Warhammer

The August Audit 2025

Hey everybody,
For the last few years, I’ve been attempting to do some sort of stock-take of my outstanding miniature wargaming projects during the first week of August – not sure why August, other than that’s the first time I really tried to get myself under control with all this stuff. Last year, of course, I had taken a year off from Warhammer 40k, so it was very much a different kind of stock-take! However, 40k has definitely been creeping back into my life over the last few weeks, so it was definitely the right time to once more look through everything that I have and see where I’m at, and so on.

Of course, back in 2024 I sold off about half of my armies for Warhammer 40k, meaning that a good chunk of what I had on the pile of shame was instantly wiped clear. As it currently stands, I have three armies that I would consider as such, with two smaller forces that I am still vacillating over whether or not to sell those, as well.

Let’s start, though, with Necrons.

This was my first love for Warhammer 40k, and while I have hundreds of models for this army, I don’t think I would ever get rid of them all. Sure, over time I have sold some of these guys off, but I love them too much to get rid of the entire faction. Looking at the amount of models that I have painted, in the current state of things for 10th edition, I have a grand total of 2620 points of fully-painted Necrons. There are still a fair number of models that I have either to build, or in need of painting (or, in some cases, rescuing). In total, there’s 1800 points there. This seems like a lot, of course, but rather than trying to play a massive game with them, I think the key here is how flexible it makes my available army – I very much treat it all as a pool of resources I can draw from when building my force. I have 40 Immortals, sure, but I don’t think I’d ever really want to field them all, but I have the options for fielding models with the correct wargear.

10th edition is a little disappointing because some of the unit builds that I have are no longer viable here. Tomb Blades were a minimum of 3 models, but you could add models singly to the unit, so I used to field them in a squadron of five, but you can’t do that anymore (I suppose you could technically pay for six but field five..?) I specifically bought two issues of whichever edition of the Hachette magazine to get two more Tomb Blades so I could field five of the gauss cannon variety, as well, but now I think I might be better off just building one more tesla carbine, and maybe trying to off-load the other? Hm.

https://imgur.com/a/wQ7kA33#HJS6fhI

I’m particularly disappointed in the fact that I have some Forge World models that are kinda not in the edition or whatever, but also I’ve found that I really haven’t gotten as far as I’d thought with stuff like the Doomsday Ark. I had thought that was finished, but evidently not! Definitely more work needed on that. The Night Scythe is better, but I still don’t think it’s where it could be.

https://imgur.com/a/wQ7kA33#Z7cSBel

Let’s move on to the Dark Eldar. These are a very big army as I have so many models for them! The actual fully-painted side of the force clocks in at a fairly neat 2500 points exactly – although again, I don’t think I would ever want to field that force in its entirety, because it probably wouldn’t make much sense. The most confusion in the ranks here, of course, is how many Kabalite Warrior squads I have. I love painting these guys, and I have enough to make three full squads with almost any configuration of special/heavy weapons. However, to do this, I have the fairly random number of 33 models.

https://imgur.com/a/wQ7kA33#HNN1AGu

In terms of the unpainted stuff, well that’s another baffling coterie of models, totalling up to 1660 points. Again, I have a weird number of Kabalite Warriors (14), so I think I might try to do some work to just make some fixed squads and see if I can potentially off-load the rest. The Razorwing Jetfighter is kinda finished, but much like the Night Scythe for my Necrons, I’m not 100% happy with it, so I’m including it here. Of course, I did some good work a while ago and sold off a lot of my unbuilt Dark Eldar, so the pile of shame with these guys has reduced somewhat. And again, I like the fact that I can field an army with a tremendous variety.

All of the 11th edition rumours that I’ve been seeing are pointing to Dark Eldar being part of the launch box, with a range refresh that I’m not entirely sure they need. I certainly don’t think I would be rushing to replace my Kabalite Warriors, though looking at some of the stuff I have in the collection here, I think the Beastmaster is definitely a model group that could benefit from a new plastic kit. The possibilities there are very exciting, anyway, so I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for that.

The third army that I have still on the books is the Genestealer Cult. Now, it wasn’t all that long ago that I was talking about these guys, and since the last stock-take of this force, I’ve only painted 10 Neophyte Hybrids. The current unpainted stock is 1020 points’ worth of mutants, but I do have it in mind to try and press on with painting a few more of these units over the course of the autumn… Whereas my Necrons and my Dark Eldar have big numbers of models that are fully painted, I don’t think there has ever been a point in time that I have considered the possibility that I might actually get those forces completed. The Genestealer Cult, however, is a different matter. For all that I’ve called them a difficult paint scheme to manage, and so on, I find myself really enjoying these models as a painting project, and I look forward to getting more units finished. In this respect, then, despite there still being about a dozen units left to paint, I am really excited about the prospect of having a fully painted army of these guys…

🥴

So where does that leave me?

My Tau, while it was a lovely force to paint up, I have decided to sell off. I’ve already sold some chunks of them, and that will continue for the time being. My Eldar army, the big thing of 2023 with the launch of the new edition, has definitely ceased to excite me as it once did. Indeed, I feel like I’ve recalibrated myself somewhat, and have returned to the love of the dark kin while not being as interested in these Craftworlder types. That said, the army contains some of what I would consider as being my finest painted models, so I am currently very loathe to sell it off. The same can be said for the Sisters, I have really enjoyed painting those models, and I consider them to be some of my best-painted, especially that Exodus battle tank!

The Sisters army is 1730 points, but does not really function well because of the overabundance of infantry, which I have seen picked off time and again. To keep it as a functioning army, I would need to buy more, and that isn’t really the point of this! But I really don’t want to part with it – so for the time being, I am keeping a hold of them just to see how I feel about them when the new edition launches.

The Eldar are slightly smaller at 1330 points, but have the same issue as the Sisters in that they are predominantly on foot, with no heavy vehicles to speak of. They are lovely models, though, and I think they are some of my best work, so I wouldn’t want to rush into getting rid of them, so I feel kinda stuck at the minute!

In the old days, of course, you could say “oh, I’ll just keep them for Kill Team”. But because that is its own game now, and Combat Patrol is its own game as well, there is very little point to keeping a small scale army if it has missing pieces. I suppose I could try to sell off some of those pieces, with the intent of buying other pieces to “complete” them? Selling off the Wraith Lord to buy a Wave Serpent, or something? But I really don’t want to go down that route, either.

When in doubt, of course, you should do nothing, and so I think that’s what I’m going to do. I have sold off the unbuilt models for both factions, so I only have what is assembled and painted, and together they’re just in two plastic boxes, so I suppose it’s not too obnoxious a pile as it stands. The Necrons and Dark Eldar are definitely less well-contained, I must say!

Now, I am not going to attempt to catalogue my Necromunda backlog, because that might reduce me to tears, but this year I’ve also done something a bit different in that I’ve taken a look at the terrain that I still haven’t painted yet! There is, unsurprisingly, a lot of it, and because it’s all plastic terrain, it is a bit unwieldy…

https://imgur.com/a/wQ7kA33#oeONlk4

I have done some good work on getting my Sector Mechanicus terrain finished, however there is still quite a bit of it due in part to getting random stuff in Kill Team boxes. Some of it I sprayed silver a couple of years ago, thinking that might be a good starting point, but it didn’t actually help because I still haven’t made any efforts to paint it. But while I do have three big structures fully painted, plus a set of the plasma conduits and some random bits of scatter done, I think I still have my work cut out here.

https://imgur.com/a/wQ7kA33#sq4rEmk

The Sector Fronteris stuff was another Kill Team box, a mix of the old Kill Team and the newer version of the game. I was quite pleased to find out that I have this stuff, though, because all together it does look like it fills out a board quite nicely.

Lastly, I have the Sector Imperialis stuff, which has barely seen a paint brush. I do love this stuff though, and had an awesome game of Necromunda on the board a while ago. This board is very much what I love about Warhammer 40k, how over-the-top gothic it all is, and while I think it might very well be a retirement project for me at this rate, I would love to one day have a full board of this stuff painted up – not a rush-job, but to paint it up well.

Okay, so that’s Warhammer 40k. For Age of Sigmar, I have a couple of units (literally, just the catapult and cavalry) for my Ossiarch Bonereapers. I also have some Slaanesh and Khorne units that I am very much keeping for Warcry, although the Slaanesh stuff does come to about 1400 points in the big game. Not enough for a proper army, but it could probably hit the table, I suppose. On the subject of Warcry, of course, I have 4 warbands that still need to be assembled and painted, one that just needs to be finished off, then I need to finish painting the doorways for Catacombs. The Red Harvest terrain, and the Defiled Ruins terrain all need painting up, and while the starter set terrain didn’t take me too long once I’d gotten started with it, I’m still a little concerned about starting either of those projects just yet. Hopefully they won’t be a retirement project as well, though!

In 2025, I have kinda gone a bit crazy in that I’ve been attempting to catch up with a lot of the models for both Star Wars Shatterpoint and Marvel Crisis Protocol that I don’t have, but would like to have. There was a point around March, I think it was, where I felt like I was committing to collecting all of the Shatterpoint teams, and so I currently have a big backlog of unopened boxes currently residing in the attic. MCP isn’t as bad – as I’ve actually built most of those. I was talking with James about it during our last game, and we both agreed that we play with grey plastic too often. It’s fine, of course, because we’re both busy people and I don’t think we’d get to play quite as many games as we do if we insisted on only playing with painted models, but even so, I think I want to try and commit to a team (or maybe two – more on this in another post) and then try to get those painted. At some point, we’re intending to have a fully-painted game, which should be exciting, anyway!

So there we have it. I still have too many plastic models that aren’t yet painted, and while I’m not entirely sure I’ve done much in the way of reducing the backlog since the last audit post, I do feel very much like I’ve been able to get things back on track as regards all of these projects. If by no other method than just selling off large swathes of the backlog! I definitely still have work to do, of course, and I think if I were to be honest with myself, I could definitely do with thinning out more of the armies I’m keeping. Holding on to the Sisters and the Eldar is almost a sentimental thing at this point, but I don’t want to get rid of them entirely if it means I regret that decision later on, however my experiences playing both forces were hardly what I’d call enjoyable, and so I don’t think I would be in any kind of rush to play either army again without adding more models to them.

I’ve saved this for the end here, but I have to say, getting my 40k collection out again and looking through my models has actually been really nice. Tuning out a lot of the noise around the game, and just looking at the models – what I have, and what I haven’t painted – has been really fun. It’s nice to remember the games where certain models over or under performed, and seeing things like my Dark Eldar Ravagers reminded me of the game where Robin’s squad of Ork boyz surrounded them and were just beating them up for turn after turn. Or the Catacomb Command Barge flying at JP’s daemon prince for a heroic one-on-one battle while everything else raged around them. I’ve had so much fun with these models over the years, and I think it’s really good to remind myself of that.

July 2025 retrospective

Hey everybody,
July has been a funny old month, in many ways. The dental problems I had at the start of the year have returned, resulting in getting the tooth extracted yesterday. What a joy that was. Hopefully it’ll calm down shortly, anyway! I think the elephant in the virtual room has been the fact that Games Workshop has made a stealth-return to the blog, as I’ve been writing more about Warcry in the last few weeks, as well as a bit of a celebration post for Age of Sigmar turning 10 at the start of the month. After six years, I’ve also fully-painted the original starter set for Warcry, which is nothing short of amazing, I feel! I’ve never done this for any of the big boxes of models that we’ve had in the past, so I feel really good about it.

Of course, I have yet to play a game on it, but hopefully that’ll all change soon.

At the start of July, I’d made some vague plans where I wanted to play Marvel Champions more, and I wanted to get more painting done this month. Well, I have pretty much succeeded on both of those fronts, having got the Warcry set finished, as well as the Fomoroid Crusher for that game, and the Bloodsecrator for the Sigmar celebration. I’ve also been able to finally call an end to my efforts at painting the Wrecking Crew for Marvel Crisis Protocol – something I’d started way back at the start of the year. I’d decided I wouldn’t play them until I’d got them painted, so I’m pleased to say that these lads are now finished!

I think I’m getting back into the whole painting thing, which is good because I still have a tremendous backlog! I definitely want to try my best to keep going here, because it’s always better to get games with painted models, after all.

There’ll be more to say on this next week, though.

In terms of gaming, though, July has been pretty good. I’ve been predominantly playing Marvel Champions, which has become something of an all-star for me once again. I’ve had some fantastic games, and have launched a kind-of campaign against the Red Skull again where I’m using Winter Soldier with a rotating cast of other heroes. I’ve already played him and Cap against Zola and it was awesome, so I’ve played against Crossbones with Spider-Woman, and it was another amazing outing as both heroes are extremely powerful, but going up against Absorbing Man with Hawkeye wasn’t quite the same! I think I’ve said this before, but Absorbing Man is usually decried in the community, however with the wrong sort of heroes, he can very easily scheme his way to victory.

I’ve also been using Zola’s Algorithm, the obligation card from the campaign set that gets shuffled into the hero decks. It’s just an annoying stumbling block, which has an Acceleration icon on and you need to exhaust your alter-ego and spend a mental resource to discard, so I thought would be thematic. Well, I drew both Bucky’s and Clint’s copies during that game, and of course it happened when there were two copies of Avalanche in play, so I was adding 5 threat to the scheme at the start of the villain phase!

This is something that I really love about Marvel Champions, though, the way that you can adjust the difficulty with so many different levers to pull or push. I haven’t really been doing all that much with the campaign cards, aside from playing the Red Skull campaign in 2023 (I think). When I played the Guardians campaign last December, I forgot all about the campaign cards, so I think I’m going to try and give that another try using those, but in general I think it might be worth exploring more of those cards anyway. I know the X-Men boxes include a few interesting things, so I’d like to see whether there are ways of using these things outside of the campaign itself.

What else has been going on?

I had a game of Star Wars Legion, using the FFG rules from the game’s initial launch, and it was an absolute blast – definitely feels like a good move getting into that one, though I haven’t yet made a move to start painting those models. I haven’t yet managed to get in a second game, but I’ve also been devoting more to Star Wars Unlimited, as I am really enamoured with that game right now. I’ve made some initial forays into the unofficial solo mode for that game, getting the challenge decks printed off and so on, so hopefully it won’t be too long before I can put my collection to good use there!

Star Wars and Marvel are very much the cornerstones of my gaming right now, but during the height of the heatwave we had here, I stayed up until midnight playing games and included the classics Runebound and Elder Sign, that last being my 50th game! I am still to get back to the Arkham LCG, but I suspect it won’t be too long before I finally make the effort to get back to The Forgotten Age for a second run-through, as I’ve definitely been thinking about that more in the last week or so.

I really enjoyed the late night games, even if it was hotter than I’d like, so I might look at doing something like that again. It’s usually par for the course when playing miniature wargames of course, but it’s sometimes nice to just launch into something thematic and see where the night takes you!

So, July was pretty good, if I’m honest! Loss of the tooth aside, some great games were had, and I’ve managed to get quite a bit painted from the backlog! Let’s see what August brings…

Warcry starter set – fully painted!

Six years ago, Warcry hit the shelves and I began building up some Iron Golem models. Progress was extremely slow with building the rest of the box, of course, as the box released into the utter carnage of me moving house and my eldest daughter being born. However, over the years I slowly got to try the game, and was pretty much hooked. I’ve bought a lot for Warcry during the red-topped first edition of the game, and back in February last year, I finally started to get the terrain painted…

Well, that’s great of course, but what about the rest of the box? The starter set competes with Necromunda: Dark Uprising for being the best value big-box GW has ever put out, as not only was there a table full of terrain, but we also got two warbands, and two groups of Chaotic Beasts to spice up the game. The Iron Golem were some of the miniatures that had initially drawn me in to this game, so I painted those up around the same time as the terrain.

The Untamed Beasts, while definitely one of the most enjoyable warbands to play, had to wait until this summer before I got them done!

In the last few weeks, I’ve finally gotten the beasts done, which was a task I had been putting off for far too long. In the end, I decided to paint them in a bit of an abstract way. In my mind, these beasts are manifestations of Chaos, so I wanted to have the suggestion of colour, rather than painting every detail. The Furies are a sort of deep crimson, while the Raptoryx have shades of Slaanesh, hence the purple hues…

And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the finished box! For the first time ever, I have fully painted a Games Workshop big box, and I absolutely love it!!

Okay, so the Exalted Chariot isn’t part of the box set, but I thought I’d put it in there for the hell of it!

I’m extremely happy with how it all turned out, and with the addition of two other warbands from the first wave fully painted, I’m thrilled to have so many options for fully-painted games!!

Warcry: Cities of Sigmar

Hey everybody,
Warcry has been somewhat on the ascendant here on the blog once more, hasn’t it? I’ve recently been on a bit of a painting streak to get the original starter box fully painted, so there will be a post coming out later today with all of that goodness to show off. In addition to getting the Fomoroid Crusher and the Untamed Beasts finished, I have also started to get some paint on the Khorne models in my collection, with a view to running them as a warband. I have a lot of Khorne things, so there are quite a few configurations available to me there.

However, a couple of weeks ago, I was watching a video on Youtube from Dana Howl, where she was talking (I think) about the Warhammer Old World stuff, and at a couple of points during that video, she had one of the models from the new(ish) Cities of Sigmar range.

And I kinda fell in love with it.

Cities of Sigmar was of course a thing back in (I think) second edition of AoS, where Games Workshop took some of the plastic models for the high elves, dark elves and dwarves, and made them three different “cities” factions. Up until that point, there were loads of tiny factions that attempted to re-use some of the old Warhammer Fantasy models, but a couple of Start Collecting boxes were issued – Anvilgard (dark elves), and Greywater Fastness (dwarves). It was alright, but by this time we had new Chaos, the Stormcast models, and all the Nighthaunt stuff, so these older models were definitely showing their age.

All of that changed late in 2023, as Age of Sigmar wound down third edition, and the release of a new model line of Cities of Sigmar. This range is more generic fantasy/historical army types, and it looks pretty superb. In Warcry terms, the Cities of Sigmar is split into three subdivisions – the new stuff is referred to as the Castelite Hosts, but the dark elves and dwarves have reverted to their old, AoS1 names of Darkling Covens and Dispossessed, respectively.

It’s the Castelite Hosts that have drawn my attention, however, and I have become really intrigued by getting a few units to use in Warcry. By my calculations, a box of Freeguild Steelhelms would get me a 700-point warband of 9 Steelhelms (60 points) led by a Sergeant-at-Arms (100 points). The Alchemite Warforger (125 points) is an incredible-looking model, and one that I have off-and-on had my eye on since the preview in 2023, while the Freeguild Command Corps gives plenty of one-off hero-type models such as the Arch-Knight (120 points) or the Whisperblade (80 points). There is definitely options by buying those three kits – the Steelhelms, Command Corps and the Warforger – though at £92 MSRP, that might be a bit steep!

The Steelhelms are the models that have most attracted me to this faction, though, and I like the idea of them being more of a trained militia rather than the fairly chaotic warbands that I usually look at playing. The Sergeant-at-Arms has the ability to give +2 toughness to fighters within 3” as a [Double], which I like. Feels like a real shieldwall-type force. The Warforger, as a [Triple], can add +2 to the crit value of a melee attack for fighters within 6” as well, which would raise the Steelhelms’ crits to 5 damage each. Very nice.

This probably isn’t going to be something that I’ll be rushing to do, of course, but after having my imagination fired up by seeing the models, I wanted to get some ideas down so that I have a foundation to work from in the future… you know, because I’ll have so much time to work on this stuff…

The Red Duke

Hey everybody,
This week, I’ve finished reading The Red Duke, a Warhammer Fantasy novel from 2011, written by CL Werner. This is the Old World, so we’ve still got all of the old names for stuff, but despite this, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed in the book, as a whole. I think having a classic Warhammer Vampire on the cover made me think I’d be in for one thing, but in reality I got something pretty different.

See, the book takes place in Bretonnia, which I have always found to be incredibly irritating. The Empire being based on central Europe and the Holy Roman Empire is one thing, but Bretonnia is so transparently France, to the point that there is an Aquitaine, a Carcassone, and so on. All of the names are very Frenchy-sounding, and I find it really irritating. At least Tilea and Estalia try to be a bit different from Italy and Spain, respectively!

This isn’t the fault of Werner, because this is what Bretonnia is, of course. I’m sure there are plenty of fans of the faction who lap this sort of thing up. Bretonnia is also known for its Arthurian lore, with Grail Knights on quests in the name of the Lady of the Lake, and all that. I’m not saying this to be a hipster of course, but I speak French and I have an interest in Arthurian legends, so for the majority of this book I really didn’t feel like I was in Warhammer.

The story is basically of a feud between two families, which escalates when the last son of the Earl Gaubert d’Elbiq is killed in an honour duel by the son of Count Ergon du Maisne. D’Elbiq makes a pact with the witch Jacquetta to resurrect the spirit of the bloodthirsty Red Duke, who five hundred years ago led an army of the undead through Bretonnia. The idea is that d’Elbiq could use the vampire’s spirit to exact his revenge on du Maisne. Sadly, the Red Duke has had five hundred years trapped inside his tomb, and his bloodlust initially blinds him to all of this. He does cut a bloody swathe through the Chateau du Maisne, but then repeats his past conquests as he attempts to wrest control of Aquitaine from his brother, King Louis.

It’s almost a comedy as the Red Duke re-enacts these battles, but eventually the current Duke Gilon of Aquitaine is able to lure him back to Ceren Field, where he met his demise five hundred years ago. Duke Gilon meets his demise at the hands of the Red Duke, however the Prophetess Isaure breaks his resolve by telling him his campaign was all in vain. The Duke’s wife had given birth to a son after he had left on crusade in Araby, and King Louis had ensured this son was given Aquitaine as a dukedom when he came of age. So the Duke’s line had never lost its inheritance. The Duke flees into the forests and is never seen again…

I mean, honestly… talk about a contrived ending. The majority of this book had been building up to a battle that was over in about 40 pages, and didn’t really feel all that satisfying, if I’m being completely honest. As I said, though, I think I would have preferred to have less Bretonnia in this story, and more general Vampire Counts goodness!

Never mind… 2 stars for nostalgia though!

Warcry: feel the wrath!

Hey everybody,
After getting the Bloodsecrator painted up for the Age of Sigmar tenth anniversary special, I’ve been inspired to keep going with painting up the random bits and pieces that I have still to paint, and have settled for the time being on the box of Wrathmongers that I’d picked up years ago for Warcry. It was back during the pandemic, when I was on a real high for Age of Sigmar in general, and was busy getting my Ossiarch Bonereapers painted up; I built the Wrathmongers but didn’t really do much with them.

I’d like to get these five painted up by the end of the month, though that doesn’t really sound like a lot of time when you see how much work they need! Of course, I’ll be checking in here with updates once they’re completed.

Now, I’m not about to launch myself into painting up a Blades of Khorne army, but rather I want these models for use in Warcry, because I’m one of these people who will be continuing to play that game!

I have a lot of Khorne models, and a lot of Slaanesh as well – the Slaanesh is probably closer to being an army than the Khorne stuff, though. I had initially picked up the Start Collecting Khorne Bloodbound box when I was on that initial AoS kick back in 2019, when I’d moved house and seemed to have landed myself in a bit of an AoS community. I have some fairly fond memories of that summer, despite the fact I moved house with a heavily-pregnant wife at the time! Looking back on these models and getting them painted is particularly exciting, as a result.

So I’ve been looking at the Khorne factions in Warcry, and have quite a number of options open to me:

Exalted Deathbringer with Ruinous Axe (185)
Not much here beyond the basic Khorne Bloodbound ability. He does have access to the generic hero [Triple] that gives +1 to attacks made by visible friendly fighters within 6” if he manages to take down an enemy fighter – inspiring the troops around him. He makes 4 attacks at S4 which deal 3 damage on a hit, and 5 on a crit, so that is perhaps possible if he’s going after weaker, or softened-up fighters.

Bloodsecrator (160)
As a banner bearer, the Bloodsecrator has the [Quad] ability to give +1 attacks to friendly fighters within 8” of him. He’s only making 3 attacks though, as S4, but deals 2 damage on a hit, and 5 on a crit, so he does have some potential there.

Wrathmaster (210)
As a [Quad], this fighter can make a bonus move and a bonus attack, and gets to add half the value of the ability to the strength characteristic of its melee attacks until the end of the round, so that’s potentially 6 attacks then another 6 attacks, which have the potential to be S7, dealing 2 damage on a hit and 4 damage on a crit!

Bloodreaver with Reaver Blades (65)
The most basic of fighters, these guys make 4 attacks at S3, dealing 1/3 damage. They definitely feel like you need them in a bit of a swarm.

Blood Warrior with Goreaxe and Gorefist (100)
The slightly more elite fighter, you’re paying extra for slightly better durability in terms of hit points, but also the attacks are slightly better as well.

Wrathmonger (140)
More elite again, these guys are slightly slower but they are very chunky, and have an increased durability as well. They’re making 5 melee attacks from range 2 though, which is pretty big, S4 and dealing 1 damage on a hit, but 4 on a crit. They have access to the same [Quad] attack as the Wrathmaster, their natural leader.

I forgot these guys actually came out before AoS…

The warband that I have decided to go for, then, consists of a Wrathmaster as the main leader, with a Bloodsecrator as a sort of lieutenant, then a Wrathmonger and a Blood Warrior with Goreaxe and Gorefist, followed by six Bloodreavers. It’s an eclectic mix, for sure, but the main thing in its favour is that it consists of some of my favourite models in the range, and it doesn’t hurt that it comes in at 1000 points exactly. I already have ten Bloodreavers painted, as well as the Bloodsecrator, so I think my plan to get the five Wrathmongers painted next will put me well on the way to having another warband fully painted for Warcry!

This is starting to become a bit of a habit…

The Warhammer Summer Preview

Games Workshop held their big Summer Preview event last night, which as suspected by pretty much everyone, saw the return of the Chaos Dwarves to the lineup.

I’m not the biggest fan of these guys, I think because I find their look, which seems to be heavily influenced by cultures from the Fertile Crescent, a bit too boxy. It’s like they’ve tried too hard to keep the aesthetic of 20+ year old models, rather than update them in any way.

These guys apparently worship the god Hashut, not sure if that’s meant to be a Chaos god or not. But they’re a dark mirror to the usual dwarven engineers we see, creating abominable machines infused with daemons, or something like that.

It could just be the paint job, but some of these things look more like 90s computer graphics.

I know plenty of people seem to like the idea of these guys, though how many of them will actually pick up the army…

They do look like fun models though, no getting away from that. And I do like the overall idea of them as having these huge infernal machines in the lineup.

I suppose I’m just not really looking into getting any more AoS armies right now, as I’m not really intending to play the game. At least, I don’t think so. There’s probably more to say on that at some point, of course!

The Helsmiths have also made it into Warhammer Underworlds, with a warband coming out at some point as well. I have no idea where that game is up to right now, but they do still make some very nice models for it!

Kill Team is also still going, with a Deathwatch vs Necrons expansion coming that includes ‘tomb world terrain’!! Never thought I’d see the day.

I can’t really tell, but it looks like the actual teams in this box are pretty low-effort expansions on existing units? I mean, these marines look like standard fare to me? And the Necrons team:

My first thought was of a re-hashed Psychomancer, with some weird little friends, but honestly, I’m not a fan. There does appear to be a scarab base involved though, but it just looks too weird. To me, Necrons are the Immortals and Lychguard, not these spindly paperclip-style things.

In 40k, Leagues of Votann are getting their codex with the long-awaited second wave of model releases. Back when they first came out, I was tentatively into them, as I love the aesthetic and thought a lot about getting a few kits. I think I even started to plan a 10th edition army of them, but stopped short of actually buying anything.

But now, I’m feeling that temptation once again! Okay, so the guy with the Tyranid carapace on his back isn’t doing it for me…

This guy looks fun though!

And the big robots do, as well!

GW are increasingly doing these kinds of diorama models, siege engines and the like being great ways to create a sense of life among the collection. I could be wrong, but I think it was the Mortek Crawler, the big catapult for the Ossiarch Bonereapers, that started this trend. But I love it.

I also love the vehicles of the Votann. This thing reminds me a bit of the Goliath Truck for the Genestealer Cults, but obviously with the hover tech of the Leagues.

Let’s face it, I’m probably not going to be buying any Squats, as I’m trying to clear out my 40k collection, not add to it! But I do like these new additions to the lineup. Looks like some really interesting options could be coming in the future there, at any rate!!

For me, these were the big takeaways. Old World is getting some new Tomb Kings, which is vaguely exciting, though the Cathay stuff is what has struck me the most as being exciting for that game. Horus Heresy is getting a new edition, as far as I can tell, but I’m not really into all that stuff.

Black Library has obviously finished the whole Heresy storyline now, after about a century of storytelling and about as many novels, so they’re moving into the Scouring, as I had suspected a long time ago. Another multi-novel series, basically telling the story of how the Loyalist marines chased the Traitors into the Eye of Terror, or something? Not sure how that could be sustained over about 56,782 books, but I’m sure if anyone can do it, Black Library will 😃

Joking aside, Chris Wraight is one of the more unsung heroes writing for BL, I do enjoy his books so this might actually be a good series to explore. I kinda wish I knew what the plan is in terms of length, because 54 novels was way too many for the Heresy, and I feel like a Scouring series could be even more rambling because it doesn’t really have a set end-point. Well, maybe The Beast Arises…

We’ll see…

Fomoroid Crusher

It’s been a few years now since I started work on this big lad, but today, he is finally complete!

He is one of the monsters available as a sort of hired mercenary for any warband, but does have some very interesting rules. He is a meaty 260 points, but brings 35 hit points and has a fairly good melee attack that can deal 3 damage on each hit or 6 on each crit (though this has changed to 4/8 in the digital update a few years back).

Obviously, he’s got a lot of chunks of rubble as part of the miniature; he has the [Double] ability to throw masonry at an enemy fighter within 8” – you roll a dice if the Crusher is within 1” of an obstacle, and on a 3-4, you deal 1 damage to the enemy, but on a 5-6 you deal damage equal to the value of the double used. As a [Triple] he can do a Rampaging Charge, at the end of its move it can pick an enemy within 1” of him and deal damage equal to the value of the triple used. And finally, as a [Quad], when the Crusher takes out an enemy, he gains 1 wild dice to be used in the next round.

I’ve never used these mercenary models in games, as I tend to just bring the fighters that a warband can bring. However, I am very excited now that I have him painted, so I think I might be looking to include him in games going forward!

10 Years of Sigmar!

Yes folks, ten years ago today, Games Workshop launched the Age of Sigmar with a bang.

To celebrate, I’ve painted up this Bloodsecrator, one of the models from the original box, although one that I had only started painting up back in 2019. It’s one of the fancy hero-type models, and was certainly one of the most striking of the new offerings in that box!

That box had some truly spectacular models, I have to say…

There have been some ups and some downs for Age of Sigmar, it’s true, but I find it such a fascinating game. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to love, but even while there were some folks nearby who have proven to be quite dedicated to it, it has never really hit it off for me, more’s the pity.

I think this has partly been due to the initial reception given to the game, and the fact that it never seemed to recover from that. There is a fairly tortured genesis for AoS of course, with the Old World being literally blown up to make way for it. Whether or not Warhammer Fantasy was the dying duck that GW professed it to be, the Old World was a much-beloved setting, and removing it in favour of some nebulous “realms” idea that made little sense seemed like it could be insane.

At launch, of course, AoS had the now-infamous 4-page rules pamphlet that baffled a lot of players to begin with – how to play somewhat-balanced pickup games with randos at the store if there’s no points?

The points came later on in the first General’s Handbook, though not before GW gave us what looked very much like a rulebook in the traditional sense – but again, was mostly fluff and beautiful photos. There were battle plans, and the warscrolls for all the stuff in the launch box were presented nicely, but still…

Starting off this way was controversial, to say the least. At launch, GW also presented free warscrolls for literally every single Old World model, which was great! Until you dived into them, and the silly rules about who has the longest beard, or whether you say ‘for the Lady!’ when rolling dice, etc. These rules were much derided, and only served to further alienate a significant portion of the wargaming crowd. But it soon became clear what was going on…

With releases and reboxings coming out thick and fast that summer, along with books like the above narrative series, I think it was clear that GW intended for AoS to mostly refresh the entire fantasy line of models, with armies like Bretonnia and Tomb Kings being eliminated altogether while others, such as Wood Elves, had just a few kits saved for new factions – in this case, Sylvaneth. It didn’t take long to understand that the silly rules were there to subtly move you away from the old stuff, and instead start collecting the shiny new stuff, which had much better rules…

It was very much a mess at first, with so much bad publicity it’s hard to imagine it could survive. However, AoS has weathered these storms, and seems to be doing absolutely fine. We’re currently in its fourth edition now, which is a bit strange to say, and the releases show now sign of stopping, even with the Old World having returned about 18 months ago. The recent releases for Cathay have perhaps put some of the Sigmar stuff in the shade, but let’s see what AoS has accomplished, shall we?

First edition gave us Stormcast Eternals and new Khorne mortal models. The Stormcast weren’t everyone’s favourites, for sure, but the Khorne stuff was great, I think. Second edition swelled the ranks of the Stormcast, and gave us Nighthaunt, a whole new range that reimagined some of the Death faction models in new plastics that were, to put it mildly, gorgeous. Third edition started to branch out with yet more Stormcast – the new, svelte type – and Kruleboyz, the marsh-dwelling Orcs that seemed more cruel and cunning than the usual football-hooligan Orcs we were used to. Fourth edition has given us – you guessed it – more Stormcast, and also re-worked Skaven models. Along the way, we’ve had a slew of new models as well, including new factions for Idoneth Deepkin and Slaanesh mortals, which are some of my absolute favourite models in the whole line.

In many ways, I think Age of Sigmar had to break with the Old World and make a total fresh start, so that we could start to get these kinds of weird and wonderful models that would otherwise not have been possible. I can’t really see a faction like Idoneth happening within a game system that is heavily inspired by the Holy Roman Empire. A lot of shade is thrown at Games Workshop for rebranding their model lines purely to keep the trademark, but if the quest for legal protection is what has led to such models as the Lumineth Realm-lords, then I’m all for it. Some of these models are nothing short of beautiful, and I absolutely adore them. Even the silly flying fish of the Idoneth retain a kind of nobility about them, and I’ve said it time and again how much I love the Arabian aesthetic of the Slaanesh mortals line.

I wish I had more to offer by way of a decade’s celebration of this game, but instead it feels like I’m just gushing about how much I love these things! I played two games of the first edition, both with Stormcast, and while it was fun to have a fairly relaxed game, I don’t have much in the way of memories for how everything worked. I’m pretty sure that one of those games involved a four-way battle using one of the scenarios they published as a promotional thing. Second edition, I had three games with Nighthaunt, which was a lot of fun as I played each one against a really chill guy named Jak who had some disgusting Maggotkin models. They were some really fun games, and I enjoyed them a great deal. In third edition, I played two games, this time with my Ossiarch Bonereapers. This was my lockdown army, and while I don’t have quite as many fond memories of third as I do of second, I nevertheless enjoyed seeing my fully-painted army in action, and the models are of course superb!

Over the years, I’ve bought and sold quite a few armies for Age of Sigmar. My Nighthaunt, while it was a bit of a shame to let them go as they have some exquisite pieces, they were an absolute nightmare to store so I suppose it was too much of a headache to keep those! I often forget the fact that I had a somewhat sizeable Stormcast army as well, as they were still an early army for me, as I hadn’t long been into the hobby when it all kicked off. One of the more short-lived projects was Idoneth Deepkin, I don’t think I got very far at all with them, yet they were a lot of fun as an idea. Definitely the one that got away, though. I’ve also been very keen on Sylvaneth, and at one point was the extremely proud owner of three Treelords!

I have been actively working on downsizing my 40k collection, to the point where I’m probably going to end up with just one or maybe two armies. However, with Age of Sigmar, I can’t seem to bring myself to get rid of things. Part of this is probably the fact that Warcry is one of the best skirmish games I own, and I want to keep a big bunch of models for this for the variety. As such, I’ve got a lot of Khorne and Slaanesh mortals that I enjoy, and I’ve been holding on to the Bonereapers for the same reason, really.

I’m not about to launch myself into getting into Age of Sigmar once again, but whenever I spend protracted periods thinking about the game, inevitably I start wanting to make some inroads once more. The problem, I think, is the seasonal play approach that GW has with these things. As a company, it makes perfect sense for them to have this sort of thing in place to keep players invested, as there is a shifting meta of play thanks to the General’s Handbook and so on, but it makes things extremely opaque to an outsider like me who might want to break into the game on a more casual basis. Of course, I suppose I could just buy the core rules, get myself the battletome for my army, and enjoy some quality games regardless. But that’s not how I work…

I don’t know whether I’ll be getting into AoS 4 yet. But there’s a part of me that would like to play at least one game in every edition…

Throwback Thursday: Arkhan the Black

It’s been almost six years since I moved house, and celebrated by building two very big models: the Keeper of Secrets, and Arkhan the Black. Well, I wouldn’t have wanted to try to move with these guys fully assembled, after all!

As we approach the 10th anniversary of Age of Sigmar, though, I thought it would be kinda cool to look back on this model as it’s one of my all-time favourites.

I can remember the whole End Times hoopla, which started only about a month after I had first set foot inside a Games Workshop store, and which brought out the magnificent model for Nagash, along with his Mortarch servants, new Spirit Host models, and the Morghasts that have now found their way into the Ossiarch Bonereapers faction. Nagash was such an incredible model, but personally I had always had my eye on the Mortarchs. Neferata has always struck me as a very interesting character, though I don’t know too much about her – there’s a lot of lore, though, and her character design is really first class. However, it’s Arkhan that I’ve gone with here, as he’s the guy who brought Nagash back, and is often claimed to be the right hand man for Nagash.

When they were first released, the Mortarchs were in a fairly odd position, as they seemed to straddle the Death armies without a real home. Mannfred von Carstein was obviously in with the Vampire Counts, and so was Neferata, but they were also Nagash’s lieutenants, and when Warhammer Fantasy became Age of Sigmar, it all went a bit odd at first. There were a lot of mini-factions such as Skeleton Horde that tried to lay claim to them. In the fullness of time, a Legions of Nagash army was formed that included many of these units, but it’s always felt a bit strange – there is a stunning new plastic model for these characters, but with no real home for them?

At least Arkhan the Black has his home in the Ossiarch Bonereapers. I’ve been back and forth over how to paint him up, because on the one hand, I feel like I should try to incorporate him into the wider army with the red armour panels and so on. However, I have come round to the fact that he is his own guy, and so I will be painting him to look, as close as I can, to his box art. So that’ll be interesting.

Arkhan, of course, is a very powerful wizard, and in Age of Sigmar terms, that has always been reflected by the fact that he knows every spell in the army – second only to Nagash, who knows every spell available to both armies on the battlefield. For AoS4 however, since all wizards know their army’s spell lore, Arkhan has been beefed up a bit to be able to just deny enemy spells cast on friendly units within 18”, which seems nice. He also has his iconic Curse of Years spell, where you roll 10 dice, and do damage for each 6, then you roll those dice and deal damage for each 5, then roll those dice, and so on.

For the time being, then, I am planning to make a start on the Ossiarch Bonereaper cavalry units. Once they are done, hopefully I’ll have gotten the courage to finally tackle Arkhan the Black, and tick off this glorious beast from my to-do pile!