It's a Massive October for fans of Mantic Games as new rules have landed on their digital companion app for the Science-Fiction game Firefight, and the full rules for Twilight Kin are now in the companion army builder as well ahead of the release of the new miniatures on October the 18th.

Firefight Command Protocols // Mantic Games

Firefight won our Game of the Year for 2022's OnTableTop awards and with good reason, it's a slick fast fast-paced sci-fi game that allows you to chuck a chunk of minis on the table and play out some interesting scenarios that require you to think on the hop. The faction's special abilities being tied to the commander you choose lets players tailor the force in significantly different ways which I adore.

With the release of Command Protocols Mantic have revisited it in a more significant way than I think many players expected. Kings of War has an annual release that tweaks lists and sometimes adds new units for game balance, while at the same time reviewing and clarifying how rules wording and real world gameplay impact the mechanics. With Firefight after a years worth of play in the wild they decided to go for a larger book and address all the things that have come out as players cheese their way to victory 😉

But not only have the rules been addressed there is a wealth of additional content with Command Protocols, eight new battle missions have been added replacing the originals and freshening up the game, along with suggested terrain density for the missions. The Mazon Labs army list is now officially added after the playtest version and with it Strike Force list building has been tweaked to prevent spam lists and open up options.

Finally and certainly the biggy is the inclusion of new vehicle types and with it a new game mode that flips Fightfight on its head. Annihilation game mode makes the default core of the strike force vehicles or mechanised units and with the new vehicle variants it totally changes how the game plays out. Mantic has also added specific missions for the Annihilation game mode so you are not just playing a mission with tanks instead of infantry.

All of the changes and the full rules from the Command Protocol Book are now available on the Companion App for players to check out.

Twilight Kin // Mantic Games

The new miniatures have been shown off during the pre-order but now the Twiglets are in the home straight for the release on the 18th but now we have the full army list to shove our faces in and go Rwlrwlrwlrwl. For those who don't know about the elves better kin on Pannithor the Twilight Kin are those elves who cling to the dream of a remade Ileureleith, the city that was destroyed when the Fenulian Mirror shattered. In the immediate aftermath of the city’s destruction, great numbers of elves gathered at the edge of the crater. Those who could not bear to leave their home were overwhelmed with sorrow and eventually began to climb down into the Pit of Despair where they would begin a difficult new life. Torn between the darkness of the Pit and the bright memory of their old home, but belonging fully to neither, these elves became known as the Twilight Kin.

It's going to take some time to devour it and work out the fluffiest list but there are some fascinating things already to look at. We know that the Twiglets have subjugated Nightstalkers a lot of them appear in the list as Bound. These units don't have the mindthirst that they would have in the Nightstalker list but that is compensated by Inspiring being available through the Twiglet heroes. The other thing is that most of the Bound units are irregular, you won't be building a list with Nightstalkers as core, which makes sense as if you want to do that then play Nightstalkers.

One of the new plastics the Voidtouched Weavers have a really unique profile. They're a ranged unit but they are a magical ranged unit, with the option to use either Fireball or Lightning Bolt they can reach out and touch stealthy units really easily which ties into the theme of being able to deal with Nightstalkers. Obviously, the halflings would mock that with their spellward, but the delightful La'theal Bleakheart has the ability to strip that from a unit and gives any magic targeting that unit now rerolls 1s until the end of the turn. She may have failed in the campaign but she's clearly winning on the tabletop still.

There's too much to get into but the heroes and units offer a completely different way to play the Twiglets and field a force on the table that is iconic and wholly original to the Mantic's world. If you're a Kings of War fan even if you don't plan on playing the Twiglets then you should start to make plans in how you deal with them on the tabletop.

What do you think of Mantic's Firefight Improvements is another Game of the Year in the offing?