Kings of War with Steve

Sunday night is club night for the Bristol Big’Uns so Steve and I recently met up for a game of Kings of War. He very kindly loaned me the use of his splendid Ogre army whilst he fielded his Samurai themed Kingdoms of Men.

Now, I’ve played a few games of ‘Kings’ over the last couple of years (may be half a dozen in total) and generally had quite a lot of fun, so I was looking forward to this game plus it’s always good to catch up with Steve, Rob, Alan, Simon, Dave, Nigel, etc.

We rolled for the scenario and got ‘control’ whereby at the end of the game we would divide the table in to 2 foot squares and work out who had the most troops and thus controlled the area.

Deployment was by alternating unit and was quite funny for me because I had very little idea of what my troops stats and abilities were, so I just deployed them to ‘look good’ :o)

Steve got the first go and began a fairly cautious advance; he had plenty of missile troops so a few turns of bows, arquebus and cannon fire were to be expected. My lads would just have to weather it! Anyway ... the most of the photos I took have blurred quite badly which is very annoying! So rather than give you a turn by turn account I’ll show some “random” pics of what turned out to be a thrilling and highly entertaining game.

Deployed and ready to go!

A closer shot of Steve's smashing Ogres

This mammoth is absolutely splendid (it did well in the game too)

The Ogre line wastes no time and steams across the table

Bang! Steve's cannon blasts a hole in my Siege-breakers

My General, Army Banner and the Seige-breakers deal it out to Steve's elites

At the end of turn 6 we rolled to see if there would be a turn 7, but the dice decreed that was it. Both sides had taken quite a pounding but I had a feeling I might just edge this for a win. Steve totted up the points in each of the areas and to my utter astonishment I had gained control of 5 of them! So it was a very solid victory for the Ogres. Another thoroughly enjoyable game against a fine gentleman, thanks Steve. Now I want my own Ogre army ... perhaps this was Steve’s plan all along?

Scatter Terrain for Sharp Practice

I like my battlefields to look a little 'lived in' so adding a few items of scatter terrain is nice way to achieve this aim... and these items from Grand Manner are just the ticket! First is a kiln, so my Portuguese farmer is also quite handy as a potter.

The kiln is actually from GM's Ancient Greek range but I reckon that the design of such things was probably fairly similar right around the Mediterranean and also didn't change that much between Greek times and the 1800s. Obviously I am now going to meet someone who has a PhD entitled "Kiln Construction & Pottery Manufacture in the Mediterranean from Antiquity to the Modern Day" :-D

Painting - basically the same as the Church and Grain Store. Light brown spray to prime the resin, then a base of Americana Honey Brown, then highlights of Americana Fawn, VMC Dark Sand and then finally Foundry Boneyard Light. The base is Americana Honey brown followed by highlights of VMC Tan Yellow and VMC Dark Sand. The foliage is Colonel Bill's Winter static grass with tufts, etc.

Next, from the same range, is a wooden table covered in urns and pots. I thought that this would accompany the kiln rather nicely.

Painting - The wood is Foundry Bay shade highlighted with VMC Dark Sand and Foundry Boneyard light. The pots are a base of GW Scorched Brown, highlighted with the Foundry Conker Brown triad. The base is the same as above.

Now we're on to safer ground with a few barrels and a pile of round shot, again from GM. This can either be scatter scenery, an objective marker or perhaps a Sharp Practice deployment point.

Painting - the wood is as above with the additional step of washing the brown with GW Agrax Earthshade to give it a slightly warmer look. The barrel hoops are GW Black, GW Tin Bitz then a highlight of GW Leadbelcher. The shot are just GW Black and GW Leadbelcher.