Let’s get started with our 10mm Kings of War (KoW) armies! To ensure a proper growth, today we’ll be discussing and planning our armies. Check out our intro article if you want to know what this is all about, or meet the participants if you want to know more about where these lists come from.
It’s time to get started, now that the context and rules for this slow grow challenge are well understood, and that a people have signed up for the challenge. A grand total of eight nine ten participants! This is gonna be fun.
As you may remember, the first phase of our challenge is called the Concept phase. During that phase, every participant thinks about the concepts of their army. What do they want to achieve during the challenge, what type of army (both in terms of list and models) do they want to create. Ultimately, they must come up with an army list and a shopping list.
According to the rules of the challenge, once that army list is established, it is carved in stone (or, you know, printed on paper and laminated, for those who prefer spending their time painting miniatures rather than carving actual stone). So, obviously every participant needs to think hard and thoroughly about what they’ll do and why.
Correct observation followed by meticulous deduction and the precise visualization of goals is vital to the success of any enterprise.
Terry Pratchett, The Carpet People
Or, you know, just throw a few cool looking models into a list built with the Official Easyarmy KoW army builder, hopefully respecting the army selection rules, and discuss the results with the other participants. At least, that’s how I plan on doing it! To be more accurate, I have a set idea of what I want the army to look like, the rules and its efficiency on the battlefield come second.
Of course, if you want to dive deeper into the topic, there are quite a few resources you could read about Kings of War, for example on the “-/28” community website.
Meet the Armies!
Today, we will have a first look at five of the armies – the first five to be ready for presentation, and also to make this article a bit easier to read. We have:
– The Skeletal Legions of Sahkdoss the Conqueror (Clément , Undeads)
– Thunder Hill Rangers (Pete, Free Dwarfs)
– Eoten’s living forest (Wolfram, Sylvan kin)
– The anvil of Doombeard (Andy, Abyssal Dwarfs)
– The City of Taras Lossea (Sebastian, Elves)
The goal is to end up with 2000pt armies that look cool, and should be fun to play with/against. For each army, let’s have a look at what each participant currently has in mind for the background, hobby aspects, and of course the army list and how the army is intended to work. Enjoy!
The Skeletal Legions of Sahkdoss the Conqueror (Clément, Undeads)
The Skeletal Legions of Sahkdoss the Conqueror is the numerous force led by the famous Sahkdoss, from the height of Baalrakoth, his terrifying dragon. Sahkdoss is a leader with a fragile ego, so he does not let anyone in his army have any sort of mount: he has one… and him only: a big badass dragon.
The plan was to put as many skeletons in that list as I can! I also wanted to 3D print this army myself, to try out something new. So I bought an Elegoo Mars 2 recently, and am eager to start playing with it! I have bought the 3D files from Forest Dragon. I plan to try out making some small digital kitbashing myself, e.g. using meshmixer to replace some weapons by others – inspired by this impressive video. In the long term I plan to use this army (or a variation thereof) as demo army… so I think it should be nice and easy, but also look cool!
I also wanted to avoid spending too much time actually making this army, so I decided pretty early on I would use the zenithal priming + contrast paints technique. It should give decent results, while being very fast to do! Especially on smaller models, I expect to use a limited selection of colors, making the whole process easy to cruise along. I have to say, I am actually very, very happy with the initial results!
The list
That’s 13 units for a total of 21 unit strength… above average at this point level. Lots of bodies on the battlefield, but the Soul Reavers are basically the only ones capable of any significant damage output. The big flyer, Sahkdoss himself, is here because he will look cool, and may probably be a bit of a distraction carnifex*: he must project threat – potentially holding a flank on his own. The wraiths are deceiptful chaff*, hopefully more tarpit* (De6! Fearless!) and should help delay/orient the enemy’s Hammers*. The ton of skeletons are there to survive as long as possible and score more than the enemy. They are supported by two sources of inspiring*, one of which is also a bit punchy. The Deathpack are pure chaff, because that’s always useful to have some!
For those of you new to the game, here’s a quick lexicon:
*inspiring: a crucial mechanism of the rules which gives a nerve test re-roll to units within 6″ when they get routed: effectively a second chance to not be destroyed!
*distraction carnifex: a big scary unit which might force your enemy to over react. Potentially more efficient by the threat it poses than by what it can actually do.
*chaff unit: a cheap, sacrificial unit whose role in the game is to waste your opponents’ resources/time/energy, not survive
*tarpit: resist longer than expected, and block/waste time for expensive enemy units by being hard to kill
*hammer: unit with high damage output, usually expensive
Thunder Hill Rangers (Pete, Free Dwarfs)
Having always played ‘classic’ Dwarfs in Warhammer, the chance to try something a little different this time and use units with a bit more movement is what drew me to the Free Dwarfs. As such, I have opted to keep things fairly simple and focus on movement, whether this be via scout (rangers), surge (elementals) or just simply having access to dwarf cavalry for the first time (brocks).
I plan on using miniatures from Pendraken, I like the oldhammer-esque vibe of their miniatures, and they offer decent versions of all the units I want to represent (including really cute Dwarfs on ponies!). I think I’m going to paint them with natural colours – browns and greens and base them using classic green flock. My aim is to stick to the ‘ranger’ aesthetic as close as possible and have them represent ‘hill’ dwarfs as opposed to the standard ‘mountain’ dwarfs.
Gameplay-wise my list is very straightforward and is basically the standard ‘Brocks and Rocks’ with the addition of Rangers for flavour. It is not fully optimised and definitely lacks chaff, but I hope I can overcome that. The plan is very simple, I will deploy the elementals centrally as an anvil, supported by the priest. The Brocks will go on one flank and the rangers will scout up on either the same flank or the opposite, depending on my opponents deployment. Hopefully I can use the shooting from the rangers to kill my opponents chaff and bait them into charging, in order to set up decent charges for my Brocks. With only 10 units in total I have a very elite, compact army which can potentially play a refused flank tactic.
The list
Free Dwarf Rangers, Regiment, 185pts
Hearneas’ handpicked [1], 15
Free Dwarf Rangers, Regiment, 185pts
Blessing of the Gods, 20pts
Free Dwarf Brock Riders, Regiment, 195pts
Caterpillar, 20pts
Free Dwarf Brock Riders, Regiment, 195pts
Jesse’s boots, 15pts
Earth Elementals, Horde, 220pts
Brew of sharpness, 45pts
Earth Elementals, Horde, 220pts
Blade of slashing, 5pts
Greater Earth Elemental, 230pts
Free Dwarf Stone Priest, 90
Conjurer’s staff, 10
Bane chant, 20pts
Martyr’s Prayer [1], 35
Berserker Lord, 110
Blade of the beast slayer, 20pts
Mount on a Brock, 30pts
Herneas the Hunter [1], 135pts
Eoten’s living forest (Wolfram, Sylvan kin)
My Idea was to have lots of forest creatures led by a big Tree and accompanied by some elves who live in the forest rather than legions of spear elves who “tamed” some dryads and animals. So I chose Eoten the well respected ancient Tree Herder to be my general. He should lead lots of forest spirits and animals. The elves would either be rangers or riding some of the animals. Last but not least the army is joined by an awesome independent forest dragon.
When I was looking for miniatures for the challenge it quickly became apparent that I wanted to use the wood elves by Forest Dragon. I needed some wolves (wild gur panthers). So I took the dire wolves from Forest Dragon and “healed” their wounds with Meshmixer. Clément was nice enough to print them all and the resulting minis are really amazing! In the next step I will use my airbrush, washes and some brush work for the highlights. I never worked with 10mm minis before so I’m pretty excited how they will turn out.
The Tree Herder and the forest spirits/shamblers build the center of this list. Together with the rangers, which act as chaff for them, they take a prominent position on the battlefield thanks to the scout rule they all share. The cavalry supported by the sorceress should threaten the flanks. The dragon can either join the cavalry on one flank or threaten the other flank on his own. With the ranged units mixed in I hope to route some enemy chaff units.
The list
Boskwraiths regiment
Riverguard Treeleapers* troop
Kindred Gladestalkers troop
deathroot arrows
Kindred Gladestalkers troop
deathroot arrows
Hunters of the Wild regiment
Forest shamblers horde
Forest shambler horde
Silverbreeze Cavalry* troop
deathroot arrows
Stormwind cavalry* regiment
Tree herder/Wiltfather[1]
Army Standard Bearer
mount on a horse
Elven Archmage
inspiring talisman
bane chant 2
lightning bolt 5
The anvil of Doombeard (Andy, Abyssal Dwarfs)
The anvil of Doombeard are a force to be reckoned with! Led by the tyrant Darven Doombeard, astride his Winged Halfbreed, he’s ready to lead his latest threat over all who stand before him!
I decided to go for a more infantry-based style for this army – being new to the game myself, I’ve decided to do the “rule of cool” rather than focusing too much on an overly competitive list. So we start with two hordes of infantryman. Big blocks of Black Souls slowly walking towards the enemy sounds intimidating enough to me!
The Slave Orcs are there to do some more damage as well, but I think the main damage is going to come from the two regiments of Half-Breed cavalry I have! These things are brutal with their high speed. I may have armed them with a couple of magical artefacts too! Next up is the artillery in the name of two Angkor Heavy mortars. I love the idea of having these just sat bombarding the enemy whilst my infantry units charge forward.
Finally, we have heroes. I went a bit hero mad here, having not one but two heroes on winged Halfbreeds. Darven Doombeard will be the Overmaster of the army, surveying all astride his beast and dealing damage where he can! The other two heroes are a supreme Iron-Caster on Halfbreed who will act as the second in command, and finally a spell caster in the name of Dravak Dalkan. He’s got some seriously punchy spells, so looking forward to using him, along with everything else listed here, to crush some enemies!
The list
The City of Taras Lossea (Sebastian, Elves)
What’s the background/ army style?
The background for my army is heavily influenced by High-Elves in Silmarillion. The city of Taras Lossea is a community of Elves at the peak of their civilisational power. It has existed at the foot of a mountain for a few centuries, its citizens developing a strong bond with their surroundings. And now evil stirs again… Will the Losseans be able to prevail? Can they face the threat to their borders together? Or has life behind high walls made them grow soft?
The army of Taras Lossea is a citizen army. Every Elf serves a fixed amount of time in its ranks, developing warrior skills according to their individual talent. In times of need King Arakano can call upon his kindred to take up arms, join their regiments, and march out against his foes. The militia faces their enemies with the traditional weapons of bow, spear and ice-cold discipline. In the vanguard of the lossean’s army a chosen regiment of Arakano’s personal guard can always be found, eager to draw first blood and perhaps receive praise from the King himself. Should the threat to Taras Lossea be great enough, the army will be joined by its allies and neighbors living in mountains above the city: Great eagles, keen eyed and willing to defend their hunting grounds.
What’s the plan for building a list and the army itself?
My plan for the army is to build out a large core of infantry as a basis for the citizen militia. Even though Elves have a ‘shooty’ reputation, my army will have a definitive close-combat flavor: Lots of spears backed up by some archer/artillery support. I’ve deliberately decided against using cavalry units because I feel this would disrupt the ‘citizen army’ feeling of it all (everyone walks, no-one gets to be the cool rider at the front :)). However, I wouldn’t want to miss out on the important, tactical option of a few fast, light units, so the army will be joined by some eagles (using Drakon Rider stats), which also fits nicely into the background story.
In terms of building and painting, my goal is to develop the tightest, quickest, most efficient pipeline for cranking out minis. Once that has been achieved the floodgates can be opened and my wallet will cry 🙂 I will post my first test-models as soon as the color scheme has been established!
What’s the list?
Kindred Tallspears (Rg.) 140p
Kindred Tallspears (Rg.) 140p
Kindred Archers (Trp.) 90p
Kindred Archers (Trp.) 90p
Palace Guard (Rg.) 160p
– Chant of Hate 20p
Therennian Sea Guard (Hrd.) 290p
– Caterpillar Potion 20p
Therennian Sea Guard (Hrd.) 290p
– Aegis of the Elohi 15p
Drakon Riders (Rg.) 165p
– Helm of Confidence 15p
Drakon Riders (Rg.) 165p
– Brew of Haste 20p
Bolt Thrower 90p
Bolt Thrower 90p
Standard Bearer (Hero) 60p
– Lute of Insatiable Darkness 25p
Elven King (Hero) 100p
– Sacred Horn 15p
That’s it for today! Now all of our participants have their lists ready, we will look into actually making these armies in our next article. In the meantime, we will discuss these topics on our Discord server. Join us there to see the work in progress… or in not too long on this blog to discover the details of each army when the participants will be ready to show them off!
International Tabletop Gaming Club Berlin e.V. 
Love the Abyssal Dwarfs, where did you get the minis?