These guys provide the final set of newly-shared figures (for now) of my Nurgle Lost & Damned force. With a bit of luck, I’ll be able to get a fair few more painted up before too long.
The Original Great Unclean One of Nurgle.
I want YOU! For Papa Nurgle.
I bought this figure back in the Realm of Chaos days, and started painting him not long after in the browny green olive tone above. Unfortunately, I stalled out for whatever reason and it took over a decade before I’d get back to him to finish off. I did so about 4-5 years ago now, and did so with a combination of The Dip and normal highlighting and shading. Basically, I wanted him to look properly disgusting, which seems to have worked decently well.
Nurgle’s Twerk! And some dripping behind him.
Big hands, hungry tongue.
The nice thing about these models was the fact that you could essentially build your own unique Greater Daemon – as there were multiples of all of the main components, so you could really put together a series of unique models, and your Greater Daemon was unlikely to be identical to your friends’. Something replicated somewhat these days with the new plastics, but still not to the extent of old (without a bunch of kitbashing, anyway!)
Lower angle shot.
I might have another one of these somewhere with different components – I’m not 100% sure. I do have the later one that came out in the mid-90’s, though I have the early version with the horns and prehensile tail. I also have a FW one here as well, though neither are painted, and it’ll probably be at least a while before their numbers come up.
Chronopia’s Devout Tormented – As a Daemon Prince of Nurgle.
This big dude is probably unfamiliar to most readers. It’s a Devout Tormented from the Chronopia line of the mid-late 1990’s. Chronopia was essentially Heartbreaker’s take on Fantasy Skirmish following on from the Success of WarZone. Unfortunately, with the fall of Heartbreaker, both games fell. WarZone has had several resurrections over the years, but Chronopia has sunk into the dust, mostly forgotten.
Tormented Daemon Prince of Nurgle.
I had this model sitting around for quite some time before I decided to use him as part of The Lost and The Damned. As is often the case, the idea behind him is for multiple use. He can play the part of a Chaos Spawn when needed, but also fill the role of a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. He’s a good size, and is much more of a unique model than the usual Daemon wearing Space Marine armour. I’ve got a couple of those to build one day as well, but it’s nice to have something very different as well.
Tormented Daemon Prince of Nurgle.
Obviously the sculpt has some Nurgle-friendly elements. Being torn in half and still draging himself along the ground like a Zombie Crawler is one thing, and the large mono-horn ties in strongly with the Plaguebearers. As such, he can also fit in with my eventual “proper” 40k Daemon army, and in my Kings of War Abyssal (Daemon) Army (of Nurgle). The two will be mostly the same figures dual-purposed, as you do.
Tormented Daemon Prince of Nurgle – Dismembered!
Shortly after painting the “Gym Cultists”, I painted this guy. I used a similar palette to tie him in with them, and used “The Dip” via brush on his exposed viscera and dismembered sections, to tie him in with the Great Unclean One. It hasn;t come out well in the photo above, but the back of the base shows a trail of blood and general disgustingness behind him.
Chronopia Devout Tormented & Damned box.
This is the boxed set he came from. Along with a very Dragon Ogre kind of model – the Damned. Both are mostly resin with metal detail accessories. Unfortunately, they’re the resin of the time, so don’t expect something like McVey or Mierce’s stuff here. The resin is “drop-cast”, like Scotia Grendel’s scenery and while the Tormented here is fine due to his design, but all of the space underneath the Damned’s torso is filled, and you’re kinda expected to paint it black etc and try not to notice it. I suspect that the resin components of this kit might have even been outsource-cast by Grendel.
Great Unclean One, Plague Marine, Devout Tormented Daemon Prince.
A group shot with the Plague Marine Sergeant shown recently, to give a sense of scale for the two models. Not huge by today’s standards and more recent models, but they were both big for their time, and I think retain a lot of their presence simply by being cool models.
Nurgle Lost and the Damned – Army Shot! – Click to embiggen.
The whole army for the time being. It’s probably not a legal force, with a tiny points value with all of the zombies and cultists – and there’s obviously more to come, but this was the first time I ever managed to get the whole lot of them together on the table. So it’s nice. Marouda also took some photos at the time, so I’ll have to get hold of her photos and if they’re any good add one final update (for now) of close-ups of the force…
With all of the drama, wailing and gnashing of teeth about Age of Sigmar, the freshly-minted replacement for the venerable Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I’ve been tossing up writing a little about it myself – I’ve certainly participated in some of the discussions, and frankly, I’ve found the extremes of both sides rather amusing. On one hand you have the WHFB faithful – angry, ragequitting, and simply not willing to play a game that’s been replaced and discontinued. On the other hand you have the new converts – so enamoured by the (lovely) new models and provision of free, simple rules that they’re overwhelmed by the new shinies and can’t wait to move on.
In the middle, there are an awful lot of people wondering aloud about whether they should rebase their existing WHFB armies, wondering how the tournament scene for AoS might work, and unsure about what to do.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition. AKA “Oldhammer”
As for me, I gave away WHFB years ago. I started in 3rd edition – now enjoying a renaissance as “OldHammer”. I gave it away during 4th/5th and HeroHammer since I hated the dominance of heroes and magic (and magic items). I wanted to play a game of fantasy troops, war machines and monsters with Heroes and Wizards acting as support. So I’ve got no current attachment to the game, but I do have an attachment to the background and fluff. From WHFB3, Slaves to Darkness, Zaragoz and Konrad through to Bill King’s books and (almost) everything produced for the FFG edition of WHFRP. Not to mention a shitload of the miniatures. So with that, I am sad. I’m sad to see the 30 years of world building flushed away, but more importantly, I’m sad that many of the models I’d have liked to purchase will be discontinued and become more difficult to source – even via eBay.
On the other hand, the published materials still all exist. They’re all still available, both through retailers, eBay, the secondhand market – and of course, “digital” sources – should it come to that. That’s how and why 3rd – aka Oldhammer is still a thing. And to be frank, I don’t know how important it is for us to receive any new background and fluff for the Warhammer world. The whole thing about The Old World is that it’s a melange of many other sources and inspirations anyway – and it’s pretty much complete. If anyone wants to run Cathay or Nippon, there’s nothing stopping any one of us from combining some real-world history with Warhammer-ish fiction for our own army background. People have been doing the very same for role-playing games for decades, and it’s still done on a daily basis for people’s homebrew Space Marine Chapters.
Willy Miniatures “Griff” Fantasy Football Figure
So… much like Mordheim, Necromunda and Blood Bowl – if you enjoy WHFB 1-8 or any combination of them – there’s no reason to ragequit or throw the baby out with the bathwater – just keep on playing! (Though I’m looking out for nicely priced /ragequit armies!) With AoS retaining much of the WHFB catalogue, at least in the near term, and an increasing preponderance of fantasy-friendly army figure suppliers out there (Shieldwolf, Mantic, Avatars of War, Reaper, Perry…) there should be no problem building Warhammer armies for years to come. We’re not in an EPIC 40,000 or Battlefleet Gothic situation here, where appropriate figures might be difficult to get hold of. Necromunda. Blood Bowl. Inquisitor (28). Mordheim. “Oldhammer”. Even GorkaMorka. All discontinued GW games that live on easily through easily-accessible models despite the lack of “official” support. The thing that will hurt the tournament scene is if players stop playing – and let’s be honest, that was becoming a thing for WHFB anyway.
If you’re in the fence. Interested in AoS but still want to play WHFB. Too bloody easy. The rules don’t ask you to rebase your models, so unless you really want to do so for aesthetic reasons, there’s no need to do so. In AoS you (oficially) measure from the figure – not the base (though I’ll be house-ruling that particular bit of silliness!)
If you’re over Warhammer 8th due to Workshop’s shenanigans – that’s ok as well. There have never been more options on the horizon for fantasy players. Obviously, there’s Kings of War (my personal game of choice). Shieldwolf is working on a set of mass battle game rules with square bases and casualty removal. the WHFB3/Oldhammer community is (mostly) welcoming of new players even if their models aren’t all 25 years old. For skirmish, the pot is already deep – and about to be even deeper. There are rulesets like Celtos and Wrath of Kings available right now. SAGA and Lion Rampant – both historical rulesets but ones that work well for fantasy warbands – and Dragon Rampant (December) and a rumoured Fantasy variant of SAGA on the way. Mordheim, as mentioned before is still very much a thing. Song of Blades and Heroes (and its umpteen variants). This is just off the top of my head and without getting into “maybe one day” rulesets like the ones mooted by Red Box Games and Minion Miniatures and so forth.
Converted SigMarine Model from Khorne’s Eternal Hunt.
As for Age of Sigmar – I’m certainly willing to give it a go myself, and from the couple of YouTube reports I’ve watched, it looks like it could be a bit of quick, easy and simple fun – nothing wrong with that at all. And I have to admit that I like the SigMarines – they look perfect for use as KoW Basileans in some form, I’ve seen some amazing conversions using them as a base, and to be quite blunt – I like them on their own merit as well. They’re not Empire, but then they’re not supposed to be. Similarly, I’ve always had a soft spot for much of the overdone chaos and Khorne stuff GW has created, so I’m keen to get my damn dirty paws on those as well. I’ve got a pair of boxes winging their way to me still. Hopefully they’ll be here before August. The thing is I’m thinking I might need another 2 boxes on top of that to sate my desire to have fodder available for 40k conversions as well as ones to use as intended. Hm… maybe next pay.
My main concern with the AoS rules (and it’s a big one) is the lack of any kind of balanced points or other method of creating equal armies. I’m all for friendly games with Marouda and my friends who come over, but even then I don’t want to be horribly outmatched, and I certainly don’t want to outmatch her. Because a Goblin ≠ a High Elf Swordmaster and I have both on my shelf and want to have the freedom to use them all quickly and easily – and above all – fairly.
Should I end up playing around with it, some rules – like measure from the model and not the base will simply be ignored wholesale from the get-go – but even that description shows what I think of AoS – I’m happy to play it if we can balance it, but won’t take it in any way seriously. Not that games are SRS BZNS anyway, but this seems to be on a par with Munchkin in terms of taking it seriously. It’s certainly not going to be on a par with a WHFB or KoW or SAGA – which is of course why we have angst and /ragequits in the first place.
For people affronted by the “silly” rules found in many of the free BattleScrolls but otherwise interested in the game – just ignore them. I had a back and forth with a gamer who self-describes as having ASD, and he was rather upset to the point of feeling personally affronted at feeling required to kneel, or fart, or dance, or compare moustaches in order to play. You can always opt out of the silly stuff and just use the mechanics. It seems to me though, that most people spending their time grousing about the silly rules were just using them as an excuse to bitch about AoS, when I can’t personally think of anything more easily ignored.
Demigryph Knight by Stuff of Legends/Stuff of Demons
As to why they’re even a thing – it’s obvious. The silly amateur-theatre rules are there for the sake of in-store sales in GW retail. Simply put, they are “WAAAAAAGH” writ large. If I were the right age and mentality to go into a GW store for demo games, I’m sure that these silly rules with an (over) enthusiastic redshirt GMing the game with a bunch of other like-minded young’uns would combine to create an amazingly fun experience. GW may proudly boast that they do no market research. but they clearly have enough marketing staff on hand to understand psychology and sociology in retail. Which miniatures do you like the look of? Those Demigryph riders? Those Orc Big’uns? Those Daemons? Sure, you can use them together in a game. Nope, you don’t need any of those boring looking humans in pantaloon pants to have the Demigryphs. That’s why our new game is so awesome!
Ahem.
I just got my copy of Lion Rampant two days ago, and I’ve already paid for/preordered my copy of Dragon Rampant. Frostgrave may or may not be something I add to my rules collection. Celtos and Wrath of Kings are both just sitting around here, and I’ve got a copy of someone else’s Kings of War PDF because I’m still waiting on Mantic. I’m not short on rules to use with my models. having said that, AoS will probably get played precisely [i]because[/i] it is so simple – at least through the scenarios in the book. Though I have the feeling that I’ll ultimately be treating it like Munchkin in terms of taking it seriously or frequency. Something to have a quick muck around with occasionally and a bit of fun before moving onto the main event of the gaming session.
Mostly though – I’ll be playing SAGA for skirmish – probably with fantasy figures to get started while I work on my Vikings and their little mates, and KoW for the big battles using everything from AoS figures to Citadel to Mantic to Reaper to Shieldwolf to Rackham prepaints and Schleich animals. And everything in between.
If you’re looking for a new game, I obviously recommend trying Kings of War since it’s my game of choice, but if you’re not at all interested – that’s cool as well. Keep playing 8th. GW can’t stop you, after all.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 