Slaaneshian Chaos Hounds

 Yet another not so very active month of painting. Just a single Chaos Hound - the blue one got finished. One more to go the the sacret number.

Things that got painted this month

 It´s the month of gnovember but I´ve placed my gnome models in such a secure location that I was unable to lovate them. Well - they´ll turn up eventually. I know I have ten crossbow armed gnomes somewhere. So here are the models I´ve completed this month.

Four chaos hounds that I tried to paint in the old pastel Slaanesh style. 

Need two more for sacred number.

A goblin shaman. This one stood half finished for a very long time.

Elf captain. Just because I haden´t painted anything elvish in a while.

Bretons vs. Chaos and Skaven Battle Report

After a long break I finally got a chance to play some 3rd ed. WFB with my friends. Initially I suggested a 2000 pt game as I had just completed enough Slaaneshian chaos for that but LM suggested we´d go bigger and agreed on 4000 pt game. So eventually we had 4000 pts of Bretons facing 2000 pts of chaos and another 2000 pts of skaven. This will not be a full battle report as I don´t have all the army lists and didn´t make notes during the game. More like a picture dump and some comments on what happened there. It might be that I don´t remember all the units and details right but you´ll get the general idea on how it all went.

Pics by me and LM.

General view of the battle field from Breton side of table. On Broten right flank you can see some skirmishing crossbow men and a bound dragon behind them. Then a cannon and three blocks of infantry next to them. The baggage with wagons and camp followers sits behind the right flank troops.

Facing the Bretons on this flank are most of the skavens. Far left are two units of skirmishers and three beastmasters with six rat ogres. Infantry blocks from left to right are stromvermins, clan rats, more clan rats and slaves. Between the blocks there are two warp fire throwers and a couple of poison wind globadiers. Two jezzails are just out of picture to the right. Across the field there a large unit of knights, war altar, mounted wizard and another smaller unit of crack elite knights.

Breton left. To the right, next to elite knights stands a cannon. I the treeline there´s skirmishing archers. The far left is made up of two units of mounted crossbow men and a big block of pike armed mercenaries. They face the chaos component of the evil coalition.

Top right are six mounted chaos thugs with six chaos hounds and their two beastmasters behind them. The main body of chaos contingent is a 30 strong unit of beastmen led by a lvl20 hero. At bottom left corner there the chaos war alter and it´s guards. In front of them stand six minotaurs including chaos general. The last chaos bits are a unit of 12 arrer thugs and a chaos sorcerer just of of picture to the left.

Some spells were cast before the first turn by both sides. A magical mist appeared on Breton right flank cannon and on the two skaven jezzails too. The mist engulfing the Breton cannon prevented the infantry block from moving causing a big traffick jam that would have a big effect on battle.

In the first turn pretty much everyone on both sides moved forward looking for opportunity to make the first charges. The was some missile fire in which a coupe of knights were killed and eventually three minotaurs too. They were forced to test for panic but general´s LD10 held.

First close combat erupted in the flank where light cavalry clashed. Humans were no match for mounted chaos thugs who despite losing one of their number to missile fire routed their opponets. Panic spread and while pike mercenaries held the other light cavalry unit lost their nerve and left the battle field. Threatened from multiple sides now it started to look grim for mercs.

Advancing in the middle was the minotaur general and his now diminished retinue. The Breton elite knights had carefully positioned themselves to charge the minotaurs next turn. Little did they know that the chaos sorcerer had an ace up his/her sleeves. A magical bog appeared in the knights´ position and they were lost until they could find their way back (roll D6 each magic turn. 1-4 remains lost, 5 opponent places unit back on field, 6 player places unit back). Suddenly the minotaurs seemed to be awfully close to that cannon and those archers.

On the skaven side of the table Bretons knights had charged the skaven slaves. Some blague cencer bearers were released but they failed to cause serioues damage. Slaves died in droves but their big numbers meant that they didn´t have to test for rout yet even if they lost the combat and were pushed back. The knight would need to take care of them fast as other skaven units were moving in to help their brethren.

Stormvermin were pushing towards Breton right flank. This was made possible by the fact that the magically bound dragon was there no more. The skave seer had raised an undead hero that charged to dragon. Against all odds the dragon lost it´s nerve and headed for home. All that stood between stormvermin and the Breton baggage was some skirmishers now. Still the magic mist hindered Breton movement and prevented the infantry from coming to help.

Mercenary pikemen got their hand on the chaos hounds. That suited the chaos general well as they were now engaged and could not threaten the beastmen advancing towards middle of the field. Mounted thugs can be seen manouvering in the back.

Surviving a cannon ball hit the minotaur general led his retinue in a charge against the arrers and the cannon crew. The skirmishing arrers knew what was best for them and fled. In a sudden burst of bravery (rolled douple 1s) the cannon crew stood and fought. Let´s just say that the minotaur general didn´t break a sweat taking care of them.

Meanwhile the magic mist had dissipated but the skaven were there and Broton infantry was hard pressed. Camp follewers nervously cluthed their improvised weapons as they anticipated stormvermin charge.

The elite knights found their way out of the magic bog and got into a melee with beastmen. Perhaps they could save the day for the Bretons...

But it was not to be. Skaven slaves managed to hold their nerve and when clan rats flanked the knights it was all over. Their routed and with the Bretons having lost more than half of their initial points value we called it a day. At this point the Breton war altar was running amok. Having been shot at with jezzails the altar guards had been thrown overboard and killed. With some luck the altar wagon ended up crashing into skaven slaves.

Magic played very crucial part in this game. Magic mist kept one of the Breton cannons silent and caused the huge infantry traffinc jam that prevented them from affecing the battle outcome. Magical bog took out the best Breton unit just as they could have engaged the minotaurs and were lost long enought that it was all over when they got back.

There was some good luck for evil guys too. Skaven slaves rolled 4 the one time they had to test for panic and passed. Despite being hit by cannon the minotaur general suffered just one wound. Panic spreading to second light cavalry unit in the early game helped chaos a lot on that flank. And so on.

Good Job Thugs! Not killing anyone, not loosing anyone. Shoud have advanced with them to be able to shoot at the cannon crew. They did however provide cover for the chaos wizard for couple of turns.

Some gutter runners sneaking up on the skaven left flank. They might have been in big trouble had the dragon stayed and not fled.

A moment before the war altar was hit causing the animals to run amok and charge into skaven slaves. Only one altar guard survived initially but he was later killed by the chaos sorcerer in melee.

All in all it was three turns and roughly four hours of fun. Hoping to play again soon!

 

Another chaos warrior of Slaanesh

 It´s been a pretty quiet hobby month this june. Job, daughter´s graduation party etc. got priority over painting old lead. However this Slaaneshian chaos warrior got completed and will join his brother/sister in my slowly growing army.

White, metal, pastel pink and purple. For me this the way to paint Slaanesh.

The armor of this sculpt is very nicely detailed in my opinion.

Slaanesh warrior

 I´ve had this Jes Goodwin laying around on my painting desk for a while and suddenly got an idea to paint it as old school as I know. Chose pastel pink and purple as main colors with soma black to give some contrast. Not completely satisfied with the result but he is as good as my humble skills allow.

Chaos Warrios "Flail 2" (Stuff of Legends)

Next time it´s propably more Epic Eldar.... or another Chaos warrior.

Chaos army update

 Having finished the last of the six thug horsemen I have I felt it´s time to take a pic of all things Slaaneshian I have now. Most of these guys have beeb posted here before but not all. And certainly not all in same photo.

Six minotaurs, 12 thug archers, 20 beastmen, two beastmaster with six chaos hounds and six thug horse.

These thug horse are the last ones to be finished.

Rough points value for whole army:

Minotaurs: Lvl 20 hero, 5 minos inc. banner for 480 pts

Beastmen: Lvl 15 hero, 19 troopers inc. banner and musician for 440 pts

Thug horse: Marauder leader, 5 troopers inc. banner for 150 pts

Thug archers: Marauder leader, 11 troopers inc. banner for 170 pts

Beastmasters: Two beastmasters with six chaos hounds for 170 pts

Grand total: 1410 pts

Next I´m going to paint another 10 beastmen to have a unit of 30. And I need to add a chaos sorcerer or two. 

Moo-ve it! Moo-ve it!

 With the completion of the standard bearer and the minotaur lord this unit is now ready. As per WFB: Armies book the unit size for minotaurs is 1-5. But I plan to use the load as the general of my chaos army. And if I attach him to the unit of five minos I get to the sacred number nicely.

This is going to be one expensive unit. Each normal mino costs 40 points. So with a standard they are 240 points all together. A lvl 20 minotaur hero is another 240 points without any equipment.

The minotaur lord and two regular troopers.

Two more troopers and the standard bearer.

Dirk Slammet´s Distributors of Pleasure and Pain

 Finished the last of the ten Battle Master chaos thug archers to complete this unit of Slaanesh followers. As mentioned before the monopose thugs are quite terrible sculpts. Especially the facial mould is bad. The eyes are not at same level and the is no mouth to speak of. But they work well enough in a unit and looked upon from a few feet distance.

There are all together twelve thugs in this unit. One is hidden behind that banner.

Let´s see. Eleven thugs including a standard bearer. Each armed with long bows.

Plus a chaos marauder as a unit leader with light armor and long bow. 

That makes 132 points for thugs and 40 points for the leader.

Or 172 points for the whole unit.

Does size matter?

My opinion is that it sure does. If we´re speaking about Oldhammer chaos banners I mean. Chaos banners are supposed to be BIG.

To go with the chaos thug archers of the previous post I´ve put together a small command section of two models: a champion and a standard bearer. The champion was painted a couple of months back when I was thinking about making a unit out of old metal thugs. Well with brexit making it increasingly expensive to get Oldhammer models I buried that idea and settled with monopose archers for rank and file plus metals for command.

Banner bearer is a converted metal chaos thug. Revoved his mace and replaced it with the banner pole. The picture I used for the banner can be found by Googling: arrow in a**. So it´s a simple crop, print and paint on type of job. And if you wonder where that slogan comes from you ought to listen this: Harvester of Sorrow.

Hope you enjoyed. Now to finish those last four monoposes.

It´s been a looong time

 Oh my! Nine months since the last update. That´s terrible and I feel a bit ashamed. But I really haven´t had motivation to paint anything and because of that no reason to blog. There was also a lot happening during 2021 (I wrote a book and got on retirement just to begin with) and hobby activities were put on semi permanent pause.

Now with more time on hand because of my retirement I´m once again trying to activate myself. For that purpose I chose some of  my uglies models -  a group of Battle Masters Chaos thug archers. So if they turned out terrible I wouldn´t be too sad about it.

Here are the first six of them. Very simple paint job on very simple minis. Pastel purple armor pieces, black leather, browns for bow and finally pink hair. Old school Slaaneshian style.

Will paint another four of these and add a leader and a standard bearer to get a unit of twelve. That Marauder chaos thug standard bearer seems to be pretty rare and expensive so I might just do a little conversion myself.

Anyway, it´s good to be back. I hope this new energy doesn´t fade off.

Trying to activate myself

 It´s been too long since myh last posting. I have had very little interest in painting as of lately but now I´m doing my best to get back into action. Basically the only thing I´ve completed since february is this single beastman. And it too ages and is not a good paint job even on my humble standards.

The six mutants I built earlier are now on my painting table and I strongly intent to get them completed during april. So very limited goal but hey - you have to restart somewhere.

Half way through with the Thug horses

Completed the third Chaos Thug horse model this morning. This means that I am half way through with the unit of six models now. Hobby year 2021 has started quite slowly for me but I´m hoping to catch up speed in a next few weeks.

Keeping both the thugs and their horses just slightly touched by Slaanesh.

These are individuals in the beginning of their journey to corruption.

Horses look mean but not altered. Thugs have colored hair and not much else.

The musician on the left is the most choas affected of the three

with his left arm replaced with a tentacle.

Chaos Thug Horse

 WFB 3rd edition chaos included a unit type for which there was no official miniatures at that time: Thug Horse i.e. mounted chaos thugs. Old School Miniatures Company brings us this nice set of six mounted thugs. I received my unit just before Christmas and now got the first model painted. Let´s see if I can find time to complete another one before new year.

Because he´s a chaos thug - just in the start of his way to Chaos, I kept

the looks of him quite ´normal´. Just the purple hair to give a hint of Slaaneshian corruption.

The same applies to his horse. It´s dark and mean looking but not yet mutated.

Pastel pink shield to give some color to the model.

Liked the details on the rider. Clean, sharp and easy to paint.

A somewhat chaotic 200th posting

Wow! When staring this blog just under five years ago I never thought I´d one day have 200 postings. At first I was thinking about doing something special for the occasion. Perhaps a look into those Oldhammer blogs that led me into becoming an oldhammer enthusiastic. Or once again returning to baggage trains, war altars, animal handlers or some one of those unit types that no longer exist in more modern rules sets.

However this will be an introduction of a new WFB army in building. Some of these models have been shown here before but not all and certainly not together.

So, it´s Slaaneshian Chaos. At the moment 19 beastmen, 3 minotaurs and 2 beastmasters with 6 chaos hounds. The beastmen are on round bases as the are to be used in a genesteraler cult army too. I will get a movement tray for them eventually.

Bird´s eye view. Pastel colors to give that oldschool look. Purple/pink, yellow and black used to tie the army together.

19 beastmen with a starndard. Equipped with light armor and shields that equals 13 points/model. So the cost for the whole unit without a character model to lead it would be 260 points. Not bad for WS4, T4 and W2 rank and file. Planning on adding a musician, champion and three more troopers to make it 24 (4x6) strong.

Two beastmasters and six chaos hounds. With ligh armor the animal handlers are 17 points each for total of 34. Chaos hounds are 23 points/model which means that this unit cost a total of 172 points. Not planning on adding anything to this.

The three minotaurs. With double handed weapons they are 48 points each for total of 144 points. I want to have six minotaurs in the end. In two units of three as their maximum unit size is five.

It´s a humble start. Just 260+172+144 = 576 points of rank & file so far. But throw in some characters and perhaps a bound host and it´s pretty quickly past 1500 total points. And I do have six trolls that could be used but in my opinion trolls aren´t very Slaanesh so I think I´ll stay away from that option.

What I´d really like to add is some chaos thug horse. Perhaps using those pre slotta C34/27 chaos beastman riders. And thugs on foot too. Thinking about some sort of cultist models. A war altar is a must. Just need to find suitable models for that first.

That it for posting number 200. Have a happy Orctober - go paint something green ;)