Okay, The Vanquishers Might be Broken: Tournament Report

I was so excited to make it to a real tournament again!

This Sunday I had the great pleasure of attending the Fog on the Darling Downs tournament in Toowoomba. I had a blast, getting to meet or catch up with dozens of excellent people and play some great games. I took the Vanquishers of the Necromancer because I love them and they are my precious, and— as you might have inferred from the title— they put in some real work. Arguably too much work, in fact. This will be a relatively long article, as I’m going to both be going through my games and also laying out a few Thoughts on how the army performed. So buckle up, grab something to drink and let’s dive right in!

 

Tournament Review

The tournament had a fairly standard structure: 4 games at 650 points, with randomly assigned scenarios (although Contest of Champions was out because it is, in the words of the organiser, ‘a wicked, tricksey, false scenario’). The only unusual aspect was that on any turn when Priority was tied, a fog descended that reduced visibility to 6” and meant any heroes killed that turn were instead Paralysed and reduced to 1 Wound. Cute, although hardly going to affect list construction.

I assumed this wouldn't come up, but it was actually pretty relevant in game 4

The tournament was immaculately run, with attractive boards, free pizza and no major issues all day. Absolutely excellent organisation from Orry, couldn’t have asked for better on any front.

I would have personally preferred scenarios to be selected using a veto system, for a number of reasons, but random selection is hardly unusual or a bad option. As it turned out it was great for my win-rate, but ended up producing a few less-enjoyable games. I also thought the random pairings were a little unfortunate, as I’d have loved to play one of the other players on the same W/L ratio in the final round. These are mostly just my personal preferences though, and the tournament was such a tight ship I can hardly complain.

 

Pre-Tournament Preparation

All using the old poses, because I think they're just better. Except maybe Elrond, his new model is pretty sick

With no specific things to prepare for in the tournament pack, I went for my 650-point Vanquisher list of Saruman, Elrond, Galadriel and Radagast. These guys are monsters when played well, and I’d gotten in a nice round 24 practice games beforehand, so I was feeling confident in my ability to use them. I think at this point I know most of their sneaky tricks, and they’re new enough that my opponents likely wouldn’t have prepared all the dastardly combos I could pull. I was scared going into it that we’d roll up Reconnoitre, Command the Battlefield and Capture and Control, but I felt sanguine about basically any other scenario.

 

Round 1: Luke Kronk’s Angmar in Lords of Battle, 12:0

Lots of classic metagame menaces in this list, and all beautifully painted 

This army was pretty brutal, with Gûlavhar, a Shade, a Barrow Wight and a mounted Captain, all leading the standard Angmar Spectres and Orcs and Wargs. Lots of very scary stuff in there that I wasn’t looking forward to facing. Adding to that, I believe Luke had taken first place with his Angmar at the last tournament I attended, so he clearly knew his stuff. Thankfully, the scenario was probably the easiest possible one for me: all I had to do was kill stuff and not die, and my army is very good at that.

The first few turns were basically just light skirmishing, as I threw up all my Fortify Spirits and Channelled Terrifying Auras, then picked off a couple of models with Sorcerous Blast. I ended up taking up position between two buildings, with his troops attempting to flood in and swamp me. 

Gûlavhar is lurking just out of shot below that Warg, ready to swoop in next turn

I say attempting because Terror and Harbinger make Courage 2 Orcs understandably reluctant to get into close combat. A couple of good Nature’s Wraths and Wrath of Bruinens and I’d swiftly carved up a solid Wounds tally while only being Wounded once in return. The deciding moment was when his Gûlavhar was finally able to commit to the fray, swooping into Saruman to smash him to pieces. Unfortunately this was on a turn that I was moving second (always a problem against the Vanquishers), so I simply Banished the Spectre Elrond was fighting and charged him in to back up the White Wizard. With Nature’s Wrath knocking everyone down, Gûlavhar lost his combat and Luke conceded, seeing the writing thoroughly on the wall. I was absolutely going to kill his Leader, he’d never catch my Wounds tally and I would Break him in a couple of turns.

As became a somewhat unfortunate theme, Luke was pretty dispirited (no pun intended) at this matchup. I think there were things he could have done better, like blocking off Elrond, committing Gûlavhar on a turn I had Priority etc… But ultimately this matchup was likely to come down to whether I made any massive mistakes, and when I didn’t, that was probably game. Not the most enjoyable way to start the tournament, but a win is always nice.

 

Round 2:  Jeremy Knight’s Rivendell, Assassination, 12:1 

Sadly didn't get a pic of this army, so here's a shot of a random Gil-galad I found online instead (u/Hammerwars)

Jeremy had another strong looking force, with Gil-galad leading 17 King’s Guard and a Captain with the works leading 6 Rivendell Knights. Unfortunately, the scenario meant he had to try and take out a hero with his Captain, while also needing to avoid Galadriel’s 12” Banishment. Hmmm.

Jeremy (perhaps inadvisedly) placed his Captain down first, letting me deploy opposite him in a centreline forest. On the first turn I Wounded the Captain with Galadriel and Blasted him off his horse, then on the second a Banishment finished him off. 7 VPs already, wow. Gil-galad meanwhile had been burning Will to try and hold off my Panic Steed casts from Radagast, before being eventually dismounted by Saruman anyway. I sat in my forest and let him swarm me, using Nature’s Wrath to smash his cavalry apart before slowly grinding through the King’s Guard.

Gil-galad finally made it into combat against Elrond, but by this point he was out of Will. So every turn began with me knocking him to the ground and Immobilising him, leading to a very mismatched ‘duel’. Elrond failed to deliver the killing blow over five turns of combat, and Jeremy’s Resist rolls against Banishment were excellent, but ultimately things were only going to go one way. A lucky Wound on Saruman that got through all his Fate gave Jeremy one VP, but once he was Broken he conceded. Gil-galad was still clinging to life, but with plenty of time left in the round he was clearly gonna go down, and Nature’s Wrath is just too reliable for me to be under any threat. Another absolutely brutal matchup, and another somewhat dispirited opponent.

At this point, I was feeling a bit guilty. I’d only really playtested this Legion on objective games, and it’s great fun on those! At this point I genuinely wanted something like Domination, because it was so much more likely to lead to an enjoyable game.

 

Round 3: Sean Rossato’s Dale, Fog of War, 12:3

A picture of Sean's beautiful Dale massacring a poor Mordor/Dunland alliance

Alas, instead we got to play yet another mission where I could just slaughter some heroes and win by default. Sean was genuinely considering conceding before we even set up, and I understand how he felt. This was a really, really rough matchup. Thankfully he eventually relented and we had a quite enjoyable game, and he was at least able to get his 3 terrain points out of it.

Sean was playing a beautifully painted Dale army that he has achieved some remarkable success with, taking Girion, 3 Captains (Pierre, Dale and The One With a Bow) and a good horde of Knights and Warriors of Dale, plus two banners. Of course, in this scenario all that really mattered is that he had nothing that could stop my Vanquishers, and his Captains were going to struggle to survive. He hid them in the opposite corner to my Vanquishers, while facing me down with Girion’s brutal gunline of a warband.

Dale bows massacring some D3 Hobbits

I picked Elrond to Protect (he’s basically invincible), Pierre to kill (gotta take out that moustache), and an archway near his Captains to Secure. I started the game by Channelling my Terrifying Auras and running lengthways across the board all the way to my left flank, where his Captains were busy Marching their way to the questionable safety of my back left corner. His powerful firebase opened up on me for several turns and… Wounded Radagast once. I Renewed the Wound back next turn. Right.

The Captains are all in that leftmost group, getting slowly worn down by Banishment/Sorcerous Blast

As I approached the left edge he attempted to bog me down with a group of his Knights. However, a combination of Channelled Terrifying Aura, Nature’s Wrath and a well-timed Heroic Move let me keep up my pursuit of the Captains, Banishing one and Wounding the other two at range. I was then able to get into combat and mince them both, before clearing out the rest of that group over the next turn. On my right flank Girion and his warband had raced down to my corner and spread out to cover many terrain pieces, presumably locking in Sean’s 3 points for that.

Wanting to maximise my own points, I used another Heroic Move to sprint away from the models he was trying to pin me in with, using magic to pick off inconvenient models and knockdown any pursuers. Sean had been doing his best to die as fast as possible, Stabbing every turn and rolling an impressive number of 6’s to do so. In fact, there were several turns when I think Stab killed more of his models than the buckets of S4 Attacks I was throwing out!

I eventually made it to my terrain piece and started butchering all of his models that were touching it, finally Breaking him. If the game had ended that turn it would have been a 10:3 scoreline, but the dice were cruel and gave us two more turns. Most of his models ran away, although Girion bravely held things together over on his objective terrain. The remaining warriors around my objective were either slaughtered in combat or taken out with magic, with his last remaining Warrior being nuked by Galadriel in a colossal display of overkill (he was a little too high up for me to charge him and I wanted the reliability). We ended things there, leaving me feeling a little guilty but excited to be 3:0!

 

Round 4: Justin Tricker’s Angmar, Divide and Conquer, 5:1 

I was grateful to at last get an objective game, and especially grateful for this one. Divide and Conquer is a fairly balanced mission, but definitely one that’s good for my army, as I can sit in the centre and harass the flanks with magic to probably scrape out a win.

Justin was running an Angmar semi-horde of 40 models, led by a souped-up Witch King on horse (the stunning new model!), a Captain/Barrow Wight combo and a beautifully converted Cave Troll. He’d played two Angmar mirror-matches that day, and as those are some of the most miserable matchups imaginable, my Vanquishers got to look positively fun in comparison.

We both headed towards the middle early, with all my normal spells going up without a hitch. We managed to tie Priority 4 turns in a row, leading to an extremely ‘foggy’ game as the special tournament rules reduced visibility to 6”. This didn’t affect either of us too badly, as I could still pick off a few Wargs with Saruman and Radagast was able to target the Witch King thank to his Master of Birds special rule, while Justin used his mobility to dart in and out of 6”. Over three turns of magical duelling with Radagast, The Witch King spent a massive 7 Will and one Might Resisting my Panic Steed attempts, which I think was probably a mistake. The horse was gonna go, it was just a question of how many resources I could get him to expend protecting it. In return, Justin managed to burn two Will off Radagast with Paralyse and Your Staff is Broken attempts before I Fortified Radagast's Spirit.

How cinematic is this? The White Council holding back the tide

The central objective was placed on a raised platform, with narrow stairs leading up to it. Justin flooded his models onto it, attempting to swamp me, but a couple of Wraths and brutal combat cleared them all out and lost Justin his Captain and Barrow Wight. Meanwhile the magical duel had continued, with Saruman and Galadriel dismounting the Witch King and reducing him to a mere 1 Will and 1 Fate, while he’d only managed to Immobilise Radagast once through Fortify Spirit. At this point Justin really should have pulled back the Witch King, getting him out of range of my Banishments and Sorcerous Blasts. If he’d done so (and managed to win Priority twice to get out of Command range as well) then it would have saved him 2 VPs. Instead Justin moved the Witch King forward, where Galadriel mowed him down.

At this point in the game, Justin realised that anything he sent to the middle was gonna die, so he pulled back to the two side objectives. Concerned that he might just hang back until the final turn then swamp me in the middle, I sent Radagast and Elrond to the left flank and Galadriel and Saruman to the right. Elrond took three Wounds from a single Orc warrior after he was Trapped two turns in a row, before a series of Wrath of Bruinen casts and some devastating combat saw  him basically clear that flank by himself. On the right, Galadriel and Saruman skirmished with the Troll, eventually bringing it down after it lost a roll-off to Galadriel. A lone Orc archer managed to survive four consecutive turns of combat against Galadriel before she finally killed it, while Saruman got swarmed by 6 Orc Warriors. Of course, because Justin had Priority I just Blasted one to knock them all down and kill several with the S3 hits. God this Legion is ridiculous.

I broke him with that Blast, but the dice decided to let us play on. Had the game ended immediately I think it would have actually been a draw, as he held both flanks (one contested) and I believe the middle was 2:2. Instead I got to carve him up for another turn, getting Elrond into the last two Orcs on the left flank while Radagast ran into the centre. Some surprisingly good Break tests from Justin and poor casting rolls from me let him get two models into the centre, just outside Radagast’s control zone. Saruman then botched his Heroic Combat to redress the situation, leaving things drawn in the middle! Galadriel easily killed her opponent, before charging over to contest the right objective and kill another Orc. In hindsight, moving her into the middle would have given me 3 VPs for free, as opposed to denying Justin either 1 or 2 VPs from the right objective. A bit disappointing to end the day on a tactical blunder, but with Elrond managing to clear the left objective I was able to pull out a 5:1 win!

The final state of the game. Left objective is mine, middle is drawn, right is Justin's but contested

This was easily my favourite game of the tournament, and apparently Justin’s too (at least I wasn’t playing Angmar!). I’ve said it before, but this Legion is actually really fun when there’s an objective involved, and Justin was a delight to play against. The game was beautifully cinematic too, with the Vanquishers defiantly holding their little platform against the Angmar hordes that surrounded them. A perfect way to end the day, especially as it left me 4:0 overall. Once painting scores and VP differentials were taken into account, I was able to narrowly head off Pat’s Laketown to take the tournament win!

4 models, 4 wins!

Thoughts on the Vanquishers 

I try to keep this blog vaguely kid-friendly, but there really is no other way to put this: The Vanquishers Legion is absolutely fucked.

More specifically, it is capable of being oppressive in certain scenarios. At no point in the entire tournament was I at risk of losing a model, and the only time I even took more than 1 Wound was due to some bonkers rolls and after I’d already broken up my beautiful square of death. That level of invulnerability frankly shouldn’t exist in the game, and it makes a whole string of scenarios (basically all of Pools 4 and 6) incredibly dull for both sides.

 I don't want to totally discredit my win here: I think I played really well in every game (Galadriel’s blunder aside) and all of my opponents made some mistakes and underestimated what this Legion could do. I'd practiced with these models a massive amount and I knew exactly what I could expect from them, and I think that really shone through in my play. Moreover, I played against some very solid players, two of whom went otherwise undefeated, so it was hardly an easy string of opponents.

Realistically though, I was going to win those first three games no matter who I faced or what they did. That’s just not how the game should be, and not enjoyable for anyone.

In saying all that, the final game did reaffirm my faith that this Legion is balanced when there are objectives to contest. Both Justin and I had a great game that really could have swung either way until the very last turn, and you can’t ask more of a matchup than that. 

Heroes cinematically defending against waves of Orcs, Wargs, Trolls and Spirits? That's MESBG at its finest

While this is obviously a good thing, it presents something of a conundrum: if we nerf the Vanquishers, then it may make them fairer in Lords of Battle, but it would also likely make them unplayable in Domination or Hold Ground.

Thankfully, I don’t think that this is an unsolvable issue. Excellent solutions were proposed in the conversations between games, and I think there are a number of ways that this problem (and the problem of ‘skew’ lists more generally) can be addressed.

To that end, stay tuned over the next couple weeks for a two-part editorial on What to Do About the Skew. I’m going to start by really breaking down the issue to see what is causing these problems and whether we should just ban Legions like the Vanquishers entirely, then propose and assess a range of possible solutions. There are two options in particular that I think would do an excellent job of resolving the problem, and would be good for the health of the game in general.

Until then, let me know in the comments what you thought of the report, and feel free to share your thoughts on/vent your fury at the Vanquishers as well.

May you always roll a balanced scenario!