Wrath of Kings

[CK Lai]

Since UH’s video battle report is coming out any day now (I assume) I thought I’d start this topic first, which the 2 questions:

1. What’s your favourite faction and why
2. Favourite strategies for your faction/against another faction?

1. I picked up an Ancient King pledge plus a few extras on BGG so I’ve all 5 factions. I’ve only played with 4 so far, save for Teknes. Still haven’t settled on a favourite faction yet, although on looks alone, probably Nasier.
2. Strategies: Discovered the Wardancers are a pretty effective counter to the Ashmen’s “Act With Certainty” ability. In one game, 5 Wardancers activated, did their Deadly Flourish move and killed 4 Ashmen! And since they weren’t engaged 1-on-1, the Ashmen just dropped.

Of course, the Wardancers (being Goritsi) are a bit fragile (eg Alyana Heska moved in and killed 3 out of 5 Wardancers with her Shattering Strike.)

And that’s all I have for now.

[Universal Head]

The battle report is filmed and edited and coming soon!

We played Nasier vs Goritsi and perhaps we got the Wardancers ability wrong somehow as we found it very difficult to pull off. You have to start unengaged, then can only move 3″ doing a one die attack to any mini you leap over. So you have to move very close and get initiative to manage to use it.

What are you using the Dungeon Command counters for?

I was disappointed with Rathor’s weak magic atack, but the Longhorn is a nice melee attacker. But my favourite so far is the Nasier Swordsman and their ability to hit back not only if they parry, but if they’re killed. The Bloodmasks are pretty weak attackers, but great in defense. My opponent also enjoyed using the Dancing Master’s Attraction ability to pull me off an objective, which was very annoying!

Great game, I really enjoyed it.

[CK Lai]

Yeah, the Wardancer’s Flourish is a bit difficult to pull off for exactly the reasons you described. But when it works, it’s awesome! Also, if you’re playing a Nasier vs. Goritsi battle, just the fact the Wardancers are wandering around has got to make the Nasier player a bit more careful with his Ashmen. Of course, a lot also depends on the dice gods… if you don’t roll a hit, you don’t roll a hit.

The Nasier Ashmen are definitely one of the better Rank 1 infantry in the game. I usually tie them up with 2 Rank 1 infantry, so as not to trigger their Act With Certainty ability, but that’s wasteful and can lead to problems down the line.

The Rathor was certainly a surprise to me. Looks sooooo cool but a bit of a let down on the battlefield. I think my problem was I always used it to support the Rank 1 troops (Pelegarth usually) and then the silly LOS rules end up neutering the Rathor, so I either need to use him on the flanks (for clear LOS) or house rule the LOS rules which are a bit incomplete to me.

I mean, WoK uses the normal clear line of sight from base to base rules… which is fine if you’re fighting normal human enemies. But what makes WoK so cool is they have MONSTERS. And going by the scale, since they’re so careful to have Size stats on the cards… don’t tell me you can’t see the top half of a Rathor or Skorza behind a line of piddly Rank 1 infantry? And aim accordingly?

Which brings me to the other beef I have about the rules, which is terrain. Aside from movement constraints, terrain seems to have no advantages/disadvantages on combat. They used to have a “Cover” stat in an earlier version of the rules for Ranged Attacks, but that was removed. So you can’t dodge behind terrain when you’re being shot at. Neither can you stand behind a wall and receive some defensive bonuses for doing so (since melee combat is base to base).

Oh well. I might house rule again 🙂

I use the Dungeon Command counters to mark which units have acted. In the early stages, that’s not an issue, but when the troops get mixed up in combat, and some leaders only being able to activate 5 troops max at a time (when I have more than 5 of a unit) things get messy pretty fast. Plus my memory is pretty bad, so I mark who’s activated and save a lot of hassle later. Plus I also use the DC wound counters to mark wounds on the units… plus other markers as and when needed for Motivations, usually. I don’t have any generic markers but TONS of DC markers, so…

Yeah, aside from that, I enjoy the game a lot. Fast to set up (compared to some board games *cough Descent 2nd Ed cough*) and not a lot of rules to remember.

[Universal Head]

Why is LoS a problem? An intervening model has to have a size greater than the attacker or defender. So a Rathor behind his own normal troops could fire at the opponent’s normal troops. And troops could fire at the Rathor.

Yes, I completely agree with you about terrain; no advantages for being behind a wall or being on a higher level. I can see they’re trying to keep things simple but that does seem a bit silly.

Ah. We use clear gem counters to keep track of activations, and tiny red dice top keep track of wounds.

[CK Lai]

LOS: this bit? “If an element in the LoS window has a size greater than either the attacker or defender, the element is blocking.”

That what it means? Ugh. I feel dumb 😛

Thanks for clearing that bit up.

[Universal Head]

I’m pretty sure that’s what it means. 🙂

[CK Lai]

That’s why I feel so dumb 😛

[razide]

I think all five factions are good but lean towards Nasier as having a more consistent theme and style. Love the idea of the masks controlling everyone.

I have not played any games to get a feel for Favourite strategies yet. Hoping for a couple later this month.

[razide]

End game – note the lone Ashman at the top right; this slacker did not move at all.

Motivations Call to Glory & Silence the Tongue
Game1 Intro – Nasier (2) v Goritsi (-3)

The Ashmen were lucky and killed 2 Skorza & wounded another with their Act with Certainty special ability. The game could have easily gone the other way if not for this ferocious revenge.
The Hakar killed the Alpha Skorza.

The Pelegarth & War Dancers slowly wore each other down
The Dancing Master easily disposed of the Howl after leaping over the Pelegarths but was inturn cut down by the Longhorn after he had chopped up the Scorge Hound.

The Shieldbreaker spent too much time engaging the Rathor before felling it – he would have been more effective closing with the Ashmen and unleashing Howl from Beyond.

I was very impressed with the game flow and mechanics of this first game of Wok.

[Universal Head]

Excellent!

[CK Lai]

Nice report!

I have 2 battle reports of my own here:

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1358470/8th-game

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1359104/9th-game-5th-session-write

and some DIY Motivation Cards here:

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/115445/motivation-cards

[Universal Head]

I’ve read them, they’re great. And the cards are clever, I might do something similar if you don’t mind me nicking the idea.

[Author]

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