Merry Xmas fellow Gamers

Xmas in the Warhammer World: The year of Nurgle

Xmas 2014. So it was, an uneasy truce had settled over the Warhammer world. Or at least in our house.

The whole Warhammer world as we knew it has changed. Nagash is back, Settra is who-knows-where, as is a long list of other characters. Nurgle is rampant. Where is Morathi ? What will 2015 hold ? Archaon and the End of Times ?

Kislev is no more, Karl Franz and his turkey have fused to become KFC.

Dark Elf now embraces High Elf. (Yeah Right), and Malekith becomes the Phoenix King.

What the? Hey ! So we're mates now? All is forgiven?

 

or is it? 

Glottkin and his corpulent buddies are unleashed on the world, characters swap sides before you can blink. Or blink out of existence before you can think.

Old factions have reunited and new unholy (and wholly unexpected) alliances formed during the End Times.

Nurgle had ruled supreme this year at work; with malice and pestilence interfering with time for gaming in a big way. Terminally short of staff in 2014 , what started as a great foray to Europe and the US, ended up as being snowed under with work.

As for the Ogres, all migrating from the mountains, 

will Santa be visiting you this year? 

He's wearing a shiny new gutplate, anyhow...

Coming back with a massive haul of models, flexing my modeling and gaming muscle for a great year of wargaming turned into a year of furious graft to keep our business afloat.(From a man power point of view)

Nurgle imparted copious rancid visitation on one of my business partners: blessing him not with one, but two fractured legs. Six months apart. Read 3 to 4 months out of action with each fracture. Add to this a partner that migrated to the UK, one on Sabattical, and a  brand new rest home with a dementia wing and a hospital level care facility. Then one of our associates upped and left. Found myself working a day and a half a week just to keep the rest home covered...

Came Thursdays I struggled to drag myself to the club meetings. If I was not on call.

So 2015 is looking brighter: 3 new staff appointed, annual leave soon, and hopefully some time to indulge in actually reading the End Times books. May even get a few games in, and some time to build those models still sitting on the shelf.

Having said that, I have found the time to systematically repaint my Undead Army, who now eagerly awaits the coming of Nagash. We are hoping that he may show up in the Xmas stocking.

I've retouched my dwarfs, and given them a dull brown wash, making them look a little less garden gnomish, built and painted an alternative set of hammerers and Ironbreakers (Mantic); expanded my Slayer Army, and aquired another Gyrocopter.

My Nurgle army has also received some love, with Gutrot Spume, a Nurglish Cygor, Blight Kings and soon-to-be-painted Knights, Marauder Cavalry and Daemon Prince lining up for the Paint-pot. If Nagash can't make it into the Xmas stocking, I'm hoping that the Glottkin can.

So, not an altogether lost year of Warhammer gaming. Seems I actually got a fair whack of painting and building in. But not a lot of gaming. And the modeling was in fits and starts, the painting probably sanity preserving.

So all that remains is to wish you all the happiest of Christmases wherever you are, and a prosperous 2015, filled with health, love, laughter and lots of time to model, paint and game!

War. Man's second favourite pastime.

Another hobby shop goes under: Toyworld in Paraparaumu shutting its doors

Sad news for scale modelers and gamers on the Kapiti Coast: Toyworld is shutting shop. 

I stood by the graveside of yet another gaming shop today. Steve is closing down Toyworld in Coastlands, Paraparaumu on Christmas eve. Everything went on sale today. Sad news indeed for the gaming and scale modeling community in the area.

A victim of competition from large retailers, circumstance and internet shopping. Add to that family health issues, and you have a perfect storm. So sadly, a decision to close the doors.

 The last purveyor of modeling materials on the Kapiti Coast now gone.

Steve has supported our club well through the years, and I find it very sad to see this happen. He was the only local supplier of GW, Tamiya, Airfix, Italeri and other brands of popular models, glues and paints. He also recently started stocking a great range (Zap) of glues and acrylate accelerator, which has revolutionised my own hobby glueing practices.

So,  30-70% off all stock today. (I was told of the sad state of affairs by one of my staff last night.) Got there at around 12 this afternoon, and the vultures were circling. Feeling quite guilty in some ways, I joined the fray.

GW at 30% discount. Not a lot left, but I made off with a daemon prince and a box of skullcrushers, a handful of citadel paints. Couldn't speak with Steve. He was to busy. Got a brief word in with his wife, pain and sadness clearly apparent  in her eyes. Didn't go into details, but just told them I'll miss them.

The Dutch and Afrikaans languages have a saying: " Een man se dood is 'n ander se brood" (One man's death is bread to another) Looking at the feeding frenzy in the shop I couldn't but wonder how many regular shoppers there were, and how many were just opportunists. I for one am saddened by the loss of yet another hobby retailer

With STP gone and Mighty Ape giving so-so service, and not being able to get to GW WTN regularly any more, Wayland games seem to be the way to go. If you can wait...

End Times: 3500pt Dwarfs vs Glottkin, Guttrot Spume and the Blight Kings (well, sort of)

Wargames night,(now already several weeks ago) and Sam throws down the gauntlet.

He wants to run his great-looking Ctulu monster-thing as part of his intended Glottkin themed Nurgle Army in a End-Times game. Always up for a thrashing, I thought I'd run the army I'm workin' on at the moment:

Dwarfs. Vs Chaos Re-United. Daemons and WoC mortals all rolled into one with the end-times rules. Yeah right.

The Dwarf Throng of Karak Brakak eyeing the unimaginable horrors on the horizon

"Yeah right", many said. "Dwarfs? Didn't know you had a dwarf army. Never seen you play it. "

Actually I do, and yes, I recently dusted them off. And yes, I have not played them since 7th Ed. And yes, the dwarfish sit-and-wait-till-you-come-to me-and i'll-shoot-you-to-sh*t style of play does not really appeal to me. And frankly the dwarf book and the Dark Elf book was too close together for my wallet's liking. And I like DE's much,much better. So there...

Anyhow, I started building some hammerers and that organ gun that had been sitting on my shelf of shame for years; obtained the Dwarf book, and drew up an end-times army.
Sort of. Did not expect the dwarfs to be really competitive unless I took the gun-line. But that's not my style. Like to live dangerously, I do

Slayers strolling towards the Putrid Blightkings, Ungrim leading the way

So I went with a Slayer list, Longbeards and hammerers, 3 lords: Ungrim, a Dwarf Lord on Bearers in unit of Longbeards and Lord and Thane (BSB) with hammerers. Banner of Valaya on the Longbeards, 2 Rune priests; 2 x organ guns, flamegun and  cannon, dozen or so quarrellers with great weapons. Strollaz rune on Slayers.

Sam brought almost every horror that Nurgle ever created and marked aver WoC he had with Nurgle. Glottkin, Guttrot Spume, Putrid Blight kings, Furies of nurgle, Epidemius, plaguebearers, beasts of nurgle, spawn of nurgle. You name it, it was there. Stunties never stood a chance. Apologies for the poor quality photos- taken w my phone. Tried to castle. Sam went first, and it was game over for the dwarfs. Cthulu and the furies were too quick into the mix. He rolled nurgles rot repeatedly. My one organ gun never fired a shot, the rest of the artillery got in a shot each. Glottkin regenerated 'em.. Don't have the words to write a batrep. Too sad. Photos say it all.

Cthulhu ably standing in for the Glottkin

Maybe standing over would have been a better term..

Flood of Nurgle commences

Dwarf Lord and Thane going under in a tidal wave of Nurgle

Glottkin is soooo broken.

Armed my quarrelers with great weapons, so able to make a (slight) dent in Nurgle's puppy who was licking the last surviving flame cannon crewman to death. Not enough to kill it, and there was a conga line of more of 'em waiting

Death blows making a dent in the blight kings as the slayers meet glorious doom

Ungrim giving the thumbs up as he deftly slays the last of the putrid blight kings. He was the hero of the day for the dwarfs, in what was otherwise a bleak and one-sided contest

WHFB 9th Ed Rumour Bells from BOLS

So here is Xmas, let the bells toll.

The rumour bells, that is: Rumours from BOLS via Steve the Warboss:

9th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles:

The Work on the Rules has already completed

-One Profile for Mounted Units (like End Times units).
-End Times was full designed for the new Edition, the Books will be 100% compatible.
-No new Armybook releases until the New Edition is released.
-Empire in the starter set, the opposing army is undetermined.

-End times will maybe not mentioned in the Rulebook
-The Design Studio seems working on Siege Rules for an Expansion
-The Starter Set will return to "step by step" introduction
-No allied Matrix like 40k, we become something like "factions"
-GW plans the release for May, Starter will come in June

Ps. These are just rumours.

Druchii to Embrace their long-lost cousins, Woodelves the winners with models?

Khaine arises, but no model. HE and DE are now buddies. Even the Wood Elves join in.

Strange times indeed. So ASF rules. ASF rules and ASF rules

Leaked WD bits seem to suggest that the anticipated good times for the DEs is turning out to be a family reunion, with Tyrion turning out to be the Black sheep, and Malekith being the wronged one. No surprise then that he has been bitter for so many years.

As his model has not sold for decades due to the high points cost, and GW has a warehouse full of yukky dragons with a mediocre figure on it, dating back to the 90s, the DE's will not be getting a Malekith -ala- Nagash model (sigh) I really looked forward to this. Anyhow new rules will do, and I have a decent model on the (better) black dragon anyhow.

So to the leaks:
Statlines not out yet, only the pictures from the WD:

Shamelessly lifted off the interweb thingy

The Winds of Change: FAQ; Glottkin and Monsterhammer (or shall I say Lordhammer/herohammer) coming our way)

FAQ, Glottkin sighted and the game turns into Herohammer (as predicted)

Behold, The behemoth! The Arms Race is on. 

Herohammer time!

As predicted in the ad campaign, Warhammer will never be the same again. 

Enter Herohammer, Monsterhammer and Monstermash.

Rules FAQ are out, and the rules now allow you to take 50% Lords and 50% Heroes. (Read combined stat monster/riders, as seen in the End Times Expansion.)

Welcome to the machine ! Ka-Ching! 

Somebody set up us the bomb!

All your  base are belong to us !  

You have no chance to survive make your time!

Ghost9494 on L'Astropate -

- "The Glottkin" box contains a sorcerer and a champion on a monster similar to a Nurgle giant;

- The English version of "Warhammer The End Times: Glottkin" is a set with two hardcover books, one for the story and the other for the rules;

- The Italian version is a softcover book with the rules and a reduced version of the story;

- "Warhammer The End Times: Glottkin" contains the story about the forces of Chaos (Daemons, Warriors of Chaos and Beastmen) invading the Empire.

Beasts of War:

"The miniature itself stands somewhere between a Orkanaut and Imperial Knight in size and looks absolutely amazing from this little shot we’re getting here. It comes with two riders with one a horned warrior and the other dressed more like a caster.

Interestingly the news of this new hero comes with the added information that the next End Times book is indeed a two book slipcase affair like with Nagash but a bit slimmer than the previous tome. Lots of fluff once more and the rules separate as always.

The big battle report coming in the next issue of White Dwarf is called The Fall of Altdorf so if that’s not a big bad omen for how badly things are going for The Empire I don’t know what is!"

NOW: add to this the new FAQ rule FOR THE GENERAL GAME (note no longer limited to the expasion); and Warhammer becomes Herohammer at the stroke of a pen.

Love the model, love the fluff, loathe what this is going to do to my multitude of armies. All I can see now is a monster/hero arms race.

Buy bigger and more expensive models as you go...ala 40K.

Is the End Times an age of accelerated obsolescence?

Maggoth Lords Statlines

Stat Lines for Maggoth Lords:

Archibald_TK from Warseer has the following information to add:
Combined statine again,

M6 WS8 BS3 S6 T5 W9 I7 A8 L9

- The character with the two axes is the leader, his axes give him +2S and poisoned attacks. If I remember correctly they all have S6 T5 as base stats, plus a load of W and A. See how ugly his face is?
- The wizard has a cloud of flies that attack units like a shooting attack and count as magical. Also he carries an item that give him +1 to something and -1 to the same thing to all enemy wizards within 12" so I suppose it's to casting checks or whatever wizards do in WFB. He's the one with the stone thrower attack. I'm also pretty sure he's the only one without a 6+ ward save.

- Morbidex Twiceborn is the one I was talking with the regen aura for Nurglings.

(Les) Maggot Lords: Tamurkhan is Dead: 3 Pretenders to the throne arrive

Maggot Lords bust out:The Maggot Lord is Dead. Three pretenders to the throne?

Rumours offa da net, and navel gazing/internet trawling insights

Alas, alack, Tamurkhan, the Original Maggot Lord is missing in action.He seems to have been swallowed by the void. He would have made a great maggot lord.

The Maggot Lord is dead?  Long live the (New) Maggot Lords...
Hey, where did Tamurkhan go? Forge World Site suddenly (more) sparse.

I went onto their website, and noticed that the already sparse fantasy offerings were growing thinner be the day. Tamurkhan is now also gone, as is the Slaanesh Greater Daemon. I have already remarked on the Empire models going in previous posts or comments.

I think the discounts on the Tamurkan book should have been a clue as tho what Nottingham was up to. Anyhow the King is gone, and in his place comes a corpulent pustule containing the (New) maggot lords. Must be the End Times, for sure. GW actually discounting something !

You've probably all seen the other leaked pics from the White Dwarf, so I'm not gonna elaborate. Pictures suggest a Daemon choice in DoC, not Chaos United in WoC, but the fluff will tell us eventually.

So what do we know?

" They all have 3+ armour save.
The puking one (Bloab) is a lvl. 3 mage and has a ranged attack st. 3(4) with 24 inch range That allows no armour save (vile bile) I think.

Morbidex Twiceborn has a 6+ ward save, fear, regeneration, mark of nurgle, eye of the gods and a st.6 range 6 poison attack, nurglings within 12" also get regeneration, 385 points maybe ?"
E60 price tag in EU, so with the GW special exchange rate for NZ somewhere between NZ $150 and $200

These appear to be DoC, no clear cross-over w WoC as yet, but likely some unholy alliance like tomb kings and undead in the wings

Speculation: 4 horsemen of the apocalypse deal, first death, now pestilence that leaves famine and war. Can we expect to see Archaon or Valkia leading the Khorne (War) release ?

Kapiti Wargames Club Swap Meet Tomorrow

Reminder: KWC's Annual Swap meet is on again tomorrow 

(11 October 2014)

Hugely successful in previous years, the KWC brings you the 3rd Annual Swap meet:

Saturday 11 October 2014 

at the Paraparaumu Community Centre (Click for map)

 Ngahina Street, Paraparaumu

From 10 am onwards. Bring, swap or sell: any gaming related items: Mini's, rule books, paint, any scale, any system, any condition. Your trash is someone's treasure. Bits and sprues are usually particularly sought after.Bring what you've got. Chances are the will be a buyer or swapper!

Games workshop, WHFB, 40K, Flames of War, Warmachine, WW2 20mm, 15mm wargaming, Ancients and Moderns, Magic The Gathering, Kits and models, paints and brushes...

I am bringing to swap or sell: Tau Kroot and Fire Warriors (Metal and plastic, based and counter-weighed w 10c coins.) Painted to reasonable table-top standard (And one box untouched and unbuilt); 15mm Medieval Army (metal); Skaven, High Elves, High Elves Current Rule Book. Surplus O and G Wyvern, a whole box of (mostly GW) stuff...

Leaks: Nurgle Chaos Releases Incoming: Putrid Blightknights

Chaos Release: Nurgle First Up: Putrid Blightkings: NOT Monstrous Infantry

Blurry pics off the web:

Erratum: It appears these are regular infantry, not monstrous. Albeit WS6.

Usable in all 3 Chaos armies.

(In that case pricey at $110.00.)

And the Sticker Shock/Plackard Pain: Same as other similar releases'

Blightking $110 Gutrot Spume (Sounds a bit Orcy, doesn't it?) $34

Could have been reasonable for a monstrous cavalry unit, but regular infantry? 

S-T-I-C-K-E-R  S-H-O-C-K  again!

More Navel Gazing: Rumour Drums: Crom and Valten, Chaos Unleashed: Cult of Slaanesh and Theodore Bruckner missing in Action ?

 Speculation about October WHFB releases and a startling discovery at Forgeworld: Theodore Bruckner quietly pulled. 

Distilling the rumours: Likely next up (following Dark Eldar -and aren't they just purty-) is Chaos, with a possibility of the Cult of Pleasure drawing in my favourite army, the Dark Elves. Chuck in DoC and Skaven?

So from and around the net:

Steve the Warboss:

The book includes, for example (what I know);
-New Archaon Profile
-Cult of Slaanesh for Dark Elves with a new Unit and Chaos Demons
-Chaos Mono-List for Nurgle with Warriors and Demons united
-New Nurgle Chaos Champion (Valnir Aesling?)
-There is a picture with Nurgle Demons and a different looking great unclean one (I'm not sure, new model or conversion)
-Some old Chaos Warrior Chars returns (Van Horstmann, Arbaal, and Aekold Helbrass, Harry the Hammer?)

 (Valten and Crom already in the book. New models? )

The statline from the Nagash book. (Thanks Jossy for pointing it out) :

From Nagash Book: Crom Stats, note Valten costing 330 peeking out at left
Could we expect new models with the forthcoming releases ?

<So we can expect Plastic Greater Daemons /Daemon Princes, new characters, Glotkin - akin the Mogahsts ? )>

And previously he said:
"Soon after the Dark Eldar, Endtimes will goes into the next round. It will be a big chaos release with 5-6 week.""There is something we haven't seen yet that will pop out soon enough. A new kind of evil and destruction related to Glotkin.

< Expansion of DoC  >

October should be the month of Chaos, the starter kit is there somewhere, < Brets and Chaos?>

I don't know when, the way they told me I thought it would be on September 20th.  If you recall earlier in the year we had rumors of several Chaos kits that had been kept on ice for some time. These include the 4 plastic Major Daemons, as well as a "giant Nurgle kit".

The Nagash End Times window was only 3 weeks and I think it is unlikely to see a solid 6 weeks devoted to WFB, plus that is a LOT of chaos product to fill for WFB only at once.

But - if you broke that into two 3-week windows, one being WFB/Archaon/End Times related and one being "generic Chaos" (AKA 40k/WFB related) and you dumped generic dual-system use models like major daemons in there, a lot of these rumors start to make a kind of sense.

Chaos book. 2 big boxes. 1 medium-sized box, and a Special Character
< Medium box being Archaon's Heralds? , which will get redone and now lead the armies of Chaos.
Archaon's Heralds: Van Horstmann, Arbaal, Valnir & Dachala now lead the Chaos Mono Armies.>

Questions posed on Fluff and Magic: 
Unholy cards?
Will Malus become a daemon prince?
Will the Cult of Slaanesh (Cult of Pleasure) return?

<Avatars of War have just brought out a new Slaanesh Model. It does sometimes seem that competitors seem to have an inside track. Maybe they just read the same blogs. Maybe they have moles in Nottingham. (Raging Heroes, Avatars, etc)>

Will the anointed druchii come back to obliterate Naggaroth?
Will the Nagarythe prophecy become true?
Will the old chaos champions return?
Is the Caledor dragons prophecy finally here?"

<A Malekith-on-a Monster Combo kit ? >

And the Next Wave? Likely the Axis or Alignment of Good. I would expect to see these with a new box-set for starters released for Xmas. New Brettonians, Empire Characters.

I have been working on my Empire Army of late, having set aside my Undead for a while. I have two Theodore Bruckners in my collection (By happy fluke my wife double-ordered a few years ago)

Wanted to look up his stats, and what? He's disappeared off the FW site! This makes you wonder about what is in store for the Order side of WHFB.

I may quietly predict a Lord Level Combo-Character riding a Demigriff, likely Valten; ? Or Karl Franz invigorated? (Don't think the latter)

The Nagash Book includes rules for Valten and a Chaos Warrior Champion (not Archaon).
Leaks from a Spanish site says Crom the Conqueror is in the Book.

via an anonymous source on Faeit 212
Nagash army will be first of many alliance armies - there will be other in 9th ed - so there won't be free choice alliances, but ready army lists mixing two armies.

Rise of my Undead Legion (without Nagash) - WIP

(Nagashless) Stirrings of the Undead

So I have decided that the End Times are not for me. I trust that this is just going to be an expansion, and not the shape on 9th Ed. Still have my reservations, as the direction GW is taking seems to be bigger and more expensive models. 40K has gone this way, and I suspect 9th Ed will do the same.

So, never the less, ranting now long over, back to the (under-powered) Oldhammer VC army I had dusted off on anticipation of the coming of Nagash. Seems like Heinrich Kemmler will have to sustain their animation, or Vlad, or whichever of my gallery of GW and Non-GW Vampires. 

My concept with the VC Army is that of reanimated Talabheim and Khorne WoC troops, sticking to a black and white theme. The idea is to "compliment" my Talabheim/Talabecland Empire Army, reinforcing the concept of the Empire having to face both their fallen comrades and fallen enemy reanimated by unholy forces.

Fair bit of repainting and painting going on, to try and get a more uniform army look. Many of the pictures are really just WIPs as a result.

Harpy Thangs. Alternative Giant/Fell Bats. Lot of work still to do here

.My Giant Bats/Fell Bats have been replaced by these harpy-like creatures I bought off Sam Campbell during a foray into his hobby space at the end of a KWC Management meeting. 

I have never liked the $2 Store look of the GW Bats. The swarms are ok, but I have substituted the Bats w Harpy Things

I picked up a rather nice female necromancer off Trademe, along with Reaper's Monique de Noir. Painting these up as alternative Vamps/necromancers:

Lots more painting to do here too...

Dire Wolves lurch forward

Zombies rise from their graves

Grave guard are pretty much done bar their basing

Have been procrastinating on building this box of Ghouls for some time, but got these going, and same with painting my Vargeists and Vargulf. Finally got going on them. Has fizzled a bit due to my disappointment and sticker-shock (to use Pete's term) when it came to Nagash.

3rd base of Ghouls lusting for the paint-pot. Now numbering 30 or so...

Mounted characters, all Oldhammer, and an unusual Undead Giant Goat that

 I got from goodness knows where!

Characters afoot and winged, from various sources

Black Knights, Black Coach, Skellies, some w bows, 

obviously longing forward to  the Nehekaritic alliance that will not be

Vargheists and ethereals, some serious oldhammer Vamps

Speaking of oldhammer, also sprucing up the old Abyssal Terrors

This one's big enough to double as a  Terrorgheist

Vargulf getting his first licks of paint

More Oldhammer, a Strigoi Vamp, now having lost his Strigoiness, 

as the new Strigoi are modelled on the Crypt Horrors

Herr Kemmler, base coated and contemplating where to go from here

Likewise the Vargheists, complemented w a LOTR figure. Corpse Cart to the left, and more Oldhammer characters in front