It begins...

So, my first post on my very first blog. Not gonna lie, this is quite exciting.

The idea for this blog was forming in my head for quite some time now. I'm an avid wargamer and RPG player for more than two decades and, auite frankly, consider those things to be some of my favourite past times. I've decided to write about them, more as an excersise in the fine art of composing written texts, than anything else really. But I digress. If you came to this place, than you probably want to read about stuff like Warhammer, not about my motivation for typing words on a keyboard.

Right?

This is my first post, so it deserves to be special in some way. I've always loved reviews, any reviews really. Be it a movie, a game or a book review - I'd read it. That's why I've decided to kick this blog off with a review of my own.

But what could I possibly write about? Well, since I'm colecting Empire...

Without further ado let me present my review of the Emperor Karl Franz I, Protector of the Empire, Defier of the Dark, Emperor Himself and the Son of Emperors, Elector Count of Reikland and Prince of Altdorf.

Being the Emperor apparently entitles you to the possession of all those titles. It also entitles you to walk like a pimp with a severed orc head whenever you feel like it.

  Now THAT is swag

I'll be reviewing both his model, which is astounding, and his stats from the 8th edition Empire rulebook. My good friend Martin, with which I'm playing both WFB and 40K as well as RPG's for six years now, gifted me with the ol' Karly yesterday as a birthday present, and what a present that is...

Here's the magnificent bastard in all his battle-chicken glory.

  High Elf Griffons eat your hearts out!

                                       

Now let me tell you this. This model is friggin' awesome! Just look at him. Deathclaw is enormous, and I really do mean ENORMOUS. The size of this model is astonishing and greatly reflects the power and majesty of the heir to Sigmar himself.

Now let's unbox this bad boy.

Nearly 1/4th of my table has been annexed by His Majesty and his loyal mount!

                                        
The box is big with a solid feeling to it. As usuall of GW on the front is a photoshopped picture of the painted model in question. It's nice but I miss the times when the boxes had drawn artworks on them. Good old times...

After opening the box I saw two sprues and an instruction booklet. The sprues are full of tasty bits which let you build not only KF himself but also an Amber Wizard Lord and a generic (but still cool looking) general of the Empire.

Instruction booklet is filled with CGI images

A rather blurry, but still cool artwork from the newest Empire armybook in black and white no less

Those wings are ginormous. Also check out the heads. There are 3 (or 4?) of them!

I think the only beast which is simmilar in size to this griffon is the chimera. I may be biased tough

This kit allows you to assemble three different characters for your Empire army. It's a converters dream come true

The grifon can be assembeled in three ways. You can make the classic Deathclaw with his armoured head and a KF libery in front. You can take the generic, "bald" griffons head and there's the double-eagle head for your wizard lord variety, or as I like to call it, the Aquilla headpiece.

I think I'm going to assemble mine in the classic, KF form. Maybe with a different heraldry beacuase that dragon ornament looks sweet. On the other hand I just might magnetize the whole thing for the hell of it. The entire model is simply powerfull and menacing. There's a bit of fluff in the Empire armybook explaining that their griffons are bigger and nastier than the "normal" ones, beacuse they are selectively bred, and oh boy, does it show on this model. I can easily imagine this griffon tearing enemy units to shreds with every slash of it's mighty claws and hard-as-hell beak. Simply awesome. Solid 9/10.

Now the riders. Oh man, when GW is bothered to pull its head from its own ass, they can really make wondrous models. This one is no exception. Karl Franz comes with Ghal-Maraz the legendary warhammer wielded by Sigmar himself and it really looks majestic as all hell. You can also equip him with the Reikland Runefang.

But WHY would you do that when you can go hammer-time on your enemies asses?

The helmet used by the emperor differs slightly from the older model, but that's really the only thing that's changed in him, apart from the greater levels of detail of course. His Imperial Majesty will be the centerpiece of your army if you decide to field him . However he is not particulary different than the "standard" Empire generals. Sure he's got a full plate and a helm full of feathers, but that's all really. It's not a bad model. I just expected some more details from the Emperor himself. 8/10

Next is the amber wizard lord. Again, GW did an awesome job here. Warhammer fluff monkeys, such as myself, know that amber wizards almost never use "civilized" things such as clothes, metal weapons and so forth. They're the closest thing the Empire has to shamans, untamed and primal. This guy is exactly that. From the bald eagle hat that he wears, to the staff topped with a bird of prey talon, the amber wizard lord just oozes primal coolness and feral strentgh. A huge 10/10 from me.

I dig his hat the most of all to be honest

Finally we come to the standard general of the Empire. You can assemble him with three weapons. A Runefang, a lance and a (not fluffy) Ghal-Maraz. I will run mine with a lance since it fits the theme of my cavalry-heavy army, and the Runefang will probably go to an Empire captasus (captain on pegasus). I think GW wanted to go with a dragon theme when it came to this general. He's got a dragon themed helmet and the heraldry on the armour of the vanilla griffon sports a big dragon. Now this would greatly fit in a Talabheim army, since they have lot's of dragon related myths and themes going on, what with their city being created when Taal casted a great dragon to the ground. However for players who collect armies from, lets say, Nuln (like me), Averland or Middenheim, this could not stick. I know that many people don't give a crap about how their general looks, but I'm always carefull to stay true to the fluff of my army, just like many others do. I mean there is an another head, which greatly resembles the one from the general/captain kit, but GW could have made something more universal for this one. Still, the model is great, and I will certainly deploy him on a battlefield without any shame or remorse. A solid 8/10 from me.

Not bad but could have been so much better

So after reviewing the model itself lets look at its stats and battlefield useability. Since 8th edition is a bane of all monsters, despite what Storm of magic makes you think, does the Battle-Chicken of Doom really delivers?

FYI, since I plan to make a series of full tactica articles later on, this time I'll be only reviewing KF and Deathclaw, but also a normal Griffon. General will have to wait, as well as the Wizard Lord.

The Imperial griffon itself looks good in the stats department. For 170 points with WS 5, S6, T5 and 5 wounds it can really dish out some pain. I wouldn't put it against a daemon prince or a dragon, but against a unit of tough infantry or small unit of cavalry (not Blood Dragons mind you) I could easily see it come out on top. Especially if you get him the blood roar upgrade for 25 pts. In that case you can use him as a chaff killer, sending him against a huge block of low S, low LD infantry to take care of. Just be sure to attack from the flanks. Oh and don't take the two headed upgrade. Blood roar is better. Also it costs 5 pts less.

Okay that was the general griffon, but what about the Deathclaw? Well, for starters it costs... 215 points? What the hell? And it has the same stats as vanilla chicken! Okay, he automatically passes any monster tests and hates the would-be killer of his master, but still... Sucks a bit. Oh well.

Karl Franz himself is looking pretty nice. He's a buffed up general with auto wounding, armour ignoring weapon that deals D3 wounds with each hit. Cool! His Silver Seal is great, granting him a 4+ Ward save and a MR 2. Pretty handy, especially if you consider that his base save is "only" 4+.

Never take the Reikland Runefang, just... don't. I beg you.

He can take four kinds of mounts. Deathclaw (duh!) for 215 pts, and Imperial Dragon for 300 pts, a Pegasus for 45 pts and a Warhorse for 18 with barding costing additional 6 points.

His Majesty's special rule is the inspiring presence. This means that his command bubble is 18' or 24' is he's sitting on Deathclaw or the Imperial Dragon. Extremely helpfull if you ask me, especially in an army where LD 7 is a norm.

Combat wise he's ok. WS 6 and S4 are ok, but be prepared that Deathclaw will be doing most of the killing anyway. Fortunately he's got Ghal-Maraz, one of the better magic weapons in the game IMO. So with his 4 attacks, and perhaps some rerolls to hit, he can really lay down some hurt.

However is he really worth his points? In my opinion yes, but you should not take him on Deathclaw or a Dragon (not to mention pegasus. Those should be captain-exclusive). Why? Cannons, that's why. And bolt throwers. And Doom-divers. And assasination spells. The times of hero hammer are long gone. You gonna put up a single, expensive-as-all-hell model on the table and it will get sniped. Period. Put him in a unit of Inner Circle Knights or in a huge block of 30+ Greatswords, both with magical banners and a mage support. His monstrous mounts are not worth it.

The Emperor is not amused. Also that is not the real Ghal-Maraz!

So that's it. That's my first blog post ever, and let me tell you, I feel awesome and tired at the same time. I've been writing it for two hours now, but I loved every, single minute of it. I think I just might really like this whole blog buisness...

Until next time guys. My next post will shed some light on my armies and the state they're in.
Also here's the pic of my general, Sigismund Orteli. There's a cool story about him, which I'll be happy to share with you. Some day.

But not today. I still need to work on the details

Until next time!

Xathrodox86