So game 2 from yesterdays post about my encounters of playing Relics with their new beta force Ridend.
My list for Ridend was:
- Baron with Retinue
- Baron with Retinue
- 5 Foot Knights
- 5 Foot Knights
- Dragon Tower
Quite an easy to use list, going with pieces that worked well the first time around, but taking more of them! Giving the Baron 2 extra wounds there is critical to keep him alive longer, and the strong foot knights being smashy smashy to the face of Vaettir also helping muchly!
For the Vaettir his list consisted of the following:
- Huntuwala
- 6 Varrier
- 2 Sol
- 2 Broken
Bit more of a monster list with many being on 40mm bases. And hopefully now that we knew what the Ridend could do, they would be a bit more sneaky and deadly to play with.
Deployment. For ease of set up, we took the same sides, and left the table as it were. Mostly cause we were planning on seeing how the changes made by both players would work, and how we can play our armies better.
I grouped up my forces to the middle to get the most out of the command bubble, with the other Baron to run distraction on the other side. Should make it a bit more interesting, now that I am aware of how deadly he can be in close combat!
My opponent decided to run the Sol models to his far flank in something of a similar fashion, with the mains in the middle.
Turn 1.. again we used Bolt Action dice to show who has moved to make our lives easier. No pulling out of the bag to see who goes next, but that could really throw a spanner in the works for such a game!
I still outnumbered him, and went second, but it was mostly us moving our troops forward, and getting into position. He did move his Hero up quite far.. gave me some serious concerns especially when looking at his spells and conditions he can toss out!
Turn 2 we see again everyone getting all set up here. My center was getting quite full, and his hero dropped Horror and Blindness on my central knight unit. I dropped a spot token on his Hero in return. Everyone else was waiting to see what happens next turn... especially on the right where the Knights and the Sol were looking to square off!
Turn 3.. and I somehow got first move, and the Foot Knights took off against the Sol immediately! Smacked them around a bit, and left nothing but ashes in the end.
We had played it as their (C) ability to shoot could be done when I was charging at him, but he failed. We did learn afterwards via Gavin that this should not have been the case, and now we have to rethink how the Sol should be used. But definitely not so aggressively.
Actually.. Vaettir in general should not be used so aggressively, and/or in a straight on head smash style. Because my Baron with retinue charged into his Hero and smacked him around something fierce. So within the the same turn 2 of his 4 units are now gone. I did not take photos of the rolling for both combats as they were quite sad how often I got doubles again...
Oh and the other Baron was having problems taking out the smaller fairies.. so good rolling to my right, but bad to my left..
Turn 4.. Also ignore the turn dice there I was taking the photos after my opponent was flipping to the next turn.
The broken were now in combat with my Knights, and they were not faring well. Horror, Blindness, and then knocked down.. yet they survived.. barely, and were able to remove all the statuses. While the rest of my forces prepped to do a nice gang up attack against them next turn.
And the other Baron fails to do much again!
Turn 5.. the Broken did not fair so well against the Baron, and 2 units of Foot Knights! It was a valiant attempt to stay up, but when you stack a couple of good tokens against them, they will not last. They were able to take out a retinue model, but not much else there.
The other Baron was not doing so well against the Varrier though. Losing one of his retinue as well.
By turn 6 it was all about cleaning up that Varrier unit. In the end it seems that although I took casualties, I did not lose a single unit. With there being a full knight unit on the table still as well.
Major points I learned for the Ridend was to focus as much as possible. The lone Baron was a good distraction to be used, but not so great solo. I could have helped him more with spot buffs from the Dragon Tower, but that was focused on the units that could take more hits ( such as the Broken who had a 4+ harden save ).
But again the Fight from the Front, Spot, and Charge bonuses were deadly combos to put together. And with the Foot Knight's ability to re-roll a dice in combat, it can become pretty deadly. Now knowing this, I think I need to figure out how to use the birds better then, cause I think they can be uber deadly then in combat even if I can only take 4 to a unit.
More games are needed obviously, and against the other factions. I am curious now how they will fare against the Orcnar or Neum who are a bit more resilient to being hit. Or against the Brits who can lay down some serious magic and shooting if they choose to.
I still think that Archers don't have a place in the army atm, and that the skills and stats of them for how much they cost are not worth it. Considering that within 300 pts I still had a significant number on the table, and some serious hitting power. I will need to look into how the archers might work, and where they would be best situated as well.
Have a look at the links ( on the images below ) to check out the full range of models from Tor Gaming for both factions. I have to say that the new pre-order of Ridend damsels is looking hawt.. and some added magic to the army could really spice things up! Let's see what the future brings for them!
