Difference between WoK and other table top games?

[dispake]

I've never played any table top games. I've seen my brother get into Warhammer minis so I have a general feel of what's involved, but have never experienced the actual game mechanics personally. I've watched a couple games on youtube (quickly breezed through) but nothing ever live.

Does anyone have a concise way of explaining key differences between WoK and other table top games such as WH20k? Like, what makes you like WoK over one? Or are they not exactly comparable?

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[nosuchmethod]

Ok, so I don't think many people on here are going to have a ton of experience yet. But from the handful of games I've played, here are my impressions, particularly vs. a game like warhammer:

• Way, way fewer models. This is a skirmish game, more in line with Confrontation, Malifaux, or Warmachine. That means you can get into the game and build a force with a small investment of time and money. I cleaned and assembled my Teknes force over a weekend. A WH40K army has many times that number of models.

• It also means you can get a table set up and play a game in much less time. The difference in game time is not as dramatic if you're looking at one of Warhammer's more refined descendents (e.g. Kings of War), but you're still talking about tens of models, as opposed to hundreds.

• The biggest difference, even from most other skirmish style games, is the way the gameplay works. Most wargames have players alternately moving and fighting with all their guys... which means big, long turns. WoK does it model-by-model (or groups of models), so play goes back and forth between the two players very quickly.

 

[dispake]

Ok, so I don't think many people on here are going to have a ton of experience yet. But from the handful of games I've played, here are my impressions, particularly vs. a game like warhammer:

• Way, way fewer models. This is a skirmish game, more in line with Confrontation, Malifaux, or Warmachine. That means you can get into the game and build a force with a small investment of time and money. I cleaned and assembled my Teknes force over a weekend. A WH40K army has many times that number of models.

• It also means you can get a table set up and play a game in much less time. The difference in game time is not as dramatic if you're looking at one of Warhammer's more refined descendents (e.g. Kings of War), but you're still talking about tens of models, as opposed to hundreds.

• The biggest difference, even from most other skirmish style games, is the way the gameplay works. Most wargames have players alternately moving and fighting with all their guys... which means big, long turns. WoK does it model-by-model (or groups of models), so play goes back and forth between the two players very quickly.

So I'll see some WH40K games played on youtube... and those vids are about 1hr45mins - which I'm sure is edited down a bit so I'm guessing those games can take almost 3 hours? Which leads me to guess that WoK is maybe 1.5-2 hours?

I think the points you've given are good for those just coming into table top gaming, though. It's pretty daunting to play a really looong game. Hoping I can convince a few of my friends to try this out. You may have convinced me to keep my set!

Great points. Thank you.

 

[Xavarir]

There are a number of WoK gameplay videos floating around. I believe they are around 40-60 mins long. And that includes them explaining their moves and chatting about strategy and such. Of course the game length will be based on army size and how long it takes people to make decisions on what moves they want to make, etc. 1.5-2 hours is probably a safe bet.

 

[jafo2007]

I got and assembled my teknes and goritsi starters in about 4 hours-ish(although i have been hobby model gaming for 12 years). I was able to teach three new people how to play the game in about 10-20 minutes and then the first game played in about 20 minutes. The second game was about 30 minutes long maybe a little less. We were playing the intro battle level which had about 16 miniatures on the table. I think moving it to the skirmish level it shouldnt take more than an hour. I think the only other game that i can think of that has a small model count at "intro" level is warmachine and that also plays fast at that level.

 

[nosuchmethod]

I got and assembled my teknes and goritsi starters in about 4 hours-ish(although i have been hobby model gaming for 12 years). I was able to teach three new people how to play the game in about 10-20 minutes and then the first game played in about 20 minutes. The second game was about 30 minutes long maybe a little less. We were playing the intro battle level which had about 16 miniatures on the table. I think moving it to the skirmish level it shouldnt take more than an hour. I think the only other game that i can think of that has a small model count at "intro" level is warmachine and that also plays fast at that level.

This is my experience as well. The intro games are very quick, less than 1/2 hour. Skirmish size runs about 45 mins. I've only done one Battle so far, but it took about an hour and 20 minutes. This is pretty comparable to Warmachine/Hordes games of similar model count. Malifaux plays about that speed as well, albeit with fewer models (but also many more rules for each).

Of course, game time has a lot to do with player skill and focus. The same game in Warmachine, by way of illustration, could be 30 minutes in a chessclock timed tournament setting, versus maybe 2 hours with you and your buddy hanging out and having a few beers over a game.

Either way, it's fast fast fast when compared to either of the Warhammer variants. I've seen big WH games go 6+ hours.

 

[nosuchmethod]

I think the points you've given are good for those just coming into table top gaming, though. It's pretty daunting to play a really looong game. Hoping I can convince a few of my friends to try this out. You may have convinced me to keep my set!

Great points. Thank you.

No problem, happy to be a small part of a new player's intro. My advice would be to just spam those Intro size games, play a lot of the same models over and over, until you're comfortable with the rules. It's already apparent that there's a lot of nuance to even the "basic" rank 1 infantry. Your learn quicker and have more fun if you don't jump into the large games too quickly.

 

[Joasht]

• Way, way fewer models. This is a skirmish game, more in line with Confrontation, Malifaux, or Warmachine. That means you can get into the game and build a force with a small investment of time and money. I cleaned and assembled my Teknes force over a weekend. A WH40K army has many times that number of models.

This was my initial impression too, leading up to me getting my rulebook. Seems like the "recommended game size" ranges around ~40 models...which hardly seems skirmish sized.

 

[jafo2007]

being that i am an avid WH40k gamer, model count of any particular match is based on size you want to play and the army its attached to. You could play a swarm army like tyranids or orks at 1850pts(tournament scale) and you could easily have 2-3 hundred models while playing an imperial knights army you would only need 4-5 models. Meanwhile over in this game you get a max of 45 models in a tournament scale game. Having run a couple of intro level games due to the way the system works it makes for radically drastic game when you "upgrade" the ranks and take the smaller model count. You have "stronger" models per se but you give up starting morale and have to play a little more offensively defensive.

 

[TheDiceAbide]

This was my initial impression too, leading up to me getting my rulebook. Seems like the "recommended game size" ranges around ~40 models...which hardly seems skirmish sized.

Actually, I find that even getting to 40 models is pretty challenging, it pretty much means minimal rank 2 infantry, which are all just too fun to not use, and if you're playing Hadross, you can forget about it, haha. Most of the lists we've been building locally sit right around 32-37 models for the battle sized games.

The cap on models this game has actually does a great job of not letting you get everything you want, forcing you to make concessions.

 

[Teskal]

This was my initial impression too, leading up to me getting my rulebook. Seems like the "recommended game size" ranges around ~40 models...which hardly seems skirmish sized.

What is a skirmish game?
In a skirmish wargame you do not move whole squads, troops and platoons. You move the minis normally individually or sometimes few together and there are man-to-man fights. And this is what you have in WoK. The numbers of the minis are normally not important for skirmish games, it would be better to play not skirmish with many minis. I think you mean more something like a sublevel of skirmish games with (small) warband sizes.

 

[dispake]

Man really wish I had more people around me that would play. I have a hard enough time getting friends to play D&D board games (castle ravenloft). Definitely sounds fun and something more a long my lines. WH just feels too overwhelming to me. WoK sounds like the perfect game with "intro capabilities" and expandability when the playing experience level goes up.