Age of Sigmar: Returning Heroes of Old

September 16, 2015, 8:00 am

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A new age has dawned, but not all has been lost from the Old World. As we are introduced to the Mortal Realms, familiar faces begin to appear. Some of the mightiest heroes and most diabolical villains from the Warhammer world have managed to survive the End Times and are now making their presence felt in the Age of Sigmar. 

We are now two campaign books into the Age of Sigmar and already there is a long list of returning characters from Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Read on to find out who is still alive and kicking in the Mortal Realms.

Sigmar

Let's start off with the most obvious one. Sigmar is in fact, alive and well in the Age of Sigmar. Having survived the cataclysm of the End Times by clinging to the core of the Old World as it hurtled through space, he found himself rescued by a celestial being known as Dracothion. Whether this is literally a giant space dragon, or something else entirely is still unknown at this point (although events from the novel War Storm point to the giant dragon thing actually being true, at least to mortal eyes). Having been shown the Mortal Realms by his new friend, Sigmar proceeded to explore them and discover other lost gods and heroes from the World that Was. Now he is the preeminent god in the Realms, and hopefully their savior from the dark gods.

Alarielle

Alarielle somehow also survived the death of her world, and like many of her compatriots, has now found herself with god like powers. This could possibly be an after effect of having been a vessel for one of the winds of magic, but she now finds herself as the goddess of life in the Realm of Ghyran. She was responsible for bringing the Sylvaneth, or dryads and treeman, into the realms by planting seeds she had saved from the Old World. Having become disillusioned with her allies, she retreated into her realm during the Age of Chaos to be alone with her glades and forests. Now the Stormcast Eternals seek her out to reforge their alliance against the forces of Chaos, but she is not so easily found, nor does she want to be.

Tyrion and Teclis

The famous twins both found themselves in the Realm of Light, with Tyrion awakening first. Infused with the power of a god, the Aelf discovered that he was no blind. After wandering for several days he found his brother, whom he discovered he could see through. Not much else is known about the two other then that Tyrion and Malerion seemed to have abducted Slaanesh in search for their people. For a long time they could find no other Aelfs in the Mortal Realms. What has become of their race now we are still unsure of. Teclis was also instrumental in helping Sigmar with the creation of the Stormcast Eternals. He contributed part of his vast magical might into obscuring the Realm of Azyr from the prying eyes of the Chaos gods and Tzeentch in particular.

Malekith/Malerion

The former Witch King, Phoenix King, and Infinity King awoke in Ulgu, the Realm of Shadows. At first he couldn't remember who he was and wandered the shadowy lands in search of others. Eventually his memory started to return to him and he forced his incorporeal form to take a more solid, and familiar guise. For some reason he has also changed his name to Malerion. I'm sure this is done for copyright issues since I think Malekith is a "real" mythological name, and is also used in Thor by Marvel. Whatever the reason is, it does strike me as a little odd that it's never mentioned why his name is different in the story. I think it's just supposed to be a combination of Malekith and Aenarion. In his realm he discovered his mother, Morathi, and the two argued for awhile, before reconciling enough to be cordial. He joined Sigmar's alliance along with all of the other wayward Aelf gods and helped Tyrion in capturing Slaanesh. What he is up to know or where he's at is currently unknown, but it's safe to assume he will be a major player in the Aelf plan. If the drawing of a curiously Malekith like dragon creature in the first big book is anything to go by, he may not look quite how we remember him.

Morathi

Malekith's dear old mom seems to have escaped the clutches of Slaanesh after the End Times. We don't know much about her other then that her and her son still hate each other and that she has joined Sigmar's alliance. It will be interesting to see what happens with her story going forward.

Nagash

The Great Necromancer is back and it's not really a surprise. When someone has mastery over death I think they can manage to live through almost everything. He was discovered buried under a cairn of stones in one of the underworlds of Shyish by Sigmar back in the mists of the Age of Myth. Since then he has taken up the role of god of Death in the Mortal Realms. Back in the End Times he considered himself the god of Death, but now he really is. Every soul is claimed by him when they die and he rules over all of Shyish. He had joined Sigmar's alliance against Chaos, but was then the first one to turn his back on the forces of order. It hasn't been 100% confirmed, but it seems that he struck a deal with Chaos and in exchange gave them access to the Allpoints, an area that has access to all of the Mortal Realms. Enraged at the betrayal Sigmar abandoned his war against Chaos to try and hunt down the Necromancer. Nagash managed to evade the god for long enough that Sigmar eventually had to give up and go back to fighting Chaos. Unfortunately whatever deal he had struck with Chaos didn't stick and Shyish was then invaded and Nagash killed at the hands of Archaon. Nagash being Nagash he didn't stay dead for long and now with the Age of Sigmar dawning he seems to be slowly marshaling his strength again. He is also a little angry that Sigmar is keeping the souls of all of the Stormcast Eternals for himself and denying Nagash his bounty.

Arkhan the Black

We don't know much about what Arkhan is up to in the Mortal Realms beyond the fact that he is around and kicking. There has been a few mentions of Nagash's Mortarchs still being around as well as at least one piece of artwork specifically showing Arkhan.

Grungni

The two Duardin gods were found by Sigmar chained on top of a mountain top. After freeing the pair they joined Sigmar's alliance, with Grungni being a little more friendly with the human god. After the Gates of Azyr were closed it was Grungni that helped the most with the creation of the Stormcast Eternals. He was instrumental in figuring out how to imbue them with their god like essence and also created all of their armor and weapons. In fact, the hammer in the Stormcast's symbol is Grungni's hammer, which is why it doesn't look like Ghal Maraz. I find it really interesting that the they owe so much to the Duardin and I hope that when the Duardin get more involved in the story that the bond between them is touched upon more. After helping Sigmar get started Grungni retreated to the Realm of Metal to be with the rest of his kin. Currently the Stormcast are searching for the lost god and the rest of the Duardin to reforge their alliance.

Grimnir

The Slayer god of the Duardin was a little too belligerent to stay put in Sigmar's alliance. Instead of trying to temper his anger, Sigmar used him to hunt down a lot of the bigger beasts in the Age of Myth. In particular he was sent to battle the firewrym in Aqshy. He was able to kill the beast, freeing the realm from its tyranny, but was "killed" in return. His essence fractured, scattering all over the Realm of Fire. Currently we know that a faction of Duardin called the Fyreslayers inhabit the Realm of Fire and seem to owe a whole lot to the Slayer cult of old. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some sort of Avatar of Grimnir unit for them in the future.

Archaon

The Everchosen of Chaos is back and still the dark gods number one choice for smashing face. He was their champion during the invasion of the Age of Chaos and was quite successful. We don't know much about what he did beyond killing Nagash, but I'm sure we will learn more as the story progresses. During the Age of Sigmar he is still around somewhere and I will be interested to see how he is used in the future. Will he continue to be the number one bad guy for Chaos for the foreseeable future or will he get defeated earlier on to let a new character take his place?

Glottkin

Again, not much is known about the Glottkin besides that they are still alive and are one of Nurgle's favorite group of champions. They are currently part of his force attacking Ghyran, sharing duties with Gutrot Spume and a new guy named Torglug.

Maggoth Lords

The Maggoth Lords survived the End Times and are generals in Nurgle's armies right now. Not much more is known besides that they are currently in Ghyran.

Gutrot Spume

Good old Gutrot is back and still leading his plague fleets in the Mortal Realms. I'm sure he sails actual seas when he can, but it appears that he can actually sail the void as well. Whether this is literally outer space between the realms or some sort of weird magical void is unknown. I'm also unsure whether or not he can sail freely between the realms without the use of gates. Something that is really cool though is that he know has a land kraken, which allows him to "sail" his flagship on dry land as the giant beast pulls itself along. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Gutrot Spume in the future.

Valkia the Bloody

Valkia hasn't been mentioned in the lore yet beside a brief blurb in White Dwarf weekly. She is being repackaged with a round base and considering she is a Chaos demon that has constantly been resurrected in the past anyway, it's not really a surprise that Khorne brought her back for some more fun after her death at Ludwig's hands.

Skarr Bloodwrath

Skarr is another character that hasn't been mentioned in the lore yet, but is also getting a a repackage. He is in the same boat as Valkia since he was always brought back to life anyway even when he was wrecking face in the Old World.

Throgg

You can't keep a good troll down. Throgg the troll king was briefly mentioned in The Quest for Ghal Maraz as leading Chaos forces somewhere in the realms. There hasn't been any other news yet, and as far as I know isn't getting repacked with a round base anytime soon.

Festus the Leechlord

Festus was rereleased with a round base back when Nurgle got all of it's repacks a few weeks ago. He hasn't gotten a mention in the lore though, but during the End Times he did ascend to demonhood before dying so it's not a huge stretch to imagine how and why he is back. Plus, his model is just way to cool to get rid of.

Scyla

The most famous spawn of Chaos is back in the Mortal Realms. Again, no mention in the lore besides a brief blurb in White Dwarf where he was pictured with a round base. I think it's safe to assume anything seen with a round base is back for Age of Sigmar.

Kairos Fateweaver

I never assume a demon is dead for good, and Kairos proves my point. In Archaon we saw him getting his heads chopped off by the Everchosen himself. In Age of Sigmar he is in the Realm of Metal and pulling the strings of the sorcerer Ephryx, the ninth disciple of Tzeentch. I imagine we will see a lot more of the master manipulator as the story progresses.

Oak of Ages

While not a character, any fan of Warhammer will know what the Oak of Ages is. It used to reside in Athel Loren in the Old World and a "small" chunk of it (looks to be quite massive to me) seems to have crashed into Ghyran, the Realm of Life. It's a nice little touch and I'm sure will be massively important with that realm going forward. I hope they do more little nods to the old Warhammer world like this as the other realms are explored.

Assumed to be Alive

Mannfred and Neferata

These two haven't been mentioned at all, but they have been in the background of a few army shots of the undead models. Since Arkhan is around and they are all one model kit it also just makes sense from a business point of view to keep them around. I wonder if Mannfred will be crazy like how he was at the end of the End Times?

Durthu

Durthu hasn't been seen or mentioned, but since he is a part of the Treelord kit I wouldn't be surprised if he makes a return somehow. I'm sure Alarielle can find a way to regrow him if she wants.

Araloth

The newest Wood Elf hero had a pretty important role at the end of Khaine during the End Times. It would seem like a pretty big waste if that storyline was left to dangle in the wind so I'm sure we will see more of him when the Aelfs get their turn in the spotlight.

Personal Speculation

Any and all Chaos characters and Demons

I mean, they are pawns of the Chaos gods and the dark gods are the ones who ended the Old World. I wouldn't imagine it would be too hard for them to bring back any of their favorite champions if they wanted to. In the future we may see Sigvald, Wulfrik, Crom, or any of the others who still have models available.

Khalida

Out of all of the Tomb King characters I hope that Khalida is still alive. This may seem like a biased opinion since they are one of my armies, but the real reason she should be in the Age of Sigmar is because of Neferata. The two have one of the most famous feuds in Warhammer, which was never really resolved. It would be a shame if they brought Neferata back and left her cousin in the dust of the Old World, letting the Vampire win by default. If you want to get rid of Settra that's fine (I guess), but give us our Queen. Just imagine the conflict that would come from having to serve Nagash, yet still hating all vampires and one of his Mortarchs in particular.

Krell

Krell seemed to be a favorite of the writers during the End Times so I wouldn't be too shocked to see him again once the force of Death get their turn. It doesn't hurt that his model is also really, really cool. All of these undead characters are kind of in the same boat as the Chaos ones since Nagash is the master of death. He can bring back anyone he wants too as long as their souls haven't been claimed by another god. I do hope they leave Vlad alone though unless they can continue to do his storyline justice like they did in the End Times.

If I missed any returning characters let me know in the comments below. Who else do you think made it through to the Mortal Realms?

Until next time,

Tyler M.

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Mini of the Week 9-18-15

September 18, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: GALLERY: Stormcast Eternal Liberators

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Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Striking Scorpion vs Daemonette by Wiltrichs on CMoN

You have to love when a diorama is as dynamic as this one. There's so much movement and it all looks completely natural and flows perfectly. This hobbyist really captured the sense of grace that demon of Slaanesh and an Eldar would have. I'm not exactly sure what parts are converted since it is so seamless. The Daemonette clearly has some conversion work done to get the leaping pose, but the Striking Scorpion is harder to tell. It pretty much looks like a stock model to me, but I have to imagine it was been partially re-sculpted to get him to look up at his attacker.

The painting is just as high as you would expect from a model that had won gold at the Golden Demons. It's very reminiscent of the 'Eavy Metal style, smooth, crisp, and clean. If you haven't noticed the ground they are on is a Ying Yang, with the Eldar and the Daemonette occupying opposite sides of it. It's a perfect fit for these two opposing force, since they really are the Ying to the other's Yang. All together everything in the diorama works perfectly and really creates a evocative battle scene.

Be sure to check out more views of it on Cool Mini or Not and show the artist some love if you like it. 

Until next time,

Tyler M.

What do you think of this model? If you have any models or have seen any around the web that you feel deserve to be the Mini of the Week feel free to send them to me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with the title "Mini of the Week" and a brief description of how you painted it or a link to where you found it. There is also a dedicated board on the Mengel Miniatures Forum for Mini of the Week where you can discuss past entries or post of minis you think are deserving of the title.

GALLERY: Stormcast Eternal Liberators

September 21, 2015, 8:00 am

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I am really liking all of the new Age of Sigmar stuff, and the Stormcast Eternals in particular. I've been working on this unit for about a month now, and they are finally done. My first entry into my new Stormcast Eternal army, a humble unit of Liberators.

I originally meant to make this army a fairly quick paint job. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on them, which was part of the reason I picked the studio color scheme. Don't get me wrong, I also just really like the look of the gold and blue, but giving myself the option of using the Retributor Gold spay paint to speed things up and following the studio paint guide factored into it as well.

Once I got started it quickly became clear to me that I was going to paint them to a fairly high table top standard instead. The gold was a ton of fun to paint, and fairly easy too. I sprayed them all at once and then washed them with Reikland Fleshshade all at the same time. After that step I went one by one to paint all of the gold on the model before moving onto the next one. I did this to avoid burning myself out. I tend to find that if I am painting a color that takes a lot of time across a lot of models I start making mistakes once I have been painting for awhile. Part of this is because I don't get the same sense of completion I get from painting one model from start to finish.

The gold was a base coat of Retributor Gold, shaded with Reikland Fleshshade. I then layered it with Auric Armor Gold, making sure to leave the previous step showing in the recesses. Auric is a fairly thin color, so you can get some pretty decent blends here just by watering it down a bit and doing several thin layers. Before I started the highlights I used heavily watered down Rhinox Hide to line the armor and pick out all of the rivets. Lining the armor just means defining the separation between the individual plates. The first highlight is Liberator Gold, which was applied to all of the edges as well as some of the larger rounded areas. This color is not as thin, but if you water it down a bit it's still pretty each to do some blending. I only did this on larger rounded areas like the legs, pectorals, knee pads, and forehead. The final highlight is Runefang Steel which was only used as a line highlight, and used very sparingly.

It took me about an evening a model to paint the gold, give or take. That was about two hours from base coat to final highlight. Once all of the gold was done I moved onto the next major color, the blue. This was base coated with Kantor Blue and shaded with a Kantor Blue/Black mix. After tidying it back up with the Kantor Blue again I highlighted it by mixing in Screaming Skull for two different layers of highlights. This was again done a model at a time, but took less time then the gold. I made sure to paint the shields at the same time here, which were left off as separate pieces while painting.

After the gold and blue were done it felt like I was in the home stretch with only smaller colors left. All of the silver was painted at the same time across all five models. This was just a base coat of Leadbelcher with a wash of Nuln Oil. It then got tidied up a bit and the highlighted with Runefang Steel. I also used a little bit of P3's Armor Wash to help define some of the recesses a bit more.

All of the leather was painted with Screamer Pink and washed with Nuln Oil across all five models. I then highlighted them two at a time by cleaning them up a bit with the original color again. This was then followed by two highlights by mixing in Screaming Skull.

The parchment was painted with Rakarth Flesh to give a good base coat. I then carefully washed it with Agrax Earthshade, being sure to only get it into the letters and the deeper recesses. Being careful with this step saves me more time on the next. I then layered it with Ushabti Bone and highlighted it with pure White. The Ushabti Bone is pretty thin, so that's why being careful with the Agrax saves you time. Otherwise you will have to do a few more layers to get a solid coat.

The last step for the normal guys was the white. This was base coated with Ulthuan Grey and carefully washed with Nuln Oil. I then simply layered it with white. On the lightning bolts on the right shoulder pad that just means painting them entirely white, but on the shield you need to to leave some of the Grey and Nuln Oil showing to create some depth. I painted the lightning bolt symbol on the left shoulder by hand since I don't like using transfers if I can avoid it. I only used white to paint this and just made sure I was looking at the transfer sheet while I did it so I got the shape right.

The Liberator-Prime had a few extra details to paint on him such as his skirt, hair plume, and a fancier shield. The blue part of the skirt was painted in the same way as the rest of the blue but with a few extra layers. The interior of it was painted Ulthuan Grey, followed by a 50/50 mix of Ulthuan and White. I then shaded back down in the folds with heavily watered down Ulthuan and highlighted it with pure white. The plume was painted similar to the studio's color scheme, but I tried to give it a stronger orange tint. My Celestant will be named Orros Firestorm, and since the color of the plume is used to designate which Warrior Chamber they belong to I wanted something fiery. I may make this more orange at some point, but for now I am happy with it. It started with a Mechanicum Red base, washed with Nuln Oil. I then layered it with Fire Dragon Bright, and highlighted by mixing in Golden Yellow. The parchment on the shield was painted the same way as on the rest of the models.

The bases were painted with a base of Eshin Grey with Dawnstone Grey mottled on to give it a more natural appearance. This was then washed with Nuln Oil and drybrushed with Dawnstone Grey, followed by Karak Stone. After I was done I decided the sand was too bright, so I toned it back down by doing a thin wash of Nuln Oil and patches of Agrax Earthshade. I left the stones untouched though, so they would be slightly brighter. I then finished it with patch of Middenland Tufts.

I really enjoyed painting these guys and I'm pretty excited to paint the rest of my force. Right now I have a few other projects to knock out before I swing back around to them, but I think up next for me on the Stormcast front will either by my Retributors or Prosecutors. I need to break up all of the Liberators since they are the same poses besides the Prime. 

Be sure to watch the video below for a 360 degree video of the whole group. The music is once again provided by Adam Harvey, you can follow him on his Facebook page and listen to some more of his music on his Youtube channel. Enjoy!

As always be sure to vote for them on Cool Mini or Not here.

If you have any questions on how I painted them let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

REVIEW: War Storm

September 23, 2015, 9:21 am

≫ Next: Mini of the Week 9-25-15

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We are now two novels, a bunch of short stories, and a few audio dramas into the new Age of Sigmar setting. How does War Storm, the first full book in the setting, compare to the quality we have come to expect from Black Library? 

War Storm is actually three novellas compiled into one novel, so instead of reviewing the whole thing I will briefly go over each story on it's own. I also give each story it's own score and a final overall score at the end. The individual scores are graded off of how they compare to each other, otherwise they would probably be even higher.

Borne by the Storm by Nick Kyme

Borne by the Storm picks up pretty much where we left off at the end of The Gates of Azyr. Vandus and the Hammers of Sigmar have now secured their beachhead on the Igneous Delta and have started to advance towards Khul's fortress. The events of the plot follow what happens in the Age of Sigmar big book almost down to the letter, which isn't really a huge surprise. We do get to see different perspectives on certain events though, as well as some stuff that happened "off screen" in the big book.

The four main characters we follow are Vandus Hammerhand, Ionus Cryptborn, Khorgos Khul, and Jactos Goldenmane. Vandus and Ionus split up, dividing their forces to approach the Chaos stronghold from two different directions. Ionus is the most interesting to me, mostly due to his back story with the Realm of Death. It turns out he isn't some super secret guy from the Old World like I was hoping (like Vlad for instance), but instead a former noble from the Realm of Death. We get some interesting flashbacks from him as well as a few interactions with a voice he hears inside his head which I strongly believe is Nagash. The whole interaction between the Stormcast and Nagash, with the Relictors in particular, is really fascinating to me. By their very nature they are defying him as the god of Death and he isn't too happy about it. I'm really excited to see Ionus' story expanded further as the story moves on.

Meanwhile Vandus is plagued by visions of his own death at the hands of Khul. The majority of Vandus' story in this has more to do with his interaction with his fellow Celestant, Jactos Goldenmane. Where Vandus is patient and tempered, Jactos is brash and headstrong. Both are very competent fighters and leaders, but Jactos' nature sees him falling into easy traps more often then not. We see a lot of discussion about what it means to truly be eternal, and whether or not any of them really believe it. It's a point I hadn't thought of since at this moment in the story, none of them have died and been reforged yet. They are essentially taking the fact that they are eternal from Sigmar at face value and just hoping that it's true. As we learn throughout this story, there are exceptions to the rule, to the detriment of the Stormcast.

Khul's story is also interesting in that at the end of The Gates of Azyr he had been left for dead by his own forces during their retreat. He comes around lying in a pile of dead on the battlefield, mistaken for a corpse by the Stormcast. Now he must make his way back to his stronghold across the Igneous Delta and through the challenges of rival leaders.

Another great element of it was the description of the realm. This is something that is left pretty vague in the campaign book. Here we get to see that the Igneous Delta isn't just all fire and brimstone. There is in fact forests and mountains capped with snow. I'm really glad they made sure to include these descriptions since it allows the land to feel more like a place that can be lived in, not just fought over.

There was never a dull moment in this novella, and it also never felt like action for the sake of action. I would say it leaned a little more towards the action movie side of things, but it balanced everything very well. Vandus and his compatriots could run the risk of coming across as bland and boring since they are the poster boys for the Stormcast, but they are fully fleshed out characters with plenty of depth to be explored and I definitely look forward to reading more about them.

Final Score - 4.8/5

Storm of Blades by Guy Haley

The second story in the collection follows Thostos Bladestorm and the Celestial Vindicators in the Realm of Metal. It actually opens up with a flashback to when Thostos was still just a mortal and how he first "died". I find these peaks into how the people and realms operated back when Chaos was just beginning its invasion really intriguing as it's completely different to how they operate now with Chaos in control. From there we go back to the present with Thostos leading his warriors though what appears to be a desolate realm. I really love the descriptions of the Hanging Valleys of Anvorok since they are so fantastical. What really makes it for me though is how even the Stormcast think this realm is a little wonky. All of the realms are clearly more high-fantasy then the Old World ever was to start with, but it appears that Chaos has really done a number on them in the time that Sigmar has been gone. There is what appears to be an actual gigantic space dragon hanging around the realm, not just an analogy. At first I thought this kind of stuff would pull me out of the setting a bit, but with the way it's being handled I actually really, really like it. The door is pretty much open for the writers to do any fantastical thing they want, which gives them so much more freedom.

The events of the plot follow what happens in the campaign book just like the last story, but it's still interesting. We get to see a bit more of the realm and the Duardin ruins that surround the hidden Silverway portal. The portal itself is pretty cool and I see it playing a fairly large role in the Realmgate wars going forwards, especially since it seems like the next campaign book might be the battle for the Allpoints. The Silverway essentially allows you to safely travel to any of the realms, but it's a one way ticket, and if you want to return you need to find a different route. There are some cool descriptions of what it's like to travel through it.

Thostos himself is a little headstrong, and tends to want to rush into battle. This is a trait of all of the Celestial Vindicators, and they chafe a bit at the idea of being tasked with finding the Duardin instead of being sent into open battle. Luckily for them battle finds them soon enough when Ephryx, a Tzeentch sorcerer lord, attacks them. This character is also pretty intriguing, as he is trying to transport the entire Realm of Metal into Tzeentch's domain in the Realm of Chaos. He sees the Stormcast as a source of great magical power if he can harness their energies when they die. The entire Chaos dynamic is actually really great in the Age of Sigmar since they are no longer the invaders. They are now the established power, the ones with fortresses to defend, and claims to the land the Stormcast are trying to liberate. Thostos at one point brings up an interesting philosophical question in that can you really blame a lot of the warriors they are fighting for siding with Chaos? They were born into it and had no other choice but to serve Chaos or die. This is a pretty big departure from what we were used to in the Old World where it was almost always a matter of choice.

This story is paced really well, with the mix of action scenes and quieter moments finding a nice balance. Guy Haley has a continuation of this story in the next book, Ghal Maraz, which I am now even more excited to read. That story should contain Vandus and Ionus as well. It appears that Vandus will be the Loken or Erebus of the AoS setting, with pretty much every writer getting a chance to use him in their story.

Final Score - 5/5

The Gate of Dawn by Josh Reynolds

The final novella in the book is The Gate of Dawn by Josh Reynolds, who seems to be the most prolific writer for Age of Sigmar so far. This one is really fast paced compared to the other stories with little to no build up before the action starts. We get a little prelude to the battle with a Blightking of Nurgle organizing some sort of ritual around the Gate of Dawn, a realmgate that is supposed to lead to Aqshy. However, within the first chapter the Stormcast strike and the action never lets up from there. I was honestly a little curious on how this was going to fill up the whole novella since I knew how it would end from having read the campaign book. Despite this the battles are gripping and never bore you and we do get a little break from the fighting here and there. While Gardus is leading his Warrior Chamber against the forces of Nurgle in Ghyran, Zephacleas, a fellow Lord-Celestant of the Astral Templars, is still in Azyr worrying about his friend.

It's nice to see this kind of humanity showing through since sometimes the Stormcast run the risk of coming across as a little too superhuman. Zephacleas is in Sigmaron, the city that orbits the core of the World that Was and the Stormcast's home base. This allows us to see a bit of how that city functions, which I would love to see more of. Once Sigmar senses that the battle is going poorly in Ghyran, he summons Zephacleas and his warriors to lend aide. Did I mention the reason that the battle was going poorly was because the Gate of Dawn no longer works properly and instead now leads into Nurgle's domain? A gigantic Great Unclean One named Bolothrox pushes his way through and summons an unending horde of Plaguebearers and Nurglings. He also has his personal retinue named the Rotguard which consists of seven other Great Unclean Ones. It's no wonder that Gardus was having a tough time of it. Even once the Astral Templars come to their aide it appears like the forces of order may still lose, and the entire rest of the story is an uphill battle for them. 

Gardus gets some nice character moments with flashbacks to his mortal life. It appears like each Stormcast remembers a varying amount of their life, with Vandus having a near perfect memory, while Gardus can barely remember anything. I really like this dynamic and am excited to see what else they do with it going forward. From Thostos we have already seen that they run the risk of losing even more of their humanity and memories each time they are reforged. 

Josh Reynolds also has a direct follow up to this in Ghal Maraz which I'm pretty hyped for. Out of the story arcs in the Ghal Maraz campaign book, the one in Ghyran featuring Gardus was the more gripping of the two. I'm always excited to see what Josh does with iconic characters and if he covers a lot of the same ground as the campaign book then we should see the Glottkin, Gutrot Spume and maybe even Alarielle. That's not even mentioning the cool settings he will get to explore.

Final Score - 4.5/5

If you are interested in the Age of Sigmar lore at all I highly recommend picking up this book. The quality of writing in this is just as good as anything for 40k, and for me, a little more interesting. This probably has a lot to do with the unknown factor. There is so much we don't know about AoS yet so when you are reading it you are often discovering stuff for the first time. It's something I would compare to when you first started reading anything for the Games Workshop universes, or when the Horus Heresy series first came out. There is so much to explore and revisit from different viewpoints that I don't see anything stale coming out for AoS for a very long time. It's also worth mentioning that the production quality of the book is fairly high. The book has a  flat spine which gives it a nice boxy look. The paper is thicker then normal, which lends it some weight. This isn't to pad out the thickness of the book either since it comes in at a normal page count for a full novel. There is also a stylish and handy black ribbon to mark what page you're on. This is a fairly unexpected, but welcome addition considering the $24 price, which is that standard for a hard cover Black Library book that's not Horus Heresy.

Overall Final Score - 5/5

Until next time,

Tyler M.

Mini of the Week 9-25-15

September 25, 2015, 8:00 am

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Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Thousand Sons Demon Prince by Shizune on CMoN

All hail Nagash and Magnus, right? You knew it was going to happen as soon as you saw the Morghast models. They had a ton of Egyptian themed bits on them to fit in with the Tomb Kings and looked unique enough from undead that they can pass as a Demon Prince fairly easily. This hobbyist really nailed the look and feel though. There is no way to mistake this for an undead model, it really looks like a demon of Tzeentch. The conversions are small and subtle, just some extra armor and horns I think, but they do enough to push this into the Chaos side of things. I really like all of the effort put into the base. It's perfectly trippy enough to convey the warping power of Tzeentch. 

The painting on this is outstanding as well. The blues, yellows, and golds really pop! The battle damage on it is a little cartoony for my tastes, but it doesn't really detract from the model at all. I think my favorite color choice is the turquoise for the base and the magical flames. I might have painted the skulls making up it's body as magical as well. The only thing I can think of that I may have done differently myself would have been to use feathered wings to reinforce the Tzeentch demonic look more. The stock wings work just fine though, and all and all this mini is a really nice, simple, and well executed conversion.

Be sure to check out more views of it on Cool Mini or Not and show the artist some love if you like it. 

Until next time,

Tyler M.

What do you think of this model? If you have any models or have seen any around the web that you feel deserve to be the Mini of the Week feel free to send them to me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with the title "Mini of the Week" and a brief description of how you painted it or a link to where you found it. There is also a dedicated board on the Mengel Miniatures Forum for Mini of the Week where you can discuss past entries or post of minis you think are deserving of the title.

The Age of Sigmar: Crafting your own Lore

September 28, 2015, 8:00 am

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The Age of Sigmar opens up a ton of new things to Fantasy players. We now have more play styles to choose form, more basing choices, and more armies. However, the number one thing in my opinion that AoS opens up to the player base is the ability to craft your own lore and background within the realms.

The Old World was great. It had a ton of character, a ton of history, and was a ton of fun to play in and explore. The one problem it had was the limits that those great elements set on itself. It had been around for 30 years and was only one world with limited real-estate. That pretty much meant that by the end of 8th edition almost everything had been explored outside of the eastern countries such as Cathay, and a few others like Estalia and Araby. If you wanted an Empire force they had to fit into the existing framework somehow, which could limit the theme for your army. It would be hard to justify coming up with your own Empire city for them to hail from. I ran into this issue when I was trying to develop the background for my Tomb King force. They had to fit into the existing city states somehow, which meant I had to wedge them into existing lore.

This isn't always an issue, and sometimes it can lead to people creating some fantastic armies, such as an Empire army modeled to look like they come from Kislev. Some people also don't care about the lore for their army and just play the game for the sake of playing the game. That's all fine and there is nothing against any of that. The one thing I think Age of Sigmar has really opened up for the players though is the universe they have to play in.

The Realms are pretty much infinite or so it seems, which is a pretty big sandbox to play in. If you want to model your army off of an "official" one, like Khul's Goretide, then there's certainly nothing stopping you from doing that. However, if you want to make a Free People's army representing a desert kingdom in the Realm of Beasts that incorporates both state troops and questing knights to hunt down monsters that is entirely within the realm of possibility now (ba-dum tshhh). These new Realms are so large that you could create an entire kingdom and it would still never directly contradict any of the official lore that GW is laying down for AoS.

You could run a campaign where some hugely important artifact is captured, or a city destroyed and it would be perfectly fine within the larger picture. It's simply running alongside the main storyline. Now obviously if you did something along the lines of Azyr being invaded, or Sigmar getting killed, that would contradict the official lore, but the same could be said for doing an invasion of Terra in 40k. My point is that there is so much more room to breathe in Age of Sigmar. You can really flex your creative muscles without feeling like you are destroying something sacred. I remember reading an interview with a Black Library author where they said one of the challenges with writing for Warhammer Fantasy was that anything major they did could, and most likely would, have repercussions for the whole world. In 40k this was much easier to avoid since something that happens on one world wouldn't necessarily have an impact on another.

Even within armies like the Stormcast Eternals there is a ton of room to explore what you want. There are a ton of Stormhosts (the different colored armor) and also a bunch of Warrior Chambers within each Stormhost. When I was writing my battle report a few weeks ago I was inspired by the new lore and wrote small accompanying narrative bits to go alongside it. Since then, a simple name I came up with on the spot for my Lord-Celestant, Orros Firestorm, has further inspired me to delve deeper into the potential of the new Mortal Realms. A simple question of where he got his name from lead me to writing the following short story.

Firestorm

“Firestorm! Firestorm! Firestorm!”

The victorious cries of his warriors echoed off of the canyon walls as Lord-Celestant Orros Firestorm approached the small group of mortals now under their protection. It had been a stroke of pure luck that the Stormcast Eternals had come across the survivors as they battered their way through the Orruk warband. The fact that this small group had been able to hold out against the greenskins until the Stormcast had arrived was an impressive feat not lost on Orros. The eldest of the group, a wiry woman well into her forties, stood in front of the rest of her people, speckled with sweat and blood.

“What are you?” the woman asked warily. She held her head up high, a crude axe in one hand, clearly trying to muster up what defiance she had left in the face of the unknown warriors.

“Do not worry, we are here to help you. We are Sigmar’s storm made flesh, the Stormcast Eternals,” Orros proclaimed as he drew near the group. The tallest of their lot only reached up to his chest and the concern and fear was etched clearly upon their faces. He knew how he must look to them. A giant of a man, clad head to toe in golden armor covered in freshly spilt Orruk blood was not a comforting sight. Spying a fallen log nearby the Lord-Celestant sat down as he removed his helmet.

“I do not bite,” he said, patting the adjacent spot next to him on the log. “We are here to help, I promise.”

The woman eyed him warily before slowly approaching, “I will stand I think.”

Orros shrugged in indifference and sat his helmet down beside him, wiping some of the sweat away from his dusky scalp.

“What do they shout?” she asked, gesturing to the rest of the Stormcast who had already began clearing away the greenskin dead. “What does it mean?”

“Firestorm? It is my name, Orros Firestorm, Lord-Celestant of the Firestorm warrior chamber of the Hammers of Sigmar.”

“Orros Firestorm,” she said questioningly, as if deciding upon the worth of the name. “That is a strange name. I am Farosh, chieftain of the Kullgans. No fancy titles for me.”

Orros let out a guffaw of laughter, “Aye, that it is. A strange name for strange times.” He held out one of his massive gauntleted hands in greeting. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Farosh, chieftain of the Kullgans.”

She stared at the offered hand before grasping the wrist in a firm shake. “You fought well today. I have not seen the Orruk tribes routed like that in a long time. You must forgive my skepticism, Sigmar is a name we have not heard in these lands in ages, but it is a welcome one. If you truly fight for him then you and your kin are more than welcome.” The chieftain released her grip on the Stormcast’s wrist and sat down on the log beside him with an exhausted sigh. Seeing their leader accept the strangers, the rest of the mortals began to relax, tending to their wounded and marveling at the storm wrought demigods amongst them.

“Firestorm, what does it mean? I imagine that isn’t the name your mother gave you?”

“True enough, although I doubt if I can remember my ancestral name anymore.”

“Has it truly been that long? How old are you?” she asked in astonishment.

“Old.”

The pair sat in silence for a moment, Farosh massaging an ache out of her shoulder while Orros merely observed his warriors with his amber eyes.

“You did not answer my question,” the chieftain ventured after a few more moments passed.

The Lord-Celestant cracked a smile, “I see why you have survived against the greenskins for so long. Persistence, it’s a trait needed more often than not in the Realms nowadays.” Orros shifted on the log, settling his weight more evenly across the creaking wood. “I assume you have never been to Aqshy?”

“I have only heard of it in legend. It’s said to reside within the sun itself. Is that where you are from?”

“Once upon a time, yes. I grew up there, in a region known as the Desert of Ashes, bordering the Helios Mountains. I once lived in a city called Mireen, a jewel amongst the sands. Its walls were magnificent, taller than you can imagine and made of the purest white stone. A bustling trade city with the collected wealth of far distant lands, but that was not until closer to the end.” Orros seemed to trail off, his voice becoming unfocused.

“You cannot remember your birth name, but recall exactly where you were raised?” Farosh challenged.

“Some things you cannot forget, no matter how much you may want to,” he said looking down at the mortal. “When I was a child I did not live within the safety of the city’s walls. My family and I were part of a tribe that tended livestock through the foothills of the mountains. It was a good life. An honest life. It was not without its perils though, even before the coming of Chaos. During the Season of Flames there was always a risk and the wise amongst us begged for shelter within Mireen, or retreated into the crags of the Helios range. However, that was not always an option. One season my family was hard pressed for food and water after losing several of our herd earlier in the year to Orruk raiders. We were all set to weather the season amongst the mountains when one of our flock wandered off. We couldn’t afford to let it go so we set off after it into the sands of the desert. That’s when it struck. I had never seen anything like it before, an almost literal wall of fire and dust billowing out of the desert. The massive storm towered above us blocking out the light of the sun. The winds tore at us. The dust ripped at our skin. The fire and smoke burned us. The speed at which it happened was astounding, there was nowhere for us to run. As the storm approached my father held my mother and I tight, hoping somehow to save us from our fate through sheer force of will.” Orros paused, scratching at his jaw line.

“The rest is... hazy. I remember cyclones of fire shrouded by the swirling dust. An unbearable heat, and a screaming roar that blocked out all else. When I came to I had nearly been buried alive, half of my body covered in burns. I never found my parents after that day and it was by Sigmar’s grace alone that I had survived. They were called Firestorms, a force of pure elemental fury that destroys everything that stands before it. It was the single most terrifying event of my life, and I have seen many horrible things.”

The Lord-Celestant stared down at his helmet with it’s fiery crest, now cradled in his gauntleted hands. A sombre expression plastered across his face. Farosh merely sat in silence, unsure of what to say to the demigod. Without warning Orros stood up, causing the log to shift alarmingly now free of his weight. The hot sun of Ghur above reflected off his golden armor, nearly blinding the chieftain with its brilliance. After a moment more of surveying his warriors and the surviving mortals he donned his helmet, his face once again an impassive mask of golden defiance and strength.

“I wanted my enemies and those of Sigmar to feel the same terror I felt that day,” he said, his voice now filled with a fiery passion. “To know that no matter what they do we cannot be stopped. We shall destroy them, regardless of where they try and hide, that there is no escaping Sigmar’s wrath.” He looked down at Farosh one last time, “That is why I chose the name of Firestorm.”

With that Orros Firestorm turned on his heel and made for his waiting dracoth basking in the noonday sun, his azure cloak billowing behind him. Liberator-Prime Claesus approached him, “My lord?”

“Everything is alright Claesus. Sometimes…” he paused, struggling to find the right words. “Sometimes it hurts more to be reminded of what we lost, the humanity we left behind. I already have difficulty remembering some details since our reforging after the incident in the forests of the Igneous Delta.”

“Aye,” the Prime replied solemnly. “Luckily for us there are still Orruks to hunt in these lands, and many more enemies of Sigmar beyond that.” Orros could hear the smile in the words. He clasped his Prime on the shoulder in silent thanks before mounting his dracoth while taking his Tempestus Hammer from a waiting Stormcast.

“Aye,” he acknowledged, “That there is.”

One of the things I enjoyed most about writing that was developing the area he grew up in and the phenomenon that occupied it. I have almost complete creative freedom with what I want to do, since almost anything can fit. I hope to expand on Mireen and the desert it occupies in future stories, perhaps see what Orros meant by that he lived there closer to the end. Maybe he will visit the ruins of his city now? I'm sure it would be crawling with Bloodbound scum at this point.

What has you inspired within the Mortal Realms? What stories and histories have you begun crafting for your heroes and armies? If you have any cool ideas or stories please share them in the comments below.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

The Age of Sigmar: The Art of the Mortal Realms

September 30, 2015, 8:00 am

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If there is one thing that I have heard the most about Age of Sigmar it's how great the art is. These new books are packed full of it too, and I have to whole heartedly agree with its quality. I have found a lot of it around the web, but never collected in one place, until now.

I have gone around and picked a few of my favorite pieces of art from the Age of Sigmar. It's a nice mix of the Fantasy and 40k style and definitely seems like a higher quality then some of the more recent stuff we had seen. Although I'm pretty sure that's because they were devoting a lot of their resource towards AoS.

One thing I have found that's pretty interesting to me is they seem to have given several different artists the same art brief. The most obvious one to me is the cover from the box set. There are so many pieces of art that are similar to that one that it has me convinced they took in a large swathe of potential covers and then chose their favorite for the box. Luckily for us they decided to still use the rest of them. I don't know if I agree with the one they chose, but none of them are horrible.

This one is what I would have picked for the box cover art. It has a more traditional style which I like opposed to the one they used which looks a lot more computerized. It feels very renaissance to me in style.

I really like this one too. To me this looks like it was another candidate for cover of the first big AoS book.

The following two pieces are another great example of a similar creative brief being given to two different artists.

I read on one artists description of thier work that part of the brief told them to give it a semi-religous quality. That definitely comes across in a lot in the Stormcast artwork, which is part of what gives it that 40k feel. Fantasy never had a huge importance placed on their religions, unlike with the Emperor in 40k. Part of giving it that essence makes it a little more gothic then we have seen in the past. I still think it's different enough from 40k in tone though that it can live on it's own.

Nagash and the forces of Nurgle get a lot of love too. I'm definitely excited to see the Realm of Death explored more and to see what they do to bring the Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts forces into a more cohesive whole.

I have no clue what that creature is that Sigmar is fighting, but it's certainly epic. I have no doubt that as the story continues we will get more artwork from the Age of Myth like this one.

The one critique I have about the Bloodbound artwork is that too much of it seems to center around Korghos Khul. It would be nice to see more variety in the forces of Khorne.

I think this is my favorite of the Stormcast Eternal artworks, although I did have to laugh a bit when someone asked if that Retributor was standing on top of a Liberator.

I was very excited to find this one posted on Deviant Art by the artist. It's the artwork for the backdrop piece used at the GW stores for their demo games. I will definitely find a use for this picture in the future.

Finally how could I leave this last one off. The Stormcast Eternal statue out front of the GW headquarters really shows you how committed they are to this new game.

There is more of this art available online then ever before, and not just in second hand scans and bad photos of book taken by someone during an earthquake. A lot of it was put up there by GW themselves, while another good portion of it has been put up by the artists themselves on their own websites or Deviant Art. This has to do with the majority of the art being made on a computer nowadays as opposed to traditionally painted. A good chunk of it has also been outsourced to independent artists, where as in the past a lot of it was done in house by GW's art team. 

I have to say that despite the majority of it being online now I highly, highly encourage you to still buy the good old fashioned paper versions in books. There is nothing on a computer that can beat seeing it as a high quality print on a piece of paper.

I know this article was kind of light on content compared to my usual fare, but I hope it has helped inspire you with AoS. There is still plenty more artwork out there amongst the different books and in the various corners of the internet. If nothing else maybe you at least found a new wallpaper for your phone.

What has been your favorite piece of Age of Sigmar art?

Until next time,

Tyler M. 

Mini of the Week 10-2-15

October 2, 2015, 8:00 am

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Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Typhus, Herald of Nurgle by Tupavko on Cool Mini or Not

This is such a characterful version of Typhus, I love it! This model is completely scratch built, made almost entirely out of green stuff. The hobbyist said he was trying to stick closer to the feel of the artwork as opposed to the stock model, and I would say he nailed it on the head. It's a little more exaggerated in proportions and pose, but I think that was unavoidable if you really wanted to get the feel of the art. I like the style more then what GW did for their model to be honest. The smoke and flies coming out of him are fantastic as well and really add to the sense of movement he has. It really feels like he is lurching to the side. 

Not only is the sculpting great but the painting is out of this world. Again, it's a little more exaggerated then what we normally see, but it works! The contrast of the glowing green on the left side of his body with the darker, and more gruesome tones on the right side really make this guy stand out. It's looser in style then what is normally considered top tier painting, but it fits Nurgle and gives it more of an artistic, impressionist feel. I love how the chaos energy is crackling down his hand and arm. I would love to see this mini is person. Typhus is a favorite of mine, and I have to admit, this puts my own conversion and rendition of the Herald of Nurgle to shame.  

Be sure to check out more views of it on Cool Mini or Not and show the artist some love if you like it. 

Until next time,

Tyler M.

What do you think of this model? If you have any models or have seen any around the web that you feel deserve to be the Mini of the Week feel free to send them to me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with the title "Mini of the Week" and a brief description of how you painted it or a link to where you found it. There is also a dedicated board on the Mengel Miniatures Forum for Mini of the Week where you can discuss past entries or post of minis you think are deserving of the title.

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GALLERY: Stormcast Eternals and Free Peoples Army

October 5, 2015, 8:00 am

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Today I have a special guest article by Andrea S, a local player in the Tourney scene here in Michigan. Many of you may have seen her models on Twitter or heard her and her husband on a recent episode of Garagehammer. I was amazed at the speed and quality that she was putting out Stormcast models and the enthusiasm which she was approaching AoS with. Without further ado, here is Andrea on her Stormcast Eternals/Free Peoples army.

Andrea: I’ve been painting and playing Warhammer Fantasy for a little over 3 years. I started with Daemons, did a 180 and played High Elves, and then went to Empire. After the End Times and Age of Sigmar, going over to Stormcast Eternals seemed like an obvious transition.

We started by buying 2 boxes of the starter sent. As new Stormcast releases came out though, the completionist in me had to have it all. In the end though, I am currently using the Stormcast as part of a larger Order faction army combined with Empire and Alarielle.

After seeing all of the pictures and promos with the gold armor, I wanted to do something a little different. I tried to do a pearlescent armor, but it was not to be. So, I went the silver route to match my Empire. When I started these, I wasn’t planning on playing as a faction army. I wanted to do all Stormcast. However, I really enjoyed the blue and orange of the Empire army, so I wanted to do it all again.

Painting the Stormcast was a lot of fun. I started with white primer (Rustoleum double coverage paint + primer). Then, I went over with a solid coat of Army Painter Plate Mail Metal. A quick wash of Nuln Oil, and then bring up the armor with Ironbreaker and Runefang Steel. My blues started with Sotek Green, quick wash of Coelia Greenshade, and highlight back up with Sotek and Temple Guard Blue.

The oranges are Deathclaw Brown, wash with Seraphim Sepia, and back up with Tau Light Ochre. All of the scrolls are Rakarth Flesh, edged and highlighted with White Scar, and then a heavy wash of Seraphim Sepia. The gold areas are Gehenna’s Gold, washed with Reikland Fleshshade, and then brightened up to Auric Armour Gold.

All of the bases are MDF from Hollow Tree Studios, basic sand from a hardware store primed brown, heavy wash with Agrax Earthshade, and then a few quick, uneven layers of Mournfang, Skrag, and Baneblade Browns. Stones were done with Skavenblight Dinge and Dawnstone, and the bases were edged with Mournfang Brown.

The Celestant-Prime was a bit intimidating. It is an amazing model, and I had planned on painting him in pieces and then assembling at the end. However, with the way the swirls meet up with the robe, and the comets that sit on the joints of the swirls, it made more sense to fully assemble and paint it as one piece. The celestial swirls were base coasted Kantor Blue, and then four heavy layers of Nuln Oil. I went over some of the bubblier spots with Kantor Blue again. The comets are layers of Sotek Green, Altdorf Guard Blue, and a little bit of Teclis blue, with Lahmian Medium mixed with Drakenhof Nightshade to help smooth out the transitions. The wings were done with the same blue as everything else, but then I went in on each wing and did a sharp edge highlight on the front and back with Fenrisian Grey. (That had to be done after a meal and not too much caffeine to stop shaky hands.)

The Prime was painted over a three day weekend, and I spent probably 4-6 hours a day on it. The Judicators and Retributors were done in small batches of time, but I would guestimate that it took me 1.5 hours a model in the end. I tend to be a deadline painter, so I work best when I can count the days left to an event or deadline and have a firm goal, such as one model a day. On top of this, I truly enjoyed painting this group, so I was looking forward to getting them finished and photographed.

The list I took to the Michigan GT last weekend was the Prime, Alarielle, 10 Judicators, 2 groups of 8 Retributors, a War Altar, Steam Tank, 2 cannons, and Karl Franz on Deathclaw. I ended up going 2-3. Against Chaos (and especially Daemons), the list was competitive. There was some user error on my part, but fun games all around.

Thanks for reading! - Andrea

You can follow Andrea on Twitter here (@LuckySixes) to keep up to date on her latest minis. Thank you Andrea for taking the time to show off your Stormcast Eternals army and talk a bit about it!

Do you have an army, hobby project, or other cool hobby related item that you think would be a good fit as a guest article on Mengel Miniatures? You can contact me at TylerM@MengelMiniatures.com to share.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

REVIEW: Stormcast Eternal Battletome

October 7, 2015, 8:00 am

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The first of the new versions of the Army Books is out, the Stormcast Eternals Battletome. Being a big fan of AoS and the Stormcast is particular I knew I had to pick one up and take a look.

The book itself is what we have come to expect from GW's Army Book/Codex releases. It's about 120 pages, hardcover, very well put together. The cover art is fairly decent for this one, but there are parts of it that leave me wanting a little more. Mainly something seems strange about his chest armor and the plume on his helmet. The plume looks way too much like a squirrel's tail or something and lacks the elegance of a long flowing horse hair crest. Not sure why they went that direction with it, but it's not horrible. Something that was probably missed by most people is that if you look closely you can see the Liberator-Prime's eyes through the eye holes on his mask. The Stormcast are definitely human looking underneath their armor, no more debate about that.

The beginning of the book tells you a bit more about who and what the Stormcast are. Some of this will be familiar to people who have been keeping up to date with the AoS campaign book releases, while for everyone else it's very informative. There are a few bits of new information in there though, the most interestting of which to me is the Stormhost orginization. Before we have only ever seen the organization of an individual Warrior Chamber, which are the smaller forces that comprise a Stormhost. For example, the Hammerhands, Vandus' force is a Warrior Chamber, where as the Hammers of Sigmar are the Stormhost and have many different Warrior Chambers in it.

Here we get to see that a Warrior Chamber is the standard outfit, but there is also an Exemplar Chamber, which consists mostly of Paladin units, and a Harbinger Chamber, which has mostly Prosecutor units. There are also a few other auxiliary chambers such as the Ruination Chamber and Extremis Chamber, which the book says Sigmar has held in reserve still. This gives GW the option to introduce new units in the future (come on Dracoth riders!) when they have Sigmar unleash those Chambers in the storyline. There is also a position called the Lord-Commander, which is the overall commander of each Stormhost. According to the Battletome there are no Lord-Commanders as of yet, and the Lord-Celestants need to prove themselves in battle before he promotes any of them to that position. I'm betting heavily that Vandus Hammerhand will become the Lord-Commander of the Hammers of Sigmar and at that point he will get his own unique model instead of the generic one in the starter box. I'm really excited about all of the options this army structure gives GW in the future with model releases.

After this we get the individual unit descriptions like we are use to with GW books. Each unit gets it's own page and there is a lot of retreading of familiar territory, but also a few new tid bits of information. In general this goes into more detail then we are used to from the campaign books and it's a welcome addition to the army's lore. Each entry also has an accompanying piece of artwork, about half of it new. The only exception are the Knight-Azyros and the Celestant-Prime which both have pictures of the model instead. This is a bit disappointing since I was looking forward to seeing some art of the Celestant-Prime. The artwork in this book is outstanding overall, with several new additions which are amazing.

The next section is the gallery section, showing off a bunch of pictures of painted models. Nothing out of the ordinary here and pretty much what you would expect from GW. We also get a look at different color templates for a few of the Stormhosts. After this we move onto the scenarios. There are three of them and just like in the campaign books they are framed within the context of a story. I have to admit, when I first glanced through the Battletome I was a little disappointed to see that it simply recapped the same battles we have already read about in the Realms of Fire, Life, and Metal. Upon actually reading them though I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it went into more detail on other battles that took place in those realms, not just the ones we have read before. For instance, it talks about other battles in the Realm of Fire taking place whole continents away from the Brimstone Peninsula. At the same time it does do a good job of recapping the main plot so far, covering the story of Vandus, Gardus, and Thostos. If you haven't read any of the other books then this will catch you up on all of the basics.

The scenarios themselves are tailored specifically for use with Stormcast armies and they are okay. I honestly think a lot of the ones from the big book and Ghal Maraz are better, but I will definitely give at least one or two of these a try. There really is almost no reason to play the same scenario twice anymore in Age of Sigmar.

Near the end we get all of the Warscrolls for the Stormcast compiled into one spot. There is nothing new here to differentiate these form the ones posted online or printed in White Dwarf. The real difference comes in the Battalions. We get several that we have seen already reprinted here, plus a few new ones and then what I like to call the Super Battalions. These are Battalions that consist of other, smaller Battalions. For example, the Warrior Chamber Battalion has the Heroes of the Host Battalion and then three Thunderhead Brotherhood Battalions. That's a lot of models. Each of these Super Battalions represents one of the Strikehosts that comprise a Stormhost, either a Warrior, Exemplar, or Harbinger Chamber. While I don't know if I will ever have enough stuff painted to field one of these, that fact that they give you rules to play one is pretty cool. GW's marketing strategy is already working as I look at some the smaller Battalions and find myself thinking "Well, I only need two more Paladin units to field this..." Touché GW, touché.

The last surprise addition at the very back of the book is the four page rules document. It's a nice little addition and cuts down on the amount of stuff I need to bring with me to a game. My one major disappointment with this Battletome was the lack of a Thunderstrike Brotherhood Battalion, you know, the one that's the contents of the starter set. At the moment this is the one I will use the most since I already have all of the units for it, and now I need to take at least one extra book with me besides the Stormcast Battletome if I want to use it, or pay the $1.99 to get it on my phone. Having glanced inside the Bloodbound book they get their Battalion from the starter set, so I'm a little confused on why it was left out. It's also disappointing that again the Battalions are not free on my phone when I have paid for the physical book. I really hope that they work something out to give access to these for people who prefer paper over digital versions.

All in all I really liked the Battletome, and was pleasantly surprised by all of the content it offered. I was afraid it was just going to be a complete rehash of what I had read before, but they put enough new stuff in there to keep me hooked through the whole thing. If you play Stormcast Eternals I highly recommend you buy some version of this Battletome. Remember, there's a paper version, an enhanced digital version, an ebook version, and a phone version, all with varying price points, so I'm sure you can find one that suits your needs.

Final Score - 4.8/5 (Had to take a little off for the lack of the Thunderstrike Brotherhood)

I will most likely not be picking up the Khorne Bloodbound Battletome since I don't play that army. However a friend of mine will be and if I can get my hands on it for a week or so I will try and get a review of that one up as well. If I had the funds I would be buying every AoS book release to review.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

Mini of the Week 10-9-15

October 9, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: The Age of Sigmar: Time of War - The Endless Deserts

≪ Previous: REVIEW: Stormcast Eternal Battletome

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Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Tyrion by Javier Gonzales

Today's Mini or the Week was nominated by Tyler E, the proud owner of this amazing Tyrion model. Funnily enough I had already seen the mini on Facebook before he emailed me and had already decided I was going to use it for the Mini of the Week. Tyler had commissioned this from Javier Gonzales and I got to take a look at the creative brief he had put together for the project. Brief may be an inadequate word, because this thing was at least 10 pages (to be fair it had a lot of reference pictures included in it as well). A ton of thought and planning went into how this model was going to look before any modeling work even began. It's meant to represent Tyrion now in the Age of Sigmar so there was a ton of notes about Sigmar, Azyrheim, and the Realm of Light as well as a bunch of classic High Elf notes. 

Here you can see how the miniature was put together. It's really quite impressive how seamless the whole conversion is when you look at all of the parts involved. It's Valten's horse, the head and body of the griffon rider from the Island of Blood set, various parts from Tyrion, as well as several other random Elf bits. I love how much it looks like the actual Tyrion model from GW in terms of pose and composition, but 100 times better in terms of detail.

Two paragraphs in and I haven't even started on the painting yet. The paint job is, of course, fantastic. The non-metallic metals are very well done and the overall color composition is ace. The glow from the sword is subtle enough to not overwhelm anything, but still convey the sense of power radiating from it. I really like the glow coming from his eyes too, a perfect touch for someone who was once the Incarnate of Light and now a god of the Aelfs in the new lore. If you look at the NMM on the silver scales on the horses armor he has even painted a slight reflection from the surrounding golden armor. That's a crazy level of attention to detail, I am suitably impressed. One of the most impressive parts to me though is the freehand on the cloak. It's very thin and precise and look like constellations to me, which is a great reinforcement of the new cosmic theme in AoS. I could keep going on and on about all of the areas that stand out to me on this mini, like the horse's skin and Tyrion's red sash, but instead I will just end it with saying this mini is fantastic. I highly recommend clicking the link to Javier's site to check out all of the other angles of this mini. A special thanks again to Tyler E. for nominating this model and providing me with a behind the scenes look at the creative process that went into making it (and for having a top notch first name).

Be sure to check out more views of it on Javier's website, Arsies Studio, and show the artist some love if you like it. 

Until next time,

Tyler M.

What do you think of this model? If you have any models or have seen any around the web that you feel deserve to be the Mini of the Week feel free to send them to me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with the title "Mini of the Week" and a brief description of how you painted it or a link to where you found it. There is also a dedicated board on the Mengel Miniatures Forum for Mini of the Week where you can discuss past entries or post of minis you think are deserving of the title.

The Age of Sigmar: Time of War - The Endless Deserts

October 12, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: REVIEW: The Prisoner of the Black Sun

≪ Previous: Mini of the Week 10-9-15

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Today I have a first for me, but it's something I have always wanted to do in some way or another. Since I am heavily inspired by AoS at the moment, but I'm also impatient for something official for my beloved Tomb Kings I took it upon myself, with the help of some feedback from select community members, to create a Time of War ruleset for the desert kings' domain.

I have always been drawn to the narrative and campaign elements of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. Age of Sigmar is pretty much all about the narrative and the first two campaign books for the system have featured several rulesets called Time of War. 

For those of you who haven't read those book, Time of War rules are essentially an extra, and completely optional, set of rules that help bring the unique feeling and theme of the Mortal Realms into your games. For instance, the first book had a Time of War for the Brimstone Peninsula which featured stuff like blood geysers. These are just meant to enhance your games and really let you feel like you are fighting in a specific location instead of just a generic battleground. The other places they featured followed the narrative presented so mostly revolved around the Realm of Life and the Hanging Valleys in Chamon.

These rule sets are just meant to be fun and flavorful and not at all competitive. With that in mind I set off scribbling down ideas I had for what fighting in the Tomb Kings domain in the Realm of Death would be like. I had a lot of fun coming up with some stuff and I think I captured the feel of the Tomb Kings pretty well. These rules also work great for any Death armies and of course can even be used in a game which features no Death forces at all.

I also had a ton of fun trying to make this look as close to the official rule sets in appearance as possible. I really enjoy graphic design (I may even do it for a living...), so small challenges like this are always enjoyable.

This is only the beginning though, as I already have plans for future installments in The Endless Deserts of Shyish, ranging from scenarios, to maps, to small bits of story. Depending on how well this is received I may expand into a further campaign pack, focusing on Orros Firestorm's Warrior Chamber as they attempt to reclaim the cursed city of Mireen (you can read my first seeds of narrative for that here), and even Time of War rulesets that bring to life battlefields from the World that Was. I personally think it would be pretty cool to refight battles from the War of the Beard or the End Times using AoS rules.

You can find the two page PDF below, and you can also download it for free by opening it an in a new window. Please let me know if this is something that interests the community since I definitely had a ton of fun making it, and would love to know if the community has a much fun using it in thier games.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

REVIEW: The Prisoner of the Black Sun

October 14, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Mini of the Week 10-16-15

≪ Previous: The Age of Sigmar: Time of War - The Endless Deserts

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The Prisoner of the Black Sun is the first audio drama to come out from Black Library for Age of Sigmar. When I read that it was the first part of a story to deal with the Realm of Death and that it's written by Josh Reynolds I knew I had to pick it up. 

The whole story clocks in at a little over an hour and I was able to listen to it during my daily commute in one day. There is a little bit of a prologue before the actual narrative starts where we get to hear Nagash give a small monologue. It's really interesting to listen to, and the way they portrayed his voice as well as the background music came off as suitably eerie. I do kind of wish that they had chosen someone with a middle eastern accent to do his voice since he is a Nehekharen, but it doesn't really detract from the experience. It's interesting finally getting to hear a voice for such an iconic character. If you have read any of Josh Reynolds' previous undead stories then you would know that Nagash's dialogue has always been written in all caps, "LIKE THIS." This was done, I'm assuming, to help convey the power behind him and how powerless anyone is to resist his will. I do wish a bit more of that came across in the reading, but it still felt powerful.

After this we move on to the main story of Lord-Celestant Tarsus leading his warrior chamber of the Hallowed Knights into the Realm of Death to seek an audience with Nagash. The only problem is no one knows where the realmgates are that lead to the underworld of Shyish. We open with a battle with a Bloodbound warband, which is exactly what you would expect from such a scene. It was entertaining and well written and kept me enthralled throughout. If you haven't listened to one of Black Library's audio dramas before then you are missing out on all of the added sound effects they use. This isn't just an audio book, it's a full on drama with music and battle sounds. It really brings you into the middle of it.

After this it moves onto the meat of the story as the Stormcast Eternals come across a massive ruin that appears to be an old planetarium. We get some interesting flashbacks to Tarsus' life before being reforged as well as becoming more acquainted with their Lord-Relictor, Remus. This is also where they meet the title character, the prisoner held within a massive black iron orrery, or sun. He is a vampire and our first real look at a character from the Realms of Death and he may also be someone that Warhammer fans already know.

Without giving the plot and the twist away, the story wraps up with a large battle with a much more massive Bloodbound horde. The most exciting part about this for me is the amount of Khorgoraths used against the Stormcast. It's just an interesting idea that we haven't seen yet. This was definitely one of the most enjoyable battle scenes from AoS so far, and had some awesome stand out moments.

It's kind of hard to talk about this story without giving it away since it's only 68 minutes. All I have to say is that I was thoroughly entertained by the story the whole time as well as the acting. The voice cast all did a great job in bringing their respective characters to life and making them unique. I do wish the vampire's voice was a little more different from the Stormcast, specifically Remus' voice, but it wasn't a huge deal. This audio drama is just part one of four and it ends in a way that leaves no doubt about it being the opening chapter. This isn't a huge detriment though when you go into it knowing this, and it has definitely left me excited for the second part and the rest of the series. The Prisoner of the Black Sun does a fantastic job at what it set out to do, being part one of four and setting up a lot of the major players. I'm also partial to the forces of death, so I am excited to see even more of Shyish.

Final Score for the story, acting, and production - 5/5

I do have to talk briefly about the price though. I bought the physical CD which is priced at $17.99, which I think is a pretty fair price. However, I originally intended to just buy the MP3 since it's a series and not a one off and I needed to think ahead about how much I will be spending on the whole collection. I was disappointed though to find out that the MP3 was only $2 cheaper at $15.99. It wasn't even worthwhile considering the digital version at that price since $2 more gets me something physical to hold in my hand and some pretty swanky packaging. I think the MP3 should have been priced a little closer to $10, even $12.99 would seem more reasonable to me.

Despite this I DO highly recommend picking this up if you are an AoS fan. It's a great story that I have already listened to twice (Nagash's monologue three times) and I have no doubt that I will listen to it again.

You can buy either version of it, as well as listen to a small preview chunk of it here. You really should at the very least give the free preview a listen.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

Mini of the Week 10-16-15

October 16, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: REVIEW: The Unforgiven

≪ Previous: REVIEW: The Prisoner of the Black Sun

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Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Khorne Skullgrinder by PintoDeMiniaturas on Cool Mini or Not

First off, I think this model is really cool. All of the new Khorne characters from GW lately have been awesome and what stands out the most for me with this sculpt is the sense of movement. They really nailed the feeling of him swinging that anvil around, bravo GW. Now onto the painting, which is as smooth as you could ask for. All of the blends on this guy are ridiculously smooth and all of the lines crisp. This is some professional level painting here. The color palette is also really strong, restricting it to mostly just three colors. This isn't radically different from what GW did, but it eliminates the verdigris and flames to make you focus more on the red, bronze and silver.

The colors on this guy are somewhere between the normal GW color palette and the more traditional desaturated tones you see from a lot of top level painters. I like that it has a "greyness" to it, but still seems like it has enough saturation. There is something very understated about the model as a whole. The base is a little cliché with the cork rocks and lava, but it works and frames the model nicely. The bright lava also provides a nice spot color that draws the eye. I feel like this mini is somewhat reminiscent of renaissance style painting in the tones and transitions it uses, especially when you look at the zoomed in picture of his head that excludes the lava. Overall a very nicely done model on an excellent sculpt. Expect another AoS Mini of the Week from this artist in the future.

Be sure to check out more views of it on Cool Mini or Not, and show the artist some love if you like it. 

Unrelated to the mini above, but wholly related to Age of Sigmar I will leave you with this little teaser video for next week...

Until next time,

Tyler M.

What do you think of this model? If you have any models or have seen any around the web that you feel deserve to be the Mini of the Week feel free to send them to me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with the title "Mini of the Week" and a brief description of how you painted it or a link to where you found it. There is also a dedicated board on the Mengel Miniatures Forum for Mini of the Week where you can discuss past entries or post of minis you think are deserving of the title.

REVIEW: The Unforgiven

October 19, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: The Age of Sigmar: Battleplan - Kill the Messenger

≪ Previous: Mini of the Week 10-16-15

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Gav Thorpe is the undisputed master of the Dark Angels. His novel, Angels of Darkness, is still seen as being a seminal piece of Black Library fiction, and has been reprinted at least three times that I know of. Now The Legacy of Caliban series, the trilogy spun off from that first classic tale, has finally come to an end, and it went out with a bang.




You can find my review of Ravenwing and Master of Sanctity, the first and second books in the trilogy, at the links provided. Some of what I will be talking about in this review will spoil elements from the first two books if you haven't read them, so you have been warned!

The Unforgiven opens up literally exactly where we left off at the end of the last novel. Cypher, the most mysterious and elusive of the Dark Angels foes, has been captured! To be fair he turned himself in willingly after shooting Astelan in the head to save the Dark Angels confronting him. It also turns out that it wasn't actually Astelan who was killed, but a body double of sorts and the real Astelan had given them the slip. Throughout the rest of the book Astelan is mentioned, but we never see him again, so it feels a little unfinished. I'm fine with that character not dying since I really like him, but I guess I'm not really sure what his purpose in this story is anymore. I almost feel like he was really meant to be dead at the end of the second book, but due to either future plans for him, or fans being dismayed at his fate, he was allowed to live at the start of this one. Like I said, he really isn't relevant anymore for the rest of this book, which is disappointing, but hopefully that means we will see more of him in the future.

The real meat of this story is the Inner Circle trying to unravel the plans of Cypher and battling with the idea of trusting the arch-traitor. In this novel Azreal gets his moment in the spotlight, just like Sapphon and Asmodai in the last book, and Sammeal before that. To be fair I do feel like this book had more of a shared spotlight, with all of the important members of the Inner Circle getting a decent amount of screen time, but Azreal has to take center stage due to him being the only one who knows all of the chapter's secrets. Some of these secrets are stuff we, as the reader, have always known, while others are stuff that has only been hinted at but never confirmed (until now!), while at least one big one is a more recent development from the Heresy series finding it's way into 40k. Whenever you are dealing with the Fallen you will have crossovers with the Heresy since they lived through it.

After Cypher is captured we actually get a few chapters of the Dark Angels wrapping up the battle they had started at the end of book two before we move onto the story proper. These are okay, but break up the pacing a little bit for me. We do get to see more of Anneal and he gets his own little sub-plot as well as Telemanus. It's nice that these characters that we started out with in Ravenwing get their stories continued and wrapped up. They don't play as huge of a part anymore though, since their main function was to give us the viewpoints of Battle-Brothers not privy to all of the Chapter's secrets and how they react when more is revealed to them as they are promoted. In The Unforgiven all of the secrets are on display for us though, so they are more fan service at this point, not impacting the main story hugely. Although Anneal actually has a huge impact on the story at the end. In fact, it's most likely the hugest impact on the Dark Angels chapter as a whole throughout their entire history. It might even be the biggest event in 40k at the moment, and rivals a lot of the huge events from the Heresy. I won't say what it is, but when you read the end your jaw will be on the floor. The Dark Angels are irrevocably changed after this trilogy. Seriously, nothing will ever be the same again. Knowing their tendency towards secrets though, it may very well be that no one else ever finds out, but we know.

Cypher claims to know a sinister plot involving Astelan, Typhus, several other Fallen, and the remains of Caliban and wants to help Azreal stop it. Even after reading the whole story I am not 100% sure what his ultimate plan was, because he is always playing everyone around him. This isn't due to poor writing or anything, it's just that his plan are very complex and I don't know if we will truly find out what they were until a future story...or maybe a past story?

The battles in this were all suitably entertaining. The only one that really stood out to me was the final battle, which involves several space marine chapters, Typhus and his Death Guard, the Rock, and the remains of Caliban. Again, this has pretty huge impacts on tons of stuff going forward. It also has some hints at plot points we might see revealed within the Heresy series too, since Typhus and the Fallen are involved.

I can't really talk about the second half of the book without giving away a bunch of surprising and entertaining twists. The first quarter of it felt a little slow to me in the pacing department, but that's just due to me wanting to get on with Cypher's plot and instead having to read about Anneal and the battles the rest of the Dark Angels were involved in. They aren't poorly written, and if you're a battle scene fan you'll enjoy them, I personally just like the intimate talking moments more and wanted to find out all of the secrets.

If you had read the first two books or are a Dark Angel fan this novel is a must read, no dispute. I am definitely looking forward to Gav's first full length Dark Angel book set during the Heresy. It's honestly the book he was destined to write ever since the Heresy started and I have no doubt that he will deliver on our expectations. Little known fact, Grand Master Azreal actually reports to Super Supreme Grand Master Gavius Thorpus, who has lordship over all of the Unforgiven.

Final Score - 4.5/5

Final Score for The Legacy of Caliban Trilogy - 4/5

Until next time,

Tyler M.

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The Age of Sigmar: Battleplan - Kill the Messenger

October 21, 2015, 7:55 am

≫ Next: Mini of the Week 10-23-15

≪ Previous: REVIEW: The Unforgiven

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The Endless Deserts have been rediscovered after the Age of Chaos and now Sigmar has sent his Stormcast Eternals to the Tomb King's domain to seek an alliance. Will the desert revenants accept the offer or be a little more wary with the forces of order? Find out for yourself with the battleplan Kill the Messenger.


Hot on the heels of the Time of War rules for The Endless Deserts I have my first battleplan for the supplement. This was interesting to create since I have only ever made a scenario one time before and it was for 40k and just for my friends and I to use.

With Kill the Messenger I wanted to make something that was themed around the Tomb King's domain but could still be used by other forces. I feel like that is one of the big strengths of the AoS battleplans. They are all made with a particular battle in mind, but are written in a way that could work for any combination of forces.

The idea for the scenario came from all of the little bits of lore I've read about Sigmar sending out emissaries to try and reestablish alliances with the other races and forces in the Mortal Realms. I thought about what would happen when Sigmar sends someone to try and negotiate with the proud and arrogant Tomb Kings. I imagined it wouldn't go to well at first. The Ambushers rule came from me wanting to represent the war statuary like the Ushabti springing to life around the Stormcast in the first few moments and cutting a few of them down. I reflected this in the Historical Fight blurb at the end that gives you my recommendations on how to further tailor this battleplan to represent the Stormcast's first encounter with the Tomb Kings.

I will probably do at least one more battleplan and some lore to accompany all of it. I'm already thinking of story ideas for the Lord-Celestant I created for this scenario, Nihlus Tidalborne. I'm really enjoying making these supplements and I hope they are finding use amongst the community.

You can find a low res version of the 4 page battleplan below that's optimized for web viewing. You can also download that version if you want but I have a link further down for the high res version that's best for printing. I want to thank the people in the community who helped me refine the rules in this just like with the Time of War ruleset.


You can find the high resolution version here. This version is too large for web viewing, but perfect for downloading to print out.

If you give this battleplan or the Time of War rules a try let me know how it goes.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

Mini of the Week 10-23-15

October 23, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: HOBBY: Tyrion, Avatar of Light

≪ Previous: The Age of Sigmar: Battleplan - Kill the Messenger

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Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Nagash by grimgor poland on CMoN

It's refreshing to see Nagash portrayed in a manner besides the traditional graveyard theme we usually see him in. Many people may forget that he started out as a Nehekharen. The painting on this is just as good as you would expect, although I do have to particularly applaud the bold color choices. Everything is very saturated and warm for a mini that's usually the exact opposite. The freehand on the hat and the OSL are both very good as well. While the painting is great, my favorite part about it is the presentation. 

The ruined Egyptian style pillars behind him and the spirit hosts really set the mood. I can just imagine Nagash floating through the ruined remains of one of Nehekhara's cities during the End Times. The icing on the cake is the awesome quote on the front of the plinth. It really brings you into the story of the piece. I don't know what more I can really say about it, it's just a very well done mini with a great display base.  

Be sure to check out more views of it on Cool Mini or Not, and show the artist some love if you like it. 

Until next time,

Tyler M.

What do you think of this model? If you have any models or have seen any around the web that you feel deserve to be the Mini of the Week feel free to send them to me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with the title "Mini of the Week" and a brief description of how you painted it or a link to where you found it. There is also a dedicated board on the Mengel Miniatures Forum for Mini of the Week where you can discuss past entries or post of minis you think are deserving of the title.

HOBBY: Tyrion, Avatar of Light

October 26, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: GALLERY: High Queen Khalida

≪ Previous: Mini of the Week 10-23-15

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Tyler M here with a special guest article from Tyler E, the proud owner of that awesome Tyrion model that was Mini of the Week a few weeks back. After the mini got such great feedback he approached me with the idea of doing a more thorough breakdown of how he went about conceiving this commission, and the incredible amount of forethought and detail he put into the model before Javier González even started working on it.

Without any further introduction here is Tyler E with the stages and process he went through preparing this model, and the back and forth he and Javier had once the conversion and painting started.

Tyler E: 

Why

Since I was 13, Tyrion and Teclis have been my favorite Warhammer characters. Seeing them at that age left me in awe (...with thanks to Jes Goodwin and Mike McVey).

By Games Workshop

They were intimately linked to Aenarion the Defender, first Phoenix King, greatest High Elf, and guardian of the Old World against the initial Chaos Incursions.

By Jon Sullivan

Aenarion was the Warhammer Prometheus: the Champion of Light who came to personify both light and darkness, and the tragedy of unintended consequences. 

His beloved Astarielle was murdered by N’Kari, a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, along with (or so he thought) his two children. In his anguish and rage, he vowed to eradicate Chaos, flying on Indraugnir to obtain the most dangerous and most damned weapon in existence: the Sword of Khaine, the Widowmaker, forged for the Elven God of War. This act cursed him, cursed his bloodline, and forever afflicted the future of his race.

By John Stone Art

Millennia after Aenarion, the twins Tyrion and Teclis were born, descendants of his line. They became legends of their age, renowned masters of their art. In Prince Tyrion, wearing the famed dragon armor of his descendant, the High Elves saw Aenarion Reborn, a champion destined to return them to glory. And yet, the curse endured.

The Curse of Khaine culminated in the third volume of Warhammer: The End Times, bringing to an end a Shakespearean tragedy 6,000 years in the making. Tyrion, Teclis, and Aenarion’s son Malekith were at its heart. It was an unforgettable ending.

By Games Workshop

And it was a beginning. In the new Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, at the end of the Old World, Tyrion awakened in Hysh, the Realm of Light. He and Teclis had survived the cataclysm. Not knowing how or why, Tyrion was now a god of light, the Lord of Lumination, bound to shape and safeguard the realm with his brother.

By Raymond Swanland

What

After 20 years, Age of Sigmar brought me back to Warhammer. During that time, a breathtaking version of Tyrion was the one model that I had always longed to have. 

While his current model is notable, it’s starting to look dated. The size and stature is problematic (e.g., compare him to Archaon or the Lord-Celestant on Dracoth), especially in light of his new status. He should feel profound and majestic.

With that aspiration in mind, I started working with Javier “Arsies” González, an incredible painter from Spain, on a new version of Tyrion for Age of Sigmar.

How

Horse:
Tyrion’s steed, Malhandir, was the great grand-sire of Korhandir, the father of horses. Malhandir was the fastest, strongest, and largest (living) horse in Warhammer, which his model doesn't quite reflect. We thought Valten's elven steed was a better reflection.

By Arsies

Javier added Malhandir’s helm wings, along with a stirrup for Tyrion to hold.

Helm: 

Tyrion’s original helm felt inelegant, and we wanted helm wings reminiscent of Aenarion’s. The Island of Blood’s High-Elf-on-Griffon helm was perfect.

Javier used milliput to integrate Tyrion’s dragon crest with the new helm. 

Base:

Since Tyrion often battles immense foes, we elevated his base.

Sword:

Containing the power of a sun, Tyrion’s runesword Sunfang is usually painted in red and orange. We were inspired to go in a different direction by the following portrayal:

By Games Workshop

Javier also replaced Tyrion’s original sword with the High Elf Noble’s great sword, adding freehand elven runes to the blade to ensure that it felt like Sunfang. 

Body:

We used the High-Elf-on-Griffon’s body, especially since we liked how the arms were positioned and how the cloak connected and laid over the shoulders. In that regard, Javier sculpted and painted a custom cloak extending from the shoulders. He also converted one of the breastplate circles to Tyrion’s Heart of Avelorn. 

Eyes:

We wanted Tyrion's eyes to glow to help portray him as the Avatar of Light.

Pose:

The following drawings were key inspirations for his pose:

By Games Workshop

The Result

After many weeks of challenging work, Javier finished our new Tyrion:

We hope you like the model. Additional photos are at CoolMiniOrNot.

The (Unofficial) Warscroll

To accompany the model and represent Tyrion, Avatar of Light in the Age of Sigmar, I created a new (unofficial) warscroll, below, which builds on the existing one.

While most of Tyrion's stats remain the same (except Malhandir’s movement, which should be at least 14” since he was the fastest living horse in Warhammer), the unofficial warscroll adds four new abilities and modifies his command ability.

In particular, the Shield of Lumination and Power of Hysh abilities work in tandem to simulate why he isn’t as powerful (initially) as you’d expect from a “god of light.” 

For purposes of comp, two estimates were received:

• SDK: 500 points 
• Azyr: 13 points

Special thanks to the creators of SDK and Azyr for their estimates, and Vince Venturella for his feedback on the draft (...and if you don't like it, it’s not his fault).

Finally, the warscroll mentions the “Azyrheim Guard.” Here’s a preview:

Painted by Martin Ho (Instagram: martin983)

In my campaign narrative, to become a guardian and wear the Armor of Azyrheim is among the highest honors for an Eternal. They are paragons of the Storm.

What Else?

The following are a few contributions to the growing AoS community:

• Age of Sigmar Directory: Curated resources covering articles, podcasts, battle reports, tactics, reviews, comps, supplements, adaptations, and more.
• Age of Sigmar on Twitter: A recommended list of folks to follow.
• Scruby & Wells: My new Twitter feed focusing on Warhammer content.

In Closing

I’d just like to sincerely thank Javier González for bringing to life a 20-year-old dream. He created a miniature that my friends will enjoy and that I will treasure forever.

I’m very grateful to the painters and makers who bring beauty to our hobby.

Tyler M: A special thanks to Tyler E for taking the time to write this and to Javier González for bringing his vision to life. 

If you think you have a good guest article for Mengel Miniatures be sure to contact me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with your idea. I think we might be full up on Tyler's though. :)

Until next time,

Tyler M.

GALLERY: High Queen Khalida

October 28, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Mini of the Week 10-30-15

≪ Previous: HOBBY: Tyrion, Avatar of Light

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It's no secret that I like the Tomb Kings, and being a completionist I decided I had to have Khalida in my army as well. My wife actually got this model for me for Christmas this past year and she was pretty excited to see a cool female model for a change. I promised her I would paint Khalida soon because of that, and now she's done! One of the coolest, and most unique models in the entire Fantasy range in my opinion.

In the past I wasn't always a fan of the Kahlida model. It always seemed a little flat and two dimensional to me. As soon as I had the mini in my hands though I realized how wrong I was. This is an incredibly detailed model in a pretty cool pose. It's not often you see a character model not in some action or leading from the front stance. In contrast her's is almost relaxed. She knows she has power, she doesn't need to flaunt it. It's also pretty unique amongst the Tomb King range for being one of the only models completely covered in bandages.

She breaks down into two predominant color blocks; her bandages and her cloak. I started with the bandages since I knew exactly what I was going to do there. Like all of the rest of my Tomb Kings they got a basecoat of Charadon Granite, followed by a wash of Nuln Oil. Unfortunately Charadon Granite doesn't exist anymore, and their replacement color isn't as close of a match as it should be. It's much to light compared to the original. This was then tidied up again with Charadon Granite. I did a mix of over brushing and carefully layering the paint back on for this. The bandages are detailed, and condensed enough that over brushing works well. This is like dry brushing, but with more paint on your brush. I followed this up with a few highlight stages of mixing in Screaming Skull. 

The next obvious area to do was her cloak. I considered dividing this up into different colors, since technically there are two cloth pieces hanging from her arms, a skirt like thing, and an actual cloak. They intertwine with each other so much though that I decided it would just look odd and disjointed if they weren't all the same color, so white it was. My army's colors are white and turquoise, but I mostly just use the turquoise for smaller surface areas since otherwise it would overwhelm the model with color. I wanted my army to have a sepia, washed out quality to them. The white was painted with a basecoat of Rakarth Flesh and washed with Agrax Earthshade. This was then re layered with thinned down Rakarth Flesh to try and get some subtler blends to the shadows. The highlights were done by mixing in more and more white for each stage. Besides the initial basecoat this color was painted with fairly watery paints. This allowed the translucent nature of the paint to do a lot of the blending for me. It meant doing more layers, but I think it paid off in the end. After I took my pictures of her I decided that some of the shadows were to harsh so I went back and softened them up a bit with a Rakarth Flesh/Agrax Earthshade mix. These are actually my second set of photos of her from after I fixed the white.

After this I blocked in the basecoats for the rest of the colors so I could get a good idea of how the color balance on the model would play out. She is a little unusual with how the color blocks on her are laid out since she's mostly bandages and robes. It runs the risk of becoming just two colors. Once I was satisfied that she would look more balanced in the end I went on to painting the gold. This was actually done a little differently then how I have normally done it in the past for my Tomb Kings. This time I basecoated it with Retributor Gold, which I think is a lot better base paint for bright golds then Balthasar Gold is. This ran the risk of being almost too bright though. After the wash of Agrax Earthshade and a layer of Gehenna's Gold it was looking pretty similar to the rest of my army. This was then highlighted by mixing in Runefang Steel for two separate stages.

The turquoise was painted with a base coat of Sotek Green and layered with Temple Guard Blue. This was highlighted by mixing in Screaming Skull for two separate stages of highlights. The "rusted" areas were painted on in a splotchy pattern with Doombull Brown. The edges of these splotches were highlighted with the final highlight mix from the turquoise. The bugs and jewels were painted in a similar fashion to each other, with a black base coat. The first highlight was done with Sotek Green, the second with Temple Guard Blue, and all the remaining highlights were done by mixing in white. I made sure to make every highlight as thin as I could on the edges so that they looked black with a blue sheen.

For the skin I followed my guide here. The snake on top of her staff was painted in the same way as the bugs and the black was blended into the gold by painting several thin layers of black. I made sure to feather it into the gold until I got a transition I was happy with.

After I had finished her I decided that her base was too plain. Being the queen associated with snakes the choice of what to add was obvious. I glued down the skull first and then drilled a hole into one of its eyes. Cutting a paperclip to size I bent it into the shape I wanted and glued it in place. The back half of the snake was just sculpted with greenstuff, no paperclip armature there. Blending the head of the snake into its body was an interesting challenge, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The other snake was added since I had left over greenstuff.

Be sure to watch the video below for a 360 degree video of the model. The music is once again provided by Adam Harvey, you can follow him on his Facebook page and listen to some more of his music on his Youtube channel. I have also added in a little extra music from Kevin Macleod who I found on incompetech.com, a royalty free music site. Enjoy!

Be sure to vote for her on Cool Mini or Not here.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

Mini of the Week 10-30-15

October 30, 2015, 8:00 am

≫ Next: REVIEW: Ghal Maraz

≪ Previous: GALLERY: High Queen Khalida

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Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Skaven Stormfiends by Blog de Kouzes

Wow, these guys are striking! I love the super pale skin with the saturated red armor. It really makes them stand out. The almost white rats makes me think lab rats too, which is a nice connection. The paleness of their skin also lets the painter really emphasize the raw areas on them, like around the stitching, knees and feet. Now that the Skaven are officially part of the Chaos pantheon it's nice to see some more of the Chaos iconography incorporated into the models. The use of the rounded spike rail from the Chaos Warshrine really complements the roundedness of their shoulders. It's an almost flawless conversion in my opinion.

In the picture above you can see the rawness on the feet I was talking about. I really like that part, especially with the icy bases. I can just imagine how red their feet would be after walking over that. The bases are phenomenal as well. I have never seen an icy base done in this way. It looks super convincing and has a nice slushy look to it. The brain rats being a pinker color is a nice contrast from the rat ogres themselves. It suits the "braininess" of them as well since it makes me think that there is more blood flowing through them. The blends on the red are really smooth too. Overall the painting on these is great and the theme and color palette are spot on. I'm looking forward to seeing more Skaven from this painter. He already has a very nice Grey Seer who might see Mini of the Week in the future.

Be sure to check out more of it on his blog, Blog de Kouzes, and show the artist some love if you like it. 

Until next time,

Tyler M.

What do you think of this model? If you have any models or have seen any around the web that you feel deserve to be the Mini of the Week feel free to send them to me at tylerm@mengelminiatures.com with the title "Mini of the Week" and a brief description of how you painted it or a link to where you found it. There is also a dedicated board on the Mengel Miniatures Forum for Mini of the Week where you can discuss past entries or post of minis you think are deserving of the title.