Recently I found myself in a bit of a predicament, a pirate themed predicament. I have an abiding love for dark elf corsairs and found my dedication to Slaanesh wavering as I read through the Idoneth battletome and Scourge Privateer rules. I wanted pirates, coastlines, ships, and ports. The advice given to me was “just make your Slaanesh army pirate themed.” And that’s what I did, but it took me a day or two to reconcile the two together. Admittedly, it’s not too far off from the original pleasure cult concept, but breaking down the original material did take some mental effort, like breaking cement to pour a new foundation.
Nagh Kython Khyrkanashaith ~ Pale Serpent Cult of Pleasure
Thanharath, the Lord of Slaanesh’s new name, roughly means “subtle/hidden ambition,” something that an “exile” aelf mother might realistically name her child, especially if he was a ****** of nobility. Along that vein, I imagine Thanharath taking to the sea with the scourge privateers to earn gold and glory, and a measure of freedom from his mother’s expectations.
During the course of his voyaging about Ulgu, pillaging the forces opposed to Order and capturing great beasts, Thanharath’s moral character is tested by an encounter with a seeker host on the hunt for Slaanesh. The daemonettes are routed, but he and his crewmates are hard pressed to let the memory of it alone. Sensing an opportunity, a herald within the shattered host tracks the privateers back to their home port, infiltrating the community as aelven refugees lost in Ulgu’s mists.
After a short time, and several ventures upon the shadow sea, the privateers return home to find the port covered in strange fog and eerily silent. A desperate cry from the captain as his head in bound up in the Talunhook of an Idoneth soulrender signals the ambush. The privateers fight desperately against the sea aelves, making bloody progress out of the docks and into the streets. The Slaaneshi herald, under the assumed name of Fiannagh, guides the besieged crew into a fortified house where the last of the port’s populace wait for the next attack. Privately, Fiannagh reveals herself, and his bound mother, to Thanharath, and offers to drive off the Idoneth if he will embrace the worship of Slaanesh and complete the ritual that will summon their salvation.
With a shrug, Thanharath sacrifices his mother to Slaanesh. The Idoneth raiders are ill prepared for the daemonic forces that spill from the fortified house, and their bodies line the streets as the enchanted mist rolls back out to sea.
Conversion plans:
Thanharath Serpentsworn ~ Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount
The model will use the mounted Lord of Slaanesh as a base, but replace the torso, arms, and legs with corsair parts, especially the corsair champion head with the serpent motif. The shield will be replaced with a drakespawn knight shield bearing another serpent. I plan to use wood plank basing for this and the rest of the army.
Elthyirah Blisscutter and the Kython Khalirii ~ Serpent Riders
Slaanesh mounts, drakespawn rider legs and shields with serpent icons, spears, hellstrider standard, and corsair bodies, arms, heads and trumpet. Elthyirah will be given the hellstrider champion claw spear and a daemonette head to show the extent of her corruption and devotion.
Fiannagh’s Host ~ Herald of Slaanesh and Daemonettes of Slaanesh
Herald mounted on a steed of Slaanesh, using bits from the seeker chariot kit, and daemonette kit. Paint scheme for Slaanesh daemons will reference salt water crabs and other sea creatures to tie in with the corsair theme of the army. Not much conversion needed, they already have claw hands.
---
That fills out my first 500 points, and allows me to drop the black dragon kit from my earlier plans. I just need to get a box of corsairs, two drakespawn knight boxes, and the mounted Lord of Slaanesh box to finish out (excluding extra bits and bases). To lead into the next 500 points, I may just do a simple doomfire warlock conversion for my mounted chaos sorcerer, and there’s Wrath and Rapture on the horizon.
With AoS 2.0 I really enjoy how the realms are coming to life, with more description and even bonus rules. Because of this with each army I start work on I try to pick a realm and base them accordingly. I put most of the realm representation in the basing of the army.
I have a bigger picture idea working up to ArchAeon and the Everchosen where I want each of the non-daemon chaos allegiance factions based on being from a distinct realm, from each other, and the daemon side to be the same realm as the mortal halves but with a realm of chaos twist. So for example Nurgle Rotbringers May have realm of life bases and the Nurgle Daemons would have the same realm of life base, but with corruption and decay added. Then Archaeons basing would be a circle of transition between the 8 basing designs,4 realms both with and without chaos taint.
I already have allocated Aqushy, realm of fire, to Tzeench Arcanists which ruled out that as an option. I wanted a darkish basing so that the lighter bone elements of the armour contrasted. I eventually chose Chamon, the realm of metal, as I thought this would be a great setting for an army who through known for being crazed have a large dependence on the forging of weapons and armour. It will also, over time, be a good realm to be able to build up a faction narrative beyond drinking blood out of gathered skulls.
For the basing I used cork with texture/grit paint to represent the earth which I dry brushed with metallics and finally applied a gloss black wash to darken it down. Then I mixed metallic paint, in this case Vallejo gold, with gloss varnish to created a flow of molten metal within the cracked earth. I allowed the metal to dry and then reapplied 1-2 more times to create volume.
I've been pretty busy beavering away at all sorts of things. Here's a few new bits for the KO. An Admiral to lead them, the completed Gunhauler and a Knight Incantor in case I wanted to ally one in.
I've also finished off a bunch of my Nighthaunt. The colour scheme I went with is kind of a mix between Peachy's and Mengel's.
And last but not least, a decent pic of my Megaboss.
NZ Masters Tournament 2018
Road to the Top
Overview
With the New Zealand Masters Tournament 3 weeks away, and list submissions due in 6 days, I figure it’s close enough to talk about my preparation for this tournament. Unsurprisingly, I’ll be running the Pestilens allegiance and going for the top, with the goal yet again of being the first Clan Pestilens player to win or place a major event. Over the last 2 months my list has gone through a heavy amount of changes, and I ran a version of the list at the recent Notorious Hammer tournament to test the waters as well as countless practice games with close friends to streamline the list and reach a standard of consistent performance I’m happy with.
The NZ Masters tournament is an invitational tournament, where the top 20 players n the NZ rankings are offered places at the event and then the invites work there way up from 20 if people decline. The New Zealand tournament meta is relatively consistent and features roughly 20 consistent contenders at most tournaments with a few more players that make the odd tournament here and there, and most people are known clearly for the lists they take and change them rarely. The most popular armies currently are Stormcast Eternals, Nurgle and Legions of Nagash, with the rest of the players displaying a wide variety of forces from all Grand Alliances. This being the case, for anyone to be a contender for the top spots they have to pack tools that let their force deal with decent armor saves, long-range magic and large numbers. All the recent winners of local tournaments will be attending the Masters, and with every player being in the tier of rankings where they on average win 3 or more games in a 5-game event the competition is guaranteed to be fierce.
The Event
The tournament follows the same pattern as most tournaments, 5 games with 3 on day 1 and 2 more on the second day. Realm Artefacts are available for list building, but the Realm Spells and Realmscape effects will not be. While most NZ tournaments have relaxed painting standards, 3 color minimum at most with the incentive to paint your army being bonus hobby points for the soft scores, at the Masters a model that is not painted to a degree that demonstrates completion (based, highlighted, washed etc) will simply not be allowed to be used. The tournament is in the Kapiti Coast region of NZ, a 45 minute drive from the capital city hosted by the local wargaming club there, who hosted the event last year as well to great success.
My List
So without further ado, here is the list I’ll be taking in the tournament.
Allegiance: Pestilens Mortal Realm: Aqshy
Leaders Verminlord Corruptor (220) - General - Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin - Artefact: Magmaforged Blade Plague Furnace (180) - Artefact: Liber Bubonicus Plague Furnace (180) - Artefact: Thermalrider Cloak Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80) Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80) Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)
Battleline 40 x Plague Monks (240) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades 10 x Plague Monks (70) - Foetid Blades
Units 5 x Gutter Runners (60) - Allies 5 x Gutter Runners (60) - Allies 40 x Clanrats (200) - Rusty Spear - Allies
Battalions Congregation of Filth (170) Congregation of Filth (170)
So to start from the top. The general of the list is the Verminlord Corruptor. I chose the Verminlord because him being the general means I can give him Master of Rot and Ruin, which means he can pray in the same manner as a Plague Priest (and as of AoS2, also generate Great Plagues on a 6 to pray), as well as him being incredibly mobile so his 12” range auto-pass battleshock range can get where it needs to go. While I would rather give him Sword of Judgement over the Magmaforged Blade, I needed to pick Aqshy for another artefact in the list so I reached a compromise.
The twin Plague Furnaces each fulfil a different role. One has been given Liber Bubonicus, shoring up it’s prayer capabilities so it can follow the large unit of Plague Monks around and keep them buffed up. The second has been given the Thermalrider Cloak, a devastatingly useful artefact for a Plague Furnace by giving it an extra 4” move as well as granting it the ability to FLY. By snaking 10 rats around the furnace you can fire the thing out of the deployment zone and halfway up the table, potentially into a devastating charge onto an objective.
The 3 Plague Priests are here to spam their breath prayer on turn 1 to get the Neverplague Great Plague nice and early, then spend the rest of the game harassing unit clumps with their breath and stacking debuffs on vital targets. Keeping one of these lads near the two 40-man units ensures battleshock tests won’t ruin them utterly.
The Plague Monks are the life of the party. One unit of 40 that can have buffs stacked on it easily and refuse to get off objectives and four units of 10 to run around and suicide into targets and harass flanks. Plague Monks really aren’t something opponents can afford to ignore, but spending time killing them is time spent not targeting the enormous 12 wound threats in the leader slots. If the 40-rat unit isn’t bled down in the early game, the opponent has to deal with an enormous footprint that will tear a hole in anything that can’t commit to destroying it in a single turn, and even then, the Rabid Fever prayer means they’ll still get to take a swing before they die.
Gutter Runners are, for lack of any better description, a pain in the ass. They pop up behind the enemy ranks and throw a bunch of throwing knives into them before running in and shanking them. The shooting attack isn’t exactly Skyfire tier but their melee attacks are nasty with decent hit and wound chances and innate -1 rend. Their main strength is that the enemy needs to spend troops on zoning these bad boys out, while dealing with the massed Plague Monks hurtling towards them from the front. Caught between a rock and a very stabby place, such as it were.
Clanrats, god bless them, rarely need any kind of explanation why they’re in a list. They’ll run, they’ll charge, they’ll run away and they’ll do it all again. Retreat and Charge is a crazy feature of a very cheap unit, meaning they won’t get tied up fighting other chaff and their big unit size means getting rid of them means a hefty commitment. The only weakness of Clanrats is their propensity to cut and run the moment they start taking casualties. Well, it would be, if we weren’t living in glorious AoS2 and a battleshock test is one Command Point to get out of jail free.
The battalions in this list are 2 Congregations of Filth, each comprised of 1 Plague Furnace and 2 or more units of Plague Monks. The only reason I’m taking this is to shave the list drops down to less than 10 to out-drop other armies that don’t take battalions and for the big unit of 40 getting to reroll its charges. Also I needed a bunch of artefacts and command points. Cheers congregation.
List Building Process
The list above is actually no less than the 17th Pestilens list I’ve ran, with the goal of creating the ideal list for my meta. After every tournament and serious practice game I have gone over what works, what doesn’t, and made the necessary adjustments. The list has gone from no less than 240 wounds at the start of the year, to running multiple endless spells and allied wizards with the Malign Sorcery drop, and for about 2 weeks dropping it completely and angrily painting my Gautfyre Scorch. The end result is unlikely to be a perfect list but is the most streamlined for my current situation and hopefully will prove as much at the masters.
Conclusion
I’m hoping this will be the even where I at last bring in the big win for my Clan and the group of very scary people breathing down my neck expecting results. If I win or at least podium, I will have completed the goal I set for myself 2 years ago when I finished the second tournament I’d attended with 0 victories and risen to the top of the highly talented NZ Warhammer scene. If I lose I’ll probably nuke my army from orbit and start an Eshin army for the memes.
Anyhoo, see you all after Masters in my new blog Clan Eshin Best Clan!
This is a list of the models and bits I'll need for creating my Hosts of Slaanesh army and how far along they are, so I have it all in one place. So far it's only a list of things I plan to buy in the near future.
Italic ~ Item ordered Bold ~ Item acquired
Keeper of Secrets
~60mm Alien Invastion base
Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount
~Dreadlord (Black Dragon)
~60mm Alien Invasion base
Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Chaos Steed
~Sorceress (Black Dragon) ~Dark Steed (Scourgerunner Chariot) ~Slaanesh Standard (Daemonettes)
~75 x 40mm Alien Invasion base
Harpist Herald of Slaanesh (Wrath and Rapture)
~Alien Invasion Base
Herald of Slaanesh (1-2) (Daemons of Slaanesh)
~Alien Invasion Base
Hellstriders (10)
~Drakespawn Knights (5)
~Drakespawn Knights (5) ~Steeds of Slaanesh (10)
~Hellstrider Standard and Trumpet (Hellstriders) ~Darkling Spears (Dreadspears)
~Sorceress Head (Black Dragon)
~Casting kit for 60 x 35mm base texture
Daemonettes (30+) ~Daemonettes (10) Assembly
~Daemonettes (10) (Wrath and Rapture)
~Daemonettes (10) (Daemons of Slaanesh) ~Alien Invasion Bases (20)
~Alien Invasion Bases (10)
Seekers (10)
~Seekers (5) (Wrath and Rapture)
~Seekers (5) (Daemons of Slaanesh)
Fiends of Slaanesh (3) (Wrath and Rapture)
~Alien Invasion bases
Chariot of Slaanesh (1-2) (Daemons of Slaanesh)
~Alien Invasion bases
For me doing any army the first step has to be to do a scheme test model, usually a character. For this army I picked the Exalted Deathbringer which seemed to be a great choice, the first think I love about the model (the spear one) is that the weapon does not block access to the chest of the model, secondly he wears armour which is a mix of what a lot of other units wear so is a good reference model when rolling out the scheme and finally there are only two exalted Deathbringers in the ‘Super-Battalion’ so will have one as the first model and one as the last model to compare development of skills throughout the project.
I had an old scheme which was blue and silver which a few people liked locally, but I wanted to move away from it as though it looked good on tabletop I found it difficult to improve it from the level it was at to something better. The new scheme is bone with a dark metal trim, which I feel makes the army fit in with the Khorne theme. I think the new scheme has potential to improve and have enough possibilities for variation to stay interesting throughout the project
With the mortal portion of my warband on hold, and there is a possibility of getting new models for them soon anyway, the daemons of Slaanesh take center stage. I find myself in a bit of a quagmire for character ideas, as while Lystroth, and his cohort, can indefinitely crusade for glory and power, coming into conflict with all manner of internal and external opposition, daemons are more like forces of nature and make for better antagonists than they do protagonists. You could certainly propose that the different hosts of Slaanesh indicate otherwise, but the daemons of these hosts are still only acting within the parameters of their creation. This fact is something that's kept me away from playing daemons for a long time, actually.
There are two ways to circumvent this narrative issue, as far as I can see: an exterior antagonist or conflict within to Nagh Kheitain Khyrkanashaith. Lacking a creative partner in his endeavor, though my wife will be playing Daughters of Khaine, I will need to create my own exterior antagonists. I'm not entirely opposed to doing that, but that takes the locus of the army's narrative away from the army itself. Instead, I will aim to make the daemonic heroes in the army foils to the mortal heroes, as well as a gauge of their favor with Slaanesh. While daemons are individuals, they are still an extension of their creator's will and aspect.
In modeling terms, my wife purchased a box of Daemonettes for my birthday, and I'm about halfway through it. I paid particular attention to the Alluress, emphasizing her female side and using perspective to foreshorten and obscure her claw and face when looking straight at her. I noticed that the command models, as presented in the material, favor more hair and a humanoid body, where the lesser daemonettes have lack hair and are more monstrous, and took it for my own. Once I get onto painting, I'm going to also keep to the "official" look, save for shifting it a bit more toward purple and fleshy pink.
Next up will be a short story further detailing my theoretical mortal heroes, and their first gift from She Who Thirsts.
The only Slaves of Chaos options that elicit my interest are the Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount (LoSDM) and Hellstriders. However, as much as I enjoy the decadent greco-roman motifs, the old Norscan influence is prevalent, and does not appeal to my tastes. Men are not the only race to fall prey to the Dark Prince's machinations, He has a long and sordid history with the Aelves, and old lore states that of all the Chaos Gods, Slaanesh was the most pervasive in their culture. With Morathi now firmly set against She Who Thirsts, the old aelven pleasure cults are lost to history... Leaving room for new cults to form, no longer tainted by Shadow Queen's fickle leadership. The hedonistic spirit of the Druchii lives on, set loose upon the unsuspecting realms!
Malcontented with the imposed conservatism over Ulgu's common populace, Lystroth eagerly joined the slaughter of Karond Drannach as a Seeker Host of Slaanesh savaged the city, penetrating toward its namesake tower. His blade tore into the throat of a boorish neighbor, spraying red across the rode. He watched the blood twist through the cobblestones, pulsing his hand against the head of hair still clutched between his fingers. After moments, or hours, a great call undulated through the streets, Lystroth's gaze rose to the burning tower and the victorious, glistening host parading back down the the Witch's Road. He felt the blade slip from his palm, and into the sheath. His legs stepped behind the corpse, his arms heaved his neighbor into the oncoming revel, and he could not find the will to take command of himself until the daemon chariot coursed by and sent gore splattering into the air. Blinking through the mess, he caught the gaze of the daemoness standing atop the chariot's dais for an instant, before the crack of her whip hurled him into darkness.
He woke to a city in mourning and turmoil, it brought a smile to his face.
---
Nagh Kheitain Khyrkanashaith (Pale Soul-Eater Cult of Pleasure)
Lystroth Serpentsworn (LoSDM)
After the siege of Karond Drannach, Lystroth was shortly found by its architect, the sorceress Lesith as she searched the city for others that had fallen to She Who Thirsts. Despite her wiles and magics, the cultists would not be swayed by 'the Usurper' to blindly obey, but instead gathered around Lystroth who urged the cult to quit tiresome Karond Drannach and hunt across the realm for greater pleasures. Following his lead, the cult sacked the tower's armory, stables, and pillaged corpse, then quit the city with their stolen horses and blood crusted arms.
Nagh Kheitain's leader should be fairly simple to sort out by combining the LoSDM kit with a Black Dragon or Drakespawn rider. For all of the helmeted aelves in the cult, I am considering the removal of the standard helm ornaments for slaanesh icons, or just smoothing them out and painting the symbols on later.
Lesith the Usurper (Chaos Sorcerer on Steed)
Seductive, but lacking in sorceress power, Lesith turned to Chaos to revenge her lack on the others in her coven. The daemon siege culminated with the destruction of her peers and coven master, and her entire retinue. Intent on restoring her power base, she ventured out to bring the budding followers of Slaanesh into her personal garden, but Slaanesh's favor protected them from her iron grasp. As her deeds became known to the cult, she was named 'the Usurper' to remind followers of her treacherous nature, but as the harbinger of their new freedom she welcomed as their priestess and spiritual adviser.
Currently, the only mounted Sorceress figure is in the Black Dragon kit, that with a Dark Steed from a Scourgerunner Chariot should be perfect.
Vebha Blisscutter and Nagh Kheitain Khalirii (Hellstriders)
Garbed in the blasphemed armor of their murdered suppressors, astride daemonic mounts, the Nagh Kheitain Khalirii case down their prey with wild abandon. Led by the insatiable Vebha, desperately loyal to Lystroth's perverse crusade, these riders gladly offer the souls of their victims to She Who Thirsts and luxuriate in His blessings.
Using the arms and mounts from the Hellstriders kit with Drakespawn riders should make for an impressive themed unit. Vebha might only need a sorceress head on a rider body, or perhaps another Black Dragon sorceress, a decision best left until the models are in hand for conversion.
---
This set-up will be nearly twice as expensive as not doing a Cult of Pleasure army, but I think there's a lot of potential and I'm enjoying the narrative. I'll likely only dip into this a little bit, until I have my copy of Wrath and Rapture. But first, I need to get a box of Daemonettes and some paints so I can ease back into the hobby!
Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions!
I did Architecture at university not long ago and as part of that I started to experiment with the possibilities of getting my models printed rather than the traditional methods (and familiar to anyone that makes terrain) of mountains of foamboard, knives and creating a big mess with glue. Being a poor student I ended up only getting one printed at a local business I found online. Not needing (or being able to afford) a large model and not being familiar with the best way to get it printed I sent over my entire, unedited building model and after a few false starts below was the result.
Around the same time I learned of a friend of a friend buying their own printer who was looking for some bits to print out to see what it could do. In the spirit of running before you can walk I took a local building for inspiration, modeled up a wall section and sent him the files to see what the result would be.
The end result, while there being room for improvement, were quite encouraging so I decided to go ahead to try and finish the model using a printer of my own and modelled up the rest of the parts and had some fun along the way figuring out how it would all fit together.
In the end the model came in at 56 parts as shown in the renders below of all the parts together and an exploded view. Because the model is supposed to be interacted with I thought it was better not to bother with the roof so you can place models inside, not have to mess about with taking it on and off (and storing it) and just to save on material on something that I didn't expect to be on most of the time.
Below is the model assembled and painted. In the end I decided to print out at a scale of 1:50 which is a bit bigger than the traditional scale but since the models have been increasing in size over time anyway I thought it fit well with those currently in use.
Not much preparation was possible this year due to weddings and life, but a brief introduction to The Red Gobbo for Warhammer Achievements 2018
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
He'd done it, the Pylons were his. The Harbringer was Triumphant. Mork was looking upon him this day and was smiling.
As the Pylons activated The Red Gobbo looked to his Moonclan and realised the cowards were running to escape Nagash. A Pylon flickered as green Waaagh energy was replaced with the haunting Green energy of Shyish and the Undeath. The Red Gobbo's Power was diminished but not finished. He lashed out psychically but his energy disappated before the demi-god. He felt other Pylons change to the new power, as across the realm Gork and Mork were pushed back by Shyish.
He had to escape, and called his leviathan - the Kraken - to rescue him from the imminent attacks of Nagash. As he swooped in on the aethereal waves of energy the Kraken picked up The Red Gobbo and flew towards Nagash, looking to distract him before escaping. As he passed, the Kraken swiped at Nagash's book and grabbed it from his suprised grasp. They flew higher, and both Kraken and grot let out a yell of triumph. Mork would be impressed with his success.
However, his success was short lived. Nagash turned from his other distractions, and a spectral sword sliced through the Kraken's tentacles holding the book. The Kraken dipped, but quickly recovered. But the book was gone, and it slowly descended back into it's owner grasp.
They flew, and the Red Gobbo resolved to find more shamans to strengthen his fight for Mork and bring greater glories to his God... and himself.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thanks to Steve Foote for arranged the Narrative Event at Warhammer World for Coalescence. Sorry it took so long to write up!
So yesterday my dastardly nighthaunt fought against my dads villainous beastmen and won a close fought victory. We played path to glory using the malign portents rules for some extra pizazz. We picked our portents at random and I ended up with the falling star which gave me some surprisingly useful save shenanigans.
Gavespawn beasts can pack a punch! I'm very glad of my etheral since his doombull was capable of doing 5 damage with his axe and was really gunning for my mounted knight of shrouds. At the end of the game I had just 2 chainrasps left who valiently knocked the last 2 wounds off of his summoned bullgors. Chainrasps are a great little battleline
Malign portents was a surprisingly simple and fun addon, we played the they came from below narrative mission from the book which I think was a good fun one. Lots of good shenanigans were had! Even if he kept making me charge on d6 and i kept rolling 1's and 2's... my poor dreadblade harrow barely made his charges.
Unfortunately I have no photos but my list was:
-1 x knight of shrouds on ethereal steed
-1 x Dreadblade harrow
-5 x Glaivewraith stalkers
-4 x Myrnmourn Banshees
-10 x Chainrasps
I don't play Warhammer to be competitive, I play to experience the world and its lore, I like to flesh out my armies and give them narrative. At this point I am, creatively and pragmatically, starting from scratch, striving toward the first benchmark of 500 points (1 hero and 2 battleline units). To move forward, I must consider the nature of the story I want to tell, and the game-play I want to experience (and keep in mind that HoS is yet to receive its battletome).
As I enjoy a narrative with a upward trajectory, and because the Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount (name forthcoming) has the only instance of chaos armor I don't loathe, and wouldn't a big unit of Hellstriders look great alongside him, I'm going to take the mortal aspiring to daemonhood angle. Maybe someday I'll get a Sorcerer Lord on Daemonic Mount, one can certainly dream.
With our dashing villain and his five companions finding favor from Slaanesh (or similar) in the form of their daemonic steads, he receives visions that inspire him to hunt for the Dark Prince's prison, gathering more followers as he chases whispers in the realm of Ulgu. His adventures in the shadow realm inspire five more Hellstriders to join his revel, and attract the eye of a Herald of Slaanesh, and her cabal of daemonette servants.
Hellstrider Host (500/500)
Hosts of Slannesh: Seekers
Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount
10 Hellstriders (Clawspear + Shield)
Herald of Slaanesh
10 Daemonettes
Which is about $150 off the GW webstore. With that finally in hand, I can start putting some money away for this little project and give some personality to the Lord and Herald.
This one of my Abohorant Ghoul Kings, Archbishop Eustathius. A leader of St. Simeon‘s Crusade he summons forth his loyal sergeant at arms to defend the faith.
Working out a 1000 point list to test out the battletome when built, also looking for anyone willing to do games at Warhammer World to help test and shape the Battletome as it develops.
Stormtitan Venomtongue Shaman (Infamy: The Red Mist) - Stumpstave.
The Redmist infamy (-1 to hit in shooting phase) helps offset his origin flaw (enemies reroll 1's to hit when shooting him), this gives me the chance to make a more noble stormy looking Gargant and combine it with bits from the Archanok kit to make a spiderlike shaman to reflect the fact he is venomtongue. His ability allows friendly gargants to use their least wounded profile
Bogdrinker Battleborn (Infamy: Of Ghyran) - Drakecleaver and Gargant Buckler
By running Bogdrinkers as battleline the pair can cover a larger distance with their Bravery debuff, and with the Infamy of Ghyran this gargant will keep healing until he is put down fully. By using a Gargant buckler he is more resilient in close combat (able to save even the most rending of blows).
Bogdrinker Battleborn - Massive Club
Since friendly non-bogdrinker models suffer the bravery debuff from this marshladen Gargants it made sense for both battleborn to be Bogdrinkers, taking the massive club for this one means that when the Venomtongue casts his spell I have the highest chance of triggering those mortal wounds with 3D6 attacks from this model.!
Rockhewn Longarm - Gargant Bombard
Slow but resilient (Halving enemy damage characteristics) the Rockhewn made the most sense to become the Longarm of my host, the range of the cannon offsets his slow movement well and he can sit on an objective long enough to deter enemies.
Ikar Bezerker Longstrider - Gargant Impaler
Hitting like a steamtrain and outflanking this Gargant should harass the enemy Monsters, combining his native tusked Ikar origins every 6 to hit with the massive spear generates another attack offsetting is low attack numbers (4 damage a piece though!), and the ability to come on from any table edge means he has a degree of tactical flexibility
So as to the challenge, once the 5 Gargants in this list are built I'd appreciate anyone willing to bring a balanced 1k list to Warhammer world to help clash with the gargants and balance out the fledgling battle tome!
What good would an army of unique giants each carving out their own legend be if they had no personality, not unique tales to tell.
So when fielding an army of Titans using the battletome I felt it was important every unit be treated like a character, with a name befitting the legend they would be known for, as these are Giants however the names would be incomprehensible for mortal kind whose small ears could not hope to comprehend a Gargant name, and their tiny mouths incapable of producing the noises needed to prounounce it anyway,
So the Gargant name generator allows you to produce the names that mortal men know each Gargant by, defined by their Origins and Specialities to produce personalised names.
OK, with the three provisional scrolls done for the army what I am in desperate need of now is some players to go through the various combinations on the warscrolls to see if there is any broken, over or underpowered, obvious or useless choices i have included in order to be refined. There are a number of typos I have spotted which i can go through an edit but I tend to find players have the best insight into what might result in broken combinations.
So you might be thinking that with just 3 warscrolls the faction cannot have that many combinations to assess, but as I'm a weird one we now have 135 possible combinations of Warscroll, Origin, Speciality and Weapons. Now that is army variety
So if anyone has a chance to read my Gargant builder, build you ideal Gargant with what is on show and see if there is any broken combinations I would be immensely greatful. We have the Overlord (Hero), Shaman (Wizard), and Gargant (everything else) scrolls, along with clarification of what each Origin and Speciality means for the warscroll.
Thanks to anyone and everyone who reads this and moreso for those willing to give it a go!
As of late I have been working on a Gargant centric army list Battletome, something that brings not only a low model count to the table but the ability to convert unique characterful models for every entry in the list. To do this I have taken the unique approach of multi stage customisation on each warscroll however in order to make sure it is understandable I'd appreciate if people could read through a feedback on what I have so far (This is the basic Gargant scroll, there will be different ones for characters. I havent worked out the ranged weapon list yet)
Acolytes of the Withered Word
The Fecund Hordes of the Ashen Wastes
The Skaven Clans, and most particularly the teeming hordes of Clan Pestilens, are infamous for their Gnawholes, unstable tunnel-gates that run between the realms chiselled into being by the twisted claws and sorcery of the rat-men and guided by their insidious Verminlords. They can be seen dotting the realms, particularly great sites of battle during the Realmgate War, leaving warping and twisted effects upon the nearby landscape. However despite their repeated attempts to achieve such, the clans have yet to successfully penetrate the dark and mysterious realm of Ulgu, the infamous realm of shadow.
The Roiling Basin
Deep within the twisting ash-storms of Aspiria in the fiery realm of Aqshy lies the realmgate known as the Shadowhame. One of the few stable realmgates that runs to the realm of Ulgu, it sits deep in the centre of a shattered volcano in what appears to be ancient azyrite ruins. The crater, known as the Roiling Basin due to the ash storms that whip around it’s interior walls as they blow in from the eastern plains before churning out over the western seas, has been settled by an enormous contingent of Skaven Great Clans hailing directly from the Blight City itself. Towering and haphazard Skaven constructions are piled atop ancient Azyrite heritage sites as the industrious Skaven claw the skies with their fell machinery, their destructive and corrupting presence going so far as to warp the nearby landscape and even the weather. Wealthier members of the clans have their residences and bases of operations in the high towers, with Skryre and Pestilens holding dominion over their respective supporters from on high. Moulder Clan members prefer to practise their disgusting bio-science in the depths of the crater and Clan Eshin’s base naturally remains a mystery as to its location. The lowest members of the system such as Skavenslaves and lowly Clanrats eek out an existence in the Depths, killing one another for scraps that fall from above and mysteriously disappearing into the Moulder surgery-labs. The Shadowhame realmgate itself lies in the Pestilent Knave known as the Prior Vermalanx, deep in the structure and well-guarded by acolytes and the Plague Guard.
The Church of Contagion
Skaven city-warrens are usually inhabited by clans belonging to a single Great Clan or an uneasy alliance of multiple clans present for their own interests. While the Roiling Basin is inhabited by representatives of all the Great Clans, Clan Pestilens is currently ascendant amongst the group due to the overwhelming ranks they currently count in their faithful throng. No mere no-name virulent procession, Clan Morbidus of the Pestilens are an ancient and wealthy clan that proudly boast of heritage that dates back to the World-That-Was. Faithful to their god and mindless in their devotion to his ascension, Morbidus offers it’s prayers up to the Verminlord known as Vermalanx, a legend among the pestilent clans who lead the Pestilens Clans during the Realmgate Wars and dared to scheme against the Glott Brothers and Nurgle himself, all while seeming to aid them in their goals. Allegedly defeated by the Stormcast Eternals at Rotwater Swill, Vermalanx has since arisen once more by the Corruptor’s claw to lead his most faithful of children. Bearing twin Plaguereapers forged from raw warpstone dipped in the filth of the Horned One itself, plague monks gladly throw themselves to a gory death at the orders of the dark servant of The Great Witherer itself. The dominance of Morbidus has forced the other Great Clans to toe the line against them feebly for now, with them offering up gifts of arcane ingenuity, shadow operatives and hordes of lowly rats to break against the ranks of the enemy before the Plague Monks destroy all opposition.
Ruler of the Rat-Race
Ruling over the Church of Contagion and by extension the Roiling Basin itself, Archdeacon Skirik Vileclaw presides over his “beloved” flock with sharp claws and a tendency to hurl those who oppose him from the high points down into the Depths. Quite unlike most rulers of his race, Skirik has little in the way of cunning or subtlety. Prone to fits of deranged madness due to the fever in his brain and the poison in his veins, Skirik’s temperament veers wildly between the faithful servant of the Great Corruptor and behaving like a rabid animal. Riding an enormous Plague Furnace into battle known as the Altar of the Redmaw, named for the Great Plague Skirik so famously brought back to the faithful long decades ago. His lifetime long enhanced by the righteous fury in his body and the ministrations of the absolute pinnacle of Skryre and Moulder sciences, Skirik has plagued Aqshy for as long as many in Aspiria can recall.
The Shadowhame Gate
The focal point of the entire settlement, deep within the Pestilent Knave lies the Shadowhame Gate. One of only a mere handful of stable gateways to Ulgu, and one of the scant few held by the forces of Chaos, this gateway represents an incredible potential advantage to the chaos forces as Malerion and Morathi’s machinations are kept secret beyond the twisting fold of the realm they rule over. Forces from the Roiling Basin have established a foothold on the other side of the gate, a continuous supply of troops marching through to man the defences and fortify the location further. Known as the Rotted Claw warren, Malerion has been forced to drop his façade of bored contempt for the Skaven to actively destroy the gateaway, knowing that while he faces Plague Monks and baying Clanrats today, tomorrow it could well be the Varangard riding through the mists.
Schemes Within Schemes
With Malerion and Morathi throwing their forces into the fortification of the Rotted Claw bastion and increasing aggression from the resurgent forces of Order in Aqshy, the Roiling Basin’s constant threat may yet be dealt with by the allied forces of Order. However, while the fighting forces of the rats hold back their aggressors Clan Skryre has begun a grand undertaking in the Warpstorm Tower, the only tower to rise higher than the Prior Vermalanx (a fact that Skirik has hurled many a warlock engineer to their doom over when reminded), with their research into the construction of a stable Gnawhole built using the arcane secrets gleaned from the Shadowhame Gate that will lead directly to the Blight City, enabling an enormous horde of Skaven without number to storm through. The completion of this gate will see all of Aspiria brought to it’s knees by the Skaven, and Ulgu flooded with resurgent forces to bring an end to the God of Shadow’s dominion.
I've quickly amassed a pile of miniatures for AOS so need a blog to motivate and showcase them all. I'm not a gamer but I've sculpted and painted for well over 20 years now.
This collection will be small warbands with a variety of allies tied together with certain themes and campaigns in mind. I have a collection of art books for magic the gathering which I'm using as inspiration for my colour schemes - no dark and dirty Blanchitsu stuff, this will be clean and colourful work... with the odd mud and blood splatter.
To show you what I mean, here's my first Stormcast miniatures. Bases need some autumn foliage but they are pretty much finished. Next up, some Wildwood ranger allies and Stormcasts with big two handed mauls.
These were quite labour intensive miniatures to paint but I'm happy with the end result. I did the base first so not to make a mess of the figures legs or robes. I like simple wet blending with bright colours which you can see with the blue and white here.
The base theme for this warband is something akin to the realm of death, haunted ruined look. With brown leaves and dead grass (still to be added). I sculpted a few additional leaves here and there.
So today I was dusting my shelves and I had to get these guys off there shelves, so I decided to take a group shot. I still have a lot of work to do get it all complete but I have pretty much everything I'd ever want / need for the army now.
Notorious Hammer
Just got home from the Notorious Hammer event in Johnsonville, Wellington and I’m here to let everyone know how it went. The tournament went overall exceptionally well, big props to Shaun from Notorious AOS (https://notoriousaos.podbean.com/) for T.O’ing the event and running a tight ship. Once again, the New Zealand Warhammer scene is better for your efforts. Everyone had a great time and there was a great field present for 2 days of great games.
Game 1: Shaun T – Daughters of Khaine
Scenario: Focal Points
Outcome: Major Defeat 720 Kill Points
Wow. Set up my army with a Clanrat screen 40 long and 4 lines deep to brunt the massive Witch Aelf assault and Shaun just wasn’t having it. Smoothly punching through my lines and delivering a powerful follow up punch making use of the army’s ability to pile in effectively, and supporting his front line with the Cauldron of Blood and Morathi herself, Shaun schooled me hard on playing an all melee army. This tips the balance towards Shaun in our ongoing tug of war for supremacy, and I’ll absolutely be gunning for him next tournament.
Game 2: Shaun B – Stormcast Eternals
Scenario: Better Part of Valor
Outcome: Major Victory 2000 Kill Points
Shaun (Big Shaun for Notorious listeners) opened with the same strategy he used to wipe the floor with me at Call to Arms 2 months ago. Deploying his Sequitors and Evocators along the line ready to charge in after absolutely smacking the hell out of me with an Everblaze Comet, Shaun lined my head up on the block from the start of the game. Unfortunately, his comet failed to cast and his alpha-strike play was unable to clear me off the objectives due to burning a command point to pass battleshock (cheers battalion people said not to take). This prevent Shaun burning my objectives on turn 1, and I retaliated with a lethal counter-surge with Plague Monks that saw Shaun pushed backward and eventually cleared away.
Game 3: Regan – Stormcast Eternals
Scenario: Shifting Objectives
Outcome: Major Victory 2000 Kill Points
The Realmscape rules here saw units unable to fly banned from run moves, forcing myself and Regan to aggressively footslog towards the objectives shooting each other nasty glares. Regan arrived first, scoring an early lead and building a wall out of Anvils of the Heldenhammer, but my counter-offensive benefitted from some choice dice rolls and superior mobility with the Clanrats retreating and charging around their slower, more powerful opponents. With the points under lock, I turned my focus to exterminating the lethal Anvils before they could use their formidable command ability in conjunction with their Evocators to send me packing.
Game 4: Cameron – Seraphon
Scenario: Starstrike
Outcome: Major Victory 2000 Kill Points
Cameron and his 3 Engines of the Gods opened the game by summoning 60 Skinks to the table to shore up his middle position while I spread my army out without committing to any one side. This proved to be a wise move, with the centre and enemy objectives being in the left board side and my own on the far right (appropriate). My Clanrats on the right retreated immediately to secure the home point while the rest of my army slammed into his endless ranks of Skinks and set about punching through them. With a gap formed, the Verminlord darted through and artfully brought the Astrolith Bearer and an Engine to the ground, while blocking the summoning range of the other engines and the Slann. With all objectives tightly in my grip and staring down the barrel of a slow and steady death at the hands of pestilence, my opponent conceded to save time.
Game 5: Lee – Sylvaneth
Scenario: Total Conquest
Outcome: Major Defeat 1450 Kill Points
Match of the century at the top table, with the winner set to win the whole tournament, nothing about this match was carefree. Me and Lee are actually neighbours and play each other more regularly than any other opponents, so this was set to be a great game. Lee artfully matched my playstyle of massive aggression followed by retreats and more aggression with his defensive, never committing to any one area till late-game style. The points were neck to neck with the leader changing each battle round, each of us making counter-moves we’ve practised against one another a dozen times to throw the other back and upset their plans. Highlights were Lee committing allied Idoneth eels on a suicide mission to kill a lone Plague Priest who was actually a core component of my left flank strategy (Lee never throws units away, so he knew he could set this up without me expecting it) and the would-be assassination of the outlaw Verminlord Corruptor by the Treelord Ancient into that scene from Avengers where Captain America tears a log in half. Lee won with a clever last-minute commitment to my crippled left flank and took the game, a well-earned victory.
Final Placings
1st Place: Lee W – Sylvaneth
2nd Place: Shaun T – Daughters of Khaine
3rd Place: Matt B – Legion of Blood
Best Sports – Regan
Best Painted – Sloane D
Everyone had a great time and there were no dramas or last-minute point corrections. I ended up 4th, almost clinching the title of first Pestilens player in the world to podium at a registered event, and learned a lot on how to improve my play. Looking forward to the next events of the year, and to the upcoming Notorious AOS GT coming next year. If it’s as good as this event, it’ll be one I can’t afford to miss.
(1).thumb.jpg.6839637d49cda2977eafa02e6a19a3ba.jpg)
.jpg.47d742b71044513c4f1bc82e09a5bad0.jpg)
