Hamsta’s Path of Conquest, The 100 Kingdoms

Sadly, I have no real model updates to show for the 100K.

My chemo is taking its toll, and between shaky hands, and thin blood, I’m can’t paint, and I shouldn’t pick up anything pointy, so modeling is out too.

This project is FAR from done, I will pick this up down the line (I have the parts, the conversion pieces, and the models to get to Stage 2 of the Path with my 100K.

Lord Picard shall continue his path to glory.!

So my treatment has been giving me a bit more of a kicking than I’d hoped / expected. Its also been playing havoc with my sleeping patterns, so at about 4am this morning I was awake, and not too nauseated,so I got cracking on the 100K initial assembly.

First I got the 12x Mercenary Crossbowmen assembled.

Nothing too complicated, front rank knealing, 2nd rank loading.

As a (hopefully) non-combat unit, they shouldn’t need a banner, but a leader could be useful. For that reason, I left a single guy with no helmet on (its hanging from his belt should he need it), just to distinguish him, should it be needed.

5 stands of Men at Arms were next on the list. The other stand of 4 has been put to one side should I go ahead with my mounted squire conversion.

Once I add a character stand to the unit (probably in Milestone 2),  it’ll round outthe unit to 6 stands.

These guys ARE going to see some up close action, so a banner and leader was a must.

For the leader I just added a small rock, so give him a little height over the rest, a side ways stance, a (semi) pointing sword, etc. Iplan to add a feather or something to his helmet before painting, but that’ll need a rummage through the bits box, and I don’t have the energy for that now.

Sadly, all the pics I took came out blurred,  so no close ups for you.

The banner was a pretty easy conversion. Found a suitable pose, drilled out the hand of the shield arm (shield will be slung across his back most likely). The banner itself is an old GW Bretonnian one I had hanging around (I have several of these). I think its from the old knights kit, but once I clipped off some of the extra pennants, it seems to suit. I need to adjust the height/angle a little before a bad of superglue will fix it in place. A little filling and filing, an it should all be good.

As you will know (assuming you have read my introduction entry), I am basing my 100 Kingdoms on an old WHFB Bretonnian army I painted up many years ago, and an important part of that image was a unit (or 2) of mounted squires to accompany my noble knights into battle.

Whilst the 100K does have such a unit listed on the Army Builder, no models currently exist, or at least they haven’t been released, or even revealed yet (as far as I know), but I’m not prepared to wait!

Before I received any of my models, I was already hatching this plan, so a quick google found an image showing the heights of the some of the Conquest models (including the Knights), so I could take a stab at the scale, and it’s pretty close to “O gauge” model trains, so i began looking for O gauge horses.

Eventually I found some that were not too expensive, and ordered 4 in the hope they would work.

They are a little on the small side, but if I beef up the base a little, they’ll get pretty close, and then I’ll add saddles, blankets, straps, etc, and they should be pretty close, especially as outriders/scouts would be on smaller faster horses compared to the knights.

I plan to use some men at arms as the basis for the riders, with a few minor changes using green stuff, maybe giving them spears instead of swords, etc.

But these will likely not be until at least Step 2 of the path, but since I mentioned it in entry 1, I didn’t want to leave you hanging.

Stay tuned for more.

ok, so my plan for the Path of Conquest was to make ONE army. Namely this one, the 100 Kingdoms. If you’ve read my entry zero, you’ll know that plan didn’t last and now I’m doing three!!!

The modified plan, was to make 1 army at a time. Assemble, prime, paint and base each army, at each Step of the Path of Conquest, before moving onto the next army, at that step, and so on.

Unfortunately, half way through building the Spires from the 2P starter set, I learnt that one of the side effects of the chemo-therapy I will be starting soon, is that I could well have issues with my blood NOT clotting should I cut myself.

Now, as an experienced modeler of approx 30 years (or more, cough cough), I of course still stab myself with a craft knife and/or pin vice if I so much as look at one, so this was a problem.

I therefore decided to finish building the Spires (I only had a few bits left to do), and then set to work on the 100 Kingdoms. But rather than get to building them, I decided to just cut them from the sprues, and clean up any burs and nicks, remove the sprue lines, etc.

I did this for each unit type, and then by each piece type, so i have a stock of Man at Arms legs, Bodies, arms, heads, etc.

The Knights I kept all the horse parts in 1 pot, the knights themselves in another (they have so few pieces, and are only 4 in number (inc. the Noble) that this made more sense to me.

I literally finished cleaning up the last pieces of the Steel Legion the night before I was due to start my treatment.

The morning after, I woke at 5 am (the meds I’m on really mess with my sleep pattern), I decided to get started putting the Knights and Horses together. I’ve left the “lose” barding pieces lose and will add them after painting the underside of the horses. Likewise, I’ll paint the knights separately also.

I hope to get the rest of the models together soon.

I MAY leave 1 stand of the Men at Arms unassembled, because I have a cunning plan in mind… but I’ll prob just buy another box of them and be done with it (unless anyone has a spare sprue to sell).

NOTE, the first entry i  each of my 3 Path of Conquest projects is the same. If you’ve readeitherof the others, then no need to read it again here.

I have been keeping half an eye on Conquest for about 3 years now, casually observing online articles and casting half an eye on the latest models at the UKGE each year, but about the time GW destroyed the Old World, I decided I was done with army scale games, and moved my time to skirmish games for my hobby time, and boardgames for my gaming time.

My local board game group collapsed a few years ago, freeing up my time to get back into building and painting miniatures on a larger scale, but the old WHFB scar was still sore,so i just painted more skirmish stuff. With a few gentle nudges from friends, recent forays into Age of Sigmar, Flames of War and even the new 40k, started to pick at that old wound, but didn’t quite scratch the itch, or maybe I was looking for something somewhere between skirmish and army scale.

This brings us to the early summer of 2020. Whilst much of that year should only be spoken of in hush tones around campfires, or used as a warning to scare children into eating their sprouts and brushing their teeth, 2 stars did, for me at least, began to align in the bleak night skies.

A dark, ominous, BLACK star ,which we shall name Cancer, and a bright, gleaming, Golden star, we shall name the Path of Conquest.

Suffice to say, between throwing up, sleeping, and medical appointments (chemo and surgery), I have found myself with a relatively open, work free, 6+ months ahead of me. All this at just the time when the Path of Conquest began. I am not a religious man, but that does not mean I am blind to the workings of the unknown. Call it Fate, call it The Force, call it Kharma, call it what you will, regardless, I shall answer the call.

Step 1, was obviously the single most important step… choosing a faction. This is always a tedious process, which forces me to ignore the heart felt pleas of my progeny (Daddy, will you play a game with me? Daddy, can you help we with my homework? Daddy, its been 3 days, can we have something to eat please?)  and spend my time dribbling over picture of models, reading expertly crafted background lore, and watching a backlog of OTT videos on faction lore, playstyle and gameplay.

The Dweghom it is then… yes, the Dweghom is the one faction… i will NOT be collecting. All those flames and stocky armour… no no, not for me.

I must admit, from the teaser art and cavalry model silhouette shown so far, it is the Orcs that call to me the most. Noble savages, finding their feet in a harsh and unforgiving world. But alas they are not yet out, so they shall have to wait.

Next up would be the Nords. I have long had a vision of a band of savage Northsmen, charging into battle, waving banners bearing a strong resemblance to ManOWar album covers. But not being part of the 2p set, would mean a full army of these would cost WAY more than I was prepared to spend at this point.

Now the 100 Kingdoms has a certain appeal, giving off more than a little vibe of my old WHFB Bretonnians than I can ignore, combined with the absolute steal that is the 2 player starter set, my choice was made. So it seems the Noble House of Picard shall ride to war once more.

Then things got complicated.

Upon receiving my 2P starter box and bonus units (thanks OTT Store for your awesome service as ever), I was impressed with the model quality of not only the 100k, but also that of The Spires. The pics don’t, in my opinion, do the Spire models justice. They seem a lot flatter, and lacking character when compared to the other factions, but holding them in my hands changed this opinion. So I tweaked my plan and decided to build both the Spires and The 100 Kingdoms for the Paths event.

The Spires should lend themselves well to contrast, dry brushing and wash techniques, so i can crank them out fairly quickly, allowing me to spend more time on the 100k.

Then things got REALLY complicated.

Having now read even more of the background, spent even more time dribbling over photos and watching even more videos… the voices in my head continued to whisper of the Northlands, oft the coming storm, the wrongs done to these noble barbarians of generations past, and the harsh vengeance they would reap. So whilst casually placing an order for some minor additions to my 100k and Spires (too allow me to legally field the 2 bonus units I got with the starter (more on these in Step 2 no doubt), I ACCIDENTALLY added £250 worth of Nords to the basket and didn’t notice until I hit the buy button. I’m on a lot of medication you understand.

So now I will have 3 Paths to follow;

The 100 Kingdoms as planned.

The Spires, just because.

And The Nords, because who doesnt love that Jotnar!?!

And so it begins…