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