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Review: Mantic Kings of War: Armada Ships

Review: Mantic Kings of War: Armada Ships

Mantic Games – a UK based company made up of hobby enthusiasts that brought about such titles as Deadzone, Kings of War and Warpath into the tabletop wargaming world. On top of that the company released some successful board game titles including Hellboy, The Walking Dead and DreadBall just to name a few. Just recently Mantic Games released a brand new Kings of War: Armada – a game of sea battles set in the already established world of Kings of War’s Pannithor. Today I would like to take you on a short cruise through two Armada sets – an Orc Booster Fleet and a Basilean Booster Fleet – to see how the miniatures present themselves straight from the box. Grab the railing and let’s set sail into the unknown!

I would like to move away from the usual Quality, Visuals, Functionality etc. review format. This time around I will go ship-by-ship with a summary at the end. Let’s get started!

Basileans:

First set to go is Basileans. I love the design of Basilean ships and decided this will be my main fleet. Purchased seven sets in total so you see I’m pretty serious about this. Anyhow – the design is great and each individual ship has a lot of character. Basilean ships seem a bit high fantasy, but also look realistic enough to feel like real ships. 

Gur Panther

Elohi

Slopes

Impressions:

Basilean set is impressive but not without issues. The Gur Panther and Slopes are of a very good quality with crisp detail, just few air bubbles. Elohi in the other hand turned out to be damaged (hull part missing one lantern) and with one mast below expected quality. Anything between bent and air bubbles I have no issues with. This is to be expected with resin models and is easy to deal with. Damaged parts and miscasts are something entirely else and I will be placing a complaint about the Elohi. I can’t stop but wander if this is a rare occurrence, or is this something Quality Control accepted as a valid product.

Orcs

Time for some Orcs! Amongst humans, dwarves and undead, the Orc ships stand out as ragtag, crude, scrap-built hulks. This seems classic Orcs, regardless of what game you’re coming from, and I like this about Mantic – they go “classic” a lot. 

Hammerfist

Blood Runner

Rabble Squadron

Impressions:

Except for one shifted casting sail and some bent masts, this set turned out to be of a very good quality. A lot of uneven detail clearly forced Mantic to divide the sculpts into more parts – some cannons and hull elements being packed on their own. Everything fits though and I can say this is the quality I would expect from such a set. No issue beyond standard miniature preparation to deal with.

Price:

Kings of War: Armada stuck me as a rather cheap to get into. With two players set priced at 90€, Booster and Starter Fleet both being 40€ and an additional large Ship being 20€ you’re looking at a pretty low entry point. You can get into the game for about 50€. Furthermore you can get to an entire fleet with backup models for about 100-150€ more. Seems very well priced for a full skirmish tabletop game experience.

Booster Fleet price of 40€ for four resin ships (six to be precise, but four playable miniatures) is a legit price, especially taking into account these are large resin miniatures. 

Summary:

I won’t lie – I’m totally biased towards this product. I’m hyped for the game to a point where I ordered couple sets on top of a huge pre-order, just to get them few days before the main order arrival. There are clearly some issues with particular parts which I hope will get resolved. Either way a rating is required of me thus on a scale where 10 is awesome, 8 is good, 6 is ok, 5 is mediocre, 3 is bad and I don’t want to even mention 1 – I’d say Kings of War: Armada Booster Fleet sets are a solid 8 plus. They rub on “awesome” and are of much higher quality than most resin miniatures I worked with up to now. What’s your thoughts? Is this rating fair, or do you disagree? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers!

Where to buy:

Mantic Online Store is the way to go. 

Alternatively if you’re from Poland – I highly recommend any of these two stores: Vanaheim / Minibitwa

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