Slow Grow Challenge Week 16: Another Community Spotlight

More Slow Grow Armies from Around the World

We’re back with another Kings of War Slow Grow Challenge community spotlight. This week, we’re showing off two more beautiful army projects that caught our eye: MechaSturgeon’s shambling Undead horde, and Carl’s vibrant Forces of Nature.

Let’s take a look.

Alex aka MechaSturgeon (Australia) – Undead

First up, we have Alex, also known online as MechaSturgeon, who is building a wonderfully characterful Undead army.

This is Alex’s first Mantic miniatures army, although he’s been playing Kings of War for around four years. What keeps him coming back is the clean, tactical design of the game: easy to learn, focused on objectives, and full of meaningful decisions without getting bogged down in overly complex rules. He also enjoys how Pannithor feels familiar enough to be accessible, while still having enough unique flavour to stand apart from other “classic fantasy”-style settings.

Horde of Zombies

For the Slow Grow Challenge, Alex chose Undead because he had always wanted to field a proper shambling horde. Mantic’s Zombie kits offered an excellent starting point, and once the Zombie Trolls appeared in the Mantic Vault, that sealed the deal for him.

Two Regiments of Zombie Trolls

Visually, Alex has built the army as an undead force emerging from the dark forests beyond civilisation, raised by forbidden rituals. The colour palette is quick, striking and suitably gruesome, with sickly green skin, deep purple bruising and carefully placed gore.

Horde of Zombies

The basing brings the whole concept together, using TerrainCrate trees to create the sense of an encroaching undead wilderness.

Horde of Zombies

One of the most characterful touches is Alex’s necromancer, represented by Odur, the dwarf werewolf from League of Infamy. With torn clothes, broken chains and a defeated posture, the model suggests a tragic figure who has been forced into this role against his will, leading an army he would rather escape than command. It’s a great example of letting the miniatures themselves suggest the story.

Odur, standing in as a Necromancer

Progress-wise, Alex is very much on track, with the long-term aim of reaching a 2300-point force by the end of the challenge. The army is built around a “wall” of zombie hordes, supported by hard-hitting Zombie Trolls and a Goreblight. Cloak of Death and well-timed Surge moves help drag enemies down and hit those all-important flank charges.

Goreblight

The army has already seen action too, with Alex taking it to a 1000-point Ambush event at Port Macquarie Games Club. Five games in one day is a proper test for anyone, and the army performed better than expected, shambling forward and absorbing a surprising amount of punishment. As Alex put it, all the Crushing Strength in the world doesn’t count for much against Defence 2+!

For Stage Three, Alex is looking forward to adding more characters, especially a Vampire and Lykanis, to bring even more personality to the army.

Alex's Army So Far

His message to other hobbyists? “Are you sure your army is finished? Go on, paint one more unit…”

We love it! As every wargamer knows, no army is ever truly finished.

Carl (UK) – Forces of Nature

Next up is Carl, with a Forces of Nature army that takes full advantage of the faction’s elemental variety.

Carl has been playing Kings of War since the tail end of first edition, and was hooked enough to get involved in beta playtesting for second edition. He collects Basileans and Salamanders too, which made Forces of Nature a natural next project for him. Between Salamander fire elementals and scorchwings, plus Basilean knights and spearmen, he already had a strong starting point for a Nature army when the new edition arrived.

Regiment of Order of the Thorn

It helps that Carl is also a big fan of centaurs, fauns and minotaurs, so anticipation of this year’s new Forces of Nature releases (now revealed, of course!) gave him another reason to get ahead of the game by painting the elemental side of the army first.

Regiment of Air Elementals

His approach to the army is all about making the elements feel distinct. The blues and oranges are intentionally bright, helping each element stand out on the tabletop. Carl has also treated each unit as a small hobby challenge in its own right, from the huge diorama base for the Earth Elementals to the tight wall of spears for the Order of the Thorn.

Regiment of Earth Elementals

That sense of variety is one of the things Carl has enjoyed most so far. Painting elementals means changing colours, textures and techniques from unit to unit, which keeps the project feeling fresh.

He has also found the community side of the Slow Grow Challenge motivating. Seeing hobbyists elsewhere posting progress, especially the many Xirkaali armies appearing online, has helped keep the energy up. As he puts it, someone has to resist the Xirkaali invasion!

Greater Water Elemental

By the end of Stage Two, Carl was more or less on track, and able to put a legal force on the table, though he admitted he still needs to paint a proper Druid. Until now, a Basilean War Priest and a Salamander Arkosaur have been standing in. Very resourceful!

Troop of Water Elementals

He has already played a game at 1200 points, and loved seeing the different elemental colours on the tabletop. His list uses each elemental unit for a different battlefield role: Earth Elementals to hold objectives, Fire Elementals as the hammer to the Earth Elementals’ anvil, Water Elementals for a powerful one-off punch, and Air Elementals for their impressive threat range. Druids are essential for Rally, Heal and Surge, so even at lower points Carl tries to squeeze in two.

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water!

For Stage Three, Carl has a lovely idea for a Druid wearing a quartered cloak representing the four elements. He has also started work on a new decorative base for his Water Elementals, designed as a shoreline with the elementals emerging from the water.

Carl's Army So Far

His message to other people taking part in the Slow Grow challenge is simple: there’s lovely work out there, so keep it going!

Keep the Armies Growing

A huge thank you to Alex and Carl for sharing their armies with us. Both of them are maintaining hobby threads over on the Kings of War forum, so be sure to head over there if you’d like to see more of their work and follow them throughout the second half of the challenge.

We’ll be back in two weeks, when we’ll be at the end of Stage Three and checking in again with the Team Mantic challengers to see how Dan, Ross, Tobias and Alex are getting on.

Until then, keep building those armies, and keep sharing your progress – we love to see it!