first KoW tournament rambling

[Don't Panic]

so peanut and I both went up to seattle to check out the first KoW tournament in our region.  I had only played 2 smaller games at 1000 before so i was prepared to get my face stomped in.  Seems like people up there were in the same boat but had probably between 5-10 games in so had more of a feel of how it flowed and strategy.  I honestly just brought what units i had with beastmen(herd) and filled in to 2000 with magical items.  I actually dont think my list was that bad surprisingly!  What it needs is more chaff so i need to probably paint up some more ungors or if i can find harpies that appeal to me(have yet to...) maybe ill do that.  or convert the stereotypical gors with wings and be a cheap butt!  

as for the games themselves i didnt do as horrible as i thought i would.  we ended up playing 5 games cause we needed to get back and honestly i was quite burned out after 5 games in 2 days lol.  regardless though i had so much fun and it reconfirmed that i think im going to enjoy this game even more than 8th due to it feeling balanced yet very tactical.  think i won 3 games and lost 2 or something.  small thoughts:

• fliers are the beez kneez, but i wouldnt call them OP as people make them out to be.   i think having 15+ attacks on fliers might be a bit too much, but generally their lower nerve means you do have ways to deal with them.  my chimera actually has decent nerve for a flier but even it got wavered after being shot at just in one turn(and wavered is really all you need to make them ineffective).   
• made a ton of mistakes generally involving measuring like from the center guy i kepts screwing that up!  also no 1 inch rule on friendly models i didnt realize for most of the games lol.
• one army that really stuck out to me was an army i played against my second game which was a very shooty elf list.  now i did have some pretty unfortunate luck that game, but his list and strategy was super solid and difficult to deal with.
• chaos dwarfs kind of seemed to retain their flavor from whfb, but without the really absurd war machines and giant flame ball.  i really liked them
• war machines were definitely toned down, but they do impact games!  same as magic.  its honestly how i 'wished' whfb was without having those two things just completely wreck games.  magic is more of an assistance rather than a smashface endgame which i always despised about whfb along with laser beam cannons.  cannons hit on 5s which is 'meh' but when they hit they do a decent amount of damage but dont necessarily whipe out a unit with one hit.  the playstyle of war machines and magic is just a lot more appealing to me... obviously just my opinion there ;)
• breath weapons ugh just wrecked me a few times.  they are VERY good.  especially on fliers.
• i came in thinking maybe the avatar was too good... but really he is just another piece to the puzzle and doesnt play at all like a super character in whfb.  you have to be careful with all your pieces really.  glad he wasnt as 'insane' as i thought he might be
• didnt like that you couldnt see through 6 tall forests.  thought that was a little silly that my pathfinder flier couldnt charge through a forest...
• this game is kind of like infinity ITS in which its all about objectives.  if you are just playing to kill(unless its kill lol) you wont generally win.  there was a game in which i won solidly on vic points but lost the objective 3-2 so i lost 14-6.  and ya know what... I LIKE THAT lol.  brings more strategy to the game.
• seattle definitely has this game hoppin' right now and you can tell everyone really likes playing it.  there's even some new players that jumped in.  i recall one guy told me it was his first miniature game and he was playing his 8th game or so.  so cool!  
• Veteran whfb players: I'm calling you out.  Play a game or two and see for yourself if you enjoy it.  I remember reading the rulebook and not being overly impressed until i gave it a shot.  I swear it is not 'bland' at all and really every army seems to have a flavor even with a more basic ruleset.  Things are also more streamlined so its really easy to catch on once you get the rules down.  More importantly: i feel like every game i felt like was on even grounds based on lists/army.  So it really came down to 95% who played better and about 5% dice.  Dont think i could really say the same about whfb... 

[Andrewgeddon]

Thank you for the write up sir! Might be playing my 2nd game of KoW tomorrow, excited to see how it turns out.

 

Do you mind giving us a rundown of your list?

[Don't Panic]

The Herd)    (Neutral)

Tribal Warriors 

Horde(40) 6 4+ - 4+ 25 20/22 200 Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge (1)    - Brew of Sharpness 45  

Tribal Longhorns

Regiment(20) 6 3+ - 4+ 12 14/16 145 Base Size: (25x25mm), Crushing Strength (1), Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge (1)    - Blessing of the Gods 25  

Tribal Hunters

  Regiment(20) 6 5+ 5+ 3+ 10 12/14 105 Pathfinder, Throwing Weapons, Vanguard

Guardian Brutes 

Regiment(3) 6 4+ - 5+ 12 12/15 150 Crushing Strength (1), Fury, Thunderous Charge (2)

Horde(6) 6 4+ - 5+ 24 15/18 230 Crushing Strength (1), Fury, Thunderous Charge (2)    - Brew of Haste 15  

Brutox

       (1) 8 4+ - 4+ D6+8 16/19 220 Crushing Strength (2), Fury, Regeneration (5+), Strider, Thunderous Charge (2)

Chimera with Wings 

      (1) 10 3+ - 5+ 7 15/17 210 Crushing Strength (2), Fly, Vicious

Great Chieftan on Chariot

     (1) 9 3+ - 5+ 7 14/16 190 Base Size: (50x100mm), Crushing Strength (1), Inspiring, Thunderous Charge (2)

Shaman 

    (1) 6 4+ - 4+ 2 11/13 95 Bane-chant (3), Heal (5), Individual, Inspiring, Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge (1)    - Heal (5) 25  

Avatar[1]

      (1) 10 3+ - 5+ 9 -/19 270 Crushing Strength (1), Elite, Fly, Heal (6), Iron Resolve, Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge (3), Very Inspiring    - Fly and Speed 10 50      - Heal (6) 25

 

 

so my EXTREMELY BASIC thoughts were: have two healers and inspire all my things because i will get tested from shooting quite a bit.  that strategy i think was pretty decent.  i got out dropped so badly so im pondering using the silly +D3 drops item to try and even that out a bit.  my list was pretty straight forward: i come at you lol.   need more chaff and such to level out things a bit more and choose my combats.  felt like sometimes even when i got up the board i wasnt in great position.  that will come with time i think!  avatar i have to hide cause when i dont it basically gets all the shooting dumped into it lol.  and with piercing 2+ he takes wounds pretty fast.  stinks i cant give him items(at least it doesnt allow it on easy builder?) cause i would love for him to have the 6+ defense.  individual chaff is annoying as heck lol.  really hard to kill them with a monster or character due to inspiring.  guy i played who had elves had tons of individual chaff and it really messed me up and honestly was probably the reason i lost the game was him playing so well and keeping me out of his juicy things.

 

EDIT: ok format did not translate so editted to be less rediculous lol

[Peanut]

I had a great time at the tournament but am still mad at myself for the really stupid mistakes I made. I gave two of my opponents the game by not paying attention to where I was moving my stuff and what could charge it. The game is all about careful outmaneuvering.

 

Not sure I can handle that many games in a row, my attention span drops off at some point. I might just not be a tournament player!

 

Still I love KoW and hope more folks in Portland try it out.

[NakedPanda]

I walked in and saw a game that looked fantastic on the table.

 

There were not hanfulls of models dropped in corners to be fiddled with and re-ranked between games.

 

I was able to see flanks, fronts, and the weight of the fight on the table. This is significant as I have not played yet, and I dont know the troops. In 8th this would not have been as clear to an observer lacking esoteric knowledge of the game.

 

The players seemed happy and engaged, rather than stressed. I saw the rulebook opened once to see if a fireball magic attack would suffer shooting penalties (I think that was the question).

 

This game is in my immediate future

[Andrewgeddon]

avatar i have to hide cause when i dont it basically gets all the shooting dumped into it lol.  and with piercing 2+ he takes wounds pretty fast.  stinks i cant give him items(at least it doesnt allow it on easy builder?) cause i would love for him to have the 6+ defense. 

Don't have my rulebook in front of me, but I believe the Avatar can't take artifacts because he is a Monster.

[Kremmet]

Yeah, my biggest problem with playing Herd in the past has been a general lack of anything to do but charge. Definitely an army where snake eyes for Nerve hurts as the whole point tends to be overwhelming combat strength.