Author Archive Scarhandpainting

KoW Armada: Unofficial Errata

Ahoy Sailors! As you know I am most and foremost a passionate hobbyist. That being said I am also a pirate, a scoundrel and a fanatical enthusiast of Mantic Games Kings of War: Armada – a naval strategy game set in a rich world of Pannithor, pitting multiple wonderfully crafted and strongly themed factions against one another. Today I’m here to share some of my maritime experience.

Why Errata, why unofficial?

In my opinion the Armada is as balanced and close to being perfect as a miniatures game can be. That being said, there’s always room for improvement. In my opinion it lies within the responsibility of the local game animators to adjust any game to better suit their community. On top of being a member of the Mantic Rules Committee for Armada, I have been running successful Armada Events for years now. Being so invested in the game I am constantly at the hobby frontlines, talking game balance with players, resolving rules issues and more. This led me to pinpoint a few neuralgic areas that might unintentionally lead to a slightly worse game experience. Below is an Unofficial Errata, very well received by my community, that I am using at local events. Some of these might or might not find their way to the official Mantic Games errata, nothing is certain. For now you are welcome to use these rules changes in your local games of Armada.

Collissions

Throughout my personal Armada experience the Collisions is the part of the rules that both my community and the players online seem to have the most problems with. Resolving Evade/Collision related movement might at times be unintuitive and when abused, by more experienced players, allow to set enemy ships on a Collision course on purpose (As described in the Collisions Baiting article). Because of that I tidied up the ruleset to resolve most issues:

Collisions – Evading (p20RB): Replace the second paragraph with the following:

However, if the ship doesn’t have the Movement value to clear the other ship in the current Move Step, it must instead stop just short (a few mm) of actual contact with the other ship. The Activating ship must now turn the smallest amount possible, and enough to just clear the other ship and any other obstacles with the remaining movement value in its current Move Step, even if this means turning further than would normally be allowed and through the bases of the other ship and the obstacles themselves. It can then continue the rest of its Activation as normal.

In a rare scenario when it is clear that no amount of turning will see the active ship clear of the other ship and all potential obstacles, the initial Collision cannot be Evaded.

Collisions – Colliding (p20RB): Replace the fifth paragraph with the following:

The Activating ship must now turn the smallest amount possible, and enough to just clear the other ship with its next Move Step, even if this means turning through the base of the other ship. The activating ship does not continue any further movement for this Move Step.

In case the turn to clear the other ship is blocked by any obstacles from both sides, do not turn the active ship and set its Speed to Anchored instead.

Examples:

Example A – Current Ruleset:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. It then turned left, the shortest possible* route to clear the other ship.
*Following “Ships cannot normally move or turn through other ships or
terrain (see Collisions on page 20).” from page 16 of the Rulebook.
Same result if the test to Evade was failed.

Example A – U.Errata:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. It then turned RIGHT, the shortest possible route and through the other ship to clear it.
Same result if the test to Evade was failed.

Example B – Current Ruleset:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. It then turned right, the shortest possible* route to clear the other ship. There is another ship in the way. What happens? Another test to Evade? If passed, is the Active ship bumped back to the previous course, the shortest possible route to clear the second ship?
*Following “Ships cannot normally move or turn through other ships or
terrain (see Collisions on page 20).” from page 16 of the Rulebook.
Same question if the test to Evade was failed.

Example B – U.Errata:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. It then turned LEFT, the shortest possible route and through the other ship to clear it and any surrounding obstacles.
Same result if the test to Evade failed.

Example C – Current Ruleset:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. It can barely turn left and right as both sides are blocked by other ships. How should this be resolved in accordance to the rules?
Same question if the test to Evade failed.

Example C – U.Errata:
Same as B after the change.
If the test to Evade was failed, after a Collision the activating ship is left in place and its speed set to Anchored.

Example D – Current Ruleset:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. It then turned right, the shortest possible route to clear the other ship. There is a Sandbank in the way. What happens? Another test to Evade? If failed, does the ship roll to Cross the Sandbank?
Same question if the test to Evade failed.

Example D – U.Errata:
Same as B after the change.
Same result if the test to Evade was failed.

Example E – Current Ruleset:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. It can then turn either right or left, the shortest possible route to clear the other ship. One side is blocked by another ship, the other by Rocks. What happens if the active ship turns into rocks? Would assume a Collision. If turned left to another ship, another Evade test then if passed bumped back?
Same question if the test to Evade failed.

Example E – U.Errata:
Same as B after the change, except due to same distance the active ship can choose direction.
If the test to Evade was failed, after a Collision the activating ship is left in place and its speed set to Anchored.

Example F – Current Ruleset:
Active ship X passed a test to Evade and stopped short right before the other ship. How to turn it to clear the other ship?
What if the test failed, a Collision ocured and the active ship must be turned to clear the other ship with any future Move steps? There’s no room to do that.
How to even resolve this?
Same question if the test to Evade failed.

Example F – U.Errata:
There is no way for the active ship to turn, ignoring the other ship and any obstacles to clear them. Test to Evade automatically fails. Collision occurs, after which due to all sides being blocked the active ship is left in place and its speed is set to Anchored.

Gunnery Skills

Sometimes, because of multiple negative To-Hit modifiers, stacked on top of one another, it is impossible to hit a closest ship. The rulebook does not allow to ignore such targets, resulting in situations when Inexperienced and Regular crewed ships can be completely blocked from shooting at an entire enemy fleet, because of a single Small target in the way. With fleets such as the Twilight Kin and the Trident Realms introducing additional negative To-Hit modifiers it seems important to resolve the issue…

Gunnery Skills (p22RB): Ships with Inexperienced and Regular crews, must target the closest available enemy ship in each fire arc (that is at least Partially Visible – see opposite). If the closest enemy ship is a Squadron (Tiny), has Surrendered or is Grappled with a friendly ship, or requires a roll of “11” or more to-hit, it can be ignored however, and the next closest enemy targeted instead.

Veteran crews may target any enemy ship in range in each Fire Arc (that is at least Partially Visible) if they successfully pass a Skill Test (for each Fire Arc being used). If the test is failed, the closest enemy ship must be targeted as described above.

Ghost Fleets Spectral Form

In order to level up the playing field for the Ghost Fleets I have added a small change to the Spectral Form rule. Previously the rule allowed for the enemy ships to move through the Ghost Fleet ships freely, all the while banning the Ghost ships themselves from doing so. Additionally it was too easy to set up a line of ships to sling shot enemy ships into Rocks or through the board’s edge (As described in Movement Slinghshoting article). Now neither Ghost Fleets nor any other fleet can set up a collision course on purpose, unless RAM (x), and both will have to pass a Skill Test to Evade before passing through one another.

Spectral Form: If a ship from this fleet Surrenders, is Grounded, or its SPs have been exceeded, remove the model from the table. Ghost ships do not suffer or inflict collisions with other ships. Instead, if the Evade test is failed, the activating ship completes its move as normal. If the activating ship would not end clear of the other ship, add enough movement until it does end clear, and then continue with the Activation. Each ship passed through (including the Ghost ship) will cause damage equal to a D10 plus its own CS to the other ship. e.g. An Elohi with CS 4 collides with a Spectre with CS 6. The Elohi inflicts 1D10 + 4 damage to the Spectre, and the Spectre inflicts 1D10 + 6 damage to the Elohi. Tiny ships take and inflict half damage (rounding up). Note that Ghost ships cannot deliberately ram/pass through an enemy ship. Ghost ships can never be set ablaze. Ghost Fleets always have Regular Crew, and this cannot be changed.

Oars/Engines

Got expanded in order to remove some bad game experience shenanigans from the game. No more “Dwarf Hunter Torpedoes” previously allowed by the rules as written.

Oars/Engines (p.36RB): Add the following paragraph:
Please note the Oars/Engines turn, at the start of a move step, cannot be used to set a ship on a Collision course in its next move step (unless another rule allows for a second turn between these move steps).

Q: Is it obligatory to use Oars/Engines before the move step if it allows to avoid a potential Collision?
A: Yes, unless another rule such as Ram (X) allows the ship to collide on purpose, it is obligatory to use the Oars/Engines if it allows to avoid a Collision. 

Balancing Changes

Addressed a few Fleet/Ship Rules and Upgrades that required attention. Done in a way that does not meddle with points values.

Elohi’s “Halo of Light”: If upgraded with Aegis Shield, add +1 to the amount of Damage that is reduced and lower the Damage requirement to use the reduction to 5 or more Damage.

Yinn Greythunder: Once per game, this ship may fire twice from one of its gun positions, but with an additional -2 to-hit modifier.

Kopeshii’s “Terror”: Enemy ships must re-roll successful Curse of Undeath Skill Tests when involved in Boarding Actions with this ship. This Ship has Ram [1] special rule and Grappling Hooks for free, not counting against the normal upgrade limit.

Baanshe’s “Banshee’s Wail”: Enemy ships suffer a -1 to-hit modifier on any Boarding Action attack rolls they make, while within 3″ of this ship.

Neddlefang’s “Attrition”: Friendly ships add 1 damage (to a maximum of plus 3) to any normal Shooting attack (from a Weapon Position) for each other Friendly ship with this rule within 6” (the attack must cause at least 1 damage itself for this to count). Extra damage is not added to results on the Critical Hit table. Add extra damage after any multiplication (such as Point Blank and Raking fire).

Ocarina of Korgaan (p.43RB): Once per game, instead of Rolling for Wind, so long as the ship with this Upgrade is still in play on the table, the owning player may choose to use the Ocarina of Korgaan. If so, first pick the clockwise or counter-clockwise then roll a D10 and Move the Wind Rose that many compass positions in the chosen direction. This may be done from Turn two onwards (unless the scenario being played has other winds rules in place for that Turn). If both players have this upgrade and want to use it in the same Turn, roll a D10 each. The player with the highest score gets to choose this Turn. The losing player may then use the upgrade in any following Turn.

GAME MODS

Contrary to the above, this section presents the ideas of rules updates that can be used to modify your games, similar to Full Wind Rules (Rulebook), Night Fighting (Seas of Dread) or Random Winds (Seas of Dread). The rules that got changed are working correctly and as intended, but can be adjusted for a more smooth gameplay and a slightly different tabletop experience.

Indirect Weapons

The Indirect Weapons missing and then scattering seems like a cumbersome, time consuming and rarely effective ruleset. It takes a lot of effort to implement and rarely produces any real impact on the game state. Still, it is a major component of the Indirect Weapons identity and for this purpose, instead of removing it completely, I have decided to rework the rule. 

Indirect Weapons (p.25RB): Replace the first paragraph with the following:

If an Indirect Weapon misses on a natural roll of “1” it will scatter towards another close target. The Indirect Weapon will then hit any ship within 3” from the initial target (chosen at random in case of multiple ships within that range). If there are no ships within 3” of the initial target ship, or the only ship within 3” is the firing ship, the shot misses instead.

Additional notes: Even though it might seem like the Indirect Weapons got straightforward better with the additional 10% to-hit chance, when there’s a viable secondary target in range – it can easily be played around by keeping ships in a wider formation. Moreover, getting close to enemy ships seems like a viable tactic to protect against Indirect Weapons and creates an opportunity to ‘score’ extra hits against the enemy fleet with their own guns. Furthermore this change incentives Regular and Veteran crew IDW platforms, above quantity. 

Ships on Fire

Ships on Fire is a rather contentious part of the Armada ruleset. In some situations the game forces players to choose between two bad outcomes, by either crashing into terrain, or risking an expensive ship being removed from play due to a bad roll of “1” on a D6. At the same time risk adds excitement and provides a memorable cinematic moment. To mitigate the impact, but keep the spirit of the rule in place I have made the following change:

Ships on Fire (p.28RB): Replace the fourth paragraph with the following:

If the test is failed, the ship will suffer D3 Damage if Tiny or Small, D6 Damage if Medium, and D10 Damage if Large or Extra Large. In addition, if the Skill Test rolls a natural 1, the fire reaches the ship’s ammunition and the ship is immediately Crippled (suffer additional Damage to reach the Nv), or if already Crippled it explodes instead! All other ships within 4” of the exploding ship suffer D10 damage (roll separately for each ship). The exploding ship is destroyed, remove it from play.

Fliers

The Fliers is a mostly forgotten addition to the game brought in with Seas Aflame book. Because of a rather strict movement ruleset combined with a movement related attack requirement, the Fliers struggle to deal consistent damage and follow up their targets. The below change is meant to add movement flexibility and skirmish opportunities more in line with Fliers fluff and role they are meant to fulfill on the gaming board.

Fliers Movement (p.6SA): Replace the second paragraph with the following:

To change direction, once during their Activation the fliers turn on their centre point in the same way that Squadrons do. However, they must move at least 4” forward in a straight line before they can execute a turn.

Hover (p.6SA): Replace with:

If a flier has the Hover special rule, it can turn at any point during its move and can ignore the requirement of a minimum of 4”, moving anything between 0” and up to its full Movement value.

I will keep the above list up to date, adding and removing things if they happen to show up in future Errata so stay tuned and remember – this is all Unofficial, to use at your discretion.

I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional Warhammer miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.