Still in the early WIP stages are the display boards for my Kingdoms of Men and the Herd. While I have successfully hobbied up other three boards for my existing armies, I have been very apprehensive about both of these armies going into 4th Edition, and so equally hesitant to do much new hobbying for them or their prospective boards.
The Kingdoms of Men had three camps of rumors. The first was the GW approach, with the army just quietly going away, since Mantic doesn’t make models and everything is so generic as to be uncopyrightable. The second camp was that they were rolled up into Basilea, with some human units technically surviving, but again mostly being voided. Third was that they were being rolled up into something like the League of Rhordia, an army that was mix of humans and Halflings, and launched with hefty helping of jest by Mantic years ago.
Thankfully and very surprisingly, it appears they are going with the League route, and from what I have seen so far, I am very excited for the army in 4th. Almost everything transfers over to some degree, though some playstyles, like my recent triple flying generals, do get pinched, since those fliers are very limited Warlord options. However, the army has a number of very cheap core regiments and a ton of variety. Assuming it’s not a typo, players coming from earlier editions, like me, are going to be very happy about our pole-arm unit options.
Regiments-max MMU is definitely on the table, especially with the nerf to shooting, and I have been overwhelmed trying to figure out just what I want to test first. Very surprisingly, I even have a few more units on the “Want List” to hobby on now, despite having nearly 9,000 points of humans already! I am very excited for the humans and their style going into the new edition, as you can really lean into the human aspect, and not necessarily need the more fantastical elements. I can’t wait to get them on the table!
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| Lots of work to do. Terrible coverage and numerous streaks. |
The sandy board for the Kingdoms of Men needs a lot of work. The glue smears and streaks are obvious, but I think I can pretty things up with some diluted glue to get more gentler, rolling dunes. Unlike the other boards, where I was adding more and more features and points of interest, this one is going more minimalist. The intent is to try and do some simple things done well, and see if we can still make it look interesting. If not, that's fine, as the Men are usually numerous, and like the Undead, mainly need s p a c e for all their units, especially with how I might want to play them in 4th, really committing to flooding the board. More to come on this one, and hopefully soon now that my excitement for the army is rekindled!
The Herd was another matter. My biggest gaming regret for 3rd and the last year was simply not taking the Herd to an event. Admittedly, I just did not make it out to many events, and didn’t stumble into the Guardian Brute attempts until relatively recently. Alas. My other four armies all saw event tables though, so that feels good, we just fell a little short here.
With the announcement of the new edition, the army’s Facebook Group, administered by the legendary Master Keith Conroy himself, was renamed entirely, which was definitely not a good sign. Shortly thereafter, the army was rumored to have survived, and be rolled up into Forces of Nature, along with the Order of the Green Lady. So, some theme lists just rolling up into the Master Lists, like was done with a handful of other armies. This is indeed the case from what I’ve seen, and while I likely still have incomplete information, unfortunately the Herd offerings are almost entirely gutted. Despite the Herd and their use of “humble spears” getting shouted out in the fluffy army blurb, Tribal Spears were not an option in what I saw, and most of the Tribal and Herd-only units are entirely absent. My collection has gone from 10,000 points to ~6,000, with that being about 1/3 Centaurs, 1/3 FoN Elementals and 1/3 legit Herd units. It is, unfortunately, a precipitous drop.
The first, quick reading of the list while I blazed through my secret Pathfinder knowledge had me gutted, but unsurprised. The second reading gave me some hope, and the third reading of the list actually has me very excited. The new Traits (formerly Keywords, denoting sub-factions within the army or unit archetypes) have come to the rescue for the Herd, and my own approach to the army still looks like it has legs! Older players like me will really like the new Longhorns too. The Herd definitely lost a lot, and are unfortunately in a very similar situation to my incredibly diminished Varangur right now. However, very surprisingly, I think there is enough still interesting things around to salvage and have some strong games. It feels like kismet for me and I am excited.
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| Glued and drying, with plenty of possibilities. |
The board for the Herd is unfortunately not even started! Well, a little worse than that actually. Our cats somehow managed to pop the backing out of the frame. With glue and new staples, I should hopefully be able to start on it soon. I want to do even more here than the other boards, and add foam rocks along with the cork ones, and have some glossy, frozen-looking water pools and more felled trees to all go along with my army basing. We’ve had a lot of snow and some severe cold snaps, but I’m hoping to make some progress on this before the end of the year.
...And that concludes my initial takes on my armies going into the new edition. The Varangur are severely hobbled, but will see a game or two still; the Abyssals have some powerful options but are in a weird spot for me with disliking the core units; the Undead should be fun and super-strong despite losing the awesome CS Skeleton Warriors; the Kingdoms of Men miraculously survive and continue to be wonderfully versatile; and the Herd have been largely culled, but still have some gems and some appeal, given my recent particular playstyle with them.
I am excited for 4th Edition!
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