Hobby Update: KoM Mounted Heroes and Redone Militia

I hobbied up few more things for the Kingdoms of Men! I got to these a little quicker than I thought I would. I've been pretty busy and stressed and largely stuck at home near the end of May here, so managed to get these done over a few days.

Redone Militia Mobs

The Militia troops were some of my first attempts at legit multi-basing for Kings of War. It did not go all that well. The paste was very chunky, and I made a lot of mistakes. The paste got in a few spots along the sides, making the bases difficult to fit in any movement trays I needed to use for 3rd Edition. Also, my old paint job was lacking, with a lot of obviously errant brush strokes, so this rabble has been on my radar to renew.

The renewed crew. A whole legion's worth of Militia!

The original troops were mostly Foot Sergeants from Fireforge and some kitbashed musicians/ banner bearers from the Warlord Games Romans. Now, I have added in some of Fireforge's Byzantine Auxiliaries to both use up some of that plastic and add in a more "disorganized" or smushed look for the units, since those don't have stands and so can be fit in closer than usual.

One of the regiments.

With the renew now, I took care to repaint most of the white elements. Originally, I used a few layers of white, and it's just too jarring. Too bright. My white of choice these days is a generic gray base coat, Citadel's "Pallid Wych Flesh" and then a very thin final layer of actual white. This gives off a gentler, more muted white that looks better overall.

The second Regiment.

Additionally, I worked to break off a number of Sergeant heater shields. As I've hobbied on the Regnum over the years, I have shied away from the more medieval looking miniatures, and not much in the army still uses those styles of shields anymore. Some of the minis could only use those shields, given the shield arm bit used or the glue in place, but I managed to swap out about a dozen heater shields for ovals and squares from other Roman-themed kits. Overall, this increased variety really helps convey the disorganized look I was going for, while also preserving the distinct purple and white shields that has come to be this army's overall look. I am very pleased with how the mob looks now!

A third Regiment, composed of two Troops, to give me some flexibility and allow me to run a full Legion of rabble, should I ever want to.

Final touch-ups could be a few brush slashes against some of the shields? Just something to show a little wear and tear, or battle damage? And a few strokes to tidy up some splotchy wash work, but I'm not sure I'm up for anything that subtle or precise right now, so that will have to wait. These are looking far better than they were, and are ready to hit the table again! I still have enough old Sergeants, spare banner-bearers and Auxiliaries to do up at least two more regiments, but all this was already 40+ models, and I didn't want to add any more in, as I was out of hobby space. These are done and I'll get to the others sometime, if I want to.

On the table, these have been interesting. Not great, but they are cheap, and have surprised me a few times already. They are giving me a lot to consider when it comes to multiple small unit play and what that means in Kings of War. I should have some more developed thoughts after a few more games, at which point I can revisit some of that thinking here on the blog.

Mounted Heroes

Long ago, I hobbied up a few assorted heroes for the Kingdoms of Men. The mounted ASBs and Hero came from a command pack from Warlord Games. After a good showing by the Hero in Battle 004 to run up and remove some war machines, and a poor showing by the mounted Wizard cadre in both Battles 003 and 004, I decided to hobby up a few more Mounted Heroes.

The minis are Late Roman Cavalry, from Gripping Beast, which are very, very similar to the Knights I recently hobbied on made from the Elite Gothic Cavalry from Gripping Beast. In Late Roman Cavalry box, the horses are unarmored and there are more shields and different heads (a nice variety of "heavy" looking Roman helmets, some with nasal guards), but the rest of the kit is the same, with the same weapons and knightly torsos. 

I used the bodies from the kit, with shields and heads from Warlord Games. While hobbying on them though, I realized that the Heroes are Defense 5 and not Defense 4 like I was thinking, which meant that I suddenly needed some armored horses, and realized I probably should have just bought another box (or ideally just 1 more sprue) of the Gothic Cavalry. Oops. Getting wysiwyg is hard sometimes.

In lieu of buying more plastic, I eventually dug out some of the fancier looking horses from the Perry Mounted Men at Arms cavalry I had used for my AOE2 Cataphract Regiment. I had 4 left with this barding style, and used two of those horses to make up these two new Mounted Heroes.

Potato picture, but you get the idea. Hopefully I can do some rearranging this summer and bring back a hobby space and the light box.

I like how they turned out! The praetorian shield goes very well with the mini, and those bodies are still very dynamic for just three poses from the sprue. Having the same bodies as the Goth Knights, and the same horse armor as the old cataphracts, these are a nice blend of bits and should smooth out the look between all the various ranges included in the army.

On the table the Mounted Wizards just didn't deliver. Lightning Bolt was only dealing about 1 damage a turn, and they didn't really impact what my opponent did in either game; the Wizards were ignored unless he needed to charge through them to get towards an actual target. The Mounted Hero on the other hand was great for hunting those war machines, and with better stats but a more "in-your-face" approach, and I think these Heroes will be able to threaten and disrupt things more like I was thinking the Wizards would. Heck, even just throwing one at some Kin shooters and disrupting them seems like it would be well worth it. We'll see how these perform in some future games!