From One Army To The Next

Been a while since my last post. What's been happenin'?

Well, not a ton obviously. One thing I managed to accomplish is the painting of 48 models to round out my Kings of War Chaos army (or Varangur, as they're known in the realm of Mantica) for a tournament I went to last weekend. I pretty much spent almost every free moment of time over the course of the last two weeks to finish these figures, and I did it! They're to a tabletop standard rather than something I'd enter into paint contests, but I'm very happy with them. I had to borrow some marauders from a friend as my final regiment of them wasn't ready for the tournament, but the rest of the army's done. I'll return to those final twenty figures when I return to the army and the game.

So how was the tournament then? It went alright. I came in 7th out of 8th, which was a little disappointing but then again my game results spoke for themselves: two losses and a draw. I'm not one to be too discouraged by tournament results, normally, but this time stung a little bit more because I noticed that over the last few years I haven't seen any improvement in myself as a player. In fact, during my third game I was completely confused as to what strategy to take. I started to wonder if I actually got this game at all—that is to say, if I understood it.

My opponents were great, and the organizer was dialed, and the group of friends I traveled with was great and we had a blast. I'll definitely consider going to this event next year. I'm not going to let this discouragement worry me too much, though. I've decided that I'm going to take a step back from the flurry that was these last two weeks and focus instead on the other tournament I have scheduled: The Las Vegas Open.

I've bought my ticket to the Age of Sigmar North American Championship at the Las Vegas Open next year in February. It's a 2000 point tournament using the General's Handbook Matched Play rules and I couldn't be more excited. I plan on bringing my Slaanesh army, which needs a few more painted warscrolls in order to bring it up to a playable 2000 points. I don't have a ton of time to finish it, but neither is it breathing down my neck. This should prove to be a nice palate-cleanser after furiously working on my brass-clad legions.

More on that tournement later, but for now, here are some pictures of the tournament I went to this previous weekend:

Note the borrowed marauders on the left.

Knights get double-charged.

 

Epic "boss fight" between my lord and his.

I even managed to get a 4-player game of Age of Sigmar in using my Kings of War figures:

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Vancouver's First Kings of War Tournament

Yesterday I had the great pleasure to play in the first Kings of War tournament held in Vancouver, BC.

Vancouver's always been a pretty hot city for Warhammer, with very dedicated groups of tournament players willing to travel to various locations to compete. I say this because when 8th edition Warhammer ended there was—and still is—a schism in Vancouver's gaming community. Some people have moved on to Warmachine and Hordes, some people have gravitated deeper into 40k, or into SAGA and Bolt Action, while others (like myself) are very excited about Age of Sigmar (AoS).

Then there are some of us who hope that the majority of the old Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) crowd will want to play Kings of War (KoW) to sate their tournament needs. I'm actually glad AoS split the tournament crowd here. If it hadn't, I don't think I would've given KoW a second glance. I'm having loads of fun with AoS, but I also had a ton of fun at yesterday's KoW tournament. I think the two games compliment each other better than others realize.

Anyway, enough of my yammerin' about the crowd here; let's get into the tournament: It was put on by Wargaming Without Borders (WGWB), which is a charity event run by a combination of the three biggest clubs here in Vancouver: WCP, A-Club, and CHOP!. This year they ran the gamut of popular miniatures games, but eschewing AoS, they instead ran a KoW tournament.

The tournaments these clubs run are great. They often involve a great "soft score" element—that is to say, sportsmanship, painting, etc.—and they're very well-run. Some of these guys have been running tournaments for over a decade, so they're always tight. They tend to have amazing prize support, and this was no exception. They raffled off about a dozen prizes and I managed to get the new Khorne Bloodbound Battletome for AoS, which, as one of the more enthusiastic AoS players in the city, was fitting.

There were four games at 1500 points each, using the scenarios from the KoW book. There were twelve players and the overwhelming majority of the armies were painted, with so few exceptions that they could be counted on one hand.

Hilariously enough, when I first signed up I thought this tournament would be a bit of a cinch for me. I'm not the most competitive gamer, which often means that I get rocked in tournaments, but I had been playing lots of KoW, and had even begun playing well before anyone else in the city, so I thought I'd at least give my opponents a run for their money. As we'll see, this was not the case. I was surprised to see how much experience everyone had with this game. Two people even had glued their models to the movement trays! Which is something that I had only seen my friend Paul do (and he's been on the KoW band wagon since day one). I had a great time, and I definitely would do another one.

So let's look at some pics I remembered to take (sadly, while I was prepared to bring my camera, I instead forgot it in typical Carmin style, and had to rely upon my cellphone):

The only shot from my first game. I'm not going
to lie, I was a bit rough from a party I went to the
previous night, which is the only thing that could
explain my horrendous deployment. My opponent,
Vern, still played a solid game, but my deployment
didn't make it any harder for him. A loss for me.

My second game was against another Kingdoms
of Men army (this time, my good buddy Paul).
Our game ended as they usually do: closely. Had
we gone to a seventh turn (which is randomly
determined on a 4+ after the 6th turn) I would've
won. Sadly, none of the four games I played this
day went past 6 turns.

We played the "Loot" scenario from the rulebook.
The blue counters are loot counters.

I was feeling better this game, so took more pictures.

Best dice roll of the tournament. That's a troop
of ironwatch riflemen (rifledwarfs?) shooting. For
those that are wondering why I would document
even a good roll like this, I should let you know
that I am famous—amongst gamers in Vancouver
who know me—at having the worst rolls at the
most in-opportune times.

Game three against another dwarf army. This
one was hilariously the "Invade" scenario, which
meant that two dwarf armies had to get into each
other's deployment zones to score. 

This game was against my good buddy Calen.
A guy I've known for almost a decade. He's a
skilled gamer in almost any game he sits down to
play, and only lost one game this whole tournament.

This was the dumbest move I made all game
(or maybe Calen's smartest), which is going up
against a dwarf king with regeneration and De: 6+.
Needless to say, the dwarf berserkers were a minor
speed bump in Calen's path to victory.

Little tactical tip for those that are thinking about
getting into KoW: Units with De: 6+ are really
hard to kill. 

So that's it. Sadly, I forgot to document my fourth game which was the "Dominate" scenario against a Brotherhood army (KoW's version of Bretonnians). At the time I hadn't eaten and was starving. My brain was in no state to even think about gaming and had never played against—nor even considered—this army and the game was pretty much his. Still, he played a solid game, and had a really uniform-looking paint job.

Here are some observations about the game in general:
1) KoW is more relaxing to play in tournaments. WFB, and to a greater extent, Warmachine/Hordes always left me exhausted by the end of the day, unable to think or do much but pack up models and grab a drink in silence. This was not the case with this game. I could've easily played another one or two games that day before feeling wiped.

2) Games of KoW are quick. Paul and I have been playing with chess clocks and our games of 1500 points have come in at just over an hour. I never had a game go to time in this tournament.

3) Every time I play KoW I like it more and more. When I first looked at it, I thought it was silly, but felt that I had to try it. My first actual game felt boring. But every game after that has had me like it more and more.

4) KoW is a better tournament system than WFB ever was. I love(d) WFB. For years it was my favorite game, and I tried to become a better gamer with every game I played, but for tournaments it was too wacky; too much variance in both the army lists and what happened in game. This made it amazing for club or campaign play (which I think was its intent), but for tournaments, organizers had to create a list of exceptions and rules (again, I think this was its intent). KoW was designed to be a tournament game and I think it excels in this regard. I can game comfortably knowing that this will be my tournament game.

So there you have it: A glowing review from someone who loves AoS, doesn't play a ton in tournaments (though that may change), and at first didn't think much of KoW. If you have been thinking of trying this game out, and have fond memories of 6th or 7th edition WFB, you should give it a go (I mean, you already have the models, and the rules and army lists are free). And if you're ever in Vancouver, BC and your models are handy, pop by an event held by one of these groups. You won't be disappointed.

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Drunken Dwarfs

To keep in theme with the models I was painting, I began drinking beer and didn't stop until these four dwarfs were finished.

Here they are awaiting a gloss cote. When I play any edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle they act as markers for war machines to show that they can't fire this turn or next, and when I'm playing Kings of War, they're unit fillers for my horde of Ironclad.

Plus they're just great-lookin'.

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Here's What I Painted Today

So I don't post as much as I'd like. To remedy this, I'm going to do some "flash posts" where I post what I worked on, even if it was just a couple brush strokes, or a few adventure ideas.

I'm going to a Kings of War tournament in a couple weeks, and I need to beef up a couple units and paint some movement trays. I need to finish 16 models, and here are some drunken dwarves and a master engineer.

They're not done yet, but I'm gettin' there!

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Of Kings and War 2: The Kingining

It's been almost two weeks since the release of Age of Sigmar (AoS) and the Warhammer world's still dead; just giving you guys an update.

So a lot of people are running around confused as to what to do now that their little square-based soldiers aren't supported by new Games Workshop releases (at least in the way they're used to). It's totally cool to not be satisfied with AoS, either. It's so vastly different that the very thing that attracted you to Warhammer: the Game of Fantasy Battles (WFB), may not exist at all in AoS. I think a lot of this confusion will dissipate as the months go on, and as various gaming groups and/or tournament organizers coalesce into one game or another.

I've said last post that I'm immensely satisfied with AoS, but I may not have stated my reasons clearly enough: I'm a very story-driven gamer, and AoS fits that bill nicely. I love tournaments too! I love the planning and play-testing that goes into them. I love staying up late the night before putting the finishing touches on my army in preparation for the event the next day. I love getting up early—wishing I hadn't put off my painting for so long—and triple-checking to make sure I have all my dice and templates and so on. I love milling around at the venue, and checking the time and wondering what could possibly be stalling its start. I love that it can be stressful, and that I can spend the day hanging out and rolling dice with my friends from the local gaming scene, and maybe meet some new opponents as well.

All that being said, tournaments are a place I like to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

I have friends who are hardcore tournament gamers. They go to as many as they can (afford), and they love the challenge of two players evenly matched (ostensibly) save their cunning and strategy. Never mind them, I have friends that don't do a ton of tournaments but rely on the structure that AoS doesn't emphasize to play pick-up games. I understand their dissatisfaction.

Luckily, it's never been a better time to be a fantasy gamer.

I'm a gaming mercenary. I like certain games better than others, of course, but I've never been one to sit on one game and one game only. Some people online (and in my circle of friends) are in the midst of an identity crisis, torn between staying with WFB 8th edition or moving to Warmachine and Hordes, or even Kings of War. For me, there's never been any movement; only expansion. I've played Warmachine happily since the softcover, black-and-white, Prime book alongside the many editions of WFB. They scratch different itches, and I like that. I don't ever want to just play one game.

So what the hell does this have to do with Kings of War (KoW)? Well, if you read my first KoW post you'll know that I gave it an okay review. I liked it, but thought it was a little too bare-bones when compared to WFB. Well, they've released a second edition and you can download it now; I did. While a lot of my initial thoughts still stand, I do see that they've added more spells, and more unique things to the army lists. I said in my original review that it won't replace WFB for me, but WFB's kinda been replaced for me.

Now I understand the irony of me espousing the idea that no game is truly dead so long as people still play it (there are still dudes playing Kriegsspiel), and saying that WFB has been replaced, but really I'm at the mercy of the gamers around me. I have some opponents who will never turn down a game of 8th edition, but if I roll up to a game club and no one has any red hardcover army books, I'll be pretty lonely with my scatter and artillery dice.

I have opponents willing to play KoW, and really I should embrace that. I mean, I have a million fantasy warriors on square bases. They'll need a home somewhere. Not to mention that the models are interchangeable. Anything I paint or build for WFB is automatically a KoW model as well, and vice-versa.

This all came about before any of us knew what AoS was going to be. I had my High Elves all ready to go, but stalled when I heard a new edition of WFB was going to be released. I didn't want to jump into a new project if the army was going to be changed or new figures came out that demanded my attention. Now that the Bloodbound models are occupying my paint table, my thoughts turned to packing up my High Elves for an uncertain future. But here comes KoW. Maybe now my High Elves have a future, and should KoW never catch on I have a High Elf force for WFB that I wanted to do anyway.

I can't wait to try out the new KoW rules. Now that my favorite regimental fantasy game is in limbo, and my attentions are turned to its round-based reincarnation, I feel that in my twisted gamer mind a space has been vacated that KoW could find a home in.

I have no idea where the gaming scene here in Vancouver will go. I have some suspicions, but I don't know for sure. I love gaming with the people in this city, and would like to take part in any tournaments or club days that go on, whether that's Warmachine, KoW, WFB, or (hopefully) AoS. All I know is that right now, you really can't go wrong painting anything with platemail and a sword.

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Of Kings And War

I had a chance to play Kings of War last Sunday. It was the second time I've played this game, and like the first, I was pleasantly surprised.

Here's the scene: A friend of mine has a 12'x4' table, which, as a gamer, is Shangri-La. He also has enough painted undead figures to line up along the length of that 12'x4' table. He invited over myself and another friend to ally against his dread legions. We played 3000pts and it only took us three hours.

This is the major benefit of Kings of War over other regimental games—being Warhammer, as I think the two games are the only regimental games on the market right now—that it's quick. Every time I look at Kings of War I always think it's going to be boring. I will admit, it is a bare-bones system. You move, you shoot, you fight in combat, sometimes you can cast spells—which are fancy (but not that fancy) shooting attacks—but really everything does what you think it's going to do outside of the normal randomness of a dice-based system.

Some (like my friend with the table) look upon this as the highlight of the system, but I look at it as a drawback (albeit one with potential). I like a game system with variance and options. Warhammer has drawbacks, sure, but a dearth of options is not one of them. In Warhammer you have an arsenal of stuff at your disposal, hell even the terrain on the table can give you things to think about other than "I can't see through those trees."

So naturally every time I read up on Kings of War, and set up a game my eyes hurt from rolling in my skull, and my lungs are well stretched from the constant sighing. However the game is super-intuitive and quick. Like I said, a 3000pt game (which is probably 3500–4000pts in Warhammer) played in three hours is unheard of in most miniatures games. Also, I've only read the rulebook once and the gap in time between my two games is most-likely longer than a calendar year, yet it was all in my head.

The game is written by Alessio Cavatore who used to work for Games Workshop, and was the principal author of Warhammer 7th edition. 7th edition was (in my humble opinion) fun, but it was the most ho-hum of Warhammer editions. Sort of a clean up of 6th edition, and a forgettable transition between the kind of game 6th edition created (streamlined tournament-ready system with some of Warhammer's traditional wackiness), and the game Warhammer is now with 8th (which is to say, great). So when I read the rules and saw who authored them, it made sense to me. But now I've developed a whole other respect for Alessio's work (my comments about 7th still standing). I see that what he was trying to create was a fast, simple, and intuitive miniatures system.

Kings of War will not replace Warhammer for me. I won't turn down a game, and I may even tailor an army specifically to the system. I can even see myself entering a Kings of War tournament and being satisfied by the state of the rules while within that medium, but it's not replacing Warhammer. What it is is a solid, fast, big-battles, game that would provide an excellent framework for customizing.

This kind of brings me to an aside: I think all too often (especially now as opposed to in the '70s or '80s) miniatures gamers get hung up on a "tournament ruleset," which is understandable, as it gives us the framework to not only play in tournaments but to facilitate one-off games against strangers in shops, clubs, or conventions. Having a set of house rules is tons of fun and can be pretty creative, but it's also something you need to inform people of when they want to join.

But one of the benefits to tabletop games (versus electronic game, for instance) is that they're malleable. Kings of War is a great example of a game system that provides a solid framework upon which I would love to see stuff added. I would love wackier units to add to my army, and a more robust magic system. Hell, even some interesting scenarios would spice things up. As it stands, the game is a set of vegetables. Good, but it needs something done to it to really be a favorite of yours truly.

Anyway, enough from me, enjoy these, passable, pictures of our game. I thought the lighting in my friend's place was too dark, so I turned on the flash (something I never do on cameras). After I got home and sobered-up (Kings of War also works when you've polished-off seven cans of beer), I immediately regretted my flash decision, and promise that I'll never, ever, do it again...

12' of Undead.

The grand alliance of elves and dwarves (and a
can of Cariboo beer).

Some o' my dwarves.

A rollicking fight in the center of the table.

Generals and gentlemen.

A big ole scrum against some zombies.

My dwarf general vs. a necromancer that the
undead player forgot to do anything with the
whole game (much to my benefit).

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