Building on a budget – Brotherhood

EDIT: This post was written under Kings of War 2nd edition rules. Kings of War 3rd edition army composition may be different, thereby invalidating some of the below post’s army composition.

Mantica needs stalwart men who face off against the evil that stalks the land. The brotherhood needs reinforcements, and you’ll be the one to lead them!

First things first

As with all “building on a budget” posts, this lists focusses on getting a battlefield worthy force on a limited budget. For this brotherhood army I’ll be aiming at 1,500 points comparable to my own brotherhood army.

Though I’m not limited to one supplier, I chose to build the whole army from one supplier: Fireforge. As I really like their models, there is little reason to go beyond their collection. That said, the fireforge models don’t match well with GW models, as they are more “true 28 mm” compared to the “heroic 28” mm of GW models.

Finally: This building on a budget will probably no longer match exactly as soon as KoW 3rd edition arrives. That said, the core of the army will most likely not change, so it’ll remain a good start anyhow.

The army list

• Regiment order of the Abyssal Hunt / healing brew
• Regiment order of Redemption / caterpillar
• 2 regiments of Villein initiates
• 2 troops of Villein reconnoiterers
• Horde of Order of Forsaken / orcish skullpole
• Exemplar of the Brotherhood/mount/blade of slashing
• Exemplar adjudant / mount / lute of Darkness

1,500 on the spot. A few items can be switched out if you want.

Total costs of all the models is € 149.

Units

Regiment of Abyssal Hunt: Box of Albion knights (€ 27). The box has 12 model and you’ll only need 8 for the regiment. Use 2 of the 4 leftover for a banner bearer and an examplar. (later more).

The story behind your army will be that the albion knights’ livery represents the leaders of the Brotherhood (aka: Order of the abyssal hunt and order of the brotherhood) while the war-of-the-roses mounted men at arms represent the villeins.

For the Abyssal Hunt, take models with melee weapons instead of lance/shield. The sprue supplies both; alternatively the lances can be converted to halberd-style weapons easily by glueing axeheads to the lances.

Regiment of Redemption: 2 boxes of byzantine Caraphracts (€ 48,-). The models are expensive, but I really like their scale-armoured looks so they are good models for knights which have been “take over by their enchanted armour” which redemption knights actually are.

If you want a cheaper option, fireforge has other knights such as agincourt’s midieval knights, though I don’t find them more impressive than the knights of albion used as abyssal huntsmen.

2 regiments of Villein initiates: Box of mounted men at arms. As you’ve got 12, you’ll need 2 more models. In your army, the initiate regiments of 6 knights will be led by a true knight (the leftover albion knights, see above) for PMC of 7 models. (cost € 22)

Villein reconnoiterers: Box of Light Cavalry. You’ll only need 8 of the 12 models, so you can build a 3rd troops of recon’s to upgrade either troop to a regiment or field another troop later. (cost € 22)

Order of Forsaken: box of 4 pegasus knights from fireforge. Great knights and 4 will fill out a horde nicely.

They are € 30 for 4.

Characters (Exemplar and adjudant): use the last 2 albion knights; one with a banner attached to the lance and the other as a hero. If you want to make them to stand out from the other knights, either paint them in a brighter colour scheme (example: on the right.) or use elevated terrain to showcase your character. (see the goblin hero below)

Expanding the army

Expanding the army to 2,000 points is easy. I’d take another source of inspiring (maybe a mounted mage with the talisman or another adjudant with diadem of dragonkind); use the leftover reconnoiterers for a 3rd troop (100) and get a pair of reaper scorpions as 2 forsaken beasts. The beasts can be upgraded as anvils (regen/ensnare) or as mobile support (Breath), in both cases they supplement the army well.