Hobby Update: Redone Kingdoms of Men Crossbowmen

Up now is an older unit getting a painting refresh and some new models to boost their numbers! Here are some updated Crossbowmen for the Kingdoms of Men!

The new, more orderly units.

Previously, these were hobbied up as a messier regiment back when I was just getting into proper multi-basing. I like my regimental play, but I have since really learned that running regiments costs a premium, and that the humans need more bodies to work well. So with the refresh, I decided to boost these up to a horde.

I wanted the horde a bit more orderly, like the Pikes and other KoM stuff I had hobbied up the last few years. So, I scraped the old minis off their MDF base, and built up some new minis to match, opting for 12 models per regiment, in order to keep the "aimed and ready" poses from sticking out over the front edge. Some of the previously used paint pots had soured, so everything got touch-ups to be matching as best I could, and then rebased.

Back in 1st and 2nd Edition, Crossbows had Reload, really forcing you to position them well. In 3rd, they received the more lenient Pot Shot rule, letting them move and shoot, but with an additional -1 penalty. Just hitting on a 5+, that meant they'd only get half their attacks and need 6's, which is technically better that Reload, but still very punishing. 

Fluff-wise, I actually like the Pot Shot rule, but it's just too punishing for 5+ ranged units (where it was most frequently seen). It was basically a more complex version of Reload.  Going from a 5+ to  6+ is already halving the effectiveness of the unit to hit. Maybe if there was a 4+ specialist unit with piercing, like the Streltsy from AOE4, the rule would feel better there?

The Crossbowmen got a nice buff in Clash 2024 though, losing the Pot Shot rule, which I definitely a agree with. Kings of War focuses on melee combat, but most shooting units don't really feel viable these days, so the gradual balancing approach (Reload > Pot Shot > normal penalties) makes sense, and hopefully we'll see these types of units on the table more often. The bar is low, but I've generally liked the Bowmen horde, so we'll see get the buffed Crossbowmen on the table sometime, and see how these shooting units compare!