A Knight-Questor's Tale - part 1.

 

 I was ten summers old when death came to my home of Alryne.

We were working a farmstead on the outskirts of the town when a group of Freeguild soldiers came through, the sergeant bawling at the top of his voice.

"I want every man and strong lad, get to the temple and get armoured and arms. We have a large raiding party approaching, and I want numbers to intimidate them back to where they crawled from"

We'd never been called before, always being "too young" and "just children". 

That day we were going to become men and we excitedly chattered as we ran to the temple.

I was given a too large vest of old chainmail, a pitted sword and was pushed into the ranks of men gathering.

Already the fighting had begun, screams and the sounds of ringing weapons filled the air. 

I remember curses being snarled, oaths being called upon.

Most of all I remember the first time seeing men, real men whom I had looked up to, aspired to become, scythed down as if they were overripe corn.

Suddenly the men infront of me were cut down, men who had been veterans of the town watch, 

I was faced with a nightmare made manifest. 

A huge dark champion atop a black heavily armoured destrier. Blood encasing and dripping from the length of his sword.

A sword which made the old pitted thing in my hand seem like a child's toy.

*****

I've had these models finished for a couple of weeks but haven't been able to find the time to post them up.

As it is the last day of July, I figured I'd try to sneak a post in to claim at least one box of points this month!

So here we have a unit of Khornate Knights.

I converted them with some leftover parts from the Wrathmongers sprues I bought way back when Age of Sigmar was first released and I was building up the Bloodbound.

The Khorne flesh hound is actually the pet of Khorgos Khul, the original warlord from the starter set, but I dislike his model so mounted it on a 50mm base instead.

Being just three models strong they aren't usable for AoS at the moment, so I may add another Flesh hound to the unit to make it five strong.

However for Dragon Rampant they can count as Elite or Heavy Riders with the reduced model count rule having two wounds each!

They follow my usual scheme of heavy metalwork with touches of red and gold for their faction.

However I can run these as a unit of chaos Knights in a regular Slaves to Darkness army with the Khorne keyword should I choose to do so.

When I said about scraping some last points, these guys net me one of the kitbash boxes for ten points, increasing my total to 340 for the year so far.

I am close to finishing the first grid completely, so hoping to catch up to Chris over this next month.

Part two of the fiction will be the conclusion of our unnamed narrator in one of my next posts.

Until next time...

Book Review - Pariah, Bequin #1.

Recently after visiting a friend I borrowed Pariah, Bequin #1 by Dan Abnett.

This is the latest reprinting of this book which features characters from Abnett's Eisenhorn and Ravenor series.

Now I know I'm probably late to the party with this book as most people will have read it the first time it was printed.

Especially as everyone seems to put both Eisenhorn and Ravenor up on a pedestal as the greatest things released from the Black Library and the greatest works that Abnett has put out.

Personally I have never gotten on with the Inquisition novels of said series. They might be full of scheming and counter-plotting all within the Inquisition, but I was always drawn to Abnett's other famous creation, Gaunt's Ghosts.

Anyway, Abnett does what he does best in this book by really getting into the setting away from the bombastic frontline combat which seems to be the mainstay of most other 40k books 

Told from Bequin's perspective, i really liked how the descriptions of the various places and backgrounds featured in the setting of Queen Mab played out. From the decay and age of the city, to the people trying to scratch a living and the merchants dealing in wares like antiques.

The Warblind are a great addition in my opinion, and Deathrow is great when he shows up.

One other thing I liked was the various subtitles of the, admittedly very short, chapters:

Giving almost a sneaky spoiler about the forthcoming chapter.

If you're a fan of the other Inquisition series I mentioned, you'll probably have already read this novel. If you've not it fleshes out Bequin and how she ends up in the employ of the Inquisition.

This reprint is of the latest style of Black Library hardbound books with a new cover by Lorenzo Mastroianni.

Unlike previous books I have posted about, I don't feel that this one has that re-read ability to make me want to pick it up again at some point in the future.

But that's just my opinion...

Hobby Bingo - June Recap.

 

Another month has passed (where does the time go?) In the second year of the plague and life is slowly returning to normal, maybe, here in the UK.

This has led to a change up in the scoreboard, as Chris is now in the lead, having overtaken my score this month!

Chris gained 270 points in total over the month through some Barricades and a General post. 

(The advantage Chris has over myself and Dave is that he can work from home, whereas us two are still out and about).

I scored myself a further 30 points through finishing up my Satyxis Infantry.

Dave still hasn't scored anymore points yet as he's been extremely busy with work and family time, all power to him as this is only a hobby after all.

So the scores at the end of June are:

Chris: 530

Lewis: 330.

Dave: 80.

I'm going to make a concentrated effort to fill in the few boxes left on my first grid and catch up to Chris. But time may be preciously short considering we are short staffed at work and are working overtime most weeks to make the mileage complete.

We'll see anyway...