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The Forces Of The Abyss Rise To Conquer In Kings Of War
December 30, 2015 by brennon
Mantic Games have now added their newest army from Kings of War to the pre-order lists to be released in 2016 during February. See what you think of an array of their different characters and the armies that you can bring to bear against the enemy in Mantica...
Champions Of The Abyss
Starting things off we have a look at three of the new models from their range that will be leading the Abyssal demons forward to destroy the world of Man, Elf and Dwarf. First up we have the Abyssal Champion...
This looks like an underling of the main leader who is proficient in both fighting with that sword of his and when summoning up magical power to blast away his foes. I'm sure he would bow in subservience when faced with the Abyssal Fiend however.
I think of all of the champions that they've done this would be my favourite for the Abyssals. I like the stance, the wings, and the two balls of fire ready to turn a foe into ash. The face was rather strange to me at first but it has been growing on me, as if it's come straight out of a 90's video game.
Last but not least we have the Efreet which is probably their chief spellcaster. He is wreathed in flames and would be a prime candidate for some interesting object source lighting work. I'd be very interested to try out a bale fire look for the flames and then to change their skin to black or grey.
Armies Of The Abyss
Of course each of these characters needs an army to lead. Here we have the Starter Army for the Abyssals featuring an array of their regular soldiers and some of those monstrous Molochs.
You can see more of the units from within this army over on the Mantic website. I could see Abyssals being a very popular new army since they offer something a bit more different than the standard Orcs, Elves and Goblins.
What do you think?
"I'd be very interested to try out a bale fire look for the flames and then to change their skin to black or grey..."
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The legs on the Fiend look horrible
How can you tell what the legs look like since the knees are bent in the stance he’s in. I’d have to see him in a 360 view.
If those are his knees then he has tiny legs XD
He has a goat-like stance. The legs are substantial, looking from other angles.
Definitely starting an abyssal army for KoW, these guys look awesome.
KoW might be a better game then AoS but, Mantic looks too be 10yrs (at least) after GW when it comes to miniatures.
That fiend look horrible, what’s up with those legs?
They’re about 10 years behind GW on the pricing too. 😉
My understanding was the abyssal army was meant to look like depictions of demons/devils from the middle ages, so I think in that instance it works, but still not my cup of tea
this will be the army that gets me playing KoW i believe!
Ugh, they look like what GW was coming out with 20 years ago. Not impressed…
…and better than what GW makes now imo.
Not very impressed here either I’m sorry to say. Mantic is still a bit hit and miss in terms of quality.
the champion looks good.
I’d like to get a closer look at the troopers. Can’t really see them on Mantic’s site either. A definite buy for bulk troops if they look as good as I think they will! 🙂
The molochs are already out of stock… odd. Of the models pictured, those were my least favourite.
The picture doesn’t do them justice as I was the same but going through my Kickstarter set and seeing them in the flesh they are great models..
Oh dear.
Eye wateringly bad miniatures.
Other pictures (renders, maybe?) of the fiend here –> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/kings-of-war-fantasy-battle-game-2nd-edition/posts/1314918
I rather like the look of these Abyssals. It’s the army I pledged to get in the Kickstarter. I like how they don’t look much like anything else on the market right now, and they have that look that leans toward the exaggerated cartoonishness. If it isn’t your cup of tea, oh well. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind about the models when mine actually arrive.
That Champion is surely best of bunch.
I just got my Abyssal army through the kickstarter and everything looks great. Seeing things in the bare plastic, metal, and resin gives a better perspective on the painting potential of these miniatures. For those you of you who think the Fiends legs look wonky, he does have those reverse jointed goat legs. So he’s in a hunched, “come at me bro” pose. Check out the render to see the legs at another angle: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/kings-of-war-fantasy-battle-game-2nd-edition/posts/1314918
I’m definitely getting an abyssal army. I prefer the classic devil style to that of the GW chaos demons.
I don’t understand the choice for such cartoon style.
Those Kickstarter pics of the Fiend look even worse. It’s a shame they went for the goofy comedy style, because I wanted to take these seriously.
I think Mantic needs to send it’s sculptors to anatomy classes too.
Seriously this is not the first time I’ve thought this either (look at the renders of Hacker half-tail from their Warpath KS…)
Style is just that, style. Why should Mantic copy the dark look of other companies? There is nothing wrong with a cartoon style.
Mantic is moving in the right direction. Some of their latest sculpts have been fantastic and they have the right blend of materials for the most recent sets: 1. basic troops in hard plastic 2. heroes in metal (these are great detail and quality) and 3. large monsters, dragons in restic.
Mantic is working within it’s budget and producing solid minis, a fantastic, clean set of mass fantasy rules (the only large scale fantasy game left), and as they have successful Kickstarter one after the other, Mantic fandom has doubled or tribble since Warhammer Fantasy is no more.
I’d like to see a proper high res shot of the units. They look pretty interesting from what I can tell.
In my experience with Mantic minis, is that the details could be sharper, more defined, especially with faces. Which seems to be, on first glance, the case with the heroes.
They’ll improve with time no doubt.
I think some people here are comparing a Ferrari with a Ford. I got a load of different abyssal minis from the wave 2 of the kings of war kickstarter to bolster my dungeon saga set. The champion is excellent quality for the price and he looks more maniacal than comical in the flesh and he cost $8, GW would have squeezed £15 out of me. The fiend is a proper beast and it comes with an alternative back so you can have him with or without wings. The sculpt is smooth and a good fit but I do take people’s point that more interest could have been sculpted into the mini but at what cost? The fiend set me back $25 I can guarantee that a GW version (although probably much higher quality) would set me back £45.
How many times have people banged on about GW prices being too high and what if there could be a cheaper alternative? Well here it is.
I love GW stuff and as @deaddave puts it so eloquently “I am a ForgeWorld whore!” But I also like value for money and I see it here.
To go back to my original analogy I’m a biker and for years I used to commute 250 miles every weekend on a Honda VFR750. It was a cracking bike cracking fun and did what I needed it to. Jump forward to now, I don’t commute anymore and I only ride for enjoyment, so when I left the Army I went mad (because for once in my live I could afford to) and got a Ducati 848 evo. It’s none of the things I loved in my Honda, but it goes like stink and it looks gorgeous! What I am getting at is that it’s all horses for courses, if you want a Ferrari go to GW, if you want a bit of affordable fun go Mantic.
“If you want a Ferrari go to GW” true some of the time. But sometimes its more of a Lamborghini: overengineered nonsense of a product that useless for anything other tha looking pretty in a museum. I see Mantic models more as Nissans: some of them are not to everyone’s aesthetic taste, but they work well and a very good value.
Weirdly enough I drive a Qashqai?!?!
These are genuinely dire. We’ve been playing Dungeon Saga for the last few nights here and I don’t mind how dated the minis look because it adds to the nostalgia and brings me back to my Heroquest days. There’s always going to be an old-school charm to any tile based dungeon crawler.
But these guys have none of that. From these pics I can’t comment on the quality of the sculpts but the aesthetic reminds me of old B-movies in the worst way.
I like the design that Mantic went for; granted, it’s not as imaginative as some other companies’ demons, but being as those results can get a bit silly, the conservative approach works for me.
Very medieval depiction of hell in design.
My Dungeon Saga Abyssal minis have just got promoted in the painting queue!
Mine arrived today, yeah they are more basic than others out there but I’m a gamer not a collector/painter and I want a big, affordable army so they’ll do just fine for me.
Still not quite there in terms of quality when compared to Games Workshop but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. However while these are a lot better than some of the models in their other armies, they’re not going to be enough to snag people who are used to the quality of Games Workshop.
If you want a demonic army purely for gaming and you want it on the cheap, then this is definitely a good place to start. However, if you want quality then I’m afraid you still have to look elsewhere, probably starting with Games Workshop’s Chaos range.
They’ll snag plenty of people who can’t afford GW prices for the army sizes they want.
They won’t snag anyone who enjoys the painting and modelling side of the hobby. It’s been said before, on a weekender I think, that while Mantic are gaining Kings of War players who are unhappy with Age of Sigmar, they need to significantly up their game in terms of model quality if they want to attract players away from Games Workshop models as well. Mantic currently come in at roughly half the price of Games Workshop models but, and I realise this is subjective, they are less than half the quality of Games Workshop.
Have you seen the sprues for the new Abyssals and FoN? It looks like the options have increased dramatically in the new release. Maybe not to GW levels, but I don’t like the look of GW chaos and demon models anyway.
Well, whether something looks good is subjective. I’m not really a fan of Chaos stuff but I do know that Games Workshop are peddling a vastly superior product, albeit at an increased price, even if I don’t happen to be into Chaos.
I think Mantic are slowly heading in the right direction, with Kings of War at any rate but they’re still a long way behind and for me they haven’t quite struck the right balance between cost and quality. That is I think they’re still focused on lower cost and it’s reflected in the end product. Their games are great fun, their miniatures less so and I derive a huge amount of pleasure just from the miniatures alone so I generally tend to stay away from Mantic miniatures (although I do have some Mantic Dwarfs in my Dwarf army and they’re alright for rank and file).
There will never be a right or wrong miniature. Art is subjective and some people demand anatomical correctness while others crave detail, yet others will like cartoon styles and more still will want gritty realism. The fact is miniatures is sculpting and that is art. Personally I have bought into the Mantic work because for the most part I really like it, it is affordable and playable. With my Undead army I decided to go with the GW Vampire of the Zombie Dragon because I want detail in my hero. The rest of the army is Mantic. (Interestingly the Mantic army costs a fraction more than the one GW piece) Soo, it’s really about what you want. My opinion is .. if I am going to be painting 60 or 80 Zombies .. I don’t want so much detail that I will have them painted in about 20 years. If I am painting for a low model count game or a hero .. I really want them to stand out. In my opinion (and let’s face it that’s what every comment on here is) Mantic haven’t quite hit the mark with their larger models as yet, but the continuous improvement is evident AND $60AU for a dragon is a damn site more appealing that $95-120AU. Sooo in the end .. buy what you like and appreciate we are all in the same hobby but we all enjoy different things which is what makes it so good.
* Time to hand the soapbox to the next poster 🙂
I don’t mind the cartoony style, in fact I quite like the fact that Mantic appear to be developing their own style rather than just copying Games Workshop. However the quality of the models, in terms of details, options, posability/poses and material Mantic are still quite a long way behind. Mantic are great if you just want to buy a load of miniatures to chuck down on the table and play; I can’t (and don’t) fault them for that. However for someone like me (and there are a lot of people like me) who like to spend time building and painting armies, maybe converting them to give you something truly unique (even just things like head or weapon swaps) Mantic just aren’t good enough. I also think Mantic realise this which is partly why they are tacitly offering support for Games Workshop armies in Kings of War via the Uncharted Empires book.
Been looking forward to getting my hands on some of these for ages. I am very surprised that GW have never done any generic demons that are for chaos undivided or more faction based demon you cannot tell me all khorne has are bloodletter juggernauts and flesh hounds at his disposal.What about an orge size one like the Marlochs here?
I have these models in hand from the KS, I recommend anyone even remotely interested to get down to your local stockist when possible and look at them in the ‘flesh’. I think they will exceed your expectations.
Agreed. These new models are a nice multi-part kit. Mine just arrived today.
received the kickstarter same as numerous others on here, plastics are pretty damn good!! Only just assembled 10 not-daemonettes this evening and have to say I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I intend to proxy them for 40k and sure, on a one to one they’ll never match up with GW quality but on the flip side I have 40 not-daemonettes, 20 not-flamers and 60 not-bloodletters for a fraction of the cost. If I could afford to buy all GW I would as I’ve always been oddly fond of the various daemon mini’s (being a Guard player) but now I’ve got enough for a rather nice daemon horde in decent enough fashion. With the Word Bearers I’ve never got round to finishing and my recent diversion into building a cathedral I can see some awesome apocalypse games coming up in the late spring/early summer. The pics, as ever with Mantic rarely ever seem to do them justice but the plastics in particular compared to older sprues are just great. Not GW? Well bugger me, look what that nasty Malal did to corrupt and near endlessly multiply those lovely games workshop daemons (the Abyssal iconography actually fits to boot!!)
Mega-Starter Army overview
Molochs (metal) – 3 very nice sculpts. Extra head and weapon options so a 6- figure formation can avoid too much repetition. Assembly uses ball-and-socket joints for some extra options in posture.
Gargoyles – Not so good. Restic, and one part was miscast. Very much a remnant of Mantic’s earlier production. 2 lower body styles, 2 torso styles, 2 wing styles (5 each) and a few different head options.
Succubi – Good news again. Nice design, nice casts, lots of options, and two bonus imps per 5-figure frame. Would have preferred maybe getting tails as separate pieces rather than molded into the lower body though.
Lower Abyssals/Magi – Worse tail sculpts than the Succubi, and the bodies are one piece rather than two, but otherwise not bad. Again, 2 bonus imps per 5-figure frame. Lots of weapon options, but looks like only 2x 2-hand weapon upgrades per frame, and the shield hand is intended to be left empty as a fist for the magi build. Arms attach like GW Ork Boyz, flat surface to flat surface.
Efreet (metal) – Decent sculpt and casting. 2 heads, 2 right arms. Would compare to a Reaper character mini.
Abyssal Champion(metal) – see above
As the GW fanboys support their floundering company I will continue to give my cash to companies that are more talented at several things:
A) writing rules. GW is incapable of writing a set of rules not designed to fleece you of money for their dismissing product lines
B) employing people and not treating them like garbage
C) charging hideous prices for models
D) supporting the community and promoting the hobby and not doing it by strong arm merchandising tactics and ripping off brick and mortar stores (chapter approved..go fuck yourselves)
GW dies the death it deserves. A corporate greed machine that is slowly strangling itself to death while newer fresher companies take what little talent they had and design better games