Command Orders for Clash of Kings 2025

I’ve been reading through the new Clash of Kings 2025 book. I was put off a bit by the Command Order announcement, and now that I've been able to read through stuff, I am not jazzed about the Command Orders at all. Still, I will say that the implementation of this is probably about the best I think we could have hoped for. It’s admittedly a weird position.

First, I like that there is a list of “Universal” Command Orders. And similar to how armies already all get a Special Rule found elsewhere in the game to help define them (Herd and Pathfinder; Elves and Elite, etc), I also like that the majority of these allegedly army-specific Command Orders are actually spread across multiple armies (Hellfire in both the Forces of the Abyss and Salamanders; Silent Feet in both Goblins and Halfings). I think this is clever game design.

Second, I like that units can only receive an Order once per turn, and that many of the orders have caveats built in, such as Unshakeable Will, which grants Regeneration (5+) for a turn, but cannot be used on units that have Defense 6+, or Precise Thrust which only targets only Cavalry, Infantry or Heavy Infantry. Having these limitations built in already avoids the “Death Star” potential that I think most players were dreading, where an already powerful unit would get these Command buffs and be nearly impossible to deal with. There will be some powerful interactions, sure, but I think many of the obvious things have been dealt with and headed off.

So, all this to say, that I think these are implemented with some foresight, and about as well as they could be. However, nice words behind us now, that brings me back to my original dislike of the addition. The Orders are trying to be flashy, but balanced, but they just come off messy to me.

I’ll save looking at and discussing the particulars of each of my army’s Orders for their next games, where I can give them more thought and a fair shake, but take for example the Kingdoms of Men, who get “Run Them Down” as one of their “unique” Command Orders. “Run Them Down” is incredibly messy. To use it, the unit cannot be disordered. The unit cannot be hindered. The Order cannot target hordes or legions. The Order can only target Large Infantry (40mm), large Cavalry (50mm), Chariots, Swarms, Infantry (20mm) or Heavy Infantry (25mm). Notably, this excludes normal cavalry… It’s a mess of conditionality, and at best, the KoM don’t have access to half of these unit types, never mind if the few we have are run at the requisite sizes to work with the Order. I’ve just started to play around with Chariots for the Kingdoms of Men, but this Order would have no targets in most of my lists, and frequent readers will know that I run some odd stuff. I don’t think it will be worth adjusting a list to just try and make use of a niche order, and underperforming armies getting mediocre Orders are just going to lead to worse game balance. 

Is all this complexity and extra effort worthwhile, just to, for example, at best boost the hit stat of maybe a dozen attacks on one unit for a turn? I don’t think so. A selling point of Kings of War (to me at least) is its simplicity and distinct lack of gimmicks and interference from things outside of the situation on the table: “easy to learn, hard to master,” as the old saying goes. "Hard to learn, harder to master" doesn't sound like a winning approach when pitching a game and trying to grow it.

As with everything, I will give the Orders a try, and attempt to report on things, but on the initial reading, I do not like these Orders, or the direction they take the game.