Battelreport brave Humans against Dennis & Cows

After some 1500-point practice games on Friday in preparation for Beckum, we drove three hours to the beautiful, snow-covered city of Lübeck on Saturday. There, I planned to play a 2000-point game and challenged Dennis/Cameron for the first match. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from the second game against Malte, so there won't be a report for that. Nevertheless, the table looked impressive due to the 3D terrain.

Goblins Classic  [2000/2000]
Relentless Drill

== Chapter Mage [105]: School of Fire, Focused, Arcane 1
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:

== (Warlord) Imperial Officer [75]: On Your Feet, Fire First, Aim Later
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Steel Legion (3) [175]: Standard Bearer
 * Steel Legion (3) [175]: Standard Bearer
 * Imperial Ranger Corps (3) [120]:  <-- IO

== (Warlord) Mounted Noble Lord [110]: Weapon Master
 * Militia Bowmen (3) [75]:
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer

== Mounted Noble Lord [110]: Weapon Master
 * Militia Bowmen (3) [75]:
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer

With 2000 points, 17 cards, and deceptively unassuming, the list is brutal and a nightmare for most opponents in many scenarios. The playstyle and basic concept can be read in my MSU article or the last two game reports. Essentially, it's a dynamic mix of mobility, ranged, and melee pressure with the clear goal of actively blocking the opponent and quickly scoring points in zones.

Phalanx No Phalanx  [2000/2000]

== (Warlord) Polemarch [185]: Atalanta's Spear, Inscription of Lighter Alloys, Architects 1, Architects 2, Architects 3
 * Hoplites (8) [370]: Dorilates, Minotaur Haspist Auxiliary
 * Minotaur Haspists (3) [180]:
 * Selinoi (3) [160]:
 * Selinoi (3) [160]:

== Eidolon [120]:
 * Inquisitors (3) [220]:
 * Hoplites (3) [130]:

== Polemarch [100]: Architects 1
 * Minotaur Haspists (3) [180]:
 * Agema (3) [195]: Xypharchos

Dennis surprised me by opting for City States instead of dinos and a Tontorr. Although we had discussed City States more frequently in recent weeks, I was more excited about the Tontorr matchup, as I find it challenging for Goblins. However, City States are no easy task either, as Selinoi and Polemarchs render shooting quite ineffective. Nevertheless, his Polemarchs chose to engage Agema and Hoplites rather than Selinoi, based on the list setup.

Game Report: The game was played in the Melee scenario with two dividing houses, some forests, a hill in the center, and a field counted as a height 1 forest. Water played no role, and the terrain offered few good shooting corridors. Depending on where the Hoplites would appear, I would have to face them head-on, which usually worries me since I couldn't inflict much damage through ranged attacks against them before. However, I had two regiments of Steel Legion precisely for such situations.

In Round 1, we both drew all our lights. I found it fair, but Dennis apparently did not share the sentiment. The Goblin deployment was impressively broad, fitting the table and scenario.

In the second round, the Hoplite block, Agema, and Cows with shields already appeared. Notably, Dennis had forgotten the shields for the Cows, so he represented them with Cows with Zweihänders. The Hoplites marched left, the Cows in the middle, and the Agema on the right. I liked this arrangement as there was little threat in the middle, and I could clean up while the Hoplite block had to struggle through the peasants. On the other side, I had to make it work somehow. Three riders reinforced the plan, and I claimed two zones, while Dennis captured one. Additionally, I shot one stand of Selinoi each and lost one stand of peasants. It was acceptable

In Round 3, the rest of Dennis' army arrived, and I only needed the second Steel Legion. Thanks to the card advantage, I built my deck with a clear focus on waiting, advancing a militia unit to spoil the day for the Hoplites. After Dennis finished everything, and I did some shooting, his Minotaurs went alone towards my crossbowmen. I took care of them with my riders and positioned the Steel Legion on the left flank. The Hoplites were afraid of the shooting and opted for Move Charge and Fate in the Shade instead of Mobility and D1. So, I scored in a large and a small zone, while Dennis captured a small zone.

Now, the game could really kick off in Round 4. His Inquisitors marched on the right flank, and in the middle, there was only one stand of Selinoi, 3 Hoplites, and Cows. My goal was to destroy them and relieve the other flanks from there. The right side gave me less trouble than the left, as I was content with tying up about half of his troops with two crossbowmen and one Household Knights. If he wanted to score there, it was okay, as long as everything stayed where it was.

The middle was my main target, and due to unfavorable placement, the shield cows could reach my side but had only one stand in contact. This was perfect because it put them in half-range of the crossbowmen and in attack range of more knights. I only had to sacrifice one stand of knights, and there was only one stand of Selinoi left, beaten by the bowmen, and the small Hoplites were horse fodder for the next round. The Hoplites on the left disposed of the peasants, and the Polemarch put a foot in the zone but didn't dare to go all the way in since he didn't want to be attacked by the Steel Legion. The fact that the second unit was also advancing did not ease Dennis' situation. When the mage showed how a fire spell raged into the flank of the Hoplites, his skepticism rose, and my joy even more. I only claimed a small zone, unfortunately, Dennis got a large and small one, but the lead was good enough despite the initial losses and kill points.

In Round 5, Dennis started, and I had a textbook activation that always had the right counter after he did something. This could be due to my clairvoyant powers or because I frequently distribute my troops evenly on the flanks, trying to open up two important fights, making it irrelevant who starts. This tactic has often proven successful and decisive, and it was devastating here too, as I had no dead activation until Dennis noticed a significant deployment mistake on my right side and exploited it. Therefore, from right to left: His Selinoi charged my crossbowmen to tie them up and block the riders. They beat the Selinoi, and the other crossbowmen shot at the Agema. It wasn't ideal until the Agema charged in a way that my knights couldn't attack them because I stood too wide and too close behind my regiment. Actually, it's a mistake I try to avoid, but now I was forced to move the riders back. However, just far enough that the crossbowmen could still get behind the riders if necessary: maybe Dennis wouldn't notice. In the middle, I cleared everything, and my horses would probably have to set up tents there since the zones were crucial. Nevertheless, they turned towards the relevant flanks to potentially help if I couldn't dominate at least one flank. Surprisingly, on the left flank, I got the charge with the Steel Legion, as the Hoplites were in the strategy deck and wanted to be charged to later kill the Rangers with impacts. Since the Polemarch couldn't quite help, the Legionnaires survived, and my Rangers ran to the side. Unfortunately, he had both large zones, and I had both small ones; the point lead shrank. But since I was confident that next round the Steel Legion and the Chapter Mage with the crossbowmen would dispose of the Hoplites, I was in good spirits.

Despite having more cards, I got to start this time, and my Steel Legion happily attacked the Hoplites. Of the remaining three stands + cows, only one survived, and the Polemarch almost killed the regiment of Legionnaires. Then the mage wished the Hoplites away, and the game was essentially decided as I would now permanently score in three zones. On the right flank, the Agema made a Move Charge and engaged the crossbows so that I couldn't charge with the riders. That was tricky because I anticipated that, and therefore, the brave crossbowmen sacrificed themselves and retreated, allowing the riders to simply wipe out the Agema. Unfortunately, I miscalculated during deck construction, and the Inquisitors could charge me in return. They were quite disappointing. I usually like the concept of low defense and high morale, but Clash 2 is ridiculous for the points. Even with Flurry, only one rider was lost, and we ended the game.

Conclusion: In my opinion, it was a challenging matchup for Dennis, especially since he had recently played about a dozen games with the City States compared to my experience with the Goblin list, which is about five times as much. Despite some small tactical and computational inconsistencies, my list acted like a well-oiled machine. Even though offering my Warlord as bait for the Hoplite block and the positioning mistake on the right side were far from optimal, and I shouldn't do such things. If the dice had rolled a bit worse, something like that could quickly break one's neck, especially because the Warlord regiment brings in 6 points in this scenario. However, the whole experience has also shown me that I need to concentrate more and ask about the opponent's card count more often instead of just roughly estimating it.