How units might work and move in the Kings of War game
July 31, 2010 by lloyd
Note that the Rules hadn’t even been completely finished when we shot this, I wonder if there done now?
Anyways I think it’s really cool to get an incite into a game from the man writing it before it’s done, you get a sense of the though patterns that go into it 🙂
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Inetersting. Not sure about the time cloack. It would have to be longer then an hour for it to work in my opinion. Other wise I see no other problems. It will be intersting to see how large creatures like dragons work.
The time clock seems like a good idea for tourneys, but I guess if you’re just playing with friends you can forgo the clock all together.
Yeah. I never enter tourney an my 40k games are usually more relaxed. We just like to take our time and we do a lot of chatting while playing; discussing what just happend, laughing and reimagining the most epic things that happen on the tabletop. But I can imagine that this system might actually make the game flow faster. And the true potential that I see in this is, if you play fast and agree that the only limit is the time (no fixed number of turns) the battle can become very exciting. Lots of movement and slaughter! Isn’t that waht we seek in such a game? I see this working especially in big scale battles. Just imagine how fun would it be to finish the game in the 8th or 9th turn, after an epic clash of hundreds of models on a BoW epic table ;).
Is it not unfair for Mass Armies? You have a lot more to think and move and attack…, compared to elite armies with just a few units.
The impression I get from this is that the armies aren’t likely to be so completely asymmetrical that you would have any significant disparity in turn length, and besides if it did happen you’d probably be able to mob-up your units into larger formations similar to how the warhost is two regiments stuck together.
I think for tournaments having a time-clock is fine and I’d be happy with that however if I’m playing with my brother I’d rather not have any time constraints. So making it flexible would be key as I’d like to just relax and have a laugh enjoying the game. Though very few people actually use the clock for chess unless they are aiming to take part in competitive games 🙂
Other than that it’s building up to be something absolutely brilliant, I really I’m in anticipation for the beta (hopefully :D) rule-set to be released 🙂
I did have some questions, but five seconds later, Warren basically asked it. Good job.
I winced a little when Warren was wiggling that dragon’s wing around. Careful, mate! 😀
Ha ha me too i could see the glue having to come out : )
Movement in cm? Nooooooooooo, please use inches!
“80 GUYS HAS THIS STAT LINE! AWESOME!” alessio is jokes,
very interesting talk guys
I’m interested in their ruleset, but using a chess-watch or whatwasit already makes the game more complicated than Fantasy Battles or 40K. Don’t like that.
Otherwise, interesting concepts, I’m thinking about getting into the beta when it’s time.
not really, a lot of tournaments already use clock systems, this just means that your opponent cant wind your clock down by being cheesy. 🙂
Was looking forward to it, then he said that it was designed with tournaments in mind. Dunno about anyone else, but I play wargames for the chillax factor, its a game of two players.
Still interested, but if it does turn out to be heavily tourny based, thats me out.
Don’t forget he said “could” be played as tournament. He did not say “has to” be played in tournament stile.
All tournament play does is open up one more way to enjoy the game.
I Like the idea of the chess clock, gives you a bit of a realtime feeling and if you wanna have a chill out game ou can still leave it.
The idea of having stats for the whole unit sounds nice too, but plz remove casualties.
I really like the sounds of this rule set
I like the idea of simplifying the rules.I know people that wount touch other systems because they are too complex and time consuming.
Yes, use inches please!
I can’t see a problem with mass armies troublemaker as these will probably be formed as warhost and have a similar number of units to move as a more elite opponant, and if not, you have a better chance to outmanuevre and hit flanks – no, can’t see a problem. I’m certainly looking forward to the rules, that’s for sure.
Chess clock would work but only if it’s like an exam, meaning you have time to slaughter every last unit if you’ve planned ahead and had good tactics.
otherwise it’s not a war, it’s a sport.
Also you mentioned combat would be like breakingthe ranks and pushing the opponent back: would be nice if it actually moved the enemy backwards, such as over a cliff or into a river.
No clock for me thankyou!
It seems to me that the simplicity and unit based stats would be good in bigger pitched battles. Would like to try that out.
Hoard armies would just have different considerations and advantages so like Hithero can’t see it being a problem.
This system might be a good intro level gaming at a smaller scale.
I am fairly disappointed is the way the games rules are headed. I feel that if it goes too tourny based I’m out too. I’ve read a lot of the WFB rules and feel that they are perfect for a fantasy wargame. Only thing holding me back from purchasing an army for WFB was the prices compared to Mantic’s prices.
I do not like the timed aspect at all, it seems to bring on a simplification of the game, I know Mantic are going for a simplified ruleset, but taking it too far will only hurt the game in the end.
We will need to see how unit damage effects the ability of a unit to perform before we can truly comment on this, but I’d prefer the concept of removing casualties from the unit. Removed casualties visually show the unit as weaker but also reflect in its ability on the battlefied with less attacks etc.
I was genuinely looking forward to taking this up as pretty much my first wargaming experience (dabbled years ago in WFB but never played much at all) but the ruleset is a definite deal maker/breaker for me.
“We will need to see how unit damage effects the ability of a unit to perform before we can truly comment on this, but I’d prefer the concept of removing casualties from the unit. Removed casualties visually show the unit as weaker but also reflect in its ability on the battlefied with less attacks etc.”
As they said, this is not going to be a models game, but a unit game. Removing single casualties etc… are contrary to that idea.
I’m getting the idea that they’re borrowing some ideas from Black Powder, the damage counters, removing entire units
I’d say the clock would be good for tourny’s but not for casual play.
I see no problem with cm over inches. 40K has an option to pay in cm after all.
Not sure about the retreating and damage counters, but i’ll have to see how that goes.
And not sure about the rule ideas for cavalry, I’d add to moving and pivoting that they can move triple with ‘on the double’ and ‘charge’ when they don’t pivot that turn, but quarter their move sideways and backward. But i’m not sitting there next to Warren 😛
Very interesting stuff so far. The clock idea could add an element of RTS to the game, which I agree with Warren about – there’s a sense of urgency. The battle is happening and you can’t sit there pondering your moves for ages at a time!
I think the unit categorisation is a masterstroke! The biggest annoyance of wargaming can often be having to buy multiple boxes to form a unit, and then having the problem of a handful too few or too many. I would, however, miss the ability to build a unit to the exact number I want.
This seems to be how approaching a ‘huge army’ game should be done – rather than forcing all players to field giant armies to play effectively in the first place (coughcough8thedcoughcough), just make the game scalable for those who *want* to do it.
However, I have to say I don’t like that you won’t remove casualties. For the unit categorisation, I can see why it could work that way, but it takes a bit away from the cinematic of the game – units won’t get smaller as the game goes on, and the damage inflicted in them becomes far more abstract, to a point where I wouldn’t be so keen. Perhaps a way it could work is that you can take models off to represent casualties, but the unit’s ‘footprint’ remains the same size, so that it does not affect gameplay to remove the models. Though that way would make movement trays a requirement for every unit, rather than an option for ease of play. Also, the cynic in me sees seperate casualty models as a bit of a cheeky money-grab (though not even remotely as bad as GW’s efforts in that regard, since these casualty models would be optional).
The movement is intriguing, though at this stage I would be a little bit concerned about the relative inflexibility of infantry. Perhaps I’m too attached to Warhammer 7th, but infantry at least seems like it might be a bit cumbersome – at this stage it’s obviously impossible to say, but thats the feeling I get from the description. I hope I am proved completely wrong as the rules develop further.
All told, though, I think Alessio is doing an excellent job so far, and can’t wait to hear more about the KoW rules.
Love the idea of the time clock and since it isn’t pivotal to the system it can be left out in friendly games, wasn’t so sure about the combat being one sided (just a dice roll/s to break or not) but adding “hit markers” to units as the turn progresses sounds like a nice mechanic – single stat line is different and quite appealing, it’s starting to sound like a bit of a mix of BFG, Warmaster and bottle tests from Necromunda ….. I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark here and say that if Mantic have designed the range and rules from the ground up to be tournament friendly I’ll bet a pound to a penny they’ve already started planning a tournament series – forethought, planning and inviting, even demanding, customer involvment in the development of the range is fantastic – the only thing that could improve matters is a science fiction based game ………
Love the clock idea (having played chess at school this is not a issue for me) By the sound of it if combat and shooting is an “All or nothing” affair (ie unit holds or breaks) then te clock might not be as much of an issue as steps such as remvoing casulties, coutning models etc are gone.
Like the idea of set unit sizes too Troop/Regiment/Warhost.
I tihnk most ‘complaints’ so far are people thinking in too much of a GW game way (even though its all i myself have ever played).
Looks interesting. Like others, I’d probably give the clock a miss – after all, if the game is going to be far more simplistic than WFB then it should be pretty fast-moving anyway. I guess tournaments might benefit from it, but it’s not really a deal-breaker either way.
I like the stats-per-unit feature. That would really make things more straightforward – and I’m sure you could remove models if you really wanted to in friendly games, I doubt it would make much difference (unit trays would still signify the original size of the regiment).
Also, the limited movement options for core troops could be a good thing – and it does ring true to a certain extent; similar to chess, you need limitations to test your tactical ability (like when to move pawns forward) and to push the focus more towards how you use your more powerful special units (like the back line of chess pieces).
I’m very interested…
Plus, at the end of the day, those of us who want a far more complex system can just simply stick to WFB. It’s all good.
If everyone’s just gonna let the clock go, I think it could be just something that mantic does at their tournaments, similar to the fact that if you play chess (though why would you, warhammer is more colourful :D) you hardly use the clock in your friendly games. But if it’s something mandatory they’d better include it in a starter.
Well just as Ronnie said “nick some dice from a Monopoly game and start playing”
If this is true (as it always was so far) there will nothing be mandatory that isnt minis or dice
I love it , i would prefer doing things in a way so both players complete their movement first the move on to shooting. Or not have phases at all . It seems like this can become allot like Total War but for table top which has some great aspects to it . Regardless of what is finalised in the end i am sure it won’t be bad at all.
I like the clock. I’ve played both 40k and Bloodbowl, modified to use a clock. It was fun as the last 5 mins click away, it can get very anxious.
I like the unit idea and the simple, big, bloody battles. I am not sure about no wheeling/turning for infantry. Just make the wheel count against the movement distance, either directly how much the corner of the unit moved or something like for every turn the unit loses 2cm/1 inch of its forward move. Then Cav and skirmishers can still get free turns to show how much more mobile they are.
For those keeping track I order a subscription to Mantic Journal this morning as a direct result of these videos. I have been getting the newsletter for a while and interested in Mantic but this BoW/Mantic weekend made me pull the trigger on my first, albeit small, order.
To early to say at moment but gut says i don’t like it
The clock….tournie only.
Rules design means you shouldn’t need one.
You go… I go to sleep…my go…you go to sleep…no thanks
Games I find myself enjoying: Epic Armageddon, Infinity, At43/Confrontation, CCA, Fire and Fury, Crossfire, Wings of War, Combat zone and even ASL
They all have either limited activations, in turn interruptions or alternate unit based turns, or even a mix of all the above- Wings of war has a great simultaneous based activation system, now that would be fab for a mass battle if you can pull it off. Anything but yet another boring variant of the turn system please.
Combat system sounds awful at the moment will have to see how it shakes out by seeing a pdf laying it all bare for analysis. I think both roll dice, highest wins would be better…gives both players something to do and makes you feel you won/lost (or do the cca battle back idea). Many people hate tokens so base removal to indicate status better than add tokens IMO.
Simple moves not a big issue but again need to see some rules
Look forward to hearing more and what if any feedback upgrades have occurred.
PS
I think simple to learn and play but hard to master is the way to go…more rules means more chance to get it wrong or have an argument. Also make a game possible in 2 hours or even under. 6 player CCA epic = match setup, played and put away under 2 hours (its is way more fun than many “true” wargames, so it can be done)
to be honest, relay not liking this so far X3. .. ill be sticking with WHFB -_0
i mean for starters, i mean hes just contradicted him self, making simple, but adding a time.. hum, and on with the time, wont this be very unfair on horde army’s..,
damage counting?… so a 1 man squad. will be the size of a 100 man squad? if they started the same…
liking movement tho.