In the last couple of years under the direction of new CEO, Kevin Rountree, Games Workshop has seemingly remembered that it’s a games company. The results of that has been a flood of new boxed games, most of which have been for the dual purpose of bundling models – i.e: Discounting their overpriced models without actually, officially discounting and also to produce games, which are giving their rules writers some chops and experience in, you know, rules writing. Happily, many of these products are actually good games by all reports.
One of these games I’ve picked up is Gorechosen. The game where Khorne’s champions beat one another to death in an arena setting in a very-much-beer-and-pretzels style game that’s reminiscent of a WWE Royal Rumble kind of thing. Well, more like a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match to nitpick, but I digress. It’s quite a good, light, fast game. So for me it was a no-brainer to pick up since I only had one of the models included (via an eBay secondhand thing) and their individual prices are, frankly, horrific (remember, I’m an Aussie – so take your local prices and make them even worse!)
What sucks is that in several regions (including my own), the game appears to not only be sold out, but hit with the dreaded dual “No Longer Available” and “Sold Out Online” stamp, which is a real shame, but speaks as to the way GW is pumping out these games with a very limited and defined shelf life. It also means we’re up a certain creek if we need to replace any components due to loss or damage. Bah. If the game sounds interesting, I’d get thee to a demo game or pick it up while you can. I’m sure there should be copies of it for cheap on eBay with the models stripped out, and as you can see, those are easy to proxy in – so as I said – a worthwhile fun, simple game to add to the collection for a varied session.
Anyway, the models are (too) sweet, and not having painted any Khorne in quite some time, I decided instead of getting right into them, I’d choose a few other models as proxies, that while still looking impressive, aren’t quite as expensive or involved as the official models. That way I’d have some things to play the game with while getting my Khorne Mojo going again – and then I can paint the proper models. In the meantime, this guy in WIP form, the Champion of Khorne, Champion of Nurgle, and Khorngor Champion (and a couple of others) have been getting some playtime in.
Colour scheme is pretty close to the “official” one, which in turn is pretty much Khorne-standard as established over the last 30 years. When I paint more of these guys and turn them into units for AoS/KoW/etc I’ll probably start to vary them more into something approaching different “uniform” schemes and effects (lacquered armour, etc) for every 8 or 16 of them. Without being too uniform of course, because chaos. I’ve added the little skull to the base not only as an aesthetic choice, but as a “front” marker. Miniatures (and GW’s ones in particular) often seem to have their bodies facing one direction while their heads face another – which is fine – but Gorechosen is a game where facing is a thing, so I’m using skulls to mark the “front” of the models that will be used in the game. The rest of the base is painted in keeping with the arena floor used in the game.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
I love Gorechosen. When I take Dragon Rampant along to my weekly wargaming sessions, I take that along as well, because we’ll inevitably finish long, long, long before the 40k players, and we can fit in a match of Gorechosen.
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Yep, it’s a perfect game to have to knock out a quick game or two before moving onto (or right after) another game.
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As I don’t often play any games I haven’t bought any for quite some time although I was tempted by the Gore. The paint work is exceptional as always man.
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If you’re even vaguely interested, you should definitely pick it up – with or without the minis. Your kids and your mate who you play occasional sort-of-hammer could easily play with you as the rules aren’t complex, and the games are short and sharp.
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You had me at Royal Rumble and sealed the deal with Fatal Four-way elimination! Seems like a fun game, and your work on the champion is really nice.
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Wrestling really is the best metaphor for the game. The bones of the system would easily transfer across, though actual pro wrestling has a lot more moving parts (turnbuckle moves, bouncing off the ropes, outside the ring). It’s not a game of strategic depth, but of reactions based on unpredictable events (ie: what your opponents do and do to you!)
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100% inspired by this post, I got in a game of Gorechosen yesterday when I was visiting a gaming buddy. It was awesome fun, even with two players. I was definitely left thinking of re-skinning it for pro wrestling and/or historical gladiatorial combat (just finished watching four seasons of Spartacus). I think it would work brilliantly for either, and many of the things would fit pretty much as is. Just compare “glory for Khorne” (or whatever it was, the one that builds up your rage) with Shawn Michaels’ stomping before Sweet chin music or other wrestler showboating and so on. That is mighty tempting.
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Ah yes. Every time I play “Glory of Khorne” I do that Triple H thing where he roars, flexes and raises his arms. (Tongue firmly in cheek, of course).
If you do re-skin it, please post it up and let us know. It would be ….Glorious!
Have you seen TT Combat’s (Troll Trader) fantasy wrestling stuff? Rumbleslam (just looked up the title). I’ve been tempted to get a ring amongst a bunch of MDF terrain I want to buy, and there are some pretty obvious and occasionally amusing homages there, but I’d like more generic human wrestlers who I could then paint up as more familiar WWE/NJPW/RoH/etc characters.
https://ttcombat.com/collections/rumbleslam
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I’ve actually got Rumbleslam, but I haven’t touched it yet! I got in on the KS with a friend of mine, and the package arrived just days before I left for Salute and subsequently Ireland. I’m really looking forward to giving it a go once I get back.
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Do post up your thoughts when you get to play it. I looked through the line again the other day and I could probably manage to do a bunch of decent looking, reasonably-recognisable female wrestlers, but there’s not much in the way of choice for the male wrestlers…
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