"New" Plastic

One of my D&D players started Warhammer Fantasy with us back in the day. After some purchases, some hobbying, and some games, he decided it wasn't for him. Now, years later, I have been given his old army. Sweet.

The Book, and a few boxes packed with models and bits.

Picking up Warhammer Fantasy was a long process for me. It took a long while to agree to play, longer to read the rules, and then even longer to decide on an army. And even then I still needed to buy kits, stress over all the various gear options for each kit, and still assemble an army before I got to play. 

One thing I think Kings of War does better than Warhammer is the intro. The rules are far more intuitive, and multi-basing lets you effortlessly try out new units and unit sizes without needing to worry about each and every individual model.

Anyways, I eventually settled on Empire. But I almost chose the Tomb Kings as my army back in the day, so I'm pretty excited! 

The basic models aren't new to me. I picked up a box of TK Chariots back in the day to convert to core Chaos Chariots (why pay $40 for 1, when you can convert 3 for $35?). I also had purchases a box of the regular skeletons, which have unfortunately already been incorporated into my muddy Undead. Oh well.

With this windfall of minis, rather than proxy them up in my existing Undead, I want to do up a separate little army of Empire of Dust, after I make some progress on the Herd and Abyssals. 

While I've been trying not to buy new plastic in my 2018 endeavors, I did decide to cave here, and picked up three more chariot chassis w/ skeletal horses (but not charioteers) via eBay. I think I may be able to squeeze 1500 points for Empire of Dust out of all this... if I make some additional purchases for more chaffy units like Scavengers or Swarms, I could probably hit 2k.

Heck. This guy could probable be run as-is! 

My buddy hobbied a little on just about everything. Most things are mostly assembled, and some things are even painted! He'd even started on a color scheme, which I like. It's got a classic TK look, which I think I'll just run with. Since he gifted me all his old paints too, I should be able to replicate it. 

Like me, he did his homework when starting a new army. He made some smart purchases for the old Tomb Kings. In addition to the typical units from the battalion box, he's got a Casket of Souls, which it looks like Kings of War has rechristened as a healing and lightning bolting war engine known as a "Soul Snare." Having both on a war engine seems kind of neat!

He also picked up the sphinx monster kit, which is what has gotten me the most excited. The Necrosphinx was probably the model that tipped the scales in my head and convinced me to give Warhammer a try. It just looked so imposing and cool!

Unfortunately, he had already started modeling it up as the warsphinx version of the kit, manned by skeletons. Fortunately, he's only a step or two in the build from the point of divergence. I've removed the hood, and it's just the front, face-lookin' bit remaining that will need to go.

Looking over the Empire of Dust list, it could be argued that a smart hobbiest would build the warsphinx with the skeletons and howdah, as the Reanimated Behemoth. From the original kit, you still have the extra torso, heads and scything arms left over. All you need then is a pair of legs, and you could make a legendary Idol of Shobik! But that's not how I'm going to roll here. The Necrosphinx will be run as the Reanimated Behemoth, and I'll figure out what to do with the rest of the bits later.

I really wasn't looking for a brand new army, but here we are. This should be a nice diversion once the Abyssals and Herd are a little further along!