Hey everyone,
after a few months of reading it’s finally my turn to write something here. So please bear with me if it is a little bit rough explaining. I just started to play KoW against @NumbDice and already won an award from his league for loosing all two games 
We played 1.000 points and I deployed nearly the same army both times (against Kingdoms of Men and Earth Elementals). This is my “jack of all trades” army list, please have a look 
He mopped the floor with me, but was so kind and gave me some pointers what I did wrong:
- I just moved my knights around instead of attacking immediately. Have to change that.
- Use the Riflemen as cheap units to attack the sides/ back of one of his units which was fighting my Pikemen instead of shoot once and then stand around.
A recommendation I got from YouTube was to play Kingdoms of Men either “grindy” or “shooting”. I would prefer a combination of both (if possible, otherwise just grind down my enemies), so here are some of my questions:
- Indomitable Will - is it worth it or should I use magic items/ combine both?
- Replace the Spear Phalanx Horde and Foot Guard Regiment with a Foot Guard Horde (higher defense)?
- Replace the Knights with Beast Cavalry (more attacks)?
Just to explain my questions and a little bit background: I played Warhammer Fantasy years ago and liked the hammer and amboss tactics I could apply with Empire units. A big block of infantry, knights on the flanks and shooting units (muskets plus cannons/ mortars) at the back. Lovely 
Right now we used Universal Battle to play and test armies (as @NumbDice has to drive two hours to visit me), but I definitely want to use my old WHFB miniatures to field a real army soon. Depending on your suggestions I’m thinking of converting my 20+ militia into pikemen. The other way round (converting 10 pikemen into militia) would be much easier 
In stock waiting for action I’ve this units (I tried to find a KoW representation for the WHFB unit names):
- 10x Crossbow Block (Crossbowmen)
- 5x Mounted Scouts (Pistoliers)
- 20x Fanatics (Flagellants)
- 10x Bowmen
- 10x Spear Phalanx w/ Pikes (Pikemen)
- 16x Knights
- 29x Militia Mob (State Troops w/ Swords)
- 6x Beast Cavalry (Demigryph Knights)
- 10x Crossbow Block w/ Rifles (State Troops w/ Muskets)
- 1x Cannon
- 1x General on Winged Beast/ The Monarch (Karl Franz on Griffon)
- 1x General on Horse
- 1x Army Standard Bearer
- 1x Valten
- 1x Fanatic Instigator (Battle Priest)
- 3x Wizards
- 1x Wizard on Horse
- 1x Mammoth (Steam Tank)
- 1x Fanatic Instigator (Witch Hunter)
- 10x Foot Guard (Greatswords)
I’m looking forward to your suggestions!
Cheers, Matt
4 Likes
Welcome! I am also a Warhammer refugee, and coincidentally also played Empire for a bit back in the day.
Two losses is nothing for learning a new game. It is good to evaluate things and ask questions, but the more you play the more you pick up. No need to despair or worry too much about fine-tuning lists just yet.
To add to your resources, Any Wargame Any Time has some battle reports featuring the Kingdoms of Men. And Master Sight has been posting some of his tournament games using the Kingdoms of Men as well. In a shameless plug, I have a blog, housing written battle reports with a variety of armies and lists (and even dug up an old TVI Tactica for discussion with the insightful Randy Atchley, who also has a youtube channel.)
Your questions aren’t going to have a clear cut answer, and will come down to personal perference.
- Indomitable Will can be great, but not everything should take it, since you need to pay for it. Keep it for your most important units and things without Headstrong.
- If you want an infantry horde anvil, either would work, with the Pikes being a bit weaker against an opponent with shooting. Consider adding the Hammer of Measured force onto the Def5 Foot Guard if you decide to try them out. For what its worth, I have really liked my Pikes as regiments. As long as my opponent isn’t shooting them, they last longer than expected usually.
- Knights and Beast Cav are trying to be heavy hitters. I don’t have experience with the Beast Cav yet, and have liked the cheap knight regiments just fine.
I wouldn’t hasten to convert your old minis for pikes. Warlord Games put out a plastic landsknecht pike kit that should mesh well with GW Empire. They have a zweihander kit too if you want to beef up your Greatsword ranks. I’d suggest checking those out. The rest of your collection should easily find homes, as you’ve noted already.
Welcome to the forum!
2 Likes
Welcome, and well done for choosing the right army 
KoM have loads of good units, it’s just a question of finding the right balance and learning how to get the best out of them.
The first thing that stands out with the list is the lack of any real punch, barring the knights on the initial charge.
In most lists a wizard with Inspiring Talisman, Bane Chant and Lightning Bolt is a staple. Before anything gets into combat you have some ranged attacks and the extra cs1 really helps.
IW i find really useful - both for the one turn Inspiring (esp in a list that doesn’t have a lot), but more for the waver removal.
Without changing your army much I’d swap the hero/standard for above mentioned wizard and add IW to knights, pikes & Footguard?
Swapping out swords for spears would be easy enough, and provided you aren’t running pikes and spearmen in the same army it doesn’t make a huge difference exactly what they look like.
Model-wise, there are plenty of good ranges that would complement the old gw range - Wargames Atlantic have conquistadors, Oathmark human range is nice and Fireforge foot sergeants is a really versatile kit amongst others
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