What We Do in the Realm of Shadows - Episode Six

 While Orion was still in town we got in another episode of our What We Do in the Realm of Shadows campaign...

The characters conti -  ued to wander through the foetid swamps despoiled by Nurgle in an attempt to locate the Maggotkin forces and... somehow... "deal with them" so as not to be a distraction for the Stormcast Eternals that Neferata was trying to convince should aid her in the destruction of the forces of Khorne that have squatter in Angaria for far too long...

They did note the trio of Fell Bats still following them from the distance - sometime "friends", sometimes rivals from the court in Nulhamia - Simone the Deceitful, Count Blandula, and Jarred the Silent. They ignored them and carried on. 

Eventually they started to wonder if they were going in circles, as they were eventually so far into the tainted lands that EVERYTHING looked tainted and they were no longer sure they were heading towards more tainted stuff.. because it was ALL bad... so Lady Esmerelda took on her bat form and with Harald the Spirit torment tried flying ahead to scout things out. 

It was Harald that finally spotted a large concentration of the Maggotkin... and there were a LOT of them... and it looks like they were building something... perhaps a ritual site...?

This could not mean anything good and when Harald reported back what he'd seen... everyone was quite concerned that they'd been sent on a suicide mission. Harald pointed out that there were THREE VAMPIRE LORDS that were also vassals of Neferata following them and perhaps they could be convinced to join them. Lady Esmerelda and Sir Raven said they would rather DIE than owe any of those three any favours or to have seemed so weak as to need their help... especially since the three had boasted that Lady Esmerelda and Sir Raven were no longer in Neferata's favour, having failed to raise the army they'd promised, and that when the Legion of Blood took back Angaria from the Khorne horde, that their keeps would be awarded to those that were in favour Simone and Count Blandula! 

Harald went and tried to convince them anyway... unfortunately Harald, being a Spirit Torment, the only method he really had for trying to convince anyone of anything was INTIMIDATION... and that did not work... 

After returning to the others, Harald pointed out that if they DID NOT secure the vampires aid, they would surely die and then Simone the Decietful and Count Blandula would FOR CERTAIN steal their ancestral keeps! 

And so Lady Esmerelda made a pitiful attempt to ask the trio for their help... and hey declined... 

So it was up to them to stop this ritual on their own.. 

As they approached, most were involved in the ritual or watching the ritual... 

A few Nurglings were capering about, acting as sentries, of a sort. Harald flew up and pulverized a pair of them with his lock and chains. They burst like giant balloons filled with puss and gore.. but not before they squealed (it was unclear if it was terror or delight...?) and alerted the followers of Nurgle of their presence. 

Before they could act, Sir Raven rode down an entire unit of Plaguebearers! Slaughtering the lot of them smashing them to bits and being sprayed with more gore and puss and rancid fluids... 

This got the attention of the Pusgoyle Blightlord who charged Sir Raven, dealing the vampire some serious damage! 

 A Lord of Plagues, the Putrid Blightkings and another horde of Plaguebearers turned and shambled towards the interlopers,

Harald quickly found himself surrounded by Putrid Blightkings! 

He slipped away and attacked a Daemon of to the side that seemed to be directing the Plaguebearers. 

Sir Renmould stood guard, ready to defend Lady Esmerelda. Lady Esmerelda began throwing spells at the Sorcerer leading the ritual...

The Lord of Plagues charged in first bashing Sir Renmould HARD... 

Sir Raven charged down the other group of Plaguebearers, destroying them utterly! 

Then all fell back to try and deal with the Lord of Plagues and Putrid Blightkings first, before trying to assault the Sorcerer and the Lord of Afflictions protecting her... 

The battle was long and savage. At one point Sir Renmould seemed like he might be mortally wounded... and would have surely perished, were it not for the magiks of the Necromancer, Waldron! 

The Lord of Plagues absolutely obliterated the necromancers private guard of Deadwalker Skeletons... then proceeded to smash through all of his zombies... 

At that point the Necromancer cast one more spell healing the damage he could, and then fled! 

Around this time, Sir Raven was cut down by the three Putrid Blightkings he was fighting!

Things looked dire, indeed! 

Luckily, just then, when things were looking super bad... a large Fell Bat swooped in at attacked the Lord of Plagues! 

The bat turned into Count Blandula! He was soon joined by another Fell Bat. 

The second Fell Bat, they had earlier claimed to be Jarred the Silent who had been "stuck" in bat form for some time, was slain by the Lord of Plagues... and turned out to be just a Fell Bat!? WHERE WAS JARRED THE SILENT!? 

After that they were finally joined by Lady Simone the Deceitful, who killed the Pustule Blightlord and helped finish off the Lord of Plagues.

Alas... it was too late... 

The sorcerer successfully summoned the Great Unclean One into Shyish! 

Simone the Deceitful and Count Blandula looked at each other, then looked over an the other vampires... the simultaneously yelled "BAT!" turned back into their bat forms and flew off... 

Lady Esmerelda did the same... but tried to carry off her sometimes lover and possible sibling, Sir Raven... as awful as her unlife was with him... she could not imagine unlike WITHOUT hime... 

Sir Renmould had to just flee on foot, hoping to keep the vampires in sight as they flew off... 

How would they keep the Stormcast from finding out about the Great Unclean One and pivoting their forces to come and deal with it! How would they explain this all to Neferata!? Could Sir Raven be reanimated!?

find out next month, in the next episode of What We Do in the Realm of Shadows!!

Lost Song Spirits - Regiment of Renown

I forgot to include this in the previous post about the last of the Tree-Revenants and Spite-Reveneants. The whole reason I bought the extra Spite Reveneants was to be able to build this Regiment of Renown! 

Near the end of last year, Games Workshop posted a bunch of new Regiments of Renown as part of "Grotmas"... One of those Regiments of Renown was the Lost Song Revenants.

This Regiment of Renown hails from the isle of Decrepita (in Shyish, I think...?). These Sylvaneth of the Lost-Song Forest have become deafened to the spirit-song. They can now only hear the mournful cries of wayward souls, which has driven them to cruelty and madness. Shrouded in the chilling fogs of their native land, these Outcasts follow the legions of the dead, hoping to vent their own spite and bitterness.

The Lost Song Revenants include: 

• Hero - Treelord (1) 210 - Any Sylvaneth
• Unit - Spite-Revenants (5)  80 - Infantry
• Unit - Spite-Revenants (5)  80 - Infantry

Total: 370 points

INCLUSION

This Regiment of Renown can be included in armies from the following factions:

• Flesh-eater Courts
• Ossiarch Bonereapers
• Idoneth Deepkin
• Soulblight Gravelords
• Nighthaunt

I HAVE Soulblight Gravelords and a growing force of Nighthaunts, so I could potentially include them in either of those!! 

Lost Song Revenants with Nighthaunts!

This force currently comes to a little over 1000 points... When the Scriptor Mortis and Craventhrone Guard and second unit of Myrmorn Banshees are complete, it could be about 1450 points! 

Lost Song Revenants with Soulblight Gravelords!

THIS force comes to 1950 points - using (almost) all the current Soulblight Gravelords that I have painted! (Next June a number of these move into "legends")

Spearhead: Dogs and Bones in the Realm of Death

On Wednesday afternoon I got in a couple of games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Spearhead with my friend Orion! 

The first game I played my brand new Blades of Khorne - Fangs of the Blood God army. Orion brought her regular Soulblight Gravelords - Bloodcrave Hunt. She has a NEW Soulblight Gravelords army - the Deathrattle Tomb Host - but they're not painted yet! 

I won the roll off and decided to be the attacker. As Defender, Orion chose to play on the Dolorum side of the game board from the Sand & Bone Gaming Pack, chose side and the deployment map and all that... and then the Horde of Khorne Dogs starts swarming across the batlefield - so fast were they that I didn't get to take a pictures of their initial dispositions!?

On the first turn of Round One, Karanak, the Hound of Vengeance, sent forth do hunt down that which gained the ire of the God of Blood himself, had found it's quarry... 

Other Flesh Hounds circled round to block her escape.

Karanak moved in and shredded the Vampire... 

So... that's it.. Quarry hunted down and destroyed! Mission Accomplished! WE can all go.. 

wait... what...? 

We have to play three and a half MORE rounds?! 

Uggggggghhhh... finnnnne... 

So, elsewhere... 

The Claws of Karanak and the other pack of Flesh Hounds had charged the Deathrattle Skeletons sitting on the objective on the other flank... because I guess that's a thing they could do... Not much blood to spill... but dogs like bones, I guess! 

Unfortunately they were a little to exhuberant in their charge and got a little too close to the Blood Knights who were lurking just to the rear... 

On MY turn, before they even got to swing one of their big chopping blades, the Blood Knights utterly wiped out my Claws of Karanak. 

Then on their turn, they finished off the unit of Flesh Hounds! 

At the beginning of the Second Round Karanak and the surviving unit of Flesh Hounds, smelling fresh blood... of their compatriots being slaughtered, charged across the battlefield to attack the Blood Knights! 

(Also... if Blood Knights are allowed to charge... they are SAVAGE... so better to charge them and hope for the best... get them stuck in...) 

Despite not charging the battle was savage and bloody... 

and then they weren't there anymore!? They were just suddenly across the battlefield stealing some other objective...? (stupid battle tactics cards...) 

A fresh unit of the Claws of Karanak arrived to take back an objective... 

Only to get charged by the Blood Knights again... 

ONE of them survived the initial attacks... and then the Horses went and the last one died... again... 

Karanak and the last remaining Flesh Hound decided to chew on some bones... 

Flesh Hounds attacks... needing a 4+ to hit... in case you were wondering how the fancy new Khorne dice were working out for me... same as always... 

And then it was Round Three and the Vargheists showed up and finished off the last Flesh Hound and sent Karanak back to the Brass Palace in the Realm of the Blood God... 

End of Round Three... 

Tabled. 

Round Four I did get to bring on reinforcements... 

And they charged down and shredded a unit of Deathrattle Skeletons... well... all but ONE... which prevented me from scoring another point. 

The Soulbights "won" the game, I guess... even though Karanak slayed the quarry, which, narratively, is all the Daemonic manifestation of Khorne's wrathful vengeance cares about, really... so... 

Orion ended the game with 20 victory points and I had 15. Which, is pretty much as good as I could have expected. 

The Fangs of the Blood God are not the strongest of Spearhead armies... they have a lot of attacks... if they get to use them... but they aren't particularly accurate or hard hitting and they have next to NO read (reducing armour saves) except for Karanak... They have crap saves and not a lot of health. they do have a 6+ ward save... but that doesn't do much. 

They DO all have the reinforcements keyword (with the exception of Karanak)... but only one unit of reinforcements can be brought on per round... and there are only four rounds... But if your units start being wiped out on Round One... you can bring one back every turn for the rest of the game...? Yay...? 

Looking back at these pictures here... I'm wondering if I may have forgotten to bring back one of my units of Flesh Hounds...? Ah, well. Maybe I just forgot to take a picture of it...? Got rode down by the Blood Knights so fast I didn't get a chance...? I don't know. 

It's always fun playing with Orion, so... 

This one went quick enough and we had some time so we played a SECOND game... but I'll write that up in a second game report! 

Age of Sigmar: Spearhead - Lizards and Trees Clash in Shyish!

The day after my game with Orion, last week, I rolled back out to the Warhammer Store to play a quick game with John! I have another game planned for tomorrow, so I thought I'd best get this game report done, before I get TOO FAR behind on these again! 

John played with the store's Seraphon Starscale Warhost. Lots of BIG LIZARDS! 

All set up and ready to go. 

The Seraphon took the first turn and Kroxigors and Saurus Oldblood General (on a CARNOCAUR!) charged the Treelord and one of the units of Tree-Revenants. 

Some damage was dealt to the Treelord. The Treelord smashed on of the Kroxigor into pasted and the Carnosaur ate the entire unit of Tree-Revenants!? Even the Branchwych took some damage from... I don't know... lightning that shot out of one of the lizards fists...? Or something...? 

I think this was save rolls for the Tree-Revenants (5+ normally, but everything in the Seraphon army has at least Rend 1...) 

At the end of the turn, the Treelord and Branchwych remembered to use lay lines to heal one, then the Treelord slipped away using Strike and Fade. 

On my turn The Tree-Revenants charged the Kroxigor and finished off a second one. They charged in mostly just to prevent them and the Carnosaur from charging the Branchwych on their next turn! 

The Treelord charged one of the units of Saurus Warriors... 

Finally some completely average rolls meant the Treelord took two damage and squashed half the units of Saurus Warriors! 

CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP!  On the Seraphon's second turn the Carnosaur and remaining Kroxigor ate the second unit of Tree-Revenants... 

A second unit of Saurus Warriors charged in to join the battle with the Treelord... I kind of expected it to go more or less the same as the previous round... take a few wounds, finish off the first unit of Saurus Warriors... 

And then I started rolling again like I usually do... 

The Treelord's attacks... 

All his attacks hit on 4+ and wound on 2+... so... one hit... and then i rolled a one to wound.. 

Not. One. Wound. dealt... 

And then the Saurus Warriors chopped down the Treelord... WTF!? 

The Treelord has a 3+ Save... The Saurus DO have Rend -1, but still, that leaves the Treelord at 4+ for a save - it should, statistically, reduce the hits in half... 

They did their attacks, I could not roll anything higher than three... 

The last Kroxigor chased down the Branchwych General

and pulped her... 

The Kurnothi Hunters managed to murder a few Saurus Warriors... 

Carnosaur and General moved up... 

So the Kurnothi fucked off in a different direction using Strike and Fade, again, bringing them to where the Treelord was returning (using handy battle tactic card!) 

The Kurnothi Hunters managed to seize an objective and shoot up and finish off a Saurus Warrior unit

Treelord also managed to survive the Carnosaurs inevitable attacks and seized an objective on my last turn...

The game ended with the Seraphon winning 18-15 (which, I think, was the same score I had in Orions game the day before!?) 

While I did manage to remember to use Ley Lines a few times, it looks like i COMPLETELY FORGOT that Tree-Revenants can be brought back as reinforcements?! DOH!? 

I've wondered why the Treelord isn' the General in the Sylvaneth army. They are Heroes in regular Age of Sigmar, so they can be the General in a Sylvaneth army. I guessed maybe they didn't want to make the General TOO deadly AND hard to kill in Spearhead...? And then I played against the Seraphon... Sweet Jiminiy that Carnosaur riding Oldblood is nasty!!