It is a new year already. I hope everyone had a great time celebrating the holiday of their choice. Of course the best resolution to make for the new year is to play more games!
I was all set to announce the unfortunate news about the Mantic price hike on starter armies taking place on February 1st, only to find out that is only affects the UK prices (£50 to £59.99), not for the US or Euro. At least this gets prices here in the colonies a little closer to current exchange rates.
Enough of that - what is happening with Kings of War you ask? Well actually quite a bit. On January 14th the Ohio War Kings are once again going to be participating in this event down at The Hobby Shop in Miamisburg. We will be setting up starting at noon and play three games (Unfortunately the store will not be able to stay open extra for us to be able to get the last game in). In order to play you need to have three lists available for your army - 1000 pts, 1500 pts and 2000 pts. Plus you should create your own living legend (worth up to 200 pts) to use in all the games as well. For full details, head to https://goo.gl/ZEC1lI . Please let me know ASAP if you are planning on participating here.
For those with a more historical bent, the Historical escalation league is finally kicking into high gear - with January being the first month for battles! Bring our painted (of course you had it painted by the end of November, right?) 300 pt army to battle it out on Friday nights. Don't forget that your second installment of an additional 400 pts is due at the end of the month as well. Who will come out on top - Romans or Carthaginians? Vikings or Barbarians? Only by playing games will we find out. Full information is available at https://goo.gl/iINV2q .
On February 18th the first annual DayCon Gaming Convention will be happening - and the Ohio War Kings will be there running a small Kings of War tournament. You must pre-register for the tournament (sorry, space is extremely limited so we can't have any drop-ins). Registration for daycon is online at http://www.daycongaming.com/ , and tournament registration should be up very the first week of January.
For all of you that have some extra holiday money just burning a hole in your pocket, there are some awesome new releases coming your way for your favorite fantasy mass combat game as well. The King of War Tournament book is in the final editting phase and will have loads of great information for anyone who may be interested in running an event (tournament or league), as well as the changes to help with balancing for Clash of Kings 2017 (it is up to the individual event organizer to say if they will use the changes or not). And for those who aren't interested in more reading (but have somehow made it this far into my monthly diatribe) Mantic as put up preorders (for release on February 10th) the new Trident Realms of Neritica (I still want to see that as Nerditica!) army! With a core of hard plastic Naiads (plus the Naiad Wyrmriders that came out in November) the army will include a host of new metal models, including Riverguard (frog ninjas), Thuuls (a cross between halflings and octopi (and no, there is no 'C' before their name - we aren't summoning old ones here, though the new models are cool and creepy enough to give you nightmares)), Gigas (giant crabs), Water Elementals (I love the fish in these models), Leviathan's bane (a harpoon gun artillery piece) and three heroes (Riverguard Captain, Thuul Mythican and Naiad Centurion/Envoy). Look for these as individual releases most likely starting in March (as well as the Naiad Wyrmrider Centurion as well).
Lastly (if that wasn't enough) the promised summer campaign for Kings of War will be coming soon, including new heroes for all the armies they currently produce. It will be up to the players themselves to see if they live or die, as this promises to change the world of Mantica. The campaign book is set to come out in the spring, and things will never be the same again. Not only that, but they are also working on a Kings of War sourcebook - much like the one for Warpath.
Speaking of Warpath, it is due to hit retail in April. Mantic has said they have completed shipping of the Wave 1 kickstarter (of course I still haven't gotten mine (and yes, I do have the pledge manager receipt for it this time)). The first releases will be Enforcers vs. Forge Fathers (which just happen to be the models coming in the new starter box). Taking what was learned from Kings of War the game is supposed to play fast with clean, slick rules, themed strongly around taking key strategic points and using terrain well. And if you want smaller games with more customization of individual troops, Warpath:Firefight has that with the same ruleset on a smaller scale.
Of course if you want to detail a single squad then Deadzone is where you can do that. New releases are planned for it as well, including a new GCPS faction (currently in playtest), and later in the year Mantic has announced they will also be adding a Nameless faction, based on the upcoming models for Star Saga. The best part is the models for all of these games are the same - you can grow your squad to a full army re-using all the same models.
Dreadball 2nd edition is still in beta testing - head to https://manticblog.com/2016/12/16/17004/ if you want to get involved and help to shape the future of the galaxy's greatest sports game!
The Walking Dead wave 1 has finished shipping, and all the models will be appearing in stores soon (if they aren't there already). It does seem that for once the Mantic web store is a bit behind what retailers have available. January and February will see the "official" release of all the individual boosters as well as the two expansions. Then in May wave 2 is due to hit with Hershel's farm and even more retail exclusives.
Mantic has said that they will be focusing more on retail releases this year instead of more kickstarters - fantastic news for our FLGS (if it hits our wallets a bit more). Hints are that more 3D scenery may be in the works, and internal playtesting of a certain skirmish-style fantasy game may be in the works.
If you can't get enough of me babbling on about games and hobbies, please check out my blog at http://blog.untilsomebodylosesaneye.net/ . Somehow this past year I've managed to find enough to update twice a week (Monday and Thursday at 6:00 pm) and I hope to continue to share my bizarre thoughts with you all throughout the coming year.
Mike Carter
Your friendly local Mantic pathfinder:
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