Thomas Lyons

I figured I would show off some of @Holy Hammer Hern's beautiful tables from Holy Havok. Check out these beauties! Table 1: Aelf, Shrine of the Phoenix I didn't have the opportunity to play on this board but it is my understanding that wizards who occupied the tower could measure from either of the beacons to determine range to their target. Table 2: Aelf, Temple of Khaine This was another table I didn't have the opportunity to play on. The two temples/shrines on this board each had their own effects but I don't know the details for sure. Table 3: Human, the Collegiate Arcane We played our game 4 on this board and it was quite the board. The central terrain piece was the terrain objective which each team needed more models around to claim. Its central position along with its proximity to the starting line made our round truly dependent on who brought more models to hug this terrain feature's base. Luckily we had numbers in our favor and the length of the double tower made for some excellent choke points towards the far ends. The fences also offered a surprising bulwark that stopped a Juggy lord from charging in on the Glottkin. I was surprised at how tactical some of these simple terrain features factored in to play. It was great! Here is the shot of our Game 4 before we obliterated their back line: Table 4: Ogors, the Challenge Stone We played game 5 on this table and, despite the board favoring our destruction opponents, it was quite fun. The big center stone granted battleshock immunity (?) to the forces of Destruction, which was painful again Odors, but it also granted +1 to hit and +1 to wound to all units within 6", something my 5 Blight Kings were quite thankful for (and the 36 wounds those five models generated from exploding 5+ attacks... ). The simple symmetry of the board was broken up for our match with a 8" radius prison that held one of each of our units but that out units couldn't travel through. The tent with Ogors amongst the signal fires was our terrain objective which had some interesting tactical movement for the larger models in the area (since you couldn't stand on or move the many impassable elements in this area. Our game 5, right before their Irongut deathstar did more wounds to my models than had been suffered in the entire tourney up until that point... Table 5: Orruks and Grotts, the Nest of the Arachnarok We actually didn't get to play this board during the event, but we played against @Hooves of Doom and his lovely wife's Nagash, all the Mortarchs, and 2 Mournghoul force. It was quite the game for sure! The table itself had a pretty scary mechanic where, during every movement phase, the arachnarok would spit at all units within 3d6 inches of his terrain piece. On a 4+, those units took 1d3 mortal wounds. Couple this with all the shrooms and their forests were either befuddling Mystic terrain or projected a 6" bubble of that effect, it shouldn't be surprising that it slowed down the game quite a bit (Arachnarok spitting at 3-8 units twice per round and a bunch of befuddlement), but we had all the time in the world for the practice game, so it was no bother for us. The terrain objective on this board was the big Orkky shrine in the back. It was a great game all in all. Here is a shot of the pre-tourney warmup game with @Hooves of Doom: Table 6: Nurgle, the Wyrmid Reaches We didn't have a chance to play on this table which made my Nurgle heart quite sad. It is my understanding the the wyrms in the center were the terrain objective (thus requiring teams to be close) but they did 1d3 unpreventable mortal wounds to nearby units. The copious streams were deadly terrain as well, which would have likely caused folks to think twice about runs and charges on this board. Table 7: Seraphon, the Shrine of Sotek This table was where we had our game 1 and it was quite the challenge for our force which was comprised of many large monsters. Despite the obvious mobility concerns, we had a lot of fun navigating our huge chaos host through this dense jungle. The small forest in the foreground with a triceratops skeleton was the impassable terrain objective and it made it quite difficult to move past this small space towards the enemy's starter zone (which was itself the main objective of the scenario). The Shrine of Sotek had a gambling mechanic that on a 1-5 punished you for attempting to activate it but on a 6 actually healed wounds or even brought back dead models from your force. I heard a great uproar on the first day from this table as a dead Lord Kroak called upon Sotek and was restored back into play, much to the chagrin of his enemies. This board was one of the more tactically challenging forces given the model footprint of our force, but it was still a fun challenge to face. Here is a shot from game 1 with @Fenske and his partner: Table 8: Shyish, the Sands of Time This delightful Tomb Kings throwback table was where we had our second match. The ruins in the foreground were the terrain objective and the huge animated sand pit had a chance of teleporting units to any board edge, which would have been helpful against many forces would deployed without fully understanding what it was. This was doubly true for our match, where one of the main objectives was to get warpstone shards off the other side of the table. Unfortunately for our opponents, the open deployment zone worked perfectly for a huge 30 strong chaos warrior conga line to hold the line against any such chicanery and our own Verminlord Deceiver (and his skitter leap) made short work of this objective. Here is a shot of our game on this fantastic TK board: Table 9: Skaven, the Rats in Hats This board was another one we didn't have the opportunity to play on. I believe the sinking bellower was the objective and the mucky swamps were deadly terrain that might have been doing mortal wounds to those in it as well. It's a real shame we didn't get to play on this board given how beautiful it is. Maybe next time! Table 10: Tzeentch, the Twisting Realm Ironically, this was the board of our ultimate match up, which occurred in game 3, where were faced off against an army that was almost a mirror of our own force and whose generals we actually tied for Best Overall with (although they took home the title after three different tiers of considerations had to be made between our two forces to break the tie). That said, even though we only scored 1-1 against each other (with a maximum total of 4 points), it was a legendary game where our Archaon of the Faceless of Tzeentch squared off against and slew his dark mirror in Tzeentch's own realm. The high was short lived as their Skarbrand came barreling in, killing our Archaon, our Warlord, and another hero has he rushed his way through. The blue pillars had a chance to wound units nearby while the pink ones healed units. The floating blackhole in the distance did mortal wounds to those traveling underneath it, as did the foregrounded eye of Tzeentch (3" radius from the terrain), which itself was the terrain objective. We'll be talking about Holy Havok on Warhammer Weekly tomorrow. You can check it out live at my cohost @Vincent Venturella's Youtube channel tomorrow at 9:00 PM EST, or you can look for the link to the show as an update to the blog as well. I'm hoping to do some battle reports of these games in the coming weeks. Hope you got a glimpse of all the Havok-y goodness from these images. Happy gaming!

Holy Havok is over and what an event it was! Vince and I were in competition for three of the five top awards (Best Overall, Best Appearance, and Best Warlord). Ironically enough, we ended up placing second in all three categories. We were technically tied for Best Overall and they had to go down three tiers of comparisons (Match points, Sportsmanship, and then to play schedule) to decide on who took home the hardware. Considering Vince and I have never played these forces together (and my second time playing my Nurgle force was the night before the tourney...go go math hammer!) or even as partners before, and this is the first Warhammer tourney I've been to, I feel pretty good about tying for Best Overall on our first time out. Official results are here. The competition was fantastic, the tables were amazing, and the armies were inspiring. I'll try to post some pictures of the tables and event winners in the coming days, but for now, here are the armies that came out to play. Enjoy!

It absolutely was! The objective was for the enemy to try to get warpstone tokens off the other side of the board. Our Chaos Warriors held the line :-)

Holy Havok is here! Gaming is in full swing here at the Holy Havok teams event and things are crazy! Despite finishing our game early, it seems most games aren't getting past turn two in their allotted 3 hours. Even though there are only a couple turns in most cases, the games are both engaging, complex and quite enjoyable. Each scenario has 4 objectives so setup and strategy are the most important things for achieving victory (more than just killing power for sure). Our team, The End Times, landed a 2-2 tie in the first game and a quick 4-0 victory in the second. I'll update this evening after the third game with some pictures, although you can look for some more complete battle reports on YouTube in the coming weeks. In the mean time, you can follow the events of the event at #holyhavok and Beasts of War are also live blogging the event, with interviews of the various teams. The image below is a shot of our forces from the Beasts of War blog. Their coverage is both photo and video rich so I'd encourage you to check it out here. Wish us luck!

I have a small treat to share with you all today! As many of you likely know, Vince and I are headed off today for Holy Havok this weekend and we're super stoked. For those that don't know about Holy Havok, it is a new team narrative event/tournament in the Chicago area which is put on by the Holy Wars club and, much like its predecessor Holy Wars GT, it is renowned for its fantastic tables. This event was organized prior to the General Handbook's release so it has some pretty interesting force composition rules. Teams are instructed to bring 24 Warscrolls of forces from a single grand alliance (so both Archaon and 10 Plaguebearers would count as a single Warscroll choice for example) but it is well known that the five scenarios are going to be based around objectives that require a high model count. So while Archaon is clearly not equal in power level to 10 plaguebearers, teams need to build their list in such a way as to have both high model counts and enough killing power to neutralize enemy forces (all while not knowing the scenarios). Vince and I devoted a Warhammer weekly episode to the event where we had the head of the Holy Wars Council Steve Herner on so I'd encourage you to check it out here. You can also read more about these narrative events at their website. If you've been following Warhammer Weekly, you know that Vince and I have put together a Chaos force centered around The End Times and Archaon's attempts to gather the same personalities and bring about the end -- again. The "surprise" today is that I'm making available the army booklet with the background narrative to our force, the war scrolls with images of our models, and the composition of our (filthy) list which we've been talking about for a couple months. You can download our "army book" here. Please understand that while the pictures are ours, we do not own the photo images used they are the property of their respective owners. This is an amateur fan-made army book for this event and no profit will be made off of it. For those interested in following the events, Beasts of War will be live blogging the events this weekend and you'll likely see some updates from us here and in some live stream videos that I'll post as well.

Join Vince and I for another week of news, rumors and all things warhammer-y. This week after covering current news and rumors, we talk about the forgotten and (mostly) long dead Special Characters of the old world hidden away in the compendium section of the General's handbook. These characters are often wild cards, but are they worth resurrecting or should they be left to the ash bin of history? Check out our picks for the best and worst of the remnants and make sure to sound off your picks in the comments below the video. Check the video out here.

Thanks! You have to basically covert everything when there are only two kits :-) I really love the Rogue Idol model too, although it is a bummer it only bonuses greenskin orcs now :-( Thanks!

I don't think for very much. A single page or two of text would be shared quickly and easily, much like battalion rules.

Obvious examples of low hanging fruit for boxes would be Fyreslayers (a Magmadroth which comes with an additional model on foot, 10 vulkite berserkers, and 5 hearth guard; retail $210), Flesh Eater Courts (Abhorrent Ghul King on Terrorgheist, 20 Crypt Ghouls, and 6 Crypt Horrors or something similar; retail $200), and Ironjawz (Megaboss on maw krusha, 15 ard boyz, and 5 brutes; retail $215). These are both supported by books and would incentivize additional purchases. Other obvious possibilities are the aelves's Daughters of Khaine (likely a Cauldron of Blood which comes with an additional model on foot, and 20 witch aelves/sisters of slaughter, possibly a set of Warlocks, but this seems pushing it; retail $195-230 ), Phoenix Temple (likely a Phoenix which comes with an additional model on foot, and 30-40 Phoenix guard; retail $180-220), and possible even Clan Skyre (6 Stormfiends, Warp Lightning Cannon, Doomwheel, and an Arch-Warlock; retail $200ish). All of these guesses have to do with the combination of currently supported subfactions, all plastic kits (no finecast), and significantly model(s) that would be too expensive to include in standard Getting Started boxes.

Agreed. I still need one more ;-) Another alternative that would be within the standard discount ranges would be two sets of bight king and something else. Only time will tell though.

I doubt you'll ever see the big named centerpieces in such a box (Glottkin, Archaon, etc). More likely will be a Maggoth Lord, some Blight Kings, and maybe something else. If they market it with Bloab, you would probably see 5 blight kings and 3 plague drones (as per Bloab's battalion). If they market it with Morbidex, you'll probably see 5 blight kings and 6 Nurgling swarms (as per his battalion). Those would be my guesses for Rotbringers.

Thanks! I'm just getting started :-)

“In the dark fetid corners of Ghur you will find the Wyssan Wood. Dwelling amongst its primeval depths reside the Venomtongue Spiderfang grot tribes. These feather-bedecked grots have mastered all manner of webbed horrors: the stealthy, bone-armored Spinebacks, the lightning-fast striped Wolfhunters, and the bulbous Purple Skullbacks. Swarms of mottled spiderlings are prodded ahead of the creeping horde and mountainous Arachnaroks bring up the rear. But the horrors do not end there, for supporting their hordes are rickety weapons of war crafted from moss-covered stones, rotten boughs, and sticky webbing of the children of the Feaster from Beyond. Our scouts suggest that even greater horrors have yet to pour forth from the tangled depths of the Wyssan Wood! Woe be to the realms if the Venomtongue tribes of the Wyssan Wood ever unite with Spittlegit or even, blessed Azyr, the Ironjawz hordes of Gordrakk! May Sigmar never let it be!“ -Lord Castellant Rhemus of the Astral Templars This is an introduction to my Spiderfang Grot forces. I started these a couple years ago during 8th edition (hence the bases) and plan to take them back up again once the Spiderfang release drops (we know it is coming GW; just make it happen next week...please). I have tons of unpainted models but I'm only posting what I currently have done. A bit of background: Ever since coming upon the Arachnarok kit a couple years ago, I’ve fallen in love with the forest grot aesthetic. While initally saddened to find only 3 Spiderfang kits available, I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to build this force, using conversions, from the ground up. Back in 8th, it was a generic O&G force, and I used a bunch of models as counts-as to be able to field an effective army of all forest goblins. Currently, my completed models from this force are as follows: Arachnarok with a Shaman and a Catchweb Spidershrine Grot Chukka 10 Spineback Spider Riders (were my Deff Creepers in 8th) Doom Diver Lobba Rogue Idol of Gork (or Mork) 40+ Savage Grot Berserkers with Big Stabba (Counted as Savage Orks) 40+ Spider Swarm with Spider Herders (Counted as a Squig Herd with Handlers) Savage Grot Shaman A lot of this is harder to use with new synergies in AoS but I look forward to GW expanding their forces so I can return to this army. Enjoy the photos and I look forward to your feedback!

I've been working on my Nurgle Rotbringers for the last couple months and I'm finally ready to go public with the start of the force! This first batch of troops is basically finished, although I need to do some basing work and a couple touch ups. The current force is: The Glottkin Bloab Rotspawn Chaos Warshrine (Kitbashed) Harbinger of Decay (Kitbashed) 15 Putrid Blight Kings 30 Chaos Warriors Hell cannon Regarding some general comments, the lore of this force is that it is a legion of Nurgle Rotbringer forces manning a lone Chaos Dreadhold named Mireguard, which is deep in one of the swampy corners of Ghur. I wanted this force to feel a little bit more primitive and beastly with horns being a unifying visual element across the army. This is the reason for the conversions of both the Harbinger and Warshrine. I tried to tie other thematic secondary visual elements across the board as well, including the white fur of the Warshrine beast of burden with the fur of the Chaos warriors and Bloab. If anyone is curious about the specific techniques used to paint various elements, like the pools, horns, or whatever, I'm planning on doing a couple tutorials for these techniques in future blog posts. Let me know if there are specific things you are interested in and I'll make sure to cover those as well. For sure additions to this force, I have another Hellcannon on the table that just needs its highlighting and glow effects that should be done by the end of the week. I have a number of other units I'll be adding here in the future as I finish them. Thanks for your interest and I look forward to hearing your feedback and critiques!

Agreed completely. Rule 1 for basing should be: Models should be based on the (round) bases they come with. Since some models come with two different size bases (i.e. Plague bearers), you should be able to base them on one of the two appropriate sized bases. No one should be punished for basing models on the bases those models ship from GW with.