2019 Summary - Part 2 - Kings of War

Greetings!

In this year I decided to write a summary a bit before the end. Simply because I managed to finish all my battle reports and have a bit more spare time to reflect on my Kings of War experiences in 2019.

I started with checking my previous blog post from 2018 so if you would like to see what I hoped to achieve in 2019 by the end of the previous year, here is the link:

2018 Summary - Kings of War

2019 marks more than 4 years of Kings of War experience for me and I can again say I really enjoyed playing this game. In fact, just before the release of the 3rd edition, I think I got to the point where I thought I have finally found the army list I want to play with, without any further tweaks. But more on that later :)

As it is often the case, there were a few things I managed to achieve, some that I didn't and a few more that were simply unexpected. However, that is probably the pattern every year in many if not all aspects of life so let's see in details what happened before I get too philosophical!

2019 Summary - Part 1 - Mortem et Gloriam

Hello!

Although 2019 is not over yet, I managed to finish all my battle reports and I wanted to use the opportunity that the break offers to reflect on the passing year in the context of Mortem et Gloriam.

I wrote a brief article about my experiences with MeG in 2018 (2018 Summary - Mortem et Gloriam). I hoped that 2019 would be even more eventful and I am happy to tell you that it was indeed!

I would like to share my experiences with other wargamers in all aspects that were related to this system. I will write a bit about my games, of course, but not only. After all, this hobby involves a lot more and I think that is also worth sharing and discussing. There are probably as many approaches to it as there are people enjoying this hobby. For me, sharing these experiences is one of the most important aspects. 

I hope you will find this article interesting. I also aim to pave a way to progress my hobby in a new year 2020. I already have a few ideas I would like to make happen!

Game 129 - Elves - 2019/12/14

Greetings!

This is the battle report from my very first game using 3rd edition of the Kings of War rules. I was very intrigued how it would go, both in terms of impressions on the new edition and on the new army list.

I decided to try out the army that was as close to the one I used under 2nd edition. If you are interested in some of my thoughts about the adaptation process, here is the link to the blog post I wrote shortly after the release of 3rd edition:

MSU Elves in 3rd Edition - First Impressions

This game was meant to be an experiment to see how would I do with the similar army in new environment. 

Interestingly, Michael, my opponent for this game, decided to bring Elves as well. It was good because his army composition is different to mine. Thanks to that we could see how different units from the same faction can operate. Here are the details of his army list:

Elves - Army List

40 Palace Guard, Horde, Infantry, Unit Strength (4), Crushing Strength (1), Elite (Melee)

- 6 Drakon Riders*, Horde, Large Cavalry, Unit Strength (3), Thunderous Charge (1), Crushing Strength (1), Fly, Elite (Melee), Potion of Caterpillar

- 10 Silver Breeze*, Regiment, Cavalry, Unit Strength (2), Nimble, Shortbows: 18", Elite (Ranged), Steady Aim

- Tree Herder, Hero, Monster, Unit Strength (1), Crushing Strength (3), Inspiring, Pathfinder, Radiance of Life, Scout, Strider, Surge (8)

20 Shield Watch, Regiment, Infantry, Unit Strength (3), Crushing Strength (1), Elite (Melee)

- Dragon Kindred Lord, Hero, Titan, Unit Strength (1), Crushing Strength (3), Elite (Melee), Fly, Inspiring, Nimble, Dragon’s Breath: 12”, Steady Aim

20 Shield Watch, Regiment, Infantry, Unit Strength (3), Crushing Strength (1), Elite (Melee)

- Archmage, Hero, Infantry, Individual, Lighting Bolt (5), The Boomstick

10 Stormwind Cavalry, Regiment, Cavalry, Unit Strength (3), Elite (Melee), Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 54 - 2019/12/13

Hello!

In my last, sixth game of Mortem et Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 event I played against one of my most regular opponents, Stephen. Many battle reports were created after our games and most recently, Stephen's Romans were proving superior to my Seleucids.

However, for this competition Stephen brought another favourite army of his, Mamluks! I must admit that among all the armies present at MOAB, I considered this one the most challenging to play against. I have already witnessed first hand how deadly their shooting can be in one of our previous games. The army is highly mobile so catching it is very difficult. But unlike many horse archers based armies of antiquity, this force fights very well in melee and has a good break point of 5 too!

Here are the details of the army Stephen brought to the tournament:

Mamluk Egyptian - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 53 - 2019/12/11

Hello!

First game of the third and last day of Mortem and Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 was against both, a new opponent and a completely new army. This time I had a great pleasure to play against Pat and his beautifully looking Muromachi Samurai. 

Pat's army is almost finished but looks great already! I like his way of distinguishing between units under particular command. He has magnetised standard bearer with a different colour of a banner that he attaches to the front rank of each unit. In this way he can switch between commanders accordingly and it makes the units even more visually awesome! I wish I was able to take proper photos of his fantastic army.

I have seen a few Samurai armies but I have never played against one before. It was interesting to notice it is another army with as low breaking point of 4 as mine. It had fewer units too but mainly because all but one, superior cavalry of skilled Bushi, had 9 bases each. However, they also had mixed elements, with the first rank formed by superior Samurai and the rest of the unit comprised of Ashigaru.

Here are the details of Pat's army:

Muromachi Samurai - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 52 - 2019/12/09

Hello!

Second game of day two of Mortem et Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 event and I faced another Longbow heavy army, this time of English flavor. My opponent, Stephen, against whom I had a pleasure to play against before, brought the army from Edward IV English army list.

However, while Andrew's Welsh were very numerous but unprotected army, Stephen's English had more elite feel. Especially when you added these nice, little single bases of heavy armoured Men-at-Arms in Longbowmen units.

Here are the details of the army:

Edward IV English - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 51 - 2019/12/07

Hello!

In the third game of the Mortem et Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 event I played against one of my regular opponents, Paul. He was also very kind to offer me a lift to and from the event, which I am extremely grateful for! 

Paul brought a completely different army this time, the one I have never played against before - Josean Korean. I must say I did not really know what to expect. 

However, Mortem et Gloriam as a system allows even inexperienced player to assess basic roles of each units, regardless of the army and period. Hence, I decided to keep it simple and think about Paul's army in the generic terms. Based on that he had a very well balanced army with the shooting infantry that also had a front rank of polearm wielding warriors. He also added some more units equipped for ranged attacks alone. But he had a strong contingent of cavalry as well, with three TuG's of Charging Lancers and two TuG's of skilled bow armed horsemen. Here are the details of his army list:

Josean Korean - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 50 - 2019/12/06

Hello!

In the second game of MOAB 2019, I was about to play against Andrew and his Medieval Walsh. We have attended many events before but we have never had a chance to play against each other for some strange reason. Fortunately, this time we finally got the opportunity!

I would also like to add that Andrew is one of the heroes of the Australian Mortem et Gloriam community, as he is often the person organising the events. playing a role of umpire during those, keeping track of the results and making sure people know their opponents in time. For that I would like to thank Andrew and I am sure many players would do the same!

In addition, I would also like to thank Alvaro Erize from The Wargame Spot FB Group who donated a fantastic Arid Land Battle Matt produced by Cigar Box Battle Store. All my subsequent games during MOAB were played on this fantastic gaming matt!

For this tournament Andrew brought the army of Medieval Welsh. It is probably the most numerous army I have ever played against, with a break point of 9! Here are the details:

Medieval Welsh - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 49 - 2019/12/04

Hello!

In the middle of October I attended a gaming convention called MOAB (Mother of All Battles) where I played 6 games of Mortem et Gloriam. MOAB is a well known event for Australian players but for me, it was the very first time I attended it.

There were many other games and systems played over the 3 days and it was quite a busy event. Mortem et Gloriam attracted total of 12 players which I am told is a huge improvement from the last year. 

This tournament was very special also because the author of the game, Simon Hall, was participating! And guess who was my first opponent in the very first game? Simon Hall himself! 

The author of a superb gaming system Mortem et Gloriam ready for his first game!

I was really happy I got lucky to be the first opponent for Simon, even more so that he brought his beautifully painted Classical Indian army. Thanks to that we had quite a historic match up, Classical Indian vs Early Seleucids.

Although it was not my first encounter with this particular faction, this army looked different to what I had a chance to fight against in the past. The common element, however, that it also had a much larger number of units and significantly higher breaking point. Here are the details of the army list Simon brought to MOAB.

Classical Indian - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 48 - 2019/12/02

Hello!

As you have probably noticed by far, I seem to have one game against an opponent, then one against Stephen and then we repeat the sequence! 

Indeed, it is another one against Stephen as per my request, he agreed to bring his Early Imperial Romans again. Can I find a way to open that can of heavily armoured Legionaries this time?

I really like these games where the armies are relatively well matched historically. Hence I was happy that I was about to fight against Romans again, even if it is not an easy army to defeat. No doubt Stephen would do all he can to engineer favourable fights and not let my Phalangites to have only one-on-one melees with his Legionaries.

Here is the army Stephen had in this game:

Early Imperial Roman - Army List

Game 128 - Forces of Basilea - 2019/12/01

Greetings!

In the last round of the first Australian Universal Battle tournament I played against Jeff who commanded Forces of Basilea.

We played against each other long time ago when Jeff was trying out Universal Battle for the first time. It was thus great to have an opportunity to play again.

What is more, that was my last game of 2nd edition and it looked like it would be the same for Jeff. So we wanted to make it a really epic battle to farewell 2nd edition of Kings of War in style!

When I checked Jeff's list I noticed that he has quite a number of ranged attacks. In particular in the form of a few highly mobile Phoenixes as well as War-Wizards. Add to that Crossbowmen, Arbalest and Spells from Ur-Elohi and you can see this army is really good at dealing damage before the melee even begins. Here are the details of that army:

Forces of Basilea - Army List

40 Crossbowmen (C), Horde, Infantry, Iron Resolve, Piercing (1), Reload!, Jar of the Four Winds

- Phoenix (P1), Monster, Breath Attack (10), Crushing strength (1), Fly, Heal (6), Inspiring, Iron Resolve, Regeneration (4+)

- Heavy Arbalest (HA), War Engine, Blast (D3+2), Iron Resolve, Piercing (3), Reload!

- War-Wizard (W1), Hero (Cavalry), Fireball (8), Individual, Iron Resolve

40 Penitent Mobs (PM1), Horde, Infantry, Crushing Strength (1), Headstrong, Iron Resolve

- Phoenix (P1), Monster, Breath Attack (10), Crushing strength (1), Fly, Heal (6), Inspiring, Iron Resolve, Regeneration (4+)

- War-Wizard (W2), Hero (Cavalry), Fireball (8), Individual, Iron Resolve

40 Penitent Mobs (PM2), Horde, Infantry, Crushing Strength (1), Headstrong, Iron Resolve

- Phoenix (P1), Monster, Breath Attack (10), Crushing strength (1), Fly, Heal (6), Inspiring, Iron Resolve, Regeneration (4+)

- War-Wizard (W1), Hero (Cavalry), Fireball (8), Individual, Iron Resolve

10 Paladin Knights (PK1), Regiment, Cavalry, Headstrong, Iron Resolve, Thunderous Charge (2), Brew of Haste

- Ur-Elohi (UE1), Hero (Large Infantry), Blizzard (2), Crushing strength (2), Fly, Heal (3), Inspiring, Iron Resolve, Thunderous Charge (1)

10 Paladin Knights (PK1), Regiment, Cavalry, Headstrong, Iron Resolve, Thunderous Charge (2),  Macwar's Potion of Catterpillar

- Ur-Elohi (UE1), Hero (Large Infantry), Blizzard (2), Crushing strength (2), Fly, Heal (3), Inspiring, Iron Resolve, Thunderous Charge (1)

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 47 - 2019/11/30

Hello!

In my next Mortem at Gloriam game I played against Leigh who is known for bringing a new army to play with almost every time we meet! 

It was not different this time either but Leigh brought the force I did not expect at all. The army of Angkor Empire with multitudes of Elephants!

Now I can tell you, that was a sight to inspire and intimidate at the same time! Truly impressive army as you are going to see on the pictures, even though they do not give proper justice to the magnificent looking army Leigh had. Before we go there, however, here are the details as I remember them. I cannot recall at this stage what level of generals Leigh had but he had 3 commanders total.

Angkor Empire - Army List