Kings of War observations

[Fritz]

I've been hitting universal battle lately to play some Kings of War, so I thought I'd share my observations.

Man this game is fast
This game is definitely designed to play quickly and easily. A player turn takes less time than your average Warhammer magic phase. Half of this comes comes from simple, but not simplistic rules. By that I mean the rules are very easy to learn, but provide a deceptive level of depth. Movement is less picky about precision, yet more restrictive. There are no wheels. Instead you have certain number of 90 degree turns allowed (usually one, two if you have nimble) during the movement. The success or failure of a charge is measured from the unit's leader before any movement happens, but the actual distance traveled doesn't matter. Combat is likewise brutal and decisive. Another thing that I see as a positive (although this is very much a matter of opinion) is that the player taking the turn is the only one that does anything. Your units are the only ones moving, the only ones doing magic, and the only ones striking blows in combat. You're still interacting as players since you're often asking about stat lines and the like, but you aren't waiting for the other player for charge reactions, dispel attempts, etc. The end result however, is speeding up the turns. I have yet to play a game that took more than 2 hours. Some were done in 1 hour. That's including set-up. Some things are easier online (such as set-up), but having to type everything out instead of talking it out makes up the difference. Seeing as we're all time crunched as parents, this is a big deal to me.

The armies feel just as distinctive as WFB
You're going to look at the stat lines and wonder how there is any kind of real distinction between armies. Trust me, they're there. I've seen Elves, Dwarves, Undead, and Orcs in action. They all play distinctive from the others because of how much a minor tweak to a stat line or the addition of a single special rule can change the game. I'm absolutely in love with the undead mechanics. There are no explicit raise the dead spells. You can get the Heal spell (which most armies can) for some of that. Instead, however, all the units have what's called lifeleach, which allows them to regain a number of wounds equal to the lifeleach value from doing wounds in combat. This is to reflect the enemy units getting raised up as they die and join the undead ranks. You also can't march. Period. Full stop. What you do get, however, is access to the surge spell, which allows you to move your units in the shooting phase. A Necromancer, as an example, gets Surge (8), meaning he gets to roll 8 dice. For every 4+ you get one inch. This allows you to help your units keep up, but also allows for some fantastic out of the box movement.

Holy crap balance!
They nailed it. I've yet to see a worthless unit or an overpowered one. Each unit has a place. I especially love how they've done spear units. After years of Warhammer never getting spears right, KoW made them perfect. They are explicitly a cavalry counter, as they should be. Normally cavalry get a to wound bonus when they're charging. They do not, however, get that bonus against spear units. I had a Skeleton Spear Horde hold up two cavalry units and a wyvern mounted Orc Warlord for two turns very much because they took away the charge bonuses, allowing my own cavalry to mob up a flank and turn it.