KoW hardback book - your questions answered

[mattjgilbert]

To get you started...

• 144 pages
• Released on the 25th June 2012
• The book sections are: Background/History & World Map (pg. 4-21), Game Rules (pg. 22-46, including special rules, the new magic items and how to pick a force), Advanced Rules (pg.49-77), Force Lists (pg. 78-139), Tournaments (to the end).
• The Advanced Rules are: Timed Games; Terrain & Buildings, Multi-player games, Siege Warfare, Campaigns.
• The army lists are the 8 expected: Dwarfs, Elves, Kingdoms of Men, Abyssal Dwarfs, Goblins, Orcs, Twilight Kin and Undead.
• Throughout there are colour photos of Models, set-piece battles, some great concept sketches, lots of little black and white mini-doodles/sketches.

So… what questions do you have? Fire away. I’m allowed to talk


PS. I may not instantly respond.. you know.. supposed to be actually working

[AlexHolker]

Have they fixed the War Engine rules?

[mattjgilbert]

What do you mean fixed?

Here's an example:

Balefire Catapult

Sp: 5
Me: -
Ra: 5+
De: 4+
At: 1
Ne: -/12
Pts: 65

Special
Blast (2D6), Indirect Fire, Piercing (3), Shambling.


And the Blast rule has changed. You now roll to hit and if you do, roll the Dn to see how many hits. Then roll to damage.

[Bubble Ghost]

Anything happening with the "Individual" rule? I haven't even managed to play this game yet but that one strikes me as a bit odd, the way every weedy human wizard seems to turn into Gandalf bellowing YOU SHALL NOT PASS at charging units of cavalry.

And out of sheer human nosiness - what are you to Mantic, anyway? Do you work there, are you a playtester, are you just someone's mate, or what?

[mattjgilbert]

I'm a Mantic Pathfinder. I don't work for Mantic directly but I do events, demos, playtesting, proofreading and generally sticking my nose in everywhere

Yes the Individual rule has changed. Individuals no longer double or triple their attacks when assault units in the side or rear. If a unit routs (kills) a unit with the Individual rule and the elects to move forwards D6" - if this move takes them into contact with an enemy unit it counts as a charge and they can fight again!

[shelfunit.]

For the campaign rules - Would these "just" be about how to link various battles together with scenarios, or a more encompassing realm building system a la the original Mighty Empires?

[Bubble Ghost]

I'm a Mantic Pathfinder. I don't work for Mantic directly but I do events, demos, playtesting, proofreading and generally sticking my nose in everywhere

Yes the Individual rule has changed. Individuals no longer double or triple their attacks when assault units in the side or rear. If a unit routs (kills) a unit with the Individual rule and the elects to move forwards D6" - if this move takes them into contact with an enemy unit it counts as a charge and they can fight again!

Cool. No idea about the balance of that with points values yet, obviously, but as far as being intuitive and evocative goes, that sounds perfect. Funky angling of bases aside, anyway...

[Hellebore]

Any new special rules or changes to old ones? Any new units for armies not previously seen? how many magic items and what do they do/what are their mechanics?

Hellebore

[mattjgilbert]

Bloodbath is gone as expected. Both vampire lords are also cheaper.
Regeneration has changed a lot (for the better... it was too good before). The rule is now:

Every time this unit receives an order (including Halt!),
before doing anything else, roll three dice. For every
result of 4+, the unit recovers a point of damage it has
suffered previously during the game. However, if the unit
suffers any damage from a Breath Attack or a Zap!, this
rule stops working for the rest of the game.

Blast has changed as noted above.

Magic items are purchased out of your points allowance and you can have a maximum of one on any unit. Also, an item cannot be taken more than once on your army. Some items are Hero ones only. Monsters and Warmachines cannot take them. There are 29 items ranging from 5 points to 50 points.

The KoM list gets Ogre Shooters (heavy crossbows or blunderbusses) and also an Ogre Captain. They LOSE the artillery master though - they Dwarfs are the expert gunners, no the humans. The undead get the new Wight unit - stats for that were on the Mantic blog. Any unit marked with a * can never be counted as a Solid unit (for unlocking heroes and warmachines).

Campaigns... not read through it in detail yet so will answer that one when I have done.

[Baragash]

Most of that sounds positive, though I am disappointed at the use of the old WHF Regeneration rule, I don't think having it disappear for the whole game is particularly fun or interesting.

[Hellebore]

I can see zzap! sniping becoming a useful strategy, hit the nastiest unit with regen early on to make it easier to kill.

When it says one magic item per unit, is that standards, or does it include weapons? If so does it describe the champion wielding the weapon or the entire unit being equipped with multiples of it (I doubt the last one)?

Not sure I like the blast change, mainly because it doesn't fix the problem with blast in the first place, roll once to attack with a low chance to hit. Did they make blast weapons really cheap and/or they now come in battery units to offset this? There was a whole thread discussing the problem in paying lots of pts for a unit that rolled 1 attack dice hitting on a 5+.

I really don't see the point in it, all it does is make the unit extremely random. I would rather a unit that is Shoot 5+ with D6 attacks thatn shoot 5+ with 1 attack that produces 2d6... however if you can buy 1-3 as a battery ala large infantry, then rolling 3D6 hitting on 5+ at least gives some chance of doing something each round.

Hellebore

[AlexHolker]

Regeneration has changed a lot (for the better... it was too good before). The rule is now:

Every time this unit receives an order (including Halt!),
before doing anything else, roll three dice. For every
result of 4+, the unit recovers a point of damage it has
suffered previously during the game. However, if the unit
suffers any damage from a Breath Attack or a Zap!, this
rule stops working for the rest of the game.

Mine's still better.

And I agree with Hellbore on the War Engines: their attempted fix still misses the point, and I dislike the Piercing inflation that came with it.

[mattjgilbert]

One magic item per unit is exactly that, one magic item. If it's a weapon, it's imagined the champion is probably the one wielding it.

[RomanCoin]

Have pre-ordered the book, after playing the game just once: love it! I teach, and if I decide to start a wargaming club with my students, this'll be the system I use for all sorts of reasons.

Two questions: Do the game photos give us any sneak previews of future miniature releases? If substitute or custom miniatures are used for certain units, does it give us any indication about what the Dwarfs' Steel Behemoth is?

[mattjgilbert]

No. Not that I noticed. The wights are in there but you'll see those soon anyway.

[mattjgilbert]

And no picture of the behemoth yet.

[RomanCoin]

OK, cheers!

[Mallo]

How is the background section? 20 pages seems a little small to flesh out all 8 races.

Are the Goblins (and Orcs) in the same line of fluff of GW- Goofy Idiots, or more in line with other high fantasy- Viscous little *@#!'s that steal, plunder and are generally quite nasty?

Honestly, this could be the one thing that either makes or breaks the whole KoW thing for me. I'm so bored of the Goofy greenskins of WFB and would like to think that there could be a whole world of decent unwritten Fluff for KoW.

[RomanCoin]

How is the background section? 20 pages seems a little small to flesh out all 8 races.

For myself, I'm sort of hoping the fluff is kept to a minimum. I'd like just enough framework to give context and logic to the stat lines and special rules, and enough space to create fluff of my own without contradicting canon.

[emperorpenguin]

Any changes to the Twilight Kin? Specifically "Vicious", Master of Death and gargoyles?