Birthday Gaming

Last month I had a 'significant' birthday. As part of the celebrations I got in a game of Kings of War with my son.

For the battle, he used his growing Undead army (1 regiment of Skeleton Spears, 1 regiment of Ghouls and 1 regiment of Mummies, led by 2 Necromancers, one with the Boomstick), and I matched them with Kingdoms of Men.  

I have been experimenting with 500 point forces for Kings of War, and this was my 500 point Kingdoms of Men army (2 regiments of Spearmen, 1 regiment of Bowmen and a troop of Mounted Scouts, led by a Hero with the Inspiring Talisman), with a couple of characters added (Army Standard Bearer and Wizard) to bring the points up to 600.

The game was great fun, although I lost comprehensively.  I really messed up using the mounted scouts, trying for a flanking manoeuvre, but failing utterly against the skeletal spearmen.  

 

The scouts try to stop the skeletons...

Needing a 5+

The Ghouls and Mummies took on both regiments of Spearmen.  The living held them off for a while, doing better than expected against the Mummies, and worse against the Ghouls, but eventually the Undead prevailed and turned to face the Bowmen, who had been unable to find a target for most of the battle, as all the undead regiments were in melee.

The main clash, Living vs The Dead

The victorious Mummies chase the Bowmen

Meanwhile, my characters were busy, the Hero taking on and destroying one Necromancer, while the Wizard had a magical duel with the Necromancer with Boomstick

My hero prior to slaying one of the foul necromancers (a very nice Tortle wizard)

Fresh from wiping out the scouts, the skeletons take on the hero, Necromancer with Boomstick nearby.

Great fun to be playing, and it's got us both thinking about expansions for our armies.  I definitely need something tough to tackle the likes of Mummies; perhaps more cavalry?

I also played a couple of games of Cosmic Encounter with the Monday evening gamers (who are apparently called the MEGAforce Gamers, according to T'Other One). 

This is a game I first played back in the late 1970s, and I've tried every edition since.  The current version, by Fantasy Flight Games is the best so far.  They've tightened up a lot of the rules, and structured the turn a lot better, so that there is less confusion when powers work.  I highly recommend it it you are looking for a bit of light-hearted fun.