Kings of War Third Edition Rulebook & Starter Set Preview
Celebrate the game’s 10th birthday with a new rulebook, supplements, army lists, and new forces and monsters! This October Pannithor is getting a massive expansion with the third edition of Kings of War. The 380-page rulebook digs deeper into the lore, offers new army lists for 14 factions, and includes updated core rules. Thanks to its growing fan base this edition will not be launched with a Kickstarter – instead, it will be available on Mantic’s webstore and in retailers from day one.
The first print of Third Edition will be a limited-edition hardback rulebook – and we’re expecting it to sell out pretty fast. So, if you want to prove your dedication to KoW, this is the book for you. This mighty tome is almost double the size of Second Edition and clocks in at around 400 pages! Now, don’t worry, that doesn’t mean we’ve made the rules twice as complicated. Instead, you’ll find around 200 pages of background on the world of Pannithor and the many races that inhabit it.
Rule Them All
Our designer Duncan has been very busy laying out all the pages and making sure the new book looks amazing. It should still feel familiar to Kings of War fans but has been given a glossy makeover.
A little like Second Edition, the army lists begin with a brief introduction about the background of the faction. Unlike Second Edition though, this introductory fluff gives details about each unit – rather than being included alongside the unit listing itself. This cleans things up nicely when it comes to army lists.
Army Lists
The unit entries have had a major overhaul, particularly when it comes to units that can be taken as troops, regiments, hordes or legions. Now the shared stats for these unit sizes (Sp, Me, Ra and De) are shown to the left, while stats that change due to the unit size are shown to the right.
Underneath you’ll see any Special Rules and something else new for Third Edition, keywords. Some Special Rules only affect a unit with a particular Keyword. What’s more, we’ve made Unit Strength much clearer and it’s now included alongside the unit entry (under the heading US).
Of course, we’ll have more information on what’s changed stats-wise for each army as we near the launch. The Army Lists included in the rulebook are (drum roll please):
- Basileans
- Dwarfs
- Elves
- Northern Alliance
- Forces of Nature
- Ogres
- The Trident Realm
- Abyssal Dwarfs
- Forces of the Abyss
- Empire of Dust
- Goblins
- Nightstalkers
- Orcs
- Undead
But where is [x] army? Fret not dear reader. Armies of Pannithor (the Third Edition equivalent of Uncharted Empires) will be released just six weeks after the launch of Third Edition. So, you’ve got time to digest the new rules before cracking on with stuff like Ratkin.
Background
There’s an entire section dedicated to giving more background on the world of Pannithor (previously known as Mantica). Pannithor is, in fact, the wider world, while Mantica was the area of the map we previously focused on. Alongside the history of Pannithor there are more details on each faction too. Perfect, if you want to delve into your favourite army, or choose a theme for a new one.
2 Player Starter Set
With Third Edition, we want as many people as possible to get into Kings of War, so we’ve put together a very exciting set that’s packed with the new hotness: Nightstalkers and Northern Alliance! Shadows in the North tells the story of a Nightstalker incursion into the Winterlands. Inside the set, you’ll get a booklet that gives some background on the story, details about each faction and a mini-campaign to help you learn the ropes.
Learn more about what’s in the box over on the Mantic Blog!
