Hobby Update: Abyssal's Second Chroneas and Herd Moonfang / Lycan Alpha

In addition to my Archaon purchase, which is more for fun and personal reasons than for actual gaming, I made a few purchases specific to Kings of War as the year has started wrapping up, including a few discounted 3d Prints via an ebay storefront. The first of these was a second Chroneas miniature, since I was buying from the same shop I got the first miniature from. 

The Green-Flame Chroneas.

I still feel like he should probably be a bit bigger to better fill out the 50mm square and space, but I still like the freaky gait and look of the mini overall, and the smaller size has been great for transporting, so I don't feel bad doubling down on this particular miniature. I can always upgrade these at some point in the future. 

For this one, I tried a green flame effect instead of the blue, as I am still considering a repaint of all of the Flamebearers and Efreets and such from the old blue to this new green. I have really liked the green effect elsewhere, but with this done I am doubting the necessity of significant repaints now. The blue looks good, and so does the green. The aesthetic difference isn't all that great, and I don't think I can justify the time needed to repaint everything. A color split might even be desirable for some of the write-ups to help differentiate units. I'll get some more games in and see how a mix of things look in report pictures and such, but yeah, no repaints planned anymore. 

The second print was a werewolf mini, Willveris Werewolf. The print needed some very minor cleanup  removing printing supports, and after a quick wash and dry, which I would recommend you do for any print, I popped outside for a minute to prime. The weather hasn't been great, but on the day it was both dry and above freezing, so priming wasn't too troublesome. 

Honestly this mini was a lot of fun to paint up. Looking at the picture now, I think it needs one more pass of blue to highlight some of the brow and muscles, but it's table-worthy in my book. I'll add that last touchup before he goes in the army box. This fearsome mini will be used as some kind of Inspiring Lycan character for the Herd, either a simple Lycan Alpha or as the unique Moonfang. 

The new Lycan hero.

On the table, the Alpha is pretty basic. It's got Pathfinder, a 5+ Regen, decent Nerve and stats, and 5 attacks. It's not amazing, but with 9 Speed and Nimble, it should be able to move quickly to threaten things, and be able produce a damage or two against the enemy when needed. The 45 points for the named character gives a bump to a 4+ Regen, a slight bump to both Nerve values, and an extra attack. Moonfang also has Vicious, and grants a conditional Vicious to friendly core units engaged with the same target as Moonfang. All those buffs should give him more staying power, and make him a better supporting character. My mindset is usually "cheaper is better" for evaluating units, but I think that is my Kingdoms of Men bias talking, since they don't have a ton of special rules and upgrade options. I am trying to shake that thinking up. An additional 45 points isn't a ton to commit, and gives a fair amount, so I will try to run Moonfang over the generic Alpha whenever possible, if only to try and force a bit of a new gaming perspective on myself.

No matter how I end up running him though, I am glad to have a Lycan hero. I have tons and tons of Lycans for the Herd, so thematically I really want them to have their hero, because that's fluffy. I think one thing Mantic could do to encourage list variety is lean into the sub-factions for future editions. Not every faction needs sub-factions (the generic Kingdoms of Men can probably do without as they are  built currently), but having heroes like Moonfang or the Alpha Inspire only units that share a keyword, would make player's need to look more at the sub-factions when list building instead of just picking from the very best of every type of unit they need. Having a lowly Ghoul Ghast able to Inspire the elite vampiric Soul Reavers seems a bit silly to me, so emphasizing the sub-faction, or introducing a hierarchy of inspiring heroes through the keywords could be cool, and they already doing it with some of the upgrades. Running parallel to this, Mantic could also make the generic Army Standard Bearers inspire all the units in the roster, giving them more of a niche to fill in an army list, or they could add a one-off "Inspire All" magic item or similar upgrade to help smooth things out for players. Somethings like "Diadem of the Unifier" or "Bangle of Command" or something. I donno, I appear to have gotten off on a game-design tangent now...

Getting back to the point for this particular post: I have a second Chroneas now, as well as a new Lycan hero for the Herd. The Abyssals are in a pretty solid spot right now, with a good collection and a good amount of table time, but the Herd hasn't seen any tables in a long time as I feel like the collection is a bit unwieldy for a larger game, and I want to try and provide a good game for my opponents. I've made a few purchases and dipped into some old piles of shame recently though, so I am hoping I can get them in a better place for 2023. They seem like a very speedy and very aggressive army, which should hopefully make for some interesting games whenever they do hit the table.