Tournament Battlereport Conquest of the Rose City / Game 2 Hundred Kingdoms vs W'adrhŭn

Overview:
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

Today, the second game report from the tournament in Hildesheim follows. Since some readers have mentioned that they would like to see my list in every game report, not just in the first one, I'll present my list again here:

Brave Humans [1500/1500]

== (Warlord) Imperial Officer [105]: The Kiss Farewell, Fire First, Aim Later, Aim For the Head
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:

== (Warlord) Priory Commander (Crimson Tower) [110]:
 * Order of the Crimson Tower (3) [215]: Standard Bearer
 * Order of the Ashen Dawn (3) [255]: Standard Bearer

== Mounted Noble Lord [115]: The Unwrought, Weapon Master
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer

The game was against Jens Dinos, who has really cool pictures on the German Discord (User Xenothorn) and just marched in with a large amount of violence.

The W'adrhŭn [1500/1500]

== Predator [105]: War, Animalistic Focus, Marksmanship
 * Slingers (3) [175]: Flint Knapper
 * Raptor Riders (3) [190]:

== (Warlord) Thunder Chieftain [175]: War, Touched by the Goddess, Violence of Action
 * Thunder Riders (4) [330]:

== Matriarch Queen [125]: War, Kill Marks, Apex Master
 * Warbred (3) [210]:
 * Apex Predator (1) [190]:

Only three regiments that score, but five that just wanted to beat me up, and a large block of Thunder Riders. The impact attacks must be a thing in Hildesheim; I definitely felt underarmed for this violent heap and was very relieved when I realized that the Apex didn't have Fanatic.

We played the "Echelon" scenario, and this time we even had forests and other terrain on the table, but his Predator told the Slingers that it didn't matter to them. Therefore, the plan was quite simple: put pressure on the Slingers early with all crossbows, eliminate them, and pin the W'adrhŭn far away from me so that I could take care of the objectives, and my Crimson Tower and Ashen Dawn could deal with issues like Apex and Thunder Riders.

Round 1, and we both failed to make all our reinforcement rolls. So my plan was in the trash; I only placed my Officer in the zone, while the Slingers positioned themselves within short range of his objective.

In round two, I got all the crossbowmen and one unit of riders, while Jens got Warbred and Raptors. We both revealed the character cards, and his Warbred ran towards his zone, while the Raptors appeared at the objective marker. At the same time, I placed two units of crossbowmen and the riders to take care of my marker. The other unit of crossbowmen appeared on the right flank near my Imperial Officer, and I scored the zone for 2:0.

In round three, Jens got the rest, and I got the Ashen Dawn. This worried me a bit, as hell would break loose on me in the next round, but there was nothing I could do. So I first grabbed the objective and waited with alibi activations while firing some shots at the Raptors. They and the Slingers grabbed his objective, and then the Apex and Thunder Riders came on the left flank. I breathed a sigh of relief because I could hold my zone and not have a bunch of dinosaurs jump into my face directly. So I placed the Ashen Dawn on the right and moved the Household Knights cautiously forward. If the Warbred ventured too far forward, I would block his army and could eliminate Raptors and Slingers in peace. We both scored: 7:5.

Fortunately, in round 4, I didn't have to roll for the rest of my army, so now I had 11 cards while Jens had only 9. Accordingly, I conservatively built my deck with some crossbowmen for the Raptors on top, characters in the middle, and the important stuff further down. Jens got to start but needed a token for Conquest first, so I reduced the Raptors to one. Then the Slingers' stones killed my Imperial Officer with crossbowmen, and on the far right, my Household Knights appeared. I was greedy and wanted to destroy the marker on the far right with them, but I had forgotten that I would then have nothing in the zone to score. It was not wise in so many ways that I can't say why I did it, but such small details sometimes give away games.

As a result, I didn't want to move my Ashen Dawn out of the zone anymore, and the Warbred saw through my plan on the left flank and used Burnout to tie up my Household Knights. Of course, there was no Burnout damage, but I also didn't deserve a blessing from the dice gods. At least my knights killed a Warbred, and then suddenly the Apex came around the corner with Move Charge and engaged a unit of crossbowmen. I know that it can chant Conquest without Fanatic, but I ultimately ignored that fact. So I had to come up with stupid plans to maybe still win, and decided to place my Crimson Tower right next to the Apex. If I start, that beast is history; if not, I definitely survive the impacts and can trigger my Supremacy in the next round to withstand the Clash as well. Moreover, it was very unlikely that the Thunder Riders would come to help because everything was somehow in the way, and he wanted to score. I liked that, and my second unit of crossbowmen on the flank did some more damage, but it was healed by the Queen again. The score was 9:7.

Of course, Jens started in round 5, the Apex killed the crossbowmen and continued into the Crimson Tower. They took it in stride and took some damage, while I shot around a bit and wiped out the Warbred with the Household Knights. Then the Thunder Riders triggered Conquest Tier 1, charged the knights, and then went 4.5 inches back into their zone. I raised an eyebrow in acknowledgment, and when the Slingers then dealt 10 damage to the Ashen Dawn, I initiated a charge clash and wiped it out. It didn't matter if Raptors came into my side because they first had to remove the broken token. Also, my Household Knights moved towards my zone to at least score next round, and maybe the Apex would die too. After healing, the Apex had been reduced to 5 life by the crossbowmen and Crimson Tower. It was 9:9.

Round 6, and it was time for the Commander's Supremacy. Ashen Dawn wished for Hardened, and Jens began. Thanks to Blessed, there was 7 damage through the Apex to the Crimson Tower, and then a dead dino. Jens slowly ran out of regiments, and the Raptors did nothing against the blessed Ashen Dawn except die afterward. Since I would hold my zone again, we discussed the remaining options and that I would only block his zone, grab the marker on the far right, and always threaten his zone at maximum distance in case he really tried to go out to grab mine. We agreed on a victory with a 3-point difference for me.

Conclusion: I definitely deserved a loss here, as I made too many small mistakes, and Jens played his mostly flawless. But what ultimately cost him the game were the 500 points that were only deployed to hold a zone and just couldn't get away to do things. Still very instructive and relaxed. We took a little over an hour for the game, including lunch, and Jens is a super pleasant player with a beautiful army.