Warhammer World: Tzeentchian Cabinet

Deep in Warhammer World, I snapped this image of a set of Tzeentch daemons that caught my eye. I have a series of these kinds of snaps from some of the cabinets. Taking these images is tough due to the high reflectivity and the lights that are shining in multiple directions.

The thing that caught my eye about this set up is not particularly the miniature themselves - although they are interesting given the square base, of course, these days, but rather the paint scheme itself. The blue colour that has been used here is a much darker and sombre tone than I am used to seeing (or even painting myself -- I usually go for something a bit more in the ultramarine blue range for these miniatures). I think it has worked well as the flames on the flamers themselves are muted too. Although there are yellows and oranges in there, the reds are not as hot as I've seen some painted and I was taken as well by the little flames flickering at the bases. The black arms as well help the flames stand out more and that is something that I think I will be personally taking away from the colour scheme for critters like this.

The one on the left hand side stands out even further as his (her?) (its?) flames are in a totally different palette to the others. The head of the flamer is a Genestealer purple colour. This contrasts with the almost ghostly, ethereal green colour that is spewing out of the creature's mouth (orifices?) at the upper end, with a trail to white at the tips. I like this one as it appeals to the magical nature of these creatures. 

Meanwhile the scribes at the back are resplendent for their own authentic colour scheme that is in total keeping with expectations and the miniatures around them. Again, I might have opted for a tone lighter myself, but I really love what I saw in the cabinet here. 

My only genuine criticism is that the bases are not much. Maybe in this day and age one expects a little more on the bases, or a little more attention being paid to them. Its one of those things that has increased in the hobby over the years I guess. Apart from that, I really like this cabinet a lot. More daemons from it at a later date!

Chaos Daemons Review: Pink Horrors of Tzeentch

The pink horrors have changed quite a bit since the last edition.  Their saves are weaker (5+, but re-roll 1's) and their shooting is no longer assault 3 -- rather, they are a brotherhood of sorcerers with access to the change discipline.  They are, however, quite cheap.  And that is perhaps their strongest appeal.  But that has to be weighed up against the fact plaguebearers cost the same (and are hardier), as do daemonettes (and are better in close combat).  Even if the primaris Tzeentch power is okay, this is truly not a strong shooting unit any longer.

The best use I can think for them is as a screen for a herald.  Indeed, a herald of Tzeentch is about the only reason that I'm going to field my horrors any longer.  The instrument is fine, and the icon is welcome.  The retaliation wounds from the blue horrors arising is okay (but a bit meh).  Take a lesser reward hoping that you get a shooting (2 in 6 chance) attack if you like.  But don't worry about them otherwise I think.

Here's a few builds:

18 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch, with an iridescent horror that has 1 lesser reward, instrument of chaos, icon of chaos upgraded to blasted standard,  (207 points)
Fluffy (because its a multiple of 9!) and fully upgraded.  They get 3 warp charges per turn and are otherwise completely expendable.  That's probably why you're not going to take them!

10 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (90 points)
Seriously: they're a cheap screen.  Use them as such.

Chaos Daemons Review: Herald of Tzeentch

The herald of Tzeentch is highly configurable, much like all of the heralds.  But the thing that really appeals to me is the ability to configure them as a high level psyker for a low points level.  Importantly, the not only get access to Tzeentch's own Change discipline, but they also get access to Divination.  Much has already been made of how good divination can be, so I won't repeat that here.  But this is the prime reason that I can see to take and configure the herald for.

In terms of the available rewards, the staff of Tzeentch is a decent anti-character weapon, but why do we want horrors of Tzeentch in melee? The mutating warpblade is fun: I've always been fond of creating chaos spawn out of enemy characters.  But again, this version of the spawn maker needs to slay the characters in question.  Again: horror's aren't true close combat exponents.  But the appeal is there for me personally!  Out of the exalted rewards, the portalglyph seems appropriate.  Since the horrors and the herald are avoiding close combat for the main part, they seem like a reasonable choice to set up the portalglyph and watch the ensuing madness. The Grimoire of True Names has a certain appeal as well, but I'd soon that be taken by a tougher HQ choice to be honest.

Of the loci, the locus of transmogrification is clearly there to be used in conjunction with large numbers of horrors.  This could actually be a useful road-bump ultimately, but little more.  The greater locus of change will result in an improved S value more than half of the time - its just a pity that it doesn't stack with the lesser locus.  The exalted locus of conjuration gives +1S to psychic powers.  This is actually worth while to have (and not random!), if it weren't for the points cost.  You'd certainly want to run such a herald with horrors for maximum benefit, but I can see that a solo herald on a disc or chariot would also be cool.

Naturally, both the disc of Tzeentch and burning chariot option make the manoeuvrability of the herald much greater.  I still like the chariot option and it can be a good option.

Here's some sample builds.

Herald of Tzeentch, Level 3 psyker, burning chariot of Tzeentch, exalted locus of conjuration (170 points)
Drop the locus if the points cost is too high, but otherwise, this is quite a functional herald: able to zoom around the battle field taking pot shots at any and everything.

Herald of Tzeentch, Level 3 psyker (95 points)
Run with a batch of horrors.  A happy and cheap configuration that is worth it.

Herald of Tzeentch, Level 3 psyker, Portalglyph (125 points)
Set up the portal, and then go forth and out-psyk the opposition.

Herald of Tzeentch, lesser locus of transmogrification (55 points)
The road bump.  Implant within a huge horror squad and tie up a suitable enemy unit for a couple of turns until help arrives.

Chaos Daemons Review: The Blue Scribes

They're not psykers!  Yes -- they don't need to pass any psychic test.  AND they still manifest powers.  That said, the power manifested is a randomly determined one from a psychic discipline of the player's choice.  This is the only unit in the game that retains this kind of ability from the previous codex. But the drawback is huge: you never know what you're going to get for this power!

Their other principle power is interesting.  For every enemy psychic power that goes off, the scribes get a counter.  At the start of the turn roll a d6 for each counter.  On a 6, a friendly nearby unit gains a warp charge point.

Now the latter ability mechanic is actually awesome ... if only the roll weren't a 6.  A 3+ (or thereabouts) would have been much better.  And might have meant that the Blue Scribes were worth taking.  To be clear: I don't think they are.  They haven't even got a locus ability.  Even in Apocalypse, the Blue Scribes are not going to be seen.  Take a Herald of Tzeentch instead.  On a personal note, I actually sad about what has happened to the Blue Scribes.  The previous codex was better, it only needed tweaks (psychic tests, change of points value) to bring it in to line.  This incarnation of the Blue Scribes is just not worthwhile.  Sorry!

Chaos Daemons Review: The Changeling

Alas, gone are the days of the Glamour of Tzeentch and controlling the opposition's firing solution.  In its place, we have a new HQ (instead of unit upgrade) that is able to and and all of its prime stats (WS, S, T, I, A) to that of an enemy it is in base contact with.

In addition, he comes with a lesser locus of transmogrification which means (on average) more blue horror tokens for squads of horrors when they perish in close combat.  Its not fantastic, but clearly suggests that he should be placed inside a pink horror unit to make the most of him.  And clearly, a pink  horror unit (a large pink horror unit at that) is probably a good way to "deliver" him in to base to base contact with an enemy.

He (she, it?) is also a level 1 psyker, selecting powers from Tzeentch's own change discipline.  This isn't much, but can provide a powerful shooting attack when required.  The major drawback of The Changeling (in common with most entries in the daemons codex) is the relatively poor saving throw.  Even with the mark of Tzeentch and being able to morph in to the stats of another creature, the best we can hope for is going to be a stalemate.  I can almost guarantee that anyone he is put up against is going to have a better saving throw.  Hence the Changeling has become a road bump.  An interesting one, to be sure.  But little more.  Take him as part of a mob of pink horrors and cause a little havoc engaging enemy characters and their "command squads".  But make sure there's some backup coming.

Finecast Changeling - Painted

Despite all the dramas, the finecast changeling has painted up nicely in the end.

The undercoat for the miniature was done with dheneb stone.  This was followed by multiple washes of various mud browns to darken the tone in the recesses and raised with bleached bone highlights around the edges of the billowing robe.  I attended to the arms next with a basecoat of ultramarine blue.  They were inked (old-school ink) in blue, then highlighted with a combination of ultramarine blue and electric blue. 

With those two main areas painted, I moved on to the finer details, including the flames (basecoated white, twice; followed by successive layers of yellow, orange, red and dark red in sequence), the staff (basecoated in bleached bone, several washes of devlan mud, highlighted in a mix of skull white plus bleached bone, followed by some triple-zero paint brush work to squiggle some letters on to the paper), and other ornaments (golden Tzeentch symbol, armbands, the rod of the staff).

Overall, I'm happy how this has turned out.  But I will avoid purchasing finecast if I can help it, despite GW staff being very helpful in their exhange policy.

Finecast Herald of Tzeentch Sprues

Despite some misgivings about citadel finecast, I finally bought the herald of Tzeentch on a disk.  I intend to construct a second chariot of Tzeentch to complement my earlier scratch built one.  I got home and opened up the package.  The sprues (minus the bases) are shown in the image below.

Are my misgivings warrented?  Well, for starters, I felt I didn't need a huge image for people to see one defect: look at the icon of Tzeentch (staff in the lower left sprue).  There's a huge air bubble on the semi-circle that surrounds the Tzeentch symbol (it should just be a notch to fit on another bit).  Other problems (that may not be so visible from the image) include a bubble on the book (lower right sprue) and the "kilt" (if I can call it that, in the top left sprue) being nearly see-through it is so thin.  Moreover, the struts that hold the resin to the frame are overly large and cumbersome.  It'll take me a little while to carefully cut this guy out of the sprue.  I've half a mind to go back to the store and whinge about the quality. Not sure if it'll do much good though. 

Horror Squad Progress

A minimum sized squad of horrors of Tzeentch, fully painted in a riot of colours and ready to cause mayhem on the tabletop.  I personally like the ones that have large numbers of arms, but I'm still not a fan of all the bracelets that they wear these days and would still like to have at least some blue-in-pink style plastic horrors!

Purple Horror of Tzeentch

I can't say that I'm a particular fan of the "beaks" on some of the new plastic horror models.  Sure, it looks Tzeentch-like and all mutation-esque, but I'm just not a fan.  I saw that some other painters approached them by painting them in metallic colours, and I've tried to follow-suit here.  I'm actually half-tempted to paint a free-hand stylized Tzeentch symbol on to the beak to make it a bit more unique looking.

The rest of the miniature is painted in varying degrees of purple to almost an off-red or magenta highlight colour, with a blue tongue.  The feathers were picked out with bleached bone and the accessories with gold paint.  The claws are two-toned, but I might experiment with starting with a darker colour for the next miniature.  

Hot Orange Horror

Another day, another horror of Tzeentch in a variant colour scheme.  This chap is a bright combination of reds, oranges and slightly yellow highlights, with some blue eyes and accessories to match. 

He was largely painted in a dry brush method.  The only novel thing I decided to do was combine some dheneb stone colour to the yellow and orange to help with the better coating him and to subdue the sunburst yellow somewhat.  This has largely worked well I think.

The base is one of my pre-prepared and painted resin bases. Not quite sure what colour the next horror will be painted in.  I'm leaning towards purple!

Representing the Changeling

A question for those of you have played against daemons recently, or who play with them.  If you've seen the Changeling on the tabletop (a pink horror upgrade / minor character), has it been represented with the Games Workshop model or something else?

My readers will know that I like to use a variety of models to represent the Changeling myself, as evidenced in my earlier discussion on the Glamour of Tzeentch and pictured in my Mixed Daemons army group photo.  The photo above pictures a warhammer fantasy chaos champion in bone armour in the guise of the Changeling -- he's probably my favourite model to represent the Changeling.

Should I bother upgrading to the "official" model?  Would using my bone armour chaos champion be frowned upon in competitive tournaments now?

Wargames Gallery: Ork Crunch

Before anyone points it out: I know that the only painted element of this picture are my plastic horrors of Tzeentch. But I like the artistic merit of this shot -- the colour of my horrors really juxtaposes well against the otherwise bland background.
The orks are, frankly, crunching my Tzeentch horrors who were happily hanging out in a crater and (almost) minding their own business... it's not going well for me in this game.

Green Horror of Tzeentch

Naturally, horrors of Tzeentch can come in many colours depending on the whim of their creator (both Tzeentch and the painter in question!). This particular chap turned out green. Although I had planned on making a unit of Nurgle-affected horrors, I felt that a multi-colour vibe would be better. So this one will form part of a large squad where each miniature is a different colour!

The greens were achieved through the use of several layers of green (catachan, goblin green and so forth) painted and layered on top of one another. A small amount of bleached bone was added to tone the colour lighter and gently drybrush the miniature, before a several washes of green were applied all over to bring him together. The final details and accessories were fiddly (e.g. multi-toned teeth), but manageable. My new plastic Tzeentch horror squad is growing...!

Statistics: How Many Pink Horrors?

Pink horrors are clearly not close combat exponents. They shoot things. Repeatedly. And fast (assault 3). They want to get in range, shoot things and avoid being charged. It's that simple. Add in a little bit of tank hunter, Changeling mischief, and icon bearing and we're done.
Shooting.
So, if they're going to shoot things, then how many horrors do I need to take care of a (say) squad of 5 marines?

Each horror gets 3 shots at BS=3. Hence 1.5 shots will hit. Fifty per cent of that will wound (S4 against T4). That means 0.75 wounds, on average. And then the space marine gets a 3+ armour saving throw. So, 0.25 unsaved wounds per horror.

Hence I need 4 horrors to statistically take care of a single space marine. Therefore a squad of 5 marines need only fear a full pack of 20 pink horrors of Tzeentch. This seems like a very large number realistically. Especially given the points value of the horrors.

Survivability.
Let's have a quick look at their survivability whilst we're here. How many standard shots (i.e. bolter shots fired by a marine ... or BS=4, S=4 shots) can they take?

They'll get hit on 3+, get wounded on 3+ and save on 4+. Hence they stand a 22 per cent probability of being removed from a standard shot. Therefore 4.5 standard shots are required to remove them on average. This means that space marines shooting at them will kill less horrors than horrors will kill marines in a firefight! This is a somewhat surprising result that is often overlooked by marine players. Equally, it is half of the survivability of plaguebearers. Hence I will often take units of 10 or more horrors for my purposes of icon bearing, backed up with a little shooting ability to make eldar (etc.) think twice, before encouraging them to hop along to claim an objective on turn 4 or so.

Further Discussion.
BUT, there is a different reason that I will take horror packs: the Bolt of Tzeentch. A good set up I've found is simply to take a minimum sized squad and equip one horror with the Bolt of Tzeentch for extra anti-tank ability in the daemons army.

And then there's the Changeling. I've discussed this fellow in the past, so I'll simply provide a link to those earlier thoughts.

Blue Horror of Tzeentch

When a pink horror perishes, two blue horrors rise to take its place. Although I've dabbled in hosting two blue horrors on one base to represent this turn of events, the new plastic horrors are slightly on the larger side to be able to get away with this as readily. Not to be perturbed, I had a go at painting a singular blue horror regardless.

This chap follows the paint scheme that I laid down in my earlier post and features blue inking, highlighting and asurman blue washing. Although the red tongue provides a neat contrast colour for the miniature, I think I'm most happy with how the accessories turned out on this one as I have had issues with trying to get them looking authentic (rather than a plastic bangle bought at some cheap jewelery store!). A little choas black lowlighting seems to work wonders for such decorations.

Warpstone Flux Anniversary

Today is another Warpstone Flux anniversary!

To celebrate, I decided to make a posed photograph of a collection of my best painted, prize winning, and favourite models.
Foreground:
Screamers of Tzeentch, Flamers of Tzeentch and Horrors of Tzeentch.

Background (Imperial Ruins):
Death Guard Plague Marines (I; II; III), Daemon Prince, Dreadnought, Spawn (Plague Ogryn)

Painting Scheme for Plastic Pink or Blue Tzeentch Horrors

Today is a tutorial about how I paint my pink, and blue horrors of Tzeentch. This is a 5 step process, as illustrated in the figure below.

The first step is to give your plastic horror an undercoat (step a). I've been experimenting with a number of different undercoats over the years, and let me say that for brighter colours (as found on horrors), a white undercoat is the way to go. This is because it helps your basecoat stand out well. A black undercoat is more appropriate when you want the recesses of your miniature to be dark and your overall colour tone is not a bright one. For this particular undercoat, I've slightly watered down the white paint. This is because I sometimes find it to be a little too thick and can obscure some of the detail on the miniature before you even get to work on the proper colours.In step (b), I've applied the base coats. For this miniature, I wanted half of it to be pink, and the other half blue. This is just a personal experiment with colour scheme: feel free to have a totally pink or blue horror, or steal this idea from me by all means! The blue basecoat is ultramarine blue, whereas the pink is a mixture of skull white with warlock purple. If you have any of the old citadel pink colour, then that is also a good alternative; as is Vallajeo paints. I've also painted the tongue in blood red.

Next, I apply an ink layer (step c). For those of you who still own citadel inks, I've used blue on the blue side and a mixture of magenta and black on the pink side. If you do not own the inks, then I would recommend mixing up some of your own. This can be done by watering down a dark blue colour (for the blue side) and a red plus black mixture (for the pink side). Be sure that your inks are not too thick -- you can always apply a second ink coat if it is too thin, but removing a coat that is too thick is a much tougher problem!

Step (d) is the highlighting step. This can be done in one of two ways. Firstly, you could be lazy and apply a drybrush layer to both sides. Or secondly, you could apply solid colour. For the first method, take an old brush and mix yourself up a lighter version of pink (i.e. pink plus white) or light blue (perhaps even space wolves grey). Dab off excess paint from the brush and sweep over the miniature with brief strokes all over. Do this again for an even lighter shade of pink and blue. For the second method, again you'll need a lighter shade of pink and blue. But this time, selectively apply a solid blob of colour to the prominent raised portions of the miniature (e.g. the musculature, the eyebrows, etc.). Do this again with a lighter shade, but apply much less, and only on top of the previous layer.

In step (e), I bring the highlighting together by using a colour wash. The citadel washes are good for this, but again if you want to make up some of your own, simply dilute yourself a small amount of your basecoat colour. The blue and pink/magenta wash work to bring the layers of colour in line with one another and create an overall tone in the flesh that looks like a natural progression of colours rather than an abrupt change.

Also in step (e), I have performed some final details. This includes the teeth and claws (one layer of dheneb stone, followed by a highlight of skull white), the eyes (same again actually, but with a black slit painted on with a steady hand and triple zero brush for the pupil) and the various bits of jewellery and accessories (variously painted in yellows, silvers and leathery colours). The final result can be seen in the last picture where I've pinned and mounted the horror on to a pre-painted resin base.

Pink Horror Evolution

Back in the Realms of Chaos days, pink and blue horrors had their own individual miniatures. The pink horrors were noticeably happier, chuckling and downright devious looking. On the other hand, the blue horrors were more morose, glum and miserable looking with a wicked depressed violence brewing under the surface. They were also slightly smaller than their pink brethren. Their dynamic was invariably a pair of raised hand and a maw of teeth surrounded by an expressive pair of eyes and a tail.

Fast forward to the early 2000's, and the miniatures got a long needed update. I liked this era of Tzeentch miniatures very much. The horrors became a whirling mass of arms, tails, mouths, teeth, eyes, and flames. Moreover, they also featured horrors-within-horrors. This type of miniature is one that I very much liked. As can be seen in my other posts, a number of them look like the inner blue horror is trying to get out of the pink one.

The modern era plastic pink horror (pictured) is a compromise of the previous iterations, with a few new touches added in. More noticeable than previous examples is the abundance of accessories such as bracelets, bangles, gemstones and feathers. This is not a bad thing, but I did have a preference for "naked" horrors. I suspect that the accessories are a throwback to the old mark of Tzeentch that granted followers a random magical item. I like the multiple arms, but on the other hand, I really miss the blue-in-pink aspect of the mid-2000's metal horrors. The new horrors are also larger than their earlier counterparts. Again, not a bad thing (unless trying to hide / get better cover saves).

Overall, their evolution seems to be a subtle blend of old and new. Some things added, and still some things blue :-)

Many-Armed Horror

How many arms can fit on to a plastic horror of Tzeentch? Lots, of course!

This particular plastic horror has six arms attached (I was going to aim for nine for fluffy reasons, but was worried they'd clutter the miniature a bit too much!).

The new plastic horrors come supplied with a range of two or one arms that can interchangeably be attached at the shoulders. Thus, it is easy to create, two, three, or four armed horrors. In some ways, they are very reminiscent of the old genestealer hybrid models of twenty or more years ago (they were also supplied with a combination of one or two arms attaching to a given shoulder).

This miniature was assembled as a regular four armed horror -- i.e. two lots of two arms at each shoulder. A fifth arm was attached to the side of the torso on the left hand side of the miniature (the close fist). A little bit of green stuff helps to blend the pinning job I've done to hold it in place. The sixth arm juts straight out of the mouth of the horror! To do this, I've had to shorten the arm, remove the tongue of the horror and pin it in place before the mouth is glued over the top. Only a few of the horror heads have a wide enough maw to permit this sort of conversion, so if you're thinking about copying this approach, I strongly recommend dry-fitting your arm in the maw of the horror before you go ahead and chop or glue.

I think I'm going to have the sixth, mouth arm painted in blue eventually; suggestive of a blue horror trying to get out of the pink one! In some ways, I like the idea of the whole blue-in-pink horrors. It is something that the new plastic horrors are missing, I feel. At least in comparison to the older metal horrors of the mid-2000's.

Assorted Thoughts on Assembling Plastic Pink Horrors

The perils of the old metal Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (and Flamers) have long been documented. The new plastic horrors present a different challenge. So today, I'm writing down some randomly ordered thoughts on assembling these warp spawned creatures. For me, it all comes down to planning rather than just launching right in to things.

The bodies are all numbered on one side of the sprue. It is important to pay attention to the numbering and not simply chop everything out of the sprues and pile them up in a big mixed-up pile(!)

The heads are largely NOT interchangeable.

Given the above point, it is tempting to swap a few heads around -- particularly if you want to use both of the heads that go with body number 1 (the champion head, and a regular / normal head). I wanted to replace one of the beaked heads with the normal, spare head number 1. But that takes green stuff work!

Unlike the bodies, the arms ARE interchangeable.

Given the above, I'd suggest planning out which combination of arms you want on each body. And by "planning out", I mean going as far as dry fitting the arms to see which ones look best on a given body. And which bodies you want 4 arms, 3 arms or 2 arms on. If you don't have at least a few three armed horrors, then the rest will all be two or four armed. I like the three armed ones -- I think they look very Tzeentchian.

I didn't use the instrument -- largely because of the tactica I worked out.

The arm with the knife extends over the head. It has the potential to clash with other arms. Either use this arm with the icon (as per the suggestion contained in the instructions), or dry fit it carefully.

The image is of one of the four armed horrors that I assembled from the plastic boxed set. He's a very dynamic beastie that seems well suited to four arms!