Game 159 - Night Stalkers - 2021/12/28

 

Greetings!

It's been a while since my last battle report. I had far less spare time for hobby in general, let alone for playing games in 2021. That's what happens when you welcome a new family member in your life :) Fortunately, Erasmus (aka DarkBlack on forums and UB2), who seem to be in a similar situation, came up with a brilliant idea of how to help another new dad not to lose touch with the hobby completely. He reached out and suggested we use Universal Battle 2, with its great feature of saving games, to ... Play By Email! 

If you have never hear of this way, I recommend you check this video by everyone's favourite KoW community member:

Death by Dragons - How to use UB2 to play KoW by email! 

In short, you play on UB2 one turn at a time, on your own, whenever you have a bit of a spare moment to do so. It is obviously not the same as playing a full game in one go. But when you are not able to reliably lock 2-3 hours at particular time of the day, then this is a perfect solution. 

A huge "Thank You!" to Erasmus for reaching out and suggesting we play this way. And even more so for being extremely patient, as it took me quite a long time before we could finally begin our first game. However, when we finally started, all went smoothly and we were able to play a turn each almost every day. 

I must admit that there are some aspects of this way of playing the game I like a lot! For example, I really like that I can take it easy and think a bit about my moves without time pressure. Interestingly, it does not result in me spending a lot to make the moves. It is more about the comfort of doing it at the pace I wanted. This was quite important when everything else in life seemed to be quite hectic, changing fast and quite unpredictable! Hence, a bit of peace to enjoy the hobby was exactly what I needed. 

For our first game by email, my opponent chose his Night Stalker army. I consider this faction to be an archenemy for the Elves so I was thrilled to fight against it. It can be equally fast but is also significantly different in many aspects. Perfect enemy for an interesting game!

What is more, COK2022 was released just prior to when we decided to begin and we both modified our armies accordingly. Erasmus tells me he didn't change much in his force but since a number of units in the Night Stalkers list were updated, there was a lot to try out as if it was new! For me, I also tried to keep my army as similar to the one I used last time as possible. But as you will see, the same units may have gained some new options and I was curious how would they do this time.

We decided to play at 2000 per side. Here are the details of the Night Stalker army:

Tentacle Street Sneakery Club - Army List

Scarecrows Horde (SC), Infantry, Screamshard - 135
Butchers Horde (B1), Large Infantry - 205
Butchers Horde (B2), Large Infantry - 205

Dopplegangers (D), Infantry - 145
Shadowhounds* (S), Cavalry, Chalice of Wrath - 205
Soulflyers* (SF1), Large Cavalry - 165
Soulflyers* (SF2), Large Cavalry - 165

Planar Apparition (PA), Monster - 165
Shadow-Hulk (SH), Titan - 225

Dread Fiend (DF1), Hero (Large Cavalry) - 135
Dread Fiend (DF2), Hero (Large Cavalry) - 135
Butcher Fleshripper (BF), Hero (Large Infantry), Blade of Slashing - 115

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 58 - 2021/05/05

Greetings!

In my first (and so far, only!) game of Mortem et Gloriam in 2021 I played against my usual opponent Paul, who decided that "New Year - New Army" is going to be his motto. After a few battles against his Muslim Indian Sultanates, it was time to fight against completely different enemy - Ottoman Turkish!

Paul chose 1400 C.E. as the year for his army so it was only 16 centuries that separated our armies! However, both empires controlled some of the same territories in their time!

What is also interesting in Paul's force is that it also had Serbian allies included. Quite a colourful army to fight against for sure!

Ottoman Turkish - Army List

Game 158 - Ratkin - 2021/04/25

 

Greetings!

After I played against Ed and his Free Dwarfs, I had a fantastic opportunity to have a game with another prominent member of the Oxford Gaming Club - Simon aka laribord for those who play on Universal Battle 2. We have played against each other since the down of time but there was a bit of a break since our most recent encounter. It was thus great to organize a game again!

This time, Simon brought his Ratkin army. This is the faction I didn't play against often and Simon always adds a special flavour to the armies he designs. It was no different this time and I was really curious about this encounter. Let's check Simon's army in more detail:

Desert Rats - Army List

Nightmares Horde (N), Large Infantry, Blessing of the Gods - 265

Shock Troops Regiment (S1), Infantry, Heavy Halberds (Phalanx), Plague Pots - 160
Shock Troops Regiment (S2), Infantry, Plague Pots - 145
Shock Troops Regiment (S3), Infantry, Plague Pots - 145
Hackpaws Regiment (H), Cavalry, Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar - 170
Tunnel Runners (TR), Chariots, Brew of Sharpness - 245
Vermintide* Regiment (V), Swarm, Staying Stone - 70

Mutant Rat Fiend (MRF), Titan - 220
Tangle[1] (T), Titan - 160

Weapon Team (WT), War Engine - 85

Brood Mother (BM), Hero (Large Infantry) - 140
Brute Enforcer (BE1), Hero (Large Infantry) - 75
Brute Enforcer (BE2), Hero (Large Infantry) - 75
Swarm-Crier (SC), Hero (Infantry) - 45

Game 157 - Free Dwarfs - 2021/04/18

 

Greetings!

This is the battle report from the very first game I played in 2021. Yes, I know, a bit late and I apologize to Ed, my opponent, that it took me so long to get back to our battle. However, I hope it was worth waiting for as I think the game was very interesting and was not resolved until the very end!

Ed decided to use Free Dwarfs army this time. I still have the impression that this army is not quite popular and I was curious what would be Ed's approach to the composition. Here are the details:

Free Dwarfs - Army List

Earth Elementals Horde (EE1), Large Infantry, Blade of Slashing - 225
Earth Elementals Horde (EE2), Large Infantry, Mace of Crushing - 225

Free Dwarf Brock Riders Regiment (BR1), Cavalry, Brew of Haste - 215
Free Dwarf Brock Riders Regiment (BR2), Cavalry, Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar - 215

Mastiff Hunting Pack* Troop (M1), Swarm, Throwing Mastiff - 80
Mastiff Hunting Pack* Troop (M2), Swarm, Throwing Mastiff - 80
Mastiff Hunting Pack* Troop (M3), Swarm, Throwing Mastiff - 80 

Craggoth & Kholearm [1], Greater Earth Elemental (GEE), Titan - 255

Stone Priest (SP), Hero (Infantry), Darklord's Onyx Ring, Bane Chant(2),  Martyr's Prayer(7) [1] - 155
Packmaster (P), Hero (Infantry), Mastiff Munchberries [1] - 100
Berserker Lord (BL), Hero (Cavalry), Blade of the Beast Slayer - 160
Sveri Egilax on Hellbrock [1], Hero (Large Cavalry) - 210

Game 156 - Basileans - 2021/04/11

 

Greetings!

In the last round of the Rage of Isolation 4 online tournament, played on Universal Battle 2 I played against Yan. I had a great pleasure to play against him a few times in the past, although not yet in person. All our games were online. Yan brought a difference force each time and this tournament was no different. While expected either Herd or the Empire of Dust, Yan decided to try out some Basileans instead. I got an impression he really just wanted to play with this enormous Paladin Knights Horde! And some Elohi! And a Phoenix! And some Living Legends!

Basileans - Army List

Paladin Knights Horde (PK), Cavalry, Brew of Strength - 395
Ogre Palace Guard Horde (OPG), Large Infantry, Staying Stone - 240

Men-at-Arms Swordsmen (S1), Infantry - 105
Men-at-Arms Swordsmen (S2), Infantry - 105
Elohi Regiment (E1), Large Infantry - 160
Elohi Regiment (E2), Large Infantry - 160

Gur Panthers* (GP1), Cavalry - 85
Gur Panthers* (GP2), Cavalry - 85 

Phoenix (P1), Titan - 195

Gnaeus Sallustis[1] (GS), Hero (Large Cavalry) - 180
Samacris, Mother of Phoenixes[1] (S3), Hero (Large Infantry) - 195
Priest (P2), Hero (Infantry), Bane Chant (2) - 95

Game 155 - Sylvan Kin - 2021/04/05

 

Greetings!

In the third round of the Rage of Isolation 4 online tournament, played on Universal Battle 2, I played against a second army of Sylvan Kin. This time, however, commanded by the Tournament Organizer himself - Michael.

I believe Michael 3d-printed some of his models for a brand new army at that time already and was testing some of the options online. From my point of view, as an opponent, it was very interesting to see a different approach to army composition than in the case of Nick's army. Even if there were a few elements that were exactly the same, the army looked different and thought it would play differently as well. Here are the details:

Sylvan Kin - Army List

Forest Guard Horde (FG), Infantry, Brew of Strength - 310
Forest Shamblers Horde (FS), Large Infantry - 200

Hunters of the Wild Regiment (HW1), Heavy Infantry - 160
Hunters of the Wild Regiment (HW2), Heavy Infantry - 160
Stormwind Cavalry* Regiment (S), Cavalry, Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar - 235

Boskwraiths Troops (B1), Infantry - 115
Boskwraiths Troops (B2), Infantry - 115

Wiltfather [1] (W), Hero(Monster) - 300
Army Standard Bearer (AS), Hero (Infantry), Lute of Insatiable Darkness - 85
Dragon Kindred Lord (DKL), Hero (Monster), Blade of Slashing - 320

Monster March 5 - Final!

Greetings!

Welcome to the last update on the Monster March 5 painting challenge! As always, the time flies and we have April already! 

This year's challenge turned out to be truly amazing, with a lot of participants and some fantastic models. It was my absolute pleasure to host the challenge again. It was really inspiring to see all your projects! Some of you painted models that waited for their chance for decades, some of you painted a lot more than a single monster. Whatever your personal choice was, whatever the progress and whether you completed it by the end of March or not, it was all a success because you did some painting! That was the main goal!

In this post I am going to round up the contributions from every single participants over the period of March as a way of saying "Thank you!" for posting photos of your models. Without you, there would be no Monster March! I hope that this is also just the beginning and that you are going to continue with your fantastic project throughout the year!

Ok, let's have a look at all these beautiful models that were featured this year!