New KOW army: Empire of Dust

 Well I blame good friend Mister C for this, off I go painting yet another new army. This one is for Kings of War and is the Empire of Dust; a sort of undead ancient Egyptian army. Mister C suggested we buy an Ogre/Empire of Dust starter set and split it so we went with that; an excellent way to each start a new force. A few weeks later and I have painted all the figures from the starter set and a couple extra so here are a few photo's of my progress so far. 

Everything I have painted so far, marching off to find some Ogres to kill.

All desert scenery has been 'borrowed' from my Bolt Action Afrika Korps collection and it seems a perfect fit.  

My characters pose beside my regiment of revenant cavalry. 

Note I have only used 8 of the 10 figures supplied, based in 4's (troops).

A regiment of skeleton warriors.

Here I have used 16 figures for the regiment and to me, they fill the base nicely. 

A troop of skeleton spearman, 8 figures on the base. 

Two troops or one regiment of skeleton archers. 

The characters, a Cursed High Priest (from MaxMini), a Mantic Ahmunite Pharoah and an Army Standard Bearer which is from a unit of MaxMini mummies. 

Next up will be some Enslaved Guardians and Scavengers (both from MaxMini). MisterC also suggested we get another starter set which we have done, doubling the basic troop types I can use. I will adapt some of the cavalry into mounted characters and Skeleton Archer Cavalry and will definitely paint up another troop of Skeleton Spearmen so I can make the existing one into a regiment. 

  

Kingdoms of Men v Elves, 1500pts per side Kings of War game.

 Ian and I set up once again for another battle between the Human Kingdoms of Men army and the Elves. Nigel also came along this week and a quick dice throw put him on my side with the elves. Could the elves finally get a win, Nigel is certainly good with his dice throws. This week we played scenario 3 'Push' which involves grabbing loot tokens again. This time it was better to be holding the loot tokens in the opponent's half of the table to score more victory points at the end of the game. The KoM got 2 loot tokens (white gems) but the elves only got one (green gem) and there was one central one (red). With the aim being to control gems in your opponents half I decide attack was the best option. 

Armies after deployment, KoMen on the left, elves on the right who have used their 'scout' moves on any unit who had it. The plan was to use missile fire on the elf right flank backed up by the Drakon Riders (all commanded by Nigel) and over on the let flank I took control of the hard hitting 'tree' based troops to counter the nasty KoM knights. 

Ian took the first turn and advanced his wizard, Rodnar the Red, in our turn Nigel shot him to pieces with his Kindred Gladestalkers. Rodnar was a real pest last battle so I was happy to see him go. 

Ian took revenge by destroying my elf ballista.

Nigel them moved in on some over bold human archers and squished them between the Silver Breeze Cavalry and the Drakon Riders on their flank. 

My Forest Shamblers, supported by the Hunters of the Wild destroyed the first unit of knights. The second unit of knights was fighting my Tree Herder and those knights were eventually killed too. 

KoMen leader Tancred charged his pegasus into the Tree Herder and soon wished he hadn't. 

Meanwhile Nigel targeted the spearmen with every unit he could and also routed them.

This battle was going very well for the elves. 

So, we only played 4 turns and all the human force had been routed apart from the giant who had been dithering around at the back. With the elves controlling all but one of the tokens and being in the KoMen half of the table a comfortable win for the elves was declared, at last!

The game was so short I only took a few photo's but at least my elves gained a win this week. 

 

Kingdoms of Men v Elves, 1500pts per side.

 Ian and I upped our points total again to 1500pts per side. It was Kingdoms of Men (KoM) against Elves again with the elves still searching for their first win. We chose scenario 2, 'Loot' and diced off for table edge and were soon deployed.

Deployment, Elves to the left, KoM to the right. 

Any green gems you can see are the loot tokens. 

The elf centre was quite woody!

Rodnar the Red wizard soon fireballed my Silverbreeze cavalry, off they ran. 

My Elf force getting into position to counter Ian's KoM deployment. 

My elves had quite a few shooty units but shot poorly and their rolls for Nerve were even worse, I couldn't seem to throw above 6 on 2xd6! This resulted in the elves being out shot by the KoM. 

Ian had two of these fast moving units of knights, both equipped with their 'Indomitable Will'.

Hurrah, took me over half the game but the KoM artillery finally gets destroyed.

Otherwise, things were not going well for the elves. 

There was an almighty clash in the centre, lots of heavy hitting units involved. 

My poor Hunters of the Wild got minced but...

...the Drakon Riders enjoyed charging the Knights in the rear. 

27 dice of pain and the Knights were destroyed. 

My Tree Herder went off on his own rampaging through a variety of infantry units. 

That was fun too, suddenly I seemed in with a chance, although Ian had been a bit cannier about grabbing the loot tokens.  

At long last that damned giant got his cum uppance although the remaining unit of knights were lurking threateningly close by. 

Turn 6 and those pesky knights charge and destroy my poor Drakon Riders in the final action of the game. The dice decided that there would not be a seventh turn. So with Ian in charge of 2x loot tokens compared to my none it was a KoM victory. A seventh turn would have allowed me to possibly gain two loot tokens and thus a win but it was not to be. 

This was a fun game as initially it was not going well for the elves but after our usual tea and cake break melee seemed to go mainly my way but I was just a tad to late to start gaining the advantage in the game. 

So much fun that we play again next week, probably scenario 3. 

1200pts each of Kings of War Battle.

 Ian was back today for another Kingdoms of Men v Elves battle, this time we went bigger with 1200 pts a side. We played the pillage scenario and it was an absolute cracker of a game. After we had placed the 5 objective markers Ian won the dice throw to take the first turn. 

My Elves to the left, Ian's Men to the right. This photo was taken after Ian's first move. 

Ian sent his general, Tancred forward on his pegasus supported by a giant. 

This was a crafty move as it trapped my elf mounted archers in the corner, fearing to move as the enemy would be able to charge them wherever they moved to. 

Tancred charges in and these two units where then locked in melee for about 3 turns. 

Tancred was a poor fighter. 

Over on the left Seritas the Scribe, the elf mage looks confidently across at his human enemy. 

Note the bolt thrower, deadly in the first turn, not so good from then on. 

In the centre my poor elf archers were caught by the human phalanx and in the flank by the giant. That was the end of my archers. That giant hits hard, especially in your flank. 

Another view of the demise of my archers. 

At this point Ian was holding his 2 units of mounted knights back, he didn't really need them yet.

I was damaging quite a few of Ian's units but my dice throws for the enemy nerve were awful.  

The giant rushes across to help Tancred defeat my Silver Breeze cavalry.

I forgot about taking photo's as Ian's Knights finally entered the battle. On the left he was able to charge my forest shamblers and rout them as they were also caught in the rear by that beast of a giant. 

Tancred flew across to attack Lord Cadvan Dunmail, leader of the elves who turned around and slew Tancred (finally a decent Nerve test throw of the dice). 

We had been so busy battling the objective markers were almost forgotten about. By the end of turn 6 I controlled 2 to Ian's one. Unfortunately for me Ian successfully rolled for a 7th turn and his knights came crashing in turning the result in his favour. So a narrow win for the Kingdoms of Men, two objectives to the elves one. The Kingdoms of Men had also killed 560pts of elves, whereas the elves had only killed 440pts worth of Humans. A worthy win for Ian. but a fun game for both of us.  

Here is the 'giant' man of the match, slayer of elves and all round tough guy. 

But wait, there is rumour of help coming for the elves...yes, we play again next week, going up to 1500pts this time.  

 

Kings of War Kingdoms of Men v Sylvan Kin

 Ian and I have not played Kings of War (KoW) for some years now. I have the 3rd edition red book rules but Ian only had a set from the early years of the game. I have the same set of rules so used mine in the photo 

For our first game back I had worked out two small 600 point armies of Sylvan Kin and Empire of Men (mainly my Hail Caesar Normans). I did not use magic in this first game. I set up some simple terrain and chose the 'Kill' scenario to keep things simple. 

Ian was the Kingdom of Men, led by a hero on a pegasus called Tancred. 

I was in charge of the Sylvan Kin led by Emyn Lockharn.

The two sids eye each other up. 

We were both quite cagey with our movement at the start. 

I rashly leapt forward with my Grrrr Dogs (Gur Panthers) and they got squished. 

Emyn Lockharn was slain by Tancred. 

Emyn has now died in action more times than Sean Bean!

The elf spear phalanx was my last remaining unit which got surrounded, it did not end well!

With plenty of time left we set up again, same sides and sceanrio, different deployment .

Would it be better for the Sylvan Kin this time?

The Grrrr Dogs went off on a flanking manoeuvre, it did not end well when they got attacked by crossbowmen and that pesky Tancred chap on his pegasus. 

Ooops, Sylvan Gladestalkers get caught by some Human Knights. That did not end well either. 

At this point I forgot to take any more photo's as the rest of the Sylvan Kin were killed. I least they took more humans with them in this game. 

Ian and I really enjoyed rediscovering Kings of War, it was great fun. I had experimented with my Sylvan Kin army selection choosing a less 'shooty' force than usual. This actually meant that the Kingdoms of Men had more shooting ability but also seemed to do better in melee.  We intend to play again next week but with bigger forces and add in more monsters types and a magician each. It will be no surprise to Ian if my Sylvan Kin take more missile units next time. 

25mm Old School Napoleonics.

 Our small group of gamers enjoyed a game of 'Old School' Napoleonics using Nigel's figures and rules. His figures are a mix of Hinchliffe, Minifigs and Lamming, many of which were bought and painted over 40 years ago. 

These are the rules that Nigel used back then and we used them again today. 

Here is the British force, before deployment and led by Ian and myself. 

The French force, before deployment and led by Nigel and Charlie.

Ian took control of the British cavalry supported by the horse artillery. 

Nigel's lated recruits, some French lancers led by Charlie. They cam hurtling down the road and charging my British Allies line infantry broke right through them and with good morale throws were able to turn and charge back through them, causing that unit to withdraw. 

For our trial game of the rules the objective was kept simple, capture the crossroads. 

I sent my British Line unit forward towards the crossroads. You can also see Nigel's French infantry heading for the crossroads. 

Ian's dragoons chased off the French light cavalry then turned to try and get around the flank of the French infantry but also faced Nigels artillery. 

Ian declared his charge on the rear/flank of the French infantry (who had charged my British by then) assisted by Charlie's infantry). Nigel's artillery did enough damage on the French Hussars to prevent their charge so my poor British were left outnumbered in the centre. 

My British infantry took a bit of a beating and were also forced to withdraw. 

This left the French in command of the crossroads and the British force in tatters.  

A clear win for the French. 

The French Lancers were awarded 'unit of the game' and proved that the newly painted unit does not always do badly in their first game. 

So the game was fun and we enjoyed using the old school rules. However, there were a few areas of the rules that were perhaps not explained as clearly as they might have been. Another area of confusion was that each figure was worth a certain number of points in melee and missile fire. The confusing part was that a figure worth 1pt in melee might be worth 1.5pts in missile fire so we had to try and remember these varying factors. The rules are also a bit chart heavy. However with a bit of tweaking and refinement these would be an enjoyable set of rules.