Blogs

Dragon Ogors Work in Progress

Base coated the Dragon Ogors this morning. Trying out a new airbrush and am super happy how quick they came out. The rest will all be brush but it was nice to lay down the base coats in these big models. I hoping to start laying in details later today.

Yesterday at 05:38 PM

The Khailebron Temple

daughters of khaine MSU DoK

The list style that I am currently looking at is MSU with plenty of magic and shooting. I want an army that competes in all areas of the game and can answer the key questions that I think you need to consider anytime you write a list (assuming your goal is to win games!) 1. What if you can't out fight your opponent? 2. What if you can't outshoot your opponent? 3. What happens if your opponent is immune to your trick? This is by no means an all encompassing strategy for Age of Sigmar, but it does cover the basics of list design and means you should have a flexible list. I am fully aware that many of the top lists bypass there rules and focus on being ultra powerful in a single area of teh game, playing the meta to stay on top. It is also those lists that will be swapped out every few moths as things rise up to counter them and a new hot list emerges. I prefer to play a list that is alway viable without having to worry about hitting a hard counter, or a swinging meta. So let's look at this in more detail and I'll go on to show how I have thought about this from both sides. 1. What if you can't out fight your opponent If you bring a full combat army, and you have no other options than to win a straight up fight, if your opponents army is better at this then you will lose. You need to have a plan B. It doesn't mean you need to bring some shooting, some factions just can't do that. But it might mean making sure you go 2-1 in flights, or that you can snipe off their support characters, or debut the units. Making sure you have a plan for this is important. In my list I do not go for the full combat assault, I have a mixed arms army so fighting is not my first option. I can magic and shot my way to a victory if needed. If my opponent does need to win only by combat, and have no other plan to back that up, I have the option to tie them up with Morathi, or buff my Bloodsisters so they hit hard enough to kill most units. I have plenty of options to sit back and avoid combat if needed. I can reply on the table edge and still have my key units engaged in the game. Morathi can cast spells with a huge range too. 2. What if you can't outshoot your opponent? Have you considered what happens if your bring a shooting army and face something that you can't outshoot? Maybe its Stormcast that present no targets, come out of the sky and shoot out your important missile units? Or you face something that is 1 drop and does the same? Or gun line with longer range. Are you able to get over the table quickly enough to stop getting blown apart? For my list it's all about the Khailebron Temple here. -1 to be hit from shooting. Its a great defensive trait against shooting armies. I also have the chance to close quickly with the Mistress of Illusions move, and the Mirror Dance. Heartrenders to drop out of the sky and my allied Ballistas to put the hurt down from range. 3. What happens if your opponent is immune to your trick? If your army relies on one trick to win, and your opponent can nullify that, can you still win. For example, 1 Drop battalions with a strong Alphastrike. What happens in Total Commitment or if you plan another 1 drop army and do not get the first turn? I have tried to include a few powerful combos the can be game winning, but not something that I will rely on. The biggest trick here is having Morathi use the Mirror Dance after transforming and being bused to be able to charge pretty much anywhere on the table. I also have the ability to put out a massive amount of mortal wound damage in the hero phase. My list and how this applies. Morathi High Oracle of Khaine (480)
- Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor Bloodwrack Medusa (140)
- General
- Trait: Mistress of Illusion
- Artefact: Shadow Stone
- Lore of Shadows: Mirror Dance Hag Queen (60)
- Prayer: Catechism of Murder The 3 heroes work will together. Mistress of Illusions can move a unit, but it can also place my characters where they are most needed. If I buff morathi and send her flying away, then next turn I can teleport the Hag to her and buff again. The Shadow Stone and Mirror Dance is a great combination, you would need to roll snake eyes twice to fail to cast the spell, so the teleport combo will go off if I am careful about placement. That Combo.... Heres how it works. Start of the turn I can use the Mistress of Illusions command trait to teleport a unit anywhere on the table outside 9" of the enemy. I can then transform Morathi into the Shadow Queen. I need to teleport a hero, and keep her within 24" of my General, and Morathi (this could mean I teleport my general) I can then cast Mirror Dance with the Medusa and swap the position of Morathi and the Character I already moved forwards. Morathi is now free to move. This also works well on teh medusa. V2. Khailebron move Morathi (In high Oracle form) so she can cast spells and do some damage. Cast Mirror Dance to pull Morathi back to safety and swap in the Medusa. The medusa is now free to move and shoot. This can get the gaze in range early on and blow up large units before they have chance to get any command points on the board. Its a nice trick! Its also great for keeping Morathi in the game and not getting isolated out of the battle. 10 x Blood Sisters (280) My hammer unit. Every list needs something that can just line up and deal out the pain. They are also battleline
10 x Witch Aelves (100)
- Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
10 x Witch Aelves (100)
- Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers Battleline. Mainly defence against alpha strikes. thats why they have bucklers. 5 x Doomfire Warlocks (160)
- Lore of Shadows: The Withering
5 x Doomfire Warlocks (160)
- Lore of Shadows: Pit of Shades I like 1x 10 but i'm trying out 2x5 for now. Lots of options for spells and unbinds 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (80)
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (80)
Celestar Ballista (100)
Celestar Ballista (100)
Celestar Ballista (100) These 460 points are flexible. I think I will end up tweaking them around to settle on the best options. I like the ranged shooting, most armies I see recently are combat heavy hat will be forced to advance onto objectives. The 3 Ballistas should punish that. Aethervoid Pendulum (40)
Quicksilver Swords (20) The endless spells are so I can really throw out the damage if needed. 6 casts in my list. if needed they can all be damage spells. Total: 2000 / 2000 So thats the list. My next post will be a review of recent games and how it is performing.

Ben

Yesterday at 02:21 PM

The Khailebron Temple

daughters of khaine Welcome to the Temple

Welcome to the Khailebron Temple. TGA has been up a couple of years now and since day 1 it’s had the feature of starting a blog and sharing it in this community. As the owner of the site you would have thought I would have a blog! But no. So this is my blog on my Daughters Of Khaine army, aptly named, The Khailebron Temple. Since I first got hold of the Daughters book I have always liked this particular temple, both in terms of game play and background. The Khailebron for me are the true descendants of the old cults of Har Garneth. In the background the Khailebron represent Khaine in his aspect a the Assassins, master of Shadow and Illusion. On the table this translates to some fun yet powerful combos. So what’s in my army? Morathi Morathi has been such a cool character since the early days of Warhammer, so to have her in the game awesome 99% of my lists include Morathi. I love the model and the flexibility she has on sth table, being a caster and a brutal combat character. Warlocks These have always been one of my go to units. Lots of options with magic, shooting and combat and a high movement . Bloodwrack Medusa I painted a Bloodwrack Shrine when it was first released and I’ve always loved using it. It’s not always the most effective list option, but if I can squeeze one in I will. The rest of the book is obviously great and I will be using all the units at some point. But this is my starting point. Play style. When it come to play style I’m in an odd spot with Age of Sigmar. Back in the day when “I used to be a contender” I always played an army that would be half way towards winning before the game even started. Not necessarily in a broken combo, but just down to the fact that I would always have a path to victory built into my list no matter what my opponent used or how they played. Since I’ve been playing AoS this has slipped away. Partly due to me playing less games, partly down to my army choices. I want to get back to tweaking my list to become a well oiled machine and be able to chase opponents around the table no matter where they are. My most recent list: This is what I’ve been playing recently. MSU + Morathi. Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
- Temple: Khailebron Morathi High Oracle of Khaine (480)
- Lore of Shadows: Mindrazor Bloodwrack Medusa (140)
- General
- Trait: Mistress of Illusion
- Artefact: Shadow Stone
- Lore of Shadows: Mirror Dance Hag Queen (60)
- Prayer: Catechism of Murder 10 x Blood Sisters (280)
10 x Witch Aelves (100)
- Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
10 x Witch Aelves (100)
- Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers 5 x Doomfire Warlocks (160)
- Lore of Shadows: The Withering
5 x Doomfire Warlocks (160)
- Lore of Shadows: Pit of Shades 5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (80)
5 x Khinerai Heartrenders (80)
Celestar Ballista (100)
Celestar Ballista (100)
Celestar Ballista (100) Aethervoid Pendulum (40)
Quicksilver Swords (20) Total: 2000 / 2000 I'll go into this this a little more in my next blog post

Ben

Yesterday at 01:08 PM

Shaggoth work in progress

Most of the base coat for the Shaggoth. This guy is super fun to paint.

Yesterday at 01:50 AM

Dragon Ogors...Assemble!

Wow, I am way behind. We have a 500 pt tournament next week and I finally got the Dragon Ogors put together. They took much longer than I thought they would. I leraned, after the first, to have the six main parts fully cleaned prior to gluing any if it. I almost had a case where the glue dried with the parts just slightly off and the torso didn't fit, yikes. Overall, I super impressed how they fit together to hide the seems (much better than the Palladors). That being said, after priming I still found some cracks that I need to deal with. I eventually have 6 more to do. I need to figure out how to swap torsos or change them in some other way so they don't all look the same. I think a torso swap should be doable. I decided to do three with two handed weapons and three with two weapons. They've done a good job balancing the options but that does make it hard to decide. I think two weapons is the best overall (slightly) but I love the look of the huge weapons. I am a wimp and super glued the arms and weapon heads on just in case I change my mind I just started painting the Shaggoth and will do a work in progress in him soon.

Troggherd from the swamps of Ghur

Saturday at 08:12 PM

Gorthor21's Hobby Corner

Sylvaneth

I have finished assembling and primed the Sylvaneth. I’m thinking of using a few different shades of brown should give it a nice diversity. I have been waiting for a spirit of durthu for a long time and I’m happy to finally have one.

Gorthor21

Saturday at 09:43 AM

The Spiritsong

The Harvestboon Wargrove ready for Sheffield Slaughter.

So I've been working on my Harvestboon Wargrove for the Sheffield Slaughter coming up in February! Excited to say the actual list is completely finished and for my level of painting I'm happy with how it looks together on the table. I'm not working on 30 more Dryads (I have 60 and starting with 50 mean I need 90 to be comfortable) with I'm nearly done with then it's time to work on my 24 trees for my Wyldwoods.

As a cool side note, I'll be playing on the WHTV stream on the 30th January against a buddies Skaven, check it out!

AaronWIlson

Friday at 09:00 PM

Current situation on the Troggherd

So here we see the current Troggoth situation. We have a Hag, Gargant thats made from a 6th ed Gargant and Troggoth parts and I actually have 6 Fellwater Troggoths painted already but here we see 3 in the picture. I have 3 more being painted right now and 6 more still waiting in my drawer. Now my armies wont be 100% Troggoths as I'm putting in a single Madcap Shaman for some spell casting and Hand of Morking stuff around. The amazing horde clearing spell that is Morks Mighty Mushroom is also joining my army. I'm really exited about picking up the Troggboss tomorrow and placing a preorder for Mollog. I'm trying to finish my 3 Fellwater troggoths today so I can immediately start working on the Troggboss. I have a practice game next week where I will be playing the Troggherd and I'll be sure to do a small report on how it went here on my blog.

Eevika

Friday at 12:39 PM

Troggherd from the swamps of Ghur

The Hag!

The Troggoth Hag is definitely a piece I believe every Troggoth army needs. It's amazing as a model and amazing on the table. I rarely do such detailed eyes and faces but when working on a model that is the centrepiece of your army you want to spend some extra time just to make it special. This is surely the best work I have ever done on a models face and I think there is just a lot of character and emotion on the model. My smaller Troggoths are just green and blue but for this model I felt like it really needed another color to make it pop more so I asked some people what would be best and after many recommendations I decided to go for a nice bright orange and I think it really fits nicely. This picture also shows well the addition of mushrooms all over the model. Even though my Troggoth army is based on swamp themed bases with lots of water effects the mushrooms really tie it to my Grots and Squigs that are based on more rocky bases but with lots of mushrooms. The base on this model was definitely one of the most fun parts of the process of creating it. Here we see a detail shot of the base with the small Free Guild soldier hiding from the lumbering Hag. I love the base I did here. The water effects came out nicely and the base that comes with the Hag looks really nice after I added all kinds of fun stuff like mushrooms and skulls to it.

Eevika

Friday at 12:20 PM

Ritual Writings

Beasts of War

I've liked the idea of beastmen for a while. They are the quintessential enemy to many in the Old World of Warhammer, this pure chaotic force that does not conquer for gain, but to despoil. I've read about them in various warhammer stories, and always wanted to know more. When the Start Collecting box came out (along with the Beasts of Chaos battletome), I figured, what the hell. It took a while to pick up the box and book, even longer to get round to building the figures, but now I have the box built, undercoated, and ready to go. The Beastmen gathered on the outsider. Braying, they beat him down, for he was different. He was no longer 'light grey'. The one thing I find amusing, is a few of these Ungor raiders, I've given them a single arrow and a bow. I have this image of them being given an arrow, and told they have to re-use it. Other than that, they'll have to beat them with their bows. The outsider's last moments. This was the test model, done to test what colours I want to use. They seem ok... but the shadows are too dark to my eyes. The paints are the standard flesh tones, Bugman's Glow - Agrax Earthshade - Bugman's Glow - Cadian Fleshtone - Kislev Flesh. The time spent layering Bugman's back over the agrax could have been saved, if I skip the wash and go straight into the layer. I'm trying this now, and will see how it goes. Other than that, the rest of it is standard. Skaven-dinge Blight - Nuln Oil - Tyrant's Skull for the fur (basic drybrush), the arrow and bow are Dryad Bark (same colour as my Dryads, so that it looks like they cut bows from the screaming dryads). For the other models, there'll be a bit more variety. For Ungors, that won't last long (either they die or get sacrificed... and die), they can all be the same.

Ritualnet

Thursday at 04:39 PM

Melcavuk's Faction Expansions - Revitalising the Lore

Redesigning the Weld - Model Design Musings

Since I'm still playing around with Warscrolls the concept of building the models is playing on my mind a little bit, I'm pretty happy with my concept for the labourer centric units so have moved on to considering the Phalanx and Ironsworn Units. Below are my current ideas on units and their composite parts: Weld Arbalesters/Riflemen -
Bodies/Legs - Necromunda Cawdor
Heads - Human, Bare (currently looking at Van Saar head upgrade kit)
Weapons - Crossbows from the Empire Crossbowmen kit, Rifles from the same kit of the Skitarii Range Rifles.
Additionals - Power/Shot pouches made from greenstuff, more ornate heads for the Quartermaster and Master of Shot (thinking forgeworld Ironsiders heads) Weld Phalanx/Other -
Bodies/Legs - Militarum Tempestus Scions (if considering armoured look, Cawdor if focusing on the more Labourer aspect)
Heads - Nuln Ironsiders
Weapons - 1.5mm brass rod cut to 7cm lengths as pikes, the Van Saar energy shields with the hole replaced with a duardin icon and painted to become a far more primitive shield instead.
Additionals - Open to suggestions. Ironsworn Templars -
Chassis - Starting with the Forgeworld Ironcircle model as a base, bore a column vertically down the front of the model to craft an alcove for the pilot, removing the neckpiece in the process. Within this cavity mount the pilot (Captain from empire Steam Tank kit), using greenstuff to sculpt the crude leather straps of a harness.
Pilots arms should stick out horizontally, disappearing into the chassis frame to control the suits arms with legs strapped and supported by metallic pedals below.
Power source - Do not add the top armour to the chassis, instead utilising the steam engine from the Empire Steamtank kit, cut the barrel in half and mount over the top of the chassis forming a rudimentary top piece.
Armour - Leaving the shield and shoulder pads off of the Ironcircle, take the rear wheel frames from the Steamtank, cutting each in half until you have 4 semi circles of banded wood. Attach two of these to each of the shoulder frame mounts to make crude wooden armour panelling over the shoulder.
Weaponry - Angling the hammer to be held in two hands (as the shield will not be attached), replace the hammer head with a suitably Age of Sigmar weapon of your choice. Alternative weaponry build takes the Steam Cannon from the Steam Tank Turret, mounting it on the haft of the Ironcircle hammer and running hoses (made from greenstuff) to the steam engine on the armours back, this gives the suit a short range steam belcher.

Melcavuk's Faction Expansions - Revitalising the Lore

Wednesday at 08:09 AM

Redesigning the Weld - Starting Out...

Approaching the redesign of a faction is a challenging concept, typically GW do the models first and that allows the rules designers to know the constraints of the faction and can build the battletome around a set list of models that are coming soon. This allows a structure that when approaching rules first can... lack, where anything is possible it mistakenly leads to the idea that EVERYTHING is possible, so breaking down the unit options as follows here is what I currently see us as having: Duardin Engineer (Existing Model)
Gunmaster (Existing Model)
HERO A (Monsterous, built as secondary option to a different kit)
HERO B (Cavalry or flier)

BATTLELINE
Riflemen/Arbalesters (Dual Kit, Battleline if Ironweld) - Working in well with the Gunmasters,
Phalanx/Something (Dual Kit) - Here I'm considering factoring in the Cog soldier aspect, potentially functioning better when in the presence of an engineer essentially having the Duardin Engineer acting as a buff hero for the Cog aspects of the army. It would rob the labourer aspect of a second unit to benefit from faction specific buffs. OTHER
Ironsworn Templar (Also Builds Paladins Hero) - Non-Monster heavy hitter unit, monsterous infantry.
Ironsworn Fusiliers/Lancers - Fast Moving Cavalry
Gyrocopter/Bomber (Existing Kit) ARTILLERY
Helstom/Helblaster (Existing Kit)
Duardin Cannon (Existing Kit) BEHEMOTH
Steamtank (Needs a new kit, likely a dual kit. My theory was an Iron Dragon rocket spitting tank, Steel behemoth labourer carrier) Taking that as a base it means that new kits wise it would be:
Weld Riflemen (Dual Kit)
Weld Phalanx (Dual Kit)
Ironsworn Templar (Dual Kits)
Ironsworn Fusiliers (Dual Kit)
Hero B Clam Pack
Monster/Tank something kit. Now thats already something thats rivalling the bigger releases, so I'd say at this stage to add a unit we'd need to remove one of my unit suggestions at each time (barring hero B which I have left spare currently). I think the best plan is add a unit, remove a unit policy (unless anyone can make a convincing counter arguement there
When approaching unit design I would go with the following criteria:
Does it fit the theme?
Does it fill a tactical void in the army? (Not every army needs to fill every void but the army should be competitive based on its own roster)
Does it bring synergy (Part of why I strive to add the Labourer keyword to Weld guard is to have interplay between them and the artillery in the faction, it gives a synergistic link. And just as artillery benefits from them, they benefit from Ironsworn nearby to inspire them. The benefits cascade down from having a mixed list.
Is it needed? (As above, not every faction needs to fill every niche, not everyone needs a monster or magic etc unless it forms a cohesive part of the army, theme and roster)
Is it something better provided by allies? (pretty self explanatory) So what is the theme?
My suggestion is below, but this is simply my suggestion, it is entirely possible that my own interpretation is wrong or needs refining but here's where collaborative debate can help really hammer down the heart of the question "Who are the Ironweld?"
Industry Driven Humans and Duardin surviving a magical world through innovation and strength of arms.

Melcavuk's Faction Expansions - Revitalising the Lore

Tuesday at 09:22 PM

The Glitterhost

River Basing Tutorial

River Basing Tutorial I've put up several pics of my slow hobby progress, and the one thing everyone wants to know is how I did the water effects. I'm no pro-painter, so I feel a little weird making a tutorial, but people are curious and it's an easy technique so why not? Here's what you'll need (aside from paintbrushes and a pointed sculpting tool of some kind): Water Texture (transparent is best) Course texture gel Gloss Varnish ('Ardcoat) Incubi Darkness Coelia Greenshade Jade Green (Kabalite Green is GW alternative) Foul Green (ditto, Sybarite Green) Gauss Blaster Green White Shaping the Waves Figuring out what waves 'look' like took me a little while. My army's theme is Hysh, and I wanted it to look like they are crossing an alpine river, glistening in the sunlight. The nature of your body of water will dictate how the waves behave. Below is a good picture of the chaotic pattern of a river's surface. You don't need to see the bank to sense a certain direction, and a more roiling stream will have even more dynamic splashes. The sculpting process requires trial and error, but it's not too difficult once you apply yourself. Below are three Slaaneshi Marauders, about to leap into the river. Using my pointed sculpting tool (silicone ones are good because they have a little give), I slap some texture on the bare base and start sculpting. You'll want to have an elevated riverbank, else the lack of height difference will make the river look unnatural. That's a few minutes of work. You need to pick a direction of the current and sculpt it with that in mind, sketching out a messy, crisscrossing hex pattern and pushing the waves around until you deem it to look natural. The above seems good to me. It'll take a little while to dry but when it does it'll be transparent, and so the shape might be a little difficult to make out on the black base. Once you undercoat it, you'll have a better idea of whether it needs any tidying up. Painting the Surface As I'm painting up Chaos Warriors at the moment, you'll forgive me if I demonstrate the water effect on a different trio of models (the technique is identical). I didn't include painting the turf in the tutorial because it's a fairly standard technique (Dryad Bark for soil, Mechanicus Grey for rock, washed with Agrax and drybrushed with Celestra) and most of it will be covered up by foliage anyway. Onto the main event: Step 1 Base the water surface with incubi darkness. At this stage, the wave's 'shape' becomes more obvious, and you might decide to soften the sharpness with 'Ardcoat. Step 2 Wash the surface with Coelia Greenshade. Step 3 Drybrush with a 50/50 mix of Incubi Darkness and Jade Green. Step 4 Drybrush with Jade Green, leaving some of the previous mix visible below. Step 5 Drybrush with Foul Green (again, lighter than the previous step). Step 6 Light Drybrush of Gaus Blaster. Step 7 Add the Coarse Texture Gel as if it's water foam. This is also a great opportunity to mask any paint blemishes on the river bank or rocks from drybrushing, so this step is doubly beneficial. The gel is very bright when applied, but it dries into a dimmer hue as you can see below. Step 8 A light drybrush of white, picking out the wave's "glisten" as well as the texture of the water foam. It really brings out the, well, texture of the texture gel. I did this a little heavier than would be realistic, but I want it to feel like a sunny day. Step 9 The final steps are applying a gloss varnish to get that wet look (Slaanesh approves), to tidy up the black of the base (you certainly don't want to paint your base rim an earth tone, it'll seem incongruous) and finally adding static grass and foliage. As this will all be done after I spray the completed model matt varnish, here are some Chaos Warriors I prepared earlier: Here is another pic, this time with an additional "splash effect". This is pretty self-explanatory: cut thin strips of transparent plastic, stick it where you want a jet of "splash", slather water texture over it, and repeat the foam technique from steps 7 & 8. I did overdo it with my first few attempts, so I'd recommend a "less is more" approach. Well, I hope this tutorial was useful. Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to throw up some more pics of my Chaos Warriors. It's a project I've been planning for a while and I finally have finished my first three and am very happy with the result The NMM gold came out better than expected, and even the dreaded chainmail turned out okay. I've commented where I'll be putting certain light hotspots on future models, especially the swords, but we live and learn. Now I've officially got at least one of every variety of Chaos Warrior dedicated to a specific god. A true coalition of chaos (well, other than the current UK parliament, badum-tish).

Klamm

January 14

Party Bear's Party Gitz

Endless Spells, Rapid Progress

Endless spells completed! Adding 210 points to the count, bringing me to 510 points painted for the year.

PartyBear

January 13

Party Bear's Party Gitz

Zarbag's Gitz and Next Steps

Finished Zarbag's gitz. Current Painting: Shootas (20): 130 Points Zarbag's Gitz: 160 Points Upcoming: Endless Spells and Squig Herd

PartyBear

January 13

Gorthor21's Hobby Corner

Bladeghiests and Dreadscythes

I finished a few units of my nighthaunts the wife got me for Christmas. They were surprisingly easy to paint after the two week affair with the orruk boys. I got some new paints from the crafts store so the base color on the dreadscythes is different from the rest of the army but I am ok with that. I really enjoyed painting the dreadscythes despite my appreciation to to hormagaunt arms they have. When end I had primed the bladeghiests the spray paint had been sitting for too long and oxidized so they got a healthy spray of bumpy paint. My foolishness for not making sure it would be ok. I gave they proper treatment despite this though some of their details got washed out. The wife got me a start collecting box of Sylvaneth and a box of dryads for my birthday which I’m really excited about which puts my order army at the 2000 point mark that completes my goal for it. I’m really excited for the spirit of durthu.

Gorthor21

January 13

Ironweld Nobility - The Ironsworn Templars

Looking for idea on the development of the Ironsworn Templars (aiming to make a unit version (Templars) and a character version (Paladin) with the latter able to buff the former Significantly, and both able to inspire the Labourers) War beyond the walls of Azyr, to the little people far below the gaze of the Gods and Titans that seek to claim the realm of their own, is a bloody and often short lived affair. Those who have not earned the favour of the God King are not spared the bloody butchery that make up the myriad of battlefields the realms over, from the tortured wastelands of the Great Parch to the body strewn marshes on the approach to the Black Pyramid of Shyish. To the nobility of the Ironweld, whose souls are far from the perfection sought by Sigmar to make up his great hosts, the disfavour they have been shown is insult unanswered, perhaps they have spent far too long in the company of the Duardin Artisans but such nobilty know all too well how to hold a grudge. Denied the preservation of eternal service in the hosts of the Stormcast the Ironweld have sought new ways of prolonging their lives, replacing limbs lost in battle with finely tuned prosthetics, some even go so far as to say that the Matriachs of the noble houses have found ways to live far beyond the years of mortal men and women. It is this very determination to endure inspite of the arrogance of gods that drives the true heart of the Ironweld onwards, their cannonades become the roar of their choir celestial, their steel behemoths are the wings upon which their empire soars, and on the backs of their labourers they will be raised aloft that they might stand amongst Gods and Titans to claim their place within the Realms. Yet in truth all of this would not be possible without the aid of a God, Grimnir the Master Smith has long since been the benefactor of the hosts of the Ironweld, teaching his craft first to the Duardin artisans of Azyr, and through them the heart of the Ironweld has spread to man and dwarf alike. The greatest pupils of the Duardin artisans became the first families of the noble houses, the five pillars of the Ironweld Arsenals combining their family estates into the first factory city of the Ironweld, and through the generations it is these families who have been responsible for the myriad of weaponry that marks the Ironweld Arsenal as the true heart of the empire. The Ironsworn Templars - Even the true heroes of the Ironweld, the children of the noble houses are not spares the miseries of the Battlefield. War is the very heart of commerce for the Ironweld Arsenal, any child expected to rise through the ranks that they might one day steer the fate of the factory empires must understand the visceral nature of War in a manner that only those who have served the host could. Should these young nobles be wounded in battle no expense is spared to restore them to fighting fit, eschewing medicine for masterwork engineering it is far quicker to sever a damaged limb and replace with a metallic replacement to return them to the front lines instead of waiting for healing to eventually take hold. Yet there are those whose injuries could baffle even the artisan engineers of the Weld, and it is these souls who qualify for the growing ranks of Ironsworn Templars. New, innovative and brutally effective the Templars have only recently marched forth from the crawling factory city of Oran, heavy lumbering suits of armour thrice the height of any soldier in the weld. The beaten steel plating built around a harness augmented with newest hydraulic innovations, they are the glorious knights of the new generations of Weld Nobility. They carry with them enormous zweihander blades augmented with oil belching hoses that they might be ignited in the midsts of battle, able to cleave into even the most monsterous or magical of foes with disturbing potency. Those soldiers whose injuries have moved them beyond the fields of battle can still serve the Weld from within the Ironsworn Templar armour, burning metal rivets driven through broken limbs to adhere them to the beaten steel harness. Torn wounds cauterised by the searing heat of the suits furnace that they might never tear open again, the very internment is a life of constant agony and yet they are revered amongst the armies of the Weld, a living embodiment of sacrafice in the name of the Ironweld. For the labourers to see such icons of war marching alongside them sparks inspiration beyond measure, that the nobility might bleed amongst commoners is a unity beyond measure. Monsterous Infantry (6 wounds, 3+ save, slow movement) Special Rules - Icons of War - Friendly LABOURER units may reroll failed Battleshock tests whilst they can draw line of sight to any IRONSWORN units from your army. Incendiary Arsenal - able to deal mortal wounds but risk taking mortal wounds themselves each time the blades are ignited. C&C welcome as always

Melcavuk's Faction Expansions - Revitalising the Lore

January 12

Ironweld Arsenal - Bringing the Firepower

Frankly Ironweld would not be Ironweld without artillery pieces, it is the very heart of their faction and sadly of late their artllery has been left to rot due to the ability to shoot the crew out from behind the warmachine leaving players with simply useless cannons unable to be crewed on the battlefield. There was no need to tweak the lore behind these warmachines as each is a defined and well known part of the arsenal and thus my aim was merely to bring them more in line with modern War Machine scrolls and answer that age old question "Why dont other soldiers crew them when the crew die?" Well now they do, every labourer in the Ironweld has basic experience of manning the guns, it is the very heart of their existance, they help to manufacturer, maintain and fire these devastating machines of war and understand that the cost of the artillery far outweighs the cost of a labourer. As such the artillery pieces can now "heal" using labourers from units nearby, who drop their current weaponry to frantically maintain the artillery when ordered to do so. This is simply the first interplay with the LABOURER keyword added to the Weld Guard, they form the backbone of the force so that the Nobility can fullfill their own agendas. Having a good number of Labourers in your force not only lends weight of numbers and attacks but ensures that your heavy hitters are kept in the battle for longer.

Melcavuk's Faction Expansions - Revitalising the Lore

January 12

Exploring the Weld - Ironweld Arsenal

Like many others since the inception of Age of Sigmar I have been waiting to see how the normal men and women of the Realms come to be represented, from the citizens of Azyr to the settlers who go on to form Freecities and the refugees trailing in a never ending stream back towards the Golden city as the tides of chaos, death and destruction ravage the Realmscape around them. As I wasnt a fantasy player before Age of Sigmar became a thing i had no pre-existing loyalties to the factions of old, no fond memories of Empire and Brettonians to niggle at the back of my mind when imagining the shapings of the armies of Man to come in the later Age of Sigmar lore. One of the most interesting elements to me was the seperation of the Ironweld Arsenal, a faction comprised of the heavy artillery and siege engines of old accompanies by engineers and the potential this could open up in terms of how the faction would grow, expand and become a unique force on the battlefields of Sigmar. The concept of soot drenched, smoke belching armies chewing their way through the battlefield, a vertiable force of the industry of man that held little reverance to the will of Gods and Daemons, who trusted in the strength of their own steel and heat of the flames of the furnace. So the theme: To my mind the Gunnery Schools of the Ironweld are an empire unto themselves, their vast factory complexes as much cities in their own right seperated into the Nobility of the schools of Engineers down to the peasantry of the labourers. The noble houses each vying for status as the lead with an ever expanding array of contraptions and staggering arsenal of weaponry defining which holds the seat of power and becomes the Guild Patriarch, in this way the constant competition drives them ever onwards, never once allowing themselves to simply sit idle whilst others seize power around them. The Weld revere Grimnir not as a god but as the peak of Artisans of his craft, a true genius in the refinement of the very art of war. It is his very skill in ever labour that the Duardin and Men of the Weld have come to revere, seeking ever to improve their craft that they might create a weapon worthy of the Duardian Mastersmiths attentions. The peasants are a dour class, functional clothing long since having been stained a shadowed black by the coal that has become a key pillar of their daily existance, the volatile nature of the machinery often claiming the lives of dozens in the name of progress. Those who are not killed are often maimed, their severed limbs replaced with crude beaten metal replicas strictly functional and given none of the workmanship of the Weld's true arsenal. In times of war these peasantry march alongside the armies of the weld, wielding roughly forged metal bucklers alongside black power or bladed weapons to protect the Guilds arsenals. The Nobility are a breed apart, each marches to war with their own personal armoury from their families artificer forges. From smog belching metal steeds and ornate battle tanks to the lumbering battle armour of the Ironsworn Templars the very act of war is as much a way of advertising their own Guilds wares to would be buyers from both sides of the battle. Those unfortunate enough to be injured are often adorned with complex and beautifully refined enhancements to further embellish the legends of their own noble house. Battleline Concepts:

Weld Arbalesters
Though lacking the status and wealth to carry true weapons of the Weld, the Arbalesters march to war equipped with blackpowder laced bolts and heavy crossbows, able to launch volleys of devastating explosives down the field. Lacking in the accuracy and refinement of the Nobilities weapons these soldiers exist as much to sow panic in an enemies ranks. Weld Riflemen
The simplest of black powder weaponry are common place in the mighty forge cities of the Ironweld, those tasked with guarding the vast complexes carry with them longrifles to pick out targets at range. Though simple in design they are suitably devastating in a volley to deter would be thieves and spies from their charge. Weld Phalanx
Marching to war with heavy plated metal shields and long lances the ranks of the Weld Phalanx form a bulwark of expendable labourers to deter would be chargers against the lines of the Ironweld. A wall of men and metal form a thorny barricade to protect the true wealth of the Ironwelds Armies.

January 11

Thoughts on army background

I've been thinking a bit about the background of this Thunderscorn based army. For whatever reason, from a narrative perspective, I really like Ghur, the realm of beasts. Part of what made me finally take the plunge on Dragon Ogors was the fact that it gave me an excuse to take monsters in may army. I really liked the book Bladestorm, which followed Thostos Bladestorm, a Lord Celestant of the Celestial Vindicators, as he leads a Warrior Chamber into Ghur to take a Chaos fort with a realmgate in order to complete some mission that I frankly forget (at that point it got a bit less interesting for me). It was a pretty typical Realmgate Wars story, but there were a lot of things I really liked. There was a tribe of humans awed by the Stormcast and thought they were angels sent to help them (they didn't). It humanized the Stormcast as well as showed their very non-human aspects. There were some epic battles (of course) with the Stormcast fighting a fort full of Khorne warriors and deamons. It also introduced the Ironjaws as they attack the fort. My Stormcast army are Celestial Vindicators based in Ghur. I put them in the "present" 50-100 years after those events. They are part of the Vanguard chamber left behind in Ghur to guard that area. The new official fluff for the Thunderscorn is great. For those that haven't read it, they use to live in Azyr until kicked out by Sigmar prior to closing the realmgates. They really resent that and have been trying to get back there for a thousand years (or something like that). My idea for the thunderscorn, is that the Shaggoth was whiling away the centuries in the mountains of Ghur, as they are wont to do, contemplating ways to get back to Azyr and take revenge on Sigmar. From those mountains he saw the entrance of the Stormcast into the realm and watched the battles at the fort and the reactivation of the realmgate. He recognized the Stormcast as children of Sigmar and therefore understood that the way to Azyr was now open. From there he started the long process of planning and mustering the other Thunderscorn of the realm as well as other allied beasts that he could bend to his will. This puts him in the same "present" as my Stormcast. His plan is to come down out of the mountain, take the fort and realmgate and make his way to Azyr, fighting anyone in his way (of course) creating his own mini realmgate wars.

January 10

Project Lightbox

What I learnt from trying and failing 31 days of hobby

Hi there! Some of you may have noticed that I attempted a 31 days of hoby challenge in December. You'll also notice my blog has far from 31 entries. The objective of this challenge was to work on hobby for at least 1 hour a day, though as I knew I'd be at my girlfriends at least 1 weekend in December I added the rule of if I miss any days I make up for them with extra time on other days. Now I did not manage this challenge at all, but honestly? I've learnt one hell of a lot from trying it and I'm going to share those lessons. POSITIVES: So lets begin with the positives I gained/learnt from this challenge: 1) It gave me motivation: Now this is a big one, normally I have 0 motivation to paint because honestly I find it very intimidating at times. I'm still not used to batch painting or doing lots of models so as much as I love painting a hero or two any squads are instant turn offs because I'm too used to spending hours per model. This challenge however gave me the motivation to attack my unpainted pile and frankly really helped, which also moves me onto point 2... 2) It broke it down: What I'm saying here is basically that doing only an hour or so at a time was the best thing for it because it taught me that no, I don't have to spend an entire evening doing painting or modelling. The hardest thing for me is fitting hobby around my other time consuming hobbies and the fact I generally don't have weekends available to myself as much anymore as I'm often visiting friends or doing tabletop rpg's with my girlfriend and some of our friends. The fact that I got to experience the idea of just doing small chunks each day actually really helped remove the intimidation factor and let me still do gaming or other stuff in the same day. 3) I learnt how to batch paint: This came from having to try and get 10 kairic acolytes ready within a week for a big game. It also taught me I hate batch painting but that's another story. I also coincidentally learnt... 4) I learnt that I don't have to paint every model like a hero: This mostly came from doing the batch painting but I finally actually got myself to try just doing bare minimum quick and easy tabletop standard. And y'know what? It looks pretty damn good in a game and isn't hugely different from my nicely painted heroes. Go figure! 5) I learnt that I still love doing conversions: But y'know whats even nicer than those conversions? Getting to start painting them and seeing them start coming together. 6) I learnt new techniques: From this challenge I got to try new things and techniques especially when painting my varanguard and archaon, most notably for archaon I got to try my first time doing a flaming sword. And goodness I think it came out spectacularly well! I also learnt that nuln oil over gold armour is probably better than reikland fleshshade for getting those shadows/shading in. Freehanding eyes and face makeup is still hard but good to practice too. 7) Most importantly I learnt that it's okay to fail: I did not manage this challenge and frankly? Who cares! I did this challenge in order to give me the motivation to paint and try and just start getting into a habit of doing some hobby. And honestly? It worked! Even now it's over I finally have that itch to want to get stuff painted, something I never really had before and I'm super stoked about that. Just gotta make sure it lasts But at the end of the day I learnt a lot and had some fun, and that's really the point of challenges isn't it? It's to give yourself a new way to enjoy things. Now there were also some negatives unfortunately:
1) I found it sometimes became a chore: Having the forced 1 hour a day both didn't work and sometimes demotivated me, I would also feel crappy when I missed days which also didn't help. I think it's good to try and set time to do painting each week but you need to allow yourself to be flexible else you'll struggle to fit it all in. 2) I still couldn't stick to a single project: Whilst this was initially done to try and finish my kharadrons I had I ended up quite quickly swapping to painting up my chaos force because frankly I felt like it and kinda enjoyed it a bit more. I've always been bad at sticking to any one project for an extended amount of time and alas that doesn't look to be stopping anytime soon. 3) I got ill!: A big issue with this was being too ill to paint for the first two weeks of December, meant that I missed the early motivation and didn't manage to get it into habit. 4) I couldn't manage it consecutively: As you'll likely see from my blog posts I was unable to do that many days which whilst it's okay to have failed still feels kinda sucky. But I know I cannot paint every day, just need to try and do at least once a week I think. 5) I learnt I still don't know how many days are in each month: You'll notice some blog posts are 31 days and some are 30 days. Apparently I am still a child and can't remember month days Though tbh that's always been a thing for me... All this being said whilst it did highlight a lot of issues I have when it comes to army projects and painting... I am glad that I tried the challenge because as I said earlier I've really gained some motivation from it and some new insight. Frankly I'd like to put the challenge to you guys as well. Can you manage an hour of painting each day for a month? Maybe try it and see what you learn/gain from it. If nothing else it's a great excuse to finish some of those models you really want to see painted

Lightbox

January 9

Some progress, my leader is born

The Shaggoth is the most complicated resin model I've done (lots of metal back in the day and plastic recently). I was out of the game when the finecast change came. I think it mostly went together well. I pinned the horns and am not sure I love how they went together. I would eventually like to make a custom herdstone, I'm thinking an obelisk with a lighting rod on top. To keep things simple for now, I'm just doing a regular herdstone. I'll want that if I ever run regular beasts I suppose. Started working on the first unit of Dragon Ogors. Slow going so far.