Introducing ‘A Tale of 9 Warlords’ – The 1,000 points Warhammer Age of Sigmar painting challenge!

Today we introduce a very fun challenge between a group of friends, miniature and wargame enthusiasts. A challenge between 9 friends to build an army of Warhammer Age of Sigmar!

The idea comes from the original campaign that is running currently in the Spanish blog Modelbrush, which started months ago. We copied it and we want to see what comes out of it from people that are not used to painting armies. Will they capable of stepping up to the challenge?

The Rules

During the next 6 months each participant must assemble and paint a 1,000 points army of their choosing from Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

• Each participant will share their progress monthly.
• After 3 months, there will be an important date (15/08/2017), in which each warlord must show that they have painted at least 500 points. Those who failed in this task at the 3 month checkpoint will be eliminated from the challenge.
• After 6 months (15/11/2017) each participant will have to demonstrate the painting of a complete list of 1,000 points. Only those who made it to the end of the campaign will be submitted to the ruling of the audience who will determine which warlord did the best job.

This first entry will be dedicated to the presentations of the participants, of their motivations and their plans for this painting campaign. Without any further ado, here are the challengers!

They are buddies currently… but will they continue to be after the battle?

A Tale of 9 Warlords – Presentations

Armando – Khorne Bloodbound

Despite arriving to the world of miniatures very soon when at age 9 I was given the boardgame Space Crusade, I never played any other wargame. And it’s not because I did not like it. I was very attracted to the idea of representing battles with a lot of miniatures. But what I really liked was painting them.
I discovered the White Dwarf magazine and I could spend hours reading and re-reading it, hallucinating with the miniatures painted by Mike McVey and the ‘Eavy Metal team. Seeing armies painted at that level made me dream of being able to get something like that someday. But I never did.
After more than 10 years of being disconnected from this world, I reconnected, wanting to go back to painting and try what I did not manage to do in the past (among many other things, paint my own GW army). I was waiting for the best moment for this and when Rafa proposed the challenge, I did not even stop to think about it. It was the perfect excuse.
Another thing that I have always loved, as well as the painting, is the vast background of the GW universe, both in Fantasy and 40k, and one of the features that attracts me most is Chaos (more specifically Khorne) for everything it represents. It has a mixture of brutality, terror and savagery that I love, so when it came to choosing army, the decision was clear.
As I said, I am not a player, so rather than creating a competitive army, I wanted to make a Khorne themed army with models that I liked for their aesthetics.

The chosen one stirs in his dark throne and prepares the blow that will separate the world. The kingdoms of old have fallen, lost under the fury of the Dark Gods. Some heroes struggle, too obstinate to recognize that all hope is lost. Naive. They are doomed.
His time has passed, a new age of Chaos and dismay has come to annihilate them all and flood the lands with his blood.
Blood for the Blood God.

Javi – Legion of Azgorh

Like most of us, I got into the hobby by the hand of Games Workshop and his Warhammer about 15 years ago. [Uff…] Since then, the classic, little by little you stop having time, it’s not as easy to meet with your friends, battles are too long… you play again sometimes… but never with the motivation of that time. After being completely disconnected from the world of miniatures for about ten years, I became interested again two years ago and began painting and playing other less demanding games. From that time until now, moved by the nostalgia, I was collecting an army of Chaos Dwarfs, and the truth is that I never found the time to paint it. Lately I did not count on it either (who does not have an army that knows he is not going to paint?). So when Volo told me about this challenge and after a couple of conversations between all the here present… I was motivated, I thought about those evil bearded dwarfs… and here I am! I don’t know how long I will last, I don’t know how much or what I will paint, but here I am!

For more than a thousand years, the dark and burning spiral of the Black Fortress has remained vigilant over the crossing of the Ruln River, on the southern edge of the Lament Mountains, from where it has guarded this area for the empire of fire and suffering. The Chaos Dwarfs. It is a nightmare place, terrible to contemplate, of black iron and solid rock, magma rivers pass through the place as if they were the arteries of a monstrous being.
For centuries, the Lord of this dark place and the warriors and slaves who inhabit it has been Drazhoath, a powerful sorcerer, twisted and hungry for power. Commander of the Legion of Azgorh, an army of Chaos Dwarves that watches over and patrols the savage wastelands of the dark lands to maintain dominion over this kingdom, crowded with monsters.
When Drazhoath heard rumors of various hosts increasing in power and activity, approaching from east and south, he went to the altars of sacrifice where he consulted the flames and embers of Hashut. There, in the jaws of the earth, in the bowels of the Tower of Gorgoth, a grave danger was revealed, but also a great opportunity… and following the evil ingenuity that characterizes his race of cold heart, he began to gather the warriors of the legion and plot plans for the upcoming battle. The fortress needed new slaves!

Nor – Orruks & Grots

As if were not involved in enough projects, both personal and in group, here comes Volomir and tells me about a challenge to build an Age of Sigmar army…
I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained what the whole idea was about. Initially, I was not into it, because time is not something that I have a lot of precisely (pretty much like everyone else I would say). What happened after that swift conversation while we were on our way to the Leganés contest is worthy of study as far as ‘collective hysteria’ is concerned. Let me explain: a current of enthusiasm began to growin different Whatsapp groups where we are for the project that was difficult to resist, and only a few did. I did not. I fell like a pig in the mud… More than happy to be here, I have to say!

So there you go, let’s paint an army for AOS. Choosing seems complicated, so I stopped to think and get myself carried away by the memories of youth, where I fantasized about having enough money and motivation to build a well-painted Warhammer army and play with it. My favourite races in this order are: Dwarves / Empire / Orcs. I quickly discarded the first two, since with the new AOS background, there were no new miniatures worthy of mention and, in addition, Orcs have always been in my TO DO list, because in my history as a miniature painter miniatures I have not painted any of them many times.

I decided to choose Orruks as part of the Grand Alliance Destruction. Delightful miniatures that I am sure will provide hours of fun and enjoyment.

The commotion in the tribe had been huge. From the depths of the mountains a huge Orrul had come calling himself Throatcutter, riding a winged serpent. From the scars of the snake, it seemed that it was close to killing it rather than dominating it, and certainly the marks that the animal showed on its face and its broken horns, showed how brutal this Orruk specimen could be.
Soon he met the two chieftains who commanded the tribe, and called for a conclave with them. Everyone who knew about this thought of some kind of message or deal with another tribe… nothing close to what happened. The chief of the Grots who called himself Breakbunch and the Orruk Chieftain with whom he shared the rank and barely the leadership of the tribe, a great black Orruk nicknamed Toughbelly, came to the conclave.
Shortly after the beginning of the conclave, it was said that Throatcutter, without a word, took a wooden spoon from a nearby pot and inserted it in one eye to Toughbelly. Then he attacked him, and once on the ground he began to empty his head with the same spoon that later was hanging from his neck like an amulet… During this process, Breakbunch tried to take advantage of the tumult to stab Throatcutter in the back, and in a swift strike, obtain the leadership of the tribe. I did not even come close, because Throatcutter saw him approaching and with just a roar he paralyzed the grot in fear.
It is in our nature to accept the strongest among the strong, so no green skin opposed to Throatcutter becoming our leader, and Breakbunch became his second in command of the grots.
A new term in the Blood Moon tribe began in the dominion on the Humpback Mountain, lurking, stealing, and above all, killing all the unwary who came close to us.

Berek – Ogors

It all began around 1998 with the third edition of Warhammer 40,000. I have always been a miniature player and collector of this Games Workshop game, of which I have been able to enjoy, fortunately, almost all aspects of the hobby. I have really enjoyed playing tournaments such as campaigns and cross-country games. Although Fantasy has always called upon me, I have never played it continuously because of the complexity in its rules, which made games too hard.

With the release of Age of Sigmar and the simplification of the rules, along with this initiative, I found the push I needed to get back out my army of Ogres that I had left in a briefcase and complete it with some of the new miniatures that were released back in the day and that I always wanted to have.

Gory remains, amputated limbs and pools of blood decorated the scene. At the center, a scruffy figure stood motionless on his knees, arms outstretched towards the ceiling. He stood like that for a while, eyes white, in trance. Beside him was Ghark Ironskin witnessing the ritual Grunfag was carrying out.
Leaning on the huge stone where the sacrifice had been carried out, the Butcher Master stood and turned to his Tyrant, with a fierce smile on his face covered with blood. Ghark let out a roar, raising his Mace. at that instant, the Ogors gathered there turned into a sick crowd.
The Ironskin tribe placed their gut plates and took their weapons, the Great Maw had blessed a new march towards the Challenge Stone.

Mommel – Ironjawz

The creation of an orc clan is a topic of discussion in all places of the civilized world, especially in those bordering or near bordering with green skins. This is because they usually appreciate knowing when they will stop fighting between them to come to raze towns and plunder cities. However, even today, there seems to be no logical pattern to establish when one of these drastic sociopolitical changes – whether they exist in the Orc culture in a recognizable way – will occur or not, and to be able to anticipate or prepare with time for a mass attack.

Clans have been seen united by a charismatic leader – where charismatic is usually a synonym of great, crude and with taste for blood – that after killing other leaders – and descendants of bosses, friends of bosses, acquaintances of bosses, etc. – seemed to find the support of the other clans to follow him.

Other times large groups of orcs have been followed by shamans, the result of some religious belief that we cannot understand given their barbarism: a god of steel, a god of blood, a god of fertility… everything works (and at the same time, it may not) to unite and attack. Sometimes killing the shaman who carried this religion on his back has also served to unite them in favor of another.

Finding valuables – which increase the social rank of the bearer – or stealing them, have also been a cause of union, even though the object may seem altogether arbitrary. It is enough that a few of these hollow-headed beings decide to follow it so that, somehow, everyone perceives something special in it and go together to war. They have worn venerated rusty weapons as a gift from the gods; Bones, stones, a rotten wooden cross, shrouds stained with mud, a barrel filled with brandy from some forgotten monastery… everything works.

However, the nature of their stupidity is such that with even more ridiculous things they have come together. Proof of this is the testimony of an orc captured in exploration a couple of weeks ago at the outpost, and that a survivor has brought us here, undoubtedly protected by the gods. To facilitate the reading of his lordship, we have transcribed to our language the clumsy slang of these monstrous beings, although maintained its barbarous syntactic construction:

“You are being questioned to provide information to your majesty. Know that if you lie to us, you will die in a terrible agony.”
“I can escape agony. Fhlez great escaper.”
“You do not understand me stupid, what I mean is …”
“Leave him the interrogator. Go ahead.”
“As you wish, sir. You are Fhlez, and you are an explorer: your mission was to spy on us to prepare an attack, correct?”
“Yes, Fhlez, great explorer. Fhlez looks for color.”
“Color? What do you mean, you’re looking for color?”
“Clan of Fhlez great clan, many Orkos need to paint armor or not be able to be of the clan. We paint colored fireballs from the sky in the mountains.”
“The sun at dusk, you mean. Orange. It gets that color when the sunset comes, so it’s next to the mountain.”
“Fireball of the great god of destruction, he puts in mountain.”
“No one puts the sun there, what happens is …”
“Ball of fire.”
“It does not matter, but our planet is spinning and …”
“Put it on the mountain. God of destruction.”
“There are not any…!”
“Interrogator, please. Go ahead.”
“Okay …” the interrogator takes a deep breath. “Your armor is orange, why?””
“Boss fought with great boss Skatch the Yellow one in sand of slaves. Shaman used magic dust to make Skatch stronger in battle.”
“What kind of dust is that?”
“Magic octopus of shaman. Yellow powder like soft metal of humans, makes us stronger.”
“And what happened?”
“Skatch Yellow and Chief Baksi fought a half-step fireball, but Skatch won and was going to kill Boss.”
“But he did not kill him, it seems.”
Skatch turned his back on Boss to celebrate victory. Head unarmed, only human slaves from Skatch nearby.
“Damn beast … you have slaves to our citizens?”
“Yes. We used to wear a shield on the sand.”
“Like what before?”
“Great Boss ready. Head catch human and hit Skatch with him. Human to die. Skatch to die. Great boss stay in Skatch armor, but blood and powder mix and stay coloured ball of fire on the mountain. Colour of the fireball god.”
“What a barbarism !! Poor man…”
“Great Boss Baksi much yellow powder, but not have more humans to do colour armor.”
A sound of horns and the warning bell sounds at this moment of the interrogation. The orc smiles his huge teeth as he watches the orange light of the sunset through the grating.
“But what…”
“Colour no more problem thanks to Fhlez.”

– Orc traditions. Vol. VII, Formation of clans and families. Chap. III, Clan Sunz Zet.

Mitico – Kharadron Overlords

Ahoy Sailor! I’ve always liked pirates. Ever since I was a little boy I’ve swallowed books and pirate movies everywhere, I even have an army of pirate ogres that I did for the 8th edition of Fantasy, so I did not hesitate when Volomir invited me to this campaign and after a few days undecided I chose the Kharadron Overlords. I have been reading the background and I really liked the whole idea of hunting ‘marine’ monsters through the wide and vast skies of this new world of AoS. Their rules provide an extra for me because they are a playable list in this game that has still a lot of potential to grow and is so much fun.

Another feature that helped me decide to participate in this campaign is to be able to play with my friends the painters, with whom I started in the miniature painting side of our world rampaging through part of Europe visiting the best Golden Demons, learning from the best, getting to know more and more people and having great fun. So with this in mind, how could I not get involved in this adventure!

I’m looking forward to painting, but I have not yet decided whether to build a port of my own or use one of the generics so you can see an army of these Duardin.

PLUNDER WHAT YOU SEE AND GENEROUS DO NOT BE!!!

Paloji – Kharadron Overlords

It all started back in 2001, 2002 or so, when I began collecting and playing The Lord of the Rings from Games Workshop (Frodo! You started it all!). Back then I played my first battles and stained my first minis. Slowly I started focusing more on the artistic part of the hobby and gaming less and less (to be honest, I lacked skills for the game and that also had a part in it) so I concentrated more on the painting contests and abandoned gaming tournaments.

And now Volomir the scoundrel comes in, with a bunch of even more scoundrels, to lure me into this AoS challenge, just to get me to paint an army for gaming… for gaming? I don’t even know the rules! I never in my life played Warhammer Fantasy so even less Age of Sigmar! But it doesn’t matter, I am easily tricked, I get the hype easily and honestly the challenge is awesome, and the new steampunk dwarfs are cool as shit (flying dwarfs, in flying ships, what? Are we crazy? Shut up and take my money!). So I couldn’t help but hear the call and join to kick some ass ^^.

Mariano – Wanderers

So here we go, time to kick some AoS with oldstyle miniatures. All my army will be composed of miniatures from WFB third edition (ok, maybe some will be more modern, but that is because there were no dryads in third edition…).
The plan is simple, bring back the colour of those armies from Mike McVey, Wayne England, etc, and enjoy the road. It’s all about that, right?

In the depths of the forest, where no man ever ever stepped in, was the Spring of Lawën. Only the oldest elves knew the legend that accompanied the place. “When the great forest does not wake again with the rays of dawn, when spring does not bloom anymore at the King’s Glade, when the end comes to Athel Loren… The halls of the spring will be reopened and the elven people of ancient times will dance to melodies of hunting.”

Volomir – Aelfs

Indeed, it was my fault that I brought together this group of scoundrels, and I tricked them into building a band for Age of Sigmar. But not only that… I’ll get them to paint it!
It turns out that I have a few painted High Elves hanging around (one of these days I’ll show them to you, 😉 ha ha!). I wanted to build an army painted to a very high level, slowly and calmly. The project started in 2010, so a lot of time has gone by. So much that before I had enough miniatures to try them in a game, here it came Games Workshop destroying the good Old World. And with him, my dear elves, lost forever in the existential emptiness of intellectual property. With it came Age of Sigmar, and what initially cost me months to overcome (I’ve gone to several shrinks to treat the resulting depression), now it turns out that it is getting some traction and it seems that is cool and all! So I decided not to wait for another destruction of worlds and I tried what the game was about (what! Volomir playing wargames! The end is nigh!). The game was a great revelation since it was fast, simple and fun. Easy to learn and as complicated as one wants it to be. My many past experiences with WFB and with 40k were not very promising, but this one might end up hooking me. So I thought it through and decided that it was about time to going back to the elves!
Since I’ve already played a few games, I thought of creating a list that I could add to what I already have painted and assemble something that I feel like playing. That’s why you see so many Reavers in my list (they are OP as shit) and maybe I’ll join the Draconis Order (well, I already have a dragon…). But this can change throughout the challenge asI continue testing the game. And who knows, maybe the new Aelfs will be released before we finish the 1,000 points!

The arrogance of the elves did nothing to save our world from its destruction. The proud High Elves watched impassively as the apocalypse arrived, and how it was impossible to do anything to prevent it. But staying calm has its advantages, and their legendary knowledge of the winds of magic proved to be a blessing to prevent the extinction of the race. Whole lineages of immortal warriors pierced the gates to a new existence, deep into a different reality. There they wait, again, impassive, the moment in which they will come back. Return to avenge their home, revenge for a greater grievance than that never committed by their fallen brothers. Ulthuan will rise again, and all its sons will be united as brothers again around the fire.
Can you feel the heat? It’s the flame that rises from its ashes. The children of the Phoenix have returned.

It looks like it’s going to be a fun ride! Follow ‘A Tale of 9 Warlords‘ here in volomir.com and in social networks! Stay tuned!