Kings of War 3rd Edition: #024: Kingdoms of Men vs Varangur [Kill] Demo Game

Introduction & Lists

There seems to be some growing interest for Kings of War locally, so to do my part, I've started offering up demo or introductory games via Discord channels and such. I had a taker recently, and we arranged for a game out at a local shop. 

I have written about introductory games before. With the launch of Ambush I revisited my thinking, and while most of it holds true still, I have changed my thoughts on two areas: 

• Ambush's limit on both the size and cost of units is interesting, and I think that can be something worth pursing as you build your own lists. For now, I am generally aiming to keep units below 20% of a list's total value. If a centerpiece goes over that, we'll run more chaff or cheap support units, as we want the lists to have a good number of drops and not revolve around a single unit.
• Kill can be a nice default since it is so easy to understand and your focus is on the units themselves the entire time, but I think the scenarios of the game add a great deal of depth, so want to offer up at least Kill, modified Control (1 point per table quarter), Invade, and a modified Loot (with 3 tokens) as a way to introduce those scenarios, should the new player wish.

As it happened, my opponent opted to keep it simple, and we will just play Kill. Since I still want to document my games, I figured I'd try my hand at a shorter report and see how I do with the multi-tasking. Since I'm doing up both lists, both lists have things to test! My opponent had expressed interest in both the Varangur and the Undead, deciding on the former when I showed each option in the shop.

Thankfully I have some new supporting infantry units for the Varangur with the new Draugr and Night Raiders. It lacks monsters, but otherwise I think I was able to toss together a decently representative and balanced list for the army. Up to test for the Varangur are:

• Night Raiders. Their debut! If used in tandem, they should be a headache for any infantry unit, and with Steady Aim, should be able to get a toss off against just about anything. I am interested to see how all the throwing axes do!
• Huscarl Troop. I hobbied these up a long time ago. Troops of Huscarls obviously still hit hard, but I think their Nerve is too low to really use in a typical game... but they are perfect for low-points games. If my opponent can properly protect them, they should smash just about anything else I am fielding at this points level.
• Mounted Sons Troop. The Varangur needed something with a little speed, so got these. These are a dangerous unit as well, highlighting the generally high quality of Varangur units. We'll see if they can get the charge, and if not, if they can grind out the enemy. I still think cavalry with CS is strong, so we'll see how a troop does. 
• Draugr. Nice, non-shambling zombies. Will they take the hits as chaff, or used in another way?
• Magus. With Inspiring, and a Lighting Bolt with Famulus, I figured he should showcase some good rules and have some good utility.
• Transfusion. I have all the elements here... so will this come up in game? If it does, will the minor heal have any impact?

Being an intro game, I brought the Kingdoms of Men for myself. As stated before in the blog, I like bringing them to these kinds of games, since they should be easy for my opponent to grok, letting them focus on their own list. I opted to leave heavy hitters like Knights regiments at home due to points, and decided to double-down on some shooting, devoting about 1/3 of the list to it. Up to test out are:

• Crossbow Block. They are not great units, but we'll see how they perform now that I have some more games under my belt. My personal goal is to not have to have them move them, in order to shoot. We'll see how I do with them, and if they have any impact in the game.
• Mounted Scouts. Good units, but I have not always used them well. I think my personal goal is to get a flank or rear charge with them, and to not use these as sacrificial chaff. We'll see if I can make that happen.
• Ballista. This is up to actually test, given the new discount. Given the smaller game, my plan is to stick this out on a flank and see what happens. Hopefully, that positioning will be enough for some line of sight stuff. We'll see how it performs.
• Foot Guard. I meant to run the Foot Guard with two-handers, even bringing the Varangian Guard but realized at the shop that I didn't click the option in the list builder! This puts a bit of a damper on my hitting power, and I ran them as the Def 5+ version in the game.

Table, Terrain and Deployment

The table was loosely set up, and we played on a 4'x4' space. Terrain was a little sparse with two Height 3 Hills, one Height 6 difficult terrain woods, and two Height 9 Blocking buildings. I think it might be worthwhile to come up with a few "standardized" table configurations for these demo games. 

I am still an advocate for skipping the Deployment Phase for these intro games. It saves a ton of time and avoids analysis paralysis for a new player since they don't know anything about the units yet. So, keeping with this, I deployed all my stuff, touching on what you see is what you get (Militia are wearing t-shirts and weak; the Crossbowmen shoot, etc), and realized my Foot Guard error here.

Deployment. The table edge is indistinct in the picture, but should be about even with the shadow from my army container. The mat is from Mats By Mars, and comes with a Kings of War overlay showing the deployment zones and such. 

Being Kill, there wasn't a lot to tactically highlight as we got into my opponent's list and he jumped into deploying his units. While I went wide, my opponent went very compact. Speed 4 Draugr led the charge, with the Night Raiders supporting and the heavy hitting Mounted Sons and Huscarls in the rear with the Magus. This deployment proved to be too tight as we got into the game, and you'll see this arrangement reshuffled as my opponent learned about line of sight and movement and such. But this is how we started. As usual for my intro games, the new player just got first turn.

Top of Round 1: Varangur

We worked out way through the three phases of the round. The Varangur advance, but cautiously, seeming wary of the number of bodies opposing them. The Mounted Sons are the only unit to move at the double, showing some interpenetration of friendly units and some of the flexibility Kings of War has here.

A nice 24" Zap.

The slow Draugr and general line of site issues arise at this point. While I noticed this in deployment, I opted to have them come up in-game here, rather than backseat game for my opponent at the time. So, at this point, we revised his initial deployment and spread out the Night Raiders so they could speed past the Draugr if they wished, and pushed the Huscarls over to the other side of the building. The Magus was revised sideways as well, and I "redid" the deployment of my own Militia so the enemy wizard would have something to shoot at. 

With these revisions done, the Magus has line of sight out to the Militia, and lands two damage with the Lightning Bolt.

Bottom of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

My infantry blocks moved up at 5", with the Hero taking the hill and the Mounted Scouts moving up about 14". Just moving, they had no shots, and I didn't want to get too far up and caught by a Wild Charge accidentally. 

I choose to advance as well, but this is not the right tactical call giving my superiority at range. I should be delaying, but there is no fun in that.

The Ballista and Crossbowmen fire at the Mounted Sons, landing 3 damage against the troop with their various bolts. 

Top of Round 2: Varangur

The Varangur infantry advance, with the Night Raiders picking up the pace this time and passing by the Draugr. The Magus shoots off a lightning bolt against the Foot Guard near the hill, but fails to damage them. The Mounted Sons have an easy charge into the Militia, and they take it. 

The first charge of the game!

Only three damage slips in, which is terrible. Insane Courage is then rolled for the Nerve Check, and the Militia defiantly hold.

Bottom of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

Only one unit of Foot Guard joins the charge into the Mounted Sons. I believe it was legal for both to charge, but that seemed especially nasty. I think I could also disengage with the Militia, and then move back at half speed to get both in, but that felt equally nasty, so, the other unit of Foot Guard just side-steps to sit atop the hill. 

The Mounted Sons are counter-attacked.

The Mounted Scouts have the last third of the Night Raider's flank in their charge arc, and opt to take that. They flub gloriously though, and only two damage will be dealt, and the Raiders will hold.

The ASB with Lute will get the Bane-Chant off on the fighting Foot Guard. The Militia land a few damage first, and then the buffed Foot Guard cut the Mounted Sons down. The Militia will overrun, looking to block for the more elite unit.

For shooting, I rolled hot, hitting the Night Raiders on my left twice with the Ballista and a few times with the Crossbowmen too. I think about 8 new damage sticks, and the unit is spooked off the table in quite the surprise.

Not having run them before myself, I overlooked that the Night Raiders have an innate Stealthy rule. I think the two Ballista hits were 5 and 6 so those should stand, but the Crossbowmen were much more effective here than they should have been. 

Top of Round 3: Varangur

It was a hard preceeding turn for the Varangur, but they are poised to strike back.

The Night Raiders countercharge the Mounted Scouts, who take a few damage, but are just wavered.

Who doesn't like rolling 30 dice?

The Draugr charge the Militia, who are then flanked by the Huscarls. The Militia started with 5, are dealt 4 by the surprisingly fierce Draugr, and then 19 by the Huscarls in their flank. The mob isn't as lucky this time around on the Nerve check, and they flee.

It was a very bumpy game. It looks like the Foot Guard got bumped here, since they ended up quite flush with the Draugr.

The Draugr opt to overrun, and will run a full 6", getting up alongside my Foot Guard. The Huscarls will turn to face the other unit of Foot Guard standing atop the hill.

Bottom of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

I opt not to flank charge the Draugr, as this is a demo game, and taking that corner that doesn't seem sporting, especially after some of my hot dice. I am out of range to reach the flank of the other Night Raiders, so just move up, and pivot.

I forget to move the Crossbowmen, who have no targets in their arc. The wavered Mounted Scouts disengage only, allowing that Ballista shoots at the Night Raiders. While we do remember Stealthy this time, the shots are low enough not to have the rule come into play at all. No hits are done.

The other unit of Foot Guard out on the hill charge down into the Huscarls, who take some blows and are then found to be wavered with the Nerve check.

The Kingdoms of Men fighting units are out of gas already.

This wasn't a great turn for me. Sub-optimal plays abound here! The Foot Guard on the hill deserve special mention. I counted them as off the hill, so I could not see them for a Bane Chant. This should be fair, as their leader point is off the hill. Then, as much as I love the rule for charging off a hill, I never seem to remember it. Rereading it while writing the report to hammer it home for me, it's criteria is even easier to achieve than I was thinking: if a unit on the hill makes an unhindered charge against a unit not on the hill, you get the sweet sweet Thunderous Charge 1. I should have that charge benefit here, but do not. It's a mistake, but it's making for a better game.

Top of Round 4: Varangur

The Huscarls are wavered, but I do remember to point out the Fury special rule, and so they declare a countercharge, smacking the Foot Guard for 7 and wavering them for now.

The Varangur get some good retaliatory strikes in.

The Night Raiders charge the Mounted Scouts that disengaged, getting their TC and dealing another handful of damage, and routing them this time. They will turn to face my deployment zone and the two Foot Guard units I have remaining.

The Draugr have no charges, so pivot and then move up to box in the Foot Guard. While an inch or so away, I can't quite pivot through them to charge the front of the Night Raiders or the flank of the Huscarls. Their charge options will be limited next turn...

Bottom of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

Suitably boxed in, I charge the Foot Guard in against the Draugr, and get Bane-Chanted. The Foot Guard deal 5, and the Draugr heal 1 back with Iron Resolve.

The Draugr take the beating without complaint.

The Hero commits, and charges the Magus, dealing just 1 butdisordering the wizard. I think the better play would have been to charge the Night Raiders in an attempt to protect the flank of the Foot Guard.

I forget to move the Crossbowmen again, but they have no possible shots being at just Height 2. The Ballista lands a good hit on the Stealthy Night Raiders, dealing two more damage to them.

Top of Round 5: Varangur

The Draugr and Night Raiders charge the remaining Foot Guard. The Draugr do 1 damage, the Raiders do 6, but the Nerve Check is thankfully low.

More units fall to the Varangur.

It has not come up yet, but as we talk through Inspiring, I convince my opponent to disengage with the Magus, and move in close to his other units get the Inspiring bubble going there. 

The Huscarls cut down the wavered Foot Guard and pivot to look at their comrades. Spacing-wise, it may be rough to actually get into combat against the other unit, they are trying. With a 3v1 the Varangur are looking strong here.

Bottom of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

I opt to counter-charge the Night Raiders with my Foot Guard, figuring the Draugr will block the Huscarls for me, and with a Bane Chant, I am able to rout the Raiders with some insanely hot rolls, getting 10 new damage on them if memory serves. I then reform to face the Draugr. I should note that I played this wrong though, as the Foot Guard remained engaged with the Draugr as well. For a counter-charge, you disengage from all other units.

The Foot Guard are going down with a fight. These have more than paid for themselves. 

I remember to finally pivot my Crossbowmen now. Had I done so earlier and done the counter-charge correctly, they could have shot at the Draugr. They don't. The Ballista doesn't have a shot against anything now, and holds. 

In a bit of a risky move, I opt to charge my Hero into the rear of the Huscarls. I roll three hits, two wounds, and two great Nerve checks to rout them! This outcome was rewarding, but this is likely a bad move with the scenario. Had he not routed them, the Huscarls, with no other charges possible next turn, could easily have counter charged and dropped the hero, who is worth about as much as the 10% differential needed by the scenario to secure a win. This was risky, but it paid off.

Top of Round 6: Varangur

The Draugr charge the Foot Guard, and will rout them. The Magus will toss a Lightning Bolt into the Hero, doing 1 damage, but the hero holds.

Bottom of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men

The Ballista and Crossbows fire into the Draugr. I unfortunately don't track the damage, and don't take pictures. I'm not even sure if any damage lands. The Zombies stick around.

We agree to call it here, as this showcased the game and basic rules well and the game result doesn't really matter. 

Game Results

...but just for fun, the Kingdoms of Men have suffered 510 in losses, while the Varangur have suffered 565. The victory margin for the scenario is 10% or 75 points, meaning that while the Kingdoms of Men have a slight edge, the result is a tie!

Strategically, I should have held way back, but advanced for the sake of a more interesting game. I think I'll discard some shooting in a future KoM list to encourage me to move up and clash earlier. The dice were unfortunately quite hot for a few of my turns, putting the Varangur on the back foot. He could have been more aggressive with his opening movements, but my opponent picked up the basics quickly and played a good game to get the resulting tie after a cautious opening. 

Testing Results

There was a lot to test out for such a small game! We'll cover the Varangur first.

• Night Raiders. Their debut! The throwing axes did nothing. They were not thrown even once! We'll need to take them for another test. It's a shame I forgot about Stealthy during that Round 2 volley, but mistakes happen and it is a brand new unit for me. Just charging around though, they seemed like fun units and worth testing out more anyways, so we'll hopefully get another test for them in soon.
• Huscarl Troop. These seem perfect for this points level. They hit hard and are scary, but can be dealt with. I had been considering hobbying up some more bodies to turn this unit into a regiment, but no more. This unit is sticking around just for these smaller games.
• Mounted Sons Troop. The Militia was a rough target for them, and they even underperformed against it, dealing about half the damage they should have. Bad luck all around for them.
• Draugr. They did some good blocking and actually survived the game. Not a bad showing, but I think this game proved to me you normally don't want them in the front. Speed 4 is just too slow. Had my opponent been more aggressive with his opening movements, 
• Magus. I thought he would be more exciting. He did a handful of damage throughout the game, which is about right statistically for what he was shooting at with the Lightning Bolt, but he was just underwhelming. It occurs to me that I probably forgot all about Famulus, so we definitely missed some rerolls. I don't think I have run a normal Magus before, so like the Night Raiders this is my bad for not being familiar with the units I added in. 
• Transfusion. I forgot all about this until writing the report and hitting this last section. I write the testing goals as I write up the lists (so about a week ago) and the possibility of a Transfusion just slipped my mind entirely during the game. I'm just kicking myself now! Round 5 was a perfect trigger for them and it never even crossed my mind in-game.  I don't think a 1d2 damage transfer would have changed the outcome of the game (the combat against the Night Raiders wasn't close due to the extremely hot dice), but I am grumpy that I forgot about this possibility when we had a perfect situation come up in game. Nuts.

The Varangur gave me some good feedback for the smaller introductory games. The Huscarl and Mounted Sons troop are great for my goals in these learner games. Unfortunately, due to unfamiliarity with some of my newer units, I whiffed on all the other test for the Varangur. Having made the errors, I am much more likely to remember that Night Raiders have Stealthy and the Magus has Famulus now, but for the game in which the error happens, it is unfortunate for the outcome of this game.

• Crossbowmen. Even in these smaller-sized games, the Crossbowmen felt underwhelming. I failed at positioning, and then I kept forgetting to move them for the few late-game shots they may have had, so I don't think I used them well at all, but I don't think these are particularly good units either. You have maybe two rounds of shooting before even infantry units are on you, which isn't a ton of time to work with. 
• Mounted Scouts. I did get a flank charge with them! The dice did not deliver for me during that combat but they still disrupted well and hung around longer than I thought they would. I'd knock myself for not being more cagey with them, but with the Night Raiders having Stealthy... this was an ok outing for them.
• Ballista. It had the usual war machine shortcoming of being swingy as a one-off, and also had some poor vision with all the infantry around. But the discount is nice, and this performed well. If I can figure out some better ways to deploy them, these should be good in larger games too.
• Foot Guard. I think these are my favorite Kingdoms of Men units. Having good stats is nice! I think the Def5 version actually helped me out here more than the two-handers would have, letting me take few beatings. Since I had the Lute, they were able to punch back nicely. 

Overall, I think I did pretty good covering the game's big rules. Some things were glossed over, like all the rules for an Individual, but teaching went pretty well too, and my opponent was picking up the basic mechanics pretty quickly. The battle report was just ok, as I was definitely feeling taxed by the end of the game. More familiarity with the lists would definitely help smooth that out in the future, so I guess I'll just need to play more games! And as discussed already, I definitely stumbled on some of the special rules for the new Varangur units, which was an unfortunate drag for the performance of that list and entirely my bad. Mistakes happen, but overall, this went well!

My opponent had not played Kings of War before, but ended up intrigued by the straightforward rules and minis-agnostic aspect of the game - two of it's main selling points in my opinion. Maybe we'll see him across the table again sometime. Thanks for meeting up and giving Kings of War a try!