COK 25 update first impression

The latest update for Kings of War is in. I haven’t played any games with the new rules yet, so these are just some first impressions on how the changes might impact the game, and my armies in particular.

Item / Rule changes

Blood of the old kings now rocketed up to a total no-brainer item. 15pts for one round of elite + vicious, yes please. While the old item was not used much, the new one swung the pendulum too far the other way IMO.

The change to wavered flank, allowing the unit to still turn around is good. Potshot being removed is also good, no potshot units were being used. Not sure it is enough to make those units usable competitively, but still a step in the right direction.

Duelist going up to 3x is… a lot. Those 7 attack CS2 heroes with duelist will absolutely crush face now. Many of the fairly resilient heroes might now see less play, as they are much more vulnerable. The good thing about the change is that it makes it worth it to bring 5 attack duelists, who previously just didn’t work. As I don’t love individual dominance, I think it is probably a good change overall.

Command dice and orders

I don’t have a particular opinion on this being a thing overall, so I will focus on the actual meat and bones here.

Generic orders – The re-roll orders will likely be used every turn when there are command dice left to spend. Built in slashing blade / piercing arrow on everything. It makes high CS units a bit better, which they hardly needed, but likely nothing too bad here. Luckily they have removed the option for “blast” units to use this, or else artillery and melee blast units would become very good.

The two move orders I think will be extremely good / annoying. Being able to full move sidestep or back will deny so many charges. It is a big defensive buff, that can save you from being outplayed. I am sceptical of the balance of these orders. Costing only 3, everyone will likely have it available when needed.

The two spell ones look alright. +1 dice for non-unique spells is nice to ensure a critical bane chant for example. 3″ more spell range is more niche, but those time you do need it, it will be nice to have. There might be some spells that can get more milage out of these two, so good to have it in mind when picking your spells.

Removing wavered does not look game-breaking, as you still can’t attack back, you are still disordered and it is expensive at 5. Might save a late game objective run, but that waver is still going to suck in most situations. Very situational.

Re-rolling all attacks for 6 is probably not going to come up too often, being so expensive, but gives the opportunity to fix terrible, game-losing rolls. I think this one looks fine. EDIT: I’ve been told that all orders must be declared before rolling dice, so the 6 cost “vigilance” order, that allows you to scrap your entire attack and roll it all again is 99,9% useless. You will never spend 6 order dice for the off-chance that you roll abysmal. Might as well pretend this one doesn’t exist.

Several of the army specific orders look really good. Re-roll regen rolls, gain elite, gain +1 to hit, +1 TC, remove shambling, drain life 5, iron resolve 2, regen 5+, strider, pathfinder…

For the cheap cost, I think bringing extra command dice will be a given for pretty much any list. You will always want at least 3 points to have the movement options open, and a lot of the 4 point faction ones are pretty crazy. Any remaining points can always go to re-rolls, so there is not much to lose from going pretty heavy into command dice. As many of the commands do the same as magic items, but for cheaper and much more flexible, that is an easy place to find the points.

Kingdoms of Men / League of Rhordia

Unfortunately, there were not a great deal of changes for my beloved human armies. The biggest buff they have gotten is access to “Run them down” order. Which gives +1 to hit on the charge. It can’t be used by hordes, which removes a lot of the best units to use it with, but it can make regiments more useful, and knight regiments certainly need something like this to be at all relevant IMO. EDIT: It can’t be used by cavalry units, so knights are still underwhelming. Regiments of foot knights and fanatics can gain a buff from this order. 2+ to hit with 15 attacks at CS1 is pretty good.

The other order gives ordered march, which is a nice ability, but it is something I think should be built into the standard bearer instead of life leach (although he was buffed to LL2, which makes it at least somewhat usable).

With spear / pike blocks and dogs of war, they are decently positioned to reduce some of the alpha strike buffs that have been dolled out, since many of the best units will be cavalry of some type or fliers.

Getting US1 on cannons is a big buff for those, which will probably make it worth it to bring a 1-2 in most lists.

Duke Hetronburg sails up as the big winner, as he finally gets a decent amount of attacks for his price. With the knights being buffed with “run them down” and blood of the old kings change, his special ability is also more valuable, so that is a likely starting point for my next human list.

Duelist going to 3x is actually also a decent boost for humans, as their puny 5 attack CS1 heroes can actually do something to enemy individuals with the duelist blade. The assassin might also be playable now.

Some of the worst units in the list were not touched or helped at all. Shieldwall still blows (give them big shield to give them an actual role in the army). Mounted scouts still suck with their 5+ ranged stat (they fixed skeleton archer cav, why skip human archer cav?). Siege artillery is now decisively the worst warmachine in the list, it will never be worth taking over ballistas and cannons. Ranged infantry has mini-buff in removal of pot-shot, but still won’t be good, and new abyssals makes another army that can just shut down that kind of shooting. Giant gets a small buff with US2, while the mammoth has no changes and is still overpriced (give us back the shooting attack Mantic!).

Northern alliance / Varangur

Both get access to give regen 5+ to any unit that is not def 6. Probably not game-breaking, but it can also be absolutely fantastic on their grindy units like the cavern dweller, frostfangs, clansmen and more. NA gains easier access to frozen rule, which makes it worth it to buy the tundra fighters rule more often. Varangur can add +1 brutal anywhere, which is fantastic.

Cavern dweller gets a nice big boost with WC 2 and vicious. He was already pretty good, so now a list with multiple looks enticing.

Ice blade gains a lot from the duelist boost. Slap a gnome shield on her, and you get a cheap annoying duelist hero.

No huge changes to any of these armies either, but the cavern dweller boost certainly makes me want to explore a triple dweller list.

Cursed son, Magnhilde and mounted lord get a bit more risky to use, as they can all fall fairly easily now to 3x duelist heroes.

The Varangur thegn is still totally useless, and horse raiders could use rat 4+ to make them a unit with an actual niche.

Ogres

Ogres gain the +1 brutal order, and can in addition hand out rally 1 – merc, which is nice in a 15/17 nerve army. Both good orders, but nothing game breaking IMO.

Ogres get some probably well deserved nerfs. Siege breakers lose 1 speed, and are 5pts cheaper. That is a bad trade. In addition, warlocks only get extra dice from “merc” units, which siege breakers are not, so no more drain life 8, def 6+ wall of cheese.

Warrior chariots get a rule that I think a lot of chariots should get, which is the option to get rampage.

The sergeant gets a small buff in being able to upgrade one with rally. Nice addition instead of the worse “Paymaster” hero.

I think the changes to ogres are good. Siege breakers are much less of an auto-include, which opens up for more varied ogre lists. I already like hunters, and am inspired to try out an idea of a fast ogre army with hunters, chariots and maybe berserkers.

The new formation looks very uninspired IMO, although it can be slightly useful for giving rally to the goblin monsters and scouts, you actually have to pay a fair amount for that, and bring a unit you normally wouldn’t (it is an ok unit). Got to say that it is one of the most boring formations I’ve seen, I won’t be bothering with it at all.

Empire of dust

I am currently working on getting my empire of dust backlog reduced to the point of having a playable army. I haven’t played any games with EoD, so the review will be pure theory-hammer.

The orders are ok. Removing shambling can be vital for late game objective taking, early game positioning, and is especially good on high speed units. Vengance (+1CS on counter-charge) would have been fantastic if it worked on infantry and large infantry, but unfortunately, it only works on cav, large cav and chariots for EoD. Still decent enough, and a welcome buff for chariots and knight, but depends on your list.

The new skeleton unit with blast shooting and blast combat is extremely expensive for the terrible base stats, but also looks incredibly fun. I will make up a unit of skeleton pirates for sure, even if I think they will be hard to properly utilise. They seemingly do not have steady aim, so mostly shoot on a 6+, and they hit on 5+ with 12 attacks in combat. So baseline, they suck for their points.

They can however get insane benefit from Rah’s ability (they kind of need him to be viable at all), although it will cost you 400pts for the opportunity. Still, it will be nice that one time you get off a non-moving shoot action, blasting away one unit, before surging them into something else to blast them away too.

Other things worth mentioning

Goblins keep the most undercosted unit in the game with no nerfs, Groany Snark.

Abyssals having the option for 6+ defense against shooting for 5 points on a lot of their units can make shooting much less viable, as now you are dealing with both night stalkers and abyssals as anti-shooting armies.

There is overall quite a lot buffing alpha strikes, like the +1 TC / +1 to hit / elite / strider orders and the blood of the old kings item. Phalanx will likely increase in value to stop extra TC, and because a lot of the best alpha units are cav, large cav or fliers. It was already the case that you should always go with the spear infantry over the cheaper basic dudes for practically all armies, but that trend continues IMO.

Overall, I think the update is pretty good. I am intrigued to look at new lists for all my armies, and I think the balance issues they are introducing are not so great that it will become a huge issue, as all sides will have mostly have access (except faction orders). It will still suck when your opponent just sidesteps right out of the juicy flank trap you set.