Hobby Update - Been A Month, I Didn't Die!

I know, your life has not been complete without my daily updates blowing up your feed!

Since my last update, life has hit me right in the face. Gen Con, Kids, school and general adulting has made hobby time sparse, and blog update all but impossible. So what have I done?

Deadzone/Warpath

Completed my Subject 901, second Aberration and the second 1st Gen Mutant for my Plague!

Kings of War - Abyssals

Still adding some pieces here and there for my ever growing Abyssal army. The latest two are some additional heroes. Flying Efreet and Flying Abyssal Champion.

The Elohi wings are perfect for projects like this and really helped to set the idea I had off!

I also recently picked up a commission for a Herd army at 2,000 points. I have the pieces in and its time to get moving. Here are the first couple of miniatures that I have completed for the client, these are the only non-mantic miniatures that will be used for the commission.

Shaman and Totem Bearer

Brief update with some pictures to keep you occupied! Hopefully I have helped fill the void that you were left with in my update absence.

Thanks!

Walking like a Spirit

Glad to say I am now legally allowed to field my custom Stampede! This regiment of Spirit Walkers is going to be unit to unlock the Stampede since they are irregular.

These guys were a blast to paint, the sculpts are smooth, crisp and have very little in the way of mold lines to clean. Some may not like the sci-fi feel that these models put off, but I am in love with them and that is really what matters.

The reddish tone on these didn't clash to much with the orange base, as the white highlights help them to stand out. Yes there is only 11 models for those who will want to tell me how it doesn't look full and they don't care for it. Thanks, but it is legal to play with and its painted so I am good!

Hobbyist Spotlight - Chris Walsh

With the amount of awesome hobby action that we have seen lately I figured it would be cool to spotlight some of these great painters and modelers in hopes to share with those who may not have noticed them before!

For our first segment we are going to look at some of the fantastic work of none other than Chris Walsh. I am sure if you are reading this blog and follow anything Kings of War you are sure to have stumbled across this mad scientist and his creations. With a brilliant imagination, Chris has displayed some truly inspiring designs and creativity on his miniatures.

My favorite part about Chris' work is how he always integrates Mantic miniatures into his units and armies. This might be the core of the model or some heads or weapons, but there is always something that he makes sure to add in.

Here are some words from the man himself about being a hobbyist:

I'm 33 years old from the Midlands in the UK. My hobby journey started years back but was introduced to Kings of War about 5 years ago during the first edition of the rules. The freedom to use/create any models you wanted to was a huge bonus as in the early days of Mantic their model range was still growing. Combine that with the ability to build dynamic units through the use of multi-basing really allowed me to loose myself in the miniatures. 

With Kings of War being so well balanced, I am able to but an army together with units that I visually like and still be certain that I could do well in a competitive setting. While I see myself more as a hobbyist and modeler but I love to play in tournaments and events as well!

Now that we have "met" the man, lets see what awesomeness inspired this post!

Some of his gorgeous Undead army:

In all its glory!

Great effect on the mouth

Horde of Revenants

Chris has been working on a new army, Abyssal Dwarves and he has not disappointing with his WIP pictures:

Greater Obsidian Golems

Grotesque Champion

Beautiful sculpting on these scales!

Basu'su The Vile Conversion!

As you can see Chris is a true master of his craft and continues to surprise us with his newest projects. You can follow on Instagram @perpetual_painter and on Facebook where he is always posting up new images of what he is working on in the Kings of War Fanatics page!

Hobby Update - Spirit Walkers WIP

Quick one today, started working on getting the regiment of Spirit Walkers ready for the table. Since my Tortured Souls are "ghostly" I needed to find a way to make these similar but to stand out on the table and not confuse anyone.

Since I have done the Stampede of bugs in a red scheme I wanted to try and tie them in together.

The model was done in the following steps:

- Ulthuan Grey Basecoat (2 thin coats)
- Wash with Bloodletter Glaze
- Spot wash in the deep recesses with Carroburg Crimson
- Highlight with Ulthuan Grey
- Final highlight with White Scar

So the soft red glaze made it tie into the Stampede but also is light enough that they will also mix in well with the pink from my main Abyssal Force!

Not All Stampedes Have Hooves!

I must say that my allied Herd have been one of the most fun projects to date for Kings of War. Using the Mars Attacks Giant Ants and Spiders has worked wonderfully. These models have allowed me to do a couple of things:

- Keeping the models within the Mantic miniatures range
- Stay within the theme and feel of my Abyssal main army
- Finding another excuse to paint these great models

The regiment of Spirit Walkers are up next but here is the finished Stampede:

Maybe I can get the Spirit Walkers done in the next day or so and have them ready for my next campaign game!

Hobby Update - Lower Abyssals and Spirit Walkers

My furious pace of painted miniatures has slowed down over the past couple of weeks. I have been playing more games which is great, but I hate not getting things done quickly. 

The last unit that I have for my current Abyssal army is a horde of Lower Abyssal's. While I am doing MMC for this unit (I know the audacity!), painting 22 guys is a slog when I have been painting around 10 or so for my other units. 

The skin is finished and the metals and clothes are waiting for their washes. From there I can put a couple of highlights on and get them mounted onto their bases. I am using two regiment bases so that I have the versatility to play them as a horde or smaller if so desired. 

Spirit Walkers are coming along for my eventual allied Herd contingent. These are models from the DreadBall range, I removed them from their disc bases and have pinned them to some squares for painting. 

Looking to have the Lower Abyssal's and their bases all done this weekend in preparation for my next Edge of the Abyss game. The Spirit Walkers should go quickly once I figure out the colors I want to use on them.

Tournaments - Not Just for the Competitive

Almost every weekend now we are seeing Kings of War, Deadzone and even Walking Dead events pop up across the world. This is happening because the awesome people in the community are tearing down those preconceptions about high level or competitive play environments.

Going to your first tournament is surely daunting, and even a small 6-8 man local store event can seem like a tall order for some. To be honest though these events are the way that most gamer's can get games in. Life can get in the way of the best laid plans, and so when you are not able to meet up regularly with your club or go to your local game store, the next best thing is to make a weekend out of gaming.

I wont ramble on why you should go to an event if you haven't already, plenty others have done that already. This blog post is here to share with you some great articles and videos that have already covered this very topic!

Nick Williams - Casual Gamer? Go to a Tournament!

Great run through on how a gamer at any level can go and enjoy an event. 

http://daedle.kingsofwarresource.com/index.php/2017/07/07/casual-gamer-go-to-a-tournament/

Kyle Przelenski of Master Crafted - Why you should go to a Kings of War Tournament

One of the best videos covering the experience of a tournament, Kyle covers the Lady of the Lake which is becoming one of the premier events in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UblEKJHSQLE

Dan King - Playing Kings of War Competitively 

A well known name, and consistent champion, Dan King covers his tips and tricks for playing in a Kings of War tournament. 

Part I

https://manticblog.com/2017/07/25/tactics-tuesday-playing-kings-war-competitively/

Part II

https://manticblog.com/2017/08/01/tactics-tuesday-playing-kings-war-competitively-part-2/

Hopefully you get some enjoyment out of these artciles and videos as I have. Don't wait to go to your first tournament or convention, you are bound to meet awesome people, learn to play better and help grow this awesome community!

Edge of the Abyss - March to War!

The second installment in the EOTA series has us playing March to War! from the new supplement book. In this game I will go up against my local opponent and all around Kings of War guru Bill Goodrick, but this time his Goblins have decided to fight the Abyss they needed some help from the shadows!

Army Lists

Forces of the Abyss

Archfiend of the Abyss (Wings, Lightning Bolt and Blessing of the Gods) 350pts

Archfiend of the Abyss (Lightning Bolt and Wine of Elvenkind) 315pts

The Well of Souls [1] 275pts

Abyssal Champion (Wings, Lightning Bolt, Bloodboil and Blade of Slashing) 245pts

Tortured Souls Horde (Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar) 240pts

Tortured Souls Horde 220pts

Moloch Horde 200pts

Moloch Horde 200pts

Succubi Regiment 190pts

Lower Abyssal Horde (Brew of Haste) 215pts

The Great Arch Host Battle Formation 50pts

Goblins (Nightstalker Allies)

Grogger 115pts

Goblin King (Fleabag, Healing Brew) 115pts

Flaggit (Fleabag, Banner of the Griffin) 75pts

Fleabag Riders Regiment (Brew of Haste) 160pts

Fleabag Riders Regiment (Helm of the Ram) 160pts

Fleabag Riders Regiment (Pipes of Terror) 160pts

Fleabag Riders Regiment (Blade of Slashing) 150pts

Fleabag Riders Regiment (Mace of Crushing) 150pts

Mawbeast Troop 60pts

Mawbeast Troop 60pts

Mawbeast Troop 60pts

Mawbeast Troop 60pts

Trolls Horde (Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar) 210pts

Trolls Horde (BOTOK) 205pts

Giant 190pts

Giant 190pts

Fiend Horde (Blessing of the Gods) 225pts

Banshee (Zephyr Crown) 155pts

Deployment & Terrain

Table was setup with some impassible buildings/huts on either side of the table with two hills, forests and walls taking up the remainder of the table. 

Seeing as I had gone down to 10 drops with running two Archfiends, I knew that my army had to stay together and compact. I use the faster units (Succubi and Tortured Souls) to anchor my right. The core of my army (Moloch's, Lower Abyssal's and Well) took the center of the board and prepared to do what they do best, try not to get killed and use the Well to help manage damage. The forest and wall on my side would come in handy throughout the game.

Finally the Archfiends took the far left and would attempt to flank the Goblin army as I knew that my opponent could not deploy heavily on this side with the large impassible building. 

Being able to react to my deployment allowed the Goblins to setup where they wanted to hopefully setup some key combats, and to engage on their terms. I was surprised to see 2 of the 5 Fleabags to deploy near the Archfiends. 

Giants and Trolls took the center of the board which I assumed they would. 

Turn 1

In this scenario the Good army was able to take the first turn, since I took the position of evil doer from the first game, my opponent is the "Good" force and so took the first turn. 

The armies basically advanced up to establish some future combats. The Banshee used her Wind Blast 11 to push the winged Archfiend back 7 inches! In turn the Winged Fiend moved back up and with the other Archfiend did 7 wounds with Lightning Bolts to the Fleabag Regiment barreling down the table edge. The nerve check saw them wavered for the turn. 

Turn 2

As you can see from the first image, the Goblins came ready to fight and engaged quickly. Succubi were charged be a Fleabag Reg, Tortured Souls were charged by 2 Fleabag regiments both hindered.

I misplaced my Abyssal Champion thinking the Giant only had a 12" charge, you live and you learn! The horde of Lower Abyssals were flanked by a unit of Mawbeasts and in the front were also charged by another unit of Mawbeasts and some Fleabags.

The Tortured Souls and Lower Abyssals both were routed by my opponent. Was a little surprised by the Lower Abyssals being taken off even with the flank, I thought that they could have held, but they decided it was not to be.

On my 2 I counter charge with the Succubi into the Fleabags and Abyssal Champion into the Giant. The right most unit of Moloch's went into the Giant with the Champion but they were not able to break the big man, doing 10 wounds and wavering him.

The left most unit of Moloch's flank charge the Mawbeasts and take them off. My winged Archfiend charged the wounded Fleabags and turned them into a red mist doing another 7 wounds. The other Archfiend decided to only hit once and do one wound to the unit of Mawbeasts.....

Second unit of Tortured Souls charged the middle most unit of Fleabags and took them off.

Turn 3

Models and units were disappearing quickly, but thankfully more enemies than my own! 

Some Trolls come over and clubbed my Tortured Souls and removing them. The only remaining Fleabag regiment was stuck in a combat with the Succubi with neither being able to route the other this turn. 

Giant manages to kill the Champion, and then has the favored returned by the Molochs.

Fiends and the second unit of Trolls moved over to start dealing with the Archfiends. The Winged Archfiend took position on the hill to setup some charge options for turn 4!

Turn 4

The Fiends finally get into combat against the Moloch's but are hindered due to the wall they have to cross to get the charge. They bounce off the Moloch horde only doing 3 wounds. On my turn the Well of Souls flanks the Fiends and the Moloch's counter charge and do 20 wounds all together, and the Fiends go to the dead pile. 

Trolls who killed the Tortured Souls tried their luck against the right most unit of Moloch's with a pack of Mawbeasts, but going through the woods and hitting on 5's only saw 4-5 wounds caused onto the unit, which was taken off by the Well before it charged. In return with the counter charge the Moloch's have a Troll lunch and take them off the table. 

Succubi vs Fleabags ends up in the Succubi's favor and the last of the Fleabag riders is routed.

Winged Archfiend gets a juicy rear charge on the other unit of Trolls and send them to the after life. 

Turn 5

Resources getting low the Goblins get desperate. Grogger steps in front of the Archfiend to attempt to slow him down. He is crushed under the mighty hooves of the beast, who then gets a great overrun roll and hits into the Giant who had charged the Well of Souls and bounced off. The Giant is ripped apart by the Archfiend and Well. One more unit of Mawbeasts are killed and my opponent calls it on his turn six.

2nd victory for the Forces of the Abyss!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to game 3 in the series.

Army Building with Joe - Part II

I couldn't resist the Centaurs and the project is one that I am looking forward to. As a recap the following is the shell I will start building:

Forces of Nature 

Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts

Centaur Bray-Hunters Troop 105pts
Centaur Bray-Hunters Troop 105pts
Centaur Bray-Hunters Troop 105pts

Centaur Chief (Bow) 115pts
Centaur Chief 105pts

Winged Unicorn (Bane-Chant, Lightning Bolt) 205pts
Winged Unicorn (Bane-Chant, Wing Blast, Zephyr Crown) 225pts

Tree Herder 260pts

Through some trial runs with the list as is I can than take a look at any really obvious issues or struggles that it has.

Hobby Time

Bases

Lots of Forces of Nature armies out there go for the traditional forest or grassland style bases. These look perfectly fine but I like to try and differentiate my armies from the "norm".

Robby King is a fantastic hobbyist and last year did a beautiful Varangur army that had some really cool looking bases.

The crackle medium used in these makes for a really convincing dry and arid earth base. While I wont be doing this exact thing, I plan to use the technique but on a smaller scale. In terms of the color palette I want to do a more warm red shading for the sand and earth.

Models

As for the models themselves I want to go with some lighter yellow and cream colors for the Centaur lower half and a more Native American skin tone for their flesh. For anyone that has not seen the Mantic Centaurs here is a image from the web store.

I think that the yellow/cream mixed with the red undertone of the bases will help them both contrast with each other and be cohesive at the same time.

Winged Unicorns are something I struggled with on what to use for the miniatures. Mantic does not produce one currently and so I had to go searching. Friend of mine generously gave me a beautiful model by Wizkids which is exactly what I wanted, and all it needed were some Elohi wings!

This army will certainly be a change of pace from my very bright and exotic Abyssal army. For Part III hope to have either a test model or base to show off.

Thanks!

Army Building with Joe - Part I

Whenever I am toward the end of an army or project, I immediately start to think of what I want to do next! I still have my Warpath Plague army that I am periodically finishing units for, but Kings of War is always getting me excited for a new army.

There are a couple of armies that I had been wanting to do for a while and so I started looking at the lists I would run with each of those.

Orcs

Krudger on Winged Slasher (Healing Brew) 290pts
Krudger on Winged Slasher (Blade of Slashing) 290pts

Godspeaker (Bane-chant, Heal, Myrddin's Amulet) 110pts
Godspeaker (Bane-chant, Heal, The Boomstick) 130pts

Ax Regiment 125pts
Ax Regiment 125pts

Orclings Horde 90pts
Orclings Horde 90pts

Trolls Horde 190pts
Trolls Horde 190pts

Gore Riders Regiment 185pts
Gore Riders Regiment 185pts

Total 2000pts

Seeing double? Good, the idea behind this list is to be able to deploy as two flanking forces or as one more centralized army. Having two of everything means that I can as flexible as possible in each game depending on the scenario.

Only thing that worries me is the lack of inspiring as I would have like a Flagger or two for when the Krudgers go flying off to club something.

Ogres

Ogre Chariot Horde (Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar) 285pts
Ogre Chariot Horde (Wine of Elvenkind) 305pts
Ogre Chariot Regiment 170pts
Ogre Chariot Regiment 170pts
Ogre Chariot Regiment 170pts

Mammoth 210pts
Mammoth 210pts

Ogre Captain (Chariot, Blade of Slashing) 155pts
Ogre Captain (Healing Brew) 155pts

Ogre Army Standard (Chariot) 85pts
Ogre Army Standard (Chariot) 85pts

Total 2000pts

Similar to the Orc list, this is a symmetrical style army that is best suited to have smaller battle groups. This is more of a fun list and I like the idea of having everything on a 50x100mm base. Thought about painting it like a Mad Max style theme.

Forces of Nature 

Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts
Centaur Bray-Striders Regiment 155pts

Centaur Bray-Hunters Troop 105pts
Centaur Bray-Hunters Troop 105pts
Centaur Bray-Hunters Troop 105pts

Centaur Chief (Bow) 115pts
Centaur Chief 105pts

Winged Unicorn (Bane-Chant, Lightning Bolt) 205pts
Winged Unicorn (Bane-Chant, Wing Blast, Zephyr Crown) 225pts

Tree Herder 260pts

We don't see enough Centaurs and I would like to change that. Two units of Bray-Stiders hitting a unit is devastating, Melee 3+ with TC(1) and CS(1) is fantastic. The units are fragile and 12 attacks means you will likely have to combo charge most units with two Centaur units, but Speed 8+ (besides the Tree Herder) across the board is a great way to setup more beneficial charges and combats.

Tree Herder may seem out of place to some people and on the outside he kind of is. I have included him for the ability to help stabilize in scenarios like Dominate. He is very hard to kill with being Def 6 and having 14 points of Heal floating around with the Unicorn's.

Recently having shared this list with some groups and players it has received mixed reviews. I think the frailness of the units and the need for combo charges is putting people off. It will certainly struggle in some games/match up's and the mix of items or units may not be optimized but this is the new list I am going to work on.

In Part II, I will cover the thoughts on paint scheme and modelling of the list. First I have to get some trays on order from Alex at Ironheart Artisans, if you have not checked them out yet you can here www.ironheartartisans.com!

Edge of the Abyss - On the Precipice

With the book in hand and my army just about complete, it was time for my first game! My local opponent was running his Goblins, so not the Good vs Evil that you may have expected. Maybe this Goblin leader was looking for glory against The Abyss or just didn't get the memo about what side they were on!

First scenario for the campaign is On the Precipice. Using the Kill scenario as its base, the Evil player (The Abyss) will get to go first and all units in my army will now have the Brutal special rule if they did not already.

Sorry for anything I may miss in the this report, I didn't take any notes and was really have a good time playing so I am giving my best recollection of my opponents list and the game.

The two armies are below:

Archfiend of the Abyss (Lightning Bolt, Blessing of the Gods) 300pts

Mau’ti-Bu-Su 165pts

Twisted Victims [1] 220pts

Efreet (Boots of Levitation) 165pts

Abyssal Champion (Wings, Lightning Bolt, Quick Silver Rapier) 220

Chroneas [1] 210pts

Moloch Horde 200pts

Moloch Horde 200pts

Lower Abyssal Horde (Brew of Haste) 215pts

Succubi Regiment (Hammer of Measured Force) 210pts

Tortured Souls 220pts

Hellhounds 125pts

The Great Arch Host Formation 50pts

Grand Total 2500pts

Grogger Split-Tooth [1] 115pts

Goblin King (Fleabag) 110pts

Goblin King (Fleabag) 110pts

Goblin Wiz (Fleabag,Boots of Levitation, Bloodboil) 120pts

Fleabag Riders Horde (Helm of the Ram) 270pts

Fleabag Riders Horde (Potion of the Caterpillar) 275pts

Fleabag Riders Regiment 145pts

Fleabag Riders Regiment 145pts

Mawbeast Pack Troop 60pts

Mawbeast Pack Troop 60pts

Mawbeast Pack Troop 60pts

Mawbeast Pack Troop 60pts

Troll Horde (Blood of the Old King) 205pts

Troll Horde 190pts

Big Rock Thrower 80pts

Big Rock Thrower 80pts

Giant 190pts

Giant 190pts

The Voracious Mawpack Formation 35pts

Grand Total: 2500pts

Table and terrain were arranged like this:

My opponent had some new 2D terrain he wanted to try out so the table was a little lighter than we would have liked, but the massive river made up for it! We played the river as Height 0 difficult terrain.

Deployment

The Goblin army had about 5 more drops than I did and so he would be free to throw his chaff and characters out before I had any real idea where his army would be. The river did help as his faster units would have a tough time positioning without being able to move at the double through it.

I decided to go more centralized with my slower units, even with their speed increase the Moloch's are still on the slower side for my army. On my left I used the Succubi, Twisted Victims and Mau'ti-Bu-Su to keep the Giants from attempting to flank around the forest as they could prove difficult to handle if they are able to freely move about.

With the forest on my left I wanted to use the Efreet and Chroneas to be a fire-base to hopefully slow down the Trolls or Giants.

In the middle I planned to use the Lower Abyssal Horde to jam up the Trolls. With their high nerve, Regeneration, and the ability for the Well of Souls to help manage their wounds I think they could hold up for a little bit.

Turn 1

Both of us moved up and prepared to see who would commit to engage first. Efreet and Chroneas move into the woods and prepare to start setting things on FIRE! Since I had to go first per the scenario it meant that I was not going to be in range of anything for shooting or magic.

My opponent does do 5 wounds to my Arch Fiend with Rock Lobbers but these would be removed by the Well of Souls next turn to keep him fresh.

Turn 2

I charge one of the two Mawbeast Packs on my left with the Moloch's to pressure that flank. I felt that I would be ok with the counter charge of the Fleabag Horde and second unit of Mawbeasts. The Lower Abyssals charge across the river to clog up my opponents center. He placed both Giants and a unit of Fleabags behind the Trolls so this would limit his ability to move and engage me.

My Abyssal Champion and Arch Fiend use their Lightning Bolts to remove one of the Rock Lobbers.

Succubi charge a unit of Mawbeast to break the Mexican standoff on my right. They are than removed by the other unit of Mawbeasts and Fleabag Horde.

In a blaze of fire from the trees, both the Chroneas and Efreet shoot the second unit of trolls and waiver them!

The Molochs are counter charged and survive the attack, with some very poor rolls on my opponents part. The Lower Abyssals did a few wounds to the trolls and had a few put on them in the counter charge.

Turn 3

Heavy action on my left with the Moloch Horde finishing off the Fleabag Horde with the help of some Tortured Souls. Sadly the Moloch's were in turn taken out by Bloodboil from the Wiz.

I forgot both my regeneration for my Lower Abyssals and the ability for the Well to remove some wounds, glad I planned on that for deployment! They are finally removed be efforts of the Trolls and one of the Giants.

The Tortured Souls charge the remaining Rock Lobber on the hill and set themselves up to help in teh center.

Mau'ti-Bu-Su and her Twisted Victims charge the remaining Fleabag Horde on my right and take them out with some great rolls on my part. Her D3 bonus to Nerve checks for combats she is involved in is fantastic and rolling a 5 for +3 helped here.

Turn 4

Goblin units are few and far between at this point. Arch Fiend and The Well of Souls charge the second Troll Horde, but they hold and in turn remove the well with the help of one of the Giants.

Tortured Souls get a sneaky charge against Grogger but only manage a few wounds and the slippery hero lives!

My Abyssal Champion swings to my left and waivers the remaining Mawbeasts with a Lightning Bolt.

Turn 5-6

With only a few characters left and the Giants there wasn't much else my opponent could do. Mau'ti-Bu-Su kills one of the Kings on Fleabag.

We had a few combats and in the end it was a victory to the Abyssals!

Thoughts

This was a great game, and sadly with some less than impressive rolls my opponent was taken out of the game in some ways.

Playing with the river was interesting, but could cause some advantages for some armies like mine with flying units. Being able to charge over it without being hindered was huge, so I think we will stay away from this for future games.

Next game I need to remember the Regeneration for my Lower Abyssals and to use the Well of Souls ability to help mitigate wounds in important situations.

See you next time for game 2!