I know this is probably way too late but let’s try to separate news/rumors from our pipedreams. I’ve seen many great suggestions in the rumor-section so why not explore more of this in this tread?
Here are some of my wishes:
A new move order - flee away from nearest enemy in your own turn. Unit will run 2d6 away and they have to take a nerve check to rally. In the turn they rally they can only reform (or move if they are nimble?)
Snake eyes needs to be about survival. What about becoming wavered if you have more damage than your nerve?
individuals need lover nerve. No way wizards should be able to stop knights, hindered or not
New magic items that does not only benefit the strongest unit and hordes the most. More like hammer of measured force, or simply a free curse-item that reduces a units cost with 5 or 10 points
Spells are getting really good in CoK19 – I’m hoping for even more tactical choices but lets stay away from too powerful stuff
Some individuals on bigger bases (like ASB) – maybe giving greater/more tactical bonuses but also easier to kill
I hope that all unit options are kept in the “non-mantic lists” and would love to see some sort of flying unit for kingdom of men.
I also think something has to be done with individuals. As I wrote in the other thread, I would like to see command models in a similar way to what hail Caesar has. Generals and others on individual bases like today, but with an order system that allows them to command the army. This will allow the RC to decrease the power of individuals.
This is somewhat beyond a wish-list though.
To use the Kingdoms of men list as an example on how it could be done: a General would allow you to move, say, 6 units within 12 inches him/her; a Hero 4 units; general on winged beast only 2 units (I imagine it is harder to plan and give orders while flying on a griffon).
Individual command models (and wizards and banner models) would not block anything and would not be chargeable, moving out of the way of any unit moving over them (it is very difficult to catch nimble small units on a battlefield). They would not be able to fight in close combat unless they join a friendly unit in an attack. In which case they provide a number of extra attacks (say 3 CS1 A for general, 2 CS1 A for hero, and 1 A for banner and wizard). If the unit they joined is destroyed before the start of the controlling player’s next turn, the individual is also destroyed in the rout.
I wish that each army has more differences from other armies, making each somewhat unique. Of course, there will be some armies that are a bit closer to each other, but just about now, most armies are WAY too close in choices.
For instance, I wish that Elves were a lot less in numbers, where they were mostly stuck to troops and regiments which cost more, but can do more damage and avoid damage somehow…. like invulnerable save instead of armor save, which isn’t changed by enemy strength. It would be much more different than a standard human list (or goblins) who would have a lot more units.
I want regiments and troops to be even more viable than today. Hordes are too good compared to cost as is.
I wish that we have more “base unit” with little equipment, which can have options added: Shields, Two handed weapons, Extra weapons, extra armor and so on. I also wish that some units would be extra unique with some special rule (like the most elite elven unit having some special elite rule with reroll all failed hits or something…which would make it a costly unit, but also a rare option (like only one per army).
I wish that the wizards would be more rare, making it harder to take many of them, but also gives them a set of spells. Kinda like lores in “the game we do not mention”, but not a random set of spells… Like one major spell and two minor, where the caster can cast one major spell and one minor. This would make the caster more special and interesting to both play and take out.
I want individuals to be strong, but rarer. I want them to benefit the army so much that you don’t want to lose them and just use them as chaff. Away with the cheap individuals and allow some units to take a bannerman with them for inspiring instead of having cheap sacrificial characters.
i’d settle for more options for hero unit role. especially ones that aren’t a source of Inspiring/Very Inspiring. IMO the cheap non-inspiring heroes should still have at least Rally [1], to represent the fact that even if they aren’t a general or legendary figure, they’d still be a leader and a way to bolster morale just by being present.
it would also be nice if there was a way to customize the heroes a bit more. like being able to take heavier armor, gain an attack, or various special abilities, at extra cost, without having to resort to magic items.
I don’t expect anything like a command point system, because that would be a significant change of the system (and why should Mantic do this?) It seems common sense that KoW2 is already very good and only needs some tweeking here and there.
I just thought this over, and while I love KoW as it stands, I think I would have liked a simple command system. Something like in Hail Caesar where you need generals to command each part of your army. Say a KoM hero can order 3 units per turn and a general 6 for example. The combat strength and ability to block by individuals could then be removed but they would still be necessary, but I digress.
Something has to be done with the individual rule IMO. Either remove it completely or make it so that individuals can’t block whole regiments and hordes for 3 turns. I would not mind if the rule was removed and all characters/heroes was placed on 50mm bases or something and still had flankes and rear. I think the main problem with individuals is that they are too mobile (and most too tanky) the way the rule is today.
More options for empire of dust. These guys feel outgunned by their gothic undead cousins.
An army wide rule like curse would be cool. Something like when a EoD unit is removed from the board they inflict a point of damage to a unit that inflicted damage on them. This I know is really speculative but vanguard does have a curse rule for them so who knows.
I have given it some thought and I think dwarfs have the answer.
My hope is that a dwarven approach is taken. Don’t change our way of gaming unless it’s been proven (CoK for example) and don’t be quick about it.
Don’t try to new and exciting keep it steady and keep it solid.
Ifyou want to impress then show us some craftsmamship (plastic or resin is fine).
Also personally dislike those instances where a wizard of “inspire bot” blocks an entire enemy charge, but kind of like it when it is a dedicated combat character that does it.
So would love to see two different types of individuals. Maybe something like wizards and ‘inspire bots’ go on 25mm bases, and gets a rule similar to warmachines in melee, or any unit who engages them in melee gets +3 to their nerve check (kind off like a ‘Super brutal’) rule. Basically they should avoid combat at all costs. Where as other individuals, on say 30mm bases, are more dedicated close combat guys who don’t have that penalty.
Could be linked to base sizes, or might actually be better to have a new special rule for the squishy individuals (maybe something like ‘non-combative’) or something similar.
Not an elf player myself, but from what I’ve seen their armies does tend to be generally mass shooting + drakon/dragons. I rarely see other lists for them, and the few times I do, they don’t seem to do as well.
Please note that this is my opinion from limited experience!
But would love to see them change somehow to open up more options. Some factions (like TR and undead, my two factions) feels really open right now. Feels like I can build almost any type of list I want and can make it work. Not sure if elves are in the same space though. So not exactly sure what they need, but would be great to see something that opens more options for them.
I agree with wanting the elven combat infantry to be more viable. The problem with elves is that they are expensive and don’t hit particularly hard, nor can they take a hit particularly well. These combined mean that we want to avoid combat as much as possible and if necessary to engage in melee, to pick our battles and to be able to break the enemy in one round. This means flyers and ranged units rule elven lists. The Tallspears particularly are just a suboptimal choice compared to anything, and Palace Guard only comes in Regiment size (not to mention thematically odd to have several units of Palace Guard and zero “regular” infantry).
I think Formations may be a good solution here however. More “elite” armies (like Elves) could have more Formations, even if many would be less powerful, than less “elite” ones (like Orcs). These smaller Formations (for example, two regiments of Tallspears and an Elven Prince) could have a minor boost (the Prince provides the Tallspears with Rallying (n) or a reroll to Nerve tests). I feel like this kind of encouragement of taking units that are otherwise not great is way better than hitting Drakon Riders or Archers with the nerf bat.
