[Kings of War] Mantic Fantasy News & Rumors

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**Baragash**

Tamereth wrote:
I definitely feel that Mantic need to push their more unique armys, such as the forces of the abyss, trident realms and hopefully the forth coming northern alliance. But will happily pay for a second book which contains the lists for my old Warhammer armies.

I'd also like to see them do a range of generic monsters. The giant that can be used by a bunch of armies is great, image if they also did hydra's, griffons, pegasus etc which half a dozen armies could all include.

If they are going to make any big changes to the rules, the one thing I'd like to change is characters. I hate it when a single guy holds up an entire regiment single handed. I would prefer it if they came in small units, as in the general with elite bodyguard. A troop size base with regiment + stats to portray that these guys are the best of the best. but then that would be a major change to how they game plays.

I got Ronnie's agreement to do characters with bodyguards 3-4 years ago, but actually getting it to happen was a whole other thing. That being said, Mantic isn't suddenly going to eliminate lone characters, the issue will have to be solved another way.

**Polonius**

I think growing KOW is a long term investment for Mantic. If a person looks at the abyssals or nightstalkers and is thinking about buying them, a healthy community is a great selling point.

**Sarouan**

Don't forget the new bundles for Basilea. These "new" Men-At-Arms in plastic hips are gorgeous. The Mega-Army sure has a lot of same poses, but it does the job and is a nice complement to those wanting to fill in the new units in KoW that came in CoK 2019.

So far, the elves and dwarves are certainly one of the oldest kits, but I believe by just redoing the plastic kits like for Basilea, they can already make a huge improvement for the look of the army.

**kodos**

True for the Dwarfs, but the Elves would need a complete re-design of their line if they change the plastic kits

**DaveC**

Vanguard Undead releases (End of August)

Undead Warband - £29.99

Content:

10 Hard Plastic Skeleton Warriors
3 Hard Plastic Zombies
2 Hard Plastic Ghouls
1 Resin Wraith
1 Resin Arkosaur Necromancer
Undead Vanguard deck.

Undead Warband Booster - £29.99

Contents:

1 Resin Vampire Halfling
1 Resin Vampire Bat Swarm
1 Resin Crypt Gouger
1 Resin Barrow Wight
and 4 Vanguard Cards

Undead Reinforcement Pack - £14.99

Contents:

2 Metal Armoured Zombie Orcs
1 Metal Skeleton Archer/Crossbowman
4 Vanguard Cards

Undead Support Pack: Goreblight £12.49

Contents:

1 Resin Goreblight
1 Goreblight Vanguard Card

**highlord tamburlaine**

The halfling vampire is a novel idea.

Curious what an Arkosaur is. Looks a bit more lizard- like than the Salamanders.

I appreciate Mantic bringing so many new and unique models to the Vanguard line. They've done a lot more in terms of new stuff than GW has at least with Underworlds.

**Theophony**

Vampire halfling?
What does he do, go around and bite people in the ankle?

**Sarouan**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:

Curious what an Arkosaur is. Looks a bit more lizard- like than the Salamanders.
.

It's one of the subspecies of the "lizardmen like" Mantic faction. Salamanders are another of these subspecies as well. They are described in the Uncharted Empire supplement.

**Gimgamgoo**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:
The halfling vampire is a novel idea.

Curious what an Arkosaur is. Looks a bit more lizard- like than the Salamanders.

I appreciate Mantic bringing so many new and unique models to the Vanguard line. They've done a lot more in terms of new stuff than GW has at least with Underworlds.

Some nice but unnecessary models. Seemingly designed to be unique enough to warrant Mantic claiming we're getting something new - even though a lot of people only want the cards/rules to use with their existing Mantic undead. The Vanguard sales method still stinks of old X-wing card sales.

Just sell the damn rules/cards without the models. If you make good models, people will buy them anyway, and if those models get KoW rules, people will want multiples, so the sales will be there. I didn't add the costs this time, but I'm assuming we'll need to spend 90 quid or more on models just to get the rules again.

**DarkBlack**

Polonius wrote:I think growing KOW is a long term investment for Mantic. If a person looks at the abyssals or nightstalkers and is thinking about buying them, a healthy community is a great selling point.

This.

DaveC wrote:
Undead Warband - £29.99

Content:

10 Hard Plastic Skeleton Warriors
3 Hard Plastic Zombies
2 Hard Plastic Ghouls
1 Resin Wraith
1 Resin Arkosaur Necromancer
Undead Vanguard deck.

I might get these just for D&D sessions. Might as well try undead in Vanguard if I have them already though.

Gimgamgoo wrote:
Some nice but unnecessary models. Seemingly designed to be unique enough to warrant Mantic claiming we're getting something new - even though a lot of people only want the cards/rules to use with their existing Mantic undead. The Vanguard sales method still stinks of old X-wing card sales.

Just sell the damn rules/cards without the models. If you make good models, people will buy them anyway, and if those models get KoW rules, people will want multiples, so the sales will be there. I didn't add the costs this time, but I'm assuming we'll need to spend 90 quid or more on models just to get the rules again.

All the rules are free on EasyArmy. You only need to buy models if you want the nice cards.

Of all the things in Mantic's future, I'm looking forward to Vanguard second edition the most.
I'm not saying that it should be soon, rather not actually, time should be taken for problems to surface and fixes to be tried. At least a few years.
Vanguard is a lovely game, but there are some kinks that one can't get to in the first edition of any game. Vanguard being in it's first edition definitely shows (not really something that can be helped).
With the first edition kinks ironed out Vanguard second edition is going to be a great game.

**ArtIsGreat**

Straight to retail kow3 is fine. But why not use KS to supplement some of those stand in armies? They can release slow and steady with one of their unique factions, but may as well churn out a Mantic Empire faction if there's interest, and they've not done a KS in a year, wtfn

**DaveC**

Pretty sure "The League" stuff is going to KS soon so that probably ruled out doing a KoW3 KS around the same time. Ronnie mentioned late summer in the open day Q&A. The TerrainCrate 2 KS was 4 months ago the PM just closed.

**Danny76**

Saw mention of it earlier but not really aware. What is “the league” all about?

**DaveC**

It's a game set within their fantasy setting but they are keeping very quiet about it for now. This is about as much as they've shown publicly so far.

https://www.facebook.com/manticgames/videos/440889343402520/

**lord_blackfang**

And this is something else than the Mantica RPG?

**Sarouan**

lord_blackfang wrote:
And this is something else than the Mantica RPG?

Pretty much, yes. It's something akin to Dungeon Saga, but with villains as the "adventuring group". There is an article about it in the magazine Tabletop Gaming from July 2019. Its full name is League of Infamy.

**PourSpelur**

Dear Mantic
I don't buy your stuff, never played your games and really never had any interest.
That was, until I read "Goblin Ninja". Please carry on, you have my attention now.
Sincerely,
Pourspelur

**.Mikes.**

PourSpelur wrote:
Dear Mantic
I don't buy your stuff, never played your games and really never had any interest.
That was, until I read "Goblin Ninja". Please carry on, you have my attention now.
Sincerely,
Pourspelur

*sigh*

- Rackham

**Theophony**

.Mikes. wrote:
PourSpelur wrote:
Dear Mantic
I don't buy your stuff, never played your games and really never had any interest.
That was, until I read "Goblin Ninja". Please carry on, you have my attention now.
Sincerely,
Pourspelur

*sigh*

- Rackham

Malifaux- “We have those too!!!! Please check me buy our stuff!!! Please!!!

“

**highlord tamburlaine**

Malifaux has *drunken* ninja goblins to be specific.

There*s also luchadores goblins and magic zappy wizards in addition to the rest of the bayou range. Plus a lot of the bayou gremlins are dirt cheap as everything gets shuffled around for 3rd edition 'faux.

Back on topic- I'm hoping this takes the rules from Hellboy or Silver Tower moreso than the original Dungeon Saga. The fact that Hewitt is involved again makes me feel good about this.

**ingtaer**

DarkBlack wrote:
we may be getting off topic.
Speaking of topic, how do we get the title changed? Vanguard is not new news anymore.

Pming a mod or hitting the mod alert button are the best ways. What should the title be changed to? I occasionally skim the thread but don't really follow it.

**Theophony**

ingtaer wrote:
DarkBlack wrote:
we may be getting off topic.
Speaking of topic, how do we get the title changed? Vanguard is not new news anymore.

Pming a mod or hitting the mod alert button are the best ways. What should the title be changed to? I occasionally skim the thread but don't really follow it.

That’s like asking a smart-butt like me where to stick something.

**DaveC**

KoW RPG is going to KS in August

https://red-scar.com/kings-of-war-rpg-official-press-release/

Red Scar Publishing is collaborating with Mantic Games to bring their popular fantasy setting to life with Kings of War the Roleplaying Game. Launching on Kickstarter in August 2019, players will begin as heroes and climb towards the true powers of their realm as they complete quests across a lush, rich world. Driven by Red Scar Publishing’s ENnie award-winning Creative Director, Marc Langworthy, the Kings of War RPG draws together Red Scar, Mantic, and Winged Hussar to delve deeper into the rich lore established by the Kings of War tabletop wargame and its siblings.

Mantic’s gaming vision is to create games that are accessible while remaining immersive and rewarding, and the Kings of War RPG is no different. The innovative TriCore ruleset is a lightweight system that gives the players scope to prove their heroism without being too complex or serving as a barrier to entry. Using a Dicepool and Keyword mechanic, characters begin with a standard Dicepool and apply Keywords from their stats, skills and gear to gain extra dice. Players can select familiar character sets and races drawn from the wide range of good, neutral and evil races found throughout Pannithor.

I suspect Red Scar will run the KS as Mantic have another lined up at a similar time.

**Monkeysloth**

Huh. I could have sworn originally they were planning on the Modiphus 2d20 system for this.

**BobtheInquisitor**

"Their popular fantasy setting"? Really? I'm as much a Mantica fan as anyone--I've got Rise of the Shadow King and Bloodstone of Cerillion on my shelf--but I would never describe the setting as "popular". Afraid I'm gonna have to call BS on that.

I'm looking forward to reading all the fluff, but the rule set sounds a bit crunchy for me. I'm a big fan of the simplicity of the old West End Star Wars.

**lord_blackfang**

Well, they can't put "unknown fantasy setting" on a press release can they?

**Alpharius**

Just like every place in the world makes the "Greatest Pizza/Hamburger/Pho/etc.", so too does Mantic have a "popular fantasy setting".

Actually, as far as marketing claims go, that one is downright restrained.

**Sarouan**

Well, their setting is popular within their KoW fanbase, so that's technically true.

Guess we'll know more about their KS, but that "Dicepool" mechanism sounds actually pretty simple. Don't know why, but I'm picturing it's designed to be used with Mantic miniatures (that focus on "keywords" got my brow raised).

**Azazelx**

DarkBlack wrote:

As things stand, Mantic have many loyal and pro-Mantic fans (including myself). Trying to force people to play with Mantic miniatures (even if they had the range to allow that) would alienate those fans, exclude a large portion of their future customers. What you ae suggesting will IMO gut Mantic's customer base and destroy the goodwill they have by trying to milk the payerbase that is left.

I guess I'll wait and see (or await confirmation one way or another from someone like Matt) and see if the Uncharted Empires armies will continue to be supported before making a decision as to whether I buy into this next edition. I've got quite a lot of armies, and while some of them are Mantic, others are not (and yet others are mixed)...

**kodos**

Inside the box, you’ll find:

NORTHERN ALLIANCE

20 Hard Plastic Clansmen*
20 Hard Plastic Pack Hunters*
3 PVC Plastic Snow Trolls
PVC Plastic Ice Kin Master Hunter
NIGHTSTALKERS

20 Hard Plastic Scarecrows**
20 Hard Plastic Spectres**
3 PVC Plastic Butchers
PVC Plastic Horror

* these can be built as Clansmen or Pack Hunters
** these can be built as Scarecrows or Spectres