Staff Armada Fleets – Joe and Clive

Hold onto your (tricorn) hats because we're back with another Staff Armada Fleets blog. We've already seen Martin and Rob's work in progress, plus Kirsten and Jonny's fleets. Now, we're moving to the sails department (see what we did there) with Joe and Clive.

JOE

Lately, I have felt a wave of excitement for the release of Armada. The evolving lore and background of Pannithor through Kings of War over the years has been great, so the sensible next step was to take to the seas! Figuring out what fleet to play was surprisingly easy. While I have always gravitated to the more demonic factions like the Forces of the Abyss, something caught my eye as I saw the previews... Hammerfists!

A combination of Goblin ingenuity, combined with the simplistic fury of their Orc masters, the Hammerfist is a nautical menagerie of death and destruction. Plainly put - I will be playing Orcs!

My fleet will be led by the fearsome Admiral Ba’Borcson “Kraken Hunter” Gingerbeard. His unnatural ginger hair, and otherworldly navigation skills make him a rival for even the mighty Basilean fleets. Legends have it that as a lowly deckhand, Ba’Borcson fought a mighty Kraken that sought to bring the ship he was on into the depths.

With their Captain dragged beneath the waves, the fleet's crew gladly followed behind such a might Orc as Ba’Borcson. Yellow sails hide the fleet from shore as they approach, blending in with the rising sun on the horizon looking for enemies to smash, cities to plunder, and Krakens to slay.

Bringing Ba’Borcson and his fleet to life will be tons of fun. Orc ships have tons of character and while they look simple, really offer the opportunity for weathering, rust and all manager of battle damage. The bright yellow sails will be an excellent contrast to the dark, and weathered wood of the ships' hull. I may look to remove the sculpted axe on the sails to be able to freehand some Kraken images too.

No matter what, this project will be super fun to complete. If you have not looked into Armada, then you must be living under a barnacle!

CLIVE

Hello all! Cleric here with my entry.  As most who know me understand, I have two hobbies – almost everything Mantic and 3D printing.  Armada gave me an excuse to combine those – so a month or three ago I set about building a board for my favourite tournament game, Vanguard. 

That involved printing KoW scale versions of both an Elohi and Sloop ship – those were incredibly fun but huge. I mean huge. My choice of colour filaments also make them look like cakes, but much to the disappointment of my fellow staff, they’re not edible.  Hopefully that board will be on display at Mantic in time February for the GrotCon event (fingers crossed we can meet up and play then).

My actual fleet is now underway – all built and primed.  That’s sadly all I have done so far though, but they sit next to my desk in the hopes I can get them painted before the release. I may have sneaked something in there too…