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Author Topic: Kings of War - Played First Three Games  (Read 2908 times)

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Kings of War - Played First Three Games
« on: March 04, 2016, 10:24:14 PM »
I may be playing my first few games of KoW in a few weeks, so I'm looking into putting an army together. I have a few basic questions...


Swordsmen vs. Spearmen: Phalanx seems somewhat specialized (depending on opponent.) Is it better to stick with swordsmen and save the points?

Get both a general and an ASB? Good idea to just keep them both skulking around the troops to lend their Very Inspired ability? Only throw them into combat when they can turn the tide of a close fight?

What about wizards? Bane Chant seems like it could be good. Not sure if I should just skip wizards & go with more troops, though.

« Last Edit: March 20, 2016, 03:15:32 AM by ZeroTwentythree »

Offline Henerius

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Re: KoW Q's
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2016, 03:32:27 AM »
My thoughts:

Hordes are really good. If you know to use them ( I really like the checker board with regiments and troops mixed in. they are no match for an army with hordes I am afraid.)

Wizards with banechant is good, especially on your horde units.

shooting units are better as a regiment  (with the bane chant as well)

An inspiring presence is nice but I only take one of them. 

I am not sure about the spear vs sword question, still busy trying that one out myself.

cheers,

Henerius
« Last Edit: March 05, 2016, 03:34:45 AM by Henerius »
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Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: KoW Q's
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2016, 06:02:12 AM »
Thanks.

This was my first try at making a list, before asking the questions above.

(I took a large creature because I've never been able to do that with my Marienburgers in WFB.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2WnOHNZEk4TTGEwYTZGQ3pod2s/view?usp=sharing

What I am interested in seeing play out is hordes vs. regiments. Hordes are more cost effective, but two regiments seem to put put out the same number of attacks as a horde, can soak up a greater combined number of wounds (though individually more fragile) and have the benefit of more elements to maneuver.


Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: KoW Q's
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2016, 01:12:45 AM »
I just discovered that Mantic have digital versions of the books, but was disappointed that they're not any cheaper than physical books. In fact, I can pick up the latter at a discount, so really the digital will cost me more.

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: KoW Q's
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2016, 01:44:37 AM »
Ooh, also just found a description of the League of Rhordia army. Halflings! Think I will switch to this from Kingdoms of Men, especially once the Westfalia KS figures ship!


Offline Zygmund

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Re: KoW Q's
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2016, 08:11:21 AM »
There's a handy army builder for KoW:
http://kow2.easyarmy.com/

Hordes in KoW need support, just as they do in WHFB. They're clumsy to maneuvre, so a side attack will tie them down and damage. Also, the broad front of a horde allows several tough units to charge it at once, and even if the horde survives, it can only attack one of the units on its own turn.

The way I play (and how I see & hear others playing) is to take one horde. It allows you to bring all the other smaller goodies, and I see it as almost obligatory in building an Empire-style varied list.

Then again, there have been many whose conclusion is that the game works best with regiments, and that two regiments beat a horde, even if it has light support. These guys have played more than me, so maybe you want to listen to them.

My enemies don't tend to fear my Spear Phalanx. I think I've been a bit unlucky with it, so it's hard to say if Shieldwall would work better. Pikes are an option too.

As to the KoM characters, I like to take both the General and the Standard bearer. Thanks to the army-specific large Inspiring Presence bubble of KoM, two command figures allow you very nice control over the battlefield. I usually place the Standard bearer behind my central lines, and use a mounted General to lead one of my flanks - either to stop the enemy, or to lead the main thrust.

A mounted general or a mounted hero is very nice to have because of its small footprint and decent attack capability. You can spice it with a magical item, to profile it and make it tougher. Just note that the Individual rule means that the model doesn't get multiple attacks even if it charges the enemy flank or rear.

Monsters/large creatures are very good for the same reason. They're rather cheap for the damage they can make.

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Offline Mathi Alfblut

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Re: KoW Q's
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2016, 11:25:09 PM »
I am also going for a League of Rhordia army having purchased Uncharted Empires today.

And maybe a Brotherhood in the future.

The fun thing with Rhordia is that they got plenty of halflings and their engineers are halflings to!

My Stirlanders should be easy to fit in.
Oh, and remember GW made it personal, not you!

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Kings of War - First Game Tomorrow!
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2016, 08:54:13 PM »
At the last minute, I am totally changing gears and playing undead. I spent most of 2015 painting the monochrome bastards, I'm going to see them in a game. I'm running a sledgehammer of an army. 1500 points.



One zombie horde. Two skeleton hordes. Two soul reaver troops. One zombie troll (ogre, in my case) horde. One revenant knight regiment. One liche king with bane chant (3). Two necromancers with bane chant (2).

The idea will be to surge the three hordes forward and pin as much of the enemy as possible. Then try to swing the smaller units around flanks, and buff them with bane chants. My only regret is not having the points for the skeletal dos/rats for the hordes. Maybe more like a hinged sledgehammer? My Marienburg army kept getting too "combined arms" and "tactical." I thought I'd go for something more straight forward the first time on the KoW field of battle.

I will be driving for almost an hour to get to my friend's house. My war march will be Dead Skeletons' "Dead Magick." https://youtu.be/4kGO4oPd_6Q (And I'll wear their Dead Mantra shirt, too. :-D )

« Last Edit: April 09, 2018, 01:56:55 PM by Midaski »

Offline FR1DAY

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Re: Kings of War - First Game Tomorrow!
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2016, 10:05:26 PM »
Good luck. Im interested to see a report.
There are 40 different shades of black, so many fortresses and ways to attack.

So why you complaining!

Offline Victor

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Re: Kings of War - First Game Tomorrow!
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2016, 11:47:27 PM »
Good luck! Make sure to play this when deploying your troops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHAX1K4sKQ

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Kings of War - Played First Three Games
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2016, 04:01:06 AM »

I played my first three Kings of War games today.

Before getting into the gaming thing, I've got to just let it out of my system that it was great to hang out with old friends, most of whom I haven't seen in years. I was also great to just get out and do something fun & play a few games (also for the first time in years.)

We played 1500 points, which seems like a decent sized game. As I mentioned before, I made a last minute switch to an undead army:

Quote
One zombie horde. Two skeleton hordes. Two soul reaver troops. One zombie troll (ogre, in my case) horde. One revenant knight regiment. One liche king with bane chant (3). Two necromancers with bane chant (2).

My opponents were Abyssals (lost,) Abyssal Dwarfs (lost,) and Undead (won.) It was a pretty evil round of games, obviously. We played three scenarios from the rules. The free PDF doesn't come with these, so I don't remember the names, but the first was to occupy the center of the battlefield, the second was to hold a random number of objectives on the battlefield, and the last was a combination of the objectives plus casualties.

I may do some reports later. For now, just a photo to prove I played (this one from game two) and a few comments on the rules.




As far as the rules, I went into it with mixed feelings. But I was pleasantly surprised so far. The mechanics are pretty simple & straight forward. It's pretty quick to pick up the rules and relatively easy to keep track of your army. Maneuver, flanks, and positions are important -- it seems like you to need to think of the whole battlefield plan rather than relying only on a super-hero, death star, or game winning spell from what I saw today. There were definitely some more powerful units/monsters/characters, but they were neither invincible nor all-powerful. There was a pretty good flow to the game, but it tends to swing back and forth a bit since each player only acts in their own turn. The only thing I ever did during an opponent's turn was put down wound or disordered markers. Game play is pretty quick, though, so luckily you aren't waiting for long. I've seen a number of complaints about the mechanic of not removing individual troops. That never came to mind. It's simply not WFB, so I never thought that was something missing. Units do fight at "full strength" but combats run their course pretty quickly, and there's enough going on anyway -- units moving to flanks, wavering after a nerve test, casualties mounting up, etc. that there was still a sense of direction to a units fate. In fact, wavering is a big deal.

Rules and armies have a reasonable amount of special rules, so the game is easy to pick up and understanding what's going on with your opponents army is relatively easy to figure out. One of my pet peeves about WFB was that every month or two you had to learn a pile of new rules for the latest army, let alone sort out how they dealt with all of the other rules, how to counter them, etc. Each army in KoW still seems to have it's own flavor, though. For example, a lot of the Abyssals had fury & regeneration, which really kept them aggressive in combat. My undead had the combo of shambling and surge, and were largely immune to wavering. Abyssal dwarfs had crazy shooting (mortars and thrown mutant dogs??) to soften the enemy and break formation a bit.

Not my favorite game, but it had a decent balance of detail and easy play-ability (leaning more towards the latter) that made it fun. More detail and character than something like Hordes of the Things, but much simpler than WFB. And the rules are much cleaner than either of those. My friends have been playing since KoW2 came out, and they said it had enough nuance to keep them interested (and from what little I've seen so far, I can see that) but also accessible enough to a new or casual gamer. It doesn't feel like you have to devote a large chunk of your time (and money) to keeping up with army books, "killer combos" and internet strategies to play without getting tabled all the time like WFB or Warmahordes.

That's only from three games, so I may be proved wrong or learn otherwise. I do hope to play some more. Like I said, I had fun. That's really what matters (along with the crushing of enemies, driving them before you, and the lamentations...) So... more KoW in my future? If I can manage it, yes.

« Last Edit: April 09, 2018, 01:56:41 PM by Midaski »

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Kings of War - Played First Three Games
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2016, 02:51:27 AM »
Cool. :::cheers:::
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Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Kings of War - Played First Three Games
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2016, 02:54:01 AM »
I've had a sudden epiphany. And I feel dumb for not realizing this sooner. (In my defense, playing KoW at all has only been on my mind for a few weeks now.)

If I'm playing KoW and supplying both armies, then the physical unit sizes are really up to me.  :Ohmy:

The "stock" KoW sizes are a bit inconvenient for me since the smaller units use "odd" divisions of 20mm bases for total unit width. 5 x 20mm (100mm) wide for troops & regiments. Hordes are ok for me as they are 200mm wide. The basing I've been working with for other games uses 40mmx40mm bases SO I've got to add an inconvenient filler or some similar solution.

But for either trying to adapt it for a solo game or hosting a game where I supply both armies, I can go 80mm wide for troops & regiments, and 160 wide for hordes. My basic "building block" is 4x(40mmx40mm) so my basic unit is = 2x troops = 1x regiment = 0.5 horde. Works well!


Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Kings of War - Played First Three Games
« Reply #13 on: March 31, 2016, 03:39:35 PM »
Recently I was playing a set of rules where they use base widths for movement and firing distances.  We were using 60mmx60mm bases with 40mm figures, but the base width idea seemed to be distorted for the size of the engagement we were playing, and so we cut everything in half, and things worked good.  Your idea is along the same lines, and if it works, go for it. :icon_cool:
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: Kings of War - Played First Three Games
« Reply #14 on: April 02, 2016, 03:56:29 AM »


I've taken the KoW Ogre army list, removed the things that didn't fit my Fimir concept, and changed the names of the units & monsters.

https://goo.gl/EM5eSs

I could also work in some lesser deamons (abyssals) or elementals from other lists, when allies are allowed.

Offline GamesPoet

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Re: Kings of War - Played First Three Games
« Reply #15 on: April 03, 2016, 04:00:25 PM »
Good to see! :::cheers::: :icon_biggrin:
"Not all who wander are lost ... " Tolkien

"... my old suggestion is forget it, take two aspirins and go paint" steveb

"The beauty of curiosity and creativity is so much more useful than the passion of fear." me

"Until death it is all life." Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra