Aha! Bet you thought I’d forgotten about you, right? Well, I had a bit, in truth. Last few months have been sort of busy, and I was feeling burned-out on writing something up… putting together that monster anthology with Joe definitely knocked the wind out of my sails and left me wanting a break from writing for a while. But now I’m refreshed and ready to start writing dumb shit again about plastic fighty-men and D&D.
On the subject of D&D, to the, like, four people who read this… yes, I know the finale of Sixguns and Sinners is very overdue. We actually had the session back in May and wrapped things up, but to be honest I simply can’t be bothered to write it up… judging from my stats, the Lost Mine of Phandelver session reports are a lot more popular anyway! In summary, there was a betrayal, Joe’s character was revealed to have been a Cthulhu-worshipping loony the whole time, he turned into a tentacled abomination, and Trev’s character sacrificed himself to end the threat. Ride into the sunset, roll credits, sigh of relief from me. Might still novelise it when I have time (i.e. never).
So, I’ve been able to maintain my current Age of Sigmar high. I’ve been buying and painting more stuff for my Nurgle force, and I keep casting longing looks at the starter set, with its Stormcast and Bloodbound armies for a very respectable price…
I also recently picked up the General’s Handbook, which is excellent. Personally, I feel that GW should’ve led with it a year ago and maybe the initial AoS hate would’ve been less widespread, but what’s done is done. The Handbook contains a whole lot of content for a very un-GW price; a wealth of scenarios, rules for multiplayer brawls and campaign play (including Path for Glory, which made the old grognard in me happy), lots of optional rules like warlord traits and magic items, and most importantly, the Matched Play points system.
Now, I’ve mentioned before that the lack of a points system was not really a deal-breaker for me the more I thought about it; I just wanted to play games with models I liked. But the points system helps provide a bit of structure in how I collect models, and, ultimately, it does lead to a more balanced gaming experience for all players involved. Hilariously though, I checked out the points of mine and Ian’s forces from our game a few months ago, and it seems that Ian actually had about 400 points more than me! Lucky for me that the Dice Gods were against him that day, otherwise I would’ve got a right proper stomping.
Anyway, more Nurgle reinforcements.
Here’s Stinkdrinker (to go along with Bilebelcher and Vexvomit) my “counts-as” winged Daemon Prince. The Plague Drone models, while hilariously disgusting, are a completely pain to assemble, store and transport; I’m not a big fan of those huge wings held in place by a shallow ball-socket joint. I could only bring myself to do the one. I figure saying that he’s a Herald on a plague fly will justify a Nurgle-marked Daemon Prince stat-line.
I also wanted a bit of dumb muscle for my Rotbringers; I was contemplating Minotaurs or Dragon Ogres, but the plastic River Trolls Felwater Troggoths were just too tempting, in terms of the actual kit and the fluff justification; after all, they’re big dumb smelly swamp-dwelling monsters who puke all over people, perfect for Nurgle. Uncle Fester managed to get his leprous mitts on a trio of them…
I could’ve assembled them as is, but I’d done precious little kit-bashing (an unforgivable sin for a Chaos player), and I had all those Chaos Spawn bits and spare Nurglings lying around…
Depending on my mood, I could use these guys as Felwater Troggoths (technically from the Destruction faction, but in AoS, anything goes), or as faction-friendly Chaos Trolls or Bile Trolls (from the Forge World Tamurkhan supplement). I’d prefer to use them as Felwaters though, as they have a pretty great ability that gives a penalty on melee attack rolls against them.
The recipe for these guys wasn’t much different; Ushabti Bone all over, heavy wash of watered-down Mournfang Brown to make them look gross and grungy, then Waaagh Flesh and Deathworld Forest for details, then another heavy wash of Nuln Oil. Quick and easy, which is how I like my painting.
That’s all my Nurgle stuff painted so far, which means I can now go and pick up something else! It’s a decent incentive; no new stuff until I paint what I’ve just bought. But what’s next? Well, the Starter Set is tempting for all the Stormcasts and Bloodbound, because the dream is to rope other friends who don’t play AoS into a big multiplayer scrap and having extra armies would help towards that. But there’s also the Getting Started: Slaves to Darkness box, which would give me some rock-hard Warriors, Knights, and a Sorcerer for a decent price (the Chariot will end up going towards any Bloodbound forces I collect); I really want my Nurgle guys to be my main force.
Oh, but of course there’s always cool stuff like the Flesh Eater Courts, or Sylvaneth and Wanderers, or Seraphon… decisions, decisions. Well whatever I pick, you can bet I’ll be taking pictures of it.
Happy festering.
Gareth