A new army for Kingdoms of Men

Finally, the uncharted Empires book has arrived! It required Mantic to Re-send it after the postal services lost it, but I got my grubby hands on the book.

And with the book, I got the army lists for my other armies, the humans. (brotherhood, league, Kingdoms of Men) and I must say I love it. Maybe I’ll find some time to post a blog about the army lists in Uncharted Empires, but for now it suffices that I’m content.

The Kingdoms of Men (always my first love) has been treated well. Though a lot has not changed in the army itself, but the game has progressed to a point that the Kingdoms seem to have a good place now. – Finally.

As for now: an army list; it’s 2 k army list based on the most succesful KoM army I’ve played in V2.

• Horde of Foot guard; 2-handed weapons
• Horde of polearms, indomitable will
• Horde of polearms, indomitable will
• Regiment of mounted sergeants
• Shield wall troop
• Shield wall troop
• Hero on pegasus, blade of slashing
• General on winged beast, blood of the old king
• General on winged beast, blessing of the Gods
• Giant
• Wizard, Lightning 3 (no FB), Bane chant, Amulet of inspiration
• 3x cannon

I will quickly go through the choices:

Polearms / shield wall

The two hordes of polearms bring one thing to the table: a lot of nerve @ 175 points. They also offer quite a bit of threat with 25 CS (1) attacks. The battle plan will be to be very agressive with these two; even inviting enemies to alpha-strike them. In essence, they are baits, only there to die and draw out the enemy hammers. the indomitable will prevents an unlucky waver, which would wreak havoc on my battle plans as they will hold up the units behind them.

Of course, even baits will have to be protected somewhat. The pair of shield wall troops act as buffer/chaff to keep them alive for one turn longer. In objective games, they can also be kept back on objectives without sacrifing a lot of power.

Sadly, pole arm troops are no longer a thing. They were my favourite chaff ever.

General on winged beast / giant/foot guard horde

The general on winged beast is a very valid choice these days, unlike V2 where they were the poor-man’s dragons. These days they still are weaker than a dragon, but having 2 for the price of one makes more than up for the difference in quality.

The army relies on its counterpunch (after the polearms have been destroyed) to kill off the enemy hammers. Other than the two generals, the foot guard and giant furfil this role.

With four hammers in the army, the army can deliver a serious beating, the rest of the army lists is there to support these four guys.

<- Here’s my first general; I just need to paint my 2nd general. Picture WIP is not very impressive, the question remains whether to wait for Swordsmaster’s monster march to come along again or just to start painting.

Or, of course, I could just cheat and start painting the beast and keep the pictures / progress secret until monster march comes again.

Suffice to say, I appreciate the trouble Swordsmaster goes through to host this challence every year and will certainly try again to participate this year. And this year, unlike previous episodes, I won’t have a 4-month old baby around to keep me from painting! The fact that she’s a year and a half now makes things alot better. (at least, she sleeps most evenings…. hobby times.)

Mounted sergeants /pegasus hero / mage

As the current meta seems a bit war machine heavy (though its effectivity has yet to be determined!) I thought it prudent to include two dedicated war machine hunters -> a hero on pegasus and a unit of sergeants. Due to unlocks, the sergeants will have to be upgraded to a regiment.

The good news is that their nerve and attacks are high enough to survive a cannon shot and take out a regiment too if I can get into a flank or rear after the guns have been taken care off.

The final guy, a wizard with inspiration, lightning and bane chant is just the obligatory support guy with some lighting to be busy when not required to inspire or chant. I hope 3 inspiration is enough, but time will tell.

3 cannons

War machines have some use finally again! With 2 attacks hitting on 5+ that ignore cover, with blast and a lot of piercing, cannons are a serious threat to anything in its sight.

I use three cannons to force enemy hammers to come to me and take the bait presented by the polearms. Nothing beats putting pressure on enemy cavalry/monsters/titans by blasting them with large bullets.

And besides, the cannons have been in storage so long, it’s a pleassure to use them again! Just don’t be that guy to include 3 cannons, 3 siege artillery and 3 balista supported by hordes or arhers…. You won’t win and turning the game into a tower defense run isn’t making the game anymore fun for your opponent or yourself!