Fimir - Seanchaí

After a bit of a dry spell I have another fimir for you today. Tadhg, Seanchaí of the Fir Domhan. (The Fomorian Wayfarer from Krakon Games) He's a human size fimir, and is unlike many fimir-style models as he looks more of a wanderer than a warrior, despite his long spear.

I've been looking forward to painting him for a while. I decided to take my new Raphael series 8404 brushes on a bit of a test drive with him, so I added a spot of freehand to his cloak.

They are really nice brushes. They keep their point very well, and hold a nice volume of paint. I had been reduced to painting with scraggly ruins until they arrived, so it was a delight to have new brushes. I best not leave it so long next time. 

Here's Tadhg's backstory:

Tadhg is a welcome sight among the settlements of the Fir Domhan. He often appears around times of festival or celebration, but also times of mourning or ceremony. He is a Seanchaí, or storyteller, a custodian of tradition and keeper of heritage. He is also quite the gossip, and carries news and goings on from village to village. A master orator, his tales of heroism and tragedy are much loved by the fimir, though he is a frequent visitor to the human villages of the Tuatha Taiden as well.

He carries a long heavy spear, though in truth it seems to be more staff than weapon. More famous yet is his cloak, the Eagna Mac Tíre. Cut from wolfskin, it is heavily tattooed with beasts, heroes and passages written in Fimar, the written language of the fimir, which shift and change to compliment whatever tale or speech Tadhg is giving. 

Tadhg is not a tall fimir, and is, indeed, of the shearl class. In fact, he is quite rotund, being given to enjoying the constant hospitality offered to him. Despite this, he enjoys the respect and deference of even the dirach and the nobles of the Fianna. The Seanchaí is a sacred office, and to bring harm or disrespect to one is the most terrible offence.

Tadhg's tales are of the past, the present, and on occasion, the future. He presides over matters of custom and gives eulogy over the dead. He recounts to the fimir of the wrongs done to them, and reminds them of the deeds of heroes and villains long gone.

Then he is off on his way, and days are counted until he returns again.

For gaming purposes, Tadhg will count as a minor magic user or lesser hero. I'm adding s few characterful fimir at the moment so I can build up a nice warband for Warcry, Frostgrave and so on. I have a daemonmaniac coming up that'll work for any larger ogre-sized beastie I might need.

Elatha and Fedelmid catch up on the news as they escort Tadhg into the Ráth.

Fimir - Jes Goodwin's Limited Edition Fimir

Aah, a return to one of my absolute favourite factions, the fimir! I've been promising myself I'd get around to painting Jes Goodwin's 1987 Limited Edition fimir for years, and finally, here he is. May I present Elatha, Fian of the Warped (Na Buile). I have several bucket list minis I have decided to take on this year, this being the fist.

The fimir were always intended to be roughly human sized, as this fellow is. The reasons they ended up the size of ogres is already well documented already. This rare treasure though, is the archetype as far as I am concerned.

It's been a few years since I painted a fimir, so as you do, I tinkered with my recipes a little. I altered the skin, toning down the yellow and replacing my highlight colour, Elf Flesh, for a less yellow tone, Flayed One Flesh. I also added more green to the bronze. I'm pretty happy with the results.

I also had a go at making the club tail quite dark, and blending it into the flesh tone. It gives him a little more visual interest, so I think I'll keep that for now. Elatha is the first member of a new unit of fimm, the Warped. These are fimir that suffer from battle frenzy, and enter into the warp spasm in battle. There will be a lot of weird mutations and so on. I have a couple of larger daemonmaniacs I'll be adding to this unit as unit fillers as well as serving as larger beasties in warbands.

I am finishing off a second fimir right now, of a very different type. A Seanchaí, a wandering storyteller. He'll be for adding to warbands for Frostgrave and Warcry. I plan on proxying the fimir as Bonesplitters in Warcry I think.

Speaking of warbands, here is Elatha, serving as Fian in Fedelmid the Dirach's warband.

Fedelmid leads his fimm and half-dead in search of transgressors.

Krakon Games - Conand, Master of Tor Innis

What's this? It's been a while since the one-eyed fellows have stopped into the Mumblings. I have a few on the painting table at the moment, this being the first fellow I've completed. It's nice to be adding a few new models to the army.

This is Conand, a Fomorian from Krakon Games' latest kickstarter, Creatures of the Night: Wrath of Cichol. Ross was kind enough to send me an early copy of Conand to paint, knowing my deep interest in cyclopean bog dwellers. Conand is only one of a range of Celtic-inspired monsters that Krakon plan on releasing off the back of this and subsequent kickstarters. You can check Krakon out here.

He's a multi-part resin model with separate arms and tail. I based him on a 40mm square scenic base as he is of the larger variety of... Fomorians. It felt  little odd using a square base I must admit, but all my fimir are based on squares, so that's that.

He was great fun to paint. I gave Conand my standard fimir colour scheme, adding a little freehand in the form of tattoos and embroidery on the hem of his kilt to match my existing characters. He doesn't have too much intricate detail either, though getting in under his tail took a little bendy brushwork. I gave him a leather shirt and greaves as he looks like he likes to get in there and use that dagger.

I adjusted my skin recipe slightly, adding a little more elf flesh to the highest highlights before glazing with sepia. I'm down to the dregs in my pot of Gryphonne Sepia, so I'll have to upgrade to the new wash shortly.

Now, I'll be using Conand as a dirach in my Fir Domhan army. His story is thus:

Dirach - Fedelmid
Fedelmid is a stoic young dirach. He serves Solkan, the God of Law, with utmost devotion. He is a Brithem, or judge, and is the supreme arbitrator of the law among the Fir Domhan, bar Morgayne herself. It is Fedelmid's duty to enact the will of Solkan without fear or favour, and he has been gifted with absolute impartiality by his patron. 

Morgayne also employs Fedelmid as an assassin of some skill. His magical powers allow him to pass unheard and unseen, no small feat for a dirach of the Fianna. His skills with a blade mean no enemy of the fimir is safe once they have been condemned by the council and thereby by Solkan himself. There have been many and more slights to the Fir Domhan settled through the judicious use of Fedelmid's sacrificial dagger.

Khorne Warband - Chaos Thugs

I've been perusing Age of Sigmar again lately, especially the skirmish variant. My early reticence gave way to curiousity about how it holds up as a skirmish ruleset, and as supplements like the General's Handbook and Skirmish were released this built up into an idea it might be something worth trying. I still have fond memories of the Realms of Chaos warbands, and the Paths to Glory rules looked good for assembling some cool warbands once again. Added to that others such as Cheetor were going to give it a go, so what the hell, I was in.

Up until last week I hadn't actually played it though.We were somewhat spoiled, playing on Cheetor's wonderful new AoS terrain (more on his blog). We tried a skirmish scenario and then a Triumph and Treachery one. Both offered plenty of action and laughs, which ticks my boxes for a game. After popping my AoS skirmish cherry I've decided it's just the kind of ruleset that I can get behind for these kinds of casual games. Added to this there's a pretty big toolbox for gaming you can draw on.

So, thus committed, I've decided to give my Gorechosen slaughterpriest some mates, and build me a warband for the blood God. I started with some chaos thugs.

Chaos Thugs. I can't tell you how much I love chaos thugs. I collect as many as I can. I rummaged through my tubs and found some semi-naked/insane nutters that might compliment the huge haemo-erotic (not my invention, good though eh?) Khorne boys from the Age of Sigmar range.

This guy above, well. You know how you only REALLY look at the detail on a miniature as you begin painting it? You notice things, especially on chaos models. I shant forget spying the assless plate mail on that Slaanesh warrior in a hurry. Anyway, this guy, he looked, well, old. An old thug. Like a snowflake in death valley. He has a corset and what looks like an adult nappy on. I imagined him at the thug reunion. All his mates are: A:Dead B:Warlords or C:Daemon princes. Awkward. Good enough to stay alive, but not good enough to get granted the extended lifespan the chaos Gods seem to dole out like candy. He also, as was spotted by a mate, looks like the guy from UP. So he got painted as an old bloke. He'll provide much hilarity in games I imagine.

This lad is more straightforward. I picked him for the axe and the gurning madness in his face. He probably pees in that armour. While looking you right in the eyes.

So, I am having fun with these. Models I've had sequestered away for decades are suddenly primed and ready for paint. Bloodletters, flesh hounds, Khornegor (proper dog-faced Khornegor, none of that goat stuff) as well as the fat bloke with the whip from the AoS range. If it pleases Mr Blood, I may expand the warband to a Paths to Glory force. Or I may see what Tzeentch offers. Such is the fun of the tiered rules for Age of Sigmar. Who knew?

Now, hold on. I know what you're thinking. 'Look at that HUGE bastard! Scale creeporama!' Well, (pushes glasses up nose) ACTUALLY the slaughterpriests are meant to be larger than other mortals. So there. The plastic reavers are only about a head taller than the old thugs, which means balls to me. Once they are propped up on a bit of cork there's nothing in it. So I wouldn't be overly worried about scale. Humans come in all sizes etc.

Kickstarter - Diehard Miniatures

For those of you with a liking for Oldhammer miniatures, and for those of you that just really like great fantasy minis, the Diehard Miniatures kickstarter is currently ongoing. There are several factions, from the amphibious tech-laden Eru-kin to the undead, humans, goblinoids, humans, chaotic monstrosities and even and hawkmen. There are quite a few stretch goals planned too. The pledges allow some mixing and matching between factions, along with a large add on section if you're only after a few models.

Personally I'm looking at the snakemen, if they get unlocked, and the dwarf boar centaur. Anyone with an old school chaos dwarf army might be interested in this fellow. He looks happy not to be pushing a large warmachine/lawnmower. If you get me.

I'm a whirlwind! I'll tenderize you!!

These would work great for Warhammer, Age of Sigmar, and with the expansion for Frostgrave imminent, I'm looking at the undead knight. So, take a gander, there's a lot of good stuff to choose from.

Warhammer - The Last Post

I've spent a long time ruminating over this one. I'm sure you lot are sick to the gills reading posts on folks opinions on the Age of Sigmar. The turmoil in the gaming community has been nothing short of apocalyptic over the last few weeks. I've tried to navigate these emotionally charged fracas without getting too drawn in, but the depth of feeling is apparent. I've come to the point where I think I'm ready to comment on it all, so here we go.

Okay. For the duration of the post I'm going to dispense with the shield of non commitment and gnarly gamer cynicism. This is too big a deal to gloss over with middle of the road opinions. Ready? There may be tears.

Warhammer is not just a game, for me.

Now, there you go. I can hear eyes rolling all over the net, so let me qualify that statement. First off, Warhammer is not my entire world. I am married with a family, I enjoy sunshine and going outside, I can hold and enjoy a conversation about things other than gaming, my neck is hair free and I am a (mostly) jovial fellow.

Warhammer is a hobby for me, and one I've heavily invested in since I was twelve. That's twenty nine years ago. As with most hobbies, a hefty dose of love has gone in there too, and we are protective of the things we love. The Old World and it's denizens has been, and continues to be (we'll get to that later) a ready source of inspiration and enjoyment for most of my life. At heart I'm most interested in the story, and it's depth and breadth have given me countless ideas for campaigns, armies, themes, characters, conversions and on and on. I've raised regiments of the undead for Morbius the Necromancer. I've assembled clans of fimir to fight for their Meargh and bands of madmen from the North intent on despoiling the soft lands of the South. I've fought against elves that danced around my warriors refusing to just die, annihilated scores of dwarves with dark magic, been trampled under the hooves of Bretonnian knights. I've trapped and torn apart mobs of orcs and landed longboats full of Norsemen on the beaches of Albion. I've made bitter enemies on the tabletop and stalwart friends in the pub after.

You're probably getting to the point where you're saying "But you can still do all that. Get a grip Princess." You'd be right, I can still play games in the setting. I have plenty of plans to continue my adventures in the Old World and I'm an active member of the Oldhammer community. But, let me compare the end of the Warhammer world to the death of a favourite musician. I can still listen to their music, but it will always be tinged with sadness knowing I'll never see them live again, and they won't be making any more music, and the simple fact that they are gone. The death of Warhammer Fantasy feels like nothing short of losing an old friend.

Our hobby thrives on social interaction. I've made a lot of friends through gaming, and several directly through Warhammer and mutual enthusiasm for the setting. From now on there won't be any more tournaments for 8th unless someone gets it together pretty fast and creates a central living rulebook similar to BloodBowl, the perfect example of a Games Workshop orphan that thrives. (The difference there is Bloodbowl only requires a team and pitch, not masses of ranked warriors.) The banter at tournaments is one of the main reasons to go. The conversations on various points of list building, army themes, painting techniques and the Warhammer background will begin to become more infrequent now as tournaments falter and folks drift away to other games. Thank the powers for Oldhammer.

I still can't get my head around the decision to destroy the entire setting. I understand the business arguments and the zealous re-branding to create an indomitable IP fortress for Games Workshop. I do. It seems like one hell of a gamble though. Thirty years of lovingly crafted lore literally gone up in smoke. To me it seems like nothing short of vandalism.

I've spoken nothing of rules, you may have noticed. The rules were always secondary to the setting for me, but I will miss them. The weren't perfect, 8th sometimes became a game of killer spells and killer combos, but in general it was a great edition. Hell, I love 3rd edition, but that has plenty of holes in it. The Warhammer rules had pedigree. They game could have done with an overhaul, but annihilation? Things must have been worse than we thought.

Which brings us to the new incarnation of Warhammer, Age of Sigmar. When I first saw the initial images, I thought it was a joke. This looked like some serious He-Man action. There was even a Cringer some golden guy was riding. I grew more and more appalled as more and more news surfaced. Sigmarite? Bloodsecrator? Ayzrheim?! Aelfs?!!!

But, in time I softened. I deciced to give Age of Sigmar a go. The Stormcast Eternals are growing on me. I actually like the liberators. The Khorne Blood warriors look like they should be in a Gwar gig, but that's a good thing in my book. The quality of the models in the starter box is pretty high, as you would expect from Games Workshop, but these are a step up even for them. I'm talking about technical quality now, not the aesthetics of the models themselves, which has folks divided. For myself, I think they are pretty great in an over the top high fantasy way. They're like a 1970s airbrushed rock album cover. Again, not a terrible thing. It's not a toothless Empire militiaman wrestling with a starving orc in the mud outside Nuln for a meaty bone, it's shiny. Super shiny. Ride the lightning shiny.

The setting is pretty thin so far, are they on a planet? Are the eight realms magical? Where did all the humans and other races come from? I still have some reading to do. I want to like Age of Sigmar. I want it to succeed and answer all the questions we're asking it. No points? What about tournament play? What's with the crazy rules? What will happen to me when I bottle someone for putting his model on the scenic base of my monster to get in range? Okay, common sense kicks on for that one.

I have to think of Age of Sigmar as it's own game, and not a continuation of Fantasy, as the grim and dangerous feeling I have about the detonation of the Old World and all that went with it may taint my perception of the new one. It's only off the blocks, this new game, so I'll give a fair shake and see what's coming. Games Workshop want to reassure us that they are all in, as the shiny new liberator statue in front of Games Workshop's headquarters testifies to. They could have just canned Warhammer Fantasy entirely.

Let's give them a fair hearing on Age of Sigmar.

Curse of the Limited Edition - Gouging

Good luck.

It's been quiet here on the mumblings of late. I've not had anything of worth to say, really. Which is odd, as there's a hell of a lot going on. The end times rolls on. I've just finished Glottkin (not to worry, no spoilers) and have started into Khaine. I'm loving it thus far, but I've been quiet here as I feel I need to absorb it all before commenting. Games Workshop's frenetic release schedule is giving the commentators little time to review before the next release. Poor us.

Anyway, onto the topic of the post. It's become ever more apparent over the last couple of months as limited edition this and limited run that has been released, that folks are more than willing to snap up multiple copies of these limited items and sell them for many times the original price. I saw copies of Khaine on ebay for hundreds of euros before it was even released. Cards for both the lore of undeath and the end times spells are going for at least triple the original price.

My question is, so what?

Now, personally speaking, I don't think this is cricket. You should only be allowed one of any limited item at the store or in your cart. I'd feel a bit of an arse buying ten and selling them on for huge profit. BUT, I don't agree with giving folks who are doing it a bollicking on social media either. If you disagree with gouging, ban it from your page/blog/site/shop or write a post, but personally I don't think name-calling on Facebook is the way to go, despite my personal feelings. In fact, I managed to snag a set of end times cards this morning, (no smugness intended) and was told one copy only. Bravo. That's the way to do it.

There is another side to this. Folks aren't forced to buy these things. Also, if I was after a chaos dwarf juggernaut I'd expect to pay hundreds of euros. Not that I would. But these sellers aren't lambasted. One reason I imagine is these sellers didn't buy 20 juggernauts the day they came out to resell them later that day for triple the price. But it's a point.

Prepare to shell out.

I'd be super interested in what the good folks out there think on this. Is it fair game, or fair play for the frenzied rush to snag the end times releases?

Freshening the Dead

Recently, with the return of Nagash and the general undead vibe going around, my thoughts have turned to adding some new bits and pieces to my undead army. It's been a few years since I worked on it, and I have a hankering to add some new units. I have a lot of old lead sleeping uneasily in their cardboard graves, awaiting the call.

With that in mind, I've been looking at the basing scheme on my existing undead units. I'm not entirely sure I still like it, but I can't make up my mind. The black does frame the miniatures nicely, but maybe it's time to update it to something a tad more realistic and earthy. I'm considering breaking one of my own cardinal rules here, and going back over old work, but it wouldn't take too long, a couple of weeks. It's more a pain in the arse. I'd rather do that though than paint new units to match a basing scheme I don't think still cuts the mustard. I've been looking over them for a couple of days, and I think I can't see them anymore. Is the flock getting a little tired looking? Would more of a dark earth work better with some tufts etc?

Or are they totally fine as is, and I'm a madman for even thinking about it?

Here is where you come in, dear reader. To re-paint the bases, or not? You tell me. I've scattered some samples from the army so you can see the existing scheme. I leave it you, as I'm 50/50 right now...

NWG 2014 - Post Mortem

Undead Legions at NWG

Once again I made the journey to Wicklow to attend this year's NWG. With one other member of my club, the League of Bastards, we headed down to the event. Friday night saw us take part in the traditional NWG pub quiz. This year Games Workshop had thrown in some prize support in the form of an Imperial Knight, so competition was sharp. A few wee drinkies, lots of talk about wee men and futile attempts to wrangle news out of the GW ambassador took up the remainder of the evening.

This year NWG had three tournaments running. As usual, Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40k were there, and this year for the first time Flames of War made an appearance. Fantasy was 2000 points, 20-0 system, no comp, with up to 60 points for painting, making the paint scores a significant part of the overall score. There were some rules modifications in the rulespack, mostly to do with magic. The Emerald Daemon was running again this year too, in which I had two models entered.

I don't really get to play as much as I'd like, and with a few pretty grizzled tournament veterans about, I was anticipating some tough games. Still, as long as folks were good sports and the games were fun I didn't really care all that much as long as I managed to avoid total poundings.

I won't go too deeply into my list, but here's the flavour of what was in the army. I brought along a daemon prince (meargh) with all the usual toys on lore of death, an exalted hero of Tzeentch (dirach) on a disc with the 1+ armour save and ultra-ward save, as well as burning body, and Festus, (Avagdu & Morfran) who accompanied the warriors. Festus turned the already hard as nails block of warriors into a total brick. The rest of the army consisted of  a block of 22 Nurgle warriors with full command (fimm), 3 skullcrushers with full command (Marlryrms), 5 warhounds and a Chimera (Crom Cruach). It was a pretty small army.

Game 1 - Dermot Maguire - Ogre Kingdoms
As last year, this year I faced ogres in game 1, which was Meeting Engagement. Dermot was a very pleasant and easygoing opponent, even when his gutstar and mournfang failed to appear on turn 1. His characters were initially vulnerable, if well hidden in cover. A lone sabretusk held up my crushers in the village however, preventing me from getting into the ogre's flank. Two ironblasters meant I didn't try anything too daring off the bat. Once the rest of the ogres turned up his firebelly gave the daemon prince a hosing which wounded it and ensured I had to keep her well out of the way of the blasters for the rest of the game. The firebally did miscast and go down a hole though, taking a couple of ogres with him. The mournfang, aided by the Flaming Sword of Rhun spell, charged the warriors. Even so they would have come to grief had they not passed all nine 4+ armour saves in one turn, winning the combat and running down the warriors. Despite a late charge on both blasters with the chimera and the bsb they refused to either die or bugger off. The game ended with a win to ogres. I can't recall exactly, but I think it was 18-2.

The ogres advance onto the battlefield.

Game 2 - Mark Moloney - High Elves
Mark had a large block of swordmasters with Teclis and the banner of the world dragon, two units of five dragon princes and two of units of five reavers. A large block of archers and two bolt throwers finished out the list. The scenario was Dawn Attack. I set up mostly facing the cavalry, leaving the swordmasters to slog across the woodland in the centre before they could bring their numbers to bear. I managed to tie up the cavalry and run down the dragon princes before they got close, by which time the chimera was able to get a decent charge in and as the game ended it was stuffing scores of screaming elves down it's gullet as it munched it's way toward Teclis. This one was s 10 - 10.

Dragon princes line up for the charge.

Game 3 - Fergus Finch - High Elves
The scenario for this round was Battle for the Pass. Fergus had a large unit of dragon princes with his level four wizard, noble and bsb. There was a unit of eighteen archers with a level one wizard, ten sisters of Avelorn, eight silver helms, five reavers, a great eagle and frostheart phoenix. The game got off to a disastrous start for Fergus as his level four wizard miscast and then cascaded, killing himself and some of the elven knights. From there on in I had magical dominance and managed to tie up the cavalry while my mobile units hunted down the rest of the army. In the end it was an 18 - 2 to the fimir. This one was the last game on Saturday, so I forgot to take any photos. Ah well.

Game 4 - Neil Butler - Warriors of Chaos
I'd love to say bad luck lost me this one, but a leaner list and more experienced player was more the cause of my battering here. Neil had the tooled up daemon prince, bsb on a daemonic mount, chimera, hellcannon, 3 Nurgle chariots, three units of five hounds and a unit of three crushers. We were playing Battleline.

Penned in and harassed from all sides, the fimm battle on.

I did in fairness have some bad luck, with my bsb and chimera both failing their initiative rolls with two rolls of six to survive Purple Sun in turn one, my daemon prince cascading and going down a hole in my own turn one after casting her own Purple Sun, while the initiative two chimera I'd cast at gaily made it's own initiative two test to survive. There were a couple of other examples of fun dice, but you get the drift. Neil commiserated and gave me some great tactical tips while efficiently and amiably rolling me up. With a single hellcannon the only thing I managed to destroy it was a resounding 20 - 0.

Game 5 - Nikki Hanna _ Empire
Nikki started the game with a squeaky voice from what sounded like an impending sore throat, and it became less audible as the game went on, but she battered on regardless. A very fun game, using the Blood & Glory scenario. Nikki had two cannons, a light council, a huge block of halberdiers, a unit of five knights, two units of three and four demigryphs, a steam tank, two cannon and some archer detachments.

Dodging cannon fire, the fimir raced across the board to attack the Empire left flank. The steamtank clanked forward before mounting a hill to deliver a devastating flank shot on my crushers, annihilating the entire unit in one shot. My daemon prince got within one turn of reaching the juicy backline of the empire before succumbing to an irresistible banishment, for which she failed every 3+ save and every 5+ ward. Things looked very bad for the swamp dwellers, so the warriors charged the tank to stop it causing any more mischief. With poison attacks, and Festus' own unique rules, they destroyed the tank in three turns, then managed to wipe out a unit of knights and demi gryphs. My fimm warriors had been performing only so-so all tournament, but they rallied mightily in this game. As the halberdiers took to a building to avoid my advancing fimir, they managed, with some magical help, to kill the chimera outright after taking some horrendous casualties. After a fair old scrap the Empire came out on top, winning 15 - 5 due to the fortitude bonus.

My favourite moment from the game was the steam tank engineer attempting to detonate the badly stricken tank in order to destroy both it and the fimm warriors in one monumental explosion. Alas, the dice decided this was not to be. It would have been an epic end to the combat though.

The fimm perpare to charge the steam tank.

So, after five games I was looking at three losses, one draw and one win, earning me 34 battle points. No comp can be challenging, but my painting scores gave me a boost, with 56 points out of 60 shooting my up to 6th place out of 19 players. At the end I was pretty tired, but I enjoyed my games and the relaxed vibe evident throughout the tournament.

NWG in full swing.

As to the painting, which is really my main bag, I came away with 2nd place army for Warhammer Fantasy, one point behind the winner, Ugo Greevy, whose Undead Legions army is a sight to behold.

Ugo's legions.

My curs'd ettin managed to bag best single large model in the Emerald Daemon competition, which made me happy as I do rather dig that model. The organisers did a fantastic job of keeping things ticking along, and I heard of not a single unhappy incident all weekend. Nice one lads.

Big ugly brings home the goodies.

So, after NWG I'm actually really keen to get more games in, rather than being all warhammered out. I have a couple of units to finish for the fimir, then there are a lot of undead looking for some painting love, methinks.

First though, back to those hybrids.

Fimir - Swampy Pools

I decided to take a little tiny break from the cult in order to paint up some fimir themed scenery. Partially for my army display board, and partially for the fimir terrain set. I had ordered a pile of these from Wargamma, where they are listed as lava pools. Like a lot of gamers, I have a dearth of water scenery. Pools, rivers etc. These were quick to paint up, and filled a hole in the terrain set. I have another two sets, and with nine of these and some dead trees and the odd menhir I reckon that'll do nicely to represent the bleakmoors of Albion.

Nagash Returned

Since my last post, the internet has imploded with pictures of the big fellow and his attendant releases. Normally I wouldn't post about something that's going to be released in a few days, but I'm a bit of a fan of Nagash and the undead in general, and there seems to be big changes in the warhammer world and indeed how the game is played. Whether this is as part of a campaign in the book, or in general, I don't know.

First off, when I saw the initial sasquatch of Nagash, I was unimpressed. I should know better by now, but hey, I was excited. Things were said.

However, this the appearance of the new images I have to say I am happy to change my mind. He's magnificent. The floating ghosts bearing him up are excellent. He's going to be a nightmare to transport though. Battlefoam are probably already working on the 'tomb of Nagash' transport case. His rules are pretty good, but boy is he expensive at 1,000 points. Here's the White Dwarf rules.

I was surprised to see Nagash gets his own army book. The cover seems to show Nagash shouting. 'HEY. I GOT MY OWN ARMY BOOK! DID YOU GET YOUR OWN ARMY BOOK? NO? THAT'S RIGHT, BECAUSE YOU SUCK! HA HA HA! ALSO! CHECK OUT MY NEW HAT!' Proper order in my opinion. Still, the 'undead legion' army lists seems to be a combination of Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts, with a spate of new releases coming in alongside Nagash. One of the two books in the set is pure background. This is kind of a must-have for me, it looks so tasty. Mmm, Nagash flavoured... 

I hear Kislev is gone. That's kind of big, and I'm not sure I'm digging it. There's a lot of Kislev armies out there crying little lead tears. I have the ice queen here somewhere. That must be where the sobbing is coming from. From BoLS:

 He looks smug there on the cover, don't he?

Warhammer, The End Times is noted to contain new rules that change the way a game of Warhammer can be played. It is not a new edition.

• Warhammer: Nagash - 2 hardback books in a slip case. €65
• Book 1: 296 page fluff book detailing the return of Nagash and events that affect every Warhammer race.
• Book 2: 96 page book containing rules for Nagash, new miniatures, the Lore of Undeath, Undead Legion, fighting underground and more apparently.
• Nagash - no mention of him being a dual kit, rules are included in the box. €85(!!)
• Magic Cards
• Nagash Novel

What the background in the WD tell us: 

• I hope you didn't like Kislev, because there is no longer a Kislev. 
• Archaon's advance has been stalled by Vlad under the order of Nagash (the Empire was in major trouble). 
• Nagash goes fighting to unite the Tomb Kings and VC (one of the scenario pictured in WD translate into "the Fall of Settra").

Regarding miniatures/rules:

• Nagash is magnificent, and very very tall thanks to his flying posture (he is supported by a bunch of souls). 
• But he's not that massive overall, I have no idea how he managed to reach the 85€ pricetag. 
• Not a dual kit. 
• No other models that week, but the ones serving under him are hinted at the end of WD for the week after (so I suppose Vlad and that Arkhan dude, note that I know the WFB lore very poorly).
•  As people expected, the new magic lore appear to work like Demonology for 40k (except with undead). 
• Rules are changing with that extension, 50% lords for example. 

That's some big stuff. Kislev gone? It's highlighted and in bold, so it must be true. Settra possibly dead? As far as rules go 50% on lords? Yipes. There are a lot of other new undead releases, which spells bad times for my finances. I think Christmas is sorted. The new kits seem to fall under a few dual or even triple kits.

• Spirit Hosts
• Morghast with VC/TK alternate
• Monster kit that produces Neferata/Mannfred/Arkhan.

So it looks like four new kits all in all, and these new kits look bloody nice. An undead monster stuffed to the gills with skulls is about the most GW thing I've ever seen. Not entirely sure on the Morghasts yet, they're a bit action figurey, but I'll reserve final judgement until I see them up close. The spirit host are great. Finally, a decent spirit host set. Mannfred is hilarious. His pose implies he's shouting something along the lines of 'Suck it, b****tttches!' to all and sundry.

Mannfred. He's doing well for himself, isn't he?

Neferata

Spirit Host (Finally!)

Morghast Harbingers

Arkhan

There is a new lore too, the lore of undeath. New cards are going on sale alongside Nagash and the book. Seems he can pick pretty much whatever the hell spells he likes. There's a novel, and possibly a commemorative mug. There may be a parade. Actually, that would be quite the parade. Judge Death would probably be the commentator. 'Here issss the man himseelllff, loooking dazsssling in hisss amazssssinggg neeww hat. Whaaat a classss act. Now ovverr to Juudge Mortisss who is coming to usss from the foot of the black pyramid ffflooattt..."

Sorry. Nagash is my Justin Beiber. 

Anyway, here's the release schedule, better get some of that bone coloured paint before it's all sold out.