More Kings of War on Hamilton Road

It appears that the Mantic Games "Kings of War" has made inroads in the Hamilton Road Games Group in London, ON. There were skeptics... as there should be... but a number have come to enjoy this large army fantasy game.

First off, a few photos of my wife's Baselian army. Drawing from the historical Byzantine Empire but "warping" it more than a little, Beth felt that the army list would lend itself to an Arthurian Mythos treatment. She's well on her way.

Beth's Phoenix ... using Reaper Miniatures model, at it's fiery best.

Bolt throwers, using Whiz Kids D&D Ballistae and crew drawn from whatever I could find.

Two Saturday's ago, Andy tried his hand at KoW using a Britonnian army he'd had for a long time. He faced off against Ralph's "Empire" army in a Battle Royal.

Andy's quite-colourful knights, light cavalry, and Robin-hood style archers.

Ralph's knights, light horse archers, and arquebusiers/"Commanded Shot".
Behind them is a unit of greatswords.

The greatswords and a large clump of spears, actually a unit size referred to as a "horde" by the rules.
They are allowed the "Phalanx" rule with forbids a frontal charge by cavalry.

Sunlight! It's been a dark and dreary winter in Southwestern Ontario and the sight of the sun is welcome!
The 'battle mat' is Ralph's, purchased from a firm in the Czech Republic he said.

Andy's force - loads of knights and a TON of archers. That much missile power cannot be ignored!

Ralph's light horse archers who began life as Skythians or some other steppe folk.

Andy's force is incredibly colourful and a lot of fun to see deployed.

Ralph's battle line. His cavalry was kept on the flanks and the centre was filled with foot troops.

Andy's force doesn't lack for chivalry. He says there's more at home, itching to get on the field.

Need I say this will NOT end well for the handgunners?
The d10's keep track of the casualties. A Regiment of Kights can take alot more punishment than a 'troop' of gunners.

Knights charge the greatswords while the archers get into hand-to-hand combat.
To be honest, I didn't expect that, but it worked for Andy whose archers swarmed Ralph's troops
after showering them with arrows

Knights, bowman, and crossbowmen of Ralph's army.
This from the second game, where he and I squared off.

An impressive of spears in phalanx from Cambridge backed by a cannon. Ralph also took a mortar.
I took two cannon.

My regiment of knights and a phalanx horde of spears under the banners of the Black Company
(a mailed fist with German text around it.)
The horsed figure is "The Captain", a hero-type general who permits shifting of up to three of the army's units
prior to the start of the game, 'cause he's a 'superior tactician.' I recommend taking him and using a more humble figure
... just to throw off your opponent.

Ahh! My favourite unit - the horde of heavy pikemen in phalanx. The unit is mostly Old Glory's pikemen
from their Italian Wars range with a few additions - command, music, etc. You can also see one of my cannon,
a regiment of archers, a troop of 'rifles', and my giant, "Tiny." I wanted a more vicious name, but Andy called him
"Tiny" and it stuck. He slapped around Ralph's archers and crossbowmen, and chased around the copse of trees
to mess with the mortar hidden there (It can be seen to the right of the trees at the top of the photo,)

We're really enjoying this set of rules and we've seen 3 different Kings of Men armies, two different Salamander armies (re-titled Lizardmen), and an Elvish host. I waiting to see my son's dwarves, by wife's Baselians, and Samurai Kings of Men army rumoured to be in the wings.

There will be more...

Kings of War on Hamilton Road, London

 

The Hamilton Road Games Group meets Saturdays at the Crouch Branch Library on Hamilton Road (Amazing!) in London, ON. All sort of games are played. This past Saturday GasLands, a post-apocalyptic car battle game and Rebels and Patriots, a skirmish game originally meant for gaming the American War of Independence but used for the American Civil War that day. Both of those games are from Osprey. A few of us played Kings of War, a large unit fantasy wargame from Mantic Games. Since GW's Warhammer became a skirmish games with a new set of larger figures, huge armies lie languishing and unused in basements, closets, garages, and sheds. Now... they can be used. (The picture above has NOTHING do to with KoW; I just thought it was cool. The photos used in this blog are courtesy of  Rich, who played Rebels and Patriots, and myself... who took all the lousy photos.)

Andy and I played on one table - his Salamanders vs. my Kings of Men Renaissance-type army. (Okay, they were WHFB Empire troops with some additions.) Tyler (more Salamanders) took on Ralph's Force of Nature army. Lots of lizards there. (Tyler and my daughter, who fields elves, have a constant grudge match going on, so I was not permitted - by plebiscite - to take on Tyler, who had to leave by lunch time anyway.)

Since I'm lazy, most of my photos are of the backside of my army.
Heavy pikes, mounted scouts with carbines, a giant, knights, and a cannon.

Skinks Geckos in a huge horde. All in proper Salamander Red!

A horde of big time Salamanders. Andy intends to mount the figs on permanent scenic bases.
I can't bring myself to do that... yet.

A phalanx of spears. I like the green/yellow combination - my old high school colours!

The army standard bearer.
I commit historical larceny for flags all the time!

Kings of Men mounted scouts - who were originally "pistoliers."
On the advice of my son - who knows the game better than I - I armed them with carbines, an option in the list.

While the Ghekos attack the pikes, Jake the Giant (a recent draft choice) takes on the Salamanders.
He lost badly.

More scouts wheel to come into the battle line while the heavy pikes (Mostly Old Glory Italian Wars figures) slap the Ghekos around for a while. The Knights come forward and were destroyed by the Salamander shortly after.

My wizard, Dermot the Incomprehensible, follows up my mounted sergeants... who look incredibly Polish!
So "Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy" (Not my circus, not my monkeys.) Worth remembering!

Andy's Big Kahuna (or whatever you call the leader of a Salamander force)
tossing healings around like they were going out of style

Arquebusiers with three casualties (d10) and reloading (black d6) stand with the bigger gun and the Captain, a good choice to lead a human army. He can reposition up to d3 units before the game begins because he's a "Master Tactician."
The spear phalanx in the background begins it cumbersome wheel.

The pikes have disposed of the Ghekos, but not without damage.
The knights are about to get creamed.

An overhead view of the battlefield.

"Swab! Stop vent! Load with beehive rounds!" (I wish)
The cannon was effective; the archers less so, although they are an economical choice. 

I think we're getting ready to break for lunch - I see my can of iced tea on the table.

Andy and I called it at lunch time. His dice were not cooperating in any way shape or form. However he did wipe out my giant and my knights in short order.

Following lunch, Ralph and I fought it out. 

This is a bird's-eye view of Tyler and Ralph's game - Salamanders vs. Force of Nature

Ralph's Naiads and some sort of stone elemental - a nasty piece of work!
Ralph's modelling is always superb!

The Knights charge the stone elemental while the archers keep other naiads busy and the Grand Battery warms up.
(Martin loves Grand Batteries, whether Napoleon's or Zhukov's.)

"Action front! Double canister and no swabbing!" (Again, I wish!)

I was required to take this photo to show Tyler that the stone elemental could deal out punishment!

Ralph courteously threw in the towel when my giant ran amok all over the table and finally faced his Tree Herder along with the Captain and the Army Standard bearer - and still couldn't beat 'em! I'm getting the real feeling that no army in this game is a pushover! 

Other painting... the ballistae seen below were painted for my wife's Basilian force. She loves the Arthurian legends and is basing her army on them. Why not?

Whiz Kids Ballistae with found figures for crew

 Dredging old boxes my son left behind when he moved, I found this Mech. I thought it could be used by his Dwarven army as a "Juggernaut" suit, a steam-powered suit of power armour with a hand cannon. He liked it when he saw it. It has since been flocked.

I have no idea which company made this beast.

Painted this way, it appears properly "Dwarvish."

I have a few ideas for some upcoming games that I'll work out later... after Hot Lead and the upcoming WWII Pacific "Battlefront" battle between the Japanese and the Dutch. Should be interesting!

Kings of War painting plus... other stuff

With the turn of the new year, I'm pastoring only one church. Due to circumstances beyond my control and that are not worth writing about here, I remain the pastor of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Aylmer, ON while no longer serving as priest-in-charge of Trinity Anglican Church. I have a bit more time to do other things... like blogging. However getting back into the swing of that takes time... and I'm VERY good at wasting time.

A number of my crew at the Hamilton Road Gaming Group and my family have taken a serious look at a game called "Kings of War", a fantasy large unit table-top game. My son, Rob, scoured his house and came up with a dwarf army. Daughter Katie put together an Elven army and has already developed a "grudge match" with our friend Tyler and his Salamanders. My wife is putting together an army for the Basileans based on Arthurian mythology. Since I had a Warhammer Fantasy Battle Empire army gathering dust in the garage, it was a simple matter of changing their identity to an army for the Kings of Men with pikes, firearms, cannon, and heavy "gendarme" cavalry. I have an idea for another army... but I'm keeping that to myself for now.

So painting is underway. My wife (and my daughter both) purchased a two-pack of ballistae from WizKids at a local shop. Cast resin models, they're affordable, available, and pre-primed. My wife permitted me to paint her two... and I'm rather pleased.

Beth's bolt throwers crewed by some scrounged Ral Partha classics.

The models lend themselves to an easy paint. The "lump" above the bold is a skull which I covered
with Elmer's glue to turn it into a fixture or something like it.
I never did understand the Warhammer fixation on skulls.

The crews are vaguely Viking or Saxon, but they work out well.

A little minor surgery on the kneeling figure removed the bow and permitted him to better turn the windlass.

I'm not sure how my daughter would want her two bolt thrower painted. They'll work well for the Elves, since any Elvish army MUST have bolt throwers.

On other fronts, as it were...

A plastic dinosaur from the dollar store takes in the view from the front window.
Oddly enough, my daughter's cat, Pangur Ban has adopted this toy or acquired it by right of eminent domain
and she wrestles with it. 

The kitten had never seen snow either. Of course, she won't step in it.

The kitty has also absconded with a green army man.
We haven't figured out where she found that thing yet.

A while back, we played Kings of War at the Games Group and I set up Bear with a barbarian/Chaos style Kings of Men
army including this beast that has a ballista in the howdah. I liked the model so I filled the tower with loose figures.

Martin and I continued our mutual fascination with the Pike-and-shot era. I fielded an Irish army from O'Neill's rebellion.
Martin promptly stomped it, but he learned to respect the galloglaich in the woods.
These are examples of the late Jamie Fish's 15mm figures. 

Really old Minifig castings of WWI German light machine guns. I think they'll end up in my Finnish WWII army.

Andy and I have been playing a good bit of Battlefront WWII (Flames of War's older brother).
Here are two German ATG's that lie in wait for the advancing Soviet armour.
Since they were had to spot, I held my fire until the T-34's were "in my eyes."

Soviet Russian ATG emplaced and waiting for the advance of the Germans. These guns didn't wait quite as long.
This gun and the one in the photo above are part of Andy's collection.

A Soviet Maxim gun from Plastic Soldier Company in 15mm.
Nice figures at a decent price although they are a bit "fiddly" to assemble.

All for now. More can be expected later.