Outlander's Kings of War Siege Rules: 1. INTRODUCTION by Spruce
Outlander's Kings of War Siege Rules: 1. INTRODUCTION by Spruce
Outlander's Kings of War Siege Rules: 1. INTRODUCTION by Spruce
1. INTRODUCTION by Spruce
One of the more spectacular types of scenarios in fantasy is a siege. I have played many
sieges with various fantasy rules. I have love sieges and many rule sets I have used
through the years have fallen short of my expectations of a siege scenario or battle. Not to
pick on any rule set in particular but to capture a set of siege rules within the context of the
actual warfare of yesterday in the World of Mantica was a fun task. I could actually see a
way to have a quick, evenly matched, fun siege battle.
I have reviewed and taken the best rules that I have found and put them together to form the
following rule set to be played with the Kings of War (KoW) rules as a base. I used the pirate
technique to acquire ideas from Warhammer, Mantic, a book called Practical Wargaming
and a series of comments I have remembered (or not remembered) throughout the years.
I will also say this is not a definitive set-in-stone rule set. This rule set is meant as a general
set of rules to capture most of the situations and encounters a player would encounter
during a siege. Adaptations can and should be made when the occasion arises. This rule
set is for anyone to use and change, all I ask for is to send me changes you have made so I
can update the rule to be comprehensive. Comments and suggestions can be mailed to
isanti314@gmail.com.
Credits and resources are given to: Practical Wargaming1, Games Workshop Siege2 rules,
Mantic Forum website3, and Friends. I would like also thank the play testers from the
Omaha Gaming Guild.
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Figure 1: Castle
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2.3.1. Defender
When both armies have been chosen, the Defender deploys first. The
defender picks one long edge of the table and sets up his walls. Any towers,
gates and so on are included as the walls are set up. Note that the main gate
must be in front of the castle facing the enemy. You can only put one unit on
top of, and one unit inside, the tower. If the stand will not fit on the wall or
tower, set it down inside the section but be sure to tell your opponent it is on
the wall or in the tower.
Any area terrain defenses that have been bought by the defender are also set
up now. These may be placed outside the walls.
NOTE: The defender would have cleared the inside of the walls so they would be
open preparation for battle by the inhabitants.
2.3.2. Attacker
Once the defenses have been placed, the attacker deploys his army at least
24 inches from the castle walls.
2.3.3. Defender
Finally, the defender may adjust 2 of his units on or within the walls, towers or
gate house. Swapping two units’ wall positions counts as 2 unit adjustments.
2.3.5. Duration
The game lasts until each player has taken 6 turns. At the end of turn 6, one
player rolls a die. On a 1-3 the game ends. On a 4-6 both players play an
extra turn and then the game ends. Determine who the winner is based on the
Siege Victory Conditions below.
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3. SIEGE EQUIPMENT
Both players may choose siege equipment as described in this section. Siege equipment is
picked before the game. How you pick and assign the equipment is up to the attacker and
defender. The defender and attacker may switch equipment around when deploying but
once deployment is completed the equipment is then kept with that unit, and no further
changes can be made.
The following is a recommended formula to use for figuring out how much siege equipment
to use for an army. Use the following rule: 2 siege points per 400 army points and round up
to the nearest point. Siege points are distributed evenly for both sides. These points are
kept separate and not part of your overall army list points, except for Flyers. A player must
spend siege points to use (unlock) the ability to take each Flyer unit. That player must also
pay regular points to include that Flyer unit in their army In a 2000 point armies (attacker
and defender) would have up to 10 siege points each to spend on siege equipment.
Note: We have found 8-10 siege points work well for 1500 to 2000 point games.
Players may wish to make changes in siege points recommendation limits
to make up for deficiencies within their armies.
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NOTE: Attackers inside the castle attacking castle terrain suffer the same
penalties as if they were attacking as explained in figure 4.
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4.2.2. Routing
If an attacking Infantry, Large Infantry, or unit with the Fly rule routs a
defending unit, the attacking unit may immediately choose to occupy the
space the defending unit vacated. If an attacking unit fails to rout the
defender, the attacker remains in contact with the wall and can be counter
charged.
Units on a wall may choose to charge other units on the wall to their flanks.
These attacks are treated as a frontal charge and not a flank charge.
NOTE: Units at walls are at -1 to hit against normal ranged attacks and -1 to hit
from charges (plus no thunderous charge), making them good defensive
positions. Adding the Stealthy rule makes them even more durable.
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Wall __ __ __ 8+ __ -/22
Tower __ __ __ 9+ __ -/24
Gate __ __ __ 8+ __ -/24
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Gate __ __ __ 7+ __ -/20
Re-
Enforced __ __ __ 7+ __ -/22
Gate
NOTE: Walls, gatehouses and towers have the Phalanx special rule. Gates do
not have the Phalanx special rule.
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NOTE: Castle Defense is intended to prevent wounds from units without good
piercing or crushing strength.
Castle Nerve allows some units the ability to hack away at the gates.
Monsters and rams have better crushing strength to break through the
defense to cause damage.
6. SIEGE ENGINES
There are a number of machines attackers would use to attempt to take a fortification,
beyond the normal war engines available to them. Use the following table with the
descriptions of the engines outlined below. Siege equipment is limited to one per unit,
unless otherwise stated.
Siege
Siege Equipment Melee Ranged Defense Attacks Attributes
Points
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Chargers suffer no
Siege Tower 0 0 7 0 3
penalty
Siege Tower with Chargers suffer no
2+ 0 7 0 5
Ram penalty
Shield wall 0 0 6 0 Big Shield rule 2
Flyers also
See
Flyers See Unit See Unit See Unit requires siege 3
Unit
points
Use when
Units D3 per
Fire Pots 3+ Attacker attacks 1
defense turn
CS 1
6 X 6 area
Dwarf Minefields 3+ Blast D3 Nerve 9 2
Limit 2
6 X 6 area
Caltrops 4+ Blast D6 Nerve 15 1
Limit 2
Use when
Rocks 5+ D6 Attacker attacks 1
CS 2
Heavy Crossbows 5+ 3 Piercing 1 1
Use when
Boiling Oil 3+ 4 Attacker attacks 1
CS 3
Greek fire 3+ 4 CS 3 2
Gate House
See description 2
Defenses
Upgraded Gate See description 2
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NOTE: The attacker can bring in other forces to assist in putting out the fire.
Helping units must be touching (sides or corner) to assist in putting out
the fire.
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NOTE: A moat adds an additional turn to get to the wall. Siege engines would
take 4 turns to reach the walls instead of three turns. This assumes the
towers are moving 8 inches a turn and are only 24 inches away from the
castle.
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Set up the terrain and castle and “BE OFF WITH YOU!”
Credits:
(1) Practical Wargaming by Wesencraft, C.F. Published by Hippocrene Books (1974) ISBN
10: 0882542710 ⁄ISBN 13: 9780882542713
(2) Warhammer Siege by Rick Priestley published by Games Workshop (1988)
(3) Mantic Forum [Home Brewed] Siege Rules by Ksnyder86 23-10-2015
(4) Outlanders Gaming Guild for Playtesting
(5) Reviews: Grant Barnes, Daniel McCarty, Travis Timm, Jon Vlach, Matt Coufal, Corey
Miciunas and Mark Kyriss.
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