Posts tagged with 'Mantic Games'

Hello, Martin here (Rob’s on holiday). I just want to give you an update on what is coming up for UK Clash of Kings 2019, which is only 5 weeks away – taking place at Element Games in Stockport on the 28th and 29th of September.

The Grand Prize for best placed Mantic Army is once again a trip to play in the 2020 Clash of Kings USA event (see tournament pack for details). So make sure you get your Mantic Army painted up ready to have a shot of the grand prize!

The Tournament Pack – Please click here to download the UK 2019 rules pack

Gift Bags – Every attendee will receive an amazing gift bag which will contain the following..

• A free Mantic Giant
• A free Alternate Huscarl
• A free Kings of War Vanguard Warband Starter of your choice

To claim your free warband please email support@manticgames.com with the Header CoK 19 Warband and we will bring them for you on the day! Please include your ticket order number and your Vanguard choice.

Tickets – There are tickets remaining so don’t delay! You can get them here and just cost £50 for an action packed weekend of Fantasy Mass Battle gaming!

Other Activity – We will of course have lots of other activities going on through the weekend.

• Vanguard demo area – come and try the Skirmish game and see how it links to the Kings of War game.
• Team Tournament
• Brush with Death Painting Competition (Single figure, Unit, Army and Diorama)
• Best in faction prizes
• Spot prizes throughout the weekend
• Mantic Night Shenanigans – new and improved quiz, Ronnie and Matt Kings of War keynote, game demos and more!
• Lunch both days
• Free on-site parking

There is a rumour that there is at least one Mantic staff member playing – if you beat him (at the game), you get a SPECIAL PRIZE!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Cheers, Martin and the team.

The post Clash of Kings 2019 appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Allright, allright, allright. It’s been two weeks since we wrapped up Gen Con 2019. So let’s recap the event!

Tuesday saw myself and the non UK residents setting up the booth as per usual with Ronnie and his entourage coming in Wednesday evening.

Thursday saw a huge rush to the booth with everyone trying to grab either a Hellboy Kickstarter box, Box of Evil or the ever elusive Nimue. This little darling sold out within a hour.

The rest of the convention there was plenty of Hellboy, Terrain Crate and Star Saga to be had. There may or may not have been League figures floating about the cabinets.

The Kings of War: Vanguard Undead boxes were also gone by about Saturday.

As with everything else everyone was jumping in the Hellboy demos whenever they could. Without a doubt, Hellboy was a strong release at Gen Con.

If you thought the Exhibitor Hall was hopping. Let chat about the Events Hall. As always, with the help of our awesome Pathfinders we are able to put on some great events. From Learn to Plays to special Gen Con scenarios, we try to cover as much as we can based on demand.

This year the never tiring Mike Carter and Keith Ambrose ran some of Learn to Play Kings of War, Vanguard and Warpath.

There were also two Kings of War tournaments, the Kings of Gen Con and the How You Use It tournament.

Not forgetting the other games, we had a Gen Con special scenarios for Hellboy and Here’s Negan. We even brought back by big demand The Walker Challenge for The Walking Dead: All Out War.

For the Dreadball die hard, Crazy A ran a six player Ultimate Dreadball game plus the General Control Cup tournament. Rob Burman even asked for time off so he could play in that tournament. Let is be said the Pharoah is a fair and just ruler.

Last but not least Pathfinder Blake and company brought out the Kings of War Big Game with 10000 points a side. WHEW!

That was just the fun in the convention center! Saturday night rolled around and we had our 10th anniversary celebration at Kingsmakers by having a Mantic Open Night. Plenty of games were played. A special demonic dice game. The League may or may not have been talked about. Doomball and Dungeon Saga: Bar Room Brawl were played as well as Vanguard demos and two sessions of the Kings of War RPG were run for those that wanted to test out the beta.

Ronnie went around and chatted with all the patron at their tables with a special one on one. Many questions were asked and answered.

So with that the best show Mantic has ever had closed. I’d just like to give a special shout out to everyone who came to help and make the convention run smooth and be as awesome as it could be.

Also another big shout out to all the Pathfinders who slowly make Mantic a household name as shows and at their LFGS. You guys do me proud!

Lastly, to the Mantic fan base. From a sprue of elves to a box of killer Undead models, we at Mantic thank you for your patronage. We couldn’t have made it 10 years without you. On to the next hotness….Kings of War 3rd Edition!

The post GEN kkkhannn….. appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Welcome back Fanguards… we promise it’s the last time we’ll
try that. It’s bound to catch on eventually. After looking at the Ice &
Iron book in detail in the previous two blogs, we’re back with a preview of the
brand-new Undead warband release!

The Undead faction is the latest full faction release, which
means new units, new miniatures, updated stats and warband cards. The Undead
warband and Ice & Iron will be in stores from Monday and available to order
from the Mantic website shortly.

As you should hopefully know by now, full warband releases are an exciting opportunity for us to create new units for the existing factions. We’ve already done the same with the Trident Realm, Goblins and Forces of Nature.

With the Undead release, we basically wanted to make some
truly disgusting miniatures, with plenty of rotting flesh, shambling feet and,
of course, extra body parts.

ARKOSAUR NECROMANCER

Leading the Undead warband is the Arkosaur Necromancer.
Although the stats are the same as the standard Necromancer, we wanted the
miniature to be something a little different. You see, it’s not just humans
that can be attracted to the dark arts of necromancy, and the other noble races
of Pannithor can fall victim to its wiles.

VAMPIRE HALFLING

It has an ability called Ankle Biter. That is all you need
to know.

Oh, you really want to know more? Well again, it’s not just
humans that have their blood drained by bloodthirsty vampires. After all, that
fatty food the halflings eat probably makes them quite tasty.

Anyway, the Vampire Halfling is quite the handy fighter but
will also be good at quickly grabbing the objectives, thanks to Fly. Yes, he’s
a little bit on the slow side, but that doesn’t really matter when you can
glide over obstacles.

CRYPT GOUGER

Want to cause some more trouble with your undead minions?
Well, the Crypt Gouger is your friend! Hopefully not, that would be quite odd…
but you get our drift.

With the Crypt Gouger’s Shallow Grave action, you can place
potential spawn points around the battlefield to use when raising more zombies
or skeletons. Instead of only being able to spawn skeletons within 3” of the necromancer,
you can now make them appear near a grave marker instead. This will be perfect
for controlling objectives or raising extra units in the final stages of a game.

ZOMBIE ORC

Another new unit for the Undead are Zombie Orcs. Tougher
than your standard zombie – well, they were orcs in a former life – these are a
good offensive unit. Team it up with some other zombies to make use of the Mob Assault
ability too.

GOREBLIGHT

A disgusting mass of undead flesh, the Goreblight is a sight
to behold. The Goreblight is a definite control unit. It will most likely get off
to a slow start – unless you give it the Potion of Haste – but once in place,
it can start unleashing the Tormentor Flails. Park this brute on a high-scoring
objective and your opponent is going to have to throw some serious firepower
into shifting it.

What’s more, not only is the Goreblight entering the world of Vanguard, it will also be making the move to Kings of War: Third Edition. Here’s a sneak peek at the work in progress rules (subject to change).

Well, hope you enjoyed this quick look through some of the new Undead units in Vanguard. Of course, these aren’t all you’ve got to look forward to and the warband also includes: the Barrow Wight, Zombie Troll, Soul Reaver and more!

The post Vanguard – Undead Warband Preview appeared first on Mantic Blog.

We’re back Vanguard fans – or should we say, Fanguards?
Nope. Ok, we’ll never mention that again *whispers Fanguards*. Anyway, we’re
back with another sneak peek at the soon to be released Ice & Iron
supplement.

Yesterday, we had a quick look at the campaign elements of
the new book. The campaign makes up around half of what you’ll find in Ice
& Iron, while the second half of the book includes the updated warbands. Like
football, it’s a game of two halves.

Almost a year on since Vanguard shipped to Kickstarter backers, we thought this was a good opportunity to tweak and update the warbands that have been in the book or available as warband cards since last year. We’ve received plenty of feedback from people playing Vanguard and have analysed tournament results to see if any factions where below or above the curve *cough, orcs, cough*

Although Vanguard is mainly a game about creating your
warband and watching it grow across the course of a campaign, we also want to
make sure it’s competitive for tournaments. After all, we’ve had a great
response to our sold-out Spearhead events here at HQ and third party
tournaments (like the upcoming WOFcon weekender) continue to sell out too. So,
with that in mind we wanted to do a bit of adjusting.

Before we go on to the warband changes, we want to make it clear that alongside the printed lists in the book, any updates to existing warbands will also be available on EasyArmy from August 19^th and we’ll be producing a new starter warband PDF on the website too.

Plus, if you like to have the warband cards as a reference, we mentioned that these will be coming for free with purchases of Ice & Iron from the Mantic website. Anyway, enough with the public service message, let’s get on to some of those key warband changes!

BASILEANS – OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE IRON
RESOLVE

The elephant in the room for Basileans was certainly Iron Resolve. In the original version of the rules, Basileans could spend two Power to roll Armour saves at an unmodified 3+. Turns out that was quite powerful!

In Ice & Iron this has been subtly changed so that each model can only use Iron Resolve once per Round. This means you’ve got a difficult decision to make about when to use it. Plus, opponents can throw weaker attacks at you, to keep chipping away and potentially force you into using Iron Resolve – knowing you won’t be able to use it again later in the Round.

What’s more, the Basilean Sergent no longer generates any Power Dice.

DWARFS – FEEL THE POWER!

Dwarfs were one of the factions that we felt were a little behind the curve – particularly when it came to positioning and producing Power. The first change for the Dwarfs is the addition of a new Warband Special Ability: Bullheaded. This gives them +1 to Headstrong rolls, so you’ve got more chance of clearing Fatigue without spending Power. Of course, the benefit to this is that you can potentially push your Dwarfs harder without worrying about Fatigue in the following Round.

The other big change for Dwarfs is reducing the cost of some
units and also changing their type. For example, the Mastiff Pack Master is now
a Warrior, rather than a Support – which makes it much easier to add them into
your warband.

Some of the key units have also had a makeover. The Steel
Juggernaut drops from 48 points to 44 points and the Tremor Stromp now only
costs 2 Power to use. He also gains the Headstrong ability, so you don’t have
to worry so much about Fatiguing him and his speed has increased to 5!

In similar fashion, the Flame Priest also gets a points decrease from 36 to 30pts, as does the Ironguard, dropping from 27 to 23.

There’s also the addition of a brand-new unit: the Berserker
Lord. This chap is an absolute beast in combat, thanks to the Frenzy special
rule. When Charging an injured model, the Berserker Lord is potentially rolling
seven(!) dice and hitting on 4+. Get ready to delete some fools.

NORTHERN ALLIANCE – DAZZLE & DELIGHTS

First up, we’ve cleared up any confusion regarding the Hardy
Veterans special rule and made it clear that this can be used any number of
times during a Round. Next, the Ice-Queen has been give a little boost with the
addition of the Dazzle spell and the Lash ability, which allows her to cast
Lightning as a Short action. Elsewhere the Thegn’s Head Swing ability has been
improved, as targets now suffer a -1 modifier on their Nerve Tests.

Meanwhile, the Ice Kin Hunter has had a tasty points drop
(going from 26 to 22pts), plus the wording for Rapid Fire has been tidied up.
Finally, the Snow Troll Prime gains the Inspiring ability.

OGRES – BRUTAL BUT BEAUTIFUL

Brutal Roar has been amended to firstly ensure it can be used
any number of times during a Round and also to stop the target unit Retaliating.
This is handy when going up against powerful units, like the Snow Troll Prime.

ABYSSAL DWARFS

No changes here, but that’s because they’ll be getting a full warband release early next year *excitement intensifies*

FORCES OF THE ABYSS – WONDER WARLOCK

A handful of changes for the Forces of the Abyss. The Hellhound
has dropped in points from 19 to 15, making it easier to squeeze at least one
into your warband.

The Warlock – one of the great models to walk this earth –
also has a few changes. It now generates a Red Power Die (helping you to
hopefully use that Range Boost ability) and gains the Steady ability, so he’s
harder to knock down. The inclusion of the Red Dice has increased his points slightly,
but only from 35 to 36.

EMPIRE OF DUST – NO LONGER SEEING RED

Nothing major here, apart from the Pharaoh’s Champion losing
a Red Power Die.

GOBLINS

Perfect already.

NIGHTSTALKERS – POWER BOOST

A number of the changes for the Nightstalkers, as it was
felt they were struggling to generate enough Power to trigger their
mind-melting abilities and some options were a little too expensive. For
starters, the Shadowhound has dropped from a whopping 22 points to just 17
points.

On the Power front, the Shade has received a boost from one white
and one red Power Dice, and now generates two white dice. Even better, the points
stay the same! Likewise, the Reaper Souldrinker now generates two red Power
Dice (rather than one), which should make it easier to Trigger the Soul Thirst
ability.

ORCS – KRUDGED

Well, well, well… you know there may be a problem when a
faction places first, second, third and fourth in a tournament – and that’s exactly
what happened with Orcs at our Spearhead event. Orcs were the perfect storm
really, a Krudger generating three red Power Dice each Round and cheap, effective
shooting units, courtesy of Skulks.

The Krudger has been amended so it is now only generating two
red Power Dice each Round, plus the Savage ability has been increased to cost
two Power. It also loses Stubborn, which was a little pointless, as it was
already Inspiring.

Skulks have lost Scout – so you can’t deploy them so easily,
which will make it harder to control the battlefield. But it’s not all bad! The
Krusher gets a boost to generate one white Power Die each Round and can now
Inspire Grunts and Warriors. It has even dropped in points from 38 to 34…
although its Melee has dropped to 3D8.

Elsewhere the God Speaker now generates one white Power Die
per Round and gets the God-fuel spell as standard. Although it has increased in
points from 28 to 31. Overall then, a slightly harsh but definitely fair adjustment
to the Orcs.

UNDEAD

No changes as the warband has just been released. However, if you picked up the Undead Warband Set at Gen Con, the Wraith card has got the wrong points on. We’ll be replacing these cards free of charge. Just contact support@manticgames.com to let us know.

UNCHARTED EMPIRES

Ice & Iron also include all the stats from the faction previously only available as a downloadable PDF. No a great deal of changes here, apart from the Twilight Kin and Herd factions have been knocked back a bit.

Crikey, so a lot to digest there! Alongside the release of Ice & Iron we’ll be producing a new errata and FAQ too, which will make it clear which stats you should be using in your games. Stay tuned for that! Tomorrow, we’ll be taking a look at the new Undead warband.

The post Ice & Iron: Warband Updates appeared first on Mantic Blog.

After all the incredible Kings of War excitement last week,
it’s time to change gears for this week’s blogs and talk Vanguard! All this
summer we’ve got a big fantasy focus – whether it’s discussing all the upcoming
changes and improvements in Kings of War or taking a look at Vanguard. If
you’re a fan of fantasy, the next few months are going to be chock-a-block with
news.

In the world of Vanguard, there two big things to talk
about: Ice & Iron (the new supplement) and the release of the Undead
Warband – both of which are due for release this month. In today’s blog, we’re
going to be talking about Ice & Iron. However, before we start rattling on,
let’s hear from Matt Gilbert, the designer of Vanguard about everything inside
the new supplement.

Erm… so that’s spoilt a lot of what we were going to say in
the blog, but never mind. We’ll go into a little more detail about some of the
elements mentioned in the video. First of all, let’s look at the campaign
setting. As Matt mentioned, Ice & Iron is set in the frozen wastes of the
Winterlands, as the Abyssal Dwarfs strike on the Northern Alliance capital of
Chill.

WEATHER IT OUT

The new themed setting brings with it a lot of extra content for your games of Ice & Iron. First up, you’ve got the weather table. Before each game you roll a D8 to see if the weather is changeable – on a roll of 1-4, you can keep your shorts on and get the suncream out. On a 5-8, you then need to roll on the weather table.

There are eight different weather effects, ranging from Freezing Fog to a mighty Snow Storm. All of these will impact your games in new and exciting ways. Of course, you don’t have to only use the weather table in Ice & Iron-themed games, you can use it to add some more spice to any game of Vanguard.

ADORE TO EXPLORE

Alongside the weather table, the campaign setting also
brings with it a brand-new exploration table. As you might expect, there aren’t
many dragons in the Winterlands, so you’ll be exploring the caves of Cavern
Dwellers for treasure. Conversely, the changeable weather might mean your party
gets completely lost and might not be available for the next game. There are 12
new exploration results included in the supplement.

Onto the campaign scenarios then, and you’ll find seven new
scenarios in Ice & Iron:

• Breakthrough – designed for 150pt skirmishes, each player must try and escape from the opposite side of the board
• Snowblind – visibility is reduced as the warbands hunt for a magical artefact
• Canyon Patrol – a vicious battle in a frozen valley
• Black Ice – a desperate struggle up a slippery mountain
• Meteorite Storm – larger battles with warbands hunting for meteorite fragments
• Tunnel Fight – fighting in enclosed environments
• King of the Hill – multiplayer scenario for up to four players

Again, you don’t have to play these new scenarios as part of
the Ice & Iron campaign, and you could use any as a standalone game of
Vanguard. In fact, we’re considering using the fantastic Meteorite Storm in the
upcoming Spearhead II tournament.

UPDATED WARBANDS

We’ll be detailing the updated warbands a little more in a
future blog, however in the video Matt mentioned updated warband cards. With
Vanguard, when we have a full faction release, we also release warband cards
for that particular faction. So far, we’ve released the following:

• Northern Alliance
• Nightstalkers
• Forces of the Abyss
• Basileans
• Dwarfs
• Forces of Nature
• Trident Realm
• Goblins

As part of the Ice & Iron release, we’ve reviewed some
of the existing units and some of the stats have been changed appropriately. As
well as including the updated stats in Ice & Iron (which will also be
updated on EasyArmy too), we’re also printing a set of updated cards – for
those players that like to use the warband cards as a reference.

This set of 30 updated cards will be available to purchase
from the Mantic website, but we’re also pleased to announce that all orders of
Ice & Iron direct from Mantic will come with a FREE set of the updated
warband cards.

The cards included in this updated warband card pack are:

• 2 x Abyssal Hellhound cards
• Abyssal Warlock
• Basilean Warband ability card
• 2 x Basilean Sergeant
• 2 x Basilean Gur Panther
• Dwarf Warband ability card
• 2 x Dwarf Ironguard
• Dwarf Mastiff Packmaster
• Dwarf Flamepriest
• Dwarf Steel Juggernaut
• Dwarf Berserker Lord
• Forces of Nature Salamander Veteran
• 3 x Nightstalker Phantom
• 3 x Nightstalker Shadowhound
• Nightstalker Shade
• Nightstalker Reaper Souldrinker
• Northern Alliance Warband ability card
• Northern Alliance Ice-Queen
• Northern Alliance Thegn
• 2 x Northern Alliance Ice Kin Hunter
• Northern Alliance Snow Troll Prime

Ice & Iron, plus the Undead warband, will be available to order later this week. Come back tomorrow, when we take a closer look at some of the warband updates.

The post Vanguard: Ice & Iron Preview appeared first on Mantic Blog.

After several days showcasing the new hotness, today we’re
cooling things down with a preview of the brand-new Northern Alliance army!
After their debut in Vanguard, the Northern Alliance – with its mix of humans,
half-elves, dwarfs, trolls and other creates – has become one of our most popular
factions. So, it seemed only fitting this new faction should form the centrepoint
of our Third Edition releases.

As previewed earlier this week, the Northern Alliance are
the joint stars of our new two-player starter set, Shadows in the North.
However, that’s only just the beginning of what we’ve got planned for these frosty
fighters. In today’s blog, we’re showcasing the new units you’ll find in the Northern
Alliance Army and Mega Army sets.

CLANSMEN

The humans of the Northern Alliance come mostly from the Northern Clans who have sworn allegiance to Talanaar, but can come from many disparate lands. Of these, some are remnants of eastern tribes devastated by Varangur raids. Others are refugees of wars to the south, or exiled from the numerous Kingdoms of Men. Whatever their heritage, each has found a home as part of the Alliance, and will fight to their last breath to protect it.

TUNDRA WOLVES

Packs of Tundra Wolves are commonly spread throughout the
northern regions of Mantica. Their thick arctic fur is a prized possession
among the human tribes and clans, but many have also become semidomesticated. The
ultimate prize for any hunter are wolf pups, which, when trained, become
ferocious guardians and invaluable hunting aides.

SNOW FOXES

Snow foxes also make for great hunting companions and are
used by both Ice Kin and clansmen alike. Sometimes, they are trained in packs
to harass and disrupt enemy lines, distracting them for long enough for other,
hard hitting Alliance units, to move into position.

ICE KIN BOLT THROWER

Bulky war engines are impractical in the environments the
Alliance operates within and defends. Treacherous snow and ice, steep rocky
landscapes and inclement weather all curtail the use of what many armies would
consider mandatory and conventional artillery. The Alliance is not without
ingenuity however, and the Ice Kin have adapted the bolt throwers of their
southern kin to develop their own version capable of great mobility and
light-weight practicality, while still delivering a chilling and devastating
punch to their foes.

SNOW TROLLS

Snow Trolls are remarkably intelligent compared to other
members of their race. Those that march into battle alongside the Alliance
could almost be called clever, to a degree. They wear armour, rather than
having it crudely nailed into their flesh, and can understand and obey orders
as well as most humans. When it comes to combat, however, they still tend to
grab the biggest object to hand and pummel it into the enemy.

SNOW TROLL PRIME

All trolls are fighters, even the smarter ones found in the
far north. When that intellect is turned to warfare, some Snow Trolls seem to
be gifted with tactics and strategy beyond expectations. Elevated above their
kin to a command role, Snow Troll Primes are greatly respected by the Trolls
they lead, as well as the other warriors in the Alliance for their fearsome
leadership and brutal efficiency.

ICE NAIADS

There are Naiad populations spread all over the world – even
beneath the polar ice. These beings have adapted to the colder climate they
dwell in and can survive near-freezing temperatures both above and below the
waves. Wielding weapons with crystalline ice blades many times harder than
steel, these implacable beings now fight alongside the forces of Alliance as
long as the Talannar’s promises hold true.

SKALD

To be a skald in the clans is to bear an immense responsibility.
Little is physically documented and tradition dictates that all the memories,
knowledge and history of the tribes and clans are learnt, maintained and retold
by their skalds. Due to their vast knowledge of what has gone before, skalds are
often close advisors to both Thegns and Lords alike.

CLAN LORD

The tribe chiefs and clan lords serve directly in Talannar’s
Witan, the council where all strategic decisions are made, whether political or
military. Accompanied by their personal champions, the Skjoldcarls, they are
the generals in his armies and such are the demands of the role, and the difficulty
in travelling and maintaining order across the vast areas they are responsible
for, they may only visit Chill once or twice a year.

THEGN ON FROSTFANG

Serving under the chiefs and lords are the Thegns. These powerful and imposing warriors command deep respect from friend and foe alike. Few of the clans in the foothills and lower slopes of the Howling Peaks and in the northern-most limits of the Ogre Lands have managed to tame the brutal and elusive Frost Fangs. These beasts are an ancient, primeval ancestor of the Gur Panthers that the forces of Basilea employ in battle. Where the panthers are sleek and graceful, the Frost Fangs are heavy-set but hugely powerful. Known to the shattered clans as Direfangs, they are savage killers, covered in a thick hide and dense white fur.

ICE KIN HUNTERS

The Ice Kin are more rugged than their southern brethren. They dress in thick furs and leather, the delicate fabrics worn by the other elves not being suited to the lands of the north. Despite their rougher appearance, these elves are every bit as graceful and swift as those of other kindred. With sharp blades and sharper senses, they fight to protect their newfound home, their winter attire doing little to stymie their elven celerity.

HALF-ELF BESERKERS

More impetuous and hotblooded than their elven kin, they
struggle with their dual heritage, constantly fighting internal battles to
retain control. Only the Ice Kin, backed by the understanding of Talannar for
their plight, are willing to take these unfortunate beings in, helping them to
temper their anger and focus it on the field of battle for a good and worthy
cause. As such they are ferocious fighters, shunning armour and embracing the climes
of their adoptive home.

Pre-orders for the Northern Alliance and all the other Third Edition releases will be going live with retailers and on the Mantic website from today!

The post Kings of War: Third Edition – The Northern Alliance appeared first on Mantic Blog.

CHOOOOOO! CHOOOOOO! What’s that noise? Oh, it’s only the Kings
of War: Third Edition Hype Train pulling into the station once more. So far this
week, we’ve previewed the new rulebook and the excellent two-player starter
set. Today, we’re taking a look at some BIG models before talking more about the
Northern Alliance (and another wonderful surprise) tomorrow.

With Kings of War: Third Edition we wanted to make sure that every army has a standout centrepiece. You know, that mighty mini that you get inspired by and build your army around. We’ve got some already for Second Edition – with the likes of the Steel Behemoth, Chroneas or Greater Water Elemental – but for Third Edition we want to go even BIGGER! So, say hello to the Titans!

Titans are a new class of unit in Third Edition and
typically come on a 75mm base. Of course, we’ve already seen some – like the Giant,
Terror and Greater Earth Elemental – in Second Edition, but the launch of Third
Edition gives us the chance to make even more (and even bigger) Titans.

FROST GIANT

Let’s start with one of the biggest: the Frost Giant. If you were smart enough to jump on the Vanguard Kickstarter, there’s a chance you’ll have this lumbering, angry mass in your collection already. Standing 18cm (7 inches) tall, this is a part plastic and resin kit to turn the standard plastic giant into a chilly beast. You might be able to guess what army this will be part of – but just in case, we’re happy to announce the Frost Giant will be joining the ranks of the Northern Alliance.

LORD ON CHIMERA

The Frost Giant isn’t the only Titan the Northern Alliance
can add to their army. The Lord on Chimera is a spectacular monster that’s
likely to strike fear into even the toughest of foes. A fearsome mix of dragon,
goat and Frostfang, the Chimera isn’t a Titan to be messed with. For those
interested, this will be a resin kit.

KRAKEN

The Kraken wakes! We’ve been talking about the Kraken for a
while and with Third Edition it’s finally getting a release. You can add the Kraken
to your Trident Realm army… but it probably wouldn’t look out of place as an
alternate Terror for all you Nightstalker fans out there. The Kraken is a
plastic and resin kit.

PHOENIX

Basileans rejoice, the Phoenix is flying into view. The Phoenix has been in the Basilean army list for a while and we’re delighted to bring it to the tabletop.

BREAKING NEWS – just been informed the Phoenix will also be flying its way into the Salamanders army for Third Edition.

GOBLIN SLASHER

Last, but certainly not least, we’ve got the Goblin Slasher. Dragged from its cave with a sharpstick thrower clumsily strapped to its back, it’s no wonder the Slasher looks so pissed off. Then again, the goblins look pretty pleased with themselves.

The release schedule for these mighty Titans is as follows:

• Frost Giant and Chimera – October
• Kraken, Phoenix and Goblin Slasher – December

Of course, these aren’t the only Titans we’ve got up our massive sleeves and 2020 will see plenty of surprises. I mean, what army could the Hellfane be for?

Anyway, make sure you head back to the Mantic Blog tomorrow for more Kings of War: Third Edtion reveals, including a closer look at the Northern Alliance.

The post Kings of War: Third Edition – Titans appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Have you recovered from the excitement of yesterday’s rulebook tease? We’ve had a fantastic response so far from the Kings of War community and we’ve still got plenty more to reveal. Oh, and just in case you want more rulebook peeks, head over to OnTabletop for some additional pages. Anyway, on to today’s blog, which is covering the brand-new two-player starter set: Shadows in the North.

Two-player starter sets are always a great introduction to a
game, and we’ve had fantastic success with previous sets, such as Battle for
the Glades and Battle for Iron Hold. With a two-player set, you can share the
cost with a friend and get two great starter armies, ready to learn the game.
Or, of course, you can keep all the wonderful minis for yourself!

With Third Edition, we want as many people as possible to get into Kings of War, so we’ve put together a very exciting set that’s packed with the new hotness: Nightstalkers and Northern Alliance! Shadows in the North tells the story of a Nightstalker incursion into the Winterlands. Inside the set, you’ll get a booklet that gives some background on the story, details about each faction and a mini campaign to help you learn the ropes.

TO ARMS!

Of course, the most exciting element of Shadows in the North
is all the sweet, sweet miniatures – and we’ve picked out a fantastic selection
to get you started with two armies. 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

That’s right, for the Northern Alliance we’ve got a brand-new hard plastic kit that can be used to build either Clansmen or Pack Hunters, plus we’ll have upgrade kits to give them two-handed weapons and bows. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg for the new Northern Alliance releases, and we’ll have a full run down on Friday.

RULEBOOK

The two-player starter set is packed full of lovely plastic miniatures,
which we would hate to crush with a massive 400-page hardback tome. So, with that
in mind, Shadows in the North will come with a 200-page softback rulebook,
rather than the limited-edition hardback rulebook we spoke about yesterday.

Well, hope you enjoyed today’s chat about the two-player starter set. Will you be picking it up? And what army will you be playing?

* these can be built as Clansmen or Pack Hunters

** these can be built as Scarecrows or Spectres

The post Kings of War Third Edition: Shadows in the North appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Phew… we’ve just recovered from the madness of GenCon but the excitement isn’t close to stopping! Last month we announced that Kings of War Third Edition is due for release this October and now we’re delving deeper into this hugely anticipated launch.

The Third Edition is the perfect opportunity for us to make sure Kings of War is the absolute best mass fantasy battle game ever. Mantic, alongside the rules committee and playtesters, have been working extremely hard to make sure this edition evolves and develops the groundwork laid by Second Edition and the subsequent Clash of Kings supplements.

There’s already a great deal of excitement about the new edition but over the next week, we’ll be turning that excitement up to 11! Each day we’ll be revealing one of the new products that will be coming out as part of the Third Edition release, before pre-orders go live with our retailer partners and Mantic website from Friday. Anyway, enough of that, let’s crack on with the first spotlight…

KINGS OF WAR THIRD
EDITION HARDBACK RULEBOOK

Well, it seems like a good idea to start with the rulebook! The
first print of Third Edition will be a limited-edition hardback rulebook – and we’re
expecting it to sell out pretty fast. So, if you want to prove your dedication
to KoW, this is the book for you.

This mighty tome is almost double the size of Second Edition
and clocks in at around 400 pages! Now, don’t worry, that doesn’t mean we’ve made
the rules twice as complicated. Instead, you’ll find around 200 pages of background
on the world of Pannithor and the many races that inhabit it.

RULE THEM ALL

Our designer Duncan has been very busy laying out all the
pages and making sure the new book looks amazing. It should still feel familiar
to Kings of War fans but has been given a glossy makeover.

A little like Second Edition, the army lists begin with a
brief introduction about the background of the faction. Unlike Second Edition
though, this introductory fluff gives details about each unit – rather than
being included alongside the unit listing itself. This cleans things up nicely
when it comes to army lists.

ARMY LISTS

The unit entries have had a major overhaul, particularly when it comes to units that can be taken as troops, regiments, hordes or legions. Now the shared stats for these unit sizes (Sp, Me, Ra and De) are shown to the left, while stats that change due to the unit size are shown to the right.

Underneath you’ll see any Special Rules and something else new for Third Edition, keywords. Some Special Rules only affect a unit with a particular Keyword.

What’s more, we’ve made Unit Strength much clearer and it’s now included alongside the unit entry (under the heading US).

Of course, we’ll have more information on what’s changed
stats-wise for each army as we near the launch. The Army Lists included in the rulebook
are (drum roll please):

• Basileans
• Dwarfs
• Elves
• Northern Alliance
• Forces of Nature
• Ogres
• The Trident Realm
• Abyssal Dwarfs
• Forces of the Abyss
• Empire of Dust
• Goblins
• Nightstalkers
• Orcs
• Undead

But where is [x] army? Fret not dear reader. Armies of Pannithor (the Third Edition equivalent of Uncharted Empires) will be released just six weeks after the launch of Third Edition. So, you’ve got time to digest the new rules before cracking on with stuff like Ratkin. We’ll be covering the armies included in this supplement in a future blog.

BACKGROUND

There’s an entire section dedicated to giving more background on the world of Pannithor (previously known as Mantica). Pannithor is in fact the wider world, while Mantica was the area of the map we previously focused on.

Alongside the history of Pannithor there are more details on
each faction too. Perfect, if you want to delve into your favourite army, or
choose a theme for a new one.

Well, there’s plenty of information to digest there. Tomorrow we’ll be talking about the brand-new two-player starter set, Shadows in the North.

The post Kings of War Third Edition: The Rulebook appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Can you believe it has been 10 years since Mantic went to its first Gen Con? To celebrate we want to make sure that this year’s Gen Con is our biggest yet! This means we’ll have some world exclusive launches, great deals and plenty of fun at Mantic Night.

HELLBOY

First up is the big news! We will have the very first copies of the brand-new expansion, The Wild Hunt – flown straight in from China. This will be the first time the expansion has been available anywhere in the world, but we’ve only got 50 copies, so you might need to be quick to get yours! And don’t worry if you’re not at the show, the expansion will be available from retailers and the Mantic website in September.

If you missed out on the Kickstarter, we have the last few Hellboy Kickstarters copies available in the USA at our booth 835. There are less than 100 of these – and they are on a first come, first served basis (plus use the voucher from the coupon book to get $20 off).

You want more Hellboy
madness? We will have the new Hellboy Show Exclusive Nimue, the Blood Queen
miniature available in very limited amounts at the stand. Don’t worry if you
can’t make it to Gen Con, Nimue will be available at other shows we attend and
from the Mantic website soon!

THE WALKING DEAD

Call to Arms will be making its debut at Gen Con. On the stand we’ll have the new book available, along with the faction cards and equipment deck. If you want to take your games of All Out War to the next level, then this is a vital purchase.

For Walking Dead fans,
Gen Con will be the first opportunity in the US to grab our Show Exclusive
Chris, Leader of the Hunters. Not only do you get Chris, but he also comes with
two gruesome resin objective markers.

MANTIC NIGHT

Also at Gencon we have the legendary Mantic Night. The ticket costs $30 but for that you get the 10 Year Mantic Gencon Celebration pint pot, a pint of craft beer to put in it (or other tasty beverage of your choice) and a $30 voucher to spend on the Mantic stand. So basically, we are paying you to come and spend the evening with us! How amazing is that? See you Saturday at 8pm at the Kingsmaker Board Game Parlour, where we can chat, drink and game!

And, of course, come by booth 835 for the usual demos, bargains and deals. Fill up on all the usual Mantic goodness, or head over to the gaming area and watch the awesome demos and participation games (or have a go… if you can still find any tickets available).

Hope to see you at
Gencon, or at a show soon – best wishes

Ronnie

It’s nearly here… and it is going to be HUUUUGGGEEEE…

The post Ronnie Talks Gen Con 2019 appeared first on Mantic Blog.

It’s only a week away until the biggest games show in the worrrrrrrrrrld! We’re currently getting the final bits and bobs ready to make this Gen Con our biggest yet. Of course, we’ve already announced that Wild Hunt, the new Hellboy expansion will be making its Gen Con debut, and talked about the super intimate Mantic Night… but that’s not all!

Ice & Iron, the new Vanguard supplement will be available (in limited numbers) three weeks before its retail launch. In this new book, you’ll find a brand new campaign setting, new equipment, new scenarios and updated unit stats. Think of it like Command Protocols for Deadzone or Clash of Kings for Kings of War.

We’ll be delving deeper into the world of Ice & Iron after Gen Con, but just trust us when we say this is going to be an essential purchase for any Vanguard player.

UNDEAD FACTION

As if Ice & Iron wasn’t already exciting enough, we’ll also have the pre-launch of the Undead faction (seen in this sneaky preview above). Have you always wanted a vampire halfling? What about an Arkosaur necromancer? Perhaps your heart’s desire is a zombie orc (zorc, for short)? Well, the Undead faction is the thing for you, my slightly creepy friend.

Again, we’ll be delving into the undead faction in more detail once we’re back from Gen Con but this warband launch adds plenty of unit options to the faction… and a few units may eventually work their way into Kings of War Third Edition *hint, hint*

Of course, you could get a lovely discount on all of the above by attending the exclusive Mantic Night! All attendees receive a $30 voucher that they can spend on the booth at any time during the show. So, you can pop down on day one to snap up the Vanguard releases before anyone else. Get your ticket here.

For those not heading to Gen Con, don’t worry! All of these new releases will be available for pre-order from the new and improved Mantic website in a couple of weeks. Exciting times!

The post Vanguard at Gen Con 2019 appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Hello everyone! Hopefully by now you’re up to speed on all the Kings of War Third Edition excitement. Basically, it’s coming this October. It’s going to be awesome. You need to get it.

Of course, we are VERY excited here at HQ and a bunch of us have started preparing new armies for Third Edition. Last week we kicked off our new series (Road to Third Edition) with a preview of what some of us are working on. Today we’re back with some more armies from Kyle, Clive and Elvis. Over to you…

KYLE – NORTH AMERICAN SALES (FORCES OF NATURE)

I’ve always wanted to build up an all elemental Forces of Nature army. With the Road to Third Edition, this was a great opportunity to complete the force with Surge-able goodness! Starting with a core of Earth Elemental hordes, I’ll be adding the gorgeous Fire Elementals for incredible hitting power in two full hordes. Painting up raging flames personified means the color should really pop. I’ll also be building out three regiments of Water Elementals.

Their speed and regeneration makes them quite an annoying target even in regiment sizes. I’m thinking about doing a different season basing theme with each unit too. Autumn for earth, Summer for water, and Spring for fire. If I’m lucky and their powers combine, I might just summon a famous blue superhero from my childhood.

The great thing about elementals is they’re available in a variety of different armies. So this force can stand alone as a Forces of Nature army or I will already have a solid foundation to start a NEW army where they’re also featured. Because let’s be honest… we’re all looking at what that next army could be.

CLIVE (aka Cleric) – UK SALES (ORCS)

Hello – it’s my turn, Cleric! I told myself I didn’t need another army, having just painted three Kings of War Armies (Northern Alliance/Varangur, Undead and Ogre forces, all to 1,000-1,500 points). But then I have always had a soft spot for two Mantic armies that I have always wanted to do, but never did. So it was either Basileans or Orcs. Since someone else was already starting Basileans, I snagged the Orcs and started work. So this happened…

I build my armies in massive chunks, but rarely paint them all up. However, I have found a great incentive is to plan to paint for a tournament, so I plan to get 1,000 points painted by September for a small 1K tournament I will be attending. That gives me time to work on these and inevitably change my list three times and paint more stuff! I mean I could’ve used an army I already started… but where’s the fun in that?

I’ve had the Krudger on Winged Slasher built for a while now, just because it’s an awesome model, so first up was that to lead to the army. Then I decided to add a Giant… because… you know, reasons.

The real beauty of the Mega Armies is the fact I managed to snag enough spares to prepare a small Vanguard warband too, so whilst painting through this army, I will get the Orc Warband done at the same time! With some clever multibasing, I should be able to use them for both.

ELVIS – CUSTOMER SERVICES (BROTHERHOOD… KIND OF)

I don’t hide the fact that I give Rob stick for the fact he killed so many Brotherhood and left them a splinter force scattered across the land [Ed’s note – they’re not killed, they just got a bit beaten up]. This being said I came from a now long-dead gaming system where I played an army of colourful Knights. When I moved over to Kings of War I started fresh with another army. But with the Third Edition coming it was a nice excuse to start a new army, and what better way than to play Brotherhood and continue to give Rob office smack talk?

So my idea for the past year is to do an undead-themed Brotherhood army – using all Mantic miniatures, of course. With a nice mix of knights (undead and vampire), they are the perfect proxy, and the dead can come back to haunt Rob. I wanted to turn the army on its head, but it will still look and act like a Brotherhood army.

Just with units of vampires on Undead Pegasuses/Pegausi/Pegis/Pegs along with water elementals (or bloodementals.) This way I can use the army as undead (most of it anyway) or Brotherhood. I wanted to start off with the centrepiece of the army: my Exemplar Forsaker, aka my vampire lady on the undead dragon. I wanted to go to town on the zombie dragon and make it look extra gory. I hope to take this across the whole army.

The post Road to Kings of War Third Edition – Part Deux appeared first on Mantic Blog.