I first saw Star Wars when I was little and was a massive influence in my early love of science fiction and fantasy and recently I got to see the 9th and final film in the Skywalker saga. Despite the plot writing and character development which was truly abysmal, but it looked exciting and there were lots of emotional moments which helped balance it out for me.
But it got me thinking about Star Wars in general and controversially I have to say that Solo is my favourite movie in the franchise. Whaaaaat?!?!? I hear you scream into the screen!!!!!
And I’ll tell you why. Total fantasy immersion. Because beyond watching Star Wars on the TV when I was little I got the toys and sat and played with them. I played the X-Wing, TIE fighter and Dark Forces games on my computer as a teen. I spent a decade reading 30-40 of the novels that came after and watched the re-mastered and then special editions and it totally drowned me in the Star Wars lore, background, characters, races, ships, worlds, environments, creatures, weapons and more. I even got one of those cool FX lightsabers which makes noises when you hit stuff and looks near perfect in low light. And the more I got into it the more I became sucked into this wonderful fantasy universe which, let’s face it, was way more fun than homework. So more than any of the other films, Solo embodies the soul and character of that Star Wars world that I dived into. And then we had the prequels…..
It was the same Aliens. And Predator. And Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. And Discworld. And Lord of the Rings. There are plenty of others but my true loves had something a bit more…. Total immersion. A two hour film is great but not enough. I want more. Toy’s, video games, audio dramas novels, comics….. All those extra things that really make those stories come alive!!!
So that’s a touching tale, but what has that got to do with Kings of War?
When I first got into the game I immediately saw how simple the rules were and had a lot of things that I’d wanted since my beloved Warhammer died and was replaced with the soulless void of AoS. Plus I could use any models I wanted which opened up a whole new world of miniature companies, models, conversions and painting. In short, it was the game for me and after a demo game I went straight into my first tournament with my Brettonians. It was almost like the good ole’ days returned!
But something was missing. That little spark of character and personality was there but not enough for me. It could just be plain templates on a plain table. So on the hunt I went but it wasn’t enough. Mortibris, for example, had a bit in Dungeon Saga, a page or two in the campaign book, a paragraph here or there but that was it and he was a major character! It was like watching an angry Ben Solo stomp around a bit without knowing any of the horror of his grandfathers reign and tragedy, his future ****SPOILERALERT****, his space time wank fantasy with Rey, his killing his parents, saving the galaxy blah blah blah and all that other jazz which forms his story. And that’s what I needed. In a Necromancer rap battle Nagash had a trilogy of awesome novels of his backstory, years of background and side stories and then a mighty book and role in the End Times. Hash tag drop the mic.
So what is this rant for? A whine that I don’t have a video game where I get to run around shooting arrows at Basileans and painstakingly trying to throw and hit a giant in the nuts with a mawpup power-up grenade? Not yet.
Right now it’s a realisation that I’m currently that kid sitting on the rug eating chicken soup watching The Empire Strike Back on the telly wanting more. And I want more with Kings of War. Our local tournaments have had a huge surge of people using Mantic armies over the last year and one small Vanguard tournament was 100% Mantic. So it’s not just a game with toys on a tabletop anymore, now I’m fighting battles in the world of Pannithor (dorky name but stick it in the middle of Eternia, Naboo, Acheron, Pannithor, Kislev etc and it doesn’t look so bad!). And the first novel Steps to Deliverance really opened things up, followed by the utterly fantastic V3 rulebook that the game deserved. An RPG follows and how far will that go? Will it kick off a LARP and one day I will get smashed in the head with a foam sword by a hot cosplay girl in Naiad costume? Will we get audiobooks so I can listen on the drive to work? Games Workshop have announced an Eisenhorn series so that movie isn’t hideously out of the realms of possibility (If I win the Euromillions I promise we can have one!). More novels and a God War back story is on it’s way too. The tournament scene is getting jam packed and I seem to be planning my year around my tournament schedule. Im spending more and more time writing, building toys and painting.
And slowly we have total fantasy immersion. Because it’s better than homework.
Get older. Don't grow up. 