Its been a long couple of years hasn’t it? As we were on a break between games at Franticon in London in March 2020, a few of us talked about the growing unrest of the spread of Corona in the country and joked about not shaking each others hands…. Little did we know that a week later the country would go into lockdown and I wouldn’t get to play a game of Kings until September. With strong restrictions, the Shroud of the Reaper tournament in Bexley, South London was the only tournament we were going to get for once again, quite some time….

So after another lockdown, or two. Actually, it might have been three. I’ve lost count. Let’s say four to be on the safe side. Anyway, we are back in action! 

As Mantic have been championing the slogan ‘Get back gaming!’ (and who doesn’t love the playful buttock slap of alliteration) in their recent blogs, I thought I’d shamelessly steal it pretty much sums the way we’re all feeling right now. We’ve been mostly vaccinated and the social restrictions that have kept us from our beloved game are lifting so The Southern Crown tournament at the brilliant Tabletop Republic in High Wycombe finally went ahead after several postponements.

Because of the restrictions we were in separate groups which mostly worked.

I was intending to take my Forces of Nature as I said in my last blog but I failed miserably to get my centaurs painted and took Northern Alliance instead. In fact I actually played a couple of games at home on my own against myself to test the army and refresh my brain on the rules. I beat my undead. Twice.

My 1495 points list;

2 troops of Half-elf bezerkers

Huscarl regiment

2 Hordes of ice elementals 

Tundra wolf troop

Lord of frost fang w/snow fox and pipes of terror

Ice-blade w/snow fox and wings of honey maze

Ice Queen w/surge.

Game 1

I came up against Rusty’s Abyssal dwarf list which was a wall of Def6 Golems and 2 war machines. While possibly terrifying it was actually a perfect match up for me, especially for invade. My ice elementals blasted and froze the golems before my battle line charged in and I was packing a lot of crushing strength. My wolves and Ice-blade took out both war machines on turn two and turned to attack from the rear and it was over in short order for a win! Rusty is always one of my favourite opponents to play and after so long I’m glad he was my first game back. We were both giddy with euphoria. 

Game 2

I’d seen Chris Lynchs gorgeous autumn themed elf/sylvan army at several tournaments but not yet had the pleasure of playing it. It was packing 2 hordes of forest guard, some fast cavalry and a tree herder so would be a tough nut to crack. He committed too early with his cavalry and only just failed to break my huscarls. My counter attack took out his cavalry and two troops of panthers and after that it was a dance of positioning and distancing as we slowly wiped each other out one combat at a time. It came to a turn seven win for me but it was closer that id like to admit! I love close games where every dice roll counts and this was no exception.

Game 3 

This was a hard game for me against Mike Smith and his Ratkin Slaves. With hard hitting halfbreed cavalry, a half breed champ and a big flyer he outdistanced me and he had a lot of infantry, especially the 3 units of bezerkers. There was a big stand off, neither side willing to fully commit. A charge from my Half-elves wavered his wretches in the centre and I thought I had the advantage but then I realised I had made two mistakes…. I hadn’t seen that his halfbreed champion could charge them and he took them off. I’d also left my Ice-blade in charge range of his flyer and she died in short order along with the tundra wolves. I finally went for it but my Frostfang Lord fluffed his attacks against the half breed champion and got swamped. The ice elementals did a valiant job on the other flank, taking off several units but it wasn’t enough and he got more objectives by far. Danny is a loser this time.

Day 2, Game 4

As I did so well on day one I went up against the big boys from the other groups and first game was against Matt Gee’s gorgeous ogre army. I sort of had a plan. It didn’t work. Especially as he used Kuzlo’s sticky tongue on turn 2 to lick my half-elf out from behind a wall and boomer them to bits! I now didn’t have enough on my right flank to punch round and I got deleted a unit at a time. On the other flank my bezerkers went up against his bezerkers while my centre was a mass of pain vs pain. Unfortunately I had to use my Frostfang lord as chaff and my ice elementals failed to kill anything with their icy breath….. and then I got charged. I killed what I could but his chariot horde hit like a train and he rolled over me. Loss!

Game 5

Grant Alexander had a fast Twilight kin army which easily outdistanced me. With a horde of fiends, Mikayel and Abyssal horsemen on the right flank…. I did the smart thing and hid on the left! This mission allowed us to destroy objectives so I got rid of the one in front of his fast stuff and took the two on the left, using a tower to cover my ice elementals. The frostfang lord and huscarls stood to take the charge but Grant was unwilling to commit…. Until I noticed he had just left his fiends in range! Both units went through the fiends and then the horsemen. He had a unit of gargoyles guarding the other objective but Mikayal wavered my frostfang and my ice blade got shot off before I could get to them. My half-elves took a last desperate charge to take off his spearmen but to no avail. It was close but ended on a draw.

Game 6

I’m a strong mid-table player so I wanted this last game to be a win or a draw but alas it was against Mike Smiths Ratkin Slaves from the day before. I played a tighter game this time, keeping my units together and holding the loot I pushed hard as a block up the left and turned for the central objective. It was close and brutal in the centre for several turns and I played far better than the day before but coming in the last couple of turns I lost a couple of key combats and couldn’t pull it off. Failure of the match was my tundra wolves getting a perfect flank on his flyer, 18 attacks, hitting on threes and wounding on 4’s….. and only did 2! Bleurgh!

So over all, 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. 4 out of the 6 games were close and could have gone either way at several points. 

As for my army? I was quite happy with the way it performed. It was brutal at short/mid range but I really struggled against cavalry and speed. 

The Ice-blade mitigated this somewhat but couldn’t do it all on her own but she is one of the best things in the game for warmachine/chaff/character hunting. 

The tundra wolves were great. Fast, nimble and punchy and a lot of use. So much so I bought another troop! Tabletop Republic stock a huge amount of Kings of War products so it was fun to finally do a bit of shopping again.

I can’t fault the ice elementals. They’re expensive but with the shooting attack and surge they can put out damage and threaten a lot of the board.

The lord on Frostfang kept a lot of enemy units honest with his 15” charge. He did get wavered twice so I’m inclined to swap the brutal item for headstrong or wild charge so he can either stay in the fight or threaten cavalry. He can’t do a lot on his own but in combination with other units he’s gold!

The half-elves troops are one of the best units in the game. They hit hard, they’re fast and their nerve keeps them around longer than their defence would suggest. I’d have 2 more troops if the models were easier to get hold of. (Oi Mantic! Hear my screams of frustration!).

The huscarls are terrifying and can smack anything good and proper. Again, expensive and the army suffers from not having high nerve so I’d be tempted to swap them for a horde of clansmen but I won’t because I can’t be bothered to paint them!

So getting back gaming…. What’s next? I’m frantically painting my Free Dwarves to take them to the FFS/Troll thing tournament in September. After that it’s possibly the London Grand Tournament and then Clash of Kings both of which are 2300pts. I’ll see how my Free Dwarves go before I decide what army to take. Forces of Nature are looking like a good option at the moment and they’re pretty much painted.

I’m back at Tabletop republic in November for ANOTHER rescheduled tournament and I’ve signed up for Stane of Blood in January (It sold out in about 2 hours!). It was cancelled this year on my 40th birthday so this year I have TWO birthdays to celebrate!!! 

Once these Dwarves are done I think I’ll tackle my Armada and League of Infamy stuff I haven’t had chance to play with yet. 

There’s just sooooo much to do now we’re BACK GAMING! The future is dice!

Apologies dear readers, as you may have noticed I’ve been a little quiet of late but that does not mean I have not been busy! It finally got announced that I am doing a novel for Winged Hussar Publishing called ‘Rage and Grace’ (Excitement all round! Woo woo!) So I’ve been busy on that. As you can probably agree, adding to the general stories and joy of Kings or War is far more important than merely writing about it! I’ll cover lots about the writing process and the story in a future blog but that will be a while yet. There are lot of books in the release schedule and mine is far down the list, and the stupidbumsmell pandemic has pushed everything even further down. 

I did write a blog though, and I decided in the end not to publish it. A Facebook post posed a query about wether people paint their armies in different skin colours and that got me thinking so I wrote a piece of both gender and racism in Kings of War. They’re subjects that are quite heavy in the media and every aspect of life seems to be under analysis so I thought I’d analyse ours, not from any personal views but out of sheer curiosity. Obviously its a volatile subject but I’ve never been afraid to open my mouth. I checked it over and got several learned people to read it over before I posted it just to make sure it was balanced, insightful and reasonable. I re-wrote parts and left it a while to look at it with fresh eyes. It was then I saw a poll in the Pannithor wiki Facebook page asking what people wanted to see in the novels.

‘More stories involving the named characters from KoW army lists’ was the top choice with 16 votes. There were 15 different poll options and right there down at the bottom with no votes at all was….

‘Stories where thematic commentary on real world issues is the central focus’.

No votes. Not one. And this mirrored my own view. We come to fantasy to explore new worlds and while real world themes exist in Pannithor, war, betrayal, greed, faith etc, bringing a loaded modern media frenzy is simply not needed or wanted. 

Real world bullshit can stay in the real world.

It’s the same reason I haven’t blogged at all about the pandemic and the effect it has had. We know full well what effect it has had on all of us and our lives and gaming so there’s no need for another blog from me to drag further misery into our happy place.

But it seems we have a bright future ahead. Watching the Mantic-fest releases shows that we already have a huge amount of cool new miniatures coming out and the tournament scene is getting pretty well booked.

Already I have a rescheduled tournament at the brilliant Tabletop Republic in July and another in November. I’m making the long trip up to Stockport in September to Element games for the FFS/Troll thing tournament and then there’s Clash of Kings at the new Firestorm Games in October. There’s also the possibility of the London Grand tournament too but that’s a lot of events in a short time and once hotels and travel hit my pocket that might be one too far. Plus I’m no fan of big multi-game events like that and the LGT has had some hideous reviews in the past so I won’t cry if I miss it.

One of the fun aspects of this line up is that every one has a different army list points value. With plenty of time in advance for once I’ve actually been looking at army lists, getting one I’m happy with and working towards building and painting it. Usually I tend to paint models I have and work towards making them work for me. It has the effect that many of my armies don’t synergise well until I’ve played a couple of tournaments with them and get new stuff to add in. After 3 Clash of Kings with my Trident Realms I finally reached an army list I was more or less happy with.

So for 1495 points at Tabletop republic I’m hitting with Forces of Nature. Two naiad hordes and a hydra will provide my base line with huge amount of ensnare, regen and nerve to get through at that points level. Backed up by an inspiring, healing Avatar of the Green lady they aren’t going anywhere. My counter punch will consist of a regiment of Centaur Bray striders and a beast of nature and a troop of bray-hunters and a pegasus for chaff/flank charge support and finally a unicorn with a boomstick to inspire, heal and zap anything annoying. Anything wanting to get through the naiads will have to overcommit a lot if they want to break them which means they won’t have the necessary forces left to deal with my fast stuff.

FFS/Trollthing is at 2000pts and for this I just decided to go stupid. I don’t often plan armies in advance, sometimes buying models and units I like with the idea of putting them into an army in the future. Sometimes I manage to get hold of stuff cheaply in sales or trades that might look fun or I’ll start armies and run out of steam really quickly. As a result I had a fair few dwarves hanging around and reading over the free dwarf list an idea slowly formed in my mind. Badgers. My buddy Duncan ‘Shadow’ Louca is great at sculpting animals and I’m a loyal member of his brilliant Patreon so I asked if he could sculpt some for me that I could use as swarms in place of hunting mastiffs. It got stupid quickly and 4 swarms later I have a lot of badgers! So 4 regiments of ironclad with throwing badgers gives me plenty of unit strength and piercing shots, 4 swarms of hunting badgers with throwing badgers is even worse. And a packmaster to make all those shots vicious? It’s so crazy it might just work. But if you’re going crazy then you may as well go really crazy. 2 regiments of Brock riders and a foot regiment of bezerkers gives a bit of punch, Sveri on a BIG badger gives me even more and finishing the list is a bezerker lord on badger and another with wings of honey maze to go hunting irritating things. Its fast, it’s crazy, and it might just work.

I’m doing these two armies for now. Clash of Kings is now up to 2300 points and as I always take a Mantic army for that so I’ll probably continue with the Forces of Nature depending on how my first list does. Maybe some surging/windblasting greater air elementals would be a nice addition. I still have two painted hordes of water elementals that haven’t seen the tabletop yet. Or my Forces of the Abyss are languishing in a box waiting to get finished…. We shall see! I may change my mind completely.

In other news I am now the proud owner of both League of Infamy and Armada. I have no one to play against, no time to paint the models and barely had chance to look at them but I love them anyway. Im also working on a Lord of the Rings style Kingdoms of Men army which is lots of fun.

So between novel writing, all this army preparation for my return to civilisation and being bombarded with awesome new stuff, I hope to write a proper blog again one day. You’ve just read the entire page when you could have read this last paragraph. Sucker.

Many people have a love/hate relationship with Games Workshop and I’m no exception. Starting with 3rd edition Warhammer it formed a huge part of my earlier life and then I got involved again in my early 20’s with renewed vigour. Finding myself in need of employment I ended up working for the company for 4 year in both the Guildford shop and (mainly) the Woking shop. I can’t lie, it was probably the best job I’ve ever had but I eventually I had to move on to something else. Fun doesn’t always pay the rent!

I carried on playing Warhammer, occasionally 40k and invested heavily in the Horus Heresy. Once Warhammer was cruelly taken from us I realised how much I missed it and I went looking for alternatives. AoS started badly and got a lot worse, X-wing lasted about 5 minutes, 9th Age looked like, and still looks like, an embarrassing mess. And then I had a go at Kings of War. I was unsure with it to start with because, let’s face it, it just wasn’t Warhammer. It was a chance to get my Brettonians back on the table though and at that point I was desperate and I have to admit I had a had a lot of fun. My first little tournament I even won 2 out of 3 games! I was back in business. After painting so many bloody Space Marines I wanted something radically different so got myself a Trident Realms mega army box set painted up and headed to my first Clash of Kings! And guess who was there signing people in? None other than my old cell manager from Games Workshop Zak Gucklehorn! Turns out Ronnie had been a bigjob in GW too and with 2nd edition a huge swathe of old Warhammer players like me had found refuge as well! The more I played and got involved in the community I found it was like the good old days of GW before the lawyers tore it a new one. Mantic had a sense of personality and it gave me nearly all the things I was missing. And then with extra games and books they filled in the gaps. It’s been a second golden age of Wargaming for me! And one day at a tournament I got chatting to one of the Mantic guys, Clive Stone, who was running one of his Angry Grot events and it turns out he’d been working for GW at the same time as me but at the High Wycombe store! I’d probably met him but I used to drink a lot more in those days so I can’t be expected to remember. So, like my last blog I thought I’d carry on my new tradition of getting people to write my blog for me and interview the plucky little fellow so you can hear his story too!

Take it away Clive…..

Because I’m lazy I shall go with the customary first question; How did you get into Wargaming? Tell us about yourself and your hobby history!

I actually got into wargaming at the ripe old age of 13/14 – I was young, bullied and bored.  A friend of mine at the time took me along to a local GW where they had a massed game going on, I got to join in and that was it – hooked ever since.  I then played every single game GW made til I was 18, worked as a key timer for a bit for both my local (HW, then Slough til it closed) and moved onto more “grown up” types of jobs.  I was weekly attendee though, often 3 times a week playing with the store regulars and just immersing myself into the hobby – so much so that whenever the hobby has dimmed a bit and I have moved onto other hobbies (League of Legends, WoW, 3D Printing) I have always kept a bit of hobby going.  Now I have older kids who enjoy it too, start roughly when I did so I get to relive it all again, but at home!

Tell us about how you ended up working for Mantic. What’s your role and what do you do?

I actually just pestered Ronnie to give me a job.  I came from out of the industry and was looking to move on from my career in Recruitment and Sales Consultancy – and luck would have it my role I have now opened up at roughly the same timeframe.  I’m now in charge of selling to the UK market and selected Retail outlets further afield.  I help with some of Mantic’s Recruitment (obviously using those skills I had previously) and generally have too much of every product we sell.

What are your favourite Mantic Games? What factions are your favourites?

Hard one, but I think top spot is Here’s Negan – I even wrote an expansion for it! In terms of faction favourite, it’s probably going to be Northern Alliance.  Just something about “almost” vikings and mixed race armies appeals to me. 

What are your top 5 favourite Mantic models?

Ice Queen

Mutant Rat Fiend

Armada Dictator

Asterian Spectra

Lekelidon (In fact almost all the new Salamander stuff is going to be incredible)

Angry Grot events! What is it? Why did you start it? And what events have you run so far?

Another one of those hobbies – I actually started it to help with my work.  It was a way of holding KoW/other games events in retail stores to show demand in a way that was mostly risk free for the retailer – a great example of this is Tabletop Republic who picked up that demand and carried on with it – they have their own established events now where I didn’t need to continue (largely because I moved to Nottingham!).  I’ve run a few events now and my biggest is probably the Vanguard “Masters” event I held last year at Mantic HQ.  I invited the top players of the year plus anyone else who fancied a try to battle out on custom scenarios that were made for a more competitive Vanguard match.  It was brilliant, so much so that I have booked Mantic out for a 3 day event in May (the last Bank Holiday in May) for another Vanguard, KoW, Armada and Deadzone bash.

I was really looking forward to the one you had planned where games of Vanguard preceded and influenced games of Kings of War. I do most of my gaming at tournaments so really miss out on fun stuff like this, but people seemed to be more in favour of an actual tournament. What was the plan and idea for it and what actually happened?

I really wanted this to happen, but for reasons I won’t go into it didn’t.  I am confident it will happen again in the future, as I really think it will be fun and engaging in a way that a solo tournament just cannot compete.  Maybe over a weekend with beer at Mantic – I haven’t stopped planning for it…

Do you have any other ideas for future events? Obviously the pandemic has violently shat on anything and everything but what have you got in the works for the future?

When the world is more predictable and safer, I plan on doing GrotCon (end of May currently) and another event just for Armada.  After those two, quite possibly it will be 2022 and I can schedule in 1 event every 2 months – tackling The Walking Dead, Deadzone, Dreadball and Armada as well as the obvious Kings of War and Vanguard.  I’d like to throw at least 2 events into the mix that aren’t about rankings so I can do some wacky stuff and just let people play for fun not just for points. 

I’m not expecting any sneaky reveals as that’s Ronnie’s job, but what’s your wish list? What games, models ranges etc would you personally want to see Mantic produce in the future?

Tremors.  I know it’s a long shot… but Man who can’t resist Kevin Bacon as a mini and some awesome looking Ass blasters. 

I’ve just seen all the cool stuff you’ve done for Armada! Whats the next army planned?

I will be printing a ton of stuff to kit out a few boards, then it’s just tackling my growing pile of armies.  I have Ratkin on the way (half built), an Elf army I haven’t finished, plus tons more for everything else)

And finally…… the big question! Who is the sexiest Mantic employee?

No contest, has to be the new 3D Printer Ricky received….

Thanks Clive for coming and having a chat! I’m fully appreciative of how Mantic engages with the community, they’re always on Facebook answering questions personally, I’ve listened to plenty of podcast interviews and seen them at open days and seminars. You really get a sense that they love the games and what they do. Clive’s Angry Grot tournaments are just another example of them choosing to be involved. Yeah they’re trying to sell us stuff, but it’s not easy getting rich off toy soldiers so it also involves a good deal of loving what you do and wanting to share it. Having worked in that situation myself it’s a good feeling when a customer gets excited about what you’re working on!

And I would also like to give much respect to Clive’s last answer. No reason to make things slightly awkward at work. Plus with that husky seductive voice, we all know it’s Ronnie…..x

Me and Ben Macintyre have a long and colourful past. I started working at Games Workshop in Woking during the Eye of Terror summer campaign (2001?) and Ben was a regular there. He looked a lot older than he was and we’d been out several times drinking and partying before I actually found out that he was 15 and what I thought was his work uniform was actually his school uniform…. Ben would stick around the store and would help out with painting models for the store armies and when he got old enough he ended up working there! Having two such titanic personalities thrown together was a winning combination and the shop entered something of a golden age. Hobby champions both, bristling with charm, charisma and enthusiasm! Even the big boss said we were one of the best full timer teams he’d ever seen and he was right! No one, and I mean NO ONE can clean up a post-party mess and get away with it like we can! Between Games workshop and viking re-enactment we left a trail of sparkle dust and devastation across the country. If anyone has ever seen the classic British comedy Bottom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson, you wouldn’t be far off the mark…..

There was the chocolate booby cake concussion night. The angry feet hilarity. There was the Sake frenzy night.The Dropkick’s incident. The blood print bottom nastiness. The plum cake cross-burning. The cheese bowling embarrassment. The Morris dancer thong awkwardness. I could explain most of these in great detail but you’d never respect us in the morning. But time goes on and we grew up. At the tender age of 40 I even have a dog now. How grown up is that?!?!? Ben grew up a bit faster, but mainly because his wife thought it was a good idea. So he now lives somewhere in South Wales (don’t ask me where because I can’t pronounce it) with a pet tortoise and is a full time professional model painter. And here’s the exciting bit…. He paints models for Mantic! In fact a lot of the models we see in photos etc were done by him! Snazzy eh? 

Personally I think that if you have a great mate who loves Mantic Games and you paint the models for them and get to see them before anyone else, that you would let him see them early too. Apparently that’s not the case. Despite being great mates, he also finds it hilarious to see me suffer. Bastard. (Evidence ref; the chocolate booby cake concussion night, the blood print bottom nastiness and The Dropkicks incident).

Anyway, due to the distance we don’t get to see each other much these days as we’re doing responsible adult things and I don’t live in his Mums spare room anymore so we rarely cross paths. We’re clearly linked by fate somehow as we’re both now Mantic celebrities, so I thought I’d interview him so you could all get past that crusty exterior and see the gooey interior of Ben Macintyre…..

So Ben, tell the lovely people a little about your background. How did you get into toy soldiers?

Hello lovely people! Im a 33 year old, lifelong toy soldier addict, and I regret nothing! Well, there was that night with the Sake but lets not get into that! I got my first toy soldiers when I was about 4 years old. Two small buckets of various 54mm plastic toy soldiers from my Grandpa (the legend that he is!) and it snowballed from there. 

Toy soldiers were always in my life, a family hobby really, I did try painting a few with Humbrol enamel paints when I was about 8, but it was such a ballache I gave up quickly.

My toy soldier collecting took a bit of a swerve (an expensive and highly addictive swerve) when a school friend introduced me to Games Workshop when I was about 13. He dragged me into the local GW Woking (best store ever) and that was me. 

I just couldn’t believe that there were these whole universes that existed without my knowledge! All these characters and armies, the settings and the background literature. It was a bit like unlocking a new part of my brain. Once opened never again to be closed. 

I didn’t have much money as a kid so I was a slow starter, I used to save up pocket money and buy smaller boxes of single part plastics and the occasional blister pack. Very early on I got my hands on a catalogue and spent hours pouring over it. I was immediately drawn to the Bretonnians. I have always been a huge fan of the medieval period and Knights, Damsels and dragons was a must have. To discover the £5, two Bretonnian knights of the realm or eight archer packs was absolutely amazing and I pretty much bought nothing else for quite a while. Wish id kept those!

Making use of the stores learn to paint and play initiatives I got really into Warhammer Fantasy, (40k came later on) and that was it really. From then onwards I was a permanent fixture in the store, so much so that they eventually gave me a job! 

I loved my time at GW working in both the Woking and later the Guildford stores. I met some lifelong friends (yourself included) and often miss it to this day. We had something really special at that time in Games Workshop’s history. The atmosphere in the stores and the amazing community was a joy to be a part of. We also got our community motto during those times “they may beat us at the gaming table, but we’ll win the fight in the car park afterwards” which should say it all. 

And how did you get into being a professional painter?

Originally it started when I was as a teenage “regular” in the GW Woking store. I was asked if I would paint something for a fellow gamer (a 54mm Inquisitor Artemis in Grey Knight colours) and I said “yeah go on then, it’ll be £40 (DEFINITELY chancing it with that quote!) they said yes and it went from there. A few more bits and pieces like that on and off,  till I left for Somerset about 10 years ago.

After a year doing a few random retails jobs to pay the mortgage, I stumbled into a job as the in-house painter at the Shepton Mallet based Spartan Games (now sadly defunct). That was a busy two years and my job quickly expanded to also cover managing the freelancers and certain parts of the design process, getting products from “oooo lets make…..” to a physical item ready for casting and mass production. I learnt a LOT there in a short a mount of time, made a lot of friends and contacts in the wargames industry and sort of set myself up for what was to come. 

I decided after a couple of years that it was time to move on, and after a 3 week holiday to Australia, I came back and set up as a freelance painter. Spartan Games paid me to continue my work on their various ranges for a while,  as well as an ever increasing group of both commercial and private clients. Leading up to today where I have a wide range of commercial clients and many private clients all over the world. As well as regularly writing articles for a variety of Wargames magazines.

For some us it sounds like a dream job. Is it as exciting as it sounds or do you get annoyed having to paint for other people all the time?

I have done worse jobs for sure! It really depends on what it is that’s on the desk at the time. If its box art for a commercial client then the pressure is on. Both in terms of maintaining quality and product deadlines. If it’s a private client the quality issues are still there of course, but usually there’s a bit more time to get it just right.

There is an unfortunate side effect that it doesn’t often leave me very keen to paint my own toys in my free time. After 12+ hours a day painting (yes I do work long days) it’s not often I’m really keen to sit down and paint again in the evening.  I do still paint my own toys but far less frequently thank I would like.

Even though it’s an undeniably fun activity, it is still my job. It takes up a large part of my time, and its ultimately there to pay the bills. I just get to do that immersed in a world of paints and toy soldiers. 

Do you have much time to paint your own stuff?

Not as much as I would like! If I’m sat at my desk with a brush in my hand, I might as well get paid for it right? The task is identical, just one of them is for free!

I have been trying to spend just half an hour a day on my own stuff (at the beginning of the day) so I can keep making slow and steady progress on conquering “lead mountain”. I would like to finish all the models I own but I’ve heard that if that happens you fade to black, Soprano’s style, so I’m not sure its worth the risk!

What of your own stuff are you gaming/painting at the moment?

Contrary to my previous statement, I’ve just started a new Space Wolves army! I don’t usually get to paint space marines to my best ability, so I wanted to try that out. That and my hobby nostalgia is strong at the moment and I have been looking at the old 2^nd edition Codex. Got me all fired up to re-create one of my first ever armies. 

Other than that I am looking to “level up” my skills a bit, so I’m looking at completing some larger 75mm scale pieces purely for display. First up will be the excellent Cult of Paint Deogard elven Kickstarter models.

Whats the worst painting commission you’ve ever had?

I’ve had a few dire ones in truth! Some odd colour schemes that, whilst I can advise it might not look how the client wants, ultimately its not my choice. “Ours is not to reason why, ours is just to paint and cry”

The most torturous job was a very large Slaaneshi demon force for Age of Sigmar. 90 demonettes and 30 mounted demonettes all done to a very high standard, with each one wet blended in very pale colours. It took an AGE to complete and there were more than a few ground-hog day moments. About 35 days painting the same model over and over again. Makes me shudder just thinking about it!

Whats the best?

I love the individual characters! They are always at a higher quality of paintwork, usually a better standard of sculpt and I can really get my teeth into them. Its also great to spend some time doing some reading on that character (historical, fantasy or sci fi) for some inspiration. 

Do you have a particular brand of paint you like to stick with?

I have paint from a wide variety of manufacturers. Each company has some colours they do really well and some they don’t. For example, GW make great reds, but their blues aren’t that good, however P3 blues (especially the Cygnar ones) are lush. Its really about finding what works best for you and sticking with it. Don’t listen to the people who say you must use “brand x” or you are terrible, it just doesn’t work that way. 

And what is your main go to with brush brands and airbrush?

Hairy sticks I’m a Winsor and Newton Series7 man. Ive tried them all over the years and for longevity and quality they win. They certainly cost a bit more but in my experience, you get what you pay for. 

My brushes are used for roughly 50 hours a week and id expect a Series7 to last me 2 months before being retired to the “basing brushes box”.

As for airbrushes Im a huge fan of Harder and Steenbeck. Ive used other brands but these are the best by far. Easy to use, maintain and clean, easy to get replacement parts and the quality is top. 

I currently have a Cult of Paint signature Infinity, and a slightly cheaper Evolution CR plus (for varnishing and undercoating) both are connected to my absolute workhorse Sparmax compressor.

Have you won any awards for painting? Not to brag but I have two Gold army on Parade awards and I don’t go around calling myself a professional painter, can you beat that?

None so lofty as that! I have won a Golden Demon though. I got Bronze for my duel at the Age of Sigmar Golden Demon a few years ago. I haven’t entered again as I didn’t especially enjoy the process. GW are looking for quite specific things in a winner and that’s a bit more restrictive than I found enjoyable. 

I am going to be entering other competitions such as Scale Model Challenge, the Monte San Savino  show and Euro Militaire when they finally allowed to be hosted again (thanks 2020) if you’ve never been or seen the types of piece there I REALLY recommend it. Incredibly eye opening and inspirational. 

Obviously the main reason you’re getting interviewed is because you do a lot of painting for Mantic. I’ve even seen your name in the rulebook credits! Fame at last! 

What stuff have you painted for Mantic? I know you did the Northern Alliance and the fancy-pants new Armada stuff but what else? 

Infamous! I’ve had to go back and look at what I’ve painted to answer this question, as its quite a bit, and id forgotten some of it. 

I’ve done some pieces for Deadzone (Asterian) Warpath (Forge Fathers, GCPs, Plague and Veer-Myn) Terrain crate (all of it) Armada (all of it) and of course Kings of War (Abyssal Dwarves, Goblins, Night stalkers, Northern Alliance, Ogres, Orcs and Ratkin.

Most recently it was the Armada fleets (amazing models!) and I currently have some Kings of war bits on my desk that I can’t tell you about but they are DEFINITELY going to be well received!

Whats been your favourite Mantic model that you’ve painted and why

The Northern Alliance models were amazing, So much detail and character to them, and an original aesthetic. The sculpts absolutely evoke the feeling of these weather-beaten and battle-hardened warriors. When a sculpt is so “complete” like that it makes it a lot more engaging to work on. 

Do you play any Mantic Games?

I sadly do not!  Apart from Kings of War with yourself I haven’t had the opportunity. It would 100% be Kings if I were to get the time however. Picking an army might be tough though. Probably Northern Alliance or Nightstalkers for me….. or maybe Goblins. Although I do love the Abyssal Dwarves…. SEE! Maybe I need to start with Vanguard? 

And finally what are your top 5 favourite models of all time?!??!

That is a tough one! Don’t make me choose!

You have to choose. Choose or I tell them about your cheese bowling shame.

But I have written multiple lists for this and I can’t finalise it, or even get it below 12 sculpts.

The standout model in every list though was the old Archaon on Horse metal model.

It is SO evocative, so characterful and the perfect representation of the character. In terms of detail and pose it was way ahead of the curve and there wasn’t a single part of it that is not enjoyable to paint. For a 16 year old model it wouldn’t look out of place leading an army today, and there’s not many sculpts that would be true of

In fact I like it so much so that I’m going to go and buy one now!

Well boys and girls, I hope you all enjoyed that! Thought it would be nice for you to read someone else talking bollocks for a while instead of me!

So thank you for Ben for sharing! ESPECIALLY that juicy inside exclusive for my blog! Yes kids, you heard it right-Ben is working on brand new models for Kings of War right now and we’re going to love them! But obviously he won’t tell me what they are because he likes seeing me suffer. Bastard. 

I’m aiming to get him to some Mantic events at some point, I mean, who could resist being my partner in a doubles tournament? Or perhaps a Mantic open day so he can stand beside the cabinets of the models he’s painted and tell everyone how great I am? Sounds like a great day out to me.

Anyway, Ben is on Facebook as Brush Demon so you can go and see what he’s been up to. He’s probably on instagram too but I’ve only just got that and haven’t had a look yet, but I bet it’s exciting when I do! 

Adios Amigos!

I’m a natural collector. A lot of the time though it’s not the actual acquisition but the hunting down of it. Rooting through endless records to find a particular gem, searching out if there’s a model shop in a town I’m visiting or perhaps even finding something especially juicy on eBay. I find delight in finding interesting things, it’s a bit of fun!

It occurred to me the other day that I also found that I have that delight for words and names. I would say that I’m educated in this, having an ‘A’-level in English Language but I won’t pretend for a second that I actually paid much attention.

But names in fantasy…. That’s a different proposition. Naming things in fantasy and science fiction is a dangerous business. In the early days of science fiction and fantasy people didn’t really care. In fact, anything to sound ‘outer space’ worked. General Zod, Supermans nemesis sounds utterly embarrassing by todays standards. We’ve been so bombarded with so many fantasy worlds, franchises, movies and books over the years that we’ve just become a little jaded. In fact we’ve become so over stimulated with new and exciting fantasy worlds that people quite often retreat to the older fantasy and science fiction for a sense of stability, a nostalgic need for simpler times. Indeed with the success of Games of Thrones becoming the most popular series on TV, there has been an overwhelming need for more. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series sets to mirror this success, if not exceed it. DC and Marvel continue to drive forward like juggernauts and there are even He-Man and Dungeons and Dragons movies being planned!

I think the trick these days is to find the balance between finding new exciting ways of stimulating our imaginations while still having strong roots in the traditional fantasy that we grew up with. I think Dungeon Saga is a perfect example of this. It’s so traditional fantasy that it’s hideously cliché. A dwarf, a barbarian, a wizard and an elf explore a dungeon for treasure and to fight an evil necromancer. We’ve seen it a thousand times. It’s Dungeons and Dragons, it’s Heroquest, its Warhammer Quest, It’s Lord of the Rings, it’s Conan…. The list goes on. But we love it. It’s Fanstay that is etched into our souls. So how do you balance this for the modern age? We get League of Infamy. It’s the same thing but with bad guys instead. Very modern and anti-hero. It’s Suicide Squad

In our little corner of this we have our own world of Pannithor. Breaking the name down, the root of ‘Pan’ has several meanings but in this case it’s fairly easy to assume it means ‘including or relating to all the places or people in a particular group (eg, Pan-American). Thats a pretty definitive start for a world full of different races and helps define how encompassing the background is. ‘Thor’ is obviously the Norse God of Thunder (and comedic superhero of outer space) but also suggests how Norse mythology features heavily. Thor is still used in plenty of names and places across Scandinavia and as much of Pannithor borrows heavily from Norse legend, it is also a pretty good choice for a world name. Mantica, on the other hand, sounds like it was a rushed choice and is a bit too cheesy by modern standards.

The Kings of War world is rife with subject matter drawn from Norse mythology. Elven ‘holme’, Iceblood ‘fjord’, Fiskard, Urskhold, Kjellstad are all based on Nordic place names. Names like Hrimm and Orlaf are classic Nordic names. Not to mention the races themselves. Elves, Dwarves (weirdly in mythology are synonymous with Dark Elves), Frost and Fire giants, wyrms, draugr, Berserkers are all lifted wholesale.

The one thing that binds this mythology to modern fantasy as we know it is obviously the Middle Earth created by Tolkein. Tolkein borrowed much from the Nordic stories but rather than tell them in his own style created an entire modern Mythology of his own, even going as far to write an actual language and history to go with the books. It laid the foundation for modern fantasy as we know it and Warhammer, World of Warcraft, the Elder Scrolls, Game of Thrones, Star Wars are all heavily rooted in its stories and themes.

Pannithor borrows heavily from it too. Elven city names like Sorrilondell share similarities with Rivendell. Mhorgoth the faceless shares the same name with Saurons big boss.

But as much as Kings of War borrows from Middle Earth, it borrows as much, if not more from the other worlds that were influenced by Tolkein. Obviously Warhammer was the main one. For years Kings of War has been considered by many to be a cheap Warhammer knock-off. That image wasn’t helped by the 2nd Edition release of Uncharted Empires which brought en masse new races from Warhammer to be added to the world of Mantica. It didn’t do much for the image but it did wonders for the game! With the collapse of Warhammer a huge influx of new players came over with it, not wanting to quit rank and flank games yet. I was one of them and I’m glad I did. I wanted to play nothing but Warhammer at the time and lustily dived in with my Brettonians. 

Over time the rest of the game and background wore away my expectations and it was rewarding to find all the differences with Warhammer as well as similarities. Sure there was still all the Orcs and Goblins and Undead, the ‘Ratkin’ and “Empire of Dust’ but there was more to be enjoyed too which borrowed from other mythologies.

Forces of Nature and Herd borrowed a lot from Greek mythology, with Naiads, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Hydras, Pegasus and Sylphs. The Trident realms did too with leviathans, Kraken, but with extra exploring of marine creatures/language which I’ve always loved. I even wanted to be a marine biologist for a short while when I was little and they became my first Mantic army.

The Basileans (however you think it should be said…..) also draw from Mediterranean influences, geographically and linguistically from Italy and its Christian heritage. The Legion is reminiscent of the trained soldiers of the Roman Empire while the religious focus is undeniable. Elohi, Angels in anyones eyes are named from the Hebrew ‘Elohim’ meaning a collection of deities. Nuns, Dictator, Arbalest, all lifted wholesale from Italian/Roman history. And of course, Jullius Caeser, Dragon of Heavens.

Other cultural references are evident across Pannithor. The Celtic language is well represented in Dwarven hold names like Cwl Gen, Tylmwyn and Dyncwrdd. Also in the Garddrws of the Sylvan kin. Celtic mythology has many influences on early English mythology which is also represented, the Druids, dragons, Orders of Knights, Paladins and of course Galahir, possibly reminiscent of Galahad, one of the famous knights of Grail legend. The Brotherhood, knights and villeins carry on this medieval theme.

The Abyssal dwarf language carries many middle Eastern influences. The Empire of Dust is a veritable goldmine of ancient Egypt references which has fascinated people for thousands of years.

The Nightstalkers are almost classic horror, Pumpkin head, Jeepers Creepers, H. P. Lovecraft, Stranger Things, Alien…. The similarities are endless.

The Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, wraiths et al of the Undead likewise.

I could go on, even strip down and reference everything but ultimately I need to make a point. Is it plagiarism? Undoubtedly to a degree. But these mythologies whether modern or ancient are in our cultures, in our souls. In order to find love in a subject we must find something in ourselves that we can relate it to, a human element that lets us in. But we also need it new and different enough to excite us. I think with 3rd Edition we’ve got that balance pretty good. Plus with rumours about halflings and Ophidians in the future (though could be years) it shows that balance of new and old is set to continue. 

So what do you want? Cliché and nostalgia or fresh, exciting fantasy? Let’s have both!

I hadn’t played a game of Kings of War since Frantic back in March. It was a long hot summer of boredom (cue Bananarama soundtrack….) but finally I got to a Tournament! Shroud of The Reaper in Bexley, South London. The last one got cancelled as it was due to go ahead the very day after England went into lockdown over the Corona virus pandemic and although this one was heavily restricted with safety measures it went ahead without a hitch. The tables were far apart, everyone wore masks with social distancing, hand sanitiser, and a great system of QR codes and online forms which meant reporting game results had no touching. It proved that when everyone is considerate and respectful of the safety rules, there is no reason we can’t continue with the face to face gaming that we love.

In my last blog I showed lots of pictures of my Northern Alliance army so let’s have a look at how well it did! It was pretty much what I had painted though I didn’t have enough points for the giant so 3D printed and painted an Ice Blade to fill the gap. The only magic items were a healing brew on the frostfang rider and fury on the snow trolls. My units are already tough so I just took more!

My first game was against Robert Hutson’s Twilight kin army and it was going to be tough as with his abyssal horsemen, silver breeze, Abyssal archfiend and gargoyles he easily out distanced me. It was fools gold so I put my scoring objectives on the left with the majority of my troops. The ice elementals took the right looking to be my main thrust. This was a lie. The plan was to use them to hold up the Abyssal horsemen while I smashed the other flank and then try to hold the centre objective for a win. It almost worked. My reaper managed to get into a unit of silver breeze cavalry quickly and rather than take the bait and wipe it out before the rest of my forces caught up he backed off. It enabled me to push him back and take the fight to him, pinning the archfiend and getting some multi charges in to take the flank and the objectives. I lost the Snow trolls in one shot to a charge from the blade dancers bane chanted with the brew of strength! Ouch! The Ice elementals held on for long enough for my bezerkers to get over, take out a unit of Abyssal horsemen and take the middle objective. Unfortunately we rolled turn 7 and he shot off my bezerkers and moved his fast cavalry just onto the objective and he just squeaked a win. Close, but a loss.

Next game put me up against Ian Sturgis’ Trident realms. On paper I wasn’t too scared as he has a lot of small units. I aimed to blast them off with my ice elementals and the rest of my army was more than capable of mopping up the rest. Unfortunately it was a massacre and he ended up with all 7 objectives. He charged his reaper in turn one and although I smashed it in return I rolled a double one and got stuck in a central combat. This meant I struggled to bring my icy breath (my main advantage) to bear and I slowly got out manoeuvred by his smaller nimble units and picked apart a unit at a time. I had some good moments and a double one for my ice blade was a big help but it was too late. I really suffered with my lack of speed and shooting in this one!

Game 3 was against Gavin Downey’s Nightstalkers. He’s a lovely bloke (and went on to win best sportsman) and has a beautiful army. It was grabbing the loot from the centre line so both armies were spread out. I set a few traps to mitigate his speed advantage get some multi charges in to win, grabbing all 5 treasure chests! I massively cocked up, lining up 64 Icy breath shots up to take out a butcher horde…. Only to forget to do it! Gavin nobly said I could go back and take the shots but I didn’t. A cock up like that deserves to be punished!!! And punished I was as the butchers proceeded to take out 2 ice elemental hordes. It was brutal but not enough. I’m looking to do a Night stalker army at some point so learnt some good lessons.

Game 4 was an odd one. Either for fun or just out of sheer malice, Mark Cunningham who was running the event had done 2 ‘joker’ boards. This one had a big river system which was all difficult terrain. Again I was against Robert Hutson’s Twilight kin. I’d learnt my lessons from the first game and with his flyers and cavalry he had the clear advantage, especially as the scenario was control. This time I put my entire army on the right flank away from the rivers and just charged full speed forward. My entire left flank was held by the reaper. He had to be dealt with or Robert’s units would be getting some nasty rear charges as they swept around. The plan worked beautifully. I had so many hard hitting units in a tight area he just couldn’t bring enough to bear and I used my chaff to get the drop on him. I had to sacrifice the Ice-blade and snow foxes to hold up the Arch fiend before I could get the charge off and one unit of Abyssal horsemen backed up by two drain life Crones just couldn’t be shifted and it chewed through several units but I got a convincing win of 3 table sections to his one. The reaper took out two silver breeze units and saved my left flank too! 

So overall I came 6th out of 14 with 2 wins, 2 losses which Im happy with. So more Midlands alliance. I also got an award for having the bloodiest battles!

So what do I think of the Northern alliance? I definitely need more shooting and speed.

The ice elementals didn’t get to do anywhere near as much as I was hoping from them. I either need to support them with more chaff or maybe drop a horde. The Huscarls, Snow Trolls and Frostfang king were all solid choices.

The snow foxes were just chaff. They didn’t do a whole lot but they were cheap and I probably didn’t use them as well as I should. Sometimes it’s just useful to have an extra unit.

The wolves were situational. Like the snow foxes they were just there. They did get a flank charge off a hill with thunderous 2 though which was juicy. I think in future I either have to boost them to a regiment of maybe drop them for something more useful.

The Half elf Bezerkers were possibly my favourite. They were fast, hard hitting and did everything I needed from them. I’d happily do an army of them but the models are generally mono-pose and hard to get hold of. With the ice-blade to support them they were incredibly versatile.

I had no problems with inspiring, the Ice-blade covering the bezerkers, the ice Queen covering the Elementals with very inspiring and the Frostfang king’s very inspiring means most of my army was covered and dispensed with wasting points on extra support characters.

And the future? I love the frost giant model though I’m not sure I have strength to paint another one just yet! It would be a useful exchange for a horde of ice elementals, giving a bit more range and punch. Another ice-blade with the wings of honey maze would give me a bit more board control and anti-war machine help. I didn’t feel I needed it for this tournament as I had the reaper for that role (I didn’t face any war machines anyway) but in the future its a must. A chimera is a lot of points to be used for that role and I’d  have to sacrifice a lot to get one in the army. 

I have the core of a Varangur army and I’m converting up some mounted sons and some Magus conclaves already so that will give me a lot of options too.

Next tournament is two single day tournaments in high Wycombe in November at Tabletop Republic. I shall alter my list for one day and then something different for the Sunday. I haven’t used my Forces of Nature in a long while and have several new painted units that haven’t seen the battlefield yet! Or I can lose the plot and try a new army in a month….

Either way…. BUGGER ME IT”S GOOD TO BE BACK!!!!!!

I try to do every army a little bit different, otherwise it gets boring. My Undead are mainly contrast painted, my Orcs are all Lord of the Rings models, my Abyssals are obviously red/lava themed, the Empire of Dust all Mantic on single bases/movement trays so I can use them in Warhammer 6th, The Trident realms in wild colours….. the list goes on. I massively admire people whose love and dedication of a race stretch to doing 10-15,000 point armies. It looks amazing! My Forces of Nature are probably near to 5,000pts but that’s because they provide a core of multiple units that I can use in a variety of armies so I just seem to be making the army bigger by happy accident.

I found early on in wargaming that doing an entire army, while incredibly satisfying can get pretty boring. It’s a huge amount of painting and sooner or later it just becomes a chore. I don’t do boring. Hobbies are there to take you away from the real world, not become another job.

My method of dealing with hobby burnout is by doing a huge amount of projects at once. So long as you have an army to play with then you can relax and do what you want. I had a building session the other night and realised I had models from seven different armies in my tray. I’m not a fan of calling them ‘projects’ as is sounds far too organised and like work.

I’m fully aware that I’m privileged in that I’ve been doing the hobby for 30 years and have amassed a huge amount of bits along the way.

But having lots of different ‘projects’ (BLEARGH! Work!) can have the opposite effect in that you end up with so many that it you become swamped with no way of ever finishing them all. Thats where tournaments come in for me. I surge into action to get an army done because I finally want to get it finished in order to use it on the tabletop. 

This is a great method until a world wide pandemic sweeps in and there are no more tournaments. Who knew? And while the rest of the country sat at home pumping out army after army I found myself still at work, with extra work covering the people who were on furlough and doing shopping etc for those people who couldn’t leave the house. 

Then one day the Central London Kings of War guys announced on Facebook that they were doing an army building competition for fun, with the King of Herts guys doing a regular painting competition alongside it. So I sprang into action! My blog writing suffered a little but that’s also a hobby and something I do for fun.

I had the Vanguard Kickstarter and the Shadows of the North box sets so had the core of a Northern alliance army and had been collecting extra half elf bezerkers here and there because they’re one of my favourites and in all those 30 years I had never done my own snow themed army.

As I’m writing this, my time is up! I have a few bits left to finish and take photos to enter them in the competitions. I may win something, I may not. Its not my best work but it was fun and I’m very happy with it overall and looking forward to using it in my first post-apocalypse tournament at the end of September for the Shroud of the Reaper!

The army list is pretty much what you see, however I didn’t have enough points for the giant so need to paint an ice blade instead. So less waffle, more pictures!

And now another online gaming community have decided to do an army building thing for fun. They chose 9th Age, and while reading the rules I cringed at how bad the rules are written (I doubt I’ll actually get together and play with them), I joined in anyway as it will give me a chance to do my Empire of Dust. After all, I’m bored of snow and winter is coming. I work outside so putting my imagination into a nice sunny desert will take me away from from work and real life….. I may even watch the Mummy movies for inspiration. I find Rachel Weisz incredibly inspiring.

Anyway, enough waffle, more pictures and I’ll let you know how they perform in a few weeks!

Industries change, but playing with toy soldiers can only change so much. The modern plastic kits I get now from Mantic haven’t changed a huge amount from the Airfix kits my Grandad used to get me from the newsagent when I went to visit. The basics of wargaming are still recognisable since their inception. Chess hasn’t changed much in a thousand years.

The digital revolution however, has the potential to change it more than ever before. 

Just look at the music industry. It was ruled by ‘The Man’. Big record companies called the shots and manufactured what the kids would buy and listen to, jumping on trends and reacting to fill gaps in the market, just like many industries. But going digital changed that. Kids would hear a song on the radio or see them on TV or in a magazine, save pocket money and go down to the record store or Woolworths to see if it was still in the charts. Listening to the whole album and poring over the record sleeve and lyric sheets and art work. It was a product that sold and had worth. Now, a song can just be downloaded in seconds. No money, no artwork, no chain of industry or distributers. Free. And if you don’t like it you can just not bother with it. When you have something so easy it has less worth. When you have to save up your pocket money you listen to an album over and over because you bloody well worked for it and you have to listen to what you have access to.

What does this have to with wargaming? Well, against all the odds, 3D printing has given us our own digital revolution. You want a new unit or monster for your army? A quick search online, a couple of minute downloading the STL files, another few minutes preparing it in the software, a few hours in the printer and BAM! New toys.

So what does this mean for the companies who produce miniatures?

Adapt or die. In a similar way to the record industry it polarises. The impact of 3D home printing is yet to be fully realised but as the machines get cheaper and cheaper I see more and more people printing their own it is becoming a very real issue. 

At one end of the scale you have the big boys like Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games.  The intellectual property and huge corporate machinery involved will help them survive. Their sales may take a hit here and there but they enforce you to use their actual models (in a myriad of subtle and not so subtle ways….) and develop their games to such an extent that it’s hard to use alternatives. Want to use other elves? Tough. Because Games Workshop Aelves (BLEARGH!!!) actually ride giant flying turtles and have weird transvestite cow giants. They’re so specific that you have to pay their hideously inflated prices if you want to join in. So you want a cheaper alternative. I’ve already seen several 40K knock off STL files on line and heard of others being taken down. The stories of them going after smaller companies are legendary too. So because they’ve engineered this specificity and protect their IP they’ve generated a sort of bubble which the 3D market will find hard to penetrate. The Chinese and Russian re-casters have given them an utter hammering for this approach but that’s a different story….

And Fantasy Flight Games? Rather cunningly include the actual rules and cards with their Star Wars models meaning it comes as a complete package. You could print extra models if you could find the files but you’d need to find the rules and accessories too. Clever boys! Plus Star Wars is owned by Disney. You NEVER go toe to toe with the House of Mouse!!!

So the big boys will survive. Plus because of their size they have other media/merchandise/marketing pies and diversity is key.

And the other end of this polarisation it’s the smaller companies who will struggle as they simply won’t have the infrastructure to deal with shifts in the market. Unless they adapt of course. Making models can be expensive, property rents, making moulds, paying wages, IT costs…. It all adds up and they need to sell enough to cover those overheads. STL files are a cheap way of selling product without those overheads. Now there are lots of small independent sculptors who can now make a living through churning out regular STL files and selling them separately or on a subscription like Patreon. So far I’ve subscribed to an old buddy Duncan ‘Shadow’ Louca who does a tremendous selection of stuff, from dinosaurs, demons, tanks, mousles, minotaurs, giants, monsters…. The other Patreon is Artists Guild who do a new faction every month. Some I’ll use, a lot I won’t but the sculpts are amazing! There are plenty more individual artists doing similar and the quality can be astounding. In a way it’s created almost a cottage industry and it’s given a new opportunity for ‘the little guy’ to carve a niche. There are other ‘boutique’ miniature companies, notably Raging Heroes and Lost Kingdom Miniatures that produce truly amazing miniatures (my Raging heroes ladygirl werewolves have possibly seen more tabletops than any other of my units in Kings of War) but have embraced the new wave by selling both pre made miniatures and STL files. Again the diversity will help them survive depending on which way things go. The entire situation could change in a matter of months if the technology changes/evolves.

And as this is a Kings of War blog, what effect will this have on Mantic? From what I’ve already written about the other companies puts Mantic in rather an awkward position. For a start they don’t insist on using their models. But equally, that has always been the case and Kings of War has been growing steadily despite that. Why? Well for a start Kings of War is cheap. You can easily get a tournament sized army for £100-£150. 3D printing is cheaper still but can be a lot of hassle. It’s just easier to buy a box. And because of Mantics pricing you won’t see them as re-casts. It’s just not worth it for the recasters. Plus the actual quality of the models has improved leaps and bounds recently. There will always be alternatives but people are starting to want to play games set in Pannithor rather than it just being a Warhammer knockoff and want the atmosphere that the Mantic models have. There are plenty of gaps in the model range that you can explore with printing and some models you’re not fond of can have alternatives. While Games Workshop enforces their own models at tournaments, Mantic does not. In fact they offer prizes for best Mantic (still only 90% of the army) army. Give a man a carrot and he gets fed and likes you. Hit a man with a stick enough then eventually he will turn around and bite you. Over the last couple of years I’ve seen the amount of Mantic armies increase quite a bit.

Obviously, all this is just my opinion based on my experience. So how has 3D printing affected my mantic armies so far based on everything I’ve just said?

Well, I needed a couple of pegasi for my Forces of Nature. I have one already (an old GW one) but I printed another one off. I got the file for free off thingiverse and it’s not a great model but it will do. And it cost pennies. Mantic don’t actually make one. Same goes for the Manticore (one of Duncans sculpts) which will be a Beast of Nature. 

The King of War Central London group are doing a fun army painting competition for the summer and I’m using it as an excuse to finally get all those Northern Alliance models done that have been sitting around for months. With 3rd Edition, the list is so similar to the Varangur army list that I can add in some uglier units and get two armies for the price of one! Super! So with this in my head I printed Duncans Hag models to be used as a Magus conclave. Again, Mantic don’t make models for these.

I also got 3 of Duncans Earth Elemental sculpts and they look like they could be used as Ice Elementals too. So here is the crux of the argument as to wether it will effect sales. I was never going to buy any ice elementals. The Mantic model is gorgeous, no argument, and I’d happily buy one for a Vanguard force. However it is just one sculpt. And when you transition that to Kings of War then having hordes of them looks a bit poo. Sure, you can convert them a little and bend them a bit with a hairdryer, position them slightly differently and at different heights but it’s a lot of extra work. One horde will look okay. Any more and then it it really shows. And at £30 for 3…. For 3 hordes that’s £180. That’s a bit painful on the pocket. And I don’t mind spending money on quality miniatures but that much for monopose… I wouldn’t pay it. I could get a Mega army set for  half that and have Snow Trolls instead and that’s a bargain. So I’m 3D printing 3 hordes of Ice Elementals. 3 different poses and in different sizes to add more dynamism. In effect, although Mantic make the models, I wouldn’t have bought them so it won’t take away from their sales. In fact it means I have more spare cash to buy models I really want.

The Wraiths are a different prospect. I have 5 of the old ones, add in the vanguard one and a phantom conversion and I have a troop that has seen great success in my Undead army. I’m not happy though, the models are old and not up to modern standards and thanks to my foray into contrast paints, they look crap. I’m a bit embarrassed to put them on the table. I got 3 STL sculpts of some rather lovely wraiths (again a Duncan sculpt-he’s a talented fellow!) And printed out enough for 4 troops. I can put them together to make 2 regiments if I want too. AND by putting them on slightly larger bases I can also use them as Phantoms in a night stalkers army. Mantic also make the models for these and although they’re okay, I would never buy them as they’re just not my cup of tea. Some of the Nightstalkers models are gorgeous. I’ll have plenty of Scarcrows, Butchers, fiends and Reapers when I get round to doing them but the Phantoms just don’t hit the spot. I wouldn’t spend that money.

I have other plans, a Chaos War mammoth for Warhammer (I’ve always wanted one) which will be a bit smaller and I can use it (them? Two would be nice….) in Kingdoms of Men and Orges. I’ve also got some ‘Ashen Inquisitors’ files which will double as Twilight kin impalers and Undead Soul Reavers. Either Mantic don’t make the models or they’re older sculpts I’m not fond of.

At the end of the day, while it may be cheaper in the long run, 3D printing is space and time consuming, messy and with a costly start up.

Revolution? Will it change the industry we know and love beyond recognition? I don’t know but it will be interesting to watch. And for Mantic Games? I think they will weather the storm. Their models are generally cheap enough to be cost effective anyway and the models are getting good enough not to need alternatives. Wraiths excepted. Plus they have so many different games with such a wide audience, strengthening IP and great community that that key diversity will mean they continue to grow and delight us! And who knows, maybe they’ll start throwing us a few STl file exclusives here and there. 

And back to the music industry, the last few years has seen a huge market for vinyl as nostalgia for that idea of collecting and having something of worth has come back into play. The cost of old Warhammer models has seen a massive surge on eBay recently as out of print models once regarded as trash has now become like gold dust. These things always come around again.

The future is grey, no matter how you like it.

It’s been a while since I posted my last blog and I had a bit of a break. For a start my last blog was fairly long and was so well received that I got invited for an interview on the Counter Charge podcast! Danny on the radio! If you haven’t listened to it then shame on you. For those of you that have and you’re now reading this blog in your head with my annoying voice superimposed over it then I apologise. Also my time has been taken up by trying to work out my new 3D printer!

3D printing! A revelation in wargame miniatures? Bullshit tech fad where you’re persuaded to spend hundreds of pounds to get something you don’t really need? Probably both. I was really into computers in my teens but as technology moved on I just didn’t have the money or inclination to keep up. It didn’t add a whole lot to my life. I held onto that old Nokia for years before finally giving up. 

Coming back into the world of being ‘tech savvy’ has been a long, infuriating process for me. I can do it when I can put my mind to it but I don’t want to and I hate having to do things I don’t want to. I like Apple products because I find them intuitive to use. Somebody, somewhere will probably cry at that.

So getting a 3D printer was something of a shaky ground for me. I’d see lots of really cool models online that I’d love to buy but couldn’t because they were to be printed at home. 

A buddy of mine Duncan ‘Shadow’ Louca had been doing 3D sculpts for years and his stuff is fantastic but you never want to be the guy who asks ‘can you just print this for me…’ because that would annoy the shit out of me. I refuse to do it to others out of principle.

So no 3D prints for me. There are thousands of beautiful models on the market though so it’s not really a problem and I already have waaaaay too much to paint. But there was still that niggling itch and more and more it became a burning sensation. 

By a stroke of bad luck I was in a bad car crash last year (If you want a fun Kings of War tie-in for this blog, I was reading ‘Steps to Deliverance’ in the passenger seat at the time!) And when the insurance paid out for my injuries I had a little bit of cash and decided to treat myself!

After reading plenty of articles, watching YouTube videos I decided on an Anycubic Photon S. It was slightly upgraded from the regular Photon while still being affordable. A UK supplier on e.bay proved my best option too. Resin for printing detailed miniatures seemed a lot better than the SLP plastic miniatures which had less quality and better for bigger stuff like terrain.

I listened to the Counter Charge podcasts on 3D printing which was also fun and helpful. The guys discussing it on there have been doing for years and know lots more. What I’m about to describe is one mans car crash. No pun intended. Well, a little bit intended. If you can’t laugh at your own trauma there what can you laugh at?

It was rather exciting to open something new and fancy and it had everything in the box that you need to get going. Sort of. 

You have to wash the models in isopropyl alcohol afterwards (to get rid of all the wet resin on the new model surface) which I also had to get off eBay and arrived a week later. Patience Danny…..

Okay so now I can actually wash the models. Which also involved going out to buy tongs, a metal scraper and plastic tubs, but NOW I was ready! Sort of.

Because you can’t just print a model. It need supports first. Like the sprues you get on a regular model. Looks complicated. Fortunately I found a model that came ‘pre-supported’ for my first print! NOW I was ready! Sort of.

Most of my research said that the program Chitubox is one of the best for adding the supports and preparing the files ready to print. I downloaded that and eventually worked out how to do it. Only thing is, the printer didn’t recognise the files. It only recognises PWS files. Know how that works? Me neither. Several hours spent trying different things, researching online and swearing and it turns out Chitubox doesn’t do PWS files. So let’s try that agin in the official software. Which is pretty bad. But it works. Ready to go! Sort of.

The printer ‘build plate’ needs levelling. Which is easy. If you know how to do it. Apparently the method in the instructions is a bit poo. I found that out after my first print failed. And models were sticking to the bottom FEP screen and not the plate so were just coming out as flat spludges. I’ve called them that as it makes them sound more cute than the failed bit of trash I just wasted two and a half hours waiting for. With it sticking to the clear FEP screen at the bottom of the tank it wrecked the screen. And you have to unscrew 32 screws with an allen key to replace it. So we’ve calmly realised that mistakes were made, it’s a learning curve blah blah BLAH!!!! Sort of.

I replaced the screen and had another go. It did the same thing. There was swearing. Though now there appears to be resin IN the screen. Turns out I hadn’t taken off the protective layer. Easy mistake to make as half the instructions are in Chinese and it was easy to miss. So out come the 32 screws again….. There was swearing. Maybe even a little despair. MORE research and someone mentions using a PTFE lubricant. Never heard of it. More research and a trip to town to get some. Seems to work a treat. Would have been nice to know before the failed prints and the swearing.

After 3 failed prints I finally got Vulpea Whitebranch from Artisans Guild printed! A model in GW of this size and quality would probably cost about £15. I’d spent, in total, about £350 to get to this stage. As exultant as I was in my minor victory, the entire story carried on in a similar vein. I actually wasted about half the resin on failed prints.

THEN I got some Elegoo grey resin and every print has been perfect since then. 

I’m getting better at putting in supports, scaling, and finding new ways of doing things and it’s becoming more and more intuitive. 

So is it good? Worth it? I think so. The learning curve is impressive. It’s just like sword fighting and wargaming. You have to get the shit kicked out of you 20 times before you know enough of the game to be able to start fighting properly. I can’t deny, this has kicked the shit out of me. But the utter joy at that first print might have been worth it. And I’ve learnt a lot since then too.

And man, if there’s one thing I love, it’s cheap toy soldiers….. Thats enough for now. I’ll write another blog about what impact this influx of new toys is having on my hobby and the industry at large another time!

I adore Steve Hildrew. I really do. With his boundless enthusiasm he’s a bit like a Blue Peter presenter before the cocaine, sex tapes and scandals. The community updates he does are a jolly five minute blast of sunshine for those us us who can’t stomach long awkward YouTube videos. He has been very supportive of my blog mutterings and asked the other day if I’d write one about how my real life wargaming experiences relate to my on-table wargaming experiences.

Real life wargaming?!?!? But Danny, I hear you cry, what madness this? Well, here’s a bit of my history….

Aside from watching plenty of He-Man when I was little and making big wooden swords to fight hordes of monsters invading across the Yorkshire fields, my first foray into the realm of fighting was spending much of my teens fencing and I even managed to get a few unimpressive trophies for my talents. My focus then turned to martial arts and after four years of dedicated pain I managed to get my Black belt in Aikido. At that point, life in Yorkshire seemed harrowing to me and I fled to the big city (well, Guildford) to play in a rock and roll band which didn’t leave much time for fighting. 

Then one day a buddy of mine took me to the back of his van (I’ll admit he is a bit odd so this could have gone one of two ways) and it was full of swords and shields and spears. Proper metal ones. Childhood Danny’s heart leapt! So I bought my first sword from him in a pub and had to walk home past the police with it hidden down my trouser leg.

14 years on and I’ve done hundreds of viking re-enactment shows and training every week with a multitude of weapons (though specialising in two weapons and pole axe), been in documentaries, small movies, on stage with the Darkness, rowed a viking boat 30 miles down a river, stunt work with horses, and done huge shows with hundreds a side. The English shows started to annoy me so I turned to the European style which is far less anally retentive and more focussed on the competitive side. I have hundreds of stories and adventures to tell.

So you came here to read about Kings of War, and strangely they both have a lot in common. In a previous blog I talked about cheating. We play both on an honour system. If you lose, take a hit then you have to accept it. Arguing isn’t a good thing. You learn from your mistake and try not to make it in the future. The main difference is that if you don’t take a fair hit from a fighter you’ll piss them off. We fight with blunted weapons with the aim of hitting your opponent in a target zone (nowhere dangerous like the face) hard enough so they feel it but not so hard that you hurt them. Because if you do ignore hits then you can pretty much guarantee that the next hit is going to come in harder. And if you get a reputation for it then soon you’ll become a target for every spear in sight and walk away looking like a Dalmatian. You won’t think that you’re immortal for long and humility will get you in the end. No matter how good you are at a game you will lose sooner or later. There’s always a bigger fish and you can’t rest on your laurels because little fish get bigger and big fish get older and slower. The rankings in Kings of War are a great way of seeing this as to who the fish are. The last three years from my first Kings of War tournament I’ve steadily climbed my way up the tournament listings and you only get better by fighting people better than you and learning from them. One day you beat that fighter who you know is far better than you. Its the same feeling as beating a gamer you know is a regular tournament winner and masters player.

One of the main things you have to keep in mind of both hobbies is the suspension of reality. They are both after all, just games. Though we fight for real with steel weapons, it’s not for real. The weapons are blunted to agreed safety standards and rules (eg. My dane axe is not allowed over 200 cms) and we have safety zones for different weapons to avoid injuries. In viking times the vast majority of wounds were to the face. It’s a product of that way of war, fighting in shield walls, but we can’t do that so we adapt it to a set of rules. It has to be balanced between realism, safety and competitiveness much like in Kings of War (not the safety part though unless you’re REALLY bad at dice rolling!). 

There had to be the question ‘What is the best way to represent this action?’.

Kings of War is a ruleset that governs how an army fights on the tabletop and the rules have to represent what is happening. There has to be a limit as to how far it goes and a battle has countless variables to its outcome. We have to remember that Kings of War is a MASS combat game. It’s all about units. Actual regiments and hordes of troops and the rules represent that. You can add in psychology, you can add in individual model attacks, you can add in the weather, you can add in how hungover the army is (in the Viking world this is a brutal, hideous and common factor) and you can add in thousands of variables but that doesn’t necessarily make for a good mass combat game. And we’re not just talking human variables. Add in magic, monsters, flying etc and it’s a minefield on how to put those variables into a fun, fair game. 

Many fantasy stories talk of mighty wizards that can decimate entire armies. Epic to read, boring in a game. Unless you’re in charge of the wizard and you were bullied as a child that is.

So lets look at a couple of rules in kings of war and see how good I think they are based on my experiences…..

Thunderous Charge when charging off a hill….. I hate it. If you’ve ever had to run down a hill at an enemy at speed then you will know that it’s a death trap. Especially on damp grass. You’re more likely to end up falling on your arse or worse and it’s harder to control your attacks and when you finally get to the bottom the entire attack will be rag tag and disordered. But hills ARE an advantage if you’re at the top and the enemy have had to march all the bloody way to hit you. I’ve fought at Hastings on both sides in 30 kilos of armour and it’s exhausting getting up that hill! But sitting happy on hills doesn’t make for a fun war-game game and giving an advantage to sit there is boring and overpowered. The thunderous charge solution switches it around and makes it more dynamic. Not accurate, but a solution nonetheless to benefit the game.

Flanks and rear charges are king. Double and treble attacks are perfect representations. We fight in shield walls and you can’t ignore the enemy to the front. One of the main aims is to get warriors around the back. By punching through or getting runners around the side and through the gaps to attack the rear. We position our own runners and rear guards to deal with the threat much like in Kings of War. It’s bloody hard to find a gap to get through and mostly you have to wait until later in the battle when numbers are thinned to take advantage but when you do get behind it’s fast and vicious work. I’ve taken out 10 plus fighters many times by getting in the rear. You’ll probably die but you can take out many more of the enemy and make gaps for your main fighting line to win. Basically you use yourself like chaff to put your main unit in a position to win the fight. In one of the photo’s you can see me (the lime green tunic and gorgeous hair!) skirmishing and threatening flanks and the Danes positioning their own ‘chaff’ to protect their flanks. It doesn’t have the same clean lines as the tabletop but the essence is the same.

Nimble is fairly accurate too. When you’re not constrained by heavy armour or ranked up formations then you have a lot more options with how you can move. The same with pathfinder. Most train to fight as a group, using each other to support and guard you but as soon as you have to move at speed or you’re split up by terrain then those advantages are hindered and faster, more agile troops that are used to the terrain have a massive advantage. I’ve done a lot of skirmish fighting in the woods, and fallen trees, bramble patches and agility are as much a weapon to winning as a sword. Hit and run attacks draw out troops to be exposed and you can pick off the enemy one at a time before the others can get to you. Much like Kings of War you can force a much larger, stronger force to just stand there unable to do much because you have put faster, more mobile troops into a position where they can’t be ignored. They’re not killing but they’re winning the game because if that stronger enemy unit is too busy dealing with chaff then they’re out of the game and the rest of your army has an easier job.

In Europe they don’t use bows but in England they use lighter arrows with rubber tips and low poundage bows (hurts the same as a paint ball) and when there are archers on the field you either have to be really fast or hide behind big shields to stay safe. In essence, you expose your chaff then it’s going to get shot off! Obviously we don’t use artillery. Well, there was this one time on a beach in Denmark at 4 in the morning where a drunk Danny thought it was a brilliant idea to fire himself from a trebuchet into the sea. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the arm down on my own and more sober, less spirited folk stopped anybody from helping me. I still maintain it would have worked. But the way that we deal with artillery in Kings of War by sending a fast hero through a gap to take them out is essentially the same. If you’re a runner you find that gap you get through and go as fast as you can to the archers and take them out before you get got and work your way through them.

I can’t comment on magic. Or flyers. Or monsters. Large infantry…. Well, a couple of the Icelandic guys are titanic. I’m happy they’re playing a game because I would never want to have to stop a full blow from one of them.

Cavalry I have been around. A charge from them easily earns the thunderous (2)! Obviously we can’t use them in competitive fighting, indeed it takes a lot of training to get them to do skirmish displays and I’ve done plenty of stuntwork with them. Even the smaller Icelandic horses can knock you flying with very little effort. When you look at big police horses, the modern equivalent of a charger then the amount of power they have is immense. I remember seeing a video during the rioting in London years ago where the MET Police actually did a cavalry charge to disperse the ruffians. It was beautiful. But put a line of spears in the way and you can see how well phalanx works too.

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Chariots are an odd one. Never seen one in action but one thing that always annoyed me in 2nd Ed was how many shots they got. In a chariot of 2 guys, one of which drives leaving one to shoot. So 6 chariots, meaning 6 guys means 24 shots? Thats insane! Luckily they solved that for 3rd Ed and they’re much more balanced now. An odd thing is Nimble on single chariots. If a chariot crashes into an enemy unit then it’s not easy to reverse and spin. It will do well on the charge but quickly get clambered over and overwhelmed. We’re back to the the thinking of how to represent things. A chariot attacks a unit but rather than crashing headlong they steer and go across the front, giving the crew chance to hit sideways and attack the front of the enemy as it passes. This carries on the momentum and represents the ability to disengage and ‘nimbly’ drive off to attack something else. It doesn’t look like that on the tabletop but otherwise we get into the situation where you have to throw in loads of extra rules to deal with the variables. This is simple and elegant and doesn’t bog the game down.

In Warhammer there were many rules for psychology, fear, panic, frenzy etc and the rules were fairly well representative of the field. Kings of War bundles them simply into the waver rule. If you’re taking a kicking and losing fighters left right and centre, or if you’re being sent into a situation you know full well is stupid then you have a tendency to pause and reevaluate. And pausing and reevaluating when you have several guys trying to hit you isn’t an ideal situation and your focus goes and you lose. Waver is a simple way of representing that. Inspiring works in a similar fashion. Having tough guys behind you shouting “get the fuck in there!!!”, which, not necessarily ‘inspiring’ certainly provides incentive. I once tried LARP and despite the costumes and big rubber monsters being fun it was ultimately ruined for me by the actual LARPers. Nerds, man….. Self importance and shiny armour doesn’t make you a mighty warrior.

We do play actual war-games too. We do many different games to change and focus training, team games, defend the bridge, pushing games, respawning, objective taking etc in much the same way we play scenarios on the tabletop. In actual competitive battles it’s mainly a straight ‘kill’ scenario but battle plans based on available units and terrain are all brought into consideration.

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Well, I could go on for hours but it’s getting quite a long read as it is so that’s my fair comparison. I’d love to run away from Dragons. I’d love to cut through hordes of evil rat men. But I love what I do and I get to play both ways and enjoy them equally for different reasons. Balance is important in life! And above all, it is just a game we play for fun.