Possibly the most awesome thing ever

Or at least the most awesome thing today.

Riders of Slaanesh 1k list, revised

Revised slightly from the last 1k list based on more experience with the 750 pt-er.

• Chaos Warhounds x5 - 30 pts - bait.
• Chaos Warhounds x5 - 30 pts - re-added a 2nd unit; they are really needed as shooting-cover, throwaway flank protection, and to tie up enemies for a turn or two in close combat.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, throwing axes, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - repurposed back to throwing annoyance - with the third unit of marauders and their Exalted Hero leader they need this more than flails.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, throwing axes, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - ditto.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, standard bearer, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 108 pts - new unit, Hero escort.
• Chaos Knights, full command, lances, Mark of Slaanesh x 5 - 285 pts - nothing's changed here. Can be sorcerer escort.
• Chaos Sorcerer, level 2, Mark of Slaanesh, Chaos Steed (barded) - 141 pts - 4 dice, 2 spells, 2+ armor save. Not bad for a wizard. Lost the Spell Familiar to save points for a second unit of hounds.
• Exalted Hero, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Armor of Morrslieb, Halberd, Battle Standard, shield, Favor of the Gods - 234 pts - hunter/killer. Dropped the gift (Soporific Musk) as it only really matters vs. other cav, and even then if he's with the marauders they get a reroll on pursuit. 5 extra points from losing that and the spell familiar means he can have both a shield and Favour. End result: Four WS7, S6 attacks; T4 and a 3+ armor save (2+ vs. shooting) plus a 4+ ward save vs. non-magical; on a movement 10 fast cav that causes fear (won't help that much 'cause it's just US2) and has a poisoned attack (a single WS3, woo). Still, he's probably as good as many other army's Lords, albeit at about the same price...

Now I just gotta get the models. Shopping list: Mounted Sorcerer (I've been borrowing one of Nick's mounted Empire Battle Wizards), Lord of Slaanesh (yes, the boob-worm - that part is disturbing but the model as a whole is awesome), another set of Marauder Horsemen (I have one with flails and one with axes already; I'll retrofit a standard onto the flail unit and construct the new one with axes), Slaanesh Icons (these are from 40k - I'm going to use them as banner- and staff-toppers).

I've yet to roll on the Eye of the Gods table...perhaps I will get a chance at 1k. Hope to face off against Nick's Tomb Kings, Empire, and Wood Elves again, as well as possibly Dwarfs and Ogre Kingdoms at some point too.

Silver Hollow Adventures - Session 3, "Copperknight Hold"

Straight from the pages of Dungeon Delve, this 3-encounter level 1 delve should be fun. Players Nick's master swordsman Human Fighter "Al", from far-away lands to the east. Lisa's killer-peacock Elf Druid "Alyx". Linda's hammer-swinging Dwarf Cleric "Rohese". Tyler's ladies-man Tiefling Monk "MoMo". Adam's fiery Human Dragon-Sorcerer "Blas-Tor". Summary After Al was propositioned by an uncomfortably young woman in the streets of Silver Hollow, the group learns that a very young dragon has moved into the abandoned mines to the north. Convinced that it demands virgin sacrifices, the female population of Silver Hollow is eager to remove themselves from consideration. Worse, company ranger Claw (Cathe's character) has been kidnapped by local shopkeepers and set up on the mountain as an offering (hear her protests in the background that her character is not a virgin!). The party heads out to the north looking for their lost friend. The dragon's kobold followers are hiding behind an old wooden fence above a collapsed mine entrance. Despite several failed athletics checks to climb the fence or boulders, the party eventually assaults the reptilious little buggers, flattening minion after minion. The kobold slingers toss pots of glue in a mad attempt to slow down the attackers, but end up only delaying the inevitable. In a feat of comic ineptitude, one of the slingers tries to escape into the hole down the rope ladder, but fails the DC 5 athletics check to do so. A 20-foot fall and 2d10 falling damage later, and there is a wet splat at the bottom of the hole. Hearing the death of his cohort, the last slinger makes a break for it and survives the opportunity attacks of MoMo the monk and Rohese the cleric, only to also fail the DC 5 athletics check and pancake at the bottom of the hole. Warned by the falling bodies of their fellows, the kobolds in the dark down below plan an ambush. However, they are none too stealthy about it and are spotted by the perceptive duid Alyx. The fighter decides to turn the tables on the tricksy kobolds and bull-rushes the unstable statue that they plan to push on him. The statue (a humanoid figure with a mining helmet and pick, in a very "Triumph of the Victorious Worker" red-pride sort of way) topples back and traps one of the kobold Dragonshields. Despite the best efforts of the rest of the kobolds, they are overwhelmed. Desperate, the wyrmpriest pulls cords attached to the walls and the tattered tapestries fall on all those in the hallway, leaving some blinded and immobilized as they are covered by the thick cloth. Still, he is cut down as he is shouting a warning to the next room behind him. The party bursts into the next room after a short breather and finds it full of seemlingly identical miniony-kobolds. They also hear ominuous movement in the dark beyond the reach of the fighter's sunrod and a draconic voice hissing, "Let's show these humanoids how we deal with intruders into our new lair!" The minions are quickly cleared and two stabby non-minion kobolds are revealed to have been hiding amongst the weaker ones. Massive damage is unloaded on the wyrmling; it misses all with its breath attack and gets one good rip into the fighter before being destroyed. Enraged by the death of their master, the kobolds flank first the cleric and then the druid, inflicting massive damage and dropping the druid. Still, it's a losing battle, and the druid is quickly healed and the last of kobolds dispatched. The party unties their friend and scoops up the dragon's hoard. Dailies spent and healing surges nearly gone, they cautiously open the door and enter the mining tunnels proper. Red eyes glare from the dark depths, and a creaking voice echoes, "Out, slavers." The party decides that they have accomplished enough for the moment and head back to their office above Karl's Exotic Meat Procurement shop. Thoughts The fights went quickly and were exciting and dynamic. The story was silly (and the hook straight out of Jack Chalker's River of the Dancing Gods, though that dragon ended up actually had a phobia of young maidens...) and the enemies dangerous but surmountable. The players move to 2nd level for next session; I plan on working in the appropriate level Delve as one of the three adventures that we are doing for each level in the campaign, and custom writing the other 2.

Riders of Slaanesh vs. Empire

750 pt battle to the death. Essentially the same list as last time for me. Nick's Empire mini-army consisted of a greatcannon with master engineer, a block of spears with warrior priest and detachment of swordsmen, a line of handgunners, and a unit of mounted pistoliers. One unit of Marauder Horsemen lined up to take out the cannon on the left flank; hounds were in front of the knights with sorcerer to shield them from gunfire; the other unit of hounds and marauders were ready to take on the pistoliers on the right flank. The knights and shielding hounds lost one each from a cannon shot before the marauders hit the cannon crew. The crew and master engineer held out for a surprising several turns before being overrun, thus keeping the marauders out of the rear of the spear block. The right flank hounds and marauders started a dance of pointlessness with the pistoliers as they were slowly whittled down by pistol fire while never getting the empire horsemen in charge arc. The shielding hounds declared a charge on the swords detachment to clear the path for the knights to hit the handgunners; the hounds cleared just fine but the knights were short, taking both a stand-and-shoot as well as standing right there for another volley the next turn, and being far enough away for yet another stand-and-shoot when they charged on my next turn. The sorcerer failed to get off any spells; either Lash of Slaanesh (standard magic missile) or Titillating Visions (hey, look over there, shiny!) would have been nice. Oh well. He has the same stats as a knight (minus the lance), which was handy as there were only two knights (standard bearer and champion) plus him left once they reached the handgunners. They broke the gunners and pursued, more to get out of the spear's charge arc than to catch the runners, who stayed on the table this turn but failed to rally the next and were chased off. Meanwhile, the fast cavalry duel was just eating marauders, so the flank hounds and horsemen ignored the empire riders and galloped (slowly, stupid marchblocking) back towards the main battle. The left flank horsemen finally broke the cannon crew and overran them. The remaining spear block put its rear to the nearby pond while its detachment was still held up by the last remaining hound. The left flank horsemen had juuuust enough range to charge the flank of the spear block, while the knights/sorcerer destroyed the swords detachment outright and overran into the front of the spears. With 5 high-strength attacks from the flank and 7 from the front, plus horses, the spear block folded and broke, running hopelessly from the marauders. Game conceeded at the bottom of the 4th.

Titus Bastardious

Nick and I got into Arcane Legions after we saw it at PAX. It's a minis wargame that is semi-collectable and inexpensive. Out of the three factions (Han Chinese, Romans, Egyptians), I chose Romans and Nick chose Egyptians. My units are generally well armored, with lots of defense and medium attack. My favorite unit so far (and the one that most annoys Nick) is Titus Petronius. Five dual-sword-weilding legionaires and a commander, all in steam power-armor, can't go wrong. They are quite strong on attack - 9 attack dice plus a special command for two auto-damage - but are also monsters on defense: 7 defense dice plus an extra die vs. melee for Heavy Armor, plus take one less damage total for Toughness, plus they are 2-peg models. Yowzah. The only downside is a movement of 3. With Roman's Discipline, they can reform for attack, attack, special order, and reform for defense for 5 order points. When army building, his 1250 cost is high but not out of line for Romans, especially considering outrageously expensive units such as the questionably useful Bear Cavalry or the fragile Marcus Aggripa. Now if only I could land myself some Berserkers...

Silver Hollow Adventures - Session 2, "Tomb Raider"

This was the second session of the episodic game. The plan is to level up every three sessions or so. The episodic nature allows a lot more room for failure than the sweeping narrative outdoor campaign we ran previously. Learning from the previous campaigns that players often forgot to track gold, I gave them a ledger book, complete with 360 gold paid by Karl (of Karl's Exotic Meat Procurement, the specialty butcher shop) for clearing his basement of giant ants. Players Cathe's Longtooth Shifter Ranger with pet cat, Scratch Fury. Nick's Human Fighter, a slightly odd fellow with a giant sword. Lisa's Elf Druid. Terribly mysterious. Tyler's Tiefling Monk. Hi-yah! Linda's Dwarf Cleric. Finally, in the 3rd campaign, a shorty! Summary The group goes looking for work, but opportunity knocks. An old Tiefling noble comes to them, robed and with many recent burns, with a job offer. It seems that his family has been trying to kill him - and that they have recently 'succeeded', and are getting ready to entomb what they think is his body. Unfortunately, they have put with the body something that the noble rather wants... After picking his brain on the layout of the manor, mauseleum, and the guard, the adventurers form a plan - distraction! The two sneakiest of the group - the monk and the ranger - head around the back of the house to sneak into the mauseleum and steal the item before the body is put into the tomb. Meanwhile, the rest of the group heads to the front door to provide a distraction. The distraction goes of with hilarious results - an officious and pompous cleric, a clueless fighter, and a druid diguised as a gift in the form of a peacock end up running madcap through the house, squacking and feathers and all, before being forcibly removed by the house guards. This leaves the rear garden and mauseleum with only one set of eyes on it - which unfortunately see the two thieving adventurers. Despite the continuous tackling of the guard by the ranger, he eventually rings the alarm bell, and the adventurers are chased off - without the item. After a breather and some regrouping, they decide to bribe one of the guards - and do so quite successfully after learning of his gambling debt. In a not-so-shocking twist, the body has been moved into the tomb ahead of schedule - the fully party heads down below the mauseleum to brave the defenses. The defenses prove to be an undead tiefling and a horde of vengeful wraiths who fly through the walls and attack. The cleric's turn undead and radiant powers destroy the minions and leader with the help of the rest of the party, quite quickly. They proceed to the bottom of the tomb and retrieve the item that they need. However, the door behind them has sealed; the only way out is a crack in a wall which leads to a dark tunnel. The tunnel eventually drops into the city's large storm drains. As the party slogs along in the sewer, they are assaulted by mutant abberant beasts! The tentacled monsters fall quickly, but continued assault by a bat-thing from the rear, a mind-destroying flying abberant from the front, and a puss-spitting pile of goo from below take their toll. Still, with teamwork and lots of healing, the party pulls through and climbs a handy ladder up to the surface. They return the item to the noble and collect their reward! Thoughts I railroaded pretty heavily here - their first plan should have worked. It was well thought out and hilariously pulled off, with the druid shrieking and running around, the fighter playing dumb and ineffectively chasing the faux-bird around, and the cleric glaring down her nose and refusing to see what was wrong. Of course, right after they came up with their second attempt, I realized I could have had them chased by the guard into a dead-end alley, where they escape into the sewers and come up through another family tomb. Learning, always learning.

Silver Hollow Adventures - Session 1, "Ant Farm"

A quick recap of the first session. The plan is to run quick adventures that can be finished in one session's play; episodic but not necessarily tied down to an overall storyline, at least yet. Players Cathe's Longtooth Shifter Ranger and her pet cat Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds. Nick's Razorclaw Shifter Bard, weilding a bow. Lisa's Teifling Wizard. Eric's Half-Orc Barbarian with a giant axe. Summary As the session began, the PC's were on a street in Silver Hollow. A policeman leaves the shop opposite them, followed by the proprieter, a half-orc in holding a cleaver and wearing a bloody apron. Giant ants have infested the basement of Karl's 'specialty' butcher shop (it seems the normal-sized ants got into the owlbear meat) - the PC's are quickly hired to clear out the infestation. They decend into the basement, which Karl uses as a meat locker. There's a large hole in the floor in a far corner, and giant ants crawling between the cabinets! The adventurer's dispatch them quickly, and peer into the dark hole. They need to go down and exterminate the queen to destroy the nest for good. Tying a rope to a heavy cabinet, the party rappels down into the nest, and the wizard casts Light to help them find their way. The nest's defenders are waiting for them, though - they are quickly surrounded by minion worker ants, a hard-hitting soldier ant, and two swarms of poisonous (but normal-sized) ants. The swarms prove the most dangerous, and the party barely survives, finally squashing the last of the crazed insects. The group creeps cautiously deeper into the nest. At the end of twisting passages, they see a low green glow. In a large chamber lit by luminecent fungus sits the giant queen! She and her giant progeny assault the party, filling the space with a noxious cloud of acidic spray, but the exterminators quickly dispatch her. The victorious adventurers climb back into Karl's basement. The half-orc is very appreciative of the service they have provided, and offers to rent them the unused upper two floors of his shop at a discount. Thoughts I think the session went fairly well. As usual, the swarms proved more deadly than anything else (converted scorpion swarm). It was Eric's first time and I think we taught him the basics and he got to do some massive damage with his barbarian. The final encounter turned into a door-battle as the party entrenched themselves in a defensive formation - good tactics but not too exciting. I should have drawn them all in to attack the queen, then assaulted them from all sides with the other ants.

Silver Hollow - Religion

The Triumvirate of Silver Hollow The people of Silver Hollow, beyond their personal or racial religious beliefs, venerate the three goddesses as the divine guardians of their city. Avandra, patron goddess of Trade. Prayers and offerings to Avandra are given to assure the safe passage of caravans and good luck in trade negotiations. Ioun, patron goddess of Knowledge. Ioun is invoked by researchers, planners, and scholars to help them find the information they are looking for. Erathis, patron goddess of Civilization. The people pray to Erathis for the continued order and safety of the city. Darker Sides Each of the goddesses has a darker aspect which whispers to the unwary. Tiamat, the five-headed dragon of Greed. Success in trade can lead to greed - Tiamat feeds the desire to horde and covet. Lolth, spider-mother of Secrets. The pursuit of knowledge above all else - and all others - drives those under the influence of Lolth to keep such information to themselves, until it can be used to greatest end. Asmodeé, devil-temptress of Power. Civilization gives those in power control over others; Asmodeé tempts those in power to seek more, at any expense.

Silver Hollow

Silver Hollow is a sizable city located in a shallow valley between two mountain passes. A major trade road crosses the mountain range at this point; the coffers of Silver Hollow are rich with tariffs collected from passing traders and caravans. Wealthy merchant families from many different races have permanent residences in the city. The city is named for the dwarven mines that the city was originally built around. The shafts were excavated to mine Etherium Silver, a shimmering near-liquid used in enchanting. The trade road runs east and west through the passes, through gates in the East and West Walls that guard the city. The middle-class Eastwall and Westwall districts house craftsmen and minor traders. The central Market Circle is the home of the elite merchant families and the banking and insurance halls. In the south-east of the valley lies The Fields, several small farms that supply fresh fruits and vegetables. On the slopes of Goat Mountain to the south is Herdertown, home of weavers and cheesemakers, as well as goat- and sheep-herders who graze their flocks on the alpine meadows above. To the north of Market Circle lies a gash in the rock - The Chasm is a twisting alley that runs narrowly between buildings clinging to the high rock walls. Anything and everything can be found for sale in this sketchy district. Beyond this, on the slopes of Silver Mountain lies Minertown, the remenants of the village built around the now-closed mines. Outside the gates of walls are The Slopes, a collection of huts and tents, home to those too poor or outcast to live even in the squalor of Minertown.

Warriors of Chaos 1k Cavalry list

Moving up from a 750 pt list, the Riders of Slaanesh as follows:

• Chaos Warhounds x5 - 30 pts - bait.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - lost the throwing axes, there just aren't enough of them to be worth 2 pt/model.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - ditto.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, standard bearer, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 108 pts - new unit, Hero escort.
• Chaos Knights, full command, lances, Mark of Slaanesh x 5 - 285 pts - nothing's changed here. Can be sorcerer escort.
• Chaos Sorcerer, level 2, Mark of Slaanesh, Chaos Steed (barded), Spell Familiar - 156 pts - 4 dice, 3 spells, 2+ armor save. Not bad for a wizard.
• Exalted Hero, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Soporific Musk, Armor of Morrslieb, Halberd, Battle Standard, Favor of the Gods - 229 pts - hunter/killer.

Debating whether to ditch the Favor of the Gods for a shield...hmmmm.

First foray of the Riders of Slaanesh

Last Saturday was the premiere of my Warriors of Chaos army, the Riders of Slaanesh. Starting at 750 pts and escalating from there. Quick list:

• 2 units of 5 warhounds for cheap blocking and bait.
• 2 units of 5 Marauder Horsemen with flails, light armor, and throwing axes for annoyance, charge-baiting, and flanking.
• 1 unit of 5 Chaos Knights with lances, for smashing things in the face.
• Sorceror on a barded Chaos Steed, with Book of Secrets and Power Familiar for 6 power dice and 3 spells. Woo!

Everything that can has the Mark of Slaanesh. It's the cheapest mark, gets rid of annoying fear, terror, and panic with no downsides, and the Lore of Slaanesh has plenty of spells that eff with the enemy.

Game was vs. Nick's all-fast-cavalry wood elves and was pretty much different than any other Warhammer game I've played (not that I've played that many).

Game 1

Symetrical deployment on both sides - Maraders, hounds, knights, hounds, maraders for me and two shooty-elf units in front and 2 stabby elf units behind for him. He places his free woods in the center and proceeds to gallop into it. I wait outside for him to come out, but my wizard manages to miscast on the first roll and blow himself and one of the knights away. Things don't get better from there - his army is so fast and maneuverable that I don't get a single charge and I'm pretty quickly destroyed.

Game 2

Similar deployment, except I put the sorcerer with a unit of Marauders. He does much better this time and manages not to miscast the whole battle, though it takes time for him to get within range of the enemy as on the first turn, the elves gallop off into a corner. I do manage to whittle down his numbers with magic missiles, and rout a unit with thrown axes, but thanks to being on the receiving end of charges at all times, and the World's Worst Dice Rolling Ever in the challenges between characters and unit champions, I am destroyed. Closer than last time, at least.

Thoughts

Fun, but wow, we galloped all over the board. Against (and with) fast cavalry, it's hard to keep the enemy in your charge arc. I don't think my current army list has much chance of reliably beating this army (good luck with a charge and break could do it) - it either needs to be massivly shooty (not WoC strong point at all) or have a big block of metal so nasty that it just dares them to attack.

Gonna try it against more traditional armies before bumping to 1k - Nick plans on drafting 750 pts of gunpowder- and crossbow-packing Empire. We'll see how it goes.