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I am looking to dip my toe into the KoW scene. I want to try out goblins but do not want to pick up a tough army for a beginner. I am not new to wargaming but new to KoW and want to avoid anything with a learning curve too high.

Ogres are pretty good, and as a bonus, they come with goblins of their own!

Goblins have Yellow Bellied...meaning a roll of a 1 will not allow them to charge. You could set up some really good charges, and then not be able to perform them because of a few unlucky dice rolls. So, just keep that in mind. On the other hand, Goblins are fun!

If you are not against buying new miniatures, I agree that Ogres are a very easy army to start with. They have good Nerve, and hit like a truck. The model count is also low. Basically, a very forgiving army that will not cost you an arm and a leg.


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Orks are pretty good, but have lower Nerve. You can enhance this with War Drums, but then that unit becomes a target. I have an Ork army with Goblin Allies (for the War Machines), and they were great. I tabled a Kingdom of Dust army in 6 turns.

That's what is great about Kings of War. Almost every army has balance, and one army is not "top tier" like in other game systems. You have to be smart, and look at the units that are available to you. Once you see how the army plays, then you can set up your forces.

Ogres are pretty straight forward. Powerful units with good Nerve. Very easy and forgiving.
Orks are good fighters, but have slightly lower Nerve. They have to support each other.
Undead is immune to Waver, but do not hit as hard...unless you take Vampires.
Brotherhood have fantastic Knights, but their Villeins are almost cannon fodder.
Elves are elite, but very fragile. They have the best archers in the game, and can make you hurt before you get across the table, but will die in droves if you do not support them.

So, as you can see out of the armies that I have listed, there is not one army that is better than the other. They are different, and unique. But, that is a good thing. Once you understand how they play, play the army to its advantages.

Yellow Bellied guys add some fun I guess (if not unwanted randomness) I like the idea of horde armies in KoW instead of WFB due to the way the game is played. plus I like the models.


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Also have some random demons from WFB i can turn into abyssal troops so maybe them as well. Ogres are cool but just not my style with the big burly gitz even if they are a good starting army.


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I did not realize how important nerve is but i guess that makes the games go quicker.

 CaptainLoken wrote:
Goblins have Yellow Bellied...meaning a roll of a 1 will not allow them to charge. You could set up some really good charges, and then not be able to perform them because of a few unlucky dice rolls. So, just keep that in mind. On the other hand, Goblins are fun!

If you are not against buying new miniatures, I agree that Ogres are a very easy army to start with. They have good Nerve, and hit like a truck. The model count is also low. Basically, a very forgiving army that will not cost you an arm and a leg.


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Orks are pretty good, but have lower Nerve. You can enhance this with War Drums, but then that unit becomes a target. I have an Ork army with Goblin Allies (for the War Machines), and they were great. I tabled a Kingdom of Dust army in 6 turns.

That's what is great about Kings of War. Almost every army has balance, and one army is not "top tier" like in other game systems. You have to be smart, and look at the units that are available to you. Once you see how the army plays, then you can set up your forces.

Ogres are pretty straight forward. Powerful units with good Nerve. Very easy and forgiving.
Orks are good fighters, but have slightly lower Nerve. They have to support each other.
Undead is immune to Waver, but do not hit as hard...unless you take Vampires.
Brotherhood have fantastic Knights, but their Villeins are almost cannon fodder.
Elves are elite, but very fragile. They have the best archers in the game, and can make you hurt before you get across the table, but will die in droves if you do not support them.

So, as you can see out of the armies that I have listed, there is not one army that is better than the other. They are different, and unique. But, that is a good thing. Once you understand how they play, play the army to its advantages.

The Orc Godspeaker is also surprisingly effective - when he is surrounded by a few dozen of his closest friends. Bane Chant is a wonderful thing, and Heal can help make sure that a Horde stays around rather than bottling out.

Dwarfs are another pretty straightforward army - and have both a Hammer and an Anvil. (Brock are a very nice cavalry hammer, and the Ironclad Horde is a very nice anvil.)

Abyssals are also pretty straightforward the Flamebearers are a good close ranged attack choce, and can bring a lot of fire power to bear. (Pun intended.)

The Auld Grump

SO I got a chance to play with Abyssals and Borrowed some Varangur for a few games. I decided I would go with the Abyssals, Now to just understand the army! I'm proxying a lot to get the feeling of it without plunking a lot of $$'s and hopefully I can get some stuff together.

Albanyadriel wrote:
SO I got a chance to play with Abyssals and Borrowed some Varangur for a few games. I decided I would go with the Abyssals, Now to just understand the army! I'm proxying a lot to get the feeling of it without plunking a lot of $$'s and hopefully I can get some stuff together.

Hmmm, if you do not mind using cardstock models as a way of testing out the army, there are some very inexpensive PDFs out there.

One Monk/Mayhem In Paper has some demons that would work well, not as nice as real minis, but inexpensive and better than just a piece of paper labeled 'Demons'.



I would recommend the Kobold warband, then scaling them up to make them more Lower Abyssal sized -



And if you are willing to dig in their Hoard section, there are some free models.



For that matter, it is a nice way to 'test drive' some armies, so if you want to try elves or undead, they have some bundles -


Back in the day I used to carry around two whole armies in cardstock, folded flat, so that I could play during my lunch. (I had split shifts, so there was a two hour block of time that I could fill with combat.)

The Auld Grump


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Though I probably should also add that the $85 US Abyssal Army box isn't a bad deal either -


My good lady got me a beefed up Abyssal Army, or something close to it, through the Kickstarter, and I have been quite happy with how it performs. (One major loss, four major wins, and three draws in the current League.)

The Flamebearers are short range, but their ranged attack can be devastating (Probably the most valuable units in the army.)

The Auld Grump

I don't think anyone has mentioned, but the Goblins in the Ogre list actually DON'T have yellow-bellied, making them amazingly reliable chaff, and a huge part of Ogre army success.