Thursday 22 September 2016

Campaigns in Kings of War

Given that its been a few months I thought it was high time I put a post up:

Firstly, lets get the painted stuff on.  There's been quite a bit rolling off the painting table, and even more rolling into the queue but I've only picked out a couple of my favourites:
Firstly a Ral Partha Giant; well he's sold as a troll but he's plenty tall enough to be a Giant! Found this chap in Llandudno model shop and picked him up with a bunch of heroes and adventurers most of whom are awaiting paint, but I couldn't resist jumping the queue with this chap- hes just so FI, FIE, FO, FUM!
 Picked up these chaos knights of ebay for a pittance, they are the old Battlemasters ones, but I think they scrub up well!  Went for as varied a unit as I could with all sorts of colours. I felt that the unit looked a bit thin with just one banner so added a second- borrowed from the cover of the Hawkwind Album "Warrior on the edge of time"! Felt it was appropriate...


There's plenty to be working on at the moment- the Druchii are getting priority at the moment, as they are so close to being finished! But a horde of Orks and Gretchin, chaos warriors and Orcs, plus a few dwarves and eldar are in the pipeline...oh and I recently put my entire Empire army through the dip, (and even added more figures to it!) and its now ready to be reasembled and repainted!  Phew...should keep me going for a bit!


Anyway;  Campaigns!  I like campaigns.  Don't like tourneys, but campaigns are fun.  I like to run them too, though they tend to die after a while as players drift off to other stuff...the trick is to keep them short I think...anyway I've not seen any Kings of War orientated rules for a campaign yet so I thought I'd my usual trick and abuse the ones that were written for warhammer-  you'll find various versions of them in the Warhammer 5th ed Battle Book and the ECW rule book.  I wrote up one for Pike and Shotte and decided to do another for KOW.

So here goes- This campaign is for any number of players and is simply  a way of linking battles to a common theme- the aim is to collect territories and the player with the most at the end wins! The Gamesmaster adjudicating can set other prizes along the way, such as special magic items, territories etc...

All players start with the following restrictions in place on their force selection:
600 points to spend, this is their Army Points Limit.
0-1 Hero   (may be a spellcaster with no more than 1 spell) 
0-1 Monster (may be combined with the above for a hero/Mon)
0-1 Warmachine
0-1 Artefact ( >20pts)
No Hordes or Legions may be taken.
No Units marked with either * or [1] .
No restriction on Troops units.
No Allies

To overcome these restrictions you will need to win territories!  All players start with three Rolled from the following Table, the benefits of which are added to the choices available as listed above.
Roll D66:

11-14 Village
  • Each village you own allows you to recruit more troops-  Add 25 points to your Army Points Limit.

15-16 Town
  • Plenty of raw material  here for the Recruiting Sergeants! Each Town allows you to add 50 points to your Army Points Limit

21-23 Woods
  • Each Woods you own allows you to take 1 additional Warmachine in your army (purchased from your army points limit as normal)
24-26  Road
  • Each Road under your control makes it much easier to move and mass your troops enabling you to take  one Horde or Legion per road  (purchased from your army points limit as normal), and adds 10 points to your Army Points Limit.
31- 32 Hall
  • Halls and Manors, the home of the gentry- its only natural that such individuals should be offered a position of command as an officer in your forces in return for their support: you may take +1 Hero  (purchased from your army points limit as normal)
33-34  Bridge
  • Bridges are very valuable things to control if you want to move troops..as long as they are kept in good repair. Each Bridge adds D6x10 points to your Army Points Limit. Roll this when the territory is generated. If the Territory changes hands reroll it.
35-36 Ancient Tomb
  • Digging up the grave of a Hero of ancient times is a little unsavoury but he's not exactly going to need that magic sword...You make take an additional Artefact worth >30 points  (purchased from your army points limit as normal).
41-43 Armoury
  • With a good supply of Weapons you can arm and equip the militia to support your cause- you are able to take one unit marked with a *  (purchased from your army points limit as normal)
44-46 Tower
  • Wizards gravitate to Towers like Dwarves gravitate to Ale, not least because it keeps out the riffraff and lets them get on with their studies- Each Tower you have allows an Spellcaster in your army to take 1 extra spell  (purchased from your army points limit as normal).
 51 Ruins
  • Searching amidst the ruins uncovers a powerful magical artefact...or possibly a worthless trinket. Randomly select one of the Artefacts. This is added to you Army Points Limit and where possible must be carried in battle by an appropriate unit. If none such unit is present it must be kept with the baggage.
52-53 College 
  • Establishing a college is a mark of a sophisticated civilisation, but more importantly allows to you train your own wizards and clerics! For each College you own you may take one extra wizard  (purchased from your army points limit as normal).
54-55 Temple
  • Building a temple to your chosen God is a sure way to get them on your side. Unfortunately that's no guarantee that their blessings will be any way helpful; Gods don't really have the same priorities as mere mortals... Roll a D6 before each battle in the presence of your opponent to determine how the whim of the Gods will effect you today:  
  1. The Gods are pleased with your offerings! They bestow a Duck living in your realm with the power of flight.
  2. The Gods are pleased with your offerings! They appear to your followers in a blinding flash of light, which takes a little while to recover from. Once during the battle your opponent may force you to reroll all the attack dice you rolled for a particular attack, all dice for the attack must be rerolled just once regardless of result. 
  3. The Gods are pleased with your offerings! The Gods bestow your followers with great vigour! Once during the battle you may reroll all the attack dice you rolled for a particular attack, all dice for the attack must be rerolled just once regardless of result. 
  4. The Gods are pleased with your offerings! The gods put on an astonishing display of lights in the sky that would have mesmerised all that saw them were it not for the concealing cloud cover that prevented anyone seeing it...
  5. The Gods are pleased with your offerings! The Gods bestow your followers with great skill! Once during the battle you may reroll all the attack dice you rolled for a particular attack, all dice for the attack must be rerolled just once regardless of result. 
  6. The Gods are pleased with your offerings! The Gods bestow your followers with great skill and vigour! TWICE during the battle you may reroll all the attack dice you rolled for a particular attack, all dice for the attack must be rerolled just once regardless of result. 

    56-62 Mountains
    • You may take +1 monster area of mountains under your control.  (purchased from your army points limit as normal and maybe combined with a an available Hero to make a Hero/Mon choice)
    63-64 Port
    • A well established port is a natural stopping off point for all manner of travellers and adventurers- For each Port under your control you may spend 5% of your Army Points limit on Allied Mercenaries, chosen from a suitable allied list and obeying all other limitations on your force.
    65 Treasure Trove
    • Uncovering a Treasure Trove allows you access to D3 additional Artefacts of  any points value  (purchased from your army points limit as normal) .  Roll the D3 when the territory is generated, this is the number it provides throughout the campaign.
    66-  Spy Network (doesn't count to total of territories, if you roll this as a starting territory keep it and roll another )
    • Its not easy setting up a network of agents and spies to keep an eye on your enemies,  but it can be worth the effort: roll D6 at the start of each Battle, after deployment in the presence of your opponent.
    1. The Spy is turned! He now works for your opponent who may now roll on this table
    2. The Spy is discovered! Caught and executed, this territory is destroyed.
    3. The Spy is unable to do anything of use for fear of discovery, and only just avoids capture.
    4. The Spy steals your opponents plans - you may redeploy one unit you have already deployed, anywhere within your normal deployment area.
    5. The Spy manages to get amongst the enemy's horses in the night and causes havoc-select a single Cavalry unit in the enemy army - its Sp is reduced by D3 for the rest of the Battle.
    6. The Spy slips something into the punch during the Officers Supper: roll a d6 for each hero in your opponents force- on a 6 they start the battle with a single point of damage already taken.

    All players need to do is challenge each other to a battle- at the start of the battle they generate the territory that is up for grabs on the above chart, and each offers up one territory they own as their stake in the coming battle- the winner keeps his stake and picks whether he wants the newly generated territory or to steal his opponents stake, adding it to his territory, the loser takes whatever is left. Battles are fought until a winner of the campaign emerges or everyone gets bored and goes off to play Bolt Action or something...

    Simple eh?