First off, everybody; thank you for your pretty much universal praise of my Skaven. I'm really pleased you all like them. They were a pretty swift paint job by me, so to get the levels of praise that you're all heaping on them is, frankly, overwhelming.
Secondly; sorry that it's almost a month since my last post. I've been pretty busy with work and at first I had little time to paint. Then I fell out of love with the Goblin Blood Bowl team I was painting (But won't take me too long to complete), so that was a kind of wasted week or so.
Fortunately, my local GW decided to do a late night gaming event. I never really get to go to these; 2 1/2 year olds and bedtime stories put pain to that, but as he's growing up, I'm getting a little more freedom.
"Hang on a sec, Loosh. You said late night *gaming*. You don't game."You're right. I don't...but it's not because I don't want to! It's just a matter of time available Vs commitments!
Also, what really drew me in was the nature of the game:
Buy whatever you want up to a value of £70-85. Play with it. No restrictions. It could even be 5 Clam packs from totally different armies if you wanted. No. Restrictions.
Also, it was AoS...and finally I wanted to take the bait.
I've been meaning to start AoS for the longest time, but was waiting for the Skaven Clan Verminus to get an update and release...I know that most of their stuff is new, but I at least wanted full rules and the impetus to paint soooo very many Clan Rats again.
So if you aren't doing rats, what are you doing?
Shark and Eel riding soulless Elf Muthaf*ckers! That who!
Yup, the Idoneth Deppkin blew me away when I first saw them and I knew that I'd have to collect them sooner rather than later...and the gaming night was exactly what I needed to get the ball rolling. The fact that I could spend up to £85 was good too...enough to commit me to the force, not too much to overwhelm me and drain me mentally, enough to try a few units that I might like.
First off, I had to find which enclave I wanted to run and paint.
What do you like in an army Loosh? Manoeuvrability and stealth.
What are your favourite colours to paint? I bloody love teal.
Good job there's an enclave for you then bud: Briomdar.
Genuinely, I saw the models, though 'I really want to paint those. I really want to paint them in similar colours to the Human Blood Bowl team I painted. I really want a stealthy army.' Boom. Everything fell into place.
That decided, I started buying units. 10 Namartii Reavers were first on the shopping list, followed by an Akhelian King and 3 Morrsarr Guard Fangmora Riders.
At first I just built the kits and base coated them so that I could use them in the games...but then the fever grabbed hold and I started work painting up the Eels and the King. I got them to a decent standard by the time of the gaming night.
I didn't take any photos of the games played, but I will give you a very brief recap...it was all about fun and learning an army...and I hadn't ever played AoS before. The format was doubles, rolling for starting table corners, kill the opposing generals to win the game.
Game 1:
Me (Idoneth), Matt (Store owner and all round good guy with a Sylvaneth force headed by Duurthu with 20 Dryads and a couple of Spell Casters) Vs 20 Beastmen Gors, a Brayherd Shaman a Beast Lord, and a Ghorgon, allied with 3 Daemon princes.
Very different, very interesting armies!
The opposing team saw me as fresh meat, so the Beastmen player tried to ambush me on turn 1, with the Daemon player moving up in support. It all looked good for them until they failed their charges to start the game...
...and then everyone realised how bloody hard Idoneth can kick. After my turn 1, I had 4 dead Reavers. There were also 20 dead Beastmen Gors, a badly wounded Beastlord and a dead Daemon Prince. We were all pretty shocked.
The rest of the game was spent killing Daemon princes and chasing after the Shaman, who carried on summoning new Daemon Princes! I m use have killed about 4 of the buggers by the end, with Matt killing another 2 and the Ghorgon. I lost the Morrsarr Guard and 6 Reavers. That was it. Matt lost a bunch of Dryads and 1 spell caster.
Game 2:
Me (Idoneth), Dan (Store worker with Clan Moulder Skaven) Vs the 3 Daemon Guy and a gun line of 30 Empire Hand Gunners being buffed to the max by some characters. Plus an artillery piece.
Dan and I did not want to tangle with the gun line, as their buffs meant they would be hitting 1 enemy unit each turn on 2s, wounding on 2s...and they could overwatch 1 unit that charged them too! Gah!
Turn 1, the Daemon player moved toward the Skaven this time, while the Empire player took some long range shots at the Skaven. In our turn, the Skaven whipped the heck out of his Hellpit Abomination who then failed a charge on the Gunline...bad times. I, meanwhile, delighted in the fact that Idoneth Cavalry move 14 inches and can reroll charges with a musician...well...i
t didn't go well for the Daemon player. I carved up 2 of his princes right there and then.
In turn 2, my partner's Hellpit Abomination got annihilated by the gunline. In our turn 2, we pulled off a big combi-charge with 4 Rat Ogres and my Prince hitting the gun line. The Empire player wiped the Rat Ogres off the face of the Earth with his overwatch...my Prince then went to town...I think in total, 22 gunners were killed or fled...and that was pretty much it.
The last Daemon Prince was taken down by the Reavers, while all the Empire except for a standard bearer were killed. My King also got killed. Boo.
So in total, over 2 games, I lost the King, 4 Morrsarr Guard and 6 Reavers.
I killed 20 Beastmen Gor, 1 Beast Lord, 1 Shaman, 7 Daemon Princes (Really, really felt sorry for that guy...), about 25 Hand Gunners, an Empire Captain and an Artillery piece.
Holy amphetamine parrotballs!
I now officially have the AoS bug...and at just the right time, with AoS 2nd Ed about to drop!
Anyway. You don't come here for tales of bravery, might and jammy dice. You come for the painting, I hope!
First off, the Morrsarr Guard. I thought these were finished, but having looked at the photos, I need to clean up the recesses of the Eels' flesh a little. It's too stark. it shows up way worse in photos, but I want these to be right.
The unit (Underexposed, because it's late in the day):
Lochian Prince:
Musician:
I love how the shell turned out. It was mainly white, with some Kislev Flesh on in where the airbrush layer had gone a bit wayward...so I just decided to hit it with a heavy Casandora Yellow wash to see what would happen...I could always repaint it if I didn't like the end result. End result is, I like it a lot!
The Standard Bearer:
Nom nom nom nom nom...
Next up, my King. He is NOT finished. I repeat, NOT finished. There's a lot of stuff I want to work on and touch up. More definition in the tail. The colour transition from Green to Sea Green to Blue. Shading the skin recesses. The cloak (so many bits of the cloak) The base. General touch ups. What the f*ck to do with the reins which won't align (Probably snip them off entirely, but open to suggestions).
NOT finished!
Generally, I want to make the silver a bit more silver (because otherwise, too much teal!), tidy up those bits and generally make his paint fit for an Akhelian King!
As always, any input is gratefully received.
Sorry about the wall of text too...that really is a wall of text