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...? 

Radukar the Beast

 At long last I have finished Radukar the Beast... or at least gotten him to a point where I feel like I just don't want to work on it any more and said "close enough".

The original model is stepping over a log and I decided because all my other Soulblight Gravelord and Cursed City stuff is based on flagstone and rubble bases, I wanted him to look like he's in an urban area... so I picked up the terrain bits box and hoped there would be a bit that would fit on his base and the models could be fit onto the terrain bit... 

Radukar the Beast

From the rear - you can see the other Vyrkos Blood-Born... I realized as I was editing these, it probably would have been better to take a shot from the side to show the second Vyrkos Blood-Born... From the rear it looks like... well.. I don't know what it looks like he's doing...!? Not sure what he was supposed to be doing on the original base... 

I'm not totally happy with the way it turned out.. doesn't quite match what I'd imagined in my head... Ah, well.. it's painted, I'm calling it done as I have no energy or interest to work on it any more - even though my brain screams at me to "fix it"... somehow...? Stopping kind of feels like giving up and failing and... it wasn't exactly an inexpensive model... so... 

I don't love the green stone of the broken statue... all the other statues I've done (or partly done) for Age of Sigmar terrain have been white - using the same colours I used for Vyrkos Blood-Born and the Vargskyr... and I felt like that would have been TOO MUCH WHITE! Feeling like I maybe could have gone with a blue-ish-grey...? But there's already so much grey on the base, I thought maybe something not-so-grey... 

Anyway...

Radukar the Beast is significantly bigger than the OG Radukar the Wolf... 

Even a bit bigger than the other Vargskyr... 

looking at his card for Warhammer Quest... he is going to be NASTY... and will probably show up once per game from now on... 

Strangely, he ISN'T one of the Vampires that need to be hunted down and destroyed in Night Wars... he's just a ferrel Vargskyr version of Radukar that roams the city eating things and is drawn to the fights... 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - The Night Wars Begin!

Despite still not having Radukar the Beast finished... or the Fell Bats... we went ahead and started Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars this week! 

The campaign involves destabilizing and destroying the power base of three Vampire Lords that took over when Radukar the Wolf was defeated! And then once they have been defeated in turn, there is a final battle...? So... maybe 13 games? Assuming they are all victories... the maximum number of games would be 19... There are 13 games that need to be played to win the campaign - three destablizing missions for each vampire, followed by a Decapitation Journey... and after all three Decapitation Journeys have been successful... you play one Final Battle... If you fail seven battles the campaign is over and you lose... so... if you played all the battles, but had a lot of failures along the way... (like six of them) The nineteenth game would decide all success or failure would determine the entire fate of the campaign!? 

I imagine we'll get 13-16 games out of it, assuming a few go badly... 

The group decided to go after Lady Annika the Thirsting Blade first and played through a Purge Journey... Each of the Vampire Lords have a different type of mission to play and Lady Annika's are Purge Journeys. So after this, we'll play at least two more Purge Journeys... then a Decapitation Journey... then move on to hunt down one of the other Vampire Lords... 

Though each of the Vampire Lords get more powerful as eash of their rivals are taken out and they take over some of their territories and taking in their surviving minions!? 

Anyway... The Journey... 

This journey took place in the Corpsefall Passages.

Amanda, as always, was playing Qulathis the Exile and Glaurio ven Alten III. Finnegan had oridinally planned on taking Brutogg Corpse-Eater and Octren Glimscry... but when they decided on Lady Annika as their Quarry and found out her special ability was MORE VAMPIRES (instead of discarding vampire encounter cards, they are shuffled back into the deck), Finngan decided the old feller needed some rest and instead brought along Dagnai Holdenstock - Vampire Hunter! 

In Purge Journeys all the passages are closed and need to be opened with a 4+ action and hostiles and mysterious object tokens are all hidden and randomly placed as Lurk tokens, which are not revealed and activated until someone opens the door and has line of sight to the token... 

The objective of a Purge Journey is to destroy ten hostile groups and then make it to the extraction zone. 

The city was plunged into permanent night when the three vampire lords took over, so ALL of the hostile groups are on their Empowered side, making them all faster and more deadly! 

Qulathis was the first to leave the landing zone. Opened a few doors. Found a Mysterious Object. 

Brutogg was next and bullied past her to find some Ulfenwatch in an open square. 

Dagnai strolled out and investigated the Mysterious Object and found himself some Realmstone! 

Ulfenwatch dealt with, Qulathis pressed on... 

Dagnai looting the mysterous objects. 

Glaurio was the one to open this door... 

and found MORE Ulfenwatch!? 

Brutogg shoved his way into the middle of them and just started destroying them... 

and then some zombies showed up. 

Brutogg turned to start dealing with zombies while Glaurio finished off the last of the Ulfenwatch! 

MORE Zombies arrive! 

Dagnai fought his way past the zombies into the next chamber where he found another Mysterious Object! 

Qulathis and Glaurio dashed past and encountered some Vyrkos Blood-Born! 

Glaurio engaged them blasting the first one with his pistols.

Brutogg joined in beating another one down. 

Then Dagnai found himself surrounded by zombies again!? 

...and chopped them all to bits with his axe!? Then he looted the mysterious object... 

... and joined the other fighting the vampires! 

Glaurio stepped in to finish off the last one!

and then a Vargskyr showed up... 

and then Lady Annika herself showed up... 

Glaruio and Dagnai dealt the Vargskyr some grievous damage... 

Then Glaurio took off to get to the Extraction Point as it looked like it was getting time to vamoose! 

Qulathis ran by and finished off the Vargskyr! 

The Qulathis and Dagnai laid in wait to ambush Lady Annika! As she strode through the door Qualthis shot her and Dagnai gave her a good chop with his axe!

and then corpse rats flooded the room!? 

Dagnai stuck to the plan and finished off Lady Annika! 

Then he almost single-handedly cleared out all the rats... 

AND THEN he looted the last Mysterious Object, using his harpoon gun to yeet it right out of the room full of bats! 

Now, at this point Dagnai was inspired and, as such, gets to draw TWO Discovery cards when looting a Mysterious Object - which is handy as it allows you to avoid Traps or Crisis... usually... and sometime a treasure AND a realmstone card are drawn (which is what happened in this case) and Finnegan usually chooses the realmstone by default... because a lot of the items are... not that great... but I suggested he actually read what the card said this time around - it was a new one from the nightwars set and a character uses it on their turn and instantly becomes INSPIRED! Which is AMAZING!! Not needed for this journey, this late in the game... but on a future Journey - especially for Qulathis who really, REALLY struggles to inspire! She is so weak before inspriting, it's often difficult to finish off enough things to gain any inspiration points... and her special bonus activity to gain bonus inspriation points is so difficult to pull off... I'm not sure she's EVER done it... in THIRTY GAMES!? 

Just as they were getting ready to head into the Extraction Zone - Glaurio and Brutogg were ambushed by more Vyrkos Blood-Born! Glaurio was wounded once more! 

He killed the Vampire, however, and staggered back into the Extraction Zone! 

Everyone else made it in there just as some Kosargi Night Guard came lumbering through the building after them! 

Whew! 

Nice first outing in the Night Wars... 

Wasn't exactly a cake walk... there was a lot of tension and a general feeling that things could go sideways at any moment. It starts off kind of slow and easy - as hostile groups don't activate until they are discovered... but once discovered, as each hostile group is destroyed, a reinforcement group immediately arrives. So once all four have been revealed... you are fighting four hostile groups!! 

Lady Annika seems like she has the potential to be super deadly... it just worked out that Dagnai was in the right place at the right time and got in his hits before she landed a blow... She has some funny rules though... when she actually causes damage with the thirsting blade... if she has zero or one Blood Token, she gains a Blood Token and deals an extra damage and also heals 1-2 wounds... Once she HAS two blood tokens, however, she is very full of blood and suddenly moves slower (like HALVED from 6  to 3!) had worse dice for attacks and deals less damage... Once you hit her and deal damage... blood goes spraying all over and she loses a blood token and because deadly again... It seems kind of... goofy...? 

There are also some new enhancements that can be purchased... which seem crazy good... but are also crazy expensive (14 realmstone!?) There is no way that much could be gained in a single Journey... but there are a few ways extra realmstone can be gained now. One is visiting certain businesses in Haven - an area of the city that has freed itself of the undead and is a small, growing enclave of good and order... and also you can now trade in previous enhancements and gain half what you paid for them in realmstone... something to work towards! 

After this Journey all went to the which is described as Haven's premier tavern, boasting two intact and relatively clean rooms and the ability to produce food that isn't just boiled rat on a skewer... There you can have drinks on the house, being a hero and all.. each that visits rolls a d12, on a 3+ they start the next journey with one inspiration point. on a 1 they start the next journey with one damage!? 

Everyone gained an inspiration point to start the next journey... except Brutogg who rolled a two and got nothing... (at least he didn't start with a hang-over... not that being injured matters too much for Brutogg as he heals SO QUICKLY!!) 

I liked the system where I removed the tokens as people were taken down... but in this one the rules are very specific about how it's done. You have a token down to show who you are hunting, once the victory track gets to three (or six, or nine) you do the Decapitation Journey and when that's successful, you put up the token to show they're defeated and put down a different Hunting token to show who you are going after next. There are a few mechanics based on the number of tokens on the boards and, yeah, I could just reverse it and say the number of tokens that are no longer on the board... but I decided to just go with the rules as written for this campaign... 

Next week we will start playing on Tuesdays, as the role-playing game is now, theoretically happening on every third Sunday (maybe...) and Amanda has a singing lesson on Wednesdays and doesn't get home until 7:30... and then needs to eat, so we were starting rather late... and then ending rather late!!

Spearhead: Defending the Soulpod Grove!

Amanda and I played another game of Spearhead on Sunday evening... Originally we were supposed to play a Role-Playing-Game because Orion got a new job and all Tuesdays were out and the only day that would work was Sundays... but only every THIRD Sunday, maybe... but THIS Sunday was supposed to work... but then Orion and Nick ended up all being sick... 

I suggested Spearhead because I thought it might be a good idea to play again soon to reinforce rules learned earlier in the weekend! 

She took the Sylvaneth Bitterbark Copse again (which will likely be "HER" army for the foreseeable future - at least until I get the Daughters of Khaine done... or maybe the Soulblight Gravelords). 

I initially thought I'd just play the Fangs of the Blood God again.. largely because they're the only army that has their rules in a different book - The Sylvaneth, and all the other armies I have, are in the Fire and Jade book... and the Fangs of the Blood God are in the Blades of Khorne battletome. but then I remembered I had the Hedonites of Slaanesh faction card pack - which includes cards for the Spearhead army - so I decided to try out the Hedonites of Slaanesh - Blades of the Lurid Dream! This was the first time I've played them since the rules update... though I'd played against them when Orion utterly crushed me with them!! Still not sure they're a top tier army... but the small changes made big improvements!!

I've been trying to find ways of developing narratives out of these battles, so this, and hopefully future game reports will try to focus on that narrative and less on who scored points how and when... 

Ghyran, the Realm of Life

the Bitterbark Copse of Adharcach Hollow noted a change on the wind. Dryads on the border of their realm reported through the spirit song and encroachment by the followers of Slaanesh. Godseekers on the hunt. There were many and had they been travelling quickly and in a direction that would take them through the sylvaneth's domain, they may have been allowed past. But their route, whether purposeful or purely by chance, was taking them directly towards the soulpod grove and they could not risk that sacred place being disrupted or ransacked! 

The leading elements of the Hedonites were met near a ruin deep in the forest. A trio of Slaangor were the first spotted and the Kurnoth Hunters first upon them with their great bow. One was injured, but that only seemed to make the Slaangors go faster! 

The Kurnothi rushed to meet the Slaangor, but before they could be engaged,  Heglog the Treelord loomed out of the forest and crushed all three into a pulpy mess with a few powerful blows from its massive limbs. 

Tree-Revenants on the Slyvaneth's right flank moved up to block passage toward the Soulpod grove. 

The Hedonites, hearing the terrified dying cries of the Slaangor, swarmed forward in search of their assailants! 

Heglog the Treelord was spotted and swarmed! 

The Shardspeaker used the dark magiks of their Twisted Mirror to distract the Treelord and weaken their spirit.... The Blissbarb archers peppered it with arrows, further distracting it, while the Slickblade Seekers raced up and swarmed around it slashing and pruning with their vicious glaives! Before the second group of Slaangor got there, Heglog the Treelord had toppled to the ground a limbless log, pumping sap-blood from its many wounds... and left for dead. 

The Kurnoth slipped through the hidden paths of the Realmroots to ambush a group of the Blisbarb archers from their rear, utterly annihilating them.. 

The Hedonites spread out looking for their foes amongst the trees and dense underbrush. It may have looked like panic to some, but truly there was a sense of giddiness at playing a delightful new game of hide-and-seek! 

The Slickblade Seekers were the first to discover one of their hidden enemy... The Branchwych! She was quickly felled by their glaives as they galloped past in search of new foes! 

The Kurnothi noted the presence of the Shardspeaker and began firing their great arrows at the hated sorcerer... The Blissbarb archers excorting the Shardspeaker returned the fire. 

Tree-Revenants ambushed another group of Blissbard archers, who were getting a little too close to the path to the Soulpod Grove! They, too, were utterly destroyed... 

Moving past the site of the massacre, the Tree-Revenants joined the Kurnothi in an assault on the Shardspeaker and more Blissbarb Archers. 

The Shardspeaker was struck twice by the Kurnoth arrows, seriously wounding them. They dropped into the undergrowth and were seen no more...  

The Kurnoth Hunters then charged into the Blissbard Archers... 

and slaughtered the lot of them... 

But that wasn't the last of the Hedonites, by far! 

While the Tree-Revenants had been guarding the Kurnoth Hunters flank during their attack, ANOTHER group of Blissbarb Archers inched forward to ambush them. First the archers pinned down the Tree-Revenants with a hail of arrows...

Then they charged in distracting the Tree-Revenants, while the Slaangor attacked from the opposite direction. Confusion reined supreme and The Tree-Revenants were cu down where they stood. 

The Hedonites held the field and though they knew not of the whereabouts of their leader, the Shardspeaker... the Slickblade seekers were well positioned to lead on towards the Soulpod Grove!! 

So... after SIXTEEN GAMES of Spearhead, I finally WON a game... 

It feels a little cheap beating down Amanda, who is just learning the game... but it wasn't exactly a trouncing - I won 22-19, it was still a very close game... which was quite a feat in itself, considering she lost her Treelord in the FIRST ROUND!! (I don't think she was very pleased with me, when I pulled that off. I don't think she quite understood how many things kind of had to go right for that to work out for me... which normally don't!!) 

Given how quickly Amanda picks up rules and then dominates games. I expect this may be my LAST win... 

The Hedonites seem a LOT better with the minor changed made to the force in the June rules update (lowering the number of depravity points needed to unlock the Temptations of Slaanesh Abilities and giving the Slaangor the reinforcements keyword) 

I took a bit of a gamble with the Twisted Mirror enhancement. I've never really considered it in the past as it only works half the time (4+ roll on d6) and didn't' seem like it did much (-1 to save rolls for a unit until the start of my next turn...). Also, the Sharspeaker has to be within 9" of the target (which can be a dangerous place for the Shardspeaker to be!). But against a heavily armoured opponent... if it DOES work... can be huge... especially if you can swarm the unit, pepper it with Rend 1 arrows (which effectively means it's making all it's saves at -2), then charge with Slickblade Seekers (also Rend 1, dealing +1 damage when charging...). Yeah. That was brutal... I didn't even get to the Exalted Seekers poisoned tongues, let alone the Slaangor that managed to charge in!!

Despite her disappointment, Amanda says she's willing to play again... probably just to exact revenge on the Hedonites for so seriously damaging poor Heglog.... 

(Heglog and the Branchwych survived... the Hedonites were to busy scurrying around in a drug-fuelled frenzy to stick around and make sure their felled opponents were fully DEAD! This being the Realm of Life, those Sylvaneth Heroes started healing the moment they hit the ground...)