Kings of War – Commander
(Other names such as Warmaster and Epic were already taken)
Kings of War – Commander (Kow-C) is a fan based ruleset to
fight large battles using the Kings of War Ruleset as a guideline with 10mm
miniatures, or other small-scale models. The KoW-C rule set is different than
just playing Kings of War in a smaller scale.
Kings of War is a great balanced ruleset for battle at any point value,
but it starts to break down once you reach higher point levels. Not with the rules, but with all the other
minutia that comes with playing the game such as wound counters, base sizes,
and keeping track of which units have certain magical artifacts. The emphasis
is on having larger point battles (4k+) that do not take all day to play
out. To acknowledge this some of the
rules have been modified to speed up play.
The goal of this ruleset is to try and play those large
point battles in less than 3 hours on a standard 6’x4’ board while not
cluttering up the game with too many special rules or diverting from the spirit
of Kings of War. Other benefits of playing
larger battles are the smaller tactics that come into play such as war-machine
hunting, multiple battle lines, reserves, flanking forces, and using long range
war engines to soften up troops, etc.
These tactics do exist in regular KoW, but hopefully KoW-C brings these larger
epic tactics to your table top.
This is a work in progress, and is being play tested to find
out what works. Maybe the rules as written
for KoW are fine, but let’s try this first.
The main rulebook and Clash of Kings 2018 for Kings of War
is used except for the following changes:
Units & Basing
To facilitate play units are given standard base sizes based
on 40mm x 20mm (frontal width x depth).
Unit Type
|
Troop
|
Regiment
|
Horde
|
Legion
|
Infantry (20mm)
|
40x20
|
40x40
|
80x40
|
80x60
|
Infantry (25mm)
|
40x20
|
40x40
|
80x40
|
80x60
|
Cavalry
|
40x20
|
40x40
|
80x40
|
N/A
|
Large Infantry
|
N/A
|
40x20
|
40x40
|
80x40
|
Large Cavalry
|
N/A
|
60x40
|
60x80
|
N/A
|
Large Cavalry (Chariot - 50x100)
|
N/A
|
60x40
|
60x80
|
N/A
|
War Engines/Monsters/Characters use 20x20 min with
exceptional base size in effect. Use the
rule of cool to make sure the base fits the model.
Individuals may be mounted on 20x20 min or round bases on of
a coin. Players of other systems will
not need to change bases. In our experience,
even in 28mm scale, the individual facing rarely matters except as noted below
in Movement while being charged by Nimble
units. This is also an opportunity
to spice up an individual’s base with assistants, bodyguards, a tent, a plan-laden desk, etc.
Base sizes have been simplified to make it easier to base
your army. The emphasis is large armies,
and we do not want to bogged down worrying about millimeters. We realize there are many other systems out
there that use different base sizing. Just
agree with your group with what works best for your group.
Unit Leader Point – this is only used for determining which
arc a unit is charging. All measurements
are done closest point on bases, but must still be in arc for both shooting and
charging.
Movement
All movement is done in CM or halve the number of INCHES.
There is no minimum distance anymore. If the base fits, then it fits.
Charging individuals on round bases use the following
method. Measure the closest points
between the units before moving charging unit.
The charging unit must contact that closest point on the round
base. If a unit cannot touch or fit then
then it is a failed charge and unit is not moved.
Terrain
Terrain should be scaled down to 10mm with forest and
difficult terrain be small enough so that a unit does not need more than 2
turns going through it.
Magical Artifacts
Only characters may take magical artifacts. This is to speed up play with the emphasis
being on large battles.
Experimental Rules
These are rules that we think need to be addressed to help
facilitate gameplay but have not been tested.
1 - Halving all ATT and Nerve characteristics rounding
up. Units, such as War Engines and
Giants, that have additional attacks also round up. This is again to speed up play since we are
playing with more units than a standard game.
Less wound counters and less dice rolling should speed things up.
2 - Nerve tests are only taken using a d6. Exceptional Morale results can be determined
by rolling an additional d6 after a 1 or 6 is rolled.
3 - Allowing one magical artifact for each troop type. For instance, only one unit of Ogre Shooters
may receive an artifact. The spirit behind
this is more focus on units, and your opponent has less chance of forgetting
which unit has what.
4 - Putting small dots on character's base to show spells. Small dots will work on the front of the base. Anything that helps to not have to constantly look at stat sheets is good.
White=Heal, Red=Fireball, Blue- Lightning Bolt, Purple- Bane Chant, etc.
Scenarios
I recommend playing at a minimum 4000-point games using the scenarios
published in CoK2018 with KoW-C. Don’t
limit yourself to just CoK2018 scenarios.
There are plenty of other scenarios in Destiny of Kings and the Edge
of the Abyss sourcebooks as well, or use home-made scenarios using baggage
trains or sieges.
The standard distance separating armies should be 30
cm. This is to allow more movement
actions such as flanking and war engine barrages.
Distance units are tokens to claim should be 50mm or 2
inches.
Number of turns should be increased to 8, with a possible 9th
on a 4+. This helps counter the extra
space between the deployment zones.
Conclusion
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this. It is made just for fun and a love of all things Kings of War. If there is enough demand then maybe we will
work on a tournament ruleset. We have tried
to be faithful to the original KoW work as much as possible. We love KoW at any scale and hopefully this
scratches an itch for those wanting larger battles. Combined with Vanguard, you could easily
incorporate any campaigns with all three systems.
Hopefully, this will bring more enthusiasm to regular KoW
and draw in more players.
Thank you again for taking a look and I appreciate any feedback.
