With the CoK 17 season winding down, and the year rounding to its end, there has been an awful lot of discussion about how to change the perceived meta of fast Large Infantry hammers like Lycans and the infamous Fallen, to something more bulky and infantry driven. One of the big themes of CoK 17 was reducing the strength of both fliers and the then* prevalent shooting armies, especially the ratkin and goblin breath attack based armies. It also brought along the introduction of Unit Strength to that end. The current Unit Strength rules are fairly simple, on a scale of 0-3 each unit based on its type and if it's an individual is given a value for certain missions instead of using the old system of points. This does a lot to mitigate the 300 pt dragon flying over in invade to just cancel out the two hordes a kingdoms of men player has worked all game long to cross over, which is great, but
Not all hordes are created equal
This created a small problem though, a large infantry horde counts the same as a regular infantry horde, as does a large cavalry horde. The large infantry has to be because of ogres though, and this was probably the simplest solution to the problems from the basic 2.0 book. The problems prop up though when you consider that most all unit strength missions currently are about getting to a section of the board on the last turn, and the best units for that role are the flyers and fake cav infantry. Missions like control are fun until you see a high speed elite army spread like the 4 winds with 3 hordes of fallen grabbing 3 zones with horde size unit strength and basically sealing at least a tie. There has been a lot of discussion to changing units to irregular, changing the way units unlock in future editions, but the most elegant solution and one that can be done without directly saying an army is a competitive invalid is to adjust the way you win scenarios.
Pillage your enemy, with unit strength!
This is something I've been a very big advocate for since unit strength got introduced and that's using it for scoring objectives like pillage and scour. The way unit strength works is perfect for scoring these, and will further decrease the power of nimble fast scoring heroes and monsters who can get into a contested bubble last turn and deny a horde of pikemen a token simply because a chimera is near it. This change will also make unit strength matter in the majority of games at tournaments, making it a number that really will feature in lists as a dynamic in list building. Currently I don't worry about mine as much, since if I play invade i'll just play my regular kill mode and try to shoot a regiment of cav and a ghekkotah regiment across to contest for a draw or minor win. Dominate is pretty similar, where I hold back my horde of rhinosaurs and commit later if I can. This is great, but that's 2 missions in a 5-6 game environment, so its not really the top concern of mine when prepping for events.
Almost everyone should be able to count to 5, except maybe Mike Austin on day 2 (love ya mike)
The biggest change that I would love to see to the system however, which would in my mind make it integrated more into the rules system that it is currently, is to add some granularity to the original chart. Units would now have strength up to a possible 5, although most would cap off at 4.
| US | Type of Unit |
| 0 | Individuals & Warmachines |
| 1 | Cavalry Troops, Monsters, Non-Individual Heroes |
| 2 | Cavalry Regiments, Infantry Troops, Large Infantry Regiments, Large Cavalry Regiments |
| 3 | Cavalry Hordes, Infantry Regiments, Large Infantry Hordes, Large Cavalry Hordes, |
| 4 | Large Infantry Legions, Infantry Hordes |
| 5 | Infantry Legions |
| *All units with the Yellow-Bellied Special rule have a -1 to unit strength (To a minimum of 1). | |
| *Large Infantry and Large Cavalry units from the Ogre army have a +1 to unit strength. This does not apply to Ogre units taken as allies. |
A few things are different here, Infantry as a whole are bumped up 1 unit strength from where they were, troops are worth 2, regiments are worth 3, hordes are worth 4, and legions are worth 5. Previously legions counted to same as hordes, but there's a very small number of legions in the game, and if unit strength represents the units ability to control the area around it or lay waste to your enemies land, then legions deserve a small nod and it opens up design space for future units should any come out (and who knows, the underused militia mob/villain plowshare legions might get taken now). Large Infantry also get this nod, although they are now 1 unit strength behind their regular infantry brethren, to compensate for this ogres are given basically a new army special rule that improves their unit strength over other large infantry, but this doesn't apply for anyone who allies in the hordes of boomers or shooters that can be popular. Finally all units with the Yellow Bellied special rule have a -1 to their unit strength, this bumps most legions down to a US of 4, but also helps keep goblins in line who would otherwise be ridiculously good at US games.
The Chart could obviously be adjusted to where legions score the same as hordes, although I sincerely doubt legions would prove to be too good compared to other options, at least in the armies that will typically run legions like ratkin or goblins. But a change like this will add a nice amount of granularity to both the armies and the way games are played in general without doing drastic changes to infantry or nerfing too many high speed large infantry units. Ogres would also get a nice bump from this, although it may need to be playtested to see if a more selective army rule could be used rather than a sweeping upgrade.
The other small thing that is unfortunate, harpies and gargoyles would have 2 unit strength in this system, although a rule saying they only have 1 unit strength could be added to get them back in line, its a small downside to them being typed as infantry and I don't want to be too specific with the chart.
These changes if incorporated would really shift the way the game is played, and the super fast hitty playstyle would still be a perfectly valid form of playing the game, but an infantry based gameplan that relied on grinding would also be far more valid in this system, and give those slower infantry hordes a slight edge over their taller, faster, and less numerous brethren.
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