JPjr

Games Workshop truly the poster child for "Get Woke, Go Broke Gangbusters and Make Enough Money to Ride Out A Pandemic Like A ****** AF Boss"

I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about the exact biological details behind metallic fish (believe me, I've ****** up many an interesting story idea by spending 6 months thinking about how trivial details in stories, like how a city's sewage system works, and eventually losing interest). But saying that it's a really nice little detail for maybe the local Freeguild, that adds a nice bit of local colour to them. Great work. I can really picture them in, say, scale mail hauberks constructed from these fishy parts. just a nice little thing to drop in for added verisimilitude. From her perch in the chapel's bell tower Vespa had a clear view of the entire market and could see the whole crew carefully making their toward their marks. Just a few more minutes now and everyone should be in place, she thought to herself. A commotion down below caught her attention and she turned to see several of Captain Solat's guards heading towards the auction house. The bright Hysh light reflected off their iridescent scale mail and from up high they looked like a shoal of oneiros fish as they forced their way through the crowded bazaar. Maybe something to think about to flesh it out more. What are the local guards called? What kind of livery do they have? Maybe a fish is their symbol? Likewise what Stormhost is resident here? Are they friendly towards the people of the city or view them as lessers? Are there Agents of Azyr hiding out, trying to unmask cultists and vampires alike? They're always great for protagonists.

ok, apologies for this just being a ****** huge stream of consciousness but I read everyone's ideas and then figured I'd just start typing and see what came out... 15 minutes and some sore fingers here's what I've got. As I said it's just unfiltered nonsense so please judge it on that basis as a starting point perhaps! AGE OF MYTH - THE RISE OF ALTAXOS In the age of myth Altaxos was widely regarded as one of the gems of Chamon, sat upon the jagged shores of the Crystal Coast and built up upon the steep slopes of Mount Altos it was a city of gleaming spires that, in its prime, were said to pierce the clouds themselves. Originally just a small unremembered fishing port the history of Altaxos really begins with the discovery of the Circadian Way, a realmgate upon Mount Altos that allows travel to Ghyran by the light of Hysh and Shyish when Ugly is ascendent. Once the gate had been secured Altaxos began to establish itself as a vital trading stop connecting the realms. As the trade route through the gate became more established the Altaxians began to service and cater to the growing numbers of merchants forced to stay a while before passing on to their next destination. And in just a few years Altaxos grew from little more than a rest stop for traders to a bustling town and finally a powerful city and destination in its own right. Humans, Duardin and Aelves alike called the city home and doubtless many wondrous tales would be told of this city had any of its inhabitants survived its downfall to recount them. For like all the realms Chaos would come to Altaxos and the results would be devastating. For the inhabitants of Altaxos were not just the guardians of a portal connecting 3 of the realms but of an even greater power for in the caverns beneath Mount Altos lay a vast lake of mercury within which slept a giant, shimmering creature from the dawn of time. The Altaxians had learnt to harness the energy from this creatures dreams to power their own magicks and turn the city into a centre of arcane research and learning. AGE OF CHAOS - THE FALL OF ALTAXOS When Chaos did come to Altaxos it wasn't in the form of blood drenched Khornate berserkers or the bloated plague ridden armies of Nurgle but through more insidious means. As the forces of Chaos began to tear their way through the realms, Altaxos stood firm but as its sister cities began to fall its inhabitants began to look for ways to defend themselves and increasingly looked to more and more extreme methods. Finally the day came when the cries went up and the black, rotten sails of the Plague Fleet were spotted on the horizon heading towards the city. As the decaying hulls of those dread mariners approached a cabal of arcane scholars, who had fallen under the sway of a Magister who had secretly pledged himself to Tzeentch, attempted to draw even more power from the slumbering god beast beneath the city. For Tzeentch had long wanted to corrupt this ancient creature and harness its arcane powers that would allow dreams or of course nightmares to become one with reality. If he could wake the beast and have it bound to his cause he could rend a hole in reality straight into the shifting mercurial dimensions of his own realm. Still much as Tzeentch wanted the creature for his own ends he was also as keen not to let it fall into the hands of his great rival Nurgle. As the rotting warriors of the Maggotkin began their assault upon the city the cabal began their ritual but tainted by the twisted magic of the changer of ways their rite was met with disastrous results. As the creature began to wake up, reality and its ancient dreams began to become one and the same and cavorting daemons started to appear out of impossibly aligned streets that twisted into the air. Realising too late they'd been tricked the sorcerers attempted to bind the creature once more but the result was a catastrophic technicolor explosion, that could be seen for hundreds of miles, blowing the mountain into the sky and wiping out everyone, Altaxian and Maggotkin and cavorting Horror alike. What was left of the mountain collapsed the sea flooded in and almost all trace of this once mighty civilisation was lost to time. For hundreds of years what had been a mighty metropolis was left undisturbed, a ruin haunted by shimmering iridescent ghosts, the memories of those who had been caught up in the catastrophic energies unleashed at its end. THE AGE OF SIGMAR - THE RISE OF CALDEROS But then driven off course by strange magical tides, a human trader took shelter in the natural harbour that had formed from the mountains collapse and made landfall on the island in the centre of the bay. There amongst the ruins of this ancient, forgotten city they found the realmgate, still perfectly preserved amongst the devastation. Realising its importance a force was sent to secure the land and so history began again, now around 100 years on from its rediscover the newly named city of Calderos has risen from the ashes of its forgotten forbear and whilst still but a pale reflection of its past has become a bustling, vibrant city again and grown rich on trade. The Circadian Way is now guarded by a Stormkeep manned by a small yet effective detachment from the [INSERT MADE UP STORMHOST] under the command of Lord Ordinator [INSERT NAME] and a standing free guild milita. And once again the area around it is thronged by establishments looking to stare to those travelling through it. Nearby you have a bustling market that sits by the docks and where anything and everything can be bought for the right price, and a small Kharadron sky-port has been built on one of the few remaining peaks on the island, connected to the port and market below by a marvellous Duardin built aether powered funicular. The city is run by a small council led by members representing the merchant guilds, the port masters, members of the ironweld, noble families that have relocated there with warrants of command from Azyr, the Kharadron and a representative of the Lord Ordinator (who himself generally prefers to concentrate on building the city and exploring the secrets of its past). Despite, or because of the different competing factions, Calderos is a loosely run place with lots of money to be made and power acquired. Powerful crime organisations have moved in and control large parts of the market and the inns and entertainments that cater to the city. Whilst most are unaware of the history of Altaxos, brave and foolish adventurers do sometimes venture into the caverns beneath the city where remnants of its glorious past may still be found, amongst other darker things. Others with less noble intent use the caverns beneath the city for clandestine meetings, and even entertainment and underground fight clubs and the like are staged by the criminal gangs. And deep beneath even that in a huge mercury filled chamber a gigantic sleeping creature is slowly coalescing again, the only hint the increasingly vivid dreams that citizens of Calderos are prone to have and the stories of people finding themselves walking up impossible streets that obey no laws of geometry, stories that are usually put down to the consumption of Duardin ale. The city is connected to the mainland by a thin man made bridge and villages and farms have sprung up along the coast to supply and support the growing city. The sides of the Caldera, with their rich magically infused soil, are in particular are well suited to growing crops and vast vineyards occupy much of the land producing several notable vintages that are sought after throughout the realms. Along the coast are scattered fishing villages that in essence owe their loyalty to the city and in turn look it for defence, occasionally strange events befall these minor outposts and they fall prey to the predations of a small, secretive Idoneth enclave just off the coast. The rise of the city has also attracted other forces, once again Tzeentch has cast his eyes on the city. Amongst the rundown shanties and the poor a cult dedicated to the Changer of Ways has begun to take root, promising freedom from oppression, meanwhile at least one notable member of the council is secretly a Magister, who driven by dreams is looking to find & bind the creature beneath the city. With its realm gate leading to Shyish the forces of Nagash have also looked to infiltrate the city. There's a small temple dedicated to one of the more socially acceptable forms of Nagash, where those travelling to & from Shyish will often stop at, but they are not the real threat rather one of the Azyrite nobles on the council is in thrall to a vampire sent by Neferata, and who has established a small but growing nest within the city. Beyond the city there are still more threats aplenty, whether they be raiding parties of marauders or the occasional Orruk warband that smashes through. But generally these haven't been existential threats, till now at any rate. Attack from the sea is always a threat but an ingenious Ironweld built chain stretches across the entrance to the bay protecting it from direct naval assault and again it has been many years since the black flags of the Plague Fleets have been spotted in these waters... NB. as I said this is all just a random stream of consciousness so dont feel like it's gospel or has to be THE WAY, just an idea. I also realised when I sketched a really ****** map that whilst in my head the island was based on Santorini it's actually very similar to the old Ulthuan from the Old world... 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

hey y'all. really sorry real life got in the way last week, I've kept meaning to come back to this thread and try and join the dots and get it moving but well I've kinda buried myself in several bottles of rum instead. BUT new week and all that, just looking through and there's some really fun stuff going already. So please keep going! I'm going to properly look through what everyones come up with in a bit and then throw some of my ideas in. thanks!

Support a good cause (the NHS) and own a completely original portrait of yourself by John Blanche! Deep pockets required though... Also I’ll admit I’m actually a bit gutted because I originally thought the art being auctioned was the kitten, if he painted a portrait of me it’d just look like any of his other disgusting mutants... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Personalised-John-Blanche-Warhammer-40k-style-portrait-100-proceeds-to-the-NHS-/174259718281

Ok let’s do this! Would it be worth taking this to email or whatsapp or something so we can hash it out without endless back and forth here? Might be quicker too if people want to message me their preference I can set up a group chat or email and we can nail down the parameters

Bit of a random one but when the whole lockdown thing started I wanted to support some smaller companies, taken a few weeks but the first things I ordered just turned up, so that’s a giant capybara, some beavers, a rabbit riding a flying bomb and some pistol and cup of tea wielding WW2 women from Bad Squiddoo Games. the capybara’s in resin but the others are all metal, will be the first metal minis I’ve painted for about 30 years. No idea what I’m going to do with them but I can’t wait to get them done, already trying to think of some Warcry rules for the animals...

hey... ok well I thought this thread would sink like a stone but it's just about bumbling along like an Ironclad reduced to 1W. Personally I can see the value in both situations, going the NEON route (assuming those involved would actually want us to do this, @Nacnudllah you're actually part of it right?) would mean we potentially have a ready made environment to start playing with, can get going quicker and maybe get people interested who are clearly into modelling, narrative games etc which could lead to some fun stuff, then again doing it via polls here does mean we have our own sandpit to play in and potential buy-in from our otherwise seemingly uninterested community here, which would be nice. So, why don't we open it up and see what people here think. Unless I'm really mistaken it doesn't look like you can add a poll into a post after it's been created (which would also make this a bit difficult), so let's just say people reading this reply NEON if we should see if they fancy having us do something with them and, hmmmm, HOMEBREW if we try and create a city and it's surrounding lands on here from scratch. We'll tally up the votes on Sunday night and then can make a start next week. One point of order it doesn't matter if you don't want to write something yourself, I'd still like everyone (who wants, of course) to be involved either making this decision or helping create the setting, as hopefully you'll be the ones reading and, even more hopefully, being entertained by the stories that might come out of this... That make sense? NEON or HOMEBREW the choice... is yours! or not, of course, totally apathy and disinterest in this is also a fairly probable reaction.

It's clearly a Mega-Gargant beer bottle opener.

hey people... so for those unaware Black Library author Thomas Parrott started a fun little thing over on Twitter, he created a 40K Imperial Sector (the Nemeyan Sector) and then via a series of polls (he loves his polls) the community worked out what was in it, from Xenos threats to Forge Worlds and the like. He then opened it up to people to send in pitches for short stories based on the info available, and with a few other writers they've been going through those pitches and treating it like it's a proper anthology, providing feedback to people whose pitches have been accepted, getting them to write proper treatments etc etc (which is the point we're at now). Anyway it's been an interesting process and also much like Ben's painting challenge here, really helped get me out of a bit of a fug and get creative again during lockdown. Having struggled to write anything for ages I breezed through over 2000 words this morning (I mean I'm not saying they're good words but still...) so basically being selfish I'd quite like to try and keep that momentum going. So who fancies doing something similar'sih but AoS related? Now obviously we don't (right now) have any BL authors to steer this (though if you're lurking and fancy lending a hand say hi!) and keep it more professional but even if it was just a bit (well, a lot) looser, it could still be fun. Base it in/around a city of our own creation in one of the realms, choose who the main factions in the city are, who the main threats are etc etc and then get writing. So anyone fancy it? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Yeah I mean you have to assume Tyrion’s model is going to be roughly on a par with the Teclis one or as night turns to day the salt will flow. so with that in mind you have to think it’s pretty, pretty, pretty unlikely they’d bang out 2 £80+ models from one range at the same time. GW ain’t sitting on a mountain of cash because they’re dumb. then again who knows! not me that's for sure, I think everything's going to be a bit up in the air for the next 12 months anyway, things may land in strange ways.

@Kirjava13 it sounds trite but really don't beat yourself up about it. we're all going through something fairly unprecedented right now and whilst there are people who are obviously being extra ****** over by this, even if you're riding this whole thing out in relative peace and comfort and you're not dealing with ill family or money issues (and you may well be) just the uncertainty and unease will effect people in myriad ways. I think at the start of this there was (and I'd say still is) this feeling amongst some people of 'oh wow, I've suddenly got all this free time, I'm going to write the novel I always said I would! paint all the models I've owned for years! come up with an equation that squares the fundamental physical properties of the universe!' etc etc. and whilst some people will do some of the above and thrive, a lot of us (especially people like myself and I'm guessing possibly yourself who deal with depression day in and day out) just end up using that as a stick to beat themselves up with. very quickly I started getting down on myself, why haven't I learnt a new language? why haven't I painted those models? why haven't I done x, y and z? I really am a terrible person etc etc. it's all made worse because we're all over social media and we see those people who are using this time to paint models, write books etc, but a lot of them were doing it anyway and also they're presenting a particular image of themselves that they want, we don't see that they spent 5 hours that day trying to get their kids to just shut up for five seconds, or they haven't changed clothes for a week or whatever. I genuinely had hoped to paint loads of models, I've been trying to get a fanzine off the ground, write some RPGs, finish a couple of short stories and over the past couple of weeks I've felt this dread gnawing away at a corner of me that lockdown will end, when I re-emerge blinking into the daylight everyone will have achieved some kind of apotheosis and raised themselves up to new heights and I'll be there with nothing to show for it, except more recriminations and reasons to have a go at myself. but, that is years of ingrained mental conditioning on my part and I just have to recognise that behaviour for what it is and then I can side-step it. I've managed one model this whole time (though that's 1 more than I had in the 4 months previous to that so actually nice work John!) but much as it can be a relaxing past time it also can be weirdly stressful, acknowledge that, acknowledge that there's a perfectly good reason you may not have the mental energy to paint right now. one person's escape can be another's chore. but what is good is there are loads of other ways to engage with this hobby, catch up on some reading, just mess around with some solo games, or even just put it to. one side for a moment. if it's not sparking joy right now maybe it isn't the right time. I still want to achieve lots, that's just how my brain works, but I can also lean into those things that I know, for me, are tried and tested to keep my mental health, well healthy. so exercise, I've knocked 4 ****** minutes off my 10km the past 6 weeks (42:27 boom! not bad for an old man), really got my daily yoga practice back on track, taking time to cook lots of things that I've always wanted, just stuff to get me back on an even keel. now I feel I've got through an initial slump and I'm back writing, some Black Library authors have organised a Fanthology over on Twitter and I've submitted a few pitches for that. I'm also about to do a massive clear our and tidy up of my study/hobby space, once that's done I'll find some easy models to paint and get a start on them. it's just like a muscle if you haven't used it for a while you need to warm it up, start gently and then find the groove. but maybe it will be something completely different. maybe you just catch up on some old films or books, or you leisurely get your accounts together rather than rush it later in the year, don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself right now, find what works for you and do that, maybe it's something completely random and different. anyway I'm certainly not a therapist, it would save me a hell of a lot of money visiting them if I was, so obviously take all this with a pinch but I think really it's about reframing things, if your unpainted or whatever models are actually adding to your issues then box them up, put them away for now and come back to them when you're ready rather than trying to face the issue and you end up hating the hobby. Sorry I've quacked on at length (which I suspect tells me the intended audience for this post is probably as much myself as you) but honestly don't beat yourself up, we're living in crazy times. we think these things like hobbies are there to help us they must always be great but when they don't work for you, you really dont need to cling on to them. DON'T TURN SCAFFOLDS INTO BARS.

I did just think how to get more bang for your mega-gargant buck. build 1 as normal, simple enough. then as they can be allied in to any army, you take, say the arms and head of the fishy one with the boat on his head and tentacles etc and you make his base look like the ocean and you have him surfacing out of the water with his head rising out the waves and an arm poking up through the surf. there’s your Idoneth allied Gargant. then pull the same trick with the 3rd head appearing out of a lava or swamp or whatever base and you have a ready made Nurgle, Fyreslayer, delete as appropriate, bonus Gargant. 3 mega-gargants for the price of one...

oh yeah those ones I was sure of, but I thought I saw the kind of banged together gut plate thing on one of them when the model span in the video. I'm almost certain it is there, or available as an alternative piece for him, as that model is covered in very similar items but I just don't have a definite fix on it. The other one was the bit on the end of the makeshift flail that I thought was the kind of pillar rumour we saw but i discounted it as it looked too short. But now I've had another look, it 100% is, it's just the angle on them model pic has foreshortened it whilst conversely the way the rumour engine pic was cropped gave me the impression it was longer.

Also not sure if anyone's pointed this out yet but as well as the Rumour Engine reveals on the Necron, Daddy Spindle Drone and the DoK Warcry war band. we also got these... there's also 2 others I think I've got but not 100% sure...

@BrownDog funnily enough I was thinking just that. Not sure they would but these new Khainites definitely have a different feel & look to the existing DoK range, though I can see how they hang together as an army. a kind of snakes to wytches to these ones, so it can still be coherent. but then we are also starting to occupy the space that we might expect a full Shadow Aelf army to consist of, especially if this is a prelude as such to more models for DoK in this rich bloody vein. not sure they would but I could see them expanding the range and sharing a kind of middle ground Few units of these new Shdow Aelf types, then you go one way with a DoK general and you get snakes, go the other with Malerion or one of his underlings and you get more shadow creatures and draconic type things. as I said probably unlikely but it would mean you don’t have to do such a huge range of new models down the line and it staves off a bit of Aelf bloat we’ll have if they do add another full faction. Would also work in the way with Lumineth it looks like you’ll have Tyronic & Teclian forces, eventually, within the same range.

worth remembering that technically, well literally in fact, they have already done boxed Warcry warbands for Nighthaunt, Stormcast and Gloomspite, just with pre-existing models so easy to not really think of... so at least for the near future those are probably considered done (shame as I'd like more new GG and Nighthaunt models but not like I don't have enough already...).

Ok hear me out... Mega-Gargant using 2 Snotling pump-wagons as roller skates. Boom! the game is changed...

SNOTLINGS WITH A PUMP WAGON i mean yeah the other stuff’s cool and all but if I see anyone griping about today’s reveal they’re getting a paddlin’. edit: also great It looks like they’re going to be using Warcry to intro new models to ranges. whilst Underworlds was great for that, especially as the models were always really great and characterful, 3-5 1W model units are always going to be a hard sell in the big game but these should be easier to pump up to more survivable number counts but still have lots of character to the models. Also whilst a shame to say goodbye to Blackstone Fortress, this does open up a return to an AoS Quest Game, which would be great anyway but also another amazing chance to dump loads of really interesting unique models into the world. Going to have to treat myself to a post lockdown mega gargant too. What we thinking £100?

You could have a room occupied by just a really disgusting, smelly troll with bits of half-eaten yet half-alive food writhing and wriggling in its moss beard, and when she tries to edge past it it starts asking her riddles like, "so where's your boyfriend?" & "if you're really into Warhammer why don't you tell me all about Malal then?" and then mocks her for being Stormcast who are "clearly trash for noobs". The trick is though all she has to do is look it in the eye and talk back to it and it will slink back utterly defeated into its troll hole to write nasty things on its cave wall about her.

‘ere we go...

well... today has been a partial success, almost finished Thedra from the Godsworn Hunt, pretty pretty pretty rubbish paint job but it's been a while so just getting some paint down is a win. unfortunately I just managed to knock over an entire pot of Contrast Wyldwood 😬. I'm not sure what's more troubling losing most of that or subsequently having to use half a toilet roll to mop it all up, I mean not really sure which will be the harder to replace at this point...

****** hell, for the first time ever in the miserable history of my posting on this forum I actually want some officious jobsworth to pipe up with the usual 'ERr PeOPLe YoU KnOw THiS is ThE RUmoUR THreaD' post

Big Soulbound production update with a rough contents guide... sounds like we’re edging closer & closer To at least the PDF, going by WFRP we’ll still have a bit of a wait for physical copies still better than nothing... https://www.cubicle7games.com/aos-soulbound-production-update/

Right, apologies for yesterday’s whiney moment, I have checked myself before I wrecked myself and for the moment, at least, have got myself back on an even keel. Decided to start things off with some long overdue and units, so an Ad Mech Kill Team & the Godsworn Hunt just to, hopefully, get myself into the groove. then if that gets too fiddly I’ve also primed a load of random stuff like sone Azyrite ruins, objective markers, and endless spells for when I need to mix things up and just slap some paint down. LET’S DO THIS!