No, it’s not a new Warhammer Greater Daemon of Khorne – this burnished behemoth is the Lord of Lies, a demonic special character that heads up the Forces of the Abyss in mass battle fantasy wargame Kings of War. Wargamer was blessed with an exclusive first look at this new demonic brute, and we’ve also gotten our talons on two new hard plastic kits for damon regiments that accompany him into war.
For the benefit of Warhammer 40k daemon fans and Warhammer the Old World collectors, we’ll give a very brief rundown on Kings of War: it’s one of the best miniature wargames all round and more people need to hear about it. It’s a rank and flank fantasy wargame, in which maneuvering your blocky regiments into favorable positions before they reach combat is vital to success. Despite using forces with scores of minis, the rules are streamlined to make it quick to play.
The Lord of Lies was part of the first edition of Kings of War, but he’s never had a model before. The colossal new miniature is made from resin and will cost $80 (£50). He, and all the new kits, will be available to pre-order on the Mantic Games website from Friday September 6, with shipping from September 23.
We asked Mantic Game’s sculpting coordinator Dave (no surname given) about the brief for this new flagship miniature. “He’s a better class of demon”, Dave says, “standing taller than other archfiends with an intelligent grin, baroque armour, and carrying a huge symbol of power – Oskan’s Black Axe”.
Oskan, the previous owner of the axe, was a god-like being from the earliest days of Pannithor, the world Kings of War takes place is. Oskan was defeated in the God War and his axe was used to carve open reality itself and create the hellish Abyss to act as his prison. This nine-ringed hellscape is home to the Lord of Lies and the Forces of the Abyss: though they’re seldom content to stay put.
Two new plastic kits accompany the Lord of Lies. The Abyssal Berserkers are “not only big, but also lean and fast”, Dave says. He adds that “their manacled wrists hint at just how dangerous they are, even to their own kind between battles”.
With the serpentine Abyssal Nagarri “we chose to evoke something far stranger and more unsettling than the usual humanoid forms seen elsewhere”, Dave explains. They remind us of Yuan Ti Malisons from DnD, though they’re utterly huge compared to standard DnD miniatures.
Wargamer received early samples of the sprues for these kits, though due to being utterly consumed by playtesting for our Space Marine 2 review we haven’t been able to build them yet. Although Mantic first went into business making budget alternative models for Warhammer armies, since then it has put considerable effort into pushing the quality of its plastic kits and the distinctiveness of its sculpts, which these models demonstrate.
First, these clearly aren’t “counts-as” models for any of Games Workshop’s Chaos Daemons range – though the Abyssal Berserkers might work for daemonic brutes in Horus Heresy, or Chaos Trolls in the Old World.
They also have a very distinctive aesthetic. They’re classically hellish, with broad faces, wide grins, pointed ears, and horns, resembling the carvings of imps and devils you’ll find in and on a medieval European cathedral. There are some very chunky components on these kits, particularly on their weapons, but fine details like the Nagarri snake scales show that this is intentional and not the result of a technological limitation.
It’s a slightly exaggerated style, a little reminiscent of World of Warcraft or the 1980s GW studio. The models aren’t as dynamically posed as modern GW sculpts or 3D prints, but they’re simple to build, sturdy, and will be easy to rank up.
Speaking of ranking up, to accompany the new kits Mantic is releasing three starter bundles:
- The Ambush Starter Set costs $50 (£37.50) and contains six Abyssal Berserkers and three Nagarri;
- The Forces of the Abyss army costs $110 (£80) and contains 30 plastic Lower Abyssals, 20 plastic Abyssal Succubi, six Abyssal Berserkers, three plastic Imp Swarms, and one resin Abyssal Seductress.
- The Forces of the Abyss mega army costs $165 (£120) and contains 40 plastic Lower Abyssals, 20 plastic Succubi, six Nagarri, three plastic Imp Swarms, one resin Abyssal Champion, and one very large resin Abyssal Chroneas.
Earlier this year Wargamer went behind the scenes at the Mantic Games factory to learn more about the model making process and how they’re aiming to improve the quality of their ranges without driving up prices. It was truly fascinating – check out our feature about the visit to learn more.
Source: Wargamer
