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Hey guys,

Was thinking of using the new KoW kickstarter as an excuse to try out Kings of War. Previously, I had just been collecting Mantic minis to use for WFB.

But, to be honest after some games with 8th edition of Fantasy I've grown a little disappointed with it. The 'massive blocks of everything' change for 8th doesn't effect me that much (as the Mantic models are so cheap, and you can use 'unit filler' dioramas and the like), but it definitely seems to have lost some of its tactical elements from 7th edition. Namely, the results of games seem far more random - A chap I always lost to in 7th I beat the other week simply because a spell went awry. And, well, while it can be amusing that was never the reason I played WFB, and it felt like a cheap rather than a genuine victory.

So really I just wanted to know, from some experienced players, how does KoW compare? And how much of a tactical challenge does it present? Not in terms of army list composition, but in opportunities created when manoeuvring units and making the right decision at the right time?

Any help would be appreciated!

There is immense tactical gameplay in KoW.

Every unit has a purpose. Every unit. It may be small, but that does in no way mean unimportant. Manuvering your units into prime flanking positions is as fun as it is challenging.

For starters, it uses pre-measuring, with fixed-distance charges, which removes the random charge distance element that appears in fantasy, more tactics, less dice rolling.

Secondly, flank and rear attacks are actually brutal, you double/ triple your attacks when you hit the flank/rear, which makes them hugely important compared to fantasy 8th where flank attacks are pretty much useless and often a bad idea since they just give away more kills as the models on the side of the unit get to attack as well.

There is a whole lot of subtle strategy as well, such as using high De units as a shield for your killier, but more vulnerable troops behind, which then use the interpenetration of units rule to leapfrog out from behind their shield and attack undamaged, it allows for the use of a "tank" unit strategically, in the same manner as a Roman testudo or a "tank" character from an RPG. That's something that warhammer doesn't really let you do effectively.

MSU vs. large blocks is quite an interesting tradeoff during gameplay.. hordes are durable and killy, troops are cheap, numerous and easily killed, but if they can use their numbers to get in on the flanks of enemy hordes then they'll soon win.

Shooting is quite tactical too, you have to balance building up damage on a unit with the aim of finishing it off in melee, against targeting multiple small units and trying to force as many nerve checks as you can... depending on how carefully you pick your targets, you can even aim to waver lots of units rather than trying to kill a smaller number of them, forcing half of a battleline to stop in their tracks so the attack on your lines arrives piecemeal - this is quite a good counter to the "shield" tactic I mentioned earlier... get the unit in front to waver and it holds up the one behind it too! Fast and Nimble units make things interesting, and characters work very similar to warmaster, effectively being +morale +magic or +combat buffers that float around the units and lend their strength wherever they're needed -you can do a lot more with them tactically than you can in warhammer, they can move around at great speed to get to wherever they're needed, as opposed to characters in warhammer which don't really leave the unit they deploy in.

I'd recommend just going ahead and playing a game, there really is no better way to get a feel for it. Very different game to warhammer, despite the impression that a casual flick through the rules might give you.

Thanks very much for the detailed explanation mate! You have convinced me to put a pledge down for the game

In my limited but hugely enjoyable experiance of KOW.

KOW is mainly a tacticaly focused game.
Its mainly about how you use the units you have NOT what units you pick for your list.

I am not that good a player, but we often 'swap armies' and use completly alien lists to what we would have picked ourselves.And as far as I can tell the game have exellent internal and external ballance.(EG the good players win no matter what list they have been lumbered with ...LOL.)

The thing is about actual tactics, is they are very situiational, and so difficult to pin down.(Unlike strategy which is very specific , deployment and list combinations load outs.)

Generaly,Distraction , deflection, targeting priority, division, (isolating and and outnumbering.)
The IN GAME decisions you make that dictate the ebb abd flow of this intuitive and fast paced game...

KOW is ace .Give it a go and you will not regret it!