Introduction

Contents
INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ACHIEVEMENT SYSTEM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
TOURNAMENT GUIDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
USING TERRAIN IN TOURNAMENTS . . . . 32
Location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 WRITING YOUR OWN RULES. . . . . . . . . . . 34
Schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2017 RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Scoring & Prizes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Artefacts & Spells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
LEAGUE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Scenarios. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Standard League. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Slow Grow League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Ladder League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Experience System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Credits
Written by Sculpting
Nick Williams Gregor Adrian, Juan Miguel López Barea, Ben
Calvert-Lee, Russ Charles, Gregory Clavilier,
Additional Content
Derek Miller, Gary Morley, Bob Naismith,
Michael Carter, Mark Cox, Kris Kapsner,
Dave Neild, Nicolas Nguyen, Juan Navarro
Daniel King, Chris Morris, Sami Mahmoud,
Perez, Tim Prow, Sylvain Quirion, Steve
Jason Moorman
Saunders, Ben Skinner, Luigi Terzi, Remy
Editor Tremblay, James van Schaik, Kevin White
Thomas Pike
Painting
Layout & Graphic Design Luke Barker, Mark Bedwell, Andrew
Duncan Aldis, Dylan Owen Chesney, Conflict in Colour, Matt Gilbert,
Golem Painting Studio, Dave Neild, Paul
Photography
Scott Miniatures, Chris Straw, Chris
Ben Sandum, Matt Hobday
Webb, Andrew Wedmore, Nick Williams,
Artwork Winterdyne Commission Modelling
Shen Fei Chan, Juan Diego Dianderas, Des
Special Thanks
Hanley, Yann Hoarau, Phil Moss, Michael
Sanctuary Gaming Centre. All scenery from
Rechlin, Luigi Terzi
owner’s collection.
All the TO’s and players who helped develop
the book. Counter-Charge Podcast for their
Army in a Weekend challenge idea. Sam
Rounsevell for his unending playtesting.
Mantic, Dungeon Saga, Kings of War, and all associated characters, names, places and things are TM and © Mantic Entertainment Ltd 2017. All rights
in the design, text, graphics, and other material in this publication and its selection or arrangement is copyright of Mantic Entertainment Ltd., or has
been granted for use by other third parties. This includes images, text, graphics, corporate logos and emblems. Reproduction is prohibited. Colours and
contents may vary from those shown. Photography not to scale.

Mantic Games, 193 Hempshill Lane, Bulwell, Nottingham, NG6 8PF, UK

www.manticgames.com

1
 Introduction

To War…
Kings of War has seen massive growth over the last 18 months and we are thrilled
to see the game expanding and getting the attention we know it deserves. There
has been a huge influx of new gamers which has swelled the player base, and the
sheer number of games being played globally is fantastic to see. Entire tournament
scenes have switched wholesale to the system and players are embracing the
simplicity of the rules and the awesome modelling opportunities that the system
allows for. We’ve seen some truly inspiring units and armies and some wacky
ones too!
We would like to thank the KoW Rules Committee for the huge amount of
work they do in preparing FAQs, engaging with and answering questions for
the community, and helping write new material to further develop the game –
including this book you now hold in your hands! Kings of War would certainly
not be the same without their tireless efforts.

2
 Introduction

Kings of War has proven itself to be an excellent ruleset for tournaments,

especially with the inherent capability to have time-controlled games. However,
not every tournament is the same – there are so many variables and ideas and so
we thought it would be a great idea to collate all these and put them into a single
place so that both players and event organisers alike had a comprehensive guide
to the subject.
Inside this book you will find guidelines on organising and planning different types
of Kings of War events, some thoughts from experienced tournament organisers
and, perhaps more exciting, some new spells, magic artefacts and scenarios that
can be used in tournaments in the year ahead!
So read, digest, enjoy and then start planning your road to glory!
Matt Gilbert

3
 Introduction
So, you want to run a
Kings of War event?
by Michael Carter
You’ve been enjoying Kings of War
with your friends and now you want to
give something back, contribute to the
community and help grow the player base.
Great stuff. The first thing is to determine
the type and feel of the event you want to
run - is this going to be a battle royal, crush
your enemies and hear the lamentations
of their women type of tournament, or
an army building escalation league where
painting up new units counts as much as
winning battles?
The good news is there’s room for all types
of events, and the key is to run an event that
you would enjoy playing in yourself (even if
you’re not actually going to play in it). One
adage to remember when formulating an
event is, “The goal of a game is to win; the
purpose of a game is to have fun. These do
not have to be mutually exclusive.” If your
event doesn’t sound fun to you, it probably
won’t be fun for your players either.
For most people, a traditional tournament
is the first thing that comes to mind
when they think about a wargames event,
especially a competitive one, and there are
many benefits to this kind of setup. They
have the advantage of taking place in a
relatively short amount of time (a day or
4
maybe two, and usually during a weekend)
and as an organiser they have much more
of a ‘one and done’ feel to them. It is also
easier for out of town players to come to
tournaments as it only requires a single
trip.
Leagues, on the other hand, and campaigns
(a league where the outcomes of individual
battles affect the next battle) often have a
more relaxed feel to them as they take place
over a much longer period. This could be
several weeks or even months, though of
course you could run a league in a single
day or weekend if you wanted - say during a
convention. Leagues tend to be a little more
local due to the regular time commitment
required.
Whichever type you choose, it can often
be a good thing to try to make your
event different. This doesn’t have to be
something drastic but changing things up
a bit, be it point values, composition, unit
requirements, scenarios or anything else
can help keep things interesting and make
your event more memorable. Anybody can
play games straight out of the book – but
how many people get to use the special
character you’ve created in their army,
or tackle your secret scenarios, or bring
their own terrain pieces? Making it unique
can elevate your event from ‘just another
Saturday tournament’ to Clash of the Titan
Killers, or whatever you choose to call it. It
might even become something people look
forward to each year.

Once you have decided the type of event
you want to run, you need to determine
your location and hammer out the
schedule. These two things are often tied
closely together. Do you have a gaming club
that meets weekly? This is a good setting
for a league. Know of a game store with
lots of tables? This might be a good place
for a tournament. Bigger events will often
require a specialist venue, such as a hotel
or convention centre. Either way, make
sure the venue can support the number of
players you’ll be bringing and is open at the
times when you will be having the event. It
is worth noting that game stores will often
accommodate events by offering to open
early or stay late, since having an event at
a store can help to boost their sales, so it’s
a win-win.
Make sure the event location has sufficient
space, not just number of tables required,
but also for all the other associated
‘baggage’. A place for people to put their
carrying cases (and coats if the weather is
bad) can make the event much more gamer-
friendly. When you lay out the tables for
the event, make sure there is sufficient
space to move around.
Timing can also be critical when running
events. Always be aware of other nearby
5
Introduction
events happening within a month or so of
your event, especially if it is a single day
or weekend event. Having other events very
close (or even worse, on the same day) as
your event means some players will have
to make a tough choice, and your numbers
may suffer. In addition, not everyone lives
and breathes Kings of War (yes, I know
it is hard to believe) and sometimes they
are limited to the number of events they
are able to attend, especially when they
are close together. Having sufficient time
between events helps to bring in more
people, as well as prevent a large ‘dead time’
when there are no events in a particular
region (as opposed to a Deadzone – which
is another game entirely).
Eventually, you will not be able to avoid
conflicting times with other events as the
number being held keeps growing; there
may be events every weekend. If you must
have yours at the same time as another, try
to hold it as far away as possible. Events
in the UK rarely will cause conflicts with
players in the USA, but events in the same
or neighbouring cities might be an issue. Of
course, all of us hope to one day host huge
events bringing in players from across the
nation or even overseas, but most events
rarely start that way and there are bound
to be clashes.
 Introduction
The other conflict you should watch out
for when setting the date is the many
real world events that dare to interfere
with the important business of pushing
toy soldiers around. Major holidays can
get in the way, but even smaller ones for
a three-day weekend can either help your
event (making it easier for people to go to
because of the long weekend) or hurt it
(because people will already have things
planned). So, think carefully. Leagues can
be especially vulnerable to this kind of time
conflict. December is often a bad month for
a league due to holiday events that occupy
peoples time. The same is true in the spring
when school is letting out – there are often
graduations and other events going on.
This doesn’t mean you can’t run your event
at this time – just be aware of the impact it
may have on attendance.
Once you have your location, date and
type, a tournament pack is a great way
to communicate the details to potential
attendees. This should be easily available
both to registered players and those
just interested. It needs to have all the
information that a player would need to
play in your event. Sure, it may seem like
a formality, but people have been known
to show up at events without simple basics
like dice or measuring tape. Putting the
schedule in the event pack also helps
players to organize their day - sadly it
won’t stop the inevitable question of “when
does the next round start?”, but it will help
to answer many questions before they get
asked.
6
6
In addition to the schedule, the pack is
also where you want to give all the details
of the event – how many points to bring,
if there are special composition rules or
requirements etc. You should also have
information on how the event will be
scored so players can be prepared for that.
Preparing for a pure battle-point event is
a lot different than getting ready for one
with a lot of soft scores.
Running the event is where the biggest
difference between most tournaments
and leagues takes place. A tournament
happens all at once, and while you aren’t
guaranteed that everyone who starts the
tournament will finish it, tournaments
have a lot fewer drop outs than leagues
typically do. Tournaments also have a lot
more time pressure than leagues, as you
often only have fifteen to thirty minutes in
order to record all the scores and prepare
matchups for the next round. Leagues on
the other hand may stretch their rounds
over one or more weeks, giving you much
more time to communicate the results of
each round. Keep in mind it may be trickier
getting results from players as you can’t
always walk over to their table to get them.
This is where having a good schedule helps.
 Introduction

When running a league, you will often need One thing to not overlook is a certificate
some type of communication mechanism (or plaque or trophy if your budget allows)
beyond the advertising you might have for the winners. Prizes get used up, traded
done to promote your event. Players need and sometimes even sold, but having
to be able to check their standings and something to put on your wall is a way to
scores, as well as see who they need to play make your event even more memorable.
next (if this is predetermined). While it is Some large events even go as far as to have
not required to be online (there are many custom medieval weapons for the winners.
leagues that function quite well using a But even just printing certificates, which
poster or bulletin board in their venue only cost a little time, paper and ink, can
which is updated by the organiser with make a big difference to player enjoyment.
all the information needed) it often helps
as people can look up their information
at any time. While leagues don’t have the
urgency of tournaments, you should have
a set schedule as to when the standings
will be updated each round. So if your
league meets on Friday nights and has two
weeks per round, then you might have your
Some of the promotion for your event
standings updated by the Tuesday after
actually takes place afterwards. Nearly
each round ends. Consistency here is very
everyone can take pictures with their
important – it doesn’t matter too much
phones, so ask these to be sent in (or take
exactly when you do the update so long as
some yourself) and post them online for
you do it regularly.
people to see. It will get them excited about
Scoring the rounds, and, if necessary, the event, and allow the players to go back
determining matchups, is generally one of and see themselves and the fun they had.
the least enjoyable yet most important parts If you are successful enough to make your
of running any event! Whether you want to event an annual one, then it gets even more
shuffle and sort papers, use a spreadsheet, fun to look back on the pictures year after
or a computer program like warscore, this year.
can be one of the trickier parts. Always
It has been said before, but it is better to
double check all results and data entry.
have your event be too short than have it
Also, make sure the scoring is transparent
be too long. You want the players to finish
and full described in your tournament
with a sense of excitement and desire for
pack. Players want to know how to win and
more, not feeling like they can barely drag
should be able to accurately tell what their
themselves across the finish line, or like
scores are. It is a good idea to publish the
they don’t want to see another miniature
final results as soon as you can after the
for months.
event, while people are still excited and
want to see how close they came to taking In summary, while running events can be
down the top dog. a lot of work, it is also very rewarding.
Meeting players from other areas, growing
Prizes and swag can be a challenge.
the community for the game you love,
Fortunately, a lot of events run in stores will
and helping to shape the local gaming
take admission fees and use that to supply
community are just some of the rewards
gift cards for the winners (and some stores
you can look forward to. Escalation leagues
will even add their own contributions to
that encourage people to build new armies,
this as well). This helps to generate prizes
small local tournaments of a dozen people
the winners want, but also guarantees sales
and even huge mega tournaments over a full
in the store. For events held in other venues,
weekend with dozens (or even hundreds
often you can get donations of prizes from
eventually) of people all have their place,
various companies in exchange for you
and are all a lot of fun. Enjoy!
mentioning them. Sponsorship, effectively.

7
Tournament Guide

Tournament Guide

8

What needs
arranging
Here’s a checklist of the things that
you need to arrange when running a
tournament:
• Location
• Format
• Schedule
• Scoring & Prizes
Location
You can’t run a tournament without a place
to do it, and the location you choose can
make or break your event.
Gaming venues, including stores, will often
have space available for you to use. Simply
approach the store you want to host the
event in and ask – they’ll often be happy for
you to run an event since it draws people to
the store and tournament goers often make
additional purchases while at the store.
Once a store is happy for you to run an
event, they will give you a list of dates
available and will be able to tell you how
many tables they can put out. It’s best to
choose a date that’s at least a couple of
months away so you have time to advertise
and build hype.
The number of tables available will limit
the maximum number of players you can
host. You don’t want to have 30 people turn
up if your venue can only host 20, so make
sure you check this point!
A nice alternative to a gaming store is
a function room, typically available at
community clubs or pubs. Using a venue
like this may demand a small fee, though
many pubs do offer function rooms free of
charge. Make sure you are aware of the cost
when working out how much to charge for
tickets.
9
Tournament Guide
Boards & Terrain
Once you have your venue sorted, ensure
you are able to get enough boards and
terrain for your players.
If the venue is a dedicated gaming space,
they will likely have a selection of boards
and terrain ready for you to use. Check
their scenery out to make sure that they
have enough for your event and that it’s
suitable.
If you are using a non-gaming venue, you
will need to supply boards and terrain.
Your chosen venue might already be used
by a gaming club, in which case you may
be able to borrow their boards and terrain,
but otherwise you will need to dip into your
own collection or that of friends.
Food & Refreshments
You need to decide whether you will provide
food for your attendees. Your venue may
have rules about bringing food in or may be
able to provide food themselves. There are
usually some dedicated catering companies
available who will be able to provide food
and can be found through a quick Google
search. A fall-back option of Subway or
another local supplier of sandwiches will
always go down well!
If you aren’t able to provide food, then
make sure there are nearby places within
a very short walk to purchase it from and
include a list of recommendations in your
tournament pack (see page 16).
Make sure you can cater to those with
special dietary requirements too, such as
vegetarian or gluten free. Invite anyone
with special requirements to email you to
ensure that they have something available.
Other refreshments are also important.
Check whether your venue sells
refreshments such as tea, coffee, fizzy
drinks and snacks. They may not allow
customers to bring their own drinks and
snacks into the venue and this should be
noted in the pack.
 Tournament Guide
Format
There are many different methods of
running a tournament, and these are
commonly called Formats. The classic
format simply has players paired off against
each other for a series of regular games.
Another popular format, Clocks of War,
introduces increasingly tighter round times
as the event progresses, forcing players
to play and think much faster than they
normally would.
The formats described in this section are:
• Classic (Swiss pairings)
• Clocks of War
• Army in a Weekend
• Escalating
• Dual List
• Doubles
There’s nothing stopping you from running
a completely different format, but these are
the basic ones that players will be familiar
with. It is certainly recommended that
you run at least one event with one of the
classic formats before trying to devise and
run an entirely new format.
10
Classic Format
The classic format is one that all
competitive players will be familiar with.
In a typical 1-day event, players will play
3 to 4 standard games, earning points for a
Victory, Draw and even a Loss. At the end
of the day, the player with the most points
is declared the winner.
A standard classic tournament would see 3
to 4 games of around 2000 points in a single
day. An example schedule would look like
this:
Example Schedule
09:00-09:30 Registration
09:30-09:45 Briefing
09:45-11:25 Game 1
11:25-11:40 Break
11:40-13:20 Game 2
13:20-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:40 Game 3
15:40-15:55 Break
15:55-17:35 Game 4
17:35-17:40 Break
17:40-17:50 Results & Awards
 Tournament Guide

Clocks of War Allowing an additional 10 minutes per

round for rules queries, comfort breaks
The idea behind clocks of war is to give etc. means that a schedule might look
the players decreasing amounts of time something like this:
in each round, to the extent that the last
round becomes a frantic rush with players
having to quickly decide whether they
have sufficient time to charge or not!
Example Schedule
09:00-09:30 Registration
Chess clocks are normally used to ensure
a tournament keeps on track, but in this 09:30-09:45 Briefing
format they are used to push the players to 09:45-10:45 Game 1
their limits. 10:45-11:00 Break
It is recommended that you use a lower 11:00-12:00 Game 2
points value, usually 1200 points, for this 12:00-13:00 Lunch
event. This ensures that rounds are quick 13:00-13:50 Game 3
and plentiful. The idea of only having 15
13:50-14:05 Break
minutes for your last game is also a lot
14:05-14:55 Game 4
more nail biting than having 20 minutes.
14:55-15:10 Break
The bonus of having a lower points value
15:10-15:50 Game 5
like this means you can fit in more games
in a single day. Five games in a day is easily 15:50-16:00 Break & results
done even with a late start and early finish, collection
and even six can be done. More than six 16:00-16:15 Awards ceremony
games can be tricky since players will get
tired towards the end.
Typical round times might look something As you can see this makes for a fast-paced
like this for a 1200 point Clocks of War day. Even with an hour-long lunch break
event: and 15 minute breaks between each game,
it is still a fairly early finish. You can
Round Minutes definitely fit a sixth game in there, as long
per player as your players won’t be too tired by the
end!
1 25
2 25
3 20
4 20
5 15

11
 Tournament Guide

Army in a Weekend Escalating Tournament

Due to the low points values used in a The premise for this format is quite simple;
Clocks of War event, sometimes players in each round the points limit increases.
will participate in an “Army in a Weekend” Generally, the increase should be uniform
challenge the weekend before. Simply put, between each round. The example below
they are encouraged to paint their entire shows the first round starting at 1250
army over the course of a Saturday and points and increasing by 250 points over
Sunday. A daunting task for larger armies, the course of 4 games:
this is more than feasible with a 1000 point
force.
Game 1 1250 points
Players aren’t required to assemble their Game 2 1500 points
models and multibases over the weekend,
Game 3 1750 points
nor prime them. They can do this ahead of
time, but they must paint and base their Game 4 2000 points
models over the two days. This is not only
a fun challenge to participate in, but it also
serves as good advertisement for the event. Of course, you’ll probably want to increase
the time for each round as the day
progresses! You’ll have some very bored
gamers at the start of the day if they have
nearly 2 hours to complete a 1250 point
game.
On the other hand, you could take the
opposite approach, closer to a clocks of war
format, and increase the point limit while
keeping the time limit the same. If you used
the escalation scaling shown above yet
kept the time at a fixed 40 minutes, or even
35 minutes, then you’ll have some very
If players are active on social media, then fast and intense games in the last couple
they will often post regular updates on of rounds! Like Clocks of War, this could
Twitter or Facebook groups such as Kings of really test players on their ability to think
War Fanatics. Some technologically gifted under pressure.
hobbyists may even run live streaming
events where they join other hobbyists on
video chat while they paint their respective
armies.
You can encourage this by doing an Army
in a Weekend yourself and encouraging
sign-ups from other hobbyists. You could
even give out a specific “Best Army in
a Weekend” painting award! There is a
judging form at the back of this book.
Of course, with players painting their armies
the weekend before the event, this usually
means that they have little or no practice
with the army at all. This just makes it all
the more impressive if they manage to do
particularly well with an army they have
never used before!

12

Dual Lists
In a dual list event, each player brings two
different army lists and swaps them out
between rounds.
The following rules should apply to the two
lists;
• They must both be from the same
faction.
• At least 25% of the points in each list
must be spent on units that do not
appear in the other list. For example, if
both lists have units of Ogre Warriors
in them, these do not count towards
the 25% regardless of the size, options
or artefacts chosen.
• The Maximum Duplicates rule applies
across both lists. For example, in a
1500 point event (where two duplicates
are allowed) a player couldn’t choose
two Necromancers in one list and a
Necromancer in another list since that
would be a total of three duplicates.
For this format it is recommended that
you play with a smaller point value, such
as 1500 points. Having to bring dual 2000
point lists, of which 25% must be different,
is a lot to ask.
Doubles
In a doubles event, two players enter as a
team. They each control a force allied to
that of their teammate, going up against
another pair of players. The Doubles format
otherwise follows the same ranking rules as
a standard tournament.
We recommend using the following rules
for the two forces;
• Both forces on a team must be picked
from different army lists.
• The two forces are considered to be
allied to each other, so they cannot cast
13
Tournament Guide
Choosing a list
There are a few different methods
for choosing which list a player will
use in each round;
• When players first meet but
before rolling for sides, they
should show each other both
lists. They then decide in secret
which of their lists they will use
for that game before revealing
it to their opponent at the same
time. They then roll off for sides
and proceed as normal. Each
list must be used at least once
during the event.
• As a slight twist on the above
variation, after sharing lists, the
players choose which list their
opponent will use rather than
their own.
• Players each roll a dice before
rolling sides. On a 1-3 they play
with their first list, on a 4-6 with
their second list.
As always, ensure that you specify
which method you are going to use
in the tournament pack.
spells on each other’s units, and the
Inspiring rule doesn’t work between
the two forces etc.
• Each force has a max. duplicates rule
based on its size. For example, in a
doubles event where each player has
750 points (for a team total of 1500
points) each player may only take 1 of
each hero.
When choosing your round times, add more
time than you would normally allow. The
additional communication time between
players can slow the game down. An
additional 10-15 minutes per side for 2000
points is sufficient.
 Tournament Guide
Schedule
You will need to work out the schedule for
the day of your event to see when games
will start and end, as well as when the
event itself will start and end. You need to
have the following things scheduled:
• Registration, where players arrive,
unpack their armies and check in with
yourself. We recommend a half hour
period at the start of the day.
• Briefing, where you thank everyone for
turning up, explain how the day will
proceed, who to ask for rules queries,
health and safety concerns etc. A
15-minute briefing will easily cover
this and allow players some extra time
to unpack their armies if they’ve only
just arrived.
• Time for the games. This is highly
dependent on the size of the game so
the time is explained in more detail
below.
• Breaks between each game of around
10-15 minutes.
• A longer break for lunch of at least 30-
45 minutes, preferably an hour.
• Awards ceremony. The word
“ceremony” is perhaps a grandiose way
of saying “reading out who won and
giving them a trophy”, but schedule
around 10-15 minutes for this.
It’s a good idea to keep the lunch break to
an hour. If the morning overruns, then you
can trim the lunch break down to ensure
that you start off the afternoon games on
time. If, however, you set the lunch break
at 30 minutes and the morning overruns
then you have no option but to give players
the full lunch break and have the entire day
overrun.
If the lunch break proves to be excessive
on the day, then you can always finish it
early so that the afternoon session starts
earlier and the day ends earlier. Players
are always happy to finish the day earlier,
but overrunning can cause problems with
things like family dinner, public transport
and parking.
14
Game timing
The time allocated for games can be tricky.
Too little time and your players can feel too
pressured to complete their games. If chess
clocks are not used, they may not complete
their games in the round time. This can
cause schedule issues where round times
start to overrun and your day falls behind
schedule.
On the other hand, having times that are
too lenient can leave many players sat
around twiddling their thumbs at the end
of each round!
The round time can also influence the
armies that people choose to bring. A
shorter round time will mean people bring
smaller, more elite armies while a longer
round time will give people more time to
breathe, resulting in bigger armies with
more units.
We recommend using 20-25 minutes per
player per 1000 points, plus 10 minutes of
“down-time” in each round. The down-time
is there for setup discussion, rules queries,
toilet breaks and reporting results to you.
For example, in a 2000 point tournament
we recommend allowing around 45 minutes
per player for in-game time, plus 10 minutes
of down-time. This means that each round
would last a total of 100 minutes. This
allows each player to use their allotted
time and not have to worry about squeezing
in their admin work such as working out
results.

Clocks
It is highly recommended that your players
use chess clocks at tournaments. These
ensure that your event runs on time and
players are not unfairly penalised by having
a slow playing opponent. If one of the
players is particularly slow at playing, it is
only their own time that they are using up.
If there are no chess clocks then one of the
players could use an unreasonable amount
of the round time and players might not
be able to finish the game, or worse – one
player might end up having more turns
than the other.
Time-outs
We have had feedback from several events
that the standard time-out penalty of an
auto-rout and auto-loss is too harsh. We
therefore recommend using the following
adjusted rules for timing out:
Amended Time-out
If a player runs out of time, they must
immediately put their dice down and make
no further dice rolls for the rest of the
game. If there are any unresolved combats,
then all charging units bounce back 1” as if
failing to rout the enemy unit.
During the remainder of the game, the
player may not issue any orders or roll
any dice, including for rules such as
Regeneration.
The timed-out player will also receive a -1
tournament point penalty.
Note: The value of this tournament point
penalty will need adjusting depending on
the scoring you use; you may choose to
reduce a -1 penalty to nothing if you have
just 3 points for a win.
Standby Player
While an event organiser can endeavour
to ensure that there is an even number of
players in their event, sometimes life just
gets in the way and one player drops out.
This causes a problem at tournaments
since they rely on having an even number
of players.
15
Tournament Guide
Instead we recommend having a standby
player. Someone who you know locally who
is happy to play or not play depending on
numbers. Offer them a free ticket, but make
it clear that they’ll only be able to play if
there is an odd number of players.
Keep them around throughout the day,
if you can. One of the no-shows may
subsequently turn out to be just running
late and can join in after the first round.
You may also have a player drop out halfway
through the day, perhaps due to a family
emergency, and need the standby player to
make the numbers even again.
The alternative to this is forcing a player
to sit out each round. If you must force a
player to sit out in each round, then we
recommend the following:
1. Make sure it is a different player each
round.
2. Ask for a volunteer first.
3. Try and choose someone from the
middle of the results table, rather than
the top or bottom.
4. Give them the average number of
points that all other players scored for
that round.
5. Refund them the relevant portion of
the ticket cost for that game – e.g. a
player missing one game in a four-game
tournament should be refunded 25% of
the ticket cost.
 Tournament Guide
Latecomers
Unfortunately, life can get in the way of
getting to an event. Whether it’s by heavy
traffic, Britain’s famously unreliable trains
or other reasons, you may have attendees
who are late to the event.
If this happens, we recommend giving the
player the average points scored in the
The Tournament Pack
You should prepare a tournament
pack for any event that you run.
This is a document which provides
all the pertinent information for the
tournament. At a minimum, it should
contain:
• Date & Location of the tournament
• Ticket price
• Army composition rules, including
points limit, new artefacts & spells
and any rule changes
• Whether or not lunch is provided
• Game schedule, including number
of rounds, start & end time
• What scoring system will be used
• Details of the format if it is
anything other than a standard
tournament
• Any extra rules that are in effect
at the event
16
rounds they missed and allow them to
participate in any future rounds. You may
also consider not allowing them to win
prizes, since they didn’t earn the points
for the rounds that they missed. If they do
finish high enough to win a trophy or prize,
it is recommended that it is handed down
to the next player in line.
• You could also include the
following:
• Which scenarios are going to be
used
• Directions to the venue
• Details of the venue, such as food
and beverages available to buy
• Details of any prizes
This tournament pack should be placed
online for players to download and
view. It is recommended that you set
up a Facebook Event, since this serves
as a good central point for storing
the tournament pack. It is also an
effective method of advertising if it’s
shared to Kings of War fan groups,
such as Kings of War Fanatics.

Mark Cox shares some important do’s and don’ts.
Here I’ll be running you through what
I learned during my evolution as an
organiser, in the hope that it may help
you run an event of your own.
I got involved in my regional tournament
scene more than a decade ago. During
that time I attended all sorts of events
across the United States, from the
largest iconic grand tournaments to
smaller social club nights. Through
those experiences I got to a point where
I felt like it was time to try running
a tournament of my own. I started
out with some small 1-day events and
after a while I was offered the chance
to take over and run the Lonewolf
Grand Tournament in Dallas, Texas;
the oldest Grand Tournament in Texas
and the largest KOW event in the
United States in 2016.
For any event, no matter the size, it
all starts with the players. You always
need to keep them in mind when
you’re making decisions about what
will happen in your events. I always
ask myself, what is going to challenge
them? What is going to keep them
entertained? How can I make this an
event that they will want to attend
and want to return to? Once you have
the players in mind, all the remaining
logistics (such as size, scoring, scenarios,
rulings, etc.) will need to be lined up.
Planning an event takes organization
and forethought. Brainstorm what is
going to happen at your event; number
of players, number of rounds, the flow
and timing of the rounds, how are
you going to be collecting scores and
tracking event items, what tools and
materials you need at your venue to
ensure everything runs smoothly, and
so on and so forth. 
Here are some of the most common
hiccups that can be prevented with a
little pre-planning:
• Be prepared for last second drops.
Real life trumps tournaments,
so have a plan for what to do
if you’re suddenly one player
17
Tournament Guide
down. Preparations like having a
ringer army to match up to the
odd-player-out, or giving the odd-
player-out a winning score and
a bye can bridge a TO through
untimely drops.
• Be prepared for players forgetting
required materials such as
measuring tape, books, dice, pens,
etc. Have spare materials that they
can borrow at the ready.
• Make sure you have all of your
own materials together when you
head to the venue, there’s nothing
more annoying than forgetting a
power cord, or your laptop for
scoring in your rush to get to the
event.
• Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks.
Players are more than willing to
help step up and assist with events,
asking someone who finished early
to hand out score sheets while you
settle a rules dispute is completely
acceptable. Don’t feel that you
have to do everything yourself.  
We have an excellent community
that plays KoW, and experienced
TOs are always willing to help other
folks out, especially new TOs.  I can
tell you from experience that running
a tournament is a great way to give
back to the community, and it’s a lot
of fun too.  There’s something deeply
satisfying in setting up an event for
lots of gamers, tracking their efforts
and rewarding their achievements over
the course of the weekend. I greatly
appreciate that Mantic is servicing the
Kings of War community with this
resource book, because up until now,
Tournament Organisers had to learn
through trial and error, or by shared
learning from other TOs.  Now, with
this book, anyone  will be poised to
run a successful event without needing
years of experience to do so.
Best of luck and happy gaming!
 Tournament Guide
Scoring
There are many scoring systems in use
across the tournament scene. Here we
provide examples of the most common
scoring systems.
It’s up to you to decide which categories to
award players points in.
Gaming Points
Gaming points usually consist of two scores
– the tournament points awarded for a win,
draw or loss, plus a tie breaker calculated
as the total number of points routed by
each player.
Basic Scoring
This is the simplest scoring method and
awards tournament points (TP) as follows:
• Win: 3 points
• Draw: 2 points
• Loss: 1 point
Players are ranked first by their tournament
point total, then by the total point-value
of enemy units they routed during the
tournament.
Kill-Modified Scoring
In this system, players receive between 5
and 20 tournament points for a game. They
first receive the following tournaments
points:
• Win: 15 points
• Draw: 10 points
• Loss: 5 points
From there, they receive up to 5 additional
bonus points based on the total point-cost
of enemy units routed during the game. In
a 2000 point tournament, the bonus points
might look like this:
18
Total point-cost of
enemy units routed Bonus Points
0-199 +0
200-599 +1
600-999 +2
1000-1399 +3
1400-1799 +4
1800+ +5
It is recommended to make the final +5
bonus points band a little less than the full
points available so that a player doesn’t
have to take out every last army standard
bearer on the field in order to get the +5!
Attrition-Modified Scoring
Attrition-modified, as its name suggests,
is based on attrition points rather than
kill points. This is the difference between
the total number of points each player has
Routed (their Victory Points or VPs).
Here is an example Attrition-Modified
chart for a 2000 point tournament:
VP Player with the Player with the
Difference highest VPs lowest VPs
adjusts their TP adjusts their TP
score by score by
1600+ +5 -5
1200-1599 +4 -4
800-1159 +3 -3
400-799 +2 -2
100-399 +1 -1
0-99 0 0
For example, Lisa wins a game (scoring 15
TP) by beating Dave (who scores 5 TP). Lisa
has routed 1250 points of Dave’s units, and
Dave routed 750 points of Lisa’s units for
a difference of 500 VPs. This amounts to
a +2 modifier to Lisa’s score for a total of
17 tournament points, while Dave receives
a -2 modifier for a total of 3 tournament
points.

Hobby Points
The actual battles are only one part of the
wargaming hobby. Painting & modelling is
a major aspect, and rewarding players for
this greatly encourages them to improve
their hobby skills. This in turn helps to
promote the hobby and the game.
This type of scoring is subjective, so it’s
best to come up with a way of being as
objective about hobby scoring as possible.
The simplest way of doing this is to give
players extra tournament points if their
entire army is painted. While not being
a hard rule, it does strongly encourage
painted armies. Unfortunately, this does
not encourage any kind of quality in the
paint job!
If you’re wanting to encourage higher
quality painting, then we recommend
having the majority of hobby points decided
through a tick-box exercise: Are all units in
the army painted? Are there are examples
of advanced highlighting? You can also
have an impartial paint judge awarding
some of the points.
At the back of this book you will find an
example of a tick-box painting rubric. Up
to 15 points are awarded for ticking the
relevant boxes and the remaining 5 points
are decided by a judge.
Doing the scoring this way also means that
players can self-mark the tick-box portion
of the scoring, which is good because
conversions and “examples of advanced
highlighting” can be difficult for a painting
judge to spot. With the players completing
these themselves, it frees up more time for
the paint judge to do their judging portion.
Of course, a judge will still have to sign-off
the score sheet to make sure that the player
has been honest!
It should go without saying that whoever is
doing the paint judging must be impartial.
They shouldn’t have a stake in who wins or
loses, and certainly shouldn’t be competing
in the event.
For judging, have a set time in your event
19
Tournament Guide
where players put their armies out on
display. During an hour-long lunch break is
the best bet since this gives players plenty
of time to peruse the armies. It is also a
good opportunity to collect “Best Army”
votes from players if you are judging this
category by vote.
Sportsmanship Points
Everybody wants to have great games
with great opponents when they come
to an event but unfortunately everybody
has heard nightmare stories about bad
opponents. Sore losers, cheaters, “stretchy
tape measures” and a general bad attitude
can really sour an event for players.
To combat this, it’s a good idea to reward
players for excellent behaviour and this is
done via Sportsmanship scoring.
We recommend scoring this in with three
factors:
• At the end of the event, players vote for
their favourite opponent. That player
receives 2 tournament points.
• At the same time, they also vote for
their second favourite opponent. That
players receives 1 tournament point.
• Each player begins with 10 bonus
sportsmanship points. The event
organiser or a judge can deduct points
from this total if they witness examples
of unsporting or obnoxious behaviour,
or if verified complaints are received
about a player. With a bit of luck, this
shouldn’t have to be used.
If you are handing out a Best Sport award
and there are two players with the same
number of Sportsmanship points, then it’s
a good idea to award it to the otherwise
lowest ranking player.
Some events can have a player feedback
form at the end of each game, allowing
players to mark their opponent down for
poor behaviour. This is not recommended
since someone can take revenge on an
opponent who beat them by dinging them
on sportsmanship points.
 Tournament Guide
Awards & Prizes
The awards and prizes you give out greatly
depend on the format and scoring system
you choose to use. Here are the awards we
recommend giving out at the end of the day
for a straightforward tournament:
• 1st overall
• 2nd overall
• 3rd overall
• Best army
• Wooden spoon (given to the last place)
It’s always a good idea to have something to
give to the winner of each award, whether
that’s a certificate, a trophy or miniatures
of some sort. It’s quite common to give the
wooden spoon winner a new set of dice!
The cost of these should be baked into the
cost of the event of course.
Cost
When arranging a tournament, you will,
inevitably, need to sell some tickets. Those
tickets will cost money. Rather than slap
any old price on there, you will need to
make sure that you’re charging enough to
cover your costs.
20
You need to work out your fixed costs and
per player costs. Your fixed costs are those
that you will need to pay regardless of the
number of players in the event while the
per player costs are those you need to pay
for each player. For example, the cost of any
trophies would fall under fixed costs while
the cost of each lunch would fall under per
player costs.
Once you have an idea of the number of
players you expect to have, you can work
out how much you need to charge to break
even by adding up the total fixed and per
player costs.
Example:
You have fixed costs of £30 (for trophies)
and a per player cost of £7 (£4 lunch and £3
table hire at a gaming venue). You expect to
have 14 players at your event so the event
would cost you £128 at 14 players, or a total
of £9.14 per player including fixed costs.
You could comfortably charge around
£12 and have some leftover profit for any
unforeseen costs or for investment into
future events.

Kris Kapsner reveals how he made his event a success.
When I first approached tournament
creation, I didn’t know where to start.
What I did know was that our area
didn’t have a tournament scene outside
of the occasional small tournament at
our local store. I wanted something
bigger, something that would excite our
local players as well as draw players
from a distance.
So, where did I start?
First, I started with setting my goals
for the event. I wanted an event that
would be unique. Common things
that help set a tournament apart
from others are the quality of terrain,
quality of the venue, unique scenarios,
and unique tournament rules. I wanted
all of those to help set us apart, but
I wanted something more as well. We
set our goals high for the quality of
terrain we would create and after a few
months of searching we found a venue
that would serve drinks and food right
to our tables. For a unique scenario
experience, we used scenario cards.
Players would each receive scenario
cards that could be used just once per
game for the tournament, which made
for a unique playing experience. We
also added six new spells that were
themed for our tournament; even army
list building could be unique to our
event as well.
If we were to grow as large as other
major tournaments, we needed to
draw players from further distances
than most tournaments. It’s a greater
inconvenience and expense for players
if they are traveling far. So, how did
I overcome this challenge? I decided
to reduce the cost and increase the
fun! I used an asset I personally own,
a residence with a yard large enough
for anyone and everyone to camp.
Basically, I opened-up my home for
players to stay. Eating at restaurants
is also expensive for players. So, I
cooked breakfast for everyone staying
at my house!
I wanted the event to be about the
21
Tournament Guide
players and the relationships they can
form with other players. With that in
mind, I organized a party at my house
on the Saturday night between game
days. I provided the food for everyone
to help keep their costs down. The
Saturday night party has since turned
into the aspect of the event that many
players enjoy the most because they
get a chance to connect after a day
enjoying the tournament.
I’m a firm believer that as the TO, it’s
important to have a great team behind
you – for two reasons. One, it lightens
the workload so you can concentrate
on the things you’re good at. And
two, it allows the event to bond your
gaming community together even more
because it becomes an event they are
working on to make into a reality.
Overall, at least a dozen club mates
assisted in some way to help the Lady
of the Lake GT become a reality.
My job was to keep all of this
organized, contact sponsors, design
the tournament pack and promote
the event as much as possible. In my
first year, I reached out to over 30
sponsors. With each passing year,
sponsorship support for the event has
become easier. We decided to help a
local food charity and formed a raffle
for the products that were donated.
Over the years of the Lady of the
Lake GT’s existence, we’ve raised
thousands of dollars for food for local
families which our club, Lake SWATT
is very proud of and continues to build
on that legacy.
When marketing your event, get the
event rules posted months ahead of
time. Get the information on Facebook,
Twitter and hobby forums, put fliers
in game stores and contact podcast
hosts to ask for interviews. People will
only come to your event if they know
about it.
In the end, always remember the most
important rule: create an event you
would love to attend.
 League Guide

League Guide

22

Leagues are an excellent way of keeping
players engaged in the game. Whether at a
shop or at a club, whether on a strict ladder
basis or a free for all, leagues keep players
coming back for more.
There are many ways of running a league,
many different formats, but they all boil
down to the same idea: Give the players
games every week and give them the chance
to earn points.
Standard League
A standard league is the most casual, and
probably the easiest league format for a
league organiser to run. Players meet at a
specific location, usually a local gaming
shop or club, to play games at a set time
each week or month. They each field an
army of a set size. This is usually 2000
points, though the actual point size can
be changed depending on what the players
and league organiser desire, and what the
venue can support. For instance, some
leagues may wish to play larger, 2500 point
games. Others may be playing in a venue
that only has 4’ by 4’ tables, and therefore
would choose to play smaller games of 1500
points or smaller.
In the standard league, players play as many
games as they like against any opponents
they choose to play against. Points are
earned for each game played. Typically,
a win earns 4 points, a draw earns 2
points, and one point for a loss, the league
organisers are obviously free to create their
own scoring systems. The important thing
23
League Guide
is that players are rewarded for playing
games, even if they perform poorly.
To encourage people to try their hand
against a variety of players, it’s a good idea
to also reward players with one point for
each unique opponent played within any
given week or month.
Slow Grow League
Slow grow leagues, also sometimes called
escalation leagues, are a great way to ease a
new community of players into the Kings of
War hobby because the players do not need
to have their entire force ready to go at the
very beginning. In these leagues, the point
value of games start small, perhaps as small
as 300 points, but the armies build over
time to much larger forces of 1500, 2000, or
even 2500 points and beyond. This allows
players to purchase and assemble their
armies as the league progresses, expanding
their model collection in the process. These
increases might occur weekly or monthly,
depending upon the length of the league,
the size of the increase, and the desire of
the players.
Games can be assigned by the organisers in
slow growth leagues, as in a ladder league,
or players can pick their own opponents, as
in a standard league. Scoring is the same as
in other leagues.
Below is an example of how a slow grow
league might be set up. It assumes a four
month league, with players beginning with
a small force of 500 points, and building
to a full 2000 point army. In this example
each player increases the size of his or her
army by 250 points every other week.
Week Points Limit
1 500
3 750
5 1000
7 1250
9 1500
11 1750
13 2000
 League Guide

Ladder League
A ladder league is similar to a Standard
league in several ways. Players meet at a
specific location, field an army of a set size,
and play games. Unlike standard leagues,
however, players play a single game against
an opponent assigned to them by the league
organiser. This allows the league organiser
to make sure that players don’t simply
play against their favorite opponents each
session, and ensures that no one is left out.
The scoring system is the same as with a
standard league.
League organisers can use any of a number
of systems for deciding who each player
squares off against in any given gaming
session. They could simply assign players
who have not yet battled one another to first-come-first-play basis. It’s really up
play, or use a Swiss pairing system similar to the organiser to decide. The key thing
to a tournament, helping make sure that is for league organisers to find a system
players face off against others of a similar that helps all of their players to have fun
skill level. They might simply draw names and meet new players, since the point of a
out of a hat, or assign opponents on a league is to play Kings of War.

24

Michael Carter shares his thoughts on the Escalation format
Leagues are a great way to encourage
people to play more games of Kings
of War, and without the pressure that
comes with competitive events like
tournaments. Leagues can also help
to ease new players into the game,
or give veteran players something
different to do.
Escalation leagues are a great way
to get new players into the game
because they start small. They provide
an incentive for experienced players
to start new armies and encourage
people to get their models painted
without feeling overwhelmed by the
idea of creating an entire tournament
size army at once.
Escalation leagues should have a set
schedule for both ttttthe size of games
and the point values. A starter league
may have three rounds; the first would
be 300 points, the second 700, and the
third 1000. The key for a successful
escalation league is to stagger the
games one round behind the builds. So,
the first month is building 300 points
but the games are only for fun. The
second month is playing league games
with the previously built 300 points
while building 400 more. The third
month would be building the final 300
points while playing 700 point games
and the final month is playing full
1000 point games.
I also like to use a simple 4 point
scoring for building armies – 1 point
for having it assembled, 1 point for
having it painted, 1 point for basing,
and the final point for having the full
point value done in the time period.
This way if a player falls behind
they can make up all but 1 point.
In addition, falling behind one month
does not affect them getting a full
score for the next month, as the build
for each is separate.
The games should always be with the
completed armies from the previous
months build. The first league we tried
to build AND play the same points
– and it resulted in no games getting
played at the beginning of the month
and everyone desperately trying to get
in their games on the last weekend.
25
League Guide
Scoring for games should be kept very
simple - 3 points for a win, 2 for a
tie, 1 for a loss. This is intended to be
a much less competitive environment
than a normal tournament, much less
focused on actual game scores.
Our local gaming group generally has
a hard time getting everyone together
on any given game night. So, for the
escalation leagues, rather than pre-
determining who is going to play who
each round, we just let players play
anyone else. The one restriction is you
cannot play the same player twice in
a row. So as not to penalize players
who can’t make it as often as others,
only the first two league games played
each month count toward a player’s
win/loss record.
When first starting out, most players
don’t have a huge inventory of all the
bits and bobs used during games. To
help with this, I also like to allow
players to earn extra points by creating
some of these. Things like wound
markers, objective markers, wavering
tokens, turn counters and a display
board can all earn players additional
points (I generally limit them to 1 point
for each of these, up to a maximum
of 3 points).
Each player is thus able to earn up
to 30 points (12 for building, 18 for
playing). As a capstone, I generally
like to have a tournament (open to
anyone) where I give out certificates to
the winner of the league and give them
a chance to show off everything.
With the release of the Kings of War:
Historical book, our local group is
running a historical escalation league
– it is fun to see everyone talking
about Vikings and Romans instead
of Elves and Dwarfs. Crusaders and
Indians (the war elephants are a bit
scary) are all getting built and will
soon see battle on the tabletop.
Leagues can be great fun, and are
much easier for the organiser to
participate in as well. They encourage
people to build and paint, and give
opportunities for new players to get
involved at a slower pace.
Go out and run a league of your own!
 League Guide

Experience System Later, to use a Legendary Unit, simply

include it in your army for its original
points cost. You must use the unit exactly
Throughout a league you can have units
as it appears on your roster, including any
gain experience and improve their stats
upgrades or artefacts that it originally had
and special rules. We recommend using the
when it was made legendary. You can’t
following experience system.
choose to give the unit a different upgrade
At the end of each battle you may choose or artefact after it becomes legendary.
up to N units that survived (N is listed in
Legendary Units will continue to gain
the chart below) to gain a new trait and
experience, but they can be disbanded or
become Legendary units. You should feel
replaced, and if routed may find themselves
free to choose units that did something
wiped out! If a Legendary Unit is routed,
particularly impressive, and you can even
then at the end of the game roll a D6.
pick units that have been picked before -
On a roll of 1, this unit loses all previous
the legend grows!
Legendary unit upgrades!

Battle size Legendary

Units
1000 points or less 2
1001 to 2000 points 3
2001 to 3000 points 4
3001 or greater 5

If you do not have enough surviving units

you may choose from among Routed units
too. We say that these units have regrouped
after the battle, learnt from their defeat
and will come back stronger than ever!
Each unit you pick gets to roll once on
the relevant Experience table. There are
different tables for each type of unit which
can be found on the following pages. If the
unit rolls a Trait/Special rule it already has,
then simply roll again. However, note that
some can be granted more than once, such
as Skilled.
Heroes should use the relevant table for
their Hero type. E.g. A Hero (Monster)
would use the Monster experience table.

Using Legendary Units

Each player will have a roster of up to 5
Legendary Units that they can use in any
game. Since their first Legendary Units
will not be created until the end of the first
game, a player’s Legendary Unit roster will
be empty at the very start of a league.

26
 League Guide

Experience Tables
Heroes
2D6 Trait Experience
2 Blessing This unit gains Regeneration 6+, or if it already has
Regeneration then the unit’s Regeneration value is
increased by 1. For example, a unit with Regeneration
(5+) now has Regeneration (4+). This cannot be increased
to better than Regeneration (3+).
3 Furious Rage This unit gains the Vicious special rule.
4 Rallying This unit gains Rallying (1), or if it already has Rallying
increases it by 1 to a maximum of Rallying (2).
5 Inspiring This unit gains Inspiring, or if it already has Inspiring
gains the Very Inspiring rule instead.
6 or 7 Bravery This unit gains an additional point of Nerve. (increasing
both numbers by 1) This may be gained up to 3 times.
8 or 9 Skilled This unit gains +1 attack. This may be gained up to
3 times.
10 Trail Blazer This unit gains the Pathfinder special rule, if it already
has Pathfinder then it instead gains the Strider
special rule.
11 Battle Scarred Veteran This unit gains the Elite special rule.
12 Dread This unit gains the Dread special rule, (Enemy units
within 6” of this unit cannot benefit from the Inspiring
special rule.)

War Engines
2D6 Trait Experience
2 Defended This unit gains the Big Shield special rule
3 Explosive shot This unit gains the Vicious special rule.
4 or 5 Camouflaged This unit gains the Stealthy special rule.
6, 7 or 8 Bravery This unit gains an additional point of Nerve. (increasing
both numbers by 1) This may be gained up to 3 times.
9 or 10 Devastating This unit gains the Devastating special rule, (if a unit is
damaged by the ranged attacks of one or more units with
this rule, add +1 to the subsequent Nerve test at the end
of the Shoot phase.)
11 Battle Scarred Veterans This unit gains the Elite special rule.
12 Faster Rate of Fire If this unit has the Reload! Special rule it loses this rule.

27
 League Guide

Monsters
2D6 Trait Experience
2 Blessing This unit gains Regeneration 6+, or if it already has
Regeneration then the unit’s Regeneration value is
increased by 1. For example, a unit with Regeneration
(5+) now has Regeneration (4+). This cannot be increased
to better than Regeneration (3+).
3 Furious Rage This unit gains the Vicious special rule.
4 Swift This unit gains +1 Speed.
5 Colossus This unit gains the Brutal special rule. If it already has
this special rule then roll again.
6 or 7 Bravery This unit gains an additional point of Nerve. (increasing
both numbers by 1) This may be gained up to 3 times.
8 or 9 Skilled This unit gains +1 Attack. This may be gained
up to 3 times.
10 Trail Blazer This unit gains the Pathfinder special rule, if it already
has Pathfinder then it instead gains the Strider
special rule.
11 Battle Scarred Veteran This unit gains the Elite special rule.
12 Mighty The unit gains Crushing Strength (1), or if the unit
already has Crushing Strength, it is increased by 1.

28
 League Guide

Infantry or Cavalry (including Large Inf and Cav)

2D6 Trait Experience
2 Blessing This unit gains Regeneration 6+, or if it already has
Regeneration then the unit’s Regeneration value is
increased by 1. For example, a unit with Regeneration
(5+) now has Regeneration (4+). This cannot be improved
past Regeneration (3+).
3 Furious Rage This unit gains the Vicious special rule.
4 or 5 Rallying This unit gains Rallying (1), or if it already has Rallying
increases it by 1 to a maximum of Rallying (2).
6 or 7 Bravery This unit gains an additional point of Nerve. (increasing
both numbers by 1) This may be gained up to 3 times.
8 or 9 Skilled This unit gains +3 attacks. This may be gained up
to 3 times.
10 Trail Blazer This unit gains the Pathfinder special rule, if it already
has Pathfinder then it instead gains the Strider
special rule.
11 Battle Scarred Veterans This unit gains the Elite special rule.
12 Inspiring This unit gains Inspiring, or if it already has Inspiring
gains the Very Inspiring rule instead.

29
 Achievement System
Achievement System
We all know Kings of War has an uncanny
way of creating memorable moments on the
tabletop. We’ve all been there: You set up the
perfect charge, expertly lining up the flank
of your enemy, then you barrel in, fistfuls
of dice clattering across the battlefield.
And guess what – no damage whatsoever!
And how many times have we seen an epic
individual model defy staggering odds to
walk away from a bloodbath unscathed?
But it’s not only the involuntary, statistically
improbable occurrences that are worthy of
note. What about when a player goes on an
unstoppable winning-spree? How about a
gamer so masterful with an army so perfect
that they win no matter the scenario put
before them?
These things happen, and when they do it’s
simply amazing, so it seems a shame that
these wonders should be resigned to the
archives of our rapidly fading memories.
No longer!
We thought it was long overdue that we all
started keeping track of these cinematic
30
and often hilarious moments. At the very
least we should be using them as another
way to claim bragging rights and prove who
really is the greatest.
So was born the Kings of War achievements
system.
You might be familiar with the concept from
the world of video gaming, and it works in
a similar way: Do something cool, tick it off
the list, brag to your friends.
On the following page, we’ve put together a
checklist so that you can record your most
staggering achievements during a given
event.
So, print it out, take it to you next
tournament and give it a try! We’d love to
know what you think.
As a TO, you could even come up with
your own list, catered to compliment
the theme of your event, or perhaps even
award achievement-based bonus points
to spice things up. As always, just make
sure whatever you do does not make the
game unfair, and, failing that, make sure
everyone knows what they are signing up
for in advance!
 Achievement System

KINGS OF WAR ACHIEVEMENTS

CHECKLIST
Cause 30 or more damage to a single unit, then roll a double 1 for the
nerve test.
Win a game on every single scenario in this book.
Pillage Ransack
Loot Secure
Push Scour
Dominate Occupy
Invade Scavenge
Control Eliminate

Miss every single attack with a unit with at least 10 attacks that hit
on 4+ or better.
Rout a unit with a hero which has only 1 attack.
Have a War Engine that is still on the table at the end of the game, and not hit
a single time with it.
Roll a Double 1 nerve test result, two or more times against the same unit in
a single game.
Rout every unit the opponent has on the table but still fail to win the game.
Waver a unit with a double 6. (and not rout it, that turn).
Roll at least 5 Double 1 nerve test results in a single game.
Rout a unit worth three times the value of one of yours, with no other unit
damaging it.
Win 5 games in a row.
Lose 5 games in a row.
Rout 3 units in a single melee phase with just one unit.
Fail to rout a unit after attacking it with more than 30 attacks.

31
Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.
 Using Terrain
In Tournaments
Using Terrain in
Tournaments
Terrain is an important factor in games.
When creating tables, it can be difficult
to provide enough cover on the board to
discourage gunlines while also not unfairly
hindering melee focussed armies.
At a tournament, it is highly recommended
that the event organiser arranges the
terrain on the boards before the event. This
ensures that it is kept fair for the players
and the two can’t blame each other for the
placement of terrain.
There are no hard and fast rules when it
comes to terrain placement, so here are
some basic principles when it comes to
making board layouts;
• Use a variety of terrain types. Don’t
just use Difficult Terrain and Hills,
make sure you use some obstacles
as well. Remember that Pathfinder
units are unaffected by Difficult
Terrain for charging, but are hindered
by Obstacles. Make sure that their
32
opponent has the opportunity to create
defensive positions by forcing charges
•
over Obstacles.
Ensure that you have pieces of terrain
that block Line of Sight for units
towards the centre of the board, such
as Hills, forests or Blocking Terrain.
This means that players will have
places in their set up area where they
can safely place their units out of sight
of the enemy.
• Avoid placing Hills in setup areas, or
if you must then make sure that the
opposing player has plenty of places
to hide from shooting units placed on
these Hills. Hills are very powerful for
shooting units, allowing them to ignore
some intervening cover or screening
units. If they want such a good position,
they should have to come out of the
setup area to get it.
• Make sure that Hordes are able to fit
through gaps between impassable
terrain. No-one wants their uber-killy
horde stuck in place because it can’t fit
through the gap!
 Using Terrain
In Tournaments

Here’s a typical terrain setup.

(A)The two height 1 hills are set up outside (C)The forests break up charge lanes while
of the deployment zones, providing cover also interfering with line of sight and
for infantry at the beginning of the game providing cover for advancing troops.
and forcing ranged units to move out of the
(D)The obstacle gives one side the chance
deployment zones in order to secure the
to opt for a defensive position should it
advantage of an elevated position.
desire, while the height 4 blocking terrain
(B)The pond in the centre breaks up charge provides cover on the more open flanks.
lanes and also provides cover for any unit within
it, while allowing for units to shoot over it.

33
 Writing your
own Rules
Writing Your Own
Rules
Writing your own rules can be a rewarding
experience, however there are some pitfalls
to avoid to ensure that your rules work
well.
Making your own units
It can be very tempting to write your own
units as the best units in the game. This
is often a mistake and can often lead to a
homebrew arms race.
Instead, each unit should be given at least
one weakness. For example, instead of
giving a strong unit Defence 6+, consider
giving them Defence 5+ or even 4+ and
giving them the Big Shield rule. This means
that your opponent has the tactical option
of flanking your unit to take advantage of
the lower defence.
Try taking a similar unit and just nudging
a couple of the stats or special rules.
Experienced players will tell you that
adding a few more attacks to a unit can
make a world of difference. There’s no need
to be excessive with your modifications.
General tips
• Me should be a maximum of 3+ while
Ra should be a maximum of 4+ (and
even that should be used sparingly).
• De should be between 3+ and 5+ for
most units. Avoid using De 6+ unless
there’s a very good reason for it, and
you should avoid pairing it with high
speed.
34
• It’s much better to use existing special
rules, even if used a little strangely
(e.g. using Fly for Wraiths to represent
them moving through walls rather than
coming up with a unique special rules).
Always see if there’s an existing rule
you can re-purpose rather than coming
up with something new.
• Avoid having the perfect unit – high
speed, high defence, high nerve, high
damage output. This is an easy thing to
come up with and is not very fun for
your opponents to play against.
Unique Special Rules
Another temptation is to come up with
unique special rules for your units. This
should be avoided where possible since
they very often cause conflicts with existing
rules. Wait until you have a good handle on
designing units with existing special rules
before coming up with your own.
Here are a few guidelines:
• Look at how existing special rules are
worded and try to follow the same
pattern. If there is a similar rule then
copy it and change the relevant parts.
• Try to avoid effects that spill over into
subsequent turns. Surge for example
is resolved immediately rather than
buffing the speed of a unit during its
next turn.
• Allow re-rolls of failures, avoid re-rolls
of successes. A rule which forced a unit
to re-roll successful hits for example
would conflict with Elite and the ‘can’t
re-roll a re-roll’ rule.
• Rules which grant a unit complete
immunity, even if it’s just temporary,
can lead to some game breaking
situations.
• Avoid overruling no-modifiers rules,
such as Breath Attack. Instead you
could either apply a modifier to the
damage roll for the same effect, or
reduce the number of dice when rolling
to hit.

Points Values
A common question the Rules Committee
gets asked is, “What is the formula used for
determining points values?”
The truth is that there is no exact science.
While there have been attempts to write a
mathematical formula, none of them have
been successful. The way to work out the
points is to compare a unit to existing
units and see where it sits. If its worth in
terms of damage output and resilience is
about halfway between two units then the
points cost should also sit about halfway in
between.
The only real guideline formula is of
the points values of different unit sizes
compared to their baseline. This is assuming
that the difference in stats between two
unit sizes follows the standard patterns
(for example, a regiment of infantry having
+3 Nerve and +2 attacks over a troop of the
same).
Unit Type Troop Regiment Horde Legion
Infantry 70% 100% 165% 240%
Ranged
Infantry 75% 100% 165% 240%
Cavalry 65% 100% 175% n/a
Large
Infantry n/a 65% 100% 175%
Large
Cavalry n/a 65% 100% 170%
The bolded values are considered the
“baseline” unit size. Work out the points
35
Writing your
own Rules
value of that unit size for your unit and
then use that to calculate the value for
other unit sizes.
Even these guideline values are not hard
rules. Chariot Hordes for example (Large
Cavalry with 50x100mm bases) received an
additional discount because they have such
a large flank.
You should also be aware of a unit’s place
within the army list. An extremely hard
hitting unit that is very fragile would cost
more when it is in an army that has access
to cheap, disposable screening units such
as light cavalry than in an army where it
can’t be so easily protected.
Avoid using the points cost of Artefacts
as a guideline on the cost of special rules.
Artefacts are deliberately expensive since
they can be applied to any units, and are
costed assuming they’re being put on the
most suitable units. A +1 to hit modifier
on a unit with a large amount of attacks
or high Crushing Strength is worth a lot
more than on one with few attacks and no
Crushing Strength.
There are also some special rules which
become less useful the more units they are
applied to. Brutal for example can only be
applied once per combat, so while a single
unit with Brutal can take the artefact for 15
points, it becomes less useful if every unit
in the army has the special rule. Ogres do
not pay 15 points per unit for Brutal and
instead pay around 5-10 points per unit for
it (it was essentially used to round unit’s
points values off where possible).
 Writing your
own Rules

An Example they do have the same defensive stats as

Drakons.
Here is a hypothetical Orc Slasher unit.
If we place the Slasher Rider Horde at 240
Please note that this unit is not considered
points, a Regiment will cost 65% of that;
legal to be used in events.
156 points. Rounded off to the nearest 5,
this gives us a total of 155 points for the
Slasher Riders  Large Cavalry Regiment.
Unit Size Sp Me Ra De Att Ne Pts
Regiment(3)
Horde(6)
10 4+
10 4+
-
-
5+ 9 12/14 ?
5+ 18 15/17 ?
Playtesting
If you’re just playing your house rules
Special: Brutal, Crushing Strength (1), Fly,
Thunderous Charge (2)
amongst friends in casual games, then
playtesting is not terribly important.

This unit is fairly similar to Drakons, with
following modifications:
+ Brutal
+ 1 extra Thunderous Charge
- Elite
- 1 to hit in melee (4+ rather than 3+)
The loss of Elite and making Me 4+ rather
than 3+ means that the Slasher Rider Horde
will get 9 hits on average compared to 14.
This is quite a significant loss in hitting
power, though an extra point of Thunderous
Charge and Brutal does help compensate.
Here is the average damage that each unit
at Horde size will cause:
Damage vs
Unit Hits De3 De4 De5 De6
Slasher Riders 9 7.5 7.5 7.5 6.0
Slasher Riders
(disordered) 9 7.5 6.0 4.5 3.0
Drakon Riders 14 11.7 11.7 9.3 7.0
Drakon Riders
(disordered) 14 11.7 9.3 7.0 4.7
Note that this does not include Brutal.
With a Drakon Rider Horde sitting at 270
points, around 240 points for a Slasher
Rider Horde feels about right. The Orcs
still hit very hard when not disordered,
but only deal around 75% of the damage
that Drakons will. This is still significant
enough, especially in the flank or rear, that
their threat is near that of Drakons, and
However, if you are writing rules for a
competitive event then you must run some
playtests of your rules beforehand. If
there is a loophole in your rules, you can
guarantee that someone will find it and
exploit it.
Enlist your friends to help playtest, since
they will have a critical eye and may point
out things you have missed. They can tell
you whether your rules are on track or have
gone too far. You could also enlist the help
of people entirely outside your usual circle
of gamers by asking for feedback on forums
or in Kings of War Facebook groups. Going
outside the closed circle is always a good
idea since people won’t be weighed down
by the conventional groupthink.
Additionally, make sure that you are testing
not just to see if the rule works as you
intend, but to make sure it isn’t impacting
on anything else. If you write a rule allowing
a unit a re-roll of a failed hit, assuming it
would only be used on a standard unit, it
could be a bit game breaking if applied to a
unit that relies on a single attack, such as a
War Engine.
Playtest not only to make sure your rule
does what you want it to, but to also make
sure it doesn’t do something that you don’t
want it to do.

36

Writing Scenarios
Scenarios are another area where gamers
can come up with some fantastic home
brew rules.
When writing your own scenarios, ensure
that you look at the existing scenarios to
see how they’re designed. If possible, take
an existing scenario or objective type and
use it to form the basis of your own rather
than writing a whole new set of rules from
scratch. Not only have these rules been
tested and confirmed to work, but players
will be more familiar with them.
Kill
Having victory conditions based upon
simply routing enemy units unfortunately
gives certain builds a strong advantage.
Instead we have provided a Bounty
objective type where your army has been
ordered to take out a key enemy unit at
all costs. Players collect extra points for
killing the unit in melee rather than with
ranged attacks.
If you wish to have some kill based
objectives, we highly recommend using
the Bounty rules and victory points system
since this rewards more balanced armies.
When using Bounties, use an upper limit for
the number of them in play. If you simply
say that all enemy units have a Bounty
then this gives a huge advantage to armies
with a limited number of drops but heavily
penalises armies that have more units, such
as Goblins.
You should also have a tie breaker objective
when using Bounties (see below).
Combining Objective Types
A very simple way of writing a new scenario
would be taking existing objective types
and combining them in a new way. For
example, putting Loot on the table which
is worth X points if held at the end of the
game, plus some more Objective markers
that are worth Y points at the end.
37
Writing your
own Rules
Individuals
Be very wary of writing objectives involving
Individuals or where Individuals can score.
Individuals are a tough combination of
being extremely manoeuvrable and hard to
kill.
If Individuals are allowed to score, they
find it extremely easy to either dodge out
of charge arcs of opposing units or jump
on objectives in the last turn. Equally if
Individuals are to be targeted by the enemy
for whatever reason, then they find it very
easy to keep out of enemy line of sight due
to their manoeuvrability.
Instead, use the definition offered in this
book of Core vs Non-Core units in the
scenarios section. Core units should be the
ones which can claim objectives, Non-Core
should either be discouraged (such as only
getting half points in Dominate) or entirely
disallowed (such as not being able to claim
Objective Markers at all).
Tie Breaker
If you have an even number of objectives
on the board, particularly Loot Counters or
Bounties, you will see a lot of draws
Having some form of tie breaker, such as
an extra Objective Marker in the middle of
the board, ensures that even if players are
drawing elsewhere, someone can jump on
that tie breaker to get the win.
Get Out Of The Setup Area
You’ll notice that a lot of scenarios strongly
encourage players to take objectives that
are outside of their setup area. This is
deliberate to encourage balanced armies.
Try to avoid having scenarios that can be
won with by player sitting in their setup
area. This makes for a boring game that’s
devoid of tactical skill.
 2017 Rules

2017 Rules

38

Rule & Unit Changes
While Kings of War is a well-balanced
wargame, no game is perfect. We recommend
implementing the following rule and unit
changes to keep the game as balanced as
possible. Please reprint these changes in your
tournament pack so that players are all aware
of them, even if they do not own this book.
These rules should be used in conjunction
with the new and amended scenarios found
later in the book.
Army Composition
In a standard 2000 point tournament, players
may only take the same Hero, Monster or War
Engine a maximum of three times. Elves could
take a maximum of three Bolt Throwers in
2000 points for example. This limit includes
units with artefacts or other upgrades, so an
Undead player could only take a maximum of
3 Necromancers, regardless of what options
or upgrades they take.
For other game sizes, please consult the table
below.
Point Limit Max Duplicates
0-1499 1
1500-1999 2
2000-2999 3
Each additional
1000 points +1
If you include allies, you cannot select the
same allied unit entry of type War Engine,
Hero (all types) or Monster more than once
Special Rules
Breath Attack, Fireball and
Lightning Bolt
When targeting enemy units in cover these
attacks hit on a 5+ instead of 4+.
Fly
While Disordered, units lose the Fly special
rule including the Nimble that it grants. If
the unit has Nimble for a different reason
(e.g. Individual) then they will remain Nimble
while Disordered.
Bane-Chant (Spell)
This will only grant or improve Piercing if two
or more hits are scored from the same casting.
39
2017 Rules
Unit Changes
Cursed Pharaoh – Undead
This unit has a Defence of 5+, not 6+.
Vampire Lord – Undead
This unit has a Defence of 5+, not 6+.
Ahmunite Pharaoh – Empire
of Dust
This unit has a Defence of 5+, not 6+.
Fiends – Nightstalkers
Nerve values reduced to the following:
• Regiment: 12/15
• Horde: 15/18
Mind-screech – Nightstalkers
Nerve reduced to 14/17.
Herja of the Fallen – Varangur
Replace Judgement rules with: This is a
ranged attack that can be used once per game.
It follows the same rules as a Heal (5) that can
be used on any friendly non-allied unit on the
board, regardless of range or Line of Sight.
Death Engine – Ratkin
Defence is reduced to 4+ if the Vile Sorcery
upgrade is chosen.
Salamanders
The following units have Vicious: Kaisenor
Lancers, Fire Drake, Clan Lord, Clan Lord on
Fire Drake.
Trident Realm of Neritica
The following units have Ensnare: Placoderms,
Placoderm Defender, Riverguard, Riverguard
Captain, Nokken.
Orcs
The following units have Fury: Fightwagons,
Morax, Krudger, Krudger on Slasher, Krudger
on Gore Chariot, Gakamak.
 2017 Rules
Artefacts & Spells
Removed Artefacts
We recommend disallowing the following
Artefacts:
• Ensorcelled Armour
• Brew of Keen-eyeness
• Medallion of Life
Here we have 10 Artefacts and 3 spells for
2017 organised play. As with the rest of the
changes in this book they are not considered
legal by default so you and your opponent
must agree to use the 2017 changes in a
casual game, or specify in your tournament
pack if you are allowing the use of them at
an event.
Allied units cannot take Artefacts at all.
Artefacts
Healing Brew 5 points
Once per game, when given an order, this
unit may remove D3 points of damage
previously suffered.
40
Sparkstone 10 points
This unit has a ranged attack with a range
of 18” that may only target enemy Heroes,
Monsters and War Engines. Roll a single
dice to hit, needing 4+ to hit regardless of
modifiers. If a hit is scored, the target unit
is disordered during its next turn.
Helm of the Ram 15 points
This unit gains the Thunderous Charge (1)
Special Rule, or increases the value of its
Thunderous Charge by 1.
Blood of the Old King 15 points
Once per game, this unit gains Elite and
Vicious for one turn. This must be declared
before the unit rolls any attacks.
Banner of the Griffin 20 points
This unit gains the Rallying (1) Special
Rule (see Uncharted Empires supplement).
Dragonshard Shield 20 points
Once per game, when this unit carries out
a Halt! or Pivot! Order, it may choose to
increase its Defence by +2 to a maximum of
6+ until the start of its next turn.
Hammer of
Measured Force 20 points
This unit will always damage the enemy on
a 4+ in melee, regardless of modifiers.

Lute of Insatiable
Darkness 20 points
This artefact can only be used by Heroes.
The Hero has the Bane Chant(2) spell.
Zephyr Crown 20 points
This unit has Wind Blast (4) or increases
the value of their Wind Blast spell by 4.
Shroud of the Saint 25 points
Users with the Heal spell only. This item
increases the unit’s Heal (n) value by 2. For
example: Heal (3) becomes Heal (5).
41
2017 Rules
Spells
These spells may be taken by any non-
Living Legend unit that either has a spell or
has the ability to take spells (not including
Artefacts). They have a fixed number of
dice but otherwise follow the usual rules
for spells. They can be taken multiple times
in the same army and are not subject to
Magic Artefact restrictions (maximum of 1
per army, can’t be given to Monsters etc.).
Weakness 20 points
18” range, rolling 2 dice to hit. If one or
more hits are scored, the target unit has a
-1 modifier when rolling to damage enemy
units during the next turn. A natural six
will still damage. This effect only applies
once – multiple castings on the same target
have no effect.
Bloodboil 25 points
12” range. When rolling to hit, roll a
number of dice equal to the amount of
damage on the target unit. Roll to damage
with Piercing (1).
Soul Drain 30 points
6” range, rolling 6 dice to hit and may
target enemy units that are in melee. Roll
to damage as normal with Piercing (1). If
one or more points of damage are scored,
choose either the caster or a single friendly
non-allied unit within 6”. Remove one
point of damage from the chosen unit for
each point of damage dealt to the target. If
this is cast into melee, the target will not
take a Nerve test at the end of the Shoot
phase.
 2017 Rules
Scenarios
Scenarios are an important part of balanced
and varied play in Kings of War.
To encourage players to bring well balanced
armies, we strongly recommend playing
a variety of scenarios at your events. To
that end we have a total of twelve different
scenarios in this book for you to use. Some
of them are rulebook scenarios with some
slight modifications, while others are
completely new.
Choosing a scenario
At a tournament, the event organiser (EO)
should declare what scenario all players
are using for that round. This can either
be done up front in the event pack, or kept
secret and revealed only at the start of the
round.
If an EO chooses a scenario that has a
random number of objectives (e.g. Pillage
has D3+4 Objective Markers) then the EO
should roll once and all players use that
number of objectives.
Similarly, an EO may choose to have all
players in a league play a specific scenario
in each round or week. Alternatively, they
may allow players to choose a random
scenario as detailed below.
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Random Scenario
To choose a random scenario, roll a D12
and consult the table below.
Result Scenario
1 Pillage
2 Loot
3 Push
4 Dominate
5 Invade
6 Control
7 Ransack
8 Secure
9 Scour
10 Occupy
11 Scavenge
12 Eliminate
Alternatively, if you do not have a D12, roll
a D6. On a 1 to 3 you will play scenarios
1-6, and on a 4-6 you will play scenarios 7
to 12. Roll another D6 to find out which of
those you will play.
Smaller or larger boards
Kings of War is usually played on a 6’x4’
board, however sometimes you will be
playing on a different size. If playing with
fewer than 1500 points, you might use a
4’x4’ board for example.
If you are playing on a size other than
6’x4’ then you may need to adjust the
scenario. Usually this will mean reducing
the number of objectives. We have detailed
the recommended changes for a 4’x4’ board
with applicable scenarios. Please ensure
that players are aware of the changes being
used for each scenario if necessary.
 2017 Rules

Definitions Objective Markers

Victory Points
Most scenarios award a certain number
of Victory Points (VPs) for completing
objectives. The player with the most VPs
at the end of the game wins. If the players
have an equal number of VPs then the game
is a draw.
Unit Strength
Each unit on the board will have a unit
strength that is used in some scenarios to
determine who controls different areas of
the board. These are:
0 Individuals, War Engines
1 Troops, Heroes (without
the Individual rule),
Monsters, any unit with
a Height of 0
2 Regiments
3 Hordes or Legions
Centre of the Board
A number of scenarios require you to place
an Objective Marker or Loot Counter in the
centre of the board. If you are unable to do
so due to Blocking Terrain, they should be
placed along the centre line of the table as
close to the centre as possible.
These follow the same rules as Objective
Markers from the core rulebook, except
only Scoring Units may hold Objective
Markers.
Loot Counters
These follow the same rules as Loot
Counters from the core rulebook, except
units lose the Fly and Nimble special rules
while carrying them and Loot Counters
may not be taken off the board.
Bounty
Mark any units carrying a Bounty with a
token of some sort. A unit may not have
more than one Bounty on it at any one time
and may not drop or transfer it. The unit is
otherwise unaffected by carrying the token.
If a player routs an enemy unit carrying a
Bounty in melee, then the Bounty has been
completed and that player keeps the token
until the end of the game as a reminder.
If the unit is routed by any other means,
e.g. ranged attacks, then the Bounty is lost
instead.

Scoring Units
Scoring units are any units that are not War
Engines and do not have the Individual
rule.

Non-Scoring Units
Non-Scoring units are any units that are
War Engines and/or have the Individual
rule.

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 2017 Rules

Scenarios
1: Pillage
Before rolling off to choose sides, place
a total of D3+4 Objective Markers on the
board. The players take it in turns to place
one objective each, and roll off to see who
places the first objective.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 1 Victory Point for each Objective
Marker you hold.
Smaller Board
We recommend using D3+2 Objective
Markers on a 4’x4’ board.
3: Push
After setting up their forces, roll a D3. Each
player places that many Loot tokens within
their set-up area, giving them to units
to carry if they wish. Roll-off to see who
begins placing their Loot tokens first, and
the players take it in turns to place one Loot
token each until they have placed them all.
An additional Loot token is placed in the
exact centre of the board.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 2 Victory Points for each Loot token
you hold where your unit is entirely on
the opposing half of the board.
• 1 Victory Point for each Loot token you
hold where your unit is at least partly
on your half of the board.

4: Dominate
At the end of the game, add up the total
Unit Strength of the units that each player
has entirely within 12” of the exact centre
point of the table. This is their total Victory
Points.

2: Loot
Place 3 Loot tokens on the centre line
of the board. One must be placed in the
dead centre of the board (or as close to it
along the centre line as possible), and then
players place one more each, rolling off
to see who places theirs first. Loot tokens
cannot be placed within 12” of each other
in this scenario.

Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 1 Victory Point for each Loot Token
you hold.

44

5: Invade
At the end of the game, add up the total
Unit Strength of each player’s units that are
entirely on the opposing players half of the
board. This is the total number of Victory
Points that each player scores.
6: Control
At the end of the game, divide the board
into six 2’x2’ squares and add up the
total Unit Strength of each player’s units
within a square. If a unit is straddling
the line between two or more squares it
is considered to be in whichever square is
covered by the majority of it’s base. If there
is no clear majority, the owning player must
choose which square the unit is in.
The player who has the highest Unit
Strength in each square controls it.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 2 Victory Points if you hold the square
in the middle of your opponent’s half
of the board.
• 1 Victory Point for each other square
you hold.
Smaller Board
There are only 4 2’x2’ squares on the board
rather than six. The square that is on your
right and on the opposite side of the board
will give you the 2 Victory Points.
45
2017 Rules
7: Ransack
Place Objective Markers as per Pillage.
Before placing each objective, the player
should roll a D3 and leave the result next
to the objective. The objective is worth that
many Victory Points at the end of the game.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• (n) Victory Point(s) for each Objective
Marker you hold, where (n) is the value
of the D3 rolled when the objective was
placed.
8: Secure
In this scenario, terrain can be held in the
same way as Objective Markers.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 1 Victory Point for each Obstacle you
hold.
• 2 Victory Points for each Hill, Difficult
or Impassable piece of terrain you hold.
Any pieces of terrain that are entirely on
your opponent’s half of the board are worth
double their normal Victory Points.
Designers Note
This scenario is (obviously) heavily
dependent on terrain. Please ensure that
you follow the terrain guidelines on page
32 if using this scenario. The terrain does
not have to be symmetrical (you’re also
not guaranteed to have equal numbers of
Objective Markers on either side in Pillage)
but try to ensure that one player is not
massively penalised by not having any
pieces of difficult or impassable terrain
entirely on their opponents’ half of the
board.
 2017 Rules
9: Scour
Place Objective Markers as per Pillage.
Starting from their third turn, the players
may choose one Objective Marker that
they hold at the start of their turn before
any movement takes place. That Objective
Marker is removed from play.
There must be at least 3 Objective Markers
on the board at all times. If there are only
3 on the board then the players may not
remove any more.
Objective Markers removed from play do
not grant any Victory Points at the end of
the game.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 1 Victory Point for each Objective
Marker you hold.
10: Occupy
After choosing sides, place one Objective
Marker in the centre of the board. Then
the players each place an Objective Marker
completely within 6” of the centre line,
starting with the player who chose sides.
These three Objective Markers are the
Secondary Objectives.
Next, the players place another Objective
Marker on their opponents half of the
board at least 6” from any board edge
46
and 9” from the centre line. These are the
Primary Objectives.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 1 Victory Point for each Secondary
Objective you hold.
• 2 Victory Points if you hold the Primary
Objective on your opponent’s half of
the board.
The Primary Objective on your half of the
board is not worth anything to you.
11: Scavenge
Place one Objective Marker in the centre of
the table. Then each player places one more
Objective Marker on the centre line, rolling
off to see who places theirs first.
At the start of each players turn, if they
hold one of the Objective Markers they may
choose one of their non-wavering units
holding the objective to scavenge a Loot
counter. The unit receives a Loot counter
and follows the normal rules for carrying
Loot. In this scenario, units may not carry
more than one Loot counter.
If a unit routs an enemy unit that is carrying
Loot in melee, they may elect to destroy the
Loot and remove it from the table rather
than picking it up.
Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 1 Victory Point for each Loot Token
you hold.
 2017 Rules

12: Eliminate • 2 Victory Points for each Bounty that

you have completed.
Each player has 3 Bounty tokens they must
Lost Bounty, i.e. those where the unit was
place on their three most expensive non-
routed outside of melee, are worth nothing.
Individual units.
If there are multiple potential units with Lower Or Higher Point Value
the same cost, then the opposing player Games
decides which of those units they are Use three Bounty tokens if playing with
placed on before any units are set up. For around 2000 points per player. If playing
example, Dave’s most expensive units cost with 1500 points or under, use two Bounty
300 points, 250 points and two units at tokens instead. For each additional 1000
200 points each. The 300 and 250 point points over 2000, use an additional Bounty.
units get a Bounty token and his opponent,
Annie, decides which of the two 200 point
units the remaining token goes on.
Additionally, place an Objective Marker in
the exact centre of the board.

Victory Points
Victory Points are awarded at the end of
the game as follows:
• 1 Victory Point if you hold the central
Objective Marker.
• 1 Victory Point for each of your units
that are carrying a Bounty and have not
been Routed.

47
 2017 Rules

Hobby Scoring
Name
Army
Did you paint this army yourself? (circle appropriately) Yes No

Self-Scoring Section
Please fill in this section yourself and leave it with your army during the lunch break. Please tick
all that apply. Each tick is worth 1 point, except for the first which is worth 5 points. The judge will
make sure you’ve been honest!

All models in the army are painted to a basic 3 colour standard (worth 5 points).
The paint scheme is consistent throughout the army.
All models have been based with some sort of texture.
The basing scheme is consistent across the entire army.
There are examples of advanced basing in the army, e.g. cork, bark, water
effects etc.
There are examples of shading in the army.
All models have been shaded.
There are examples of advanced shading in the army, such as blending and edge
highlighting.
There are some minor conversions in the army.
There are examples of advanced conversions, including some scratch building and/or
sculpting.
There are examples of freehand painting in the army.

Due to the wide range of models used in Kings of War, conversions can be difficult to spot. Please
provide a brief description of any conversions. Please list techniques used if you ticked for advanced
conversions

Hobby Judge Section

This is for the hobby judge to complete. The judge will award up to an additional 5 points for your
army based on the overall aesthetic and “wow” factor. Here are some ideas for things that could
earn you additional points:

• Use an effective and visually appealing
colour scheme.
• Consistently neat painting.
• Have a theme (e.g. Crusaders) reflected in
the modelling and painting.
• Have a display board for your army.
• Build your units into dynamic dioramas,
taking advantage of the multi-basing
possibilities in KoW.
• Modelled objective markers.
• Use advanced techniques such as OSL or
NMM.

Judges score (0-5) Total Points including judges points:

Sign to confirm checklist

48
Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.