Kings of War: The Killing Fields of the Agamin Desert

Last week the club gathered at Games Plus for another game of Kings of War. At 4,000 points per side, this 5-player battle was our largest game yet of KOW, and I'm pleased to report that the fast-playing ruleset once again gave a satisfying game replete with epic charges, heroic stands, brutal artillery barrages and deadly magical attacks.

A note about our armies: If you're a regular Chicago Skirmish Wargames reader, you'll know that we love games that don't put any limits on the models that we use. King of War embraces that ethos, which is why our armies are composed of miniatures from a dozen or more manufacturers, everything from Citadel to Reaper to RAFM to Mantic to old school Battlemasters to D&D prepaints and everything in between. If you're curious about the origin of a particular miniature, just ask in the comments section.

The game took place in the Agamin Boneyard, a vast windswept desert in the southern reaches of Qaarra. Mike and Alex commanded two detachments of stout dwarves, which allied with Tim's heroic defenders of the wilderness (hobbits, fairies and elementals). Here is their immense battle line, starting with Mike's dwarves, then on to Tim's nature warriors, then finally (barely glimpsed) are the dwarves commanded by Alex.

Here's the same battle line, looking from the opposite direction. Dwarves riding pigs!

On the other side of the battlefield, Karl and I mustered our forces: 2,000 points of undead for me, and 2,000 points of chaos warriors for Karl. Here is our battle line, starting with the undead army (dominated by Nethyrmaul the zombie dragon) and continuing on to Karl's red-armored chaos hordes (and the master tactician himself consulting a rulebook in the background).

Here's a closer look at Karl's battle line, which stretched off our felt battle mat and onto another makeshift battfield extension we had put together. We had immense 6 by 10 foot playing area at our disposal, which really allowed for an epic battle (as you'll see in the photos).

We played a variation on the "Kill and Pillage" scenario and placed 8 objective markers on the battlefield to fight over. At the end of six turns, victory points would be tallied based on objective markers held and casualties inflicted.

With that, we were off! Karl and I got the first turn. With creaking bones and clanking armor, the undead and chaos legions advanced ... slowly. Most of my undead guys had the "shambling" special rule, which meant they couldn't move very quickly. Karl's advance was a little better. A few of our units were quite fast, which enabled them to quickly outpace the bulk of our infantry. As we'd learn later in the game, this was both a blessing and a curse...

I don't know who the guy is in the background of this pic...

The turn passed to Mike, Tim and Alex, who surged forward toward the objectives scattered across the battlefield. Here's a closer look at Tim's hobbit horde -- literally 40 hobbits on a movement tray, backed up by an assortment of earth, water and fire elementals.

Mike's beautifully painted dwarves advanced in lockstep, hauling their artillery weapons as they came.

Nethyrmaul and his lesser bone dragon minion seized the small farm in the center of the table, from whence they would spew frightful magic attacks for the rest of the game. In the background, Karl looks on approvingly.

On the flank, Karl's fast-moving chaos cavalry crashed into a troop of dwarf boar riders commanded by Alex. This initial fight was just a harbinger of the slaughter to come as the armies moved ever closer.

Finally the vanguards of each army clashed near the center of the table. This big scrum included Tim's elementals, fairies and hobbits, as well as my wraiths and undead cavalry, plus Karl's red dragon, werewolves and chaos warriors, all gleefully smashing each other.

First blood came when Tim's fire elementals succeeding in routing Karl's unit of beastmen berzerkers. The cloven-hoofed fighters fled in terror and were removed from the battlefield.

On the flank, a troop of dwarf warriors commanded by Alex found themselves in a desperate predicament, as they received a charge by a horde of chaos warriors. Yes, that is a block of 40 old Battlemasters chaos warriors, all ranked up and ready to kill. Woe to the 10 dwarves standing in their path!

Even as this butchery unfolded, Alex kept up a steady stream of marginally accurate fire from his cannon. This is a rebased siege cannon from a prepainted MageKnight kit.

As quickly as he could, Karl rallied and charged in with his remaining chaos regiments. More slaughter ensued on both sides.

Back in the center of the battle, Tim's fairies and elementals had cut a swathe through Karl's elite units and were threatening his flank. Luckily he had a few more units in reserve to plug the gap. Tim's flying fairies are actually Epic 40k Eldar with butterfly wings!

On the far left flank, a grudge match was developing between Mike's dwarves and my skeleton regiments, which were both inching closer to each other under a barrage of crossbow and catapult fire.

Here's a more expansive look at the center of the battlefield, where Nethyrmaul held court with his ghastly breath attack and Tim's elementals rampaged through the smoke and flames.

By this point, many of Karl's chaos units were in full rout, having collapsed under the onslaught of Alex's dwarves and Tim's elementals and fairies.

The brutal frost giant himself joined the battle, helping to defeat Karl's cavalry.

Around this point, we reached our time limit and called the game. We had played five very satisfying turns (the scenario ends at 6 turns, so we basically played it to completion).

After tallying the results and quibbling over my questionable mental math, we concluded that the forces of good had prevailed over the armies of woe. Tim, Mike and Alex shared the victory while Karl and I cheered ourselves up in the knowledge that my undead army would be twice as big next time, once I raised all his slain chaos warriors from the grave.

Once again Kings of War gave us a great, visually stunning game. The glorious spectacle of 8,000 points of 28mm fantasy figures clashing across a 10-foot-long battlefield was truly something to behold. I hope my photos did the game justice.

Even though this was the first game for Alex and Mike (and only the second for me) we quickly got into the flow of the game and needed only minimal rulebook flipping to resolve most situations. I was using an army builder on my iPad, which presented all my stats and rules in a single screen.

I'd like to play the game again soon, though perhaps on a slightly smaller scale, since we don't regularly have access to a 6 by 10 foot table!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member