Miniature War Gaming

A little over a month ago, we figured that after the initial launch event it’d be time to get a real 200 pt tournament going especially after wave 1 might be out. At the time we didn’t know exactly what might be available so it took a little holding of our collective breath that things would all work out and that people would actually be able to field those kind of forces .

Now that we have these new champions, it was perfect timing to get some table time in.

We did allow substitutions for minis, given that some of the essentials aren’t out yet. It kept things reasonable for those who haven’t traded or gone to multiple core boxes for things like Golems or Reanimates and so on.

In my case I put together a 200 pt Daqan list. I could do the 3×3 block of Spearmen when a Golem integrated, but no way to do a second spearmen formation without turning to my reanimates.

I fielded 2 2×1 blocks of Cav with Rank Discipline, a 3×3 and 2×2 block of spearmen. The larger with the Golem added, shield wall and metered march and the smaller with just Kari. In addition I had a 2×1 block of Golems to round out the 200.

For prizes we had another launch day kit, with 9 players and 9 for each stack of cards, everyone walked away with a set. For the top 3, a mat, and then dice for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

For the tournament oddly, we had 6 Daqan and 3 Waiqar players. That was an interesting breakup as you’d think at this point there wouldn’t be strong preferences. (Tho there was one person there not playing that can’t wait for the Elves)

Armies were generally 5-6 units in size. Most players were playing Kari and Ardus independent from a unit. There was some interesting talk about pulling together a future ‘all Cav’ or does large mega-land torpedoes make sense or could smaller nimble pull it off. Lots of interesting theories running around, pretty clear tho I don’t think we have an exact meta in the sense of X-Wing or Armada yet.

Most forces had a new champion integrated into their force. Oddly I might have been the only person that didn’t.

Round 1, Tony and played. He picked the mission, Bounty, putting it on his Kari and I put it on my Cav which was on the far left flank.

We both for the most part spent the first turn getting inspiration tokens tho I started to kick out and get my golems really to guard my right flank. I figured they could easily solo his Cav and I’d go hard for his land torpedo which was better kitted out then mine. I had no champions on mine while he had the Citadel Weapons Master, Lancer Corporal, and the Raven Pennon Bearer.

As fate would have it, Tony would hit my 2×2 block of spearmen first when I was completely preparing for him to get tangled up with my larger block. Oddly it worked out then that my little block of spearmen would hold his large unit just long enough for the Golems for finish off the cav they faced, and go for the flank as well as the large block of my infantry doing the same. Add in some rolling along the lines of 15 or so hits a turn and it got nasty real quick.

Meanwhile on my left flank I did do the stupid thing and sent my Cav in to go after Kari. I figured if they could catch her, the two units each with the victory token just might be able to rack up some points.

No dice they got cut down given Tony the token.

We managed to play all 8. In the end, not much left of Tony’s forces but him with the victory token and in my case, about 90pts of stuff left. Unfortunately at a 75 point victory token that lead to Tony getting the very well deserved win. It was a mighty fun chess match.

For round 2, I had a bye, so I took a few pictures as well as worked on the extension to Cryodex to add in support for the Small Format Tournaments for Star Wars Armada.

For round three, played against Kenny who was also Daqan. He was configured differently in that he was running a 2×2 Cav unit, a smaller 3×2 block of Spearmen along with Kari as an independent unit. For his 3×2 spearmen he had it pretty well kitted out with Champions and add ons.

I sent my smaller unit to try and catch Kari. They were successful but she naturally did as Kari does and did some ranged attacks hurting one of my Cav units as well as taking out a tray of Spearmen later on.

On the left flank my Golems and 2×1 Cav took on his 2×2 unit of Cav and oddly enough the deadly dance went in my favor with his Cav turning and going before mine and my Golems stepping back to avoid the fight. My charge into his flank went fairly well taking out 1/2 the unit pretty quickly.

Meanwhile in the center my 3×3 spearmen were able to his is smaller unit first and unleash a lot of damage.

Unfortunately I don’t have later pictures but my golems pushed into the woods and engaged his other unit of spearmen taking them out. His Golems attacked my unit which was getting fairly dinged up, but it wasn’t enough. With his Kari falling and his other units it was a complete victory for me after 7 turns.

We scored just one victory token.

Results

1. Dalton – 3-0 – 409 MoV
2. Tony – 3-0 – 88 MoV
3. Paul – 2-1 – 323 MoV
4. Tom – 2-1 – 229 MoV
5. Nate – 2-1 – 85 MoV
6. Mark 1-2 – 100 MoV
7. Keven – 1-2 – 100 MoV
8. Joe – 1-2 – 34 MoV
9. Kenny – 0-3 – 0 MoV

I used my new support for Cryodex. For Byes we scored 100 MoV for that however in retrospect talking to Tony we think that’s way too much. On the drive back home I’m thinking more like 50-75 points or even lower. It seems like the average MoV from a win isn’t that high least in the average victory.

We played 90 minute rounds and it seemed like the vast majority of players were completing their 8 turn games. I think with experienced hands, maybe even bringing that down a bit to 80 minutes might be something to consider.

It’ll be very interesting to see how / when the Runewars Organized Play finally puts out tournament rules.

None the less, for a fantasy miniatures game, it’s a really fun game be it casual or organized play with a very good set of rules. As the TO, we didn’t have a single ‘contention’ when it came to the rules, it was all answering ‘how does x’ work kinds of questions. While the first FAQ will be interesting, it’s nice to not have a ruleset out of balance where it’s urgently needed.

Slowly I’ve been getting back to painting my Runewars figures. I’d kinda like to have my forces all painted and ready for the event at FFGC on May 27th. That’s not far away for the number of figures I need to churn out!

Thankfully Chris has a copy of Runewars too now so we’re able to get in an occasional game at Gamez and More in Byron.

Golem in progress…

We both built to approx 175 points. Until the first wave of expansions come out next week, it’s kind of hard to field much more, even with 2 core boxes.

I picked the Escort mission since A) I’d never tried it and B) why not? Chris picked the corners which made me wonder if I could make a run for it and make it happen and get my 100 victory points.

Two spikes for obstacles and the raised terrace…  The spikes ended up approx between both sides but Chris put the terrace way out of the way.

On the setup I put my scooper unit, the spearmen on a course to go towards his reanimates with the golems on their flanks. 9 Trays of spearmen with an integral golem should be pretty nasty.  Everything else to cover the flanks and draw some stuff away from slowing down my thrust.

Chris put the point the scooper unit needed to get to in the farthest far corner in his setup zone. Those setup choices sure can counter or complicate a mission.

We marched forth, and Chris put his two units of archers approx center to get ready to rain down arrows. My cav started to make a dash for it to hopefully contact a carrion crawler for a charge and go for a quick kill.

The spearman getting close to charge. His hero, Ardus in the center looking all huge, nasty and threatening to go after the spearmen flank. Definitely didn’t want that. Likes my cav lined up to get ready to charge. Unfortunately they had been hit with a blight token from the archers so that would dull any results by one die. Not what they needed.

The golems ended up being poorly placed and were behind the action. I put a huge hit into the reanimates and they were gone in 2 turns. Ardus would default Kari, but she held him back for a few turns and kept him from doing anything else.  My cav hit a lone carrion crawler and umm … very little effect. A couple of wounds but not enough to bring it down. The counter attack would be nasty….

Final couple of turns. The spearman having finished out their prey they went after the archers in their way and took them out, but took two turns thus delaying them getting to the point they needed two and thus the 100 points of victory.

The cav would be utterly defeated, taking a charge to the rear by a second carrion crawler. I think that’s a thing. One carrion crawler to stop the attack and hold them an the second to swing around back and hit the flank or rear. It works.

Kari fell and the golems basically did nothing all game save for lots of walking and almost charging into Ardus at the very last turn.

Mighty fun!

Next week the first set of expansions come out. Can’t wait tho for what is arriving it’ll be interesting to see what we get. I think more heros for the Daqan which frankly I’m not sure that is what I want since you can only field 2 heros in a 200 point game. There will be more upgrade options tho. I want more spearman, tho it seems those might not be out for a little longer. We’ll have to see what the budget can support.