Legions of the Netherforge - Warstrider with Voltamaton

For now, this is the final addition to my Netherforge army, at least on new type units.

This is a new hero type unit, the Warstrider with Voltamaton, which is quite simply a Warstrider with a Voltamaton riding atop it, sort of a monster hero option for the Netherforge. I did some obvious modifications to the Warstrider by giving it some noticeable electric gadgets to facilitate the Voltamaton that's buffing it.

For now, I have no plans to print anything additional for this army, as I will be concentrating on getting a few more playtests in and finishing up the battletome, which is coming along really well.

Printing some AoS Terrain

I am now preparing some minis photos for my Netherforge battletome, so I needed some terrain for use at home. Then I realized "Hey! I have a 3D printer!"

I printed these designs because they make for quick prints that uses very little filament. Everything on the table there (except my Lord-Celestant of course) was printed on less than a single spool of $20 filament. I liked the original painting he did on his designs, and wanted to duplicate that, luckily good ol' Duncan did something similar.

However I did my painting a little different:

• Prime matte black
• heavy drybrush Kabalite Green
• drybrush Sybarite Green
• base Balthasar Gold on metal parts
• wash Agrax Earthshade on metal parts
• light drybrush allover with Screaming Skull
• finally wash and a wipe off with the watered down Mournfang brown method (see video)

Legions of the Netherforge - 3D printed AoS army Part 2

I finished painting my Netherforge army. I got a pretty simple and easy painting method. Some of them were painted as per my previous post. I do like that there is little variety in painting, which makes sense for an army literally made on automated assembly lines.

Furnacelord Simulacrums

Bombardiers

Siegematon Director and Diggermines

Siegematon Tunneler

Netherforge Gunners

Warstrider

Siege Maul

Vaulthammer

Tunnel Caber

Great Horn

Brawlstriders

Also, I was able to get a game in with these guys against my brother's Destruction. It was a good thing because I have adjusted a lot of the rules I had written for these guys, as well as come up with some tenuous points values for matched play. I will try to get a couple more games in against a few more guys before I finalize the Battletome.

Legions of the Netherforge - 3D printed AoS army

The Netherforge burns eternally somewhere deep in Chamon. Machines making machines, all according to the designs of their long dead designer, progenitor, and creator. A duardin known only as the Furnacelord.

The Legions of the Netherforge is a homebrew Chaos army I am building for Age of Sigmar. I had found this collection of designs on Thingiverse by a very talented 3D modeler, Arian "Dutchmogul" Croft at Illgottengames. The entire range of models he designed captured my imagination. It was all low detail, designed for 3D printing, and I think actually looks very cool. I knew I had to make an army out of these guys.

So I downloaded the models, edited them a little in Tinkercad (mostly to prepare some alternate poses and weapon options, make their feet a little bigger, and removing their bases so I could do my own). I thought about what I could run this army as, but no ideas really satisfied me. So I am making their rules from the ground up. This way I can design some cool rules that I feel reflect the feel and style of the army. This also involves making a story for them (teased above) and changing the names of the models to fit the story.

The first 2 models are the Furnacelord Simulacrum, the leaders of the Netherforge armies. Built personally by the Furnacelord and gifted with more intelligent cogminds. They used some of the same parts as other models, but sized up about 20% to stand out in the army. The last model is a Bombardier, a minor hero that improves the range capabilities of the army.

These are the Siegematon units, those responsible for mapping and making the major tunnel systems the Legions use to get around the mortal realms. The 4 small ones are Diggermines, explosive little tunnelers. The next is the Siegematon Director, a commander of sorts for the Siegematon units, and last is the Siegematon Tunneler, a hero unit that brings other units on to the battlefield through tunneling, and is formidable in combat as well.

Here is where you see the paintjob I plan for the army. I wanted to go for the steampunk brass look which I think works well. these are the Warriors, just the most basic battleline troop unit for the army. There are 2 weapon variants: Axes and shields (left) and hammers and shields (right).

More elite troops, the Guardians (left) are tasked with protecting the leaders of the army and guarding the hidden entrance to the Netherforge, and the Berzerkers (right) are just a melee focused unit that can either dual wield axes, hammers, or digging claws (as shown).

The Gunners are a small unit with a mid-range and hard hitting firepower, using what we would know now as a radioactive material for their guns for an extra effect. They rest the heavy guns on shields with wheels for added protection and stability.

The first unit is the Tunnel Caber, a slow moving deathroller, and on the right is the Great Horn. A piece of terrain that has a beneficial effect for the army when used.

Now on to the war machines for the army. The first is the Vaulthammer, a heavy cannon that shoots a devastating radioactive cannonball. Then is the Siege Maul. I wanted to experiment with making rules for a melee focused war machine. We will see how it turns out. I love the look of the model though.

These are the Construct units. The story for them is after the passing of the Furnacelord, the Netherforge continued to innovate and create new additions to the legion. The Construct units are signs of that. The big one is the Warstrider, a big lumbering behemoth that has some unique rules for dealing with units inside fortifications. The smaller ones are the Brawlstriders, just a melee focused unit with a risk/reward system in combat.

Finally for an original unit of my own design (using some existing parts as base, of course). This is the Voltamaton. I noticed the army had a lack of pizzaz in the form of magic or supernatural. So I thought of a hero that utilized an electric generator in different ways, so I designed the parts to make a sort of priest rather than a wizard.

I'm looking forward to finish painting these guys and get some games in. I will show of the rules for them I have designed and some more lore in a later post, as well as the battletome when I get it finished.

Censers & Tocsins - Chaos Gargant

I am introducing the latest behemoth for my nurgle army:

HURGK

It can be pronounced just "herc", but preferably fit in the hard G before the K sound. It might even be better if you can say his name with a little bit of a gag reflex. This model took me a while because I needed the bell from the Putrid Blightkings kit which I wasn't able to get until fairly recently. This model stretched my skill with green stuff. The main body of course is composed of the Aleguzzler Gargant kit, which is what this represent, but the chaos variety of course. The legs and belly are spare parts from the Maggoth Lord kit. I used greenstuff to blend everything together, and create my cultivator fungus all over.

One thing I wanted to experiment with was how the fungus consumes the head of the host and takes over its functions. I got the idea from the video game The Last of Us. Never played it, but I liked the idea of the fungus, which I know is based on a real life version.

It definitely seems like something nurgle would be all for.

Censers & Tocsins - Glutannus & The Cultivator Shrine

I am getting back to my nurgle mortals. This took a while because I needed a few kits and bits. But I got a couple things that I am looking forward to seeing painted with the rest of my army.

I wanted to add a big monster to my army. I love the Maggoth Lords, but since I don't like doing named characters, I wanted to make something with the kit, and just run it counts-as one of the lords (I really wish there was a generic Maggoth Lord warscroll though). So I made Glutannus here.

I had to do some creative cutting and greenstuffing to remove the rider and saddle, as well as repose the left arm to feed a hapless victim (from the Aleguzzler Gargant kit) into his open maw.

I finished everything I needed for my Chaos Warshrine, as seen previously. Differences on the shrine itself is I just added more molds and mushrooms, and my brother gave me a cool 'troggoth vommit' but from the Fellwater Troggoth kit that he got. Then I finished the altar and made my ritualist.

The altar has on it another hapless victim (from the same Gargant kit, so many good bits in that kit) with a fresh bunch of fungus sprouting from his belly. He is held in front of a pit that contains a slurry of mold and waste. The idea is the sacrifice is cut by the ritualist, and the cultivator liquid is poured into the wound and the cultivator fungus sprouts from the fresh wound, then the sacrifice is pulled into the pit by a tentacle to dissolve in it, and that substance is occasionally expelled from the rear of the shrine as it moves to sew the ground. The ritualist I like a lot, and got the idea since I saw the Fungoid Cave Shaman kit. It was to fit perfectly with my fungus themed nurgle stuff. I replaced his hands with the a flask of the cultivator potion, and a broken blade. Upon trying several different heads to use, I settled on one from the Maggoth Lord kit. As I looked at it I realized something, this guy is a dwarf! So I like the idea of a nurgle corrupted duardin ritualist manning the shrine. I will have to think of a name and story for him.

Now you may be thinking what I plan to do with the rest of the Gargant kit. Well that is what is coming next...

The Farsetter Holds - Game 4, Finale

(Game 3 here) 
 
We had the final 4th game of our campaign, and it was very epic. Brace for it, because this is a long report and story.

 The Farsetter Holds - Chapter 4

The cold weather snowfall had hit hard and sudden. Although the clan was thankful it wasn't a hard blizzard. They had been preparing about a month, all the while the greenskins inside the hold didn't show any signs. But on this day Dunhill was going give them something to take notice. They emptied the fort of everyone fit for fighting. This was the entire throng, all of them. Lined up at the base of the mountain, in neat disciplined lines, waiting.

Towering over the throng in the middle was the Klad Barag, driven by Drake and a team of his best cogsmiths. Today was to be its first official battle, a magnificent tribute to Grungni. Also of the new engineerings in the throng was their last organ gun, the Beardforce, (a team of 6 in hovering gyropacks with brimstone guns and bombs), and one of Dunhill's earlier steamsuit prototypes, much larger and bulkier than his current model. It is being driven by his veteran longbeard, Behrun Farsetter.

The throng began to stomp in unison, chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!". Small rocks were rolling down the mountain face. The Klad Barage let out a massive horn blow, ear shattering and deep, the forest behind swayed as flocks of birds left the canopy. Rolling rocks became tumbling boulders as the mountain let loose more from the reverberations. It would be impossible for the greenskins to ignore such a display and call. Fighting was what they lived for.

***

Dust and some debris were falling from the high ceilings, every greenskin had paused what they were doing and looked up as they heard the distant call to war. The Profut was beginning to stand taller, as if the building waaagh energy was giving him youth. Grox was feeling it too. Then Da Big'un started laughing, big bellowing guffaws. A group of scouts returned shouting about a big battle about to happen, whispers of a waaagh echoed throughout the horde. Da Big'un began stomping in tune with the duardin outside.

Given time they all marched to the exit lead by the scouts. Not a single orruk was going to miss out on this.

***

Dunhill saw the greenskin horde pour out of the entrance, marching down the hill, chanting 'WAH WAH WAH' to match the rhythm of the duardin throng. They had taken the lure, not that they would object to it if they knew it was one. Dunhill signaled the Klad Barag and it let out 3 short horn blasts to alert the throng that the fight had come. The other veterans were calling to their units and forming tighter lines and locking shields. The organ gun was priming the barrels. The familiar hiss of fuel were filling the reserves in the drakeguns. Thunderer handguns were clicking and locking. A subtle thrum emanated from Bree and the other Runelords as she concentrated on the rune power adoring her battle dress.

The greenskins had formed up and marched forward. Da Big'un let out a massive WAAAGH! and as the horde responded, he bounded down the mountainside atop his magmadroth, and landed with a crash behind the cheering horde.

This was the final stand, Dunhill thought. This would be the end of it. The last chance to take back the Farsetter ancestral holds.

***

Each player brought 3000 points, abandoning most matched play restrictions to bring whatever we wanted. The goal was objective based, and the twist was enhanced magic (because of da WAAAGH POWA!), but double 1's or 6's dealt mortal wounds to the casters.

Jarom brought Da Big'un, a butcher, da Profut, and Grox, and a newcomer Warboss on Wyvern. Also his usual host of orruk and fat'uns, and a couple fat'uns carrying really huge guns (Ironblasters).

As in the story above, I had lots of Ironweld Arsenal and units of Dispossessed. The Klad Barag of course was the centerpiece of the army, and the most exciting part, I thought. I also had 3 Runelords to spread the runepower.

It was a really massive pitched battle with lots of back and forth, and by the end, most of our forces were nearly completely obliterated. The forest and rocky areas had been riggeded with firebombs and phosphorous explosives. Causing a lot of blindness with the greenskins in the forests (brought on by the Mystical terrain rule), and inhibiting movement around the fires in the rocky areas (brought on by the Lethal Inferno ruse card from the Open War cards). These worked to help against the greenskin hordes by splitting them up or delaying some of them.

On the right flank, the Beardforce (gyrocpters) were menacing the orruks and the longbeards, ironbreakers, hammerers, and thunderers held out strong against the spear boys, 'ardboys, and ironguts. Hammer Co. was a very early casualty from the brutally efficient Warboss on Wyvern though. The Warboss survived all the conflict and quickly made his way to the right flank to take on the objective that would have clinched the win for Destruction, but fell under irondrake firepower.

Meanwhile on the right, the huge mass of warriors (40 total) slowly marched up, shields locked and protective runes glowing, to meet the orruk mob at the edges of the forests. They had gained ground on it due to the phosphourous bombs there. Thunderers, irondrakes, and the organ gun shot at who they could. The Klad Barag advanced forward and met on some fat'un (ogors) and leadbelchers, and took them out completely in a brutal melee using its massive stomps and giant rune hammer. It got a chance to shoot its cannon and missile barrage, and its freshly carved antimagic runes helped some with the nearby castings of the Butcher and Shaman. Also Bree and the other Runelords were hard at work trying to keep magic at bay, and enhancing everyone's weapons and armor.

Da Big'un was caught off guard by the phosphorous traps as well, and turned out to be especially susceptible to them, losing a couple precious turns. Then destruction finally caught up with the Klad Barag and a few ironguts. They dealt mortal blows to the Klad Barag, and Drake knew it was going down. So in a final act before the boilers finally gave out, he lunged the massive machine forward to grappled Da Big'un and his mount, so when the machine shut down, at least there would be a crushing weight over top the menacing orruk monster.

During this, Grox was advancing with the warriors. One of Dunhill's much earlier prototypes they recovered from the hold (Warden King on Throne of Power), rushed forward to meet with Grox. Even the mighty fat orruk with many names was dealt much damage and nearly got knocked out completely, but even in such a debilitating state, the orruk was able to take out the contraption. Grox was barely holding on, and knew he needed to get to help Da Big'un with the giant duardin machine. However on his way he was mobbed by the winning unit of warriors and taken out.

Dunhill, furious at seeing his eldest taken down with the Klad Barag, approached the pinned struggling Big'un. With a sheer hatred that spanned his entire ancestry, he overexerted his armor's boiler, and pummeled Da Big'un as his suit shut down. Movement from Da Big'un ceased.

Profut had seen seen the battle turn, and knew when it was wise to run away as the remaining warriors charged after him, calling a retreat back into the hold.

This was all that was left at the end of turn 5. This is how you can tell the intensity of a game, by what's left on both sides.

The Farsetter Holds - Epilogue

It had been a day of recovery from the battle. Dunhill was anxious to uproot his entire expedition and fort into the hold, he didn't want to give the remaining greenskins any chance to regroup and recuperate. As they regained and recovered some of their ancient homes, they also lit the halls again.

After a few weeks, life was returning to the holds. The proper life. But the clan was significantly reduced in number, and it would be entire generations before it would return to the glory since the Age of Myth. One thing for sure, they did not have near enough to populate all the halls, many remain in darkness, and occupied by other undesirables.

Dunhill stopped sending exploratory teams deeper in search of resources and riches when they stopped returning. It still bothered him that after the dust of the battle cleared, they couldn't recover the bodies of Da Big'un or his generals. The so-called Profut was still at large, that grudge not yet struck out.

The clan decided to keep relatively close together as they resettled the holds, and all were working in full force to repair and retrofit what they occupied. New legends and genealogy records were being scrawled into the walls and pillars of their great journey.

King Dunhill sometimes felt content as they were once again living in their rightful ancestral home, but had to remind himself the threat was far from removed. The greenskins and probably more were deeper in the mountain, and they couldn't dream of eradicating it yet. He knew the time was precious for the recuperation of his house, but all the time spent on that, the orruks had the same. This was not the end of the war, but this would be a new chapter for the Forthammer Clan Throng.

***

And there you have it. That is the end of the entire campaign. What a rush! Even though Jarom won with the most renown points, there was still a lot of back and forth in the games, and they were all very epic and exciting. I seriously recommend playing a campaign like this to anyone. These are where the best stories out of Warhammer come from.

As for the campaign rules, we both felt it was an excellent way of handling the whole thing. We looked over the rules packet I made, and came to a couple planned changes from our experience. One in particular was Renown rewards. No longer will it be random with die rolls, because each time I had the opportunity to roll for Renown, I could never roll above a 1, and Jarom was getting high numbers. So we are opting for static numbers based on the wins and types of wins/losses. I will make a post with the updated campaign rules for that at a later date.

The Farsetter Holds - Game 3

(Game 2 here)

The third out of our four game campaign took place and it was a close battle, really close.

 

The Farsetter Holds - Chapter 3

   Dunhill remembered this door, he remembered it well. In his youth and younger days he spent much of his time behind those doors. For it housed the Engineer's Guild hall. The door is decorated to reflect that, with its many intricate artistic gears carved into it. A loud clanging noise breaks him from his trance. Ancient mechanical work turns behind the walls and door slowly swings open. Drake stepped away from the lock mechanism that started the process.

   It smelled old, but fortunately not chaos tainted like some of the other parts of their ancestral halls. This remained untouched. Clansmen, who remember working here, lit the place up with the hum of electric bulbs lining the walls. With each bulb sparking to life the old projects became clearer. Various inventions lay still, some integrated into the walls, some on carts.

   Dunhill smiled as he remembered this place alive with the sound of forges and whirring engines. His smile shortly turned into a frown when he remembered why they had come here. These battles with the greenskins were not going well. They should have had the entire hold by now, but are driven out at every turn. They needed some help. They needed some weapons.

   Drake was busy inspecting everything, barking orders to the rest of the engineers and cogsmiths. He approached his father who was pulling down a dust covered tarp from something of impressive size.

***

   The greenskins had found a feasting room. Luckily there were many kegs to bust open and drink of the contents. Stunties made good grog, and this stuff was old, making it all the more potent. The fat'uns and other orruk were sharing in merriment, along with Da Big'un. It was a massive orruk, at least twice the height of an ogor. Enough to put any proud Ironjaw to shame. Accompanying it was its Magmadroth. These beastly creatures normally were companions only to the fierce Fyreslayers, but any orruk with the toughness to withstand the beasts heat and temperament could tame one as an animal companion.

   The ale was a pleasant distraction, but a distraction. Grox knew he needed to find a fight for Da Big'un, or else it would turn on the rest of the horde. And it needed to happen soon. Luckily the scouts were returning. They arrived in the feasting hall, and whatever they were going to report, immediately went to the back of their thoughts as they delighted in the sight of their brethren consuming stolen grog.

   Grox stormed up to one and smacked the stein from his hands. He briefly frowned at the sight of the foamy liquid spilling over the floor, but Grox' large fist yanked at his leather straps, snapping him from his stupor. "REPORT, GROT!"

   "Uh- We found dem, boss! Da stunties was getting into a big room. One wif all dem mek-works or sumting."

   This concerned Grox. He had encountered mek-works before. The orruk weren't too savvy on mechanical contraptions, mostly being the specialty of the grots. The sky-stunties were also known for it. Whatever form, they were very destructive and usually meant lots of dead boys. The scout reported him the location. He knew of it during their exploration. They can easily get maneuver and surround it.

   Profut Big'un was nearby listening to the report. "Powerful Grox, if I may, da boys is still drinking, and Da Big'un might not want to go anywhere roight now."

   "All roight. My boys fight better when their bellies are full anyway. Full of grog. But as soon as those kegs are empty, we march." The scout had already grabbed another full stein and brought it up to his lips when Grox snatched it from his hands. "Get yer own!"

***

   Dunhill was overseeing the largest of the carts being slowly pulled across the walkway which left the old Engineer's Guild hall. These old machines would do nicely. They had sorted out the creations that were working well enough and those which needed too much to be usable in the near future. This big one had barely made the cut. All of the usable ones were loaded on carts and pulled by pony and clansmen. They just had to get them outside to the fort that the rest of the clans and throng were stationed at the foot of the mountain. Luckily during their explorations, they had found a shortcut outside, another large entrance. This was closer to their location.

   A watcher called out a warning of approaching greenskins. Immediately Dunhill called to his own to form up and get ready to defend the walkway. They had retrieved more drakeguns in the room, so clansmen were donning the irondrake armor. Bree was at Dunhill's side as the rest of the throng took up defensive positions on and around the walkway. They just needed to defend and buy enough time for the caravan to get out of the holds.

   Dunhill did see the hordes approaching from one side of the walkway, and before he could order all to that side, a warning cried out and the other side had about an equal amount of them. They were surrounded.

   Drake called to his father as a crew of sub-engineers wheeled out of the room two gun emplacements. "My lord, these are the last of them, but I have a feeling we will need them now." The crews were already expertly setting the organ gun and cannon up and loading them.

    By now the greenskins on both sides had gotten closer. The gun crews were doing final adjustments and barking orders when an ear piercing roar reverberated through the halls, which gave pause to everyone.

   Before anyone could react, they discovered it came from a massive orruk in heavy armor, wielding a club that rivaled its own size. It sat astride a magmadroth. The rider and mount came bounding across the hall, and leapt up onto the walkway. It's speed was equally as impressive as its size. Without a chance to react, the magmadroth crashed into the organ gun crew and sent them flying, and the big greenskin brought its club down on the gun itself. The forge runes glowed and sparked briefly under the incredible strain of impact before finally giving and shattering into pieces. The imposing brute let out a powerful WAAAGH! and the rest of the greenskins charged forward, eager to get to the fight.

***

The objective card for this game was Kingslayer (kill-points mission, enemy General worth double), and the deployment had me in the center 24" zone, with Jarom having 12" on either side of the table. I was surrounded. For the Twist this game it was Double or Nothing, meaning on a 4+ the game had 2 more Twists applied to the battle. As per my rules, we each picked one of the other Twist cards on the campaign tree, ones that were not connected and had not used yet. Jarom picked Eager for the Fight (granting everyone +2" movement and +1" to run and charge rolls always), and I picked Set Piece Battle. Despite being surrounded, that last twist helped out in this as I got to wait for Jarom to completely finish deploying, then I got to counter-deploy. This helped me by making sure all my big guns were lined up to the big targets, like Da Big'un (counts-as Megaboss on Maw-krusha). Unfortunately Jarom got first turn, and most of his stuff was able to charge in immediately, including Da Big'un leaping up onto the walkway and taking out my organ gun and crew in one combat.

However when it was my turn, all the guns on the walkway immediately turned on to Da Big'un and took it out in one shooting phase, but that meant all the guns didn't fire on the masses of greenskins below during that precious first turn. Eventually as the turns ground on, the hordes fought their way through the ground troops and flooded the main walkway. Grox went down under gunfire after he took out one of the irondrake squads in a single combat round. But the battle was losing despite the heavy losses on both sized. Eventually all I had left was Drake, Dunhill, Bree, and a few thunderers, and Jarom had a unit of Ogors, some Ardboys, a unit of Ironguts, and his Profut Big'un.

The game ended with a Major Victory for Destruction, and a Major Loss for Dispossessed. Killing Grox and Da Big'un was just not enough in the face of all the casualties I suffered. I got my 1 renown for the loss, and Jarom rolled 3 for his win. Right now in the campaign I am sitting at 3 renown, and Jarom at 7. The next and last game will be worth double renown, so If I can take the win in it, I would need to at least roll 2 renown to tie with Jarom, or 3 renown to win the campaign.

***

   Profut Big'un stepped up to the hole where he last saw Da Big'un. It was picking itself up from the fall, the magmadroth as well was shaking its head as it regained consciousness. The blasting of cannon fire, drakeguns, and thunderer rifles must have destabilized the ground, and with Da Big'uns weight, it fell through. It appears to be more halls and caves below. The Profut cursed the duardin guns and their maze-like halls. It was too far below to try pulling Da Big'un out. They would have to search around until they could meet up with it again.

   The Profut's 'Ardboys were helping Grox up as he too regained his bearings after being shot off the walkway ledge. As he realized what had happened, he bullied one of the 'Ardboys, both to vent frustration and save face among the remaining boys. The Profut sneered as he thought of the several times he could have easily dispatched Grox at any point, taking the horde to himself, but he still knew he needed him, for now. While Da Big'un was a massive inspiration to the Waaagh!, it was no leader. It barely spoke outside of grunts and yells. The Profut wanted to teach it some things so it could become an orruk general, and his need for Grox would pass.

***

   Dunhill still didn't like the raw light of Hysh illuminating the sky. He preferred the comfort of the dimly lit halls. Their hike out of the hold had been thankfully uneventful, outside of a few broken wheels on the carts pulling the engineerings.

   The Forthammer Clan Throng fort had grown significantly since the last Dunhill saw of it. They left a contingent of duardin to remain behind to guard over the families and supplies. They had been working nonstop, with the women of the throng being most of the work force. A note of pride for duardin are the stout hardworking nature of their women. It had been constructed primarily of wood from the nearby forests. Dunhill noted the signs of battle that were among the clear-cut trees. He imagined they had a story or few to tell of their own.

   The gates swung open with duardin efficiency and what remained of the throng marched in. Families were reunited, and widows stood sternly. Careful to keep their pain inside, as this was not the time for mourning. The entire expedition was nearly a failure, and Dunhill knew he would need to consult the rest of the elder council tonight about it. They had come to take the holds, but instead are going to need to prepare for a final battle, outside at the base of their birthright.

   "By Grungni's beard, the greenskins will pay." Dunhill recognized the voice, and embraced Grundi. The runelord was old, older even than Dunhill's father. He was among the oldest in the clan, and Bree's tutor and master runelord.

   "They will." declared Dunhill. "There is much to be done. If one thing about this whole endeavor has reaffirmed me with greenskins, they will seek out the biggest fights," he gestured to Drake organizing the engineering carts within the fort walls, "So we will give them one."

   Grundi grimaced at the largest cart. It carried a bipedal machine with an imposing duardin presence. When standing it would reach 2 maybe 3 stories tall. He never trusted the newfangled contraptions that Dunhill and his son had an affinity for. "Will it work?"

   "A large enough foe is too much for any orruk to refuse a fight. With this we can lure all the cursed grob-kin out of our holds, and crush them. I could never get the damned thing to work in my youth, but if anyone can get the Klad Barag up and running, it's my son."

(Game 4 here)

2017 Year in Review

This was another good hobby-filled year. So here is a summary of 2016 for me.

T'au Empire (Warhammer 40,000)
I took my T'au to the Harvester this year. While my Index army didn't have too much success, it was fun. Let's hope they get a good codex in 2018. At least I have some newly painted battlesuits.

James' Necrons (Warhammer 40,000)
I guess you could call this a commission. Something I did for my brother so he could attend the Harvester of Souls with us. We will see what kind of codex will come out for it in 2018.

Censers & Tocsins (Nurgle Mortals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This is an army I have been trying to keep up on with painting. Compared to last year's summary, I only had some built, and none painted. My goal with this army is if I build something for it, I paint it, before building the next thing. There will definitely be more to come for this AoS force.

Forthammer Clan Throng (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I have had a ton of fun with this army. I took them to the Las Vegas Open, added some cool conversions, and am running them in a campaign, which is still ongoing. I have more on the painting table for these guys, so I am not done with them yet.

The Klad Barag (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This deserves its own entry here because I consider it quite the achievement. Still not 100% sure what I will use him as, but he will be a proxy for any big dude I want to run in friendly games. Perhaps not tournament legal due to being a proxy and all. I do plan on taking some better photos of this guy and sending them to White Dwarf. Let's hope something comes from that.

Forgesworn Eternals (Stormcast Eternals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I haven't really added anything to this army, just got completely caught up on painting. Lately nothing has really stood out for the line to get me to want to add here. At least with being completely painted, if I do add anything, I will be inclined to immediately paint it. Like my plans for my Nurgle dudes.

Tempest's Eye Rangers (Grand Alliance: Order - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I only have a couple things here for the army, for now. They are only really ever intended to be for some Grand Alliance army, rather than a start of Freeguild. I would like to paint them this coming year.

Song of Blades and Heroes Stuff
For my favorite non-Warhammer fantasy skirmish game, I have added a lot of Reaper BONES minis to it here and there. And I made some nifty ruins for it as well. But most of all I am still slowly working on the Song of the Deep Empire campaign supplement for it. More on that in the coming year.

And that sums up the year. Lot's of fun projects, and of course, lot's of plans for 2018. Stay tuned.