Pantheon of Chaos

Diego Serrate. Write down that name somewhere if you're into GW's old style. Diego is currently funding a second kickstarter pantheon-of-chaos-chapter-two.
I backed the first kick-starter & received some lovely models:

From left to right: Warrior, Hobgoblin, 2.nd warrior, a third warrior, Arnak the beastman, familiar & Gorgrat the Chaos champion.

 

So the first kickstarter was a huge success.  As you can see, I went only for a few of the available minis, mostly for the mortal Chaos followers. I was always more into the dark brooding Chaos warriors rather than the mutants, daemons or beastmen, I just like the unknown evil more (kind of like Jason Voorhees over Freddy Krueger). I received some very characterful sculpts, my favorite is this one:

Konrad

I can't wait to get it painted! Now that the second kickstarter is a go I just felt that I had to write about these models, are they any good? 

With old school GW stalwarts such as Tony Ackland, Kev Adams and Tim Prow sculpting these models, the results were enough to make a seasoned Citadel collector start drooling after something new. This is imo an excellent set of models that will blend in perfectly with any collection of old school fantasy from the 1980's or 90's. Special mention must be made of the beastmen as an attempt has been made to produce something different from the goathead archetype, while I'm not into beastmen all that much, one really has to appreciate this.

 

 

 

The new stuff looks promising & I've pledged 9 euro myself for the Khalass Champion, I will probably add more to this pledge before the shipping start, I really like the PTW 11 warrior as well as some of the new Chaos Dwarves.


Kings of War

Back in 2013 I started playing Kings of War a bit, it was a simplistic game, but it gave us the feeling of a wargame instead of a DnD session with powerful characters & their followers, however due to the game not being all that popular around where I lived it became a side-game, one to take out when we either didn´t have time to play a proper game of Warhammer, or when we were tired of other games.

Then Mantic released Kings of War 2.0, & around the same time GW decided to destroy the World of Warhammer as we know it through the End Times & replace it with Age of Sigmar.
I will not bash on Age of Sigmar, I've presented my thoughts on that earlier & lets just say it isn´t everyones cup of tea. If you´re not into any other game atm & are looking for a replacement for warhammer, or are new to the hobby, then try out Kings of War!
Why? You might ask, well here´s my top reasons to do so:

1. It´s easy to learn, no matter if you´re a wargamer veteran, or a complete beginner, Kings of War has an excellent rules-system which is easy to learn, but hard to master. I learned the game after reading through the free rules & trying it out in just a single game!
The game is fastpaced, is consistent in its rules & is very easy to get get a hold of, imo it was refreshing to be able to play a wargame pretty quickly and without having to spend hours hunched over a rulebook or having to engage in 1v1 unit skirmishes. I was able to play a full sized game with nearly all of the rules in play the very first time!

2. Cheap: Well this is relative, but most people who will read this is old warhammer players looking for a new game to play with their old miniatures, & the fact is, due to the way Mantic has designed the armies & the allowance of allies, you can basically port anything into Kings of War & have rules for it. Also note that even a new player can get a decent sized army quite cheap if he decided to use Mantic's own models along with some Reaper Bones models for characters. Besides Mantic doesn´t force tournament players to use Mantic figures like that other game company.

3. Fast to play: I am a father of a young child, full time worker who has very little spare time, setting up a game & playing it usually takes quite some time, time me & my friends don´t have too much of, but Kings of War allows us to play a 2000 Point game about twice as fast as warhammer. This speed of play is largely attributed to how straightforward the rules and unit stat lines are. This means that once you have a grasp on the fundamentals you don't find yourself looking up rules and charts every few minutes. The fact that units are treated as a collective rather than a group on individuals also means time is saved as miniatures are not removed as casualties and as a result, a whole unit can be deployed on a single base.
This doesn´t really appeal everybody, claiming that indiviual models should be more than woundcounters, but even in warhammer most troops are just that, & imo it´s more fun that you don´t have to remove all those great looking models I´ve painted as soon as the unit starts taking wounds, it also allows you to make scenic bases, or if you´re not into that, at least very characterful unitfillers.

4. It has tactical depth: Yes, the game might be streamlined, it's simple, but not simplistic. Movement is key in Kings of War, a flankcharge doubles the amount of attacks the attacker gets to do & a rearcharge triples it, this means that no one can rely on deathstars or overpowered spells, but rather a mixed style which takes movement & tactics into account is needed to win the game.

5: Magic is great support, but not necessary: The spells in Kings of War includes the standard damage dealing spell, one which causes a bit more damage but has a shorter range, a healing spell, a movement spell, a buff spell & a spell that pushes away units. Used correctly these spells are very powerful tools in your army, but you can´t rely on them to win, which imo is just how magic should work, Kings of War focuses on units & movement & ultimately, if you are like me & tire of time wasting rule-book checks or quarreling over interpretations of rules then KoW is a real breath of fresh air.

6: The armies: There is a total of 20 armies in Kings of War, which include both the normal fantasy races such as elves, dwarfves, orcs etc etc, & some very unique armies such as Night-stalkers (living nighmares) & Trident realms (fish people), & as you are allowed proxies, you can build whatever army you like & find rules that suit them.

7:It´s supported: Kings of War is fully supported by Mantic & they have a healthy discussion with their players to make sure the game stays balanced & fun! An example of this is the Clash of Kings supplement which removes some of the best magic artifacts & adds new ones in its Place to balance the game further.
Also this summer they will launch a worldwide campaign, which will decide how the World of Mantica will change, meaing that every game counts!

If you're looking for a quick game that's easy to get into and fun to play then I highly recommend Kings of War. It's a fantastic game for both veteran wargamers and new players a like! The only downside imo is that it lacks a world I care about & the crazier stuff of herohammer is nowhere to be seen, but I have Warhammer 5:th edition for that, when playing a balanced wargame I prefer Kings of War over any other game atm.

My thoughts on Age of Sigmar & the current route of Games Workshop

When the old World was destoyed by Games Workshop, I didn't really mourn it, I was already at a state where I just didn't care much anyway, 8th edition was imo one of the less fun versions of warhammer fantasy, only 7th edition was worse imo.
I was looking at other games such as Fantasy Warriors & Kings of War several months before Archaon managed to destroy the old World.
I read the fluff of the End Times, I enjoyed the little nods to the fans by bringing back old characters all the way from the 80's into the story & I really looked forwards to see what would come next.
Then came the Age of Sigmar, it was nothing like warhammer, but the rules were free so I gave it a go, 2 games later, both involving Nagash, & I was sure that this wasn't the game for me. It was not the mass combat system I craved & yearned for, but neither did it feel like a skirmish game, it was something in between. The rules were unbalanaced & without a pointsystem it was open to abuse. The setting lacked the depth the Old World had etc etc.
I moved on to Kings of War, started playing X-wing as well as older versions of warhammer instead.

As unbalanced as it looks...

Lately a few guys at the local hobbyshop has started showing some interest in Age of Sigmar, as I have played Kings of War beside them I have gotten minor glimpses of their games. In my opinion Age of Sigmar  is a game for children, built around a hobby for adults. The kids the rules are made for are unable to really do the necessary work to get to play (& probably lack the funds as well), the adults that actually can do the necessary work and get some fulfillment out of doing so are bored by the simplicity of the rules and disappointed by the lack of any kind of balance (well at least me & my friends are).
Yet what I've come to realize is that this game might not be for me, but it is a great gateway to get new people into the hobby, especially younger people, with that in mind I bought the new mini-starter box, Storm of Sigmar:

It's a rather cheap box, I got mine for less than 20$. In it we find 13 models, 5 Stormcasts, 3 Chaos Warriors (Bloodbound) & 5 Chaos marauders along with some nice unit cards. There is a small rulebook which contains some minor fluff, the rules & a short campaign. This will be a perfect start for any new player, I will introduce this to my son once he is old enough.

About a week ago, Games Workshop released a new expansion for Age of Sigmar, this is called Warhammer, Age of Sigmar: Skirmish

 

While I prefer Warhammer 6th edition skirmish or Song of Blades and Heroes for my smaller games, I must admit that this cheap book is yet another perfect gateway to get new players into the hobby. The book is rather cheap & to start playing you only need a small warband of 4+ models.  The rules in skirmish are very simple as they basically work just like Age of Sigmar, which might not be everyones cup of tea, but it's perfect for new players, you just have to stay away from certain models which GW somehow missed (yes I'm looking at you Knight Azyros). As said, the core rules are the same but the army construction is tweaked and unit movement is removed, now all models move as individuals. This 40 page book starts with some fluff just like Storm of Sigmar, although more detailed, then it tells the backstory of the setting the skirmish games are set in, namely Shadespire, a place cursed by Nagash. There are 6 scenarios in the book, 3 of them are great for single games but you can connect them all for a larger campaign.

Each model is assigned a renown cost, & you decide before the game how much renown you can spend on your army. Almost every faction is represented here, but all of the big models are left out. This is a Skirmish game, so monsters would be a little odd. However sadly several of the old World races are missing as well.

 

Imo these two sets form a great way to get new players into wargaming, I reckon that if I convert the free Stormcast elemental from White Dwarf to a character & add a nasty character to the Bloodbound (maybe the free Slaughterpriest), I will have two 40pts armies, so in total 10 scenarios to play through with a mere 15 models. If we change sides this means 20 games for less than 40$, not bad imo. I can go even further by buying another Storm of Sigmar starter, this leaves room for changing around the lists in skirmish as well for a mere 20$ extra. After the introduction of this game, one can move on to games that are more complex.

While I doubt I will ever fully embrace Age of Sigmar, this along with a lot of other interesting releases made by GW lately (especially Slambo, specialist games & Made to order), does show that Games Workshop is once again on the right track, who knows, maybe my son will get to experience the same kind of magic I felt when I started 23 years ago with the magical World of Warhammer Fantasy. I really do hope so.