Mantic just gave us a sneak peek at some upcoming releases on their YouTube channel, so lets take a look at the Kings of War goodies we can expect in the near future!
Armada
It’s not exactly Kings of War, but the preview started with some info on upcoming releases for Armada: Seas Aflame and magic supplement in July, Twilight Kin in August, Elves in October, Salamanders next year. Seas Aflame is an optional supplement with rules for fliers, seaside fortifications, campaign rules, and new upgrades and scenarios. The magic supplement sounds like a deck of spell cards. I don’t know a lot about Armada, but I think it’s cool that Mantic is continuing to support it and roll new stuff out. It sounds like you’ll be able to play Armada games as part of the summer campaign as well.
Salamanders
New Salamander models are coming in July. I have to admit, I’ve always had Salamanders on my list of armies that I’d like to paint one day, going back to the old Warhammer Fantasy Lizardmen. GW’s Lizardmen had that strong Mezoamerican aesthetic that’s been hard to get away from, so it’s good to see Mantic further differentiating Kings of War armies from their Old World analogues. The new models are currently up for pre-order on the Mantic website.
Halflings
There’s been a lot of recent hype about the upcoming Halfling army that has broken off from the League of Rhordia, and we’ve already seen previews of some of the models. Now we get some more solid info. I’m concerned that they will seem a lot like a non-evil Goblin army, so I’m interested to see what Mantic is doing to differentiate them. They acknowledged this concern in the video, and talked about how the Halfling army will be more of a finesse list than Goblins. They also talked about some new special rules for the army. They no longer have Stealthy as an army wide rule. ‘Relentless’ allows them to do extra damage to units that are already damaged and ‘Spellward’ sounds like stealthy but against spells, including your own spells.
It sounds like the ‘core troop’ infantry sprues will be very flexible and allow you to make several different units. They even said the kit can be used to make 5 cavalry and 10 infantry, so 15 models total. Seems like a good deal.
Halflings will get an Engineer hero that will synergize well with other shooting, war engine, or monster ‘Tinker’ keyword units.
A mounted wizard model! I feel like I was just listening to some folks complain about how hard it is to find mounted wizards models, so it’s nice to see this. So it sounds like the Halflings have bred a smaller version of the Winged Aralez from the League of Rhordia and that’s what they use for cavalry units and mounted heroes. Also notice the name ‘Sauceror’. They use something called ‘Gastromancy’ which involves auras. I’m guessing they will have multiple aura options and you will get to pick which aura to use each turn, or maybe their spells give auras to other units. Either way, sounds like a fun support piece.
Hmmm. I was worried that the Halfling army will feel a lot like a non-evil Goblin army. So I’m hoping these will play very differently from Winggits. Showing three of them suggests to me that this is a unit and not a Monster, so I remain hopeful but skeptical. 😉
Ok….. Ok…. You got me. Shut up and take my money. Sounds like this will be a unit kinda similar to Ogre Boomers or Shooters, ie. pretty good at shooting and pretty good at combat. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting a unit like this, so this is cool surprise.
So this is supposed to be a re-purposed piece of farming equipment and plays into the ‘Tinker’ aspect of the Halflings. It seems a lot like a Mincer, so again maybe not a great unit to differentiate them from Goblins.
Those are all the models the showed in the preview, but they also teased that there is more Halfling stuff planned. One thing I was hoping to hear but didn’t was a clear indication of how and where the rules for the army will be published. The summer campaign is coming up in late August, so maybe something will be published in conjunction with that.
Top Secret?
They teased something ‘Top Secret’ coming up in Winter. The blacked out image looks like a horned figure riding a monster with what looks like a lion head and scorpion tale, so a sort of Manticore vibe. Maybe these are new Varangar or Orc models?
