Hobby Update: Abyssals Display Board and 4th Edition

Thanksgiving was relatively quiet, and a monster snow storm afterwards delightfully slowed things down for me, allowing for some extended hobby time. I chipped away at a number of projects, including the display boards. The first board was for the Varangur, was finished in late October, and was the big test for me. I tried larger pieces of cork and spotty applications of basing paste, painted up and then covered with a snow effect. It all worked, but is a little visually busy with the high contrasts between the snow and dark rocks. We're trying to learn and improve upon things, so up now is the display board for the Forces of the Abyss!

The board, with lava.

This one used smaller pieces of cork, but still made use of many edge pieces, allowing for more interest along the board edge. Everything was painted up with cheap craft paint alongside the other dark boards, with a black prime, black paint, and then dry brushes of dark gray and then light gray. The basing has a stronger coverage here, with some untouched spots for lava pools.

Giving up and using Citadel paints.

The lava pools proved difficult to duplicate. I had used hobbying paint for all my Abyssal units, which was a little daunting for a big board. The edges got Deathclaw Brown as usual, and then I spent a few days trying to adjust yellow craft paints to be the right colors, but to no success, so the next layer for Zamesi Desert, like the units. 

Ew, too bright and jarring, not enough layering yet.

I then tried again to tweak the basic yellow craft paint into something similar, and again failed over several days. About half a bottle of Army Painter's Demonic Yellow was then used as the next layer.

Finally, the bright yellow craft paint I had could be used, covering up all the pools. It is quite bright, and actually really pops in person. The bases for most of my Abyssals stopped on the previous step with a basic, strong yellow color. Needing to mix in white for the pop previously was a little too work intensive. But now that I have a bright yellow right out of the bottle, I might be going back and touching things up.

I have not hit this one with any kind of sealer, so the last step here was to go back with a large, straight brush and repaint the boarder a nice solid black. We are good for now!

The board with some Pathfinder units.

For fun, I went and staged the board with some units from my Pathfinding army. If one looks closely, one might see that the units all lack the super bright yellow color, and some of the pools hitting the edges of the units look a little off since they go nowhere, but what can you do. I was not thinking about display boards way back when, and overall, I still really like this. The board has some nice pops of color, but isn't as busy / overwhelming as the snow on the Varangur board. The boring, empty, rocky space lets you put units where ever, which was harder to do with the Varangur board and the big pieces of cork dictating where units needed to go.

I'm feeling better about the Forces of the Abyss than the Varangur, but we'll see need to wait and see what is in store for the Abyssals in the new edition. Unit-wise, apparently my favorite Abyssal Guards are going away, and without the durable Guard, I think my MMU approach with the army is probably off the table. We allegedly have Succubi, Flamebearers, Lower Abyssals and apparently Hellhounds for our main Core options. Those are all just ok in my book, as each of them has a big drawback currently, but we'll see how any stats changes might shake out and shake things up on my opinions. A lot of the other units are getting tweaks and buffs, and it sounds like the Horsemen might be TC3, and the Nagarri might get CS2 now, along with some other buffs, so I'm sure we'll be able to run some fun lists once we figure out how we want to handle the new Core Tax. 

Hero-wise, I often used Warlocks and Despoiler Champions for my usual heroes in 3rd, which are already on larger bases and so are already ready to step up as Champions for me. My terrestrial Fiends look to be shifted over to non-inspiring Support units which is a bummer though, as they have been good performers as well. The Warlord slot for the army looks interesting, and should have plenty of competition between Archfiends, any legendary picks, and promoted Seductresses and the like. From the little spoiled so far, these Warlords don't look to be changing the unit categories at all, but I haven't been following anything closely and could be wrong on this count. Right now, without the full rules and lists, the army just feels a smidge off-balance, but that could just be to the army units feeling a bit more fragile. Regardless, with my cruch unit of Abyssal Guard voided, no builds or ideas are jumping out at me yet, so likely no hobbying on these until the full book and rules are out.

Hobby Update: Varangur Display Board and 4th Edition

I was hobbying on the other boards and writing up posts for them, and felt like I had glossed over the first board. We'll circle back before continuing on. Here is the Varangur display board, finished up in late October.

The board.

As mentioned in the WIP post that also kind of unveiled this board, this one was the original, with my trying to figure out the basics. We used big chunks of cork in the center, and then lots of flat edge scrap pieces to fill things in. It was covered haphazardly in paste, then primed black, then painted black, and then dry brushed with dark gray and light gray. The other boards utilized this darker ground cover as well, so were all painted up at the same time. 

The Northwoods Melee army, again.

The paste coverage was haphazard, as I was going to hit this with a bunch of my snow effect, and did so, over many batches. Overall, the snow stuck, but the board felt a bit visually "busy" when I took it to the Northwoods Melee. I think I am being a little too hard on myself though, and this would probably look fine with a larger army. With about half my army for the event was tied up with 50mm square-based things, the board is bound to overpower the units.

I'm backtracking here, as I am taking the opportunity with these display board posts to briefly touch on my initial 4th Edition thoughts and plans for each army. 

The rub here is that I don't actually know what 4th Edition is going to hold for the Varangur. For now, we are essentially squatted. The Northern Alliance can technically take a new, allegedly ground-only version of Magnilde, and use her to unlock Fallen and what I believe are renamed Mounted Sons unit... but that's it, and that's probably around 1000 points. The mighty Kruufnir is gone, as are Horse Raiders, Conclaves, Magi, and the very useful Draugr. While the Fallen are still around and generally fun, I feel like the Draugr and their cheap source of unlocks were a main reason to play Varangur, so this definitely hurts, both for fluff and for builds.

The Varangur are allegedly being given the Twilight Kin treatment, with the squatting only temporary, and will be revamped and spun out as a new, distinct army in the coming years, as the story for the new edition progresses. Unsurprisingly, I would have preferred them to spin them off now with a light touchup for 4th, and then getting the more intense revamp down the line, but perhaps their revisions are too drastic, like the Twilight Kin. The strength of the Northern Alliance list comes largely from it combined arms and the non-human aspects, which I lack with my older Varangur.

Thankfully, the Northwoods Melee was a pretty successful event for me. Despite failing to remember Kruufnir's rampage against many Gur Panther units over multiple games and combats, we came away from the event with a winning record and apparently 4th place. With half the attendees having been to Masters, that is not a bad personal showing, and was a nice way to see the army off. The Varangur will definitely see the table in 4th, just to properly explore them a bit and say I did, but regular appearances do not seem likely as things stand currently.

Hobby Update: Undead Revenant Horde

I've snuck in just an hour here and there for hobbying over the last few months. It's been nice, but it hasn't really felt like a significant or actual respite from anything. More just like gulping down some air while swimming hard. Thankfully, I was able to squeeze some in longer hobbying sessions over a few consecutive evenings, which has felt much better. Here are some Undead Revenants!

The horde dead-on.

I know there is a difference between Mantic's Revenants and their Skeletons, but it was never distinctive enough for me, so I wanted a completely different unit. I technically already have some GW Grave Guard for this from the multi-system undead, which works fine, but I still wanted something else and something that was multi-based. 

The horde from an angle.

The models are Oathmark Revenants, with shields from Fireforge's Russian Infantry. They aren't very imposing miniatures, but the shields help sell their defensiveness, and the older look of the soldiers suggests ancient and revered warriors raised to fight, which to me makes sense. 

A regiment.

Paint-wise, I'm starting to embrace more unique effects for my unit, and trusting in the basing and such to tie everything together for the Undead. If any army can be expected to look a bit disorderly, it's gotta be the Undead, right? All I knew going into this was that I wanted them to be pink. These were started a month or so ago, and I'd just spend an hour fiddling. They got a Pink Horror base, an Emperor's Children highlight, a red wash, and more passes with the pinks before I called that good. Skin got multiple passes and attempts as well, and is ultimately a Skavenblight Dinge base color. I tried blues as a highlight but couldn't settle on the right one. Eventually the purplish Daemonette Hide became the highlight, and they have a nice desiccated look to them. The armor was a new color for me: Warplock Bronze, which is a color I picked up from Will and his Abyssal Dwarfs. It's just a nice, dark metallic. I like it! I went with a brighter silver (Ironbreaker) for everything else, trying to make the silver stand out but not look out of place. Overall, I really like the presentation. The slow experimentation over a few weeks was rough, especially when I decided I didn't like something and had to backtrack and lose a few days, but going slow was probably good for them, as I couldn't rush anything, and I must say that I am very pleased with hos these turned out.

And the second regiment.

Basically the minis were painted over those smaller sessions, and then the recent longer hobby sessions let me do all the basing at once, and finish the units up quickly. The basing paste can be hard to work with, so I like to give myself plenty of time to spread it around nicely. The basing for these stayed the same with a mess of colors for the muddy ground, a glazing medium spread around for a glossy effect to sell the mud, and then polyfill for the fog effect.

I never quite got into Revenant infantry, but they were on my radar, even for MMU, as -/17 Regiments would be great for scenario play. If I had just a little more time with 3rd Edition, I would have liked to have dropped the Lykanises and fancy heroes and explored them a bit with the playstyle. Alas, I don't think we're getting any more 3rd Edition games in, nor has 4th arrived yet. I'm hobbying them up as I think they will be good in 4th though, as they are rumored to go up to 25 Nerve as a Horde, which with Def5, should be incredibly hard to move. Whenever 4th Edition does drop, we'll take them for a spin!

Hobby Update: Last KoM Chariot

About a year ago, I hobbied up a bunch of Chariots for the Kingdoms of Men. If memory serves I did start with a decent plan, but I somehow ended up short one 100x100, or chariot troop-sized base, and then needed to hobby up some unit filler to fill out and finish up one of the regiments. I didn't like that, but also knew that I didn't want to rebase anything, as the horses can be a pain to work with. I ended up buying another chariot chassis via the Sprue Dude website (I would highly recommend them for any and all kit-bashing needs!), where it was promptly assembled and primed, but it has then languished in a WIP box for many, many months now. Heading into the end of the year, and with a bunch of 4th Edition hobbying going to be needed for redoing important individuals, I'm trying finish up and clear out (or even just organize) any older hobby projects like this. This one ended up being the former, so up now is my last Kingdoms of Men Chariot!

Very, very basic. But still done!

I took one of the older chariots out of storage to use as reference, and sat down and knocked the new one out over an evening. I wasn't trying to improve on anything, simply just get it all painted up quickly to a decent tabletop standard, and mostly on par with the other models. I tried to follow the colors and ideas from before, and nothing fancy was done for the painting. Everything just got a basic boat of paint, the chariot itself got a wash to blend in with the others, and everything was attached with pva glue. That's been durable enough for the other units so far, so I figured I should continue with that approach here as well.

With this model done, I have four complete regiment's worth of Chariots! That is clearly far too many models and units. Chariots units have a massive footprint. They are really large and unwieldy, and rather expensive for what you get, since their stats are so middling. I have enjoyed exploring them, but yeah, masses or multiples of chariots have not been great investments on the table, and by and large, most list would be better served by following history's example and upgrading to knightly units.

My oddball idea was that Chariots should be able to carry Loot tokens without being slowed down. Having a little platform to hold stuff makes thematic sense, and given them a role in scenario play gives them a niche that the normal cavalry can't really compete with, and thus a reason to take them. I still think that could be a neat idea, but it's not happening in 3rd, and we'll see what 4th Edition holds for Chariots...

In 3rd Edition, I've liked the 2x1 troops as quicker anti-chaff units and to make delaying charges, but it sounds like this size is going away. The Legions were my next favorite, since they were strongest and had a managable frontage, but that size is disappearing across most units. I think the Chariots like these will become more and more awkward to use, given the very large footprint and very mediocre output of hordes and regiments. 

More specialist chariot units, like from Ratkin or Goblins are probably still viable, but the basic human version here seems like they'll be in for a rough landing in 4th. They don't have a good niche, and if both the biggest and smallest unit sizes are disappearing, they just turn into big liabilities, especially in Kingdoms of Men, where there are already a lot of units with large frontages on the field. 

There could be hope though. Kingdoms of Men has been rumored to both be rolled up into a revamped Basilean master list, and/or a revamped League of Rhordia list. If it is more of the latter, I think the unit is probably voided, but if it is the former, there could be hope for the unit / models of mine, as the Sisterhood Chariots are very slick, getting buffs to Nerve, Melee and number of Attacks, giving them more of a glass cannon and alpha-strike role, but with a hefty points increase.

Time will tell what will actually happen to my charioteers, but at least my unit is finally fully completed, and the WIP box reclaimed for other projects!

Hobby Update: Some 4th Edition Undead Champions

Like many years before it, this year has also been very tumultuous and stressful at times. While I have tried to block off more regular time to relax in my schedule this year, unfortunately even pastimes like hobbying generally, and Kings of War specifically, have gotten in on the upheaval action lately. The new edition was announced a few months back, but the information released has been a bit haphazard and sporadic, and release dates have been quite fuzzy.

While it feels weird to hobby without the rules in-hand, I've still needed escapist moments, and have been sneaking some hobbying in, wrapping up old projects and getting organized as the house shifts into winter and space becomes a little limited. Among other things, I ended up with an assortment of Undead on my desk. So up now, are an assortment of heroes Champions to get me running with the new edition, whenever it drops.

My main ASBs each get a helper.

The first units are my trusty Undead ASBs. These ended up being really great for me in 3rd Edition, as I like ASBs with items, and the Wild Charge 2 aura for Skeletons the Undead ones got was amazing, and while it seemed targeted for normal skeletons, it really shined with other units, and enabled some nifty plays and surprisingly long charges with with Revenant Cavalry, and both the flying and terrestrial  version of Undead Wyrms. Long, long ago I picked up some Skeleton bits online and kitbashed some Skeletons. Most were used for my initial Skeleton Warriors Regiments way back in 2016, but I still had two loose bodies out and about, and it felt good to finally use them up.

And a fully-Mantic ASB.

I snuck in a third ASB. The icon-bearer has been around, but I haven't really needed a third ASB very often. I had a single spare Mantic Skeleton mini around too, so this was a great use for them both, and I can finally clear him out of my bits box, along with the extra guys helping the other two ASBs.

And even a mounted Mantic ASB!

I then have a mounted ASB, which is even from Mantic Games! I believe it is an old reward from mailing in Mantic Points, but I picked mine up second-hand via Noble Knight Games. Heroic unlocks  in the Undead army were highly competitive in 3rd Edition. There were a few times I would have liked one, so I'm glad to finally have the option now.

We'll see how ASBs do in 4th Edition. I have not kept up with spoilers, but by all counts the auras have gone away, making them less impactful and less attractive, but we've yet to see full rules, so maybe they can fight a bit better, or have something else going for them now? They are still a cheap way to keep things Inspired, and should still be able to hold some supporting items well, so even without knowing the full rules, I'm happy to have these all done and ready and waiting.

Revenant Kings, now with spooky fog!

But I didn't stop with ASBs. I then rebased some Revenant Kings on Foot. The Revenants have been fine performers in my lists, able to take Surge, and hold an item, and can still add a damage in most combats too! When I had the points, or didn't need to support Skeleton units with the aura, these were great takes and functioned similar to upgraded ASBs, and were just a nice, rather cheap support unit to have around, and able to do a bit of everything for me. Given the newer, larger base, these can now get the army's fog effect as well, which is nice!

Additionally, I tried out a newer base for them. Our clubmate Rob is a carpenter, and when the change to individuals was announced, showed up at the next meetup with a number of 40 and 50 mm squares cut by him. I snagged some, intending to use the thicker bases for specific armies, and/or for combat characters, but man, I really like these. Typically these individuals have been very light, and can be knocked around the table accidentally, but the heavier base feels really nice and solid. We'll definitely be using some thicker bases in the future!

A kitbashed, mounted Revenant King.

And the last entry here is a new unit, a Revenant King on undead horse! I picked up a Tomb Kings Chariot box years ago to use for Chaos Chariots on the cheap. The horses have been in storage for years, but while doing some organizing, I finally bit the bullet and sat down to kitbash this. I used the more gothic armor  from the Perry Mounted Men at Arms (last used with the Soul Reaver Cavalry), and then a rider with a hand-swap and head-swap. A trophy rack from a Cryx Warmachine unit, and a few extra bits to fill the model out, and we had something I really liked!

The painting here was a bit experimental. Typically, for anything resembling a skeleton, I slap a bone color on the whole thing, and then hit it with a wash. That can look really messy at the end though, so here I went with an approach using layering. We started with a brown, then a bone color as a bit of an overbrush, trying to keep those recessed areas dark. I only used a wash around the teeth and skull, where some of the detail got covered up. Overall, I like this. Not sure how many more skeletons I'll ever paint up, but this worked nicely. The armor was a newer color for my (Sycorax Bronze). It's a little brighter and lighter and really pops, and I think it is a good look overall. I can't wait to get this guy on the table. 

Plenty is changing for the Undead, but they rely on their units, and I think they'll be strong in the new edition, especially early on. We'll get them on the table as soon as we can!

Hobby Update: Pathfinding Armies

Our club had some big changes in 2025. Our main meetup store shifted to the wonderful and newly relocated Gamer's Realm in New Berlin, WI. More importantly though, "Milwaukee Brian", the blogger behind the upbeat Nerd's Tale, the runner our our events, our local Mantic Pathfinder, and overall big heart, brain, and overall organizing force behind the club, moved far far away, way out to the Southwest.

A few of us are juggling FB posts and meetup duties; Joe spearheaded the successful and recent Northwoods Melee 1-day event, and back in very late August I decided to take on the mantle of a Mantic Pathfinder for Kings of War and try to grow our little club in the coming year. The Pathfinder Program sounded neat, but within days of signing, I was swiftly hit with two successive whammies.

Whammy the first was that while I do have a handful of armies and a heck of a lot of points for each of them... Pathfinding armies need to be all Mantic miniatures. Honestly, this makes sense, but unfortunately meant that my Abyssals and Undead needed some heroic additions at least, and my Kingdoms of Men, Herd, and Varangur lists were all going to be essentially useless for this little proselytizing endeavor. Furthermore, my "Stormcast Ogre" collection and their multi system movement trays were also going to be completely out of bounds, which was a bummer, as I thought they might be a good intro army generally and effective mental onramp for newer players as well, since they easily showed how you could port existing models over to try out the system. Oh well. 

While I was figuring out my heroic additions in September, the second whammy hit, which was the announcement of 4th Edition, along with affiliated rumors and spoilers. Given the launch of  the Champions game, I figured individuals were in for a revamp in 4th, so I had started skewing my heroic additions towards the larger options with Unit Strength where ever I could. 

Undead

My Undead army actually has a good number of Mantic models, with a mix of Skeletons, Zombies, and even Zombie Trolls now. Going into this, I could already cobble together a decent 100% Mantic list, with the exception of heroes. 

The Undead, to start.

Heroes moving to larger bases was revealed pretty far along into my efforts, and this type of hero is more difficult for the Undead to field, and I did not want to buy a proper Vampire on Pegasus for this project. Thankfully, I recalled Lady Ilona from a long-ago purchase, and was able to rebase here without difficulty. And then for additions, Trevor provided me with a Necromancer and a Goreblight from the Mantic Vault to help fill things out for this army for now. I also have Zombies to pull from, as well as a Mantic ASB from extra Skeletons, so while I don't have the full army roster yet, I think we should have enough to throw something mostly sensible together for the Undead.

Abyssals

My Abyssals were also in a pretty good spot, due to having a lot of Flamebearers from previous years and many purchases of the box. I also had a lot of Lower Abyssals, from more recent efforts. I decided to donate my Abyssal Ghoul conversions to the Pathfinding cause as Lower Abyssals.

Abyssals

For heroes, I was also in a bit of a bind, but I uncovered and then hobbied up Mau’ti-ba’su from another very old purchase, and finally dipped into some of the Imps from the Lower Abyssal sprues, to give the army some chaff. Trevor again provided me with some goodies from the Vault, including a proper Despoiler Champion, and a Warlock. 

As the spoilers rolled on, it seemed like the heroic picks would impact lists in 4th, allowing certain units to be fielded, so the eventual aim for all this is to have a few set lists for each army, and let the prospective player pick whatever hero looks appealing. The Abyssal collection is a bit hero-heavy right now, but I'm still stalling a bit for the official, detailed army lists. I can give them more Flamebearers, or Berserker regiments as-needed, but the Abyssals also have a good starting point here.

Northern Alliance!

Having played a lot with the Varangur, I discovered I didn’t like the Night Raiders with Axes much. I had two regiments mostly built from Mantic’s kit, which yes, could be Tribesmen as well for the Varangur, but I figured another demo army would be a better use of those minis. No work or touchups have been done on them yet.

My new Northern Alliance.

But I needed some more units. I dipped into the Snow Foxes from the Tribesmen kit, to build up some chaff for the army as well.

I picked up a few ebay bundles of Mantic Dwarfs over the years, with the idle intent of building a demo army, and/or starting an infantry-focused Free Dwarf army. We dipped into that pile for a small lot of heavily-abused Ironclad, which got slight conversions with fur around the weird neck and shoulder armor bits of the models, and per the fluff, more "Northerly," rounded shields, sourced from various human kits. These were my first Dwarves painted. They had a bad priming job, but I just wanted them done, and overall, they turned out well.

In September I also caved, and seeing two, mostly complete NA Ambush boxes for less than the price of one, picked them up on ebay as well, and used a sprue from it to build up a unit of Elf Berserkers. It turns out I do not really like these models! They are dynamic, but the cloaks are very cumbersome, and they have a lot of overhang, making them a bit difficult to multi-base. This troop is done though, and we can add more berserkers or elvish shooters as-needed.

Rounding out the heroes for the new Northern Alliance, Trevor again came to my rescue, with a Thegn on Frostfang, and a Snow Troll Prime, both printed off the Vault. They did not have the best joins, but a little green stuff fur smoothed it all out, and despite some imperfections, on the table, these all look fine.

Imperial Dwarfs!

I wanted at least 4 demo armies around. It seemed like a good number. 

As-mentioned, over the years I picked up a few bundles of used Mantic Dwarfs from ebay. Taking an inventory of them all in the spring, I discovered that I had nearly 200 basic bodies (Ironwatch, Ironclad, Shieldbreakers)! I would still like to hobby up some Free Dwarfs (more on this topic in the coming months), but wanted them to be painted up well. Mantic minis tend to be a little goofy with consistency and details and how things are supposed to “read”, so with Pathfinding coming up, I diverted a bit of each pile in order to make a 4th demo army of Imperial Dwarfs. 

Imperial Dwarfs.

I would like my Free Dwarfs to have more complicated basing, so here I carved away the stands, to see how all that works. Overall, not well. I bought a Dremel tool for this, but I don't know if it's not powerful enough, or I was using it wrong, but it couldn't make a dent here, so I resorted to clippers and then hobby knives to trim off all the stands. Basing was just messing around with stuff. I had some plastic card stock and cut out some rocks, and then added some basic grass. I don't really like the basing here. Despite efforts to texture it, the card rocks look pretty bad. I may rip those out and start again at some point, but no desire to build up Imperial Dwarves much more, we will 

We have two regiments of basic Ironclad, one of Ironwatch with Rifles, and one Shieldbreaker regiment as well. Organ Guns have been a very attractive unit to me, but I have never run them in 3rd, so I hobbied one up here, and then grabbed a metal Warsmith from the Pile to lead the contingent for now. One of the bundles had nearly a dozen conversions, so we should be able to grab anything else we might need to help lead the force, like a Ranger, or a King, should we want those options once we get more of the rules released.

All of these armies were all built and hobbied up in advance of the reveal of the new Core-requirements for list building. Blindly building for a new edition, I think I did pretty well though, and each list has at least two of what should be a Core unit, with a handful of others units around to enlist to spice things up, and I should be able to figure out a few lists for each army... eventually. Pathfinders were supposed to get a version of the rules in early November, but those have yet to materialize. We're now just shy of two weeks past on the revised delivery date with no news. I'll organize these into some actual lists once I actually see some rosters and points... 

Terrain

Supporting all of these armies is a new demo table, since I need/want to be self-sufficient for my demo days. I picked up a 3’x3’ wintery mat and then threw together some more of my homemade terrain over the last few months. I didn’t go overboard since we didn’t need to populate a full, standard table, but we have a few small forests with removable trees, a few obstacles, a hill, and one piece of difficult terrain with some battlefield debris. Overall, this should should be a decent stage for any skirmish game, and give us a little variety for setting up. The mat is a bit small, but I figured we could shrink the deployment zones and have some nice, quick games.

Mat, and terrain for the Pathfinder games.

The last steps are tossing together a demo bag with rules, dice, measuring tapes, and such, and then figuring out how to transport all this! I am set on the former, but the latter is complicating things a bit. I would like to get some small lockable tower bins for all these, with something like a bin for each army, one for rules and game aids, and one for terrain, but haven't found anything worthwhile yet.

Thankfully, all of the units pictured today fits in one of my standard travel / storage bins. The mat rolls up, and rules / terrain can all easily fit into a smaller bin. I'm all set for now, and can upgrade whenever I see something that fits my needs exactly.

While to-date I have reported on every game I have ever played, good-or-bad, errors-or-no, I will likely break that streak here in 4th Edition. The experience of the new player needs to be prioritized, and I think a report is too much to ask of me in the moment, and despite new rules and tactics, the smaller games might also not be as interesting. Hopefully more demos off-screen will lead to more games to properly report on in 2026!

Kings of War 3rd Edition: #156 Varangur vs Kingdoms of Men in Loot

Intro and Lists

We have a second secret battle report coming to light! Rob wanted some secret prep for a one day speed tournament attached to the Renegade GT in late November. The event rewards wins and time left on your clock, and a swift, elite meta has evolved around it. Rob was trying to attack the meta, taking the Kingdoms of Men:

The idea is that his shooting should outrange any hammer, giving him at least one volley of withering rifle-fire along with the Ballista and maybe even the Wizard too. The Hero and Chariots around to interdict and buy time for the shooting. And expecting monsters and large infantry / cavalry, the Giant with Slayer would smash anything that got close. Minimizing the movement and melee phases should save precious clock time, and hopefully this would all be enough for him to come out ahead in the event.

Our first game was me throwing something together on the spot with the models I had. The second game here was a little more thought out from me, though getting in the game when we did was unexpected and I needed to make one model substitution. I brought the Varangur, and up to test was:

• Draugr. They are a great unit, but against so much shooting, they will not last long, and probably won't even be threatening enough to draw a round of fire away from the rest of the list. We're taking them for the unlock, and to play the scenario, whatever it may be.
• Fallen. I like the Fallen, though haven't gotten to use them very much. I felt like a Speed 8 Nimble unit with Iron Resolve and Pathfinder would be good at pressuring the gunline, so we're taking them for a spin, and giving them the Staying stone to increase the odds of Iron Resolve coming into play.
• Tundra Wolves. I also like Tundra Wolves, and wanted to explore them. Again, we have a speedy unit with Pathfinder, and hoped I could bring some good Pressure. 
• Snow Foxes. I felt like the list needed chaff, so brought one unit of trusty Snow Foxes.
• Cavern Dweller. When I've faced them, if they are supported at all, I often feel like I have one chance at picking them up, or Lifeleech 3 starts contributing too much and they start running away with the game. I think Monsters can dominate small games, and wanted to bring the Cavern Dweller to test that out. 
• Thegn. The Varangur can take some nice scoring heroes, but the points means I cannot take any multiples. So we have a few singletons. We'll try to get the Thegn up front, making use of his longer charge range and Strider. Getting in this game was unexpected, so the Thegn is the counts-as Frostfang model with the raised sword.
• Snow Troll Prime. We'll take a Prime as well, and see what they can tank for us. The Prime will have double axes.
• Kruufnir. We had the points, so we'll give Kruufnir an outing as well, and see if we can't get him rampaging into some of the Riflemen.

Astute readers might notice that this list is very similar to my Northwoods Melee list. I was trying to build for that event and explore some units like the Wolves and Fallen, but doing my own secret testing and trying not to tip my hand to anyone attending the event. I had hoped to squeeze this game in during October, with some time to think on it, but my weekends filled up, and this game was played the night before the Northwoods Melee, after I had driven over to Milwaukee to help set up.

Table and Terrain

In preparation of the Northwoods Melee, we had set up all the tables. But since the speed tournament will be played on a square, 4 foot area, we randomized and then voided a chunk of it. We'll be ignoring the left-most section, and Rob blocks it off with game aids. We opt to try 20 minutes on the clock this time, getting in some practice for Game 2's time limit.

We got Control for the scenario, and went with it. On the smaller table, we'll have four 2'x2' zones, each worth 1 point, making it a little easier to tie.

Overview of the table. We're playing on Rob's farm table.

I lose the roll for sides, and after consideration, Rob stays where he's at. This is an actual choice and not just being lazy.

With a nice lane on the right, I was curious to see if he would go with his predetermined plan for deployment, with the Giant flanked by the two rifle hordes, and he did. Left to right for the Kindgoms of Men we have the Riflemen on the hill with the hero on Pegasus behind, Giant, and more Riflemen, with the ASB near as well. The Alchemist Curse Wizard on Pegasus hit behind the building. The Chariot Legion sat angled to see past the building, and the lone Ballista held down the firing lane.

Deployment.

Again, I had been hoping to pull double-duty here, helping Rob practice while getting in some secret practice of my own for the Northwoods Melee. It was going to be a weird list without any real battle line units, so I wanted to take the opportunity here to try and noodle out my general deployment for the list. 

Not being Nimble, I think I generally wanted the Cavern Dweller central, and to play a bit of a refused flank. Hopefully I could support the Dweller long enough for it to start feasting well, and then start pressuring from odd angles.

For the Varangur, I hiding behind terrain to minimize that first round of shooting. On the line we have the Cavern Dweller and Kruufnir, with Tundra Wolves hiding behind the woods as best they could, and Draugr back here as well. The idea will be to just leave the Draugr here for an easy point, while the rest of the list tries to brawl.

On the right, and we can't quite fit it all through the gap, so we have a stack of characters with the Thegn (sword) and Snow Troll (axes), and then Fallen with the Snow Foxes behind, to protect them from shooting. We do not want them wavering and holding things up, so we'll protect them until it is time for them to become a speedbump.

I win the roll for sides. It is tempting to make the humans go first and have a bad round of shooting, but ultimately I decide that I probably need to be aggressive, and grab what early ground I can. The Varangur will seize the initiative.

Top of Round 1: Varangur

The Cavern Dweller has Strider, but not Pathfinder. It pivots and moves it's 6" up, staying in the woods to get the cover bonus. Kruufnir tentatively approaches, keeping the Dweller Inspired. 

The Wolves just peak into the woods as well. I won't have charges, but they should actually be safe from the rifles, unless the shooters move. I was trying to give my opponent bad choices between a regenerating Kruufnir, a stealthy Cavern Dweller, and the Wolves.

The Varangur move up, but slow play the middle.

The Draugr sidestep, using the woods to hide from shooting. We'll try to keep them here all game if we can to play the scenario.

On the right, the Foxes zip ahead to block and protect the Fallen from the Chariots. The Thegn pulls up alongside the Fallen, with the Snow Troll proxy a bit behind the Thegn. The Chariots should have a possible charge into the Thegn, but will need to use their Boots, and will be giving up a flank to the Fallen if they don't remove my character. 

Bottom of Round 1: Kingdoms of Men

The Ballista shoots into the Fallen, but lands no damage. The Chariots pivot and flee, and the Wizard will eventually come out from behind the building.

M-dmovement from the Kingdoms of Men. The Wizard will move to the left of the building.

The Riflemen move out, supported by the Giant, but take penalties for moving, and fail to damage anything. The Hero on Pegasus hides behind the hill.

Top of Round 2: Varangur

The Varangur try to keep the pressure on. The Snow Foxes can't charge this turn, but run ahead to threaten the Ballista next turn. The Thegn with the sword hops ahead as well, peering behind the building to pressure the Chariots and encourage them to flee more. 

The Fallen enter the woods, trying to use the terrain to their advantage, and the counts-as Snow Troll behind them will hang back and zone out the flier a bit.

Movement for the Varangur.

The Cavern Dweller moves up, threatening a charge next turn, with Kruufnir supporting.

The Tundra Wolves also move ahead to threaten charges from the woods, meaning all my important units (Wolves, Dweller and Fallen) are threatening multiple charges next turn. That fees good for pressure.

The Draugr hold, playing the scenario and holding this zone.

Bottom of Round 2: Kingdoms of Men

The Chariots continue to flee / reposition, getting past the building and out of line of sight of the pursuing Thegn. The Wizard flaps around the building, and shooting is exceptionally hot this turn, with . Alchemist Curse landing 6 damage onto the Thegn, and the rest going into the Cavern Dweller, taking him up to 16 damage, and routing the monster.

The Cavern Dweller is gunned down.

The Hero on Pegasus is able to fly over, and get out of arc of the Tundra Wolves. I had honestly mixed up the fliers, thinking the Wizard was on the left. They are clearly modeled, I just goofed. With just 3 attacks from him, this isn't the biggest deal, but it is good positioning and pressure from him.

Top of Round 3: Varangur

I'm starting to crumble a little bit. I was hoping for more from the Cavern Dweller. The Snow Foxes will charge the Ballista and barely pick it up, landing the expected 6 damage but getting a good Nerve check.

The Thegn will hide behind the building now, wounded, but continuing to threaten things. The Fallen use the building to block. The Chariots should be in the flank, but not be able to align. Kruufnir repositions to tank. 

Positioning for the Kingdoms of Men.

The other Troll enters the woods. He's threatening the Wizard, and continuing to try and support as best he can.

The Wolves have charges, but nothing great. Their best charge is into the far Riflemen, but the Giant is there. Currently the Giant has no charges, so I opt to just reposition slightly. No reason to bring the Giant into the mix just yet.

The Draugr pivot, still using the trees to block.

Bottom of Round 3: Kingdoms of Men

The reposition of the Wolves is not great, as I put a majority of their base outside the woods. One of the hordes of Rifles hits them for 6 damage, but they do hold. The other Horde has been shooting through the weird but charming gap in the obstacles, but has no shots this turn.

The Hero on Pegasus flaps to interdict, and the Wizard on Pegasus flaps behind my lines to cast Alchemist Curse on the Snow Troll Prime hiding in the woods, dealing 1 damage.

Positioning for the Kingdoms of men.

The Chariots charge Kruufnir. I don't remember if my opponent uses the Boots. I would. With so many units surrounding them, this is probably going to be their only instigating charge. They'll deal 4 damage, and the legendary Troll will hold.

Top of Round 4: Varangur

The Snow Foxes go and hide behind the building, while the Thegn is able to get out of arc of the Giant to pressure things.

Overkill into the Chariots.

Kruufnir will counter-charge the chariots, joined with a hindered charge from the Snow Troll Prime, and a clean charge in the flank by the Pathfinding Fallen.

In a snap decision, we discuss, and the Wolves should be able to Nimble charge around the Hero, pivoting one to get around, moving a big ahead, and then pivoting again so they can hit the other flank of the Chariots. 

In retrospect, I do not like this decision - it is overkill, and the Chariots are devastated before I can roll for the Wolves. I would have been better off charging the Hero and trying to bully him a bit. He's uninspired, and looking at expected damage, I should be able to waver him at least.

Reforms from the Varangur.

The Giant is not Nimble, so will be a little gummed up next turn. The Snow Troll overruns, and the Fallen and Wolves change Facing. Kruufnir holds, as I want to baby him a bit, and hope that he can regenerate something next turn, as he did nothing this turn.

In my backfield, the Draugr change facing to spy the Wizard, though they cannot reach him. It just seems sensible to not give him an open flank. 

Bottom of Round 4: Kingdoms of Men

The Kingdoms of Men charge out! The Giant hits the Snow Troll Prime while some Riflemen make a hindered charge into the Fallen. Looking at the arrangements, I believe I had the proxy Troll slightly ahead, so the Riflemen are crammed over, allowing the Giant to sneak in his charge. I could have been a jerk, or adjusted things slightly better to prevent this, but the pressure is on with the time contraint, and fights are fun. Bring it on!

Positioning from the Kingdoms of Men.

The Riflemen shoot into the Tundra Wolves again, landing a hot 10 damage, and will pick them up. The Wizard will land 3 more damage onto Kruufnir with Alchemist Curse, and the Troll barely holds, and is surprisingly unbothered.

The Wolves break, but everything else holds firm.

The Giant rolls poorly overall, hitting the Snow Troll Prime for just 4 damage, and the Troll holds firm.

The Riflemen are hindered, and deal no damage to the Fallen.

Top of Round 5: Varangur

We got Riflemen to charge, so I feel like we're doing ok! The Fallen counter-charge the Riflemen, landing 9 damage, but they are a horde of dudes, and hold on.

Positioning for the Varangur.

The Thegn makes his way up a bit, threatening rear charges into the Giant and a flank charge into the Riflemen. Kruufnir hops ahead, regenerating a few damage to end at 5, and is pressuring the Riflemen as well. I am playing quickly and just trying to pressure and make him do math

For the scenario, the Snow Foxes continue to cower behind the building, and the Draugr continue to hide in my deployment zone.

Bottom of Round 5: Kingdoms of Men

I miss a picture. The Riflemen counter-charge the Fallen, and will land 1 damage, which will be immediately Iron-Resolved back. I will admit, that does feel great, and it is nice to be on the other side of that for once!

The Giant thumps into the Snow Troll Prime again, taking him up to 7 damage, but the Prime holds on bravely.

The maximum pressure approach doesn't work on my opponent. Measuring, the Thegn is in range of the Hero, the Thegn is charged. Just 1 damage makes it through though, but the Thegn wavers.

The Rifles roll hot again into Kruufnir, and with Alchemist Curse adding a few as well, the legendary Troll will need Insane Courage to stay, and doesn't get it. 

Top of Round 6: Varangur

If memory serves, Rob learned after our initial practice game that the tournament doesn't actually roll for Round 7, so this is it.

The Fallen fight and best the Riflemen. I don't think they do anything, given this is the last turn.

Final positioning for the Varangur.

The Thegn does nothing, and not knowing we were only playing to Round 6, the Foxes have been a little too patient. The hope was to leave them here, and throw the Fallen into my opponent's left corner in a possible Round 7. Oh well.

The Snow Troll Prime bravely fights the Giant. We've taken far more than we've dealt, but are still holding on.

Bottom of Round 6: Kingdoms of Men

The Rifles move and shoot into the Fallen, but land no damage. I believe the Fallen were getting a cover benefit, making this really hard on the shooters.

Looking to save time on the clock, the Hero doesn't roll attacks against the Thegn.

Final positioning for the Kingdoms of Men.

The Giant does thump 4 more damage into the Snow Troll Prime to bring him to 10 damage, but again, the Snow Troll Prime is a glutton for punishment.

The Wizard flies over into my left corner to score it for the humans. The Riflemen, Hero, and Giant all score his left corner. Fallen and Foxes hold my opponent's right, and Draugr hold my right.

With a hard cap after Round 6, it is a tie game!

Game Conclusions

Against Rob, I am always happy with a tie. And heck, if the speed tournament only goes to Round 6, then the previous practice game for this would have also been a tie! Great news for me, especially considering all my misplays in both games, but less so for him. I still think his approach has merit though. It’s a small event, and the list is sure to catch someone off guard, and it doesn’t take much for all of that shooting to start doing work against an elite list.

This game was also quite helpful for me. Still coming away with a tie despite losing the Cavern Dweller before it could contribute anything felt great. I didn’t have much time to really reflect on my tactics in detail, but this game validated my list and general approach for the Northwoods Melee coming up the next day, and was a big confidence boost.

Testing Conclusions

• Draugr. They hid and simply played the scenario. I might have been able to eek a little more value out of them moving them up and zoning out and threatening the Wizard and such, but these already did great this game, doing just what I needed them to do.
• Fallen. They are relatively quick and relatively durable, and can apply some great pressure with smart positioning. They were used well enough this game, and were certainly a fun unit to have around! 
• Tundra Wolves. I should have been more mindful with them, and was pressuring when I should be cautious, and cautious when I should have been pressuring harder. They were definitely not used well here, but they were definitely fun to use! I can see squeezing them into more lists, as without shooting to scare them away they can really get into nasty positions thanks to Nimble and their good speed.
• Snow Foxes. Had I known we were stopping at 6 earlier, I maybe could have gotten a little more use out of them, but they killed a war machine and played the scenario and they had a very good game.
• Cavern Dweller. Like the Wolves, the Cavern Dweller was also not used particularly well, and the monster didn’t get to contribute at all to the violence, but the dice against them were pretty hot. My opponent took his chance to deal with the monster, and it worked out for him this time.
• Thegn on Frostfang. The extra speed was good and it was fun to see him zipping around the table being a menace. Strider didn’t come into play here, but it can be very strong. 
• Snow Troll Prime. The game was a nice showcase of the durability of the Snow Troll Prime. The Giant was getting his Slayer d6, but the results just weren’t there and the Nerve checks kept swinging low on the Inspired rerolls.
• Kruufnir. Not regenerating anything really damped what the legendary Troll could accomplish, btu he still took the charge from the Chariots like a champ, and enabled that strong (if overzealous) pushback into the center. He did fine.

I was really hoping to get one more practice game in for the speed tournament, trying the 15 minute timer and running yolo Abyssal Berserker spam, or Lycans or some kind of flying circus... just something more elite and in-line with exactly what Rob was expecting to see at the event, just to better gauge how his plan was, as well as tie these reports off neatly, having played at every time limit. Alas, this was it for the secret games for Rob.

I tidied up our first practice game and posted it last night once the tournament was officially underway. Tidying this second report up the morning after, I read that Bob not only won the speed event, but won it decisively, being the only one to go 3-0! The attack on the meta worked out. Congrats Rob!