Kings of War 3rd Edition: Kingdoms of Men Army Review – The Ultimate in Average Armies

Welcome to another -/28 army review where we take on the mammoth task of sorting a huge and varied army list down into easily consumable, and most importantly, arguable, ranking tiers. But before we dive into the actual business of grading each of the many, many, oh so many units in the Kingdoms of Men list, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the overall reasons to play (or avoid) this army.

Why Play Kingdoms of Men:

Kingdoms of Men represent an extremely versatile army that can play a number of different archetypes reasonably competitively. You can field a balanced classic battle line of different unit sizes, hard hitting mostly mounted force, hordes of hordes approach or even a highly defensive gunline. This makes it a great army to collect and play, as the same core units can be used in a number of varied lists, but all that being said, that isn’t the reason I truly love them.  

For me, above and beyond anything else, I love Kingdoms of Men because they aren’t special. They’re average. Middle of the road. High point of the bell curve. The Luke Wilson of armies. That might seem a weird choice for affection but let me explain. From a theme perspective they are one of the most underdeveloped in the world of Pannithor, which gives incredible space and license to make them your own. Let’s be honest, they’re really not even supposed to be in the game and were just primarily an army list giving historical (and other non-Mantic fantasy human) miniatures a home in the Kings of War game. Mantic would much prefer you played Basilea, Northern Alliance or any of the armies they make models for. They’re an afterthought. A compromise. A concession to bring more players into the system and hopefully convert them to Mantic armies down the road.

The army list lacks for showpiece units in terms of gameplay. They’re missing entire categories of units that many other armies depend on. It is generic. It is the baseline used by designers, with other armies changed from the template to be given extra flavor and special rules that make them standout. You won’t find Kingdoms of Men really have the “best” of anything. That isn’t to say they don’t have good units, but they’re never the pinnacle of the type. While they can field an entire cargo container full of anvils, they barely have true hammers by the classical definition. And that’s okay. The army is more than capable, but its strengths are found in efficiency and redundancy, not raw speed or power. 

The army is made up, except for a small number of exceptions, of humans that could have existed in the real world, and in this fantasy game, that connection to our own past makes them a special army for me. While other players are fielding living embodiments of their gods, mythical birds formed of fire, entire units of armored vampire cavalry, barbarians riding monstrous mounts the size of bears and piss off enormous dragons, the Kingdoms of Men are standing strong with just plain old people for the most part. They must hold the line and win the day not with a dazingly host of fantastical creatures big and small, but with the common tools of war. This army triumphs with sword and shield. Spear and axe. Lance and horse. Gunpowder and cast iron. Their victories are not given but earned in the mud and the blood of the battle line, where human will is all that stands against the creatures arrayed in opposition to them.

This isn’t meant to insult the other races. I love the fantastical elements of the game and the flavor they bring. The grumbling Dwarves and violent Orcs. The original and unique creatures of the Trident Realm and the brutal Ogre war hosts. I even like the Elves, as hard as I find it to say it out loud. But that being said, there is just something special about ranks upon ranks of armored human soldiers arrayed on the battlefield that warms my cold dead heart. I grew up with visions of medieval knights and ancient warriors dancing through my brain (when I probably should have been learning better fundamentals of math), and to see those visions made real on our miniature fields of war, staring down great beasts or hordes of undead, gives me a very particular set of nostalgia soaked warm and fuzzies. 

So, play Kingdoms of Men if you’ve got a damn chip on your shoulder and want to run an underdog. Play Kingdoms of Men if you like fielding big units without big expectations. Play Kingdoms of Men if you have historical armies you want to get onto the table in this great fantasy ruleset. Play Kingdoms of Men if you want an almost blank canvas for your creative army expression. Play Kingdoms of Men for a diverse set of tactical options that lets one list play competitively multiple different ways. Play Kingdoms of Men if you like horde armies but hate Goblins. Play Kingdoms of Men if the word “efficiency” gets your blood pumping and nerd heart racing. Play Kingdoms of Men because at the end of the day, they’re the army we should all be rooting for. 

The -/28 Army Review System

Tier Rankings:

Trying to rank units in Kings of War is not a perfect science. By pure design, many units are meant to work in combination with other choices in the army and can be hard to judge on their own. For this exercise, it’s assumed the unit is being used to its utmost potential within the army. This is not just a math problem to determine the most cost-effective unit but is to also see how units compare in scope, role, and impact across not just a single army but all Kings of War armies.

S Tier: Reserved for units that are widely acknowledged as either being significantly undercosted or having a combination of rules that perform well above units in similar roles. These units are often called “auto includes” as any list stands to be made better with their inclusion. Expect these units to be addressed in future CoK book updates.

A Tier: These units are some of the best the army has to offer. They excel in their specific roles and commonly help form the core of most competitive lists. While not auto include, they are great in almost any army they are taken in and will be seen frequently.

B Tier: This unit choice has a mix of strengths and weaknesses that makes it very playable, but balanced. These units work great with specific roles in mind; however, their weaknesses mean they do not help every list. In a perfect world, all units would fit into this category.

C Tier: C Tier units may still shine in niche lists and roles; however, they will feel underpowered when compared to similar units in other armies. Decidedly suboptimal, you could make them work, but you will frequently see other things that are just better. You will rarely see many lists take these units.

D Tier: Units that need some considerable love and attention. You will struggle to find any role for this unit that another unit couldn’t do better. Very often you will see these units labeled as “unplayable.”

Check out our other articles in this series!

A Note About Rankings: I’ve chosen to rank what I feel is the best version of these units and not gone into all the ways something can be used worse. For example, I’ve rated Wizards as an A (spoiler I know), but this is assuming you mount them on a Pegasus, trade Fireball for Lightning Bolt and upgrade at least one with Boomstick probably. That rating does not apply if you leave them on foot, buy Lightning Bolt in addition to Fireball as well as Heal, Bane Chant and Wind Blast for 130pts of meh. Make stupid choices and you get stupid units and I’m not going insane trying to rank all of those.

Army Special Rule – Indomitable Will

This is an absolutely lovely rule that helps boost up the Kingdoms of Men units, gives tactical flexibility for flanking forces and I think oozes flavor for an embattled but determined army facing impossible odds against fantastical creatures.

S Tier

In my opinion Kingdoms of Men have no S Tier units. This should not dissuade anyone from playing the army as it is on the whole a very competitive list.

A Tier

Cannon

The Cadillac of Kingdoms of Men artillery and a big upgrade over the others. It ignores cover, doesn’t suffer the shooting dead zone that indirect artillery does, and in a pinch can even move and fire with grapeshot (very situational but might scare away Gargoyles). It also adds shattering to the mix which means any damage done by the unit gets even more effective. I’m not a massive Cannon user in my builds (most of this is hobby related as I run a Ancient Greek army as my Kingdoms of Men and just don’t have the artillery), but a lot of lists just get better with 3 well placed cannons in them.

General on Winged Beast

This unit defines what is great about Kingdoms of Men but also their challenge. This army doesn’t get big scary dragons, it gets incredibly points efficient miniature versions that aren’t as strong in raw power, but do plenty of work in a compact affordable package. The Honda Civic of flying monsters. It doesn’t look as impressive as the Basilean Lamborghini over there, and by the numbers it can’t compete, but it does exactly what it needs without wasting anything and are cheap enough you can afford a fleet of them.

They’re strong at any number and any points size. A single General on Winged Beast is a wonderful value flyer that can keep opponents’ bigger threats honest, provides a big inspiring bubble to keep a mobile battlegroup covered, and can still do nasty things on a flank or rear if unchallenged. Adding more of them only increases the power and utility as dealing with one is annoying, dealing with three is a downright kick in the brain pan that can give even experienced players fits working through their threat projection and angles of attack.   

Each one is worth 3-4ish damage to the front of a Defense 5 unit (little more consistent with the Mace of Crushing or Blade of Slashing) so all three of them can break a Large Infantry Horde or Cavalry Regiment out of nowhere, and with their long range and angles of attack you can slam into units whose frontage isn’t covered by supporting units and fly off somewhere else next turn.

Seriously, unless going for a very specific build, its hard to find a better way to spend 190 points in this army.

Wizard

I have a love hate relationship with these folks but I still think they provide insane value and therefore have to come in as an A. I wish they had better starting spell values or access to some more spell options. Lack of access to Heal/Martyrs Prayer in a meaningful way and no ability to take Unique Spells means your Wizards are basically restricted to being underpowered Lightning Bolt turrets and designated Bane Chanters. But, mount these dudes on a Pegasus, and suddenly they’re an 85 point flying, nimble, scoring chaff piece that just happens to also have a little Lightning Bolt it can throw out. Most lists could benefit from 2-3 of these, one with the Boomstick. Don’t look at them individually but instead as a group. 3 of these together with a Boomstick runs you 285pts and gets you LB 12 and 3 scoring units that can be sacrificed as needed or kept alive to the end of the game to secure any unguarded objectives/table quarters.   

B Tier

Shield Wall

This is about as generic as an infantry unit can get. Me 4 / Def 4 with no special rules and 13/15 nerve. They’re a relatively cheap nerve block that doesn’t do anything well but isn’t as bad as some other army’s cheapish nerve blocks. It might even out grind chaff. Might.

The main issue with this unit, and probably the reason it rarely features on the tabletop, is the amount of other infantry options Kingdoms of Men have elsewhere. This army doesn’t really need things to just fill space, as most of the army is sort of doing that already. You aren’t generally seeing elite 9 drop lists from this army, so you kind of need your units to be trying to be better than average at something. Nothing is really wrong with fielding Shield Wall, but they’re not really good at anything. For a tiny bit of extra investment, you’re getting Pole-Arms Blocks, and while they have their limitations, they can at least bring some pain in the larger unit sizes. Invest more and Foot Guard or Pikes hit the table which are much more survivable and can hit back a little more. Shield Wall is a fine unit, there are just a lot of fine options in the list already.   

Pole-Arms Block

They’re a cheap nerve block that brings Crushing Strength to the party by sacrificing some defense. Still dangerous offensively at horde size, especially with a Bane Chant thrown in to help, they’re a good option when you just need bodies on the field. They melt like butter when anything attacks them, so be careful throwing them away for no gain. 

Spear Phalanx

Look, I’m really going to talk about these folks assuming they took the pike upgrade. As regular Spear Phalanx they’re not great. Phalanx is nice and all, but at Def 4 with no good damage recovery in the list is a little weak. They’re stuck with the job of being a tarpit/anvil but aren’t super well suited to really performing that role. Equip these bad dudes with 20ft of pokey stick (IE the Pike upgrade) and it’s a whole different story. Now they’re rocking Ensnare and Phalanx becoming most every opposing hammer unit’s nightmare. Nothing comes through hitting them at full effect from the front and their ability to hold against charges can be absolutely filthy. With Indomitable Will they’re able to shrug off lucky waivers or self-inspire to stand tall for a crucial round on their own outside of the Inspiring bubble. Horde size is a pain to get off the table and even at regiment size they’re surprisingly tenacious (especially in multiples). 

Offensively, well they’re humans so don’t expect too much. Like just about every unit in this list they’re a great target for a Bane Chant, but still that is only about 7 damage against defense 5 with 30 attacks (at horde size). You can buff them with Brew of Strength, but be wary of investing so much in a defense 4 unit without much wound removal in the army, as they can suffer from opposing shooting. Removing them wholesale with shooting is quite possible, but a canny opponent can also just put enough damage on them to counteract the defensive properties and still bash through them with a hammer if you’re not careful.   

Also, pike armed units standout and looking freaking rad on the table in an army that lacks a ton of visual splendor. Massed ranks of soldiers with piss off long spears actually look like they could survive on a fantasy battlefield and I love that about them. I know if you’re sending me out to fight freaking minotaurs or some nonsense with a bunch of my friends, I’m bringing the longest pointy stick I can find.  

Foot Guard

Foot Guard are a dependable rock-solid unit with most of the stats you need to get whatever job they need to do done but lack anything really special about them. I personally love them, and they usually find there way into my lists even if I start with a totally different concept. Troops I find little use for but at regiment and horde sizes they’re expensive (for this list) but a great battle line unit. In Regiments they can form dependable counter attackers (especially if they take the free Crushing Strength upgrade) or mini-anvils as Def 5 with 14/16 Nerve (-/16 if they use Indomitable Will) for a pretty cheap price. At horde size they’re a big old block of Def 5 Nerve and come with a good number of attacks on Me 3. Combine with Bane Chant (it really is clutch in this army) and you’re sticking good 8+ damage on a Def 5 unit per turn.

Some folks swear by the CS 1 / Def 4 version at horde size, but it usually isn’t my preference unless I’ve designed the army around that. I find them to just be worse Palace Guard (slower, lower nerve, non-elite) which isn’t a place I want to be in most of the time. Lots of folks make it work, so it isn’t a bad pick, just doesn’t go with my style. My vision of “worse” Palace Guard might be another generals “efficient” Palace Guard and 25 attacks with Me 3 and native CS1 (CS2 with Bane Chant of course) will but a mark on whatever they charge, its just a big investment for an unwieldy Def 4 unit without much damage recovery. I like my Foot Guard to be first and foremost survivors, but they can be played either way to great effect and I’m definitely starting to come around on the CS 1 Def 4 option. 

Fanatics

Good number of attacks at Melee 3 and built in Crushing Strength 1 makes it one of the few actually strong offensive units in the list. Paper thin on defense but fearless, they’re great in regiment size but can also be fun (but expensive) as a horde. Vanguard GT winning list featured 5 regiments kitted out as its main damage source and dealing with that many -/15 units putting out good attacks from a small footprint is tough for a lot of armies to deal with.

Knights

They’re generic Knights for a generic army. They’re solid at regiment size and a holy terror at horde size. The big boy horde can be hard to maneuver, easy to chaff and a big investment in points, but when used well, it controls a massive amount of board space and is one of the only really hard-hitting units in the list. Love giving them Brew of Strength as even hindered or phalanxed they’ll punch things in the grill and care a lot less at being disordered. Also, if you do manage to pull off that unhindered charge anything in your way turns to pink mist. You’re legally obliged to recite quotes from King Theoden while this happens.

For any size keep a Bane Chant near if they get bogged down (and they will) as with their quality of attacks, even disordered they can chop their way through some things with a little magical help.

While other folks might be pulling out giant oversized resin monsters, from a visual and feel good factor, a full model count 20 Knight horde on the tabletop looks freaking rad and makes people want to root for your army.  

Mounted Scouts*

Solid choice at troop level without any upgrades. Their shooting should net you a point or two of damage on most things, nothing to shout about, but a contribution. You target enemy chaff, get a lightning bolt Wizard or two into the mix and maybe a friend and you’ve got enemy troops in waiver or rout range with a good roll. Clearing out crucial pieces of chaff early on can open up a ton of tactical flexibility for this unit and can swing the game. They can scoot around enemy lines and secure ignored objectives in their backfield or hunt mages with a respectable 4+ melee. Do other armies get cheaper and faster chaff? Sure. But this is Kingdoms of Men, you don’t always get what you want, but you find a way.

Siege Artillery

This is a well-balanced artillery piece with Indirect (which makes them less flexible) and Ignore Cover (which helps them hit anything they can see a sliver of) providing solid backline support but nothing too special. They are best taken in multiples to up the odds of doing damage with them in a round and also increase your ability to spike a couple rolls and just delete things.

Will not be seen on battlefields except as the 4^th-6^th pieces of artillery in a dick kicking gunline build because the Cannon is just better.

Giant

Good old solid Giants. They’re great anvils with their high nerve, defense and relatively small footprint. Enormous amounts of Crushing Strength means they’ll stick wounds on anything, but a combination of Melee 4 and variable attacks means they’re super swingy and the offensive output shouldn’t be counted on. They will at the most odd times just absolutely dunk on an opposing unit and land 13 CS4 hits on something but don’t put yourself in a situation where you need it. Kingdoms of Men has a whole host of anvils to choose from in the list, and the giant adds another.

General

Good little option at 85 points for Very Inspiring and 5 attacks at CS1 and Melee 3 to add 1-3 crucial wounds to a combat. I don’t love them on a horse as he gets pretty expensive at 120 pts, and I feel there are options cheaper or more expensive that perform better once you get in that range. That said, if you want a reliable mobile inspiring source, you can upgrade this dude. On foot and cheap it’s a great little option that I just like better. I rarely field them though as there are so many great Hero options I rarely have the points or the slots.  

Army Standard Bearer

Very Inspiring is cool. The Lute is basically mandatory for them as Bane Chant does so much for this army overall. There are other sources of Inspiring in the army usually and Indomitable Will can let you run a little light on Inspiring sources, so they don’t always make it into the list.

Hero

Great little individuals. Exactly the stats you need, Me 3, CS 1, Def 5 to stick a wound on something and shut down Thunderous Charge, turn off shooting or possibly ground a flyer, and then require a real unit to deal with them. They’re listed at 40pts in the book but running them without the horse is a sucker’s game so they’re really 65pts base and have a ton of utility. They don’t inspire (consider the 5 points for Indomitable Will to give them that one turn of -/12 and Inspiring) and aren’t mighty, but the good news is this keeps them super cheap. With only 3 attacks, hindered charges risk doing no damage, and even unhindered against Def 5 you won’t always stick damage so they’re not super dependable, but boy are they annoying.   

Hero on Pegasus

Exactly the same stats as the Hero we already talked about but now with the power to score and do marginally more damage to flanks and rears joining the prestigious Kingdoms of Men air force (paging Kenny Loggins). Super solid, well balanced chaff piece for 90 points. Keep in mind they’re height 4, so can block line of sight if parked in front of a leader point for many units.

The Captain

Here we have a unit trapped between multiple roles. With Very inspiring and Rally you have a character you want to keep alive all game safely protected and bathing your battle line in those Nerve check enhancing abilities. With 5 attacks, Def 5 and Mighty, you want him out of your lines as a utility piece that can add extra damage to crucial combats, punch opposing units in the face to strip thunderous or shooting and generally being a nuisance. While those two roles might be feasible in some battles, oftentimes you have to pick one or the other and you’re paying for stats and abilities you might not be using. Mounted this dude comes in at 155 pts and while there is a lot you get for that price, it doesn’t help every army it goes into.

The Master Tactician ability is quite useful if planned for, but not as powerful as it first seems as you’re never sure how many units you’re going to get to redeploy. I find it best used by committing a big unit to one side while leaving another deployment position open for them somewhere else. Your opponent will have to deploy accounting for either position it could be in which can give tactical advantage, and since you’ll always get to re-deploy at least one unit you can count on it. If your opponent puts strength to deal with the big unit on the side it is deployed on, you can pull it and move it over. If they suspect you’re going to pull that move and don’t respond to it in the original position, you can leave it there and push against an under defended side. Either way when trying this gambit you have to have a plan for the unit in its original place, or else an opponent can respond to your re-deploy positions only. The top table game at Vanguard GT showed this tactic working perfectly as the KOM player forced their opponent to commit resources to a flank he eventually basically ignored by moving an infantry horde with the Captain.     

C Tier

Bowmen

5+ shooting with no piercing and no steady aim really struggles to find a place on the table. Bowmen are cheap, and there is an argument to be made around regiments bringing unit strength for reasonably cheap that can at least do something while it sits on an objective all game, but that something it does is pretty weak when you run the numbers. Unless you’re taking a very heavy shooting list and just want to pack more shots in from your unlocks, these add very little value to most Kingdoms of Men lists. If you are going towards a more gunline approach, they can do some work.

Mounted Sergeants

This unit wins the award for being added and then subsequently removed from my lists the most. I always think I’ll have room for them as a perfect compliment to my Knights, and then I remove them when the points get tight. This unit operates very differently at troop and regiment size. As troops, they’re purely nimble chaff, but for the same price you can pick up Mounted Scouts which barely edge them out having additional utility in my mind. At regiment size, they’re nimble which is great, but average melee means outside of flanks/rears they’re really not sticking down a ton of damage, and any attack into or over terrain is going to do little to nothing. I hate having units whose hard counter is just “some trees” and these fall into that category. For an additional 45 points you could just buy a Knight regiment or explore other similar priced options to protect your mobile units, and this is usually the point they end up getting removed from my list. They’re not all bad, and folks have had good luck using them as off brand Bray Striders, but I’m not loving them.

Ballista

The baby brother of Kingdoms of Men artillery choices that brought spears to a gunfight. They’re relatively cheap so can be bought in multiples but aren’t packing that huge kill anything damage or piercing. In niche heavy shooting builds they can add more shooting, that is mostly what they’re good for. If you take 3 and they’re all shooting at a unit without cover you should average 6 hits (after the blast). 6 hits at piercing 2 against a unit in the open just isn’t a great return for 225 odd points of stuff that doesn’t score.

Mammoth

It’s kind of a worse Giant. Relying some on Thunderous charge means it is worse in the grind and can have its offensive output against tough targets stripped by being hit first. Never an offensive juggernaut, it really serves as an anvil, but losing half their armor crushing power once its been punched makes it worse at this role. It is a shame, as it is a rare chance to model up something big, interesting and impressive for a generally more subdued army, I just wish this unit had something else going for it. The footprint allows for some tricky charges with its deeper base, but also offers up larger flanks for units to sneak into and stab it to death

General on Pegasus

Okay option but I feel its outshined by the other Pegasus riding options throughout the list. It loses an attack vs. the General on foot/horse so only has one attack more than the 90 pt Hero on Pegasus. A little expensive to throw away, and not enough attacks to really threaten, this unit sits in a space where I just feel there are better options in the more and less expensive slots again.  

Assassin

They look pretty okay on paper but just can’t seem to make them work on the battlefield in anything other than a specialized build where you’re just packing in more shooting however you can. You really want this unit sneaking through terrain or getting behind enemy lines to harass enemies, turn off shooting and hunt wizards. I find with no mount option, and without scouting to get into awkward positions for your opponent, you often are stuck just using them as a short range gun platform, or you spend 5 turns trying to stay out of trouble and maneuvering without having much actual impact. Hero slots are competitive in this build and the Assassin is just a tiny bit underwhelming to take one of those spots.  

Fanatic Instigator

This is another foot hero that looks okay on paper. Solid offensive statistics and a great -/14 Nerve but I’m just never really able to find a place for them in my lists. The hero slots are highly fought over, and you need your heroes to either be stupid cheap or serve multiple purposes. I’d love to see this model get Inspiring for Fanatics only or something to allow them to fit into themed lists and provide that tiny bit of extra value that would get it on the table. With Wings of Honeymaze the Instigator does gain much needed mobility (but goes down to Def 3), and Movement 10 with Wild Charge D3 will catch some folks out and can get you to the backline, but there are other choices for that already in the KOM list that seem to offer a little more either in power or efficiency. I am very tempted to fill a list with regiments and field like 12 KOM characters but we’ll see.  

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D Tier

Militia Mob*

I hesitate to call units bad, but for this review I have to call things as I see them, and this unit is trash. There is a place in the game for cheap units with bad stats, I totally understand that, these are just probably the worst version of that in the game. Scarecrows are probably the best at this role, getting a useful set of special rules, extra attacks and are Fearless for a really low points investment. Draugr and Zombies are at least fearless, have decent Nerve and some kinds of damage recovery. Even lowly Goblin Rabble have better Nerve and Defense. But none of that is what firmly moves this unit from sub-optimal category straight over to dumpster fire. It is that little * that denotes irregular status that dooms this unit from probably ever seeing the tabletop in a competitive list. In most armies, but Kingdoms of Men even more so, your cheap blocks of Nerve need to serve another purpose other than just taking up space on the board, and the easiest way to do that is by using them as cheap unlocks. Militia Mob’s irregular status, the lists abundance of reasonably priced infantry options and the Kingdoms of Men’s reliance on its Hero slots combine into an unfriendly environment for Militia Mob to survive the list building gauntlet.   

Crossbow Block

At small unit sizes the 5+ shooting means you get little return, and at larger sized units they’re expensive, hard to clear firing lanes for and easy to shut down. Upgrading them to Rifles gives you all the same problems with more points invested. The more mobile piercing units (Heartpiercers, Boomers etc…) have shorter range but outclass these folks and are able to find a battlefield role. Crossbow Block just don’t do enough damage on their own to dictate where the battle is fought (like Organ Guns, Decimators etc…) and can’t maneuver or react in an already slow army. I want them to work and have tried a few different variants but they’re in rough shape.

Charioteers*

I originally wrote these in the order they appear in the book. This means I ran across the Charioteers unit while I was still full of hope and lacking the piss and vinegar, I assume I’ll have when I get to the roughly 6 million KOM heroes. If I did encounter this closer to the end, I’d probably replace all this text for this unit with just three poop emojis.

This unit is not very good. Their shooting attack is insultingly bad, and once you remove that from the equation, they’re basically just bad Knights at each of the price points. They’re a little faster, and at legion level have 20 attacks, but with Melee 4 and Def 4 they’re swingy and susceptible to getting shot up or beat up and just not worth the points. Combat Chariots are in a strong place in the game right now, but this mixed shooting/combat version just does poorly compared to other options across the board.   

Conclusion

So where does that leave us? Here is the plotting of the units showing small groupings in the D/A Tiers and a massive amount of B rated units. This seems pretty expected for the most average of armies and shows there are a ton of balanced units to choose from in order to craft your list and play your particular style.

I wanted to take a moment and share some Kingdoms of Men lists from the community to start to expose the sort of breadth of list archetypes and directions that can be taken. Think of these as a starting point to explore your own flavor of Kingdoms of Men.

US Masters Lists:

Here you can see two dick kicking gunline style builds and one more balanced approach. All 3 of these lists finished within 4 Battle Points of each other over a 6 round event in a very tough room. They could use further tweaking to fit your particular style, but are great starting points for competitive lists.

Best of the Rest:

Sam Nordberg has a great article HERE discussing in detail his specific list for Best of the Rest and shows a slightly different take on the army.

Virtually Vanguard GT:

Exequiel won Vanguard GT this year with a really fun looking KOM list centered around 5 Fanatic regiments and a ton of great support play. His list can be seen here…