The Outcasts Arrive In Necromunda

Posted by johnnya10 on 27/11/2021
Posted in: Product Reviews. Tagged: . Leave a comment
book of the outcasts underhive market outcasts gang

What a weekend. Games Workshop not only sends Dungeon Bowl my way (and you can check out an unboxing post for Dungeon Bowl here) but they also sent me the new Necromunda releases to enjoy and review as well! And I have been waiting with baited breath for this release – it’s perfect for me, and so I’m here to tell you if it lives up to the hype. Let’s take a closer look at the Book of the Outcast, and the kits that accompany it. 

Why Outcasts? Why Now?

Necromunda is, hands done, the best world-building game that Games Workshop produce. It is a game that lives most comfortably in campaigns and creativity, and though it’s a fun one-shot sort of game too, it really shines when you can build a world to live in and occupy for several games (or even several years) in a row. And we have been provided with all manor of legendary fighters and gangs already, from the houses of Goliath, Escher, Van Saar, et al, all the way through to having the ability to create swashbuckling bounty hunters that help to forge the legends of the Underhive. 

But we’ve never just had basic dudes. Just folk. People who live here and have to put up with gangs of religious zealots, spooky spies, poison-perfecting femme fatales and all the other lunatics, punks and psychos that Hive Primus can produce. The average Joes and Jolenes who might eventually get completely sick of having to deal with all of this and one day pick up an old lasgun, a blunt knife or an autopistol and form their own gang. That’s what this release gives us – the basic blokes, hard-grafting girls, and other simple, decent folk of Hive City. And I love that.

The books itself is amazing. Absolutely jam-packed with lore that helps to flesh out the setting beyond the famed houses. I could point out hundreds of examples of this being done here in this book, but I really like these pages that define the differences between outcasts, outlanders and the rest:

outlaws, outcasts and outlanders

That right there. That’s the good shit. That’s the sort of thing that makes this book magic. For gaming purposes, your gang might not change too much, but when it comes to defining how they are, how they act, the society the dwell within and even how they look, this is gold dust. When I first read that piece, I spent a good couple of hours debating what I’d go for if I was going into a campaign with a posse of loners, desperados and last chancers. And in this book, you have so many ideas to work with and get inspired by.

And when you start to create your gang, further choices have been incorporated into the rules for building a band of underworld outcasts. You get to choose their affiliation, and the choice you make will affect how your gang interacts with other gangs, resources and rules in a campaign and you have five options to choose from ranging from the unaffiliated ‘clanless’ who represent the untrustworthy elements of Hive City, to a criminal organisation who are, well, even more untrustworthy to be fair. But the heart of this mechanic, is for me, in the ability to be aligned with Clan Houses, Noble Houses or a mercantile guild. Why not have your house affiliated with House Delaque and make them shifty, ranged weapon specialists? Or make them brightly coloured Escher enthusiasts? Whoever you pick, you get access to their house weapon lists, and potentially alliances with them, so pick wisely.

outcast gang affiliation

That’s such a great way to further theme your gang, and as a hoarder of bits myself, it’s a great way to use up some weapons, heads, and other paraphernalia from the Bits Crate (upgraded from a box – I got a lot of bits, man). And what’s more, the get access to hangers on that you can add to your gang, adding yet more flavour. So if you want a criminal gang affiliated with House Orlock that hangs around with an underhive trader and a slopper, you got it! Or would you prefer some deviant outlanders that keep an eye on things in the Underhive for House Ty? You’ve got some great options in these pages.

There’s a lot more to this book too, with the Outlander campaign looking particularly juicy, and the Wyrd Powers very entertaining (if terrifying in some instances). There’s a whole mess of cool looking character profiles and personalities available too. There is so much in this book that I love, that it’s almost impossible to find any negatives!

outlander campaign necromunda

…And yet, I do try and bring a little bit of balance to my reviews, so I do go looking for them. In truth, within these pages, there are no negatives that I’ve spotted, but what’s starting to concern me about Necromunda, is the amount of pages. I like that every gang gets its own book – that works great for me. But Necormunda is not 40k or AoS, and in this game, details and planning, especially on the part of the arbiter matter a lot more, and so said arbiter needs access to all of these books. If someone wanted me to play in a Necromunda campaign tomorrow, I would 100% say yes. If someone asked me to plan a Necromunda campaign, I would politely decline at the moment. There are so many books that you need now to run a campaign and for many that is a great deal of fun, but for me, it feels like too much. What I’d really like is an Arbiter’s Helper sort of book – a tome with all of the scenarios, trading posts, skills and a glossary of all the rules from all the books so far. If that sort of book comes out, I’d be prepping a big campaign tomorrow. As it is, I don’t have the patience to pour through that many pages.

So with that out of the way, I just want to reiterate that I love this book, it’s probably my favourite lore-building resource for the game so far, and I cannot wait to start thinking of more gang ideas based on these pages. Well done to the entire team who put it together.

The Kits

Then there are the kits and there is an awful lot to be happy about here. As mentioned, I am a huge fan of having these simpler fighters in the Underhive setting, so let’s start off with the Outcasts gang kit.

outcast gang sprues

I really like the ingenuity here. What you get in the box is three small, identical frames with lots of mix and match parts. There are plenty of heads and weapons to help you create 12 fighters just from what’s in the box. They fit the setting masterfully, and yes, if you want to make some more Chaos Cultists, they’ll probably do a very good job there. If I’m being honest, I probably expected just a little more from this kit. I think of how Necromunda sprues are usually bursting with options and while you have plenty of choice here, it’s not quite on the same level. That being said, these are generic Underhivers – they do not need to have the same sort of frames that the Gang Houses get – this works absolutely fine. I’ve built a few already and here’s one that I had the chance to paint.

underhive market gun rack

I kept the paint job quick and easy (there’s no need for this guy to look to fancy for me), and I know for sure that this lasgun-wielding dude will be providing back up for some of my more expensive Bounty Hunters one day in the near future. It was a very intuitive and simple build – each character is made up of 5-6 parts. Great if you just want to get some grunts glued together. So it’s not a super special kit, but it does the job it needs to do very well and you get enough options to keep things interesting.

underhive market stall

Next up is the market. I knew there was a reason I’d been stashing all those guns that didn’t have hands on them! By far my favourite thing about this set are the weapons racks, but the whole kit is full of fun. The market stalls look excellent, and the crates and containers work really nicely. There is a minor scale-issue with the coins and mugs in that they’re a bit big for the minis, but if you made them the same exact scale as the minis, you’d not be able to see the coins and the mugs would be daftly tiny. I like to think of these as mugs and coins for Ogryns – makes tonnes more sense then, and they too look great.

If you are building your own physical slice of the Underhive, you 100% should get this kit just because of the variety it adds. Also, there are some super fun rules for using this scenery in the Book of the Outcast so it will certainly be a real pleasure to work with.

So there’s my in depth review of the Book of the Outcast, and the kits it comes with. A great little release for Necromunda this, and I’d say the book especially is a must have for anyone who loves to create the grittiest and grimiest of the Underhive. Another ‘well done’ to all involved. Until next time; Onwards!

Let’s Unbox Dungeon Bowl!

Posted by johnnya10 on 27/11/2021
Posted in: Unboxing. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Hello sports fans! And magic fans too, I guess. Today, I feel like a very lucky boy indeed because Games Workshop have sent me a copy of the brand new Dungeon Bowl game to review and I am super, mega, wonderfully excited. Blood Bowl is one of my favourite games ever, and Dungeon Bowl, which replaces the gridiron with a network of magical rooms and portals is a legendary variant of the game that I am so happy to see brought back. If you thought Blood Bowl was crazy, wait until you give Dungeon Bowl a try.

For this article, I’m going to be doing a bit of a straight up unboxing, but then I’ll take you for a whistle stop tour of some of my favourite bits of the rulebook, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about the team I’m going to be putting together to play this game. Now, get your foam-dome hats on, find your big foam finger, and let’s get ready to *finds out the phrase “lets get ready to rumble” is owned by the WWE and they are very litigious when it comes to its use*…play ball! (phew)

dungwon bowl box cover

I will confess when the latest edition of Blood Bowl came out, I wasn’t in love with the illustration style, but it really has grown on me now. It gives this weird little alternative universe of the Warhammer Worlds its own identity, and the Dungeon Bowl set fits very nicely into this brand. And it’s a lovely, glossy box too – the sort of thing you’d expect from G-dubz. So we can say that the box looks great, now let’s rip that top cover off!

dungeon bowl sprues

Sprues! Lovely, lovely sprues. I do hope we’re past the days of hiding sprues in a separate box because it really does make all the difference to see them front and centre when one takes the lid off a fresh new set. My favourite reveal by far, and while only one of these six sprues shows anything new, it still makes it a wonderful gateway into the box. That new sprue features the components key to the Dungeon Bowl experience – treasure chests and portals. Just seeing these here takes me back to, and reminds me wonderfully of, the mayhem that this game can inspire (though I still have a minor fear of opening treasure chests thanks to this game – stupid booby traps).

One might argue that the lack of new miniatures in this box could be seen as a let down, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Sure, we like shiny, new things (people who do this hobby seem to share about 95% of their DNA with magpies), but we are getting new teams here, and the familiarity of these kits will come as a comfort when descending into the magical dungeons of this game. So while I could see it as a downside, I really don’t think it is here – everything about this feels very new (and yet oddly familiar to us older fans) anyway.

dungeon bowl team sprues

And here are those familiar sprues in not so familiar settings or colours. Beneath the components needed for the game, we have our teams: Ogres and Dwarves rendered in luminous coral (that’s pinky-orange to the uninitiated), while the Skaven and Dark Elves are wearing a fetching and vibrant purple. I think this is a really nice touch for this game which features very dark boards, and I know people who have limited vision will appreciate these colour choices if they want to get playing straight away.

dungeon bowl card insert

Then we have the divider that separates the sprues from the books. Not really much more to say about it so let’s get that to one side.

dungeon bowl book cover

The rulebook is chunkier than I thought it would be. Happily, you don’t need to own Blood Bowl before cracking on with Dungeon Bowl – all the rules for this iteration of the game are in this book, and that’s great. The book itself is full of great illustrations and has been put together to those usual high standards you’d expect from Games Workshop. We’ll look at this book a little bit more later in this post, so what other pages of things do you get?

dungeon bowl papers

Well, there are the assembly instructions (always useful) and, wonderfully, a cheat sheet – a must have, especially for new players and those who will forget rules constantly and get them confused with regular Blood Bowl (i.e. Me). You are allowed to fine me 10,000 gold pieces if at any point I try to do a weather roll – this will happen.

dungeon bowl boards, dice and bases

When we lift the cardboard out, we find our bases, some more vibrantly colourful Blood Bowl dice that match the team colours, and the boards. The boards are really lovely, with their thematic and charming illustrations set on thick card with a very pleasing satin-like finish, they are just lovely. You’ve got your dugouts too, but the rooms are the real stars of this box – a great headliner to hide beneath everything else as a final reveal.

dungeon bowl rooms

In regards to the box, I like everything about it. I always try and find something even a little negative in my reviews, just to emphasise balance and honesty, but I can’t with this one. It may down to the fact that I’m super excited for this game, but I’m seeing nothing but win here. Everything is top quality, the minis are great (even if they’re not new), the boards are stunning and the rulebook is nice and chunky too. Well done to the teams who helped bring Dungeon Bowl back!

A Little More About The Book

dungeon bowl book contents

This book is very good at not presuming that the person who purchased this set already knows all the ins and outs of the Blood Bowl setting. Dungeon Bowl uses the majority of the rules that long time BB players will be familiar with, but there are some very important distinctions that help to make this a truly magical game. It’s worth any Blood Bowl player reading all of this book very carefully because it will be like 90% the same as Blood Bowl and then something will catch your eyes that’s different. From the Treasure chests and Portals which are obvious, to not needing to worry about weather, or getting knocked into the fans. It’s also key for everyone to remember how important that first touchdown is, because it will be the only touchdown – first to score wins, so no “oh, I’ll get them on the next drive” thoughts.

dungeon bowl touchdown

One section of the book that has had me engrossed is the section detailing what happens in each of the different dungeon rooms. Each room in Dungeon Bowl has different rules, you see. Yes, you heard me. Each room is governed by the nature of the room and this can lead to some very tactical thinking and hilarious disasters too. You might try and strike it rich in The Treasure Room, or ensure you have a presence in the sewer where any players there gain the ‘Disturbing Presence’ rule, and you can even have a food fight in the kitchen. This is going to be so much fun.

dungeon bowl room rules

If you think Dungeon Bowl is to Blood Bowl what 3D Chess is to Chess, you’d be wrong. It’s actually what 3D Chess that’s on fire and everyone’s falling over and laughing half the time is to Chess. So much of that comes down to these rooms. There are lots of other enjoyable rules that go to make this game a great deal of fun, but you’ll soon learn that it’s all about location, location, location.

The other variable that will throw off any seasoned player is the make-up of the teams. Orcs and Humans teaming up will look very strange to many of us, but when you read through the rosters, you can see how it all makes sense. It’s bonkers, but it’s sense-making bonkers. I already know what team I’m going to be putting together because I a) came up with a pun name that’s wonderfully nerdy, and b) I found the college of magic that really speaks to me – The College of Beasts.

college of beasts dungeon bowl

So the team I’m taking will look like this:

7x Beastmen

2x Pestigors

2x Khorngors

1x Minotaur 

2x Team Rerolls

Everything has horns! So I’m calling it Round The Horn and they’ll all have names like Rambling Syd Rumpo, Julian, Sandy, Dame Celia Molestrangler… Basically, if you’re a fan of 1960s BBC radio comedies, you’ll be enjoying a sensible chuckle right now. And if not, well, you should be. And the fact that they all have horns and so tackle super hard makes them even greater in my beardy eyes. As with Blood Bowl, in Dungeon Bowl, I am rarely focussed on the ball. It’s also an excuse to try and hunt down this Oldhammer cutie to act as a manager:

oldhammer amber wizard

So, in summary, if you like Blood Bowl but wish it could be crazier, weirder and slightly different, this is the game for you. If you’ve never played a Blood Bowl style sort of game before, I would still probably suggest getting the basic game and trying out life on the Gridiron first with a more traditional team. Dungeon Bowl can be a bit full on for newer players, so that’s a reminder to all of us veterans to be good and patient teachers when introducing the uninitiated. And if you like try Blood Bowl, enjoy it, and wish that it could be nightmarishly hilarious and full of even more mayhem, Dungeon Bowl is absolutely the game for you.

I cannot wait to get going with this game, and I’m only two Pestigors (called Daphne Whitethigh and Seamus Android – again, listen to Round the Horne) from being able to field an unpainted version. And painting them will be great too – can you imagine the basing options!? Pick a room (or several) and work to that. This gets a bog foam-thumbs up from me, and I hope to get playing very soon indeed. Onwards!

The Totally Random “6 Paints” Hobby Challenge

Posted by johnnya10 on 17/11/2021
Posted in: Silliness and Stuff. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

Christmas is approaching (already?!) and I will be once again be embarking on my totally random six paint mini painting challenge. This is the 3rd year I’ve done it so it really feels like a tradition now. In this blog post, I’ll explain the challenge, why I’ve made this a yearly tradition and give you the lowdown on the rules if you want to take part yourself. 

It all started when I saw what Sam Lenz had done with Katakros – a mini that featured on the Warhammer Community website – I’ve linked to the article there. Not only did he do an incredible job, but he only used six colours to paint it. That really rang my hobby challenge bell, and so I decided to give it a go over the Christmas break a couple of years ago though I gave myself six colours plus black and white just to make this a little less torturous. This is what I came up with:

drukhari succubus

Why this mini? Why these colours? Well, that all came down to the rules I created for the challenge, prompted by my own indecisiveness. See, when it came to picking a mini, I just couldn’t do it. I had reservations, apprehensions or pre-existing plans with every mini. So as I stood in the Warhammer World store one lunch time, I asked two friends to give me a number between 1 and 100 (or so – it was a while back). I don’t recall what it was, but I walked around the store, counting off clamshells until I arrived at the number the said and that made me pick the Succubus. Then an idea came over me – make everything random.

There’s an incredible freedom afforded to you when you make every aspect of choice about a mini random. You’re cut free from your safety nets. You can’t rely on the same techniques you’ve leaned on all year (or for years) and the expectation from yourself is minimal. And an character that doesn’t fit into an army or project you’re working on, a one off piece, pushes you to try new things. I still have no interest in ever painting a Drukhari army, but that Succubus was a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll draw an Archon one year – i’d be happy with that. But, I digress. 

So I had a random mini, and then I got some friends to give me random numbers and I counted through the Citadel paints until I had my 6 random paints. Six paints by the way that would never have been my chosen paints for this particular job or miniature, but that’s the point of this – it’s a refresher, a palette cleanser.

The next year, I took it a bit further. I got a friend to randomly pick a number and counted through the web store until I landed on the Lord of Plagues. I then turned to Twitter who gave me my random numbers for the paints, and by the end of the Christmas break, this was the result: 

lord of plagues

I’d have never picked those colours, or tried to do all NMM on a mini like this before. But I didn’t have any metallics this year so what could I do but try? It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I learned a lot from the experience. Is it the perfect mini? Hell no, but it kept me learning new things and it pushed my brush skill and imagination.

So in preparation for this year, I rolled a die and got the 40k range, before using a random number generator to land on the Adepta Sororitas Imagifier in the characters list on the web store. I then turned to my Crusade campaign buddies (because the dice said they’d be the honoured ones this year) and got them to pick some random numbers and I used these to select 5 paints from my collection, while a few dice rolls got me my 6th. This is what I’ll be working with:

random mini and paints challenge

An interesting selection for sure, and while I can see bits of it in my mind already, there’s still a lot for me to work out with the brush in my hand in a few weeks when I get cracking with this. 

Now, it may be that you (yes, you… that’s right; you… yes, you!) might be interested in doing something similar. It’s a great way to give yourself a break from your current projects, learn something new, and work on something you would never usually think of trying. So for the first time, I’ve formalised the rules for this so you can use them if you want to give it a go. Here they are:

The 6 Colours Random Mini Hobby Challenge Rules:

  1. Select the mini at random. Use whatever method you wish to make the choice random and not yours or anyone else’s.
  2. Ensure it is a single mini. If your chosen method produces a result that is too expensive, something you have painted before, or you really hate the mini, you can use a single mulligan to change to a different randomly selected mini.
  3. Use any method to randomly select 6 paints. Exclude technical and contrast paints from the challenge, and there is a hard limit of one metallic paint and/or one shade/wash paint.
  4. You are allowed to take a black and a white paint, but you may not use these on their own or unmixed on the mini – they must always be combined with at least one other colour.
  5. You can mix your paints however you like with each other and/or with black and white.
  6. You may pre-base your mini, but you can only use your six random paints and black and white paints to paint the base. 
  7. There’s no official time limit, but try to complete your mini within 2 weeks (just so you never forget which paints you used!)

And that’s it! When you’re done (if you choose to give it a go) please let me know – I’d love to see your results. And just because I do this over the Christmas break, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it in August or May or whenever. Have fun with it! 

So when you see me post up a randomly coloured Imagifier after Christmas, you’ll know why I did it and the thinking (or randomness) behind it. I hope you have tonnes of fun with the challenge, and until next time, onwards! 

High Marshal Helbrecht

Posted by johnnya10 on 13/11/2021
Posted in: My Painting and Modelling. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Have you ever had an inkling that maybe, just maybe, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew? When time is a factor, do you ever look to use up every second? Well, Games Workshop were very kind in sending me the brand new Black Templars big daddy, High Marshal Helbrecht himself, and I decided to push myself a bit more than I normally would with this one. Here he is:

High Marshal Helbrecht

Now, on first viewing, going by the image above, it perhaps doesn’t look too OTT. The glowing sword (the biggest thing I’ve ever tried to make glow) sticks out perhaps, and you might get a hint of some writing on the inside of the cloak there. It’s perhaps fancy, but maybe not so fancy. Give it a minute.

One thing you may also notice is the lack of the little dude shining Helbrecht’s sword (saucy) and in answering where he is, I may as well also cover off my thoughts on the miniature. “Miniature” may not be the word – he’s huge! I hear some are already calling him “Hunk-brecht” and no wonder. Proper massive. That right there is a base size usually used with Dreadnoughts. I really like the little dude wiping the sword, but he didn’t really seem to fit with the idea of the power sword being on – I imagine even a servitor would feel the pain of trying to clean a burning power sword. So I’ve reserved him for a later project which will hopefully be fun. I of course kept the guy carrying the combi-weapon because it gave me a laugh when I thought of Helbrecht getting annoyed when that servitor gets shot. “Really? Thanks, guys. Thanks. Just great. Now I’ve got to carry the damn gun myself – do you know how heavy this thing is!?” etc.

But in removing one of the servitors, I unbalanced the piece, I felt. It’s such a faithful and lovingly made interpretation of the Mark Gibbons piece, I felt I needed to keep some balance there. And then I had the idea that just took this whole piece a little too far…

black templars banner

Well, you had to expect it at some point, right? I mean, I don’t think there are many John Blanche box covers I haven’t painted now, and this was a glaring omission that I have thankfully corrected. In fact, I finished painting that up literally an hour or so before penning this blog, and I can still taste all the Averland Sunset I was licking off my brush. The banner itself is taken from one of Forge World’s Heresy command sets with the hand trimmed off at the back. I thin pinned it into the base and there’s a bobble of greenstuff underneath it still curing and giving it a little more stability.

I should say, my favourite part of the above shot is actually the blue glow I managed to get on the lower leg there, behind the sword. OSL is still something I need to practice but I think I nailed that bit of it, and I did get to practice several times across the mini, with varying degrees of success. The candles on his backpack are glowing, but i think I made the orange too strong, and the lantern glow might be a little weak but I was thinking that blue flames actually don’t emit much light… maybe I was overthinking that. Overall though, I’m quietly happy with how the lighting effects are going here.

And the cloak is all in latin and there is a whole message in there about the Emperor protecting and the Black Templars killing aliens and heretics… the usual stuff. The font is called ‘Ancient’ if you’re looking for similar.

helbrecht combi melta servitor

I’m probably going to revisit the sword at some point to smooth out the transitions a bit but I’m happy with the colouring of it all. The armour was all painted in silvers and then stained in a blend of Guilliman Flesh and Nazdreg Yellow that had been thinned down a fair bit. Oh, and for Helbrecht’s skin I used a base of Ungor Flesh as a midtown because I’m really enjoying that paint at the moment.

There are a couple of cop outs on the mini. The little skull that’s painted in the banner’s round bit at the top – that was going to be a Templar cross but I need a lot more practice painting those before I commit to that design being front and centre on any mini. And I was going to do a load of latin on the back of the banner too but I was burnt out by the time I got there. And I was probably going to do some writing on the gun as well, but I got a red I really liked and didn’t want to risk cocking up and having to redo it. And speaking of the combi-melta…

helbrecht servitor

I think this little dude became my low key favourite bit of this mini. I’m really happy with the dead skin tone I achieved using Rakarth Flesh, which I then washed with a diluted Carroburg Crimson, and then I brought the light areas up again by moving up through Rakarth Flesh to almost pure white. He’s such a characterful little dude.

skulls on a cloak

I just had to run and get this photo (excuse the sketchy base rim there – not sure why that’s happened) because I completely forgot about the field of skulls that’s on the back of his cloak. And you get a nice view of the Servitor of course, but really, it shows I’ve taken things too far when I have to run off and get a photo of the cloak because I forgot it was even something I did. There is a vague attempt at a soft grain pattern in there but I didn’t go too far with it as then I’d have to do the whole cloak and I quite like the slick brown look it has.

All in all, this was a hugely fun mini to work on. It’s a great tribute to the character, the army and the illustration by Mark Gibbons. I’ve got a few little bits to touch up on it still like I said, but I don’t have the time to fix all of that just now so you’ll have to settle for a 97% done Helbrecht. Maybe 97.5%. He’s an absolute beast and a must for any Templars force.

One of the reasons I don’t have the time is because I am heading off to Salute today at London’s Excel. I’m looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces, splurging on basing accessories and big minis I probably won’t get around to painting, and having a weekend of board gaming fun and boozing with some old friends. I hope you too have a wonderful weekend, and if you see me at Salute, do wave hello – I’ll try and remember to pack the Heresy and Heroes hoody so you’ll know who I am. I’ll leave you with one last image of the banner, and until next time, Onwards (to Salute)!

john blanche black templars banner

Blood on the Pitch – Khorne arrives in Blood Bowl!

Posted by johnnya10 on 06/11/2021
Posted in: Unboxing. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Oh, GW, you do know how to make me happy. Only the other day, I was thinking that I hadn’t played Blood Bowl in far too long (stupid global pandemic) and that maybe it was a good time to put a new team together. As an Orc player, I like teams that hit hard and only really worry about the ball when there are no faces to smash – you can check out Da Mighty Redz if you’d like to take a look at my regular squad.

So I was delighted when Games Workshop saw fit to send me all the brand new Khorne goodies for me to review this week here on the blog. And boy do they look great!

khorne blood bowl team and accessories

I mean, how good does that all look!? This is absolutely perfect for me and easily one of the most exciting packages I’ve had delivered this week. As ever, the presentation of these products is perfect. The dice look great, the illustrations and design are top notch – nothing to disapprove of when we’re judging the look of these products while the cellophane is still on them, so let’s dive deeper and take a look at what’s inside the boxes, after a short piece of tactical analysis.

I love the look of how this team plays. All that frenzy! They are a team for people who like to hit hard and often, but the frenzy on the lower strength players balances this side out and forces the coach to think tactically because that can go wrong fast. So they’re not just a wild swing team, but they can be if you want to trust Nuffle (may he be praised) with your fortune. A fine addition to the game. Now let’s get into those boxes!

khorne blood bowl cards

I love these card packs. All the recent ones have been winners and this is no exception. I like being able to see my roster in card form and the basic player stat cards are great. Judging by those numbers, I am definitely going to be wanting a Bloodspawn for this team – what a beast! Akhorne is a charming touch, but I think Max Spleenripper is my preferred star player of the two. The special play cards are gloriously thematic, and while there are some strong and/or intriguing choices in there, if I had one minor complaint about this deck, it’s that some of them just felt a little underwhelming. Still great, but I wasn’t seeing anything in there that I’d be desperate to draw before a game. But I’m not a good Blood Bowl player (stupid dice), merely a passionate one, so what do I know? It’s usually after I say something like that that someone finds something completely game-breaking that I missed so I’m hoping that’s true here too.

khorne spike! magazine

I think Spike! magazine might just be one of my favourite things about the modern Blood Bowl era. getting an entire mini-publication devoted to a team works really nicely, and it beats having to wait for a book including several teams’ updates, so the more of these journals the better. Like usual, this is a solid issue with plenty to get your teeth (or claws or horns) into, and just enough flavour to inspire one to get on with building and painting the Khorne team.

I loved that my camera picked out Morg N Thorg’s face when I was taking the above photo – kudos to the illustrator there. It’s a good selection of Star Players, and while I like Mr Spleenripper, as I was once, very briefly, the voice of Lord Borak, I think I might have to pick him up for this team. Love that guy.

khorne blood bowl pitch and dugouts

In a way, I think the pitch might be my favourite part of this set. These pitches have come on leaps and bounds, and while I still enjoy my very old pitch, I will be using this for my Khorne games for sure. The finish on the pitch is lovely, it’s nice to have the double sided option, and the slim dugouts are a huge win for someone like me who likes playing Blood Bowl in a pub where table space is at a premium. I will probably be using the blood-drenched side more because (and this is another minor criticism), I find it almost impossible to find the squares on the skull side, and my eyes are pretty sharp. But hey, you couldn’t not have a skull side for a Khorne team, but I just wish it was easier to pick out the square markers on it. So blood-drenched side it is!

khorne blood bowl team sprues

Ok, the transfers are a nice touch. I don’t use the things myself, but I really appreciate those being included here. If you want good pictures of the sprues, go look at the ones on the GW site – they’ve got fantastically good photographers working there so I’m not trying to compete with that. You’ll have seen all of the pictures on Warhammer Community by now, so I won’t linger on this too long, but unsurprisingly, these all look great – I can’t wait to get started.

Now, I’ll be honest with you, when I heard there was going to be a Khorne team in Blood Bowl, I was pretty cold on the idea. A Nurgle team works because Nurgle has an inherent sense of humour to it as a concept, and Blood Bowl is a game that is all about fun and jokes. The hyper-violence of Khorne didn’t seem to fit to my mind back then, but as I was flicking through Spike! and looking at the cards and kit, I got a lot more into the idea. And little things like Akhorne, the Spike! illustrations, and even the wording on some of the cards really help to lift Khorne into the Blood Bowl dimension and give them a funnier edge that they typically lack. They’re still hyper-violent, but you can sprinkle it with enough silliness to make it work in this setting, and we, as players, can help add the final touches to it all with how we paint and name our teams.

So it works, and that’s great. But that leads me to my next point – Slaanesh and Tzeentch teams; when GW? When!? 😉

Overall, this is a great release and if you love a few games on the Gridiron, and you play Blood Bowl like a maniac like I do, then I think you’re going to love this set. Spike! is a great read, the cards a very helpful, the pitch set is fantastic (though with the caveat that the skull side is not the easiest to see the squares on), and the team itself is a triumph. Blood Bowl for the Blood Bowl God!

And as ever, have a wonderful weekend and week ahead full of fantastic hobby. Until next time, dear reader, onwards!

Bastian Carthalos

Posted by johnnya10 on 22/10/2021
Posted in: My Painting and Modelling. Tagged: . 1 Comment

Before we even start this, if you haven’t done so already, head over to Warhammer Community and read the story about Harry and his son painting this mini – it’s way (waaay) more important and interesting than reading my drivel. But if you’re in the mood for a little drivel, do continue on – I’ve got plenty of it to share around. And now, back to our usual feature. 🙂

Quite unexpectedly, Games Workshop were kind enough to send Bastian Carthalos to me and I’ve been happilly working away on him. While this character is very much belonging to the Hammers of Sigmar, I inducted him into the Ashen Stars (my own Stormhost that you can read about here) because no-one, not even Lord Commanders, are immune to the curse… Let’s take a look at this big (BIG) fella.

bastian carthalos

What a chonkster. What an absolute unit. This guy is huge – like, Primarch proportions if you’ll permit me to cross the streams for a moment. All those memes people were making about him being an alternative model for Vulkan – let’s just say it would be far from impossible to do that. And he has that poise and purpose that you want a general to have – that’s some great posing and positioning from the Miniatures team.

When it came to painting him up as a member of the Ashen Stars, i was presented with a problem though. I started that Stormcast army over 3 years ago now, and I haven’t really worked on it properly for a long time. The golden-boys side of the Dominion box remains untouched (though come to think of it, so does the swampy-boys side – one day), but what’s more troublesome is that the way I paint (especially) metallics has evolved a lot in that time. So I had to drag myself back into the mists of the past (2018-ish) and relearn how I painted back then to fit this guy into that army. It was tricky, but I think he matches them quite well, even though I changed up a couple of things.

The model was undercoated black, and then I picked out all of the metallic areas with Leadbelcher, the brown leather with Rhinox Hide and the bone-coloured cloak with Ushabti Bone. All of that got a covering of Agrax Earthshade and was left to dry. Once dry, I highlighted the metallic areas up through Ironbreaker to Runefang Steel, before using Nazdreg Yellow, thinned with some Contrast Medium to create the brass/gold areas. The leather cloak was given a series of treatments (from sponges, brushes, etc) with XV-88 before being sealed in with Seraphim Sepia, and the bone-coloured cloak has lifted back up all the way to Screaming Skull.

stormcast eternals general

That was the bulk of the model done so I focussed on the red areas next, the purply haft of his hammer and the lighter banner bits before adding the 5 pointed star to his cloak buckle and moving on to the base. Oh, that base. Normally there’s like a stone or two on the bases of this army, but on here there are tonnes, as well as two skulls (I’ve fixed the dodgy eye I painted in one of them post photos), and the brazier thing too. I’m not happy with the lines on some of those tiles, but as I got this whole thing finished in about five hours, I’ll live with it. This army was always meant to be played with, not lauded as a painting masterclass.

Once that base was done, I cracked out the Rhinox hide, Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust and went to town with the weathering – by far the most fun step with this scheme. I got him all grossed up with the signature look of the Ashen Stars, before cleaning up his base rim and calling him done.

leather cloak

In a way, I’m sad to see the back of this miniature. He reminded my why I like Stormcast Eternals, and he was a simple fun paint in a short period of time. Given weeks with him (and I’m not complaining at all here – it was very kind of GW to send him my way) I think I could have done something really special with him. Genuinely tempted to buy another one to do just that. He’s super easy to put together too, and there are minimal mould lines to worry about. Also, having looked at his bonkers rules, I’m trying to find a way to squeeze him into the army I intend to play, but we’ll see.

Onto the next project for me, though I have a packed couple of weeks so it might be quiet around here for a little. And I’m aware that there are at least a couple of articles that I have promised that have fallen by the wayside but I will get back to those as soon as I can. In the meantime, have an awesome weekend filled with hobby goodness. Onwards!

P.s. Here’s a good size comparison with a Liberator for you:

bastian carthalos size comparison

Necromunda Bounty Hunter – The Stalking Scorpion

Posted by johnnya10 on 17/10/2021
Posted in: My Painting and Modelling, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . 3 Comments

“Murzon Kyro spent his youthful years lurking around the Imperial Fists Interests atop the Spyre and eavesdropping on every conversation he could. It is believed that from these noble warriors (or more likely their serfs) he first learnt of the Xenos warriors known as (according to Imperial classifications) Striking Scorpions. He became obsessed by the idea of them and would, years later, spend part of his family’s fortune obtaining weapons from the Van Saar, and toxins from House Escher, as well as developing his own body through clandestine methods to match the speed, armament and abilities of these warriors (or what he thought these warriors to be based on his approximations). This is what first brought him to my attention, but after the death of his brother, Arfiz, Kyro Murzon has descended into the Underhive looking for answers presumably, and as such, has slipped beyond the light of the Emperor’s Inquisitive gaze. He is now said to haunt the shadows of the crumbling depths, and is growing quite the reputation as a lethal entity.”

– Inquisitor Thor Henshu (Ordo Xenos)

stalking scorpion

Long ago, I attended a Horus Heresy and Necromunda weekender at which Andy Hoare did a Q&A and someone asked if we would ever see Xenos representation in Necromunda. Andy responded by saying, essentially that, Genestealers aside, no, they likely wouldn’t show up because this is a very Imperial setting. However, he went on, the idea that some Spyre brat has heard of the Aeldari, and wants to emulate them, is a viable one, though he wouldn’t have seen one so his efforts would be based on clandestine research and hearsay. All of that has been percolating in me for, I think, 5 years now (or is it 4 – 2020 ruined my sense of time-keeping) and this is finally the result of that – the Stalking Scorpion.

For a start, it’s great to be back working on Bounty Hunters again. I do love making them and it’s been a while. Secondly, it is amazingly satisfying and therapeutic to bring this idea to life after all this time. It has been scratching and gnawing at the back of my hobby brain for an age now, and it’s wonderful to finally exorcise it and make it a real thing.

necromunda spyre bounty hunter

It was such a fun premise to work with. What would a Spyre-brat who desperately wanted to look like, and fight like, an exotic alien do to make that a reality. For a start, he could afford Van Saar weapons and tech to enhance him. He might have done research into what a scorpion actually was, and found out about their venomous nature, so he would engage the Escher. He would have worked out, and dreadlocked his hair, and he would have found illegal information about how these aliens operated. Why a Striking Scorpion? Because they’re my favourite Eldar unit of all time.

So for this kit, I took the Eversor assassin and did some chopping and changing with a few Van Saar and Escher bits. I also had to make his locks and each one is a very thin strand of green stuff. I then used one of those weird spine things from the Van Saar and turned it into a tail because I thought Murzon would have seen those images of scorpions and presumed Striking Scorpions had tails. I used the Striking Scorpion colour palette and adapted it slightly for the grimy world of the Underhive and I ensured he’d have glowing red eyes because I just think that would look cool and the idea of gangers, hive scum and bounty hunters alike being terrified at the sight of those eyes in the dark was really fun.

sculpting dreadlocks

There’s a shot of those dreadlocks for you. “Fiddly” doesn’t even begin to describe it. I also thought long and hard about how to emulate the Scorpion’s Bite, and that’s where the shoulder mounted needler comes in (which our bounty hunter here calls the “Scorpion’s Sting”). I like the idea that it follows his eyes and is slaved to the laspistol trigger. And the laspistol is there because I really didn’t think a Shurikan catapult would make sense in Hive Primus.

I’ve got a few more Necromunda Bounty Hunters in the pipeline so I’ll get round to them at some point. I think I’m now at 24 and I quite like the idea of at least hitting 30, but I’ll see how I go. I’m also now very much drawn to the idea of creating a Van Saar gang as their design (which initially I didn’t love) has really started to grow on me. We’ll see. Onwards!

Ogroid Myrmidon – Painting The Actual Devil & The Slayer Shield

Posted by johnnya10 on 10/10/2021
Posted in: My Painting and Modelling. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Have you ever not known what to paint? I have a rather large “Mountain of Opportunity” (read “Grey Tide”) in my hobby room but even with a wealth of options, sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to work on next. Then I discovered, much to my surprise, that I had two Ogroid Myrmidon minis, and this presented an opportunity. I could take one and paint it just for fun, and play around with how I did things a little bit. Be free, and not worry so much – I still have another one so this could be a canvas I didn’t mind experimenting on. And it turns out, when given freedom, I’ll just paint the Devil.

ogroid myrmidon

Yep. Hail Satan, or something along those lines, I guess. I won’t run through everything I did that’s a little different to how I normally do things as much of it is minute stuff that only I really care about, but I’ll go through the highlights. And speaking of highlights, I very rarely do a zenithal pre-shade to define highlights, but I did here, using Mephiston Red spray on a Chaos black base to show me what needed to be brightest. Worked quite nicely I think but I don’t know how much I’ll do that in the future. Let’s see.

But there was more fun to be had with things I’m more known for. I shaved the pattern off the shield to give me a nice flat surface because I wanted to flex my freehand muscles as usual. But I didn’t know what to put on there, so I asked my followers on twitter (@Heresyheroes if you’re interested) what I should do. The option chosen was for me to do a classic Heavy Metal album rendition, but I needed to pick the album. I thought about Iron Maiden’s Eddie of course, and Black Sabbath’s first album I thought could work nicely. I even considered doing Metallica’s Load album but knowing how that cover art was made (allegedly) I wasn’t really in the mood to really put “myself” into my art (if you catch my meaning). But then I had a better thought – I may never get my hands on the Slayer Sword, but I can make myself a Slayer Shield…

slayer shield

I took the cover from Slayer’s Seasons In The Abyss (google it if you don’t know it) and, well, painted that. It works really nicely as a design that something Chaotic would paint onto a shield to terrify their enemies. I really like how it came out, and just to give you a vague idea of how I did it, I even took WiP shots of it for you. Here you go:

how to freehand a shield

Started off with Averland Sunset, and then outlined the head. I painted the head in its entirety and then did the rest. I know that’s not exactly detailed, but if you want to know more, drop me a comment or reach me on Twitter and ask me any specifics – will be happy to try to answer. And the whole thing reminded me how good that album is – what a record. Have been listening to it all week and it really is a masterpiece. But anyway…

red skin on a miniature

What else to tell you. I experimented with the red/blue balance a fair bit. I know blue weapons are more “good guy” in Warhammer, but with that blade, the faintly glowing eyes, the highlights on the hair, and the Terradon Turquoise base, it all really helps to further push that red. I feel I need to do a post that is just a love letter to Mephiston Red and Evil Sunz Scarlet because I rarely work on a miniature without employing that combo. I just love ’em.

I also played with the idea of silver really only being on the weapons (the tail counts as a weapon) and dirty brass being used against the red (horns not withstanding). Again, it helps to frame and pop things.

painting the devil

And that’s all there is to really go through I think. I guess I should say that I really like the fact that this devilish looking model looks really nice painted with that cartoon/tattoo devil colour palette. There’s some changes that I’d make to how I paint it but it really is a classic look and I think I did it some credit here.

This was a lot of fun and that’s what it was meant to be. I’m not grading myself on this one – it’s like trying to assign a mark to playtime. But it was refreshing and free and just oodles of enjoyment, and I hope you enjoy it too. Onwards!

The New Emperor’s Champion – In Record Time!

Posted by johnnya10 on 09/10/2021
Posted in: My Painting and Modelling. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Well, I am a lucky boy. I was thrilled when Games Workshop decided to send me the new Black Templars box because, well, what a box! What a range. After all that time in the wilderness for Black Templar players, their faith has been rewarded with a killer set of miniatures and this box contains the first of them. That’s why I decided to focus more on the miniatures than the book (though don’t worry – that’ll get a look too). But I didn’t have much time on my hands, so the question was; could I paint up the new Emperor’s Champion to a nice standard in two evenings. Effectively six hours. Well, here’s the answer:

black templars primaris emperor's champion

That’s not bad, right?! I knew I couldn’t aim for “display quality” (which is a phrase I hate – if you painted it and you’re proud of it, it’s display quality; don’t listen to the haters) so I leaned into ‘simple but effective’ and saved the special stuff for a couple of small spaces. These are the basic steps, but if you want more detail, just pop a note in the comments. 🙂

Building and basing went quickly and a black undercoat went on (obvs). Then, when that dried, a thin layer of Abaddon black went down all over. I didn’t have the time to spend hours doing fades and intensely accurate edge highlighting, so I went for a fast and freer approach. I also went down the Rhinox Hide/Mournfang route to make it a bit warmer and the browns lend themselves to the look of the Templars (that cover art was very fresh in my mind). When that was all done, a layer of thinned down Black Templar all over the model to a) soften those highlight transitions, and b) give the armour a ruddier look (I knew I’d be doing a bit of weathering here and there so this would tie in nicely).

I then did the reds, which started as a Rhinox Hide/Mephiston Red mix, then moved through Mephiston Red and eventually up to Evil Sunz Scarlet. I would have done a bit more work on the texture but I had no time so once I was done, a glaze of thinned Blood Angels Red went down.

The leathers happened next, followed by the white. The latter started off as Celestra Grey, and then once a couple of coats had gone down, I started blending in White Scar until a pure highlight was applied to the tops. Seraphim Sepia helped to grime them up a bit. And that was night 1 done – it was a whirlwind!

emperor's champion

Night two started off with the metallics. The benefit of my system is that all metallics are painted using the same paints (Leadbelcher, Iron Warriors, Iron Breaker and Abaddon Black) in a sort-of TMM style (usually a lot more care goes into it) and then you use contrast paints to stain these. So for both gold and silver areas, it’s the same thing until the last step. Before that though, the sword got my customary weathered bronze look.

That was the busy work done and now I got to have some fun. First up, using Altdorf Blue and blending it gradually with White Scar, I created the glowing areas – his eyes and the lantern at his waist (which I wish I’d taken a better picture of but hey ho – it’s not that pretty). It’s not the most perfectly blended out OSL, but considering I had about half an hour, that’s not bad. Then, I decided it would be a good idea to keep up my skull-painting practice as I decorated the tilting shield. Maybe it’s a bit of a cop out for me, but I think it fits the theme quite nicely, and again, time was an issue.

quick emperor's champion paint job

Now I needed to do a bit more of that weathering. I sponged on some Skavenblight Dinge across the the armour which gives a nice, subtle effect. I then accentuated this with a few delicate scratches using the same paint. Then, just for some variance and to help the weathering stand out more, I applied some more light scratches using Dawnstone.

That was the model done, but then the base needed doing. I used greys initially to build up some character and then a thinned Flesh Tearers Red was applied all over to give it this its Red Velvet colouration. Then some skull painting, a couple of little tufts, a quick clean up of the base rim and it was done in record time!

black tmeplars

I was exhausted at the end of this. Sure, if I’d had a week with it, maybe things would be a little more fancy, but given that I can take a month to produce a mini sometimes, I was very happy with how this came out. 6 hours! Usually by that time, I’ll have done half of one leg!

A word on the miniature itself too – it’s a stunner. I love the He-man pose, and because he’s Primaris now, he’s a proper beast in terms of size and scale. And it’s a refreshingly simple miniature in terms of sculpted detail. Often, important minis get bogged down with 9 billion fetishes and blemishes but I love how simple this piece is and it’s up to the painter how much detail to add. Love it. And the rest of the box is pretty special itself. Maybe a squad of Sword Brethren would have been better than the Dreadnought, but who doesn’t love Dreadnoughts? All in all, I’d call the whole thing a massive win.

I hope you liked the whistle-stop tour through my last two nights of hobby painting. It was a blast and you can look forward to seeing more about this box on Heresy & Heroes soon. Onwards!

Randomly Generated Army Lists – Can You Break The Meta With Chance? (part 1)

Posted by johnnya10 on 04/10/2021
Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

I heard a funny story from a friend of mine the other day. He’s a Tyranid player but is accepting of his lot in the game at the moment. Ask any Nids player and they’ll tell you that, on the tabletop, the faction sucks. I personally can’t speak to that, having not played against a Tyranid army since I think 6th edition, but I can believe it. I never hear anyone talking about how hot Tyranids are in the meta, so I’m happy to go along with their lack of winning options. But my friend told me a tale of the one list that has performed well in the last few years, making it to the heady heights of 3rd (please be aware that there’s some grape-vining going on here so I may not get details like that exactly right, and there might be some scuttlebutt in here but if it’s not exactly true, it’s a pleasant and believable fiction so we can ride with it) in a tournament. This list was, apparently, completely randomly generated. And I can believe that.

Around the time of 5th or 6th, I remember hearing tales of an Eldar list that won a tournament. Now, this isn’t the eldar of today, which consistently performs well in games, but the Eldar pre-serpent-shield when they, well, they sucked. They were at that point the worst army in the game pretty much, so how did they win in an era governed by Draigo-wings, Screamer-stars, the Old School Lash of Slaanesh and whatever vileness the Necrons had going on? Well, they won because no one imagined a good player would bring this list. Everyone was set up to deal with those top tier tricks and combos, but they didn’t have an answer for a load of Fire Dragons melting everything, or Dire Avengers shredding their stuff. 

The point of recanting this tale is that it’s another example of an army doing well because in any system where there is “a meta” it is not unusual for said meta to become blind to anything outside of itself. Armies are selected to deal with the big problems that everyone’s going to bring, so when someone brings something unusual, the unusual list can take advantage of the fact that no-one was expecting to ever see that on the table. Ok, so 95% of the time, the most meta-centric lists will win, but, personally, I’d live for the one time in 20 that I brought something no-one was expecting and got a good result with it. Now that’s a thrill.

spanish inquisition

So, where are we going with this? Well, this idea has been swirling around in my head for a little while now and so I got a bunch of the new Battletomes and Codexes, and my big set of strangely shaped dice, and I set out to create six completely random army lists. And when I say completely random, I mean completely random. I won’t go into every dice roll, but if there was a choice to be made, I made that choice with dice alone. 

lots of dice

In today’s post, we’re going to be looking just at Age Of Sigmar armies, and in the next one, we’ll look at 40k Armies. I’ll walk you through a bit of the dice rolling here and there, and I’ll give you my opinions as to their tactical play (like I’m someone you should take seriously on that front). I want to see if my dice can create an army capable of upsetting the meta in any way. Let’s start with:

Stormcast Eternals:

stormcast army list

List Name: Draco-Blobs

Leader: Lord Celestant on Dracoth

Leader: Lord Celestant on Dracoth

Leader: Lord Commander Bastian Carthalos

Battleline: 5x Judicators with Skybolt Bows

Battleline: 5x Sequitors

Battleline: 5x Liberators

5x Vanguard Hunters

2x Dracothian Guard Desolators

3x Vanguard Paladors

3x Annihilators 

Points: 1950

The Army: So, this one was a bit strange. For a start, I didn’t roll for anything big – something I was slightly concerned about for future armies but it turned out I needn’t have been. We got a few Dracoths though, which are pretty handy, and the weirdest thing was I rolled the first two Lord Celestants as my first two picks. I then realised, as I was doing matched play, I’d need at least three Battleline units so I rolled for them and got an interesting mix. Then I asked myself “should I add another leader?” and the dice said yes, so Carthalos got added to the mix after another roll. I also rolled for a unit of Aetherwings, but when I added things up, they took the total over 2000 points, and as they were the last thing rolled for, they had to go, so we’re coming in exactly 50 points light here.

There is a little synergy here. With any Stormcast army, the troops choices can be hard to shift from objectives but obviously, you lose the numbers game typically if things get contested. There’s a nice speedy contingent with the Dracoths and Paladors, and a little fire-support too. I think ol’ Bastian and the Annihilators will look very scary and can slowly trudge to do whatever they want. 

Personally, I think this would just look like a bit of a fish out of water list and I doubt anyone but the most mastermindedly (not a word) of  generals could get much out of this one. Nope, I don’t think this is really it. It will have the all the strengths of the faction, but no-one’s mind is goign to be blown (in a good way) by this list.

Soulblight Gravelords:

soulblight army list

List Name: A Little Doing A Lot

Leader/Behemoth: Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead

Leader: Kritza, The Rat Prince

Leader/Behemoth: Prince Vhordrai

Battleline: 10x Deathrattle Skeletons 

Battleline: 10x Deathrattle Skeletons 

Battleline: 10x Deathrattle Skeletons 

5x Blood Knights

Points: 1955

The Army: Oh boy. When the first thing you roll for is Nagash, you know there aren’t going to be many more rolls. When Vhordrai comes out two rolls later, you start worrying if you’re going to get a legal army into 2000 points. In fact, originally, I rolled for a couple of 30 man units of Skeletons and that killed the list, so after consulting the dice, they were reduced to 10 man units and thank Nagash that a unit of Blood Knights came out to fill the last points out quite nicely. And with 45 points left over, you should have enough to add in an Endless Spell for Nagash to play around with too.

I don’t think many people would expect to see this. You’ve got a couple of big beasts in there (two of the biggest in the game really) and they can do a lot of damage, but the Skeletons are likely to get blown to pieces, and I don’t really know what the Rat Prince is doing int there to be honest, but I don’t think all is lost. Vhordrai and the Blood Knights can do some serious damage when paired together – not much is going to be able to handle that charge. And Nagash is, well, Nagash – a terrifying thing to play against on any occasion. But you’re asking Nagash and the chargers to do all of the heavy lifting here and that could prove too much. If those skeleton blobs could have been a little bigger, or if we could have squeezed one other threat into this army, but alas, the dice said no. 

Not a lost cause by any means, and you will have some sort of element of surprise, but I remain skeptical.

Orruk Warclans

orruk army list

List Name: A Great Green Tide

Leader: Orruk Warchanter

Leader/Behemoth: Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha

Leader/Behemoth: Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork

Leader/Behemoth: Swampboss Skumdrekk

Battleline: 5x Orruk Ardboyz

Battleline: 5x Orruk Ardboyz

Battleline: 10x Gutrippaz

Battleline: 10x Gutrippaz

Artillery: Beast-skewer Killbow

10x Hobgrot Slittaz

3x Goregruntas

Ironskull’s Boyz

Marshcrawla Sloggoth

Points: 1995

The Army: Ok, this is more like it. You’ve got a very solid core with plenty of bodies, some fast movers and big monsters, some buffers, and even a bit of artillery support. I rolled for a Big Waaagh, and then I rolled to include Ironjawz and Kruleboyz but none of the Bonesplittaz, so I was worried this would look like the “Fist Mouth” list I did for the Lazy Painter’s guide a little while back. Happily though, it’s nice and different – and actually quite well balanced. 

You’re going to have a good advantage on objective holding thanks to your numbers, and the Sloggoth and Warchanter can help out the footslogging units. Meanwhile, as your Killbow chips away at anything you want it to, the three behemoths and the Goregruntas can charge head-first into the enemy. I’m not sure if this list is breaking any new ground, but I think the dice have been rather kind to us with this one. 

I’ve got to give it a high score really. I could see this winning, though movement trays are probably a must just to ensure you don’t get timed out. You’ve got a lot of model moving to do, but I can’t see any real downsides to this list! 

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So, what have we learned with this experiment thus far? Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag really. I don’t think the Stormcast list will rock anyone’s world but I don’t think anyone would be expecting it. The Soulblight List looks like it’ll be fun but a few bad rolls and you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. The Orruks list though looks decent enough, and there’s some good synergy in there. So I’d say we have a 1.5 out of 3 successes really, and all of that is entirely down to the dice. I haven’t added in any faction rules, warlord traits or relics here, but if you spot something in that vein that could work with any of these, pop it into the comments.

In our next post, we’ll give the 40k side of things a go and determine whether or not, once and for all, if random armies can be trusted. Onwards!