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Jadawi
02-06-08, 07:08
Ive explained the idea behind my army in the original Tale of five gamers thread but for those who havent read it hear it is. The Unruly Herd (the name of my army) is a herd of beastmen that worship a deamon named Szarkil'acar who was bound by the gods of chaos without form to the Drakwald, the main forest in the warhammer world for reasons unknown. Unusually for beastman the Unruly Herd is led by shaman rather that a wargor, this is because the shaman, Acar, is a servant of the deamon who is trying to free it from his prison. As a shaman Acar is sensitive to the winds of magic; from a young age he became aware of the subtle manipulations of Szarkil'acar and it wasnt long before Acar discovered the deamon's prescence. Acar realised the benefits of aiding such a creature and so swore himself to its service. Although Szarkil'acar has no physical form he still has influence in the mortal realm, influence which has spread to Acar himself allowing him to gather a warband together and lead it unchallenged, for now. Only Acar has the knowledge to commune with Szarkil'acar which makes him both feared and respected by the other beastmen. Acar will do everything in his power to free this deamon, but there is much to do and much blood to spill, and for that he will need a force to be reckoned with.

So with £50 to spend i went about devising how i would start the Unruly Herd. Obviously my first choie would be a bray shaman to use as Acar. I looked at the GW Bray shamans and decided they didnt represent my idea of Acar. The twin axe wielding wargor however had the perfect look! i Love its gazing pose as if it knows something no one else does which goes with the idea that only Acar can talk to the deamon, the only one to even sense it and to have seen it. To make this model into a bray shaman id need to add a staff and robes to make it look more like a shaman rather than an axe wielding killing machine. I was just going to scratch build the staff but then i came across the old chaos sorceror model. Ive always loved this model but have never had the chance to use it any of my previous armies. Most of all i loved the staff it wields with the heads sprouting from the top which i though would make the perfect bray staff for a shaman warped by the influence of a powerful deamon. So my second purchase was the chaos sorceror model, this is an expensive conversion but i think worthwile especially as this article is not just about collecting armies but personalising and converting them too.

Finally to round off the first months purchases i bought 2 boxes of beast herds; these are some of the best core, if not the best core troops in the game being able to take either 2 hand weapons or hand weapon and shields for free as well as having spear wielding ungors added to the mix. Add the fact that whole unit acts as skirmishes that gain rank bonuses or can ambush the enemy from their own deployment zone and you have the strongest most flexible unit in the whole game! Not only that but you get 20 models for £18, i dont think any other box set offers you such value for money, and fully upgraded a 20 man (beast?) unit costs less than a hero level character. not bad :)

I have one beast herd built and base coated annd am currently waiting for the 2nd box to be delivered to Alan. Im also half way through my conversion which, if all goes to plan i will finish tomorow and maybe have some pictures to show you too if your lucky ;)

Purchases:

Wargor - £7
Sorceror - £6
Beast Herd - £18
Beast Herd - £18

June total: £49
Remainder carried over: £1

Jadawi
04-06-08, 09:13
Right sorry about the pictures there not very clear but here is my bray shaman conversion:

First of all i took the staff from the chaos sorceror and pinned it on to the shamans left hand. Pinning is when you drill a hole in your model and insert a metal "pin" which is just a straight piece of metal to hold the model together. This is useful when trying to stick pieces together that dont fit properly.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb4/Jimbo_O_smeg/P020608_2100.jpg

I could decide what to do with the other hand yet so i decided it was time to work on the body. Didnt do a huge amount here; first i covered all the chainmail in green stuff to make it look like robes rather than armour. Then i added a tabard, also made out of green stuff, to make the model look more shamany.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb4/Jimbo_O_smeg/P030608_1101.jpg

Finally i had decide what to do with the other arm. I wanted to stick with the shaman look so weapons were out of the question, all a shaman needs to defend himself is his magic and his bray staff. So with no weapons to play with i thought about putting an artifact or magic item in his hand. So i raided my bits box and found plenty of chaos icons and banner tops that looked perfect for a magic artifact....unfortunetly they were all a bit too big and made the whole model a bit precarious :(. At this point i was tearing my hair out at trying to decide what to do, then i looked at the chaos sorceror model again and looked at the book he was holding. Perfect! So i snipped it off and glued to the other arm and hey presto 1 Bray shaman ready for spraying
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb4/Jimbo_O_smeg/P040608_002901-1.jpg
(apologies this picture is truly aweful:( )

Overall im very pleased with this conversion as this is the first time ive used green stuff to sculpt extra bits on a model before. Im looking forward to using it again in later installments.

jase
04-06-08, 07:46
Its pretty inspireing
makes me wanna get round to modeling my skaven =)


nice job !!!!!!!

looking forward to seeing how this 5 gamer thing pans out ;)

BigMark
04-06-08, 07:56
Wow that Shaman looks sooo cool nice one mate I'd like to see your character painted up , and good luck with your beastherd .

LegolaSS
05-06-08, 06:54
hey if you want better pictures just let me know, looks good from what i can make out, mabey a bit more work with the green stuff *looks a little flat* :D

Jadawi
07-06-08, 10:14
Thanks guys. ill be trying different things with green stuff throughout this project and hopefully my skills should improve somewhat.

Jadawi
01-07-08, 04:24
Well not the greatest of starts, due to added responsibilities at work i havent got everything painted. I have one squad of beastmen painted and Acar is about 80% complete. This however is not completely bad as it has spurred me cram even more painting time into my busy schedule known as life and pretty soon my second squad allowing me to continue onto this months purchase :D

I had two choices when it came to buying my first expansion to Acar's Unruly herd; hard hitters or fast flankers. For hard hitters i could choose from a few different units, firstly was a tuskgor chariot. These chariots boast an impressive 3 strength 5 attacks on the charge plus impact hits and could even be used as a mount for My bray shaman Acar. There pretty cheap on the wallet as well at a modest £15 leaving me enough to either buy some blisters or save for next month. My other choice was a box of Chaos Ogres, boy can these guys pack a punch! Having the option of being equipped with heavy armour and great weapons means that even a 3 man squad can pack 10 S6 attacks and arent likely to make much pounding in return. I was very tempted by these guys but i doubted whether Acar could draw such powerful fighters to his measly force as it stood, no they would come much later on.

So with this in mind i turned my attention to fast flankers which also gave me two units to choose from. chaos warhounds are some of my favourite warhammer models and are great value points wise (6pts a model!). In a beastman army they are more effective than in a mortal chaos army as they can take advantage of the ambush rule allowing them to enter play from the enemy's deployment zone! giving them the opportunity to use their greatest advantage, their speed, and get stuck in early on. It also gives added protection for them as they are very flimsy half starved hounds and very vunerable to missile fire, the ambush rule drastically reduces the enemy's chance to take them out before they get close. Alas reality is a downer as warhounds come in blister packs. Personally i dont like blisters very much becasue you get a relatively small amount of models for a high price. Warhounds come in blisters of 2 models for £7 meaning i would have to spend £21 of £26 just to get the minimum sized unit. So i decided to wait and go with with next choice. Centigors are perhaps one of the most iconic beastmen unit in army book, unlike traditional cavalry with a mount and a rider centigors are both rider and mount in one and make perfect flanking units. They have a movement of 8, faster than nearly all other cavalry and can move through woods unhindered as they have spent their lives traversing the treacherous trees in the Drakwald forest. They also have a fun side to them; centigors love to drink themselves stupid, quite literally as at the start of each turn they must role a dice and on a 1 they have literally drunk themselves stupid and suffer from stupidity for the turn. On a 6 they become frienzied and benefit from an extra attack and being immune to psychology. This unit fits in with my so-far fast moving army and also adds some diversity to my games and a barrel of laughs :P. Will post pics as soon as they're painted

July
Remainder from June: £1
Total for July: £26
Spent: £25
Remainder: £1

HereticKyle
24-07-08, 05:10
sounds like ur army is comming along nicely. I m a Mortal Chaos player n has recently restarted doing my Mortal army (nu rules were published recntly in Mays White Dwarf i think) n getting it up 2 the grand total of 8000pts (my 1st Mortal army points cost).
i d recommend gettignsum hard hitters 4 ur next choice m8

Jadawi
05-08-08, 09:58
thanks bud,i think i will just need to wait until i get paid on thursday lol