Conquest The Last Argument of Kings Written Battle Report: Old Dominion (Xhiliarch Legions) Vs. Spires (Biomancer Underspires)

Brent and I had the opportunity to replay our game from last week with some slight adjustments to our lists. I am trying out a unit of Kheres as a spellcaster bunker dropping some Legionaries and extra stands to make that fit, and Brent made some adjustments so that he was able to get a blob of Force Grown Drones in a Pheromancer instead of multiple small units. Also he was able to turn two of the four Abominations into a Consumption Beast and Desolation Beast respectively with some of the other cuts he did to his list.

I just like the idea of Grave Step Kheres (Or Moroi but I need to try that later). I wanted to have some early game pressure with the Ghosts. Otherwise this was the same Legions list as last week, business as usual.

I really think this is a drastic upgrade on the previous list. I am not sold on the Consumption Beast in general but lets dive in!

Scenario

Breakout was a tough one for me to see. I do not interact with objectives well, outside of Prodromoi. But otherwise OD sure likes sitting on zones and killin’ stuff that’s for darn sure.

Early Game

Round One – I do thankfully get both of my lights, I am much weaker in the Light Vs. Light fight and so I opt to just crowd around my middle and right zones. Looking at terrain (The rocky things top right and bottom left of middle are impassable), I want to have my main force fighting for Center and Right, and a key force of elite BAMFs going for the left zone.

Round Two – I am really, really, really, behind in card count. I send up my Prodromoi to protect the two Spellcasters and keep the Dark Power flowing (Can’t make Hazlia mad…), my plan is in full force, Delta Force Omega BAMFs are starting to sit on the left, hopefully we can push through and crash like a wave from left to right. Sadly due to card advantage Brent is able to get Vanguard Clones into my Prodromoi with a March Charge, that will very much mess up my life. Also important to note, Brent does a very clever move, strain with the FGD, strain with the Desolation Drones, and then use the Elixir and now the Desolation Beast is healed to full and fully operational!

Mid Game

Round 3 – Oh man, the agony. I execute my plan! (Just a bit too early) I send the Kataphraktoi into the side of the Force Grone Drones thinking that next round I’ll send them into the Desolation Drones and from there it will just be wholesale slaughter. This was in fact a huge mistake. I got wayyy too excited and I didn’t look at what had activated and what hadn’t. That Abomination in their rear hadn’t activated. I won’t lie, this is a game losing mistake. He get’s an easy charge, kills so much (Brittle hurts real bad), and I’m now down 20% of my list.

Late Game

Round 4 and 5 – Over the next two rounds I get picked apart by Nasty Gribblies from the Local Spire (My next band name?) and I am playing a catch up game. I keep having moments of brilliance where I can almost tip the scales back into my favor (Namely due to some heroics from the Legionaries on the right flank, and the absolute mini gun that is a powered up Archimandrite and Kheres). Sadly it is much too little, way too late.

The Varangian Guard do a mighty job of clearing out the left side, but in a supreme display of hubris (Before everything had gone south) I mentioned to Brent, “Yeah I don’t think anything else can kill my Varangians”. Cue the Latin choral music, Appear the red health bar, for the three stands of Force Grown Drones are coming, and their craft is death, I need you dear reader to understand. The Force Grown Drones killed my Varangian Guard. It took two rounds. But a simple MSU for FGD did kill one the most elite killy units in the whole game. Dice tell stories and this was a great one!

Even with all the heroics of the Archimandrite, things were just untenable. After this round we played a short round 6 and I got tabled :D.

Post Game

I lost. Horrifically. To an extremely avoidable and greedy mistake. It happens. Hopefully you won’t begrudge me for even writing this. But as I’ve always said. This is so that I can improve, I have a lot of goals related to painting and gameplay, but they all center around “Improvement”. So I write these painful words to learn and grow and hopefully not waste my Kataphraktoi next game 🙂

What I Did Well – Not much, but I did like my play with my Archimandrite and Kheres, things were healed well. Things died. It was a small bright point.

What I did Poorly – The elephant in the room was the premature charge of the Kataphraktoi (Happens to a lot of men okay! At least that’s what my wife tells me). But I also need to improve at playing from a position of lower cards/activations. I’ve noticed a trend in my games where I struggle to come back if my opponent cranks some reinforcement rolls. So that is my new goal of improvement!

If I were to go again I would have staged up my Katas outside of charge range, or potentially in a 5 or 6″ charge. I also would’ve put my spellcasters more central to take advantage of the protection of the impassable terrain.

What Brent Did Well – Brent never let off the gas. Even with my colossal mistake he played a precise and great game of Conquest and didn’t get…anti-tilted? Euphoric? Manic? Drunk with his power? Too often we see a big mistake by our opponents and then stumble into a big mistake trying to capitalize on it.

Thanks again for reading! I hope it was educational. And as always keep an eye on Line of Sight. We’ve got great things!