Call of the Wild: Sean's Brayherd

Today Sean from Hobbyhammer gives us a special look inside his ever growing Brayherd army for Age of Sigmar. There are a few names you think of when the goats of Chaos are mentioned, and Sean is definitely one of the leading Beastlords out there.

Tyler: What initially drew you to Brayherd as an army?

Sean: Good Day Tyler! Always happy to talk Goat. I have been an avid Beastmen fan since I first got into Warhammer back in 1997 (I was 12), back then it was single pose Gors and me and my friend who collected Space Marines used to make up rules for the game and fight it out. Usual story of dropping out of hobby, getting married, needing a hobby again and Warhammer calling me back and Beastmen tickled my fancy once again. This time, multipose goats, monsters and general Beastly models!

I have always been a fan of woodland mythical monsters and the lore of Beastmen is just so good, who doesn’t like the thought of half men, half goat/bull creatures stalking the forests, ambushing unsuspecting foes. The fact they are also connected to and a direct inevitability of Chaos presence is just amazing. I always like to think your army in wargaming represents a little part of yourself.. I have always been a little feral and growing up as a Punk Rocker, a little bit of anarchy too, the call of the Bray is the only real choice for me.

Tyler: Were you concerned about the small unit selection for them?

Sean: Not in the slightest, in fact when you think about it and start getting into it, you have widest selection of units to choose from without going Chaos alliance. Yes, so full Bray only has 7 different units (still more than some), but with their ally options of Warherd, Monsters of Chaos and Thunderscorn, suddenly the options really open up.. then on top of this take the Great Bray spell, Savage Dominion (summon any Chaos Monster), this opens the door to summoning bigger things.. (Great Unclean One, Verminlord, Hellpit, Glottkin! And even the Grand Marshall himself..) plus as a Great Bray is a Chaos Wizard, having any Chaos Daemon in your summoning pool too. Options are limitless really.. In fact I have played games where I have 3 Great Brays, 3 Units of Ungor, 3 Jabbers and a 1200pt summoning pool.

Tyler: How long did it take you to paint up your army?

Sean: So the current army.. (I have had and sold 2 previous 5k Beastmen armies in the past) to paint the 2000 points of Brayherd took me a few months. I found a way of doing them with meant I was able to knock out 10 goats in about 3 hours of painting. I sprayed them brown, drybrushed the fur and skin, painted the metallics and horns and cloth, washed them with Agrax and then you can go back if you like and pick out highlights. The Monster side of the army (another 2k) takes a little longer, but I just kinda pick a monster a month and paint it up, still got so many of these to do.

The army is nowhere near finished, I am currently painting another Beastlord and another Chariot. I am concentrating more on honing my conversion skills, the beastlord this time is made from Skarr Bloodwrath as the base model and my chariots are all being pulled byb Varanguard horses (Not the cheapest way of doing them...). Basically, there is always another goat to paint.

Tyler: Your Beastlord is named Mojgorox and has a bit of a history. Can you tell us a bit of it, both in the Mortal Realms and from your past armies?

Sean: Mojgorox has a mega history for me, he begun in 8th edition in the World-That-Was. It was Malagor (an old named BrayShaman model) that brought him into existence, a chosen Beastlord who was killed at the hands of Luthor Huss (an old named Warpriest) and resurrected to become to champion who would bring the herds together during the end times. He fought right up until the end and along side Archaon until he was finally destroyed at the hands/sword of Malekith. His mind was transported to the Realm of Chaos at this point and split into 4, each quarter dedicated to each of the 4 Chaos gods. The gods tormented him for a 1000 years, using the Beastlord as their court jester, each god is able to speak to him directly and constantly whisper.. He is basically a Psychotic Paranoid schizophrenic blessed with the best aspects of each of his now fathers (as he refers to them)

He was thrown back into the Mortal Realms during the first wave of Sigmar’s warriors, he travelled the Badlands of Ghur doing as his fathers willed, gathering supporters who believed him the saviour of the beasts, but others and even Mortal Chaos Worshippers followed too.

The constant pull and stretch of his mind by the gods really play into how I play him on the battlefield. It was a #RAW17 that his status really took hold. (You will have to download the battletome to find out more on this.. Yes Mojgorox has his own Battletome). He ended the RAW campaign in style though.. He rode a Realmbeast (literally on his head) through a Realmgate from Ghur to Ghyran and Herdstone Axed him in the head, but instead of killing the realmbeast, the power exploded out destroying him and sending him back to Realm of Chaos.. Khorne, pleased with his actions and attempt took him under his wing and has been strongest in Mojgorox mind. Meanwhile, the most loyal of GreatBrays have been dancing the herdstones to try and bring him back.. this finally happened during a game recently against Paul Ferguson (clubmate) and Mojgorox entered the Mortal Realms once more, but he was quickly grabbed by a Troll Hag and currently resides in her bag and his way to Nagash (long story here, but will come to fruition in April).

Tyler: What is your favourite model/unit from your army?

Sean: Wow, hard question. Painting wise, I love my Varanguard Chariots.. Mojgorox and his Bray Council also have a special place in my heart.

Tyler: Which model/unit did you most dread painting?

Sean: This has to be the Ghorgon.. I have a Mierce Miniature model for this, Galagaak, Raging Tarvox.. it has such large flat areas of skin, it took me months to pluck up the courage to airbrush the layers on. But now I have and the model is finished, I love it and try to field it everytime I can.

I also have 3 Jabbers and each time, I dread building these.. painting not so bad.. but building will literally invoke the Aura of Madness each time.

Tyler: You've made an entire custom Battletome for Mojgorox's herd, can you tell us a bit about that and what went into making it?

Sean: Yes! This was a labour of love that (as you will be aware with the Tomb Kings) once you begin doing, will not be able to stop doing.. I originally had the idea to create a small document for my army list for #RAW17, I begun by creating some background pages for Mojgorox, then though I would add in some Painting tutorials and ‘Obby Metal section.. I then just thought, screw it.. might as well do a custom battletome, I have made it available as a free download on TGA and had two printed up in hardback, one for myself and one as a prize giveaway at the event. The battletome includes full allegiance abilities for the Bray, plus warscrolls for all Allies available and therefore a great go to tome for all things Beastly. It took me a couple of months of lunch time (and some work time) getting it together but cements the army, so fully worth it.

Tyler: Any plans for expanding the herd in the future?

Sean: The herd will always be expanding, I have 20 more Raiders, 30 more Gor, 2 more Chariots, a GreatBray and 30 more Bestigor planned at some point... but there is no real rush for this as I have a working herd already. I will also be painting some Khorne Daemons this year as Khorne is strong in Mojgorox mind.

Tyler: How do you find them on the tabletop?

Sean: So much fun and super quick, turn 1 charges are pretty easy.. the Ambushing rules and shear amount of goats take a lot of people by surprise, with the summoning options or just Monster allies it can really add some punch, but there is nothing better than seeing a full herd of goats on the table.

Tyler: What were your initial thoughts upon seeing the Brayherd Allegiance Abilities in the General's Handbook 2017?

Sean: So I was lucky enough back last March to see them as part of playtesting, I remember thinking how great they were, it wasn’t going to suddenly make the Bray super competitive but the nods to the World-That-Was items were great. The fact they brought back the Herdstone was fantastic and makes for some really thematic games. The inclusion of the item Herdstone Axe (technically meaning the potential to take out the likes of Nagash) meant the Bray had reason for taking it. In fact all the artefacts and most of the command traits are useable and will really theme an army, again giving them so many more options.

Tyler: What would be your number 1 piece of advice to prospective Beastlords out there?

Sean: Don’t expect it to be winning every game. It takes a lot of skill to make them viable, but; you will probably have the most fun out of any army you play. Include the monsters, play with summoning and you’ll always have different options. Find a quick way of painting the core models as you need a lot of them.

Tyler: I think the only person to rival your Goatiness on the internet would be Warhammer Community's Rhu. Can we get a goat based grudge match on the tabletop in the future?

Sean: Haha, yes been speaking with Rhu about possibilities of a Bray-off, I’m sure it will happen one day, it has too. The world needs to know who is King-Bray.

Tyler: Are there ever too many Goat GIFs?

Sean: No.

Tyler: Any final thoughts?

Sean: I would love to see an official battletome in the future and I would be intrigued to see how GW approach this, maybe a full Beast of Chaos tome. But in the meantime I will continue to build the story of the herd. I understand it is a massive commitment for people to do a full army, they aren’t gonna win any tournaments and so people don’t go with it that often unless they are invested in the nature of them. I will continue to be an ambassador though and promote them in anyway possible. Any chance of seeing a Mengel based Brayherd army in the future? That would be a thing of beauty.

A special thanks again to Sean for sharing his thoughts on the goatiest army in AoS, as well as the pictures of his very cool looking army. I'm excited to see it grow personally. Beastmen/Brayherds have always been a staple of Warhammer, and a personal favorite of mine, even though I've never collected them, so for now I'll live vicariously though his herd. You can check out more of his work and thoughts over on his Twitter.

Until next time,

Tyler M.