First off, I am liking the look of the Imperial Knight. I haven't gotten the WD yet, but the pics have been online for over a week now, so... I like the look of the model, and since Gw is absolutely moving in the bigger and bigger Lord of War direction, this guy fits right into that. Rumors are that they can be fielded as allies to any army (Chaos Knight? Done. Ork Looted- sure. Necron--- uh- Corrupt Mechanicum?). For Space Marine players in particular, this may be a good thing. Their only option for Escalation is the incredibly expensive Thunderhawk. Thus, they can now have a Knight instead. As for me, I am not sure IF I will get one just now... I have for Chaos the Lord of Skulls, a Plague Titan, a Plaguereaper, etc. As for my Ultramarines- well, I have been working on them recently, but I don't know if I want a big guy for a force that I will only use once in a while.
There's lots of other new stuff swirling in the Warp. The Legion of the Damned codex looks tasty (I am interested in them, but know little actually about them). There's also some pics of a Chaos Helbrute that is clearly NOT the one in the Dark Vengeance Starter Box. It looks downright imposing- but I already have 3 (!) Plague Dreadnoughts, and I have 1 for the Bezerkers. But... it looks so cool! However, this could mean that the other Chaos rumors are true, including Chosen, new Chaos Space Marines (with more god-specific gear), and hopefully even mini-codexes for the legions / god-specific armies. That would be a spicy meatball, and I am looking forward to all of that.
So, now let's look at my Skulltaker. I believe I got him in that Daemon army box that I bought when the Daemon Codex first came out. I really like the current Bloodletters (although the 3rd edition ones were also badass), and Skulltaker looks like a stronger, more brutal version of them.
The first thing that everyone notices (and loves) about the model is the cape of skulls. I decided to augment that by putting him on a skull base (where did I get those bases from again?). By doing so, it looks like the skulls are just spilling from his cape all over the ground- due to the warp the skulls just keep coming, and flowing wherever he goes. Imagine a daemonic Pigpen of skulls, and you get the idea. Opponents are always drawn to him as a result (good or bad- more on that in a moment). He is a walking pile of skulls, and that gets him noticed.
The red skin I did in keeping with my Bloodletters- after all, he is the same as them, just better. I used black ink for the recesses and to accentuate the musculature. He certainly looks devilish as a result. I also did the eyes and horns in a similar way to my Bloodletters- black horns with grey highlights for the ridges. His eyes were yellow, again like the Bloodletters.
I am also particularly fond of the skull he is holding, complete with part of the backbone / spinal cord. The fact that it has burst into flame is a great idea, and I enjoyed painting it on fire (I kept thinking of Ghost Rider, though I decided to do the flame in traditional fire colors rather than warp flame).
In game, the guy is a beast, though with one or two glaring flaws. First, he has to foot slog to get up to the opponent, during which time he tends to get shot all to hell. Or, if you deepstrike him in, he has to wait a turn, during which he... yes, gets shot to hell. In the last game I played, He teleported in with a squad of Bloodletters. They managed to survive a hail of bullets and then got in and wiped out a unit of marines. However, my opponent wisely moved everything away from him. Thus, he had to walk- and that's when my opponents Stormtalon came in and- yes, you know- shot him to hell. I am not whining about it or saying that he should have a 2+++++ save or anything like that- I'm just telling you my experiences with him. No whining, just the facts.
While he is a bullet magnet, you can use him to draw fire, thus saving your other units and giving them a chance to get into position. Daemons are tricky to use- and no, I do not even HAVE Fateweaver, and don't use Screamerstar, if you're wondering. But, I do like the Daemons overall- and the Warp Storm table has never hurt me too badly, and has helped (my brother's Grey Knight champion became a Daemon- Hahahaha!).
As soon as the spring comes and I get more time, I will be playing more. I have some combinations to try- using the Chaos Marine and Chaos Daemon books a bit more closely to see what I can do. I also want to play a game of Escalation and use my Lord of Skulls. I think in a couple more weeks, and I'll be back at it.
Well, that's all for now. I'll be back next week- hopefully we'll know a lot more about the Knight and other goodies on the way. Until next time...
I like that you varied the shades on the skulls. It gives them depth. Also it would have looked off if you had just kept to one simple white shade. Nice! =)
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