This summer has been a bit of a washout for....well everything really but big global campaigns and tournaments has taken a definite kicking and that's a crying shame because at the start of the year there were plans afoot for a massive campaign to showcase Mantic Games 3rd edition of Kings of War.

The games people played throughout it would shape the story of Pannithor and along with feedback from those games and tournaments, the annual Clash of Kings book would shape the units in those armies bringing balance and doubtless nerd rage with them. 😉

Fear not however for Ronnie put his head down and then made Matt and the rules committee sort it out for him and so at the end of October Halpi's Rift is being released!

Halpi's Rift // Mantic Games

The Halpi Mountains south of the Abyss is to be the setting for this campaign supplement where magic is on the rise and bleeding into the world of Pannithor in a way not seen in aeons. The locations in the campaign are affected in different ways by the raw elemental magic sometimes providing your spellcasters with more powerful albeit unstable and unpredictable abilities.

For people who have been playing Kings of War for a while the spellcaster levels that were introduced in 3rd edition are now being brought into play for this magical campaign and during Mantic's virtual open day in the summer we saw the -/28 crew play through a game using them and also discussing some of the new spells and artefacts that will be appearing for the campaign.

While the amount of feedback has been hampered by the event, remain indoors, it hasn't been completely cut off, through virtual tournies being hosted across the world it has in some respects been more inclusive, as local metas that never normally pair up have been thrown together via the world wide web. So using this data along with adult discussions on the Fanatics group (nerd rage). The campaign book is also having Clash of Kings folded into it for this year. Kyle has reported that this is only two pages so I'm not expecting any major changes to armies but I think we all see the writing on the wall for Abyssal Dwarf murder mortars.

War In The Holds // Mantic Games

The campaign book is not the only thing on the horizon in October for Kings of War a new starter set is also on the way! The War in the Holds is a new starter set that will contain 40 of the new Goblin Infantry and 40 brand new Ratkin Infantry hard plastics. Alongside these core forces will be a goblin Wiz and ratkin Warlock exclusive to the box set to lead your forces in the magic heavy world of Pannithor. A ratkin Terror and three Trolls will complete the starter forces.

The set comes with the Gamer's Edition of the rulebook and a getting started guide, which works as both a quick start to the rules but also as a mini campaign if you've not yet played any Kings of War, to lead you and your opponent on your first steps in the world of massed fantasy battles. This will be replacing the Shadow's in the North set from last year, although they'll run side by side until stocks dry up, which means if you fancy a Nightstalker and Northern Alliance set you should think about snapping one up shortly.

I'm really excited to get my hands on the War in the Holds, not just for the value in the box set but to get a first grab at the new ratkin miniatures. As we saw recently with the new hard plastic goblins Mantic's style is becoming much stronger as they flesh out their world and having watched Luigi sculpting a ratkin during the open day I imagine these new figures will do the same job. The end of October is so far away I'm glad I've got the ogres to tide me over until then.

Ratkin versus Goblins, you must be this short to fight!