Northern Alliance Tactics

Hey everyone, Kyle here and with the Northern Alliance already up for pre-order, we’ve got even more to show off from the hardy exiled warriors from the North. Let’s dive into a few more unit reveals and discuss some tactical options for your games!

The Cold Shoulder

Thematically, the warriors of the North are accustomed to and in fact embrace the cold of their environment. There are now two synergistic play options your units can take advantage of, and both revolve around the Frozen special rule.

When Frozen is applied to a unit, their Speed stat is reduced by 1 until the start of your next turn. This allows you to take advantage of another common rule available on Northern Alliance units, Wild Charge. A drop in Speed by 1 means the enemy unit can charge 2 full inches less than normal. An enemy cavalry unit with Speed 8 could only charge 14” under the effects of Frozen. This allows you to play the ‘Mexican standoff’ game extremely well, especially against those units that are too eager to strike first. By counter deploying units of similar Speed values, your Wild Charge will close the gap - but not by much! Against that Speed 8 cavalry unit, the Frostfang Cavalry present an appealing counter.

With this approach, the Frostfang Cavalry have a charge distance of 15”, giving you an all important 1” over the enemy cavalry to be the one that strikes first.

A unit capable of particularly effective movement manipulation is Serakina. Her Wind Blast spell will push units further away and tag them with Frozen. This nasty spell now allows you to tap the enemy with damage, further incentivizing you to try this tactic out!

We’ve also shown off the new Tundra Fighters rule, which grants Vicious against enemy units that have Frozen applied to them. In the previous iteration of the list, there was no way to apply Frozen to a unit after it had been charged in the movement phase. Now with Chilling Presence and other rules, such as Clarion’s Herald of the North, Frozen can be tagged to a unit in the movement phase before or after a charge has been issued.

Clarion features in the upcoming Shadowed Horizons campaign, and we thought he could use a little bit of love. This is a highly mobile unit that can provide support to your Tundra Fighter units on the fly. It’s an excellent way to apply Vicious exactly where you need it and doubles down on the support role already given with this Living Legend.

The other way to get Frozen on enemy units is with the all-new Frostclaw Riders! The Ice Runes they carry are perfect for multi-charge situations. So much about the unit is geared toward joining the fight on their terms, at the precise moment, to take off a critical piece of the enemy force.

You must pay attention to your order of attacks when pulling this maneuver. The Frostclaw Riders need to attack first and as long as they cause a point of damage, the other units in the same combat with the Tundra Fighters rule will benefit from Vicious. 24” shooting is very scary for these ice chickens, so use their Height 4 to keep them obscured as much as possible.

The Frostclaw Riders partner incredibly well with the Ice Naiads. One of the best tarpit units in the game, the Naiads can lock a unit in place and stay in the fight longer than most thanks to Ensnare and Regeneration. Now with Icy-Blood, you have an even higher chance of regaining lost damage.

If you fancy upgrading them to Tundra Fighters, they can do some serious offensive work in multi-charge situations. Add on the Phalanx upgrade for some extra attacks and turn these ladies into a unit nobody wants to charge!

Spreading the Frosting

Taking advantage of your units various abilities and smart deployment synergy will allow you to apply Frozen all across the table. Here’s an example of how to use Chilling Presence and Tundra Fighters together to best effect.

Many units in this situation are left with the choice of being patient with one unit while the other charges in or gambling on putting themselves out of place with a muti-charge. With a unit as flexible as Ice Elementals, they can further support the Half-Elf Berserkers by applying Frozen to their charged target, triggering Tundra Fighters, and increase the odds to remove the unit in one charge. With increased range on Icy Breath, they’re still able to fire ranged attacks into the backline unit and pressure offensively.

If the Half-Elf Berserkers rout the unit they charged, a smart reform would angle them to defend a potential charge from the backline baddies into the Ice Elementals, while keeping them in in the front arc. If the backline unit chooses to go into the Half-Elf Berserkers, well, they’ve got fearless Nerve and the Ice Elementals are primed for a flank!

Ordered Auras

In thinking on how we could improve some of the “flag” heroes now that Inspiring is much more universal, we wanted to approach the updates this year with an incentive to take these units in ways that would support the army beyond just Inspiring. We saw in my video preview last week, the Dwarf Clan Warriors will be getting a new special rule, Ordered March. This allows them to execute a pivot when issuing an At the Double order, which is great for their slower natural speed. The Rules Committee thought it would be a great idea to give the Skald the ability to grant this to the other infantry units in the list!

Look for similar changes to the other factions in Clash of Kings 2024!

With Dungeon Saga Origins coming soon, we know some folks will want to use/base the excellent new Orlaf model for Kings of War. It’s an intimidating pose that shows Orlaf flinging his axe with reckless abandon. Now, the infantry around him will be looking on in awe saying to themselves, “We can do that too!”

Wrapping Up

There are still even more changes to the Northern Alliance list we haven’t covered! The Northern Alliance 2023 list will be available soon with everything in one place on the Mantic Companion. an updated FAQ & Errata with a changelog that shows all updates to the Nightstalkers and Northern Alliance lists from the Kings of War 3rd Edition Compendium. This update document will be free to download for everyone and available soon.

Things are primed for one exciting summer as we lead into the Shadowed Horizons campaign, and the introduction of the Twilight Kin in Clash of Kings 2024. You’ve still got enough time to pick up the new Northern Alliance and Nightstalkers to center your games at the heart of this epic story. Can the Northern Alliance defend their home, and their secrets? It’s going to be up to you to decide!