They're red, they're white, they're brown
They get that way underground
There can't be much to do
So now they have blue ones too
We don't care what thay look like we'll eat them
Any way they can fit on our plate
Every way we can conjure to heat them
We're delighted and think they're just great
Potato potato potato
potato potato potato
potato potato potato
potato potato potato potato
Sometimes we ditch the skin
To eat what it's holding in
Sometimes we'd rather please
Have just the outside with cheese
They have eyes but they do not have faces
I don't know if their feelings get hurt
By just hanging around in dark places
Where they only can stare at the dirt
- Cheryl Wheeler, The Potato Song.
"Eat them alive Easy Corps, like Ol' Potato likes 'em".
- Sergeant "Sweetbread" Jones.
A (mis) interpretation:
Name: Jorge Romario.
Alias: Commander Potato / The Bringer of Despair.
Age: Unknown.
Affiliation: The War Zombs militia, The Zomb Horde.
Rank: Chief Warrant Officer - Regimental Sergeant-Major of The Dead Easy Corps.
Abilities: Enhanced durability; enhanced endurance; enhanced strength; matter ingestion; oxygen independence; pain suppression; pressure resistance; self-sustenance; consumption healing; thermal resistance; contaminant immunity; killing instinct; apathy; anatomical liberation; semi-immortality.
Std. armaments: "The Pandemic Pistol" - daemon weapon x 2; "The Veil of Late Blight" - daemon weapon x 1; "The Mark of Nurgleth".
The Dead Easy Corps is a War Zombs militia of the Zomb Horde. The War Zombs serve as the primary high intensity engagement force and would be at the forefront of any military type campaigns for the Zomb MD. Unlike the Boiler Zombs whom are former human labourers, the War Zombs comprise generally of mentally un-balanced individuals, majority consist of former Great War veterans whom crave and suffer from addiction to combat. They also include criminals, cultists, renegades and rogue individuals on the run from the Butcher's Bay and the Nine Circles penal colonies. These individuals volunteered themselves to the service of the Zomb MD in the Carrion City in order to escape the fear of death. Driven by this primal fear, these deranged men and women willingly sacrifice their souls to Nurgleth in return for the corrupted preservation of their physical bodies for all time. They also exhibit a feverish, morbid supernatural energy and resistance to physical damage, immunity to all disease and pain. Those who have sworn their souls to Nurgleth feel no pain; in fact, quite the opposite, for many War Zombs feeling a sense of power and and almost drug-like well-being that is far more pleasurable than they felt before they turn into a living dead.
Although the War Zombs are brutal and frenzied to the extreme, they maintain harsh discipline and military-style professionalism, and are organised along the lines of an army organisational structure and ranks. Well equipped and armed with filth corrupted version of weaponries and armaments left over from the Great War, the War Zombs fight as a disciplined army against the defenders of New Andria and later, the rogue bots from the Robot Islands. This is what makes them, to a certain degree, so effective in comparison the usual chaotic and disorganised masses of the Zomb Horde. Highly trained, vicious and brutal, the War Zombs know no fear or hesitation, inflicting no small amount of woe and suffering upon the local populace of New Andria.
Commander Potato or Ol' Potato is formerly Jorge Romario, a highly decorated Great War vet and later, one of the chief of security for The Apsinthos orbital weapons R&D station. He survived the impact of the station upon Andria but suffered from the Warp-born plagues released through the Heart of Darkness which are so virulent, that Romario turned into a crippled wretch assailed by delirium. Though none can say exactly what forces acted upon the soul of Romario, whether he was already damned or whether he made his pact in some state of fever, he must have called out for deliverance, and his call was answered by Nurgleth. As such Romario is one of the first generation of humans corrupted by the Plague God turned into a Zomb.
Romario exhibits outstanding leadership, and with military experiences, displays excellent strategic, tactical acumen and organisational skills. Rare for a Zomb, he possesses oratory skills which motivates his sub-ordinates, which are highly loyal and fanatical to the Ol' Potato. Romario leads through a combination of brute aggression, cunningness and zealous dedication to the cause of the Zomb MD. He rises through the ranks of the War Zombs militia quickly, gaining the Zomb MD confidence in the process. As such, Romario is initiated as one of the Four Mournival, an advisory council of four Zomb Champions, the authority of its members second only to the Plague Lord himself within the living dead horde. Even so, it carried no official weight, is considered to be outside the command structure and is a position purely internal to the Zomb Horde. Their duties are to advise the Zomb MD in all aspects of warfare and acts of aggression, to provide political posturing when he requires it, to watch over the amoral shape of the Horde and to guide its pestilence philosophy. Each member is marked with the Mark of Nurgleth. Those elected to the Mournival are said to be considered the greatest Champions by their peers, and to ideally each posses markedly different but complimentary personalities. In this regard they can be considered in the light of the Four Humours. Romario is considered to be the "perfect War Zomb commander", described as being tempered evenly in all respects. According to the theory of humourism, perfectly balanced humours create the ideal personality. The word 'mournival' is an Old World word for having 4 royal/court/face cards in hand in an obsolete card game. This is often considered to be a winning hand.
As a CO of the Dead Easy Corps, Romario gained the nickname Commander Potato, the Bringer of Despair. This maybe due to his appearance of an infected potato, shrunken on the outside, corky and rotted inside. Romario is incredibly resilient, and could take huge amount of physical punishments. He gains a unique daemon artefact known as The Veil of Late Blight, which enables Romario to channel sorcerous plague infliction known as the Nurgleth's Rot with a mere gaze, turning the target into a living dead or die from plague related disease on spot. The Mark of Nurgleth protects him from psychic and magic assaults. He carries an assortment of plague weapons but often seen with a pair of Pandemic .45mm semi-automatic pistols, its ammunition corrupted with biological warfare agents the likes of pus and pestilence fill from the Great Cess Pit which could kill a human with the scattering of its virulent content upon impact. During the Robot Islands War, Romario replaces the ammo with a variant which could corrode metals and mutate inorganic matters. He sometimes carry the Blight Grenades, highly effective improvised grenades made from the heads of a conquered enemy and filled with infectious blood, pus, acid and other putrid creations. The resulting missile will burst upon impact, the internal pressure throwing out the infectious liquids and gases in all directions. Like all War Zombs, another unique aspect is that Romario could ingest both organic and inorganic matters. In the fierce battle fields of the Northern Frontier, the Dead Easy Corps fights the rogue bots with surgical precision and each fallen Zombots are observed to be torn apart and eaten by the War Zombs. The detached bot heads are usually reserved for Romario himself as supper. Despite its seemingly decayed and rotting state, his body appears able to shrug off extremely serious injuries, with unconfirmed reports of his flesh almost instantaneously healing the damage done to it by las-fire and bolter rounds. In addition, the Ol' Potato appears able to withstand any degree of ambient pollution, including the deadly toxins and gases employed by his own side without additional forms of protection. Regardless of their skills and abilities, by their nature, the War Zombs are susceptible to extreme temperatures. Melta or flamers would turn them into a pool of goo or crispy corpse with second death claiming them. They could be frozen stiff from the liquid nitrogen grenades and shatter into pieces (though there are reports that, like all Zombs, they would still survive decapitation). And when faced with powerful magic or divine empowered adversary the likes of Tommy Mission and the feared Fighting JC, the War Zombs would often be at the end of the stick during such confrontation.
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The Potato Commander is the surprise drop of the day during the War Zomb 3-Pack pre-order. Did not pick up the set, which apart from the standard version, also comes with the GID (Glow In the Dark) variant. I was gonna go all the way but the wallet did not permit it, so Ol' Potato will do. Again I do not know why there's a veil over his Zombie face, which reminds me of a Fallen Nom de Plume from 3A's WWR line, nor why he's called Potato. As for the chevrons, it is even more intriguing, inverted four with a star above and another pointing above. I have no idea what's his actual ranking is. Fresh as usual from the box, with that smell, I nearly fainted when the figure's left arm came off at the elbow joint. Luckily, it could be attached back but I am quite weary of it and very much careful when moving it around. Comes with dual pistol sans the M60 (?) which comes with each of the 3 pack Zombs. Majority of write-up taken from Games Workshop's world of WH40K.
