Spotlight on: Nagash!

When I first created this blog I put a picture up of this beautiful model that I use to represent that most notorious of arch necromancers Sauron Nagash!

I think it’s one of the nicest miniatures ever created and though I own the original GW Nagash and did my best to “save it” with the paint job, it still wasn’t quite good enough alongside modern miniatures for the high standards I aim for (even if I don’t always achieve them). 

Now I wish I could tell you what model this is and I’d certainly be grateful for anyone who can remind me. I bought it on eBay a couple of years ago and I just spent ages searching for it again just now.

Each year I hope GW will release a campaign book about the return of Nagash but still no word as yet. I always hope he’ll appear in one of the undead army books, but no luck so far.

Of course my entire campaign storyline is based on Nagash leading his undead armies north toward the Empire so having him appear in games is pretty vital. Sadly, so far he’s not had much luck in games. I used rules for him based on those on the excellent Nagashizar website. And I just found sort of rules for him in the Vampire Coast campaign book on the Tempus Fugitives website.

Bascially in the game, he’s such a vast sink of points that he struggles to earn the points back. I guess it’s just a case of reducing the points until they make better balance. For example, in one game, he was in combat with a huge unit of zombies alongside. The zombies got their asses kicked but good while Nagash killed loads of the enemy, but because of the overall combat being a loss, Nagash was killed through combat resolution. The annoying thing being that if he hadn’t had loads of zombies “helping him” he would have easily overrun the enemy unit and gone on to win the game.

It’s that kind of thing. 

But who cares in many ways. He’s a beautiful model with a fantastic history that is integral to my campaign storyline.  

To paint him I used turquoise over a very dark blue for the robes and bronze over Tin Bitz for the armour. I was aiming for a fairly subtle realistic look.The "skin" was a series of greys.

I decided to have the skulls as bronze accessories rather than real skulls - because the model is 54mm and they would have been way too big for normal skulls. 

The dust weathering was graveyard earth under bleached bone. 

He has a really nice aggressive stance, making him look like a martial general rather than just an evil wizard. I just really do love this guy!  

A Tour of the War Room

It's a slow news day so allow me to take a pause to introduce you to my war room.

My personal top criteria when we moved house last was to have space for at least a six foot war board. Our previous house had been pushed to manage a four foot one in our hobby room.

As you can see, my wife supported this initiative, making her one of the greatest wives in history and the envy of wargamers the world over.

I used to keep my miniatures in boxes in the shed (one for each army) but a few shelves later and now the fantasy ones at least are standing ready for deployment on their movement trays - a lot less irritating pre-game. Although I'm running out of space - big time!

This is the inspiring sight that greets me as I write on the computer. It can be a tad distracting when I'm trying to work on my novel!

In the old fireplace (now replastered and closed off) I have a small lit display area for my latest army. Here we see the Men of Stone on parade.

And then there's my scenery storage. I also like to keep my more delicate miniatures on shelves too so you may be able to spot a waving Hive Tyrant up there. If you really squint you may even pick out some Inquisitor models!

At first I had a thing where I created little scenes on these shelves each time I put the scenery away. You can imagine how long THAT lasted.

(not long)

But I'm really reaching my limit on space. You can see my bridge leaning against the wall above on the left and my Chaos Dwarfs stealing a scenery shelf.

I definitely need to build more shelves!

These are all the old buildings my wife, son and I built for Mordheim back in the day. Some of them aren't as good as I'd like so I tend not to use them so much nowadays unless I'm trying to cover the board in old buildings.

And here's Haydon! The most important visitor to the war room!

I have a desk in the bay window where I paint and draw so I created a little cat habitat with an old pizza box and a cushion so that he could look out the window and then have a snooze next to his hard-working miniature-loving dad.

Vengeance of the Men of Stone

Men of Stone (Tim) vs Wood Elves (Gill) 

The Men of Stone had been ambushed and defeated in deep woods by a cowardly attack from both sides by the Wood Elves of Linwe.

But this time they controlled the theatre of battle. This time they determined the location and moment of attack.

This time they would utterly annihilate their enemies.

The Knights of Ebon Scar and their monstrous lizards caught the Wood Elves in the open and cracked the mass of their forces hard into the centre of the Elven phalanx, even a, far to the west, the Orcs did the same thing. 

 It didn't matter that the slim creatures fought hard, or that they took casualties themselves.

This was a battle that the Knights of Ebon Scar refused to lose.

 

With their huge Terminator knights crashing into the flailing claws of the Bloodwood Drakes, glistening magical blades brought down the great beasts.

The Knights were unstoppable and the Wood Elves of Linwe came to understand their folly in facing them. 

Massacre at River's Side

Orcs & Goblins (Tim) vs Wood Elves (Gill)  

The Wood Elves didn't know what hit them.

But on the edge of the River Trebleca where it wound round to border their realm, the Orcs and Goblins roared into battle on chariot and steed, pounding into the Elven ranks as, in their surprise, they floundered to respond.

More and more Goblins poured through the trees, hacking at the Elven forces and nothing they could do could fend them off.

That is until not one but two Bloodwood Drakes glided across the river and cracked into the flank of the Orc advance.

But it wasn't enough.

The Orcs and Goblins kept coming, a seemingly endless line of clattering spike-endowed chariots, smashing into every unit send to combat them.

The Elves had no choice but to withdraw, the wolves and goblins snapping at their heels.

And the Realm of The Wood Elves became suddenly horrifyingly smaller.