Nightmare Scenario

"Pappa. Pappa, Freja help paint."

Painting Guide:

• Front: Bilious Green 
• Back: Temple Guard Blue 
• Legs: Lucius Lilac
• Highlights: Changeling Pink followed by Emperor's Children followed by Changeling Pink again, with special attention to the hands which had to be pink. Pink! Pink!

Happy Halloween, and may all your offspring find your painting trays well-stocked.

Forest of Gloom: Warriors of Chaos vs Wood Elves

Phlothos Orgmeier hacked a violent cough, then leant over the side of his throne to spit the produce out. The wooden frame creaked and groaned as his weight shifted against it. He even heard a soft pop as one of the corpulent bearers exploded wetly underneath. He didn't need to look at what he'd spat out (nobody should have to do that) to know it was mostly lung. 

"I'm dying, Morag," he said. "How much time do I have?"

"More than enough," Morag said reassuringly. 

"Everybody always thinks that," Phlothos said. "And they're always wrong."

If You Go Down To The Woods Today...

When you talk about bear riders, everyone automatically assumes Dwarves. But to me, bears seem more synonymous with the woods. They use it as a toilet, for one thing.

So here we have a proxied Great Stag that happened mostly by accident. This conversion was no picnic.

Just bear with me...

Our story begins, as so many of them do, with me being foolish on eBay. I found an incomplete Tsar Boris Ursus model for a tiny sum (£1 with p&p, or something equally irresistible). It was a nice model, back from the days when Kislev had a semi-army book and wasn't just a pre-End Times snack.

Dasvidaniya, tovarich.

Scouting for Dark Elves

Sunday means it's time to reveal the Dark Elves for the week. Running parallel to their Woody Cousins, I've got a pack of evil scouts.

Slow but steady through the last few days. I've clearly been on the end of the same Plague Wind as Gen. Stylus. While bent over these tiny horsemen, I've been hacking away like an attic-dwelling bohemian in Paris, and I wasn't sure I was going to get the unit completed. So I took a bunch of morphine-laced cough suppressant and went nuts.

Scouting For Wood Elves

A lazy update this week, as I've been brought low by a stinking cold (if you want to see the arrival of something big, green and Nurgley, check out my handkerchief).

So just a rebasing of my Scouts (or Deepwood Scouts, as we must now call them), but they do have some historical virtue: these were the first models I painted up specifically for a WoffBoot. The very first WoffBoot, as it happens.

Second on the podium, baby!

Purple Polearms

Hard to think of a paint scheme for a unit named 'The Black Guard' that isn't pretty black-reliant.

EXT: Graveyard Wall

More scenery, this time some of the walls and fences from the Garden of Morr set.

Dance Then, Wherever You May Be

Waywatchers may be the iconic Wood Elf unit, but I'd say that Wardancers run a pretty close second.

(there is an old issue of Inferno - Leofa may still have the copy - that contains a one-page comic strip where a single wardancer takes down a pack of Beastmen like a prancing ninja. That sold me on them).

I have quite a number of the models, probably more than is optimal in the current rulebook (especially as internet wisdom says the optimum number is 0), but I like the models, the fluff and the versatility of their dances, so I'll be giving them a run-out in the near future.

He's a Bladesinger, but let's just call him 'Brucie'

The unit champion is still my favourite model in the troupe, possibly in the army. Not quite as flouncy as some of the 6th Edition designs, but still a lot a character and movement going on here.

For the white-blond hair, I think I started with a Skull White base and gave it repeated washes of thinned Bleached Bone - not the way I'd ever do it now, but it seemed to come out well. I tried to give the black blades an eerie glow by drybrushing white, then giving a glaze of Green Ink.

I also managed to avoid the 'crazy eyes' problem than bedevils the rest of my troupe - by giving him green eyeshadow as his talismanic tattoos (with the tights and the hair, he is so Bowie).

Don't Cross the Bows

First twenty done! 

Trying to calculate this as a percentage of the total job is too depressing to contemplate. There's at least one unit of pretty much everything Dark Elves have to offer in my cupboard right now. Some of them are forty strong. 

EXT: Gloomy Monument

Whilst you're painting rank and file, it's nice to have a treat at the end of them. 

Snowy and dead, that's how I like my greenery. 

Swoffboot - Every Repeater Crossbow has its Thorn

It's All Non-Skype Fight Night Afternoon! 

I had the pleasure of visiting Kraken's home this weekend, and took the opportunity for a couple of Swoffboots (an end times battle Nagash (me) vs the wizard's league (Kraken and Stylus)) and the below Dark Elf vs Warriors battle.

To mirror previous reports, I will be writing normally and Kraken, who also took the photos and made the chronicler maps, will be in italics. 

Hello and good evening. I'm also writing in Times New Roman, because I'm a classically-minded sort of chap. 

Forces 

Kraken had had several games with his warriors, but nothing over 2000 pts; we had an afternoon free from the lesser known spells of Fist and Foot of Freja and so opted for a big game. Kraken could muster up to about 4 or 5k; but we went for something between 3 and 4 so that there were some options. After a few tweaks, the battle lines drawn and the points settled on 3600.

Knowing I could field something approaching the full mass of my foot soldiers was a delight, especially as I knew I could take some hefty characters and wibbly monsters to back them up. There was one in particular I knew I'd field. I don't often get the chance, and his song keeps playing on GWFM at the moment. 

The Dark Elves

Haerelon, Dreadlord - Dark Pegasus, Sword of Anti-heroes, Obsidian Trinket, Cloak of Twilight, Brace of Repeater Handbows, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield - 312
Daeris, Supreme Sorceress (Lvl 4 Shadow) - Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll and dark steed - 310
Tullaris Dreadbringer - 155
Avornor, Master - Sword of Might, Dawnstone and dark steed - 137
Iarel, Death Hag - BSB (with Rampager's banner), Witchbrew and Cauldron of Blood - 385
Tariel, Sorceress (Lvl 2 Life) - Talisman of Endurance and dark steed - 155
Daechir, Assassin - Additional hand weapon, Manbane and Potion of Strength - 132

30 Corsairs - Musician, Standard Bearer (with flaming banner) and Repeater Crossbows - 360
20 Darkshards - Musician and shields - 270
10 Dark Riders - Musician, Repeater Crossbows and Shields - 210
10 Witch Elves -110
21 Black Guard - Full command (with banner of swiftness and Relic Sword) - 370
10 Shades - Great Weapon - 180
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers - 140
8 Doomfire Warlocks - Champion - 210
1 Kharibdyss - 160

3596/3600 

Magic

The shadow wizard rolled Mindrazor, Withering (both awesome in this match), Pit of Shades (hopefully an ogre killer) and a free choice, although just elected for Miasma. 
The life wizard rolled poorly. He did not cast a spell, nor were the ones he had worthwhile. This wizard was an expensive extra channel attempt; and did nothing effective all game. 

The Warriors of Chaos

Archaon, Lord of the End Times (Feat. Dobbin) - 650
Kox, Lvl 2 Chaos Sorceror (Lore of Fire) with Skull of Katam and Obsidian Trinket - 175
Dyx, Exalted Hero BSB with Mark of Tzeentch, Flail, Scaled Skin, Shield, Blasted Standard - 198
Testucles, Exalted Hero with Mark of Nurgle, Filth Mace, Shield, Enchanted Shield, Soul Feeder, Palanquin of Nurgle - 208

31 Marauders - Mark of Tzeentch, Shields, Light Armour, Full Command - 310
15 Marauders - Mark of Nurgle, Light Armour, Great Weapons, Full Command - 180
20 Chaos Warriors - Mark of Tzeentch, Shields, Full Command, Lichebone Pennant - 340
Chaos Chariot - 110
10 Chosen - Mark of Khorne, Shields, Halberds, Full Command, Banner of Swiftness - 295
Warshine - Mark of Tzeentch - 135
Gorebeast Chariot - Mark of Tzeentch - 140
4 Chaos Ogres - Mark of Slaanesh, Champion - 140
Chaos Spawn - Mark of Tzeentch - 70
Chaos Spawn - 50
Dragon Ogre Shaggoth - Extra Hand Weapon - 220
Mutalith Vortex Beast - 240

Wizards' Cup: Sudden Death

We'd established that out of the Eight Lores of Magic, Shadow ruled supreme. You'd think that would be enough. All the wizards, pals once more, settling nicely in the pavilion to analyze the flow of play over a mug of ale.

No. 

For a new Lore has recently arisen, the Lore of Undeath, and with it, a whacking great big model to wield it. 

What better for our heroic wizards to face than a group challenge? For 1600 points (give or take), we decided to serve them up a last battle.

This coincided with the guest presence of General Kasfunatu, holidaying in sunny Sweden for the weekend. As a collector and master of the Vampiric undead, he'd fallen prey to the temptation of the new model. Although it hadn't made it over, being in bits back home, we could field a proxy easily enough. 

See? An uncanny likeness. 

[Nagash Fans, watch this space - I'll be converting and painting the Lord of the Undead in due course!]

Death, Be Not Proud

They had him trapped.

The Grey Wizard's lair was an unassuming place. A milliner's on the outside, making and selling fine hats for the gentry of Kemperbad. Excellent cover for the use of strange chemicals and unusual materials. Who would guess that mercury and peacock feathers were being put to more esoteric purposes than the creation of fashion? The hatmaker and his wife were no doubt pawns of the wizard. Well-thought of locally. They would have to be careful.

Tomb Kings

Here are 3 of 6 units I plan to field at the next WoffBoot.

Fun to paint and model, looking forward to trying them out in some practice games.

Wizards' Cup Final: Cup and Sorcery

The Final of the Wizards' Cup has arrived!

In the purple corner is the overwhelming tournament favourite: the Lore of Death, who have sailed through the qualifiers on the back of public acclaim and anti-character spells.

In the grey corner is the plucky underdog, who seem to have staggered into the final though remarkable luck, favourable decisions and the wisdom of an old Okinawan karate teacher.

Wax on...

And so Kraken and I took up arms to determine the Eight College Champion!

EXT: Engraved Tomb

Possibly more of an INT, this. 

If I had the money, I'd get a real one of these for myself. As it is, I'll just have to be buried underneath this one.