Hamburg, April 2024: Game 1 - Hundred Kingdoms against Old Dominion at Echolon

Overview:
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

On the first weekend of April, Wuetty invited everyone to Hamburg to play a few rounds of Conquest at the local store, Zwergenfürst. Normally, 1500 points aren't popular with us, but since there were no other plans for the weekend, Bremen marched in with four players to give the neighboring Hanseatic city a run for its money on the Kiez.

All you need is love [1500/2000]
Relentless Drill

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

== (Warlord) Priory Commander (Crimson Tower) [110]:
 * Order of the Crimson Tower (3) [200]:
 * Order of the Crimson Tower (3) [200]:
 * Order of the Ashen Dawn (3) [240]:
 * Order of the Ashen Dawn (3) [240]:

The scenarios were announced beforehand and had few zones. Therefore, and because the sign-up list was three-quarters filled with Old Dominion and Dweghom, I decided on a slower list with 4 Heavys. Normally, Sealed Temple would be the better choice, but at 1500 points, maximum force is preferred. For the same reason, Uziel passed on Nords and went with Dweghom instead. Don't be surprised, the tournament was before the points adjustment of the Ashen Dawn.

My first opponent was Frank (BangWong in Discord), and he fielded a 10-card Old Dominion list. It was exactly because of such lists that I had planned the four Heavys.

The Old Dominion  [1505/2000]
The Old Dominion

== (Warlord) Archimandrite [110]:
 * Praetorian Guard (3) [160]:
 * Kheres (4) [210]:
 * Legionnaires (5) [180]:
 * Bone Golems (3) [210]:

== Strategos [85]:
 * Athanatoi (3) [160]:
 * Kataphraktoi (3) [200]:

== Hierodeacon [90]:
 * Legionnaires (3) [100]:

Before anyone complains about the 5 points difference, I don't know exactly how his list looked, and I put it together based on the pictures I took. Obviously, I made a mistake somewhere, but I'm not familiar enough with Old Dominion army list building to pinpoint where the error lies.

We played the scenario Echolon. I've played it so many times that I can recite the distances by heart at three in the morning and also know the tactics against each faction. It's really worn out for me. Therefore, my plan was to capture the left objective marker, put something in my zone, and then storm the other zone with two units of knights. Without a Praetorian block, which would make my life difficult in round 1, he would either have to commit too much to defend his zone and thus not have enough to attack mine, or too little. Then we would just swap zones, but I would only need to hold or deny both for one round. Since I have more movement than him, I could simply switch flanks depending on the situation and, if necessary, grab the second objective in the rear right. The important thing was that we didn't run into a timeout beforehand, but at 1500 points, we should easily finish the game in 60 to 90 minutes.

In the first round, he marched the Kheres behind the right objective, and I had two Crossbows advance behind the left objective. Then the second round came, and the Old Dominion got all his regiments, and I got my remaining non-Heavy regiments. I dealt three damage to my objective, and he marched the Athanatoi to the right, and the rest appeared on the left side. Annoying, but for now, it still matches my plans. 5:2

In round three, I got two Heavys and the Bonelems for the Old Dominion. I opted for Ashen Dawn and Crimson Tower with a Commander. I started by shooting at his riders, who promptly took out my Crossbows in return. Not too bad, as they were now perfectly positioned to get some good crossbow bolts into the flank and a few more into the front. That was enough to reduce the regiment a bit. Then he destroyed the objective and pushed the Praetorians into the zone. Further to the right, the Bone Golems appeared, so my Ashen Dawn also marched there, and the Crimson Tower came to the center. 7:7

Round four, and I only have the mandatory choice left, which is Ashen Dawn. He starts, and the last pony goes into the flank of one regiment of Crossbows. Kills one stand and then gets killed by the other Crossbows. Then nothing much happens for a while, and we just position ourselves. I bring my second Ashen Dawn in through the flank and towards his zone. It was only a slight gain in distance, but they were nicely positioned on the flank, and maybe he turned a bit awkwardly to avoid a flank attack from the Crimson Tower. That didn't happen; he stayed nicely in the zone, and unfortunately, my Ashen Dawn ended up in my zone before his Bone Golems. This allowed them to go into the Men at Arms with Move Charge without being bothered. 9:9

The last riders go into my deck, and on top were Ashen Dawn, Crossbows, characters, and then the rest. I started, a golem died from the Ashen Dawn, and I didn't realize that the Archmandrite has an ability to cast on everything in his Warband. So, the regiment was healed back up, but at least I had done enough damage that a new one wasn't put in its place. In addition to the first spells, there were also several Aura of Death for the Bone Golems, and I already saw my Men at Arms dying from the 10 hits. Instead, much later, hardly any died, only exactly one stand, and they beat up a Bone Golem. Excellent. It was interesting that the Kheres wished for the Ashen Dawn's armor to be worse, and the Athanatoi killed one in the flank. Fair after the action with the Men at Arms. Then the second Crimson Tower marched on because I wanted to clean up there as well.

On the other side, he took my cake in the form of Crossbows with the large Legionnaire block, and the Crimson Tower wiped them out in return. I quite liked that because next round there would be "only" 3 Praetorians in the zone. Without the complete defensive stuff, three Ashen Dawn can definitely be beaten over two rounds. But first, the Ashen Dawn were placed to the side within auto-charge range. 11:11

Round six, and Hazlias' servants started. The Archmandrite first put another Bone Golem back up and increased the aura to 5. After that, there were no Praetorians, who boldly went on D5, so the Ashen Dawn went into the Praetorians. Frank was very surprised because, in his eyes, there were more important things, but I wanted the zone and was happy to accept the loss of the other Ashen Dawn. I converted all hits into hits, and he botched a total of 15 protection rolls, which secured me the zone. Then the Bone Golems killed an Ashen Dawn on the other flank, and my Crimson Tower on the left went into the Legionnaires from the Decan. They almost went, thus making the flank my flank and, above all, my zone. On the other side, the last Ashen Dawn died from the cooperation of the Athanatoi and the Kheres, and the Men at Arms from the AoD. Too bad, but I had expected that. Now there was space, and the Crimson Tower went into the Athanatoi. Charge Clash is just too much for E1 W4. With that, I had both zones. 17:11

Round 7, and my Crimson Tower moved out of the zone and the line of sight of the Golems into the Kheres. They managed to kill two stands, and he pushed the Golems into the zone for it. I shot one, so it's broken, and eventually, the last Legionnaires die, leaving him no chance to catch up.

Victory for the brave humans.

Frank's list was somewhat different from what is played in Hildesheim and Bremen, but Frank knew pretty well what his stuff was doing. That was pleasant, albeit occasionally surprising, as we both knew the other player's faction in a different way. Overall, it was a fun game. Since Wuetty evaluated with CP, I ended up only in the middle with one win, while Uziel and Nino went through the roof and were allowed to face each other in the next game.