Top 5 broken units in Kings of War

It’s a really common myth that Kings of War is a really balanced game. If it was then there wouldn’t need to be any Clash of Kings updates.

Top players will also lie, regularly, and say that the army list doesn’t matter and there aren’t any overpowered units. Well, I’m blowing the whistle today. For the newer and mid-table players, here are the top 5 most broken units in Kings of War. I realise we only have a few weeks left til Clash, but I highly recommend squeezing these units in if you can to guarantee success on the tabletop.

5. Ogre Warriors

These units are incredible value, and right at the overpowered/broken border. At 18 Me3 CS1 attacks they shred most things. The only thing to be concerned about is their relatively low nerve.

Don’t believe top players when they say that these guys are simply outclassed by other options in the Ogre army list like Siegebreakers and Hunters. Remember – Warriors are slightly cheaper. We all know that being slightly cheaper makes them really good.

Trust me, when a top player looks at your army list and see’s that you’ve taken Warriors rather than any other unit in the Ogre list, they know exactly how rough of a game they’re in for.

4. Katsuchan Rocket Launcher

One of the things that you quickly notice is that top players will often undercook their list in minor tournaments like Lonewolf. They’ll take the stuff that’s good, but they’ll avoid taking the broken stuff so that people don’t realise how busted it is. Then, when they go to the major tournaments like Clash of Kings, they bring the real filth.

Well I’m spilling beans. Angkor Mortars? Pfft. Nope. You want Katuschan Rocket Launchers.

You see, the issue is that Angkors only average 0.7 hits per turn. The Angkor won’t even hit every turn. These guys though, they average 1 hit per turn, which means that they hit once per turn – a 50% improvement on Angkors!

That’s just when you directly compare them in a vacuum. Consider that you save 60 points if you swap your Angkors out for Kutsachan launchers (and get more hits per turn). That’s enough spare points to upgrade a Hexcaster to an Ironcaster.

Trust me, if you have any Angkors, swap them out for Ktasuchans and upgrade your Hexcasters. It’s the pro gamer move.

3. Nightstalker Horror Riftweavers

As a Nightstalker player, the quality of this unit is just mesmerising. Packing a whopping D6+6 Me4 attacks, these pack a massive punch and are a terrifying back line defence. As soon as they see these guys across from them, flyers are going to completely avoid jumping over your lines out of fear of being attacked by Horror Riftweavers.

As we all know, Nightstalkers really struggle for unlock slots and so you really want to optimise your usage. Forget Mindscreeches or Planar Apparitions – if you buy Riftweavers instead then you save 30 or more points per model. Repeat it for 3 of your monster slots and this might be enough for you to get enough scoring units on the table with Nightstalkers.

Highly recommended. Drop the Mindscreeches if needs be.

2. Ogre Boomer Chariots

These are so good that no-one dares show pictures of them on the internet for fear of people realising how good this unit is.

As we all know, Ogres have more than enough unlock slots. They never struggle to get enough unlocks, so it’s not the slightest issue spending 145 or more points on an irregular unit.

But man, these guys. Speed 8, and with a fearsome 8 or 12 Ra4+ P1 shots. It gives them a terrifying 20″ threat range to place those shots. This means that flyers are terrified of these guys, since you can get the first shot off.

And then, when it suits you, these guys can really tear up in combat with their 8 or 12 Me4 CS1 attacks. At speed 8 they can reach out and hit so many units with that first charge.

Their only downside is a lack of terrain mitigation, which makes them tricky to use.

I highly recommend taking a regiment of these with Maccwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar to really get the most out of their terrifying combat prowess.

1. Nightstalker Spectres

These are the most broken unit in the game.

18″ shooting with piercing 1 is all the rage these days and these guys have a horde option. A horde option! A unit with 20 ranged attacks at 18″ and Piercing 1 is unheard of in the game. Think about it – if hordes of Piercing 1 shooting were balanced then why wouldn’t every army have one?

I’ll tell you why; they’re broken.

The thing is – it gets even better. These guys have Pathfinder. They can charge through forests without penalty! No-one expects these guys to ever charge, and the look on your opponents face when you surprise them will be incredible!

This is what really makes them so ridiculously good. Their ability to surprise your opponent and charge out of the forest without penalty.

What you want to do to make them absolutely obscene is to improve their combat abilities to really scare your opponent. While most top players would use the tried and tested (and broken) Brew of Strength, I actually think you should consider the Wine of Elvenkind. It is an unconventional choice, but I guarantee you that not only will top players get caught out by these guys charging into combat with their pathfinder ability, but it is a guaranteed game winning ability to be able to corkscrew with them.

Any Nightstalker player without at least two hordes of these (kitted with combat artefacts) needn’t bother turning up.