I feel the warp overtaking me.
It is a good pain!
You owe me royalties for that quote. |
My natural choice in any given Warhammer game, I felt bad that the proper baddies (Warriors of Chaos) were under-represented in WoffBoot VI. I've got some money coming in from the advert I did earlier in the year (which is probably going to air fairly soon, one of the many reasons I left Britain).
And you know, tiny paintable men and stuff. Always a sound investment, right?
So I've been reading up on the Warriors of Chaos list, and trying to pick out an affordable selection that I can slowly build up over the coming years. By the time it's Woffboot VIII or so, I may even have
a) completed it,
b) painted it and
c) enough time to field it.
Or not. Either way, I'm sure it'll be a grand heirloom for my offspring.
1000 points doesn't give you much leeway. No Daemon Princes, for a start. And if you're going to field any Warriors or Knights, which frankly you ought to, they'll be small and attractive to missile fire.
Ha haaargh! I have a 4+ armour save without needing extra gear... oh, my arm's off. Bloody crossbows. |
Having whet my bloody whistle* on the fields of Woffboot VI, I feel like I have a vague handle on what a small army needs. A couple of reasonably-sized melee units, with decent leadership either from banners or characters, a little magical support from some wizardly types, maybe a bit of missile, maybe a monstrous flanker of some kind, and everyone's star players - the light cavalry.
So let's consider my options.
Heroes/Villains
I could go all out on a Lord. I've got the models pre-bought, and it has crossed my mind. At 210 points before equipment, it's definitely all my eggs in one spiked basket case if I do. I might even go as far as a Sorceror Lord - I'd probably be ahead of the pack in terms of magical power, and he's no slouch in combat either. But it feels top heavy, and if I've ever learnt a tactical lesson in Warhammer games, it's not to invest too heavily in single models.685 points? Sod off. Even if you have got the only decent base I ever did, you can still sod off. |
Either of these two are decent options for a leader. |
I mean, a bell counts as a standard, right? I could change the flavour text to 'Everyone within earshot' if that helps? |
If I want access to the appallingly horrible chaos spellbooks, which I'd be mad not to, that sorceror will also need a mark of chaos. Slaanesh is cheap, but offensive to my way of thinking. Tzeentch or Nurgle are 20 points each. Yuck. I may yet think on here. Two sorcerors? Discs? Maybe. Maybe.
Chaos Horseror |
When 80s Perms Go Wrong |
Cowabunga! |
Core
Marauder Horsemen are very high on my shopping list. Two boxes, weighing in at an already heart-sinking £32 (or whatever that is in Kronor). People speak highly of their heads in the forums, and I'll be thinking of having a unit of ten, probably with a few upgrades. Throwing axes, maybe shields too. That's round about 160 points right there, more if I fancy command. Or two units of five, one for each flank.But I'm a cheapskate, and I'm already hunting about for options. Something I like about the Warriors of Chaos army is their slightly hairy Norse look, so I've been considering a Viking look. This also helps me sell the whole idea to my wife, who is ferociously proud of her Scandi origins.
Dwarf Wars is a good website for decent and cheap models (check out their elementals and magician ranges, great stuff), and here's a publicity shot of their Viking-style horsemen: -
Not great shots, but they look horsey and they're a bit cheaper. Maybe, maybe - hard to commit to pewter models without seeing them in the flesh first. And let's not question our flesh for wanting to remain flesh while we're at it.
Look how he glares at me... If he wasn't fathered by the black ram in the full of the moon my name is not Ragnar. |
Where have all my points gone? Cripes. Almost 2/3 done, and I've got around 23 models or so. Bring out the fodder.
Love and Hate are two horns on the same goat. Both horns are available on this multi-part sprue. |
So I ordered two.
Even coming from America, including postage (but possibly not import duty, I'm not sure what Sweden does about that), it's less than £40. And it allows me to consider a unit of 64 marauders, say with shields, light armour, command and the Mark of Tzeentch. For 420 points, fodder with 5+ ward saves. Stuff the chaos warriors, frankly. If I field this, it would be in the style of Clan Slavish, a hoard of screaming loonies coming down the middle with too many ranks to break.
Then Let the Crabs be Cursed by Odin! |
I've already got some decent champion types, if not Exalted Heroes, so no need to spend more there: -
Original bearer of the cursed axe 'Woe'. He's holding it the wrong way up, look. |
Bonus points if you remember my name from Firetop! (without looking at the wiki) |
Specially Rare
That's probably going to be it, really. But it's good to have options, which my collection of mewling abberations affords me. What kind of Chaos army would it be without spawn?I see you |
I also see you |
I cannot see but it won't help you any |
1+ Armour Saves - less effective than you think |
If I suddenly become rich (I've got years to build this lot, after all) I'd get the two-pack of GW spawn. Purely for spare parts and conversions, I'm swimming in spawn already. Almost literally, ask Mrs Kraken.
Spare Paaaaaarrrrts |
More on this at a later date, but it would make a good warshrine I think. 'Raging Heroes' is the site. |
Pricey
I did, in all honesty, consider the GW Chaos starter box set. £65 for five knights, 12 Warriors, 20 Marauders and 10 Hounds, that's a solid 1000 points right off.But 10 hounds? What am I going to do with that garbage? Well, okay, they're nice models. And I'd get all the spare bits I'm after to turn my Vikings extra spiky. But it's a hell of a lot of cash, and that's the major sticking point.
My biggest fear is already that the vikings will be way off-scale with GW products, which will limit conversions. I mean, realistically scaled swords? They already look like bread knives. Plus I'll need to buy proper bases for them all. That's going to add, what, £13000 to the overall total once I've factored in flock and miniature pebbles and magnets and actual scale insects and all the other garbage everyone puts on these days. All right, I admit it, I've been wrong about bases all these years. Time to face up to it and make amends.
But other priorities aplenty first, not least of which is getting more regular work. I'll stick with the Viking Tide for now. Pipe dreams of distant glory await.
He was the happiest Spawn of all. |
* Mixed metaphors are allowed in Chaos Armies on account of mutations, etc.
I probably have several bags of spare marauder /warrior parts. We'll have a swapmeet.
ReplyDeleteOo! That sounds good to me. I'm already earmarking such things on ebay. Not very sure what I can bring in exchange, though - any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteNice structure for an army - I've never seen massed numbers in a Chaos army, but it makes sense points-wise (4p for a Marauder!) and thematically (hoards of screaming Visigoths). Looking forward to how it develops.
ReplyDeleteYes I did look up Doom Totem. No, I did not enjoy it.
With Kasfunatu's Daemons army, I think that only leaves Beastmen, Dark Elves and Tomb Kings unrepresented - in some way of other - at the WoffBoot.
In terms of a swapmeet, it's probably fair to say that we don't meet up that often. What about putting up images of your swappables as a blog post and tag it 'swapmeet'.
ReplyDeleteI can collate these labels into a single page (so you can see everything available in one glance) and just leave it for perusal. Items that have been swapped can be removed from the blog, and we can sort out the exchanges from there.
Sounds like a plan! I'll have a hunt through the Bag of Limitless Minions, as well as the bottoms of my games chest, and see what I can come up with.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've also discovered that the same models range does a box set of twelve horsemen or three chariots, both for the same lo lo price of $20. I might do no heavy armour at all, just the big marauder packs and a lot of fast stuff for the wings.
Do you mean the Celtic chariots? They do look good (although would need to be seriously pimped with with spikes and chaos icons).
ReplyDeleteI link the guy 'surfing' on the back of the chariot horses, although the woman representing Boudicca does look like a forerunner of those models who stand around at car events.
Yeah, that's them. I agree, serious pimpage required, but that's pretty much what I'm committing to across the board for this army.
DeleteI totally agree:
ReplyDelete1) A virtual swapmeet. I'll start this evening if I can.
2) The "no armour" marauding horde chaos variant - very interesting indeed. Also, Kraken, I have Knights & Warriors, etc if you ever want to see how they play. Unpainted of course!
3) I'll do my very best to build 1000pts of either Beastmen, Dark Elves or Tomb Kings in the near future - I'm sure I have the parts somewhere...
Thanks for the offer! I'm hopefully going to include my own warriors and knights at some point, but that's the same 'some point' at which I'll have a mythical amount of free time, money and desire to paint.
DeleteAlso, Kraken again, let me know if you do indeed just want the leftovers from a spawn sprue - I have a pair of spare bodies so if I bought one box, I could make myself 4 spawn! You could have all the leftovers for a fiver ONO?
ReplyDeleteI'm after as many conversion options as possible, so I'd be more interested in a much fuller sprue! That's not a no, but I'll wait and see how my ebay bids work out first, ta.
DeleteAnd here's another INSANE idea. We could swapmeet services too! I love converting and, some have said, am rather good at it. Whereas, painting hordes of giant rats / swarms / slaves / etc, I find somewhat less fun. And it hurts my back. :-(
ReplyDeleteFor example, I'd be very happy to trade (hour for hour is probably the fairest way?) converting a chaotic horde of wild northmen from economy plastic wanabee models, that Kraken sources, into a fantastical, GW-influenced, more-spiky version of themselves. In return for Kraken continuing the sterling job he started on painting my, literally, limitless minions.
Any takers!?
You mean a 'time bank'! (a govt-sponsored initiative to get people being nice to each other. Like the 'Big Society' but with even less takers). Intriguing possibility...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'd make immediate use of it, since I'm all-metal for a while (and handsawing through pewter is such fun, I wouldn't DREAM of letting anyone else have my RSI), and while I could put painting on the table, my plate is going to be full for a wee while.
(I don't suppose writing flavour text is a tradable commodity? Shame, as I could knock out an hour's worth of writer's block no problem)
Or maybe instead of trading hours, we all work on something communally (you know, like the Amish) - pick one of the remaining armies (say Tomb Kings) and all match the hours into creating/painting it (then keep it as a 'house army', to be kept as an option of WoffBoots).
ReplyDeleteAnd then we drown someone in a silo of grain! (you know, like the Amish).
Working on something communally doesn't dent my enormous painting backlog. My original offer stands! Besides, as I say, I have *plenty* of Dark Elves, and probably enough Beastmen / Tomb Kings for 1000pts already. If we do anything communally, it should be scenery, etc.
ReplyDeleteI do like the idea of a community army, but I don't think any of us would really commit to making it a brilliant one. Too much backlog on all hands, I reckon. But community scenery sounds good!
DeleteIn fact, as cheapy scenery goes, have a look at this page - http://www.wargamescenics.com/products.html
DeleteOr this: -
Deletehttp://www.grandmanner.co.uk/Shop.html
Or (finally and winner of the 'Best Translation from German' award nine years running): -
Deletehttp://www.ziterdes.de/ziterdes/en/produkte/listview.php?catID=64&subcatID=66
Okay, not finally at all.
Deletehttp://www.zuzzy.com/ have a very interesting selection of textured roll-up latex scenery mats, available in ruined city, sulphur badlands and other standard fantasy situations.
http://armorcast.com/store/index.php?cPath=121_32 are decent and cheapier, and have a nice 'road of skulls' selection.
These are very nice but expensive, and the shop is currently closed for some reason - http://www.terranscapes.com/products/barriers.php
And this is interesting - all come cut from sheets of thick stock card, so super cheap but would require a bunch of assembly and paint. http://www.miniaturescenery.com/ProductsPage.asp
Why, there's almost enough information there to create an informal yet informative post on the types of scenery available...
DeleteFor my twopenneth, we have a smashing amount of scenery at Kasfunatu Towers, but what we're really missing is rivers (especially with the new ways rivers can kill you in 8th ed).
And Leofa - if you've made it this far down the comments, it looks like Zuzzy have that rubber gaming mat you've been dreaming of.
Yeah, you'd think I'd have gone down that route by this point. Watch this space...
Delete
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I'm rather looking forward to my own converting. That, after all, is the fun bit, whereas dabbing the noses of a zillion rats is less... inherently invigorating. I'm sure I'll be just as slow as you are at painting 60+ near-identical warriors, though, regardless of spiky bits!