Realm of Chaos Spawn

This is a figure I have had in my collection for a long time. I cannot remember the date it was bought, early to mid 2000s I would hazard a guess. Back in those days, I was an old fogey in the glass cabinet section of the Warhammer forum. I bought the pack and split it with [fiend], a fellow painter on the forum, the idea being we would paint half each. I never got round to it for whatever reason, until all these years later. It’s kinda sad that it took so long.

I did make a start back in the day, it was glued to a square base and I had a notion to paint it as a Nurgle spawn, so it was already based in light green and bone colours. But my painting style has moved on. I wanted to give it more interest and more contrast, so I started adding hues and they developed at random. The left head I thought looked a bit alienesque and was shooting for a silver grey look, like a shark, but overdid it with the blue, decided I liked it and stuck with it. The right hand head stayed green and yellow. The middle head I was trying for a flesh colour but it turned out angry pinks, but again I quite like it so stuck with it.

Finally, here’s the chaos sorceror of my warband, to give a sense of scale. I am hoping to play games of Warhammer using the old fourth or fifth edition chaos book, in which there is a possibility that a character will be turned to a spawn for the amusement of the chaos gods (and my opponent, no doubt). At the moment the warband contains just one character, this sorceror, so he had better make sure he impresses those fickle deities!

X.III - Daemons

In this, the third of my celebratory posts, I am looking back at the year 2010. I painted lots of fantasy in that time, and played it almost exclusively, so there's a good selection of potential candidates. I added a few units to my orcs and goblins army - black orcs and green squigs stand out - and made more progress on the wood elf army. I also built but two pretty big conversions - a treeman and a shaggoth, which get honourable mentions. I reckon that already qualifies as a good vintage, but my biggest achievement for the year was putting together a small contingent of daemons.

I started by building and painting a unit of daemonettes. My aim at the time was to try something a little different, and a pink/purple palette was definitely that. These days I tend to paint in small batches of eight or twelve, but I obviously had more stamina in my youth - eighteen daemonettes.

After that I rewarded myself with a character model, a herald built from an old Warzone figure, with a whole host of (cute?) little attendants.

Then I finished off the project with a unit of pink horrors, the classic metal figures from that time and still my favourite renditions of the model.

Though the daemons started as an add-on for my chaos warriors, I did have grand plans to develop them into a full army. I have metal plaguebearers painted up and bloodletters half-painted, plus more daemonettes, screamers and various other figures. However, as with so many grand plans, nothing came of it.

One figure I did add a few years later was a Daemon Prince, converted from an old Azazel model. I left off the wings and replaced the head with that of an old school metal Fiend of Slaanesh, the tail I forget the source. I had this model half-painted for a good few years, but thought it would be nice to finally complete it as part of my celebrations.

Battle Report: WHFB Daemons vs Vampire Counts

The armies line up

You wait years for a game with your son, then two come along at once. Two games, in two days, with two sons! The first I wrote about here, telling of my defeat by daemons whilst commanding greenskins. This time, I commanded the chaotic wierdos against the might of the vampire counts. Only this time it was personal - son Tom wrote his own list for the bloodsuckers, using my limited selection of painted troops but with his own slant, which caused me some problems, as we shall see.

Turn 2

The set up was pretty similar to last time, I had left the terrain as it was, but changed the arcane ruins for a ruined church and walls. This control of this building was the objective of the battle.

Rolling for first turn, I lost again, and the vampires surged toward my gibbering horde. Dire wolves raced ahead, but were quickly dispatched by screamers and a Nurgle beast. Zombies scrabbled out of the ground at an alarming rate. A necromancer lord on a corpse cart was a surprise choice that my level 1 herald and horrors found difficult to compete with. A flank charge by a small pack of zombies held up my nurglings for the whole game, they were unable to combat reform as they lost every round of combat and do not have a musician. Though I stalled one unit of ghouls with screamers, the rest of the army advanced at a rapid pace. This was another surprise for me, two units of 15 ghouls whereas I expected one bigger block. Most worrying was a varghulf and a banshee hurtling down my left flank, I feared for the safety of my Daemon Prince so moved him over to the right.

Turn 3

With my beasts of Nurgle tied up by zombies or ghouls, the varghulf was free to flank charge the daemonettes, while the banshee had a shooting/screaming match with pink horrors. The varghulf took just two turns to destroy the clawed ones, though the horrors managed to win the shouting match. Another unit of zombies surfaced just in front of the flamers, survived their shots, charged them, beat them, then saw them sucked back into the realm of chaos (if zombie eyes actually function). That's my first double 6 with the daemon instability test, I can imagine that being painful with a big unit of daemons.

Chaos surge my arse!

Things were not going well for the daemons. They struggled to contain the vampire magic. The most devastating spell was yet to come. A gaze of Nagash hit the daemon prince straight between the eyes. Three wounds caused! No problem, I was currently basking in the glory of the chaos gods, who had granted me a chaos surge. With a ward save of 4+, I picked up three dice and launched them confidently - the picture says it all. Just one wound left on the prince, the daemonettes destroyed, the flamers sucked back into the ether, the nurglings in a never ending battle with zombies, while the vampires had still not suffered any significant losses.

The game was lost, but I wanted to try one last chance for glory. The prince charged into the centre of the grave guard, hunting down the vampire general. It was a suicide mission, but it could just claw back some respect from his chaos partrons. Tom accepted the challenge for fun, in a serious game he pointed out that the grave guard champion would have stepped up. The vampire had quick reflexes and struck first, caused 3 or 4 wounds, none of which I could save (the chaos gods had by now withdrawn their blessings and my ward save was just 6+). Down went the prince in the dirt at the feet of the victorious bloodsuckers. A late double charge by a Nurgle beast and the herald on disc into the corpse cart ended in another fiasco and I conceded the game.

MVP - varghulf, snacking at the after battle buffet 

The vampires dominated quite easily. Ghouls and zombies proved very efficient at blocking my troops, while the varghulf rampaged through a unit of daemonettes followed by a unit of horrors. The grave guard didn't even have to lift a blade to help out. My magical defences were useless against a necromancer lord and my prince paid the ultimate price for this weakness. I always knew this daemon setup was sub-optimal, I am still trying to work out how the heck it won in the previous game. I could blame the dice, but in reality I was simply outgunned in both magic and combat phases. So, two major defeats in two games, though I can also claim that my armies won!

Battle Report: WHFB Daemons vs Orcs and Goblins

Turn 1

I can't remember the last time I played a game at my own house, I usually go round to a friend's for my Friday night action. When my son Ben offered me a game, I jumped at the chance. A 4x4 battle mat on a table tennis table in the garage was set up with a small selection of scenery, a few woods on the fringes, a swamp on my left and arcane ruins just off centre of my right. The ruins were declared the objective of the game, whichever side was in control at the end of the game would be the winner.

I added up my painted daemons and it came to around 1600 points, so I scribbled down a similar sized list of my painted greenskins. I went for fairly easy-going armies - each had a lord to lead them, and small magic support. The daemons had a Tzeentch herald on a disc plus two units of horrors, while the greenskins had an orc shaman and a night goblin shaman.

Turn 2

The game started with the daemons electing to take first turn. A swarm of nurglings had been enjoying an afternoon frolic in the swamp, their fun interrupted by a vanguarding unit of wolf riders. The nurglings charged in and easily despatched the wolf riders for the cost of just one wound - you can see the tiny orange dice marking this in the first picture above. Sweeping forward they threatened the spear chukkas, picture right. Supported by screamers, it already looked a little tricky for the greenskin left flank. A spear chukka shot wounded a beast of Nurgle, and poisoned arrows from the night goblin archers took down one screamer, but it was not enough to prevent the daemonic advance. The centre stalled as the trolls went stupid and ambled forward a little. The right flank showed some promise, as a pair of wolf riders survived daemon flames to make a surprise charge on a Tzeentch herald on disc, but they were easily fought off.

Turn 3

The main action was in the centre of the board. A single beast of Nurgle held up the trolls, while the daemonettes survived a defeat and then slowly gained the upper hand against the orcs. The screamers slashed the night goblin shaman, but amazingly he took just one wound from the 5 or 6 hits, only to gobble down a poisoned mushroom in the next turn! The screamers then crashed into the rear of the night goblin archers, defeated them easily and pursued into the back of the trolls. With two beasts of Nurgle to the front and screamers in the rear, the trolls too were easily overcome. The nurglings steadily swarmed over the spear chukkas, the greenskin left flank was in tatters, the right flank was ineffective as the squig herd moved up under fire from flamers and pink horrors, slowly whittling down the ranks.

The picture above shows the scene just before it all went horribly wrong for the greenskins. The trolls are just about to be surrounded and destroyed, while the orcs are about to be flanked by the Daemon Prince. His three kills and a good round from the daemonettes saw the orcs destroyed (despite my forgetting his thunderstomp rule), the daemonettes then pursuing into the black orcs. Things might not have been that bad if the orc warlord had survived. He was engulfed by blue fire of Tzeentch, I had overlooked the horrors lurking by the ruins, the single wound from the spell augmented by the warpflame toughness test was too much for the poor orc to endure. Adding insult to injury, the daemonettes then easily defeated the black orcs in combat and ran them down. We fought one last combat between the herald of Tzeentch with his super-charged wand of whimsy and the orc shaman with his glowing green fists of gork, but it was a bad day to be green and the orc shaman was killed. With just half a unit of goblin spearmen and a depleted herd of squigs remaining, I conceded defeat.

The dead daemons, all 6 of them

A fine victory for the daemons, their casualties (right) were virtually none, while the bulk of the greenskins had been destroyed. A surprising result for a fun afternoon with plenty of drama, a few laughs and a good smattering of random events. At one point, Nurgle himself intervened but did not harm a single one of the five Tzeentch units on the board, but did manage to take out some black orcs and a fanatic. The daemons also benefitted from an enhanced save in one turn, so the reign of chaos rolls helped rather than hindered the daemon cause. On the other hand, warpflame gave about half of the greenskin units a regeneration save, which made the warlord episode particularly funny as his toughness 5 meant he would have gained regeneration on any roll but a 6, so I promptly rolled the 6 to kill him off! A classic dice roll very fitting in a game of random carnage.

A final note. We were playing a slightly modified version of 8th edition rules, in case you are bemused by the small size of the regiments. I took out the supporting attack rule and I also allowed just the front rank to fire missiles. The result is slightly less carnage in shooting and combat, but otherwise the game plays pretty much the same as the full-on version, only without the need for regiments the size of house bricks. Much easier on the eye, in my view.

Daemon Prince nearly done

The daemon prince of Slaanesh is almost finished. I am pretty happy with the palette, though black horns on the head may well have been a better choice, something I might change when I come to finish it off. I am wondering what to do with the base, the current brown sandy effect was just a stop gap so I could appraise the model on a neutral backdrop. The fallen elven ruin was my first idea, with lush grass and white and lilac flowers. I thought this would make a change from the usual lava/brimstone most seem to go for, plus there is a little fluff about Slaanesh daemons being particularly fond of elven souls. However, I am thinking of making changes to my gaming surface, so will probably test out my ideas on the daemon bases. I need to research my options a little before taking the plunge.

Dark Prince Rising

Yes, I am still painting! It's been a long two months in coming, but here's the first of the models in my newly resurrected Daemons army. It feels good to have a new project underway, especially one that allows me to get to 2000 points in a short period of time. I have taken some time deciding on how to progress with the daemons, based on the materials I have to hand and a couple of test games. I am building the army according to my usual principles of including models I like, rather than optimal performers.

I have to confess that most of my troops are actually Tzeentch, but I had the old Azazel model and wanted to use it, so I will just have to manage. There were a few bits missing, notably the head and wings, so it became a wingless Prince with the head of a fiend. It's coming along nicely, I am enjoying playing with glazes, both for the shading and highlights.

As the general worships Slaanesh and because I already have the models, I have also made a start on some Seekers of Slaanesh. I'm not sure I really need fast cavalry as I already have 5 screamers fulfilling that role, but I do like the models and again wanted to experiment a little with glazing. One thing I have discovered is that the plastics take the paint much better than the metal. You would think that the primer would make them equal, but no. Perhaps it's the sculpting, the older metal models can seem quite clumsy when compared with the fine detail of the plastics.

I have a very leisurely deadline for these models, the end of the month for the Prince and the end of May for the Seekers. This is to coincide with the painting challenge over on the Warhammer forum. I will also be adding more Slaanesh units to the army, with embryonic plans to build a chariot and some fiends. The only problem then would be that would take the army to 2400 points, so I would need more core troops, with some plaguebearers being favourites to expand the army. For the short term though, it's the Dark Prince who will be feeling the stroke of my brush!

Second game with Daemons

Last night I played my second game with the Daemons of Chaos, this time a 2k pointer against the Empire. In the first game I was very conscious of lacking hitting power, so this time I added some muscle in the form of a Soul Grinder and a Daemon prince of Slaanesh. The rest of my army was pretty much my existing collection of two small units of horrors, flamers, Tzeentch herald on disc, screamers, a pair of Nurgle beasts, nurglings and a Slaanesh herald leading a unit of daemonettes. I also included the unit I am currently working on, Seekers of Slaanesh. I don't really consider this setup to be balanced in any way, but I just wanted to give it a try.

The Empire forces had two cannons perched on a hill in the centre of his lines, so I knew I would have to suck up some punishment in the early part of the game. I didn't want to give away any big prizes, so my Soul Grinder headed into the nearest wood and my Prince loitered behind a building, while my screamers and seekers raced down the flanks, hoping to swoop around the rear and into the cannon battery. As it turned out, I worried too much. Neither cannon was able to inflict much damage, I think a couple of daemonettes was the paltry tally, before the screamers ripped the crews to shreds. The Nurglings did well, tying up and finally overcoming a unit of outriders, who have proved a thorn in my side many times in previous games. The herald and daemonettes made short work of a unit of greatswords, while a pair of Nurgle beasts held up a large unit (40) of spearmen. It was touch and go as one failed to make the initial charge and the lone beast had to struggle on for two turns of combat, teetering on the brink with just one wound remaining, until his buddy joined him. Another solid performance from the nurglings, screamers and beasts.

The horrors and flamers did less, as I usually find with shooting and magic. Warpflame accounted for more casualties than actual spell damage and, even better, in this game just one enemy unit gained regeneration. Two small missile units fell to the magical onslaught and, in a very lucky break for me, panicked a wizard lord from the field of battle. But that was one of those extremely unlucky rolls by my opponent. In a shock result, a unit of horrors managed to survive more than one turn of combat against a charge from demigryphs, before finally succumbing. By this time, the Empire troops had been just about fully destroyed and the game was declared over.

The debut troops did less well. The Soul Grinder was caught by flagellents and held up for a couple of turns, effectively keeping him out of the game. The Prince failed his only declared charge and so did not get to enjoy the orgy of destruction meted out to the spearmen. And the seekers whipped up the flank at great speed but were beaten to their target by the faster screamers. Still, at least none of the new troops were destroyed, as often happens.

My first victory with the Daemons. More importantly, I am enjoying playing them and have finally shaken off my painting apathy. The restoration of the daemon army is now officially started!

Foolish Rambling and a first game with Daemons

I spent a little time over the weekend rummaging through my chaos collection. I still have a good few units to add to the chaos warriors army, but it was the daemons I was looking at. I played my first game with the new army book the other night, just a 1500 point trial, and I wanted to see what unpainted options I had lurking in the lead mines. Yes, some of them really are lead, I have had them for some time!

The army I used in the first game was very light on hitty options, being mostly Tzeentch horrors, flamers and screamers. I did use a pair of big stoppers, a pair of Nurgle spawn stepped in as proxies. And I had lots of little nurglings bounding about, a unit of daemonettes, a Slaanesh herald and another of my chaos spawn proxied as a Tzeentch herald on disc.

The herald on disc rolled three sixes on his first attempt at a metal spell, took out a Khorne bloodcrusher, then was sucked back in to the Realm of Chaos for his efforts, no doubt the Blood god had a hand in this. I was a little surprised that there is not a dedicated miscast table for daemons, they have their own rules for most everything else! The remaining Tzeentch daemons did a good job at removing skirmishers and even a giant through shooting/slashing attacks, with a little help from those pesky Nurglings. But eventually the daemons had to face up to heavily armoured chaos troops. While the Beasts of nurgle were able to slow them down, there was nothing in my army that could take them down. I knew this going into the game, so despite the defeat came out of it with a renewed determination to bolster the army. Hence the searching of the lead mines.

I have already started prepping a unit of plastic Slaanesh seekers, but obviously these are light, fast troops and I am looking for something with a little more punch. I did find the remnants of Azazel the Daemon Prince, minus his head, tail and wings. So, my first build was a wingless Slaanesh daemon prince. I suppose this would be my general, though I have more Tzeentch troops than anything, so possibly not the best choice. Having said that, I am not a tournament player and the random nature of the army is one of the appealing factors to me playing it, so I see no reason why not. In any case, it's the army standard bearer who has a bigger influence on avoiding the dreaded double 6 roll (get this on a break test and the whole unit goes "pouufff").

Looking through my collection, I found plenty more devotees of the Dark Prince. There are enough bits to build some Fiends and I have enough plastic daemonettes for another unit. So it may be that Slaanesh will rise and eclipse his brothers by the time the army is finished. I think the fact that I am coming to a new army book with an army practically ready to play helps fan the flames of enthusiasm. My Vampire Counts army has started and stalled twice in the past couple of years, each time I look at a mass block of zombies or skeletons I fail my painting (terror) test and choose something a bit less voluminous. The search also revealed some very old (and very bad) attempts with green stuff to build chaos spawn. I am hoping to rescue these and practise my sculpting on a couple of Beasts of Nurgle. I do also have something in mind to use as a soul grinder, but something more in keeping with the fantasy background, not the official model.

Looking further ahead, I might be tempted to spend a bit of money on the army. So far my only expenditure has been on the book, all the other items I have had for many years. I am not particularly keen on the look of all the new models, but I think the flaming chariot has a better chance than anything else of inclusion. I quite like the idea of keeping the army mostly Tzeentch and Slaanesh, it gives a good contrast to the brute force of the chaos warriors army and requires a different approach to how I tackle my enemies. After all, if I wanted to just run up to them and smash them in the face, then I would stick with the warriors. Most tempting of all is this fine figure from Pegaso Models (on a side note, I will be looking at more alternative models in a future post). It's 54mm and so should be about the right scale to be used as a daemon prince. I have wanted to try my hand at something like this for some time, and I do have a birthday coming up, so maybe the moons have aligned and the wallet will be opened briefly, doors of Moria style. To buy, or not to buy, that is the question? Well, they do say that a fool and his money are easily parted.

Alternative Slaanesh Herald

I am still dithering about which direction to take, if any, with the Daemons of Chaos. I have my first game with them coming up this weekend, which should give me a gut reaction to whether I like them enough to commit precious hobby time to them. If I do pick up this project, I will be adding on to my existing collection of mostly Slaanesh and Tzeentch models.

Reading the army book, it seems that daemonic heralds are quite expensive in points for what they add, but when I see a concept like this one, all thoughts of points efficiency disappear in a haze of painting lust. As you can see, this model is from the current Warzone kickstarter, but surely Warhammer players will immediately recognise the potential here for an alternative Herald of Slaanesh. In fact, this is a reboot of a pretty old metal model that I painted for this purpose a few years ago (picture is here).

In a similar vein is this model from Avatars of War. I should be getting hold of one of these in the near future, so it seems I might have two heralds, or maybe one of these could become a unit champion. Luckily I have a unit of daemonettes already painted and ready to game with, with another unit still in the box waiting for attention. So there is plenty of scope for using either or both of these lovely models at some point. Even if I decide against a daemon project, the Domina model would also make a splendid character model in a Chaos Warriors army, a sorceror perhaps. There's even the obligatory skull, so it would slot right into a Warhammer army!

A Brief Pause to Reflect on Exciting Times Ahead

It's time to take stock.

I have been drifting a little bit lately, wondering what to work on next  for my armies. There are a number of candidates vying for my hobby time. The recently purchased Daemons of Chaos book has proven to be an interesting read and I am hoping to get a game with them in the next couple of weeks. I have around 1200 points already painted and a few ideas on how to expand the army. I outlined my plans in a recent post and now that I have read the book I am pretty sure that I will be taking this project on. Most of my painted units are Tzeentch and Slaanesh so I will most likely continue in this vein. I am going to rebase the army, possibly taking the radical step of using elements (multibases) rather then single bases, but this needs a little bit more thought before I commit.

I have also been thinking about the direction to take with my Saga forces. The recently finished Saxon warband has proven a little disappointing. In gaming terms it really needs to be a horde. In aesthetic terms I have decided it's a little below par, but have been hesitant to spend on metal historical figures because most of those I find to be uninspiring. I have plans to re-use the Saxons as Anglo-Danes, as I find this battle board to be more varied and interesting to play. Scratching around for decent figures, I found this little snippet of news, that Gripping Beast are finally near to releasing some generic plastics for the game. I would guess they will be unveiled at Salute. About time too! Just when I had decided that I would probably go for a metal Jomsviking warband, with possibly some Rus figures for variety. Maybe I will do both.

There's lots of new figures and games floating around the internet, sometimes it's hard to keep up with what's going on. Westwind Productions have a kickstarter underway for a range of steampunk/Victorian gothic gaming. If Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Wolfman, Ripper Street, or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is your thing, then it's well worth a look. There's also a ruleset about to be released by Osprey gaming in a similar vein, with accompanying figures. A project for a little later in the year maybe.

Another little gem cropped up just today. Only last night I was wishing there was a War of the Worlds style game, based on the original HG Wells vision, when All Is Quiet on the Martian Front appeared in the blogosphere. It seems that we gamers only have to wish for a game and it will appear on kickstarter! Definitely one to watch, for me at any rate. World War I tanks, tripods, aliens and death rays, all in 15mm, a scale I have coveted for quite some time. Hopefully the kickstarter, when it launches, will live up to my dreams. If not, I'm sure something else will come along. There just isn't enough hours in a day to indulge in all this hobby goodness.

If none of this appeals to you, just do what I did - close your eyes, make a wish, and head to kickstarter.

Daemonic Plans

I am still waiting for the Chaos Daemons book to arrive. The little snippets I have read on various forums have got me intrigued, the randomness that many despise is something that really appeals to me. I am still unsure about the aesthetic of  a lot of the models, but there's enough I do like for me to start my planning. Currently I have the following in a painted state:-

• daemonettes and herald - pic here and here
• horrors - pics here
• nurglings - pics here
• plaguebearers - pic here, painted for 40k but could be rebased
• screamers 
• flamers
• furies of Slaanesh
• furies of Nurgle

In a part-painted or unpainted state I also have:-

• seekers
• beasts of Nurgle (old metal models)
• more daemonettes
• bloodletters (metal versions with axes)
• more flamers
• Azazel daemon prince, minus wings
• fiends

That's enough for at least 2000 points I reckon, probably more like 3000 if I add in a greater daemon. So plenty of material to play with. The second list is in sequence, the models I like at the top, with the two items at the bottom possibly destined for ebay.

Seeking Ideas

Apparently, it's now spring. Lighter nights and warmer weather are here. It seems like the perfect time to start on something new.

I have quite a few projects on the go at the moment - Sedition Wars is ticking along nicely, I have recently enjoyed painting a couple of characters for my Chaos Warriors army, and I have some vague ideas about a viking Saga warband. But all these things seem like side projects, fillers to keep me going until the next big thing comes along. I guess I am most happy when I have dozens of models to build and paint for an army. That means Warhammer of course!

I have a number of Warhammer armies in various states of completeness, including over 4000 points of Chaos Warriors, 2000 points of Wood Elves, about the same in Orcs and Goblins, around 2500 points of Dwarfs and a fledgling Vampire Counts army. But none of these appeal to me at this particular time. I want to revisit an army I started back in 2010, when I made a start on a small Chaos Daemons force. I have some models from back then that I could work on, so I wouldn't even have to buy any new toys. I just need the new book. While I wait for that to arrive, I have a few ideas on how to develop the army. More on that soon.

Pink Horrors

I picked up a dozen pink horrors recently on ebay, but when they arrived I realised that some of the metal arms were missing. A quick search in my pile of unpainted figures and I found some ghoul arms. I also added some twisted tree roots from the wood elf sprues. I like the slightly more mutated result on a few of the models.

I don't know if 12 is a good number for a unit of horrors, it just happened to be the number I had available. I do have another 10 that I painted some years ago, which I might add to this unit. But I think first I should try them out in two smaller units and see how they get on.

It's interesting to see the difference in painting styles of the two units. The older unit I painted by layering and blending. It gives a very smooth look, but is quite time consuming. The newer unit was speed painted, mostly glazing and stippling in quite a loose manner. It's difficult to compare the two because of the different colours, but I definitely like the time savings involved in my current technique. It allows me to paint more models!

Cute nurglings

 The daemon army has come to a minor halt this last couple of weeks as I turn my attentions to a couple of other projects. However, I am determined to add at least one regiment per month. For this particular month I can smugly claim to have two regiments.

Nurglings are pretty easy to paint up, so adding six bases to the army and calling them two regiments is maybe a bit of a cheat. But I do actually intend to use both regiments. They scout, so can take up advanced positions in deployment and hopefully threaten artillery, small units of shooters, enemy scouts and the like. Daemon armies seem very fragile to my eye (though I have never actually fought with or against them as yet), so I am a bit obsessed about countering artillery and shooting.

Keen eyed observers will have noticed that these little bands of mischief makers contain a few surprises, in that some of the models are not nurglings. A quick scrabble through my bitz box and I found a few old familiars that helped to add a little variety to the mix.

She Who Must Be Obeyed

Here's something you don't see very often; an old Warzone figure I picked up from a sale bin about ten years ago. I knew it would be useful at some stage. I chopped off it's rather clunky arm and replaced it with a plastic daemonette claw, trimmed down the badly sculpted loin cloth to a more fashionable mini skirt and painted it up to match the daemonettes. It's stood on a 25mm base to act as a herald in that unit, though it's not a very good fit, all those arms/claws get in the way.

My time on the army has been limited in the past few weeks, though I have also managed to churn out a few nurgling bases. I will post pictures of them in the next couple of days.

Handmaidens of Slaanesh

Oh dear, I seem to have started another army. But wait, this is one army that I really think I can finish in a matter of months rather than years. Daemons are high points cost, so the number of models per army is low, typically well below 100 for an army of 2000 points. So that's one reason. I also have the models already, so I won't have to hunt round for bargains. But the main reason is that these are some of the few models my wife actually likes and she said that if she could ever be persuaded to play, it would have to be these models. And as we all know, "yes dear" solves 90% of all problems so daemons it is, for the next few months at any rate.

This unit of 18 daemonettes will be added to 10 horrors, 5 screamers and a Tzeentch herald I already have painted from a few years back. That's over 500 points to get me well on the way. I will probably concentrate on the Slaanesh regiments to start with, to get some smaller games started with my new pupil. Ultimately I would like to use the army myself and would like it to contain one core unit from each of the deities, but that's not a short term prospect. For the time being, it will be mostly Slaanesh, with a reasonable slice of Tzeentch and a smattering of the other two.