Spearhead - Vengeance of the Sylvaneth

While entering our most recent Warhammer Quest adventure in Board Game Geek, I noted the sharp drop in game plays on the Logged Plays calendar for September (only two games played in September, so far, versus eight in August and six in July) and realized it's been two and a half weeks since I last got in a game of Spearhead.

In previous years I've done Game-A-Day Challenges in September - because game playing usually fell off during the summer and, while September is usually VERY BUSY (as it has been this year) I thought it was important to making a habit of FINDING TIME for some games in the new schedules of things, lest they be entirely forgotten and no games get played all through the fall and winter. 

I was starting to feel like that's what's happened this year.... maybe... 

So I brought up the idea of playing some Spearhead sometime this week and Amanda suggested Wednesday after her singing lesson. 

(I also arranged to play a game with Orion on Friday, while she's in town, and we are scheduled to play the next episode of What We Do in the Realm of Shadows on Sunday! So things are looking up!) 

After their previous defeat at the hands of the Hedonites of Slaanesh, the Sylvaneth response was swift and devastating... They weren't sure if the Hedonites knew they'd stumbled onto their Soulpod Grove, but couldn't just wait to see what they did! The Soulpods needed to saved! 

Detecting the approach of another band of Sylvaneth, the Blissbarb Archers screened ahead in the center and on the left flank. The Slickblade seekers spotting another Treelord, readied themselves to charge, but found they were impeded by strage vines grasping at their steeds legs and were held up!

On the right flank the Slaangors thought they were quietly sneaking up through the forest towards the Treelord, oblivious to the fact it fully knew they were there and that the Slaangor were walking straight into a trap! 

The next thing they knew the Treelord was somehow behind them and roots and vines dragged two of the Slaangor down into the earth, never to be seen again! 

As swiftly as it had appeared behind the Slaangor, it turned and charged the Slickblade Seekers, destroying one instantly and seriously injuring a second. 

The Slickblade seekers piled in and tried to bring the Treelord down, but without the momentum of a charge (or the Shardspeaker weakening the will of the Treelord) their attacks against this one, were not so effective... 

And as quicck as it appeared... the Treelord disappeared into the forest and the next they saw of it, it was far behind the Sylvaneth lines.. 

Undaunted, the Slickblade Seekers Charged after the Treelord, seeing it as the main threat to be removed. this time they had their speed up... but without the distractions of the Shardspeaker, it was definitely a tougher nut to crack... 

The Shardspeaker had initially charged he Branchwych, thinking that taking her out would be vital to prevent the Treelord from healing too quickly... 

But then hearing the battle and the roars of the Treelord and thinking it was close to being defeated, the Shardspeaker turned to aid the Slickblade Seekers... alas... they could not take it down... 

Tree-revenants joined in this fight, killing more of the Slickblade Seekers. 

The Kurnothi Hunters, having dealt with the Blissbarb Archers in the centre, turned to move on the last of the Slaangor.

After destroying the last of the Slickblade Seekers and the Shardspeaker of Slaanesh, the Treelord dipped into the trees and reappeared behind the last of the Blissbarb Archers. 

Another unit os Blissbarb Archers arrived as reinforcements, and shot down the Branchwych that they caught out in the open... 

But they were quickly charged down and destroyed by the Kurnothi Hunters... 

All was quiet for a moment... 

Another group of Slaangor appeared... 

In a desperate bid to deal some damage to the Sylvaneth they charged the Treelord... alas, the treelord had regenerated to full health and there was nothing much they could do... 

Two of the Slaangor died at the claws of the mighty Treelord and the third quickly fled back into the woods to see if it could regroup with any other survivors... 

Would there be enough for the conflict to continue...? Or would the few surviving Hedonites flee the region - or even the Realm!? 

So... Amanda's Sylvaneth won (25-16!?) 

The Hedonites of Slaanesh really are glass cannons. The success in the previous game was entirely due to a LOT of things all going right at the same time... The Shardspeaker's Twisted Mirror worked (reducing the Treelord's save by one - which is a HUGE difference - it didn't in this game)... The Slickblade seekers were all able to charge with a full strength unit (they were down one this game - that's a lot of attacks)... They were supported by two full units of Archers, one of which also charged into melee - as well as the Slaangor (this game it was the Slickblade Seekers on their own - and the Shardspeaker... but she isn't much help...). Amanda learned and did her best to NOT let all of those things happen and thus a disaster ensued for the Hedonites.  

Also, she's figured out that leaving a unit with the Reinforcements keyword with only one member alive, is generally more beneficial than killing them all off earlier in the game (because then they can come back as full strength reinforcement units!) 

Next time I'll have to try out the Stormcast Eternals or Blades of Khorne against her... Stormcast Eternals feels weird to fight against the Sylvaneth, being allies and all... I do hope we'll get another game in next week and make it a regular thing. I don't think I'll have a new one done by then, though... (unless the Dreadscythe Harridans show up, as they would be quick to paint and are the only unit I need to finish off the new Nighthaunt spearhead!) 

I have another game of Spearhead planned for Friday with Orion! 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars 02

We skipped a week (I think Amanda was doing something) and moved our game night to Tuesdays as we weren't playing Soulbound on Tuesdays anymore and Amanda has a singing lesson now on Wednesdays, which means she won't be home until 7:30 or so... 

Despite that change, she STILL wasn't home until 7:30, because she decided to stay at work and finish some stuff up... 

This week we played a second Purge Journey - meant to destabilize Lady Annika, the Thirsting Blade's power. One three such Purge Journey's are successful, they can attempt a Decapitation Journey to try and destroy Lady Annika... except that the vampires don't actually die for good in the Decapitation Journey (as some of the Hostile Characters did in the first campaign) and will all have to be faced again in the FINAL BATTLE... But that's a ways off... 

Finnegan decided to swap out Brutogg Corpse-Eater for Octren Glimscry - something he's NEVER done before!! He's Always brought along Brutogg and decided between Octren Glimscry and Dagnai Holdenstock... This week it was Dagnai and Octren! 

Amanda was, as ever, playing with Glaruio Ven Alten III and Qulathis the Exile. 

I finally finished painting Radukar the Beast and the Fell Bats, so they were available and their encounter cards were shuffled into the Encounter Deck! 

I also recently finished up all the Deathrattle Skeletons which can be used as extra reinforcements should they encounter more than one group (as some of the groups get rather large at Fifth Level!) I should try and finish up the extra Deadwalker Zombies I picked up for the same purpose! 

Glaurio was the first to exit the landing zone - he found a Mysterious Object and left it for Dagnai to search... 

... and pressed on to encounter some Deadwalker Zombies... and promptly shot one and damaged another.. 

Octren joined Gluario. He used a special ability that used an action... and dealt himself one damage... boosted his Hollow Stare attack, so that it dealt 3 damage (enough to take out a zombie with one hit...) and then promptly missed with one of the two remaining activations.. 

When the Zombies surged forward, one of them damaged him and he was down to two spots for activation dice!? (And he was Trapped!) 

Qulathis swung by on her first activation, shot two zombies dead with her bow and then trotted off, figuring Octren and Glaurio could handle the rest on their own... 

Dagnai searched one mysterious object and then revealed another...

Octren and Glaruio dealing with the last Zombie... As the last in a hostile group with 1/3 or less of it's original number, it would just flee on it's last activation, after attacking any heroes in an adjacent space. It attacked Glaurio... and Glaurio successfully used one of his newer special abilities - parry - which, when rolling a critical success on a defence die, he was allowed to attack back, and killed the Zombie.. which, in some ways didn't matter (because it was leaving anyway), BUT Glaruio's thing that gives him extra inspiration is when he takes out the last member of a hostile group! So this gained him an extra point of inspriation! Yay! 

Qualthis revealed ANOTHER group of Deadwalker Zombies and shot three of them down.. 

Then ran off to help Dagnai deal with some Ulfenwatch that he'd found skulking in one of the rooms. 

Another group of Ulfenwatch came marching in from the other direction. 

Glaurio joined in the destruction of the first group of Ulfenwatch. 

Then turned to fight the next group approaching. 

And then the first Vargskyr showed up! 

Everyone kind of ganged up on it and it wasn't too much trouble to take down.. 

Qualathis destroying MORE Zombies... 

Some Fell Bats were discovered lurking in one of the rooms - presumably hanging from the ceiling. 

Before they could attack, Dagnai charged in and chopped two of them apart with his axe and the third one fled without a fight! 

Dagnai pressed on to find the last of the Mysterious Ojbects! 

And then Lady Annika showed up... this time with an undead Ogor of the Kosargi Nighguard. The Ogor bodyguard was much slower than her, so she zipped across the board and left it in the dust...  

Glaurio, Qulathis and Glimscry all made ranged attacks at her... and NOTHING hit her... she is CRAZY good at dodging (5+ on a d12 - so 2/3 of the time, she just ignores all damage...) 

and then the next Vargskyr showed up!? 

Everyone started trying to make a fighting retreat out of the room and throwing everything at the Vargskyr, who was tough, but not as dodgy as Lady Annika! 

Octren had moved up and threw a curse on Lady Annika. 

Glaurio fell back and helped Dagnai with some Corpse Rats he'd encountered, and encouraged Dagnai to go fight the vampire - as he is the one with the anti-vampire enhancements... (deals damage that cannot be ignored!) 

Of course, Qulathis also has some anti-vampire abilities - three Oaken Arrows that she has for each adventure. They can only be used with a 6+ activation... But she happened to roll one six for her activation this round AND there was a destiny die that was a six... So she put two oaken arrows into Lady Annika and just about killed her - dealing EIGHT damage! 

Then Dagnai rushed in and chopped her with his encanted axe and finished her off!!

Teh Ogor finally lumbered up and took a swing at Glaurio - and MISSED - we figure he slipped on all the blood that spilled out of Lady Annika, as he was standing in teh same space she'd been destroyed in! 

And then everyone was into the Extraction Zone and whisked away to safety in Haven! 

Afterwards everyone went for drinks at the Tawny Owl and gained bonus inspiration points for the next game. 

One of the treasures Dagnai had recovered allowed him to PICK the Extraction Event rather than roll for it! So they picked on where each character rolled the Destiny Die (d12) and on a 7+ got to go through the Discovery deck and pick out a magic item or realmstone card!? So everyone is all tooled up for the next game!!

One more Victory up on the Night Wars chart... assuming the next one is a success as well, the following game they'll be able to take a run at Lady Annika in the first Decapitation Journey of this Campaign! 

Fell Bats

"BAT!"
Laszlo Cravensworth

These took just way too long. Not the actual painting - motivating myself to paint them. They've been sitting on the workbench for MONTHS, constantly being pushed out of the way... Now they're done... or, at least, I'm calling them done. I'm done with working on them. As I was painting the finish i noticed multiple things I'd missed or goobered on all three of them... but I just can't be bothered to go back and touch up, finish off, or fix them... Just don't look too close at them. 

Fell Bats

Just some really big bats needed for the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Night Wars campaign - and useable in a Soulblight Gravelords army (and finally completed just in time for this evenings game!) 

In Soulbound, a Fell Bat is what a vampire turns into if they have he ability to transform... or a cloud of smaller bats...? Or a wolf... 

I've kind of been bouncing around, back and forth between projects, doing a bit of this and a bit of that and not really getting much of anything done. I was working on rebasing and prepping Kairic Acolytes and Tzaangor for a Disciples of Tzeentch and working on a few Stormcast Eteranals... then I got some Lumineth Realmlord Vanari Bladelords assembled and then primed them along with some Sentinels and Wardens, so everything is ready to paint for the Lumineth Spearhead (except the one miniatures I don't yet have!)... Then I cleared ALL of that off the workbench and replaced it with only the Soulblight Gravelord stuff I need to finish up... 

The Vargheists and Blood Knights look a bit daunting... But I'd like to finish them up before the end of the month and get going on a different Spearhead Army for October! (maybe a NEW one!?) 

(I asked my FLGS to hold a Helsmiths of Hashut Army Set/Release box when they drop in a little under two weeks!)

(But also I was planning to pick up a Maggontkin of Nurgle Spearhead at the local Warhammer Store anniversary event this Saturday...) 

Deathrattle Skeletons

This past week I've been working on the twenty Deathrattle Skeletons that came in the Soulblight Gravelord Vanguard/Spearhead box. 

Deathrattle Skeletons

They are very similar to the Ulfenwatch skeletons that came with Warhammer Quest: Cursed City (except the Cursed City ones were press fit and these ones required glue...)

ALL the Skeletons!!

I now have thirty of them! and I Wight King to lead them. Captain Halgrim used to be able to lead them... but I think he's been moved on to Legends... though I don't see why he couldn't ALSO be used as a "counts as" Wight King...? 

ALL the Soulblights, so far...

Still a little Hero Heavy, but nice to have a few more units of troops! Some of the stuff in the pictures isn't playable any more (some of the characters from Warhammer Quest, the Warhammer Underworlds warbands in the background) and I need 10 more zombies painted for it to be a proper unit of 20... 

I still have the five mounted Blood Knights and three Vargheists to finish off the spearhead

(and I STILL have three Fell Bats to finish up for Cursed City!?)

According to the 2025 Painted versus Purchased Log Page, this brings me to 345 painted 28mm miniatures so far this year (versus 331 purchased - or otherwise acquired!) putting me back in the black... for now... In another week and a half I'll be picking up another spearhead box (Maggotkin of Nurgle - at the Warhammer Store Saskatoon Anniversary event - because I got it in my head I'd like that fancy neoprene with the Spearhead map on one side!)... and the following week the Helsmiths of Hashut (because ALL THE CHAOS SPEARHEADS!)? Hopefully before that, though, I can get a few more things painted so I'm not plunged too far into the red. That will hopefully be it for the year... and I can spend Q4 knocking some more things off the Pile of Opportunity! 

Dreadblade Harrows

I picked up some previously owned Dreadblade Harrows from Fenris Workshop a month or so ago. These were one of two units I needed to finish up the new Nighthaunt Cursed Shacklehoarde Spearhead army! 

Dreadblade Harrows

This is the stuff I have for the rest of the Spearhead army... all I need are a unit of ten Dreadscythe Harridans. 

ALL the Nighthaunts (so far)... 

I still have a Scriptor Mortis and five Craventhrone Guard to finish up as well.. and maybe some Banshees somewhere...?