Glory to the Dark God's, A Chaos Warband - part 1.

"Quickly, break into their lines, sever the head and thus it is done!" The metallic echoed voice of Einar the White resonated from within his helmet.

As one the warriors of The Dark Pact and The Black Iron Company pushed forwards, bending the Slaaneshi line. Axes and Hammers rose and fell with arcs of blood. Shields were hammered forwards, pushing at the cultists of the pleasure god as they tried desperately to regain to purchase.

As superlative as their reactions and speed were, even the toughest sapling can only bend so much. So their line split and the Warriors of Einar the White stormed the breaking the cohesion of the mad cult Infront of them.

"There, that is the one I seek!" Einar shouted, pointing with his axe at the Slaaneshi Champion.

The veteran warriors of The Dark Iron Pact surged forwards again, beating back the deranged attacks of lightly armed cultists. Mortaan swung his standard in an arc and pitched three of the enemy through the air as if they were ragdolls.

With the crunching thud of their landing back on their fellows, Zhine gestured his men into position surrounding the Slaaneshi Champion, they formed a ring of steel with armour and weapons pointing outward as Einar stepped through their ranks and saluted the enemy.

"Ravassek, I am Einar the White, today I claim the bounty of the Dark God's" he said formally and then swung in viciously with his axe, playing his spear towards his enemies feet to keep him off balance. Again and again they addressed and attacked each other, sword rang against axe and spear darted towards but was dodged at the last second.

The Slaaneshi champion used his speed to duck, sway and leap out of the way of the attacking Chaos Lord, taunting him all the while before leaning in and swiping a quick cut through the heavy leather of Einar's gloved hand.

Pain and pleasure exploded behind Einar's eyes and he almost dropped his spear for a moment before rallying himself.

"We don't have time for this, be done with it!" Zhine shouted over his shoulder at the combat behind him, holding back three Slaangor from their dueling lords.

Einar dug his feet into the ground and propelled himself forwards, catching Ravassek off guard, he slammed his shoulder into the abdomen of his foe. He heard the wind leave the lungs in a wheeze and smelt the perfumed breath as it passed through the slit in his helm.

With a roar he lifted the lithe Slaanesh champion bodily and threw him to the ground before spinning his spear and slamming it through the fallen Ravassek's shoulder pinning him in place.

A daemonic scream issued from Ravassek as his head snapped upwards and his mouth distended too wide, revealing too many sharply pointed teeth for a human mouth to hold.

The Dark Pact all seemed to take a step backwards as the outer pressure seemed to increase, until Einar brought his iron shod boot down breaking the distended jaw and knocking the champion unconscious.

Fresh screams erupted as The Black Iron Company tore into the milling ranks of cultists who began to turn and flee the field, leaving their fallen lord behind, even as The Dark Pact slaughtered the last herd of Slaangor who refused to flee.

As things died down the two champions conversed with their lord.

"Will you kill him?" Haustaan of the Black Iron Company asked, his men hadn't been with Einar that long and this was the first real battle he had led them in.

"No, the pact must be fulfilled" Zhine replied, "We must..."

"I will fulfil the pact Zhine, worry not about that. It is not your place to issue orders" Einar stated coldly, "The next time you presume to do so, I will blind your shield and leave you to the horrors".

Zhine bowed his head, "I meant no disrespect Lord, let us finish the pact and take the next step on the eightfold path".

Einar nodded, the horns on his head dipping with the motion, he gestured over the battlefield towards his Sorceror, floating towards them on a magical disc of Tzeentch.

"Prepare the ritual, but bring me the smithies first, I have something in mind"

*****

A good chunk of miniatures finished for Age of Sigmar recently, they just needed the final touches on their bases. If I would have had time last month, I could have thrown these in with my total and beaten Grant, but hey-ho best laid plans and all that.

Marching with the tread of ironshod boots, the warband of Einar the White has been a Terror to the good people's living anywhere in the northern reaches for the past decade. Attempts to destory the warband have been thwarted as the champion Einar enjoys the protection of his Dark God's and returns to pillage and destroy time and time again.

Einar the White in his Battle Glory.

It is unknown wether the horns on his helmet actually sprout from his head or are for decoration as Einar has never removed his helmet when surrounded by other mortals. The twin skulls were taken as trophies from a pair of Aelf Sisters who very nearly ended his life during one of his first battles. 

Einars'spear, 'The Soulsiphon' was torn from a champion of Slaanesh when Einar defeated him in single combat, adding the decadent followers to his own warband, and taking the fallen champion as a prisoner.

He had his forgemasters remake the weapons into a form more fitting to his liking, his alchemists keeping the magic properties of the Daemon bound within the blade whilst the blacksmiths worked upon its form.

When it was ready, his first action was to plunge the spear through the chest of his prisoner, stealing the soul of the Slaaneshi Champion to feed his new infernal weapon.

The Dark Pact are a veteran unit of Chaos Warriors, led by Champion Ishmicah Zhine who have accompanied Einar the White for nearly a decade of slaughter. They have begun to exhibit signs of blessings from the gods, sprouting horns from their shoulders as well as the gifts given to Ishmicah himself.

Ishmicah Zhine, the Ravager of the Despoiled Moon pictured with his command cadre. Though blinded by battle magic, he has been "gifted" the ability to see through his daemonic shield.

Mortaan the Gagged, hefting the banner, grunts and slathers through some form of speeach which only Ishmicah can understand, meanwhile Kanaros the Thunderhorn has been deafened by the monstrous blasts of noise he produces from the hunting horn he uses to rally The Dark Pact in battle.

The Black Iron Company, are ten fully armoured Chaos Warriors ready to march forth in the name of Chaos Undivided.

Haustaan, leader of 'The Black Iron Company' with his command section. These warriors are recent additions to Einars' growing warband, whether this is a good thing or not will come to pass as a burgeoning internal struggle within the company has reared it's head!

Elig the Slayer, both Einar and Haustaan have begun to watch their backs as this ambitious warrior has eyes on both of their positions in time...is he the reason for the internal strife within the company?

Finally here is the warband pictured with some allied Chaos Dwarves led by Hashuratt Zar-Zardorgath. These merciless killers do not let their stature detract from their reputation.

Another idea for a project I have had has been to turn these guys into an all encompassing "Bad Guy" army for a group of online players to fight against, kind of online RPG but battles reported back rather then played over webcam or something, I'll figure it out.

However after finding out about the expanded rules for Path to Glory in AoS 3.0, the new lease of life for these figures may just be that. If I can combine the Path to Glory rules with some other player control of the aftermath sequence I may be able to get it all working as I want.

I find myself trying to clear more and more half painted projects rather then buying into new ones recently as I took a look in the cupboard where I store all my wargaming gear (apart from the display cabinets) and thought of this from a Facebook discussion I was involved in: 

Le sigh.

Until next time, have nice day...

Quantity has a Quality all of it's own - 2022 edition, the recap.

 

A little later then originally planned, but I've finally gotten round to collecting the photos send to me and the scores for our painting challenge throughout April.

As a rundown the scoring system is here and we had a few more people involved this time.

Starting at the bottom of the chart and working upwards we have:

Scotch Dave with 0 points. Motivation and tike deserted him during the month and he managed to get some models built but none painted.

Garry who also scored 0 points. He'd painted a few models but not sent the final photo's. He's been busy with his second hand gaming store and going to Diceni which was a convention in Norfolk.

Rachel is next and she scored 14 points. She bought a massive Death Guard army recently, and due to work she managed to get 7 plague marines finished, but aren't they pretty:

Chris (who's blog seems to have died a death) is next with 33 points. As well as sorting out his house, he's managed to get an Undead Blood Bowl team and 10 flies for Rangers of Shadow Deep painted. The flies are so small I counted them as half a point each.

Duncan came third from the top with 49 points.

The necrons were part painted so we're only 11 points. The rest of the Orcs are his new Age of Sigmar army and we're all painted new for the GW challenge Grant is running.

The Warchanter and Shaman are characters, 5 Black Orcs, the Goregrunta and Trolls are all counted as mounted models (due to the size of them, being twice as tall as an infantry model).

I came second on the scoreboard with 57 points, beating Duncan out this time around.

I was planning on using this challenge as a way to get a lot of my Ork army completed for my game with Dave but due to working nearly a fortnight of night shifts, I didn't managed it.

I got several of my samurai era models painted and finished as I've been thinking about getting the forces finished for a set of games.

The 9 Yari Ashigaru (spearmen) were part painted, but the 5 Yumi Ashigaru (archers) and the line Katana Ashigaru (swordsman) were all painted from primer. I also got a Trukk and 10 Slugga Boyz painted for my Evil Sunz warband, these saw action in the game with Dave thankfully. Lastly I got a group of 4 Glaivewraith Stalkers finished to add to my Nighthaunt who were in primer.

And top of the scoreboard was Grant this time with 62 points. A lot of Soulblight Gravelords for Age of Sigmar, used for the same army challenge Duncan is taking part in (kind of convenient considering Grant is running the challenge).

He's managed to get a Vampire, 10 Dire Wolves, 6 Cryptfiends, a Varghulf (or whatever it is called now) and a Zombie Dragon completed.

The Cryptfiends and Varghulf are counted as mounted models due to their size, and the Zombie Dragon is about the same size as a Leman Russ, so I counted it as a large vehicle.

So a recount of the scoreboard:

Grant - 62 points.

Lewis - 57 points.

Duncan - 49 points.

Chris - 34 points.

Rachel - 14 points.

Garry - 0 points.

Scotch Dave - 0 points.

I think I'll be organising another of these for later in the year, but we'll see what happens yet.

Back to the paint station:

Until next time, have nice day.

The Road to the Apocalypse, Part 8.

 

Vox-casters burbled in the command tent as officers relayed orders and deployment instructions. The Cadian Seventeen had been deployed to Infernus hive and moved towards the Stygies River in an attempt to prevent the Greenskins laying siege to the citadel.

Corporal Schon had been honoured when Commissar Yarrick hinself had selected the youngster for his personal command staff.

Now that he was here, Schon was deflated by the reality of the situation.

The Hero of Hades Hive was an old, hunched man, tired beyond his years. Wearing a battered old stormcoat, the empty sleeve seemed to make things worse as even heroes could be mortalled wounded.

Yarrick gestured with his hand, "Schon, why do the Greenskins not attack? Surely you would think that they're beastial nature would not hold them in check".

"Perhaps they are waiting for something Commissar?" Schon warily relied back 

"Excellent observation Corporal, if only we had a few more with your insight amongst the armour corps we might have a better chance of making it through this" Yarrick said, slumping slightly.

"Sir, the Cadian tankers are some of the finest in the Imperium, they will..." Schon began, until Yarrick held up a hand to quieten him.

"Yes they are, however they will have to rev their engines a little while longer, I will not commit out forces until I know for sure" Yarrick said as he turned from the viewing gantry and stalked back towards his quarters.

-----

Half an hour later Yarrick returned and grabbed a magnocular glass an aide passed him. A savage grin split his features as he recognised the glyphs of Ghazhkull Mag Uruk Thraka arriving atop his own Battlewagon.

"Schon, attend me" Yarrick ordered as at a signal from him, his aides began to move forwards with equipment boxes and began unloading.

A gilded Stormbolter was loaded and placed upon his desk, Yarrick stripped off his battered weather worn coat and allowed a fresh one to be buttoned around him, the pervading smell of new leather filled the room. Schon stepped up in time to help lift the revered Power Klaw into place and watched as the tech priest present connected all the power couplings, at the same time a red dot appeared on the wall of the command tent and flashed as Yarrick tested his bionic eye.

Turning as he slung his Stormbolter over his good shoulder and placed a shining Commissariat cap upon his head, Schon found himself stood agape. In seconds the stooped old man had been transformed into a vision of war, an Imperial Hero and he knew all the stories of his youth were true.

" Now we will take the fight to Ghazghkull, Schon, I'd like all the brave Cadians in the field with me. Get your vox-caster and we'll move towards the bridge, I'll have further orders to issue as we move so be ready boy, come on now" Yarrick curtly said as he swung round and marh 3d towards his waiting Chimera.

They had to stop the Orks here, if they let the Greenskins gain a foothold on this side of the bridge, the defence of Infernus hive would become a siege, something Yarrick wanted to avoid at all costs.

*****

Yesterday saw the sixty-odd mile trek down the motorway to Warhammer World in Nottingham, confounded by an exceptional load of building site prefab offices being moved which blocked the entire first half of my journey (sorry Dave).

As I'd previously mentioned I'd arranged a game with Dave and this took some effort to sort out. Seeing as we both have rather hectic busy jobs, families and responsibilities, playing with out toy soldiers is very far down on the list of priorities.

Nevertheless, the effort was made and a good day was had. We both commented that it had been quite a while since we had seen each other, about six years as we reckoned it against his youngest child's age, who had just been born when we last met up.

He started to deploy his Guard (beautifully painted and made me feel awful for having models in primer only as I was pushed for time to get then ready) and made the comment that they hadn't been on a tabletop for over a decade, they were even dusty from the boxes where he'd stored them.

I'm not going to do a turn by turn of the battle as it was nice just to meet a friend, throw dice and chat about life in general for the day, there are a few captions under the photos to go with them.

All packed and ready to go, I was pleased with how I'd managed to get everything easily packed to travel.

Dave's Imperial Guard about 2/3 through deployment, as he was still pulling guardsmen squads from boxes...

With deployment completed we were ready for battle, playing 5th edition Dave got to roll to "seize the initiative" and promptly rolled a 6 so went first, dammit...

That sodding Baneblade in the distance, removing several of my Killakanz and "Da Big Dread One" on turn one, leaving my Dreadmob (an Apocalypse formation) with no kustom forcefield save.

I liked everything forwards as fast as possible, it was at this point that we realised we may have started too far apart on the board edges of the bridge board, rather we should have started on the river banks instead...

Some turbo-boosting, and moving flat out with my red paint job toting transports got me into firings and potential lethal range to start dealing some damage after weathering the incoming fire for two turns, fortunately a lot scattered off into nowhere. In 5th edition a red paint job was an option for 5 points which let you move further then normal because "Red Wunz Go Fasta"...

This is the start of my turn three as the Orks are about to launch a massive assault on the far flank. The Trukkboyz are ready to go in up the riverbank into the guard infantry. Ghazhkull and his retinue are out and looming large on the bridge as Dave threw a couple of units forwards. Just off the photo on the closest flank, my Bikers led by Wazdakka Gutsmek and Deffkoptaz were piling into guard units on this side...

Wazdakka (a placeholder model), took out Dave's Exterminator (his tank of the match) in melee combat, even exploding the tank couldn't take his last wound. The bikers tore through the veterans and the Koptaz traded fire with the Hydra (just out of shot) but couldn't score a hit...

Imperial Guard Ogryns counter charged the Evil Sunz Warboss and retinue after they wiped out an autocannon squad in the ruins. This went as well as could have been expected, given that Orks are a very focused close combat army in this edition...

Finally the two big men meet on the bridge. Ghazhkull has mulches through the two Guard infantry squads which were placed Infront of him and given time for Yarrick to get to the front...

Oh dear...

An explosive display (I rolled sixes for ALL Ghazhkull's attacks) saw the entire command squad cut down, Yarrick almost dead even with his forcefield forcing me to reroll successful wound rolls, and then the old man got back up on one wound due to his Stubborn Indomitable Will rule. But poor Corporal Schon...

With time marching on, rush hour approaching and unlike Dave, myself having a sixty-odd mile trek home, we called the game at the end of turn five. As you can see there is a fair bit of Imperial Armour left, but most of the Guard infantry has been destroyed, several tanks and Chimera have been totalled, and I've got another wave of Orks hoofing it over the dry riverbed on their way to the battle, so it could have gone either way.

I just decided that since I'd taken a foothold on the far bank, my objective was essentially complete background wise from my perspective.

The giant plushie Nurgling which is in the lobby at Warhammer World, not sure why people have been drawing Ultramarines symbols on the material though. As they sell all the merchandise at Warhammer World, I did go looking to see if they had the plushies of Archibald the Gryph-Hound in the store, but no such luck...

Purchases are somewhat mandatory at Warhammer World I feel. I had been checking on the GW website only the night before to check wether they still produced the Ork Nob with Waaagh! Banner so was going to pick him up, the Catachan Devil novel was a roll of the dice as some Black Library novels are great, and some recently have been awful. I'll do a post about on which goes into my "Did Not Finish" pile at some point.

Another nice thing about the day was another of our friend, also named Dave just to keep things confusing, turned up for an hour or so in the afternoon to chat about stuff.

Years ago we all met through an online forum - The Ammobunker, and a core of us stayed in touch with each other over the years.

Second Dave greeted us, again said it had been a long time since we'd seen each other, then pointed to my head and said "yeah but you've got a little less hair now" to which I pointed at his stomach and replied "and you have a lot more belly mate".

It was nice to just have a day with toy soldiers and friends, but things were learnt (as usual):

• Start the armies closer together.
• Make sure to have a proper read of the rules, especially if like us you hadn't played them in years.
• Try to organise things so that models are painted and it's not such a rush to get things built and primed beforehand (this depends upon work schedules).

Well that was a great day, I'll post once I've gotten some more of the Orks painted up as I have a fair few vehicles in primer.

Until next time, have nice day.

Waaagh! Da Prophet of Gork an' Mork!

"Armageddun, what a world, should get a good scrap 'ere" Volkrag said, looking around at his fellow Meganobz as they were machined into their armour suits. Spannaboyz and their Grotz handing tools and tightening bolts.

"Yeah, da Prophet brought a WAAAGH! 'ere lotz of years ago, wotz made 'im come back do ya reckon?" Ushbek replied.

"Oi, is you two stupid or what?" Runtherd Blackteef shouted as he came stomping up the the ramp of the Battlewagon.

He ignore the bristling annoyed growls from the Meganobz as he carried on, "You'se is meant ta be Nobz, but acting like a couple o' Yoofs, yoo know what, Da boss 'as come back ta Armageddum because his enemy is 'Ere".

"Who, dat Yarrick?" Ushbek asked, flexing his power Klaw and cutting a Grotz wrench in half as the creature darted out of reach.

"Yeah, Yarrick 'imself iz 'ere on dis world" Blackteef started up, "For a 'umie he's the biggest Ork Killa out dere. Wiv' iz Klaw to cut ya wiv' and iz Shooty eye, more then dat though, some of the warpheadz say day Da Waaagh! is making him stronger like it does us! Dat Da Waaagh! is keeping him alive just to make Da Boss even stronger!"

Around them the Grotz had stopped work and were listening intently as the Meganobz tested the powered suits. Whines from generators filled the transport bay as the armour reacted to their movement's.

"An' who's leading Da Waaagh! against 'iz old enemy? Da Warlord Ghazhkull Mag Uruk Thraka, Da Prophet of Gork an' Mork, Conqueror of Piscina, Golgotha and lotz more places then that. Da Big Green, Da Goffiest Goff, Da Stabbiest Stabba, Da Shootiest Shoota, Da Biggest Boss in all Da Galaxy, Dat's who!" Blackteef finished to a roar of approval from the Meganobz.

"Boss, how come Da Prophet and dat Yarrick are out ta get each uvver?" One of the braver Grotz piped up in a nasal voice, yelping as one of the Spannaboyz caught him between the ears with a spanner and snarled to get back to work.

"Work on me Grotz, an' lissen well...Good enemies iz hard ta find" Blackteef said, "Even when he had Yarrick in 'iz clutches, Da Boss let him go, cause he knew Orks need enemies ta fight, like they need grog ta drink and food ta eat. An' an enemy like Yarrick ya don't just kill, ya look forward ta fightin' next time an' getting a proper scrap. Look at what we've gotten into here on Armageddun so far? We've faced 'Umies on foot, 'Umies in wagons an' wiv' there tanks, Red Beakies, Green Beakies, dem Mekanical Boyz the 'Umies are pals wiv'. An' we've beaten 'em all".

A louder roar and several gunshots erupted filling the hold with the sharp tang of cordite.

"An' now we've got ta 'ave a go at Old Bale Eye" a far deeper voice, one which sounded like an avalanche of power growled from the back.

Ghazhkull strode up the battlewagon access ramp, the metal groaning and creaking under immense weight of his own Mega-Armour. His own bionic eye flashed red across the Meganobz and he nodded in satisfaction that they were ready, light reflecting off the shiny adamantium head plate he had been fitted with all those years ago, back on Urk.

Makari strode purposefully behind his boss, holding aloft Ghazhkull's own glyph banner, as if anyone needed that to tell who he was, here was the prophet of the gods walking tall.

He climbed into the observation platform of the wagon and the entire world began to grumble as engines were started all around them, his appearance meaning the start of Waaagh! time.

The warbands all raced and mounted up in their transports and the world of Armageddon trembled once again...

*****

Hello, it's been a while since I posted and mainly because work has been hectic recently. However I've managed to get something done, as well as building Ork vehicles desperately (more on that in another post) I've managed to get Ghazhkull fully painted.

Haha 'Umies gonna get krumped!

In spite of everything modern in GW's released seeming to suffer from scale creep and being larger and larger, I adore the Ghazzie remodel. 

He actually looks like a beast once again towering over most models and looks like he has the muscle to stand toe to toe with the Primaris Space Marines.

I went with my newer Goffs scheme, all the rusted metal panels and black painted armour, but with some red flashes for variation.

The motor on his back was surrounded with red to make the armour walk faster. Remember "Red Wunz Go Fasta" is a popular Ork saying!

Obviously he had to get a fair amount of Goff 'Ard Boy checks, nothing screams 40k Orks like that. I also took the time to mount Makari up on Ghazzie's shoulder, waving his banner from his lofty perch.

Having little interest in playing 9th edition 40k, I'm not overly worried about loosing the separate character, but wanted to add him to the main model anyway because he's awesome and a call back to 2nd edition.

Now, Ghazzie has been finished in time for my planned Apocalypse game with Dave, against his Imperial Guard force at Warhammer World.

To that end we were talking a bit back and I idly asked if he had Yarrick in his army.

Two or Three days later he tells me that he's managed to pick up a Yarrick in blister off of eBay for a reasonable price, even better about a week later he sends me this:

Now that is really nice, and I think the first 40k model Dave has painted in several years, so I had to make sure to get Da Prophet fully painted to do battle with the arch enemy (even if most of my vehicles will be in primer for the battle unfortunately).

I'll get a post up about my various adventures in the Mekshop over this past couple of weeks and obviously an After Action Report of the battle will be coming in due course.

Until next time, Have nice day.