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Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Warhammer Underworlds: The Grymwatch

The Grymwatch are a Crypt Ghoul warband of the Flesh-Eater Courts for Warhammer Underworlds - released as an expansion for Beastgrave. Crypt Ghouls are pretty weird in Age of Sigmar. Unlike being human shaped creatures with little higher brain function, little better than animals that just want to FEED! These are... well, they ARE and little like that.. creatures that just want to feed... BUT they believe themselves to be totally not that. They all suffer from collective delusion that they are all regal members of a knightly court... or something. 

There was a story about them in the Direchasm and, not knowing about this, it was a little confusing as I knew the story was supposed to be ABOUT the Grymwatch and the names of the characters were the names of the fighters in this warband and they were all described as being part of a band of huntsmen (and women) despatched by their king to track down a vile beastman that had laid waste to their kingdom and I thought maybe this was them BEFORE they became Ghouls... but then it got all weird and they were freaking out when they saw what they thought was horrid monsters beyond this translucent amber, but was actually their reflections... I'm describing it poorly. I liked the story. But I did not get what was going on until I stopped and did a google search and did some reading on Ghouls in Age of Sigmar... 

The warband - another larger one. There are seven in total. and some of them can come back after they are taken out of action 

Duke Crakmarrow - he has a special action to bring back any Crypt Ghouls that have been taken out of action - and gets to do the action once for free at the beginning of each round... which seems like it might be kind of cool... or... maybe it will mean more ghouls for opponent to kill and gain glory from...?

Gristlewel, Duke Crackmarrow's right hand... man...? He imagines himself carrying a mighty greatsword, but it's really just a big-ass bone... or big-LEG bone...? Also Valreek the Tracker - and protagonist of the story in the Direchasm Anthology. While they are, technically Crypt Ghouls... they dont' have the Crypt Ghoul keyword on their cards and can't come back after being removed from the board. But that's because they suck less than the others - having 3 wounds and doing more than one damage with their attacks. 

The Royal Butcher and Night’s Herald - these are the crypt Ghouls that can be returned to play. 

Master Talon and the Duke’s Harriers. Master Talon is also a Ghoul that can come back. The giant bats, not-so-much. 

When I had initially assembled and started painting these (in late January/Early February) I was also trying to organize things for Warcry and decided to rebase some of the older, metal GW Ghouls I had. 

Originally these are on metal washers for bases, but I put them onto DW's Broken Realms sculpted bases - hoping they might work with the Grymwatch minis. I did try to match the skin on the Grymwatch with the way I'd painted these older ones... I got pretty close. Close enough that I don't hate it. 

I don't know... the older metal minis seems a bit chonky by comparison, though. and SO MUCH heavier. I'm not sure I'm all that excited about mixing plastic and metal minis in the same unit or warband. Maybe in separate units in a larger army...? 

I can't recall if I'd figured out if these would be useable in Warcry or not, and, as I'm pretty excited about WArhammer Underworlds at the moment and looking forward to Cursed Sity... I'm not all that fused about whether these would be fieldable in Warcry at the moment. When I do get back to Warcry - and I DO hope to revisit that at SOME point - I think I'd rather track down some more plastic Crypt Ghouls and fill out a ghoul warband that way. I'd thought of getting more metal ones, but, wow, do people ever want a lot for ghould of this vintage on ebay... I do have some old GW vampires, but apparently Vampires and Ghouls don't really mix in Age of Sigmar... Ghouls are part of the Flesh Eater Courts and Vampires are part of the Legions of Nagash - or the new Soulblight Gravelords! I guess they're like punks and hippies, or whatever.., they're both undead, but they just don't get along...? 

Excited to try out the Grymwatch in Warhammer Underworlds this weekend - and maybe bring back the Dread Pageant. I did get around to messing with their deck a bit and thinking about strategies that might make them... well... maybe not WIN... but hopefully not lose so badly!

This might be the last of the Warhammer Underworlds warbands I paint for a bit as I'm hoping I'll have a copy of Cursed City in my hands in the next few days and will switch gears and focus on those for a bit... 

6 comments:

  1. Brent at Goobertown opened his copy of Cursed City and painted two characters. I suspect that you will enjoy the minis in that box, particularly the vampire hunter figure.

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    1. They do look fantastic... and a pain-in-the-ass to paint! Thanks!

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  2. Tim,
    I'm loving it!
    Neil

    http://toysoldiersanddiningroombattles.blogspot.com/

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  3. You've certainly got your painting mojo back! They look great and to my untoutured eye the old figures look fine too!
    Best Iain

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