Writing Armylists part 2: MSU (Goblins)

Here I would like to talk a little about MSU and activation advantage in Conquest Last Argument of Kings. Some people know my goblin list from the Discord and Mass from Bonktable has also shown several things about it on his YouTube channel. There is no report about it here in the blog yet, as the Ashen Dawn (as of December 2023) are simply too good to miss out on.

Old image of the goblin list in use

The term or abbreviation MSU exists in several games and can be translated as minimum small units or, in Conquest, many regiments with only three stands. Here we are trying to gain an activation advantage in addition to an impressive image on the battlefield. This allows us to set the pace in the first rounds and isolate individual enemy regiments or happily score points on our own. In addition, the psychological factor should not be underestimated, because many inexperienced players mentally give up when someone suddenly leads 25%-50% more regiments onto the battlefield than themselves. Due to Conquest's reinforcement system, you don't necessarily have to have more regiments than the other player.Essentially we differentiate here from the Light Rush with aggressive regiments (Wadrhun Raptors/Hunting Pack and Slinger; Spire with Stryx and VCI etc) which build up a lot of pressure at the beginning by destroying/blocking the opponent's regiments early and so on create an activation advantage at the back. Current tournament list has 9-12 activations (including 2-3 characters) on 2000 points and the goal of the Goblin/MSU list is at least 30% more. For example, with 17 activations (4 characters, i.e. four alibi activations) you always play half of the round alone. This doesn't work at all with many peoples and those who can do it mostly rely on light regiments. As a result, the quality of the regiments is usually less good than in a balanced list and they die quickly. This is exactly what makes these lists difficult to play and even small mistakes are usually severely punished and can lead to the loss of an entire cross.

What is the basic structure of a goblin list/MSU

In addition to the Light Rush, there are also other subtypes or armies that play elite MSUs or represent a mixture of several archetypes, but essentially the structure is usually similar and we will limit ourselves to the "classic" structure here.

The easiest option would be to just pack 8 cheap regiments like Force Grown Drones or Militia Bowmen, but these are inherently too poor to carry the main combat load. Instead, you should look at various light and medium regiments that roughly don't exceed 150 points. These serve the purpose better and can be supported by a few cheaper regiments. This means that you use them to block the opponent and keep their number manageable. My recommendation here would be 2-3 regiments.
Furthermore, we need shelling and regiments with a height of two, as sooner or later we will find ourselves on our feet. You lose many games with a Goblin/MSU list because you are unable to properly transfer the army's damage to your opponent. Of course, skills like Arcing Fire and size 2 regiments that look over your own infantry and can charge accordingly help twice as much. Still, it's essential to plan your movement a few turns ahead. However, this rarely presents a challenge, especially in the first three rounds.
Furthermore, there are regiments that we simply have to destroy because they occupy a zone that we want or otherwise the army will slowly eat away from us. For this we need problem solvers who can deal serious damage and we usually only find these among the heavys. Be it the Jotnars or a Steel Legion, essentially we want a lot of attacks with usable clash and high cleave values so that it really clicks. That costs a quarter of the points, but without it the game quickly becomes very close.

The activation benefit and what I do with it

Depending on the game situation, we want to block our opponent to prevent him from getting into zones or deactivate him completely so that we can then react to everything.
There are two relevant variants when blocking regiments. On the one hand, you can park a regiment 1" in front of an opponent (preferably at an angle so that he also has to turn in) in order to steal him for at least a complete round. This is particularly useful if you just want to keep him out of a zone . Alternatively, you can also do Move Charge. This takes away the important charge from cavalry (not Ashen Dawn, Thunderriders or Centaur) and they cannot fight their way out alone. Therefore, we can bring regiments to the side of the regiment with peace of mind and safely unite next round Get Charge Clash. Sometimes regiments retreat due to the danger of a flank attack, as special rules such as shields and phalanx are worthless in the flank and every passed resolve value has to be repeated. Because you shouldn't forget that even average regiments are dangerous there. Both are bought at the price us time to score and if the teammate doesn't get into the zone we can always put regiments in his way to block him further.

Then there's my favorite action that often gets people wide eyed: retreat.
This works as follows: we roll the dice on our resolve and get 1d6+resolve tests damage if we pass the test or per stand in contact with the enemy regiment if we fail the test. Your own regiment essentially turns 180 degrees and marches directly away from the enemy. For example, as a second action we can choose another March action, but for the regiments we use we usually only have a resolve of 2 available and accordingly the regiments usually die when trying. For many players, regiments that engage in close combat with their own regiment are immovable obstacles that can only be removed through attacks. Because of the absurd damage, they usually don't consider an order to retreat to be a valid option and therefore unpopular. But that shouldn't stop you from sacrificing your own troops and catching your fellow player unprepared. Especially if your fellow player tries to tie you up, block you or simply pull his regiment out of the attack area of other regiments. Take advantage of this, retreat and open up a charge clash or free field of fire for your higher quality regiments. Depending on how cleverly you positioned yourself, you can strike beforehand without Inspire.
You can't do that with heavies, and you shouldn't do that with important or expensive regiments. As I said, the probability that your own regiment will die as a result of a retreat is unfortunately quite high and although it is an interesting tactical option, it does not always make sense.

Rush list round 4, the opponent is trapped in his deployment zone

So how do we build our deck and take advantage of it all? The most common "trick" is to put the characters up in the first few rounds and carry out so-called alibi activations. Normal lists also like to do this to wait and force the other player to make decisions. This variant list does a similar thing, except that we have more of these alibi activations in the form of regiments. These are usually of little relevance to us and are only there to activate and block the opponent. They also serve as a living shield for our army and reduce the damage of bad Supremacy rolls.
Only a few players want to spend resources on, for example, destroying 75 point Bowmen in order to then lose a more valuable unit or be in a bad position in return. This means we are usually 3-5 activations ahead and can calculate in the early and midgame when the opponent's relevant regiments will activate. It is not always wise or correct to have the shield regiments high up in the deck, as they may also want to use a retreat.

Disadvantages and problems

As already mentioned, our troops are of mediocre quality and we suffer correspondingly high losses in the first rounds of the game. This isn't a big deal as long as we trade wisely, but as a rule of thumb you can say that by turn 7 we often only have a handful of cards left and should be so far in the lead that our opponent can no longer catch up.
Scenarios like Melee & Head to Head are therefore not optimal for lists with many cards. Melee still has several zones that can be scored well, but at head to head we are forced to really fight. Since we swap regiments rather poorly, I can only wish you good luck. This can be won if you know your list very well and know exactly what's happening on the field, but it's the worst case scenario for Goblin lists/MSU.

Final thoughts
MSU has advantages and disadvantages and needs one thing above all: a lot of practice. Anyone who tries it should be able to live with some setbacks and know the other factions in addition to their own army.