Slaves to Darkness 25th Anniversary: Surviving Scenery Reappears!

We celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Slaves to Darkness with a fairly large Realm of Chaos Warband game at the Wargames Foundry, under the generous gaze of Bryan Ansell himself. It was pleasing to the Dark Gods that so few lovingly painted miniatures fell on the tabletop and carnage has long been their pleasure.

Sadly, we have learnt that the carnage did not stop in the game world, and much of the 80's classics were destroyed when the 80's Design Studio was moved circa 1991. Incredibly, thanks to one Evo Von Himmel we have the chance to glimpse at some of the scenery made for the Realms of Chaos books but rarely actually seen. Here we can present some 'Chaos Trees' constructed by Jamie Sims in the style of John Blanche.

You can just make them out in the picture below. 

Looking at them, they are surprisingly 'un-Warhammery', if such a thing is possible, though they have much in common with the early 1980s John Blanche figures that are now safely stored in the collection of Steve Casey.

I am sitting here as I type trying to work out how these were made. Its hard to tell, and please do comment if you know better than I, but I feel that that the scenery is built from a mixture of wire and mod roc/paper machie. No matter the materials used, the scenery has a twisted, ethereal feel that is wonderfully evocative of the Realm of Chaos before it became a rather generic wasteland. 

When I finally get around to building my wargames table, a set of pieces in the style of these survivors is going to be a must!

If you are interested in reading more about these pieces and won't to know how Evo came to own these, read the blog post below.

http://port-imperiale.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/raiders-of-lost-skip.html

One question remains though! Who has the others?

Orlygg.

Realm of Chaos 25th Anniversary: Survival of the fittest (what to do with your warband after the battle)

By now, I'd hope, many of you readers have got out there and got yourselves a copy of Third Edition and Slaves to Darkness and had a crack at warband creation and conflict. Certainly judging by the page views my original article has received, it may be a great number of you! 

The silent majority of Oldhammerers! 

But the question 'what do we do now?' may be buzzing around inside your mind like the last scraps of a daemonic possession. Where do we go from here beyond rolling for rewards and collecting and painting the new units or characters?

Today's post concerns a very influential article for me. I have vivid memories of reading it in bed as a 'yoof' back in the 1980s and having my mind blown away with the possibilities of developing an army through narrative. And so must have the seeds of Oldhammer been sown, eh? Little did I know that it would take 25 years to come to be a reality! Now there is a similar article within The Lost and the Damned, which includes a wonderfully hackneyed 'narrative generator' but I find this one superior. It was the system Dan and I used for our original Realm of Chaos campaign we fought a long while ago and has loads of exciting things to include in your games. The stuff here is transferable too. So it would be quite straight forward to use it with any type of wargaming.

Let's have a look. 

Survival by orlygg

I am going to talk about a few things I really loved from this article. Things that I think may be of use after the RoC game at The Foundry and may well be of use to those of you playing old school Warhammer as lurkers. 

1. The Nicely Complex Serious Injury Table

In the tradition of hyper detailed RPGs, this article contains a quite comprehensive guide to working out just how your characters have become injured. As you will have seen, its very easy to just 'be okay' for the next game, with only a 1 in 6 chance of actually being dead and even if you are wounded, there is a 50% chance that your character was 'just knocked out'. But if your models are unlucky enough to get seriously injured, there is quite a lot that can go wrong, from nasty looking flesh wounds (which don't affect the profile) to fairly debilitating injuries that result in a major penalty (such as a character losing a leg). This throws up some nice ideas into the mix. The most obvious would be the need to paint (or model) the damage onto the characters. But Dan and I discussed how it might be fun if we logged who slayed or injured who during the game, to create rivalries or mini narratives within the game. This can become rather interesting if you start developing your background. We thought about characters (and even models) having 'archenemies', namely, particular individuals who they hate due to the injuries that they have inflicted upon them in previous skirmishes. We never really developed the idea, but always thought we could devise special rules for situations like this. Of course, suddenly seeing on of your key champions losing his leg and having his movement cut can cause all kinds of strategic headaches too! 

2. Pillaging 

Again, this was thought about. We knew that the idea of the winner rooting through the equipment of the dead and stealing all the best stuff would involve a lot of (gentlemanly) banter. You can probably imagine the showmanship on display as one of us gleefully decided to loot that daemon weapon that had been causing so much grief and turning the tide with it during the next game. We never used banners, but thought that such thefts would be possible and indeed these models could be 'borrowed' and taken home as the ultimate insult, only to be paraded mercilessly at the start of the next game. Of course, there would be a real reason to have a next game in that regard; the battle to reclaim the flag. See how the narrative just creeps in when using this stuff.

Well, I will leave things here for now. Please do share your thoughts about the injury table and pillaging as part of a campaign game, or indeed any other gems from the article that you feel are worth discussion. Of course, if you have a fresh idea to bring to the pot, please share that too!

Orlygg.

Slaves to Darkness 25th Anniversary Launch: Acceptable in the '80s Special

Hello and welcome back to Acceptable in the '80s: my history of all things Third Edition told through its releases, supplements and miniatures. In today's post we will delve into the White Dwarf coverage published at the launch of Slaves to Darkness, some twenty-five years ago. Instead of focusing on a single issue of White Dwarf, this post draws on material published in WD 104, 105 and 106. 

So the year is 1988, and Realm of Chaos has been in development for over 5 years. During this lengthy period, the supplement had gone through many changes and improvements. One thing that had remained pretty consistent during this time was Citadel's approach to the the supporting artwork, much of which had been produced many years previously. With such a talented cohort of artists, it is not surprising that there was a wealth of mind-blasting (and that is what much of it is) art available for inclusion. Some choice selections were used in support of the release of Slaves to Darkness and were used regularly to advertise the book. 

What follows is the entire launch article from WD104. This includes the famous 'Mutating Metal' modelling guide, John Blanche's essay on the Colours of Chaos (very useful if you are painting, or planning on painting, and old school style warband for the summer) as well as plenty of photographs of classic miniatures. This article has been, and remains, one of my major influences in my collecting, painting and gaming goings on here at Realm of Chaos 80s and I am pleased to be able share it with you.

Hopefully, you shall find it just as illuminating and inspiring as I have done. 

Roc Launch by orlygg

Over the next few issues, Citadel published a great number of full colour adverts for the new range of Realm of Chaos miniatures. I present them for us below in a kind of 'retro review' of the Khorne and Slannesh releases from 1988. Overviewing the material, the colour schemes really stand out for me. These days, there is much talk about 'army coherency' (which is ridiculous really, for no army through history has ever been presented in a coherent set of tones like many wargamers seem to think is so necessary) at the painting stage. I am sure you have heard people talk about using Shadow Grey as the basis of their space marine army, or Sunburst Yellow for their Eldar. What has always impressed me about the models painted for this release is that, even though a great number of different colours have been used to paint Khorne and Slannesh models, they look unified but are also distinctly chaotic.

Quite an achievement, and one I hope to emulate with my future Khorne and Slannesh mortal and daemonic armies. 

The first things to discuss on this retro review are the daemons of Khorne, namely the Fleshounds and the Bloodletters. I love these models and in my opinion they have never been bettered in the sense of design. Even the more modern plastic GW kits are obviously heavily influenced by the Perry's original sculpts. The bestial, loping forms of the hounds, complete with skull faces, leathery fans and lion's tails are suitably twisted  as are the Bloodletters, with their long, gangling arms (that suggest peculiar multi-jointed elbows) and dog like legs. They look un-natural and daemonic, something that was obviously lost on whoever sculpted the 4th and 5th edition models - which look like muscular sub par Conans with 'bloody great horns on.' I have loads and loads of these models and they are great fun to paint. If you haven't got a brace or two of these in the leadpile I really do recommend investing in a few. Be careful of the Fleshounds though, they can be a little uncomfortable to handle!!

What can we learn from the '80s paint jobs? The most important thing to point out here is that these demons DO NOT HAVE TO BE PAINTED RED! Black, brown or even brass daemons are possibilities and will slot into even modern fluff. I like the way that the Fleshounds have tones of purple running through them, a colour that suggests to me disemboweled innards and coils of glistening intestines. Very suitable for these beasts. As for the lesser daemons, the final model, almost black, just shows you what you can do with a bloodletter with a little bit of imagination. I don't like the dodgy red ends of the hellblades though. I am a real believer that 'less is more' when it comes to representing blood in miniature and the flat colours do nothing for me. 

Gorgeous. That is the only word that I can think of as I type these words to describe the daemonettes. A varied, alien and strangely exotic collection of dangerous lewds. You can imagine the depravity just by looking at the suggestive clothing and the subtle pincers. Yet, they seem cold. Souless even. Damned as all followers of chaos ultimately are. Like the bloodletters, these models are reflected in the modern plastic GW kit, though the mohicans are (sadly) long gone. Also like the bloodletters, these daemons were replaced by some appallingly cartoony big pincered faux pas that must have sent many veteran chaos players running for the nearest exit. I have many of these models in my collection (the 80s ones!), and will always buy more because I adore them. On to the Fiends then. I have three of these and they are a right bugger to get hold of (or so it seems to me) or, indeed, to put together when you have some. But they are so well conceived that you forgive the fiddly bits. A mix of scorpion, horse and goat with a row of voluptuous breasts? Surely a jaded leadhead's dream?

As for the painted examples, let me return to that word again, gorgeous. The blending and tones on some of these models are incredible, and can only be by the hand of Mike McVey. Incredible skill. And models like this make me glad I choose to work on my Khorne army first, just so that I can be practised enough to have a crack at blending colour to even a fraction of that skill. I also love the model on the top right. Covered in tattoos or body paint, the designs not only contrast wonderfully with the flesh tones but they have an inhuman immediacy that seems to crawl from their very limbs towards your unwitting eye. 

Into the Dark Millenium. I mean, how many times has that been used over the years? Well, here we have the original inhabitants of the Eye of Terror for all to see. These models have grown increasingly popular in recent years and looking at them you can see why. Varied, vibrant and characterful. Though tiny in comparison to modern chaos marines, these models make up for their diminutive size with martial otherworldness that makes them seem far more corrupted and villainous than a space marine with a few spikes on. 

Strangely, quite a few of the Khorne marines presented here are painted green. This again goes to show that when you are painting old school miniatures (or even modern ones) there is no reason not to 'think outside of the fluff' for a moment and try something different. There is clearly a historic example to follow is there not? The pink and green marine with the daemonette face is my favourite here. Once day I will get my hands on that model and I intend to have ago at painting it with the same scheme as the one presented here. My favourite Slanneshi marine ever!

Then we have the heavy weapons marines. I have most of these in my collection and the weapons are fantastic! Quite why they changed the design I do not know. I loved the fact that the chaotic weapons looked so different to those sported by the RT marines. I have also called these paint jobs 'Liquorice Allsort' marines, and I really like them, the pink and black particularly. Below them, we have the Steeds of Slannesh and a couple of renegade riders (remember, this was the time when Chaos Space Marines didn't really exist, they were called renegades) which I am also proud to state that I have in my collection. These look great mounted on the '80s Citadel plastic horses too, and there are far more of them available than were shown here. 

After are detour to the world of Rogue Trader, we return to more familiar models. These are the beastmen and champions that we are quite accustomed to here in the Oldhammer Community. So much so, that they often turn up on this blog and many others. I have painted most of these models and have nearly all of them in my collection. Its worth noting that these are just some of the champions that Jes Goodwin produced for Realm of Chaos and all of them are excellent. In fact, no-one has ever done a better job than he did with these models.

Ever!

I am still amazed that these are not recast and sold today as they are some of the finest models Citadel have ever produced.

Buy them!

And finally, the Juggernauts of Khorne. I have mixed opinions about these. I am not a fan of their faces as I find them a little too cartoony but they don't half feel nice and solid when you have built one and based it. Heavy and dangerous, just as you would expect. Here we see more of the renegades and champions that we saw earlier. 

Here ends our review. What did you think? What are your thoughts about this range of models. Are you a fan? Or do you loath them for the daemon spawn that they are? As always, please leave your thoughts or opinions below or email me (if you are a lurker) at realmofchaos80s@yahoo.co.uk.

Cheers.

Orlygg.

Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness 25th Anniversary Celebration: Orlygg's latest paintjobs

I've been suffering with Painter's Block for about six weeks now.

No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't draw up enough enthusiasm to get painting. There was no real rhyme or reason it this, I just couldn't get my act together.

Well, I am pleased to inform you that this period of inactivity is now over. With all the snow that the UK has suffered (yet again) this weekend, I set my self up at the painting table and got on with it. I found myself to be rather prolific and I managed to get quite a few models finished for my Khorne Army.

I am sharing them with you below. As always, I used original Citadel colour from the '80s (interspersed with a few Coat d'Arms replacements) and the associated ink range. I used a simple 'look and snap' digital camera and the colours are a little muted, but I think there is enough for you to get the idea. 

Chaos warrior with halberd and shield. Old school shield designs are a favourite of mine, and it painted this one to match the colour of the model's armour.

An 1985 chaos warrior with a double handed axe. This one lacked a shield, so I tried to free hand a face design on to the shoulder. I was reasonably happy with the result. 

Chaos warrior with axe and shield. I used Andy Craig's advice to work up an original shade of red. The discussions I have had with him have inspired me to move away from selecting colours 'out of the pot' and create my own shades. 

Chaos Marauder with half pike and shield. A old design on this one, if I recall correctly I did it for an article on shield painting last year and had yet to find a good use for it. 

Chaos Dwarf Bombard and Crew. Love this model. I used the colour scheme from the old Realm of Chaos packaging as inspiration here. I have just started work on the bazooka crew from the same range. 

A Blue Horror, painted in respect of Kev Adams (who, or course, sculpted these back in the late '80s) who was attacked in his own home last week. Here's hoping he recovers soon and gets back to producing models as good as this one again. 

I've got a couple more chaos warriors and marauders on the go, so expect to see them soon, as well as more Tzeentch goodness in the guise of a Pink Horror and a Flamer. 

What you reckon to my efforts? Any tips or advice really appreciated.

Orlygg.

Slaves to Darkness 25th Anniversary: The First Painted Miniatures Appear!

I've been lucky enough to get a couple of snow days recently, and I have taken advantage of this to get some painting done. As those readers with l o n g memories might recall, before Christmas I began work on a chaos chariot - well, I am pleased to state that it is finished and ready for gaming. I also managed to get a test piece (a proper old school chaos warrior) complete. This miniature did not take anywhere as long as my chariot and I must have finished it in under two hours (minus drying time) so I am getting close to Andy Craig's '80s standard of being able to paint a model in 60 minute period. 

Any way, of we go to have a little old school look at what I have been working on. 

This was a test piece model for the chaos warrior unit in my Khorne army. Obviously, black, red and brass need to be the colours of the day and I think I did a pretty good job of capturing the Slaves to Darkness feel. Only another seven of the armoured brutes to go...

Chaos Chariot. This model was sculpted by the Perry's around the release of Slaves to Darkness. It is, as I have stated before, my favourite chariot model produced between 1985-92. I will readily admit to having found painting the horses a real challenge... and something that I must work on again in the future. 

I used a simple hand drawn design for the shield which bore the Khorne symbol. This was mirrored with the banner flying from the lance. I 'distressed' the banner with a mixture of drybrushing and stippling as I felt that it looked too new to be fluttering above beserk killers. 

This model was bought from eBay in an appalling state. It took a Nitro-Mors and two Dettol baths to get the metals clean from whatever 'paint' had been splattered over it. The two horses were harder to treat (being plastic) and suffered some distortion through poor application of polystyrene liquid glue sometime in the past. 

These bad boys are for the future. Five more warriors to paint up in similar schemes (though I believe that chaos warriors should all have their own separate livery, rather then being unifrom) and a standard bearer conversion to complete. Any eagle eyed readers recognise what is special about this unit's standard bearer?

Slaves to Darkness 25th Anniversary: The Other Realm of Chaos: Bolt Thrower's Album and its Legacy

The classic original cover of Realm of Chaos by Bolt Thrower

The two famous gaming supplements that bear the name, 'Realm of Chaos', are not the only release of the late '88 to do so. Strange as it may seem, a Grindcore/Death Metal Album also shares the name, and much of the imagery. In truth, the album borrowed heavily from both Slaves to Darkness and Rogue Trader, its famous first pressing cover being an extract from John Sibbick's famous cover painting. 

I've mentioned the group and the album before, even going so far as to write an article detailing the rise and fall of the 'Warhammer Records' music label, but I have yet to explore this famous album in any real depth. 

After committing myself to a year long celebration of Slaves to Darkness; its history, miniatures and gaming potential, I was keen to download a digital version of the album to listen to when painting. However, when I shopped on iTunes and bought a new copy, I was puzzled to find that the iconic cover painting had changed but the music was as I remembered. 

Why was this, I thought?

So I found out.

The group took their name from the siege device from Warhammer (as members of the group were keen 2nd Edition players) and Bolt Thrower formed in Birmingham in 1986. The original line-up was a collaboration of Alan West on vocals, guitarist Barry Thomson, bassist Gavin Ward and drummer Andy Whale, who had the intent of making aggressive rock music inspired by bands such as Sacrilege, Discharge and Slayer.

In 1987, Bolt Thrower recorded a demo session, which saw the band reshuffle positions as Ward became a guitarist and Alex Tweedy was brought in as a temporary bassist before Jo-Anne Bench was recruited for their second demo ‘Concession of Pain.’ This caught the ears of Radio 1 DJ John Peel in January 1988 who gave them the opportunity to record a session, which led to the band scoring an album deal with Vinyl Solution Records.

With an album deal under their belt, Bolt Thrower brought in the destructive vocals of Karl Willets for their debut album on Vinyl Solution entitled ‘In The Battle There Is No Law’ before switching to Earache for their second record. 1989’s ‘Realm of Chaos: Slave to Darkness’ was a worldwide success for Bolt Thrower, selling more than 50,000 copies around the world. The band continued their warmongering theme and used expansive artwork from Games Workshop to coincide with their unsympathetic music, with titles such as ‘World Eater’ and ‘Eternal War’.

This worldwide success and critical acclaim propelled Bolt Thrower towards an international audience on the Grindcrusher tour in 1989 with Morbid Angel, Carcass and Napalm Death, before heading out to Holland in 1990 for the Bloodbrothers Tour.

I like music, and my tastes are varied. I enjoy listening to everything from classical, to kitch to contemporary pop and I wondered how the album was viewed by serious metalheads. So I dug around a little and found a review. 

Dan Marsicano: If this was tighter, with cleaner production, and flashy solos, it would be just a generic, soulless album...like what passes for metal today. Bolt Thrower would have none of that, and they didn’t let their new record deal with Earache Records stifle their artillery barrage of sonic annihilation. This is rough, unpolished death metal that relies on the imagery of world destruction, instead of religious bashing or mutilated corpses. Whether it’s a two-minute assault like “Eternal War” or a sneaky backlash of noise like “World Eater,” Bolt Thrower is always in anger mode. Variety is non-existent, with each song sounding like an extension of the previous one. Using a range of tempos does help Realm Of Chaos (Slaves To Darkness) to avoid falling into the trap of not holding a listener’s interest for 12 songs. Realm Of Chaos (Slaves To Darkness) got caught up in the emerging death metal scene during the late ‘80s. Fellow label mates Napalm Death, Carcass, and Morbid Angel were just a couple of the major players that had a part in the genre getting off the ground. What made this album break from the pack was its gritty harshness that didn’t rely on cliches; though the cover art is cartoony, their subject matter was grim and stone-faced. They meant business, and didn’t need gore-drenched imagery to be a fearful sight.

A 'cartoony' piece of cover art eh? Perhaps that was the reason for the change in artwork? Even the grim darkness of the far future wasn't hardcore enough for death metal fans, perhaps? Sadly, this was not the case and a sad (and all too familar) tale unfolded. I'll let Earache, the record label who originally put out the album to explain more.

EarAche: The original sleeve art was the property of Games Workshop, not Earache or Bolt Thrower and when the lease on its use ran out in around 2002 or so, we approached the famous Fantasy wargaming company for a renewal which was flatly refused to us.

This refusal knocked us for six.

So we faced a harsh decision to either discontinue the album, or commission new art by the same artist in a similar style and theme, but being careful to not fall foul of copyright laws. Bolt Thrower themselves were pretty unhelpful by insisting that the original be used in further pressings, but this was impossible as it wasn't ours or their art to use, it was Games Workshops artwork and copyrights. Luckily, we had separately commissioned the actual Bolt Thrower logo, drawn by Mark Craven, so could still use that at least!

John Sibbick drew the original artwork under commission by Games Workshop. Back in the '80s the original edition of the company's biggest fantasy wargame, 'Warhammer 40,000', had this artwork adorning the box cover. Everything about it is copyrighted to the hilt, right up to the design of the weapons, and even the logos on the clothing of the Space Marines fighting in the picture. We obtained the rights to use it after an exceedingly friendly meeting with the managing Director, Bryan Ansell, of Games Workshop, and Andy Jones the general manager. The company was small but growing fast at the time, and being based in Nottingham's Lace Market area, it was a short walk from our office.The guys saw the sense in reaching out to the rock/metal market which Earache and Bolt Thrower offered by using their art on an actual release- and a deal was struck. It was a one page contract/bit of paper saying we had rights to use it lasting 13 years.

An advert for Death Metal and and associated tour in White Dwarf Magazine?  No way you say!
Back in the 80s it did happen though!

By the time of 2002 or so the Games workshop company had become a global billion dollar corporate behemoth. When we asked for a renewal of the artwork rights, it suddenly dawned on us that this wasn't the same local company I met with 13 years beforehand.We were hit with a barrage of legal letters, cease and desist and copyright infringement claims. It was as if the company in its new corporate form had never heard of us, accusing us of theft of their highly prized copyrighted art in the first place. We avoided all contact with GW after that.

So the only solution was to try to track down the artist John Sibbick who had long since left the wargaming art scene, his new career was as a highly respected artist drawing dinosaurs for scientific papers and research. Luckily, when he heard of our dilemma he agreed to kindly redraw similar themed artwork but without any GW copyrighted elements. This is the art used on the new edition from 2004 onwards.

So there it is. The tale of the album and its band. All there is now to do is listen. Who would have thought it, eh? A RPG wargaming supplement with its own (kind of) soundtrack release... It makes me wonder if anything have ever happened like this since!?

THE FULL ALBUM

CONTEMPORARY FULL SHOW FILMED AT ROCK CITY, NOTTINGHAM.IN 1989 - I  WONDER 

HOW MANY GW LEGENDS WERE IN THE AUDIENCE?

Slaves to Darkness 25th Anniversary: Army of Khorne Audit and Armylist

The raw materials for a retro Khorne Army

Hello one and all... After exploring a little of the history of Slaves to Darkness and life in the GW studio during the Golden Age, thanks to Rick, Andy and Tony, we return to the matter of my anniversary army. Remember that units of Khorne must be fielded in multiples of 8, Khorne' s holy number.

As you can see from the image, I have a fair few models already. I looked at the armylist from RoC and built units based on the models I had available. There are a few models I need but I have here the following;

1 Chaos Champion on Chaos Steed
8 Warriors of Khorne
8 Marauders of Khorne
8 Thugs of Khorne
16 Beastmen of Khorne
4 Chaos Hounds and a packmaster ( I need another packmaster )
Chaos Dwarf Bazooka team
Chaos Dwarf Mortar team ( I need the mortar though )
6 Chaos Dwarfs (I need 2 more dwarfs)
1 Chaos Chariot (not pictured as I am currently working on it)

So only a few models to look out for, though I could easily convert another packmaster and sculpt a mortar, though I would prefer the actual models. Can anyone help here?

Better get painting!

Orlygg.

Slaves to Darkness 25th Anniversary Plans

Now this is art. Sibbick's work still resonates with dark power and makes a mockery of more recent 'Chaos' artwork.

Did you know that Slaves to Darkness is going to be 25 years old in August? Well, if you didn't, you know now! And I feel that we need to celebrate this iconic (and seminal) British fantasy release here in the Oldhammer world, for I doubt that the book will get much attention from GW like Rogue Trader did. 

So, how does Orlygg suggest that we go about celebrating such an important release?

Well, I suggest that you select a force from the book and set about building something small using the original figures. The warbands are particularly useful for this, as they can be as random or as planned as you want them to be (roll off or just choose, does its matter?) and then paint them up in 'Old School Colours'. 

That is if you want to...

You could just continue to support this blog as I go about exlporing all things Slaves to Darkness. If you recall a recent post, I discussed my new year resolutions, and one of those resolutions was to get a daemonic army or two finished this year... Well that fits in perfectly with the daemonic legions published in Slaves to Darkness. 

Here are my ideas for the coming months...

Plans for the Anniversary Year

1. Models

The following is the list of armies that I want to have collected and painted by the end of the year, with a particular focus on getting enough done to have a good series of games during August, Slaves to Darkness original release month. 

Warhammer Third Edition Forces 

This will be my main focus, after all this blog has a Warhammer Third Edition focus. I intend to be able to field every force from the book. Here are a few mad jottings about the current state of affairs. 

Warband of Slaanesh - achieved (could do with a few more models though!)

Warband of Khorne - again achieved (add some different units other than beastmen)

Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh and Legion of Khorne  - purely daemon armies, I am pretty sure I have all the models required

Army of Khorne and Army of Slaanesh - I have a fair few models (and I can include many from the warbands) but a little investment is going to be required here.

Dark, morbid and twisted. The baroque designs of Ian Miller.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader: Dark Millennium

Warband of Slaanesh - nil

Warband of Khorne - nil

World Eaters Force -nil

Emperor's Children Force -nil

Black Legion Force -nil

The Ordo Malleus -nil

Oh dear, not much Rogue Trader love going on... I may have one or two old chaos marines kicking around but that is it. So, I intend to build a Rogue Trader Khorne and Slaanesh warband. I have plenty of models that could easily be used for a champion and the random structure of the followers chart should keep things interesting. I'll cover this part of the celebration on my Rogue Trader blog.

2. Gaming

Regular readers will recall how another one of my resolutions was to use the Oldhammer Opponent Finder to locate other enthusiasts and play against them... Well what better to take with me but Khorne and Slaanesh warbands for both WFB3 and RT? I could certainly get some embryonic games going with what I have painted at the moment and in the future I hope to be able to play complex daemonic games too!

Any one fancy a game?

3. Research

I hope to be able to continue my 'Acceptable in the '80s' articles into the release of Slaves to Darkness so others can have reference to this classic material, and perhaps make judgement 25 years later. Secondly to this, I hope to contact and interview some of the individuals involved behind the Realms of Chaos project so we can learn a little more about the conception and creation of this classic Warhammer resource. So if you know anyone who was involved (or were actually involved someway yourself)  or if you know any juicy details please contact me!

Is it me, or has the rarest of things been hiding in plain sight all these years? A sorcerer  of Khorne  in yellow a black stripes?

Who's along for the ride then?

Orlygg.