All,
Howdy, I’m new to KoW. Been a long time player of WHFB and have been trying to find a replacement. I’ve seen and been reading about KoW and it seems like I can find a home here. However as I’ve tried to dive into the rules, figs, armies, etc. I’m finding it hard to figure out what is what. There seems to be inconsistencies at each turn and I’m not sure where to look for the correct answers. I’m sure it’s a matter that I don’t know where to look so hopefully this forum can provide me some much needed direction.
Examples:
What are the correct army lists and were are they for the expanded armies? For example I have collected Scaven, Beastmen and Lizardmen. I think that relates to Ratkin, Herd and Salamander? When i downloaded the “Free Rules” Vanguard Abridged War band document I found the new armies above but there are only a handful of units listed in the document for each army. Yet I see lists people have shared in this forum that have a slew of units that do not exist in these free documents. Is there an approved lists out there at that shows all the units for each of these armies and there stats, special notes, special rules, weapon upgrades etc?
I use army builder and have for years. I was excited to see that army builder supports KoW (at least i think it does). In the Army Builder program i started building a Herd list (2250 pts). When i added a unit of Longhorns (Beastigors) i noticed on the warband document that they can have there weapons upgraded to 2H weapons for 2pts/model. The problem is when i add that unit into Army Builder there was no option to upgrade that unit to a 2H Weapon. I thought that might have just been an weird issue with outdated log file in army builder. So i thought i would try that website EasyArmy but the same issue appeared there. So now i’m scratching my head wondering if the army builder/easyarmy are a more up to date than the Free Rules download document is? Maybe I can’t upgrade my Longhorns to 2H Weapons?
Those are just a couple of examples I’m talking about. I can’t tell what is the most current list and if there is an army builder type program that exists that has the most current lists of units and all there special upgrades etc.
creating lists by hand doesn’t appeal to me so I’m hoping KoW has a solution for this.
Any comments on where i should be looking for the most comprehensive up to date info on rules, armies, units etc. would be appreciated.
Sorry for all the spelling/grammar issues. I’m no good at getting all the letters in the right order
KoW Vanguard is a different game than standard Kings of War. it is the small scale skirmish ruleset, and it’s lists and options vary from the standard game. Vanguard warbands have access to a wider range of weapons options as well as some units that haven’t made their way into the standard game yet. the game is played with individual figures usually in 100-200 points.
from the point value you listed, the armybuilder file is for standard Kings of War, which is a large army game with multiple blocks of infantry and cavalry per side with point values for an army usually being a thousand plus. note that the stats are for the blocks as a whole rather than the individual figures in them.
As MithrilCoyote says, Kings of War is the massed battle game, and Vanguard is the skirmish game. Basically, the Mantic equivalents of WHFB and Mordheim.
The rules for Kings of War (massed battles) can be downloaded here. The EasyArmy builder is here.
Note that the eagerly anticipated 3rd Edition is coming out this month, so this is a great time to be jumping into KoW!
If you have any other issues, let us know, the community here is pretty great.
army wise you have pegged the switch between your WHFB armies and the KoW factions pretty well. though details vary between the settings so not everything will have a one to one equivilent. but you should be able to do counts as for a lot of stuff.
there is a fourth army you could run as well, Forces of nature, which includes elements from both Herd and Salamanders in it.
Please bear in mind that these will be invalidated in a few weeks. At that time, these will probably be replaced yt the 3rd edition free rules.
The free rules are everything you need to play the game. The army lists, however, are only part of the army lists in the full game. Of course, all over the internet the full army lists are available: i.e. easyarmy. (https://kow2.easyarmy.com/)
As Mantic does allow this to promote the hobby, please consider buying the full rules from them if you like the game. Of course, I’d advise you to wait until 3rd edition drops.
IIRC easyarmy is allowed to integrate new stuff half a year after release s/t there is time to collect some money from impatient people.
Also, when coming from WHFB:
You can easily play a WHFB campaign with KoW rules, using obvious straight equivalent units and the some count-as. And be wondering why you haven’t been doing so for years.
Don’t be nervous about starting a new game, rather consider it the streamlined but tactically meaningful edition we never got from GW.
We will see more original and independent stuff in the future, though.
I’m surprised there is no prominent place where the equivalent and recommended count-as units (KoW<=>WHFB) would be listed.
There is some old and forgotten wiki somewhere, an overview in a German forum, but that’s about it.
