Another weekend and another great event – this time it was a two day event in the form of Another Four Foot Snake thing. Last year I was one of the TO’s for the event so it was great to be able to play this time.

The List

I made no secret that I was very disappointed in the performance of my new Brotherhood army at the King in the North event in York. I was umming and ah-ing about how to change it up in time for Another Four Foot Snake thing. I felt I had too few units on the field and just not enough staying power.

I did mull over a list at the end of the York article which would need a massive hobby effort to complete. One that simply wasn’t feasible with the time remaining before Four Foot Snake, and considering that FFS is a full blown hobby event with soft scores for hobby, I didn’t want to turn up with a half-painted army (spoilers: I did anyway).

After a discussion with some of the other Northern Kings guys, I settled on this:

• Villein Plowshares Horde
• Water Elementals Horde w/Healing Brew
• Water Elementals Horde
• Order of Redemption Regiment w/Brew of Sharpness
• Order of Redemption Regiment w/Brew of Strength
• Villein Reconnoiterers Troop
• Devoted w/Mount, Heal(4), Surge(5), Shroud of the Saint
• Exemplar Adjutant w/Mount, Lute of Insatiable Darkness
• Allied Elohi Horde
• Allied Phoenix

This event also gave you an extra monster for free, based on each of the (at the time) FFS podcast members, including me! Well it would be rude not to play with myself!

I wasn’t massively keen on this list on paper, but felt it was more effective than my York list and was feasible hobby wise to complete before the deadline. I wasn’t personally a fan of the Order of Redemption with their lack of Crushing Strength and I felt that the Phoenix was a bit wasted with just the Elohi to heal (hint: it wasn’t).

The Preparation

Guess who spent all their prep time building a ridiculous display board and almost none painting the models he needed to finish?

It’s me.

I got my display board done but it got to the point where I was still painting my army during the briefing on Saturday morning… Still. It got done. Enough, anyway.

I was really happy with how well it turned out, considering how much was unfinished even a couple of days prior. I still have a bunch of stuff to go back over and fix but I’m sure that can wait until the night before the next event…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Game 1 – Dave Crabtree (Orcs)

Army List

When the FFS guys posted up the matchups and I saw I was paired with Dave, I got a bit excited. Dave is a great guy who I really like and his army is very well put together with Orcs converted into Pigs. I was really looking forward to this game, right from the get-go and the FFS guys decided to put us up on stream. You can view the game here from the start of the video through to about 1:30.

The scenario was Plunder, which is a Loot variant where one Loot counter is worth twice as much to each player.

In a nutshell:

• Left flank saw Elohi vs Chariots and Slasher, and the Elohi were able to keep those tied up pretty much all game and destroyed the chariots.
• The centre saw an infantry-off, which I was extremely lucky with by breaking his FFS Monster (Paul) in a single lucky hit from an Elemental horde, and I was also able to take advantage of a positioning mistake to get my Plowshares into the flank of one of his infantry hordes.
• On the right, I was able to clear his chaff with my Knights, then kill the giant. The knights were then able to swing towards the centre of the board and keep Dave from advancing any further.

I was able to kill 1760 points and secure a win, giving me 19 tournament points out of 20.

Game 2 – Mikey Dewsnap (Twilight Kin)

Mikey Dewsnap Army List

Mikey had an interesting Twilight Kin list that seemed to have a split of shooting paired with a heavy cavalry flank including two dragons. He surprised me when he split the heavy cavalry up, with a dragon and cavalry unit on each flank rather than keeping them together.

The scenario was push, with each of us having 3 Loot tokens to carry over to the other side of the board.

The bullet points:

• Left flank had cavalry (and later a water elemental horde when it was close enough) vs a dragon and Abyssal Rider Horde. This settled into a grind which my cavalry, backed up with healing, was able to win.
• My centre holding my loot tokens pushed up the entire game. One of the water elementals broke through to the left flank, the other was able to finish off the crossbowmen opposite.
• The right flank had my Elohi and Phoenix facing down the rest of Mikey’s shooting, and the other dragon and Abyssal Rider Horde. Mikey accidentally left the buccaneer regiment in charge range of the Elohi, allowing me to jump over behind Mikey’s cavalry. The resulting mess allowed Mikey’s Abyssal Rider horde to take one of his loot tokens over the line, but I was able to capture the ones he’d placed on his shooting units.

I was able to win with 1325 kill points, giving me 17 tournament points out of 20.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Game 3 – Mr Chuckles (Orcs)

Game 3 against RC member Matthew James who was running his fearsome Orcs. He was dead chuffed at the game ahead and could barely contain his excitement.

Mr Chuckles Army List

The scenario was Kill. Not my favourite, to put it mildly…

The bullet points:

• Infantry-off (including Elementals) in the centre, my Basilean allies vs his fast units on the right, my Redemption knights on the right unopposed (in deployment).
• My left flank collapsed almost immediately, forcing me to wheel my centre to face the oncoming fast threat.
• Matt quickly moved some units on my right flank, holding up my knights for a couple of turns and stopping them from really getting involved until late in the game.
• My Plowshares killed his winged slasher. Lol.
• It devolved into a grind fest in the centre as we both wheeled our units in from the flanks that we had won to try and swing things.
• Slasher vs Plowshares = dead slasher.
• Matt made great use of cheap units to hold me up and pin my knights in awkward positions, meaning their hitting power could only really impact against a Greatax horde in the centre (which they destroyed in a single hit).
• Did I mention my Plowshares killed his slasher?

This was a very close, very tightly fought game and was really enjoyable. It was back and forth throughout, with me thinking it was over when my left flank fell immediately (nearly 500 points gone right there). I was very surprised at how well my army held up in a constant grind.

In the end I was able to kill around 300 points more than Matt. With a total of 1490 kill points this gave me 18 tournament points.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Day One Thoughts

I was really enjoying my games. I mean winning’s great and all, but the army list clicked. Several times I had been able to heal units back completely from the brink using a combination of regeneration and the Devoted’s Heal(7). The Phoenix had been doing wonders as well, healing significant amounts from the Elohi and the breath attack knocking a few points off here and there. This was a complete turnaround from the first time I’d used the army at King in the North, where almost all the damage I took stuck around and my army was very easily ground down.

I’d gone up against one of the top UK players, Mr Chuckles, in a scenario that a fairly Elite army should dread – grinding against Endless Orcs – and come out on top.

I was hoping I’d be able to keep the streak going in day two (which will be covered in part 2).