Kings of War: Otters and Goblins

So next up are the flying unit and the forest shamblers. I have been wracking my brains trying to figure out how to get a decent amount of minis on the right size base. Got there in the end. This is probably the biggest most detailed base I have ever done. Then I put a stream in to make it more difficult.

So, doing a little maths, I have 14 heroes and bigger models to paint pictured here and then two regiments of mouse archers to print and paint. All being well I will have a 2k Kings of War army ready to go by the end of February.

Done some work on the birds, being game pieces means they are a pain to paint

Started the shamblers pretty easy to do, brown undercoat,then grey and green dry brush on rocky and plant like areas. Then a wash with agrax, then another drybrush, did a couple of shades of brown on the tree like appendages.

Next I added flock and some light grey in the eyes which I will hit with bright green contrast paint when dry

The River Guard are the most revered and renowned unit in the Otter Army. They form the palace guard and the backbone of Otter army. They are professional soldiers and garrison forts in most of the major river towns.

The Crossing Watch act as the constabulary ,patrolling the forests by the river and guarding the major crossings. They maintain law and order, but there have been incidences where the River Guard had to step in where blind eyes were being turned to some smuggling operations.

As a wise old badger, Theophilus Stoutclaw, once said ‘ the problem with the Otter constabulary is that half of them are rats and the other half are weasels’

The Marines are a mixed bag, more like an organised militia than a formal regiment. They comprise of volunteers from the poorer areas of river society, criminals pressganged into service and sea otters from the coastal villages. They are a tough crowd of brawlers. They are employed on river patrols and are the bane of the river pirates. It’s not uncommon for captured otter river pirates to be given an option to join as a marine.

Just some quick shots of the finished (so far) articles, I will do a proper gallery with background next.

The otters are progressing, I need to start thinking of a colour scheme.
I decided to be more adventurous with the bases on these guys. Even if it doesn’t come off I will learn things.

What I am attempting to do is add some streams to the bases of the regiments , not sure how it’s going to turn out.

Another consideration is that it will mean the otters will be a bit taller. I guess I need to do the Ottaurs and bird riders in a similar style

Thanks to the lovely project system this entry ended up way out of sync, instead of the usual post fail it decided to post the same entry four times!

Having had a long weekend left unsupervised and the unfortunate postponement of Mondays game I took the opportunity to slap some paint on the otters, I decide to use a mix of contrast, speed and express paints as I wanted a fast turnaround

The miniatures are getting closer to table ready, I tried placing some one one of the bases to see how they fit, nothing was glued as the minis are not finished.

A bit of a squeeze, but ok, this madcap idea might just work

I carried on working on the bases adding paint and flock. Then I prepped them for the water effects. Which is a fancy way of saying I attached lolly sticks to the ends of the bases with rubber bands.

I used a mix of IPA and a clear silicon as per a Geek Gaming Scenics tutorial. I feel like it soaked into the PVA a lot, but it feels stronger and more spongy, fortunately I wanted shallow fast moving looking streams and was fairly happy with the results.

1500 point King of the hill style game.

I rolled out my trusty goblins for a scrap against an elvish and dwarven force made out of my friends old world miniatures. Really nicely painted… around 30 years ago. Kings of War has been a revelation for him as he’s able to enjoy all his old miniatures again without any GW silliness.

Not going to lie, looking at his assembled war host , I didn’t fancy my chances.

I set my infantry to the front and centre, second rank trolls and Mincer mob. Archers flanked the main host to be a nuisance. The table was light woods and some low hills with a few monuments.

I put my King and cavalry out on the left flank in the vague hope that I could get up against his cannon and ballistae unit and go some way to splitting his forces. It had worked quite well for me before, confidently plonking all the cavalry on one flank makes the opponent think that I have a plan or know what I’m doing. I don’t.

The gamble paid off and I managed to draw his elite cavalry over to that side, encouraged by his cannon taking out the first troop of fleabag riders he surged forward and charged the second troop. These fell before the cavalry in short order leaving the goblin king in front of the elite cavalry all alone.

But why was the goblin king smiling…

The cavalry were now in charge range of one of my troll hordes, they’d have to take hindrance for moving through the bushes, but the trolls could hit them squarely in the flank.

But before that I had the king charge them head on, drawing bemused and baffled looks from my friends.

In the middle of the field the pack surged forward and acquitted themselves pretty well, landing a decent amount of wounds and grinding down their forces. One sharpsticks unit managed to best a troop of elven cavalry, not as lethal as the knights the trolls had faced earlier, but dangerous nonetheless. Another regiment held out against a troop of palace guards who on paper where far superior troops.

The grinder softened up an infantry unit before the pesky dragon flew in and took them from behind, although he had to take a flank charge from a regiment of rabble, and again good rolls left a few wounds on the model and tied up the dragon for another turn.

The King , no longer concerned with elvish knights was free to charge into some infantry on the flank, while the second troll horde attacked the front, it was enough to take them out.

Next turn found the king in charge range of the artillery and so the dwarf cannon was taken down, followed by the bolt thrower on the next turn.

The left flank was ours and somehow the goblin infantry had held the centre long enough for the trolls to start wheeling around. The right flank wasn’t doing so well, but all that remained were the dragon and some archers, if the elves wanted the hill then they’d have to knock the trolls off of it.

Despite the dragons valiant attempt turn seven saw a last desperate charge bounce of the trolls, the response was swift and brutal.

I like trolls.