King of War, the mass combat fantasy gaming system by Mantic Games, has gone from strength to strength and has fans all over the world. Played at tournament level this system is simple, easy to pick up and is affordable. Mantic's core aim is to produce great looking and affordable miniatures and put them into your hands.

There was a time when you used to be able to purchase many plastic miniatures and build a huge army within a very short amount of time, sadly these days life and price increases can get in the way. Kings of War filled that gap nicely with a great combination of metal and resin/plastic miniatures. The success of this system, aside from the rules, is that you get more miniatures for your money, where players are easily able to build up massive forces. With troop (10 miniatures) or regiment (20 miniatures) available this enables you to tailor your army, so whether you want a gargantuan Orc horde, or a stalwart elite company of Dwarves, the options are there for you.

Mantic has had phenomenal success with Kickstarter projects such as Deadzone, Mars attacks, Dungeon Saga, DreadBall and of course Kings of War in the past. With their 2nd Edition Kickstarter now up and roaring ahead through stretch goals  I'll be discussing what will possibly happen next.

One clue as to what might be in store is the throw away comment about giants and dragons. Judging on some of the larger kits they have been producing, such as the Strider for Deadzone and the Iron Ancestors for Warpath plus the soon to be released Giant Robot for Mars Attacks, they certainly have the technology to go bigger. Just take a look at what’s around the corner, as one of the CAD renderings of the Dungeon Saga boss was shown here on BoW!

It has always been about what the community wants and Mantic tries and provides. Kickstarter is the key to this as it gives us, the humble collector/painter/war gamer a say in our hobby, to choose what we want from some of the items they give us. It gives us a measure of influence to say what we would like to see in the game.

To release a second Kickstarter it is great plan especially now that Kings of War has firmly established itself as one of the best fantasy games out there. There are taking a similar approach to how they used to do things, running campaigns in which you may affect the outcome of the background to the games story. Many people were left disappointed when GW stopped doing this, and Mantic is keen to fill the gap created.

I for one am excited to see where it will go. To further involve your key demographic is a sure fire way to keep them interested, after all without us there would be no more games companies! With the fate of the entire world of Mantica and all of the armies in the balance it's going to be interesting to see where this goes.

One of the other big additions to the new rules is the fact that they're streamlining and tightening the rules to make them play better than they did before. As well as that you'll find all of the army lists from different sourcebooks collected within one tome as well as being rebalanced and updated themselves. Nothing worse than going hunting for rules everywhere.

As Mr Renton himself said, it won’t be a huge Kickstarter like we have seen in the past. As we've seen over the weekend the community has once again rallied behind Mantic and they've already funded the production of the book itself. Add on the stretch goals of the Abyssal army, Digital App for an Army Builder and a Chess Clock that have already been busted and you're looking at quite the interesting selection.

The new collector’s edition rulebook will appeal to many but creating a separate gamers edition without the background is a great way to get the product to all the gamers out there who just want to get stuck into the game. For the fluff to be expanded I think is a welcome addition, as playing a narrative campaign is always fun and to read up on some of the character histories, battles and achievements can also be rewarding in its own right. How many time have some of us have read up on the fluff and thought about creating a force direct from that piece of writing?

Kings of War is Mantic's most popular product to date, and continues to be. The mechanics are simple, easy to pick up and play and the miniatures also lend themselves well to other companies rule sets, making them diverse range. Kings of War is there flagship product and will no doubt be even more popular once this Kickstarter finishes. I for one will be jumping on board as I am excited to see where they are going to take the game.

Sam Phillips

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