Spearhead Armies Status

I've sort of ended up with a BUNCH of armies for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Spearhead. There are elements of Spearhead that remind me a bit of De Bellis Antiquitatis, which I like; short games, small footprint (on the tabletop), fixed army lists, you don't need a full battletome for each army you want to play... Of course, the gameplay isn't nearly so elegant as De Bellis Antiquitatis... it is a fun excuse to have a smattering of miniatures from a bunch of different armies - which is handy for other skirmish games or role-playing games. 

It all started with the Hedonites of Slaanesh. I'd started building an army of these when the Third Edition of Age of Sigmar came out four or five years ago, so when they announced the new Fourth Edition and the new play mode (Spearhead) I wanted to start there... unfortunately NONE of the units I already had were included in the Spearhead army. Not to worry, the starting Spearhead armies for the new edition exactly matched the contents of the Vanguard boxes from the previous editions and  was about $50-70 cheaper than buying the units separately. 

So I bought that box and built and painted the Hedonites of Slaanesh before Fourth Edition was released!

When Fourth Edition was released, I bought the Skaventide launch box. I'd never bought a lauch box for any edition of either 40K or Age of Sigmar, so I thought it might be fun. It included a Spearhead rule book with ALL the Spearhead army's information that you could not get in print anywhere else!? (sure, you can download the basic rules of the game AND all of the rules for any of the armies as a free PDF from GW's website...) AND the board and terrain and cards you need to play (which, on their own, would be released later for $80) AND it included two full Spearhead armies (Stormcasat and Skaven!). 

Initially I'd planned to sell off all the Stormcast and Skaven... but then thought maybe I'd keep them (or, at least, the Spearhead armies) so I could have some opposing armies that could be loaned out should anyone ever come over to play! So then I had three... 

THEN, I ended up buying the Soulblight Gravelords army, because I was ordering a book from an online seller that was super cheap... and the had the Soulblight army deeply discounted as well... and I figures since I already HAD a Soulblight Gravelord army - just from the contents of the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City box! That made FOUR!? 

THEN I traded some 40K Knights for a complete Blades of Khorne army - which conveniently did include the units requires for the Blades of Khorne Spearhead army!? That made FIVE. This was the second one I actually managed to get painted!

Then, somehow I managed to convince myself AND Amanda that I should get the Sylvaneth Spearhead army... and I painted that one up right away! SIXTH army, third one painted. 

In the fall, when the Slaves to Darkness battletome was announced they also announced that a new Slaves to Darkness Spearhead would be released along with it. As I had a LOT of Slaves to Darkness models (another army I'd intended to build as an ally for my Hedonites of Slaanesh in Third Edition) but didn't have the models for the initial Spearhead Army, I decided to pick up the Darkoath Raiders Spearhead - to have ANOTHER (SEVENTH!) Spearhead army and build up the Slaves to Darkness army! 

Through the rest of the year I ended up buying two deeply discounted battle boxes from previous editions of the game that the Dragon's Den had in their Bargain Bin (it's really more of a shelf... but you get the idea); Arcane Cataclysm and Arena of Shades (I also picked up the Extremis Starter box for third edition, but it didn't help with any Spearhead Armies!) 

The Arena of Shades box included the units I needed to finish off a Daughters of Khaine Spearhead army (as I'd started a small force of those when I started playing at the launch of third edition, thinking Amanda might be interested in trying it out - since she was so fond of playing Morgwaeth's Blad-Coven in Warhammer Underworlds!) EIGHT...!?

As it would turn out, Arena of Shades also included most of the units required for the new Nighthaunt Spearhead army the following year. (potentially a NINTH!) 

The Arcane Cataclysm Box has more than half of the units required for both Tzeentch and Lumineth Realmlords Spearhead armies!? (potentially TENTH and ELEVENTH!?)

Finally (so far) about a month ago, when GW announced the immanent arrival of the new Blades of Khorne Spearhead army and the NEW Spearhead army that would go along with it, the Fangs of Khorne, which I already had most of - Karanak and all the Flesh Hounds, only needed the one unit of the Claws of Karanak! - so, obviously I bought those! (TWELVE?!) 

So... What is the status of all those armies... 

Hedonites of Slaanesh - Blades of the Lurid Dream

DONE!

• 1x Shardspeaker of Slaanesh (General)
• 3x Slaangor Fiendbloods
• 5x Slickblade Seekers 
• 5x Blissbarb Archers (plus 1x Blissbrew Homonculus)
• 5x Blissbarb Archers

As it turns out, these armies are not super well balanced and some of them are just objectively better than others. This one is NOT one of the better ones.. It does kind of suck buying and assembling and painting an army only to find out you picked the wrong one if you ever want to win a game... ever... despite that, I've played with them a few times:

Hedonites of Slaanesh versus Soulblight Gravelords

Heodnites of Slaanesh Versus Stormcast Eternals - Yndrasts's Spearhead

Blades of Khorne - Bloodbound Gore Pilgrims

DONE!

• 1x Slaughterpriest (General)
• 5x Blood Warriors
• 5x Blood Warriors
• 10x Bloodreavers
• 3x Mighty Skullcrushers

I've played a few games with these... 

Age of Sigmar - Spearhead League - 2 Games (versus Flesh-Eater Courts and Soulblight Gravelords

Blades of Khorne Versus Soulblight Gravelords... Again...

Sap for the Sap God...? 

Sylvaneth - Bitterbark Copse

DONE!

• 1x Branchwych (General) 
• 1x Treelord
• 3x Kurnoth Hunters
• 5x Tree-Revenants

I have played a few games with these:

Last Spearhead League Game - versus Maggotkin of Nurgle 

Sylvaneth Battling Soulblights in Shyish!

Lizards and Trees Clash in Shyish!

Sap for the Sap God...? - loaned to John to play against Blades of Khorne

Blades of Khorne - Fangs of Khorne

Almost done!

• 1x Karanak (General) 
• 8x Claws of Karanak
• 5x Flesh Hounds
• 5x Flesh Hounds

Karanak and the Flesh Hounds I've had for a while and were fully painted before Fourth Edtion of Age of Sigmar was even announced. I'm over half done painting the Claws of Karanak. They should be done shortly... 

Stormcast Eternals - Vigilant Brotherhood

Still to do... but getting close! 

• 1x Lord Vigilant on Gryph-Stalker (General) 
• 1x Lord Veritant (with Gryph-Crow)
• 3x Prosecutors
• 5x Liberators

This one is also so very close to being done, I really need to just push through and FINISH THEM. All are assembled and over half painted. Maybe 80% done...? 

I have played ONE GAME with this force (not mine, the store's copy at the Warhammer Store in Saskatoon) I did not finish the game, I was leading when we had to call it, but I would NOT say victory was certain! 

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Spearhead - First Game!

Soulblight Gravelords - Bloodcrave Hunt

Still to do

• 1x Vampire Lord (General) 
• 3x Vargheists
• 5x Blood Knights
• 20x Deathrattle Skeletons

The Vampire Lord is done. Everything else is assembled and primed and the bases are done. These will probably be next after the Stormcast. 

Nighthaunt - Cursed Shacklehorde

Almost done!

• 1x Spirit Torment (General)
• 2x Chainghasts
• 10x Dreadscythe Harridans
• 10x Bladegheist Revenants
• 2x Dreadblade Harrows

The Spirit Torment, two Chainghasts, and ten Bladegheist Revenants I already had (from the Arena of Shades box) and are painted. The two Dreadblade Harrows i recently acquired (second hand) and need to be repainted. I still need to pick up the ten Dreadscythe Harridans... 

Daughters of Khaine - Heartflayer Troupe

Still to do... 

• 1x Melusai Ironscale (General) 
• 10x Witch Aelves
• 5x Blood Stalkers
• 5x Doomfire Warlocks

The Melusai Ironscale is painted, the rest have been assembled but still need to be painted. (warlocks are partly painted) 

Slaves to Darkness - Darkoath Raiders

Still to do!

• 1x Darkoath Warqueen (General) 
• 5x Darkoath Fellriders
• 10x Darkoath Savagers
• 10x Darkoath Marauders

The Darkoath Warqueen is assembled and partly painted. The rest... still on the Sprue... 

Skaven - Gnawfeast Pack

Still to do...

• 1x Clawlord on Gnaw-beast (General) 
• 1x Grey Seer
• 1x Warlock Engineer
• 10x Clanrats
• 10x Clanrats
• 3x Rat Ogors

These came with the Skaventide box. I've thought about getting rid of them more than a few times.. (and I DID get ride of the Skaven stuff from the box that WASN'T part of the Spearhead!) But ultimately decided to hold on to them - partly because I like the idea of having forces for all five of the dark gods of Chaos!

So many little rats to paint, tho... 

Luminath Realmlords - Glittering Phalanx

Still to do... 

• 1x Scinari Cathallar (General) 
• 5x Vanari Bladelords
• 10x Vanari Auralan Wardens
• 10x Vanari Auralan Sentinels

I have the three units of Vanari, two are assembled, one still on the sprue, and I still need to pick up a Scinari Cathaller, but I probably won't do that until some of the other armies are finished up and I actually start painting the units for this army

Disciples of Tzeentch - Fluxblade Coven 

Still to do

• 1x Magister on Disc of Tzeentch (General)
• 3x Screamers of Tzeentch
• 3x Flamers of Tzeentch
• 10x Tzaangors
• 10x Kairic Acolytes

Some of this came in the Arcane Cataclysm box... I picked up the Magister and Screamers separately, and still need the Flamers. So far, only the Screamers of Tzeentch are the only thing painted (though I have painted Tzaangors and Kairic Acolytes, those were all for Finnegan's Warhammer Quest games...) 

STILL TO GET!? 

It is bonkers to even consider any more at this point.

Yet... 

Not going to lie, there are others that I would totally love to get... 

Primarily, the Maggotkin of Nurgle - Bleak Host Spearhead army... mostly just to have all five Chaos gods represented (ugh... that still feels wrong including the Great Horned Rat in that... but whatevs). 

Also the Seraphon - Starscale Host looks fun - I mean, General on a GIANT LIZARD!? 

and more recently, I kind of like the idea of the new Helsmiths of Hashut... 

Now, I'm NOT going ot run out and buy ANY of these any time soon. I definitely need to finish painting a bunch of the ones that I already have before I even consider getting another! 

I've basically copied and pasted this post into a page where I can update it. If you're looking at this on a computer, it should be in the list of pages over to the left... if you're on a phone.. I'm not sure where it is, I never look at this on a phone... you can find it here, though:

Age of Sigmar - Spearhead Armies

Spearhead Terrain: The Large Bits

 I rushed to finish up the two larger bits of terrain included in the Skaventide boxed set - which are required for playing Spearhead - because Orion contacted me earlier in the day and inquired if I would be available to PLAY some Spearhead! As I'd finally finished the last unit for the Hedonites of Slaanesh force, and was super keen to try them out, I said "YES!!!" and got painting!!

Two Large Terrain pieces. 

They're not all THAT large... I guess it's just in relation to the smaller pieces. 

All four pieces of terrain on the spearhead board (Aqshy side!) 

All four pieces of terrain on the spearhead board (Gyran side!) 

Stay tuned for a GAME REPORT of the ensuing action! 

I need to get a second force done and see if I can convince Amanda (or Finnegan?) to play! 

In the rules it suggests there will be different boards for different Mortal Realms available at some point. I wonder if those will be available in a Gaming Pack with a double-sided board, some new terrain bits and cards specific to the new Mortal Realms depicted on the boards...? Or will they come in new started sets with two complete Spearhead forces!? 

I kind of hope it's the former - just board and cards available separately... And hope they call it Death & Shadow and include boards and cards for the realms of Ulgu and Shyish... 

If it HAD to include two Spearhead armies... It could still be Death & Shadow and include boards and cards for the realms of Ulgu and Shyish... along with a Daughters of Khaine army (but, like a DIFFERENT one that the one currently available) and... some Death army that ISN'T Soulblight Gravelords...? I wouldn't mind Flesh-Eater Courts... but it would probably be Nighthaunt or Ossiarch Bonereapers... All at a price significantly lower than the cost of two Spearhead forces on their own... (Spearhead armies are $175CAD, so.... less than $300CAD...? $275?)

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 24 July 2024

Well... with the Blissbard Archers done, and with them the Hedonites of Slaanesh Spearhead force... what to do next!? Probably one of the OTHER Spearhead forces I have... and then working each of those up to 1000-point starting Paths to Glory forces. 

So what's on my workbench today, then...? 

First priority are these wall bits so I can play some Spearhead! Two large and two small terrain bits are used in each game. I already finished the small ones, so now I need to finish these off! 

There are a few Hedonites of Slaanesh Heroes that managed to sneak onto the desk while I was working on their Spearhead force... I kind of want to move on to other things.. but these are SO CLOSE to being finished, I kind of also just want to finish them up.. 

Under the category of "Moving On"... a Vampire Count from the Soulblight Gravelords Vanguard/Spearhead box! It also happens to be the model suggested for Carmilla Dusang - one of the Nemeses in Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars

Also dug out some OLDER Vampire Lords to try and finish up... 

You can't used unique/named Heroes in a Paths to Glory force... so I thought I'd get some Generic Vampire Lords ready for that

(Yes, I KNOW these were NAMED characters back in Warhammer Fantasy... But they're Citadel miniatures and I'm not using them AS those characters, so... )

(Of course I could do the same with Carmilla Dusang... or ANY of the Vampire models... buuuuuut....)

And while I'm working on Vampires, I thought it was about time I finished these up... 

While I'm at it, I'll probably sneak a few more things onto the workbench from Warhammer Quest: Cursed City. 

Still these Castigatores I was using to test the Anvils of Heldenhammer colours on... 

Mindstealer Shpiranx - the last of Hargax's Pit Beasts - is still on the workbench... It may be here a while, as I don't have a clear idea of HOW i'm going to paint it yet... 

I did start on this Melusai Ironscale... becaue it was too embarrassing to have all these Daughters of Khaine with no paint on them... and I thought if I finished up one of the heroes, it might motivate me to do the rest of the units!!

Three Darkoath Warriors... one being a rather new recruit... These might show up in our Warhammer Quest campaign! I had a funny idea for an encounter involving them. I've had a BUNCH of ideas... I hope we get to play again soon! 

Ugggghhh... this fucking guy... All I really have left to do are the patchwork pants and the shield on his wrist... but I just can't seem to get motivated to GET IT DONE!? (there HAS been SOME work on the pants this last week, though, so that's SOMETHING!) 

Waiting in the wings are... 

The rest of the Soublight Gravelords - just need to pick up some more Green Stuff - to make more flagstone bases - and SKULLS!! 

and this... likewise waiting for green stuff and skulls and time and space to work on them... Tempted as I am to just ASSEMBLE THEM ALL... I kind of just want to focus on the Gravelords until they are done. 

(But I'll probably assemble a few of the Hero models, for funsies!)

What are YOU working on this week!?

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 17 July 2024

I kind of missed doing this last week... Did anyone miss seeing it!?

On one hand, I didn't feel like much had progressed and felt like time would be better spent painting miniatures, rather than taking pictures of the same old half painted miniatures!? (Well there has been SOME progress this past week! Not nearly as much as I'd hoped, though). On the other hand, one side-benefit of actually doing this once a week is it gives me a weekly excuse/opportunity to clear some stuff OFF the workbench!?

I'd really hoped that by this past weekend I'd have had my Hedonites of Slaanesh Vanguard/Spearhead force finished so I could IMMEDIATELY start playing Age of Sigmar: Spearhead on launch... Alas, they are STILL not completed... But there has been PROGRESS!!!

When last we checked in two weeks ago... I'd still only assembled MOST of the Hedonites of Slaanesh (still has two Slickblade Seekers to assemble). All of the assembled stuff had been primed and I'd done most of their bases!?

Since then I have finished the Shardspeaker of Slaanessh....

The Slickblade Seekers are fully assembled and a fair bit has been painted! I honestly thought these might be the LAST of the bunch to be painted, but I feel like they might actually be NEXT!

The Slaangor are part way done as well. I thought these might be next after the Shardspeaker... but I'll probably finished them up after the Slickblade Seekers.

The Blissbarb Archers are still just primed black and bases done... 

Will I push through and get these all done by the weekend!? Hard to say... 

There have been a few distractions!?

Primarily, Hargax's Pit Beasts made their way onto the table and bot assembled and primed and I've even got a fair bit along with painting the Ogroid Myrmidon and the Fomoroid Crusher... the Mindstealer Sphyranx might take a bit longer... as I want to do a really good job on that one!?

I just hope it doesn't become TOO PRECIOUS TO PAINT!?

Also... 

The only thing I took out of the Skaventide box to assemble and paint was the four little terrain bits.... 

It was VERY tempting to assemble a few of the Skaven or Stormcast Heroes... maybe just the two on mounts... or one of the smaller units of three Stormcast... But I knew it would just be MORE distractions on a table that there were already TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS!? 

A few other things have made their way onto the table, though... 

Some bonus Hedonites of Slaanesh things got on the table - before I picked up Hargax's Pit Beasts - the Infernal Enrapturess and Esske (the Daemon Prince of Slaanesh half of Syll-Esske) both needed rebasing from the 40K bases they were on.... and the Lord of Pain just made his way on because I knew I's be using a similar palette for him as the Blissbarb archers and Slickblade Seekers, so... might as well bring him to the table and work on him at the same time... 

There are a few others as well... 

The Kroot Free Minature-of-the-Month for July (which I thought was odd, with all the HYPE for the new Skaventide box, I thought FOR SURE it would be a clan rat or some kind of Stormcast Eternal...!?) 

Melusai Ironscale... because... y'know... I have SOME Daughters of Khaine... and (other than Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven) exactly NONE of them are painted and I was feeling a little embarrassed about that and thought maybe I should start with getting just this ONE Hero done... maybe that would get me excited enough to put MORE of them into the mix... or maybe it would get AMANDA excited enough to try out Age of Sigmar and THAT might get me excited enough to paint the rest of them!? 

Um... and... I kind of assembled and primed and did the bases for MOST of the Fangs of the Blood Queen!? 

THIS GUY is STILL hanging around on the workbench... at this point all I have to do is finish his patchwork pants... 

Some Darkoath Warriors (with a new recruit!?) (All free miniatures-of-the-month)

When I got it in my head that I might KEEP the Stormcast from the Skaventide box and might paint them as the Anvils of the Heldenhammer... 

I've been rethinking that... because, as I was fooling around with army options for THE PLAN section of the the Stormcast Eternals Page... I realized, with ALL THE STUFF I have, I could field a 2000 point army - at least in a funsies game that allowed Legends units... and then I started thinking I should stick with Hammers of Sigmar, as boring as they are, for a consistent look... 

But then... do I CARE about ever fielding a 2000 point army and playing a game that big!??!

(probably not...) 

Two heroes from Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower. I had hoped to finish one or both before our FIRST GAME OF WARHAMMER QUEST last night - just to be able to offer a few more options for the players... 

And some other stuff I couldn't be bothered to take pictures of... 

Starting to see why I did not get the Hedonites done...?

Also, while not technically on the workbench, in teh last week or so I actually started assembling my Warscryer Citadel that's been sitting in a box for YEARS!? The gothic looks just screams THIS IS WHERE A VAMPIRE LIVES... and because that's the NEXT PROJECT after the Hedonites... I thought I'd start assembling it!?

The RIDICULOUS thing is, I keep thinking about OTHER armies I could get vanguard/Spearhead boxes for!? I've settled down a bit... and I've decided if (WHEN!!) I get the first FOUR Spearhead forces I have (or five, if I pick up the Doomfire Warlocks to build a Daughters of Khaine Spearhead force), I'll allow myself another - which will probably be the Sylvaneth (because it's only ten models - though a few are pretty BIG ones! and also it has Kurnothi Hunters and a Branchwych - both of which are playable archtypes in Soulbound?)

(If ever I finished THOSE... I might get the OTHER Chaos forces... Blades of Khorne, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Disciples of Tzeentch....) 

The Spearhead forces are kind of like DBA or HotT armies - small, fixed forces - it's easy to have more than one and scratch that little itch of wanting to HAVE THEM ALL (or, at least a few, opposing forces)!? 

This past week I've also been working on some new Gallery Pages of my assorted Age of Sigmar fantasy miniatures. I'm not sure how to navigate to them on a phone. On a desktop computer, they should show up over on the left, under "Pages". 

Or you can see them here:

Age of Sigmar - Hedonites of Slaanesh

Age of Sigmar - SoulBlight Gravelords

Age of Sigmar: Stormcast Eternals

Age of Sigmar - SoulBlight Gravelords

Age of Sigmar: Blades of Khorne

I also have pages in the works for Skaven (two of them, actually - one for Metal, one for plastic) and the Daughters of Khaine... and sort of one for Cities of Sigmar, maybe...?

Back to PAINTING!!!

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Skaventide

 Welp, it's here... 

It was a VERY HEAVY box...

With a LOT of STUFF in it!?

(I was so very close to being "in the black" again...)

Unfortunately, after carefully taking all the sprues out, I STILL found four little broken bits in the bottom of the box... one is definitely a spike from armour or a small skaven knife...? One of the others looks like a bit from a scabbard or belt...? It's getting a little annoying that this is becoming a pretty common feature of opening up a box of Citadel Miniatures! 

Not going to lie... I'm kind of tempted to build THESE models and try to knock out the Stormcast Spearhead force quickly... Or maybe the Skaven...?

I need to focus and just FINISH THE HEDONITES!!!

I've been FULLY DISTRACTED this last week with the release of all the PDFs of the rules and battle profiles and Faction packs and just trying to figure out how I can fit stuff I have into what armies and what, if anything, I might need to get to finish up a force that I have... 

It's kind of ridiculous... 

Most of my theory-builds have been all 2000 point armies as that's kind of the "standard"... but I have ZERO INTEREST in actually PLAYING 2000 point games (right now, at least... never say never...). But writing out army lists just tickles that specific part of my brain that says "YEAH! LET'S DO THIS!?" and then feeds me ALL THE DOPAMINE?! 

I am super stoked about Spearhead. 

I am pretty excited about getting together a 1000 point force to play a Paths to Glory narrative campaign. 

NO interest in 2000 point matched play... 

But that's all my brain wants to build theoretical armies for!? 

There are whole new rules for army building in this edition. It isn't really just pick what you want up to a certain point value (and maybe include three "battleline" troops and at least one hero...) Now everything has to be organized into Regiments... A Regiment is made up of a Hero and up to three non-Hero units (or four, if it's the generals). Each Hero has a list of what units or types of units it can include in regiments... so they can't just be put into any old regiment willy-nilly... which has made some... challenges for some of the armies I have for Age of Sigmar!

The Spearhead league at the local Warhammer Store starts a week from tomorrow, so I best get painting! 

HEDONITES!!! 

PAINTING HEDONITES, not Skaven or Stormcast!