Initial Thoughts:
Well, a couple days ago I played the scenario against Jess Bilbija, and did fairly well. Looking at the EoD set up I’m facing, I know I have to make less mistakes, and focus more on busting through quickly. The EoD is deceptively fast compared to regular undead, due in part to the amount of surge they can field. In this case, I’m looking at a bone dragon, 3 Revenant cavalry troops, 2 hordes of guardians, and 2 hordes of revenants. Speeds 10, 8, 6 and 5 respectively. There are also 2 regiments of mummies, and I hate those guys. Plus, the drain life at 18 inches thing is one of those war machines I really can’t stand. I went into this game with the “knowledge” imparted by Nick Williamson that UB dice don’t really exist, so I should be just fine, right?
Looking at unit count, I only outnumber by 4 which means I don’t have to drop my fast attack until he’s done deploying. That is a slight advantage, at least. The other thing I have going for me is the scenario itself. I love invade because you just have to focus on forward movement. I just can’t afford to get bogged down too much, but I have enough speed that I should be able to avoid bogging down.
Set Up.
Looking at the terrain we have to work with, I’m really hoping to get the bottom because that hill on the left center is perfect for taking advantage of a downhill charge, especially against De 5 revenant cav and enslaved guardians. I do win the roll for sides and take the bottom. Well, we’re off to a good start. Let’s talk about my plan. I am going to stack the majority of my forces on the left side , with my reapers behind the scarecrows for the counter-punch they provide. Looking at most of his forces, if I keep the reaper troops back a bit beside the scarecrows, his cav and guardians can’t charge them. That’s exactly what I want to prevent. I will hold the 4 phantom troops to deploy until the end, but I will make it quite evident that the shade’s primary mission is to take down the soul snare. I hate that thing. I need to place some of the phantoms as a dam against the big flying wyrm, so that is an important point to remember. I have 9 lightning for the early rounds and plinking out a few wounds, but we’ll see what benefit that provides. His army has a lot of De 5, so lightning just isn’t that great in this battle.
With the plan set, I begin the deployment. First 4 drops are crow horde, reaper troop, crow regiment, and blue horror. Thus my full deployment from left to right: 2 phantom troops, scarecrow regiment, reaper troop, scarecrow horde followed by 2 reaper regiments including the gaze of the gods on the right one. The blue horror with LB 3, Bane chant, aura and conjuring staff, and the shade with blade of the beastslayer followed by a reaper troop are next. Then we have the pink horror (BC2 and aura) behind a scarecrow regiment, the mindscreech, and another scarecrow regiment. My right flank consists of a reaper troop, the dread fiend with slashing blade and 2 phantom troops.
Matt lays out his army directly across from me on the left center. Looks like it is going to be a blow counter-bow kind of game. His army, from left to right: a flying wyrm, revenant horde with CS1 and sanguinary scripture, cursed high priest with reanimator, surge and drain life, a rev cav troop followed by a guardian horde with Jesse’s boots, another rev cav troop followed by a mummy regiment, the soul snare followed by the monolith, another mummy regiment, a rev cav troop, a guardian horde with Potion of the Caterpillar, and a revenant horde with Aegis of the Elohi followed by an army standard bearer with the Tome of Darkness.
Turn 1:
Matt wins the roll for first and elects to take it. He advances very cautiously, and shifts the wyrm back behind the revenant horde. The boldest moves he makes are to bring the rev cav troops out their full 8 inches. There is no shooting this turn.
I send the crow horde up onto the hill, but not as far as I’d like because of the wyrm’s attack range. The reapers hold back between the crows as my counter punch units. Matt only realizes that as he starts his second turn, and congratulates me for the skill of the move. The elite reapers make it onto the hill, but the regular regiment is stalled behind the hill. My right flank phantoms kick in the afterburners and shoot down to threaten the flank. The reaper troop and dread fiend advance on the Aegis rev horde. I happily offer up my scarecrows to his troops well within charge range. I manage only a single wound on the center rev cav out of 9 lightning. So far the no UB dice is not looking nice to me.
Turn 2:
Matt only takes one charge, and it’s the one I was hoping he wouldn’t take. The rev cav troop in the woods takes the hindered charge on the right side reaper troop. The rest of his army shambles forward. Still no shooting as his soul snare is in range, but he moves it behind his mummies, thus blocking it’s line of sight to most of the targets he wants. I’m not sure why he doesn’t blast the scarecrow horde, but he chooses not to, and instead tacks 2 wounds on the mindscreech. I do want to take the time to emphasize the shambling nature of Matt’s EoD. He is an extremely cautious player and takes a long time to commit to an action. The nature of UB makes this style somewhat strong, but it takes a long time to finish a turn. He gave me an awful lot of time to calculate my reactions and his counter actions to each move he made. Thus when it got to my turn, I was able to balance out the time fairly nicely. The hindered charge on my reaper troop kills the troop, and the rev cav stay where they are to try to slip in behind my forces on the next turn.
Well, I’m not sure he wanted me to do a flying rear charge on his rev cav troop, but since he left it for me, I happily take it. The crow horde on the hill takes advantage of the down hill slope, and charges into the flank of the left rev cav troop, and the center crow regiment hits the remaining troop. This allows me to get the other reaper regiment onto the hill. The shade launches of his mission as well, and drops neatly behind the mummies into contact with the souls snare. Whoever decided a war engine with -/15 nerve wasn’t really paying attention to what war engines are. If you’re wondering about the two number 1 circles on the board, I roll all of my wild charges at the same time, and drop a counter on each unit to remind me how much extra they have. I shift both horrors to the right to give bane chant to the units who will most need it. In this case, the crow regiment attacking the cav troop and the phantoms with the rear charge. The mindscreech decides the better choice this turn to lightning is to push the PF guardians back 4 inches. Probably a good call in the grand scheme of things. 2 of the 3 rev cav troops vanish leaving only the 1 in the center with 4 wounds on it (who managed to draw a double 1 nerve roll.) The shade does 8 wounds on the soul snare, and needs a 6 with dread to end its evil, but of course, I roll a 3 for nerve (There is no such thing as UB Dice.) The crow horde turns back to face center and the phantom turns back around to face front.
Turn 3
Every once in a while, you have to give your opponent the opportunity to triple charge you, especially if it’s a surge army you’re fighting, and the unit in question is really in the way. In this case, the rev cav troop disengages, and turns towards the crow horde flank, the mummies charge the front of the horde, and the wyrm flies forward to position for a flanking surge. The aegis rev horde charges the right scarecrow regiment, the mummies take the hindered charge on the center crow regiment, the guardians with pathfinder turn to their right (left side,) and advance on the shade. Surge puts the two units into the flanks of the crow horde, and the guardians into the shade. Oh, well, he may not be able to complete his mission, but if he doesn’t, too bad, so sad. The right crow regiment and the horde both die, as does the shade. The one crow regiment survives the mummy onslaught. (I actually was hoping they’d be gone, but they sometimes prove pretty resilient.) This leaves me a lot of counterattack opportunities, but I have lost some units, and economy of force is going to become essential here soon. I right now have only 1 unit across the center line.
First off, I have to do some blocking attacks. I send the left crow regiment into the revenant horde on the hill and a phantom troop into the J-Boot guardians. Next, I double charge the flying wyrm with a reaper troop to the front and a phantom troop to the flank. The vanilla reaper regiment shoots down the hill into the mummies. Now, I have some regrettable choices to make. I double flank charge the revenant horde, but if I don’t break it, I am going to have to sacrifice (potentially) one of my reaper troops. I’m not thrilled since I only have 2 left, but I really need my mind screech alive and blasting. The mind screech hops over the reapers and faces forward. This is important because I want to charge downhill with the elite reapers but be able to reposition back on the hill after combat if I win, so the mind screech provides the perfect blocker. The other right phantom troop moves up to where it is touching the woods with its leader point. The blue horror moves back onto the hill where he can see and influence all he reapers. The pink horror also shifts back to the left. The mindscreech completely botches his lightning attacks on the soul snare. 1 hit out of 6 dice on a 4+, and no wound on a 3. (UB dice is not a thing. Say it with me, y’all.) The blue horror bane chants the reaper troop on the wyrm, and the pink horror bane chants the elite reapers who will now be hitting on 3+ rerolling 1s and wounding on 2+ rerolling 1s. The flank of the revenant horde is next. I hit it with the dread fiend and a phantom troop. (Statistically, I should be 10 attacks on 3+ with one reroll, so should hit 8, and wound on a 2+ re-rolling 1’s so should be 7 or 8 wounds. Add then 24 attacks on 4+ so 12 hits and wounding on 4s so 6 wounds. I should have 13-14 damage plus dread, needing an 8 to break.) Instead of the statistical average for this attack, I manage 9 wounds, can’t break a -/23, and the Aegis gives him one back. The crow regiment does an astonishing 3 wounds (they should have hit 5 and wounded 2,) but it’s not enough to force a legitimate nerve test. The elite reapers obliterate the rev cav troop and reposition back on the hill. The other reapers do a respectable 14 wounds on the left mummies, but double 1 on the nerve re-roll. The reaper troop and phantoms cut the wyrm up into bait sized pieces, and the crow regiment and phantoms each manage 1 wound on their targets, preventing TC on the counter-punches at least.
Turn 4
The mummies who should be dead regenerate several wounds, and the other mummies regenerate all 3 of theirs (perfect.) (There are no UB Dice!) The Aegis revs flank charge the reaper troop. Both mummy regiments countercharge their respective units, as do the J-Boot guardians and left rev horde. What I don’t get is why don’t the PF guardians charge the phantom troop? For whatever reason, the guardians just advance into the woods, and hang out. I think I’m supposed to front charge them with my phantoms, but that’s not going to happen. The soul snare drains life from my reapers (should hit 5 and do 3 wounds, but it does 5 instead, which it puts back onto the mummies who should be dead. It shocks me that the same people who decided an efreet shouldn’t be allowed fireball 20, and Chroneas should end up as a second-rate giant, allowed this thing in the game. There is just no down-side to taking it. If someone is writing the tiers for EoD this is an auto-include S-Tier to be sure.) The cursed high priest drains a wound from the phantoms and puts it on the J-Boot guardians. The rejuvenated mummies erase the vanilla reapers. The J-Boot guardians slaughter the phantoms and stay put on the hill. The rev horde on the hill fails to break the crow regiment, once again those little resilient speed bumps surprise me. The Aegis revenants crush the reaper troop, but then offer their flank again to the phantoms and dread fiend. I guess they just don’t fear the reapers.
It’s finally my turn for a triple charge, but I’m likely to double 1 the nerve roll. That said, The reapers charge the right mummies in the front and a phantom troop hits it in each flank. The reaper troop charges the should be dead, but still swinging, mummies. The phantoms and dread fiend again charge the Aegis rev horde, and the horrors position themselves where they can bane chant and be of the most use with their auras. The blue horror bane chants the reaper troop, the pink horror bane chants the right flanking phantoms, and the mind screech finally kills the soul snare with lightning. The last crow regiment again wounds the revs on the hill. The reaper troop finishes off the mummies and advances into the front of the J-Boot guardians. The triple charge kills the other mummies, but it was a nail biter; the nerve rolls were 1,2 and 1,3. (There are no UB Dice.) The phantoms and dread fiend finish off the revenant horde as well. Suddenly, it’s not looking so bad for me.
Turn 5
Going into turn 5, Matt is down 1 nil for scoring, but he has a big chance to bring it all in this turn. The PF guardians charge the right phantoms, the J-Boot guardians charge the reaper troop, and the revenant horde again counter charges the surprisingly resilient scarecrow regiment. Aside from those 3 units, he still has the monolith and 2 inspiring characters. That is all that is left. The priest does drain life on the reaper troop and gets 4 wounds, boo. The revenant horde finally finishes off the scarecrows and Advances across the open ground. The J-Boots guardians lay the smack down for 10 wounds on the reaper troop, but lo and behold, rolls snake eyes for nerve (maybe there really is no such thing as UB dice.) They are stuck on the hill with their flank exposed. The PF guardians do easily rout the phantom troop, and advance right into the dread fiend’s face. And just like that, the score is 7 to 1 in Matt’s favor.
Can you believe it? I have yet to forget a picture this entire battle so far. 1 phantom troop flank charges the rev horde, because they can. The other phantom troop flanks the J-Boot guardians. The elite reapers and dread fiend double charge the monolith, and the mind screech lines up for a shot on the cursed priest causing a single point of lightning damage. Bane chants go off successfully on both phantom troops, and we now have a chance. The J-Boot guardians go down, despite the reaper troop only getting 10 attacks for being devastated. The other phantoms do a respectable 7 wounds (statistically average for 20 attacks on 4+/ 3+.) The dread fiend and reapers smash the monolith into gravel and turn back to face the escaping PF guardians. It’s now 7 to 6 in the EoD’s favor.
Turn 6
The revenant horde counter charges the phantom troop, while the guardians boogie down south as fast as their shambling selves can go. The ASB shoves them on down into the rock formation with some surge, and the cursed priest drains life on the reaper troop, finishing them off. The revenant horde easily dispatches the phantom troop and sidesteps to the right. It is now 7 to 5 in the bottom of the 6th. You can’t get any more serious than that.
There’s nothing else I can do right now but go for the death or glory charge. The dread fiend runs down the guardians, hitting them square in the back. The pink horror boosts him with a bane chant, and he devastates and destroys the guardian horde. (I actually had a good chance to succeed here. I was getting 15 attacks on a 3+ with 1 re-rolled miss for the slashing blade so a strong possibility of 11 hits. I was wounding on 2s with vicious, so quite possibly 10 to 11 wounds. I have dread as well, so I would need a 5 or 6 twice to kill them.) The resulting 10 wounds left me needing a 6 to win the game. I rolled, and got exactly a 6, then re-rolled and got a 10, YES! (There is no such thing as UB dice!) The phantom troop charge the cursed priest and finish him off because we really don’t want yet another drain life to hurt us. The mind screech does a couple points of lightning damage to the revenant horde, and I roll a 1 to see if there will be a turn 7. Final score 5 to 4, Night Stalkers win.
After Thoughts:
That game went right down to the wire. I think if Matt had played his pathfinder enslaved guardians more aggressively, I wouldn’t have even had a chance. The 2 turns they didn’t charge anything across the center line when they had a chance really gave me some extra time. I do hate to say it, but the double 1s on the reaper troop in turn 5 really handed me the win. Matt is the first opponent this entire tournament to not kill the elite reaper regiment or dread fiend which ultimately bit him on the arse, quite literally, in the end. My last reaper troop was the hero of the game though, effectively taking out the flying wyrm, a mummy regiment and an enslaved guardian horde before finally going down to a drain life. My biggest disappointment was the shade failing to take out the soul snare, but everyone has to get their low nerve licks in. The snake eyes on the mummy regiment was a pain in the butt, but was not too terrible in the end, and I was able to recover from it. Props to Matt for trying out an army he hasn’t used before. I think his one real mistake was not being more aggressive, especially with the enslaved guardian hordes. Those things can be dynamite when used well. He did get off a couple of surge shenanigans, but generally this was a clean and straight fight. Lots of fun, and down to the wire.
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