Chivalrous Kingdoms Tactics
Why Play Chivalrous Kingdoms
You are the kuh-niggits. Your entire army is made for the purpose of bowling things over on the charge.
PROS:
- Your charges are without peer
- Incredibly cavalry
- Cheap heroes and wizards
CONS:
- Shooting? What's that? Oh, that...leave that to the peasants!
- Said peasants fold to stiff breezes
- Phalanx formations will absolutely destroy you
- Limited roster flexibility
Army Special Rules
- Battle Zeal: Once per activation, two friendly units within 6”, gain +1 attack in melee next time they charge. Considering the reliance on charging, you'll be wanting every chance to make your mark on the enemy.
- Great Crusade: An attached unit get the Strider special rule.
- Lady's Blessing: An attached unit get the Regeneration special rule.
- Lancer: Impact hits from models with this rule (Realm and Grail knights mainly) count as AP(1).
- Lord's Virtue: If this model is part of a unit of Men-at-Arms or Errant Knights, the unit counts as having Quality 4+.
- Monster Hunter: This unit gets +2 to AP when fighting units where most models have Tough(3) or higher.
- War Duty: Once per activation, one friendly unit within 12” of this unit can move by up to 6". This can be vital in setting up your perfect charges.
Wizard Spells
- Fireball (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes three AP(2) hits.
- Wild Form (4+): Two friendly units within 12" takes +1 to hit in melee. Absolutely useful since you'll chiefly be relying on melee.
- Leech (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP(4) Deadly(3) hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
- Protection (5+): Two friendly units within 12" gains +1 to their defense roll when they next get hit.
- Blood Hex (6+): Roll a d6 for every model in an enemy unit within 6". Each 2+ scores an automatic hit, making this hell for mobs of grunts.
- Magic Wind (6+): Two friendly units within 6" add +3" to advance moves and +6" to run/charge rolls, improving the ever-valuable charge range.
Unit Analysis
Heroes
- High Champion: Your standard lord. Average statistics are balanced by useful upgrades to enhance what really matters: your knights.
- Melee: Your basic hand weapon is pretty good, giving a full three attacks, and your melee upgrades are dirt cheap. You can go for dual wielding (6 attacks is no joke), halberd (Rending), great weapon (AP 2 is great for heavy armor), a spear (Phalanx), or a lance (which grants Impact 1 when mounted). Note that the High Champion does have the Lancer special rule.
- Shooting: Nope.
- Mounts: Your cheapest mount is the horse, which is Fast and has Impact 1 - Perfectly equipped for lances. An extra 5 points add barding for +1 defense, which only matters if the hero is alone. The pegasus has Flying on top of Fast, and has its own attacks on top of Impact 3 as well as improving the Captain's Tough value by +3. The hippogryph is a very pricy but tanky wall with a +1 to defense and +6 to Tough, and it has some devastating attacks with Fear and Flying.
- Special Rules: For 20 points you can add Fear (Army Standard Bearer), which may help in close fights if the Champion is a lone unit and not mounted on a hippogryph. For the same cost however, the hero and its unit can get the Strider rule (Paladin, The Great Crusade), which allows it to ignore difficult terrain; used in conjunction with tactical terrain use, this may win games and greatly help setting up the all important charge. Lord's Virtue at +30 points allows you to upgrade joined Men-at-arms or Errant knights to +4/+4 units, which is useful if your strategy requires a strong Scout or Phalanx unit. Finally at a whopping +65 points, the Captain upgrade (War Duty) adds 6" of free movement to any unit within 12" once per activation, effectively increasing your knightly charge to an amazing 22". Note that this ability can also be added to Realm Defenders to potentially combine with Great Crusade, see below.
- Realm Defender: A very cheap but below average hero unit at +5/+5, which shines mainly through its upgrades and knight-buffing potential.
- Melee & Shooting: Exactly like the Champion above, but without AP(1) on the basic hand weapons.
- Mounts: A Horse at +10 points adds Fast and Impact(1) for mobility or to join the knights.
- Special Rules: This is where the Realm Defender shines. Enchanter at +20 points means you can have a level 1 wizard for just 45 points. Captain (War Duty) for +65 points is exactly like the Champion above, and since this ability can be doled out to any unit within 12", you can still combine it with Paladin (Great Crusade) on a Champion for a 22" inch charge straight through difficult terrain. Lastly, Prophet (Lady's Blessing) at +75 points gives permanent Regeneration to a joined unit. This should be carefully balanced against the much cheaper and more flexible wizard, which can potentially do the same with the 5+ spell Protection.
Infantry
- Peasant Levy: A cheap skirmish screen at best, which can throw stones for the occasional lucky kill. No upgrade options. Might make a decent distraction if doubled-up.
- Men-At-Arms: Your go-to take-and-hold troops, upgradeable with halberds (Rending) or spears (Phalanx), and the standard Command Group. Note that these can be upgraded to +4/+4 with a Champion sporting the Realm Lord (Lord's Virtue) upgrade for an affordable retinue.
- Foot Knights: Way costlier than Men-at-Arms, but much stronger. Now these goons have a 4+ quality and defense as well as Fearless so they won't break any time soon. However, their loadout is limited to either their base hand weapons or greatweapons. Which you pick hinges on what you want them to kill.
- Peasant Archers: Cheap but weak, with 6+/5+ in quality and defense and equipped with range 24" bows. No upgrade options.
- Longbowmen: Essentially men-at-arms with range 30" longbows. At 65 points for 5, they represent a real tradeoff when compared to another column of knights. Fire Braziers giving AP (1) at +5 points is almost mandatory. However, they do represent one of your best ways to whittle down phalanx groups before risking your cavalry by purchasing Defensive Stakes.
Cavalry
- Mounted Bowmen: While fairly expensive, their mobility and good range (24") allows you to harass enemy melee units with little danger of getting caught. Don't expect them to do any real killing, however. Don't expect buying lances to help much either.
- Errant Knights: Your only Scout unit, and quite expensive for a 5+/5+. A good flanker, however, and their charge is excellent - 10 impact hits at AP(1) can be very deadly to smaller units. Still, do not expect them to survive any serious counterattack. Note that these can be upgraded to +4/+4 with a Champion sporting the Realm Lord (Lord's Virtue) upgrade.
- Realm Knights: The first real Knights with the Fearless rule. Furious adds even more punch to their charge, which will break most normal units. Watch out for units with staying power, countercharges and armor piercing ranged attacks. Your expensive knights are few and surprisingly fragile.
- Grail Knights: At 3+ defense these knights have the best staying power in the roster, especially when paired with regeneration from a spell or a Realm Defender with Lady's Blessing. Their basic lance attacks are also AP(1), Costing just 10 more points than Realm Knights, this unit is arguably the best true cavalry unit you have.
- Quest Knights: When you know there is going to be tough monsters on the enemy side, bring these. Quest Knights trade charge potential for melee prowess and get AP(4) when going up against Tough(3+) enemies due to the Monster Hunter ability. They can hold their own in melee, but their small unit size means they still die fairly quickly to serious counterattack or ranged fire. When deciding between the strictly better Grail Knights vs. Quest Knights, consider the number of enemy monsters and phalanx troops. The more of these, the more likely Quest Knights will do better.
- Pegasus Knights: Maybe they're just Realm Knights on pegasi, but pegasi bring a lot to the table. They give flight, a second set of attacks (though really a formality), Tough(3) and they give a crazy amount of impact hits. As with your regular knights, getting the charge is all. In many ways, Pegasus Knights perform the same role as Errant Knights, only better. Still, this small, expensive unit can in fact be shockingly fragile to armor piercing attacks, so using terrain to your advantage is key.
- Grail Relic: The primary purpose of this strange unit is to give +1 to melee rolls for 2 friendly units within 6" once per activation. This makes your Knights, especially Realm and Quest, even scarier. The Grail Relic itself is a reasonable melee combatant with 6 Rending attacks (7 on the charge) and Fear, keeping in mind that it can also boost its own melee to hit when charging. It has little staying power though and is best kept behind your lines. Also, note that a wizard may provide a +1 boost to melee with the 4+ spell Wild Form.
Artillery
- Trebuchet: So this is your lone piece of artillery. Though it's static, you've got plenty of range and indirect fire, so set up isn't the biggest issue. This thing's pretty good, giving AP(2) and Blast(6) or, with an upgrade, AP(3) and Deadly(6), giving an option between crowds and monsters. Do keep in mind that in a standard game, this 5+ quality troop fires just four times. On average, this translates to 1 or 2 hits per game that may decimate but cannot directly rout a non-wavering surviving unit. Unless the enemy is an all-phalanx turtle, better options are available.
List Building & Tactics
General Advice
Chivalrous Kingdoms represent the epitome of a one-trick wonder. Your many cavalry units will generally be small glass cannon, able to run down many units with ease. Nevertheless, it is very easy for your opponent to shut you down. Even one enemy unit with phalanx represents a real problem, and with armour piercing ranged attacks, it is frighteningly easy to chew up your small units. While the roster does not lack ranged units, they are all low quality, and very unlikely to actually earn their point cost. Often, the points will be better spent on Men-at-Arms or perhaps Foot Knights, who do not lose as much in charging or holding up enemy phalanx units.
Well placed difficult terrain and bottlenecks that limit your maneuverability can be extremely problematic. Try to create flanking lanes and place terrain that hinders enemies from supporting their units while you charge them down.
Tactics
- Always get the charge.
- Avoid charging phalanx with cavalry other than Quest Knights, unless there is no choice. It is simply too wasteful.
- Flank the enemy: attack from angles where units, terrain or table edges block easy countercharges or ranged attacks.
- Know that even a 10-model Grail Knight unit with Regeneration will quickly die in prolonged melee or getting shot at.