Mantic Slow Grow Challenge

The deadline for Stage 2 of the Mantic Kings of War Slow Grow Challenge 2026 is TODAY! What does that mean? Well it is all about internal motivation - meeting each stage is great - but in the end it is having a fully painted army at the end that is the goal, whether you meat each milestone or not.

So after the 2nd stage, you should have 1000 pts of your new army painted. So time to check in since the previous stage.

Checking my schedule - here is what I should have painted:

3/15/2026
Witch Hunter on Lion
Chakrams Troop
Spearwardens Regiment

5/1/2026
Chakrams Troop
Spearwardens Regiment
Wildfangs Troop
Witch Cage

So what do I have finished:

Warlords:

Witch Hunter Shuugh
Baider Witch Eater

Champions:

Witch Hunter on line
Witch Hunter on line
Beastmaster

Core

Chakrams Horde
Spearwardens Regiment
Spearwardens Regiment

Specialist

Wildfangs Regiment
LionSnarl Cavalry Regiment

Support

Witch Cage
Witch Cage

So I guess I exceeded my goal. Plus I also rebased my previous painted units, and painted up separate models for my Xorxoi champions company. Why? Well I mentioned that I actually signed up to play in a GT on May 17th & 18th - just a little over 2 weeks away (but we will be going up on Friday night, so I have to have everything done in 13 days. What do I have left to do? 2 more SpearWarden regiments and a Gooklu (which have all been started). I'll have to use the partially done models this coming Sunday as the ringer army for the Gem City Mayssacre (which is a practice tournament for the GT)

I want to talk about how I am basing this army.

The idea for the basing is these are part of the Tiger Claw that sailed a huge armada to attack Pannithor from the west, while the Dragon and Phoenix claws march from the east. The new 2 player starter set ( Claws in the Sand ) is Xirkaali v Trident Realm, and it is even talked about the Trident Realm attacking the Xirkaali ships to keep them from making landfall. In Stand at Callenspire it actually mentions this.

So my basing is intended to be the landing force, coming in from the water to the beach. So the back ends of the unit bases are shallow waves, that end in wet sand and then dry sand, with some cattails and other bits of grass as well. I use Woodland Scenics water effects to make a barrier around the edge of the base between where the water and sand will be, then fill that area with realistic water.

Some things to be aware of when doing this. The water effects is thick and white, and dries clear. However the thicker it is, the longer it takes to fully dry and become clear. Not only that, but sometimes when you add the realistic water, it will actually put moisture back into the water effects, causing it to cloud up again. You definitely want to do the realistic water in thin layers - it takes about 24 hours for it to fully set. I was putting bases with the water effects on them under a fan just to help them dry out.

After the realistic water has dried, I then use some white paint to attempt to mark the edge of the waves - the foam you see at the edge of the water as it hits the beach.

As it is, it takes several days to finish the back half of the unit bases.

Ok, so here are the pictures!

Witch Hunters mounted on Lions. I want to have an anti-magic themed army - and witch hunters should be a part of it. They are probably the bet Champions for combat (especially on a lion) since they get 6 attacks with CS(1) and TC(1). They have spellward, and elite against spellcasters, but those just haven't done much. They are not individuals when mounted though, so get flanks and rear bonuses. I do like the models though.

I talked about these conversions for stage 1 before, and Mantic still has not released this model. I rebased the one I had already painted.

The second Witch Hunter is more of a conversion. I didn't want the two of them to be the same, so first I used the other Foo Lion Sculpt (and the base is came on, that really makes it look better). Then I decided to put the Witch Hunter Shuugch model on it.

I also tried to paint it like one of my dogs.

Our younger 'parvo puppy' pit bull Devo. Hard for me to believe the tiny rescue puppy we fostered (and was originally so weak he couldn't even lift his head up) is now 11!

Witch Hunter Shuugch. With the new STL for Baidar Witch Hunter I printed a couple. One I did as Baidar - the other I am using as a Shuugch to replace the one I put on a lion. Makes it a little more impressive for a warlord.

I tried to make both versions of this to look like our other dog.

Tip - now 13. He 'found' us the day the Devo was cleared to interact with other dogs after his Parvovirus cleared. We took him to a local dog park, and as he was playing a bit, we heard a noise and Tip was looking in the window of my car. We never found where he came from (he was clean, well fed, and did not look like he had been on his own at all), but he was a runner (and jumper), and also was heartworm positive.

The Witch Hunter Shuugch (if Mantic is going to use eastern names, then they need to include pronunciation guides with them) (I looked it up, and it basically means judge (and is pronounced almost the same way). This is the ONLY hero in the army that is not an individual (witch hunters lose individual if mounted).

Since the Shuugch and Baidar are both Warklords, I don't see me ever being able to field both of them at the same time so they are the same model. I have tried several games with Baidar, and his special rule that he is CS(4) against any unit that is spellcaster OR carries a magical artifact really sounds good, but his is an individual with only 6 AT. At 285 points I'm just finding that he can't earn it back. I put him against a Dwarf Lord on Large Beast (200 pts), De 6+, but had an artifact. They went back and forth for 4 turns before the Dwarf Lord finally won because I just could never managed to get an average number of hits (on a 3+) with him - so instead of the 4 or more wounds I should get each attack, it was only 1 or 2. Sigh.

Beastmaster. He has an aura that gives "Beasts" strider - very cool - but is NOT inspiring, and basically has to spend the entire game running just to keep up with the Goklu and LionSnarl cavalry (he is only SP 5, while the cav is SP 9 and Goklu is SP10). So to be truly effective he gets the inspiring talisman, and then just runs after the beasts giving them command orders when he can. At this point I don't think he is going to be seeing the table much anymore.

Core

The core of my army is SpearWardens. I really like these, even though they are costly. I have 2 of the 4 regiments done. I rebased the models I had last month. I also really like the alternate dog heads!

I actually took pictures of both troops in the regiment to show off the heads.

The beagle head on the left is my favorite so far. Also the idea of a 6' tall Chihuahua with a spear is just scary!

The other core unit is Chakrams. I had originally planned on just a regiment - but then I played with the list and am going to try a horde. I rebased the troop from the previous stage (and fixed the one model that had a left arm on is right side).

Specialists

Wildfangs. I really want these to be better - but hitting on 4+ is just so iffy. And giving them sharpness so they hit on 3+ instead makes the very expensive (and they are only De 4+, so struggle to stay around if they get charged). So still not sure about them. The ones I had painted for champions are still there, these are new ones competely.

Lionsnarl Cavalry. Generally a very good unit - however the issue I have is with the physical cost. The regiment is $75, and they only have the 3 models. Since these are resin models, I will just wait until they eventually release STLs for them.

Support

Wanting to do an anti-magic army, the only non-hero unit that does anything is the Witch Cage. I converted the special turn counter version to hold a cage from the plastic giant kit from another company, with an elf inside. (When I was taking the pictures I realized I had not painted the waves on the water for these - that is now done.