Thursday, June 2, 2011

Rodents of unusual size?

I don't believe they exist.

o/

While along with the Princess Bride, that is also the 'official' stance on Skaven in WHFB's Empire. Up until now it was mine as well. I never much cared for the old Skaven models as they struck me as kinda clunky, their tails always broke off, and they all kinda looked the same (well, virtually any WHFB army has that problem when ya think about it). Anyways, I never bought any.

Then, on Tuesday almost all of my new ebay purchases arrived in the mail, and four Skaven minis were among them. Putting the BB team aside, I painted up the two of them. Never having painted a Skaven before, it was kindova novelty to paint something a bit different.

Starting off on Characters, these will form the leadership of my Mordheim Warband (assuming I ever play that again). First off, my leader, a Warlock Engineer from the Island of Blood:
I'll use him in place of the assassin adept. The assassin gets an extra -1 to armor saves, however I'm sure that like Necromunda, the prevalence of well armored troops is minimal. So armed with a Halberd & warplock pistol (with armor modifiers of -2 & -3 respectively) that point will more or less be moot. Virtually all I know about Skaven fluff wise, I pulled off of Lexicanum, so these guys will (nominally) be from Clan Skyre with their engineering bent, rather than Eshin.

One thing I wanted was a sorcerer, however I didn't like any of the various Seer minis in the Skaven mini range. So instead I opted for the rat ogre handler which also comes from the Island of Blood box:
I figure to have him armed with a spear, which looking as pseudo-mechanical as it does will also fit into a Skyre theme. I was thinking of a warband name and have kinda settled on the 'Clockwork Forage' (foraging for warp stone that is). It both goes well with the sorta steampunk/Skyre theme, as well as being the kind of name that most of my friends will groan & grumble about.

I also have two Stormvermin to use as black Skaven? Whatever the champions are called (I don't have the book in front of me). I also have some ebay bids in for giant rats & some plastic slings (and a few more on my watch list in case those don't pan out). After getting those, all I would need is a clanrat box & I'll be good to go! Actually I could probably sell half the contents of that box and still have more than enough options for a good sized warband.

Speaking of ebay, I'm selling off the painted/finished portion of my Dark Hands marines. I tried selling them in the past, but was only able to get rid of the horde of tac. & assault marines that were frankensteined together from spare/old parts. Now the painted stuff (minus the predator which will go into permanent retirement) has a bid & a bucket load of watchers, so I'm hopeful they'll fetch a good price.

I'm taking what's left & folding it into the Aurora Chapter. True that'll kill the scouts-only list, but its the much cheaper route. Currently this puts the army @ 1500 points. Add in 2 predators and some new doors for the landraider (currently it has Imperial Fist FW doors) and it should be close to 1850 or so. I figure that'll cost a little over $100, as opposed to $200-$300 had I built the Aurora as I had originally intended (and if you're reading this GW, then you can attribute this change to your latest price hike).

I'll test the reorganized Aurora this weekend, and tentatively against whatever foul & vile traitor army neverness places in front of my guns.

4 comments:

neverness said...

...and that was a fun game! My accursed dice definitely made things challenging, 'ey? BTW, The pics don't do these Skaven justice! Holding them in hand, I have to say that these are some of your finest pieces yet! What was it Rob exclaimed when he saw them? :)

Da Masta Cheef said...

lol, some days the dice just say 'Today is not your day'.

As for Rob & the Skaven (thank btw) he said:'when did you get good?'

I'm gonna use that as a title to my next post as I've painted another another one. Screech got some really pretty off brand knight on horseback to use as a Reikland leader last night on ebay. He seems more inclined to play Mordheim than Necromunda (mainly cause I said he couldn't use his IG as all Arbitrators).

neverness said...

Oh, let's let him use his IG, we'll just WYSIWYG when it comes to the wargear (What? no helmet?) hehe...they won't be enforcers as much as metermaids...

Da Masta Cheef said...

lol!

Sorry, but those aren't Arbitrator shotguns with executioner rounds, those are just lasguns...

I told him we'd just feed them to Charlie's stealer cult.