CoolMiniOrNot’s miniature game news keeps rolling in from CMON Expo as the design team behind the newly launched Wrath of Kings (WoK) held a panel looking at the future of the franchise. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it’s a miniatures game offering scalability in battle, ranging from small skirmish games to more massive battles between huge regiments and battalions. In it, five Houses — Teknes, Hadross, Nasier, Shael Han, and Goritsi — clash over the land of Arikania. Michael Shinall (Senior Designer) and Eric Kelley (Writer and Editor) took players through the changing environment and story of the game and revealed a few secrets of what’s to come.
Eric Kelley took players through the ever changing story of the WoK. One of the unique aspects of the game is the community’s impact on its future. Originally, the Houses were all warring against each other in what is called the Second Scion War (thanks to the Goritsi stirring up a bunch of trouble). To decide the winners and losers of this war, CMON has left it in the hands of the players at large events during major conventions.
At TempleCon, House Shael Han walked away with a major victory, seizing the major economic port city of Qualat Mon. But the Hadross quickly recovered at Adepticon, leaving the current story at them laying siege to Kylos, the seat of the old Empire. Going in to GenCon, Hadross players will have an in-game advantage. Whoever wins it all at GenCon will seize control of the Empyrean Throne and have a great impact on WoK’s future storylines.
However, WoK players attending CMON Expo will also have a chance to put their mark on the game as the Houses battle over Falour, one of the smaller Free Cities, which offers strategic resources thanks to the Lord Teknes Dam. The winning player of this weekend’s tournament can decide to fortify the position, open the spillways, or blow the whole dam thing up. The last option would actually remove Falour from the map. It’s really cool to see a game that allows its community to have such an impact on its future.
Speaking of direction, Michael Shinall elaborated on the new WoK products players can look forward to. Much like their Dark Age strategy, CMON plans to release a new book every six months, each adding new troop types and specialists, along with five new characters. The deciding factor of which House gets new characters first is again entirely up to the winners of tournaments. Kicking off the new books is Wrath of Kings: Unbound (working title) in February 2016. This is the first major expansion to the game, and offers players some new choices.
For the House Nasier players, the Pelagarth Brute was teased. The trade mark masks of the House transform the males into these hulking monsters, making them glass cannons of the army. Other players will want to watch out for the Brute’s chain hooks, grabbing opponents from afar and pulling them to their death. The Hadross are bringing their big guns out too. Gar, the Gladiator calls upon the Carcharan Deepmen. These powerful units are built for combat, wading in, taking hits, growing stronger, and healing as they go. All-in-all, you don’t want to mess with these guys.
Teknes, normally the guys playing a little more defensively, will be responding in force as well, bringing the Butcher to the field. He is smarter than your average Union Worker and built in a more offensive manner than previous units. The Goritsi seem to be going the opposite direction of Teknes with the introduction of the Skorza Executioners. This big guy lumbers in to battle with plate mail armor, as opposed to the lighter leather armor other Skorza wear. This means the Executioners are a bit slower, but what they lack in speed is made up by their ability to survive.
Last but not least is House Shael Han. In the new book, the Chinese Zodiac plays an inspirational roll in the House’s new troops. The first of them being the tiger soldiers. Channeling the spirit of the animals they are based on, the tiger soldiers will dash around the battlefield, dealing damage and retreating before the opponent has a chance to respond.
Coming sometime after Unbound is the Campaign rule book. Campaigns will allow players to take a more vested interest in their armies. Leaders can be given names and grow as more games are played. Armies themselves will also grow and become more defined through traits and abilities acquired through choices made during a campaign. There is no hard date for this, but they hope to have it out sometime in 2016. Also mentioned was a motivation card pack coming sometime in future.