Kings of War Battle - 1000 points - League of Rhordia vs The Herd

As I'm currently taking a short break I've been looking through my blog and I found I've got quite a few unfinished blog posts stuck in 'drafts'. I'll dump some of them, like a birthday post marking eight years, but I think others have some interesting stuff.

Here is a 1000 point, second edition Kings of War battle between my 15mm League of Rhordia and Merlin's Herd. The reference to an ogres vs goblins battle allows me to date it to August 2019. You can read the report of the aforementioned battle here.

I never finished this report, but I think it's worth posting. I'm sure you can work out pretty much what's happening from the photos.

"After the ogres vs goblins battle, Merlin and I had a larger battle to continue our story of the conflict between the Herd and the League.  Again Merlin had come up with a scenario, this time giving me a chance to find and wipe out the Herd Shaman behind all the recent disruption.

The Shaman of the Peaks.

A  battle of 1,000pts per side between The Herd and The League of Rhordia.

          Loosely based on the Dominate scenario, p85.

Note: The Herd has 1,000pts plus a shaman, the League has just 1,000pts.

Game lasts 6 turns, then throw a d6, on a score of 4+ play one last turn.

Ogli Starberry had won the argument with Duke Errington. The League needed to follow-up their recent battle successes against the Herd and pursue them into their homelands. Recent information led the halfling to believe that the Herd were being compelled to attack League homelands by a sinister Shaman known as Oddroc who dwelt somewhere in the heavily wooded foothills of the Aven Peaks. If they struck quickly the league could seek out the foul shaman and wipe him and his followers out once and for all.

Set-up: place 3 objective markers on the battlefield-these represent the possible location of the shamans dwelling. All 3 markers should be placed on the middle line of the table, at least 12” apart. The Beastman player then notes which of the markers represents the shamans hut whilst the League will have to 'search' the markers to find the correct one-this is done simply by moving into within 3” of a marker, throw a d6, on a 5,6 they have found the shamans hut. The third and final marker will be the hut if it has not yet been found. The shaman will be placed in the doorway looking outwards. 

Players then throw a dice, the highest score chooses table edge and places their first unit.

Players then alternate deploying units until both forces are deployed.

Objective:  At the end of the game, players need to add up the points values of any of their units within 12” of the shamans hut. If the shaman has been killed the League may add his point tally to their total. If the difference in scores is more than 10%, then the player with the highest total wins the battle. 

The League can win the whole war if the slay the Oddroc the Shaman as then the Herd forces will fall apart and start bickering amongst themselves as usual.

My League army consisted of;
Duke Errington, Baron on horse (he has been demoted from Duke to Baron since he always loses the halflings under his command.  They are no longer Inspired by him)
Sgt Alefast, Halfling Master Sergeant with a bow
Ogli Starbrow, Halfling Sorcerer with the Zephyr Crown
1 Regiment of Household Knights with the Aegis of the Elohi
1 Regiment of House Guard
1 Regiment of Halfling Knights
1 Regiment of Halfling Spearlings
1 Regiment of Halfling Archers
1 Troop of Halfling Scouts

(Unfortunately I don't know what Merlin fielded and it's too long ago to find out, but it included some Centaurs and the Stampede)

The field of battle

The Herd preparing to defend Oddroc

More Herd, including Merlin's nice new Stampede on the right (nice if you're not in front of it when it charges, as I later found out)

The League prepare to seek and destroy

The two armies about to clash.

The opening moves; the League are cautiously advancing, trying to guess where the shaman will be.

The centaurs spy the halfling Scouts in the wood and charge in, wiping them out completely

The knights take the bait and charge the Stampede, but can't damage them enough to slow them down, due partly to facing them on the edge of the woods.  Likewise the House Guard are hindered against the centaurs

The Stampede crashes into the flank of the House Guard, leaving nothing but trampled mud and bodies, then they turn.

Sgt Alefast and the halfling knights charge in and the halfling spearlings face the centaurs.

The victorious Herd celebrate.  

Only Duke Errington and the Halfling Archers survived to bring the sorry tale back to the League.  Doubtless they had different versions of events; the Duke told how he bravely rode into enemy territory to try and seek out the shaman, only to be let down by the *ehem* 'short'comings of some of his troops.  The archers complained that the Duke treated his army as disposable and took little care about their deployment or tactics.

Merlin played very well, and used the terrain very much to his advantage.  Hindered charges make a big difference to a League army, and Merlin was able to put me in the position of either having to make a Hindered charge, or face a charging enemy.  Of course, the fact that most of the Herd don't suffer hindered charges only made things worse for me.  Well played.  

(We'll be back)"