Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

-

I'm in the same boat as you. AoS is really firing at my imagination with the whole sub-factions, cheap Start Collecting! boxes and small scale. I allow myself to dream of new warbands, but don't start them, because I have so much unfinished stuff to build (not to mention paint!).

Okay, here are my two ideas:

First: Warriors of the North
Similiar to your mounted Marauders, but with only Chaos Warriors and one monster. No mutations, no marks of chaos. Probably not chaos-aligned at all, but I'm not sure about that till I actually start them

The army list consists of Chaos Lord on foot with head swap, Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount, two Sorcerer (more buffs! - also with head swaps and conversion) and a Chaos Lord on Manticore to lead them in larger battles.
Main host consists of a 10 man Chosen unit, flanked by two 12-man units Warriors of Chaos. For flanking I will have two units Chaos Knights and two separate Chariots.
This will incorporate two Start Collecting! boxes Slaves to Darkness and only adds the 3 Lords and the Chosen. Whole army is under 250€ when purchased online and clocks in at nealy 2000 pts on PPC Comp.

Pics:



Second: Skeleton Horde
Sparked by the title of the the Start Collecting! box and my love for skeletons. This will be truly a horde.
Starting with two Skeleton Horde Start Collecting! boxes, which will give me Arkhan as the leader, a second Mortarch to sell, 2x 5 Black Knights and 20 Skeletons. Going from there, I will add the awesome plastic Wight King model (which I already own, because cool model!), Wight King with Infernal Standard (FW phased him out so I bought him, before the Ebay price goes up) which gives 6+ FNP, and the fantastic Krell.
Add another 30 Skeletons for a total of 50, likely split into two units of 25 (+1 Attack!). Two units of Grave Guard for my elite and each Morghast once for fast heavy hitters.
That's a Skeleton Horde, GW!

Pics:





Edit: Totally forgot to comment on your idea. I like it a lot! A barbarian horde has a cool vibe. You could add in a War Hydra (and replace the Dark Elve handlers with Marauders) for a cool centerpiece.

I've always wanted to do a forest goblin spider army but sadly the mounts of the spider riders have so poor dynamic I don't know what to do with them...

From the Thurlgr swamps in Ulgu, the Realm of Shadows.

Beasts and monsters that have survived in an endless struggle. Hidden in the shadows, the most powerful creatures eventually rise together and use open gates to explore lands afar.

Nothing can live for long in the Realm of Shadows. Moving to other realms is each species only chance to continue.

This force would be comprised of the strange and wonderful. Minimal in number to represent a smaller invading group appearing from the shadows of left open/forgotten Realm Gates.

Fimirs led by a Fimir Queen (if FW ever do the model):


A Troll Hag who brings the Fimir gifts/prizes in return for arcane secrets:


A Merwyrm:


Maybe then a unit of Beastmen for a little more flavour.

I am thinking of a pure Clans Eshin force - a bunch of sneaky rats, what is not to like? Never really viable under Fantasy Battle, but would make for an awesome AoS force!

Not liking the current Night Runners, so just going to go with Gutter Runners and Assassins for now...

Some amazing ideas so far.

Keep 'em coming.

I'll go again!

Wanderers

After looking through the new warscrolls from Grand Alliance: Order, I was left with a little dilemma with a few of my units/models having not been carried forward. Now I can always use the old warscrolls if needs be, but it is nice to try and map stuff to the current books if possible in my opinion - especially with the way keyword synergies work in AoS.

Two models in particular where Alarielle and her Handmaiden - I had painted both for my Desperados army but their warscrolls had been left behind with the new Grand Alliance Order book. What was the solution?

I flicked through the warscrolls to find alternatives and stumbled onto an idea that sparked me wanting to collect a whole new army. The Sisters of Avelorn had become "wood elves" (wanderers, technically) so why couldn't Alarielle and her Handmaiden too?

The tipping point was reading the warscroll for the "Waystrider" and his amazing rule of being able to take a single arrow shot at the enemy general before the game began. I had an image of my Handmaiden firing a lone arrow up into the air before plummeting into enemy lines to single to start of battle - and that was it, army planning time!

First I looked through my existing bits boxes and models:

My Alarielle and Handmaiden - could be used as a Spellweaver and Waystrider


I have 3 of GW's old metal Waywatchers and could use one (or all!) to be the new Waywatcher hero.


Lastly, the manager of my local GW gave me the High Elf Mage for Island of Blood for free (which was awesome). He makes the perfect addition to the army to provide some extra magical support as the Archmage from the Eldritch Council.


Onto some new stuff.

I want to have a solid core of infantry and the Eternal Guard are beautiful models. 20 of them!


Also the Sisters of the Thorn


I would go for a different paint scheme on the deers - perhaps basing it on the Japanese Sika deer:



That brings me to 29 models, presuming 1 Waywatcher. A big monster is missing from the list. Rather than a treeman, a Dragonlord of the Order Draconis sounds better!


And if I was to expand beyond that? Well maybe the Sisters of the Watch that inspired all this! (But I would equip them with the Shadow Warrior bows instead):

I'd like to paint up a force along the lines of:
A dark elf lord on foot
Five black guard
Ten spearmen
Five crossbowmen
Five shades
And five cold one knights

The idea would be nice and simple, it is a noble lord, someone important enough to warrant elite bodyguards and the loyalty of several knights, but who is not high enough up the food chain to command real power. He craves that kind of power though, the power to march armies tens of thousands strong on his enemies until he and he alone is ruling.. uh, the realm of shadow I guess?

How does he get this power? He marries into it of course, taking a vampire for his bride, trading his life for a quite significant army he can rule in death. From his newfound position of power he can start to strike out and claim the cities and fortresses of his enemies, crushing some of them under heel, and taking others under his protection in return for their loyalty.

It merges my two favourite armies together well, allowing for a small core of elite elves to be supported by masses of undead.

I'd love go for a force of the old school 80's trolls, led by something like a goblin Shaman and backed up by a small flock of doom divers.

Wow Bottle, I really like the Handsmaiden you have. Is it a GW model or from somewhere else? Maybe even converted?

As for my plans, I want to do a Thrall Warhost with some Order Draconis folks with them. I would paint them all maroon, since I think it would suit them both.

 WarbossDakka wrote:
Wow Bottle, I really like the Handsmaiden you have. Is it a GW model or from somewhere else? Maybe even converted?

As for my plans, I want to do a Thrall Warhost with some Order Draconis folks with them. I would paint them all maroon, since I think it would suit them both.

Hey man, thanks! It's just the High Elf handmaiden from GW. Sadly it's gone OOP as of about 2 weeks. (I.e. It was one of the Order purges that came with the new Grand Alliance book). I agree, it's a great model! I am happy to have stumbled onto the Waystrider warscroll because they are equipped identically and the Waystrider has some really cool, thematic rules. Anyway here is the amazing 'Eavy Metal paint job of the handmaiden:

Another idea:

Fellowship of the Ring
Pure hero list, tried to find fitting warscrolls for each. Don't have fitting models, otherwise I would give it a try in our next game. If anyone feels up for it, let me know how it turned out!

Gandalf - Empire Battlemage (Grey): Pretty weak caster, but I found no better warscroll with an unmounted sorcerer.
Aragorn - Wanderer Waystrider: Bow and blade. Perfect imo.
Boromir - Freeguild General with shield
Legolas - Wanderer Waywatcher: lots and lots of arrows. Perfect.
Gimli - Fyreslayers Grimwrath Berzerker
Hobbits - Skaven Warlords with Warpforged Blade: pretty brutal fighters for hobbits, but meh. "Strike and skurry away" is fitting, though

The thing I've been battling is my urge to create armies that span Grand Alliances but my OCD-ish problem with doing that.

I know nothing says you can't, but they put them all in the same book, and that makes somewhere in my brain think it's wrong.

Anyway, if I can get over that, there are a couple things I want to do:

- Ogre/Beastmen tribe. Very low-tech, brutish, religious tribe ruled by a great bray shaman.
- Forest defenders army. Forest Goblins, Sylvaneth, Beastmen. Just a big group of creatures that live in the forest and will defend their home.

AoS needs Halfling warscrolls.

I think the Gorebeast as spawn/troll is an interesting idea. Although I also like the idea of having Gorebeast and horses on their own base, and switching in whichever option I desire for the chariot.

To eBay! I'll see if there's an equivalent model for my soon-to-exist Dark Elves. If not, I'll improvise.

Thanks anyway Bottle.

Great topic Bottle!

I have a handful in progress right now, mostly just acquiring the miniatures and the time to get the together.

There is:

The Nulvanians: Nulvania, somewhere in the realm of beasts, is a human principality who traces their ancestry to a group of ancient refugees, who brought with the sacred documents that revealed the secrets of ironworking and steam power. While they have never gotten along with the Gor of the forests, their oldest enemy is a different sort of beastman, stooped creatures with the faces of rats, who legend tells were responsible for the destruction of Nul, the first city, where the gods shared their knowledge and men first learned the magic of smithing. Because the hated rat men are known to carry diseases, the Nulvanians make extensive use of powder weapons, and devices to keep the foe at bay.

On the tabletop, they'll consist mostly of handgunners and steam tanks.

The Gor of the forest: A little less developed on this one, but I got a battalion box set of Beastmen before it went OOP. While they can serve alongside my Bloodbound, in my head I'm imagining they were changed by the long millennia before Chaos invaded the realms. Without the gods of chaos, their worship turned to the untouched forests within which they dwelled, making them something more like a debased wood elf community. (Or, a Beastman army with a shower) Natural foes of the Nulvanians, who's industrialization of the countryside is sacrilegious to the Gors and their kins.

Spider tribes: I'm not the first to have this idea, but since I got those spider riders in Skull Pass, I've dreamed of a whole army of forest goblins. Sadly, no such thing exists, just two units, and I couldn't make an 8th ed army out of just that. (Well, I could have, but I would have needed hundreds of spiders) With armies getting precipitously smaller, I've acquired an Arachnarok and thirty spider riders to make the base of this army. The next book makes it look like this will be an "official" army, so here's my attempt to add some imagination: spider hordes. Using little spider bits from the Arachnarok, I plan to put them on 40mm bases, and use them as Snotling stands.

I've been thinking of a chaos based army but 'not aligned with chaos' as well. I was thinking white armor with black accents. I was going to use some armored khorne infantry, the varanguard (but convert the mutant horses to horses), and the Lord (archaon) on his dragon, but with one head. I've also thrown around the idea of using the stormcast dragon with a non,stormcast knight rider.

My second army idea is an army of knights, mobile, shiney, riding through the realms like realm riders... bretonian knights of the realm, questing knights, some chaos warriors for foit knights, and the mounted Sigmund character from the empire to lead them.

There are just sooo many options. I have always chosen based on aesthetics, not cherry picked units for power. Aos really has a good system in this manner.

Fyreslayers allied with Sylvaneth hailing from the realm of fire. Instead of the traditional Sylvaneth colors paint them like charred and blackened wood. Only bring/convert Fyreslayer units without axes.

@NinthMusketeer, Nice! That's an awesome idea!

At first I was just a Bretonnian collector that did a bit of Empire on the side. Then AoS arrived and now I've begun expanding with wood elves and Stormcasts to go with my Bretonnians and continue with a mythical knights theme.

However, upon seeing the Order Draconis, I might be expanding towards high elves. A part of me also wants to expand on the Free Guild as well because I love regular humans fighting it out with the horrors of chaos. (Watching Berserk didn't help)

So many options so little hobby time!

Some cool ideas here. Ive been wanting to make a smaller heavily themed aos force for a while now. Just havent come up with any idea Ive liked...


At this rate bottle will probably come up with one for me before I do...

I started mine, based on the best GW character of all time. I will be doing a full army based on the following:

During the capture of Slaanesh, exhausted, it made one final attempt to secure it's future by reincarnating it's greatest champion...

Sigvald The Magnificent is reborn in the Mortal Realms, several years aged, and bearing the scars from the time of his death. He quickly recruits followers, raises an army, and begins his search for Slaanesh so that the god may restore his former beauty and power.
Sigvald vows to destroy the pretenders who are attempting to replace the god of excess as one of the great 4 chaos gods.

This model was perfect for the conversion because he has a scar on his face which mirrors the damage suffered at the hands of krell in the end times, and once I paint his hair and beard blonde it will work.



Next up is to get a bunch of warriors. I was thinking of making a unit of chosen body guard holding mirrors for Sigvald, but since he is "ugly" now, I dont know if it will work. In his novel he didnt want people looking at him when he was injured

@xevv, originality is overrated anyway.

@SonOfSigvald, "based on the best GW character of all time"

Oh, I didn't know that Louencour worshipped Slaneesh on the side. (Unless some of those theories were actually true about the "real" Lady...)

Awesome idea for his continuation, though. For your vanity guard (Narcissistants?) maybe use mirrors with large rents in them to show he's upset with his marred beauty until at such a time that his master can restore him? That or use portraits perhaps.

Wow thats's a fantastic conversion! Do you mind if I do something similar to my Exalted Deathbringer? It's truly brilliant!

Baron Klatz: Louencour is not nearly as handsome as Sigvald, thus loses by default.

Haechi: Yeah go nuts, I cant tell you what to do

Finally got the time to sit through and read this thread. Wow guys, such a wealth of cool ideas and concepts!

ShaneTB wrote:

Spoiler:

From the Thurlgr swamps in Ulgu, the Realm of Shadows.

Beasts and monsters that have survived in an endless struggle. Hidden in the shadows, the most powerful creatures eventually rise together and use open gates to explore lands afar.

Nothing can live for long in the Realm of Shadows. Moving to other realms is each species only chance to continue.

This force would be comprised of the strange and wonderful. Minimal in number to represent a smaller invading group appearing from the shadows of left open/forgotten Realm Gates.

Fimirs led by a Fimir Queen (if FW ever do the model):
[spoiler]

A Troll Hag who brings the Fimir gifts/prizes in return for arcane secrets:

Spoiler:

A Merwyrm:

Spoiler:

Maybe then a unit of Beastmen for a little more flavour.[/spoiler]

I love this - it's the little stories that can really bring a project to life and the snippet of fluff about the hag brining the firmir gifts to learn arcane secrets has really sparked my imagination.

jonolikespie wrote:

Spoiler:

I'd like to paint up a force along the lines of:
A dark elf lord on foot
Five black guard
Ten spearmen
Five crossbowmen
Five shades
And five cold one knights

The idea would be nice and simple, it is a noble lord, someone important enough to warrant elite bodyguards and the loyalty of several knights, but who is not high enough up the food chain to command real power. He craves that kind of power though, the power to march armies tens of thousands strong on his enemies until he and he alone is ruling.. uh, the realm of shadow I guess?

How does he get this power? He marries into it of course, taking a vampire for his bride, trading his life for a quite significant army he can rule in death. From his newfound position of power he can start to strike out and claim the cities and fortresses of his enemies, crushing some of them under heel, and taking others under his protection in return for their loyalty.

It merges my two favourite armies together well, allowing for a small core of elite elves to be supported by masses of undead.

Do iiiiiiit, dooooo itttttttt

Did you see the Visions army made up of (mostly) Dark Elves and Undead? Would be a great source of inspiration for you!

SonOfSigvald wrote:

Spoiler:

I started mine, based on the best GW character of all time. I will be doing a full army based on the following:

During the capture of Slaanesh, exhausted, it made one final attempt to secure it's future by reincarnating it's greatest champion...

Sigvald The Magnificent is reborn in the Mortal Realms, several years aged, and bearing the scars from the time of his death. He quickly recruits followers, raises an army, and begins his search for Slaanesh so that the god may restore his former beauty and power.
Sigvald vows to destroy the pretenders who are attempting to replace the god of excess as one of the great 4 chaos gods.

This model was perfect for the conversion because he has a scar on his face which mirrors the damage suffered at the hands of krell in the end times, and once I paint his hair and beard blonde it will work.



Next up is to get a bunch of warriors. I was thinking of making a unit of chosen body guard holding mirrors for Sigvald, but since he is "ugly" now, I dont know if it will work. In his novel he didnt want people looking at him when he was injured

Awesome to see this coming to life already! Make sure to keep us updated in the real project log!

And perhaps instead of mirrors the body guards could all have banners depicting some of his greatest deeds or past glories?

Nighthaunt army. Banshee, wraith and spirit hosts. Theme is they are vengeful spirits out to take revenge on chaos for the destruction of their land in the realm of life.

Working on a combined Chaos force that brings together Beastmen, Clan Pestilens Skaven and Nurgle Daemons.

Currently sits at;
20 Clan rats + Plague mortar
10 Plaguebearers + Herald of Nurgle

Looking to add;
Gors, possibly Bestigors instead/aswell
Plague Drones
Some form of leader/centre piece model... thinking either a Vermin Lord Corruptor or a Maggoth Lord. Undecided on that one but happy for other suggestions.

Ive just started on a Ordo Draconic (I think thats how its spelled) To back up my Aelf force (Mostly Wanderers). Some nice ideas here.



Ember

I was thinking of doing a warband of elite Chaos mercenaries. A lot of warriors, Chaos Dwarves and their warmachines and Knights/Varanguard. Basically no Daemons or rabble in the army. Only professional soldiers. Well... as professional as Chaos can be, anyway.

I might do some Stormcast Eternals with Tyranid Gargoyle wings on them. These will be the Eternals who saw the light and see Sigmar for the coward and false God he really is. What better way to "hurt" him by possessing the thing he supposedly hates the most.

Working on a grand alliance death force led by a vampire lord on dragon. I am going with the idea that he was a prince in the realm of ghur until chaos trashed it and killed his dad. Mannfred looking out for promising get and my vampire lord looking for vengeance everything fell into place. He turned his wife into a vampire and bought his sister back from the dead as a banshee and her handmaidens hence the spirit hosts. His family history had them riding dragons but they all died out because of the constant warring hence his mount is undead. Plus he had the last throngs of his people join as ghouls since during his absence they turned to cannibalism and were in control by one of Ushoran's get. After killing the ursper ghoul king he drafted the ghouls into his army as the new king and went to retake his land's for Mannfred and Nagash and to spread the gift of death to everyone.

I am rolling with

1x Vampire lord on Dragon
1x Vampire Lord
1x Banshee

20x Skeletons
20x Graveguard

3x Spirit hosts

3x Vargheist

20x Crypt Ghouls

3X Crypt Horrors.


I got a lot of work to do.