Clash of Kings Australia - Summary

Greetings!

I would like to wrap up the series of reports and overall experience from the first Clash of Kings in Australia in this short post. It was an amazing event and once again, many thanks to Matt and Tas for organizing and running such a great tournament! I am very glad I could attend!

There were 62 players attending and all of them showed up on day 1. I think there were only a few drop outs which, unfortunately, can always happen. In any case it was the biggest Kings of War event in Australia to date and I hope there will be more spots for Clash of Kings in 2018!

All armies were represented too! If I remember correctly, no faction had more than 6 players which, again, shows how nicely varied the armies were.

Ok, let's have a look at a few aspects of the event in more details! 

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 7 - Kingdoms of Men - 2017/03/04

Greetings!

Time for the game 7, the last game of the Australian Clash of Kings! After game 6 I was talking with my good friend and frequent opponent, Michael aka Darth Sabre, about our adventures so far and we joked it would be fun if we were paired with each other for the last game. And it actually happened! I was very happy because of that as although we played against each other often (you can check games 4, 6, 11, 24 and 38 in the Reports section) it was the first time when I could play against Michael and his beautiful army in real life, not online. 

Michael practiced with and refined his army over many games and quite a number of the tournaments. He is constantly searching for the perfect balance but the main theme and core units are still present. The army looks fantastic and for me it is the archetype of Kingdoms of Men force with number of units from troops to hordes and very nice variety of types too. Here are the details of the army list Michael brought to Clash of Kings:

Kingdoms of Men - Army List

40 Foot Guard, Horde, Brew of Strength (+1 CS)

- Ballistae, War Engine
- Mounted Scouts, Troop

- Mounted Hero 

 

40 Arquebusiers, Horde, +1 to Hit 
- Ballistae, War Engine
- Mounted Hero 
 

40 Polearms, Horde
- Wizard, Bane Chant, Lightning Bolt (3)

20 Militia, Regiment
- Wizard, Bane Chant, Lightning Bolt (3)

20 Militia, Regiment
- General on Winged Beast, Brew of Haste
 

20 Bowmen, Regiment
20 Bowmen, Regiment

10 Knights, Regiment, Pathfinder

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 6 - Ratkin - 2017/03/02

Greetings!

In the game 6 of Australian Clash of Kings I faced vile Ratkin commanded by the veteran Warlord - Clint. He was another member of the merry band of Queenslanders who made it South to Canberra for that event.  He is a very active tournament player and it is not a surprise to find out that he was playing at the very first Australian Masters in December. In fact, he is currently Number 1 in the Rankings! 

I had a great pleasure to play against a very experienced player (Clint also plays with a variety of armies) and to learn from him during the battle. Clint brought vile Ratkin this time and that posed an additional challenge. Not only I was about to play against currently the best player in Australia but also against the army I have never faced before! 

I tried not to feel intimidated and come up with some plan regardless :) It was, after all, an excellent opportunity to test my skills! Here are the details of the army Clint commanded that day:

Ratkin - Army List

40 Shock Troops, Horde, Blade of Slashing
- Death Engine, Monster, Vile Sorcery
- Weapon Team, Storm of Lead
- Daemonspawn 
 

40 Shock Troops, Horde
- Warlock, Scarletmaw’s Fenulian Amulet

40 Shock Troops, Horde
- Warlock

40 Blight, Horde, Brew of Strength
- Enforcer

40 Slaves, Horde

20 Slaves, Regiment

20 Slaves, Regiment

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 5 - Ogres - 2017/02/27

Greetings!

In the first game of day two of the Australian Clash of Kings (and fifth game of the tournament in general) I had a pleasure to play against a veteran of Canberran wargaming scene - Tony. H has been attending the tournaments for last fifteen years and I played against his Orcs army once before. This time Tony brought Ogres that looked even meaner and more dangerous than the Orcs my Elves fought against before. And the reason for that was that the army was full of very dangerous shooters that could be quite good in melee too!

Ogres - Army List

6 Shooters, Horde, +1 to hit
- Army Standard with Boomstick
- Red Goblin Blaster
 

6 Boomers, Horde, Piercing
- Warlock, Lightning Bolts
- Mammoth
 

6 Boomers, Horde, Elite
- Warlock, Lightning Bolts
- Giant
 

6 Braves, Horde, +1 CS
- Warlock, Lightning Bolts

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 4 - Night Stalkers - 2017/02/23

Greetings!

My apologies for the delay in reporting! Fortunately, I managed to get back to it and here is the one from the last game of day 1 of Australian Clash of Kings! Another Night Stalkers army and this time I had a pleasure to play against Micky from Queensland. 

I would like to take that opportunity and thank Micky for his fantastic pictures he was taking during our game. They were far better than mine and I also noticed that I missed a few! So not only you will have a much better coverage for this game but also there will be a complete set of pictures for each turn! 

Night Stalkers - Army List

20 Dopplegangers, Regiment
- 5 Shadowounds, Troops
- 5 Shadowounds, Troops
- Void Lurker, Darklord's Onyx Ring

20 Dopplegangers, Regiment
- Shadow Hulk
- Banshee, Lightning Bolts 
 

6 Butchers, Horde
- Banshee, Lightning Bolts 
 

20 Scarecrows, Regiment

3 Nightmares, Regiment

3 Nightmares, Regiment

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 3 - Undead - 2017/02/16

Greetings!

In the game 3 I had a great pleasure to play against Josh who brought a very interesting Undead army. I have never had a chance to play against Josh before so it was great to meet a new player too! 

While I had a few games against Undead before this army was significantly different to what I have faced so far. It looked like it is a slow force as it had only a single unit of cavalry but it was a deception! Fortunately, I still remembered how dangerous Surge is so I tried to take that into account when trying to come up with the plan.

Here are the details of the army Josh took to Clash of Kings:

Undead - Army List

40 Skeleton Archers, Horde
- Catapult, War Engine 
- Liche King, Heal (6), Surge (12), Myrddin’s Amulet of the Fire-heart

20 Mummies, Regiment
- Catapult, War Engine
- Liche King, Heal (6), Surge (12)

20 Mummies, Regiment
- Necromancer, Inspiring Talisman, Bane-chant (2), Surge (8)
 
20 Mummies, Regiment

6 Zombie Trolls, Horde

6 Zombie Trolls, Horde

10 Soul Reavers, Regiment, Brew of Haste

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 2 - Night Stalkers - 2017/02/11

Greetings!

In the game 2 of Clash of Kings Australia I had a great pleasure to play against Jules and his fantastic Night Stalkers army. I highly recommend checking his blog:

Night Stalkers Army

We met on the battle field before once, when we played with smaller forces (Jules was still painting his new units back then) and our first encounter ended with Night Stalkers' victory! If you are interested in that game, here is the link:

KoW - Game 21 - Night Stalkers - 2016/06/21

This time I was about to fight against a larger and more terrifying force!

Night Stalkers - Army List

60 Blood Warms, Legion, Brew of Strength
- Shadow Hulk, Monster
- Void Lurker, Fog


20 Spectres, Regiment
- Screamer, Monster

20 Spectres, Regiment
- Screamer, Monster 


20 Phantoms, Regiment
- Banshee, Lightning Bolt (5)

3 Nightmares, Regiment

3 Needle Fangs, Regiment

3 Needle Fangs, Regiment

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 1 - Varangur - 2017/02/08

Greetings!

Welcome to the very first battle report from the very first Clash of Kings Australia! :) In the round 1 I was about to meet Ken aka Stallandor (for those who frequent wargamerau.com forum) in a grudge game. He has his own blog on the forum:

Doing the Blog thing, Mountains Style

where you can follow his adventures in the world of Mantica. Ken decided to bring his Varangur army this time. He is a firm believer in Hordes superiority in Kings of War and we had some interesting discussions about different approaches to the game. After a few posts exchanges Ken decided that the best thing to do is to play a game and what better chance to do it than to challenge the opponent for turn 1! 

I gladly accepted because I knew it would be a great game and I was looking forward to learning as much as possible too. After all, it is a great opportunity to do so when you play against a player who is currently ranked 2nd in Australia and who finished as number 2 during Australian Masters in December 2016! 

Here are the details of the army list Ken brought to Clash of Kings tournament:

Varangur - Army List

40 Bloodsworn, Horde, Headstrong, Fury
 - King on Chimera with Ensorcelled Armor

40 Bloodsworn, Horde, Headstrong, Fury
- Sorcerer, Lightning Bolt, Bane Chant, Talisman of Inspiration, Elite
  

6 Fallen, Horde, Brew of Strength
- Mounted Sorcerer, Fireball, Elite
 

10 Mounted Sons, Regiment, Pathfinder, Headstrong, Fury

- 5 Mounted Horsemen, Troop with Bows
- 5 Mounted Horsemen, Troop with Bows

- Mounted Skald with Breath Attacks 

Clash of Kings Australia - Introduction

Greetings!

Between 27th and 29th January, Canberra hosted the biggest annual gaming convention in Australia - CanCon. It is a great event for the enthusiast of probably every game that is being currently played. People come for the tournaments, to buy new toys, to learn new games, to participate in painting competitions and workshops etc. 

I attended my first CanCon in 2012 and have done so for a few years. I missed it in 2016 and I really wanted to return in 2017. However, this time it was to play Kings of War!