With Mantic “refreshing” two armies a year going forward, I thought some speculation and wish listing would be fun and potentially interesting.
The constraints seem to be that Mantic can do a maximum of 4 plastic sprues per army and cavalry takes two sprues.
Mantic also make sure that each sprue can make two different units.
If you could tell Mantic how to refresh an army, what would it be, what would you make?
Would love hard plastic basilean sisters in the same style as the scouts and do something for the poor bloody pvc panther riders!
Panthers, riders, infantry, bows & hw, 2hw, spears ticks all the boxes for 3 units and heroes.
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FoA are coming as you reference, but think that is at least a cavalry/guard type kit.
Elves - horses, bows, glaives & spears
Abyssal dwarfs could really do with hard plastic for the halfbreeds and gargoyles. I really want to run more of both but my heart sinks at the thought of cleaning up restic, especially the mould lines on the gargoyles.
Hate plastic golems would be nice too.
That would give them the opportunity to include alternate builds for each.
One of the gargoyle builds could be more heavily armoured.
The halfbreeds could gain a missile option.
The golems could include the charnox option.
I think that a hard plastic kit for earth elementals with, abyssal dwarf, dwarf and nature bits would be worth while.
I don’t know what else beserkers could be, so dwarf/abyssal dwarf might be the dual purpose a dwarf beserker kit can have.
Two part bodies so that the torsos can go on rider legs that come with plasic brocks.
While on dwarfs:
Two infantry sprues. One with shield arms and one with two free hands.
Shield sprues can have hand weapons, spears and something to set ironguard apart from ironclad.
Maybe an extension to the shields?
Two handed kit with shieldbreaker hammers, rifles, crossbows and shields/pavises for sharpshooters.
There’s definitely a possibility to get a lot of versitility out of dwarf infantry.
I think the basic dwarfs would be a good pick to get an update. Their sprues are nearly as old as kings of war itself ^^
Sylvan Kin need a glow up like the Twilight Kin got.
Basilea:
Sisterhood Infantry, 1 sprue, 2 units
Paladin Infantry, 1 sprue, 2 units
Paladin Knights, 2 sprue, 2 units
Sisterhood Cavalry, 2 sprue, 4 units (2x Sisterhood Cavalry, Gur Panther without riders and combined with a chariot making the Panther Chariot)
here we are over the max of 4 sprues but both cavalry sprues can be used for other armies as well which would be a base to get Order of the Green Lady or Brothermark going full Mantic
Like you just need Resin Upgrades to make Paladins, Man at Arms and Knights different themed while thinks like Forsaken Cavalry could be the Ravens from NA with Resin Knights
Basileans.
Resin Elohi
Plastic cav x 2
Plastic Sisters
Plastic Paladins
they’re actually older, elves, dwarfs, orcs and undead all started appearing before first edition arrived proper
Basileans also already have a plastic Men at Arms sprue.
I can see knights working for multiple factions though. A warhorse sprue can be a real workhorse.
A separate sprue of knights with standing or mounted leg options could be a good multi purpose/faction kit too.
Possibly with a few options for different knights. Perhaps different helmet styles for Basilea, nature and brothermark?
Maybe a few inter changeable bits that go on pauldrons or shields.
Those knights could then be made so that they potentially go on frostclaws, instead of resin.
Perhaps abyssal guard could be made to be interchangeable too, so they can use the same horses. Perhaps with a few horse “upgrade bits” on the abyssal sprue.
#second (or third?) the Basileans. Almost agree with your sprue-division.
The paladins both on foot and mounted exist. Yes, they are dated, but so is more of the Basilean line.
I would really appreciate plastic centaurs.
I think that many people would.
Not just for KoW.
I think the Dungeon Adventures minatures could be expanded in a way that’s also a Herd release.
Nice plastic centaurs, fauns and minotaurs would be great.
A sprue of forest animals (wolves, bears, boars, etc) would be a welcome addition to a RPG/fantasy skirmish collection, but could also be guardian brutes and/or a beast pack.
lets talk Elves and the general cavalry problem
“core” units:
1 Sprue Tallspears/Archers/Warriors, which also covers Seaguard and Gladestalkers (Resin upgrade with different heads and capes)
1 Sprue Palace Guard/Forest Guard
1 Sprue Cavalry Riders, with Silverbreeze using the parts from the Archers
Hunters of the Wild could be existing Half-Elves Berserkers, or a Berserker Resin upgrade for the core frame
Forest Shamblers go resin, same as the warmachines and chariots (with plastic crew)
there is a general need for 2 different cavalry mounts, while I am not a fan of having the very same for different factions, the Mawbeast works kind of good enough for the evil armies, the Panther could work well enough for the good ones.
a plastic Panther sprue would cover Basilea light cavalry and chariots, unmounted Panthers in general and could be used for heavy Cavalry with the Elves (to get a little bit more variation, armour plates for that could be part of the ride sprue)
and a generic horse mount than can be either light or heavy cavalry could be used for Silverbreeze, Elves Chariots, Basilea Knights and any other faction that need horses
PS: to make it a bit more clear in the cavalry, taking the Perry mounted man-at-arms
the horse frame, used for light and heavy cavalry
the light cavalry frame
the heavy cavalry frame
going with 2 different mounts to use them differently for the armies like Panthers to be light cavalry for Basilea and heavy Cavalry for others (and horses the other way around), would add needed diversity and lower the amount of plastic frames needed to cover all factions
specially as resin upgrades for things like Abyssal Riders (rider and armour for Horses), Halfbreeds (Panthers) or Centaurs (Horses) could be done
That horse set up is fantastic.
It would allow different upgrades per faction too.
The abyssal horsemen and paladin knights could have entirely different heads and armour, for example.
Two handed weapons on the skeleton sprues would be nice seeing as there is an option for two handed in the rules, right now I’ve got some Perry foot knights I’m using that scale great and the extra Mantic skulls I had left over fit the bodies perfect.
@kodos How do the Perry horses scale with the Mantic horses? are they bigger or smaller?
Perry in general is 28mm scale (base to eye), so depending on the ranges it fits but for the newer ranges they would be on the smaller side (although medieval horses were smaller in general)
Perry is about 75% size of Mantic new models. I’ve fielded a regiment of Perry Pikemen in my GW Empire army (same size as newer Mantics). As long as the two unit don’t stand shoulder to shoulder, the size difference isnt that noticable.
ok, about the Undead as this is a little more complex than people first think
currently the army is a mix of several different themes, there are Vampires, classic Necromancer and Revenant/Army of Darkness combined with Ethereal/Ghosts and Werewolves/Monsters
this could very well be split into several factions or get into different themed armies with a new model support for each
the current line is still good and fits the Army of Darkness/Revenant style with only a new cavalry being needed
the Vampire line would need infantry and cavalry and maybe some new skeletons units
and the Necromancer line would need some additional infantry like non-humans zombies and some more reanimated monsters (and we had seen some ideas in Vanguard as well)
for the ghost lineup, GW had a good idea for the Lord of the Rings to bring the Ghost army in clear-coloured plastic
something Archon has already done with one of their Dragons so this would be a nice addition as well to get that in here
