Hi All
Just thought I’d write a quick hobby musing about the
Kingdom of Equitaine list I’ve been running in 2.0 so far, how it’s been doing and how the hot fix has affected it.
I have a large
KoE force all painted up but some are definitely painted than others and I’m a stickler for bringing along the nice looking soldiers to the battle. So after looking at the
KoE Army book for ages trying to come up with a list that I could use given the models that I have I settled upon the following list.
- Duke, Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Daring, Fortress of Faith, Crusader’s Salvation, Lance = 475
- Paladin, Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Piety, Battle Standard Bearer, Wyrmwood Core, Basalt Infusion, Shield = 370
- Damsel, Wizard Master, Divination, Barded Warhorse, Crystal of the Valiant Charge = 450
- 15 Knight Aspirants, Full Command, Banner of the Last Charge = 679
- 12 Knight of the Realm, Full Command = 608
- 16 Bowmen, Musician = 221
- 12 Knights of the Quest, Full Command = 650
- 3 x 5 Yeoman Outriders = 360
- 26 Peasant Crusaders = 272
- Sacred Reliquary = 175
- 2 x Scorpions = 250
The basis of my army revolved around 3 large blocks which woulf hopefully do all the hard work. The
Damsel was there to help the Knight buses hit more reliably, especially with the Hereditary Spell and the buffs from
Divination. The
Duke’s role was to help protect the Knight of the Realm block by soaking up attacks on the unit and ensuring that more knight survive to attack back. The
Peasant Crusaders acted as a mini
anvil until the Knights could get in and
smash whatever was attacking them. The Yeoman were just
chaff and the Bowmen and scorpions were there just for a bit of ranged threat.
Going into my games the plan was to push all 3 knight blocks around together and charge whatever was in their way but it’s amazing how rarely I ever stuck to the game plan. I found myself struggling against enemy
chaff as the Bowmen just weren’t doing the job and the Magic Missiles of
Divination were just not going off. The problem with running a predominant buff lore is that your opponents know that they can just let the buffs go off if the units being buffed aren’t in combat, they then just dispel the missiles and you’ve wasted a
magic phase. That is not to say that
Divination has been completely useless, when the knight blocks are in combat it helps tremendously but the shining star really is the Breath of the Lady, what a fantastic Hereditary Spell, it helps offensively and defensively so it’s really useful.
With the redesgned
Magic Phase she is much less prone to blowing up whole units of knights now due to some unlucky rolling, so Damsels are definitely back in if you ask me!
The Knight blocks each faired differently in their own way. The
Knights of the Quest are very good at the grind but as with all knights they feel each and every loss, having a unit of 12 is great but as soon you begin to lose some knights their effectiveness is immediately reduced. So even though they are good at the grind there is little that they can go toe to toe with and win a war of attrition. Obviously they are not there to be fighting hordes of
infantry so they shouldn’t be winning those long fights, I had them fight a
hydra and some Chaos Knights. Against the
Hydra they took 3 rounds of combat to kill it at the end of which there was about 3 knights left. Against the Chaos Knights they won but again, there wasn’t a whole lot left of them by the end. The
Knights of the Quest should be used as a very expensive hammer, used for precision strikes of the perfect enemy and they better break them or they are toast (in fact, apply that to every
KoE knight).
(TBH, i bring the
Knights of the Quest along because i like looking at them mostly)
The Aspirants were great on the charge and then instantly lost any threat they once posed after that. I love having a big unit of 15 as they look amazing but 15 knights leaves a big flank that any smart opponent will wait to be shown and then pounce. That has always been the problem with the
Lance formation, maybe it’s time to abandon it on large units. They might work better in a 12, 6x2.
The
Knights of the Realm were the bedrock for me and combined with the
Duke they just didn’t die at all. The games I won or drew were down to this unit not being destroyed and maintaining a huge amount of points.
(Knight of the Realm, still remain the Core of
KoE after 20 years!)
I think this unit always faired best because I found myself having to sacrifice my other 2 knight blocks to protect them from flank charges. That’s because I used my Yeoman poorly and sacrificed them far too early. I always try and send them out to go
Warmachine hunting or to harass the flanks with their 5 bow shots, as if that will make any difference. They should sit behind my knights waiting to heroically dive in front of a threatening unit. Also I should have paid the 2 points per
model to give them a 4+
armour save, definitely worth the points to keep them alive long…
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