AoS: Harbingers of the Malign Portents
The Harbingers of the Malign Portents are here and we’ve unbound all four!
We’ve been pretty excited about the arrival of the Malign Portents. We’ve got some early previews of the new kits for the Harbingers of the Malign Portents and what they do in game. Let’s start with the Stormcast Eternal’s new Lord-Ordinator Vorrus Starstrike:
The model itself comes in a single sprue but it’s pretty well detailed as you can see below. I was a fan of the quilted details of his clothes and liked the crazy Gyro-scope doodad he was rocking as well.
Rules wise, he definately makes your Order War Engines better and isn’t too shabby in melee either. If he get two hits that are 6+, then he also generates D3 mortal wounds on an enemy unit within 1″ which was a nice bonus.
Now let’s peruse the Darkoath Warqueen’s new kit and rules:
This is is another really great sculpt from GW. Lots of details and I appreciate the whole “Conan/Red Sonja” vibe they were going for with the Darkoath Queen & Chieftain. But if you saw the video, then you know who’s the boss!
Rules wise as she starts killing other Heroes or Monsters, her number of attacks starts to add-up. Her runeshield offers her a 6+ save in addition to her standard save AND can cause a Mortal Wound back on the attacker. And as a leader she can let Slaves to Darkness units get a re-roll on their charge rolls, too! Not too shabby in my opinion!
Next up we have the Moon Clan’s new Fungoid Cave Shaman, Snazzgar Stinkmullett:
First of all, Snazzgar here has the best name ever. So very evocative–but on top of that, he’s a pretty cool little mini. As a grot, he’s definitely the smallest of the Harbingers, but don’t let that fool you, he packs some serious mystic might. His Spore Maws spell hits enemies within d6″ for d3 mortal wounds.
Capable of casting some pretty deadly magic (and of giving up his meager melee for more), his other real strength is in manipulating and interpreting the Portents that dot the skies of the mortal realms.
Then of course there’s the ghostly Knight of Shrouds:
The Knight of Shrouds, whose name is Keldrek, is a powerful swordsman. Capable of flight and protected by his ethereal form, this guy excels as a hero hunter, with lots of movement to help keep him relevant to the fight.
And his sword of stolen years keeps him in the fight longer than you’d expect, allowing him to heal lost wounds in combat with heroes. Every time he slays a hero, he regains a lost wound.
On top of all these rules, the Harbingers also add to your games of Malign Portents by allowing you to generate new Prophecy Points. We’ll cover these in more detail later, but let’s just say they are VERY similar to Command Points – only you get them every turn! These models are up for pre-order now and will be available next weekend in your FLGS!
Lord-Ordinator Vorrus Starstrike
Masters of celestial engineering, the Lord-Ordinators are wise men who have shaped the Mortal Realms through the word of Sigmar and the readings of the heavens. When their sharp and serious minds cannot re-mould reality to their whims, they take up their hammers and march to war, hewing the future with each blow as a master mason shapes the stone of a temple to Sigmar’s glory. Striding to battle in sigmarite armour, Vorrus Starstrike wields hammers that strike with thunderclap force. It is his solemn duty to read the stars above, using the truths there to engineer fate on the battlefield.
This multi-part plastic kit contains the components necessary to build Lord-Ordinator Vorrus Starstrike. He comes clad in impressively ornate sigmarite armour – slightly less than most Stormcast Eternals, as his arms are bare between the gauntlets and his lion-and-hammer-motif shoulder pads. He wear a large textured tabard over his chest plate, which extends to a cloak at the rear, held fast by a belt featuring engineering and siege equipment – guides, measuring devices and a ratchet/wrench mechanism hang from his hips. Vorrus wears no helmet – instead, we’re treated to a view of his glorious facial hair, which frames his stern expression perfectly. Behind his head is an arcanabulum, and topping off the symbolism nicely is an anvil and pair of callipers on his belt. Weaponry-wise, he carries 2 astral hammers, one in each hand – these feature relatively short handles for a Stormcast Eternals hammer, but are no less potent for it.
Vorrus Starstrike comes as 9 components, and is supplied with a Citadel 40mm Round base.
Darkoath Warqueen Marakarr Blood-sky
Thousands of mortal tribes have bound their fates to the will of Chaos, and at the fore are the Darkoath Warqueens. These are souls who have committed all manner of atrocity to attract the favour of the Dark Gods. With a fierce animal charisma and the fires of ambition fueling their every move, they are deadly warriors all, but their true power is the favour of the Dark Gods, and their supernatural ability to unite the hordes of Chaos as one. Marakarr Blood-sky has proven herself the rightful leader of her barbarian tribespeople again and again, and they obey her without question.
This multi-part plastic kit contains the components necessary to assemble Marakarr Blood-sky, a Darkoath Warqueen. She wears a large, ornate horned crown, which she has earned by her furious leadership of the Slaves to Darkness. Her armour can best be described as functional – studs, leather, metal and mail protect the most vital areas, while her exposed skin bears the scars of a lifetime spent hewing flesh and reaping skulls (a few of said skulls are attached to her boots.) Hardly the shy and retiring type, Markarr Blood-sky is posed lunging forward, hefting her warlord axe (notched and worn through years of hacking at her enemies) and wielding an infernal runeshield – the face of this shield is divided into 8 sections, representing the winds of magic. Her long cloak is studded with stone tablets, each one an unbreakable oath to the Dark Gods.
This kit comes as 9 components, and is supplied with a Citadel 32mm Round base.
Snazzgar Stinkmullett
The mushroom-gobbling grot maniacs known as Cave-Shamans are not right in the head. To these greenskinned nutters, to get lost in a brain-mangling vision is to grow closer to the side of Gorkamorka that epitomises cunning and trickiness over brute strength, which is the side that all grots like the best. Whether these hallucinogenic visions of carnage are gifted by Gorkamorka, or simply the side effects of ingesting deffcap mushrooms, doesn’t matter to his followers – so long as they lead to a good scrap. The Fungoid Cave-Shamans were the first to lead the hordes of Destruction into Shyish, the realm of Death, in search of the Waaagh! to end all Waaaghs!.
This multi-part plastic kit contains the components to assemble Snazzgar Stinkmullett, a Fungoid Cave-Shaman. He’s an… interesting figure, clearly quite mad, and has enhanced his already pointy features to more closely resemble the Bad Moon with some impressive metal prosthetics attached to his nose and jaw. You may think that he’s wearing a mushroom-shaped hat – the truth is much worse. He’s consumed so much hallucinogenic fungus that spores have burst through his brain, and an enormous fungus is growing from the top of his head. Further spores and mushrooms are dotted about his cloak and staff – which bears a caterpillar familiar – and he carries bags of potions and deffcaps on his belt. He’s armed with a moon-sickle, and on his base you’ll find an accompanying spore squig, which belches clouds of thick spores to hide Snazzgar from the foe. Topping off the whole ensemble is the spine of some unknown creature, which runs down the back of the cloak to trail behind Snazzgar like some dismal trophy.
Knight of Shrouds
A Knight of Shrouds is a traitor to his own kin, a turncoat who took the chance to rule in Nagash’s hellish dystopia rather than serve in Sigmar’s heaven-sent armies. He has bartered away his soul in exchange for generalship of a powerful undead host. Keldrek commands a great number of Nighthaunt wraiths in battle, and gathers the forces of the dead behind him as he travels the lands, ever seeking to bring Nagash’s justice to errant souls. The bite of his blade is as grave-cold as his immortal heart.
This multi-part plastic kit contains the components necessary to assemble Keldrek, Knight of Shrouds. Little more than an empty, ragged shroud, this is an especially sinister character, entirely appropriate for a Death collection. Only a few indicators of the malevolent spirit within exist – the large winged helm, from which nothing but empty space peers out, and the thin, ghostly arms that emerge from either side. The right arm holds the Sword of Stolen Hours, a horrifying artefact as long as a man is tall which extends Keldrak’s un-life with every enemy it slays, while the left clutches its scabbard; each of these items is notched and decayed through centuries of use. Hanging from where Keldrak’s neck should be is an hourglass, a bleak reminder of his immortality. His base features a section of ruined wall, the spiked fence of which Keldrek is floating over.
Stay tuned for more info about the Malign Portents!
