Kings of War Slow Grow Challenge – Episode 1: How to Get Started if You’re New

Hi everyone, Alex here. Today’s article is aimed squarely at new players. If you’re a veteran, there might not be much here that you don’t know already – but feel free to share this with any friends who are thinking about getting started!

Slow Grow Challenge: How to Get Started if You’re New

So, you’ve read about the Slow Grow Challenge and you’re thinking… “Okay, this sounds like fun. I’m in! But how exactly do I get started? What do I need to buy?”

Well, fear not, we’ve got you covered! By the end of this article, you should have a clear idea of which path suits you best, what your first purchases might look like, and where to find the rules.

First Things First – Choosing a Faction

We’re going to keep our advice here pretty simple: just choose the army which appeals to you most visually and/or thematically. No need to overthink it from a gameplay perspective – Kings of War has a reputation for excellent game balance; every faction is a viable choice on the tabletop.

This is a tactile, creative hobby, that takes time and patience. And we’re about to embark on a challenge that literally has the word “slow” in the title. So you’re going to be spending a fair bit of time with your miniatures. Choosing miniatures that you like the look of, and that inspire you, is a great first step towards staying motivated throughout the army-building process.

Two Clear Starting Paths: Champions or Ambush

The ultimate goal of this challenge is to build a 2000 point army for Kings of War. But for stage one (the first six weeks or so), you’ve got two equally valid options. Neither is “more correct” than the other; they just suit slightly different needs and preferences.

Option 1: Starting with Kings of War Champions

Kings of War Champions is a standalone game set in the world of Pannithor. It’s designed to be fast, accessible and beginner friendly. It’s a satisfying game in its own right, and it can also serve as a stepping-on point for full-size Kings of War.

If you’re completely new to wargaming, or the idea of building army lists feels like one step too many right now, Champions is a great place to begin.

A Champions Company Box represents a nice, self-contained hobby project for stage one of the slow grow challenge. You can focus on assembling and painting a small number of models – and once you’re done, not only will you be able to start playing some games of Champions, you can also begin thinking about how to expand on your Champions Company in the later stages of the challenge.

The Champions themselves are playable units in Kings of War 4^th Edition, making the transition between the two game systems smoother than it’s ever been.

And the Champions digital rulebook is currently available free for Mantic newsletter subscribers – so if you and a friend were to pick up a Company Box each, that really is all you need to get playing your first games of Champions.

A few things to be aware of if choosing this option:

• Not every faction in Kings of War has a Champions Box yet (there are seven available at retail, one available via our Print-on-Demand service, and three more up currently up for pre-order).
• Champions is a standalone game, with a ruleset of its own - similar to Kings of War, but not exactly the same. If you follow along with the slow grow challenge, you will also need to pick up the Kings of War rules at a later stage.
• There are a small number of units that feature in Champions boxes that don’t currently have a direct equivalent in Kings of War. (The vast majority do, though!)

These are things worth bearing in mind, though none of them will present major obstacles to enjoying (and completing!) the Slow Grow Challenge.

Option 2: Directly into Kings of War via the Ambush Format

If you’re new to Kings of War but not completely new to wargaming, this may be the option for you. For example, perhaps you’re familiar with how list-building works and you’d like to give it a try from the start. Or maybe you’ve already fallen in love with a specific faction that doesn’t yet have a Champions box available.

This is the more direct route into Kings of War. Ambush is not a separate game in its own right – it’s still Kings of War, it’s just a format for playing at lower points values (typically 1000 points or fewer). The core rules are the same as full-sized games of Kings of War, but with a few adjustments made to help smaller games flow smoothly – for example, you’d typically play Ambush games on a 3’ by 3’ or 4’ by 4’ table, rather than the 6’ by 4’ battlefield used in larger games.

If you choose this path, every faction is available to you, you’ll be learning and playing Kings of War right from the start, and the all the units you paint in stage one will be useable as-is in your army as it grows.

The main thing to bear in mind with this approach is that you will need to engage with list-building early on – the experience in stage one won’t be quite as “guided” as simply picking up a Champions Company Box. But it does give you greater flexibility in shaping your own army right from the start.

What Should You Actually Buy?

Let’s break this down into some practical shopping advice:

If You’re Starting with Champions

Your shopping list is refreshingly short. You’ll only need to grab one Champions Company Box for the faction you like the look of and, if you haven’t already, make sure to sign up to the Mantic newsletter to get the digital rules (plus printable tokens and terrain) for free. That’s it. Simple!

If You’re Starting with Kings of War Ambush

Here, there are more options – but we’ve got some recommendations to help you avoid analysis paralysis.

If you’re starting this journey on your own, a Battalion box makes for a great first purchase. You’ll get more than you need to hit the “roughly 500 points” target for stage one of the challenge – so you can choose to start on whichever models you like, and you’ll have enough left over to get you at least part of the way to the stage two goal. (Depending on what hero models your chosen Battalion contains, you may need to ignore Ambush mode’s “No Warlords” list-building restriction for your early games, but that’s no biggie when you’re playing at 500 points – it’s more about rolling dice and learning the rules at this stage.)

Not every faction has a Battalion box yet, but for those that don’t, an Army or Mega Army box will make for a similarly solid first purchase.

Alternatively, if you and a friend are starting together, and you like the look of Xirkaali and Trident Realms, then the Claws In The Sand 2-player starter set is a great way to get started! It’s packed with more than enough miniatures for stage one, and you’ll also get a booklet that contains the core rules.

Exact army lists will vary by faction, but there's no need to obsess over perfect points totals in stage one. The aim is to get something close to 500 points painted, giving you a small force you can start learning with.

Miniatures Sorted – What About the Rules?

As mentioned above, for Kings of War Champions, the digital rules  (worth £25) are currently available for free if you’re a Mantic newsletter subscriber. There’s also available to purchase as a physical book, if you prefer that option.

For Kings of War, you have several options. If books are your thing, the 4^th edition rulebook is available both as a beautiful hardcover version, and as a digital version.

If you’ve chosen Xirkaali, Trident Realm, Halflings or Salamanders as your faction, you’ll also be wanting to pick up the Invasion expansion book, as it contains the army lists for those factions. (The other army lists are all in the core rulebook.)

If you prefer, you can ignore the books and simply head over to the Mantic Companion app. A paid membership will give you full access to the rules of the game in a searchable and easy-to-navigate format, plus unlimited use of the list-builder tool – a highly convenient aid for putting together army lists, and also for referencing your units’ profiles and special rules while playing. For many players, a Companion membership quickly becomes something they wouldn’t want to live without!

A free version of the Companion is also available, and will allow you to get started by building up to two army lists – though do note that the Kings of War game rules are not currently available on the free tier.

Quick Recap: The Slow Grow Challenge

For full details of what the Slow Grow Challenge is all about, you can check out last week’s blog. Here’s a summary of the main points:

• Runs for 24 weeks in total, split into four stages of six weeks.
• The goal is to paint roughly 500 points per stage (or a Champions Company in stage one).
• There’ll be weekly blog updates from Team Mantic.
• We’d love for you to share your progress with us via social media and email (#kowslowgrow2026 or [email protected]).
• The challenge leads up to a global summer campaign where your games will influence the narrative of Pannithor.

Let’s do this together!

Coming Up Next

Next week, we’ll introduce the four challengers from Team Mantic and reveal the armies we’ve chosen for the Slow Grow. After that, the painting begins!

Choose your starting path, make that first purchase, and get those models on the desk. Every journey begins with the first step!