Tiberion: My Conversion for the Skorne Character Titan

Time to show another conversion!

For my ever-growing (and no paint progressing) Skorne Army, I couldn't resist adding the character Titan, Tiberion. Tiberion is a real brute.  A massive, stoic, stubborn Titan if ever there was one.

Armed with a massive warclub and shield this Titan is the rock armies break themselves on.

But I wanted to do the guy justice.  Something special for a Character beyond just the character head & weapon upgrade kit stuck onto a standard Sentry Titan.

So I started with the Bronzeback as a basis for the conversion.  The Bronzeback is a great deal more massive than a regular Titan, which seemed fitting for a character Titan. The problem is a Bronzeback has a hunched pose which would look odd with a shield and not impressive for the club. Also, the Bronzeback doesn't have any back armor, and being the epitome of defense, I figured Tiberion would have the Sentry style armor. So here goes:

I gave him a small rock to stand on, and angled his torso back and sculpted some tummy to cover the gap that created, giving him a more upright posture.  I used the plastic kit arms, since the Bronzeback arms didn't work well for the weapon & shield. I did however use the Bronzeback tusks, and broke one off- he is a veteran, he's going to have taken some damage in his life!  I also moved the extra helmet flaps from the side to the top-center, to make a helmet styled something more like a Samurai might have. 

For comparison, here is how Tiberion is supposed to look:

And more angles of mine:

Here you can see his custom armor to match the style of the Titan Sentry. 

Batter Up!

And a comparison shot to see how Tiberion compares to a standard Titan Sentry: 

I have to think he's more impressive with this added size.  

As normal his head and weapon would have just been stuck onto the fellow on the right. 

I know, I know... "Paint him!" you say. Someday, just not as soon as he deserves.  

Another Conversion: Supporting the Style of Simplification with Molik Karn

Been working some longer hours than usual, so I haven't had time to start the NATC game reports, so to hold you over until I do, here is another conversion I was pretty happy with.

As I mentioned in the last update, I really like the concept of Skorne from Hordes, but the level of decorative detail bits is pushed further than my preference.

One of the character warbeasts is Molik Karn, a Cyclops Chieftain.  I've never actually used him in a game, for one, because I just love the look of the Titan pachyderms more, and for another because I just wasn't thrilled with the model.

I prefer the look of the lesser warbeast Cyclopses ... Cyclopii ? Cyclopoose ?  Oh I don't know.
But Molik just (at the risk of offending) looks a bit juvenile in it's stylings: too many spikes, the psuedo-samurai half helm doesn't do anything for me and the swords are just at a Heavy Metal level of ridiculousness  I mean really.. are they swords or are they multi tools?  Looks like they are designed to be can openers, tree saws and pasta press all in one.   And the pose is too static to be interesting.

So I set about remaking Molik in a style I would prefer: simpler, and hopefully more elegant with a more interesting pose.

Here is the result:

I did keep the serrations near the end of the blade and one of the circular cut outs near the base of the blade, but I filled in the upper one as well as the three holes, as well as trimming the end of the sword to be more like a scimitar or cutlass and less like a giant bowie knife. 

I also removed the horns from his shoulder armor and replaced them with gems. this as well as not using the backbanner lowers the central focus of the eye back to where the action of the miniature is. 

Also I replaced the head with one from a lesser Cyclopse: a full helmet which I think just looks better. 

Then I changed the angles of the arms and swords to hopefully create more of an action pose and less of a 'look at mighty me' type pose. 

The original to compare: 

More angles of my Molik: 

That's all for now, but more to come, and I'll get to those game reports soon too.

Give a Banner Bearer a Break! & micro rant on not dazzled by bedazzlers

I understand that I am quite possibly alone in this.
If not alone, then a safer bet is in a low population minority looked on with confusion by the majority.

But I'm just not a fan of massive amount of detail.

I prefer the elegance of simplicity over the burden of Baroque.

Games Workshop: please halt the mechanized decapitator of your skull-making factory.
Privateer Press: not every mini must compete in spikiness against the Shrike.
Mini Manufacturers everywhere: It is ok for a mini not to carry the contents of their household in bags & packs.

Not all of course..many fall right where I like it best: Copplestone, Zombiesmith, World of Twilight

I suspect the trend in details started as the cost of metal went up and the relative cost of having sculptors outdo one another to add more detail was insignificant in cost in the overall process, and companies were eager to show off the finer detail of the ever increasing quality of casting techniques.

But just because the technology can do it, doesn't mean it is always an improvement.
Just because it now must cost me twice what a miniature once cost doesn't mean I'll feel I 'get my money's worth' if the mini has 35 skulls & tiddlybobs all over him.

If a pizza is going to cost twice what it used to because the cost of running the oven is twice what it used to be, don't throw walnut shells and candy corn on it thinking I'll be happier about it.

So I've been noticing a tendency for miniatures to be too detailed lately.
Just laden down with a Liberace-level of visual confetti.

Someone thought Versailles furniture was a good idea, so I imagine someone- manyones- probably love all the gory and gaudy detail but I think it's often overmuch.

So I've noticed I have been converting to remove detail rather than add it.

One of the most afflicted are banners.
How often is a mini forced to hold up a banner half the size of a tallship's mainsail, adorned with an anvil, half dozen corpses, minotaur skulls, or made of solid brass?

So here are some Skorne conversions. I love the idea of Skorne, who make me think of VSF Martians in a lot of ways, and their beasts are great.  But I find I remove all the back banners, clip off the multi-back spikes, shave the horns off shoulder pads, and more.

Their banners are especially burdensome. Here are three after converting:

These have plenty of detail. Almost too much even after converting, to my eye.  Plenty of spiky parts and charms, showing an ornamental culture. For two of these I've used back banners removed from characters to be the standard, and the third I cut away a lot of the extra bits that to my mind looked like someone had designed it in absent minded doodling while bored in class.

The originals:

Maybe nothing wrong with them, just not a style I appreciate: it's just too much.

A: Army standard: This might look cool mounted on a wall, but that solid metal gong icon must be impossible to hold up! Completely awkward even if it is painted wood.

B: Just a flag, but a big one! But this is just a unit's banner, should it be bigger than the army standard? and notice the side metal on the right edge, much like the one C has on the left side? that'd be a lot of extra weight for this poor fellow to hold!

C: That side metal jutting out, up and back to hold a flag that a simple pole up would hold seems silly, plus it detracts from the banner it is holding.

So I replaced the two massive items and cut away the pointless metal pole detour on the third, opting for simpler icons.

Sometimes less is more.  Or I think so at any rate.

Oh, and get off my lawn.
;)

Pterodactyls of Mars

So I'm realizing I didn't give the Archidon of Skorne his own update, so I'm rectifying that now.
Painting has been slow this past week or more, a combination of the brutal heat wave and that somehow at some point, though it's hard to see how I wouldn't have noticed it at the time, an elephant came into my bedroom while I was sleeping, grabbed me by the right wrist with his trunk and swung me around and around, over his head to the tune of 8-G's.  My shoulder felt dislocated and in constant pain for a good long time, so the brushes were silent.  Damn ninja elephants.

But I have a Pterodactyl of Mars to show, so let's get back to the point of this.

I am crazy about this sculpt.  He's just great in my opinion.  Not overly detailed with details for the sake of details. I could also see him making a great monsterous mount for a Goblin. I'd love to have a goblin warlord riding this guy.  Unfortunately the Mantic Kings of War Goblin army doesn't have a flying monster, but doesn't mean he couldn't sub in for a giant or something like that.

Coming at you!

The height of the rock formation helped out a lot- it gets his wingspan away from the other minis on the table.

He was a surprisingly fast paint job, after a base coat, the blending went very fast.

The traditional light underneath and darker above: nature's fighter planes.

Somewhere below is his target.

In the game, he's more of a 'medium' beast than a true heavy.  He only get's one attack, but he's cheap, and the chance to have a good 'critical pitch' to throw your victim across the battlefield is very fun.

He should find a lot of use for Skorne, fantasy skirmish, or VSF Mars.

Who says there can't be Pterodactyls of Mars?  If there are spiders, there can be pterodactyls.

Enjoy!

Skorne: First Small Tournament Report

This past weekend, to cap off the Warmachine & Hordes Journeyman league (though open to anyone which about half the players were not from the league) there was a small three game tournament.  The format would be a different army size for each game: 15pts, 25pts then 35pts. I thought that meant different lists, but no, turns out it meant start with a 15 point list then add 10 points to it for each new game. Well that messed up the plans I'd had- I was going to try out 'Domina' Rasheth for the 35 point list... oh well, so I went to the caster I'd used for the last half of the league: epic Hexaris. There was about a dozen people, with Hordes being a bit more than half, though of those, there were 3 Skorne! Can't fault them for taste ;)

Game 1: Skorne vs. Trolls 15 points. 
There was a scenario for this, but it came down to both armies going for each other's throat, so I don't recall.

My Army:

Hexaris (epic), Bronzeback, Gladiator, Feralgheist, Beasthandlers (minimum)

Trolls:

Madrak, Mulg the Big Troll, Champion Hero, Fellcaller Hero, Krielstone unit
 -Too bad I didn't play him later in the day, he had a nicely painted unit of Fennblade trolls.

This was the first time I played against trolls.  Madrak is quite a good caster! He has a talisman that prevents him from being charged, so he lead with his warcaster, so I couldn't reach him. If I sat back, he'd throw his axe at me until close enough he could charge me, if I advanced, he'd charge me.  Quite a mess!  The stone increases the armor to the point that my best spell to cull his infantry wouldn't hurt them.

He only had one beast: Mulg, so my plan was to kill that Troll, then Madrak wouldn't have a source of power. I moved the gladiator up, as bait, the champion charged him ,but I was ok.  The Titan then killed the champion and I blasted Madrak pretty good with a spell.  Madrak then charged a beasthandler, and with an ability he had, started inching closer to my caster, so that by the third swing, he was attacking Hexaris! Not good!  He got one good hit on him, but missed 3 times! He only needed a 6, but three times didn't get it on 2 dice... some really bad luck there.  My Titans made a wall, preventing Mulg from coming to his rescue, and Hexaris hit Madrak and took his life.. but Madrak (being a Troll) made his 'Tough' roll (5+ on 1 die) and got back up, So I hit him again, and he Toughed again, and so hit him again! and the third time he stayed down!

A win for me, but the dice did him no favors.  He took it very well.

Game 2: Skorne vs. Legion 25 points.
Another first: I hadn't played against Legion before. This had an odd scenario.  At one corner of the field was an area to control.  At the opposite corner was a flag. If you controlled the zone (no enemy models in it)  *and* had one model near the flag, then you got a point, and the person near the flag got fried with a powerful magic blast.  "Thanks for helping- no good deed goes unpunished." First to get 2 points won.

My Army:

Added to the army: minimum unit of Gatormen with Beast Task Master and an Agonizer.

Legion:

Epic Vayl, Scythean & Angelius beasts, Tower battle-engine, shepherd and spirit martyr.

I had a hill with difficult terrain on it in my deployment, and I made a big mistake- I should have deployed my Gators in it, since they can 'pathfind' and they'd have been able to move out of it fast and get toward the control zone.  Since I didn't, he got to it fast and tied me up with the tower, further slowing me down.  I did take out the tower with the Bronzeback, but the Gladiator didn't fare too well.  The flying beast struck out, did a lot of damage, then flew back to safety, and the big beast with scythes there in the foreground of the picture finished him off.  2nd big mistake: I forgot to use the feralgheist! He's a ghost, that I can use to inhabit a dead beast, so i could have still used the gladiator.  I used my feat to drain away all the fury, so next turn his caster wouldn't have power without damaging herself, but by then he'd got the victory points and it was over.  Turns out this Legion caster has some really nasty spell abilities, so not sure what I'd have done if I'd found out about them the hard way ;)

Result:  Loss.

Game 3: Skorne vrs Retribution 35 points.
I did play against Retribution a couple times in the league, but it's the army I have the least familiarity with.
The scenario was to try to destroy a target near the enemy, once that was done, another would appear and you'd have to then destroy that one- meanwhile the opponent was trying to do the same to a target pair near you.  These pillars were pretty tough.  He had a lot of range and I didn't, so I'd have to tie his army up while trying to get to my targets bodily.

My Army:

Added: remaining Gatormen for a full unit & Archidon.

His Army:

Ravyn, Warjacks: Phoenix & Hydra, Mage-hunters (shooters) Archers (more shooters) Eirys (shooter hero)
a mechanic, a magic-aide and a mounted hero with a lance that shoots lasers!

-I never cared much for the look of the warjacks (though I kind of like the one here without a sword,just has hands) and since they're about the newest army I haven't learned much about them.  So i didn't know much about their abilities.  Both warjacks have a ranged attack though, and since everyone else did too, and I had none, order of the day looked like advance fast! but not so fast I get stuck where I could get charged first.  Easier said than done.

I set up like this, with Gators behind woods, so they could pathfind through it and the archidon could fly over it, ah-ha! learned from the last game!

Then I found out that one of the shooting units could see& shoot just fine through woods, and even through my own army! They shot magically through my titans and killed all of my squishy but very valuable beasthandlers. That's not good! He also shot at my Bronzeback, who could chose to move up when attacked, but if I did I'd get charged by the knight, so I didn't.. at least not at first.  He did get hurt a bit more, so I went ahead and moved up, while the gladiator prepared to charge him in return should it all go bad, and if not, he was guarding the target (unpainted titan below).Eirys the elf moved up and did 3 points of damage to the target with her crossbow.

(you can see my target, Domina Rasheth across the field- I'll update her later).
The knight did charge the Bronzeback, who took some damage, but not a whole lot. I also lost 2 Gatormen to arrows (they failed their tough rolls) but the next turn I got to hit back.  The gladiator had rush so charged through the difficult terrain and stepped on the elf.  One problem down. That healed the Bronzeback a bit with Hexaris' vampire power, and the Bronzeback killed the knight, which healed him a bit more. Hexaris blasted the Phoenix warjack knocking down it's shields and a couple points of real damage.  The Phoenix then charged my Bronzeback, but he again survived it.  My next turn, the Gatormen continued to wade through archers and the Bronzeback wrecked the Phoenix, which handily gave him some cover.

The Bronzback at this point is not far from his caster, so he charged it with his other warjack.  He was hurt pretty bad at this point, but still hanging on...barely. I needed the Bronzeback free to attack his caster, so the Archidon flew over, charging the Hydra warjack, I boosted the hit (roll an extra die) and got what I wanted: a doubles, so he threw the warjack! I aimed at the caster, but it missed, crushing the mechanic instead.  The Gladiator put Rush on the Bronzeback allowing him to move faster and over the wreckage, and the caster elf didn't survive the charge from a very angry Titan.

Neither of us managed to destroy a pillar target -if I'd tried the archers would have killed the gators, so made more sense to attack them instead.

Result: Win.

The Tournament was won by Skorne, but not my Skorne ;) I did manage to get the prize for best painted though, which I'm always happier about than battle victories.

I'll be playing Circle in the next Journeyman league, but I am happy with the Skorne and will be continuing to add to them.

I'll do an update for the Archidon soon, you might have noticed he has some paint on him now ;) 

Basilisk Honeymoon

I don't know if they wanted to share these with the public, but since Anne asked, the newlywed couple, Mr. & Mrs. Basilisk agreed to put up some pictures of their honeymoon.

If you missed their introduction update, it is here.

The Basilisks got many nice wedding gifts, nicest was from their master, Dominar Rasheth.  Well, to be more precise, it was from Domina Rasheth, who will have her own introduction here soon. The Basilisks decided to make good use of the funds and gift cards from Domina Rasheth, for when her husband finds out he's likely to have some Basilisk hide slip-covers made for his pillows.

(click pictures for larger)

First the couple went to Paris, city of love:

Then they popped over to Rome:

So Romantic!  No tourists?  Well, a hungry traveling couple has to eat...

Next they went to the ultimate monument to love, the Taj Mahal:

And finally for some silly fun, they went to Disneyland:

Many complaints were lodged at the Disneyland Hotel that night:

But it seems the pictures they took that night are too explicit even for the internet, and have been censored.
Just as well I suspect.

Enjoy!

Lizards in Love: Basilisk Wedding Bells

In the vast empire of the Skorne, it is the Titans who get the most admiration and attention.  Other beasts are needed and useful, but the Titans draw the most pride.  So though their story isn't the stuff of legends and sweeping epics, the humble Basilisks holds a unique place in an empire where cruelty, oppression, gile and brute force rule the day: theirs is a story of love.    (ahhhh)

Basilisks are as cheap of beasts as they come (4 pts) for Skorne, and don't seem to be much when you look at them on the surface. They don't have much skill as fighters or shooters, though they can do both.
They have average armor and defense, and not very sturdy either.  At half the cost of a Titan Gladiator you'd wonder why you'd consider taking them.  They have a couple useful skills, the female has an animus (magical aura effect) that increases the defense and armor of friendlies near her, and the male has a spray area magical gaze that can do damage.
Still, not much, but together... ah, the two are greater than their parts.

When the male is in combat, the female goes into a rage to defend her mate, giving her the attack skill and damage on par with a Titan! Now that is true love, a rare thing in the Skorne Empire, and should be nourished and honored. And so I shall, now that the Basilisk Krea is painted...

Aren't they a cute couple?  

Unfortunately, the Skorne sew the eyes shut of Kreas, but even still, she is happy on her special day. 

I can just imagine them taking walks in the park, frying passerby's with their eye-beams.

Best of luck to you two crazy kids!

Enjoy:

Ride the Lizard: Gila Be Good.

I've noticed a tendency in the studio regarding my own projects.  When I have several days in a row where I paint commission projects, the days where 80% of my 'work time' is spent with brush and paint, in the late hours for my own hobby time I am not much inclined to paint my minis, but I still feel the need to be at a creative project of mine. So what do I do? I build more minis: assemble and convert. I probably enjoy this aspect of the hobby even more than the painting.  Of course, some days I end up spending half my day answering emails, writing up quotes, researching miniatures for suggestions for clients' projects, doing the 'hobby consultant' part of the job, so in late hours after working I haven't spent as much time painting and so feel fine to spend my hobby hours painting for me still. But the creating minis seems to outpace the painting.

So what have I converted for me lately?

While I love the Skorne Titans, they also have a lot of 'reptiles' in their arsenal, with Basilisk Drakes & Kreas, (gator)Lizardmen, and the Archidon (a pterodactyl type creature)

I thought about stressing this theme.


First I wanted something to replace this mini:

The Skorne guy is fine, nothing amazing, but some good Samuraiesque armor details, but that cat.

That cat mount is just terrible. For one thing it is too small. That guy and his 200 pounds of armor is going to break that cat's back. If he's not rearing up the man could almost touch his feet to the ground, like he's riding a tricycle. 

And the cat himself I just don't think is well done. His paws are just confusing. Unless someone above is dangling some invisible yarn, what is he doing? 

If he's trying to grab at someone, why is his head turned to the side when his paws look like they reach out for someone not where he is looking? And the head just doesn't work. But I thought he'd be fun for the army

So he needed a new mount.  As much as he might love his cat, he outgrew being able to ride him when he was 10, time to move on to a big-boy beast. This called for a big desert lizard predator. 

Gila-raptor time.

The cold ones from GW are cool, but I wanted something bulkier. The ones from Gamezone are ideal:

Luckily the Gamezone rider is a separate piece. Unfortunately, the Privateer Press rider is not: his legs are molded on the same piece as the cat body.  I could either use the legs from the Gamezone or remove the legs from the Skorne & Cat. The gamezone rider is a bit smaller, and since the Skorne has a mounted & on-foot version, I thought it was better to keep the same, so the more difficult task of surgically removing his legs from the cat was decided upon. 

Here is the result:

Wasn't easy to get him up there, but I don't blame him- wouldn't be easy to get me up on that lizard either!

I'm much happier with this than him riding the cat.  It fits with the other reptiles, doesn't introduce a new theme (cats) to an army that already has 3: titans, cyclopses, reptiles, and is much more imposing looking. 

The other reptile conversion I did in the late hours is the Archidon.  Not really a conversion, since I didn't change the beast at all, but I did give him a more suitably regal base. This is him:

He attaches to the base by a peg in his fail. Even skimming the ground, he's still a pretty tall mini.

But I imagine him swooping down out of the desert sky where his prey has nowhere to run. 

So this is what I came up with:

Lifting his tail as he clears a desert rock formation. 

Death from above!

He's quite sturdy despite appearances.  The base is filled with spare metal and there is a good deal of metal in the rock formation too.

And while we're on reptile conversions,I showed him painted, but here is the converted Lizardman shaman:

Very simple: add a scepter from the GW Empire Wizard kit: Cobra of course! 

So that's the cold blooded creatures from conversion corner.  

If I didn't enjoy converting and creating so much I might have fewer projects and unpainted minis around here, but I wouldn't be having the fun, and that's the point isn't it? 

Video a bit related, but 

Warning: Not exactly safe for work! 

Enjoy!

Remember the Titans

Remember the Titans?
Six short weeks ago I was agonizing (inside joke for Skorne) over the question of choosing Elephants or Wolves to play in the local Warmachine & Hordes Journeyman League: Skorne or Circle.  It wasn't an easy choice, and in the end the close call fell in favor of the Elephants. I didn't do much in the way of blog reporting on those weekly games- they were very hard to squeeze the time in to get to, and when there I was playing with and against mostly unpainted armies (not the best photo material) and trying to learn a game that has a lot to learn and many options to consider.  So not much opportunity to record info or take pictures.

But I can't let the end of the league go by without a report on the overall.

The league had a very good turn out- I don't know how many total players there were,but attendance ranged from about 8 on the lowest night to at least 18 on the most crowded: a good turn out. Faction representation was heavily weighted toward hordes, with 3 Skorne, 3-4 Circle a Troll or two, Pigs and 2 Gators, and surprisingly, no Legion. Warmachine was lighter, with a Retribution, a Menoth, Magnus Mercs and Rhulic Mercs and a Cryx. 


Some nights I had as many as 5 games, and one week I had only 1.  Got there a bit late and had one long epic slug fest against Circle.  It was a real 'chess mach' of a game.  We took our time and enjoyed it.  he got the win in the end, but it was so very close.  I engaged his epic Kaya and her wolf with gators, but couldn't do damage. The wolf had been damaged previously and he ran the wolf out of combat to use a magic effect to transport her to within range of the wolf and got the caster kill. The gatorman I had did hit the wolf on the free strike, but left it with one wound. That was game right there.  He later realized he'd probably marked the damage on an argus by accident, so the wolf would have died and I'd likely have won, but regardless it was a close and complex game.  I also had several good games against the other Skorne player who shoed up every week- each game we had was close and got down to very few models left. In one we were both down to our casters and 4 beasthandlers: in chess this would be both having a king & pawn.  Great stuff.


In gaming I got about 50% win/loss which I was happy with.  In the hobby portion the organizer said he was pretty sure,without having the totals handy, that I'd won. I am more than a hobbyist than gamer, so I can't complain about that :)


I started with the Skorne battlebox and while I like the caster, Morghul, there is one aspect that I didn't like: he has only 5 focus (this is a very low power level) and that meant his range he could magically assist beasts is only 10 inches.  Very hard to keep the beasts from getting away from you and the leader remaining safe at the same time. So at week 4,when allowed to change casters I tried the new 'epic' Hexaris. he fit my play style better: more power (7) more spells and able to 'lead from the back' more. he also has a great ability that lets you heal a point on himself or his beasts when  a living enemy dies in his control range (14 inches) 
-This was amazing.  While Morghul inflicts damage on his beasts to get them to cause more damage, Hexaris keeps his beasts alive longer while the enemy is suffering.   I also added Gatormen to the army, which are amazing.  I used different miniatures to fit my desert theme. 


OK, on to some pictures of minis!

This is my starting Battlegroup: Cyclops Savage, Morghul, Titan Gladiator & another Cyclops Savage.
I really liked this starting group. Everything except that 10" range. 
I chose a very simple color scheme: dry red 'Martian' desert bases (So I can use them for VSF Martians!)
Brown natural Linen cloth, and light bronze armor with ivory inlay and plates.  The scheme was inspired by some Eastern Orthodox churches I saw while in Belarus. I thought it would look good with a desert theme to have almost no significant color(other than the red desert). Except for some pink inside mouths and some reddish skin tone there's no primary or secondary colors. Brown and Ivory and pale matallics for 95% of it. 
It was fast, pretty easy and I like the overall result.  


The first thing I added to the list was Beasthandlers.  This cheap troop selection is so amazingly good. 
They are quite a toolbox.  They can heal the beasts, they can enrage them so that they charge for free with a boost to their strength and they can manipulate the beasts' fury which in simple terms means that the more beasts do, the more energy they generate- the leader can tap into that energy to use to fuel his own spells and attacks, but if the beasts get too much fury for the caster to clear then they may lose control and go berzerk attacking whatever is near, friend or foe.  It's a delicate symbiosis and the beasthandlers make it a lot easier to get right. 

The beasthandlers. The one at the end is a special solo who does a similar job for the gatormen. 


Next big jump in power level I added one of my favorite miniatures, the Bronzeback.
You might remember him from the Babylonian-themed Chaos Dwarf BB team (Check the Hall of Fame page at the top)

Here he is, dwarfing the large-in-his-own-right Gladiator.  He might deserve (or demand) a few more shots:

This is one impressive beast on the battlefield.  If he connects, he is going to wreck whatever he touches. 

The only downside: if he does die early it can be very hard to recover and enact a new plan. 

Here's another guy I like a lot.  There are two types of Basilisks, male and female.  Both are fun.

I actually have an idea for a 'reptile' themed Skorne army, where instead of using the Titans, relying on pairs of these Basilisks and the Terradactyl-like Archidon, with a unit or two of the lizard 'gatormen'. Tempting!

Speaking of (not)Gators:

I really really like these minis.  They are just what I wanted.  Not that the Privateer Press Gatormen aren't nice, they are- I like them, but they are decidedly 'swampy' and would not have fit in well in a desert army. 

My final 35 pt army list replaced Morghul with eHexaris, exchanged both Cyclops Savages for a Cyclops Shaman (to get rid of enemy upkeep spells mostly, and to cast more of my own spells) and the Basilisk.

The Gatormen and packmaster gave good support and I added a 'feralgheist' for the last point- a spirit that can inhabit a dead beast so you can keep using it (until it gets smacked for a tiny 3 more damage) -I used a reptile spirit type mini from Reaper instead of the feralgheist model,since it fit the look of the army more. 

Just a nice coincidence, the store has one Martian-red desert board and I got to play one of my games the last week on that table.  

The Journeyman league gets rebooted on July 24th.  Since it will likely keep to the official Battlebox core, I'll probably not play the Skorne for it again, and so I may give the Wolf the chance that the Elephant took.  

Or maybe Trolls... or... well, we'll see. 

Thanks for wading through all this! 

By the way, I finally found a fix for the broken Followers widget, so I now can see the people who added to follow in the last 4 months, welcome and thanks for following! 

Some impressive elephants (and cute lion cubs), enjoy!