Kings of War - Training Games

Yesterday I got in a couple of games to show a friend how to play Kings of War.
The friend was one of the Monday night RPG group (though is taking a break now we have finished the long running D&D) and has played one game of KoW before, though he welcomed the chance to talk through a game or two and have some of the intricacies explained.

I sorted out a couple of 500 point forces, Orcs (of course) and Kingdoms of Men.  Given the small size of the armies we just played on a 4 foot square board, with only a small amount of terrain.
The compact forces meant we could get two games in; both were Dominate! games, where victory goes to the side with the greatest points value within 12" of the centre.

I'll not give a blow by blow account, but here are some pictures from the two battles.

The two sides face off.

The gore riders have already chewed through the bowmen and the mounted scouts, now they threaten the shieldwall and their hero

The orc ax regiments have dealt with the spearmen, and now turn to face the remaining humans

Shieldwall sandwich with a side order of hero

The first game was a convincing win to my opponent.  By the end, he had wiped out all but the hero.  

He then rearranged the terrain while I sorted out refreshments.

Both of us seem to be going for variants on a refused flank

The gore riders have been slowed by the swamp, and charging out of it meant their fighting was less than impressive, the bowmen survived and went on to eventually wipe out the orc cavalry.

The orcs initially advance, but then draw back in an attempt to lure the men into the unfavourable swamps.  The mounted scouts have been peppering the orcs as they sneak around the flanks.

The human battle line clashes with the orcs.  The scouts have managed to maneuver right round the orcs, and oblige with a rear charge.

The second game was much closer; I did a lot of damage to the orcs, but in the end they still had a regiment of ax close to the centre point (the Hammer of Thor model), whereas I had only my spearmen close enough to count, so another orcish victory.

I should admit to forgetting that my bowmen should have been Disordered by the gore riders and could not have shot them, twice, (in my defence, I usually play orcs, where missile fire is a rarity).  Had I remembered, I would have counter-charged instead; with, presumably, much the same lucky result.

Playing these games was fun.  Despite the small size, and lack of flashy units, 500 points gives a good game, and helps teach it.  It's really just a fantasy version of Merlin and my Clash! KoWH idea.  I am tempted to look through my collection and sort out 500 point armies, this is certainly where I am initially aiming at with my Trident Realms.  I already have a box of close on 500 points each of undead and dwarves from the old starter set that just needs a few more troops painting to be complete.

I do think that I need to address terrain.  Much of my terrain is in storage at the moment so I cobbled together what I could find.  Even so my terrain collection is all a bit random with no real theme apart from my Frostgrave and Deadzone collections. I should sort out terrain sets, boxed and ready to drag out when required.  

There is also a fair bit of work I need to do to finish the Kingdoms of Men.  Much of this army is unfinished (witness the bowmen, where half of them are just undercoated black), and I think a bit of extra highlighting would help as well.  I have been looking at a new basing system for them, more on that in a later post.

I'll end with a couple of questions.  Should I start 'Project 500' where I deliberately set out to build small sample armies of 500 points?  What would you include in a terrain set, and what sort of themes can you think of?

Answers in the comments please.