An Uninformed Look at the Knights of the Shattered Lance
What do you mean list building requires basic arithmetic?
I wasn’t expecting a second edition of uninformed look so soon, I can’t believe it’s only been- oh, it’s been 4 months actually. Well strap in for another series of takes based entirely on my opinions, gut reactions and just enough math for people to keep calling me the sweatiest turnip.
This time around we’ll be doing the cults one by one instead of that absolutely mammoth wall of text we did last time.
Just before we dive in remember to go and actually play the playtest rules and tell Max how they feel to play.
Relics & Norberts
Unlike our existing cults these use Relics, additional abilities or equipment you pay for with Norberts (if I accidentally write points, please refrain from throwing rotten fruit at the screen).
In general these Relics cost between 5 and 25 points with each cult having 25 to spend (except butchers who get an extra 10 as a cult rule). You can only purchase a max of 3 Relics per regiment, they’re unique unless otherwise stated and a single unit can never have more than 3 relics.
They provide either additional army rules (like taking an extra half-unit of rootlings) or benefits to a specific unit or toff (extra attacks/wounds, special abilities, etc.).
In general they add a relatively small bit of additional book keeping when putting a list together, but nothing compared to contemporary mainstream games (trust me, I’ve been learning infinity).
What I’m extremely excited about is how much additional modelling potential they add. Adding lovingly crafted fat little larvae to your beekeepers or hobby horses and a great banner to your brutes, now that’s the stuff that makes turnip my one true love.
Knights of the Shattered Lance
If you’ve every played turnip with me, you know I play cavalry armies. Be it Woe, Slugs or Probby, I love rolling 2d6 with bowel loosening charge and gobbling up your whole fodder block.
As much as I want to jump straight to a new cavalry unit, we have to look at it’s core rules to understand how they work.
Beneath Contempt
Paraphrasing:
Beneath Contempt: Cavalry Follower units you control may:
- Ignore Unworthy Follower units when checking for line of sight or when checking which Follower unit is closest. The Knights of the Shattered Lance view all Followers EXCEPT cavalry followers as Unworthy.
- NEVER target enemy Snobs. They should be met by your own lords in single combat.
I think that currently the way this is worded means that you can ignore all the stock units except Whelps and Bastards, replacement toffs are still worthy because they aren’t follower units but you can still ignore big scary monsters like crabs, probby and lumps.
This isn’t quite Chaff’s Sharpshooter rule, but it’s a decent impression. What’s interesting is instead of a rule like “You may never win by Headless Chicken” in guttersnipes, we straight up can’t target snobs, which is a bigger loss than expected. I wonder if there’s a reason for that? Deeply unsubtle foreshadowing…
I think that technically at the moment, you must target the closest enemy unit within line of sight, which means you’ll probably run into a lot of situations where you ignore a follower unit, and the closest unit in line of sight becomes a snob which is an illegal target.
It probably needs something in the FAQ for VonSneg to explain that it doesn’t fizzle the charge, just use your brain and pick the nearest unignored non-snob.
Also while we’re at it, I’m honestly unsure if you can pick and choose Unworthy units with the current rules since it’s not a “may ignore any number of”. I’d lean towards it being pick and choose or else you wouldn’t have a cult rule against opponents who don’t bring any cavalry.
Roughshod Riders
Our cavalry followers can move through Unworthy units when charging causing a single dangerous terrain test to each unit passed through at the end of the move.
I really enjoy this design, maximizing multi-test retreats is one of my favourite bits of whelp gameplay, now you can start lining up charges that not only put multiple tests on the retreat, but also on the charge. These kinds of tests are the real lifeblood of turnips positional game so anything that teaches players to think about positioning and staging is a great addition in my opinion.
I think it’s strong, but I think it’s a safe kind of strong. You on average are going to be adding an extra test or two every activation, but unlike a scary multi-test retreat it’s going to be spread out over units that you’re not charging down. Sure if you roll all ones when someone runs over you it’s going to feel swingy and impactful, but that’s just turnip that could have happened to you because you wandered into some mud.
It’s the kind of mechanic that rewards playing well without going overboard.
Noble Lancers
Lancers in the WIP v0.1 rules
Okay so the easiest thing to compare the stat block to is whelps, we gain 2 bodies but gain one inaccuracy. That means in shooting we’re getting 2 extra shots but we’re actually losing about .3 of our expected shots (1.333 to 1), and in melee we’re gaining an extra 4 attacks, but dropping from 2.666 to 2 expected hits without CCW and we stay even at 4 with CCW.
We lose all of the movement flexibility of whelps but gain smokeless shooting. I was hoping it would still be good choice for a move shoot plinking at ccw units to force a retreat, but you’ve got a 65.5% chance to hit one or more times compared to base whelps on 80.2% it might seem like a lot but you’re still going to force a retreat. On the face of it that seems pretty good, but it becomes a lot dicier when you bring units with Fearless into the equation, suddenly base whelps were about a 50/50 but could scoot away if they failed, and your lancers are at 44.3%.
Sure you’re smokeless so now you can at least shoot back if you’re caught out but you’d probably rather not be giving up a free counter charge.
All that said, just look at their key rule, we’re getting an extra attack for each failed dangerous terrain test. We’re going to be taking CCW to reroll charges and to be an absolute melee blender. The best bit is you can even outplay dedicated anti-cav options like the pike block, just run them over and turn those soft bodies under hoof into free attacks.
On average one fodder block is going to turn into 12 more attacks and 4 extra expected hits. Even if you only have one failed test in your entire charge you’re looking at 18 total attacks, and 6 expected hits which is the baseline for bastards.
Don’t forget you can also run over your fodder screen for another free boost at their expense.
The Relics
So base rules they’re looking a light, a unique unit that takes some thinking to get the use out of and some tricks when targeting, maybe if that were all they’d be a decent bit below average for a cult, but now we can get into the meat of it.
’Orrible Oriflame (5 Norberts)
This relic can only be gifted to Follower Units: Units gifted with this blood red banner count as Cavaly Followers.
So we can turn something into cavalry, they’ll gain Beneath Contempt and Rougshod Riders but not the Noble Lancers Chivalric Trampling so no bonus attacks, and no 12” move. Might be nice for brutes to jump over a screen but against a decent opponent you’re going to struggle to make that charge.
I’m not hot on it. Maybe I’d be interested if it gave a little more movement or a limited version of the trample.
Rootling Squires (15 Norberts)
We get free rootlings that we can run over for a little bump to our damage, sure it’s nice that they respawn, but for 15 Norberts I’d expect a little more than a 42% chance to get a boost. I get the feeling that it’s a three pack so that we can’t come out of the gates with 36 attacks but I think it’s way below what I’d be interested in paying 15 Norberts for.
It’s going to feel good the few times you roll 2 or 3 ones, but more than half the time it’s just going to be funsized sized bag of rootlings that waddle around. Maybe let me pay 20 to make it full fledged snickers bar. Hell if you give me 2 units of three I’d pay 25 points for them.
I want to love these little guys but they just aren’t doing it for me.
Tournament Helm (5 Norberts)
Well gosh, if it isn’t that deeply unsubtle foreshadowing form earlier. You can toff off toadies as well as toffs. Isn’t that just a quintessentially turnip sentence.
The snob restriction keeps it from getting out of hand but it’s a bit of a shame that your lancers can’t take this as I’d love to see Viscount Archibald the Thick get jumped by 6 of his nephews.
As it goes it’s a neat trick and good for creaming some toadies but not something that’s going to let you go toe to toe with the big scary toffs. I can take it or leave it, and as we’re about to see. You’re probably going to leave it.
The Shattered Lance (25 Norberts)
Well guys this is the one you pick. Turn that Toady into an cruise missile and throw it at the scariest thing at the table. It’s one hell of a trick and I’m glad as all hell that you can only reliably do it once before it get’s shot to death.
30 attacks translates to 10 expected hits on a Snob’s 5+. Not having access to rerolling charges hurts a bit but you’re probably just walking this in behind a screen until it’s time for murder or getting into Toff Off range as fast as possible.
Conclusion
I have a pet theory that a lot of people latch on to one rule in their army, or at least one specific interaction that they’re looking for, and if a cult does that well and lets you express yourself, then it’s a good cult.
I have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth that the cruise missile snob detracts pretty heavily from what excites me about Shattered lance. I can’t decide if it feels a little out of place or if I’m just sad that the biggest moment of any given game will be me waddling a fat man with a chainsaw into a pack of idiots, instead of my masterstroke perfectly angled charge.
But then again maybe that will be what someone else loves about Shattered Lance. Either way I hope that the other options will come up a bit more in line with 25 point Shattered Lance.
Not super sure about Pistols & Sabres but I at least want to test them out. If we end up in a world where you can consistently get the attack buffs to good numbers without CCW then I’d be very interested in them.
In general I think the core rules are very cool, Noble Lancers getting access to pistols and sabres is a very cool too but I think since you have no ways to buff charge distance you’re going to be going for CCW on them for the reroll.
As down as I sound about them, I’m probably going to man out a bunch of games with them anyway with something like:
- Toff
- Noble Lancers (CCW)
- Fodder (BP)
- Toady
- Noble Lancers (P&S)
- Toady (The Shattered Lance - 25 points)
- Chaff (BP)
On the whole it’s quite interesting to see a cavalry cult that’s a mix of melee blender and dangerous terrain tests instead of melee/panic. It will be interesting to see if it’s worth going all in on killing instead of auto-deleting with failed panic rolls and distance.
Thanks for reading! - Toff Club