Hey guys,
My brother-in-law is trying to get me into KoW. He's an old WHFB player but GW sucks and he's looking into more cohesive rulesets.
Reading the rules I think it seems like a fairly solid game, if a little simplistic. I only played WHFB very briefly and it seems like this game strips out a ton of the bullshit, but also loses a little strategic complexity in the process (magic for example looks way too simple).
Warmahordes is my main game, which scratches the ultra-competitive, super precise skill-cap itch for me, so this would be more of a beer-and-pretzels diversion for me. That said I don't want to plunk down on an army that's absolutely terrible. I play Trolls in Warmahordes and was looking at Dwarves as a similar analog - durable, elite troops, solid mixture of melee and ranged abilities. Is there anything I should outright avoid? Seems like the general strategy is to pack your backfield with rifles and cannons while your slow infantry advances to bat cleanup.
Bump - I was surprised to see there wasn't an existing mantic/kow thread. Are they not popular here? I figured they'd have a lot of support after the whole AoS thing.
>>43863526
You'd be surprised. I find there are a lot of aos players, actually. Granted they are pretty fragmented being spread out, but they exist. The AoS General threads do pretty well, better than whfb threads, and the KoW General threads need to expand into other mantic games to keep active i've found.
I don't play AoS, but I do pretty much only play 40k or deadzone when I can get another person willing to try it.
KoW is a good competitive game, you can play it beer&pretzels, but if you don't pay attention to deployment and movement you'll get tabled.
Dwarves are a very good army, every unit has it's place, nothing to avoid really. I personally find warmachines a bit too random for my taste, but unless you try to go something random or spamy (like an all shooting army), It'll work.
Not many people on here talk about KoW, not sure why. Plenty seem to be playing, regular store tournies with 20+ locally
>>43863865
Would getting that massive dwarf army pack make sense? The one with like 150 models in it.
>>43864437
Yep, it's a pretty good starter. Might need to bump the units up to Horde size &/or spread them out a bit by Multi-Basing.
>>43864437
>>43865094
Even the normal Dwarf army set is good if you wanna get your feet wet.
Slighty off topic, but what do people think of the concept of the new Night Stalker army? I like the one with the sack. Very fairy tale-ish
>>43867051
Nigt stalkers are what got me to finally buy into KoW. I figure I'll nab some pumpkins and other spooky minitures from Reaper and use those as the backbone of my army
>>43863260
>My brother-in-law is trying to get me into KoW
What city?
Depending on where you are, there's more players than ever or none at all.
>a little simplistic
>magic for example looks way too simple
Once you play a few games you'll realize the bulk of the game is won in maneuver and sacrifice. This plays pretty close to a clean abstract strategy game in that regard. Magic being simple I found nothing of value was lost in that it cut out time wasting bullshit.
>Are they not popular here?
It literally exploded bigger and faster than X-Wing did for a very brief period around the time the 2nd rulebook came out and people finally started accepting that WHFB had been killed.
Then we all realized there's nothing broken to bitch about and not enough lore yet to debate. Hence once people had gotten their armies and painted... there was nothing more to discuss. Does as well as any other abstract strategy game thread like Chess or Go does, plenty play but little to talk about.
>Seems like the general strategy is to pack your backfield with rifles and cannons while your slow infantry advances to bat cleanup
Ranged-heavy armies will crush newbies, but you'll have to adapt once you come across players with half a clue. That is one strategy though yes.
>a similar analog - durable, elite troops, solid mixture of melee and ranged abilities
Ogres, Elves and others can meet those as well.
>Beer and Pretzels
On the contrary I think it's more competitive than WHFB was. On top of that, it's lacking in the time wasting grit to hold your attention if you're just playing to kill time.
>>43863260
This anon speaks truth >>43867211
Back in late July and the start of August KoW was having a thread a day hitting 300 posts. I kind of miss it, but as the other anon said there isn't such a great amount to discuss. It's hard to make a shit list unless you ignore inspiring or push a gimmick, the homebrew races were getting too little feedback to sustain here, the fluff really isn't worth bothering with.
Though I'm really curious about the Uncharted Empires book. I don't know much about the nightstalkers or about the other surprise faction.
>>43863260
First, something is odd when people talk about KoW : because rules aren't cluttered doesn't mean it lost strategic complexity. Compared to WHFB you are actually looking at really fragile units altogether and so the strategy behind your charges, your positioning and everything gets critical, rather than the famous WHFB eight edition "cram everything in the middle of the table".
About the armies, there isn't absolutely bad choices in terms of units. Remember that a 1500 points battle would need something like 100 to 200 minis on each side.
Other than that, since the armies are actually balanced, there isn't much to discuss.
>>43863717
Those threads are 'active' because of all the arguing and because there is new stuff for the fanboys to talk about.
Forgotten Empires PDF when?
>>43867950
>I don't know much about the nightstalkers
If I remember correctly, they were once a group of elves who were experimenting with powerful magic. When the magical apocalypse happened in which the gods were torn into their good and evil forms, the elves souls were ripped from their bodies. Now the elven souls are force to roam the earth as ghost like beings until the end of time.
Speaking of, say what you want about KoW fluff, I like how they explain why the undead and the art of necromancy is evil, other than 'they look spooky.'
In order to raise an undead creature like a zombie, a Necromancer has to tear a soul from the afterlife and trap it inside it's rotting corpse. When the zombie's body is destroy, the soul can't get back into heaven, so have to stay on Earth as a ghost forever.
>>43868464
don't forget:
necromancy and the undead are a HUGE fucking problem in the setting, apocalyptic if left unchecked
the independent necromancers acting alone when combined are about as powerful as their own separate nation, not to mention the actually organized ones that are chipping away at everyone else
>>43868510
Plus there is an actual necromancer nation, generally pretty evil
>>43868530
Yep.
you ever see something in a piece of media where you wonder
"If this is possible and so powerful, why isn't everybody doing it?"
well in this they are
>>43867051
So when are they running this kickstarter?
Can someone redpill me on the KoW setting and most of it's factions?
I'd like to know more about it's lore. You can direct me to a web or something, though
And I know I could just search, but I usually like to discuss these kind of things from the perspective of the players
>>43869017
I'm to really too invested in the game, but from what I know:
World map with slapped on names like most other fantasy settings, and generic factions with next to no fluff so you can make your own up.
They have some original bits like these angel dudes, but fisty glue man is a bit tongue in cheek.
Tbh I don't think they intend to hire writers any time soon to flesh out the setting.
>>43869033
So basically the lore is shit?
I think some of the success of Fantasy and 40K is that they have some lore behind their armies. It's easy to make a new character, because nations are big and all, but there are some big players behind that, and relations between factions.
I don't think that an official lore limits what players can make up, in fact, I think it could help a lot
>>43869450
>>43869017
>>43869033
Mantic has three expansions with some fulff that were written during 1st Edition. Per my FLGS's source, Mantic has made fluff and backstory one of the three top priorities over the next few years.
The current fluff is a bit thin, but has some interesting things and concepts.
You can buy the digital editions of both books for £30
https://www.manticdigital.com/product-category/kings-of-war/
Give it a whirl and see for yourself!
>>43863260
They release new armies yet they dont make more models for these new armies?
>>43870470
They made an expansion book containing army lists without any official miniatures as they where mostly meant for people with existing wargammer minis.
>>43870486
What about that nature army? The where are the centaurs and water peoples?
What about the nightstalker army?
>>43863260
Holy shit those KoW dwarf minis... Good lord the 1980's called and want their dwarves back.
>>43870511
In the latest KS they funded the fire people(Salamanders) and the water people (Naiads), they should be released sometime next year to the public.
The nightstalkers are part of the expansion book and until a week ago we didn´t even know they where a thing.
Playing KoW2 regularly at my local club. It gives the same feeling as when I was playing 4th ed WHFB about 20 years ago. But the game is much faster and can be played in about half the time compared to the same amount of models in WH. I use the same minis but re-based for KoW regimental footprints.
Hobbywise KoW is geeat because you can make some interesting regiments because you are not forced to make rank n file models that can be removed as casualties. Youcan make more dynamic and scenic regiments.
>>43871290
Because no one ever did that for WFB right?
