Fools of War! Preparation Part 1

Last year, my first ever competitive KoW tournament was held at Your Hobby Places first event, and I met a lot of great people, and played some stiff competition (although I didn't really know that at the time, props to Alex Cha and Mike Austin for being great opponents), finishing 9th out of 18 I believe.  That event sealed that I wanted to both play KoW and play competitively, and a year later start a silly blog about it all. 

This year is their first of the year again, Fools of War!, and as the name suggests, is being held on April Fools Day.  With the TO's (Chris Fisher) permission, I decided to detail the comp and some of my perspectives on it, and in a second installment go over my list and how I formulate a plan for the list based on the comp.  I don't have too many models, so not much luxury for change, but preparation I feel is key to these, and building a list with a distinct plan of how you approach the objectives will greatly enhance your performance in my opinion.  Drinking will too, but that's besides the point.

(Obligatory inspirational meme)

Comp:

The tournament will be a one day, 4 games event, that does qualify for the Mid-Atlantic masters, due to the lack of 2 days that are within the region. 

Chess clocks will be used, with 55 minutes for each player, and dice down when times out.  I'm a big fan of clocks, for the extra spice it offers, and keeping it dice down keeps both players in the game even if you go over on the back end of turn 6. 

Prizes are for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in battle with a best painted award that's just a vote.  For a one day this is perfectly fine by me, and since it's pretty early in the year I know a few of the guys are starting new armies so don't have everything painted up yet. 

There is no roll for turn 7, all games end at the end of turn 6.  I don't particularly like this one since there is the introduction of chess clocks, I could understand it as a way to keep games under time, but since you just dice down at time out anyway that shouldn't be an issue.  I guess this could be a way to make sure each player gets the same amount of turns, but in my opinion this changes the way you can approach the game, and forces turn 5 to be an objective grab turn, especially for first player.

The event does use the CoK 17 changes, and everything that comes with that, (max 3 same heroes/engines/monster, etc)  This is awesome news since my salamanders are based on the punch added to the clan lord and kaisenors, plus the new items which are big bonuses to salamander units. 

Scoring is done on a double MoV chart, which I've played with last year and was really happy with.  It keeps 18+ scores down, and makes the field pretty tight overall.  You really have to table and dominate from turn 1 to get huge wins, and in a 3-4 game tourney that's a definite plus since one 20-0 can set you ahead a fair bit. 

Last year I was king of the 10-10 win's and losses because of this, but that felt right when I would win by one horde in invade or holding one pillage token more and it was a blood bath.

Sportsmanship is also there, as a pass/fail, which is fine imo, with it being a one day it's pretty hard to get a difference in sports points.  Each player gets 6 points, and loses those for getting fails, but given my experiences last year there shouldn't be any. 

Scenarios:

Since this is a tournament on April fools, there is a fun little free reroll everyone gets by yelling April Fools! once during the tournament.  People who pre-register get an extra one, fair for giving the store a heads up on the head count.  I'm gonna get bitten for saying I really like this, since at Keystone last year I saw 2 games go from a 19-1/20-0 to 15-5's on a snake eyes that left my demonspawn dead turn 6, but knowing my luck i'll just reroll another 1. 

Game One: Push, Fools!

A Modified version of push, where there are 3 tokens per side, and one on the center line.  Each player designates one token of their 3 as an april fools token, which doesn't score at the end of the game.  This is obviously hidden information, and adds a great twist to the strategy, it also means there are only 5 scoring loot counters, making for what should be a bloody affair.  Each token on the opponents side of the board is 300 points, on your side is 150.  Since you only have 2 that score to start, you can only get a 13-7 without picking up your opponents at best.  I'm most excited for this game, as one issue I had with normal push is that out dropping your opponent gave you a severe advantage in forcing your opponent to let you get 3 loot counter to the other side easily or spreading out very thin to cover all approaches. 

Game Two: Invade

The first scenario to use the unit strength changes, each point of unit strength you have scoring above the opponent is worth 200 scenario points, so if you have 3 more US scoring, you get 600 scenario points, or a 13-7 pre kill MoV. I think this is a good system, but it does exclude 14-6 wins.  I doubt this will be an issue, and more importantly dragons only count as 1 US, and individuals don't count at all, which I'm excited to get to play around with.

Game Three: Scour

One of the new CoK 17 scenarios, I have not gotten to play around with it yet since I am buying my copy of the book at this event.  Basically pillage, except you can remove markers up until only 3 remain, which lets you remove your own backline markers or your opponents if you can sneak in there.  I'm not sure how much this will get used, but the presence of this mission did actually change my list up.  Each marker is worth 300 points, which again limits the win results to 11-9, 13-7, and 15-5 from scenario points.  Not sure if this is a problem or not, as a player could destroy some to deny a full win if the points were lower, although that might be a good thing?

Game Four: Control

I think this is one of the CoK 17 scenarios? I've seen it floating around before, but haven't gotten to play it yet.  With the board divided into 6 zones of control, an army that is either fast or can play wide will do fairly well in this mission.  With one zone worth 450 (middle of opponents side) and the rest at 300, there should be good incentive to fight in the middle, although if you control all 4 of the side zones you'll win with 450 points for a 12-8, which is something to keep in mind.  This was the other mission that led me to change my list up abit, as my current army is very much an invade army that pushes 3 lanes, but doesn't go backwards well at all.

Analysis:

1. With 2 missions that want you to push hard, and 2 missions that want you to play with width, a balanced list that isn't too gimmicky will probably play the best. Speed will be necessary, but so will staying power. 
2. Speed 5 isn't going to be a downside in this event, as 3 of the 4 missions will be fine for you due to being able to vie in control, take good objectives in scour, and carry the loot in push. 
3. Scour and Control will benefit from having something you can leave behind the main push, and I feel Salamanders have a great option for this opposed to most lists in the Komodon.  While it's not normally the most efficient choice, its ability to add 1 US and force an opponent to commit more than a turn 6 dragon into a zone in Control will be valuable, and you can camp deployment Scour tokens without leaving behind a unit that you paid extra points to hit things with.
4. Hordes will be a big target for both Control and Invade.  3 US is 600 scenario points in Invade. Hordes of Lycans/Werewolves, Fallen, Elementals, and Elohi/Drakons will be very strong inclusions for these missions, and should be targeted early to deny late game pushes. 
5. In Push! Fools you'll want 2 units that can take loot, and if you can get 3 in your list that will be pretty strong.  Mind games are always fun, and making your opponent question if the regiment of rabble with 1 counter or the horde of sharpsticks with 2 are equal threats to the objective can force some mistakes and create opportunities for you.