So I played my first game of Kings of War last Sunday at Nerima Miniatures Club, and as far as spectacles go it was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't have a battle mat or even a rudimentary green tablecloth, and so the battle was waged literally on a table surface without any terrain. If I really stretched my imagination I could visualize a meeting engagement somewhere in the desert between an expeditionary force of Empire, and a welcoming committee of Tomb Kings. Napoleon in Egypt, perhaps, except with fantasy Germanic inspired forces and skeletons. Hrm. But yeah, I need to buy myself a battle mat and some terrain pieces. I'm not going to convert anyone to KoW with that rudimentary display.
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| My Empire squares off versus my Tomb Kings. Erm, I mean the League of Rhordia squares off against the Empire of Dust. As spectacles go this was a total fail. |
But my cherry has been popped, and my journey to the Mantic side has been completed. And I can say that my Tomb Kings have actually seen action on the table top, 14 years after they were bought. Phew. It was worth it. Not. All that time, effort and money, culminating in a game against a novice Japanese player who didn't really know what he was doing. Hell, neither of us did. I'm pretty sure that I was missing rules left and right as we blundered our way through a game. Poor Yuasaki-San. I've popped his cherry for both Deadzone and Kings of War, and while Deadzone took - he is now painting up a Forge Father strike force - KoW is not something he will be interested in. Especially since he got trounced badly. Tomb Kings (Empire of Dust under KoW rules) need robust magic phases to work, and as a novice, he didn't really know that. So I ended up just steamrolling him with my knights - who, incidentally, are just awesome units in KoW - and my Iron Beast, a.k.a. the Steam Tank. My Empire list (League of Rhordia/Kingdoms of Men under KoW rules) was really powerful in this game, and my Tomb Kings list Yuasaki-San used was pretty mediocre. I gave him the choice of forces before the game, but it was really a coin flip - he didn't know the rules, and an uninformed decision is no decision at all but just a stab in the dark. I didn't realize my Dust list was so weak, but that's what happens when you play a game for the first time. Cold comfort though if Yuasaki-San decides never to play again. Let's face it, every time I want to play KoW I'm going to have bring at least two armies because fantasy wargaming has such a ridiculous entry cost in terms of both time and money. There were two people (Sugiyama-San? and Hoshikarasu-San?) playing the abomination known as Age of Sigmar on an adjacent table, but I didn't ascertain whether or not they could field full armies for a game. Maybe next time. This club was formerly a Warhammer Fantasy club after all. There are armies out there lurking in attics and storage closets begging to be let out. I just need to work on my presentation, and maybe I can bring some people back into the fold.
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| My Empire. In the middle of the line is an unpainted regiment of Ulric Templars. Apart from that the force is fully painted, and served me well in tournaments over 17 years ago. Need to work on those movement trays, too. |
But I've put my Warhammer armies back in storage for now. They won't come out again until September. In July I'm going to go back to Deadzone, and have amended my painting priorities accordingly. In August I'll be going back to Australia, and hopefully be playing a LOT of Mansions of Madness with my sister and family. I pulled out my Mansions of Madness collection the other day, and was impressed with how much of the collection I'd actually painted. The Lovecraftian universe in a box is almost complete. Woot. I became set on acquiring this game after my Australian holiday in August last year. I wanted to bring a fully painted game home to Australia, and it's gratifying seeing a painting goal coming to fruition.
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| My very first game of Mantic's The Walking Dead: All Out War. It was great fun, and I immediately bought the starter set on the spot after a couple of games with Honda-San. |
The real discovery for the day, however, was finding a The Walking Dead: All Out War player (Honda-San). In case you are wondering why I am so fastidious about writing names it's because my memory of Japanese names sucks ass, and I need to write them down so I can remember. I'd wanted to buy this game, squashed the impulse on the rationale that there wouldn't be anyone to play against, saw it on the day, played two games, and promptly bought it on the spot from Koizumi-San, the Japanese Mantic distributor. Sigh. Impulse control is not my thing.
However, I have to say that the game is really, really fun. Fast paced, low miniature count, and very nice scenery to boot. Not to mention based on a franchise that I really, really like. I can get into this for sure. But now I'm looking at scenery boosters, character boosters and expansions. Fuck you Mantic for making such interesting games. Fuck me being such an easy mark. But in reality I'm quite happy. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find players for Mantic games here in Japan. That fear has been allayed, which means I'm free to expand in whatever direction I feel like, whether that be KoW, DZ, TWD:AOW or even Mars Attacks! I have a resolution that every game I've ever bought must be played at least once, and Mars Attacks! remains in that category along with the Dead of Winter expansion and City of Horror. I'll get there, but now I can take my time and smell the roses. And maybe set up a Deadzone campaign for next month?
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