Herald of Khorne Conversion

I have always liked to personalize my own army to make it unique and easily recognized to be of my own. For Daemons of Chaos, there are limitless possibilities that you can do with Daemons. Daemons afterall, don't really have to follow the usual humanoid shapes. You can many armed monstrocities, extremely large heads or limbs, oversized weapons, multiple heads and the list could go on and on. As for your characters of course you would like to make them very outstanding and easily distinguished when you place them among your troops.

As for my first conversion for my Herald of Khorne, I opted not to go overboard but to use mostly from the Bloodletter box and minimally only used three separate bits from Empire bits. So here is the list of items that I have used for this conversion

1. PVA glue + water mixture
2. Tissue paper
3. Khorne icon from bloodletter standard bearer
4. Banner from bloodletter standard bearer
5. Bloodletter body and leg
6. Bloodletter army (left and right)
7. Bloodletter champion head
8. Empire shields x 2
9. Empire flagellant head
10. Small pin
11. Super glue
12. Plastic glue
13. Hair dryer with paper nozzle
14. Pen knife

To start off, I make the base of the herald with the PVA glue + water mixture + tissue. As this is the theme of my entire army, they would all have the lava based base. Mould the base up to look like a rock. Before setting it up to dry, take the Khorne icon from the bloodletter standard bearer set and cut it out from it's stand. Stick the icon to the base where it would be the front of your herald. Make sure that most of the tissue and glue has contact over the icon so that it would stick when it's dried. After this is completed, you can set it out to dry.

Once the base is completely dry, glue the herald's body (of course!) to the base. I used superglue excessively for this to crystalize some of the base with the herald's foot. As the tissue hardens, you may not have a full contact on the foot of the herald. The crystalization of the superglue would support how well the herald stick to the base. At this point, you do not have to worry if the herald would be facing too high up or too low, the next part will handle this. Wait till the superglue is dried, you may wish to reposition the herald body. Use the hair dryer with a custom made paper nozzle to bend the legs of the herald that it would be facing in your intended position.

Icon, body and tissue + PVA glue + water mix all glued

Next glue both army to the body with plastic glue. Wait for it to dry and then by using the same method and the legs, use the hair dryer with custom made paper nozzle to bend the arms. I even bend some of the fingers of the left arm to the shape I wanted. It's going to hold a severed head by the end of the conversion. The arm holding the hellblade, I bent it face forward and raised the sword slightly higher. I can't bend it too much as I have to leave some space for the shoulder pads and also the big head.

Arms bent and glued to body

Next up are both shoulder pads. Get two Empire shields, file off the details and then use the hair dryer with the custom paper nozzle to bend it slightly. It's pretty simple and fast to do but be careful as they are small and easily get over bent.

Shoulder pads made from Empire shields

Just as I'm finished with the shoulder pads, why not I continue wit the cloak for the herald. Cut off the banner from the standard bearer stand. Same method as the shoulder pads, I slowly bend the cloak. I had made sure that I could place two more bloodletters behind my herald with this cloak bent in this way.

Cloak for the Herald

For the severed head, I simply make cuts at the neck area till it looked like it was a severed neck. Then I glued two very small pins to the cut area. This would make the neck to look like it was torn out with two remaining veins tagging along.

Severed head

Now that all the parts are completed, what's left are just painting and glueing them together. As I already have a theme of painting my whole army, they would stay the same for the base, herald's skin colours, hellblade, horns, fingernails, teeth and so on. I have not yet glue the shoulder pads, the head and the cloak. I prefer to have them painted first and then only glue them together. For the Khorne icon, I have it base coloured with Chainmail and then washed with Flesh Wash. The inner layer of blood covering the icon would be in Red Gore while the top most blood layer would be Blood Red. The skulls on the icon would be as how I would paint most of the skulls which is Bleached Bone and washed with watered down Flesh Wash. For the severed head, I had a mixture of Bleached Bone added with Dark Angels Green. Then washed thinly with Flesh Wash. The neck area are dry brushed with Red Gore. For the shoulder pads, I base painted Red Gore on it and added Khrone markings on both of them with Chainmail. Added with some Flesh Wash, it would have some golden rusty look on the Chainmail. Finally for the cloak, I had it fully based with Red Gore then outlined with Blood Red. The designs on the cloack was first painted with Blood Red and then painted again with Blazing Orange.

Now everything has been painted up, it's time to glue them together. Start off with something simple. I'll go with the shoulder pads. Pretty straight forward, I just glue them on both shoulders. Then while waiting for the glue to dry, I glued the severed head to the left arm. It gets a bit tricky with my clumsy fingers so it took me some time before I manage to glue it on the right position that I had wanted. Finally it's the cloak. I took a simple path and just glue the top ends of the cloak directly on the shoulder pads. The contact point is pretty small, so be sure to reinforce it with a little bit more glue. I used a little bit extra super glue to do this job. With that glued up, that completes my herald of Khorne.

Frontal look

From the sides

From the top

Arch-Lector - Leading The Empire

One of the armies which I have collected for about 10 years is The Empire. Ever since the seventh edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, I had been using the Arch-Lector as the leader of my men. Here's an article of why the arch-lector has been the number one choice as the overall general of my army.

Arch-Lector

The army general would always be the arch-lector. The arch-lector provides a solid leadership to the units nearby, magic defense, support abilities and potential character killer. Here is a clearer explanation of what I've just said:

• Leadership - I usually would field him in the center among all the other units. This would enable him to provide his leadership of nine to all the troops nearby and the range is improved if he's mounted on the war-altar.

• Magic defense - When is dispel dice ever enough? The more dispel dice you can get, the better it is. The arch-lector provides two dispel dice on top of the dispel pool that you receive. He's not a wizard that provide any wizard level for dispelling but that's a job for Battle Wizards to handle. He did his part by just providing the two dice.

• Support abilities - Join the arch-lector into a unit and he'll cause the unit to have Hatred to all enemies. Empire troops don't have very good combat abilities. With Hatred rule, re-rolls are a big big help. The arch-lector could also "pray" during the magic phase which could buff the abilities of characters, make the unit that he joins unbreakable, heal or does direct damage to units in base contact. He could also pray for himself to have a 4+ ward!

• Character killer - Some inexperienced players might laugh when I say this but the Empire have one of the finest magic items available for their characters. Equip him with Van Horstman's Speculum(VHS) and your opponent's fighty character would avoid him. Ever heard of the cannon ball on a stick? That's one of the most scariest magic item the Empire could bring. The arch-lector relies on magic items to put him on par with other combat characters. I'll explain later on what sort of gear that I usually equip him with. He have only two attacks, average strength and toughness and pretty low weapon skill for a lord class character. So he have to choose his opponents wisely or he won't be able to be the character killer that he should be.

Sounds like he's an invincible character which wipes out all opponents in his path! Well, I wish that were true but almost every character have their weaknesses. The arch-lector have a few thorns at his sides which will be described as:

• Challenge Only- The arch-lector could only perform well when he's facing a one-on-one duel. If you get into a challenge, you would have a better chance (if you're equipped for it) but if the opponent could decline your challenge and still hit you well with their unit, the arch-lector would face a difficult time.

• Shooting Magnet - Your opponent may know that your arch-lector have only a toughness of four and would probably launch all manners of shooting at him. Of course you would have "look out sir!" protection from the unit you join him with but what if you field him on a war-altar? The 4+ ward save is nice but it's only fifty percent chance of saving your character.

• Power of Four - Sounds like something interesting right? Well, it's not. Though the prayers of Sigmar are easily cast, at four plus, is also easily dispelled. The remains in play prayers can be easily dispelled during your opponents phase. This means that the prayers won't last long unless your opponent or yourself have forgotten about it!

Okay, now that I've explained his benefits and weaknesses, you're now going to field him with your army but wait! What do we equip him? I would normally equip him based on the role which I would want him to do. If he was suppose to be the leader which won't require him to excel at close combat, I wouldn't need to spend so many points into his equipment. Sometimes just a great weapon and heavy armour would be enough. But but but... he's the general! You might say. I would reply that he's a cheap general that only need his leadership of nine. Okay, so if you want more protection for him, Armour of Meteoric Iron would be the best choice. So how would I equip him?

Arch-lector Mounts

• Mounted on barded warhorse. Dawn armour. VHS. Sword of Might. Shield. This setup is used when I field him in a unit of knights (inner circle or vanilla). Charge your opponent and issue challenge. The Dawn armor is to give you much needed reroll on armor saves (1+ in this setup). Sword of Might is just to give additional strength (moar is always bettar!) and VHS speaks for itself.
• Mounted on war-altar. Armour of Meteoric Iron. VHS. Sword of Sigismund. This is the most common setup which I field. I like having my general on the war-altar which is considered a large target and extends his leadership bubble to eighteen inches. Sword of Sigismund is to make sure he hits first and hopefully take out the opponent in the first round of combat. His task is to provide leadership in the early turns and then go character hunting. Greater Daemon's would hate to face him.
• Mounted on war-altar. Dawn Armour. Mace of Maelstrum. Shield. Cannonball on a stick. This is more of a risky setup but fun when you opponent knows that you deal a strength 10 D6 wound weapon. The Dawn Armour is there to help you survive longer although only with 2+ armour saves with this setup.
• Mounted on war-alter. VHS. Shield of the Gorgon. You exchange the number of attacks and reduce the number of attacks by 1. Imagine swapping your Arch-lector attacks with a Chaos Exalted Hero. Reduce further by 1 attack. See your opponent's face. Smile. You still have 45 points for choosing the right magic weapon in this setup.
• On foot. Armour of Meteoric Iron. Great Weapon. Simple setup. He's there to provide leadership and Hatred to the infantry that he joins and not to kill your opponent's general or character. Notice how cheap this general is.

So there you have it. A general worth fielding and depending on the army size, probably enables you to probably field another lord class character. The arch-lector is not the super killing machine (go Chaos if you want that) but like a mortal man, he's dependable and could give the support that the entire army needs.

Equipping your characters with Magic Items

What to Equip your characters

When I started playing Empire, I would spend hours just thinking of the right combo of magic items for my characters. Some of them often ended up not optimized or spent without using any of it at all. So here is a quick guide on what magic item to equip for your characters and some description of how they would be used with your characters.

Captain of the Empire

• Icon of Magnus, Enchanted Shield. The Captain is often used to lead state troops into battle and with the Icon of Magnus in his hands, you do not Fear your enemies. Even Terror has been reduce to fear tests only. With the Enchanted Shield, added with Full Plate Armour, it gives you more protection and survivability of the captain. As of weapon choice, you could give him a magic weapon or simply a great weapon since he have better armour to receive hits.
• Dragon Bow. A lot of people tend to forget that the Captain have a Ballistic Skill of 5. With the Dragon Bow, the Captain could shoot a single Strength 6 with 36 inches range shot.
• Aldred's Casket of Sorcery. This is best with a Captain riding on a Pegasus with some good protection. Fly to your opponent's line of defence with their Spell caster nearby and at the end of your movement, remember to “Steal” their spell. You have a fifty percent chance of stealing away their spell and cast it back on themselves. Once the spell is casted from the casket, the spell is lost for the remainder of the game. Watch your opponent frown as his key spell was taken away from him. Best feat of this item is that you can do it at the end of every movement phase.
• Dawn Armour. Equip this on a mounted Captain with a barded warhorse and holding a shield. You will have a 1+ rerollable armour saves. It still leave you with 15 points to spend on magic items of your choice.
• Sword of Fate. More and more monsters have started to appear in 8^th edition. So this item will give you the chance of killing off your opponent monsters with it's 2+ to wound regardless of Toughness and each wound counts as D3 wounds! Make quick short work of your opponent monsters with this sword. If I were to tailor against my opponent's army, if I suspect they would field a monster, I would field my character on a Pegasus and equip him with this sword.

Battle Standard Bearer

• Holy Relic or Talisman of Protection. Both give the same amount of protection and cost the same. You will need to protect your Battle Standard Bearer as he is important for all those leadership check that your army will have to take. Remember, Empire does not have very high leadership.
• Dawn Armour. Rerolling armour saves. You'll need all the protection you can get.
• Ogre Blade or Sword of Power. I once fielded my Battle Standard Bearer with a unit of Inner Circle Knights which acted as a “hammer” unit. Field him with full plate armour, barded warhorse and charge into your opponent unit like knights (units that are not huge in numbers). Issue challenge with the BSB so that he would hopefully be protected from all other opponent attacks. With Strength 6, you should be able to kill off your opponent character or champion. Beware of opponent character killers so pick the right target.

Warrior Priest of Sigmar

• Armour of Meteoric Iron. Warrior Priests cannot equip fullplate armour. So for the additional armour, why not go all the way and have the 1+ armour save.
• Van Horstman's Speculum. Trade stats in a challenge. This is especially good against a very fighty opponent that dish out a lot of attacks and high strength for its base strengths. Trade your two attacks for more attacks that you cannot usually do.
• Enchanted Shield, Sword of Might. This combo only takes up 30 points. I usually use this combo when I field my Warrior Priest with a unit of knights. Arm him with Heavy Armour and mounted on a barded warhorse. This will enable him to have 1+ armour saves and Strength 5 to boot.
• Armour of Destiny. Fits the Warrior Priest finely especially on a mounted warhorse. Though it will only grant him 3+ armour saves but he will also have 4+ ward saves. Equip him with a great weapon and he will survive to deal two Strenght 6 hits against your opponent.

Battle Wizard and Wizard Lord

• Rod of Power. I almost never leave home without it. This arcane item which is uniquely for Empire only is one of the best items an Empire Wizard can have. Store up to 3 dispel or casting dice each magic phase (friendly and opponent's) to be used next phase. A lot of times we need to defend or make sure some spell would be successfully cast. This is one way of ensuring we have the dice needed for that one particular magic phase.
• Dispel scroll. A simple scroll that would dispel the spell casted by your enemy. Saved units their lives with this one magic item.
• Van Horstman's Speculum. Field your wizard with a unit of knights and charge out against your opponent's army general. See you opponent's army general run away from you. Why? They would probably know you have the Speculum on your wizard. He will avoid having reduced to Weapon Skill 3, Toughness 3 and 1 Attack against your wizard in the challenge. It's funny when you do not have to tell your opponent whether the wizard is having it or not and see the reaction on your opponent's face.
• Holy Relic or Talisman of Protection. Your wizard could not wear armour (except for Armour of Tarnus) so it means that he could easily be targeted and wounded with his low Toughness. 4+ ward saves could save his life.
• Armour of Tarnus. This is useful only for mounted wizards on a barded warhorse. In this setup, he will have 3+ armour saves and 5+ ward saves. A setup that can be used with a Wizard Lord that charges into combat with VHS in his hands.

General of the Empire

• Sword of Fate, Talisman of Protection or Holy Relic, Enchanted Shield. Mounted on a Pegasus like the Captain setup above, the General could also perform the same task. A monster killer with more protection. Although I prefer the cheaper version like the Captain above, the General would last longer and could fly in and give the necessary Leadership when his troops needs it.
• Armour of Meteoric Iron, Holy Relic or Talisman of Protection. This setup is mainly just for the General to provide his Leadership to the troops. He should be placed right in the middle of the entire army. Also feasible to equip with Dragon Bow to utilize his Ballistic Skill of 5.
• Dawn Armour, Holy Relic, The Other Trickster's Shard. The combo goes with a General mounted on barded warhorse, equipped with great weapon. He has a 2+ armour save with a 4+ ward save that enables him to survive hits and then hit back with three Strength 6 attacks. The Other Trickster's Shard is there to reduce the chance of surviving the attack by the general. Quite an effective combo for the general who joins the “Hammer” knight unit.

Templar Grand Master

• Holy Relic or Talisman of Protection, Laurels of Victory. The Templar Grand Master already comes equipped in a 1+ armour save. For more protection, the Holy Relic or the Talisman of Protection gives him the additional 4+ ward saves. Equipped with the lance, on the charge, the Templar Grand Master deals four Strength 6 hits. With the Laurels of Victory, each wound counts as 2 Combat Resolution. Meaning, on the charge, the Templar Grand Master has the potential of 8 Combat Resolutions himself!
• Laurels of Victory, Sword of Sigismund. This combo is useful against lower toughness opponents which would be easily wounded and low armour saves. ie. Elfs (all three of them), skaven, Empire infantry, goblins, skinks and some of the Toughness 3 daemon units. The high initiative of the Templar Grand Master and the Always Strike First from the Sword of Sigismund enables the Templar to reroll to-hit attacks ensuring maximum hits to be delivered and the Laurels of Victory to double up the wounds for Combat Resolution.
• Sword of Bloodshed, Potion of Strength. The one hit must kill Templar Grand Master. This combo is used when wish to kill off an enemy unit or character. On the turn that you wish to do the kill, declare that you're using the potion, charge in, with seven Strength 7 attacks, you should be able to kill off any opponent character that you have to face.

If you would have noticed, I've left out the Arch-lector of Sigmar. That's because I have a special article for the Arch-lector himself as the Arch-lector is my favourite selection for my army general. As with the magic equipment chosen above, they are just some examples of what I have used before and have some degree of success in them. Of course, the dice rolling is another matter themselves but with the equipment stated above, one should have a picture of how the Empire could be equipped and played. Empire don't particularly do well in combat but buffed up with some magic items, they can do the damage and give the opponents a pleasant surprise.

Here are some other good potential magic items which I have not described above that can be equipped to the characters of the Empire:

• Mace of Helstrum. The cannonball on a stick. Exchange all your attacks for a single multi-wound Strength 10 attack. Risky but blessed with “Hammer of Sigmar”, you have the potential chance of killing off your opponent. No matter what they are.
• Shield of Gorgon. This is a very interesting shield which would reduce your opponent's number of attack by 1. Potentially charge into your opponent's unit and reduce off at least 3 attacks from their side.
• Wizard's Staff. This is an arcane item which enables you to roll 7 dice when casting a spell. Especially useful when you just need to get a spell to go off and that extra dice could just make the difference.
• Dragonbane Gem. This cheap item gives you the best protection against flaming attacks in shooting, close combat and even magic. It takes up your talisman item's slot but you usually don't use too many talismans in your army list. Try it and soon you will like it.
• Dawnstone. It's not too expensive but allows you to reroll your armour saves. Especially good for characters in knight settings (ie. Fullplate armour, mounted on barded warhorse and a shield). Might just give get you the double protection your character needs.

A lot of the magic item combos are best created to suit your own playing style. There's not right or wrong except for the difference of opinions in a game. Sometimes one may opined that a risky move is better while another might choose the defensive way of protecting their characters. But all in all, it's just a game where you need to remind yourself that it is a hobby that we all enjoy and the point is to have fun.