New Year - New Army

I heard the phrase ‘new year, new army’ on the Juggz podcast just before the new year and thought it would be a good way to kickstart my hobby adventures after a year of doing very little of anything outside of my day job. That left the question ‘Where do I start?’

Not the Old World?

One thing I know for certain is that any new wargaming activity will not take place in the Old World. Games Workshop doesn’t need my money, not when there are other games to play and miniatures companies to support.

Just a few of the rulebooks I’ve acquired over the years.

After GW killed off Fantasy Battles in favour of Age of Sigmar, I went looking for other game systems and haven’t looked back. Kings of War was the obvious alternative, given its ties to GW alumni. Later, I picked up the Oathmark rulebook (but still haven’t played a game) and Frostgrave for narrative skirmish games. I also still had my 6th edition rulebook if I wanted to do anything in the GW universe.

So, KoW it is for the army list. But, what army?

Bretonnians in Kings of War?

Despite 6th edition being my favourite iteration of WHFB, I started with 5th edition just before the turn of the millennium. Chaos was my first army (Khorne warriors initially but expanding out into something of everything during 6th edition), but my first models were the Bretonnians and Lizardmen that came in the 5th edition starter box.

Models from my first army, Khorne Warriors of Chaos, in desperate need of a new paint job.

Those Bretonnian and Lizardmen models were swapped for some more chaos warriors and some undead (which wound up being swapped for a bunch of Eldar) and I’ve no idea where the main rulebook went. For all I remember, it could be in a box somewhere in my attic or lent to a friend to never be seen again.

Given my Chaos models are all I have left from 5th edition, why not revisit it with a new spin? I’ve got a handful of KoW Salamanders (I think they were from a Forces of Nature Army Box I bought years ago but didn’t do anything with) but nothing that could proxy for Bretonnians.

Bretonnians on a budget

Mantic don’t really have a good proxy mini for the Bretonnian range so I’ll be building my list using Mantic’s army builder tool and buying minis from someone else.

Although KoW doesn’t have a 1-for-1 match to the Bretonnian army book, I figure I can get close to a 2,000 points army by using the Kingdoms of Men list for the first 1,500 points and then 5,00 points of allies from the Basilean or Order of the Brothermark lists to represent the elite aspects of the army. With this in mind, I’ll be breaking the army up into 500 points chunks, representing a lowly noble’s rise to the esteemed ranks of the most holy of knights.

To keep the overall feel of the Bretonnians of old, I’ll be sticking to the idea that the army has to include a lord, his banner bearer, and a retinue of knights of the realm. Since the 5th edition box came with knights and bowmen, rounding out the first 500 points will be two regiments of peasants with bows.

Using the Kingdoms of Men army builder gives me 480 points:

Now, off to find some proxies. I remember seeing what looked like Fireforge Games’ Teutonic Knights used as a proxy in the second edition KoW rulebook so I’ll start there.