The World Of Twilight

I am so very lucky - I will be play testing these two ladies tomorrow.

They will be protecting their forest from both the Empire and the Delgon. There might be bugs to catch, fires to escape from, and stolen wood to be retrieved. With any luck PreePree will be lunch (and dinner) many times over.

Now, is there anything anyone would like me to specifically test? Let me know.

(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/queen_rules.jpg)

Those are fantastic! Good work creating the playtest cards :)
For those who are interested:
Spawn Frenu*: place one frenu adjacent to this model (note: you can never have more frenu on the board than you started with, including those in Swarms).
Very Tough should have an asterisk  ;)

Battle Report #1 - Ancient Queen

For the first battle, we decided to test the ancient queen. We set up two forces of 300 points, and played the Inferno! scenario.

Nobody knows how it started, but a wall of flames is descending upon the forest, destroying all in its path. An ancient queen and her followers rush for the safety of a nearby hill, while some Empire rabble are intent on doing the same. That’s actually quite an opportunity: one must eat well before starting the long trek to find a new home.

The brave Kedashi: the ancient queen and two brutes protecting her, a kaopi, a small swarm, and 17 frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/01%20-%20The%20brave%20Kedashi.jpg)

The food
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/02%20-%20The%20food.jpg)

A frenu’s eye view of  the situation, with the fire coming at the bottom, the Kedashi within the trees to the left, and the food rushing in from the top.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/03%20-%20Set%20up.jpg)

The brave Kedashi advance towards their goal. The 2 oval pieces of forest with a tree on top are forest areas that the queen may deploy within her command range.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/04%20-%20The%20goal.jpg)

The game starts slowly, with everyone and everything – including the fire – progressing towards the hill.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/05%20-%20Everyone%20advances.jpg)

The Empire knights reach the hill first, but are quickly followed there by a medium swarm, which attacks them immediately.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/06%20-%20First%20battle%20for%20the%20hill.jpg)

Meanwhile, the slower members of the troops slog along. The venerated queen leaves the safety of the forest, while the kaopi stays behind, busy creating a second medium swarm. The fire is now close.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/09%20-%20Another%20view.jpg)

Aww, look at the little frenu ready to kiss the nice mount. Or peck it to death, now that’s more likely.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/10%20-%20Kisses.jpg)

The kaopi advances, a second medium swarm having been created right next to nice, juicy food.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/11-%20Swarm%20attack.jpg)

Meanwhile, the queen reaches the foot of the hill.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/14%20-%20The%20queen%20reaches%20the%20foot%20of%20the%20hill.jpg)

Disaster! The swarm has been destroyed! Bob and Rob the brutes are in shock at this dramatic turn of event.
That being said, one of the food is dead as well. And an elite it was, too…
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/16%20-%20Defeated.jpg)

The queen herself is outraged. And also feeling just a little bit of heat on her back.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/17%20-%20The%20fire%20is%20closing%20in.jpg)

The treacherous food reaches the hill first, denying the queen access.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/20%20-%20Denied.jpg)

This does not stop her however, and she and her brutes manage to squeeze onto the hill. So does the kaopi. Just in time too: the fire has now reached the hill. The light and heat are nearly unbearable.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/23%20-%20The%20kaopi%20is%20here.jpg)

It is now time to deal with the food. Rob the brute dispatches a couple of meat sacks that were in the way.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/24%20-%20Bob%20and%20Rob%20are%20ready%20to%20act.jpg)

Meanwhile, the slingers are legging it. Good thing too - can you believe they’d had the cheek to shoot at the queen?
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/25%20-%20The%20slingers%20flee.jpg)

On the hill, things are getting tense. Rob attacks the mounted leader, but fails to bring him down. Bob then charges in, sacrificing himself but felling the last elite.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/26%20-%20The%20death%20of%20Bob.jpg)

Rob will be mourned later. Right now, the Kedashi are safe on the hill, with plenty of food to keep their bellies full. All’s well that ends well.
(https://u117377.dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/117377/27%20-%20Aftermath.jpg)

Some thoughts on the game and the rules:

• When we started playing we did not have points for the queen, I estimated it at 100 (and later found out that Mike had come up with the same estimate on Facebook - which was nice).
• The queen is Commander (4), however this did not feel sufficient, as she had to use 2 of the 4 slots to move the brutes. A rules tweak fixed that in the second game.
• Creating frenu is really nice, however this was not used too much in that game. First some frenu must have been sacrificed as the new ones must come from that pool. Also, I was overcautious and only created one per turn (I wanted to keep one stamina point for the queen’s Very Tough ability, just in case). I realise now that I should have always created 2 frenu, as I could always sacrifice them back if needed. My brain wasn’t operating very well, it must have been the heat.
• The heroic actions of the brutes won the game, however I am not sure that they are best suited as defenders. I’ll let Mike come up with some special rules (until then, I’ll keep using them, because they are awesome).
• Playing this scenario on a hot summer day makes for some nicely dramatic pictures, and also for potential disaster for the various resin minis. Oops…

Battle Report #2 - Young Queen

Now it was the turn of the young queen. I had set her at 80 points, brought down to 50 when we saw Mike’s comments on Facebook. Following a quick chat with him, the queen was also given Trainer (2, initiative) – this meant her accompanying brutes had learned to follow without being asked and allowed the full use of her Commander (4) abilities. Now she was going to be able to activate the entire force much more easily - which is very nice, fluff-wise.

It was 300 points again, this time against the Delgon.

There are many things happening in the forest. And way too many interlopers. The frenu have alerted a young queen and her retinue to the presence of loggers. She rushes in to stop them before they leave the woods.
The chariot has been placed 24 inches from the edge of the board. If it reaches the edge, the Delgon win. This should make for a quick, 4 turns game.

The Kedashi: the young queen with two protectors (the seldoath was making an infernal racket because it hadn’t gotten to play yet, so to be nice to it I let it replace Rob this time round), a kaopi, 3 small swarms and 21 frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/28%20-%20The%20Kedashi.jpg)

The Delgon: NuraSen Gohral, 1 NuraKira (which we  gave Beast Handler (2) to so it would be able to control the chariot), 4 KalJoran, 7 KalGarkii, 4 KalDromar, and 1 KalDruKar.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/29%20-%20The%20Delgon.jpg)

The Delgon rush to the forest’s edge, with a worried KalDruKar watching the rear.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/30%20-%20Suspicious%20KalDruKar.jpg)

The KalDruKar has reason to worry: the queen is on her way.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/32%20-%20Overall%20view.jpg)

The Kedashi burst from the trees.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/33%20-%20The%20Kedashi%20advance.jpg)

The Delgon meet the threat, and the KalDruKar opens fire, frying a frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/36%20-%20Overall%20view.jpg)

This just won’t do. A medium swarm is sent to deal with the KalDruKar, while another one fails to reach the NuraKira and engages with its bodyguards instead.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/37%20-%20The%20swarms%20atttack.jpg)

Let this be a lesson to all interlopers. If you fry even a single frenu, we will find you…
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/38%20-%20Attacking%20the%20KalDruKar.jpg)

…we will attack with great fury…
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/39%20-%20A%20perfect%20score.jpg)

…and you will be food.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/40%20-%20Splat.jpg)

Meanwhile, the swarm disengages but cannot catch the NuraKira, which is running away as fast as it can. Not fast enough for the kaopi, though…
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/44%20-%20The%20kaopi%20attacks%20the%20NuraKira.jpg)

Things are getting serious. The NuraKira is cornered and can’t run; and a swarm attacks the chariot.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/47%20-%20No%20escape%20for%20the%20NuraKira%20and%20the%20swarm%20engages%20the%20chariot.jpg)

The chariot disengages, but is slowed down and does not reach the edge of the woods.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/48%20-%20The%20chariot%20disengages.jpg)

And as for the NuraKira…
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/50%20-%20The%20end.jpg)

Goodbye Delgon.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/51%20-%20Death%20of%20a%20NuraKira.jpg)

The Delgon were so close to the edge… Three more inches would have done it.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/52%20-%20Nearly%20there.jpg)

Some thoughts on the game and the rules:

• The queen being able to activate the entire army felt really nice.
• Again I did not create that many frenu, however they did help turn the game, as the kaopi and swarms ended up needing to sacrifice quite a lot of them.

Further tests games next Saturday…

Excellent reports!
Lots to process now...
And I do need to work on a Delgon themed Engu logging crew...

It's great to see these models in action (and with lovely paint jobs) and they do sound like they'll be really useful support models for the Kedashi. I find the terrain rule very interesting, but I think it might be quite hard to really use effectively given how mobile Twilight forces normally are.

This post has reminded me though that I need to get my logging wagon built (I'm currently eyeing up the Empire slingers as potentially making good loggers once their sling has been replaced by a double-handed axe; the Gripping Beast Dane-axes I have for Saga conversions fit perfectly).

Thank you for the kind words :)

Yes, shame these forests aren't mobile (hint, hint). I've used them as a shield to avoid getting charged too quickly, as the kaopi builds up the swarms.

And speaking of wagon building, there was hobby done right before that second game. I don't think I've ever cut it that close. :P

http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/Last%20minute%20building.mp4 (http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/Last%20minute%20building.mp4)

The logic for the terrain is that you get to choose your battlefield a bit more. Forces are manoeuvrable in Twilight, but battles do end up taking place in a relatively small area. They are still in early playtest though, so I'm very interested to hear how valuable people find them.
Ive found that one or two woods can be incredibly useful if you can manage to work around them. In a game against paul a small wood completely changed the outcome as it allowed me to close my swarm in on his massed ranks of slingers. That wasn't deployed with a queen, but she would allow it to be a bit more controlled.
One thing I don't think I've clarified yet is whether you can place terrain independently of the standard deployment rules (for example, placing it within X inches of an enemy model). I think you can probably place it as you like, as long as it doesn't gobover any models or scenery that are on the table already.
Cool video - you made less of a mess of attaching the logs than I did!

Battle Report #3 - Young Queen

For the third game, we played a variation on Eradication (from the rules book page 138).

Having wandered too far into the forest, PreePree and its guard have unwittingly crossed into the territory of a young queen. She has given chase and the intruders have taken refuge in a cavern. Fumigating them out is not an option, so she will brave her dislike of confined spaces and finish them there and then (or at least her followers will).

Both forces are 250 points strong. The Empire wins if at least one model carries PreePree out of the cavern.

The Empire forces
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/54%20-%20The%20Empire.jpg)

The Kedashi forces
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/53%20-%20The%20Kedashi.jpg)

The cavern
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/55%20-%20The%20cavern.jpg)

Deployment. The queen’s terrain ability comes in handy, as she blocks the exit quite nicely.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/56%20-%20Deployment.jpg)

First turn: the Kedashi enter the cavern, the knights approach but do not dare enter the wood. The kaopi creates a medium swarm.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/57-%20The%20Kedashi%20enter%20the%20cavern.jpg)

Second turn: The kaopi creates a second swarm, right next to the captain. Meanwhile, the first swarm rushes ahead and attacks standard bearer – which happens to be holding PreePree.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/58-%20A%20swarm%20attacks%20the%20standard%20bearer.jpg)

Oh look, the bearer is no more and PreePree is all alone on the floor!
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/60%20-%20The%20banner%20bearer%20is%20no%20more.jpg)

Meanwhile, the first brute dismally fails its charge against the knight. Goodbye Bob (or was it Rob?)
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/63%20-%20A%20brute%20has%20fallen.jpg)

The nobleguard crossbows fire at the swarm, but the nimble frenu avoid all the bolts.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/64%20-%20The%20crossbowfolks%20fire%20at%20the%20swarm.jpg)

The riders decide to fall back and protect PreePree.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/71%20-%20The%20riders%20fall%20back.jpg)

After an intense combat, both a swarm and a rider perish. The nobleguard  crossbows have taken to shooting at the remaining brute. Not the wisest of moves, folks.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/72%20-%20A%20swarm%20perishes%2C%20but%20so%20does%20a%20rider.jpg)

And that’s the end of a short turn, where only the Empire got to play.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/73%20-%20Another%20short%20turn.jpg)

It’s a new turn, and the nobleguard crossbows realise they shouldn’t have annoyed the Kedashi.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/76%20-%20The%20Kedashi%20atatck%20the%20crossbows.jpg)

Of course, this is all a bit too late for them.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/79%20-%20The%20other%20crossbow%20is%20gone.jpg)

The Empire strikes back though, and a second swarm goes down.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/80%20-%20So%20is%20the%20second%20swarm.jpg)

It is the start of what will turn out to be the final turn. It will be short, and brutal.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/82%20-%20The%20final%20turn%20does%20not%20last.jpg)

The kaopi joins the fray.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/81%20-%20The%20kaopi%20joins%20the%20fight.jpg)

Meanwhile, the remaining brute charges PreePree.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/83%20-%20Attacking%20PreePree.jpg)

PreePree tries to escape, dashing here and there, but alas the brute’s jaws close mercilessly on its tiny neck.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/84%20-%20PreePree%20falls.jpg)

PreePree, a.k.a. A Tasty Treat
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/85%20-%20A%20tasty%20treat.jpg)

PreePree is gone, and so the game is over. The queen is satisfied.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/86%20-%20End%20game.jpg)

Notes

• The queen was used as support again, with her brutes protecting her until it was time to send them in for a kill.
• On frenu creation, having fretted about not creating enough last week: as the queen can only recover one stamina per turn, she can indeed create a single frenu, at least after the first time.
• Strategic placement of terrain certainly helps, especially under this scenario’s conditions…
• I need to build some heftier forest templates, these ones having a tendency to shift during the game (moving forest! It can be done!).

Fantastic!  Very cool

Looks like the Queen is shaping up very nicely!

We might have broken the game

Sorry, no battle reports right now as we've just finished playing. I'll try and post pictures later.

I've brought another pair of eyes to the play test (I've roped in another new player).

For the game we've just finished he picked the Kedashi. We played 'chance encounter' - i.e. a basic game of kill the elites.

He picked 2 young queens, a bagrun (and a trebarnii boss to control it), and all the frenu he could. Then he deployed inside woods, which he expanded by adding the extra woods generated by the 2 queens. And he waited.

My Delgon had to go inside the woods - the shooters were useless as they did not have line of sight, and no-one was able to charge inside the woods. Well played. And he charged the frenu again the Delgon: with two queens, that was quite a lot of bombing runs. So far so good.

But then he figured something out: on his turn, right before activating the queen, he would sacrifice the frenu that just went away on their bombing run. Easy to do with the 9" command range. Each sacrificed frenu gave him a stamina point, which he immediately spent to spawn a frenu next to the queen - in effect teleporting the frenu back. As the queens were close to the bagrun, he was able to get them ready for another bombing run immediately, by activating these frenu during his activation phase.

It was a massacre (still, quite fun).

Unless we've misread the rules (but as far as we know he is using special abilities that can be used at any time), we might have stumbled upon something a wee bit too powerful. A suggestion was to limit the number of times per turn you can sacrifice a frenu (maybe making it higher for an ancient queen).

That was a concern I had for the queens. I had originally planned to give them Manipulate swarm, but that would have been more extreme. I also deliberately said the frenu had to swarm adjacent to the queen so they couldn't be catapulted at the enemy.
You have found a good way to break it though (which is a vital part of playtesting!).
Limiting the number of uses of an ability is something I've tried to avoid, but might be necessary.
One option would be to limit when the ability can be used - possibly prior to activating models, or only during the end phase (prior to regaining stamina). She can still summon all the frenu within her commend range to her in one go, which could be too powerful.
Another option is to reduce her command range down, but that has knock on effects.
Definitely something I've been pondering and need to think about more!
Has anybody else got any good ideas?

Or maybe I just need rules to let the kalgush set fire to the woods...

If you are concerned that Spawn Frenu is very powerful, you could just make it cost 2 stamina like Tactician.
This would also stop the creation of an infinite loop of sacrificing and creating Frenu, as you would eventually run out of Frenu to sacrifice.

EDIT:
I have just realised that increasing the cost won't stop an infinite loop, as each turn you would regain a stamina and could sacrifice a Frenu for another, to get the 2 stamina to spawn; but at least you could only create one Frenu a turn this way and not several as was the case in the playtest.   

And the other thing to consider is whether it matters that the queen can pull all her frenu back to her during her turn. If you have a kaopi nearby you can retreat a large number anyway. Combining that with the bagrun in a forest is a sneaky trick, but for most scenarios you could simply give it a wide berth, then there are a lot of points hiding in the forest...
It's a challenging problem, but that is half the fun of game design  :)

Agree that it was a very specific scenario, any other one where the group needs to be mobile would likely not work - but we'll be testing that as well.

Sorry, no reports for this week: our gaming room (read: the gazebo in the garden) collapsed… Hopefully we'll be back next weekend.

Mike,

Any idea when the Kedashi queens are likely to be available to order in the shop?

 :D

Battle Report #6 - Two Young Queens

Only one quick game today, as my opponent (being a student) stays up all night and wakes up at dusk. We played Inferno! again, the goal being to force the Kedashi out of their forest and see how they perform in the open.

The Kedashi: two young queens; a bagrun with a Trebarnii boss as a handler; and 16 frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/87%20-%20Kedashi.jpg)

The Delgon: 2 KalMalog, a NuraSen with 2 KalDreman; a NuraKira with 2 KalDreman; a KalGush and a KalDruKar.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/88%20-%20Delgon.jpg)

Deployment: the Delgon go first, followed by the Kedashi. The Kedashi deploy as close as possible to the Delgon, and make sure to put a wall of trees in-between.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/89%20-%20Deployment.jpg)

Turn 1: Everyone advances towards the hill.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/90%20-%20End%20of%20Turn%201.jpg)

Things get serious in turn 2. The Kedashi go first, and the Frenu bombing begins. As they are tiny creatures, they do not trigger the KalDreman’s defender ability, so the NuraSen has to defend itself, with its one stone against the Frenu’s three.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/91%20-%20Frenu%20attack.jpg)

Needless to say, the KalDreman bodyguards go quickly.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/92%20-%20The%20bodyguards%20have%20died.jpg)

At that stage, the queens recall the Frenu…
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/93%20-%20Calling%20the%20Frenu%20back.jpg)

… only to send then in again immediately. This is all to much for the NuraSen.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/94%20-%20Death%20of%20the%20NuraSen.jpg)

At the end of turn 2, what remains of the Delgon has reached the hill.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/95%20-%20End%20of%20Turn%202.jpg)

The Kalmalog starts turn 3 with an assassination attempt on the Bagrun.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/96%20-%20The%20KalMalog%20attacks%20the%20Bagrun.jpg)

Disaster! The Bagrun manages to dispatch the KalMalog!
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/97%20-%20The%20Kalmalog%20perishes.jpg)

It is not looking good for the Delgon, as the Frenu attack once more.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/98%20-%20Return%20of%20the%20Frenu.jpg)

Again, the bodyguards go quickly.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/99%20-%20Close%20to%20the%20End.jpg)

They are followed by the NuraKira. Only one KalMalog remains – that is the end for the Delgon.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/100%20-%20End%20Game.jpg)

Battle Report #5 - Two Young Queens

For that one we played Chance Encounters – pretty basic.

The Delgon - NuraSen Plutom with 2 KalDromar; a NuraKira with 2 KalDromar; a KalGush and a KalDruKar for shooting goodness; 3 KalJoran for added protection; and a KalMalog for attacking ahead.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/101%20-%20The%20Delgon.jpg)

Now for the Kedashi: two young queens (yes, this time around the Seldoath wanted to play a queen. I swear, until that guy gets his own rules we’ll never be in peace); a bagrun with a Trebarnii boss as a handler; and 16 frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/87%20-%20Kedashi.jpg)

The terrain, quite simple.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/102%20-%20The%20terrain.jpg)

The Kedashi deploy first. They settle inside the forest, and the queens add some more for good measure. The Delgon deploy next.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/103%20-%20Deployment.jpg)

First turn, the Delgon advance while the Kedashi stay put.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/104%20-%20End%20of%20turn%201.jpg)

It’s the Kedashi’s turn and the bombing begins. The KalGush is the first to go.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/105%20-%20Death%20of%20the%20KalGush.jpg)

The bombing continues. The Delgon resist well for a time, however NuraSen Plutom himself is soon under threat.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/106%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20bodyguards.jpg)

The NuraKira approaches and lends his KalDromar, while the KalMalog advances towards the queens : it is enough of a threat that a bunch of frenu are sent in to deal with it, without success.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/107%20-%20More%20bodyguards%20come%20to%20help.jpg)

The Trebarnii boss is sent in: mistake. He gets squished under the Kalmalog’s mechanical feet. Meanwhile, more Delgon approach.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/108%20-%20Death%20of%20the%20Trebarnii%20boss.jpg)

The bombing continues, and NuraSen Plutom finds himself alone, his bodyguards having perished under the onslaught.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/109%20-%20NuraSen%20Plutom%20is%20surrounded.jpg)

The KalMalog then attacks the Bagrun, without luck.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/110%20-%20The%20KalMalog%20attacks%20the%20Bagrun.jpg)

It then turns its attention to one of the queens, but again fails to hurt her.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/111%20-%20The%20KalMalong%20attacks%20a%20queen.jpg)

Meanwhile, NuraSen Plutom gets bombed to death, alas.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/112%20-%20Death%20of%20NuraSen%20Plutom.jpg)

The NuraKira follows.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/113%20-%20Death%20of%20the%20NuraKira.jpg)

That’s it –  the Delgon have been defeated, the forest remains as dangerous as ever.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/114%20-%20End%20game.jpg)

Great looking battles again dude!

Love the Bagrun!

Thank you!

That Bagrun is one tough cookie (and a cool mini to paint), but we've found a limit to the madness. As flyers, the Frenu can indeed move at full speed while within terrain, however that still counts as moving cautiously. Which means they cannot charge from within the woods.

They're still very dangerous, though. Especially as even if you kill the Bagrun, it stays in place – so as long as you can stay close to the body, the bombings can carry on.

Really nice force there, I might steal your bagrun paint scheme :) I need to paint my second batch of Kedashi too. A pleasant variety to my normal "dark" and brownish forces. 

Coordinated bagruns! Let me know if you want the list of colours I used.

Battle Report #7 - Battle for the Tree

We wanted to check the Bagrun Death List out in the open, so we adapted The Hunt (page 83): two young queens in need of a good nest decide to kick out an ancient queen and her tribe from her tree.

The victory conditions are simple: kill the ancient queen / kill the two young queens. The other elites do not count.

The young queens, with a now familiar setup: two young queens; a bagrun with a Trebarnii boss as a handler; and 16 frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/87%20-%20Kedashi.jpg)

The ancient queen: one ancient queen with two brutes, one kaopi, three small swarms, and 11 frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/115%20-%20The%20ancient%20queen.jpg)

Deployment
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/117%20-%20Deployment.jpg)

There was a lot of hesitation, as neither player wanted to move. In the end, the young queens advanced.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/120%20-%20End%20of%20turn%203.jpg)

The swarms attack.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/121%20-%20Swarm attack.jpg)

They both go after an intense bombardment followed by combat, but are quite successful in that they have forced the young queens to use up quite a lot of their frenu.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/123%20-%20Second%20swarm%20is%20gone.jpg)

It is the turn of the first brute.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/124%20-%20Brute%20attack.jpg)

Another worthy death: the frenu are going quick.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/125%20-%20Brute%20is%20gone.jpg)

It is the turn of the second brute.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/126%20-%20Second%20brute%20attack.jpg)

It triumphs. The first queen goes.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/127%20-%20Death%20of%20a%20queen.jpg)

The second queen then attacks, aided by the boss.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/128%20-%20The%20second%20queen%20attacks.jpg)

It finishes the second brute and retreats behind the bagrun.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/129%20-%20The%20brute%20is%20gone,%20the%20queen%20retreats.jpg)

The bagrun enters the fray, followed by the kaopi.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/131%20-%20The%20kaopi%20attacks.jpg)

The young queen and the boss have other ideas.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/132%20-%20The%20queen%20and%20boss%20approach.jpg)

But so does the ancient queen: it jumps on the remaining young queen, aided by the kaopi.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/133%20-%20The%20ancient%20queen%20attacks%20the%20young%20queen.jpg)

And after two rounds of intense combat, the ancient queen prevails.
(http://www.ar-tat.org/anyaral/134%20-%20The%20ancient%20queen%20prevails.jpg)

Notes

• The Bagrun Death List was not very effective this time around. Being in the open was not much of an issue, it is having the ancient queen inside the forest that foiled their plans. That said, anything that left said forest was promptly bombarded without mercy.
• The trick to victory was to force the queens to use up their frenu. It required some hefty sacrifices (two swarms and both brutes), but was worth it in the end.
• The remaining swarm got dispersed by the kaopi in order to provide three spare frenu.
• It was a very close game, and could have gone either way in the final round.

Thx, but I think I know it in general :) 18 years of painting teach you a bit ;)

One bit I'd forgotten in the report for the Battle for the Tree: the young queens' player waited to be sure he would play last in the turn before moving in (so not doing anything until his last stone was drawn, with all the ancient queen's stones already drawn).
The first stone drawn in the next turn would be decisive for the attack. His colour got drawn, but he'd forgotten that the ancient queen is a tactician: the stone was put back in the bag, and the colour drawn this time was the ancient queen's… and the swarms were sent in.

Just back from a nice (but busy!) holiday in Wales and the Lake District  :)
Enjoyed the battle reports - thanks Fikster!
Serin - the plan is to do a kickstarter to give the kedashi a full release. In the meantime you can always get in touch if you fancy getting some early releases so you can help with playtesting!

KS again? :D Need a credit card then..…

I am seriously tempted - playtesting sounds like a good idea. THough I am not sure my battle reports would be up to the standard on this thread!

Hope it wasn't too wet in Lake District / Wales

I think the weather was better in the Lake District than it was down south! We did get utterly soaked at one point though...
Drop me an email about playtesting (m.thorp@talk21.com)  :)

Unfortunately I cannot post pictures at present, but we've had another game; this time pitting the bagrun list of doom against the Engu: Cren Blaak, one Engu Kapa, two Harpoons, and six Axes (290 points).

The game ended in a closely fought draw, with the Engu Kapa and one of the queens killing each other (the Trebarnii boss and Cren Blaak had gone earlier in the game).

 The Kedashi remain powerful. A new potential tactic for queens with depleted Frenu is to remain in the woods (where they move much faster than the Engu and cannot get cornered easily) and quietly spawn Frenu before rejoining the fray. This does not make for the most exciting games, but is effective.

A queen with many Frenu is very difficult to kill, as it can burn Frenu to use its Dodge ability repeatedly.

You do seem to be making them a challenging force to beat!
The ability to completely rebuild your force given sufficient time does give them a huge advantage in small elite-killing games, which is tricky to avoid... possibly queens should automatically flee if they run out of other elites to protect them...
What's the biggest game you've tried (excluding the twilight day)?

We've been playing at 300 points mostly. We also did a replay of the "tree killers" (that 4th report that I haven't posted yet…) with 450 points of Empire, 450 of Delgon and 300 of Kedashi. The Kedashi have more of a side role in that story, but were frightening (if only by reputation!) enough that the other players got quite distracted by them.

We can try a larger game than 300 (the weather is degrading where I am, so we'll need something to do  :P).

Overall we've found that the force is tough but not catastrophically so, as long as it is not in the woods (which makes a lot of sense - do not go into the woods, people, there are bad birds in there). So a scenario like Inferno works well, as the queens have to leave the protection of the forest and cannot go back. On the other hand, a scenario like "chance encounter" will likely end up badly for the other side.

Maybe the queens could be made a bit more expensive (60 points?) - which would in turn reduce the number of Frenu / stamina points they can afford.

Having the queens run if they run out of elites would likely spell the end of "2 queens + one elite" armies, at least around 300 points. Maybe that's not a bad thing. What is the lore? I understand that there will be many queens in a nest; but when encountered outside, do young queens tend to band together, or are they more independently minded?

Points cost is by far the easiest thing to tweak and even a small adjustment can make a difference.
I don't imagine queens getting involved in conflicts very often, but these are unusual times. Even the young queens are rare and precious having already lived the equivalent of several Fubarnii lifetimes (Fubarnii live about 20-25 years, I think a young queen is probably at least 50, maybe older). I wouldn't see any problem with them travelling in pairs or groups - they would appreciate the conversation.

I enjoyed reading these battlereports. The pictures are very clear and Is like the birdeye view on most of them. Which is very befitting for the Kadashi.
Your minis are also so fantasticaly well painted it makes going through the wall of pictures like walking through an art galery.