Hobby Update: Varangur Night Raiders w/ Bows

Yowza, 2024 has been a bit rough so far. Life just won't slow down at all. I am trying to sneak in a little self care and some hobby time though, looking to finish up some of my older projects. Up now for the Varangur are two more regiments of Night Raiders, this time with Bows!

Both units.

I hobbied up my previous two units of Night Raiders about a year ago. At the time I didn't have enough axe bits to hobby anything else up, and was left with 14 minis. A few months later I picked up another sprue of 10 from a shop to bulk out the numbers enough to run two looser regiments, since the minis do take up a lot of space. I decided I would run these new units with bows, creating a  2-2 split in my collection. This proved to be it's own issue though, as the kit doesn't come with bows...

The first unit.

Dipping into my bits boxes, I had enough from my WHFB Empire stuff (I think the Militia / Free Company kit did the heavy-lifting) to outfit both regiments with bows. But the Empire minis were a little slimmer, and as we saw previously, the Raiders worked very well with the larger Chaos Marauder bits. To solve this, I cemented some thicker plasticard chunks to the torso, and then added the arms. The join was then hidden with some green stuff, which was pushed around to look like more fur. 

This approach had been the plan since March, when I obtained the final minis and fit everything together, but I wasn't motivated enough to get it done until December. It took a few long sessions to get everything cemented, assembled and green stuffed, but with all that done, I grew impatient for spring. On a semi-decent December day I went out and blasted them with some black spray primer. It was only a bit above freezing, and a little windy, and not a good idea. I lucked out with some decent coverage though.

A second unit.

I wanted to try some more slap chop painting with these, but I opted not to test my luck again with the weather conditions, and instead of more rattle cans, I hit them with a heavy off-white dry brush. Gradient achieved, I again used Army Painter's Speed Paints for most of the painting. The parkas got just one coat of the blue this time, and I kept the furs mostly off-white, touched up with normal paint at the end. The pants got a few coats of the gray Speed Paint to make them dark enough, and the bones and the boots also got the Speed Paint treatment for bones and leather. For the leather bands and belts I just used normal paint since I wanted a bit more precision. Overall, these turned out nice, but nothing  was too special with the paint job. 

Game-wise, I've previously run my Night Raiders with axes. Their first forays were against some infantry-heavy Salamander lists, and overperformed as the ranged attacks let them get in extra damage and then dictate engagements. In my subsequent games though, I've struggled to get good value out of them. Against anything above Speed 6 I needed to move up and open myself up for a charge in order to get off a single throw, and with Def3, I was not likely to survive a melee. The Raiders have Stealthy, but against other decent shooters, Like elven Gladestalkers, I'd take a volley, maybe two from archer units in order to get into range, and even then often open myself up for a charge in order to throw still. Not ideal situations!

Night Raiders with axes do still have a place in lists and are great at instigating fights and starting those piece trades, but I think the bows will do better in an all-comers role. They loose Steady Aim (and Piercing 1), which is a bummer, but I think getting the extra range will be worth it. The range should let them get several volleys off against infantry and one against cavalry before they an threatened in melee.

As a quick aside, I think the last bits could probably be said for Horse Raiders? Axes are good for them if you want them to be blocking and chaffing for your Mounted Sons or Frostfangs, but I think you want the bows if they are in your list to be more independent and to pressure and harass your opponent.

These have been in process for quite some time, so I am happy to finally call these done! I think they will be good additions to the Varangur, but we'll see when I am able to get in a game with them and how they actually perform on the table.