Kings of War Undead vs Kingdoms of Men

My son and I managed a game the other day, 1000pts of his Undead vs 1000pts of my Kingdom of Karpath.

An opportunity for him to try out his new big nasty, and for both of us to see if we could still remember how to play. 

We played using 3rd edition; neither of us have yet tried 4th edition, although I do have the new rules. 

Partly because it's been a long time since we played, we were rather slow and had to stop after five turns.  We played the Kill Scenario.

Here's the photos I took, plus a very brief account of the game. 

And apologies to my Alt Text reading fans, there isn't much for you this time.

Set Up

The field of battle with the armies poised for action

The Armies

The human army consisted of a regiment of Bowmen, two Spear Phalanxes, a regiment of Knights (borrowed from my Empire army to make up the points) and a troop of Mounted Scouts. They were led by General Anichka, accompanied by Artem and the wizard Mayster

The Kingdom of Karpath

The Undead included a regiment of Ghouls, a regiment of Revenants, a Goreblight (a lovely Reaper Bones undead giant), a regiment of Skeletons with spears, a regiment of Mummies and a troop of Wraiths. They were led by a trio of necromancers.

Most of the Undead force ...

...plus the Mummies (a troop of Wraiths lurk off to the right)

Turn One

I moved first, though I kept most of my troops back, merely dressing the line somewhat as I tried to anticipate where the biggest threat would come from. The exception was the Scouts who set off on one of the flanking moves that I think are really clever tactics, despite all previous evidence to the contrary.

The enemy was too far away for any missile or magic use.

End of KoM Turn 1

The undead shambled forward, the exception being the Ghouls who swung round to meet the threat of the Scouts.

The Necromancers all used their magic to move certain units forward.

End of Undead Turn 1

Turn Two

The knights charged the Revenants, arrogantly expecting to wipe them out. Unfortunately they failed to do so, and this melee would drag on.

The Knights charge the Revenants, expecting an easy victory

Mayster responded to the advancing enemy by conjuring a wind to blast the undead spears backwards. 

I think I found this funnier than my opponent did. This is a sample of my rolling for Wind Blast.

Needing a 4+

End of KoM Turn 2

Fortunately for the Knights, the Revenants were unable to damage them (for two turns they were unable to crack that 5+ Defence). Meanwhile, the Goreblight circled round to their rear and the rest of the Undead force advanced, in some cases assisted by the Necromancers.

End of Undead Turn 2

Turn Three

The mounted scouts continue their ride, always managing to stay out of danger from the ghouls, who kept turning to try and keep them in sight, but never getting the chance to shoot at them. 

The Knights continue their combat with the Revenants, slowly whittling them down and eyeing the advancing Goreblight.

At the other end of the field, Mayster once again pushes the Skeleton Spears back, while the Bowmen discover that the Mummies are tough.

End of KoM Turn 3

The Undead continue their slow advance, the Wraiths flying dangerously close to the Bowmen. 

The Goreblight proves deaf to the entreaties of two of the Necromancers as they urge it to smash the Knights while they are trapped in melee (two Surge spells provided about 2" on top of it's normal move. I was delighted).

Adding to the Undead woe, the Revenants once more failed to damage the Knights.

End of Undead Turn 3

Turn Four

As the undead continue their slow advance, the bowmen try to pick off the Wraiths. Alas their targets are too tough, and very little damage is inflicted.

Mayster casts a Fireball at the undead spears, which proves much more effective (needed a double six on the Nerve test).

The Nerve Test

A Spear Phalanx (I must come up with names to differentiate between the two) charges the Mummies, but they are tough opponents and take little damage. The Bowmen frantically loose at the Wraiths, but most of their arrows pass straight through.

Having (hopefully) distracted the Undead for long enough, and no doubt leaving the poor Ghouls quite dizzy, the Scouts gallop off to the other side of the field to lend their doubtful help there.

The knights finally finish off the Revenants and turn to face the approaching Goreblight. They'd already felt it's presence sapping their strength. 

End of KoM Turn 4

The Goreblight finally charges the Knights, while the Ghouls turn to face the tasty humans in their metal cans. The Knights take a beating, but it takes more than that to break Karpath's finest (they benefited from their Indomitable Will).

On the far side of the field, the Wraiths charge the Bowmen, who, surprisingly, manage to hold.

End of Undead Turn 4

Turn Five

The Knights try to take down the Goreblight, but without the benefit of their lances, it's very slow going, and those Ghouls are lurking behind them.

Both the Spear Phalanx and the Bowmen continue to fight their opponents, but do little damage to the Undead.

End of KoM Turn 5

The combined might of the Goreblight and the ghouls finishes off the knights, allowing that flank of the Undead army to face the fighting on the far flank.

Over there the Wraiths quickly finished off the Bowmen, leaving the Foot Guard poised to charge them. The Spear Phalanx held out against the Mummies, but only under the stern gaze of General Anushka (Inspiring reroll requiring a double one).

End of Undead Turn 5 and end of battle

At this point we called the game. Technically it was currently a draw, if slightly in the undead favour, but I think the final turn(s) would have swung it to an Undead victory. The Ghouls and Goreblight wouldn't have made it over to the rest of the fighting, but with the Knights gone, I'd have been struggling against Mummies and Wraiths.

Final Thoughts

It's nearly a year since I played Kings of War, and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be.  We both thought of moves that we might have done differently, although luck seemed to play a big part in the game.

Once again I got stuck in combats that I thought I'd win first turn, I obviously need to readjust my expectations.  

We hope to get a few more games in soon.

What's Next?

Well I've got plenty to paint already, including more of those Wildspire Miniatures and some Undead of my own for the Dark Shadows campaign.

That said, I might take advantage of the Season of Scenery challenge to sort out a set of 28 mm Kings of War terrain, rather like the 15 mm set I did back in 2019.

And it would be nice to have a regiment of Knights that fit in with the rest of my Karpath army.

And a little Carrion Beast tells me that Bodvoc is getting interested in a new Kings of War army, for which he'll no doubt want an opponent.

Wildspire Miniatures: Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves Painted

In my last post I mentioned that I recently got a set of Wildspire miniatures, specifically the Classic Creatures Expansion 1. 

I've begun the process of painting them, here's my first batch (about a week's worth of fairly relaxed painting).

Twelve painted Wildspire minis

Four Bugbears

Most of the monsters in the sets come in fours, nicely building up a collection and giving me a manageable number to tackle at any one time. 

So I randomly dipped into the box and came out with Bugbears.

Preparation 

These four were washed, there was quite a bit of mould release agent on them, then they got the hot water treatment to straighten the pole arms.

There are some mould lines on them; not awful, but visible. I did try removing them, but I'm not that familiar with the material (PVC?), and it seemed to tear rather than cut cleanly, so I left them. 

Then a priming coat of Vallejo German Green Brown Primer.  I considered giving them a lining wash and white drybrush, followed by Xpress/Speedpaints, but the detail looks a little shallow in places, so I'm sticking with more traditional methods. 

Painting 

The fur was Vallejo Game Color Plague Brown, which was then drybrushed with a 1:1 mix of the Plague Brown and Vallejo Model Color Pale Sand (the result looking so much like VMC Sunny Skin, that if there's a next time, I'll just use that).

The darker fur was Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Sienna, applied first as a thinned coat and then, as that was still drying, neat over a smaller area, especially the head. This gives the effect of the dark fur fading. I picked out some of the tufts of fur with VGC Beasty Brown to highlight.

I tried to give the equipment a mixed look, after all, bugbears scavenge their gear, so some of the pauldrons are leather (brown or black) and one is metallic. They each have a cloth 'skirt' for which I used different colours to identify individual minis. They also have bits of what I thought looked like a gambeson. So those were a dirty canvas colour, rather like the dwarven crossbows I painted a while back.

Metallic areas were given a wash with Army Painter Dark Tone, then everything was given a wash of Marine Juice/Sonic Tonic.

To lift them a bit after the wash, they got a very light drybrush of VMC Pale Sand.

Finally, I picked out eyes and teeth as best I could.

Finishing 

I wondered about basing. Normally I'd remove minis from their bases and rebase on clear acrylic, but this seems to go against the spirit of these 'cheap and cheerful' minis.

In the end I went for a light colour, VGC Cold Grey. Hopefully they'll look okay on stone dungeon floors and in more natural surroundings.

I may texture them with sand at some point.

They were finished with a coat of matt varnish.

The four bugbears

Four Mummies

Having rather enjoyed painting the four bugbears, I took another dip into the box and drew out the mummies. 

Now there's not much to these.  They certainly look the part, shambling corpses wrapped in bandages, but there's nothing really special about them. 

Preparation 

As with the bugbears, these were washed, given the hot water treatment (some of them had gone from undead lurching to drunken staggering) and primed with Vallejo German Green Brown Primer. 

Painting 

They were pretty simple to do. Drybrush of VGC Khaki, then Bonewhite and finally Off White. 

I wanted to do more than that though, so I squinted hard and imagined that some of the preserved flesh was showing in gaps between the bandages (rather like the Heroquest Mummies).

I've seen mummies in museums (including, gloriously, as a child, Tutankhamun) and the flesh tends to be a dark brown.  But that would have looked a bit too much like deep shading on the bandages, so I went for a dark grey instead, VMC Dark Blue Gray.

When I got to the head, it seemed to be partially unwrapped, with a bit of hair and the jaw showing among the bandages.  I tried to make these features stand out, simply to give a bit more interest.

Four shambling mummies Four Dire Wolves My next dip pulled out the Dire Wolves. These have a lot of definition on the sculpted fur, so I tried using Speedpaints. Preparation  After washing - no hot water treatment needed this time - I primed in white. Then they got a lining wash of 1:1 Army Painter Dark Tone and Vallejo Xpress Paint Medium. Finally they were drybrushed white, to approximate a zenithal undercoat. Painting  I wanted them to look like the Citadel wolves I painted back in 2024; greys shading up from a pale belly through darker flanks and finishing with a very dark colour along the spine. I started with a 1:1 mix of Army Painter Speedpaint Holy White and Runic Gray on the belly, face and legs, then, while that was still wet, just Runic Gray on the outside of the legs, particularly the tops, and the flanks. I let this dry before adding coats of Runic Gray and Gravelord Gray, then straight Gravelord Gray. Once that had dried, it was a Gravelord Gray and Grim Black mix. Finally just Grim Black.  Each coat covers a smaller area higher up the body, until the final coat is just a thin line along the spine.  This doesn't match any particular animal that I'm aware of, but I feel that it does look suitably lupine (if I do the boars, I'll give them brown fur in a similar fashion).  I then switched to more conventional painting for details such as the eyes and teeth.

Four Dire Wolves

So are Wildspire Miniatures Any Good?

Now I've painted some of the set, I've a better idea.  I'll do a full proper post if folk are interested once I've painted a few more.  Who knows, I may even get the full set painted this century.

Pros

I like these minis. I've certainly got nicer D&D minis, but not at anything close to this price. They paint up well, and having just four of them is a good number for me to tackle before I lose enthusiasm, almost like the 'palette cleansers' I used to do back in 2021.

They're recognisable for what they are (well, assuming you know what a bugbear is), and I'm sure they'll go well on the table top.

After painting both bugbears and mummies with traditional techniques, I was pleased how well the Speedpaints worked on the textured fur of the wolves; I'll be looking out for opportunities to do this again.

Cons

If I'm being critical, the detail on the bugbears (and other humanoids, but I'm looking at the 'bears here) faces isn't great, though I think I've managed to at least hint at teeth and eyes.  If you're a stickler for correct equipment, bugbears should have shields and use morning stars, though it would certainly be easy to swap the polearm blade for an appropriately spiky weapon head.

The mummies are dull, though this is more a case of the subject matter.  Mind you, even just adding weapons would have made them more interesting.

They all seem a bit small compared to modern RPG minis, which  have got larger over the years.  I would imagine that the bugbears would scale nicely with the first lot of bugbears in the WotC pre-painted line, but I don't think I've got any left for comparison.

The worst issue with size is the Dire Wolves.  In D&D they are large creatures, and have been for multiple editions.  These are on medium bases, though they certainly take up a lot of space on those bases.  It might be possible to rebase them, but that's beyond the scope of this little project.

Whats Next?

I've plenty of stuff I should be painting and building now the D&D adventure is done, but these made a nice little diversion.

This group of 12 minis is 20% of the box, by mini count.

I shall continue to dip in and paint them in groups of four in between other stuff.  I'm keeping track on the photo on the box lid.

Keeping score.  12 down, 48 to go

Wildspire Miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons

Whilst assembling the minis required for the Master Forge I looked at what is available these days beyond the usual Reaper or Wizkids.  

I found Wildspire Miniatures, and thought they were an interesting collection, but by that time I'd decided what I needed, so filed them under 'possibly investigate later'.

I didn't pursue it any further until I noticed that they had a special offer on one of the boxed sets. 

At less than 50p a mini (and some of them are big) I thought it worthwhile investigating. The price has since gone back up, but they are still under 60p each.

(A quick note, this is an expansion to the Classic Encounters Essentials set, so is, perhaps, a little less immediately useful.  Both sets are available in the Classic Encounters Complete set).

That's a small box for 60 minis!

Well packed though

Contents

An 'Acid Elemental'* and three oozes.  I'll admit I thought these might work nicely for some of the elementals in the forge, though in the end they stayed in the box.

They are nicely detailed, and will definitely get some table time. They might get a wash and perhaps a very light highlight, but they're pretty much ready as is.

Translucent Green stuff

Air Elemental and Gas Serpents*. More nicely detailed minis.  I do have Air Elementals already, notably Reaper Bones, but a bit of variety is nice. I'm not sure what a gas serpent is, but the minis look fun.

Translucent clear minis

Bugbear, cultist, bandit and unholy knight*. All reasonable minis and pretty useful. They mostly have obvious D&D stats (I'd probably use the unholy knight as a wight). There are four of each of these in the set.

 A good set of adversaries for most heroes

Giant worm*, imp, ghoul and werewolf. There are some noticeable gaps on the ghoul and the werewolf, some filler should help here. Again, there are four of each in the set.

I'm sure I've seen all these in films

Dire wolf, boar, harpy and mummy. The wolf is a nice wolf, but small for a dire wolf. It's a refreshing change to have a clothed harpy. Yet again, four of each.

Are you my mummy?

Naga, giant and earth elemental. One of each of these. These are great minis. 

If I'm being picky, I like my earth elementals a bit chunkier and the pose could be more threatening.

Big stuff

First Impressions 

These are good minis, especially for the price. 

There are some odd sizes when compared to the Monster Manual descriptions, but nothing too egregious. 

Detail is generally good, though it's occasionally soft on some (the bugbear's face for instance). For some reason, the translucent minis seem better detailed. 

Most of these will do the job nicely, though not necessarily better than stuff I've already got painted up in my collection.

What's Next?

I've already started painting some of these (expect posts showing them over the next few weeks).  They easily chunk into groups of four so I'm getting through them steadily.

Will I get any more? 

I'm tempted if I find any more on offer. I've looked at the creatures here, but they also do sets of heroes, which look interesting, with a wide variety of species and class, and a good mix of male and female characters.

I'll do another post analysing the range and coming to some sort of conclusion if they are a must have for role players, or just a big disappointment (though how can you be disappointed by that giant?)

*Wildspire do a booklet of stats and various other downloads which should explain what some of the less familiar creatures are.

The Final Mini from the Master Forge

As promised last post, here's the Sand Creature. 

It sort of reminds me of the SFX in The Mummy (not the original B&W version) with the face leering out of the sand.

The Sand Creature 

From the side 

and the rear

It's a WizKids Mage Knight Pyramid mini, and has long been part of my RPG collection, rebased from the  'clix' base onto a GW 40mm round. However, for the adventure I wanted it on a 50mm clear base, and the painting needed some attention too.

Mage Knight minis use colours to differentiate between different power levels of the same mini, and this had parts of it painted blue.

I painted over these bits with Vallejo Game Color Terra, then drybrushed with Vallejo Model Color Iraqi Sand and then gave the whole mini a drybrush of Pale Sand. Very easy.

It's certainly not the most spectacular mini I've ever done, but it did the job.

I'm slowly assembling quite a few elemental themed creatures, and while I've no immediate plans to use them, it's always good to have them.

Minis for the Master Forge

If you've read the earlier D&DF2F posts, you'll know that I had to change the focus of the in person session. What was going to be a pleasant ramble in a delightful Feywild valley became a tense exploration of an abandoned dwarven forge.

Fortunately, I was able to source a lot of what I needed from my collection of pre-painted minis. 

I still used some newly painted stuff or pre-paints that I added detail to and rebased to match my collection.

A fine selection of creatures

Valley Trolls 

Three jolly trolls

Three troll backsides, sorry, back sides

These trolls are Reaper Bones minis, and are pretty good representations of D&D trolls, to my eyes at least. I dug these out of my unpainted Reaper Bones box (it's a very big box).

They were originally planned for the Valley; indeed I've acquired a few more of the same design in different poses, so I've a good selection of trolls now, should I need them.

For the game session I was going to repurpose them as Scrags (aquatic trolls), but the heroes avoided that encounter.

Painting was straightforward; a liner of 50:50 Army Painter Dark Tone and Vallejo Xpress Medium to pick out the details and give something for paint to adhere to, then a white drybrush.

Then a series of Army Painter Speedpaints and VX paints. I kept the colours simple, and I'm pleased with the results.  

They might not get any table time this time,  but they'll come in useful in the future. 

Constructs 

A recurring feature of the Thunderforge Clanhold and the Master Forge is a variety of constructs made and used by the dwarves to help in various tasks.

Kluku

Delightful

Many of these had already been defeated or avoided, but the party, especially Harrow, have adopted Kluku, the dragon construct. 

I used an old WotC prepainted Young Copper Dragon mini.  I gave it a Strong Tone wash, then a drybrush.  I picked out a few details in copper, gold and silver to make it look like an assembly of different components rather than a living creature.  

Forge constructs, ideal for smithy work

There are also some forge constructs, designed to help with the heavy manual work. These are WotC Hammerers.

I did the bulk of the painting many years ago, they appeared in The Mines of Dhur, a 4E adventure I wrote as part of the long campaign. 

I added a few extra details and shading. Unfortunately I couldn't rebase them as I've run out of clear bases.

Elementals

Much of the danger in the Master Forge came from elemental creatures. I use the World Axis cosmology, as developed for 4E, for my current 5E campaign*. The individual Elemental Planes, with associated Para-elemental stuff has gone, replaced by the Elemental Chaos. 

This meant that I didn't need lots of gates, cracks, portals or whatever to bring different elements into play, just one McGuffin linking the material plain to the Elemental Chaos can create all sorts of variety.

Further, I don't have to be tied to just one element; different elementals can turn up, though in practice I'm not sure how well that came across.

I already have loads of elemental type miniatures from WotC and Reaper. These generally got used as is, and I took far more than I needed.

The following minis did get a bit more attention.

A xorn

Zzkk Slth

Zzkk Slth is a xorn; Xorn are one of D&D's wierder creatures,  looking like rocky barrels with three legs, three arms, three eyes and a gaping maw. It's certainly not something that's easy to proxy.

Fortunately WotC produced at least two different versions.  Zzkk Slth met the party a few weeks ago and wandered off after being given some bronze symbols of Baphomet to eat. 

I gave him a more varied colour pallet and painted in the eyes (black on the original mini). I painted the teeth and claws like steel, after all, it eats metals, so it's bound to have teeth that look a bit different. 

I didn't get a picture of the Sand Creature (presumably some form of Earth Elemental), but I'll get that posted soon.

So that's the minis I painted for the game.  I'm sure they'll see more use in the future, thus adding to my painted RPG minis.  some of them might have limited use, but all of them are nice to have done.

Mini Studio?

As you can see I've used the Master Forge scenery as a backdrop. 

I've been wary of doing this sort of thing in the past as I've wanted to fit everything into the light box and didn't want too much extra stuff to distract the eye (or the auto focus).  But I think this works,  helped a lot by very bright sunlight to illuminate everything, so I'll be experimenting further.

*This mismatch of game world and game edition seems to be feature of my campaigns. 

I ran 3/3.5 and 4E campaigns in Mystara, originally designed for Basic, Expert, Companion etc rules, so it makes sense (???) To use the 4E setting for 5th edition. 

Season of Scenery/Dungeons and Dragons Master Forge Complete

I got the Master Forge done in time for the game.  Now that's over, I'll show it here. 

You might want to refer to the adventure playthru for more details of what things were and how the heroes interacted with the terrain.  I gave more details on the construction and planning in an earlier post, which, again, may prove useful to review.

The Master Forge

I built four levels of the forge and mapped out the remaining levels and the surrounding cavern and a little bit of the mines on dot and cross paper.  The roll I got last year is still going strong.

The four levels have two entrance/exits to the cavern surrounding the Forge. They are connected by stairs or ramps, and a lift shaft also links them, giving explorers options when moving through the structure.

Basement 

The basement

Basement from the other side

Steps lead up to the ground floor and the lift platform rests on the stone flagged floor. 

The base of the furnace occupies one corner. 

Four pillars surround the centre and wooden walls block this area off. 

Ground Floor (casting floor)

The Ground Floor

Ground Floor from the other side

Doors lead out into the cavern (though they were unusable in play due to the water pressure behind them), and a wooden ramp leads up to the mezzanine level. 

The centre of the room is a pit of sand, used for casting from the furnace, which can pour molten metals into it.

The heroes never fully drained the cavern, so didn't enter through the main doors.  If they had done, this is the view they would have seen.

The view from the door

First Floor Mezzanine 

The mezzanine level

Mezzanine viewed from the other side

There are large voids in the wooden floor, effectively making the ground floor and this floor one space. 

A wooden ramp leads up to the next level.

There are two doors in the furnace at this level, with flooring allowing the dwarves to access them (for hand pouring of the more precious metals).

Second Floor (ore loading)

The Ore Loading area atop the lower levels

And from the other side

A door leads to a bridge over the cavern, ore was brought in on carts when the Master Forge was in operation.

The top of the furnace is here, with shuttered openings for loading the ore and other substances for the smelting process.

A wide flight of steps lead up and then divide, both arms end in locked doors on the next floor, the Crafting Level.  This level had previously been explored by the heroes, hence it had a low priority when it came to building the terrain.  In fact, it never got beyond being drawn out on paper.

Construction 

As mentioned previously, I used the Crooked Staff method (using corrugated and thin card with the textures printed on paper and stuck to the card) on Fat Dragon EZ Lock Dungeon terrain including the Hall of the Mountain King set.

This did lead to some changes; the original map had stairs and ramps that ascended at 45°, but the card terrain sets have a shallower angle, so I had to account for that. Initially the floors were 20 foot apart, but this would have meant a lot more space for stairs, so the ceiling height became a mere 10 foot. Mind you, it is a Dwarven building.

Walls and Corners 

Initially I wanted to craft sections of walls that could be removed as required. As time ticked by I decided to manage without.

But the upper floors had a tendency to sag, especially at the edges, so I built corner pieces to act as supports and a visual reminder that there are ten foot walls around each floor.

In play, with the floors separated, the corners can be removed.

The Furnace 

I wanted the furnace to look impressive. There's a nice one in the Halls of the Mountain King set (partly why I decided to use it). In the end, though, it wasn't really what I wanted, so I used some of those textures on a Pringles tube cut to size. Other features on the PDF were repurposed to make the fittings on the structure, such as the little doors and the chute.

The Vault of the Fang

The climax of the adventure took place in a strange extra dimensional space. This was simply drawn out (mostly because this was a late addition to the adventure and I didn't have time to do the concept justice in a rushed 3D build).

The tooth was a plastic fang from an old Halloween necklace, trimmed and mounted on a clear base. 

The crystals were taken from a piece I made for the 4E campaign, dismantled for the purpose.

And that's it.

I probably put a bit too much effort into this, but I do want these occasional sessions to feel special. 

As I was building the forge, I was aware that it might be a fancy setting for a mediocre adventure. Fortunately those Fornits seemed to do their job just in time.

What's Next?

Well there's still some time left for the Season of Scenery challenge, and I do have some (lots) of unfinished stuff.  Hopefully I'll get round to finishing some of this off.