Liazardmen army sheet

My armysheet was so popular I'm now taking orders.

Here's one for Rob, my Empire-cum-Lizardman chum. ence a lizard and empire piccie. Enjoy.

Yet another mullering by High Elves

Last night saw me utterly trounced by James's high elves in a battleline engagement.

Historically...'ve never liked elves. Ever since my first game of battlefleet gothic against the nigh undefeateable eldar, I've loathed those pixies and their game bending antics - be it their magic, speed, firepower and/or their additional special rules.

James didn't seem to understand my apprehension or my inward groaning at his suprise High Elf hoard in a box in a box in his cupboard. Unfortunately, for my beastmen, they arn't a good matchup. Neither were dwarves, his other potential army - but it's not in James's character to pick an army to give me an easy time.

The game went predictably, although I was experimenting. My usual lv4 took Beasts rather than shadow, and lv 1 gave up wyssan spam for miasma spam.

James took a lv4 with shadow, and obviously rolled withering, enfeebling, pit and miasma. I got wyssans, horros, aranheir and kadon.

The first two phases my gors got miasma'd and withered, shot to death (through cover and at an additional -1bs) and mercilessly halved. They then failed a charge by an inch before being combicharged and destroyed.

My bestigors had better luck, charging and wiping and eagle and over running through into a unit of archers. Unfortunately by then my gor hoard with lv4 croaked, leaving the magical field to James and my bestigors were hexed more than a gypsy's ex boyfriend.

So yet again, shadow proved its dominance. Cheap casting in addition to those infamous high elf tricks of extra d3 power dice per turn and and additional +1 to casting just for being an elf. There's little to do. The number of dispels I failed by 1 as well was agonising.

My casting was all over the place too. I hexed and hexed, but little difference it made. I couldn't get wyssans off, and never got opportunity for my big spell.

When you need to pass a leadership test on double 1s, fail it on a reroll, then for your flee roll you roll...a double 1...you know it's not your fight.

So, basically...bloody pixies and their bloody pixie dust!

Don't get me wrong, I'm far from a sore loser, and my losses are higher than my wins. I just never fare well against elves. Just like Slaanesh and her daemonettes, I harbour an unnatural hatred of elvenkind.

I don't mind dark elves though.

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Army list template WIP

Here's something I used to do a few years back, but I lost my microsoft publisher. I think a nice army should have a nice army list. So here's my beastmen one.

Obviously, my list isn't finalised. I'll probably also put this blog's address on it. What do you guys think?

A Critical Evaluation of the role of Lore of the Wild in practice.

Sorry...I went all "Uni work" on you there, the lines are blurring...

Not to be out done by James over at Gaming with the Ansy fancy fairy men I thought it was about time I also got on and reviewed the magic of the beastmen. Honestly, I've been toying with the idea of this post for a month or three now, but I don't often use Lore of the Wild. Hopefully, this will show you why.

Lore of the Wild

Off to a losing start already as it has no Lore Attribute. Lore of Beasts, which is basically the "sister lore" to this, has a -1 modifier to casting on all of your own troops. The dominance of the Big Rule Book (BRB) lore's is due in part to each lore having such exellent lore attributes (I'm looking at you Death). - 0/5

Signiture: Bestial Surge 7+

Again, signiture spells are oh so important, as they give you that safety net of rubbish spell generation rolls. Bestial Surge in theory sounds great - A free D6+1 move towards the enemy. But then you look a little closer...

- All friendlies within 6inches: Awfully short range, if you're in a hoard formation that may be two units maximum.

- Towards the nearest enemy via the shortest route: So no real potential for flanking unless you're already on the flank...

- Units stop within 1" of another unit - Come on, even undead were allowed to charge zombies with Van Hel's!

So many places this could be improved - Range would help outflankers get into position quicker, the need to move towards enemys is ok until you hit the point where when you get there you have to stand 1 inch away. It's also likely to leave you in an unpredictable position where you can easily be flanked or counter charged. A bad, bad spell. Especially for 7+ casting.

The only point this spell may be useful is IF the shamen and is unit are way away from their target, but with an average charge range of 12", we're talking a 10 march, an averge 3" surge, then a 12" charge - 25 inches away from where they want to be. Not good. 1/5.

1. Viletide 7+

Not bad, not great. Something to chuck 2 dice at to either sneak past a dispel dice strapped opponant or to soak up dispel dice. You're looking for 15 hits that wound on 6s, so two or three wounds. Not bad for hoard knobbling. Jurys out over whether flock of doom is better or not - same range, doom casts on a 5+ but is 2d6 st2 rather than st1. I'll give this 3/5, as it's very situational but could be useful.

2. Devolve 9+

Leadership tests or die spells never excite me. The prolifancy of Inspiring Presence and rerolls from BSB means these often fail, and even if it does get through - the average leadership of 7 for most rank and file mean you might get a handful of wounds, but nothing to write home about. With doom and darkness, cast on the general, and this, it may get nasty. But that situation will never happen! 2/5

3. Bray Scream 10+

I don't think this is too bad! A St3 Breath which can be used in a combat multiple turns in a row by any character within 12". Granted, it'll eat up hoards, but ignoring armour saves may make even chaos warriors sweat a little bit, potentially removing a third of their number. As our hoards lack any real armour ignoring weapons, it can be useful.

EDIT - Upon further investigation, this cannot be cast into combat, as it has no spell type, thus cannot be cast into combat. This drops it's usefulness 2/5

4. Traitor kin 10+

Potentially the best spell in the Lore, making mounts attack (and automatically hit!) their riders at a reduced armour save (-1 for normal, -2 for barding). So, snake surfers, mournfangs, chaos knights, chariots - even the filthy hydra! - Are all up for a nasty suprise should you get this off. Trust me, your opponant will not let you get this off, so it's one for later in the game when dispel scrolls are eaten up and dispel dice are running low. It's relative short range is a down side - the target unit will always be further than 12in away unless it's in combat already. 3/5, with it going up to 4/5 if your opponant brings a particularly nasty cavalry or mount.

5. Mantle of Ghorok +13

Similar to Savage Beast of Horros, but instead of D3 strength and attacks you get D6. And its casting value is 4 higher. And it's only 6in range not 12. And you suffer a wound if you roll a 6 on either dice. And it cannot be upgraded to all friendly characters within 12in. Oh, and because it lacks the "augment" in it's rules description it technically cannot be caston a model in combat. You get the idea... extremely powerful, but also risky and may not leave you much better off. 3/5

6. Savage Dominion 16+

Now THIS is a spell. You can summon a jabberslythe, giant (not likely thanks...) or a Ghorgon - Hell yes! Onto any table edge. Nothing messes up a plan like a huge hulking monstrosity like a Ghorgon turning up behind your lines. Unfortunately, the shamen is effectively useless until the beast is killed - which should be a long time if played correctly. Luckily the beast costs no victory points to lose. But the shamen may not do anything else - attack, cast, or dispel. Not bad for a level 1, but for a level 4...not great. The level 4 will have toughness 5 though, so maintaining his life while the Ghorgon is being pummelled is more likely - although 6 wounds means that on average your shamen will take at least one wound for his troubles. Again, this spell could be improved by allowing a Cygor who could start lobbing rocks straight away - and the good possibility your shamen will end up dead for his troubles is also a major drawback. 3/5

Verdict

So, as you may have gathered, the Lore doesn't exceed 4/5 often. It's not a bad lore, by all means, just it's been superceded by The Lore of Beasts, which does all this, but cheaper, and with a better signiture.

I give this lore 3/5. And, in honesty, I think that's rather generous.

How to run Lore of the Wild

I'd take Lore of the Wild on a Level 3 or 4 great bray shamen. The spells are too hit and miss to risk on a single or multiple level 1s - as you are aiming for Traitor kin, Dominion, and Ghorok. Due to the frankly poor signiture you don't have anything to fall back on should you roll poorly (anything but a 1 or a 2!). I'd always pair this with another level 1 wild, to ensure you get the best spells.

Let it snow - How I did my Snow bases

Just a quick post about my snow bases, which I have redone. My Beastmen are from the Grim up norf (just like me) so I wanted some snow bases for them.



The glue I used, just infront of the book I researched "yellowing" in



I've heard alot about snow bases, and the use of baking soda. I was concerned about "yellowing", the process where chemestrium chloride oxidises with CO2 and ionises the bosons (or something...) and turns white snow into yellow snow over time. I decide to play it safe and go for GW snow.



Well, that was a mistake. I don't know how GW got away with pedalling that crap - It's rubbish. It's basically white flock, the same stuff they use for grass, but white. No matter how hard I tried, how accurately I followed the online snow tutorials on GW.com, it always looked rubbish.

So, having a word with Daz, he had experience using snow bases on his Throne of skulls winning Throgg army. He suggested using wood glue, not PVA (I know, there's a difference!) and one year on the snow is still as white as pure driven...white stuff.

He also pointed me toward Kuffeh's Snow base tutorial which was extremely helpful. So, I went off and had a practice, and used my own technique.

Kuffeh's snow look nice, white and fluffy, the sort you'd like to roll around in an throw snowballs. What I wanted was a more harsh, icy, sharp snow. The stuff that has thawed and refrozen, the sort nasty kids used to put inside snowballs and throw at mums at school and cut their face (true story!).

I used Dr Oetkers bicarbonate of soda, which cost me 82p from Morrisons. I also used some wood glue that cost £2, which from now on I'm going to call WPVA. Already cheaper than GW's white grass. I decided not to make a solution, but just mix the WPVA and soda together. If it was too "claggy" and didn't apply easily, I just added more WPVA.

I sprinkled a little bit of extra soda on after application, just to add a bit of crispy definition, then left it. Easy peasy.

Not a bad result, I think you'll agree.

1500 points - Complete!

So, I know my updates have been sporadic, but I've been getting my head down and painting like a Razorgor on heat.

Before I start, I'm going to point you towards my good friend James's blog Gaming with the Asur. I'm hoping it will be a blog of misadventure as no doubt he'll be blogging about how he constantly fails to defeat my beastmen and how I always stay one tactical step ahead, but I doubt it. Give it a look anyway, he's usually quite sharp with the tactical tips (unlike me).

Okay, so I've completed my A Gathering of Might list, and it's fully painted. I've got 8 or so Bestigor left to fully base but I'm waiting for the bases to dry before I put the snow effect on. I've played with them against Daz's Daemons in a Blood Forest scenario (It's watchtower, but instead of a building it's a blood forest). I got a resounding victory (only losing a chariot), although I believe my familiarity with the daemon book, Daz's unfamiliarity with said book, using the wrong list, poor dice rolling, my continuous hatred, a beast of a razorgor AND his recent obsession with 40K all led to my victory. But other than all that it was all my tactical acumen...

This game helped me a little bit to get use to "gamey" situations, and learn the ins and outs of tournament fantasy. Daz is an old hand at competative play and was full of tantalising tips, helping me use my redirectors to their maximum effect. I'm getting to grips with fantasy a bit more now, but I'm still forgetting silly things like reforming after combat. Magic however is something I've taken to quite well, so I'm hoping I can avoid the wooden spoon on my first outing at a tournament with a "sub par" list.

I'm extremely happy with the way this army has panned out. I'm dissapointed I rushed my bestigors a little bit, but in the end I think it was unavoidable. My time is heavily budgetted at the moment, and this 1.5k worth of points really needed finishing. I'd given them until saturday to finish, and it's monday night and they're 99% done. There's little that could convince me to spend time highlighting armour and cloth on 20+ bestigor when only 5 would be fully visible.

I've rejigged my list, and I've managed to fit in another Razorgor. I could swap my chariot for 10 ungor raiders, but I don't actually think they're that good. Chariots seem to scare the crap out of most players, so I'll keep it in. I also like the model, and I can't be bothered painting up 60 points of models when I have a lovely 80 point one already finished!

This weekend will be a small mini tournament at our local club, as a bit of a warm up. Hopefully this should be enough practice to make sure my list, and my generalship, is up to scratch.

Apologies for the dark pictures, but you get the idea of what I've completed.

I'll be back with more updates soon - and that's a promise.

In need of your help! Another beast shamen.

I'm in need of your opinions. I can take one level 1 shamen to a tournament. Which one of these two do you think is the best?

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Seige Of Mount Bloodhorn - Act II

Kravyn’s blood was up, as was his beasts around him. He was where the fighting was thickest, right in the bottleneck of this dark cavern. The stench of the dank sweat and and stale breath surrounded him as his hoard pushed forward further into the enemy lines.

A giant skeletal serpent lay twitching infront of him, dozens of Gors running past him onto further bloodshed. A broken corpse who was the serpent’s master and rider stood shakily. The magicks which held him together were failing, and he knew it. He brought his staff weapon into a two handed grip, almost in defiance at Kravyn. Kravyn took hold of the weapon in his Ugluhand and wrenched it away, casting it far behind him. His undead foes arms went with it, torn from his shoulder joints still clasping the blade. At that, the skeleton crumbled, no longer able to sustain itself from such trauma.

Kravyn stepped through the numerous ribs of his vanquished foes skeletal steed, feeling his aura grow at the death of an ancient warrior. His wyrd grew, his Ugluhand sucked up death and thrived on he act of killing. Kravyn was most dangerous when in the heat of the bloodlust – a true scion of the beast kind.

Kravyn looked ahead and saw the remnants of a troop of red skinned goblins being chased down by some human peasants. He ran forward, revelling in the confusion he would sow into their ranks. The first flagellant saw him too late. From his scars this cultist was no stranger to pain – fitting the last feeling he would know would be excrutiating. Kravyn grabbed him by the head and pulled it from his shoulders, throwing it away. His fist became a flat, and he rammed his hand fingers first into another’s chest, again ripping bones and a huge chunk of flesh away. His hand became a claw, which he raked across the face of another foe, tearing a sickening length of meat and cartlidge.

A hand grabbed him by the shoulder, and Kravyn twisted to deliver another killing blow. Sowbane stood before him, unflinching in his full mail. “Lord, our flank crumbles.”

Kravyn snarled, brought back from his bestial rage. He turned to see Sowbane was right. A monolithic statue the shape of an ornate feline tore into a unit of the largest red skins. Gouts of eldritch flame tore into the orcs, whilst obsidian paws swiped into their ranks felling them pairs at a time.  If that unit fell, the beasts flank was turned, and could not fight off such a powerful foe whilst pushing their momentum forward.

Kravyn looked at his hands, bloodied with gore. Already the blood was burning away in dark red clouds, roiling and twisting around his taloned fingers as his ulguhand turned it to magical potential. He could feel the winds of magic picking up around him, rushing to him. His ugluhand drinking draughts of lifeblood and rewarding him by attracting the winds to his command.

Kravyn clenched his fists, then outstretched his left hand at the War sphinx. The power left his hand, and the feline stopped mid paw swipe and stumbled, just managing to stay upright. Chinks appear in its jet black surface, cracks snaking from its joints and knees.

Kravyn threw out his other hand, aiming towards the ranks of red Orcs who surrounded the war sphynx. They rallied themselves, finding a new power within them. Each blow they threw were powered  by some unseen force, the forces of shadow willing each blow to leave it’s mark. Kravyn gritted his sharpened teeth, strings of drool dripping and hanging from his mouth as he concentrated all of his dark will forwards. His robes flapped violently as the winds howled past him to their target.

The gales soon died down, but Kravyn only relaxed his body when the last piece of the sphinx tumbled to the ground and came to a stop, and the great cheer from the Orc boys echoed throughout the cavern.

He turned back to the front just in time to see four great bone chariots smash into his hoard’s ranks.

***

Roaring cheers came up from the remaining Gors as the lone remaining human fled from the field. Kravyn walked through the pile of dead humans and bones and hewn goblin, his eyes fixed on the general galloping away unharmed. The Bull, they called him, Jaegerbomb. He had a feeling the survival of that one man would come back to haunt him. Even hiring Grosque the Manculler hadn’t rid the Badlands of that particular pest.

A roaring cacophony came up from behind him. He turned, seeing a score of heavily armoured Black Orcs smashing their weapons on their armoured bodies, a resounding salute to Kravyn. He snarled, if he was not so weary he would wipe them from the face of this battlefield for their insignificant contribution to this battle. They had sat back, outmaneuvered and unable to commit their might to any point of the conflict.

He turned again, seeing the carrion like ungor picking through the scraps of the battle field. One had found a standard, a large red spider on a blackened background dripping with a hissing venom. He lifted it above his head, giving a weak bray. The crowds of Gor around howled in appreciation.

Skullcrown hobbled over, still sore from where Jaegerbomb had knocked him on his hind. “A great victory!” The shamen laughed, “A sound hiding delivered to those curs.”

“Indeed!” Kravyn smiled, “Send our ungor raiders forward, tell them to watch, but not engage. Feed everything back to me. We have a firm foothold from which we can gather our enemy’s weaknesses.” He turned and fixed a talon on Skullcrown’s cranium head dress, just above an eyesocket, “A small, fine point of pressure...can just be as devastating as a heavy blow.” To prove the point, he let his finger slip and the talon went through the hole, cutting into the shamens forehead underneath.

Skullcrown staggered away in shock, a trickle of blood running down his left cheek.He then cackled. “Yes! Yes my lord!”

Skullcrown stumbled away, and Kravyn turned back to the banner waving Ungor. He had now climbed on top of an upturned Tomb King chariot, and was waving the Goblin banner whilst wearing an imperial knight’s helmet. A hulking mail clad bestigor came from behind him and delivered a hard backhand to his head, then tore the flag from the ungor’s grasp. The bestigor and gor around the field howled with laughed and shouted as the armoured beastman threw it to the ground and begun relieving himself on both it and the knocked out ungor.

Kravyn laughed, knowing no one would have any use for that banner after this day was finished.

The battle of bitterstone mine part 1

Last night saw the forces of order (tomb kings and empire) battle the forces of disorder (my beastmen and James's red orcs.

I cannot reveal the result just yet, but there was many a talking point! Falling bits of ceiling, goblins misbehaving, an empire general being outclassed by a goblin lord, an empire wizard literally taking out half his own men in one game, an oversized mutant pig spending four turns trying to put his snout in a casket of souls and a withered sphynx being beat upon by a squad of mindrazored orc big uns.

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The Seige of Mount Bloodhorn - Act I – Bitterstone Mine

Here's a bit of background for the first part of the end of season game for the Blood in the Badlands campaign - The Battle of Bitterstone Mine. We join Kravyn after he marched south following Karniforex's defeat to the Ogres. 

Kravyn rested fitfully in his makeshift tent, unable to sleep for any reasonable length of time. His mind was unable to let him sleep, like it knew something was amiss.

Kravyn’s armies had marched south, past the Imperial fortress which now was held in bestial hands. His own troops could hear the laughter of drunken Gors and the screams of human women folk as they made their way through the badlands, even several leagues away. He sensed the Gors under his command becoming restless, itching to partake in the debaucheries their brethren were performing behind those walls.

They now set camp up over one hundred miles from Barak Varr, within eyeshot of the infamous Hanging Rock. Skullcrown had been able to peer upon the events there over the last few weeks, the Imperial’s repelling the fell legions of chaos and the steam assisted ogres with the help of a the bizarre death spirits of the rock. Kravyn had noticed the beast mage seemed to spend most his time in the body of another recently.

Kravyn left his tent to find Skullcrown. His council may help take his mind off the hidden disruption to his thoughts.  He walked through the living litter and breathing detritus of the night before’s festivities, his feet treating on Gors and ungors whose heads would feel several sizes too big in the coming hours when they woke. Grunts and yelps of pain came with every other step until he reached Skullcrown’s abode, a particular tatty skin tent made from Orcskin. It may once have been rather intimidating, but it had seen several campaigns and was looking much worse for wear.

Kravyn stepped into the tent, and found the mage sat bow legged at a long fizzled out fire. Bodywearing again, no doubt. But...no, something was different. His eyes weren’t their milky white hue when he was out of his body, but a bright, firey yellow. He was breathing differently. Not out of breath, but...

“Craaaaay Veeeeen?” Skullcrown hissed, not with his own voice.

“Daemon.” Kravyn said, instantly.

“No....noo nooo noo noooooo nooooooooo!” Skulcrown giggled. His voice was almost childlike, mischievously. “Me Hoggle!”

“Hoggle.” Kravyn said, unsure of what exactly was going on.

“Hoggle Hoggle Hoggle!” The mage laughed, “Me know what you white furs did to red skins! Very big beating! Very gooooood!”

“Orc.” Kravyn realised,the redskin reference being enough for his sharpened, if sleep deprived, mind to work out. “What do you want with my Shamen’s body? I could enter that shell and destroy you, burn your very essence. Then follow you to your body, and use it to wipe out your kin. You play a dangerous game doing this act.”

“Gobbo!” The possessed shamen screetched, “Me Hoggle Gobbo. Me try to talk to you in your head, but you sooooo strong! Couldn’t get in, bonce well ‘ard to my wyrd. Me come to offer...a deal!”

Kravyn looked away and thought, then back at the Goblin’s temporary body. He realised why he couldn’t sleep now, his latent magic ability had been fighting off this intruders clumsy attempts to force himself into his mind. Skullcrown must have been bodychanging when this Hoggle had happened upon another wizard’s mind to possess.

. “Deal?” Kravyn asked. “What do you offer me for your life?”

“Lots! Lots and lots and lots! Help Goblins and we help you! Hoo mons and dead hoo mons come to our mine, want to take our stuffs! No! No no! Need help to stop dem!”

“Mine? Where?”

“Bitterstone, less than day away on your hoofy hoofs! Old stunty mine, lots of gold, lots of magic choppas! Lots for you!”

Kravyn thought on this. “I’ll consider it.”

The Gobbo infested shamen laughed. “Hurry! One more thi - ”

Skullcrown took a huge gasp for air, his eyes returned to their albino pink once more. “Kravyn, my lord. What are you doing here?” His voice was his own once again.

“Talking to you, Skullcrown. A long conversation. Most sence you’ve spoken in a long time.” Kravyn smiled, “Where have you been?”

Skullcrown looked confused, obviously oblivious to his mind being home to another. “I ran as a mule, south from here. Ekrund. The forces of light aim to take this fort as their own. The legions of bones and the weak humans have a truce, both aim to undermine the tower. They march for –“

“Bitterstone mine.” Kravyn finished, and Skullcrown nodded.

“Yes...how...?”

“You told me.” Kravyn turned away. “Get a force together, we march south at daybreak.”

AGOM preperation - 1000 pts so far

Here's the backbone of my Gathering of Might army, fully painted. It was a bit touch and go with 2 of my university exams and 1 essay being on the tuesday after the tournament but I've been looking forward to this weekene for a while, so I'm chucking effort into getting bits finished sooner rather than later so I can crack on with uni work undistracted.

I've about 1000points fully tabletop standard here, with a unit of bestigors and 10 ungor raiders still to do. My herdstone needs finishing too, though the more I look at it the more unimpressed I am by it.

I'll get better photos soon, don't worry!

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3 little pigs

So, someone or warseer wanted to see how the orc boars measured up on 50mm bases, and I realosed my razorgor needed finishing off. So Ive touched them up and now theyre fully finished. The still need snow basing, but I ran out of PVA! Oops!

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Can't....paint...anymore!

So tonight I sat down and blasted through about 25 base coated Gors. The bases need touching up and snow adding, and I've 5 grunts left to finish the last touches on before being washed woth devlan mud...but I've pretty much finished my 40 strong Gor hoard.

I'm not looking forward to painting the ungor.

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Finished Chaos Dwarf Lord, and a musing about mantic

So here's the finished chaos dwarf. Overall, this model pleases me. I shall name him Thorgar Kinbane the petite pugilist.

As I stated in an earlier post, chaos dwarves will be my next army, after beastmen. I should get my beastmen finished by summer, built, painted and to 3000pts. Should...

So this gives me time to think about how to make a start on the evil stunties.

The forgeworld models are the dream. Really well designed and oozing character. They are, however, prohibitively expensive. I calculated that even buying off an ebay seller with £5 off the rrp it will cost me £90 for 30 men. One core choice. And an additional 16 english quid for a command. And, if rumours are to be believed, forgeworld will not make any more new scupts at the behest of GW.

Now, a discontinued line has never stopped me before. Infact, I've already ideas for both kinds of kdaii. But the idea of no hobgoblins (or hobbos, for those not into chaos dwarfen lingo), great weapon armed infernal guard (who Ive an idea for converting anyway) or blunderbuses ( who most CD players advise against taking anyway...) But most importantly - no bull centaurs.

On the positive side - I can get a finecast hellcannon again!

So, alternatives. Well mantic offer abyssal dwarfs at a decent rate. Many people dislike mantics range. I quite like them. Some look really good, and with the addition of some decent shields would look good rank and file. A couple helmets are dodgy (giant eye I'm looking at you), but on the whole theyre quite a good alternative.

Also, a battleforce consists of 20 infernal guard equivelants, ten blunderbuss equivelant, 10 great weapon infernal guard equivelant, two quite frankly horrible warmachines and theyre useable crew and a bull centaur character for £85 - less if I wait until a maelstrom games voucher day.

The current mantic range is in a state of flux. Theyre a hybrod kit currently in metal heads a plastic body, with characters being entirely metal. Bull centaurs (or halfbreeds) are pure metal and are quite pricey at £45 for 5 with an additional 10 great weapon equivelants to sweetrn the deal. The rumour is that mantic will eventually release all their metal componants as resnic - a resin plastic combo. This should actually decrease prices but were looking at summer before any changes are made.

I've also never gone entire alternative miniatures before, just as I game at warhammer world semi - frequently. As I'll be no doubt gaming at the local club or my friends houses with a list thats not for tournaments Im not that bothered about a mainly non GW army.

So my options -

Go for the more expensive, better looking resin army with gaps in the line?

Or

Go with the cheaper mantic force which I can't use at warhammer world the 3 or 4 times a year I go there?

I will mix and match - fw warmachines and failcast hellcannon will be used in either list - and restic mantic bull centaur / half breeds will be used in both lists when they eventually arrive. But for the majority troop choices... I'm leaning to mantic.

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The toy room goes - Pumbagor chariot WIP

So, this weekend has been filled with bad time. It was inevitable. I knew it was coming. But I had to go through with it.

I had to clear out the toy room.

The spare room in the house my girlfriend and I share has been my "toy room", my private abode for sticking things together, splattering acryllic on plastic and generally keeping me off drugs or organised crime. But with my girlfriend needing to crack down and do her thesis, she's taken over the nest, not only making me clear out all the junk I've hoarded in there, but also move around the furniture!

So, my organised mess has been cleared up. I now have no idea where "that bit" is (funny how I did before I tidied...). I've been given the front room to play in - but having to take stuff out and put it away every night I ant to do some modelling wont be the same.

So, luckily, I've had chance to do some modelling in the old room last night. Here's two chariots, one Razorgor and one tuskgor.

So, the main chassis is the orc plastic chariot. The yoke is from the corpse cart, which gives an extra bit of height to go over the pig and help make it look a bit different from the tuskgor chariots. It has four holes which allowed me to put the plastic chain and hooks from the marauder horsemen kit around the spikes on the razorgor, meaning I avoided any need to greenstuff a harness around the pig.

The riders are the metal beastlord which I got free in a random ebay trade and an ungor with his feet bent.



Business end. Oink.



Here's the considerably more dull WIP of the tuskgor chariot. Yawn.

And finally, with the clear out  I got my finger out and got all my army case sorted for all my beastmen army. There was alot of foam left over from the pick and pluck trays, but I needed somewhere to put it all...



...Lining the inside of a tank box from Maelstrom games. Boom, instant monster carry case!

Turn 3 - High Elves vs Beastmen

Grosque waded through the undergrowth, hacking at stray blood vines and gore roots with his pitted axe. No moon light penetrated this deep into the forest, and the wild landscape hindered his movements. He approached Garka Wyrdeye, who stood motionless. His eyes were pure white, his mind wandered in the skin of a creature elsewhere. Grosque tapped him on the shoulder, with no response. A pushed again, firmer, with no further response. His next push hit the shamen flat on the snout and knocked him onto his hind. Still his eyes were milky white. Grosque stooped, peering into the empty expression of his mage. He thought he could see...
The shamen howled, a shrieking bray of pain. Grosque stumbled back in shock, tripping on a root and falling to the floor himself. The Beastlord quickly got to his hooves and brought his axe above his head, ready to deliver a killing downswing. Before his axe could fall, Mhurk put a clawed hand to chest. The death worshipper came from seemingly nowhere, appearing out of the night. His skeletal mask shook slowly, signalling to his liege to hold his strike.
Wyrdeye stopped howling, gasping air in, taking stock of his surroundings. His eyes had returned to their normal mismatched hues. He looked up at the Beastlord, and wiped his snout, seeing blood on his grubby hand.
“My lord,” Wyrdeye stuttered between breaths, “the elves camp less than two hundred strides to our fore. They have a dragon. Lots of foot. I believe a giant eagle was aware of my presence and it consumed me...it. The owl. They know we’re coming.”
Grosque grunted, and turned his head. The elves had camped outside their fortress, making no move to attack. He knew that they waited for numbers to march northwards to help mount an assault, and until then they were craven enough the sit and cut off supplies heading to the badlands from the barren north. Only this morning a herd of human cattle and their ungor shepards had been ran down by these lanky robe wearers and their horribly pristine weapons. Grosque knew they had no taste for flesh, or the milk of human females, so there was no doubt over a hundred naked human females and children running free in the badlands. Such a waste of fine livestock.
No, he wanted to end this siege swiftly. He quickly got together a raiding force to go into the woods surrounding the fort. Slipping out during the dead of night and moving fleetly through the woodland on the hunt– what Beastmen thrive on. The herd had no time to get into better positions for the assault before the element of suprise was totally lost. Getting this close was a feat of skill and luck. Now was the time, or not at all.
Grosque shifted his bulk towards Blackleg, who squatted behind a large tree with his standard rolled up. He hit his adjutant’s chest with the blunt of his axe and pointed towards the Elven position. Grosque was away from his Pestigor retinue, but they had to move now. Grosque gave a blood curdling howl, which Blackleg joined him in, lifting his banner into the air. Throughout the wood, bestial howling returned, variously arrayed herds and individuals showing the order had been received. It was a simple order.
Leave none alive.

So, I played against High Elves today in a rejigged old mission from Tears Of Isha. It involved the entire Elf force being deployed in a 16in wide circle, whilst I deployed on three flanks within 8 inches of the board edge. It was my idea to play an interesting scenario, and my opponant George was struggling to fit all of his force within the circle (a mage on dragon and chariot does that...) and I'd suggested random deployment for my force, as I was just going to line the flanks and charge.

Well, the path to heck is lined with good intentions. All my force ended up lining up on one flank due to rolls, then my first turn charge failed spectacularly and my 40 strong gor hoard, my general (who I'd put in there to keep centrally) and death mage all got run down before my opponant's first turn!

Terrible luck carried on throughout, with my inability to pass a panic or rally check meaning many of my units bolted off the board. A highlight was two raorgor eating a unit of dragon knights, but other than that there was little positive! My opponant George was a great guy and a good sport to take the obtuse mission of being surrounded on 3 sides head on, and a very competant general who gave me quite a few tips.

So, game 3 was another mullering of my beastmen! Are we spotting a pattern here?

Luckily, my post game rolling for wounded characters could have been worse - Grosque suffering -1 Toughness for the next game, Mhurk my death mage suffering -1 Movement, with my banner waver Blackleg gaining +1 movement permenantly! Greeeeat! Better than snuffing it. I can see a unit with both those to in walking in circles. My level 1 beast mage was captured by the Elves, I imagine he's being waterboarded right this second. I dont intend to get him back.

Mhurk licked to large gouge in his thigh with his abnormally long tongue, attempting to clean the wound. A futile gesture, he knew, for the very nature of marching with The Manculler’s herd meant plague and infection was rife. The wound would no doubt get infected, so he had to hope he’d earnt the favour of the plague father not to contract a particular virulent strain of The Rot.
He sat within the fortress, managing to hobble back from the disastrous assault. He’d been with Grosque’s unit in the initial assault, which had been repelled irresitably by the Elven lines. Their speed had been blinding and their lines organised and disciplined compared to the hastily pushed charge from the Beastmen. The beast lines folded, and after seeing his magic has almost no affect on the morale of the elven troops, Mhurk had ran. He’d taken the tip of a fallen elf’s spear to his thigh, its initial cut barely registering through the surge of adrenaline. On his way to the fort however, the wound bled, refusing to heal. Still it bled, and it was three days since the raid.
A Gor strode up the steps on which Mhurk sat. It was Hrokk, a gougehorn and spokesman for the Gor’s of the tribe. “Mhurk,” he said, his eyes stone through the holes in his ill fitting helmet. More a trophy than an actual useable item of wargear, “It’s been days. The Manculler isn’t returning. You’re in charge now. What are your orders?”
Mhurk shook his head. “Don’t under estimate Nurgleth’s chosen. Disciples of the plague father do not fall to the earth so easily. Death hold’s no fear for them. He will return. Your orders are to hold.”
With that, the horns on the walls sounded, a dirge like drone. An ungor ran down the stairs beside Mhurk. “Survivors!” It hissed, “The Manculler returns!”
Mhurk nodded, getting to his hooves with the aid of his braystaff. “Faith, Hrokk, faith. Grosque is chosen, his story does not end yet. I have the feeling this Beastlord will play an important role in the fate of everyone in the Badlands.” He hobbled up the the Gors ear, “Whether it be good or ill.”

***

Grosque stumbled through the gate, holding a wound on his left flank. He was almost literally holding in the contents of his stomach. Under his right shoulder was Blackleg, still firmly gripping the banner of the army. A large number of Pestigors remained behind them.
“Mhurk!” Blackleg called. “Mhurk where are you.”
“Here.” Mhurk hobbled into the court foreyard. “You are the last of our host to return. Well, of note. I believe the ungor on our flank were killed to a one.”
Grosque was in a bad way, and stumbled to the ground, waving away any help. His head lolled to the side. His hand still gripped hold of the rusted axe, even in unconsciousness.
“Where’s that wretch Wyrdeye!” Blackleg snarled, “I’ll end him!”
“He was the luckiest out of all of us, Master Blackleg.” Mhurk chuckled. “Captured whilst fleeing. Even now I’m sure the Elves are cutting out his tongue and plucking his eyes out.”
Blackleg threw the banner to the ground, not appreciating the death mage’s sarcasm. “That’s good. For if I am tempted to fight my way through that army just to find him, and cut the hide from his back and wear it as my own! I should make a banner from his skin, as a reminder of all those who fail The Manculler!”
“Quite.” Mhurk agreed. “His incompetence cost us dear.”
“I swear!” Blackleg spat, “Should I ever lay my eyes on him, I will cut his beasthood from his body, with the rustiest blade the pestigors have, show them to him, and feed them into his rotten face – shamen or not!”
In the corner of the courtyard, a pink eyed mouse squeeked mournfully, and scurried off into the nearest dark hole. 

Chaos Dwarf wip

So in my order from maelstrom I needed £5 extra to get another 2% off my order. So I added an avatar of war chaos dwarf.

I've wanted an excuse to get one for ages. My next army will be chaos dwarves. Thats a definate. So here's my wip scheme.

The gold is a mix of chaos black and shining gold. I quite like it!

Let me know what you think!

Brakka Braytooth, Bearer of the Herdstone Standard (The Gelded)

So, here's my newest character, Brakka Braytooth. He's a mean Son of a Sow. I painted him really quickly, I just really enjoyed this model. Such a great character. The axe was a bit hair raising to paint around as I was worried about snapping it off.

The banner had a few false starts. I decided to paint it in a similar vein to my Wargor BSB, just to help tie them together. This banner was inspired by the artwork in the beastmen army book, with the shamen infront of the towering herdstone. Liber Chaotica tells us minotaurs are sacred protectors of herdstones, so I thought that a standard of a long distant herdstone would be a standard worth fighting over.

I painted his axe in a similar fashion to my Doombull's to again tie them together.

Banebeast Minotaur standard bearer review

With a little friend

So this weekend, after proxying the majority of my horde, I decided to splash out on the banebeast minotaur standard bearer whilst there was still the 16% off. I was toying with the idea of converting a plastic BSB for my mino army, but in the end I decided I would rarely use it in a competative list, so took the easy option and went with the £17 banebeast. The Skullbearer of the Taarviks Khaargstrukk (or however you spell it).

Well, I can honestly say I was not dissapointed! What a cracking model. He came in several parts - the body consisted of right arm with weapon (all one piece), body with left arm, and left hand and banner all in one piece. His head and tail came on another sprue, the head being all one piece.

The torso came with...erm..."anatomically correct" lower body. In his gooch was a huge pair of fruits. I thought long and hard (giggedy) about whether to keep it or not. I decided to get rid.

I'm all for realistic sculpting, but he would look out of place being the only model with a scrote. There was not loincloth to hide his modesty and, with no effort to sculpt one or a suitable size bit in my bit box, I just lopped them off.

Our bull, post gelding

So, after I gave him the snip, I put him together. The parts went together smoothly, with just a tiny bit of filling on the right arm. The right arms weapon looks a bit bent and flimsy, but thats the risk of having a long shaft made from resin. The resin is really nice to use and work with, and is perhaps a little nicer than games workshops finecast, just because there was no faults in the casting and the details were immaculate.

So, once I finished putting the model together, I got to putting my own personal stamp on this cheeky chappy.

In comparison to a standard minotaur and my doombull

I took a spare skull dingle dangle (tm) bit from my bits box and attatched it to his gutplate, just to help connect him to his fellow beastmen who have loincloths. I added a minotaur shield to his left arm as BSB he'll be most likely taking as much armour as possible. I finally added a small club from the ogre bulls box to his waist to show his armed to the teeth - a gorebull can never have too many weapons!

Overall, this model is absolutely fantastic. The banner I would have liked to replace as it's a bit bland, but when the models finished it doesn't look too bad.  The axe also rests close to the ground, leading to potential ranking up issues should he be in the second rank of a regiment. The base he came with was also slightly warped, so I just put him on a standard GW 40x40 base.

All in all, a solid 8 out of 10 from me. If the rumours of upcoming minotaur regiment from banebaeasts is true, I will definately to purchasing a box!

What's a beastman's favourite cheese?

GORGHONZOLAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Terrible, I know...

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