Kings of War: Battle Report – Twilight Kin vs Varangur.

So having worked on my Varangur, I took them out for a spin against Steve’s Twilight Kin. This was a 2000pts a side game.

My list –

My list- I have to thank Steve for loaning me 2 undead regiments to field as Draugr as mine are still awaiting painting and basing. Now Steve did tell me that I should take more Inspiring units and that giving the Bow to my lord was a waste, but hey I like to learn the hard way..

Steves Twilight kin were beautifully painted and this was the first time I had encountered them –

We had planned to play an objective based game and as such 6 objective counters were placed on the table (they are the red dots), Steve won first turn.

Starting positions, following scouting moves for my Night Raiders (which I kept referring to as Knight Riders, much to Steve’s enjoyment, if you don’t know what Knight Rider was – google it.).

As you can see from the pictures Steve set up in two blocks one on each wing. His right wing consisted of his 2 impaler units, 2 Crone bound Butchers, 1 lot of Gargoyles, a Summoner Crone and his Soulbane. On his left were his 2 units of Abyssal Horsemen, 1 unit of Gargoyles, the Cronebound Archfiend and his other Summoner Crone.

I tried to setup a strong right flank with a mobile centre, hoping to be able to hold Steve’s forces on my right wing, whilst folding his forces on my left wing and then turning to mop up his forces. On my left flank I had a unit of Night Raiders, The Fallen, 1 Draugr unit, My Huscarls and one of my Magi. In the middle were my Lord on Frostfang, the Frostfangs and a Magus Conclave. On my right were The Daughters (sons) of Korgaan, the other unit of Draugr, the Reavers, a unit of Night raiders and the other Magus.

By turn 3, my left wing had got bogged down in the woods. My Fallen had ..haha fallen back to regroup after their initial engagement. The magus used Tranfusion to replenish the Fallen, but had yet to use Blood boil and even by game end had never dusted it off.

This enabled the Draugr to act as the chaff they are, supported by the hitting power of the Lord against one of the units of Impalers. Meanwhile the Huscarls readied to join the fight and hopefully deliver a flank charge and force Steve’s wing to fold.

The Night Raiders had been swept away by the end of turn two on both flanks, having done little damage and provided little benefit to the battle.

In the middle my Frost Fang were engaged with the lesser of Steve’s Abyssal Horsemen units and faring badly. The Magus Conclave and Magus provided fire support to the frost fang and the right wing.

On my right flank, the Daughters of Korgaan had been charged by the Cronebound ArchFiend, which had already taken wounds from the Magus Conclave and Magus on this flank. The Reavers (Dark Age warriors pretending to be a lot more), had charged one of the Abyssal Horsemen with a view to pinning them and hopefully enabling the Draugr to flank charge them, a manoeuvre that had been successfully used earlier on a unit of Gargoyles.

By the beginning of Turn 5 – My Huscarls, Fallen, Reavers, both units of Draugr, the Frost fang and the Daughters had all routed and I capitulated. Several fell due to lucky nerve test rolls, which due to my lack of inspiring went through, meanwhile several of Steve’s units had been saved by the enforced Nerve re-roll due to his well placed inspiring leaders.

My leader had failed to use his bow even once, and I had also not managed to trigger blood boil. However Steve had show good usage of Drain life by his Crones showed me the greater flexibility of it over Bloodboil. My magus conclave and Magi performed well, and I feel they were points well spent.

My expensive units The Fallen, Frost Fangs and Huscarls

I had taken a list with very limited damage soak capability and inspiring, and had suffered due to it. As such I am looking to review my list, and available figures with a view to taking some Draugr hordes to provide Chaff with soak capability (if that is the right phrase – perhaps I should think of them as SuperDrug Sponges, i.e. cheap and disposable.