A guide to constructing a Kings of War army list – final part

In the final part of his series, Nick Williams finishes off his orc army.

Ok, we’re down to 340 points remaining of our 2000 point limit but I already have a very strong army build. It’s time to start fine tuning. My priorities are a bane-chanting Godspeaker, another Regiment of Gore Riders and then probably some Artefacts.

For the Godspeaker, a mounted version with Bane-Chant comes to 105 points, add on the Gore Riders and that takes me to 290. With 50 points left over, we’re down to just Artefacts to add.

The Inspiring Talisman artefact is quite a popular one to add to the Godspeaker, however I have a different plan! I know of some of the Artefacts that are coming in the 2017 Organised Play book (given I wrote some of them, you’d hope that would be the case!). The first one I want to add is one that adds Rallying(1) to a unit. That would be perfect on the Godspeaker. The great thing is that while Rallying is normally restricted to a maximum of +2 Nerve, it stacks with the Orc Wardrum, so Orcs can now effectively get up top +3 Nerve on their units by having both the Rallying artefact and the Wardrum in range of the same unit. Fightwagons at 17/19 Nerve? Yes please!

The other new artefact I want to include is one that grants Bane-Chant. That feels like a natural fit on one of the Flaggers – probably the Fightwagon battlegroup. Fightwagons with Spd7, 30 attacks, hitting on 3+, with CS1 likely boosted to CS2 from Bane-Chant AND 17/19 nerve? Now THAT is a centre that no-one wants to approach!

The two artefacts cost 20 points each, leaving me with just 10 points left to spend.

There’s a fair few units that would be suitable, but in my mind the Krudger and the remaining Flagger are the most likely recipients. Two 5 point artefacts are always useful – the Blade of Slashing and the War-bow of Kaba. Blade of Slashing gives my Krudger just a tiny bit more oomph in combat, and at 5 points is a good filler. The War-bow of Kaba gives my Flagger the ability to “tap” – to hit an already damaged enemy unit with a single point of damage at range in order to force a nerve check.

So, the final list looks like this in the end:

• 2 x Fightwagon Hordes 520
• 4 x Gore Rider Regiments 740
• 3 x Skulk Troops 225
• Krudger on Gore w/Blade of Slashing 155
• Godspeaker on Gore w/Bane-Chant, Rallying(1) 125
• Flagger on Gore/Bane-Chant 85
• Flagger on Gore w/War-bow of Kaba 70
• War Drum 80
• Total: 2000 Pts

The list will be tweaked after taking it to the field, but I hope it can prove as formidable as it looks on paper.

As it stands I have two extremely effective battlegroups. The Gore Riders hit first, and 4 units of heavy cavalry ARE going to make a mess of anything that they hit. The Krudger can run off hunting enemy characters or providing a small boost to combats. While the enemy is dealing with the impact of the gores, the Fightwagons rock up. At Speed 7, they’ll outpace most infantry units in the game and will destroy nearly any enemy unit in a single hit. The potential boost from two Bane-Chant sources can improve the odds if they’re ever in a sticky situation. At a potential 17/19 Nerve, the enemy has to expend considerable resources to take them out, and I think the Gore Riders will be the more immediate threat anyway.

This list will struggle more against flyers. If they are an issue in enemy armies then I will need to ensure that I keep one of the Gore Rider regiments back and ready to cover flyer landing zones. No-one’s going to risk their dragon by landing somewhere where they will get hit with a Gore Rider regiment in the next turn, especially if I can potentially boost that regiment even more with a Bane-Chant!

Here’s to 2017!

Nick Williams is a member of the Kings of War Rules Committee and the author of the Clash of Kings Organised Play Supplement, which is available to pre-order from the Mantic website.