Kings of Hobby: Rob Phaneuf

Welcome to the KINGDOM of halfMEN.

Nestled within the northern foothills of the Dragon Teeth Mountains and accessible by a few treacherous paths known only to the most skilled rangers and mountain goats lies the unassuming Halfling settlement of Fordern.  Founded as a provisional mining camp near several rich mineral deposits the settlement makes heavy use of the nearby Passage of Cataclysm to move the ingots of their labor to the heart of the Successor Kingdoms, to whom they’ve pledged their fealty.  Given their close proximity to the fertile lands of Rhordia and several northern Dwarven strongholds Fordern has become a prominent trading outpost among Halflings, Men and Free Dwarfs. More recently, with the completion of the Great Wall along the edge of the Dragon Teeth Mountains Fordern has essentially become cut off from many of the southern men they once called brothers.  Fordern now finds themselves as the solitary steward of the Passage of Cataclysm and maintain a vigilant garrison to safeguard this increasingly vital trading route. Equipped by the profits of trading and hardened by the harsh reality of mountain life Fordern is prepared for the great reckoning at hand.

Thanks for joining me in this first installment of the series that will document my progress on my new army project.  For those that don’t know me I’m Rob Phaneuf and I’m an avid Kings of War player from Memphis, Tennessee. I’ve been playing since 1st edition and I’m also a host of the Counter Charge Podcast which is dedicated to all things Kings of War.  If you’ve already listened to us,thank you; if not, we’d love you to check us out.  

Since my beginning in wargaming so many years I ago I’ve always love the look of well painted and modeled fantasy rank and flank armies fighting over a beautiful battlefield.  In that time I’ve built a countless number of armies, but over the last few years I’ve struggled to find that passion project that would become my next army. As I was at a bit of an impasse I decided to write down what I wanted to accomplish with this new project in the hopes that it would illuminate my path.   

• Long-term project with no finish line.
• Focus on hobby and storytelling rather than competitiveness.
• Choose an army that no one is using in our local club.
• Use existing models to minimize buying new models.
• Over the top basing that ties the units together.  
• Target 250 to 300 points per month.  
• Build and paint one unit at a time.
• Create a complete set of units for the chosen army.
• Make versatile units that could be used in different army lists where possible.

After much consideration and rummaging through my vault of unpainted models it hit me like a ton of bricks.  It was so obvious and it had been staring me in the face the whole time. Kingdoms of halfMen, a halfling army using the Kings of Men army list.  There are a lot of positives to this idea.

• I’ve not completed a human-ish army in a very long time.  The last one I remember is Bretonnians at the tail end of Warhammer Fantasy Battles 5th edition.   
• Kingdoms of Men list has good variety of units and there is something very interesting about adding real depth and character to arguably the most generic list in Kings of War.
• It would allow me to use some pieces from an abandoned Warhammer army project as the seed for this new army.  Sort of a personal allegory for moving to Kings of War from Warhammer. What was old is new again.
• Model Choices
  • No concern for using Mantic models as they don’t make Kingdoms of Men models.  
  • Non-traditional use for my Halfling models from Westfalia Miniatures as opposed to the obvious choice of Rhordia.
  • Opportunity to make use of the awesome Forge World Landship.  

Conceptually I’m a bit of a contrarian who likes to continually buck the norm.  When most players think of halflings they think of them as a people that eschews adventure for the simple life of farming in an idyllic landscape of rolling green hills.  But for this army I want to go a different direction. I want to portray my halflings as a hardy, stoic race as a result of being hardened from the tough life up in the mountains.  I also want my halflings to have a bit of an elitist attitude, especially when comparing themselves to the corpulent fools found on the Ardovikian plain of Rhorida. Finally, my halflings are a more practical lot and they simply don’t bother with magic.  So any magical support for the army will most likely take the form of a human wizard.

Basing is something that I have struggled to find originality with and it’s often an afterthought for previous projects.  As a result the basing sometimes undermines the overall aesthetic impact I’m trying to make with a project. Given my love of terrain it’s pretty ironic.  So this time I’m starting with the basing before anything else. Given the habitat in which this army lives I want my bases to evoke that the army is fighting within a dangerous, mountainous landscape.  I want the bases to tie the units together visually while making sure that each base is unique. For construction I will be starting with ¼” MDF basing and building up the base using resin and epoxy clay.  Below you can see a base I made with a resin rock cast and epoxy clay textured with foil. This base does a good job of dynamically playing with heights which contrasts nicely against the diminutive size of the models.  

In terms of modeling the army I’m going to stick mostly the Halflings from Westfalia Miniatures that I purchased over the years.  As I’m starting with the basic infantry my conversion work will be limited at first to mostly kitbashing such as weapons and head swaps.  But as I get to more unique units such as a winged beast and a Beast of War I will have to be more creative and make use of things outside the Westfalias’ range.  I’m eagerly looking forward to creating a flying goat for my general!

One thing that I still have to nail down is the color scheme.  In the past when folks painted their dwarf armor silver I went with bronze.  When folks painted their ogres in earth tones I went with a cool color scheme of blue, purple and pink.  So expect another departure from the halfling norm for this army too. If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them!  

As I’ve rambled on a bit let’s get to my January commitments.  

Regiment of Foot Guard (135 points)

Having the word Foot in the name of a Halfling unit puts a smile on my face.  As the description of this unit is elite warriors in the role of bodyguard I’ve chosen to use Halfling Bihanders models from Westfalia Miniatures.  Given the model choice I will be dropping the shield for the 2 handed weapons. One interesting note is that this exact unit is also in the Rhordia army which gives me the option to run them in either list.  

Army Standard Bearer, Mounted (65 points)

An inexpensive hero with Very Inspiring is an amazing value.  For this hero I’ve chosen to use the Halfmen Army General (lord on a huge goat) model. To convert him into a standard bearer I removed the sword from his hand and added a brass rod banner pole and a dragon finial.  I still have to decide what material to make the banner with but I really like how this model is shaping up!

Troop of Bowmen (70 points)

For this unit I’m leaning towards using Robin Halfhood and the Merry Halfmen as they are essentially Halfling rangers equipped with bows.  They would look awesome perched on a mountain ledge firing down on the an unexpecting enemy. However, I have 2 other types of Halfling archers so I may mix some of these in to add variety to the unit.  

Well that’s about it for me this month as these 3 units puts me at 275 points for the month of January.  Check back at the end of the month to see a progress report and what I have cooked up for February!