KoW Vanguard: Return to the Fray

With the relaxation of the current lock-down rules Mr T and I where able to take advantage of being in a 'Support Bubble' to meet up for our first game in a long time.
We'd decided to move onto Kings of War: Vanguard as our next game and Mr T had managed to complete the bases on his Kingdoms of Men units in time for the game.

This was Mr T's first try at Vanguard so much of the evening was spent with me giving a meandering explanation of the rules and then we threw some models down and had a quick play to get used to the combat mechanics.

This was a somewhat historic moment being the first time Mr T had fielded a fully self-painted army with ten miniature works of art gracing the field of combat.

Now he now only needs to paint another 150 odd models to convert the strong start into a full Kings of War army, I wouldn't expect to see a post on that being completed for a very long time...

It also gave me a chance to break out the Undead again and for Mr T to learn the best way to kill the Undead is to knock them down and have someone move in to finish them off.

All in all it was great to get some dice in hand and push some models around in good company and having all painted armies always improves the spectacle.

Talking of painting I've also completed another Regiment of Sergeants to add to the Ostrogoth army.

So the army is coming along nicely and I already have around 2000 points worth.

I also took delivery of some more mud-brick scenery from Chris at Fogou models, the plan for these is to make semi-fortified wall sections to use with the rest of the buildings I got on the Kickstarter.

Ostrogoth: Infantry Option 2

This week we have another infantry option for the Ostrogoths and this time it is the melee troops.

So far I have completed a Regiments worth split into 2 Troops but I will be bringing them up to Horde strength once I complete the other Regiment. The models are again Gripping Beast plastics and I went with the Saxon Thegns box. As with the other boxes you get a good amount of models for your cash and lots of build options.

The Kingdoms of Men have plenty of infantry options so you can either go for a cheap token holder / carrier or something more expensive and more durable. I went with mostly spear armed troops for the unit to add some flexibility into what they could represent but also historically speaking most common infantry of this period fought with spears. Most likely they will be fielded as the ultra cheap Shield Wall or the more durable Foot Guard, though the option to field a Phalanx unit against an army fielding lots of fliers or cavalry is nice to have.

I also went with nine models per base which gives a nice full look to the unit and with the models on the rear Troop being slightly raised above the ones in front a bit of added depth.

As the box comes with 44 models in it I will also have some spares to make up some men to use in KoW: Vanguard should they be required.

I have also completed a second regiment of Knights ready to join the fray so could now field a Horde, if I was able to play.

The aim is to complete four Regiments of Knights so I've reached half-way on these ones but with still a fair amount of cavalry left to paint with the extra Knights and Sergeants still to complete.

A Horde of Knights packs a real punch with 32 attacks hitting on a 3+, of course it has a massive frontage as well. But now that you measure the charge range from anywhere on a units front edge it also has a much large threat range.

Happy Birthday to...... Kate W

As a small token I gave these two regal figures to afa for her 50th birthday. I picked them up a couple of years ago as a pack with some ecclesiastical figures (they were the ones I wanted) from a show. I wanted cobblestone effect on the plastic bases so turned to a bit of green stuff and then dry brushed layers of various shades of grey. Overall I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Ostrogoth: Infantry Option

Even a strong cavalry army can benefit from some infantry support and in Kings of War it is often useful to have a unit or two that can sit on an objective or carry a token. Generally you'd want something cheap and durable or able to contribute from a distance to carry out this task.

With that in mind I've painted up four Troops of Bowmen, again using a Gripping Beast kit. Basing them as four Troops means I have the flexibility to use them as any of the unit sizes available in the Kingdoms of Men list. 

The Bowmen aren't anything special with a Range stat of 5+ (on a D6) and a Defence of 3+ meaning they won't be dealing much damage by themselves and cannot really take a punch back. However they are cheap and having a range of 24" means they can sit back on an objective and score some plink damage on your opponent.

The Gripping Beast models are very straightforward to paint and I did the whole Horde's worth at once. This meant I was able to do the entire lot in one week which is faster than I would normally be able to manage.

It also means I have almost painted up one of each unit type in the army apart from the other infantry type, the melee infantry. I still have plenty left to paint though as I need many more Regiments of cavalry to complete the army and some leaders as well.

The chaps are starting to look good together and the bonus of having lots of cheap units is the army should have a real massed ranks feel about it once it starting moving towards completion.

They took Mages....

Have finally finished the last two models for the KoM Vanguard faction - The Mage and Giant/Hero. They're nice and detailed models with lots of accoutrements and details that needed painting hence the time it took to complete. Not to mention 'Artist's Bloc' and my quest to find a muse.

Ostrogoth: Heavy, Medium and Light

Progress on the Ostrogoth cavalry has continued well enough for a rare midweek bonus post to be justified. As I wrote before the army will be based around the three different types of cavalry available to the Kingdoms of Men. Having already shown the scouts I have also now completed one Regiments worth of the Knights and Sergeants.

For the knights I used the Gripping Beast Goth Elite cavalry which uses the same bodies as the Noble Cavalry box but with armoured horses. The bonus of armoured horses is that you have less horse flesh to cover but it does mean you end up painting quite a large amount of armour.

Knights, Sergeants, Scouts

With the knights providing a good mobile hammer the sergeants can act either as chaff to make sure the knights get into combat or on the flanks. Being speed 9 and nimble means they should be adept at getting around the enemy and forcing them to to react or redeploy.

The sergeants are from the Noble cavalry box and as with the scouts these will all be based up in Troops to give flexibility when creating the army lists. They could also be mixed in with the scouts if I wanted to lean more heavily one way or the other when creating an army list.

The knights are being based as Regiments as I cannot see myself ever fielding a Troop and of course with still allows them to be joined together into a Horde.

So that's a fair few cavalry down and quite a lot more to go, but so far they have turned out rather nicely and should look better the more I get completed.