Beastmaster

Mordheim Dungeon test fight 😄

Hrothgorn is a bit small (more like a glutton) and he stands on a 40mm base. But if you put him on 50mm, he should work nice as a hunter. Same for the saber, base is a bit small, otherwise he is fine.

It’s insane. Last week I played with the thought of building myself some Carcharodon Space Marines. Several hours of reading later I buried the idea. Wouldn’t even know where to begin, with all the rules, outfitting and armament options (what in Emperors name is a Primaris??). Then I realized how beginner-friendly AoS really is. 😄

I think for most of us it’s not so easy and clear-cut. For the Lumineth, I think a lot of disappointment stems from exactly the fact that people very much liked the riders and spearmen. Which I still find great models in every respect. That makes it so much worse that it ended with cows. I think most of us miniature fans see and recognize the quality and possibilities that GWs technology offers for making truly stunning models. People are just sad if that potential is not used for something they like.

Same here. I love to build, but am afraid of painting. 😬

A heavy fog settles in. Drifts of snow slide by. From the white swirling, you can hear a deep, humming sound, almost too deep for human ears to grasp. The sound forms into an ancient melody. You see gargantuan icy blue forms moving in the fog. That’s when you know the Peakspike Alfrostun has come for you. The Peakspike tribe split off from the Winterbite Mawtribe and formed their own tribe just a few years ago when a hunting party met a giant. The small group, led by the hunter Müdsch and the Huskard named Ozka, got lost in a snowstorm during one of their wanderings. Tired, half-frozen and having no idea where they were, they hunkered down in what seemed to be an endless plain, with no possibility to shield themselves from the howling winds. Then, Ozka, intently listening to the voices of the wind, heard a deep voice in the distance. The hunting party, gathering their last strength, started wandering in the direction from which the voice came. As they came closer, they could see mountains jutting out of the swirling snow. The voice sang in some ancient language that only Ozka had even the slightest glimpse of. It came from a big cave entrance in the side of a mountain, which helped making it even louder, echoing through the mountain valleys and far over the plain. When they entered the cave, they saw an ancient giant, who stopped singing and spoke to them. He spoke in a wild mixture of dead and modern languages, and both Müdsch, who was well traveled, and Ozka, who was knowledgeable (for an ogor) in ancient lore, made out enough of his incoherent speech to realize that the giant must have wandered through many different countries for many centuries. They stayed that night in the cave, listening to the deep roaring voice of the giant, while Ozka interpreted his „prophecies“ as best he could. The next day, the giant, who was soon called „Voice of Winter“, led them through the mountains. Since that night, they followed the lead of the Voice, whose knowledge of countries and cultures led them to very lucrative raids and astonishing victories, which in turn let the numbers of the followers swell. To remember the day when they first saw the mountain peaks, thanks to their leading voice, they called themselves the Peakspike Alfrostun. So when you see gargantuan icy blue forms moving in the fog, you know the Peakspike Alfrostun has come for you.

Who knows with what animal they’ll be associated. Goose, maybe? 😳

It’s a discussion that is going on in the whole fantasy community in the last years. I think it came with the clashing of the massively stylized manga weapon/armor style with the HEMA trend of looking at actual history for design ideas. I understand both sides and find it always refreshing and interesting to see those discussions. Difficult for a designer to please everyone, though. The Lumineth are interesting in that regard since they seem to be split between those two camps. Maybe it’s the right time to split between AoS and Oldworld. Can’t please them both.

Yeah, and here we discuss whether and why we like it or not. And the sum of likes makes the sales numbers. So what’s the problem? 😊

I can fully see the bull, aurochs etc as a symbol for raw power and mass, steadfastness and resolve. Not exactly the traits that I associate with elves. And yes, they were stylized to make them more elegant looking. Which actually empathizes the initial mismatch between the associative framework that I feel, and that the designers seem to have felt too, regarding that they tried to mitigate it. Why, I might ask myself, make cows more catlike when they could have chosen a more catlike animal as a design basis in the first place? But in the end of the day, tastes differ. 😊

I still don’t get the cows. I mean, dragons and phoenixes and white lions are elegant and magical beasts, quite fitting to be associated with an elven army. But cows? Also, with Hashut and Slaanesh and Bullgors, isn’t there already enough cow imagery in AoS?

Spray primed a lot of grey plastic over the weekend (just in time, now it’s getting too cold again 😄). Ready to paint.

4th edition wasn’t much different from 2nd as far as I could see. All the material for 2nd should work for 4th also. So does the old Enemy Within campaign (being 1st). As gamemaster I take every liberty to make it my own vision of the world anyway. Everything else is just inspiration to plunder at will. 😄

Seems there’s still a lot of small online stores to order from. At least here in Germany.

Also let’s not forget that ice witches, sworn to the ice queen to protect the land, were an established fact in Kislev. Seems a logical step to recruit some into an elite force in times of danger.

Just as we noticed that AoS armies seem to try to make more “grounded” or more “high fantasy” armies/fluff/builds possible lately, this unit seems to suggest that they try a similar path for oldworld. To me it’s a strong hint that they will try to make most units playable in both games. A trend that we also see in AoS & specialist games. It adds value/usefulness to a model if you can use it in several different games. I think that’s the overarching pattern.

Plus, human soldiers could all be refitted into AoS Cities. A bit like the 40k Imperium with Vostroyans, Catachans etc.

On the other hand, there are already a lot of those smaller games. Even though, to be honest, so far none that really ticks my Mordheim/oldschool itch. But then again, I’m a dinosaur. 😄

I could imagine people waiting for an army to get updated before even starting to buy into it. I wouldn’t be interested to even start collecting an army with a very limited/outdated miniature palette.

At least we will have lots of painting time on our hands in the next weeks

Not everyone will like the same army. That’s good, helps diversity. And fun killing models you hate. 😁

You’re right. Every edition of WFRP had lots of addons later, which hugely expanded the possibilities. Add in the fan made material (easy to do with an RPG with a fixed group and no „matched play“) and there was literally nothing you couldn’t play. If the AoS-RPG is even remotely successful, I’m sure this will happen here also. ☺️

My association went more in the direction of Korean medieval helmets. Now I wonder what associations people would have if the old high elf models came out in this day and age 😄😄

Nice new take on the old coneheads 😃👍

Now that I think of it: Even the ossiarchs, while they do some crazy stuff with bones, are at their core a very traditionally structured infantry/cavalry/artillery army. Actually far more grounded than, say, an army wholly consisting of floating ghosts.