Kings of War - First Impressions

Hello everyone.

On Monday June 18 I met up with Iain and his wife Heather. They introduced me to the game play of Kings of War.  Thanks for the detailed, awesome explanations Iain! You made learning the game clear and enjoyable!

 I played my first couple games, the first mission being "Kill" and the second one being "Dominate".  Where you have to get as many units within a certain radius around a piece on the board and hold it.  Anyways, it has been a long time since I sat down and played a rank and file type of Fantasy game so it was a nice switch in what I have grown accustomed to over the years.

We met up at Calgary's newest gaming join, The Ogre's Den.  It's large, extremely air conditioned, and has plenty of table space.  Highly recommend this place!

Half the store is a full of quite a few tables! There are Four more tables behind me here when i took the picture as well.  The other half of the store has a massive room full of TONS of terrain, an area to purchase gaming goods, as well as  front entrance area with more tables. Lots of space !  The only downside I felt was the location.  North East and quite a ways for me.  Fortunately it is rather close to C-train Transit so it wasn't hard to find once in the area.  Great if you have a car and know where it is, bad it's out of the way of major driving locations, so this place will need some word of mouth to grow in popularity.  Luckily there are lots of Magic the Gathering players in Calgary, so I could see it becoming quite the prominent north eastern gaming spot.


Anyways! Here's the games we played. First was "Kill" mission.

The first photos I started to take were already into the game when it was under development, but let me tell you what went down.

I played as the Abyssals in the first Game, Iain played as the Empire of Dust.  Our lists compromised of the following units made for 1000 points (or at least how I think I remember them!) :

Abyssals : Abyssal Guard, Archfiend of the Abyss, Abyssal Horsemen, Molachs, Abyssal Temptress

Empire of Dust: Mummies x 2, Ahmunite Pharaoh, Enslaved Guardian Archers, Revenants

I won't get into the unit sizes, but we had a few hordes, regiments, heroes, etc.  I learned that setting up and choosing an army is relatively straight forward - there's no core or special, or rare or percent amounts you're allowed to field. Rather, in order to field a monster, hero, or war machine you need to field a regiment to unlock on of those unit types.  A horde will unlock all three options.  There are other unlockable formations and units but we only covered the basics.  It is thus very easy to build an army. 

I set up first and had the first go.  The Abyssals were what I call a regular moving army, and the undead shambled around and had reduced normal movement, being that they're dead and all ! 

Our game was on a 4 x 4 foot area (the fences on the board marked the edge of the board). I felt for the size of units at hand in this 1000 point gaming was the perfect size for these quick games.  I took advantage of the forests and the hill terrain on the board. In this game everything is assigned a height level. Hills have a height of 2, forests 4, obstacles 1, and units are also given a height amount.  Say you're unit is height 1 and behind a hill, anything else with a height of 1 or 2 will not be able to see over that hill, but a monster with height 4 is taller than the hill and thus can see what's behind it!  No unit can see through the forests as it blocked line of sight - but if a monster was a height 4, and on a hill, his height would be 6, and thus see over the forest..you get the idea!

There are reduced charge and regular moves when entering forests and moving through obstacles, which makes perfect sense to me.  You also gain cover bonuses for being within a forest, but you can be seen in the forest, just not behind it. All good.  I also learned that units surrounding you also offer cover bonuses. Very interesting.

Anyways, most of our fighting ended up being at the centre hill area of the board.

(Like many historical games, KoW uses counters instead of model removal to represent wounds.  The red tokens were 1 point of damage, blue was 5. Yellow was for wavered units) 

His Guardian Archers have a huge range and can pierce armor, but the hit rolls are rather low, and they cannot move and fire.  They did some damage to my Molochs and Knights but they were still able to get into combat. I initially double charged a unit of mummies and we destroyed them, but I lost the Knights in the process. 

In the centre, I had my Archfiend enter the woods and launch lightning bolts at the Revenants for a turn or two before engaging them. Casting magic in this game is pretty straight forward. Roll the amount of casting dice a spell has, go for 4+ , then follow damage further with whatever modifiers.   They were quite the large unit but the archfiend was able to eliminate them with the help of the Molochs flanking. Flanking is huge in this game as you double all your attacking dice, and rear assaults triple it!  

Here the middle unit was wiped out, thanks to the ridiculous amount of Moloch attacks! They then went to take out the mummies after the knights were defeated. 

 The Mummies and Abyssal Guard kept on fighting all through the game until we reached the final turn.  Regeneration continued to help out both units. My Temptress was pretty useless until the end, only getting her spell off once and fighting for one turn only.
In the end, I wiped out most of his foes except the Mummies (and I cannot remember if the Molochs finished off the Enslaved Guardians). 
Great first game! 

The Second Game was Dominate. One of the trees on the centre of the field was the area that had a 12 inch radius we had to get our units into. I played as the Empire of Dust this time. 

Sadly I don't have many photos of this go round, but here they are. 

Oh the Humanity! Flanked by Abyssal Forces is truly a quick way to get sent into the Abyss! 

The second game went by MUCH faster.  You only need to play a game or two and you get the very basics of the rules. The game is quite simple in that regard. I think we only played about 40 minutes in the second round.  I have to say, I did not dominate the field in this game whatsoever.  I had my two mummy units on the right flank, my Revenants just left of the centre with my Pharaoh and the Enslaved Guardians up on a hill on my left.  My plan was to get the Enslaved Guardians up on the hill to rain shots down on all the foes, which they did poorly since I couldn't see anything through the woods, or Iain's soldiers took cover in them. 

My mummies were eaten up and flanked all over on the right by his Cavalry, Molochs, and Archfiend while my Revenants tried to get into the fray. I tried the spell Surge Out with the pharaoh but did not score enough hits to cause the undead fellows to get close enough to help their friends. I ended up fielding my inspiring character far too far apart from the mummies, which would have saved them.
Ultimately, I'd say Iain's victory was much more impressive than my initially beginner game victory... I think I only had my Enslaved Guardians in the end!


So in the end, I won a game and Iain won one.  The abyssals dealt heavy damage to the Empire of Dust, and whatever they were fighting over, was realised.

So there is my battle report.  Overall, I'd say that Kings of War is a good game for fantasy players and especially what I see as competitive play.  It is quick to pick up and play as a beginner and since the company isn't hardcore about forcing their own products on the players you can easily use cheap fantasy alternatives (Bones is a great, cheap go to for minis and should I build up an army, the majority will be used from Bones). There is also no standard to what a miniature looks like, so you can use total imagination, paint them however you want, and have any look or feel that you want as long as it follows their basing system.  That being said, I understand why a lot of Warhammer fans picked up this game as the basing system uses similar rank and file measurements.  There is also nothing stopping you from basing everything on one massive base as Iain did, as long as the dimensions match up to the right rank and file.

As a major historical gamer especially with Hail Caesar, there were quite a few similarities I saw in the game.  The major one being the "Stamina" or "wound" token count, rather than removing models. This just makes sense to me and throwing some markers behind a unit to represent wavering or damaged troops is better than separating model by model. It also allows you to base your models on one larger base if you prefer.  You might not be able to make use of the old single model foam containers to travel with your models, but at least when playing you don't have to move a ton of models if you don't have movement trays.

Movement is very , very simple.  You just move forth, pivot, double move, or charge.  Each unit has its own speed points based on what sort of unit it is (I think 5 is the standard)   Terrain and obstacles affect moving with hindrance  charge-attacking or delays movement say if you move into a forest.  You can move backwards or sideways at half speed. When aligning units into a charge you try to get in as closest you can to the unit's closest edge.  There's an angle marker to properly see if your unit can charge or shoot at, which you can use if you're not sure if the charge is flank or frontal assault.   I think there is a centre that you try to align on most one vs one combats, but if terrain or units cannot allow the centre line up then you can get as most of the unit in as possible when fighting. I'm not entirely sure about the lining up initially of units and how it works exactly with the little time I had playing the game, but it felt rather simple and hassle free.  Each unit is moved individually in whatever order you want on your turn.  Lining up, making use of terrain and moving units at the right time is essential, because protecting your rears and flanks are a big part of this game, as I'll describe soon.

Shooting is also very straight forward.  The units have their weapon ranges described in their model description.  I liked the shooting in this game because a unit's height affected what it could see and charge.  So since the Enslaved Guardian archers have a height of 2, they're able to shoot over their friends and over enemies that are smaller than them, within their long 3 foot range.   Spells are also dealt with in the shooting phase in a similar way. To cast one requires a simple dice roll of 4+, so you get a 50% chance of getting it off, followed with whatever the spell does, be it damage or cause an effect.  We used Lightning Bolt and Surge mostly in this game. The spells have their own parenthesis attack or cast values , whatever they're called, that tell you how many dice you can roll for them.  Surge was an interesting spell, as it sends your shambling fellows forward however many inches you with successful casts - a very basic Undead style of spell.   Some units like the enslaved guardians are move or fire rule, which is standard in lots of games, and they use the typical frontal arch to fire.  Some units also have "piercing" damage, that can affect an enemies defence. 

Combat was the area that I was not accustomed to and it took me a lot longer to get used to.  I would say it was the area I had most issue with.   Let us look at I am used to first: 

 In most historical games I am playing the units roll perhaps 9 - 10 dice maximum, and about 6-7 average with one unit's melee phase. Everyone in the historical game is human, and gets no super bonus or factional stats.  A light troop, if he can get through the heavy troops army, hits on roughly the same amount as a heavy troop. It's all modified by fatigue, morale, who charged,  skill - typical human, non fantasy elements affect the combat.   The heavy troops have the edge, because of armor and perhaps more skill, but the light troops if they're not some local cheap levy, can still win over heavies with some good rolls.

In Kings Of War the dice rolling is madness in comparison.  The Molochs had a whopping 24 or something attacks, and so 24 dice were rolled... which means on a flank and a rear you're rolling double or triple that amount!  You will need a lot of die to play KoW!  Model's are more so affected by their skills. For example, if you have Furious Charge, you negate some of the foes offence ( or something like that ) .  That is fine in a fantasy world.  Units have more attacks if they have more troops present.  A troop has less attacks than a horde.  I appreciated how a massive monster, being only one figure, only had like 9 attacks, but when up against a horde of individuals, he had way less attacks than the massed amount of soldiers did.  Monsters with too many attacks vs like a hundred guys makes no sense to me, unless its like a Hydra or something.  So the amount of attacks a large single unit made of one monster VS a larger unit with lots of little guys in it was done well. 

 Personally I am not a big fan of rolling tons and tons of dice all over the place. When I get past 10 every turn and every attack I get quite tired of pulling out the 1's and 2's, and counting the die.

There was a lot of combat results that I did not quite fully grasp and think I'd have to play more or get the rules to understand completely. 

For instance, I understood the Waiver ability, but with the armies we played all the units were either dead, so they don't waiver, or they had an ability that didn't really affect them.  Things I wasn't sure on - When a unit is in a waiver , they're not allowed to charge? That makes sense... Waiver also wears off after a turn? I am not entirely sure. 

Also, rules like Brutal, Vicious, and Leech Life affected a unit's combat break results or regained health. They seemed like typical fantasy elements and felt appropriate where they were.  Tar pitting in this game on units that do not waiver seems very dangerous.  If you can leech life, regain, do not waiver, and can be healed, a unit could potentially last forever... fortunately the game ends after a set amount of turns.  Normally in Warhammer I'd like to play until one side is completely wiped out or near death, but in KoW, because of these types of units(and I think there are a few tar pits), I think limiting the turns makes the most sense!

For break tests, and the like, it is all done mathematically based off a split stat. I think some units were like 15 / 17 .. not sure on their name at the moment - but basically if your foe rolled the combat result of 15, your unit is not going to be fighting next go round.  This is modified by the wounds you have taken.  The second part of the split stat is the roll needed to destroy/break the unit for good.  Some units don't have the first half of the split stat - representing they cannot waiver. Elementals, Undead, and some other units have this sort of item.  I think a lot of units like this also shamble, which halves their movements normally unless charging.

The weirdest thing for me in this game was the lack of other player involvement on each persons turn... In most games I have played since Warhammer It has been you go with your forces, I go with my forces.  And when we do it this way, say it's my turn, and we're fighting - but my foe still gets to roll his own defence dice, or react in a way during my turn.   In Kings of War everything is done by the player's whose turn it is.  So I do all my movement. Easy enough. But when it comes to shooting, magic, fighting and break tests, I am doing the hitting, I am doing the attacking, I am doing your units defending, and I am rolling your units break test (was it the break test too? I suddenly cannot recall. I think it was though...) .  Everything is done by one side involving all forces involved.  So you have one player whose turn it is, and you just watch... To me this could get extremely boring in large point games, which is why I think if I dedicate more times to KoW I will probably just play 1000-1500 point games.   I am used to being able to respond to charges, roll my own responses, move my own responses.. being active in the game no matter whose turn it is.  In KoW you also have to know your opponents defence and skills as  a result - I mean you could simply ask them , which you tend to do in any game, but I just feel it is a strange mechanic that it is all one sided each turn.

Another weird thing to me was how uninspiring commanders / heroes felt.  Actually, there really isn't a general or a leader in the game.. and one whole point of heroes IS to inspire in KoW!  The heroes are important, do not get me wrong (and they can tip the battle!)  - but they're basically just single models with fancy skills and nothing more. You can equip them with special items, but they ultimately just add an ability or skill.  The big monsters make the most sense to me if they're also heroes - They're big. They're inspiring.  They can tear some holes into stuff (but they're not too over powered as I described above), and they're not actually leading.  I will feel inspired as a soldier, say, if a massive dragon is on my side tearing up the enemy. I get it.  But you get these single models out there that basically damage, buff, enfeeble, and can also attack .. but they just don't feel like they're leaders. And they cannot join your unit of rank and file guys.

 In Warhammer heroes and Lords could join the actual units , be equipped with specific or generic magic items, have upgrades, and do a number of commands more than inspire. They were very important , and losing one in some areas (Like Vampire Counts) was a big ordeal!  In Historical games, like Hail Caesar, the Generals and Commanders and their leadership are absolutely required to maintain orders. They can join units, rally units, give very specific orders.  And although once you lose one, a replacement with lower leadership comes along, they feel much more involved with the actual rank and file troop.  In most of my games the Heroes, Lords, GEnerals, and commanders have a very inspiring and special place in the army.  In Kings of War they're essentially specialised units of one figure, but cannot join or affect a units combat physically themselves. I guess what I mean is, that I prefer a more commanding, join the front line, sort of hero over one that runs about and buffs and fights.

My last thoughts:  though I haven't had much time to look at the army lists, I felt that a lot of these soldiers in this game have a very basic, standardised stat line with very generic named terms.  If I were to pit mummys against Water Elementals, the game might last forever because they'd both be doing regeneration , leech life, and have a druid to heal the elementals, and the fighting would seem rather dull if you constantly used the same forces.  I noticed a lot of armies have access to the same sort of rules, like crushing charge, or regeneration, or furious charge, etc.. But the game does try to make each army have a specialisation.  Abyssals for example are full of hundreds of dice rolls.  I noticed the Trident faction has things like harpoon guns and ensnare on quite a lot of fellows.   I see this game as being one where in tournaments people will really have to go hardcore at studying their strategy and armies list and pick out exact units and how they want to place them to get them their victories.  It's not a game where I could say "Hey, I want to field nothing but generic skeletons!" and expect to be victorious or have a chance of victory.  Hence why I think it is more competitive play over casual play.

I think that's all I am going to mull over on Kings of War for now.  I have some deeper thoughts but I think before I comment or judge anything else in the game I'll have to play a few more games. And who knows? My opinion could change once I play more.

  Overall, as I said, a good game with good mechanics that one could easily pick up and play quick games.  The game is indeed quick at 1000 points for the rank and file style of gaming. In 40-60 minutes one can finish one game.   If I start up an army I think I'll go get some Reaper Bones Minis and do a fairly quick army. 


So!  Will it be my favourite game of all time? Will it be the game I prefer first over all others?  It is the first large scale fantasy game I have played since Age of Sigmar came out.

Honestly - No. 

I love historical games that I have encountered mainly because of the ease of play, but yet also has a deep complexity about it. There is never any need for a point system and "fairness" is not an issue.  Real life battles were never fair.  The play is casual and non competitive. It is not math heavy (i suck at math).   I like how the units are split into divisions and are specific for what their purpose is.  I love the aesthetics and the human, large scale battles.   I like the dragged out, 3-6 hour battles where both sides are involved every turn, and commanders issue specific battle commands.  I appreciate my broken units physically being ordered to flee off the table when they're broken and not simply being removed once they've lost all morale.   

So while I can appreciate going back to a larger scale fantasy game, it is not going to be on the same level Warhammer was for me when I was 14-16 years of age.  If I get about to making an army for Kings of War (I have so many historical armies, and I must focus on the thing I love), it too will be purely aesthetic and I won't be worrying too much about the competitiveness.  I am going to take it as a fun larger scale fantasy game that I can play once or twice in the course of an hour to three.  I was thinking of doing something like an all fire-based army, made of fire elementals, a great fire elemental, druids, a dragon, any anything else nature or fire based.  It will not be an army that is meant to dominate the field, but rather, one that I enjoy using to face down the scariest of KoW foes out there!

Thanks for reading!  If you haven't checked out Kings of War, I do recommend it!