Kings of War Fantasy Battle Game - 2nd Edition by Mantic Games Kickstarter (Live and funded)

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**angelofvengeance**

Thanks for the pics Thraxas! I quite like the lower abyssal. Has an old school Chaos Daemon Bloodletter vibe to it.

The Effrit looks quite nice as well. May have to turn one into a C'tan Lord of Fire

**Alpharius**

Fenriswulf wrote:
Yeah it's why I am staying well away from buying any. Been burnt before by Mantic, never again.

The sad thing is, if they hired some genuinely talented artists, sculptors and 3d artists, they could clean up in an absolutely massive way. Unfortunately they still seem to be stuck in the "near enough is good enough" mindset which plagued the first KoW kickstarter.

Right!

Their Unofficial Motto comes to mind:

Mantic. Almost.

All kidding aside, I think they're 'get there' eventually, but until they do, I won't be going there with them!

**DaveC**

The full dragon render from the open day

**Chillreaper**

I hope that's photo/monitor distortion making the neck so short.

Looks like 2nd edition LOS is going Battletech on us, it's a nice, mathematical way of doing it.

**GrimDork**

The neck is short compared to the concept, unless it's the picture.

Wings seem small for how chunky he is. Not sure about the face.

**RivenSkull**

After seeing those lower abyssals, I am dropping the abyssal part of my pledge. That chin and the Popeye face just looks awful

**Fenriswulf**

That dragon has some big ol' honking rear feet for a quadruped...

**carlos13th**

The recent renders and the salamander concept really don't appeal to me at all. I would have considered an abyssal army in the future but I doubt that is going to happen now.

**judgedoug**

Well, KoW 2nd edition cheat sheet sold me. It looks like the best mass battle game in the world is actually getting better.

Mantic. Perfect.

Elite and Vicious just became very, very powerful. I'm assuming Elves and Abyssal Dwarves will be adjusted accordingly.
Loving the rebalancing of War Engines (no pivot/fire). Loving the ranged modifiers change. Loving the Disordered breakaway from Disrupted nomenclature. Loving the rewriting of LOS.

Counter-charge will change the dynamic of the game quite a bit. Somehow a game based almost entirely on intelligent tactical maneuvering just got a little... smarter.

**Chillreaper**

I'm not exactly an art critic (or a Mantic one, either), but the dragon proportions seem a bit peculiar to me.

I know that everyone has their preconceptions about what a dragon should look like, but the human shaped torso, shoulders and arms are bugging me a bit.

**GrimDork**

^I think what Judgedoug said is somewhat the reason I've backed down to just getting the book and goodies.

Rules sound like they're getting tighter and stronger if anything, but some of the open day stuff doesn't have me especially enthusiastic. Plus winter monetary concerns.

I think I'll stick around for a cool pair of rulebooks and gubbins, and to keep my Blaine collection more or less complete, but we'll see if they can sell me on the new stuff before the pledge manager runs out.

Plus their large scale armies are usually a pretty good deal at retail anyway.

**squall018**

So I'm going against the grain here. I actually like how the lower abyssals came out and was thinking about adding a unit to my pledge.

I will agree that the succubi look a little off, but they're not awful. A belly button would certainly help. I'm not going to be buying any of those, however.

The DS greens look pretty good.

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

judgedoug wrote:
Well, KoW 2nd edition cheat sheet sold me. It looks like the best mass battle game in the world is actually getting better.

Mantic. Perfect.

Elite and Vicious just became very, very powerful. I'm assuming Elves and Abyssal Dwarves will be adjusted accordingly.
Loving the rebalancing of War Engines (no pivot/fire). Loving the ranged modifiers change. Loving the Disordered breakaway from Disrupted nomenclature. Loving the rewriting of LOS.

Counter-charge will change the dynamic of the game quite a bit. Somehow a game based almost entirely on intelligent tactical maneuvering just got a little... smarter.

I wish our hobbies unfortunate cycle of "people only play games with larger number of players... so everyone just keeps playing the same old games" would just go away.

Everything I have seen, read, watched, or dabbled with in KoW over the last two weeks has massively rekindled my passion for table-top gaming, and yet despite the wife and I going in for $850, I know we only have TWO other KoW players in an hour's drive of our area... Which pains me, because the game is flat-out amazing, while I watch miserable gamers complain their way through other systems which they play, almost because they feel forced to.

**adamsouza**

The Abyssals have a very Devilsh vibe, and I like it. The only thing I'm not thrilled about is they haven't added the DS Abyssals as an add on.

**lord_blackfang**

AlexHolker wrote:
It's not too bad once you see it head on, but they really need to add a navel to break up the abdomen.

That makes no sense.

I'd rather see a six pack.

**SilverMK2**

The clear prints of the Lower Abyssals look OK - the Succubus looks... meh/ok?

I was hoping a lot more of the character and detail of the concept art was going to go into these guys. I really loved the Dungeon Keeper style vibe and am really hoping that we get more of that in the Abyssal forces.

Hopefully we can see more WIP's and pre-production models/paint jobs before the pledge manager comes online so I can decide whether to continue on for an Abyssal army or switch to something else.

**adamsouza**

Update #24

Nov 29 2014

Return of the Tyrant
There are just two days left of the Kings of War Kickstarter campaign and we’re continuing the onslaught on Black Friday weekend with:

- The return of the terrible Tyrant pledge

- Great news for Spanish and German Backers

Return of the Tyrant

Who knew that the Ultimate Tyrant pledge would be so popular?

After two additional batches being added overnight, we’re still getting messages from backers who wanted one but missed it. And we can’t let you down, so we’ve put up another batch.

For $850 it will get you:

- a God of War pledge ($150), including any 2 Starter Armies or 1 Mega-Starter Army

- Any 8 Mega-Starter Armies ($800)

That’s one $100 Mega-Starter Army totally free. When we fund the new Nature Mega-Starter Army, we'll include that too.

Kings of War Language Editions

Kings of War llega a España!

¡Nos enorgullece anunciar que Miniaturama será el distribuidor oficial de la edición española de Kings of War!

Se encargarán de la traducción y distribución del reglamento en tapa dura, y también producirán le edición reducida del mismo que será incluida en el nuevo pack de Inicio para Dos Jugadores cuando éste salga al mercado.

Kings of War kommt nach Deutschland!

Wir freuen uns bekannt geben zu können, dass Radaddel der offizielle Distributor der deutschen Edition von Kings of War wird!

Sie werden das deutsche Hardcover-Buch übersetzen und vertreiben.

Eine professionelle Übersetzung in einem hochwertigen Regelbuch ist eine fantastische Gelegenheit für den deutschen Markt. Wir wollten Kings of War schon immer weltweit und in möglichst viele Sprachen anbieten.

Die eleganten, sorgfältig gestalteten Regeln sprechen Veteranen und Einsteiger gleichermaßen an.

Dies ist ein wichtiger Schritt auf unserem Weg Kings of War so vielen Spielern wie möglich zugänglich zu machen.

And finally...

We are over half way there until we fund the Salamanders. It's shaping up to be a great weekend!

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

They've very clearly said the succubi are a WIP (and that the photo has made their proportions look odd)

so hopefully we'll see a significant improvement (inclusing putting the shoulder armour on the shoulders not on the top of the arms

The lower Abyssals have a distinct style, but sadly I don't like them (compared to the art) and the rough paint has not helped one little bit, (I thought they'd got Wintedyne doing their stuff now)

although I guess depending on the print material/quality that could be the best it could handle

The dragon I quite like (again they're very clear it's a WIP with some parts too small and some too large), as I could see it being closer to the wyvern line, moving on 2 feet as often as on 4.

but what comes out at the end of the day we'll have to see (I admit I'm beginning to be somewhat concerned about the large number of 'big' metal minis they'll have to produce and wonder if they'll end up de-bulked just a bit in order to save metal

**adamsouza**

Pfft, remember when GW used to make Metal Dreadnaughts and Dragons ?

**Daedleh**

judgedoug wrote:
Well, KoW 2nd edition cheat sheet sold me. It looks like the best mass battle game in the world is actually getting better.

Mantic. Perfect.

Elite and Vicious just became very, very powerful. I'm assuming Elves and Abyssal Dwarves will be adjusted accordingly.
Loving the rebalancing of War Engines (no pivot/fire). Loving the ranged modifiers change. Loving the Disordered breakaway from Disrupted nomenclature. Loving the rewriting of LOS.

Counter-charge will change the dynamic of the game quite a bit. Somehow a game based almost entirely on intelligent tactical maneuvering just got a little... smarter.

Glad to see you like it :-)

I was really nervous going in today with that sheet envisaging people hating it "change for the sake of change rarrrr" or something. Got really, really good feedback from players today and the internet isn't in meltdown! I'm dead chuffed.

A couple of people have complained about the wording and missing the "NOT ACTUAL WORDING - JUST A SUMMARY" disclaimer at the top. It's actually harder than you think to compress it down to a single sheet summary...

**judgedoug**

Daedleh wrote:

Glad to see you like it :-)

I was really nervous going in today with that sheet envisaging people hating it "change for the sake of change rarrrr" or something. Got really, really good feedback from players today and the internet isn't in meltdown! I'm dead chuffed.

A couple of people have complained about the wording and missing the "NOT ACTUAL WORDING - JUST A SUMMARY" disclaimer at the top. It's actually harder than you think to compress it down to a single sheet summary...

Yeah man, everything looks great! I'll get in a game in the next few days and see how it plays!

**highlord tamburlaine**

Looking through all the pictures, I am REALLY happy with what we've seen from Dungeon Saga so far. Most of the sculpts seem to match up pretty well to the concept art, and the various Greenskins are looking pretty spot on.

The orc warlord and trolls look particularly nice.

Seems we'll have a fair amount of 3d scenery available as well, if solely judging by the various painted pieces. I know my kids will want all sorts of extras of those.

**judgedoug**

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

I wish our hobbies unfortunate cycle of "people only play games with larger number of players... so everyone just keeps playing the same old games" would just go away.

Everything I have seen, read, watched, or dabbled with in KoW over the last two weeks has massively rekindled my passion for table-top gaming, and yet despite the wife and I going in for $850, I know we only have TWO other KoW players in an hour's drive of our area... Which pains me, because the game is flat-out amazing, while I watch miserable gamers complain their way through other systems which they play, almost because they feel forced to.

The game sells itself. As long as people used to other systems enter it with an open mind instead of piles of comparisons.
Honestly after the sadness of Warhammer 8, all of my group's Warhammer 6/7 players switched to KoW, and we have a few new players who saw games in progress, learned the rules during those games in progress, and then started buying stuff.
Any luck with the Dakka Player Finder?

**angelofvengeance**

So is that the same dragon we're getting with the Tyrant of Halpi for Dungeon Saga then? I'm reasonably happy with that concept.

**GrimDork**

^Yep, same dragon.

Kings of war KS options just include some extra metal to convert it into a ridden mount.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

I really hope they do some proper testing with the dragon and any metal heads/necks etc

Some dragons in Reapers Bones PVC (Probably the closest out there to mantics boardgame stuff) have had real 'bending under their own weight problems

I don't think it's a big risk looking at the stance from the WIP, but it's something they should keep in mind

**lord_blackfang**

Board game plastic is rather soft, I could see it sagging under the weight of a metal head.

**angelofvengeance**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I really hope they do some proper testing with the dragon and any metal heads/necks etc

Some dragons in Reapers Bones PVC (Probably the closest out there to mantics boardgame stuff) have had real 'bending under their own weight problems

I don't think it's a big risk looking at the stance from the WIP, but it's something they should keep in mind

The dragons in Reaper Bones II didn't really do anything for me with exception to the one from Dragons Don't Share diorama.

**Black Nexus**

This video here, posted in an update several days ago, shows a 360 view of the Dragon:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/kings-of-war-fantasy-battle-game-2nd-edition/posts/1063841

and the rough paint has not helped one little bit, (I thought they'd got Wintedyne doing their stuff now)

Nope, they've got an in-house painted, a multiple golden demon winner. That model hasn't been finished being painted, the photo was taken when Dave had just done basecoats.

**GrimDork**

^Thanks for re-posting that. I still want bigger wings but that makes me feel better about the shape of the body overall and the neck especially.