Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Plague Angels

One of the reasons I enjoy this hobby is because good project ideas can come from your left over bits. My newest kitbash project came about in this way. This project has a bit of a story behind it that starts with the release of the latest Warriors of Chaos book. At the time I was more than a little miff that when the book came out Games Workshop also raised the price of Daemon Princes and Chaos Spawn boxes. Given that the new book made those models more or less mandatory, I was irritated enough to look for other models to use as my Daemon Prince. The only thing I found on the shelf of my local gaming store that I would consider were the Kings of War Basilean Elohi Troop. I like the look of angelic characters (both good and evil), and I figure I could painted them up with a fallen angel kind of look. I knew they came on 40 mm base. While the daemon prince is on 50 mm base, a lot of my models are big for the base they come with and I figure the Basilean Elohi being on a larger base wouldn't make them look too out of place. I was wrong. Opening up the box I quickly realize they were much smaller than I thought they were going to be. They were a little small for a 40 mm base so there was no way I could make them look okay on a 50 mm base. At least not as an army centerpiece. That means at the time I had no use for the models so the Elohi got thrown into my miniature closet. The King of War's boxes make good traveling cases so I had the Basilean Elohi Troop box around for carrying various models. Now fast forward to today. Recently I pick up Games Workshop new Putrid Blightkings. It a nice kit with many options. Looking through my options while being near my Elohi carrying case, I realize I should enough left over bits from making the Blightkings to convert the Elohi into something resembling Nurgle like angels. They both are on 40 mm bases so I don't have my previous issue with the Elohi.

Once I make my Plague Angels the question will be what do I use them for. Probably the most common answer will be as extra Blightking models. But that is really just the beginning. In campaigns down the road I have the opportunity to write storylines and rules around them. Writing up new fluffy will no doubt lead to new interesting ideas that I could add to the angels. I've been in campaigns before where I could have made custom units and it would be nice to have something ready next time. But all this for now is in the future. I have a few other things to work on before I can get to the Plague Angels, among them is my custom Hell Cannon. Progress on the Angels and Hell Cannon will be up on a gallery page. For now here is a picture of the boxes to the Putrid Blightkings and the Basilean Elohi Troop.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Border Prince - Turn 12 Map

This was a depressing turn for Warriors of Chaos. Chaos lost all three battles with Chaos Black being pushed back a territory. Vanacyr's Blade and Sun of Corruption on the other hand were completely crushed and scattered back to the capital. Vanacyr is on her back foot now. Chaos huge empire is now beginning to slowly deteriorate.



B1. Bloody Hooves
B2. Bloody Sky
B3. Herd of Rusty Fang
B4. Graby Taz
H1. Amendial
H2. Elendir
H3. Elendrial
H4. Aeylan
H5. Tarwen
H6. Zarial
H7. Samari
H8. Fariel
V1. Unholy Undead
V2. The Night Riders
V3. Ethereal Enemy
V4. Ghastly Fingers
V5. Creeping Death
V6. Death Dealers
V7. Death's Head
V8. Vampire Toothpick
V9. Necro-Mongers
V10. Blood Drinkers
W1. Pandemonium
W2. Vanacyr's Blade
W3. Sun of Corruption
W4. Nature's Curse
W5. Chaos Black
W6. Blood Rage
W7. Rage of the Dragon
W8. Darker than Chaos

This turn the campaign is settling in on having two fronts. One in the south that pits Vampire Counts against Warriors of Chaos for the very survival of Vanacyr's presence in the Border Prince. The other is the Beastmen and High Elf alliance pushing deep into Dieter Geheimnisnacht's territory. We have a battle on each of these fronts. In the north the Beastmen Bloody Hooves at 3700 points attack the Vampire Counts Creeping Death at 3400 points. In the south Warriors of Chaos Blood Rage launch their own attack against Dieter's very own Unholy Undead. Blood Rage has 3000 points while Unholy Undead has 3300.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Border Prince - Turn 11 Map

Amazing enough at this point in the campaign that there were no battles during Turn 10. Turn 11 was a different story



B1. Bloody Hooves
B2. Bloody Sky
B3. Herd of Rusty Fang
B4. Graby Taz
H1. Amendial
H2. Elendir
H3. Elendrial
H4. Aeylan
H5. Tarwen
H6. Zarial
H7. Samari
V1. Unholy Undead
V2. The Night Riders
V3. Ethereal Enemy
V4. Ghastly Fingers
V5. Creeping Death
V6. Death Dealers
V7. Death's Head
V8. Vampire Toothpick
V9. Necro-Mongers
W1. Pandemonium
W2. Vanacyr's Blade
W3. Sun of Corruption
W4. Nature's Curse
W5. Chaos Black
W6. Blood Rage
W7. Rage of the Dragon
W8. Darker than Chaos

As you can see Turn 11 has 3 battles, all of which involves Warriors of Chaos. The banners and point totals of each is as follows:

Unholy Undead (3300) vs Sun of Corruption (3000)
Elendrial (2600) vs Chaos Black (2800)
Elendir (2800) vs Vanacyr's Blade (2800)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Update in Chaos (1-11-15)

We are now a few days into the new year and its pass time for me to reflect on 2014 and where I want to go next. While I am happy that I have made some progress with the site this last year, Chaos Magic is no where near the place I need it to be. The progress I did make gave me a taste of what I need to do and what I need to change about myself to make Chaos Magic my livelihood. Unfortunately I know those changes are not easy to make and I am running out of time to make them.

A bright point in the year for me was National Write a Novel Month. If you are unfamiliar with NaNo, the idea is to challenge yourself write 50,000 words during the month of November. Its a world wide event and being apart of a community trying to do the same helps motivates you. This was my 7th year participating and for the first time I achieve 50,000 words. 'Winning' as it so call have been a goal of mine for a long time and I was extremely happy that I finally reach that accomplishment. What I wrote was a mess but that is besides the point. It proves that I am capable of constantly writing nearly everyday for a month. It proves that I do have what it takes to make a living on this hobby. I just need to take that first step that takes my dream into reality. And then the second step, and then the third ...

Anyway, here are updates to the projects I am currently working on at Chaos Magic.

Battletech - Sadly all my Battletech plans are in limbo. I struggled with trying to come up with a format to cover the league here. Beside those issues which were due to the nature of the league, there was also another Battletech campaign that stole some of the league's thunder. Several players were in both and to be frank the campaign look like it was more interesting as it was squad on squad action oppose to a one on one gladiatorial fight. To top it off the commissioner got burned out from working on both games and need to take a break. If and when the league starts up again is not in my hands. If it does return my participation might be reduce. I do miss playing Battletech but I much rather play larger battles oppose to one on one fights. The two mechs I got for the league will be sideline in the meantime.

Border Prince - The Border Prince Campaign is still going strong. The last two turns have been extended due to the holidays and player sickness. The next meeting should be around the end of this month. I am behind on the turn maps and Chaos Lore. I should be back on track with the turn maps by the time the next meeting happens. As for the lore that might be a little longer. I want to setup a Border Prince page before I work on my backlog of lore. The page would allow me to have all the Border Prince related links in one easy to read location. My current backlog is Warriors of Chaos 3, 6 and 7. It will probably a grow a little before I can get to it. The plan now is to get the page up around mid February with the backlog to follow on a weekly schedule.

Warhammer - I have greatly expanded my Chaos army over the holidays. Between Creatures of the Chaos Waste box, Hellstriders of Slaanesh box and all my other incomplete models I have a lot of stuff to put together and paint. Once finish I will have a wide spread of options for my Warriors of Chaos army. After one last purchase (the new Putrid Blightkings), I think I start working on my second army for fantasy. My initial plans was to build an Undead and Goblin army. An all goblin army that will use the lore of undeath to summon undead. The rumors of 9th edition briefly gave me pause but I think I will still work on it. I like the concept of the army so I'm willing to take a risk on it. My long term plans requires a large variety of models so if my goblin army is unplayable in 9th then the models will still be of use to me. Other Warhammer plans outside of picking up terrain pieces are on hold until 9th edition comes out.

Flames of War - Until recently I had not done much with Flames of War because my friend disappeared from my gaming circle. Turns out Tracy was looking to move into a house so he could invite people over to play games ... like Flames of War. He has started making Flames of War video content on his youtube channel here. I am working on designing a Flames of War narrative campaign that the two of us can play. It is still in the early sketches but the idea will be to have the storyline posted here and battle reports posted on his channel.

There is still talks of us going to tournaments. For tournaments I have decide to settle on a few tank company list in Bridge at Remagen. Given that Tracy has none of the models that could be in those lists I need to buy everything in it myself. Currently I own very little stuff for Flames of War, which is why I can not play without Tracy's involvement. I will probably start picking Flames of War stuff up next month.

Others - There a few others things I am currently working on or plan to start working on soon. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to start finishing models. I have a lot of models that is mostly painted or partially painted but I have nothing that I would consider done. While I won't go back to have a routine painting log like I've done before, I will be posting pictures of my finish models onto a gallery page. This will mostly be Warriors of Chaos pictures though hopefully I can finish a few Flames of War or Battletech models as well. In addition to finish models I will be posting pictures of my kitbasing projects to the gallery page. I will be talking more about my kitbasing projects on the gallery page once it is up.

Also I want to do a few videos. Since this site deals so much with the miniature gaming hobby I figure I should probably make a video discussing in detail what the hobby is. Then I want to do a video series on Relic Knights. Relic Knights is a game I like the looks of but I have never played it. I figure this would be a good opportunity to record a show about one of my miniature hobbies from the beginning.

Lastly, I am still planning on doing a World of Chaos page that will host the background stories display in many of my campaigns. At the latest I foresee the page being up in mid February and its first entry to be posted shortly there after.