Twilight Kin: Christmas Elf

What can be more in keeping with the festive spirit and Elves, unless of course they are power crazed, sadistic murderous Elves of course.

I've been continuing to work through the Twilight Kin and have managed to add quite a few options over the last couple of weeks. First up though are a second Regiment of Impalers to add to the other one I already have so I can  field a Horde of them. I expect that I'd only field Regiments when playing in the smaller scale battles of KoW:Ambush so having two Regiments gives me some flexibility in list building.

Here's the two Regiments together as they would appear in a normal sized KoW battle, I do like the portal I added onto the base and I have a few more to scatter throughout the force.

Next up we have the Impaler hero model, the aptly named Impaler Soulbane. As it is dual wielding axes it loses the Big Shield rule that helps the standard Impalers survive but does pick up an extra Crushing Strength and has the same number of attacks as the Impaler Regiment on a base 1/3 of the size, this beast would need some shielding from attacks but looks set to do good work into the flanks or rear of the enemy.

The TK don't have lots of ranged options but the Voidtouched Weavers give two different ranged profiles in one unit. The standard option is for Fireball which is a 12" attack that deals Shattering to the enemy unit, this lowers it's nerve in the following test by 1. The Lightning Bolt option gives an attack with double the range and some Piercing but you can only take a maximum of three units with it. I'm not sure as a TK player you really want to lean into the ranged attacks and I personally prefer to keep my chaff units cheap, but it's good to have the option to change things up without needing to paint new models.

Then we have more hero options, I painted up a couple of models from the League of Infamy set to use, the cast is La'theal Bleakheart who is a unique caster hero with a good group of spells to choose from. One of her special abilities allows her to also deal damage when cast Windblast, I've not really used Windblast in the past but it's a good tool (in the right hands) to move your opponent about and off objectives.

The other model is actually a Vampire but she looked in keeping with the others and I think could be a second Void Captain if I needed one.

I'm not planning on using many bound units but the Butcher Fleshripper came in the box so it got painted up. It's a good model with plenty of character and it does offer a rare Def 5+ unit in the army at a reasonable price so it could be another unit looking to get into flanks or perhaps as a token carrier.

Summoner Crone's have been touted as a key unit in the Twilight Kin army with many of the lists I've seen so far having two if not three included. With much of the army being Def 4+ the chance to take multiple instances of Weakness (which effectively increases your defence) which can also cause damage is seen as being key. As the TK don't pact much shooting then having spells that cause damage and an effect is very efficient.

The resin version in the army sets comes on a mount so I'll need to get a couple of foot versions as well to cover eventualities but the La'theal model could also stand in as a standard Crone. 

Lastly we have the Void Captain on foot, or in the this case the prow of a ship. There is also a version on board a Void Skiff as well but I'll model that one up later in the project.

The Twilight Kin have several units that interact with the Keywords associated with the other units in the list. The Void Captain is a fairly simple example in that she gives all Corsair units +1 nerve if they are within 6".

To help me keep track of the various interactions I knocked up a quick spreadsheet to visualize them. These interactions will also help to form battlegroups on the table, so if for instance you have several units of Void Wardens then you want a Captain close by to bump their nerve up. Once you throw a Navigator into the mix then things become more complicated, I have yet to stick mine together though. 

Here we have all the models I've painted for the army thus far, it's a good start but I still have plenty of new units to paint and of course repeats of units I've already done.

Twilight Kin: Crew of the Heartseeker

I've been working away on some more Twilight Kin with the Corsair models next in line to be painted. The kit comes with a few variants to make the different Corsair offerings and for the first two Troop's I've gone with mostly spears to represent the Fleetwardens. Most/all of the Corsair units have the relatively low defence of 5+ but come with an optional upgrade (Bloodhex) which allows you to bump it up to 5+ for a turn. The Fleetwardens also come with an option to increase their nerve by +1/+1 for a low cost. There isn't a huge amount of Crushing Strength in the list so they also supply a handy source of that and Phalanx for blunting the attacks of cavalry and flyers.

The Voidwalker variant is more focused on straight combat and has the option to change to melee 3+, but the ability to add Ensnare onto the units will also help with survivability. 

The reason I started with two Troop's worth is so I could field the Crew of the Heartseeker formation which adds Regiment of Impalers add well to complete the formation. The formation makes the Fleetwardens Fearless and the Rally on the Impalers can take them up to -/14 nerve, which is pretty good for a Troop. This would give you three hardy pieces of chaff with which to hold up the enemy.

I have painted up the Heartseeker for Armada as well so if she makes it onto the table then it feels like her crew should be on the table for Kings.

Next up I'm painting some heroes to go with the army and then a couple of Troops of ranged units.

Twilight Kin: The First Wave

I've now had a chance to read up on the Twilight Kin expanded lore and also apply some more paint to models. The new lore ties the TK very much to the Void which they navigate in search of lost treasure (and in some respects glory) which was cast into the Void during the cataclysm caused by an evil god and a magic mirror. This brings them into contact with the beings known as the Nightstalkers who inhabit the Void, it also alters them physically and mentally as time spent in the Void takes it toll. 

First up are a couple more troops of Bound Phantoms to be used as fast, fearless, flying chaff, perfect for the role and well priced at only 100points.

Next up are some new models, the Impalers. This is a new hard plastic kit released by Mantic using their new supplier and the casting is top notch. You get three different bodies each with a choice of heads and weapons. The shields are assigned to a body but I will see if they can be swapped around between them or not. 

The Impalers are male Twilight Kin who have been changed by exposure to the Void to become hulking monstrosities. It seems the males are more susceptible to the corruption so change more quickly and radically. 

The chaps are on monstrous infantry bases (50mm square per model) so occupy a decent frontage but come with big shield so have defence 6+ from the front and a decent fearless nerve. This means they should be able to take  decent punch from the front and then unleash their melee attacks back. With wild charge (d3) they could also potentially charge 13" which could catch the odd unit out.

I'm not sure I'm a massive fan of the 'big stride' pose on these models but the detailing is excellent and they do make for interesting models and a few hordes of these should make a solid centre to any Twilight Kin list.

I've opted to work through all the units types one unit at a time rather than doing all of the models I have for that unit type at once to keep the variety going so up next we have a rather unique unit. The Void-Skiffs are the vessels that the Twilight Kin built to navigate the Void, it seems they also work just fine outside the Void as well. I have of course painted up an Armada fleet for the TK so had a scheme to work from but it was still very unusual to be painting a couple of boats to use in a mass fantasy battle.

Coming only in regiment size the Skiff is a handy melee unit that can be upgraded to have an unusual shooting ability (it fires out of the side arcs rather than front) which will need to be tested to see if it's useful or not.

Flying units are always useful and even with the larger base possibly restricting some charge options they should be getting into some flanks and causing people issues, having brutal is a nice bonus.

Again the kit for this goes together well with the boat being designed to self-balance on it's flying stand. I did have a little bit of a faff getting the crew into position but a bit of patience and lots of plastic glue did the job. I also ordered a few bits of 3d printed portals to add onto the bases to show the Skiffs entering the battle direct from the Void, which I think work rather well.

Next on the table will be some Twilight Kin infantry, I've got enough for three regiments so will be starting with a couple of troops worth to give me options for Ambush.