Cliffs, rocks and craters.

I recently finished my latest terrain project. In the past I had a set of desert cliffs (you can probably see them in previous posts). However my friend recently made some desert terrain of his own, and I figured there's no sense in us both having similar terrain sets. That, coupled with the fact I just felt like having a change, made me set about repainting and flocking my cliffs.

Valley set-up

Plateau set-up

The Mountain (kinda)!

Having pieces like this is great for creating different board layouts to spice things up a bit. Above are 3 different set-ups I thought of, but there's probably many more. And you can make the plateaus as large or small as you like. I'm tempted to make a fourth corner piece so I can place all four in the centre of the board as a standalone plateau. I did face many issues that kept this project in limbo for a long time, but I eventually took it back up and finished it. My only lasting gripe is the gapping between the pieces. It was my fault as I used old materials from a different project many years ago, so a lot of the polystyrene was damaged. I tried to rectify it with filler, but unfortunately it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. But I just cover the gaps with the scatter pieces and might chuck some lichen or clump foliage around to mask it some more.

I also have a set of the old GW craters, before they discontinued them and replaced them with those awful new ones, which have also since vanished. These old ones were very nice, but have been sitting on my shelf half painted for my desert board for a good couple of years. So I decided to give them a new lease on life and repaint them and flock them up.

The battle mat is from PWork wargaming: http://www.pworkwargames.com/en/
I chose the Valley mat. I've not actually used it yet, but its a very high quality and comes highly recommended by many people. Only issue is its hard to get your terrain to match exactly, but that's fine, and a small price to pay for such a nice base to your board.
For tips on how to paint and flock your terrain, check out Luke's Aps or The Terrain Tutor on Youtube. They have many great videos for how to make high quality terrain for (usually) an affordable price, and they have helped me boatloads.

I have plans to add to this terrain. I'll probably make several trees - its been a long time since I've had trees in my terrain set (aside from those plastic GW ones). As this board was created with my new Eldar army in mind, I will also add one of those new webway gates (possibly 2), and try to make some of my own Eldar terrain at some point, but I won't make promises I can't keep :P.

Cheers, all.

The Big FAQ - Words for the Word God

So a few days ago the Big FAQ was released for 40k 8th edition. Anyone who read my previous post on 8th ed will know how I feel about it. But in a nutshell, its a bit of a mixed bag. I thought I'd do a follow up, as I feel it helps highlight some of the problems I have with 40k as it currently stands.  Below are some ideas I have in response pertaining to how I would change the current 40k rules as we go into 9th in the (probably not too distant) future to hopefully avoid such shenanigans.

"Psychic Focus"
I may be a bit of an old hat when it comes to 40k, but for me psykers have always been powerful units that can manifest any powers they purchase at army creation (or randomly generated before the game in more recent editions). So where did this limit on psychic powers come from?
Why can you only cast one of each type of power, with the exception of Smite, once per turn, regardless of how many psykers have that power? When did this become an issue? Has it always been like this and I never noticed because most armies only ever had 1 or 2 spsykers at most? Or has it only happened since armies like Grey Knights and (neo) Thousand Sons came into the picture?
Am I to believe they really spent so long balancing this game and each codex that they have to place arbitrary restrictions on abilities? Perhaps they should remove the ability for psykers to cast more than 1 power per turn, instead, and reserve that rule only for the most powerful of psykers. That would make more sense to me, and be quicker and easier to keep track of.
Also, remove Deny the Witch. Its a holdover from Age of Sigmar that didn't need to be ported across.

Targeting Characters
Of course this would be an issue. There are many factors to the whole character spiel in 8th edition. Why can characters no longer join units or take bodyguards? Why bother with needlessly complex targeting restrictions when it comes to characters? Just bring back the Independent Character rule and all these problems go away. It was something they attempted to 'fix' in 8th edition, something that didn't need fixing, and is now just plainly broken.
And while I'm on the topic, why were certain models in units stripped away and made into single character models? Why is a nob with a Waaagh banner now a character in his own right? Why aren't Dark Eldar beastmasters part of a unit with their beasts? Why did they split up Imperial Guard command squads into their own constituent characters? If they insist on doing this, then the return of the Independent Character rules will, once again fix this issue, as then you could just put all these 'characters' back into their units where they belong.

Tactical Reserves
Why is this an issue? Reserves didn't need to be fixed either. What was wrong with placing units in reserve if you are allowed to by the scenario, and then rolling for each unit from turn 2 onwards? The unit would then automatically appear on turn 4 if it failed to appear sooner. It made reserves more strategic, but the randomness balanced it nicely. Should I place a unit in reserve and keep it safe but risk having it not arrive until late in the game? This is what I meant in my previous review when I spoke about removing tactical/strategic choice.
Now its a no-brainer. Keeping units, especially deep striking units, in reserve is always the better option, not only because they are safe from enemy fire, but also because you can now place them anywhere at any time, including turn 1, AND you can also still charge when you do so. I could have told you that was broken before they even playtested it (if they even playtested it), and lo and behold they're having to FAQ it.
And this can be extended to the Deep Strike and Infiltator rules themselves. Each of these rules had their benefits and drawbacks that were logical and balanced (Deep Strike had a chance to scatter and couldn't assault on the turn they arrived, and Infiltrators risked being stuck far ahead of their allies, alone and unsupported). A canny and experienced player could work to alleviate these drawbacks and maximise the benefits, which is a skill that is no longer relevant.

Battle Brothers
This became an issue in 5th edition when they added the Alllies rules. I know why they did it - so players could make super huge Imperial armies with multiple Space Marine Chapters and massive Imperial Guard regiments backing them up, maybe supported by other Imperial Agents such as assassins. The fact that other armies also benefitted from this rule was likely just an oversight on their part, amended a little with the highly restrictive Allies table. But this brought with it a slew of problems.
Now, Death Stars became a thing. If you had Allies, ALL units could now benefit from any special rules you decided to sling about, if both parties were Battle Brothers. Naturally, this again favoured the Imperial armies, all of whom were Battle Brothers with each other, much more than the other factions (Chaos Marines couldn't even summon daemons properly for a long time). To say this broke the game would be an understatement.
So 8th edition tried to fix it with the Keyword and Detatchment rules. And that's fine and it works for the most part. But of course the WAAC players found a way to break this too, so they had to push out a fix for it.
But a better fix, imo, would be as follows: all units from a single Detatchment must all be from the same Codex book. Its effectively the new Battle Brothers rule from the Big FAQ but simplified and easier to grasp - no need to check each unit's specific keywords; if its from the same codex then it can be in the same detatchment. This would fix it. Its simple, makes sense, and due to the nature of Detatchments, it won't hurt players who want to use a more diverse yet fluffy army (i.e. Chaos Marines and Daemons). This was proven in the Dark Eldar codex, where taking multiple Detatchments is actually encouraged, and works very nicely.

A few other points
⦁ The Triumvirate of Ynnead thing was poorly handled in my opinion. It felt, for a time, like they were trying to unify all Eldar into one codex, and some part of me was worried that they would (with all the splitting up of Imperial factions to make even more Imperial factions, merging all the Eldar factions would have just been a kick in the gonads). A simple way to fix the Triumvirate would be to say that their rules affect all friendly units with the Aeldari keyword. Honestly, those paragraphs in the Big FAQ about this subject bored me with the list upon list of arbitrary restrictions in a pitiful attempt to balance this out. Hell, if push comes to shove, why not just make them a separate faction with their own codex? If they can string out and milk the Custodes into their own faction, I'm sure they can do it with the Ynnari.
⦁ You can now only use 1 'ignores Wounds' roll (such as Disgustingly Resilient, etc.) for each lost wound. Um, ok. I thought this was a given. You can only use 1 armour save or Invuln., so why would you be able to use more than 1 'ignores Wounds' roll? This was just bad rules writing, if you ask me. Sure, they could have missed it, despite their incredibly thorough and rigorous playtesting /endsarcasm.
⦁ This brings me to another point: the snowball effect of Mortal Wounds. Mortal Wounds were a mistake. They were a mistake in AoS, and they're a mistake in 40k. Here's how it goes - you have your basic Armour Save, which is generally good but susceptible to a weapon's AP. Then you have your Invulnerable, which is generally worse but is not susceptible to AP and can be taken against all wounds. But that wasn't good enough for GW. They had to ramp it up and add in Mortal Wounds which ignore ALL saves, both mundane and Invuln. But they still weren't done, as now things like Disgustingly Resilient can save against Mortal Wounds. This is the snowball effect. What next? What if they bring back Strength D weapons that now ignore abilities like Disgustingly Resilient? How do you fix this? Get rid of Mortal Wounds. They add nothing, NOTHING to the game. Next time, have it so players can take their Armour Save, then if that fails they take their Invuln., and after that they die. And things like Disgustingly Resilient could just confer a 6+ or 5+ Invuln. Much simpler and quicker.

Summary
Here are a few quick bullet points I'd like to see in 9th edition:
⦁ Remove Stratagems and Command Points
⦁ Remove Mortal Wounds
⦁ Bring back Independent Character rules
⦁ Bring back weapon templates
⦁ Streamline and polish vehicle damage rules
⦁ Streamline keywords and the detatchment rules
⦁ Bring back a lot of the risk vs reward - reverse the rules for various weapon types (heavy and rapid fire), Deep Strike, Reserves and so on

Conclusion
I mean, am I crazy? A lot of this stuff didn't need changed in 8th edition, and now that it was changed they're having to FAQ it to clarify and fix things. Its good that they're on top of fixing their broken systems/rules, but why are these things even issues to begin with? I dunno, guys, I see a lot of hype and praise for 8th edition, and while I certainly think it has potential, its certainly not the be-all-end-all that people make it out to be... yet.
I've got some more games scheduled against a friend next week. We're going to try 40k 8th edition again, this time with armies we've specifically built with the new rules in mind. We'll try some games with Stratagems (my biggest bugbear with 8th), and some without to see which we prefer. I'm going into it with an open mind; loads of people clearly see something that I don't when it comes to Stratagems. Unfortunately I've not found anyone willing to inform me as to why they rate them so highly. But there we have it.

As a final note I'd like to stress that I don't hate 8th edition. I think it has the potential to be great, but it needs some serious work. The core rules are functional, I'd even say 'good', albeit in need of some minor tweaks, but its all the pointless changes and rules bloat that I take issue with. I give it until 9th for them to iron out the creases. (I put this at the end as a sort of disclaimer, if you made it this far and comment accordingly then I know you took my post seriously - if you just rant and rave at me for hating 8th edition I'll know you didn't read this properly).

Craftworld Adraxia

I've wanted to build an Eldar army for quite some time now but never really got round to it. However, with this past Christmas my awesome family got me plenty of Eldar kits to be getting on with, the start of a nice little force of power level 50. I've dabbled with Eldar before - mostly my brother's old models he gave me many moons ago, which were very limited to say the least. But now with my very own collection under my belt I can truly call the army my own.
Firstly a bit of a word about the colour scheme. I came up with this scheme several years ago, back when there were only the 'main' Eldar Craftworlds in the official books/lore. I was really happy with the scheme and thought it looked awesome. But, a few years later Games Workshop reveal some 'lesser' Craftworlds, including Iybraesil, which just happened to use the exact same scheme, right down to the red spot colour. I was pretty livid of course, and at once point considered changing my own Craftworld to Iybraesil, but I decided against it and kept my own Craftworld name and fluff to keep things decidedly my own.

Lady Khalandra Soulstorm

Khalandra is a farseer. I've always wanted a female farseer, ever since Dawn of War, but GW have never released an official one (to my knowledge). The Yvraine model was perfect for this. Sure the base is larger than the average farseer, but I don't think it would make much difference in friendly games. She is the leader of Craftworld Adraxia, and its most powerful psyker (naturally). I initially wanted to remove her headdress but thought she looked a bit bare without it, so I kept it as her ghosthelm and painted it a gradient orange colour to make her stand out.

General Khaladesh Sunblade

Khalandra's slightly younger twin brother, Khaladesh is the general to her armies and leads the force from the front lines. Naturally its the Visarch model, which is pretty cool, but I wanted to swap the head out to make him look more unique and characterful. I also glued a shuriken weapon his forearm. He will use the rules for Asurmen in-game, as he is a right badass and seems to fit the character I have in mind.

The Bladestorm Concordance

When Craftworld Adraxia was fractured it was mandated that all who would fight for its future would tread the Path of the Warrior and devote themselves entirely to its safety. As a result, every individual in the army is a member of an Aspect Temple, the most common of which are of course Dire Avengers. I painted their helmet plumes the same way as Khalandra's ghosthelm.

The Watcher

Craftworld Adraxia is guarded by sentinel walkers who maintain vigil over areas of great importance. These pilots are highly skilled in battle, running circles around the foe and attacking vital points or ambushing outlying enemy units with a barrage of missiles.



Ancient Irithyll

With Adraxia's tumultuous past it was only natural that it turn to the dead for reinforcements. Because of this the Craftworld boasts a large number of ghost warriors. Irithyll was a powerful war hero of Adraxia, and military advisor to the former queen. Though he is now but a shadow of his former self (literally) he has no qualms in rising up in his wraithlord armour and fighting in the name of his Craftworld for all eternity.

Wraithguard
Long-dead Adraxian warriors have their spirits captured in spirit stones so that they may once again rise in wraithbone constructs. Not much to say about these guys, I'm sure you all know what Wraithguard are.







I'm certainly more respectful of people who paint Eldar. I wanted to do them for myself as they are probably the biggest departure from orks (my main army) in the whole 40k game. I really struggled painting all the gemstones, as you can probably see. To be honest, the photos always bring out the worst in my models, as the high definition allows me to see things I can't with the naked eye. For that reason I'm not too fussed about them being well-painted. They look fine from a tabletop perspective and that's good enough for me; nobody is going to meticulously look over them or rate them.
The thing I'm most proud of is the broken wraithbone on the bases. The wraithlord and warwalker bases come with ready sculpted wraithbone detail, and rather than wait and buy new, blank bases for them I instead decided it would be cool to do all the other bases the same way. So, I whipped out the green stuff and got on it. It wasn't too hard, just flatten a thin layer of green stuff over the base, cut it to shape and then score cracks into it. Its a simple effect but I think it looks really nice, unique and flavourful. I will be adding grass and other vegetation to it.


Finally, I'm the kind of person who forgets rules mid-game. And with Eldar there's a greater chance of that with all the psychic powers I'll be flinging around. So to hopefully counteract that, I made some psychic power tokens.

So now, when I cast a power on a unit I can just put a token next to it to hopefully remind me. Chances are I'll still forget, but this will reduce the chances of that. The Fortune token is a spare shield from a wraithblade. The Will of Asuryan effigy is from the Dire Avengers kit. The Doom skull I got from the Citadel Skulls box, and the Guide token just uses a spare shuriken catapult and two guardian helms.

This is probably the fastest I've ever painted an army. Normally, when I start a new force it follows a formula... I build everything, then start painting them: I basecoat them, then give them a wash of some kind, and then... I get bored and they sit on my desk/shelf for the next few years gathering dust. This time, I don't know how or why, I just kept chugging and got them all done! And now I have a fully painted, 50 power Eldar army, and I gotta say it actually feels pretty good. This is my second completed army (after my orks, of which I have tons). So now, after ~18 years in the hobby I can finally say I have a second army! Hooray! Now to get some games in with it...

40k 8th Edition - Words for the Word God

So a few weeks ago my oldest and most regular skumgrod came for a visit and we got in some games of the new edition of Warhammer 40,000. It was, shall we say, 'interesting' for various reasons, and I'll put my thoughts about it here in some sort of review. I know the majority of peole come to blogs for pictures and inspiration, but I thought I'd try something a little different and ramble about a subject I'm fond of. Also, as a bit of a head-up, I've never written a review before. I'll probably focus more on the negative side of things as I tend to find constructive criticism is more useful and interesting than just harping on about how good everything is. Don't take this as an overly negative post but rather a means to suggest things that may be improved upon if, by any chance, Games Workshop actually read this, unlikely as that may be. So, with the foreword out of the way, let's get on with it...

Following the belated success of Age of Sigmar, it was only natural that Games Workshop would make efforts to bring 40k more in-line with that ruleset. Whether this was a positive change is up for debate, but I don't think anyone can blame the games design team for trying to simplify and unify their different games systems. 40k and Fantasy have always had fairly similar rules; but the rift between them grew exponentially when Age of Sigmar was released. And to say the release of AoS was tumultuous would be an understatement. To put it bluntly, it was very ham-fisted on Games Workshop's part, and caused a great divide in the community. With the release of Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition, its clear they did not want a repeat of that whole backlash.

The result is a game that feels like its stuck in some sort of weird limbo. 8th Edition has clear inspiration from AoS, but is still trying to be its own game; a 'natural' evolution of 40k. Let's be real for a second, Fantasy was a fairly stereotypical/cliche high fantasy setting, and it was hard for Games Workshop to create their own niche in such a scenario. That is perhaps the reason they gutted the original Fantasy background and replaced it with something different in Age of Sigmar; the fact the rules changed so drastically was probably in response to other companies' simple and approachable rules syetems, and by that point Fantasy was far too complex for its own good. But they could not do the same for 40k. The grim darkness of the far future is a truly beloved franchise, and many of its facets, although heavily inspired by various pop culture sources, are iconic in their own right. They could not simply "Age-of-Sigmarify" 40k without suffering heavy, if not company-destroying, losses. So yes, 8th Edition is a natural evolution of 40k, though in many cases it feels a bit like a step backward.

One of the chief reasons I feel 8th Ed took a step backwards was in the 'additional' rules and all the bookkeeping that entails. I don't mean supplements. I mean the core rules that feel like they have been simply added to the system to make it feel complex, but instead just make it feel bloated and frustrating.
I think my biggest bugbear with this whole 'additional rules' thing is the Stratagems and Command Points system. Firstly, why was this system introduced? Well, in previous editions it was perfectly acceptable for players to take units and models from various different armies and codex books to create uber-powerful forces of destruction. This led to the whole "deathstar" unit debacle and generally made the game unenjoyable. 8th Ed introduced a system called "battleforged armies". If your army was built of entirely of models from a single codex, and pertained rigidly to one of the many detachment tables, your army was "battleforged" and gained additional Command Points. That's all well and good, but this system was added to persuade players to build codex armies and reward players who built armies entirely from 1 book. But surely that was the whole reason they added in the keyword system as well?
The keyword system ensures that certain abilities (such as special rules belonging to a character) only affect models from the same codex or with the same keywords. And it goes even further, right down the individual chapter, regiment, legion, craftworld, clan, etc. So what's the point in adding the battleforged system? Its redundant when the keyword system has all of their bases covered anyway (or at least it should if the writers are diligent enough). It feels like having a battleforged army just adds even more benefits to an army that already has the benefits of having the same keywords. It should have been one or the other, not both.

This brings me to the Stratagems themselves. In a nutshell, if your army is battleforged it gains a few bonus command points, which can be spent during the game to use stratagems. Stratagems are special rules that can greatly impact the game in various ways. They seem like an interesting idea in theory, but they just add more bloat to a game system that was apparently supposed to be a simplification of the rules.
I'll come back to this briefly, but to illustrate my point I'd like to mention faction abilities. These include chapter tactics, which give your army bonuses depending on the Space Marine chapter you have taken, legions tactics, which are the Chaos equivalent, and so on. These rules were missing in previous editions but have been brought back, and are a very welcome addition. They are another way you can choose to customize your force for both a strategic and fluffy addition to your army. Wasn't this enough?
Now, not only do we get faction abilities but we also get Stratagems, codex-specific Stratagems, and now also faction-specific Stratagems and unit-specific Stratagems. Its just layers upon layers of extra rules and things to remember. Whatever happened to just making units good and synergistic in their own right? It feels like they are simply adding additional trump cards into each army to cover the fact each unit isn't that interesting anymore, even though that isn't the case. I'm sure the rule came from a good place, but its just clunky and wholly unnecessary.

Another few tidbits I feel have removed from the experience is the lack of tactical choice. What do I mean by this? By "tactical choice", I mean those little moments in games where you have to make a decision that could change the future of the game in some small, but ultimately meaningful way. For example, your devastator squad only has a few of its lascannons in-range to fire at an enemy tank. Do you move the lascannons that aren't in range closer but forego their shooting for a turn? Or do you shoot at something else that is in range with all of your lascannons to maximize efficiency? Or do you still fire at the tank with reduced efficiency in the hopes of bringing it down? Or do you break from your entrenched position to move closer but lose the cover bonus? These are no longer tactical choices as you can overcome any of these situations.
Now, you can move and fire heavy weapons (albeit with -1 to hit) so that is no longer an issue. Or you can split your fire between enemy targets, so that is no longer an issue. Say an enemy unit are also baring down on you and will charge next turn. Do you forego shooting entirely to charge that enemy unit and rob them of their momentum? This, again, is no longer an issue as you can freely charge after firing heavy weapons now.
This is what I mean by removing tactical choice. Another example is cover: do I run through cover for a bonus armour save but risk not moving as far, or do I stick to open terrain and cover ground more quickly but risk being shot to pieces? Do I move my transport through cover and risk immobilising it? This is no longer an issue as cover doesn't slow movement anymore, so there really is no choice: free cover always wins.
I understand why they changed this - its lowers the skill ceiling and makes the game more approachable. Or does it? They tried to unify and condense the rules to a point where everything works on a very similar level to reduce the rules you are required to remember, but that is moot because you still need to remember that heavy weapons fire with -1 to hit if you move, so the rules are still there, they are just different. There are still things you need to remember, they've just removed the tactical choice. Its a reduction of the skill ceiling without streamlining the rules at all. Now there's no need to think ahead.
The removal of templates is another example. Not only did this drain the fun and flavour from a lot of the weapons in 40k, but it also removed tactical choice. Do I place this large blast on a vehicle - it'd most likely scatter but if it did land on target it would mess that tank up. Or do I place it in the middle of all this infantry so even if it does scatter it'll most likely hit something? Now, even blast weapons are basic point-and-shoot weapons with nothing to set them apart. I'm sure we've all been in a situation where we accidentally put our flamer at the back of our unit when disembarking from a transport. Before, we were punished for our mistake by being unable to place it's template to maximize its carnage (if we could place it at all), but now its no problem; it fires just like any other gun.

In general, I feel like 40k 8th Edition doesn't know what it wants to be. It feels like its arms don't know what its legs are doing. Does it was to simplify the rules? Then why bloat it with unecessary and flavourless extra rules that should be built into the units they are used for? Does it want to be more complex? Then why remove a lot of the flavour of the weapons and make tanks operate the same as infantry in an effort to 'streamline' the rules?
8th Ed is a transitionary phase. Nothing more. They clearly were inspired heavily by AoS to drastically simplify the rulesset and lower the skill ceiling, but were trying to avoid the same level of backlash AoS recieved for being so gung-ho about it. The result is a strange mishmash of ideas and concepts that seems to contradict one another. On a base level, the rules are fine and they work, but they feel like a first draft. It feels like they were toying with a lot of these ideas, but instead of refining them they simply wrote all the core concepts down in a word document so they wouldn't forget it and published that instead of a true rulebook. There is no nuance, and the flavour has been sapped from the rules in ways I don't think benefit the game in any meaningful way. The rules have potential, but so far 8th Ed has squandered that potential.
Still, on the plus side at least 9th Edition will learn from these mistakes...

So there you have it. My thoughts on 8th Edition and where I feel like it could improve. If you made it this far (and read it all) thanks, and please leave feedback in the comments. Did you agree with me? Did you not agree? Is the review in general any good? Should I do more reviews or not bother? That kinda thing.
I already have an idea for another article; one that has bugged me even more than these core rules gripes, and that is the shitshow that is the new codex format. If they change nothing else in 9th, they should change the format of each army list back to what it once was, but I'll cover that at another time.
Cheers, guys.

Flash Gitz and Sneeky Gitz

Kommandos
Kommandos are a cool concept in theory, but in practice they were little more than overpriced ork boyz that could deploy in range of enemy guns. They often cost something insane like 15pts per model, but at the end of the day they were fairly weak 6+ save models. But with the coming of 8th edition and the introduction of 'open play' and the power levels system, I feel like kommandos are finally worth taking. At only power 6 for 10 (with no added cost for the much-needed burnas and nob) they're actually a viable choice.

I had a bunch I converted a while back, and decided they were finally worth my time to paint them. I went for purely dark colours. Having bright orange decorating these supposed sneeky gitz wouldn't make much sense, even to the orks, so their clothes are predominantly black with a bit of brown thrown in for variety. I really like my converted nob. I almost gave him the obligatory power klaw, but thought he looked much cooler without it. For some games I may even use him as Snikrot if I have a spare 4 points, but for now he's my Kommando nob.

Flash Gitz
Another unit that are cool in theory, but pants in practice, are the flash gitz. In previous iterations they were little more than over-priced nobz with subpar guns. Now with the nice buff to their snazzguns they actually seem like a half-decent choice. Plus, they are different for me. I've never used them before, always preferring to opt for the more choppy and (much) more killy nobz mob, so using the flash gitz will be a breath of fresh air.

I converted the 4 'lesser' gitz a few years ago to start off a Bad Moon army, but that never came about. So instead, I converted them a boss nob (needed as the mob was illegal with only 4 models) and painted them in my usual Big Teef orange scheme.
For the boss nob I wanted him to stand out a bit, so rather than give him another big snazzgun I gave him 2 'kustom supa-sluggas', his own invention. In game terms they function exactly the same as snazzguns, though.

Reinforcements of Lachesis - Age of Sigmar: Path to Glory

So a couple of months ago, our Age of Sigmar: Path to Glory campaign started. This was my first 'true' foray into Age of Sigmar with a proper army made specifically for the game. Path to Glory is a great way start a new force, and its really fun to see how your army evolves over time. We started out with two games, which was a nice amount to kick things off. I got a good feel of how my army works (just charge forward and hit stuff!). Because these games took place in such a short space of time, we wouldn't have time to paint up any extra units after our first game and before our second, so we instead chose to upgrade one of our units.

In all, my army can be pretty tough. The knights proved hard to shift for the most part, but I generally found my own damage output to be lacking, especially against the undead who can restore lost models to their units each turn! This means I have to hit a single unit hard and fast, wipe it out completely, and then move on to the next. I tried this in the second game, but its easier said than done. However, I did manage to scrape minor victories in both games, but unfortunately I rolled a 1 for my Glory Points for BOTH games, so despite my wins I still have the same amount of points as my opponent. Chaos can indeed be fickle!

Chosen
After our second game, we would have a few months to get some reinforcements in. I took a roll on the same, basic table and got a unit of 5 Chosen. Chosen seemed pretty beastly at first, but soon after I found out they're just Chaos Warriors with an extra attack each (and maybe slightly stronger weapons). A little disappointing, but we'll see how they go.

I opted to take the command unit, as this gives me access to a banner and a wardrum, which are both welcome additions. Honestly, there's no reason not to take them!

Arcane Ettin
Outside of Path to Glory, I wanted to expand the army with something a little different. I've always wanted a Warhammer Giant. The kit looked ace, and oozes with character. But they never really fitted in with my Lizardmen or Dryad armies. But now I decided to take one for the hell of it.

You'll notice I converted it a little. I gave it 3 arms and 2 heads just to make it look a bit more Chaotic. The creature is almost overflowing with arcane energy, which has coalesced in his extremities and around his eyes. I initially painted the dark, mottled and corrupted skin on his face to make his glowing eyes stand out a bit more, but I liked the effect so I added it to his arms and feet, too (and a rogue patch on his back).

His blue skin ties him in with the marauders, but the turquoise loincloth ties him to the knights as well, bringing everything together. This guy won't feature in my Path to Glory campaign (unless I get a lucky roll on the monster table), but I will use him in other games instead, just for a laugh.

The Children of Sekhmet

I've always been fascinated by the lizardmen in Warhammer Fantasy. They were perhaps one of the most outlandish and unique armies in the game. Plus Dinosaurs... I mean frickin' Dinosaurs! My first forays into Warhammer Fantasy (after many years of pure 40k) was with the denizens of Lustria, but it never really went anywhere. I got a bunch of saurus warriors, but little else. However with the dawn of the Age of Sigmar, my interest for them has been rekindled, albeit in a slightly different way. The lizardmen have always had an Aztec feel to them, but for this army I wanted to go down a slightly different route, and create a more desert-themed force. I'll be honest, my main motivation for this was speed and ease of painting. Its so much quicker to just drybrush all their scales instead of highlighting each one, and a scheme that suits well is that of dry bone-like scales. In addition, I've always enjoyed Egyptian history and mythology, so it was a natural fit to take the army in a more ancient Egyptian style direction. Even a lot of the iconography and patterns still work, it is a fantasy after all. I've seen other desert-themed Lizardmen armies online, so I knew it would work well. Its just a case of doing it. So I've made a start.

I couldn't help myself but focus on the two main characters first. I've got a small force here, namely the Start Collecting! box, and a few other bits I'm working on, but I always gravitate towards the characters as they're usually more interesting.

High Sun Priest Baal'halet'anephthis

My Slann Mage Priest, or in this case, High Sun Priest. The Sun Priests are the devoted servants of Sekhmet, the Goddess of Life and the Sun. Or they were until she sacrificed herself to defeat Chaos and inadvertently turned the lush jungles of Namu into a sweltering desert wasteland, but that's neither here nor there!
Baal'halet is a High Priest of the Sun. Though he cannot control the Sun, the Sun Priests worship it for it is said to be the gift Sekhmet left them for its Holy Light keeps Chaos at bay. In fact, Baal spent 500 years gazing at the sun looking for signs or portents from his Goddess, the result of which is pretty plain to see. Though he was bandaged by his aides, being a toad who would thrive in Namu in the days it was a jungle, he literally couldn't take the heat and became a husk. His consciousness still remains, and he is a great prophet and a powerful spellcaster.

General Sobak'ishtak

Sun General Sobak is the highest ranking military commander of the Kamun Karpak, the City of Golden Light. He is ancient beyond reckoning, some say as old as Sekhmet Herself, and marched at her side against Chaos when she and all she had made were undone. To this day he swears to avenge his fallen Goddess, and it is his duty to protect the Sun Temples and muster against their enemies.

He carries two ancient relics of his people, a sunspear forged in the heat of a volcano, and a mighty Sunfire Gauntlets that is imbued with some of the divine essence of the Goddess of the Sun. The Carnosaur he rides is a mighty steed he tamed in the Bloodlands, and place of feral beasts that have adapted to the new, harsh climate.

These are the two main characters in the army so far. I think I had more fun writing the lore for this army than I've had writing lore for any of my armies/characters. There's a lot more besides, I've written small pieces about Kamun Karpak, the great City of the Golden Light where the main bulk of the army resides (though its not quite a beautiful and golden as perhaps it once was), as well as Osiri'Anuk, the Grand Temple at the city's heart. More on that later, and more army pics to come!

Also, when taking these piccies, I've spotted a lot of mistakes I've made or areas I've missed. These will be fixed. Cheers, guys.