emptyhat's fantastic collection.

[emptyhat]

Skaven

I started liking Skaven when I was reading the White Dwarf issues about Mordheim and given how good Games Workshop starter sets have got I took the opportunity to get the Island of Blood set in a trade from someone who only wanted the rulebook.

I had an idea of buying the mega army box deals for both High Elves and Skaven when they were out that Christmas and just consider that a years worth of GW purchases but GW told Darksphere (who I had pre-ordered from) that they couldn't have very many boxes. Since then I've picked up a few classic Skaven models on ebay, for some pretty decent prices. When I get most of what I have painted Im planning to round the army out to 2000 points as a reward.

Colour scheme: Orange, ratty, and plaguey.
Basing: Greenstuffrat swarms (unless I'm too lazy, in which case jungle)
Army background: Probably want these guys to be lustrian invaders

Assets:

IoB Chieften
3 Assassins
2 Warlock engineers
2 Grey Seers
2 Wizard looking guys without the horns. (I guess they'd field as warlock engineers or plague priests)

230 Clanrats with shields and hand weapons
5 Warpfire throwers
1 Poison wind mortar
1 Plague monk (for now)
6 Ratswarms (These might be giant rats on a swarm base, I think that's how we did it back in the day)

4 Rat ogres and trainer
4 Jezzails
4 Poison wind globideers
2 Plague censer bearers

Doomwheel

High Elves


Every so often I stop thinking about giant horde armies, tides of Orks and Guard, or heaving swarms of rats, and I start lusting over shiny perfect walls of tall Elven shields all bedecked in glorious silver and white. I fell for them briefly as a teenager where I managed to collect a small unit of spearmen, archers and cavalry which I painted up very shoddily in classic High Elf colours until a GW guy trolled me into switching to yellow.... Urgh. Well that killed it for a long time but since I was buying IoB cheap it seemed like a nice chance for another go and I have actually painted the IoB elves, well halfway.

A couple of the HE finecast models snuck in there because I had a birthday around the time they came out and they looked great. The FC models that weren't old metal models seem to be so much higher quality and I'm rally looking forwards to painting them once I get the main units done and I'm used to Elves.

I've got to say, painting High Elves feels like a pain. They are the opposite of Orks, you've got to be very careful with the line and I'm always worried about staining the white robes. Having been burned once I'm switching back to a more classic colour scheme but I might have the old school spearmen painted up in purples to see how it looks.

Just like the Skaven if I get these models painted then I'll be due a reward, maybe a battalion to fill out the weak core that I have, maybe one of those swish phoenix models too.


Colour Scheme: blue and white.
Basing: Beach?
Army Background: I'm thinking a naval force, similar to the actual IoB background.

1 Alarielle
1 Handmaiden of the Everqueen
2 IoB Princes on Griffin
2 Princes on horseback
1 Noble BSB on foot.
3 Mages
1 Dragon Mage of Caledor

105 Spearmen
35 Archers
110 Lothern Sea Guard
34 Silver Helms
16 Ellyrian Reavers

40 Swordmasters of Hoeth
20 Phoenix Guard
15 Dragon Princes of Caledor

4 Eagle Claw Bolt Throwers
1 Great Eagle
1 Flamespyre Phoenix
20 Sisters of Avelorn

Lizardmen

The first models I ever had, the first army book I owned, the first faction I played on the table. I've always been captivated by Lizardmen. I didn't really play that many games of Fantasy as a kid so they haven't seen much action. The collection I have needs repainting or just painting, models that are so classic that they are just begging for some sweet conversions and a few holes in what I own, mostly a lack of giant dinosaurs. I'm really looking forwards to getting these guys up to scratch so I can finally field them like I always should have.

Colour scheme: I really like Lizardmen in blue but you see it so often... I'm pretty torn on this. Maybe Indigo, possibly a mix of colours for the different species.
Basing: Jungle
Army background: Bog standard Lustrian lizards I think.

6 Slann
Kroq-Gar
Chakax
Oxyotl
Tehenhauin

1 Saurus Scar-Vet/Old Blood on Carnosaur
3 Saurus Scar-Veteran/Oldblood (one on cold one)
3 Skink Chiefs
7 Skink Priests

Skink 180 (94 modern/76 short bow)
Saurus 131 (72 modern/59 classic)

18 Temple Guard
15 Kroxigor
5 Terradon
3 Ripperdactyls
19 Cold One Riders
19 Skink Cold One Riders
1 Bastilodon

1 Troglodon
3 Salamanders
2 Stegadons

Vampire Counts

I've always admired Vampire counts as a model range (except for dire wolves) they have a really cool concept and who wouldn't want a core force that was either legions of skeletons (that grows each turn), or rotting zombies (ditto), or ghouls.

I didn't really like ghouls at first but I changed my mind when the Strigoi models were released. The theme really spoke to me and I really loved the way they fleshed out the Vampire Counts with the bloodlines. I think GW have moved away from that now and dropped the old bloodline models, which is sad. The new vampire models are still pretty cool though and it is tempting to just collect various different vampire models.


I'm thinking of painting my guys up as Lustrian vampires on the Vampire Coast but I'm not sure how to go about it. Perhaps just simple jungle bases will do, or maybe I should convert some of the models to look more like the undead from South American myths.


Colour scheme: Red
Basing: Jungle
Army background: Vampire Coast

6 Vampires
2 Necromancer

104 Skeletons
39 Ghouls
80 Zombies
10 Dire Wolves

(About 1100 points of Core)

3 Crypt Horrors
6 Vargheists
13 Hexwraiths
3 Spirit Hosts
19 Grave Guard

4 Banshee

4 Cairn Wraiths

1 Black Coach
1 Terrorgheist
1 Mortis Engine
2 Varghulf

Bretonnians

37 Peasant Bowmen
22 Knights of the Realm
10 Knights Errant
4 Pegasus Knights
Damsel
Mounted Damsel
Paladin on a Pegasus
Bretonnian Lord

Wood Elves
1 Glade lord (mounted)
2 Glade Lord on foot
2 Spellweaver
Sisters of Twilight

59 Archer models: 22 classic, 37 (16 unbuilt)
30 Glade Riders: (16 unbuilt)
17 Wardancers


Miscellaneous

3 Stone Trolls: Stone Trolls are great, they are my favourite model in Fantasy which is weird because I don't ever see my self collecting Orcs. I think I fell in love with these guys because they were the mail order mascots and maybe because they just look so goofy. I noticed that these guys haven't shifted into Finecast and that says to me that if they don't get dropped then they'll be getting a plastic sculpt at some point. I was worried that if that happened they'd look different, at any rate it wouldn't be the same so I decided to fulfil a childhood dream and ordered 3 of them from GW. I've actually almost finished these guys so they'll show up on my photo thread soonish. Despite the extortionate price per model, and the fact that I'll only ever be using these guys in friendly games as allies or somesuch, I don't regret buying these one bit.

Terrain

Right now I'm heading down the path of Anytown GW for terrain. I really like some of the kits they've made; it is just a shame that getting into selling terrain killed that part of the hobby in store and in WD. Maybe I'm being unfair, I have seen some really good use of the GW kits in my local store. I'm currently partway through painting the chapel kit. It looks like they don't sell that any more which is strange and a bit tragic because it really is a lovely set with lots of add on bits and lattice windows to let in light. I'm mostly leaving the bits off of mine (which is why I would have liked the chance to buy a second one) but I'll be converting the inside to have a wooden first floor (or second if you don't believe in ground floors) it might be worth detailing the interior and adding panelling too. So far I've painted the roof tiles to completion and have started on the stonework. Once I get it finished I might unbox the terrain I got for Christmas.

*Chapel
*Garden of Morr
*Witchfate Tor
*Deathknell Watch (Tower of the Skuuuuuuulls)

[flamingkillamajig]

I'm surprised how little core you have. If anything that's holding your army back the most from a high point value. You kind of have to have a bajillion clanrats/slaves in a skaven army. You could also get stormvermin but for some reason I'm not too fond of them right now. Keep in mind stormvermin are ok but not very good in melee (compared to all the other melee armies).

You also have a lot of weapons teams but mostly warpfire throwers. You shouldn't need many more weapons teams than what you currently have.

It's true that most skaven specials are kind of weak but some are needed. Your rat ogres are just shy of having enough to be good to use. They're not as good as most monstrous infantry but they can help with some muscle in an army that's mostly strength 3.

Poisoned wind globadiers suck. I have tried them and just don't like them. They're not fast enough to keep up with the enemy and they panic easily.

Plague monks are pretty good with the plague furnace. Of course if you take the plague furnace and other large targets then you'll want a storm banner to somewhat protect your stuff.

Jezzails I've heard mixed things about. Some say it makes your guys more static but they seem to be good at killing cavalry statistically and they can put a few wounds on monsters like a daemon prince which is pretty sexy to hear I will not lie. You'd probably need closer to 10 though and people run them in two separate units. I might run them in one unit of 10 with a warlock that has the shadow magnet trinket or possibly add something else to them for a leadership boost.

Poisoned wind mortars have range and are probably much better than the normal poisoned wind globadiers. They can both do well at killing cavalry but the mortar has 24" range a small blast and can fire on the move. Keep in mind if it uses a parent unit for 'line of sight' to a target then it fires indirectly and will never hit on the mark.

Rat swarms can be ok. I go back and forth with them because I used to use them for war machine killing and chaff killers (small skirmishers units). That said they aren't enough. They may still have some use even though I found a better way to kill war machines but really they seem best at holding an enemy in combat for a while. The difference between rat swarms and slaves is that rat swarms are unstable but unbreakable, are skirmishers and have a super high leadership which allows them to march most of the time even when within 8" of the enemy (since you test on leadership 10). Slaves however could actually probably win in combat or get close to it against enemy chaff. If nothing else slaves are probably the better for winning combat against enemy chaff while rat swarms are better at holding them in place. I haven't really used them together but I suppose it can work. Sometimes I also use rat swarms as a form of barrier between my shooting skirmishers (gutter runners) and the enemy's possible charges. That way if the enemy tries to charge me I can use the swarms as a barrier and fall back or move around. You could also try moving the rat swarms in such a way (right up in the unit's face) that the enemy chaff or even enemy cavalry or chariots would be forced to charge them esp. at a weird angles forcing them to overrun in a weird direction or to reform and get shot to pieces. I should probably actually try that last tactic. Sadly it won't do much against heavy cavalry if I use gutter runners but it may hold up or position enemy cavalry in weird positions if you shoot at them with jezzails or poisoned wind mortars.

Censer bearers can also be good. I figure they work best when charged with a ranked up unit so that they provide the combat resolution while the ranked unit takes away the enemy's steadfast. That said censers suck once the first combat of the same fight is over. They have hatred which is first combat turn of the same combat as are the flails they wield. However the censer fumes do still kill armored units so keep a tally of all toughness tests suffered as it counts for combat resolution.

Also dear god get some rares (except the plagueclaw catapult since they suck). Skaven rares are some of the best things in the skaven army. Abominations can chew through units even cavalry. Watch out for monster killers though and some decent ranged units.

[emptyhat]

That makes sense. It might be that my collections are just going to be balanced against themselves and for friendlies so they don't need to be too killer. Ugh, the thought of basing 200 clanrats with greenstuff mice is a little painful though. I may have to work out a cheat.

I picked up my trolls today. I didn't feel like painting the fine detail much at first so I started basing them. Since they are not part of an army I'm just basing the to suit the model and since they are Stone Trolls I've started with slate. I have a feeling that some GW tufty grass till fit in here too.

[Long John Silver]

See if you can find small mice models to buy, like there are small snails on the bretonnian men at arms sprue. I've been dabbling in wargames factory apocalypse survivor civilians and have all kinds of cool bitz - high heeled ladies shoes in plastic for starters. Its worth looking at what plastic sprues are around..

A big mass of clanrats sounds right. It doesn't have to be 200, but another 50 clanrats would help bulk your force out.

Oh and if you're looking for a handful of old metal skaven I might have a few from the proper old days when I was a spotty, long-haired teen. They might have pus and hair on them though :/

[flamingkillamajig]

Sadly it actually does take that many clanrats/slave models. The clanrats pack can make both. There's this rule of thumb that for every 1,000 pts of a game you play you need to field 100 skaven models. It doesn't exactly have to be slaves but they're cheap (2 pts each) and can be spammed hard. They aren't half bad for a t3 unit. If nothing else they shield well from shooting and magic as well as dealing with enemy chaff (forcing them to be flanked) so that your important units can survive.

However no matter how bad it is you can still buy lots of 'island of blood' clanrats from ebay for cheap. I mean you get half the stuff in island of blood for 50 dollars (weapons teams, spam-able mages, leaders, 40 clanrats and 2 rat ogres) and normally 20 clanrats costs 35 USD. Rat ogres alone almost run up to 50 USD. It's really about the only good deal GW has left.

I know sometimes I'm not thrilled about weapons teams but warpfire throwers and poisoned wind mortars are actually both pretty good. The problem with warpfire throwers is the range but they did a lot of damage. Normally they're more for fighting against melee armies with little shooting and no magic that effects multiple units in an area.

Poisoned wind mortars are more for fighting against armored units like warriors of chaos and normal cavalry.

Rat ogres are ok. They can hit pretty hard in melee esp. with skweel gnawtooth. Personally I wouldn't take any more than 8 or 9 and probably no less than 6. I'd also probably put them with skweel gnawtooth. You should also most likely keep them near to the leader and BSB since they're frenzied and will definitely feel that frenzy with so few ranks (making 'strength in numbers' for leadership pretty poor) and such low leadership overall. People say they're expensive for what they are but I've had mine tear through some elite elves. I think it was skweel's special pack rat ogres which would make sense.

Warlocks are more just spam-able mages or item carriers for the rest of your army. I generally put all the magic resistance for a unit in the warlock with them and I don't give him a wizard level. This helps protect more valuable units like stormvermin from just getting destroyed by a lot of spells. That said nothing can save you from tests that allow no saves of any kind.

Chieftains/warlords are also good as leaders for your army or as something to spam a little. I hear chieftains are ok at hitting. I personally use the warlord from the 'island of blood' set as a chieftain with BSB. I think the standard on his back makes it make more sense that he's a BSB. I use warlord spinetail (the metal model made after 'island of blood' but based on it) is my warlord model. I feel like I need newer models if I can help it since I feel most are better.

[Long John Silver]

OK so you really need to spam them.

Looking at he gw site it's £20.50 for 20 clanrats, the normal, not IoB ones, so if you look at discount stores it'll be less than a pound per clanrat/ slave.

[flamingkillamajig]

Unfortunately you do need lots of skaven models. The straight up hordes and rares seems to be the most tread route.

Weapons teams are usually good if you face enemies that don't have very much shooting. Basically weapons teams are best against combat oriented armies rather than shooting armies. Most of the teams have short range and probably work better when you force the enemy to come towards you rather than the other way around.

Stormvermin are better priced point-wise than clanrats but stormvermin usually won't win a combat even if death frenzied. Most fights are about wearing down the enemy and not much else and trying to hit them with rares.

Use small units of slaves to re-direct the enemy and absorb shooting. Use large units of slaves to wear down the enemy and take a bajillion casualties. Both are fairly useful and slaves only panic other slaves. Normally I tend to march small units of slaves between enemy units and force them to charge me at an angle. This works best if they're the only unit in range of an enemy's charge and within their line of sight. That way the enemy can't re-direct their charge. However if you are also far enough away from your opponent with the slaves and you flee with your slaves then there's a good chance you will flee farther than their charge distance. This is bad for your opponent as they will be very much out of position and it works even better if you're trying to prevent your enemy from moving very far. That said usually if your slaves are close enough to do this right they might be out of your general's and BSB's leadership and re-roll bubbles. However the enemy would need to do at least 5 casualties to force a flee and they will probably come back if they flee within the general's and BSB's leadership bubbles. Not to mention slaves only panic other slaves. Alternatively if you opponent has fanatics, weapons teams or other light units you can always charge slaves at a unit nearby so that when the slaves explode from losing combat they possibly destroy the weapons teams.

Keep in mind how things are positioned on the board and the turn phases. If an enemy has a unit in front of one they want to charge with you can often block the front one from doing anything but charging and force the one behind to move if it blocks the unit in front. Remember that charging comes first so if you screw up an enemy's charge they will either be forced to charge something else, move and set up a charge for next turn or declare a charge with one unit and then the one they want to have charge in the hopes that they'll move the first unit just enough to allow their other unit to charge (though you can prevent this or at least to a degree depending on how you set up small units to ruin charges). Another good reason to remember how things are positioned is that if you want to charge after some chaff and realize they'll probably flee. However depending on the angle you charge and how close you are you could change the angle they flee forcing them into their own guys (and forcing leadership checks on each unit fled through) or even better blocking one of their future charges with some of their own fleeing guys.

[emptyhat]

Painting the IoB Skaven Warlord today. He's already through his first base layers so I might finish him up. Quite a fun model to paint, it isn't bland at all but it isn't too fiddly either, a pretty sweet choice for the starter set. If I'm in the mood for doing details later I might switch to the IoB elves. It would be nice to finish some of them.

I'm also basing my banshee(s) today so it is a good day for getting stuff done.

[Long John Silver]

Now your talk of stone trolls being discontinued makes me want to buy 4 more one day (the full set of them), so I'll have a huge regiment of seven trolls.

Have you painted any sample lizardmen yet?

[emptyhat]

Lizardmen were the first army I collected, the first thing I got from a Games Workshop was a starter paint set with 5 Saurus in it. I had spent a weekend away with a friend who was trying to convince me to collect 40k so he would have someone to fight his Dark Angels with. In the end I was sold on the idea and got my mother to take me down to the store with the intent of picking up the 2nd Edition box. The staff member there spent some time telling me about how 2nd edition was going to be replaced in a couple of months and if I didn't want to wait to get into the hobby that maybe the Fantasy boxset would be the way to go. I kinda liked the look of it but my mother was worried I was being fickle and would regret buying it so we compromised on the painter set.

Man, I worked hard on those first five models but they were painted quite badly. No undercoat, no shading, I was limited to a choice of 8 paints and just a starter brush so the details were all spilling over the lines. Still I had a lot of fun and felt pretty proud for doing it.

Once they were done I set my desk up with some green felt and some book hills and those five saurus fought each other , they were territorial creatures who wanted to claim the best bits of the desk and prove their strength. Lots of fun. A couple of weeks later I went back and bought a box of 8 Saurus painted them up in Goblin Green, the first lot were Enchanted Blue. Now their were two factions of Saurus and the clans battled for those hills.

As soon as my birthday hit I got the Fantasy box and suddenly I had Skinks and knights and peasant bowmen. It was certainly the beginning of what will probably be a lifetime infatuation with the hobby.

My friend was pretty pissed though

[flamingkillamajig]

I probably would've been pissed too lol.

To be fair kids can probably have fun with a cardboard box so the fact you didn't have a full army is fine. I mean as long as you were having fun that's what counts.

I know it's commonly said everywhere but I wish GW didn't make their models so expensive. At least fantasy has consistent quality but there's no way they need to make such huge models with even larger price tags, plastic character models that cost ridiculous prices that metal and finecast models never did or the multi-part plastic kits that while nice and get everything released on time (finally) cost an even crazier amount per set. I'm almost priced out of the hobby. Chances are the second skaven get re-released I will be. I fear for 9th edition fantasy which is probably coming in the near future (within a year or so).

[Long John Silver]

Just sell off your unwanted models and then use the cash to get new ones. The discount stores are a lot cheaper, I'm a fool for buying at GW official stores when I get the money but its just customer loyalty. I like the option of going there for a game.

[flamingkillamajig]

Discount stores don't always have everything and ebay would be better but then I'd need a credit card or at least a debit card. My sister would kill me if I used my debit card. Hell she might kill me if I had to use it. Probably find some off way I could've gone without it like eating stale bread for 2 days. Sorry I just have a bossy sister and a bossy half sister and both are a pain in my ass even if and when they do care.