No more Games Workshop?

Did that title feel like clikbait? It felt like clickbait. Sorry about the clickbait.

But here's something mildly interesting I saw this morning: I was in town and I thought I'd pop into my local Games Workshop, only to discover that it had been replaced by some new franchise...

I'm already missing the red-and-gold signage. It looks like a Waterstones.
(a Waterhammerstone?)

Fortunately, this new outlet still sold fantastic miniatures at low, low prices. They'd kept the displays in the same place, the same staff, even the same website url on the window.

Unless I've been walking around with my eyes closed (I don't rule out that possibility), this is a relatively new development. I wonder if this is a local decision (can't be too flashy with signage in a World Heritage City, after all - although Krispy Kreme seem to manage it).

Or perhaps this is a harbinger of a wider rebranding (once The Hobbit franchise ends, GW will only have two products, both beginning with 'Warhammer' - why not call it 'The Warhammer Shop'?), They are, as they often state, a miniatures company, not a games one.

End Times indeed...

Hive Fleet Kraken

 Here's part two of the Genestealer Job. As appropriate to something hulk-based, I painted them green.

Reskinning

The Ruinous Rover

Captain Karkan's ship, the Brass Mermaid, was a whaler out of Erengrad. A small, fast ship, it could keep up with the sleek blackwhales that bred in the nearby Sea of Claws, and turned a decent profit bringing their carcasses in to port to be stripped for fat, meat and tough hide. 

This changed on the day the first mate, Dorgsky, spotted a sinking vessel during a hunting trip. 

Forever in Blue Genestealers

Well, you shouldn't mess with the classics.

Darvon VI - original and best

It's a two-part commission for General Leofa, and this is the first chunk of it. Some time back, I swore a solemn oath that I would never, no matter how desperate I got, paint my old and substantial clutch of first edition Space Hulk 'stealers. Obviously I have no problem if they belong to someone else, then.

Born To Be Wild Riders

I started working on this in 1996. So when you consider Kraken's painting rate of a new unit per week, I think I've earned the tortoise badge of this blog.

This cavalry was one of the things that sold me on Wood Elves in the first place: the horses were a terrific sculpt, leaping forth with an energy that we wouldn't see again until the Glade Rider plastics, many years later.

I miss the Red Catalogue so much.

When the time came to start the army, I bought as many as I could afford (which was five), had a hell of a time converting a massive standard out of a coat hanger (which now adorns my Savage Orc BSB) and painted them red, bronze and white (you know - traditional forest colours).

Similar to these, just painted by an idiot.

They served me well for many years (actually, they usually got punked, but they looked good doing it), but in the end, they were so off-theme, I could take it no longer. At first I tried painting over the bright red elements, but they soon found themselves soaking in Dettol.

It was until 2008, just prior to the first WoffBoot, that I turned my attention to them. Or rather, General Leofa did, emptying his bitz box and lending his expertise with a pair of clippers. The models were clipped, prepped and only waiting for me to get around to assembling them.

I got around to it last month.

A mere six-and-a-half years. My 40k Orks are jealous.

Orksodus: Savage Orcs vs Warriors of Chaos

Prologue

Bonekrunk Stonesplitter wiped his axe on the cloak of the dead captain. The humans had fought hard for these heaps of rock, but he couldn't understand why. The stonework may have been impressively big, like an enormous hut, but it was too square, too enclosed, the walls too flat and featureless. It didn't even have any idols carved onto them. His lads could put that right, but there was no time: the Shaman wanted them on the move.

Wurrzag Ud Ura Zahubu had found his Waaagh! less than a month ago. The Shaman had told them it was the will of Gork (or possibly Mork) that they take him north, out of the Badlands and into the lands beyond. These were soft lands, full of tilled fields and stone houses. The 'Bored Princes' they were called. But the enemies they met hadn't seemed like princes, or bored. Just terrified and squishy.

Bonekrunk wandered among his celebrating lads. Some were still ripping trinkets from their defeated enemies, a few had started a chariot race, others were harvesting bones for decoration and flinging the offcut flesh to the Dusty, their pet river troll. He found Wurrzag in the centre of the excitement, crossed-legged, a hum of green energy about him.

Bonekrunk cleared his throat nosily. Two flares of yellow-green appeared from behind the eye sockets of Wurrzag's mask, and the Shaman turned to him.

"Anuvver army comin'" he warned.

"Good," snorted Bonekrunk. "More krumpin' for us."

"Ain't like dese 'umans. Dey is ironshod," Wurrzag intoned in a distant voice. "Dey are stronger, 'arder, and wiv mighty creatures fighting fer them."

Bonekrunk spat. "Don't matter much. Krumpin' is krumpin'. No-one is 'arder dan my ladz."

To the north, the clouds of dust sifted apart to reveal an army. By the tributary of a poisonous-looking river, massed ranks of armoured warriors had gathered, surrounded by metal chariots, a deformed giant and what appeared to be a flying kayak.

"Don't let dem get past dis boundary," said Wurrzag. "Dey shall not pass. Dat is da will of Gork."

The freshly cleaned stone axe scraped against his bone club, and Bonekrunk was ready to fight. "Ere we go," he said with determination.

"Or possibly Mork," the shaman added.

It's Time to Play the Music!

It's Time to Light the Lights!

It's Time to Meet Some Muppets

'Cos it's

ALL-SKYPE FIGHT NIGHT TONIGHT!

EXT: Sepulchre

Hanging out in Victorian graveyards was a thing I used to do when I was younger, moodier and living in London. And I don't even have the excuse that I was a goth or an emu or whatnot, I was just a nerd who liked graveyards.

Time well spent, I reckon. Now I can use my middle-aged freetime to daub tiny plastic fences and feel quite sure they're a reasonable replica of (for example) Highgate Cemetary in January. Plus bonus skulls, obviously. The longer one is exactly the same piece as the last long one I did. Rather dull to paint, but they sadly don't do themselves. Nor do Autopainting Models hit GW's shelves until after the End Times are done.

Wrecking Ball: Warriors of Chaos vs Ogre Kingdoms

Turn Up The Hype!
It's All Skype Fight Night!

Good evening and welcome, Fantasy Fans! I, General Kraken, shall be writing in the plainclothes of normal text.

Why hello again; I, Kasfunatu, shall be writing in unsubtle bold.

Very little fancy for tonight's match, a straightforward rough-and-tumble throwdown pitching a horde of ogres against a Tzeentchian warband. But just to give it that distinctive Woffboot flavour, we'll be using Blind Deployment and Secret Objectives!

I really liked the blind deployment and made me reminisce over setting up behind screens of cardboard boxes. Can we do this again?

Yes!

Forces

WARRIORS:

Your usual, General Kraken? A pint of Chaos Warriors and a packet of chariots? Why thanks, don't mind if I do.

Mark of Tzeentch, a Chaos Lord: Mark of Tzeentch, Hellfire Sword, Scaled Skin, Soul Feeder, Talisman of Endurance, Disc of Tzeentch
Burnward the Crisp, a sorceror: Level 1 Lore of Fire (Fireball), Dispel Scroll
Withnails Iniseyes, an exalted battle standard bearer: Talisman of Preservation

18 Chaos Warriors - Shields, Gleaming Pennant
15 Chaos Marauders - Flails
A Chaos Chariot

A Gorebeast Chariot with Mark of Tzeentch
A Warshrine, similarly marked

A Chaos Spawn, same mark again

Oh my boys, my boys, we're at the end of an age!

I hear that a disc-riding combat monster is a decent goer for WoCs, so I reckoned I'd give that a go. I didn't know who I'd be fighting when I chose the list, and although I was mostly horrified to hear it would be Ogres, that Hellfire Sword was a great pick to bring against the multi-wound monster men.

Mind you, the lord would have to do a lot of heavy lifting with it to earn his points back, and I'd be running very light on magic. And most of my guys weren't really tooled for bear (lucky I'd be fighting Ogres, then), so I wasn't looking forward to combat as much as I might usually do. All the same,  I reckoned with a bit of luck, I'd got some tough stuff to hit the ogres with.


OGRES:

Graznak, Butcher Lvl 2 (beasts): General, gold sigil sword, dispel scroll  - 175
Fuj, Bruiser - BSB, Dragonhide banner, heavy armour, brace of pistols  - 194
Lummo, Butcher Lvl 2 (maw): hellheart, ironfist - 188

15 Ogres - Full command and lookout gnoblar with ironfists - 515
5 Belchers - Musician - 225
1 Ironblaster - 170
1 Rhinox - Champion, heavy armour, ironfist, brace of pistols - 131

Talk about yer monstrous regiment. I didn't think I could proxy this fully, but I managed with the tactical use of terminators. For which I'd doubtless pay later. 

The list was one of a pool of unused 1600pt lists that we rolled randomly against and was built not knowing who it was going to face. I really like playing this way for random friendlies.

If you want beasts, you need a second butcher, and we are ogres, so we need a bsb... so the character choices were made quite quickly. The gut butcher cast some spells, but only when I had spare dice and their effect had no bearing on the game; probably could have been lvl1.

I had never tried the dragonhide banner before so wanted to try that; and it made sense to be in a horde; it may suit guts better, but I then had to sacrifice the blaster if I wanted a horde, so went with bulls... I wanted my moving cannon.... I did not move it all game!

I do like the single rhinox champion and against this list it proved a pivotal (lucky) choice in one combat.

The hellheart is a given (but was not actually used).

With hindsight/foresight and knowing my enemy list, I would have dropped a few things and squeezed in a second rhinox. Although would not favour that as a general option.

Cut Off a Head

This week: our Two-For-One All-You-Can-Be-Eaten-By diner special!

Up from the depths
Thirty Stories High
Breathing Fire
His head in the Sky

The Boot Times

Continuing on from last month's rules debate...

...I have a question.

What do we reckon about the use of End Times rules, models, etc in the Woffboot? 

Hot Headed

Sunday? Must be Delf o' Clock.

This must be one of the most hated units on the Warhammer field at the moment, I reckon. Certainly it's one of mine. Ultra-manouverable, ward-saving bastards the lot of them. But they have a saving grace, a fatal flaw if you will.