Hobby Update: KoM Berserkers

I made an interesting discovery about two weeks ago, regarding the Kingdom of Men Berserkers.

Over the years I saw a handful of posts from KoM players praising their Berserker units, and early on in my KoM career I remember seeing regiments with Fire -Oil being suggested on FB and the Mantic forum as good monster killers for the army. Some posts went so far as to argue that the units should be "auto-includes" for any serious list.

I just did not get it.

I thought the Berserkers were a combination of Basilean Penitents and Undead Zombies: good Nerve, Fearless, good attacks and having Crushing Strength. All good, but they didn't seem worth it, particularly with the cheaper Pole-Arms as an alternative. I simply didn't get the rampant adoration online, and since I was having fun with my list as-was, and being somewhat of a contrarian when it came to gaming, I ignored them and never looked back.

Well, lo and behold, I looked at their stats a few weeks ago, and will admit I made a big error in judgement. I thought the unit had 5+ for a Melee stat, when really, it is 3+. That's a world of difference!

I decided this error was worth rectifying, and I caved and bought some Dacian Falxmen from Warlord Games.

A typical sprue.

I am lukewarm on the purchase. I didn't really research it, and the Falxmen are essentially their cheaper Celtic Warriors box with an additional baggie of metal conversion bits, included for an additional cost.

The extra metal bits.

The baggie gives extra shields, many heads and several little bundles of falx..es. The baggie also gives you 9 upper bodies to stick onto plastic Celt legs, and then a full-metal champion/leader and what I think is a musician guy, which is how this kit bumps up to 42 minis from the Celts' 40.

These metal bits are nice, and do provide some good poses and menacing weapons, but I could have saved a few bucks and just gone with the Celts. I have enough spare weapon bits I could have kitbashed some CS-looking weapons no problem. Oh well; this works fine.

They look suitably disordered but menacing. Good Berserkers.

Here's the first regiment of guys. Two more regiment's worth are still on the sprue. I'll get to them next spring/next year. Since this project stemmed from my apparent lack of reading comprehension, let me take a minute and try to rectify that too.

On paper, the best infantry for Kingdoms of Men are Berserkers, Foot Guard, and Heavy Pikes. All have the best Nerve for the army, and great (if differing) combat stats.

The Heavy Pike has "basic" combat stats with 4+ to hit and 4+ Defense, but Phalanx and Ensnare turn them into a fantastic anvil unit, particularly against cavalry. There are a number of kits from Warlord Games for hoplites and such; I may need to pick one up eventually... but these are more specialized defenders.

The Foot Guard are the most versatile infantry. They have 5+ Defense, but you can drop the shields for bigger weapons if you want, or use magic items (Brew of Strength) or magic (Bane-Chant) to give them Crushing Strength without sacrificing any defense. With 3+ for a Melee value, but no Crushing Strength, the Foot Guard are a bit of a jack of all trades melee unit; able to do a bit of everything without having specializing into a particular role.

Meanwhile, the Berserkers are all about offense. Their attack numbers are greater than typical infantry; in line with spears/pikes. With CS1 and A 3+ MELEE STAT, they can dish it out, and don't need to get the charge to deal their damage. However, this comes at the cost of largely ignoring defense. As mentioned before they have great Nerve, and Fearless, so they'll stick around for a grinding fight, but with only 3+ Defense, they need to be supported and protected.

I'm excited to get these on the table sometime, as my infantry can use a little more hitting power. I'd be really intrigued to compare them to a unit of Foot Guard with two-handers, but I'll need to actually finish the latter before I can try that out...