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Kings of War – How to Play Series – Building Your Army

7th Oct 2022

Martin Thirlwell



Now that you have your eye on some lovely models and want to put them together into units that make up a cohesive force; it’s time to look at how Army Selection works in Kings of War.

Nightstalkers vs Northern Alliance

Unlocking the Secrets

To create a semblance of realism around how an army looks, there are certain limitations on the unit types that can make up your army. While it would certainly be fun to field nothing but an entire army of dragons, it’s far more reasonable to have regiments of soldiers to bulk out your force. This is why Kings of War utilizes an unlocking structure to the types of units you can take.

You must start with a Regiment, Horde, or Legion sized unit before you can select anything else. Each have different rules on what they unlock. Furthermore, the Unit Type plays a role in this as well, as not every type applies! Let’s break down what each type unlocks below.

Note: Unlocking is different in Ambush!

Unlocking Regiment Unit Types

  • Infantry
  • Heavy Infantry
  • Chariot
  • Cavalry

As long as your Unit Type is one of the above, you may include as many Regiments as you like. You are also given access to the following:

  • 2 Troop Units PLUS
  • One of the following:

    • Hero
    • Monster
    • Titan
    • War Engine

This means if you have a Regiment of Abyssal Dwarf Blacksouls and want a Hero unit to lead them, you may select one. If you did, you could not also select the Angkor Heavy Mortar War Engine without another Unlocking unit selection.

Unlocking Horde/Legion Unit Types

Hordes are a bit different as different Unit Types unlock differently. Here’s how each work:

  • Infantry
  • Heavy Infantry
  • Chariot
  • Cavalry

These Unit Type’s unlock the following:

  • 4 Troop Units PLUS
  • 1 Hero, 1 Monster or Titan, 1 War Engine

This time, in the Horde/Legion Unit Size, you get to pick one of each of the specialist slots. As in our above example, a Horde of Abyssal Dwarf Blacksouls could then choose to include 1 Hero, 1 Monster or Titan, AND 1 War Engine. This makes hordes an incredible option for getting to the good parts of the army!

The other Horde/Legion Unit Type’s unlock slightly different but provide great options as well.

  • Large Infantry
  • Monstrous Infantry
  • Large Cavalry
  • Swarms

These allow you to include a different mix than their counterparts, giving some different variety to your builds. Here, you get access to a combination of the specialist units.

  • 2 Troop Units PLUS
  • 2 of the following units, but you may not choose the same option twice:

    • Up to 1 Hero
    • Up to 1 Monster
    • Up to 1 Titan
    • Up to 1 War Engine

Importantly, you could select a Hero and a Monster, but not 2 Heroes.

Irregular* and Limited Units

You may notice some units have an * listed after their name in their profile. These are known as Irregular, as they don’t represent the mainstay of a force and it is often used as a balancing tool for gameplay. These units do not unlock and always count as Troops regardless of their Unit Type and Unit Size.

Units with a number in brackets after their name indicate particularly rare or even Living Legends. These may only be taken the number of times indicated within the bracket and must still be unlocked as normal.

Help!

Thankfully, we will soon be releasing the Mantic Companion App which includes an army builder designed to make this process extremely easy for you. Army Building tools are a quick way to put ideas together and help track stats for your games while ensuring your army is legal and valid to play. Stay tuned for more information on how to start building your army and showing it off to everyone!

Related Products

Kings of War: 3rd Edition Compendium (Current Core Rules)

This epic gamer’s compendium combines the Third Edition Rulebook, Uncharted Empires and the updates from Clash of Kings 2022.

Also included in this bumper collection are all new ways to play – ‘Ambush’ small scale games, ‘Legendary’ huge games and everyone’s favourite spectacle – ‘Siege’!

THE BIG RED BOOK

This Book contains all the rules from the Third Edition Rulebook, Uncharted Empires and the changes introduced in Clash of Kings 2022. It also includes all the updates and erratas for those books and combines them into one tome.

In addition, the Rules committee have been hard at work to deliver the changes we’d normally see in a Clash of Kings book.

 

 

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