Kings of War Beginners Guide: Choosing an Army Forces of Neutrality

I initially envisioned writing a post that would cover all the Kings of War armies. However, just the Forces of Good made for a pretty long article, so I am splitting up this into three installments, one for each alignment, to be more manageable both for readers and me!

Hello Dash28, and welcome to another article in our Kings of War Beginner’s Guide. In my last article I discussed choosing an army for the forces of good– you can find that and other Beginner’s Guide articles here.

In this article I am going to try to help guide you through the process of choosing an army and discuss what the various army’s strengths and weaknesses are as well as common models used, and link other resources to explore more about the army. Hopefully this assists you in navigating the plethora of choices in KoW! As always, please feel encouraged to comment and request other beginner topics or give your own thoughts.

A couple of things to address first. In nearly every wargame I have ever played, at least half the community advises picking an army based on aesthetics so that you enjoy painting the models. While I don’t disagree with this suggestion, I don’t think it is terribly helpful in narrowing down choices, particularly in a game where you have flexibility in what models to use for what units. So, I am going to try to avoid covering the aesthetics of the armies, figuring you know better than me what you think looks cool.

Also, Kings of War allows allies, which means army choice doesn’t completely restrict you from picking units from other forces; however, allies can only make up 25% of your force and still follow the usual requirements for picking things. For example, you need an allied regiment to unlock an allied monster.

Allies are allowed based on alignment. Good can take Good and Neutral allies, Evil can take Evil and Neutral allies (except Varangur, which can’t ally with Forces of the Abyss), and Neutral can ally with everyone!

Dash28 has done army reviews for every single army (except Ratkin Slaves, which is still a work in progress). I am not going to individually link those for every army, but you can find all of them here. These break down the army choices into tiers of usefulness and can give some good ideas for what will be common choices and strategies for the various armies.

If you prefer audio, Counter Charge and my own podcast, Unplugged Radio, teamed together to create a two-part series discussing what army you should choose to play. You can find the Unplugged Radio episode here and the follow-up Counter Charge episode here. Or, you can check out Death By Dragons’ 3-minute army primers found here. One Northern King has been working his way through an army review a week, and you can find his complete list here. Finally, if you are looking for a discussion of the standings of the various factions in terms of power, check out this video from Direct Misfire.

Right, so onto the Forces of Neutrality.

Forces of Nature

The Forces of Nature are an eclectic alliance of nature spirits, beasts of the woods, humanoid bestial races, druids, and elementals, all allied together to work to maintain the balance in Pannithor.

Strengths: Options upon options, the Forces of Nature has a little bit of everything — several monsters to choose from, a wide range of characters and casters, some shooting, some designated combat choices, and some tar pits. Nearly everything in Forces of Nature has Pathfinder, meaning that they aren’t slowed or hindered by terrain. This is huge!

The Beasts of Nature are one of the most cost-effective monsters in the game, and exceedingly useful, plus their description is vague enough they allow a lot of flexibility in model choice.

Forces of Nature tends to lean into combat as their primary method of victory, but they have some really solid support shooting options, like plentiful Lightning Bolt and Naiad Heartpiercers.

Finally, Forces of Nature has access to some of the best healing magic in the game. This means their elementals and forest units can be quite difficult to remove. This combined with their unit diversity means they play scenarios really well.

Weaknesses: Forces of Nature lack hammers that can reliably one-hit enemy units, so don’t expect to just take a bunch of glass hammers and rip apart the enemy. Rather, they live and die by working together and getting combo charges. If you can get the opponent to enter protracted combat, preferably in terrain, even better.

Expensive, but amazing, support options can leave newer generals to over-commit to things like healing, Lightning Bolt, or flying Unicorns while lacking the units necessary to win objectives and scenarios. They are not an elite army, but with several expensive support and monster options, they can quickly feel like an elite army. Basically, you need to make sure you have your battle line kitted out before you can take the really juicy fun toys that are most appealing in the army.

Miniature Range: Mantic Games makes a pretty extensive range for Forces of Nature. It isn’t complete, but it’s pretty darn close. Some of the models are also a little fiddly — the centaurs, for example, while exceedingly cool, have been reported particularly frustrating to assemble.

For other companies, Reaper Bones makes some excellent elemental models, though the material is a bit odd and can react weirdly with certain paints. Wrath of Kings, which is now out of print but available from some retailers, makes some excellent models. Hadross in particular, an underwater faction, fits perfectly for the Naiad choices. There are a lot of options for a Beast of Nature and other Forces of Nature monsters — just pick some stuff you think looks cool!

Looking for another quick overview of Forces of Nature? Check out Death by Dragons’ 3 Minute Army Review.

Trident Realm

The underwater fish people of Pannithor, Trident Realm has a LOT of similarities to Forces of Nature but is more about water and such than all of nature.

Strengths: Anvils and tar pits for days!!!! Trident Realm has several choices that could take a spot for the best tar pits and anvils in the game. The basic Naiad Ensnarer horde, while having a low defense, has Ensnare, giving all enemy units -1 to hit them in combat when fighting in the front. In addition, they have Regeneration 4+, so they will regain about half the damage on the unit every time they activate! If you want something tougher, the Placoderms provide an astonishing Defense 6 and Phalanx, helping counter common hammers like cavalry and flying enemies. Finally, you have Water Elementals and Gigas, both of which provide excellent options to hold enemy charges, and then punch back. If outlasting and outliving your enemy sounds cool, Trident Realm may be the army for you!

Trident Realm has some great shooting support options in Naiad Heartpiercers, Riverguard, and Leviathan’s Bane. These won’t be enough to win the game, but they can go a long way to softening the enemy for once you hit combat. They also can move and shoot (minus the Leviathan’s Bane), letting them still be useful in scenario play.

And finally, if you like monsters, Trident Realm has four excellent choices, the lightning fast but fragile Knucker, the regenerating monstrosity that is the Kraken, or the middle-ground Greater Water Elemental and Coral Giant; whatever your preference, all four of these monsters can be useful.

Weaknesses: For all their cool factors, Trident Realm is not the most beginner-friendly army. More than almost any faction in the game, Trident Realm really struggles due to a lack of a true hammer unit. The Dambusters and Depth Horrors can sort of fill the role, but Dambusters hit on 4s and are Speed 7, while Depth Horrors are only Crushing Strength 1, meaning both will fall short of what you need for a proper hammer.

If you like playing the objective while trying to hold off the enemy, Trident Realm can be really rewarding to play; however, just be warned it is a finesse army with a steeper learning curve. There is no “win button” to victory here.

Compared to other Nature-style armies, Trident Realm really doesn’t have great casters. The Siren with its Ensnare can be deviously fun to use, and the Thuul mages can serve in a pinch, but compared to the plethora of amazing casters in Forces of Nature, they leave a lot to be desired. Characters as a whole for Trident Realm are unimpressive, minus Eckter (who is a beast!).

Miniatures Range: This is another one of Mantic Game’s stronger ranges, with the monster and large infantry choices particularly cool. However, there are still some big gaps in the line, such as a lack of Placoderm or Depth Horror models.

Wrath of Kings‘ Hadross line is a favorite to fill some of the gaps in the line. The shark-themed Pit Fighters make excellent Depth Horrors, while the Shell Crackers are perfect Placoderms.

Games Workshop’s Idoneth Deepkin is also a solid choice for at least some of the army and could look nice alongside Mantic’s monsters.

I want to end by discussing the range by mentioning that Trident Realm, as an undersea army, lends itself well to a bright and colorful palette — think about all the colors you see at an aquarium. Bob the Bobish has a blog showcasing his really colorful and neat Trident Realm army here.

Looking for some more information on Trident Realm? Check out One Northern King’s Trident Realm review.

Sylvan Kin

It’s Elves, but for hipsters instead of edge-lords… For real, these are basically the trope of Wood Elves found across fantasy works like Tolkien, D&D, Warhammer, and countless other places. Tree hippies.

Strengths: (This is direct from our Sylvan Kin review written by Sean McCormally) Sylvan Kin are a jack-of-all-trades and master of none type of army, the “Everyman’s Army,” and they specialize in balance above all else. They are also very good at board control in the early game due to the number of units that can Scout with Pathfinder built in. 

Where most armies in KOW have niche lists that can dominate their local metas and have notorious reputations in tournaments; i.e., Kingdoms of Men or Goblin war engine spam, Lighting Bolt spam, Dwarven Defense 6+ spam, etc., the Sylvan Kin have the ability to bring well-rounded lists that can do a little bit of everything and force your opponents to consider every part of your army dangerous. Especially when half of your army is at the midpoint of the table before turn 1!

(Back to me)

Sylvan Kin’s access to a lot of Scout gives the unique position to have a substantial part of the army move before the game starts. In a game where frequently players are trying to grab objectives or tokens, this can be quite the advantage. They also have the Tree Herder and Wiltfather unique Tree Herder upgrade, which provide excellent auras while being all-around scary monsters.

Weaknesses: (Again from Sean’s review because it says it so well) Sylvan Kin does not have the best shooting in the game, especially with only one ranged unit that unlocks (Kindred Archers) and no Piercing in the entire list, save Bolt Throwers. They don’t have magical or artillery domination of the battlefield (only Bolt Throwers, and casters can be expensive), and they definitely don’t have access to Defense 6+ spam. In addition, they are the ONLY ARMY in KOW that does not have access to an unlocking unit with Piercing (2), Crushing Strength (2), Thunderous Charge (2), or CS (1) / TC (1) in their list, and only one non-hero unit in the entire army who does have one of the above (Stormwind Cavalry). They are also Elves, so unlocks can be hard to come by. 

(Back to me)

Sylvan Kin frequently are just squishy, particularly the Elf part of the list, while unsurprisingly the tree part is tougher. They need to rely on movement and support to stay alive because lots of things will just steamroller them. Unlike many squishy armies, they don’t quite have the raw punch to be glass hammers either; rather they operate more as death by many hits.

Miniature Range: Other than the tree elements, which can be bought from Mantic Games and are solid kits, all you have from Mantic is their rather hideous Elf range… But, the other common Wood Elf models I see are Games Workshop’s old Wood Elf models, which have been out of production for years and are rather difficult to find, and expensive to boot!

Even more than in the regular Elf army, I think Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings Elves can fit the bill really well for Sylvan Kin. Use them alongside Mantic’s tree range and I think you have the solid foundation for a cool looking army.

Oathmark have Light Elves which could also fill in for some of the Sylvan Elf choices.

Unfortunately, at this time I have been unable to find any additional articles on Sylvan Kin beyond our Dash28 Tiered Army Reviews.

Brotherhood: Order of the Green Lady

The better version of Brotherhood, get the raw attacking power of Brotherhood knights alongside the support and toughness of Forces of Nature!

Strengths: Order of the Green lady has a lot of great choices for speed, maneuvering, and board control. This makes Order of the Green Lady a solid choice for players who like to carefully position units on the board and force their opponents to make difficult decisions and then exploit their mistakes.

Knights provide some mobile and threatening hammers while Forces of Nature choices give some tough anvils and access to reliable healing for a deadly combination. Lots of the Order’s units are not the best or even third best in their category across the game, but they are also often slightly more affordable and have some great synergy to work alongside each other, creating an adaptable and balanced army.

Order of the Green Lady has a plethora of options, from fast and expensive knights, slow and tough Earth Elementals, to lightning-quick Pegasi and Beasts of Nature, you have a LOT of options. When paired with excellent magic and character choices, the Order of the Green lady can be a jack-of-all-trades, master of none army.

Pathfinder, much like in Forces of Nature, is found on a lot of choices, letting you rub your hands gleefully whenever you can take advantage of the protection of the woods.

Weaknesses: Other than some magic, Order of the Green Lady has no access to shooting. This is an army all about maneuvering for those juicy turn three and four charges, and for routing the enemy under the hooves of your knights.

Knights, monsters, and support options get expensive fast, and the Order of the Green Lady often ends up elite, with few extra units to sacrifice. This means it really needs to control the movement, otherwise it can get swamped. Reliance on knights also means if you misjudge a charge and get bogged down, your army can quickly lose momentum and be torn apart.

Miniature Range: Mantic doesn’t make a specific Brotherhood army; however, the Forces of Nature bits are almost all sold by Mantic. For the knights, a common model choice seen is the old Bretonnian miniatures; however, those are becoming increasingly scarce and now cost a small fortune to buy. For incoming gamers without Bretonnians to dust off, I recommend checking out Fireforge Miniatures who have a number of cool choices for human knights. If you want to lean into the forest knight theme, you could look into Amazon miniatures. Eureka Miniatures makes some decent Amazons, though some are a little cringe in their sculpt choices.

Want some more Order of the Green Lady Content? Give this episode of Counter Charge a listen, or One Northern King’s Order of the Green Lady review, or Kevin Spear’s excellent Introduction to Order of the Green Lady article.

The Herd

Bestial warriors serving the Green Lady, the Herd is made up of Lycans, Centaurs, Minotaurs, and other humanoid beast warriors (satyrs, gnolls, beastmen, etc.) and are basically a “gotta go fast and punch the enemy” type of army.

Strengths: Herd hits hard and hits fast. They have access to the incredibly quick Lycans, the slower but powerful Minotaur Chariots, and a host of Speed 6 infantry. The icing on the cake is that a large chunk of the list has Pathfinder, letting you dash safely through terrain and punch your opponent right in the face! Of the Nature-themed armies, Herd and Order of the Green Lady are the only ones with access to several excellent hammers. Herd has multiple choices with Crushing Strength 2 and higher, meaning it tears apart high-defense foes.

Speed 6 on all the infantry in the list keeps your Herd units out-speeding, or keeping pace with, most things that are not cavalry or flying. In a list that basically just wants to punch an opponent, this is a huge advantage.

The Herd has access to some of the best chaff in the game with Harpies and Wild Gur Panthers, giving a reliable, fast, and cheap way to safely deliver your hammers into the combats that you choose.

Finally, the Herd has access to Moonfang, an amazing Living Legend that provides Vicious to allies in the same combat! Who doesn’t want a werewolf hero assisting its allies in combat!?

Weaknesses: By and large, the Herd is a bunch of glass hammers. This is not a list that wants to get in protracted combats, with the exception of the Lesser Earth Elementals and the tree units. Often, if your enemy survives the turn you decide to commit to several charges, you are in trouble.

The Herd has no decent shooting — it’s all combat, all the time for the win.

Herd has access to affordable and flexible Druids, allowing them to adequately support the battle line with much needed Bane Chant, but other than this one spell, and perhaps a little Surge if you take Earth Elementals, there is next to no magic really worthwhile in the list. If you want a list with casters that have both offensive and defensive spells, this is not the army for you.

Miniature Range: The most common range seen for Herd is Games Workshop’s Beastmen, and this has some great options. I particularly love the Bestigors. However, these are also getting pricey.

Mantic Games makes great choices for the Forces of Nature bits. For Lycans, their Werewolf miniatures are pretty solid. I really like Mantic’s Clansmen models that I think could sub in for Tribal Warriors pretty easily.

If you want to try some different models, Frostgrave makes some Gnolls that I always thought would be a really cool different style base troop. For the large infantry models, you have more flexibility and options. Mierce Miniatures makes some phenomenal, but pricey, models that are perfect for a LOT of Herd choices. Their website is AWEFUL to navigate, so you have to set some time aside to really dig into it. Also worth noting they do frequent buy one, get one half off sales. RDG has a Faun line which would work nicely. Westfalia makes some really cool monster models, including their Bisotaur, which are clearly Minotaurs. Also from the same company, their Wood Elves could be a really cool different take on Herd.

At the time of writing, I have been unable to find further reviews on the Herd for 3rd Edition beyond our tiered army review.

Ogres

The big bois, the bro-ogres, the beefy mercenaries of Pannithor, it’s time for the Ogres!

Strengths: Ogres, perhaps unsurprisingly, hit extremely hard. Every single Ogre will have Crushing Strength 1 and often more. This means they love to see armies relying on Defense because they just shatter through it. If you want to laugh at higher Defenses, then Ogres could be for you. A lot of the ogre army hits on 3s as well, letting them hit reliably.

Ogres play scenarios incredibly well. Every Ogre, be it a unit or character, has Unit Strength, allowing a plethora of options for grabbing and controlling objectives. They also have Red Goblins in their list, which means that they can put a LOT of units on the board, and a lot of Unit Strength.

Ogres also often have decent Defense, with most choices at Defense 5 and the Siege Breakers at Defense 6 to the front! This helps them survive floods of attacks from weaker foes, but the ogres relatively lower Nerve compared to infantry hordes, means they will often still die in one go to major threats.

While this isn’t a game strength, because Ogres can be an army of just Large Infantry, creating an extremely small model count force, allows you to buy and paint fewer minis before getting them on the table.

Weaknesses: Flyers are one of the biggest threats to Ogres. Ogres themselves cannot take flyers, and while their goblins on fleabags are really fast, they aren’t quite threatening enough to control board space like enemy flyers can. This weakness means that Ogres often need to play particularly well versus alpha strike armies or risk getting run over.

Other than hordes of Red Goblins, or a horde of Ogres, Ogres often don’t have the best Nerve, giving them a little bit of a glass hammer effect. They can dish out the damage but will struggle to survive it on the return.

Ogres’ higher than average Height leaves them particularly susceptible to shooting. It’s easy to draw line of sight to ogres over a line of infantry. While terrain can help offset this, it’s not a perfect solution.

Miniatures Range: Between Mantic’s Ogre range and their really cool Goblin range, Mantic makes most of the Ogre line. However, not everyone loves the aesthetic of the Ogres.

Another popular choice is Games Workshop’s Ogor line, which could be used alongside the Mantic Goblins to cool effect.

Mierce Miniatures makes some really cool models that could serve as Ogres.

Finally, you could always dive into roleplaying lines like Reaper or WizKids miniatures to gather a hodgepodge of Ogres.

For more information on Ogres, give Counter Charge’s really fun episode a listen, or you could get a second quick overview with Death by Dragons’ 3 Minute Army Review.

Kingdoms of Men

Do you have a line of historical 28mm models you like? Perhaps you are intrigued by the idea of having a collection of regular humans fighting against a variety of fantasy armies? Or maybe you love the idea of a mercenary army? Well, Kingdoms of Men may be for you, regular dudes, and lots of them — oh, and giants.

Strengths: Kingdoms of Men is the epitome of the jack-of-all-trades, master of none archetype. They have solid units that can do almost anything, but few units that stand out above the rest. Our review for Kingdoms of Men is even called “The Ultimate in Average Armies!”

Kingdoms of Men does have a few standout traits. They can put a LOT on the board because their units are average; they are almost all pretty affordable. If you love the idea of hordes upon hordes of troops, Kingdoms of Men can deliver, and they aren’t even terrible (they just aren’t great).

Kingdoms of Men has a ton of shooting options ranging from great, to good, to terrible. A common strategy with them is to use hordes of troops to log jam the enemy and just batter their expensive juicy targets with cannons and other war engines while your everyday soldiers grab tokens and hold the line.

Brinton, in our Kingdoms of Men review, said it best, stating, “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.”

Weaknesses: Kingdoms of Men, perhaps because of their everyman approach, lack true hammers. They don’t shatter enemy battle lines as much as wear them away. Yes, their knights in the flank can wreak havoc, but more commonly you will see a horde or two of halberds enter combat and sit attacking for two turns before the enemy is pulled down under their weight of numbers.

High defense, specifically due to their lack of true hammers, can be a problem. If the opposing army also likes long protracted combats, such as Dwarves, and they do it better, Kingdoms of Men can have a problem. Items, magic, and good play help offset this, but it can still be a challenge.

Kingdoms of Men’s plethora of choices can lead to a disjointed army. Kingdoms of Men thrive on redundancy, so if you don’t build that in, you will struggle.

Miniature Range: This is a line that, other than the Giant, Mantic doesn’t make anything for. Now you could use Basilea and count them as Kingdoms of Men; however, there are also a few companies that also make things that could work. Fireforge would be my personal go-to. The sculpts are cool and the prices affordable, and there is a nice variety to pick from.

There are a ton of historical ranges that you could also pick from such as Essex Miniatures, Eureka Miniatures, and Perry Miniatures (they even have a cool Samurai Range!).

Finally, I’ll return to a regular recommendation of mine and point to the Lord of the Rings range by Games Workshop, they have a number of evil and good human ranges such as Gondor, Rohan, and Haradrim, any of which could work.

For some more in-depth views, check out Direct Misfire’s Army Review or Sam Nordberg’s article on How to Pilot a Kingdoms of Men Army. Finally, you could also check out One Northern King’s Rise of the Underdog article covering Kingdoms of Men.

League of Rhordia

Rhordia, the Kingdoms of Men army for people who want just a bit more variety in their Kingdom, namely the tiny halflings and the terrifying Honor Guard!

Strengths: This army has a lot of the strengths of Kingdoms of Men, with a few extra. First, they have Honor Guard, which are one of the hardest-hitting units in the game!!! One of my regular opponents uses two or three hordes of these every game and they are really hard to deal with.

Second, Halflings give access to some even cheaper infantry choices, as well as some cool shooting elements, like a Volley Gun and Canon.

Basically that is it. Rhordia is a great choice if you like the idea of Kingdoms of Men, but want more variety, while sacrificing some of the ability to swamp the board with bodies.

Weaknesses: Rhordia is often slower than the opposing army, particularly if you take a few units of Honor Guard (which, come on, why wouldn’t you??). This means that Alpha Strike can be a particularly challenging style to face.

Unlike Kingdoms of Men, Rhordia often ends up being more elite thanks to how amazing their Honor Guard are, but other than Honor Guard, most of their stuff is average, which means you need to work extra hard to succeed with it.

Rhordia, more than Kingdoms of Men, can be a bit of a one-trick pony. If it weren’t clear at this point, Honor Guard are the main draw for them, and everyone facing you will know that.

Miniatures Range: All of the suggestions above for Kingdoms of Men apply. If you are looking for Halflings, consider Westfalia’s Halfling range.

Honor Guard are a little trickier. My regular opponent uses the now out of production Empire Demigryph Knights. You could also go for bear riders, or basically anything that is a human riding a larger mount, steed, or monster. Even chariots could work since the list doesn’t have chariots.

Want more info on Rhordia? Check out One Northern King’s Rise of the Underdog article.

I hope that helps pick through the Forces of Neutrality for the right army for you. Keep an eye on this space for the final installment of Choosing an Army with the Forces of Evil!