6 Tips For Playing Brotherhood [Gaming] Kings Of War

In my short run as a blogger thus far, I would imagine those who have read some of my articles have
noticed I mention the Brotherhood allot. I love the Brotherhood as a faction, this is mostly in a competitive and game play sense as I do deviate from the canon Brotherhood background fluff, but never the less I love it. To me it really embodies the heart of a fantasy setting, the sterling knight on a quest to ward of magical beings and evil, the standard fantasy troupe of humans ranking up behind uniformed colors with symbols of mythical creates emblazoned on their shields while carrying magical swords to slay demons.

Most like to say Brotherhood within Kings of War is a non-competitive faction, that they can't win because their list is not strong enough. Firstly I 100% disagree that there is any such thing as a "non-competitive list" within Kings of War, it is all about the player and how they perform as a general. With that being said, I do agree it is harder to play as Brotherhood than some other factions within Kings of War. This is why I often say "playing on hard mode" with pride. As a faction that is all about maneuvering (with little forgiveness), there is little room for tactical mistakes. Thus this may ward of some players from dedicating themselves to our knightly oaths.

In this article I want to give some tips, and encouragement, to all Brotherhood players, and prospective Brotherhood players out there. Hopefully if I am doing mi'lords work right I'll convince some new blood to join our faction.

I will preface everything I am saying here with the fact that not all Brotherhood players may agree with these, and that is fine! Kings of War is beautiful because each faction can be played a myriad of different ways. But I do hope these tips will open up some dialog about the faction and how it is played.

Hang on to you saddles and couch your lances, here are my 6 tips for playing Brotherhood.

1) Take the First Turn

This is pretty bold right? You are sitting across the field of battle from your opponent, the ranks of knights formed to face the bloody hordes of *insert here*. The dice falls to the table and WHAM, you get to decide who goes first. What do you do? 

Take this into account, Brotherhood is about maneuver and speed, and for us speed is security. After all deployment is done your opponent knows that he is facing down a fast moving and reacting force, one that can redeploy and reach flanks and objectives (terrain dependent ) potentially far easier than he/she can. If your opponent takes that first turn, they are going to take measures to ensure you do not get the charges you need/want, that you are denied the objectives you wish to reach, and that your maneuvering area is lessened. 

However, on the flip side of that coin, if you take or are offered the first turn, you now can easily determine when and where this battle will be fought. If you opponent is a slower army they are pretty much locked in to how they deployed, but if you deployed smartly, you left room for yourself to redeploy, changing the battlescape on turn 1. You also can press the first turn advantage, maneuvering your anvil and hammer, flanking forces, harassing forces, and objective grabbers to where you want. This allows you to set up traps, tempting your opponent to make charges he/she may not want to do, as your follow on forces could easily get in that flank or double charge as needed.

Bottom line here is, dictate how the battle is going to be waged, if you give that advantage to your opponent, then you are allowing them to choose (to an extent) where you will be able to meet and face them. Despite all this, all hope is not loss if you lost initative and are forced into the second turn, you must now using these principles dictate how the battle will go beyond what your opponent has already done.  

2) Firing Lanes Are Your Charge Lanes

Mind the Gap

You have a gap in the terrain, no forests? no hills? no blocking? What a perfect lane to shoot down! Except as the Brotherhood, that is where you Cav needs to charge down. Thunderous charge being what it is makes our charges pretty finicky. So if you do opt to bring some Bowmen or Swain's Rangers, you are going to run into some conflict with targets and being able to hit them. 

Most recently I decided to bring some Siege Artillery to Crucible GT for my 2000 pt. Brotherhood list. While I bemoaned its effectiveness as a single unit (you really need a couple artillery pieces to make them effective), I still attempted to strategically place it in ways that would allow me to fire around my Cav as it charged across the field. Most of the time that meant keeping it on the far corner of the deployment zone so that it could shoot diagonally at targets as my forces moved up. Here is where a laser pointer came in handy to shoot through those tiny gaps between my units and try to hit enemy units. 

For the Brotherhood, Swain's Rangers are the best bet for that shooting touch, however they are pricey. The Vanguard makes them very usable as it lets them position in a way as to not be interfered with while your cavalry makes use of those lanes within the terrain. Furthermore, like all good shooting players know, grabbing that nearby hill top is good for shooting units, though it does make them exposed to enemy attention. 

Bottom line, watch how you deploy with shooting units as you will more than likely be running down their lane of fire as you avoid the hindered and TC'less charges in your game. 

3) Always Measure the Enemy Charge Distance

For Universal Battles 2 I often use the tape-measures to
measure out charge distance.

This may seem a bit gamey, and your opponent will probably look at you cross-eyed as you are doing it, but first turn I always place a dice at the "charge" distance of my opponents units. Why? I want to know what sort of envelope I am working with, where I can maneuver based on what the enemy's turn one or turn two movement options are going to be. I never want to be in a position that the enemy can charge me first, or your advantage being a mainly cavalry army is out the window and unlikely to return. This is the death dance of the Brotherhood. Most times I end up repeating this measurement for turn 2 and turn 3 as well, ensuring I am in prime position, whether it be flank charges or the tried and true head on charge.

Once that "commit" moment happens in the game, whether you charge in with a blow of the trumpet or your enemy falls into some sort of charging trap you lay, the utility of measuring your opponents charge distances is not over. After your Regiment of Mounted Brotherhood runs over that regiment of Orc Ax for instance, its important to look and see if either a reform, a move back, or a D6 forward would keep you out of charge range from a vengeful charge from a sister units of Orcs waiting in the wing. Or better yet, that you are within range of a flank or a rear charge next turn.

Just like in chess, you have to think several turns ahead with brotherhood because your power lies in being able to make a charge without being disordered or hindered. Anticipation of how your opponent is going to move based on the game scenario or obvious charges he/she may take is important. Measurement in all moments of the situation around you can significantly affect your strategy.

4) Charging is Maneuvering As Well

Forward or At the Double are not the only movement commands of the movement phase in Kings Of War. There is also the Charge, the moment you decide to bring hurt to the enemy. While sometimes there is an enemy unit there you just want to get rid of can can do so with ease, perhaps there are other situations you cannot take out that unit with a frontal charge, or perhaps you need to get around the enemy units. In these situations you need to look at what else your opponent has around that huge horde of Orc GreatAx, perhaps a unit of chaff you could easily topple is sitting off to the flank of the horde within your range. 

Evaluating these charges could allow you to pull off some pretty crazy maneuver stunts that will have your opponents head spinning. While they could of swore you were going to charge their large nasty horde of orcs head on, you now maneuvered in such a way to charge a unit of chaff off on the side, putting  your unit out of LOS of the Orcs and thus safe from a brutal charge next turn. After you have dealt with this unit successfully, you have either A) caused the Orc horde to maneuver in such a way that has exposed its flank to other units in your army or B) positioned your stunt performing unit in the flank of the horde and thus in a better position, or C) now have the ability to continue on past the horde and on to an objective. 

The best charge is not always the most obvious one, instead it is the one that puts you in the best position with the best outcome 1-2 turns later.

5) Brotherhood isn't Non-Competitive, its Learning the Game on Hard-Mode

Like I said in the preface of this article, there is not such thing as "non-competitive list" in Kings Of War, its all about the general playing it. However there is such thing as hard mode, and if you are a Brotherhood player, you live for hard mode. As a new player this may be a daunting thing, something you want to avoid as you are starting the game. But let me give you this piece of advice, if you want to be good at competitive play, Brotherhood is a perfect place to start. As I will continue to say in this article, Brotherhood is about maneuver or die, so what better way to learn how to maneuver then playing a faction that depends on it.

I enjoy Kings of War when I play it, not only if I win, even when I loose. And starting out you will loose a few times no matter what faction you play. But each time you should remember those key pivotal mistakes or missed opportunities that lead to your loss. Being that the elegant nature of Kings of War brings the true challenge of the game within the movement and tactical decision making of play, all factions rely on maneuver. So as you learn the little maneuvering mistakes within Brotherhood, how to reform, how to get the charge in without being hindered, where to boldly flank, those lessons will stick with you when you move on to other "easier" factions such as Orcs (using myself as an example).

So take heart Brothers, its a hard knock life being a Knight, but with each hard lesson we learn a few things too. So take notes, practice, game plan, learn your lessons the hard way. Just like in life I guess? The best lessons are learned the hard way, so is true for Kings Of War.

6) Don't Be Shy About Playing Brotherhood

Many people like to dismiss the Brotherhood as being non-competitive or that our faction was destroyed in Edge of the Abyss, and thus it's not a super popular pick in the eyes of those going in for a second army or new players. Lots of talk around the community is to just remove us in general, as we are "just another one of the too many human factions". While Mantic has said a couple of times they don't intend to remove the brotherhood (yet), there is allot of anticipation within our Brotherhood community and throughout Kings Of War that going into 3rd Edition there may be a shore up of armies, Brotherhood being one of them. 

Whether these fears are founded on anything is aside from the point I wish to make here, but the biggest thing that we as Brotherhood players can do to fight stigma of being sucked into the Abyss is to be vocal about our love for our faction and what we have been able to accomplish hobby-wise and in friendly/competitive play. The cool thing about Kings of War is the huge social media presence that we have, and the ability we have through Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to share our work. So show the world outside the Brotherhood Facebook group or other closed forums what you have been working on with your army, any tips you have for play, some battle reports showing your victories (or even defeats with lessons learned). The best thing we can do is show that there are in fact people out there who play Brotherhood and enjoy it, the more we are vocal and outward about playing as Brotherhood, the less the stigma that we fell into the Abyss can stick.