Kings Of War Vanguard from Mantic Games is now available to pre-order from their webstore. With a full launch on October 22nd, you can now get your hands on a selection of Starter Factions and more for the game to get you started.

Kings Of War Vanguard is a skirmish game set within the world of Mantica. You play the Vanguard, the scouting force, assassins and skirmishers who head out in front of the main army to disrupt communications and waylay the enemy before the main battle starts.

You can currently play any of the main factions from Kings Of War as a Vanguard force, building up their characters and telling a story about their exploits on the tabletop. For example, you might want to play as the surly Northern Alliance...

...or rise up from the depths and destroy townships around you with the Abyssals.

Kings Of War Vanguard also expands upon one of the main human forces in the world, the Basileans. Check out these heavily armoured warriors of faith and steel.

Vanguard also threw into the mix a new faction, the Nightstalkers. These twisted creatures are nightmare fuel, ranging across the land at the head of their armies sowing discord and destruction in their wake.

This faction in particular looks inspired by what we saw Privateer Press do with the Grymkin. They have taken some very alien and strange creatures and mixed them in with twisted versions of normal townsfolk to create a faction of dark fairytale creatures.

Of course, the game expands beyond these factions here as you can take command of a force that is drawn from any of your Kings Of War armies. You just have to give them names and take them on adventures across the tabletop to earn glory and fame.

Boosters & Giants!

This range of miniatures isn't all either as the Vanguard pre-order also brings together a set of Booster Packs for each faction shown above. Here we have the Basileans...

...followed by the Nightstalkers and their strange alien kin.

Each of these sets, as well as providing you with new characters to use in your Vanguard warband, also provides you with interesting characters that might find a home in the likes of Dungeon Saga too!

It also provides you with a great way to include new characters in your Kings Of War armies when you take to the field proper. For example, if you include one of those Northern Alliance heroes in your human force it suddenly ties it into the Fantasy world of Mantica rather than feeling more 'Historical', especially if you're going for a proper Norse theme.

One of the biggest additions to the Kings Of War Vanguard campaign was their Giant and he is here, looking bigger and better than ever when you see him next to some of the other monsters in the range.

Apparently, some people have complained that he's too big. Well...he is a Giant. What did you expect? It just means that we'll just have to wait until Mantic Games makes a bigger Dragon!

All of the models here are available for pre-order now alongside a range of new accessories to help you play out your games of Vanguard on the tabletop.

It certainly seems like the mass battle game is starting to die off as many companies are turning their attention to these skirmish formats for their worlds. In saying that, Vanguard DOES have rules for tying your scenarios into your larger games of Kings Of War which is cool and it would be fun to see how that works.

Also, a final word about these sculpts. Wow. Mantic Games has come on a long way since a lot of their Kings Of War models and whilst I'm not impressed by some of the Basilean forces I think the rest are stunning. More of these please Mantic!

Will you be getting stuck into Vanguard?