KoW Kingdoms of Men vs Salamanders [DOMINATE - 1500 pts]

[Itepixcauh]

I'm back!

This couple of months have been a real chaos but I've been playing regularly, not so much can be said about painting though .

Had a couple of games in our KoW league, both against Kingdoms of Men (different players) and both Dominate. I only took pictures for one of them, though.

My army is the same I've been using for the last games and goes as follows:

SALAMANDERS

Ghekkotah Skylord with Blade of Slashing
Ghekkotah Skylord
Mage-Priest with Surge and Inspiring
Fire Elemental Horde with Blessing of the Gods
Tyrant Horde with Brew of Sharpness
GFE
Ankylodon Battle Platform
Ghekkotah Warriors Regiment
Ghekkotah Hunters

KINGDOMS OF MEN

Horde of Knights with Pathfinder
Horde of Arquebusiers with Brew of Keen Eyeness
Horde of Heavy Pikemen with Brew of Strength
Horde of Foot Guard with 2 handed weapons and Brew of Sharpness (not sure about the item though)
Troop of Mounted Sergeants
General on Winged Beast

I was shocked when I saw his list, 6 drops are very rare for a KoM army. Also those huge hordes looked scary and had plenty of CS to break my units. Still my initial plan was to keep the knights out of the game as long as possible and disrupt those damn Arquebusiers fast.

DEPLOYMENT

He deployed first I was confident to out-deploy him as for once I had more drops! He chose to deploy in flank denial, which was my initial idea but as I was watching him deploy I chose to go for the objective hard an deployed heavy in the centre. When I saw him putting his knights so far away I was happy indeed.

After deployment my battle plan was to occupy the centre and hold it, and use the GFE, the Horde of Tyrants and my regiment of Ghekko Warriors to chaff and destroy the biggest threat, those scary looking knights.

TURN 1

I think he won the roll for first turn and chose to let me take it in the hopes I will move in range of his shooting, but I'm very careful not to do so. I advance forwards hard on the right flank and in the centre I position my ghekkos in the way of the Tyrants as planned.

BTW we are playing with time in this game, it's a first for both of us in a competitive enviroment. This should be interesting.

He is obviously scared of my Flyers and Hunters because he turns his shooting unit to face the flank in case I want to be sneaky, he also rushes his Knights and General forwards to take my flank just as I expected, leaving the poor Footguard out of the game for at least 3 turns (good for me, having so little units this will surely pay off)

TURN 2

Nothing exciting here really, I just reposition myself according to plan. I take the centre and advance my GFE forwards in a way that he is out of the front arc of the knights, also offering my ghekkos as bait hoping he will take it.

First mistake of the game was to forget to move my Skylords (sigh)

He doesn't fall for it and repositions his knights instead and tries to win my rear with the General, not really afraid of him if I'm honest. I have plenty of tools to deal with him. The rest of his army stands still and in the shooting fase my second mistake is revealed, his Arquebusiers can just see my GFE and put a brutal 9 wounds on him. That hurts a lot.

I forgot to take a picture at the end of his turn but is not really that much happening.

TURN 3

In the left I continue with my initial plan and move the ghekkos towards the knights creating a nice multicharge when they get destroyed.

The center is consolidated and the FE positioned in a way that I can react to his General in case he tries to get creative. Those damn Arquebusiers and sergeants are protecting his rear too well for me to do anything so I just keep them around the centre and safe till I need them. His Pikemen are still outside my charge distance so I move my Ankylodon just enough to be in range but not enough for him to charge me.

The bait is taken and his knights charge the poor Ghekkos, he repositions his General to try and threat the centre of the board and his shooting horde can finally open fire on the Ankylodon, which holds rather well thanks to cover.

On the combat, the knights completely obliterate the Ghekkos and wait for the charge.

SALAMANDERS TURN 4

This is the moment of truth, my careful plan will be tested. I charge the Knights with my two heavy hitters and charge the Ankylodon into the Heavy Pike Block, my initil idea was to put the FE there too but that pesky General made me rethink my plan and both my skylords go into them (not my best idea if I'm honest, that is not their job but I needed their attacks). The Hunters start to move in the rear again but not much.

He left his General in surge range and at an angle so I can turn slightly and advance positioning myself in a way that the surge will be a flank when I hit his corner.

In the combat phase my FE leave the General in snake eyes figures and the GFE and Tyrants put 10 wounds on the Knights, happy with that no more TC for them. Of course the roll on the general is a double 1.

On the other combat I wiff badly and don't manage to do nearly enough wounds to cause any trouble.

Overall the game is looking good with the knights almost of the board.

 

[Itepixcauh]

KINGDOMS OF MEN TURN 4

Well I knew this was going to happen, finally the Footguard can join the fight and he multicharges my poor Ankylodon with both hordes, and repositions his Sergeants to support the knights if they survive or be annoying if they don't.

His general moves away escaping the charge arc of my FE.

Of course he takes the Knights into the bigger threat that are the Tyrants.

My two skylords are free to be shot in the face and of course one of the is blown into a very fine red mist.

The knights are scary even without TC, just for the sheer volume of attacks and put 8 wounds on the Tyrants that luckily is not enough to rout them.

The Ankylodon gets a massive 18 wounds on him and guess what:

That just made my day.

SALAMANDERS TURN 5

I know my Ankylodon will die next turn so I charge everything I have into the Pikemen, including a flank charge from the hunters, hoping to kill them and at least getting that big, fat and expensive threat out.

My FE reform to face the footguard and I counter charge my GFE and Tyrants into the Knights again.

On the shooting phase my mighty Mage-Priest puts a wound on the General and finally he dies.

The combat against the Pikemen goes as planned and without inspiring nearby they die, I move the Anylodon forwards because why not and reform the other units, the hunters looking at the Arquebusiers and the Skylord looking at the centre of the table thinking on trun 6. He can only shoot one thing next turn, and it will be the Ankylodon so my plan is to charge the hunters into them to disorder them and prevent them form killing something big in the last turn.

The combat against the Knights also go well and they get routed too. I needed to get the GFE out of the charge arc of the footguard so I decide to move him forwards, I roll a 6 and he is out of the game really and into the charge range of the sergeants, well done there. My tyrants reform facing the footguard and out of their charge range.

KINGDOMS OF MEN TURN 5

He doesn't have much choice really, and does the expected, charges his sergents into the flank of my GFE but just clips the forest doing so so its hindered . His fresh footguard stays still fearing the multicharge from my two hordes.

His shoot the crap out of my Ankylodon and this time he goes away.

Combat goes bad for him and doesn't manage to kill the GFE, thank Sotek for that forest.

TURN 6

My FE and Mage-Priest are within scoring distance, so I move my Skylord in there too. Right now I'm winning as he doesn't have anything in the dominate area so I play the scenario and sidestep my Tyrants to my right, they are not in the scoring zone but I can put them there if there is a turn 7, even better than that the only way for him to have a chance is move his footgouard into the middle exposing his flank is there is one more turn.

I charge my Hunters into the Arquebusiers and countercharge the sergeants.

The sergeants get wavered, but that is not really important. The hunter on the other side wiff completely and fail to do a single wound.

My oponent know the game is lost, there is nothing he can really do to win. I have far more points in the middle than he can get in and if we go to turn 7 his horde will die. So he just moves them into scoring position, shoots my hunters in the face ends his turn.

We roll a 3 and the game ends.

ENDING

The presence of the humans dressed in shiny metal was a surprise, Itepixcauh wasn't expecting opposition here. How can those barbaric creatures know about the powers that lay beneath the ruined watchtower. It doesn't really matter, surprised or not he is always prepared.

The Mage-Priest can feel the pulsating power as he descends into the underground tunnels, now he can take his time, now the humans are retreating no one will interrupt him. Humans, they would have never understood it, they are too young, too inpatient.

No, they will never understand the Flame.

GAME ANALYSIS

I'm very happy with how I played the game, except for the Skylords maybe, but given the army I was facing and how well he protected his shooting horde I think I did quite well. I think the best strategy would have been to use both skylords to harass his general and use the FE to support the Ankylodon but anyway in the end it turned out quite well.

I really, really like my army right now. once again I could do with some healing for the later game but I will test that in the next game againts Forces of Nature.