The Tiniest Kings Of War

In which Lukes’ APS gives me an astonishingly cool idea…

Yes, I definitely have a problem. So currently I have the retro Blood Angels on the go as well as the 1/72 Orc horde that I’ve been working on, and a DIY Epic Imperial Guard army that I have big plans for… so it makes sense that having finished a regiment of Orcs, I should then go and start on something completely different and unrelated, doesn’t it?

And yet and yet and yet. I happened upon this video from Luke’s APS, one of our favourite YouTubers (How do, O Squire Of The North) in which he shows how to do the popular Kings Of War system in smaller scale on the kitchen table.

Now, Jim has had custody of our 6×4 in his converted garage – the lucky bastard – ever since we built it back in 2017, largely because I have nowhere in the house I could put it. However, despite the tyranny of wife and small child, I do still have relatively free access to the kitchen table. And although gaming nights are restricted to remote games for at least the next couple of months, said wife and small child might make for entertaining opponents.

And given the way the boy’s mind seems to work, I fully expect him to pull off a Cannae style double envelopment, perfectly co-ordinated and then celebrate his victory by stripping naked, eating the dice and farting out all 6’s, but we’ll see.

Now, in the video Mr. Fellowes 3D prints his 10mm figures and then bases them as regiments – this is a hallmark of Kings Of War, as regiments are based all together, 20 figures (for example) in a regiment glued to a single base as casualty removal doesn’t happen in this system. I do not possess a 3D printer and am unlikely to do so any time soon, but what I do have is…

Granny grating.

Yep, we’re back there again. I must admit to being really pleased with my DIY Imperial Guard army built with this stuff (and I know Jim’s got something similar in the works) and I figured that this could be the way to go to build armies for Kings Of War – happily, Mantic make the basic rulebook available for free on their website and this contains two army lists, one Orc and one Dwarf, so I figured I’d start there.

I reduced the footprint of each regiment or troop by half, cut the bases out of wine box corrugated cardboard, painted the bottom with PVA to counteract any warping and then cut out the infantry shapes from the granny grating and hot glued them to the bases. These got primed grey and then painted up using a similar scheme to my 20mm Orcs – Army Painter Goblin green washed with Green Tone for the skin, Vallejo Hot Orange washed with Red Ink for the red, Filthy Brown washed with thinned Smokey Ink for the browns. I used Mithril Silver for the metallics and washed them with Smokey Ink to create a worn down, beaten look.

I painted the base dark chocolate with craft paint and then painted over that with PVA, dunked the baes in sand.. and when that was dry I selectively added PVA and then flock on those patches.

In Kings Of War, measurements are taken from a central point on the base, and I decided to mark that point with a standard – this would also help unit identification, (as well as looking cool.) The pole was just another piece of granny grating, cut to fit and hot glued in, and the standard was simply a bit of scrap paper (an envelope, if memory serves) painted Hot Orange, washed with Red Ink and then painted with appropriate logos (eg Axe for the infantry, clubs for the Trolls).

With all this done, I took them out to the shed for varnish…

And belatedly realised I’d picked up the wrong can and sprayed primer instead.

Sigh.

Happily, the repaint was pretty simple – no need to worry about paint layers obscuring fine detail, as there was no detail. So here we are – pics!

Orc commander – he got mounted on a washer, with a small piece of gravel to illustrate his truly heroic nature.

Troll regiment

Orc “Ax” infantry regiment

Orc archer support troop

Orc “Morax” elite heavy infantry troop

Cavalry regiment

Ready to conquer the kitchen table

So there we have a 750 point battle ready warband for Kings of War on a budget of £0! Next up are the Dwarves (as I’m FINISHING this project before starting anything else…) and then terrain – we’re going to need somewhere to fight over and some properly scaled terrain features, and I’ve got a good few ideas for that, so stay tuned.

Full disclosure – I learned everything I needed to make this army from the Battlecraft YouTube Channel, so all the techniques you need, go there and check him out. Credit where it’s due.

Wherever you are, stay safe and stay thrifty.. and if you happen to be part of the astonishing vaccine rollout program, then thank you from the bottom of our hearts, you are literally saving the world. The Emperor protect you!