Kings of War
Kings of War is a 28mm scale "mass combat fantasy miniature range" and tabletop game from the upstart UK-based miniatures publisher Mantic Games. The miniatures are cheaper than the established competitors, and cheaper miniatures, while not as detailed as the expensive ones by Games Workshop, still get the job done if you don't enjoy any of the hobby aspects and are better than using slips of paper for each unit.
Edition History
Kings of War began as a war gaming project by Alessio Cavatore and Ronnie Renton in early 2010 who wanted to make a mass combat system. This led to a closed beta before the first public release of a two-player set called Mhorgoth's Revenge that included Dwarf and Undead forces in September 2010. Mantic had begun releasing fantasy models at this point, leading to a standalone rule release in December of that year that included rules for all currently existing models representing forces that would become the Dwarfs, Elves, and Undead. Following up on this, Mantic began releasing a publication that added rules for new models they produced, particularly forces for Abyssal Dwarf and Orc armies.
Mantic continued to release new models and rules in this fashion. In May 2012 they launched their first Kickstater campaign, seeking to release a full first edition of the game. In September 2012 they updated the main rule book to include all models currently in the range, creating army lists for Abyssal Dwarfs, Dwarfs, Elves, Kingdoms of Men, Orcs, Twilight Kin, and Undead. This release was a softback, followed shortly after by the hardback release from the Kickstarter. The hardback release also included a campaign system not found in the softback.
Three supplements were released for first edition. Kings and Legends added the Ogre and Goblins army lists, along with new living legend units for all existing armies. This was followed by Basilean Legacy which added Basilea, Forces of Nature, and Forces of the Abyss to the game, as well as adding more spells and magic artefacts for use by any army. The final supplement for first edition was Hellfire & Stone that added a new campaign, a handful of units, and a tie-in scenario for Dwarf King's Hold, the dungeon crawling game set in the same universe.
Another Kickstarter campaign was launched for second edition in November 2014, barely two years after the release of the 1st edition. The goal with the second edition was to bring the different armies into greater balance and give a role to army units perceived as useless. The project was successfully funded and second edition was release in August 2015. Eleven of the twelve armies were updated for this release, with Twilight Kin being dropped initially. With the abandonment of Warhammer Fantasy by Games Workshop around the same time, the rules committee began work on a supplement to add armies that existed in that game to Kings of War, as well as other fantasy themed armies from other existing miniature lines. The resulting supplement was released in November 2015 and called Uncharted Empires. This added Brotherhood, Empire of Dust, League of Rhordia, Nightstalkers, Ratkin, Salamanders, the Herd, Trident Realms of Neritica, and Varangur to the game.
A second supplement, Destiny of Kings, was released to backers in December 2015, with a public release in January 2016. This supplement adds twelve new missions split between two campaigns to the game. It also contains new living legend units for existing armies and a tie-in scenario for Dungeon Saga, the replacement for Dwarf King's Hold.
A third supplement, Historical Armies, was released in September 2016. This book used the Kings of War rules to create lists for 30 historical armies, allowing players to use amazing Warlord and Perry bros miniatures (amongst others) to once and for all end the debate over who would have won a battle, an Imperial Roman Legion, or the Aztecs. Plus, the armies are all completely compatible with regular Kings of War, and have some optional mythical units you can use to keep up with fantasy monsters, so your Chinese Middle Kingdom army can just go to town on your friend's Undead. It's slightly less historically accurate than breaking out a game of De Bellis Antiquitatis and arguing over the correct length of the spears on your Phalangites, and more towards the 'Bolt Action retells World War 2 starring Shia LaBeouf' end of the spectrum.
A fourth, as yet unnamed, supplement is also planned to add Northern Alliance, Ophidia, and Twilight Kin army lists to second edition.
The Factions
Kings of War has 11 factions in the version 2.0 core rule book:
- Abyssal Dwarfs: Chaos Dwarfs in Mantica. Simpler put, they're Nazi Dwarfs. Slavers who focus on shotguns, war machines, and fiery golems.
- Basileans: Fluff-wise, the Basileans are a lot like the Byzantine/Eastern Roman empire but can summon angels. They have armoured knights, men@arms and nuns riding GIANT CATS.
- Dwarfs: Exactly like all other Dwarfs in all other settings, hard and tough and beardy, but unlike Warhammer or Lord of the Rings Dwarfs, they are an expanding empire. They have cavalry... BADGER CAVALRY!!!
- Elves: The elite, noble Elves, who are better than you. The Elves are 'good guys' but are responsible for a lot of bad things in Mantica, including splitting the gods into good and evil half-gods, and educating a gifted human child who would grow up to be Mhorgoth the Faceless, the most feared necromancer in all of Mantica. Exactly like the Elves from every other fantasy universe then.
- Forces of Nature: Exactly what it says on the tin.
- Forces of the Abyss: Servants of 37 evil half gods who live with their masters in Mantica's Hell. They look like the horns and pitchfork devils, with some big ogre demons throw in for good measure.
- Goblins: Separate from Orcs in the setting, although they can ally with each other.
- Kingdoms of Men: Generic human army intended to be used with your other fantasy and historic miniatures. Different from Mantic's own human models described above.
- Ogres: Mercenaries who sometimes get ballsy and make their own little kingdoms. They enjoy fighting, adventure and telling wildly exaggerated stories about their exploits. Ogres don't hold grudges or have any inherent racial prejudices, so they are happy to ally with anyone from Elves to Demons and everything in between. The ogre models produced by Mantic are excellent (are you high? Their tiny little feet and massive torsos make the models horrible).
- Orcs: Brutal and horde-based; called "greenskins" and "a sea of green," with the Ogre's tendency towards cannibalism thrown in.
- Undead: Generic undead including everything from vampires and werewolves to zombies and mummies.
There are also 9 army lists contained within the Uncharted Empires supplement. These lists are intended to rip off a number of different fantasy miniature lines, particularly Citadel armies after the release of Age of Skubmar
- Brotherhood: Another holy order style army, this one more inspired by Bretonnia and Azeroth. Has both big and small water elementals in addition to lots of cavalry options.
- Empire of Dust: Essentially Tomb Kings with a larger emphasis on healing than the more standard undead.
- League of Rhordia: An alliance of humans and halflings.
- Nightstalkers: An odd list in that there aren't really any major miniature lines to represent it. Spooky and strange creatures that resemble Eldrazi and pumpkin monsters in the art. Often represented using Tyranid miniatures to some extent. Mantic have announced they plan to release a full product line for this army in the future.
- Ratkin: Pretty much Skaven.
- Salamanders: Lizard people of a couple different stripes. Formerly known as Reptilians.
- The Herd: Beastmen, either taken from the Warhammer Fantasy line or from another line, such as Wrath of Kings.
- Trident Realms of Neritica: An aquatic faction, mostly consisting of fishmen and sea beasts.
- Varangur: Vikings and raiders reminiscent of Warriors of Chaos. Formerly known as the Shattered Clans.
In addition there are future armies planned that don't yet have full lists yet, although some have beta lists available:
- Northern Alliance: A good Elf/human faction from the far north. Said to field various ice-themed creatures as well, such as yetis.
- Ophidians: A mix of Arabian and Persian motifs with undead servants and Conan the Barbarian style snake men.
- Twilight Kin: Dark Elves with a bit of smexy Dark Eldar thrown in for flavor; live in caves beneath the desert after getting thrown out of the main Elf homeland.
There are 30 army lists in the Historical Armies supplement:
- Anglo-Saxons
- Aztecs
- Barbarians
- Byzantines
- Carthaginians
- Chinese
- Conquistadors
- Crusaders
- Egyptians
- English
- Franks
- French
- Greek
- Holy Roman Empire
- Huns
- Indian
- Japanese
- Macedonians & Successors
- Mongols
- Normans
- Ottomans
- Persians
- Polish
- Romans
- Scottish
- Slavs
- Spartans
- Scythians
- Thracians
- Vikings
The Game System
The Kings of War game is written by none other than Alessio Cavatore, who now seems to be outside of the Games Workshop tent pissing in. The rules are gloriously straight-forward and streamlined, meaning that they're the extreme opposite of Warhammer rules. This makes the decision between the two games more defined for players.
The basic turn order is:
- Move: You move your guys.
- Shoot: Bows, crossbows and rifles shoot up to 24", pistols slings up to 12" and war machines up to 48". Also Magic happens during the Shoot phase.
- Melee: Close combat similar to Warhammers.
Whenever a unit takes hits (melee or ranged) they accumulate 'damage' (there is no model removal as damage represents a mix of morale loss, injuries and casualties). If you inflict damage on one of your enemies' units with shooting or melee you can attempt to rout it at the end of the phase. This is done by rolling 2D6, adding the result to the total damage accumulated so far and comparing the total to the unit's Nerve value. Two values are listed for Nerve (a 20-strong regiment of Elf spearmen has a nerve of 14/16, for example). If the total equals or beats the first value the unit 'wavers' (misses the next turn), and if it equals or beats the second value the unit is routed and removed from the table.
Kings of War second edition has been funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign and was released in August 2015. Second edition promises to iron out the creases in the core rules, re-balance the army lists, add new units and expand the magic rules with a greater variety of spells, whilst maintaining the straightforward game play Kings of War has become known for.
The Fluff
Once The Kingdom of Elves, The Underlands of The Dwarves & The Human Republic of Primovantor lived in peace watched over by the Celestians, beings of immense power who gifted the three races with knowledge and magic. Everything was good and fine until an Elf mage called Calisor wrecked everything by falling in love with a human. Said human rejected him so he moped around until he met a Celestian, who told him the ingredients to make a mirror that could show Elianthora (the human chick) the future. Being a mage that has the power to rise the ocean up and walk through one realm of existence as easily as walking through a room, he got the ingredients pretty quick and when he showed Elianthora the mirror, she saw them falling in love and having loving children and living a life of love and goodness.
Until she saw herself die and then Calisor taking a lot of women to try to replace the memory of her, but when she saw their children kill Calisor, she shat her pants and smashed the mirror. However, it turns out one of the ingredients to make the mirror was a fragment of the star that gave the Celestians their power, and when one part is smashed, ALL of it is smashed. The 37 Celestians that survived were split into two - a shining side and a wicked side, which then fought each other in a giant war. The wicked ones created Orcs and necromancy, while corrupting Elves and humans. Luckily, the shining ones had a half-human/half-shining one, and with the holy power of the Celestians, he created a giant fiery crack in the ground (now called the Abyss) and imprisoned all the wicked ones in. Unfortunately, the wicked ones eventually transformed it into HELL, complete with 9 circles for them and their minions - the Abyss.
The world returned to an uneasy peace, until one of the wicked ones escaped/was never locked up - this one was called Winter, so no surprise what she did, basically, Mantics fluff is based on Frozen. Eventually, though, after 100 years of the world in ice, the races allied together and drove Winter away but, as you know, when ice melts water comes and the world then looked like the Mediterranean sea, now the world is screwed - the floods destroyed the human republic of Primovantor - the largest human faction, the humans have split into various small kingdoms or city-states (the largest being Basilea, a mini republic of Primovantor, except more holy justice of the Shining Ones). Elves are seclusive and their land is slowly turning into deserts. Each day Dwarves lose a hold to goblins and... wait, that's not right, Dwarves are actually expanding under the direction of the Golloch Empire, stretching from the gates of Basilea to the far east. Orcs rampage around with their goblin servants occasionally, though the gobbos make their own tribes. Necromancy abounds, stealing the souls of the bodies used and sending them to the Wicked One Durunjak. Twilight kin, Elves corrupted by the wicked ones, dwell in caverns beneath the great desert, occasionally leaving to raid the other species. The Shining Ones lie in the Koluso mountains, deciding not to interfere with the world.
TL;DR: Women ruin everything.(Which they do...)
Dwarf King's Hold and Dungeon Saga
Main article: Dungeon Saga
In 2011 Mantic released a board game called Dwarf King's Hold that was followed by two expansions. These used models from Kings of War and represented small warbands battling in the ruins of Dolgarth. In 2014 they launched a kickstarter campaign to update the game with more RPG elements and dungeon crawling components. This relaunch was titled Dungeon Saga: Dwarf King's Quest. The initial release retells the story of the first Dwarf King's Hold set, but instead of a party of Dwarfs raiding the city, a party of adventurers is venturing into the ruins seeking treasure and glory. Several expansions have followed adding more enemies and hero classes.
So why do we like these guys?
And look at this: these models are "ideal for collectors, modellers and gamers of fantasy wargames. They are fully compatible with all major gaming systems, and you can add them to your existing armies or even build a new army with our value for money army-in-a-box bundle deals." Fucking adorable. Don't you just want to take them home and feed them biscuits?
Mantic Games are openly and audaciously shameless, and even tell you that their works are compatible with other fantasy game systems, if said game system producers aren't purist assholes. Speaking of purist assholes, THEY MAKE NAZI ZOMBIES - ALL IS FORGIVEN.