So last night i had my first game of kings of war to try out the rules, and liking them so far.

Nowi have a ton of 28mm models from gw, that have been sitting unused for ages, and i want to get them back in the fight. Now before i start rebasing the single based models to multi bases, i want to hear some comparison to warband.

How do the two rule sets compare, or differ? I'll probably be basing my models 5X2 in kings of war troop sizes, so i can put them togheter to form regiments,  hordes and legions as well. Doing so will still allow me to try my hand at warband too i think, with 5x2 being a 100x 40 base. Would this work?

Mai, problem i see is that orcs are on bigger bases in KOW so they will be 125 x 50 base for troops. Does this mess things up in warband? or could a different base width be used?

Would also like to know how the combat is handled (roughly), and what has to be kept next to the unit. For my game yesterday i just ued D20's to mak damage, and that worked perfectly fine.

Thanks in advance!

As to style of play, I'm not sure KoW and Warband compare much at all. KoW is about known movement distances, charging as only the attacker fights, bubbles of inspiring, positioning second rank units for counter charges etc. Warband is about random activation and movement distances, simultaneous combat, allocation of command points (CP) to key areas.

So mechanistically I don't think they could be more different!

Some more details of combat:

Combat wise in Warband you need to record hits taken this round, and total wounds (either remaining or taken) on a unit. A mini d6 works well for recording wounds, I go with wounds remaining as its easier to see when units are about to break - I have added a dice frame holder to the back corner of all my sabot bases for this.

You need to record hits taken (before they are saved) as this determines drive back, and all hits are saved at once, so you may overwhelm the defender's defence with multiple attacks, CP can be spent for extra attacks or extra saves. For this I use the half-circle tokens from Pendraken, but you could use beads, plastic blood splats, or even dice, though there is a chance they would get mixed up with wound dice.



But basing wise there is a fair amount in common.

While Warband uses 100x50mm as the standard size, I think 100x40mm will work fine, I don't think the slight reduction in depth will be significant. Which is handy as this is the same size as a standard Troop base in KoW.

As you say Orcs and Cavalry in KoW will be on 125mm by 50mm bases. And Chariots are on huge bases due to the depth of the 28mm models.

There is very little you can do about the depth if using them for Warband - but its probably not a significant difference.

Width wise, I'm not sure, Warband is built around same sized frontage - but again its probably not significant - as you don't have to align square up or anything in combat. One option, to keep the 100mm frontage, is to not attach the 5th column of models to the multi-base, so you have a 100x50mm and 25x50mm base, so a bit fiddly to move, but giving you more flexibility as you will have matching frontages.

Thanks for that! Seems warband is a bit 'deeper' than KOW.

Quote from: fred. on 04 September 2016, 10:20:32 AM
One option, to keep the 100mm frontage, is to not attach the 5th column of models to the multi-base, so you have a 100x50mm and 25x50mm base, so a bit fiddly to move, but giving you more flexibility as you will have matching frontages.

Will probably have some different multibases in the mix for the command units, so i can put them central in the unit, wether i'm using them as a regiment or a horde. Will probably make the troop stand with the command as normal, but another troops stand divided in 40x40 and 60 x 40, so i can put these to each side of the command troop to get them semi-centered when they are in a horde.(so 10 men wide)

Warband is deeper than KoW in rules - but KoW is deeper in army lists, with KoW armies having lots of unit types available, and most in several different unit sizes, and then there are lots of heroes too, whereas Warband lists are much more compact giving the key units of an army (perhaps more like Warmaster lists) . Overall they are probably of similar complexities but are very different style of games.

KoW is very chess like, and abstract, which can be good, but it does give its own style of game (which is fast and fun, which is good).

I did play around a bit with the 60mm and 40mm frontage bases to keep the flags in the centre of the horde. But didn't get very far with it. On reflection I'd probably just go with flags in the centre of the troop base and have two sets of flags on the front of a horde.

Quote from: fred. on 04 September 2016, 12:43:22 PM
Warband is deeper than KoW in rules - but KoW is deeper in army lists, with KoW armies having lots of unit types available, and most in several different unit sizes, and then there are lots of heroes too, whereas Warband lists are much more compact giving the key units of an army (perhaps more like Warmaster lists) . Overall they are probably of similar complexities but are very different style of games.

KoW is very chess like, and abstract, which can be good, but it does give its own style of game (which is fast and fun, which is good).

Yes, i'm looking for fast and fun, because with only a 2 And a half hours of playing time on evening games with the group, warhammer never ever gets played, so i need something that fits that. We also chat a lot, so simple mechanics work best to keep going while chatting.

Quote from: fred. on 04 September 2016, 12:43:22 PM

I did play around a bit with the 60mm and 40mm frontage bases to keep the flags in the centre of the horde. But didn't get very far with it. On reflection I'd probably just go with flags in the centre of the troop base and have two sets of flags on the front of a horde.

Well seeing i have 3 gw armies, dwarfs, orcs and goblins and vampire counts, i will be able to field 4 forces (orcs and goblins are separate in KOW, but can ally if i want)

For goblins, there are no troop sized units, so i'll have to look into how i want to make those bases. I can just use the troops bases, or i can skip those and go to regiment bases minimum. Would mean they are unusable for other rules though.

The more i think about it, the more i just want to get sabots and keep the individuals in place with magnets. would save on a lot of basing, as i have between 300 and 400 minis that are painted and ready based on singles.

Also, i must add that keeping them single in sabots would still make them usable in song of blades and heroes and for d&d 

If they are already based on GW plinth slotta bases, then true multi-basing will be a pain. Sabots will be a good way to go.

Even if you magnetise, I would recommend having a few mm of solid edging around the base to make picking them up easier.

Keeping a few singles will always be useful - but as you have such big armies that probably isn't a big issue.