A Convergence of Fate

I've been gathering my army of Death since before the End Times.

Out of context, reading that sentence back makes me sound quite epic. But within the hobby, I am sure I'm not the only one.

For me it started with Nagash, my all time favourite special character, and has now grown to encompass the Dark Lord of Despair and his Deathrattle Horde - the Doomed Legion.

It has been an absolute pleasure getting back to the nitty-gritty (mostly gritty) of an Undead army. I enjoyed my army from 4th edition, but the new models are just spectacular.

My hope is to get 110 SCGT points done in time for NICON in June, and I am well on track.

Even more exciting is this weekend, where my old-school Warhammer buddies and I are getting back to what we did best in the old days - MULTIPLAYER BATTLES. We are going to try out the Convergence of Fate Battlescroll, no holds barred. And it will be the first time I will field the Supreme Lord of the Undead, and his top Lieutenant.

There will be an entire contingent of scribes present for the battle, so there should be plenty to report, once the Deathlords have had the chance to survey their work. My opponents include the hated Settra and his legion of statue-fetishists from the Endless Desert, and Tyrion, Lord of Light, along with his brother and an army of foppish sycophants. I anticipate being on the receiving end of their alliance, at least to start with. Even now my spies are at work, spreading lies, and creating division.

In future posts I will regale you with tales from the battlefield, progress of The Great Summoning, and propaganda true histories of the background of the mighty villains heroes of my corner of the Realm of Shyish.

Until next time, mortal servants.

Age of Sigmar Mythbusting - Fluff Edition

These days there is a lot of silliness with regards to the new Age of Sigmar. Those upset at the changes seem to jump onto half-truths and assumptions spread on the online forums. I have collected a small number of these myths in an attempt to help balance the record. In a following post I will attempt to cover some of the main misconceptions about the rules.

The below points are in no way official. You may well find passages that contradict any of what I've written. There has always been contradiction in the Warhammer fluff for many reasons. Which is appropriate, because we are talking about a mythology here. Mythologies differ in interpretation depending on who you ask. The above is what you would get if you were to ask me.

If you are interested in learning more, the Black Library offers a free Age of Sigmar Primer ebook.

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Stormcast Eternals

They can just die and come back without repercussions! 

Perhaps they thought that to start with, as the first casualties in the Realm Gate Wars were felt. However, it became apparent that those who have been reforged lose a little piece of themselves each time. We find out later that this is Nagash taking his dues from the Realm of Death. They are haunted by the death they have experienced, still remember the killing blow. Reforging itself is unspeakably painful.  They are not the same people as they were before. Some Stormcast have been reforged three or four times, changing each time. To what, we don't yet know. But what happens after the tenth time? The hundredth? While it seems great for Sigmar to maintain his armies numbers, we haven't seen the end of the repercussions of  Reforging.

They are just hollow suits of armour!

Actually they are flesh and blood, just infused with Celestial magic. They frequently take their helmets off in the stories, and bleed when they are cut.

They are basically just Space Marines!

I'ma let Josh Reynolds take this one:

Well, for starters, Space Marines are chosen as children, tortured by SCIENCE!, and then drafted into an eternity of being monastic murder machines whose sole purpose is to hold up the crumbling foundations of an omnicidal dystopia in the name of a rotting carcass that eats psykers like chiclets. They're emotionally stunted orphans who were brainwashed and weaponized before being unleashed on a galaxy where EVERYTHING is trying to kill them. They never even had a chance to be people before someone turned them into a gun instead. 

Stormcast, on the other hand, are dead heroes, chosen for their valour and faith, resurrected and sent to free the Mortal Realms from the abominations currently running the show, on behalf of a benevolent god-king. They're traumatized heroes who had lives, personalities and histories prior to being crammed into primary colored hulkbuster armor and filled full of lightning so that they could go save their descendants from the eldritch horrors of a nightmare dimension. They endure death after death, losing a bit more of their soul each time, in order to prevent anyone else from suffering the fate which befell them. 

One group are so far removed from humanity as to be utterly alien. The other group are so human it causes them pain. One group feels little in the way of emotion, the other group feels emotion as strongly as they did before death. One group hates and fears the alien. The other group allies regularly with space-lizards, skeletors and green monster-men. One group is the personification of the grim future in which they live. The other is a thing born of hope. 

The similarities are cosmetic: big guys in easily paintable armor sell better than little dudes with fiddly bits. But the context for those cosmetic similarities is quite different. Think of it this way...Space Marines are Batman and Stormcast are Captain America. Both are super-heroes, both wear costumes, both punch bad guys, both save people. But they ain't the same, are they?

They can just teleport everywhere!

In small numbers, yes - known as Thunderstrike Brotherhoods. Sigmar uses lightning (with help from Grungni) to shoot the Stormcast to the other Realms. And it's only a one-way trip. To bring great numbers to bear the Stormcast require the use of the Realm Gates. And to get back they need to either use the Realm Gate or die.

Karl Franz is the Celestant Prime!

The Prime was an unnamed King who died during the Allpoints War in the Age of Chaos. Karl Franz died in Altdorf. Now, it may be that they share an ancestry, or something more. See below.

Vlad von Carstein is Ionus Cryptborn! 

Ionus was Eonid van Denst, a noble who died in the Age of Chaos. They share many similar characteristics - see below.

All the humans died in the End Times!

Not everyone. Entire armies survived, and their descendants remain today. The souls of many who were lost manifested in some form or another in the Mortal Realms, as physical places (think Fiddler's Green from Gaiman's Sandman stories), or as formless spirits. The most powerful have seen life continue, though in a changed form. The Celestant Prime and Ionus Crpytborn were not heroes of the Old World reborn, though perhaps a part of them are. The story of the Old World is a cycle, and we will see vague familiarities as it continues.

Not just a hollow suit! Click for a zoom-in.

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Chaos

Slaanesh is dead!

He is missing from his throne, yes. But not dead. He basically absorbed the souls of all the Elves when Ulthuan sank, which would make him very powerful indeed if he had time to recover. He has instead been captured by Tyrion and Malerion, who seek out the souls of the Aelves. Slaanesh will no doubt feature in the coming story arcs.

Slaanesh has been left out so he doesn't traumatise the kids!

Slaanesh's armies are still at large, either trying to replace him, seeking him, or just going around having fun. In one of the recent books there is a particularly nasty warband of the latter kind who's particular penchant is raping everything (s)he comes across. So no. The setting in general is often mistaken as being kid-friendly, but in actual fact some of the Khornate gore scenes and themes are worse than in the old setting.

But the good guys are winning! That's not Warhammer!

The good guys are definitely not winning. They've been beaten so bad for thousands of years that there are barely any non-Chaos-worshipping humans left. Most of them are in Sigmar's Realm, the only place to have escaped the devastation. The Stormcast assaults at the start of the Age of Sigmar are minimal in comparison to the scope of the task ahead. They are tactical incisions, designed to mobilise, encourage uprising. Unite the old pantheon of gods so that a resistance can be formed. Even this has been met with failure in some realms. Most of the Chaos armies still think the coming of the Stormcast is a myth. At the end of the most recent book, Archaon has turned up. The Stormcast are soundly beaten by him. It's not even close.

The Age of Sigmar is not the story of the defeat of Chaos. It merely the beginning of  the fight for the ability to resist, and then to reignite the old war. And so far it's not even going so well.

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Fyreslayers

Slayers shouldn't be riding monsters!

The old concept doesn't apply. This is a different society. Those who worship Grimnir now have different priorities.

Grimnir is no longer trapped in the Realm of Chaos. In the new Realms, during the Age of Myth, he fought an epic battle with a massive magma drake, which destroyed both god and beast. The Fyreslayers ride the descendants of the beast that slew him out of respect and kinship. The culture around Grimnir is now an obsession with gathering his essence (ur-gold).

They are the new Chaos Dwarfs!

Well, Fyreslayers have the Order keyword, so they are not that chaotic. Some of the fluff early on intimated that they would fight for anyone. Maybe that's true, but so far they seem to abhor Chaos as much as anyone else. There is the odd cosmetic homage, but overall the Fyreslayers are their own faction. Descendent perhaps from the previous lore, but they are now something new. 

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The Mortal Realms

Are they each planets? Countries? 

Each Realm is kind of like it's own plane of existence, manifested from each of the Winds of Magic after the cataclysm of the End Times. Think of them each like the Realm of Chaos, but with different flavours. There are no physical boundaries that we know of, and can only travel between them through the Realm Gates. The different races are spread throughout the realms. So there are Fyreslayers in the Realm of Death, for example, as well as the other Realms.

The Old World is dead!

Well, kinda. It still exists as a celestial orb known as Mallus. No-one lives on it, but Sigmar keeps in in the Realm of Azyr, mining its core for metal to use for his army of super soldiers. Sigmar is tied to Mallus - as it waxes and wanes so does Sigmar's power.

Mallus is reminiscent of Morrslieb. Begging the question - what was Morrslieb before it was the Chaos Moon?

In terms of the lands and people, technically they have ceased to be. But that's not to say that portions of it have not manifested somewhere in the Realms.

If everyone died, how come the races are in the new fluff?

There is a kind of 'currency of souls'. While the physical world was destroyed, the souls of all the inhabitants survived. The more powerful souls manifested as more or less themselves - like Nagash, Tyrion, Teclis. Some manifested in forms more appropriate to their essence - Like Malerion (who was Malekith). In the same way that the winds of Magic manifested physically, so did the souls of the World-That-Was.

Lesser souls manifested as places, or things. However, the background also states that entire armies survived. Protected by magic, or by one of the Old Deities perhaps (like Lileath during the End Times story arcs). Anyone in the Realm of Chaos survived. The Chaos Gods can do a lot of things with the souls of their servants. And, of course, the rest of the souls are in Nagash's domain. He can bring back anyone he wants to. After a fashion.

So - some people survived physically, some were reborn as new races. The current people of the Realms are descendants of both.

Where are the farmers? The commerce? Where is everyone?

There's not many people left outside Azyr. Those remnants of humanity that we have seen so far survive have been reduced to tribal society, forced to scavenge and more often than not, cannibalism to survive. However, there are entire nations and kingdoms we have not seen yet that are isolated enough to still be intact.

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Pronunciation

You can choose to see the new spelling as IP protection. And it probably is. But in fluff terms, thousands and thousands of years have passed (aeons, according to some of the books). Language changes, and names for things change. It shouldn't be all that surprising.

You can honestly pronounce things however you want, but the exaggerated snarkiness with which I have heard with of these words prompted the following suggestions:

Aelf: It's still pronounced "elf". Honestly, this spelling  is closer to the origin of  'elf'. Just be thankful it's not iaelf, or aelfe.

Duardin: "dwar-den". Still pretty close. Go with "doo-ar-din" if you like, but if you're doing it to accentuate the difference, you needn't. It's good that they are moving away from 'dwarf' - while it's been a staple of fantasy for the last 100 years, there are inappropriate connotations.

Orruk: "ork". Who says the "u" isn't silent? Orcs can barely talk as it is. They've probably been orruks all along, you just haven't been able to tell.

Ogor: "oh-gurr". Probably a more correct spelling than the English word. You don't hear people referring to ogres as "oh-grees".

Over the Top 2016 Tournament Results

Warhammer Fantasy

The mission was to hold an event that was a little bit different, reflecting the theme of 'Over The Top'; to bring back some of the Warhammer insanity that had been lost from events after several years of comp and 'Net listing', and to allow some amazing models to reach the table that you just don't normally see.

The Glottkin leads his Plague-ridden troops to a greater destiny

I wanted to add a narrative element to the games, so each scenario was meant to tell an ongoing story of a Hero (or Villain) and their army. Each player was asked to bring a single model to represent this Hero, which became part of the objectives in each scenario.

In the first game The Duel, the two opposing Heroes were set up in the middle of the table, and their epic duel would inspire nearby troops to greater deeds, but injure them if they got too close. In the second game, the armies fought to put down the opponents Hero on the rise to crush their resolve. In the third game, the Heroes attempt to rescue barrels of Bugman's Finest to keep the armies going (or deprive the enemy). In the fourth game, the armies must clash whilst suffering a bad hangover. Game five had the Heroes try to capture objectives which would help them determine a site of great power, and in the final game they attempt to capture this site, allowing wizards in their army to cast powerful End Times spells.

The full player's pack can be viewed here.

The 'Carnage' scoring system was used, so only VPs scored by counted toward the final standings. This encouraged some incredibly bloody battles. The terrain was set up using a variety of those from the rulebook, in some cases providing big bonuses to certain armies.

In short, it was over the top.

Here are the final standings:

There was only 81 points between first and second. McCrae's Elves used massed shooting to bring down his monstrous foes. Nick M had rampaging daemons enlisted the help of sinister Skaven gadgetry. Andy Hudson had painted his entire army in the weeks prior to the event, and Morbidex Twiceborn and his Nurgling buddies did a great job and grossing out his opponents.

Andy's Nurgle army

Tom brought Malekith and a small number of elite units. The Eternity King caused a few headaches, but seldom survived a game. In one match, I witnessed him disappear into a vortex on the first turn, having failed a re-roll on the Miscast table! The poor guy just can't win.

Full army lists can be found here.

Best painted army went to Ethan, who I understand spent many a late night getting the models ready. The amazingly realistic sludge on his bases were cause for concern early on, until it was confirmed they were just modelling effects, and not in any way 'organic'.

Massive thanks for Brian, who helped organise the event and provided the use of his scratch-built terrain. Brian wrote a bingo card for each player, personalised to the army they had brought. It added another layer to the games, as players tried to tick the boxes off. 

Feedback for the has been positive, it sounds like despite the craziness most (if not all) had a good time. Thank you everyone for coming! I have a collection of photos on the event on the Tronhammer Facebook page here.

Age of Sigmar

The Age of Sigmar event was smaller than I had hoped after the initial interest. Due to a player withdrawing from the WFB event at the last minute, one of the AOS players was kind enough to join them to make even numbers - thank you Nick J! That left three of us for AOS, so we had a round robin event with a bye.

We were using the Clash Comp Pool system and scenarios to choose our armies and set up our games. We scaled down the size of the armies, as this was a one-day event. Player's pack can be found here. Full list of models we brought can be viewed here.

The Stormcast Eternals struggled to make headway against the High Elves, and despite almost taking down Eltharion the Grim, could not win the war of attrition.

The Stormcast then went up against Krell's Undead Horde. They took down the powerful Grave Guard unit early on, but could not capitalise on that to force the Undead off their objectives.

The final game was between Undead and The High Elves. The Archers and Bolt Thrower took a huge toll on the Grave Guard, but Krell and Konrad made miracle charges in the second turn to nullify the ranged attacks. However, Eltharion had been sitting in reserve, and in a single turn he killed both Deathlords. Accompanied by the Dragon Princes, Eltharion then marauded across the board and rescued the last objective from the Undead, winning the battle and the event.

Byron utilises the 5th Edition Starter Set Red Thwappy Stick to great effect

Congratulations to Byron for winning NZ's first Age of Sigmar event!

A full set of photos can be viewed here.

With NiCon coming up I hope to run AOS there. With so many options for Fantasy Battles now, I am not sure at this stage who will be running the square-based game, or what game system they will use. Stay tuned!

Warhammer Army Lists for OTT 2016

Tomorrow is the big day. All lists are in, and final preparations are being made. We ended up with a field of eight players for Warhammer Fantasy on the Saturday, with Nick and I joining on Sunday.

Follow the link below for a collection of army lists for the weekend:

OTT 2016 Army Lists

Here are some of the more interesting participants:

• Morbidex Twiceborn
• The Glottkin
• Festus the Leechlord
• Asrai and Druchii getting along
• Orghotts Daemonspew
• Malekith the Eternity King
• Valten, Luthor Huss and Arch-Lector Kaslain
• Daemons with Doomwheels

The Player's Packs

It seems that only Chaos and Elven races have managed to survive the End Times this far, with Valten and the Cult of Sigmar standing defiant. I am looking forward to witnessing the resulting carnage, and seeing these great models out on the table - for the first time, in many cases, but hopefully not the last.

Valten with Ghal Maraz

A big thanks to everyone who is bringing down terrain. I have been painting a few pieces over the last few weeks but was unable to get it all done in time.

I will post some photos form the event over the course of the weekend. See you down there!

Over The Top 2016 - WFB and AOS Player's Packs

Over The Top is the Hamilton Immortal's annual Games Workshop game system event, this year held on February 6th and 7th in Hamilton.

Brian and I were given the opportunity to organise the player's packs for the Fantasy event. The intention was do do something a bit different, while keeping to the theme of 'over-the-top'.  OTT has always been a no-comp event, and we wanted to keep in that tradition.

You can find info on all the events at Over The Top on the Hamilton Immortals website as the packs are finalised. In addition to Warhammer 40,000 and Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, there will be a two-day Warhammer Fantasy event and a single day Age of Sigmar event.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles

The recent proliferation of game systems in the NZ tournament scene makes it difficult to accommodate everyone's tastes and interests for wargaming events. Being a GW event, we decided to stick to the 'Old School'. WFB 8th Edition is still enjoyed by our club members, and the successful Tauranga Open earlier in the year showed that there are plenty of folks still interested.

In order to make this 'not-your-usual Warhammer Tournament' we also decided to include a lot of the End Times rules. We have included custom scenarios, based around a Hero of the End Times model for each army, giving the event some narrative value. In addition, a 'bingo' like meta-game will take place over the course of the weekend.

Hopefully this will provide a different set of challenges for veteran gamers wanting to add this to their gaming calendar, and a great excuse to 'get out the toys' for newer players. It would also make for a great send-off to the game system for those moving on.

Click to download

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

This is for those that are enjoying the new models and game system. I'm under no illusions that AOS is not for everybody. However, some of us are having a good time with it, and for those people we felt the opportunity to run an AOS event was deserved. It certainly fits the theme of 'over-the-top' in any case! To my knowledge there has not been an AOS event run in New Zealand yet, so this is a great opportunity for those who are interested to give it a go.

The open nature of the basic AOS rules has not proven a problem for us in casual games, but makes it unsuitable for competitive events. Overseas, AOS has been run as a tournament using the set of composition rules and a pool choice document used for the UK's Clash of Swords event. It is regularly revised based on feedback from every event that uses the comp. I have emulated those for Over The Top.

The game size has been scaled down so that players with just the starter set will have enough models to participate.

We have enough registrations already for this to go ahead, but if for whatever reason not everyone can make it on the day, there will instead be pick up games going over the course of the weekend, so come check it out if you are interested.

Click to download

Everyone who attends will be given a 15% discount voucher from Mark One Comics & Games. The Immortals have a special offer on this year whereby you can nominate one other player attending the event, and that chosen nominee will get an extra $5 voucher from Mark 1. So grab a buddy ( or more if you're popular) and enjoy some dice games.

Please let me know if you have any questions about these events. My contact details are in the Player's Packs.

End Times: ARENA OF DEATH

Following on from our painting competition last weekend we decided it would be fun to have our newly-painted special characters scrap each other. This also served as painting motivation for some of us... because when you get together with your Warhammer buddies, when do you NOT debate who's the most powerful?

We drew inspiration from a classic article from White Dwarf #221. The rules we decided on are here. For better or worse, End Times: Khaine was released on the day of the event, so we had access to the new End Times magic and the new Eternity King. Brian was delighted.

The vast ability gap between the characters reflected our choices for painting entries, rather than power level, so we all knew this was not a fair fight and were just keen to roll some dice.

Seeding was random. We generated the first bracket and kicked off!

Round 1

Valkia vs Tetto'Eko
I believe this was a short fight. The Sword-Maiden of Khorne laid down the expected level of carnage on the poor lizard-dude. However, Tetto'eko has a very small skull, and not a lot of blood really, so just how pleased her patron god was by this remains a matter for theologians.

Winner: Valkia

Bragg vs The Glottkin
Only Ghurk Glott had his model represented, but we agreed to let him use the full Glottkin rules. With the impact hits and breath weapon, Bragg was buried in a mountain of diseased flesh and puke. Luckily he was able to eat his way out in time for the second round.

Winner: The Glottkin


Nagash vs Gorbad
The Lord of the Undead took a few early wounds from the ferocious Gorbad in the first turn, and then completely fluffed his own attacks. Annoyed (and slightly nervous, truth be told), he cast Malediction of Nagash on the legendary warboss, halving his Strength, and making sure the choppy-thing wasn't nearly so painful. Gorbad was unable to harm Nagash in the next turn, and was summarily chopped to pieces (Nagash is a bit of a dick when it comes to revenge; just ask Settra).

Winner: Nagash

Archaon vs Malekith
Big matchup early on. Archaon has so many rules that a few important ones were overlooked in this round. Things might have gone down to the wire had Archaon remembered his Mark of Nurgle, or that he is only wounded on 3+, or his horse attacks (never forget horse attacks). But this fight was all about Malekith. The Lord of the End Times was finished off, having inflicted 6 wounds on the Eternity King.

Winner: Malekith



Losers Round 1

Bragg vs Tetto'Eko
So this was much closer than you would think. The dinky-skinky from the south unleashed the only two spells he could use in this situation - Harmonic Convergence, and Comet of Cassandora. To the amazement of all, Tetto'eko managed to survive several turns, chipping wounds off Bragg and waiting for that comet to fall. Bragg had a hard time getting through the skink's minor defences, probably put off by how little meat the creature had on it, but eventually managed the killing blow before the Comet hit.

Winner: Bragg


Gorbad vs Archaon
Archaon has a 'history' with fighting orcs (*cough*GRIMGOR*cough*) and so was determined to put a swift end to the Greenskin. His daemon sword, Slayer of Kings, was happy to oblige.

Winner: Archaon

Round 2

Valkia vs The Glottkin
With the world in ruin as a result of the Four Brothers working in concert, it was nice to see some Chaos infighting. The legends do not tell whether it was the vomit, the tentacle, or the thunderous stomp that finished off the Sword-Maiden, but the result was much the same - a bloody-smear on the landscape.

Winner: The Glottkin

Nagash vs Malektih
Another clash of the titans. Nagash had to dig deep into his repertoire of 40 spells for any kind of advantage. But being unable to deal Heroic Killing Blow or multiple wounds put him on the back foot, losing six wounds himself in the first round from Asuryath Reforged.  A relatively low weapon skill stopped many of Nagash's attacks getting through, and so Speed of Light was used. With a few millennia-worth of cobwebs to blow out, the undead fiend cast the End Times spell Malediction of Nagash... however he realised his mistake shortly after. Halving Malekith's Strength did nothing with Okkam's Mindrazor in effect. A few more spells were tried but the onslaught of the Eternity King was too much.

Winner: Malekith

Losers Round 2

Nagash vs Bragg
So this battle had some awkward undertones. Nagash was being played by myself, and Bragg by my partner. I didn't want to crush her soul, but losing to Bragg would have meant Nagash would not be able to show his face among the serious villains of the End Times any more.

As it was, Nagash again missed most of his attacks in the first round, leaving Bragg on one wound and allowing him to attack back. One hit even got through. And so it was that Bragg had a one in six chance of taking out the Supreme Lord of the Undead.

Alas, it was not to be, and Bragg's soul will now suffer for eternity as a result. On the plus side, our fold-out couch also got some use.

Winner: Nagash

Valkia vs Archaon
Sometimes taking on the boss just isn't worth it. Valkia discovered this to her eternal damnation.

Winner: Archaon

Losers Round 3

Nagash vs Archaon
Archaon had hit is stride by this point. Ably utilizing Lore of Shadow hex's and augment's enhanced his power greatly. Archaon took three wounds off Nagash (from his horse - never forget horse attacks), but the magical storm that followed allowed the Arch-Liche to get off Vanhel's Danse Macarbe and Hellish Vigour for a few turns in a row. The Lore Attribute of these spells also allowed Nagash to heal himself, and so after a few turns of trading blows, Nagash was able to finish off Archaon.

Winner: Nagash

Semifinal Round 1

Nagash vs The Glottkin
Nagash stored four power dice into his staff as soon as he could, and then bolstered himself with Speed of Light with irressistable force. He saved the incoming magical backlash, but lost the rest of his power dice. Drawing on the power of the staff he attacked, and made the Heroic Killing Blow to strike the Glottkin where it mattered before he could return the favour.

Winner: Nagash


Final Round 

Nagash vs Malekith
The rematch! Nagash actually needed to beat Malekith twice to emerge victorious from the Arena of Death, and it really was not to be. Malekith got through four wounds right away, and though he rolled one's and two's, his sword did D3+1 wounds, and so dealt 8 wounds total - enough to topple Nagash in one round. Standing atop a pile of corpses, the ancient Eternity King grasped the air in triumph.

Winner: Malekith



Here is the final bracket:

Champion: Malekith
Runner up: Nagash
Second Runner up: The Glottkin

We all agreed that we will be doing this again once all the End Times books are out. Our next painting competition will involve completing an entire regiment, and having a free-for-all battle at the end. Can't wait!

End Times: Painting Competition

Whether you love or hate the new rules and back story, the End Times are exciting times. Speaking personally, the return to the very stories, events and personalities that originally got me into the hobby over 20 years ago has got me in a buzz. Special Characters were what our hobby was back then.

It was while we were around at Dan's place a few months back that we started hassling him about his unpainted Archaon. The End Times need a Lord, after all. Peer pressure may-or-may-not have occurred, so to be fair, Brian and I also pledged to paint an End Times special character. From there we opened it up to other friends and family, and so, at the beginning of October, our Tronhammer Special Character Painting Competition began.

We upped-the-ante shortly after starting; why not test the mettle of our newly painted heroes/villains? Thus, we organised an Arena of Death to follow the painting competition (which I will cover in a separate post). You can view our guidelines here:

Painting Competition Rules
Arena of Death Rules

We were extremely fortunate to have Mel along to take some fantastic shots of our toys. Below are some select photos (click to enlarge). You can view the full album here.

Nagash - Supreme Lord of the Undead

Archaon the Everchosen - Lord of the End Times

Gorbad Ironclaw

Nagash Awakens!

From beyond the grave riseth this blog... and so too Nagash, Lord of Undeath!

I have been captivated by recent rumours by reputable sources for a new campaign book, along with new miniatures, for this iconic Warhammer figure. In fact, it was Nagash from the Undead 4th Edition Army Book that hooked me on the hobby. I must have re-read the army background in that book 50 times at least.