambush Predator and instantly die to the Crossbows due to her extremely squishy 3 Defense/3 Wound statline.
• I allowed Jukey to score flanks in situations where more aggressive positioning would've resulted in direct charges. This might've been bad, but a flank is always, always worse, particularly when it also scores your opponent 20 points.
• Picking Deployment over Scenario may have actually been a mistake in this situation. Latari can abuse positioning quite effectively, but Bounty is in the current tournament circulation. Forcing a MSU list like Jukey's to put a massive crosshairs on one of his units forces him to do one of a few things that he probably doesn't want to do:
  • Fight me directly in order to protect a single, reserved target (e.g. his Archers).
  • Play as usual with the risk of losing his Bounty unit (and thus, likely the game).
  • Play inefficiently to deny me access to his bounty unit.
  • (Naturally, it's possible to outplay this sort of scenario-based pressure, but it mitigates the asymmetrical combat that MSU's usually want to pursue.)

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Three games deep and I'm starting to wonder about the design of my list. Both the Spear block and the 3x1 Crossbows provide extremely strong list elements, but put together they run into a scenario where the Crossbows don't have anything to hide behind. My ranged elements inflict nominal damage and then go down, leaving the Spears and Hawthorne to fight the entire rest of the opposing list. I resolve to keep trying the list, but I suspect that it has some weaknesses which aren't easily overcome.