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Okay so I've been wanting to start a WoC army for some time, mainly due to a fluff idea I've been developing.

I love the Warriors and Marauder Horsemen models, but am waiting to see if the Marauders and Chariot get model updates (as well as the mounted sorcerer). Here's the thing: the army is a warband from a Norse horse-warrior tribe, meaning they all have horses and warhounds (think Thulsa Doom and his riders from Conan the Barbarian and the Viking raiders from Pathfinder).

I have the hounds and the warriors sorted model wise, but, I need some model advice for a good Chieftain and Shaman. I know there's plenty of models for Chaos Lords & Heroes, and for sorcerers, but I'm struggling to find ones that would fit the theme of the army. For example, there's a 'Eavy Metal converted Amber Wizard from the Empire Battle Wizard set, and they've just released a very cool Amber Battle Wizard model, these look more like what I imagine my shaman would look like... but they're not mounted. Same with a marauder chieftain, you get an unmounted one in the troop set, and all the mounted Lords & Heroes look too powerful and Chaos-ey to be humble warband chieftains.

However, I'm aware you get a plastic Amber Wizard as a rider choice in the new Karl Franz/Deathclaw kit... which would solve the unmounted problem, but I don't think buying a huge £33 kit just for one rider component is the best way to go about this. Also, the model for the mounted chaos sorcerer is okay, but it's metal and the horse wouldn't look right next to the newer sculpts, so I don't know who easy it would be to simply put the rider onto a plastic marauder horse - does anyone know if it comes in separate pieces?

I've even looked at the Wood Elves and Beastmen models, and the Mordheim range, there's some very nice models with potential, but, again, being metal and unmounted means heavy conversion, and my conversion skills are as green as, well, green stuff!

Any help would be great!

I'd say kitbash between the mounted marauder pieces and on-foot marauders. You have plenty of pieces between the two kits to really *bling* out a couple of marauders to look like chieftans. Maybe a few knight shoulder pads, or some Flagellant bitz from Empire. The Flagellant kit comes with TONS of leftovers, so you can probably buy the kit, take the pieces you need, and offer the rest on the swap shop and make a fair amount of your cost back-or, the slightly cheaper route would be to see what pieces are available and ask on the swap shop for them. I might even be able to help you out, as I just got a full box of Flagellants and haven't started chopping yet.

Yay, a reply! lol

Yeah, thanks for reminding me about the Flagellant kit, I'd forgotten about that but now remember how the 'Eavy Metal team pretty much all used it to help them with their Battle Wizard contest in WD a while back.

Good advice about swap shop, too, I'll give that a look. I might be able to find some bits that'll help me with a shaman, as well.

Cheers!

I converted up a Marauder Horseman to look like an Exalted Standard Bearer using the huge axe from the Chaos Knights and a few green stuff mutations. I have to agree that the Marauder Horsemen are really great models but make sure you read around before you get all your models. There are only a few ways to make a list based around these guys even a little competitive.

Also, remember that your chaos characters all wear Chaos Armor rules-wise so they automatically don't really work very well as "mounted chieftains". Perhaps a headswap so that the chaos lord at least has some BA barbarian hair and a face tattoo could be a good compromise. Also, getting a Manticore might not be a bad idea for your list and the mounted sorcerer model from that is nice.

I was actually struggling with this issue myself because I wanted a Marauder Chieftain on a Ogre Thunder tusk and gave up. If you find a good model/conversion let me know, eh?

powerclaw wrote:I converted up a Marauder Horseman to look like an Exalted Standard Bearer using the huge axe from the Chaos Knights and a few green stuff mutations. I have to agree that the Marauder Horsemen are really great models but make sure you read around before you get all your models. There are only a few ways to make a list based around these guys even a little competitive.

Yeah I'm not really concerned with competitive lists... like, at all. The character and look of the army is always more important to me.

Also, remember that your chaos characters all wear Chaos Armor rules-wise so they automatically don't really work very well as "mounted chieftains". Perhaps a headswap so that the chaos lord at least has some BA barbarian hair and a face tattoo could be a good compromise. Also, getting a Manticore might not be a bad idea for your list and the mounted sorcerer model from that is nice.

Yeah, I was thinking of maybe just giving him like a magic item or special rule that basically allows him to have CA without it being on the model (with relevant additional points cost, of course). Failing that, I managed to find a while back a really, really cool looking conversion job where someone used Archaon's torso - I know, I know, it's like the most un-marauder thing you'd initially thing of, right? - Actually I just typed "chaos marauder chieftain conversion" into google images and it came up the first one, take a look! But, again, it's on foot... but I guess I could follow their example and just use the legs from a mounted model, or something.

Yeah, as cool as the Manticore kit is, that rider definitely shouts "I'm a BAMF Chaos Sorcerer Lord! Mwahahahah!", which costs £31. I'd be better off with the £33 Deathclaw kit and use the Amber Wizard mount, which is much more befitting a tribal shaman, methinks.

I was actually struggling with this issue myself because I wanted a Marauder Chieftain on a Ogre Thunder tusk and gave up. If you find a good model/conversion let me know, eh?

lol yeah will do, we'll keep an eye out and help each other! But yeah, take a look at that Archaon-Marauder job.

If you want it on top of a Monster, you can build a platform for him to stand on. Like a something big and menacing to perch ontop of. That way you can also use the model as a Chieftain on foot, too.

I created a Marauder champ using the plastic Marauder champion model with a Chaos Warrior helmet and Chaos Knight shoulder pads. It came out looking quite like I would imagine a chieftain to look. Like other people have suggested, I think you can use a regular Marauder or Horseman as the base, then add in extra bits from Warriors/Knights or even just extra Marauder bits.

I recently finished reading Dan Abnett's Thunder and Steel and the Chaos forces in the novels are described as almost a mix of Marauders and Warriors. Never as fully armoured as pure Chaos Warriors, but much more heavily equipped than regular a Marauder. I think it would make a great theme to an army, good luck to you.

flamingwalnut wrote:If you want it on top of a Monster, you can build a platform for him to stand on. Like a something big and menacing to perch ontop of. That way you can also use the model as a Chieftain on foot, too.

That is a good idea if you want a monsterous mount, unfortunately I'm only interested in a horse, though. I could always just build an on-foot model stood in front of/next to a horse on a scenic base (an idea I had about the group's scout and/or wolf-tamer ).

Dunwich wrote:I created a Marauder champ using the plastic Marauder champion model with a Chaos Warrior helmet and Chaos Knight shoulder pads. It came out looking quite like I would imagine a chieftain to look. Like other people have suggested, I think you can use a regular Marauder or Horseman as the base, then add in extra bits from Warriors/Knights or even just extra Marauder bits.

Yeah, I think if I have a mess around with the Marauder, Marauder Horseman, Chaos Warrior and perhaps the Empire Flagellant (and maybe even Chaos Knights) sprues, I'll have plenty of options in order to get a desirable-looking Chieftain.

I recently finished reading Dan Abnett's Thunder and Steel and the Chaos forces in the novels are described as almost a mix of Marauders and Warriors. Never as fully armoured as pure Chaos Warriors, but much more heavily equipped than regular a Marauder. I think it would make a great theme to an army, good luck to you.

Yeah, I like Abnett's stuff, too. While I haven't read Thunder and Steel, his Riders of the Dead book was certainly an influence on me wanting a mounted warband (although his are Kurgan). Thanks.

***Update***

Okay, so who's read the December '11 White Dwarf (issue 384)? Because, wow, it's like my imagination has been invaded and spread onto the pages! There's an article in there by John Blanche showcasing some Marauders by Julian Bayliss... and my god, these models are exactly like what I was thinking, down to colour scheme, poses, conversion - they're amazing! I'm having trouble finding more pictures online and unfortunately there's little info on the components used for conversion (only that he likes to use the Chaos Knight sprues for anything but building the Knights ). There's even a female marauder converted from a daemonette! There's a really cool looking head with a massive horned helm (on what I take to be his chieftain model near the front) that I can't place, and while the torsos look like standard plastic marauders, I can't place the legs he's used, either!

If anyone else has WD384, please take a look at these models and help me find out what the components are (or at least just to see how good they are)! What's more, the conceptual art on the very first editorial page would make the perfect shaman, too! Agghhh!

Okay, I think I might have had a minor breakthrough with identifying a model used by Bayliss in that WD article, I think he's used the Dark Emissary model for his shaman (?), swapping the horned head for a bald one. I'm still struggling to place the others, though. Especially the chieftain head and the legs for all the warriors (custom made, perhaps?).

This got me thinking: what magic lore would most suit Norse Marauders, fluff-wise? Do WoC get to choose any lores outside the four God-specific ones? Doesn't seem right for Chaos Undivided . . . perhaps lore of beasts/lore of the heavens would be more fitting? I was thinking that Dark Magic would also be viable, seeing as it's the "purest" form of the Winds that flow from the Realm of Chaos at the north pole, I know that this is Dark Elf-specific, but it just seems to me that it would fall more naturally to the "true" servants of Chaos (and that the DE would instead have a twisted, perverse form of High Magic, perhaps with some blood-magic and a sprinkle of Slaanesh mixed in).

A marauder heavy army could also be -very- effective. Please post pictures as you progress with the army!