Forces of the Abyss vs Twilight Kin, 20.10.2015

Same as the other game, just straight up killpoints. I managed to take a couple more photos this time.

Forces of the Abyss (same list, same master plan)

• Regiments
• Flamebearers, Jar of the Four Winds
• Succubi, Mace of Crushing
• Fleshlings, War-bow of Kaba
• Troops
• 2x Hellhounds
• Gargoyles
• Ba'su'su's Vile Spawn
• Heroes
• Ba'su'su the Vile
• Archfiend of the Abyss, Lightning Bolt (5)
• Temptress, Bane Chant

Twilight Kin

• Hordes
• Spearmen
• Regiments
•  Reaper Guard
• Troops
• 2x Crossbowmen
• Blade Dancers
• Heralds of Woe
• Dark Knights
• Heroes
• Standard Bearer
• Dark Lord on Black Pegasus, TODO +1 def
• Monsters
• Hydra

A couple more magic artifacts sprinkled around.

Deployment

I deployed almost the same as before.
My opponents beautiful Dark Elf Twilight Kin army had taken up strong positions, with cavalry on the left flank, the Spearmen horde and the Hydra making for a strong center, and the rest on the right flank.

Turn 1

Once again, I had first turn. Once again, I took it slow. The Flamebearers let loose into the center Crossbowmen and inflicted enough damage for a lucky Rout (the Standard Bearer was too far away).
The Archfiend only inflicted 1 wound with his Lightning bolt.

The Twilight Kin advanced. Shots were fired at the Hounds, taking 2 wounds.

Turn 2.

I charged with everything that could.
The Archfiend charged the Reaper Guard, inflicting 4 wounds.
The Hounds charged the Crossbowmen, routing them.
The other Hounds and the Succubi charged the Hydra, routing it.
The Flamebearers shot the Spearmen horde. Those dudes have an incredibly high Nerve and they held their ground for a very long time.
The Gargoyle formation flew over the Knights and into the backfield of the opponent.
Ba'su'su charged the Pegasus lord, but 6+ defense and high Nerve meant no results there.

The Reaper Guard then charged back, inflicting 3.
The Blade Dancers charged and routed one unit of Hounds. They have an incredible number of attacks, much like my own Succubi.
The Heralds of Woe shot the other Hounds, inflicting a good chunk of wounds.The Knights turned around to look at the Gargoyles.

The Archfiend's second charge finally annihilated the Reaper Guard.
The Succubi were dueling it out with the Blade Dancers.
The Hounds charged the Spearmen, but failed to do much due to Phalanx.
The Gargoyles tried to position for a rear charge, but the Vile Spawn were caught by the Knights and destroyed.

My final gamble on the right flank was the Gargoyle's charge to the back of the Spearmen horde, but I rolled 1 lower than needed to waver them. On the next turn, the Knights took out the Gargoyles and the Spearmen took out the Hounds. At least Ba'su'su escaped by flying at the double.

In the mean time, the Archfiend and Succubi mopped up the Blade Dancers and prepared to face the remnants of the Twilight Kin.

A couple successful shooting attacks later...

... the Spearmen and Knights routed and I only had to deal with the two Heroes. My opponent conceeded.

Lessons learned

• Peppering your opponent with Piercing (2) attacks from 30" range does a good job.
• Fast moving units, especially fliers, are great at out-maneuvering the enemy, especially unwieldy infantry blobs. They are great to surround and flank/rear charge them. This is as opposed to Warhammer Fantasy where ranked up infantry easily beats a cavalry charge due to static combat resolution.
• A high-Nerve horde really does hold the middle.
• Mounted archers with Nimble are a lot more better than standing Crossbowmen.
• 3+ Gargoyles are really fragile.

Forces of the Abyss vs Orcs, 20.10.2015

Time to begin covering Kings of War with a regular batrep. Actually, make that two! We fit in 2 games at 1500 points in roughly 3 hours. As we are still learning the rules, we just went for killpoints. Also excuse the small number of pictures; this was caused by a heavy case of excitement.

Forces of the Abyss

• Regiments
• Flamebearers, Jar of the Four Winds
• Succubi, Mace of Crushing
• Fleshlings, War-bow of Kaba
• Troops
• 2x Hellhounds
• Gargoyles
• Ba'su'su's Vile Spawn
• Heroes
• Ba'su'su the Vile
• Archfiend of the Abyss, Lightning Bolt (5)
• Temptress, Bane Chant

The master plan here is to sit tight and keep shooting with the Flamebearers at the safe distance of 30", keeping Bane Chant on them for Piercing (2). Ba'su'su and his Gargoyles harass one flank, the Hounds run up the other flank. Archfiend and Succubi guard the Flamebearers. Fleshlings are cannon fodder, getting the 5-point bow attack so they aren't totally useless on the first turns.

Orcs

• Hordes
• Ax 
• Gore chariots
• Regiments
• Gore riders 
• Trolls
• Ax
• Morax
• Heroes
• Krudger on mount
• Krudge on slasher
• Wardrum

Deployment

I won the roll-off, but I wanted the Orcs to start deploying. This was I could counter-deploy to my liking.
The Orcs concentrated their hardest (but slowest) units on the center, with the Ax horde and regiment and the trolls lining up between the forest and the house. I put my Fleshlings in front of them as a distraction (and it worked out perfectly). The Morax guard the far-flank, facing the Gargoyle "formation". I was sure to outmaneuver them there. The real fighting was to go down on the right flank. What you see to the right of the forest is the Gore chariot horde, the Gore riders and the Krudger on slasher. I countered with my Archfiend and Hellhounds, with the other Hounds and the Succubi ready to lend support. Let the battle commence!

Turn 1

I went first, so I took it slow. The Flamebearers shot the Ax horde and put a good number of wounds on it. The Archfiend advanced to the wall and shot the chariot horde. The Hounds protected his flank. The Gargoyles moved up to just outside the Morax charge range.
Naturally, the Orcs jumped the occasion to charge in everything they could. The Gore Riders charged the Hounds, but failed to Rout. The Chariots charged the Archfiend. The wall denied their Thunderous Charge, so only 3 wounds were inflicted.
All units in the center and left flank advanced as much as possible.

Turn 2.

Time for the counter strike.
The Hounds near the edge of the table countercharged, and destroyed the Gore riders with a lucky Nerve roll. The Archfiend countercharged, and the other Hound unit took the chariots in the rear for an incredible number of attacks and wounds. The chariots also routed. The left flank was mine.
Both Gargoyles and Ba'su'su charged the Morax in the front. Aided by their Vicious rule, enough wounds were inflicted for a Rout. The right flank was also in trouble.
The Fleshlings charged into the Ax horde. Now that wouldn't have accomplished much, but factor in the wounds inflicted by shooting and I got them Wavering.
The Succubi and the Flamebearers charged the Trolls. The huge number of Succubi attacks proved enough for a Rout.

The Orcs were mostly annihilated. The Krudger on the far right still put up a fight, and so did the Ax regiment on the left. But the center Horde was Wavering and unable to charge.

 Turn 3

By his turn 3, only the two Krudgers were left on the table, so my opponent conceeded.

Trying out Kings of War

Foreword

Although my main wargame is Warhammer 40k, I do like and have played Warhammer Fantasy. I followed the rumors after 8th edition, and, like most gamers, I was appalled by Age of Sigmar. I was very sorry to see all my magnetized bases done for nothing, and resolved to continue playing 8th edition Fantasy as long as I had anybody to play with.
Given the above, I was excited to hear about a new-ish game that was to be "the spiritual successor" to Warhammer Fantasy. Enter Kings of War.

Kings of War - overview

With my vast experience of reading through the rules twice and playing 2 games at 700 points, here goes.
First of all, the game is very easy to jump into rule-wise. The starter rules are available for free. Yes, you can download the core rules (about 25 pages) and some army books to just try out the game. The full rulebook adds a couple more pages: tournament rules, magic artefacts to upgrade units and other things that you can actually live without. Compare that to the hundreds of pages of Warhammer rulebooks (and also to the 4 pages Age of Sigmar "rulebook") and you've got a simple and consistent ruleset that still has enough dept to enjoy.
Second of all, the game is also easy to jump into model-wise. This is unlike Warhammer Fantasy, where you need a vast collection of models for the simplest of games (looking at you, 4x10 hordes or 100-man Skaven armies). Each model you need to field (meaning: purchase, assemble, paint) is slowly removed from the table. In Kings of War, models are not removed unless the entire unit is removed. This means that you can model your bases as small dioramas, with only 50-60% of the needed models actually on it (this is endorsed by the company). Damage takes the form of counters.
As far as gameplay, I found Kings of War to be - again - simple and enjoyable. Movement is greatly simplified as opposed to Fantasy, much like all the other phases. The pacing tends to be quick and brutal. Both our 700-point games were over in around 30 minutes. Again, compare to the couple-hours slow grind of Fantasy battles, where two hordes could munch each other for endless turns.

On to the pictures!

Fantasy terrain is perfect for this game. Note the absence of templates and other tools. Dice and a ruler is all you need.
Also note that, since we didn't have the miniatures needed (in my case, no movement trays), we just used proxies for the bases. My opponent had a finished unit of orcs and used wooden boards for the rest. I had two units of appropriate size (the Flesh Hound equivalents and the monster on the far left); for the other 3, I cut out appropriate pieces of paper and placed a miniature on it to denote its type.

My Chroneas (the monster) moves in on the orc Gore Riders hiding behind the trees. Note the damage counter. In the middle, the Morax regiment (orcs wielding two hand axes) contemplate charging my Flamebearers (Pink Horror equivalents).

Having annihilated the unit of orc archers and regular regiment, the Lower Abyssals (Bloodletter equivalents) and Hellhounds move to encircle the Morax.

 For the second game, I placed my units in a bull's horns formation, waiting for the enemy to be drawn forward and be encircled. The orcs fell into the trap and were quickly annihilated.

My opponent's beautifully painted and arranged orcs, next to an orc hero on mount (the empty base) and my partially painted hounds.