Reign in Hell – A tale of dice and demons

The Mantic Games demon sprue is a lot of fun. I think I got it in a Mantic fantasy sale box years ago and already used one for a Frostgrave project.

I think these class as spined demons. They have the spikey boned spine and shoulders. Their weapons are very spikey. Even had a spare spine from a Mantic zombie sprue to go on a base.

The orange and blue on the armour of the shins and forearms to distinguish them is very bold rather than the dirty look of most of the others. I figured that if the lists take me in an unexpected direction the colours might be handy if they end against eachother.

The orange was Jokaero Orange and I used Casandora Yellow wash. Then used a mix of Averland Sunset and Jokaero as a highlight.

The blue was Smurf blue (Macragge) with a little white to do the highlight.

Decided that I already primed the models with my black and red zenith, so whether they fit a list right now I should probably just get them painted and off my painting counter. I think the zenith did a great job. I used a mix of Leadbelcher and Runelord Brass on the metals with a Stormhost Silver highlight.

The blood effect probably won’t last long because it is just a strand of static grass with Blood for the Blood God slid down it.

I used the same reds and creams etc on the bodies and horns and am happy with the results.

The list for my Judges is only 6 models, but they still should punch quite hard. I may give them the first initiative free as they are running short on points.

The Executioner Garrek and his Slaughterpriest Warrior Leader Mayatroth will be free.

Their list looks like this.

1 Spined Demon 19pts (Arnulf Khorne Reaver)

2 Armoured Demons 44pts (Khorne Chaos warriors)

1 Slaughter Fiend 21pts (Targor Khorne Reaver)

84 points.

The only extra mini I could give would be a mephit (16 pts) and I just don’t feel like making one for their list. They only need a few points from their first battle to be able to field a 5th lesser demon.

For Hitlore and Myroar’s list of Earthbound demons I am looking at my opening 100 points. I realise I need to stop painting random Beastmen and tailor my hobby to the game a bit more.

I was planning to paint more Beastmen to take me up to 10 models, not being careful to see what my opening 100 points would look like.

So my Succubus Devout and my big mean leader are free. I have begun painting my tentacle beast again after seeing it looking a bit bland in my photos. My list looks like this.

1 Tentacle Beast 21pts (home brew)

1 Spined Demon 19pts (Mantic Games demon)

2 Armoured Demons 44pts (Beastmen)

1 Mephit 16pts (Beastman with wings, I think)

This is only 7 models, but feel that over a campaign I will get to use my other minis and get up to a full 10, hopefully enough to even get a big mean minotaur greater demon.

Tentacle demon home-brewed from green stuff, bits from the bits box and failed sprue stretching pieces.

When stretching sprue over a candle (to make aerials, whips and details etc) you sometimes pull when it’s not hot enough or over stretch it and it snaps. When it snaps sometimes the ends curl up. I had a couple of failed attempts and the curled ends looked like tentacles to me, so the idea lead into this mini.

The head and cut up shield “armour” are from NorthStar Frostgrave Demons box. The hands are from a Warlord Games ECW Pikeman with an unknown make of spikey mace head added.

I used Bugman’s Glow to suggest the texture on the softer underside of a tentacle, over the black and red zenith primer I used for the rest of this cabal.

When the axe head the size of your torso is just not enough… Reach for your knife. Lol.

I like this mini. It was nice to paint him in the same style as the last two. The loin cloth is Steel Legion Drab, Agrax Earthshade wash and Zandri Dust with a Morghast Bone highlight.

Will probably make all the base edges dark brown in the end.

Reminds me a bit of “Archer” from the movie Small Soldiers.

I remember painting a Gnoll for Rangers of Shadow Deep. The only comment that stands out to me is that it was a little clean and why isn’t there any blood on his axe? I said that once he damages one of my men I’ll add some blood between games. I only half meant it but this is actually my intention this time.

There are achievements in the game that can be tracked game to game. I think there’s a rule that if a demon keeps on killing Leaders in-game that he should become your leader, but there’s no immediately prepared sheet to record the progress. I am thinking that until a demon kills anyone it gets no blood. If it starts to kill the axe gets gore and then I start tracking their progress. I will make a five bar gate style tally on their base or somewhere easy for me to mark up how many kills they get just as fun for me.

I went with some colour for his under armour cloth with Orcflesh Green Contrast and a Deathguard Green highlight. (No tartan, Celts and Gaels don’t go to hell.)

The Leadbelcher is so grainy but it worked out ok for this battered look to the armour and some Runefang Steel silver caught the edges and gave me some scuffing. On his back he has some awful super glue scarring. (Again, these were probably built by a pre-teen and I am just really grateful to have been gifted them.) I didn’t bother to try and carve it off or smooth it out. Free texture like that on my minis becomes… Battle damage. Rusty and fun.

I don’t think I threw in enough contrasting colours to define the different leather straps etc. Maybe next time, but having a low contrast scheme might work for demons in hell. Though I would like to get them table ready rather than dwell on all the details available to their absolute fullest. Comments welcome on that one.

The Flesh-tearer Contrast Red helped tint the black primed areas and unite them with the red zenith areas. I might go for darker fur next time with have a more interesting accent colour on the elements.

I managed to add my Earthbound brand on his tit and the horns turned out OK.

My devout (for cabal number 2) is all done. Cabal number 1 with mostly previously painted minis was fun for delving into some lore ideas, but cabal number 2 is probably going to be more fun hobby wise.

I got some 4Ground Black Rocks added to make the hell scape base more interesting.

The NorthStar metal wings give the mini a bit more heft and look great. Same zenith of Halfords red over the black primer looks fine and with a Flesh-tearer Contrast Paint over the top to blend it all together. I like the finished look. Bit of Mephiston Red highlighting and a tidy up on the armour above the wings and she’s good to go… Probably to go do bad. ?

Same basing top up for my Leader and they make quite the fearsome team.

I went back and added the symbol I started on the succubus to Hitlore my leader Minotaur demon. I think I will try to include this on all my Earthbound minis somewhere to help tie them all together.

WiP Succubus for Reign In Hell. She doesn’t need to be so seductive in Hell, so she looks more devilish. The only reason she is still WiP is because she is awaiting her wings. Then the pose on the base makes more sense I hope.

I liked the freehand on the shoulders. The “Earthbound” RiH symbol is a skull with an inverted Latin cross on its forehead. Rather than attempt this fully I made it a touch more abstract. The two dots left and right at the bottom of the cross and the triangle beneath are hints at the symbol’s eyes and nose of the skull.

The whip is a heated and bent piece of sprue. I know it looks slightly unnatural, but I can believe it is on a forward swing from over her left shoulder.

I am going to get the Frostgrave Demons wings from NorthStar as I couldn’t think of an easy way to do them myself and I think I would benefit from some when I get around to playing The Red King Expansion.

The head and arms are from a NorthStar Frostgrave Soldiers 2 female sprue. The arms have had the fur trim cut away. The body is from the NorthStar Frostgrave Demons box. The knife is cut from a right hand knife hand on the Soldiers 2 sprue.

The metal armour is Leadbelcher, Agrax Earthshade wash and Runestone Silver drybrush. The skin is Flesh-tearer Contrast Red over the Halfords red primer and highlighted with a Mephiston Red and Flesh-tearer Contrast mix.

Myroar seemed like corruption enough of Myra, continuing the evil persons in history theme. Myra Hindley being convicted for her crimes against kids in the 60’s seems to fit the bill.

Hitlore the Earthbound demon. Thinking of giving this cabal all daft corruptions of evil people’s names from Earth history. Muscleini (Mussolini), Koba The Red (Stalin nickname), Temujin (Genghis Khan’s real name)… Any suggestions?

This mini was given to me built incorrectly, but I think that’s forgivable because they were gifted to me and I think they had been assembled by the guy when he was a child. The demons right hand was glued in place, but the left hand was built into the haft of the axe and was a whole cm past his left wrist, just floating. So I used some greenstuff and shortened the axe haft between the hands. It’s not perfect, but it’s more believable now. I also had plenty of sprue gate pieces and mold lines to mess with, but in the end decided that if some bits were left over I would just paint them as battle damage and accept it as part of the piece.

The basing was just leaving the after effects of the zenith painting as it was and just adding black flower soft. It’s a hell scape of sorts and I am happy with it. Might add some grey ash type flock I have to a mix on some of the other bases.

The zenith did most of the work. Dry brush of Zandri Dust over the fur and then a Darkoath Flesh Contrast Paint over the top after. The blackest parts got a coat of Flesheater Red Contrast Paint and all the flesh got a Mephiston Red dry brush. Most of the leather is Mornfang Brown and Rhinox Hide on the loin cloth.

Though the pics might not catch it quite right, I love this red Halfords zenith over a TTCombat Spectre Black primer. I am seriously considering just getting my first game in against myself and feeling out the rules. I don’t usually play with unpainted minis, but with this zenith and maybe my leader being painted I would happily play with them as they are for the time being.

I have my dice. I need to point up my first forces and get my Earthbound leader and devout named and set up and we’re nearly there. Can’t wait.

I get the feeling that there’s scope to make up your own rules for a Revenant Remnants warband of humans. A handful of the suicide army commited to destroying the portal that against all the odds have survived. They are desperately trying to keep their souls and continue tactical guerilla missions, causing decent and fueling hatred between the demon schools of philosophy to keep Hell broken. The trouble is… Some of them know how they broke the portal and thus… Could give the Earthbound some clues on how to reopen it.

The warband could be easily set up like the Cabals are created but reflect somehow that they are squishier than their demon enemy. The army clearly were skilled enough in martial disciplines and dedicated enough to beat the directorate and smash the portal, so we can believe that this particular set of killer commandos could still fight a cabal of demons and survive. Maybe Samurai with Templars and warrior bishops and barbarians. You might even be able to tie in a touch of ranged attack to keep them out of the risk of destruction in hand to hand combat with twenty foot demons? They could still be collecting souls of the damned like the Cabals to fuel the runes in their demon smiting blades. They need not be nice people at this stage. The horrors of Hell and trauma of battle could have warped them to not feel any compassion when it comes to reaping human souls to keep their magical weapons honed. This could all be awkward to balance and keep plausible and there is plenty to learn about the game without putting in all the work required to add The Last of the Humans expansion yourself, but it certainly sounds like a fun concept to me.

Oh, what I meant to say was… I got my dice and started priming my opposing cabal.

There are 6 classes of demon but I only feel my minis tick the boxes for Armoured demons and Slaughter Fiends at the moment.

For my second warband I might be able to stretch and kitbash some Spined demons to try out those rules too, but maybe having less rules to learn in game one, won’t be such a bad thing.

They have the chance to evolve and improve their stats without changing weapons or armour level etc. Having to get more minis or change the ones you have to get through a campaign would probably cause ructions, but they made it clear that wysiwyg worries shouldn’t be a bugbear when the combat is slightly abstract and deliberately avoided grittiness in that regard.

I will use Garrek Gorebeard as my Devout. No sooner had he been granted demonhood for his service in Shadespire all of a sudden the portal closed to this plain of Hell. His followers were lesser demons but he had been granted the full powers, rights and enlightenment that comes with becoming a demon executioner. You may naturally assume that he would want to return to the Shadespire realm with his improved death bringing abilities to improve on his infamy and continue his chaotic works… that he would align himself with the Earthbound to help open the portal and return to the place where he acquired the lion share of his glory… But no. He has an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to his master Mayatroth, a sense that the Earthbound don’t actually know how to open the portal and, ever the pragmatist, decided that there was more opportunity for power and glory where he is and in the company of knowledgeable powerful Judges.

I might try to add a Judges symbol tattoo or brand on him somewhere, but he already sets a fine figure as an executioner.

I never played AoS, but I did play underworlds games and picked up expansions. I also got the Storm of Sigmar taster box for some fun painting hobby. (I even got a golden button for my work on some of these chaos minis I am hoping to use.)
All these minis will probably help me create a decent Cabal along with their White Dwarf Slaughterpriest Leader… Mayatroth The Judge. He doesn’t carry a scales for balance, he carries a spiked ball on a swinging chain to deliver his own version of balance.
“Hell has changed, but the rules that govern our reality have not. The Earth-Bound are as ridiculous as The Demented and as empty-headed as The Empty if they think that there is a hope of reopening the portal to the olde world. For the sanity and stability of Hell the remaining souls need to find their way to those that can govern. To those with safe judgement and those that can adapt to the new normal. THE Judges will provide that governance. For those that can’t accept this, there’s an executioner’s bloke prepared and waiting for you.” Quoteth Mayatroth, Tuesday Last, about 15:30.