Elf doggos and keepers

 Animal keepers are one of those more obscure unit types of 3rd edition WFB. And close to my heart. I had paited a keeper and four warhound back in the day. Finally I found time and motivation to expand that unit with another set of four hounds and a keeper.

Animal keepers: to the left is an original warhound keeper.

The other model is a wood elf champion but with that wolf hat of his

he is IMO a perfect animal keeper.

Would love to have a few more doggos to make it

a more efficient unit.

Couple of Chaos Beastmasters

 As those who have followed this blog know I´m a fan of animal handlers and have posted about them in several occasions: here, here and here. This posting can be seen as a follow up to the bigger article about the Chaos Beastmasters I wrote in 2017.

The two handlers. The one on the left is a Citadel produced one in heavy armor wielding some soft of warhammer or pick perhaps. That helmet/head piece was a tricky one but I chose to paint the lower half of the face as a part of the armor. A neck and chin guard perhaps. For the reast of the helmet I gave a bony look with metal reinforced sockets for those horns. Darkish brown hair is flowing from underneath the helmet. Armor is pastel violet with some metal details.

That guy with a pink whip is a Marauder Miniatures Beastmaster. Violet armor and pink details tie the two models together as does the small bone detail on his whip. Leather parts of his gear are all black. The over all look is Slaaneshian enough without going to extremities.

The more I look at the painted models the less they resemble the stat line and equipment given for beastmasters in 3rd edition Army book. That is a beastman line and the models look like Marauders or Chaos warriors. But as their faces don´t show - well they could be anything. I´m not gonna loose my sleep over this detail. 

The chaos hounds they will be leading can be found here.

Slaaneshian Chaos Hounds

 In the WD116 there was an example Genestealer cult army in which the Patriarch had been blessed with the Chaos Reward of eight Fleshhounds. Even though the army pic on the back cover of the magazine actually shows eight Chaos Hounds. Not being a very creative person myself I copied the idea for my Cult and added six Chaos Hounds to it´s ranks.

I placed the hounds on square 25x25 bases as I´m thinking about building a small chaos force for 3rd ed. Fantasy Battle and these could be used there too. I´ve written about Chaos Beastmasters here.

Spike back, Flayed dog, Lizard face, Two heads, Another Flayed one and Scorpion tail. All painted with contrasts with some regular paints for higlights and details. Themed to go together with Coven members, Brood Brothers and Beastmen.

A closer look at two face, red flayed one and scorpion tail.

Spike back, purple flyed one and lizard face at detail pic.

If you have an idea on what to use as the beastmaster model/models please comment. Would love to find a whip toting beastman....

Guest display: LM´s Skaven force - Clan Vashkish

I´m very proud to present another Guest Display here at Vanhaa Vasarointia. LM is a great gaming friend of mine with a magnificent collection of mant things Oldhammer. Due to great distance between the places where we live we get to play too rarely but we keep in touch via Watsapp pretty regularly.

I´ve fought LM´s skaven twice - once winning with my high elves and once losing with green skins. Battle report of the first engagement is here. With elves I think I fared pretty well as elven morale held at the crusial points of that battle. My O&Gs on the other hand got soundly thrashed.

But let´s hear it from LM himself. Clan Vashkish.

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My skaven army started in 1991-2 as a handful of models to be used with Advanced HeroQuest and it was inspired by Andy Chambers’ legendary article in White Dwarf #137. I didn’t have enough models for a full army back then (I mainly played Orcs & Goblins), but later on I bought models from friends who’d quit the hobby and finally bulked up the units during the early days of eBay starting around 2005.

The majority of models were painted in 2015, but there are a lot of paint jobs dating back to the early 90s. I’d still like to add some more clanrats with double handed weapons and have contemplated adding a unit of skavenslaves with slings from the 1993 skaven range.

Since I finished the army, I’ve played maybe 20 games with it, mostly at 3000 points. We usually play using the deployment rules given in the Warhammer 3rd Edition Rulebook and keep playing until one of the armies has lost 50% of their forces (characters and full units dead/routing).


CLAN VASHKISH

My warlord clan is called Clan Vashkish. Its field army is led by Sewertyrant Kargshak (level 20 hero, Hellhoned Blade, Spellshield), but the real brains behind the operation is Warpsquealer Ungoltwitch the Mad (level 15 wizard). They’ve shown up in every game I’ve played so far.

Ungoltwitch’s superior, White Skaven Sorcerer Thrikch the Twisted (level 20 wizard) makes an occasional appearance, but he usually prefers the delights of Skavenblight to camp life. Garroters Haskquol and Karkquol (both level 15 assassins) from Clan Eshin are such masters of concealment that they’ve rarely been seen on the battlefield.

Clanrats 

This is my main clanrat unit. It follows the template given by Andy Chambers in White Dwarf #137 and does most of the heavy lifting. It is led by Kargshak and also includes Slagskitter (level 5 hero) who carries the battle standard with Relic Banner and Dread Banner enchantments. My most common enemy is a Dwarf army and the Dread Banner almost guarantees that I’ll be able to break at least one of the opposing units. With the characters included the unit is 36-strong and deploys in a 6x6 formation.

My second unit of clanrats is only 25-strong and is used in a more defensive role. It is spear-armed and usually includes Ungoltwitch the Mad. Without a magic banner the unit is very susceptible to panic although with Ungoltwitch in the lead their coolness rises to a dizzying 7.


Clanrat Stormvermin and Black Skaven Clanrats

 Storm vermin

Black skaven

The biggest advantage of using elites in a skaven army is the fact that they can take a Relic Banner. On the other hand they are hindered by their maximum unit size of 20 and being lightly armoured
they can easily lose their maximum rank bonus due to archery. I usually take Verminlord champions (level 15 heroes) for both units. With these leaders and the magic banners they are some of the rare units in the army that can operate semi-independently. I usually deploy my elites on the flanks.


Skavenslaves

My main skavenslave unit is 49-strong and has no upgrades or a champion. If I manage to roll Cause Frenzy for one my wizards (I always pick it on doubles), I cast it on this unit pre-game and watch them go. Otherwise they stay back and try to look menacing.

The small unit of skavenslaves has 36 slaves with spears and shields. These upgrades are pretty worthless, but make them look more like real soldiers and might fool somebody. If I take any plague censer bearers, they often go into this unit.

The biggest selling point for skavenslaves is their price. For a grand total of 254½ points I have 85 models that the enemy can’t completely ignore. And you never know, you might get lucky with chaotic attributes!


CLAN ESHIN

Night Runners

Night Runners I’ve rarely used. Their maximum number of 10 really hampers their use as a line unit, but they can’t skirmish either. Two (poisoned) hand weapons are neat though and the minis are among the best in the range. I’ve tried using them with a strong hero (level 15 assassin) and sent them on a flank march. The results have been mixed, but they did once manage to take out a Dwarven artillery park.


Gutter Runners

I always take 10 Gutter Runners with slings. They usually try to hold congested terrain or sneak up a flank. They will rout easily and often cause disappointment, but every once in a while they manage to get in close and pepper somebody with 20 poisoned sling shots. I have contemplated taking a second unit of Gutter Runners, but since slings are limited to a single unit, the others stay largely unplayed.


CLAN PESTILENS

Plague Censer Bearers

I rarely take more than 1-2 of these. Any more than that and they would cost the same as a new unit. I often put these in a skavenslave unit to inflict at least some damage to the opponent before the slaves are slaughtered.


Plague Monks

Plague Monks suffer from being limited to a maximum of 20 models, but they can take a Relic Banner if Panic is proving to be a problem. Warp Scrolls are fun, but they are also very pricy and you have to be sure the target unit does not have any magical defense (I usually probe the target first with a Fireball or something similar).


CLAN MOULDER

Rat Ogres

I almost always take a largish (8-12) unit of Rat Ogres. This is more due to stubbornness than their combat effectiveness. They cost a lot and the handlers tend to get killed by arrows before the unit makes it into a melee. However, I like the minis and they tend to draw a lot of attention from enemy units so I’ll keep on fielding them.


Giant Rats

Small units of giant rats are very cheap and work nicely as distraction on a flank. However, they have to be over 12” from your other troops or their eventual rout might (will) cause panic. On a 8 x 4’ board this is doable, but I wouldn’t try using them in this role on a 6 x 4’. I haven’t tried using large units of Giant Rats.


CLAN SKRYRE

Poisoned Wind Globardiers

Poisoned Wind Globardiers are cheap, but I haven’t been able to use them to any great success. They follow the rules for grenades so AFAIK they can’t move and throw and only have a range of 6”. I have sometimes put them in buildings to lob globes out of windows, but then the enemy just avoids the buildings…


Warpfire-Throwers

Warpfire-Thrower teams I have had mixed success with. Their slowness and inability to move and fire makes them better on the defense, but my tactic is to advance and thus they often fail to get any good lines of fire. Against an aggressive opponent such as Chaos they might fare better.


Jezzaillachis

I almost always bring 2 teams of Jezzaillachis in a 3000 point game. We have toned them down with house rules, but they are still excellent. They penetrate ranks like cannons, but don’t accrue heat points and can hide in units. What’s not to like?


ALLIES

Skaven can get three types of allies: Chaos Allies, Orcs and Goblins and Dark Elves.

I once employed the help of Pharinyen Aleurden, a Dark Elf Commander leading a unit of 19 crossbow-armed Dark Elf Warriors. On the second turn of the game they took four casualties from Dwarven crossbow fire and promptly rolled boxcars for the rout test. Never again will we accept help from the sneaky elves!

A far more reliable ally has been the Chaos Dwarf Makru and his 19 Chaos Dwarf Warriors. They bring along a mortar team and provide some sorely needed stability in the lines.

I have never taken any Orc and Goblin allies as we have enough cheap bodies to field on our own…


CHAOTIC ATTRIBUTES

I love chaotic attributes and always roll them up prior to a battle. And skaven get a lot of them: D6-3 per unit and D6-4 per character. To retain my sanity, I assume that champions share the dominant attributes of their unit and only roll personal attributes for independent characters (i.e. level 20 or level 25 heroes and all wizards and assassins).

There are a couple of crippling results, but on the whole the vast majority of chaotic attributes are good and they can benefit the skaven immensely.

I would advise ignoring von Kortez’s previous suggestions of using some sort of GM fiat or common sense when rolling the attributes. That is not the way Chaos works! I’ve had the main clanrat unit become subject to stupidity or enormously fat (half move), but then I’ve also gotten stormvermin with both +1 strength and +1 toughness.


GENERAL THOUGHTS AND TACTICS

In the beginning the abysmally low leadership and coolness caused me a lot of trouble and a single lost combat would make the whole army run away in panic. You can get decent leadership scores using heroes, but unless you use high level wizards as unit leaders, coolness (and thus panic tests) will be tough to manage. Fortunately careful positioning and some key upgrades (Relic Banners,
Battle Standard) can mitigate the problem. Even so, it is an army that has be used very aggressively before the low morale catches up with you.

When using the deployment rules in the rulebook you’re almost guaranteed to win the Scouting Turn against foot armies. Enemy cavalry will still cause you trouble though. I’ve often had to deploy first when facing a Dwarf army employing allied Border Horse. You can counter this by taking Chaos Centaurs from the Chaos Allies list and use them for scouting.

A 3rd edition skaven army is a lot of fun! It has a wide variety of cool units and a nice range of minis. It also offers an interesting tactical challenge and once mastered can be very powerful.

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A BIG Thank You to LM! Hoping to get another for him as he has a beautiful Bretonnian army too with giant snail monstrous host and all.

Boars´n gobz

Oh my! It´s been almost a month from my last posting. I must have been a lazy painter/writer or pretty occupied elsewhere. In truth the RL was quite hectic through the whole may with Finnish baseball season starting (my son plays that) and my job taking it´s time too.

Something has gotten painted despite being preoccupied with other duties. I got a couple of animal handler boars and a new handler for them.

So now the unit stands at two handlers and five boars. Desperately looking for at least three more hogs make it a more usable fighting force. Anyone willing to help?

The handler with standard is a Grenadier Elf standard bearer. Very much in style with the Jes Goodwin sculpted Citadel one. And who says a animal handler unit can´t have a standard?

My previous posting was about my growing goblin horde. At that time they were two short of 40 but no more. I thought I had ran out of gobbos to paint only to discover not one but three of the spear armed Iron Claw ones and that I think 90´s axe wielder. He´ll fit in even if he´s not that oldhammer. I might not keep the duplicate Iron Claw gobbos so if anyones wants to trade for gobbos or elf boars please take contact.

It´s going to be a busy summer but I will publish something more during june I promise. I´ve returned to painting high elves BTW. Creating one of those units I don´t have yet in my army.

Animal handlers revisited

This is the 100th published posting in this Vanhaa Vasarointia blog and to celebrate that I wanted to return to one of my favorite subjects - the animal handlers.

I came across this document on the other day and noticed that I had completely forgotten it ever existed. It´s the ´get-you-by´ army lists for 4th edition Warhammer fantasy battle. As you might have noticed I´m not a fan of the great dumbing down othervise known as 4th edition. But this ´get-you-by´ list is well worth looking into as it bears many echoes from 3rd edition that were later removed from the official army books.

 Elven boar handler I painted for this posting. Looks

like he´s really into bench press and bicep curls.

Let´s take a look at skaven, wood elves and dark elves as those were the races that still had animal handlers in the ´get-you-by´ army list.

SKAVEN

That´s a pretty odd profile for a skaven there.  Both WS and BS are 4 compared to normal skave 3 and L7 is full two points higher than what the skaven normally have.

No number for how many pack masters you can take here. Unit name has been changed as they used to be called beast masters. Handler has gained a light armor and with that a point value raise from 9 1/2 to 10. Here we get a number for how many pack beasts a single handler can lead. For some reason giant rats have lost their poisonous bite and gone from costing 2 points to 2 1/2. I my opinion they used to be a pretty good choise in the 3rd edition but like this they´ve certainly become a lot worse.

With WS raise from 3 to 4 the rat ogre is even more fearsome than it used to be. 5 point raise in point value is pretty justified.

Special rules for using Skaven packmasters can be found in the Battle Bestiary p.68. The rules are pretty much the same as in 3rd edition. There is no rule for where to Place the packmaster in the unit but the logical Place would be the back rank.

Check out what I wrote about 3rd edition Clan Moulder beast masters.

Same bulky arms from another direction.

WOOD ELVES

Wow! Wood elf beaster master is a beast himself in this list: S4, T4 and 2 attacks! And the Battle Bestiary includes a beastmaster champion too. This is explained in the Battle Bestiary. Some of the elves have the ability to change form and fight alongside their animal companions. An interesting connection to elven shapechangers here.

Special rules for hand-to-hand fighting, leadership and shooting are pretty clear and in line with earlier edition. Oddly a single beastmaster can only lead one beast. This renders then pretty close to useless.

Bears, Wild hogs, Wild cats and Hunting dogs are listed only here and under the wood elf beastmasters in the Battle Bestiary. That means that bears have lost the cause fear ability and wild cats no longer can leap upon their enemies. Pretty big nerfing of both, especially bear losing the cause fear.

Bears have gained one point of both strenght and toughness but now they cost 30 points vs. 20 points they did in 3rd ed. And as said no fear now.

Wild hogs compared to Boars have better WS and higher T. Costing just 2 points more than before they have become a pretty good choise of troops actually.

Wild cats have gone down 3 points in value losing that leap attack. A big loss and even if they still are quite effective with WS4, S4 and 2 attacks I would propably take two hogs for smaller cost. But as we see that is not possible as you can only have one beast per handler.

Warhounds of the old have become hunting dogs which in my opinion suits the elven style. It´s a very different dog now with higher M, WS, T and A than warhounds. But they are triple the price and as with Wild cats I get the feeling that you are not getting that much bang for buck here.

You can compare editions here.

The elf boar is a really small one compared to

an orc war boar.

DARK ELVES

Number of handers has gone down from 0-8 to 0-6. And now they are called beast masters instead of whelp masters. Points value for handler is the same as in 3rd edition but now you get a light armor for that same amount. Shield option has been removed. War hounds are just the same as in 3rd edition. Chaos hounds have lost a wound and are 7 points cheaper than in 3rd edition.

What is strange is that there are no rules for using beastmasters here or in the Battle Bestiary. But that is not a big problem as you can follow the rules given for skaven and wood elves.

Nothing said about unit size - is it like with wood elves or with skaven?

Want to compare editions youself? Click here for my article on 3rd edition dark elf whelp Masters.

As a conclusion we can see that there has been some thought given to carrying the animal handlers from 3rd to 4th edition but in the end it did not happen at this scale. I sort of like the idea of combining the elf shapechangers with their animal handlers but sadly that was dropped too. The list has clearly been put together quite hastily as it carries multiple confusing details as shown above.

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As the last thing for this posting I want to promote another thing of my interest - the baggage trains. There is a Legacy Crew project going on in the Oldhammer Forum with a baggage train theme. If not a member of that forum yet - please sign in and join the project! Check this posting for inspiration!

The greeny vs. The skweeky

Yesterday I had a chance to play for the very first time with the new O&G army I've been painting. Just a normal pitched battle vs. LM's skaven with 2000 point limit. I didn't have much choise of troops as I have just a tad over 1000 points of rank & file ready.

We used full deployment rules and as I had my wolfboys as an advance force I was able to make the skaven set up first. It also allowed me to designate a flanking force. 

All pictures by me and LM.

The situation after scouting moves and skaven turn 1. The skaven line from bottom to top: beastmasters with giant rats, ally chaos dwarf mortar, clanrats, a jezzail, slaves, clanrats, slaves, ally chaos dwarfs, behind trees a jezzail, stormvermins and scouts.

On the top right behind the trees is the main orc unit of 28 boyz. On the other side of that forest is the orc general and his three troll bodyguards. The light green area marks the orc baggage train. Next the the yellow field is unit of goblin stickas. Then in thin line orc arrer boyz and in deep formation gobbos. Another unit of orc arrers and a goblin chariot are just outside of this picture.

Here´s the end on the long goblinoid line with chariot and arrers facing the giant rats. My mecrenary giant and a orc shaman were sent to flanking action. They would enter on turn 3 from skaven right flank. My plan was to try to hold the center with a weak force and try to crush the flanks with my main units.

 First combat occurred between the goblin wolfboys and stormvermin. I charged with the wolves as I didn´t want them to be shot to pieces by that jezzail and skaven scouts. I also wanted to give time for my orc boyz and general and his trolls to ove in. Gobbos lasted for several rounds though being pushed back multiple times and not winning a round of combat.

To my suprise the skaven center didn´t push hard in the beginning. Only the chaos dwarfs moved forward to counter my boyz and trolls.

The chaos dwarf mortar managed to score a direct hit on gobbos killing 5 and forcing a panic test but the brave gobbos held on.

Gobbos before being mortared.

Gobbos after being mortared.

On the orc far left goblin chariot charged the giant rats and their handlers and managed to push them back.

On my turn 3 the flanking force entered the battle. Mercenary giant stayed loyal to the orcs and was now threatening the skaven right flank. Orc shaman cast a mystic mist on the mortar and the closest skaven clan rat unit.

Around turn 4 our centers started closing on each other. A total of two plague cencer bearers and two fanatics were released clogging the battle field effectively. The cencer bearers decimated 12 goblin stickas and the rest did the only reasonable thing and fled the field. My fanatics fell short of their target but were blocking the slaves pretty effectively.

Goblin stickas after being hit thrice by cencer bearers.

On turn five everything went terribly for the orcs. First both my fanatics died by rolling snake eyes. Then the wolfriders who had fought the stormvermin for so long finally broke. And because of that the boyz mob panicked. Just when everything would have been ready for them to charge the skaven. Then skaven scouts managed to sling shot down a troll and the orc general broke. My right flank vanished in seconds.

At that point more than half of my troops in points value were either killed or running and that was the break point we had agreed on. Orcs and goblin fled the field. The skaven were victorious.

Thank you LM for a good game once again. I´ll be back!

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This was my first time playing 3rd edition WFB with green skins and I learned a lot.

- Goblins are not as bad as you would think

- Orc arrers are pretty useless as missile troops, I´ll use

them as bow wielding boyz in the future

-  I sould have contested the center with my best troops,

it takes a way too much time to march from the flanks

to get to where the action is

- Don´t expect your orcs to manouver like elves

Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB: The Oddities and random loose ends

This is the final part of ´Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB´ -series of articles. Please click here to find the other arcticles.

In this one I´ve tried to bring forward the more esoteric stuff that really don´t fit under the other part of this series. 

CHAOS DWARF BEAST MASTER

We met this guy earlier in the dark elf part of this series. He is a really odd one as the chaos dwarves of 3rd edition WFB exist only as part of chaos ally contingent or as part of a Khornate army. And there is no chaos dwarf beast master unit to take in either of those.

A chaos dwarf handler with four chaos hounds by LM.

If you have the model and wanted to use it in your chaos army I would just change the profile line on the chaos animal hadler to match that of a chaos dwarf and adjust the points value accordingly.

I´ve been trying to find a full 3rd edition chaos dwarf army list - fan made or something but with no luck.Sound out if you know of one.

Me and LM discussed the chaos dwarf handler model a bit just the other day whem LM had sent me these pictures. He pointed out that there is a certain resemblance in him to the 90´s big hat CD´s. And I have to agree - the face is just the same. Only the hat and beard have grown. Conclusion was that as the big hats are Perry sculpts this guy has to be too.

SEA ELF ANIMAL HANDLERS

Sea elf handlers and their... um... creatures. From

this facebook posting by Richard Irvine.

I usually link my postings to Oldhammer community group on facebook to give them added visibility. One article from this series raised some discussion and the picture above was posted to that discussion thread by Richard Irvine.

Sea elves are mentioned both in the 3rd edition rulebook and WFB: Armies. There is no official army list for sea elves but they are well present (or actually included) in the high elf list in WFB: Armies. High elves don´t have animal handlers in their army list but in true Oldhammer spirit I would see no harm done if someone used them.

But what pack animals for sea elves? As per rules the sea elves can swim. Therefore I would be tempted to look for such creatures that can both swim and move on dry land. A giant crab perhaps? Let´s see what the bestiary can offer us.

A giant leech can swim and move on land but can only survive in tropical conditions and is in every way very unelfy thing. For being unelfy I would not use a giant leech.

A giant frog is an amphibian and a lot more suitable to elven style than a leech. But for some reason it can´t swim as per rulebook. A funny things is that a swarm of frogs can move through water, bogs, swamps etc. with no difficulty. Frogs generally don´t live in salt water but require fresh water instead. For reason mentioned before - no giant frogs for sea elves.

Giant snails live in the forests of Bretonnia. In the real world there are sea snails that live in saltwater and can grow pretty big. A giant snail presented in the bestiary is a pretty worthless piece on a battle field with it´s M2. But they are cheapish and a have a slime attack that will put any enemy not killed by it out of action for D3 turns. Perhaps giant sea snails could be used to tie down a valuable enemy unit in some situation. A giant sea snail could be seen as somewhat seaelfy.

There is no giant crab in WFB 3rd ed. bestiary. If you wanted to create one for your sea elf animal handler I would suggest using a giant scorpion profile as a starting point. Poisoned attack would have to removed and no-negative-bonus for terrain changed to water movement. In my opinion crabs are even better armoured than scorpions so I would perhaps give them a basic saving throw of 3+ to compensate for losing the poisoned attack. Points value would stay the same.

Snakes exist in WFB 3rd edition only in the form of a serpent swarm. A serpent swarm can cross narrow bodies of water and in real world snakes are usually pretty good swimmers. And there are sea snakes too. As we are talking about a fantasy setting I could imagine a giant sea snake that can act on dry land too. One could use a 1st ed WFRP stat line for a giant snake as a starting point to creating one for WFB.

Another creature that could be used and even has a model produced is the dragon turtle. Appearing in the Tragedy of McDeath campaing for 2nd edition WFB a dragon turtle is a powerfull creature. Perhaps a bit too powerfull to be a beast pack animal. Realm of Chaos 80´s blog has nice pictures of a painted one.

You could of course create what ever you wanted with guidelines given in the rulebook. Sea mammals could be interesting to make. Imagine a group of walruses or sea lions!

PAN-TANGIAN TYGER HANDLERS

From the Collecting  Citadel miniatures -site:
"In the mid-1980s, Citadel Miniatures held the license to produce figures based on fantasy author Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series of novels. These figures were nominally produced for use with the STORMBRINGER! fantasy roleplaying game. When Citadel lost the Eternal Champion license, many of the Melnibonean figures were recycled into the Citadel High Elf range and some of the Pan Tangians briefly appeared as part of the Citadel Chaos line. A few of the Melnibonean Personalities figures were recycled into the Empire line."

Part of that Eternal Champion series was this Pan-Tangian Tyger Handlers set we´ve already seen with the Slann. 

In Chaosiums 1991 adventure pack "Sorcerers of Pang Tang" the Pan Tangians are described as being: "...a foul people, of unbridled cruelty and misogynism".

In the city of Hwamgaarl there is a "University of lucid perversity". A name that suggest strong Slaaneshi influence on teaching. Or how about "The Gallery of the Quivering Flesh". How Slaanesh does that sound?

Later on under the headline of people and culture it is clearly told that: "The Pan Tangians have embraced Chaos as the means of their success".

Interesting thing is that there are demonic powers listed in the adventure pack and those power resemble a lot certain chaos attributes.

What is really suprising is that a tiger is described in the encounter tables to be the holy animal on Pan Tang that goes where ever it wants and does what ever it wants. We are told that if a tiger enters a city and eats someone there will be no one to prevent that. So having a handler with a whip and leash to lead a Pan Tangian tiger sounds like something that´s pretty much against that goes-and-does-what-ever-he-want tiger, doesn´t it.

But then the tiger handlers are found in the Pan Tang Digest part of the book. There we learn that the handlers are usually encountered alone. If they are in a band they should have a number of tigers with them. And they should be eager for a fight. As by the book the handlers wear light clothes and move bare footed. The models produced don´t match with this that well.

Under the creatures part the tigers are described as huge orange felines with black stripes. They are never encountered in packs but that propably counts only for wild tigers. Being sacred animals has taught them not to fear humans.

TheOttoVonBismark´s colorful sabre-toothed tigers.

 

So how to use Pan Tangians in WFB 3rd edition? Perhaps just the way Goblin Lee is doing. He is building a chaos army using Citadel´s Pan Tang line of models. Lee seems to planning a seaborne paint theme for his army. Don´t know how Slaaneshi colors would sit on those models but University of Lucid Perversity and The Gallery of the Quivering Flesh would just sort of push me that way.

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But is there a better way to end this article and at the same time this series of articles than with some heavy metal. At least the name of both the band and the song go with the theme. Here is Tygers of Pan Tang: Hellbound