Dark Elf Warband Leader

I haven't had a chance to paint anything these last two weeks thanks to work :(
So when I had a few hours tonight free from conference calls with people in Mountain Standard time I took the opportunity to paint a figure. Sloshing through the dettol jar of old figures I found a likely champion for my generated RoC warband. 
I say likely, but in actual fact he was the few Dark Elf figures I could find. The jar of old figures contains lots of minis my friends and I collected back in the late 80's and early 90's, but none of us, it seems, took a fancy to Dark Elves, plenty of beastmen, bloodletters, thugs and warriors, but the evil skinny ones are noticeable by their absence. Absent that is with the exception of one or two Marauder Dark Elves.
I really liked the Marauder sculpts when they were unleashed onto the pages of white dwarf back then, and I must say they have aged well. The falcata style swords look a lot more practical, but every bit as menacing as the OTT spiky 'dagger axes' sculptors seemed to favour with later 90's Dark Elf minis. I'm pretty sure the full Marauder Dark Elf army was only £80 back then. Not something ebay has taken notice of :)

Not the best paint job in the world, but with only a few hours tonight to finish stripping, priming and painting him, I'm happy enough with the results. Once again, no basing material, ebay or the garden centre will have to sort this outrage out for me soon.

Trooper A from Dark Elf Regiment by Marauder Miniatures

Lacking the original Marauder miniatures convex and embossed shields I settled on an old placcy round shield from my bits box and painted a skull motif to make him suitably menacing ;)

So there we have it, a few hours work tonight to get me back on the right track with my RoC warband. I have grabbed a pair of suitable beastmen from the dettol jar to paint up as his left and right hand un-men this weekend.

A mountain in a jar

After a long and very stressful week of work I was rewarded today with a sweetie jar. Delivered to me by my mother who arrived for a weekend visit. Courtesy of an old friend Shaggy, whom I gamed with many many years ago. Back then, four members of our Warhammer gaming group embarked on a Realm of Chaos adventure. We arrived somewhat later to the Warhammer world than our other friends, who had already declared their allegiances as Dwarves, Elves, Greenskins and Undead. 

Chaos, unsurprisingly, seemed a more attractive prospect than the paranoid and joyless Empire or the rigid pompous aristocratic Bretonnian farmsteads. This was after all, escapism. It offered each one of us a home, Shaggy was seduced by Slannesh, Mackers revelled at the idea of spilling blood for Khorne, Jamie flittered and fluttered before declaring for Tzeentch, and I fell into Father Nurgle's comforting folds, and so we embarked on the sort of organic fun that Realm of Chaos offered. 

We bought miniatures, from The Dungeon in Belfast, 3 hours journey on a bus in those days (it went via Omagh! for some fucking reason), with nothing but a cheap portable tape deck blasting out Nirvana, PJ Harvey and Sonic Youth to pass the time. Later in Derry's short lived comic book, miniatures and general nerd store in Pump Street. It was run by a guy whose name I cannot to this day remember. Despite the geographic and financial constraints we played. 

I'm glad we did, and even more grateful that Shaggy preserved our collection of lead for almost two decades before gifting it to me. Here's what I received today.

A fucking gigantic sweetie jar of memories. I opened it up, and hour later I almost recovered from the nostalgia.

First up we have the Red Redemption Disciples. Although they were designed in the 80's, I bought them in the early 90's. By then, they were marketed as Chaos Cultists, having lost their earlier status as a regiment of renown. Twelve to a box, they were painted with snakebite leather and generous lashings of chestnut brown ink. The maggot motif was to mark them out as Father Nurgle's children. Sadly the design only made it onto a few shields and the banner remained undecided.

Father Nurgle features heavily, as I next managed to piece together enough pieces for not one, but two palanquins of Nurgle! One of the riders is of a traditional WFB sort, the other is of a tecknological/rogue trader sort. Either way, I have found a champion to lead my resurgent Nurgle warband. Considering the prices of these models on ebay, I'm ecstatic with finding these.

Next up we have a selection of citadel and marauder beastmen. Some pestigors and a few slannesh beastmen too. A nice haul, and containing a few models for my starter chaos warband.

Warriors are up next, 2 slaneeshi on he right, the guy in the centre with the metal shield, is from the Monsters Starter Set. A nice figure I'm sure you'll agree, there's also a Nurgle warrior and the Marauder minis chaos hounds and beast master.

A nice selection of thugs and marauders, some great sculpts here, especially the bone armour guy and the one with the flattened head.

Here we have a nice selection of Chaos Knights, all horseless I'm afraid, but nothing that can't be sorted out from either GW's bits section or ebay. Also shown is the old Chaos Chariot, no driver or horses sadly, but that's what ebay is for. One or two nice old skellies in the picture too, and a Goblin from the same Monsters Starter Set linked above.

Now, for the baddies and beasties, a group of Greater Daemons, in various stages of repair and usability, some nice old Ogres (or is one of them a troll?) a Dragon ogre (missing right arm and foot/tail section), a chimera, a coatyl, a boar centaur (nothing for him to push sadly) and a nice little chaos dwarf to add to my collection.

All in all, a great haul, and one that would have cost me a pretty penny on ebay. Considering how much i'll have to spend on dettol now, it's a good thing they were all free.

Realm of Chaos Warband

Tonight I generated my chaos warband to use in my Realms of Chaos/Warrior Heros - Legends mashup. Which basically involves using the excellent Warrior Heroes - Legends encounter generation and NPC reaction system with the more familiar (and fully featured) Warhammer Realm of Chaos backstory and combat system. This marriage I hope, will provide me with the ability to play a solo Realm of Chaos warband narrative campaign.

So first things first, my warband leader. I rolled a D100 on the starting profiles table and got a 25. Looks like my chaos champion is a dark elf. I rolled again for his or her level and the perfidious gods of chaos gave me a 01.

So that's a basic Dark elf with the following stats.

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
5	4	4	3	3	1	6	1	8	9	9	8

I roll a D6 for the Champion's starting equipment and receive a 4, spending it on a suit of heavy armour for 3 points and a sword with the remaining point.

I decided to pledge my champion's allegiance to Chaos in its purest form rather than submit to any one particular Chaos Power, and so I consulted the Mark of Undivided Chaos section for my starting rewards, which says

If the new champion chooses to worship Chaos in it's undivided glory, rather than a specific Chaos Power, then he receives a random reward from the Chaos Rewards Table. He also receives a random Chaos Attribute.

And so I rolled on the Chaos Rewards table to see how Chaos first favours it's new champion. A roll of 79 - Gift of the Gods, which states

The Champion has come to the special attention of his Chaos Patron assuming he has one. Refer to the Patron's gift table and randomly generate a gift from the Patron himself. The resulting gift cannot be refused, even if it is a Chaos Attribute. If the Champion has no Patron then he cannot have a Gift of the Gods. The result is rerolled - if Gift of the Gods is rolled for a second time then the Champion is rewarded with a Chaos Attribute instead.

So that's a re-roll then for my unaligned Chaos Champion. This time I rolled a 94, The Eye of God. Sounds ominous...

The Powers of Chaos turn their attention to the Chaos Champion, weighing his deeds against his usefulness, and deciding what will be his fate. The Champion cannot refuse the Eye of God as he can other gifts, but must stand before the Powers and receive his judgement

1. If the Champion has 6 or more Gifts but less than 6 Chaos Attributes then the Champion has pleased his Patron. The Patron rewards his Champion with immortality. The Champion leaves the mortal world and becomes a Daemon Prince, sitting alongside his Patron in the Realm of Chaos.
2. If the Champion has 6 or more Chaos Attributes then the Patron decides his slave is no longer worthy to serve as one of his Champions. The Patron rewards his Champion by turning him into a Chaos Spawn.
3. If the Champion has less than 6 gifts and less than 6 Chaos Attributes then his Patron reviews his progress with interest and allows the Champion to continue in his service. The Patron rewards the Champion by giving him a Chaos Weapon with 1 randomly generated property. If the Champion is a Wizard he also receives +1 attack and +1 wound. Champions other than wizards and Champions of Khorne, are given the powers of a Wizard with a magic level of 1 and the associated number of spells and magic points. Champions of Khorne are given a collar of Khorne plus a Fleshhound instead; second and subsequent gifts of collars may be passed ontoa follower.

Given that my Champion has just started his fateful journey, point 3 applies. He rolls for a Chaos Weapon with 1 property and receives a weapon with Impunity. 

The blade's pommel and hilt are made from the still-living heart and ribs of a failed servant of the Chaos Gods. The blade increases it's bearers wounds by 1/5.

So that would be 5 extra Wounds if this was Warhammer Role Play, but as we are playing WFB, it's 1 extra wound for my Champion. Coupled with the level 1 magician's powers a good result! His stats now stand as 

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
5	4	4	3	3	2	6	1	8	9	9	8

Next comes the roll on the Chaos Attributes table, 539, Levitation! 

Finally, we roll for my new Champion's followers, and the dice come up 21; D6 Beastmen of the Champion's Patron, as my Champion has no patron I get D6 regular Beastmen with an average saving throw of 6. I roll a 2. So there we have it, my new Champion, a floating Dark Elf with a few spells and a pair of Beastmen followers.

To the Paint Desk!

New recruits from an Ebay action

These 1980's citadel chaos figures were among the box that arrived for me today, thanks to a bit of unscrupulous last second bidding on my part, which, if truth be told, didn't make me feel too bad as the highest bidder had the sort of feedback numbers that in all likelihood marked him out as trader who would have just split the figures up into single lots to resell at fixed prices of at least 5 quid each. Well, at least that's what I tell myself when I feel guilty about my bidding tactics :)

The lots contained some classic old miniatures, including a dozen or so of Scarloc's elven archers, on old school regimental bases no less, a Goblin King's chariot, Noldor Deep Elves from citadel's original LOTR range, the Brommidir personality figure from the Bloodbath at Orc's Drift scenario for 2nd edition Warhammer and most importantly for me, lots of old school chaos figures,including the majority of the old Chaos Dwarf Renegades set.

Some of the figures appear to have suffered from lead oxidisation, nothing shocking considering their age and the high lead content of miniatures back then. But I'm hoping a soaking in a mildly acidic solution such as vinegar and a good stiff brushing will sort them out. 

So here they are...

Chaos Dwarf Renegades.

Chaos Dwarf Renegades. 

Chaos Dwarf Renegades

Chaos Sorcerers. 

Familiars.

Chaos Warriors.

Chaos Warriors.

Chaos Warriors.

Thugs and a Minotaur.

Centaurs.

Chaos Sorcerer

Another old Realms of Chaos era mini, this time a sorcerer I've painted in a more 'Nurgley' colour scheme. A heavy reliance on Foundry's Phlegm Green for the bulk of the miniature, and their boneyard and spearshaft triads elsewhere. Like so many citadel miniatures of the era he is a variation on a base theme, in fact he is brother to a miniature that formed the leader of my old Nurgle warband back when The Lost and the Damned was first unleashed.
The miniature in question held a scythe in his right hand and was making the 'devil sign' with his left. Sadly I haven't managed to find him on ebay yet for a reasonable price, so this guy will have to do for now.

Fun mini to paint, all I need now is some decent basing materials ;)

Morlock Soul Reaper

At least that's what he started life as in the Citadel catalogue, way back in 1987. He seems to have undergone a few make-overs since then, most notably the addition of a spiffing set of horns.

I got the miniature as part of a job lot of old 1980 minis in an ebay auction. He was badly painted, but a few nights soaking in neat dettol followed by a plenty of good scrubbings with a toothbrush and detergent soon sorted that out.

I painted him up using a combo of foundry and citadel paints, foundry bright red shade 15A as a base for the armour, followed by a few washes of citadel druchi violet. Then I worked up the highlights with foundry bright red 15B and C finally edging out the armour with yellow.