KoW: Push

This week we pushed up the KoW armies to 2000 points and played the Push scenario, this involves moving 3 tokens into the opposite half of the table, a bonus token is placed in the centre of the board to be claimed. You get 2 points per token you hold with the unit entirely in the opposite half and 1 point per token with the carrying unit at least partially in your half.
Interestingly a unit can carry as many tokens as you like but the move of the carrying unit is reduced to 5.

The armies comprised of :
Herd
1 * Horde Spirit Walkers with Brew of Courage
2 * Horde Guardian Brutes with Elite & Pipes of Terror
1 * Horde Lycans
3 * Troop Beast Pack
1 * Horde Giant Eagles
1 * Horde Tribal Chariots
1 * Centaur Chief with Bow
2 * Shaman with Mount & Heal(5)

Basilean
1 * Horde Men-at-Arms(Spear)
2 * Regiment Men-at-Arms(Sword)
1 * Horde Elohi
2 * Regiment Paladin Knights with Brew of Haste
2 * Troop Panther Laners
1 * Gnaeus Sallustis
1 * Priest with Bane-chant
1 * War-Wizard
1 * Phoenix
1 * Holy Lancers formation
1 * Shield of the Golden Horn formation

The Herd concentrated the tokens on the Spirit Walker Horde which was positioned on their right flank with a pretty clear run across the table. The Basileans gave two tokens to the Spear Horde and one to the Sword Regiment to their left.

The opening moves saw the Herd advance forwards with the Chariots and Centaur Chief laying down some fire. This did little damage but did waver a Troop of Panther Lancers. The Basileans had plenty of heals with the Phoenix on the table and Iron Resolve helps with regaining the odd point of damage suffered.

The Basileans stood their ground with only the Knights on their left flank giving a little ground to stay out of the superior charge range of the Lycans and Herd Chariots.

The Herd then pressed forwards to claim the extra objective in the centre and also continued to press forwards on the right. The Horde of Eagles far out on the left flank kept back out of engagement range.

The Basileans again largely held their ground with a Panther Lancer Troop charging home in the centre and some fire from the Phoenix and Wizard being most of the activity undertaken.

The Herd then managed to get a flank charge on the Phoenix but did little damage and a front charge on the Paladin Knights with the Lycans, which again failed to rout them. The Guardian Brutes did manage to rout the Panther Lancers however.

This seemed to spur the Basileans into action and the Elohi and the second Regiment of Knights joined the fight. Neither managed to rout their opponents and the Knight / Lycan fight settled down into a slugging match.

During this time the Spirit Walkers had edged over the half way line so the Herd had 7 Victory Points going into the last couple of turns.

The next turn saw a series of counter-charges on the main melees with neither side able to rout the other. I did manage a couple of double 1's rolls on nerve tests but not on tests that required anything other than double 1's to rout the enemy.

At this point the Centaur Chief had charged the Swordsmen Regiment and managed to hold it up in the opposite half of the table. And the Elohi and Guardian Brutes where positioned just inside the Basilean half.

The Basileans Spearmen had carried two tokens over the halfway line and with the final turn of the game the Elohi managed to rout the Guardian Brutes, take the token but then the follow-up move left them just short of being over the line. The Swordsmen could have won the game with a decent combat and follow-up move but could not rout the Centaur Chief.

So it ended 6 points a piece and a very close draw. Unusually for a KoW game both sides still had plenty of units left after six turns with some poor rolling on both sides especially for nerve tests to blame.