Fleeting Thoughts

 

A little hobby post this time, having actually painted a fair bit this year so far. This is a complete Empire of Dust fleet for Mantic's Kings of War Armada.

They're basically a tomb king fleet, with a nice Egyptian feel to them, and having played a few games (and having the base set in my pile of shame) I thought it was a good opportunity to get a fleet all painted up this year.

There's a decent selection of ships included - from a big Monolith, to little expendable slave ships - and even a couple of fliers although I don't have that rule book yet to include them.

They were pretty fun to paint in fairness. All the ships are resin and are pretty nicely detailed for the most part. There are a couple of bits that are very, very thin and you have to be careful when clipping them. Fortunately, I only had one mast break in the assembly process and I was able to pin it to repair.

I used a Vallejo wood set I have for the decks and some Army Painter colours for the details including pink fire catapults.

The bases were something I found on YouTube - a really cool and simple idea I copied using tissue paper and filler to make the base, and then painting them up. I think it looks pretty cool on the tabletop and was pleased with how it turned out.

The fleet itself plays quite an interesting game, as they don't have that many close in guns that cause all the damage, but they do have access to quite a lot of fire which is pretty strong in Armada. They also have 'terror ships' that are pretty good at boarding stuff and causing damage.

So far I've not used the big ship yet, seems I would need quite a big points game to likely field that, but interested to see what it does. I also have an orc and Bastilean (human) fleet from the original boxed set to build for some alternative fleets to try out.

Armada is a good game - well worth a look at the rules, which are based on Black Seas rules from Warlord Games. The rules-set is for the most part fairly easy to grasp, but they complexity is in the battles on the table top.

Some of the scenarios are really fun too, so you don't just have to have a straight off battle. There's a kraken to chase down, and floating hulks to explore, plus rules for scenery, wizards and fliers which I've yet to properly explore. Plus the fleets are pretty good value for money as a couple of boxes will get you all you need for a reasonable sized game. Check it out here and thanks for reading!