After a long hiatus from Kings of War, I started anew with League of Rhordia.
In their first battle, the forces of the League (with a Dwarf ally) were soundly beaten by an unholy coalition of Abyssal Dwarfs and Ratmen. Rhordians lost the objectives 2-4, although the Duke and the Iron Behemoth were still bravely holding the centre of the battlefield.
The Abyssal Dwarf got to choose the table side (the only hill on a deployment zone), got the first turn (good for shooting), and then both of his rocket launchers hit on the first turn. It was uphill for the Rhordians from there on. I realized I had spread out my deployment too much (very typical of me), and I made a fair number of bad or unfocused choices while trying to tackle the game after a hiatus of two years.
The gods of dice were on the evil side, with most of my attempts grinding to a halt against the odds, and the rockets smashing units all too frequently. I had prepared with a good bit of Healing for my units, but it was not enough. Still, it was a very interesting game. In the end I had packed wounds to almost every Dwarf and Rat unit on the table. They just didn't break. Either a bit more of luck or a better deployment with just one unit untied and fresh at the mid-game, able to challenge the spent enemy units, could have changed things markedly.
Some things I absolutely love in Kings of War and League of Rhordia:
- Easy making of lists. Lots of choice in each lists, with the option of allies.
- The armies look like armies, and behave like armies.
- Few heroes with no uber skills. No removal of individual models.
- No rotating artillery, march blocking or corner-to-corner charges. No bitchin at all.
- We played a medium-big battle, leisurely, in about 3,5 hours.
- Rhordia let me play WYSIWYG Empire, with Halflings and Dogs of War pikemen.
- Flexible Ally rules let me include a unit of Dwarf Rangers.
- I played my old STank and my Griffon-riding general for the first time. Because they're not complicated and cheesy things in this game. Both still felt exactly like they should, and behaved exactly as one would imagine.
After Warhammer 6th, 7th, 8th and T9A, I've finally found home. A game that allows players to bring their chosen models, helps to create an army from them, and keeps to the spirit of the Old World even better than any of the official supplements after early 6th ed WH. A game that is easy to learn but hard to master.
Now I'm actually painting models to bring on the table again, and building lists to try out different aspects of the Rhordian army.
-Z
