A Kind of Magic

After I'd kitbashed my Battle Nuns of New Antioch for Trench Crusade, I pondered proxying a Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent warband using my ubiquitous Tzeentch Daemons, who have pulled bad guy duty in many a setting.

I decided against this and decided to be a bit more creative, but I have taken some inspiration from the Changeling and some Tzeentch bits from my bits box to kitbash a Sorcerer.

The model I used as a base for this kitbash is a Stormcast Knight Arcanum that I picked up dirt cheap in the first issue of the Stormbringer partworks magazine.

It is obviously a magic user, which suits the Sorcerer and has a larger frame than most models, making it more suitable to occupy the necessary 50mm base, and a simply head swap with a Crooked Dice cultist head (wearing and appropriate goat mask) started the transformation.

Next came the Tzeentch bits.

According to the limited reading I've done, Sorcerers appear to be fallen angels who cannot (or do not make contact with the ground. Given the stance of the Knight Arcanum, I decided to have her standing on a floating platform made from a large book (from Kairos Fateweaver's staff).

I appreciate that this decision pushes the aesthetic towards Tzeentch, but it did solve the hovering problem.

Another facet of the Sorcerers is that they can produce additional arms holding the items that they need and here the Pink Horror sprues provided: a pair of arms spouting flames; a hand swap with a wicked looking blade; a hand clutching a clearly corrupt book.

I also added a couple more scrolls to fill the gap where I had removed the Knight Arcanum's sword, just to lean into the magic book theme.

When it came to painting, I tried to work within the same palette I'd used for the rest of the warband: reds, browns, beiges, etc. I used more red than on the other models to indicate the status of this being in the pantheon of Hell.

I also enjoyed drawing writing into the open books, something that fortunately worked better in the one in her hand than the one she's stood on.

All in all, I'm quite pleased how my Sorcerer has turned out, although I think that I'm increasingly seeing that my attempt to tackle a Blanchitsu style is really limited to just the colour scheme.

I'm also aware that if I ever get round to playing Age of Sigmar, I could potentially use this model as a Magister on a Disc of Tzeentch.

I now have about 300 ducats of the 700 I need for a starter band, but I'm not sure where my next kitbash is coming from. There are options, but I need to firm up what I'm going to do.

Acquired: -98

Painted: 149

Lead Mountain: 406

Plus Ca Change

I've tried to use my Tzeentch Daemons in several iterations of Warhammer 40k, to varying degrees of success.

In 9th and 10th editions, they were terrible, and were repeatedly dismantled by Pete's Space Wolves and outmatched in pretty much every department.

However, in Horus Heresy, the tables were turned and the Ruinstorm Deamons opened a six-pack of whupass on the Alpha Legion. Whilst in 2nd edition they turned out to be too much for Matt's Squats to handle.

Let's try 5th edition...

I think I mentioned before Christmas that our group has settled on 5th edition as our default setting as it fits our slightly older collections and doesn't have too much complexity to make people who don't play every week have to check the rules every 5 minutes.

For a bit of a change from the Blood Angels, I arranged a 1500 point game with Pete against his homebrew Marines, the Emperor's Mailed Fists, which he's had for as long as I've known him, but I've never played against.

Emperor's Mailed Fists

• HQ - Terminator Captain (Thunder Hammer)
• HQ - Terminator Epistolary Librarian (Force Axe)
• Elite - 10 Assault Terminators (5 Thunder Hammers & 5 Lightning Claws)
• Troop - Tactical Squad (Plasma Cannon & Plasma Gun)
• Troop - Tactical Squad (Heavy Bolter & Melta Gun)
• Troop - Tactical Squad (Heavy Bolter & Flamer) with Rhino
• Fast Attack - Land Speeder (Assault Cannon & Heavy Bolter)
• Heavy Support - Predator (Autocannon & Heavy Bolters)

Tzeentch Daemons

• HQ - Lord of Change
• HQ - Herald on Disc (We Are Legion, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Chaos Icon)
• Elite - 6 Flamers (Bolt of Tzeentch)
• Troops - 10 Pink Horrors (Bolt of Tzeentch, Chaos Icon, Instrument of Chaos)
• Troops - 10 Pink Horrors (Bolt of Tzeentch, Chaos Icon, Instrument of Chaos)
• Troops - 10 Pink Horrors
• Fast Attack - 6 Screamers
• Fast Attack - 6 Screamers
• Heavy Support - Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (Soul Devourer, Bolt of Tzeentch)

For those who have seen my army previously, it should be noted that due to model sizes being a bit different in 5th edition, I used my Daemon Prince as a Lord of Change, and my Changeling as a Daemon Prince. I also totally forgot to deploy one of my units of Horrors, because I'm an idiot.

Mission & Deployment

We rolled up the Annihilation mission (which just meant killing each other's units, and Spearhead deployment, which meant opposite table quarters.

I got the first turn, but as the Daemons all arrive via deep strike in 5th edition, only Pete set anything up. Given that he didn't know where I'd be arriving, he castles up around a ruin, with his Terminators in the middle and his vehicles ready to push out round the table.

Turn One

As was totally predictable, when rolling to see which units were in my first wave, I rolled up the wrong half of my force. 

I also forgot that I didn't have to arrive in my deployment zone, however this turned out to be a beneficial error as deep strike usually leaves units vulnerable and the building in the middle of the table offered me protection.

With no targets to fire at, most of the Marines pushed forwards, unsure which way round the building the Daemons would come.

Daemons 0 - Marines 0

Turn Two

The Horrors and Flamers pushed around my left flank, whilst the Lord of Change and Screamers headed right. My aim was to use my greater mobility to split the Marines forces.

When the second wave arrived, I added the Herald and more Horrors to the attack on the left, and the combined firepower left several Tactical Marines dead and the Land Speeder unable to shoot.

The return fire was desultory (thanks in part to Daemon saves) and only saw a few Horrors killed. The star of the show was the Marine with the Plasma Cannon in the building who, during the course of the game managed to fire five times, rolling 'gets hot' three times, scattering away from the target once and failing to wound the only time he hit.

Meanwhile, the larger unit of Screamers dropped I'm behind the Imperial lines, aiming to both draw fire away from the main assault, and try to get the drop on a vehicle or two.

They did take fire, but only two of them fell, meaning they were ready to strike in the following turn.

The Deamon Prince came in alone and unleashed a Bolt of Tzeentch which destroyed the Rhino. The squad inside disembarked and unleashed a hail of fire which reduced him to half wounds.

Without someone to charge, the Terminators began to trek to where the Lord of Change was lurking, seeming to take my bait to pull them out of position.

However, the Librarian headed back towards the main line to lend his psychic might to weakening the saving throws of the Daemons.

Daemons 1 - Marines 0

Turn Three

The Daemons advanced, and having pulled the Terminators out of position, the Lord of Change switch back to the other flank. 

In retrospect, this was a mistake as the Terminators weren't that far away from the rest and the Lord of Change could have kept his distance and potentially tied them up for the rest of the game.

As it was, he'd got too close to the Librarian, who charged into combat determined to bring his Force Axe to bear.

Meanwhile, the Daemon horde unleashed Warpfire into the Tactical Marines on the crates, ultimately wiping them out.

Although the Landspeeder avoided destruction, it did have it's Assault Cannon destroyed rendering it less of a threat.

When the Marine did get to return fire, the Herald and one of the units of Horrors were obliterated, due in large part to the disruption the Librarian was causing with Daemonic saves.

Having avoided damage from Daemonic shooting, the Predator was set upon by the pack Screamers charging into its rear.

In 5th edition the only thing Screamers are good at is killing vehicles, so they made short work of it and the consolidated towards the Librarian.

This was another mistake as it allowed the Terminators to charge them and get back into the fight.

The Terminator Captain broke off to chase down the Daemon Prince, who was busy hacking his way through a Tactical Squad.

Daemons 3 - Marines 3

Turn Four

With the Terminators ready to run amok, the Daemons set about targeting weakened units and trying to limit the impact of the Imperial veterans.

The Flamers brought down the Land Speeder whilst the remaining unit of Screamers tried to prevent the Terminators getting to the Lord of Change.

Again, I wasn't thinking straight as all this did was given them an easy victory point.

In the main event, the Lord of Change and Librarian traded blows. The Librarian was struck and passed a leadership test to avoid having its soul devoured.

In return, the Force Axe struck and it's eldritch energy blasted the greater Daemon back into the warp.

Meanwhile, the Terminator Captain finally caught up with the Daemon Prince and destroyed it, but not before it finished off the Tactical Marines.

Daemons 5 - Marines 6

Turn Five

With the momentum very much in the Marines favour, the remaining Daemons began to back off, trying to avoid the rampaging Terminators.

Out of spite, the Pink Horrors unleashed a gout of Warpfire which consumed the heroic Librarian, but left them dangerously close to the Terminators, who caught the Daemons and obliterated them.

With a single Flamer left on the table, clearly intent on hiding, we decided to not bother with another turn and call the game there.

Daemons 6 - Marines 7

That was much closer than I expected, but I think the terrain really helped as when we did get close, I found the Daemons largely outgunned and outfought.

However, it was in movement that I lost this game, as I allowed the slower moving Terminators to catch my units, when I didn't have to.

Had I realised how much of a threat the Librarian was, I would have targeted him sooner, but really I presented the Terminators with two lots of Screamers which won Pete the game.

I think using Daemons in 5th edition will be a challenge, certainly more than in Horus Heresy, but it's not to lost cause that 10th edition is.

In other news I've been buying bits and pieces on eBay, which I'll talk about in another post.

Acquired: -61

Painted: 42

Lead Mountain: 554

Trial by Fire

When me nephew asked me if he could try a game of 'Warhammer', I resisted the urge to launch into a tirade about how 'Warhammer' is a brand name and not the hobby and went about setting up a game for him to try.

I settled on having a go at 10th edition 40k, which I'm no expert at, for several reasons:

• I'm slowly turning my attention back towards the newest version of the game thanks to taking part in the Tale of Four Gamers Badab War campaign run by Arbitor Ian's YouTube channel and there's a possibility I might even play in an event,
• I had two fully painted armies in easy reach along with reference cards taken from the free pdfs released at the launch of the new edition,
• He has some Age of Sigmar models and so the mechanics would be similar to what he might play with friends.

I picked two vaguely even (in theory) forces of Astral Claws and Tzeentch Daemons and set a very rudimentary battlefield using the mat I got with an issue of Mortal Realms magazine I'd picked up at some point.

My nephew took control of a Astral Claws patrol which included:

• Librarian (not the right model, but what I had a card for)
• Tactical Squad (with Flamer and Missile Launcher)
• Dreadnought (with Assault Cannon)

Meanwhile, I unleashed a swarm of Tzeentchian Daemons in the form of:

• Changecaster
• Exalted Flamer
• Pink Horrors
• Flamers

I got the initiative (which was useful for teaching him the sequence of events) and took the first turn, advancing my whole force and unleashing a veritable conflagration of magical flames to engulf the stalwart defenders of the Imperium.

It was at this point I remembered just how much more resilient a Librarian makes a Tactical Squad against pretty much everything in Tzeentch's arsenal.

However, the Librarian couldn't be everywhere, and so the Flamers were able to kill a Marine in the other combat squad.

An interesting element of this part of the game was recognising all the terms and concepts used around dice-rolling that needed explaining to someone who had zero experience of wargaming.

In my nephew's first turn he chose to advance and open fire. Sadly, both the Missile Launcher and the Dreadnought's Assault Cannon were ineffectual.

However, the Librarian's squad made up for this by blasting a chunk out of the Pink Horrors, and my nephew was somewhat shocked to see them turn into even more Blue Horrors.

On my second turn, I opted to charge in to hand to hand combat for three reasons:

1. I wanted him to see how that area of the game mechanics worked.
2. We were running out of time before we had to go out for dinner and this seemed a good way to speed things up.
3. I had forgotten just how rubbish Pink Horrors are in hand-to-hand combat.

The fight went about as well as you'd expect and by the end of it there was only a single Pink Horrors left standing, and quite a few more Blue Horrors.

Once again, the other flank was much more successful for the Daemons, with the Flamers killing another two Marines, although the ominous shape of the Dreadnought was lumbering in to view.

The fights continued, and despite the MN stones not rolling particularly well, the Horrors kept dying in droves.

And despite the Flamers finishing off the other combat squad, the Dreadnought charged into combat and began to chew his way through the Daemons.

At that point we had to leave it, but it was clear that the Marines had the edge as not only was the Librarian's squad pretty much immune to my army, there was very little chance of the Flamers hurting the Dreadnought.

My nephew had a fun game and asked if he could play again next time he visits, which is a success, and he is now looking up YouTube videos to learn the rules for himself. I'm tempted to give Age of Sigmar a try to get him to open up the models he acquired a couple of years ago.

Mission accomplished!

Incursion on Phargos Rex

Strike Master Ijax resentfully surveyed the slum quarter of Novia Quintus, the fifth city of Phargos Rex. He shouldn't be here. He should be coordinating the pursuit of the ragged collection of loyalist forces he'd trapped at Optera, but he'd been called back to Phargos Rex to deal with a new threat.

Cultists and insurgents were far from an unknown problem. Ever since the Ruinstorm, they'd been appearing all over the sector. Normally he'd let local forces put down the mob, but this one was different. An entire Militia regiment had disappeared and Ijax had decided to deploy the legion to send a message to the rebels and make a statement to the planetary governors that he could protect them, ensuring their loyalty.

He still had no clear intel on what he'd be facing and listened intently to the the vox traffic from the PDF units he had stationed ahead of his position. If the blood-curdling screams were any indication, they enemy, whatever they were, should be hitting his lines imminently.

For me, one of the real draws of the Horus Heresy is the opportunity to engage in a bit of narrative gaming, and so Pete and I have begun to set our games within the framework of a conflict called the Pale Stars Campaign.

Rather than explain the setting here, I'll just direct you to this handy article on the Lexicanium site, which should tell you everything you need to know.

Suffice to say that the campaign pits the Alpha Legion and the Blood Angels (our armies) against each other and includes appearances from other forces, including Daemons, Militia and Mechanicum (all of which we have or are working towards). What's more, there is very little detail about the actual conflict, which leaves things rather open for us.

 

Rather than having to work within a campaign system, were just going to use the Pale Stars as a backdrop of our campaign to provide a bit more of a narrative thrust.

In time this might involve choosing specific missions to reflect events or using the campaign system from the Siege of Cthonia book to determine the fate of a world, but for now we're keeping things simple.

In this game I was giving the new Daemons of the Ruinstorm PDF army list a run out against Pete's Alpha Legion, with the battle happening because a warp rift has opened on the defacto capital world of Phargos Rex, which also happens to be the seat of Alpha Legion power in the region.

The random scenario we rolled up was Onslaught, which seems appropriate as both sides are simply trying to slaughter the other.

Alpha Legion Strike Force

HQ

Praetor & 5 Cataphractii Terminators

Centurion

Elites

Lernaean Terminators Squad

Apothecarion Detachment

Contemptor Dreadnought Talon (X2)

Troops

4 Tactical Squads

Tactical Support Squad (Rotor Cannon)

Tactical Support Squad (Volkite Caliver)

Fast Attack

Sabre Tank Squadron (X2)

Headhunter Kill Team

Heavy Support

Leviathan Dreadnought

Heavy Support Squad (Heavy Bolter)

Heavy Support Squad (Missile Launcher)

Pete's army was infantry heavy and could put out a large amount of small arms fire, which should whittle down the smaller Daemons effectively, but might struggle with the bigger beasts.

Daemonic Incursion of Encroaching Ruin

HQ

Daemon Sovereign (Daemon Prince)

Daemon Heirarch (Blue Scribes)

Daemon Harbinger (Changeling)

Elites

6 Daemon Beasts (Flamers)

9 Daemon Beasts (Screamers)

Troops

10 Lesser Daemons (Pink Horrors)

10 Lesser Daemons (Pink Horrors)

14 Lesser Daemons (Blue Horrors)

5 Daemon Swarms (Brimstone Horrors)

Heavy Support

Daemon Behemoth (Flaming Chariot)

Lords of War

Arch-Daemon (Lord of Change)

For simplicity's sake, and to be fair to Pete, I tried my best to make each unit reflect the 40k unit as best I could. This would mean that Pete would be able to know roughly what each unit could do. It also gave me a chance to try out different rules and see what worked.

Deployment

The Search and Destroy deployment closed the gap between the forces, something my melee focused Daemons wanted to take advantage of, getting as close to the enemy as possible, whilst taking as much advantage of cover as I could due to Pete having first turn

Meanwhile the Alpha Legion stood off at mid-range, trying to balance their desire to keep the enemy at arm's length whilst also trying to work around Night Fighting being in effect.

Both armies warlord traits granted deployment shenanigans (which we alternated) which ultimately saw the Headhunters getting perilously close to their objective, whilst the Arch-Daemon and a unit of Lesser Daemons went back into reserve.

Alpha Legion Turn 1

Night Fighting being in effect meant that most of the traitor legionaries were not able to shoot, however the need to thin out the encroaching horde of Daemons saw the Dreadnoughts stomp forwards to get in range.

Meanwhile, the Sabre squadron raced around the flank and opened fire.

However, the combined fire of the few units in range was not able to make much of a dent, only managing to whittle down the smaller unit of Daemonic Beasts (the Flamers) to just two models.

Daemons Turn 1

The Deamons rushed out in all directions in order to make contact with the enemy and rip them limb from limb.

Not only do the Daemonic rules encourage this (they are stronger in the first two turns), but the Onslaught scenario rewards first turn kills with bonus victory points.

The Sovereign few directly towards the Sabres that had crept to far forwards, swinging its great blade in a sweeping arc that cut through both hulls in a single fluid movement.

The Behemoth raced in the direction of the Leviathan and was joined by a gargantuan figure striding out of a tear in realspace.

They crashed into the Dreadnought, tearing through its armour and leaving it struggling to stand on its ruined limbs.

The Headhunters suddenly found themselves swarmed by Daemons which darted towards them from all directions. A fogging of their minds prevented them from opening fire in response and they lived just long enough to regret getting so close.

Alpha Legion Turn 2

The first light of dawn broke to reveal a scene of devastation amongst the forward units, and the Alpha Legion set about pinning their fast moving enemy in place to buy time for their weight of fire to win out.

Bolters, Rotor Cannons, Missile Launchers and Lascannons lashed out, grazing the Sovereign and decimating the unit of  pink capering Daemons.

It was then time for the Terminators to move in.

The Lernaean Terminators moved to engage the Sovereign. Two of them fell to its fell blade but they held it in place, determined to prevent it wreaking havoc amongst their more lightly armed brethren.

Strike Master Ijax lead his honour guard forward to support the beleaguered Leviathan. Although they could not save the honoured ancient, they are least could set about avenging the fallen, and viscously hacked into the Behemoth.

Despite the successes of the Alpha Legion assault, the fall of the Leviathan left the Arch-Daemon free to attack where it pleased.

Daemons Turn 2

With a terrifying screech the Arch-Daemon took to the air and plunged deep into the Alpha Legion's lines, baring down on a Tactical Squad with murderous intent.

Another gibbering pack of Daemons tore it's way into reality and swarmed a Contemptor, seemingly intent on preventing it bringing it's guns to bear.

The venerable Leviathan was avenged when the Behemoth was brought down in a flurry of lightning claw blades, and to add to the traitors' relief, only one of the Lernaean Terminators fell to the Sovereign.

However the poor Tactical Squad was swept aside by the Arch-Daemon, which stride through the carnage looking for its next victims.

The Alpha Legion were thinning the enemy horde but we're losing men to the colossal threat of the Arch-Daemon, which they seemed unable to halt, whilst the fast moving creature that had torn apart the Headhunters now surged up in support.

Alpha Legion Turn 3

++For some unknown reason there was a hiatus in transmission of visual recordings at this point in the battle. This report has been compiled from the verbal accounts of this involved, many of whom reported hearing the phrase "Samus is here" repeated over their vox units.++

Small arms opened fire in the Arch-Daemon to very little effect as each wound seemed to heal up by itself.

The pink Daemons attacking the Contemptor were slaughtered by the assault if the Centurion and a squad of Tactical Marines.

A pack of blue Daemons was brought down by concentrated fire followed up by the bayonet charge of a Tactical Squad, although this cost almost half the unit.

Again the Lernaean Terminators managed to withstand the inaccurately swung blade of the Sovereign and prepared to sell their lives dearly when the gliding shapes of the Daemonic Beasts arrived.

Strike Master Ijax made directly for the robed figure that had been tearing holes in reality to disgorge more Daemons onto the battlefield.

Just like the Behemoth before it, the aberration was torn assumed by the Honour Guard's claws.

Daemons Turn 3

The remaining nightmare entities of the warp once again surged forwards, and although they seemed to be weaker than before, they were still able to inflict terrible damage upon their foes.

The Arch-Daemon ploughed into one of the Contemptor, hacking chunks out of it but not doing enough damage to bring it down.

The Marines that destroyed the blue Daemons were set upon, routed and run down by the swooping Hierarch.

The Sovereign finally cut down the brave Lernaean Terminators and surrounded by a pack of Beasts was now ready to rejoin the attack.

However, there was a sudden rippling of realspace, a blurring of existence flooded by a blinding flash of nothingness. When Strike Master Ijax's vision returned, the Daemonic creatures had all gone, leaving only carnage in their wake.

Final Result

We had to call the game early due to real world issues and at that point the Daemons were winning 2-0 thanks to the two units they had destroyed on the first turn.

We tried to count up what might happen, but with the destroyed units tally even it was hard to call what would happen, as I was running out of units to by killed or kill things with. We figured the honours would probably stay even on this point and it appeared that my Lord of War would now survive as there was very little left that could hurt it.

What would decide the battle was whether either of us could kill the other's warlord. Although concentrated small arms fire could bring down my sovereign, it was unlikely, and with his immaterial wings he could quite easily get the hell out of dodge if necessary. Again we reasoned that honours would stay even.

And so, unless there was a dramatic turn in Pete's favour we decided that it was a very closely fought Daemonic victory.

Aftermath

We both really enjoyed the game and the Daemons really bought a different feel to the game as they are so fast and savage. The larger Daemons felt like the powerhouses the should be whilst the smaller ones were reliant on swarming yo get anything done.

I'll be making some changes to my list based on this first battle (mainly taking out the useless ranged weapons) before giving them another run out.

In terms of the campaign, the Alpha Legion have had a pyrrhic victory, holding the line but losing valuable men and resources. The sudden appearance and disappearance of the threat means they won't be able to fully engage with the loyalists at large in the sector.

The breathing space this attack has bought has allowed the Blood Angels 121st Company to find safe haven at Fief 771/38/qz, informally known as Crow's World, a recruiting world for the Raven Guard which had been desperate to throw off the shackles of traitor rule. The Blood Angels have also been given access to hidden supply dumps and armouries which will better furnish them for the coming conflict.

I think this is how we'll run things, a battle or campaign will allow the victor to dictate an event that happens in the wider sector and so drive the narrative.

Additionally, the winner will select the next conflict (although I'll have to check this with Pete) and so I think we might try a Blood Angels assault on a traitor held planet using the so Onslaught campaign system from the Siege of Cthonia book - which will be a linked series of games.

I'd better get painting as I'm still not at 3000 points.