Greetings again,
This is another post that deals with core concepts of the game. I assume you're somewhat familiar with the rulebook so I won't go through the exact rules, only their implications and some rationale that I see behind certain mechanics.
This post focuses on core concepts of army building and different roles for different units.
Army composition
In Kings of War, armies are put together using unlocks from regular regiments, hordes and legions.
Each regiment of infantry, chariots or cavalry can bring with it up to two troops and one of either a hero, a war engine, a monster or a titan.
A horde or a legion of infantry, chariots or cavalry can bring up to four troops and one of each a hero, a war engine and either one monster or one titan.
Regiments of large/monstrous infantry or large cavalry don't need to be unlocked, but neither do they unlock anything. A Horde/legion of large infantry unlocks two troops and two slots for either one hero, one war engine, one monster or one titan. No duplicate choices allowed here.
Some units are marked with * and are called irregular. That means they don't unlock anything
This is a big change for people used to playing WHFB or its derivatives. In that mentality, an army needs a core (which usually consists of mediocre units) that has to be a certain size and all the good stuff is capped points-wise by army composition rules. That leads, in my view, to a mentality of a "core tax" and also often manifests in balance issues as different armies suffer more from the effects of being forced to take "bad" units and having a limitation on how many "good" units you are allowed to bring.
In Kings of War you are allowed to bring as many of the "good" units as you like, or can fit in your army. You can build an all Vampire army, or you can bring all your infantry as the better variety. There is no core tax, and the abilities of units are all expressed in the point costs of units. That means that instead of being forced to operate within point brackets, you have more freedom in terms of how you want to spend your points.
Unit sizes
In Kings of War units come in three commen sizes: troops, regiments and hordes. I'm going to compare these with a (completely arbitrary) three tier system (I-III) in terms of Maneuverability, Power and Resilience
In addition there are single models (usually monsters or heroes) and Legions (which are just bigger hordes).
Troops are small units which are usually relatively frail and have the lowest offensive potential. They are also the cheapest units, and need unlocks from other units in order to be included in the army. Their roles vary from shooters to chaff to decoy deployment drops to token/counter cappers.
Maneuverability II
Power II
Resilience I
Regiments are the first unlockers. They have a larger footprint (usually they are the size of two troops back to back), a little more offensive power and a lot higher Nerve than troops. They cost a little more (usually 30-50% more than a troop). Some weak units do not come under regiment size and some powerful units do not come larger than regiments.
Maneuverability II
Power II
Resilience II
Hordes bring many unlocks, huge improvements to Attacks, Nerve and footprint, but they also cost a lot more and are clumsier than troops or regiments.
Maneuverability I
Power III
Resilience III
So why bring anything else than Hordes?
The logic behind this is, in my view, as follows:
A regiment is stronger than a troop, so it costs more.
Two troops are better than one regiment, so together they cost more.
A horde is stronger than a regiment, so it costs more.
Two regiments are better than one horde, so together they cost more.
One could also add that:
Three troops are better than one horde, so together they cost more.
Choosing what sizes to take your units in is a matter of army composition, as expensive hordes might hinder your army's ability to maneuver so much that it costs you the game, while stocking up on multiple small units might leave you overly vulnerable to enemy shooters and unable to contain their heavy hitters.
Anvil
An anvil is a unit that is used to take a punch and hold the attacking unit in place so that you can bring your own attacker in to kill it. Hammer-and-anvil combos are common and more often than not your opponent will know what you are striving for, and you'll end up trying to line up your units so you can catch your opponent between your anvil and your hammer.
Typically anvils are hordes with high defense and/or nerve.
Hammer
Hammers are your damage-dealers. They are units like knights or chariots that are good at giving a punch, but lose a lot of their effectiveness if they have to take one.
Some Hammers are very resilient, others are called "glass-hammers", which is to say that they are units that really can't take a punch at all.
Chaff
Chaff, in Kings of War slang, is often used to describe units that can't do anything properly and are only good for throwing in the way of your opponent's big units when you need to delay them a bit.
On more general terms, Chaff means units that are often fast, agile and fragile. They typically don't have a lot of punching power and so even a flank charge from a chaff unit is rarely decisive. Light chaff is more of an interfering unit, while heavy chaff can be a middle ground between a throwaway and a serious combat threat.
However, chaff can fulfill a variety or roles. They can indeed interfere with your opponent's Hammers, but they can also go after war engines, casters, support heroes and claim objectives. You will typically want to have some units that can fulfill the role of chaff.
Shooters
In Kings of War shooting is rarely (though in no means "never") able to win the battle alone. Shooters, in my view can fulfill three roles.
Firstly, shooters are a pressure unit. You can use shooters to force your opponent to move to break stalemates, provided that your shooting is more powerful than theirs. It's not very comfortable to sit ildly by while your opponent's war egines are lobbing rocks at you!
Secondly, shooters are Chaff killers. Small shooter units are often able to take out chaff units, given a turn or two to finish the job. You might be able to deprive your opponent of his charge-blockers if you shoot them off the board.
Thirdly, shooters can be area control units. Many spells and "breath weapony" weapons have short ranges, but they hit easily, so they are good for controlling an area and for discouraging your opponent from landing flyers or bringing their chaff to the area, where you can line up a few shooting attacks at it.
Support
Some units, mainly Individual Heroes, fall into the category of Support. These are units whose main role is to augment other units. These can be in the form of melee heroes who bring in that little extra damage to Rout the enemy unit, or they can be spellcasters who Banechant your spearmen or then the simple battle standard to Inspire the units.
If you're coming in from WHFB, you'll notice that most heroes are quite a bit weaker in Kings of War, and they can't take units head on without risk. However, as support units, their role is invaluable in turning the battle to your favour.
Sole Grinder
Some units are tough like Anvils, but also dish out a fair bit of damage. These units are sometimes called Sole Grinders. That means that they are able to take a punch and then grind the opposing unit down alone.
Typically these are units with a combination of good melee power, high nerve and high defense.
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That's all for this post, hope you enjoyed it and feel welcome to leave more ideas of core concepts in the comments!
AoW
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