Thursday 18 February 2016

Reaper Bones Hydra

One of my main opponents, Steve, runs a Kings of War Twilight Kin army. In that he regularly uses a Hydra. After a few encounters with it I soon decided it was a powerful and effective unit.

I had noticed that it was a choice for my Nature army as well so when I spotted the Reaper Bones one for sale at the Hereward Wargames Show last year I caved and bought myself one.

Anyway, this has become my latest completed model. I'm quite pleased how it came out.



It's quite a large model, but fits well on a 100mm x 50mm base.



Sunday 14 February 2016

Centaurs and Hunters of the Wild

Back in 1st edition Kings of War, when I started collecting my Force of Nature Army, there were two things I needed.

The first was something to use as either Sylvan Kin or Forest Shamblers. Mantic had no models available for either at the time so I searched around for something I could use. I plumped for the old metal GW dryads and managed to get 15 of them for a reasonable price on eBay. Having got those I was in a bit of a quandary as to which to use them as, but plumped for Forest Shamblers.

With the 2nd Edition Kings of War Kickstarter Mantic decided to make their own Forest Shamblers. I must admit to being a little annoyed that they'd decided to make a model I was already using the dryads for but I decided to buy 6 anyway. As can be seen in recent blog posts these have now been completed.

I had originally decided to re-base the existing dryads onto 25mm for use as Sylvan Kin, but with 2nd edition Kings of war the unit had changed. Not only had the name changed to Hunters of the Wild, but the base size had as well, with a reduction to 20mm. This left me a problem as the dryads I had were made for 25mm bases and no way would they fit on 20mm bases. I suppose I could have multibased them, but I've been trying to resist doing that as much as possible. So anyway, I decided to leave them as-is for the time being.

Then I started thinking about the upcoming Clocks of War tournament at the War and Peace Games club in Nottigham on 28th February. I decided I really needed to give my Nature force a run out and looking at the force list I needed something fast and hard hitting. Hunters of the Wild fit this requirement and so I decided to go ahead and re-base the dryads as them.

What I've done is base them up on 25mm bases. With 12 models I have a unit with a footprint of 100mm x 75mm, just 5mm off the usual footprint for a 20mm infantry regiment. To fill that I've made some 5mm x 25mm spacers. I have 3 models left which may be used as the start of a second unit. (I'm quite tempted to mix in some Reaper Bones mushroom men.)

Now I just need to get some more Mantic Forest Shamblers to build up my Forest Shambler Hordes back to their former glory.




The 2nd thing I wanted for my Nature army back in 1st edition was Centaurs. These were pretty poor in 1st edition and best used as screens and throw-away troops in my opinion. Looking around all the options seemed expensive for a unit that was not going to last long on the battlefield.

So I shelved the idea, until I had a brainwave... actually I found this page: Roman Centaurs. I had a look around and found that Wargames Factory Celtic Cavalry would do nice as conversions and set to it. The horses have separate heads which made the conversion somewhat easier. However much to my dismay they also had tack. This had to be carefully cut away as a centaur really wouldn't have need of a saddle.

There is one other odd thing about the Wargames Factory Celtic cavalry. There are 12 horses and 24 riders in a box. I found that they also sell the horses separately and even the Persian version, which have no tack. After some hunting around I found a set.

That was 18 months ago... Finally I've got around to building the remaining 12 Centaurs up. This means I now have two regiments and 4 spares, usable when breakages happen (which happens a lot with such weedy swords and spears) and for use as the Centaur Chieftain. Oh and of course now in 2nd edition Kings of War Centaurs are actually quite good!





Thursday 11 February 2016

Greater Fire Elemental

I've just completed the last of my greater elementals for my Kings of War army. This one is the Greater Fire Elemental. It's the Reaper Bones model and I had the idea that it could be lit from inside. 

A while ago I got hold of some flickering LED tea-lights from Poundland and set about working out how to get one inside. I soon found this article showing one way that it could be done and decided I could do even better. 

I sourced some small battery holders for CR1216 batteries and a very small switch and hollowed out the model to take two of the Poundland LEDs. To get the upper one in place I actually cut the body of the model in two and then glued it back together.

After a quick dry-brush and my usual basing technique it's ready for play.


Of course the still image above can't really give the model to it's best. So here's a video.


And here's the underside. I've potted it with milliput to protect the wiring during game play.

The underside, showing battery holder and switch.



Vapnartak Big Kings of War Game 2016

Last Sunday we (COGS) put on a huge Kings of War game at the Vapnartak wargames show in York.

This had almost 15,000 points of fully painted models per side from 8 people's collections. The models were from loads of different manufacturers with some scratch built and some conversions. There were 11 players taking part.

Some of the models before deployment
The game took place on a 14ft x 6ft table and was an objective marker game similar to Pillage with 9 objectives on the table. We used the Big Game Rules with a change in that deployment was a simultaneous free-for-all after the Patrol Phase had been completed.




On one flank a combined force of Orcs, Undead and Twlight Kin decimated the Elves until only the Elf King's court remained.


Two Dwarf armies and a Nature force held the centre against Kings of men and more Twilight Kin.





On the other flank a combined force of Ogres and Kings of Men destroyed more Undead and a Goblin army.




By turn 6 Evil had taken 4 of the objectives, with good holding 2. The remaining 3 were contested. All agreed to play a 7th turn as we had time.

That was to be a bad decision for Evil as the objectives changed hands. Good ended with 4, Evil 3 and just 2 remained contested.

Victory for the forces of Good!

We'll be running another huge Kings of War game at Hammerhead on Saturday 5th March.


Thursday 4 February 2016

Kings of War - Forest Shamblers

I've been running Forest Shamblers for some time now in both my Kings of War Elf and Nature armies. They generally very good with Vanguard, Pathfinder, reasonable defence and attack and the ability to be Surged into flanks.

Old Metal GW Dryads have been working fine for them and fit my concept well. However when the 2nd Kings of War Kickstarter was running Mantic decided it was time for them to produce some proper/official models for them. I included 6 in my pledge.

Initially when the pictures appeared I was not sure I liked them (this seems to happen a lot with Mantic models) but now I have finished painting them I really, really like them, the detail is great and they fit the fluff brilliantly



I think when they finally become available at retail (they are at retail) I'll be getting another 6 and my Dryads will be converted to be Hunters of the Wild. However until then I will mix the models up in my shambler hordes. I think they go together rather well!


Tuesday 2 February 2016

Kings of War - Water and Air Elementals

I've just completed a few additions to my Nature army for Kings of War.

The Greater Water Elemental is from the Reaper Bones range and is a transparent blue casting. I've simply dry brushed it with turquoise and white, then gloss varnished it.

The Air Elementals are made from Merino wool felting glued onto a wire armature. They will be mixed in with my previous Air Elementals which were made from the smoke from the Flames of War smoke and fire set.


The air elementals now make a horde.