Northern King Kon 2023

Having enjoyed myself last year at the UK Deadzone Championship I was on the lookout for another 2 day event to attend this year. When the Northern King-Con was announced it seemed like just the thing, 2 1/2 days of Mantic based gaming being run by an extremely experienced group of players. I immediately purchased a ticket and even managed to persuade Mr T to make the journey northwards as well.

Over the last few months we've been working our way through the Firefight scenarios to familiarise ourselves with them and honing our lists. We've not done much in the way of Deadzone preparation but having played a lot in the past I think we should be ok with that.

The Deadzone event consists of four games on Sunday at 180 points. I've essentially taken the same list as I ran at the UK Championship last year but dropped a Troop & Specialist choice to take me down from the 200 points of that event. As with that list the idea is to get onto objectives early and try to build a points lead before my opponent can get going. 

Deadzone 180 points

MASTER CREEPER * 1

[Leader / +20 / 2VP] Master Creeper

- - Ray Pistol

- - Det Bombs

- - Det Packs

NIGHTMARE * 2

[Troop / +20 / 2VP] Nightmare

- - Twin Combat Drills

STALKER * 3

[Troop / +9 / 1VP] Stalker

- - Ray Pistol

MALIGNUS * 2

[Specialist / +16 / 1VP] Malignus

- - Chem Spitter

- - [+2] Ammo [one-use]

CREEPER * 2

[Specialist / +14 / 1VP] Creeper

- - Ray Pistol

- - Det Bombs

- - Det Packs

TUNNEL RUNNER * 1

[Support / +33 / 3VP] Tunnel Runner

- - Twin Chem Spitters

- - Scythes

With the release of the Command Protocols book for Firefight the rules got a few tweaks to make charging from vehicles less devastating and also all the scenarios changed to progressive scoring. I'll probably do another blog on the scenarios as my previous one is now out of date after I've played at the event. My initial reaction has been that (as with Deadzone) getting early points on the board is crucial and being able to score from turn 1 puts you in the driving seat and pressure on your opponent to move quicker than they may want to do.

On Friday evening we have three quick and furious games of Firefight at 500 points, this isn't meant to be (overly) competitive but more of a way to meet up with people and make their acquaintance. I've put together a list that uses some of the models I'm already taking to ease with transport and rules learning.

Firefight 500 points

PROGENITOR (Command) [60]

PROGENITOR [+10] Chemical Grenade Launcher - - Chemical Shells** / Smoke Shells** / Claws

CREEPERS (Troop) [89]

CREEPERS x 6 - - Ray Pistol / Det Pack

CREEPER PACK LEADER - - Ray Pistol / Det Pack

CRAWLERS (Troop) [120]

CRAWLERS x 18 - - Ray Gun / Crawler Assault Weaponry

MALIGNUS LEADER - - Heavy Ray Gun / Assault Weaponry

STALKERS (Troop) [82]

MALIGNUS LEADER - - Chem Thrower / Assault Weaponry

STALKERS x 9 - - Ray Pistol / Stalker Assault Weaponry

TUNNELLER (Support) [145]

TUNNELLER [+25] - - Super Heavy Ray Gun / Tunneller Ramming

DEFENSIVE SHILEDING - - Defensive Shielding

The main event on Saturday is three games at 1500 points with the Scouting Pack Leader and Creeper squads being the main early scorers and pressure builders. They also give an option of charging on turn 1 and knocking out a high value unit or two which could catch a few people unaware. For the Tunnellers I've gone with the shielded version which start on the table rather than coming on via Subterranean Deployment on turn 2/3. Again, this choice is driven by the incremental scoring, I don't want to waste a good chunk of points off table when they could be scoring VP's. Three small units of Stalkers are included for sitting on objectives and the big Creeper unit is the perfect target for the one shooting Faction Order the Veer-myn have.

Firefight 1500 points

PROGENITOR (Command) [72]

PROGENITOR [+10] Chemical Grenade Launcher - - Chemical Shells** / Smoke Shells** / Claws 

CRAWLERS x 2 - - Ray Gun / Crawler Assault Weaponry 

PROGENITOR (Command) [66]

PROGENITOR [+10] Chemical Grenade Launcher - - Chemical Shells** / Smoke Shells** / Claws 

CRAWLERS - - Ray Gun / Crawler Assault Weaponry 

PACK LEADER (Command) [124]

PACK LEADER - - Pack Leader Razor Claws 

NIGHTMARES [+27] Default Loadout - - Twin Combat Drills 

NIGHTMARES [+27] Default Loadout - - Twin Combat Drills 

CREEPERS (Troop) [125] * 2

CREEPERS x 9 - - Ray Pistol / Det Pack 

CREEPER PACK LEADER - - Ray Pistol / Det Pack 

CRAWLERS (Troop) [125]

CRAWLERS x 19 - - Ray Gun / Crawler Assault Weaponry 

MALIGNUS LEADER - - Heavy Ray Gun / Assault Weaponry 

STALKERS (Troop) [70] * 3

MALIGNUS LEADER - - Chem Thrower / Assault Weaponry 

STALKERS x 7 - - Ray Pistol / Stalker Assault Weaponry 

TUNNEL RUNNER (Specialist) [170]

TUNNEL RUNNER x 3 - - Twin Chem Spitter / Tunnel Runner Scythes 

CLAWSHOTS (Specialist) [130]

CLAWSHOTS x 4 - - Long Rifle / Assault Weaponry 

CLAWSHOT LEADER - - Heavy Long Rifle / Assault Weaponry 

RUMBLER (Support) [60]

RUMBLER - - Rumbler Super Heavy Ray Gun 

TUNNELLER (Support) [145] * 2

TUNNELLER [+25] - - Super Heavy Ray Gun / Tunneller Ramming 

DEFENSIVE SHILEDING - - Defensive Shielding 

Whether this works or not will very much depend on the armies (and generals) I end up facing, there are plenty of factions I've not played against and I think my toughest match-up could be a good melee army, only time will tell!

Firefight: Control the Intel

Following on from last weeks musings about the scenario's on offer in Firefight we played Control the Intel this week. The scenario is based around holding 1d4+2 objective tokens with 1VP being awarded at the end of each round for each objective your side holds.

We increased the points to 1250 a side with the though of adding some armoured units in and filling up the table a bit more. It looks like the standard competitive game is going to be around 1500 points so it would be good to get that as our normal game size. At the moment we aren't getting through the turns very quickly as we learn the rules and look things up.

On the night we only managed to get through two turns in the end as we spent time trying to work out rules queries and how best to use our units at any one point. But as with the previous games lots of casualties had been caused in that time so the end was reasonably clear.

In the game itself Mr T put his two tokens on his right flank and I put my three tokens (we rolled for 5 tokens and took turns with me placing first) on my right flank as well. This meant that we had nothing in the centre to fight over.

In the game I took a Progenitor with smoke grenade launcher for the first time in order to try and cover the advance of my forces. I chose to activate it first and got lucky with the dice (1d10 needing a 5+) to lay out the smoke template I needed in front of a large portion of my army. With that in place it allowed my rats to move up without being shot into charge range. In most games you can't charge something out of your line of sight, but in Firefight you can. Doing so does 'Hinder' your charge which means you don't get a +1 to hit but the Veer-myn have a command ability that negates that and allows you to take the bonus. The smoke is only height 4 though so tall/flying units and hills will negate that advantage.

Whilst Firefight borrows from KoW in many respects including the term Hindered Charge it treats them in different ways, which I kept getting wrong. In KoW being Hindered makes it more difficult to hit so if you normally hit on a 4+ then you'd hit on a 5+. In Firefight being Hindered means you don't get the bonus for charging which would mean that if you normally hit on a 4+ you hit on a 3+ if Unhindered. As a player of a melee army this is one rule I really need to get right!

The game also showed me the importance of being able to activate after your opponent has run out of activations to a melee army. Most of the Forge Father units have Assault Reaction abilities that they can use if they are unpinned and un-activated. That means if they are charged after they have activated the assaulters can get in without fear of taking casualties or the opponent evading away in the case of the bikers. On my right I held back units to run the Forge Father activations down until they had to either sit and take the charge or retreat out of my range.

As ever with the learning games I/we got some of the rules wrong like the un-hindered charge bonus. I got two rules wrong on the Tunnel Runners as I'd not realised they couldn't charge into rough terrain and also thought they got a Scout move if deployed on the table at the start of the game. The scout move is actually for units with Aerial Deployment.

Other things to keep in mind is that Beast and Vehicle units cannot claim objectives so for army building the Veer-myn will need to be careful not to overload on both those unit types. The Rat Swarm is a really useful activation padder as it's a Troop choice for only 35 points. But they cannot claim objectives so you need other units to do that.

One unit that put an appearance in right at the end of the game was the Hammerfist Drop troops. I think this will be a really useful unit for the Forge Fathers as it gives them the ability to place a good shooting/melee unit anywhere on the table pretty much. This could be a real utility piece for them as it makes their opponent keep it in mind when moving about and allows some flexibility to react to the table situation.

Firefight: Initial Game

For our first play through of the Firefight rules by Mantic Games Stu popped over from Cirencester and took control of the Forge Fathers against my Veer-myn. The Dwarfs specialise in ranged combat whilst the Rats like to mix it up in melee combat.

For this first game we kept it very simple with no tanks or buildings and 1000 points per side. The Forge Father units are pretty expensive compared to the Veer-myn so they tend to have smaller units armed with a special weapon or two.

2 * Steel Warrior Huscarls

2 * Steel Warriors- 4 * Rifle, 2 * Missile Launcher

1 * Steel Warrior - 4 * Rifle, 2 * Autocannon

1 * Thorgarim - 8 * Hammer & Pistol

1 * Brokkr Valkyr - 3 * bikes

1 * Jotunn Weapons Platform with Hailstorm Cannon

The Veer-myn tend to have larger units with their main Troop options locked to 10 rat units rather than having the flexibility in unit size many other factions have.

2 * Master Creeper

3 * Stalkers - 1 * Chem Thrower, 9 * Ray Pistol & Dagger

1 * Crawlers - 1 * Heavy Ray Gun, 9 * Ray Gun

1 * Nightmares - 2 * Heavy Drill, 4 * Twin Drills

1 * Clawshots - 5 Long Rifles

1 * Tunnel Runner - 2 * Tunnel Runners

1 * Rumbler - Super Heavy Ray Gun

Both sides had two commanders of the same type who generate command dice and offer re-rolls on nerve checks. Command dice are rolled at the start of each turn and give you Command Points to spend as the turn plays out. Each faction has it's own special command abilities that tie into it's play style. So the Forge Fathers have abilities that generally help with shooting by way of re-rolls. The Veer-myn have abilities that help with melee again via re-rolls or helping them get into combat in the first place.

Games are limited to 5 turns with players taking turns to activate a unit each. This trading of activations can be interrupted, at the price of 1 command point, to allow you to immediately activate a second unit before your opponent gets an activation. This allows you to land a quick one-two on an opponent before they can react.

We managed to play out 3 turns in the morning with plenty of flicking through the rule book to check rules which I think we got mostly right. The rules benefit by being written by someone (Andy Sharp) who has played all the other Mantic systems so they have a consistency of rules naming and conventions from their other games. For instance, Weight of Fire (re-rolls for missed ranged shots) works exactly as it does in Deadzone and Vicious (re-rolls to wound) works the same as Kings of War. For people who have played the other Mantic systems this makes it very easy to pick up what a rule should be doing and get into the game.

I'd read on the Firefight Facebook Group that the game was very bloody and units tended to be removed very quickly, and this proved to be the case in our game. I won't go through a blow-by-blow but in general the Forge Fathers managed to shoot off the rats if they put more than one unit into the shooting and the Veer-myn managed to take off the Dwarfs if they could get a decent number of bodies into contact. 

One area the Forge Father had a definite advantage was in nerve rolls. If at the end of a turn a unit is at less than 1/2 of it's models remaining it rolls 1 dice (the game uses D8 for everything) needing to equal or pass it's nerve roll or be removed from the table. The Forge Fathers tend to have a 4+ nerve and the Veer-myn a 6+. If you have a leader or other Inspiring source nearby you get a re-roll (just like in Kings of War).

The game was fun over-all and as I've said the fact that many of the concepts are familiar I think it won't take many games to be able to dispense with the rule book for 99% of play. Hopefully Mr T will be over on Monday for his initial game so we will be using the same forces and table for that as I've just left them all out.

Once that game is played we can then start to play around with the force composition. I think I will certainly be looking to maximise the use of tunnelling vehicles to deliver my key melee units into combat. The fierce beating my rats took trying to cross open ground has convinced me of the need to avoid that if at all possible. We did play with the beta list adjustments which almost entirely removed the Veer-myn's access to smoke which would have meant they could more easily traverse the open ground. In the absence of that smoke then heavier use will I think need to be made of Tunnellers with transport sections. 

Deadzone: Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer sees the two Strike Teams battling over four 2 point objectives split between the flanks of the board. For this game I went with the Forge Fathers who I'd not played with before and Stu brough over his freshly painted Enforcers. I won't do a blow by blow but the Enforcers started strongly with their sniper taking out the Forge Father bomb- bot which in turn killed their biker. From that point on it was a bit more even and ended up a pretty bloody affair with both sides reduced to just a few models at the end.

I think we got as far as Turn 4 which ended with both sides over the 20 VP's threshold so the game ended in an honourable draw. It was a fun way to pass the morning before we headed out to watch the football, which ended in a disappointing draw.

On the painting front I've completed a second Tunneller for my Veer-myn to use in Firefight. This is in preparation for the beta lists changes coming in which will remove almost all the smoke the rats currently use to shield their advancing melee units.

Also this week I signed up for the newly announced King-Kon run by the Northern Kings who are extremely experienced gamers and tournament organisers. This promises to be 2 1/2 days of Mantic based fun. Hopefully I can meet up again with many of the players from last years Deadzone tournament and also some of the lovely people from other Mantic games.

Extra Extra Extra!

Sadly no game this week so we've not been able to complete the Napoleonic battle yet but I do have a few bits of painting to show.

First up we have some models for my Kingdoms of Men from Max Mini to use as a Beast Cavalry Regiment. I'd been looking around for models to use in the army and these seemed to fit the general dragon vibe of the rest of the models. 

In game they will add an extra layer to the army as they can see over the normal cavalry units and they have nine good quality attacks.

The models are of good quality resin which did need a bit of filling around the legs but for £20 you cannot really complain. Ambush is going to be in our gaming rotation probably after Firefight so these may see the table this year.

The rest of the painting is for Deadzone/Firefight with a second Master Creeper joining the Veer-myn ranks along with some normal Creepers.

With the likely changes to the Veer-myn Firefight list incoming I'll probably need some more Maligni with special weapons so I painted up a few more of those as well.

You can never have enough Nightmares so I've painted up four more with the ranged options being included this time as well. I don't think you'd generally want to use the ranged options as the Nightmares are such melee beasts but I do have an idea around an almost all Nightmare Deadzone list they would be useful in....

Night Terrors aren't my top pick in Deadzone but they can add a nice melee boost to a Crawler unit in Firefight so this chap may see battle soon.

Lastly we have an out-sized Sgt Howlett painted up to be most likely used as terrain, I got this as part of a group buy on Facebook and you can see from the last picture that he's pretty sizeable.