Billy again and here to talk about everyone’s favorite extra section to the Clash of Kings 2019 book: Siege warfare!
Siege rules have been one of those things that have been asked for by a great number of people. Epic siege battles fought across high castle towers and crumbling ramparts can be an exhilarating and very cinematic experience. Too often, though, sieges in wargaming (much like real siege warfare) can be a very boring affair: not so with Kings of War!
Mantic’s approach to siege warfare in the world of Kings of War mirrors their rules philosophy across all of their games: simple and engaging, yet tactically deep. It still very much feels like Kings of War, and not a boring, eight-hour-long mess of a Saturday afternoon. The rules are written cleanly and the interactions between the different elements are flavorful. Nothing seems to be missing, and we don’t have any extra malarkey that isn’t called for.
Army construction
The attacker gets to spend extra points on Offensive Siege Equipment. This includes things like siege towers, artillery, battering rams, and ladders. I like that the attacker gets a little bit of a larger force, especially considering that the defender basically gets a super tough to kill castle!
The castle sections function as units that have stats just like anything else. In addition to their castle, the defender can spend a portion of their normal points allowance on Defensive Siege Equipment like secret tunnels, traps, and more tower artillery!
Gameplay
The rules for deployment are a little different from normal Kings of War games, but still straightforward and very cinematic. There are different rules for garrisoning castle walls and towers. Only certain types of units can hold certain wall sections. Movement on the castle walls is very streamlined and in perfect KoW style, abstracted and simplified, so that we don’t have to worry about precarious model placement or measuring vertically.
Combat between units garrisoning the walls and attacking units is also streamlined and straightforward. Using certain types of siege equipment might grant the ability to fight with garrisoned units, but at a cost. Ladders, for example, aren’t as effective as siege towers.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Mantic’s siege rules are the scenarios. Yes, the siege rules include scenarios. There are several different scenarios for the attacker and defender to choose from. From my pre-game cursory glance, I can tell that these are going to make siege games a lot more interesting than the usual, “Kill each other for 9 ½ hours until we all get bored and call it a draw” of other systems.
The Lists
For the most part I think we took stuff that we don’t normally get to use and took full advantage of the siege equipment available to us.
Defender: The Dwarfs of Gal’Durak
- Horde of Ironwatch Crossbows with the Jar of Four Winds
- Horde of Ironclad with the Helm of Confidence, a throwing mastiff, and a secret tunnel
- Regiment of Ironguard with a throwing mastiff and a secret tunnel
- 2 x Regiments of Ironguard with throwing mastiffs and two-handed weapons
- 2 x Regiments of Berserker Brock Riders, one with Brew of Strength and the other with Maccwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar
- Berserker Brock Lord, mounted with the Blade of the Beast Slayer (duh)
- 2 x Tower Artillery
- Army Standard Bearer with the Banner of the Griffin
Attacker(s): Ogres and Trident Realms
- 2 x Hordes of Ogre Warriors with ladders
- Horde of Siegebreakers with a siege tower
- Horde of Grokagamok’s Finest with a siege tower
- Army Standard Bearer with the Lute of Insatiable Darkness
- Regiment of Placoderms with the Hammer of Measured Force
- Horde of Water Elementals
- Regiment of Thuul with battering ram
- 2 x Hordes of Depth Horrors, one with a battering ram
- Nak-Ushi, Wyrmrider Commander
- Naiad Envoy with the Lute of Insatiable Darkness
Our Game
For our first siege game, we really wanted to use Rob’s awesome streaming setup and stream the game live. So rather than describe each turn in detail, I’ll just let you watch the game for yourself here. (If you’re not a member of the Counter Charge Facebook page, then join! There’s always cool stuff on there, including games streamed live from our clubhouse.)
I’m aware that we probably made some mistakes as well as stumbled through a bunch of stuff, but I think we did most of it right and had an awesome time. SPOILER ALERT: It ended in a draw, but the absolute best kind of draw. We both accomplished our objectives at the end of the game. It was a blast.
Post-Game Impressions
My overall impressions of the siege rules are overwhelmingly positive. Obviously, it’s not meant to be super competitive, but it can provide a fun Saturday game with your friends that looks and feels very cinematic. From my end, it felt really cool standing over the top of my castle and trying to repel the icky fish folks from making it in.
Rules for movement, garrisoning, and attacking the walls and units garrisoning the walls are pretty clean and are definitely reminiscent of the KISS philosophy of Mantic Games. The only thing that I would probably have to house rule or know about in more detail is courtyard movement. There are a lot of silly shenanigans that you can pull to really screw over the attacking player, or the defending player if you’re unfortunate enough to lose your walls to the opponent. Additionally, using your own army’s artillery is almost not doable. They can’t really be on walls, and the tower artillery, in most instances, is better.
I love, love, LOVE the siege equipment. I feel like they offer useful bonuses, but the rules for them are super simple and don’t get in the way of the game. I ended up using the secret tunnels to decent effect to tie up the enemy as well as hold late-game objectives. Rob and Gibney used the heck out of the offensive siege equipment, to destroy my castle gates and garrison my walls. Also tower artillery is awesome.
I think my favorite part about the siege rules are the scenarios. They definitely offer the possibility for very unique army builds and game outcomes. We ended up discussing afterwards that we could have built our armies in very different ways.
If I wanted to play the Kill scenario for example, I might have loaded up on a lot of points denial, high defense units and buffed all of my castle walls; plus, with Martyr’s Prayer and Weakness, I might have kept everyone out of the walls then! Alternatively, I could have played the Breakout scenario and built my list to get out of the castle quickly, and get across the board.
Overall, I am very impressed with the Kings of War: Siege rules. I think they offer a fun, quick way to play a siege battle. The rules definitely don’t get in the way of the game and allow for a lot of fun interactions and cinematic moments. I know many of us buy the Clash of Kings books to have our new army rules, but the siege rules are definitely worth a look.
And of course, you always celebrate a glorious battle fought over a fine meal with your friends! Robata Ramen in Memphis is a favorite of the Blues City Brawlers!
