Mantic Games Take Kings Of War: Vanguard To Kickstarter
November 2, 2017 by brennon
Mantic Games are expanding on the world of Kings Of War with Vanguard, their new skirmish game, which is now available for you to support on Kickstarter.
Kings Of War: Vanguard sees you playing as the forces that go ahead of the main army and look to harass the enemy. You will be engaging in scouting missions, rescues, assassinations and more as you look to give your allies an advantage on the field later.
The current Kickstarter focuses in on two factions, the Basileans...
...and the Nightstalkers, who are a new faction to be introduced into the world of Mantica.
Each of the sets comes with entirely new monsters, heroes and troopers for you to throw into your games as well as all of the character cards to play the game.
The Nightstalkers are certainly looking like a fascinating faction with an alien and demonic quality to them. They are both collected together into the pledge which gets you started in the game.
As well as all of the bits and pieces you need to get started in the game you will also get an array of cool terrain pieces which help to set the scene for your fights on the tabletop.
The new plastic terrain from Mantic Games is rather awesome and this means that you're not just going to be fighting over empty fields when you get your hands on the models.
Grab The Alpha Rules
If you're interested in learning more about the game you can download the Alpha Rules and give them a go with your models that you already have in your collection.
Afterall, it isn't just the Basileans and Nightstalkers which will be fighting against each other. You can then look at how the rules link through into your larger battles too which is neat.
Are you tempted by Kings Of War: Vanguard?
"You will be engaging in scouting missions, rescues, assassinations and more as you look to give your allies an advantage on the field later..."
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Unfortunately this Kickstarter took off with a resounding thud… It’s been up for just past 24 hours now but still hasn’t reached the $75K goal yet. The biggest mistake was having single pledge level that only included 1 faction. Not exactly the starter set people were looking for. There’s now a second pledge level that includes 2 factions, but they removed 4 figures from that one. The comments (past 500 now) have been mostly negative. Hopefully they can turn this around.
Well I have backed it . It is interesting that after eight or so hours they created a second buy in point. Initally they were offering a a single warband and lots of scenery. Many vocal people put forward the point that they wanted a two player offering so they responded and added that option. Which is nice but I stayed with the one player and scenery choice myself.
and they have now just added 5 of the new hard plastic Man -at-Arms to the Basilaen and 2 player set when it funds.
Thes Man-at Arms absolutely destroy the old models …. hmmmm I wonder if I can still pick up the old kit before they run out …….. I think I have developed a love hate relationship with them
Lackluster to say the least…
Seems this one is more an afterthought for Mantic. I favved it to keep an eye on it but atm i’m not very impressed.
I don’t know that it was an afterthought but rather just not well thought out. They seem to be going with the strategy of start really small and let it grow into something impressive. Kind of like what Reaper does with its Bones Kickstarter. I think they started off too small and expected it to fund in minutes like past projects and be a better value before people really noticed.
maybe they expect existing kings of war players to back this one ?
That explains why they didn’t need a 2 player starter set as most of their expected audience already has an army that could be used in this variant.
One also has to wonder how realisticly budgetted those ‘funded within a day’ kickstarters really are.
No two player starter set or $130 for a two warband pledge? Not sure who came up with that idea. A two player set with an optional scenery add on would have been an eminently more sensible idea I think.
I’ve backed it now they have sorted the pledge out although I still think it’s a hefty price tag. Initially the only pledge was $85 and that got you a starter set with one skirmish force, a selection of scenery, gaming mat, rule book and dice. You could add a second warband for $45 taking you up to $130. For me that’s too much of an ask and most people will need two forces to play so the original $85 pledge was useless unless you know someone else who is going to back it. My other issue was that I… Read more »
It’s worth noting that if you go for the ‘2 player starter’ pledge then they drop the 4 hero miniatures you otherwise get in the warbands.
I know. I have enquired as to whether they can make the characters as add ons. It’s a decent looking product but an ill thought out Kickstarter, which is a real surprise because Mantic have a lot of experience with Kickstarter and they’ve been very successful on the platform. I think they perhaps tried to make it too simple; single pledge levels work well if you’re releasing something like a board game where you get everything you need in the box. They don’t work quite as well for miniatures games
I took a serious look and then dismissed it on price. You can get the full Star Wars Legion Core Set and all the expansions for $230. What they are asking is expensive by comparison but I do like how the game is supposed to work.
the nightstalker monsters look fabulous.
I was hoping for a rulebook only pledge. I’ve gone for the $85 pledge but I’m not sure. I don’t feel confident about this one.
They’re looking into this, there was a comment by them on Facebook
While having skirmish rules for KoW is good idea execution of this KS is lacking. It’s not like this would be Mantic’s first KS so they should know what it takes to get customers interested from they KS.
That’s my biggest surprise. For a company with so much experience and success on Kickstarter this one seems very badly thought out. Regardless of whether you agree with their use of Kickstarter or not, they have 14 successful Kickstarters under their belt, some of them massively successful. This one is a real dropped ball on their part. I’m sure it will fund, it’s something like $10k off its target so I can’t see it being a failure. However I think from a business performance perspective, Mantic might assess it as a failure simply because it has been very slow out… Read more »
Can’t help but think Mantic may finally be feeling the sting of their (however unintentional) mismanagement of other kickstarters.
I’m personally weary of finding out six to nine months after the campaign has ended that they’re splitting the shipments up into “waves”, and then have each and every wave miss the revised shipping targets anyway.
I don’t think that they’re being intentionally misleading. I just think that by now they’d have some idea how to do this without repeating the same missteps and holdups every time.
some kickstarter fatigue seems to be evident in this campaign.
when it comes to the single initial pledge level, I think Mantic was primarily thinking of simpler shipping, get a single box one size fits all, and ship it all out in a single wave.
Once you open up for several options, the possibility of problems, mispacking and delays skyrocket. also the manual labor costs as someone actually has to spend the time picking and packing.
Technically it wasn’t a single box pledge – you could choose some of the content in so far as you can select one of two warbands. If the goal was to reduce complexity, the two player starter pledge which contains two slightly smaller warband and a reduced amount of scenery represents a much better option. I think thought, that when it comes to miniature wargames (or skirmish games) you need to accept a level of complexity because the needs of the customers are more varied. When you produce a board game it is what it is – everything you need… Read more »
Well I think its not only KS fatique in general, but also Mantic KS fatique as well! They have 4 KS schemes out at the moment to be fully fulfilled, this adds a fifth. Even the most ardent Mantic fan (and I count myself in this grouping) just can’t keep up fiscally with the rate Mantic are pumping these things out at. Would have backed, but the timing is out as I’m still waiting on 3 Mantic KS (and haven’t even thought about painting the things) 😀
I know Mantic aren’t CMON-scale but if I compare the value of the $150 basic pledge for A Song Of Ice and Fire with the $85 basic pledge for Vanguard, or $85 for Star Wars Rebellion, or £60 for the Carnevale 2-player starter box, or my $99 for Mythic Battles: Pantheon then this is sadly lacking. It feels like Mantic are at a tipping point – they have done a lot of great work recently (Firefight, Walking Dead, Star Saga, KoW etc) and they may be about to move into the big leagues. Maybe this is a sign of badly… Read more »
Mantic’s strength (niche?) is that they are a cheap way for people to get lots of models. I”m happy that such a thing is an option. That said, I’m not really a fan of the aesthetic of their models (with a few exceptions), while the price point for this KS is putting it up against other systems which it doesn’t want to be going up against. For example, GW’s Thunder and Blood / Know no Fear sets are £50 (65$); the Infinity sets are $70 on amazon US; Malifaux $65. And those are using systems you know are going to… Read more »
I’m prepared to give Mantic the benefit of the doubt on the models but you’re right, the price is quite high. If we compare it to say the Deadzone Starter set, at $85 it’s something like £15 more expensive (depending on exchange rates), contains less miniatures, less scenery and the price also (allegedly) includes a Kickstarter discount. The only improvement I can see is you get a better play mat. Although they have a chequered history with regards to quality I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. Whether or not they want to compete in that… Read more »
On the “value” front, its too early to say. But from previous experiences with Mantic KS there’s usually worries from backers on this front at the start, but towards the end you always end up with a bucket load of minis (Mantic are fully aware backers can drop their pledge to zero 5 mins before the end of the KS). I’d be VERY surprised if the figure count remains anywhere near the current offering 🙂
This is the first time I have looked at a Kickstarter on launch day and had concerns about value for money. You’re right though and they have already added extra men at arms. I can’t see this reaching much more than $100k though so there’s limited room for new stretch goals. They need to stick a few more add ons to try and get existing backers to up their pledge
Well, they listened, added extra pledge levels and now it is funded. Let’s see what they do with it. I wish them luck.