The Sons of Al'Babali: A Kings of War fan army list

[darkPrince010]

Hey everybody,

Well, over the last few months I've been slowly-but-surely assembling an arabian-themed 28mm army. While the original idea was for a counts-as Empire army, I was thinkign that KoW might be a better venue as I can actually make an army list that would reflect on the playstyle of desert raiders better than handgunners and armored knights :P

Notes:
---I think the Genii Regiment may be way overpowered. Zap (20) is good, but I don't know if the entire unit should break the 500 point mark. Should I add a Wish ability of some sort? (Maybe it removes all dmage markers on the unit once, or is an infinite-range attack, or something else perhaps.)
---Not sure if I should add a Prince-of-Persia-esque hero, or the option for a Shiek/Grand Vizier to ride camels. What do you guys think?

As always, thoughts/criticisms are welcome!

v1.2 updated as of 6/26/12

[Darsc Zacal]

I've been hoping that Mantics humans might somehow take inspiration from an Arabic theme. I think there's a lot of potential there for a fantasy army.

What minis have you been collecting to build up your army? I know Artizan has a few nice ones, but am unsure what else is out there.

[Gerry Lee]

I like many of the troop types you are making. What is a Sand Shadow however? A dervish perhaps?

I wonder if you might want to downgrade the Genii zap 20 unit to mortal Naptha throwers? That is an expensive unit, though very characterful.

What about instead of 'Wish', you include some weather style effects?

Sandstorm: Prevents a unit from being shot at as a huge curtain of dust obscures it from sight. Persistant, until the effect is removed by the player at which point he/she may select another target to cast on.

Whirlwind: Lets one unit FLY it's movement in the Shooting Phase

Mirage: Let's the caster move an enemy unit 1D6" in a direction and facing of the caster's choice.

Well, just some thoughts I'm excited about your ideas, I have 70 Wargames Factory Persian Infantry I just bought, ha ha!

[darkPrince010]

@Darsc: I've actually got ~200 Zvezda 1:72 Persian Infantry and Jannisaries, on cork to bring them up to ~28mm height. It looks quite nice imo, especially when they're ranked up. Grand total, I have ~50 handgunners (I figured they'd be fine to use as bowmen, since I actually sorta dislike the idea of guns in an arabian army), ~45 Spearmen/javaleniers, ~50 various guys with swords and shields, and ~30 archers. Plus, I have 3 ornate cannons kitbashed from bitz and a Megablocks magnetic knight figure, 2 "Steam Tanks" I used converted war elephants (From dollar store zoo models), and a scratchbuilt sand wyrm made from craft foam.

@Gerry: I was thinking Sand Shadows would be like the typical desert raiders that rise up out of the sand dunes to ambush enemy troops. I'm not sure what their real-world equivalent would be rightly called.

I agree that Flamer (n) would probably be a bit more balanced than Zap (Especially with downgrading the Vizier to Zap (5) instead of 10).

Maybe for the weather effects, give a unit Sandweave (n): This unit may make a single shooting attack at n targets that this unit has LOS to, always hitting on a 4+. If it hits, resolve one of the following effects (The same effect is used for all hit units):

Sandstorm: Any enemies shooting at this unit get -1 to hit. This effect ends at the start of your next turn.

Whirlwind: The unit may make a single Advance move with the Fly ability. This movement is subject to all the normal restrictions of movement.

Mirage: This unit either advances 1d6" straight ahead (If it would contact another unit, stop them 1" away instead) or rotate the unit up to 90 degrees (As per a Change Facing order)

I 'm not too sure about this since I want to avoid giving KoW an unneeded magic system, but this could be a cool addition.

[darkPrince010]

Updated to bring Nerve in line with v2 ruleset.

A few notes:
---Genii have been changed so their points was based more on Abyssal Dwarve's Lesser Obsidian Golems, so hopefully the pricetag is a bit more reasonable. I didn't give them Flamer because I still want them to be a ranged threat, but I toned down the Zap power to prevent them being used ONLY as a ranged attacker.
---Added the Sandweave ability. I reeeally dislike basically including a magic system for KoW, but I think this is about as concise as it could be, and I may eventually tune down Sandweave to only be one of the above abilities.
---Added named heroes! Still need to figure out less-obvious names though, to prevent infringement or similar issues... :/

[idfreak66]

Please please please upload some pics of this army. Sand ninjas have been my wargaming dream.

[darkPrince010]

I unfortunately have no personal Sand Ninja models. :'(

However, once I get them painted I'd be happy to post pics of my models as examples, and I'd suggest that simply robed figures with face coverings (So perhaps like GW flagellants with a weapon swap and head swap to some sort of arabian head of some sort) would work well, with simply painting the model with some of the fake sandstone-texture spray paint on their cloak backs to get a bit of texture (Since I'd suspect actually gluing sand might not look as nice and would chip easily)

[darkPrince010]

Something like these guys might work. Part of why I made the model count kind of low for the Sand Shadows in small regiments was so 1) They wouldn't be OP with coming out from Hidden with a horde in the enemy flanks and 2) Since it seemed like it would be hard to get the models en masse

These are from Reaper Minis:
"Shadow Assassin" (Personally, a guy like this is EXACTLY what I had in mind for the Sand Shadows)


"Mag Blackscar, 1/2 Orc" (Good if you want non-human Sand ninjas )


"Torin, Male Thief"

[darkPrince010]

Quick notes:
---The "Camel" ability only applies to To-hit in melee.
---The Sandweave ability Mirage will be changed to only allows you to make a Change Facing order, but it can be in any direction (Since I realized the rules allowed movement of an enemy unit with the Whirlwind ability already). Whirlwind will also be changed to not allow any pivots in the movement (To make Mirage vs Whirlwind on enemy units a decent choice).

This will be changed in the next update, since I don't think they're drastic enough for a new version.

[darkPrince010]

Updated points values to be in line with KoW 3e.

Also, changed Sandweave(n) to allow you to move target unit (Friend or foe) within 24" as if you gave them a Move order through Area Terrain (No Charges). Also removed the Genii regiment (Since it seemed a bit like overkill at >500 pts), and gave Genies Wish (If it survives till the end of the game, +25 pts for a Kill or Kill and Pillage game, or counts as a held objective for a Pillage game. Doesn't stack for multiple units with Wish).