Hobby Update: Sons of Korgaan

Well, 2019 is off to a good start for my hobbying. I started on these guys over the weekend, and since I got snowed out of my NYE plans, I managed to finish them up today. More Sons of Korgaan for my Varangur!

I haven't been jazzed about my photos on the blog lately. My old phone was great; new phone was a step down, and my old fancy digital camera is apparently equal to my new phone. That's what a decade of tech will do I guess... I tried a few pics of the unit, to see if some better lighting could help. Unfortunately, after snapping a handful of pics, only a few turned out. I think I'll need to go buy a lamp to help with lighting in the future.

Experimenting with locals around the apartment. This is the usual countertop.

The models are still GW's Chaos Warriors, which I just love to paint. I picked up numerous boxes and battalion boxes back in the day, and I ended up with well over 100 warrior models. I've since converted nearly all of that into Kings of War, with units of sword and board or additional hand weapons serving as Bloodsworn, and anything with big weapons serving as Sons. 

I'm pretty pleased with how the unit turned out. I painted up a lot of Tzeentch and Khorne warriors back in the day. Slaanesh and Nurgle never got their due. I had a ton of "mutated" heads sitting around, so I decided to do up a unit with them. Purple seemed like it would go good with the lighter skin tone. One final regiment of old warriors to hobby up, but they need to be primed... so that'll be a project for the spring/summer.

...and this is the bathroom countertop. Turns out there is no great lighting in the apartment for these kinds of pictures. I think I'll need to buy another lamp.

The Sons are a very potent infantry unit; 3+ Melee, 5+ Defense and CS2 makes them dangerous in combat, and with the Varangur's high Nerve they should be able to grind out lots of stuff. Their main drawbacks would be their cost (200+ points starts getting expensive for only a regiment), and being infantry, they can potentially be picked away at range or hit by quicker things (like cavalry) before they can close and do you any good. When they do get there though, they'll do some damage for sure.


I'm still getting up to speed on all the little rules changes from the last two Clash of Kings supplements. The Varangur were introduced with Uncharted Empires, and since then, a tweak has been made to the Gifts various Varangur units can purchase; we're now down to choosing between: Brutal, Lifeleech 1, and Fury.

Previously, I largely agreed with internet wisdom and felt that the Guise of the Deceiver gift, which granted Fury and Headstrong was the best option in most casts. In my view, Headstrong really protected the unit against unlucky wavering from ranged attacks, so it's sad to see it go. Even though the Gift has been changed to just Fury, I still think it'll be the top choice most of the time.

Fury is still great. The Varangur are melee-focused, and Fury will let them get in one final round of damage. Given the combat prowess of most Varangur units... this is nothing to sneeze at.

I still think Brutal will be good for characters; giving them a little more of a force multiplier effect. For Chieftains on foot or on horse, I think this would really shine. 

I still think Lifeleech is the weakest choice. If you're local meta has lots of long, slow, grinding melee combat, maybe you can get some mileage of of it. However, the heal is minor, and conditional, and I don't see getting enough use out of it to take it over Fury for most of our units. If you really want to heal your stuff, I think the new Ice Queen hero option, offered up in Clash of Kings 2019, would be the way to go.

Well, one days in and 200+ points of hobbying done. I don't think I can keep that rate up, but 2019 is off to a good start for hobbying. Cheers!