Hobby Update: KoM Mounted Scout Regiment

These models have been sitting around for years. I originally picked up two blisters of 4 Fireforge Mongol Heavy Cavalry Archers after ordering directly from their site in early 2016.

Originally, a few were done up as unit leaders for my Mounted Scouts, but eventually those units were legitimately multi-based, and the leaders were just retired and put into storage. While perusing the 3rd Edition rulebook... I realized that you could can take Scouts as regiments now! I decided to dig them out and get to work on yet another little project...

Ready to move around! And maybe shoot stuff. Maybe. Still only 5+ from afar.

About the Models

Very brittle. Missing two tails and a helmet decoration...

As mentioned in the other posts linked above... I would not recommend buying these models. The material is very, very brittle and quite easy to break. I'm currently short two horse tails and a helmet feather. The person models don't fit all that well together, and the horses are chonky messes with lackluster sculpts and very obvious and unsightly support bits. I just cannot recommend buying these... but I have them already, so I'll use them.

They are also not great for wysiwyg. They have horses, and bows, which is good, but both riders and horses are pretty heavily armored. They look better than their rules, that's for sure!

On the Field
Mounted Scouts are going to play a little differently in 3rd Edition. Their range got reduced from 24" to 18", so they're going to need to be closer to pink away at anything. Fortunately with Speed 9, they should be able to get to where you want them... but, for a ranged unit, this range reduction isn't great! It'll be harder to protect the Scouts from many speedier cavalry units like Elves (Speeds 9 and 10) and faster fliers, particularly with the 3rd Ed changes to how units measure charge range.

Fortunately, their Melee state got bumped from a 5+ to a 4+... but without TC or CS or even piercing... they are not damage dealers. Still, without buffs, 14 Attacks should be enough dice thrown around to hopefully get a point of damage in per volley, and they should be mobile enough to hit what you want to improve their chances.

It took me a while to get comfortable with the Scouts originally; given the range changes mentioned already I think I'm going to be in for another period of adjustment. I'd predict that my first few games, my Scouts will die sooner than desired! Nevertheless I am very interested in seeing how a regiment of Scouts performs on the table. 

Despite being billed as a ranged unit, I think the new 4+ to hit in melee will be quite consequential. Typically, I'd want my scouts either running interference and screening, or running along the table edge, taking what shots they could from afar. Now, outflanking your opponent with these could be a real boon, even without any combat benefits like Thunderous Charge. Scouts, particularly a larger unit like this, really seems intriguing to me and I can't wait to see how a larger unit performs!