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http://rerollones.blogspot.com/2015/08/why-im-playing-kings-of-war-and-not-8th.html?m=1

Yes I'll change my sig next!!!

I haven't played anything approaching an actual game yet, but I do love what Mantic has made. It's not exactly how I would have gone about it, but it is unique, quick, and fun to lay. Maybe if we had less armies that are jsut carbon-copies of Warhammer though. I get that it's mantics thing, but more unqiue armies i think would be welcome.

 saithor wrote:
I haven't played anything approaching an actual game yet, but I do love what Mantic has made. It's not exactly how I would have gone about it, but it is unique, quick, and fun to lay. Maybe if we had less armies that are jsut carbon-copies of Warhammer though. I get that it's mantics thing, but more unqiue armies i think would be welcome.

Bear in mind GW has not got original armies... they have generic fantasy armies.

I think you will find Matic so far has 16 factions with more to come. Some of those are clearly (the beta lists) not warhammer lists but a lot of them play ery differently to warhammer factions like undead or the elves etc.

You're both right to an extent, of course. But the important thing to remember is that Mantic needs to be GW-compatible - especially now - in order to grow and maintain accessibility. They'll be introducing more "unique" forces (such as the Basileans) in the future, but even those are going to be a twist on an existing theme in some ways - which is all you can really have in the fantasy genre at this point in time.

Two of the new armies in the Uncharted Empires are new IPs for Mantic. One's kinda been done before, but not really, so we found some minis for playtesting from several different manufacturers. The other is completely unique. I've certainly never seen it done before and we've not really been able to find any suitable minis for playtesting with.

The next expansion after that will have Norse themed men and the Ophidians which will be unique to KoW.

I am just about to start my foray into KoW not only with the rules but with 15mm scale armies as well.

My personal challenge is to find good 15mm proxies to evoke the feel of the Warhammer World and it's armies. Like my Goblin slasher will be a conversion of a spider full of gobbos like the Arachnorok in 28mm (sp?).

And Kings of War has to be good if my wife will try it. She is completely overwhelmed by the complication of comparable games like WHFB. I find that KoW has a clear goal about what the rules are attempting to do, and you can tell throughout the rules that the goal is always kept in sight.

I only miss making my characters a little more special, but at least the magic items and mount options go a little towards that without making the heroes the center of the game. I'd like to see some more options for magic, too, while keeping with the fluidity of how magic works.

I like that heroes are toned down in KoW compared to WHFB. KoW still gives me the freedom to model my heroes to look how I want and be equipped how I want which is great. I never liked the super killing machine heroes in WHFB, it made building up an entire army feel like a waste when heroes could take out whole units singlehandedly. I'd rather see heroes like that be in more "skirmish" size games.

Prestor Jon wrote:
I like that heroes are toned down in KoW compared to WHFB. KoW still gives me the freedom to model my heroes to look how I want and be equipped how I want which is great. I never liked the super killing machine heroes in WHFB, it made building up an entire army feel like a waste when heroes could take out whole units singlehandedly. I'd rather see heroes like that be in more "skirmish" size games.

I agree, nothing worse than heroes cutting down foes who in real life, would simply walk over him. In melee style warfare it is always the formation that holds who wins. Even creatures as mighty as war elephants or soldiers as glorious as cavalry could do little against a formation that refuses to scatter.

Then seeing heroes in warhammer with a hammer go on beating down dozens of men with ease always put me off.

In Kings of war my only issue is that I can use my general or standard bearer to stop groups of troops from attacking other groups, when ultimately they would just walk on past. But I suppose that keeps heroes relevant beyond their command abilities.

 Swastakowey wrote:
In Kings of war my only issue is that I can use my general or standard bearer to stop groups of troops from attacking other groups, when ultimately they would just walk on past. But I suppose that keeps heroes relevant beyond their command abilities.

There are rules covering this though..

If a unit routs an individual, it can advance and potentially charge another unit (see the Individual rule).
A horde will typically steamroller over a hero and go straight into the unit behind.

Yep. We call it the "speedbump" rule.

 grendel083 wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
In Kings of war my only issue is that I can use my general or standard bearer to stop groups of troops from attacking other groups, when ultimately they would just walk on past. But I suppose that keeps heroes relevant beyond their command abilities.

There are rules covering this though..

If a unit routs an individual, it can advance and potentially charge another unit (see the Individual rule).
A horde will typically steamroller over a hero and go straight into the unit behind.

Awesome thats actually really handy. I need to read over the rules again... Cheers

 Swastakowey wrote:

 grendel083 wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
In Kings of war my only issue is that I can use my general or standard bearer to stop groups of troops from attacking other groups, when ultimately they would just walk on past. But I suppose that keeps heroes relevant beyond their command abilities.

There are rules covering this though..

If a unit routs an individual, it can advance and potentially charge another unit (see the Individual rule).
A horde will typically steamroller over a hero and go straight into the unit behind.

Awesome thats actually really handy. I need to read over the rules again... Cheers

It's in the rules for the "Individual" special rule. One of my favorite bits actually. Relegates heroes to much more of a support role.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 grendel083 wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
In Kings of war my only issue is that I can use my general or standard bearer to stop groups of troops from attacking other groups, when ultimately they would just walk on past. But I suppose that keeps heroes relevant beyond their command abilities.

There are rules covering this though..

If a unit routs an individual, it can advance and potentially charge another unit (see the Individual rule).
A horde will typically steamroller over a hero and go straight into the unit behind.

Awesome that's actually really handy. I need to read over the rules again... Cheers

Yeah it makes a difference. But the distance the charging unit can go after wiping out the Individual is only a D6 inches - so sometimes the hero is enough of a speed bump to disrupt the charge. (And other times the unit ends up traveling further than it normally would - from the sheer joy of killing the hero?)

Came up in a game against my good lady a while back - her Brocks charged my Warsmith, intending to sweep through him and into contact with my war engines.

Her charge went only an inch - leaving the Brocks exposed to two cannon and an organ gun.... (One of the few times that I have wished that I had brought a Flame Belcher. )

Our armies were two elements of a single shared army - she had The Hammer, I had The Anvil. They work better together, but okay on their own. The Hammer is mobile - Rangers, Brock, and Berserkers. The Anvil is a lot slower - Bulwarkers, Ironclads, Iron Watch, and artillery.

For screening, Troops work well, so can be used to protect the flanks of larger units. (There's a reason that Mantic limited the number of Troops that you can take when they did second edition.)

Right now... I am being sorely tempted by The Herd... Sad, really, since I don't have a GW Beastmen army. I would be buying fresh. (Reaper Bones has beastmen.)

The Auld Grump

 TheAuldGrump wrote:

Right now... I am being sorely tempted by The Herd... Sad, really, since I don't have a GW Beastmen army. I would be buying fresh. (Reaper Bones has beastmen.)
The Auld Grump

Perfect time to get a second hand one for dirt cheap. I picked up a large Skaven army at very affordable prices a week or two ago!

If you do beastmen, look for mythology Satyrs and Fauns, Reaper too, Gary Hunt and I am sure there are plenty of others.

Personally I like to think of the beast people as a mix of various animals. I was tempted to do a beast people coalition and just nab whatever human animal models I could find and paint them in matching armour as a beast force, ready to defend their wild lands from civilization. I found Ginuea Pigs, Rabbit Samurai, Frog people, Dog people and the list goes on and on.

 Swastakowey wrote:
If you do beastmen, look for mythology Satyrs and Fauns, Reaper too, Gary Hunt and I am sure there are plenty of others.

Personally I like to think of the beast people as a mix of various animals. I was tempted to do a beast people coalition and just nab whatever human animal models I could find and paint them in matching armour as a beast force, ready to defend their wild lands from civilization. I found Ginuea Pigs, Rabbit Samurai, Frog people, Dog people and the list goes on and on.

I have some very old GW miniatures for Broo - the original Chaos Beastmen for Rune Quest by Chaosium - dating back to the early eighties. The Perry twins have gotten to be much better sculptors since then.

The Auld Grump - part of the improvement was from the epoxy putties getting better.

I block charges with throwaway heroes all the time. You just gotta walk right up to the enemy, not stand 1" in front of your own line.

Or put them 7" in front of the unit they are blocking.

 judgedoug wrote:

 TheAuldGrump wrote:

Right now... I am being sorely tempted by The Herd... Sad, really, since I don't have a GW Beastmen army. I would be buying fresh. (Reaper Bones has beastmen.)
The Auld Grump

Perfect time to get a second hand one for dirt cheap. I picked up a large Skaven army at very affordable prices a week or two ago!

I just grabbed an army with over 50 Gor and about 20 Minotaurs with a bunch of other units i cant remember for about 250 bucks (american), so ya. Ebay is your friend.

Damn. Those kinds of deals just don't seem to make it over here on our eBay or Sale forums...

 TheAuldGrump wrote:


Right now... I am being sorely tempted by The Herd... Sad, really, since I don't have a GW Beastmen army. I would be buying fresh. (Reaper Bones has beastmen.)

The Auld Grump

I just picked up a bunch of Gors and stuff off eBay for cheap for a Herd army but now I'm thinking I would rather do a Nature army utilizing some Reaper Bones and other stuff. PM me if you want them I'm sure we can work out a swap or something. I'd rather pass the on then have them gather dust in a closet.

 Azazelx wrote:
Damn. Those kinds of deals just don't seem to make it over here on our eBay or Sale forums...

Thats cuz we buy it before anyone else sees them lol

Prestor Jon wrote:

 TheAuldGrump wrote:


Right now... I am being sorely tempted by The Herd... Sad, really, since I don't have a GW Beastmen army. I would be buying fresh. (Reaper Bones has beastmen.)

The Auld Grump

I just picked up a bunch of Gors and stuff off eBay for cheap for a Herd army but now I'm thinking I would rather do a Nature army utilizing some Reaper Bones and other stuff. PM me if you want them I'm sure we can work out a swap or something. I'd rather pass the on then have them gather dust in a closet.

'Tsokay. Not gonna have money for that for a while. (And still have lots of minis to paint for armies that I already have.)

But you may want to think about using the Gors & etc. as allies for your Nature army - they seem like they would fit together pretty well.

The Auld Grump

 TheAuldGrump wrote:

Prestor Jon wrote:

 TheAuldGrump wrote:


Right now... I am being sorely tempted by The Herd... Sad, really, since I don't have a GW Beastmen army. I would be buying fresh. (Reaper Bones has beastmen.)

The Auld Grump

I just picked up a bunch of Gors and stuff off eBay for cheap for a Herd army but now I'm thinking I would rather do a Nature army utilizing some Reaper Bones and other stuff. PM me if you want them I'm sure we can work out a swap or something. I'd rather pass the on then have them gather dust in a closet.

'Tsokay. Not gonna have money for that for a while. (And still have lots of minis to paint for armies that I already have.)

But you may want to think about using the Gors & etc. as allies for your Nature army - they seem like they would fit together pretty well.

The Auld Grump

Yeah, I figured they'd end up like that. I was using ebay to augment my existing armies, saw a lot of good deals, threw in some minimum bids and ended up winning more auctions than I thought I would. On the plus side I got cheap minis on the minus side they're going to sit on the plastic mountain of shame for a while before I do anything with them.

The more I pour over the rules for this game and the unofficial lists for not-Lizardmen, etc, the more I wonder if I could manage to pull off a Romance of the Nine Empires Displaced army in this game.

For those not familiar with The Gamers, they came up with a fictional science fantasy game for one of their movies inspired by Legend of the Five Rings of nine factions fighting to defend or control their world and its resources. One of those armies is a dimension-displaced group of WWII veterans who were at the testing of the first atomic weapon in Los Almos, New Mexico. The other factions are:

* steampunk aliens with Mayan/Aztec influences
* ancient civilization of Undead (think Tomb Kings except there are no mindless undead like skeletons or zombies)
* a faction of seelie and unseelie fae (goblins, hags, merfolk, nymphs, etc)
* a magocracy
* Roman merchant princes on steroids
* viking knights, militocracy and prideful
* religious fanatics who worship their (now dead) immortal (not really) god-king. They wear big black armor, very goth and spiky. They also all wear ritual makeup around their eyes to mimic burn patterns
* Arthurian-like faction except instead of knights there's rangers and rogues.