Tomb Kings Inspired Fallen Kingdom (with Spiders)

 Back in 8th Edition WFB my favorite faction was Tomb Kings. I was super bummed when they didn't make it over into Age of Sigmar proper but have found other armies to scratch my itches (look for a post on my Cities of Sigmar cog force a little down the road). Over the past year I've also started to flesh out my own little corner of Chamon (partially inspired by Mengel Miniature's Endless Desert area.)

Known as the Ironchaff Plain, this area has a City of Sigmar, Slivers, founded a couple of generations ago by a Dawnbringer's Crusade. The explorers and inhabitants of  Slivers have found a number of interesting locations and ruins in the area. One of these ruins is a series of ancient cave or tunnel entrances with carved columns and glyphs around them. No one that has entered these tunnels has ever returned but rumors of giant cave spiders and stunted armored cannibals are frequently repeated when these ruins are discussed. Think Petra, but spookier. 

As this setting has come into focus for me, the idea of an underground faction that is the remnant of a great civilization driven underground during the Age of Chaos came into focus. Pulling elements from Tomb Kings and Flesh Eater Courts, I am thinking the descendants of the survivors of this ancient empire still wearing rusted and pitted armor and weapons, worshipping the few remaining constructs (and the spiders are constructs, blame the Red Harvest teases that have been coming out and now the preview!) that were built and powered either through magic or eternal engines back in the hey-day of the civilization. 

Let's start with some hero units. 

The first idea combines Skaven, FEC, and Gloomspite components. If we take the head and halberd of the Gyrmwatch Underworld's warband and put it on Thanquol we get a nice looking leader type. While the angle of the models on the GW website doesn't do us any favors, I "think" the scale will work for a head and weapon swap. Next, throw this guy up on an Arachnarok Spider, just don't use any of the Forest Goblin bits, and I think we have a great hero on monster unit. Think of him as a cave-dwelling cannibal who still believes he is the leader of a great civilization and in his delusion thinks the cave spider he is riding is actually one of the constructs from the glory days. Base this on some of the Dominion of Sigmar ruins, paint it like neither has seen daylight in a long time and i think the theme would really shine through.

Speaking of constructs, what if there was an ancient surviving construct that still worked? At this point, it would probably be revered and worshipped by these crazy lunatics as a god beast. After all, this is inspired by Tomb Kings so it has to have some sort of construct!

Let's go with Necrons for our bits for this one. The Triarch Stalker and Canoptek Spyder are great starting points for all the pieces needed to build us a spider construct. This is a pretty popular conversion, a simple Google search will result in tons of images like the ones below. 

I think I would stay pretty main stream with this one, doing something like the image below, then adding a bunch of texture paint to either give the effect of old cracked stone/marble or tons of rust, this would hide a lot of the more high tech details and give it a really aged looked. The Necrons range also has the Canoptek Wraiths kit which could be used with the Canoptek Spyder legs (leftover from this conversion to make some smaller scorpion style constructs)

With two big monsters for this army, we can move on to some infantry. 

Our leader riding the spider is already tattered and hunched over so let's stick with Skaven for our infantry base. Taking the Clanrats kit, chopping off the heads and tails and adding some crypt ghoul heads should give us a great looking, hunched over, seen better days infantry option. Despite my best efforts at bad photoshop, I couldn't seem to get the models to work together with the angles on the GW webstore, but I think by looking at the two models side by side you can get a pretty good idea.  It does bring up a question of shields, the Skaven ones are just too Skaven. Ungor or Gor shields would work but I think the best fit, if you could find them would be the old skeleton warrior shields, it would really show a level of decay from civilization that I want with these troops. 

Heck, over on Gardens of Hectate, they used Lord of the Rings Goblin heads on the Skaven Underworld warband so I'm 98% sure this idea would work in terms of scale. See their conversion here.

We need at least one more infantry unit, let's go with a monstrous infantry sized idea. Down in the dark things have gone pretty sideways over the generations. Turning to cannibalism to survive some of these things have grown larger than the rest. Using the Crypt Horror model as a base size, let's try to give it a few more clues of a fallen civilization. I think either Orruk Brutes or Ogor Mournfangs have the best bits for this. Both have armor bits that could be attached to the Crypt Horror to show some clues towards past civilization. The Brutes torso may even work on the Crypt Horror legs. For weapons, I would lean towards the Ogor Stonehorn/Thundertusk rider weapons. Combine the Crypt Horror bone weapons with that bone trap thing and the crossbow would give some nice visual clues of a decayed civilization that is using what is left along with what the currently have. 

This is a really rough mock-up and I am not familiar with any of these kits so I do not know if the size works but if I was to build this I think I would go in the direction of getting the Crypt Horrors and the Brutes, seeing if the size worked and then trying to find some of the Ogor rider weapon bits and add them in. 

Adding more heros is fairly easy, for example, some ideas on a foot hero and wizard. 

To wrap this up, I really like the idea and lore behind this concept. But, it has some weaknesses too. There are some spider themes with the big units but they do not carry through to the smaller units. Maybe adding some of the small spiders from the Arachnarok kit onto the infantry would help. Also the larger infantry armor doesn't match that of the skaven base models used for the other foot troops. I think paint schemes and basing could help tie it together but it would need to definitely be considered to really sell this concept. 

Lastly, the recently announced Warcry Red Harvest box contains a spider cult that could go with this theme. Would they be citizens of a City of Sigmar that worships this decayed civilization? Do they replace the foot troops? 

Best AOS Conversion Bits in the new Adepta Sororitas Novitiates Kill Team

The new Kill Team box, Chanath, is almost here and it comes with a Tau team and a Adeptus Sororitas team. There is a decent amount of noise in the Age of Sigmar world on how these models are great conversion fodder for the old Sisters of Sigmar warband for Mordheim. 

Looking at the old Sister's models, its clear where the similarities (and easy conversions) lie.  Add some hammers, or even just get ride of the guns and you are basically there with these new models. I mean, the old models even have some whips like the new models. If you are looking for some more weapon swaps, either Stormcast weapons (maybe too big) or Flagellant kit weapons (the flails and maces in particular) would be good fits.  

While the new models are great, it wouldn't be super easy to convert them into some in AOS beyond Sisters of Sigmar or something related to Order of Azyr. The head coverings with the circlets combined with the head coverings draping down onto the torso means a head swap doesn't fit  unless you figure out a way to deal with the cowl on the torso. 

So this means it is kind of limited use for AOS, right?

Well not entirely! There are at least 3 GREAT bits for AOS conversions, and then 3 more that would be pretty useful.

1. I think the scroll would be a great bit for any sort of Sigmar loyal faction, either a wizard, champion, warrior priest, flagellant, witch hunter, etc. It even has a purity seal which could be used as a prayer to Sigmar.

2. This goblet is good! Again, a perfect fit for any Sigmar loyal unit or hero, could be used as a relic or a stand in for a standard bearer flag. 

3.The mace may be the best bit of the kit, would be a great unit champion weapon or hero weapon for anything Freeguild.

Personally, I'd use these bits to give some unique weapons and items to some Stormcast squires (or any sort of human that is from Azyr and focused on helping arm Stormcast, run logistics and support for Stormcast, etc.  The recent art put up on WarCom shows (I think) some Stormcast human retainers that these bits could go towards. 

Beyond the bits above, the ones in blue below could also be used by Freeguild units or characters. Need a couple of whips for a gryph hound master? Check! Need some dynamic 1 armed swords? Check! There are 10 of those swords in the kit, so you could use them to turn the Bogenhafen Barons Blood Bowl team into some blue blood Azyrite sword troops.

To wrap up, I think this new Kill Team box offers some decent conversion potential for AOS. If you just get the Adeptus Sororitas sprues and want to build some Sisters of Sigmar, I give it 10 out of 10 thunderbolts. If you don't want to build Sisters of Sigmar, I'd give the command sprue 6/10 thunderbolts (the command upgrade sprue has all the green bits on it) and the other sprues 3/10 thunderbolts.  

Red Harvest, what about Realm Harvest?

It seems like the next Warcry box is going to continue being underground or at least in some sort of chaosy center of industry.

That combined with the Necromunda oil pump terrain piece led me down a rabbit hole of chaos smiths/miners? It didn’t help that over at the Mortal Realms discord we have been scrying various chaos dwarf related things, further pushing me in this direction. 

So, if I’m going to make some sort of Chaos smiths with dwarves thrown in, where do we start?

Well the Necromunda oil rig as the basis for a terrain piece of course!

Slap it on top of the Shrine Luminor where the temple currently sits and all of a sudden we have some demonic thing pumping out realm essence or molten metal. 

Take the Iron Golems Chaos dwarf figure and you’ve got a great Chaos Smith to go along with the terrain centerpiece.

Since we have used the Iron Golem dwarf, we might as well use the rest of them, maybe some weapon swaps for some axes or something different but they look pretty chaos smithy as is.

We might need some bigger beefier bodyguards for our chaos dwarf smith so why not take the Golaith Stimmers, put some ogre heads on them and give them some ogre weapons to reflect the crude industrial vibe we are going for?

As this is Chaos an they are digging down in the earth, they are probably going to find some weird beasties and modify them or have some weird beasties in their ranks already.

Let’s start what a shaggoth, that thing is proper chaosy, and with a conversion just screams chaos mine/smith/down in the earth to me. There are a lot of kitbashes knocking around the web for this one but I think a magmadroth and mancrusher gargant slammed together are a great idea. Turns out TJ Atwell over on Bloods of Kittens has already done this. I’d straight up copy this great conversion.

With a Shaggoth we need some regular dragon ogres to back him up. I’m not sure if there is a great fit for this one. Really shines a light on the need for some monstrous cav sized magmadroths for the Fyreslayers! I’d probably go with Dracolines and then Irongut torsos, heads, and weapons for this unit.

While we are on big models, why not add some giants? No not Mega-gargants! But what about some Mancrusher gargants that have been given some augmented weapons by the Chaos smiths in place of their hands? Thanquol weapon bits should do the trick here. 

Let’s wrap this thing up with another infantry unit. WIth a dwarf smith we need some regular dwarf infantry as well. The community has this one covered as well. Captain of Blood over on Twitter has some great test models for some chaos dwarfs using Hammerer’s bodies, chaos (marauder horsemen?) helmets and Tzeentch weapons and shields. Perfect! Or, iron golem weapons could be used instead.

Flamespout Gunners

 I've had an idea of a City of Sigmar in the realm of fire based around fire beasts with a bunch of scaley cloaks, etc. The idea mashes up a bunch of magmadroths, fyreslayer bits, handgunner bodies, etc.

One of the ideas was for the Freeguild Handgunners to use Auric Hearthguard weapons. Here is the quick mock up. I think it looks quite good, not sure if the scale is right or not though.

Free City of Scales

 Some of the major players that provided this inspiration where the Magmadroth, Fyreslayer terrain piece, Black Ark Corsairs, the new Scions of the Flame, and the Scourgerunner chariot.

With these images percolating in my head I looked up some free cities and decided that Vindicarum would be a good place to base this force. Vindicarum is a City of Sigmar built in the caldera of a volcano in Chamon.

Once I had a place in mind I decided to start with some base troops. I wanted a mix of human and aelf units and ended up with four conversion ideas. The first, and easiest to mockup were Freeguild spearmen. Using Saurus Warrior spears or even just the tips should be enough to show that these guys are slightly different or in a new location but are still one of the main freeguild units. 

A whole unit is even easy to imagine, replacing the traditional banner with the Saurus Warrior standard. 

Next up is an idea I had using Fyreslayer Berserker shields and axes. These are pretty clean looking weapons, missing any sort of scaly or obsidian/stone look but scream underground forge/fire to me.

GW doesn't show these very well on the website and its hard to find pictures online, I guess they aren't the optimum load out for matched play. However, I love them and I think using them with the Greatsword chest armor and fairly static poses would give a pretty cool looking "elite" foot unit vibe.

It is kind of hard to mock up the Greatsword images as the arms that come with them are cross bodies and two handing swords. Here is the best I could do. If I was going to actually do this, I'd probably use Dreadspear or Freeguild Guard arms as I have tried those in the past and they fit pretty well.

This first image is pretty blurry but I think the concept works and that the Fyreslayer head dress pieces would fit on top of the Greatsword helmets.

The second image has some bad item rotation on the banner (It's from the Fyreslayer Battlesmith). This wouldn't be a cheap conversion for a unit banner but if there was one unit to do it for, I think these guys would be the one.

A problem with this conversion is there isn't a good counts as option. For Greatswords they need a two handed option and they are too cool for regular Freeguild Guard. Maybe a Duradin unit but then the height becomes an issue.

That gets me to the two aelf units I thought of. The first uses Black Ark Corsairs and just replaces their heads and one weapon load out. These guys come with scaly cloaks so giving them scaly shields makes sense to me. Also, giving them shields makes easy Bleakswords counts as. I would also use less spiky aelf heads and get rid of the spiky collars.

The next conversion gives us Black Ark Corsairs using Dark Elf Bloodbowl bodies. You could make a lot of different units with these, I think anything that was a short weapon or a weapon in each hand would work. Spears or long hafted weapons may look weird due to their movement. The Blood Bowl Dark Elves have scaly clothing bits on them, so that helps carry the Corsair theme as well. Here I've given them Corsair hand crossbows and Saurus hand weapons. It is really hard to find images of Corsairs with crossbows online so some of the hands are off but from looking at the sprues I'm pretty sure it would work out.

That gives us four core units, two human and two aelf. This is nice because it allows hero variability and a number of battle line choices when trying to build a legal army list.

I am also getting multiple uses out of some kits. The Saurus warriors are providing the Freeguild spears, Bleaksword shields, and Corsair hand weapons/swords. The Corsairs are getting their bodies used and then giving some weapons to the Blood Bowl unit. The Fyreslayers are getting stripped for bits but there would be bodies, heads, and picks leftover. Finally, you would need some bleaksword heads, but I have some of those laying around.

Not counting the aelf heads it ends up being 6 kits for 4 units, which in kit bash land isn't bad at all.  

I really wanted to use the Scions of the Flame kit but there are only 8 models in it and a couple of them are really only good as hero models. Staff lady and the dude on fire primarily. The 3 lesser imitates and the Fireborn (he's the unit champ to me) would work well in a unit, you could give them a hand weapon and a shield if you wanted but even when the double box comes out, that is only 8 bodies. Maybe you can figure out a way to make a standard bearer and musician or whatever out of some of the others but I can't see it yet. The blazing lord and the overhead champion guy are the hardest, they don't really fit into a unit with the initiates, especially when you double up poses.

Emelda Braskov and her Sword Sisters

 This past weekend, Cursed City was fully revealed and previewed on the Warhammer Twitch stream. One of the characters revealed was Emelda Braskov. Hopefully, she is an indicator of things to come from Gee Dub in regards to Free Cities/Order of Azyr, etc.

Seeing her model got my conversion wheels churning. Based on the tabard and the iconography I imagine she may be a precursor of a reimagined Devoted of Sigmar force (I'm gonna call them Order of Azyr).

With that in mind I started thinking, what would some other soliders in a force with Emelda look like? Plate armor, tabards, and big swords all seem to work. I think Sisters of Silence could be a decent starting point but their armor is a little to ornate and full coverage compared to Emelda.

Thinking back to the old Flagellant kit, they are pretty dirty, disheveled, and poorly equipped. Keeping with that general motif, thinking of someone that had few possessions or given them away to focus on serving the Order of Azyr led me to the Repentia Squad kit.

From there I think giving them a non tech head swap and Greatsword weapons would do nicely to set them in the AOS universe and tie them to Emelda. Oh, and file off the connection ports and either make them scar tissue or greenstuff skin back in those spots.

Here is a rough concept without the head changes.

In my head these are Sword Sisters, sworn to vengeance in the name of Sigmar. Part of the army that was destroyed by Radukar, they have sworn off their past armaments and armor, taken up giant swords and vowed to follow Emelda to the ends of the realms seeking vengeance on vampires every where.