Power ranking factions is stupid. If you are able to power rank the different factions in your wargame, that means your game system sucks.
If a game system is balanced and fair any faction can potentially beat any other faction with the right unit selection and a skilled commander.
The problem is that a lot of players THINK they are a skilled commander even though they aren't. Then they blame their faction list when they lose. They think their faction is underpowered. They think their opponent's faction is overpowered.
It's actually just a skill issue, though.
Yes, that army that your opponent ran asked questions that you couldn't answer. Now you need to figure out how to answer those questions with the tools that your faction has. That's the game. That's the challenge. That's the point.
Some factions are resilient. Some are delicate and complex. Some specialize in surgical equipment, while others operate with axes and spiked shoulder pads. When you play this game you aren't just playing against your opponent. You are also testing yourself, and your mastery of your army list. Part of the game is exploring and discovering the strengths and weaknesses of your faction so that you can capitalize or mitigate them accordingly.
Kings of War has twenty-eight different factions, and each of those factions can run a variety of different and imaginative army builds. The Halfling army that you play against this weekend might be completely different than the one you played at a tournament a few months ago.
That's what they mean when they say this game is easy to learn but difficult to master.
But what if you aren't trying to master the game? What if you are just playing casually to enjoy spending time with your fellow hobbyists?
When I was on my second tour in Iraq I played a card game called "Magic: The Gathering" every Friday night at FOB Speicher in Tikrit. I was terrible at it, and I didn't really care to get better, either. I just played it so that I could socialize with other gamers and forget about where we were for a couple hours. A few of the other guys were really competitive and really serious about it. They played intricate combination decks that changed how the turns went, removed certain cards from the game, and temporarily altered the rules on the fly. It was all above my head. I just summoned little critters and sent them into battle every turn, or cast a lightning bolt or something, because that was the extent of my understanding. I didn't care if I won because frankly I didn't care about the game itself. I just cared about my friends, and I wanted to treasure what fleeting moments of peace we could share in a warzone. There is no right or wrong way to enjoy escapism. My more competitive friends distracted themselves in the complexity of trying to master a game, while I simply enjoyed the artwork on the cards, the laughter, and the quietly enjoyable moments of our overseas misadventure. I was a filthy casual. It didn't matter if I won or lost. I was giving serotonin to people I loved and cared about.
Saturday morning would come around, and then we were back on the traffic checkpoint, and I was an NCO again. But on Friday nights we were gamers.
The gaming community seems at a glance to be driven by the most vocal personalities, and these are almost always the most competitive players. They're the people you see on forums or social media groups, and they're the ones who get interviewed on podcasts. But are they really the ones running the show? Are they really the heart of the hobby? Or is it the quiet hobbyists who just enjoy collecting and painting minis so that they can show them off at their local shop? Perhaps the friendly approachable gamers who will happily set up demo games for new players, and patiently teach them to play are the real heart of the hobby. Truth be told, everyone in the community is equally important. The competitive gamers push the rules and test the limits to ensure that the game is balanced and fair with every update. The casuals grow the hobby by attracting new players and making them feel welcome, rather than intimidated.
We all love the same hobby, whether we are on a personal quest to achieve complete mastery of the game, or whether we are just here because we love painting little toy soldiers, pushing them around on a table, rolling dice, and eating pizza with our friends. Our local club has one member who shows up to most of our meetups, but rarely actually plays anyone. She just enjoys socializing with us, hanging out at the game store, and watching the games. That's totally fine, and we are always happy to see her, regardless of whether or not she brings her miniatures with her.
Me? I'm trying to learn my Rat Army inside and out. I'm sticking to one list and challenging myself to get good with it. That's my personal quest right now. I'm not trying to beat other players so much as I am trying to learn how to run this particular army without making any mistakes. It doesn't matter who I play against, whether they're a Masters level player or someone who just got into the game a few months ago. I'm still going to learn things from playing them. I'm running my army and getting good practice with it.
That said, I'm forever setting up my little toy soldiers like bowling pins for aspiring new players to knock down during demo games, because if there is one thing I love, it's sharing serotonin with other gamers.
The goal of any game is to win, but the point of playing games is to have fun.
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