Mantic Games Offical Press Release For Kings Of War Historical
August 25, 2016 by stvitusdancern
We knew it was coming and here it is, the official announcement for Kings of War Historical. Inside the book you will find the entire Kings of War rules, thirty army lists, scenarios and much more!
I like a lot of you out there have been curious about how this edition would compare to the original game and would it meet the needs of those who are fans of Historicals. I imagine most will have to take this with a grain of salt as it is still designed to be fast playing and not bogging down on a ton of rules.
We have seen a lot of chatter and pictures of people preparing armies to begin battling when the rule book hits stores. I think we will see a surge in players who take an interest in historical armies, while they may not become rivet counters, I sure they will enjoy dipping their toes in the pool.
This softcover book is set to be released in stores some time in September.
I will be adding it to my collection, will you?
"I think we will see a surge in players who take an interest in historical armies..."
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I’m unsure as to whether this post is mocking historical gamers or not… You mention getting bogged down on rules?not since the days of Don Featherstone have rules been that way, most historical rules are remarkably streamlined; bolt action, black powder, sword and spear, to name but a few. Also, not all historical gamers are rivet counters…You could argue that sci fi and fantasy gamers are just as particular with their research and painting schemes. On to the topic at hand, i do like the Kow rules, so I will probably pick this up, but I don’t see it replacingyet… Read more »
I don’t think it is – I think it’s just speaking to the virtues of Kings of War playing out in a very streamlined way and that it fits into what people want from their games nowadays.
And true of course @ricthehuman – not all historical wargamers are rivet counters and it crosses all genres 😉
KOW is a good set of generic rules which fits well for the fantasy audience. Mantic are not known for their historical gaming and do not produce figures for it, so I will hold judgement until I see the book
Rivet counting? Or as some of us like to call it ‘research’. Which can be just as much fun as playing the game
I really enjoy doing some research myself, but it becomes “rivet counting” if I mock a friend’s models because the ratio of brown to green in his camouflage is not precise or if the unit markings are not in complete compliance with a primary reference source.
That will suck the fun out of a room faster than a breached airlock. 🙂
I love history and have an embarrassingly large collection of Osprey books covering the best part of 1500 years. At the risk of sounding like a ’90s kids TV show “Learning is fun!” @enginseer is quite correct. ‘Rivet counters’ are people who frown at a beautiful army for a few minutes then straighten up to say “The Royal Norfolk light infantry had ‘pale’ yellow cuffs, not yellow cuffs. And the buttons are bronze not copper.” No compliments, just pedantry delivered with a derisory sneer. People who play historical call them rivet counters but “dicks” would be sufficient for the rest… Read more »
Wish they would let us know what changes have been made to make them suitable for historical gaming, such as the use of skirmishers and throwing weapons for close order troop types.
skirmishers have individual, allowing a turn up to 360 at the start of every phase, so movement and shooting, thus allowing them to be very maneuverable. However they lose the ability to increase attacks on ranks and flanks of solid units.
Thrown weapons already exist in the KoW game and I don’t think they need revised for historical gaming
I’m too much of a rivet counter I guess for this… Though if you want more historical Wargamers to visit the site you may want to tone down the mockery a little bit… they are sensitive souls… Especially about the correct footwear for 1st Century Legionaries.
Should be interesting to see how one Roman list covers all the various forms of the Roman armies over the centuries…
Lots of fast playing ancients rules… DBA has been around for 40 years? The there is Hail Caeser too…
you could fight an early against a late? @piers
it would be interesting pitting two army’s that never meet fighting against each other from different times.
Sorry but No no no no no!…Putting Armies like HYW English against Romans would be like fighting Seven Years War Prussians against WW2 Japanese..Just doesn’t work
Talk about unbalance if that would be possible.
I don’t know, many in the history buff community think that medieval European tactics and possibly equipment (particularly dark age England which was more barbaric than a fantasy pulp novel) where inferior to the those of the Ancient world (notably Rome and the other Hellenistic nations before it). Now admittedly HYW England was more advanced and organized than Dark age England, however the only real tactical advantages it would have over Rome is the longbow and heavy cavalry, both things that Rome has encountered in the past (admittedly with heavy loses and adoption in one case and perhaps only moderate… Read more »
Surely that’s fantasy rather than historical? 😉
Well yeah it would be fantasy just like all those “if army x from it’s era would fight army Y from it’s era” are.
there is only light hearted humour here , no mockery.
show some class guys , there is a lady in the room.
Over all fact that Mantic is doing this is interesting by itself considering that they are branching out to historical after doing fantasy and sci-fi. We shall see if this has draw to bring in people that want to play historical but have never gotten into those before for one reason or other.
I will get it. Probably not right away but I intend to pick it up. I have picked up each edition of KoW to date and enjoyed them. I have no doubt that I shall enjoy this one as well. While I am not looking to replace any of the systems that I currently use only time will tell. Besides who wouldn’t like to game a little Harry Turtledove scenario now and than 🙂
Are Mantic going to produce a line of historical plastics? I don’t understand what is happening here…
Wouldn’t have thought so, plenty of great 28mm historical minis out there.
Well aren’t there plenty of 28mm historical rule sets out there? That’s why i don’t understand this… I can’t see the business sense in it, it seems to be thrown out just to have it.
So, apart from Perry 28 mm Samurai, any other recommendations from you guys?
For Samurai ?
Well that depends, are we talking metal or plastic? Are you wanting the highest quality minis?Or do want bargain minis that need a little work to look nice?. There are ton of manufactures out there.
If just want something that looks good and is exotic try Watchful I Studio here is a link:
http://watchfulistudio.com/
Oh God I do hope mantic are not intending to allow Romans to fight samurai, etc. If that’s the case then stick with the kingdom of men list in the standard kow fantasy game.