Kings of War First Game

My first game of Kings of War, used a mix of units, men, dwarfs, 3 x Dragon Ogres (warriors) up against Wood Elves. All the models are Games Workshop mini's, which seem to fit in great with Kings of War...This first game was easy to learn the rules and tactics. Having played GW's WFB and other wargames, it was very easy to get into playing right away.

Here are the Wood Elves lined up for battle. Building units is very easy as the units are troops 10, 

regiments 20, hordes 40 etc. With some variation when base sizes are larger.

Here is my Kingdom of Men army, got some Dragon Ogres (warriors) holding the right flank. I like the fact that Generals and characters are separate from the units. This gives them more flexibility to be where they are needed the most. Inspiring rolls or just to get stuck in combat or casting spells. 

Here is a unit of flying Wood Elves charging my Dwarfs. I forget what these Elves where called in the game, but they are quite tough with lots of attacks. The Dwarfs are GW Bugman's Rangers from the late 80's. Great models.

Here are my knights charging some Treemen. This was one of the rules that confused us. We weren't sure if the knights should make one last wheel to meet the Treemen, as the number of attacks are always the same. After reading the rules we realized that yes the units are moved flush and shuffled down until the "commanders" (the guy in the centre) are as close as possible.

My Dwarf crossbowman with the wound counters. Models aren't removed when wounded but instead counters are added then "nerve" checks are made (like morale checks). Keeps the table clean and organized.

My knights charging around the field mopping up random units of Elves.

My units of Pole-arm block and hand-gunners double charging some unlucky elves.

Flank and rear charges are devastating as the attacks are doubled or trebled. 

My knights chasing down the last few units of Wood Elves. That is my General trying to get into range of my knights to help with inspiring rolls as the knights had taken a fair amount of damage.

 My knights again chasing down some unfortunate Wood Elf...

There are second edition rules coming out from Mantic but the game play and mechanics are the same. I have played one game with the downloaded 2nd edition, but didn't take any pics...

Kings of War, Mantic Games

After Games Workshop destroyed the Old World and came out with Age of Sigmar I have given up on Games Workshop. I won't get into all my reasons as I don't want to use this blog for ranting.

But I would like to thank GW for years of fun wargaming and re-invigorating my love of gaming and pushing me to Mantic Games and Kings of War. These are tight, easy to learn and play, fantasy wargaming rules, many old time WFB players will easily pick up these rules.

What is also great about this game is Games Workshop Fantasy mini's will easily transition into Kings of War. Plus pretty much any companies mini's will work, as long as they are the right scale.

 Here I'm using GW's Lord of the Rings Hobbits as a regiment of Hobbit archers.

Here is a Reaper Miniatures Bone Catapult waiting to be painted.

These old style mini's look great and are more my style. In one way I'm glad GW blew up Warhammer Fantasy. It feels like a weight has been lifted. Now I can use any mini I want, paint in any style I want. I'm really looking forward to a new era of Fantasy Wargaming.

But all this talk of new systems and mini;s, Mantic also has a full range of mini's for Kings of War as well.  These look great and I may pick some up my-self...

Sails of Glory

Tried out a new game Sails of Glory from Ares games. Fast paced fun game with lots of little details to make the game challenging. Each turn there is a test to see if the wind is about to change/does change. This affects your ships maneuverability. Other things like how often you can fire your guns, from which side of the ship, where the shots hit, different types of shot etc, etc...All these rules don't really slow down the game.  

Here is one of my British ships splitting the two French ships,

as my second ship flanks to the left. 

With the shifting winds shift my ship got rammed by two ships. Or was it

poor commanding by my opponent...

My ship trying to escape the harassment of the French ships. 

My little ship coming in from the flank to finish off the French.

The little dial shows the wind direction and where it hits the ship.

After my main ship was sunk my little boat came in from the flank 

and sank the two French ships. My main ship had done enough

damage to the French before being sent to the bottom.

Overall a fun game to play, the board may seem a little boring just being water. But, you can add reefs, islands  and other stuff.

Hotlead 2015

So Hotlead is over and done with for another year. Had a great time. The first game I played was            Rise of the Runesmiths. I came across this by chance as the game I wanted to play was a 28mm WW1 game. But the guy with the terrain didn't show. I'm glad I got to try this game. The game designers were a bunch of great guy's and the other players were a lot of fun. The game was/is still in development,  so there was a lot of discussion on game play. This game was a lot of fun and I wish them the best of luck.

Rise of the Runesmiths

The next game I played was Charlie Company a Vietnam 28mm skirmish game. An interesting game as the Vietcong/NVA player is the referee and follows set guidelines on how they react based on the scenario. My section was moving up the left flank to secure that building at the top of the river. On my way up a bunch of heavy machine guns popped up from their hiding places near the centre of the table. I tried to run towards them as quick as I could but my orders were superseded by my CO. Sometimes I get  little reckless in games like these because I know there is a time limit.

These pictures aren't from my game but they show the table we used. 

We never got to use the plane either.

The next game I played was Dux Britanniarum. This game is a lot of fun, quick and easy rules. I believe this game was run by one of the guy's from KEGS. Great miniatures and table. The Game Master  built the dice rolling towers, he also built a kind of reverse periscope. You look down through it, then with a series of mirrors you see what the minis on the table see, real cool.

These are my units.

Here is the tax collector running away after he dropped his loot. I wanted to kill him.

My brave  Saxon cavalry about to charge some English

This dice tower sitting in a field.

Some of the Saxons holding the left flank.

Robotech Tactics

Robotech RPG Tactics

This is a game I knew nothing about, and don't anything about the cartoon. But if your are looking for a fast paced game that plays like a TV show this is it!

These are my jumpy guy's with missiles being stalked by jets that turn into robots.

  

More of my jumpy guys and a dedicated missile launcher guy, and another guy that makes my other guys shoot better. 

Part of my unit on top of a building firing missiles down. This is what I mean about being like a TV show.

More of my guys on top of another building. This was a running theme in my game play and tactics.

My leader was able to use command points to bring back my guys. Here is my wall of death about to bring down some lonely robot guy. I succeeded.  

I also tried Wings of Glory WW1. I didn't take any pictures. But this game is easy to learn and a blast to play!

The End Times First Game

1400pts.

My Vampire Counts deployed for battle against the Wood Elves. The Vampires are lead by               Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of night.

My undead legion deployed close to Mannfred. I needed to avoid the archers on either corner of the battlefield, but still control the centre.

My Vargheists vs. some treeman thingy. There were 5 Black Knights there just a turn before...

Mannfred getting the Wood Elf cavalry lined up for the charge. Flying monster vs. fast cavalry. Two of the most maneuverable units in the game. There was no way I was going to get their flank or rear. 

Combat is joined, Mannfred had to raise some zombies to protect his flank from the elf bowman.

In the end the battle ended up being a draw. The one issue I have with WFB are all the little special rules. In the final match between Mannfred, the fast cav. and the Wood Elf Lord, I quickly glanced over the stomp rules. I saw monstrous beasts...but then went ahead and stomped the cavalry. Which can't be done. So I did more combat damage then I should have. 

What a great model Mannfred is. At 650pts. he can deal a lot of damage. For this game we only used the new army percentages, and not the new magic rules. 

The Last Zombie unit done!

 These are the zombies I will use for raising dead etc.

Zombies coming up out of the ground.

Face to Face.

This is what happens when Zombies come to an Empire town!

Close up. This is one of my favorite guys.  His head is just hanging off.

This army was one of the most fun armies to paint. If you make a mistake, cover it with blood. Don't want to highlight the metal on the weapons, put rust on them. All the units in this army were based on the Games Workshop Sigmar's Blood campaign. What a blast to play and a great way to build and paint either an Empire army or Vampire counts.