Kings of War: Stir River Patrol

Kings of War seems to be very good at inspiring players to start several different armies, and I find myself lured by that as well!  I have a good number of Empire troops from my days playing Warhammer Fantasy, and I plan to repurpose them into a Kingdoms of Men force.  The first of the units that I completed was a collection of Free Company figures that I've painted as a regiment of Stir River Patrol.

First Look:  I never actually picked up the Free Company figures when they were originally released, but I wound up with some due to an eBay lot.  Since the figures were already assembled, I tried to decide how I should use them.  Ultimately, I decided that they would make a good unit of the Stir River Patrol.  I imagine the patrol makes use of riverboats along the Stir River, and has its share of marine fighting.  In that environment, it makes sense that they would 1) not have shields and 2) have a mixture of weapons instead of units separated by armament.  Satisfied with my concept, I set off to pull it together!

Painting:  The color scheme for the Stir River Patrol is green and white, instead of the typical green and yellow of the province (Stirland).  However, I wanted to still have some link to the provincial colors, so I decided to use yellow as an accent color for feathers and other random bits of clothing.  A medium brown was used for leather and wood bits (coats, gloves, bracers, boots, etc.), and the metal was painted a standard silver color.

The base was an experiment consisting of a piece of plastic card cut to regiment size, and coated with a mix of white glue and baking powder.  The mix was then painted dark brown, highlighted, and flock was added.

Conclusion:  I'm really happy with how the unit turn out!  I haven't painted an entire unit "assembly line" style in quite some time, and not having the figures based made it difficult to handle them during painting.  I like the amount of yellow in the unit, as it doesn't overpower the green/white theme.

That said, I'm still undecided about what kind of unit this could actually represent in KoW!  It could always be used as a Militia Mob, but that seems a little too cheap and not representative of the Stir River Patrol as a legitimate organization.  I've also considered counting it as a Pole-Arms Block, as 1) there are a few halberds in the unit and 2) the number of short-range firearms (pistols and blunderbusses) could legitimately explain the Crushing Strength (1) for a Pole-Arms Block.  I welcome comments on this!

- M:M