Here we go again!

 Hello fair reader,

It's been many years since my last post. My life (yours too I bet) has been tremendously complicated. The rise and fall of various relationships, the whole covid thing, struggles with alcoholism and even a duel with the dreaded cancer. Don't worry, my health is fine now (physically anyway haha) but I think it's fair to say that I've changed a lot since my last post. But what hasn't changed is my love of wargamming and hobbying. And I guess writing too. Over the last year I decided to build an Instagram account for my painting (feel free to check me out @da_brutalator) and I've thoroughly enjoyed the aspect of recording my progress throughout my hobby. And it's had me thinking about blogging again. So here we are. Originally I thought about starting a new blog, looking back at some of my older posts really makes me cringe. But it's all part of that documentation of my personal journey through the hobby that I'm after. So I guess it stays in, though I will probably archive it if I can work out how to do so. 

My waroboss Jimgor Da Brutalator and some of his ladz

So what is my aim for this "new" blog, and what do I want to get out of it? Well, there's a few things:

1) I'd like to share my painting and modelling progress for various projects 

2) I would like to explain my army/gaming ideas and document their (if any) success

3) I'd like to engage in community 

4) To record games played in some fashion (probably a written summary) 

5) I think, for me personally, it helps to have some sort of creative outlet. And like I said, I enjoy writing

So with that in mind I guess I'll explain a little of where I am with the hobby these days. 40k used to be my bread and butter. But over the years I've sort of lost the taste for it. I don't know why, though I have some ideas which I plan on writing about shortly. So I play other stuff. I've got some Fantasy, Blood Bowl, Malifaux and Magic the Gathering. I don't play AOS though I feel like I'm always ALMOST about to dive in. And lately I've dipped my toe into Underworlds which has been pretty fun. I also have an extremely healthy board game collection which I'm sure you'll hear about too.

I suppose the other big thing is I'm about to move interstate. To a city where I'll know literally no-one. And I'm planning on using gaming as a way of meeting people. So I guess that'll be interesting to see unfold.

My Squiggies

So I'll quickly just mention some major projects I'm working on and get out of your hair,

I have a pretty large 40k Ork army that's mostly painted. I love it. Orks have brought me so much joy over the years and I'm sure I'll write plenty about them. 

I'm slowly building a Nurgle Chaos Space Marines army. This is going to be a bit of a slow grow and a real labor of love. 

I play Blood Bowl and own the Black Orcs (fully painted), the Amazons (half painted) and the Necromantic Horrors (completely unpainted) 

I have 2 Malifaux crews, Perdita and Lady Justice.

The Shadow Elves from Underworlds.

I bought the Cities of Sigmar army box and will probably work on that sometime next year.

I play a bit of magic and collect the first set of pokemon cards

And fantasy... even though they killed it I still play. This is the game that holds my heart. I'm currently working on a Night Goblin army and have a Warriors army in the wings. 

Okay well I guess that's it for now. I'm thinking my first "real" article back might be a 40k Ork thing or a Fantasy Night Goblin thing. I guess we'll see.

Till then fair reader,

Keep rolling dem dice

Jimzan

New Year, New You(nits)

Helloooooooooo fellow dice rollers!

It's been quite some time. How are we all? I'm doing well. I thought with the new year I'd get back into blogging and clogging the the web with my thoughts on war gaming. So let me indulge you with a of what I've been working on this last little while and where I may be heading in the future.

First off I (somehow) managed to land a job working in a games store that sells everything from Warhammer to X-Wing to DnD to Magic to Pokemon cards to modelling equipment to various RPG's and just about every board game under the sun. Truly it's my dream job and it's certainly expanded my gaming horizons. I've been learning heaps of new games, systems, tricks and making friends. It's really swell.

Last year (2018) was a big year for me and my hobbying. I feel as though I've made some great progress with my painting. If you've read any of my other posts you'll know I'm somewhat of a Warhammer fan boy, but honestly I've always felt a bit overwhelmed and under skilled in the modelling aspect of the game. BUT!, as they say patience pays off. I've always played Orks (both Fantasy and 40k) and building a horde army is a very daunting project when you think about putting paint to brush. But with persistence, some tricks and a little self flagellation da boyz are starting to look pretty darn mean, if I may say so myself. Speaking of da boyz, late last year, OUR CODEX FINALLY DROPPED! My Gork it was a long time coming. Suddenly I have warlord traits, relics, clan abilities, statagems, new models and everything else every other douche bag army has got. And holy shit, da boyz are back in town! I won't go into my Orks now (I'll make an Ork post of it's own) but I'm loving what they can do. I've also been working hard on my Demons of Nurgle. These guys are also really cool. I'll do a post for them too but I'm trying to splice some Deathguard into the list to jazz them up a little. I've also (also) picked up a bunch of Space Marines. None of these new fancy Primaris dudes, but just the good ol' fashion fellas. Hoping to mix in some Imperial Guard in with them and build my own chapter and strike force. Stay tuned for that.

Jimgor Da Brutalator

In the mean time I've been doing the usual. Playing heaps of board games (Talisman is sick), a bit of DnD, another RPG called Red Markets. I picked up a Nintendo Switch and have been smashing Zelda and what not. I also picked up the Zarbag's Gitz Night Goblin kit. A bloke at work was telling me about Warhammer Underworlds and it sounds pretty cool. "It's like Warhammers X-Wing" is how he described it. Anyway I liked the models, figured worst case scenario they'd look nice painted on my shelf (just like the Fellowship of the Ring I never painted), and picked them up. Then GW bloody announces that the Gloomspite Gitz are coming out and of course my heart began to race. Could this be it? Is the time for me to join the ranks of Age of Sigmar finally here?

Okay, so AoS and me haven't always got along. Way back when, when I first ever got into any war gaming it was through ye olde Warhammer Fantasy. We're talking about 24 years ago. And Fantasy stayed with me pretty much through my entire life. I got into 40k and everything else but always came back to The Old World. Then GeeDubs literally blew it up. It broke my heart. I was left bitter and empty, screaming at the stars "You said you'd always be there for me!!!". It was a very Lion King time in my life. But over the years I've watched the game grow. New armies, sleek rules and (at least for Games Workshop) some okish prices. And slowly but surely my mind began to think. One night the stars called back to me. Mufasa appeared in the night sky and spoke. "Jimba my son" he said, "You should play Age of Sigmar!" And that was that. New Year, New You. So here I am staring down the barrel of 2019 and about to take the plunge. The only question is which power shall I wield in the Mortal Realms?

"Jimbaaaaah"

There are a couple of factions that immediately spring to mind. Daughters of Khaine is a big one. Dark Elves was the first army I ever started and I will always have soft spot in my heart for them. Sexy Witch Elves spilling blood as an act of worship for the the god of murder is a pretty strong selling point. I like the idea of speed and magic and a supper aggressive play style. The new Morathi model is (I reckon) one of the best GW has ever created. So yeah, Daughters is a very strong possibility. Then there's the Grotz. I already own a tonne of Night Gobbos so that's extremely helpful. I love most of the new stuff coming out too. That Loonking is awesome. Plus they're funny. I'm not the most competitive player in the world and definitely like a themed army and the Gloomspite Gitz totally have a theme. My big issue with them though is I have just done a heap of work on my 40k Orks and don't know if I could do another green horde. Night Haunt is another strong contender. They have an awesome model range that is both super easy to paint and, due to the AoS starter set, going to be really cheap to get. There's also Flesh Eaters Court. I used to play VC and always ran a Ghoul King (in fact that's where Jimzan the Everliving came from). He was a beast. I love the concept of a feral vampire. The "thing" in the night. Pretty damn cool. And then finally (and surprising to me) are The Blades of Khorne. I say these guys are surprising because I've never thought too much about Khorne. I guess it's always seemed a bit too similar play style to Orks. But in doing a bit of research on AoS these guys sound totally awesome in the fluff. I mean, post apocalyptic cannibal blood warriors? Fuck yeah! Plus I already have that Slaughter Priest that cam with a White Dwarf a while back and I imagine they'll be reasonably cheap too thanks to the old starter set. Hmmmm decisions decisions...

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

So these are my thoughts at the moment. As I said I'll do some other posts soon on my various 40k armies and keep you guys up to date with any hobby progress. Do you have any thoughts on where I should or shouldn't go with AoS? Am I missing something obvious? Anyway It's nice to be back. Hope you all are well and wishing you all the very best for the New Year. And always, keep dem dice rolling.

Cheers,
Jimzan 

Sons of Entropy

Hello there my puss filled little snotlings! Today we're talking NURGLE!!! That's right, I've begun my latest project, a nurgle daemon list! Tonight I'm gonna chat a little about nurgle daemons, the list I have built and what I expect from them. So take a deep breath of putrid stench my sweet little flemling, allow yourself to sink deep into the foulness and let Pappa Nurgle take you to the garden.....

So why Nurgle? To answer this we need to have a look at the other Daemon cults. First of all, all daemons are pretty good, they all have 5++ saves, cause Fear, can Deep Strike and (generally) are pretty good in combat. They all (except Khorne) have wonderful magic too, which is always nice. One of their real weaknesses though is Daemons have virtually no shooting. There are four cults of daemons each have a similar set ups with HQ's and troops and all the rest. I should mention at this stage that to build a competative Daemons list you really want to take some thing from each God, but I'm a bit of a fluff player and like to theme my armies. So let's take a little peek at each God and then get to Nurgle.

Khorne: The Blood God. These guys are excellent in combat, high weapon skill and strength, good initiative and dangerous weapons, they really know how to throw a punch. They're your classic "hell" type deamons. Their Bloodthirsters are some of the most formidable combat dudes in the game. All of their daemons come with Furios Charge and they all hate daemons of Slaanesh. These guys can really carve stuff up better than Orks or Nids. However unlike Orks or Nids, Khorne can't really do anything else. They have no psychic powers and their Skull Cannons are just plain dumb. Though they have lovely models and a scary combat reputation I really wanted to play with Daemons magic, so sorry Khorne you're out.

Tzeench: The Changer of Ways. Speaking of magic! Wow these dudes know how to do it. They all add +3 to their leaderships when casting spells AND reroll all saving throws of a 1, meaning every wound you take has just under a 4++ save. They all hate Daemons of Nurgle too. I gotta say, as a stand alone cult, these guys look pretty tasty. Their models are cool (especially the Screamers), they have pretty good shooting for Daemons, their magic is some of the best in the game and they can fight...meh okay. My only real issue with these guys is that IF they come up against a magic deffensive or debuffing army (Grey Knights/Sisters) these dudes could fail hard. Although magic isn't their only trick they deffinately do rely on it. And honestly, I played a Tzeench themed CSM army so I feel like I've had my time with the Changer. Too bad Tzeench, skip.

Slaanesh: The Dark Prince. Okay these guys/gals are cool. They've got Rending and they're QUICK. Fleet plus they all run an extra 3" and cav an extra 6", considering they have no shooting you'll be running a fair bit so that's super duper handy. Nice magic with a sweet stat line, including super high initiative, these guys can get the job done. I love their whole sexy guy/girl, temptation, greed and power fluff. Slaanesh's deal with the Eldar is great and as a stand alone cult I'd say (except for Nurgle) probably the best. Cool models, quick, nice magic, descent in combat but....not so tough. A real problem all Daemons run into is, for the most part, their only armour is their 5++ save. On tough 3 models this can be a real issue. What I'm looking for is toughies and they don't get much tougher than Nurgle.

Nurgle: The Plague Father. So here we are, They hate Tzeench, have slow and purposeful and count as having defensive grenades. Thier troops, Plaguebearers, have strength and tough 4, a 5++ invuln and shrouded. Clocking in at 9 points a piece they rock. Nurgle are tough with decent combat abailities aswell as descent magic. Though they're realativly slow, you can Deep Strike with them, getting up in enemies grills lickety split. Thier lore is awesome, decay, entropy, desease. The utter foulness of it all mixed with this wonderfully ironic jovial feel to them all. Unlike the other Daemon Gods, Nurgle loves his minions, they smile and sing and play in filth together whilst unleashing absolute hell upon the universe. Their models are amazing and their rules really reflect their fluff. Not to mention you can paint these guys like shit, in fact if you can litterally paint them like shit they're gonna look AWESOME. These are the reasons I've decided to build a pure Nurgle Daemon army. As I said before if you want to maximize the best with Daemons you want a little flavour of all 4 Gods. What I'm trying to do with this is create a fun AND realativly competative list with Papa Nurgles chosen. So let's have a look at what old Jimzan has put together.

First off we need an HQ and The Great Unclean One fits the bill pretty good. I love this guy, he's tough, fighty, magic and ugly as sin. 5 attacks, 6 wonds and rocking toughness 7! This thing is gonna be a nightmare for your opponents. He can pretty much tank anything and throwing those 5 attacks as a monstous creature, he can dish it out. He's slow, sure, but he can Johnny Depp Strike so he's not going to be stuck foot slogging the entire game. He costs 190pts before gifts and magic levels so can start to get expensive but hey, welcome to Daemons. Honestly I reckon he's the best of the 4 Greater Daemons. Take him. Now, Daemons can take up to 4 Heralds as a single HQ choice AND because we have taken a Great Unclean we can now take a Daemon Prince of Nurgle as a Heavy! So I'm thinking I'll take 2 Heralds of Nurgle and a DP with wings. The Prince is also amazballs. Just like the the Unclean he gets expensive fast, a daemon of Nurgle with wings your'e already looking at 200pts. He can take items as well as psyker levels. So be careful when kitting him out. That being said he's swinging WS 9 with 5 attacks and initiative 8. With his wings he is scary. He counts as a Monstrous Creature so bye bye termies. I probs wouldn't bother with to much magic with him. Really you want him in combat and (I find) sometimes perils is a bigger risk then the enemy.

So troops I already talked a little about Plague Bearers but yeah, I think they're great. They're just solid, cheap and solid. Yeah they have no shooting and their WS is only 3 but they are hard to kill. Also their swords can cause glances on six's (basically gauss) which can be a game changer. Take that! Dumb hull points. Nurglings are troops too. Swarms are always a little bit funny to use. But they can capture objectives and cause general annoyence and bogging down. They can infiltrate too which is handy. I think I'll take 2 units of 13 Plague Bearers and 2 units of 4 Nurglings thanks very much.

Plague Drones of Nurgle. Best models ever (just don't put the riders on them). These dudes have some tricks. They can shoot! They're quick, tough 5 with 3 wounds, 3 attacks with poison 3+ and count as jet cavalry. These guys are what makes a pure Nurgle force viable. The main problem with Nurgle (apart from shooting) is their speed. Yeah you can deep strike but the quicker teams, eldar/dark eldar/tau, can ping away from your units pretty well. With the Plague Drones though you can really tighten the noose. Imagine infiltrating your Nurglings and speeding your Dee Prince and Drones forward fist turn. Then in second Deep Striking down units of P-bearers and your Unclean WITHOUT scatter cause your Drones are carrying Icons. BOOM, Your foe will be hemned in tight by big blobs of tough turds. Game, set, match.

Now the only other thing I'll chat about is the Soul Grinder (fuck Beasts of Nurgle, even though they're pretty good, I hate those models and as if I'd ever make my own). The Grinder is cool. He's pretty much our only option with Sky Fire. His attacks are S10 and his front and side armour is 13. It's 30 points for the Phlegm Bombardment but I'm gonna take it. S8 AP3 large blast is lovely plus it's nice and fluffy. Keep him up back and let him do some much needed shooting. Don't worry about anything sneaking up on him, walkers always fight with their front armour and he can handle himself.

So as I said before I'd deploy the Daemon Prince, Drones, Nurglings and Soul Ginder. Move em up, Deep Strike the rest of your boys (chain reaction with your Instruments) and wail on the dumb mortals. Nurgle is great too cause of all the End Times Glottkin stuff we get extra models to mix and match with. So that's my plan. I'll keep you informed on my progress and results. Catch you later babies!

Remember to always be gross. Remember to always smile and remember that Pappa Nurgle loves all his followers. Peace out. And death to the false emperor. x

BAAAAAAAACK.........

Holy smokes!

Well well, it has been a LONG time since I've put anything up. Over a year in fact! Gee wiz. Now there's been a couple of reasons for this, let's quickly have a look.

First off (and don't laugh) some how I got locked out of my Blogger account. I don't know how or why this happened and it wouldn't let me back in. I'd get stuck in one of those infuriating pass word recovery loops that led no where for all eternity. Any way I just read Lord Mantons latest post and thought what the heck I'll try it after a year and for some reason it decided to work...sigh

(Now folks normally I don't like to rant on the net but I just need to say this)
Secondly THE RAGE OF SIGMAR. Now I know you'll all have read/played/rage quitted all about this but please just indulge me. Let's start with The End Times. I absolutely loved them. As a Vampire player I was ecstatic to see the rise of my old pal Nagash, I thought the Glottkin was amazing and honestly how good was Khaine! Thanquol and Archaon were pretty shmick too and to be honest I kind of liked how they blew up the world, I mean I was thinking "Yeah cool, but it's not gonna effect my game right? I mean they obviously wouldn't do that to us right?" WRONG!!! Seriously wtf. They killed it, they actually killed Warhammer Fantasy. Folks this really took the wind out of my sails, I love my 40k and a play a range of other games but really I'm a fantasy fan boi. It was my first true love, Fantasy got my into the hobbying world, she got my imagination flowing, got me painting, converting and writting fluff. I'd sit up all night with her planning armies or glueing goblins or just staring at my new dragon. Yep me and her had a good few years together. And they took her from me, murdered her while she slept. Bastards.

The End Is Nigh

Now to be clear I haven't actually played AOS so I can't rant on too much but what I will say is this. First off the models are absolutely awful. Space Lizards? Fire Dwarfs riding dinos? And not to mention EXPENSIVE! Yeah that's right I've played warhammer for nearly 20 years, I'm used to paying both balls for a tiny toy but these prices are ridiculous. Not to mention the very edition before AOS, GamesWorkshop decides to bring in Horde Formations so we all rush out and buy like 2 million zombies so we can play this rule, then they scrap the entire game and tell us "don't worry you can still use your models" Well we can't GW, we can't use our 2 million zombie hordes in your new fully SKIRMISHED game. But hey thanks for bringing in the Horde rule right before you scrap the game (it would have been annoying for them to have all that extra stock)  So no. Sorry Gee Dubs but I ain't buying into your pretty little AOS.
That, of course, does not mean I have not been playing other games, let's take a look.

RANT OVER

(Thank you)

So me and a couple of mates have still been playing a fair bit of 8th ed fantasy. I got that Chaos all cavalry list up and happening and it's been doing pretty well, in fact I've only lost one game with it (stupid ogres). My Vampires have been shambling on as they have always done. Manton and I had another battle for the Melbourne cup although we didn't play on cup day but a few days later for the ominously named "Stakes Day". The day's name proved true with my Vampires JUST losing to his High Elves and the chalice returning to the powers of good. We made some great "graveyard" terrain for the game and have decided to play each year for the chalice. The winner must use the same army (though they can change their list) but the challenger can use whatever army they wish, so I'll be challenging with my Chaos later in the year-Stay tuned. The winner also has to make some "home town" terrain (hence the graveyard) so I'll be looking forward to some Elven towers or something to decorate our board.

The Wraith among the graves

The Flappy-Fright

I have also been playing alot of 40k. I've built up a fairly nasty Tyranid list. Hive Fleet Megladon ;) It involves a lot of deep striking and out flanking. Man I love gene stealers. I'm actually having a battle next Sunday against a mate and his Dark Eldar so I'll let you know how that all goes. I've also been working on a Nurgle Daemon list which I want to bring to my first ever tournement! I haven't got too much of it at the moment but for some reason I've decided to theme it from the TV show Neighbours. Toadie is my Great Unclean for example but we'll get into that some other time.

Dr. Khal

And apart from that folks it's just been a bit of X-Wing and computer games. Rust is sick btw. I'll stick up a bunch of photos, do a battle report for that Nids game and write up something nice for my Nurgle.

Basically guys, I'm back. I'm glad to be back. It's been lovely, keep rolling dem dice and we'll talk soon.
Jimzan xx 

Licking my wounds...

Well well well, welcome back my ghouls and gals how are we all? Sorry for no new posts in a while but I've been busy with Christmas and New Years and what not. Did you all enjoy your festive seasons? Santa bring you any Warhammer? My lovely girlfriend got me an Xbox so I've been smashing some Skyrim. It's been positively wonderful. I've also managed a to squeeze in a couple of battles that have been not so wonderful...

So lets have a look then. The first battle was against Prince Mantor and his High Elves. He used a different list this time. The force was still led by Mantor himself (a High Elf Prince) riding atop Pinky (his Dragon). He used some Lorthern Seaguard, Swordmasters, some Archers, Dragon Princes, Silver Helms, 2 bloody Bolt Throwers, a couple of Mages, a Lion Chariot, a Tirinoc Chariot and some Reavers. I used the same list I used last time we played partly because I liked it and partly because I'm lazy. Well if you read my battle report about the last time these armies met you'd know it was a close and bitter fight but the Vampires came out on top. Jimzan Ghoul King and leader of the Dead Host personally cut down Prince Mantor and sealed the win. This time the Elves were hell bent on revenge, and boy, did they get it! This was one of those battles that (for me) just got worse and worse. My deployment wasn't great. I tried a similar thing as last time, heavy blocks of Skellies and Zombies on the right and my fast hard hitting stuff to the left. The trouble was the terrain was stopping me from keeping all my blocks of infantry next to each other. Mantor played really well. I made a few errors and he totally capitalized. My left left flank got smoked. His Lion Chariot caught my Black Knights and his Swordmasters charged my Varghulf, killed it, and over charged into my Varghiests. The Varghiests wound up winning the fight in the end but it took most of the game. Damn. My blocks of infantry (though my Zombies managed to charge his Dragon Princes in the front and flank) slowly got smashed down and I just couldn't summon enough back. As I said one of those games were I couldn't get a foot hold. There was one spectacular high light though. An epic clash between both generals. It was Hook battling Rufio all over again. Jimzan the Everliving V.S Prince Mantor. This time it's personal! Mantor charged Jimzan and issued a challenge. Now both of these guys have ASF and Initiative 8 so they strike simultaneously. The two mighty warriors ran at each and swung, instantly slaying one another! So that was kind of nice. Apart from that little gem it was all pain for me. Still it was fun and Mantor played really well so it's gonna be a great clash next time.

"Looky, looky I got Hooky"

Okay so my other doomed encounter involved more stupid Elves. This time at the hands of my mate Will and his Wood Elves. He'd put together 2000 points of combat dudes. It was a pretty cool list. No Way Watchers or Glade Guard. He had blocks of Spearmen (Eternal Guard?), some War Dancers, a Spell Singer, two units of Wild riders and two more blocks of fighty guys (I have no idea what they are). I had decided to use a Vampire Lord instead of my Ghoul King. Well that was a mistake. The game started off well, I got some lucky magic off and Gazed some of his expensive guys, the Terrorghiest and Banshee were screaming around and causing loads of damage and then I decided to charge this Vamp Lord into combat. I'd given him the Sword of Striking, Red Fury, a 4+ ward save and the Night Shroud. So his build was okay, but the dice told a different story. He couldn't do anything. It was like hitting a brick wall with a wet fish. Anyway he eventually got wiped through combat res. And the rest of my stuff got owned. So yeah............. Oh well, Will did a really good job and I actually really like his army. He played it well and completely destroyed me (well except the Terrorghiest which actually survived both battles. Yay!) The whole combat Wood Elf list was surprisingly tough and I think it's pretty fluffy, if not traditional, and cool. So good job Will.

Anyway all these beatings have left me bloody and bruised but also thirsty for revenge. I'll pop the Vamp Lord back on the shelf and stick with the Ghoul King. An Undead reckoning is upon us and the Elves will pay. Oh yes they will!

So in other hobbying news I painted the first unit for my Warrior list, 5 Marauder Horsemen and I think they look good. Also I just bought a buttload (a battalion, Doombull and a Ghorgon) of Beastmen so there's gonna be a tonne of modelling coming up. It's going to be great to get some different flavors onto the battlefield. Speaking of, my mate Dan has just about got his Ogres ready for war! So plenty of blood to be shed then blogged about! So stay tuned guys tonnes of stuff coming up. Don't cry for me, the Dead will rise again.

Warriors of Chaos - Army Concept

Alright kiddies I trust your all well? I'm not doing too bad myself. Today I'm going to have a little talk about Warriors of Chaos and an idea I have for a bit of a concept army. So if you've read any of my previous posts you'll probably know that I play a fair bit of Vampires. I love my Vamps very much but my play style of mass Zombie tar-pits makes for an extremely slow moving army. It works well and I win plenty of games but brother, I got the need for speed.

Now WoC don't usually spring to mind when you think of fast armies. Normally you see huge blocks of Chaos Warriors marching forward in an unstoppable (but slow) wall of death. But I was flicking through their rules the other day and noticed that both Marauder Horsemen and Chariots are core units. An image of a some what Dothraki host flashed into my head and I began to toy with the idea of an entire cavalry WoC list. Recently I watched through both seasons of Vikings. Honestly I thought it was a bit shit (the whole "oh look at this brutal viking guy with a heart of gold" thing really started to get to me) but I did find the costumes, sets and culture they produced fascinating. I really liked the idea of raiding other lands not because you are evil necessarily, but because that is your culture. It made me think it would be awesome to have a WoC army not of demons and vortexes and things but of big men from the north. Big men with horses and axes.

Frank Frazettas "The Death Dealer"

So these two ideas unified to create an army of Northern Raiders on horseback, riding south in search of riches and glory. Perhaps the Vanguard to a much bigger, much more traditional host of Chaos. They will be a force of Chaos and will worship it but in a much more generalized way. No specific gods as such, more of an idea that they are helping to spread the darkness they worship. I guess more of a Marauder way, tribes of evil men enabling and helping Chaos but with a much more primitive idea of what Chaos is. A sort of "Barbarians of the North" kind of vibe. Any way this is a rough idea of the list I would build.

To begin with I need a General. For me this is an easy choice. As I said I don't want this army to be too "crazy Chaos", with all the demons, magic, mutants etc. So a Demon Prince is out of the question. (Even though these guys are fucking brutal and I highly suggest anyone else should use them). A Sorcerer is cool but when I think of a horde of Northman Raiders their leader should be a big, strong warrior. So the classic Chaos Lord would be the General and probably on a Demonic Mount (because that model is bloody awesome). I'm imagining 1 or 2 Exalted Heroes for some more combat support and then a Sorcerer. To keep things thematic the Sorcerer won't use a Chaos lore, instead maybe Fire or Death. Something punchy. Then two units of five Chaos Knights. These will be the real hammer of the force. One unit will contain the Lord while the other will take an Exalted Hero who would be the Battle Standard Bearer. Two units of five Marauder Horsemen rocking javelins. These will screen the Knights, support charges and harass with a little bit of shooting. Another unit of ten Marauder Horsemen with flails and an Exalted Champion. These guys will act as another combat unit that should be able to cause some damage so long as they have some support. Two Chaos Chariots, to flesh out the cores and support in combats/protect the flanks. Then two units of ten Warhounds. The doggies aren't that great but their quick and could chew up some warmachine crew or any Wizards dumb enough to be out on their own. And finally a Shaggoth. I know he's not technically cavalry but he's quick, he packs a nice punch and I already have the model, so he's in. All of this (roughly) comes in at around 2,200 points. Me and my mates normally play 2,500 so there is some room for upgrades and perhaps another unit somewhere.

So the tactic is pretty simple. Screen my Knights till they can get into combat and then they can take care of themselves. Everything else works together to combi-charge. I want to gang up on the enemy. The trick will be movement, charging a unit of five Marauder Horsemen into something will do nothing but if I can also flank in the same turn with the dogs or a Chariot? Suddenly that combat is going to go a lot better. Flank with a Shaggoth and the enemy is in real trouble. I will definitely need to keep my General central as well as the BSB because the Marauders only have Leadership 7 and the stupid dogs only 5. All the Marauders and Warhounds can (and will) take Vanguard. That's most of the army moving twelve inches before the game even starts. That's some serious speed. Take that you slow ass Zombies!

Now I'm not sure if I'll win many games with this list but honestly I don't care. I think it will look awesome. I think it will be fun to play. And I think it's thematic side of things is just brutal. I love the idea of the thunderous sound made from a thousand hooves as a barbarian host cascades down from the North to mess up someones day. Anyway I'm pretty sure this is going to be my new army. Please let me know what you think. Are there any gaping holes I've missed? I'll keep you updated on their progress. I have a couple of games coming up too and I'll tell you all about them so stay tuned. Until then keep rolling Dem dice and keep your eyes to the North, can you hear the thunder?........

Jimzan. 

Hoof and Horn - A Beastmen Rundown

Howdy Howdy Howdy everyone. So today I'm going to chat a little bit about Beastmen. They're one of the armies I'm seriously considering playing next and I'd like to share some thoughts on these furry little guys. And maybe get some feedback and your thoughts on them too. First off, let me indulge you with a little of their fluff. So basically Beastmen came into existence after the great catastrophe. Those silly Old Ones' super power gates (or whatever) collapsed and Chaos spills into the world. Huge chunks of physical Chaos comes crashing down to the ground and those unfortunate to be near them get caught up in a lot of bad joo-joo. There's lots of death and all that, but more importantly there are lots of mutations. People and animals are spliced into hideous forms filled with vile intent. Limbs bend backwards like that of goats. Minds are filled with hatred and suffering. Fangs sprout, muscles split, and the world is for ever tainted as the true children of Chaos are born. I like to picture it as, at one moment the world is like Farmville, then the next it is a vision from Hell. This is the beginning of the Beastmen.

Okay, so for a long time these terrible creatures multiply and rule the forests of the old world. They live violent uncivilized lives and feed on the puny prey known as man. As far as the Beastmen are concerned their pretty much living in Heaven. Which to us would be Hell. Anyway one day some uppety young man with a big golden warhammer (I wonder who that could be?) shows up and unites the tribes of men. Suddenly man is no longer prey and in fact re-takes much of the old world. They start building walls and cities and prosper like never before. The great golden age of man begins and everyone is pretty happy about it. Except of course the Beastmen. They despise man more then ever now. They see his walls and buildings as an insult to anarchy. They see man as a creature who has cheated his way into the world. The Beastmen want nothing more then to restore the "true" order of the universe, and thus prepare their armies and champions of anarchy for war...

Cool. So as you can tell these guys are pretty bad ass. Their fluff is a major draw for me. I love the idea of "the thing in the woods" and I feel like their latest edition (which is still super old) has turned "the thing in the woods" from being a scary monster to an entire civilization of monsters, waiting to come get us. I like the flavor of such hatred for man and lust for violence. The sheer menace of them seems so obvious and terrifying. So I think their concept is pretty darn cool but what about in game? Let's have a look at what these guys bring to the table.

So I know the Beasts don't get a lot of love out there on the net. And I will admit I definitely think there are some problems with them. But I'll get to that later because I think they have some awesome rules and abilities and could make a very decent list. First off is their speed. Your entire army has at least movement 5. This is good because you want to get these guys into combat as fast as you can. Combat is the key with the Beastmen. They have next to nothing in terms of shooting and I'd use lore of Beasts or Shadows for magic to get them into/buff their combats. They are quick. Their base troops, Gors, are moving at 5", the Minotaurs are at 6" and the Tusker Chariots and Chaos Warhounds are 7". The Gors, Tusker Chariots and Warhounds all count as core so there are going to be a fair few of them on the table and moving fast. So that's good.

Pretty much all Beastmen (though not Minotauurs unfortunately) have a bloody awesome rule called Primal Fury. What it allows you to do is each round of combat your in, your unit takes a Leadership test and if it's passed you gain hatred to whatever your fighting until the end of the combat round. You can re-roll missed hits even if it's not the first round of combat too. And if you roll snake eyes the unit gains hatred AND frenzy. For me, this is what makes Beastmen very viable. Now I know Beastmen have terrible Leadership and that's one of their biggest problems. But, if your General is around and a Battle Standard Bearer then you have a damn good chance of making these rolls. You won't get it every time but you will get it most of the time. And every now and then you'll roll a double 1 too and that will be a very pleasant surprise. To you anyway...

So the other major army special rule is Beastmen Ambush. Honestly I don't know how I feel about this.I remember how brutal it used to be. Huge units of Gors popping up behind me. It used to be intense, but now it's not so much. The way it works now is if you have a unit of Gors, Ungors or Raiders deployed on the table you can then put a smaller unit of the same type in ambush. Then each turn (including Turn 1 which is pretty cool) you roll a dice for each unit to see what happens.

1. The enemy chooses which side of the board they come out on.
2,3. Nothing happens, roll again next turn.
4. They enter play from the Beastmen players left
5. They enter from the right.
6. Beastmen player chooses where they enter (including behind the enemy!).

So it's kind of quite random where they come out. My problem with it is that they may well be out of range from your General or BSB especially if the enemy chooses where they come out and then if they need to make a panic check and fail they're straight off the table again. So I might have to tinker with it a little bit to see how well it works or not.

Gor Herd. (Gamesworkshops)

Alright lets have a look at some troops and characters. So there a 3 types of lords you can take. Beastlord, Doombull or Great Bray Shamans. The Beastlords are pretty good. Nice and hitty with pretty descent stats and a lovely Leadership of 9 (remember Primal Fury). Once their tooled up with 100pts of items and Chaos Gifts (oh yeah Beastmen get gifts!) they become pretty damn good. Not all that survivable but they can certainly dish it out. A fine choice for the General. Next up is the Doombull. A Minotaur lord! This guy is tough. He weighs in a little expensive for points but that's okay. His stat line is lovely. He has Blood Greed (so everytime he wins combat he gains another attack for the rest of the game "WOO WOO"). Plus he gets D3 impact hits and a stomp attack. However there are some issues with these big boys. Their Leadership is only 8, they can only over run D6" and they don't get Primal Fury. Still if you want a hard hitting, flesh eating, enemy shitting their pants lord, the Doombull could be a good choice. Finally there are the Bray Shamans. These are your casters and their not too bad either. Look the Lore of the Wild is honestly pretty rubbish but they can use Death, Shadow or Beasts and any of these seem to work well with Beastmen. Again these guys are only Leadership 8 but for a caster they have a surprising amount of punch. So they could do well in a unit. There are Hero versions of all 3 lords with exactly the same special rules just with slightly crappier stats.

Now in terms of troops you have a bunch of fast, lightly armored combat goats. Gors are pretty descent. Weapon Skill 4 and Toughness 4 is pretty good for core troops. You can give them an extra hand weapon too giving them 2 attacks re-rolling (if you Primal Fury). Coming in at 8 pts a piece with the extra attack their pretty solid. I'd suggest big blocks of them as they have NO armor. Ungors are crap versions of Gors and at a starting price of 5 points each I'd give them a pass. Although Ungor Raiders are half descent. They are skirmished Ungors with short bows. These guys could make a real nuisance of themselves as they can Ambush. Although watch out cause there only Leadership 6. Tusker Chariots are good. Their fast, hitty and core. Could be used well in supporting combats with ambushing Gors. Chaos Warhounds certainly aren't the best unit in Warhammer but they are bloody quick and as I said earlier speed is you ally. I'm sure I could find a use for them. Then things start to get bigger. I quite like Bestigors. Heavy armor and Great Weapons so their punching at Strength 6. And their Despoilers rule means when they capture enemy standards they can use them for combat resolution. Units of Minotaurs seem scary, they get the impact hit, Blood Greed and stomps. They're Strength 5 with 3 Attacks. Nice and brutal. Razorgors seem nice too (although they have the worst models of all time). Again fast, tough and hitty. Plus they can pull chariots. Stick a Hero in that chariot and he'll make a dent alright. Centigors, for me they're too expensive and their models are way too shit. Sorry but pass. Harpies are cheap and fast = good and good. Also they have 2 attacks which is handy for a flying unit. Try to get them up against war machine crew or archers on the flanks to allow your ambushers a clear passage.
Then things get bigger again...

The Cygor has an awesome model but unless your going up against an extremely magic army (like Grey Knights or something) I think they're a bit crap. True you get essentially a Stone Thrower with them and they have some strange abilities but if you want a big scary brute go with either a Giant or a Ghorgon. The Giants are fun to play with their random attack styles and the Ghorgon? Let's just say it puts the Beast in Beastmen. The Chaos Spawn is too expensive for something so random. Which is a shame cause they're unbreakable and (I think) really cool. Then there's the good old Jabberslythe. This thing is tough, it flies, it has a shooting attack, it's poisonous , causes Terror and it makes peeps turn insane. Awesome.

So I won't go through the named characters cause I never use them and I won't go through the items cause I can't be fucked (sorry). But I will say this. There are 2 items I can see real potential with. First is the Beast Banner. It cost 75 points so it needs to go with a BSB but you want one of those any way for your Primal Fury. Basically it gives the unit it's in +1 Strength. This is great. Get it on a big block of Gors who are now Weapon Skill 4, Strength 4, Toughness 4, 2 Attacks and re-rolling missed hits (with your Primal Fury). That's going to hurt somebody. Then we have the Shard of the Herdstone. It's sick. At the start of the Magic Phase all friendly wizards within 6" of it generate a Power Dice? Yes fucking Please. If you ever play as Beastmen please promise me you'll use this. It's only 50 points so a Hero Bray Shaman can take it. Having 1 or 2 little wizards hanging around the shard, casting normally AND creating 1 or 2 more Power Dice is brilliant. Do it, Do it, DO IT.......

And to finish up I guess the only real tactic with these guys is to hit hard and hit fast. They have minimal armor and all their strength is in combat. So you need to make sure when you hit them, they can't hit back hard. Try to out number, try to out maneuver and surround, and try to do it fast. This is where your Beastmen Ambush could be really effective but be careful! You want to out number, you don't want a unit of Gors just popping up all by itself in front of like ten thousand orcs or something. Their Leadership isn't great so you really don't want to get locked into a combat you could lose. Shooting will be a real issue against the Beasts so use your speed. Learn to keep your units out of each others way whilst close enough for them to double charge. Charge, win combat, run down, repeat. Keep your troops within range to use the Generals Leadership and BSB to get your Primal Fury happening. Tear down their walls, destroy their icons, break their spirits and kill, kill, KILL. Return man to his true position in the world........

Well that's it from me. As I said I'm considering collecting Beasts so let me know what you think of the article and point out what I've missed/completely got wrong. I'm tossing up between Beasts, Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos, so expect a run down for each. Until then good luck on the battlefield and beware the thing in the woods...

Jimzan.