Major Elves Refresh & More Coming To Mantic Games’ Kings Of War!

Clash of Kings UK took place this past weekend, one of the biggest tournaments for Mantic Games' Kings of War, and Ronnie Renton was there to share fascinating insights into what's coming for their Fantasy wargame, including more expansions and miniature releases for different factions.

Elves Refresh // Kings of War

The first thing that caught my eye was that we're getting a major refresh of the Elves. They are some of the oldest miniatures in the range and those spindly old fellows will FINALLY be getting new hard plastic kits and more in the Summer of 2027. A little way off but plenty of time for you to speculate as to what they'll be doing with the range and where it might go.

New Miniatures

Sticking with the theme of new miniatures, we also got a bunch of previews of different miniatures coming to a number of factions. These miniatures will be coming in resin with others as STL downloads alongside print-on-demand options. Some of these miniatures even came from community survey results from earlier in the year.

Twilight Kin - Crone // Kings of War

Twilight Kin - Assassin // Kings of War

Some of the images are a little small but they give you a little window into what's coming down the pipeline. I've not shown off all of them here but the Twilight Kin lead the way with the addition of a new Crone summoning up something terrible from within her cauldron and a cunning assassin who is ready to stab someone in the back. Impaler Voidblights and Bloodpriests are also on the way.

If you'd prefer to throw your lot in with the Abyssal Dwarfs then they are going to be getting all sorts of awesome monsters and heavy-hitting infantry.

Abyssal Dwarfs - Great Winged Halfbreed // Kings of War

The Great Winged Halfbreed is one of the most impressive miniatures from the preview, looking suitably old-school in its appearance. Somewhere, a classic Chaos Dwarf miniature from yesteryear has taken off his really big hat and doffed it. The Abyssal Dwarfs also get these fearsome-looking Infernox Berserkers who are going to clobber someone.

Abyssal Dwarf - Infernox Berserkers // Kings of War

The Abyssal Dwarfs will also be able to call on a Halfbreed Lord and a new infernal Mortar to bombard the battlefield. Classic Abyssal Dwarf behaviour, I'd say! It's a good time to be an evil overlord sitting in your smog-belching fortress.

One of the newest factions for Kings of War, the Xirkaali, are also getting themselves some new miniatures to play with.

Xirkaali - Yan Cavalry // Kings of War

Xirkaali - Witch Smeller Hounds // Kings of War

Human cavalry thunders onto the battlefield in the form of the very cool-looking Yan Cavalry. If you'd prefer to hunt down mages easily then you've also got those strange and slavering Witch Smeller Hounds who are ready to chomp down on your bones! The additional miniatures for the Xirkaali will be the hand-to-hand combatants of the Shaoquan Warriors.

Last but not least, we have something for the Ogres and the Northern Alliance in the form of a Mammoth! Someone get Justin...

Northern Alliance - Mammoth // Kings of War

There will be options for the Northern Alliance to claim one of these shaggy giants but the Ogres also get a chance to conquer the battlefield from the back of a Mammoth. Because of the nature of army building and the way folks craft their armies, I sense that a lot of armies are going to steal this Mammoth for something in their own force.

Ogre - Mammoth // Kings of War

As you can see, quite a lot of fun stuff is coming down the pipeline, a lot of it focused around the next book for Kings of War, Arrogance.

Arrogance Expansion Book

Arrogance is planned to be closer in design to the Clash of Kings update books from previous editions.

Expansion Books // Kings of War

The aim is that the game will get a full and thorough balance pass, including quality-of-life rules updates, points tweaks, statistics changes and rules adjustments. Some already planned changes are...

• Allowing a reform as a post-combat option, so units do not get stuck quite so awkwardly with enemies in their flank
• Individuals not counting towards the 2-unit limit in an enemy unit's facing

Army building flexibility is also going to be looked at alongside an improvement in the use of Command Orders. Every Champions Company will also be made usable as a Formation in their Kings of War army. The Champions will still remain individual hero choices if you'd prefer to keep playing like that. Mantic's idea is that Arrogance will give every army something new.

Mantic also talked a bit more about the moving plot of Kings of War...

After the Battle of Callenspire, the Xirkaali push past Ej and into Elvenholme. The elves are slowly falling back, with the different kindreds struggling to fight as a united front, but the Xirkaali advance is slower than planned. The war is becoming a long campaign of attrition.

Eventually, the Xirkaali commit naval forces to an attack on Walldeep, hoping to break the stalemate before it settles in too deeply.

Naturally, the Twilight Kin are watching events closely and using the chaos to their own advantage. As the Xirkaali continue their invasion, the Twilight Kin launch a planned attack on the Abyssal Dwarf city of Diew.

Very cool! If you'd like to learn more about what Mantic Games has planned, see all of the miniatures and get a better understanding of their vision, make sure to check out the full blog post HERE.

What are you getting excited about when it comes to the future of Kings of War?