Trolls, Samurai and Rats

A bit of a mixed bag this week as we have pictures for three different games.

First up we've started playing through some Silver Bayonet scenario's with my Turks taking on Mr T's Russians and what ever unholy beasts the night throws at us.

This week a troll was hiding under the bridge as we searched for some treasure and it jumped out as a brave/foolish Russian peasant rushed onto the structure.

This is are third game and the Troll was a significant step up in power from the previous monsters and as my Turks bravely hung back the Troll rampaged through the Russian ranks.

I did manage to sneak up and secure some treasure, shoot a couple of near dead Russians and still the kill on the Troll. So an excellent evening for the Turks !

The Saturday Stu came over and we continued our way through the standard Test of Honour scenario's with a meeting engagement. The aim was simply to kill the enemy characters.

Things didn't go well with the Monks running out 3 to 1 victors over my Samurai.

And lastly I've started working on some Ratkin ships for Armada with the intention of running them in the event at South Ox Wargames when it comes around. After painting lots of desert Marauders this is a nice change of pace.

Last of the Twilight Kin

This week I completed the last of the Twilight Kin units for my army having decided to add a couple of Dragon Breath units as an alternative to the more static Bolt Throwers.

These will give a unit with better mobility though lesser range ( just 12" ) that can also be used as a chaff unit.

Having seen the Ratkin breath weapon units in action I think these should be a good alternative ranged unit.

I also got to play another game against the Rats ( thanks Mick ) and again after a tight battle came away victorious. I think at the 1500 point mark the Rats are a good match-up for the Kin. Once again due to a mixture of poor camera work and getting wrapped up in the game I managed to come away with only a couple pictures.

The Rats opted for a more extended deployment which meant that the more concentrated Kin managed to pick off the opposition more quickly and despite heavy loses they captured two tokens to the Rats zero.

I have also started painting the Fireforge medieval Russians that I picked up at a show last month with a view to making either another KoW army or perhaps a medieval skirmish force.

The box has 25 miniatures in it so I will be doing eight each of archers, spearmen, & axes and then a leader with sword.

Tactical Musings

This week I played my second & third games of KoW and the Kin once again emerged victorious. These games represented the second game for my brother and the first game for my friend Mick.
As I forgot to take any photos of the first game and didn't get many good shots of the second I thought I would pen some thoughts on the discussion I had with my brother about if the Kin are overpowered or the Rats under powered.
The Rat list was :
2 * Warrior Horde - 1 with healing brew
2 * Troop Shock Troops
2 * Clawshots
2 * Brutes - 1 Blessing of Gods, 1 Caterpillar
1 * Vermintide
2 * Weapon Team
1 * Mutant Rat-fiend
1 * War Chief - Wings
1 * Warlock - Inspiring
1 * Horde Naid Ensnarers
1 * Regiment Naiad Heartpiercers
1 * Troop  Naiad Heartpiercers
1 * Troop Riverguard
1 * Naiad Envoy - Lute

As this was a scratch force put together to make up the points we ignored the rules for allies and allowed the Naiads to be counted as being from the Ratkin faction. My list was the 2500 point list I posted earlier. The Rat list seemed to be reasonably balanced with some good melee options and a reasonable amount of shooting.
My reading and watching of material for KoW has suggested two things to me, having a good setup helps considerably and the concept of unit swapping must be kept in mind. This concept to me means always being willing to sacrifice a unit if it means you may get an enemy unit into a position to hit it with one of your better units. Having chaff units ( cheap & expendable ) helps with this especially if the chaff can project a threat so they cannot be ignored. At first glance the Rats have only the Vermintide as chaff but the Clawshots & Weapon Teams are both cheap and project a threat so could be used to draw a charge.

If we look at the setup for the last game then I think I would have done things a little differently, we decided to play push and Stu chose sides after I setup the terrain.

Long Shot

The Rats setup with there left flank consisting of almost all their shooting units, this was partly due to the Dragon Lord being put down and then the Clawshots being put down to face her.

Left

In the center the Naiad Ensnarer Horde, was joined by a Warrior Horde and the Shock Troops along with one Weapon Team.

Center

On the right this left the Brutes, Vermintide, Mutant Rat, Warrior Horde and the second Weapon Team.

Right

On the left the lack of melee troops led the shooters to not push forward with much vigor, perhaps they would have been better placed in the center to encourage the Kin to move forward more quickly or be shot in place. Even though the Heartpiercers only have an 18" range that would have been enough to out-range the Kin infantry. I would also have had the Shock Troops behind or on the flank of the Warrior Horde which could have tied up the Reaper Guard who instead took the charge and removed both units. Pushing the Ensnarers through the wood to make use of the Pathfinder they come with was a good move, as the cover also helped to mitigate their low defence value.
On the right I would have again had the Warrior horde to the fore along with the Weapon Team and Vermintide to draw the charge and then used the Brutes & Fiend to counter attack.

With the way that movement works unless you can force or induce the enemy to move into charge range without being able to charge then you would for preference leave only hindered charges open.

This gives you the best chance of surviving the initial onslaught and being able to get a counter charge in.

As with any new game it takes some time to understand the rules and how to play within the bounds that they set.

Six Feet of Rats

I have been drawing up some lists for a rematch of the Rats vs Kin next weekend and having played 1500 points I thought we would push it up a notch or three and go for 2500 points. After adding in some Trident Realms to bulk out the Rat models my brother had I was wondering what sort of frontage the combined forces had, well just over 6 feet it seems.

As this is just a friendly game we won't be worry about the normal restrictions for allies hence the magic item. At least the Rats won't have to worry about flanks this time around.

First Blood : Rats vs Kin

Today I played my first Kings of War game against my brother who came over from Cirencester with his Rat-Pack. The army composition was primarily decided by the figures that we had available and the forces came in at 1400pts per side. This still gave a nice mix of units but perhaps not the optimal forces that  competitive players would field.

My Kin fielded :
1 * Crossbow Regiment
1 * Shadows Regiment
1 * Reaper Guard Regiment
1 * Blade Dancers Regiment with Caterpillar pot
1 * Blade Dancers Troop
2 * Gargoyles Troop
1 * Hydra
1 * Priestess with Bane Chant & Inspiring Talisman
1 * Dark Lord on Pegasus

The Ratkin fielded :
1 * Warrior Horde
2 * Shock Troop Regiment
2 * Shock Troop Troop
2 * Clawshot Troops
1 * Vermintide Horde
1 * Weapon Team
1 * Mutant Rat-fiend
1 * War Chief
1 * Warlock with Inspiring Talisman

The scenario was Loot, in which 3 loot tokens are arranged along the center line and the aim is to pick them up and move them back to your table edge. Both sides start 12" from the center and take it in turns to deploy units.
In the deployment phase the evil Rats tried to sneak an extra Mutant Rat-fiend onto the table but I manged to spot this mix-up on understanding the army list that I had sent through. Having just read the list again I have now noticed that they did manage to field a second Weapon Team rather than just the one.

Having read that KoW battles are better with more terrain I set the terrain up last night and the Rats got to choose sides.

Mushroom forest and altar

The three tokens prior to them being deployed

It was much sunnier last night

The Rats chose the side away from the window and deployment was made, I went first and then as the Rats had more units they had a few free placements without me being able to respond.

A solid wall of Rats

The main Kin deployment

Out of focus Rats, sorry.

The Rats with a superiority in unit numbers deployed a strong force to contest each loot counter whilst I concentrated on the center and left hand tokens with only a single unit of Gargoyles on the right to try and cause some mischief. 

During the first pair of moves the Gargoyles on the left flew forwards and claimed the loot and the flying lord and Blade Regiment pushed up to take the cover of the wall. The Rat Shock Regiment then charged and wiped out the Gargoyles with the Weapon team doing a little shooting into the Lord.

End of Rats first turn

In the center I missed my first special rule by not doing the Vanguard move on the Shadows so they and the Crossbow Regiment moved and shot into the Rat Horde. The melee troops moved up into charge range of the token and waited for the horde to claim it which they did supported by the other Shock Regiment. The Ratkin Longshots opted to stay in place and shoot rather than lose a move by getting into cover. They took some long range shots into the Crossbows but without much effect.

The rats have control of a second token

On the right my Hydra shuffled to hide behind the building and also to get an angle to charge but I left him out of range for the central horde. The Gargoyles move forwards a bit but did not go for the token. The Rats rolled up with 2 Shock Troops and the Mutant and took control of the third token.

At this point I managed to forget to take photos after each pair of moves but on the left flank the flying Lord charged and manged to hold up the Shock Regiment with the token whilst the Blade Regiment wiped out the Vermintide and then a Weapon Team on consecutive moves. 

In the center the Blade Troop and Reapers charged and did massive casualties to the Horde but only managed to waver it. Concentrated fire from the Shadows and Crossbows also managed to waver the Shock Regiment so it could not intervene.
On the right flank the Gargoyles flew over the Rats who realizing that they had wasted troops on that flank started to move some towards the center.

In the final moves the Kin managed to wipe out the units in the center and take control of the token and position themselves on the left to deliver a rear charge with the Blade Regiment ( 75 attacks ! ). It was agreed that the Rats would not be able to stop the Kin from getting both these tokens off the board.

Poised for slaughter

The Mutant finally gets involved

Gargoyles block the exit

All in all an enjoyable first game ( of course winning always helps ) and as the rules are pretty simple the game moved along pretty well for a first go. I have since realized that the Rat Warlock manged to get both his bane-chant and lightening spells off in the same turn a couple of times rather than just casting the one spell each turn but other than that I don't think we got anything wrong.

The only real mistakes came from not being used to the rules enough to make proper tactical decisions so for instance the Rat left flank got too tied up with the Gargoyle unit and missed most of the battle when it could have been deployed to the center much earlier and helped things there. Though having said that even though the Mutant should hit like a truck once it got into combat is failed miserably to put enough damage out to justify 200 points.

There should I hope be some close-up shots and a Rats opinion of the fight over on the Cirencester Wargames blog once my brother has written it up.