Kings of War Third Edition - Going Larger

I got another game of teh new edition of Kings of War in recently, this time in 28m scale.
I fielded 1000 points of my orcs against T'Other One's undead.
As before, I'll not try to give a blow by blow account, but here are some pictures.

The undead in all their glory

The orcs ready for battle

Both armies move forwards

The inevitable horde vs horde clash

Gore riders take on (and eventually fall to) the Goreblight

The ax horde have disposed of the zombies, only to be halted by a necromancer.

In the end it was a draw, though only just, the undead definitely had the upper claw.

Another great fun battle against a good opponent.  The Goreblight was a nasty surprise (I think it came form a recent kickstarter, and was originally destined to be part of a zombie horde).  I made much better use of Drain Life this time, placing my Godspeaker behind a unit in melee and using it to damage the opponents while healing the orcs.  

I had another instance of the dice making a fool of me.  A horde of orcs failed to rout a lone necromancer.  Although he was yielding, I simply didn't have enough room to move over him and had relied on wiping him out then turning to face the Goreblight which was at that time mashing my greataxes.  I think sandwiching it between these two units would have got rid of it, but it was not to be.  Pesky necromancer.  Perhaps I need to adjust my guesstimates as to the result of melees, as that's two battles now where I have been caught out.

I think T'other One also enjoyed the battle, and I'm looking forward to facing his undead again soon, especially on his nice terrain.

After the battle I thought my orcs need a bit of a fettle up.  There are quite a few broken weapons, greataxes especially, and these tend to be the ones sticking over the unit base.  I might even rebase them a unit at a time, taking more care over to avoid vulnerable weapons.

I should also do a terrain box for my 28mm games like the 15mm one I did here.

Kings of War Third Edition - First Thoughts

I have (finally - a long and tedious story) got the third edition of Kings of War from Mantic Games.
A lot of reading and scratching of heads later and Merlin and I have decided to have a test battle, 1000 points of ogres vs 1000 points of goblins.

I'm not giving a full battle report, but I'll show some pictures and discuss how we found teh game compared to earlier editions.

Firstly, choosing an army for the ogres has changed.  Previous editions  required regiments or hordes to unlock troops, warmachines, monsters and heroes.  As long as the unit wasn't irregular, it unlocked stuff.  Now, Large infantry regiments don't unlock other units.  They don't need to be unlocked (unlike troops), but only hordes and legions unlock stuff.  In practice this makes little difference, as I usually take a couple of hordes per 1000 points of ogres, but it does need consideration.  I suspect most ogre players are the same, though it will cut down on large multi-drop armies.

One thing we had both noticed, and wondered how it would play out, was the removal of the 1" 'bounce back' after combat.  Now the units remain in contact, but the active player does have the option of withdrawing next turn.  We had to keep reminding ourselves not to bounce back, it's instinctive, but I felt the game looks better with units becoming locked in melee.

The game plays remarkably similar to the previous edition.  Changes seem to be focused on tightening up certain aspects, such as rationalising special rules, and didn't seem to have much effect on playing the game.
We did come across a couple of points that I suspect aren't changes from second edition, rather, we are being more thorough in our rules reading and were probably doing them wrong (oops).  These are the effects of difficult terrain and hills on line of sight and cover.  As we read it now (and please feel free to correct us in the comments), placing a unit's leader point in an area of difficult terrain means that unit ignores it for the purposes of LoS, but not cover. If the unit then Halts, it also ignores the cover, unless the target unit is also in that terrain.
Hmm, this gave us some problems (and I suspect we have simply been reading it wrong in the previous edition).  It seems to us as if that means that regardless of the size of a wood, two units can see each other if they are both in it. Also, a unit on one side of a hill can charge a unit on the other side if it has it's leader point on the hill.
We played the game like this, but there were a couple of moments where it didn't seem right.
Still the game was fun, we had as much fun as with previous editions, and the above wobble aside (which we think was always there, we just missed it, bringing our historical wargaming sensibilities to the game).

Some items have gone or changed.  Merlin was disappointed to see his item (Myrdinn's amulet) has gone, and I was disappointed to see the Boomstick still there.

The battle about to commence.

Goblins!

More Goblins.

Early stages. Shooting and spells do some damage (including wavering the warmachine) but nothing is destroyed.

Goblins charge right over the hill into the ogres

Two ogre hordes can't take down one goblin rabble horde.  Clearly the rules are broken!!

Wavering Rabble backs off, allowing the ogres to mill around in no semblance of order and place themselves ready for goblin counter attacks

Trolls seeing their target on the other side of the hill.

Very few ogres left at the end of the game.

So yes, good fun, and a well deserved win for Merlin, who seemed to have got his army working very well this time.  There were several instances of me failing to rout units by just one point, and three instances of double 1 Nerve tests, but that's just the fun of the game.

Overall, we really like the new game and won't be wanting to go back. The third edition rulebook is by far the best rulebook Mantic have yet produced.  There's a lot more background, which may not be for everyone, but certainly answers earlier editions criticism of the world being bland.  I'm sure it will be useful to tie into the roleplaying game as well, and Mantic are developing it further in League of Infamy.

Kings of War Battle - The Last Battle - Gobins vs Ogres, 1000 points

I had another very enjoyable battle with Merlin, once more my ogres took to the field against his goblins, and we were both trying out some new stuff.  We decided on a fairly small battle (1000 points) as we wanted some time to discuss our plans for the campaign we hope to start once we have got the hang of the new rules; in fact this may well be my last game of Kings of War second edition, as with a bit of luck, the new rules will arrive next week.

Anyway, Merlin had once again done a stirling job of designing a scenario for us to play.

'By Eck', Grab the Loot: adapted from 'Push', from p76, COK 2019.

Pulling hard on the reigns, Skrel hauled his mighty wolf to a halt. Sent on patrol by King Krag, Skrel and his large patrol had come across a band of merchants trying to cross the lower slopes of the mountains undetected by the goblins. Before him now, the human merchants fled dropping their goods all around. Beyond the humans, Skrel watched what had caused him to halt. Appearing over the river Eck was a large force of Ogres, now seen by the panic stricken humans who fled in all directions, their merchant goods scattered and forgotten in their rush  to escape both Skrel's goblin host and the ever nearing Ogre Warband. 

By Eck was where the spoils would be fought over. 'By Eck' thought Skrel 'my blade will taste Ogre blood this day' and urged his wolf forward.

After both players have deployed their forces, roll a D3. Each player places that many Loot counters within their set-up area; giving them to units to carry if they wish-rolling a dice to see who places a counter first.

An additional Loot counter is also placed in the exact centre of the board. The aim of the game is to capture as many Loot Tokens as you can.

Victory Points: are awarded as follows...

2xVP for each Loot token you hold in the opposing side of the board

1xVP for each Loot token you hold in your own half of the board.

(use the rules on p75 regarding Loot Tokens).

Game Length: is 6 turns, throw a dice at the end of turn 6, on a score of 4+ play a final seventh turn. 

Skrel's Goblin Host consisted of;

Skrel, Goblin Biggit

Reet, Goblin Flagger (with Boomstick)

Wort and Rakki (Magwa and Joos)

1 Stone thrower war machine

1 horde of Goblin Rabble

1 horde of Trolls

1 regiment of Goblin Spitters

1 regiment of Goblin Sniffs

1 troop of Goblin Fleabag Riders

My ogres were;

Hobbla-a-Habb, Ogre Captain

Gurr-n-Durr, Ogre Warlock (with fireball upgrade)

1 horde of Ogre Warriors

1 horde of Berserker Braves (with brew of haste)

1 horde of Red Goblins

1 regiment of Ogre Shooters

We rolled for loot tokens, and only got 1 each, plus the central one.  We each gave a token to a unit, then set to.  Apologies for the blurry photography, I struggled to get good overhead shots for this, but you should get the idea of what was where.  I tried to get a picture after each movement phase and at the end of each player's turn to better follow the action once things hotted up in the middle phases of the battle.

Fully deployed, the goblins and ogres face off and trade insults

Skrel's mighty goblin host

The goblins advance, apart from their new big rocks thrower. Initial goblin missile fire causes a few casualties, though the big rock thrower misses.

The new ogre shooters and the red goblins combine their fire against the sniffs, while Gurr-n-Durr's lightning bolt singes a few trolls.  Strangely, the ogres refuse to move (in the excitement I forgot to move them and went straight on to Shooting).

The fleabag riders try to flank the ogres, hoping to bring their loot across the battlefield, whilst the goblin rabble claim the loot in the centre of the table.

Goblin missile fire causes more casualties to the ogres and goblins, but they refuse to break.

Ogre warriors charge the rabble, while the berserker braves try to flank the goblin army.

Ogre shooting wavers the fleabag riders, but the warriors can't break the rabble.

Skrel shoots Gurr-n-Durr, wavering him and putting an end to his fireballs for a while, while the rest of the goblin shooting sees off the Red Goblins and wavers the shooters.  On their other flank, Wort and Rakki fail to stop the oncoming berserker braves.

Hobbla-a-Habb leads his warriors in against the rabble while the berserker braves charge into the sniffs.  Elsewhere the ogre shooting and spells has been shut down by goblin missile fire.

Despite horrendous casualties, the rabble hold, the trolls are less fortunate; the few remaining creatures routing off the field (doubtless to find a hole to regenerate in for next battle).

The fleabag riders turn to menace the warriors flanks while the sniffs continue to shoot  the shooters.

The shooters take out the fleabags in a devastating volley of huge bolts.  Hobbla-a-Habb and the warriors make sure of the rabble this time, and the berserker braves barely pause to trample Wort and Rakki into the blood soaked soil before turning to threaten the remaining goblins.  The ogre warlord moves forward to claim a second prize.

The sniffs gain revenge for the fleabags by wiping out the shooters.  Reet moves to the relative safety of the ogre flank and tries his boomstick, to no avail, while Skrel continues to neutralise Gurr-n-Durr

The warriors charge the spitters, eliminating them, while the berserker braves advance towards the action.  Gurr-n-Durr withdraws in an attempt to lure Skrel away, while Hobbla-a-Habb sets off towards the stone thrower, lugging his treasures behind him.

The goblins manage to waver the ogre warriors, otherwise they position themselves ready for the inevitable onslaught.

The berserker braves make short work of the spitters, while Hobbla-a-Habb dismantles the goblin war machine.

Reet bravely tries to defend a treasure, but his boomstick fails to hurt the berserkers.  Skrel realises that Gurr-n-Durr might still be a threat and backs off.  The berserkers make short work of Reet and a quick fireball dispatches Skrel.

At the end of the battle the ogres hold the field (and all the loot).

Another great fun game.  Although the end result was very one sided, it seemed as though it could swing either way for quite some time.  I was very lucky to keep the Berserker Braves in the fight for the whole game, by rights they should have been destroyed by turn three or four.  As it was, Merlin's unlucky shooting meant they held on and wiped out a lot of goblins.

I have no idea why I didn't move my ogres in the first turn, perhaps I was too focused on trying out the new shooters and the horde of red goblins?

There were several incidents where a nerve test was failed by just one, especially early on when the damage was mostly caused by shooting.  We were both amused by the poor goblin flagger, Reet, who for the second half of the battle either missed or failed to damage anything with his boomstick.  Clearly he has relied too much on it and it is out of power.  By that point the berserker braves had taken so much damage that it seemed a valid tactic to stand off and shoot them, sadly (if you're a goblin) it was not to be.

This was almost certainly our last game of Kings of War second edition.  We both have the third edition now, and  since I have been particularly slow in getting the blog updated, I have actually played two games with the new ruleset.  Expect a post discussing this soon(ish).  I've actually got a couple a battles to write up finishing our League of Rhordia vs Herd campaign.  I think I'll just show the pictures and comment on any highlights though, as the games were several months ago now.