Battle Report: The Vampyr Of The Riding

 Last weekend, I had the privilege and pleasure of playing one of the most enjoyable games of Warhammer Fantasy Battle I've ever played. 

And I have played quite a few good games of Warhammer, so let me assure you of the quality of what I experienced last week. 

"Playing with yourself again, are we?' wonders the ancient reader, familiar with events long ago on this blog. 

Thanks for asking - but no. This exchange involved a real, actual human opponent that, well, wasn't me. 

There are a few reasons for the superlative experience, I think:

1. I felt the desperate rush to paint something in a way I've not experienced since my Warhammer infused childhood. 
2. The desperation caused me to look again at figures I had in my collection that had not yet been stripped, or were semi-painted, or, well, anywhere close to allowing me to do something I haven't done for a while. Thus I realised that a large proportion of the dwarves in my collection were still waiting to be stripped down, but were actually in quite good condition. Salvageable condition.  Quickly salvageable - achievable within about a week or so. 
3. ...which created a whole new possibility, the results of which you will read about shortly
4. The chap with whom I had played has not, for various reasons, had very many or good experiences with any versions of Warhammer, but had a jib squarely cut in the oldhammer pattern. I submit to the reader that this was very fertile ground.
5. I had to formulate both forces as a result of owning all the figures and also being the more experienced player. Long have I pondered how capable the 4th edition of Warhammer would be if tackled responsibly, and this was a very, very rich opportunity to explore that. 
6. Having played The Battle At The East Gate of Karak Eight Peaks at Bring Out Your Lead with the formidable Gillson brothers, I was still on a high, because that was another of the most enjoyable games of Warhammer I've experienced in a very long time. I wanted to play some more 4th edition.
7. The chap that I played against has previously visited me to play 3rd edition. For a new starter, 3rd edition is a tough prospect, and he found the detail distracting. 4th edition felt like it would serve well in this scenario. 

Now it has been a long time since I've crafted enough narrative to enrich a battle report. The few games I've been able to play have all been rushed and boundaried by unfair and ridiculous constraints, which mean they've not received the love (or the player engagement) they deserved. I had entered this game expecting the same thing, and although I had formulated some of the narrative (enough to shape some of the force selection), it was only after the event that I realised the thing deserved more, because it was so good. 

Which leads us to the game itself. As all games should, we'll begin with a prologue...

***

The Striganie people of Cruel Sylvania, called also in ancient times the Fennone, have a long habit of opening the stories told of and by their people with a time one hundred and one years in the past. Be the matter last week, last year or last decade; it occured one hundred and one years ago. 

And so it is with this story so faithfully retold to me by that redoubtable people. It settles me to say the story, starting as they do with this curious endearment of theirs.

For one hundred years ago and one, a peace had settled on The Auld Ryding. In that time, it was known simply as The Riding, and contained within its borders the villages of Shoodthorpe (referred to by some as Stoodthorpe), Averridge and Mayby. Modern day cartographers will tell you that the village of Stoodhof must necessarily be - or be found upon - the remains of Stoodthorpe, and indeed, the same for Maylhof with long forgotten Mayby. 

The Auld Ryding nuzzles like a hound at his master's feet into the roots of the Black Mountains, in the northern shadow of the peaks that boundary the freezing flows of the Black Water Lake.

Should it ever be that you conduct your business in lonely Zhufbar, or indeed travel west from that place to warmer Imperial climes of Einsamholtz, Averheim or even far away Nuln, you may very well find yourself taking your mutton at the Inn of the Green King in Averridge as you pass by.

Now it came to pass that the peace was shattered: there fell a great tragedy upon the Roogslaugh family, who resided at their family estate of Hill House: the great house burned down, and with it, all of its once noble occupants. 

The folk of The Riding claim the house was put to the torch by an angry crowd from Shoodthorpe, for the house was profane in the eyes of all good and holy men. In that house was practiced necromancie, and daemonologie, and other acts of malice and wrongdoing. 

Still others claim that the house was consumed by daemons, come to collect the souls of Count Roogslaugh and his kin that were long over-due.

Yet the Striganie make a third claim, by which they swear, that the house in fact was set on fire by the youngest son of the Count: Daniel Roogslaugh. In their telling, young Daniel desired one thing above all others in life:

To be a woman. 

Being as yet unlearned in the ways of his family's spellcraft, he beseeched his father, his mother, his brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts and any of the servants with the heart to listen to entreat whatever dark gods and powers with whom they kept appointments to grant him this one desire - but to no avail. 

Full of shame, his father and his brothers beat the boy within an inch of his life and ejected him from the house, bidding him never to return. Young Daniel was compelled to live a scoundrels life, reduced to eating worms and beetles and whatever gruel the pigs of Shoodthorpe could not reach in their troughs. 

Full of rage and spite, Daniel survived and grew strong in his adversity. There came a travelling circus to Shoodthorpe who took in the boy, where he learned the skills of acting, and powder, and disguise. In the years that followed, he succumbed to his craven appetite for all things feminine: consuming costly fashion, spreading innane gossip and fainting as the occasion saw fit. He also abandoned the Roogslough name, setting on Danielle Le Roux, or has he became known: Danni.

At the height of his new performing career, it came to pass that Danni beguiled and fascinated a wealthy theatre goer. The gentleman, whose name was Andru Wwoydlebber (of the West Hochland Wwoydlebbers) was also a fearsome vampyr, known in society only as The Bantam of the Opera, on account of the cockerel mask he donned at such events. He pledged his love for Danni and on the night of their wedding, bestowed upon Danni the Kiss Everlasting. Too late did Wwoydlebber perceive the truth: he had not made sure that the girl was pure, as directed by the ancient wisdom of the Tone Loc. Nay, declared the vampyr: he was not about to play around with no Osca Myewina (a derogatory term the Striganie declined to illuminate) and thrashed Danni within an inch of his life before expelling him into the night in his wrath.

Long did Danni wander, developing erudition in the way of the vampyr. Finally, the master of his dark power, he returned to Hill House to exact his revenge on his former family. Terrible was his vengeance that night; not a creature made a sound in all The Riding, lest they drew the ire of the avenging vampyr in all his terrible fury.

Yet, even with his dying breath, the old Count Roogslough pronounced a curse upon Danni: paralysed shall he be, as unto stone, until one hundred years and one had passed. At once, Danni was turned to stone and there stood in the burning ruins of his family home. 

In the time that followed, many grave robbers and their ilk visited the ruin of Hill House, prospecting for whatever wealth there remained. In a daring display of bravado, once such character cleaned up the statue that Danni had become, and, struck by the look of anguish on the statue's face, was this able to sell it to the village council of Averridge as a statue of the Martyr Morga, Our Lady of Sigmar Distressed, for no less than one hundred pieces of silver. The statue was placed in the market square, and there dwelt until the passing of one fateful Hexenstag.

And so it was that late on that evening of Hexenstag, when a single cloud interrupted the full light of Mannsleib, that the curse was finally broken, and the young vampyr, possessed with the hunger of one hundred and one years of waiting, came to his senses. Immediately, he locked eyes with the rotund (some cruel folk had been known to say 'porcine') Lady Weller, gazing vacantly out of her parlour window. With unnatural power and grace, Danni leapt up to her window, compelling her with his daemonic charm to allow him to enter, whereupon she yielded to his most base desires: the waxing of his upper lip and the immediate trimming of his split ends. This done, the two discussed the fashions of the modern, conscientious  lady, before he drained her of every drop of blood her formidable form could muster and fled with her wardrobe. 

Beset with sorrow, Sir Weller demanded the village constabulary immediately bring to justice the wicked vampyr. Their leader, the brave Captain Prangle, knew a little of vampyrs and realised he and his men would be quickly outclassed by such a vicious beast of the night as the one that had so brutally murdered the good lady. To this end, he secured the services of the Thunderbuckle clan - merchant hill dwarves that had been looking to expand into the area. 

There came also a renowned wizard of the Grey order: Elrich Lang, who specialised uniquely in the hunting of vampyrs and the consumption of alcohol, preferring especially the heady ciders of the southern Empire. Having heard of the plight of the village of Averridge whilst on route to the Shrine of Gadd (on account of the legend of that places brew house), he immediately volunteered to join the company of men and dwarves, to seek out and destroy The Vampyr of The Riding.

***

 Location

An ancient map of The Riding:

 Note that the right hand side of the map is, in fact, south. This map:

 

 

...better shows both the position of The Riding in the Empire, as well as its true orientation (the top of the map is north).

***

Forces

So remember when I spoke about being responsible with the rules? Well, in my opinion, one of the greatest contributors to the horror of 4th edition was the irresponsible use of lists and the delegation of the players' abilities to have fun down to the rule books and army lists. 

I love (LOVE!) the early army books from 4th edition because they have the right amount of passion and none of the marketing finesse (as in, power creep...) that the later editions would introduce. 

In this case, I was able to achieve what I wanted within the bounds of the army books, but this is strictly coincidence, as opposed to my being boundaried by what the books offered. There were some differences to what might have happened in 4th edition way back when:

• I did not use points to determine the forces. I went with a looks-and-feels-right approach. 
• Whilst I don't think characters should buy magic items directly (random draw or pay for random draw), having no points basically just meant I would randomise the magic items. 
• The player could determine which item was best suited to which character (sometimes, I'd advocate the character has what the character has, but this felt right this time). 
• I opted not to use the Chaos Gift cards (so no Eternal Labour...), even though I was really aching to. I didn't want Matt's 4th edition experience to have his chaos characters forced off the table before he could apply himself to the situation. I did use spells and magic items from that set, however. 

 

***

 

The Undead

The Undead. Clickening will embiggen.

 

CHARACTERS

 

Danni Le Roux - Vampire Lord

Items:

• Blessed Sword (Grants WS 10. Yeah, I know.)

Spells:

• Raise the Dead 
• Vanhels Dans Macabre

Captain Vorador - Wight Champion

Items:

• Wight Blade (1 W = 1d3 W)
  
• Heavy Armour

 

Lord Helke - Wight Champion

Items:

• Wight Blade (1 W = 1d3 W)
• Heavy Armour

 

Mihartiskaphut - Mummy Tomb Lord

Items:

• Manticore
• Dragonhelm (2+ save against fire attacks)

 

Scuttlebotch - Chaos Hero

Items:

• Mark of Nurgle (+1 Toughnesss)
• Tormentor Sword (Surviving victims are subject to Stupidity)
• Potion of Chaos
• Heavy Armour 

 

Livvissspot the Insidious - Sorcerer

Items:

• Mark of Slaanesh
• Dispel Magic Scroll
  

Spells: 

• Cacaphonic Choir
  

 

TROOPS

The Old Barrowmen of Stoodthorpe - 20 Zombies

Items:

• Evil disposition and pathetic moaning 

 

The 1st Companie of Averridge - 19 Skeletons

Led by Captain Vorador

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Spears
• Shields
• Light Armour
  

The Reapers of Farie Tor - 19 Skeletons

Led by Lord Helke

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Two Handed Weapons
  
• Light Armour 

 

The Hateful Eight - 8 Chaos Warriors

Items:

• Banner
• Two Handed Weapons
• Heavy Armour

 

The Blessed Few - 8 Plaguebearers of Nurgle

Items:

• Plague Swords (1 W = instant death)
• Cloud of Flies
• Daemon Saving Throw

Spells:

• Pillar of Putrefaction (bit of a lemon for these chaps...)
  

 

***

 

The Dwarves

Dwarves. And Halflings. And the brave constables of Averridge.

CHARACTERS

Hesior Thunderbuckle - Dwarf Lord

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Master Rune of Flight (throw weapon up to 12")
  
• Rune of Cleaving (+1S)
  
• Rune of Parrying (Enemy automatically misses one attack)
  
• Heavy Armour 
• Master Rune of Adamant (+2 Sv)
  
• Rune of Fortitude (+1T)
  
• Talisman
• Master Rune of Spite (4+ Save, if saved, wound is rebounded on enemy)

 

Bofel The Wise - Rune Lord

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Master Rune of Swiftness (Always attacks first)
  
• Heavy Armour 
• Rune of Resistance (Reroll failed armour save on unmodified 4+)
  
• Rune of Stone (+1 Sv)
  
• Talisman
• Rune of the Furnace (Immune to fire based damage)
  

 

Tuvith Thunderbuckle - Dwarf Hero

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Rune of Might (Double strength if enemy toughness greater than his)
• Crossbow
  
• Light Armour 
• Rune of Stone (+1 Sv)

 

Thrassuid Gravelhood - Battle Standard Bearer

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Shield
  
• Heavy Armour
• Battle Standard
• Master Rune of Stromni Readbeard (+1 Combat resolution for all friendly units within 12") 

 

Josef Bugman - Dwarf Hero

• Hand Weapon
• Rune of Cleaving (+1 S)
• Rune of Fury (+1 A)
  
• Crossbow
• Shield
  
• Light Armour 
• Rune of Resistance (Reroll failed armour save on unmodified 4+)
  
• Bugman's Tankard (Recover 1 W per drink, 3 uses per game)

 

'Owd' Tom Thyksson - Champion

Items:

• Hand Weapon
• Two-Handed Weapon 
• Crossbow
  
• Shield
  
• Light Armour

 

Captain Roland Prangle - General of the Empire

Items:

• Blade of Leaping Copper (+1 A)
• Golden Helm of Atrazar (2+ Sv)
  

Spells:

• Raise the Dead 
• Vanhels Dans Macabre

 

Elrich Lang - Master Wizard of the Grey Order

Items:

• Destroy Magic Scroll
  

Spells:

• The Crown of Taidron
  
• Bridge of Shadows
• Radiance of Ptolos

 

TROOPS

The Thunderbuckle Household Guard - 11 Hammerers

Led by Hesior Thunderbuckle

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Two Handed Weapons
• Hand Weapons
• Shields
  
• Heavy Armour
  

 

The Grand Companie of The Long Beard - 13 Longbeards

Led by Thrassuid Gravelhood

Items:

• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Shields
  
• Heavy Armour

 

The 7th Thunderbuckle Light Brigade - 9 Dwarf Warriors

Led by Bofel The Wise

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Shields
  
• Light Armour

 

Tuvith's Scouting Party - 4 Dwarf Warriors

Led by Thuvith Thunderbuckle

Items:

• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Crossbows
  
• Light Armour

 

Bugman's Dwarf Rangers - 8 Dwarf Warriors

Led by Josef Bugman

Accompanied by 'Owd' Tom Thyksson

Items:

• Banner
• Musician
• Hand Weapons
• Two-Handed weapons
• Crossbows
  
• Shields
  
• Light Armour

 

The Averridge 1st Company of the Constabulary - 29 Imperial Halberdiers

Led by Captain Roland Prangle

Items:

• Banner
• Halberds
• Shields
  
• Light Armour

 

WAR MACHINES

 

Big Jessie - Cannon 

Items:

• Halfling Crew
  

 

***

 

The next post will cover the battle itself.

***

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ChaosThurauder Horse and Friends

Yeah, that's not a typo. I just made up a word. I suspect it will have limited value to humankind's ever growing dictionary, however. The Oxford people haven't replied to my letter, at any rate.

A long long time ago, I fantasised about Chaos Thug Horse. As best as I can recall, the first figures that were actually released as some sort of human light cavalry for chaos were as late as 6th edition - Thugs had stopped being and Marauders became what Thugs once were. Perhaps you remember the figures - this was when GW decided that Marauders were large, muscular, topless (with shaved and likely oiled chests) and wore tight trousers. All a bit YMCA, in my opinion. I think the cavalry were less over the top, by virtue of having horses, but I digress. 

The point is, if you want Thug Horse, you'll have to make your own.

To my simple mind, the solution, therefore, was to use normal foot Thugs and put them on horses. I mean, duh! Right? 

Hmmm...I'm not so sure. I believe the place I fell over on this one was that for whatever reason, most of my Thugs have a lot of armour. Curiously, those that would fit on horses are also carry the heaviest armour. It's almost like they knew the best way to get on a horse would be to have lots of armour.  

So at this point, I was going to put pictures up to explain and then move onto some further commentary. But I see that I've stuffed up my picture numbering, so that I would have to work harder than any returned value to change that into anything like how I pictured this post. 

And at the end of the day, I want you to see all the pictures, so I'm okay with that. 

But, by way of explanation, when I was taking pictures of the Thurauders, I thought I'd position them with a small chaos army. Just chaos, this time - not the extra friends that I typically use. It is a small army, but beautifully proportioned, as some would say. And not any cheaper (points wise, if that's of interest to you) for it either. 

Ultimately, everything else is self evident and warrants little explanation. We'll discuss the term Thurauder after the pictures...

Anyway, the army:

And then some closeups:

Actual close ups of the Thurauders:

The Thurauders are all mounted on Marauder metal chaos steeds - from what I can see, Marauder pretty much cloned the Citadel equivalents, but made them substantially smaller. I presume this was a cost thing, as the Citadel horses were colossal compared to the other mounts of the time. Below are some comparison shots of a Marauder and equivalent Citadel steed:

So, Thurauder. I'm hoping the term makes sense now, but essentially, right up until I had painted them, they looked like Thugs. Once painted, they looked a lot more like Marauder Horse. There was nothing 'light' about them as cavalry.

Now, of course, no one can argue they're not Chaos Thug horse - said troops can wear heavy armour. Once I've painted up the Citadel Chaos Warrior Horse, there will be quite a solid visual distinction between the two that I could capitalise on as I shift between Thug -> Marauder -> Warrior as I need to. Ultimately, I had planned to have the warriors on Juggernauts of Khorne as the Warrior Horse on Chaos Steeds, with the ones on steeds as the Marauders. Perhaps one day, when I get there, we can have the debate again. The point is, with the smaller horses, these guys are only likely to ever occupy the two lower slots...

Anyhow, must dash - see you soon!

Chaos!

Tonight is one of those bitter-sweet nights.

Bitter, in that I am unable to go to blog-con and meet a large proportion of the English Oldhammer community for another weekend of action packed 3rd edition.

Now I've not had any time to spend on the hobby for around a month now - and I've begun to experience withdrawal symptoms. I find myself staring longingly at my bureau, pregnant with leaden opportunity, before being dragged back to the real world with something along the lines of "you didn't hear a word I just said, did you?" or "if you were watching her like you were supposed to, she wouldn't have poured cat food into her pyjamas now, would she?"

But the evening is also sweet, in that real life has no requirements of me currently (for a change). The Minister of the Interior has retired for the evening early and The Apple of My Eye is sleeping soundly.

Too excited to paint (which requires discipline, patience and some concentration), I thought I'd assess where I was with my new Dark Elf army. Since my last post, the thing has grown somewhat. Enough to have attracted the attention of The Minister of the Interior, who has now placed sanctions against lead economy.

So, growth plans for the army have been suspended for the immediate term.

History has taught us that we're often our most innovative when placed under some duress. I suspect the duress under the spotlight here is possibly greater than domestic clampdowns on imaginary armies, but I'm under enough duress to consider other ways of expanding the army.

I think I've mentioned somewhere else that part of my job is to explore the re-use and future-use of software components. I've not? Oh - well, part of my job is to explore the re-use and future-use of software components. Calling on these peculiarly practical skills given the current predicament, it wasn't long before I spotted two synergies between the Dark Elves and the forces of Chaos. Curiously, the first synergy was not the more obvious Chaos-armies-of-Slaanesh-can-have-dark-elves synergy, but rather, Dark-Elf-armies-can-have-chaos-hounds one.

And so I started.

Trying to find where the hell the chaos hounds were. I knew I had some, somewhere.

You know how these things go. You open a drawer and scrabble around a little. Wood elves? no. Skaven? Forgot I had those, but not what I need right now. Pre-slotta undead? Hmmm...

Time to re-organise. Recent trade efforts have also been stymied by my lack of organisation (look - another synergy - re-organise and you can a) get the chaos hounds and b) trade!).

Of course, re-organising is itself an act of madness, as what starts as an activity to determine an outcome (find the chaos hounds!) becomes a series of lead trips where you begin to imagine what all of these things might look like painted, or what the giant might look like if you converted it this way. And its always nice to find things you forgot about (Siege works? Ace!).

Anyway. To cut a long story short, I eventually reorganised. It was still chaotic, but in a different way - I could now access all of my chaos assets, at the expense of other figures. No doubt I'll re-organise early next year when it crosses my mind that I need the pump wagon or the death riders.

Still, there is a reason for the post: whilst reorganising, I paid particular attention to the forces of chaos. You may recall that I've already spent some time exploring that avenue, so investing time on this option would theoretically pay dividends in the short term - because painting just a few of these will probably double the size and capability of the force.

So these are they: the forces of chaos. Unpainted, of course:

We kick off with my chaos thug horse unit. Yeah, I know, its a bit of a demotion for Kaleb Daark, but he really doesn't scale well with any other chaos infantry. In this case, the steeds are actually the marauder chaos steeds, which are significantly smaller than their citadel counterparts, but perfect for Kaleb. The scale also comes with an implicit indication of rank - small horse? Thug. In this case, the thugs are citadel thug infantry selected because their pose is especially suitable for sitting on a horse. The chaos warrior will become the unit standard. I do have other thugs for the three riderless steeds, but I'll have to remove them from their bases. As you can see, I have enough to make eight chaos horse-thugs.

Next up are the citadel steeds. You'll notice eight steeds here, as well. Anyone see a trend? These horses are much bigger than the marauder ones, so can be used either for Marauder Horse, or for Chaos Warrior Horse, depending on...

...the juggernauts. Only seven here, but I'm sure by now you've clicked - one more, and I'll meet a magic number for a particular realm of chaos army. So, these could either be used in the true Realm of Chaos context, or, if I decide to employ the citadel steeds above as Marauder Horse, these can serve as Warrior Horse on chaos steeds.

Here we have the riders. Yes, one of those is the Khorne juggernaut marine. You'll note I have seventeen riders, so I can get by without him, but somehow I think I could still use him - besides (synergy time!) - I might elect to pursue a Chaos Renegade army for Rogue Trader (after all, I love making up stories to explain to the doctor how it is that a soldier shaped blip showed up on the X-Rays again!).

Look - its those pesky chaos hounds - together with some friendly centaurs! Not as many as I thought I had, so will have to keep an eye out for more of these.

Flesh hounds of Khorne. Back on theme now. I realised to my horror that I am missing two heads. I bet you get this too when you're made to vacuum in your house: that sickening sound of something heavy being sucked int the machine, rattling its way up the pipe. Like me, you probably reason that there is no way that could be any of your valuable, precious lead, because you'd never be that careless, right? I seem to remember just such a sound occurring twice in rapid succession not that long ago, shortly after I had repackaged the hounds. It can't have been, right? Right?

Anyway, some thugs. Target was twenty four (three eights, you see...), but I have a few more. Of course, three will be selected to ride with the thug horse units.

Another shot, 'cos there's lots of them. This unit also consists of 'chaos warriors' - its entirely possible I will poach from this unit to form chaos marauder infantry, depending. Almost all of the thugs have heavy armour, so this isn't the light infantry option that it might be to other chaos armies.

And from the other side. Don't look at me like that - I know you love poring over pictures like this.

Chaos sorcerers and RoC specific Warriors. Of course, some of the specific warriors have already been painted (or converted to the cause of Nurgle), but these are enough to have either deity specific characters, or just to 'flavour' units as I need to. Also, the beast master, minus his scythe.

The more 'regular' chaos warriors.

And its not chaos if you don't have chaos dwarves. Seven of the best, together with a tenderiser.

I do have some bloodthirsters and whatever the Slaanesh daemons are called, but I didn't find them in my re-org. Or rather, I found my 'monster box' - which contains just that - all the monstrous things I have. I didn't open it - I just assumed they were still in there.

Where does this leave me? Well - now I want to paint the the thug cavalry. And make a chaos spawn out of the bits box.

Oh - and the hounds, of course. What did I want those for again?

A Finisher of Things

...which, as any longterm reader of this blog will know, is not me.

But, as the saga of the Bridge Over the River Chai has now drawn to a close, I am able to return to other members of The Unfinished.

Lets start with the last things that went into the painting queue:

Terror of the Lichemaster. These have been just lying around in a box for some time now. A few nights ago, my powerfully cruel imagination forced to me to consider the what-if scenario of one of these figures contracting lead rot. Panic struck, and I undercoated them as soon as I was able!

These are just pictures of the named characters - the others are coming.

Scenario 1:

Scenario 2:

Scenario 3:

Where's Krell, you ask? Well, I've already got a painted one of those. It was all I could do to get the time to even photograph these, let alone dig around trying to find him.

And the whole lot, scrounging for some love.

Unfinished that have seen a paintbrush - 15 halberdiers, their various commanders, a troll, a skull chucker and the iron claw chariot - a figure I've come to hate...

Unfinished that haven't even seen a paintbrush - two chaos figures from the August painting challenge I never finished (because of these two), some goblin command, the iron claw stone thrower, the remainder of the dungeoneering party I was putting together and some other assorted baddies:

But just as despair is about to set in, perhaps we should consider the good news? Because painting has happened, you see - some people may even remember these chaps from the Bring Out Your Lead! 2013 get-together. Off the back of many threats made aeons ago to produce a chaos army of Nurgle, I finally got around to painting some chaos warriors. Long time readers my recognise Onowitz Mann'fluh, which was produced as part of that plan over a year ago now.

Now Nurgle's magic number (or whatever its called) is seven, meaning that most units in the army must be comprised of seven figures or multiples of seven. Mild OCD suggested to me that I would never be able to cope with the incomplete rank such a number of figures would produce. So, a conversion - once again, champions of Slaanesh seem to be much better suited to Nurgle:

And then regular grunts:

What follows is a relatively modern figure - probably my favourite of the last two decades. Being a character of Nurgle, he was a no brainer:

...and relax - back to old lead:

As I was trying to get the unit painted quickly, I decided to select models that were equipped with two handed weapons, meaning I wouldn't need to paint shields. Of course, all chaos warriors are equipped with Shields, but I can't imagine any of the lovely oldhammer community would mind if they didn't happen to bring them along...

This next chap was given to me as Gratnak Nakk - the half orc from Forenrond's Last Stand. Quite how the giver arrived at that conclusion, I don't know, but he has always been a half-orc from that point on. Of course, the gods of chaos are equal opportunity employers, so he was welcome:

And Mann'fluh. Sometimes a chaos sorcerer, sometimes a banner bearer. As the army develops, he may very well become the army standard.

When preparing for BOYL! 2013, I decided to roll up a chaos champion. In a curious twist of fate, he actually came out relatively well and normal. Not only that, but he got a chaos steed! This, then, is Baron Bodiyoder:

And, because I like I know you, dear reader, like army shots, I thought I'd take a look at what I could scrape together that was expressly and obviously of chaos. I know I could throw the goblins in there as chaos goblins, but we've seen a lot of goblins lately, so I thought I'd spare you. Also, They were under a lot of other things that would mean I would have to not take this picture and organise my painting station instead. I think you'll agree, this was probably the better outcome:

Its nice to finish with those that have successfully escaped from The Unfinished - heres to many more months like it!