BOLS sudden coverage of Kings of War

[hansgruber]

Is it a plug? Two articles in the last 2 days seems a little suspect with all the age of Sigmar change that's going on. I have nothing against kinds of war or mantic but i find it suspect that articles have suddenly appeared when there has been very little coverage of anything mantic on the site before.

*Edit 1. Just noticed mantic posted two articles on kings of war today so that's a total of 4 in the last 2 days...

[40kGamer]

Well given that AoS is a huge departure from WFB I'd guess it's from increased community interest in a system that scratches that ranked unit itch.

[Spider-pope]

Mantic have just released their Kings of War 2.0 rules, so i would expect articles. Now will they try to take advantage of GW's release? Of course, their entire business model is based on aping GW's past releases, but i don't think it's any conspiracy on BolS part.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

I think it's more that Mantic themselves are capitalizing on the changes to Warhammer to try and grow their own consumer base, and BOLS is just reporting what they're doing. I don't see anything sinister about it, and I'm immensely critical of the BOLS frontpage usually.

[40kGamer]

It's actually pretty good business to cater to an offended customer base. Won't steal hardcore fans but should definitely grow their customer base.

[daboarder]

Mantic have just released their Kings of War 2.0 rules, so i would expect articles. Now will they try to take advantage of GW's release? Of course, their entire business model is based on aping GW's past releases, but i don't think it's any conspiracy on BolS part.

they've already anounced that kings of war2 will be going free rules after gencon. Maybe thats a little late, but its got a lot of people I know holding of AoS to see if KOW will meet their fantasy itch.

its also interesting that now that GW has ditched the classic astethic, competitors like mantic can take it (given its tried and proven) and run with it so the look isn't going to go anywhere, even if you stay with 8th or develop and 8th ed community edition like the old spec games you're probably going to be able to buy new kits from either GW or places like mantic for a while yet.

[lobster-overlord]

Definitely well played on Mantic's part. While I don't think they are great models (lack of options, few poses, and not MUCH of a better price for that) I think they are doing a good thing overall.

I've been watching things for a while and when it comes to small games, people pick up the system with the price or aesthetic they like (Hoard, WHFB, what have you). What I have seen more of late though is that people are mixing and matching more, models and games crossing based on which models you find better or priced better. That's why Mantic was started for, as a way to put cheap models on the table using the same games. KOW rules were an afterthought, and went from the 10 page pamphlet to the book that rivals WHFB in depth.

John M>

[daboarder]

Their undead stuff is REALLY good, I personally use their zombies over GWs any day of the week.

They did botch the high elves though, not very nice. Im hoping the nature army is basically the wood elves but looks good. and I expect the forces of the abyss to be pretty good as its hard to screw up the chaos evil look

[Erik Setzer]

BoLS isn't a pure GW-only site. Yeah, it focuses mostly on GW, but not exclusively. KoW v2 is relatively big news, especially with AoS dropping and people looking for an alternative. And it's also big news when one of the guys who was key to creating Warhammer ends up writing a foreword for a different fantasy battles game (which is also being designed by a former Warhammer design team member).

They're just posting news. Kind of like how they're sharing Malifaux news, with its new starter set releasing soon.

As for Mantic models... I still use a lot of classic GW stuff, and Mantic's stuff equals or exceeds that. Some of their stuff is actually pretty good. It's all very nicely priced. To help get people into the hobby, I like it, because it's very affordable, and looks good enough on a table. It's also showing up GW some on the pricing front, because there's no way Mantic can match GW for manufacturing, so GW is likely able to produce things cheaper, yet charges a lot more. You can argue they look better, but then you're arguing that the price is based on a "premium" markup, not on what they cost GW to produce.

[daboarder]

I think mantics biggest problem is the studio painters, if you see some of the stuff people in the community have painted up it looks MUCH nicer, and is consistent in scale, something GW has never been really able to do

[url]http://www.brueckenkopf-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/MA_Gr%C3%B6%C3%9Fenvergleich-3.JPG[/url]

[url]http://www.manticblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/finished-skelly-horde-1a.jpg[/url]

now the elves dopnt have the same look as GW elves, but i've seen them look good once they are painted. and the Undead is, in most instances BETTER than the GW equivalent in my opinion