Chicago Skirmish Wargames

Presenting notes and gallery for the third round of our Kings of War Campaign!

This was actually one large game on an 8x4 table. Newcomer to KoW, Mattias joined us, leading a smaller force of "Kingdoms of Man" green-armored human mercenaries who seem to have fallen under the glamour of Michael's Slaanesh. Facing them across the board was a united force of brutality with Karl's Khorne (Varangur) and Jon's Chaos (Abbysal) Dwarves.

The Scenario objectives were a combination of destroying enemy units and seizing and holding various Obelisks which the controlling player could also choose to destroy. To spice things up we consulted Michael's WHFB "General's Companion". After rolling on a few tables we determined that:

• The river is a chaotic entity and every time it is disturbed, a roll is made to determine if an attack is made upon or a boon is granted to entities adjacent or in the river.
• The central Obelisk attacks units that approach. However, once in contact the unit is in control of the obelisk and a roll on a chart determines what the boon or special attack is granted to that unit.

Neither of these greatly affected the battle but they added a nice bit of flavor and occasionally a comic effect. I really like this sort of thing and I hope we incorporate more of it in the future. The scenario allowing controlling units to destroy objectives was an interesting mechanic that rewarded fast, nimble and flying units for quick advances to destroy objectives they didn't have a real chance of holding until the game's end.

In the end the forces of Slanesh and their human thralls won a narrow victory based on units destroyed (measured by the "Unit Size" stat). A very fun game and well fought.

Also, we learned a few things about ranged combat, this was the first game with massed artillery and the first in which I fielded two regiments of archers and used them together throughout. Formerly we generally found War Engines to be less than useful as generally they only have one attack. Archers had been found to be useful for wearing down opponents, but not particularly powerful. Both units proved far more useful fielded in groups. The paired "Night Raider" archer regiments destroyed more than their own points values before ever contacting the enemy and when contact was made, they performed better than expected.

The trio of "Siege Artillery" fielded by the mercenaries also proved itself quite useful and destructive. IIRC, at least one hit was scored each turn making the battery a reliable source of damage from it's nearly unreachable position along the table's edge.

So, a game with useful lessons learned, good looking armies, a massive battle, an interesting scenario and great players overflowing with sportsmanship and goodwill. What more could you ask for?

Happy gaming,

Karl