Back to Kings of War

 We last played Kings of War before Covid and lockdowns were a thing and that was in 15mm. Weirdly now, both Chris and I fancied creating new 28mm forces. Chris opted for a Human force whilst I went for some Sylvan Kin using mainly the rather excellent Oathmark Elf figures (because I bought loads of them and hadn't used them for anything yet). You may notice from the photo's that Chris has given his very nicely painted Human/Kingdoms of Men forces a Ukrainian themed colour scheme, his aim being to auction off the army when completed with the funds raised going to an appropriate charity. A most generous gesture. 

Metal Oathmark Elf character figure, otherwise known as Emyn Lockharn who was to prove to be a very effective 'Master Hunter' on the Sylvan Kin list. 

Chris recently pointed out to me that there was a 'new' version of 3rd edition KOW out that was just rules and army lists, perfect for me as I am not keen on the KOW background fluff, I just want to play the game and prefer to make up my own lands, characters and scenario's. It was this new 'Red' version of the rules that prompted us to get our acts together and get a gaming day sorted. 

As Chris was hosting it was his turn to devise the scenario's we would play and this is what he came up with... (as we are still building our new forces we opted to use the 'Ambush' rules for smaller games and opted for 500pts each on a 4' x 4' table.). 

BATTLE FOR THE GLADES OF ENGROTH

Humans have been settling on the edges of the Engroth Forest, a land traditionally belonging to the Sylvan Kin. The settlers believed that the elves would contact them if there were any problems, but no contact was made, so they assumed they had the elves’ blessing.

Unfortunately, the elves, typical of their kin, took time deliberating the best way to deal with their unwelcome visitors, and found several areas of woodland cleared and hamlets founded. Rather than a peaceful meeting to thrash out details and boundaries, the settlers were met by a small elven war party determined to drive them out. Fortunately they were sturdy folk, and had a ready defence force equally determined to push back.

The first game is an Invade scenario representing both sides trying to push the other away from the glades. The terrain should have areas of woodland, preferably several small rather than a few large woods. Some signs of habitation may be appropriate around the centre of the board.

Invade

At the end of the game, add up the total Unit Strength of each player’s units that have the majority of their footprint on the opposing player’s half of the board. This is the total number of Victory Points that each player scores.

Some of Chris's Kingdom's of Men forces deploy ready for battle. 

Kingdom's of Men mounted scouts,my favourite unit that Chris had painted. They were the first casualties of the game as they were shot to pieces by elf archers. 

My elves deployed close together on the right hand side, archers to the front. 

Sylvan Kin are expensive units, here is all 500 points of my force, deployed and ready to give battle. A Master Hunter hero, a troop of Sylvan Gladestalkers, a troop of Silverbreeze Cavalry and a troop of Kindred Tallspears. 

Being wary of the Kingdom of Men easily outnumbering my elves I played a very cagey first game. I spent six turns avoiding contact and shooting as often as I could. The Human Scout cavalry were destroyed in the first turn followed by one of the spear regiments in turn 3. By turn 6 the Kingdoms of Men only had one regiment of spear left plus their hero. Sadly for me I was having so much fun shooting humans I forgot to stay aware of turn numbers and crafty old Chris had his remaining troops firmly placed in my half of the table scoring 3 points for his unit size (Regiment) where I had only 2 troops in his table half to score just 2 points. Thus a narrow victory for the Kingdoms of Men despite the fact they had lost most of their force and not a single elf had been harmed!  

I need to learn from that mistake. 

The second game is a Salt the Earth scenario representing the elves trying to wipe out the humans and save their sacred tree which is unfortunately right in the middle of one of their settlements. The humans believe that possessing the tree will grant them ownership of the forest, or at least give them bargaining power with the elves. Terrain should be similar to the first battle, with the addition of a tall tree as the central marker.

Salt the Earth*

Before rolling off to choose sides, place one Objective Marker in the exact centre of the board and then the players take it in turns placing Objective Markers until both players have each placed two Objective Markers. Roll off to see who places the first Objective.

After a player has completed their Turn, they can choose to destroy any Objective Markers which they control (except for the Central Objective). Repeat this process at the end of each of the player’s Turns until the end of the game. Destroyed Objective Markers are removed from play and have no influence on the rest of the game.

Victory Points are awarded at the end of the game as follows:

• 1 Victory Point for each Objective Marker still in play that you control.

*Scenario Special; the central objective is a sacred tree, neither side may destroy it, but it is worth two Victory Points at the end of the game.

At deployment I grabbed two objective's whilst Chris took the two in his half of the table. However Emyn Lockharn managed to shoot/destroy the human scouts freeing up that objective. Sadly characters can not claim objectives otherwise Emyn Lockharn would have run up the table to grab that one (top right). 

Both of Chris's phalanx's of spear, the near one is from his old warhammer Empire army, on loan for todays game whilst we grow our forces. These two units moved forward to claim the central tree objective.  

My single troop of spears, stood atop an objective token. They did not move all game.  

This game was really tense and fast moving. Trying to claim the objective tokens forced us into a few rounds of melee. Emyn Lockharn was confronted by the human hero and had to use his 'Inspiring' special rule twice to save from being routed. One of the human phalanx's charged the elf cavalry but were routed by turn 6. This game then went into a 7th turn where the elf Gladestalkers managed to rout the human archers, claim an objective marker and claim a last turn victory for the elves by 3 objectives to 2. 

These were two great (small sized) games of Kings Of War (and I didn't take enough photo's) which have rekindled my love for the game. I am already looking forward to our next game where we plan to go up to 750 points per side. My only problem is trying to decide what to paint up next.