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.