Road to the doubles.

Hey Folks.

At the end of October my friend Paul and I will be attending the Age of Sigmar doubles event up at Warhammer World. My little gaming group has done a lot of the Doubles events but this is the first time that Paul and I will be teaming up. Paul plays a lot of Tzeentch and, to my shame, I have never beaten his Tzeentch with my Nurgle army, I have come close a few times but have never managed it. So what better than teaming up with my arch enemy?

Now for you fluff bunnies out there I know that it isn’t totally a match made in heaven, and being more of a fluff player I totally get that, but Tzeentch is always scheming, so what can you do?

The Armies.
On paper it’s actually a pretty good combination. When I play Nurgle against Tzeentch one of the main issues I face is that my magic gets shut down and I don’t have any shooting. One of the weaknesses of Tzeentch is that if an army gets to you and starts hitting you its pretty much over so the Nurgle/Tzeentch combo works well as one army makes up for the weakness in the other.

Tzeentch.
Paul is going with: -
Lord of Change.
Ogroid Thaumaturge.
10 Acolytes.
10 Acolytes.
3 Enlightened on Discs.
Witchfire Coven Battalion.

Nurgle. 
Gutrot Spume.
Festus the Leechllord.
10 Blightkings.
5 Blightkings.
5 Blightkings.
Chronomatic Cogs.
Soulsnare Shackles.

The Tzeentch half gives us a good magic phase, and hopefully the ability to stop the opponents phase. We have a couple of objective camping units in the Acolytes that can also shoot twice a turn (thanks to the Battalion) and a couple of fast moving hitters. The Enlightened are pretty good at taking out certain types of unit and are fast, the Ogriod can also do a ton of damage.

The Nurgle half is less complicated, point it at something you want to destroy and smash it. I love Blightkings, in combat they are total monsters. Festus will follow behind the unit of 10 and keep them healed, he can also cast Blades of Putrefaction which is an amazing spell. Gutrot can bring a unit on from any table edge, so depending on the scenario or if the opponent has some shooting at the back we don’t like, then that ability will come in useful. We don’t need to use it every game, it will very much depend on what we are facing. Chronometic Cogs will give everyone +2 move, if we can get this out first turn and combined with a Nurgle Tree we have a big threat in a turn 1 charge, next turn switch it to give the Tzeentch wizards some extra spell casting. I had 20pts left in the Nurgle half which is why the Shackles are there, potentially useful in certain situations.

So that’s the list at the moment. We’ll be trying it out over the next few weeks to see how it performs. I can’t really see us changing it much as 1000pts doesn’t give you much wiggle room. I am really looking forward to trying this out, I normally take horde style armies so taking a more elite army will be new for me.

As far as models go all I needed to do was paint up ten more Blightkings and that wouldn’t take long. I have a style for Nurgle stuff pretty much pinned down and I can crack out the models at a pretty good rate, plus there is plenty of time before the tournament.

I’ll post up info on the practise games and models as we go.

Until next time…

First Tournament for the Nurgle

Hey Folks.

I recently took my Nurgle army to a local AoS tournament. There were 20 players and my hopes were high for the new Nurgle book. I had played a few games with the new book, enough to know roughly what I wanted to take. I was also limited a little with the models that I have. I have bought a bunch of the new models but just haven't had time to paint them yet. So the list: -

Great Unclean One (GUO) with Bell/Flail.
Scrivener.
Daemon Prince.
Rotbringer Sorcerer.

30 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Blightkings.
6 Plaguedrones.

General plan was for the two 10's of Plaguebearers to hang back on home objectives. Everything else forward and smash stuff. Nurgle has a surprising amount of speed now, with certain buffs, spells and the tree a 1st turn charge is feasible and was significant in one of the games. My main strategies were to make sure any unit I wanted to charge were in range of the tree in turn one. The Daemon Prince would tag along with the flies to give them +1A. The Rotbringer would put his spell on whoever looked like they were going to see combat first, this would give that a unit an additional mortal wound on a hit roll of 6. The GUO would also give his Command Ability +1A on the same unit.

Game1. Sylvaneth.
This was the Duality of Death scenario. This is a good one for me. I charge the Prince to one objective with the Flies and then the GUO goes to the other one. If I go first it's pretty much a win. Even if the Prince goes down I am up on points and the GUO with all the Plaguebearers is just impossible to get off the other objective. This is exactly what happened in this game. Most of the army got over the half way line and the Sylvaneth could not come back. I scored very highly so was in 1st place at the end of game 1.

Game 2. Mixed Order.
We were playing Scorched Earth which is one of my favs. The order army looked scary. There was Alarielle on her big beetle, a Stormcast chap on a massive Dragon and then a few other bits. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with two massive monsters. What I did notice was that on his two outside objectives were just a couple of units of ten skinks. I got first turn and pounced, the flies and the Daemon Prince taking advantage of all the move buffs charged over and got a first turn charge on one of the skink units. I destroyed them and then burned his objective before the rest of his army could come down on me. I scored 2 points from his but I scored all 3 of mine as well. So I was 5 up in turn 1 and he was unable to score the one I destroyed from this point on. Now it was just a case of defending that lead. It was a close thing in the end, he was very aggressive with his monsters and they did some damage but I managed to carry on steadily scoring. I also managed an awseome turn 2 charge to destroy one of his other objectives and he just could not come back. End of game 2 I was still in 1st place.

Game 3. Tzeentch.
We were playing Starstrike. My opponent was a good friend of mine, from the club I go to and also someone I had never beaten with his Tzeentch. This was the first time I had played them with the new Nurgle book and I knew how his army played. He uses an unusual list but it is still very powerful. When the objectives started falling they fell in good positions for Paul, he had two on his strongest side, really close together and I didn't have much over there. I also made a mistake on my side where I chased a unit to kill them which meant a fast unit of Pauls could score on my objective. I didn't need to go after that unit, without that mistake I might have been able to score a draw, if the objectives had dropped a bit more favourably, I might have been able to win but his army is so good that I don't know. Paul really knows his army and how to play it, so it was always going to be difficult for me.

So in the end I finished 4th. I was really pleased with this, it's a new book and I was really happy to do so well with it.

Here are some pictures of my army from the day.

Until next time...

Tournament AoS.

Hey Folks...

I recently attended a tournament put on by some good friends of mine. My main reason for going was, basically just to play some games and roll some dice. I have been working abroad for a long time which has reduced my play time. I used to be a regular player at GW tournaments in Nottingham but I found that they got really competitive and, as I have mentioned before, I am not really that kind of gammer. I like to use the models I like and I am just not that into spending massive amounts of time working out the best way to smash people up. Thats not to say I don't like to win, of course I do, I just don't like playing when all my opponent cares about is winning.

Well this wasn't one of those, it was a fairly small laid back affair and I had a really great time. Unfortunately there aren't really any pictures in this report, as I didn't take any, but you can see them on the Facebook page of the 'Greetings from Sigma' group.

This is more a report on the army and units and how they performed rather than of game tactics.

My list: -
The Glotkin.
Morbidex Twiceborn.
30 Plaguebearers.
30 Plaguebearers.
5 Blightkings.
3 Nurglings.
3 Nurglings.
10 Nurgle Chaos Warriors.
5 Nurgle Chaos Knights.
1 Nurgle Chaos Chariot.

There wasn't really an overall plan. I have found in the few practise games I play that I tend to win by scenario in a long drawn out slugfest. I tend to be able to manage Alpha Strikes well and can endure them to take it out in the long game.

Game 1. Lizards. 
I was worried in this game as I have never really played Lizards before and I know they can be pretty powerful. They have lots of tricks and my opponent explained them all to me - I remembered nothing of this conversation. I basically thought - well I will see what happens. As stated my expectations of this tournament were to learn a few things and play some games. Well turn 1 he teleported is Stegosaurus over, shot and charged The Glotkin and took a huge chuck out of him, at this point I was thinking that this game was going to be over pretty soon. But I remained focussed on the scenario and objectives and moved my army to start scoring as soon as possible. The one thing I was surprised about was how big my army seemed to be compared to everyone else's and this really paid off in the end. I managed to start taking away some of his models, the Blightkings came in to their first combat with a massive hit and wiped out a 20 man Skink unit in one go. For each 6 they roll to hit it causes D6 hits, in this combat from 15 attacks I rolled six 6's. The Nurglings were also doing a sterling job holding up the other flank and in-fact were increasing the size of their unit thanks to Morbidex's ability to generate new bases each turn. In the end my numbers took their toll and each turn I was scoring and at the end of turn 5 I had a convincing victory. I was really chuffed.

Game 2. Khorne. 
This was a full on Khorne rush army. Two units of Jugger Cav and then a ton of infantry. There wasn't really anything I could do about getting charged so I stuck a big unit of Plaguebearers and the Nurglings in front of the Cav and then everything else went after his Infantry. I was hoping that the Plaguebearers could hold one flank whilst the rest of my army could take out his army and then swing round to help. This was one of the scenarios where the objectives dropped during the game. As it turned out they dropped in my favour. The Plaguebearers did hold the flank and my other units did take out his army. Now this is the controversial bit - I lost on objectives points scored. However we only got to turn 3 (there was a long phone call involved). If we had played turn 4 I would have claimed three objectives and taken a massive lead. He did not have enough left of his army to win on turn 5 either. So whilst it went down on the scorecard as a loss I am counting it as a victory. I was a little annoyed but then I remembered my intention to go and have fun and learn some stuff so I took it on the chin and let it go.

Game 3. Ghosts.
This was an interesting army. The scenario was the basic capture the flag. Defend one objective and take another. My opponents army was basically made up of spirit hosts and I had no idea how to play them. They ignored all "Rend" and had a multitude of saves. I made mistakes in this game through lack of knowledge, I charged The Glotkin into the Ghost units when I should have charged my bigger Infantry units etc. Well in the end it was a draw on objectives but I lost on points. My opponent took out the Glotkin and Morbidex Twiceborn which scored him a ton of points, lots of his units licked out Mortal wounds and the Glotkin can't do anything about those. This was a good learning game and the next time I play this type of army I will feel better equipped.

Conclusions. 
So a win and two loses, I'll take that. But the best thing over the weekend was winning the Best Painted army award. This was voted for by the players so I feel really cool that they picked mine. I think this is one of the highest honours you can get from other players. I won by 1 vote from a beautiful Sylvaneth army and this was the army I actually voted for myself.

I was really pleased with the way my army performed and I took a lot away from just those three games. The way I play certain units, what units are good at, what they aren't etc. Stars of the show were probably the Plaguebearers. They held up really well, took out a ton of stuff and were virtually impossible to move. With the +1A form the Glotkin they are absolute monsters. Without the +1A from the Glotkin they aren't as good but they are still tough nuts to crack. The Blightkings were awesome as well, they can kick out some real damage and even without the +D6 they are still pretty dangerous, they also suck a lot of attention as well which can be a benefit. The Glotkin was good, its hard to ascertain his total benefit as its the buff that does the damage more than The Glotkin himself. He still has some great attacks and spells. Mortbidex was ok, I am not sure I fully utilised his abilities but the Nurgle generating ability is great and the Nurglings really caused some issues. No units really performed badly at all. I would like to bump the Blightkings from 5 to 10 which will cause a bit of jiggling around, I would also like to try out some other units to see how they play but I think the backbone of this army is pretty solid and I wont move away from The Glotkin and Plaguebearers for a while.

Until next time...

Kill Team.

Hey Folks....

So GW have released Kill Team again as a boxed game. I like these boxed games they have been doing, I haven't rally bought any of them myself but they do seem very good value for money. But I digress, back to Kill Team.

The basis behind it is that you play a game with a very small army, basically a unit or two and each model acts as an individual otherwise, its basic 40K. I like it for a few reasons: -

1. Building an army to 200 points is a challenge.
2. You only need a small number of models, so you can either buy something new or use all those bits of armies you started but never finished.
3. Allows you to put some real effort and individualisation into the models as you don't need that many.
4. You can write some fluff/cool back story.
5. There is a campaign element so you can progress your characters.

(That was actually more reasons than I thought).

So what can you get for 200 points? There are so many options, just from the armies I have I can field some pretty good teams but to get a good Kill Team setup you have to think out of the box a little. What is considered a bad unit at 1850pts can be an awesome unit at 200pts.

I think shooting is probably the most important aspect at this level, I don't think that a Close Combat army would work that well as it just won't have the numbers or the transport ability to be able to get close before being shot up so I think shooty armies would work better. So now its about maximising that ability for the points available. In Kill Team you are allowed 2 Troops, 1 Elite and 1 Fast Attack. I don't think there are any armies that could fill all four slots at 200. So given the above what can I do in terms of an army.

From my own collection I could: -

1. Space Marines - 200 would get you a full Tactical Squad with a Heavy Weapon, Special Weapon and a Sgt with a Power Fist. I think this is a pretty good all rounder and you can't go wrong with marines.

2. Chaos Space Marines - At 200 I could get a 7 man Plague Marine Squad with a couple of Special Weapons. You are getting less bodies than a regular Marine Squad but you are getting T5 and FNP. At this points level those two things become super good. Also 7 is Nurgles number so that must be a good omen.

3. Orks - 20 Boyz with Shootas and 10 Boyz with Sluggas, thats 30 bodies on the table and a fair bit of shooting.

What I like the sound of: -
1. Eldar - 9 Jet Bikes (5 Scatter Lasers and 4 Shuriken Cannons) comes in under 200 points and I think this would be pretty horrific. The speed and manoeuvrability is pretty stunning. Also each bike is pumping out 3 str 6 shots. Now the down side is that each model is a unit so each bike can only shoot one enemy model a turn but that model is probably going to die. This list is fragile though, still only T4 with one wound and a 4+ save but they do have jink in their favour.

2. Skitarii - Not sure they would be super powerful but I like the concept/fluff. Maybe a unit whose programming has been corrupted and have gone rogue. I think a few Rangers backed up with some Dragoons would look really cool.

3. Deathwatch - Basically made for Kill Team, in fact their units are called Kill Teams. The book has just been released and you can pretty much just build a squad of Marines exactly how you want them equipped with pretty much anything. It's a kit bashers dream. I have been playing around with a few bits for these guys myself. The beauty of it is you really can just use bits from any Marine kit, the options are massive.

Update - Playing my first Kill Team games tonight, going to take three lists with me and hopefully get a couple of games in.

List 1.
Plague Marines. 7 Marines in the unit with a Plasmas and Meltagun.

List 2.
Chaos Marine Bikers. 5 Bikers with Mark of Nurgle, 2 Meltaguns and a Power Fist on the Sgt.

List 3.
Daemons. 8 Screamers.

I think the Nurgle Bikers will be hard as they are T6 and there isn't a lot in a 200 point list that is going to be able to deal with that. The 8 Screamers could be interesting, have no real thought or plan with this one I just thought it could be fun. The Plague Marines could be good as well, as I said earlier with T5 and FNP they are going to be able to a beating hopefully.

Update 2.
So I played three games against Eldar, I won one and lost two. Turns out Eldar are pretty good in Kill Team games, the Shuriken rule on their weapons really makes an impact. In the first game I used the 5 bikes which I thought would be pretty powerful but with a ton of Shuriken shots a turn the 6's to wound meaning the shots were AP2 just hurt too much, even with FNP. He wiped me out by the end of turn 2.

In the second game I used a 10 man Space Marine Tactical squad, my oppo changed his army up a bit with some Jet Bikes, again the Shuriken rule and their agility did for my guys although I did last a bit longer this time.

In the third game my oppo used Harlequins and I used a Plague Marine Squad, as I suspected CC armies are not going to do well in this game. My guys just blasted them up, a couple got into combat but didn't really make a mark.

So all in all a good game, I think it needs to be played differently to 40K as in you can't be too gun-ho with tactics. Might try out a big IG blob next time - could be amusing.

Until next time......

Stage One of my 30K DeathGuard

Hey Folks

Just a quick post to show off the first of my 30K Death Guard models. I have been eyeing up some of these for a long time with the idea of trying to integrate them into my 40K army but some buddies of mine are playing full on 30K games so I decided to take the plunge.

As I mention in my last post I was only ever going to play Death Guard, I have always gone Nurgle when it comes to 40K be it Marines, Daemons or Traitor Guard. Not sure why, maybe its a zombie thing or a modelling thing.

Having all these different armies following the same God also means you can mix and match armies and have some more interesting games, but I digress.

So it was with a fun heart that I headed up to Warhammer World one weekend to meet the guys and spend some money in the Forge World shop. The plan was to get one Troop Choice (tactical squad in MKIII) a transport for them (Rhino), a HQ in the form of Typhon and another tank of some kind (to be decided after talking with the boys). Well imagine my disappointment when basically everything was out of stock, not impressed especially as its the actual Forge World shop.......

They still had Typhon, so I picked him up, but I really wanted to get started on an infantry unit. After a bit of cabinet perusing I went with unit of Deathshroud Terminators to accompany Typhon onto the battlefield, seemed appropriate.

I wanted to get a tank as well, was contemplating a Vindicator Laser Destroyer but in the end went for a Sicaran Venator. Its a cool tank but it also has some funky rules, if it hits and pens then the target can only snap fire for the following turn, very useful. As mentioned it does look awesome as well.

Once home from Warhammer World I excitedly hit the paint station and within a week I have managed to get Typhon and the Deathshroud Terminators done. I was a bit nervous about the paint scheme, I tried it on a practise model first and it came out really well so I dived in on the Deathshroud. The stages are as follows: -

1. Undercoat with white spray.
2. Paint the details, so the Silver, Bronze and Green shoulder pads. Stiple on some Orange for a rust effect.
3. Wash the whole model with a 50/50 mix of Earthshade and Medium.
4. Stiple on the damage, I used a dark brown.
5. Wash again with 50/50 mix of Earthshade and Medium be take care that this layer doesn't pool too much.
6. Wash the metal parts with Nuln Oil.
7. Do some highlights on the metal.

Its a straight forward paint job but I think the affect looks really good - so here are the models.

Until next time...

Finished?

Hey folks.

So this month I actually finished something. Yes you heard me correctly, I finished something.

An argument can be made that no army is ever really finished and that's certainly a valid view. But I am now in possession of 1500 pts of fully painted Nurgle flavoured Chaos Space Marines. Of course this brings with it its own problems, what to do next?

I have several projects on the go at the moment, and I am trying to finish a few things off that have been hanging around for a bit (which regular readers will know is a common theme for me) - but then what happens? GW release Harlequins and OMG (to quote my daughter) they are some pretty amazing models, and then what comes up for Pre-order? A new plastic Bloodthirster. Come on GW you are killing me here.

Veteran Nurgle Chaos Marine

So what have I been up to recently? Well as mentioned above I finished off my army of Chaos Marines. Although this year I want to primarily play Daemons I wanted to get this army finished so that I could play something to mix it up a bit but also so I could play games by mixing the two armies together. As well as finishing the 1500 points of I have painted a unit of Veterans using the Blight King models from Fantasy, some more Zombies to use as Cultists and a Land Raider. I will add a unit Terminators, also a Heavy Weapons team with Four Heavy Bolters. I am also looking to add in a Bastion as well as a bit of scenery it will be great to mount the Heavy Weapons team in. Once those bits are done i'll put the Chaos Marines to bed for a bit.

Veteran Nurgle Chaos Marine Squad

Veteran Nurgle Chaos Marines

Chaos Land Raider

Chaos Land Raider

Nurgle Forgefiend

Nurgle Forgefiend

For my 40K Daemons I have been painting up a few Tzeentch bits. I want to diversify from Nurgle a bit just so I don't get too bored with the army and the Tzeentch models are awesome. I have just done one Herald on a Disc and a couple of Horrors at the moment just to get the paint scheme right. I mounted the Horrors on the new 32mm base size as they do tend to be a bit wobbly in the 25mm ones. I also did one Screamer, again just to get the paint scheme right. Not sure how much I am going to add, might just be a couple of Horror units and a couple of Heralds for the time being.

Tzeentch Daemons

Still with 40K I have been flicking through the IA13 book and thinking about a few Renegade lists. There are some really great oppotunites for modelling some unique looking units from this list and I would like to try and use some models that aren't seen in 40K games much. There is a unit entry that is almost like a Merc type unit, I think maybe something like the Imperial Astra Militarum units would look good, painted in a suitably ragged way.

Again for 40K I have painted up a few Harlequins. I hadn't planned on starting an army of these but the models are so good. I'll paint up a few more of them just because I like models and I can use them as allies to my Marines. They might develop into a full army in the future, having a flick through the Codex they look pretty fun to play. I suspect they will be a bit of a glass hammer though.

Harlequins

Its been pretty much all 40K this month. One target I have for the next couple of months is to put together all my troops for Hail Caesar. Having read the rules I really like the look of this game and want to give it a try. I have painted 60% of one unit just to make sure I like the look of them but there are a lot of models in that starter set. Its going to take me a while to put them all together though. I have also been experimenting with magnets on the bases. Its not something I have done before but the models stick to the movement tray really well and will make moving them round the board less fraught.

Madame Sybelle

I managed to add model to my Malifaux crew in the form of Madame Sybelle. I actually managed to win my first Malifaux game a few weeks ago. Its a really great system with fantastic models. Hoping to get some more games in soon.

Nurgle Chaos Squat

And Finally. I was digging through some boxes and came across a bag of Forge World Chaos Dwarves from a long abandoned project. They are great models and I was thinking what I could do with them.... Chaos Dwarf Squats!!!!!! Squats are the long lost love child of 40K, they still kinda mention them in the fluff occasionally. I plan to model a unit of 7 and using them as Chaos Space Marines. They should look cool.










Until next time.....

I hate GW (they make me buy models).

...... but not for the reasons you think.

Hey folks. 

I am buried knee deep in boxes of models and its because I can't stick with one system. Lots of people I know just play one or two systems and concentrate on those, I just can't seem to be able to do this. 

Our hobby seems to be booming at the moment. If there was ever a "golden age" I think its now. There are some great systems out there right now with Bolt Action, Warmachine, Malifaux etc and I am into them all but GW are just flying right now. Some people might say that their rules systems are not that tight and that their pricing structure is high. But what keeps me coming back to them time and time again is that their models are simply amazing - and no one can argue that. I also love the back ground it is so detailed and it allows so many oppotunities in army design and conversion its untrue. 

Example - I am in the process of finishing my 40K Chaos Army. For Christmas I got the new Imperial Army book that features a Heretic Army list. This has just opened a whole new list of themes and possibilities for my Chaos force its untrue and I suspect that my wallet will feel the pain - who wouldn't want a unit of 40 Plague Zombies with their Chaos Marines? (doesn't help that I am in the middle of watching the Walking Dead either).

Ku'garth the GUO  of Nurgle.

So what has happened this month? Well I finished the Glotkin model, I am going to use this as a Great Unclean one, specifically the character GUO Ku'garth. I rocked him out at the club this week he managed to avoid the new model curse and he didn't die to the first shot of the game. He managed to romp up the pitch and smash up a few Tau.

I have continued to work on my Chaos Space Marines with the target of getting them finished soon, I am focused... honest. I have finished the Predator and the Lord on a bike and the Biker unit. I am still not totally decided on a list wether to go totally Marine or to ally in some Daemons or Renegade Guard Units.

Talking about Renegade units I have been trawling through the Imperial Armour 13 book which is focused on Imperial Renegades. Many years ago GW release a book called "The Eye of Terror" I think which had a Renegade list in and I built an army using Imperial Guard and Zombie plastics. Its been in a box for years but the IA13 book as allowed me to unpack it and see what I have got. I have put together a list using the book and I have all the models apart from a couple of tanks so I suspect its an army that will hit the table soon. As mentioned earlier I can also use them as allies to my new Marines so I suspect this will be a very Nurglely year.

Predator

Predator

Nurgle Chaos Lord on Bike

Burgle Bike Unit

Some.... err.... Zombies.

So before I got focused on finishing the Marines I bought a box of Zombies and stuck a bunch together. There is just something cool about a bunch of Zombies on the table top and being a big fan of the Zombie film genre I can't wait and using the IA13 rules they will have a 4+ FNP save!!! Even I know thats pretty awesome.




Also this month (again before I got focused) I painted a Blood Angel Dreadnaught.... I got a bit distracted in GW when the new Blood Angles codex was released..... maybe a new army project for the future. I also painted Sanguinary Priest... I know... focus (but it is a lovely model).

Blood Angels Librarian Dreadnaught. 

Sanguinary Priest

Back to the Nurgle theme for a moment. One of the questions I am still debating with the Nurgle Daemon army is Daemon Prince/Soul Grinder or two Daemon Princes. Well I have tried the first option for a bit so now I am going to  give the second one a go. This meant painting another Daemon Prince. The model below I have had since it was first released, I can't remember when that was but it was a long time ago, at least ten years. This is the original metal model and it didn't come with wings. When I stuck it together I did it as it came out of the box, so I had to pull off the two parts of the backpack and I can tell you that ten year old superglue is solid. Once off I attached some wings from the LotR Balrog kit and modelled some Green Stuff round the joins. Paint was then applied with the same scheme as I have used for the Daemons, this fella also has some armour so I used the same scheme as I have been doing for my Chaos Marines.

Daemon Prince of Nurgle.

Daemon Prince of Nurgle.

And finally...... Still on a bit of a Lord of the Rings kick I dug out Gwaihir from my model archive. This is again another model I have had since release, this is the original metal, not the new Finecast. I have got a game of LotR lined up at the end of Feb, still not sure what army to take but it might have an Eagle them.

Until Next time... 

Blessed by Nurgle

Hey Folks...

So I was recently blessed by Nurgle, I suspect because I have been painting a lot of models for him. This blessing, however, did not take the form of a cool tentacle but a cold. Neither did I come out of it the other end as a blessed warrior so it was all a bit disappointing really.

But I carried on painting models for him none the less.

I am in the process of painting the second Plague Marine squad, but (as always) I keep getting distracted by cool ideas. The main one this month came about as I sat in hobby cave looking looking on the Internet for something to buy for my wife to give me for Christmas. On Christmas day I like to have something to read, I like to just veg out on Christmas day with a beverage and flick through a nice book and the new Imperial Armour book caught my attention, its all about Chaos so seemed like a good idea. As I was looking on the Forge World site and reading the contents of this book my eye saw two words.... Storm Eagle. I slowly turned around and looked at the Storm Eagle model that has been sitting, unloved, on top of my cabinet for two years waiting to be painted. A slow smile crept across my face.

Death Guard Stormeagle.

I bought this model exactly two years ago, you may remember my post about me sticking myself to it as it was the most impossible thing to stick together. I got it for my UltraMarines originally, but I can't see myself using it with that army and I don't think I will be playing my Ultras for a while, they have seen many battles and for future events I will be going with my Daemons and Chaos Marines. I grabbed the model, rushed down stairs an immediately began hacking off the UltraMarine symbols and adding some Green Stuff mould to it and several hours later I had a cool flier to add to my new Death Guard army. Awesome. It's painted in the same rust style as I used on the previous tanks so that it fits in with the theme. Whilst ordering the book (for the wife to give me) I also took the opportunity to purchase a Death Guard Contemptor Dreadnought. These are awesome models and it will look great striding along side the Plague Marines. So I spent most of this month painting extras to the army rather than actually finishing off the army and then adding the extras. I really must get better at that.

Death Guard Stormeagle.

Death Guard Stormeagle.

Death Guard Contemptor Dreadnought. 

Well once the Plague Marines are finished then most of the army is done. I am just a couple of tanks away from finishing and it should be ready for the table.

I have only managed to get one 40K game in this month against Tom and you can see the write up of this in the Daemon tab of the Blog.

Tauriel

With the release of the new Hobbit film I also got inspired to paint up the Tauriel model I have had for a while. I love the Hobbit game but don't have many opponents. I hope to attend the Hobbit GT again this year and am thinking of taking the Mirkwood Elves so I painted her as a bit of a tester.

The other thing I got hold off this month is the new Glotkin model that has been released for the Warhammer Endtimes story line. This model is amazing..... I am going to use it as either a Great Unclean One or the Ku'garth (the character Great Unclean One). Its such a huge kit with such character that I couldn't resist. The great thing is that it comes with two "riders" both of which are characters in Warhammer but they can both be used in 40K, one as a Lord and the other as a Sorcerer in my Chaos Marine army. I have also bought some of the Warhammer Blight Kings (I think thats what they are called) as again they are excellent models and would be great as Chaos Marine Chosen.

Work In Progress Glotkin. 

The Champion from the Glotkin kit is fantastic. In the Warhammer version of the model he rides on top, I have based him on a 40mm round base to use as a HQ choice.

Chaos Lord (from Glotkin kit). 

Malifaux has also been keeping me interested, I played my first game at the club the other week and have another one lined up. The new plastics by Wyrd Miniatures are amazing. They are very detailed and really nice to paint up. I have one Crew (Ressurectionists) but whilst checking out an online retailer I stumbled across the Swamp Hag set for the Neverborn and couldn't resist. I am still not fully up on the game itself but hoping that the game next week will allow me to get my head round it a bit.

So as Christmas heads our way (and my 40th birthday) its time to think on the year ahead and maybe a more structured approach to painting and collecting. I am sure I can be a bit more efficient in what I paint to get whole armies on the table. But having said all this I am pretty sure its what I said last year.

And finally. I finished the chap a while ago for my Convergence Warmachine army but forgot to post a picture - so here is the Prime Axiom Colossal.

Prime Axiom. 

Until next time, Happy Christmas....

One thing leads to another.

Hi all.

So following on from my last post about Daemons I have gone off on another tangent. I still have a big of a pile of models from various "in process" projects but I have again diverged from my "list" and started another project. I am on a bit of a Nurgle kick at the moment (as you may have noticed) and have accidentally started a 40K Chaos Marine army.

I was playing around with my Daemon list and in one version I added a unit of Plague Marines as I have a half finished unit of them lying around. I thought a bit of shooting might help. Well after looking at it for a while I didn't think it was a really a goer but it did make me think about an actual Chaos Marine list. I have a nice paint scheme for Plague Marines as I had painted up a few models for allies in various other lists so one thing lead to another.....

It initially started because I was trying to finish the things I had started, so I was painting the Plague Marines and I bought a Rhino for them and really liked the way it looked. I also have a bunch of Chaos Imperial guard models from a previous army that I can use as Cultists so the actual army won't take that much work. The final nail in the new army coffin was that the manager of my local GW gave me a discount on a bunch of models as a wedding present. How could I refuse?

Chaos Rhino

So now I was committed I logged onto the Forge World site and ordered a couple of the Plague Marine conversion kits as the FW Marines are way better than the Finecast ones. I have finished the first squad along with their Rhino and these are pictures below. This army is going to have a few vehicles in which is different for me as I don't really use vehicles much so a Vindicator and a Pred are next on the paint table. I am allying in some of the Daemons as well. The Marine list is pretty light on troops so I am taking a couple of Heralds hoping that I can summon a few units of Plaguebearers to make up the numbers and "park the bus" on some objectives.

Plagues Marines

Chaos Rhino

Chaos Vindicator

Chaos Vindicator

Plague Marines

Painting wise I am a good way through the list so it should be completed in a month or so.

Malifaux - Resurectionist Nurses.

I have also painted up a few other things this month, I have made some progress on my Malifaux crew by completing a couple of Undead Nurses. I still haven't played this game yet but have lined up a game with one of the club members that is knowledgeable on the rules. I love the models for this game, they are very different to anything else that is on the market.

My club in Brighton also ran its first "Con" recently (more on this in another post) and Warlord had a sales stand there which meant that I had to make some purchases. A Stug was added to my Bolt Action Germans which are still waiting to be painted, although I have painted the Stug. I also bought a starter set for Hail Cesar. This is an historical game whose rule set is very similar to GW's old Warmaster Game. I will be sticking these together ASAP so I can get a game in. Again the models are cool, they aren't the best quality models on the market but they are nice, and when they are ranked up look good.

STUG

Celts

So its been a pretty good month.

Until next time...

P.S. Look out for the two new tabs detailing my "Year of........." projects.

Ever finished?

So is any army ever finished? Well I thought it was but yet again I am proven wrong. My Nurgle Daemon army project was a painting project with the outcome being a 1500 point playable army. Now Daemons were never great and a pure Nurgle army even less great....... then along came 7th edition.

7th puts a new spin on Daemons and causes me a conundrum. In 7th Daemons are actually pretty good, well thats how I see it. With the new Psychic phase and the new Daemonic summoning spells Daemons get a whole lot more viable but it does change my list somewhat.

My list originally was a big Greater Daemon (0 Heralds) and a whole bunch of Troops to try and swamp the enemy, couple of Soul Grinders and some of the new Plaguedrones. Now the new spell list allows me to summon units of Plaguebearers, Flies, Heralds and even a Greater Daemon and it isn't that hard. Now the enabler of this is that you need to make sure you have enough dice to guarantee that you can get the summoning off. You are sacrificing a decent 1500 list for the ability to make sure you can summon and build up a decent army during the game. If the opponent gets a good alpha strike it could cause problems so the first few turns you need to make sure your spell casters are safe.

So what does this mean for me. Well I have to pretty much redesign my list and then paint a bunch of new models. I managed to get a single game in with my Daemons before I had to run off and get married. I took tons of models with me anticipating that I would be summoning loads of things and it didn't turn out that way. Whilst I could summon a lot, I didn't summon as much as I was anticipating. I have a bunch of Bloodletters and Daemonettes lying around that I was going to paint up but I think I will be able to get away with just painting up the rest of my Nurgle stuff. I also found that Nurgle Daemon princes are the monkeys nuts. So having played one game and taking into account the changes 7th has initiated what does this mean for my list and painting schedule?

1. List Redesign. 
I need to change my list around, instead of a horde approach I will have to go with minimum troops to allow me to get in four Heralds all of which will be lvl2 psychics. This should allow me to then start summoning my troops at a fairly rapid rate.

Nurgle Daemon Princes are in - with the ability to Jink and Shrouded built in it means they have a 2+ cover save - I am having two in the list both of which will be lvl2 psychics as well. So these guys can go in the heavy support slot I am going to have to keep the Greater Daemon in, but it means the Soul Grinders have to go. This is a shame as I really like them. At a bigger points limited they would be the first thing back in.

The Beasts of Nurgle are out as I just don't have the points for them in the new layout if the points go up then they will be back in as they are really good. The Plaguedrones are also out as, again, I will be relying on summoning them.

2. Models.

Daemon Prince of Nurgle

So from a model point of view I am going to need to more Plaguebearers that's a given. I will need two Daemon Princes, the first will be the standard issue GW Nurgle DP with the addition of some Balrog wings (from The Lord of the Rings range). The second DP will be a conversation using the Giant from the Warhammer range with the addition of the sword hand from the FW Plaguehulk, the mechanical claw arm from the Soul Grinder and, of course, more Balrog wings.

For the Herald on Palanquin I am going to use the Warhammer Chaos Warshrine and put the plastic Nurgle Herald on the front and add a couple of spare Plaguebearers, one with a banner and one with an instrument just to add a bit of flavour.

Daemon Prince of Nurgle

Herald on a Palanquin

3. Tactics. 

The army is now completely different to pre 7th Ed. Before I was going with a bucket load of troops in the hope of overwhelming the opponent, now the initial list is the complete opposite. Its loaded up with characters meaning that I have much more powerful models on the table but the army is way smaller. If I don't get first turn then I need to survive the Alpha strike otherwise I could go down very quickly. Assuming I do survive the first turn I am then relying on the army to summon at least two maybe even three additional units per turn. I then hope to just summon more than the opponent can deal with. The powerful Daemon Princes and Greater Daemon concentrate on taking out the enemy threats, the summoned hordes can take or camp objectives and the Heralds can just keep summoning more units. The opponent then has to decide to either deal with the Heralds at the risk of being hit by the harder stuff. Take out the Troops faster than I can summon them or try and take out the bigger units but potentially get swamped late game.

So this is the list I am going to go with for a few games to see how it goes. My own thoughts are that its small when its put on the table at the start and as a general rule I am not a fan of small Elite armies. But I am going to try and go against my normal style and play something a little different, i'll let you know how it goes.

Herald on a Palanquin

HQ: Great Unclean One (1#, 260 pts)
   1 Great Unclean One, 260 pts = (base cost 190 + DR: Greater Rewards x1 20 + Psyker (Mastery Level 3) 50)

HQ: Herald of Nurgle (1#, 160 pts)
   1 Herald of Nurgle, 160 pts = (base cost 45 + L: Exalted Locus of Contagion 25 + Psyker (Mastery Level 2) 50 + DS: Palanquin of Nurgle 40)

HQ: Herald of Nurgle (1#, 95 pts)
   1 Herald of Nurgle, 95 pts = (base cost 45 + Psyker (Mastery Level 2) 50)

HQ: Herald of Nurgle (1#, 95 pts)
   1 Herald of Nurgle, 95 pts = (base cost 45 + Psyker (Mastery Level 2) 50)

HQ: Herald of Nurgle (1#, 120 pts)
   1 Herald of Nurgle, 120 pts = (base cost 45 + L: Exalted Locus of Contagion 25 + Psyker (Mastery Level 2) 50)

Troops: Plaguebearers of Nurgle (15#, 135 pts)
   15 Plaguebearers of Nurgle, 135 pts = 15 * 9

Troops: Plaguebearers of Nurgle (10#, 90 pts)
   10 Plaguebearers of Nurgle, 90 pts = 10 * 9

Heavy Support: Daemon Prince (1#, 270 pts)
   1 Daemon Prince, 270 pts = (base cost 145 + DG: Daemonic Flight 40 + DG: Warp-forged Armour 20 + Psyker (Mastery Level 2) 50) + DA: Daemon of Nurgle 15

Heavy Support: Daemon Prince (1#, 270 pts)
   1 Daemon Prince, 270 pts = (base cost 145 + DG: Daemonic Flight 40 + DG: Warp-forged Armour 20 + Psyker (Mastery Level 2) 50) + DA: Daemon of Nurgle 15

Daemon Prince of Nurgle

Until next time...