Skarsnik is one of my favorite Warhammer characters. The so-called warlord of the Eight Peaks (I’m a Queek Headtaker fan so I dispute that) has a great personality, a weirdo backstory, and some creative tabletop rules that include his wonderful partner-in-crime Gobbla.
I got my model (as I’ve gotten many of my favs, see Taurox the Brass Bull) off of eBay damaged. I actually like damaged models. You get them cheap and give you tons of chances for creativity. You can use your own parts to replace missing ones and even completely change a model entirely. It’s ton’s of fun and economical.
I had to add my own spikes to Skarsnik’s back and replace his sickle-sword but that was just part of the fun. I give you my Skarsnik:
So here’s a fact: I like squigs. I don’t know why but I can’t get enough squig units or squig related models.
After finishing my wyvern and liking the way his squiggy shield turned out I moved on to paint my Night Goblin Bigboss on a Great Cave Squig.
First off I love this model. The posture of the gobbo looks like he’s barely holding on to his bounding mount and the squig is wonderfully expressive and full of personality.
I went classic on all the colors. The night goblin boss is wearing traditional black robed with a bit of blue edging.
I was pretty happy with the helmet too, as it’s clear it was looted from dwarfs.
But the squig is where it’s at in this model.
His massive teeth are incredibly fun to paint and I haven’t had a chance to paint real bone so clearly in previous models.
I was running low on 40mm bases so I repurposed one from a troll. It worked pretty well as the pre-textured based made for nice cave environment.
Next week, the biggest Night Goblin boss with the greatest squig of them all (may he rest in peace…)
Though I don’t have anything specific against Age of Sigmar I still prefer the regimental blocks and high-concept rules of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Something about huge blocks of troops and monsters crashing into each other and fighting in more linear combat than the modern, tactical squad-based war of 40k.
Having recently played Warhammer: Total War (which is a perfect marriage of concepts as far as I’m concerned) I returned to painting my poor fantasy armies.
I started the game with the Orc faction and decided to start with my orc army.
I picked up this metal Orc Warboss on a Wyvern at a friendly local game shop. The model seemed a little wonky but I liked the look of it and knew these weren’t exactly for sale everywhere any more. I’m glad I did.
I used all basing and dry-brushing techniques. These are my favorites and since I don’t have an airbrush tend to give me the best results for most of my models.
The wyvern is a bright green but I used a tan color for the wings instead of flat green.
It was a lot of layering, shading, and dry brushing, but I was really happy with the result.
The warboss was actually more fun than the wyvern.
I was particularly fond of how the squig on his shield turned out.
This was a terrifically fun model to paint (and Pacific Rim was the perfect movie to watch while painting). I ended up liking him a lot, even though, admittedly, I mostly wanted to paint this guy for practice since the one I really want to do is this guy. Azhag the Slaughterer!
This past month Games Workshop tore down the Old World and built in its place the Age of Sigmar. The venerable old fantasy game as we all knew and loved died, replaced by something a bit different and a bit less complex.
During the End Times range lots of fans got excited about the fresh content and the progress of the world. Let’s face it the old world had terrific lore and amazing depth but was based in the typical world of fantasy dwarfs, elves, ogres environment. Which isn’t bad, it’s classic for a reason, and certainly the old world took it to new places, but clearly the market was speaking against fantasy.
To start with I never intended to get involved with fantasy, but I ended up loving it. All the complex movement reminded me of Napoleonic warfare, with wheeling and marching. The battle resolution took some time to get used to but made for some close fights and satisfying combat even when on the losing end. But in a world where 40k rules the table, fantasy has a heavy bar of entrance. Especially when the number of models used to play it is factored in compared to GW’s sci-fi flagship.
So GW tore it down. And replaced it with Age of Sigmar a new game built on the remnants of the old world but infused with new rules and a new, faster, more simplistic game play style. I’ll start by saying I haven’t played an AoS game, just watched them being played. And then viewed the rabid hate from fans on forums and comments. And I have to say…I really don’t get it.
Before EndTimes what I saw the most on fantasy comments was a desire for updated rules. Even from Tomb King and High Elf players. Hell I started with Skaven and Beastmen, we’re still in softcover books with the Bretonnians! I saw a lot of complaints about balance, how it was broken, some factions were useless, some were absurdly overpowered. The convoluted systems and complex special rules. So many people begging for a revamp of the game. So GW completely revamps everything about the game and the comments are worse than ever before. It’s a game for kids, the new special rules have proven how stupid it is, it’s far too simple and far too dumbed down…
Age of Sigmar is a HUGE gamble. I’m currently building and painting Ultramarines so I can’t invest in the new factions…but here’s the thing… If I wanted to play AoS with my Skaven or Beastmen or Ogres I could. For free. All the army books have rules. The basic rules are posted. All on the site. All in PDF. All free. Strangely I’ve heard very little positive about that (maybe I’m visiting the wrong sites…) but there they are. I’ve already dl’d every ruleset I might ever want (and Queek is there!) in case I want to bust into the game at any time. But it’s accessible. That in itself is a big change for GW who has recently been pretty litigious about it’s IPs, which probably has more than a little to do with the world/faction reset in general.
At it’s heart I have a feeling that those who hate GW do so because it’s popular to do so. Like all those people who announced they were boycotting Modern Warfare 2 then turned around and pre-ordered it, a lot of fans just like to complain. A company could give an individual everything they asked for and a part of the population will claim the company is pandering. I have no love for, nor feel the need to defend a multi-million dollar company. It’s more a desire for fans to act like fans and less like entitled kids. Especially when, in my experience, the GW company has been pretty good to work with. When my subscriptions had problems a simple email contact got new issues FEDEXED to me overnight. And they still sent the back issues they missed after the fact. When one of my kits (Marneus Calgar and Honour Guard, purchased at an independent retailer no less) was missing a part, they sent a replacement, and let me keep the duplicate parts (which included the champion figure); and when an accidental duplicate Sgt Harker was sent instead of Castellan Creed they Fed Exed the right figure and let me keep the dupe. Yes one could say that that’s actually three mistakes the company has made over the past 6 years of Warhammering, but I’d assert that is WAY more cooperation I’ve ever gotten from Microsoft, Sony, and god help me Comcast and I’ve had way more problems with them over that same timeframe.
Furthermore this is a game company. That makes a series of rules for fighting tiny battles with toy soldiers. Reading the goofier AoS rules I can’t help but feel a spirit of fun is being injected into Warhammer. Like a lot of board games, they are incorporating fully optional systems that allow a player to made a fool of themselves, give their mates a chuckle, and get a couple of bonuses if they act out, or dare I say role play, some of their characters. That’s NOT a bad thing. If players think it is that may be taking their toy soldiering a bit too seriously.
Do you see this? You can try to bribe your opponent. With anything! Yes. That’s silly and yes it’s in the name of fun.
More than anything I’m the kind who doesn’t want to hate change because it’s change. The rules may be simpler and the battles smaller, but the biggest complaints about fantasy have been they cost barrier to entry and the difficult rules. It also seems these rules permit a scaling up, if you want to bigger battles. AND most importantly, no one from Nottingham came around to all our houses and took out WFB 8th edition books away. That’s right, you can still play your favorite version to your hearts content.
Once I have some cash I’d like to invest in AoS just to see the new factions. The models look like a bridge between 40k and fantasy, probably to lure the die hard sci-fi gamers who think fantasy is too la-dee-da for them. The factions are interesting to say the least (ogres “ogors” with orcs or “orrucks” whatever, yes please) and the new system is different from anything I’ve played so far.
So once again I think it works to appeal for calm and maybe focus more on the positives. Less game snobbery the better (let’s face it, we’re model wargamers…it’s a stretch to say that a slightly different kind of model wargame is “beneath” us). More inclusiveness the better. If you like the system, good for you enjoy. If you don’t, fine enjoy the games you do like. But let’s see where this goes, maybe it’ll be like New Coke and will result in an amazing return of the old world. Maybe it’ll supplant 40k in popularity (I doubt it but it is possible). Let’s not fear change, and let’s not hate those who adapt to it faster than we do. We’re gamers so I say we game. Tabletop games are special this way, as once you have them you can play them forever. Remember: no one can kill the games you love except for you!
When I moved in to my new place last year one of the things I was most excited about was setting up my new game room. With a home-made 6×4 table and a wolrd of board games and 40k to play, I couldn’t wait to put up decor and set up my hobby room. I never thought of naming it until I shared with my RevPub partner my WIP of Commissar Yarrick’s legendary Tank, The Fortress of Arrogance.
I learned of this mighty armored vehicle from Chains of Golgotha and immediately loved the name. I knew when I started my guard army (built almost ENTIRELY from rage quitters and scrap and a couple of boxed sets admittedly) a version of Yarrick’s pulpit would have to be included. Here’s my version:
When I shared this she commented that it would be a good name for my game space, and I started work on a sign that night that mimicked the “official” markings on the tank as it appears in the Apocalypse expansion. Here’s what I’ll print for my door:
Built from some Skull line art, and some simple Illustrator work it captures enough of the original and still makes a good readable sign for the door!
As for the Fortress itself it’s progressed a bit. I was able to get my fantasy armies out of boxes with the addition of the two new inexpensive glass curios, and even added some shelves for the Blood Angels/Flesh Tearers that used to be crammed into the bottom shelf of my IG curio (a couple of chaos engines too big for my storage boxes are up there too.)
As I get things painted (which I’m working on now, my Vostroyan command squad is up first) I’ll share them. As can easily be seen I have a lot to paint, but I like to build and play, so painting always seems to take a back seat!
In a previous post I noted at the guys at Dreamlike (Now Slayer Gaming) piqued my interest in Warhammer Fantasy battles. I watched two battle reports, one was their very first one, where Tom’s Ogre army took on Dwarves in one and High Elves in another. Since then I have started both Skaven and Beatmen armies. I admit I really like Skaven, but both were begun because I was able to get near complete armies on and off the sprue at very cheap prices.
Several weeks ago, while cruising a used bookstore I found a pile of army books. Empire, Ogres, Tomb Kings, Orcs and Goblins, all “current” hardback. All ten dollars a piece. (They also had a stack of Forge World Imperial Armour books for 15 a piece…it was a good day at the used bookstore…)
Looking through the books I became very interested in one army in particular: Ogres. The very first army I ever saw played. They’re very different from any force I’ve seen, Monstrous Infantry, big brutes, no alignment, and a “SMASH and EAT” philosophy. Also relatively cheap to start.
My local Games Workshop store has started a Fantasy escalation league and, though I had Skaven and Beastmen armies, I decided to give Ogres a shot. I got the regiment starter box and away I went.
The league starts at a miniscule 250 points, which if I included even my cheapest general option left me only 150 points for troops.
Because of this point restriction, the standard troop structure is waived and only core units have to be fielded with extra points given for fully-painted armies. With that in mind (and being completely trapped in the house for days due to ice and snow) I started my Ogres. This was the result:
I went all ironfists, due to the extra save. They’ve already got 3 attacks plus impact hits and stomps, so I went for a parry/increased armor save instead of an additional weapon.
At the time I thought I had to have an HQ. I got the maneater on the right to proxy a bruiser or butcher since my actual models were on order.
These guys are a blast to build an paint, and the regiment box gives you so many bits, with some crafty purchases I was able to nearly double the number of ogre bulls I can field by spending about 25 dollars.
I’ll be playing my first escalation game this week and as I’ve never played a REAL game (only here’s how this works games) and never done anything with ogres I’m gonna lose. It’ll be a BLAST. I’m looking forward to it!
Revenant Publications 