Army Bios: Warriors of Mayhem

Warriors of Mayhem

Chaos Space Marines

Most wargaming armies contain characters and sometimes these characters are used enough to acquire personalities. To that end, here a few of the personalities from my ever growing chaos space marine (Heretic Astartes?) army.

Organogram

All successful organisations need to know who is in charge of who. Chaos Warbands are no different, so I have produced a handy guide to show the hierarchy amongst my toy soldiers. Some heroes have names, and there's a bit behind them.

Edric Blightbringer

Edric, normally known as 'The Blightbringer', is my main Nurgle Lord. This is the plastic Chaos Terminator Lord kit, without anything special to it. The armour is painted the standard purple and silver of the Warriors of Mayhem warband, but the cloak is the dirty green of my Plague Marine units. In the future I am tempted to replace the model and paint it the same green as his Terminator bodyguard.

The Blightbringer is one of the senior captains in the Warriors of Mayhem, answering only to Rakarath and in charge of a significant sized band of troops. He is rarely seen without his terminator bodyguard to shield him from the worst the enemy can field, and has a preference for fighting on foot rather than teleporting into battle. Alongside the Whispering King, he has most recently been pursuing campaigns against the Dark Angels and the Orks, avoiding fighting enemy leaders to scythe through large numbers of troops with his lightning claws.

The Whispering King

The notorious bounty hunter known only as the Whispering King is the highest ranking Sorcerer in the Warriors of Mayhem beneath Rakarath himself. Commanding the loyalty of the larger sections of the warband who have not committed to a particular god, and leading them in a constant quest for short term glory and power by tracking down valuable bounties, such as most recently Dark Angel Chaplain Rapheal, for those with the right rewards, and also working alongside the warband captains when the situation demands.

The Whispering King is made from a standard Chaos Space Marine with the staff and head from the Plastic Chaos Terminator Lord kit that built the Blightbringer. In games before Traitor's Hate introduced the chaos formations he filled the role of a cheap HQ choice, and has since filled the optional sorcerer slot in the warband formation. With the changes in army selection back to Force Organisation Charts in 8th edition I am fully expecting The Whispering King to make a return to solo leadership.

Rorrik the Packless

Abandoned with a small squad when his Great Company retreated from Espos VII, Rorrik Redaxe continued the fight against the victorious Orks as all Space Wolves would, but for all their skill the numbers of greenskins soon left him fighting on alone. Long he prayed for rescue, for reinforcements, for the power to avenge his packmates on an vicious universe, but when marines arrived they were not wearing the grey of the Space Wolves but purple and silver, or red and brass. The leader of the newcomers tracked Rorrik to his hideout and challenged him to single combat. The Berzerkers howled as their leader matched Deamonaxe to frostblade, but at the critical moment the axe betrayed it's owner and Rorrik tore the Khorne Lord limb from limb. As one the berzerkers fell to their knees, and Rorrik saw a new future opening up, one in service of those who appreciate strength. With his new followers he tore a bloody path through the Ork Hunta Killa Eata patrols searching for him until confronted by the larger part of the Warriors of Mayhem force led by Rakarath himself, pledging loyalty in exchange for power and respect he long desired. Rakarath's campaign against the Orks was short and bloody, ending with the retrieval of a cache of inactive dataslabs used by the Mekboz as decoration on a Stompa's faceplate.

Rorrik is my oldest chaos lord, dating from 2011, which is why he is a slightly different purple to the more recent models. He is a standard metal Khorne Lord, in the purple and silver of the Warriors Of Mayhem. The cloak is painted Space Wolf Grey, and shows his former loyalties. Rorrik is a model who has not been a regular in my armies for a long time, as when I use my deamonkin I tend to use a herald in the single HQ option in the formation, and I often found chaos lords lacklustre in the previous edition. Maybe with the coming of the new edition my original warlord will once again grace the battlefields of the 42nd millennium?

That's all for now. Still to come is the main man(?) himself, and a few other minor characters. I'll also  try and get some pictures of the army itself.

Project Blog: Black Powder French

Project Blog: Black Powder French

We've decided it's time to do something new, and we've given in to something we've always wanted to try which is Napoleonics. It's still early days, but I'm planning to give regular updates as we progress.

The first move has been by Luke, who bought the Black Powder starter set which has netted Luke 72 British Infantry and a cannon, and me 48 French Infantry and 12 Cavalry, as well as mounted and foot officers for us both, as well as a copy of the rulebook for Luke. Also joining us is Dave, with Prussians, and Pad joining me with the French.

First impressions of the French is that the models are very different to the modern citadel models that I'm used to, but do remind me of the older Empire Spearmen / Handgunner sprues, and are perfectly appropriate for building up blocks of uniformed troops as you would want for this sort of army. The Late French Line Infantry that come with the box set are perfectly usable models, but I've decided to pass them on to pad in order to use purely Warlord's other style of line infantry minus the greatcoats, as I think these are better looking. 72 models for £40 strikes me as very good value. I have painted up 2 before I made this decision, so they will be mixed in to the units somewhere.

I've also built the Chassuers a Chevel, and used one of the mounted officers in the unit, which may or may not be appropriate. I haven't had a good read of the rulebook yet, and also I've ordered a book about Napoleonic uniforms which should arrive in the next few days.

I'm planning to use the other mounted officer as my C in C, and will base him on a 40mm round base from a Bolt Action model with a small dog I picked up at a local hobby show and have been looking for a use for. I haven't added a head until I've looked through the uniform book but there are a few options.

So, apart from clearing my hobby area to accommodate the impending large units on smartly dressed Frenchmen, that's all I've got done so far. I'm planning to get as much stuck together as I can in time for me and Luke to have a go at the rules at Middlesbrough Gaming Club next week, and I'll give reviews of how this goes as we go on.

Au Revoir!

Armies of the Tyrants Part 4: Lizardmen

While I'm on a roll, here's another of mine.

This was my last Warhammer Fantasy army, which I did during over the winter in 2014/2015. A group of us collected new armies,  going up 500 points a month and playing progressively bigger games.

I went for people as a colour scheme, as it's a colour which I like and it went well on my Chaos Marines. I've shown them here on regiment bases in the 8th edition formations, as they should be.

Saurus Warriors. These are the solid unit in my army,  and if I expand the army up above 2000 points I'll be adding another unit. 

Skinks with Kroxigors. These guys are nowhere as good as they should be and I'm not really impressed. However I haven't got anything to replace them with yet. 

Saurus cavalry. These guys are the hammer unit, and are rock solid especially with the hero in the unit. The cold ones are pretty decent my as well

The Stegadon, the staple lizardmen monster. Worked the flesh up to a pale brown with layering and then the armour plates to red. The Skinks are purple to match the rest of the army. 

The fearsome Ripperdactyles, a unit I struggled to find a use for. Their best combats were often when they flew into the front of Irongut units. Proper placement of the bloat toad is crucial. 

The start of the show, the Slann mage priest. This is a good example of the benefits of Finecast, as this is a model which was way too heavy to be balanced on a flying stand when it was white metal, but as resin is pretty much ideal. The bad details are from the jungle basing kit. 

I usually played him as an ethereal, avoiding the need for a temple guard unit. 

The rest of my Skinks, serving as a skirmish unit, with the skink priest in the unit. This is a far better use for the little fellas than a ranked unit. 

I do miss playing with this army, we're going to have to get back to playing 8th edition fantasy at some point. I'd like to expand the army from 2000 points up to 2400 by adding another unit of Saurus Warriors and a Bastidon but it's not high on the list of priorities. 

Any questions? Comments below. 

Armies of the Tyrants Part 3

Here's something slightly different.

In order to show that it's not all about 40k, and because they are my most recent full painting project, here's a brief look at my second Bolt Action force,  early war French.

In 2014 me and Paddy decided to branch out and try something new, and Bolt Action was starting to make an impact in the area. My first force was late was Germans to go against late war British, but after establishing the dominance of the Panther and Stg44 assault rifle I fancied a bit of variety and Warlord were pushing the French - I think they had expended the range but I'm not certain. I picked up the army deal and that's still what I play with now.

The army was painted by spraying it leather brown then washing with black ink. The uniforms are Vallejo Russian Infantry Green, which may not be technically the correct colour but gives an effect I like. The helmets are Dark Angels Green, which will now have been replaced with a less memorable name.

It's not top quality painting, but as a project I'm proud of it.

1st infantry section. 8 men with rifles, 1 with lmg and 1 with pistol (the loader)

Senegalese tirailleurs. Fezes are cool. 

Second infantry section. Exactly the same as the first. 

Various HQ models.  Officer and assistant with smg, medic and forward observer with assistant. The forward observer will be dropped from the list if I ever get anything to replace him with. 

The officer however is one of my favourite models from the army. 

Infantry support squads, medium mortar and mmg.

Field artillery. I believe these are supposed to represent light howitzers, however I use them as medium anti tank guns without anyone ever objecting. This makes the army fully capable of taking on most late war forces. They will struggle against heavy tanks but so will most armies not packing a serious tank of their own

Talking about serious tanks... here's an R35 and a Shnieder P16 half track. Fun to paint, the scheme of dark green with shades of brown on top meant I got them both done in one session, but renowned more for enthusiasm in bake than actual effectiveness,  these are something else I'd like to replace in time. 

And here's a few shots of the army as a group 

I'm going to do more articles in time covering my 40k and fantasy armies. Right now I'm going back over my Chaos Space Marines to touch up and repair damage as well as sort out a few extra squads which have been added in time for a planned massive battle in December, so keep and eye out for that. 

Martin 

Armies of the Tyrants, part 2

Hi there,
well the Padman got in first, too much time on his hands, lol. I'm the "old man" of the group,war gaming for over 30 years but a comparatively newcomer to warhammer thanks to my son's interest in LOTR  getting me into a GW shop. My prime army is orks, great fun to play, but don't expect to win too often, my other 40k army being Space Wolves, my thunderwolf list currently causing havoc in the group, although I expect this brief moment of glory to end as my fellow gamers adapt to the list. Ah well, back to the drawing board. That's what makes it fun, constantly changing and adapting, although maybe not the first few times your army gets chewed up. Now, I'm not the greatest painter, but I try, and thanks to the Padman, we all endeavour to play with fully painted armies which,if nothing else, will make our battle reports pleasing to the eye. Thanks for reading, and enjoy a few photos of some of my glorious troops.  The "Old Man".

Armies of the Tyrants part 1

Hello gamers.

Welcome to the first in series of posts showcasing the armies of the Tyrants.

The first of these is my Dark Angels army. Based around a Demi Company of the 3rd Company, with detachments of Deathwing and Ravenwing.

I started this army with the old codex, specifically for a doubles event at Warhammer world.  I had Beliel and Deathwing, and Mr. Wilson had Sameal and Ravenwing. We did not do well. Winning two games and loosing three!

Anyway I continued to build up my Deathwing, till the new book was released and normal marines became much more desirable.
So over the course of a month I added the demi company, which has made the force much more rounded,

 

Hope to have a battle report with the Unforgiven wrote up soon. But till then, take care and keep rollng 6's.

Padman.