With that out of the way, I just wanted to share my thoughts on a very small 460pt KoW Ambush! game.
Last night I fielded my ‘soon(-ish)’ finished 100% Mantic Sylvan Kin against my own Undead, played by a friend I scheme to lure into Kings of War.
The lists were:
SK
1 troop Boskwraiths
Staying Stone
1 troop Wild Gur Panthers
1 regiment Hunters of the Wild
1 Elven King
Shardblade
Wanderer update
Undead
1 regiment Skeleton Warriors
1 regiment Revenants
1 regiment Werewolves
Staying Stone
1 Revenant King
Surge
The lists were build with stuff I had already painted and to be kind of mirror-armies without too many special rules. They still had flavour, with the SKs all having Pathfinder for example.
The game lasted about 50min. My friend had never played KoW before, but plays Vanguard.
I got to say, it’s really nice to be able to field small armies to convince friends of KoW, test new armies or play a campaign with growing armies. The balance was ok, at the end of turn 6 the two kings faced off in melee with every thing else routed. We played the ‘Kill’ scenario, because it felt weird to chase objectives with just three units. It’s a fun addition to KoW and good to learn a few new tricks. What are your thoughts on Ambush!?
As a dedicated tournament player, I’m loving Ambush. I started up a casual escalation league locally, and yesterday was our first game night. 11 players, ranging from experienced to brand new. In a four hour period, I played three games and still did loads of chatting and admiring people’s models. We were only playing 500pts, so games were pretty swingy and silly, but it’s so dang quick that it doesn’t feel bad when it goes against you!
I’ve played a couple Ambush games at 1000pts, and it’s definitely a more satisfying KoW experience, where you’ve got enough pieces to be able to lose a couple without everything falling apart. Ambush is obviously fantastic for getting new players up and running, but I really believe that it’s a worthwhile experience for veteran players too! Removing hordes and expensive units from the game fundamentally changes how durable stuff is, so combat roles are different than in the full game. Plus, a full game in an hour on a 3x3 board is divine!
I haven’t played Ambush as yet, but did play a bunch of games under the below (which appears to possibly have been an early draft rule set?) in a mini event run by Matt (RC and rule writer for the last couple of books)
Smaller games do need objectives etc to avoid simply being Kill with fewer units.
Multifunctional units are going to be really good value - obviously gladestalkers, rangers, pack hunters etc and light missile cavalry; dual use and/or inspiring heroes and monsters under the price cap are fun.
Having already played some 1000pt games (keeping units cheap, only one of everything). I’m not sure I’d play at the smaller scale of ambush, but would definitely enjoy games nearer 995pts. Around there, you still get a decent force on the table (though things tend to be slimmer!) and there’s enough pieces for a back-and-forth.
