CoffeeGrunt

After taking a long break from AoS, I'm starting to get back into it. GHB17 was a bit disappointing in that very little has changed other than my Tomb Kings counts-as units being a bit useless now, but hey-ho. Got Mannfred painted up at last, still gotta sort out his missing cape skulls that seem to have gone walkabouts during storage. Was a nice change of pace from all the 40K I've been painting lately:

Finished the Mortarch model I got a little while ago. Spent some time reposing it and magnetising the saddle so I could have my choice of Mortarchs riding it. Started off with Neferata as she's my personal favourite in both fluff and gameplay: Sadly my new phone's camera continues to be awful.

Bonne chance, mon ami!

I'm putting together a Death Mortals list because I like the idea of it thematically. Draws a lot from Aztec styling and religion, they worship Nagash as a God and see death as a transcendent release from these frail mortal bodies. On the table they tend to involve a lot of transformation. There are ghostly Ancestors and mortal Adherents, one can possess the other to empower them at the right time with the skill and fury of ancient warriors, and as the latter dies they can be reborn as Ancestors. You have Fleshknitters who use Death magic to slay a dozen of their fellows and amalgamate their corpses into Morghasts, which serve as mini-heroes and walking avatars of the Death God. There are Empraisers who exhort the Ancestors to come to the aid of the Mortals, summoning them to the field or empowering them to fight harder in battle. It's very fun writing all this stuff up, actually. I'm channeling a lot of 40K Eldar in how they're empowered by the souls of their enemies and the fluff of how the seers coax the dead into fighting for them, (there's a chance the Ancestors lash out at the Empraiser for their insolence.) Also going to have a shrine carried by Adherents and ghosts with a priest riding it, and perhaps some sort of bone mammoth general because what faction is complete without a big centrepiece toy?

I haven't made any Warscroll Battalions, but I'm up to about30 custom Warscrolls because my group were chewing through normal units, so everything they face is a roided-up version of the AoS model. Gives me scope for unique enemies as well, though.

Decided to repaint my Spirit Hosts and add a bit of green to vary up the scheme and make them a bit more visually-interesting. (You can see the old paint job here.) Also did my Banshees, but my new phone camera really does not want to take close-ups of miniatures so every pic of them came out blurry. Seems that Xperia phones have pretty bad cameras in them sadly, at least compared to my old Nokia. Thinking I'll borrow one of the whale-watcher cameras from work and use that for some better close ups:

Thanks guys, quite pleased with them and I've got five more on the build who will join them sometime soon. I like to imagine that it's the mount with the nasty Blood Knight attacks and the rider with the weaker Mount attacks, because it feels like it suits them more.

The Wight strode across the ruin of the battlefield, his enemy spent while his army only grew. Their defense had been firm and their warriors bellicose, but in the end all fell before him, and then marched beside him. A cacophony of screams disturbed the stillness as the shambling undead hordes around them burst into homesteads and begin to sate their undying hunger on the peasants within. Pity and mercy were lost to the Wight, all that remained was the shadow of the ambition that had cost him his life, a puppet on unseen strings of his own devising, marching to take land that he never intended to hold. A beast twitched before him, a spear buried in its neck. Even as it gargled through the wound, it thrashed and raged at the Wight, eager to strike him down with powerful jaws and fierce claws. His sword found its eyehole, ending its pain in a swift, sharp motion, but within him a shadow of respect stirred. The beast possessed powerful sinew and muscle beneath tough hide, and though some was laid bare to the frigid winds, much was intact. It would be a pitiful waste to see such a creature abandoned to rot, the Wight allowed only the weak to perish, those who were useless to him even when stripped to their bones. A skeletal hand grasped the creature's head in an almost comforting fashion, holding the jaw delicately. With a thought, the creature twitched into life, others around it thrashing as if in their death throes once more. They steadily rose to their feet, obedient and docile, yet with an edge of hunger to them. Their first feast was their former riders, all companionship lost amidst a neverending urge to feed. The Wight mounted is chosen steed, and others followed his example. The creature beneath him stirred and was obedient once more, stripping the flesh from the elf beneath him with vicious strikes. Such brutal savagery would be useful, yes. He guided it with a thought as he guided all his cohort, and once more the shambling, prowling forces of the dead marched to their next conquest. From the homesteads stumbled new, fresh corpses stripped of flesh, and yet the hunger of the shambling hordes would never be sated...

I've been having a tonne of fun with this system for a narrative campaign I'm running, and it's made a great foundation for me to build upon with more nuanced levelling systems, classes etc. I'm basically running a Hero-focused narrative about a group of bounty hunters in a setting I've drawn up. Just wanted to thank the OP for putting this great system together!

Idea I've had for my Blood Knights after reading up on the fluff for Blood Dragons, who sound pretty boss. So far I've got the mounts for the first five done, zombie Drakespawn/Cold Ones, who will then have skeletal riders with lances riding them. Should stand apart from my Black Knights enough that people won't mix them up on the table, and gives me something a bit more personalised: Running them in a themed list this weekend of Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon and Blood Knights on these reptiles. My green stuff skills for making the Drakes look dead aren't great, and it's really hard to make reptiles look pale and dead as well!

Rather than full replenishment, perhaps D6 models. Full replenishment could be a bit silly if you lost 9 models and then regenned them back up to full strength. It also fits better for units larger than ten.

Makes the Celestant Prime a bit rubbish if holding him back risks losing you the game.

1) Fair 2) Bit silly, what about Saves? Some units get no Saves, and what use is Rend if it does nothing to 6+? 3) I really dislike this in 40K and I dislike it here. Some armies thematically fit with coming on from "reserves" as it were 4) Doesn't stop them popping up on top of the objectives anyway 5) They do, but a certain Hero nudges it down to 3", so your real point is, "remove this Hero's special ability," 6) I agree with this one, though I feel shooting in combat needs rethinking in general

Yeah I couldn't remember if there's a specific technical term for them, nor can I remember their exact function. It was a while ago I studied electrical installation, haha, now it's all about the electronics.

A tidbit I noticed while reading White Dwarf. In the Ask Grombrindal section, he says, "whatever floats your skyship." Subtle hint from GW or am I reading too much into it?

Looks more like those stacks of ceramic discs you see on power substations whose name eludes me right now: Hopefully it's Duardin as it looks suitably steampunky, but could be something else like Ad Mech.

Looking at the new Sigmarine Chocobos and all I can think of is this song. Also gunna be stealing a load of those large birds to proxy as Fell Bats. Paint 'em like crows.

Ten more skeletons painted, only ten more to go!

Mostly finished the Darklands mini I got which will eventually be mounted on a Mortis Engine to be my Settra, but for now I've magnetised him so he can also be a particularly imposing Wight King when I feel like it. Really loving these minis, thinking I'll get a couple of the Dreaguth as Cairn Wraiths after this.

I think they're building up to Slaanesh's return as a big event in the storyline, and it'll be interesting to see how they reimagine them. I'm also quite liking the new Eldar miniatures. It manages to take cues from every subfaction of them without feeling like a patchwork, and still stands as its own style.

The Dwarves have what looks like shells in their cannons, but again that pistol is too similar to a bolt pistol to fit the AoS aesthetic. All the AoS guns are vaguely-Renaissance at best, still black powder with flintlocks. Even Thunderers don't seem to be using bullets, and definitely don't have a repeating action that would warrant a belt of rounds.

Thanks, and yeah I agree, a few here-and-there in your force would look great! I use Warplock Bronze as a base, a heavy dark brown wash, then just a highlight with Vallejo Bronze, then Vallejo Solver. You could likely get away with Retributor Armour and Stormhost Silver, though.

Yeah, that's some sort of stub/bolt pistol. Nothing in AoS has developed to the point of bullets, but would have them hanging in a link from the magazine port like that. It's very reminiscent of Chaos Space Marine 40K bolters in that regard, but more archaic. May be that we're seeing a Wrath of Magnus style campaign book for another Chaos God, with updated models.