'Rage of the Dying Race': Converted Herald completed

Of all the races of the galaxy, the Eldar's souls shine brightest in the Warp. 10,000 years ago this led to their doom, when the echoes of their lusts combined to form a new god, Slaanesh, whose birth tore the Eldar Empire apart and created the Great Eye. Ever since, the Eldar have sought to control their emotions, to prevent such an event from happening again. But it is a hard road, and anger is one emotion it is hard to contain. The Rage of the Dying Race is a Herald of Khorne, formed from the overflowing fury of the Eldar: every time that an Exarch screams hatred at their foes; an Exodite vows revenge on aliens who have stepped upon their world; a Corsair spits in fury at an ambush gone wrong; or an ousted Archon curses their exile from Commorragh.

Nothing really to say about this guy's painting: I did what you'd expect, pretty much. Brass armour, red for revealed skin, glowing green things, white/grey skulls and helmet: just like the rest of my daemons.

Now on to painting marines. Lots of marines. 3 layers of red paint later, I've done the basic armour and am moving on to blacking out the bone areas:

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.

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.

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.

1st pics of the new Bloodthirster!

Oh my, look at these:

Obviously I'll be painting him red, giving him a helmet, maybe some more torso armour. But look how amazing he is, especially the wings in that first shot. I want one. Hell, I want three!

The new Khorne possessed/mutant type guys are interesting as well. Could possibly end up being used as Heralds? Or Berzerkers?

Images from http://www.golden-throne.com/?p=2371.

The 1st War for Armageddon begins: 2 skirmish battle reports

War first came to Armageddon in a spate of urban unrest, riots, and uprisings. The fires of rebellion burnt bright across Armageddon Prime and Secundus. Whilst the hives were burning, in the Equatorial Jungle a series of small skirmishes occured that the Imperium never even knew about.
Deep in the jungle lies an ancient pyramid, the tip of a Necron stasis tomb. The Necrontyr of old despised the powers and creatures of the warp, and it was they who built the Cadian Pylons to stop the Eye of Terror from consuming the galaxy. On Armageddon, a small force of Bloodletters was sent to ensure the Necron pyramid would not be activated, in order to prevent them from resisting Angron's arrival. However, the first of the Necron forces were already rising, and a desperate clash ensued...

These were combat patrol games with 500pts, no: saves of 2+ or 3++, 3+ wounds, over 33 armour, fliers. Armies of 1-2 Troops, 0-1 of every other slot. Troops have ObSec. Games last 4 turns, at the end of which the guys holding the objective in the middle of the board win. Games end if a Warlord dies.

I was running a single big blob of 19 Bloodthirsters with a Banner of Blood, led by 3 Heralds with an Exalted Locus and a bunch of rewards. My ancient foe had a Lord with 5 Lychguard, 5 Immortals with Tesla Carbines, and 10 Warriors. The board was small, with a ruin in each corner and a central ruined tower.

I went first, set up centrally. My opponent put the Warriors and Immortals in his two corner ruins, up high to look down on me with disdain, and his Lord & Guard centrally.

My Khornate hoard surged forwards, towards the Immortals and away from the Warriors. Slaanesh smiled at the battle, an utterly pleasurable surge of current claiming the life of one Immortal but ignoring my troops. Then the Necrons fired, taking out a handful of my Bloodletters. Second turn began, and my hoard was getting close enough to reach the Immortals if I rolled well for the charge distance. Khorne saw the battle, anticipating the blood soon to be split, and threw a skull from his throne down from the heavens at the Necron Lord & Lychguard unit. I centered the barrage over the Lord, it didn't scatter, he died. Game over in less than 2 turns, thanks to an utterly jammy roll on the Warp Storm Table.

It felt a bit unfulfilling? So we did it again.

Again, I was going first and the deployment didn't change that much. My hoard surged forwards towards the Immortal side and away from those nasty rapid-firing Warriors. Nurgle rusted up a couple of his robots, and then he retaliated by a horribly effective shooting phase. Turn 2 I hurried forwards, seeing his Lord and Lychguard within charge range, and smashed into them.
The glorious charge was rather disappointing, even with Hatred I rolled badly. I killed 2 Lychguard, their T5 meaning that my Bloodletters found it just too hard to hurt them (yes, I forgot I had Furious Charge. Sigh.) In his turn, the Warriors joined the mass combat whilst the Immortals ignored me and trundled towards the Objective. The rest of the game consisted of that one massive combat, basically. My guys managed to kill off the Lychguard in my turn 3, and wound the Lord in his turn 3. The Bloodletters were all dead by this point, and my Heralds dropped one after another. We came into Turn 4 with my Warlord Herald my sole remaining guy, vs his Lord and 10 Warriors. His Warlord on 1 wound, me fine. I issued a challenge, and he declined. I shouldn't have done that! I took my anger out by killing a Warrior or 2, but then they attacked. 2 Wounds. Thankfully I had rolled FnP 4+ as a Greater Reward, and made it through to his Turn 4 on 1 wound. The Immortals were firmly uncontested on the Objective, so if I didn't kill his Lord then he'd won... Thankfully I did.
Khorne had triumphed, with the Lord dead the other Necrons mysteriously disappeared. Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, which is good because securing the ruins had led to the death of my entire force...

What did I learn?

• I have Furious Charge. I should remember to use it.
• I think I prefer 1 Greater Reward and 1 Lesser Reward to 1 Exalted Reward. I tried a mixture of Rewards on my Heralds, and wasn't that impressed with the Exalted Reward.
• Having 2 troops would have let me reroll my Warlord trait. This would have been very useful, as I kept rolling the trait that gives you Hatred (when my Warlord already had the bloody Locus that does that).
• This was my first game of 7th. I learnt useful stuff about how to take off casualties and stuff, and how Look Out Sir works, which I will remember for next time. The Heralds should make sure that they have a nice buffer of Bloodletters protecting them.

500pt Bloodletter force

Painting is proceeding slowly, but tonight my half-finished Bloodletters are going for a little skirmish - my first game with Daemons... It's a Combat Patrol themed event, 500pts, no 2+ / 3++ saves, no models with 3 wounds or more, no named characters, no fliers, no vehicles with more than 33 armour. 1-2 Troops, 0-1 of everything else. For Khorne that leaves Bloodletters, foot Heralds, and Flesh Hounds. And I don't have any Hounds...

Games last 4 turns or until a Warlord dies. Either with a single central objective or kill points.

So this is my list:
Herald of Khorne- Warlord, 1 Lesser Reward, 1 Greater Reward, Exalted Locus = 110pts
Herald of Khorne- 1 Lesser Reward, 1 Greater Reward = 85pts
Herald of Khorne- 1 Exalted Reward = 85pts
19 Bloodletters- 1 Instrument, 1 Banner of Blood= 220pts

The plan is to put everything together and charge :D Not the most in-depth plan, it must be admitted.