It is only a 4’×4′ table so there is not a lot of room – also a lot of this type of game is being able to choose your match up

This game had the two main choke points at the river fords, so was inevitably going to involve a scrum for a while.
I haven’t bought any fantasy miniatures since I was a kid, but I like the low level of magic, the way heroes and artefacts buff units in simple ways and the logical and easy to grasp fighting system.
I have seen several games played out online. Depending on the game type, the more space you have and the more fast units you list, the more fluid the game becomes. To make use of all those heavy infantry you do need a scrum at some point to give it that medieval / fantasy feel IMO.
Terrain doesn’t need to be as interactive as other games so buildings don’t need intricate interiors. The terrain they used was top of the line, but you can get by with homemade hills, forests and impassable rocky outcrops to force choices from the players. (I think your main point was that the expensive terrain didn’t appear to impact on play a lot, but if companies are going to demo their games they’ll want a quality table to make the game look it’s best.)
Overall, I like the look of Kings of War and after my birthday this weekend I may have enough birthday money to invest in my own fantasy army.
Thanks Justin and Richard. Great demo and great series of videos.

Kings of War is a really tactical game once you get into it, so is defintely not always a scrum in the middle. The rewards for getting flank/rear or combination charges are huge, and using terrain to block line of sight or force your opponent to attack you at a disadvantage can be decisive. So the way you move your units and how they interact with each other is vital. Eg you set up units to cover each other so that, if the enemy charges, he knows he will pay a heavy price the following turn. Or you use fast, expendable chaff units to get in the foe’s way and restrict his movement. Or you use flying units to race up a flank, hop over the top and threaten the rear of units – but then maybe your opponent is expecting that, so he has positioned a second wave just behind to threaten the flyers when they try their trick.

This battle report was fun to watch, with beautiful terrain and armies, but the table was only 4 by 4 and the 1500 point army size was smaller than the ‘normal’ tournament size of 2000 points, so we couldn’t see some of the more tactical elements play out in full. I liked the terrain set up because it was pretty and seemed like an actual village rather than some randomly placed buildings, but it did have the effect of funnelling the units into mainly frontal scrums (I’ve only watched half as I write this, so that might change).

If you’re interested in the tactical side of Kings of War then I recommend the linked battle

http://youtu.be/H2c2pAAWHsE

Warning – this is the kind of video that 99.9% of the world’s population (at least!) would find extremely boring. It wasn’t really designed for general viewing. It is nearly 3 hours long, and the first 40 mins is just deployment! It is a game on universal battle, so there aren’t even any nice miniatures to look at. BUT … the good bit is that it is a game between the UK champion Dan King and another really good player, and Dan narrates his thought process as he goes, so you get a real insight into what he’s considering as he plays, which you don’t always get in the more user friendly battle reports online. I certainly picked up some tips. You probably need some knowledge of the rules to appreciate some of what’s going on. But despite, all those caveats, I really enjoyed it.