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| The Forest Assembles |
It seems the end-of-year post has become something of a habit for this blog. Which is better than nothing I suppose; I haven't posted an update since May!
And that's just silly. It's not like it hasn't been a good year hobby-wise (if not quite qualifying as 'eventful'). That said, I have a feeling 2019 will be something special, and in one regard for myself, it certainly will be!
Why do I think that? Well, I have my reasons, and I'll get to some of that later, but without going into the details, overall I'd say there's a great deal to be positive about for fans of Mantic's games and the hobby in general.
But before any more of that future-talk malarkey, I'll run through some of my hobby stuff that should have made it onto the blog over this last year, but that for whatever reason (*cough* laziness *cough*) didn't.
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| Centaur Chief Inadru |
The most recent stuff I've been working on is for Vanguard! Like many KoW players, the end of 2018 was characterised by the anxious wait for the box of goodies to arrive. My brother and I went in on a Giant pledge together, and were delighted to have such a good experience with our first time backing a kickstarter project.
So what did we do when the game arrived? Why, begin work on other miniatures of course! For myself, Vanguard gave me the drive to finally get started on the pile of Forces of Nature miniatures that were still locked in their boxes, purchased around a year ago. The centaur clan chief (above) was one of the first, and I'm pleased with the model, although very much regretting that I didn't replace the flimsy-as-all-hell pole arm with something else. His first outing will be to Cry Havoc 2019: The Winter Vanguard, and fingers-crossed he makes it there and back with his weapon intact.
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| Druid Haili |
The druid was the first model I painted for FoN, and wow, was this a pain. The annoying thing is I actually like the look of the model... from a reasonable distance. But the up-close view left a lot to be desired (flat detail, melty face, etc.). There was a render on one of the facebook fanatics pages of a new druid Mantic seems to be planning, and I may well replace this metal one if it turns out as nice as it looks.
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| Haranak the Elder |
Really pleased with this one, what a characterful mini! This was sent to me (and the other players) by Andy Sharp of Weight of Fire fame, for use as a mercenary in the aforementioned Cry Havoc 2019: The Winter Vanguard tournament. The model comes with a pair of large antlers, but I couldn't work out how to glue them securely, since I couldn't see any obvious connection points and didn't want to try and cut some into the head. So I went with a grassy hair-do instead!
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| The 'wild' companions - Louis & Max |
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| Ustara and Niran - Naiad Warriors |
I never do test models for a scheme, normally I just dive straight into painting a unit. So Vanguard actually gave me a chance to try out my scheme before I start on the multi-based regiments of Heartpiercers I have planned. I think it's a good balance of colours, a little grimmer than Mantic's scheme but still related.
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| Unblooded Brothers - Thykch, Raqz, Nekaw |
To keep the colours nice and 'earthy' across the army/warband, I decided to emulate the green salamander on the front of the Uncharted Empires supplement. I also experimented with a zenithal approach to painting these three, and I think it went OK. Should work well when I get around to doing a horde for KoW.
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| The Shambler Rodkimendwæra |
I really like Mantic's Forest Shambler models, and went with a straight forward scheme of layering drybrush, wash and glaze. I expect the remaining five on my painting desk will be finished early in the new year.
A quick note on Vanguard as a game - love it. Fantastic work from everyone involved. I think it's unfortunate that there's been confusion around the cards and core/basic lists and whatnot, because it really doesn't strike me as a problem, but I can certainly see where the issue is for some. Or, to put it another way, I think the principle of what Mantic are doing is sound (from the perspective of those who want the game to have a long life) but that the initial execution was perhaps shaky (it probably should have been 10 entries per list in the book, ideally). But none of that takes away from what is a really excellent game, a fantastic blend of mechanics that are as straight forward as we expect from Mantic, while also their 'deepest' ruleset to date (controversial?). Two thumbs, way up.
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| Palace Guard |
Earlier in the year I completed another couple of units for my slowly expanding Elf army, two troops of Palace Guard. At the moment it looks like the army will continue to progress at a rate of one regiment or two troops a year. Which will have to do! I'm halfway through the next unit, but got stalled/distracted. I expect I'll find time to finish it in 2019.
Events:
I attended three events in 2018, all of which were one day, three game tournaments. The first was at Abz Games, which was a 1000pt affair, perfect for taking my little force of elves for an outing. I got absolutely smooshed, unfortunately, but my brother took 1st place with his goblins, and my cousin 2nd with his undead! So a good day for the family, if not for my poor elves (cue tiny violin).
The second was in June at Common Ground Games, hosted by Gofur Hunter of Geekszilla. It was the second time Gofur had run a KoW event at CGG, and was as much a blast as the first in 2017, where I was lucky enough to come third after two wins and a loss. Hoping for a similar run of luck, I brought more or less the same Ratkin list, but ended up with a less impressive win and two losses. I took this as a sign, and prepared something different for the next one.
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| Heavy Pike Horde & Pole-Arm Troop |
I decided to work on salvaging my old and badly treated GW Empire miniatures, turning them into units for Kingdoms of Men/League of Rhordia. Although I kept the paint jobs simple (base coat, layer and strong tone) I took some time with the basing and positioning. I was particularly pleased with how my horde of Pikemen turned out (above), and I used them as a horde of Dogs of War in a Rhordia list I took to the 3rd Geekszilla tournament in September. With two wins and a loss, they did fine, and I don't think there's any question that they single-handedly won me the 'best army' vote, which was a pleasant surprise considering the excellent standard on display at the event.
So, what next?
In terms of painting/hobby, I have a couple of priorities which I've already alluded to, namely painting the rest of my Forest Shamblers, and finishing my half-done elf regiment. Aside from that, I would ideally like to get another warband done for Vanguard, as well as paint up my Star Saga (snagged during Mantic's black friday sale). Also, my brother and I got each other the Operation Heracles Warpath starter set for Christmas, so adding new Enforcers for Deadzone is a must, as well as taking the Firefight rules for a spin. It may not look like much, but at the pace I paint it's an ambitious list, so we'll just have to see.
For Events, I'll be going to Cry Havoc 2019: The Winter Vanguard in January and am almost certainly going to Geekszilla's 4th Kings of War event in March. I'll try to remember to take pictures and write up a little something about both, but I can't promise, since usually I get too excited and completely forget about anything except the toy games! The rest of the year remains to be seen, but Clash of Kings did look very, very fun...
"Yes, yes, but what about all the great-if-somewhat-infrequent narrative batrep content" you ask? What? You didn't ask that? Ah, I see. Well, for those who don't know, I've been occasionally chronicling a narrative KoW campaign between my brother and I, the 'narrative' part of which got particularly out of hand length-wise in the third instalment (links in sidebar). I'm afraid there probably won't be much more of that for the foreseeable future. I actually was working on something, but, well, let's just say the project got real interesting.
As always, thanks for reading!
