KOW - Facebook Group for Wellington Kings of War

I have set up a Facebook group for Wellington KOW. You can find it here

The main purpose of the group would be as a message board where Wellington (and surrounding) KOW players can communicate easily with one another. Facebook - though I hate to say it - has benefits over email strings.

I'd see it as a place where we can arrange games, talk about events, post pictures etc. My thinking some sort of message board would benefit the local community and acts as a hub.

I've made it a Closed Group but entry is open to all.

If you're not a regular FB user, you may find it worthwhile to create an account and use it purely for this board.

KOW - The Little Beast Pack That Could

This is the story of the Little Beast Pack that could.

Picture the scene dear reader - the top table at WSS Autumn, Round 3 - the Herd versus the Forces of Nature. The two armies clash in "Push" and on Turn One the brave little Beast Pack rushes forward and sits on the central objective.

What follows next is a heroic tale of epic proportions deserving of a saga to be told around fires for the next thousand years.

Turn 1

A Horde of Water Elementals charge the Pack inflicting 9 wounds on it. They roll the Nerve Check and break the unit. The Beast Pack see the Shaman and the test is re-rolled Snakes Eyes. Next turn the Beast Pack (oh and a Stampede) remove the Elementals.

Turn 2

The Winged Unicorn cast Lightning Bolt on the Beast Pack inflicting one wound. The Nerve Test is rolled and Snake Eyes.

Turn 3

The only unit that can charge the Beast Pack is a Druid. The Druid wounds the Beast Pack who fail the Nerve Test. This time the Pack sees the Tribal Totem Bearer and re-roll the Test .... Snakes Eyes

Turn 4

The Beast Pack charges the Druid but fails to wound. In response the Druid reciprocates whiffing all its attacks.

Turn 5

Dropping their Loot counter the Beast Pack countercharges the Druid and wavers it.

Turn 6

The Beast Pack stands in front of its counter. The Druid decides it has better things to do than bother the dogs and retreats. Unfortunately for the FoN, all their other units are otherwise engaged.

Turn 7

The Herd remove the last of the FoN army while the Beast Pack stands where it has from Turn One.

And that my friends is the "Tale of the Little Beast Pack who Could". Seventy points of awesomeness that stood their ground and would not be bowed, no matter what the odds.

They are the example to all of us that if your cause is true and you are stout of heart then you can achieve anything!

 

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KOW - Warlords Super Series "Autumn" Results

Yesterday we had the second of the Warlords Super Series here in Wellington. The WSS is a series of four events hosted by the Warlords over the course of the year.

There were ten players signed up but unfortunately on the morning of the event we had a withdrawal after one player was bitten by a spider [Don't worry, I checked and we are 99% sure that the spider wasn't radioactive]. This meant that we had to juggle a bye which is never the most appealing proposition.

Here are the results:

You can see how tight the fighting was with a three way tie for 4th and a two player one for 7th. The fact that over half the field was within 5 Battle Points (out of a total of 60) meant there was significant movement in the midtable region over the course of the last round.

Best Presented went to Josh Barton's Orcs while Ryan Lister picked up Best Sport after receiving three Best Opponent votes from his four games.

Thanks to everyone who attended. The next event is Runefang in two weeks followed by WSS Winter on July 22nd. The first weekend in August sees Call to Arms, the Warlords' Annual Convention which will feature a KOW event.

KOW - The Pale Orcs

Around 4 years ago I purchased a WHFB army from one of our locals. While this was generally played as the typical "Green Dwarfs" of the era by the original owner, the army was interesting as it included both Black Orcs and Orc Boyz as well as the obligatory Savage Orc horde and war engines.

The other thing that was interesting was that they were semi-albino Orcs coming from the cooler climes. They were effectively a stone colour with no green pigment and mounted on mountain snow bases.

After finishing the Goblins I thought I'd move onto multibasing the orcs and so last evening I removed 100 Orcs from there plastic bases. My intent is to create a Horde of Ax, a Horde of Greatax and two Regiments of Morax (with some Morax left over for Fight Wagons).

100 + Orcs Waiting For Their New Homes

As part of the process, I am going to take the opportunity to alter the skin tone of the Orcs. They will still be Pale Orcs but with an underlying tilt to green orcy heritage.

Here you can see the change I am effecting. On the left is the Pale Orc and on the right the same paintjob but after a wash of Coelia Greenshade from Citadel. I tried the Biel-Tan Green Shade, the Waywatcher Green Glaze and even a watered down wash of Warboss Green paint but preferred the Coelia finish. 

The wash provides better definition and I prefer the greenish tint over the pure stone finish.

I'm now waiting for my MDF bases to arrive from Sarissa so I can get these multibased and on the table.

KOW - Zero Sum Game

Over the last week on both the Fanatics page and also the Mantic Forum there has been a discussion about scoring systems.

Largely this has been about the mix of scenario points versus kill points with a secondary discussion on granularity of scenario victory. Personally I am all in favour of distinguishing between the decisiveness of scenario victory and that feeding through into the game score. For example, I feel that you should score more in Loot if you win 3-0 over say 2-1 or 1-0. The Rules Committee have said they are looking at this with interest. That is a good thing!

One aspect of the discussion that I have a major problem with is in the determination of "kill" points. The common situation is to determine kill points on the differential between points killed by both players. One suggestion is to dispense with that any just determine bonus points based on enemy killed.

The problem with this alternative methodology is that it is not zero sum. By this I mean that each game is not worth the same number of points. I'll illustrate this with an example:

Differential Situation

Bono beats Sting in the scenario and scores 15-5. He also scores more kill points than Sting - who is a miserable bastard anyway - inflicting 1500 points to 1200. This gives a 300 point difference and under the scoring matrix this gives Bono +1 TP and Sting gets -1 TP. The final score for the game is 16-4 to Bono.

On the next table Adele is playing Cher and again wins the scenario - it is Cher's first tournament after all. Again the differential is 300 points. Adele kills 400 and loses only 100. The score is 16-4 as well.

In both cases the game is worth 20 points total.

Kills Only

Bono gets his 15 points for winning the scenario but in killing 1500 points of Sting's army he gets +8 points. Sting also gets bonus points because he killed 1200 points, in this case 6 TPs. The final score is 23-11 (the game being worth 33 points).

Adele gets the 15 points but in this case only killed 400 points so gets 1 bonus. Cher gets nothing as her 100 pts falls below the threshold. The score is thus 16-5 to Adele (the game is worth only 21 points).

 

There are a number of problems arising from the system not being zero sum (each point gained is at the expense of your opponent). First is that it creates reckless play as there is no downside. In turns 6-7 you are rewarded for throwing units into forlorn hope combats if they will not influence the scenario. For instance, it is in my interest to commit to a combat where I likely need a 11 or 12 to rout you on a Nerve Roll as it has a net positive outcome (it doesn't matter if I subsequently lose the unit). I don't care about exposing my flanks or rear as long as I get a chance to break you regardless of whether it is low probability.

Secondly there isa huge opportunity for collusion. As there is no downside to losing units both players are happy to swap their troops as it increases both their bonus points. Don't think this will happen? Well you have more faith in human nature than me. Smart players will know that swapping units maximises their scores and will engineer the result that gives them most benefit. Yes, you can make such collusion illegal but if you do try policing it at a large event.

I used to play a lot of Games Workshop-run Grand Tournaments in 40k about 12-15 years ago. They loved a mission called Messengers where you had three markers you had to get off your opponent's board edge. If you did you got a TP. However there was now edit to stopping your opponent's. In 90% of games I saw, players would set up with their three messengers on opposite flanks and March them unimpeded off their opponent's edge. Both players got the three bonus points and then they'd play kill for the scenario. Dodgy? Maybe...but that was the outcome that provided the greatest reward.

Finally it favours some builds/races over other. Some armies dish out the pain but are a glass hammer - My Herd is a good example - whereas others win by inflicting death by a thousand cuts. By skewing the points on offer you incentivise certain builds.

Any non-zero sum scoring is open to abuse and/or incentivising suboptimal play or certain builds. I'd hate to see Kings of War - be it in a new edition or a COK supplement - adopt such a methodology in any official capacity.

 

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Kings of War at the Warlords

Just a reminder that there is a Kings of War tournament on at the Warlords this Saturday.

This is an opportunity for anyone to come along and have a look at the various armies on show and have a chat about the Kings of War game.

Kings of War is the last remaining commercial "ranks and flanks" Fantasy game. Anyone who has grown up with Warhammer will immediately recognise the blocks of troops being manoeuvred into battle.

If you are at all interested in seeing how a clean, quickplay ruleset works then please come along and have a gander.

The event kicks off just after 8am at the KPC Hall on Ganges Road in Khandallah (opp. New World).

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KOW - The Goblin Completion

Last October I posted some pictures of the 200+ Goblin infantry I multibased. You can see it here

The Goblins were an army my son Jack had painted in just over a week using a white undercoat and GW inks/washes.

The rest of the army has sat unbased over the past eight months but with a few wet days here in Wellington I thought I would finish it. The army also includes two Hordes of Trolls painted by local Sam. I also picked up a FW Colossal Squig cheap which I intend to use as a second Giant. It has been base coated but needs detailing.

Mawbeast Regiments

Mincers

Big Rock Throwers

War Trombones

Giant

Troll Hordes

Fleabag Troops

Giant

Next to be based are my Orcs. The MDF bases have been dispatched from Sarissa so some time next week they should arrive. At that point I'll have The Herd, Ratkin, Goblins and Orcs all multibased for Kings of War.

Weekly Hobby Update

Massive hobby week for me.

I started - and finished - the multibasing for my Ratkin and I am very pleased with the result achieved. My plan is to get some army wide shots up in the next few weeks.

Doing this allowed me to get them on the table in time for a couple of games on Saturday versus Josh's Orcs. In the first, I was a little bit rusty and made a couple of sub-optimal choices (that's mistakes for the rest of you). Came down to the last roll on the 7th turn so you can't ask for a closer or more fun game than that. Josh made a 2D6 roll of 10 to win.

I didn't have long to wait for my revenge. We re-racked and the Rats got their groove back managing a fairly comprehensive win.

It was great to have them out on the table. I had missed their silky whiskers and cheeky snarls!

Driven by the success of the Ratkin re-basing I threw myself into finishing the Goblins I started late last year. I have about 10 figures to paint for the army but the bases are all done and once I finish pinning the figures I'll have another full KOW army to join the Ratkin and Herd.

 

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KOW - Lists for Warlords' Super Series "Autumn"

The lists for next weekend's Warlords' Super Series tournament have been lodged and can be found here

The Best Things Come in Pairs!

Ten participants and it seems we are going all "Noah's Ark".

• 2x Dwarf
• 2x Forces of Nature
• 2x Undead
• 2x Orcs
• 1x Varrangur
• 1x The Herd

If The Herd and Varrangur can put aside their differences and combine in a party of awesomeness, I think there will have to be an award for Best Race (based on combined scores).

Check out David Stuart's Dwarf list. I can't work out whether it is brilliant or a prospective car crash.

KOW - The Spoils of War

So after three days I have completed the multibasing of my Ratkin.

And here are the spoils of war:

Over 300 resin bases and 15 Movement trays liberated in the process. I'm not going to lie, it brings a little tear to my eye when I think of how much effort went in constructing the trays - paper steel inners and magnetised bases - or painting, flocking and tufting the resin bases (all have rare earth magnets inset in the base). Now all I have to do is fine a Ninth Age player who wants square resin bases and trays!!!

And what do I get for this? Well my Ratkin are all multibased and ready to go.

Let the Vermintide begin!

 

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