Greetings!
In this post I will go through the different phases of the turn and briefly summarize what goes on in each of them and what common misconceptions new-comers might face.
In Kings of War the turns follow a strict "IGO-UGO"-principle, meaning that during your turn, you are the only player rolling dice and moving units and the same goes for the opponent as well.
This philosophy leads some new-comers to shake their heads as they aren't allowed to roll Nerve checks or take reactive actions. This is done in order to keep the game flowing smoothly with zero interference from switching from one active player to the other. While it may feel even claustrophobic at first, the principle leads to very smooth mechanics that don't bog the game down with multiple reactionary decisions. It may not sound like much, but in a larger game a phase that requires the players to switch back and forth multiple times (picking up dice, choosing reactions, moving units that might flee etc.) is notably slower than it is in Kings of War.
Turns consist of three phases; movement, shooting and melee. The names are relatively self-explanatory as to what happens when.
Movement phase
Movement phase is the phase in which all ordinary movement takes place. It is, in my view, the most important phase of the game as victory or loss usually depends on your ability to have your units in the right places at the right times. A combat unit out of place cannot charge and thus is useless, and a shooting unit that can't see anyone diminish in efficiency as they have to move excessively and can't focus on their job. This is the phase in which you make sure that your units can do what you need them to do, so make sure you use enough time when you consider your moves.
Units are given orders one at a time (unless you have multiple units charging the same facing of an enemy unit) and each unit completes their move from start to finish before moving to the next unit. This is important to remember: a unit must complete its entire move before another unit may be moved, so you can't scooch a little to allow another unit to pass by and then continue moving.
Plan your movement phases before you start moving units, because the order sometimes makes a difference!
Your own units can move through each other (except when charging, you can't go running willy-nilly through your own units unless they're Yielding), so movement is slightly easier than in WHFB in that sense. It's best not to lull yourself into a false sense of ease, however, as often your units can't cover the distance all the way over your own units, or the move would take them too far and at risk from enemy units. Again, planning is key in movement, especially in the first few turns of the game (before those insidious dice rolls can mess with your plans).
WHFB-veterans should note that in Kings of War there are no sub-phases, which is to say that you are allowed to declare charges at every point during the phase.
My advice for a starter: start with the clear-cut moves and leave the important units for later, so that you have a clearer view of the board when you get to moving those units in trickier situations.
When you feel like you're ready to move on to the Shooting phase take a minute to go through every unit you have on the board and make sure you've moved everyone you want to move. This is simply to reduce the number of "Oh shit, I forgot to move that unit"-moments.
Once you've done that, move on to the shooting phase.
Shooting phase
Kings of War rolls shooting and magic into a single phase. That means that every spell, fire-breathing dragon, shotgun and noises loud enough to do damage are used in this phase.
A unit that has at least one weapon or spell is allowed to make one shooting attack regardless of how many of these attacks it has. A wizard might have two, or even five spells, but is normally allowed to use only one of them in a phase.
Usually the unit uses its Attack-characteristic to determine how many attacks it makes when shooting. Spells are an exception to this, and they always define the number of dice used in the attack in brackets.
All attacks are resolved one at a time and all damage is marked as it accumulates. Once all attacks are resolved the active player goes through each unit damaged this turn and rolls for Nerve in any order they choose. That means that you generally want to roll Nerve for all damaged Inspiring units first. If they die, they stop Inspiring and that might mean you can deny your opponent that benefit for any further Nerve tests.
The Nerve check that results from shooting damage to a unit is always done at the end of the shooting phase. This is because unit may only take a single Nerve check per phase, and allowing players to roll for Nerve might lead to weird situations where the unit takes some damage, passes a Nerve check and then takes more damage (and mysteriously doesn't care anymore).
Some spells, such as Surge and Windblast can move units in the shooting phase. Both are very straight forward in how they work, but can be used in some sneaky ways I will cover in a later post.
Once all spells are cast, Nerve checks are passed or failed, it's time to move to the Combat phase.
Combat phase
In Kings of War, the combat phase is relatively straightforward.
The active player decides the order in which fights are resolved, attacking with all units engaged against a single target and then repeats this until all fights have been fought. The main difference between melee and shooting attacks is that a unit takes a Nerve check immediately after all attacks against it have been resolved whereas shooting attacks caused a Nerve check only at the end of the shooting phase.
A combat is always fought through completely, from attacks to damage to Nerve checks to after combat movement. This also means that sometimes an unresolved combat right next to the unit wanting to move might hinder its ability to move.
Again, you will want to fight (and possibly kill) Inspiring units first, as that way you can once again deprive your opponent of those precious rerolls.
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Once Combat phase is completed, the turn shifts to the other player. Battles in Kings of War last for six turn, after which a seventh turn is taken on a 4+ roll. I will deal the with significance of the possible seventh turn in a later post.
This is all for this post. You are of course more than welcome to comment below on my thoughts and perhaps suggest topics I should cover.
Cheers,
AoW
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