 If New Year's resolutions have taught us anything, it's that sometimes people don't stick to what they said they were going to do. And in the lead-up to Kings of War 3rd Edition, we asked multiple people from the Mantic Bunker to assemble and paint an army ready for the launch. So, we're going to see what their favourite miniature is, if they actually achieve what they said they were going to do. And also, I'm going to see if I realise that I definitely didn't iron that backdrop. Let's have a look. Hello, I'm Martin and I picked Nightstalkers for my Road to 3rd Edition army. I am Rob and, like a madman, I decided to do a full model count, 2,000 point goblin army. So, I am Kirsten, I'm the resin caster here at Mantic and I picked the Bacillians. I am Elvis and I picked the Brotherhood, or a themed Brotherhood list. My name's Sonny and the army I picked was King of the Ogres. My name is Matthew and I picked the All-Mighty Dwarfs. My name's Duncan, I do graphic designer layout and I picked Northern Alliance. Oh, I've achieved more than I set out to do. We set out to do, I think it was up between 1,500 and 2,000 points and I ended up with 4,000, I think. So, I got a bit addicted and so, yeah, over and above. I achieved what I set out to do. In terms of making my life slightly miserable and deciding what to do a ridiculous task, yes I have. But no, in fact I've exceeded expectations and I've painted about 3,000 points of wonderful, lovely green goblins. Yes, I've achieved what I set out to do. I think I've changed my mind along the way about what that needed to be. But I have built the stuff that I got initially. So, yes, broadly. I think we were set out to do about 1,500 points, which I've done. I just want to do a few more units so I can call the army done. Yes, I do actually. I believe I achieved more than what I needed to do actually. I went a bit crazy, kept painting more and more. She's unusual for me because I'm a slow painter. So, I set out to achieve at least 1,000 points. I thought I might as well make it achievable by the most baseline standard. But I've actually managed to achieve 2,000 points. It's a bit of a ragtag group, but at the end of the day, 2,000 points, so I'm happy with that. Broadly speaking, yes. I intended to get 1,000 points done for the first few games. And then anything I did over and above that was kind of a bonus, so yes. But my own modest standards I've achieved what I set out to do. Have I got some more to do? I have got one, which is another regiment of phantoms. But I've also started something new, so they might sit on the shelf for a while. But I think I've pretty much covered everything I need for now. I mean, I've always got more goblins to paint. It's a permanent hobby. But yeah, I mean, I've pretty much painted everything that was on my to do list apart from I've got a couple of water and bones, maybe another slasher. Yes, so I've got probably lots more to paint. It's a never-ending task. Always. There's always more to do. You never finish. I've started three more armies since then. So, yeah, the elements that I would like to add to the battle lanes that I think would suit more what I was initially going for, like knights, paladins, El Ahai, got some chariots to build. The fast-moving, harder-hitting stuff that I would like to move towards. So, plenty to go. Yes, I have a unit of Pegasus knights to do and a regiment of regular knights and a horde of men-at-arms, which will be skeletons in my case because I am doing an undead fiend list. I have an endless pile to paint. I decided, like, I needed more chariots because I had no chariots. And that's my hurdle at the moment. It's like, I need to do loads of chariots. Oh, that's a lot of straps. There's so many straps. So, yeah, I got more chariots to do. I got the Ogre berserkers and my, what are they called? Siegebreakers, that was it. Converted those up from Palace Guard. You probably will see those at some point, but yeah. So, I've still got a dwarven standard bearer to do and I think I'm looking at getting some more brock riders done. There are a lot of fun when I've played with them, so I kind of want to build some more, just in case, a fancy bit more of a brock-centric army. And apart from that, I'm probably going to take a look at what else I can build just to give myself some more options. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so I've got roughly a million clansmen to paint. Maybe, well, yeah, in various forms. I loved it. I mean, it was the first time I've built a seriously big army and been using them since. And to have that choice, I think, of the army was really good. But the actual painting and modelling and the whole experience was really good, especially seeing it all laid out beautifully. I mean, I always enjoy painting goblins. I know I joke about it being a miserable process, but it is a long process, obviously, and setting myself a high target of, I mean, it's probably about 200 models, which is a lot to do. But I mean, I loved it. I think once I kind of got the core troops out of the way, it was really fun then to paint the trolls and the wing it and things like the giant were great fun. So yeah, I loved it, actually, like an idiot. Oh, very much. It was a really good time, particularly having everybody here so enthusiastic. You've never seen any hobby like it going on around. Everyone was busy every lunchtime. It's really, it's good motivation to keep going, particularly when you've painted your 80th metal arms and you just think, ugh, I'm kind of sick of this now. And someone else has painted another unit and more is going and you think, actually, yeah, continent. I like converting and fuming stuff, so I think I liked using models from the undead range to represent another army and converting them and keep bashing things together and stuff. I've enjoyed doing that. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. My favourite game by a mile. Absolutely loved everything about it. We kept up our humour here at Mantik. It was amazing. As you'll know, me and Matt had a little rivalry. We've settled that now, I believe. I didn't think the slight bitterness there. So I've really enjoyed the experience, especially within the Mantik headquarters. We've all been keeping each other going and motivating each other. It's been really nice to see everyone's tables grow. Probably really bad if we're trying to get work done because there's just nowhere to put anything. It's just filled with armies. I'm sure anyone that's visited the bunker during the time we've been building them, it's been like, okay, we'll have to find a different workspace because Rob's goblins are everywhere. They just keep spreading. But yeah, it's been a really fun experience to see it all grow and definitely rewarding. It's been great. There's so much sort of opportunities for doing hobby with that, especially the Clansmen sprues I couldn't talk about too much last time because I think maybe it was just announced or I don't think it had come out. So yeah, I can be more excited about it this time, which is good. I really love that. When you say I played, you don't want to know if I've won any games Yes, I've played quite a few games with the goblins, including some upper element games, some here as well, and I'm still experimenting with tactics. Let's just save that. Yes, a few. And how did they go? I've won, especially against Rob because he's been using his dwarves, I think, on these goblins, and they both get torn up. Two games so far. One we won't mention. One was much better. So we're looking forward to getting some more games going. We're going to have some games here on a Friday after work, which I think will encourage people to stay. Hopefully New Year, we'll craft on with some gaming. Yes. I actually played a game with Your Good Self, which I won, which was my first game of Kings of War, and I'm yet to win a game since. Not particularly well. I probably played quite a few, actually, yeah. Mixtures. It was so much fun. We thought, what would be like to play multiplayer? We tried that. That was great fun. Absolutely hilarious. Played, obviously, Matt himself. Played a lot of Duncan. Played against Dave. Yeah, it's been absolutely... I've absolutely loved it, the actual... The feeling as well. It's absolutely like... This is the first time I've actually got into Kings of War, so in-depth, and all I want to do is paint more and more, build more and more, and I'm already thinking of my next army. So I've played two games. I did a sort of 2v2 homebrew kind of thing with Elvis, Sonny and Duncan, which managed to somehow win. So that was good fun learning with three other people, and then Sonny came back for round two and absolutely wiped the floor with me. So I need to go back and have another go at Sonny, because his ogres are getting a bit too confident, and I don't like that. Yes, I've done a few. I haven't exactly won any yet, but... Yeah, partly. I mean, not them bitter, but Elvis' incredibly cowardly brotherhood army stitched me up, and I don't think I'll ever forgive him for that. I think that'll stay with me forever now. The model I'm probably most proud of is the dream hunter from the new diorama. I put a lot of care and attention into it, because I like individual hero models, but I quite like, from a scale point of view, these are the twin terrors, because they're quite fun, big, grippy things. Which one was my most proud of? Initially, I really, really liked the wingit. I thought that was my favourite, but then I absolutely loved the slasher model, and I was really excited about painting that. To begin with, I did a terrible job of it. So we had a little bath and dettle for a few other brands that were available. And then I kind of started again, and actually now I'm really, really pleased with that one. So I think it was such a great model. I wanted to do it proud, and hopefully I've done that. Ooh, that's a tricky one. Which am I most proud of? I'd say the Abes is my favourite miniature, but I've not quite finished it yet. So... Oh, it's probably the Tundra Wolf shaking hands with the man at arms, to be honest. It's probably my... necromancer slash druid-ish kind of guy. It's undead themed, it's very, very difficult to... It'd be a necromancer, because of undead stuff, but I like that model. It was new for Vanguard, and I got to paint it when it was fresh out and stuff like that. That was probably the first model I did for my army. So that was my centrepiece when I spent time on. So the miniature I'm most proud of is probably my garlic's fury. I'd already built a steel behemoth, which I'd posed in a fun way. But then garlic's fury was sort of a mad scientist moment where it was, what if I take this huge turret from one of our Warpath miniatures, and I just slap it onto a steel behemoth. And it's definitely a really fun piece when it's on the board. I got to try out a lot of different techniques that I hadn't really done before just building the rest of my army, like adding the steam, if it's together by moulding it out. So yeah, definitely my favourite one that I've done. I think it's my siege breakers, because I think the conversion, I'm not, well, kit bashing, slightly converting, I'm really poor at converting. I have all these ideas, but I always go like, ah, so much effort, I'm never going to get that done. So to do what I did there, I was really happy, and thereby far my favourite. And the game they were in, they were amazing. They just don't want to be shifted. It's hard not to say the giant, just because he's huge. I really enjoyed painting that. I did it over a good few lunch breaks, so it was nice to see that progress and come along. There was encouragement from the forums, the Facebook groups on the internet, and the office. So yeah, probably that one. Well we've joined, so Andy and Blackjack Legacy's just started a new group for Slow Grow Army Building. So I had a little bit of a head start, so kind of cheated, but I'm doing orcs for that group, and a few others from here are doing it as well, so I know Rob's doing his ogres. But yeah, I'm well away in doing that. I've got everything built and primed, and I've started a few of the hero troops and then get down to the nitty gritty of hordes and the regiments as well. Orcs next, and then, February comes, I've got to do Abyssal Dwarves as well, but I think that's going to be the choice for a lot of people. So I've got a busy two months, because they might have to go on a hiatus if they're not done. But yeah, orcs for the next two months. Obviously more goblins. More and more goblins. Again, that's quite a big thing. But no, I currently decided to start a new ogre army, because I don't know if you've heard, but ogres do good combat. So I'm doing an ogre army, which does awesome. I mean, basically, ogres are kind of big, muscly goblins anyway, as far as I'm concerned. So I'm doing them mixed in with a few of the goblins that I've already painted. So up next, I've already got the Shadows in Northbox. I've got the ogre mega army as well. So the Northern Alliance, I'm trying to focus on some conversions and particularly multi-basing. The Nightstalkers are going to be more of a painting challenge, because I've never really been able to blend colours. So that's the perfect opportunity to try that out. And the ogres are... I'm trying some sculpting. So they've all got half cloaks and sort of sashes and things. So it's three different armies pushing three different hobby aspects. So I'm going to try and test myself a little bit. I don't know. I think I hit such a good one with the Brotherhood that people really enjoy seeing, that anything I do now, I'm worried about, can I get these to be as cool as the Undead Brotherhood? I tried a Varunga army, but it didn't quite feel right. So I don't know what I want to do next. I might do Abyssal Dwarfs, post down in some form of comment what army I should do next. And the one I guess the most I'll do. I'm going to end up doing elves, aren't I? Well, chariot's obviously to finish up the chariots. Once I've done chariots, I think I'm going to do a slasher. I have no idea how good it is in game, but the model is absolutely stunning and gorgeous. Who doesn't want a, you know, a big old, dragon-y, lizard-y thing going across the table shooting things. And the coolest thing is it's got goblins on there as well. Who doesn't love goblins? So up next is basically just more dwarfs. I'm trying to give myself probably up to 3,000 points. I'm going to sort of get involved with Blackjack's little campaign he's got going on. But sort of using that to expand my current dwarfs. Just to give myself more room to maneuver in my army lists and what I want to build. Because currently right now, if I'm doing a 2,000 point list, I have one army that I can use. It's not a case of, oh, I feel like more war machines would help or more Brock riders would help. So I'm doing that. So I've got a bit more options, a bit more creativity that I can involve when building my lists. Oh, like I said, I've got a whole bunch of clansmen, sort of two troops of the pack hunters. I'm doing a sort of slight kitbash conversion for my Lord Nanakai mirror, which I'm quite excited about. That's an idea I've had since way back when I first saw the unit entry before, you know, before I'd even seen the new model, which has made me question whether I want to carry on with the conversion or just dive into the new model now. So yeah, I'm looking forward to finishing that up. All resolution, basically paint more goblins. Same as my resolution every single year. Play more games. So I want to go to some tournaments as well. So I've already signed up for, I think it's one of the Northern Kings ones already. We're going to go to as many Black Dragon with Guy Sharp as I can, because he's fairly local. And we're going to have some here as well. So tournaments, I want to get into that and finish my walks. And yeah, maybe three armies by some, I don't think. But yeah, more games for sure. Oh, resolution for 2020. Probably to try and finish the four armies I now own. And then the Abyssal Dwarfs are out in February. So I'm going to need some of those, because they're honestly, I think, the nicest things we've ever done. So more building, more painting. I want to try and keep the painting momentum going for sure. And just definitely more games. To win a game? It's good and fun, yeah. Right. So I think at the end of this month in December, I want to finish up my ogres, get them all done and dusted. And then new year, new army. That is the plan. So I'm going to start bullying other people to join my little pledge here is to start a new army. And I'm torn. I'm torn at the moment, because I'm thinking of doing Kingdom of Men, but using Northern Alliance and mixing things in. So I've seen some great ideas. And yeah, I work with a company that has so many ideas. And it's great. The motivation here is amazing. And that's what powers me on. Hopefully you guys get the same feeling when you're gaming. So my Kings of War Resolution for 2020. I think it's just to take my time a bit more. I'm a pretty impatient person and kind of a speed painter. I like to get stuff done and assembled and straight onto the board. So I don't really take a lot of time with my mould lines. I'm a three colour blackwash kind of guy, which I like. So I think especially on some of my hero units that I've got assembled and painted. Just sort of take my time a bit more and really bring out some of those finer details and use some of the techniques that I've been learning. So yeah, I think that's a good one to do. It'll help me have some really nice miniatures at the end and I'll stop being jealous of everyone else's miniatures I see. Get 2019. 2020. Okay, that makes more sense. I like to get 3,000 points painted by the end of the year but 2,000 points in enough time so that I can do at least one event. Because I've never done a tournament before in my life. So yeah, I'll do at least one event next year. Because it seems like people always really like having fun and basically just get over myself and get out of there. And the most important question of all, do you think Ronnie would have an army done? No. And he still hasn't? No. Nobody imagined Ronnie would have an army done. So as a fellow dwarf player, I was hoping he would have his army done but as someone that I've seen him run around doing one job and then suddenly remembering he has another job I was thinking it might not happen but ultimately I think he's got his army done. I can only think he has it done. Please. Ronnie's got his army done. I mean I did. Unless he's got like Santa's elves and kidnapped them and forced them to paint his army. This is like the shoemaker and the elves. 100% he has not got that. That is six years in the making. Movies don't take as long. Half-life three will be out before his army is finished. They said it would never happen. They said it could not be done. Over eight years in the making coming to a gaming table near you Ronnie has painted his tour. A miracle. It's really a sort of a miracle. Yeah, there's two things. Firstly, he wanted to paint some more and then secondly, it had to be balanced. I'd obviously done all the fun stuff over the last 18 months but didn't know so when I plugged it into an easy army I didn't have quite enough regiments. But between when we last spoken now I think I've done four to six regiments plus finished off some of my vanguard stuff and it's legit. I think we're coming in and stonking just 3,000 points. So none of this easy thousand-point rubbish but it's a proper army now. It's nearly a real army. Yeah, I think there's two reasons I've got more to do. One, if I actually finished my dwarf army something catastrophic would happen to the world or me or something bad because just after eight years it simply can't be. So as I was doing it I started making one of those the doggy regiments, the massive regiment using up all my little spare dogs and I got one of those regiments from the vanguard range so purposefully have not finished that and never will without at least lining up one more regiment. Somewhere on my painted table will always be some dwarfs even over 20,000 points I'll still have another 500 on the thingy because I'm protecting the world and also there's just always cool things in there in the range that gets added in and bits of conversion and doing your hobby is a little bit of fun but I think there's enough that if I wanted to play a game I have enough choice and you can kind of call it done enough. I love it. I mean you just don't, you don't particularly when you work in the industry get your hobby time enough and having already been a slug into it which I know is a bit of a cheat but finishing it, making it third edition legal making it balanced so that I can really play but there's nothing better than kind of sneaking down on a Sunday morning and just getting an hour of hobby in and most of the stuff I was doing was also the stuff I was scared of doing so the last unit I did before I started this was my ball walkers which I didn't want to do because it's the metal plastics I already done quite a lot of the regiments it's one of my favourite regiments because you know I got a few arms from different places and did some conversions and then I did two more regiments which I can push together as a horde and again I had different heads I had different heads to them and so in some ways this stuff is actually my favourite stuff because I've not just done it vanilla it's had some extra bits and more conversions and you've got a bit braver so yeah I've thoroughly enjoyed it and what I was most fearful of have often become my most favourite parts of the arm let's not rush one thing at a time I think getting it painted is more than enough progress for this year and should we be having a large summer campaign next year then I think we can welcome out then but yeah that's a new year let's start a new, let's actually play with them how can I just dance with them it's the regiments I mean there's no single regiments but if you look at the units I've got these pictures they've got standard bearers it's a sack of just that we've got rid of that for gaming purposes but they've got the standard there they've got the dog, they've just got that bit of character I like the one where I put a big rot that I've found somewhere as you do when you do the hobby thing where you say ooh that'll make a great thing on a base and end up with tons of crap I actually used some of that and then I converted the metal levees that came with the vanguard added plastic heads to them so they didn't look too different or plastic shields to them so they blended in and I put those on one of those and there was my fourth or fifth or sixth regiment in the army and actually doing it with loads of character kept me sane so I put with that regiment I'm quite thinking about doing my gaming table I thoroughly enjoyed my Deadzone one which I did a couple of years ago for the Deadzone summer campaign and it's now very famous in all of our photography because for some reason muted colours, I did it in Ben loves to photograph it on rather than the really well painted stuff and there's also a trident realm vanguard faction that I glued together and got as far as basing and I don't think I've quite got the stuff up for another full army but a vanguard unit could be nice and then of course we'll have some new games coming out next year so we'll have to start picking up some of that to Bissell Dwarfs as well I've got a plastic sprue of those there very very very nice so yeah to play games well a few things play games in the summer campaign actually properly play and maybe play some vanguard and some King's war games together so definitely do some of that and the second thing that I'm super excited about is in the last couple of years obviously Adepticon and the American tournament scene has grown and grown and is huge and successful and we've added kind of Adepticon alongside the US Masters to be ages alongside Clash of Kings at the UK and I'm going to go down and see what's happening in Australia because that's our third biggest market and they've got an event that can come beginning of January so I want to King's at war, I want to get down there and celebrate the success I think it's the third biggest tournament in the world certainly in the third biggest country US and Clash of Kings so go down to see what's going on in that scene I went to the Masters this year and I want to go to Masters US this year I honestly can't comment Never in doubt not for one second I was going to go for 5,000 points but you know it would have been too easy and that is that so tell us what army you are currently assembling and painting right now in the comments below it's very good for the algorithm and what you're most excited for in King's War 3rd Edition is it the new Titans, new rules, new scenarios let us know and see you next time