KoW Intro Game - 1000 points

[Gary_M]

I've had the v2 rules and Uncharted Empires for a while, but finally have a chance to play!

A friend is taking dwarves, while I am taking our beloved lizardmen, sorry, Salamanders.

Drawn up a couple of lists, and not sure which one to take:

My preferred list is first, but will show both for comments:

Ancients Regiment
Kaisenor Lancers Regiment
Salamander Primes Regiment

Ghekkotah Hunters Troop
Chameleon Cloak

Anklyodon Battle Platform
Firebolts

Battle Captain on Rhinosaur
Chant of Hate

or....


Ancients Regiment
Mace of Crushing
2 handed weapons

Kaisenor Lancers Regment

Salamander Primes Regiment
Blade of Slashing

Ghekkotah Hunters Troop
Chameleon Cloak

Ghekkotah Hunters Troop
Chameleon Cloak

Komodon

Battle Captain on Rhinosaur

Only a small game so not many toys but a good learning experience I hope.

No idea what units my oppo will have, just hope he doesn't castle in a corner as that would make for a boring game!

 

[Itepixcauh]

I've had the v2 rules and Uncharted Empires for a while, but finally have a chance to play!

A friend is taking dwarves, while I am taking our beloved lizardmen, sorry, Salamanders.

Drawn up a couple of lists, and not sure which one to take:

My preferred list is first, but will show both for comments:

Ancients Regiment
Kaisenor Lancers Regiment
Salamander Primes Regiment

Ghekkotah Hunters Troop
Chameleon Cloak

Anklyodon Battle Platform
Firebolts

Battle Captain on Rhinosaur
Chant of Hate

or....


Ancients Regiment
Mace of Crushing
2 handed weapons

Kaisenor Lancers Regment

Salamander Primes Regiment
Blade of Slashing

Ghekkotah Hunters Troop
Chameleon Cloak

Ghekkotah Hunters Troop
Chameleon Cloak

Komodon

Battle Captain on Rhinosaur

Only a small game so not many toys but a good learning experience I hope.

No idea what units my oppo will have, just hope he doesn't castle in a corner as that would make for a boring game!

I would suggest you to try a Lekelidon in there, also the lack of Inspiring on both lists is worrying.

Aside from that, list one seems to be better, only problem I have is the Ankylodon. He has always underperformed for me but give it a try and see for yourself. I would better try to get 25 points out of some place (Hunters, turn them into regular ghekkotah for chaff or a Lekelidon) and upgrade him into a Horde of Ancients on Rhinosaurs, those are just fantastic, or maybe a Horde of Skyriders with Jar of the Four Winds (also pretty amazing) BUT if you insist on taking him the Firebolt upgrade is pointless, you will be moving ALL THE TIME, so in the end his regular shooting atack is better (noticed I said better, not good)

My problem with list number 2 is the Komodon and both troops of Hunters. I believe Hunters to be overpriced a little (Lekelidons are so much better for the cost), and the addition of the cloak doesn't really help. Komodons I find they always let me down, so unpredictable and expensive, Lekelidons are far, far better.

 

[Gary_M]

@Itepixcauh thanks for the advice. First time drawing up a list for KoW, so don't know whats good bad or indifferent.
Just going on where I felt some GW lizardmen were at.
I can see why a horde of ancients on rhinosaurs would be so good.

 

[Itepixcauh]

@Itepixcauh thanks for the advice. First time drawing up a list for KoW, so don't know whats good bad or indifferent.
Just going on where I felt some GW lizardmen were at.
I can see why a horde of ancients on rhinosaurs would be so good.

The best thing about KoW is that unlike Fantasy, almost every list can be made to work and win if you play better than your opponent. But I would recommend at least one source of inspiring in a 1000 point game, that way you can avoid units being killed by lucky Nerve rolls.

Another recommendaton is NOT to play Kill, or Kill and Pillage ever, game is so much better with objective based scenarios. Also use plenty of terrain in the middle of the board, and I mean plenty. This map generator should give you a good estimation on terrain density:

http://www.epicdwarf.com/randmap/randmap.php

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

The best thing about KoW is that unlike Fantasy, almost every list can be made to work and win if you play better than your opponent. But I would recommend at least one source of inspiring in a 1000 point game, that way you can avoid units being killed by lucky Nerve rolls.

Another recommendaton is NOT to play Kill, or Kill and Pillage ever, game is so much better with objective based scenarios. Also use plenty of terrain in the middle of the board, and I mean plenty. This map generator should give you a good estimation on terrain density:

http://www.epicdwarf.com/randmap/randmap.php

Been having a look at that map generator as I'm thinking of having my first KoW game on Sunday - 1000 points Dwarfs vs Goblins. Just wondering, what do all the symbols represent on the maps? There's no key so I'm a little stumped on what each symbol represents - especially the green ovals as the brown circles with splodges are clearly forests.

 

[Gary_M]

@Itepixcauh I picked up on the lack of Inspiring and changed the list, bringing in a Herald (old skink priest) and Clan Lord on cold one.
We played the game yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Definitely want to play this more.
My oppo took dwarves, but with an allied force of hobbits and humans.
From memory his army was:
two regiments of basic dwarves, Iron....something?, a regiment of berzerkers, an organ gun. A troop of sharpshooters, troop of human spearmen with phalanx, a unit of halflings (I think this was a regiment but not sure). a hobbit leader and a dwarven king (berserker? He had 8 attacks).
We played scenario 3 - Domination(?)
I went first.

We made some mistakes, including what firebolt was. We agreed on a solution, but later found out that our agreement gave it too much power (we treated it as a spell - between fireball and lightning bolt!)

My ancients took a bit of shooting but held. First combats were my lancers despatching his sharpshooters, and our overpowered firebolt wiping out the human spearmen on a lucky roll.

After a couple of rounds of combat, my ancients and primes both fled (even with a reroll LOL).

The lancers also did so, but no reroll as my clan lord had gone a bit far and destroyed the organ gun.

The anklyodon survived all game, tanking hobbits, the dwarven king and a dwarven regiment. In the last turn of the game it squash the dwarven king very thoroughly!

When we added the points at the end I had the advantage but allowed my oppo the victory due to the error on firebolt. If we had done that correctly then the spears may not have routed.

Conclusions:
1. I can see how important inspiring is, even though it didn't save me, twice!
2. Vicious is a nice rule to have.
3. I can see why people don't like the ankylodon. While tanky, it did little else, but what is did do (holding the flank) it did well against the forces it was facing. My personal jury is out on this one.
4. Dwarven shooting is nasty. My ancients should (and probably would) have survived at least another turn if they had not been subject to two turns of shooting.
5. I want to try a bigger game with more toys!

 

[Itepixcauh]

Been having a look at that map generator as I'm thinking of having my first KoW game on Sunday - 1000 points Dwarfs vs Goblins. Just wondering, what do all the symbols represent on the maps? There's no key so I'm a little stumped on what each symbol represents - especially the green ovals as the brown circles with splodges are clearly forests.

There used to be a legend somewhere in there,but basically green ovals are hills, forests are self explanatory. Blue ovals and yellow squares are Height Zero or Flat Difficult terrain (lake and Crops), Obstacles are also very clear. Both the grey and Crimson angular things are Impassable terrain, usually Height 4.

 

[Itepixcauh]

@Itepixcauh I picked up on the lack of Inspiring and changed the list, bringing in a Herald (old skink priest) and Clan Lord on cold one.
We played the game yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Definitely want to play this more.
My oppo took dwarves, but with an allied force of hobbits and humans.
From memory his army was:
two regiments of basic dwarves, Iron....something?, a regiment of berzerkers, an organ gun. A troop of sharpshooters, troop of human spearmen with phalanx, a unit of halflings (I think this was a regiment but not sure). a hobbit leader and a dwarven king (berserker? He had 8 attacks).
We played scenario 3 - Domination(?)
I went first.

We made some mistakes, including what firebolt was. We agreed on a solution, but later found out that our agreement gave it too much power (we treated it as a spell - between fireball and lightning bolt!)

My ancients took a bit of shooting but held. First combats were my lancers despatching his sharpshooters, and our overpowered firebolt wiping out the human spearmen on a lucky roll.

After a couple of rounds of combat, my ancients and primes both fled (even with a reroll LOL).

The lancers also did so, but no reroll as my clan lord had gone a bit far and destroyed the organ gun.

The anklyodon survived all game, tanking hobbits, the dwarven king and a dwarven regiment. In the last turn of the game it squash the dwarven king very thoroughly!

When we added the points at the end I had the advantage but allowed my oppo the victory due to the error on firebolt. If we had done that correctly then the spears may not have routed.

Conclusions:
1. I can see how important inspiring is, even though it didn't save me, twice!
2. Vicious is a nice rule to have.
3. I can see why people don't like the ankylodon. While tanky, it did little else, but what is did do (holding the flank) it did well against the forces it was facing. My personal jury is out on this one.
4. Dwarven shooting is nasty. My ancients should (and probably would) have survived at least another turn if they had not been subject to two turns of shooting.
5. I want to try a bigger game with more toys!

I so glad you enjoyed the game, my favourite point limit is 1995, so much fun.

On the list changes I would suggest to drop the Clan Lord, he is nasty expensive. For his cost you can have BOTH q Mounted Herald AND a mounted Battle-Captain, that way you can have the Inspiring where it's needed and the hitting power/disruption where you want it. Those two spots are usually not the same place.

I actually love to play 1000k points, it's such a great little fast game .

 

[Itepixcauh]

By the way @Gary_M I'm the guy in Facebook crying about the Ankylodon all the time, just so we know where we stand.

 

[Gary_M]

@Itepixcauh ha ha no worries.
I tend to like trying odd/weaker things, so might keep him in for a little while - If he survives another game, or two, he might get mythic status with my gaming pals!
Thanks for the tip regarding the mounted herald and captain. Very useful to know.
I know I'm booked up for a few weeks with other games at my local club (we have a Saga campaign drawing to a close) but will be getting more KoW games in for sure.

 

[Itepixcauh]

@Itepixcauh ha ha no worries.
I tend to like trying odd/weaker things, so might keep him in for a little while - If he survives another game, or two, he might get mythic status with my gaming pals!
Thanks for the tip regarding the mounted herald and captain. Very useful to know.
I know I'm booked up for a few weeks with other games at my local club (we have a Saga campaign drawing to a close) but will be getting more KoW games in for sure.

Try it of course, I did for a long time. Surviving is not his problem though.

I encourage people to try everything, it's the only way of learning what works and what doesn't for you.