Army Showcase - Part 16 - House Victarian

Masters of the sea!

The bloody and brutal naval arm of the Blood Legion; House Victarian command the corsairs of the Doomspire Fleet from their Black Ark: the Tower of Hate. Lord-Admiral Helkhan Victarian leads his men and monsters from this sinister bastion to enact the will of Doombringer wherever in the world he so wishes.

You can learn more about House Victarian and see pictures of their forces without the new monsters in this blog post which I recommend you read before continuing with this one: House Victarian.

Reavers of the Doomspire Fleet

Lady Kat'rhiana Victarian

A beast master of House Victarian; Lady Kat'rhiana possesses some magical capabilities that allow her unparalleled control over the beasts and monsters bound to the Blood legion. Intelligent, ambitious and beautiful she is a dangerous foe who is determined to protect the interests of her House and advance herself within the hierarchy of the fleet; hoping to one day be chosen by the corsairs to be their Lady-Admiral, Queen of the Seas and High Beastmistress of the Tower of Hate.

Now that Dark Elf Sorceresses can use any of the eight winds of magic I have been running Kat'rhiana as a life or beast wizard which can offer some interesting new dynamics, particularly when fielding a combat-heavy monster list. Whilst it feels weird running a support wizard in an elf army who isn't using lore of Shadows I would recommend giving it a go. 

Kharibdyss

This was a simple conversion that I think worked quite well. Using an old Lord of the Rings dragon I simply removed it's head and wings and substituted them with spare parts from the Kharibdyss box that were left over from making the War Hydra. The only real conversion work were the tentacles which were just sausages of green-stuff constructed round a length of wire. I then added a bit of a ruin to the base to alter the pose slightly.

War Hydra

High Beastlord Rhagon Victarian

Greatest of the Beastmasters of the Doomspire Fleet; Rhagon is the most brutal of Helkhan's siblings. Riding a raging Manticore into battle he lacks all subtlety and will always resort to brute force with overwhelming aggression. Violent and unpredictable he is the sledgehammer of House Victarian; leading their ferocious beasts into the fray.

Thoroughly dissatisfied with the existing Manticore model and unable to get hold of the old Dark Elf Beastmaster, I elected to make my own. For the base I used the body of the Tomb Kings Warshinx whose back legs and front paws I cut off and reposed. I added a set of Balrog wings I had spare and a venomous tail from what I think was an Orc Wyvern. The head came from the Beastmen Ghorgon and the ruins are part of the Arcane Ruins scenery box. Rhagon himself was a kit-bash based on one of the Beastmasters that come with the War Hydra/Kharibdyss box. To make everything look neat I sculpted a fur mane as well as a few other fur patches to cover up certain areas. I am quite happy with the results, especially the pose which looks quite predatory; almost as if it is about to lunge forwards into the melee. 

House Victarian has not only been fun to paint with its unique monsters and characters, but it is also quite fun to play on the tabletop. When your opponent sees that many monsters and corsairs lined up against them they often think twice! I have found that a Dark Elf monster-mash list with lots of cavalry can be quite interesting to play as you have a highly mobile force with lots of hitting potential, whilst a Dreadlord would probably be a better option than a High Beastmaster I do think it adds an extra bit of character to the army.

Now that I have posted about 90% of my Dark Elf army expect to see a big army photo post sometime in the near future. My Druchii are my biggest army at somewhere not far above 5000 points matched only if I field both my Undead Armies together. It has been a momentous undertaking that began when I started Warhammer Fantasy back in 2007 and even now I keep thinking of what I can add to make the army even bigger and even better!