Kings of War

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Amboadine
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Kings of War

Post by Amboadine »

As I posted the Avatars of War Warthrone game, it is only fair for me to post the Kings of War download links as well.

The new rules set is available to download for free on July 10th, so I will update the post accordingly.
However their site is Here.

This game is written by Alessio Cavatore an ex GW writer, hardback has a foreword from Rick Priestley and owner of Mantic is Ronnie Renton, Old GW exec. So there is a lot of GW pedigree there, from the days when is wasn't all so much about the money.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Rork »

I'll certainly be giving it a read when the rules are released.

Right now I'm mainly playing Warmachine, which is a pretty good change from the vast armies of Warhammer.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Mr_piechee »

The new rules are here, but more importantly, you can see the current beta state of all the armies here, including the rules for the twilight kin.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Amboadine »

Had a read through this morning. Looks okay at first glance.
Have ordered the book as well. Just because I like books more than a collection of printed pages.
Just need to give the rules a proper run through now.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Killerk »

And I have seen on the web, that they are going to release all the WFB army's that GW decided to drop... so yea all of them.

My gaming group is looking for a system, and I think KoW might just be it.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by T.D. »

Mr_piechee wrote:The new rules are here, but more importantly, you can see the current beta state of all the armies here, including the rules for the twilight kin.


Thanks very much for the links.

Also good to see an old timer checking in :)
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Mr_piechee »

T.D. wrote:Also good to see an old timer checking in :)


:D

After probably 5 years or so of no gaming what so ever I got inspired to convert a 40k CSM army... Still haven't played a 40k game though... But played a mordhiem campaign recently which made me remember how fun it was! and then AoS came along, which, naturally, inspired me to look into Kings of War :)

Should get a game in next week, (probably with undead), and if all goes well I'll dust my Druchii off ready for the Kin rules. (also very tempted by Abyssal Dwarves and Ogres - still undecided on Mantic Dwarves, but I really like the ogres).
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Amboadine »

Had my first game of KoW last night.
Have to say I was very pleasantly impressed. Very clean game that is easy to learn but can see how it can be tactically challenging.
Will post a bit more of a analysis soon.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Daeron »

I have yet to play it, but I'm intrigued. I was thinking of how I could make my army cross compaible, when it dawned on me that Kow doesn't specify model bases but unit bases. So, in theory, it looks like it's possible to build trays of the right size with slots for whatever base you put in. That could make it easy, cheap and so very tempting to try.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Amboadine »

Daeron wrote:I have yet to play it, but I'm intrigued. I was thinking of how I could make my army cross compaible, when it dawned on me that Kow doesn't specify model bases but unit bases. So, in theory, it looks like it's possible to build trays of the right size with slots for whatever base you put in. That could make it easy, cheap and so very tempting to try.


That is indeed one of the things that is a big plus for me. Great opportunity for conversions and unit fillers. Having had a brief look at their forums it seems that this is an established and accepted way to play with a general acceptance that as long as you have around 70% of the models in the unit and the unit base is the correct size, the rest can be modelled filler.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Mordrin Spiteblade »

I too have had a taster game and it was highly enjoyable, very easy to grasp rules and very balanced making actual tactics and manoeuvre essential. It was a damn sight quicker than WFB too. Its not as rich fluff and magic wise but magic also doesn't break the game either. 8th Edition will always be my favorite but I can imagine I'll play KoW way more often if my local group like it. Hopefully the revamped Twilight Kin will have stuff like not-cauldrons of blood and not-Witch elves, maybe some not-Cold ones would be nice too!
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Re: Kings of War

Post by jtrowell »

The temporary twilight Kin list has now officially been made available on Mantic site, they added chariots units and hydra compared to the last beta version :
http://www.manticgames.com/free-rules.html

Note that it is temporary because they plan to redo completly the army in a later supplement to make it more distinct from the other elves.

I will start with the easy matches :

-units---------------------------
Dreadspear => Spearmen
Darkshards => Crossbowmen
Witch elves => Blade dancers
Sisters of slaughter => Blade dancers
Corsairs with two weapons => Blade dancers (if you don't want to use witch elves, else mix them with the hand crossbows)
Corsairs with hand crossbows => Buccaneers (you can mix the unit with some models with two weapons if you want)
Shades => Shadows
Black Guard => Reaper Guard
Executioners => Reaper Guard
Harpies => Gargoyles
Cold ones knights => Dark knights
Dark Riders => Heralds of Woe
Chariots (both types) => use several as a Darkscythes Chariots unit
Reaper Bolt Thrower => Twilight Bolt Thrower
War Hydra => Hydra
Kharibdyss => Hydra
-characters---------------------------
Dreadlord/noble => Dark lord or Dark avenger (the Dark lord has an inspiring aura, the dark avenger does not and is only a pure fighter), note the options for cavalry mount (horse/cold one), pegasus and dragon (dark lord only for the dragon)
Sorceress => High prietess of the Abyss
Banner bearer => Army standard bearer (inspiring but weak in combat, note that you can have multiples)
Assassin => Twilight assassin
----------------------------
Now this leave the following units without a direct equivalent

Bleakswords
Doomfire Warlocks
Cauldron of Blood
Bloodwrack shrine
Medusa on foot

The medusa can be simply used as a High prietess, just give it different spells that any other caster to make it more distinct.

I would probably merge the cauldron of blood or the shrine with an unit of Bleakswords and use them as a lower abyssal units, the cauldron/shrine serving as the fluf reason for the unit having regeneration.
If the lack of the racial Vicious rule bother you, note that there is a 25 points artegact that can be equipped to the unit to git this rule.

Alternatively, if you want to keep the khainite theme of the cauldron, then you might use the same idea with executionners instead and use the lower abyssals with great weapons variant (and/or give the brew of strength to the unit)

For the warlocks, one solution is to use them as Heralds of woe, their spells being represented by the ranged attack, with maybe one artefact to make them more distinct from the normal heralds, maybe one that give a small bonus to their ranged attacks for exemple.
Alternatively, if you want to keep their original magicial defense theme, they might be used as Dark knights with the Diadem of firekin (give a breath attack to the unit)
----------------------------
From the Kings of War side we have the following units with no direct equivalent :

Lower abyssals => see above for one possible use

Twilight Dragon Breath => occasion to convert your own war machine, or maybe use somthing like the lizardmen salamander with dark elves handlers from the war hydra kit ?

Abyssals Riders => Monstruous cavalry, good occasion to convert or kitbashsomething. This might also be used to represent some kind of fast monstruous infantry/beast as long as the unit footprint matches.

Dark avenger on abyssal mount => Hero version of the abyssal riders, might maybe be used for a lone cold one chariot

Archfiend of the Abyss => Perfect for an Avatar of Khaine, using the statue from the cauldron or the Forge world model

Ba'su'su the Vile (special character) => Harpie special character, give option for an upgraded harpies unit.
----------------------------

If you read everything I wrote you will have noted note that artefacts can be equipped on normal units and not only on heroes, this is a great boon for customization, and can help give reason to use some models.

For exemple you might want to use your sisters of slaughter as blade dancers, but what if you already use witch elves as blade dancers too ? You might use both units with the same profile, but you might also use this occasion to use one of them (or both) as an unit of blade dancers with a magic artefact.

Another exemple would be the black guard and the executionners. I recommanded both as Reaper guard (unless of course you use the executionners as lower abyssals with great weapons), but one way to differentiate the two units might be to give the executionners the brew of strength (improve crushing strength by 1 so they would get a powerful CS(2)) while the black guard might get the blessings of the gods (give the Elite rule so they would reroll both the 1s on to hit roll( elite) and on damage roll (Vicious), making them even more reliable)
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Daeron »

Thank you for this big update. It looks like most of the traditional units have their place then. Now I definitely want to give this game a shot ;)
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Re: Kings of War

Post by jtrowell »

For those that want to use the free rules and army lists, the rules themselves are complete except for the following two things :

- no magic artefacts
- only the default Kill! scenario (there are 5 others in the printed rulebook)

Also the free army litst for the ratkin and twilight kin are complete, but the others are only sample lists with ~60% of the units

If you want to take a look at what the full book include, see this spreadsheet from the final beta, it inludes almost all the units entries and all the artefacts and only a few changes have been done in the final version : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... /htmlview#

Also new armies are currently being beta tested for an official supplement that will be released later this year, you can find them there :
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... =644257362

Those armies represent minor factions in the Mantica universe and are made to facilitate the use of models from other manufacturers (not only GW)

The armies are :
- League of Rhordia : humans and halflings with exotic war machines, include most Empire options not already covered by Kingdom of men or Basilea
- The Herd : beastmen
- Varangur, the Shatterred Clans : warriors of chaos
- Ratkin : skaven
- Salamanders : Lizardmen
- Empire of Dust : Tomb kings
- The Brotherhood : bretonians (well, knights, villeins and their water elemental allies)

Two more armies are supposed to be included in this supplement but they will be kept a secret until release and are being beta tested in private

It's after this supplement that another one will expend the major factions, including the Ophidians (neutral army with some undeads and *probably* a snake theme, the empire of dust are supposed to be their ancestors) the Northen Alliance (not much information yet) and the final rethinked Twilight Kin army.

This second supplement is why they didn't make a printed version of the current TK list, they didn't want to have two different army lists for the same factions in print.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Amboadine »

I have the 2nd ed rulebook and I have to say the quality is at least as good as anything GW puts out. Really nice to see the familiar names in the front cover - Alessio, Ronnie Renton, Rick Priestley, Mike McVey, Anthony Reynolds amongst other that eluded me without having the book infront of me.
The models may not be as good but they are system compatible.
Being able to get a full game in within 2 hrs is also an added bonus. All in all I am really very impressed.
Was going to start putting a little more traffic through this forum to see if others have picked up the game.
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Mr_piechee »

One of the most interesting things about the twilight kin is the potential for a return of the cult of slaanesh. With lower abyssals and mounted lower abyssals we can finally make legal cult lists :)
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Re: Kings of War

Post by Amboadine »

This is exactly my plan. :)
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Re: Kings of War

Post by jtrowell »

For a cult of Slaanesh army, I would probably ally with the Forces of the Abyss list to bring succubis and one or two temptress (succubi hero)

For 495 points, I would take two regiments of succubi and escort them with a temptree on foot (non winged version) with bane chant to inspire and buff them, this would fit in the 25% of allies for a 2000 points army.

Or I could take just one regiment (or maybe two troops) that I would use as a reserve hidden behind my TK units, and a flying tempress as a war engine and hero hunter (with both individual and stealthy she is a pain to shoot as with non magical ranged attacks, just don't go near wizards or war units with breath attacks).
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