Next Army Projects

Over the course of the pandemic, I slowly had a realization with regards to multi-basing. I still like it a lot, and I still very much prefer both it and the overall unit approach Kings of War takes instead of dealing with individual models in a game. But...

Multi-basing limits what I can use my minis for. It's Kings of War or nothing. This is a fantastic game, but my Kings of War collection, spread across half a dozen multi-based armies already, is simply too large, even now. I am never going to be able to effectively use or explore it all, and I don't like that so much is just sitting in storage with little chance of being used by anyone anytime soon. 

But I still want to hobby up new things! So, units for existing armies (particularly the Kingdoms of Men, which I want to continue to "main") will continue to be multi-based, keeping on with the spirit of Kings of War and putting a good foot forward for multibasing and representing the game. But, my next few army-level projects will be individually based and just put on movement trays when I want to run them in Kings of War, like I had started to explore a bit with the small Orc army that I hobbied up last year. This approach should let me do some nice hobby exploration, give me a few more intro armies to have on hand, and might even let me trade some small games with some friends to drum up a few more Kings of War battles in the future. There has been some interest locally, but I have been incredibly stressed and busy, so we'll see how proselytizing develops as the year continues to roll on...

Anyways, onto the rest of the post, as I do have some new army-level projects in mind already! In no particular order they are: 

Stormcast Ogres

Having fancier ogres is an old idea in the community, but a rather solid one. I had picked up some of the Stormcast's Easy Build kits over the years to use as D&D foes for a zealous religious order, but those campaigns disintegrated over time due to scheduling issues, as so many campaigns do. The small collection remained over the years though, and was then bolstered over the pandemic with some ebay purchases, mainly rescued models. I think I have something around 60 Stormcast infantry models now, and something north of 3000 points to field if it's all painted up? Things add up quickly when three minis can be a unit that costs over 100 points!

Even with a janky, unoptimized collection, I think these Ogres would be a fun, solid multiple-small-units army, and I really like that these will now look as armored as their stats suggest. I've used up a Retributor Armor spray can on these already, so should probably have an intro list or at least some WIP posts ready over the summer if I can just find some more time.

Classic High Elves

Also over the pandemic, I decided I wanted some classic WHFB High Elves to paint. Elves are an iconic fantasy race, and I felt like I should have some classic elves somewhere in my sprawling miniature collection. Over the last few years, I picked up a fair amount via ebay... a bit over 200 minis as it turns out. About half of these are kinda "bulk reinforcements" though; about 30ish old mono-pose spearmen, 30ish old mono-pose armored archers and 30ish multi-pose cloth archers. Then I have around 30ish cavalry minis as well, split between the cool-looking Reavers and the more armored elven knights. The remainder of the collection are the more newer, flashier, elite Elf units, mostly multiples from the old Isle of Blood starter set, like the Swordmasters Palace Guard, and the Sea Guard Other Sea Guard. 

Overall, I should have enough models to make a decent, generic, elven list based around regiments, with lots of bulk troops I could dip into in the future as desired. This collection will probably lack the punching power of a more competitive list that fields dragons and drakons and such, but should be ideal for some casual games.

I will likely just do a unit or at most all of unit type at a time and batch paint everything, but with the ludicrous number of minis, this is going to be a bit of a painting slog regardless of how I approach it. I haven't been able to settle on a final color scheme nor even a basing scheme yet, so yeah, it will be a while before these see any play, but I an excited to paint up these iconic models! Eventually!

Twilight Kin

While apparently buying up all the cheap High Elves I could find online, I strayed and picked up some Dark Elves too. This started off as an oddball assortment of miscellaneous miniatures for a little skirmishing warband or ally units, and I should have stopped there. Unfortunately, some ebay bundles inevitably caught my eye, and now as I have tried to review and plan things out... I find that I have a very awkward collection that is having trouble running a single typical regiment due to a combination of the Twilight Kin's 3rd Edition's peculiar roster and also the bulk of my collection being split between the "new" 2013 range and the even older plastic kit, which don't look great next to each other in my opinion. So this collection is a bit of a mess.

I'm thinking I'll need another purchase or two to help straighten this collection out, and then I'll likely go with the same general plan as taken with the High Elves: hobby up the newer sculpts for a more elite force now, and then have the (thankfully only 36ish) minis from the old plastic sculpts around to be some bulk reinforcements as evil Tallspears or Archers. 

So yeah, these armies are the big projects on the horizon for me, and what I'm likely going to be chipping away at and posting about in the months to come. I think these will be fun hobby sojourns, letting me try out some neat stuff, as well as some nice armies to have around for Kings of War and other things, once they are all painted up. 

In other very good news for the blog, this week I was introduced to a handful of folks scattered about nearby who are all already into Kings of War, so I should be able to line up some more frequent games over the summer, against armies I've never seen on the table before. More to come!