Playing Kings of War and Warband

Just got back from a day of battles against my good friend 'Merlin'.  It's quite a drive, so its something we only do two or three times a year.

Today we tried a Kings of War battle using the new 2nd edition rules.  I used my 1000 points of Kingdoms of Men (of course), and Merlin used 1000 points of his Kingdoms of Men, using historical Normans (with a wizard).

Let battle commence!

The 'Norman' battle line (with a unit of knights behind the wood)

The 'Empire' battle line (with a unit of pistolliers at the far end).

We both had a great time.  There were some new bits to the rules and the troops that surprised us, but nothing major.  The aim of the battle was to get 100 points more of troops in the opponents half of the battlefield.  I managed about 80 points, resulting in a hard fought draw.  A couple of important turning points were when my wavered knights threw off the effect thanks to the new Headstrong ability and were able to crush the enemy knights, and at the end of turn 6 when I had no troops in the other half, only a lucky seventh turn allowed me to prevent defeat.  

And of course, the pistolliers, being the newly painted unit, were first to be removed.

We also played a game of Warband, a newish game designed for 10mm fantasy.  I dug out an old ratman army that I once painted for Warhammer (back in the day when I could paint things that small), rebased them, and fought against Merlin's Dragon Men.

The game focuses on the command aspects of a battle, with activation rolls being required for moving, and command points from the general being used to increase the chance of success in all aspects of the game.  It reminded me of Hordes of the Things (or DBA), but with better fantasy detail.  Or perhaps a bit like Warmaster?

If this sounds like your sort of thing the rules are available form Pendraken, and I believe a PDF is available on Wargames Vault.

Whilst I decided the game was not for me, it was still a very enjoyable experience.  I'm sure that familiarity would help, but I don't think I will find any opponents down here, so, sadly, I will concentrate my efforts into other games.  

The 10mm armies did look good though, especially Merlin's Dragon Men

I mentioned earlier that I don't intend to get into long arguments about Age of Sigmar, but if you are interested in the main similarities and differences between Kings of War and Warhammer, check out Puggimer's blog 'Until Somebody looses an Eye' below.