Introductory Games

I have basically written what follows here about half a dozen times already in replies to questions in various Kings of War Facebook posts over the last few years, so I figured it might be a good idea to finally post something more substantial here, so that either I can refer back to it myself, or point people towards this for more info when similar questions pop up in the future. I am not a Kings of War authority, but I did run a number of these smaller "learner" games in 2nd (some of them detailed in Battle Reports here!), so hopefully I learned some things and can impart some wisdom here to folks trying to bring this wonderful game to others.

So, you are here because you to run some introductory games! Huzzah! My biggest single piece of advice is to not treat these as normal games. It doesn't matter if you play a flawless game here; it doesn't matter if you win. The two goals here are to teach the game and to have fun, as this is still a game. Everything you do should be in support of these goals. 

LIST PREPARATION

If you are building all the lists, then remember that the meta is yours to dictate! You don't need to consider including anti-flyer tech or add in spellcasters if you don't want to run them. If Flying or Nimble or Shambling units make your head hurt, minimize their appearance in the lists or leave them at home if you need to. I would suggest that you build these learner lists casually and don't be afraid to run "bad" units! Evaluating units is part of the game after all and discussing the lackluster performance of a particular unit with your opponent can lead to a good conversation and engagement. (Was the unit just used incorrectly? Was this a bad match-up for the unit? Would it work better as a larger or smaller unit size? These kinds of discussions can get folks more interested in the game.)

I was using Easy Army for all of my list documentation, and so my lists were always legal for unlocks, but I gave a preference for running Regiments, as they were more likely to stick around in combat for a turn or two. Usually each list had some Troops slots also, to showcase unit sizes and to open discussions on chaff units and the like. While legal to run, I quickly came to avoid all hordes (even for Ogres) and to avoid most magic items in my learner lists. With the former, hordes were just too powerful and led to grindy games which were not only not much fun, but they also didn't showcase the game well. The latter really only got exceptions for the Inspiring Talisman on an Undead Necromancer or Abyssal Efreet, as those were such staples in those lists/collections at the time that I wanted them in my learner games too. If your collection dictates that a list still needs a magic item, write it down on a card, and let your opponent decide where it goes, placing the card with the unit.  (If you want, you can even curate a few options, to let them pick both the item and then the receiving unit.) Having the physical card means one of you is more likely to actually remember the item in-game, and even if the choice of unit seems obvious, having a newbie actively make that decision does help them start to understand list building more.

Often at least one unit was usually repeated (two regiments of Shield Wall or something), as this repetition helped players understand things quicker, and built in a little redundancy to the lists. Monsters were used sparingly, as like hordes, many were either too expensive or too powerful to effectively run in a balanced learner game, though monsters around 100-125 points should be fine. Each list usually only got a single inspiring hero, so the focus could be on the units.

I ran my games at 750 points, and would probably continue at that level in 3rd Edition. Games at this size gave me around 4-7 units and a hero per army, and the games are quick. An hour and a half was often about enough time for two games, but an hour per game is still doable if there is a lot of discussion going on. Discussion is good, so don't be afraid to pursue it in lieu of a second game. Lastly for lists, remember to bring list printouts to the game!

TABLE PREPARATION

If you can, set up the board and terrain beforehand as this saves time. Setting up symmetrically (so negating a side advantage) can also help speed things up. With 750 points, space is good, but you do not need a full table. I've run games these size on 4' x 4' and even 3' by 3' tables. If you are running this on a smaller-than-usual size, reduce the depth of the deployment zones and preserve the 2' buffer in the midfield whenever possible. I've found that preserving that buffer maintains a more usual "pace" to the game, so no one is taken aback by very early charges by fliers or cavalry.

Terrain rules can get confusing, so I would recommend picking a few (maybe 3 max) types or terrain and repeating them on the table, and running more of the same terrain types (multiple mountains, multiple fences, etc) rather than a wide variety of types. Terrain really livens things up for wargames, but learning terrain rules alongside of a brand new game can be overwhelming for new players. Having say, some impassable houses, some fence obstacles and some forests scattered about is enough to make the battlefield believable. If you are playing at home or using your own terrain, don't be afraid to use terrain sparingly in these games. Terrain is also a collection that takes time to build up no matter the wargame. Do what you can and try to keep things simple.

Lastly, I try to have a set of colored dice and measuring device for each player now. I have tried using just one set before, passing them back and forth to emphasize the I-go-U-go rules Kings of War has, and really mark whose turn it was, but it was really awkward in practice. 

GAME SET UP

For learner games, I take some unusual moves. If you focus on just one section of this post, focus on this. I skip the deployment phase entirely. It saves a ton of time and removes all the potential "feels bad" moments than could arise with you forcing these  game-defining decisions on someone who has never played before. I definitely appreciate the strategy and the mind games that can happen during this phase, but this has no place in an learner game for me.

I will pick a very simple list for myself, often Kingdoms of Men. Since those units are historical, they are easier for opponents to intuit. ("Archers eh? I should probably find a way to charge those and shut them down." or "Knights eh? I should probably find a way to not get charged by those... hey, how do spears work in this game anyways?") Running a simple list for me also reduces the number of complex decisions I need to make in a game, meaning I can spend more time discussing and teaching instead of pondering my next moves. 

Once my opponent arrives, we decide on sides, and get down to it, I show them my list and plop down my army, pointing out my units and showing the different stats. My deployment doesn't really matter, but I often go with a "traditional" approach: cavalry on the wings for a pincer; back and turtled to protect a war machine; or a refused flank to try and roll up a board edge. Overall, just plop your army down, and don't do much thinking. Any "goofy" deployments on your part can be fodder for discussions with your opponent. Once you have set up and explained your list, then your opponent gets to deploy. This order of setting things up lets them immediately start putting their new game knowledge to use, placing their units down to try and counter your plans if they want to. 

Lastly, I'd often cede first turn to my opponent. You'll need to walk them through the turn, but having them go first keeps them engaged and also avoids potential "feels bad" moments if your list has some shooting components. Setting up and immediately getting blasted is a bummer. So let them deploy and then keep the ball rolling, letting them go first, and working through that first turn together.

RUNNING THE GAME

I'd recommend "Kill" for a learner game, as it is easy for new players to grasp. The game has a lot of fighting-specific stats and abilities, and ball-parking combat math is important in all scenarios, so pending some time to reinforce a newbies combat knowledge is generally a good thing.

Even on a rerack, I'd suggest replaying "Kill". While I do very much like the scenarios Kings of War offers, I like to use any rerack to just introduce the deployment phase, and save scenarios for future games. Keeping the objective the same in the rerack also helps reinforce everything they've learned that day, since they're still striving for the same goal. 

HANDLING MULTIPLE PLAYERS

I like lists at 750 points as the 1v1 games were very quick, and the few times that extra players showed up it was easy to incorporate them without the games dragging or becoming too messy. 

With four players, each grabbing a 750 list and running a 2v2 can be a very nice way to get some comradery and discussions going. Four different armies are on display, and a variety of interaction is possible so different players will see different things.

What about 3 players though? 

If all you have is two armies, I would advise that you step aside, and let them fight it out while you teach them both the game. This goes back to the goal of these games being to teach the game and have fun. Sure, that hour may be a little less fun for you, but you still get to share this with them.

If you have a multitude of army lists at 750, I would still suggest you step back. Running two different armies is going to drain anyone. A newcomer won't effectively be able to do this, and you're already teaching the game. Taking on teaching and running twice as much as anyone else at the table in inadvisable. 

If you can boost one army list up from 750 to 1500 (you planned ahead bringing the same army with a different list, or are playing at home), you can obviously bump one side up to 1500, and run two smaller lists against it. A 2v1 like this is definitely possible. In this situation then, it seems like you, as the experienced player, should take the larger army. As above, I would advise against this. Again, in these games, you are likely the only one to have read the rulebook at all. You are already trying to teach the game, and you do not need to add in this extra mental work running a larger army to things. Offer up the larger list to one of the new players. This not only eases the mental efforts on you, it also gets both new players engaged for the entire duration of the intro game.

So, that's the gist of my experiences and general advice. Simplify things wherever you can, and remember that the two goals for these games is to teach the basics, and of course, have fun. Good luck!


Edit/Addition:

I missed this. Mantic has a free version of the 3rd Edition Ruleset available for download from their website. If you want to try the game, it is hard to beat "free" for an entry fee.

Hobby Update: Orc "Army"

This year I mostly hobbied on various warbands rather than expand greatly upon any existing army. Both my free time and my hobby space were greatly diminished over the year, so this was a nice way to still have some fun building and painting without worrying about matching up with an old scheme or thinking up a new one.

These orcs stared out a long while ago as D&D stand-ins, and in 2021 I decided I wanted to expand them a bit into a larger warband. Things got out of hand, and I soon realized that I had a small army in the works! I didn't want to do a full new army though, so decided to split the difference between a number things, and ended up with what follows.

Whoops! Ended up with about 3x more than I wanted, but it all works out.
This was a fun distraction for a few weeks over the summer.

I really just wanted a warband, but won too many bids with way too many minis and decided I was too lazy to repackage and resell. So I decided to make this a loaner/intro army, but using round bases and movement trays. Doing so could show the new player that existing things could be ported over into Kings of War without much effort. Multi-basing is fun, but not something they needed to do to try out the game. 

Two-piece tray. I'll have a better post coming about these at some point. For here, each Regimental tray can fit 10 dudes on 32mm round bases, allowing for pretty slick conversions from other game systems.

The movement trays came in two pieces. This was a little awkward, but I'll admit I did not give any thought to how they made these. A little school glue (Elmer's Glue, or PVA glue) and holding it in place seemed to work out fine. I decided naked MDF wasn't appealing, so I tried to spread just a tiny pit of texture paste on, and paint up some browns and greys for a pretty neutral coloring. The drybrushing was pretty bad (very streaky on the left of this pic; way too much paint), but I didn't care enough to redo.  This will be a base beneath individual round bases after all.

A regiment of Greatax

I had started this expansion project with just a sprue of 5 GW 'ardboys. The original warband had a few, but those were picked up from bits shops years ago, and that was very confusing as some of the weapons I bought didn't fit with the bodies. Working on the new ones, I realized that the sprue/box is actually split between different poses (a "command" pose, two allowing for arms at the sides, and two for arms overhead - the only pose allowing for great weapons). This strikes me as weird. I don't have the books, but surely these were two distinct weapon options back then, so I'm not sure how an orc player felt getting only half a box outfitted for great weapons. Maybe I am missing something though.

A Regiment of Morax

As I won some (what I thought were) long-shot bids, I took inventory, and realized that with the split in bodies, if I picked up a new box of 'ardboys, I could get 10 with great weapons and 10 with paired weapons, and decided to do it. All of the 'ardboys were pretty fun to hobby up. The orcs get a surprising amount of weapons! I tried to mix things up to give them a more varied look, but pairing the correct weapons does look pretty cool.

A Regiment of Young Ax

These were the first of two "long-shot" bids the pushed me into making this,. Something like a used lot of 18, to build on my original 4 from the old "easy build" box, or whatever it was called at the time. 

A second Regiment of Young Ax.

I am not familiar with the Orc list, and decided to run these as Youngax for the stats and "why you see is what you get" reasons. Morax and Greatax have Def 4 in big plate armor, so I didn't want these ruffians out-shining the elites. These are Def 4 too, though that feels better since they carry the shields in lieu of armor. Def 5 is pretty strong, so I think normal Ax for me would be 'ardboys with shields, which is not something I am ready to do yet.

A Regiment of Skulks.

The archers were the second long-shot bid that pushed me over. I won 16 accidentally. Not knowing what to do I found and bought 4 more to get an even 20. In the end I painted 10 up. The other 10 join a musician and bannerman from the "Youngax" lot "in reserve" in my apartment's storage unit.

Misc. Both the orcs not carrying the banner have already been shown previously! The banner will eventually need a symbol and some touch-ups for the skulls and such though. 

I had an Ogre Chieftain from Reaper Mini lying about and decided to paint them up as a Troll Bruiser. It looked more that part than anything else, and I always just loved the door as a shield. 

I was basically out of minis, so decided to lean into the modularity that using individual models provided. The "champions" of the Moreax and Greatax can be subbed out out if I need a Krudger or Krusher, replaced by the Flagger. Otherwise, I have a Flagger and a Troll Bruiser, which should be enough options. A hero and a monster is usually enough for a learner game. The round bases could be tricky in-game, , but I have a ton of 25mm squares, and should be able to remember to bring them as needed for measuring things out.

All this gave me five regiments, a Troll Bruiser monster and 1 variable hero. Running a Flagger or Krusher, I think I'm at 935 points or thereabouts. With a Krudger though, I'd be at 980, really close to 1000 points and that flat numbers is easily achievable with some Skull Poles or magic items. I don't know how viable it would be, but that's not a serious concern for a learner army.

The blues were an unusual color, but the variation especially gives a little more vibrant result to what could easily be a very drab army. I'm pleased with how this project ended up, and it should work very nicely for any small, casual game, any skirmish style game, or piecemeal as D&D encounters.

Hobby Update: More Misc. Undead

In addition to the Undead Adventurers, I hobbied on a number of other undead over the last year. I already have about 4k of Undead for Kings of War, and with very little hobby space still over the summer, I just wanted to continue hobbying on random stuff and small groups.

First up in the update here are some necromancers. Undead don't tend to raise themselves in most settings after all! One is from the GW Mortis Engine kit. I liked his look but he doesn't really fit neatly on an infantry base so I used some pink foam wall insulation to carve out a little roughly-hewn perch for him. I opted not to add any brickwork to it to make it look more privative. I really like the blindfold and the dangling keys, and I think he'll make a fun boss necromancer guy in a Dungeons and Dragons game some day.

The other two minis are WhizKids Pathfinder minis I picked up from a FLGS while running errands early in the summer. I like many of these style minis (both the Pathfinder and D&D lines), but I have not kept up with any promotions or release schedule, so these tend to be impulse buys as I see them. The bone armor reminded me of Diablo II a bit and yeah, I just had to pick this box up! 

Mr. Diablo got a very basic aged bone scheme with a nice black cloak, and I tried a wet-blended icy blue flame with a lighting effect that I am moderately happy with. The spell effects on these minis are just weird and I usually end up just breaking them off. I did this with the spirit... wall... thing from the last necromancer here. She was the partner in the little box. There is nothing inherently evil about her, and I had just finished watching Netflix's Castlevania series at the time, so decided to give her a more colorful cloak similar to Sypha. I really like the "stop it" hand gesture she's got going on too. Without the spirit wall she doesn't look too spooky, so she may end up just as a normal caster down the line in a D&D game or whatever.

Necromancers!

Hobbying on all of these got me thinking about minis agnostic games. This was about the time Reign in Hell launched, and a good chunk of my free time over the summer was spent reading and musing. I think I can't be the only one with random undead minis sitting around. Everyone picks up a box or two at some point, right? Maybe there's some fun to be had with necromancers vying for power in a casual skirmish-style game. Nothing is remotely presentable, even testable yet, but we'll see what the future brings on this front. I've been trying for years to create something, but production is always way beyond me. A rulebook or PDF seems like it could be doable if I can actually blend the game design ideas I have kicking around in my noggin. We'll see.

I continued to pick up a few sprues here and there for fun. I had picked up some Grave Guard bits way back during the End Times for some kit bashes (I think just a torso or two from a bits shop), but this was my first outing with their full sprue. I actually liked them a lot. They look really cool and come with a lot of options.

An assortment of Grave Guard! I went for a mix of weapons, since I wasn't hobbying on a unit.

The great weapons assembled a little awkwardly, as they often do with GW kits where you need to get hand sockets and shoulder sockets to line up with little arms, but with the pauldrons I was able to fudge a decent connection as I encountered issues. Overall, I gotta say I really like these models. They just look really cool and imposing. Some of the helmets (mostly just the Champion one) are a little much, but overall they look cool and ornate, like an ancient honor guard.

I also picked up a sprue of Crypt Ghouls, which comes out to 10 minis. As mentioned before in other posts, picking up a new box is almost certainly better cost-wise than picking up sprues, but the difference is usually only a dollar or two, and I was willing to pay that premium since I was looking to get some interesting minis to play around with rather than dozens and dozens more minis. 

With the Ghouls here I wanted to play around more with creepy skin tones. I really liked how the Zombies my girlfriend painted up had a variety of tones, and wanted to explore those more myself. I had three shades/washes I wanted to play around with and a few paint pots of skin colors, so I split the models into three groups of three (and one King) and just experimented.

Group 1: Kislev Flesh base, Pallid Wych Flesh layer. Left to Right, Green, Blue, and Flesh shades.

Group 1 turned out really nice, though I did prime everything in black like a fool again. The base color took several passes for a roughly consistent result before "highlighting" the raised parts with the Pallid Wych layer. The washes set nice and distinctly. 

Group 2: Cadian base, Kislev layer. Left to Right, Green, Blue, and Flesh shades.

Group 2 had a darker skin base, but still needed a few passes to get good coverage. This combination (Cadian then Kislev) is how I tended to approach skin for the Regnum when I need more definition, otherwise it is one or the other color plus a flesh shade. These turned out ok. The darker flesh tones beneath muted the washes slightly in person, but the end results weren't drastically different.

Group 3: Pallid Wych base, Kislev layer. Left to Right, Green, Blue, and Flesh shades.

With Group 3 I tried playing around more, doing the more-white Pallid Wych color as the base with a more gently applied highlight of Kislev. I wanted to see how a lighter base coat would interact with the washes. Fine I guess? They look just a little "off" and as could be expected these appear "brighter" in person than the rest, given the lighter base color, but honestly not as drastic as I was expecting. 

Overall, I think Group 1 turned out the best. Kislev + Pallid Wych + Flesh Shade has a real pale and creepy result that I am really digging. The full blue wash looks the worst in each group I think. Going forward I think I would either use this sparingly, either in like 1/10 minis, or use this only on parts of a body to discolor it more. 

One mini comes with a really awkward skeletal... backpack? I don't get it. But that mini was going to be the King. My idea was to pick a favorite and then paint the King in that method to get some more practice with that approach. However, I painted all these up at the same time though... so that timeline wasn't possible. Silly me. So he got a little bit of everything as I went.

He also got a crown. I tried to make it look bad, like they maybe crafted it themselves, but the angles are so bad on the plastic card that it draws a little too much attention to it. Oh well.

Last up for my undead hobbying sojourns was a box of "Legio Mortum" miniatures. I picked these up on a whim in 2020 via Noble Knight Games since they looked like undead Romans. I had to backtrack now to get good links for them, and well, they kinda are. They come from a game called Godslayer, which has a Roman Legionary-themed faction, of which these are failed legion raised up again to serve the empire. Pretty rad stuff overall.

Undead Legion! 

These were primed over the summer, along with a lot of other stuff I haven't gotten to yet. I found myself with a free afternoon around Thanksgiving, so these were painted up late November while watching the first few episodes of Wheel of Time. I actually read that whole dang series a few years back. The show is different, but I'm enjoying it so far. 

These look neat, but I will warn you that these are metal miniatures, which did cause me a lot of trouble. The shields arms were a pain, as the shields are also metal, and weighty, so most of them were glued also to a leg or other bit of the model for extra "stability." The legs has a stand which was way sturdier than the legs. I almost bent a few legs sticking them into the bases, so take care. I also lost their original stands, which I think were a little bigger. These sit on old GW-style slottas now, and a few are a little wobblily. 

Hobbied up in late November, I hadn't painted anything in a month or two at this point, and so I opted so mess around with some simple ideas and go for a "washed out" look for these, like they had crawled out of piles of ash or something and had lost some color. Over the black primer I did several layers of progressively lighter gray, building up a gradient with the dry brushing and giving a nice statue look to them all. I was going for a subdued look so instead of full layer of metallics, I tried a dry brush of silver over the mini, which you can see best in the shield of the leader.

To continue on with the subdued color idea, I diluted green for the shield, brown for the straps and boots, tan for the bone, and a bronzy color for the sword hilts. All watered down, they give the hints of color without being too vibrant. 

I then wanted to try a glowy effect for the eyes, which ended up being just messy red around the eyes and a more controlled pink in/around the sockets. Unfortunately, these minis are sculpted in various states of decay, some with completely empty skeletal sockets and some with raised (presumably rotting) ocular bits inside. I couldn't get a brush (nor even a toothpick) cleanly in the sockets to paint white, so after a few failed attempts and some repaints, I left these as-is for now. This gives their memey laser eyes a bit more subdued effect as well, which I am ok with. I like the way these turned out. I could have painted up a few more things (the hem on the mail skirts, and maybe a bit more color on the edges of the leather straps) but this is fine for now.

These were all fun hobbying diversions over the last year. I learned a few things, and with these small groups (and all the other warbands) I got to play around with some schemes and ideas I probably would not have tried. Good times. If you are in a hobby rut or just want a break from your army, hit up ebay, grab a sprue and churn out a few minis. It's fun!

Blabbering: More Halfling Thoughts

I had written previously about the gutting of my halfling force from 2nd to 3rd Edition and then also on the coming renaissance for them. As usual, I am very late to the party. Mantic's halflings arrived a while ago, so let's take another look.

At the conversion to 3rd Edition, the League's halflings only had Knights and Archers and Braves and Sergeants. They had dropped a lot of entries, meaning I could only run about 1k of the 2k+ collection amassed in 2nd Edition. I recently sat down with EasyArmy and my old hobbying spreadsheets, and redid the math revolving around my collection. 

The League looks to have gotten some slight updates to unit stats, but no new halfling units. The Archers and Knights are still generic, and not further revised up to Poachers or Wild Lancers. Three units still doesn't make an army, especially when Thunderous Charge 1 is the only real damage improver. While I think these could still do work in a League list, I think my halflings are going to need to secede.

The new Halfling Master List gives me back my spear blocks (Spearspikes) mounted scouts (Wild Runners) and Volley Guns with the Halfling keyword, all super things! The Archers and Knights of the League are promoted into Poachers and Wild Lancers, gaining a bunch of key words and special rules, making them better, if a little more expensive. From the old collection I'm really only missing out on three things: the Iron Beast (it's there, but now needs a Titan-sized base, and I don't think my old one will will look good rebased); the ASB's; and the old windy mounted Sorcerers I had. Now I can field about 1700 points of the army or so without characters, which from around 2k in 2nd, isn't bad at all!

At a glance, the newest Halflings look to remain basically in-line with the Beta list, at least for the units I am interested in. They are still pretty speedy, which I'm still not entirely thrilled with. I'm also still not quite sold on the steampunk / aeronautics aspects (the Tinker subfaction), but it does give them something pretty unique for Mantic to go in on for modeling, so I can definitely forgive that so long as I have some generic units to run in my learner lists. 

Overall, my collection is in a much, much better place now. I am even scouting around now for  potential replacements for my Iron Beast, so I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the update. I got some leads on running some learner games over the last few months too, but have just not had the time to nail play dates down. Hopefully some games will be coming with the new year!