So the Order of the Crimson Tower are up for pre-order.
When I first picked up Hundred Kingdoms, the Orders are definitely a big part of what appealed to me initially. For one, I’m just a big fan of these paladin-esque knightly order type organizations in fantasy settings. For another… uh… dope horses? Dope horses.
The Crimson Tower are the first of the Orders that are going to be represented on the tabletop, and they’re making a hell of an entrance with one of the best looking things I’ve seen out of Para Bellum to date. I can not *wait* to get these models in hand to check them out.
They are, of course, coming out alongside one of the characters that can run them, the Crimson Tower variation of the Priory Commander character.
Priory Commanders are interesting characters. Uniquely, they can’t take Heirlooms in the way other 100 Kingdoms characters can, meaning they’re fairly stock aside from what Masteries you choose to put on them.
That said, it’s a hell of a “stock” profile, featuring six attacks, an elite Clash stat of 4, a very respectable 3 Resolve and 4 Defense, alongside the special rules inherent to Order of the Crimson Tower models which we’ll get to momentarily. The main things the Priory Commander are bringing you are one, Order of the Crimson Tower cavalry are *mainstay* with this character, meaning you could field an entire army of them if you so chose, and two… access to Wedge!
Crimson Tower are all about Impact Hits in a way even Household Knights aren’t. While they don’t have access to the Cavalry Noble Lord’s army-wide Speed of Horse warlord trait, they have a much stronger base profile for impact hits, some very good special rules, and you can truly powerhouse a unit by putting a Wedge! Priory Commander on them.
With a base Clash of 3 on the unit, superior to the HHK Clash of 2, they’ll be much more consistent in general. They match HHK with their Brutal Impact 2, but they bring Unstoppable Charge to bear, doubling their Impact Hits.
All of this comes in a fairly expensive, though not outlandish, package of 180 points for 3 stands. They have a typically expensive cavalry Standard Bearer at 25 points, and of course a free Leader, and are Heavies, making them a bit slower to hit the table.
Another potential increase to their power is if you take the Priory Commander as your actual warlord. While I have tended to enjoy game-length Supremacy Abilities like Speed of Horse or Living Legend, this is an immensely impactful one-off Supremacy, giving the Priory Commander’s entire warband Blessed for the round, or if they already have blessed they gain Fury 1 or Hardened 1 as a Draw Event. This powerful effect makes the entire warband considerably stronger on either attack or defense, making them very flexible for that turn, and can lead to a sledgehammer of a turn if you’ve positioned correctly for it and set up the right order of activations. A special note to the Order of the Ashen Dawn here, who make up the only regiment available to the Priory Commander that already has Blessed, giving them some unique benefits when the supremacy is triggered.
I’ve already proxied some Order of the Crimson Tower, and they’ve been an absolute joy to field, but I’m super excited for these models to hit the table and give me an excuse to bust out my 100 Kingdoms again. Are you excited for our new cavalry overlords? What combos are you most looking forward to? Hit us up in the comments!