Sitting my San Francisco hotel on the last week of my winter migratory flight, I had to come up with a list for CTA five days after I return to the blustery climes of NZ.
So I played around with Easy Army and came up with an evolution on the list I had been using in recent months. As I've opined before I have not been enjoying my Brutes as I don't find that I get real value out of them. They have generally been susceptible to shooting and with the lower nerve they can disappear fast.
My new list removes them and also replaces a Slave unit with a Vermintide Regiment. I initially used a Horde of these but I got rid of them from my list as I played around with points. Now they are back and I've added a second Shock Troop Horde to replace the Brutes.
Ratkin - SHOCK & AWE
The real distinguishing thing is the lack of Magic Items. I've spent a total of 20 points (the Talisman is really necessary) with the other 1980 points on units.
I like the list as it has a little bit of everything in it and I generally find that KoW works best with combined arms.
If you are a regular reader then you know that like a migratory bird I am taking a sojourn in warmer climes while the Wellington winter blows itself out. And what warmer climes. The average temperature so far on our trek across the USA has been 35 degrees Celsius (is America the only country in the world that uses Imperial measurements - perhaps some sort of longing for their colonial overlords). We've been to Houston, New Orleans and Boston, and I'm currently flying to San Francisco before home (I hear SF has a more realistic 20 degrees on offer).
Last week we visited the National WWII Museum in New Orleans and what a great experience it was. The conflict is handled in an informative and tasteful way - not too much "USA - Back-to-Back World War Champions". At the ticket office you are offered the chance to buy tickets to a 45 minute film "Beyond All Boundaries" produced and narrated by Tom Hanks. Make sure you do. It is a great presentation and puts the rest of the museum in context (don't worry about the "Last Mission of the USS Tang").
The two best exhibits are the two campaign exhibits - one on the Pacific War and one on the European Conflict. In the latter there is little mention of the Soviet Union apart from their death toll.
The P-51 Mustang that was billed as the "best fighter plane in WWII".....though it is mentioned it was crap until refitted with Rolls Royce engines.
B-24 Bomber that undertook the daytime bombing of Germany from UK Air Force bases.
The US Army's workhorse Sherman tank. I wouldn't have fancied sitting in one of these as throughout the war it was significantly outgunned by the German armour. Yes quantity has its own quality but not necessarily if you are one of the "quantity".
The one that ended it all. It was one of these planes that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Ngasaki forcing the Japanese surrender. If you were in any doubt as to the validity of the action, the footage of IWork Jima, Okinawa and Japanese response to Tokyo firebombing may change that view. Thankfully it has never had to be used again.
The Museum is in downtown New Orleans and is a little at odds with the city's other attractions. If you are a local who hasn't visited or a visitor passing through the city I'd urge you to check it out. We spent a full day there.
Ok, this is exactly Multibasing but it is the next unit/model in my Herd army.
A couple of years ago I supported a Mierce Kickstarter that gave me the basis for a Beastmen army. One of the models I got was their Ghorgan equivalent that fits in to The Herd as a Brutox.
Recently I gave it to Sam to paint and here's the model. All the painting bar the metals is Sam's (I wanted to play around with rust effects) and the basing is mine.
I think Sam has done a great job. The only thing that is required before it hits the table is a spray of Dullcote to remove some of the sheen.
My second unit for my Herd army is a regiment of Longhorns.
About 5-6 years ago I painted up a unit of Pestigors to use as Marauders in a Nurgle Warriors of Chaos army. This week I got them out and detailed them to fit in with what I was doing with my Herd. I think they are a good fit as Longhorns and have christened them "The Blackened Plate" to denote their pestilent nature.
I multibased using twigs and stones plus tufts and static grass. In the front corner you can see the GW Agrellan Earth. There are also some thistles by fallen log and other blossoms.
Really enjoying the scope that KoW Multibasing provides.
One of the big attractions of Kings of War for me was the opportunity to create diorama multibases.
I have always strived to give my armies interesting bases - be it DBM, 40k or WHFB - but KOW makes multibases an integral part of the game.
My first entirely KOW army will be The Herd and I have sourced miniatures from many different manufacturers and ranges. To tie this all together I was keen to have common basing that reflected the army's background.
Given my painting speed has slowed with age, I am very lucky to have a local painter who turns out high quality at a rapid speed. Sam Whitt's armies have gone from strength to strength and he is now painting a lot of The Herd for me.
Last week I posted some pictures of some WIP multibases and now I can post the finished article with minis included. Sam has done a great job on the wolves I'm using for Lycans.
The great thing about the basing is how quick it is to achieve good results. Bases comprise stones and twigs from garden, some bark, a variety of sands and tufts, some static grass and GW Agrellan Earth paint. The one above took about 2-3 hours work.
I'm currently working on a second unit and will post pictures when it is finished.
Most of the weekend was taken up with WSS "Winter" which ran on Saturday. The event went off well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
The idea of having a series of events tied go the local club has worked well. Entry for the events is free to club members and with four tournaments, a club membership is a 50% discount on entry (if you go to all four events). It has resulted in 12 new members plus the non-member entry has covered all the costs of trophies. Win-win.
Yesterday I started making the bases for my first "The Herd" units. These are my first attempts at multi basing.
I used various pieces of bark, slate and twig and have now primed them, prior to painting. I left the twig unpainted as I wasn't sure I could improve on nature.
Here are a selection of photos I took at WSS Winter yesterday.
Sam Whitt, Otaki's very own "Mother of Dragons" was leading into the fourth round but saw his dreams crumble against Peter Williamson's Empire of Dust.
An elf-off in the last round saw Rex Foote prevail versus Kent Jackson.
By all accounts Kent's Elves withered against the torrent of fire from Rex's two shooting hordes.
Over the past 12 months there have been relaxed painting criteria at Fields of Blood run events. This is largely because Kings of War issued a new edition and indeed for most people was a new game.
The intention was to allow people time to transition to the new game, build new armies or rebase if necessary.
Well a year has past and I'm of the opinion that those that intended doing so, probably have. And so for future events I'll be insisting on painted armies and utilising paint scoring.
As in the past, this will be a checklist system whereby there will be 45-50 points on offer but you only need to get 35 points to get full painting marks. The infamous "checklist" will return.
All the reasons of why I have used this in the past still hold true. For me - and let's not forget it is all about me - Wargaming is a visual hobby. If I am organising an event I go to a lot of effort to create nice tabletops with high quality, functional terrain. Therefore I want those boards to be complemented by painted armies.
I can hear the groans already but as with WHFB in the past the outcome is worth the noise.
This doesn't mean that you have to rebase your figures on multibases. Quite happy for people to use individually mounted figures in the appropriate trays. These are cheap (try Sarissa Precision) or you can easily make them yourself.
However your army will have to be painted to a minimum tabletop standard. Given that that covers everyone at the past two events that shouldn't cause too many waves.
On Monday and Tuesday I printed off the Winterdale Turret that came as part of the Indigogo crowd funding campaign run in April/May.
The turret is a modular tower that you can make as high as you want. You can also use it to put on the towers for the Winterdale Castle.
These are the six modular pieces straight from the printer. There are two of the window floor but effectively five unique.
You can do without the base if you need to.
The pieces fit together flawlessly. The interiors are all detailed. I will likely put plastic pins in to help in game use (don't want floors falling off).
All together the six pieces took 48 hours of printing time. However my direct interaction was only about an hour. This included ten minutes using Cura (free software programme that converts STL files to Gcode) and loading them on SD card.
From the web I have found out about a product called XTC-3D which is a resin coating for PLA (the plastic filament) prints. I am going to use that tomorrow to seal the pieces and see if it improves finish as much as it promotes.
My tower stands 12" high. I intend painting it up over next week and will post it once it is finished.
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