pancakeonions wrote:

PS is this a dakkadakka thing, that we don't start a new thread for a new game, but tack it on to a giant Mantic Fantasy thread? I still feel a bit of a newbie here, but it seems it would be nicer to have separate threads for Kings of War, Vanguard, Dungeon Saga instead of one big thread that's hard to search and make sense of?

Kings of War: Vanguard will be launching on Kickstarter on November 1st. Throughout this week, we’ve been exploring the game and giving you a taste of the rules. In today’s blog, we’re detailing Group Actions.



So far in our Vanguard blogs we’ve covered the background, character cards, power dice and fatigue. If you haven’t already taken a look at those blogs, now’s probably a good time… go on, have a read, we’ll be here when you get back. Finished? Good, then we’ll carry on…

Today we’re going to talk about Group Actions. You see, although Vanguard is about the individuals of Mantica fighting for tactical advantage or prestige and power, occasionally going into a scrap as a small gang can have its benefits! Thank goodness then for Group Actions.

As well as activating individual characters, you can also spend power to activate multiple models at once. The idea behind this was so that the warbands can break off into smaller groups led by a specialist or support unit that’s backed up by two grunts.

In order to use a Group Action, you must pay the appropriate power and can then activate a group of models together. All the models in the group must not have already been activated in the current turn. First you nominate a model to be the leader and then up to two more models within three inches of the first model can also perform the same action. Some models even have Special Abilities that are Group Actions… such as the Dwarf Rangers, which have a special Group Shoot action.



KEEPING IT TOGETHER

Participating in a Group Action replaces a model’s normal activation for the Turn. You cannot activate a single model, move it to join a group and then attempt a Group Action involving the model, for example. The common Group Actions available include:

GROUP DEFENCE – the members of the group each make a Walk and then a Brace action. Just in case you’re wondering what a Brace action is, it increases the model’s armour value by one and is normally a long action.

GROUP SHOOT – the group members all either Walk then Shoot, or Shoot then Walk. If Shooting is a long action for any model in the group, that model may not Walk as part of the Group Action. All members of the group must have a ranged weapon or spell to use.

GROUP CHARGE – spend the Power to nominate a group and activate them together. Models in the group may already be engaged (in which case they will not move, nor get any charge bonuses). Only the group leader needs to have LOS to the initial charge target. Models charging after the first has made contact, must charge either the same model another member of the group already has (or is already engaged with), or a target within 3” of a model a group member has engaged. Declare the targets and then move all the attacking models first, before resolving their Melee attacks in the order you wish.

So, there you have the basics behind Group Actions. Tactically they’re very useful during the game for giving you bonuses in combat (something we’ll cover in a future blog) but also for mixing up the order of activations. Just like Deadzone, the player who finished activating first in a round, gets to activate first in the following round. By using Group Actions you can actually have more models than your opponent but still finish your activations first. This can give you the tactical advantage of going first in the following round.

So, will you be going it alone or working together? Hope you’ve enjoyed Vanguard Week so far. In fact, we’ve enjoyed it so much we’ll be extending the blogs into next week and looking at a few more aspects, such as combat, facing and the campaign rules.

Osbad wrote:

The only thing I am not so keen about is the concept of "gaining experience" or "linked campaigns". It's just not something that interests me. I tend to get bored playing the same game too many times on the trot and like to mix it up. Also, I don't have a huge pool of opponents, so playing campaigns against the same 1 or 2 opponents tends to get pretty old pretty fast.

It always mystifies me why whenever a new skirmish game comes along someone wants to develop a campaign system for it, when in reality getting a campaign off the ground successfully is a pretty rare event. It *can* happen, I don't deny, but mostly it has been my experience that they tend to fizzle and die out long before completion for all sorts of reasons. I suspect many gamers are a little unrealistic in their expectations, maybe? I dunno.

Anyhoo, as long as the game is strong enough to stand up to being fun for one-off games without having to tie it into some sort of campaign system to give it any depth, I will be happy.

 judgedoug wrote:
Was questioning the lazy design decisions to make the Nightstalkers an army of purple weightlifters with rubber Halloween masks that look like Masters of the Universe toys and the post got deleted. hmm

 Nostromodamus wrote:
I'm always down for a purple rubber Ram-Man.

 mattjgilbert wrote:
It’s something we are looking at but unless what is being sent out is a simple, single package, it becomes a logistical nightmare if there’s add-ons too because you either then have to pick and ship those from the uk anyway or somehow figure out a remote picking operation and have picking lines in two places (one remotely).

 Azazelx wrote:

Aussies are about to be hit by import duty changes (1 July 2018) though no-one knows how it will work yet, but getting taxed on shipping costs seems likely. It's not worth backing any kickstarters that aren't shipping from local hubs anymore.

Kings of War: Vanguard will be launching on Kickstarter on November 1st. Throughout this week, we’ll be exploring the game in more detail and giving you a taste of the rules. In today’s blog, we’re describing the basics of combat.



Just in case you missed it on last Friday’s blog, the Kings of War: Vanguard Kickstarter launches on November 1st. After having so much fun going through some of the rules last week, we’ve decided to continue exploring Vanguard in more detail this week as well. So, make sure you keep coming back to the Mantic Blog to find out more about this exciting skirmish game.

Today, we’re going to explain a little bit about combat. Remember, the stat card we showed previously? Well, first let’s take a look at the stats marked number ‘7’. Here you can see that the Wiz rolls one D8 for a ranged attack and two D8s for a melee attack. We settled on D8s after a great deal of deliberation and a lot of experimentation. Initially early in development we had a system that used a mixture of D6s and D8s, which was dependant upon how skillful the character was in combat.



However, as you can probably imagine, keeping track of D6s or D8s was a little cumbersome so we scrapped this idea in favour of D8s. As much as we like D6s for Kings of War, in Vanguard you’ll be rolling a lot less dice during combat, so having D8s gives us some extra granularity to play around with. In some ways using D8s is a good way of ‘future proofing’ the game, in case we want to add weaker or stronger characters down the line.

Once we’d settled on D8s, we deliberated about whether or not the number 8 should ‘explode’ when rolled. Ultimately we decided that the opportunity to go into ‘overdrive’ by rolling 8s fitted nicely with the idea of individuals going all out for victory. It also helped to create those cinematic moments that you’ll end up talking about after games. ‘Remember, that time the goblin took out an Earth Elemental after rolling six 8s?’ It may be extremely unlikely, but all us goblin lovers can dream.

Anyway, going back to the stat card. Firstly you’ll check the range or melee attack stat to see how many D8s you’ll be rolling. Next up, check the ‘Ra’ or ‘Me’ stat for the target number you’ll need to roll. Any successes count as potential hits against your opponent. Finally your opponent rolls the number of dice equal to the potential hits and is trying to equal or exceed the ‘Ar’ statistic. This gives the defending player the opportunity to add some extra dice using any spare Power in order to keep their most valuable units alive!



DON’T WAIT TO RETALIATE

However, that’s not all the defending player can do. Should they wish, the defending player can also retaliate against the attack – as long as they’re not already activated and fatigued. The intention to retaliate is declared following the initial combat.

Once a model has retaliated after an attack, they’re marked as fatigued. This means they can be activated later in the turn, however they’ll only be able to perform a short action (just like the normal rules for fatigue). If a model is already activated, it is possible to retaliate during combat but this will mark the model as activated and fatigued, so they can’t retaliate again. As a result, there’s a definite decision to be made when retaliating. Do you sacrifice part or potentially all of your activation in order to immediately strike back and avoid any potential follow-up attacks with outnumbering bonuses? Or do you wait it out to make the most of your activation?

What’s more, you can also potentially trick your opponent into retaliating earlier in the turn by sending a weaker model into combat. Your opponent may retaliate as the red mist descends but this will hamper them for the rest of the turn and you can send in stronger models later in the turn to attack, safe in the knowledge your opponent won’t retaliate.

In tomorrow’s blog, we’ll look at a few more elements of combat, such as facing and what happens when you get wounded.

Vanguard will be launching on Kickstarter on November 1st. Throughout this week, we’ll be exploring the game in more detail and giving you a taste of the rules. In today’s blog, we’re describing some extra elements of combat.



After explaining the basics of combat in yesterday’s blog, today we’ll delve a little more into some of the other elements you can expect to encounter when scrapping it out!

ENGAGING A MODEL

First of all let’s look at how you’ll engage enemies in close combat. Models in base-to-base contact with an enemy model are Engaged. When a model Engages another, place the front of the moving model’s base flush against the target’s base on the side contact was made, as centrally as possible. A Walk (or Run) action to Engage an enemy model does not trigger a free Melee action.

A model Engaged in Melee may attempt to break away. Make 1 Armour Roll for each enemy model the activating model is breaking away from. Models that are knocked down are ignored. The model will lose a wound for each failed save. If the model is still alive, it may make a Run action in any direction.

HIP TO BE SQUARE

Why square bases? This is one of the questions that has cropped up quite a bit since we announced Vanguard. The easy answer is that because we want the models in Vanguard to be used in Kings of War and vice versa, we needed to put them on square bases, rather than circular ones. However, the other benefit is that it allows us to do interesting things with facing in the rules.



Models in Vanguard are mounted on square bases with the back edge of the base defining the rear arc of the model. Models must be glued on their bases clearly facing one of the straight edges so it is obvious which edge is then the back edge.

A model can potentially see anything in its front arc (subject to Line of Sight). Line of Sight (LOS) to anything wholly in the model’s rear arc is considered to be Blocked.

If you attack a model in their rear arc, you’ll get a bonus. When shooting your attack gains Piercing (1), which means the armour value of your opponent is +1. This makes it more difficult to make the armour save. Whereas, if you’re attacking in melee, you’ll gain Crushing Strength (1), which has the same effect as Piercing. As a result, there’s a definite bonus for strategic positioning. What’s more, some of the special rules apply when attacking in the rear. For example, the Goblin Sneaky rule means that their attacks will explode on a 7 and 8 if they attack from behind.



YOU’VE GOT A NERVE

Finally in today’s blog, we’ll briefly describe Nerve. Although the term will be familiar to those who play Kings of War, in Vanguard it works a little differently. A model’s Nerve value is a representation of its morale, willpower and self-control. If things start to go wrong, or an individual is required to do something they aren’t comfortable with, it might take a test of nerve to overcome it, or the Warband will struggle to act as a coherent fighting force.

The Nerve value will mainly come into effect once a Warband is broken. A Warband is broken if it has less than half the number of starting models remaining (by model count). Determine if a Warband is broken at the start of each Round. Once a Warband is broken, each unengaged model in the Warband must make a Fallback Check when it activates. If performing a group action, use the Nerve value of the model nominated for the group to make the Fallback Check.

A Fallback Check requires the model to roll a dice and equal/beat its Nerve value. If it fails to make the test it will immediately move towards its own table edge along a direct a path as possible and as far as possible up to twice its Speed in inches. Once a model has fallen back, it cannot have any further actions played on it that turn. There’s even the chance the model will run off the board, if they reach the table edge!

Fallback actions are particularly interesting towards the end of the game, as you’ll potentially end up running away from an objective or fight. Thematically this fits in nicely because as a fighter sees their comrades die in battle, it’s likely they would lose their nerve and decide to run away! It’s worth noting that – a little like Kings of War – some characters do have the Inspiring special rule. This allows models within 6” to re-roll a failed Nerve test.

Hope you’re still enjoying the Vanguard blogs! Tomorrow we’ll look at how terrain is used in Vanguard.

Kings of War: Vanguard will be launching on Kickstarter on November 1st. Throughout this week, we’ll be exploring the game in more detail and giving you a taste of the rules. In today’s blog, we’re highlighting the importance of terrain and scenery.



Although terrain won’t be as fundamental to Vanguard as something like Deadzone, it will still have an important part to play. This will come in two forms: scenery as obstacles and barriers, alongside scenery that will become objectives in a particular scenario. Today, we’re going to have a look at the former and explain how terrain will play an important part in combat.

First, it’s worth mentioning that – just like Kings of War – models and terrain will all have a height value. This is used when determining line of sight and cover. Models all have their height value listed on the stat card, while terrain can be decided before a game starts. What’s more, when a model is standing on a particular piece of terrain, then you combine the numbers to give you the total height.

LOS from your model to an enemy model is considered Blocked if a line to all parts of the enemy model’s base passes through:

A model or terrain piece of the same height or more as your model, and the enemy model does not have a greater Height than the blocking item. (If the enemy model does have a greater height, LOS is only Partially Blocked) – see below.
A blocking model or blocking terrain piece of the same height as the enemy model. However, this may be ignored if your model has a greater height than the blocking item and is within 3” of the blocking item
LOS from your model to an enemy model is considered Partially Blocked if:

only part (not all) of the enemy model’s base is in a position that would be considered Blocked.
the enemy model is behind a blocking item but has a greater Height
the enemy model is within an area of difficult terrain that is at least Height 1 (e.g. shooting at a model within a wood)


THE SCENIC ROUTE

In Vanguard, the different types of scenery and terrain that are used are classified into the following types.

Open Ground

Areas of flat open grass, road, or any other clear swathe of land is considered to be Open Ground. Open Ground doesn’t impede a model’s movement in any way.

Obstacles

Obstacles are linear barriers that may lay in a model’s path as it moves. Examples are walls, hedges and fences. Obstacles up to the height of the model cost 2” of movement to cross over, regardless of how fast the model is moving. Anything taller than the model will need to be climbed up and over. Obstacles will often provide cover for targets behind them as they can cause Line of Sight to be partially blocked. What’s more, if a defending model is on the other side of an obstacle and the attack is in its front arc, its Armour is 1 better for this Armour roll, as if it were Braced. Finally, when fighting across an obstacle, there’s no need to Break Away, if you want to disengage an enemy.

Difficult Terrain

Areas of broken ground, wooded areas, ruins, steep scree slopes and marshy ground are all examples of Difficult Terrain. Models count every inch moved in Difficult Terrain as 2”. Thus, a model moving 3” through Difficult Terrain counts as having moved 6”.

Areas of Difficult Terrain should be clearly defined with an obvious boundary. Unless the players agree, or a scenario specifies an exact configuration of the elements within the area, they are simply representations and can be moved to make model placement easier if required (e.g. you may need to move a tree to one side to make room for a model that has moved).

Impassable Terrain

Some terrain simply blocks movement. Solid buildings, lava pools, large rock pillars are all good examples. Models cannot move into or on top of Impassable Terrain and must move around it.

TAKING THE FALL

Finally it’s worth noting that models can jump (or fall!) down their Height in inches for no penalty. The vertical distance is counted as part of the model’s movement. Models jumping or falling further than this take n potential wounds with Crushing Strength (n), where n is the difference between the model’s Height and the distance to the ground, rounding down.

Thus a Height 2 model jumping down a 4” high wall will take 2 potential wounds, each with Crushing Strength (2). A Height 1 model jumping down the same wall would take 3 potential wounds, each with Crushing Strength (3). A model that takes any wounds from falling ends its action and is knocked down. So, if you can push an enemy off a building, sometimes it’s better than actually fighting them!

TerrainCrate – our new range of fantasy scenery – will certainly come in handy when it comes to creating an awesome Vanguard setting. Hmm… wouldn’t it be good if there were some Vanguard-themed TerrainCrate pieces…

KINGS OF WAR: VANGUARD – PLAYING A CAMPAIGN
OCTOBER 26, 2017 ROB BURMAN ARTWORK & CONCEPT, BACKGROUND, BASILEA, CONCEPT SKETCHES, GAMING, GENERAL, HOBBY, KICKSTARTER, KINGS OF WAR, MANTIC GAMES, NEWS, NIGHTSTALKERS, PRE-RELEASE, UNCATEGORIZED 1
Kings of War: Vanguard will be launching on Kickstarter on November 1st. Throughout this week, we’ll be exploring the game in more detail and giving you a taste of the rules. In today’s blog, we’re talking about the campaign mode!



One of the exciting aspects of Vanguard is the story-telling and legend-building possibilities of the campaign system.

Campaigns allow players to link individual games of Vanguard into a larger narrative that chronicles the adventures of their Warband members’ lives and trials. Campaigns can take a bit work, but a fun and exciting campaign can be very rewarding and will likely feature in your gaming group’s conversations for years to come!

Players who have Kings of War armies, can also combine both games into a bigger, more involved narrative story arc where the adventures of the Warbands skirmishing over strategic ground, ambushing enemy raiding parties or destroying enemy supplies can influence the larger battles – for better or for worse.

Mantica is a dangerous place, but it is also filled with great opportunities. The land may be razed by the passing of great armies, but often critical infrastructure, supplies and valuable items remain intact and are left behind. Warbands will have their own missions to perform, whether it is containing a threat, releasing a prisoner, assassinating an enemy general, or stealing the enemy’s plans. As your Warband becomes more and more successful in achieving their goals, they will encounter many useful abandoned items, artefacts and equipment to retrieve and make use of.

Warriors in a Warband become adept at salvaging what they find and are sometimes boosted by the occasional lucky find of a rare or magical item. While resupply and intelligence from the army’s general is possible, it cannot always be relied upon as supply lines are cut and communications are disrupted. Warbands learn to operate on their own, often far ahead or far afield from their army’s base camp. Such a life can be gruelling and cruel, but the survivors become grizzled veterans and opponents to be feared.

Keeping you company

In a campaign, you can hand-pick your chosen warriors to form your warband for a given scenario from a larger Vanguard Company. Your Company represents the full roster of heroes, specialists, hardened vets and cannon-fodder that are sent out into the cold, morning mists to cause mischief and scout the land ahead. As warriors gain experience and skills, or pick up injuries along the way, so your company, and the models you have available, will grow and evolve with each game you play. Every company has a Supply Caravan to store all its equipment and as Vanguard Companies are given a high degree of autonomy by their army generals, they also have their own stash of accumulated wealth in the form of Campaign Gold.



Taking part in a campaign

A campaign starts with the building of an initial Company. The selection rules for this are very similar to those for building a warband for a game, but you get more to spend to create a bigger pool of models and equipment to draw from.

The next step is to assign a Leader and then any other Retinue roles – more on those in a bit.

When playing a campaign, because you have a mix of models, are not always going to use them all at once or even have them available, and each will gain experience and skills at different times, it’s best to keep track of it all on a Campaign Roster. While you can still use the warband stat and equipment cards for reference during play, most record keeping and reference in campaign play will be done on your roster so it will become an invaluable tool and record of your achievements (or defeats!)

When models are selected from the Company to form a Warband for a game, they have the chance to gain experience. They can do this for taking part in missions, achieving certain objectives, or perhaps killing enemy models. As models gain experience, they will reach new Ranks. At each rank, they get the option of an enhancement. Depending their type, this could be a new skill, a stat increase, learning a new spell etc.

It’s worth noting that GRUNTS never gain experience. They are a cheap source of cannon-fodder to make up numbers and there are plenty more in the army where they came from! GRUNTS are also replaced for free if they die. GRUNTS are cheap and cheerful (well, maybe not that happy…)

WARRIORS can only achieve Rank 2. They have some potential for “levelling up” but can’t go too far before reaching their natural peak.

All other model types can achieve Rank 5 and will be much more powerful than when they started out! SPELLCASTERS get the opportunity to learn spells from the basic Vanguard spellbook or from their faction’s own arcane spellbook. Each Rank is increasingly harder to achieve though so a model will have to have played lot of games successfully to fulfil their destiny.



Retinues

As well as the Leader roll, there are a number of other special roles that you can assign to members of the Company. These include Quartermaster, Master Scout, Healer and Arcanist. Having a role assigned can open up new in-game options for the model, new ways to gain experience, bonuses at Rank levels and even influence some rolls or events in the sequence that takes place between games. Promotion and demotion between models and roles is possible but can come at a cost. Having a Retinue can be very useful – if you can keep them alive!

Between games

Between games of Vanguard, you will see how your warriors performed, whether they recover or succumb to any injuries, what wealth they find (or steal), and see what they find as they explore the world around them.

The between-game sequence involves the following steps:

Return Equipment to the Supplies Caravan
Resolve Casualties
Retinue Assessment
Resolve Experience
Calculate Campaign Gold
Forage & Explore
Recruitment and Resupply
Check roster is fully updated
One of the most fun phases is often the Forage & Explore phase. This gives you the opportunity to roll on a table to see just what it is your warband has discovered. It could be a deserted village, a hidden temple that might hold a magical artefact, the body of a dead enemy with vital intelligence or a stash of gold a farmer buried in a field! There will be a detailed exploration table that will use a D88 result to give a large and varied set of possible events, encounters and locations. Where applicable, suggestions for playing out encounters using things like Kings of War or Dungeon Saga will be given.

Are you excited about the campaign mode? Make sure you tune in tomorrow when we’ll be releasing the Vanguard alpha rules *swoons*

 Zethnar wrote:
since they royally screwed up their Dungeon Saga kickstarter.