Apologies for not keeping the our posts up to date! We did release the first of our episodes covering the US Masters for those that may be interested.
Next week we’ll have an episode with the Ed Fiske (new US Master) and Cyle Pool breaking down their experience and taking us through their game 6.
Looking forward to it!
Rick is fantastic! His enthusiasm for Mantic games inspired me to start playing.
Welcome to the forum and to KoW! You made the right choice!
Thank you so much! @KptKeno
UK CoK 25 winner Dan Wright takes us through his games!
We catchup with Steve Hildrew to chat UK CoK
In this hobby focused episode we breakdown most of the paint ranges available at your FLGS.
Expectations and 1st Impressions of Clash of Kings 2025.
We are back with our October Fireside Chat…
Thanks for the discussion!
On the topic of letting people use the minis they already have/proxies:
The important thing to remember is that more people playing a game attracts more people to play the game.
We need opponents to play a game, so the network effect applies, and a healthy scene of people having fun is something that people want to join.
The more people play Mantic games, the more people are inclined to buy Mantic products.
The community is Mantic’s main customer base.
Which means that someone playing Mantic games benefits Mantic, even if they themselves never spend a cent.
Just by making the community bigger.
Letting people use what they have helps to grow the game. It lowers the barrier to entry.
I have a 100% Mantic army and two mostly Mantic armies, got people into KoW, ran demos and events. I never would have even tried KoW if I couldn’t start with my Warriors of Chaos.
An army is a lot of money any work to try something out.
Getting people to play gets them hooked.
Were back with another deep dive into the competitive scene as 2 newer players to the scene share their US Masters experience.
For sure, you have some good point there. I’m sure that it’s not a once size fits all solution either as different communities will have to see how their approach to figure agnosticism works for them. For us locally our growth is not from grognards that have been playing a long time, it’s really driven by folks completely new to wargaming. Most don’t have any existing armies so they are happy to use what they can purchase from the store (where we play). But we are very conscious of the effect modeling can have on their experience. We try to make sure our armies are not confusing and telegraph what they are. We try to go out of our way to ensure that our units accurately convey the units they are trying to represent.
as long as people play, it does not matter much what they use
for people starting it is very important to make it as easy as possible and pointing to Mantic Army Boxes is the obvious one here
from my experience 2 things helped a lot to get new players in, one is to show/tell them that the boxes are a good deal and often enough to get started and make a viable list (unlike other games were you need 3+ army boxes for the core or the units in the boxes are of no real use)
the other one is to tell them what works with existing armies, be it fantasy or historical ones as people often are interested in KoW/Rank&File but don’t want to buy a new army right away (once they are hooked up it is something different), specially if their existing collection is not useable in other games without buying something as well
There’s also not a one size fits all solution to either getting new players in or new players involved.
Some new players already have miniatures and can be tempted in by letting them try the game with low initial cost.
Others want to see a shiny box on a shelf, yet others judge a game by the associated miniatures.
Currently, KoW invites in all three. Which sounds like a good idea.
Some existing players want the game to be done for them and spice added in official books, others want a simple game to do their thing with and don’t want to have to keep up with changes.
I think the community (and therefore Mantic) benefits from having space for both.
I see no reason to shut one out. Especially since Mantic have done such a good job balancing things between the two.
Listened to the episode. Been listening a fair bit recently.
For what my opinion is worth.
I dont get time to play if at all. Kids Football of the uk variety.
I buy the books, a fair few mantic models which mix into my 5 old gw armies and my germanic/saxon kom army)
Personally its anything to start with new gamers.
However if they start to take it up youd like some progression over time in terms of the new players adding models units.
I do wonder mantic to me have done well to tap into the old world market but is that source exhausted?
New new players how big is that market these days?
For me walking dead, mars attacks, halo are a good way to get the new players in as crossovers to kow.
Clubs clearly another great way to pick up exisiting converts.
Always remember hearing 20 years back. The avg uk player of warhammer was 15 and it was 40 in the US.
Probably countries may need to have different strategies.
Looking forward to clash 25 and version 4 soon.
Thanks for the listening to the episode! You are 100% right in that different areas will need different strategies for growth based on their local player base. The clubs you have in the UK versus the stores we play at in the US impact potential growth very differently.
Just speaking for my own community at this point we’ve have exhausted Warhammer refugees or folks currently playing the Old Worlde. All the folks from that camp that like KOW are already here. However that might change with 4th edition or if the other game is killed off. It’s a good point to remember that what works to grow the game today might not work tomorrow.
I think you are also right in that there are other Mantic games with cool IPs that have a wider potential player base. At the very least it at least it puts Mantic and Kings of War on their radar. Ronnie has said it a number of times is the hardest game to be a new player into is their first Mantic game. Locally, the Halo game has a lot of hype from groups outside of the typical fantasy gamer. Exciting times ahead.
Do think Halo will potentially get gamers to look at other Mantic games, where otherwise they’d pick a brand they know. Similarly when Epic Warpath drops next year
I’d like that to be the case, but knowing how people play games that doesn’t seem likely. People who play wargames tend to play 1. Like with warhammer, people either play fantasy OR 40k, typically not both. What i see is that it will bring more general interest to mantic over all; but I don’t think people who would play halo want to play kings of war as they already play a game from mantic.