Kings of War Factions - First Impressions

[@joshuachapman247]

"I am open to criticism, I don't care.", "That shirt does not match those trousers" hilarious. 😂😂

[@StudioWatchwolf]

That was a remark firmly in the fine English tradition of affectionate insults! Lachlan

[@youareivan]

Mantic also sells Kings of War Ambush sets which are much smaller than army boxes- they usually contain three or so units. For example the NIghtstalkers Ambush set has 16 individual models that make up three units. These Ambush sets also come with special rules to make the smaller games fun. It's a great way to try out the game or a new army without going all in on a full army set.

[@StudioWatchwolf]

Thanks for the comment. Yes, I think a big advantage of KoW is that unlike the more well-known games it’s very easy to try it out without investing too much. Latch

[@landonpaints]

Just stumbled across your channel. Great content... instant subscribe!

[@StudioWatchwolf]

Thanks for the encouragement! I (Lachlan) have a problem that my partners in crime are both abroad and that Studio Watchwolf’s studio hasn’t been available since the business moved, so i have no place to film and no-one to film with unfortunately. But I keep trying fix these things and will make more content whenever I can, thanks again.

[@BarndKr]

Ah what a lovely channel. I love KoW 😊

[@tomfreeman8401]

I enjoyed this vid because I am in exactly the same stage of discovery with Kings of War - four games of Ambush in and now I am looking at all the factions and thinking 'oh that looks cool!' The multibasing opportunities for some modelling fun is great

[@StudioWatchwolf]

Thanks for the encouragement! Yes, I started out playing experimental games with Forces of Nature (see other videos), but in making this one with Dean found I wanted to make some Salamanders instead. I mean, have you SEEN that Clan Lord model? :-) Lachlan

[@chazsaw]

I played my 5th game over the weekend and so far I am finding that the rules were clear enough that how I thought units would act before I played was broadly correct. One thing that did surprise me is just how big the difference between having a Me of 3+ as compared to 4+ is, and just how big the difference of having vicious on a Crushing Strength 2 unit is. I am also running Salamanders and love the lizard-on-a-bigger-lizard models, but I have started to gravitate more towards Rakawas for that Me 3+. I think when I run a clan lord on fire drake in the future (because let's face it, very little is as good as speed 10 flying) I will try it with the Blessing of the Gods artifact as the Elite rule it gains will apply to both its melee and ranged attacks, giving it sort 3.5+ plus in each.

[@idiotproofdalek]

Throwing Mastiffs are brilliant. They damage the enemy’s chaff units and get them off the board. Don’t give them to ranged troops!

[@akumaking1]

It’s basically a more balanced Warhammer Fantasy that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg

[@StudioWatchwolf]

Yes, I was immediately struck by the simplicity of the rules. Everything makes sense, and there's really nothing additional to slow it down.

[@akumaking1]

@@StudioWatchwolf the company should also embrace 3D printing

[@RedHatRuss]

As someone who recently started the game msyelf, I am very much enjoying this content! Regarding the throwing mastiffs, I wonder if you missed the fact that they're single use, which I think may change your assessment of them on a missile unit!

[@StudioWatchwolf]

Yes, we read the rules on the one-time use, thanks. Most of our disagreement was about what sort unit could make the most out of it. There’s a real pleasure to discovering a game and its peculiarities like this, don’t you think? :-) Lachlan

[@ratatatuff]

There is a starter box with the nightstalkers: Ice and Shadow (Nightstalkers & Northern Alliance). I play KoW: Vanguard, the skirmish system and I chose Nightstalkers. Since the starter box included Basileans and Nightstalkers, it was easy. But I've got a warband for the Trident Realm of Neritica as well. Mantic really stepped up their game, their new models look great.

[@StudioWatchwolf]

Yes, their new releases are a world apart from the older models in terms of quality. How did you integrate the Starter Set units into your game?

[@ratatatuff]

@@StudioWatchwolf Since it's the skirmish version of KoW there's not much to integrate. The starter set gave me 175 points and a usual game of Vanguard is 200 points, so the warband was already pretty much complete. I still bought a full warband + booster pack. Sadly, Mantic seems to having stopped supporting Vanguard. But maybe we'll get a new, streamlined version. Like Deadzone for Firefight.

[@ashthornton1038]

You buy Regiments to unlock characters, war machines and titans when building your army, troops don't unlock. Also Kings of war is pretty balanced so unlike other games you cannot win at list building stage, so competitive choices aren't as important

[@StudioWatchwolf]

As I said in the video, I think these terms are very far from intuitive and need some attention but I think Regiments and Hordes are two sizes of units that unlock other units. Those units are Troops, and Troops themselves don't unlock other units. Is that correct? Lachlan

[@ashthornton1038]

It doesn't take long before the unit size becomes 2nd nature. No troops do not unlock, if you use the app it will basically walk you through list building, otherwise page 46 and 47 in the big red book breaks it down reasonably well.

[@bigdave4859]

Im pretty sure you can't throw the mastiffs in the same turn as shooting so having them on a ranged unit makes no sense. I could be wrong though

[@StudioWatchwolf]

The upgrade is definitely not available on ranged units as we learned, so it was only hypothetical anyway. Dean’s contention was that it’d be better to have a bonus, albeit short, ranged attack on a ranged unit, whereas I thought I’d like to have a bonus ranged attack on a melee unit. Dunno.

[@josephrigley8974]

Such an easy game to play, kinda wish the models were better but as its model agnostic it's a minor complaint.

[@StudioWatchwolf]

No, I hear you. Im myself Painting up GW Saurus for a Salamanders army and it feels like a betrayal, but they are better than Mantic’s older mini.s

[@VictoriaWargaming]

Kings of War is pretty well balanced so the faction doesn't matter so much. Create a good toolkit army and learn with it. Because it is close to classical wargaming with a fantasy twist, you can pretty much plan your initial build using what would 'make sense' in medieval warfare. Cheers

[@StudioWatchwolf]

Myself, I’ve no more idea about medieval warfare than fantasy warfare - but I know I want to paint a lizard riding a dragon! Lachlan

[@TableTopTransformer]

Unless you're playing twilight kin, there's no reason to buy kow23.

[@StudioWatchwolf]

I think the available rule books are Kings of War 3rd Edition (red book) and now ‘Clash of Kings 2024 Edition’, which has 17 pages of army changes as well as all the background for the Twilight Kin and their army lists. I think I didn’t understand your point; can you clarify what you meant by ‘kow23’? Lachlan

[@TableTopTransformer]

@StudioWatchwolf sorry I ment clash of kings (or cok23). £25 isn't worth it for army updates (hell, there's 0 reason to pay for game fixes)

[@jasonbrown5131]

The gent in the hat is talking over the other guy so freaking much I can’t follow… I’m only 10 mins in so ima keep trying but honestly I’m not getting much from this since I can’t hear what’s being said