Are Ratkin Slaves Shit?

Ratkin Slaves is an odd theme list, are they an Abyssal Dwarf list with Ratkin or a Ratkin list with Abyssal Dwarfs?

From rules perspective it is a theme list from the Abyssal Dwarfs, meaning you cannot ally in Abyssal Dwarfs with the theme, but oddly you can ally in their free bretherin the Ratkin, from a fluff perspective that is quite jarring, esp as the Ratkin tore apart their Abyssal Dwarven masters during The Great Revolt.

I chose to play Ratkin Slaves, at it seemed no other bugger was, and I wanted to find out if there was a “winning list”.

Can Kings of War work in a cavern?

I had a thought, yep I know that's strange and dangerous thing.

What if some of the battles were underground, how would that work? 

Hmm... 

CoK among the Hens - Shooting revisited

 Hi

So with the new CoK coming out and changes from irregular to regular on a chunk of shooting units.

I thought it time to revisit the Shooting stats and see what's shaken up.

Cost per inches is a way to distinguish differences in ranges into a single metric

Calc:

Successful Hits = 1/6 number of attacks (ie each dice face) added together (ie RA3+ would be 1/6 + 1/6 + 1/6 + 1/6) plus if elite 1/6 rerolled and hits added), Movement penalties increase the RA value, if over 6 then RA6 at Half attacks

Richard Miles' Love Pods

Richard Miles posed a cool question with events running in social pods of 6, so an 18 player event would be 3 pods.

How do you rank them at the end of the event?

So it got me a pondering, 

And I Ponder
I pah-pah-pah-pah-ponder
Why
Why, why, why, why, why how to set it.

Tournament Systems - comparisons

 With tournaments starting to re-open it got me thinking again on the different tournament scoring systems.

Majority of systems use a combined pointage system, ie Clash of Kings, Northern Kings and BlackJack or variations of these, with tie breakers an after thought.

Others are designed with the tie breakers in mind upfront and use a football style scoring for the result.

There are pros and cons with each system.

Example Results

Sitting and pondering over some New Scenarios

 As people seem to love the Area type scenarios, I had a little think, well I was having a shit and thought of a few ideas for some Area type scenarios.

Hold the Flanks v1

As per Dominate, but the ball is split and put on each edge of the table so you have a 12" semi Circle from the center line coming in from each flank

• Most Scoring Unit Strength overall wins

The Scenarios we Love and Love to Hate

So after a week of gathering feedback on the Scenarios you Love/hate, the people have spoken and spoken loud.

There was a lot of Hate for various Scenarios and none came out unscathed.

The majority of the comments were undying proclamations of hate

All da Hate:

The results are in and Kill leads the pack of the most hated Scenario, followed by Pillage.

Generators

I always loved Lars’ Epic Dwarf Map Pack created by Lars from the Giant Dwarf Podcast and used to use both generators.

So after creating the Shroud of the Reaper website, and playing with pure electronic results and votes submissions that automatically fed into a results calculator, which in turn automatically updated a web page. I thought what next....

So I mocked up a Map generator and scenario generator.

This had issues as Shroud of the Reaper website uses google sites, cause its free and does what I needed. 

BUT google sites does not hold static urls for images you upload, they change url randomly throughout the day as the site is load balanced. 

So many frustrations later, 

• Tried images at the base of the page - Image URL changed within hrs, sometimes on re-publish
• Tried hidden static pages - URL held for 24hrs then boom broken links
• Tried pulling direct from Google Drive - URL held for 24hrs then boom broken links
• Tried displaying the image held in Google Drive - no joy, would not show at all
• Was at a point of WTF, then thought if Google sites wont do it, prehaps another generic free web hoster will.. 

I had a trick, a way around it, yippiee kia yay Mo Fo.

So then the task of re-loading all the images, publishing on a generic unbranded site, grabbing the URLs of those images, and feeding them into the randomiser scripts.

Ta Dar.... Map and Scenario generators are back.

Scenarios

So I created an image for each of the 12 v3 scenarios, that are then used to random pic from, I also created an Old School Scenario picker, for the previous scenarios.

Maps 

Trawling through the interweb, I re-created a load of maps in a consistent style, so far there are 52 Maps that are stored and random picked from.

So where can you find these generators?

Random Scenario Generator

https://www.shroudofthereaper.co.uk/scenario

Shroud of the Reaper - Pirates of the Mytalein

So on the 19th of September 2020, Shroud of the Reaper hosted a REAL LIFE tournament.

This was is the of the seemingly apocalyptic ball ache that is COVID, so social distancing measures, new processes, new cleaning regime etc needed to be created and adhered to.

Working with the Hall owners, the Bexley Reapers Wargaming Club plans were in place, tested out and fingers crossed we did not go into full lockdown 2 days before like the March tournament!!

So what shit did I put in place that allowed this to go ahead?

Shroud of the Reaper and Bexley Wargaming club have its own scenery, and Club night is on Monday, so any club terrain I used was taken out of circulation for 1 week.

The Hall has installed multiple hand sanitiser stations around the hall.

Club and Shroud have bought more and included a bottle and a detol spray on each table, which could be used to spray the tables and terrain between rounds.

Freemantle Hall with the measures both the Hall and the Bexley Reapers Wargaming Club Committee have put in place is classed as a COVID-19 Secure venue.

Direct from the Gov.uk site

Gaming is part of the hospitality sector under the Recreation category
"Recreation is any activity that people do for rest, relaxation, and enjoyment.
The goal of recreation is to refresh a person's body and mind"

Hospitality venues also have exemptions
"COVID-19 Secure venues, such as hospitality venues, can still host larger numbers in total but groups of up to 6 must not mix or form larger groups."

Gov recommended measures include:

• HANDS – Wash your hands regularly and for 20 seconds.
• we already recommend this, and hall has its own hand sanitiser, club has its own as well
• FACE – Wear a face covering in indoor settings where social distancing may be difficult and where you will come into contact with people you do not normally meet.
• we already mandate this when moving about the hall
• SPACE – Stay 2 metres apart from people you do not live with where possible, or 1 metre with extra precautions in place.
• with 7 tables we were well within this

Therefore we could legally host more than 6 people in the hall, but limit the "gathering in groups"

• Games are played 1:1 within there own bubble, therefore there is not a gathering of more than 6 people together in the same bubble.
• Smoking Area: 6 people max in area at a time
• Gathering around a table, prohibited
• Again players are 1:1, so are timed bubbles
• Care needed on peoples entry and award ceremony, so never more than 1:1
• 3 or 4 Zones for people to wait/watch ceremony, or just distance yourselves to not a group "gathering".

The table layout was drawn out, tested and implemented, there was around 3 to 4 meters between tables, to allow for people to sit and stand and still be in there own bubble:

Balanced Scenarios

I previously explored Balancing Scenarios here.

So what is the rational behind having scenarios with balanced VP?

For any tournament the VP you have won by can then be used as a decider, and allows for less ties.

The aim is for each scenario to be balanced on scoring with each other, so that every scenario can score:

• Maximum available VP on the table of 7
• Highest possible winning VP is 7
• Highest possible draw VP is 3
• Highest losing VP is 3
• Highest winning VP with the Highest losing VP scoring 3 is 4

This works for every Tournament Scoring system, for example King of Herts Scoring, Northern Kings, BlackJack, Standard Attrition, etc

Therefore making it easier to record and keep track of VPs, so they can be used as deciders.

Eats Shoots n Leaves

 So as usual the bitchfest has never stopped around shooting in Kings of War.

"nerfed too far" - some person

"shooting is dead" - yet another whiner

"Elves are shit" - a pointy ear fanboy

"Waghh Waghh Waghh" - other cry babies

So what is the actual shit on this?

Is shooting dead?

Well I thought sod it, i'm awake and bored, so I pulled the stats for every shooting unit (not hero/monster/war engines) at each size to compare the stats.

I looked at raw damage output, taking into consideration Elite, Vicious and Piercing

I also costed out the price per wound including half the cheapest unlocking unit for the irregular units.

So what gives?

There are 181 different shooting units across all factions, including the various different sizes and upgrade options that effect the shooting damage output.

63 different named shooting units including the upgrade options

So unit count wise shooting is far from dead.

Which units put out the most damage?

RAW Damage

Abyssal Dwarfs and Ratkin Slaves Decimator Hordes pack the biggest punch by far.

Elves/Twiglet Kin are down at 21st with Therennian Sea Guard horde

The Too Grateful Undead

Well I think it comes as no surprise that the undead are one of the most robust factions, with the only real limitations being they only have one monster and one war engine.

With a massive 12 unlocking units or 19 different unlocking sizes and only 3 irregular units, a fair few consider them OP.

Me I think they just need splitting into two.

With the inclusion of Keywords this is quite easy to see the shape of each faction.

Irregular arguments

Seeing some of the bitchfest which goes on with FB fanatics, bemoaning about irregular units, I thought I would investigate it a bit and see what the friggin issue is.

First off what is an Irregular unit?

Well, an irregular unit is a unit that is marked with an * after its name.

That little star means it no longer unlocks any Hero/Monster/Titan/War Engines or Troops. It also means it counts as a troop for the unlocks, so you need a non * to unlock it and shove it in your army.

Also irregular units cannot be taken as allies, for those who are shit generals and need the crutch of allies.

So….

Across all factions:

• There are between 5 and 12 different unlocking unit types
• Between 6 and 19 actual unlocking units (including Reg, horde & Legions)
• The cheapest unlock ranges between 75 to 200pts
• Number of irregular unit types in a faction range from 1 to 8

So what…

Can the Scenarios be balanced?

1st off I like the different dynamics of the 12 different scenarios, but balancing the scoring of them for tournaments is a bastard.

Blackjack Scoring System tries to do this by forcing them into 4TP variance according to a variable gap depending on scenario.

Northern Kings Scoring System tries to do this by positive scoring up to 5VP, but also means losing scores can vary greatly with some scenarios never being able to score as high as other scenarios.

Herts Scoring System does not combine other parts into an overall TP, but uses Scenario VP, Kills, Attrition and Strength of Schedule as deciders.

Issues:

• Not all scenarios score the same
• Not all scenarios have the same max table VP
• Not all scenarios have the same max winning VP
• Not all scenarios have the same max losing VP
• Not all scenarios have the same highest winning VP if losing VP is at max
• Not all scenarios have the same highest draw score

So can the scenarios be balanced?

Short answer - yes

For the how, read on.....

Do Giants sleep at night?

My name is Mark and I have a Giant problem.......
I own 10 or 11 Mantic Giants (including Frost and Shadow variations), most have been customised to greater or lesser degrees.
I have run several lists through version 2 and 3 of Kings of War with anything from 2 to 7 Giants in a 1000 to 2000 point list.
I also have several other non-mantic giants, and more on the way.
So what is the problem?
Nope its not that I have too many, or not enough, its that people think Giants are shit.

What is a Giant?

Well for me there are a few points that means something is a Giant:

• Size: either Monster or Titan
• Strider: A giant would never be interrupted in its attack by such mundane things such as forests or bushes
• Lots of Crushing: CS3 or more, being successfully hit by a giant should leave a mark

Brucie bonus if their attacks area Random number, as consistency is not the Giants strength.

We're all giants, I can't believe it. 
We were giants all along

So what things are "giants" then?

There are 14 different types of "giants", across 20 different factions.

Can Top Table play and end up 1st and 2nd?

I always found it odd that in a lot of tournaments the last round is the odd one.
Going into that round you have current 1st vs 2nd, 3rd vs 4th etc.
But then depending on the result of that final game, 1st could win and become 3rd or 4th (Depending on how close the ones below were and if they won better), the previous 2nd position can plummet down the table.
It always seemed odd that the "top" table were not playing for 1st and 2nd.
Even odder, rarely has the final 1st and 2nd played each other throughout the tournament.
Now this is a symptom of every Swiss ranked tournament, and they are great as everyone is using the same scoring metric etc.
But got me thinking, are there alternatives and are they workable?

So you want to be a Tournament Organiser?

Why?

This is actually quite a good fundamental question to ask yourself. Why do you want to be a Tournament Organiser?
The scene builder answers are along the lines of:

• There is no Tournament scene in my local area
• Increase Kings of War games in my local area/region

The more selfish ones are:

• I enjoy playing Kings of War and want to host a Tournament
• I enjoy organising things, so why not a Kings of War Tournament
• I want to play in more tournaments local to me

None are bad answers, but if you have a few answers and none are from the top two,, next question would be: is your region/area over saturated with Tournaments?
People get Tournament fatigue, and if there are too many locally then everyone will struggle to find players.

The Withdrawal method

Right, there are some funny shenanigans with the Withdrawal method.

Take a typical multi charge against an in line formation.

1. Orange Charges Blue, middle horde is multi charged by three units
2. Orange moves forward till contact
   
3. Then Orange shuffles to final place sharing frontage
   
4. Blue Survives and Counter Charges Orange
   
   The two Inf Reg are “nudged” back to show they are not engaged.
5. Orange retaliates
   
   But wait, the two Inf Reg can no longer charge the Middle Inf Horde as they are in the flank, also they cannot charge the end hordes as they are also in the Flank.
   
   The two Inf reg do not get a free Withdraw as they are not engaged, therefore cannot move back for them to be in the front arc.