Review: Kings of War counter set

© Mantic Games

As you all know, I am a big fan of Mantic Games and their attitude towards our hobby. So I was also on board when the second Kickstarter for Kings of War went off. One of the many things I got there is the two player counter set.

At first I thought: What a rip off. It is made from plastic and the looks aren't very appealing. And even more annoying: There was no explanation what the different symbols and colors mean. The only useful thing I saw was the Arc of Sight template and also the round counter is quite nice. The ruler is "OK"ish but I have a very good measuring tape.

In my last game I gave them a try, but since there was no clear explanation what the symbols mean, I just made something up.

© The nice forum guy who made it

Oh if I had found a forum thread earlier. Someone also had these questions and some while ago put down a chart of the symbol and their meanings. Sadly I cannot find the thread anymore because it is more than a year old... It would have made my live so much easier. That is why I have to share it here. Twitter followers may have seen it already yesterday.

So I now have to revise my opinion on those counters quite a bit: As part of my pledge they are pretty cool. You get enough tokens for 2 players, 6 objective markers a Arc of Sight template (which you can also use in other games), a turn counter and a 6" plastic ruler (which most likely is only interesting for new players who don't own their measuring tape yet).

I don't know if I would buy the set though. With 15£ (or 25$/25€) this is not really cheap and is in direct competition with a lots of other sets out there (even Mantic selling one which looks much better). But if you can get your hands on one with a discount I think it is worth thinking of (that is if you are into Kings of War).

Ok, so this mutated to a review. In the beginning I just wanted to share the chart. But more content is always good, no? Hope you enjoyed it.


So long,
Paradox0n

A kind of review: My 2014

2014 has ended some days ago, I came over those bridge days where I had to work and slowly I am getting in the hobby mood again (besides needing some vacation). Therefore I thought a view back to last year would be something nice to do on the blog and a somehow nice thing to start the hobby season with.

2014 started really slow concerning blogging. My real life kept me from doing anything fancy on the blog. First Papa Nurgle put his arms around me and afterwards I had a pretty tough project on work which kept my complete attention. Lots to learn and test out. But in the end this trouble paid off and we delivered a great product and among others are now listed 2nd place on a pretty relevant listing in our  field after a very very big company (starting from place 5). So lots of happy faces here :)

It is this time of the year again...

Fitting to all the Nurgle stuff in the End Times I jumped forward and "volunteered" for a cold this week... Therefore no Monday Morning Music/Musings and no progress in painting at all. At the moment I am happy that I can sit at my tablet and read all your blogs and take some time in between to write this blogpost now. A friend of mine already calls me "Papa Nurgle" which is... somewhat fitting at the moment ;)

But enough chatter about my illness, this week was full of stuff so I think I should stop ranting and start posting more interesting stuff for you :)

First off all the Mantic Games kickstarter for the 2nd edition rulebook (and 2 new armies, Abyssals and Armies of Nature) was funded. Pretty successfully for that, I think the overachieved by over 10 times. OK we all know now the guys from Mantic plan these kickstarters to work like that but still this gives me personally a good feeling if Warhammer Fantasy really goes down the tubes. For me this was the new rulebooks, all the freebies and some new dice and especially the new abyssal dwarf hero on winged beast and the obsidian golem. So in the end they got me as usual.

Second there was my decision last week to go for a PBA membership at Panting Buddha. In the end I was mistaken and a bit confused (too much alcohol that evening)  and only opted for a Big Bruddah but mixed it with the Golden Brick Brick itself which would be the next "grade". So sorry for the "wrong" title of the post. I already wrote about the why and the arguments are the same no matter if Big Bruddah or Golden Brick.
Since I now also have access to the Vimeo group (sorry Michael for the confusion) I am eagerly watching the videos and the exclusive content. So far I am not disappointed. And if the continue their DVD series I will be even more happy :) Love the stuff standing in my shelf.

And last but not least I am playing around with my Nikon and slowly getting a grip on it. First I thought I will need a special macro lens for making nice miniature shots. But as far as I tried around it could also work with the normal kit lens. Better to edit it in Photoshop and cutting out all the unnecessary parts than moving too close to the miniature. That perfectly fits to the experiences the Apes from Massive Voodoo write about in their tutorial. Maybe I will dig a bit more into it and write my own experiences down, for example everyone tells you not to use a flash, but my last tests where pretty nice (for a short WIP at least).


So long,
Paradox0n

Kings of War - Kickstarter madness

The Kings of War 2nd edition kickstarter is hitting the home stretch. After breaking through a huge amount of strech goals, Mantic Games presented us now the second and final addons Wednesday with not only even more miniatures but some nice terrain pieces from 4Ground and a modular gaming table from Secret Weapon. So this kickstarter runs as we are used from Mantic, low target but insane success in the end.

Am I completely happy with the kickstarter so far? Hm.. depends. I think for guys like me who only pledged for the rulebook itself it still is not so good as the previous ones. But for those backers who pledge for armies and stuff out there it is pretty interesting. Those really get a big saving and stuff. Even more if Mantic decides to go for bulk army pledges.

But as usual it is very difficult to find nothing to pledge on. Lots of interesting stuff to find and I most likely cannot resist to pledge for some of those new special miniatures although it means that I have to pay the bigger shipping price :)

So if you are interested in Kings of War, you still have 4 days to hop on the hype train :)


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Pump it up!

So I am back from my trip to Romania and had the muddiest hiking trip I ever had yesterday. Sometimes I nearly lost my hiking sticks/shoes in the mud... Nonetheless: I am back again!
And I will start this week with some Monday Morning Music: Danzel with Pump it up! I think this song is somehow fitting to the stuff I am writing about today.
So start the music and continue reading... :)

Kings of War Second Edition

Mantic Games just announced the details to their new kickstarter for the Kings of War Second Edition rulebook.

Kings of War Kickstarter is launching on Friday 14th November at 1:30pm GMT!

Since I already backed the first one (and got a lots of stuff out of it, especially my Abyssal Dwarfs) I will most likely join this one too. Don't know how deep I will jump into but at least I will help to support the rulebook and hopefully the main translations. For me a translated version doesn't matter, but I know that for many people the entry to a system is much easier if the rules are written in their mothertongue.

More details about it you will find in the official announcement and on the Mantic Blog.

So let's see how it is rolling out on Friday :)


So long,
Paradox0n