Vanguard

Today we are doing the first faction breakdown of Kings of War: Vanguard. The grizzled, hardened, and fierce veterans of the north. The Northern Alliance.

Long before the whispers of 3rd edition Kings of War, we were shown the vanguard force of the first new Mantic army. And boy did these models have hype at the time. Now we are almost two years after that original hype. How exactly do these cold warriors perform on the battlefield and what are the best tactics to use with them? This will be a two part article, pt1 will be a breakdown of units and part 2 will be tactics. So what do we have to work with?

Grunts.
Humans, dwarves, and elves…oh my!

The basic grunts of the North are just that….basic but useful. The human clansmen are just bodies on the board with no crushing. I like to give them spears if I use them and that bumps their total cost up to 10, which is 1 more than the 9 point spear grunts that a lot of armies get. The dwarves kind of suck for the base cost of 8. They only get speed 4 with headstrong instead of the speed 5 of the humans. If i only had 8 points to spend I would go for the humans in most cases. But the dwarves get a crushing strength with the frost hammer for only 1 point. That’s not a bad value for a grunt, however it does make him a little bit squishier. Then we have the ranged grunt with the elf clansmen. This little guy isn’t an expert marksman, but has a decent stat line for popping off shots in the backfield. 

Warriors.

The huscarls, ice naiads, and half-elf berserkers. 

This is the section where I wish I could say how awesome and flavorful our warriors are to match the awesome models Mantic gave us, but they are about average. The huscarls are the meat and bones of most lists I make but every game they disappoint. They only hit on 5+ and even with 3 dice that usually doesn’t equate to a kill even if they roll 2. They are alright but nothing special. Now the ice naiads are weird and I think have a place in lists but I have never used them. They have a cool ability to pin models in place with the frost trident witch could be very useful in scenario games. Finally, we have the half-elf berserkers…what to say about the ladies. They are awesome finishers but you have to baby them. 3D8s on Me 4+ on a charge against a wounded target that is outnumbered with their frenzy [1] ability nets you 8 dice. You could also top this off with a heavy weapon for 3 points to give them a crushing strength. But they are only Ar 6+ so be very careful and pick your battles with them.

Support.

ICE KIN HUNTER. (Yes I meant to caps lock and bold her.)

This lady is one of the reasons I love the northern alliance and she is probably the best (or second best) ranged unit in the game (Sisterhood scout is the other). I build every list I play around her having the longbow. You can place her right at 15 inches from the enemy deployment zone inside of, or on top of whatever terrain you want with scout and start firing volleys of shots on turn 1 with her rapid fire [2] ability. That’s 4 shots a turn with marksman if you force fatigue and she has targets.

Spellcaster.

Elsa…errr…I mean Ice Queen. 

Do you want to build a snowman….Okay frozen jokes aside the northern alliance spellcaster is great. She adds an extra blue power dice and can change her lightning bolt to a short action with lash [1]. Although it is a little disappointing that most games the model named ice queen doesn’t really have much ice related work to do. She just ends up healing and casting lighting bolt most games. But that is not a criticism of her gameplay. Casting lighting as a short action is super powerful. I usually also take her faction spell hold fast swapped with wind blast for sketchy moments. 

Large.

Snow trolls, frostfang cavalry, and ice elementals. 

These bad boys are the real meat and potatoes of the north….and I never use them. Each one of these big guys packs the punch that you normally expect from a big guy but what is better than a big guy. TWO Big Guys! Or 3 if you want to overload but we will get to that in command units. Thanks to our faction ability that lets you take an extra big guy. So our options…Both the snow troll and frostfang are very similar and there is only 1 point difference between the two. I personally prefer the frostfang because it has the better Ar value at 3+ instead of 4+, and the better melee at 4+ instead of 5+ and the better crushing with 3 instead of 2, and cavalry so most of the time he is hitting on 2+, and bloodlust so he gets an extra dice sometimes, and smash, and….okay you probably get it. I think the frostfang is way better. I actually don’t discount the troll as much as I made it sound at first, he can take 5 wounds with regen 6+. That can be pretty hard to take off the board especially backed by a healer. Then we have the ice elemental. This unit I really want to like. But it is so expensive for what it does. In melee it is worse than every other big guy in the Northern Alliance but for [2] power you can get a breath attack that admittedly is very good. This unit is 12 points more than the frostfang at a whopping 47 points. For those points I think you are better off taking a different choice and an extra model. 

Command. 

Thiegn, Ice Blade, and Snow Troll Prime. 

We have some real options with these 3. They fill different roles and you will have to play each one a little different from the next. The Thiegn, this guy is a solid command, not the best around but he does what he needs to do. I wish he hit on maybe 3s like some command models in other warbands but thats okay. Use his head swing ability rarely because it sucks vs high nerve armies since they will get a reroll most times when inspired. Adding the blue dice is the best part of this guy, stack that with the ice queen and you have some serious power dice each turn. Snow troll prime, he is the leader of the big guy pack. You could potentially run 3 big guys if you take him as your command. I don’t actually think its worth it because you won’t have much utility left over with points. I think he fits a sweet spot of him + a frostfang. He is 20 points more than the normal troll but has better Me and Ne value. Plus he is a regening command that will be a real pain in the rear for most enemy armies. Now the Ice Blade. I’ve used her one time and I might try her one more. She is an Ar 6+ command unit that doesn’t have inspiring for 42 points. She does hit like a truck, but if she gets locked into combat then she will probably die. The inspiring isnt a big deal since the ice queen can be an inspiring source in the warband, but she really needs good screening and measuring to make sure she stays safe from enemy models with high dice pools to attack her with. Even a run around a corner and force fatigue was enough to remove her in one hit from an enemy command unit in my only game with her. 

Spells. 

Hold Fast and Winter’s Bite

Only going to talk about this for a second but they are specific to the faction. Hold fast is amazing. Giving a model +1 to Ar and Ne is so good since it does not require a roll. Oh and we could boost this as a long action for +2 to Ar and Ne. Our guys are already so hard to remove. If you boost a model with an objective they are probably not leaving the board that round. The only downside with this spell is… it only lasts until the end of the round… not the models next activation like brace. Speaking of brace this stacks with the bonus from brace. I think you get the idea. Then we have Winter’s Bite. This spell isn’t bad on paper and would be really good if lightning bolt wasn’t better. There are times I might want this spell over lightning bolt but almost every time lightning bolt is better, especially because our ice queen has a special ability to cast lightning bolt as a short action. The knockdown is a great effect but if you get 2 damage from LB you are knocking down or killing 90% of models anyways. And lightning bolt has piece 1 and marksman so the odds of getting wounds are a lot higher. The one time to Winter’s Bite would be if you need to knock down a big guy or a command model that you know LB won’t knock down. But they also have high armor so the chances are still meh. 

And that wraps up the first part of the Northern Alliance Warband Breakdown. Join me next time for some tactics and learn how to use these icy warriors.