Spring has sprung, and with it comes the traditional Spring Cleaning. Dust and dirt go flying.
Powerful dwarven stone priests and Druids can summon the earth itself to come and do battle with them. Mantic is summoning great bits of rock and earth as well. Not quite ready yet but coming quite soon (possibly July - and could the Steel Behemoth be coming a well?) are the new new Earth Elementals for the Forces of Nature and Dwarfs. Much in the same style as the resin Greater Earth Elemental with the central gem in the belly (the source of magic from which these piles of stone and earth become animated) and the crystals bursting out from the shoulders, these should make a great addition to your collection. I'll be replacing my nature Earth Elementals with these as soon as I can get them. These are retailer exclusives - as they were not funded (nor even hinted at) during the last kickstarter.
 |
| Earth Elementals |
July is traditionally hot - in the middle of the summer. And nowhere in Mantica is it hotter than in the southern deserts of the Ahmunites. Since another company decided to discontinue their miniature line for Tomb Kings (commonly known as squatted - from when they eliminated the squats (space dwarves) from 40K), Mantic has picked up the gauntlet and is releasing new metal conversion bits to turn your existing Undead skeletons and reventants into the Empire of Dust from Uncharted Empires.
Empire of Dust is an 'expert' army - meaning it will require some conversion skills to build. It will use several of the existing plastic (skeletons, revenants), restic (revenant cavalry, mummies) and metal (heroes) models, but have additional metal components to convert them to the proper look.
Enslaved Guardians are large infantry for the Empire of Dust - these powerful desert spirits eternally bound in ancient runic armor - they can be taken either as a powerful combat force, or a deadly ranged archers wielding crossbows that are almost as large as siege weapons. This is going to be a new kit (most likely in metal)
 |
| CAD for Enslaved Gardians |
 |
| More CAD images for Enslaved Guardians |
 |
| Empire of Dust concept art |
 |
| Empire of Dust concept art |
Of course the core of any Empire of Dust army are the skeletons
 |
| Empire of Dust Skeletons concept art |
Backed up by fearsome war engines raining death on their enemies from afar
 |
| Concept art for balefire catapult conversion kit |
So what is going to be able to stop these waves of undead from rising throughout Mantica? The Basileans still have three new models that were created in the kickstarter and are the only existing army that has not gotten their new release (and are the only unreleased kickstarter models). I've heard rumors that we could be seeing the High Paladin on Dragon, the War-Wizard and the Heavy Arbalest this summer as well.
A lot of people have been asking about the historical supplement for Kings of War. It will be compatible with the existing fantasy armies and rules. There are over 15 new army lists ranging over Romans, Samurai, Vikings and Crusaders. All armies will use a master list of units, and then build the specific army by restricting and adding units based on the background and military composition. There is an appendix of mythical monsters if you want to bring the historical armies into the fantasy realm. Generally do not expect any events to mix these two rulesets. There are rumors that the book may reprint the core Kings of War rules, making it a completely stand alone supplement (which should appeal more to historical players). In addition, it does have a couple of new rules, including new rules for hills to give them a true role in the battle (adding +1 thunderous charge for charging down them, and making them difficult terrain UNLESS charging down them). The book is set for September release.
Because it is all fun and games . . .
Comments
Post a Comment