Kings of War Game #2: AKA Mizzard Wodel's Blaze of Glory!

My fortnightly games night featured another 2000 point Kings of War game.  My opponent this time was Pat, he brought his warriors of chaos (ahem, Varangar) and I gave my previous army a little tweak and once again took the pointy ears. Here's what went down.

Armies Set Up

The Armies

My glorious Elven Host consisted of Minty (my dragon with an elven hero strapped onto his back), 2 Stormwind regiments, Mizzard Wodel (my elf wizard who since I've named him seems to survive most games intact), a Tree Herder (really must name him), another wizard, a horde of Tallspears, 2 units of Stormwind cav, a regiment of Kindred archers and 2 units of  Gladestalkers, finally a troop of hunters of The wild completed the host. Opposite me was 3 units of Fallen, 3 Magus conclaves,3 troops of Tundra wolves, a Skald (with Holy hand Grenades), a magus on a mount, a Jabbawock and a mounted regiment of Sons of Korgaan. 

Varangur Set Up

Pat chose the side without the woods which suited me as I always like to skulk in forest with my Elves and he also won the roll for first turn. I'm still in two minds whether I think first turn is a big advantage so I wasn't unhappy about his choice.

Elf Set Up from the Varangur's Viewpoint

Some Sort of Plan is in Order?

The plan (if you can call it that) was to use the woodland to the left to hinder any rock hard Varangur dudes attack my pathfinder type guys whilst sweeping round the left with my fast moving units. The Tree Herder's job was to shore up the centre with the help of the Tallspears. My previous game had the Tallspears not doing very much so I thought a more proactive approach would be better.

After Vanguarding

Ye Olde Turne Onne

Pat advanced up with most of his units in a menacing manner. One little surprise I got was when the central unit of Tundra wolves shot at the Gladestalkers with the War Bow of Kaba. It failed to wound presumably due to not having opposable thumbs or being colourblind. One of the Wizard Conclaves shot/magicked two wounds of my Sabre Toothed Pussycat armed wizard. With that Pat's turn ended.

Treeherders View

Varangar Advance

In my turn I charged the Wolves with the bow with my Tree herder hoping for a swift bit of carnage and a possible rout. I move my dragon and cavalry to advance towards the Fallen but make sure I'm out of their charge range. In the shooting phase the wizard heals herself a bit and the rest of my missile troops put 5 wounds on the Sons of Kurgaan. I show my relative inexperience with this charge as not only do I fail to rout the wolves (only caused 4 wounds), I also set myself up for a flank charge from the Jabbawock. Not good, not good at all.

Elfs Advance

Tricksey Elves know their opponents charge ranges

Turne The Seconde

Pat had a few charge orders to hand out but not to the big nasty gribbly Forsaken as I had made sure there was no elves within charge range of them. One disappointing occurance was my Tree Herder getting flanked by the Jabbawock and a frontal charge by the Tundra Wolves, this was going to require some shite rolling on Pat's behalf here I thought to myself. Also the Tundra wolves on the right charged the Gladestalkers opposite and the Sons of Korgaan charged my hunters of The Wild. Least scary for me was the final unit of Tundra Wolves charging my Stormwind Cavalry. The three magical conclaves didn't achieve much in the shooting phase. In the combats I was surprised to see the Jabbawock and Tundra Wolves bounce off the Tree Herder whilst the other two canine units did minor damage. The Sons of Korgaan wavered the *HOTW. This actually did me a favour as Pat's unit's only option was to charge them again next turn.

Mistake #1: Foolishly Letting a Jabbawock Flank Treeherder

In my turn I flew the dragon round the back of the Wizard Conclave on the left. My Stormwind unit counter charges the Tundra Wolves, the Tallspears charge the second unit of Tundra Wolves, the Tree Herder attempts some payback on the Jabbawock. My Gladestalkers shoot the Wizard Conclave on the hill, Then mistake #2 makes itself apparent as **I decide to breathe all over the Forsaken unit facing the dragon only to have Pat remind me ***I can't shoot gouts of flame as the dragon was shagged out from an at the double move. The Skald is wavered by Elf shooting. In the combat phase the Tallspears rout the tundra wolves as does the Stormwind Cavalry. then come mistake #3. after a little deliberation i decide to advance with my stormwind hoping for a 1-5" advance which would leave me in charge range of the Forsaken, but outside theirs. Unfortunately I rolled a 6 meaning they had a charge to withstand next turn.

Mistakes #2 & #3 Made Here

Poised to Strike!

Balancing Tallspears on a Hill

Varangur give Elves some Good Old Fashioned Boot

The Waiting Game is Played

Ye Olde Turne Three

Shit started to get really real. The Sons of Korgaan had a second go at the Hunters of The Wild, Tundra Wolves into the Gladestalkers, the Jabbawock charged the Tree Herder, all three units of Fallen charged in the Dragon, Stormwind and Tallspears. As this is only my second game I still have some baggage left over from WFB and the placement of the dragon was (I thought) safe from the Fallen charge but I had miscalculated. The wizard cast Bane Chant on the Fallen going into the Dragon and caused a lot of damage! Both of the other Fallen units inflicted a lot of damage and the Tundra wolveses thunderous charge was pretty unpleasant as well. After the damage was calculated and nerve tests taken, the Gladestalkers in the centre, Hunters of the Wild and Stormwind cavalry all scarper. My Tree Herder was pretty lucky as Mr Jabbawock was struggling to do significant damage even with his feeding frenzy. The sons of Korgaan (well Pat really) then had a difficult choice to make, advance towards the centre of the battlefield leaving their backs to the Gladestalkers or face them and have the elves try to evade them by dodging out of their charge arc. In the end he went for the first option. 

Oops, Where's Me Stormwind?

The Great Easterly Varangur Migration

Now it was my turn to roll dice with Pat looking on helplessly! The dragon charged the wizard (mainly to have a chat about the wanton casting of bane chant). My other unit of Stormwind got a flank charge on the Fallen. My Tree Herder got all up in the Jabbawocks grill too. Tallspears charged the Fallen and my Gladestalkers charged the rear of the Sons of Korgaan. I managed to cast Bane Chant on the Gladestalkers rear ending the cavalry. In order of sucess, the comabts went as follows:
Stormwind flanking the Fallen 27 damage, they rout.
Dragon vs Wizard bit of a mismatch, dead wiz.
Gladestalkers vs Sons of Korgaan - cavalry waver like hell.
Tree Herder wavers the Jabbawock.
Tallspears minorly inconvenience the Fallen.
All in all a none too bad turn, could really have done with routing the Fallen with the Tallspears though.

Scouts kicking the shit out of heavy cavalry

The Dragon gets the wizard that was so fond of casting War Chant

Both the wizard and Fallen unit take early baths

Turne The Forthe

In my limited experience of Kings of War, the game usually speeds up around now as a lot of units tend to disappear. This was no exception (to my previous game). The Fallen unit that faced the Tallspears decided to get stuck in, as did the sneaky Tundra Wolves getting a juicy flank attack. The Jabbawock was unable to charge due to wavering so I imagine he just cringed like a dog during a thunderstorm. Both Wizard covens failed to hit anything (probably too much diabolical cackling I reckon). The skald then sashays over to the Kindred Archers and throws a holy hand grenade at them. A successful hit caused 5 wounds on them! This was the gentle reminder to them that they had pressing elf business elsewhere that needed urgent attention, upshot is, they routed. The Fallen/Tundra Wolves double team caused enough damage to make the Tallspears waver. Annoying in the least

Confusing scenes at the start of turn 4

In my turn I charged the rear of the Fallen with my Dragon.  The Tree Herder charged the Jabbawock and my Stormwind cavalry charged into the other unit of Fallen. The elf shooting phase is small but perfectly formed. The Wizard & Gladestalkers combine to cause enough damage of the Sons of Korgaan to make them rout. My mounted wizard is not so impressive as he causes minimal damage on the Tundra Wolves menacing the Tallspears flank. In the melee phase the Tree Herder gets the Jabbawock up to 13 damage then I roll snakes eyes for his nerve test and I have to put up with it for another turn. The Stoemwind cause about 7 damage to the Fallen on the left but not enough to rout them. The Dragon absolutely obliterates the Fallen who disappear in a hot steamy cloud of blood sweat and mutated elbows!

Another unit of Fallen bite the dust

Turn Penultimate

Things were teetering in the balance, I had a lot more points still on the table but a lot of units were heavily beat up. Pat needed to make this turn count, as yes he did! The Jabbawock charged back into Tree Herder (I think both were getting sick of the sight of each other at this stage), the last remaining Fallen unit counter charged the Stormwind and the ****Dags charged back into the flank of the Tallspears. the Wizard Covens earn their (probably) exorbitant fees by promptly blowing my dragon to kingdom come. Speaking of explosions the Skald lobs another grenade, this time at the Gladestalkers, routing them. In the combats both the Tallspears and Stormwind exit the battle a turn or two earlier than I had hoped, leaving me with not many models to move around. I must commend Pat on his ruthless efficiency this turn as he turned my fairly promising force into a pile of cack in a few deft dice rolls. One positive in this turn as the Tree Herder remained fighting fit against the Jabbawock.

Things look rosy

The Tree Herder once again charges the Jabbawock. Mizzard Wodel fireballs the tundra Wolves to oblivion, and the other mage heals herself as she was looking like a target from the nearest Coven. The Tree Herder finally routs the Jabbawock and the turn ends.

Not so much now

Elven housekeeping

Turne The Sixeth

This turn was mercifully short. There was no charges from Pat and he moved his skald so he was well out of anyone's charges. The coven Mages shoot 5 damage of the Tree Herder but he remains resolute (thank any interested deities). 

All I manage to achieve in my turn is to waver the skald with a fireball courtesy of Mizzard. We roll to see if there is a turn 7 and luckily (for me) there isn't. The picture below has all the surviving models in the shot. we total up our victory points and the difference is within 75 points so a rather hard fought and exciting draw! 

Everybody's Dead!

Conclusion

Well that was brutal! From a personal point of view I made a couple of mistakes that very nearly cost me the game. Worst one was completely forgetting that a dragon at the doubling cannot fire. a bit of patience would have served me a lot better there, also the Stormwind advancing after the destroyed the Tundra wolves, I had a one in six chance of getting charged next turn, and it didn't work out. Even though it cost me the Stormwind, I'm sure my eternal optimism would force me to do it again. Another error I think was not moving the wavering Tallspears, they received a flank charge from the Tundra wolves who are pretty unpleasant on the charge. Not sure if I was able to turn and face but it may have kept them there for another turn. Kudos to Pat for taking off 885 points in turn five which really turned the game around. I had a blast and am really enjoying learning this new game.

Thanks for reading.

* Hunters Of The Wild, duh!
** Not me really, the dragon model.
*** Again, not me really.
**** Dags = dogs.

Mutants, Pokemon & The Cat In The Wizard's Hat

Happy New Year!

In my week and a half Xmas *holliers I managed to finish some of my models. As is customary for me they have nothing really to do with what I'm playing at the moment. Any of my small group of blog followers may know I've been playing Kings Of War, so all the models I've finished are nothing to do with it. Anyway here's some pictures;

First up is a Shaolin monk from Iron Mammoth Miniatures. I painted him up as **masseuse for my human Bloodbowl team. He can also be an interesting npc for Inquisimunda type games and has enough of a weird scale to make a convincing alien too. 

Shao Lynn

 Next is my Oldskool citadel Astropath. Again Rogue Trader/Inquisimunda or even a member of my Imperial Guard army. A Wyrd in Necromunda is also probable so there are plenty of opportunities for him to get some table time.

Astro Path

 Below is one of those models that I purchased from ebay with a lot of other ***Bitz. It is a small cat with a party hat,  and a large novelty birthday badge. I started to paint it up for a brief flirtation with Warhammer Quest a while ago and have just finished it. The hat is painted up with astrological phenomena to give the impression of a wizard who cast one too many transmutation spells and is now permanently a pussy. He waits in a dungeon licking himself until he is be rescued by some brave adventurers. He can also be a planetary governor's best friend that in Inquismundial world has to be rescued from rabid animal rights terrorists.

Bizarro the Cat

Next is an old Necromunda Beastmaster Wyrd that I obtained from the aforementioned Bitz on ebay. He was missing his left arm from the elbow and had been divested of his stub gun. Some greenstuff and a weapons upgrade and he can be any one of a dozen npc types in a game with the considerable punch of a plasma pistol to fry people with.

Nearly Naked Jeb

An old Skaven Rat Ogre with a plastic Ogre head are the main components of my big guy with a Goliath shotgun. I have painted the fur to slightly resemble wool instead of fur to give the impression of a highly muscular dude in a woolen onesie. The fact that he wears a necklace of ears which are actually bigger than his makes me wonder what poor misfortunates with large lugholes got scragged by him just for being over endowed in the aural department.

Big Mutant Guy

The next six models are all ex-skaven with a little doctoring. Some head swaps and greenstuffing have made me some scavvyesque thugs ready to do horrible things to innocent people.

Arran Jumper Thugs

The next four are all skaven warpfire thrower loaders re-headed to make Necromunda pack slaves or just general downtrodden proles from the 41st millenium. again the obligatory Arran jumpers with MaxMini evil heads.

Half Blind Pete & Zombie Chuck

Smug Grin & Elephant Man

Lastly are my first finished Infinity models. I saw the game got caught up in the excitement and decided that Tohaa were the army I wanted to collect, the main reason I think were the terms Viral weaponry and Swarm grenades. Then came a 10 month lack of interest until I discovered the Tohaa could use these little critters in a variety of interesting ways such as bombs, hacking devices and ****fire blankets. These models are actually more equipment markers so technically I don't have any Tohaa combatants painted yet. These also can double as exotic alien pets being illegally transported across the post apocalyptic wastes Smokey & The Bandit style.

POKEMON!

So there you have it all painted up last December but only posted this year. Hopefully I can get some more finished in the none to distant future.

Thanks for reading.

* Dubliner speak for holiday.
** I envisage the chairman of the team has gone for the creepy-but-cheap type masseuse rather than the attractive-but-expensive brand.
*** Ebay code for stuff with it's heads cut off.
**** Quite a important piece of kit from a Tohaa point of view.

Kings of War Battle Report! AKA Minty pops his KoW Cherry!

I haven't been getting my fantasy wargame on lately mainly due to the storm of apathy that Age of Sigmar provoked in our gaming group. For a while I've been wanting to play Kings of War and last week Vinny expressed an interest. So as two experienced gamers a 2000 point demo game was the order of the day. We downloaded the free rules and it's another episode of Good vs Evil - This Time It's Personal! My Wood Elves vs Vinny's Undead.

We Don't Need Your Stinkin' Tactics!

Rather than bore people who read this about my non valid tactical thoughts on Kings of War, I just picked stuff that I wanted to use to see how the game works. With only the vaguest of ideas of how the game plays and what stats are more important than others I brought a force, not entirely dissimilar to my Warhammer 8th Edition army. So I brought Minty, a *Tree Herder, a mage armed with a Sabre Toothed Pussycat, Regiment of Kindred Archers, troop of Gladestalkers, 2 regiments of Stormwind Cavalry, Drakon Rider Horde, Hunters of the wild, and a Horde of Tallspears. As I mentioned before, my grasp of the game was shaky so learning what shit does would help with any future plans. Vinny's forces were Soulreaver Cavalry, Zombie regiment, Ghoul regiment, Zombie Trolls, a Necromancer, 3 regiments of Skeletons, a Vampire, some **Werewolves. Vinny also provided his rather splendid battleboards for our mutual enjoyment along with his themed scenery and also Pat came along to provide neutrality and some **fingers of fudge.

Initial Deployment

Vinny lost the roll for intial set up. I deployed rather haphazardly with cavalry and fast moving units to the flanks (bar one centrally placed Stormwind unit) with the general idea that rolling up flanks has some sort of tactical benefit. Vinny did something similar with his Werewolves and Soulblight cavalry out on the flanks either in an attempt to counter my rolling up flanks idea or in some twisted parody of my valiant Elf masterplan. Vinny then won the roll for first turn and elected to go second. After the customary handshake and good luck type salutation (along with a secret crossed fingers behind my back play) the game was on!

Elf deployment

Undead Deployment

Turn One

I advanced my units up fairly aggressively with the hope that Vinny would do the same and give me lots of easy charges next turn. As I had moved most of my army to within charge range next turn but not close enough to let Vinny charge me, my movement was fine except for a slight miscalculation (or just plain stupidity) where my archer regiment was about 1" out of shooting range. The Gladestalkers plinked a couple of damage off the skeletons nearest them and as I hadn't equipped my mage with any zap type spells my turn ended with little to show for it.

First Shot from ****TRIPODCAM©

End of Elf Turn 1

Second Shot from TRIPODCAM©

TRIPODCAM© rocks!

Vinny advances and decides my leaving the Stormwind an inch or two out of the Soulreaver charge range was a bit of a dickmove. Good naturedly of course. The forces of Undeath shuffle forward giving me plenty of choice for my next turn. The Balefire Catapult targeted my Stormwind unit that are dressed up as Wild Riders. The reason for this is probably because of several shitkickings Vinny's army has received from them. Luckily he missed. The Ghouls surge forward 3" and a lightning bolt damages the other Stormwind unit mildly.

Dick Move #1

End of Undead Turn 1

Minty surveys the battlefield

Turn Two

Movement Elf Turn 2

This turn I declared quite a few charges. Now this is where my lack of experience showed. Not really knowing how good/bad units were I declared the following Stormwind#1 into the Soulreavers, Minty into the Zombie Trolls and the Tree Herder into the Ghouls. In the centre of the table Stormwind#2 charged the Revenants and my Drakon Riders charged into the Werewolves in the woods over on my right. The only things I didn't move were my Tallspears and Archer units. Little is acheived in the shooting phase as the archers cause I think a total of two wounds and the Mage forgets how to heal his mates. Of all the combats only the Stormwind vs the Revenants causes a rout. The rest are reasonably successful but all get beaten back. most annoying was to prove to be the Drakon riders vs the Werewolves not playing fair by skulking in the woods. Only causing a measly 4 damage. I will come to regret that. 

My first mistake

The 1" shuffle back combat resolution looks a trifle unheroic 

Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield.

Vinny's turn is rather unpleasant for me, and at the same time rather weird. The Soul Reaver cavalry and Zombies charge the now not-so-cocky Stormwind, the Zombie trolls bowl into Minty, the Vampire lord charges into the other stormwind unit whilst the Werewolves counter charge the Drakon riders. The shooting phase sees the Necromancer Bane Chant the Zombie Trolls and the Balefire Catapult proves just how bad eyeless sockets are for targeting by missing again. In combat the Soul Reavers and Zombies cause a nasty 24 wounds on the stormwind but Vinny duly rolls a double 1 to rout them. A you didn't rout my cavalry dance was swiftly enacted then it was back to the carnage. The Werewolves showed the Soul reavers how to fight properly and routed the Drakon Riders. The Zombie trolls cause 9 damage on Minty scaring the bejasus out of him! The second Stormwind take 4 more damage but withstand the onslaught from Mr Vampire. At the end of the turn things look pretty evenly balanced.

My Stormwind Cavalry are not in their happy place.

Turn Three

It was now time to get stuck back in. Charges were Stormwind #1 into the Zombies that had just flanked them, Minty back into the Zombie Trolls, Tree Herder back into the Ghouls, Stormwind#2 into the Balefire Catapult and the Hunters of the Wild into the Wraiths. The rest of the movement consisted of the Tallspears advancing towards the Werewolves and Wraiths with a mind to charge one or the other if the opportunitypresented itself and to keep my rather rubbish mage out of the way. My melee phase was pretty cool.Stormwind#1 routed the Zombies, rather than move away from the Soul Reavers and give them the chance to advance towards my other units I shuffle back so if they did charge them (a forgone conclusion I thought) any movement would get them further from the main action. Minty caused a respectable 7 damage on the Zombie Trolls but I then failed to rout them! This would be uncomfortable next turn. both the Tree Herder and Stormwind#2 routed their opponents whereas the Hunters just bounced off the Wraiths (I didn't know how tough they were).

End of Elven turn 3

Zombie Trolls seem to be tricky opponents.

Vinny starts his move by charging Stormwind#1, Minty, and the Hunters with Soul Reavers, Zombie Trolls and Wraiths respectively. He then moved his werewolves into the position in the picture below using Nimble, annoying. He Bane Chants all over the Zombie Trolls and then Vampy zaps the Stormwind#2 unit for 2 damage. Melee is pretty eventful as Minty is routed, and the Hunters waver.

Dick Move #2

The Soul Reavers then inflict another 4 damage on the Stormwind#1 and in the subsequent Nerve test rolls the dice pictured below! Snake Eyes two turns in a row! Surely these guys are living a charmed life? If I thought my you didn't rout my cavalry dance was enjoyable, Vinny's I didn't rout your cavalry two turns in a row dance was even better!

24 damage points is meaningless when you roll like this!

Turn Four

As the Stormwind were now living on borrowed time (an unkind word would probably rout them) I thought I'd try to get my money's worth out of them by charging the Zombie Trolls. My Tree Herder charges the skeleton spearmen and the Stormwind#2 go for Mr Vampire. Tallspears, and both Archer units turn to face the Werewolves shooting a couple of wounds from them. The mage heals the damage on the Hunters. in the melees the Zombie Trolls are routed and the Stormwind advance 6" towards the Necromancer. The Tree Herder inflicts not enough damage to rout the Skeletons and Stormwind#2 fail to kill the Vampire lord.

Operation: Stormwind Cavalry hide from the Soulreaver Cavalry

Finally got rid of the Zombie Trolls

As with most good wargames units were getting a bit thin on the ground. Vinny got some double charges off - the Vampire and Skeletons into the Stormwind#2, Wraiths and another Skeleton unit into the Hunters. Also the Skeleton Spears charged into the Tree Herder. I was surprised to see the Necromancer not move out of the Stormwind#1 front arc but like I said before very little was going to rout them so I had an inkling of what was coming. The Werewolves scooted around the back of the Tallspears into within spitting distance of my archers. The Necromancer fails to damage my Stormwind#1 with his arcane jiggery pokery and is now in very real danger of death by horse. The melees go as I expect with the skeleton Spears bouncing off the Tree Herder and both my Stormwind#2 and Hunters unit taking an early bath.

Hunters of the Wild get a kicking!

End of Undead movement

Turn Five

Time was getting on so it was shit or bust time. Stormwind #1 charged the Necromancer, Tree Herder into the Skeleton Spears and both units of archers into the Werewolves. My mage who had spent the last four turns doing next to nothing set his cat on the Wraiths. Some rather wicked rolling on my part sent them packing back into whatever graveyard they came from with their incorporeal tails between their legs. Melee phase caused the redemise of the Skeleton Spears and the Necromancer. My archer units sort of bounced off the Werewolves. 

The Wraiths are destroyed by a playful kitty!

In KoW archers charging Werewolves is an actual thing.

The werewolves charged my Gladestalkers and the Vampire Lord charged the Stormwind #1. Inevitably the Stormwind finally succumbed to the severe beating they have received from turn 2 and finally routed - not bad for a unit on 28 damage! The Gladestalkers withstood the Werewolf charge and we called the game due to it being late and we both had work in the morning. So after some totaling up the game turned out to be a draw, a hugely enjoyable, eventful draw that really got me enthused about Fantasy Wargaming again!

Werewolves charging archers is more common.

The inevitable Vampire/Stormwind Cavalry on 24 damage combat.

Conclusion

Well apart from the inactivity during my opponents turn, I really enjoyed my first Kings of War game. I think both Vinny & Pat were similarly impressed. The game is quick and easy to play with, I suspect lots of tactical aspects as well. From the point of the game, I think my biggest mistake was not double teaming the Soul Reaver with the Dragon and Stormwind#1. Had I done that instead of going for the Zombie Trolls who were effectively blocked in by the Ghouls I could have got rid of them turn 2. Although my unbelievable luck with the Stormwind got me a draw when a victory to Vinny would have been a fairer result. In the future a Bane Chant equipped mage would make my archers not so rubbish and could've swung the combat with the Hunters and the Wraiths. I'm sure knowing the stats of my opponents units would have helped with decision making. But then that's the fun of learning an entirely new game system. So my next KoW action is to start planning my Forces of Nature army.

Thanks for reading.

*    I didn't think Treeman was GW's I.P. but just in case it is, Tree Herder it is.
**  Masquerading a Varghulfs.
***Not, in any way the Slaanesh type.
****I bought a tripod.