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!!

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! 

Claws of Karanak and Fangs of the Blood God

 A week or so ago I picked up the Claws of Karanak. I think these were originally a warband for Warcry, but then got rules for use in regular Age of Sigmar. They are mortal bloodbound warriors that are members of a subcult of Khorne worshippers that venerate the daemonic Flesh Hounds and Karanakm the Hound of Vengeance - the embodiment of Khorne's wrathful vengeance... 

Claws of Karanak 

This is also the only unit I needed to complete another Spearhead army; The Fangs of The Blood God. This is a new Spearhead army that was included in the brand new Blades of Khorne Battletome. 

The Fangs of The Blood God

This Spearhead army includes

• 1x Karanak
• 5x Flesh Hounds
• 5x Flesh Hounds
• 8x Claws of Karanak

There are not a lot of them... and, on paper, they don't look awesome... NOTHING hits on better than 4+, none of them have particularly great saves (5+ or 6+ for all of them, though the daemons have a Ward 6+) only Karanak has any Rend ability at all... the only thing really going for them is EVERYTHING but Karanak has the Reinforcements keyword... so... there's that... 

I guess I'll have to wait and see how they work (which won't be long, because I've arranged to play Orion this afternoon!).

Karanak can lead a regiment in a Blades of Khorne army in regular Age of Sigmar. The only units allowed in the Hound of Vengance's Regiment, though, are Flesh Hounds and the Claws of Karanak. So this can be fielded as part of my Blades of Khorne army, if I so chose to do so... Four of those batches of Flesh Hounds would have to be paired up into units of ten, though...Kind of makes me want to get one more box of five, so I have THREE units of TEN Flesh Hounds!? 

No, wait, that's not right, I can only have THREE units total, in a regiment... so I could have two of the units of ten Flesh Hounds and either the Claws of Karanak OR another unit of five Flesh Hounds... 

Regiment

• Hero - Karanak (1) 110 - Any Claws of Karanak, Any Flesh Hounds
• Unit - Flesh Hounds (10) 220 - Daemon, Beast
• Unit - Flesh Hounds (10) 220 - Daemon, Beast
• Unit - Claws of Karanak (8) 110 - Bloodbound, Infantry. This unit cannot be reinforced.

Total: 660 points! 

Unless Karanak was the General...? Then there could be four units in the regiment...? I feel like that's not a thing, though... or maybe I'm thinking of previous editions that disallowed Karanak from being General...?

I guess I'll worry about it if ever I get to the point where I'm considering including Karanak and this regiment in a Blades of Khorne army!?

What's still on the workbench!? 

Lots of Khorne stuff!

Likely the first to be finished will be the Lord of Khorne on the Juggernaut and the Skull Altar. I keep forgetting about those Skullreapers which are SO CLOSE to being done!?

After that... maybe take a break from the Khorne stuff and either knock out the Stormcast Eternal Spearhead (it's TEN FIGURES?! and they're mostly just black and gold!?) or maybe some Soulblight Gravelord stuff - for the Spearhead and/or Cursed City: Night Wars! 

Before any of that, though, I'll try and get this afternoon's game report done!

Age of Sigmar: Spearhead - Sap for the Sap God...?

Last Wednesday I rode out to the Warhammer store, again, to play another game of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Spearhead with John. 

This time I brought TWO armies - the Khorne and Sylvaneth forces. John has a Sylvaneth army that he's still assembling and painting and planning on taking to an event in a few weeks, so I suggested he could borrow mine if he wanted a chance to play with them and get a sense for how they worked. 

Though I dragged the Sand & Bone set out with me, John already had Fire & Jade set out, so we just played with that! 

John won the initial roll off and decided he'd like to defend Ghyran (which kind of makes sense as he was playing Sylvaneth!) 

I ended up taking the first turn in the first round. 

The first round my Mighty Skullcrushers made it into combat with the Treelord. Blood Warriors, not-so-much. The Mighty Skullcrushers can deal some terrifying damage when they charge... But the Twist for the Round had allowed John to give the Treelord a Ward 6+ save, and then he played a card (Fight to the Last) which also gave (or increased) a ward save... and so they only dealt three damage to the lumbering beast (all of which was saved by my next turn...) 

The other Blood Warriors got into it with the Kurnothi, charging right past the objective that I probably should have had them take... but they're BLOOD WARRIORS?! Like I wasn't going to take an opportunity to do some fighting?! 

Also, had I not, the Kurnothi probably would have just stood in the corner and shot at them next round

End of my first round, I think...? 

On the Sylvaneth turn the Tree-Revenants sallied out to attack the Blood Warriors, mostly just to keep them from joining the Mighty Skullcrushers and taking down the Treelord (who was in NO danger, given how my dice were rolling...) 

Bloodreavers join the last few Blood Warriors to help finish off the Kurnothi

Which was handy because this is how I was rolling for the Blood Warriors. Three Blood Warriors remaining, three attacks each, they hit on 4+, so I should get 4-5 hits... nope, 2... fail to wound on one, the other was saved... 

Luckily the weight of numbers finally took the last Kurnothi out... 

Blood Warriors faired a little better against the Tree-Revenants. 

But then the Treelord dipped out of combat and charged my Slaughterpriest and squished him to a pulp with one mighty swing of his trunk-like arms. 

Branchwych slinked in and finished off the last of the Mighty Skullcrushers, who were reeling from the assaults of the Treelord... 

At least the Blood Warriors were able to beat down the last Tree-Revenant. 

Because Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows (or, SAP apparently!?) I got a whole bunch of Blood Tithe points in the final round. Mostly from my OWN units dying... 

Just at the Blood Warriors finished off the one unit of Tree-Revenants another unit arrived on the battlefield. 

They'd charge the remaining Blood Warriors and Bloodreavers and I had really, REALLY hoped to finish them off here... (so I could move these blood reavers away and hopefully have enough of them on the objective in the middle of the battlefield to contest it in my final turn... 

Alas... 

Five Bloodreavers, two attacks each, hitting on 4+... I should score 5 hits... 

NOT. ONE. HIT.... 

The last two Blood Warriors had fucked off from that melee, taking mortal wounds that killed one in the process, but left one alive to contest an objective. 

Similarly the other unit of Blood Warriors retreated from the combat with the Treelord to take an objective on my final turn. 

I didn't like that. It didn't feel RIGHT retreating from combat with Blood Warriors... but... you win the game by scoring victory points and you score victory points by holding objectives... (or scoring cards, which generally are about holding SPECIFIC objectives or being in specific parts of the table, etc). 

Even so, I only managed to TIE the game... I don't think there was even enough Bloodreavers left to contest the center objective, even if they could have gotten away. 

Ten games, nine losses, one tie! Things are looking up!

I'm supposed to play another game with Orion tomorrow afternoon. I'm hoping to finish up the Claws of Karanak tonight, so I can try out the new Fangs of Khorne Spearhead army! So I'm off to do that, and blowing off another RPGaDAY prompt... even though I had an idea for today... Ah well...