Designing the Trident Realm

10th Apr 2024

Dan Mapleston

Hi everyone,

With brand new releases for the Trident Realm dispatching from 15th April, let’s sit down with Dave from the design studio to discuss what’s coming!

Dan: What was most exciting about revisiting the Trident Realm?

Dave: They’re yet another faction that is very unique to Pannithor and takes a step beyond traditional fantasy tropes. Having an army largely made up of sea creatures means we are free to have lots of very unique units such as the Thuul and Naiads among their ranks. This means fun modelling opportunities and plenty of visual variety on both the painting table and battlefield.

Dan: When doing a ‘faction refresh’, how do you pick which units to revamp in hard plastic?

Dave: This really is one of the hardest choices for the studio! We want to put our hard plastics where they matter – especially into troops that you’ll be building a lot of, so core army choices are always the first port of call – such as units of goblins for example. In the case of the Trident Realm, we already have the Naiad kit in hard plastic so a second (and very different) core unit was a must. We had a shortlist, and the Riverguard really stood out. They have multiple uses within the army and it was high time to replace their old metal kit with something new and modern.

The Dambusters followed on as a very natural kit to develop alongside them: they had a unit profile ready for miniatures, and we could build in fun opportunities for mixing and matching the components of the riders with the separate infantry kit. They would also give us a brand new platform for some exciting variants, such as one carrying an Arbalest!

Dan: Where do the Riverguard fit into the Trident Realm forces?

Dave: The Riverguard are distinct within the Neritican military as they are naturally amphibious, so spend most of their time on land guarding the inland waterways of Pannithor. You can think of them as the Realm’s scouting forces, able to react quickly while other forces head ashore to join them.

Dan: What was the best thing about redesigning the Riverguard?

Dave: Kings of War has a specific design language, look and feel that brings Pannithor to life on the tabletop. The aesthetic of our froggy friends was already established, so we started with the old metal kit as our reference point.

As well as upgrading the sculpts and bringing them into a better material, we had the opportunity to add characterful new details. You’ll discover lots of fun things on the frames including a whole range of characterful and quirky frog heads, new weapons, and even a poisonous toad that can be taken as a unit upgrade!

Dan: Nice! Tell us more about the Dambusters.

Dave: They already had a unit profile, which has been waiting for a great new kit! The existing Dambuster Sentinel is an amazing model, and we wanted to make sure it still stood out so the new unit scaled a fraction smaller – which gives enough space for ranking up, while still allowing us enough room to put interesting things on their backs…

The Dambusters and their riders can both be built and posed multiple ways, and are compatible with the infantry unit for even more modelling options! We’ve also included options for a ranged unit of spitting frogs, giving you more tactical options for those of you who want a frog-heavy army…

Dan: We have to finish with the Coral Giant. What was the inspiration for this new centrepiece unit?

Dave: In the lore, they’re literally made of coral so we wanted to make something that really looked like part of the sea bed come to life. It deliberately blurs the lines between giants and elementals as the unit isn’t inhabited by a spirit.

The Coral Giant is an animated construct, so rather than giving it a relatable or humanising ‘face’ the focus is instead on all the other parts of the model that tie it to the sea. This means lots of fun details for painters, such as eels, an octopus, barnacles, starfish and more!