Triumph & Treachery Report or The Battle of WTF!

We had a game of Triumph & Treachery recently (I'd like to say this week, but the speed at which I write up my battle reports, it could 3 months ago), and it was a chaotic free for all with a great deal of treachery & only a little triumph!

We had 5 players, 1500 points each with the choice of another 300 points of mercenary troops or some cash to spend on 'other things' which I suspected were bribes and such. as I had brought 1500 points of Skaven & 1500 points of Warriors of Chaos, I wasn't really in the mood for lugging even more models over so I took the money and recommended that the WoC player did the same. So the forces were: Skaven (me), Warriors of Chaos (Owen was a last minute sub for Aaron), Daemons of Chaos - Nurgle- with Tzeentchian allies (Stu), Daemons of Chaos - Slaanesh - with Brettonian allies(Phil) and Ogre Kingdoms (Karl) with Skaven allies (the absolute cheek!)

A very complex battlefield

Rather than give a blow by blow game, that is really difficult due to so many things going on at once, I think I will just give some of the more interesting happenings of the game. Tzeentch in his wisdom gave my Skavenslave unit regeneration after he killed half a dozen of them. I wrecked my Doomwheel taking a shortcut through some woods to splat a Sabretusk. A unit of Plaguebearers of Nurgle found themselves labouring under the Treason of Tzeentch for about 4 player turns due to the vagaries of the who's turn is it next random card turn decider thing. A mercenary Pegasus rider totally refused to attack Ogres two turns in a row due to masses of gold being thrown his way (even though Greasus Goldtooth was no where near the battlefield). A see saw combat between a Chimera & the ever present Daemonettes saw lots of toing and froing & the only thing that saved the Chimera from being run down by vengeful ladette daemons was the liberal sowing of gold coins from the hitherto undiscovered monsters pockets, more inexplicable was the Daemonettes stopping to pick it up! There were quite a few instances of of my Plagueclaw catapult not being allowed to fire, by various nefarious schemes. and probably most amazing of all was a unit of Skavenslaves made it through the entire battle!

The Chimera incident

Time ran out before the Beasts could flank charge my Clanrats!

I have come to the conclusion that T & T is a highly enjoyable version of Warhammer that we as a group will return to on a regular basis.

Clerical Error

Due to a bit of an oversight on my behalf, I'm no longer going to participate in Vaticon on the 12th-13th April. I was really looking forward to this as I'd been playing quite a few Warhammer games honing my skillz so I could put up a good show against some of the decent WFB on this fair isle. On the bright side the rather large unit of Eternal Guard that are watching me disdainfully from the painting table can go fuck themselves until September when I believe there is another fairly local event!

Fantastical Fencing Fornication!

Apologies for the title, I'm just making a title more interesting than plain old scenery ideas. This post is not even about a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Apprentice Racketeer either.

Recent games of Warhammer have come up with some frequent results. One item that seems to be rather more frequent in the Realm Of The Dice Gods & Deities Of Arbitrary Probabilities (scenery division) that it should be is (or are) obstacles. This has forced my thinking cap on and thusly here are some new ideas for linear sceneric goodness for your perusal;

Cursed Barrier

Over the years many evil wizards & clerics of suffering built towers and temples dedicated to the pain of others, when the forces of order encountered this buildings they were oftentimes destroyed. Although centuries pass the evil magics that seeped into the stones remained. Ignorant peasants uncovered these stones and used them to make walls to keep livestock in. These barriers count as hard cover. Any unit from The Forces of Order attempting to assault a unit over the barrier suffers a -1 to hit penalty in hand to hand combat.

Daemonic Barricade

Occasionally when daemons of chaos are destroyed they are not sent back to the realms of chaos, they sometimes manage to leave a small portion of their essence in the physical world. They can inhabit living creatures but oftentimes this is of minor enjoyment to a daemon (after all, who wants to spend years as a daemonic rabbit?). So they attach themselves to inanimate objects in the hope of returning when there is sufficient magic to sustain them. In game terms, any magical spell that crosses over (draw a line between the mage and target unit, if the line comes within 2" of the terrain it is considered to cross it) one of these obstacles roll a d6, on the roll of a 4+ on a d6 D3 lesser daemons materialise within 3" of the Daemonic Barricade. They will attack the nearest unit even if they are daemonic.

Obsidian Pallisade

Sometimes artisans build walls with the express purpose of thwarting witches and other magic users, by putting small amount of obsidian in the wall. This gives the benefit of Magic Resistance (1) to any model within 3" of the wall, in addition to the standard benefits gained from standing behind the wall.

Spiked Rampart

Generally a mound of earth with sharpened stakes driven into it to deter unwelcome physical contact. Any unit charging an enemy unit defending a spiked rampart must make an Initiative test, failure results in d6 hits each one wounding on a 4+. Normal armour saves apply.

Water Filled Ditch 

This is simply a shuck filled with rainwater that the unit uses to delay charging opponents. As someone who has had the misfortune of falling into 2 feet of ditchwater, then floundered around trying to climb out of the ditch, I can tell you it's not a good place to be, particularly if you were fighting heavily armed Orcs (I wasn't at the time, thankfully). Any unit attacking a defended water filled ditch gains the Always Strikes Last special rule for the first round of combat (and wet pants too).

Poisonthorn Hedge

Venomthorn is an unpleasant plant that exudes a poison from its thorns (hence the name), any model attacking a unit defending the hedge are at -1 to hit trying to avoid the thorns, in addition any attacks that roll a natural 1 to hit inflict a ST2 poisoned attack on themselves. In addition any model fighting over a Venomthorn Hedge gains the poisoned attacks special rule for the first round of combat. 

Painted up in the February Painting Window!

Finished some more figures for my armies (Skaven, Chaos & Imperial Guard). But once again the photographs make them look worse than they are in real life, (honest guv!). Well, on with the waffle, I suppose!

Skaven Musician

I finished this musician as I've been looking at my two 50 (ish) strong slave units and only one has a 4 point muso. Well that problem is now well and truly solved! I painted this with the idea the drum skins are manskin and the drumstick is warpstone. Maybe the next one I do will have cat fur drums.

Skavenslave drummer

Stormvermin

I painted up another six Stormvermin for my arsekicking unit! These were Stormvermin created when I was boycotting GW and in fact gaming in general. I picked these up on ebay, nice sculpts, I'm sure a unit of 50 of these would look awesome.

Semi-new Stormvermin

Three older type Stormvermin, I love these poses as the Stormvermin models don't fit well behing the command group, and now with the couple of other 'guarding' stormvermin there is far less chance of scraping paint off each other.

Oldish Stormvermin

Chaos Blokes

Stabb the Acolyte (on the left) has spent approximately 17 years undercoated black, skulking around various tabletops looking uninteresting. All that has now changed! With his sharkskin gloves and shiny red hooves, he is sure to set tongues a-wagging on battlefields all over my Warhammer Universe. The other model is an old citadel Werewolf that spent a similar length of time being uninspiring. His new career as a Chaos Marauder champion should hopefully make his long commute to work, worth spending so much time away from his family, as the extra wages might allow him to buy some clothes. If you look closely you can see his dog like genitals on display, this is one of those time when I thought to myself decency should have trumped anatomical accuracy.  

Stabb the Acolyte & a Werewolf

Next are a couple of chaos hounds. These are Marauder models that came with a rather tasty Chaos Beastmaster that is somewhere on the production line, I originally planned to use the Beastmaster as a chaos slaver for Necromunda and these two were to be his ever faithful Sump Hounds. Until then they can go and kill in the name of the forces of chaos (probably Nurgle - The Plague Lord seems to be in vogue at the moment).

Chaos Hounds

From an ever-so slightly different angle

Profile

I have also finished Redmaw, a particularly tasty sculpt who is Khazrak's pet. I have the original Khazrak model, but it will be a uneventful day in the Realm of Chaos before I start painting beastmen again! The model is great, lots of detail (although I sculpted a pair of balls for him) even if he seems to have disappeared from the fluff. He will just have to spend his time being a chaos hound champion (even though there is no such thing) or a rather dangerous death world critter. I'm sure that whatever way I reassign man -or indeed, hound- power, Redmaw will enjoy his new role as model murderer.

The beautiful Redmaw

Lovely teef

Finally Super Viper Assassination Squad got two new members for their nefarious schemes, these were I Kore models. The scale is comparable to GWs so no problem there. I actually got them from ebay with some Necromunda models I did want, then I started looking at the new Imperial Guard codex and realised Super Viper Assassination Squad could be hitting the battlefield as veterans with the Grenadier discipline.

Two new members for Super Viper Assassination Squad 

Shotguns & Swords

The Raising of Krablokistan I

Well I've been musing over my Imperial Guard and how to make an interesting regiment and I've come up with the following, Krablokistan finest! The idea came from my ongoing mutant project and a conversion I have made. Basically I cut the head from an old 2nd edition gretchin from the 40K boxed set and replaced it with a metal acolyte of the Light College of magic. This gave me a rather short autogun armed yahoo that is currently undergoing painting.

Then I'm wandering the internet, lonely as a cloud and find these:

Thinking that I can remove the Gretchen heads and replace them with some of these, I can make around 40 guardsmen that will have a uniform look. With a little bit of help from my trusty Dremel I can make an interesting few units for my already swollen imperial guard army. Below is the test model for the project, but I see him as one of these villain type henchmen who is associated with the big boss and due to his small size is rather sadistic. Also due to my inexperience with sculpting has a slightly longer than is normal neck and a raggedy scarf so perhaps he is the survivor of a botched lynching?

Little Nug as I have decided to name him

Also going to be part of a guilder gang in Necromunda!

Another thing I found on the Maxmini website that I have the serious model horn for is this Confession Machine. It look just the sort of Gothic ATM, self dispensing chemist, or Report-A-Heretic device. It's on my list of things I want so if any benevolent reader fancies making me happy just get me one of these!

Or indeed one of these:

This looks like the sort of thing an ever-so powerful underhive crime lord would have, as he avoids capture from the Enforcers or a rival. Looks like my mind has gone off on a terrible Necromundan tangent! 

The Slagstas

As I'm getting back into Necromunda, I thought I'd share an old gang that I had an immense amount of fun with. Though not as successful as The Bushwakkers the Slagstas were to me a more fun gang to play. So without further ado here is my gang of Goliaths that sort of terrorized Slag Valley & the surrounding area with wild abandon!

The Slagstas 

Here are the remaining members of the Slagstas. A Goliath gang that reside aound Fornication Gulch, which is in turn near Slag Valley. I had mixed success with them but I enjoyed immensely the carnage they created, so here they are:

Masha-The Slag King II

Masha took over from the first slag king by default, as the previous monarch fell foul of a Van Saar gang called the Psi Judges. Since he took over the fortunes of The Slagstas have gone into a steady decline. Despite this Masha has vowed to own the entire Fornication Gulch area, or at least amass a huge amount of wealth in the process.

Masha - The Slag King II

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
4	4	4	3	4	1	4	1	9

Skills: Body Slam
Injuries: Head Wound, Bitter Enmity Grrr gang (got this result twice, so he REALLY hates them), Impressive scars, Old battle wound.
Equipment: Flamer, 2x plasma pistols, Knife, Grapnel.
Cost:180 Exp:92

Shootah

Shootah is Masha's right-hand-man, as the rest have all been killed, but as he is the most experienced member of the gang he actually deserves the position. His abilities make him a suitable hand-to-hand fighter but until some funds are forth coming he'll have to settle for his trusty shotgun.

Shootah

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
4	4	3	3	4	1	6	2	8

Skills:True Grit, Weaponsmith.
Injuries: Old Battle Wound.
Equipment: Shotgun,Knife.
Cost:80 Exp:243

Hoppa

Hoppa is quite a competant fighter except that a blown out kneecap makes him rather slow. When he does get into hand-to-hand look out, as he has a habit of hurling people off high buildings and then laughing at the meaty thump sounds. But the laughs are all the louder if the victim is from The House Of Redemption.

Hoppa

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
3	4	4	4	3	1	5	1	7

Skills:Iron Jaw, Counter Attack, Hurl Opponent.
Injuries: Leg Wound (left), Old Battle Wound, Bitter Enmity (House Cawdor).
Equipment: Shotgun, Hand Flamer, Knife.
Cost:90 Exp: 122

Mukka

Mukka fancies himself as a bit of a pistoleer, despite the fact there is no evidence to support this. Recently he has been telling everyone that will listen that he should be the leader of The Slagstas and it will only be a matter of time before there is a challenge to Masha's throne.

Mukka

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
4	4	3	4	3	3	4	1	9

Skills: None.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: 2xAutopistols.Knife.
Cost: 65 Exp: 152

Ratt

Ratt is a young Goliath juve who joined the gang looking for excitement recently. So far he has developed a single tactic in hand-to-hand combat, a headbutt. He is still naive enough to beleive that The Slagstas are a awe inspiring gang. He is due to be let down, hard.

Ratt

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
4	2	2	3	3	1	3	1	6

Skills: Head Butt.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: Laspistol, Knife.
Cost: 40 Exp: 9

Not-So-Lucky Bogi

Lucky Bogi (as he was named prior to his accident) joined the Slagstas as a juve, with high hopes of wealth and fame but a horrifc fall from a gantry has left him a ruin. Despite his considerable catalog of injuries (including having lost an eye), Bogi is a very good shot. He like nothing better than to limp to a prominent piece of cover with good fields of fire, and then proceed to pick off enemy gang members. Masha is very fond of Bogi and has promised to "sort him out" with bionics if he strikes it rich, but until then Bogi has to take out his frustrations on enemy gangers.

Not-so-lucky-Bogi

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
3	1	4	2	3	3	5	1	9

Skills: Hurl Opponent.
Injuries: Blind in Left Eye, 2 Fingers missing from right hand, Arm Wound (right), Leg Wound (left), Chest Wound.
Equipment: Shotgun with Hotshot, Bolt, Manstopper and Flechete ammo. Knife.
Cost: 75 Exp: 91

Flat Nose

A few members of this gang are not armed with weapons appropriate to their skills, Flat Nose is not one of these. Armed with a single autopistol, he is regularly seen racing into combat where opponents soon find out how mean he is. Coupled with the fact he received a severe head wound early in his career means Flat Nose can as often be found tearing lumps out of unsuspecting gangers, as staring around slack jawed and docile.

Flatnose

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
4	3	5	4	3	1	3	1	7

Skills: Combat Master, Body Slam, Crushing Blow.
Injuries: Head Wound.
Equipment: Autopistol, Knife.
Cost: 85 Exp: 103

Bluey

Bluey is a recent recruit to the gang and is striving to gain recognition and status. His main role is supporting attacks and sniping at enemy fighters. Bluey has recently discovered he is ambidextrous and is now trying to steal a pair of handguns.

Bluey

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7

Skills: Gunfighter.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: Autogun, Knife.
Cost: 75 Exp: 38

Territories

The Slagstas have a guilder contact (called Bent Beni), two expanse of slag, and the settlement called Slag Valley.

Stash

The Slagstas have picked up 3 sentry guns (a lasblaster, flamer and missile launcher), which they use to defend their territories. They have gained a contact who can get them Slaught (Dribbly Bod), and have one dose in their stash. They also have a bottle of wildsnake and 72 credits.

Gang rating

The has gang a rating of 1760.

So there they are, the Slagstas. Great fun to play but now on the wane. Maybe in my next campaign they might see a bit of a revival!

Note; flechete ammo is shotgun ammunition that used the flamer template to hit.
Sentry guns are fixed semi automatic weapons with a 180 degree field of fire that are used for defending installations (or in this case the Slagstas base).

Slaughter at the field of screams.

The following is Scribes report of a vicious clash between Wood Elves & Ogres received from Heironimous Karsk, third son of Bludfeld Karsk Count of Soutberg.

As I traveled through southern Breton sampling many of the exquisite wines from the region, my companion and excellent guide, Paresseux Du Quorelle informed me that the peasants had spotted a large force of Ogres inside the outlying borders of the Forest of Loren. My guide then suggested we venture to the area to see if there would be any sport watching the secretive fey spirits of the woods repel these unwelcome invaders.
So accompanied by a mere 50 or so of my retainers and servants we sallied forth to search for entertainment. Barely half a days travel saw us on Le Plateau de Merde which I was reliably informed by Paresseux that in the local dialect meant The Hill of Nobility, and therefore an ideal place for us to make camp. It also gave us a fine view of the Ogre camp without getting close enough to smell them. Once an adequate supper was prepared my valet Jardis I retired to the pavilion for cognac & pipeweed.
I was awoken by Jardis informing me that an Elven host had been seen exiting the forest and now seemed intent on repelling the noisesome invaders. The Ogres formed themselves up into a semi orderly array, whilst the  Elven host disciplined ranks clustered around a large wood in the centre dozens of archers with arrows nocked, I also saw strange willowy maidens more akin to trees than elves mustering. A cluster of Fey riders with a wild look about them stood in the centre also. 
The Ogres were not so numerous but were many times louder. Huge hulking brutes, but more fearsome were three enormous Ogres riding even larger beasts (which I later found out were called Mournfangs), to my amazement I also saw an even bigger beast with a massive cannon strapped to it's back! Even larger than the Great Cannons of Nuln. 
While the elves were still arranging their battle lines three huge tusked hounds were released from the ogre lines whilst at the same time another 8 or so Ogres (these ones even more heavily armed the the rest) seemed to appear from the flank causing much consternation among the forest dwellers. A huge booming noise signified the ogre cannon's first shot where it struck a dryad but amazingly failed to harm it! The rest of the ogre force rumbled forward. From the elven lines two previously unnoticed eagles flew to attack. One engaging the flank of the massive cavalry, the other swooped upon a lone warhound type beast (which I later discovered was named a Sabretusk). The elven cavalry also engaged a Sabretusk. From the central woods a beam of shadow struck a unit of ogres, seeming to weaken them without causing any actual damage, barely a split second later flew a storm of arrows into the same unit slaying several of the smelly beasts.
The cavalry wounded the Sabretusk causing it to flee, they gave pursuit but failed to catch the elusive beast, the two eagles fared less fortunately both becoming embroiled in vicious combat. The ogre force then rumbled forward and another sabretusk charged into melee with the giant eagle battling his whelpmate. From the elves rear two misshaped brutes appeared. Then the Ogre cannon issued forth a projectile on the wood elf astride a giant eagle striking him squarely, with a flash of light the terrible energies of the cannonball was nullified. Both riderless eagles were slain by their enemies, blood and feathers crushed into the earth.
Things were looking bleak for the forest dwellers. The wood elf eagle rider (I later found out, only the mightiest of elven heroes ever rode to battle atop great eagles) flew into the flank of an oncoming ogre unit. The elven cavalry spurred their mounts into their enormous ogre counterparts, and two units of elven archers, turned on the spot, each one killing the ogre type creatures threatening their rear. The wood elf hero slew an ogre with ease forcing the entire group to flee, scrambling over a rocky outcrop that the brave elf was unwilling to traverse. Both units of cavalry were locked in bloody combat, though in truth from my vantage point the elves were suffering all the more.
The ogres to the elven flank (who seemed to have been singing the empire marching song 'she was only the fishmongers daughter') charged into the unit of tree spirits, virtually annihilated them and chased the survivors into the nearby woods. The wood elf cavalry were slain to an elf. A hitherto unseen unit of tattooed elves charged out of the woods to give battle to the ogres, slaying two but receiving grievous hurt themselves. The eagle rider flew over the battlefield aligning himself with a band of ogres that seemed to contain an ogre magic user. The battle was reaching it's pivotal point! 
The ogre force it had seemed reached their desired distance from their and charged en masse into the beleaguered elven lines. Two units of elven archers were pulped beyond recognition, as were the tattooed elves. The eaglerider flew to slay the ogre mage in single combat only to see him slink to the back of the unit, the thwarted elf wounded an ogre only to be crushed under an flurry of blows from ogre clubs. The last two remaining units of elves were butchered before nightfall. The singing (or to be more accurate the caterwauling that approximates ogre singing) went on long into the night. I thought it expedient to pack up camp before first light and return to less dangerous, and more civilised surroundings.

On the return journey my captain Siegfeldt Knauser discussed the battle and I informed him that the fragility of the elves were their downfall. Knauser was under the impression that the canny ogre general had lured the elves out by sending the Sabretusks ahead forcing the cavalry and eagles forward, whilst at the same time outflanking with the maneaters and gorgers. This he stated, gave the elves too many threats from too many angles, making their position far too vulnerable. Perhaps I need to find another captain as this one seems to have little grasp of the finer points of battlefield tactics and could prove a liability in my further travels.

  Heironimous Karsk, Junker of Soutberg.