Back to the Skies!

My FLGS is starting back up an Age of Sigmar escalation!  Add to that Kharadron Overlords just got a new army book and you have excitement for adding to me existing collection.  This latest army book provides an opportunity to field armies of ballooned troops or the classic Arkanauts in Frigates and Ironclads.  GW also added an Endrinmaster in a suit to lead the ballooned troops!

Endrinmasters Maxvel and Franklyn

 For the first 1,000 points, we provide two army lists.  My first army list is a 1k even Arkanaut Squadron of 2 Frigates, 2 Companies, an Endrinmaster, and a team of Endrinriggers.  My second list is Endrinmaster in suit, 3 teams of Endrinriggers, and 3 Gunhaulers!

Volleygun Endrinmasters to add to the Endrinriggers

Kharadron Start Collecting Box as Expansion

A few weeks ago, I picked up the Kharadron Overlords Start Collecting box as an expansion to my collection.  It added the Thunderers and Endrinmaster to my model collection and adds another Gunhauler and three more Endrinriggers.  This past Sunday, I dove into assembly and completed the Thunderers and partial credit on Endrinriggers.

My intent is to get these and the Gunhauler assembled and primed by next weekend and hopefully get in a 1,500 point game.

Work continues on the Warlord Titan as well, I am at the stage of applying transfers and touching up, I think.

The Strumpet complete

The Boring Strumpet

I finished up the Boring Strumpet Gunhauler last week.  This completes painting up my new 1,000 pt of Barak-Mhornar.  In addition, it completes 1,500 pts of painted Kharadron Overlords, but not what I want to field for 1,500 pts.  I will probably pickup the starter box for a third Gunhauler, Thunders, and Endrinriggers.

Over the holiday weekend, I played two games at 1k pts.  The first was against a new Stormcast list, which was just difficult.  Even against what seems like half the army, I felt unable to effectively defeat units.  A 12" range for most of my weapons makes engaging a threat effectively also a setup for being charged.  Lastly, the hardness of Stormcast makes it hard to knock them down and keep them down.

The second game was against a Goblin Spider list.  I did much better, which I attribute to us both rolling really poorly.  My opponent put about a third of his army out of position, while also not committing his general and sorcerer/monster-spider to the primary fight.  This let me fight a third of his army with ~two thirds of mine.  Once I won that fight, I was able to collect my forces on my objective and finish off the out-of-position third.  Both of us rolled poorly all game, but I think my victory came down to poor positioning on my opponents part.

Balloon Distraction

For the past few weeks, I have been working off-and-on upon my second Kharadron Overlords Gunhauler, the Boring Strumpet.

In-Work Boring Strumpet

I recently changed up my 1,000 point list to field two Gunhaulers instead of the Gunhauler and Frigate.  The Boring Strumpet has a a Drill Cannon instead of a Sky Cannon, giving it 6" more range for a bit less damage.  This also freed up points to bring in the Skywardens, giving me even more board presence overall.  Sadly, the two games to compare with were both against Stormcast, which were able to roundly defeat my list using ~50% of the army (bad rolls may have played a part, but still).

As I look ahead to 2,000 points, I am considering leaning into the Gunhaulers more and going with a Grundstok Escort Wing outside of the mandatory core of 3x Arkanaut Companies.  We will see if over the next few months I am motivated enough to paint up another Gunhauler, another 3 Endrinriggers, and a final Company of Arkanauts.  It may be all for naught as the Kharadron Overlords seem to struggle in my local meta and trying to actually use the range of miniatures versus the "optimized" lists.

Nuport's Mariners

Nuport's Mariners and some objective markers

 This weekend, I finished up painting my second Arkanaut Company.  This completes my 1,500 point army.  I did some minor conversions to the Company Captain to turn him in Kris Nuport.  Captain Nuport has some relics from before the the Kharadon's took took the sky.

This week, I am starting on the Novamarines Repulsor.  Part of this is in the vain hope that GW announces that a unit other than the Arkanaut Company is a Battleline unit before I work on my last 500 points up to 2,000 points.

Captain Nuport, surrounded by his Mariners

Captain Nuport's antecatalysm axe head

Hawkjn's Spears

This past weekend, I completed Hawkjn's Spears, a unit of six Skywardens.  The kit proves fairly versatile with each of the models not looking like two sets of the same models.  Painting things differently helps to break them up as well.

Hawkjn's Spears

In addition, on Saturday at my FLGS, my Kharadon Overlords were named best painted for the 1,000 point tier of an Age of Sigmar escalation league.  I am really happy with that and having completed painting the force before the step ended.  Painting up 3-more of Hawkjn's Spears is the first thing for my 1,500 point army.  Alongside the three Skywardens, I have assembled and prime three Endrinriggers, a second 10-man Arkanaut Company, and an Aether-Kemist.

The Harlot Lets Fly

The Harlot

This past weekend, I painted the Screening Harlot, a Gunhauler.  This completed my 960 point Kharardon Overlords army.  It is illegal under Matched Play due to not having a second Arkanaut Company (my only Battleline).

Painting the runes on the ships I think gives them a lot of character that they would be lacking otherwise.  It breaks up the blue on the hulls nicely.  It went pretty quickly, thanks to knowing what most of the scheme would be.  I also showed off the completed army at my FLGS, Lost Planet and got lots of compliments.

Next up is increasing Hawkjn's Spears (Skywardens) to a total of six and giving them a Grappling Hook to make them even speedier, better enabling an alpha strike against a threatening unit.  I intend to follow those three up with a second Arkanaut Company, making the army legal!  This will leave me with 320 points for 1,500 points.

My intent is to add an Ather-Kemist (140 pts) and possibly a three-balloon unit of Endrinriggers (120 pts).  This again leaves me with 60 points remaining at 1,500 points.  Going up to 2,000 points is morphing as I consider my options.  Another unit of Arkanuts is necessary for RAW Matched Play, leaving me with 440 points...  maybe an Ironclad or a second Frigate and more balloons and be down 40 points.  🤔

Admiral Drake, Navigator Kouk, Kilpford's Gang aboard the Mistress, Hawkjn's Spears, and the Harlot

The Mistress Sets Sail

This past week, I completed the first Frigate of my Kharadon Overlords - the Tempest's Mistress.  This is the first large model I have painted in a while and has lots of different pieces that are not flat like the armor of a Astrates tank or even Eldar tank.  I really enjoyed the model and like how it turned out.

A fly-around of the Mistress

The Mistress's Navigator

The Mistress's Captain and Endrigger

Dead Crew and Colors

This past weekend, I got in two more games and spent most of Sunday painting up the Dwarfs.  I really only have the ships left before moving onto the 1,500 point list, which may morph based on lessons learned at 1,000 points.

Admiral Frank Drakeslayer

Yet more demons and this time with corrupt men. We were overwhelmed by their numbers yet again. We couldn't keep them at cannon range for long. Between their lord and warriors we became tied up and unable to secure the treasures on the field. Our starboard flank collapsed as Hawkins and his spears were swept from the field by warped knights of Tzeentch. Navigator Kouk found himself surrounded by them! I need a larger squadron for these expeditions!

Admiral Drakeslayer

Failing against Angels and Demons

Capt Nuport of the Righteous Courtesan

This past week, I continued to work on painting up more of my Barak-Mhornar crewmen and on Saturday evening played two games.

I settled into the paint scheme and completed 9/10 Arkanauts.  I also steadily base coat more Duardin minis (including those on ships), getting them up to the state of the Skywardens.

Lastly, I assembled my second Arkanaut Company, Nuport's Mariners.  Capt Nuport carries anteruina axe of his ancestors.  He and his crew are aboard the Righteous Courtesan - ᛕᚻᚱᛅᚦᛋ.

I also named out all the ships, characters, and units up to roughly 3000 points of minis (~1000 points in battalion warscrolls).

Privateers of Barak-Mhornar

This weekend, I played three games of Age of Sigmar at 1,000 points.  My first game was Friday afternoon and following it I decided to abandon an army from the Free City of Tempest's Eye and instead focus on a Barak-Mhornar army/fleet.  The first game was against a Tzeentch army with a mix of demons and mortals and I felt that my army lacked synergy desperately needed for Kharadon Overlords to work or any of the other units in the army.  I dove at the center of his army and found my fire ineffective and my combat doubly so.

That evening, I decided to shift and wrote up the list.  The 1,000 pt army (960 pt) is the Battleforce (which I got on Saturday) plus a Navigator.  For my home port, Barak-Mhornar, the most flexible of the Baraks.

On Saturday, after constructing the Admiral, Navigator, and Gunhauler, I played two more games.  These were both part of a three month long event my FLGS is doing.  As such, here are versions of the logs I make in my Book of Grudges.

Mixed Hobbying

This weekend I was at a hotel all weekend preparing for a medical donation on Tuesday.  Over the weekend, I finished most of the detail on the Primaris Librarian, Apothecary, and 2 Intercessors.  I also began basing units for my Age of Sigmar.

More Novamarines

Tempest Eye forces in work

For the Free City of Tempest's Eye!

The Workbench

A change of plans!

Instead of collecting a focrce of just Kharadon Overloards, I am switching gears to field an army representing the Free City of Tempest's Eye.  A big driver for this was the relative lack of choices for Battleline for Kharadon Overlords, which makes any 2,000 point army very similar to other Kharadon Overlords.  It also radically changes my 1,000 point army.  Instead of being a lot of replication and "more of the same," I have no duplicates in the list.

Beginning the Fleet

I need something that works as a good break from painting power armor, both 40k Primaris Novamarines and 30k Ultramarines.  It can be demotivating to stare at models similar to ones you have already painted dozens.

To that end, I am going to build up a Kharadon Overlords centered army for Age of Sigmar.  I picked up an Arkanaut Company (pictured assembled), an Arkanaut Frigate, and a box of Enderiggers.  This is my initial core to give me other stuff to work on.

My initial list is all Kharadon, centered around a pair of Frigates, two Gunhaulers, three Companies, a unit of Enderiggers, a unit of Skywardens, and an Admiral.   I am however potentially going to shift to a Tempest Eye list, depending on what it lets me do in terms of increasing miniature variety, while still focusing on the flying aspect of the army.