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So I'm wanting to make a list around archaon because he's big and pretty! I know he's supposed to be pretty fun in khorne because of all the buffs but as someone still not 100% familiar with all the khorne heroes (the khorne players I've played against usually go light on buffing) I'm not sure exactly what I should go with list wise to take with him. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm guessing a bloodstoker & bloodsecrator are musts for the +1 attack and reroll wounds. Possibly an aspiring deathbringer for the +1attack command ability? But that would be difficult keeping him in the same combat as archy. I'm guessing though that lord on juggernaught could be good for his command ability to give a bonus on the charge? I haven't listed any demon examples because I really don't know them well yet.

There's a disappointing lack of GW IP rpg's in general which considering the heaps of lore and the way you have such variety within the factions would make for a really cool rpg setting. Something like travelling across the flamescar plateu and having different enemies in different areas but being able to take those areas for order would be really cool and would let them use the characters & ideas of firestorm, either akin to Shadow of War's free roam & strongholds or more like blackguard's 2 moving between set locations for battles to take them over and being able to defend them. Though they could easily do it on any realm, taking a small section of it (because they INFINITE) and letting the players explore. Would be a lovely way to see AoS realms and even the cultures of human/eld/duardin/chaos/destruction tribes brought to life.

... Ready the cannons!

So now that I have contrast paints to make the idea of painting white and blue kinda palatable I'm considering taking my free peoples & other mixed order back to my original root ideas of basing them on Dragon Age's grey wardens, because it perfectly fits the mixed race ideals of the free cities! Though it would be best to run them as a free city I'm struggling to decide which to pick. Considerations of some cities: -Tempests eye (Only dwarves are steampunky but as an army I already play having kharadrons in as my dwarves would be easy, though would be the wrong colour. Ability would be quite fun too) -Hallowheart (High elves could work and the ability would be fun, though would work better fluff wise as a Templar heavy force as opposed to a grey warden heavy) -The living city (Free peoples for humans, wanderers for dalish, dispossessed for dwarves and a fun looking ability for wardens? Sounds like a nice option, though no collegiate arcane is a shame as is relying on dispossessed because they're not my favourite looking dwarves, nor do I know what they'd bring that wanderers or freeguild wouldn't already kinda cover) -Greywater (CANNONS! Okay so sure gunpowder isn't very themely for grey wardens, but dwarven cannons would be a cool addition to support my freeguild and wanderers, plus collegiate arcane for the fun luminark or hurricanum they bring, ability however would mean I'd have to go gunpowder heavy) -Phoenicium (Ability feels really themely for a close-knit brotherhood like the wardens. But phoenix guard look kinda silly, headswaps would help. Lacking magic though without allies) On the bright side I can use allies to help make up for any particular laps in theme. I'm hoping people might be able to suggest which cities work well with a combination of the races as opposed to just focusing on one. I would like primarily freeguild because I'm a human fan at heart (and tbh those games are like 70% humans at least.) I'm worried less about which city is the best theme wise as it would be a loose basis I will adapt for AoS and mostly I'm nabbing the colour scheme and the idea that they risk their lives to fight back tides of monsters and more interested in knowing which abilities or city unit selections allow for more fun and interesting playstyles. I can see pheonicium and living cities abilities making for some interesting play for sure.

Time for me to have some fun, celebrate that contrast paints will now mean my freeguild army can be back on the table of stuff to get done, and release blackpowder back into the world! By making a list: Alleigance: Greywater Fastness Heroes: Freeguild general on griffon - 280 Gunmaster - 80 Units: 10x Freeguild Guard - 80 10x Freeguild Guard - 80 10x Freeguild Crossbowmen - 100 Steam Tank - 240 War Machines: Helstorm Rocket - 180 Helstorm Rocket - 180 Cannon - 140 Cannon - 140 Mercenaries: 5 Blood Knights - 200 5 Blood Knights - 200 Gives me lots of guns and then the new allies lets me run rampant with some blood knights & griffon to take the fight to my enemy whilst my men screen my gunline. Alternate to the blood knights would be some demigryph knights which would be less punchy but probably hold up the enemy quite well whilst I shoot them apart. No magic protection is a bit of an issue. Also possibility of making some changes to free up room for a celestial hurricanum but that would probably mean no blood knights, reducing my melee presence for more accurate rockets & cannons.

Soulblight: -Charge our blood knights... no seriously these horsemen pack a wallop on the charge but are much much worse when they haven't charged. -Bring rend, a -1 rend reduces our blood knights to 5+ save, a rend of - gives us a 3+ save. -Try to position yourself so our lord on zombie dragon (and knights if a particular bloodline) can't just leap over your front lines to savage your support heroes. -Hit the zombie dragon before he hits you. He's a beast in combat but will worsen as he deteriorates, he's another unit who wants to charge you and not the other way around. -Bring hordes, we're a low model count army. Bog our knights down by charging them with chaff as it will take us time to kill them and meanwhile you can hold all the objectives with superior numbers. Everchosen: -Kill Archaon. He's a massive force multiplier for varanguard putting them to a 2+ instead of a 3+ to hit and being able to make them reroll charges (very nasty for fellspears where we want every one of those attacks hitting you on a charge) -Don't let the Varanguard charge you with fellspears, they will really hurt and their rend -2 on the charge will make the hurt even hurtier. -Don't rely on magic, archaon has 2 unbinds and he and all the varanguard have a 4+ ignore magic wounds. If it's my list there will also likely be a bloodsecrator making you reroll. -Bring hordes. We're even lower model count than soulblight, we can't hold objectives nor do varanguard have enough punch to get through proper tarpits, especially if they use inspiring presence. Lets not discuss the game where one spear unit got held up by 30 savage orruks for the entire match (after charging). -Block our movement, we're all fairly chunky bases (especially archaon) so good positioning will block us being able to get where we want to get. (Because obviously we gotta represent the underplayed factions in this who are easy to beat anyway )

Now you're just getting me excited about possible cheaper fireworks... hopefully this may happen Which also reminds me I should really get some more helstorms

160 for the helblaster? That seems like a really strange choice, especially as they've dropped cannons. Though cheaper cannons and steam tank will be really nice My greywater fastness is calling me again damnit! (And now I have contrast paints the idea of painting the freeguild bodies isn't horrific)

20 grail knights for the big oof! As someone who loves demigryph knights this looks like a list I'd be interested in trying out! Do let us know whether you get to test it out Ilaxu. I'm considering it since I've got the black contrast and some reds... though the real question is do I try and get some orange and do proper Mousillon scheme or go with my original idea of black and red. (Either way my brets will also make fine blood knight stand-ins)

So I'd put together this so far recently using the ptg formula of 1 pick = 100 points (rounding to closest) which most ptg lists follow. Though brets may wanna be changed because they're overpriced when it comes to points. Hadn't done upgrades though so many have to pilfer ilaxus for my ptg campaign! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bL8wFtZo_YkjZeGHTnXaLIM53wnqGX3TZZoeAkUR_HA/edit?usp=drivesdk

For a 1k list with the cogs I think the following could be an interesting shout: 1 Enchantress - 160 1 Damsel - 100 10x Grail Knights - 360 16x Men at arms - 120 8x Knights Errant - 200 Chronomantic Cogs - 60 Points: 1000/1000 You'd get a decent beatstick in the form of 10 grail knights with an enchantress at 1k levels along with cheap bodies to screen and the errant and damsel to take on weaker targets / nab objectives. The cogs would help give you that superiority in movement speed.

Today I finally began my project for my shyish themed bretonnians (who will be taking some mousillon inspiration) and began it in style with some grail knights! These are mostly the more modern plastic brets (will have fancy nice shield paintings) and a baron to lead the squad! (We'll ignore the fact there's no squad sgt rules ) whilst making him I accidentally broke his sword when getting it off the sprue! So decided ****** it he's getting a cool broken sword and I'll give it a story. He's also gonna have a nice horse once my green knight horse is stripped (got horse but no rider secondhand) I'm still working on the lore for the kingdom of blackreach but so far it is a kingdom in shyish where all its lords and ladies are skilled in necromantic arts and worship 'the lady of blacklake' who may in the future be getting an avatar model for her (likely using the stats of the avatar of khaine with a prophetess to awaken her) It should be a fun project all in all Next steps are to sort out some metal knight errants I have and get my secondhand knights of the realm stripped

You mean painting fleur de lys on ogres and giants won't make them chivalrous and noble? Darn... I do agree though. Those two are perfect for mousillon brets I also realised I already have the perfect stand in model for a shyishian king on (undead) hippogryph EDIT: Begun work on this project with my grail knights and will be posting future project updates on my blog!

Ahhh that makes sense! But yeah I suppose it all depends on how you plan to run the armies etc. Probably also worth noting that whilst they may wield cowardly guns that hurt our chivalric theme getting outriders/pistoliers as mercenaries (or just plain regular units with grand alliance order) gives us a potential good speedy and fairly cheap extra horsey unit we can send after objectives whilst our knights of the realm deal with the heavy lifting. But I'm looking forward to skellies & zombies for sure just to give extra cheap bodies for objectives / board coverage. Blood knights alternatively will give a nice alternative to grail knights as a powerful heavy cavalry.

THANK YOU!! I've been annoyed since the dawn of the allies system that I couldn't take elf allies for a freeguild or vice versa as I loved the idea of the mixed free cities and these races generally working together and I'm not that big a fan of mixed order or a lot of the firestorm free city combinations. Also that even though the horned rat joined the pantheon my chaos warriors couldn't have skaven allies to be stabbed in the back by. I really like the fact they added in mercenaries because a lot of these armies have been referred to as mercenaries for ages and as the article stated in lore you have things like humans and undead coexisting in shyish so it was a shame to not be able to field death humans etc. I do really like that the companies have their own fluff and mini rule to them to make them feel pretty well integrated into the story of AoS great for inspiration too.

Honestly I don't feel like I'll use much CP with brets so I'm not too worried on that side. Though would be nice if we had a formation to bolster the CP reserves a bit. Alternatively just build 50 points short if you really need the extra cp you lose.

Guess I'm gonna need to build my hurricanum and get 2 more steam tanks sometime This sounds like a pretty fun list.

It's a game style that started in the battletomes for AoS, it's basically where you start with a general and usually only a small handful of units and build up this 'warband' as you go. After games you earn glory points and picks which can be spent on extra units or upgrades for heroes/units (randomly rolled on 1 or 2d6 with a chance of being negative on a double 1! for the general at least) It usually forms a small campaign sort of thing with the winner being the one who achieves 10 glory points first and then wins a game (though you could always set alternative win parameters). GW did a path to glory booklet a couple of years back with updated tables for all armies (newer battletomes have more recent updates for their army) and full rules for a campaign. It's designed more as a fun narrative style of gaming instead of competitive and you can either pick your units or randomly roll them for more fun. I've also just noticed on my table the elites section has more than 6 rolls which makes it a big nuisance, and splitting the 4 heroes into a d6 roll would be a pain, unless I combine the two nobles into one roll where you pick either/or. I could split the peasant bowmen & trebuchet into their own table along with a 32 men at arms option as a peasant elites and the other table being nobility elites.

Hexwraiths as a questing knight basis? Interesting, alternatively give them robed legs and I could see them making good battle pilgrims as they'd have the robed fanatic look down already (May have to do that with my spares) I have considered also sticking spare knight errant helmets on black knights for making some knight errants that look appropriately different from my knights of the realm. Honestly I want so much for vampires and blood knights to get some plastic sculpts and if they did they'd be great to use for mousillon too! Well there's at least 1 new death army coming this year so hopefully that will give me more bits to work with for expanding my shyishian themes. I also want to look at seeing if I can work out how to make a path to glory table for bretonnians, I know that it's roughly 1 PTG pick per 100 points (rounding to closest hundred) and you start with 5 picks minus the cost for the general (Explained here, second to last post:) For upgrade tables I'd probably pilfer mostly from the free cities ones and other thematic looking things from other PtG lists and do name / flavour changes to make them thematic. I think the unit tables would probably look like: General: -King on Hippogryph - 1 pick -Sacred Protector - 3 picks -Enchantress - 3 picks -Bretonnian Lord - 4 picks -Damsel - 4 picks -Noble Champion - 4 picks -Noble Standard bearer - 4 picks Units: (1 pick) -16 Men at arms -6 Battle Pilgrims -5x Mounted Yeoman Elite units: (2 picks or 1 pick & 1 glory point) -8 Knights errant -8 Knights of the realm -16 Peasant Bowmen -3 Pegasus Knights -5 Questing Knights -5 Grail Knights -1 Field Trebuchet Heroes: (1 pick) -Noble Champion -Noble Standard Bearer -Damsel -Bretonnian Lord

I've just had to google to read into Mousillon as alas my time with fantasy started with AoS... I now really want to do them on swampy bases XD And also to now paint them more black than red to fit with Mousillon better.

So with the new mercenaries coming in the generals handbook I will finally be able to properly do my Shyish-themed bretonnians with some undead friends to say hello (and give me some board control) so I'm looking forward to that! I'm currently toying with the following idea for a 1000 point list (I've now finally started stripping my bret knights I have actually finally started this project! Hopefully may even make up some conversions later tonight) Alleigance: Order - Hammerhals Realm: Shyish -Enchantress: 160 - Inspiring (can't remember the generic order traits off the top of my head but this seems good for bravery esque helping), Wraithbow (I really want to a model a hero firing a spectral bow off the back of a horse tbh, and I'm not too fussed about being competitive) -Damsel: 100 (I had 100 points spare at the end) -Knights of the realm x16: 440 (Pretty decent cavalry and a good main battleline) -Grail Knights x5: 180 (Speaks for itself. Conversion wise planning to mount these boys on skeletal horses to make them stand out, and make a squad leader using the vampire dragon rider body with the grail to make him really stand out. Don't think I'll have enough bits for more than 5 alas so will have to at some point source more bodies if I can when I have money) -Men at arms x16: 120 (Needed another cheap battleline, the men at arms models I made into zombies will fit nicely in a shyish themed army!) Points: 1000/1000 Colour scheme I'm planning to make use of a lot of black and red for their new undead status, with possibly blood tears coming from the helmet eye-slits. I've also toyed with the idea of using some freeguild units in the bigger lists as I'm not sure I'll ever have enough pure bretonnians but it's nice to go as much bret as possible really. Thankfully mercenaries will help me fill out my points.

Knights are possible but could take some work to look vampy and not too chaosy. Drakespawn could work but I'd want riders from something else though. The doomfire could work but are completely unarmoured unfortunately. Chaos knights may be my best bet, would need the vampire shields though and possibly a headswap (maybe dark eldar wrack heads, look like they'd make good knight helmets) Know if there's any pics of conversions? as I've heard those mentioned before. Mainly wanna see how they've de-chaosified the horses.

Vampires on foot as a unit and thralls would honestly be my favourite thing! I find myself considering remaking my blood knights and not using the dragon princes (they're so ruddy flimsy unfortunately) but I'm very much struggling to think on what cavalry to use as a base without going 3rd party for all of it (finding similar scaled stuff is a ******) I could try marauder horsemen but they unfortunately wear a lot of leather armour so be more ideal if I went pirate themed. Frankly I'd rather go witcher wild hunt themed which would be a lot of fun greenstuff additions and conversions but would likely suit a more heavy armoured base. What sort of units have people looked at for blood knights besides the dragon princes? I've considered stormcast palladors but they're such bulky blokes Demigryph knights have some lovely sized riders but rather large mounts (and would be an expensive option as it's 3 per box + bases on top)

A wintery theme sounds super cool! (pun intended) The sylvaneth models really do lend themselves to some fun paint schemes for sure. If you haven't already definitely have a look around to see if there's a good local club scene for you and your friend to start playing at and meeting new wargamers. If you're around the Basingstoke area then The Bastion is a great place with a good AoS scene. Alternatively if you're in Southampton then Southampton Sluggers are a really nice club too (though unsure if they've got much of an AoS scene these days) if you've got a local Warhammer or gaming store in general you can always ask there if they know of any local clubs for whichever area you're in. Hope you enjoy getting into AoS

Welcome to the board @Dammitt_Jim! As you have already seen we've got a nice friendly (and very active!) community here which is really great imo. Sylvaneth lend themselves to some really nice colour schemes depending on what styles of trees and leaves you go for (I quite like pale whiteish bark and colourful leaves) Khorne are also quite fun especially if you don't go full red because then you can have fun with blood for the blood god technical paint for blood splatters (Mine are being painted with bone armour) Hope you enjoy your time here and with AoS!