Hi Martin here again! If you are anything like me you have been playing a game of Kings of War and found yourself in the awkward position of not knowing what on earth to do about the next melee phase and which enemy to charge next…

Our very own Elliott is here to help with exactly these kinds of questions with the help of the Brand New Mantic Companion App!

Made for wargamers by wargamers, the Math Hammer tools in the Mantic Companion empowers players with a stats-based look at their army selection.

Introduction to Math Hammer

In table-top wargames, “Math Hammer” refers to using statistics and probability to deduce the likely performance of a unit whenever you roll your (never traitorous) dice.

Using the new app you can start to  answer the question  “On average, rolling X number of dice, how many successes will be rolled?”.

As an example, I want to know how many successes my Ogre Warriors will have when rolling 9 dice needing 3+ to hit? The app will show a success rate of 6 sweet-sweet hits against the enemy!

Pay attention back there! Welcome to Advanced Math Hammer

Next, we have a bit of a maths lesson… Hands up who remembers ‘Normal Distribution’ from their school days? Well, the Mantic App can do all of that for you so you can get back to writing 55378008 on the calculator and having a jolly good giggle.

Normal Distribution for Kings of War helps you see the spread of likely successes and how many wounds you are likely to cause on your next attack!

Here’s an example of what a wounds distribution chart looks like:

We can see that 5 wounds is the most likely amount that this combat will produce, and the vast majority of likelihood falls in between the 4-6 wounds range.

This, in turn, allows us to assign a “point per hit” and “points per wound” value to a given unit.

To Rout or not to Rout?

But we can go further than this. We can also tell the app which enemy unit we are looking to attack, and it can tell us ‘Yeah go for it son’ or (in Martin’s case especially) are you mad? Why would you think that? Quit the game and sell your miniatures…!

In the example above, we’ve got a 16.66%, or 1/6, chance of routing the target unit – is it worth it??

Yes, but why?

Math Hammer is just another tool in your  list building  armoury. It allows you to compare units in your chosen faction for effectiveness in battle for a given points level.

It’s important to understand however, Math Hammer does not account for none combat abilities and tactics. For example, the Fly Special Rule adds considerable value to any unit that has it, but it’s directly reflected in the combat “points per” calculations.

The Companion can also be used to determine the relative effectiveness of a unit as an “Anvil” (A unit with high nerve / defence and therefor staying power) so you can create a balanced force and not just one that dies to a stiff breeze. Being able to identify which units are the most lethal in given situations can also help you to understand their battlefield role. For tournament players, this is especially useful when trying to squeeze as much value out of the available points spend as possible, tactics withstanding.

Yes, but where?

The Math Hammer tools will all be available FOR FREE on the Mantic Companion. Kings of War, Deadzone and Firefight will each have its own dedicated tools, with more games added as new updates are rolled out over the coming months!

They also contain handy on-page comparison features, allowing wargamers to enter and compare stats for multiple units at once.

Class Dismissed

Kings of War has well over 1000 different combat units – a mixture of troops, regiments, hordes, heroes, monsters and titans. Each has its own stat line which change the outcome of average rolls.

In the Mantic Companion, we’ve done all the hard work for you – with a subscription to any game you will unlock pre-calculated stats lists, as well as the ability to compare against any other unit within the game, directly from inside the list builders themselves.

Happy Wargaming!

I’ve finished my popcorn and now on to the ice-cream.. watch the countdown to launch of the Mantic Companion here!