Multi-Basing & Misc

One odd thing I really liked about 8^th Ed WHFB from the hobby perspective was unit fillers. It was just such a wonderful way to add your own bits of uniqueness and fluff to your normally boring-but-impressive looking numerically large core units.. even it it wasn't encouraged by the rules.

Kings of War evokes similar feelings, but since everything is based on the unit size (and not the individual model), the feeling is actually cranked up a little. Multi-basing lets every unit be a little a snapshot of the action; a mess of models telling a story brought to life by plastic and paint. I really appreciate the freedom given players through multi-basing and treating units as units. (For reference, you can read their FAQ/guidelines here, if you are unfamiliar.)

I am still finding my hobby footing in the new system. I decided I’d let myself multi-base units, but I’d be sure to use about 80% of the models for each unit… after all, this is a mass combat game, and I want to put models on the table!

First up to be modified were my shooters... which in retrospect may have been a poor choice. I like my shooting support in this kind of army, but I started with my Archers... who I wasn’t too excited about fielding when I have all sorts of interesting new units to paint up and field and rules to learn! Archers shoot. Whoop dee do! I still started with them all the same... at least I've got a lot done now, and more exciting units are still to come. Save the best for last and get the hard stuff out of the way first and all that, right?

Here they are! Four! Four troops of archers. Ah-ha-ha.

You may notice I also decided on a weird way to multi-base my forces, which I feel I should probably address. It may look a little weird, but I swear I sort of thought it through... First, the thought process: 

• First and foremost, I wanted flexible unit sizes - the same guys could be rolled up into a Horde; broken down into Regiments; further broken down into various Troops. Flexibility would save me money and allow me to keep my lists fresh for my opponents.
• For whatever reason, I was dead-set on using different "command" options to lead different unit sizes (anything non banner to lead Troops; Banners for Regiments; Banner + Veteran for Hordes). I think it looks better to be consistent like that, and lends itself to the feeling of an organized army.
• I wanted a definite unit leader point for each unit, to make the games flow better. The easiest way to denote that seemed to be with a single model on a single base. And I had tons of those! And a fair amount of 40mm squares already. So using what I already had on hand seemed like a good idea to me.

So really the whole endeavor aimed to make list composition easier by making everything modular and interchangeable. Here it is the concept in action. Remember those Troops from before? Put them together and you get:

Two Regiements! Though the archer in the cloak is missing some paint.

...and put those Regiments together and you get:

One Horde of Archers! ...And the cloaked figure is still too good for paint.

So, depending on my list, I can field any size of Archer unit without too much hassle (movement trays help immensely). I did break my rule of Banners leading Regiments and such here... but really, fancy flags would just get in the way of the arrows, right? I have a few spare bannermen I can swap in if I decide it really bugs me I suppose. 

Looking at these guys, I think need to find a color to paint the edges of my bases. Black looks a little jarring aesthetically. I will need to experiment... as this will likely be a problem in all my units.

So, one more model to paint up, and a little more work on the rest of the unit is needed before I dub this group truly finished, but these don't look too bad so far.

More hobby progress to be posted soon!