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Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T14:00:51Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Monsters */

A faction of the plump country English midgets, along with their neighbours, the Forest Trolls. The Halfling list represents those Halfling communities that are independent and not subjects of the League of Rhordia.

==Why Play Halflings?==
Because you wanna be different from all those stereotype factions. Because you like to play with a bit of luck, a bit of strategy, and bit of hope. Halflings play around several rules that make them unusual for the game, not quite a horde-like army as the Ratkin or Goblins, but not some generic all-rounder like Kingdoms of Men.

==Army Special Rules==
'''Relentless:''' Once per battle, when attacking an enemy unit in melee that has at least 1 damage, you can reroll upto three dice. This emphasizes a sort of combined-arms approach; have all your shooting chip a unit, send in a melee unit that pops this to up the damage to try and force a rout.

Not quite a universal rule, but the special rule "Spellward" is on a majority of this list, representing the luck of Halflings. This means that Lightning/Fireball spamming wizards are less of a threat, but also allied wizards are limited in their ability to buff the army. This is seemingly an experiment in making an army that doesn't follow the meta of wizards slinging Bane Chant everywhere. This also means the Sauceror is always the first hero taken whether you're playing Halflings, or allying them into another faction, as the army is designed around their buffs making up for their weaker units.

Keywords to note are Tinker and Ravenous, both of which trigger support buffs from two of their heroes. A few units have both which can be useful, and a few have neither which means they're not tied to sticking close to a hero carrying auras. Halfling players that ignore how these keywords work are going to find themselves underperforming and feeling like the faction is intentionally weak. But you're not one of them because you're on this page right now.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*'''Aeron Cadwallader:''' An upgraded Muster Captain on foot, for +30 pts you swap to Very Inspiring, +1/+1 Nerve, and Aura (Nimble - Infantry only). His value is base on how much you want Nimble on your infantry for that free 90 degree pivot. Ravenous.

*'''Greedyguts:''' Nasty piece of work here, CS(1), Mighty, Dread, Wild Charge (D3), Lifeleech (3), and Individual. Sort of a berserker-like character with his 8 attacks at 3+, 4+ defence, and no wavering value. Has Ravenous too so we could be looking at a 14"-16" threat on his charges with Sauceror support. Note that he lacks Spellward so you could ally in some wizard to bump him to CS(2) etc. Ravenous.

*'''Ally McSween:''' An assassin hero with Duelist, Inspiring (Self), Scout, Stealthy, CS(1), Spellward, and Individual. She has a 12" Piercing (1) 4+ range attack, but considering her speed is 6" and her next special rule is potent, you probably won't use this much unless you really wanna hit something 13" away on a 5+. Her very special Master Thief rule allows her to use what ever artefact an enemy in combat has when attacking, the caveat is one-use only items can't be used. Oddly she lacks Pathfinder which is typical for these kinds of heroes. Ravenous.

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Sauceror:''' The lynchpin of the Halfling list. Her condiment-based buffs help make up for the lack of support from magic. Even when allying Halflings into another faction, take a Sauceror as halflings are intentionally inefficient without her support. She gets either Rally, or auras for Wild Charge, Lifeleech, or Brutal. Multiples of the same aura do not stack, but a ravenous unit can be affected by all three at the same time. Ravenous.

*'''Sergeant:''' Basic 55pt Inspiring hero, can be upgraded for 25pts to get [1] Aura (Elite (Melee) - Infantry only), to help out Stalwarts and Braves. Has CS(1), Nimble, can buy a bow, and either a mount or Scout. Ravenous.

*'''Engineer:''' Arguably the second most important hero in the Halfling army, depending on how many Tinker units you have. Has Inspiring and only 1 melee attack but 4 decent shots with his 18" Piercing (1) carbine. Can swap the carbine for a 24" Piercing (2) long rifle with 3 shots. Upgrades include Radiance of Life(Tinker only), Aura (Wild Charge (+1), Tinker only), and giving one Core unit in the army the Tinker keyword and Iron Resolve rule. Fairly obvious you wanna stick one of these in your list if you're looking at the Tinker units. Only catch is he lacks Ravenous which means no Rally boost from a Sauceror. Tinker.

==Infantry==

==Monstrous Infantry==

==Swarms==

==Cavalry==

==Monstrous Cavalry==

==Chariots==

==Monsters==
*'''Harvester:''' A piece of farming equipment repurposed as a slow chariot/mantlet. Has 4+ Defence, but also Big Shield so attacks from the front are hitting Def 6+, this little thing has CS(1) and Thunderous Charge (1), Brutal, and 8+D6 attacks. Only Troll unit in the army to lack Regen thoug. Ravenous AND Tinker.

==Titans==

==Warmachines==

==Formations==

==Tactics==

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T13:54:37Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Generic Heroes */

A faction of the plump country English midgets, along with their neighbours, the Forest Trolls. The Halfling list represents those Halfling communities that are independent and not subjects of the League of Rhordia.

==Why Play Halflings?==
Because you wanna be different from all those stereotype factions. Because you like to play with a bit of luck, a bit of strategy, and bit of hope. Halflings play around several rules that make them unusual for the game, not quite a horde-like army as the Ratkin or Goblins, but not some generic all-rounder like Kingdoms of Men.

==Army Special Rules==
'''Relentless:''' Once per battle, when attacking an enemy unit in melee that has at least 1 damage, you can reroll upto three dice. This emphasizes a sort of combined-arms approach; have all your shooting chip a unit, send in a melee unit that pops this to up the damage to try and force a rout.

Not quite a universal rule, but the special rule "Spellward" is on a majority of this list, representing the luck of Halflings. This means that Lightning/Fireball spamming wizards are less of a threat, but also allied wizards are limited in their ability to buff the army. This is seemingly an experiment in making an army that doesn't follow the meta of wizards slinging Bane Chant everywhere. This also means the Sauceror is always the first hero taken whether you're playing Halflings, or allying them into another faction, as the army is designed around their buffs making up for their weaker units.

Keywords to note are Tinker and Ravenous, both of which trigger support buffs from two of their heroes. A few units have both which can be useful, and a few have neither which means they're not tied to sticking close to a hero carrying auras. Halfling players that ignore how these keywords work are going to find themselves underperforming and feeling like the faction is intentionally weak. But you're not one of them because you're on this page right now.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*'''Aeron Cadwallader:''' An upgraded Muster Captain on foot, for +30 pts you swap to Very Inspiring, +1/+1 Nerve, and Aura (Nimble - Infantry only). His value is base on how much you want Nimble on your infantry for that free 90 degree pivot. Ravenous.

*'''Greedyguts:''' Nasty piece of work here, CS(1), Mighty, Dread, Wild Charge (D3), Lifeleech (3), and Individual. Sort of a berserker-like character with his 8 attacks at 3+, 4+ defence, and no wavering value. Has Ravenous too so we could be looking at a 14"-16" threat on his charges with Sauceror support. Note that he lacks Spellward so you could ally in some wizard to bump him to CS(2) etc. Ravenous.

*'''Ally McSween:''' An assassin hero with Duelist, Inspiring (Self), Scout, Stealthy, CS(1), Spellward, and Individual. She has a 12" Piercing (1) 4+ range attack, but considering her speed is 6" and her next special rule is potent, you probably won't use this much unless you really wanna hit something 13" away on a 5+. Her very special Master Thief rule allows her to use what ever artefact an enemy in combat has when attacking, the caveat is one-use only items can't be used. Oddly she lacks Pathfinder which is typical for these kinds of heroes. Ravenous.

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Sauceror:''' The lynchpin of the Halfling list. Her condiment-based buffs help make up for the lack of support from magic. Even when allying Halflings into another faction, take a Sauceror as halflings are intentionally inefficient without her support. She gets either Rally, or auras for Wild Charge, Lifeleech, or Brutal. Multiples of the same aura do not stack, but a ravenous unit can be affected by all three at the same time. Ravenous.

*'''Sergeant:''' Basic 55pt Inspiring hero, can be upgraded for 25pts to get [1] Aura (Elite (Melee) - Infantry only), to help out Stalwarts and Braves. Has CS(1), Nimble, can buy a bow, and either a mount or Scout. Ravenous.

*'''Engineer:''' Arguably the second most important hero in the Halfling army, depending on how many Tinker units you have. Has Inspiring and only 1 melee attack but 4 decent shots with his 18" Piercing (1) carbine. Can swap the carbine for a 24" Piercing (2) long rifle with 3 shots. Upgrades include Radiance of Life(Tinker only), Aura (Wild Charge (+1), Tinker only), and giving one Core unit in the army the Tinker keyword and Iron Resolve rule. Fairly obvious you wanna stick one of these in your list if you're looking at the Tinker units. Only catch is he lacks Ravenous which means no Rally boost from a Sauceror. Tinker.

==Infantry==

==Monstrous Infantry==

==Swarms==

==Cavalry==

==Monstrous Cavalry==

==Chariots==

==Monsters==

==Titans==

==Warmachines==

==Formations==

==Tactics==

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T13:54:13Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Named Heroes */

A faction of the plump country English midgets, along with their neighbours, the Forest Trolls. The Halfling list represents those Halfling communities that are independent and not subjects of the League of Rhordia.

==Why Play Halflings?==
Because you wanna be different from all those stereotype factions. Because you like to play with a bit of luck, a bit of strategy, and bit of hope. Halflings play around several rules that make them unusual for the game, not quite a horde-like army as the Ratkin or Goblins, but not some generic all-rounder like Kingdoms of Men.

==Army Special Rules==
'''Relentless:''' Once per battle, when attacking an enemy unit in melee that has at least 1 damage, you can reroll upto three dice. This emphasizes a sort of combined-arms approach; have all your shooting chip a unit, send in a melee unit that pops this to up the damage to try and force a rout.

Not quite a universal rule, but the special rule "Spellward" is on a majority of this list, representing the luck of Halflings. This means that Lightning/Fireball spamming wizards are less of a threat, but also allied wizards are limited in their ability to buff the army. This is seemingly an experiment in making an army that doesn't follow the meta of wizards slinging Bane Chant everywhere. This also means the Sauceror is always the first hero taken whether you're playing Halflings, or allying them into another faction, as the army is designed around their buffs making up for their weaker units.

Keywords to note are Tinker and Ravenous, both of which trigger support buffs from two of their heroes. A few units have both which can be useful, and a few have neither which means they're not tied to sticking close to a hero carrying auras. Halfling players that ignore how these keywords work are going to find themselves underperforming and feeling like the faction is intentionally weak. But you're not one of them because you're on this page right now.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*'''Aeron Cadwallader:''' An upgraded Muster Captain on foot, for +30 pts you swap to Very Inspiring, +1/+1 Nerve, and Aura (Nimble - Infantry only). His value is base on how much you want Nimble on your infantry for that free 90 degree pivot. Ravenous.

*'''Greedyguts:''' Nasty piece of work here, CS(1), Mighty, Dread, Wild Charge (D3), Lifeleech (3), and Individual. Sort of a berserker-like character with his 8 attacks at 3+, 4+ defence, and no wavering value. Has Ravenous too so we could be looking at a 14"-16" threat on his charges with Sauceror support. Note that he lacks Spellward so you could ally in some wizard to bump him to CS(2) etc. Ravenous.

*'''Ally McSween:''' An assassin hero with Duelist, Inspiring (Self), Scout, Stealthy, CS(1), Spellward, and Individual. She has a 12" Piercing (1) 4+ range attack, but considering her speed is 6" and her next special rule is potent, you probably won't use this much unless you really wanna hit something 13" away on a 5+. Her very special Master Thief rule allows her to use what ever artefact an enemy in combat has when attacking, the caveat is one-use only items can't be used. Oddly she lacks Pathfinder which is typical for these kinds of heroes. Ravenous.

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Sauceror:''' The lynchpin of the Halfling list. Her condiment-based buffs help make up for the lack of support from magic. Even when allying Halflings into another faction, take a Sauceror as halflings are intentionally inefficient without her support. She gets either Rally, or auras for Wild Charge, Lifeleech, or Brutal. Multiples of the same aura do not stack, but a ravenous unit can be affected by all three at the same time.

*'''Sergeant:''' Basic 55pt Inspiring hero, can be upgraded for 25pts to get [1] Aura (Elite (Melee) - Infantry only), to help out Stalwarts and Braves. Has CS(1), Nimble, can buy a bow, and either a mount or Scout.

*'''Engineer:''' Arguably the second most important hero in the Halfling army, depending on how many Tinker units you have. Has Inspiring and only 1 melee attack but 4 decent shots with his 18" Piercing (1) carbine. Can swap the carbine for a 24" Piercing (2) long rifle with 3 shots. Upgrades include Radiance of Life(Tinker only), Aura (Wild Charge (+1), Tinker only), and giving one Core unit in the army the Tinker keyword and Iron Resolve rule. Fairly obvious you wanna stick one of these in your list if you're looking at the Tinker units. Only catch is he lacks Ravenous which means no Rally boost from a Sauceror.

==Infantry==

==Monstrous Infantry==

==Swarms==

==Cavalry==

==Monstrous Cavalry==

==Chariots==

==Monsters==

==Titans==

==Warmachines==

==Formations==

==Tactics==

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T13:33:21Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Army Special Rules */

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T13:22:33Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Generic Heroes */

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T12:45:41Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Why Play Halflings? */

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T12:45:04Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Army Special Rules */

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T12:44:54Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Army Special Rules */

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T12:35:05Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Why Play Halflings? */

Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings

2023-01-26T12:25:16Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: Created Halfing page

A faction of the plump country English midgets, along with their neighbours, the Forest Trolls. The Halfling list represents those Halfling communities that are independent and not subjects of the League of Rhordia.

==Why Play Halflings?==

==Army Special Rules==

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===

==Infantry==

==Monstrous Infantry==

==Swarms==

==Cavalry==

==Monstrous Cavalry==

==Chariots==

==Monsters==

==Titans==

==Warmachines==

==Formations==

==Tactics==

Kings of War

2023-01-26T12:20:46Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* The Factions */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Kings of War
|picture = [[File:KingsOfWar-stack.jpg|200px]]
|type = [[Wargame]]
|system =
|playno = 2
|time = 90 minutes
|publisher = [[Mantic Games]]
|authors = [[Alessio Cavatore]], Matt Gilbert
|year = 2010
|books = Kings of War 3rd Edition, Uncharted Empires, Clash of Kings, Vanguard, Armada
}}

'''Kings of War''' is a 28mm scale "mass combat fantasy miniature range" and tabletop game from the upstart UK-based miniatures publisher [[Mantic Games]]. The miniatures are cheaper than the [[Games Workshop| established]] [[Privateer Press | competitors]]. Mantic's recent miniatures have been pretty high quality, especially for the price, but some of the older kits are a bit hit and miss.

==Edition History==
''Kings of War'' began as a war gaming project by Alessio Cavatore and Ronnie Renton in early 2010 who wanted to make a mass combat system. This led to a closed beta before the first public release of a two-player set called ''Mhorgoth's Revenge'' that included [[Free Dwarf Lands|Dwarf]] and [[Undead (Kings of War)|Undead]] forces in September 2010. Mantic had begun releasing fantasy models at this point, leading to a standalone rule release in December of that year that included rules for all currently existing models representing forces that would become the Dwarfs, Elves, and Undead. Following up on this, Mantic began releasing a publication that added rules for new models they produced, particularly forces for Abyssal Dwarf and Orc armies.

Mantic continued to release new models and rules in this fashion. In May 2012 they launched their first Kickstater campaign, seeking to release a full first edition of the game. In September 2012 they updated the main rule book to include all models currently in the range, creating army lists for [[Abyssal Dwarfs]], Dwarfs, [[Sea Kindred|Elves]], Kingdoms of Men, [[Orcs (Kings of War)|Orcs]], [[Twilight Kindred|Twilight Kin]], and Undead. This release was a softback, followed shortly after by the hardback release from the Kickstarter. The hardback release also included a campaign system not found in the softback.

Three supplements were released for first edition. ''[[Kings and Legends]]'' added the [[Ogre]] and [[Goblins]] army lists, along with new living legend units for all existing armies. This was followed by ''Basilean Legacy'' which added [[Basilea]], [[Sylvan Kindred|Forces of Nature]], and [[The Abyss|Forces of the Abyss]] to the game, as well as adding more spells and magic artefacts for use by any army. The final supplement for first edition was ''Hellfire & Stone'' that added a new campaign, a handful of units, and a tie-in scenario for ''Dwarf King's Hold'', the dungeon crawling game set in the same universe.

Another Kickstarter campaign was launched for second edition in November 2014, barely two years after the release of the 1st edition. The goal with the second edition was to bring the different armies into greater balance and give a role to army units perceived as useless. The project was successfully funded and second edition was release in August 2015. Eleven of the twelve armies were updated for this release, with Twilight Kin being dropped initially. With the [[Derp|abandonment]] of [[Warhammer Fantasy]] by Games Workshop around the same time, the rules committee began work on a supplement to add armies that existed in that game to ''Kings of War'', as well as other fantasy themed armies from other existing miniature lines. The resulting supplement was released in November 2015 and called ''Uncharted Empires''. This added [[Brotherhood]], [[Empire of Dust]], [[League of Rhordia]], [[Nightstalkers]], [[Ratkin]], [[Reptilian Clans|Salamanders]], [[the Herd]], [[Trident Realms of Neritica]], and [[Varangur]] to the game.

A second supplement, ''Destiny of Kings'', was released to backers in December 2015, with a public release in January 2016. This supplement adds twelve new missions split between two campaigns to the game. It also contains new living legend units for existing armies and a tie-in scenario for ''Dungeon Saga'', the replacement for ''Dwarf King's Hold''.

A third supplement, ''Historical Armies'', was released in September 2016. This book used the Kings of War rules to create lists for 30 historical armies, allowing players to use amazing Warlord and Perry bros miniatures (amongst others) to once and for all end the debate over who would have won a battle, an Imperial Roman Legion, or the Aztecs. Plus, the armies are all completely compatible with regular Kings of War, and have some optional mythical units you can use to keep up with fantasy monsters, so your Chinese Middle Kingdom army can just go to town on your friend's Undead. It's slightly less historically accurate than breaking out a game of De Bellis Antiquitatis and arguing over the correct length of the spears on your Phalangites, and more towards the 'Bolt Action retells World War 2 starring Shia LaBeouf' end of the spectrum.

A fourth supplement, ''Clash of Kings: Organised Play Supplement'', was first released in 2017, and adds a series of balance rules aimed at tournament play, along with new spells and magic artefacts, and guides to running your own tournament, and creating homebrew rules. Entirely optional for friendly play, it is intended to be an annual supplement. The 2018 release (which supersedes 2017) continued much along the same lines, but also added over 20 new units and living legends to 11 armies, along with long overdue rules for the Blaine and Ronaldo mercenaries.

A fifth supplement, ''Edge of the Abyss'', was released in 2017. This book accompanied the global campaign of the same name, and added 14 new living legends, a handful of formations, and some new scenarios.

In October 2019, Mantic released Kings of War 3rd edition. Amongst general balancing and an expansion of the lore, the biggest notable changes are the addition of Titan class units - extra large monsters that go on 75x75mm bases - the swapping of some armies so that all the ones with Mantic mini support are in the main rule book, and all the others are in Uncharted Empires, and the master list/thematic list method of creating interesting new expansion armies. Also the world is now known as Pannithor, Mantic being relegated to a less often used continent name. ''Clash of Kings'' has continued to be released as an annual supplement, with ''Halpi's Rift'' the subtitle of the one released for the 2021 season.

==The Factions==
''Kings of War'' has 14 factions in the 3rd Edition core rule book:

*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Abyssal Dwarfs|Abyssal Dwarfs]]:''' [[Chaos Dwarfs]] in Pannithor. Simpler put, they're pseudo-Babylonian Dwarfs, but more industrial. Slavers who focus on shotguns, war machines, and fiery golems. A new range of minis has been released in 2020 to replace the very old originals.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Basileans|Basileans]]:''' Mantic's own human faction, with their own distinctive style. Fluff-wise, the Basileans are a lot like the Byzantine empire and Catholic church, and can summon angels to help them. They have armoured knights, men at arms, and nuns riding GIANT CATS.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Dwarfs|Dwarfs]]:''' Exactly like all other Dwarfs in all other settings, hard and tough and beardy, but unlike Warhammer or Lord of the Rings Dwarfs, they are an expanding empire. In fact this section of the dwarf race should be called the IMPERIAL dwarfs. They have cavalry... BADGER CAVALRY!!!

*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Elves|Elves]]:''' The elite, noble [[Elves]], who are better than you. The Elves are 'good guys' but are responsible for a lot of bad things in Pannithor, including splitting the gods into good and evil half-gods, and educating a gifted human child who would grow up to be Mhorgoth the Faceless, the most feared necromancer in all of Pannithor. Fluff wise the Elven kindreds cover everything from high elves, wood elves, and dragon rider elves through to sailing sea elves, desert nomad elves, and ice elves, so plenty of scope for creative personalisation. Two elf 'theme lists' are included in Uncharted Empires; the Sylvan Kin (nature-loving, forest dwelling elves) and Twilight Kin (nasty bastards who take slaves, torture prisoners and hang out with Nightstalkers).
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Empire of Dust|Empire of Dust]]:''' Essentially [[Tomb Kings]] with a larger emphasis on healing than the more standard undead. They were an Egyptian style civilisation that dabbled in necromancy (and when I say 'dabbled' I mean rich people had zombie butlers and skeleton bodyguards which is just fucked up) but got cursed by their Ophidian neighbors who also do necromancy but in a good-guy way.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Forces of Nature|Forces of Nature]]:''' Exactly what it says on the tin. Has a lot of units that cross over with the Elves, Trident Realms, Salamanders, and Herd, making it an interesting synergy army or ally.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Forces of the Abyss|Forces of the Abyss]]:''' Servants of 37 evil half gods who live with their masters in Pannithor's Hell. They look like the horns and pitchfork devils from medieval art, with some big ogre demons throw in for good measure.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Goblins|Goblins]]:''' Separate from Orcs in the setting, although they can ally with each other as both are Evil alignment. Can carpet the table in cheap regiment and horde bases like almost no other, but also have pet giants to make things interesting. Along with the wonderful resin characters released for Vanguard, new hard plastic sprues to replace the poorly executed originals have now been released.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Nightstalkers|Nightstalkers]]:''' Spooky and strange creatures that resemble [[Eldrazi]] and pumpkin monsters in the art, the first minis for this army were released with Vanguard in November 2018. They focus on stealing the inspiring from other armies because they have none of their own.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Northern Alliance|Northern Alliance]]:''' A good Elf/human/other faction from the far north. A cosmopolitan army made up of exiles and rejects from the other kingdoms, including Elves, Half-Elves, southern and northern Humans, disenchanted Varangur, Ice Naiads, Frost Trolls, Frost Giants, Yetis, and more. The first minis for this army were released with Vanguard in November 2018, and a full army range was released to coincide with the release of 3rd edition.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Ogres|Ogres]]:''' Most ogres are content living a tribal, nomadic life in the Mammoth Steppe minding their own business, but a significant number feel The Calling and head south to fight in the mercenary companies. They enjoy fighting, adventure, and telling wildly exaggerated stories about their exploits. Ogres don't hold grudges or have any inherent racial prejudices, so they are happy to ally with anyone from Elves to Demons and everything in between. Ogres covet gold and treasure, yet have no apparent use for it. They don't squander their wages and have no concept of currency amongst themselves. When they have amassed a great hoard they take it back to the Steppe with them and that's all outsiders know. They also have strong mag'har orc looks, for you [[Warcraft]] fans.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Orcs|Orcs]]:''' Brutal and horde-based; called "greenskins" and "a sea of green," with the ''Old World'' Ogre's tendency towards cannibalism thrown in.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Trident Realms of Neritica|Trident Realms of Neritica]]:''' An aquatic faction, mostly consisting of fishmen and sea beasts. (and Snorks!!!!)
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Undead Armies|Undead]]:''' Generic undead including everything from vampires and werewolves to zombies and mummies.

There are also 12 army lists contained within the ''Uncharted Empires: Armies of Pannithor'' 3rd Edition supplement. These lists are intended to <s>rip off</s> warmly welcome a number of different fantasy miniature lines, particularly Citadel armies after the release of Age of Skubmar. The first 3 are master lists, the same as the master lists in the main rule book.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Kingdoms of Men|Kingdoms of Men]]:''' Generic human army intended to be used with your other fantasy and historic miniatures. Different from Mantic's own human models described above. Very much the jack of all trades, master of none, flexible army.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Ratkin|Ratkin]]:''' Pretty much [[Skaven]]. Plastic and resin minis are now available too!
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Salamanders|Salamanders]]:''' Lizard people of a couple different stripes.

The other 9 care called theme lists, and are thematic variations of one of the 17 master lists. They essentially take a selection of the units in that list, give them more thematic names, special rules, and balancing, and then add in a number of unique units to round things out. Alternatively, they can be a blend of two or three different lists.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Abyssal Dwarf Ratkin Slaves|Abyssal Dwarf Ratkin Slaves]]:''' Pretty self explanatory.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Free Dwarfs|Free Dwarfs]]:''' Have you ever wondered what Dwarves would be like if they lived in a democratic republic instead of a Kingdom? Well the Free Dwarfs used to have that, although the recent Abyssal War saw them lose their homelands to the Abyssal Dwarfs. The survivors live as refugees in King Golloch's empire, or have moved elsewhere to escape the iron boot of oppression. Overall mantic did an excellent job adding a third flavour of dwarfs to the mix. Their lists uses many units from the imperial dwarf list BUT does a vital change, replacing Headstrong for Pathfinder + scout on many units. This makes Free dwarves a deceptively fast army thanks to ignoring terrain and being able to move 8+ inches before the game even begins. Also this army focuses much more on rangers(sp 5 dwarves O: ) and characters than the imperial list. Thus making the army play very differently despite having similar units.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/The Herd|The Herd]]:''' [[Beastmen]], either taken from the Warhammer Fantasy line or from another line, such as Wrath of Kings. In the lore the Herd act as the Green Lady's border guard.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/League of Rhordia|League of Rhordia]]:''' An alliance of humans and halflings, with a touch of gnomish style engineering, in 3E now more formally a technical variation on the Kingdoms of Men plus some dwarvish black powder.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Brotherhood|Order of the Brothermark]]:''' One half of the former Brotherhood army from 2E. The Brotherhood were an independent nation who kept an eternal watch over the Abyss. The last great Abyssal War saw their lands and armies decimated. Basilea and the Forces of Nature both came to their aid and this led to a schism in the Brotherhood, with some orders of Knights swearing new vows to the Green Lady and other to Basilea. The Brothermark is now a province of Basilea in all but name, their traditions are being eroded and replaced with Basilean religious doctrine. They have access to peasants, light cavalry and monster-hunting knights in addition to a plethora of Basilean units.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Order of the Green Lady|Order of the Green Lady]]:''' A blend of the Brotherhood and Forces of Nature. The orders of knights who refused to bend the knee to Basilea (and that covers most of them) instead swore themselves to Pannithor's own Mother Nature. They have access to several types of knightly units (including pegasus knights!) and also several Earthbound and Waterbound FoN units.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Sylvan Kin|Sylvan Kin]]:''' Pretty much a [[Wood Elves|Wood Elf]] thematic twist of the Elves list
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Twilight Kin|Twilight Kin]]:''' [[Dark Elves]] with a bit of smexy [[Dark Eldar]] thrown in for flavor; live in caves beneath the desert after getting thrown out of the main Elf homeland. Finally making their return after spending all of 2nd in the 'official pdf' wilderness. A blend of Elves, Nightstalkers, and Abyssals, and Mantic has teased some concept art for evil elf minis.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Varangur|Varangur]]:''' Vikings and raiders reminiscent of [[Warriors of Chaos]], a thematic twist on the Northern Alliance
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Riftforged_Orcs|Riftforged Orcs]]:''' An army of new and improved Orcs, the Greenskin equivalent of Stormcast Eternals.
*'''[[Kings of War/Tactics/Halflings|Halflings]]:''' A separate Halfling army for the Halfling territories that aren't part of the human governed League.

In addition there are future armies planned that don't yet have full lists yet, although some have beta lists available:
*'''Ophidians:''' A mix of Arabian and Persian motifs with undead servants and [[Conan the Barbarian]] style snake men. Survivors of the disaster that turned the Ahmunites into the Empire of Dust, who learned that like most things necromancy is only healthy in moderation.

There are 30 army lists in the ''Historical Armies'' supplement. This has yet to receive an update to 3rd, so remains based on the 2nd rules:
*'''Anglo-Saxons, Aztecs, Barbarians, Byzantines, Carthaginians, Chinese, Conquistadors, Crusaders, Egyptians, English, Franks, French, Greek, Holy Roman Empire, Huns, Indian, Japanese, Macedonians & Successors, Mongols, Normans, Ottomans, Persians, Polish, Romans, Scottish, Slavs, Spartans, Scythians, Thracians, Vikings

==The Game System==
The Kings of War game is written by none other than [[Alessio Cavatore]], who now seems to be outside of the Games Workshop tent pissing in, and balanced by large scale play testing funneled through a Rules Committee. The rules are gloriously straight-forward and streamlined, meaning that they're the extreme opposite of Warhammer rules. This makes the decision between the two games more defined for players.

The basic turn order is:
*Move: You move your guys.
*Shoot: Bows, crossbows and rifles shoot up to 24", pistols slings up to 12", some oddball weapons shoot 18", and war machines up to 48". Also Magic happens during the Shoot phase, and has ranges of 12", 18", or 24", depending on the spell.
*Melee: Close combat similar to Warhammers.

Whenever a unit takes hits (melee or ranged) they accumulate 'damage' (there is no model removal as damage represents a mix of morale loss, injuries and casualties). If you inflict damage on one of your enemies' units with shooting or melee you can attempt to rout it at the end of the phase. This is done by rolling 2D6, adding the result to the total damage accumulated so far and comparing the total to the unit's Nerve value. Two values are listed for Nerve (a 20-strong regiment of Elf spearmen has a nerve of 14/16, for example). If the total equals or beats the first value the unit 'wavers' (misses the next turn), and if it equals or beats the second value the unit is routed and removed from the table.

Kings of War second edition was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, and released in August 2015. Second edition promised to iron out the creases in the core rules, re-balance the army lists, add new units and expand the magic rules with a greater variety of spells, whilst maintaining the straightforward game play Kings of War has become known for. It succeeded at this, smashingly.

3rd edition has aimed to streamline and tidy up the 2nd ed rules. For people used to the Geedubs model of [[Warhammer 40,000 7th edition|"add special rules 'til the edition is unplayable and then reset"]] this makes a nice change. The game is even faster than it was before and still excellent for tournaments. See the tactics section for guides on how to powergame better. Kings of War is much more competitive and balanced than the GW offerings and so is a bit less noob-friendly. Ironically this also makes the unit breakdowns in the tactics section less important than the GW ones as ''how'' you use your force is more important than the units you take.

==The Lore==
[[File:Pannithor3E.png|thumb|This place looks strangely familiar...]]

The lore is explained in the rulebook and the sourcebook, but also expanded on in the Kings of War novels released by Winged Hussar Publishing, and the upcoming RPG by Red Scar games. It goes something like this...

Once The Kingdom of Elves, The Underlands of The Dwarves & The Human Republic of Primovantor lived in peace watched over by the Celestians, beings of immense power who gifted the three races with knowledge and magic. Everything was good and fine until an Elf mage called Calisor wrecked everything by falling in love with a human. Said human rejected him so he moped around until he met a [[Celestians (Kings of War)|Celestian]], who told him the ingredients to make a mirror that could show Elianthora (the human chick) the future. Being a mage that has the power to rise the ocean up and walk through one realm of existence as easily as walking through a room, he got the ingredients pretty quick and when he showed Elianthora the mirror, she saw them falling in love and having loving children and living a life of love and goodness.

Until she saw herself die and then Calisor taking a lot of women to try to replace the memory of her, but when she saw their children kill Calisor, she shat her pants and smashed the mirror. However, it turns out one of the ingredients to make the mirror was a fragment of the star that gave the Celestians their power, and when one part is smashed, ALL of it is smashed. The 37 Celestians that survived were split into two - a shining side and a wicked side, which then fought each other in a giant war. The wicked ones created Orcs and necromancy, while corrupting Elves and humans. Luckily, the shining ones had a half-human/half-shining one, and with the holy power of the Celestians, he created a giant fiery crack in the ground (now called the Abyss) and imprisoned all the wicked ones in. Unfortunately, the wicked ones eventually transformed it into HELL, complete with 9 circles for them and their minions - the Abyss.

The world returned to an uneasy peace, until one of the wicked ones escaped/was never locked up - this one was called Winter, so no surprise what she did, basically, Mantics fluff is based on [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Frozen. Eventually, though, after 100 years of the world in ice, the races allied together and drove Winter away.]] But, as you know, when ice melts water comes, and the world then looked like the Mediterranean sea, now the world is screwed - the floods destroyed the human republic of Primovantor, the largest human faction, the surviving humans (basically everyone on a hill when all the valleys filled with water) have split into various small kingdoms or city-states (the largest being Basilea, a mini republic of Primovantor, except more holy justice of the Shining Ones). Elves are seclusive and their land is slowly turning into deserts. Each day Dwarves lose a hold to goblins and... wait, that's not right, Dwarves are actually expanding under the direction of the [[Golloch Empire]], stretching from the gates of Basilea to the far east, while the Free Dwarfs of the Halpi Mountains expand northwards, caught between the Abyssal Dwarfs of Tragar, and the Empire they fled to the south. Orcs rampage around with their goblin servants occasionally, though the gobbos make their own tribes. Necromancy abounds, stealing the souls of the bodies used and sending them to the Wicked One Durunjak. Twilight kin, Elves corrupted by the wicked ones, dwell in caverns beneath the great desert, occasionally leaving to raid the other species. The Shining Ones sit on the Moutain of Kolosu, deciding not to interfere with the world (except to occasionally send their Elohi angel warriors when Basilea prays really really hard).

TL;DR: Elves ruin everything. (Which they do...)

==Dungeon Saga and League of Infamy==
''Main article: [[Dungeon Saga]]''

In 2011 Mantic released a board game called ''Dwarf King's Hold'' that was followed by two expansions. These used models from ''Kings of War'' and represented small warbands battling in the ruins of Dolgarth. In 2014 they launched a kickstarter campaign to update the game with more RPG elements and dungeon crawling components. This relaunch was titled ''Dungeon Saga: Dwarf King's Quest''. The initial release retells the story of the first ''Dwarf King's Hold'' set, but instead of a party of Dwarfs raiding the city, a party of adventurers is venturing into the ruins seeking treasure and glory. Several expansions have followed adding more enemies and hero classes.

Also currently in development is ''League of Infamy'', a semi-cooperative dungeon crawler based on an updated and improved version of the Dungeon Saga rules. I say semi-cooperative, because this time the adventuring party is made up of bad guys, and the only thing better than winning, is having done so after stabbing everyone in the back, and taking the treasure for yourself! The basic party options are a crazed gunslinging abyssal dwarf, a priest hunting succubus, a goblin ninja (fuckin' rules), an insane sorceress, a vampie knight, and a ratkin brute, but like Dungeon Saga many other options will be added.

==Kings of War: Vanguard==
[[File:Mantic-Goblin-warband.jpg|thumb|Climb into the danger zone]]
In November 2017 Mantic ran a Kickstarter for their new fantasy skirmish game [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/kings-of-war-vanguard-the-fantasy-skirmish-wargame/description Kings of War: Vanguard]. A game that will instantly draw comparisons to [[Mordheim]], and its Mantic scifi stablemate [[Warpath|Deadzone]], it was inspired by a Ronnie trip to the farmhouse and memorial at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Quatre_Bras Qatre Bras], the site of the skirmishes before Waterloo.

Vanguard uses single based minis from all the Kings of War armies, typically heroes, and some infantry as grunts, with cavalry backup. Vanguard can be played as a one off game, a stand alone campaign, or tied into Kings of War campaigns, where the results of the Vanguard battle impact the Kings of War battle, in terms of units available, deployment, etc. Excitingly, the project has funded the first Mantic minis for both the Northern Alliance and Nightstalkers, as well as replacements for the unfortunate first generation Basilean men at arms, and a slew of other yet to be modeled but already listed in Kings of War heroes. Plus a massive 18cm tall plastic giant, which turned out to be even bigger than it sounded! Vanguard released to retail in November 2018, and the free edition of the rules and war bands are available from the same page Mantic lists all their other free rules.

Whilst set in the Kings of War world of Pannithor, the rules for Vanguard have more in common with Deadzone than they do KoW. Vanguard uses D8s instead of D6s, alternate activations and the 'two short/one long action' system used in Deadzone (and several other Mantic products), but it is not simply 'Fantasy Deadzone'. In addition to moving, shooting and fighting in melee players can use their Command Pool, a resource generated each Round by rolling custome dice. Command can be used in a variety of ways to enhance your warbands fighting abilities, from adding additional dice to combat rolls and activating several models at once, to clearing fatigue from exhausted soldiers and activating powerful special abilities.

Vanguard's scenarios have players performing a variety of 'fantasy black ops' style missions such as freeing a prisoner, burning the enemy's stores or assasinating a commander in his sleep. There are currently 12 such scenarios in the main rulebook.

As of January 1st 2019 all factions from Kings of War are represented with 'starter lists' in the main rulebook or downloadable from Mantic's website. The starter lists give players around 10 unit options and any special rules which apply to that warband, enough to make them playable. Mantic has been steadily creating new resin 'hero' minis and releasing them as Vanguard starters for all of the current Kings of War factions, with the next release the Ratkin.

==Kings of War: Armada==
[[File:Armada_battle1-1024x809.png|thumb|Orcs and Basileans on the high seas]]
Fresh from the success of Vanguard, Mantic decided to [[Man O' War|cut someone else's lunch yet again]] by announcing straight to retail a new naval game, Kings of War: Armada. The game uses a licensed adaptation of Warlord Games [[Black Seas]] historical naval rules, with resin ships from (as currently planned) 8 factions from the world of Pannithor.

The four launch factions are:

*'''Basileans
*'''Orcs
*'''Dwarves
*'''Empire of Dust

The next four factions are yet to be announced, but concept art depicting Elves, Northern Alliance, and an unspecified faction has been released, and Salamanders have been hinted at in text interviews. The first print run of the two player starter has already sold out, with more on the way, while ship expansion packs are available, and huge ships will be released just in time for non-denominational December celebrations.

The new added factions are:

*'''Elves
*'''Northern Alliance/Varangur
*'''The Twilight Kin
*'''The Kingdom of Men
*'''Salamanders

With supplement Seas Aflame now adds flying units.

==So why do we like these guys?==
[http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/dwarfs/product/dwarf-mega-army-2017.html Cheap].
[http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/elves/product/elf-dragon-kindred-lord.html Miniatures].

And look at this: these models are "ideal for collectors, modellers and gamers of fantasy wargames. They are fully compatible with all major gaming systems, and you can add them to your existing armies or even build a new army with our value for money army-in-a-box bundle deals." Fucking adorable. Don't you just want to take them home and feed them biscuits?

Mantic Games are openly and audaciously shameless, and even tell you that their works are compatible with other fantasy game systems, if [[Games Workshop|said game system producers aren't purist assholes]]. Speaking of purist assholes, THEY MAKE NAZI ZOMBIES - ALL IS FORGIVEN.

Also more importantly YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE THEIR MINIATURES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO, miniatures from anywhere (Yes even the hated GW) are welcome even in official tournaments.

==Why play kings of war?==
Well for starters because its better than having your miniatures collecting dust.

Also for real, this game is very very good, it is fast paced, and avoids all the derp and nonsense stuff that the old Warhammer Fantasy suffered from. In this game, there is no initiative that says that despite the fact that you charged the opponent hits you first, no purple sun eating entire units, no armor save saving any pussy, no having to recount combat resolution, this is a brutal wargame that tells war like it is, and that can be played in less than 90 min even at large scale.

And the game is really about your guys, Mantic encourages multi basing and even using miniatures that they don't make in their tournament, so the game allows you to field those super cool miniatures or dioramas, you never had the chance to field in prior occasions.

So yes, try it, because this game is trimmed down, sensible and fast and furious rank-and-flank fantasy combat, where you field your dudes instead of whatever the establishment wanted you to buy.

[[Category: Wargames]][[Category: Kings of War]][[Category:Kings of War/Tactics]] [[Category:Free rules]]

Kings of War/Tactics/Northern Alliance

2023-01-26T12:06:08Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Generic Heroes */

A faction made from an alliance of the northern tribes of [[Dwarves]], [[Elves]], [[Naiads]] and [[Humans]] (including from [[Kingdoms of Men|Kingdoms of Men]], [[Brotherhood]] and [[Varangur]]), formed during the Edge of the Abyss to fight the onslaught of the [[Abyssals|Forces of the Abyss]].

==Why Play Northern Alliance==
Because you want to play what is effectively an entire army of good guy [[vikings]], [[Elf|Ice Elf Waifus]], Ice Naiads, Snow Trolls (Yes you can field Snow Trolls, they even have their own Hero Unit), Ice elementals, etc. If that's your thing, these guys are for you.
There is also a Hero unit named the Ice Queen, and since [Kings of War] is a model agnostic game, you have the perfect excuse to have Elsa lead an army of Vikings Ice Elves, Half-elves, and Ice Naiads (Brigade games has a nice Frostgrave miniature that can be used for such a [https://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/FW6001--Young-Fire-Elementalists_p_4429.html purpose]).

==Army Rules==
Snowfox: The unit has +1 Attack, only one a few heroes.

Wild Charge is pretty common on your infantry, which means your units project a slightly larger threat than expected. Most of your heroes have Very Inspiring instead of Inspiring so you can deploy a little more spread out.

There is the "Frostbound" keyword which a few units have for support from your Ice Queen heroes. Its not entirely feasible to go deep on this synergy but makes for a themed army of snow witches and their minions. If you find you're taking several Frostbound units, consider an Ice Queen and deploying them as a group.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*''' Serakina, the Ice Queen:''' Not quite the deluxe version of the Ice Queen, Serakina only packs Surge (8), Wind Blast (6) and +1/+1 nerve. But what makes her standout apart from being 5 points less than an Ice Queen with the same but no Icy Breath, is Radiance of Life (Frostbound only) meaning she will make those Ice Elementals, Frost Giants, and Ice Naiads hold a lot better. Also helps generic Ice-Queens with her abilities, but honestly you should not need to be healing Ice-Queens. Overall not the best pick for a hero unless you build around her support for Frostbound units.

*''' Hrimm, Legendary Frost Giant:''' A 30 point upgrade on your giant, worth taking every time; makes your Ice Giant into a big Very Inspiring hero with -/20 Nerve and Icy Breath (12). This is combined with the standard Ice Giant's CS (4), Brutal, Slayer (Melee -D6), Strider and Defence 5+. Basically you have no reason to take a Giant without upgrading to big daddy Hrimm, and big daddy Hrimm, while your second most pricey Hero, is a damn strong pick. He's not the bar all your other hero picks should be compared to, but he's certainly the bar all your combat heroes should be compared to.

*'''Orlaf the Barbarian:''' Not a hugely attractive option, works for buffing human clansmen in the special formation, but can use his once-a-game ability to swing 12 attacks on target.

*'''Clarion:''' Basically acts as a Skald thats competitive with the other heroes in the 105-130 point bracket instead of being too cheap to merit the stats/abilities to compete like the regular Skald. Probably the 3rd most fielded named character.

===Generic Heroes===
*''' Ice-kin Master hunter:''' You get her in the Shadows of the North starter set for your Northern Alliance army, coming at 115 points her main shtick is being sneaky; having the Pathfinder, Scout, and Stealthy traits along with Elite (because she's an elf) and individual (what did you expect to see in this list?). She is generally a stronger version of the regular Ice-kin hunter stat-wise. Good for hiding in wooded areas with your fellow pathfinders and moving around obstacles with no problem.

*''' Ice Queen:''' Basically the Mantic equivalent to Kislev's [[Ice Witch|Ice Witches]]. Cheaper than the Master hunter above, coming at 80 points. Comes with a Defense 4 which in Melee becomes a 5 with Ensnare's effect on enemy melee, the usual bonuses to being an individual unit, but [[Rage|only gives inspiring to Frostbound units]], luckily the Very Inspiring trait doesn't seem to be affected by this limitation. She also has the Master of Ice trait which allows her to reroll 1's on spells targeting friendly Frostbound units or Frozen enemy units. Her starting spell is Icy Breath(10), so you can say she'll "blow" you away ([[PROMOTIONS|NO! NOT LIKE THAT!]]), the effect of the spell is and I quote "Roll to damage as normal. If 1+ damage is dealt, the target Enemy unit is now Frozen. (KoW3 p54)" so it's your basic ice attack with a range of 10 inches. For extra spells, you get Bane Chant for +20 points (like every spell caster apparently), Blizzard for +30 points (an indirect spell with a 30 inch range and Piercing 1 that lets you roll a D3 for every successful hit landed), Heal for 35 points (making her your main healer), Wind Blast for 25 points (I already made the blow you away joke), and you can either pair Icy Breath with Surge or replace it with Surge.
TLDR: She seems like a cheap choice for a healer, especially if you field Frostbound in your army with the Master of Ice trait.

*''' Lord:''' Your standard combat hero character, having CS(2) makes them hit a little harder. You can mount them on a horse which drops WC(1) for Speed 8, but honestly lets cut to the chase: This isn't going to be your beatstick hero, you should be taking them for the 10pt upgrade that gives them an Aura of Wild Charge (+1, Infantry & Heavy Infantry only) which stacks with existing WC on those units, your next choice is what support item to stick on them, think of these guys are punchy Standard Bearers. If you want a beatstick, take Hrimm, if you want a wizard, take an Ice Queen, you want to support some infantry blocks take a foot/horse Lord with Horn of Winter. That said, you can use one with Wings of Honeymaze to hunt down squishy wizards and warmachine crews.

*'''Lord on Frostfang:''' Now this is someone who's out to clap some cheeks. Crushing Strength (3), 3+ Melee and 8 attacks is the basics for a beatstick. The catch here is that a Frostfang Lord lacks Individual, so they can flank units and slap hard, but they can also get flanked themselves. Now for the Hrimm test; for 70 points less than big icy daddy you get a hero who has a slightly larger threat radius, less CS & Nerve, but better Melee and Artefact options. We take the Frostfang Lord as either mobile support to a Frostfang unit hitting flanks, or as a hunter-killer missile trying to get behind screens to hit missile units or war machines. Sending

*'''Lord on Chimera:''' Mobile, deadly, pricy. The Lord on Chimera is the most expensive unit in Northern Alliance, its a fast hammer with CS3, Fly, Icy Breath (10), Nimble, Very Inspiring and Elite(Melee). Stats are great, better than the Frostfang Lord, which they should be for being just shy of 3 times the price. But here comes the real question: Why pick a Chimera Lord over Hrimm who costs 50pts less and has CS4? The answer is simple, the Lord on Chimera is better than Hrimm if you're being aggressive and using his mobility to pick off priority targets and swing deciding fights in your favour. You can sink more points for artefacts to really pimp out this hero, and you should. You need to be abusing Fly and Speed 10 to justify the pick over Hrimm. If you're playing defensive and holding back with a 310+artefact point Chimera Lord, you're objectively playing worse than just slapping a 260 point Hrimm behind your front line units and spending the spare 50 points elsewhere. Lord on Chimera is still good if you do play defensively, don't get me wrong this isn't a bad unit it is just that like every combat hero in this list, in the shadow of Hrimm, Ice Giant.

*'''Thegn:''' Hot. Fucking. Garbage. You will only ever see this hero, if you ever see someone field this hero, with the Talanaar's Standard upgrade that gives it Rally (1) and even still a Lord built as a support buffer is higher priority pick. If we rounded up the points and say fielded six of these as one unlocked slot against a single Hrimm, it would still be big icy daddy winning that match-up. Avoid taking without the Rally upgrade, and mock anyone who takes him as anything other than a Rally aura caddy. If you're taking artefacts on this guy, its because you're trying to buff another unit in his range, eg wings of honeymaze for the mobility to support Frostfangs etc.

*'''Thegn on Frostfang:''' Actually not the waste of space as the foot version. For 65 points less than the Lord on Frostfang you go down to regular Inspiring, 3 less attacks, -2/-2 Nerve and only CS2. Has a role in a Frostfang heavy list where you want to have cheaper heroes to support or hunt down exposed units. Running two Frostfang Lords in such a list would be pricey, but 1 Lord and 1 Thegn, or 2 Thegns gives you some flexibility on the points budgeting for your whole list. Not a first pick hero, but cheap enough to throw-in and do something.

*'''Snow Troll Prime:''' Thanks to its pricing, very much comparable to a foot Lord, the Prime trades Very Inspiring for Inspiring, Regeneration (5+), Speed 6 and Vicious (Melee). It does lack Individual being a Monstrous Infantry model, as well as some customization options, but this means he does heavy damage in the flanks. The Prime is better for flanking support for an anvil than a regular Lord.

*'''Skald:''' Nominally the standard version of a dedicated Standard Bearer, the Skald costs half of a foot Lord and brings some throwing axes for range harass. The downside is that the Skald will fucking die if charged and paying twice his cost for a Very Inspiring character that will clap back, the skald is only going to be seen at low point level armies, in the 1,000 or less category. The Skald's weakness is that its bringing only a bubble of Inspiring, some very light range harass to the table for 50 points, in an army where at roughly 100-130 points you can get either the same bubble or the better version, plus decent utility in another field and also be reasonably resilient to targeted attacks. I like the idea of these warrior-poets following the army, but I can't justify taking one really. If you really want to take one, take Clarion instead, despite the cost increase he suddenly becomes more usable for the points.

*'''Ice Blade:''' Squishy melee duelist assassin type of hero. Relies on speed 6 plus Wild Charge (D3) to get into position, and Duelist and CS(1) to threaten targets with her 6 attacks. Good at picking off necromancers and other squishy surge casters. You don't ram this hero into the flanks of an enemy unit to break tarpits, you use her to murder supports.

==Infantry==
*'''Human Clansmen:''' Has Wild Charge 1, Crushing Strength 1 on a 4+ Melee. You can leave them as sword'n'board for 4+ saves, or give them two-handed weapons to go to 3+ Def but Crushing Strength 2. Also one unit can be upgraded to Norj-Bik Clansmen with Def 5+ for +10/+15/+25 but cannot take two-handed weapons. All-in-all a very average unit, could be made into a budget can-opener but you probably should rely on the more expensive units for that role.

*'''Dwarf Clansmen:''' The cheapest unlocks in faction, these guys have a nice 5+ Def for being an anvil, but weirdly Wild Charge (1) too... Not much to say as they don't have any upgrades or any synergy support. Come on Mantic, give us some kind of Dwarf Smith hero.

*'''Elf Clansmen:''' Cheapest ranged infantry, they Move 6", 4+ rng, 24" range, good Nerve and Elite (ranged). The downside is Mel 5+, Def 3+ and no Wild Charge, which isn't useful for shooters but just worth noting they're one of the few units that don't have it.

*'''Ice Naiads:''' Similar to your human clansmen in terms of stats and having Wild Charge 1, but they pack some abilities (Ensnare and Regeneration 5+) and interactions (the Frostbound keyword), gives them a bunch of defensive utility over H-Clansmen. Taking Naiads means you should be building around their synergy with Frost Queens to create tarpits rather than expect any kind of damage output.

*'''Half-Elf Berserkers:''' Just like all berserkers, glass-cannons using thunderous charge (1) and wild charge (D3) to hit in the flanks. Lacking CS means they might need bane-chant support to crack heavier infantry, as they rely on their volume of attacks.

*'''Pack Hunters:''' Human sneaky snipers with Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge 1, Scout & Stealth. Did you guess Wild Charge 1? Because they have that too... These are your moderately priced sneaky skirmishers compared to the elite Elves. Careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Ice Kin Hunters:''' Elven sneaky snipers, Pathfinder, Scout, Elite, but no stealth. These are the more elite skirmishers with 3+ Melee and... 4+ Rng..? Like regular elves, no wild charge. Again, careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Huscarls:''' Your "elite" heavy infantry, Crushing Strength 2, Fury, and of course Wild Charge 1. These guys are your can-openers, your big-boys, use them to clap cheeks and take names.

==Monstrous Infantry==
*'''Snow Trolls:''' The tankier of the two big infantry choices, has Regen (5+), CS (2), Vicious (Melee) and Wild Charge (1). They do suffer from the typical "Troll Nerve" issue where that extra point of difference between their nerve values means they will spend more time wavered.

*'''Ice Elementals:''' Pretty standard big shambling elementals, CS1, Frostbite, Shambling and Ice Shards range attack (10", Piercing (1), Steady Aim) for when you're unable to wholly close the distance. Frostbound keyword and shambling means they '''NEED''' Ice Queen support. Shines with the Double Whammy Surge combo; don't Charge in the movement phase advance instead, shoot their Ice Shards at a target, then Surge them into melee with their target. Easy 18/36 attacks in one turn for your Ice Elementals unit.

==Swarms==
*'''Snow Foxes:*''' Irregular chaff units, move 8, nimble, stealthy, vicious (melee) and pathfinder means you can get them anywhere to block charge lanes and possibly do a tinsy bit of damage. Just be aware, they're Def is 2+ and nerve 9/11, so you're paying 80 points to block a flank charge for a turn. Think of them as an 80 point upgrade for unit that denies say those berserker brock riders a flank charge. Could possibly tarpit troop sized archer units with bad melee, but anything regiment sized or with at least melee 4+ will probably break them in one round. That said if they magically hold for two turns, they've earnt their value back and then some, while your opponent has spent way too long trying to clear them.

==Cavalry==
*'''Tundra Wolves*:''' Its a beginner's mistake to mix these up with Snow Foxes. Tundra Wolves can be used as expensive chaff, but what they bring is thunderous charge (1) and Melee 3+. The Snow Foxes exist to take hits for better units, the Tundra Wolves exist to prey on infantry Troop units or lone Standard Bearers. TC(1) means they can kill smaller chaff and skirmisher units, but their just below average nerve means you need them to win those fights with chaff. Also irregular so no unlocks at the Regiment level.

==Monstrous Cavalry==
*'''Frostfang Cavalry:''' Your real cavalry, your universal hammer unit, the big pricey hammer that deletes whatever it flanks. Move 7" means they're kind of slow compared to traditional cavalry, but they have Strider and Wild Charge 1 which means they're just 1" short on the charge. Packing CS2 and 5 attacks per model (15 at Regiment, 30 at Horde), and Defence 5+ makes these things mean. Their main downside is that they're only swinging on 4+ so focus on patching that with artefacts or flanking for more attacks. A secondary weakness is their nerve is average so a mobile Inspiration bubble (Lord on Horse/Frostfang, or Thegn on Frostfang) should be near if they're operating away from your frontlines. If you're being very reactive with them, they should be in range of the heroes supporting your infantry. Use Snow Foxes or Tundra Wolves for risky dives into the backline if you're not planning on a mobile hero to provide them morale support.

==Monsters==
*'''Cavern Dweller:''' 20 points less than the giant but less offence power with CS3, has Melee 3+ for more consistency. The Cavern Dweller can survive ok with Life-Leech (3) to hold out in protracted combat.

==Titans==
*'''Ice Giant:''' He's big, he slaps hard (CS4, Brutal and melee Slayer ), he's... not Hrimm. Unless you're playing with some ban on named heroes, take daddy Hrimm before one of these. That said still a decent choice for crushing things. Take one if you already have Hrimm, but otherwise you could do worse with your points.

==Warmachines==
*'''Ice Kin Bolt Thrower:''' Your one-and-only artillery piece. Ra 4+ and Elite (ranged) means you're looking at one of the more consistently hitting warmachines in the game.

==Formations==
*'''Orlaf's Raiders:''' 2x Human Clansmen Regiments (must swap sword & shield for two-handed weapons), 1x Orlaf the Barbarian. All units gain the Berserker keyword, the clansmen get Vicious (Melee), and Orlaf gets Inspiring and Aura (Slay (Melee - D3) - Berserker only).

[[Category: Kings of War/Tactics]]

Kings of War/Tactics/Northern Alliance

2023-01-26T11:54:14Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Monstrous Infantry */

A faction made from an alliance of the northern tribes of [[Dwarves]], [[Elves]], [[Naiads]] and [[Humans]] (including from [[Kingdoms of Men|Kingdoms of Men]], [[Brotherhood]] and [[Varangur]]), formed during the Edge of the Abyss to fight the onslaught of the [[Abyssals|Forces of the Abyss]].

==Why Play Northern Alliance==
Because you want to play what is effectively an entire army of good guy [[vikings]], [[Elf|Ice Elf Waifus]], Ice Naiads, Snow Trolls (Yes you can field Snow Trolls, they even have their own Hero Unit), Ice elementals, etc. If that's your thing, these guys are for you.
There is also a Hero unit named the Ice Queen, and since [Kings of War] is a model agnostic game, you have the perfect excuse to have Elsa lead an army of Vikings Ice Elves, Half-elves, and Ice Naiads (Brigade games has a nice Frostgrave miniature that can be used for such a [https://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/FW6001--Young-Fire-Elementalists_p_4429.html purpose]).

==Army Rules==
Snowfox: The unit has +1 Attack, only one a few heroes.

Wild Charge is pretty common on your infantry, which means your units project a slightly larger threat than expected. Most of your heroes have Very Inspiring instead of Inspiring so you can deploy a little more spread out.

There is the "Frostbound" keyword which a few units have for support from your Ice Queen heroes. Its not entirely feasible to go deep on this synergy but makes for a themed army of snow witches and their minions. If you find you're taking several Frostbound units, consider an Ice Queen and deploying them as a group.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*''' Serakina, the Ice Queen:''' Not quite the deluxe version of the Ice Queen, Serakina only packs Surge (8), Wind Blast (6) and +1/+1 nerve. But what makes her standout apart from being 5 points less than an Ice Queen with the same but no Icy Breath, is Radiance of Life (Frostbound only) meaning she will make those Ice Elementals, Frost Giants, and Ice Naiads hold a lot better. Also helps generic Ice-Queens with her abilities, but honestly you should not need to be healing Ice-Queens. Overall not the best pick for a hero unless you build around her support for Frostbound units.

*''' Hrimm, Legendary Frost Giant:''' A 30 point upgrade on your giant, worth taking every time; makes your Ice Giant into a big Very Inspiring hero with -/20 Nerve and Icy Breath (12). This is combined with the standard Ice Giant's CS (4), Brutal, Slayer (Melee -D6), Strider and Defence 5+. Basically you have no reason to take a Giant without upgrading to big daddy Hrimm, and big daddy Hrimm, while your second most pricey Hero, is a damn strong pick. He's not the bar all your other hero picks should be compared to, but he's certainly the bar all your combat heroes should be compared to.

*'''Orlaf the Barbarian:''' Not a hugely attractive option, works for buffing human clansmen in the special formation, but can use his once-a-game ability to swing 12 attacks on target.

*'''Clarion:''' Basically acts as a Skald thats competitive with the other heroes in the 105-130 point bracket instead of being too cheap to merit the stats/abilities to compete like the regular Skald. Probably the 3rd most fielded named character.

===Generic Heroes===
*''' Ice-kin Master hunter:''' You get her in the Shadows of the North starter set for your Northern Alliance army, coming at 115 points her main shtick is being sneaky; having the Pathfinder, Scout, and Stealthy traits along with Elite (because she's an elf) and individual (what did you expect to see in this list?). She is generally a stronger version of the regular Ice-kin hunter stat-wise. Good for hiding in wooded areas with your fellow pathfinders and moving around obstacles with no problem.

*''' Ice Queen:''' Basically the Mantic equivalent to Kislev's [[Ice Witch|Ice Witches]]. Cheaper than the Master hunter above, coming at 80 points. Comes with a Defense 4 which in Melee becomes a 5 with Ensnare's effect on enemy melee, the usual bonuses to being an individual unit, but [[Rage|only gives inspiring to Frostbound units]], luckily the Very Inspiring trait doesn't seem to be affected by this limitation. She also has the Master of Ice trait which allows her to reroll 1's on spells targeting friendly Frostbound units or Frozen enemy units. Her starting spell is Icy Breath(10), so you can say she'll "blow" you away ([[PROMOTIONS|NO! NOT LIKE THAT!]]), the effect of the spell is and I quote "Roll to damage as normal. If 1+ damage is dealt, the target Enemy unit is now Frozen. (KoW3 p54)" so it's your basic ice attack with a range of 10 inches. For extra spells, you get Bane Chant for +20 points (like every spell caster apparently), Blizzard for +30 points (an indirect spell with a 30 inch range and Piercing 1 that lets you roll a D3 for every successful hit landed), Heal for 35 points (making her your main healer), Wind Blast for 25 points (I already made the blow you away joke), and you can either pair Icy Breath with Surge or replace it with Surge.
TLDR: She seems like a cheap choice for a healer, especially if you field Frostbound in your army with the Master of Ice trait.

*''' Lord:''' Your standard combat hero character, having CS(2) makes them hit a little harder. You can mount them on a horse which drops WC(1) for Speed 8, but honestly lets cut to the chase: This isn't going to be your beatstick hero, you should be taking them for the 10pt upgrade that gives them an Aura of Wild Charge (+1, Infantry & Heavy Infantry only) which stacks with existing WC on those units, your next choice is what support item to stick on them, think of these guys are punchy Standard Bearers. If you want a beatstick, take Hrimm, if you want a wizard, take an Ice Queen, you want to support some infantry blocks take a foot/horse Lord with Horn of Winter. That said, you can use one with Wings of Honeymaze to hunt down squishy wizards and warmachine crews.

*'''Lord on Frostfang:''' Now this is someone who's out to clap some cheeks. Crushing Strength (3), 3+ Melee and 8 attacks is the basics for a beatstick. The catch here is that a Frostfang Lord lacks Individual, so they can flank units and slap hard, but they can also get flanked themselves. Now for the Hrimm test; for 70 points less than big icy daddy you get a hero who has a slightly larger threat radius, less CS & Nerve, but better Melee and Artefact options. We take the Frostfang Lord as either mobile support to a Frostfang unit hitting flanks, or as a hunter-killer missile trying to get behind screens to hit missile units or war machines. Sending

*'''Lord on Chimera:''' Mobile, deadly, pricy. The Lord on Chimera is the most expensive unit in Northern Alliance, its a fast hammer with CS3, Fly, Icy Breath (10), Nimble, Very Inspiring and Elite(Melee). Stats are great, better than the Frostfang Lord, which they should be for being just shy of 3 times the price. But here comes the real question: Why pick a Chimera Lord over Hrimm who costs 50pts less and has CS4? The answer is simple, the Lord on Chimera is better than Hrimm if you're being aggressive and using his mobility to pick off priority targets and swing deciding fights in your favour. You can sink more points for artefacts to really pimp out this hero, and you should. You need to be abusing Fly and Speed 10 to justify the pick over Hrimm. If you're playing defensive and holding back with a 310+artefact point Chimera Lord, you're objectively playing worse than just slapping a 260 point Hrimm behind your front line units and spending the spare 50 points elsewhere. Lord on Chimera is still good if you do play defensively, don't get me wrong this isn't a bad unit it is just that like every combat hero in this list, in the shadow of Hrimm, Ice Giant.

*'''Thegn:''' Hot. Fucking. Garbage. You will only ever see this hero, if you ever see someone field this hero, with the Talanaar's Standard upgrade that gives it Rally (1) and even still a Lord built as a support buffer is higher priority pick. If we rounded up the points and say fielded six of these as one unlocked slot against a single Hrimm, it would still be big icy daddy winning that match-up. Avoid taking without the Rally upgrade, and mock anyone who takes him as anything other than a Rally aura caddy. If you're taking artefacts on this guy, its because you're trying to buff another unit in his range, eg wings of honeymaze for the mobility to support Frostfangs etc.

*'''Thegn on Frostfang:''' Actually not the waste of space as the foot version. For 65 points less than the Lord on Frostfang you go down to regular Inspiring, 3 less attacks, -2/-2 Nerve and only CS2. Has a role in a Frostfang heavy list where you want to have cheaper heroes to support or hunt down exposed units. Running two Frostfang Lords in such a list would be pricey, but 1 Lord and 1 Thegn, or 2 Thegns gives you some flexibility on the points budgeting for your whole list. Not a first pick hero, but cheap enough to throw-in and do something.

*'''Snow Troll Prime:''' Thanks to its pricing, very much comparable to a foot Lord, the Prime trades Very Inspiring for Inspiring, Regeneration (5+), Speed 6 and Vicious (Melee). It does lack Individual being a Monstrous Infantry model, as well as some customization options. Would be an ok alternative to the foot Lord as a combat hero except for the fact that we don't take foot Lords as beatstick but as support buffers. Again we stand, in the shadow of Hrimm, and are just left wanting. Thematically cool for running an ice troll themed list but needs just a little extra to beat daddy Hrimm.

*'''Skald:''' Nominally the standard version of a dedicated Standard Bearer, the Skald costs half of a foot Lord and brings some throwing axes for range harass. The downside is that the Skald will fucking die if charged and paying twice his cost for a Very Inspiring character that will clap back, the skald is only going to be seen at low point level armies, in the 1,000 or less category. The Skald's weakness is that its bringing only a bubble of Inspiring, some very light range harass to the table for 50 points, in an army where at roughly 100-130 points you can get either the same bubble or the better version, plus decent utility in another field and also be reasonably resilient to targeted attacks. I like the idea of these warrior-poets following the army, but I can't justify taking one really. If you really want to take one, take Clarion instead, despite the cost increase he suddenly becomes more usable for the points.

*'''Ice Blade:''' Squishy melee duelist assassin type of hero. Relies on speed 6 plus Wild Charge (D3) to get into position, and Duelist and CS(1) to threaten targets with her 6 attacks. Good at picking off necromancers and other squishy surge casters. You don't ram this hero into the flanks of an enemy unit to break tarpits, you use her to murder supports.

==Infantry==
*'''Human Clansmen:''' Has Wild Charge 1, Crushing Strength 1 on a 4+ Melee. You can leave them as sword'n'board for 4+ saves, or give them two-handed weapons to go to 3+ Def but Crushing Strength 2. Also one unit can be upgraded to Norj-Bik Clansmen with Def 5+ for +10/+15/+25 but cannot take two-handed weapons. All-in-all a very average unit, could be made into a budget can-opener but you probably should rely on the more expensive units for that role.

*'''Dwarf Clansmen:''' The cheapest unlocks in faction, these guys have a nice 5+ Def for being an anvil, but weirdly Wild Charge (1) too... Not much to say as they don't have any upgrades or any synergy support. Come on Mantic, give us some kind of Dwarf Smith hero.

*'''Elf Clansmen:''' Cheapest ranged infantry, they Move 6", 4+ rng, 24" range, good Nerve and Elite (ranged). The downside is Mel 5+, Def 3+ and no Wild Charge, which isn't useful for shooters but just worth noting they're one of the few units that don't have it.

*'''Ice Naiads:''' Similar to your human clansmen in terms of stats and having Wild Charge 1, but they pack some abilities (Ensnare and Regeneration 5+) and interactions (the Frostbound keyword), gives them a bunch of defensive utility over H-Clansmen. Taking Naiads means you should be building around their synergy with Frost Queens to create tarpits rather than expect any kind of damage output.

*'''Half-Elf Berserkers:''' Just like all berserkers, glass-cannons using thunderous charge (1) and wild charge (D3) to hit in the flanks. Lacking CS means they might need bane-chant support to crack heavier infantry, as they rely on their volume of attacks.

*'''Pack Hunters:''' Human sneaky snipers with Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge 1, Scout & Stealth. Did you guess Wild Charge 1? Because they have that too... These are your moderately priced sneaky skirmishers compared to the elite Elves. Careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Ice Kin Hunters:''' Elven sneaky snipers, Pathfinder, Scout, Elite, but no stealth. These are the more elite skirmishers with 3+ Melee and... 4+ Rng..? Like regular elves, no wild charge. Again, careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Huscarls:''' Your "elite" heavy infantry, Crushing Strength 2, Fury, and of course Wild Charge 1. These guys are your can-openers, your big-boys, use them to clap cheeks and take names.

==Monstrous Infantry==
*'''Snow Trolls:''' The tankier of the two big infantry choices, has Regen (5+), CS (2), Vicious (Melee) and Wild Charge (1). They do suffer from the typical "Troll Nerve" issue where that extra point of difference between their nerve values means they will spend more time wavered.

*'''Ice Elementals:''' Pretty standard big shambling elementals, CS1, Frostbite, Shambling and Ice Shards range attack (10", Piercing (1), Steady Aim) for when you're unable to wholly close the distance. Frostbound keyword and shambling means they '''NEED''' Ice Queen support. Shines with the Double Whammy Surge combo; don't Charge in the movement phase advance instead, shoot their Ice Shards at a target, then Surge them into melee with their target. Easy 18/36 attacks in one turn for your Ice Elementals unit.

==Swarms==
*'''Snow Foxes:*''' Irregular chaff units, move 8, nimble, stealthy, vicious (melee) and pathfinder means you can get them anywhere to block charge lanes and possibly do a tinsy bit of damage. Just be aware, they're Def is 2+ and nerve 9/11, so you're paying 80 points to block a flank charge for a turn. Think of them as an 80 point upgrade for unit that denies say those berserker brock riders a flank charge. Could possibly tarpit troop sized archer units with bad melee, but anything regiment sized or with at least melee 4+ will probably break them in one round. That said if they magically hold for two turns, they've earnt their value back and then some, while your opponent has spent way too long trying to clear them.

==Cavalry==
*'''Tundra Wolves*:''' Its a beginner's mistake to mix these up with Snow Foxes. Tundra Wolves can be used as expensive chaff, but what they bring is thunderous charge (1) and Melee 3+. The Snow Foxes exist to take hits for better units, the Tundra Wolves exist to prey on infantry Troop units or lone Standard Bearers. TC(1) means they can kill smaller chaff and skirmisher units, but their just below average nerve means you need them to win those fights with chaff. Also irregular so no unlocks at the Regiment level.

==Monstrous Cavalry==
*'''Frostfang Cavalry:''' Your real cavalry, your universal hammer unit, the big pricey hammer that deletes whatever it flanks. Move 7" means they're kind of slow compared to traditional cavalry, but they have Strider and Wild Charge 1 which means they're just 1" short on the charge. Packing CS2 and 5 attacks per model (15 at Regiment, 30 at Horde), and Defence 5+ makes these things mean. Their main downside is that they're only swinging on 4+ so focus on patching that with artefacts or flanking for more attacks. A secondary weakness is their nerve is average so a mobile Inspiration bubble (Lord on Horse/Frostfang, or Thegn on Frostfang) should be near if they're operating away from your frontlines. If you're being very reactive with them, they should be in range of the heroes supporting your infantry. Use Snow Foxes or Tundra Wolves for risky dives into the backline if you're not planning on a mobile hero to provide them morale support.

==Monsters==
*'''Cavern Dweller:''' 20 points less than the giant but less offence power with CS3, has Melee 3+ for more consistency. The Cavern Dweller can survive ok with Life-Leech (3) to hold out in protracted combat.

==Titans==
*'''Ice Giant:''' He's big, he slaps hard (CS4, Brutal and melee Slayer ), he's... not Hrimm. Unless you're playing with some ban on named heroes, take daddy Hrimm before one of these. That said still a decent choice for crushing things. Take one if you already have Hrimm, but otherwise you could do worse with your points.

==Warmachines==
*'''Ice Kin Bolt Thrower:''' Your one-and-only artillery piece. Ra 4+ and Elite (ranged) means you're looking at one of the more consistently hitting warmachines in the game.

==Formations==
*'''Orlaf's Raiders:''' 2x Human Clansmen Regiments (must swap sword & shield for two-handed weapons), 1x Orlaf the Barbarian. All units gain the Berserker keyword, the clansmen get Vicious (Melee), and Orlaf gets Inspiring and Aura (Slay (Melee - D3) - Berserker only).

[[Category: Kings of War/Tactics]]

Kings of War/Tactics/Northern Alliance

2023-01-26T11:53:24Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Monstrous Infantry */

A faction made from an alliance of the northern tribes of [[Dwarves]], [[Elves]], [[Naiads]] and [[Humans]] (including from [[Kingdoms of Men|Kingdoms of Men]], [[Brotherhood]] and [[Varangur]]), formed during the Edge of the Abyss to fight the onslaught of the [[Abyssals|Forces of the Abyss]].

==Why Play Northern Alliance==
Because you want to play what is effectively an entire army of good guy [[vikings]], [[Elf|Ice Elf Waifus]], Ice Naiads, Snow Trolls (Yes you can field Snow Trolls, they even have their own Hero Unit), Ice elementals, etc. If that's your thing, these guys are for you.
There is also a Hero unit named the Ice Queen, and since [Kings of War] is a model agnostic game, you have the perfect excuse to have Elsa lead an army of Vikings Ice Elves, Half-elves, and Ice Naiads (Brigade games has a nice Frostgrave miniature that can be used for such a [https://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/FW6001--Young-Fire-Elementalists_p_4429.html purpose]).

==Army Rules==
Snowfox: The unit has +1 Attack, only one a few heroes.

Wild Charge is pretty common on your infantry, which means your units project a slightly larger threat than expected. Most of your heroes have Very Inspiring instead of Inspiring so you can deploy a little more spread out.

There is the "Frostbound" keyword which a few units have for support from your Ice Queen heroes. Its not entirely feasible to go deep on this synergy but makes for a themed army of snow witches and their minions. If you find you're taking several Frostbound units, consider an Ice Queen and deploying them as a group.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*''' Serakina, the Ice Queen:''' Not quite the deluxe version of the Ice Queen, Serakina only packs Surge (8), Wind Blast (6) and +1/+1 nerve. But what makes her standout apart from being 5 points less than an Ice Queen with the same but no Icy Breath, is Radiance of Life (Frostbound only) meaning she will make those Ice Elementals, Frost Giants, and Ice Naiads hold a lot better. Also helps generic Ice-Queens with her abilities, but honestly you should not need to be healing Ice-Queens. Overall not the best pick for a hero unless you build around her support for Frostbound units.

*''' Hrimm, Legendary Frost Giant:''' A 30 point upgrade on your giant, worth taking every time; makes your Ice Giant into a big Very Inspiring hero with -/20 Nerve and Icy Breath (12). This is combined with the standard Ice Giant's CS (4), Brutal, Slayer (Melee -D6), Strider and Defence 5+. Basically you have no reason to take a Giant without upgrading to big daddy Hrimm, and big daddy Hrimm, while your second most pricey Hero, is a damn strong pick. He's not the bar all your other hero picks should be compared to, but he's certainly the bar all your combat heroes should be compared to.

*'''Orlaf the Barbarian:''' Not a hugely attractive option, works for buffing human clansmen in the special formation, but can use his once-a-game ability to swing 12 attacks on target.

*'''Clarion:''' Basically acts as a Skald thats competitive with the other heroes in the 105-130 point bracket instead of being too cheap to merit the stats/abilities to compete like the regular Skald. Probably the 3rd most fielded named character.

===Generic Heroes===
*''' Ice-kin Master hunter:''' You get her in the Shadows of the North starter set for your Northern Alliance army, coming at 115 points her main shtick is being sneaky; having the Pathfinder, Scout, and Stealthy traits along with Elite (because she's an elf) and individual (what did you expect to see in this list?). She is generally a stronger version of the regular Ice-kin hunter stat-wise. Good for hiding in wooded areas with your fellow pathfinders and moving around obstacles with no problem.

*''' Ice Queen:''' Basically the Mantic equivalent to Kislev's [[Ice Witch|Ice Witches]]. Cheaper than the Master hunter above, coming at 80 points. Comes with a Defense 4 which in Melee becomes a 5 with Ensnare's effect on enemy melee, the usual bonuses to being an individual unit, but [[Rage|only gives inspiring to Frostbound units]], luckily the Very Inspiring trait doesn't seem to be affected by this limitation. She also has the Master of Ice trait which allows her to reroll 1's on spells targeting friendly Frostbound units or Frozen enemy units. Her starting spell is Icy Breath(10), so you can say she'll "blow" you away ([[PROMOTIONS|NO! NOT LIKE THAT!]]), the effect of the spell is and I quote "Roll to damage as normal. If 1+ damage is dealt, the target Enemy unit is now Frozen. (KoW3 p54)" so it's your basic ice attack with a range of 10 inches. For extra spells, you get Bane Chant for +20 points (like every spell caster apparently), Blizzard for +30 points (an indirect spell with a 30 inch range and Piercing 1 that lets you roll a D3 for every successful hit landed), Heal for 35 points (making her your main healer), Wind Blast for 25 points (I already made the blow you away joke), and you can either pair Icy Breath with Surge or replace it with Surge.
TLDR: She seems like a cheap choice for a healer, especially if you field Frostbound in your army with the Master of Ice trait.

*''' Lord:''' Your standard combat hero character, having CS(2) makes them hit a little harder. You can mount them on a horse which drops WC(1) for Speed 8, but honestly lets cut to the chase: This isn't going to be your beatstick hero, you should be taking them for the 10pt upgrade that gives them an Aura of Wild Charge (+1, Infantry & Heavy Infantry only) which stacks with existing WC on those units, your next choice is what support item to stick on them, think of these guys are punchy Standard Bearers. If you want a beatstick, take Hrimm, if you want a wizard, take an Ice Queen, you want to support some infantry blocks take a foot/horse Lord with Horn of Winter. That said, you can use one with Wings of Honeymaze to hunt down squishy wizards and warmachine crews.

*'''Lord on Frostfang:''' Now this is someone who's out to clap some cheeks. Crushing Strength (3), 3+ Melee and 8 attacks is the basics for a beatstick. The catch here is that a Frostfang Lord lacks Individual, so they can flank units and slap hard, but they can also get flanked themselves. Now for the Hrimm test; for 70 points less than big icy daddy you get a hero who has a slightly larger threat radius, less CS & Nerve, but better Melee and Artefact options. We take the Frostfang Lord as either mobile support to a Frostfang unit hitting flanks, or as a hunter-killer missile trying to get behind screens to hit missile units or war machines. Sending

*'''Lord on Chimera:''' Mobile, deadly, pricy. The Lord on Chimera is the most expensive unit in Northern Alliance, its a fast hammer with CS3, Fly, Icy Breath (10), Nimble, Very Inspiring and Elite(Melee). Stats are great, better than the Frostfang Lord, which they should be for being just shy of 3 times the price. But here comes the real question: Why pick a Chimera Lord over Hrimm who costs 50pts less and has CS4? The answer is simple, the Lord on Chimera is better than Hrimm if you're being aggressive and using his mobility to pick off priority targets and swing deciding fights in your favour. You can sink more points for artefacts to really pimp out this hero, and you should. You need to be abusing Fly and Speed 10 to justify the pick over Hrimm. If you're playing defensive and holding back with a 310+artefact point Chimera Lord, you're objectively playing worse than just slapping a 260 point Hrimm behind your front line units and spending the spare 50 points elsewhere. Lord on Chimera is still good if you do play defensively, don't get me wrong this isn't a bad unit it is just that like every combat hero in this list, in the shadow of Hrimm, Ice Giant.

*'''Thegn:''' Hot. Fucking. Garbage. You will only ever see this hero, if you ever see someone field this hero, with the Talanaar's Standard upgrade that gives it Rally (1) and even still a Lord built as a support buffer is higher priority pick. If we rounded up the points and say fielded six of these as one unlocked slot against a single Hrimm, it would still be big icy daddy winning that match-up. Avoid taking without the Rally upgrade, and mock anyone who takes him as anything other than a Rally aura caddy. If you're taking artefacts on this guy, its because you're trying to buff another unit in his range, eg wings of honeymaze for the mobility to support Frostfangs etc.

*'''Thegn on Frostfang:''' Actually not the waste of space as the foot version. For 65 points less than the Lord on Frostfang you go down to regular Inspiring, 3 less attacks, -2/-2 Nerve and only CS2. Has a role in a Frostfang heavy list where you want to have cheaper heroes to support or hunt down exposed units. Running two Frostfang Lords in such a list would be pricey, but 1 Lord and 1 Thegn, or 2 Thegns gives you some flexibility on the points budgeting for your whole list. Not a first pick hero, but cheap enough to throw-in and do something.

*'''Snow Troll Prime:''' Thanks to its pricing, very much comparable to a foot Lord, the Prime trades Very Inspiring for Inspiring, Regeneration (5+), Speed 6 and Vicious (Melee). It does lack Individual being a Monstrous Infantry model, as well as some customization options. Would be an ok alternative to the foot Lord as a combat hero except for the fact that we don't take foot Lords as beatstick but as support buffers. Again we stand, in the shadow of Hrimm, and are just left wanting. Thematically cool for running an ice troll themed list but needs just a little extra to beat daddy Hrimm.

*'''Skald:''' Nominally the standard version of a dedicated Standard Bearer, the Skald costs half of a foot Lord and brings some throwing axes for range harass. The downside is that the Skald will fucking die if charged and paying twice his cost for a Very Inspiring character that will clap back, the skald is only going to be seen at low point level armies, in the 1,000 or less category. The Skald's weakness is that its bringing only a bubble of Inspiring, some very light range harass to the table for 50 points, in an army where at roughly 100-130 points you can get either the same bubble or the better version, plus decent utility in another field and also be reasonably resilient to targeted attacks. I like the idea of these warrior-poets following the army, but I can't justify taking one really. If you really want to take one, take Clarion instead, despite the cost increase he suddenly becomes more usable for the points.

*'''Ice Blade:''' Squishy melee duelist assassin type of hero. Relies on speed 6 plus Wild Charge (D3) to get into position, and Duelist and CS(1) to threaten targets with her 6 attacks. Good at picking off necromancers and other squishy surge casters. You don't ram this hero into the flanks of an enemy unit to break tarpits, you use her to murder supports.

==Infantry==
*'''Human Clansmen:''' Has Wild Charge 1, Crushing Strength 1 on a 4+ Melee. You can leave them as sword'n'board for 4+ saves, or give them two-handed weapons to go to 3+ Def but Crushing Strength 2. Also one unit can be upgraded to Norj-Bik Clansmen with Def 5+ for +10/+15/+25 but cannot take two-handed weapons. All-in-all a very average unit, could be made into a budget can-opener but you probably should rely on the more expensive units for that role.

*'''Dwarf Clansmen:''' The cheapest unlocks in faction, these guys have a nice 5+ Def for being an anvil, but weirdly Wild Charge (1) too... Not much to say as they don't have any upgrades or any synergy support. Come on Mantic, give us some kind of Dwarf Smith hero.

*'''Elf Clansmen:''' Cheapest ranged infantry, they Move 6", 4+ rng, 24" range, good Nerve and Elite (ranged). The downside is Mel 5+, Def 3+ and no Wild Charge, which isn't useful for shooters but just worth noting they're one of the few units that don't have it.

*'''Ice Naiads:''' Similar to your human clansmen in terms of stats and having Wild Charge 1, but they pack some abilities (Ensnare and Regeneration 5+) and interactions (the Frostbound keyword), gives them a bunch of defensive utility over H-Clansmen. Taking Naiads means you should be building around their synergy with Frost Queens to create tarpits rather than expect any kind of damage output.

*'''Half-Elf Berserkers:''' Just like all berserkers, glass-cannons using thunderous charge (1) and wild charge (D3) to hit in the flanks. Lacking CS means they might need bane-chant support to crack heavier infantry, as they rely on their volume of attacks.

*'''Pack Hunters:''' Human sneaky snipers with Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge 1, Scout & Stealth. Did you guess Wild Charge 1? Because they have that too... These are your moderately priced sneaky skirmishers compared to the elite Elves. Careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Ice Kin Hunters:''' Elven sneaky snipers, Pathfinder, Scout, Elite, but no stealth. These are the more elite skirmishers with 3+ Melee and... 4+ Rng..? Like regular elves, no wild charge. Again, careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Huscarls:''' Your "elite" heavy infantry, Crushing Strength 2, Fury, and of course Wild Charge 1. These guys are your can-openers, your big-boys, use them to clap cheeks and take names.

==Monstrous Infantry==
*'''Snow Trolls:''' The tankier of the two big infantry choices, has Regen (5+), CS (2), Vicious (Melee) and Wild Charge (1). They do suffer from the typical "Troll Nerve" issue where that extra point of difference between their nerve values means they will spend more time .

*'''Ice Elementals:''' Pretty standard big shambling elementals, CS1, Frostbite, Shambling and Ice Shards range attack (10", Piercing (1), Steady Aim) for when you're unable to wholly close the distance. Frostbound keyword and shambling means they '''NEED''' Ice Queen support. Shines with the Double Whammy Surge combo; don't Charge in the movement phase advance instead, shoot their Ice Shards at a target, then Surge them into melee with their target. Easy 18/36 attacks in one turn for your Ice Elementals unit.

==Swarms==
*'''Snow Foxes:*''' Irregular chaff units, move 8, nimble, stealthy, vicious (melee) and pathfinder means you can get them anywhere to block charge lanes and possibly do a tinsy bit of damage. Just be aware, they're Def is 2+ and nerve 9/11, so you're paying 80 points to block a flank charge for a turn. Think of them as an 80 point upgrade for unit that denies say those berserker brock riders a flank charge. Could possibly tarpit troop sized archer units with bad melee, but anything regiment sized or with at least melee 4+ will probably break them in one round. That said if they magically hold for two turns, they've earnt their value back and then some, while your opponent has spent way too long trying to clear them.

==Cavalry==
*'''Tundra Wolves*:''' Its a beginner's mistake to mix these up with Snow Foxes. Tundra Wolves can be used as expensive chaff, but what they bring is thunderous charge (1) and Melee 3+. The Snow Foxes exist to take hits for better units, the Tundra Wolves exist to prey on infantry Troop units or lone Standard Bearers. TC(1) means they can kill smaller chaff and skirmisher units, but their just below average nerve means you need them to win those fights with chaff. Also irregular so no unlocks at the Regiment level.

==Monstrous Cavalry==
*'''Frostfang Cavalry:''' Your real cavalry, your universal hammer unit, the big pricey hammer that deletes whatever it flanks. Move 7" means they're kind of slow compared to traditional cavalry, but they have Strider and Wild Charge 1 which means they're just 1" short on the charge. Packing CS2 and 5 attacks per model (15 at Regiment, 30 at Horde), and Defence 5+ makes these things mean. Their main downside is that they're only swinging on 4+ so focus on patching that with artefacts or flanking for more attacks. A secondary weakness is their nerve is average so a mobile Inspiration bubble (Lord on Horse/Frostfang, or Thegn on Frostfang) should be near if they're operating away from your frontlines. If you're being very reactive with them, they should be in range of the heroes supporting your infantry. Use Snow Foxes or Tundra Wolves for risky dives into the backline if you're not planning on a mobile hero to provide them morale support.

==Monsters==
*'''Cavern Dweller:''' 20 points less than the giant but less offence power with CS3, has Melee 3+ for more consistency. The Cavern Dweller can survive ok with Life-Leech (3) to hold out in protracted combat.

==Titans==
*'''Ice Giant:''' He's big, he slaps hard (CS4, Brutal and melee Slayer ), he's... not Hrimm. Unless you're playing with some ban on named heroes, take daddy Hrimm before one of these. That said still a decent choice for crushing things. Take one if you already have Hrimm, but otherwise you could do worse with your points.

==Warmachines==
*'''Ice Kin Bolt Thrower:''' Your one-and-only artillery piece. Ra 4+ and Elite (ranged) means you're looking at one of the more consistently hitting warmachines in the game.

==Formations==
*'''Orlaf's Raiders:''' 2x Human Clansmen Regiments (must swap sword & shield for two-handed weapons), 1x Orlaf the Barbarian. All units gain the Berserker keyword, the clansmen get Vicious (Melee), and Orlaf gets Inspiring and Aura (Slay (Melee - D3) - Berserker only).

[[Category: Kings of War/Tactics]]

Kings of War/Tactics/Northern Alliance

2023-01-26T11:43:54Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Generic Heroes */

A faction made from an alliance of the northern tribes of [[Dwarves]], [[Elves]], [[Naiads]] and [[Humans]] (including from [[Kingdoms of Men|Kingdoms of Men]], [[Brotherhood]] and [[Varangur]]), formed during the Edge of the Abyss to fight the onslaught of the [[Abyssals|Forces of the Abyss]].

==Why Play Northern Alliance==
Because you want to play what is effectively an entire army of good guy [[vikings]], [[Elf|Ice Elf Waifus]], Ice Naiads, Snow Trolls (Yes you can field Snow Trolls, they even have their own Hero Unit), Ice elementals, etc. If that's your thing, these guys are for you.
There is also a Hero unit named the Ice Queen, and since [Kings of War] is a model agnostic game, you have the perfect excuse to have Elsa lead an army of Vikings Ice Elves, Half-elves, and Ice Naiads (Brigade games has a nice Frostgrave miniature that can be used for such a [https://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/FW6001--Young-Fire-Elementalists_p_4429.html purpose]).

==Army Rules==
Snowfox: The unit has +1 Attack, only one a few heroes.

Wild Charge is pretty common on your infantry, which means your units project a slightly larger threat than expected. Most of your heroes have Very Inspiring instead of Inspiring so you can deploy a little more spread out.

There is the "Frostbound" keyword which a few units have for support from your Ice Queen heroes. Its not entirely feasible to go deep on this synergy but makes for a themed army of snow witches and their minions. If you find you're taking several Frostbound units, consider an Ice Queen and deploying them as a group.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*''' Serakina, the Ice Queen:''' Not quite the deluxe version of the Ice Queen, Serakina only packs Surge (8), Wind Blast (6) and +1/+1 nerve. But what makes her standout apart from being 5 points less than an Ice Queen with the same but no Icy Breath, is Radiance of Life (Frostbound only) meaning she will make those Ice Elementals, Frost Giants, and Ice Naiads hold a lot better. Also helps generic Ice-Queens with her abilities, but honestly you should not need to be healing Ice-Queens. Overall not the best pick for a hero unless you build around her support for Frostbound units.

*''' Hrimm, Legendary Frost Giant:''' A 30 point upgrade on your giant, worth taking every time; makes your Ice Giant into a big Very Inspiring hero with -/20 Nerve and Icy Breath (12). This is combined with the standard Ice Giant's CS (4), Brutal, Slayer (Melee -D6), Strider and Defence 5+. Basically you have no reason to take a Giant without upgrading to big daddy Hrimm, and big daddy Hrimm, while your second most pricey Hero, is a damn strong pick. He's not the bar all your other hero picks should be compared to, but he's certainly the bar all your combat heroes should be compared to.

*'''Orlaf the Barbarian:''' Not a hugely attractive option, works for buffing human clansmen in the special formation, but can use his once-a-game ability to swing 12 attacks on target.

*'''Clarion:''' Basically acts as a Skald thats competitive with the other heroes in the 105-130 point bracket instead of being too cheap to merit the stats/abilities to compete like the regular Skald. Probably the 3rd most fielded named character.

===Generic Heroes===
*''' Ice-kin Master hunter:''' You get her in the Shadows of the North starter set for your Northern Alliance army, coming at 115 points her main shtick is being sneaky; having the Pathfinder, Scout, and Stealthy traits along with Elite (because she's an elf) and individual (what did you expect to see in this list?). She is generally a stronger version of the regular Ice-kin hunter stat-wise. Good for hiding in wooded areas with your fellow pathfinders and moving around obstacles with no problem.

*''' Ice Queen:''' Basically the Mantic equivalent to Kislev's [[Ice Witch|Ice Witches]]. Cheaper than the Master hunter above, coming at 80 points. Comes with a Defense 4 which in Melee becomes a 5 with Ensnare's effect on enemy melee, the usual bonuses to being an individual unit, but [[Rage|only gives inspiring to Frostbound units]], luckily the Very Inspiring trait doesn't seem to be affected by this limitation. She also has the Master of Ice trait which allows her to reroll 1's on spells targeting friendly Frostbound units or Frozen enemy units. Her starting spell is Icy Breath(10), so you can say she'll "blow" you away ([[PROMOTIONS|NO! NOT LIKE THAT!]]), the effect of the spell is and I quote "Roll to damage as normal. If 1+ damage is dealt, the target Enemy unit is now Frozen. (KoW3 p54)" so it's your basic ice attack with a range of 10 inches. For extra spells, you get Bane Chant for +20 points (like every spell caster apparently), Blizzard for +30 points (an indirect spell with a 30 inch range and Piercing 1 that lets you roll a D3 for every successful hit landed), Heal for 35 points (making her your main healer), Wind Blast for 25 points (I already made the blow you away joke), and you can either pair Icy Breath with Surge or replace it with Surge.
TLDR: She seems like a cheap choice for a healer, especially if you field Frostbound in your army with the Master of Ice trait.

*''' Lord:''' Your standard combat hero character, having CS(2) makes them hit a little harder. You can mount them on a horse which drops WC(1) for Speed 8, but honestly lets cut to the chase: This isn't going to be your beatstick hero, you should be taking them for the 10pt upgrade that gives them an Aura of Wild Charge (+1, Infantry & Heavy Infantry only) which stacks with existing WC on those units, your next choice is what support item to stick on them, think of these guys are punchy Standard Bearers. If you want a beatstick, take Hrimm, if you want a wizard, take an Ice Queen, you want to support some infantry blocks take a foot/horse Lord with Horn of Winter. That said, you can use one with Wings of Honeymaze to hunt down squishy wizards and warmachine crews.

*'''Lord on Frostfang:''' Now this is someone who's out to clap some cheeks. Crushing Strength (3), 3+ Melee and 8 attacks is the basics for a beatstick. The catch here is that a Frostfang Lord lacks Individual, so they can flank units and slap hard, but they can also get flanked themselves. Now for the Hrimm test; for 70 points less than big icy daddy you get a hero who has a slightly larger threat radius, less CS & Nerve, but better Melee and Artefact options. We take the Frostfang Lord as either mobile support to a Frostfang unit hitting flanks, or as a hunter-killer missile trying to get behind screens to hit missile units or war machines. Sending

*'''Lord on Chimera:''' Mobile, deadly, pricy. The Lord on Chimera is the most expensive unit in Northern Alliance, its a fast hammer with CS3, Fly, Icy Breath (10), Nimble, Very Inspiring and Elite(Melee). Stats are great, better than the Frostfang Lord, which they should be for being just shy of 3 times the price. But here comes the real question: Why pick a Chimera Lord over Hrimm who costs 50pts less and has CS4? The answer is simple, the Lord on Chimera is better than Hrimm if you're being aggressive and using his mobility to pick off priority targets and swing deciding fights in your favour. You can sink more points for artefacts to really pimp out this hero, and you should. You need to be abusing Fly and Speed 10 to justify the pick over Hrimm. If you're playing defensive and holding back with a 310+artefact point Chimera Lord, you're objectively playing worse than just slapping a 260 point Hrimm behind your front line units and spending the spare 50 points elsewhere. Lord on Chimera is still good if you do play defensively, don't get me wrong this isn't a bad unit it is just that like every combat hero in this list, in the shadow of Hrimm, Ice Giant.

*'''Thegn:''' Hot. Fucking. Garbage. You will only ever see this hero, if you ever see someone field this hero, with the Talanaar's Standard upgrade that gives it Rally (1) and even still a Lord built as a support buffer is higher priority pick. If we rounded up the points and say fielded six of these as one unlocked slot against a single Hrimm, it would still be big icy daddy winning that match-up. Avoid taking without the Rally upgrade, and mock anyone who takes him as anything other than a Rally aura caddy. If you're taking artefacts on this guy, its because you're trying to buff another unit in his range, eg wings of honeymaze for the mobility to support Frostfangs etc.

*'''Thegn on Frostfang:''' Actually not the waste of space as the foot version. For 65 points less than the Lord on Frostfang you go down to regular Inspiring, 3 less attacks, -2/-2 Nerve and only CS2. Has a role in a Frostfang heavy list where you want to have cheaper heroes to support or hunt down exposed units. Running two Frostfang Lords in such a list would be pricey, but 1 Lord and 1 Thegn, or 2 Thegns gives you some flexibility on the points budgeting for your whole list. Not a first pick hero, but cheap enough to throw-in and do something.

*'''Snow Troll Prime:''' Thanks to its pricing, very much comparable to a foot Lord, the Prime trades Very Inspiring for Inspiring, Regeneration (5+), Speed 6 and Vicious (Melee). It does lack Individual being a Monstrous Infantry model, as well as some customization options. Would be an ok alternative to the foot Lord as a combat hero except for the fact that we don't take foot Lords as beatstick but as support buffers. Again we stand, in the shadow of Hrimm, and are just left wanting. Thematically cool for running an ice troll themed list but needs just a little extra to beat daddy Hrimm.

*'''Skald:''' Nominally the standard version of a dedicated Standard Bearer, the Skald costs half of a foot Lord and brings some throwing axes for range harass. The downside is that the Skald will fucking die if charged and paying twice his cost for a Very Inspiring character that will clap back, the skald is only going to be seen at low point level armies, in the 1,000 or less category. The Skald's weakness is that its bringing only a bubble of Inspiring, some very light range harass to the table for 50 points, in an army where at roughly 100-130 points you can get either the same bubble or the better version, plus decent utility in another field and also be reasonably resilient to targeted attacks. I like the idea of these warrior-poets following the army, but I can't justify taking one really. If you really want to take one, take Clarion instead, despite the cost increase he suddenly becomes more usable for the points.

*'''Ice Blade:''' Squishy melee duelist assassin type of hero. Relies on speed 6 plus Wild Charge (D3) to get into position, and Duelist and CS(1) to threaten targets with her 6 attacks. Good at picking off necromancers and other squishy surge casters. You don't ram this hero into the flanks of an enemy unit to break tarpits, you use her to murder supports.

==Infantry==
*'''Human Clansmen:''' Has Wild Charge 1, Crushing Strength 1 on a 4+ Melee. You can leave them as sword'n'board for 4+ saves, or give them two-handed weapons to go to 3+ Def but Crushing Strength 2. Also one unit can be upgraded to Norj-Bik Clansmen with Def 5+ for +10/+15/+25 but cannot take two-handed weapons. All-in-all a very average unit, could be made into a budget can-opener but you probably should rely on the more expensive units for that role.

*'''Dwarf Clansmen:''' The cheapest unlocks in faction, these guys have a nice 5+ Def for being an anvil, but weirdly Wild Charge (1) too... Not much to say as they don't have any upgrades or any synergy support. Come on Mantic, give us some kind of Dwarf Smith hero.

*'''Elf Clansmen:''' Cheapest ranged infantry, they Move 6", 4+ rng, 24" range, good Nerve and Elite (ranged). The downside is Mel 5+, Def 3+ and no Wild Charge, which isn't useful for shooters but just worth noting they're one of the few units that don't have it.

*'''Ice Naiads:''' Similar to your human clansmen in terms of stats and having Wild Charge 1, but they pack some abilities (Ensnare and Regeneration 5+) and interactions (the Frostbound keyword), gives them a bunch of defensive utility over H-Clansmen. Taking Naiads means you should be building around their synergy with Frost Queens to create tarpits rather than expect any kind of damage output.

*'''Half-Elf Berserkers:''' Just like all berserkers, glass-cannons using thunderous charge (1) and wild charge (D3) to hit in the flanks. Lacking CS means they might need bane-chant support to crack heavier infantry, as they rely on their volume of attacks.

*'''Pack Hunters:''' Human sneaky snipers with Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge 1, Scout & Stealth. Did you guess Wild Charge 1? Because they have that too... These are your moderately priced sneaky skirmishers compared to the elite Elves. Careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Ice Kin Hunters:''' Elven sneaky snipers, Pathfinder, Scout, Elite, but no stealth. These are the more elite skirmishers with 3+ Melee and... 4+ Rng..? Like regular elves, no wild charge. Again, careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Huscarls:''' Your "elite" heavy infantry, Crushing Strength 2, Fury, and of course Wild Charge 1. These guys are your can-openers, your big-boys, use them to clap cheeks and take names.

==Monstrous Infantry==
*'''Snow Trolls:'''

*'''Ice Elementals:''' Pretty standard big shambling elementals, CS1, Frostbite, Shambling and Ice Shards range attack (10", Piercing (1), Steady Aim) for when you're unable to wholly close the distance. Frostbound keyword and shambling means they '''NEED''' Ice Queen support,

==Swarms==
*'''Snow Foxes:*''' Irregular chaff units, move 8, nimble, stealthy, vicious (melee) and pathfinder means you can get them anywhere to block charge lanes and possibly do a tinsy bit of damage. Just be aware, they're Def is 2+ and nerve 9/11, so you're paying 80 points to block a flank charge for a turn. Think of them as an 80 point upgrade for unit that denies say those berserker brock riders a flank charge. Could possibly tarpit troop sized archer units with bad melee, but anything regiment sized or with at least melee 4+ will probably break them in one round. That said if they magically hold for two turns, they've earnt their value back and then some, while your opponent has spent way too long trying to clear them.

==Cavalry==
*'''Tundra Wolves*:''' Its a beginner's mistake to mix these up with Snow Foxes. Tundra Wolves can be used as expensive chaff, but what they bring is thunderous charge (1) and Melee 3+. The Snow Foxes exist to take hits for better units, the Tundra Wolves exist to prey on infantry Troop units or lone Standard Bearers. TC(1) means they can kill smaller chaff and skirmisher units, but their just below average nerve means you need them to win those fights with chaff. Also irregular so no unlocks at the Regiment level.

==Monstrous Cavalry==
*'''Frostfang Cavalry:''' Your real cavalry, your universal hammer unit, the big pricey hammer that deletes whatever it flanks. Move 7" means they're kind of slow compared to traditional cavalry, but they have Strider and Wild Charge 1 which means they're just 1" short on the charge. Packing CS2 and 5 attacks per model (15 at Regiment, 30 at Horde), and Defence 5+ makes these things mean. Their main downside is that they're only swinging on 4+ so focus on patching that with artefacts or flanking for more attacks. A secondary weakness is their nerve is average so a mobile Inspiration bubble (Lord on Horse/Frostfang, or Thegn on Frostfang) should be near if they're operating away from your frontlines. If you're being very reactive with them, they should be in range of the heroes supporting your infantry. Use Snow Foxes or Tundra Wolves for risky dives into the backline if you're not planning on a mobile hero to provide them morale support.

==Monsters==
*'''Cavern Dweller:''' 20 points less than the giant but less offence power with CS3, has Melee 3+ for more consistency. The Cavern Dweller can survive ok with Life-Leech (3) to hold out in protracted combat.

==Titans==
*'''Ice Giant:''' He's big, he slaps hard (CS4, Brutal and melee Slayer ), he's... not Hrimm. Unless you're playing with some ban on named heroes, take daddy Hrimm before one of these. That said still a decent choice for crushing things. Take one if you already have Hrimm, but otherwise you could do worse with your points.

==Warmachines==
*'''Ice Kin Bolt Thrower:''' Your one-and-only artillery piece. Ra 4+ and Elite (ranged) means you're looking at one of the more consistently hitting warmachines in the game.

==Formations==
*'''Orlaf's Raiders:''' 2x Human Clansmen Regiments (must swap sword & shield for two-handed weapons), 1x Orlaf the Barbarian. All units gain the Berserker keyword, the clansmen get Vicious (Melee), and Orlaf gets Inspiring and Aura (Slay (Melee - D3) - Berserker only).

[[Category: Kings of War/Tactics]]

Kings of War/Tactics/Northern Alliance

2023-01-26T11:42:46Z

2001:8003:D91A:7600:7479:323D:7B9:82C9: /* Warmachines */

A faction made from an alliance of the northern tribes of [[Dwarves]], [[Elves]], [[Naiads]] and [[Humans]] (including from [[Kingdoms of Men|Kingdoms of Men]], [[Brotherhood]] and [[Varangur]]), formed during the Edge of the Abyss to fight the onslaught of the [[Abyssals|Forces of the Abyss]].

==Why Play Northern Alliance==
Because you want to play what is effectively an entire army of good guy [[vikings]], [[Elf|Ice Elf Waifus]], Ice Naiads, Snow Trolls (Yes you can field Snow Trolls, they even have their own Hero Unit), Ice elementals, etc. If that's your thing, these guys are for you.
There is also a Hero unit named the Ice Queen, and since [Kings of War] is a model agnostic game, you have the perfect excuse to have Elsa lead an army of Vikings Ice Elves, Half-elves, and Ice Naiads (Brigade games has a nice Frostgrave miniature that can be used for such a [https://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/FW6001--Young-Fire-Elementalists_p_4429.html purpose]).

==Army Rules==
Snowfox: The unit has +1 Attack, only one a few heroes.

Wild Charge is pretty common on your infantry, which means your units project a slightly larger threat than expected. Most of your heroes have Very Inspiring instead of Inspiring so you can deploy a little more spread out.

There is the "Frostbound" keyword which a few units have for support from your Ice Queen heroes. Its not entirely feasible to go deep on this synergy but makes for a themed army of snow witches and their minions. If you find you're taking several Frostbound units, consider an Ice Queen and deploying them as a group.

==Heroes==
===Named Heroes===
*''' Serakina, the Ice Queen:''' Not quite the deluxe version of the Ice Queen, Serakina only packs Surge (8), Wind Blast (6) and +1/+1 nerve. But what makes her standout apart from being 5 points less than an Ice Queen with the same but no Icy Breath, is Radiance of Life (Frostbound only) meaning she will make those Ice Elementals, Frost Giants, and Ice Naiads hold a lot better. Also helps generic Ice-Queens with her abilities, but honestly you should not need to be healing Ice-Queens. Overall not the best pick for a hero unless you build around her support for Frostbound units.

*''' Hrimm, Legendary Frost Giant:''' A 30 point upgrade on your giant, worth taking every time; makes your Ice Giant into a big Very Inspiring hero with -/20 Nerve and Icy Breath (12). This is combined with the standard Ice Giant's CS (4), Brutal, Slayer (Melee -D6), Strider and Defence 5+. Basically you have no reason to take a Giant without upgrading to big daddy Hrimm, and big daddy Hrimm, while your second most pricey Hero, is a damn strong pick. He's not the bar all your other hero picks should be compared to, but he's certainly the bar all your combat heroes should be compared to.

*'''Orlaf the Barbarian:''' Not a hugely attractive option, works for buffing human clansmen in the special formation, but can use his once-a-game ability to swing 12 attacks on target.

*'''Clarion:''' Basically acts as a Skald thats competitive with the other heroes in the 105-130 point bracket instead of being too cheap to merit the stats/abilities to compete like the regular Skald. Probably the 3rd most fielded named character.

===Generic Heroes===
*''' Ice-kin Master hunter:''' You get her in the Shadows of the North starter set for your Northern Alliance army, coming at 115 points her main shtick is being sneaky; having the Pathfinder, Scout, and Stealthy traits along with Elite (because she's an elf) and individual (what did you expect to see in this list?). She is generally a stronger version of the regular Ice-kin hunter stat-wise. Good for hiding in wooded areas with your fellow pathfinders and moving around obstacles with no problem.

*''' Ice Queen:''' Basically the elvish equivalent to Kislev's [[Ice Witch|Ice Witches]]. Cheaper than the Master hunter above, coming at 80 points. Comes with a Defense 4 which in Melee becomes a 5 with Ensnare's effect on enemy melee, the usual bonuses to being an individual unit, but [[Rage|only gives inspiring to Frostbound units]], luckily the Very Inspiring trait doesn't seem to be affected by this limitation. She also has the Master of Ice trait which allows her to reroll 1's on spells targeting friendly Frostbound units or Frozen enemy units. Her starting spell is Icy Breath(10), so you can say she'll "blow" you away ([[PROMOTIONS|NO! NOT LIKE THAT!]]), the effect of the spell is and I quote "Roll to damage as normal. If 1+ damage is dealt, the target Enemy unit is now Frozen. (KoW3 p54)" so it's your basic ice attack with a range of 10 inches. For extra spells, you get Bane Chant for +20 points (like every spell caster apparently), Blizzard for +30 points (an indirect spell with a 30 inch range and Piercing 1 that lets you roll a D3 for every successful hit landed), Heal for 35 points (making her your main healer), Wind Blast for 25 points (I already made the blow you away joke), and you can either pair Icy Breath with Surge or replace it with Surge.
TLDR: She seems like a cheap choice for a healer, especially if you field Frostbound in your army with the Master of Ice trait.

*''' Lord:''' Your standard combat hero character, having CS(2) makes them hit a little harder. You can mount them on a horse which drops WC(1) for Speed 8, but honestly lets cut to the chase: This isn't going to be your beatstick hero, you should be taking them for the 10pt upgrade that gives them an Aura of Wild Charge (+1, Infantry & Heavy Infantry only) which stacks with existing WC on those units, your next choice is what support item to stick on them, think of these guys are punchy Standard Bearers. If you want a beatstick, take Hrimm, if you want a wizard, take an Ice Queen, you want to support some infantry blocks take a foot/horse Lord with Horn of Winter. That said, you can use one with Wings of Honeymaze to hunt down squishy wizards and warmachine crews.

*'''Lord on Frostfang:''' Now this is someone who's out to clap some cheeks. Crushing Strength (3), 3+ Melee and 8 attacks is the basics for a beatstick. The catch here is that a Frostfang Lord lacks Individual, so they can flank units and slap hard, but they can also get flanked themselves. Now for the Hrimm test; for 70 points less than big icy daddy you get a hero who has a slightly larger threat radius, less CS & Nerve, but better Melee and Artefact options. We take the Frostfang Lord as either mobile support to a Frostfang unit hitting flanks, or as a hunter-killer missile trying to get behind screens to hit missile units or war machines. Sending

*'''Lord on Chimera:''' Mobile, deadly, pricy. The Lord on Chimera is the most expensive unit in Northern Alliance, its a fast hammer with CS3, Fly, Icy Breath (10), Nimble, Very Inspiring and Elite(Melee). Stats are great, better than the Frostfang Lord, which they should be for being just shy of 3 times the price. But here comes the real question: Why pick a Chimera Lord over Hrimm who costs 50pts less and has CS4? The answer is simple, the Lord on Chimera is better than Hrimm if you're being aggressive and using his mobility to pick off priority targets and swing deciding fights in your favour. You can sink more points for artefacts to really pimp out this hero, and you should. You need to be abusing Fly and Speed 10 to justify the pick over Hrimm. If you're playing defensive and holding back with a 310+artefact point Chimera Lord, you're objectively playing worse than just slapping a 260 point Hrimm behind your front line units and spending the spare 50 points elsewhere. Lord on Chimera is still good if you do play defensively, don't get me wrong this isn't a bad unit it is just that like every combat hero in this list, in the shadow of Hrimm, Ice Giant.

*'''Thegn:''' Hot. Fucking. Garbage. You will only ever see this hero, if you ever see someone field this hero, with the Talanaar's Standard upgrade that gives it Rally (1) and even still a Lord built as a support buffer is higher priority pick. If we rounded up the points and say fielded six of these as one unlocked slot against a single Hrimm, it would still be big icy daddy winning that match-up. Avoid taking without the Rally upgrade, and mock anyone who takes him as anything other than a Rally aura caddy. If you're taking artefacts on this guy, its because you're trying to buff another unit in his range, eg wings of honeymaze for the mobility to support Frostfangs etc.

*'''Thegn on Frostfang:''' Actually not the waste of space as the foot version. For 65 points less than the Lord on Frostfang you go down to regular Inspiring, 3 less attacks, -2/-2 Nerve and only CS2. Has a role in a Frostfang heavy list where you want to have cheaper heroes to support or hunt down exposed units. Running two Frostfang Lords in such a list would be pricey, but 1 Lord and 1 Thegn, or 2 Thegns gives you some flexibility on the points budgeting for your whole list. Not a first pick hero, but cheap enough to throw-in and do something.

*'''Snow Troll Prime:''' Thanks to its pricing, very much comparable to a foot Lord, the Prime trades Very Inspiring for Inspiring, Regeneration (5+), Speed 6 and Vicious (Melee). It does lack Individual being a Monstrous Infantry model, as well as some customization options. Would be an ok alternative to the foot Lord as a combat hero except for the fact that we don't take foot Lords as beatstick but as support buffers. Again we stand, in the shadow of Hrimm, and are just left wanting. Thematically cool for running an ice troll themed list but needs just a little extra to beat daddy Hrimm.

*'''Skald:''' Nominally the standard version of a dedicated Standard Bearer, the Skald costs half of a foot Lord and brings some throwing axes for range harass. The downside is that the Skald will fucking die if charged and paying twice his cost for a Very Inspiring character that will clap back, the skald is only going to be seen at low point level armies, in the 1,000 or less category. The Skald's weakness is that its bringing only a bubble of Inspiring, some very light range harass to the table for 50 points, in an army where at roughly 100-130 points you can get either the same bubble or the better version, plus decent utility in another field and also be reasonably resilient to targeted attacks. I like the idea of these warrior-poets following the army, but I can't justify taking one really. If you really want to take one, take Clarion instead, despite the cost increase he suddenly becomes more usable for the points.

*'''Ice Blade:''' Squishy melee duelist assassin type of hero. Relies on speed 6 plus Wild Charge (D3) to get into position, and Duelist and CS(1) to threaten targets with her 6 attacks. Good at picking off necromancers and other squishy surge casters. You don't ram this hero into the flanks of an enemy unit to break tarpits, you use her to murder supports.

==Infantry==
*'''Human Clansmen:''' Has Wild Charge 1, Crushing Strength 1 on a 4+ Melee. You can leave them as sword'n'board for 4+ saves, or give them two-handed weapons to go to 3+ Def but Crushing Strength 2. Also one unit can be upgraded to Norj-Bik Clansmen with Def 5+ for +10/+15/+25 but cannot take two-handed weapons. All-in-all a very average unit, could be made into a budget can-opener but you probably should rely on the more expensive units for that role.

*'''Dwarf Clansmen:''' The cheapest unlocks in faction, these guys have a nice 5+ Def for being an anvil, but weirdly Wild Charge (1) too... Not much to say as they don't have any upgrades or any synergy support. Come on Mantic, give us some kind of Dwarf Smith hero.

*'''Elf Clansmen:''' Cheapest ranged infantry, they Move 6", 4+ rng, 24" range, good Nerve and Elite (ranged). The downside is Mel 5+, Def 3+ and no Wild Charge, which isn't useful for shooters but just worth noting they're one of the few units that don't have it.

*'''Ice Naiads:''' Similar to your human clansmen in terms of stats and having Wild Charge 1, but they pack some abilities (Ensnare and Regeneration 5+) and interactions (the Frostbound keyword), gives them a bunch of defensive utility over H-Clansmen. Taking Naiads means you should be building around their synergy with Frost Queens to create tarpits rather than expect any kind of damage output.

*'''Half-Elf Berserkers:''' Just like all berserkers, glass-cannons using thunderous charge (1) and wild charge (D3) to hit in the flanks. Lacking CS means they might need bane-chant support to crack heavier infantry, as they rely on their volume of attacks.

*'''Pack Hunters:''' Human sneaky snipers with Pathfinder, Thunderous Charge 1, Scout & Stealth. Did you guess Wild Charge 1? Because they have that too... These are your moderately priced sneaky skirmishers compared to the elite Elves. Careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Ice Kin Hunters:''' Elven sneaky snipers, Pathfinder, Scout, Elite, but no stealth. These are the more elite skirmishers with 3+ Melee and... 4+ Rng..? Like regular elves, no wild charge. Again, careful how you use them as they will die to stiff breeze.

*'''Huscarls:''' Your "elite" heavy infantry, Crushing Strength 2, Fury, and of course Wild Charge 1. These guys are your can-openers, your big-boys, use them to clap cheeks and take names.

==Monstrous Infantry==
*'''Snow Trolls:'''

*'''Ice Elementals:''' Pretty standard big shambling elementals, CS1, Frostbite, Shambling and Ice Shards range attack (10", Piercing (1), Steady Aim) for when you're unable to wholly close the distance. Frostbound keyword and shambling means they '''NEED''' Ice Queen support,

==Swarms==
*'''Snow Foxes:*''' Irregular chaff units, move 8, nimble, stealthy, vicious (melee) and pathfinder means you can get them anywhere to block charge lanes and possibly do a tinsy bit of damage. Just be aware, they're Def is 2+ and nerve 9/11, so you're paying 80 points to block a flank charge for a turn. Think of them as an 80 point upgrade for unit that denies say those berserker brock riders a flank charge. Could possibly tarpit troop sized archer units with bad melee, but anything regiment sized or with at least melee 4+ will probably break them in one round. That said if they magically hold for two turns, they've earnt their value back and then some, while your opponent has spent way too long trying to clear them.

==Cavalry==
*'''Tundra Wolves*:''' Its a beginner's mistake to mix these up with Snow Foxes. Tundra Wolves can be used as expensive chaff, but what they bring is thunderous charge (1) and Melee 3+. The Snow Foxes exist to take hits for better units, the Tundra Wolves exist to prey on infantry Troop units or lone Standard Bearers. TC(1) means they can kill smaller chaff and skirmisher units, but their just below average nerve means you need them to win those fights with chaff. Also irregular so no unlocks at the Regiment level.

==Monstrous Cavalry==
*'''Frostfang Cavalry:''' Your real cavalry, your universal hammer unit, the big pricey hammer that deletes whatever it flanks. Move 7" means they're kind of slow compared to traditional cavalry, but they have Strider and Wild Charge 1 which means they're just 1" short on the charge. Packing CS2 and 5 attacks per model (15 at Regiment, 30 at Horde), and Defence 5+ makes these things mean. Their main downside is that they're only swinging on 4+ so focus on patching that with artefacts or flanking for more attacks. A secondary weakness is their nerve is average so a mobile Inspiration bubble (Lord on Horse/Frostfang, or Thegn on Frostfang) should be near if they're operating away from your frontlines. If you're being very reactive with them, they should be in range of the heroes supporting your infantry. Use Snow Foxes or Tundra Wolves for risky dives into the backline if you're not planning on a mobile hero to provide them morale support.

==Monsters==
*'''Cavern Dweller:''' 20 points less than the giant but less offence power with CS3, has Melee 3+ for more consistency. The Cavern Dweller can survive ok with Life-Leech (3) to hold out in protracted combat.

==Titans==
*'''Ice Giant:''' He's big, he slaps hard (CS4, Brutal and melee Slayer ), he's... not Hrimm. Unless you're playing with some ban on named heroes, take daddy Hrimm before one of these. That said still a decent choice for crushing things. Take one if you already have Hrimm, but otherwise you could do worse with your points.

==Warmachines==
*'''Ice Kin Bolt Thrower:''' Your one-and-only artillery piece. Ra 4+ and Elite (ranged) means you're looking at one of the more consistently hitting warmachines in the game.

==Formations==
*'''Orlaf's Raiders:''' 2x Human Clansmen Regiments (must swap sword & shield for two-handed weapons), 1x Orlaf the Barbarian. All units gain the Berserker keyword, the clansmen get Vicious (Melee), and Orlaf gets Inspiring and Aura (Slay (Melee - D3) - Berserker only).

[[Category: Kings of War/Tactics]]