Spearhead June 2019

Last Saturday, 8th June, I was fortunate enough to attend the first Mantic-run tournament for their tabletop skirmish game, Kings of War: Vanguard. I say 'fortunate' not only because it was a brilliant event - four great games against four great opponents - but because demand for tickets was very high, what with them selling out in a matter of hours!

The first two games were at 150pts, the second at 200. Scoring was kept simple, with 15tps for a win, 10 for a draw, and 5 for a loss. In addition to tournament points, however, players also accrued gold between games, rolling once on a d8 table, with a separate prize at stake for most gold by the end of the day. Those who wished to aim for this prize could choose to 'spend' their tournament points from the previous game for more rolls on the gold table. Prizes were awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in TPs, Most Gold, Best Warband, Most Sporting, and Last Place.

Both my brother and I planned to go, each of us bringing Abyssals to the table. Less fortunately, real life commitments forced my brother to relinquish his ticket around a month ago, diminishing by half the Scottish invasion of Nottingham.

My Warband

After backing the Vanguard Kickstarter, the one faction from among the starting four that I did not own was Abyssals (that one went to my brother). Therefore, when I won the Abyssal faction starter at Weight of Fire's Cry Havoc back in January, I knew they were going to be next on the painting table. At first I messed around creating some 'skew' lists (triple hellequins, succubus spam, etc.), but in the end decided to make a varied warband, cramming in as much of the different options in the Abyssal list as I could. One quick ebay trip for a Tormentor left me with the following 200 point list:

Tormentor,
Hellequin Bloodmask,
2x Abyssal Guard,
Succubus,
Flamebearer,
Lower Abyssal,
Imps,
Succubus Lurker,
Gargoyle.

No room for upgrades, but a good cross section of the toys accounted for (the rest of the faction starter was then donated to my brother's Abyssal Kings of War army). For the 150 point list I dropped the Lurker and Gargoyle, demoted the Bloodmask to a standard Hellequin, and spread a few items around that never came up in the games.

So, how did the list do?

Game 1 - Supply Grab vs Ogres

From memory, Saren's list contained three or four orge warriors, a captain, and three goblins with bows. Both of us sent our main fighting forces up the middle, going for that all important three point objective. I ignored the near one on my right, allowing two goblins to capture it, while on my left I sent the Hellequin deep into the opponents half, slowly moving my Flamebearer up to try and take the objective.

In the centre, I had placed my Tormentor open to a charge from one of the ogre warriors, which it took. One 'Demonic Roar' later and the proximity of my Succubus left the unfortunate orge needing 8s to hit. The 'furious' retaliation from the Tormentor went ham, scoring 11 hits after an 8 train, ending the ogre. This early luck swung things in my favour, allowing me to ultimately win the grind and claim the central objective. I even had time to send the Succubus after the goblins on the right. However, the little gits would not fall so easily, surviving the attack and killing her in retaliation! The objective would rightly remain theirs.

This meant it all came down to the left flank. My Hellequin had taken longer than he should have to kill the one goblin, and spent most of the game in a desperate fight with an ogre. He finally fell on turn 4, giving me one chance to shoot the ogre with my Flamebearer before Saren claimed the left objective too. I took the clear shoot with a boosted dice, and was able to knock down the ogre, preventing it from reaching the objective. A close win!

Game 2 - The Power Stones vs Elves

I was immediately concerned by Ben's list - three elf archers is no joke, the Prince is a beast, and, from playing Forces of Nature, I knew what a nightmare it can be to put down a Forest Shambler. I stuck to a similar plan as the last game, putting the brunt of my forces in the centre, the Flamebearer alone on the near flank objective, and sending the Hellequin up to contest the far one for as long as possible.

As it turned out, that was a long time indeed. The Hellequin tanked several rounds of massed shooting through sheer luck, holding on until turn 4, where its death ultimately meant little. The Flamebearer spent the game hiding behind its power stone, steadily gathering points.

As it would continue to be throughout the tournament, the Succubus's 'Fatal Attraction' rule was pivotal, tilting fortunes in the grind. While it took a lot of work dealing with the shambler, the Tormentor is arguably one of the best choices for the job, and eventually brought him down. I was also fortunate to have enough bodies in the fight that I could prevent the Elf Prince from using 'Battle Rage', as he was always stuck in with multiple attackers. In the end, and with more than a little luck from the dice, it was another Abyssal win.

Game 3 - The Dragon's Egg vs Orcs

Ahh, Orcs. In my practice games against my brother, I could never win when he took Orcs, and this time they would be controlled by Kev Honeyset, RC member and winner of Cry Havoc back in January. This was going to be a fight, all right.

We were now using our full 200 point warbands, but for me the general principals of my list remained the same. When my fighting force stuck together, I was confident that it could win most grinds - however, speed is key in this scenario.

With three scouts to my one, Kev had the initiative, even when I won the roll to go first. Keen to get into the action, I fatigued my Bloodmask, Gargoyle, and Lurker to get them stuck in with the skulks. The orc grunts proved tough to deal with, killing the gargoyle and holding my forces back. In order to buy time for his troll to make off with the egg, Kev threw everything into my tight-packed fighting force. Again, 'Demonic Roar' and 'Fatal Attraction' were huge, blunting the normally devastating orc charge and allowing me to quickly turn the tide.

By the middle of turn 4 Kev was left with his Troll and a single greatax, while I had only lost my gargoyle and lurker. I began moving my forces into position for a last ditch attempt to take the egg from the Troll, when I discovered that, since the turn would end with the egg in the Orc deployment zone, the game was over. Ah. Always read the scenario, kids! Loss for the Abyssals.

Game 4 - Capture the Portal vs Northern Alliance

Richard's Frozen-themed Northern Alliance was definitely among the best looking warbands at the event, and so it was a real pleasure to play against him. Richard certainly knew how to use the faction, too, consistently presenting options that would draw me into difficult situations. A few unlucky rolls early on convinced me that I had to stop trying to be clever and just swarm the portal, come what may. While Richard had the upper hand, it looked like it was still all to play for... until the end of turn 2, when the portal ate 4 of my warband. Uh oh. The loss soon followed.

In all honesty, I'm not sure it would have gone my way, regardless of hungry portals. Richard was playing a solid game where I struggled to come up with answers. I've often found the portal to be a tricky scenario. It favours bold play, I believe, and I perhaps spend the first round a little too hesitant. All a learning, to be sure!

Conclusion

As I said at the start of this post - four great games against four great opponents. What more can you ask for? I have to say, I'm loving vanguard, and from the way Mantic's second Spearhead tournament in November has also sold out (I was too slow for tickets this time!) it's clear I'm not the only one!

I believe the top four placing warbands were Orcs. The green tide is strong!

1st place went to Steve Pearce, 2nd to Mat Green, 3rd to Kev Honeyset, Most Gold to Ben Wright (my gold, you ask? There were a lot of 'Thieves in the Night' unfortunately!), Best Warband to Daniel Read, and Most Sporting to... myself! A pleasant surprise indeed.

Many thanks to all my opponents, and to Rob Burman at Mantic for running the event.

Finally, below are some pictures I snapped of the warbands, which I'm sure you'll agree were excellent. Apologies for the variable quality of the pictures themselves.

Forgot to take one of Saren's warband, so I pulled this from the Vanguard facebook group

Read More »

Deadzone: a Noobie's First Thoughts

Over the last week my brother and I have played somewhere between 7 and 10 games of Deadzone, using only the models that come in the starter box. We did start with a little more terrain than the box provides, since we added most of a Battlezones Sci-Fi Defence Line, as well as a smattering of sci-fi resin crates and the like. After finally playing a game where we made no rules errors (that we know of!) we've gone ahead and ordered reinforcements for our factions, so that we can mix up our games a bit and start a campaign. While we wait for those to arrive, I thought it'd be a good idea to share my thoughts on the game and the starter box, from the perspective of a long time lurker, finally turned noobie player.

The Box

The starter set is fantastic. I love the fact that it contains enough to really experience a full game of Deadzone. Yes, it may lack elements like vehicles and size 2+ soldiers etc., but what it does include provides far more than just an introductory tease of the game. As far as included models goes, I think it's an excellent deal.

That's not to say that I couldn't be happier, however. While the included terrain is great, a real pleasure to work with, there doesn't seem to be enough for what Deadzone requires. I think part of why my Enforcers appeared to have an advantage over my brother's Forge Fathers was the way my superior numbers could always find firing lines (we played with all the current errata btw).

Also, I think the box was perhaps a few dice short, 2 of each type for a minimum split between two players. They can of course share, but in a game where players role off against each other I think a couple more would have been ideal.

However, what does come in the box is at an extremely reasonable price (delicious hardback!). Given the inevitable impact of including more dice and terrain being a higher entry point, I think Mantic made the right choice.

The Game

What can I say about the game that hasn't been better said a million times before? It is superb, a blend of speed, simplicity, and depth that I've come to expect from Mantic. I often get overwhelmed when trying to pick up new rule sets, with the result that learning to play some games, that otherwise appeal, quickly becomes too much like work (*cough* Batman *cough*). Not so with Deadzone. Not even remotely so.

Rather than wax lyrical about its a great features (no tape measures, the command dice, fast and brutal gameplay), I'll talk about my main disappointment: the scenarios.

"Patrol" and "Search and Destroy" are great, as is the newer "Occupy" mission. They are similar to each other, but the variation in deployment areas and targets squares is enough to mix things up.

The disappointments are "Scour" and "Breakthrough". Not long into our first game of Scour, we paused to ask ourselves why we would ever run healthy soldiers off the board for such a pittance in VPs. We agreed that if a unit was injured it might be worth denying VPs while securing some, but that was a) situational in the extreme (that the injured unit would have an item and be in a position where running was an option) and b) not particularly relevant to the Forge Fathers, at least when led by a Huscarl with the healing splat. After that game we set up for Breakthrough, where we found ourselves asking much the same questions. In both games, this objective was largely ignored in favour of straight up kills. Perhaps with secret objectives or recon effects (neither of which we were using at that point) things might be different, but from reading those rules I kinda doubt it. I really, really hope I'm missing something here (please tell me if I am!), but I just can't understand how similar questions/issues weren't raised in play-testing.

We also tried the updated "Deadzone Overkillier" version of Scour, which was an improvement, but not nearly to the degree that the focus shifted away from killing. Perhaps this is down to a Kings of War player's perspective, where I'm used to the Kill missions and elements of victory being majorly downplayed when compared to other objectives. Maybe a similar approach just isn't possible in Deadzone.

Overall, the above issues really do very little to dampen my enthusiasm for the game. I'm delighted to finally get on board with Mantic's sci-fi setting, and plan on taking my Enforcers all the way up to large-scale Warpath. And the timing, it seems, couldn't be any better, given the plans for an expansion to the game later this year, as well as a summer campaign!

What a time to be a wargamer.

Read More »

Enter the Deadzone!

Squad N17 "The Renegades"

This Christmas, after over a year of gazing longingly at the world of Deadzone/Warpath, my brother and I went from pressing our faces up against the glass to stepping through the door - we gifted ourselves to the starter set.

Our plan had always been to get the whole box painted up asap, and from boxing day to the 29th we were hard at work. Speed painting, something far outside my comfort zone, was the name of the game. We hit the terrain with a light grey undercoat and then covered it all with GW's Nuln Oil wash. Against this run-down, monochromatic backdrop we decided to make our factions stand out with a kind of classic video game "red vs blue" approach. I took the Enforcers and (in a total betrayal my blog's name) sprayed them with Army Painter Dragon Red primer, followed by an orange drybrush and a GW Carroburg Crimson wash.

Mercenary Clan "The Azure Sons"

For the Forge Fathers, my brother used Army Painter Ultramarine primer, drybrushed Lothern Blue, and then followed with a Drakenhoff Nightshade wash.

While I did feel a little sad at points not to be giving the models the attention I feel they deserve, the final effect of our two squads on the board was worth it. And, unlike my current Kings of War project (which is now over a year old and STILL NOT NEARLY READY,) I actually got to play some games with them! Paint to play is clearly the only way forward for some projects, although I would like to go the whole hog with another Deadzone faction at some point in the future.

Oh, and speaking of future, Warpath is another game I definitely hope to get in on one day, and with that in mind I made sure to start some long term preparation of my Enforcers:

Thanks for reading!

Read More »