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

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**Thraxas Of Turai**

2 different Necromancers are available in the Death Kings Cabal http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/undead/product/undead-death-kings-cabal-4-figures.html

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Fang-tastic Friday

Yesterday we shared with you a rather long list of potential new units, but we’re not ignoring the existing armies either – as these little teaser images suggest:

What could they be?

Since we're heading into the weekend and we're more than two thirds of the way to unlocking the campaign, we thought you might want to know what's coming next - take a look at this!

NEW! BONUS: $200,000 - Undead Soul Reaver Cavalry

Vampirism is a terrible curse, exacting as heavy a toll on those afflicted as it does on their victims. With each murder, driven by their biological imperative to feed on the fresh blood of the living, their souls become that much heavier with the weight of their guilt. Soul Reavers are those Vampires who simply lose themselves to the frenzy of the slaughter, always striving for ever greater heights of blood-soaked debauchery. Their armour and heraldry are a sneering mockery of the Knightly Orders of Men, and their only desire is to impale as many corpses as possible on the end of their wicked lances.

Let us know which designs you like the best in the comments.

Why Soul Reavers?

Soul Reavers are a very characterful elite unit in the Undead army. The models we used to make for them have long since been discontinued, the moulds burned out. With the sculptors we now have, we can make better miniatures that befit their unique status in the army, filling in one of the only gaps left in the Undead range.

How good are they in a game?

Expert warriors, supernaturally quick and cursed with an unquenchable blood-lust, these vampiric knights are deadly warriors and one of the most powerful units an Undead general can field.

In the 1st edition rules, a troop of 5 Knights makes 13 attacks at Crushing Strength (2). That means they roll 13 six-sided dice, needing to roll 3’s or more to hit, and often wounding on 2’s or more. Ouch.

Where Soul Reavers really come into play is attacking on the flanks, where they double their attacks, or attacking in the rear, where they treble them (that means 78 attacks from a regiment of 10 Soul Reavers!)

With a Defence of 6 they are incredibly hard to hurt, and the Speed of 8 means they are one of the more mobile Undead units, so you can see why they have a pretty hefty points value attached to them, and are highly valued by Undead generals.

How do I get them?

If we hit this stretch goal, we will sculpt and produce a set of brand new metal elite Undead Soul Reaver knights on plastic horses. These miniatures can be fielded by any Evil or Neutral aligned army, including: Undead, Ogres, Orcs, Goblins, Forces of the Abyss, Forces of Natures, Kingdoms of Men, Abyssal Dwarfs and Twilight Kin.

To get yours, you can add on a set of 5 new Soul Reavers by raising your pledge $25.

In addition, we will include a set of 5 metal vampire Soul Reaver cavalry FREE in the Undead Mega-Starter Army ($100).

You can include this Mega-Starter Army in a pledge of God of War ($150 and Early Bird) or add one on to your existing pledge.

In-focus: Undead Mega-Starter Army

From staples like Skeleton Warriors and Zombie Hordes, to fast-paced Ghouls and ethereal Wraiths, the Undead Mega-Starter army builds on the core of this army with Werewolves for a little extra punch and a Necromancer for those all important magic-casting abilities.

Besides being just a characterful part of the Undead force, Necromancers (and you’ll probably want more than one of them if we’re honest) grant your force some extra abilities.

For example, Dark Surge in it’s current form allow you to move any Shambling unit a certain distance in the shooting face, making for some fantastic counter-attacking situations, or just to help a unit of it’s way to making a vital charge that bit easier. Couple that with Heal and Zap, and you’ve got an excellent supporting character for your hordes of Undead.

The Undead Mega-Starter Army contains 134 miniatures, including a new hero figure, monstrous infantry and a mix of solid units for variety and choice. Once we unlock the Soul Reaver Cavalry, the total value of the Undead Mega-Starter Army will save you in the region of $80 off RRP – quite a chunk of change!

And finally… a new hero emerges!

We've got plenty more for each faction coming soon - including this beauty...

This is the new Elf King on Dragon and there is no stretch goal for it.

We've created a metal rider for the plastic Dungeon Saga Dragon, which comes with a separate plastic neck component that allows you to add a rider in a saddle - in this case, the new Elf King with Lance figure:

You can now add this figure straight on to your pledge for $25 if you want one

Thank you so much for supporting the Kings of War Kickstarter. Your help makes all of this possible. Please keep spreading the word - the more backers we get, the more free stuff we can give you!
[/quote

**edlowe**

Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
2 different Necromancers are available in the Death Kings Cabal http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/undead/product/undead-death-kings-cabal-4-figures.html

yep, but the new one looks full of win

**Rolt**

The new soul reavers look pretty nice, got a bit of a Final Fantasy Judge/Dragoon vibe to them, and only 10k to unlock? Pfft easy.

So guys and gals any guesses what these could be:

This one looks like a siege weapon with a Basilean solider, so possibly a Trebuchet, which is one of the mention units on Mantics blog.

And this ones gotta be a Trent/Forest Elemental, just look at the mushrooms growing up the bark leg and the vine/root rock fist.

**highlord tamburlaine**

Whoever is answering the comments wasn't sure what exactly that dragon is going to be made out of.

I hope Mantic would consider just making a flat out hard plastic modular dragon kit. That would be pretty rocking. Give it options (like they said) for a neck with a saddle to accommodate a mounted rider, maybe some armored pieces...

A nice generic dragon kit could serve a lot of uses across a lot of games!

**sukura636**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Whoever is answering the comments wasn't sure what exactly that dragon is going to be made out of.

I hope Mantic would consider just making a flat out hard plastic modular dragon kit. That would be pretty rocking. Give it options (like they said) for a neck with a saddle to accommodate a mounted rider, maybe some armored pieces...

A nice generic dragon kit could serve a lot of uses across a lot of games!

Would cost an arm, a leg, and part of your soul to tool.

**Santtu**

When I saw the weapons, I wished from all my heart that it would mean new Soul Reavers. And by golly, did Mantic deliver. In metal even, like models are supposed to be.

**adamsouza**

sukura636 wrote:
highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Whoever is answering the comments wasn't sure what exactly that dragon is going to be made out of.

I hope Mantic would consider just making a flat out hard plastic modular dragon kit. That would be pretty rocking. Give it options (like they said) for a neck with a saddle to accommodate a mounted rider, maybe some armored pieces...

A nice generic dragon kit could serve a lot of uses across a lot of games!

Would cost an arm, a leg, and part of your soul to tool.

The Reaper Bones line is already infested with dragons, all you need is the appropriate rider

More importantly, why isn't anyone talking about Batman sneaking into KoW ?

**GrimDork**

He won't be around for too long. Blaine will come around to break his spine eventually

**Thraxas Of Turai**

Some form of Tyranid has snook in on the right as well.

Are we assuming that the Knights will be new, unique sculpts whilst the horses will be the old ones from the Revenant cavalry?

**sukura636**

I'm wondering how they would look on the basilean mounts, painted appropriately.

**Thraxas Of Turai**

Good call, it would help differentiate them from the Revenant's too.

I think add ons such as the elf dragon rider are a step in the right direction for increasing funding, but it is still a bit broad with everybody wanting different units/characters for their armies. I think Scarlet's idea of single army mini kicks is the way to go in the future.

**sukura636**

Or at least, one at a time. Part of me would have wanted to stick with the Abyssals for one more unit.

People do seem to think the KS has a much larger scope that it actually does.

**agnosto**

I'm sorry, I can't resist...

The concept art:

The execution:

**DaveC**

Ah well at least this time it's being done digitally and their digital sculptor usually does a good job getting the concepts and miniature to match.

**GrimDork**

Sad for the Drakkons, it looks like they were trying to go for a proper drake or a non weird-if-you-think-about-it-six-limbed-dragon look. I mean most things don't have wings AND arms AND legs. Unless they're bugs. But then dragons that DO have wings and arms and legs tend to look cooler.

I could like the Drakkons but they have terrible stumpy leg syndrome, the wings are too small, and yeah the faces are a bit derpy. If the legs and wings were better though the faces wouldn't be sooo bad.

**Riquende**

Meh. Gary Morley sculpts I believe (the talent behind old Nagash and the franchise-killers that were the LotR Swan Knights).

I have the middle one somewhere (free 'gift' from Maelstrom's closing down farrago), I might give to someone I dislike for Christmas.

**Rolt**

In all fairness the concept art wasn't very good either, in a horrible sense the sculpts are accurate.

Although with that said said: Y U No sculpt arms mister sculptor?

**judgedoug**

agnosto wrote:
I'm sorry, I can't resist...
The concept art:

Isn't that the concept for this?

**agnosto**

Nope.
http://manticblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Mantic-Games-Elves-Dragon-Cavalry-Concept-Art.jpg

Dragon Cavalry

I could be wrong though, there's certainly always a chance of that.

**RobertsMinis**

Don't let facts get in the way...

**judgedoug**

I just assumed as the actual dragon looks almost dead on to the concept art, whereas the Drakons do not.

**agnosto**

judgedoug wrote:
I just assumed as the actual dragon looks almost dead on to the concept art, whereas the Drakons do not.

The pose in the art is a spitting image of the prince on dragon model so I understand the confusion because I might be the one confused.

**Santtu**

adamsouza wrote:More importantly, why isn't anyone talking about Batman sneaking into KoW ?

What about Kain next to him? Now that's ironic.

**jorny**

The Drakon concept shows a bit what I mean with Mantic not being strong on concept design.

It is almost as if their designs don't go through enough design iterations. Which would explain the hit and miss situation with some of their designs. If the concept artist manage to hit something right on the mark the first time it turns out fine, otherwise....almost.

**lord_blackfang**

So what's with the new metal cavalry (yuck!) being available to 8 armies? Reminds me of GW's recent everyone-can-buy-this desperate cash grabs.

**GrimDork**

That's how the allies system for KoW has always worked. As long as they match up on the good/evil axis, you can bring several different forces together within your army. You still have to follow the rules so to get an undead character in an orc army, you'd have to take some kind of block of undead troops. I think the 20-man size and up is considered 'steady' or whatever word they use for it and each one of those unlocks both a character and a war machine. Unless they tweaked it for 2.0 to be a little different.

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

Um... that's how everything in KoW works... so I wouldn't say cash-grab in the least.

Neutral factions can ally or be used by anyone, and Evil or Good can ally with anything else Evil or Good, or any Neutral faction.

They were just pointing out to backers that this isn't JUST an Undead stretch-goal per se.

**Krinsath**

lord_blackfang wrote:
So what's with the new metal cavalry (yuck!) being available to 8 armies? Reminds me of GW's recent everyone-can-buy-this desperate cash grabs.

That's just the Allies rule in KoW written out to my understanding. The game has always been:

Good can ally with Good and Neutral
Evil can ally with Evil and Neutral
Neutral can ally with Neutral and Evil OR Good

This translates to any given unit being able to be fielded by 8 or so armies all the time, and that's in the existing rules (someone correct me if that's wrong). It also allows folks to tailor their list to capture a certain feel they want, or align with their existing model collection.

**GrimDork**

Such as kingdoms of men for samurai nabbing some ogres to use as oni.