MUP is all about chatting to friends, old and new about Toy Soldiers, and this episode is no different.
Kevin & Tom give us the low down on the recent Northern Kings GT, and we chat about things old and new. What are we taking to Clash of Kings 2025?
Rise of the Banished Unboxing!
Dave gets his hands on a Rise of the Banished box and tries his best to show it off
MUP at ÖRB Wars 3
Kodos (thats me) interviews at ÖRB3 in Austria, taken over the day of the event including Interviews with the Tournment Organizer (Stefan)
Chris and Gerry give us a delayed MUP Monthly and discuss Kings of war, Antares, Clash of Kings practice,Laserdiscs, Star Wars trilogy… Ronnie visiting OTT along with a certain crashing of a certain mirror. Edited by Fred
Thanks for the episode! It’s aways nice to have a chat about wargames on while I paint/drive/do chores.
On the being beginner friendly with pre-assembled models: getting into the wargaming hobby is confusing and daunting, but once someone is in, they’re not a beginner for long.
Possibly as soon as the second purchase (or even first, if starting out with a loaner or 2nd hand army) players will be looking for lists and models that they can make thier own.
While game modes, kits and resources for new players are important; they’re not appealing to most wargamers. Having a shallow end rather than making the whole thing a kiddie pool makes more sense to me.
On 2025 being disappointing for Kow:
Compared to last few years, there has been less for KoW.
Which is completely reasonable. Mantic has a lot of great things going on that’s keeping them busy and leaving less time for their other games. There is only so much they can do.
It’s an exciting time for the company and if someone’s response is “what about my thing!?” then perhaps they should take a moment of reflection to consider that not everything is about them and the best course of action for everyone is not necessarily exactly what they want all the time.
I’ve always seen Mantic’s decisions to be reasonable, even if those were not ideal for the whole community or turned out to be a mistake later. Sometimes there are limitations and the best feasible solution isn’t as great as one would like and if you take an occasional risk to try something out it doesn’t always work.
I think that Mantic is absolutely right to focus on Halo, even though ’m not interested.
It’s big enough to boost Mantic and really put them on the map. Every licenced IP wargame I’ve seen come and go fizzles out eventually, so I think Mantic should make the most of Halo while they can. As much money, visibility and (hopefully) Deadzone and maybe even Firefight players as possible.
I am not a buisness person, but I think it’s reasonable to assume a trajectory similar to X-Wing for planning and prioritising at this point.
The game is chugging along, with community-organised events, articles and podcasts, and while everyone would probably have liked more model releases…. It’s a kind of “benign neglect” situation (at worst…) while Mantic boost things like HALO. It can’t be KOW all the time, and we know that 4th edition is coming..
The irony is that when 4th comes, if it brings significant changes, there’ll definitely be a number of very vocal people who will complain about that too. It’ll be the command dice saga on steroids. So Mantic are damned if they do, damned if they don’t, really.
I think a huge amount rests on Alessio Cavatore’s shoulders. I imagine he’s thinking “There’s no point in KOW 3.5…. This has got to be a NEW edition…”. Based on comments he’s made on podcasts, I think he has a degree of professional condescension towards the rules committee / community-led approach to rules modification. I feel there’s a decent likelihood he’ll take a knife to quite a bit of stuff. Whatever the concerns people have about rules bloat, it’s not something he’s known for!
That was fun and makes me want to play more KoW.
I agree on the intro music, though.
The old “video game” theme was just the right mix of carefree nostalgia and upbeat tune to make me feel happy and excited to hear a frienldy ramble.
Gad and Matthias sit down to talk with Alessio Cavatore and Matt Gilbert about 4th Edition, what to expect, what changed and to answer question from the community
Matthias and Wiki Dave explore the mysterious Xirkaali Empire and talk about the Hemicyons, Yan and Shaoquan…or atleast as much as we can talk about them with the information on hand.
We are all slowly getting back into the swing of things with alot of podcasts cooking…next week ya get three.
TUESDAY - MUP Halo: Two Betrayals
James-005 and Wiki Dave get an EXCLUSIVE with a preview half the ODST squad cards. Join them as they discuss the new ODST, Balance changes and the start of Season 1. Dave has sneakily changed them also, see if you can spot the difference.
Want more 4th edition information? How about some interviews with 3 of those who are helping create it!
TUESDAY - MUP Pannilore: WHP Update with Brandon Respond
Brandon Respond from Winged Hussar Publishing returns to the pod with Mark and Wiki Dave interogate him for more lore information. Teasing whats coming up contained within.
Chris talks to Ronnie. We get some big answers. We also had big issues with the technology. Well done to Lance Wagner for getting the best out of the shaky quality.
There was one point in epsiode #158 where Ronnie was listing the plan for Halo releases next year, and he had just got to the point where we were into unknown territory… And he was cut off with a question about Dreadball Allstars.
NOOOooo! When he’s on, best to just draw him out and let him talk! I know MUP likes to operate according to a pre-planned schedule and try to move through things quickly, but it really works against you guys when you stick to it in situations like this.
ButI will also say: Well done on all the recent output, doing an admirable job of covering several different Mantic games.
WEDNESDAY -MUP KoW: The October 5th Playtesters Talk
The local group, Matthias, Martin & Menai, who joined the public playtesting for Kings of War 4th Edition on October 5th talk about our impressions of the rules, and what we think about armies and future releases.
Matthias invites Martin, Menai and General Gad to share an exclusive impression of Trident Realm in 4th Edition, discuss unit profiles, changes and what new tactics and lists we may see in future
Next week, we have Halo, Salamanders and some Champions!!!
Mark & Matthias come together to talk about the upcoming Xirkaali Champions box, speculations on other upcoming releases and what they wish to see in future
WEDNESDAY - MUP KoW: 4th Edition Salamander Army Preview
Mark, Menai and Matthias come together to talk about Salamander in 4th, possible lists, new tactics and what we wish to see from Mantic’s first full STL army release
Wiki Dave, James-005 and new co-host Ash-G099 come back together to discuss Halo: Flashpoint week. We talk about what we found interesting, what changed from our initial information dumps and we say goodbye to Season 0. Also …it’s someone’s birthday.
Next week, we have the famous Gonders (mantic painter), a 4th Edition Combat Phase Preview and a Interview with Ben Stoddard including an exclusive clip from the audiobook version of “Drowned Secrets”
Need more stuff on whats coming for Pannithor? Well this week should please you!
TUESDAY - MUP Pannilore: The Argument of Stone Interview with Ben Stoddard
Wiki Dave and Mark take on Ben Stoddard and the next part of the Dwarf/Free Dwarf Civil War with a conversation about The Argument of Stone.
We talk all about Dwarfs, Trident Realm 4th Edition and get an exclusive clip from not-yet-released audio version of Ben’s first Pannithor book “Drowned Secrets”
What is new, what was changed and what stays the same. Menai, General Gad and Matthias sit together to explore the new combat phase rules and share our thoughts on how it alters the gameplay in 4th Edition.
THURSDAY - Interview with Gonders (Mantic Studio Painter).
Matthias invited Glen (Gonders) who painted some of the Xirkaali Heroes, Placoderms and first Halo models to talk about his experience and all things painting
Next week, we have a breakdown of the first 5 short shories for 4th Edition, another 4th Edition Trident Realm episode and an episode on Location with Danny Graves.
WEDNESDAY - MUP KoW: 4th Edition Trident Realm List Building and Tactics.
Matthias picks up Martin and Menai again to finish the Trident Preview and talk about the lists they want to use at the beginning of 4th, points value and the new box sets.
THURSDAY - MUP Pannilore: Short Stories of 4th Edition Part 1
Mark and Wiki Dave dive into the first five short stories on the road to the release of 4th edition. One of them was longer than the others…
TUESDAY - MUP KoW: Kings of War in Italy
WEDNESDAY -MUP KoW: The October 5th Playtesters Talk
THURSDAY - MUP KoW: 4th Edition Trident Realm Army Preview (EXCLUSIVE)
**TUESDAY - MUP Champions: Wishlisting & Xirkaali **.
WEDNESDAY - MUP KoW: 4th Edition Salamander Army Preview
TUESDAY - MUP Pannilore: The Argument of Stone Interview with Ben Stoddard
WEDNESDAY - MUP KoW: 4th Edition Combat Phase Preview
THURSDAY - Interview with Gonders (Mantic Studio Painter).
**TUESDAY - The People Vs 4th Edition **
WEDNESDAY - MUP KoW: 4th Edition Trident Realm List Building and Tactics.
THURSDAY - MUP Pannilore: Short Stories of 4th Edition Part 1