#HeroQuest2019: Game on!

My quest to completely assemble and paint my vintage HeroQuest set has taken over much of my hobby time this year, as some of you may have noticed, but last week, the time had finally come to give the finished game set an actual spin.

Now for those of you who are not that much into HeroQuest – or who don’t even remember the days of yore when the game was first released – this may all seem a bit eggheaded and not all that interesting, for which I apologise. It has to be said, however, in terms of my personal hobby voyage, for lack of a better word, that this has really been a moment thirty years in the making, and that to be able to play a game of HeroQuest (with the full rules, no less) with a fully painted set that I have managed to complete myself does feel like a rather huge achievement.

Anyway, without further preamble, let’s get into the meat of this post: Annie and T. were awesome enough to join me for this special game night (cheers for that, guys!), and we decided to play a one-off game (at least for now), using the first quest from the second edition Quest book called “The Trial”

The quest is actually not entirely unproblematic as a starting point, because it’s much tougher than “The Labyrinth”, the beginners’ quest from the 1st edition of the quest book. While “The Labyrinth” features nothing tougher than a bunch of greenskins, “The Trial” pulls out all the stops and features just about every monster within the HeroQuest box, the dreaded Gargoyle included. However, this also makes it the perfect showcase game for HeroQuest, as it uses all of the monsters (and of the furniture) — what better way to make the most of my completely painted set, eh?

So I made some very small tweaks to the quest (including a house rule for searching rooms and added wandering monsters) and we were off: Annie and T. chose to play two heroes each, with Annie taking control of Tonriel Silkspinner (the Elf) and Braband the Fierce (The Barbarian), whereas T. would play Thorin (the Dwarf, obviously 😉 ) and Garo von Stein (the Wizard).

These four brave adventurers would boldly enter the catacombs of Verag the Gargoyle, slaying vile creatures and discovering priceless treasures along the way…

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, so let’s start at the beginning: Our journey started, as every journey does, with a first step:

The plot quickly thickened, however, as the heroes ventured out from their starting room, encountering the dungeon’s first denizens:

And they kept getting in more trouble by opening additional doors — just as planned 😉

Even at this early point, a streak of bad dice rolls already reared its ugly head, so the fights against the first couple of greenskins turned out to be more troublesome than expected. Little did the heroes know, however, of the monstrous legions arrayed against them:

For now, both the exploration and the fighting continued — and the first treasure chest was uncovered!

Braband the Fierce added another bead to his string of disappointments, however, when he discovered the chest he had fought so hard to reach turned out to be empty.

Thorin, on the other hand, needed some alone time and took a walk around the centre room of the dungeon.

…before coming to Tonriel’s assistance, since the elf had managed to disturb some more denizens of the dungeon.

Exploration moved to the upper left corner of the board — very much the home of a couple of undead horrors and of one of the quest’s “minibosses”, as it were.

Our heroes yet remained oblivious to this fact, but they were at least smart enough to team up before advancing further (and Braband even got in a second, more successful, attempt at emptying a treasure chest of its contents):

There was a collective intake of breath around the table as the fell guardian of Fellmarg’s tomb arose from his long slumber…

…only to be instantly KO’ed by a well-placed Genie spell:

Strangely fitting for a mummy champion to be knocked out by a Genie, come to think of it… Anyway, it may have been a short guest appearance, but the creation of a custom model was still totally worth it 😉

Shortly afterwards, Braband and Tonriel were hard at work running into yet more trouble a couple of rooms further down. And thanks to a spectacularly unfortunate dice results, the lowly Orc pictured below turned out to be much more resilient than he should have been — once again, that is…

Here’s a look at my fortress of evil as seen from the players’ perspective…

And here’s a look at Annie’s side of the table: Her experience with RPG groups and deck-building games is clearly evident in the efficient way she organised her materials… (just compare it to the utter chaos behind my GM viewscreen…):

In any case, the heroes had learned their lesson, electing to form a neat conga line for their further exploration of the environment.

Returning to the centre of the catacombs for what seemed like this quest’s inevitable showdown…

But wait, had our heroes managed to overlook a room towards the bottom of the board? “Come hither, Braband!”, called Tonriel, “’tis probably just more greenskin vermin in this room!”

“Oh sh….!”

The two chaos warriors and Fimir were vanquished, but not without taking a toll on the heroes’ HP: In fact, things were looking pretty dire at this point, with all heroes down to their last couple of HP and all healing spells and potions already used up.

So it was at the worst possible moment that the foul Verag’s lair was revealed:

But our heroes were nothing if not unconventional in their problem solving: Garo von Stein jumped right into the fray, as you would expect from someone with only one defense dice and only three more hitpoints to his name.

His audacity paid off, however, as Verag was instantly slain by a well placed Ball of Flame — while some of the heroes actions were slightly eccentric (bordering on idiotic), I have to admit they really made the best possible use of their offensive spells against dangerous targets!

Unfortunately, his advance had put the Wizard into a bit of a fix:

But he managed to dodge a full round of attacks, right in time for Braband and Tonriel to show up as backup and provide him with a clear route for a strategic escape.

It was a close call, but in the end, our heroes prevailed:

In fact, Thorin the Dwarf even chose to celebrate the occasion by dancing on the table — a bit rich, really, considering his less than stellar combat performance…

But in spite of everything, the heroes were victorious! They did manage to win by the skin of their teeth, though: One more round of combat could have produced the first hero casualties. For this reason, the heroes didn’t perform any further searching in the rooms that were left, but chose to end the quest then and there.

In all fairness, however, they did manage to vanquish quite a few monsters along the way:

So yeah, that was my first HeroQuest game in a long time — and definitely the first game using a fully painted set. So how does it hold up?

We actually had a blast, but then we’ve all grown up with HeroQuest, seeing the game as a bit of a gateway drug into the hobby. So there’s at least some nostalgia involved. There were many legitimately great moments, though: the surgical obliteration of the quest’s two most dangerous creatures by magic, for instance. Or Thorin’s inability to score a single hit on a consecutive five or six rounds: T. just didn’t roll a single skull, to his mounting frustration. On the other hand, the same skill also made him defend lots of damage when it really counted, keeping him alive longer than should have been possible:

“If you are defending, that’s an excellent result. If you are trying to kill something, not so much…”

But the fact remains that the game worked really, really well, in spite of being 30 years old. Granted, it was ever so slightly clunky in places and lacked some of the quality of life features we are all used to from more modern games — both of these problems were ameliorated by the fact that we were still (re)learning the ropes while playing, however, and so we were happy enough to be able to grasp the rules in a speedy fashion: They are really straightforward and robust enough to let you dive right into the game!

Thanks must also go to Annie and T. for indulging me in this venture. We had great fun, and to be able to serve as the evil dungeon master using my own toys again was a lovely, nostalgic moment — one that I hope we’ll be able to repeat sooner rather than later.

But that is a story for another time! For now, everything goes back into the box:

Before we tune out for today, however, let me say that I would love to hear any thoughts, feedback – or, indeed, old HeroQuest war stories – that you may have! Please feel free to leave me a comment below!

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Orkheim Ultraz: Da first game…

So with the initial team members for the Orkheim Ultraz converted and painted, it was time to face my first opponent on the lawn. Unfortunately, I had virtually zero knowledge of the actual rules — certainlynot a perfect state of affairs!

Fortunately enough, my colleague Annie and her husband Mike kindly agreed to show me the ropes, so the Orkheim Ultraz were ready for their first actual game. Here they are, already on the pitch (with a cheeky Saurian having managed to sneak into the background…):

And here are their opponents: The Moorfleet Eerdlöpers un Krüpers, Annie’s and Mike’s beautifully painted Lustria team:

The first step was for Annie and Mike to slowly talk me through the basic rules. I am particularly slow on the uptake when it comes to learning tabletop rules, yet I found the Blood Bowl rules to be pleasantly compact. That didn’t mean that I understood everything from the get go, but they did everything they could to make things easier for me: Mike would play against me, while Annie served as an aide-de-camp of sorts to myself (which was really a good thing for the moments when it all became a bit much…).

Anyway, here’s what things looked like at the start of the game:

Lustria had the kickoff, so some of my more nimble players hung around my backfield, ready to take possession of the ball, should it come flying their way, while my Black Orcs and Blitzers were entrenched at the line of scrimmage, awaiting the saurian assault.

The ball landed far in my backfield, right next to my thrower — what a lucky coincidence, right? Unfortunately, the one guy in my team actually handy with a ball failed to pick it up right at the start. And I quickly found out that those small Skinks are really fast. Ouch!

Nevertheless, I managed to take possession of the ball on my second turn, even passing it to one of my linemen who then started to advance down the field, his Saurian pursuers hot on his heels. Meanwhile, all my Black Orcs were doing was to be knocked on their asses again and again by Mike’s Kroxigor — hence “Blockers”, I suppose.

After some back and forth (and quite a few Orks keeling over due to a pummeling in true Lustrian fashion), one of my Blitzers was in possession of the ball, and thinks were looking pretty good:

But, once again, a gang of saurians surrounded him and beat him to a pulp. One of the lizards was then attacked by one of my players in turn, sending the ball spinning into Mike’s backfield. And, right enough, one of his speedy little Skinks broke off from the hubbub at the line of scrimmage to take possession of the ball. Mike gave it his all to move the Skink as far as he could, and things were looking pretty bad for me, but then the Skink failed a sprinting roll and tripped over his own feet:

That left Mike with only a Saurus in his backfield to try and take back the ball. Yet one of my Linemen – actually the unassuming last model I painted – danced around the Saurus (insofar as the verb “dance” can be applied to an Orc) courtesy of a number of lucky dice rolls, picked up the ball and advanced towards the touchdown zone:

I had to pass one last sprinting throw to make a touchdown. I rolled the die — and passed. Touchdown!

In my joy, I didn’t even realise that we should normally have played at least another half, so Mike would probably have handed my ass to me after all. But I think this first little game worked as a rather nice introduction to Blood Bowl for me.

Regarding the game itself, I found it pretty fast and pleasantly tactical. And it was certainly a relief to encounter a tabletop game where setting up didn’t become a game of its own (as can happen in larger games of 40k). One thing that took some getting used to was the frequency at which models kept getting knocked down and getting back up: In my native 40k, once a model is down, it’s down for good. Blood Bowl seems to be much more about models bouncing back. It’s certainly fun, though! I can easily see myself taking the game for another spin!

Oh, and the fact that both “armies” were fully painted was a huge boon as well. With only about a dozen models per side, getting it all painted is of course a much less daunting prospect. Still, playing with a fully painted set of models is always the best possible option, and it’s great that we were able to do that!

We also found out that, by sheer coincidence, I had managed to build some of my Orc models to be perfectly compatible with the ball:

So, in closing, it has been a fun first outing for the Orkheim Ultraz. More to follow, I hope! Let me wind up this post by showing you Mike’s and Annie’s Slann trainer: He may not be 100% finished, but never has a cap looked so good on a reptile, I’ll wager 😉

So, many thanks to Mike and Annie for taking the time to show me the ropes and being such gracious hosts! And, as always, thanks to you for looking and stay tuned for more!

Meanwhile, aboard the Arrke… pt.2

It’s been almost a week since the last game set aboard the Arrke, and a huge cache of delicious information about the event has since turned up on the net. So like I promised, let’s take another look at this strange and demented world, and let me finally show you my dear Legion in action:

I’ll be honest with you: After having sent the model to England, I was of course dying to know how it would all play out: Would Legion fit the overall aesthetics of the game? Would he blend in well with Neil’s fantastic board? Would John Blanche and all those other talented guys like the model?

And then I checked my e-mail account on Saturday, to discover that none other than John Blanche himself had sent me a snapshot of Legion in action:

Look at you, Hacker! …no, wait, wrong game!

I really couldn’t have been any happier! And I am only a little ashamed to admit that I spent quite a while during that afternoon repeatedly pressing F5, in order to see whether there were any news from the Arrke. And, indeed, John was good enough to send me multiple pictures during the game. Thanks so much, JB!

By all accounts, it must have been a fantastic event! And now that lots and lots of pictures from the event have started turning up, everybody can see the glory of it all: The amount of crazy modelling and painting talent on display was stupenduous. And what’s more, PDH somehow managed to weave it all into one game and one narrative, even though it must have been a pretty busy afternoon aboard the Arrke.

Anyway, let’s take a look at some more photos of our favourite insane AdMech monstrosity, shall we? All of the following pictures were very kindly provided by Neil101, by the way.

Legion emerging from the Arrke’s dark nooks and crannies. Check out that fantastic, flaking paint on the wall in the background!

Some time later, Legion is gazing across the derelict and rusty halls of the Myth Shippe from a lofty vantage point.

And finally, having arrived at the banks of the vile Sump, Legion casts a contemplative glance across the frothing waters — awfully introspective for a biomechanic monstrosity, isn’t he?

I really love how the Cult of the True Journey’s sniper seems to be drawing a bead on Legion in this picture

And finally, what has to be my favourite picture of Legion to date, taken by Fulgrim:

As you can see, Legion does indeed look like he’s emerging from the very underbelly of the Arrke itself. I am very pleased that I managed to achieve that!

So what about all the other amazing models? Though I would like dearly to post them, I won’t do that. Not in order to keep all the glory for myself, mind you: I think you should really head over to the other guys’ respective blogs to check out what they have to say about their marvelous creations! And don’t fret, I’ll provide a handy list of links for your perusal. You ABSOLUTELY need to check out this stuff! Seriously!

To begin, Fulgrim has started a brilliant writeup of the event, introducing all the different gangs and walking us through the narrative (with lots of pretty pictures):

Arrke retour

Part I
Part II
Part III

I imagine the series will be running for the rest of the week. And I, for one, can’t wait to read more of this stuff!

 

Then there’s JRN’s Sump Huntress Hanin. A class act, as usual!

 

The Spiky Rat Pack don’t disappoint either, with Kari posting his brilliant Stryderre, complete with sinister poetry, and Mikko’s Living Coffin following hot on his heels.

 

And finally, be sure to check out PDH’s Yggdrassillium threads at Dakka and the Ammobunker. Again, lots of pretty pictures and well deserved awe.

And while you’re there, don’t forget leaving a nice word or two for PDH himself: It only becomes clear now what a spectacular job he has managed to pull off with this: Models from several countries, lots and lots of characters, and he even had to GM the whole thing. The mind boggles!

 

So, once again, a million thank yous to everyone involved! It’s been a pleasure, and I have certainly never had so much fun with an event without even being present 😉

To wind up this post, just because I can, let me share a picture of Neil’s spectacular Arrke board:

The only question is: How are we ever going to surpass this? 😉

In any case, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

The campaign trail

Right in time for the release of the Crusade of Fire book, I noticed quite a few people mouthing off on the forums how campaigns and narrative gaming were basically a waste of time. Now while I may not have years and years of gaming experience under my belt, I feel I would still like to present the other side to that argument.

Instead of talking about GW’s new campaign book, though, let’s rather take a general look at what narrative gaming can do for you:

One of the criticisms leveled at narrative gaming in general and campaigns in particular tends to be that both can end up feeling rather gimmicky: After all, all the special rules and setpieces can make for a rather unbalanced gaming experience, right? But does it really take all those special rules in the first place in order to have a narrative experience? Case in point: The small campaign I have been running for quite a while now with cousin Andy and a couple of his buddies:

Haestia Primaris’ Mardias subcontinent – the stage for our campaign

The campaign is set on the world of Haestia Primaris, in the Segmentum Pacificus. The planet has been isolated from much of the rest of the Imperium of Man by the warp storm Maluriel for some fifty years, and it has taken all the power of the authorities to keep the planetary population in line in the face of adversity. Now the storm is over, but what should be a joyous occasion for the people of Haestia Primaris takes a turn for the worse as several sinister forces arrive to lay claim to the undefended world.

This was all the background we needed for having all kinds of battles involving our different armies, although I decided to add some smaller narrative hooks, in case anyone wanted them: The Craftworld Eldar are trying to retrieve an ancient artifact of their race from Haestia Primaris (known to them as Y’lanth’Ine, a former jewel in the crown of their galaxy spanning empire). The Dark Eldar originally desired nothing more than to prey on the planetary population, but find themselves forced into an uneasy alliance with their Craftworld kin when the warriors of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt try to capture the artifact as a worthy prey and tribute to their god. And during all of this, dark things walk the jungles of Candolfus: Is a Daemon invasion inevitable?

We devised a fairly simple set of campaign rules, based on moves on a hex grid. Occupying certain grids bestows smaller buffs to the controlling army. Whenever two (or more) players try to occupy the same grid, there’s a battle. Pretty simple, really. We have also been using the experience system for campaigns from the 5th edition rulebook so far, to show how certain units tend to get stronger over time.

our campaign map halfway through turn three. The green arrows mark games that have yet to be played.

Indeed, the setup doesn’t seem all that sophisticated. But that actually works in our favour: Running a campaign with many players and maintaining a tightly paced narrative may be fantastic, but it is also an enormous challenge. As soon as more than two people are involved, things tend to get complicated rather quickly. And so many a campaign have been running for years and years, without any conclusion in sight. Frustrating, right?

Not necessarily: Our own campaign has been tottering on for more than a year now, with only half a dozen games played so far. But since we are taking a very laidback approach to the whole thing, it’s not that much of a problem. Indeed, we are trying to leave out all the stressful parts (micromanaging the participants’ schedules, writing angry e-mails back and forth,…) and just run the odd game every once in a while. Whenever we do play, however, the game can easily be slotted into the running campaign. After all, the campaign is there as a tool for making games more enjoyable, not as something that should stress us out more than a regular day job.

The games themselves can be as standard or elaborate as we want them to be. But due to the background, all kinds of narrative hooks start presenting themselves, even during the most pedestrian battles. For instance, when three of us were coincidentally vying for control of the same hex, we devised a battle where a coalition of Eldar and Dark Eldar would defend a priceless Eldar artifact against the World Eaters’ fourth assault company (the battle report can be found here).

The forces of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt and a mixed Eldar force, duking it out at the Y’lanth’Ine basin

When that game ended in a draw (due to a pretty stupid tactical oversight on my part), the next game was all about the angry Chaos Lord Charun trying to get his revenge on the Xenos filth. When I lost that game, it made me think about how this outcome would affect the officer in charge, and once again, the narrative continued…

All of this not only provided more context for our games, but also transformed some of my models from mere playing pieces into veritable characters: I don’t think I would never have come up with such elaborate backstories for Huntmasters Bardolf and Charun and for their simmering rivalry, if not for the campaign.

Huntmaster Bardolf. He and his fellow officer Charun have really come into their own as characters.

Consequently, I have started to conceive my models with at least one eye firmly on their background at all times, creating a collection of characters worthy of a millennia-old Traitor legion. And using them in consecutive games has made me think what their interactions with one another may look like when they are off the battlefield. And you really start growing fond of your little guys, too: For example, I’ll never forget how Skull Champion Bruul lobbed a grenade at an Eldar tank, blowing the damned thing sky high in the process — truly a moment worth remembering!

And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg: Playing narratively will also give you all kinds of cool ideas along the way: At one point I decided to build a custom objective marker for each army I defeat during the campaign. While this makes for a fun hobby project, it’s also a great way of injecting more character into your army and of interacting with other players.

Custom objective markers: a fun way to honour (or ridicule) your opponent

Or you could start to convert your squads to reflect their triumphs, adding trophies or killmarks to the models. Or give some more character to your squad leaders and generals. Granted, you should probably do that anyway, but it feels more satisfying if those additions are actually the consequence of something that happened during a game (or a string of games, for that matter).

All of this is not exactly rocket science, of course: It is certainly possible to have far more involved, narrative campaigns than ours, or more spectacular setpieces for single games. But even a small, laidback campaign is far more rewarding than basically just rolling dice all day to see who ends up with more sixes.

All in all, narrative gaming gives your games a sense of context and consequence. It offers all kinds of cool hobby opportunities. And it can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be. So what are you waiting for?

Do you have any remarks on narrative gaming and campaigns you’d like to share? I’d be glad to hear them in the comments section!

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Charun’s Folly – another battle report of sorts

The sky was iron grey. The coming storm painted the lush green plains in an evil green, its hue almost neon. Memnar and Bruul were standing at the front of the World Eaters’ force, looking down into the valley basin that would form the stage for today’s battle.

“Almost like an arena, eh brother?” Bruul asked.

“Aye, and we know well how to fight in those.” Memnar looked at the sky: “This weather is ill news, though. It’ll be a downpour before long”

“Don’t tell me a Huntsman of the 4th is afraid of a few drops?”

“Visibility will be poor. The ground will turn into mud. But the water is the least of our concerns, to be sure.” Memnar pointed at the advancing enemy force, visible to the south: “Something is different.”

Bruul nodded. This was not what they had expected. The Xenos were advancing, seemingly to meet the World Eaters head on. This was uncommon. And their lines seemed different too. Instead of fast skimmers and the lithe forms of the Eldar warriors, they could make out huge, misshapen creatures, like nightmares become flesh.

Suddenly thunder growled in the distance and jagged lightning danced across the sky. The first drops of rain were quick to follow.

“It begins.”     

Suddenly, there was some unrest among the legionnaires at their back. Bruul and Memnar turned around to see Lord Charun marching through the ranks and appearing at the front line. There was murder in his eyes.

“Hunters of the 4th assault company”, he roared, “we march into battle today to reclaim our pride.”

“He must mean his own pride”, Bruul muttered under his breath. “I don’t recall losing mine.”

“It seems the enemy wants to meet us head on”, Charun continued. “By all means, let us grant their wish! No one can hope to defeat the World Eaters at close quarters!”

A cheer went up around them, but  Bruul and Memnar just looked at each other knowingly. It was happening again.

The rain had intensified, battering down in huge sheets of water now. Memnar cleared his throat and spoke up:

“My lord, these Xenos are devious. It seems strange that they would move to meet us in the open. Something is amiss here. Maybe we should…”

His voice faltered when Charun turned to face him. In three short steps, he had reached Memnar. Charun’s teeth were bared, and there was something horrifyingly feral in the Huntmaster’s eyes.

“Stand down, Hunter!”, he hissed, “Stand down or stand back! Either way, I will have my hunt. I will have my revenge. Be careful, lest you end up as the first kill this day.”

Memnar stared back for a moment, then bowed his head. “I did not mean to presume, my lord. Lead the way.”

Charun’s eyes were slits now. “I shall, hunter. Khorne knows I shall.” He marched past Memnar to the front of the lines.

Charun drew his nightmare weapon. Its azure glow bathing him in a ghostly glare. The rain was falling heavily now, but it instantly evaporated where it hit the daemonsword’s blade.

“Looks like there are two daemons on the battlefield this day.” Bruul muttered.

“Aye, and it’s the unbound one that scares me.” Memnar gazed at Charun for a moment longer. Then he put on his helmet. “Take care brother, lest you become the prey.”

“And you.” Bruul answered. Their respective squads fell into formation behind them.

“Harriers, with me!”, Charun roared, “Hunters, show the enemy no mercy. Give no quarter. TEAR. THEM. APART!”

***

If only it had been that easy… But I am getting ahead of myself! So first things first: Let me start with a warning, perhaps: This post will be rather wordy, so if you like your blogging brief and succinct, you might be better served elsewhere.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the next game in our ongoing campaign for the fate of the Haestia system. This time, it was cousin Andy’s Dark Eldar against my World Eaters again. We played at 1.000 points per side and, very true to the piece of background above, decided on annihilation as the mission type.

1000 points were admittedly a bit of a tight fit for me, but I managed to take along two squads of eight Berzerkers in Rhinos, one fully kitted out squad of eight Raptors, one Chaos Dreadnought for heavy fire support and, of course, Lord Charun who would join the Raptors.

Cousin Andy’s army was a combination of fast and deadly (the usual fast skimmers with a dash of firepower) and slow and deadly (two Chronoi and a squad of Grotestques, the latter one accompanied by Urien Rakarth). His troop choices were a rather small unit of Kabalite warriors and a bigger unit of Wracks. Also, we once again had the opportunity of using the FLGS’s amazing terrain:

The table at the beginning of the game. It all went downhill from here…

After deploying our troops, we rolled for first turn and cousin Andy came out on top. Things didn’t get too ugly for me (yet), though: His attempts to destroy my Rhinos failed, and he spent most time maneuvring his models through the narrow space between two ruins.
When my turn came up, I was still a little unsure about how to proceed: My Rhinos moved towards the enemy at full speed, of course, but my Raptors were in a bit of a fix: Everything they could have hurt was hidden away in transports, while everything that wasn’t in transport looked like bad news. In true World Eaters fashion, I didn’t think things through and advanced on the Grotesques, hoping to rough them up a bit during the shooting phase. On the right flank, my Dread missed to hurt anything with his Autocannon, but at least he didn’t flip out and shoot at my own people.

I should have known in advance that these guys were trouble. Just look at them!

When cousin Andy’s turn came up, things started to get rather unpleasant for me: Following the law of nature that the most recently painted model will always be taken out of the game first, Khoron the Undying was instantly destroyed when cousin Andy’s Ravager took a pot shot at him. “The Undying” indeed…

One of my Rhinos was immobilised, leaving the Berzerkers riding in it stranded pretty far away from where they actually needed to be. On the right flank, my other squad of Berzerkers was approached by the skimmer carrying the Wracks: this looked like a nice occasion for combat, so I decided to disembark the squad and prepare for battle.

My Raptors and Andy’s Grotesques soon found themselves locked in combat. At last, the workface of battle! But even though my brave World Eaters dished out quite a lot of damage, the Grotesques just rolled with the punches: not really a surprise at three wounds per model. Cousin Andy also had all kinds of evil gadgets in place to neutralise my attacks. At least the Grotesques didn’t do that much damage, but the overall result was still a little underwhelming, to say the least.

Charun and his Harriers rushing into the thick of it…

Things did pick up a bit in my next turn, when the Berzerkers on the left flank managed to immobilise and stun Andy’s venom. And while the combat between Charun’s Raptors and the Grotesques continued to be a rather grueling affair, the World Eaters actually managed to cause enough damage for the monsters to run away. Keep in mind, though, that none of them had yet been killed by my valiant legionnaires…

On the right flank, things also didn’t look all that promising, because the Wracks turned out to be quite a damage sponge as well.

…and coming face to face with cousin Andy’s Grotesques

When it was cousin Andy’s turn again, things really began to go south for me: On the left flank, a Chronos attacked my Berzerker squad, showering them with all kinds of corrosive liquids. Let me tell you this: Template weapons can be very bad news…

In the center, the Grotesques had managed to pull themselves together once more, so the battle continued. And my once proud Raptor squad started to melt away like a snowball on a particularly warm day in hell. Things didn’t look any better on my right, with the Wracks slowly chewing through my second Berzerker squad.

All of this wasn’t helped by the fact that I played with the strategic farsight of a chimpanzee on fire, making all kinds of tactical blunders and stupid decisions. This game was coming to an end, and it was not going to be a happy one…

A couple of minutes after this picture was taken, I started removing my models from the table by the boatload.

The top of turn three saw my army completely annihilated — not a single model was left. One of my Rhinos and a lone Skull Champion had been the last to go, vapourised by shots from Andy’s Ravager and a bazillion of shots from the Kabalite Warriors, respectively.

The day was lost. And probably in the worst possible way. To add insult to injury, let me just show you the models I actually did manage to take out. Take a look:

I managed to take out TWO models all in all. I had also done all kinds of damage to cousin Andy’s vehicles and dealt a ton of damage to his grotesques, but in the end, those two up there were actually all I actually managed to kill. Quite an achievement for an army that’s supposedly great in close quarters combat…

I have to give it to cousin Andy though: He managed to be quite a gentleman about it. Mabe he was a little too gleeful for my taste when rolling about 25 dice to shoot at my last man standing, but I won’t hold it against him.

The day’s work done, cousin Andy’s abomination takes a moment to catch some rays.

Without a doubt, I had been pounded into the ground. The World Eaters had lost a hex on the campaign map. Unfortunately, this also meant that I would have 50 points less to buy equipment during the next phase of our campaign. But for the time being, this was far outweighed by the feeling of utter defeat…

Dark Eldar troops securing ruins in the Y’lanth’Ine basin after driving back the 4th assault company

Well, that was a bit of a disaster, wasn’t it? Looks like Charun has a lot to answer for. Speaking of which…

***

The spaceport’s tactical control center had been converted to serve as the 4th assault company’s command post for the Haestia campaign. A projection of the Mardias subcontinent was hanging in the middle of the room, casting a sickly green light on the attendees. The Huntmasters and their commanding officers were standing around in loose groups, conversing in hushed voices as they waited for Lord Lorimar.

Bardolf looked around. The amount of officers was astonishing. It seemed that much of the company had been assembled by now. The campaign was proving to be a challenge, but the World Eaters would rise to it.

“It has been some time, Bardolf.”

The voice was impossibly deep and metallic. Like it came from an iron grave. In a way, it did. Bardolf turned around to face Khoron the Undying. The Dreadnought’s huge frame was imposing, even for a warrior of the fourth. Bardolf had to look up to direct his gaze at the face Khoron had been wearing for the last millennia: a brass mask, wrought in the shape of a skull. Bardolf bowed his head respectfully.

“Well met, older brother. Indeed, it has been too long.” He looked up again. “I did not realise that you had made planetfall already.”

Khoron laughed. The sound recalled sheets of metal grinding against each other. A strange sound for a Dreadnought. Khoron took a step forward and Bardolf could see fresh damage on his armoured form. “Oh, I have been here for a while. As a matter of fact, I was quite honoured to accompany our brother Charun on his latest …sortie.”

“And quite a sortie it was”, came a new voice. Bardolf turned around to face the new arrival. It belonged to Hokar, Lorimar’s Master of the Guard. His Terminator armour was exquisitely crafted,  forming a cowl in the shape of a snarling skull that cast a shadow over his pale features. His expression was utterly inscrutable. Nothing new there.

“I salute you, hunter”, Bardolf addressed him, “I thought you were campaigning in the Diammar sector.”

Hokar’s eyes were like shards of volcanic glass. “Indeed I was. But your inability to keep our brother Charun in check managed to end my hunt somewhat…prematurely. Or did you think our Lord Lorimar brought the majority of the company here for a spot of hiking?”

Bardolf let the slight pass without comment. “What of the first hunter?”

Hokar let out a sigh: “Skarn is hunting to the south. He has set his sights on the secondary Hive.”

Bardolf shook his head: “There is nothing there. The Hive has become a necropolis.”

“Then he shall find enough skulls at least.”, came a booming voice. Deracin joined them, the bionic implants that covered his scarred head glinting in the green half-light.

Bardolf looked at the Keeper of the Forge: “I am glad to see you are well, brother.”

Deracin guffawed: “I was a lot better when you didn’t get my Daemon Engines all shot up, Bardolf. See if I grant you any heavy fire support again.” But there was a glint of humour in his eyes.

Bardolf indulged him: “Grant it to Skarn, then. Maybe he has need of firepower, conquering that boneyard.”

“First hunter Skarn is scouting out the enemies’ defense at my behest.” The voice was not loud, but commanded instant attention.
Nobody knelt when Lorimar entered. To kneel was to be a slave, and no member of the World Eaters legion would ever be a slave again. At least, not to any mortal. But the Huntmasters bowed their heads in unison as their lord marched to the center of the cavernous chamber. His personal guard spread out around him in a wide circle, their only sound the soft scraping of their heavy armour.

“I salute you, hunters.”

Hokar addressed him: “We welcome you, Master of the Hunt. The council is assembled.”

Lorimar looked at each of them in turn. “I have called you here to discuss our strategy. This hunt has proven to be more challenging than we expected.”

“Aye, the hunters in charge do seem rather …challenged to me”, Deracin smirked. Bardolf noticed Charun in the distance, his face twisting into a sneer. He shot a sideways glance at Deracin and stepped forward.

“The Eldar have been a resourceful opponent thus far. We have begun to suspect that they are guarding something very important to their race. Some kind of artifact. This is the fulcrum on which their morale is turning. Take the artifact, and you break their resistance.” He glanced at Charun: “Unfortunately, a number of dubious tactical decisions have seen us defeated time and again, and the artifact has eluded us. We were rash where we should have been more cautious.”

Charun stepped forward as well, staring at Bardolf: “Your overcautious ways ill befit an officer of the XIIth Astartes legion, brother”

“As does your stupidity”, Bardolf replied.

“Since when is it stupid to do battle? It is what we live for!”

Bardolf felt his anger rising. “It is always foolish to pick battles you cannot hope to win. If you continue, your rope will have more black twists than red ‘ere long. Can you not feel it, Charun? The dirt of Mardias in your wounds, chafing against the inside of your armour?”

“The loss of the artifact was not my fault. The Eldar used vile sorcery.”

“Indeed”, Deracin growled, “whoever could have suspected that the Eldar would stoop so low as to use witchraft?” That earned him a number of low chuckles. Before Charun could turn to face him, Huntmaster Bafram spoke up:

“It seems that we should be sorry for actually doing battle instead of only sitting within our walls now. If so, I may have to go around making excuses to my prey before long, eh Bardolf?” There was a murmur of consenting voices, and Bardolf felt himself growing tense. Charun may have been a madman, but he was not without support within the company. Bardolf spoke again:

“We are hunters, not beasts. What we hunt, we take down. That is our way. It has always been our way. What of a hunter who forgets that, I ask? Can he be called a hunter at all? Or has he become something different?”

There was something dangerous in Charun’s voice when he answered, something barely restrained: “You want to lecture me on hunting, Bardolf? Don’t make a fool of yourself! I have been hunting, while you were safe behind the walls of Antilia.

“All that you have been hunting are ghosts! Instead, you should have exercised some caution”

“Your caution could be considered cowardice.”

“And your recklessness could be considered insanity”. Bardolf left the word hanging in the air, the accusation plain to understand. Indeed, the mood in the room had changed. The assembled Huntmasters understood what was at stake here.

As did Charun: His face was a mask of hatred, he almost spat his next words into Bardolf’s face. “Would you like to continue this argument under more …fitting circumstances, my brother? Should we perhaps conduct this discussion on the Hot Dust, do you think? Let us see who is right then!”

“Enough!” The word was no more than a low growl, but it was enough to stop everyone in their tracks. Lorimar gazed at each of them in turn, his expression unreadable.

“I have need of a war council, yet all I hear is an assembly of old crones endlessly bickering. I am growing tired of this.” He turned to Charun:

“You will deploy to the southern plains with your retinue to form a reinforcement for Skarn’s hunting party. The Harriers still at the Y’lanth’Ine basin will remain where they are. Syrax, I trust you will command them wisely until such time as Huntmaster Charun rejoins you.”

Charun’s second in command seemed to have discovered something entirely mesmerizing on the floor in front of him. “Yes, m’lord”, he muttered in a low voice.

“My lord,” Charun seemed incredulous. “I beg you reconsider. There is little strategic value to the southern plains. I could serve the company better if I…”

Lorimar’s voice was icy: “The decision in what capacity you might benefit the company most is mine. Not yours. You may take your leave.”, he adressed the room in general: ““This meeting is adjourned. We shall speak more soon. May your prey be a worthy one. Bardolf and Khoron, you are staying with me. I would speak with you some more.”

The Huntmasters and their lieutenants left. Charun continued glowering for a moment, then he abruptly turned around and marched from the room as well. Bardolf could see that he was seething with ill-contained rage. He turned to Lord Lorimar:

“Charun is no longer sane. He cannot be trusted!”

“Charun is our brother. He has earned our trust. And our respect” Lorimar’s eyes were like cold fire.
Bardolf could not hold his gaze. Then Lorimar turned to Khoron: “What say you, old friend? I would hear your counsel.”

“This fighting amongst ourselves is unwise”, the Dreadnought growled. “A house divided cannot stand. Still, Bardolf has a point.”

Lorimar sighed: “The Butcher’s Nails have transformed Charun. They have transformed us all. Made us more than men. And less.” He was staring into space, at something only he could see.

“My lord, I am only concerned for the company’s survival.”

Lorimar turned to face Bardolf. “As am I. Charun is my concern. The plains of Mardias are yours.” Bardolf inclined his head. The discussion was over. “What of the other factions?”, Lorimar asked.

“It seems the Necrontyr have been sleeping for so long that they might have forgotten how to wake up altogether. We have only had superficial contact and some isolated sightings. For some reason, they are holding back.”

“And the Daemonkin at Candolfus?”

Khoron answered in his abyssal growl: “We cannot know who is in ascendance, so we had best be careful. The whole affair has the stench of Tzeentch upon it.”

“Aye.” Lorimar seemed lost in thought for a few moments, then he gazed at Bardolf:

“Gather a hunting party. I would look upon this prey with my own eyes. We march at first light.”

***

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!