Conquering Kings Of War – Dwarfs & Basileans Vs Undead & Orcs Battle Report!
May 18, 2016 by dignity
It's now time for a battle report as we see our two generals, Justin and Rich fromΒ Mantic Games, battling it out on the tabletop withΒ Kings of War.
They'll be showing off some tactics and tricks as Justin helms the Dwarf forces who have allied with Basilean troops whilst Rich controls the vile Undead who have tricked a band of Orcs into doing battle.
Join us for the Backstage Edition of the show where we talk about expanding your forces.
Who do you think will come out on top?
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. It doesn’t matter the system or ‘verse, I love these battle report / demo game videos. Watch out for that organ gun! π
A game of tiddlywinks? π
Absolutely, @rasmus – because you can bet that if BoW were doing Tiddlywinks, they’d figure out a way to include flamethrowers, battletanks, hypertech walkers, and flame-throwing dragons. Tiddlywinks: Apocalypse!
Oh, wait, Flick ‘Em Up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtrE0Ik9ylM
Thanks for that, that’s the next battle report sorted then π
Good to see the basing is going well Justin π (sorry)
Really enjoying the game so far!
Despite missing some of the finer points of the rules (especially at the end), this was very entertaining. A nice to watch battle report on an awesome table. And it shows of a lot of the great KoW mechanics. More of this!
But seriously: WHERE is the chessclock π π
I personally haven’t played any games of this and am new to the hobby in general. Is this how the games usually shake out? From the batreps I’ve seen, it seems like it.
There’s $400 worth of terrain on the table, plus the effort to make the layout, etc. But everything always seems to just boil down to a scrum in the middle. Unless I’m missing some strategic decisions being made that are affecting the outcome or something.
Again, not trying to be rude or anything, I guess I’m just a little disillusioned with what the game ends up playing like, if this is the example.
It is only a 4’Γ4′ 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.
Thanks folks, for the clarifications. I’m glad to hear there’s more to the game. I do appreciate the batreps as well, just wanted to make sure it’s more than just a scrum. I’m sure it’s hard to balance length and weight of the game with an introductory video that’s watchable.
Great match!
Where did you get the damage tokens and the army lists?
I think Justin mentioned making the damage tokens himself in another video.
Maybe he did, but those are laser etched acrylic with the BoW emblem on them.
i got them from a face book page called bespoke gamer templates. π
Loverly battle report, nice and fast. I know you guys,say it’s a friendly game, but Rich you to nice. Rembert you undead and evil. And undead get some nerve back when they fight π
The battle report was great! It also looked good! I’ve listed it in my article about KoW battle reports: https://alkony.enerla.net/english/the-nexus/miniatures-nexus/miniature-wargame/kings-of-war-gameplays-resources