Kings of War

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PensivePanther
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Kings of War

Post by PensivePanther »

Hey All,

So I have a bunch of wood elf models sitting uponened in boxes. I just cant bring myself to commit to building this army until I see what GW does with the model ranges and 9th edition. But I have found a shimmer of hope. Me and my friends have started playing a game called Kings of War. Right now I'm fielding my ogres. We found the game really fun. I was wondering if anyone has played this game fielding an elf list? Im still a little gun-shy about popping open all those boxes but I suspect Kings of War might be enjoyable enough that I can just go ahead and construct my wood elf army even if GW ends up burning to the ground.

I guess I was just really hoping for someone's good opinion!

If anyone was interested, here is a link to the KoW rules. They are free on their website. http://www.manticgames.com/free-rules.html

Happy Hunting,
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Aezeal »

Why would you not open the boxes? Can you get a full refund if they are closed?
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Re: Kings of War

Post by PensivePanther »

Oh, I started buying wood elf boxes a few months ago. The thought was if 9th edition ends up sucking I would have everything I needed ready to go. If 9th was awesome and the elf aesthetic changed drastically then the plan was to sell them on ebay or something. Or maybe use them as stand-ins. I dont know ~ I'm conflicted.

Anyway, I was really looking to see if anyone had any experience playing Kings of War with elves. I guess not too many people have played.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Niedfaru »

I haven't tried it yet, mostly because I really dislike the models. They seem to have put so little effort into the design of them; they lack so much detail, and the few I bought for conversion purposes were made of awful quality plastic. A company that puts so little effort into its models doesn't inspire to want to play their games. I could be wrong - the rules could be the one thing they got right, but I've not gotten around to chancing it yet. That and I don't see the point of a fantasy wargame the doesn't let me have monsters on the battlefield. Same reason I don't really like the idea of Warmahordes - they've gone the other way - all the monsters/mechs, no troop blocks. I want both, and Warhammer is pretty much the only thing that does that - for as long as that lasts. Maybe if it dies Mantic will have an excuse to push their game into the vacated space - but it's only worthwhile if their models improve with it.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by razorfate »

I completely agree with Niedfaru.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Baardah »

Mantic has their own podcast for their game that is hosted by Ben curry. Might give you some info.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Aezeal »

PS I think 9th will be great.

Same great models
New but same quality worldbuilding.
A further improvement on the ruleset, which tones the strenght of huge blocks of infantry down a bit.

Same high prices too

This is my thinking and so the future looks bright (except for your wallet).
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Re: Kings of War

Post by HouseofGinaz »

Aezeal wrote:PS I think 9th will be great.

Same great models
New but same quality worldbuilding.
A further improvement on the ruleset, which tones the strenght of huge blocks of infantry down a bit.

Same high prices too

This is my thinking and so the future looks bright (except for your wallet).
After 6 battles at 2500 point the huge infantry blocks of 50+ models proved much worse than 3x20 or 2x25 since they can so easily be flanked, outmaneuvered and targeted with vortexes etc. Not saying this is a natural law of WHFB, just my own experience. And from that death star tactics only works for specific armies and even then with a certain high amount of chaff/monsters/cheap pits. Would rather have a specific tweaks of the ruleset for certain units/items instead of sweeping general changes that completely changes the dynamic of the game. Then again each to his own, I will continue with 8th edition with current army if 9th edition turns out to be bad gameplay, which from every End Time batrep magic phase it seems to be.

Might give Kings of War a go though, even if their models are bad quality. But probably just stick to FOW and random board games tbh. I got £350 just waiting for 9th edition to come out, if 9th edition is horrible then at least I can use money for a PS4 or FOW. No matter what the future holds, it does not look bright for my wallet :p
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Re: Kings of War

Post by chickenbane »

You can still play Kings of War with GW models and vice versa. A guy in our gaming group uses Mantic ghouls and skeletons. Cheaper and when ranked up look the business. Unfortunately, the Mantic Elves are some of the most uninspiring models ever. I have often considered buying a load of their Abyssal Dwarfs to use as Chaos dwarfs. More importantly they have a model called a Goblin Mincer. And a war Trombone. :crazy:
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Nicholas Nitro »

I like that magic is part of their "shooting phase", wizards just get a 'zap' move of varying effectiveness.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by popisdead »

It's a pretty bad set of rules. I would rather play Old-hammer.

If I wanted to play checkers I would.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by PensivePanther »

Hey All,

I finally did commit to my woodies. I absolutely love those wild riders! I even bought this really neato giant owl model from CoolMiniOrNot. Anyway, I dont know if anyone cared but Mantic has just about finished their playtest for their 2nd edition rules for Kings of War. So far I'm really happy with the changes. Every game has felt competitive and fast. More my speed :)

Thanks for the advice/opinions everyone.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by razorfate »

Hi,

First i'd like to tell that altough contrary to what i've said before in this thread, i tried kings of war 2nd edition with my wood elves.

The game was a blast to me even the rules and units for 2 nd edition were not complete. The main rule book is coming in august and Mantic just released their free teaser rules this weekend.

I proxied my wild riders and glade riders as stormwind cavalry, while the glade guards and scouts were archers. The eternal guard was spearmen regiment.

If you did not play it before, i definetely reccomend you to try it at least once. The play system is somewhat similar to whfb, but the rules are more simpler and the gameplay is way faster than whfb. We finished our first game of 2000 points in 1 hours and 40 minutes.

I even got hyped and started to finish my vampire counts army.

Here is the mantic blog where you can find more about the game.
http://manticblog.com/category/games/kings-of-war/
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Ramesesis »

Me and a friend have decided to try out Kings of War and will fight a 2000 battle in the future. I will field elves.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Bogi »

I have not tried it but it looks promising. I don't like the simple unit stats. I think a game needs to have a lot of stats and the unit uniqueness should be reflected in the stats. A good game usually has all these reflected in the stats and very few special rules. A bad game usually needs to compensate it's lack of core mechanics with many special rules.

I think mantic is probably the future for us......

However there is talk about the Sweedes doing a 9th ed. This will probably be the best option if people are happy as a community to all play it. But really all is better then AoS and il play the most popular game... as long as its not AoS.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Nicholas Nitro »

I was checking out the rules and wondering if anything has wounds? Does damage remove models or is it just for the nerve test?
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Re: Kings of War

Post by razorfate »

Only the nerve test but when your unit is dealt too many wounds, then only a snake eye roll will save your unit. And sometimes double 6 will route your precious dragon. This is why inspiring leaders holding the line is very important.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by PensivePanther »

As razorfate said, wound just keep accumulating on a unit until they rout. Its sort of like your leadership checks and wound deduction rolled into one package.

Im not sure if anyone mentioned this but any unit in KoW can hold a magic item. This means that any unit can be given a specialized function. You see a lot of people (who've not played KoW) claim that the unit selections are too simple. Once you take into account the large list of magic items/artifacts, you see you can build very specialized strategies.

KoW is still about smart movement. Its about lining up the proper charges. Your heroes play a significant role in leading your troops. Just about any GW model has stat block and can be used in KoW. If 8th edition was your stick, KoW should be an enjoyable game.

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Re: Kings of War

Post by Nicholas Nitro »

Thanks for the explanation :thumbsup:
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Re: Kings of War

Post by razorfate »

After the demise of Slaanesh to make the game more child friendly, my interest in GW slowly dies. I played and liked KOW and read some of the rules for Warthrone and liked what i've read so far. I would be very happy if new forum topics would be opened for these games.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by razorfate »

Hi again,

I played a second game using my new undead. I played with a teammate versus two player team. The game was a very fun as the winner can only be declared in the final.

I hope that more people will try the game with their existing miniatures. There are two factions for the folk of Asrai: Elves and Forces of Nature.

What i liked most about the game are:
The gameplay is very smooth and fast.
The armies are internally amd externally balanced.
We can give magic items to units to customize them.
The characters are not omnipotent, the army matters.
Above all Mantic is a very social company that pays attention to its player base. They are doing this by the help of volunteers called pathfinders and members of the rule comitee.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Spiritus Sanctus »

Since WHFB is effectively dead, anyone wanting to play anything in a similar vein, will have to look elsewhere. Mantic's launched KoW v2, free basic ruleset http://www.manticgames.com/free-rules.html
Apparently improves on some areas that the original rules were pretty naff.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Phil Rossiter »

Spiritus Sanctus wrote:Since WHFB is effectively dead
In England tournaments continue to be played and new ones announced with 8th, more than with other systems.

This is worth a look for KoW:

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=78
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Nicholas Nitro »

I think gamesworkshop stole a good idea from mantic, I like this free rule trend that's going on. Mantic took some of gws's ideas too, notably that the army books are now as streamlined as the war scrolls.
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