Mantic Kings of War Review

The beta version of 2nd edition Kings of War is now available free on the web so I decided it was time I relearnt the game. Joe M. very kindly offered to teach it to me via a game at Rochester Models, undoubtedly the best way to learn.

I brought out my part finished Undead army of a Regiment of Ghouls, a Regiment of Zombies and a Regiment of undead knights which allowed me three wizards, a Necromancer, a Liche King and Mhorgoth the Faceless to which I added three troops of skeleton warriors. A regiment of allied Pike-men (phalangites) brought me up to 1K points.

Joe brought a human knightly army along, all cavalry and catapults with some mad monks.

The game plays incredibly smoothly. Cavatore, the designer, has a well deserved reputation for clean game systems.

This photo shows the engagement from the human board side. My knights and zombies have just got stuck in and my wizards are raining lightning down. In return the humans are raining rocks.

After a series of bloody charges and counter charges the game ended on turn six by die roll. The Mad Monks, a Catapult,  a regiment and troop of Knights - and my Phalangites, Zombies, and Skeleton Knights all had popped their clogs.

At the end of a very hard fought game that had hung in the balance to the last turn Joe won by 655 to 645 points.

I had a great time. Many thanks to Joe for his time. I heartily recommend KoW. You could fight very large games with these rules and the Armies of Men list is completely flexible. There is nothing to stop anyone downloading the rules for free and trying it out with their Warhammer or historical 28mm armies.

Apparently, Mantic intend to produce lists suitable for all the old Warhammer armies. This may be welcome as rumour insists that Warhammer is to stop being a mass battle game with many of the armies dumped.

The Old World may live again.