Kings of War in 1/72 (scratch-built, ahem, Archfiend of the Abyss ...)

[M.P.]

Fantastic paintjobs .

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, guys!

Here's some new old stuff: another troop of Longhorns/Hunters of the Wild.

I'm quite pleased with this policy of keeping the metals on individual bases and the plastics multibased, so I've decided to keep all the Mithril/Prince August orcs on individual bases, along with their Ral Partha peers. I reckon that will allow me to get units painted up more rapidly. It will also allow me to bulk out units of Longhorns/Hunters with stray orcs and salamanders until I have enough of those for units in their own right - thus making a big game possible much earlier.

The heavy-infantry base sizes also allow for mounted leaders in foot units - something I really like the look of, even it doesn't necessarily make much sense! I've got a mounted ostrich-man on the go, and there's a Mithril orc chief on a wolf who'd fit in nicely with the PA/Mithril orcs.

[Pattus Magnus]

Those look wonderfully bizarre! Great use of parts from all over the place.

Your basing strategy seems like it will add a lot of flexibility, I’ll be interested to hear about how it works in games.

[fred]

Great to see those weirdos again

Are they single based on a sabot base, or multi-based? If the former, you’ve hidden the joins very well.

[Golgotha]

Love it - where did you get the small armoured chap with the big nose in the front rank from? Would love to get one...

[Reed]

Chaos is all about the three R’s:
-Reduce (the number of enemies)
-Reuse (your own troops)
-Recycle (everything can be eaten)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, chaps!

Great to see those weirdos again

Are they single based on a sabot base, or multi-based? If the former, you’ve hidden the joins very well.

It's the latter: they're all glued down to the big base. I want the fragile plastic figures on big bases to keep them intact (I'm currently repairing various spears and banners on some of the rest of this former HOTT batch!). I figure that I have more than enough single-based beastmen for Saga, Dragon Rampant or similar games.

I've just discovered a whole lot more conversions and kitbashes that I'd started to paint up a couple of years ago. So I reckon i can put three or four more of these bases together in fairly short order.

Love it - where did you get the small armoured chap with the big nose in the front rank from? Would love to get one...

I had to think about that one - it's been a while! The head and body are from the GW gnoblar kit, and the arms are from the Perry foot-knight sprue.

Chaos is all about the three R’s:
-Reduce (the number of enemies)
-Reuse (your own troops)
-Recycle (everything can be eaten)

Ha! Yes, indeed!

[Hobgoblin]

Your basing strategy seems like it will add a lot of flexibility, I’ll be interested to hear about how it works in games.

Yes: one other benefit - especially with the orcs, I think - will be the ability to shuffle figures to the front to change the unit's role. So, especially wild-looking orcs in the front rank would signify 'Morax', ones with two-handed weapons 'Greatax' and spear-orcs 'Longax'. The disadvantage of multibasing the Mithril/PA orcs would be that a huge amount of effort would need to be spent on fixing the unit's role by getting all the appropriately armed types together on the same troop bases.

I've just been planning out a full regiment base for the Longhorns. I reckon that any Herd army or allied contingent that I field will always need at least one regiment to unlock the specials, so I might as well have one permanently based.

[M.P.]

Great kitbashes .

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

Here's another batch of rebased figures. These Chronicle ogres, Grenadier ogre and Grenadier 'giant orcs' have often featured as warlord and hearthguard in our Saga games. All except the very big ogre were all on 25mm squares like most of my Chronicle and Grenadier orcs, but I thought we'd get more out of them when restored to properly ogreish bases (40mm squares). That has several benefits: they work as ogres in KoW; they work as behemoths in 15mm HOTT (any three are half a HOTT army); and they actually rank up now!

Also, they'll still work fine in Saga, where base sizes don't matter. I'll probably tend to use them as warlords, heroes and curaidh in the Irish list - allowing the Chronicle giant black orcs promotion to hearthguard status!

This KoW project has snapped me out of a paralysis over what to do about basing all kinds of figures (broo, hobgoblins, other ogres ...). By basing them on the old Warhammer standard for KoW, I reckon I can get maximum use out of them in 1/72, 15mm and 28mm rank'n'flank games, as well as in skirmish games and RPGs.

I'm gradually going to repaint (and possibly rebased) all my square-based figures to match this scheme (with greenery to be added at some point); the result will be the potential to field armies for KoW, etc., in both 1/72 and 28mm, using some of the same figures.

[blacksmith]

Those Ogres are beautiful miniatures and your painting is very good, love their faces and they scale perfectly next to 1/72 plastics. Now I wish I hadn't got rid off all of them back in the day.

[M.P.]

I envy your skills with the brush  .

[Pattus Magnus]

They certainly look the part! I enjoy seeing this project come together.

[Mr. White]

@Hobgoblin, again your wonderful brush work inspires!
It still blows my mind how fast you guys crank out these models...

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, guys! These last few shots have been about rebasing rather than new painting, so the speed is somewhat illusory!

We played a five-player game of KoW yesterday - only our second full game. We all really enjoyed it; my daughter slipped into the role of orcish commander with ease. Kings of Wars seems to me to be much more like HOTT or historical games than I'd expected - a very good thing in my view! As one of our first-time players remarked yesterday, it plays very intuitively; he was able to get his fast, nimble cavalry to do exactly what such units would do historically, for example. The movement phase strikes me as exceptionally well thought out, and the combat is very nicely uncertain and tense.

I originally based these Reaper bugbears up as ogres for Oathmark - hence the 50mm bases. I've repainted the bases to make them fit the rest of our KoW stuff (as ever, greenery is still to be added ...), but I've kept them on the big bases to serve as snow trolls (I'm looking at fielding an ogre army with Northern Alliance allies and/or a Varangur army with ogre allies). So these are a snow-troll regiment and a snow-troll prime (despite the lack of snow!).

They're pleasingly bigger than the ogres, and they fit the 50mm bases well (which most of the ogres would not - I rebased the one big one that was on a 50mm Oathmark base).