Undead Carrion Fell Bat Thingys

Carried aloft on foul wings, these carrion beasts soar into the skies above the undead host of the Dread Pale King, scouting out enemies for the fell host.

Once sighted, the Necromancers controlling these rotting beasts are able to coordinate the host on the ground, while the carrion beasts act as heralds in advance of the main host, preying on the enemy vanguard as they swoop down silently on rotting wings to prey on the enemy.

Once battle is joined, the carrion beasts are able to fly over the front lines of the enemy into the support elements of the enemy, and can be reanimated again and again, allowing the necromancers to harry the foe relentlessly.

These three are old Marauder Miniatures carrion models from the early nineties (1993) sculpted by Aly and Trish Morrison. As can be seen on the Stuff of Legends web site, they came with little spectral riders, but I have decided not to include them on these models. I prefer the look of them without the riders, and like the idea of them as being large undead birds (or bird like things) re-animated and added to my undead host. The little spectres riding them just didn't quite cut the mustard for me.

I painted them up in fairly simple colours that I thought would match the rest of my army, with plenty of greys, bone and browns.

I plan to use the rules for Fell Bats for them in Age of Sigmar I have another three not shown here, so I can field two units of three, or a nice big unit of six. 

They can dish out six attacks each so might be useful to pick fights with screening units or support characters up the back of the enemy army (thanks to their high movement rate, and ability to fly), where their weight of attacks might cause some trouble.

They are also summonable, meaning that they can be healed by undead heros in the right circumstances, and if they are wiped out can be brought back into the game from the grave. They can also have Danse Macarbe cast on them by a friendly necromancer, allowing them to pile in and attack twice in one combat phase. So aggressive use is almost a must.

In games of 3rd edition they can be fielded in units of up to six, so I can field a maximum sized unit if I want.

So if I want to run them in 3rd edition games I can, but I might have to paint up the riders to do so. I thought about using magnets, but in the end decided not to, as I didn't really want to drill holes in the back of them, and I didn't really think I would like the look of a little flat disk in amongst all of that fur.

So for now they are riderless, but will never the less be a useful addition to my old lead undead horde.