Mandragola's Plaguetouched Warband

[Mandragola]

Time for a new plog. My first fantasy one, though you may have seen my two 30k ones.

This will be different. Instead of marines I'll be assembling and painting the followers of grandfather Nurgle.

A friend and I recently went to warhammer world to try out AoS in a doubles tournament. We thought it might be a fun way to see if we liked the game. I got 1000 points of stuff ready for that. We had a lot of fun so I've been working on expanding the list to 2000 points, to potentially take to more events.

The idea is to mainly play pitched battles and pick up games. I'm designing my army for those because I enjoy competitive play, and it's the main time I acutally get to play. Work makes evening gaming tricky.

Anyway enough of that. Here's the stuff I put together for the other weekend.


A Lord on Manticore. I put a fair bit of work into this guy. The rider has the head, chest and sword from a blightking. The Manticore has quite a bit of GS on it, to nurgle it up a bit. I gave it pustules and slashes in it, plus the obligatory guts spilling out.




He had the special.


Fun model to build and paint. Not actually all that effective in the games, I'm sorry to say. He mostly rolled badly, but on the other hand he was a good source of VPs. A fast, tough hero is handy for grabbing objectives, and holding on to them in some cases.

Chaos warriors - my first unit at least.




I'm pleased with these guys. I think they look pretty good, and they also played well at the event. It's a really solid unit, if perhaps not all that lethal in combat. But they held their own in every game and were a serious asset to our army. More of these please!

I've got a unit of putrid blightkings. These really are fantastic models. Great fun to put together and paint, and also really effective in play. I tended to give them +1 to hit, and they'd rack up insane numbers of hits on things.

[Mandragola]

I've got a unit of knights too. I put quite a lot of time into building these guys, as I wasn't that happy with them out of the box. They didn't really fit with my other stuff somehow. Heads, plus a couple of shields and shoulder pads from the blightkings, and they fit in a lot better. And I gave them GS cloaks like the ones their chaos warrior friends have.

These aren't quite finished actually. They made it onto the battlefield as is, but they need a few more touches, like muck on their cloaks and highlighting on the fur.

Trouble is, to be honest they didn't perform all that well. I think maybe that lances are the wrong choice for them. I'm a bit torn here because, while they didn't kill huge amounts of stuff, they did useful things by taking ground and holding up the enemy. And I think they look cool.









Finally, my support characters. The guy with the axes is an exalted hero and the other guy is a chaos sorceror lord. Fairly minor conversions here have worked quite well I think. The exalted guy got some blightking arms and GS intestines while the sorceror got a new set of arms, but lost a horn from his head.

[Mandragola]

Now for some WIP stuff.

I'm working on an exalted hero BSB. He's based on a khorne slaughterpriest, with blightking and manticore rider bits. Here's where I've got to.





More warriors are on the way, this time armed with two-handed weapons. I'm planning a massive unit of 28 of these, to get the full benefits of the warscroll. Need to go and buy some more dudes.



I got myself Gutrot Spume. Not sure if he'll make it into my tournament list, but he's a badass. GW may have discontinued him - he was tricky to find online. Cool model.



I've also got Festus the Leechlord - who was more of an impulse buy at warhammer world. Not sure if he'll make it into my list - I think the generic sorceror is probably better - but he's useful for keeping the Glottkin alive.

Oh yeah, the Glottkin. Main thing of note about these is the amount of filling needed. All the bits fit together really nicely, but you are left with really obvious grooves down the legs and across the body. Unfortunately I forgot about this problem, sprayed Ghurk, and now have to go back and fill the gaps. No harm done.



Anyway that's where I've got to so far. I hope you guys like them. Any C+C gratefully accepted.

[Naitsabes]

wow, lots of stuff. I like your take on the knights. They don't quite go with the warriors and sculpting a cape to make them fit worked out quite well.

[Mandragola]

Thanks. Looking at the knights I think maybe they need a little attention, so I might break the GS out again I think. I'm happy with the overall effect though. I definitely think they are an improvement over the original.

I've got a similar problem with the chariot. It just seems to be styled quite differently to the chaos warriors. The horses aren't like the ones the knights ride. I've got the one from the start collecting set and it's still languising on its sprues.

Here are some pics from my trip to Warhammer World. It was a doubles tournament, so I was teamed up with my associate Vashtek, who had brought skaven and some goblins. He swapped between them over the weekend (which he was allowed to do). I alternated between having my sorceror or the exalted hero and godsworn champions of ruin battalion.

In battle against the forces of the The Emprah, or whoever. Not pictured are 20 retributors waiting on their battlebarge to teleport in. These were one of the main reasons I want to prevent my opponents' little men from hitting mine. It hurts! Also note that I'm used to 2" unit coherency from 40k, so I'm blatantly cheating all over the place here.


Our combined forces advancing towards the centre. Continuing to disregard the rules for unit coherency. Otherwise AoS is basically the same as 40k - even the objectives are the same, as you can see.


Here are my chaos warriors trying to learn the rules for terrain in Age of Sigmar. There was a great deal of scrolling through the app on our phones over the course of the weekend, since Vashtek and I had no idea what anyone's stuff (our own included) did.


Anyway we had a lot of fun over the weekend, saw all sorts of interesting armies and nice people. Most importantly of all, we won all of our games - because that's what really matters. Vashtek and I currently hold a 100% win record in Age of Sigmar. This might seem a little odd, because we honestly had so little idea what we were doing. I was honestly reading the core rules on the train from London because I wasn't even clear on the turn sequence. Fortunately however, Vashtek and I are dead-eyed WAAC tournament junkies, sustained only by the tears of our defeated foes.

So now I'll obviously need my own force, for when Vashtek and his skaven aren't around. The army I'm working towards is a Plaguetouched Warband at 2000 points, I'm hoping to bring it to one of the Grand Tournament heats that GW are restarting - though not the January one. I've only just started playing AoS so I need to learn the game a bit better. And I need to paint loads of stuff too, obviously.

It's a big battalion that actually costs quite a lot of points itself. The good thing is that it lets me take my whole army in a single battalion, so I should always get to finish deploying first and pick who gets first turn. The bad thing is that it's somewhat restrictive on what I have to take: a mortal Nurgle hero, plus 7 other Mortal Nurgle units (for a total of 8 units, which is wrong if you ask me!). I still have to keep within the pitched battle rules of course, so I need 3 battleline units, of which chaos warriors and blightkings are the only ones that can fit in the battalion.

The battalion gives the enemy -1 to hit in the combat phase against all units. That seems pretty strong. Bad things seem to happen when the enemy hits my guys, and often especially bad things happen when they roll 6s to hit. My fiendish plan is not to let them.

One other issue is that the formation gives another cool benefit to units that start the game as multiples of 7 models - they reflect damage on whoever hits them. But it's almost impossible to actually have units of the right size in a pitched battle. Guys are bought in groups of 5 or 10, and the single-model units like chariots and chosen can't be taken in 7s. I'm not allowed to take a unit of 35 putrid blightkings . The best ways to accomplish this bonus seems to be to take a unit of 14 or 28, paying for 15 or 30. So 14 blightkings or 28 warriors. I'm not sure if this is worth the cost of such big units to be honest, but it could be fun to test.

So here's what I'm working towards, and what I'll therefore be painting. I think I know what I want for the core of my army - as follows:

The Glottkin (built)
28 Chaos Warriors with two-handed weapons (11 built, 17 not yet bought).
10 chaos warriors with shields (finished - see above)
5 Putrid Blightkings (finished - see above)
Exalted hero BSB (half built)

That covers the core of my army. I've got the battleline units that I need. The BSB is there because failing charges makes you lose games - and because I feel like an army ought to have a BSB.

I'm left with 400 points to buy 3 (or more) units to fill out the battalion. I'm going to assemble a few different combinations and see how they work out. Options include:

A sorceror on manticore (manticore painted, sorceror still on sprue, lord is removable)
The knights (nearly done)
10 more warriors with sheilds (Built and started on basecoat)
Chaos Sorceror Lord on foot (done)
...or on a horse (I've assembled a guy but I'm not happy with him, and I've discovered that he probably doesn't need the horse anyway).
Exalted Hero (done)
Festus (still in his blister pack)
Gutrot Spume (built)
A unit of chosen (might convert blood warriors from starter set, but would be a big task)
Either kind ofchariot. (though I don’t like the gorebeast much so it would probably have horses)

I keep changing my mind about what to bring. Knights, Gutrot and a chariot would be a decent option I think. So might be the chosen, Gutrot and Festus. The sorceror, 10 more warriors and a chariot or exalted hero might also be a plan. I need to test out how survivable the Glottkin really are, and whether Festus would be useful to help keep them alive. In any case I'll have some options to play with, some of which might be useful in friendly games as well.

As you'll have gathered by now this plog is as much about building an effective tournament list as it's about painting models. Lots of people in this hobby are either competitive players or painters, but I like to do both. I've got a lot to learn about both too, so I'm enjoying looking at the other plogs here.

[Sapphire]

Great work mate! Your stuff literally reeks of nurgle! (In the best way possible of course!) love the effect of your scheme and the basing fits perfectly!

[Mandragola]

Thanks. I'm sort of semi-happy with the bases myself. I think it works for my guys to be traipsing through a swamp, but that maybe I need a bit more to be going on in there. The Glottkin's base needs to be interesting.

I'm not sure exactly what I'll do. Maybe bits of broken down building or dead trees. Bones are a good option too.

Also I might switch the water from green to brown. Not sure at all on that one.

[daliskhan]

looking great!

[Astraeos]

I'll give this thread a subscribe, I'm still trying to find a way to make AoS less alien to me so maybe plogs are the way?

[Mandragola]

Thanks guys. To keep you entertained then, here are some fairly bad photos!

I've finally finished filling Ghurk Glott. Weird one this - I found that he needed way more filling than I'm used to for GW's plastic models. Honestly can't remember the last time I needed to get GS out for something that wasn't made by Forgeworld (or that I hadn't cut up myself first).



Meanwhile, Gutrot Spume (who I think of as "Mr Tickle) has gone and got paint on himself. Not based yet, and the camera seems to have been a bit wobbly. You get the general idea.



I'm a little unsure about having his tentacles be green, since his armour is also green. I might revise that and make them purple or something. Anyone have suggestions?

By the way Astraeos, for what it's worth I'm not here to sell AoS to anyone. I quite like it so far but I'm only getting started. I was never a big warhammer fan so I haven't gone through that whole trauma. I imagine that people who are new to the game have a very different experience of it than old hands.

I've also chopped and changed my list a bit. I think I'll have a unit of marauders, based on Empire flagellants with shields from somewhere. Here's today's iteration of the army list:

Plaguetouched Warband Battalion. 140:
Glottkin. 480
28 marauders. 180
10 warriors with greataxes. 180
10 warriors with greataxes. 180
Gutrot Spume. 120
Chaos Lord on daemonic steed. 140
5 Chosen. 160

Not in the Battalion:

Exalted standard bearer. 80
Festus. 120
Familiars. 40

[Doi]

Excellent work! I'm just starting a Rotbringer force myself so I'd love to know your skin recipe!

I'm a little unsure about having his tentacles be green, since his armour is also green. I might revise that and make them purple or something. Anyone have suggestions?

I think green is fine, but it needs to be a much lighter shade of green. Purple would work too. Either way I think it they need to stand out and be the focus of the model rather than blending in with the armour.

By the way Astraeos, for what it's worth I'm not here to sell AoS to anyone. I quite like it so far but I'm only getting started. I was never a big warhammer fan so I haven't gone through that whole trauma. I imagine that people who are new to the game have a very different experience of it than old hands.

As far as I'm concerned the WFB/AoS divide shouldn't exist in the plogs section anyway. A superbly painted model (like those in this plog) doesn't look any worse for being on a round base instead of square. Personally, AoS has provided me the opportunity to work on armies I wouldn't have done under the WFB banner. I haven't played the game in years but I still like to build my armies legally and the freedom of choice in AoS (coupled with the freedom of skirmish formation) has let me start a pure Rotbringers force with excessive conversions (plus at only 19 models I can spend much more time per model).


Doi

[Mandragola]

Thanks, I'm glad you like my stuff. Bright green tentacles are a good idea too. I'll try that.

The flesh is a few stages. Bugman's glow washed with gloss reikland flesh shade. Chadian flesh next, then up to pallid wych flesh. Then I paint on a bit of agrax earth shade in deep recesses and technical blood in wounds. Where there are tentacles, tumours and other stuff I blend the base coat to that colour.

The idea is to give them human-like flesh, showing that these are humans who've made poor life choices. I think that someone like Ghurk is much more horrifying if you emphasise his humanity, rather than having him just look like some random monster.

Putting aside the games and focussing just on models, I far prefer round and oval bases. It's such a straightjacket if models all have to fit into a box to rank up. GW have been able to really go to town on the poses they give minis now that they aren't constrained in this way. I think that even older models like chaos warriors look better spread out a bit.

There are some units, like spearmen or handgunners for example, who look pretty good ranked up. But for many other infantry (such as people like ogres, orks, flagellants and marauders) I think they make more sense milling around.

[tcmainprize]

Cool models. Just starting a Nurgle army myself so great to see some great painted and converted models to inspire me.

[Mandragola]

Welcome aboard tcmainprize. Enjoy grandfather's gifts.

I've taken Doi's advice for Gutrot and gone for much lighter yellow tentacles. I've actually gone with an almost fluorescent yellow/green at the ends, blending back to something a bit more natural as it gets nearer the flesh. I'm much happier with the result.

If there's one thing I'm not totally happy with though, it's that his head is kind of a non-event at the moment. Might revisit that - or might not bother. Loads of other stuff to work on and I think overall he's come out well.

Managed to take some slightly nicer photos too. Tip: a two second timer helps eliminate any wobble from when you press the button on the camera. Up to now I've been using two bits of white(ish) card as a background but I've replaced them with a sheet of plain paper just curved against a box, held in place with a couple of paint pots. I'm much happier with the effect.

Base still to do obvs. Let me know what you think.







Eesh, those have come out in painfully high resolution! No hiding any mistakes when it's this zoomed-in. Bring back fuzziness!

[Doi]

Those tentacles are a huge improvement. You could try for a similar colour in the helmets "eyes" to give it some pop.


Doi

[Mandragola]

Thanks. I agree on the tentacles. I was thinking that about the eyes too actually. I might try it on a chaos warrior or something first. I'm not sure it's quite right for Nurgle stuff to glow if I'm honest.

[Astraeos]

By the way Astraeos, for what it's worth I'm not here to sell AoS to anyone. I quite like it so far but I'm only getting started. I was never a big warhammer fan so I haven't gone through that whole trauma. I imagine that people who are new to the game have a very different experience of it than old hands.

I wasn't asking you to. I'm just trying to find a way to get into AoS and thought seeing others armies more closely than a quick pic from a Facebook group might help me settle in a little. Maybe trauma isn't the right word but I do sometimes feel almost like I got off the bus for one town and found a totally different town in it's place.

By the way, loving Gutrot's fluorescent tentacles! Maybe Beastmen shields would be good on Flagellants?

As far as I'm concerned the WFB/AoS divide shouldn't exist in the plogs section anyway. A superbly painted model (like those in this plog) doesn't look any worse for being on a round base instead of square. Personally, AoS has provided me the opportunity to work on armies I wouldn't have done under the WFB banner. I haven't played the game in years but I still like to build my armies legally and the freedom of choice in AoS (coupled with the freedom of skirmish formation) has let me start a pure Rotbringers force with excessive conversions (plus at only 19 models I can spend much more time per model).

That's an interesting subject about whether the WHFB/AoS should apply logs or not. I was just trying to find a way to familiarise myself a bit better with the new game.
I won't disagree that there is now some unparalleled freedom in force themes and selection. The points system in the handbook was pretty welcome for me as I myself like having something to build by. Might be my aspergers, might just be that I like knowing where to go.

[Mandragola]

I guess it's going to be pretty obvious whether a plog is AoS or WFB. There's no getting away from that.

My perspective is that I like AoS and didn't really like WFB. But I'm sorry that the people who did like WFB have lost their game. I've benefited from something that's annoyed a hell of a lot of people, and that feels weird.

Even if GW wanted to revive the game system, there was obviously no need for them to blow up the world and erase all the fluff. They easily could have had the Sigmarines rock up in the old world on their round bases and hold back Archaon. It's bizarre to have got rid of all that rich fluff and replaced it with so little.

Anyhoo, back to this plog. I agree that beastman shields would be great. I've actually got a few kicking around. I doubt it's enough but maybe I'll be able to find some online. Glad you like Gutrot.

I've been making stuff today, and can now present the results. First, more work on the BSB. Gaps are filled, I've given him a nice spiky shoulder pad, and worked out the detail of his kilt and belt. Belt is stuck to his stomach with a couple of metal rings, which is unconventional, but these are slightly weird people. He needs a weapon of some kind, and of course a banner.







Here's a family photo of Festus and my two "Chaos Familiars". Festus actually went together pretty well for a finecast model. The nurglings are rom the Glottkin.



And something a bit different. I had a few spare 40k grots kicking around, and just for fun I'm converting these two to be goblins in an ork blood bowl team.



One has now had some GS applied to make him look more like a bloodbowl mini. Bit more to do. The spikes on his right hand will be sharpened and I'll add some on the left. His friend hasn't had any GS work done yet apart from filling.



Unsure what I'll do for the rest of the players, if anything. I like the models you get in the box but I hate having duplicates. I also need a troll amd two more blitzers and black orcs. It's entirely possible I won't do anything at all with these, and I suppose logically I ought to be starting a Nurgle team to go with my army.

[Astraeos]

Don't feel too bad about liking AoS, the people who love WHFB will still play WHFB. I play 5th edition from time to time myself!

The BSB is looking good, but those Goblin Bloodbowl players are great!

[Naitsabes]

I am a big fan of WHFB and actually like the End Times and the big bang....in the sense that if they had to move to a system like AoS for business reasons they at least gave the grand old dame a decent funeral. I also think that we can all get along here in the project log section. A well-painted or converted mini is just that, no matter the shape of the base.

Like the greener tentacles, you made the right choice. Looking forward to your take on Festus.