Milestone 3 has been completed! We have now successfully converted our First Blood Warband into regimented blocks for the Last Argument of Kings massed battle system.
The Spires now sit at 1250 points and comprises the following:
As you can see, the main thing we have done this month is increase the sizes of the regiments that we already had in order to make them legal for Last Argument of Kings. I’ve added in some retinue and some upgrades into this list so let’s have a look at the new stuff in greater detail.
Biomancer
This lovely chap comes with the Biotic Renewal Draw Event as standard which is in itself a wonderful thing. There is an awesome combo (that I have shamelessly pinched from Andy Sparks – THANKS DUDE!!!) that enhances the healing ability even further. The Essence Transfer Biomancy lets you heal 2D6 wounds on an infantry regiment, at the expense of suffering 2D6 wounds on the regiment that the Biomancer is part of. This is brilliant for keeping your frontline regiments intact, but only whilst your Biomancers wound pool remains stocked. By adding the full Mastery of the Flesh Retinue, the Biomancer is able to use 2 Draw events per activation. This means he can Essence Transfer a pile of wounds onto a regiment that needs it, and then use the Biotic Renewal to heal D6 of those. It probably won’t heal up all of the wounds lost but it limits the amount lost for sure.
Mimetic Assassin
We have added the Degenerative Aura mutation to our Assassin. This is a really effective upgrade that bestows the Decay(3) draw event on regiments that are in contact with him or his regiment. This forces an enemy regiment that begins its activation in contact with the Assassins Drone regiment to roll 3D6 per stand at the end of their activation, and suffer a wound (Not a hit, a WOUND!!!) on the roll of a 5 or 6. It doesn’t cause resolve checks but it does ignore enemy defence and evasion so it can be really effective and certainly makes opponents think twice about engaging the regiment. Normally a good way of neutralising this would be to engage the character in a duel, but lets face it – who wants to be duelling an Assassin?!
Force Grown Drones
We have taken all 3 of our regiments up to 4 stands strong (16 models), each with the Pheromantic Node. Unlike in First Blood – you have to pay for the banners, and it is quite expensive at 25 points (the same as another whole stand!) but we already have them painted up and to be fair, rerolling charge distances isn’t a bad idea, plus they count as a leader so if we find our support characters engaged with something nasty, we wont take as many wounds as we run away! The reason I have gone for 4 stands instead of the minimum 3 is mainly because they are rather fragile and I want to be able to absorb a decent number of wounds without the unit being removed. No amount of healing will bring back a unit that is destroyed!
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I actually got this force onto the tabletop recently (well – a slight variation of it, but broadly the same!) and it did really well. The drone wall was able to control the board really well, the assassins regiment got stuck in and wiped out a regiment of Milita and a Theist Priest in one glorious flank charge. The heavy hitters all dealt consistant damage with the Marksmen, Vanguards and Abomination all racking up quite a kill tally.
There was not anything really I would have changed, though there were a couple of times I messed up the order of the cards and couldn’t benefit from the Biomancies and Pheromancies. Still, that is all something that will come with practice and the list performed well against a solid opposing army.
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So what next? As we move into Milestone 4, as are going to take ourselves up to 1600 points. I will add in a regiment of 3 Brute Drones for additional combat punch, and will increase our 3 Force Grown Drone regiments by another stand or two each. To round off the points, we will make our Assassin even more deadly by giving him the Venom upgrade. The force will (hopefully end up looking like this.
Will i stay on target? Will i run out of blue paint?! Will I follow through with my insane idea to name ALL my drones? Stay tuned next month to find out! You can follow the work in progress of this project on my instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/david_resinbunker_richardson/). Give it a like and a follow!