Tuesday, 10 May 2011
WTF Blogger?
It seems this so called new blogger is filled with glitchs (curse you endless swirly thing). Anyway, have had to revert to the old one until this issue is fixed. This will probably cause errors when uploading pics so hopefully it'll be fixed soon.
Monday, 9 May 2011
Project update time
An update, kick ass. Last year I put up a pic on my DeviantART account of a WiP chaos sorcerer of Tzeentch (Here). Well......they're still WiP (at least, the Sorcerer still is) but here are a few quick update pics:
In the meantime, I have also added a quick peak at one of my more recent projects I'm working on, a Clan Skryre Warlord (who will be carried by a war-litter):
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Tomb Kings Armybook Review Part 2
With the lore and art over and done with in part 1, we now get down to the rules. I'll try to limit it as best I can so here we go:
Rules:
No real changes to the overall rules of the army. The only real difference is the Hierophant/General rule as your army now only needs a Hierophant to lead it and the 'must have' Tomb Prince/King to be General doesn't appear in it, though it would be wise to add one in anyway (as you still need a general).
Magic:
The Liche Priests now follow the rules for casting like everyone else. The reasoning is a slip-up in the casting of the incantation has angered the gods and thus an irresistible force/miscast occurs (Makes sense, their gods do displease so easily). They can choose between the Lore of Death (they are obsessed with death, so it's sort of the Lore of Djaf, the god of death), the Lore of Light (so the Lore of Ptra, the first amoungst the gods and the sun god, though I guess Neru the moon goddess and Ptra's wife could also be it) and finally the Lore of Nehekhara, which focuses purely on the Tomb King armies and Lore attribute can restore wounds to units (though constructs only ever restore a single wound).
As for magic items, there are only 8. Some have been upgraded both in ability and cost, while the Arcane ones have had there rules changed to match the new way of magic. Alas the Standard of the Undying Legion is now double it's points and is a bound spell.
Characters:
Settra (lord) has had some stat changes, gear changes and points reduced.
Khalida (lord) no longer regenerates but does Hate vampire counts. Less points, units can no longer buy poisoned attacks but a unit of archers she joins gets to use her BS of 3 and their attacks count as poisoned attacks.
Grand Hierophant Khatep (lord) is alright. Has a few nice magic items and has knows all spells from Lore of Nehekhara.
Arkhan the Black (lord) uses the Lore of Death and possesses a couple of Nagash's magic items. He can also get a chariot which can even be upgraded to fly.
Prince Apophas (hero) is a loner assassin who emerges from the sand and gets bonuses against a selected character. He's also made of scarabs.
The Herald Nekaph (hero) is good in combat, especially in challenges and enemies in base contact have a harder time overcoming a fear test.
Ramhotep the Visionary (hero) is a Necrotect with frenzy and at the beginning of game pics a single animated construct unit to get re-rolls on armour saves.
Lords & Heroes:
The Tomb King/Prince 'My will be done' rule is now any unit he is attached to can use his Weapon Skill so long as he is with them. The curse is also an X number of hits at Str X (X based on if Tomb King or Prince) distributed as shooting with no armour saves aloud. They can also use a Khermrian Warsphinx as a mount.
Liche High Priests/Liche Priests......not much difference really. Their main change was magic (though the high priest gets T4).
Tomb Herald replaces Icon Bearer and has more gear options. Can also take wounds for his King/Prince he chooses to serve, so long as he is in same unit. Can have many but only one can be the Battle Standard Bearer.
Necrotect is the newest hero character and gives Regen (6+) to nearby constructs (plus hated to unit he's attached to). A mummified artist really.
Core:
Skeleton warriors are now split into two groups - Warriors and Archers, both of which have had their base points dropped so more can be fielded.
Light Horsemen are now Horse Archers and are roughly the same. Heavy Horsemen are now just Horsemen with Light Armour being the option, yet still with it they are cheaper per model.
Chariots are now Core and follow the chariot rules in the warhammer rule book, though they are still in units. Points increase though crew have more attacks.
Special:
Tomb Swarms are now Special. You need a minimum of 2 bases but are slightly cheaper.
Carrion (which I hate the most) are the same in cost but have one more strength and attack.
Tomb Guard are a point cheaper, have access to helberds (and thanks to their magic system, can make better use of them then my Stormvermin can) and are the only unit that can purchase the Banner of the Undying Legion (apart from the army Battle Standard Bearer). A large force would be scary.
Tomb Scorpion are same price but one less wound (still love these guys).
Ushabti not only come with great weapons as standard, but can swap them for an additional hand weapon or a great bow. They can even have a champ, standard and musician.
Necropolis Knights seem rather good for their points cost. Average strength and toughness with a 3+ armour save and a decent number of attacks. Heck, they can even be upgraded to emerge from the sands like Tomb Scorpions.
Sepulchral Stalkers are the the more shooty version of the Knights, less combat but an effective shooting attack with artillary dice worth of hits that uses the opponents initiative instead of toughness to wound with no armour saves.
Finally a Khemrian Warsphinx which seems to have a decent combat stats with a toughness of 8. May also be upgrated to have a poison tail and breath fire.
Rare:
Screaming skull catapult is same though upgrade a slight more expensive.
Casket of souls no longer needs you to attach a priest to it. It's power is a bound spell that targets a single unit and may possibly jump to others on a 50/50 roll. It also adds power dice to your pool. If destroyed, all units nearby (frend & foe) on a 4+ take damage as the souls go on a rampage.
Necrolith Colossus is, what I assume to be, the old Bone Giant. His tough/wounds are swapped and he starts with hand weapon with options for additional hand weapon/great weapon/bow of the desert. Is cheaper but looses his heavy armour.
Hierotitan is similar to a colossus, but more focus on the priests giving a bonus to their casting when in range. He also comes with 2 bound spells, with Shem's burning gaze from Lore of Light and Spirit Leech from Lore of Death.
The Necrosphinx is a flying monster killer. Nice stats, with a single attack dedicated to Heroic Killing Blow. Can be upgraded with poisoned attacks.
Overall:
Rule wise the Tomb Kings are brought inline within this latest edition. The army is much more points effective and will certainly give Tomb Kings players more choice. Rules wise the book has it all (with a few questions that need an FAQ, but then what book doesn't) though it does seem to lack in the lore department. It'll be interesting to see how well they go against my army, the Skaven.
Rules:
No real changes to the overall rules of the army. The only real difference is the Hierophant/General rule as your army now only needs a Hierophant to lead it and the 'must have' Tomb Prince/King to be General doesn't appear in it, though it would be wise to add one in anyway (as you still need a general).
Magic:
The Liche Priests now follow the rules for casting like everyone else. The reasoning is a slip-up in the casting of the incantation has angered the gods and thus an irresistible force/miscast occurs (Makes sense, their gods do displease so easily). They can choose between the Lore of Death (they are obsessed with death, so it's sort of the Lore of Djaf, the god of death), the Lore of Light (so the Lore of Ptra, the first amoungst the gods and the sun god, though I guess Neru the moon goddess and Ptra's wife could also be it) and finally the Lore of Nehekhara, which focuses purely on the Tomb King armies and Lore attribute can restore wounds to units (though constructs only ever restore a single wound).
As for magic items, there are only 8. Some have been upgraded both in ability and cost, while the Arcane ones have had there rules changed to match the new way of magic. Alas the Standard of the Undying Legion is now double it's points and is a bound spell.
Characters:
Settra (lord) has had some stat changes, gear changes and points reduced.
Khalida (lord) no longer regenerates but does Hate vampire counts. Less points, units can no longer buy poisoned attacks but a unit of archers she joins gets to use her BS of 3 and their attacks count as poisoned attacks.
Grand Hierophant Khatep (lord) is alright. Has a few nice magic items and has knows all spells from Lore of Nehekhara.
Arkhan the Black (lord) uses the Lore of Death and possesses a couple of Nagash's magic items. He can also get a chariot which can even be upgraded to fly.
Prince Apophas (hero) is a loner assassin who emerges from the sand and gets bonuses against a selected character. He's also made of scarabs.
The Herald Nekaph (hero) is good in combat, especially in challenges and enemies in base contact have a harder time overcoming a fear test.
Ramhotep the Visionary (hero) is a Necrotect with frenzy and at the beginning of game pics a single animated construct unit to get re-rolls on armour saves.
Lords & Heroes:
The Tomb King/Prince 'My will be done' rule is now any unit he is attached to can use his Weapon Skill so long as he is with them. The curse is also an X number of hits at Str X (X based on if Tomb King or Prince) distributed as shooting with no armour saves aloud. They can also use a Khermrian Warsphinx as a mount.
Liche High Priests/Liche Priests......not much difference really. Their main change was magic (though the high priest gets T4).
Tomb Herald replaces Icon Bearer and has more gear options. Can also take wounds for his King/Prince he chooses to serve, so long as he is in same unit. Can have many but only one can be the Battle Standard Bearer.
Necrotect is the newest hero character and gives Regen (6+) to nearby constructs (plus hated to unit he's attached to). A mummified artist really.
Core:
Skeleton warriors are now split into two groups - Warriors and Archers, both of which have had their base points dropped so more can be fielded.
Light Horsemen are now Horse Archers and are roughly the same. Heavy Horsemen are now just Horsemen with Light Armour being the option, yet still with it they are cheaper per model.
Chariots are now Core and follow the chariot rules in the warhammer rule book, though they are still in units. Points increase though crew have more attacks.
Special:
Tomb Swarms are now Special. You need a minimum of 2 bases but are slightly cheaper.
Carrion (which I hate the most) are the same in cost but have one more strength and attack.
Tomb Guard are a point cheaper, have access to helberds (and thanks to their magic system, can make better use of them then my Stormvermin can) and are the only unit that can purchase the Banner of the Undying Legion (apart from the army Battle Standard Bearer). A large force would be scary.
Tomb Scorpion are same price but one less wound (still love these guys).
Ushabti not only come with great weapons as standard, but can swap them for an additional hand weapon or a great bow. They can even have a champ, standard and musician.
Necropolis Knights seem rather good for their points cost. Average strength and toughness with a 3+ armour save and a decent number of attacks. Heck, they can even be upgraded to emerge from the sands like Tomb Scorpions.
Sepulchral Stalkers are the the more shooty version of the Knights, less combat but an effective shooting attack with artillary dice worth of hits that uses the opponents initiative instead of toughness to wound with no armour saves.
Finally a Khemrian Warsphinx which seems to have a decent combat stats with a toughness of 8. May also be upgrated to have a poison tail and breath fire.
Rare:
Screaming skull catapult is same though upgrade a slight more expensive.
Casket of souls no longer needs you to attach a priest to it. It's power is a bound spell that targets a single unit and may possibly jump to others on a 50/50 roll. It also adds power dice to your pool. If destroyed, all units nearby (frend & foe) on a 4+ take damage as the souls go on a rampage.
Necrolith Colossus is, what I assume to be, the old Bone Giant. His tough/wounds are swapped and he starts with hand weapon with options for additional hand weapon/great weapon/bow of the desert. Is cheaper but looses his heavy armour.
Hierotitan is similar to a colossus, but more focus on the priests giving a bonus to their casting when in range. He also comes with 2 bound spells, with Shem's burning gaze from Lore of Light and Spirit Leech from Lore of Death.
The Necrosphinx is a flying monster killer. Nice stats, with a single attack dedicated to Heroic Killing Blow. Can be upgraded with poisoned attacks.
Overall:
Rule wise the Tomb Kings are brought inline within this latest edition. The army is much more points effective and will certainly give Tomb Kings players more choice. Rules wise the book has it all (with a few questions that need an FAQ, but then what book doesn't) though it does seem to lack in the lore department. It'll be interesting to see how well they go against my army, the Skaven.
Tomb Kings Armybook Review Part 1
Having spend some time comparing the newest edition to the previous, there are many changes to both the army and the lore behind it. In this first look, I shall review the lore and artwork, with the rules in part 2 or the review.
As with the changes to the newest edition, the new books are of a hard cover. Though they claim it's better for it, most recon it's just to stop people scanning the books and uploading them to the net and as such, I can hardly say it was worth it as it hasn't stopped them from doing it. With the average price jump for the switch being around the $15(AU) amount, does this book really add more to the army?
From an Artwork view, yes. Though some of the artwork in the previous was used as box art for the models, this one does contain some very colourful pieces, showing off what the new models would look like in the warhammer world. Overall, I liked many of the newer pieces as it gave that magical feel to the army. The painted model pictures were well done and it's great to see them in something better then just a sand landscape.
The lore however, is one thing I can't seem to get my head around. As it appears in many more newer editions, the lore seems to shift and change with the writers taking some pieces they liked and discarding the rest for something new. While this may seem fine in some areas, other parts ether contradict or re-write parts of their history. Not only having read the previous edition, but also the first two books of the Nagash trilogy (the third due to release in august), one cannot help but think that someone took a few bullet points from their history and re-worded the rest. Indeed, the three previous named heroes from the last book barely get a mention (King Phar got some mention, yet his stance against Settra didn't get a mention I believe). Instead we got a few new characters with background written in (why did we get Ramhotep the Visionary when we already had Sehenesmet?). Settra is the same and Khalida has had a bit more mention, but the introduction of Arkhan the Black into the Tomb Kings side of things was very interesting (having looked up much of his past, he's so-called piece with the kings proves amusing). The lore for the animated statues is given more detail and the meaning for the death look as opposed to what the deities should have looked like is understandable (somewhat).
My only real gripe is the lack of effort in explaining the Nehekharan pantheon of gods and goddesses. With the worship of such deities being of major importance, the little that they did give (which you found by reading mostly on certain units) felt disappointing, as did any real history on the many cities of Nehekharan. Overall it wasn't too bad, yet I can't help think it could have been better.
Now Part 2.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Delay in pics
If you've visited my DeviantART page lately (and why havn't you?) you may have noticed a lack of updates (sounds familiar to another site I'm on...). The reason for this is simple, my #@%:( camera isn't letting me upload anything to my comp. Hopefully I'll get this problem resolved and get some pics and planned projects up and running.
Finally, hints to my latest conversion project involve Warhammer Online and a pie....
Finally, hints to my latest conversion project involve Warhammer Online and a pie....
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Tomb Kings
The first Warhammer fantasy army I started collecting was a Tomb Kings one and with the new incoming Tomb Kings, 3 things/rumors have peaked my interests. The first is the War-sphinx, I can't wait to get the chance to paint it.
The second is the new magic system for them. The focus seems to be more on constructs for this army (as opposed to endless troops for Vampire Counts) as the spells are more buff/debuff and only the lore attribute can restore wounds/models to a unit. So it seems a large force of skeletons may seem to be reduced to a sort of 50/50 skeleton/construct. I just wonder how this new lore (as well as lore of death/lore of light) will affect my liche's.
Finally is the rumor of a special character: Arkhan the Black.
Apparently he's a lev 5 wizard (being Nagash's second in command), but this is where I'm getting confused. The Tomb Kings hate Nagash and as such, all who serve him, so why stick him in the book. Surely the Vamp book would have been better as from his past history and even the recent Nagash novels, Arkhan isn't exactly good buddies with the dead kings. If anything, each time Nagash returns he sides with him, so why Tomb Kings? Perhaps when they release the book and if he is in it they may have an explanation for me.
Oh well, wait n see....
The second is the new magic system for them. The focus seems to be more on constructs for this army (as opposed to endless troops for Vampire Counts) as the spells are more buff/debuff and only the lore attribute can restore wounds/models to a unit. So it seems a large force of skeletons may seem to be reduced to a sort of 50/50 skeleton/construct. I just wonder how this new lore (as well as lore of death/lore of light) will affect my liche's.
Finally is the rumor of a special character: Arkhan the Black.
Apparently he's a lev 5 wizard (being Nagash's second in command), but this is where I'm getting confused. The Tomb Kings hate Nagash and as such, all who serve him, so why stick him in the book. Surely the Vamp book would have been better as from his past history and even the recent Nagash novels, Arkhan isn't exactly good buddies with the dead kings. If anything, each time Nagash returns he sides with him, so why Tomb Kings? Perhaps when they release the book and if he is in it they may have an explanation for me.
Oh well, wait n see....
Sunday, 6 February 2011
I'm baaaaaack!
My apologies for lack of up-dates but things have been rather problematic. With recovering from Hernia surgery and the natural desasters here in Queensland, it's been hard to focus on things. Rest assured, I will have a number of updates up soon.
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