Kings of War - Information, discussion, questions

[gabus]

Looks like Kings of War fever may be hitting MAOW. Here is a thread to discuss rules, clarifications, questions, and other issues for KOW.

Link to free rules from Mantic: Mantic Downloads page

Kings of War is a fantasy wargame. On the table it looks much like Warhammer Fantasy, and certain aspects play similarly. Units move, fight and act as one, and the system is turn based, with a movement phase, shooting phase, and a close combat phase. A typical game is 6 turns, and takes anywhere from an hour to 2 hours depending on how big a game you want to play.

Players are encouraged to use whatever models they have to hand, so long as they are based correctly, or on the correct size movement tray. Mantic, GW, whatever, so long as it is clear what the unit is.

[gabus]

I noticed in the FAQ this morning that we have been doing charges too severe. The FAQ states the target has to be in the front arc of the charging unit and the leader needs LoS. We have interpreted this as the leader's personal 90 degree arc. The FAQ is clear that the leader needs Line of Sight but does not have a 90 degree arc for this purpose. This should make charging and flanking easier!

[Rorik2]

Does anyone have a run down on how the different factions play?

[gabus]

There is no official breakdown of the factions that I am aware of. Here is my take. Keep in mind, I haven’t played with, or against, all the factions.

Dwarfs: Infantry-based army. High defense, slow moving, good artillery, hard to disrupt.

Elves: Good all around, access to all unit types, fast moving. Sort of the game standard

Humans: Average stats, largest army diversity, average speed. Easiest to collect given how many 28mm humans are out there for models.

Abyssal Dwarfs: Evil Dwarfs, same general advantages/disadvantages. Access to large infantry that dwarfs don’t have, but easier to disrupt.

Goblins: Poor stats, cowardly, half the cost of other armies’ units. Drown your enemy in bodies.

Orcs: Glass hammer. Almost no ranged units, hit like a ton of bricks in melee, not very durable.

Twilight Kin: Evil elves. Same advantages/disadvantages as elves. A couple unique units to differentiate.

Undead: Good diversity of units. Hard to break, cant march, but can move and charge due to magic. Innate healing mechanic.

Basilians: Angelic humans. Elite human stats, hard to break, access to an innate healing mechanic.

Ogres: Fast moving, hit hard. Average durability. No real range threat.

Forces of Nature and Forces of the Abyss. I don’t have my book handy, but they are probably subject to the biggest change after this kickstarter. As I remember them, they are very durable, with above average offensive abilities, and they pay for it in points.

[rorik2]

Thanks. Exactly what I was looking for.

[gabus]

The Basilean Legacy expansion added new rules for Zap! Spells. These have not yet been released for free on the web site, so are included here.

Any hero that has the Zap!(n) rule as part of their original profile (i.e. it cannot be added by a magic item, such as the Boomstick) may use any of the following spells as their Zap! attack. These all work the exact same way as the original Zap! (which is represented here by the Lightning Bolt (n) spell) – they have no to hit modifiers and all cancel re generation.

Sword of Light (n) 2” 3+ Piercing(5), once per game
Fireball (n). 6” 5+ Blast(D6)
Mind Blast (n) 12” 5+ Piercing(1), no line of sight required
Bladestorm (n) 18” 5+ Piercing(2)
Lightning Bolt (n) 24” 4+ Piercing(1)
Frostwind(n) 30” 3+ -

[rorik2]

Just finished up my 2nd edition pledge for Forces of Nature. Of course I ended up owing a bit after I tacked on some add-ons.

[gabus]

Haha. Still waiting on the email for mine.

[ogre44]

I got my pledge manager email today, of course the heading told me it was for my Dungeon Saga pledge but whatever

[rorik2]

After filling everything out yesterday, I come home to see a box from Mantic on my porch. I thought that was very quick.

Ended up being my second package for Mars Attacks.

[GrumpyMonkey]

Still waiting on mine, now I am torn on which faction to roll with

[ogre44]

If you want an army soon go with existing, if you want something no one else is playing go for one of the new factions
The game seems pretty balanced, what are you looking for in your army play style wise?

[gabus]

I almost always pick the opposite of what I have for a second army.

You have elves, they are good, so go with an evil army.
Play style wise, elves are pretty good all rounders. One of the better shooting armies though.

Orcs or undead sounds about right to me. All CC, no shooting to speak of. Mantic orcs are all plastic, so are their undead, no restic. Mantic orcs are not cartoony, and their undead are good.

Or you can score a truckload of GW ones cheap from GW people bailing out of fantasy.

My 2 cents.

[gabus]

Played 2 games of Kings of war with Shawn yesterday. 1500 points each, for a total of 3 hours.
He ran 1500 points of Elves, vs 1500 points of my Basileans. Solid victory for the Basileans.

After a break to adjust the Elf army for more efficiency, I made up a 1500 point all goblin army. Solid victory for the Elves.

Both games tons of fun, fast, and no real rule issues. I am hoping the KoW 2.0 book does a better job of defining woods. Every time I play, I play with different versions of the tree rules, and I haven’t found a version that I really like, and the rulebook isn’t so helpful.

So far, my favourite version is that you can see a unit in the trees, no matter how deep, but you can’t see through trees to units on the other side. A unit with half or more of the unit in the woods gets the benefit of cover from the woods. Units shooting from the stand of trees only suffers to hit penalties from the wood it occupies if the leader is not in contact with the edge of the wood. (so a unit that is 2” deep in the woods would suffer shooting penalties, but if the leader is placed at the edge, no penalty)
Thoughts about woods?

[badace]

_{Hey Scott, have you used any of the optional magic for Zap, and if so how does it work in the game? Do you think it adds anything, or would we be better off just using the Zap as normal?}