Tournament Report from Lübeck Game 2: Hundred Kingdoms vs. City States

Overview
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

If anyone wonders why there are so few pictures, well, our friend Dennis has been diligently painting his Wadrhun during the evening Discord voice Channel for the past few weeks and could have presented them fully colored. Instead, he's opting for the gray City States. What did Nick call it again? Ah yes, Dennis is cosplaying the Wadrhun as City States. Just not in color.

Game 2, and once again against the City States. First, here's my list for reference:

Unkreativ [2000/2000]

The Hundred Kingdoms
Relentless Drill

== (Warlord) Priory Commander (Crimson Tower) [110]:
 * Order of the Ashen Dawn (3) [240]:
 * Order of the Ashen Dawn (3) [240]:
 * Order of the Crimson Tower (3) [215]: Standard Bearer

 * Order of the Crimson Tower (3) [200]:

== (Warlord) Imperial Officer [90]: Brace for Impact, On Your Feet
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Men at Arms (3) [110]: Standard Bearer 

== Noble Lord [90]: Weapon Master, Graceful Combatant
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [105]:
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer
 * Household Knights (3) [140]: Standard Bearer
 * Mercenary Crossbowmen (3) [110]: Standard Bearer

Dennis' list (cheekily stolen from Discord).

Ari Van Guard  [1995/2000]
The City States

== (Warlord) Aristarch [170]: Atalanta's Spear, Expert Scouts
 * Satyroi (3) [200]:
 * Selinoi (3) [130]:
 * Selinoi (3) [130]:
 * Agema (3) [195]: Xypharchos

== Polemarch [150]: Primodynamic Globe, Blades of Eakides, Disorienting Strikes
 * Agema (4) [245]: Xypharchos
 * Minotaur Haspists (3) [180]:
 * Minotaur Haspists (3) [180]:
 * Selinoi (3) [130]:

== Mechanist [80]:
 * Thorakites (4) [205]: Xypharchos, Minotaur Thyrean Auxiliary

Dennis had taken the nasty new stuff from the City States, but the two-handed cows were missing. That relieved me massively internally and immediately set my plan for the game. There was simply no realistic chance of me scoring well against that setup in the first three or four rounds, since I had decided against the Sealed Temple in the list and didn't want to split myself up either. Dennis' army is incredibly fast on the board and can jump right into my face, so I have to stay back and wait until the Ashen Dawn are there. Without the two-handed cows, only the Cleave 4 Polemarch poses a serious problem if I don't let myself be charged by both Agema simultaneously.

We played Breakout:

In the first round, I got a Crossbows and Dennis got two Selinoi and the Mechanic with Thorakites. Since he out-activated me, I opted for the flank with the forest to be protected from the Selinoi's shots. Additionally, it put his objective within my shooting range in case he wanted to go for it. I didn't plan on scoring points myself until round 5, so I just had to make it as annoying for him as possible until then. As he wanted to score in peace, he deployed everything to the other flank, and I accepted that. The fewer losses I suffer at the beginning, the better it will be for me later on.

In round two, I received one Household Knights, Crossbows, and Man at Arms each, while he got Agema and, of course, the Minotaurs. Everything on my side continued marching obediently on the left side, preparing the flank. He positioned his Agema behind a hill there, as he didn't want me to annoy them with light crossbow fire. In my opinion, they would have been the better unit to put within 21" of the zone, but instead, he used the trick with the cows. On the other side, the Mechanic desired a different unit as a scoring option and was leading significantly with 0:7.

In round three, he got everything, and I got everything except for one Ashen Dawn and Crimson Tower card each. It was exhausting and could have gone badly, especially as the other Agema and Selinoi advanced on the left flank. However, since he positioned the other cows centrally and aimed for the objective and the zone, I agreed to it. My army continued marching forward on the right, and a unit of Crossbows somehow moved strangely onto the field from the side. When he activated his Satyroi, he realized there was no sensible option to appear from the left flank. So, they chose the long way around, and I just innocently asked what exactly could kill a few Crimson Towers on the right flank, positioning them conveniently within charge-clash range. Naturally, more Agema continued marching into the left zone, further extending his lead. 0:14.

 

 

In round four, the rest of my units arrived, and both of us utilized our Supremacy. Dennis started. First, the cows charged into the Ashen Dawn, but then he realized he had blocked his own path and could only engage two of them. So, the Ashen Dawn survived, and on the other side, the Crimson Towers took out his Thorakites and positioned themselves in the zone. On the flank, the remaining cows and an important unit of Man at Arms died. As a result, neither of us controlled the zone, but I managed to tie down the Selonoi with Move Charge from the Household Knights. Holding one zone would have been enough, but thanks to the Agema and the other Selinoi, the objective marker fell, and Dennis held the center. Annoying, but I still had more than enough time, and now two fresh units of knights were finally coming in, ready to slaughter anything that stood in my way. 4:19.

Round five: The weakened Ashen Dawn fell victim to the Polemarch Agema with Cleave 4, while the other Agema targeted my Noble Lord. However, surprisingly, they decided to forgo their Clash action to only engage my Crimson Tower with a Move Charge. Dennis obviously hoped to survive this action and continue scoring. However, the devastating attacks from the Crimson Tower, the Noble Lord, and the Melee Crossbows swept away the Agema with Aristarch, and from that point on, it was downhill for him. I threw my remaining units at him and held back my heavy knights. Unfortunately, I had to give up the zone on the right flank to destroy regiments, but that didn't matter to me, as they had planned to break through to the center anyway. So, I only scored 2 points, while Dennis got 6. However, a 6:23 lead for Breakout wasn't enough for round five.

In the next round, unfortunately, Dennis started first, resulting in the loss of my Household Knights. However, my two regiments of Crimson Towers had free rein to sweep through his army without consequence. Each of their attacks meant the death of a regiment, and he massively hindered himself, granting me incredible freedom. In the end, only two Minotaurs remained in the central zone, which I only gained control of in the following round. Nevertheless, my lead of 8:27 still wasn't enough.

So, I waited until the Minotaurs made their move and then eliminated them. I secured the objective and all three zones. By round seven, it was 20:27, and finally, round 10 ended with a score of 47:27.

Dennis seemed to struggle with the new movement tricks of the City States. However, when you receive a 50% buff, strength naturally overwhelms you. He clearly won his other games as well, resulting in both City States having a record of 2:1.

 

 

Previously, I had been ridiculed for mainly testing against City States. However, especially with Lupus, I had a good sparring partner who thoroughly put my weak Hundred Kingdoms through the wringer. But the way things turned out was purely coincidental and had nothing to do with the test games. After all, I also had test games against Old Dominion and Spire, and the results were similarly devastating. However, since my sparring partners had backed out there, there was only one game for each faction. It wouldn't be so bad, but my potential opponents for Round 3 were Nino and Nick. On Declined Flank, Old Dominion would be my preferred, albeit poor, matchup. Against Nick, however, I saw no winning option in the scenario. We had only played it once, but in Round 5, I was tabled with zero points because the new Siegebreaker and Biomancer are quite bold. Fortune turned away from me, and it came to the matchup weak Kingdoms vs imba Spire. The report on that will follow in a few days.