Kings of War/Tactics/Forces of Nature

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Why Play Forces of Nature

UPDATE TO 3rd EDITION, but you are still a hippie

Are you a hippie? Do you like shambling but don't want to play undead? Do you have a grab-bag collection of d&d minis sitting around? Do you not give a shit about artillery? If you answered yes, then forces of nature are the force for you.

Army Special Rules

The new special rule from 3rd edition is Frenzied otter, which you can buy to certain units and it allows you to reroll 3 natural 1 to damage for one use only. Certainly a downgrade from the previous army rule providing pathfinder to most units in the army.

Unit Analysis

Hero

  • Centaur Chief: He's only 110 points for a fast cavalry hero with moderate damage output (CS2), Inspiring (Centaurs only), and Pathfinder. Being Individual men's he can easily rush enemy War Engines or disorder missile units. He won't win the battle on his own, but is a great addition to a well rounded Nature army. He is also Migthy now and IMO the best individual hunter available in FoN at the moment. So great candidate for the Mournful blade item.
  • Druid: With Inspiring and Heal (2) by default, it's perfect for supporting your battle line. The Druid has access to pretty much all the important spells and is going to be your primary Surge source when fielding Elementals. Now you have two types of Druids. The regular druid, with lower healing and surge abilities but option to go for bane chant and lower points and the gladewalker druid which is more expensive but has greater magic abilities. Both have inspiring. Gladewalker druid also has better nerve values but if not intended for an elemental army default druid might be the way to go.
  • Forest Warden: This guy took a slight point increase, from 75 (awesome) to 90 (ok'ish) and not being an individual, the warden can act as a speed bump for an enemy unit if nothing else. Less interesting now without the formation but still a worthy choice in low points armies. Surge 4 could be useful, specially along the new item for +4 surge. And 6 attacks coming from the flank are always welcome. Plus you might secure an objective for only 90 points.
  • Keris: A very interesting option in 3rd edition. He has now not only the solar staff but also a customizable option to several spells (fireball, heal, and a few other). Main improvements, 1.- He is now cheaper and a better specilist for the role you want him and 2.- The solar staff is now a critters call spell (8att at 4+ and if a hit lands then you are disordered). I expect to see him more in the battlefield now.
  • Naiad Stalker: Speedy with a good melee attack and mediocre defense. Has Crushing Strength(1), Stealthy, Regeneration(4+) and is Inspiring(SELF only). He's pretty decent in melee but only has 4 attacks. His real benefit is he can get a Harpoon gun that gives him Piercing (1) making him a pain to deal with at a range due to having -2 to hit them(-1 for Stealthy and Individual), making him nigh immune to shooting from a good number of armies. Not to mention that he can just regenerate wounds back. This lets him plink away at a range against units to try and force routs. Decently costed at 95 points base. The main upgrade in this edition, she also gets Ensnare. The greatest use I see for this lady, stoping a horde of 4+ hitters on her own for several turns. Put her inside a forest and drink your opponent tears hitting at 6+ and then you regenerating half the damage.
  • Salamander Veteran: Unadulterated beatstick with a relatively low speed and no way to go faster (dang!). Crushing Strength(2), Individual and Inspiring(Salamanders Only). Can hit like a truck in melee with 4 attacks but with how Individual works and no way to go faster is sadly pretty low use. Maybe make him a threatening counter charge unit. He can take a cat to throw at people once per game at least and is pretty decently costed at 85 points. The most important upgrade is the 'guiding flame' option, granting an elite aura for salamanders only and denying the option of taking additional magic items. You could really enhance your salamanders with this guy.
  • Shaarlyot: A living legend caster and total Mary Sue. Comes with Lighting bolt (4) and Wind Blast (6) in her spell book. She also has Fly, Individual, and Inspiring, but only 1 attack. She has a speed of 10 though, so she can move out and fire off a spell. Unfortunately she only has a defence of 3+ with no other defensive measures beyond Individual, so expect to lose her quickly if she's in the front where she needs to be to cast effectively. The main rule from her falls short in my opinion. It grants the possibility of casting lighting bolt and then, out of the total damage inflicted directly cast that number of wind blast on the same target. Meh...
  • The Green Lady: Not overly expensive, but not very cheap for her role either. The Green Lady will compete with the Winged Unicorn as a support hero. But unlike the Winged Unicorn she has no combat abilities and her only spell is Heal (6). However she easily makes up for this by being much more resilient with Defense 5 and Regeneration (5+). Also, she now has the option of going for Radiance of Life or Cloack of death at the begining of the turn, making her a little more versatile but still not my main inclusion for the support role.
  • Tree Herder: Take this to surge your forest shamblers / elementals, inspire your troops and when the time comes wreck your enemies in the face. It's a monster that can take a magic item to increase its face raping power, ideally this item would be something like elite. Great inclusion in the army, providing support, strong melee and surge here and there.
  • Unicorn / Winged Unicorn: Now you only have the unicorn and you can buy him wings if you want. It's way more customizable than before. You can have a strong 5 lighting bolt (LB) inspiring folk for only 120 or 8 LB for 150 with boomstick. Or you can go for the whole package and take a 200ish character that does almost everything. Very strong option in 2k games going for 18LB spam.

Infantry

  • Hunters of the Wild: Rangers to compliment your wild animals. They have Vanguard, and Pathfinder by default, and a lot of attacks for their unit size. Rush them out at deployment into some terrain and then charge at the enemy on turn one. They'll almost certainly get destroyed early game, but will at a minimum eat up a lot of your opponent's attacks and even possibly demolish some of their front line.
  • Naiad Ensnarers: A somewhat weak stat line, but they come with Ensnare, Pathfinder, and Regeneration (4+). They don't hit particularly hard, but they are very survivable and can tar pit most units at bigger sizes with their 50% chance to heal every wound, every movement phase. Solid infantry choice.
  • Naiad Heartpiercers: More range oriented Naiads. They trade out Ensnare for harpoon guns with Piercing (1). They hit on a 4+ at ranged, which is better than most ranged units in the game, and still have that Regeneration (4+). Just like their melee cousins, they are a solid infantry choice. As of Clash of Kings 2018, has even more attacks at 10/12! Extremely good at Troop size due to cost effectiveness.
  • Salamanders: Dinosaur infantry. These are your elite heavy-hitters, but they interestingly enough aren't as survivable as Naiads. They're the same price as Naiad Ensnarers, trading out Regeneration for Crushing Strength (1), an extra point of nerve, and 2 points of defence. They have the option to increase to Crushing Strength (2) and lose a point of defence. You're better served in this army by taking Naiad Ensnarers.

Large Infantry

  • Elementals: The most customization you're going to find in any non-hero unit in this army. They come with Crushing Strength (1), Pathfinder, and Shambling base, but you must turn them into one of four elemental types. These are largely the same as other armies when they get "Air Elementals" or "Fire Elementals," you just have access to all four. Earth get an additional defence. Fire get an additional speed and point of Crushing Strength. Air get speed of 10 and Fly, but lose Crushing Strength altogether. Water gain 2 points of speed and Regeneration (5+).
    • a horde of water elementals gets you something that will waste a lot of your opponent's firepower if he tries to take it off the board
    • Which one you want is going to depend on what you want them to do. Earth is good for tar pits. Fire is good for hitting units hard. Air is a more expensive distraction unit than Forest Shamblers. Water are a more mobile, but also more expensive, tar pit than Earth. Decide which of these roles you want this unit to fulfill and build your unit towards that goal.
  • Forest Shamblers: The cheaper large infantry unit that has much less customization than your Elementals. These have mostly the same stat line as Elementals, but add a single point of speed and gain Vanguard. This makes them ideal for jutting out at the beginning of the game to function as a DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. They're actually moderately difficult to kill, meaning you'll probably even get a round of melee combat out of them if you take a horde. Solid choice. Don't forget they come with Pathfinder from the army special rules.
  • Woodland Critters (Clash of Kings 2018): Height 0 "Large" Infantry. The cheapest unit in your army and also great at unlocking army slots due to being Regiments or Hordes only but are irregular. Fast for their role but with hideous stats. The only unit I've seen with a 2+ defense stat. They have plenty of attacks and Vicious but with their horrendous nerve and melee you'll be lucky to get a round of combat out of them. Easily a chaff unit and can be upgraded to Fly or have Ensnare.

Cavalry

  • Centaur Bray-Hunters: Shooting centaur. They're really low on attacks, but on the flip side of they cost less than most of your infantry. The problem is that Naiad Heartpiercers are better shooters and more survivable, while Centaur Bray-Striders are better cavalry and are cheaper. Not a good choice.
  • Centaur Bray-Striders: Medium cavalry that hit on 3+ with CS (1) and TC (1). The few attacks that they do have are quite dangerous, especially when adding in their Pathfinder ability. While they will never fill the role of "knights" in a Nature list (no units available really can) they are definitely not useless. At only 155 points they are quite possibly the most points efficient combat cavalry in the game. Compared to the more expensive Centaur Longmanes in the Herd army, Bray-Striders have the same Melee, Defense, Nerve, CS, TC, & Inspiring. On a points per attack basis the Bray-Striders and Longmanes are identically costed. This means that for every 3 Herd Longmane regiments you can get 4 Nature Bray-Strider regiments that have the same combat output, but 33% more nerve on account of the extra regiment fielded. Bray-Striders don't have Nimble, but with their low cost can be fielded in larger numbers that make then more capable of surrounding the enemy and gaining flank charges that will double their combat power. Don't take 2 like you would Knights, take 4+ and saturate the field with numerous units so that the enemy can't easily match them 1-for-1.

Large Cavalry

  • Naiad Wyrmriders: Naiads on large sea serpents. They have a better stat line, hitting in melee on a 3+ and an extra point in defense above their foot slogging sisters. They keep Regeneration (4+), but trade out Ensnare or harpoon guns for Crushing Strength (1) and Thunderous Charge (1). Don't forget they also get Pathfinder, so they can easily slither through terrain and not take any penalities on the charge. Very effective at getting to the enemy and destroying them, while still reaping the benefits of their Regeneration.
  • Sylph Talonriders: Your eagle riders from the beta list. Don't expect them to take any hits very well with their low defense and no regen. Their ability to fly is what really makes their use different from Naiad Wyrmriders. Fly them over a foe to the flank and turn ninety degrees before opening up with an arrow barrage, forcing your opponent to spin around to face them or risk a rear charge. As of Clash of Kings 2018, now have more attacks at 8/16! Makes them a decent threat at a range at least.

Monsters

  • Beast of Nature: fully customizable monster. Kit it out with the option to be vicious with 7 attacks for some respectable fire power. Flying is nice too. Pitty it lost the LB upgrade but it still has the fireball option (now called noxious attack).
  • Greater Elemental: want the best crushing strength in the game? Take the fire flavor. The spell fireball gives you something to do when you are waiting to bash your opponent in the face. Want wind blast 3 for some reason? Try the air elemental. Need to make your opponent work hard to clear a 2"(50mm) square base away? The earth elemental can do that. Need speed on something comparatively though as the earth elemental? Water does that. If you want something so tough that your opponent won't even try to kill it, a tree hearder with the medallion of life is always safe. So, now instead of having one generic unit and then upgrading, you just have one of each. Meaning, you can take a Fire Greater elemental and then another unit that could be the Water or Air greater elemental. Good option for <1500 points to create a Monster mash list abusing that now greater elementals of different flavours are different units. Other than that, go for the titan earth elemental if you have the ponits, he is a BEAST! (Def6 - 12att - Strider - ridiculous nerve and CS3).
  • Hydra: Brutal monster that gets stronger the more wounds it has on it. Starts with 5 attacks that hit on a 4+, but for every wound it has on it you gain an extra attack. It routs on a nerve of 18, so there is plenty of potential to expand attacks. It also has Crushing Strength (2) and Regeneration (5+), making it a beast to deal with. Experienced players will probably just ignore it, so you need to force them to respond to it to get the most use from this sea beast. Not really sure about this one. It had it's nerve values increased, now being 16/18 but I am not sold for it still.
  • Pegasus: You know, unicorns are heroes but pegasus are monsters. Who knows... Unlike Winged Unicorn, the Pegasus is a MVP monster ideally suited for the role of "chaff". His 3 attacks are not particularly worrisome for the opponent, but at only 80 points without Individual he is perfect for disordering missile units, removing Thunderous Charge from Knights, chaffing up faster units so your Nature forces can dictate the charges, and hunting down War Engines and taking objectives at the very last turn of the game. Think of them as Gargoyles/Harpies, 2-3 are essential for any Nature army that wants to control the enemy's movement.
  • Agnih-Bhanu, Greater Fire Elemental (Clash of Kings 2018): RIP.

War Engines

None. Their carbon footprint is too high.

Formations

Formations have been added as of Clash of Kings 2018.

  • Boulderguard: Requires 2 Earth Elemental Hordes and 1 Greather Earth Elemental. Pay 30 points to give them all Iron Resolve to make your tarpit units EVEN HARDER to remove due to being fearless.
  • The Wild Hunt: Requires 1 Centaur Bray Strider Regiment, 2 Centaur Bray Strider Troops and 1 Centaur Chief. Pay 25 points to give them all Brutal. Given how fast Centaurs are this makes it a bit easier to mop up units with them without needing to deal a whole bunch of damage

Tactics

Their shambling units have good firepower for their cost, but don't over use them. You'll want one or two shambling hordes, but anymore and you'll be forced to waste hero slots to support your shamblers. Druids are soft high value targets for you opponents. They can surge, heal, bane chant and inspire. I can't think of any other way to buff a unit. Protect them.

Combine said shamblers with the new Aura of Heroism spell available for Neutral armies in Clash of Kings 2018 to make them even more unlikely to ever break by giving them Rallying. Combine this spell with the Boulderguard and laugh as your Earth Elementals grind down the enemy army.

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