4th Edition: Co-Ordinating a New Edition

By Matt Gilbert

Starts & Stories

OK, so how do we go about putting together a project on the scale of an entire new edition of Kings of War? Not easily!

We pencilled in the new edition to our future release schedule back in around January 2024. But in truth, the narrative for the v4 storylines have been seeded and building through our Kings of War, Vanguard and Armada books, as well as the novels from Winged Hussar, for many years already...starting back in the Halpi mountains...

The momentous events of the Halpi's Rift book were always going to have far-reaching consequences, so hints at what would be coming in future were then sprinkled through the lore sections of our rules and supplements, starting from the Seas Aflame book in 2021 onwards! Of course, nothing was divulged in full detail that early, but we started sowing the seeds.

Observant visitors to Clash of Kings UK may even have seen a 'conspiracy board' lurking around one of the halls that had been not-too-subtly planted...

From a story perspective, KoW 4th edition will advance mysteries and plot threads from across many previous books for the narrative arc that's about to begin. This also makes it a good time to immerse yourself in the world for the first time, knowing that not only is there a 'weight of history' to make it feel lived-in, but that big exciting things are about to unfold.

With so much prior build-up, the coming events needed to be coherent, massive in scale, and purposeful - and they are! We can’t wait for you to experience the next era of Pannithor's story for yourselves.

Rules & Refreshes

The members of our Rules Committee have changed over the years, but they have all brilliantly and tirelessly kept the game fresh with balance updates and rules adjustments over the last few years, for which they have our (and I’m sure the KoW community’s) immense thanks. They have all put in a tremendous amount of time and hard work.

And while they may earn credit for their work to spend on toy soldiers, for something the size and scope of a new edition and all the integrated studio work involved, we turned to the venerable Alessio Cavatore, the original author of the game and on board from the early days!

Alessio was bought to the 4th Edition project in early 2024, first getting up to speed with the current game, before moving onto planning the new version.

Version 4 has presented us with a 'refresh moment' for the game, its presentation (to both new players, and in its packaging and graphics), new armies, and a good look at the product range. It also dove-tails elegantly with our increasing support for digital, plans for a future online Lore Library, ongoing Companion support (living rules and armies) and STL support (including some full digital armies!).

From this new line in the sand, we have huge plans and the game will only develop and get stronger. We have already mapped out lot of exciting future releases, and that naturally means many more plastic miniature kits...

Testing, Testing

Playtesting began internally in Summer 2024, and then (via the Rules Committee) a playtest group of around 30 people were brought onboard at the start of 2025, with online feedback forms for Alessio and myself to review game outcomes and make rules adjustments, plus consider suggestions.

As I write this we are putting the final edits and fixes into both the rulebook, and the first expansion book (which kicks off the big new narrative arc) ready for print - both of which will come as beautiful hardbacks.

As with all things, no matter how far out you plan, deadlines are suddenly approaching fast and you realise that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually a train heading towards you (or a goblin blaster)!

So the last few months before everything goes to print are also frantic and, yes, I’ll say it, very stressful occasions. But the end results are always well worth all the incredibly hard work the whole team, and all our freelancers, Rules Committee members, and our play testers do for the love of the game.

In later blogs, you’ll hear from the creative members of the team, to talk about their involvement in the art, design and presentation of the whole version four.

We think you will be blown away by the new edition of Kings of War, and will be as excited to see where the world of Pannithor is going as we are!

Thanks to all the people below for their testing and feedback during the development of 4th edition:

Rafael Patricio Urquieta Ahumada, Grant Alexander, Patrick Allen, Bob Aspland, Adam Ballard, Elliott Barratt, Fred Berthelsen, Daniel Birchwood, Jake Boyd-Gill, Simon Brand, Kara Brown, Matt Carmack, Jonathan Carter, Michal Carter, Felix Castro, Mark Cunningham, Martin Dahl, Robert Down, Todd Durkin, Jeremy Duvall, Oscar Ramirez Espejo, Rex Gibson, Jose Francisco González Godino, John Green Jr., Johan Gronstad, Vidar Hemmingby, Steve Hildrew, Matt Hobday, Jeff Horton, Florian Kolm, Matthias Leitner, Liam Leitner, Conny Leitner, Dan Mapleston, Joanna Mitchell, Martin Ofner, Robert Phipps, Cyle Pool, Kyle Przelenski, Chris Pudney, Jon Quayle, Ronnie Renton, Mike Smith, Andrew Smith, Chris Smith, Clive Stone, Oyvind Thomassen, Kyle Timberlake, Travis Trimm, Juan Pablo Garcia Vinuelas, Stian Westvig, Ian Whipp, Tobias Whitmarsh, Brinton Williams

Mark your calendars, reveals and pre-orders are coming on Friday 10th October.

New blogs, videos and stories will be dropping regularly between now and the launch of 4th Edition in December 2025.

Make sure to bookmark the launch hub, HERE , and check back regularly.