Realms of Chaos- The Lost and the Damned

Apologies in advance in reading this, I've been working on this post in an off again on again fashion for quite some time so it jumps around and covers a lot of ground.

The Lost and the Damned. Unlike my copy of Slaves to Darkness which I've had forever, my copy of Lost and the Damned is one I've had for...never. I've read through a friends copy numerous times and well as "ahem" other means, but I've largely been very unlucky on the purchase of this one. In other words I've missed out on this on eBay multiple auctions. In fact I've been about as unlucky on it as the quest for the Elven Attack Chariot (which I've been able to secure since I've blogged about it).

"Papa Nurgle looks so plump and full of puss!"

For some reason in terms of collecting this rule book it is very akin to the Deities and Demigods with the Cthulhu and Melnibone mythos for AD&D. In the collecting world (or at least the selling side) people got the idea that is "rare". In fact, neither book is really that rare, but people think they are and thus the price is higher than it might otherwise be. Typically, the Lost and the Damned sells for $150-300 on eBay. So my plan to acquire it? Wait it out and get it eventually. What eBay has taught me over the years that if one is patient you'll eventually get what you are looking for at teh right price. I might need to continue to be patient as its going for $150-300 on eBay and around $350 on Amazon, ugh. (after this its off to get The Warhammer Giant... ugh).

It is true that in the case of the Lost and the Damned that it was a smaller print run then Slaves to Darkness. This is probably due to the fact Lost and the Damned came late in the run of 3rd Edition Warhammer right before the employee buyout of Games Workshop and the rapid move to 4th edition as a result.

That said? The Lost and the Damned might be my favored of the two books, perhaps because I don't have it in my collection?

Slaves and Darkness and the Lost an the Damned are designed to work together and full of the awesome stuff. I think the thing that I like the most about the second book are the various chaos conversions, particularly those representing daemons. Those pictures provided me with countless hours of inspiration. The art is likewise great and really captures the feel of the mid to late 1980s ethos of design and feel. The independent daemon based on a hand from the color pages (pictured to the right) has always been a favorite of mine and even inspired a on-again/off again scratch build of larger greater daemon...more on that in some future post if I ever get around to finishing it.

Like Slaves to Darkness it delves deep into two of the Chaos Powers- Nurgle, Lord of Plauge and Tzeentch the Master of Magic, their daemons, and their mortal followers. Like Slaves to Darkness it documents the path to power for the followers of those gods. For some reason the Gifts of Nurgle that a potential Chaos Champion can receive on his road to power or damnation always resonated with me. I especially like the Trail of Slime gift; highly impractical on the battlefield (what general is purposely having models(s) march across the trail?) but completely in keeping with the pathos of Nurgle -any model within 4" and directly behind the model risks catching Nurgles Rot. This is but one of the chaos gifts and the there si of course the large table of mutations.

Another great thing about these two books is that one can also use them for 40k, but even more than that is that they can be used for "spicing up" the Chaos Army in the 3rd Edition Warhammer Armies. This army represents a chaos "undivided" force and works well and has very good modeling opportunities as well which I'll be covering in a future blog post.

Still want more? Like Slaves to Darkness the book can also be used for 1st Edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It can't be stated enough these books are a masterwork and along with the rules, the Armies Book as well as the maligned Siege a very good set of rules, well not Siege...

I've spent a fair amount of time talking about Nurgle but what about Tzeentch? For some reason I have not been as drawn to Tzeentch as Nurgle, much like I'm drawn to Khorne over Slaanesh in Slaves to Darkness. For some reason the models just don't seem to resonate with me the same way they do with Nurgle. Maybe its the fun factor of the nurglings infesting Papa Nurgle?

For either Nurgle or Tzeentch I have a few minis to form the basis of the respective warbands but not enough (really no more than 1-3) to field anything substantive. My 3rd Edition Chaos warbands is a a Khorne themed one and I am assembling another smaller one of an undivided force in line with the rules for Chaos in the Warhammer Armies book. Obviously I can use these but I really want each force to be independent.

(A brief write up here: Eldritch Epistles Blog).

Should I actually get it it will then be a fair amount of minis off of eBay, but this isn't a bad thing, the idea of a Nurgle warband is one I really like. It also leads to one of the best parts of a Chaos Army: a war altar which only Dark Elves, Bretonnians, Chaos and Slann may have in 3rd Edition. Even with the web there really isn't that many examples of chaos war altars from 3rd edition Warhammer out there. The most well known is from White Dwarf 125.

 In the case of chaos war altars this really is the "grand daddy of them all". There really isn't that much else out there. I've attempted a scratch build of a chaos war altar that really turned out to be a wagon... which the rules say they are. But I'm not so sure I want something this elaborate.In any event a chaos war altar is on my long range of plans I'm just not sure when and what form it will take.

Final Note: war altars for 3rd Edition Warhammer are covered in a blog here including myDark Elf War altar which has since been completed.