Life has been a little hectic with a newborn and I have been itching for a game. Thankfully things have calmed down to a point that I was able to sneak to the FLGS and play some Conquest! I played against a local legend Brent (both legendary for his dad jokes, and unique janky lists that he manages to place extremely well with) and we had such a great game I had to write a bat rep for it!
The Lists
| === The Last Argument of Kings === The W’adrhŭn – 2000/2000 The Chosen of War Scion of Conquest [155]: Select as Warlord, Tier 2, Tier 1, Cacophony, Beast Drums, War Chosen of War (6) [450]: Relic Bearer Braves (6) [245]: Champion, Leader, Standard Bearer Matriarch Queen [125]: Apex Master, Kill Marks, War Blooded (3) [115]: Leader Apex Predator (1) [185] Predator [120]: Apex Master, Hide of the Silent Hunter, War Apex Predator (1) [185] Raptor Riders (3) [210]: Huntress Raptor Riders (3) [210]: Huntress Characters: 3 Light Regiments: 2 Medium Regiments: 3 Heavy Regiments: 2 | |
| === The Last Argument of Kings === The Spires – 1990/2000 Decoys High Clone Executor [160]: Select as Warlord, Tier 2, Tier 1, Disorienting Strikes, Double Time, Bastion 1, Adaptive Evolution – Vanguard Clones (5) [355]: Superior Creations, Assault Preceptor, Leader, Standard Bearer – Marksman Clones (6) [330]: Leader – Brute Drones (7) [455]: Superior Creations – Force-Grown Drones (3) [90] Biomancer [225]: Tier 3, Tier 2, Tier 1, Plaguelord, Degenerative Aura, Grant Virulence, Harvest Essence – Force-Grown Drones (6) [195]: Pheromonic Node – Incarnate Sentinels (3) [180] Characters: 2 Light Regiments: 2 Medium Regiments: 3 Heavy Regiments: 1 |
I have played the released models for Wadrhun a lot so I was looking to proxy some of the Chosen of War. As an avid death fanatic it gave me two benefits, I played some models I never had before and I got to try out a new cult! (Cults are pseudo subfactions, it’s tricky. Maybe I do a primer guide for playing W’adrhun here soon.) My list was HYPER elite. Two Apex Predators with Riders, a huge 6 stand block of Chosen of War, and some raptor riders were nearly 3/4 of my points. I was going for a tanky list that could punch back deceptively hard.
Brent’s list was aptly named the decoys, he had a really unique mix of worthless chaff and recursion, and TERRIFYING counter punch threats.
Lets jump into it!
Early Game (Rounds 1-3)
I’m going to experiment a little with my conquest battle reports, Conquest is so fluid and with alternating activations and the command stack it makes more sense to break my report into Early, Middle, and Late game sections. Also, as this is a new game for my locals and I, (and I was proxying models) there is a LOT of grey plastic on the table. But I am hoping to get some tribes painted ASAP.
Early game was ROUGH for the tribes. I rolled horrendously on my Light and medium reinforcements and at the round 2 I had lost nearly 400 points and my opponent had lost nothing. The spires were in solid position to lay claim to the objectives and start running up the score.
The Marksman clones were absolutely brutal, they have a literal bucket of shots and shoot 28″ they tore through my raptor riders quite easily. While I had set the line of engagement quite far forward (because I’m VERY fast) I spent two turns failing to roll in the bulk of my reinforcements.
Due to the nature of conquest light regiments are rarely allowed to score scenario points, I was still in the game by a points standard, but I had killed literally 0 models and lost 20% of my list!
The Mid Game (Rounds 4-6)
I turn around my reinforcement rolls and thankfully all my mediums and one heavy are coming on. When it comes to conquest I almost always try to think of the battle in two flanks, judging what needs to be where and what is needs to shore up what weaknesses. My THICC block of Chosen of war go anchor (on their own) the left side of the table and the two Apex and Large block of braves anchor the point right behind where the raptor riders used to be alive. A small unit of blooded sit on the left zone to score me a few crucial points to keep Brent from getting too far ahead.
Everything sprints up the table and gets in counter punch positions. At this point the spires start scoring the middle objective and they have nearly every unit on the board, but I am about to learn a thing or two about how tanky the cult of war can be. It is 4 elite Wadrhun regiments vs a whole 2000 point army and I am nervous, I am now on the back foot on three major terms of engagement, scenario, attrition, and board position.
During this time both my opponent and I both have a crucial round where we are able to go first. On round 5 I send my Apex Predator with the Hide of the Silent Hunter rider deep into the enemy lines and EVERYTHING bounces off of it. I mean everything, the whole unit of clones, the whole unit of archers, EVERYTHING. Not one point of damage. I have now crucially stopped the spires forward momentum and this turns out to be extremely important as the real powerhouse regiments are about to come on the table and they are going to be bogged down by their own troops.
My Scion of Conquest yells VERY loudly at the unit of vanguard clones and they lose a lot of their killing power due to being unable to do draw events (Scion of conquest with Cacophony is real good turns out). Their action is now extremely lackluster into my chosen of war and my Queen heals them back shortly after.
I smash into the lines with the bulk of my army and hope and pray I get first turn next round as my key offensive pieces are now sitting at Brent’s mercy. On the left I have chosen of war sitting in front of vanguard clones and a supporting unit of 7 stands of brute drones. On my right I have the two apex staring down incarnate sentinels, and the dreaded marksman clones.
I do not get first turn next round
Brent pops supremacy and gets to activate 3 regiments in a row. My Super tanky predator dino dies to one activation of the marksman clones (did I roll pretty bad here, yes. But also dang those bows hurt! If I had be able to go first that Dino would have been much tankier due to a bastion +2 draw event) The drones and incarnates push forward and monch on my braves.
In a rare moment of genius I rush the tiny unit of blooded I had sitting on the objective in front of the chosen of war. With W’adrhun what I would say is always keep a conquest chant token generator in your list, you never know when it will be game changing to randomly chant tier 1 famine and get an extra 3″ of movement! I was behind on scenario so badly that them sitting there did not matter and they ate a charge from the brute drones that proved to be quite critical.
The Late Game – Time for Gambles and Desperation
At this point Brent is up about 3 points in scenario and an absurd amount in attrition. I have to plan my activations quite intensely as the chosen of war on the left need the benefits of chanting war, while the Apex Queen and her steed on the right need the Draw event to weather the storm of hits and arrows! I Definitely would love to go first on this super crucial round.
I did not go first.
But I also did not realize how stupidly tanky chosen of war are. They shrug off dozens of attacks from the brute drones without any chant buffs as Brent chose to activate the drones first. Having engaged the incarnates in the previous round I chose to go first with my Apex predator. It kills the last incarnate with an uninspired attack and charges into the bowman with two health remaining! Marksman clones are notoriously bad in melee but this is still a dice game and two health is not a lot. My Apex Predator now has the draw event Bastion thankfully and tanks the melee attacks from the clones. The Queen heals my Apex up 3 and my Chosen of War make extremely short work of the brute drones. The Apex is now controlling an enemy zone and my chosen are controlling the center zone meaning I will overtake Brent in the scoring department (or kill all his models next round) and we agree to call the game there as there is no hope for the poor Marksmen now that the Queen has healed the Apex.
Wrapping it all up
Okay, I am truly in awe about how tanky my list was. I think I would have lost this game extremely badly had I played my normal death cult. I severely underestimated the tankiness of base Chosen of War, I prioritized getting them the chant buffs early in the rounds heavily and it turns out they just survive on their own (Cause I never got first turn RIP). Knowing this when I play them again I will be able to buff other units that need it more and smooth out my order of activations a lot. The chant mini game w’adrhun players have to play is a fickle beast indeed!
The Stand out winners of the list were very much the Apex Predator and his Hide of the Silent Killer Predator rider. Bastion +2 draw event takes the Apex up to defense 5 rerolling 6’s due to the rider keyword. That’s VERY tanky. The Apex queen used to be my favorite set up but this may have overtaken it. If you want to snag an Apex and start a W’adrhun army I highly recommend it! You could even use the Code LOS10 at the Parabellum games website for 10% off.
Chosen of War were awesome (Plz show models soon, they’re warbred with shields), they were just the right amount of killy while still being absurdly tanky and I definitely want to play more cult of war soon! I will always love the cult of death the most but war seems very strong.
Hats off to Brent for an amazing game that could’ve swung either way at any stage. I was able to hang on to the ledge with my very fingertips and sneak out the win but it was so close, Brent ended with 10 of 12 VP on round 9 before I was able to table him!
Thanks for reading this conquest battle report! Next up is some chosen of death testing and some tweaks to this list!
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