Easter Eggs - Things I Like About KOW - #5 First Turn Uncertainty

In WHFB if you finished deploying first then you got +1 to the roll to determine first turn. This meant that if you knew you were going to get the +1 then you knew you had around a 60% chance of going first and could scout, vanguard and deploy accordingly.

This level of "probability" was significant for some armies, in particular those who suffered limited additional downside if they didn't win the roll - generally very mobile armies.

In KoW you don't have such a modifier and that means you can't be as confident of getting first turn. When this is coupled with the scenario variety I'm finding it refreshing. Yes, it may be "new shiny" but having to accommodate lesser surety is a good thing.

One of my biggest problems with ETC rules changes in WHFB was the way they tried to screw any uncertainty out of the game. Personally I like uncertainty in games as that gives you the replayability especially in something like KoW where to hit and to wound rolls generally normalise due to the number of dice.

It's only with Nerve rolls that things get funky - but that's a story for another day.

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Weekend Update

As the most recent posts show, I've been bitten by the terrain bug and my hobby efforts have been directed to them.

The THM scatter terrain was finished and the Wargamma ponds started and completed. Watching cricket for 6-7 hours certainly helps in getting things done!

Yesterday I started on a Tabletop-World piece - their stone bridge. I again used the Badger to lay down the primer and the base colours. This certainly speeds up the process. I'd reckon I am about 60% finished so with two days of cricket to go in this test I should have it finished this week.

Some of my supplies for terrain projects are getting low. I love the Silfluor tufts but most of my sheets are on their last legs. There doesn't appear to be a NZ supplier so I went to my usual supplier, Irresistible Force in Australia. Unfortunately their new website seems to only cater for domestic sales (Australia is hard-wired as country) so I had to go elsewhere. Neither Element Games or Firestorm Games stock them so I've taken a punt on "Gamer's Grass" tufts from Firestorm. I'll let you know what they are like.

I also posted up the Players Pack for Runefang VIII - two one day KoW events to be held in January. Hopefully I'll get some early registrations. Towards the end of 8th it was hard to get good numbers for Wellington events. People have said they want one day events so we'll see if they put their money where their mouth is.

Maybe gaming tomorrow night - depends where cricket is.

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More Terrain - Treacherous Ponds

Last year at Adepticon I picked up some resin ponds by a company called Wargamma. I've never got around to painting them but bitten by the terrain bug - and with plenty of cricket to watch - I got them out yesterday.

I sprayed them black and then started with a variety of greens in the Badger to get some graduation in the pools. From there I got out some Woodland Scenics Realistic Water and added some Secret Weapon Miniatures "Algae" wash into it.

The "water" was poured in to give it both some depth and a slimy finish. I then left them overnight. This morning I painted the banks - 4-5 GW browns and then washed with Sepia.

Pretty happy with how they've turned out.

From memory they came in sets of three for USD12. So I now have nine ponds for what at the time was $50 NZD.

 

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Runefang VIII Players' Pack - Two Events In One!

You can download the Players' Pack for Runefang VIII here

Runefang VIII is being held on the weekend of 16/17 January here in Khandallah Wellington. It is a Kings of War 2000 point event but differs from the previous tournaments I've run in that:

• It offers two single one days events - Kings (Saturday) and War (Sunday)
• It has a relaxed painting requirement reflecting the number of players who are new to the system and may need to add new models to units and new units themselves.

You can sign up for either of the two events singly, or (hopefully) both events at a discount rate.

THMiniatures Terrain

So after prepping the pieces I spent a few evenings painting them up.

Here are the finished pieces:

The sacrificial pit is the biggest piece and was a Kickstarter-only offer.

When you remove the lid you get the full horror of its use.

The other pieces fit the traditional obstacle definition which will make them great for Kings of War.

The detail on the terrain is very crisp and takes paint extremely well. There is very good variation between the different terrain pieces (I only chose to get two of the same piece once) so with only a small investment you can get a lot of differing set ups.

From a KoW perspective I can see these pieces filling the role of obstacles and impassable terrain.

All in all a great Kickstarter, excellent product, produced on schedule with the only niggle being the shipping time of Canada Post's surface mail.

 

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Review - THMiniature's Miniature Scenery Terrain

Earlier this year I backed a Kickstarter by a Canadian company THMiniatures. They raised around $20,000 to produce resin terrain for fantasy gaming.

What struck me with this Kickstarter is that they did everything right. They kept their goals small and delivered on time - a rarity in this field. I committed $140 which gave me access to $150 of their product equating to around 10-15 pieces.

The product produced was a variety of battlefield obstacles something that I was short of in my terrain collection plus a central sacrificial pit.

With the Kickstarter the only thing that was disappointing was that the finished product was sent surface mail. This was meant to take 3-6 weeks but in fact took ten weeks!!!!!!

When it did arrive I had a series of separately packed white resin pieces.

There was a small amount of resin flash on the various pieces so I sat down with my Citadel mould line remover and ten minutes later it was all gone.

The next stage was to wash the pieces with detergent to remove any residual mould release agent. There was the odd trace of blue silicone on the pieces which I assume was remnants of the mould.

Ten minutes in warm soapy water cleaned any surface chemicals from the pieces. I then rinsed them and left them to dry on a tea towel.

The next stage was to fill the airbrush with surface primer and undercoat them black.

So after I ensured that they all had good coverage, I left the pieces to dry, ready to paint.

My method is to paint the soil/earth first and then work up throw the wood and stonework. I used a mix of paints and washes, trying to get some depth into the stone especially. Once painted I used static grass and clump foliage to finish the pieces off.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the finished product.

 

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Easter Eggs- Things I like about KOW - #4 Random Game Length

One of the things I really like about KOW is that it is scenario-based. And to supplement that they have a mechanic whereby the game either ends after Turn 6 or continues for a further turn.

I think this is a great - and necessary - mechanic. It removes the certainty from the game and gives the player of being either circumspect or throwing caution to the wind in the hope of a Death or Glory chance.

As players I suspect we will all remember games where the extra turn cost us a famous victory rather than the instances where it provided the opportunity to pull one out of the bag. That's because our psychology programmes to put victories down to skill and defeats down to luck.

I know already I have instances in my memory bank where I was robbed of what was a deserved victory.

And isn't it fun how that roll is ALWAYS exactly what you don't want.

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The Evolving Ratkin

Tonight I've got a 2000 point game against Elves and I intend using the following list:

• Tunnel Slaves Legion
• Warriors Horde
• Shock Troops Horde
• Blight Horde
• Brutes Horde - Brew of Haste
• Vermintide Horde
• Hackpaws Troop
• 2x Weapon Teams with Storm of Lead
• Mutant Rat-Fiend
• Warlock - Inspiring Talisman
• ASB - War Bow of Kaba
• Daemonspawn with Fly and Speed

This is the same list I used last Tuesday against Ryan's Undead. While I'm already seeing some changes I would make I'm keen to give it a second run before altering.

The key thing I guess is not to get too set on anything as yet given Uncharted Empires is out in two weeks. Units, stats and point costs could all change even if only incrementally. For instance, I know that the ASB will be given a mount option increasing his manoveurability - 9" move.

One thing I have found with Ratkin lists is that they seem very low utilisers of Magic Artifacts. They don't have the Ranged Attack options that make things like +1 to hit or +1 Piercing so attractive. I have been running numbers on giving Stealthy to my Rat-Fiend or a Death Engine but at 35 points it is not cheap. As an alternative I could look at taking Heal on my Warlock but that devalues his LB(5).

If anyone has bright ideas I'm alway interested to hear. I tend to consider suggestions based on combo of math and tactics.

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FOB NZ Kings of War Rankings Launched

With Vermintide on the weekend the official FOB NZ KoW Rankings are "LIVE".


Icons have been issued for Rulebook races and once Uncharted Empires is out we'll get icons up for them (currently text identifiers).


TOs can send me the results after the event for any "open" single player (no doubles/teams) event with 10 or more participants.


All I require are the following:

• Name
• Date
• Number of Rounds
• Players Ranked in Finishing Order
• Army Used

Congrats to Ryan Lister - our first #1 Ranked Player

Weekend Update

As per my previous post Saturday was spent at Vermintide playing Kings of War

Yesterday after cleaning up a lot of the hobby stuff scattered around the house I parked myself in front of the cricket and started some work on a terrain project.

Always feel that you get good bang for your buck with terrain and certainly the time spent yesterday yielded positive results. I'm hoping to have the project finished this week and then I'll post some pictures.

Starting to get excited about the release of "Uncharted Empires". Meant to be next week but I'm thinking it will more likely be the end of the month. Keen to pick up digital version when it drops and have preordered hard copy from local Mighty Ape.

Hoping to get a game in tomorrow evening at local Tuesday group.

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