Kings of War Undead vs Kingdoms of Men

My son and I managed a game the other day, 1000pts of his Undead vs 1000pts of my Kingdom of Karpath.

An opportunity for him to try out his new big nasty, and for both of us to see if we could still remember how to play. 

We played using 3rd edition; neither of us have yet tried 4th edition, although I do have the new rules. 

Partly because it's been a long time since we played, we were rather slow and had to stop after five turns.  We played the Kill Scenario.

Here's the photos I took, plus a very brief account of the game. 

And apologies to my Alt Text reading fans, there isn't much for you this time.

Set Up

The field of battle with the armies poised for action

The Armies

The human army consisted of a regiment of Bowmen, two Spear Phalanxes, a regiment of Knights (borrowed from my Empire army to make up the points) and a troop of Mounted Scouts. They were led by General Anichka, accompanied by Artem and the wizard Mayster

The Kingdom of Karpath

The Undead included a regiment of Ghouls, a regiment of Revenants, a Goreblight (a lovely Reaper Bones undead giant), a regiment of Skeletons with spears, a regiment of Mummies and a troop of Wraiths. They were led by a trio of necromancers.

Most of the Undead force ...

...plus the Mummies (a troop of Wraiths lurk off to the right)

Turn One

I moved first, though I kept most of my troops back, merely dressing the line somewhat as I tried to anticipate where the biggest threat would come from. The exception was the Scouts who set off on one of the flanking moves that I think are really clever tactics, despite all previous evidence to the contrary.

The enemy was too far away for any missile or magic use.

End of KoM Turn 1

The undead shambled forward, the exception being the Ghouls who swung round to meet the threat of the Scouts.

The Necromancers all used their magic to move certain units forward.

End of Undead Turn 1

Turn Two

The knights charged the Revenants, arrogantly expecting to wipe them out. Unfortunately they failed to do so, and this melee would drag on.

The Knights charge the Revenants, expecting an easy victory

Mayster responded to the advancing enemy by conjuring a wind to blast the undead spears backwards. 

I think I found this funnier than my opponent did. This is a sample of my rolling for Wind Blast.

Needing a 4+

End of KoM Turn 2

Fortunately for the Knights, the Revenants were unable to damage them (for two turns they were unable to crack that 5+ Defence). Meanwhile, the Goreblight circled round to their rear and the rest of the Undead force advanced, in some cases assisted by the Necromancers.

End of Undead Turn 2

Turn Three

The mounted scouts continue their ride, always managing to stay out of danger from the ghouls, who kept turning to try and keep them in sight, but never getting the chance to shoot at them. 

The Knights continue their combat with the Revenants, slowly whittling them down and eyeing the advancing Goreblight.

At the other end of the field, Mayster once again pushes the Skeleton Spears back, while the Bowmen discover that the Mummies are tough.

End of KoM Turn 3

The Undead continue their slow advance, the Wraiths flying dangerously close to the Bowmen. 

The Goreblight proves deaf to the entreaties of two of the Necromancers as they urge it to smash the Knights while they are trapped in melee (two Surge spells provided about 2" on top of it's normal move. I was delighted).

Adding to the Undead woe, the Revenants once more failed to damage the Knights.

End of Undead Turn 3

Turn Four

As the undead continue their slow advance, the bowmen try to pick off the Wraiths. Alas their targets are too tough, and very little damage is inflicted.

Mayster casts a Fireball at the undead spears, which proves much more effective (needed a double six on the Nerve test).

The Nerve Test

A Spear Phalanx (I must come up with names to differentiate between the two) charges the Mummies, but they are tough opponents and take little damage. The Bowmen frantically loose at the Wraiths, but most of their arrows pass straight through.

Having (hopefully) distracted the Undead for long enough, and no doubt leaving the poor Ghouls quite dizzy, the Scouts gallop off to the other side of the field to lend their doubtful help there.

The knights finally finish off the Revenants and turn to face the approaching Goreblight. They'd already felt it's presence sapping their strength. 

End of KoM Turn 4

The Goreblight finally charges the Knights, while the Ghouls turn to face the tasty humans in their metal cans. The Knights take a beating, but it takes more than that to break Karpath's finest (they benefited from their Indomitable Will).

On the far side of the field, the Wraiths charge the Bowmen, who, surprisingly, manage to hold.

End of Undead Turn 4

Turn Five

The Knights try to take down the Goreblight, but without the benefit of their lances, it's very slow going, and those Ghouls are lurking behind them.

Both the Spear Phalanx and the Bowmen continue to fight their opponents, but do little damage to the Undead.

End of KoM Turn 5

The combined might of the Goreblight and the ghouls finishes off the knights, allowing that flank of the Undead army to face the fighting on the far flank.

Over there the Wraiths quickly finished off the Bowmen, leaving the Foot Guard poised to charge them. The Spear Phalanx held out against the Mummies, but only under the stern gaze of General Anushka (Inspiring reroll requiring a double one).

End of Undead Turn 5 and end of battle

At this point we called the game. Technically it was currently a draw, if slightly in the undead favour, but I think the final turn(s) would have swung it to an Undead victory. The Ghouls and Goreblight wouldn't have made it over to the rest of the fighting, but with the Knights gone, I'd have been struggling against Mummies and Wraiths.

Final Thoughts

It's nearly a year since I played Kings of War, and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be.  We both thought of moves that we might have done differently, although luck seemed to play a big part in the game.

Once again I got stuck in combats that I thought I'd win first turn, I obviously need to readjust my expectations.  

We hope to get a few more games in soon.

What's Next?

Well I've got plenty to paint already, including more of those Wildspire Miniatures and some Undead of my own for the Dark Shadows campaign.

That said, I might take advantage of the Season of Scenery challenge to sort out a set of 28 mm Kings of War terrain, rather like the 15 mm set I did back in 2019.

And it would be nice to have a regiment of Knights that fit in with the rest of my Karpath army.

And a little Carrion Beast tells me that Bodvoc is getting interested in a new Kings of War army, for which he'll no doubt want an opponent.

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.