Electric Duel-a-Ghoul: Flesh-Eater Courts vs Disciples of Tzeentch

Sir Loin ate heartily from his venison stew, scooping the generous cuts of meat from their thick, warm gravy before sinking his teeth into the trencher with a satisfying crunch.

"Lord Gnaw," he acknowledged the king's emissary and proffered him a goblet of ruby-dark wine. "I hear of dark rumblings upon our northern frontier."

"Indeed," the courtier took the offering and drank deep. Lord Gnaw was a vast man, almost bent under the great weight of his shoulders, with his leathery cloak wrapped about him like wings. "The followers of the false gods are attempting to blot out the sky with their magics."

"Barbarians," Sir Loin opined, picking through his platter of sweetbreads and choosing the freshest pancreas.

"The King wishes us to ride forth without delay. There is no time to summon the yeomanry; take only your knights."

Sir Loin rose from his meal. "I have a dozen of my finest warriors at hand. Let us fetch them from their supper table and thence to battle. The quest will sharpen their appetite."

A quest for the cannibal knight?
It's All-Skype Fight Night!

Holster those boltguns, we're back to fighting with teeth and pointy sticks. The Tzeentchian saga continues as they face their first opponents from the Death Allegiance - the Flesh-Eater Courts!

At last! A return to the battlefield after a rather long pause. Our narrative AoS campaign hasn't stalled exactly, but it's been a while since the last instalment. We would have played this about a month ago, but holidays, house moving, and the general laziness of summer took hold. 

We're trying out a new battleplan - one from the Narrative section of General's Handbook, rather than Matched Play. 'War of Storms' plays along the length of the table with a storm front starting off down the middle. At the start of each turn, the storm edges towards your opponent's table edge if you win a roll-off, increasing the surface area of his 'storm'. It also moves a little more if you wound the enemy general, and a lot more if you kill him (it also moves back if the general recovers a wound).

There are advantages to fighting in your own storm front, so the more your storm advances, the better you'll do. The game ends in major victory once the storm reaches the edge of the table, and a minor victory if you have the majority of the territory covered.

The Shaggoth here isn't taking part of the battle, he's just being the marker for the stormfront.

The other main mission for this fight would be to remember which game rules are AoS and which are 40K. Both of us have been caught up in the excitement of the new edition, and were going to be trying quite hard to fire Overwatch at any opportunity.

Forces

Rise of the Cult - Disciples of Tzeentch

• Zonaranoz, Magister, General, Arcane Sacrifice, Lore of Fate: Treacherous Bond, Souldraft
• Catalepto, Exalted Hero with Battle Standard
• 5 x Chaos Chosen, Mark of Tzeentch
• 10 x Chaos Warriors, Axes and Shields, Mark of Tzeentch
• 5 x Chaos Knights, Ensorcelled Weapons, Mark of Tzeentch
• 1 x Gorebeast Chariot, Mark of Tzeentch
• 3 x Tzaangor Skyfires

Well, now. Tzeentch for me, with the intent of trying out some of those shiny new Tzaangor Skyfires. Not that I have the models (and I'm not going to get them either, I don't really collect AoS any more and have plenty of stuff that can proxy it), but I hear they're fairly powerful and wanted to see how they hold up. 

The Magister is a bit of a puny leader, for my money, but he's in for narrative purposes. A bannerman to help him raise the effectiveness of the troops, then a fairly unimaginative selection of solid Chaos battleline stuff. Knights for speed and tankiness, Warriors for slowness and tankiness, Chosen as a bodyguard for my important leader and a Gorebeast Chariot to help the Knights actually punch through anything. 

The gear the Magister was carrying was there to help him cast his powerful but unreliable Bolt of Change (that's his usual spell, not the more powerful one from the Lore of Fate). Souldraft is a one-shot potion that lets you roll an extra casting or unbinding dice for one phase, and Sacrifice lets him stick mortal wounds on a nearby unit in order to get a range bonus and a casting reroll. On top of that, I gave him the extra spell Bond of Treachery so he could spill wounds on to his bodyguards. 

The Abattoir of Bath & Wells - Flesh-Eater Courts

• Sir Loin of Steak, Crypt Haunter Courtier, General, Master of the Black Arts, Cursed Book
• Lord Gnaw-Gnaw, Vargulf Courtier, Black Amulet
• 6 x Crypt Horrors, Clubs and Septic Talons
• 6 x Crypt Horrors, Clubs and Septic Talons
• 10 x Crypt Ghouls, Sharpened Teeth & Filthy Claws
• [Battalion: Abattoir]

Flesh-Eater Courts! For when playing Ironjawz just seems too subtle and nuanced.

This merry pack of mad cannibals is the Death faction for me (or it will be once the leadpile gets small enough for me to justify adding to it again) so I thought I'd give them a whirl and test the limits of Kraken's monstrous infantry collection.

Eschewing hoards of ghouls, I've gone for big guys: two six-packs of Crypt Horrors with a cheap mob of Crypt Ghouls for objective grabbing.

To keep these guys trucking, a Crypt Haunter (a Lord-level Crypt Horror that lets me play them as battleline) and a Vargulf, who just seems awesome. The Haunter gets Master of the Black Arts, so I can have some magic in the army (which also boosts the Vargulf) and the Cursed Book to keep him survivable. The Vargulf has the Black Amulet, as the only long-range attack in the army.

Both these guys can bring back Crypt Horrors on 5+, as well as healing their own wounds, and I'm thinking that whatever shortcomings the Flesh-Eater Courts have, the psychological effect of an army that just keeps bouncing back up again is worth a lot.

Tying it all together is the Abattoir battalion. It gives me a boost against monsters, as Kraken usually brings at least one (of course, this time, he didn't) and forces every nearby model (not unit) to take mortal wounds on 6+. It could be handy, and should I be facing another swarm of Marauders, it could be deadly.

Terrain and Deployment

The ruined city streets were once more the scene for our clash. Two ruined arches got picked to have extra terrain rules. We ended up with an Inspiring archway in the Northwest and a Sinister ruined tower in the Southeast. Apart from the graveyard fences and mausoleums in the centre, the only other notable locations were the pair of Baleful Realmgates, each in the centre of our deployment zones. 

With the Flesh-Eaters all deployed, I decided on a risky but plausible plan. Mob my realmgate with footsoldiers, then try and fling them through for an ambush. Because I'd surrounded my end of the portals, the undead would struggle to get through to me. His end was relatively unguarded, however, so popping out and scragging the general seemed like a reasonable option. I would have to hope that the unreliable gates wouldn't fail me!

To buy time for this plan, the Knights and Gorebeast would charge in and try and hold up the enemy for as long as possible, while the Skyfires would jump about sniping at the enemy and try not to get bogged down. I had no hope of taking out all the regenerating Horrors, so I'd have to rely on precision shooting instead.

My plan required far less thought: I had two packs of Crypt Horrors and I was going to bulldoze them downfield. The right-flank Horrors would engage the lead elements while the left-flank Horrors would hook around to the backline. Everyone else would follow in reserve, I would have no truck with Realmgates.

As the stormclouds gathered, I won the roll-off for initiative and forced Stylus to go first. Come and get me, you undying monstrosities!

Turn 1 - Flesh-Eater Courts  

"Good show!" Sir Loin gently applauded as the Baleful Realmgate on the far side of the battlefield burst into flame, showing the enemy commanders with eldritch energy. "First touch to us, I fancy."

As one, the Court swept forward. Two great companies of knights charging down the snow-covered cobbles. At their heel, a small pack of yeoman retainers who abandoned their own Realmgate to join the fun.

Lord Gnaw leaped from his vantage point, moving as smoothly as though he could fly, and took a new position behind a ruined mausoleum.

Above their heads, the storm rumbled forwards, but Sir Loin paid no heed. Let the foes come to them.

Turn 1 - Disciples of Tzeentch  

Zonaranoz staggered back from the Realmgate, which was still crackling with weird energy. Was nothing to follow the great plan? 

Despair clutched at him. The temple was lost, retaken by the crude greenskins. And with it, the Ark of Alternatives, which must also be the source of the frightening clouds of purple matter that were spreading across the sky behind them. Unless he could regain that ground and repair whatever had been broken when the Orruks spoiled the ritual, all his toil would have been for naught. 

They were in the outskirts of the ruined city now, in some deserted and desecrated graveyard. As soon as they'd arrived, they'd heard the hoots and howls of the rotting denizens of this blighted spot - the undead, tattered monstrosities eager to chew on fresher bones than the frozen muck they'd been eking out their existence with. 

His warband was so depleted! Barely a few of his Lifeguard warriors, a few knights with a chariot and the remants of the guardians of the temple, mutant Skyfires with their greatbows. 

He needed time - time to get the portal functioning so he could escape and regroup. But the undead were too near, too fast and too hungry to ignore. 

With a cry, he sent the knights and their chariot hurtling forward, where they crashed into the ghastly ranks of the undead. A pair of crypt horrors were crushed under the Gorebeast's bulk, and the knights hacked another two down with their blades. One of the remaining horrors launched itself bodily into the chariot and started grappling with the driver, while the other bit the head off an armoured steed with a crunch clearly audible from where Zonaranoz stood. 

Vile creatures, so unable to accept the loss of their lives they clung to such a pitiful existence! But would I embrace death any more willingly? he wondered. He glanced at the sky, where the violet clouds billowed. Perhaps he would soon have the chance to find out. 

Turn 2 - Flesh-Eater Courts  

The stormclouds increased their intensity, rolling even further into Sir Loin's territory. Clearly this maelstrom could not be resolved by force of will, only the spilling of the enemy's blood. He licked his dry lips. Odd how that thought could bring on such a thirst.

Calling upon the King's summons, Lord Gnaw brought two of the right-flank knights back to the royal service. Sir Loin cast a protective shield over those knights, to aid them in the coming struggle.

Fortified by such magical selflessness, Lord Gnaw threw himself into the fray, joining the left-flank knights that had completed the encirclement of the chaos vanguard. Sir Loin wiped away a tear to see that even the faithful yeomen were trying to find space to join the attack.

Lord Gnaw lead the assault, striking down the monstrous chariot with relentless fury, and yet the beast remained on its cloven hooves. Two more of the enemy knights were torn down, for the loss of only one of their own.

The unrighteous warriors were putting up a desperate defence, but their centre must surely fall to this onslaught.

Turn 2 - Disciples of Tzeentch  

Beleagured, the last knights fought in the centre of a knot of screeching horrors. A batwinged terror howled as it seized the champion on the back of the chariot, lifted him aloft and then clamped its jaws over his head, eyes bulging as it drank deep. They couldn't stand against such odds. No man could. 

Finally, the portal stabilized. Zonaranoz sent his loyal warriors through, although he was only able to keep it functioning for half a minute or so. The last two to enter were too slow, and vapourised as the crackling interface at the portal's mouth collapsed again. 

But they were through! Not far, not enough to escape. But Zonaranoz had a new plan. 

The undead always had the same weakness - kill their leaders, and the rest would fall. He'd spotted a larger horror lurking at the back of its disgusting brood, and it was close enough to another fallen Realmgate to risk an attack. Tzeentch's warriors dashed out of the portal and closed on the beast, catching it unawares. 

It fell back from their onslaught, sporting a number of new rents in its hide, and ran whimpering towards its offspring, trying to hide. Straight towards the deadly bows of the Skyfires, one of whom sent a long arrow spinning through the air to lodge in the undead monster's shoulder. They would easily finish it given time, but there was so little. If they were to attempt a killing strike, they would have to do it soon. The last Knight had been pulled from his horse and now fought on foot, standing on his dead mount and still somehow hacking at the foe. Once he fell, the Skyfires would surely be the ghouls next meal.

Overhead, the purple stormclouds muttered and whirled, leaping forwards across the sky in unnatural bursts of speed. Almost the entire graveyard was under their eerie shadow now. Zonaranoz felt elated, almost lightheaded. There was power in this storm. If only he could harness it!

Turn 3 - Flesh-Eater Courts  

"The rotten cads!" Sir Loin tore out the javelin-size arrow from his armour and flung it to the ground in disgust. Spinning on his heel, he turned his back on the handful of chaos warriors who had sneakily attacked him from behind. Before they could pursue, Lord Gnaw had crashed into them, ripping down two of their number and wounding a third.

Redeploying to the centre of their lines, Sir Loin witnessed that last troublesome chaos knight being torn down by his own trusty retainers - fully assembled once again - while the second group set their lances at the trio of avian beastmen who had stung him so unjustly.

Sadly, his knights misjudged the low wall they had to clear and their charge petered out, leaving the avians to cackle wildly and put fresh arrows to their bows.

At least the Storm was edging back, Sir Loin thought. He touched the rent in his armour and it seemed to be getting better already. One more push should see them through.

Turn 3 - Disciples of Tzeentch  

The huge pack of damned flesh-eaters seethed forwards. There was nothing between them and the Realmgate now, and Zonaranoz knew he didn't have the time to open it again. "Fall back!" he commanded. 

As his Lifeguard turned to obey, he grabbed the nearest one and thrust a sacrificial knife into his neck. "Forgive me, my boy," he said, then murmered an incantation to harness the hidden blood power of the cultist. To further enhance it, he yanked the bottle of souldraught from his belt and drank it down.

Eldritch power blazed from his eyes and fingers. The opening lines of a dozen potent spells ran through his mind. His hands span through the gestures, and a glittering Bolt of Tzeentch shimmered through the air at the incoming horrors. 

And failed, arcing upwards instead to the skies, where it joined the storm. 

Arcane energy spat back down from the clouds. Still drunk on power, Zonaranoz reached out with his mind and harnessed it, forming it into a shield for his Lifeguard. They would soon have to sacrifice themselves to protect him, they would need it. 

Spurred on by his magical prowess, the warriors launched a brutal counterattack against the hulking bat creature that assailed them. It had clearly mistaken them for easy prey, but the finest warriors of Tzeentch were not so easily felled. It found itself surrounded and outmatched, hacked at by axe and sword, and began scrabbling away, trying to escape. 

Not long before they reach me, Zonaranoz thought. The Skyfires would have to strike now, kill the leader of the ghoul pack and then escape. 

But instead, they merely hovered near to it, leaving the potential speed of their disc mounts unused. What were they planning? They could finish it now with their bows! Why didn't they strike? They seemed to be waiting for something, Zonaranoz could see. 

The sky loured above. The hour looked dark. 

The ghouls swarmed closer. 

Turn 4 - Flesh-Eater Courts  

"Come on, chaps, give it some elbow!" Sir Loin's exhortations were in vain as his mighty warriors flailed helplessly against the avian discriders, unable to unseat even one.

The rest of his army pressed downfield, even Lord Gnaw broke away from the chaos warriors to join the surge. The enemy commander, his wounded bannerman and their pitiful bodyguard were in their sights. One more charge would end this.

"Tally ho!"

Turn 4 - Disciples of Tzeentch  

Now they came, their hungry cries dire across the deserted graveyard. Zonaranoz forgot any pretence of stoic heroism, turned and fled from the charge with his few remaining bodyguards. 

The Skyfires fired a last volley, wounding the sire of these monsters, but then were overrun by a trampling pack of its offspring. Two were dragged down out of the sky, the last turned and sped off into the stormy sky. 

Zonaranoz thought all was lost. Until he realised what their last volley had done. 

A metre-long arrow stood right through the thigh of the horror patriarch and into the frozen ground beneath, leaving it pinned. Pinned, alone, and behind the seething ranks of its vile children. And within the range of the Warriors, after they'd driven off the huge bat-thing. Even as that monster heard the panicked cries of its master and turned, trying desperately to fend off the Warriors, they struck home, and struck the head of the Crypt Haunter clean off. 

As it slumped to the ground, the promised storm finally broke. Blue and pink lightning crackled across the sky, and a technicolour rain began to fall.

Major victory to the Disciples of Tzeentch!

Where the rain hit the Realmgates, they sputtered to life. Spinning violet tunnels to another realm twisted like whirlpools. In the depths of those tunnels, specks could be seen, swimming towards the light of this realm, and their laughter echoed from untold depths. 

What had the Ark unleashed? Had the Ritual of Opening in fact suceeded? Surely the Orruks had wrecked the temple and demolished the carefully arranged rites inside? Or had they been too superstitious to touch such arcane properties?

There was a demon horde arriving through the gates. Screamers and Skysharks, Enlightened Flamers on their chariots of fire, the great Lords of Change looming over them like whales in a shoal of fish. 

Zonaranoz stared upwards, awestruck. Was this the Day of Change?

Locker Room

Quick - someone take my credit card and bury it in the back garden. These Flesh-Eater Courts guys are a lot of fun to play and I need to exude some serious willpower to stop myself from adding a Death Allegiance to my collection (I mean, I have the other three - it's almost unfair not to...)

In hindsight, twelve Crypt Horrors was excessive for a 1,000pt game. They bulldozed everything, and kept getting resurrected by the Vargulf and Crypt Haunter - the Vargulf in particular impressed me. He's going to have to be first on the list (... of the army I'm not going to collect).

I only took two Crypt Horror mobs so I could use the Abattoir battalion (and of course, forgot to use any of its abilities during the game - a shame, as there were a couple of times my advance stalled because of a model on a single wound held me up - it would have been very easy to zap them out of the way). Maybe switching one of them for Crypt Flayers (the flying, screeching ones) would have served me better - I did feel like I was missing some ranged power, not to mention a bit of extra mobility (damn those Skyfires!).

Fun though it was, it was a classic case of me not paying attention to the scenario rules: winning my fights, but losing the battle. My small pack of Crypt Ghouls were purchased for backline security - they should at the very least have surrounded the Realmgate to prevent me getting jumped in the way I did. Instead I got all carried away with how I was destroying Kraken's army piece by piece and hit everything with overwhelming force. In fact, I should probably have been brave enough to send a unit of Crypt Horrors through the Realmgate for a raid of their own since, unlike chaos warriors, I can bring back my casualties.

An interesting scenario - probably one that requires big monstrous generals, since killing one pretty much guarantees the win. Some more options to affect the path of the storm might be nice (killing enemy heroes, making a blood sacrifice of your own etc), but it was good to try something different.

Yes! My first win in months! The Woffboot's curse is finally broken. Not going to lie, it felt good. There was even some cold pizza left in the fridge that I celebrated with as I tidied up. The joy of a geeky victory - how I'd missed it. 

Almost everything had been going against me. Looking at the lists, I sincerely doubted my army's ability to dent the Crypt Horror tide for long. Then I'd rolled relatively poorly for my destiny dice (lots of twos and threes), the portal malfunction in the first turn really stung, and none of the damage I was cranking out on the undead seemed to be sticking. 

Even after I'd engaged the enemy general, causing him to panic and run off, he looked like a shoe-in to escape. When the Skyfires fluffed their shooting and failed their charge from 3" away in my third turn, I really thought I'd lost my advantage for good. A grisly death under a heap of Crypt Horrors was surely inevitable. 

There were two saving graces I had. First, I'd been very lucky with the roll-off for the stormfront, and that gave me a small but vital edge in combat, especially after my early charge meant that the bulk of the fighting was within my side of the storm.

Second, Stylus's luck was even worse.

I'm not sure about that - you won the storm rolls, but I was winning all the priority rolls. And I'd overcommitted myself each turn, so if I did get double-turned at any point, it would have been curtains for me. For all that, there was quite a few rounds of whiffed attacks on both sides.

Maybe that's true, although I think your Vargulf was robbed of his prey twice, and your general similarly failed to kill his attackers. If either of them had rolled even average on those fights, I don't think I'd have had the Warriors left to finish you at the end there. 

Either way, if it wasn't for the mission, I'd certainly have lost. My army was a pitiful fragment of what I'd started with, and other than that all-important VIP, I'd made no impact on the Flesheaters at all. 

Those Crypt Horrors are very vicious! Good to see that they perform similarly on the tabletop to the way they play in Total War: Warhammer, where they're an extremely effective melee unit in the Vampire Counts line-up.

Blood! So refreshing! I must shower!

We've decided that this campaign, being Tzeentchian, will be nine battles long, so there's more to come. But the craving for some 40K is pretty intense right now...