Conquest Written Battle Report – Old Dominion (Fallen Divinity) vs City States (Phalangites and Friends)

My good friend Braden (Of Discord Dexander fame) is graciously running a TTS tournament for Conquest TLAOK and it has 20 players! I got paired up with Nick round one who defeated me in the finals of the last tournament so I was itching for a rematch. Instead of my ole’ faithful City States (Who am I kidding, I own too many factions to have an Ole’ Faithful) I decided to follow a wild idea and play the Fallen Divinity

It’s a terrifying list, a bit of an uphill battle for me already as this is a great list from City States. I am worried about the Phalangites, I am worried about the Chariots. I am pretty sure nothing kills a T3 Fallen Divinity and nothing survives my Karyatids so I try to formulate a plan for scenario

Round one for the tournament is Bulwark, it is a scenario I feel that is very good for both our lists. Making things HAVE to come say hello to the Fallen Divinity is an amazing thing to see, with only two zones I can make that Divinity park on one and just commence the Slaughter.

Early Game

In round one I get both of my Kerykes and hold back my Divinity, I held her back because I was quite worried about a Chariot rush that burned her down too early. I set up my Kerykes to shoot things that try to kill my friendly objective.

Round Two showed off a strength of the City States, he killed the objective trivially with the combined power of a Flogobollon, Selinoi, and impact attacks from the Thorakites auxiliary stand. I do very little this round, my Kerykes bounce off the Phalangites due to a combo of Untouchable and Tenacious 1 on the left and center units respectively

I send in both units Priests into the obscuring terrain to farm Dark Power for my Fallen Divinity

Here the game begins in earnest, my Optio led Legionnaries are able to march in from of my Kerykes and keep them alive for another round of shooting, the Chariots come off the left flank and murder my poor, poor ponies on the left flank. I send my tier 2 Fallen Divinity into the objective and eyeball things poorly and end up with the tiniest toe inside the forest, this will come back to bite me IMMENSLY as I get no damage on that objective yet.

Mid Game

Oh man, things go REALLY poorly this round and before you raise the torch and pitchforks, I am fully aware that I messed up a TON this game. Nick was a very gracious opponent and we had a great post game talk about some better lines of play with an unfamiliar army. ANYWAY, here’s what happened. The Thorakites didn’t die, and they charged into the Kerykes, meaning that my Kanephors were stuck behind them in the worst way. The Hephestian march charged into my Legios and I was unable to do damage to the objective meaning my Fallen Divinity was STUCK AGAIN on that stupid thing. And my left flank just started DYING. I lost a lot of activations this round and we ended up playing one more round and having to call it there.

Late Game

I apologize I didn’t take a picture for the last two turns, I was locked in and leaned forward in the gamer chair! But I’ll give you the rundown of how the game ended. The Tier 3 Fallen Divinity was FINALLY able to get clear of the objective (Thankfully). It proceeded to kill the right side of the board, but Nick was able to keep just enough stands on that side that it didn’t matter. Man. I love the Fallen Divinity. I need to improve at this list (And improve the list), but psssst scooch in. Lemme tell you a quick story. The Thorakites blob, with Strategic Stack and all the buffs him my Fallen Divinity 31 times and I took TWO WHOLE DAMAGE. Which was promptly healed by my Archimandrite. Man, It was so dang cool. Hot Girl Summer indeed.

Left side fought valiantly but just collapsed to the mounting pressure placed upon it. Karyatids are BRUTAL. They just shoot stuff to death and I love it. The game ended up being extremely lopsided, but was a blast to play 🙂 Nick is a great opponent and a top tier player. We end up at the same regional tournaments occasionally and I can’t wait for the rematch.

At this point I was down twenty points and the only thing alive was the Fallen Divinity. We talk out the last few rounds. The Fallen Divinity kills things angrily and we call it there!

Post Game

What an awesome game! City States are so dang cool. I had a few really, really painful play errors that cost me a lot. I think it was an uphill battle either way, but I didn’t need to shoot myself in both feet.

What I did well – I actually made a very clever play of getting the FD to tier two and then naturally letting it get to Tier 3 instead of pushing it there. This allowed my generic Dark Power pool to hit Tier 2 and it made a huge difference for my damage on the left side. I liked the style, I am not sure it’s the right call in every game, Fallen Divinity is a high skill ceiling list for sure, but it felt right this game.

What I did wrong – I just deployed poorly, being so unfamiliar with the list I think I would change nearly everything about my deployment. I want the FD and Kerykes as a team, the Legios and Karyatids on the hill as a team, and then the heavy’s as support for whichever flank is crumbling. I got caught up and stumbled over my own feet, my positioning was poor and I needed to measure a bit more carefully around objectives, wasting 3 rounds of FD activations on the objective felt so painful.

What my opponent did well – Dang, my opponent put on a master class, he had great target priority, great scenario play, and a really well constructed list! Hats off to a great opponent and can’t wait for the rematch. I’ll be practicing 🙂

As always, thank you so much for reading! I am going to be continuing the tournament report, by way of announcement I won’t be able to play in person games for a few months but I hope TTS games are a meager, thin soup substitute. I continue to paint a Weaver Court army for a commission but I am excited to paint my own models soon! Stay in touch with Line of Sight for more conquest content coming up!