Helsmiths of Hashut - War Despot

Before tackling the Lord of Afflictions and Pusgoyle Blightlord to finish up the Maggotkin of Nurgle spearhead, I though I'd finish up the first of the Helsmiths of Hashut. I did start assembling these pretty much the moment i got home with them... but then got painting the Maggotkin as there was a more immediate need for them (upcoming role-playing games this weekend!)... but also, I hadn't really nailed down a colour scheme.. 

Helsmiths of Hashut - War Despot

This is the General of the Spearhead force and I kind of painted him up on his own to test out colour-scheme ideas... and... I'm mostly happy with it... not super happy with how his Daemonflame Blade turned out... I tried a couple different ideas and now there's just too much paint on there and it doesn't look at all daemony... I may have to scrape some of that off and start over... OR I might just say fuck it, onwards! It's got paint on it and no one is ever going to look that closely at it!? 

All the rest of the Helsmiths are only partly assembled... I might see if I can build the Automaton and Artillery piece with magnets so I can potentially use them as either option they can be built as... Or.. I might just build them as required for the versions required for use in the Spearhead force... and if I ever feel like I need the OTHER option... I could just buy another one... I'll need more of both if ever I want to build this up past just the Spearhead force... 

Because I did promise some comparison pics... 

(a few things to keep in mind, though... He is a Champion that's been infused with Daemonic energies and is bigger and chonkier than the line Hashutite infantry, he is standing on top of a pile of rubble and he is wearing a VERY TALL HAT!)

War Despot with two modern heroes from Cursed City - Dagnail Holdenstock and Glaurio Ven Alten III

War Despot with current Slaanesh models - Shardspeaker of Slaanesh and Glisette from The Dread Pageant Warhammer Underworlds Warband. 

War Despot with current Stormcast Eternals - Liberator and Lord-Veritant

War Despot with current duardin - Fyreslayer Auric Runesmiter and Kharadron Arkanaut 

War Despot with older metal High Elves

War Despot with older metal Dwarf Thunderer and Human Wizard. 

Maggotkin of Nurgle - Putrid Blightkings and Spoilpox Scrivener

Another unit and the leader for the Maggotkin of Nurgle Bleak Host Spearhead force completed... and just in time to use for our next game of Soulbound this weekend! 

All the new stuff - Spoilpox Scrivener and Putrid Blightkings

Spoilpox Scrivener - this is the leader of the Spearhead army and can lead a Regiment of Daemons in regular Age of Sigmar (so... the Plaguebearers...). It CAN'T include mortal Rot bringers in it's regiment (the Putrid Blightkings!). Luckily I have a Lord of Plagues that can do that... or Fecula Flyblown, from the Warhammer Underworlds warband that could be used as a Rotbringer Sorcerer in a pinch! 

Putrid Blightkings

I painted five of these previously for Finnegan's Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal game... I guess I also painted another pair, as part of the Wurmspat Warhammer Underworlds warband... The latter aren't so useful for Age of Sigmar anymore... but I can use them along with these Putrid Blightkings in Soulbound! (and use Fecula as a Rotbringer Sorcerer!) 

ALL the Nurgle stuff so far... 

The Spearhead force, so far... 

I still have the two flying things - for the spearhead they count as two, independant, Pussygoyle Blightlords... but I built one as a Pussygoyle Blightlord and the other as a Lord of Afflictions (which is just an up-armoured Pussygoyle Blightlord that can lead a regiment with Pussygoyle Blightlords in it...). I'd like to get them done in the next week... but they are BIG and have a LOT of details... Not sure how I'm going to paint them, yet.. 

Spearhead - The Taming of the Trees

The mortal humans were cutting down trees in a sacred grove without the Sylvaneth's consent. The Sylvaneth were, understandably, angered by this... and slaughtered the entire logging party. A force of Stormcast Eternals under Lord Vigilant Thadeos Doursoul was sent forth to impress upon the Sylvaneth that straight-up murdering the humans was just not cool... 

This past Wednesday, Amanda and I played a game of Spearhead. She took her usual Sylvaneth Bitterbark Copse spearhead force. I took the Anvils of the Heldenhammer - Viglant Brotherhood Spearhead. 

Sylvaneth and Stormcast eternals are both forces of Order and would normally be allies and NOT fight each other... but occasionally the Sylvaneth DO get particularly irate about humans cutting down trees in Ghyran, especially in an area that has not been agreed upon and their dispensing of justice can be swift and brutal! I thought it not entirely unlikely that a group of Stormcast Eternals be dispatched to treat with an enraged group of Sylvaneth and it coming to blows... 

I was the attacker... but, given the background we'd come up with, I probably should have let Amanda go first... angry Sylvaneth... Stormcast Eternals just defending themselves... 

Alas.. 

Words were clearly not getting across to the Sylvaneth, and so make their point perfectly clear, Lord Vigilant Thadeos Doursoul and the Pprosecutors moved left to strike the right end of the Sylvaneth line, hoping to avoid the Treelord and the Branchwych leading the group and seize what they thought might be a soulpod grove and shock the Sylvaneth into pausing and listening. 

The Tree-revenants fought bitterly, but were no match for the heavily armoured Stormcast and were nearly wiped out... 

The Liberators moved a little more slowly and took up a position opposite the middle of the Sylvaneth line. 

The Treelord steped behind the ruin in the wood and seemed to magically appear behind the Stormcast lines... it harried the Liberators with long roots, but did not charge into combat, as they expected it might! 

The Branchwych and Kurnoth Hunters moved to engage the Stormcast on their right. The Kurnoth Hunters great bows were deadly accurate and one of the prosecutors was cut down and another injured. 

The Branchwych led the Kurnoth in a charge to reclaim the grove... The Branchwych was incapacitated in the ensuing melee. 

The Liberators joined in and the last of the Tree-Revenants were taken out. The last of the Kurnothi would fight to the bitter end, refusing to listen to reason. They sold themselve dearly, and took down the last two Prosecutors. 

Lord-Veritant Shandra Moongheist took up a position behind the Lord Vigilant and the Prosecutors, keeping an eye out for flanking Sylvaneth. 

Reinforcements for the Sylvaneth arrived in the form of MORE Tree-Revenants behind the Stormcast lines... 

The Treelord lumbered through the woods circling in the distance. Seemingly ignoring the plight of the Kurnoth... 

Prosecutor reinforcements arrived and the Lord Vigilant lead the charge across the field of battle to deal with the Treelord... 

The Lord Vigilant and the Prosecutors attacked the mighty treelord from two sides... 

I had some just CrAzY rolls... because the Lord Vigilant used his "Plan the Attack" ability and designated the objective the Treelord was standing on as the target of the ability (+1 to hit any enemy contesting the objective for the rest of the turn), the Lord Vigilant was hitting on 2+... anything but a one would hit... also, because I'd selected Morda's Talon as my general's Enhancement, he also had Crit (mortals) - any six caused mortal wounds, no rolling for wounding, no saves... So that's two ones, and three sixes... two missed, three crit mortals dealing six damage!? 

After the Treelord was knocked to the ground and encouraged to not get up again, the Lord Vigilant charged off to secure another location of importance to the Sylvaneth and with units dominating the wood... they would HAVE to stop and heed the Stormcast warnings... 

Yikes... 

As a final gesture of defiance, the remaining group of Tree-Revenants sliped through the spirit paths to retake one of the groves... but the gesture was meaningless... the Stormcast had clearly exerted their mastery of the realm. Both the Lord Vigilant and Lord Veritant gave their oath that words would be had with the humans of the nearby settlements and it would be clearly explained which woods were allowed to be harvested (as long as the appropriate rites to Alarielle the Everqueen were preformed), and in turn, the Sylvaneth promised not to harm the humans anymore...

So I won my second game of Spearhead (out of TWENTY played...). The final score was 23-14 for the Stormcast Eternals. Taking out the Branchwych early in the game was pretty HUGE as she has a LOT of healing power that can bring back Kurnothi and heal the Treelord as it takes wounds keeping it around to deal so much damage... The 3+ save for ALL of the Stormcast sure helped!  

I'm going to try and finish up the Maggotkin of Nurgle Bleak Host before our next game, as that is a classic Age of Sigmar match-up, Sylvaneth and the servants of Nurgle fighting in Ghyran! 

I LOVE the new mat! I wish ALL of the spearhead battleboards were mats like this instead of the folding cardboard ones... 

MORE Plaguebearers!

 I finished up a second batch of Plaguebearers - minor daemons of Nurgle. I painted up a batch of them earlier in August... These ones are from the Maggotkin of Nurgle Bleak Host Spearhead that I picked up last month at the local Warhammer Store Anniversary event. 

Plaguebearers of Nurgle

ALL the Plaguebearers. 

I decided to paint these up a different colour from the previous ones... mostly for fun... partly to make the individual units easier do differentiate. 

All the Maggotkin of Nurgle (so far)

I still have a Spoilpox Scrivener, a Lord of Afflictions, a Pusgoyle Blightlord, and five Putrid Blightkings to finish up this force... (and I still have all the Helsmiths of Hashut on the workbench... and.. a lot of other stuff... I have a feeling it's going to be all this Nurgle stuff that gets finished first, though... Probably the Putrid Blightkings... but maybe I'll knock out the Spoilpox Scrivener real quick...? 

I kind of went with the Nurgle stuff first (over the Hashutites) because I have a more immediate use for these! The player characters (who hopefully AREN'T reading this!) will likely be encountering a large force of Maggotkin in our Soulbound adventure on Sunday. Also... I'm excited to try out the Nurgle Spearhead... ALSO... I haven't entirely worked out how I'm going to paint the Hashutites... 

(and if things work out and Warhammer Quest: Darkwater is released in November - or december - I'll have a pile more Nurgle stuff to paint!!) 

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

 I KNEW IT!!

(well... I had my suspicions... or... deluded hopes...? regardless, they came true!) 

I do believe it is the 30th anniversary of Warhammer Quest this year... and it's been a few years since Warhammer Quest: Cursed City was released... So I kind of expected (HOPED!) there might be a NEW Warhammer Quest in the not too distant future... and this morning they announced it!

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

(Image ©2025 Games Workshop, used here entirely without their permission for the purposes of review)

What do we know about it.... NOTHING!

There was VERY LITTLE in the announcement:

Announcing Warhammer Quest: Darkwater on Warhammer Community

Well... it's Warhammer Quest... it's still set in the Mortal Realms - I had wondered if they'd do on set in the old world... and.. honestly... the heroes kind of LOOK more like Old World Characters than Age of Sigmar Characters...!? 

It apparently takes place in Ghyran at a location known as the Jade Abbey... ?

The rumours spreading about earlier about the main nemesis being Nurgle seems to be correct. I was surprised to see what looked like Beastmen on the cover when they've kind of been written out of Age of Sigmar... but it's been pointed out that these are likely new "Pestigor" models (similar to Tzangor and Slaangor models in the Tzeentch and Slaanesh forces). Further rumours suggest that this may herald a whole new bunch of Maggotkin of Nurgle miniatures - as Cursed City did for the Soulblight Gravelords! 

I've very excited about this because I do have a few Nurgle things... and kind of would actually like to expand this force a little... 

There is no release date... and with little information, I wonder if the announcement  was rumour control as too many leaks were getting out...? 

Regardless, I've contacted my FLGS to put me on the list for one!! Never too early!!

I DO HOPE that it is released this fall - the sooner, the better - as that might give me a chance to get all the stuff painted before we even finish Cursed City.. so we can just keep on playing when we're done Night Wars!! I could just as easily be next year, though, and that would make me sad... 

Alas, we won't be playing Cursed City this week, as Finnegan has an assignment he needs to work on for an animation class... Perhaps Amanda and I will get in a game of Spearhead on my fancy new mat! 

Ratling Sniper, Spearhead Mat, and Armies on Parade!

 I rolled out to the Warhammer Store in Saskatoon this morning to pick up the free miniature-of-the-month for October 2025... 

Free Ratling Sniper Miniature

They'd also gotten in SOME of the items from the anniversary event and I was able to pick up my new neoprene gaming mat...

The Spearhead side - it is pretty sweet. This will be so much nicer to play on than the cardboard ones... and way more durable! I don't know why they don't just print double-sided mats like this for all the new sets

The other side... not a spearhead mat... I guess it's meant for Kill Team...? Or maybe Warcry (probably kill team as there are metal drums for storing liquids printed in the rubble, if you look carefully...) 

Also Armies on Parade was this weekend and there were a few participants there. I guess it's kind of a come-and-go thing with no set time for everyone to be there...?

Very cool-looking purple Death Guard force.. 

A LARGE force of Impiral Knights!?

Adepta Sororitas (Sisters of Battle) 

Aeldari

A very colourful force of Seraphon - this was easily my favourite and the crappy phone camera photo does NOT do it justice! SO COLOURFUL!! 

There were apparently a lot more people that had signed up... but I didn't want to wair around all day to see who showed up with what... 

Maybe one of these years I'll remember this is a thing and remember to organize something to put together and bring out!?

Imperial Hobbies, Vancouver

 I just got back from a short trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. While there, I made a trip out to Imperial Hobbies. 

It's a bit out of the way... and it's moved locations since I was last here. 

The kids and I stopped in for an afternon a decade a go. It was a long ride on the Skytrain, but the old location was across the street from one of the stations. Now it's a 20 minute walk from the station. 

It's an old store that's been around a long time... and they just have SO MUCH STUFF!

Wall o'Minatures... It just went on forever!?

This isn't even ALL of the miniatures. This is just a wall of blister packs. Across from it, almost the entire length is shelves full of BOXES full of minitures and terrain and rules for all sorts of historical and fantastical miniature games... and then the next aisle over had even MORE!?

Some of the Bolt Action stuff... 

More Bolt Action stuff... 

I was taking pictures of Bolt Action stuff because I was texting them to Orion... I should have taken more pictures of ALL THE OTHER STUFF! I guess it was a little overwhelming! Lots of games and minis no one else I know of in Canada stocks. Lots of out of print miniatures and games.

They even had a couple of boxes of Great Escape Games minis - including these Hungarians... which I brought back for Orion (how could I NOT!? this box including two ten man rifle squads AND a six man command squad was the same price as a single squad from Warlord Games!?)

There were also SO MANY BOOKS....

This looked really interesting and I'm kind of kicking myself for not picking it up while I was there... 

I know what you're thinking... I spent a LOT of money here.... and... you're not wrong... but... There's a BIG BUT!!!

Amanda came along for the trip and we did buy almost $600 worth of stuff... The friendly staff pointed out that I could buy a membership for $25 and with that any purchases over $300 got 20% off... so we did that and ended up spending a little over $500 (with taxes and the membership...).

Here's the thing... most of it wasn't for me!

Beyond the Hungarians I picked up for Orion, we ended up buying a BUNCH of role-playing game books for Finnegan!! I was texting back and forth with him and there were a bunch of things here that he was interested in... and... he probably would have paid us back for them... But Amanda was feeling like we've done SO MUCH for Morgan (they got TWO trips paid for this year, including flights, accomodations, food... not to mention years of dance classes, all the while Finnegan has asked for NOTHING...) so we decided to just get it all for him... 

bunch of big books for D&D/fantasy role-playing and My Little Pony... 

smaller book of magic stuff for D&D5E that just didn't fit into the picture above... 

What did I get for myself...? Two books out of the half-price bin at the back... 

The older edition of Chain of Command (since SO MANY people have recommended it to me in the comments!) and a Skirmish Elite book of scenarios for WW2 - it was for Italians and Australians in North Africa - which I HAVE, so... Although, perusing it later, I realized I'd STILL need to get more things to play out a few of the scenarios... 

and that's it... there were a LOT of other things I was super tempted to buy... I could have EASILY spent over $500 on myself... Once I got going, I'd have found it hard to know where to draw the line... and I decided I could always just mail order some of it at a later date if, after getting home, I was feeling like I still REALLY needed it!!

While I was in Vancouver, I also picked up a couple other books by illustrators that I like the work of - Dave McKeen and Ralph Steadman. (not at Imperial Hobbies - at another used book store I went in while wandering around with Morgan).