Oamaru Onslaught III- Varangur

 Next weekend is our third Kings of War competition being held down here at Kakanui. I’ve been working on a Varangur army after having purchased some GW Chaos Warriors online and deciding I “needed” an army to be built around them.

I’ve had a few games and been slowly tweaking things but each game find something ese that I must have in the army or want to include so there are always a few tough decisions to be made. 

I am hoping I’ve got a reasonable balance and a bit of a tool kit vs  wide range of opponents. The army I I’m at taking is this: 

So let's have a look at the units.

Night raiders

I quite like these guys. their shooting isn't bad, stealthy and pathfinder helps keep them alive (by hanging around in terrain. I didn’t have the points to add the Wolf handlers upgrade to add scouting and vicious. I find these units often last the entire game and with 12 attacks hitting on 4s doubled from the flank to give 24 attacks with thunder1 can be very handy in the later game.

The figures I use for these are the GW LoTR Rangers range.

Huscarls

The whole reason I built the army! These guys have a solid stat line: 20 attacks hitting on 3s, defence 5, wild charge 1, crushing 2 and fury (so can countercharge if wavered). What’s what not to like? Spd 5, that’s what. To mitigate this sightly I’ve added the mead of madness so they can charge 12” but even so they can be outranged and easily out manoeuvred so need to be used carefully. If you can screen them properly and they get the charge then they do a world of hurt to most units. They dislike terrain (my last game they wiffed badly by being hindered and hitting on 4s and ony doing 2 wounds) so again need to be used carefully and when possible need to avoid terrain if I can. As a central unit to act as an anvil they are solid too.

The figures I use are GW Chaos Marauders and as I’ve said they are the reason I built the army.  

Mounted Sons of Korgaan

18 attacks on 3+, thunderous 1, Crush 1, 8” movement, nerve 15/17. These are a very useful cavalry unit. So much in so I went form 2 regiments to three at the last minute (dropping my monster- I was contemplating between a Cavern Dweller or a Frost Giant. These guys are my fast(ish) hammers. They need to be protected form shooting and take the charge but with crushing they can grind better than some cavalry. I’ve not sued 3 regiments yet so will se how they go but the key is going to be concentration of force, hitting hard and making sure they are supported by other units whenever possible.

Previously I've added the guise of the deciever to the units to give them stealthy vs shooting but needed to save points so dropped the guide in the end. I have an answer though, the foot lord (see below) has an aura of stealthy they can benefit from so he will need to be nearby for them. 

Originally I had Gripping Beast Goths as my Mounted Sons but wanted the GW Marauder horsemen as the modes. There were none available in NZ so picked up a couple of boxes from the UK but the postage to NZ via NZ post was ridiculous so won’t be getting any more via that route. Spent a few nights painting last week and have just finished al three regiments and am very happy with how they have turned out. 

Tundra wolves

These are one of my favourite units in the army. I was vacillating between a regiment vs two troops but in the end when for the regiment. 18 attacks, hitting on 3s, Def 4, 18” move with nimble and thunderous charge with a 13/15 nerve. The tundra wolves again need to be used carefully but if they can get into a flank they can be deadly. The regiment recently they took out Manny the Mammoth in a game vs ogres with flank charge.

I am sure I’ll miss the flexibility of the two troops but a regiment is 50pts cheaper. It wil be interesting at the weekend to see if I miss the troops.

As for models, I used GW Wargs as my tundra wolves. 

Magus 

The Magus doesn’t appear a popular choice from what I see of Varangur lists and maybe isn’t the smartest use of pts but I’m hoping he will be a bit of a Swiss army knife choice. His lighting bolt hopefully will add a bit of extra fire to the night raiders shooting and Alchemist Curse is a great spell vs heavily armed troops, monsters and heroes. Ideally he’d also have the boots of levitation to add extra movement but in the end I stripped him back to the basic Magus + Alchemist Curse.

The model I use for him is an Artizan Designs Viking shaman. 

Lord

The second of my heroes is a bog stand lord. He has devoted icon (stealth) which gives a 6” stealth bubble for most of my units. He has 6 attacks so is a nice support unit. I’ve used him quite a bit with the wings of honeymaze giving him a 21” charge range but in the end stripped out most of the magic items to afford an extra unit. He performs well for me in most games. He is very insprng (9" range) which is important to my army. 

I use an Artizan Designs Viking as my lord. 

Thegns on Frostfangs

I’ve taken two thegns on Frostfangs as two of my leaders. Spd 7, melee 3+, Def 5 with 5 or 6 attacks and 13/15 nerve, they have Crush 2, inspiring, nimble, strider and wild charge 1. Not as tough as the very popular Lord on a frostfang but they are pretty flexible. I’ve taken one of them with the tricksters wand to try to shut down some shooting and the other has a snow fox to give an extra attack.

They are handy in difficult terrain and are a good support unit, especially if thy can attack from a flank. They will also be used as chaff if necessary. The two of them perform well in most games but again I need to make sure I use them to concentrate with other units whenever possible.

These are the only Mantic models in the army- not much to say except that they are nice resin sculpts. 

Snow Troll prime 

The last addition to the army- dropping a variety of magic items and taking the tundra wolves as a regiment rather than two troops meant I could squeeze in one more hero/monster. I haven't actually used him in a game yet! 

His stats are handy: Spd 6, 5 attacks hitting on a 3 with Crush 2. Nimble, regeneration and vicious melee are handy, along with wild charge 1. His nerve is a bit of an issue at times but hopefully he works out as yet another inspiring source, support piece in combats or if necessary an extra  medium chaff option.

 The model I use is a Reaper Bones Ettin.

 Final comments

So, there we have it my army for Onsight next weekend. 12 units, and 22 unit strength. Hopefully I’ve enough variety to deal with a 5 different missions and 5 different opponents. Is it a winning list? I doubt it but I’d be happy to win 3 out of the 5 games with them which is my goals. We will see if I can a manage that. 

Craig

A few more Varangur for KoW

 I continue to dabble in my new Varangian force for kings of War. A few years back i bakced the Reaper Bones 2 kickstarter, in which were two frost giants. They have been languishing in my pile of shame ver since but I decided I needed a frost gaint in my Varangian army so that was the motivation I needed to get one of them painted up

Mantic Games giants are ridiculousy tall and this causes isues on the table top as they tend to topple over when on any sort of terrain. Though they look nice I have absolutely no interest in fielding such oversized monstrosities, but my own poor wee frost giant feels a tad inferior to his Mantic compatriots so demanded to be put on a bit of terrain to give him a bit more height- the infamous small giant syndrome. 

The rock outcropping "Frosty" is stadning upon is simply a bit of bark which has been painted. The key to using bark though is to seal it with a layer of PVA gue which when it dries shrinks and provides a tough seal- otherwise bark tends to chip and flake over time. The same technique is an old one that I first used on Airfix figures a few decades ago to provide a solid base before painting WWII Airfix and Esci infantry- otherwise paint tended to flake on these plastic figures. 

A quick and dirty paint job and Frosty is ready to report for duty and hopefuly will get his first outing tomorrow night.  

Craig 

KoW: Varangar Army

I haven't been doing aot of gamig related stuff over the past few months but finaly getting back into it and ahving some reguar games of kings of War vs Gordon. I picked up some GW Chaos Marauders off one of the NZ buy & sell sites a few weeks back and so needed to make an army to fit them round and so have built a force of the evil Varangar for Kings of War.

A range of manufacturers used:

·       GW: chaos Marauders, LOtR Rangers (Night raiders) Rohan- (Horse raiders)

·       GB Goths- with Fireforge Medieval Russian heads (Sons of Kogan) & GB Mongols as  heroes

·       Reaper bones Ogres- Snow troll primes

Ragnarrok and kkitbasehes using Victrix and Gripping Beast figures- Draugr

·       Mantic- Frostlords

Craig 

Orcs for Kings of war

 I've been chipping away at a new army for Kings of War, based on using the Frostgrave Gnolls as the bulk of my infantry. As usual I've an eclectic range of figures co-opted into the army- Frostgrave, Northstar, GW and Mantic. 

The characters at the front are some of the character figures from the new Oathnmark orc range and are lovely, very Middle Earth inspired, orcs IMO.

LoTR Orc scouts are being used as Ax infantry and the Frostgrave Gnolls behind are Morax- berserker orcs. 

The Mantic Winged Slasher moel in the background is a lovely model too and makes a great centrepiece for the army, while the Mantic Gore Riders provide a fast, hard hitting cavalry contingent. 

And finally, a shot of the first of the thre regiments of Morax I've painted up. I really love the Frostgrrave Gnolls and with all plasctis are ripe for conversions. For this army I've been adding weapons and arms from the Mantic Goblins as well as the Oathmark Goblins and Orcs to make the army even more varied.

I've not had much success with them so far but reckon 5 games over two days at No Surrender in Christchurch later in the month will be a good opportunity to get to grips with the army. 

Cheers

Craig

Basing figures

 Gordon asked me how I base my figures. I use a pretty basic system these days and tend to stick to two versions of it-  field green or dry straw static grass depending on the army I'm working on. 

Here is the start of my latest project some "Orcs" fr kings of War using Oathmark Gnolls rather than orcs. I paint the figures then place them on the base to  figure out how I want them to look- in this case I wanted an orcish "battle wedge" formation. 

Once the figures are superglued  to the base I cover the base witha product caled permafilla from the local Mitre 10 DIY store. The orcish wardrums I based today and this is not my usual method in that they are based before painting but with only two figures and a drum I figured what the hell. 

Once the permafilla is dry I use PVA or superglue to add some stones borrowed from the local beach to add a bit more texture. 

A few of the basics- permafilla and test pot paints. 

I then undercoast the base black and dry a "heavy" drybrush of a dark brown shade. 

then the stones are drybrushed a light grey colour. 

Finally I use a yellowy/tan light drybrush to pick out the details of the base this step is done quite lightly. 

Next up is the static grass which covers approx 25-30% of the base. I like not having a uniform cover of static grass as the contrasts draw the eye to the base and the figures don't get "lost" in the base. 

Then I add green tufts for even more variety. 

And finally, some late autumn tufts. 

A contrast between the finished base and the one at the end of the dark brown drybrush stage. 

And the bases ready for gaming. 

Cheers

Craig

Southcon 2022- first run for the elves

 For the first time in many years I am heading down to Southcon and will be joining Josh and Gordon to play Kings of War. I’ve had lots of practice games with my Ogres and had planned on taking them but after a single game with my elves changed my mind so am taking an army I have very little experience using- a total of one game under my belt so the list is far from fine tuned.  

The elves are considered an elite army and somewhat of a scalpel force and nowhere near as resilient as my ogres are so it will be interesting to see how they go. 

 2x Palace Guard  Regiments

1x Therennian Seaguard horde

1x Quicksilver lancers (Stormwind) Reg

2x Silverbreeze Cavalry Regs

1x Drakon Riders horde

1x Elven King,  Mount on a Horse, shardblade (melee 2+)
2x Lords on Drakon 1 with the Boomstick

2x Elven Archmage’s- 1 lightning bolt, inspiring talisman, #2- lightning bolt

20x Unit Strength, 11 Units

Palace Guard

Elite medium infantry with CS 1, reasonable defence (Def 4). I was tooing and froing between taking them as a horde and the seaguard as regiments or vice versa. In the end I stuck with my original idea of having the palace guard regiments flanking the Seaguard and trying to manoeuvre into flanks. I see these two units also as working together when possible.

 

Seaguard Horde

The plan is to have hem holding the centre, plinking away with 25 shots hitting on 5+. Spears with Phalanx, hitting on 4s with elite is unit is a solid, versatile unit. I hope to blunt attacks and then counter attack with the Seaguard. The now have steady aim with their shooting too. I’m not expecting their shooting to do much but hope to aim at Def 3 or 4 units as much as possible.

I’ve used the GW Galadheim Elves as for these units and very happy with how they have turned out.

 Quicksilver lancers (Stormwind) Reg

Elite elven heavy cav. They have been boosted n Clash of Kings 2021 with the Quicksilver Lancers option for one regiment which makes them nimble and increases their nerve to 15/17. This makes them a real threat on the flans with their options to turn on a dime. I’d have loved to add Jesse’s boots to them but alas not enough points. I am using Galadhiem Knights and also Riders of Rohan to make up this unit.

 

Silverbreeze Cav reg

I like using light Cav type units and the Silverbreeze are some of the bs tin the game. No thunderous- unless charging off a hill memo to self for during the games!), speed 10,  melee and ranged 4+ which isn’t too shabby, nimble and elite and steady aim. For this unit I am using GW riders of Rohan.  

 Drakon Riders horde

I love the look of this regiment, using the new Mantic mini’s. These guys fly and have CS 1 and TC 1 + elite. 18 attacks, hitting on 3s. A real threat and I will need to combine with my other cav units when possible. A dangerous unit and so one that opponents will focus on.

 

Elven king

Speed 9, 5 attacks, CS 1, with the shard blade (hits on 2+). My mobile anti-flyer and anti character unit. I didn’t have points for the sabre tooth a cat (duelling). A mobile, inspiring support unit.

 2x Lord on Drakons

In my practice game I only had one but have dropped my other unit for a second one. Again I am using the new Mantic Drakon models which are stunning. I have one the Boomstick for 3 lightning bolts but am kicking myself for not taking the blade of the beast slayer. My reasoning was the broomstick turns him into a mini dragon with a breath attack option so we will see if it works out. Again highly mobile with elite melee, fly, inspiring, nimble and TC 1. Not as tough as Gordon’s human kings of winged beasts but are also cheaper. Hitting form the flanks or rear will give them 10 or 15 attacks so I need to make sure I position them correctly.

 

2x elven archmages

Again pretty simple- lighting bolts and one with the inspiring talisman to inspiring trools. I intend to use them as speedbumps/chaff if necessary but their main role witl be for close fire support with lightning bolts with the sea guards.

 

So there we have it, 11 units, 20 unit strength. Having seen the other army lists I think it might struggle in some match ups but I am hoping to be able to work the flanks and manoeuvrability. I don’t think it will do that well but am hoping to win 2 and would happy if I could win 3 games over the weekend.