What Is the New Army?
Whilst I was frantically assembling and building my Havoc Brothers army for the recent gaming day I attended in Worcester, I was already thinking of what army is next. I have 4 fantasy armies I am thinking of; Chivalrous Kingdoms, Goblins, High Elves and Havoc Dwarves.
I am a big fan of Highland Miniatures, I have quite a few of their lines including Sunland, Gallia, Aegean Elves and Goblins. The Sunland and Gallia combined will cover so many of the Chivalrous Kingdoms and the other 2 are obvious. The Havoc Dwarves however are coming next month (Nov 2025), and as soon as I saw them, I knew they were going to be another consideration.
Lets address each one and why I have considered them.
Chivalrous Kingdoms
Knights… That is all I have to say really. When I first got into Warhammer, many many MANY moons ago, my dad brought the 5th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles box set which consisted of Lizardmen and Bretonnians.
We never really got round to doing anything with them, the play style of that game was too much for my child brain to completely understand… To a degree it still is at the age of 38! But I loved the Bretonnian models, the look of a couple of flanks of knights was really cool. Just to top things off, I already have a nice Saurian (Lizardman) army which I have a couple of models still to complete, so it will be like I have that box set all over again!
Goblins
Those little green bastards! Not much to say about these guys really. I love the look of the Highlands models and the diversity of the army. I also had a small Orcs and Goblins fantasy army when I was a kid. Again didn’t really use them for the same reasons as the Bretonnians. When Games Workshop released their new goblin models, I was really close to buying some, This was before I started 3d printing models. With the Age of Fantasy army, at least at the time or writing this, you can select one of 3 different clans for certain units to belong to. Cave, Forest and Wolf, each with their own perks.
Taking a look at Highland Miniatures sets, there are definitely a models for most of the units and the clans. I will probably mix and match, and have enough units to switch it up between games.
Aegean Elves
I am more of a dark elf kind of person, but looking at all of the models Highlands have done for their elves line, I can’t help just being absolutely in love with them. I can picture a clean, sharp and shining army just sitting on the tabletop. They have some glorious mounted elves, as well as a damn dragon. A DRAGON!!
They do have a similar makeup to the Chivalrous Kingdoms in a lot of respect. You have your ranked units, sword and board, pokey boys and then your ballistic weapons. So while I wouldn’t have the diversity that having quest knights and their individual coats of arms etc, the feel will probably be very much the same.
Havoc Dwarves
I think dwarves in general can be really fun, but I am a big evil guy fan and havoc embody that evil army feel. One Page Rules in their lore, don’t really have “good” and “evil”, but havoc are clearly the kind of army that leans towards the more chaotic and destruction vibe. Looking at the models coming Sons of Marduk they are looking so unique with their inspiration and have some interesting weapons.
So Who To Choose?
Well that is the million pound question isn’t it. While the first 3 armies, I can get started with right away. The Havoc Dwarves though will be limited entirely to the release and release schedule. Highland Miniatures also has a release schedule that switches things every couple of months and they go back and forth between armies. So that might mean we get 2 or 3 months of dwarves before they get switched to something else for a little while. I could very well get going on a cool army, but have to stop because I only have a couple of different units and miss out on being able to rope in some other desired units for an unknown number of months.
The other thing that I need to take into consideration, is the imminent drop of the One Page Rules 3.5 update. We don’t know exactly when it is going to drop, but the Beta is over so it should be in the next week or so. The 3.5 update is bringing some massive changes to armies and their abilities. I had a peek at the Beta when it first released, but I didn’t keep up with it because it was always changing and I don’t play often enough to try all the changes before they change again.
At the moment, I am leaning towards the Aegean Elves and building out a High Elf army. I have a rough idea on what I want the base of the paint scheme to be, I want to use a blue silver, gold and white. I always lean towards a dark looking army, darker paint usually with red, so trying to push myself to go the opposite way and make a brighter army will be a nice change of pace.
Once the 3.5 rules go live, I will sit down and craft a small army list for each of the first 3 armies. I don’t think I will be able to make a dwarves army until I get a few releases under my belt so I know what I am working with.
So until then.
Much Love <3