Battle Report: Kings of War, first impressions

Battle begins

Last week, I got a chance to try out Kings of War with the half-painted beginnings of my old Warhammer Fantasy Vampire Counts army. I lost interest in GW's mainstream offerings long ago, but I do love the spectacle of 28mm figures clashing on the table, especially the monsters you can toss into a fantasy battle. So Mantic Games' Kings of War is worth a look: it promises fast, smooth play that lets you focus on positioning and tactics more than list building.

We played a 1500 point game, which seemed a shade on the small side but plenty big enough for a learning game. The terrain, as seen above, made very little difference in the battle - a few hills provided elevation and slight line of sight blocking, but had no effect on movement. My opponent, Brother Glacius, brought Elves, more or less as follows:

Spearmen Regiment
Spearmen Regiment
Bowmen Troop
Sea Guard Regiment
Palace Guard Regiment
Forest Shamblers Regiment
Stormwind Cavalry Troop
Seabreeze Cavalry Troop
Tree Herder
Bolt Thrower
Bolt Thrower

I cobbled together an Undead army:

Vampire Lord
Liche Lorde
Necromancer
Necromancer
Zombie Horde
Zombie Horde
Skeleton Horde
Ghoul Horde
Revenant Cavalry Regiment
Werewolf Horde (played by some Hordes Circle Orboros Warpborn Skinwalkers)

Deployment is in alternating steps; roll a die, winner chooses whether to deploy first or second. First player deploys a unit, then his opponent does, and so on until all units are deployed. After deployment, certain units with the Vanguard rule may take a move before play begins.

I dropped my hordes in the middle of the board, backed by my characters, with the Werewolves and Revenant Cavalry on the right and left, respectively. Brother G put his Bolt Throwers and cavalry on the wings, with the Forest Shamblers anchoring his right flank and the elves in the center and left.

Brother G went first. His Seabreeze Cavalry on my left moved up fast, threatening my Revenant Cavalry, while the rest of the army moved forward somewhat more slowly. I shambled my hordes forward, as a good necromancer should, and started picking up the basics of the game.

Over the course of the next six turns, my hordes shambled forward and got stuck in with the Spearmen, Palace Guard, and Forest Shamblers. His bolt throwers were, well, mostly useless. My Revenant Cavalry rolled over his Seabreeze Cavalry after a bit of chasing around but then got shot to death by the Bowmen. My Werewolves were quite effective, and I can see why Brother G thinks Mantic may have made a design error on Large Infantry Hordes - by themselves they dominated the right flank.

In the end I won by a small margin of destroyed troops at game's end on turn 6.

Overall, I had a pretty good impression of Kings of War. I don't think I'd get into it without already having some troops, as I've gone off 28mm for large battles for reasons of space and storage, but since I do already have some... I like the way it plays quickly. The buckets of dice mechanic is offset by the sheer speed of play; we knocked out six turns + deployment in under two hours, pretty good for a learning game. I'll be playing this again. Might even try to build a second army - maybe something from Warlord's Pike and Shotte range using the Kingdoms of Men list.

Near the end, the Tree Herder continues to chew through the skeleton horde, ghouls close in on hapless elven spearmen, and the werewolves clash with elven knights.

You can take a look at Brother G's thoughts on the game here.