Mantic Games - Kings of War

Mantic is really showing strong as a trend setting game company.
FREE Digital Rules!

Main Rules PDF -
http://www.manticgames.com/SiteData/Root/File/KoW%20dowload.pdf

Army Lists -
http://www.manticgames.com/SiteData/Root/File/KoW%202010%20Armies.pdf

Haven't read them yet, but the initial response have been positive.

They also announced a Chaos Dwarves line is in the works.

Rules written by alessio cavatore. Another former GW rules writer that was "let go." Should he very familiar to the fantasy crowd.

Looks better than the awful beta rules, they added quite a bit of meat.

I like the rules. It's very watered down fantasy with a neat mechanic for getting rid of units. It's a game that's trying to appeal to a broad audience with its simplicity. I'm willing to give it a try.

It's a game in the works also, they are planning to constantly update the rules and army lists because they are just starting out and they kind of consider the game still in testing in a ways. They won't be selling a rulebook at this time because it's not going to be finalized any time soon apparently, so they will just update online and have little booklet included in the starter set. Some of the simplicity will probably get expanded on, like Magic in this game is pretty much nothing more than a handful of special abilities instead of an actual magic system.

They only have three armies right now, but have shown off Orcs and today announced Khoas Dwarves though.

KingdomCome wrote:Rules written by alessio cavatore. Another former GW rules writer that was "let go." Should he very familiar to the fantasy crowd.

When did he get the Axe?

Kyle - they announced the rules will always remain free.

I like what I see, a complete army in the box, no?

All the models are plastic, yes?

If so, then this a great start.

Does anyone know the history of this company? They just start? How long have they been around? Do they have a fully developed game system or is it still in the works. Their website offers very little info in this area.

rokassan wrote:

KingdomCome wrote:Rules written by alessio cavatore. Another former GW rules writer that was "let go." Should he very familiar to the fantasy crowd.

When did he get the Axe?

Last April. He left due to creative differences with 8th edition WHFB. The guy pretty much help establish GW for a long time and finally said Fuck it.

jerryb wrote:I like what I see, a complete army in the box, no?

All the models are plastic, yes?

If so, then this a great start.

Does anyone know the history of this company? They just start? How long have they been around? Do they have a fully developed game system or is it still in the works. Their website offers very little info in this area.

Well they are off to a great start. The rules are free and the models are dirt cheap. I think you get a full regiment for around 16 bucks. Not bad at all. The rules being a bit too simple is the only down side I can imagine. Not sure if there is enough substance currently to keep peoples interest for terribly long.

While hanging out with joel for an hour last Wednesday i basicly told him he should carry the Mantic product.

I showed him the 10 plastic Empire Greatswords box at $42.50. The cost of the plastic materials cost LESS than the box. Total manuafacturing cost is probably $2.

The GW prices are out of line. He said they will go up again in 2010.

I told Joel with Mantic you pay @$1.50 per model which is much more reasonable. Joel feels if he has Mantic, nobody will buy the more expensive GW product.

2500 Tourney Grade (IMO) Vampire Count Army List
Super Vamp Lord
Wight King BSB with Drakendorf Banner
2 Necros
2x50 Ghouls
40 Grave Guard
2 Vargulfs

GW Price
Heros: 56.50, Ghouls: 247.50, Grave Guard: 132, Vargulfs: 50
$486

Mantic Price
Heros: 25, Ghouls: 120, Grave Guard: 50, Vargulfs (from GW): 50
$245

HALF THE PRICE

jerryb wrote:I like what I see, a complete army in the box, no?

All the models are plastic, yes?

If so, then this a great start.

Does anyone know the history of this company? They just start? How long have they been around? Do they have a fully developed game system or is it still in the works. Their website offers very little info in this area.

Not all the miniatures are plastic, each army has metal figs generally for the stuff that they can't mass produce economically. As usual, the metal figs are much more expensive than the plastic but you don't seem to need many. The army deals are supposed to be playable as a ready to go army, but whether they are considered a "complete" force, I don't think so. But you get lots of figs for the price.

The company has been around for about 2 years now, the game system is out and free though in their own words, it's a game that will always be in the works. They only have have 3 armies worth of figs out so far though 2 more have been announced with Orcs to come around April. Originally they were just putting out box sets of plastic figs which were primarily designed to use as proxy figs in Warhammer, and some of the folks who work at Mantic are supposed to be former GW to so.... you know how that goes. Anyways when they announced their third army (dwarves) they also announced a ruleset was coming, and well it's out now.

What they have done is released a basic ruleset for what they have, and they plan to pretty much just continue to develop the game as they release new armies and figures, so they are just going to keep the game rules free as a PDF that will be updated every once in a while.

KingdomCome wrote:
Well they are off to a great start. The rules are free and the models are dirt cheap. I think you get a full regiment for around 16 bucks. Not bad at all. The rules being a bit too simple is the only down side I can imagine. Not sure if there is enough substance currently to keep peoples interest for terribly long.

Yea that's the games problem right now, it only has 3 armies and not a huge amount of diversity. Most of the abilities overlap in the armies with only a few unique special properties outside of stats. I think they know this and pretty much is the reason they are going with this type of release instead of trying to put out some big game system. For it's first 2 years they pretty much were just making these minis to sell for other game use and that will be primarily where they will continue to get their sales for a while, and not people buying to play 'Kings of War'. But they now got rules for their figs which they will develop on and build on.

If anyone was interested in these figures, buy them now if you can, because they have announced that their prices are increasing after New Years.