I’d love to be one of those organised hobbyists (I’m certain they exist, if only to be the exceptions that prove the rule), the ones that can stick to a plan and see things through to the end regardless of everything going on around them. Since the start of the year, I don’t think I’ve played a game of Kings of War with a completed army (excepting the third edition tournament on the third of Jan).
Part of me thinks it would be nice to have stuck to one faction and now have a nice shiny army finished to march off to tournaments with and not leave me under any painting pressure ahead of Clash of Kings. I sometimes wonder if that self-applied pressure was to disappear if I’d enjoy it all quite as much? I don’t think I’d get any more painting done, which would probably see me move into negative painting territory, whatever that looks like.
Having dropped focus on the Kingdoms of Men for a bit, I’ve been doing a bit of rebasing on my rats, ahead of The Pride of The Shires in Banbury next month. Rats are going for two reasons, the first is that it’s 2,400 point (up from the traditional 2,300) and they have the extra units to play around with, secondly, I think I’m getting close enough to a reasonably fun build and want to try it out. I’m really chuffed with the way this is going, swapping out the darker bases for light ones seems to make the units pop a bit more. The new basing is also far easier to put together which will make me more enthusiastic about expanding the force! I’m particularly proud of the Hackpaws, they’re a great looking set of models and should be interesting on the table.
This month we’ve got some info about the new Fracture book. Obviously, the nature release is the big thing, but there’s sufficient Basilean news to make me excited about trying to get the forces of the Hegemony to the table as quickly as possible. I’m intrigued by an order that will supposedly help Basilea grab objectives, I genuinely hope that this is suitably reliable (activates on a 4+) to be a characterful component of the army. The far bigger question is which of the new warlord models I’m going to be taking out onto the table first. I really like the new Gneaus model and would love to build an army around him, so I can’t wait to see what he brings to the table.
The final thing to mention is the survey, and what a survey it is! I’m really glad Mantic has chosen to ask the community to have their say. I quite like the design of it as it focuses on faction depth, inviting us to contribute ideas for new commands and new units, and finally gives a nice big free text section to give warts and all feedback. As someone who is really invested in my armies it was great to focus on them through the first set of questions. Mantic have done a great job with their Ratkin range (specifically the fantasy units, I’m not a fan of the Firefight models, but I can largely avoid using them), but the feel of the army has taken a massive step backwards moving into fourth edition so I’ve suggested a few commands that might help, and I made some suggestions on how Scurriers could find their place (something I spend far too much thinking about).
Whilst I’m enjoying the games I play, I’m not convinced fourth edition has anywhere near the depth of third edition because of changes to movement, line of sight and shooting. I think it’s one of those counter intuitive things where we might be able to do more, or see more, but the easing of restrictions reduces the challenges in the game. It would be fantastic to see the results of the survey published in some form as I’d love to have an indication of the direction of travel as Mantic see it. Has the feedback said that the vast majority of people love the game as is and they just need to tinker around with commands and points values, or is there some other areas they’ll be focusing on?
That’s it for now, as it’s back to basing.
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