Kings of War on Tabletop Simulator

The aim of this document is to guide people through installing Tabletop Simulator, selecting the
mods required to play Kings of War, building their army, and playing a game.

The community for Kings of War is still in its early stages. At the time of writing we have about 300
members in the Facebook group “Kings of War -Tabletop Simulator”
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/804007473421876/), and about 90 in the Discord Server
(https://discord.gg/rWR7u9s). I’d recommend joining one or both so you can get any extra help
needed and organise games against people from all over the world.

The document is broken up into four parts:

Part 1. Downloading and Installation of Mods

- Page 3 Downloading and Installing Mods

Part 2. Creating or Joining a Game

- Page 4 Creating or Joining a Game
- Page 6 Basic Controls

Part 3. Gameplay
- Page 7 Key Settings
- Page 8 What’s in the Mod?
- Page 8 Accessing a Demo Army
- Page 9 Setting up the Table
- Page 11 Multi-State Terrain
- Page 11 Locking
- Page 12 Activating the Coding and Setting Hotkeys
- Page 14 The Control Panel
- Page 15 Measuring
- Page 16 Rolling Dice
- Page 17 Counters, Indication, and General Tools

Part 4. Creating an Army

- Page 19 Sourcing, Saving, Copying
- Page 21 Attaching Models to Trays
- Page 23 Gizmo Tool to Decorate
- Page 25 Scaling
- Page 26 Stretched Models
- Page 27 Changing Tile Textures
Part 1. Downloading and Subscribing to Mods
Before you can give this a go you will need to purchase Tabletop Simulator for about $20US. Don’t
worry though, after this initial outlay everything else talked about in this article is free forever. There
is also a trial period available through Steam – if you play less than 10 hours and don’t like it you can
easily return the game and get a full refund.

So what’s this workshop I speak of, and how do you get started with Kings of War? The workshop is
a hub for community created content for Steam games. After you have installed TTS just open up
Steam, click on TTS, then on the workshop.

Now you need to search for the mods you want and subscribe to them by clicking on the green +
button. Once you are subscribed you will be able to access the content in game.
Kings of War on TTS is still fairly new. It’s possible to play using only the “Kings of War 3rd Edition
Scripted” mod, but by subscribing to other mods you can find additional models, effects, terrain,
lighting etc.

Part 2. Creating or Joining a Game:

To create a game simply open TTS, click the create game icon, then single player or multiplayer.

Once you have selected single player or multiplayer you will be taken to the menu shown below to
select the type of game you want to play.

Subscribed mods are found in the “WORKSHOP” tab, saved games in the “SAVE & LOAD” tab etc. The
“DLC” section has some fully constructed ready to go games that can be purchased.
If creating a multiplayer game, create a name for the server, select how many players are allowed in,
add a password if you want one, and then click create. After this you can load any mods or saved
games you have and bring additional items into them. I normally run games through the main mod
but save my armies as a “Saved object” (more on that later) so that I can bring the whole army into
the game at once rather than having to pull all the units out of the demo army bags (more on that
later as well).

Once a game has been created people can either search for it through TTS by selecting “join” on the
main menu and then searching for the server name. Or the host can send invites out through Steam
to any Steam contacts they have using the + button shown below.

Search for the server name in the box at the top.

The indicated “+” allows the host to invite Steam contacts directly into the game.

Basic Controls:
Now that we are in a game I should run through the basic controls:
W/A/S/D – move around the table
Left mouse button – pick things up, drag to select
Right mouse button – change the camera angle, access an objects menu
Mouse wheel – zoom in and out
Tab – hold to measure things as you move the mouse
Q/E – rotate a held or moused over object

There are more controls that we will touch on later, but these are the fundamentals that enable you
to move around and interact with objects.

Once someone joins a server the host will need to “promote” them so that they can interact with
objects and change menu options. This way you can have spectators, but they won’t be able to
accidentally move things. Both players also need to choose a colour. All these buttons are found by
clicking on a players name in the top right of the screen.
Part 3. Gameplay:
Now that it’s time for gaming the very first thing to do is change the “lift height” to 0. This means
that, when picked up, units will only be lifted about 0.5mm off the ground. It makes accurate
placement of units much easier, and gives the feel of sliding units around the table surface rather
than picking them up and dropping them down from several inches above the table surface.

The second thing we need to do is make sure the in-game physics behave. Click on the “options”
menu then “Physics” then select “semi-lock” or “locked”.

Not to discourage anyone from working out, but you need to decrease your lift height!
What’s in the Mod?
Within the “Kings of War 3rd Edition Scripted” mod you will find a range of pre-built units (pink),
thirteen pre-constructed tables (blue), various effects, terrain, trays (red), and lots of tools, tokens,
etc (green), and coded dice rollers (yellow).

Accessing a Demo Army:

If you don’t want to build your own army there are a decent range of units for many of the factions
in Kings of War. This will allow you to bypass the construction of an army so you can get to gaming
straight away. Mousing over the bag will reveal the name of the faction inside, then simply right
click, select “search” and then drag the desired units onto the tabletop.
Setting up the Table:
To load the pre-made tables zoom in so you can see the buttons around the bags easily. Click the
“Place” button and the table and all terrain will be loaded. An additional bag containing the
deployment zones will also be placed at this point. Using the “Recall” button will put all the terrain
back in the bag. Note that these “memory bags” only remember where one state of terrain is, so if
you use the flat versions of hills, or the reduced density forests then the bag won’t pull them back in.
If you want to make your own tables there are a few things to watch out for. Most terrain you find in
other mods won’t allow units to move through it (so, just like in real life we end up with units sitting
on top of trees). Most of the terrain within this mod has been modified to fix this.

Even so, everything needs to be as flat as possible for the units to move correctly. As such you will
need to make sure that the forests and other area terrain features are sunk as far into the surface of
the table as possible:

In this example the undergrowth base is a couple of mm thick so units will jiggle about if moved over
it. We need to use the gizmo tool to move the undergrowth base down into the table so that the top
of the base is almost flush with the surface of the table.
Multi-State Terrain:
As mentioned above the coding that controls movement in the mod really does not like units trying
to sit above the surface of the table. As such several of the terrain features have been modified to
facilitate this. Crop fields, walls, and forests allow units to “clip” through them, while hills have been
given two states. One will be a 3D version. One will be a flat version. You can toggle between the
two states using the number keys correlating to the desired state. Forests also have multiple states,
each one increasing or decreasing the amount of vegetation shown so that the table can either look
cool, or the exact placement of units can be more easily seen.

Irritating hill interaction – this won’t work at all when the coding is active. The mouse will change to
the symbol shown when an object has multiple states.

State 2 – flat. Much easier to deal with now.

If you want to combine multiple objects into a single multi-state object just select them all, then
right click “create states” on the component you want to be the default state.

Locking:
Once everything is in place you can “lock” them by mousing over the object and pressing the L key.
This stops objects being accidentally moved or deleted. An object that’s been suspended in the air
with the gizmo but not locked will fall back down to the table if it gets clicked on.
Activating the Coding and Setting Hotkeys

Now we get to the core of this mods functionality, the code that governs movement and displays a
units arcs and threat ranges. The code will always be in the background, but is only applied to
objects that have the “Tag” of “Unit”. To add this tag select all the units, right click, select “Tags”.
Now there will either be a grey “Unit” near the top, in which case click on so that it goes blue. If
there isn’t, then type Unit into the “add tag” box at the bottom and then click the “+” button. The
coding is now applied to these units, so their movement is restricted, and the control panel now
affects them.

Hotkeys can be used to select a unit, display its arcs (including the leader point), and display its
melee and missile threat range. The player needs to set these for themselves, but once set they
should be remembered between games. To set the hotkeys go to “Options” at the top of the page,
then “Game Keys”. Left click to activate the hotkey, then click whatever button you want the hotkey
to be. Its best to avoid using keys that already have a function in TTS. I use X to toggle arcs on and
off, mouse 3 to select a unit, and mouse 4 to toggle threat ranges.
Rabble regiment with arcs and threat range turned on. Hill is not perfectly flat so line partially draws
below it.
The Control Panel:
The control panel adds several tools for controlling a units rotation and tracking damage. Arc and
threat range values are set here, and can also be toggled on and off, but this is much more
cumbersome than using the hotkeys.

The slide bar allows a unit to be rotated up to 180 in either direction in just over 1 degree
increments. You can use E and Q to rotate units resting on the table, but this can only be done in 15
degree increments.

The Facing value shows the units “global rotation” this is its rotation relative to a fixed position.
Basically the point of this is so that you can set a units facing exactly. This is useful when you want to
line two units up, just look at one units facing and add or subtract 180 to that value for the other
unit to get them facing each other perfectly.

Entering a number in the Damage field appends that number to the units name. This way you can
mouse over a unit to see its damage. If you want to be able to see damage at all times there are
counters available in the bags at the side of the table.

If you don’t like the location of the control panel it can be dragged around.

Note that both players use the same control panel, so only one player can be toggling arcs, rotating,
etc at a time.
Measuring:
Pressing and holding TAB allows you to measure the distance between things. There are two
measurement modes useful for kings. The first is “edge to edge”. Here you mouse over an object,
press and hold TAB, then mouse over another object. The closest distance between the two objects
will be shown. To have this active the line tool should display “Inch, 2D, Auto, Edge”

The other option is “point to point”. In this case the measurement starts and ends at the tip of the
index finger. For this the line tool should show “Inch, 2D, Free, Edge”.

The lines are visible to both players so are a great way of showing what’s going on, indicating
charges etc.
Rolling Dice:
Dice tables are provided for both players. One starts on the table, one lives in a memory bag. For
some reason if they both start on the table or both start in bags they don’t display properly.

Anyway, this roller has a text field where you type the number of dice to roll, then there are the
following buttons:

New Roll – rolls the number of dice indicated in the text box. (for some reason the text doesn’t
display on this button)

Roll All – rolls all the dice currently on the dice table

Reroll Selected – if you select some dice and roll this they will be rerolled and the others left
unchanged. The rerolled dice will turn red.

Clear All – deletes all the dice on the table.

Sometimes the dice tables forget about dice from previous rolls. Its best to “clear all” after each set
of rolls.

There are also a number of green and brown buttons. Green buttons keep all dice equal to or
greater than the number selected and delete the rest, and the brown buttons delete everything
greater than the number selected.
Counters, Indication, and General Tools:
A great feature of TTS is that you can see your opponent’s hand move about the table. This way you
can just wave at things and say “this one” rather than having to describe the “7th zombie horde from
the left”, or drag indication tools around the table. It’s all very fluid and intuitive.

If you do need to mark something (or possibly construct a complex military attack plan) you can use
the drawing tool (F2) to doodle on the table. These doodles can be deleted one at a time or all at
once in the same menu.

By right clicking on a unit you can write stuff in its description. I normally include what the unit is,
any magic items, and how much damage its taken. This info pops up instantly when the unit is
moused over by either player. No need to drag cards or tokens about the table if you don’t want to.
Alternatively there are tokens and digital counters available in bags on the right hand side. These can
be attached to a unit using a “fixed joint” (2x F6) this way the counters will follow their unit around.

The highlighted gore riders have a digital counter attached to them to track damage. They can be
moved as a single object.
Part 4. Creating an Army:
Hopefully you have played a few games, love playing Kings of War on TTS, and now want to build
your own units and armies.

This example uses the “Kings of War Orc Armies” mod.

In this mod it looks like the army is ready to go, unfortunately it’s not. These older style units made
from many individually based models are horribly unstable and can cause the entire table to explode
(literally, I’m not kidding, it’s quite spectacular!) Thankfully, TTS got a major update in April 2020
giving us the tools to create completely stable regiments. Having said that, these models still look
brilliant and we want to build an army from them so let’s look at how to do that.

Simply pull all the units you might want to one side, select them all by left clicking and dragging a
box to highlight them all. Then right click -> Save Object. Give them a name, and then we are done
with this mod.
Next load the “Kings of War 3rd Edition Scripted” mod. This contains all the tools you will need to
base your army, decorate it, and get to gaming.

Go up to the objects menu -> saved object -> drag the object you created previously into the table.
All the models will then appear in this mod. Depending on how quick your internet connection is it
may take a few seconds for them to load.
On the left you will see a load of bags. Each one contains stuff to help you play. There is a bag of all
the different movement trays that contain a code to control movement and display arcs, there are
bags for terrain, different tables, magical effects, weather, tokens etc.

For now, right click on the movement tray bag and pull the desired unit tray out. Next we delete all
the bases from the models we want and copy paste them over to the unit tray. It’s worth locking the
tray while positioning models on it to ensure the unit stays properly level while being built.

At this point we just have a load of separate models on a tray. If you pick it up everything’s going to
fall over. To turn this into a single stable element we need to use the “attach” tool. This is located on
the menu below or by pressing F6 once (1x F6).

First select all the models and the tray, then click on the attach tool, now click on the movement
tray. It’s very important to attach the models to the tray and not the tray to the models! If you get it
the wrong way round the coding won’t apply to the unit, and the pivot point of the unit will be in the
wrong place. Note that when you hover over items it will display their name, so make sure the
attach tool is showing the name of the tray before you click (see above).

The unit is now a single element. You can now copy paste the unit to get as many of them as you
want.

*Insert evil laughter here*

Repeat this process for all your other units then save the army as an object so it can be deployed
straight onto the table in the future.

If you want to get really creative with units then the gizmo move function (1x F8) allows you to push
objects through each other. This allows you to add ornamentation to a unit’s base at a later date, or
attach gouts of flame to a dragon, magical spells to wizards etc. When getting creative its really
important to keep the interactable area of the unit within the footprint of the movement tray,
otherwise measuring to and from the unit will become inaccurate and the arc lines may not draw
correctly.
Here I have used the gizmo to levitate the ‘orb of souls’ and a light source up and stuck them inside
this mighty necromancers staff. Once they are all attached with the attach tool they will stick to him
forever.

In this example I placed all the lizards on the base and then added loads of vegetation to it by
moving the scenery items through the already placed lizards.
The gizmo move tool is particularly good for some of the models that come fixed to their bases. For
these you could just drop them onto the top of the movement tray as normal, or you can use the
gizmo tool to sink the base of the model into the movement tray so it can’t be seen (just be sure the
tray is thicker than the base).

Lizard on ugly black base.

I dropped the base on top of the movement tray and then sank it through until the base just
disappeared below the top of the tray. This leaves the lizard appearing to stand on the movement
tray. Much better!
Scaling:
There are all sorts of cool mods out there, but the models in them aren’t always the same scale.

To make these two sets of dwarfs look sensible next to each other we need to rescale them. This can
be done by selecting the indicated “scale” tool (3x F8) then clicking on the model to be resized.

Next you can either use the +/- buttons to increase or decrease the scale, or enter it manually in the
indicated fields, or drag the model out/in in the same way as using the gizmo move tool. Note that
the scale (and position) only displays to two decimal places, but you can enter more than that if you
want.
Stretched Models:
The unit trays have been created by rescaling an image of the desired aspect ratio. This means that
when models are attached they will inherit this stretching unless they are sitting flat on the tray.
Basically, they can be pivoted around the Y axis as much as you like, but the X and Z axis need to be
0. This isn’t a problem on roughly square units, but can look weird for units that are significantly
wider than they are deep.

On the diagram above the skinks marked with blue arrows are rotated off flat and have been
stretched more than the one indicated by the red arrow.

All the models on the ancient troop shown to the right are sitting flat on the tray and have not been
stretched at all.
Changing Tile Textures:
The movement tray textures can be changed by changing the ‘top image’. Note that this is a bit
fiddly since the size of the unit is a combination of the source images aspect ratio and the overall
scaling of the tile produced. The aspect ratio must be preserved, otherwise all sorts of errors will be
generated!

Running through the process of creating a custom tile is a bit beyond the scope of this document,
but if you want to do so then the necessary aspect ratios are shown in a table below.
Once you have a tile with the desired texture you can apply it to existing units by following Right
click -> custom, then copy the “Top Image” file path and paste it into the same location on the tile
you want to retexture.