Slow Grow Spotlight: St.Louis Community

Slow Grow Spotlight: St. Louis Community

The Kings of War Slow Grow Challenge is now wrapping up, but the armies it helped create are only just getting started.

Over the past six months, players around the world have been building and painting new Kings of War armies, one stage at a time. It’s been wonderful to see people participating in so many different ways: we’ve seen new players starting their first armies, veterans returning to past projects and finishing them, solo hobbyists tackling the challenge alone, local gaming groups building armies together, and everything in between.

For today’s community spotlight, we’re looking at one such gaming group, and heading  to St. Louis, Missouri, where Matt Schreiber and his buddies took the Slow Grow Challenge and absolutely ran with it.

These guys play locally at Miniature Market, Cave Springs, and record battle reports and hobby content for the MiniWorx YouTube channel. Matt records from his home studio every other weekend, and the group has become a real hub for Mantic gaming in the area.

Their Slow Grow squad included Aaron, Henry and Stephanie Richardson, Aaron Mac, Caleb, Devin, Gene, Josh, Chris, and Matt himself. Different armies, different styles, different experience levels, all working toward the same goal: get models finished, get games played, and enjoy Kings of War together.

A Challenge Shared

One of the best things about a Slow Grow is that it gives everyone a shared reason to keep going.

For Aaron Mac, that meant finishing his first full army in years. He completed a characterful Halfling army of around 2,500 points, featuring kit-bashed Stalwarts and Juggers and a Tolkien-inspired colour scheme of yellow and green. As he put it, the challenge gave him the push he needed to finally get an army ready for the table.

Aaron Mac's Halflings

Caleb also took on Halflings, building and painting a 2,670-point force as his first tabletop army of any kind. He especially enjoyed seeing his improvement from the first models to the last, with some lovely autumn-themed basing pulling everything together, and Iron Beasts and Forest Trolls standing out some of his favourite units.

Caleb's Halflings

Stories on the Table

Kings of War armies have a wonderful way of becoming more than just collections of units.

Aaron Richardson built a Northern Alliance army around snow-covered bases and a theme of cast-offs and misfits banding together to survive. He loved the multi-basing aspect of a Kings of War army, finding new ways to tell little stories on each base. By the end of the challenge, he had around 2,500 points finished, and was already thinking about the narrative for his next army!

Aaron R's Northern Alliance

Aaron’s son Henry brought the Empire of Dust to the table, finishing around 3,000 points and building a force with its own dark backstory. His army had been destroyed by the Ophidians before striking a terrible bargain with the Lord of Lies, rising again to search the desert for artefacts and revenge. His favourite completed piece was the Revenant King on Great Undead Wyrm, which we think makes for an awesome centrepiece.

Henry's Empire of Dust

Aaron’s wife Stephanie also threw herself into the challenge, building more than 2,500 points of Trident Realm, with a swampy theme rather than the more familiar ocean look. She described the fun of watching three armies come together in the same house, with family building and painting sessions after dinner, followed by seeing Aaron and Henry use their armies on the MiniWorx channel.

Stephanie's Trident Realms

"Knuck & Knucker" - Coming To a Tabletop Near You!

That family angle is one of our favourite parts of today’s spotlight. Kings of War is a big, bombastic battle game, but it is also a hobby that can be shared on quiet evenings around the kitchen table. Lovely stuff!

Big Projects, Bigger Momentum

Leading the St Louis crew from the front, Matt took on not one army, but two.

Matt's huge Slow Grow collection - Ogres and Abyssal Dwarfs!

He finished roughly 1,600 points of Ogres and 2,600 points of Abyssal Dwarfs, describing the whole thing as “a serious painting marathon”. His Ogres were given white skin and red warpaint, while the Abyssal Dwarfs used fire-like oranges and purples, steel and bronze, all in Matt’s bright, Saturday-morning-cartoon style.

Matt's Tunnel Runners

The Abyssal Dwarfs became his favourite army, with the Tunnel Runners and Grotesques standing out as particular highlights.

Matt's Grotesques

Gene also completed a striking 2,000 points of Nightstalkers, using a riot of colours to create horror without going grimdark. He also painted Ogres earlier in the challenge, because apparently one army at a time was not always enough for these guys!

Gene's Nightstalkers

Josh used the Slow Grow to add new Salamander units to his collection, tying them into a lava-themed force inspired by the faction’s background. Devin worked on Northern Alliance, building a wintery army of humans, monsters and beasts while resisting the temptation to return to Halo: Flashpoint. Chris also joined the challenge, adding to his Basilean army to bring it up to a healthy 2000 points. Overall, this was one of the biggest local Slow Grow groups we’ve seen.

Josh's Salamanders

From Slow Grow to Samarik

The Siege of Samarik is running now, and the MiniWorx crew are already carrying their Slow Grow momentum into the summer campaign. The group is holding a 2,000-point tournament on 22nd August, encouraging players to bring their Slow Grow armies and register at least one game each for the campaign.

To us, that feels like the perfect next step. A Slow Grow gets the army built, a campaign gets it on the table, and then the more games you play with your army, the more it develops its own story and character.

Matt has also posted a video on the MiniWorx YouTube channel talking about finishing the Slow Grow, so be sure to check it out - and have a browse through their extensive catalogue of Kings of War and Kings of War Champions battle reports while you're there!

Thanks, MiniWorx!

A huge thank you to Matt and everyone in the St. Louis community for taking part and helping show what the Slow Grow Challenge was all about.

They built armies, shared progress, encouraged each other, welcomed newer players and ended the challenge with an impressive array of painted Kings of War forces ready for battle. The Slow Grow Challenge may be wrapping up, but these armies have big futures ahead of them!

Thanks for reading, everyone. We’ll be back soon with another Slow Grow Community spotlight, and the final blog from Team Mantic.