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I have been dabbling in 40k, and looking more and more nervously into fantasy the past few months. I LOVE the tomb kings models, but thankfully, everyone says they are useless.

Enter Kings of War. A game I feel like I could actually learn to play and teach to friends much easier. Not to mention use my beloved TK models, and not need a wheel barrow full of them to field a force.

My question is this.... the game is out of stock on the mantic site. It seems very difficult to find the 2 player starter game online anywhere else, and I'm nervous that maybe GW is suing them or something??? It pretty much is an exact rip off of fantasy as far as armies go, is this something to actually worry about or no?

I really want to buy the 2 player starter game because I have a friend that was always into the idea of 40 k but had no interest in learning so many rules and spending so much money. It seems to me that no one around town plays anything besides 40k and magic, with a small amount of warmachine thrown in.

There is very little fantasy going on, and I kind of want to start something new like KoW with a few select friends. Should I wait for the starter box to come back into stock or just get all the rules and start collecting models? Does anybody have insight into this..?

It's Christmas. Chances are they sold out for the holidays. You may want to try a local retailer to see if they have some.

I would only buy the 2 player starter set if those are the armies that you want to play.

The first thing that I would recommend is that you get your hands on the rules. I think that they are still free online. Check mantic's site. They also have a very reasonably priced hardback edition of the rules. It costs a fraction of the price of a GW Army book.

I would then pick up an army that suits you.

Keep the TK army, they map easily to the Undead Army in KOW..

The rules are still free on the Mantic Site, as are all the army lists.

and.. with the WHFB 8th edition explosion, you can probably get a fantasy army from GW on the cheap as people rage-quit.. lol

-P

Links for the lazy!

You don't really need the starter set as has been mentioned, hell just for getting started purposes you don't even really need miniatures. As everything is based on blocks of troops you could just cut out
a rectangle of cardboard and write 'Orcs' on it.

http://www.manticgames.com/free-rules.html

Awesome free rules, balanced army lists and a regular FAQ based on player input.

Download and enjoy!

The rules also come with the 1-player sets if you want them in a mini-book.

And nope, Mantic aren't going anywhere. Quite the opposite in fact. They're expanding massively and have tripled their number of employees in the last year.

Kings of War is great, and can be very cheap. Use mini dioramas for the units (just pay attention to the foot print of your unit) and you will have dozens of suitable sized armies very fast...

For personal experience: i have built a 1500 points army using 1 Regiment of Seaguard (20 bodys), plus 1 box of Scouts (10 bodys) and some old rackham warewolves. How was that possible? A very "elitish" theme, and those blessed "mini diorama cenic units".

Also, it is easy to learn, and to teach, wich means it is easy to recruit new players...

Though I feel like I should mention that the two armies that are included in the starter are, in my not at all humble opinion, some of the best models that Mantic has.

The orcs and the undead both have some excellent models.

But, as mentioned above - the Tomb Kings can be used very much as is for a KoW army - though you may need to use the snake surfers and chariots as 'Counts As' for some other critter - most likely cavalry. (Somewhere, out there in the wilds, is a Tombs King conversion - titled Empire of the Sands, but the site that I had bookmarked has vanished.)

Most stores seem to seem to have it, though some might try to slip in the 2012 box instead. (Still decent, but I like the 2013 box much better.)

The Auld Grump

I got a couple of the dwarf/undead boxen on sale/clearance a ways back. They had extra revenants. All of the mantic undead are great.

Anyway more on topic, totally keeping my TK and some spare old VC skeletons and eventually constructing a massive undead horde of doooo'oooom. Someday? I think the newer TK units and stuff like giant scorpions may not have direct analogues in KoW, but you can usually ally in a force that better represents certain extras like that.

And multibasing. It makes me smile every time I think of it!

Worth pointing out is that the rulebooks contained in the "starter boxes" is pretty much a pamphlet mini-booklet and is the same as what you can get off the website as a free download - it's not a "proper" large rulebook nor is is like the mini-rulebook from Island of Blood or Dark Vengeance. When I got my first starter box a couple of years ago, I was really pissed off that that little flimsy thing was the "rulebook" that the description listed... I actually thought the rulebook was missing at first...

It does have all the rules though, KoW is just that lightweight.

Yeah, I saw the pamphlet and was thinking to myself, doesn't monopoly have a thicker rule set than this?

The pamphlet is the main rules.
You don't get the magic item list; the army lists or things like siege rules.

What you do get is the main rules---what you need to play the game. Download the appropriate army list for you and your friend's armies and you're cooking with Crisco.

Point being - that the OP in no way needs to use a Mantic KoW Starter set when they can just download the rules for free, use their existing TK army, and then pick up other figures a la carte as wanted/needed.

And that if they buy the starter box expecting a "real" rulebook, they'll be horribly disappointed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
...expectations and all that.

True.

However, if his friend mentioned in the first post is interested in fielding an evil army (Orcs & Undead) to counter the OP's Tomb Kings AND wants the rules needed to play (minus siege, magic items) then the starter box would be a strong consideration.
All his friend would need then after assembling the models is to download the Orc and Undead army lists for free.

...depends on the OP's friend's goals and all that

Sure. I'm talking about the rule(booklet) though - not the models. And I agree that the undead are great.

Not sure if this is the correct place to put this but there is a Boxing day sale on the Mantic website at the moment. Mummies & trolls for £11.25 (not sure what they were previously?) amongst other things.

http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/sale.html