Friday, August 22, 2025

Anvils of the Heldenhammer - Viglant Brotherhood Spearhead

Here it is, finally, the Anvils of the Heldenhammer - Viglant Brotherhood Spearhead!

This is the Fifth Spearhead army I have completed!

Anvils of the Heldenhammer - Viglant Brotherhood Spearhead

This Spearhead contains:

General

  • 1x Lord Vigilant on Gryph-Stalker

Units

  • 1x Lord Veritant (with Gryph-Crow)
  • 3x Prosecutors
  • 5x Liberators


Lord Vigilant Thadeos Doursoul on his trusty Gryph-Stalker Cracker! 

Lord-Veritant Shandra Moongheist with her Gryph-Crow Yazik!


Three Prosecutors (Prosecutor Prime Thea Swiftwing, Prosecutor Carissa Spearflight, and Prosecutor Zisis Skystrike!)


Five Liberators! (Liberator Petyra Hammerforged, Liberator Athos Hammersoul, Liberator Prime Darrion Hammersmith, Liberator Xenia Brighthammer, and Liberator Lukas Surehammer)


I also made a set of Control Tokens for the army. Not my BEST freehand painting ever... but they'll do... 

Other Spearhead Armies completed, so far...

Hedonites of Slaanesh - Blades of the Lurid Dream

Blades of Khorne - Bloodbound Gore Pilgrims

Sylvaneth - Bitterbark Copse

Blades of Khorne - Fangs of the Blood God

or you can see ALL of them Here:

Age of Sigmar - Spearhead Armies Gallery

I still have a bunch that I've acquired (or... MOSTLY acquired - still needing a unit or two, here or three...). 

Anvils of the Heldenhammer - Lord Vigilant on Gryph-Stalker and Prosecutors

Finally, the last of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer Viglant Brotherhood Spearhead is COMPLETE!!

Lord Vigilant Thadeos Doursoul on his trusty Gryph-Stalker Cracker! 

This was actually the FIRST miniature I started on for this Spearhead - and had completed MOST of it last year before setting it aside to work on other things. 

Three Prosecutors; Prosecutor Prime Thea Swiftwing, Prosecutor Carissa Spearflight, and Prosecutor Zisis Skystrike! 

I'll make a separate post for the complete Viglant Brotherhood Spearhead in a moment... 

Age of Sigmar - Sylvaneth Control Tokens

 I knocked out some control tokens for my Sylvanth army - mostly for Spearhead. I've done others for Khorne and Slaanesh, but I'm not sure I've ever really posted pics of them (though they've appeared in game reports!) 

Sylvaneth Control Tokens (for marking control of objective markers in Spearhead... and regular Age of Sigmar, not that I've been playing that for a while...) 

I'd painted the plywood discs ages ago and then kind of stalled on these for a bit as I wasn't sure what symbol to put on them... this symbol, which is on the sylvaneth dice and shows up here and there, I initially thought it would be too complicated... but then I gave it a go and... it didn't turn out TOO bad... 

I feel like I was kind of only getting close to getting them centered properly as I was doing the last one... and wished I'd prepped a dozen as the next six would have looked even better... OR... the next six may very well have just gotten worse and worse as I got tired and bored of doing them... hard to tell... 

When I played the Sylvaneth a few weeks ago, I felt like I was missing something - not having these, and having gotten used to having them for the Khorne armies. When Amanda had said she'd be interested in trying out the Sylvaneth Spearhead army, I kind of knew I could stall no longer, as they are very handy as a clear visual reminder of who controls what... I don't love when people throw a die down on an objective to show they control it - as it just looks like a wayward die on the table (and I feel it could be easily forgotten and picked up to use for rolling something and then confusion taking place at the end of a turn about who controlled which things...).

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Plaguebearers!

 Plaguebearers... the lesser daemons of Nurgle. 

I picked these up less than a week ago, thinking I'd need them for the What We Do in the Realm of Shadows campaign (but, as it turns out, they probably won't be needed until the following week...). 

Plaguebearers. 

I don't have a LOT of Nurgle Daemons and mortal minions. I do have The Wurmspat and a Lord of Plagues... but I'll probably also be making use of Finnegan's Putrid Blight Kings - from his Warhammer Quest set... 

All the Nurgle stuff I have at the moment! Not a lot for the Age of Sigmar tabletop battle game... but enough for some fun encounters with the servants of the Plague God! 

I have to admit, I have been thinking about picking up the Maggotkin of Nurgle Spearhead army... which, I know... is RIDICULOUS when I have over a half-dozen to paint!I'd wait until MORE are painted, BUT... They seem to be cycling through the Spearheads - the original ones are being discontinued and new ones are being introduced (not that the old ones aren't playable - they're just no longer being stocked because GW can't stock multiple army sets for EACH faction, that would get silly!) and I kind of like the make-up of the current one... AND there's a store anniversary event coming up and... I kind of want to get that neoprene spearhead mat... and one more spearhead would get me almost halfway there!

At one point I would never have considered picking these - or any Nurgle stuff up - I just thought they were gross and wondered why anyone ever would... and then I picked up and painted The Wurmspat... and... they were a lot of fun. They're probably my favourite Warhammer Underworlds warband - in terms of the miniatures (and backstory). And having listened to a few audiobooks that featured the Maggotkin of Nurgle... I kind of get it... 

I haven't forgotten about the Stormcast Eternals - still hope to have them done this week - at least these ones for the Spearhead army. They are SO CLOSE!! 

Turns out I got ANOTHER weeks reprieve from needing Radukar the Beast done as Amanda decided to go out to Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan with Morgan this evening! I was a little bummed out when she told me she'd bought tickets for a Wednesday evening... but am now glad because it meant I could just stay focused on the things I was focused on and not have to FORCE myself to stop painting plaguebearers or stormcast and paint something that... I know I NEED done... for a game I DO WANT TO PLAY... but just have not a lot of interest in painting right this moment... 

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

What We Do in the Realm of Shadows - Episode Two

This week we played the second session in our new Soulbound RPG campaign - What We Do in the Realm of Shadows -  picking up from the Previous Week... 

This week the retinue filed through the realmgate, past the slaughtered Duardin garrison of the small fort that had been built around both sides of the realgate. 

Luckily, the fort on the Ghyran side seemed just as remote as the one in Ulgu. 

Unfortunately, they had no idea which way to proceed. When last they'd passed this way, the area had been an open, marshy plain... but was now dense jungle. 

Eventually, Harald the Spirit Torment found a track leading away from the small fort and it was decided that all should follow that. The track was clearly not often used and the going was very slow as the deadwalker zombies and deathrattle skeletons had an especially difficult time navigating the rough dense marshy terrain. Many toppled over into the mud, dropping the baggage they were carrying - ruining many of Lady Esmerelda's best gowns and dresses!

After a LONG days march the pathway lead to a small settlement in a more open river valley. They decided to wait until after nightfall to approach... which wasn't that far off... 

Once it was fully dark, Sir Raven the Dour galloped up out of the dark on his undead nightmare mount... He skewered one of the nightguard at the town gate on his lance. His momentum carried him clear to the center of town, where the dead guard was dropped and he galloped back towards the gate and abducted the second guard and cantered back to the jungle where the rest of the group waited... 

Lady Esmerelda then put on her charms to get the guard to tell them where the realmgate was. He claimed he'd heard of a realmgate to Shyish, and knew the general direction from town, but said no one ever went there because it was in the "tainted lands"... Then the group insisted the guard to join their retinue (or die!) and lead them to this realmgate. 

There was some discussion about what they should call this new member of their retinue, who had identified himself as... Lloyd... perhaps...? It was generally concluded that they should use the same naming conventions they used for all their mortal "familiars" - who were all named after their original familiar named Guillermo... but they changed the first letter and cycled through the alphabet. As they currenlty had two Duardin names Muillermo and Nuillermo, some though he should obviously be names Ouillermo, but Sir Renmold thought that silly and they should skip vowels and just call him Puillermo... 

I'm not sure the matter was ever fully settled...? 

They waited until daylight and then set out with the guard leading the way... Some Deathrattle skeletons were assigned to march with him, a few to guard and make sure he didn't run off and others to try and chop a trail though the dense undergrowth. 

Harald the Spirit Torment, who was unhindered by the dense terrain, wandered hither and thither, scouting ahead and to the flanks of the slowly moving column. 

Later in the day, he spotted a trio of three small, weird-looking trees directly in their path. After a moment he realized they were Dryads. Harald told them to move out of the way and be gone! The trio did not move a branch. They remained standing where they were and continued to stare at the spirit torment. 

Harald decided to rush at the Dryads in hopes of scaring them off... 

The Dryads interpreted this move as an attack and took a defensive posture slashing at Harald with their wicked sharp branches as he sped past them. They did little damage to Haralds etherial form. Harald fought back bashing one to splinters with his massive chains and locks.

Then smashed a second one to kindling. 

Sir Renmold of Sylum Field, who was at the rear of the column, had absolutely NO IDEA anything was going on at the front! 

(So Finnegan described how he was taking one of the Duardin swords and using it to pin one of Lady Esmerelda's dresses to a deadwalker zombie that was having a really hard time staying on it's feet while carrying the dress - and making special care to not further ruin the dress, but strategically pierced it to make it more of a deeper, plunging v-cut front)

The guide/guard and skeletons heard some commotion ahead, but had no idea what was going on. 

Lady Esmerelda just barely made out what was transfolding and ordered all the zombies and skeletons forward, though they shambled very, VERY slowly... 

Sir Raven the Dour galloped forward, as best he could, only barely not being swept off his mount by low branches and vines... and utterly destroyed the third Dryad... 

There was some discussion of whether the "blood sap" of the dryads (and other sylvaneth) was sustaining to vampires... or if it was more like maple syrup and would cause violent vomiting like other normal food...? 

After the third Dryad was destroyed the jungle around them came alive with activity and noise and i was clear there were many, MANY more Sylvaneth that had been stalking them! 

And that's where we had to end it... 

Who or WHAT is lurking out there in the Jungle!??

Will they EVER make it back to the Realm of Death!?  

Find out next week on the next episode of What We Do in the Realm of Shadows!

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Anvils of the Heldenhammer - Knight-Questor Odysseus Blackcloud

Not actually part of the Vigilant Brotherhood Spearhead... but just a character I happened to be working on along with all the other Anvils of the Heldenhammer. 

Knight-Questor Odysseus Blackcloud

As a Knight-Questor, he only nominally is a member of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer and, for the most part, just goes off on quests and adventures of his own, often charged with quests by Sigmar himself! 

As an Anvil of the Heldenhammer, Odyseus Blackcloud, lived during the Age of Myth, died in battle against the forces of Chaos and went off to live out his eternal afterlife in an underworld... until Sigmar came for him, snatched up his soul and reforged him into a Stormcast Eternal. Anvil of the Heldenhammers in general are a brooding, dour lot... but Odyseus is and exceptionally brooding, excessively dour fellow. He does not thank Sigmar for this second eternal life of servitude and suffering and death and reforging. He does it. But he doesn't like it. A small sliver of hope resides in him that after enough successful quests, Sigmar might release him from his service and return him to the underworld from whence he was captured... but simultaneously knows this is impossible and should Sigmar release him, Nagash would punish him far worse... 

The model is Severin Stealheert - from Steelheart's Champions (a Warhammer Underworlds warband of which I've had several over time...) Steelheart, I'm pretty sure, was meant to be a Liberator Prime - the leader of a group of Liberators... back when some Liberators carried things other than BFHs for their weapons... I'm using the other two as Liberators, but thought this big brute with the great sword striking a pose looked more like he could be a Knight-Questor. 

Anvils of the Heldenhammer - Liberators

The next unit of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer is complete...


Liberators! 

Liberators are generally armed with BFHs (Big Fucking Hammers!). Either one BHF with a Shield... or just two BFHs... or just one really REALLY BIG BFH...

The fun thing with Stormcast Eternals is you CAN name all of them... they don't die forever. When they are dealt what would be a mortal wound to any other creature, they just flash back to Azyr in a bolt of lightning and get remade on the Anvil of Apotheosis... (there are some exceptions... but, generally speaking...) 

So we have... Liberator Petyra Hammerforged, Liberator Athos Hammersoul, Liberator Prime Darrion Hammersmith, Liberator Xenia Brighthammer, and Liberator Lukas Surehammer.

(Too on-the-nose? too SILLY? I can never tell... After painting names on and taking pictures I felt like there was an opportunity missed to have named one of them Emma C. Hammertime... I guess I do have other units... I could continue the naming converntion!?) 

I have two more units of five Liberators to finish up... but neither are needed for the Spearhead army, so I won't be doing those right away... I kind of just want to knock out the three prosecutors and finish up the Lord Vigilant and be DONE with the spearhead and move on to other things! 

Age of Sigmar - Blades of Khorne - Fangs of the Blood God Spearhead Army

It occurred to me I didn't really do a post featuring the Fangs of the Blood God Spearhead army.. 

Fangs of the Blood God Spearhead army. 

The Army cosists of: 

GENERAL

  • 1x Karanak

UNITS

  • 5x Flesh Hounds
  • 5x Flesh Hounds
  • 8x Claws of Karanak

Karanak


Flesh Hounds


Flesh Hounds


Claws of Karanak

I've played a few games with them already... 

Dogs and Bones in the Realm of Death

Khorne versus Slaanesh in the Realm of Death 

Friday, August 15, 2025

Anvils of the Heldenhammer Lord-Veritant (with Gryph-Crow!)

 Taking a break from Chaos things to do some Stormcast Eternals! 

Anvils of the Heldenhammer Lord-Veritant Shandra Moongheist with her trusty Gryph-Crow Yazik!

Lord-Veritants are charged with rooting out corruption and the taint of Chaos. They are often posted to Ruination Chambers as the Ruination Chambers are used as the last line of defence against the worst of the chaos incursions... and the Lord-Veritants are there to make sure their charges don't end up tainted themselves... 

I think this is the first of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer Stormcast Eternals that I've actually finished. I have over a dozen in various states of paintedness...? completion...? 

This is also the first of the miniatures needed for the Vigilant Brotherhood Stormcast Eternals Spearhead army. Only nine left to go... mind you, one is the Lord-Vigilant on Gryph-stalker who is a pretty big beastie... and the three Prosecutors aren't exactly smol either... The Liberators shouldn't be too hard to knock off fairly quickly, tho... 

I know I SHOULD be working on Radukar and the Fell Bats... but I kind of just want to focus on these!?

(I HAVE been working on Radukar a bit as well... I'll get him done for next Wednesday!) 

I'd been really torn on what to name the Lord-Veritant here, I got it in my head that I wanted MOON in the last name (for some reason..?)... and had come up with loads of variants... (Moonstrong, Moonblade, Moonglow, Moonshield, Moonstrike, Moonstorm, Moonhammer, Mooncloud, Blackmoon, Redmoon, Firemoon, Moonflame, Moonglare, Moonstew, Monomoon, Moonghast, Moongheist, Moonbae, Moonflet, Moonstoat, Moonglower, Moondüg, Moonclaw, Moonsight, Moondew, Moonthunder, Moonwax, Moonrock, Moonbrew, Blightmoon, Moonblight, Moonshade, Moonshard, Moonshart, Heartmoon, Moonfort, Moonfart, etc, etc...) and eventually settled on two... and was kind of torn between Brightmoon and Moongheist, at first I was thinking maybe not Moongheist... but then decided it would work for an Anvil of the Heldenhammer... and have left that in this post, which I'd drafted while I was letting paint dry before painting the name on the back of the base and applying finish.. Also... I usually google names just in case something I totally thought I made up turns out to be the name of some K-Pop star or deranged maga podcaster and people end up thinking i've named it after them... and it turned out Brightmoon was one of the characters from She-Ra (which, you think I'd have remembered...), which... isn't so bad... but didn't want anyone thinking I was naming her after that... so had decided Moongheist for sure... and then when I went to paint the name on the back of the base... I painted Brightmoon anyway!? When I saw the post and remembered I'd settled on Moongheist, I thought maybe I'd go repaint it.. then thought I'd leave it as Brightmoon and change the post... Then I looked at the photo and decided there was something else I'd need to touch-up anyway... so... Maybe I'll change it to Moongheist...? 

Plaguebearers!?

 

I didn't really want to buy anything else until I'd gotten a little caught up with things and back in the black... but this was timely... I have a need for... PLAGUEBEARERS... within the next 2-3 weeks and I wasn't going to get 20-30 OTHER miniatures painted to get me back in the black so I could buy these and then still have time to paint them... so... I just went out and got them.. 

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Skullreapers of Khorne

 These guys have been on my workbench for SO LONG... I'd done a fair bit of work on them at one point and they were 95% done and then they just sat there... for MONTHS getting pushed aside as other things suddenly seemed more important - things I was generally SURE I would be using in a game... and... as I'm not sure I'll ever get around to using these... the motivation just wasn't there... 

Skullreapers

In exchange for boons of great strength and speed, Skullreapers have all sworn to present EIGHT SKULLS to Khorne EVERY DAY!? That's... a LOT of skulls.. I mean, sure on a day where there is a larger battle, one could see these big brutes utterly destroying multiple units (two units of twenty, or four units of ten)... but EVERY SINGLE DAY!? Do they have to be fresh skulls, from people killed that day?! Do they have to be human skulls... or sentient being skulls....? Or if it gets late in the day, and they haven't found a village to murder can they go varmint hunting and collect some small skulls. 

Like seriously, I'm not sure the Parch in Aqshy has the population density to support that kind of tithe, outside of Hammerhal Aqsha, at least... 

I have to admit, I've never even looked at their warscroll... they are, as one might expect, bigger, meaner Blood Warriors... but with slightly less armour, and they have a special rule that if they are in combat while contesting an objective, the unit adds eight to their control score... I don't know... think I'd rather take more Blood Warriors... 

After taking pics for the Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut yesterday, I realized I still had these to finish, so I just left everything out so I could take ANOTHER pic of the whole army with these guys added in... 

The whole damned Blades of Khorne Army! Again! 

Okay... Now I really need to get to work on Radukar the beast and the fell bats, so we can get back to playing Warhammer Quest next week... Then some stormcast or ghosties or the rest of the undead!? 

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Goretim the Reddish - Lord of Khorne

I have finished the Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut! 

Goretim the Reddish, Lord of Khorne, on their Juggernaut, Bloodbatter! 

I am going to use this as the leader of my Paths to Glory force. They command a small force that originated in the Eastern Parch. Most of the warhost was destroyed in the Skaventide event and ever since they have been fighting their way through mounds of Skaven to reach other Khorne forces in the Southeast part of the Parch near the South edge of the Adamantine Mountain range... bringing them ever closer to the Ravaged Coast! 

Goretim the Reddish leading their [to-be-named] Bloodbound Horde (and some daemoic allies!)

(probably MORE than I'll ever need for Paths to Glory!)

The Khorne Lord on Juggernaut is not in the new Battletome (because the model has been discontinued). I did find a Battletome supplement PDF On the Warhammer Website that had the stats for this model (which is still playable in matched play until July 2026...?). I'll probably use the Anvil of Apotheosis rules to build a custom Khornate Warlord - probably just a 150 point Bloodbutcher (there are also Gore Chieftans at 250 points and Brass overlords at 350, but, honestly, those just get ridiculous... I'm not sure how you'd even USE the 50 Destiny Points the Brass Overlord gets, I think you'd literally have to take EVERY UPGRADE POSSIBLE!?) 

This was a finecast model and it was awful to work with... there were so many channels carved into the mould to get resin into the right parts that it completely obliterated some details and others I may or may not have entirely carved off accidentally and then because there were so many bumps and bolts and spikes that it was sometimes hard to figure out which were actual intentional details of the model or blobby extra bits because of flaws in the mold and some of those I left and didn't realize what it was until painting and then had to carve it off (and a bunch of paint with it) so I was repainting bits and it all got very frustrating and... I'm just done with it... however it looks.. I'm just not doing any more... I can see why this was discontinued. I'm a little surprised it wasn't replaced this year along with the release of the Codex... I mean, theWorld Eaters have a pretty rad model (that can alternatively be built as a Lord Invocatus). How hard would that have been to modify and make a fantasy version!?

I do still have a few things I could paint up for the Blades of Khorne - the 5 Skullreapers, 10 Blood Warriors, and 30 Bloodreavers - but I'm well over 2000 points worth of stuff. I'm probably good for any game I'm likely to get up to any time soon... unless... naratively... I NEED 40 Bloodreavers (maybe for the Soulbound campaign?) or something... (oh, and I have spare a Bloodsecrator and a Bloodstoker... not sure what I'll ever do with those...?) 

Next!? Seriously... the Skullreapers... then the stuff I need for Night Wars (three fellbats and Radukar the Beast - and attendants) 

After that, probably still the Stormcast Eternal Vigilant Brotherhood Spearhead  army... likely, followed by either the Soulblight Gravelord Bloodcrave Hunt Spearhead army or the new Nighthaunt Cursed Shacklehorde Spearhead army... 

(or maybe some plaguebearers...? for... REASONS!?) 

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

What We Do in the Realm of Shadows - Episode One

I've started a new Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound role-playing game campaign. Except, no one is playing a Soulbound character. Instead all are playing unbound undead characters using the Champions of Death book and ignoring the binding rules, mostly... 

The background is that they are a group of Vampires in the court of Blood (and their mortal and undead minions!). All ostensibly serve Neferata, Mortarch of Blood. The Vampires in the group are nobility that originally held titles and land in Neferatia. During the Age of Chaos the land was invaded by a Horde of Khorne Daemons and Bloodbound and the characters lands were lost. For a time lived as refugees in Nulhamia - the capital of Neferatia - as guests of other vampire lords, but quickly wore out your welcome and were getting pressured more and more to go and take back their ancestral lands! 

Eventually they were given leave to travel to Ulgu, Realm of Shadow, where they were to rebuild, conquer new land and raise an army to eventually aid Neferata in taking back their lands. 

Passing through a Realmgate near Shadowvell, brought them to Ghyran and they discovered a short march of a day or so would bring them to a realmgate that would deliver them to Ulgu, on Cape Tenerax, near Misthåven.

Upon arriving in Ulgu, they found an old dilapidated keep, just a days march from the realm gate. The fortress had been built during the age of myth, but long since abandoned by its builders. At the time they discovered it, it was inhabited by a small pack of  skaven. The skaven were cleared out, some minimal repairs were made to make it somewhat livable and moderately defensible. 

It is a rather shabby looking place that most passersby would still think abandoned - or HAUNTED - as many in the region do! 

And there they have remained for a century or more. Occasionally murdering lightly protected merchant caravans, stealing their stuff and taking any prisoners to drain at their leisure back at their keep. From time to time they would travel into MisthÃ¥ven to trade their stolen wares and acquire anything they needed. 

Nick is playing Lady Esmerelda (She/her) - a Vampire Lord

Orion is playing Sir Raven the Dour (They/them) a Blood Knight (also a Vampire)

Finnegan is playing Sir Renmould of Sylum Field (They/them) a  Grave Guard Wight (essentially a magically an animated suit of armour with a skeleton inside. 

Amanda was away during session zero and so before Session One made up a Spirit Torment character - a spooky Nighthaunt ghostie thing that hunts down wayward souls and drags them back to the deepest darkest underworld. Her character does not have a name yet. 

There was a brief encounter in Session Zero a few weeks back (after making Characters) which started with a House Meeting during which Lady Esmerelda complained about SOMEONE plugging up the toilets. Sir Renmould pointed out it clearly was not them. Sir Raven blamed the two mortal Duardin familiars.

Suddenly they realized that Lady Mereneth was also in the room with them, though none had seen her enter, and none had noticed her when they entered!? Lady Mereneth is Neferata's Master of Spies and she had come personally to inform the group that Neferata was calling her banners and they were to march with the army they've raised back to Shyish and join in a campaign to eject the Bloodbound squatters from the realm, and retake their own ancestral lands! 

And so... Session One began with preparations, where the group gathered up what they could in terms of liquid currency and as many of Lady Esmerelda's dresses and gowns and other outfits that their Skeletal and Zombie horde could carry - along with a cask of blood and a chest of gravesand. Sir Raven the Dour gathered up all five of their skeletal horses and his extra armour and lances. 

The group marching out also included ten Deadwalker Zombies and ten Deathrattle Skeletons (we are hoping a fifth player may join next week and play a Necromancer...). 

Amazingly, they had NO TROUBLE finding the realm gate!? (I'd set a DN of 5:2 as none of them had been there in over a century... and it is the Realm of Shadow... and despite not ONE of them having a single level of training in Survival - the skill used for land navigation - they ALL succeeded, some with EXTRA successes!?) 

Upon arrival, however, they discovered that a small fortified Watch Tower had been built up around the realmgate and was garrisoned by a troop of Duardin gunners! 

Luckily, being members of the Court of Blood, they were ALL Masters of Disguise! the vampires and grave guard HAD said before they left that they were disguising themselves as "mortals"... The three of them went forward and were hailed by the sentries atop the tower and the silver tongued Lady Esmerelda managed to convince the guards that they were living human nobles that just wished to pass through the realmgate. The Duardin allowed them to approach. 

As they got close to the tower, the front gate was opened and a few of the Duardin came out to greet them. Upon closer inspection, however, Sir Raven and Sir Renmould's weren't entirely holding up. But, again, Lady Esmerelda's charm and quick talking convinced the Duardin that nothing was amiss... 

Realizing there was no way they'd be able to convince these Duardin that they Zombies and Skeletons - nevermind the Spirit Torment - were just their retinue of totally alive men-at-arms and assorted servants... they attacked the Duardin once they entered the Tower. 

When the first shots rang out, the Spirit Torment raced to join them... and all the Zombies and Skeletons started shuffling in the general direction of the tower. 

More Duardin rushed in from the barracks upstairs and STILL more Duardin living in a mirror tower on the other side of the realmgate in Ghyran arrived to block the attackers from getting through... 

All were slaughtered... 

And that's kind of where we left off at the end of Session One! 

Next Session they will be travelling through part of Ghyran, the Realm of LIFE, to get to the realm gate that will bring them back to Shyish, the Realm of Death! 

The Group so far... 

Front row, Left to Right: Amanda's unnamed Spirit Torment, Sir Raven the Dour, Lady Esmerelda, and Sir Renmould of Sylum Field, Behind them is their small force of Zombies and Skeletons. 

Sir Raven the Dour has a mounted version! 

I really should have run up and got the better camera... 

Next time, maybe... 

With any luck this will be a weekly sort of thing...? It was meant to be a short campaign - just to try out playing Vampires and other undead. I have about five or six sessions roughly sketched out... we'll see where it goes from there. If we only get through the five or six, that would be fine. 

It's been a lot of fun so far. They're a hilarious group to play with. 

Finnegan has been working out more backstory for Sir Renmould who despises Sir Raven and is extremely jealous of his undead nightmare mount and the bond they seem to have. Sir Renmould is determined to acquire some kind of mount for themself, but each attempt ends in disaster, with the mount either not bonding and running off or being destroyed in the most ridiculous and preposterous ways!? 

I wonder if Sir Raven has something to do with it! 

Skull Altar

I finally finished up the Skull Altar! 

The Skull Altar is "Faction Terrain" for the Blades of Khorne. Most factions in Age of Sigmar have some sort of Faction Terrain that can be set up on the field of battle and gives some sort of benefit. 

I THINK in previous editions, the faction terrain had a point value to it (or maybe I'm just thinking of Endless Spells - I KNOW they did) but there is zero cost to bringing them along (as with Endless Spells, now!)... which is a clever way to get everyone to buy them - If everyone else is playing with them and gaining whatever benefit they give, you're kind of hamstringing youself is you DON'T!?

That's not entirely the reason I bought it. I also just think it looks kind of cool... 

I do think it's a little silly that BOTH SIDES can employ Faction Terrain... Like, how does that work... two armies approach each other and they say; "hang on, let me build my altar to the Blood God... yeah, you go ahead and build your thing too..." It would make more sense if the party defending got to deploy it... but then, there would have to be some advantage to being attacker. 

Maybe they're all magically summoned... or not-so-magically summoned in the case of the Skull Altar of Khorne!

Ah well... 

Skull Altar

Other side of Skull Altar

Skull Altar with Slaughterpriest (and some friends!) 

What the Skull altar does is while there is a Slaughterpriest on there they gain +1 to Chanting rolls (which is a d6 roll so, 16.67% increase in chance of success) and any attacks directed at the priest hit the Altar first (Which has a 4+ save - better than the Slaughterpriest's 5+ save - and 10 health to burn through before you start affecting the priest). Also, invocations and prayers and other abilities that have a range are measured from the Skull Altar instead of the Slaughterpriest and they can also attempt to Banish D3 Endless Spells within 18".

Maybe not game changing stuff... but benefits, for sure... that are FREE (in terms of the point-cost within the game)... if you spend real world dollars and buy that extra thing for your army... 

Now that this is out of the way and cleared off a big chunk of the workbench... I really need to just finish off those Skullreapers (one or two ARE completely finished, the others just have a strap or two or small bits that need touching up!?) and the Lord of Khorne on the Juggernaut... and then I'm on to other things - probably finishing up the Stormcast Eternals Vigilant Brotherhood Spearhead!! And maybe some other stuff for other spearheads - like the new Nighthaunt one. 

Oh, and maybe the stuff I need for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars, since Amanda is back from England and we were supposed to get back to playing when she returned. 

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Spearhead: Khorne versus Slaanesh in the Realm of Death

For the second game I played against Orion on Wednesday, she decided to borrow my Hedonites of Slaanesh Blades of the Lurid Dream force and I stuck with the Blades of Khorne Fangs of the Blood God force. 

(You can find the report of the first game here: Spearhead: Dogs and Bones in the Realm of Death)

For this game we played on the Ossia side of the Sand & Bone board. 

Once again, I was the attacker, here to hunt down a Shardspeaker of Slaanesh that had irked the Blood God himself with their debauched and lurid ways and strange piercings in uncomfortable areas... 

At least... y'know...  NARRATIVELY speaking... 

The game is still played for victory points based on holding objectives... and playing cards to score extra points for holding SPECIFIC objectives each turn... 

There is a Quarry mechanic, where at the beginning of each round, if there isn't Quarry that's been picked and still alive... I can select a new one.. It has to be a HERO, but the vast majority of Spearhead warbands only have ONE Hero. And the basic benefit is, under certain conditions, Karanak may get to move d6" towards said Quarry (unless certain Enhancements are taken in which case one ONE TURN in the game I could get a bonus charge die, if it takes me into contact with the Quarry, OR if Karanak is in combat with an enemy, at the end of a turn, I just deal them d3 mortal wounds... 

There is not benefit to killing the Quarry - like, no Victory Point bonus - unless you happen to be playing with the Fire and Jade game set and happen to have the ONE CARD that gives you ONE victory point if you happen to kill the enemy general that turn... 

I digress... 

As with the previous game I charged forth and split my force.

Half went right to attack units on that flank. The Claws of Karanak actually got to fight this game. They, with some help from the pack of Flesh Hounds, slaughtered a unit of Blissbard Archers! 

And the other half went left to hunt down and kill the QUARRY!

This time, Orion put the General in the back corner of the playing board to be as far as possible from Karanak on that first turn... 

But there is NO ESCAPING THE HOUND OF VENGEANCE!!!

The Shardspeaker of Slaanesh was slaughtered... 

So... Mission accomplished, we can all go...

wait... what?

AGAIN!?

Ugggggghhhh, fine... 

Flesh Hounds battled with the Slaangor that had been trying to protect the Shardspeaker of Slaanesh. 

And just like that, the tricksy Shardspeaker of Slaanesh using the most base foul magiks, combined with pungent smoke and strategically placed mirrors, REAPPEARED on their first turn... safely away from the chomping jaws of the Hound of Vengeance or any Flesh Hounds!? 


A replacement unit of Blissbarb Archers also showed up as reinforcements and shot at, then charged one pack of Flesh Hounds. 

The Slickblade Seekers joined in the battle and utterly annihilated he Claws of Karanak... 

AND most of a pack of Flesh Hounds... 

The cackling Shardspeaker taunted the Khornate daemons; "Ha-ha-ha-haaaa! You thought you saw the last of me? Well..."

But then another band of the Claws of Karanak came chargine back onto the battlefield as replacements and cut the Shardspeaker down! 

(and the Slickblade Seekers counter charged and rode down the Claws of Karanak...)

Battlefield looking a little empty by the end of round two... 

Because neither of the packs of Flesh Hounds had been completely wiped out, I couldn't even bring a unit of reinforcements on for my third turn... This one poor Flesh Hound had to just try and hold that objective all on it's own! 

It did it's best... It ate three of the Blissbarb archers that charged in and tried to shift it off the objective. 

Karanak and the other Flesh Hound did very non-khorne-like things hanging out be particular objectives and terrain pieces and battlefield edges, just to score some points... 

Only to get run down by the Slickblade Seekers on the Hedonites third turn... 

There was a balance update for the original Spearhead armies back in June and the Slaangor now have the reinforcements keyword... so a unit of those charged back onto the field and sent Karanak back to Khorne in the Palace of Brass, to ready for hunting down a new quarry... 

End of Round Three. 

Tabled again... All objectives controlled by the Hedonites. 

On my last turn, I was able to bring back a solitary pack of Flesh Hounds AND Karanak (the Flesh Hounds came back as reinforcements and a card brought Karanak back...) I could have just stood them still and scored three or four points from cards and holding objectives and stuff... but I'd had enough of not doing violence as Khorne would have them do it... so I charged units and attacked. 

the Pack of Flesh Hounds ate the last Blissbarb archer in a unit and seized an objective... Karanak just got killed again... 

Another unit of Blissbarb archers arrived and attacked the Flesh Hounds and were joined by the Slaangor

The last chomps of the last remaining Flesh Hounds... they hit on 4+... two hounds with four attacks each, I should hit four times... nope. The six there was a crit mortal... the five either failed to wound or was saved... Teh Hedonites had so many depravity points by this point, they all had a Ward 5+ save that knocked off that final wound... 

Not only are Slaangor able to return as reinforcements - which is a pretty huge deal - they also vastly lowered the number of depravity points the Hedonites need to gain new army abilities. It used to be 12+/24+/36+ and now it is 12+/18+/24+ which also makes a BIG difference. 

I do hope this means they change how depravity points works for the regular Age of Sigmar Hedonites of Slaanesh, because as it stands, it is entirely useless... 

In the end Orion scored 23 victory points to my... 13... 

Yikes!

Still, it was super exciting to see the Hedonites score a win! I'm excited enough that I might even give them a try again!!