Aaron's Khorne army blog Update 1

Projects for the Project Throne!

Hey everyone. Here’s my first post about my mono Khorne army that I will be diving into over the summer. After I got a little put off of the Tyranids from the new Codex (that’s another can of worms I’m sure I’ll get in to!), I decided to go back to the Chaos Gods and embrace my favorite deity of the grimdark future – Khorne!

A little history – When I played Chaos way back in the day, Khorne was always my favorite. I played an undivided list but my berzerkers were always my champions on the battlefield. Their ferocity in close combat was what originally pushed me towards playing Tyranids, who were all about the close combat. There’s just something awesome about visualizing these soldiers bashing each other in close combat that made games of 40k so much more fun for me. So when I realized the ‘Nids were gonna hit the shelf for a while, I thought to myself…Aaron, what army do you want to play? Not for making cheese lists, not for winning tournaments, what army do you want to play and have fun with, both painting and gaming?

The answer was pretty obvious.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

So after I made that choice, I wanted to come up with some cool fluff to go along with them, something that drives the story of my warband as my collection of models and units grows. I’ve always loved blue and white pre-heresy colors for World Eaters, so I knew the fluff would have to trace back to the Heresy. I also knew that I really liked all the beast-style war engines that have been coming out, so a few Heldrakes and Maulerfiends are in my future. Strategy and competitiveness is completely out the window, so it’s all Rhinos and maybe a Land Raider or two for every unit. All Berzerkers, nothing else – No cultists, no Marines with the Mark of Khorne, none of that. I may add daemons later, so long as it fits the fluff, but aside from that, I don’t plan on getting too heavy into Khorne daemons in my force. It’s going to be a fast, hard hitting army that just runs at you screaming and the rest is up to the dice. It’ll be a nice change of pace having fewer models, too, as playing a swarm ‘Nids army usually left me with a sore back and not much to show for it.

So, pre-heresy colors. Gotta have Kharn, but I don’t want Kharn himself, if that makes sense. I wanted somebody that used Kharn’s rules that wasn’t Kharn, so I came up with the idea that my warlord, using Kharn’s stats, is actually obsessed with Kharn. Almost like how the Emperor’s Children were obsessed with being perfect, my warlord is striving to match Kharn’s brutality and skill as a killer. I’m not going to get too crazy on the fluff yet, but I promise that I will post more in depth stories soon. The other idea I’m going to roll with is that the warband is open to anyone who is willing to dedicate their lives to embodying Kharn’s brutality. I plan on having one unit themed as renegade Death Company, lead by a corrupt Chaplain. I also plan on having one unit of Space Wolves who fell prey to their feral side and embraced brutality. The army indirectly worships Khorne, they mostly just worship Kharn, so there will be a distinct lack of Khorne symbols in my army (and is also why I hesitate to add Daemons). Khorne is simply letting them worship Kharn and feed off their killing, even though they don’t directly do it for him. I’m still not sure if I’m using Khorne’s number – If I can come up with a reason why my warlord would follow the number that is influenced by Kharn, then I will go fluffy in that direction too.

So that’s what I have in store right now. I’m working on fleshing out the fluff to start my force, but I plan on forming their history through an escalation league I’m taking part in. They will form rivalries and grow in numbers depending (roughly) how my games go.

So that’s pretty much my game plan. I’ll definitely be keeping this blog up to date as I go with pictures and whatnot. Once I get my skills in painting white I’ll probably make a painting tutorial for the pre Heresy World Eaters.

Oh, and one more thing…There will be blood!

Cheers!

- Aaron

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight

Hello all, Andy here with my first Legion of Everblight warlock article! Today I am going to talk about my early experiences with Hordes and my boy Thagrosh1. Although I technically started with the Legion battlebox and pLylyth, I consider pThagrosh as my true first warlock. I used him throughout my first month-long Journeyman League with the alternate battlebox, followed by a local 35-point steamroller tournament. I have had a lot of success with Legion’s main man at a variety of point levels. Here are a few of the lists I’ve used.

pThagrosh +5

Ravagore – 10

Nephilim Soldier – 5

Harrier – 2

Shepherd – 1

Forsaken – 2

This was my 15-point list I used for the early portion of the Journeyman League and experience with Hordes as a whole. There was very little creativity to this list, as the alternate battle box required a Ravagore, Harrier, and Soldier. I knew little of the benefits of many solos in Legion, but was advised to add some fury management. Enter the Forsaken and Shepherd. Looking back now, there was no reason to include both a Forsaken and Shepherd as pThags can easily handle 3 little beasties on his own. However, these two models are great and should be some of the first purchases for any Legion player.

As for how the list plays, it did well in most match-ups as pThags feat is crazy at low point levels. A potential 10-point swing is huge when playing with only 15 points. The Ravagore won many games just by its assassination threat with its Dragon Fire animus. With few models, most opponents struggled to hide their casters. The list struggled when facing armies with high ARM. pStryker and pSorcha battle boxes were tough matchups. The list lacks greatly for armor cracking ability. But that is the nature of battlebox games.

pThagrosh +5

Carnivean – 11

Ravagore – 10

Nephilim Soldier – 5

Harrier – 2

Shepherd – 1

Feralgiest – 1

Next up is the 25 point list I used. I needed to add some armor cracking ability to my list so I added a Carnivean. It is a versatile beast that can trash a heavy in one round with little effort. I also enjoy having spiny growth the throw around on key models. With Death Shroud from pThags and spiny growth, legion heavies can reach a respectable armor 22 in melee. It made my army going from having difficulty cracking high armor, to being that high armor force that others had difficulty cracking. I also added a Feralgiest, because it has a neat ability that I have not once remembered to use. But mostly I added it because it was the only other 1 point model I owned at the time.

The list dealt with most foes quite well and I never came across an opponent I really struggled with at this point in the league.

pThagrosh +5

Carnivean – 11

Ravagore – 10

Scythean – 9

Max Hex Hunters – 8

Shepherd – 1

Feralgiest – 1

So here we are at 35 points (I was unable to play the second to last week, so I now have no model restrictions). I can finally drop some of the models I didn’t care for (Nephilim Soldier) and include more of the awesome heavies Legion has to offer. I chose to include one of each of the “normal” heavies for Legion. They each have something different to offer from their brothers, so I like having one of each. The Carnivean for its animus and a 10” spray, the Scythean for reach and no tough, and the Ravagore for long ranged firepower. I also added my first unit I owned and played, the Hex Hunters. These guys just looked awesome to me and at the time their rules seemed sweet so I picked up a box. Although pThags doesn’t really bring much to them in the way of buffs, they are a nice little jamming unit that can be quite irritating to deal with. With stealth, spd 7, and pathfinder, they can easily find their way across the board and into the enemies units. From there they try to get a kill and hex bolt a nearby heavy, preventing tramples or special attacks. Even if they didn’t kill anything, they often took opponents several turns just to remove.

While playing this list, I only ever struggled with some scenarios, as my army mostly moved in a tight clump around pThags. The Feralgiest is actually very helpful for this as a flag capturer or contester as an incorporeal model. A lot of armies don’t have any way of dealing with that.

Well there you have it, my relatively noobie opinions of Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight. Keep your eyes out for a write up of my first Warmahordes tournament and further warlock articles!

-Andy

About me (Aaron)

Hey everyone! My name is Aaron, and I’m the other half of iceDice Wargaming! I just thought I’d let you all know a little bit about me. 

I got into Warhammer 40k in 6th grade when my friend brought the first Tau codex to class one day. I was instantly hooked. I started with Tau and my word was I not a good hobbyist…But what would you expect from a 6th grader with no painting or building skills? Humble beginnings, I suppose. I had a small Tau force and a few other friends picked up the hobby, but none of us really knew the rules. One of the guys had a quick review sheet from the 3rd (I think) edition rulebook, and we just sort of fudged the rest…After a few years, the serious players stuck with the hobby into highschool and a few other people quit playing. That’s when I discovered my love for Chaos. I played a pretty solid Chaos Undivided list all through 4th and into 5th edition. Those were my competitive years; I played to win. Near the end of high school, I got way more into the hobby side of things as my painting skills began to develop.

I eventually sold my Chaos (to Andy!) and picked up Tyranids and decided to start fresh and to get better at painting rather than being super competitive. I still tried to put up a hard fight, but I throttled back a bit on playing to win and learned to just enjoy the game for what it was…A game! I slowly built a Tyranid force of up to 7k points un-upgraded, along with a Bio Titan and had tons of fun with the army. Unfortunately, the new codex sort of killed my enthusiasm for the ‘Nids, and I’m currently in the process of downsizing my Hive Fleet to only the things I have fully painted. I just don’t like how the new Codex works, not my cup o tea.

And now…I’ve been bitten by the Chaos bug once more. I’ve decided to strictly play for fun and work on my painting skills to be the best I can be. My current 40k project is a narrative/custom mono Khorne army that I will slowly be developing and hopefully posting lots of update vids and pics of in the near future. I’ve written a decent framework for them and I plan on building their fluff up as I play them, letting the games I play help tell their story.

I’ve also gotten into Warmachine and Hordes this past year and I’m really digging the new system. It’s a fantastic change of pace from 40k, and though I still struggle with remembering all the rules, order of operations, and playing with a timer, I still always have fun. I went with Retribution of Scyrah for my first force, which I’ve learned isn’t necessarily the easiest starting army, but I just loved the aesthetics and now I’m rolling with the punches. Vyros and his Dawnguard are my go to right now, but I’m hoping to be able to expand my collection much more as my skills progress.

Other games I’d like to play more of is X-Wing, Flames of War and Bolt Action. I also have a small Skaven force that is base coated (and waiting a dip and details) and will hopefully be seeing the table here soon!

Outside of wargaming, I have a few other things I like to do. I’m an avid outdoorsman, I could hunt and fish for days on end. I also enjoy playing soccer, reading, PC gaming and cooking. I’ve also gotten pretty big into health and wellness, since I didn’t really take care of myself the first 21 or so years of my life. I’ve survived one Tough Mudder and I’m training for my second event now.

Between school and life in general, it’s hard to balance all of my hobbies, but I find a way to show some love to everything that I like to do. As I go into my final year of college, I look forward to being able to move into the next chapter of my life as well as taking iceDice with me.

Thanks for taking the time to get to know me a little bit and if you have any questions or comments please ask! I’m looking forward to putting out some great content with Andy for you all to enjoy. Cheers!

- Aaron

About me (Andy)

Hello wargamers! I am Andy and I would like to take this time (or space) to tell everyone a bit about myself and why I am writing this article!

 

So who am I. Well if I didn’t steal your attention away with Jackie Chan too much, you’d know that my name is Andy. I am a miniature wargamer from Minnesota. I’ve been playing tabletop games since I picked up Warhammer 40k way back in 8^th grade. My first army was Chaos Space Marines. And when I say army, I mean a plastic box set and a box of metal Plague Marines. I also stretched that plastic set to a full 10-man squad by gluing the mutated bits to pieces of armor. They were… Interesting conversions to say the least. Although I didn’t have much, I always abused my friends poor Tau. He had a true force, but we only knew the second-hand so many rules were bent to favor my Chaosy doods. Sadly, my friend and I moved on from 40k and got sucked into World of Warcraft. Oh the wasted hours!

It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I got back into tabletop gaming. Aaron and a few of his buddies that had continued playing 40k after I quit held a small “learning 40k” night at his place. He knew the rules and taught a friend and I with some small practice games. I was hooked! It was a ton of fun. I was looking at the armies and Necrons caught my eye. With their old codex, I struggled to win many games, but those games were hard fought and very rewarding.

After Necrons, I started developing what some call “Army ADD”. I jumped from force to force, starting with Aaron’s Chaos Space Marines, followed by a short foray into Tyranids and Space Marines. It was at this point I found the army I really love, the Eldar. I have a collection of something like 3000 points of painted Eldar. I also still have a small force of Ultramarines Space Marines I have really enjoyed playing as well.

Along with 40k, I have also begun to play Warmahordes. I play Legion of Everblight. I have really been hooked on this game recently, and will probably be putting out a fair bit of content covering this game. It is a ton of fun.

Outside of tabletop games, I enjoy football, reading epic sci-fi series, and playing my Wii U. I just graduated from NDSU with an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering (so hopefully I actually have some more time for gaming!).

Aaron and I wanted to create this blog and our YouTube channel to share our passion for tabletop games. We have both been playing games for years, and we would like to share our experiences with you, the readers/viewers! So please enjoy all we have to offer, and always feel free to comment with any questions you may have!!

Thanks and enjoy,

Andy