Day 2 – Sunday

Game 4 – Chris Prince (Elves) – KILL!

So Sunday morning saw me paired with Chris Prince and his Elves.  Chris has a lord on Dragon, a Standard Bearer, 2 Regiments of Knights, a Horde of Spearmen (with Crushing strength 1 I think), a troop of Palace Guard, a bolt thrower, 3 single Drakken Riders and 3 troops of Bowmen.

Ok so this game my Heavy Mortars were on form!  Pretty much every time I wanted to hit a Drakken Rider they got it.  I wavered a unit of knights early on which meant Chris could only charge my Horde of Decimators with the other unit of Knights and the lord on Dragon.  The Decimators held which proved the turning point of the match.

Mr Choppy flanked the knights with the Decimators in the front, resulting in a rout and a unit of immortal guard charged the Dragon in its flank wavering it.

The other Immortal unit was beating up bowman (which had been on fire throughout the game) with Chris’s Spear Horde stuck in the back field.  When Chris finally got the Spearmen into a flank charge of the Immortals who destroyed the Dragon they then got 2 turns of the Horde Decimators firing at full power.  A great game and a big win to me!

Result: Win

Game 5 – Craig Johnson (Elves) – PILLAGE!

So Elves again, and 20 units of Elves no less from Craig!  Craig went for the MSU (Multiple Small Unit) approach which saw him field something like…

6 Troops of Bowmen, 2 Regiments of Spearmen, a troop of Cavalry, a troop of Drakken riders, 3 single Drakken riders, a bolt thrower, a dragon’s breath, three standard bearers and a couple of units of scouts.

Was a little worried about the amount of shooting from Craig although the dice weren’t as kind to him as they were for Chris Prince.  In fact I don’t think his Bolt thrower hit till turn 4!!

On my Right flank there was an interesting dance between the Dragon’s Breath and the Decimator Horde.  My ability to move and fire won that contest as I could step back and pick on the units thrown in front until the time was right to take on the warmachine.

I had a very lucky turn where Craig flew 2 single Drakken Riders forward and I managed to drop a heavy mortar on  each!  Craig managed to flank the Decimator horde with the Drakken Rider Troop before using them to contest one of my objectives.

Mr Choppy ended up contesting an objective in Craig’s deployment zone on Turn 7.

A very close game which I thought I had lost until Josh walked by a reminded me the winner has to hold at least 2 more objectives than his opponent and as it finished 3-2 to Craig a very hard (if lucky) draw for me!

Result: Draw (just!)

Game 6 – The EVIL SPANIARD! (Kingdom of Men) – KILL and PILLAGE!

Well Alberto, the man with biggest smile… and the most cannons.

Not a lot to say, I ran across the board, he shot me (a lot) a unit of Immortal Guard got over as did the Greater Obsidian Golem (Alberto Double 1’d him on turn 5) so Mr Choppy got to eat a cannon before succumbing to the relentless artillery barrage. 

Think I scored 240pts and Alberto got 2400 odd!!

Result: Loss (but not tabled…!)

The Results

So I finished 10th out of 26 and as a very part time KOW player (first time I have used Abyssal Dwarfs was game 1 Saturday!) a very happy result.

A deserved win for Josh, who is not only a good Tournament player in several systems but had a very hard army in KOW.  Congratulations to Ben Baker as although he came last I can’t think of a time over the weekend he wasn’t smiling so well played!

Was nice to see lots of Mantic models on display and hopefully I will have a fully painted list for next year!!

The Army

Really enjoyed the Abyssal Dwarf army, if a little slow, it has a lot of firepower.  Most of this might be limited to 12 inches for the Decimators but the Boots of Levitation truly rocked!

So what worked in my list…

Boots of Levitation on the Horde of Decimators!!  Nuff said really! Move and fire, 40 Breath weapon attacks and piercing 1 was the death of many enemy units over the weekend.  There is nothing more satisfying than rolling handfuls of dice!!

Heavy Mortars. Ok very hit and miss (pun intended) and more than once rolled a one to wound over the weekend however when they did hit… Oh boy did I chuckle!! Probably got me the draw vs Craig and the win vs Chris Prince.  Definitely keeping these in!!

What struggled over the weekend…

Greater Obsidian Golem (or Mr. Choppy as he became known) Shambling with Movement 4 was a real drag for this beast.  No breath weapon either.   Still when he got into combat he quite rightly chomped on most things. However the lack of speed would make me re-consider having him in my list in future.

Overmaster. Got into combat a few times but I can’t help think another standard bearer and save 100 points might be better?

Thoughts for the future…

Half breeds might make an appearance and although Mr Choppy might be slow he isn’t going to get replaced anytime soon!


Finally from me as the Event Organiser

A big thank you to everyone who took part, fantastic spirit and enthusiasm from every one over the weekend made my job very easy and made the Event a true success.  A few rules queries but that was expected and generally good time keeping!!

I hope to see you all soon at the next Mantic Event

Tim King

So made it back to Mantic HQ and thought I would get my Tournament Report up for everyone to see how ‘Timmaaa’s Tale’ played out…

A quick thank you before I begin to all my opponents, I thoroughly enjoyed all my games (even with Josh and Alberto abusing my something rotten) and hope you enjoy the read!

A quick recap of my army:

1750pts – Abyssal Dwarfs – Tim King

Overmaster
Iron Caster – Talisman of Inspiration
Army Standard Bearer

Greater Obsidian Golem
Troop of Lesser Obsidian Golems

2 x Regiments of Immortal Guard inc. Standard & Musician

1 x Horde of Decimators inc. Standard & Musician Boots of Levitation
3 x Troops of Decimators

4 x Angkor Heavy Mortars

Day 1 - Saturday

Game 1 – Chris Parslow (Dwarfs) – KILL!

So with a couple of drop outs on the morning I was actually playing and I took my tray of models down to join Chris on table 3.  After a quick hand shake and chat it turns out this would be Chris’s first experience of Kings of War so I felt the pressure was on to show him what this Game can offer!

Chris was taking Dwarfs with several Regiments of Ironwatch, a couple of Regiments of Ironclad, a small unit of Berzerkers with 2 Berzerker lords, a couple of cannons and two Steel Behemoths!!

I advanced up under fire from the Iron Watch but at long range didn’t suffer too much damage. The heavy mortars were generally rubbish in this game, hitting once in about 24 attempts.  However my Decimators were able to walk up and start picking on units before Chris got to charge.

There was an interesting duel between a Steel Behemoth and the Greater Obsidian Golem on my left flank which saw Mr. Choppy come out on top.  Chris’s other Behemoth was looking to abuse the Horde of Decimators before the Lesser Golems charged in.

A close game but scored just enough to walk out in front!

Result: Win

Game 2 – Pete Smith (Abyssal Dwarfs) – PILLAGE!

So game 2 see’s both the Abyssal Dwarf players paired against each other.  Unfortunately for Pete I had more decimators and he had no warmachines.

Pete’s army had 2 Regiments of Blacksouls with mutated mastiff’s (evil little buggers!), a Regiment of Immortal Guard, 3 troops of Lesser Golems, an Overmaster on Greater Abyssal with Regen!!, and several troops of Decimators.

My Artillery got better in this game but not great.  Pete realised to late he flew his Lord into 16” of the Horde Decimators and he turned into a horrible squidgy mess in my next turn.

Not a good match up for Pete as wherever he wanted to move up to Charge range meant standing in Decimator range for a turn.

A solid win for me!

Result: Win

Game 3 – Josh Roberts (Twilight King) – KILL and PILLAGE!

What can you say about the man who won 6 out 6! Well I went to the game with a plan… to deploy on my board edge!

And promptly deployed the Horde Decimators 12 inches on… rubbish!

Josh had 5 Assassins, 6 Gargoyles and 5 units of knights.  A very quick list and I didn’t have the range or speed to deal with them.

Josh scored 2800 attrition points which in a 1750 game was pretty bad for me…!!

Result: Loss (Huge loss…!)


Saturday Night

So ends day one, 2 wins and a loss which I was pretty happy about.

We then retired to the bar for some food and a beer (or few).  Jake Thornton came down to demo Pandora: Grim Cargo as we had mocked up a couple of board so players could try out the training mission.  Everyone seemed to be really enjoying it and I even got a go a bit later on (shouting BANG! A little too excitedly!!).

We also had the 3 up set of Dwarf Kings hold with us but Orcy must have borrowed a couple of the models. Luckily Mr. Choppy (my Greater Obsidian Golem) made a very good Skelly and Martyn Chates Giant stood in for a Dwarf (and was still taller than the 3 up Dwarf!!).

I left a few gamers in the shop/Bar at about 10pm and headed home for some sleep!

So the dust has settled on the second Kings of War Invitational and I don't Know about you but I thought it was an awesome weekend!

It was good to see everyone enjoying themselves, not only whilst playing in the event but also on the Saturday night in the bar! Think we had people playing Pandora and other games till 2200hrs!!

Congratulations to Josh for a second successive Invitational win, Matt Gilbert for the Best Painted army award and Ben Baker for picking up the Wooden Spoon (and  a copy of Warpath 'Fate of the Forge Star')!

Here are the final standings (with Nick's fixed!)

1. Josh Roberts - Twilight Kin - 18pts
2. Alberto Martin - Kingdom of Men - 13pts
3. Ken McLelland - Orcs - 12pts
4. Craig Johnson - Elves - 12pts
5. Richard Hornsby - Elves - 11pts
6. Martyn Chate - Orcs - 11pts
7. Jon Hickey - Elves - 11pts
8. Chris Nicholls - Twilight Kin - 10pts
9. Tim King - Abyssal Dwarfs - 10pts
10. Nick Simmerson - Orcs - 9pts
11. Alessio Cavatore - Kingdom of Men - 9pts
12. Christopher Prince - Elves - 9pts
13. Sanjay Agarwala - Elves - 8pts
14. Chris Palmer - Goblin - 7pts
15. Stuart Gibbs - Undead - 7pts
16. Chris Tamplin - Dwarfs - 7pts
17. Matt Gilbert - Undead - 7pts
18. Neil Dixon - Undead - 7pts
19. Jonathan Faulkes - Dwarfs - 7pts
20. Pete Smith - Abyssal Dwarfs - 6pts
21. Sharad Vora - Kingdom of Men - 5pts
22. Chris Parslow - Dwarfs - 5pts
23. John Dowbakin - Elves - 4pts
24. Dave Symonds - Dwarfs - 3pts
25. Andrew Harris - Elves - 2pts
26. Ben Baker -Elves - 2pts

A big personal thanks to my six opponents Chris Parslow, Pete, Josh, Chris Prince, Craig and the Evil Spaniard!  I will get round to a tournament report this week.

Problem with my Internet on my laptop so can't post as much as I would like... Plus I'm playing!

Just stuck a pic up on Facebook showing the demo of pandora

Ok here is the draw for Round 1 (with Table No.)

 ( 1)   John Dowbakin - Jon Hickey   
 ( 2)   Chris Nicholls - Chris Palmer   
 ( 3)   Richard  - Sanjay Agarwala   
 ( 4)   Ken Mclelland - Martyn Chate
 ( 5)   Jonathan Faulkes - Josh Roberts   
 ( 6)   Nick Simmerson - Pete Smith
 ( 7)   Carl Brown - Chris Kawecki   
 ( 8 )   Gary Percival - James Knight      
 ( 9)   Chris Tamplin - Christopher Prince
 (10)   Allberto Martin - Alessio Cavatore
 (11)   Sharad Vora - Stuart Gibbs   
 (12)   Andrew Harris - Ben Baker
 (13)   Tim King - Mantic Minion
 (14)   Chris Parslow - Chris Putney
 (15)   Matt Gilbert - Neil Dixon
 (16)   Craig Johnson - Dave Symonds   
 
Currently at 31 players hence the 'Mantic Minion' filler.

If we have an odd number of players then one Mantic Staff member will sit out each round but we will wait and see if we have any drop outs come tomorrow morning (hopefully not!).

I'll be quite happy to sit out round one as I still have a pub quiz to write!! 

Still unsure what 9 players are taking but latest breakdown is:

5 x Elves
4 x Dwarfs
4 x Kingdom of men
2 x Abyssal Dwarfs
2 x Twilight kin
2 x Orcs
2 x Undead
and one Goblin called Chris
   
   
   
   

 

Hope you have a good weekend as well buddy!

I'll have my 3 Dongle and my lap top so if anyone wants to upload some bits I'm sure that will be ok!!

Got 2/3's of the Army choices in so far.  Current breakdown is:

4 x Kingdom of Men
4 x Dwarfs
3 x Elves
2 x Abyssal Dwarfs
2 x Orcs
2 x Undead
1 x Twilight kin (most dominate army last year!)
1 Goblin called Chris! 

A good spread of choices so far, hopefully the balance will continue as I always like playing differenet races!!

Ah - yes! Thats the 40k gamer in me splitting a 2hr30min game!! 

Good spot!

Just downloaded an App onto my iPad called Chess Clock Pro Free and showed it to the guys in the Mantic Sales Office and we all think it's pretty cool.

Free to download, loads of different timings, 5 custom pre-sets (so I have called one "kings of War" and set it at 1hr 15m per player), you can pause, track turns and have it face to face or side by side!!

So if anyone has an iPhone/Pad it's called Chess Clock Pro Free in the App store!

Yeah anything from a digital watch to a mobile phone will do.  Sure there must be a Chess Clock App...

Trying to source some swanky digital chess clocks...   



Not sure how many we would sell in this colour scheme tho... Scarletsquig?? 

Ok I sent a quick email to everyone this morning who is going to the Event.

Main points for anyone who hasn't got the email (let me know!) is can I have your Army choices so I can do the first round draw and can everyone remember to bring a timer with them!!


Also for everyone else I have set up a Twitter hash tag for the event:

#ManticKOWinvitational

If you like following Tweets I am @King_timmaaa and I will be using it over the weekend in addition to what I get up on here!

Yeah I quite like them, basically there are 28 Artifacts and each may be taken once per army. They range in price from the 5pt Blade of slashing to the 50pt Medallion of life.

War Engines, Monsters and Living Leg-ends (the ones with [1]) can't take them but units and Hero units can.

I can see some taken more than others so maybe a little balance will need to be tinkered with but on the whole a good thing!


Thanks scarletsquig! It's so  FLUFFY!!   


Well booze always makes me feel kind of special...   

So I think that is about it regarding Generally Event admin for the mo!

What am I going to be taking?   

Well last year I got the Dwarf Army deal and I have played stunties a fair bit in the past but with the aim of this event being to try out as many races and combinations I decided to go Evil and field an Abyssal Dwarf Army!!

The main reason being I expected there to be a few Dwarf armies in attendance (at least more than the Abyssal kind) but also I fancied doing something a little different (not very different granted!).

I got all the pieces 2 weeks ago when I was last down at Mantic HQ and have been busy assembling and basing everything.  Currently everything is undercoated with 30 Decimators plus Lord and Iron Caster base coated.  My plan is to have each unit stuck to it's own movement tray with a little gap at the back for a stat guide and wound marker.

Some of you may have seen the pic I posted on the Mantic Fanatics Facebook page – 60 Decimators in 2 days almost made my eyes bleed but I got it all done.

And the guys walking around Mantic HQ have been chuckling at my Greater Obsidian Golem - no idea if it will ever see Combat but it sure looks mean!!

So onto the list…  well not having played the Abyssal Dwarfs I decided to go for an all round list but with an under lying theme of “IT’S GOTTA GO BOOOOOM!!!”

1750pts – Abyssal Dwarfs – Tim King

Overmaster
Iron Caster
Army Standard Bearer

Greater Obsidian Golem
Troop of Lesser Obsidian Golems

2 x Regiments of Immortal Guard inc. Standard & Musician

1 x Horde of Decimators inc. Standard & Musician
3 x Troops of Decimators

4 x Angkor Heavy Mortars

So all that comes to 1715pts which leaves me just enough to buy some Magical Artifacts! 

The Magical Artifacts are a new addition to the rules allowing the players to add items to units and characters to allow a little customization. My first Magical artifact was a no brainer really – Boots of Levitation on the Decimator Horde!  Basically this item allows the unit to advance and fire as if it was halted meaning my Reload! Thunder pipes are now move and fire!! BOOM BOOM!   

My second one was really the best of what I could afford and I gave my Iron Caster the Talisman of Inspiration so that he now had the inspiring rule.  Probably not all that useful as he will be away with the artillery but you never know!

So pretty happy with the balance of the list, a bit of everything and hopefully will let me provide some feedback to Alessio on the Evil midgets!


So what is everyone else taking…?

So.... Saturday night! My favourite part of a wargaming weekend where you can kick back with a cold one and talk toy soldiers with like minded people! We have a few things planned...

I will be running a small ish pub quiz for teams of 3-6 players.  There is the Warhammer Ancients GT running at the same time so they should be about to bulk up numbers.

Also for those attending the Kings of War Event (but also an open invitation to anyone around Maelstrom on Saturday 18th February) we will be running demo’s of Mantic's board games.  Jake Thornton will be coming down to personally oversee the games, answer questions and show off his beautiful creations.

This will include the first public demo games of Project Pandora:



Project Pandora is Mantic's first Sci-fi board game and will reveal the fourth Warpath Race battling the newly released Corporation (HERE)in a deadline confrontation.

Dwarf Kings Hold will also be on show for anyone who hasn't had a chance to play it yet.

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Dwarf-Kings-Hold.html

Some of Mantic's Pathfinders will also be about to demo Kings of War and Warpath to anyone who is interested.

So if you fancy a casual night of board games and beer* why not get down to Maelstrom's Eye of the Storm on Saturday 18th Feb!!


* other beverages are available!  :

Greetings everyone!

Tim King here -  Kings of War Invitational 2012 Event Organiser and Mantic Minion (read: Work experience!) - just thought I would start a thread as this weekend we have the 2nd Kings of War Invitational run by Mantic and again held at Maelstrom Games, Mansfield.

I will be posting in this thread useful bits of info like round results and draws so that everyone can see how the players are getting along and join in the fun of the Event.

I will also be using it to log my build up, gaming at, and fall out after the Invitational - so be prepaired - it may get a little crazy!

So why the Invitational?

The purpose of this tournament, like last year, is to playtest some of the alterations Alessio will be making for the big Kings of War rulebook – these playtest rules were sent out on the 28th January, so the players have had a couple of weeks to get to grips with the changes (like Magical Artifacts!).

Venue:

Eye of the Storm, Maelstrom Games, Mansfield UK  http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/

For the second year Mantic are running the Kings of War Invitational at the UK’s Premier independent Gaming Venue - Maelstrom Games: “The Eye of the Storm”. 




As well as being the location of Maelstrom Game’s Warehouse and ‘bricks and mortar’ Shop it also boasts an impressive gaming hall with enough 6 by 4 foot tables for 120 gamers, each fully laden with lovely terrain.



Down stairs there is a fully licenced bar open from early till late where you can hang out and discuss the Hobby.




And not forgetting the newly installed Kitchen that now provides a Bar Menu as well as catering for the Events held within the Venue.



So what else can you expect from the weekend…?

Apart from the 6 games of Kings of War that is!!

Well we have Alessio! Creator and all-knowing entity of the Kings of War Universe.  As with the Invitational last year we will be having Q&A sessions after each round where the gamer can raise any issue they have with the Ruleset with the aim to improving the game for everyone involved in Kings of War!!

We also have some plans for the evening but will leave that for my next post...


Any questions post here and I will answer as best I can!

Tim King
KOW Invitational Event Organiser and Mantic Minion