Hobby Update: More KoM Knights

I have a lot of melee-cavalry done up and available for the Regnum already - well over 1,000 points spread over a fair number of units. However, most of it was done up long, long ago and is now at least a little inconsistent with both general wysiwyg ideals and also the army aesthetic now, so I'm just retiring a few things as I hobby on a few new things to my Kingdoms of Men army here.

• Three troops of Mounted Sergeants from Fireforge will be retired. The Mounted Men-at-Arms box is a great kit, but just not consistent aesthetically with what I am going for with the Regnum as they are far too "medieval" in appearance.
• The unreasonable amount (4 troops and a regiment) of old Norman Knights from Conquest Miniatures will also be retired. With their unbarded horses they just don't seem to fulfill that Defense 5 look. Technically I guess I'd demote these to Mounted Sergeants? However, the lances seem more knightly, and I can't imagine I'd need to run this many Mounted Sergeants ever, and I'm not even sure if I want to test any out at all. Thunderous Charge 1 just doesn't seem all that threatening. So I'll box them up for now.
• The regiment of kitbashed AOE2 Cataphract Knights from Perry Miniatures will be kept on as a "special" unit of Knights. If something gets a magic item, I'll probably run these to set them apart.
• The new Goth Elite Cavalry from Gripping Beast here will be my basic knights going forward, and what the rest of this post will cover.

The box is for 12 minis, and comes with 4 sprues. And In addition to the box, I picked up another sprue on ebay, to get my 15 models. Each sprue in the box is the same, with three dudes and three horses, and a variety of weapons and heads and other bits. It even has a pair of standards to choose from: a Dacian dragon or a cloth banner. The box contents are pretty good! 

I forgot to take a picture of any sprue, fortunately Gripping Beast has their own. See? Pretty nice. Dynamic poses and a surprising array of options. 

The barding of the horses definitely has more of the "cataphract" look I was shooting for with my knights. The riders leave a bit to be desired with regards to their armor, but I decided against any mini-swapping or conversion work on these. Overall they fit in quite well with the Bowmen and Pole-Arms units, which makes sense as all these minis are from Gripping Beast! With mixing and matching a few lines of minis in this army already, I opted to keep the riders as-is for some aesthetic continuity. 

First group, based as a regiment. A nice variety of poses from just 3 bodies.

Not much to say about the Knights on the tabletop. Being Knights, they are obviously good on the charge (if not hindered), generally ok taking a charge, but even with Headstrong and a good defense, can struggle in any grinding combat since they lack Crushing Strength. All in all, a fine unit, but one that does require some finesse to use well. I don't think I have quite got the hang of these on the table yet, but am learning a bit with every game I run them. And these already saw some action in Battle 003. These were actually hobbied up a few days before the game, and I am just getting around to the hobby post now. Life has been busy.

Second group, based as two troops, and messing around with a movement tray. It's a pretty tight fit...

As I'm looking at the pictures, I think the moustaches could use some more color, but overall I'm happy with the new Knights here and am not going to bother trying to touch them up right now. With nearly 6000 points currently, I am starting to wind down my Kingdoms of Men collection. There are still a few things I'd like to do with them hobby-wise, like redoing the Militia units, and maybe finally add in a more "Varangian Guard" style of a Foot Guard unit (or maybe two or three knowing me), but I am pretty happy with my Kingdoms of Men collection as it stands. I have plenty of options to choose from while exploring 3rd Edition, which is just perfect for me right now. No May game here as I have too much life stuff going on, but there should be some dice rolling come June, with these new knights likely hitting the table again.