My Take On Kings of War: Vanguard [Opinion]

The hype is real right now as Mantic Games' Kings of War: Vanguard Kickstarter has risen to 83% of its goal. Lots of buzz has surrounded this long awaited edition to the Mantic Games inventory as talk of pledge levels and base reward content has been mixed prior to Mantics timely addition of the two-player set pledge level. I backed this project right off the bat, and once it was made available switched my pledge to the two player set, though I've never been a fan of Basileans (personnel preference), I hold out hope someone will trade me for some of those sweet Nightstalker models.

In this article I intend to lay out a few short fire-from-the-hip thoughts on the Vanguard Kickstarter and its path forward, but not so much the rules as I have not had a chance to take a dive into them yet (hopefully I can cover that in a future article).

The Pledge Levels

Starting out this Kickstarter a good amount of people were disappointed with the initial option of getting one warband, book, tokens, and a bunch of terrain from Mantic's previous terrain crate kickstarter. While the prospect of 10 models didn't seem super exciting to me, I did not back the Terrain Crate kickstarter and to an extent was looking forward to having a few extra pieces to play around with. Then again I am a terrainiac and like to make my own scenery, so when the two player set offered to give me more models vice  a bunch of terrain I could easily make myself, I sprung. 

However; I am sad I won't get some of the bigger Nightstalker models, I hope as stretch goals move forward I am able to get a hold of a few of the juicy extras that Mantic is teasing right now, like five Scarecrows, a pair of Horrors, and even the Sisterhood Scouts which would look nice as some rangers. Mantic never seems to disappoint with their kickstarters and all the extras that are given out, so despite some of the negativity that has been floating around I am pretty positive about the offerings that are to come. 

Whole lot of NOPE if I saw
 this on the battlefield

Nightstalkers

These look downright awesome! I think Mantic took the right path by not making them the most recent cliche of Lovecraftian tentacles, but still kept a hellish looking nightmare feel to them. I almost want to say they look similar to some of the models coming from Kingdom Death, which give me the wilys as I try to sleep at night. I especially like the very lanky looking inter-dimensional horror that is pictured on the right, it just captures a very "wtf" sort of unimaginable terror . I believe that is the Void Lurker, but I could be wrong, not really a Nightstalker player at the moment. 

For sure having a whole warband of these guys are going to be very fun to paint up, so the prospect of a years wait seems daunting. 

Basileans

So I've never realy been into this faction, mostly for theme reasons as a army of angels just isn't my
thing. I've never really had a complaint about the models Mantic produced for them, and the models that are highlighted in this Kickstarter do look good. But never the less they don't generate much excitement for me. Most of the hype I've seen around Vanguard focuses on the Nightstalkers, which does not give me high hopes I'll be able to trade the Basilean warband for more Nightstalkers.

However; I do think the Basileans would look great in a Legend of Zelda them, so whoever paints them up and adds a few Zelda models in for theme, I'd love to see.

The Missing Pieces

Bask in the glory of my butterfly wings!

So like I said above I'm not really a Nightstalker player, I am in fact mainly a Brotherhood player. So the fact that we have only seen a few factions in the Alpha rules concerns me, mostly because none of those few are Brotherhood. But from random rumblings on the various groups and twitter its rumored that all of the factions from the main game will be ported over to Vanguard. Whether this is true or not is anyone's guess as I have yet to see an official word from Mantic. But until then I am at the edge of my seat as to if my fellow knights will ride their way onto my 3x3 table to hem up some Nightstalkers and holier-than-thou Basileans.

There was a pretty vague FAQ  item that talks about there being free sample warbands on the Mantic website vice them being placed in the book. It seems that stats are going to be on cards for this game, which I really dislike. Its a sort of Fantasy Flight, "oh you must buy these extra widgets to be able to play the game" kind of ploy. Kings of War is a miniatures game: dice, tape measure, flat surface, and models type of miniature game. I really hope that Mantic isn't stepping down the path of adding all these widgets and collectors cards as an extra expense.

The Added Value to Kings of War

I'm not sure in Mantic ever officially came out and said that the purpose of this kickstarter was to also jump-start a new line of faction models such as the Nightstalkers for regular Kings of War, but allot of the speculation up until the release suggested this. While I will say time and time again that my favorite thing about Kings of War is I can use whatever models I feel like, I do want Mantic to have their income stream to keep this game going. So when I look at what Mantic is offering in this Kickstarter my main hope is that they are able to  leverage some of the models funded here towards the big game. 

Thanfully with some of the announcements today, it seems Mantic will be thinking of the rank and flank Kings of War, as the Basilean Men at Arms and the Nightstalker Scarecrows will be offered as an extra in packages of 20, or "regiment" size. Beyond this however,  the opportunity to draw more of the casual skirmish players into Kings of War is enormous. I am still trying to think in my head of a tournament format in which both Vanguard and Kings of War games can be played, perhaps this will be part of the Vanguard rule book much like the Clash of Kings books give some advise on how to run an event. 

Once I am able to dive into the rules,  I hope that I can give you all suggestions on how a tournament with both Vanguard and Kings of War could look. Can't wait to see whats in store!