Kings of War Big Game at Salute 2016

After a break of a couple years I was back at Salute with COGS and the GCN yesterday.

For the first time we took our big Kings of War game along and with massive help from the other players: Steve, Andy, Ed, Phil, Jeff and Ian and with the loan of a some miniatures from Tim and Brendan we managed to get the game to completion before the show closed at 5pm.

The game was 14ft x 6ft  with 15,000 points per side. It was a victory for Evil 3 objectives to 2, but in addition to taking those objectives Evil had also managed to push back both of Good's flanks. Even Good's centre was starting to look weak. So a well fought first victory for the forces of evil.

The day was eventful with loads of interest and kinds comments from the public, a visit from a documentary team and Ronnie Renton the owner of Mantic.

More Ogre Warriors and some Red Goblins

A few couple more units were finished last weekend ready for Salute this weekend.

These were as usual my Mantic Madness Painting Oath.

Next I've gone back to the War of the Roses, but this time with a different retinue.

Ogre Berserker Braves, Warlock and Red Goblin Blaster

This month my painting oath was smaller than I originally planned. This was due to becoming rather obsessed with doing a project with a Raspberry Pi Zero. However I didn't give up completely and did in fact get a bit done for Kings of War.

The completed models are a regiment of Berserker Braves, a Warlock to go with them and a Red Goblin Blaster. The first two work together in the rules, the last one is a an option in the Ogre army that is rarely if ever taken as it tends to be a two edged sword... A wagon loaded up with explosives becomes a major target for enemy shooting and is likely to do more damage to it's own units than the enemy. I just had to have such a silly unit in my collection. I expect it'll only get used in the big games!

"My Kings of War Armies so far" an update for 2016

Back in November 2014, I posted photos of all the Kings of War armies that I'd amassed at that point.

Well it's been 16 months since then and I've been very busy...

To be honest, those are not actually all mine. The Undead at the back are actually Brendan's though I did help him paint them.

Click read more for some close-ups...

Hammerhead Kings of War Big Game 2016

Another show... another Kings of War big game. We're getting quite experienced at this now.

7 players on a 14 foot x 6ft table, approx 14,500 points each side. Setup began at 8am and we'd packed up and left by 5pm. 6 turns were played in total.

At the end of their turn 6, Good had 4 objectives to Evil's none with 3 contested. By the end of their turn 6, evil had made it a 2-2 draw still with 3 objectives contested.

The game was a very mobile one with objectives in both side's rears being taken or contested.

Stars of the game were Martin's Reaper Bones Bone Giant

and Andy's Zulus complete with Zebra Centaurs and Rhino Riders.

Next stop... Salute.

(BTW, I just updated the Big Game Rules that we use for these games... they were a little out of date.)

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.

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!