Hello,
Welcome to the second report from the Lübeck tournament. As a reminder, here’s my army list once again:
"Bringer of Most Massive Destruction"
The W'adrhŭn [2000/2000]
== (Warlord) Chieftain Lord Snipie, BMMD [130]: Conquest, Vision
- Veterans (3) [170]
- Veterans (3) [170]
- Slingers (3) [150]
== Predator [100]: Famine
- Braves (3) [130]
- Hunting Pack (3) [120]
- Apex Predator Bob (1) [190]
- Slingers (3) [150]
== Predator [100]: Famine
- Braves (3) [130]
- Hunting Pack (3) [120]
- Apex Predator Bobs Freund (1) [190]
- Slingers (3) [150]
I had the chance to play against Benny's (Discord Culexuss) mighty City States. We had faced off once before in Bremerhaven, but back then I was playing the Sorcerer Kings, and there were no chariots. Currently, the City States are one of the top factions in the game, if not the absolute best. Their items and masteries are simply fantastic. And as for the Talos, the chariots, and so on, I think there's no need to elaborate on how ridiculously strong they are. But let’s take a look at Benny’s list:
The City States [2000/2000]
== (Warlord) Aristarch [120]: Atalanta's Spear
- Talos (1) [260]
- War Chariots (2) [260]: Skorpios
- Selinoi (3) [130]
- Hoplites (6) [275]: Dorilates, Minotaur Haspist Auxiliary
== Polemarch [150]: Aristia, Blades of Eakides
- Minotaur Haspists (3) [180]
- Agema (3) [195]: Andromachos
- Minotaur Thyreans (3) [190]
- Hephaestian (1) [240]
Benny’s list featured many strong elements, and since he hadn’t built a Sacred Band yet, we got to see Hoplites on the battlefield once more. What was particularly fortunate for me was that he only had one light regiment, giving me the chance to get in his face early and attempt to eliminate the chariots or at least weaken them with my Hunting Packs.
The scenario was Melee, and we both had some annoying, obstructive terrain near our deployment zones. In the center, there was a hill and some fog. However, since I would control the middle starting from Round 1, the terrain was likely to be almost irrelevant for me.
~~~ Round 1 ~~~
I started with full force. All three Slingers and both Hunting Packs went straight into my deck. Benny, at least, had his Selinoi card ready, and thanks to the City States' special rule, he could place it into his strategy deck once to delay me a little. But I wasn’t deterred. I positioned two Slingers in the center and one Slinger regiment on the right flank, opposite the Selinoi. I placed both Hunting Packs in front of them, and just like that, we were into Round 2.
~~~ Round 2 ~~~
When things go your way, they really go your way. I managed to get all my mediums, while Benny only brought in his chariots, shield cows, and Hoplites. "Operation Green Wave" could begin, and I built my deck accordingly, focusing on aggression. Unfortunately, I had miscalculated and thought I didn’t have enough tokens for all the Slingers to perform their Chant attacks. I also wanted to keep the option open to chant elsewhere if needed.
I got to start. My Hunting Pack attacked the Selinoi and inflicted five damage. The hits were good, but Benny’s defense rolls were excellent. On the other hand, I noticed that the Selinoi excelled in defense but completely failed offensively. One stand of my Hunting Pack was eliminated, which was acceptable. I brought my Braves to the field in the center, while the two chariots appeared on the right flank and tried to shoot down my weakened Hunting Pack. It survived the attempt with one wound, and my second Hunting Pack later approached the first chariot.
Before that, the first Slingers began to "sing" and made short work of the Selinoi, while the second Slingers, without chanting, only managed two damage against one of the chariots. Things weren’t entirely going as planned on either side, but we still had a few activations to go. Benny’s Hoplites advanced toward the center, but they were still far from the zone. The Minotaur Haspists on the left flank lost one stand to my Slingers, who opted not to chant. This allowed my Veterans to chant later, and by the end of the round, I had eliminated one unit and secured three zones, giving me a comfortable 12-point lead.
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~~~ Runde 3 ~~~
I knew I needed to keep the pressure up and expand my lead. This round saw Benny’s Titans and the Agema enter play, while I added "just" one Apex to my deck. If everything went according to plan, I could score three zones again and further leverage my card advantage. I placed both Hunting Packs at the top of my deck as "decoy" activations to generate tokens and potentially take out a chariot. For a moment, I considered placing the Veterans at the top, as the shield cows could charge them, and it would have been beneficial to countercharge instead. However, I realized that if the first Veterans unit were wiped out by the cows, an early activation of the second unit would only push my tempo further back, and I didn’t need two Conquest tokens at this stage. So, I decided to double down on tokens and Slingers, setting up an even more aggressive deck. Only one Slinger unit was placed further down the order, but everything else aimed to keep up the momentum and capitalize on my lead.
Thanks to Fortuna, I was allowed to start again, but my Hunting Pack only dealt five damage to a chariot on the right flank, far from the desired result. A chariot finished off my second Hunting Pack or, more precisely, its remaining wound. The first Slingers took aim with Chant at the wounded chariot, but it survived with two health points remaining, a major problem. On the other side, however, Benny botched his attacks against the Hunting Pack and inflicted only two wounds. Still, none of this was great, and I was running out of good options.
On the other side, Benny’s shield cows charged and dealt 14 damage to my veterans. Now I had to react: my Slingers turned around, shot at the Haspists, and sent one cow packing. My veterans regrouped and chanted, allowing them to count as two stands. An attack on the cow dealt only one more damage, but at least I had control of the zone. His Hoplites moved into his small zone, while the Agema and the first Titan appeared on the left side. I deployed an Apex to counter them. Not much happened, and we were slowly nearing the end of the decks.
Then I had to activate my last Slingers, who finally managed to finish off the chariot. Unfortunately, I had advanced so far that I risked losing two units of Slingers if Aristarch’s Supremacy was activated in the next round. But I wanted my Hunting Packs free to potentially launch a flanking attack against the Hoplites. The Talos noticed this and appeared to block my plan and threaten my Slingers. Still, I controlled three zones, took out another regiment, and significantly extended my lead.
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~~~ Round 4 ~~~
Mentally, I was already bracing myself for the loss of the two Slingers. To compensate, I moved the Hunting Pack and another Slinger to the top of the deck, followed by my first Veterans and the characters. Fortuna smiled on me once more, and I started the round. My Hunting Pack struck down the last chariot with a flank attack. As expected, the Hoplites then came in and finished off my first unit of Slingers. But then it was my turn again.
I glanced at the card set aside and slowly realized that the chariot was there. It was a sobering moment, but I accepted the situation. With Chant, my Slingers on the left shot down two stands of Agema, fearing they might be next on the deck. The other Slingers were slain by the Talos, who then entered the large right zone. Later in the round, however, he was charged by Braves from the front and Veterans from the flank. This caused only a handful of scratches and about five damage, but thanks to Chant, I had seven stands in the zone, while Talos could only count as six. The goal was to somehow kill the Talos, but as long as I scored points and he didn’t, the rest didn’t really matter.
On the left flank, my Veteran destroyed the shield cow, and Benny’s Titan moved aside instead of attacking my remaining Slingers. Apparently, the prospect of a counterattack from my Apex, Bob, wasn’t appealing to him. Unfortunately, I had already chosen my first Apex and went with Bob’s friend. I mispositioned the Apex near the Hoplites, at 9 inches instead of 10, forgetting about Aristarch’s bonus. Benny’s Agema narrowly made a charge clash against my Veterans and defeated them, but Bob the Apex crushed both the Polemarch and the Agema. Once again, I controlled three zones and extended my lead even further.
~~~ Round 5 ~~~
We hadn’t even reached the halfway point of the time limit and continued to take it easy. I built my deck, and since I expected to lose the last Slingers soon, I placed them at the top. Then came the Veterans, Braves, Hunting Pack, characters, and both Apexe. I got to start again, and the Titan in front of my Slingers passed the majority of its protection rolls to even things out. Benny placed a card in his strategy deck, I hit the Talos, and then the Hoplite block came. I realized that I had forgotten the +1 movement, and the Apex fell. A moment of shock. For a brief moment, I thought the game was slipping away from me, as the Braves and Veterans had been hammering the Talos for two rounds, with a total of 32 attacks from the Braves in the front and 25 from the Veterans, and the beast still had a handful of health left. The Talos just kept holding on, barely, but it was enough. It wasn’t until the Hunting Pack hit it in the back that I was finally able to deal enough damage to bring it down.
From that point on, it was all uphill. The two-handed cows tried to make a Move Charge into the Apex’s zone but failed and were subsequently overwhelmed. The Apex devoured them, as Benny's good protection rolls were used up for the game. The Apex dealt around 28 damage. A final unit of Braves, who had held the small central zone for several rounds, inflicted enough damage on Benny’s Titan to reduce it to two health points. I secured three zones again.
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~~~ Round 6 ~~~
In the last two rounds, I hunted down the Hoplite block and killed the Titan. That secured me the win by more than 80 points in the end. It didn’t feel like it, but the early pressure had forced the City States into making poor decisions and played right into my hands. After this victory, I expected to face Nino’s Old Dominion. However, surprisingly, Nino was defeated—or rather, stopped—by Uziel’s Nords. Uziel had thrown his army into the meat grinder and, with the last Raiders, had scored just enough points to win. Evasion 2 is incredibly stable when you don’t roll higher than a 2.
After two games, Uziel with his Nords, the Pommesmann with the Bretons (or rather Hundred Kingdoms), and I with the lovable Dinos were all undefeated. The app didn’t want me to face my favorite person, and Uziel wasn’t interested in playing against me either. The Pommesmann wasn’t keen on it either, but he had no choice. I usually practice with him twice a week, and he had seen nearly every Dino list I’ve tested so far. The scenario was "Forlorn Hope," and for one of us, the name would be quite fitting.
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