Frostblade Hungers... (Themed Log)

[The_Despoiler]

I'm sure there are those of you that have know about the story of the World of Warcraft and have heard of the dread Lich King. Before ascending to Lich... King-hood... Arthas was a mighty Death Knight, with an unresolving command over a massive army of the undead. He wielded an unholy runeblade known as Frostmourne, that could rend steel as easily as flesh and stole the souls from its victims. I've always been enraptured by the story of this character and I've always dreamed of making an army based around him.

And so, now I take this opportunity to create this dream army of mine. The first step is going to be figuring out what to use as what.

I'm thinking that I could use Blood Knights to represent the Knights of the Ebon Blade (a sect of Death Knights under the Lich King's sway) and Arthas' retinue as Black Knights. I'm also thinking of adding in two Vampires (each one being one of Arthas' original captains during his time as a human, Marwyn and Farwin). One of them will have the Helm of Command and the other be a close combat vampire.

 

[katerror]

Hello i like your idea as a former Wow player (yeah horde) will you make it in summer time or winter? and will thay have the colous arthas army had (like blue ,white etc) or your own scheme? Looking forward to more plus you could check red armies blog to get some ideas about your army

 

[The_Despoiler]

I'm thinking that it be along the time of Arthas' march on the Sunwell. So all of the bases will look like Blight.

I'm going to be replaying the Warcraft III campaign to remind myself of what his armies look like to get myself back into the sway of things. I think I remember him having purple armies...

 

[TMS]

I'm guessing that Arthas and the Lich King are the same person?

I'm looking forward to see what you'll make of this.

 

[Dogmar]

Arthas and the Lich King are indeed the same person. IIRC, he hungered for revenge on some demon lord and captured the cursed weapon frost mourne in the process. He then turned evil and completely insane and fought his way to the Frozen Throne where he somehow became the Lich King and thus lord over all undead creatures. Don't know how exactly he did that though. Hope that helps, MS.

Being a former Warcraft player I find the idea quite intriguing. A Warcraft themed army could surely make for some great conversions. Generally I'm against mixing up fluff of two different universes though.

Can you post up some pics of what you already got, or are you still in the "figuring-out-what-to-buy" phase? If so, what are your concerns, maybe we can help.

Cheers,

Dogmar

 

[thehivemind33]

Arthas was the prince of Lorderan and, essentially, was a moron sort of like Darth Vader was as Anakin. When the Burning Legion let the undead plague loose he blindly charged at this threat and ended up going toe to toe with the Dreadlord Mal'ganis, who had plagued the city of Stratholme. Mal'ganis lured Arthas to Northrend where he eventually came upon the sword Frostmourne, and with it slowly became a Death Knight under the mental control of the Lich King Ner'zhul (who was once an orc warlock when the Legion invaded the orc homeworld of Draenor *now Outland*) he returned to the Eastern Kingdoms and destroyed the High Elf city of Quel'thalas, eventually this led Kael'thas to side with Illidan, who promised to save his people when they fled to Outland from the troubled world of Azeroth *but that's another story*. So Arthas killed his dad the king and plunged the kingdom of Lorderan into hell and did some other nasty stuff. He then returned to Northrend to find the Frozen Throne and became one with Ner'zhul. Now Arthas was the Lich King, combined with Ner'zhul in body and soul. (Now he's dead thanks to the heroics of the brave adventurers of Azeroth!)

Sorry for that...Warcraft fanboy comin' through. :lol:
So yeah, awesome idea for an army! All I can really say is do it! I can't wait to see the results.
Oh and remember that the Ebon Blade are free of Arthas' control. They aided us in defeating him.

 

[Slothmasta]

Can you post up some pics of what you already got, or are you still in the "figuring-out-what-to-buy" phase? If so, what are your concerns, maybe we can help.

I would also be interested in seeing what you plan to use as your model's as I'm also a Warcraft fanboy (as it seems many are) and have thought about the idea myself but just can't seem to find the model's to represent Arthas correctly.

 

[The_Despoiler]

Well, as has already been said, I'm still in the phase of figuring things out. No actual models have been yet purchased for this project. I really want to make it nice and planned out.

A little bit of time-saving, for those interested: Wowwiki article on Arthas as a Death Knight

At the moment, my main consideration is going to be what units to include. I'm big on skeletons, as not only do I love the look but I also like the way they work in the game. I'd like to also make an army list so that I can plan out what to do. (I've got a Vamp Counts book I'm borrowing from a friend)

At the moment, Arthas rules wise looks like this:

-Vampire Lord 455
--Frostblade
--Eternal hatred
--Red Fury
--Dread Knight
--Level 3


The next step is figuring out his retinue... Something with survivability and numbers (as the character himself will be rather lacking in defense beyond an armor save), I'm thinking along the lines of a sizable unit of Blood Knights and perhaps with the Banner of Blood Keep?

In which case my Blood Knights will need to look properly armored yet at the same time evil... Perhaps properly modelled Chaos Knights or Dragon Princes?

I'm going to actually just be making a similar story for my personal fluff... Not a clear-cut rip off of the Warcraft story line. Instead of a Prince, he'll be a Noble. Instead of a Runeblade, it'll be a Daemon sword. Instead of going insane and turning on his people, he's sold his soul and became "essentially" a Vampire. Sort of like what happened to Azhag the Slaughterer, for those of you who know his story.

Modelling wise, Arthas is going to be a tough cookie to crack. His armor looks rather complicated, meaning green stuff galore (which may be problematic, as I have almost no green stuff capabilities at all). I think I might actually be best off just putting a Marauder torso on a rider's legs and sculpting the armor on. He will also not have the Lich King's crown, and thus be bare headed. As has been reinforced by every single Warhammer cinematic ever seen, wearing a helmet is a death sentence.

The last tid-bit of thought is going to be Kel'Thuzad. The reason Arthas marches on Quel'Thalas is to ressurrect the Necromancer Kel'Thuzad as an unholy Lich (imagine a floating skeleton mage). Throughout this particular part of Arthas' campaign, Kel'Thuzad's ghost constantly speaks with Arthas, both giving him tactical advice and explaining to him the Lich King's plan to overthrow his demonic creators. I'm tempted to represent Kel'Thuzad in one of three ways:

In the story, Kel'Thuzad's body is transported in a magical urn (where once Arthas' father's remains were) which was carried within a meat wagon (essentially a catapult that could store and throw corpses).

Option 1: Represent him as a Black Coach (fitting fluff wise)

Option 2: Represent him as a Corpse Cart (his presence being the ability I give it)

Option 3: Include one of the above two options and an Ethereal Vampire representing Kel'thuzad.

Some pictures to be used for reference model wise:

View attachment aa.yfrog.com_img192_742_arthasindkarmor.jpg
Arthas himself

A meat wagon

 

[Dogmar]

If you plan to stick your lord into a unit of blood knights the unit will probably eat up all your rare allowance, thus the black coach is out of question until you reach 2500+ points.

For the bloodknights I think converted chaos knights could do the trick. It is also a cheap alternative to the horribly expensive ones sold by GW.
Fluffwise an ethereal vampire would fit Kel'thuzad well, it just limits his magic abilities, and that's what Kel is famous for . Also in game terms an ethereal vampire is risky. Maybe make him a support caster instead and just model him like a liche.
As for other famous beings from the warcraft universe: please do not include sindragosa, a dragon is so totally not worth it nowadays. What you could do though is model you grave guard to be deathknights on foot. They're mighty beings after all.

 

[Shadoweyed]

I personally did something very similar to this, but I took the Arthas story and twisted it to fit both what I wanted and the Warhammer universe. I am modeling my BK, GG, and Wight King as Death Knights.

-Shadoweyed

 

[The_Despoiler]

Don't worry, I don't intend on including a Frost Wyrm (of any sort) any time soon.

I'm thinking that I'm definitely going to need a supportive caster of some sort and Kel'Thuzad as a Vampire (Lich) might just do the trick.

The reason I'm hesitant to make Grave Guard and Black Knights represent "Death Knights" is because each one of these men is supposed to be, not only technically 'alive', but also a great hero turned into an evil counterpart of what he used to be.

 

[Sanai]

(Now he's dead thanks to the heroics of the brave adventurers of Azeroth!)

I choose to disregard everything that happend in WoW as non-canonical because WoW ruined the series.

 

[The_Despoiler]

(Now he's dead thanks to the heroics of the brave adventurers of Azeroth!)

I choose to disregard everything that happend in WoW as non-canonical because WoW ruined the series.

I second the motion.

The motion carries.

 

[The_Despoiler]

Alright, well, it's been a little while, and so far my considerations have taken me to creating this unit as the hard-hitting hammer of my army.

Blood Knights x8 495
-Standard Bearer
--Banner of Strigoi

Vampire Lord 455
-Frostblade
-Red Fury
-Dread Knight
-Beguile
-Level 3

Vampire 300
-BSB
-Drakenhof Banner
-Dread Knight
-Walking Death

This unit was made for a 2000 point army list.

 

[Dogmar]

1. switch the vampire BSB for a wight king and give them the 3+ ward against ranged. This frees up some points

2. ARE YOU INSANE?! (not offensive, more surprised)! Taking a that large unit of Blood Knights you're putting a lot of eggs into a 14 wound(if you take the WK) basket. The unit hits like a ton of bricks, but is very vulnerable as well.
If you're going for full fluff then ok, but in game terms that unit is a no-go below the 3-4k bracket.

C'mon in a 2k point army this unit alone takes up about 60% of the entire army.

I'd keep the unit small, say 4-5 at most and only sit the BSB in there. Do not mount your lord then and stick him into an infantry unit. More bodies to protect him + he's not far out on the flank and thus supports the core of your army better.

 

[The_Despoiler]

2. ARE YOU INSANE?!

Quite possibly, yes. Or a noob, whichever.

Perhaps I should replace the Blood Knights with Black Knights instead? I've noticed that large units of cav do tend to work wonders in this edition...

That would indeed free up a lot of points.

 

[Sanai]

Personally I think its a bit silly to put two characters in one unit at all.
Also, give them the flag of blood keep. A ward save against ranged is often a good idea on heavy cav.

 

[The_Despoiler]

Alright, the army initself can wait. Right now, I just want to get that Arthas miniature going!

I'm probably going to make two versions of the model, one on foot and one mounted, just to give me some choice. I could make the version on foot into the Lich King, while the mounted one into the Death Knight.

I'm thinking of starting my work on the mounted one first.

He will be riding Invincible. If you click near the top right "See in 3d", you can actually see a really cool rendition of the horse. No, he will not have the wings.

The basis of the model will probably be an Empire Warhorse, beefed up via green stuff.

Arthas himself is going to be tricky. His armor is very unique looking, so I'm thinking of starting off with a Chaos Marauder torso, beefed up by green stuff. His arms are going to be tricky, also.

I think the big question I'm going have to ask myself is whether the Arthas I'm modeling is going to be scaled as a regular human or larger. I know in the WoW universe he's almost twice as tall as a man, but that's simply to make him look more intimidating in the game.

 

[SotF]

One option for Arthas in Lich King form is THIS.

Sure it's not the earlier one, but it does have an almost dead on look of the Lich King seated upon the frozen throne...

And on the plus side, it might manage to surprise other people as well