Tabletop Wargaming is a Nice, Inexpensive Hobby

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Quirkworthy

I always start with the assumption that everyone has a hobby. It doesn’t matter what it is, but it’s there. maybe you collect ceramic thimbles, perhaps you race dogs, fly model planes, follow your football team around the country: the details are unimportant (for this). Everyone has a hobby.

Everyone also has a limited amount of money to fund this hobby, once they’ve paid the bills and accounted for the boring stuff we all have to. In one sense, whether a hobby is expensive or not is really just comparing what your budget is to what you need/want to pursue it. When a gamer (someone who has this hobby) says it’s too expensive, they mean they want to buy stuff they can’t afford. When a parent says their child’s hobby is expensive it’s the same thing: cost exceeds budget. But is gaming expensive when compared to other hobbies? I don’t think so.

What do we compare it to? Well what constitutes a hobby varies depending on who you ask, but fishing generally comes out near or at the top, and I think we can agree that this fits the bill. Going out to the theatre might be a different kind of hobby we could look at.

Theatre-going is relatively simple, so I’ll look at that first. Going to a performance that lasts an evening costs quite a bit. You’ve got to get there, buy the ticket, maybe buy a programme, some refreshments, and so on. Using the local theatres as a reference point, this could come to £30 without trying hard (£20 for a ticket, £5 for travel/parking and £5 for programme and/or refreshments). I’ve deliberately erred on the side of inexpensive here, though you could, of course, cut even more corners. When you’ve finished, you have nothing left except possibly a programme for the bookshelf. So, £30 for an evening’s entertainment.

With fishing I’m on slightly shakier ground as I don’t know all the costs, but I’ve looked at some local shops so let’s make a start. You need the tackle. A rod for £100+, reel at £50+, net, chair, bait box, hooks, bait… the list is not short. I suppose a stick, some string and a bent pin are the minimum requirement, but nobody seems to struggle along with that. I used to walk along the canal to work. On a saturday morning there were often fishing competitions, with a chap every few yards. Each had a chair that made Captain Kirk’s command throne look like a wobbly stool. Not only were these grand seats comfy, they had all manner of boxes with compartments that folded out, and popped up, containing wriggly things in every colour of the rainbow. Beside them were (typically) a collection of several rods and several more nets, with a trolley to get it all back to the car. The fellow himself was invariably wearing attire that told the others he knew what he was about. I’m told that fishing also needs licenses and suchlike paid-for permissions, adding to the expense. Whilst there may be a few who make do with the bent pin on some string I mentioned earlier, it seems that most of the fishermen I’ve seen on the canal would get little change from £500 for their kit, and many have spent a great deal more. A single reel or rod can cost that much on its own.

In some ways (none of which are illustrated above) fishing seems like gaming. There is a high initial investment, and then a continual trickle of expense, but in the main you could sail along and game or fish for years with what you had. Of course, anyone who can buy new toys for themselves will generally do so, but you don’t have to.

Comparing gaming to either of these makes me think that gaming is pretty reasonable. A Dystopian War starter fleet and rule book will cost you £45, and you’ll get more than one evening’s entertainment from it and even if you don’t then you have a tangible object you could stick on Ebay and get half your money back. This makes gaming look pretty cheap compared to going to the theatre.

A new 40K army, bought from scratch, will cost a lot more. The most common army is Space Marines. Let’s say the Black Reach box and a Battleforce for about £100 (a bit more if you buy it direct, less if you raid Ebay). Then there are paints, glue and various tools, so let’s say another £50 to give you a nice little starter force. At £150 it has to be 5 evenings’ entertainment to equal theatres, and this sounds like no problem. It’ll probably be many more, even if you don’t count the modelling and painting (which you should). So even “expensive” GW games are not that pricey. How this compares to fishing depends on how much time you spend, but one day a week would be about the most an average fisherman would make at a guess, and probably not all year round. Gaming might be an evening or sometimes two a week, but it’s all year round. I would estimate a similar average of time spent between the two. Going back to the costs then, I’d say that gaming doesn’t come pout badly against fishing.

Of course, all this is fraught with generalisations, but you can see what I mean. Much as we might like to complain about the costs of this model or that game, in the end we get many hours of fun from a relatively small outlay.

Posted in Random Thoughts, The Business of Games | 49 Comments

It’s a Little Confusing…

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Quirkworthy

On the one hand I am told I write a blog that is “balanced and sensible” and am thanked for being a “sensible voice in an ever spiralling whinge storm”. This was what I was trying for.

On the other hand I’m told my comments are “patronising”. That was not my intention at all.

Everyone’s clearly read the same comments, so it seems that we’re deep in “can’t please all of the people all of the time” territory, and no mistake. So what do I do?

Well, I carry on, that’s what I do. The internet and the written word are not the most subtle and effective means of communication, but it’s what I’ve got to hand. I can’t help the fact that the inflection of voice and expressiveness of body language are lost here. All I can do is assure you that I do not intend to patronise, but to inform, debate, and learn in turn. If you don’t like that then I’m afraid that’s tough.

I will, however, refrain from posting more pictures of the Orx as they are just causing argument rather than debate. I’ll let some other poor fool take the abuse and insults for putting up pictures of new toys.

Posted in Random Thoughts | 41 Comments

That’s More Like It!

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Quirkworthy

It seems that while I was out in meetings yesterday, GW decided to put up a run through of a turn of Dreadfleet. Good plan.

This looks pretty much like what I’d expected: a simple roll hits, roll saves kind of mechanic with a bunch of cards thrown in for good measure. It’s light and fluffy and sounds very random indeed, but a bit of a laugh as long as you don’t take it too seriously. A sort of Wild West barroom brawl of a game, with the varied characters being ships instead of cowboys.

With this level of layered randomness (roll dice to decide how many cards you draw) it should suit non-gamers fairly well as this levels the playing field a bit. So far this looks like it’ll make a good game for existing gamers to introduce the whole idea of tabletop battles with miniatures to their friends. It won’t be the right one for everyone (this process really needs a careful tailoring of game to inductee to work well) though if someone were hovering on the edge of the GW hobby in particular then it might be just the ticket.

As I said, this is pretty much where I’d expected it to be pitched. It’s not Man o’ War 2, but it’s still messing about in boats in the Warhammer World. I, for one, am happier now I know a bit about the game mechanics and will be ordering one for myself. As I said earlier, I can always use the mat for games of Dystopian Wars 🙂

Posted in Board Gaming | 15 Comments

Marauder Orx Sprues from Mantic

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Quirkworthy

I’ve been reading some pretty alarmist nonsense of the interwebz of late about Mantic’s as yet unreleased Marauder Orx for their as yet unreleased SF game: Warpath. You may have noticed I said “unreleased” twice there. That’s the clue.

People are getting all bent out of shape about how terrible and disastrous things will be when Mantic release these miniatures. Apparently the oceans will turn to molten tin and the skies will rain marmalade. Or something. Either way, it won’t be good. How do they know? The models aren’t out yet?

It’s like this: Mantic showed some photos of the painted models a day or two ago. It seems that they’re based on their original orc sculpts for Kings of War, and that spells Disaster. To me this sounds like unnecessary panic and dismay for two main reasons:

1) You’ve not seen the models yet (not properly; not as sprues, not up close).

2) Loads of models in all mediums (plastic, resin, metal) are routinely converted from previous ones, and nobody bats an eyelid. Happens all the time and probably a lot more than you realise. GW and Privateer do it (along with pretty much everyone else in the business) and have done forever, so why shouldn’t Mantic follow the industry norm?

How about we start again…

Hi everyone. Look! Mantic have made some cool new space orcs called (wait for it) Orx! They look a bit like this:

From the other side the sprue looks like this:

Yay! Cool new toys!

See. That didn’t hurt, did it?

Now I think that they look like they should build up into a fine bunch of models with an appropriately mix of armour types and finishes, odd-looking weaponry with blades and gubbins bolted on and a characteristic feral appearance all round. Sound Orcy/Orky (Orxy?) to you? It does to me. So why does it matter whether they’re conversions of other models? How is that relevant when they’re on the tabletop, chopping ForgeFathers into catmeat? Doesn’t that just mean that you’ll find it easier to make your army look even more cool and feral because you can swap bits between kits and know they’ll be interchangeable? I’m seeing a bunch of positives here and no downsides.

Of course, if the Mantic Orc style isn’t your taste then they’re not for you, but you knew that anyway. If you imagine Orx in silver spandex leotards, or smart uniforms with upside-down V logos on the chest, then you need to play a different game (and possibly see a psychiatrist). Most folk expect Orx (however they are spelled) to be feral and nasty, vicious and scruffy, ramshackle but psychotic aliens. This looks like them.

I can take other photos of these if anyone wants to see particular bits, and I do have the command sprue as well if anyone is interested 🙂

If you guys can play nice then I’ll put some more pictures up tomorrow. I’ll also have a go at building some and showing the bits, etc if anyone’s interested later in the week. Maybe I’ll even dig out some of the KOW ones and see how they fit in, or (shock, horror!) try to get some paint on them. No, I didn’t think you’d believe that.

Of course, I understand that not everyone can like everything. That’s cool. But let’s leave the spurious arguments to the politicians. If model A is converted from model B that says nothing at all towards the qualities of either model. It is irrelevant. Let’s comment on what we have now.

Posted in Tabletop gaming | 79 Comments

Being Everywhere at Once

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Quirkworthy

I have a recipe for you to taste. It has three ingredients:

A) Providing support for a game can be an onerous task for a company. It takes a lot of man-hours to manage forums, answer queries, provide new content, etc. Whilst marketing and sales efforts have an obvious return in the form of increased revenue, aftercare does not. Sure, if your customers like you more then they’ll be more likely to recommend you and buy future products, though this is unlikely to demonstrably make up for the cost in wages alone to provide this support.

B) Most game companies are small, with only one or two lines. They can focus on, and provide support for, a small area as this is all they do. Larger companies with many games have to dissipate their efforts to support them all.

C) Board games require less support than figure games, simply because board games are more self-contained. This generally makes them easier to playtest and less woolly in the released version, so there are fewer game issues. While enthusiasts may want more scenarios, expansions and so on for board games, many never expand beyond the initial offering. Tabletop figure games, on the other hand, are generally open-ended. Therefore, while large companies with many board games can provide acceptable support for most of them, those with many tabletop games may struggle.

Add these together and stir. What do you get? Well, a number of things, but the one I want to pick out to tittivate your grey matter is this:

if the above is true, then GW’s lack of support for its Specialist Games makes perfect sense. In fact, the costs to suport them would far outweigh the revenue doing so would generate and therefore would be financial idiocy.

Discuss.

Posted in The Business of Games | 61 Comments

Foundry ACW Open Day – Terrain & Stuff

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Before I was rudely interrupted by Undead Pirates I was showing you some pictures of the games and the goodies at the Foundry ACW Open Day. Today I’ve got some other pictures for you.

As well as cheap goodies and fun games, the Foundry guys had some terrain boards being built to show the techniques they use to get the boards being used in the demos.

Look closely and you can see all sorts. The near three 2×2 boards on the left are part of an ever-increasing coastline that Matt is making for his favourite Napoleonic battle of Quiberon. No, I hadn’t heard of it before either. In the background you can see the Google Maps printout with the boards drawn on. Wouldn’t want any inaccuracy to creep in now, would we? The photos at the front are of the same place. On-site spies as well as orbital surveillance. Now that’s dedication for you!

What’s instructive here is the amount of random rubbish that gets incorporated into the underpinnings of the nice finish. These boards include wooden battens, bits of old ceiling tile, polystyrene packaging, stapled down cardboard, hardboard, blue foam and more. And that’s before he even starts on the ground level or the water.

On the far side of the table are two boards that make up a gorge, partly painted in dark grey as a base coat. Here’s another picture to give you a better view.

It looks like it’ll be a fun piece of rough ground for a skirmish when it’s done. This is where they mean when they say “head them off at the pass”.

Another fun thing you can see if you visit Foundry is their cabinets.

Great photo, eh? Didn’t think so. Mirrored back, all artificial light and an idiot driving the camera do not combine for world class results. Still, there’s intriguing stuff in these cabinets, because that’s where the staff usually put things when they come back from the painters. That is when they come back painted, but before they’re released, so you never know what you’ll find.

Which brings me to a really good point about Foundry. We all know the frustration of looking on an online store and finding just a listing for a model. Is it good? Is it bad? How would we know? Well Foundry don’t like this and are pretty close to their aim of having a picture of everything they make online, and they aren’t content with putting any old photo on either: they want one of every model painted. Everyone should aim for this. At least, everyone should aim to have at least a photograph of all their models on their website. And size of range is not an excuse. Go and look at Foundry’s range: it’s absolutely enormous, and lots bigger then most other companies out there. If they can do it…

I did get a couple more vaguely usable photos of the cabinet, mostly fantasy stuff as it’s my current theme.

The trolls sploshing out of the water are conversions they did for a participation game at the last open day a couple of months ago. Goblins and Trolls were storming up a beach at fortifications held by Dwarfs. Trolls were throwing Goblins about on hang gliders like paper darts. It was all very silly, and an amusing change from the usual. The shelf above seems to be mostly populated by Dwarfs, though Ramesses’ chariot has snuck in there too. The shelves are often mixed like this as there is no way of knowing when individual figure painters are going to send finished work in.

More varied shelves below. Again, apologies for the rubbish quality. Slightly confusing if you look closely, as the lower shelf with the Trolls on has been moved between the photos above and below. They were sticking more models out as I was there. Lots of Dwarfs, hippos, Skeleton cavalry, and the bottom shelf full of unreleased (I think) Italian Wars mercenaries for an upcoming game.

I could go on, but you get my drift. They do these open days pretty frequently, so you just need to keep an eye out or (for the lazy) sign up to their newsletter and they’ll remind you. That’s what I do. In these days of the internet it’s easier to order everything online, but I’m old fashioned and like to rattle a blister before I buy when I can. It’s a dying art.

Finally, just for elromanozo, here’s a photo of the paints I picked up, carefully inverted so you can see the colours.

The pack on the right and the ones above it are some of the many skin shades Foundry makes. The rest are WWII colours. See what I mean about nicely muted browns and greens? Like I said, these are being discontinued, but the flesh tones all remain as do loads more.

Posted in Events, Tabletop gaming, Terrain | 10 Comments

Dreadfleet – Feared Cash Cow of the High Seas

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Quirkworthy

I was going to talk about the rest of the Foundry Open Day today, but I’d forgotten that it was GW’s unveiling of their latest one-shot boxed game: Dreadfleet. I’ll finish the Open Day report tomorrow.

There’s a predictably large amount of fuss on the web about this, which seems a little surprising as this was all entirely foreseeable. Admittedly, I knew it was going to be a Warhammer naval game ages ago, before it was common knowledge, but that’s not the issue. Folk seem surprised that this is a once off, limited edition, stand-alone piece. Why?

GW are (and have been) ramping up for the Hobbit game and all the support that will require. They have 3 core games, and that’s more than enough for them. Over the years it has been made plain to all but the most obtuse gamer that the specialist games of yore are far from the hearts and accounts of the current GW shareholders. If they hadn’t been made already they would not be invented now. They are only still available at all as it’s just as easy to leave them as it is to bin them, and for the amount of effort they put into them (nil) they turn a fair profit (more than nil).

GW’s retail chain can’t cope with effectively selling any more than 3 core games, and at time struggles with that many (look at the doldrums that LOTR is in and the sterling effort GW are putting into revitalising WFB). There is no reason for GW to launch something else that will require a continued investment. Far simpler is this model. Spend two years behind the scenes, secretly working away on a cool one-off, standalone box of goodies. Release it with little warning, knowing that it will almost guarantee to sell out. The lack of advance warning is probably as much to protect their own staff from losing focus on selling core games as it is to keep the customers spending on their normal core purchases and regarding this as an extra. It is also conveniently timed so that it isn’t a Christmas present. It’s too early. They’ll still reap the benefit of all the Christmas money.

This is just extra cash.

And money is what it’s all about when you have shareholders. Not the game, not the worlds, not the customers (though these are all a means to an end): but the bottom line. It’s just the way business is, and in these economically apocalyptic times a big fat injection of cash is very welcome, thank you.

So why should anyone be surprised or amazed? It’s only because of GW ‘s size (economies of scale) and fanbase (guaranteed market) that it is possible, but if smaller companies could do it would they all ignore the obvious advantages? I doubt it. And knowing GW’s size and fanbase how could the folk out there in internetland not see it? Looked obvious to me. The only plausible alternative model was the Mighty Empires one, and that looks like more effort for less money, so it was never likely.

Of course, none of this would stop them doing Man o’ War again if they wanted to (which they won’t). But if…

We can dream.

Posted in Board Gaming, Random Thoughts | 80 Comments

Foundry ACW Open Day – Gaming and Goodies

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Foundry have just released a new set of rules for the American Civil War called Bull Run to Gettysburg. As is their wont, they planned to have an open day to coincide with this, but the riots got in the way and it had to be cancelled (seriously). Instead it was held today, so slightly less fanfare, but an ACW theme nonetheless.

Foundry Open Days are small and intimate affairs without the impersonal crush of a Games Day – and I rather like that. You can actually get to talk to people (like the author of the rules) and to play the games if you choose, or simply float about the racks and see what you can find in the bargain corner. Speaking of which, as they’ve been rationalising their unspeakably vast ranges recently, the bargain section was pretty big this time. Three racks were temporarily seconded to clearance duties, and a large table groaned under the weight of discontinued paint. Some very nice colours there, and I availed myself of a pot or 50. It would have been rude not to.

Having acquired my many pots of paint I decided I’d let my wallet recover for a little while and left the clearance racks for the other happy gamers. They will, in any case, be there next week too. The Foundry factory is also its shop, and you can visit 10-5 on monday to friday. They don’t put the clearance racks away just because it’s not an open day. I thought that if I spent the money in two lots it wouldn’t count as much…

The bulk of these discontinued pots were from their WWII colours range which I rather like. It’s not so much as colours to paint WWII figures (though I may do that too), just as a nice selection of drab greens and browns to give a more credible feel to anything pre-modern before dyes were chemically light-fast and washable. On a related note, my favourite photo in Kevin Dallimore’s Painting & Modelling Master Class book is one of a regiment of orcs that have been painted in Foundry’s Napoleonic artillery colours and look brilliantly drab (page 131 if you’re interested).

Being an ACW day there were a couple of participation games to play, and even someone dressed in the appropriate gear. I’m afraid that my photography was a bit ropy today and so I haven’t got a usable shot of him, but take my word for it: people dressed up. The gaming tables looked very nice indeed. Here’s a slightly fuzzy picture or two (must be the haze of battle).

And an opposed river crossing ready to begin…

…and with the lead flying. One of the defending units has just been badly mauled by a handful of dice that included nothing but 5s and 6s. Ouch!

These scenarios were designed to be quick introductory games for the rules rather than full-blown battles, which I thought was a very good idea for the open day.

Hopefully you can see past the dodgy camera work and tell how good the battles looked.

And I’ve just noticed how long I’ve waffled on for, so I’m going to finish this report tomorrow. Games aren’t the only things that happen at these open days.

Posted in ACW, Events, Tabletop gaming | 5 Comments

Lost in Time

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Pity the poor designer. In fact, pity anyone in the business of creating things as they will inevitably be lost in the swirling maze of Time.

At the moment I am just finishing a game that will not be released, or even announced, this year. Probably not next year either (though it may squeeze in right at the end). This is not terribly unusual, in fact it’s probably about average. Occasionally things go a bit quicker, such as with Dwarf King’s Hold. Sometimes they’re slower.

It’s the same for anything creative be it art, comics, movies or whatever. The lag between completing it and the end user seeing it promoted or sold can be vast. And this is confusing. Let’s say you see me at a convention and ask me about the newly released Martian Invasion game. It’s a mass combat miniatures saucerfest of a beast with hundreds of units. “Does an X-3 saucer really have a move of 17, or is that a typo? Is a Mk III Bovine Immolator really the best weapon for close up work? Why?” For a moment I look blank. I’m lost in Time.

Since I handed over the final manuscript 18 months ago I’ve been working on a board game about alligators and chocolate mice, a World War I RPG (with 14 supplements), three pitches for Facebook games aimed at small children (and one for an audience of ex-nuns), a Film Noir skirmish game in 71mm scale, a phone app proposal for the Bolivian government, and currently I’m putting the final touches to a board game on the adventures of a famous cartoon lamprey. Among other things.

What this all means is that when you see a designer looking a little glassy eyed and confused at a question, it’s not (always) because they’ve been in the bar all night playing Drang Nach Osten, it’s because they’ve been immersed in a myriad different worlds since the one that’s just been announced and they are searching the memory banks for any hint of where they are.

Like I said: Lost in Time.

Posted in Random Thoughts | 11 Comments

2nd edition Kings of War Review – Part 2

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Quirkworthy

Caveat: this second part is for the 5% of the gaming population who immerse themselves in the world of games and gaming as much as I do, and who are as curious and particular about how things work as I am. Sticklers for details, beardy idiots, pedants, geeks; call us what you will. For the saner and more normal 95% who get their gaming fix by sticking some models on the table and rolling the dice, the first part is probably sufficient. You were warned 🙂

I will assume here that you’ve read part 1 of this review and so you understand the basics. This part is about the details.

Unfortunately, it’s in the details that this edition of Kings of War creaks a bit. I do look forward to the 3rd edition, which will, one assumes, have fixed all these things, and be full of amusing background material too. If Alessio hasn’t killed me by then I’ll happily review that when it comes out.

For the moment, we have what we have, and if you’re just throwing down with a mate for a friendly game using an army you have kicking about then KOW2 is fine. If you’re taking it more seriously then you’ll need to be writing some house rules. I would, however, suggest that you do give it a try. Mantic are very keen to read your comments and you don’t often get a chance to have this much input. Download the rules, drag out your old Warhammer armies and give it a blast. Then let Mantic know what you thought (good or bad). They’ll appreciate it.

Now put your protective harness on and stand well back – I’m about to get picky!

What Works?

The core game works. This is a short paragraph, but it is the bulk of the game. Personally I don’t find the “I-go-U-go” whole-army-at-a-time turn sequence to my taste, and I have issues with the way individuals work, but you can’t deny that the game is slick and functions well as a basic system.

What Needs Work?

Several areas. A few specific units are currently broken, others are a just bit too good for their points. The poster boys for brokenness are the Masters of Death (assassins). Take multiples of these in your army and you’re laughing (but your opponent won’t be). Not only do they have +2 to damage in both melee and shooting, they can appear anywhere on the battlefield – guaranteed (no dice roll required) – in whichever turn their owner wishes. This includes behind the enemy, of course, and I forgot to mention that you triple your attacks if you charge from the rear. Alessio is entirely aware of this and even now his little grey cells are being burned by the million as a clean and simple answer is sought.

The human captain who gives lots of units Vanguard (a double move after deployment) also needs work, but again Alessio is on the case.

Vampires (Soul Reaver cavalry) are perceived by some as needing a nerfing, though I personally don’t agree. After 7 games with a Soul Reaver army I think they’re nasty, but very killable if you’ve thought it through. They are, in fact, so expensive for what they do that I reckon you’d be better spending your points elsewhere. If they have their Bloodbath rule removed (as was discussed) then I really would think twice about taking them unless they drop very dramatically in points. Two units of the lesser Undead (or even better, Twilight Kin) cavalry is only very slightly more points and is a much better option in my opinion.

There are other issues in terms of points balance, such as the relative costs of lesser and greater Obsidian Golems, and I think that many of the war engines are overpriced (or under-useful). Some characters feel like their relative battlefield usefulness is not reflected well in their points. But all this points juggling is easy enough to fix with playtesting. It means that this edition is a bit exploitable, but don’t let that stop you. Go out and exploit things, my children. It is for the Greater Good of the 3rd edition!

(Just remember to tell Mantic what you’ve found broken).

So far we have had cosmetic and easily fixable issues that will clearly fade with time. A 3rd edition was planned from the start and the KOW ship is on course. None of them should really be a concern. My next thought is more worrying, though increasingly theoretical. It’s about Individuals. Models with this special rule are basically those on foot or riding a normal mount like a horse. Those on big monsters don’t get the benefits. An Individual doesn’t have to worry about turning and can charge all round and this is where the trouble starts. There is no restriction on characters moving around and between units and this means that a single fighty Individual can destroy whole regiments on their own, almost regardless of relative points values. You get double attacks from the flank and triple from the rear, and any character worth his salt should be doing this at all times. Advance in the lee of a “real” unit (or fly, or teleport in like assassins) and then skip through the gaps in the enemy line and start hacking away. Enemy units must leave an inch gap between themselves, and an Individual model is generally on a base that will fit in between…

One potential fix for this that was mooted at the tournament was to disallow doubling and tripling for Individual’s attacks. They do not suffer this problem as they have neither flank nor rear themselves, so why are they getting the benefit? This would go the bulk of the way to fixing the issue and I’m sure that the assassin problem will be ameliorated too. However, I still think that we will be left with the rump of a problem, which will still essentially require you to take a fighty character of your own in any serious army. Their job will be as a sweeper to protect the flanks and rears of the fighting units, because even if an enemy doesn’t get additional attacks, they’ll want to hang about outside the front arc as that way they can never be charged by their target. As damage is cumulative, a character nibbling away at a unit will erode it on their own given time, and can easily make the difference to an otherwise evenly balanced attack going in from the front. Mantic want us to play with huge armies, so having a rule that encourages you to forgo a unit or two so that you can take an über Individual model seems counter to their intentions (plus a bit odd in general). For those of a greybearded persuasion like myself, it’s harking back to the days of what used to be disparagingly known as “Herohammer”.

Flying units are another area that seems a touch over powerful. They are often several models strong so the benefits for flank & rear charges are fair enough. Being able to fly them over the enemy battle line and then spin 180 degrees (all flying units get the Nimble skill so they can all do this even when they double move – usually a total of 20 inches) means that they should be in a position to charge into the rear of an enemy unit in their next turn. A unit of 10 Gargoyles has 20 attacks at 4+, and only costs 90 points. If this is going into the rear of a unit that’s an average of 30 rolls to damage (triple your 20 attacks, half of which hit), so you’d expect 5 hits on a target with the highest damage of 6. As you move your whole army at once, attacking with multiple units against single targets is a common and highly effective tactic. Put two Gargoyle units into the back of a single enemy unit and you’re getting 10 damage on the highest damage unit in the game – and all for 180 points. Of course, Gargoyles are not particularly resilient to damage themselves, but if they’re behind you then this is hardly a problem. It’s a similar issue to the assassins: they are weak in defence and strong in attack, but if you can never attack them because you can’t see them…

Pre-measuring is another aspect that I believe causes problems with competitive games. If I have a unit that is faster than yours, you should not get the first charge. Ever. There need be no guesswork required. You have no tension of whether you have judged things right or not (something I rather like in Warhammer); here it is all about the geometry of the position. Now it was instructive to watch the top players in the tournament exploiting this feature to obliterate my army, but they weren’t what I’d call fun games (in an abstract sense – my opponents were a good laugh though). And now I’ve seen people who do it well I’d try it myself. Why would I not? Not using the tools at hand feels very odd to me, so I’d feel I had to. If both players are doing the same thing and both have taken the fast armies then you’re back to an even playing field, but where does that leave any army without move 6 foot troops, or, more importantly, move 9 cavalry or move 10 flyers? If both players have equally fast armies do you then get a good game or just a stand off? Is it like playing Chicken? I don’t know the answer to these last questions, but it’s something to consider and try out. Please comment below if you give this a go on the tabletop.

Finally, I wonder whether using chess clocks elicits the intended behaviour or not. Again, I expect it to act to reduce the size of the armies being fielded, rather than expanding them. Physically moving troops is time consuming, and if time is tight then that has to be a consideration in army builds. Again, Mantic’s desire for huge armies comes under pressure from the other direction.

Conclusion – Serious Play

After the feedback from the Tournament, Alessio is working on a series of changes to the tournament pack that will be available from the Mantic site and will (presumably) apply to future tournaments. This will doubtless go some way to removing the most heinous of the broken units we saw at the first tourney. However, I predict that this will simply leave the next level of imbalance to be exploited; a level that was masked by the sheer obviousness of the Masters of Death and Captain problems. Kings of War is plainly not finished yet in terms of detailed balance, nor is it expected to be. I do expect it to be fine when it is finished (which will be the 3rd edition, next year). At least, it will be much more fine. There’s a load of playtesting to do yet, and if they add a bunch more armies into 3rd (and I expect they will) then they will also need testing. If they go in as the new ones did in 2nd, then we’ll be right back to where we are now.

I’m quite taken by the idea of using chess clocks, though I remain unconvinced that all the ramifications were thought through well enough. Chess is a very different proposal to a tabletop game where your armies are mutable. Adding time pressure is tricky to balance, and will put off as many people as it intrigues. Naturally slower players, or players who wish to field larger armies, will be penalised if the times are set for faster, smaller armies. If the times are set to accommodate the larger forces then smaller players are unpressured. It’s a tricky thing to balance. Using chess clocks for chess competitions don’t have this problem as chess has fixed “armies”.

Whilst KOW2 is fine for casual play, I’m not sure it’s ready for serious tournaments yet as the playing field is not even enough and the lists not sufficiently refined. I could be wrong – maybe that’s what tournament players really want: room to exploit. For me I want to have a close game and if I win I’d like that to be because I played better and not just because I’m more able to spot the broken bits. Maybe Alessio’s revised tournament pack will fix enough of these issues to make it all fine. I hope so. You can all help to rectify this as well. You all need to go out and play Kings of War and let Mantic know what works for you and what doesn’t. I’ve played it a reasonable amount now and these are my thoughts to date. What do you think? Am I wrong? Let me know.

Lastly, on a personal note, regardless of the clean rules, fast play and even ignoring the balance issues which I’m sure will be sorted soon enough, I feel that Kings of War is missing something. This is a very “touchy; feely” kind of thing to say, and unhelpfully, I can’t really tell you for certain what this “something” might be, though I will hazard a guess or two. It could be the lack of background. KOW2 is rather generic, and this is always less appealing than a game with an immersive fantasy environment. It is more likely to be what I see as a missing level of detail. KOW is not sufficiently abstracted for me to see it like DBA as an overview, yet it lacks a level of ability to tweak. For example, there are no magic items, and the magic system is perfunctory (though this may expand with 3rd ed). All I can do is pick from a fixed palette of units and unit sizes (and choose to have banners/musicians or not). I think I’d like a bit more mutability, though it’s hard to say what else this might be. It could even be that I want more boundaries in army selection. Who knows? There is just a niggle at the back of my head that Kings of War 2 is missing a little something. If I work out what this is then I’ll be sure to tell you.

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