Kings of War: Monstrous Tactics
21st Sep 2017
Dave
With the new Kings of War monster kits headed your way soon and even more existing ones, we thought that it would be great to go over them in a bit more detail. These are some suggested uses for your heavy-hitters in games, but of course, there are many more ways to put your monsters to use in battle.
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The Steel Behemoth is the epitome of the Dwarven way of war. With a high defence of 6+ and a nerve equivalent to a horde of infantry, this thing will hold the line whenever you need it to. In combat, it has tons of attacks (20+D6!), all of which will hit with Crushing Strength 3 – able to topple the toughest of foes. Its main weakness, like many Dwarf units, is speed. This will be unlikely to charge an opponent first, however, it can take just about any charge levelled at it, then hit back just as hard.
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The Undead Wyrm makes a great mount for your Revenant King, turning a small character on foot into something much more dangerous. Again, this hits with Crushing Strength 3, on 9 attacks and has great nerve. While the rest of the stats are decent, its main advantage for Undead players is speed. A relatively high movement of 7, combined with the fact that it isn’t Shambling, makes this an awesome unit to hit first and catch your opponent off-guard. Use them around the flanks of your army, threatening opponents with flank charges and supporting your own lines with Inspiring and Surge 6.
Of course, if you want to go all out, you could always upgrade to a Winged Wyrm. This takes the speed up to 10”, plus gives them the Fly special rule, making them much faster and more mobile. You could use the Wyrm as before, or go over your opponent’s battle line to hunt weaker units such as war machines or supporting heroes.
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The Tree Herder is one of the toughest units in the Elf list, with a Defence of 6+ and great nerve. They are fast, perhaps even more so than the Elves themselves. They have the same speed stat as most elf units, but this is further augmented by Vanguard, which allows you a free At The Double! move at the start of the game and Pathfinder, which lets you ignore difficult terrain (but not obstacles) when you move.
They can be used in a few ways. Surge 8 and Inspiring makes them great support for your ordinarily slow Forest Shamblers. You could create a tough core of troops by keeping this guy and a couple of units of the tree-men close together and moving them up the board to hold the line or objectives. Use the terrain to your advantage – even hide in it! If you remain in difficult terrain, then you can charge without penalty, whereas your opponent will be hindered when they charge your units in the terrain (unless they also have Pathfinder). Don’t forget, this is also a unit in the Forces of Nature, where the same tactics can still be applied.
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The Greater Obsidian Golem is perhaps a bit less subtle than the other monsters mentioned so far. As a construct, they’re Shambling and slow, so don’t forget to make use on an Iron-Caster for healing and surging. The upside of Shambling is that this monster can never be Wavered - continually fighting until they drop. Add this to Defence 6 and you have a very resilient unit indeed. With an Iron-Caster in tow, you can use this to take enemy charges and heal as needed, or simply as a battering ram for your opponent to deal with. With Crushing Strength 3, they’ll make a dent in any unit, while holding it in place until you can have your more manoeuvrable units (or other golems) flank the enemy and eliminate them.
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Finally on our tour, there is the Archfiend of the Abyss. While a little weaker on paper than the other monsters mentioned here, its main use is as a meteorite. Hit your foes hard and fast before they can have a chance to retaliate. The fiend has Crushing Strength 2, which is augmented by Thunderous Charge 2, but only when it pulls off a first charge. It has Brutal (+1 to enemy Nerve Tests) and Vicious (re-roll 1’s to damage) to aid it to, but strictly speaking, you should choose your moment and get it into combat quickly. Wings are almost a must for this, which are handily included in the kit, too.
With that, you should have some idea of how to use each monster in the game. There are, of course, more monsters and more tactics out there, waiting to be used. What tactics or monsters have you found to be effective your games? Do you have any tips that you would like to pass on to newer players?