Taking Stock: My Age of Sigmar Armies (Sept/Oct 2022) Part 3: Planning

In my previous post in this series (of which this is the final instalment), I gave a rundown of my currently-active Age of Sigmar projects. This time, I’ll be looking at projects that I’ve done some planning work on, but am not actively working on in any practical sense. Here’s a summary of this series of posts:

Painted Armies (2000+ points completed)
Work in Progress (partially painted, or at least built)
Planning/Backburner (purchases made, but not actively working on them)

Let’s get on into part 3. What’s on the horizon?

Beastclaw Raiders

I very much love the forces of Destruction in Age of Sigmar. It’s probably the only Grand Alliance where every army is interesting to me. There’s not a dud. Well, thematically. I wouldn’t claim that the Gloomspite were anything but a dud in competitive play. I do still try, though! Gork knows, I try…

There are only 4 armies in Grand Alliance: Destruction and 3 of them were listed in part 1 of this series of posts. The remaining army that I haven’t yet built are the Ogor Mawtribes. I actually had an Ogre Kingdoms army back in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, but they’re long gone. I would really like to further embrace my love of big models (like this, and this, and this!), so the Beastclaw Raiders are the lads for me!

I’ve got 3 big lads (Stonehorns/Thundertusks) and 10 Mournfang riders sitting waiting to be put together. This could happily form the bulk of an army. It could form the whole army if I want them to, actually. Then again, a hunter might be nice… Maybe a wizard? Oh, some artillery… Well, damnit!

Skaven

Skaven is an army that, at one point in time, I might have considered to be my ‘forever army’. It was my main army in 7th and 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I sold off most of my painted miniatures.

I intended to get back into the Skaven in 2019, digging out mountains of old Plague Monks to be my army project for that year. I did dig do some building, but I didn’t get much further. 2019 wasn’t a great year in terms of productivity for me.

In addition to the Pestilens items, I find myself drawn inexorably towards Clan Skryre as well, having picked up a couple of the Broken Realms boxes, and grabbed a pair of Skaven halves of the Echoes of Doom boxed set. This has left me with rather a lot of Skaven miniatures. Rather a lot.

The Skryre side really excites me. I’d like to do some cool conversions, maybe making a converted Screaming Bell, possibly a mechanical Verminlord? Hell, perhaps even some wyrdstone-infused Mega-Gargant mercenary? Yeah, these could all be a lot of fun.

I also really don’t know how I want to build my Verminlord. There are a few options that appeal. Decisions, I curse

I don’t feel a particular impetus to rush this, though. I should probably pick up the book in the near future. I could at least start making a list or two to prioritise what to build.

Gloomcast Impetuals

Okay, so, yeah. Yeah, I know, I always said I wouldn’t be touching the armies of Grand Alliance: Order. I have considered abandoning this pledge in the past, but never in a straightforward way. No, if I’m going to break my solemn rule, it will be bloody convoluted. Enter, the Gloomcast Impetuals:

As with many of my ill-advised projects, this started as one of my wishlisting posts, wherein I think about some potential armies that could be made by corrupting Sigmar’s chosen, the Stormcast Eternals. I love making these posts, but they have resulted in a few new projects! I then expanded on the idea a bit and put together some test models.

In addition to that first unit, I also put together the parts I would require to make the rest of the initial army. This was based on the contents of the Dominion boxed sets.

The parts mostly come from the Squig Hoppers/Boingrot Bounders set. I’m pretty much out of parts once I do these. That’s fine on one level, but I do want to consider a couple of slightly more ambitious units, such as a chariot. I’m not too worried as when I return to my Gloomspite Gitz, and expand into a Squig-based force (as planned), I’m going to need another box or two of Hoppers. This will leave me with plenty of armoured heads for the Gloomcast.

I think this army will be fun to put together. I’ve been a bit resistant to pick up the Stormcast book to do this. That’s changed a bit recently, but I’ll talk about that in the next week or two.

Disciples of Tzeentch

When I started playing Age of Sigmar in 2017, the Disciples of Tzeentch were my first army. I picked them to take part in a slow-grow league at our local gaming club. I had a lot of fun putting them together.

They did alright, and I enjoyed my games. I never really finished up the army. I had another batch of half-finished Pink Horrors, and I was never happy with the basing. When I began working on my Legion of the First Prince, I dug the Horrors back out.

I finished off some aspects I wasn’t happy with, and stripped the stones off the bases. They ended up being rebased with the swampy bases that I use for all my Chaos miniatures. In the end, I finished up a couple of characters, some Pink Horrors, and some Brimstone Horrors:

I am also working on 40 Blue Horrors and Kairos Fateweaver, and I would love to do another Lord of Change thereafter. I’m pretty sure I’ve got some cultists and a handful of Enlightened/Skyfires.

With the new book out, the Disciples of Tzeentch are looking pretty appealing. The only real issue is the timing. I’m just not quite at the point where I want to make them a priority. I’ll get to it, though. Maybe.

Something New

I have one more project that I am currently in the process of planning. I’ll be making a post about it in the near future with my thoughts. Here’s a bit of art that has acted as one of the sources of inspiration: