I did a thing...
I fell for all the hype surrounding the immanent release of the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar....
In the upcoming new edition, there is a new format of play called "Spearhead". It is similar to the Combat Patrol format of play in Warhammer 40,000 Tenth Edition - where there are set army lists for each faction that you play with - each, conveniently sold in a single box, at 30-35% off what it would cost to buy them separately.
For the new edition of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar all of the old Vanguard boxes will be the Spearhead forces at the start of the new edition (and some new Spearhead boxes will probably be released as they release new battletomes over the next few years..?) These are generally about 600 points worth of stuff (give or take) - consisting of a Hero/Leader of some sort and two to four units - often one foot, one mounted - if there are such troop types in the given factions forces.
I think it's meant to be a "gateway" game, but that's really the size of game I most prefer playing these days - something bigger than a tiny skirmish, but smaller than a HUGE EPIC BATTLE. I really enjoyed are small short games in the Paths of Glory campaign that Finnegan and I played in just after Third Edition was released. I know there will be a Spearhead league at the Warhammer store after the Fourth Edition release, so I though I'd make sure I had one together by then!
Unfortunately, looking at the forces in all the boxes, I wasn't really even close to having the appropriate troops for ANY of them - despite having around a half-dozen different faction forces of 500-600 (or more) points... The closest I am is Daughters of Khaine - I have the Melusai Ironscale (the leader) and the Blood Stalkers... I'd still need to buy a box of Witch Aelves, and a box of Doomfire Warlocks (those two boxes on their own would be $130CAD... the whole Spearhead box is $175CAD... I'd rather just buy a Spearhead box and have an extra Melusai Ironscale and another unit of Blood Stalkers!?)
Despite having 1675 points of Slaanesh Daemons, I couldn't even put together a Spearhead force of THOSE!? Turns out ALL of the Chaos forces Vanguard/Spearhead boxes are mostly made up of MORTAL elements - not the Daemons (which is what I primarily have!)...
So if I was going to have to buy one.. which one to get...? Buy one for a faction that I already HAVE - building it up even larger...!? Or start something entirely NEW!
I did consider the above mentioned Hedonites of Slaanesh and Daughters of Khaine for the former reason (add to stuff I already have).
I also considered the Blades of Khorne for the same reason - I have a pile of Khorne Daemons and three Khorne Warbands for Warhammer Underworlds - which total well over 1000 points - the contents of the Vanguard box would have brought that to nearly 2000!? (Blood for the Blood God!)
I seriously considered the Soulblight Gravelords, again, largely because I have a considerable force of those already - just from the contents of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City... Those along with the Crimson Court (Warhammer Underworlds Warband) already make up over 1000 points... Some of the Vanguard/Spearhead box would be useful for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City (more city guard, and the Vampire lord contained in the box is one of the suggested models for the Night Wars expansion). With the other stuff I'll eventually need for Night Wars, and what I have , and the Vanguard box... I'd be over 2000 points worth of stuff!?
There were a few others I briefly considered - Things that would be entirely new - other than, possibly, one or two Warhammer Underworlds warbands... Idoneth Deepkin, Seraphon, Flesh-Eater Courts, Sylvaneth, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Gloomspite Gitz... I only seriously considered Flesh-Eater Courts, Sylvaneth, and Gloomspite Gitz...
Flesh-Eater Courts were considered because I know there is a bunch of content in White Dwarf magazines for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City for the Dlesh Eater Courts (and I do have two Warahmmer Underworlds warbands, and a few other older things...)
Sylvaneth... just because they look cool... Also, one of the models in the Vanguard box are playable characters in Soulbound...
The Gloomspite Gitz Spearhead box... well, that was just because they're so silly and fun... I had a riot painting Grinkrack's Looncourt! I also have Zarbag's Gitz and a Squigherd... and I think they Gobapalooza looks funny and will someday pick that up, regardless if I ever have an army of these... but damn, there are a LOT of them! probably the largest of the Vanguard boxes - in terms of number of troops. If you were painting the grots in their standard black robes and painted all the squigs standard red, it would probably go quickly... but that is NOT MY WAY!?
In the end I went with the Hedonites... They looked interesting, but not too much effort to paint! I like all the minatures and they were all units that I had in the back of my mind that I'd like to add to my Hedonites of Slaanesh force ONE DAY - whenever I got back to playing and finished up all the Daemons. Well I'm not quite finished up all the Daemons... yet... I do plan on working them into the mix of things to work on this year...
Soulblight is probably a close second... They're also interesting models... I could use some with Cursed City - or with Soulbound if I make use of the Ulfenkarn book - and follow up the Cursed City Warhammer Quest campaign with a role-playing campaign in the Realms of the Dead... In the end I didn't get them, partly because all the reasons stated above for getting Hedonites, but also I'm hoping I'll get to play Spearhead with a few of the people I'm already playing Wahammer Underworlds with and Nic will probably end up with a Soulblight Gravelords force... and there COULD be two, rival Vampire Lords battling it out... I thought it might be fun to add a little variety to the pool of forces.
Also, 50% more miniatures to paint in the Soulblight Gravelords box! 29 versus the 20 in the Hedonites box (Sure, 2/3 of them are skeletons which sould be super quick to paint... still...).
(not ruling out the idea of getting a Soulblight Gravelords Vanguard box... but I'll wait and see how much AoS4E we end up playing and if others are as equally enthusiastic about Spearhead play. And I definitely will NOT be buying another if I don't get ALL of the Hedonites box done first!!)
(For the record, this does not put me back in the RED - I've painted 111x 28mm miniatures so far this year and previously acquired 91... so I am dead even! But I need to paint these up quick before I'm going to allow myself to buy any more new things!)
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