Jugger-Helbrute

The cheapest Blood Host is a Slaughtercult plus a standard Helbrute. So if I want to get a Blood Host into a 500pts battle, a Helbrute seems a good choice! As I had Dark Vengeance sitting around, this was a quick-and-dirty addition to the force.

This model really wasn't modified much. One leg was sawn off at the hip, and stuck back on in a slightly more dynamic running pose. The head is from a jugger. But that's it. Was tempted to modify the arms, but it all seemed like far too much bother. If I make a second one I will!

Eldar-inspired Herald

This guy is a Herald of Khorne (because they're such cheap HQ choices!), who has been formed from the violent thoughts of Eldar. The perversions of the Eldar gave birth to Slaanesh, and now the Eldar have an entire way of life that attempts to deny Slaanesh by entirely focussing on other pursuits. But surely an entire slice of their population being that dedicated to the Path of the Warrior must have some sort of echo in the Warp? I've always liked the idea that there might be links between Khorne and Khaine, as well.

Obviously the body of the model is the new Exarch. He was tilted forwards slightly, given arms from Dark Elves and Dark Eldar, a head from the Chaos Chariot, and wings from the Vampire Counts Morghast. It's an odd concept, but was quite fun to make and I was worried that I'd never find anyone suitable for the Chaos Chariot head! It's too elegant to be put on a beastman/cultist/marine body.

2nd Squad of Possessed

My second possessed squad for Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers. I had so much fun building the 1st squad, that I wanted more! Also, this enables me to take 2 Blood Hosts, which seems an amazing idea for maximising Blood Tithe points.

These guys have the Roman-style shoulder pads from the Marauders kit. Mostly because I'd run out of the ones with the spikes... I think that they still look gladiatorial though, so still fit with the theme. I think that this champion is possibly my favourite non-HQ model I've made so far. The Wrathmonger legs, horn-swapped head, his mini-daemon-prince pose... I even like his trophy rack more than the ones on other champions!

Kagh Bo'orchu completed!

Hans Kho'ren has always preached that the aim of a Space Marine is to emulate their Primarch. His loyal apothecary, Kagh Bo'orchu, is essential for this. It is Kagh who implants new members of the Skull Takers with the gene-seed and blood of their Primarch to turn them into true World Eaters; Kagh who was one of the first apothecaries to experiment with the Butchers' Nails; and Kagh who, after Angron's apotheosis, studied with Lorgar's Word Bearers to discover the secrets of the Possessed. Kagh's drive to become more like Angron has taken him far from humanity, but his journey is not yet over.

Kagh Bo'orchu's right arm still bears the twisted Chaotic remains of his Narthecium, constantly in flux and emitting new spikes as required. His armour is brass, forged to mimic the Armour of Mars worn by Angron, showing he is an important figure in the Skull Takers. On his left shoulder he bears a gladiatorial shoulder pad, in memory of Angron's past; his right shoulder pad is a snarling skull, symbol of Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers. His helmet is pale and horned, like all in the Skull Takers, in honour of their daemonic patron.

Possessed Chaos Space Marines

Here's the first squad that I've built for Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers, a squad of Possessed. These guys seem pretty essential for Daemonkin, as adding them will enable me to have a Slaughtercult at the core of a Blood Host. Free Blood Tithe points is always good!

Their shoulder pads display their allegiance, matching the ones used by the rest of the Skull Takers. All of Hans Khoren's men wear one gladiatorial shoulder pad, reflecting their father Angron's past. The Skull Takers believe that they should emulate their primarch as much as possible, continually remaking themselves in his image, and this is part of that. Their other shoulder pad is always a skull, proudly displaying their loyalty to Hans Kho'ren, the Skull Taker, commander of the 19th Company of the World Eaters.

The torso, heads, and arms are all from the standard Possessed kit; the backpacks are from Chaos Space Marines; the legs are a mish-mash of random Space Marine bits that have been clogging up my bits box for too long; the shoulder pads are from Berserkers and Marauders. The Champion's legs are from the new WFB Khorne Wrathmongers, lovely pieces.

My 1st Chaos Space Marine: Kagh Bo'orchu

There's still lots to be done to this guy: his base, lots of smaller armour plates and details, and so on. But here's the basic structure of Kagh Bo'orchu, one-time apothecary and loyal lieutenant of Hans Kho'ren. In game he can be a Possessed Champion, Herald, or Lord, as I go through my current period of rapidly adjusting army lists all the time.

Half way to completing the Cruor!

The Daemon-Primarch Angron was accompanied to Armageddon by 12 Bloodthirster bodyguards, the Cruor Praetoria. I've now completed 6 of them, half way there! (Although the next 6 will all be of the bigger size, and I haven't made Angron either, so really I'm much less than half way there. Ah well.) I'm quite tempted to field the 6 of these as a 1,500pts Khorne Daemonkin Unbound force...

Dzamhes the Decapitator has merged with his weapons to such an extent that it is hard to tell where he ends and they begin. He wields his brutal sword and whip with expert skill, leaving a trail of dead behind him as he chases the next hero whose tale he will end.

Gotfrith the Deflagrated faced one of the founders of the Grey Knights during the Horus Heresy, who cast him back into the warp using sorcerous flames that stripped the flesh from his bones. Despite being rebuilt in brass and iron he has never fully recovered, and his wings remain in tatters. He has nurtured his hatred over the millennia, and now his loathing of all living things is a potent force that fills all in his vicinity.

I love the Morghast wings, and as soon as GW released them I wanted to use them to make Skarbrand. Very happy with how it worked out.

Vizekh Sorceror-Bane has always been a foe of those who delve too deep into occult lore. He lurks in the warp, waiting for a psyker to get too greedy, to attempt to use a spell beyond their ability to control, poised to consume their souls.

Putokh the Disemboweler has spent the aeons of waiting in the Warp well, crafting himself a fearsome body in Khorne's Brass Foundries. Now when he emerges into realspace he soars high above the battlefield, before diving into combat feet-first, chain-claws revving, and tears his apart enemies before they have a chance to defend themselves.

Next up I want to make some Chaos Space Marines to round out my Daemonkin, the Skull Takers of Hans Kho'ren.

My first 1000pt Khorne Daemonkin game!

So, last night I fielded 2 Bloodthirsters, 2 Soul Grinders with Phlegm, and 2 squads of Bloodletters (each with a Bloodreaper). I went up against an Eldar army: an Avatar, a Farseer, a Wraithlord, a squad of Dire Avengers, a squad of Jetbikes with a Warlock, a squad of Swooping Hawks, and a Wave Serpent.

The centre of the table was dominated by a ruined church on my right flank, with a few towers on the left. There were ruins in our deployment zones as well.

The Eldar deployed first, mostly opposite the left/centre but with the Hawks and Jetbikes on my right. I put my Soulgrinders, the Warlord Thirster, and 1 squad of Letters on the left/centre, the other Thirster off on the right. This was a mistake, I should have kept them together. But it was hard, with all the ruins in my deployment zone.

Basically I ploughed forward, shooting off Phlegm (which scattered wildly and did nothing). The pointy ears blasted away, knocking off some wounds & hull points from Thirsters and Grinders. The Thirster on the right was whittled away by the hawks and jetbikes, never reaching them before falling. The second Letters squad appeared over on the right by the Jetbikes, but was blown away by them.

On the left a Soulgrinder charged the Avatar, and got smashed out of existence in return. The Avatar then charged the other Soulgrinder. My Thirster piled into his Avatar to save the Grinder, whilst the Letters moshed into the Dire Avengers, both with the Blood Tithe giving them Rage. The Letters did well, leaving only 1 Avenger standing; and the Avatar & Thirster began knocking each other about. Because the Thirster had to challenge the Avatar, the Grinder did nothing (whoops).

Then the Avatar turned invisible, the Wraithlord charged the Letters, and the Farseer & Swooping Hawks charged the Grinder. My Thirster suddenly found it very hard to hit the Avatar, my Soul Grinder was going down, and my Letters were fighting someone that they couldn't hurt and couldn't run away from...

At this point the Blood Tithe began to be useful. I managed to get enough points to bring in a new Bloodletter pack, who promptly Mishapped and were placed by my opponent into a shooting alley. And were blown apart. Killing them and the Wraithlord finishing my other squad got me enough Tithes to bring in a new new Bloodletter pack, who again mishapped into the shooting alley.

And then my Warlord Thirster finally fell, with enough wounds on him to carry over into the Grinder. I was deaded.

Khorne was pleased! Lots of blood!

I made mistakes. I shouldn't have left a Thirster all on his own on the right flank. I should have sent the Thirster against the Wraithlord, not the Avatar as that left my Grinder useless. But hey, it's one of my first games since 5th ed, I'm still getting back into the swing of things.

In the future, I want to have more people with 3+ saves. My daemons disappeared scarily fast when he started shooting, especially with the Warlock using Sanctic powers to reduce my invulnerable save. The Slaughtercult formation giving me more Blood Tithe points would be very good as well, that's one to look into. And some small sacrificial squads, there to win Blood Tithe by dying.

Possible 1,500pts:
Slaughtercult
Bloodthirster: 250pts
Possessed: 150pts
Chaos Marines: 130pts
Chaos Marines: 130pts
Cultists: 58pts
Spawn: 38pts
Lord of Slaughter
Bloodthirster: 250pts
War Engines
Soul Grinder, Phelgm: 165pts
Soul Grinder, Phelgm: 165pts
Soul Grinder, Phelgm: 165pts

Khorne Daemonkin thoughts & sample lists

So, Codex: Khorne Daemonkin? I love it! Basically, it contains every unit that I wanted to use from Codex: Chaos Daemons. Plus lots of other units from Chaos Space Marines. What's not to like? When you look at it from the perspective of a Khorne Daemon player, these are the key changes:

• Daemonic Instability is replaced by Fearless.
• There's no Warp Storm table. This is a bit of a pity, I did like the fun randomness, even if it bit me as often as it helped me.
• You can't buy Daemonic Rewards any more. Again, this codex is about making a more predictable and less random army.
• No Daemonic Rewards means no Grimoire, no Portaglyph! I didn't use them, but I know people who did will be sad.
• If a character is in close combat, they must challenge. This is nice and fluffy.
• Now a big addition... Blood Tithes. For every unit you kill, for every unit you loose, for every character you kill in challenges, and for every character of yours who dies (possibly just in challenges), you get a Blood Tithe point. And points mean prizes - this system is about giving you the ability to get some nasty special rules, and to summon!
• As with regular summoning, note that it's stupid summoning Bloodthirsters or winged Daemon Princes late in the game. They arrive from Deep Strike, so are flying high. In the turn after they arrive they can come down low, but can't charge until 2 turns after they arrive. So if you're summoning, summon infantry. Non-flying Daemon Princes are good, but I think that Bloodcrushers will be my favourites (especially as they come with a champ, instrument, and the banner of more reliable charge range).
• And the other big addition: we now have access to loads of CSM options in our army. Cultists for lower cost troops, lots of 3+ saves, daemon engines like Maulerfiends, and transport vehicles. Heralds with loci can join these guys, so a massive mob of Cultists with a locus is a possibility, as are Berserkers or Possessed with a locus.
• Bloodletter minimum squad size is down to 8, so they're 80 pts base not 100. It's not a massive change, but I like it.
• Instead of going CAD or Unbound there are formations, including the Formation of Formations which if you follow that gives you a free Blood Tithe point each turn. Nice. This also gives you the option of taking 8 war engines in a bound army. 8 Soulgrinders!
• We have 2 new types of Bloodthirster! Obviously Chaos Daemons get these now too, thanks to the White Dwarf, but thought I'd mention them.
• We have 6 new mission objectives. They mostly revolve around killing stuff, so play to our strengths!

So, that's the key things. The best way to make an army, particularly at higher points costs, will definitely be to use the uberformation. Sadly that requires Possessed, and I haven't build any of them yet. So today's 1000pts list is instead using the CAD:
HQ: Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury - 250pts
HQ: Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury - 250pts
Troops: 8 Bloodletters, champ - 85pts
Troops: 8 Bloodletters, champ - 85pts
Heavy: Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts
Heavy: Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts

The Soulgrinders will blow stuff up to gain Blood Tithes and hopefully draw some fire. The Bloodthirsters will hurry forward to reap some skulls. The Bloodletters will run around picking up objectives.

Note that this list wouldn't work with Chaos Daemons, I'm utilising the smaller cheaper Bloodletter squads of this new codex.

Quite frankly, even if I'd made my Possessed I'm not sure that I'd want to swap a Soulgrinder for Possessed and 1 more Blood Tithe point a turn. But to expand to 1,500pts I'll definitely do that, maybe something like:
The above list - 1000pts
Possessed - 150pts
Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts
Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts
A few upgrades to Possessed or Bloodletters - 20pts

Or maybe switch a Soulgrinder for some Cultists and/or Spawn, cheap units that will give me Blood Tithe points when they die?

Six Converted Bloodthirsters!

Angron's Bodyguard, the Cruor Praetoria, is now taking shape, with my 6 smaller Bloodthirsters all built. As you can see, they are all designed to be roughly the same size as the classic Bloodthirster in the middle. In game terms I can run them as normal Bloodthirsters (of Unfettered Fury) or as Daemon Princes - this will be particularly good for Codex: Khorne Daemonkin, if the rumours that some of the formations need non-Bloodthirster HQs are true, and as it seems like Daemon Princes can carry the cool artefacts that Bloodthirsters can't.

As you can probably tell, these Bloodthirsters have been made from 6 basic kits (Juggernaught, Balrog, Bloodthirster, Forgefiend, Hive Tyrant, Daemon Prince), but hopefully mixed up enough and with enough extra pieces from my bits box added that by the end they are a coherent set of 6 Bloodthirsters. Hopefully!

The Lord of the Rings Balrog is an excellent Bloodthirster stand-in. He's bigger than the classic model, comes with a wonderful whip (which I trimmed the flames off very easily), and just fits so well! I opted to give him a headswap for a Juggernaught, giving him a more bestial, bull-like appearance. I also up-armoured him, with bits from Daemon Princes, Hive Tyrants, and WFB Marauder shields. Finally I swapped his lovely big wings for some smaller Daemon Prince wings - I want to use his wings for some larger Bloodthirster projects!

As soon as I saw the WFB Morghasts I knew that I wanted to use their wings for a counts-as-Skarbrand, they're just perfect. Possibly they're a touch small, but they're so beautifully made. Skarbrand's body is a Juggernaught, his legs are from a Hive Tyrant, and his brutal twin cleavers are from the Morghast Harbingers (with Daemon Prince arms & shoulder pads). Finally his head is from the Balrog, with some green stuff tentacles for dreadlocks. I love my green stuff tentacle maker so much, it's changed everything!

This Bloodthirster is my weediest, apart from the classic. He'll probably be relegated to being a Daemon Prince more often than not. His wings are the old metal ones from a Chaos Dwarf Lammasu, whilst his torso and shoulder pads are from a Daemon Prince. His legs are the marvellous Forgefiend back legs again, and his arms are from the very useful Hive Tyrant.

This final Bloodthirster is the most unique, thanks to his Blood Slaughterer legs. The idea is that he is an overseer of the Brass Forge, working for Khorne to create his Daemon Engines. His Hive Tyrant torso ties into this, with overlapping armour that evokes the Blood Slaughterer, Juggernaughts, and Brass Scorpions. His arms and wings, of course, are from the Daemon Prince again.

These guys are now all sitting on my painting desk. I've got quite a task ahead of me...

Lords of Blood: the Daemon-Primarch Angron and the Cruor Praetoria

No one would have believed in the early years of the 41st Millenium that the prosperous hive-world of Armageddon was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were being plotted against by their neighbours in sinister blood-cults; and that the capricious tides of the warp were catapulting a space hulk filled with the most devoted disciples of the Blood God towards the planet, to commence the first of three terrible wars that would cripple the great planet.
But still, they come.

I've always loved the tale of the Daemon-Primarch Angron and his bodyguard at the 1st War for Armageddon, the twelve terrifying Bloodthirsters known as the Cruor Praetoria. 109 Grey Knights standing proud against 13 of the greatest daemons of the Blood God? That's the stuff that epics are made of; that's 40k's answer to the Hot Gates of Thermopylae.

So I decided to make Angron and the Cruor Praetoria, and for Christmas I got the bits to get my plan started. And then, just as I began, the rumours hit that GW is making a new plastic Bloodthirster kit, and a new Khorne codex combining Berserkers and Daemons. Excellent...

Photos to come soon!