The View from the Club - Conclusion
By David (Club Chairman & Basilean Player)
They had seen the Eye blaze across the sky, and felt the impact on the plain three days ago. As the party crested the final hill they could still see the glow from the crater where the heavens-born fireball had landed, ploughing a great furrow in the earth.
"Send the scouts ahead. Spearmen, support your comanders. I need two messengers on Gur Panthers to report back to the Citadel." Ivadd indicated with his arms as he called his orders. "We must surround the area and protect the eye until our armies arrive"
The hooded scouts of the sisterhood upped their pace and spread out across the front of the warband, bows at the ready, keeping to the sparse cover of the blasted trees surrounding the crater wherever they could. Two warriors of the guard were mounted on the great cats, who bounded back along their path towards their home. The rest of the small band of fighters braced themselves behind shields and formed a rough circle while they waited for the advancing sisters return. They did not have long to wait. A signal arrow whistled skyward, making the whole warband turn as one towards the warning sound. Ivadd unslung his mace and drew his sacred sword from it's scabbard.
" We are not alone here." He raised his voice and inclined his head to his loyal followers. "But no others shall leave this place with the Eye of Cronus! To battle my friends. For Basilea!"
And so our adventures in Mantic Games' Kings of War: Vanguard have reached their conclusion for now, three months of intense painting, gaming and planning culminated in a bumper weekend of tournament and demonstration play at separate events in London. Apart from leaving me (A)with a huge new terrain piece to try to find storage room for, and (B) 38th in the world on Mantic's Vanguard tourney list, what did we get out of this project? And will we try anything like this again?
First off, we have a good wedge of gaming material from our benefactor! Six copies of the rulebook, six warbands, three sets of terrain markers, plus all the dice and tokens we need to play the game is a hugely generous offering, one which I think we took full advantage of. All six players did us proud with their efforts, from the enormously high standard of painting to the sheer volume of blog, Facebook and Instagram posts we managed to put out in the last three months! The miniatures themselves received a mixed reception across the board, with sculpts ranging from exquisite to downright pedestrian, and a confusing variety of materials for minis in the same box, each needing a different adhesive to put together! But I think we all developed some affection for our plucky warbands, despite their occasional flaws, and the quality of the finished results certainly reflects this.
The game itself was largely a hit. It was easy to pick up, especially for a group of grizzled veteran gamers such as ourselves, and I think it would make a decent "gateway game" for inexperienced or brand new wargamers. The rules are solid, without too many vague terms or definitions, and once you have a grasp of the basics I found there were just a couple of pages in the rulebook that needed marking for reference during play. I thought at first the short weapon ranges would prove to be a problem, but given the size of the play area and the action mechanic that allows you to perform 2 short actions in any order (some systems insist that shooting is always last), they proved to be just about right. The warband lists did seem to be a little unbalanced at times, even with a rules update a short way into our project. Certain factions felt a little under-powered, while a couple had distinct advantages, however it does feel like experience could be the key to evening the odds. Taking part in our first tournament was a little daunting, but it gave me a better insight into my warbands strengths and weaknesses as the day progressed. The intensity of an all-day gaming session with 4 rounds against the clock certainly sharpens the mind, and after a couple of games the rules become second nature, leaving you free to concentrate on tactics. Watch those scenario objectives, you might have to do a little more than just crush your enemies!
Our final weekend was a great send off for this project. Unfortunately not all of our players were able to attend the two events, but we made sure all the minis were on show and got a game in. Saturday found us in Dark Sphere (Shepherds Bush) for our first real tournament. Despite everyone worrying about their lack of Vanguard experience we all did ourselves proud, and Olly even came away with the fair play prize! A really intense set of four rounds of games pitted us against players of all ages and experience, and it was good to meet plenty of other newbies. The whole event was played with a smile, and even the more competitive players were quite friendly and encouraging. A true gaming spirit blessed the day! Sunday was far more relaxed as we ran a large demonstration game and met the public at the SELWG Wargames Show at Crystal Palace. One of my favourite shows, it was the first time the club had run a game there. The standard of demo tables at SELWG is always really high, and I think we had a nice setup, we certainly had plenty of people to chat to. Hopefully a picture or two in Miniature Wargames... We ran a game called "The Constellation of Kronos" which involved a crashed meteor with magical properties being fought over by three warbands at a time. We used the Portal scenario from the rule book as a base and ended up running two games over the course of the 6 hour show. Great fun!
I would like to say a big thank you to all the guys who took part in this promotion: Steve Thomas, Mark Sosbe, Chris Patchett, Rob Cooper, and especially Olly Gibson for applying to Mantic in the first place and keeping us on track throughout. Honourable mention also to Oni Martin for stepping in to help out at the SELWG game, allowing the others to take breaks and get a look around. Thanks to Mantic Games for choosing us to take part, and the South East London Wargames Group for letting us have a table at their show. And a final thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in what we have been doing over the last 3 months.
Would we do it again? We're already talking about the next long term projects... Keep an eye out for our next one!
Ivadd knelt and summoned his magical energies to heal the Sister lying propped against a scorched tree before him. The sky was darkening, making the glow from the great crater more pronounced. Around him, the occasional clash of steel on steel still sounded, but less intensely than it had before the sun set. A ragged looking sergeant approached, his shield nocked at the edges, and blood drying slowly on his spear blade.
"We have seen off the dark ones Brother," he croaked through parched lips, giving a tired salute, "But there are more enemies abroad this night. Trolls from the north, a band from the Trident Realms, and rumours of demons abound. We have taken losses and injury, but we survive for now."
Ivadd spoke grimly. "There is no time to rest." The Sister on the ground stirred and instinctively reached for her great sword lying beside her. Ivadd glanced at her and back at the sergeant. "I will heal the others where I can. We can but hope our enemies destroy each other before they reach us, and we need only finish them off. But be assured, we will fight again soon..."