Cleansing the abyssal artifact, a 5k battle report (1)

This blog post 1 of 2 describing this fantastic afternoon.

Introduction

two weeks ago, my friend JP and myself played a 5,000 point Kings of War battle using fully painted armies. This blog post aims to share the fun we had! We did this for the following reasons:

• To make great pictures. You’ll see them later in this blog post
• To see whether a large battle is feasible both in time and space. We’re used to 1,995 or 2,300 point battles, but not battles of this size.
  • We wanted to see how much time a battle of this size would cost. This battle was played in slightly over 3 hours, which is about an hour and a half more than a standard 2,300 point battle. Frankly, we were surprised how quick we played the game! Granted, both JP and myself play fairly quickly, but the game definetely does scale well!
  • the battle was played on a double sized area (12×4 feet) which made maneuvering easier. We ended up not using about half of the 2nd battle mat, so we had some room left. I think we could fit up to 7,000 points in this setup if we wanted. The feeling that there were three separate parts of the battlefield (left wing, center, right wing) which could reinforce each other, but at the cost of at least a turn was far more profound than a regular battle. The six turns we played were enough to force a decision on the right flank, an undecided slaughterfest on the left flank and a few skirmishes in the centre from which both players withdrew units to bolster the flanks. We could have played two or three more turns for a more definite result.
  • We thought about playing a deeper field (and starting more than 12″ from each other) but in that case we would definitely need more than 6 turns.
• To create somewhat of a hype to do this kind of things again. It was hugely fun and I’d really like to do it again.

Before I start on with the pictures: the battle was a blast! I enjoyed the idea of playing with “army corps” instead of units! Next time, I’d love to go even bigger, but in that case we need multiple players on one side. The pictures are fun to look at, enjoy the report.

Small caviat: I won’t write a full report (in the style of hoodling’s hole) but will describe the general flow of the battle for you!

Fluff: how it all started

The Basilean envoy watched the Prince Nulinia. Long standing allies, the two nations now experienced tensions in their mutual relations for the first time in ages. The envoy came straight from the Golden Horn with a missive from the dicators. The prince, however, wasn’t very receptive. The envoy continued his speech:

“Your majesty, do you deny that an artifact from the Abyss has been found in the village of Fairwater?”

The prince scowled. “Excellency, I told you already that we do not deny this. For the Shining ones’ sake: it’s a memento from the War against the Abyss! One of the knights of the Brotherhood fell into the abyss at that time along with hundreds of other members of the brotherhood. When an army of your paladins ventured into that hellhole later during that war, they retrieved his body and they returned it to his widow who lives here in Fairwater” The prince became visibly agitated. “It is his ancestral signet ring, a priceless heirloom of this man’s family that you talk about”

“Your majesty” the envoy reacted, “No matter how priceless, the abyss has clearly corrupted this piece of jewelry. Where once it housed an emerald, now the stone is a ruby!” “Furthermore,” The envoy continued, “as the artifact is clearly tainted, those who came into contact with it must be purified as well. We insist on cleansing the ring, the owner and her entire family by drowning in the cleansing springs!”

The prince reacted coldly. “Your excellency, your dictators seem to forget who rules here! I will not subject the widow of my national hero to your ‘justice’. She is an innocent soul who only clings to the last memento of her dead husband. A man who –let me tell you- died fighting the same evil you want to eradicate.”

With a gesture, the prince mentioned that the audience was over. “No, your excellency, I do not agree. Your masters’ request is denied”.

And so the armies went to war!

Armies:

Here’s the two armies before being deployed. The basileans on this side, the humans on the far side. A splendid sight!

Army list

These are the army lists:

As we both wanted a “great to look at battle” we chose to field whatever we had instead of going for the optimal selection. Moreover, we agreed to limit the amount of items/upgrades as it’s hard enough to keep track of them in a 1,995 point battle let alone this size. Wherever appropriate, we used them but not every unit has an item.

Next time:

Next time i’ll be posting the actual battle pictures!