A Veteran Wargamer’s Journey Into Kings Of War Part 5: Army Complete Now Onto Play Testing!

Zoidpinhead returns for the next instalment of his (now) award-winning Kings of War project, and it's a doozy. Not only has he completed his full army, but he has plans for a second so he can get some playtesting in!!

This week I’ve finished off building and painting the army. As an incentive, I left the army general to near the end. Golekh has no official model, so I converted a general mounted on a chariot from other Mantic miniatures. You can see this scratch build detailed in my Project. [editor: this is 50 shades of awesome and well worth visiting the project to see it in all its ratty glory!]

Golekh Skinflayer Conversion

Final List Tweaks

I have been posting links to these articles on the Kings of War Forum and asked for some feedback on my Ratkin Slaves army list. Thanks to users Sceleris and Boss_Salvage, who both offered good ideas for tweaks. [editor: you brought in ringers!] The basic guidance was:

• I picked one too many chaff units
• I missed a key item the Decimators need
• I should tweak the Surge potential by giving it to the Slave Driver to free up Bane Chant or other spells for the Iron-caster

I’ve therefore made some adjustments as follows:

To fix the issues raised, I did this:

• I have combined the two Troops of Orc Gore Riders into a Regiment. It fixes the excess chaff issue and creates a more threatening replacement that maintains army unit strength. It also frees up 45 points, but I instantly blew 15 of those on Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding for them. Jesse’s Boots basically give the unit an unhindered charge once a game, so they are much more likely to deliver their Thunderous Charge (2) ability, which makes them much more threatening. [editor: units that are hindered lose the Thunderous Charge bonus, so keeping it intact is incredibly important.]
• With 30 points to spend, I can afford Blessing of the Gods for the Decimators at 25 points. This gives them Elite, meaning they reroll 1s to hit in both shooting and combat. Very useful and ups their effectiveness significantly.
• 5 points left and I went for a Healing Brew for the Lesser Obsidian Golems. This allows them once a game to restore either 1 or 2 damage points. This effectively makes them at least 18+ Nerve. I read in the forums that competitive players don’t rate this, but I like it. Their De 6+ is as hard as it gets for my opponent to hurt, and they have likely spent a large effort (and points) getting damage on them, so restoring any of that so cheaply is funny.

Things I’m Not Doing

• No Surge item for the Slave Driver

The Iron-caster’s Surge (8) is much more useful (average 4” move) than the Surge (5) (average 2.5” move) offered by the Artefact. In my deployment, the Slave Driver is too far away from the Golems to be in casting range.

Ultimately you can’t do everything. The other guidance I had was “boys over toys”, i.e. in gameplay an extra unit is more valuable than lots of magic items or extra spells you might not use.

Most players try to keep their artefact total below 100 points in a 2300 point list, and I’m already at 95. With both Brew of Sharpness and Blessing of the Gods deemed essential, that’s 70 points, so another 25 on items doesn’t seem extravagant.

Deployment And Tactical Plan

The reasoning for the final tweaking choices boiled down to the deployment plan and the slow movement of Dwarfs. Here is the army in their ideal deployment:

We can see the basic plan is a Hammer and Anvil deployment. In the centre, the Anvil of Ratkin Hordes on one side with the Immortals in the centre and Decimators on the other side. The Slave Driver is the central character as he must be within 6” of the Ratkin to Rally them, and at a pinch he can offer Inspiring and Commands to the Dwarfs.

On one wing we have the main Hammers. Golekh will tear off up the table with his Ratkin Death Engine and Tunnel Runners flanked by the Gore Riders. They will look quite scary and perhaps give opponents pause for thought. The Gargoyles screen his moves and give Golekh the opportunity to cast Last Breath to soften up charge targets.

The other wing has the flexible Anvil/Hammer of the Obsidian Golems supported by the Iron caster. If he hangs about on the end of the centre line with the Decimators and Immortals, he Inspires and could Bane Chant them whilst also being within range to Surge the Golems instead.

Giving The Game Away

You might wonder why I’m okay with telling opponents what I’m intending to do. Firstly, most good players will take one look at my list and know exactly what I’m likely to do. Also, I hold much reverence for two pieces of advice:

1. Prussian general Helmuth von Moltke tells us (and I paraphrase), “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”
2. Probably more important even than that is Mike Tyson’s, “Everyone hath a plan until they get punched in the mouth”.

Once the armies start duking it out, plans usually go out the window.

A Practice Game Online

I need to practice games at 2300 points, as this is the size used at Clash of Kings. As I play solo, our esteemed Editor took pity on me and invited me into a group of players who use Universal Battles 2 to play Kings of War. Thanks to Gerry and fellow OTT members Orinoco and Nogbadthebad for sorting everything out for my first game.

How To Play Kings Of War In Universal Battles

I played my Abyssal Dwarfs against Imperial Dwarfs in Scenario 6, Dominate, where the objective is to have the highest total Unit Strength of units within 12” of the board’s centre point.

The battle was in the balance for a long time and looked to be going the Dwarfs' way in round 4 when my Decimators got routed after just one round of combat. I got very fortunate with a couple of dice rolls, and my opponent was unlucky getting two double 1 Nerve test results when both units were otherwise doomed. In the end, I got my Obsidian Golems into a flanking position along with the Immortal Guard, and they had enough clout to see off a couple of regiments of Lesser Earth Elementals.

We’re just in time to report this result to the Mantic summer campaign:

The Siege of Samarik // Mantic Games

Getting an Opponent Army Quickly

Back to my physical armies. I’ve got Golekh’s army ready but don’t have enough extra Ratkin or Abyssal Dwarfs to make an opponent. I’ve lots of Kings of War miniatures, but the only ones that are mostly painted are Ogres.

They were painted by two different people but match very closely. Clearly the GW Uruk-hai paint scheme was easy to do. I’ve rebased them in my new system. I’d like mine to look a bit different, and I’ll need to pull a list together. The miniatures I’ve got are about 2,100 points and are a bit too shooty for me. I’d like to go on the offence. I like the rules for Hunters and Berserkers; they're always cool, even more so with the Berserker character.

Ogre 2300 Point Army List

I’ve got Nomagarok (nickname: NomNom), and he’s a solid choice to back the centre as he’s the only source of Bane Chant in the whole list. Arokamorra looks cool so I bought her in a Champions box. She will take Hunters down one wing whilst a Berserker Bully takes his Berserkers down the other. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Almost all Core choices here, just the Siegebreakers in Support. Lots of Tribal Strength so NomNom won’t have any problems getting his spell ability fully charged. Two regiments of Boomers dish out 40 shots, and an Anvil fronted with 2 troops of De 6+ Siegebreakers backed by Warrior Regiments just feels mean, particularly when NomNom’s Bloodrage-boosted Heal (which goes up to 7!) adds Vicious, or Bane Chant pushes them up to Crushing Strength (3). Ouch.

On the wings, the Hunters and Berserkers will do some damage and will be more resilient than many Hammers out there. Only enough spare points for one Chaff choice of a Goblin Scouts Troop though, which will be an issue in scenario play.

Overall, this list doesn’t match up well to the average data. 12 drops is a bit low, and 19 Unit Strength is 20% below the norm. Average speed is over 6, which is fine, and the average De doesn’t count the Big Shields bonus, which pushes that closer to 5, which is very good. 40+ shots are also very good, but only at 12” range most opponents can close quickly without taking multiple rounds of fire. [editor: don't think of it as 12" range, they can move 6" and fire with no reduction in effectiveness. Boomers are essentially an 18" threat range and if people want to attack an ogre infantry block they'll find they won't rout like other range units.]

They most likely wouldn’t do well in a tournament but will be fun to play at home. They do pose some interesting problems for Golekh to solve, and it will be fun playing with and against them.

Making Ogres Look Unique

The main issue is my Ogres are so boring-looking. I need to spice them up a bit, convert some into Siegebreakers and get extra Hunter and Berserker miniatures. I’ve got a Troop of Berserkers, but they don’t look that different to the regular infantry. I want something different. While researching options online, I read about someone using Conquest W’adrhun as proxy Ogres.

I don’t know that range, so checked out an unboxing:

W'adrhun Unboxing // Para Bellum Games

Perfect. Love the Amazonian tribal styling with feathered headdresses and loincloths. First Blood boxes are great value, and I went for an older set that, along with 12 miniatures to convert into Berserker and Hunters, has the amazing Aberration miniature in it. He’ll make a superb Berserker Bully.

The tribal style of the W’adrhun reminded me of some tribal shields that Ral Partha Europe do for their orcs. The shields are deliberately oversized so will fit my Ogres very well, and Siegebreakers have the Big Shields rule for a nasty De 6+ to the front facing. This army refresh should be quick. Here is a progress shot as the Siegebreakers come together. [editor: loving the tiki masks]

Next Time…

Golekh’s Ratkin Slaves will battle Ogres in the jungles of Pannithor as I prepare for the unknown in the jungles of Nottingham. Now I’m off to submit my army list for Clash of Kings. Exciting.