Army List Restrictions

With two Abyssal Dwarf Army boxes on the way, as well as the Abyssal King's War Conclave, I went about seeing what kind of Army List I could make. Reading the Kings of War rules, there are two restrictions on putting together an army list. I thought I'd do a quick summary post before actually posting my list.
Check out the Kings of War rules and army list download here.


ALIGNMENT

All army lists have an alignment; Good, Evil or Neutral. It is possible to include units in your army from multiple army lists, as long as the army lists have similar alignments. Neutral army lists can align with either Good or Evil.

For example, you could have an army that consisted of both Undead and Orc units, but you could not have an army with both Undead and Dwarf units.


SOLID UNITS

A solid unit is defined as an Infantry unit with 20 or more troops, or a Cavalry Unit with 10 or more troops. For every solid unit, you can include 1 Hero/Monster unit and 1 War Engine unit. Note that the solid unit, Hero/Monster unit and/or War Engine unit must be from the same army list.

For example, a twenty-strong unit of Blacksouls would allow me to include the Abyssal Dwarf King and a Katsuchan Rocket Launcher in my army. It would not allow me to include an Orc Warlord and/or Undead Balefire Catapult.


A THOUGHT

So those restrictions are pretty straight forward - like the rest of The Kings of War ruleset. I read somewhere that it is designed to simple to learn, difficult to master - something that I definitely prefer to difficult to learn and difficult to master!
Looking at the army lists too (all of which are under two pages long), the units have very simple customisation options - which I think is great. I don't like to get bogged down with too many choices before even getting onto the table.

Sync out.

Into the Abyss - Part 2

TROUBLE CALLS

I was all set to order from a local stockist, when work collegue called with some news confirming rumours of company restructure - which meant potential lay-offs.
With my job under threat, the first thing to go are the toy soldiers - that's just the way of it. After getting all excited putting through the order, I was forced to cancel it. With a heavy heart, I put my dreams of fantasy wargaming and an awesome Abyssal Dwarf army on the shelf.
I spent the next few days avoiding my usual online haunts - miniatures/wargaming websites and forums. The disappointment was still weighing on me, which was coupled with the stress and panic of potentially losing my job.

A TWIST OF FATE

Fast forward a week, and the initial panic and speculation died down a little. My position wasn't secure yet, but the dust was starting to settle and it looked like I was going to be in the clear.
I had gotten back on the horse, and was casually browsing the local Australian wargaming forums when I noticed someone selling the Abyssal Dwarf Army Box, as well as the Lords Conclave for a VERY reasonable price - much cheaper than the RRP, second-hand but on sprue. I snapped up the offer and the initial excitement I felt for the project came flooding back!

Mwahahaha! My evil plan begins!

That night I looked over our credit card bills, and found a payment to a miniatures company that I definitely didn't make. I thought we'd been scammed or I was being overcharged for a previous purchase or something.
I checked with my wife, and she comes clean - apparently after telling her what happened with my job and having to cancel my army order, she didn't buy the handbag I promised her. Instead she jumped on eBay and used the money to surprise me with the Abyssal Dwarf Army box!


AND SO WE MARCH

Forward, minions!

Two days ago, I was moping about, feeling cheated by the hand I was dealt, but now - well, now I've got two lots of Mantic Abyssal Dwarf army boxes coming in, as well as the Dark Lords Conclave!
I bought my wife the bag anyway, just for being awesome, and I compromised  by promising not to make any videogame or miniatures purchases until Christmas (when I plan on picking up a starter box of Mantic's Forgefathers!).
The 125+ models incoming should keep me PLENTLY busy until then!

Sync out.

Into the Abyss - Part 1

After my discovery of Devlan Mud, I was all set to go. I already had an idea of the pricing from Mantic Games, so all I needed to do to commit to the project now was to pick an army!


THE DARKNESS CALLS

The two armies that immediately caught my eye when going through the Mantic range were Undead and Abyssal Dwarfs.
I've always liked Undead, which has has manifested in my love for zombie movies and video games - and more recently The Walking Dead TV series.
But something kept pulling me to the Abyssal Dwarfs. The army has a lot more personality and character than an Undead army, and I think aligns with my style a little more.
So in the end, I settled on the Abyssal Dwarfs. They cost more per model than an Undead Army would, but I'm sure I'd enjoy painting them a lot more. After having a quick look over the army list, I found that I already had some units in my collection at home that I could add to the army, so that's a nice little bonus.


UNKNOWN

Tempest 3's Best Army - Mantic Abyssal Dwarfs (click to enlarge)

Creating an army list is the part of army wargaming I hate. I should make it very clear now that I haven't had ANY experience in fantasy wargaming, or Kings of War, and have limited experience in WH40K (sci-fi army wargaming). The bulk of my wargaming experience is from MERCS, a sci-fi skirmish game.
I'm not a competitive wargamer either, so I'd mostly be looking at creating an army that was fun to put together, and IF I ever got it on the table, would provide fun games for me and my opponents, win or lose.
Hence, with my limited ability to create an army list, I decided on three factors that would determine the units in my army:
      1) Financial cost
      2) Good looking units
      3) Varied range of different models


TRUST IN THE MAKER

Abyssal Dwarf Army - 64 pounds (~AU$100)

After checking out the Mantic Abyssal Dwarf Army Deals, these would definitely meet my above mentioned criteria. Their boxsets provide a good range of miniatures, at a great price - and looking at the Abyssal Dwarf Army List, the Army Boxes cover most of the infantry units and provides a solid foundation for an army.
I opted for Mantic's original Abyssal Dwarf Army Deal, as the other sets include Berserkers - I already have the Avatars of War Dwarf Berserkers set sitting at home, crying out to get some paint on them.
The Abyssal Dwarf Army Deals aren't as well priced as the other armies, but I read somewhere that it was because they included more metal components. It's still cheaper than what a Games Workshop fantasy army would cost though, and I realised that I was happy to pay more for an Abyssal Dwarf Army, than pay less for say, an Undead Army.


With some important decisions made, it was time to put my plans into action! Alas, the road to damnation is not always a smooth one...

To be continued...

Sync out.

Discovering Devlan Mud

Devlan Mud is a wash produced from the Games Workshop range of paints, and is infamous for being able to quickly and easily achieve a good table-top standard of shading over a base coat. It is applied liberally over the base coat, and naturally pools in the recesses creating a shading effect.

I mentioned earlier that I had picked up the High Elves from the Games Workshop Isle of Blood set, which I actually got as part of a second-hand sale for a great price.
So what better opportunity than this to test Devlan Mud! I could see how long it would take me to paint a troop, and to what painting standard I could achieve.


TESTING THE WATERS

I went to work to see if it lived up to the hype - I was sceptical at first, but in the end, reasonably impressed.
So, here's how my Isle of Blood High Elf Swordmasters of Hoeth turned out:

I was impressed with the result, and this is what inspired me to finally take the plunge into fantasy - as I now had a means to paint a large number of troops to my personally acceptable table-top standard, quickly and efficiently.
This level of painting is great for fantasy, where more than half the detail on your models is obscured by the rank in front of them anyway. I think for my Mantic army, I'll spend a bit more time on highlighting the first rank.

ISSUES OF NOTE

After using it on the troop of 10 High Elves, here are a few notes I made on using Devlan Mud:

It smells and tastes bad.
If you're like me and you lick your brush - DON'T. Not with Devlan Mud anyway, it tastes terrible.

It lasts longer than I expected.
I've been using it quite liberally, and there is still a surprising amount of wash still left in the pot. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to use the single pot for my entire 125 model fantasy army - assuming I don't spill the pot or something.

It works great with some colours, not-so-great with other colours.
It really is like 'mud' - it'll make your minis look worn and dirty, which I think suits fantasy armies really well, particularly evil fantasy armies.
It gives metals a burnished look, making them look much duller and more realistic (note - this probably isn't great for High Elves, as they're always depicted in sparkling clean armour).

It is a little more difficult to use on large, flat surfaces.
Because there is nowhere for the wash to pool, it'll depend on your brush strokes as to where the mud will clump. Seeing as it's a wash, it's easy enough to manipulate though.


IN CONCLUSION

If you haven't tried Devlan Mud yet, DO IT. It is definitely worth adding to your collection of paints, and is an extremely effective to way get a decent shading effect on your models.
Like any other paint on your palette remember - it's a tool just like any other, with strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. I haven't used it enough to know all the ins and outs yet, but from what I've seen I'm very impressed and have decided to use it to shade my upcoming 125+ model fantasy army with.

Sync out.

The Onslaught Awaits - Part 2

Continued from my previous post.

MANTIC GAMES - KINGS OF WAR

The first and most important discovery was Mantic Games.
I started browsing their website after they announced their upcoming Sci-Fi game, Warpath (which I also plan on having a go at!).

The Price is Right
Anyways, on a whim I decided I would see how much their army boxes cost - everything on their website is in pounds so I had to do a conversion. After double and triple checking the Mantic website and my calculations, I was amazed. It wasn't possible... how could this from Mantic, cost roughly the same as this from Games Workshop?
Well, that took care of the cost issue. I could have a massive fantasy army for a fraction of what I thought it would cost.

Mantic's Dwarf Mega-Army - 99 pounds (~AU$160)

Games Workshop's Dwarf Battalion - AU$150

Get Them on the Table
After checking out a few reviews for the models and boxsets, I discovered that the Mantic range are really designed for big armies, and huge battles. Hence the models are designed to be fast to assemble and paint - not too many things to glue together and minimal hard-to-paint places.

Play by the Rules
Clicking through their site, I found they had the Kings of War rules and army lists free to download. The rulebook is only 16 pages - and after my first read through I felt like I had a solid understanding of the rules and how the game played. This is a game I could actually learn to play - so there's hope for my models to actually see some table top warfare instead of sitting the cupboard for their sad lives!

Download the Kings of War Rules and Army Books here!


DEVLAN MUD

The second discovery I made prior to discovering Mantic Games, while not as important, was still a driving reason for me deciding to start the project. Devlan Mud. I can't believe I hadn't tried this earlier.
This makes army painting fast, and gets my models to a personally acceptable table-top standard very quickly. This helped me reduce my minutes-per-mini from about 45-60 miniatures per model to about 30 miniatures per model, less if I batch paint! Times that by the 100+ models required for a decent fantasy army and that's a significant amount of time!


IT BEGINS

Well, there's no excuse now! In a curious turn of events, the planets have aligned and this blog will document my journey into fantasy wargaming!

Sync out.

The Onslaught Awaits - Part 1

OUT OF REACH

Warhammer Fantasy Battles

I've always loved the idea of Fantasy and Fantasy Wargaming, but always thought it was a pursuit out of my reach, for two main reasons - the cost and time.
Firstly, it was just too expensive.
The thing that has always drawn me to fantasy wargaming was the concept of vast armies, with ranks upon ranks of soldiers - all ready to fight and die for their cause.
With the dominant fantasy wargame in Sydney being Warhammer Fantasy Battles from Games Workshop, putting together an army has always been a financially steep commitment.
Secondly, it would take too long to get the toy soldiers on the table.
Again, the multi-part plastic kits from Games Workshop look amazing and give you a lot of options to create and stylise your army - but assembling all those bits adds up, and that's just time I don't have, with full-time work and family. I'm not the fastest painter either, and although I do enjoy painting, painting troop units over and over again can get boring very quickly.


SUBSTITUTION

MERCS - Sci-Fi Skirmish Wargame

So I focused on sci-fi and skirmish wargaming for a while. I was heavily into MERCS and blogged about it over here, but with no local community support, I left that wargame behind. MERCS is a wonderful game and is really picking up steam in the US, but without anyone else here in Sydney to play with, it's been a lonely road.
I always found myself coming back to fantasy though. I bought Battle for Skull Pass a few years back and have the miniatures painted and sitting in a box in the cupboard. I recently bought the High Elf models from the Isle of Blood set, and they're great too. I guess the reasons I bought these sets and didn't start a proper fantasy army was because these are 'mini' armies - well priced with a range of miniatures included, that are easy to assemble and paint (usually single part models).
I gave up trying to read the rulebooks for these sets after about 5 minutes though. There was no way I'd ever be able to learn all those rules and get a game going, but my love for fantasy left me content to just have the models and spending time painting them.


Then I made two discoveries and quick succession that changed EVERYTHING.

To be continued...

Sync out.