Mantic Forum: First Game

So after having had half the army for over a year, then building it out to full playable size, I finally played my first game of KoW.
It was by myself, but still a chance to learn the rules. Since the latest Vampire Counts book came out I had not rebuilt my Grateful Undead army for it, so I decided to us it for KoW against my Abyssal Dwarfs. A few of the units do not move over so well, but I was able to do a basic infantry horde of 208 models (so no corpse cart, no dancing bears (dire wolves), no spirit hosts).

Abyssal Dwarfs
Blacksouls Horde - banner/musician/mutated throwing mastiff
Decimators Troop
Decimators Troop
Immortal Guard Regiment - banner/musician/brew of strength
Abyssal Halfbreeds Regiment - banner/musician
Lesser Obsidian Golems Regiment
Katsuchan Rocket Launcher
Katsuchan Rocket Launcher
Angkor Heavy Mortar
Angkor Heavy Mortar
Overmaster - pipes of terror
Halfbreed Champion
Iron-caster

The Grateful Undead
Revenant Horde - banner/musician/brew of strength
Skeleton Horde - banner/musician/undead giant rats
Zombie Swarm - banner/musician
Zombie Swarm
Ghouls Horde - pipes of terror
Soul Reavers Troop
Vampire Lord - Medalion of Life
Necromancer
Liche King - Talisman of Inspiration

Initial deployment
Abyssal Dwarfs
Halfbreeds & Champion on left flank, mortar and rocket launcher on the hill. Then a unit of Decimators to protect the war machines.

Middle had the Logs, then the horde of blacksouls and the Immortal Guard with the Overmaster hanging back for support.

Right flank was the other two war machines, the Iron Caster to support them, and the other unit of Decimators.

Undead
Left flank was the Soul Reavers and the ghouls.

Center was the Revenants with zombies behind them, and the vampire lord and necromancer.

Right flank was the skeletons, the other unit of zombies and the liche king.

Abyssal Dwarfs win the roll to go first.

Turn 1-2
Halfbreeds & champion move up on the double.
Blacksouls and Immortal Guard move up. Bad deployment of LoG means they have to spend time getting out of woods.
One mortar hits the skeletons, does 13 wounds (blast(3d6) + crushing strength(3) is AWESOME), but they don't care

All the undead move up.
Necromancer does 1 would to LoG with a zap, Liche King heals a wound on the skeletons.

Turn 3-4

Halfbreeds & champion both charge the skeletons.
Decimators fire at the Soul Reavers - do 1 wound
Non of the war machines hit this turn. Iron caster tries to zap the Soul Reavers and also does nothing.
The halfbreeds and champion do 9 wounds to the skeletons bringing them to 22 - roll a 7 - however the Liche King forces a reroll - but don't get the 2 that is needed to keep them around and they collapse back to their graves.
The Halfbreeds reform to face the inevitable zombie counter attack.

The Liche Kings gets out of the way, and the zombies charge the halfbreeds. The soul reavers charge the decimators.
The ghouls charge the Immortal guard.
Liche King attempts to zap the halfbreed champion but misses.
The Necromancer zaps the LoGs for an additiona 2 wounds, but they are still steady. The vampire lord attempts to add to this, but misses with his zap.
The soul reavers smash into the decimators doing 7 wounds - and the decimators decide that the fires of the abyss are much more comforting than the cold surface world and head back there, just failing their nerve tests.
The zombies only manage to do 3 wounds on the halfbreeds, who laugh that off and prepare to show them the real meaning of pain the next turn.
The ghouls do 7 wounds on the Immortal guard - they aren't so sure they like that and are wavering.

Turn 5-6
The halfbreeds charge the zombies, the halfbreed champion charges the liche king.
The blacksouls charge the flank of the ghouls
The LoGs charge the revenants.
The war machines on the right flank worry about the soul reavers, but they are too close to shoot, so instead shoot the zombies behind the revenants, both hitting, doing 22 wounds and blowing them back to the hell they had so recently crawled out of. The rocket launcher on the left targets the soul reavers across the board and does 4 wounds, and they waver.
The blacksouls do 16 wounds on the ghouls, but roll a 3 for their nerve test so they shrug them off.
The halfbreeds decide to pull out their nerf weapons, and only do 4 wounds to the zombies, who easily shrug that off. The champion only manages a single wound on the Liche King, who also stands.

The zombies then charge the halfbreeds, and revenants charge the LoGs. The Vanpire Lord charges the flank of the blacksouls. The soul reavers hold because of the shooting that caused them to waver.
The Liche King heals 2 zombies, and necromancer heals 2 skeletons.
The vampire lord does 6 wounds to the blacksouls, but that is not enough to break their reserve.
The revenants however do 6 wounds on the LoGs, and they fail their nerve test and are destroyed.
The zombies, realizing that the halfbreeds have apparently spent all their strength, do 5 wounds on them and they halfbreeds waver, thinking that this wall of undead flesh maybe a bit overwhelming.

Turn 7-8
The halfbreed champion again charges the Liche King. The decimators, with no targets, march up to get back in the fight.
The wavering halfbreeds hold, but regenerate two wounds.
Both the Blacksouls and Immortal Guard charge the pesky ghouls. The overmaster moves up near the war machines on the hill.
The Iron-caster zaps the soul reavers for 1, but this time they don't care and are steady, preparing to bring some dwarfs into the afterlife next turn. The war machines on the left miss the soul reavers this time. The mortar on the right flank however hits the revenants, doing 15 wounds. Their nerve test is a 9. Even though the vampire lords inspiring presence forces a reroll - the result is an 8 - still enough to completely destroy the unit.
The blacksouls do 20 wounds on the ghouls, which, and again the inspiring presense of the vampire lord is not enough to get a snake-eyes even with the reroll on the nerve test, and they flee the battlefield, looking for easier pickings.

Once again, the zombies charge the halfbreeds. The soul reavers charge the Immortal Guard. The vampire lord and necromancer move over to help the zombies - they both zap the halfbreed champion, along with the liche king, doing two wounds but he remains steady. The soul reavers do 7 wounds on the Immortal Guard, and show them that undeath is the only true immortality, sending them back to the abyss. The zombies do three wounds to the halfbreeds, and they waver.
Turn 9-10


The Overmaster charges the soul reavers, the halfbreed champion charges the liche king for a third time. The halfbreeds hold due to wavering, but heal a wound.
The decimators find they have a nice, juicy vampire lord in their sites, so unload on him, doing 6 wounds, but don't manage to break his resolve.
All the war machines target the zombies. One rocket launcher and one mortar hit, doing a total of 21 wounds, and when the smoke clears there is nothing left but a stain and some twitching body parts.
The overmaster fails to harm the soul reavers, and they ignore him completely. The halfbreed champion does another wound to the Liche King, who just looks at him and laughs it off.

The soul reavers charge the blacksouls for the only movement.
The vampire lord zaps the halfbreeds, doing two wounds, which is enough to break them as they flee back to the abyss.
The necromancer and liche king try to zap the halfbreed champion, but they both miss.

Turn 11-12
The blacksouls charge the soul reavers, and for a fourth time the halfbreed champion charges the pesky liche king.
All the war machines target the Vampire Lord, and a mortar gets the needed 6 to hit him, exploding for 9 wounds on him.
His inspiring presense forces a re-roll of the nerve test - however both times it is a 3 - just one off from the needed snake eyes to keep him from blowing up.
The halfbreed champion does four wounds to the Liche King, finally killing him. The blacksouls do 3 wounds to the soul reavers, reaving them of their souls and destroying the unit.

The necromancer, not willing to give up, zaps the decimators for a wound, and they run from the field.

Rolling for the final turn, it comes up 6 - one more change to kill necromancer!

Turn 13-14
The halfbreed champion charges the necromancer, doing 4 wounds on him, making him waver. And with that the game is over.

The Abyssal dwarfs almost tabled the undead. MVP for AD was the Angkor Heavy Mortar. It only hits 1/3 of the time, but when it does it can take out an entire unit with the shot - as I said above Blast(3D6) + Crushing Strength(3) is AWESOME.
For the Undead, the zombies on the right flank were MVP - holding up the halfbreeds for nearly the entire game. The soul reavers are also extremely powerful. Hordes will bog down most anything.

I look forward to playing more.

Oh, and for more pictures of the Grateful Undead check outThe Grateful Undead

Comments

  1. JonHay commented 12-09-2012, 09:24 AM
    Nice report there! Angkors are indeed awesome, and your War Engines seem much more accurate than mine (it's not uncommon for my artillery to hit only once or twice a game!)... J.
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    puggimer commented 12-09-2012, 12:48 PM
    Thanks. I think that is about average - but having 4 means I usually hit with one a turn - and it in that game at least I only needed to hit anything once with them.
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    redfox4242 commented 12-09-2012, 09:28 PM
    Hey puggimer! I know your area. You're in Dayton, Ohio. I live reasonably close to you. I am in Columbus, Ohio. I thought you might be nearby when I saw you web page mentioned the Origins game convention. I am very excited to discover that you are so close by. Perhaps we could get together for a game some time. I am just starting but I have a small Undead force painted up. Most of the people on these forums are from the U.K. because that's where Mantic is based. I thought I was the only Mantic fan in Ohio. Anyway, I read your battle report. That's good stuff.
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    puggimer commented 13-09-2012, 08:22 AM
    RedFox - I occasionally make it to Columbus - I know a lot of the guys who play at the Guard Tower, though I don't yet know anyone playing KoW there. There are a couple of people that have been playing KoW down in Centerville at Epic Loot though.
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    redfox4242 commented 13-09-2012, 08:16 PM
    Originally posted by puggimer;bt2347
    RedFox - I occasionally make it to Columbus - I know a lot of the guys who play at the Guard Tower, though I don't yet know anyone playing KoW there. There are a couple of people that have been playing KoW down in Centerville at Epic Loot though.
    So you say this game store is named "Epic Loot" and it is in Centerville. I will try and find it. Let me know next time you visit Columbus. You could come over to my house and play a game.
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    puggimer commented 14-09-2012, 08:43 AM
    yep - http://epiclootgames.com/

    I'm actually going to play a friend of mine tomorrow morning at The Hobby Shop http://www.thehobbyshoponline.com/

    ReplyDelete

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