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!
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| 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!
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