Universal Battles 2 Kings Of War League 2018

If you are like me you don’t get to go head to head against names like Patrick Zoro Allen, Adam Padley and Elliot Morrish every day outside of traveling far and wide to GTs and doing well enough to make it to the top tables. But what if I told you the best kept secret in the Kings Of War community was a place anyone anywhere can connect and play against each other and great talents from across the globe? I’m talking about the 2018 Universal Battles 2 Kings Of War League currently ongoing in cyberspace, where 16 plays from around the world are currently duking it out to become the internet's champion.

For those of you not familiar with Universal Battles 2, it is a physics engine system that allows players to move objects (mostly customizable models) across a 2D landscape. Tools such as dice simulators, thousands of customizable model and terrain options, and almost any tool you use in a normal game of Kings Of War are featured on this digital battleground to allow players to play a myriad of game systems. Mostly catered to the fantasy genre, people have been playing Kings Of War on UB2 for several years to hone their skills against players they can’t possibly meet up with at their local FLGS. It costs a small fee to register, but is worth every penny due to the sheer amount of training and experience you get playing against highly skilled players. UB2 runs on Apple and Windows as well as Apps for iOS and Android for playing games on the go!

I have been playing on Universal Battles since it’s first iteration and I honestly credit it with my progress as a general in Kings Of War. Many of the players who frequent the platform are top notch master class players who will pound you into the ground in the nicest way possible and then give you feedback as to what you should do better. My experience in the UB2 League has been no different as my record is currently 2W-5L at almost halfway through the field of players. The league itself is 16 games in which we are expected to arrange and engage with all 16 participants by July when the scores are finalized. I don’t have too much hope in making the podium as I've faced off against some highly skilled players such as Christopher James, Patrick Zoro Allen, and RG Allen who are far out of my league, but very gracious in their pointing out how I can improve.

Elliot Morrish began this league in January in hopes to get more people playing Kings Of War on Universal Battles and have a friendly competition amongst players from around the world. While there are no trophies or prize support, the players pack clearly outlines what everyone is after here...friendly bragging rights. And what is better to induce competition than the posting of scores on a regular basis? That is where Elliot has really been excelling in giving us the latest stats and standings of not only the players, but statistical breakdowns of each faction, their average kill points scored and their win

percentages. This has been fun to banter about with fellow league members as we go from game to game and see our name rise and fall in the standings. The latest stats in the league as of the middle of this month can be seen on the right.

From dwarves to the deadly Varangur/Herd combo that has topping out the league and finally onto my dreaded rival faction of Abyssals, my Brotherhood and Varangur lists have been tested and tried across many a battlefield. But I can talk about my experiences in the middle ranks any time, for this article I talked to two of the top players in the league, Adam Padley and Christopher James.

Adam is currently reigning over the gold position almost since the beginning of the league. He runs an unorthodox but effective Varangur list with Herd allies that takes you by smashing surprise and has 20-0ed almost all of his opponents. I managed to get him to answer a few questions about his experience in the League as well as different thoughts about his strategies:

Q: What do you think so far has been the biggest factor in your being number 1 in the league?

Adam: I've stuck to one list as it's the list I've built for tournaments / competitive play and I only play 1 army Varangur as I've only been playing kings of war for 6 months (since October). I've found that my list has had the speed in everyone I've played so I basically get the alpha that's helped a lot but I don't think that's been winning me games so to say. The scoring system really helps me as my list is very good at killing which is rewarded in this scoring pack. But mainly I've been lucky so far I think.

Q: Do you always stick to a single list without changing it? What sort of benefit do you find with that?

Adam: I always try a list minimum 6 times before I change it because you just don't know how a list works properly till you have tried it out allot, and when I do change a list up I change is slowly work out what's the "issue" then adapt from there. The list I've been using in the league is what I've been using on the table top as well. This is because I haven't seen a need to change anything yet for one reason or another I've found weak spots in the list but will cost me in other areas to fix.

Q: Do you ever get bored with a list or faction and want to do something new? Or do you put training and being competitive above that?

Adam: I haven't been bored with Varangur yet, they suit my play style or how I'm playing them anyway as I say I'm new to game to hard to comment. The list I'm running I've not gotten bored of it yet I just find the challenge fun. I'm a comparative player I always have been in KoW and every other system I've played but I'm not a wacc player I just have to run a list I feels competitive.

Q: Do you face more or less challenge on UB than in your local scene?

Adam: My local scene is a bit of a shark tank my 3 local players are Elliot Morris, Tom Robinson, and Nick Williams that finished last UK rankings season 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. But saying this I've not had any games were I haven't been challenged / not learned anything, I think this is a beauty about kings of war, all my league games and local games I've always took something away from it win or loss.

In my own game against Adam, for which we both played Varangur, I can attest he is a brilliant player. Though I thought I had him in a bind with some clever maneuvering of my Fallen on the flanks, his own maneuvering which I did not foresee ended up tabling me for yet another 20-0 in his pocket. But Adam certainly was not the only one of my opponents to take me to task.

Christopher James is a fellow clubmate of mine in the Kings Of Warlando here in sunny Florida. He is also the reigning Crucible GT champ for two times running and one of the top players in our little pocket of the South East. Often I go to him with advise on lists or obscure rules questions, but I found myself opposite him in a match on the UB league where we certainly held nothing back because we were club mates. But of course I also did not want to pass up a chance to get a few questions out of one of the top ranked players in the South East for 2017.

Q: What’s different between playing in a competitive UB league and your local competitive scene?

Chris: Well, competitively, you get to go up against a lot of amazing players from around the world for starters. And with that, you can really put new strategies and tactics to the test and try them out against all sorts of match-ups. Sort of the negative side though, is that you lose that social factor of a friendly game, but I think that's just what happens when you're playing on a computer instead of at your local gaming store.

Q: Do you find the competition harder on the UB league or in your IRL events you attend?

Chris: If we're counting GTs, then 100% at the IRL events. Not to say anything bad about the competition on UB (since they're all good players), there's just a lot of factors you don't encounter on UB that you do at events. Examples being 1) Being on a clock, 2) Most players on UB don't run shooting-heavy lists, and 3) Moving & positioning on on actual table VS on a virtual table.

Q: Compared to your local meta, what sort of play styles do you run into on the UB league and do they affect how you play locally as well?

Chris: I think the UB league features a lot more balanced list-building.. so mostly combat-lists with ranged harass.. which is a little different from the SE region lol. And oh yeah; I think there's always something you can learn from each game.. whether it's isolating mistakes and figuring out how to correct them or just how to take on certain matchups.

Q: Do you always play factions you have IRL?

Chris: Personally, yes. No point in practicing a list I can't ever put on the table.

Certainly UB2 and the league are a great opportunity to test out lists you don't currently have models for or factions you have always wanted to try. I personally prefer to practice my Brotherhood and upcoming Varangur lists, which I feel have paid dividends in being able to take an army from box to effective table army in a short amount of time. But certainly the reward of playing in the Universal Battle League has been getting the opportunity to play against highly skilled and friendly players from across the globe. And as we battle on till July, only time will tell who will come out on top and earn the bragging rights of the internet’s champion.

For more questions on the League, feel free to contact myself or Elliot Morrish. While I am not sure if they are letting more players join the current league, you can always inquire with Elliot. I for one hope we have a second league for the second half of the year so that I can redeem myself for my poor win record this go around! But alas I it is only half way through, I could make up for it.

HUGE thanks to Elliot Morrish for putting this amazing league on and putting together all of the stats. It has been an awesome experience and I hope to see this become a recurring thing.

Until next time, this has been Fred on Fantasy.