A doubles trip to Nottingham? Plus our first Kings of War rabbit hole
A doubles trip to Nottingham? Plus our first Kings of War rabbit hole
Sometimes a hobby morning starts with one innocent video and ends with us seriously considering an event trip abroad. This time, Michał went down a Kings of War rules rabbit hole, and before long we were also talking about a Warhammer: The Old World doubles event in Nottingham.
The starting point was pretty relatable: how long does a game actually take? As Michał put it, a typical friendly game usually does not exceed two hours. On the other hand, the really huge tournament-scale games can go way beyond that — sometimes 10,000+ points, with battles lasting 4–5 hours. That contrast alone made the whole discussion interesting, because it immediately framed why some systems aim for cleaner, faster rules.
Michał was watching this intro video and clearly got intrigued by the design philosophy behind Kings of War:
What really caught our attention was the original idea behind the game: back in the day, you could play your army in Warhammer Fantasy Battle on Friday and then use that same army in Kings of War on Saturday. That is such a funny and very practical bit of design history. Even now, with The Old World bringing ranked fantasy battles back into focus, that kind of compatibility-minded thinking still sounds appealing.
Michał also found one of those rules details that instantly tells you a lot about a system. In Kings of War, every unit and every terrain piece has a Height value. So if a unit is taller than the terrain hiding it — assuming that terrain is not impassable — it can still be charged. It is a very gamey, very explicit solution, but also kind of elegant in a chess-like way.
Here is the screenshot Michał dropped while explaining it:
That led to the immediate reaction of: okay, this is actually interesting. A little abstract, sure, but in a way that seems deliberate. Michał even said he liked that “chess approach” to the rules. There was also a moment of sudden realization — wait, charge happens after movement — which is exactly the kind of sentence that appears right before somebody either bounces off a ruleset completely or gets even more invested.
And then, because this is how these conversations always go in our group, the topic swerved from theory straight into event planning.
Michał tagged Staś with a very dangerous proposal: a 2x1000 points doubles tournament in October in Nottingham, at TSN Arena, run by Rob. The response from Staś was basically immediate enthusiasm, even if the GIF technology did not fully cooperate.
So yes, this may be how an international hobby trip starts.
Here is the event in question:
We do not have a full battle plan yet, but the idea alone is already great: doubles, 1000 points per player, Nottingham, and an excuse to get some games in with a proper event on the horizon. Even when a plan is still at the “so… are we signing up?” stage, that is often the best kind of hobby energy.
So this was one of those classic Wiatry Magii moments: we started with a quick discussion about game length, wandered into Kings of War mechanics, appreciated some clean rules design, and somehow ended up eyeing a Warhammer: The Old World doubles event in England.
Honestly, sounds like a pretty good weekend already.