Kings of War Ambush, Karpath vs Basilea.

I played another Ambush game with my Karpath Kingdoms of Men recently, this time against my son in law's Basileans.

Set Up

We chose the Pillage scenario, so placed five objectives around the neutral ground between our forces.

Even before the action began, the Sisterhood Scouts snuck forward to claim one objective. 

Before the action

Opening Moves

The Basileans seized the initiative and marched forward. The Spearmen claimed another objective, as did the Gur Panthers.

The Sisterhood took out a few of the Mounted Scouts facing them, though they held steady. The War Wizard chose to remain safely out of sight behind the lines.

In response the lead Karpath Phalanx advanced to claim an objective and the Mounted Scouts moved to loose a volley at the Sisterhood. The Bowmen targeted the Basilean Spearmen, but none of the Karpath arrows struck home.

 

The Sisterhood Scouts turn to face the main action, casually loosing a volley that finishes off the Karpath Scouts.  The War Wizard bravely steps out of cover to enspell the Bowmen, some fall, but they hold steady.

The Basilean Spears charge the leading Karpath Phalanx causing some casualties, but not enough to daunt the brave men of Karpath. 

The Bowmen exact their revenge against the War Wizard, despite him being a small target they bring him down in a hail of arrows.

The Phalanx hits back against the Basileans, causing some damage, but the power of their faith lessens this.

Middle Phase

The Sisterhood are able to draw a bead on Artem, but the Karpath leader survives, blooded, yet unbowed.

The Basiliean spearmen continue their assault on the Karpath Phalanx, while the Gur Panthers lurk, ready to spring in to action when the time is right.

The Bowmen shoot at the Sisterhood.  Despite them being partly obscured, the archers cause sufficient damage to waver the Scouts.

The 'spear grind' continues, and the Basilieans take more damage, wavering them too. 

Basilea's choices are severely limited, with only the Gur Panther reserve unwavered.

The Karpath Bowmen eschew their arrows and swing round to hit the Basileans in the flank.  This is enough to finish them off.  After disposing of the Men-at-arms, the Bowmen turn to face the Sisterhood and the victorious Phalanx advances.

The Bowmen swing into the flank of the Basilean Spearmen. It's enough to seal their fate.

The Battle's Ending

The Sisterhood loose arrows at the Bowmen, wavering them.

The Gur Panthers seize their moment, crashing into the flank of the Karpath Phalanx and wiping them out completely.

The Wavering Bowmen can't shoot, so they retire to claim an objective.

The second Phalanx charges the Panthers, along with Artem. They hit hard, but not hard enough to get rid of the Gur Panthers.

At the end of the battle each side controls one objective, so it's a well fought draw.

This was a great fun game, the Basilean tactics were sound and I felt he made me work hard for the draw. I had some bad luck with the dice, but it probably balanced out over the game (taking out that pesky Wizard when I needed 6s to hit was great).  Once again the Mounted Scouts survived the first turn, though they fell soon after.

It was also great to face the Basileans, my first experience of fighting them. I had wondered if the two human armies would seem a bit samey, but the Basileans are quite different.  I'm looking forward to facing them again.  I wonder how they'd fare against my Orcs?

Kings of War Demo Game

I finally got to show my nephew how to play Kings of War. He has lots of experience with other wargames, but this was his first try at Kings of War.

We used my standard 500 points Orcs and Kingdoms of Men forces and a simple 'last army standing ' scenario. I gave him the choice of army and table edge and he chose Orcs.

Set-up

The men of Karpath deployed in the gap between the wood and the cliffs, the bulk of the Orcs were poised ready to advance to the wall, while the Gore Riders prepared to march round the human flank. the Mounted Scouts were ready to try and stop the Gore Riders from rolling up their flank.

Turn One 

The Orcs advance, not to hold the wall, but around it, meanwhile the Gore Riders begin their flank march.

In response, both Spear Phalanxes advance and the Mounted Scouts ride up to the wall. The Bowmen shoot at an Ax regiment and the Scouts at the Gore Riders, but neither are able to cause any damage.

Turn Two

Both Ax regiments advance further, being too far away to charge. The Gore Riders ignore the Mounted Scouts, focusing on getting behind the Human line.

In response one of the Spear Phalanxes charges an Ax regiment,  the other advances to protect their comrade's flank, but is too far away to charge the other Ax regiment. The Mounted Scouts manoeuvre to keep the Gore Riders targeted. Archery is slightly more effective, both targets take slight damage, but not enough to stop them. Similarly, the Spear Phalanx damages the Axes, but not enough to slow them.

Turn Three 

The Gore Riders ignore the Human cavalry and trot on towards their goal. The unengaged Ax regiment charges the Spears facing them while the Krusher looks on.

Both Ax regiments damage their opponents, but the Humans stand firm under the watchful eye of their leader.

In response the cavalry and the Bowmen turn to face the Gore Riders. Their archery does some damage, but not enough to stop them.  Both Spear regiments damage the Orcs; the regiment near the cottage is hurt enough

Turn Four

The Gore Riders see their chance. They smash into the Human Hero. Once they have trampled him into the mud, they do a smart about face, ready to tackle the Scouts. One regiment of Ax wipes out their Spear Phalanx, but by the cottage, the Orcs are still reeling from the damage they took previously. The Krusher is able to charge the Humans, but on his own can't do much.

This is the sort of luck the Orcs were having

Determined to avenge their leader, both the Mounted Scouts and the Bowmen charge the Gore Riders.  Despite the sheer number of attacks, they are unable to destroy them.  The remaining Phalanx wipes out the Orcs they are facing, then readies to face the  Krusher.

Turn Five 

The Gore Riders are still reeling from the damage they took, but the remaining Ax regiment charges the flank of the Bowmen, who are destroyed in short order.  They then turn to face the remaining Phalanx. The Krusher continues to fight the Spearmen.

The Spear Phalanx knock the fight out of the Krusher, the Scouts continue to keep the Gore Riders on the back foot (hoof?).

Turn Six

The regiment of Ax charge the flank of the remaining Phalanx, quickly finishing them off. They then turn to face the remaining Humans, the cavalry engaged with the Gore Riders.

The Scouts finally finish off those pesky Gore Riders and turn to face the threat of the remaining Orcs.

The Final Turn

With a seventh turn rolled, the Orcs take the obvious choice. All their remaining forces charge the Mounted Scouts. Although they can't quite destroy them, they are unable to fight back, so merely withdraw prior to, presumably, retreating to safety.

This was a great fun game. Despite only having 500 points each, there was enough to allow tactical manoeuvring, and the action was tense. I felt that the Men of Karpath seemed to be doing well to begin with, but there were several combats and volleys where I just failed to break the Orcs. The Orcs' high defence definitely helped them. In melee I needed 5+ to damage the Orcs, but they only needed 3+ to damage the Spearmen. If Orcs can hold out long enough to make contact they tend to do well.

My nephew had a good grasp of the tactics required, managing flank charges and picking off my units. I'm annoyed with myself for leaving my Leader exposed and vulnerable to the Gore Riders though.

Battle Amongst the Tombs

I had another gaming day up at Bodvoc's where we played a four player game. Bodvoc devised the following scenario.

Battle over the Graves of the ‘Kryndara’

A multi player game of Kings of War using four 750 point ‘Ambush’ armies.

The Kryndara are an ancient people whose burial grounds are occasionally found scattered amongst the many ruins to be found upon the plains of Babdos. As the opposing armies approach each other it is obvious that the battle is going to take place across the ruins of a Kryndaran graveyard. As the armies close upon their foe, they clash over the remains of the graveyard, can they claim some treasure as well as victory?

Deployment: For deployment, place 4 tokens numbered 1-4 in a bag. The players take it in turns to draw a token from the bag. The number drawn indicates their deployment zone and also they will ally with the army deployed adjacent to them. (One long table side was numbered 1 1nd 2, the opposite side was 3 and 4).  Players then throw a d6, deploying their armies in ascending order, so lowest score first (re-throw ties). Figures may be deployed up to 12” in from the table edge. Other terrain will have been placed randomly on the table.

Duration: the battle last 6 turns plus a possible seventh. At the end of the sixth turn throw a d6, score 1,2 or 3 = game over, 4,5 or 6 and play a final seventh turn.

Chapel and Graves: in the centre of the table is a ruined chapel. Also placed along the centre line are 4 old graves, equally spaced. Then throw 2xd6 for a number of inches and a random direction dice for each grave and locate them where the dice indicate.

The ruined chapel is worth 2VP and each grave is worth 1VP.

To claim the chapel or a grave a player must move a unit into contact with it and be the only player with a unit in contact with it at the end of the game. The first player to contact either the crypt or a grave must throw a d6 with the following effect…

1-3: Chapel/grave is empty

4-5: The angry spirit of a long dead Kryndaran attacks the unit/character

Spirit: SP5, Me5+, De4+, Att1, Ne11, if defeated it will shriek and then fade away.

6: Treasure: throw a d6 again… 1,2: a rusty Blade of Slashing (re-roll 1 melee dice)

3,4: A very decorative Staying stone: +1 to Wavering stat

5,6: Onyx Ring: regeneration 4+, once per game.

Any treasures found/claimed are also worth 1xVP.

Players also gain victory points for routing enemy units, scoring 1VP for each point of unit size their routed foe is worth. We will use glass gems to keep score of VP's. The winners of the game are the allies with the most glass gems at the end of the battle.

We randomly drew who fought where and with whom, Bodvoc had his Silvan Kin of course, and he was allied with Phil using the Orcs I recently based. I used my Karpath Kingdoms of Men and was allied with Ian's blue-skined Ice Orcs.

Bodvoc's sylvan Kin.  750 points of shooty nastiness

750 points of Green-skinned meanness 

My 750 points of bold Men of Karpath

Opening Moves

We set up with the two rival Orc tribes facing off against each other, and the Sylvan Kin keen to renew hostilities with the Men of Karpath.

Before the battle starts the Silverbreeze cavalry have claimed one grave.  

The Green-skinned Gore Riders claim one tomb while the Ice Orcs occupy the chapel.

The Ice Orcs advance, claiming another grave, while their green kin wait. Sylvan Kin shooting has already routed the Mounted Scouts 

Clash of the Gore Riders. The Green Orcs were hindered charging through a pond and needed 4+ to hit 

This is the result

Sylvan Kin shooting wavers the Bowmen, slowing down the second Spear Phalanx. Mayster proves singularly ineffective with his Fireball

Mid Battle

The leading Spear Phalanx has fallen to the Sylvan Kin 

The Green Orc Gore Riders use their superior numbers to see off the Ice Orc troop, they turn to face Dennis the Krudger on his gore, Gnasher 

Artem and the Foot Guard charge the elves. Despite causing a lot of damage, the elves hold firm (note that double 1 Nerve test).

Dennis has seen off the opposing Gore Riders

The melee hots up between the men and the elves.  Meanwhile we decide there's something wrong with the Ice Orcs*

Mayster takes moves to investigate one of the graves, but Emyn Lockharn charges him.  The adjusted Ice Orcs turn to face the Sylvan Kin, while their second Krudger tackles Emyn Lockharn

The Orc table half, less action, but tense manoeuvring

End Phase

The Skulks charge their icy brethren in the flank, so the Hunters turn their attention on the Ice Orc Ax  

Emyn flees the melee, but is chased by the Krudger and is hurt badly, and the Hunters fall beneath the Ice Orc axs.  Meanwhile, with Anichka holding off the Forest Shamblers, the Guard are free to charge down the Sylvan Kin standard bearer. Sadly, the General can't rout the Shamblers, despite chopping many branches off. Mayster finally causes some damage with his Fireball, scorching the cavalry, but it's too little too late.

As the battle ends the men of Karpath have suffered badly. The Foot Guard remain, as do all their heroes, but the rest of the army have fled. The Sylvan Kin are reduced to the Silverbreeze Cavalry and the Forest Shamblers, led by a badly wounded Emyn Lockhart.

This was a great fun game, with the opening turns dominated, on my table side at least, by Elven archery.  Once I was able to get to grips with them, they didn't seem so tough, though I had bad luck with the dice, and Bodvoc had better than average rolls.  I was really hampered by the terrain, It forced me to advance one unit wide, and the elves were able to concentrate their archery (11 shots from the Hunters and Emyn, plus 3 from the inevitable Army Standard Bearer with Boomstick, and 7 more from the Silverbreeze Cavalry) where they wished.  Had I been able to present a choice of targets I would no doubt have got more units into contact and the elves would have paid dearly.

The Orc side of the table was a lot less bloody, we suspect that the orcs had actually made a pact to do some half-hearted fighting and we expect future battles between the reduced Sylvan Kin and the Green-skin Orcs, and the men of Karpath and the Ice Orcs.  In actual fact, Phil, commanding my orcs, had never played before, and wanted to watch most of the action.  I'm sure he'll be diving right in next time!

Ultimately, the Syvan Kin/Orc alliance won by 2 victory points, a much closer result that it looked like at the beginning.

You can read Bodvoc's version of events here.

*The Ice Orc problem; due to a mis-communication, and confusion between editions, the Ice Orcs were mixing up troops and regiment sizes.  Although they were stated correctly, there were roughly twice as many Ice Orcs as there should have been.  After readjusting them they seemed a lot less scary to their Green-skinned opponents.

Kings of War Training Game

I introduced Adrian, one of my D&D group to Kings of War recently. He's no novice to fantasy wargaming, but new to KoW.  In exchange he's going to show me how to play Age of Sigmar at some point.

We played at one of my FLGS's, I'm lucky to have three very close by.  This was Powder Monkey Gaming, and for a modest fee we hired one of their tables and borrowed their terrain.  I used the same two forces as in previous training games, but I was able to use my Karpath army for the Kingdoms of Men (at least until its sold).  We set up on a four foot square table with one objective in the centre.  The game would last for six turns, with a 50% chance of a seventh turn.  Victory would go to the side that controlled the objective at the end of the game.  We randomly selected sides, I played the Orcs and Adrian used the Kingdoms of Men.

The Karpath force look out at the rampaging orcs.  They have the greater numbers, but can they match the orcs' ferocity?

The orcs see the prize ahead of them, surely those puny humans will be no match.

The orcs advance while the Karpath force readies to meet them.  Early archery does a little damage to the Gore Riders.

The Gore Riders soon destroy the Mounted Scouts, but have ridden dangerously far ahead.  Meanwhile the orc flanking force has to make its way through the woods, slowing its advance.

Rather than charging, the Karpath force stands it's ground and hopes it's archery will weaken the Gore Riders.

Flushed with success, the Gore Riders charge one of the Karpath Spear Phalanxes; they cause horrendous damage, but are unable to destroy them.  In response, the other Phalanx catches them in the flank and the Orc cavalry is doomed.

The Bowmen turn to face the Orc flanking force and do surprisingly well.

The main Orc Ax regiment charges one spear phalanx resulting in a grinding melee that was to last the remainder of the battle.

The Orc Krusher charges the other Phalanx and causes some casualties, they hurt him in return, but 'tis but a flesh wound''.

The flanking force march onwards into a storm of arrows.  

The Orc Krusher single-handedly wipes his opponents out.  They may have taken damage earlier, but he is claiming the credit.  the Ax vs Spear melee continues, with the Phalanx wavering, but the Bowmen finally see off the Orc Flank.  The Karpath Hero wavers the Krusher, preventing him from adding his weight to the main melee.

The battle ended after the sixth turn, the Orc Ax regiment was closest to the objective, but the orc force was much lessened.

This was a great fun game, and Adrian enjoyed it and quickly picked up the rules.  Tactically I allowed my orcs to get too spread out.  I really should have had the Ax regiments arriving to support the Gore Riders by the following turn.  Put another way, I should have delayed the cavalry charge while the rest of the army got into position.  Adrian played the Kingdoms of Men nicely, wisely holding back and relying on archery where possible.  I suppose if I had held off my charge, he could have got close enough to the objective to claim it.

Hopefully I have another Kings of War player now, but regardless, it was a fun game played in a spirit of friendly competition.

I used my old Orcs, which date back to first edition Kings of War.  Comparing them to my Karpath army, I feel some rebasing is in order, and a bit of repair work.  I'll get the orcs I painted in lockdown painted first though (you can see them starting here), that will give me a 750 point force.