Kings of War Undead vs Kingdoms of Men

My son and I managed a game the other day, 1000pts of his Undead vs 1000pts of my Kingdom of Karpath.

An opportunity for him to try out his new big nasty, and for both of us to see if we could still remember how to play. 

We played using 3rd edition; neither of us have yet tried 4th edition, although I do have the new rules. 

Partly because it's been a long time since we played, we were rather slow and had to stop after five turns.  We played the Kill Scenario.

Here's the photos I took, plus a very brief account of the game. 

And apologies to my Alt Text reading fans, there isn't much for you this time.

Set Up

The field of battle with the armies poised for action

The Armies

The human army consisted of a regiment of Bowmen, two Spear Phalanxes, a regiment of Knights (borrowed from my Empire army to make up the points) and a troop of Mounted Scouts. They were led by General Anichka, accompanied by Artem and the wizard Mayster

The Kingdom of Karpath

The Undead included a regiment of Ghouls, a regiment of Revenants, a Goreblight (a lovely Reaper Bones undead giant), a regiment of Skeletons with spears, a regiment of Mummies and a troop of Wraiths. They were led by a trio of necromancers.

Most of the Undead force ...

...plus the Mummies (a troop of Wraiths lurk off to the right)

Turn One

I moved first, though I kept most of my troops back, merely dressing the line somewhat as I tried to anticipate where the biggest threat would come from. The exception was the Scouts who set off on one of the flanking moves that I think are really clever tactics, despite all previous evidence to the contrary.

The enemy was too far away for any missile or magic use.

End of KoM Turn 1

The undead shambled forward, the exception being the Ghouls who swung round to meet the threat of the Scouts.

The Necromancers all used their magic to move certain units forward.

End of Undead Turn 1

Turn Two

The knights charged the Revenants, arrogantly expecting to wipe them out. Unfortunately they failed to do so, and this melee would drag on.

The Knights charge the Revenants, expecting an easy victory

Mayster responded to the advancing enemy by conjuring a wind to blast the undead spears backwards. 

I think I found this funnier than my opponent did. This is a sample of my rolling for Wind Blast.

Needing a 4+

End of KoM Turn 2

Fortunately for the Knights, the Revenants were unable to damage them (for two turns they were unable to crack that 5+ Defence). Meanwhile, the Goreblight circled round to their rear and the rest of the Undead force advanced, in some cases assisted by the Necromancers.

End of Undead Turn 2

Turn Three

The mounted scouts continue their ride, always managing to stay out of danger from the ghouls, who kept turning to try and keep them in sight, but never getting the chance to shoot at them. 

The Knights continue their combat with the Revenants, slowly whittling them down and eyeing the advancing Goreblight.

At the other end of the field, Mayster once again pushes the Skeleton Spears back, while the Bowmen discover that the Mummies are tough.

End of KoM Turn 3

The Undead continue their slow advance, the Wraiths flying dangerously close to the Bowmen. 

The Goreblight proves deaf to the entreaties of two of the Necromancers as they urge it to smash the Knights while they are trapped in melee (two Surge spells provided about 2" on top of it's normal move. I was delighted).

Adding to the Undead woe, the Revenants once more failed to damage the Knights.

End of Undead Turn 3

Turn Four

As the undead continue their slow advance, the bowmen try to pick off the Wraiths. Alas their targets are too tough, and very little damage is inflicted.

Mayster casts a Fireball at the undead spears, which proves much more effective (needed a double six on the Nerve test).

The Nerve Test

A Spear Phalanx (I must come up with names to differentiate between the two) charges the Mummies, but they are tough opponents and take little damage. The Bowmen frantically loose at the Wraiths, but most of their arrows pass straight through.

Having (hopefully) distracted the Undead for long enough, and no doubt leaving the poor Ghouls quite dizzy, the Scouts gallop off to the other side of the field to lend their doubtful help there.

The knights finally finish off the Revenants and turn to face the approaching Goreblight. They'd already felt it's presence sapping their strength. 

End of KoM Turn 4

The Goreblight finally charges the Knights, while the Ghouls turn to face the tasty humans in their metal cans. The Knights take a beating, but it takes more than that to break Karpath's finest (they benefited from their Indomitable Will).

On the far side of the field, the Wraiths charge the Bowmen, who, surprisingly, manage to hold.

End of Undead Turn 4

Turn Five

The Knights try to take down the Goreblight, but without the benefit of their lances, it's very slow going, and those Ghouls are lurking behind them.

Both the Spear Phalanx and the Bowmen continue to fight their opponents, but do little damage to the Undead.

End of KoM Turn 5

The combined might of the Goreblight and the ghouls finishes off the knights, allowing that flank of the Undead army to face the fighting on the far flank.

Over there the Wraiths quickly finished off the Bowmen, leaving the Foot Guard poised to charge them. The Spear Phalanx held out against the Mummies, but only under the stern gaze of General Anushka (Inspiring reroll requiring a double one).

End of Undead Turn 5 and end of battle

At this point we called the game. Technically it was currently a draw, if slightly in the undead favour, but I think the final turn(s) would have swung it to an Undead victory. The Ghouls and Goreblight wouldn't have made it over to the rest of the fighting, but with the Knights gone, I'd have been struggling against Mummies and Wraiths.

Final Thoughts

It's nearly a year since I played Kings of War, and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be.  We both thought of moves that we might have done differently, although luck seemed to play a big part in the game.

Once again I got stuck in combats that I thought I'd win first turn, I obviously need to readjust my expectations.  

We hope to get a few more games in soon.

What's Next?

Well I've got plenty to paint already, including more of those Wildspire Miniatures and some Undead of my own for the Dark Shadows campaign.

That said, I might take advantage of the Season of Scenery challenge to sort out a set of 28 mm Kings of War terrain, rather like the 15 mm set I did back in 2019.

And it would be nice to have a regiment of Knights that fit in with the rest of my Karpath army.

And a little Carrion Beast tells me that Bodvoc is getting interested in a new Kings of War army, for which he'll no doubt want an opponent.

Warlords of Erehwon, the Map of Albion (Dark Shadows Preliminary Game)

Boðvoc and I played the first game in our Dark Shadows campaign.  To get us a bit more used to the rules and how to use our armies we played a preliminary game where both sides raced to get a map to the mysterious isle of Albion. 

Boðvoc used his tin cans dwarves and I used my new undead. 

The Scenario 

As host, and campaign organiser, Boðvoc came with a suitable scenario: both sides were trying to find a thief who had stolen a chart showing a safe route to the mysterious (and misty) Isle of Albion. 

Six tokens represent possible hiding places for the thief, a unit contacting a token reveals it, with a 1 in 6 cumulative chance it will be the thief with chart. 

We each had 500 points, which doesn't buy a lot of dwarves.  My secret weapon was a Carrion Beast, which you can see painted in the previous post. I thought something fast would prove useful grabbing objectives. 

Apologies if the following focuses more on the undead than the dwarves, you can read Boðvoc's account over on his blog.

The Field of Conflict 

The battlefield was suitably busy; ideal for this sort of skirmish. Cliffs blocked the far end if the table, as seen on the photos  -  these were actually the old modular plastic hills from Citadel stood on their side! A track leads along the length of the battlefield to a couple of fields and a farm house, with a hedge extending the line of the track.  A couple of low hills flank the hedge near the centre of the table,  and a couple of woods and a large hill dominate the near end of the table. 

There are a couple of boggy areas, near the cliffs and at the end of the hedge, and minor ruins scattered around. 

Objective tokens were placed in both bogs, both fields, one of the woods and on the rocky hill. 

The undead moved on from the left and the dwarves from the right. 

Opening Moves 

Once both sides had deployed it was clear that most of the action would be over near the cliffs. 

The two sides face off

Initially, both sides moved forward towards the objectives. Makhar boosted the skeleton spears, increasing their number to nine, otherwise it was simply a case of making progress towards the objectives.

Two turns in

The dwarven archers occupied the nearby woods.  They searched in vain, no sign of either thief or chart.

Makhar climbed the hill with his bodyguard.  No sign of the chart here either.  He took advantage of his position to inflict a Chill Wind on the dwarven axe troops, killing four.

The zombies shambled forwards, keen to feast on dwarf. To their left, the skeletons advanced into the field. Hiding in the crops was the thief, and, more importantly,  the sea chart.

Over near the cliffs the Carrion Beast circled round and dropped a rock on Amlodi.  The dwarf hid behind his beer barrel, one of his drinking chums was less fortunate. 

The action hots up, the chart is in bony hands

Main Battle

Shaken by the loss of one of his guard ("he owed me a pint"), Amlodi Forkbeard did little more than check his beer barrel for leaks.

The skeletons withdrew from the field, accompanied by a nervous rogue clutching the map. 

The dwarven infantry moved up, hoping to catch the skeletons with the prize, while the zombies shuffled ever closer.

Makhar scrambled down the hill and caught the dwarven guard in another chill wind, but they were made of sterner stuff and largely shrugged it off. They were less fortunate when the Carrion Beast dropped rocks on them, losing one of their number. 

The dwarven archers shot at Makhar and his bodyguard,  but caused no casualties. 

The undead take shots at the dwarves who desperately chase the the map

The Carrion Beast continued it's bombardment of the dwarf guard, taking out another, as did Makhar's Chill Wind. Seeing the skeletons withdraw with the chart, the necromancer decided to make the dwarves pay for their presumption. Hopefully it would delay any attempt at dwarven expansion into Albion. He ordered the zombies to charge the dwarven guard.  Despite acquitting themselves well, the dwarves were spent from their previous casualties and broke, the survivors fleeing the battlefield. 

The dwarven axes then charged the remaining zombies to avenge their kin and wiped them out. 

Desultory shooting from both lots of archers caused no casualties, but both sides suffered somewhat (a pin each).

The Dwarven Guard have gone to the Halls of the Stone Ancestors, the zombies are destroyed, and neither side's archers are up to much

End Phase 

The dwarven archers crouched down in confusion (failed Order test). Both Makhar and the Carrion Beast slew a dwarven axe, but the dwarves had the effrontary to charge the necromancer.

Dwarven axes vs Makhar and his guard

One of Makhar's bodyguard was smashed to bits by the axes of the dwarves,  but their earlier casualties caused them to break. They kept their discipline,  and withdrew in good order.

The skeleton spears continued their withdrawal,  keeping the chart safe.

Gradual whittling down of both sides

The undead gradually retreat.  Makhar tries a final blast of Chill Wind on the remaining dwarven axes, but they shrug off the effects. 

With no way of catching the skeletons with the chart, and unwilling to risk more dwarven lives (according to some, because his beer barrel had sprung a leak), Amlodi Forkbeard sounded the retreat. 

The Chart is safe in Makhar's hands

Well that was a hugely enjoyable game. I did wonder what Boðvoc has done to upset the dice gods: his luck, especially to begin with, was shocking.  Amlodi failing a Command test when he needed a 9 or less, for example.

Conversely, my rolling was good, especially early on, and I managed to cast every spell, though not always terribly effectively. 

It was my first game using my undead, though I did face them when T'Other One squashed my orcs with them back in November. I was pleasantly pleased with their performance, though a lot of the success was down to avoiding the dwarves.  The scenario helped a lot here, I'm sure I'd have struggled in a straight up fight. 

The Carrion Beast seemed very powerful, essentially being untouchable, as it stayed away from any dwarven missiles.  I predict a lot more archers and rangers, and probably some magical support in the dwarven lines in the future.  

What's Next?

The next scenario is The Mists Recoil, actually the first one in the original campaign.  It's an odd one, designed for individual skirmishing minis using a  system akin to Mordheim. It pits boats full of attackers trying to land opposed by three war machines and a tiny garrison. 

We'll not be trying to do individual minis; so far we are looking at the three war machines and 200 points of undead against 600 points of dwarves in boats.  This may change of course. 

I need an undead champion to lead my skeleton crew, fortunately I've already got one part painted.  I've also got some Grenadier war machine crew, and a complete Skull Chucker catapult.  I'm looking out for potential war machines for the crew, or perhaps some scratch building?

At some point I must paint a banner for the Fantasy Lords standard bearer I painted in December.  Boðvoc has a Spoils chart, and my undead got a magic banner granting Command 10 to all units within 10".

Rangers of Shadow Deep: The Infected Trees

"Scenario 2: The Infected Trees

Examining the bodies of the zombies, along with the other clues from the village, left little doubt.

The village had been attacked by some horrific species of giant spider, whose venom reanimated the dead. Thankfully, such creatures move slowly. Likely, they will have retreated to the nearest shelter to slowly feast upon the missing villagers.

Your duty is clear. Taking just enough time to patch up your wounds, and make a quick pyre for the dead, you set off after the spiders, following their faint, but unique tracks. 

After nearly a day’s pursuit, the tracks lead into a small forest. Chances are the spiders are not too deep in the woods. You must find them, destroy them and any nests they might have made, and, if you are

lucky, rescue any survivors."

The MEGAforce finally got around to playing the second scenario in the first mission. 

All four of us were available, so we each chose one of our Rangers from our previous play-throughs of the first scenario and took either a Recruit or a Warhound from a previous game. The rationale was that all the earlier games had happened and the various Rangers met up on the way to the Trees. Four then took a Companion each to investigate, while the rest returned to base escorting the rescued Survivors.

L to R: Omoranti, Bostol,  Portus Fell,  Gendrin,  Ranger Bob, Wuffles, Valdar and Haflas

L to R: Omoranti, Bostol,  Portus Fell,  Gendrin,  Ranger Bob, Wuffles, Valdar and Haflas

The Infected Grove

I set the game up ahead of time, using my Nest Trees and pretty much all the rest of my tree collection. Sadly I didn't really have any other suitable terrain to provide cover and make the going difficult.

The Infected Trees with lurking spiders

We'd not got together for a while, so there was a lot of chat and too few pictures.  Here's a brief account of the action.

Opening Moves 

The Heroes advanced, already sighting Giant Spiders ahead. Early shots took out a couple, and Valdar was able to target one of the Nest Trees with a Fireball, burning both it and the Spider hiding in it.

The only setback was both Omoranti and Bostol being Poisoned by a Spider (Grim couldn't roll less than a 17 in the first half of the game, great when it was for his Heroes, less good when he rolled for the Spiders).

The first couple of Cocoons held corpses, but in the third was an elderly woman. At 87 she wasn't going to let mere spiders stop her!

The Heroes investigate, meeting venomous spiders and Nest Trees, and destroying them all

The End Phase 

The Rangers continued their mission. Wuffles was attacked by a Spider, but a rare shaft of light through the canopy drove it off. Sadly the noble hound then fell to a Zombie after sniffing one of the remaining cocoons.

The final cocoon held another villager, but it seemed the danger wasn't over. Two more trees were Infected, but Valdar dealt with one with a Recalled Fireball and as set fire to the other.

With no more cocoons to investigate, and any remaining Spiders hidden away, the Heroes returned to base, stopping only to help Valdar and Gendrin, who had managed to get themselves caught up in sticky spider webs.

All clear!

Aftermath 

Everyone gained a level. Portius Fell was already level 1 from the first game, so now she's improved her shooting (all that practice on poor helpless spiders).

The rest of us are now level 1 and have honed our Skills ready for Tor Varden.

And Wuffles survived his encounter with the zombie.

Summary 

Well that was a lot of fun. 

The Mission wasn't as difficult as I anticipated, and I set up for the Challenge Level after reading suggestions in the Rangers of Shadow Deep Facebook group.

Initially, everyone kept their Ranger and Companion together, but we soon got into the swing of things and had folk helping out where they were most useful.

My experience was, perhaps, jaded slightly by having both my Heroes Poisoned, so down to one Action a turn. I felt I added little to the game from that point onwards, it's a good job the rest of the company were up to the task.

Mistakes Were Made 

Although the system is an easy one to learn, I still got some things wrong. 

Despite using a Fast Play Sheet, I messed up the second move. This meant that we were moving far too fast (especially Ranger Bob and Valdar, with their base move of 7). We got to the Nest Trees too soon, and took the initial four out of the game relatively early (Fireballing a tree and spider was nicely cinematic though).

I was also rushing through the Event Card results, not reading them properly, so I missed placing the spider and treasure tokens along with the new Nest Trees. Doh! This would have delayed setting fire to them.

But the real reason the scenario seemed relatively easy was the 'spider shooting gallery'. This was down to my not placing any low cover. Bushes and such would have helped the spiders survive until they could contact the company.

If that sounds a bit negative, it's not meant to. Everyone commented on how fun it was, and the ease of learning the rules (excepting mistakes) helps the story to stand out.

Looking Forward 

T'Other One had to use the Barbarian for Bob, as I have surprisingly few male Rangers painted. I'll correct that soon.

I must also make more low cover, bushes, rocks etc; I'm sure they will add to the next scenario. 

I also need to start assembling the minis for Mission Two.

"Only hours after you arrived back from destroying the nest of spiders, you received a message from your commanding officer. Contact has been lost with the beacon tower of Tor Varden, and it is presumed to have been overrun.

You are commanded to round up what men you can and proceed with all swiftness to Tor Varden to ascertain the truth. If the tower has fallen, learn what enemy forces now occupy it and harass or eliminate them as opportunity presents."

Warlords of Erehwon: Troll Hunt

Bodvoc and I played a game of Warlords of Erehwon recently, continuing our 'not campaign' of orcs vs goblins. 

We'd agreed to boost our forces to 1000 points, and Bodvoc mentioned trying out his newly painted goblin chariot. In response I painted my Old School Miniatures orc chariot. If he was trying out the chariot rules, it made sense if I did too.

As host it was up to me to come up with the scenario. I struggled a bit, but since I'd recently painted up some trolls, but couldn't quite squeeze them into my army, I decided to make them an objective instead. 

Note: both Bodvoc and myself are quite rusty with the rules, we may have made mistakes,  but we're getting more confident. 

Also, we're using home made order dice, partly because, having no gunpowder weapons, 'FIRE' is a meaningless term.

I'm not giving a full turn by turn report, but here's some highlights. 

Opening Moves 

The two sides advance, wary of each other, but more interested in the potential trolls. 

The goblins are first to search troll holes, but the first two are empty.

Bagrat the orc shaman, still nursing bruises from their last encounter, creates a magical portal in front of the goblin dervishes, sending them right back, much to their frustration.

The two sides advance towards each other

The orc spears prod a troll out of it's hole, but the vile brute comes out fighting and drives them away and off the battlefield.

The goblin force as they march in

The orcs as they advance

Troll hunting is a risky buisness

The goblins find an occupied troll hole. It's not friendly.

The goblins think they've got the beast, but it's wounds knit back together and it runs off.

Middle Phase 

The goblin dervishes slog towards the action, only for Bagrat to send them back again (absolutely the best way to deal with them, although I have an even more cunning plan for next time, mwah ha ha haaa).

The orc archers move up to the wall, ready to shoot, while the orc swords advance. The guard approach a troll hole, hoping to get there before the goblins, but it's empty.

The goblins in the woods abandon their empty hole and the gobbledogs eye up the guard. A tasty snack?

That's the way to do it!

Hagar Sheol and his ladz uncover and slay a troll. The chariot sights the troll that dealt with the spears and rides it down.

The chariot claims a troll

The dervishes advance and the goblin chariot rides towards the troll that slew so may goblin halberdiers.  Alas, it rides through a strange magic portal and finds itself back at the baseline.

The battlefield mid action

The bulk of the goblin infantry

End Game

The goblin chariot shamelessly copies the orcs and ride down the troll that caused so much damage to the halberdiers.

Goblin chariot vs troll

 

Hagar Sheol and his ladz drag their troll trophy away out of the woods. On the right flank the goblin spears charge round the wall and into the orc guards, peppering them with javelins as they go. The stoic orcs hold, and despite minor losses they wipe out the goblins. 

The orcs then charge the gobbledogs and send them packing too.

The goblin wizard targets the orc swords, causing them to lose heart (aura of timidity), the goblin bows then loose a volley and wipe them out.

Gurk now targets the archers who also lose heart. 

Bagrat then shot his fiery balls at Gurk, incinerating the gobbledog guards. Gurk himself only survived through sheer luck (Tough reroll saved him, but the extra pin).

Despite their magical timidity (order test at -6, rolled a 1), the orc archers shot back but Gurk had had enough and scarpered.

The orc chariot driver cracked his whip and charged the goblin chariot, the two vehicles lock together, but neither gain the upper hand.

Chariot on chariot action

Brave halberdiers watch on

Conclusion 

Well, a great fun game.  I'm not sure if my rather complicated special rules helped or hindered,  but I enjoyed hunting down those trolls.  In hindsight,  it was theoretically easier for the orcs to kill a troll than for the goblins.  That said, I did lose my unit of spears to a troll. 

As for the chariots,  they were great fun to use, and looked great. I'm not sure that our chariot duel was that good an idea, they seemed a bit too equally matched,  struggling and failing to cause any damage to each other. I'm sure we're missing something here. 

It did take us a little while to recall the rules, play speeded up during the day. 

If you're interested, I gave out VPs as 10% of a unit's PV and +35VPs per troll.  Bodvoc won by a few points, a minor victory, but has we fought on I suspect that the orcs would soon have broken.

In the end, the winners were both of us.

Final Thoughts

We are certainly enjoying Warlords of Erehwon.  It's not perfect, (I don't think there is a perfect set of rules), but they give me the old school feel that I'm looking for. I'm sure they are here to stay, and we'll be playing more games in the near future.

I do have one complaint though, the counterintuitive nomenclature.  I'm sure they are good reasons for this, but it adds a layer of confusion for new players (and, perhaps, makes it harder to introduce them).

I'm looking forward to Bodvoc's next scenario, will we benefit from the troll trophies?

Kings of War; Orcs and Undead Clash

I had a quick game of Kings of War with my son recently, my orcs vs his undead. As it was some time since either of us had played, we went for a small 500 point battle (Ambush in the current parlance). The aim was simple,  eradicate the enemy. 

The Undead, revenants, a couple of necromancers, skeleton spears and a troop of wraiths

The Orcs, gore riders, two regiments of ax and a krusher

Opening Moves

One regiment of ax rush straight forward, keen to get to grips with the enemy, the other regiment is slowed somewhat to avoid the wood. On the flank, the gore riders carefully manoeuvre through the village.

The undead advance with the revenants taking the lead while the wraiths approach the village. At the (s)urging of their masters, the revenants and wraiths move further forward.

Orcs and Undead advance

The first orc ax regiment charges the revenants, but fails to break them.  The other ax regiment moves up and the riders continue picking their way through the village.

The skeletal spears take the opportunity to charge the orc flank. Between them, the two undead units cause some casualties, orcish armour (and stubbornness) isn't up to the task and the first unit is destroyed. The wraiths move towards the rear of the riders and both necromancers use their magic to repair some of the damage done to the revenants.

The armies clash

The first melee

From the undead lines

Middle Phase 

With the first unit of ax destroyed,  the second steps up. They charged the spears,  but didn't do much damage. Meanwhile,  the gore riders round the cottage,  sure they saw something green and glowing. 

The revenants take advantage of the exposed flank, and between them,  the undead repeat their earlier performance against the orcs.

The undead start to thin out the orcs, where's that krusher off to?

The krusher advances towards the necromancers, eager to try his ax on them, and the gore riders continue their ride, hoping to cause havoc in the undead rear, but the wraiths are surged into their flank, fortunately causing only slight damage. 

With the orc infantry wiped out, all the action is behind the undead lines

End Phase

The gores turn to face the wraiths and contemptuously disperse them, then turn to face the rest of the undead.  The krusher catches one of the necromancers; despite some nasty wounds, the wizard holds.

Only one orc regiment and the krusher left

The krusher is stuck in melee with the spears, but does little damage.  The gore riders take the opportunity to charge the revenants,  but fail to break them (by one point!).

In response,  the spears skewer the krusher,  but the revenants make little headway against the gore riders. 

And that was it. Fate decreed no more hostilities.

The end of hostilities

Aftermath

At the finish, one regiment of gore riders remained, facing the revenants, the spears and a necromancer. We both felt that had we played another turn, the gores would have finished off the revenants and turned to face the spears.  Whether the skeletons could have prevailed, we weren't sure.

But that's not what happened, and the undead claimed victory. 

Final Thoughts; Luck and Tactics

This was a great fun game,  reminding us both of why we enjoy Kings of War. 

The game seemed to go very much for the undead in the first few turns, but the orcs,  as they often do, began to turn things around.  Just not enough soon enough. 

My luck was mostly OK, but my son was distinctly luckier.

Revenants need a 4+ to hit

Just need to Surge 2 inches

He was also canny enough to face my infantry two on one with flank charges, this pretty much does for a regiment and I was lucky that the first lot of ax survived their first turn of melee. 

I managed to get stuck manoeuvring around terrain, and the flanking manoeuvre, though it seemed like a smart move, was really a waste of time, though I suppose it kept the wraiths busy and eventually did for them. I'd have been better keeping them as either a mobile reserve, or as a first strike unit, as they might have been better able to break individual undead units on first contact.

The krusher was poorly used. Initially I kept him nicely between the infantry units, forgetting that he doesn't have Inspiring. He'd have been better adding his three attacks to the combats, as there were several instances of failing to break the enemy by one or two points.

The necromancers, on the other hand, were played very well, using Surge and Healing to great effect throughout the game.

This gave both of us the impetus to play more games, and also to paint more troops (though I have something a bit different planned for October).

I've certainly got plenty of unpainted Kings of War orcs, and it's about time I rebased my original army to match the newer stuff, plus the odd bit of repairs.

I understand that there's a new edition due in December. The Mantic News page has Alessio Cavatore's blog where he teases some of the changes, I'm excited to see what they've done.