Kings of War: Four player battle.

 Recently Chris and I have been working on new armies for Kings of War in 28mm. Chris has been painting a very special themed Kingdoms of Men army. Their colour scheme is taken from the Ukrainian flag and he is making a wonderful job of them. Once complete Chris is going to auction the army off to raise funds for a suitable charity to help Ukrainians in need, a very noble effort. 

My own new army is Sylvan Kin formed largely from the Oathmark elves I had not got round to painting yet plus a few other bits I either had lying around or acquired from ebay or elsewhere. 

This is the whole force so far, just above 1,000points as a rough estimate.

This photo shows the more recently painted items. The Tree Shamblers were already painted but have been re-based to suit the basing style I have adopted for my Sylvan Kin. The banners were drawn on a computer programme and then painted over to make the colour brighter. 

Today Chris came up for a game and with Ian and Phil coming along as well we opted for a four player game with 750 points per player. As host I 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?

Army 1	Army 2
	Chapel
Army 3	Army 4

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. 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.

So, how did the game go?  Ian had brought along 750pts of his Blue Orcs on their winter themed bases. Chris was using his Kingdome of Men and lent Phil an Orc force whilst I took charge of my Sylvan Kin. A quick round of dice throws decided that Phil and I would take on Chris and Ian with those two having to deploy first but we took the first turn. 

Chris: Kingdoms of Men, note the colour scheme which is also very effective.

Ian: Ice Orcs-(really nice painting on those Ian) we had to laugh half way through the game when Ian suddenly realised he had got his troops and regiments mixed up (made a change from his arse and his elbow!) so had to remove a few bases. That made his Orcs suddenly less intimidating! 

Phil: Orcs on loan from Chris, lovely Orc figures very well painted. 

Me: Sylvan Kin who used 'scout' on their Shamblers to claim the first grave which also granted them an Onyx Ring 

First turn action and at the bottom of the page my Silverbreeze Cavalry have already shot and destroyed the human light cavalry. Whilst Phil advances his gore riders at the top left. 

Note how Ian has claimed the ruined chapel in the centre. 

Clash of the Gore Riders, top left. In charged Phil... 

...and scored 2 hits!!!

That did not go to plan. 

Assisted by the Krudger on beast and some Orc Infantry Ian managed to defeat Phil's Gore Riders but lost his own Gore riders in the process. 

On the other flank the Sylvan Kin were getting the upper hand by using their shooting superiority well. Note the Silverbreeze Cavalry running round the KoMen's rear. At this point it looked like a convincing win was on the cards for the Sylvan Kin and thier Orc allies.  

However, once the KoMen got into melee with the Sylvan Kin they literally fought their way back into the battle. By the end of turn 6 the Sylvan Kin/orcs were still winning but only just.  . 

Chris managed to get his characters and some spearmen into the fray. These were quite tough but having badly damaged my Elf phalanx he scored a mighty 'double one' on the nerve test which I think Chris felt perhaps summed up his luck with the dice today. 

The dice decided we would play a final seventh turn where I forgot to take any photo's. My leader Emyn Lockharn got routed and neither Phil or I did as well in shooting or melee so did not gain any more VP. Chris and Ian fared better destroying my Gladestalkers and Tallspears.  

Happily for us the the Sylvan Kin/Orc alliance held on for a narrow win by just two victory points. 

We really enjoyed the game but were not sure that my idea of awarding Victory Points for the unit size of troops destroyed was perhaps such a balanced way of awarding VP's. A %age of points lost may work better?  

.