Age of Sigmar and you!

Hey ladies and gentlemen out there in the blogosphere! How was your 4th? Happy 239th, America!

Okay then, Age of Sigmar is here. We've all been analyzing the teasers and photos from WD and holy shit have I heard no end of hate on SPESS MERHEENS in fantasy... along with every other opinion positive or negative on the new game. I decided I'd glance at the rules and do a write up too.

And then I realized the glaring problem with this approach was that I haven't played a game of WFB since late 2010... so I really have no idea what I'm talking about in trying to make a comparison.

Thankfully the guys who do play have made their observations. Here are the musings from blogs I follow that I enjoyed reading.

Convertorum

Rob Hawkins Hobby

The Beard Bunker

The Hoodling's Hole

The thing I've had resonate with me the most is the destruction of the Old World (all of it). I mean, I was a solid Empire player; artillery and infantry masses supported by rumbling, clanking death machines and hulking knights... but that was still only a very small part of the overall experience. I really loved the idea of the world, from the Wastes of Chaos to the temples of Lustria to the mysterious, savage lands of Cathay. The Lustria and Storm of Chaos campaigns especially were epic. I ate up those issues of WD. The first issue I ever picked up featured a battle report with Empire vs Skaven on an amazing battle field. The look of the world coupled with the fluff... Hell the heart of the Empire was a place that Man dared not tread fore the beasts and the forest itself would eat their greatest armies whole.

There were a couple books by James Wallis, Mark of Damnation and Mark of Heresy that really sucked me into the whole grimdark fantasy. The last Empire army I had (and the one I want to rebuild, regardless of state of game) was inspired by the events of those novels. Peasants and flagellants lead by Luthor Huss and Empire (militia :D ) Captian Karl Hoche. It was a ragtag mess of models when taken individually, but still kinda effective. They had a story, though! And it was just a small prequel of the events leading into Storm of Chaos it was still excellent. Gave me a good reason to get to take Valten every so often, too :D

And then Mordheim! The greatest city in the realm of man for adventure and riches; nevermind opportunities for modelling and converting your warband and terrain to wage battles in the shadows over. I built three warbands at least, and quite a few pieces of terrain to add to the card offerings that came with the base game. The awesome people over Cianty Games put together an amazing fan supplement to take the game out of the City of the Damned and into the wilds of the East.

Another thing that painted the world so vividly for me was the Warhammer Roleplaying game. The books had so much flavor.about life in the Old World...

I guess that is where the real problem with Age of Sigmar is to me, is that I don't want a new flavor of Warhammer. I liked the flavor it had. I understand that everything had stagnated completely. Everything was getting incremental upgrades and richer backstories. In 40k this works because you can expand that amazing universe laterally literally infinitely across the galaxy and the 10000 years the game universe covers. So I get why it was done. It just kinda sucks. What happens to Gotrek and Felix now? What is their place in the new era?

Star Wars did this shit too, now that I'm sitting here writing this up I can feel that bitterness creeping in. And I'm not talking about the prequels, here. This is Disney reaffirming that everything since Alan Dean Foster wrote Splinter of the Minds Eye and then the explosion of the EU following Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy has been retconned right out. That's everything. Rogue Squadron, all the great and shitty games, Shadows of the Empire! Gah. Lucas said before it's not canon but still... I'm just not as interested in the rebooted Star Wars franchise. And I'm equally not interested in the rebooted Warhammer.

Final thought:

Privateer Press launched Warmachine started with a free B size colour poster of rules and sixteen models across four box sets. I've never played so I won't compare rules but I will point out that similarity. It is also a skirmish game.

Cheers,

CJ

Undead: Final Update

Here are the promised photographs of the fully painted Vampire Counts army.

3000 points.

Nine Vargheists, painted by client.

Necromancers and Vampires, painted by client.

Close up of the converted sorcerers.

Crypt Ghouls, painted by client.

Grave Guard, painted by client.

Corpse Cart, painted by client.

Skeletal Knights, painted by client.

Zombies, painted by client.  You can see the Titan Forge Bases the client has chosen for stand in bases to bulk up the units of zombies in these photos.  The smallish unit here is extra zombies, fodder for raising.

Zombies, painted by Xi.

Skeletons, painted by Xi.

There it is, roughly six weeks of work and a total of 350 or so models.

Cheers,

-Xi

Undead Advance!

A long off put update to the Undead Project I've undertaken for a client.  So far the count stands at 65 Zombies and 30 Skeletons, all from Mantic's Kings of War line.  Here are some shots of the updated progress.

Here is the sample model my client painted up for me to follow.  When we first started this project, he gave me a copy of his paint recipes, as well as painted models so I could see what I was trying to match...

I need to get better pictures.  Here are five finished Skeletons.  My client was very happy with the uniformity in his undead so far.

Better shot of the same five.  I finished these ones to see exactly where I was with the matching and to see how long it takes to knock out a group.  I find the time taken with a batch of minis scales accordingly.

One of the nice bonuses that comes included on the Mantic frames is this chunk of viscera and spinal column, which can help get more zombies out of the box than you bargained for.  My client is using a few things to stack his zombie count for the units, these bodies the least extreme.

Here is the latest finished batch of 15.  The bases still need finished: drybrushing, edges painted, and static grass application.

Next up on the agenda for the Undead Project is 30 more Zombies.  After that, we'll see what the client has in store.  On my personal agenda is a 3.5 D&D campaign, and I'm still working on my Adeptus Mechanicus Marine force.

Cheers,
Xi