Review: Kings of War - Rulebook

As I was one of the backers of the Mantic Kings of War Kickstarter I got a nice package a few days ago. In there where the first part of my Abyssal Dwarfs (more of them later) and the printed version of the Kings of War Rulebook. I thought I'll do a short review about it so here it comes!

Front view of the cover

Back view of the cover

Overview

The rulebook is a hardcover print with 148 color pages.
The first part (til page 21) covers the background of Kings of War, then follow the basic and advanced rules including campaigns, terrain, special rules for units etc. (til page 77) followed by the biggest chapter the army lists. From page 144 to 147 you will find the list of all the backers of the kickstarter (including mine, pretty cool to find my name there).
The book seems pretty solid, the paper has a nice feeling to it but for everydays playing it is too bulky. Therefore a smaller rulebook was enclosed, containing all of the rules and core units of the armies. I already got that as supplement for one of my Tabletop Insider issues, but I like it because its of the same version as the rulebook, so no uncertainty of rules will occur.

Background

The first chapter in the book tells you (who would have thought of it) something of the history of Mantica (the world of Kings of War) and why the war rages throughout the lands. It describes the different races (Elven Kin, Humans, Ogres, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Undead etc pp) and in small parts something about their culture. For me this chapter could have been way longer, because I like to dwell on the background of the things I play/read.
If you are familiar with fantasy classics like "Lord of the Rings" or the "Elric of Melniboné" saga you will find many referrals in the background. You could even go as far as saying that they used some of the older stuff of GW (I'll come to that later). Mantic does not reenvent fantasy but enriches imo the well known fantasy backgrounds for their own goods with some nice ideas (Celestians for example).

The background is not bad but as said too short for my liking. Perhaps (and hopefully) the campaign book will deliver more of it.

Rules

Since I haven't played a Kings of War game yet, I can only judge the rules in theory. So if I misinterpret something I would be happy if you would correct me via comment.

The rules seem pretty solid (something you could expect after all the testing by Mantic and the community worldwide). They have enough special rules to divert them from current games like Warhammer. I think they are pretty simple (on the good side) and enable a pretty fast playing without having to learn thousands of rules before even starting. Every army has its own special rule but they all share the same magic item pool. I do not want to go too deep into detail here because you can get the core rules as download from Mantic yourself. Also you got a bunch of special rules for terrain, buildings and so on. Not too complicated but enough to enrich your games.
One thing I was drawn to at first sight was the unit thought of the game: You do not remove single models from your units but place wound markers on them. herefore you always have big units on the field until they are completly destroyed. Fits much better to a game of big armies then removing the casualties one by one.

Without having played them, I can say I like the rules so far. They seem at some extend very similiar to the rules of some of the early editions of Warhammer Fantasy with enough specialities to not be a clone of them. At some parts you again have some nice references, e.g. the magic item "The Boomstick" (Army of Darkness anyone?).

Forces

Again I don't want to go too deep into detail, rather give a short overview.
The Force Lists contain of the already known races: Dwarfs, Elves, Kingdom of Men, Abyssal Dwarfs, Goblins, Orcs, Twilight Kin and Undead. Each force has an alignment: Good, Neutral, Evil, with the Kindom of Men being the only neutral force so far. Contrary forces shouldn't build armies together, apart from that, forces are allowed to mix their units (as long as a stable core of one army is present).
Some of the listed Forces already have a mix of units, e.g. the Kingdom of Men fielding Ogres, the Abyssal Dwarfs containing Orc Slaves and the Undead having Werewolves in their ranks. Every force has its special rule (Elves are for example Elite) and some unique units. They differ roughly in unit sizes and different war machines (and their profiles) but seem to be somewhat balanced now. The units fit well into the given backgrounds with some pretty cool ideas (dwarven cavalry!) and stuff I hadn't seen this way before. To be more specific I should have played some games but one thing I like: Mantic allows you from the beginning to field other miniatures for your stuff instead of their own. Pretty cool so you can mix miniatures you like.

Conclusio

I think the rulebook is worth its money (looking at the price in the shop, for me as backer it was "free"). Since it is a hardcover it doesn't feel cheap, the printing and layout is well done and contains many pictures and artworks.
The rules seem pretty solid and easy to learn and fast to play. With the rules for casualties and the price of the Mantic miniatures you can really play games of big armies. The forces' special rules and the special rules for terrain make it entertaining and divert the armies enough from one another (really necessary for Elven Kin and Dwarfs because the unit types are very much alike).
Nothing you can really do wrong if you are interested in Kings of War.


So long,
Paradox0n