Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars - The Abhorrent Swarm

 This evening we are starting the first of the Pillage Journeys to take down Kritza the Rat Prince in Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars. (Sorry... Spoiler for those following the campaign; Last week's Decapitation Journey was successful!). These are similar to the Deliverance Journeys in the Ulfenkarn in Peril campaign - running through the streets of the city, randomly generating tiles as you go... but instead of shouting warnings to the citizens of the city to get out of the way of the Suffocating Graveside... the object here is to smash shit and steal as much loot as you can from Kritza, all the while keeping ahead of The Abhorrent Swarm!

The Abhorrent Swarm is a literal Tide-o-Rats... and is represented by  a diminutive cardboard counter in the game - much like the Suffocating Graveside in Ulfenkarn in Peril. 

As there WAS a Suffocating Graveside miniature that did look imposing...

I tracked one down and added a lot of flagstones - to match the bases of miniatures and tiles of Cursed City and... 

It DID look a lot more terrifying to have that chasing the characters around than... 

The diminutive cardboard counter... 

So I thought I'd do the same for THIS campaign... even though it would only be used in about three games (assuming all were successful!?). There isn't, however an Abhorrent Swarm miniature, like there was with Suffocating Gravetide... The Skaven do have an Endless Spell called "Vermintide"... 

But is is hardly the WAVE of a thousand rats - as described in the Night Wars book... but it was rats... scurrying over rubble and ruins... and, if put on a flagstone base and with some EXTRA rats... I though it could look the bit. 

A few months ago Fenris Workshop had both a used set of the Skaven Endless Spells AND a full set of Cursed City Rat-Swarm models... I briefly thought about buying those and cutting the Cursed City rats off their bases and adding them to the Vermintide base... I probably would have cost about $80 to put that together... which seemed a bit ridiculous... but I could use it in the future for other massive rat-swarms in other games - or with my shaven as an extra-ratty vermintide!? Unfortunately I took too long thinking about it and they BOTH sold out..

So, the other option I'd been considering was just getting some greestuff world rats and trying to stick them ALL onto one base... when they arrived... they were small...I'd have needed many more packs to fill a BIG base like the Suffocating Gravetide! So I did what I could with the rats that I had and assembled all the rats onto an oval cavalry base... Then never got around to painting it until THIS WEEK when I finally NEEDED it!?

The Abhorrent Swarm!

(Now that I'm' looking at this photo I've posted... I feel like I need to go back in and make the ears a little pink and touch up a few noses and paws I'm now noticing I've missed... and... maybe lighten up the rubble, to create a bit more contrast between the rubble and the rats!? GAH!? Or... maybe I'll just leave it all be...) 

It isn't nearly as imposing as the Suffocating Gravetide was... 

Ah, well... I only need it for a 3-4 games.

Hopefully it's at least a little more interesting/impressive than the cardboard counter included in the game... 

Still need to finish up the latest Cursed City Game report (in which the Abhorrent Swarm was used!), and the Ravaged Coast campaign wrap up, AND a game of Spearhead DOUBLES we tried playing on Sunday, AND the latest episode in our What We Do in the Realm of Shadows campaign... Mind you, I'm going to be painting minis like a mad bastard for the next four days trying to complete enough of the Warhammer Quest: Darkwater minis to try out the game with some friends on Tuesday... so... don't hold your breath thinking they might be done before then!