Splish Splash

 Mantic Games Kings of War Armada is the game of Fantasy Naval Battles.  As soon as I hear 'fantasy' and 'naval' - I immediately think of sea monsters.  Of course there is the "Hunt the Kraken" scenario - but where are the sea monsters?  In the world of Pannithor, there is even a Kings of War faction based around ocean dwelling creatures.

Well the long wait is over, and the Trident Realm of Neritica is finally here to defend their watery homes from the dry land invaders!  I am especially excited for this release, as my current Kings of War army is a Trident Realm army - The Trident Realm of R'lyeh.

The fleet was released the week of Adepticon, and sold out the first day of the convention.  I had pre-ordered mine, and added in two crazy boxes as well (have to get that free shipping).  Of course that meant it didn't get to me until a full week after Adepticon.

Like all Armada fleets (ok, Kingdoms of Men only has a card pack - you have to source your own ships) the Trident Realm comes in four boxes.  First is the Starter set.

The starter set comes with all the rule cards needed for this fleet.  One interesting thing I noted was that the Tidal Terrors rules were also included (these are the 'equivalent' of flyers for the fleet).  These include the fleet rules, the specific model specific rules (while they are referred to as 'ships' just to be consistent with the rules, we all know they are sea monsters). Fleet specific upgrades, and the unique magic spell and spell book card for the fleet.

Of course, it also includes cards for the three 'ships' included in the set.

First off is the Large Main 'ship' - the Giant Squid

None of the 'ships' come in many parts - the squid has a tentacle and the main 'deck' of its armor.  Plus the harpoon darts (yes, I had to look up what the tip is called) for all the 'ships'.  Honestly, those were the most difficult parts to assemble.

There is then a Medium Main 'ship', the Gun Turtle

With the exception of the darts, the only part is the bit of tail that is partially submerged (almost like that is a rule).

Let me mention that I do not care for the water molded onto the 'ships'.  I understand they are swimming, not floating, but I would rather have them just be the 'ships' so I could do the water the way I preferred.  It actually took two coats of Woodland Scenics water effects to merge the molded water with the water I wanted on the base.

Finally is the Small Support 'ship', the Knucker Chariot.  I thought about trying to use Turbo Dork 4D Glasses on this to match the one in my demo army ( almost speed painting ), but decided to keep it simple.

The booster box, like all of them, has two medium 'ships' and a pair of tiny 'squadrons'.

The first 'ship' is a Gun Turtle - the medium main 'ship' that is the same as the starter box.  This is the pattern for every release (except for Twilight Kin) so far.

The medium support 'ship' is the Kyr Angler - a giant angler fish!  I tried a little bit of OSL (Object Source Lighting) for his light, but otherwise nothing fancy

Lastly are the Worm Drawn Sloop Squadron.  Like all Armada squadrons, they are sold to have 2 models on a single 30mm base (but you can use just one if you like) - because they represent a bunch of tiny ships, not the actual one or two models.

Unfortunately I was missing a fin from one of my R48 03102 sprues - but I just figured it would be battle damage.  In the painted picture you don't even notice one fin is missing.  Also, I'm sorry but apparently I never took pictures of the assembled, unpainted minis.  Of course I didn't realize that until I'm writing this up, after they are all painted.

Next is the Extra-Large 'ship', the Leviathan (and the unique version, the Bull-Leviathan).  When I was unpacking the big box with my order (again, including 2 crazy boxes (fantasy and rpg), I thought they forgot this, as the box was missing.  However I then found the model and cards separate.

The paranoid conspiracy theorist side of me was figuring they just didn't want to give me the Mantic points for it - but the rational realistic side saw that there simply wasn't room in the box for one more box, and removing it from the commercial packaging means it took much less room, so it could fit with everything else.  It does mean I don't have a picture so the back of the box however.

The difference between the unique Bull Leviathan and the normal one is the Bull is actually a giant Narwhal (instead of just being a whale).  I really liked that, so made that version.  I also think that if I field one, it will be the Bull version as well.

Lastly are the Tidal Terrors - these are the equivalent of flyers.  They are similar to flyers in that they can't take objectives nor can they be normally attacked - but instead of flying over to attack (and be attacked), they instead grapple enemy ships and will stay attached until killed (or the controlling player decides to let them go).  They don't stop the grappled ship, but do de-buff them as long as they are attached.

The first of these is the Greater Water Elemental

The second is a Giant Giga

It is interesting (to me) that the R48 03203 spruelette has two claws on it - but there is only a place for one on the model.  They seemed to be identical to me.  Maybe the extra is just a special treat - anybody have some butter?

I have been running "Learn to Play" events for Armada since it came out at conventions (mainly Origins and Gencon, but this year also at Little Wars).  I wanted to have these available for that (which is in just a couple of weeks now), so with the aid of Army Painter speed paints (I have been using this type of paint (mainly the Citadel Contrast Paints Gore-Grunta Fur for hulls, Snakebite Leather for decks and Skeleton Horde for sails) for all of my Armada ships, so it came naturally.

I used Gravelord Grey on all the armor, then later drybrushed it with Greedy Gold.  This didn't work quite as well as I had hoped (the gold did not show up well against the highlighted spots), until I did a second drybrush of Greedy Gold - and this added to the high spots really making them pop.

I will probably need to pick up another starter (or two - I kind of like the Knucker Chariot) for my personal fleet.

For my demo, it will be the three models from the starter box - which come to 114 points.  I've been trying to standardize at 120 points - so I'm thinking of giving Armored Scales to all three ships (reducing the damage from any normal shooting attack by 2 (to a minimum of 1)) since while they are harder to hit (partially submerged rule), they also only have weapons on the front - so can't ever 'cross the T'. 

We'll just have to see how they seem to play in a couple of weeks in Chicago at Little Wars.

Because it is all fun and games . . .