Uncharted Empires.

UNCHARTED EMPIRES

How about an unconventional review of the Uncharted Empires book for a change? Having read it a couple of times through now I think the one word to sum it up is….. wait for it…… bored of waiting….. FLAVOUR!

The first Uncharted Empires book was obviously taking existing Warhammer armies and throwing them into Kings of War, changing them enough so the Adeptus Lawyers don’t come charging in with bolter and chainsword. It gave the armies new homes but some of them just felt out of place, not quite part of the world of Mantica, like strangers in a strange land. Over time the more they got played with the more they settled in. With this new book they finally showed their Mantic colours. In a way this was both a blessing and a curse. By being played repeatedly they have developed their own personalities of how they look, play and feel within the Kings of War community and it’s come to be accepted that’s that just how they are. Someone may have a great idea for modelling a unit and once people see it on the table think ‘that’s awesome!!’ And so adopt it themselves. So slowly over time the race takes it’s own shape. So here’s the problem. We’ve reached that line in the sand where we can use whatever models we want Vs what Mantic say the race is like. The newer races were always going to get Mantificated (take THAT spell check! THWOP! KAPOW! KERRUNCH!) at some point and properly be brought in from the other side. I’m guessing that over the next couple of years that some of the model ranges become so extensive that we’ll see more Uncharted Empires armies moved over to the main rulebook.

So here is our problem, how do you make a race more ‘Mantic’ without alienating the current perceived theme?

It’s been a bit hit and miss. Mostly hit I think.

Kingdoms of Men are perhaps the easiest. They’re the historical armies, the Empire and Brettonian armies, it’s the ‘one size fits all’ army and so the easiest in a way to deal with. Aside from a few small list tweaks they’re good to go. There is no way to ever Manificate (SPLAT!) Kingdoms of Men because the range and breadth of what can be used is so huge that it’s best to not bother. This army will always be out in the cold in the world of Pannithor with regard to background. You want humans with background then check those winter flight prices to Basilea.

On the other hand I like what has been done with the Brotherhood but it was going to be tricky. When I heard what had happened to the Brotherhood in the Edge of the Abyss campaign I half imagined them to become some sort of bedraggled mercenary army but couldn’t quite work out in my head how that would translate into an army list. I like what they have done though.

The Order of the Brothermark…. Is nice. In a way it’s the most ‘themed’ of the themed armies. It’s a bit pointless as it’s pretty much a Basilean army and the extra ‘Brotherhood” units bring very little gaming wise to it. It’s just a theme. Just nice. An opportunity to make your Basilean force a little different. Maybe have those Abyssal hunt knights as bedraggled mercenaries. And who doesn’t love monster hunting?

The Order of the Green lady however ring my bells so well it’s like Santa has wrapped his reindeer harnesses around my genitals and kicked me in the groin until I pass out. I love them! I’ve always been enchanted by the mystical weirdness of the woods, a mixture of growing up in the country and being mentally scarred by watching Tom Cruise in Legend as a child. There is a very traditional fairy feel to them for me, noble knights who guard the mystical ways, fighting to defend the sacred ways of the Lady. There are a lot of Arthurian overtones and I love it. I feel that forest shamblers would have been a bit more thematic than earth elementals but that’s just me. I love the Knights of Redemption and the sacred water keyword and will totally be doing an army in the future. I’ll use a mix of my Brettonians and Nature for now and this demonstrates my word of choice…..FLAVOUR! My Brettonian army can be used here with some nature units. Or maybe add in some Basileans and I have some Brothermark, KoM, A few Halflings and I have Rhordia force. But for these I may very well do some properly converted water knights, I just need to find the right models.

Salamanders I’ve never been a fan of, I like some big dinosaur models (EVERYBODY likes big dinosaur models) but always found the infantry a little dull. The Mantic plastic kit isn’t bad, though not inspirational enough to do a whole army of. However, my interest got peaked a little when I saw the Arkosaur Necromancer and the extra background in the book is nice. AND Mr Gilbert mentioned about upgrade kits….. Consider myself interested! I have a horde of salamanders I was going to convert to Placoderms but got bored of the idea so I’m currently building them, I have the dungeon saga salamander who looks like he will fit nicely on that old dragon in my bits box. Plus those Mierce models I have are waiting for a home. I got Artakl in the Black Friday sale too….. All of a sudden I have a nice little 1k army for Doubles games! It’s one of the things I love about new army books, seeing the possibilities of what I can build from what I’ve got. I know a lot of players write lists for gaming and then get and paint the models but I’ve always found that a bit upsetting. For me an army is a personal thing that you grow organically as you go, painting models you love, trying to find how they work and changing the army as you get inspired or finding new ways to play with it. Sometimes a unit will be shit but I’ll still take it in every game because I love the way I painted it and can’t bear for the army to go to war without it. This salamander army will be one of those organic processes. I’ll paint some units and play a few small games for fun and see how it goes! RAAAWWWR! (while waving my little arms!)

Free Dwarves are another beautiful example of FLAVOUR! There’s nothing terribly different from the main list (hardened dwarf players may shave off my beard for saying that…..), but again it’s all about what you do with it that matters. The Mantic dwarf models are okay, though I really like the Vanguard ones. Bezerkers and rangers are what it’s all about for me! The splitting of the lists has given real depth to the personality and background of the Dwarves and sets them apart from traditional GW and LOTR styles. Mantiification in action. I have some Brock riders half painted somewhere and they may even get buddies at some point. Also, I don’t actually have a beard.

Ratkin and Ratkin slaves. I’m going to chicken out of this one as I can’t quite get the feel of the army yet. The actual gaming list seems to be in a far more settled place but the background isn’t quite hitting the spot for me. Making them slaves to the Abyssal dwarves doesn’t really sit right to me. I’d happily have an Abyssal Dwarf theme list with slave hordes including orcs and goblins and other creatures too. Huge experimental deformities (love the new Grotesques!) and have the rats a big part of that but this theme list just doesn’t hit the spot for me. It’s giving them a separation from the GW skaven but until we see more models and flavour, the Ratkin and me aren’t in the same room yet.

And the Herd. Oh. I think I’ve seen more people distraught over this than anything else in the book. The list is still pretty good from what I can tell, it’s just nothing like it was before. The addition of forest shamblers etc really makes it a little odd now but I see where they’re going with it. Like the whole forest and all it’s creatures coming alive and tearing invaders apart with branch and claw. This addition has brought a few units being removed but we’ve seen virtually whole armies invalidated by the changes. Oddly for me with the models I have it’s worked out fantastically. Also the new models from the League of Infamy give the race a definite feel instead of the usual GW Beastmen that many seem to use. It will be nice to see those armoured Longhorns in units.

Varangur have also been stroked with the Mantic brush. The army now feels more like an evil Northern Alliance and has so many of the same units that there isn’t much difference. The main one is that FLAVOUR again. The Draugr and Fallen units really give the army that sense of bleak humanity away from the fluffy boots of the good guys. There are lots of chances for conversions and I can’t wait to see what people come up with! With the two player box set and all of the gorgeous Northern alliance models, I think Varangur will see a new lease of life too. Bye Bye Chaos. Though looking at what I could use for mounted sons (and also Order of the Green Lady) makes me realise just how few quality convertible cavalry models Mantic produce. There have been lots of new monsters and infantry of late but cavalry needs some oomph.

League of Rhordia doesn’t quite feel finished…. Most of the units have been tidied up and the army has a much stronger sense of itself than it did before however with the changes to the Halflings and their new League of Infamy models on the horizon I shall reserve judgement for now. There’s more to be seen from these guys. This will do in the meantime.

Sylvan kin I adore! I thoroughly loved the resolution of the Elven story in the End Times of Warhammer and seeing the new direction I eagerly dived into making an End Times army. Needless to say I never finished it and didn’t even get a game in with it before it was smashed by the toilet lid of Age of Sigmar. So the models have been sat in a box for years and occasionally taken apart and put into new armies but this is finally the list I’ve been waiting for. I’ve always found the Mantic Elves list a little lacking in character and the models are woeful so they didn’t even get looked at. The new League of Infamy models are a fantastic change of direction though and really reflect all the new background in style and direction. Well saved Mantic! I’m guessing it’s a far off fantasy actually getting Boskwraith models but there is a huge possibility of extra style to explore with this army visually to take it away from the basic list.

The same applies to the Twighlight kin. The addition of all the Abyss and Nightstalker units alongside the awesome Cronebound rules makes them a wonderful theme of a few mad evil elves using magic to control an army of monsters! Wonderful! But the lack of actual evil elf models from Mantic will restrict the flavour of this army to some degree until they come to it properly. I like the direction but again, I don’t think it’s quite there yet. And it doesn’t seem to come up much in tournament lists either so I’m guessing it’s not just me. At least they got rid of those bloody Twighlight kin chariot hordes. I feel sorry for the Herd players but not for the chariot players. Tough. You only have yourselves to blame.

My favourite thing about the whole book, apart from FLAVOUR is being the recurring theme of cross pollination of units. Making a new army can be a costly, time and energy consuming affair but the theme lists and their spread of units means you can make new armies with only a few new units. Want a twilight Kin army? Add a couple of elf characters and Abyssal units to your Nightstalkers. Earth Elementals, Forest shambles, Wild Gur Panthers, Naiads….. There is a huge list of units that can be cross pollinated across different armies and that means if you want a change, or just paint something new then you can include it. So stick some zombies in your Northern alliance and call them Varangur. Try new things and have a bit of fun with it. It keeps the game fresh and exciting and stops people getting bored playing the same army over and over.

Uncharted Empires, I salute you.