Chaos Marauders, Warriors and Sorcerers

I bouht these marauders originally out of a desire to get some Chaos Thugs for the long, long goal of collecting the grand Army of Nurgle 3rd edition ever since I picked up a copy of the Lost and the Damned all those years ago.

There hasn't been any really good models for Chaos Thugs since the old metals of the late 80s, but I thought I'd give these a go. As it turned out, the models were very janky and did not fit together well. The heads were ok, but nothing great and even though they were sold as Marauders, they really lacked a kind of ferocious appeal.

I took ages to assemble them and still didn't like the bodgy half-capes that came with them. The standard was boring and I made no less than five attempts to base them, putty the gaps, and muck with them to get them into some kind of good form.

When we started playing Frosgrave, thugs were required, so I picked out a couple and painted them up. I liked the shields, but in the end decided to use some of them for other armies.

When we were discussing playing something other than undead, Robyn suggested a beefcake army of bodybuilders and this was the motivation I needed to finish them off. With heads replaced by chaos helmets, a new standard and a specific model called Hulk Grogan, the unit was finished.

I toyed with the idea of giving all of them black and white death metal make-up, but decided that the helmets were a better choice. Finally finishing off the banner with the symbol Chaos undivided brings them back for dual purpose as the Chaos Thugs I was after in the first place.

After they were finished, I then set to finishing off the new unit of Chaos Warriors that I got second-hand for cheap. I really like the look of these imposing warriors over the Battlemasters and old Heroquest Choas Warrior sculpts, but they cerrtainly fit enough with the thugs and the resculpted Chaos Chosen (Chaos Warrior kit) that I had redone some time back to make them not hunchbacks.

These were originally red, and after a little testing, the combo of dark green, silver and black provided the colour I was after to bring them into the Nurgle paint scheme, as did finishing off the banner with the symbol of the PlagueFather.

A quick wash with the new Skeleton Horde brown was brings the Nurgle Sorgerers up to scratch. 

 

Dragon Ogres

 Picked up these four in the midst of a big bundle deal and originally stripped them back for sale purposes. They are expensive models, but with the new plastics out, they didn't sell at the price I wanted for the old OOPs so instead I decided to do a speed paint on them and did all four in an afternoon/evening.

With the request for a beefcake chaos army, these guys were the beefiest cakes I had, and I decided to keep a majority skin and leatherish tone for the entire model, rather than the accepted norm of a green contrasted dragon body. There is a very slight grey-green drybrush on the scales, but that's it. I wanted them to have an overall solid and earthy tone.

I made up the bases cut form particle board to give them a nice spacing and glued the arms on last so I could get into the detail of the faces. A bit of stone and flock to finish and done!

I must say, after seeing these guys in battle on the tabletop now and their incredible power at wiping out anything in their way, I'm glad I kept them.

Deadcember - Bruce Von Carstien vs the Beefcake Army

 Deadcember is upon us and this year the line up is the new Beefcake Army requested by Robyn, to take on Bruce Von Carstien in the winter cemetary.

I asked if Robyn would like to play a different army than undead and "an army of body builders and rock n wreslters" was the answer. The request motivated me too finish of those terrible Chaos Maruder models that have now been surpassed in quality by the new GW sets, but nevertheless serve as beefcake Thugs, which is why I got them for 3rd edition anyway. This in turn gave me the motivation to finish of the new Chaos Warrior models which are very nice indeed. 

As an extra bonus, the Dragon Ogres I aquired and didn't sell were also painted and added to the army.
I'll do a post on each of these a bit later.

It was also a great opportunity to include Mathog as a Beefcake pitfighter too.

The setting is our snow covered cemetary with a sarcophagus in the centre. Six turn limit - domination.

Bruce leads his army of skeletons with a Wight King, Cairn Wraith and a Spirit Host. 

The corpse cart boosts the skellies, but will it really be enough to hold back the horde of Chaos?

Right from Turn One, Bruce transforms into his Flying Horror form and positions himself close enough to raise zombies in front of the dragon ogres in an attempt to tar-pit them.

This turns out as expected and they get instantly mashed into the ground.

The archer thugs shoot at Bruce, but only one hits, easily deflected by Bruce's arm bracelet he stole from Wonder Woman.

The spirit host attack the archers and the cairn wraith attacks the giant.

The giant spends the rest of the game slamming his club into the ground trying to hit the wraith, and the wraith also fails to wound the giant even once.

Chaos Wizard Dr Kalihaal sends a destructive fireball into the plague cart dealing damage it cannot regenerate. Skeleton archers move through the ruins to shoot down only one marauder.

The infantry on both sides advances upon eachother, ready to charge. Chaos Warriors and The Chosen line up against Grave Guard and skeletal spearmen.

In a single move, the marauders go from skirmish formation to charge the skeleton sword infantry and the battle begins across the entire cemetary. Even with a sucessful cast of Spirits Below to thin the marauders, the conflict does not go well for the undead.

The Marauders, Chosen and Warriors dominate the undead horde and even though the magic of the corpse cart bolsters all three units of skeletons, all take heavy losses. The wight king passes right through the graveyard into the flank of the warriors and instantly cuts two from shoulder to hip.

Bruce transforms again and lands next to Mathog the Orge pitfighter and thrusts his blade of kings through his torso, killing him before he has a chance to retailate.
Such a quick death for such a great model - sigh.

The skeleton archers move up to block a charge path between the dragon ogres and the vampire, as one look is enough to make him flee in panic. 

The dragon ogres utterly destroy the entire skeleton unit in one charge, but two archers reassemble from the smashed bones, not once, but twice, and even one stalwart skelly goes on to regenerate a third time.

In the final round the ghosts finally dispatch the last chaos archer, the beefcakes eliminate the skeleton swords, the Chosen destroy the skeleton spears without taking a single wound, the cart is destroyed, the graveguard annihilated and the wight king decapitated.

Abanonding the spirits, Bruce transforms one again into his flying horror form and flees the battle, knowing that he will have to live with the shame of always being second rate to his peers.

Grryllan and the Spider Forest

 Frostgrave Game 4

With the death of Father Christmas' treasure hunter, a new one is hired - Grryllan (from Reaper 1986 minis) and quite the find. With Snappy also deceased, a spell to summon a new animal companion is attempted, but ultimately fails.

Gryllan has heard of a dwarf that set off after a great treasure in the frozen city outskirts and has foolishly decided to enter the spider forest to claim it. When the dwarf never returned, Gryllan suggested they follow.

Using his spy-ravens, Azmuth learns of the expedition and gathers his band to get to the forest first.

Both parties follow the sound of a dwarf in peril. The Ice Spiders have him poisoned and bound. He promises gold and service for his release, but warns the crates of loot scattered around are guarded by spiders and a single touch will bring them down to feast.

At once, Azmuth and his raised zombie move to the dwarf, Robbie and Tantrum the bear move at full speed through the snow. On the other side, Swinton the Apprentice and Jeffery the Knight move up with Simmo the archer and the hunchback.

Father Christmas casts Fleet Feet on Sluggers who can now run as fast as Chopper the wolf.

Silver and Ginger team up with Grryllan and head for the nearest crate.

Swinton sees the opposing party and rasies a thick fog from the snowy ground, obscuring line of sight between Father Christmas and potential targets.

Azmuth casts a telekenisis spell on a grate to move it away from the dwarves, triggering the spider to come down out of its tree. Noah sees the opportunity and casts an elemental ball, hurling it at the arachnid and burning into its hide, wounding, but not killing it.

Crossbow Guy shoots at the spider but the bolt does not wound it.

The ice spider rushes at the nearest targets, Silver, Ginger and Grryllan. The dwarves flee whilst Grryllan faces off the wounded creature.

Chopper and Sluggers charge through the fog, eager to secure a crate, while Christmas and the apocathery struggle through the miasma, relying on sound rather than sight to guide them through.

As they appear on the other side of the fog bank, Simmo seizes an opportunity and fires an arrow at Father Christmas. The missile passes through the long sleeve of his robe, as he clenches his teeth and glares angrily at the archer.

The hunchback wastes no time grabbing a crate, and a large ice spider descends from the web covered tree to pounch upon the theif, biting him and leaving him poisoned.

Meanwhile, Robbie snatches a crate from the other side, leaving Tantrum to deal with the emerging ice spider. Azmuth and Sir Jeffery run to the captured dwarf.

Grryllan expertly cuts of all eight legs and finishes off the spider with a death blow to the thorax.

Hearing the combatants all around, the captured dwarf pledges 200 gold and a month of service to the one who releases him first.

Silver and Ginger arrive first but lack the additional action needed to free the dwarf, and the ice spider lurking above, drops down to menace them all.

Thiry feet away, Sluggers snatches a crate and legs it, assisted by magic, leaving chopper to tangle with the ice spider. Bitten and poisoned, Chopper succumbs to his wounds and ends up snout first in the snow.

Azmuth and Sir Jeffery rush to the dwarf and the knight kills the spider in a single sword thrust. Azmuth  slices throught the webbed encasement and the dwarf is freed.

Silver and Ginger snarl at the audacity, while Father Christmas sneers and considers which destructive spell to cast.
"Back off, Christmas," warns Azmuth. "The dwarf is ours. Take what else you can and leave, or suffer the possibilty of further injury and death." 

Grudgingly and with hands at the ready to cast, Christmas decides to cut the losses and retreat to where Grryllan fights off the spider that downed the wolf. The cat warrior dispatches the eight legged freak, proving himself a worth addition to the Christmas party.

Sluggers wastes no time hauling the crate over a frost topped wall and out of the forest.

Silver and Ginger, robbed of their change to rescue a brother, rush off to grab a lone crate and make for the forest edge.

Simmo shoots the spider between all its eyes, killing it dead and rescuing the hunchback.

As Tantrum stomps the last spider, Robbie makes off with the final crate.

Azmuth and Sir Jeffery also back away steadily, assisting the poisoned, but grareful dwarf throught the snow, back to their encampment in the crypt.

Game results, 2 crates for each side and the dwarf fights as a barbarian for Azmuth's team next game.

Merry Christmas!

Spooktober Battle Report - Skeleton Armies clash for the Cemetary

 With all those skeletons finally painted, the ranks have swollen enough to actually have a full on Skeleton v Skeleton battle, and who better to lead the cemetary takeover than Barbs the vampire.

On the other side, the vampire Fabio commands the other skeleton army.

We decided to have the game on Halloween and choose only skeletons and ghosts.
Mr B approves.

The set up consisted of exactly even points and very few differences in army make up.
Barbs' army consisted of herself armed with the Blood-drinker blade and her familliar, Felix, a unit of skeleton warrios with sword and shield, one unit with spear and shield, grave guard with armour, swords and shields, skeleton archers, two units of skeleton horsemen, two chariots, the screaming skull catapult and a wight lord on a skeletal steed.
The ethereals consisted of a banshee and 4 ghosts (spirit host stats) that we allowed to split up so they could move and attack individually.

Fabio's army consisted of himself, a Von Carstien vampire armed with the blade of kings and heavy armour, a unit of skeleton warrios with sword and shield, one unit with spear and shield, grave guard with two handed scythes, skeleton archers, two units of skeleton horsemen, two chariots, the screaming skull catapult and a wight king on a skeletal steed.

The ethereals consisted of a cairn wraith and 5 ghosts.

The game objective was to control the crypts after each turn with uncontested units to earn skulls with a 6 turn limit. at the end of the game, the skulls hidden under the crypts woul also count towards victory.

TURN 1

Barbs won the roll and starts first by moving all the troops forward, racing the cavarly around the sides and leading with the chariots. Barbs summons 5 zombies from the graves to take control of the crentre crypt. The screaming skull catapult misses a shot at Fabio and destroys one of the gargoyle statues instead. The other gargoyle, being carved in New Zealand and vaguley aware of what has happened asks... 's tat you, bro?

Fabio, flinging back his well kept and perfumed hair, commands the host forward, sending the cairn wraith to challenge the zombies for control of the centre.

His own catapult, aimed at a chariot misses and instead wipes out a few of the spear skeletons, coming unconfortably close to Barbs.

After Turn 1 Barbs controls the centre crypt and recieves a skull.

TURN 2

After holding back the cavalry, Fabio realises he has misjudged the charge distance that can be covered by the horsemen and both flanks are charged by Barbs cavalry.
On the left flank Fabios cavalry are wiped out with assistance from the captain, but on the right flank Fabio's champion does the damage after receiving the charge all too well.

The Wight Lord charges the Wight King and destroys him, taking the crown for himself.

On the right, Barbs' chariot races past and slams into the skeleton spears and Fabio, wounding him and destroying a few skeletons.

On the left, Barbs; other chariot slams head on into Fabio's chariot, killing all but the Charioteer spearman. 

They follow up into the skeleton warrios but take losses and destroy only one.

The banshee positions herslf at the centre crypt.

Two ghosts attack eachother on the left crypt, but end up playing slappy hands as they realise their attacks are passing right through the other.

The banshee lets out a terrifying scream at Fabio and ruptures his eardrums, sending blood flowing out his ears, and severly ruining his balance and composure.

Barbs summons three and a half zombies as a road block for the chariot, which runs over the guy still clawing his way out of the ground, but is effectively tar-pitted for the rest of the game.

The catapult aims for Fabio once more, but the aim scatters (we messed this up a bit) and lands directly on the opposing catapult, destroying it.

On the left flank, Fabio's horsemen and the champion wipe out the remaining opposing cavalry, with the chapions skeletal steed kicking off the skull of the last opponent into the distance, helmet now stamped with a horseshoe imprint.

The Cairn Wraith, seeing his dead wife, the Banshee, has once again had enough of her wailing. He smacks her face in with the butt of his scythe, muttering... shut up, bitch.
"whack"

On the right, Fabio dispatches the chariot with the assistance of the spearmen.
The skeletal archers shoot down three of th ecavary and the ghosts attack the remaining horseman.

On the right, the scythe grave guard engage the new wight king, with the assistace of the Charioteer.
Barb's chariot gets destroyed by the swordsmen and the two ghosts look dumbfounded at eachother, one of them asking... don't I know you?
"Must have been in another life" comes the reply.

At the end of the turn, Barbs controls the right side crypt with 2 ghosts and skeleton archers and gains another skull.

TURN 3

Barbs usues her Flying Horror abolity to trasform into a horrific winged beast and fly across the battlefield to challenge Fabio in single combat.

Fabio obliges. With only one point remaining, she only nned to get past his armour to end him, but, armed with the sword of kings, he only needs to get a good wound

 roll for a killing blow. The wound is not a killing blow. Barbs scores the hit.

She rolls to wound.

Warhammer is a dice game.

The two ghosts finally recognised eachother as enemies and strangle themselves into oblivion.
Even I'm not sure what was going on there.

At the end of Turn 3 Barbs still controls the right crypt and gets another skull.

TURN 4

The moment we had been waiting for arrives as two massive units of skeleton warriors clash for control of the cemetary. With champions smshing rivals apart and bones flying everywhere, the regeneration kicks in and it becomes an epic struggle of destroy and return.

Barbs' catapult crew end such nonsense in a direct hit.

The duel continues, and Barbs' fails to penertate Fabio's armour. He retaliates with a thrust to the head, skewering Barbs through the forehead. It will certainly take her months to recover and she will have a splitting headache the whole time. Robbed of their mistress, her army crumbles. 

Fabio takes control of the cemetary and earns 3 skulls, making the game a draw.

Happy Halloween!