Another year has passed in the wonderful world of Pannithor! Or has it? In the chaotic time-warp of pandemic restrictions, lockdowns, political calamities, social division and the, well, quite frankly utter insane bullshit of the real world, it’s sometimes hard to remember.
Despite all this, in the fantasy land where we go to avoid such unpalatable things like real life, things have actually gone quite swimmingly! Mantic have been dropping quality on us like a goose laying golden eggs. So lets go Veruca!!!!!!;
-Model quality has gone up! Rather than the occasional new army that might intrigue, we’re barely recovering before another fantastic release has tentacle slapped us across the chops alongside some of the best models Mantic have ever produced! A good sign of quality is how much a model sparks our interest. I’ve never even contemplated Veer-My before yet the Pack leader with the Deadzone starter set is just so fantastic I’m having a hard time forcing myself not to do a strike team to go with him. It’s the same across the board with every release! Awesome new models everywhere!
-Gaming quality has gone up! Now we’ve all had a while to absorb 3rd Edition, we’ve been given Cok22 which has given the game a fantastic range of new aspects (I’m not even going to bother going over them as loads of other people have already discussed it ad nauseam and I’m lazy) and everyone has dived into making new armies and lists like it’s the second coming. Seeing the excitement online has been a delight to watch and I’m looking forward to the new tournament year like never before. Speaking of which….
-Gaming volume has gone up! Down in the South East of England, at the start of July we had our first proper post-lockdown tournament (with careful restrictions) and that kickstarted plenty more across the country. I made it to Stockport, Cardiff, Bristol, High Wycombe, had a great time at all and no cases of covid! Hooray! Despite my best efforts I didn’t make it to Masters but seeing and this season lasted 3 years I guess I’ll write it off. Starting in 2016 where I placed 144th (then 72nd, then 46th), this season I placed a respectable 36th! This year perhaps I think I may try my best to stick with one or two armies and learn how to play it properly instead of getting over excited! I love the Order of the Green Lady changes in Cok22 so they will be my army, though it will take a while so I’ll go with my Forces of Nature for now. And I will have plenty of opportunities to try as a tidal wave of tournaments have already been announced and I have paid and signed up for 10 already! It’s got so busy I’m in the position where I can pick and choose which is a wonderful position to be in. Some tournaments have sold out in hours so the need is strong, and while we have a hardcore base of players to fill places, there are events to welcome new players in too!
So with all this, plus the success of Armada and it’s huge amount of releases, Kings of War is in the best shape it’s ever been! Deadzone 3rd edition is super-juicy and I’ve jumped onto that too with my first tournament in March at Explod-a-con in Poole. I should probably learn how to play first.
With the looming threat of the return of Warhammer (market share threat at any rate. We have the quality, they have the marketing) this massive investment in Kings of War is a great move by Mantic, solidifying a strong base for the game which will once again have strong competition in the ranks and flanks department. It has kept it’s versatility for accepting other models/systems while also establishing it’s own identity. Things are looking good for the future.
Kings of War also has what many other game systems lack-a strong welcoming community. Having seen some of the toxicity in systems like 40k and the Old World Facebook page, it’s lovely to have such a friendly supportive community to bounce around with.
We’re not perfect by any means. Recently there was quite an uproar when the Masters site gave an award for the most attended events titles “Kings of War Whore”. It was a joke. Crude? Yes. Crass? Yes. Cringeworthy? That too. But still a joke. But comedy changes as all things do. Try watching a Carry on Film that were hugely popular in the 70’s and judge it by today’s standards and you will wince. I know Rusty who won the award. The thought that a super-cute balding middle-aged man with an unhealthy dwarf fetish may may be a ‘painted lady of the night’ because of his love of Kings of War is rather comical (Jan was also in the running for the award and had she won it then things would have gotten a whole lot more awkward a lot quicker….) But comical between a small group of friends does not extend to the rest of the world. As the community grows it will encompass all manner of creeds, colours, genders and of course, sense of humours. A word in itself is not an evil. It’s just a simple string of letters describing a thing, behaviour or a subject. The issue comes with the intent. Words have power when used in certain ways and a middle-aged white mans experience of a word won’t be the same as a young lady’s.
What then happened on Fanatics was frankly like watching a playground brawl (oooh! FIGHT!!!), where everyone dived in, people tried to break it up, they got punched too, I’m pretty sure a brick got thrown at a teacher….. We have to remember that we are all human beings, with our own feelings and real world stresses but importantly we’re here for the same thing, which is to have fun with toys soldiers. It’s something that unites us. We’ll never get everything right and the important thing is how we deal with problems and that little spat shows that we could all do with a bit more understanding, patience and kindness. Smiley face emoji.
But, that was one incident in an entire year of goodwill, hobby enthusiasm and support for something we all love! So bravo!
So with the charm of a young John Cusack, I’m in High Fidelity mode and I think it’s only right I give my Funky Funk Pannithor Collective top 5 of the Year!
- People! Real life people! Gaming and having fun with real armies on real tables. No more lockdown sitting in your pants painting toys and eating 3 day old stale pizza because you can’t face queueing for 2 hours to get into the supermarket! No sir! We paint together, we roll dice together! Bad boys for life!
- Halflings! While, as a gardener, I feel personally victimised by Mantic taunting me by bringing sodding lawnmowers into my fantasy life, I shall let them off because the model is super-cute! I’ve never wanted a halfling army as such jolly little fellows should never be subject to the horrors of war, but give them troll lawn mowers, hand grenades, dog cavalry and giant walking pig-tanks and the little bastards are in the zone boi!!!! I held off for a while as I just couldn’t face doing another army, especially a horde one…. But as soon as I saw the poacher formation led by Ally McSween I couldn’t resist! So I’m doing a 1000pts of pint sized criminals especially for doubles games! Had to brave Nottingham, West Yorkshire, smashed a wing mirror on the way but thanks to Matt at the Pit (on tour in Pudsey) I managed to get two boxes of poachers! Adventure! Plus my dog Pippa looks like an Aralez. She’d be no good in war though as she can’t even catch the fat brain-dead squirrel that comes in the garden. She’d have no chance against a Rift forged orc. She is however, great at stealing biscuit wrappers.
- Manticores. Mantic, a game about fantasy monsters that doesn’t make Mantic-ores. It’s almost insult to the world of comedy. But they sorted it! Finally! The Riftforged orcs are great and Mantic’s orc line really needed a refresh. The new models and list are superb. I don’t like the lightning theme and names as much, as many people have pointed out they’re almost like a Orc version of Stormcast eternals (TOTAL VOM!). I’d have liked them a little more Abyssal. So Rift-forged don’t quite make the top 5, but Manticores do because….
- I love Clash of Kings updates. The new tactical challenges and opportunities provided by the updates can be really inspiring. I’ve wanted to do an Order of the Green Lady army ever since I first saw the list but want to do an all Mantic army to keep with the background. With no new models anytime soon, it went on the back burner, but the new water elemental formation (which I already have) is superb and the updates to the army at large are perfect so that’s this years army project sorted! I’m making a horde of Redemption and a horde of Forsaken all out of different heroes and races of Pannithor riding different beasties. It’s a lot of converting and painting but enjoying it so far! So those Manticore riders are getting turned into Dandylions and used as forsaken. I couldn’t say Daniel when I was tiny so used to call myself Dandylion instead, and these flower infused Manticores are going to be as super-cute as I am.
- So working 40-50 hour weeks, with a ton of extra work due to only two of us in the company who could carry on working alone safely, family time, hobby time, pandemic shopping for others who couldn’t…… Despite all that, I still managed to finish my first Tales of Pannithor novel ‘Rage and Grace’ for Winged Hussar Publishing! Rejoice! I’m currently reading through, making sure everything is perfect before I send it off to the publishers. There’s editing and possible re-writes but it feels good to finish the year getting the first draft finished! The pandemic really hit the release schedule of the Pannithor novels but they’re slowly getting back on track but it will still be a long while before mine see the light of day. I may even have time to write another in the mean time……
So that’s my top five for the year! I’m sure you have your own and I didn’t even get to mention Deadzone 3rd edition! Next year looks like it will be bringing Firefight too so will be a bumper bonanza of Sci-fi goodness for me to get my teeth into! I’ve already got 2 squads of GCPS nearly painted and ready for action!
Right, I hope you enjoyed that, though feel free to not. If you found it insulting then please come and find me in person and don’t bother crying on the internet about it.
There won’t be a review of 2022 as I plan to have achieved my Apotheosis by then.
Oh, and Happy New Year you magnificent bastards!
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Get older. Don't grow up. 