I played in my first Kings of War (KOW) tournament today and have a report on it. It was only my second time playing KOW, after a previous intro game. In that first game I used my Herd Army (Beastmen). For this one I brought out my old Warhammer Chaos Daemons - Slaanesh and Tzeentch.
The obvious army list to use for Daemons in KOW is Abyssals, which have the same tropes as the old Warhammer ones. The list was:
- 3 x Succubi Regiments (Daemonettes)
- 3 x Flamebearer Regiments (Tzeentch Horrors)
- 1 Abyssal Horsemen Troop -with Pipes of Terror magic item (Daemonettes on Steeds)
- 3 x Efreets (Tzeentch Flamers)
- 1 Abyssal Fiend (Keeper of Secrets)
- 1 Fiend Horde (Slaanesh Fiends - allies from Nightstalkers List)
The army was basically selected according to the time honoured principle of "well that's all the figures I have!" I notice KOW armies need more figures than Warhammer ones for the same points, and that's even with me needing less figures per unit because mine are on 25mm rather than 20mm bases. (Minimum figure count for the Succubi and Flamebearer Regiments in KOW is 11, and I have 12 in mine).
Here's some photos I took beforehand of my army. I still need to get some of the proper sized movement trays. I borrowed some for this tournament.
Succubi in front, Flamebearers behind. Back rank is Fiends, Abyssal Fiend, and Abyssal Horsemen, and the three Efreets are on the right.
Some closeups. My army is all eras of models, with a few interesting characters from other ranges chucked in here and there.
Best Friends Forever.
Fiends in the back. Next to Keeper of Secrets.
Abyssal Horseman top right.
Efreets.
Some notes on the units.
Succubi: Pretty slicey and dicey with 25 melee attacks at 3+ to hit, though not good against armour. Enemies suffer -1 to hit when close combating them from the front, or when shooting at them. Only Defence 3 if they are hit though. Fury so they will always countercharge.
Flamebearers: 10 Firebolt attacks at 18" range, with piercing so +1 to wound. Plus they have Regeneration 5+. No good in close combat.
Efreets: An insane 20 attack fireball each, though only 12" range. Vulnerable to being picked off by anything.
Abyssal Fiend. Big crunchy monster as you'd expect. 9 attacks. Most useful to smash up armoured units.
Fiends: Large cavalry with 24 melee attacks at 4+ to hit. Only +1 to wound so not can openers even with the reroll ones Vicious ability. Enemies suffer -1 when shooting at them too, which is good because they are only Defence 4+.
Horseman: Nimble Light Cavalry, good if they can get a flank or rear, or used as screen. I had 15 points left over so they got a 15 point magic item which adds +1 to enemy rout tests. Probably not the best unit to put it on though I thought afterwards.
Game 1 - Dominate Scenario
First game was against Al's Orcs. Lots of big units.
Lots of Trolls.
Here they come.
Efreets come forward to blast the Fight Wagons (or whatever they were), together with the Flamebearers.
Boom. Sixty shots and the first Orc unit is gone.
On the other side I charge and wipe out an Orc regiment with Fiends and Succubit.
Next turn is going to hurt though...
Yep.
Fiends and first Succubi dead.
But my Flamebearers and Efreets manage to then kill the big orc horde.
A charge from my Arch Fiend and Succubi fails to kill and overrun the Trolls, but does waver them. But now my Arch Fiend will be flanked by the other troll horde.
My shooting on the other side isn't doing very well and the Giant kills my Flamebearers. My Horsemen die to the Boar Riders, and then the Boar Riders die to my Succubi.
Troll horde hits Arch Fiend in flank and kills him/her.
My Succubi then kill the first Troll horde and turn to face the second, and survive an attack in the flank by the Troll Hero. My Flamebearers also survive an attack by an Orc regiment.
My Succubi on the right flank kill the giant, succeeding where the shooting failed.
Firebolts and Fireballs kills the Troll Hero, and Orc Regiment, and my Succubi kill the other Troll Horde.
End of game and comfortable victory in the end. Orcs only have Skulks and Wizard left. I have 4 regiments and 2 Efreets still on the table.
Game 2 - Kill Scenario
Next up was Basilea. Lots of flyers to face, including two Elohim (Angel) hordes, Dragon and Phoenix.
Rhys wins dice roll for first turn and make me go first. I rush up the left side.
And advance ready to shoot next turn.
Rhys swoops in with the Dragon.
And everything else advances.
I advance a bit and blast away at some knights. A few wounds but nothing more.
Flyers swoop behind me, and knights charge two Flamebearer regiments, which hold.
My dumb move, where I try to defend ineffectually against flyers coming from three different directions...
And I end up taking 2 rear and one flank charge.
My Flamebearers survive on a double one though. A Succubi regiment dies, and the Arch Fiend is flanked and dies again too. I counter attack and kill two knight troops and a unit of Elohim.
My Fiends die to the Dragon and Knight Horde, and two Flamebearer regiments are killed. One by the Phoneix breathing on them and one by the Elohim charge.
I fireball the Phoenix to death, and the last Elohim are cut down by my last two Succubi regiments.
Knight Horde kills another Succubi unit. I'm shooting the hell out of them but can't get enough wounds and two magic users keep healing them.
Another Succubi unit bites the dust.
End of game. Win to the Basiliea by about 500 points.
Game 3 - Kill and Pillage Scenario
Basil's Undead arrive.
He wins the roll for first turn and makes me go first. I advance to a better shooting position.
Basil advances too, and lightning bolts one of my Efreets who takes three wounds but survives.
Out of range for now, my Efreets retreat and hide behind the forest. Their time will come!
Over on the right flank, I'm getting ready for the Soul Reaver Cavalry and Dragon. Both Armour 6 (Ensorcelled armour seems to be popular for Dragons), so I'm going to be relying on my Arch Fiend to open these cans.
Dragon wipes out the horsemen. Trolls also charge with Surge spell (Lich King had Surge 16), but they bounce off the Succubi with hindered (coming over the walls) and Ensare ability reducing their to hit roll to 6+.
An advance on the other flank.
I charge with Fiends and Succubi.
And Succubi into Trolls on the right flank, and Arch Fiend into the Dragon.
Trolls are killed, Dragon is wavered.
Take that!
My shooting blasts apart the skeleton horde. Fiends kill a skeleton regiment, and Succubi waver the Soul Reaver Infantry Regiment. My Flamebearers also kill the Army Standard Bearer with a lucky shot.
Soul Reaver Cavalry flank charge Arch Fiend in the flank. Third game in a row he/she has been flanked and killed early, but necessary in this game to slow these Armour 6 units down.
Undead are gradually being finished off on the left flank.
While a Succubi regiment is sacrificed to slow the enemy as my shooters move into position on the right.
Soul Reaver Infantry and Necromancer finally killed on the left.
Soul Reaver Cavalry is wavered on the right with much shooting. An Efreet is Lightning Bolted by the Liche King and dies.
Looking good over here now.
Shooting finally kills the Soul Reaver Cavalry too.
Just the Dragon left flying around, and I can't kill it before the end of the game.
Liche King is only other survivor on Undead side. His plans thwarted for now. Victory to my Abyssals in this game by a substantial margin.
Conclusion
A great days gaming. In particular because I felt like I was fighting the enemy rather than the rules with KOW. The games move quickly, everything seems to have a use, and armies seem pretty balanced from what I've seen. I actually got second out of the eight players somehow. The winner was Alan using his Kingdom of Men army, and I think this was his first games. Thanks to Basil for doing a great job organising the day.
My Abyssals/Daemons were an interesting army to use, with a combination of heavy short range firepower with the combat units working pretty well I thought. Rough for the Arch Fiend in these three games, and I will have to get some better tactics vs flyers. I look forward to more of this system, and to seeing some nicely themed armies being created.
Armies used in this tournament were:
- Kingdoms of men x2
- Undead x2
- Basiliea
- Orcs
- Ogres
- Abyssals
Thanks for reading!
