3rd Edition: Thoughts on my Halflings and my Ostermark League

Ouch. Where to begin here? We'll start with the Halflings first. Third Edition has eviscerated my goofy little army.

As stated elsewhere in the blog, the army started from a purchase looking for Cataphracts for my Regnum (still on the hunt there), but snowballed into a sprawling, if underpowered army. The minis were from smaller historical ranges, so were super cheap, and . By the end of Second Edition, I had over 2000 points, with another 1000 points or sitting around as future possibilities.

In 2nd, the Halflings were a legit sub-faction within the League; an army within an army. They had a varied but capable infantry (spears, archers, and braves) and cavalry (rangers and knights), plus artillery support (Iron Beasts and the army's various war machines), plus a bevy of character options (ASBs, Sergeants, sorcerers and engineers).

Most of these did not make it into 3rd Edition. The box of despair.

Unfortunately, 3rd Edition has reduced them to but a shadow of their former selves; I have a very unwieldy 1000 points or so remaining. The Halflings retain only their basic Braves, Archers, Knights, and Sergeants. All their heavy hitters have either been removed (Iron Beast; technically though this has been replaced with the Mammoth, a Beast... which while ok, still means it will be hard for the halflings to inspire) or given new human key words (Shrine, volley guns and other war machines, again, making it hard for the halfling to inspire and property utilize). With so few options, they simply aren't viable on their own anymore, with the possible exception of a small (500 point?) learner game, where they could pull double duty teaching the basics and losing in style to boost the confidence of the newbie with a resounding victory. So... unless a tiny learning opportunity presents itself, I'm likely going to just stick them in storage for now and see what happens later.


Unlike my halflings, my Ostermark League (the remains of my Ostermark Empire Army) enters Third Edition almost untouched. Big Picture, the League of Rhordia is a Theme List now, building off of the Kingdoms of Men. While the League does pull a lot, they lack also lack a lot, and so the two armies look to develop quite differently, which is the goal of Theme Lists, so uh, nice execution.

From the Kingdoms of Men, the League gets some units to form a great late-medieval army: Knights and Scouts (but no sergeants), Pole-Arms and Spears and Crossbows (the latter two can be upgraded to take Pikes or Rifles, respectively. But no Shield Wall or Fanatics), and cannons, (but not ballista or artillery). A very medieval starting selection.

Big-picture, the League takes their medieval army then adds what's left of the available halflings (discussed above) as chaffy support, Aralez-riding knights and leaders for a neat fantasy angle, plus re-keyed Human Volley Guns and Battle-Shrines. They're essentially WHFB Empire plus some halflings, and now less some steampunk tanks. ...Though I should note that they still get access to the KoM Mammoth unit (the new Beast of War), with some impressive melee stats. Those wanting to run their own tanks could still easily do so, though without the shooting aspect.

While the halflings are in full retreat to the storage closet (for now; we'll see what happens), my Ostermark League stands firm with over 2000 points ready to go. While I still want to "main" Kingdoms of Men, I think me League is a little more user-friendly (due to the CS Pole Arms and Guards.. doing damage helps win games I hear...), so they'll be on call for anyone wanting to take some puny humans for a spin.

...Next up, Kingdoms of Men, then the Varangur to conclude!