We have the wind sir!

Now that we are settled from our move I finally have some time and motivation to get some words down. I have also started reading Warstorm, Stormcast Battletome and was down at Gamer's Haven yesterday so I have some fresh wind in my sails.

What I have so far...

I am without a doubt choosing the Hallowed Knights as my Stormhost. However I will be augmenting this with elite troops (Prosecutors w/ Storm Javelins and Paladins - not sure which type) from the Knights Excelsior (White armor, blue shield and shoulders) using the upgrade kits.

So my main force will roughly consist of...

Ironhearts - Warrior Chamber of the Hallow Knights (WD86)

-Mounted Lord Celestant - Lord Iorek Ironheart

-Lord-Relictor - Torveas Steelgaze

-Lord-Castellant - Kadarius Stonehold

-20 Liberators (2 squads of 10)

-6 Retributors (2 squads of 3)

-6 Prosecutors (2 squads of 3)

-Ranged TBD

Then my reinforcement force will be from the Knights Excelsior:

-Knight Venator

-Knight Azyros

-6 Prosecutors (2 squads of 3) with Storm Javelins

-6 Paladins ((2 squads of 3) Decimators or Protectors

-TBD

I really think the battletome is worth picking up - I have been reading it all day and it definitely adds life to these units. I am hoping War Storm will do the same - one chapter in, so far so good.

I really think you guys should consider joining the mini campaign at the Haven. It is a very small group with no idiots. The first couple weeks is just build and paint and then they running the story campaign from the box using just those units. That way it stays fun, casual and light hearted. It has also really motivated me to get my act together and get back to work.

Last night I was able to complete the mounted lord Celestant, my Lord-Castellant and good start on the new Prosecutors.

I will be coming down again Wednesday to finish building the second started set I traded from Ed. As far as painting goes, after talking with Ed, I have decided to use the army painter chainmail paint spray as a base to save time. As soon as I get that, the terrible painting will commence. Now I'm off to read War Storm..

The Vermintide Approaches

Ka...raaaak! The sound of a warplightning cannon firing it's payload at the nearest threat. The favorite sound of any Skaven general. The results are greatly pleasing and with the removal of misfires in Age of Sigmar, the devastation is absolutely brutal. In a recent game, it only took two turns for one of these lovely Skaven-engineered devices to decimate a unit of ten Liberators. Backed by other warmachines of preposterous design and terrifying spells, Skaven are truly a force to keep an eye on.

Games Workshop have given Skaven some love in Age of Sigmar. The Great Horned Rat now being a God of Chaos after Slaanesh's disappearance means we'll see some interesting Skaveny things playing out in lore. Being a primarly-Skaven player for most of my Warhammer gaming experience, I could not be more happy with how things have been playing out in Age of Sigmar. As mentioned, we recently played a Skaven V.S. Stormcast game that ended in an absolute bloodbath in favor of Skaven. This game showed us just how brutal magic and shooting can really sway a game, although this game was played before Stormcast had the option of taking their own shooting (in the form of Judicators). It'll be interesting to see how Stormcast fair against the Skaven when they actually get to utilize their own shooting phase.

That's it for me, for now! Stay tuned for more Skaven and Chaos related banter!

A new player has joined the game!

Well not new really but I look forward to creating my new force of humanity!

To start off I'm thinking a good mix of Empire, Bretonnian, and Stormcast models will make a formidable foe across the realms.  I do have some of my Stormcast painted in gold and I will make sure to get those pictures up soon enough.  At this point I don't feel like the Stormcast are very good against any of the old world armies mainly because they don't have magic or a means to dispel it.  Their stats are great don't get me wrong, but its hard to say they're so unstoppable when ten of them are mowed down by one wizard and a warp lightning cannon after the first shooting phase.  That's what brings me to mixing in other factions of order because big gold fantasy marines can only be so interesting to a certain point.

Right now I think my army's background will be split into three parts: one being the noble and towering warriors of the Stormcast, the second being a kingdom of humans who were fortunate enough to escape through the gates before Sigmar closed them off, and the third will be a smaller band of humans that are remnants of a recently felled kingdom.  I think combining these three will be a lot of fun as I can make very stark paint jobs and interesting story interactions with one another.

That's my initial ideas to start off with.  With my next post I'm thinking it would be good to have a paint job fully done on one model for each different part of the army.  Should have an update for that this Saturday Aug 29th.


Update Aug 29th:

So I have the three models to take pictures of but I don't like any of them in the light they are in.  I will be taking pictures of the tomorrow in natural light to get a better picture.  Plus it gives me some time to finish up the third model I have(phew).

Aug 30:

Alright got 3 nifty pics of the paint template for my army.  Each will have a character named as the leader of their respective factions:

Stormcast: Going with the hammers of sigmar here.  My general will be one of my own creations named Leon Thunderhammer (working name) instead of Vandus Hammerhand.

Humans of the celestail realm: Using rifles and standing out with their golden armor these humans of the celestial realm were fortunate enough to make it through the portal before Sigmar closed them off ages ago.

Survivors: These poor souls are all thats left of a recently felled (name TBD) kingdom.  Their land has been broken but the fighting spirit of these people never have been and never will be.

Simple Green

So having never used simple green as a paint stripper, I did not realize it would take this long. I usually use some sort of auto degreaser and it works in less than 24 hours. I will say it might be due to the gold paint as my one stormcast liberator that was silver gave me no issue. In face he will be the first model to try out the Hallowed Knights color scheme.

It appears that in the Quest for Ghal Maraz and Realm Gates Wars we will get  more background information and painting guides on both the Hallowed Knights and Celestial Vindicators - yes I still may switch. I'm still looking because the attitude of the Celestial Vindicators (ragefully kill all Chaos without mercy and enjoy yourself doing it) is a better fit for me than the purest of knights.

But for now I'm going to begin work on the one Liberator and try to post a WIP picture tonight.

What do you guys strip paint with?

Inspiration

So I want to get my plan on paper somewhere. After much deliberation between gold and silver (Hammers of Sigmar/Lions of Sigmar vs. Hallowed Knights) I have decided to go with silver. Tomorrow I will start stripping the gold and recoat black and get started on the Liberators. I'm going to be using the tutorial from the White Dwarf.

 For now I only have the starter set (although that may change this weekend). I know Mike is particular to the Judicators but I really like the new paladins (of course I like the ones more challenging to paint). The guy with the star mace is just too awesome and I want him. As of right now I don't have a plan for the units I want to collect because I haven't played my first game yet.

One of the challenges I'm having getting started is the lack of fluff. Not that it's not good, just that there isn't enough of it. I wanted to choose the right chapter (?) but I feel like there isn't enough of information (other than for the HoS, but even there isn't much) to make a choice other than based off color. So for now I will stick with the Hallowed Knights, and hope their background gets even better. It is just hard for me to get inspiration without the fluff.

I will post my first WIP pictures hopefully this weekend.