Mustering from the Tomb

[Grave Tacticus]

Yeah it is a conundrum that they are monolithic and that is both their appeal and their deterrent. I would think however, that with time, just like robots (in most sci-fi settings) develop bugs that then act as personalities. Or a certain Legion might have a weird interpretation of Nagash's will.

I've given the Leige-Kavalos a good long look, and I might be better served to find a way to bring OBR more individuality instead of shoehorning in a vampire. I would need to either to an extraordinary amount of greenstuff sculpting or have the figure in classic vampire armor, neither option appeals to me.

As you mentioned Sun King, there is some precedent for imperfections in the process of soulmasonry, the account cited in the Battletome was a Soulreaper that suffered so much anguish it had to be given a body without a mouth (as far as I remember). You could get a vampiric effect, accidentally or intentionally, going that route, and have a Bonereaper that must satiate its hunger for souls, allowing for a more flawed character, but it feels weird on a Bonereaper and would likely wouldn't give it any more breadth. After all, the Bonereapers are already driven by the hunger of Empire.

My thoughts turn back to the Vulture Lord, who was crafted into a Bonereaper from a single soul, like Katakros. Except the Vulture Lord's loyalties to Nagash are more transactional, he does Nagash's bidding because he gets something tangible out of it, and has his own agenda. Indeed, two of his subordinates are likewise 1 to 1 soul conversions. What might happen if the Vulture Lord was destroyed? Would these undead minions still abide by Nagash's bidding? And as mentioned previous the Cremetorians are basically subverting Nagash's design in their quest not to be blown to oblivion.

I may just wait until the presumed new foot hero is revealed before making anymore army background decisions, after all Mir Kainan got me into the faction, and if the character is a generic Executioner I would be very inclined to explore the thematic possibilities of that.

Otherwise, I've started in on assembling my second set of Necropolis Stalkers, and I hope that they continue to be battleline for Mortisan generals in the next book. Would love to run Petrifex Elite with a properly tagged Executioner. Of course, if we get the Nighthaunt treatment, which is likely, who is to say what will open up gameplay wise.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Second set of Necropolis Stalkers, screwed up on the first head assembly (right figure), because I forgot how to correctly piece them together, but they turned out alright.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Wishlist:
Necropolis Stalkers/Immortis Guard (3-3)
Administratum Grey - Layer?
Black Sand Basing
Katakros
Malign Sorcery
[UWSL]Nagash?[/UWSL]

On Order/In Transit:

Assembly Queue:
[UWSL]Bone-Tithe Nexus [partially built][/UWSL]
[UWSL]Arkham the Black [rfs][/UWSL]
Morghasts (2) [cleaned] (2) [partially built]
Kavalos Deathriders (5) [rfs]
Mortek Guard (20)
Mortek Crawler
Gothizzar Harvester
Mortisan Boneshaper
Immortis Guard (3) [rfs]

Conversion Queue:
Liege-Kavalos* [finishing/crow]
Mortisan Soulmason [fill]
Mir Kainan

Painting Queue:
Necropolis Stalkers (3-3)*
Mortisan Boneshaper*
Mortisan Ossifector
Mortek Guard (20-20)*
Mortek Guard Shields (20-20)*
Kavalos Deathriders (5)
Kainan's Reapers (6)
Kainan's Reapers II (5)
Vokmortian
Zandtos
Gothizzar Harvester
[UWSL]Mortisan Soulreaper[/UWSL]
Mortek Crawler
Bone-Tithe Shrieker
Soulstealer Carrion
Nightmare Predator


As above, I now have all of my Necropolis Stalkers built, and I've ordered in a couple more boxes for army storage. The Bone-Tithe Nexus and Arkhan (presumably Katakros as well), will fit nicely within the 19L box. My current 9L is at full capacity and I still have quite a few medium sized models to build. I've also decided that I'm going to use Kainan's Reapers as my test models for my paint scheme, wanted to pick up another Kainan box anyway.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Another productive night at work, assembled the Soulstealer Carrion, Nightmare Predator and first Crawler crew. I really need to find someone selling these little bone crows, or make a mold for my own use.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

I had a thought. Keep the black bodies/white faces with the heroes, maybe even the unit champions, but do white bodies for the rank and file. I think this would add a lot of contrast, especially if I do the black sand basing. I do have a concern about the "cloth" also being in the ballpark of white, though it will have some pink or flesh highlighting; there isn't much "cloth" on the Mortek infantry, so it might be a non-issue.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Picked up that second box of Kainan's Reapers and the Assault Intercessors paint set. Local store was out of Abbadon Black, but it and Corax White are in the paint set, so my black and white bases are covered. Figure I'll prime two models white and two in Wraithbone, and then pair those off in leader/rank colors.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Finally got around to my Morghasts, and that kit was definitely not as fun as the Necropolis Stalkers. Decided to wait until I knew which weapons would be ideal before picking a set, though I could just give one to each set, or get around to magnetizing them. I wish Mortis Praetorians wasn't so reliant on Katakros to be good, leadership debuffing is just so underwhelming in this edition.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Found Malign Sorcery for $54 + free shipping. That's been on my wishlist for a while.

Petrifex Elite has been growing on me, it's still stupid that it's the generic auto-pick, but I've always enjoyed the lore and necromantic archeology as a theme. I think the tipping point was when they made NS/IG battleline if your general is a Mortisan. As stated previously, the Emmisarian caste is my favorite, and now they have some mechanical flavor to their lists. 3-4 months and we'll see how thing change with the new book, but most people feel this rule will continue forward. I hope so.

 

[Unas the slayer]

Looking forward to see your force growing up!

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Katakros was never sent by the seller, but they gave me a refund... Now that I'm thinking about it, that Malign Sorcery hasn't shown up either.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Malign Sorcery was a bust too. Oh well, another time perhaps.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

Finally put the magnet sheets into the 9 and 19 L boxes. Now I just need to remember where I put my magnets.

On the paint test the white primer I used came out bad, so I'll just stick to the Wraithbone.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

I picked up a new box of NS/IG a while ago and tonight I finally clipped the Immortis Guard from the sprues and set them up for cleaning and assembly. Local store also finally got in a box so I might pick that up soon too.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

And there's the ossifector build.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

1st IG. Pretty happy with the dynamic pose.

 

[Grave Tacticus]

While working on the second IG, I was an idiot about it and now the tip of one of the breastplate spikes is somewhere in my room. It's going to be a pain finding it.