Category: Contests

Event Review.

Well it finally happened! Last Saturday, After 18 months of sitting idle during the Pandemic we finally managed to gather a bunch of players for a Conquest Tournament. The event was held at our usual Club Venue in Southampton and consisted of 3 games at 1250 points. The scenarios were all objective based, with 2 games being variations of the ones you find in the official Parabellum Tournament pack, and another of my own devising.

We had 10 attendees in total for the event, some experienced, some not, and some that had literally had a demo game with me a few weeks prior and were borrowing forces (which is a compliment to the game, that people are so excited after a single game to give up their time for a whole day event!)

The factions were broken down as follows:

6 x Hundred Kingdoms
3 x Dweghom
1 x Nords

Whilst our club does have Spires and Wadhrun players, they were either unable to attend or in the case of the Wadhrun not assembled in time (Paul had to borrow my Dweghom instead of shoving Orcs everywhere– poor thing!)

The lists were all a little different from each other. I’ve collated the armies into the table below. It shows the total number of stands present, though in some cases they may be spread amongst multiple regiments:

The first game scenario had two objectives spaced evenly across the middle of the table. The players swiftly got into the swing of things with all but one of the games being finished within the 2 hour time slot. Two of the players scored a maximum 12 victory point win to head into an early lead.

Game 2 was a scenario of my own devising with 3 objectives running up the middle of the table. Players would not score anything for the one nearest them, 1 vp for the middle objective and 2vps for the furthest away. Obviously the enemy would be aiming for the one nearest them, so they still had to work to deny it to their opponent.

James and his Hundred Kingdoms continued their rampage with another 12 vp win, which was more impressive because he was against Mike H, whos Dweghom had also scored maximum points on the previous game. Ian also managed a fine win with his infantry based Hundred Kingdoms whilst Vaughan slowly crept up the table with a close win against Toby (Literally a few different dice rolls would have seen the Nords defeated). Poor old Paul was really regretting not having his Wadhrun finished at this point, though it looked like the awesome Wooden Spoon trophy was within his grasp!

Game 3 saw James and Ian face off at the top Table whilst Vaughans Nords squared up against yet more Hundred Kingdoms. The final scenario had a central objective. plus 4 other objectives in the middle of each table quarter. Players would score 1vp for holding BOTH their nearest objectives, and a VP for each of the other ones.

James and Ian slogged the hell out of each other, in what was a really close match. Eventually James gained the upper hand and managed yet ANOTHER 12vp win! The first prize was most definitely his!

The Nords embarked on a massively one sided slaughter of their opponents to secure a 2^nd place finish, whilst Ian clung on to the 3^rd place despite losing to James in the final game.

Down at the foot of the table Paul grimly claimed his Wooden Spoon prize, and vowed never to borrow any of my stuff ever again (probably)

The top 3 players each walked away with a victory mug, with First and second place also receiving a regiment box of their choice (James got Longbowmen, Vaughan got more Trolls – which we all hate him for). There was also a “side quest” of killing the most number of enemy Characters. Ian was our Assassin of the day, killing 8 characters across 3 games. As his prize he got a character box of his choice and went for an Imperial Officer.

I’ll leave you with a lovely little piece from our winner James regarding the thought process behind his list.

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“So I attended a tournament of Conquest: TLoK, and while I intended to try to offer a fun but challenging experience to my opponents, I did not imagine I would actually win, and with maximum points per game, too! The event was semi-competitive; yes there was a prize and trophy that incentivised an element of competition, but the main aim was to enjoy a day of just playing the game and if you happened to walk away with something then that was just a bonus. It was this ethos that I designed my list, to hopefully offer a force that wasn’t spamming ridiculous units but was challenging to face ad against which my opponents had to think about what they were going to do.

The list I took was:

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The Hundred Kingdoms – 1245/1250
Novum Equestrum

Noble Lord [150]: Tier 3, Tier 2, Tier 1, Armor of Dominion, Powerful Physique

– Household Guard (5) [315]: Armsmaster, Standard Bearer

– Mercenary Crossbowmen (4) [140]

Priory Commander (Ord. Crimson Tower) [125]: Select as Warlord

– Order of the Crimson Tower (3) [215]: Standard Bearer

Chapter Mage [130]: Tier 1, Magus, Olefant’s Roar, Fire Dart

– Men at Arms (4) [170]: Seasoned Veteran

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I would like to put a disclaimer that I know very little about proper list building. I do not do “mathshammer” or statistics or anything like and this list includes everything I wanted to play with on the day – overall, if you don’t actually enjoy playing with the models and force you use then what’s the point?

I made the list to not only be a fun force to play, but it has a theme as well. Like many 100 Kingdom players, I’m sure, I have imagined a kingdom within Ea and based my collection around this. For me, my kingdom or called Novum Equestrum – hence the name of the list. The name means “new Horsemen”. It is a city-region that specialises in equine breeding and trade, and also provides the best horses to a nearby Crimson Tower Priory. The kingdom also has a treaty and trade with an established Nordic settlement within its land, and incorporates Nord warriors into its military – much like Rome and her allies and auxiliary forces. Likewise, Nordic culture has also seeped into the kingdom and influenced style and art. The ruling houses, in acts of support and friendship with the Priory, rejects the Church, and so does not house any priests, but does have mage advisors. This then was the theme I wanted for the army.

I have converted some Household Knights with some Huscarl models to create my household squires. I was originally going to include these into my list instead of the Crimson Tower Knights, but while it meant the squires could run up the field and mean any medium units could be entering the board almost half way up, I chose Crimson Tower simply for the joy it brings me when they get their charge off and inflict all those impact hits and the idea of just heavy cavalry smashing into their poor targets! With the Crimson Towers knights, I’m not fussed about if they get to fight the turn they charge, but getting that charge off, so will (more often than not after failing a 2” charge before – even with a banner) move and then charge – often the same turn enacting the supremacy of the Priory Commander who is usually my Warlord. I also often tell this to my opponents, explaining especially the Unstoppable Charge special rule if they haven’t encountered it before.

I also like to take credit for our little local gaming community in Southampton often taking a mage with Olefant’s Roar. I tried it once and never went back. I usually give the mage Fire Dart, and with Olefant’s Roar giving her Seize the Day, it means I can activate her Men at Arms regiment, have them activate bastion in doing so, move, and either volley (to allow the mage even extra range damage) or move again – it effectively means she can immediately have better protection through bastion, and turns her 16” range on her spell into 26”. This alongside Magus and Magic Tier 1, meant that Fire Dart was very often hitting 4 or 5 times reliably, and in one of the games, made her more deadly than the knights! In hindsight, this may have been a bit too OP, but certainly wasn’t a conscious attempt at power-gaming.

For the Noble Lord and Household Guard: the Guard are just fantastic models and they look amazing when ranked up, and the Noble Lord compliments them so well, especially when they’re given Arms Master. I did think about taking Regalia of the Empire for that extra +1 Clash, but it would have meant I had to either abandon the Crimson knights, or reduce the stands of either the MaA or Crossbowmen which I didn’t want to do – and Inspired Clash 4 is still nothing to snort at! The remaining points I put into the combat Tiers for the Lord, who also had Amour of Dominion; the armour was always going to be taken as negating cleave for 40pts was worth it, especially when seeing Dragon Slayers entering the board during one of my games. The Crossbowmen also just offered some range threats and having an extra stand just meant a little more reliability of not necessarily deleting units, but knocking off a few wounds here or there – especially in the late game when regiments may already be pretty worn down.

Overall, the list offered options for defensive play, offense, and worked well to support  each regiment. The list also had a few sources for AP, Cleave and of course the Brutal Impact 2 of the knights, all of which I hoped would make the opponent think rather than just running down the centre of the board. The list then was to be fun but demand pause for tactical thought – which is what I expected and received from my opponents’ lists, too!”

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The Southampton Sluggaz Gaming club will be hosting more tournaments in the future and hopefully we will see numbers increasing as the player base develops. We run friendly informal events with a relaxed atmosphere. We welcome players from the wider community so if you ever want to visit us for one of our events then get in touch and we will always try to accommodate you.