This article is written for someone who has heard of wargaming and may have seen a game being played in a store or is just curious about what their other half is doing with little toys…
If you’re an existing Warhammer or other wargame player, then we have an article about Getting Started for Warhammer Fantasy players.
Welcome to Kings of War (KoW), a mass fantasy battle game created by Mantic Games.
The game is played between two players using armies chosen from a rule book (21 armies currently are listed). Each army is made up of units with each unit having a points value. You select your army by choosing units up to an agreed points limit. You choose a scenario for the battle, deploy your units in turn and then move, shoot and fight combats with your units to achieve the scenario objective.
Still with me? Good.
How to start
The simplest way of learning the game is to connect with other players and let them demo the game to you. Or at the very least, peek over their shoulder whilst they are playing and watch the game unfold. There is also lots of great content available on YouTube (particularly battle reports), though some might be a bit confusing for the new player. The video below shows a game in progress – don’t worry if you don’t understand the rules, but it’s a great video for seeing how the game works in general:
“How do I know where people are actually playing” I can hear you say. Well, that’s fairly easy. On this site we have an Events tab which is kept up to date by the admins and lists events, the venue location and the organiser.
If you’re on Facebook then look for the “Kings of War Fanatics” page. It’s a private group so you will need to added by one of the admins.
For people who are not Zuckerberg fans you can, of course, join the Mantic Forum and engage with others behind the “mask of anonymity”.
Gamers on any of those sites will be more than happy to direct you to other local gamers or locations that stock/play Kings of War.
Whilst that is going on, you may want to download the rulebook and the “starter army” lists from the Mantic website . These are free and give you an insight into the game. Read the rules, read the articles on here, the threads on Facebook and the forum and above all, ask questions if you’re unsure of a mechanic (the inhabitants are generally friendly).
Once you start sniffing around you quickly discover Events being advertised all over the world. If there’s an event near you, why not contact the organiser and ask if they can show you how to play? Or, turn up at the event and watch a few games being played. I’ve never seen gamers get annoyed with people watching them play and being asked questions. The store owner may be able to offer a quick game with you using two of their armies.
Getting Started Action-Plan
- Download the rules from here
- Look for an Event near you from here
- If you’re on Facebook, ask to join this page
- Go to an event for an hour (avoid lunch breaks – gamers need to eat too) and watch
- Ask the store owner or organiser if they can arrange a demo game
You can learn KoW from just the rules – but the game is, by its nature, a social game. The vast majority of the KoW players you will meet will be very eager to show you the rules, how the game plays and for you to look at their toys (but always ask before picking up a model!)