The Storm God - The Rules So Far

'The Storm God' is a small narrative campaign. It's g 3 games in length. The campaign is for 4 players. The 3 games will be different scenarios and will be different from the standard Pitched Battle way of playing Warhammer.
The armies are heading north into the chaos wastes to hunt down and slay the legendary Shaggoth Aaracturious and to claim King Arnaldo's crown. Their motives may be for their own wealth, glory or power or maybe they're pure of heart and seek to do these things only to rid the world of a great evil and to regain a relic of the past.

Rules

Two big rules:
This is a story based campaign. That means words such as 'balance' and 'win' are now dirty words. The scenarios will hopefully help sort things out where there are problems but ultimately the main idea here is to have fun.

The campaign is character based and driven. The characters that people use will have to have their own name. (This also means no special characters of any sort). The name doesn't have to be anything fancy but this campaign is about these (anti) heroic personalities.

Army Rules:
Each player pics a 1000pt army with the following exceptions:
Only 250pts can be spent on characters.
Only 750 pts can be spent on the rest of the army. 2+ Core, 0-3 Special, 0-1 Rare.
No magic items are allowed. No runic items are allowed. Nothing that is bought from your magic items points allowance normally is allowed e.g. Virtues, Spites, Scavenge Pile etc.
No Daemonic Gifts, Gifts of Khaine, Vampiric Powers, Gifts of Chaos etc.
No Special characters
Marks of Chaos, Vows, Kindreds etc. are allowed.
Mounts are allowed. If they count as an additional Hero choice etc. then this rule still applies and the cost of the mount comes from the 250pt maximum allowance on characters. Please remember mounted characters require an alternate on foot model for one of the scenarios.

Campagin Rules:
(more to come on these)

I'm not going to insist on painted minis. However, I would love it if everyone could make the effort to have their characters painted at least. It's not essential though so don't feel that you have to...
Characters will gain experience as the campaign progresses.


I've already posted some fluff but this can be found following the links below if you missed it...
Introduction
Background for Scenario 1
Bretonnian Army Background

The Storm God - Bretonnian Army Background Fluff by James

This is some rather brilliant fluff written by James, the Bretonnian player in our campaign as a background to his force. There'll hopefully be lots more army fluff to add for the different players!

*

The masked face smiles insanely, he dances and spins, all the while a small doll on strings dancing with him. Behind him a banner or so you would imagine, looking more closesly, it seems...........twisted faces and limbs try to escape

Leofric Carrard awoke with a start, his heart beating what seemed uncountable times every second. This latest dream was more intense than ever, something or someone was sending him a message. The dreams had started weeks ago, and they had continued to gain intensity over the past few nights. Something inside Leofric caused his sense of honour to almost explode within his chest. This was unheard of, for a knight of the grail to feel this pull to anything, for he knew this feeling well.

He rose and started accross the courtyard toward the small, but well kept chapel of the Lady. Inside the candles were as always lit, and he approached the shrine at the end of the room. Kneeling he began thinking of the time this feeling had nagged at him before. He had been a young knight, willing to prove himself on any battle ground his leige had ordered, for years he had fought the invaders to fair Breton, and for years he had been a shining example to younger knights of what they should aspire to be. That time was when he felt the calling and had the first vision -

Twisted faces and limbs trying to escape...

- from the Lady herself. He had set upon his quest into Mousillon and had never returned. For although in this dead land the Lady had allowed him to drink from the grail after his great deed, he had seen forever the suffering and pain of the land and had decided to stay, taking in knights with no parentage that still wanted to fight the horrors of the world. As a knight of the grail, he should no longer feel the pull of the quest though, and yet this is what he felt now. A longing in his heart to sally forth and do some great deed.

Leofric knew his own heart, and knew it was untouched by the madness of chaos, and knew it should always be so. These visions were just that, visions sent to send him on to some great deed, sent to him by the Lady herself. He turned and walked forth into the daylight, he would not go alone, for as brave as he was, no fool was Leofric, and knew he would need a small force with him to complete his journey. He set about going to a small number of knights and peasantry to -

The puppet dances, it's master laughing hideously

- ready them for the journey, which surely must start by sea, and take them to lands far north, if he was any judge of the surroundings in his dreams.

It took him but a day to ready his men, for those spoken too by him knew of the resolve this man carried. He was careful to leave enough to protect the local lands while he was away, should in fact he ever return. They rode to the cursed city of Mousillon which had a harbour of sorts, here taking a boat sent by the Duchy of Bordeleaux, for that land owed Leofric many a favour these days. Many days did they sail, the seas remaining calm for them as if the Lady herself travelled with them. Landing far from their destination they rode for many days too, a star not seen by any but Leofric guiding them on their way.

Other armies were in the area travelling on a similar route. Leofric did send messengers to these forces under the flag of parley. Some messengers returned, some did not. Of those who returned, the message was clear, the generals had no time to talk. Leofric cursed their foolishness, for as a combined force surely together they could have drivven this evil away more easily, but then Leofric had a realisation. Those fools were not here to vanquish the evil, they were here for some other reason, and knowing well the hearts of men he could draw but one conclusion: greed. Something here had power enough to bring with it forces from all over the old world, and if that was the case then Leofric must stop them too, for nothing good could come from the wastes which now filled the horizon.

Entering the wastes a terrible feeling of emptiness poured into Leofrics heart, and he realised the lady would travel with them no more, he still felt her blessing upon him, and yet it was like someone had been riding by his side all this way and that person was now gone. He and his men would be alone, but they would stop this evil and they would make sure whatever corruption drew in the other armies would be destroyed, even if that meant the destruction of the other forces travelling in his wake. On the horizon a figure was hurrying forward, alone in the wastes, Leofric broke his horse to a galllop, he would question this figure and find if he knew anything of the evil within this land...

The puppet stops it's dance, the masked face looks up: "Master, they have arrived"

*

The Storm God - Aaracturious

In between painting I've also been working on my other beast...





I was feeling daring with him! I filed down most of the original Shaggoth face and then cut the Defiler face to a more suitable shape. Sculpted the hair to make the transition from the helmet to the rest of the mini seem less drastic. What do you think? I'm far from a scholar of the greenstuff arts but does it look passable so far?
Still got lots to do on him yet!

Beastman Foe-render

So, I warned you they'd start making an appearance soon...
I've done an early mock-up of the Foe-render I'm going to be painting for the next competition at my gaming club. The subject is unit champions.







Still got a lot of work to do. I'm going to try sculpting some long hair for him and obviously there'll be plenty of gap filling to do whilst I'm at it. Really love these minis and am glad to be redoing my Beastmen. I think the pose looks quite epic for a unit champion and he'll be a fun mini to paint too.

The Storm God

Rumpolt Staudinger is a man of extraordinary long life. He was already in the winter of his life when his path crossed with that of a mortal follower of the chaos gods. That man was known by the name Elazar The Glorified. The Daemon Prince was still a mortal man when he led a small warband to the Hospice for the Insane at Sensfeld. What had drawn him from the north to that place nobody will ever know. He and his followers stormed the Hospice and took great delight in slaughtering the many patients there. The good Sisters of Shallya who ran the hospice were bound in chains and led into the courtyard of the abbey that had become the Hospice. One patient alone was spared from the slaughter. Rumpolt Staudinger. Elazar marched the elderly man into the courtyard and let him witness the heinous act that followed. The Sisters of Shallya were crucified, foul runes daubed on their flesh, their souls offered as gifts to Slaanesh. It was that unholy act that earnt Elazar the ultimate favour of the Serpent God. Rumpolt Staudinger witnessed Elazar's ascension into immortality. Elazar has kept Rumpolt alive through countless lives of men since then. The man is drawn to the great and terrible acts carried out by the Daemon and his followers, cursed to witness them all. To the Cult of Elazar that has sprung up in the wake of his tales he is a prophet, a mouthpiece of their idol.
To Elazar, Rumpolt is a toy, an oddity, a pet. Elazar protects and prolongs the life of the wretched old man but only so that he can have the pleasure of tormenting him, himself. Forcing him to witness and record the fell deeds done in his name. But that doesn't mean Rumpolt isn't important to Elazar. The daemon is the embodiement of the selfish vanity and ambition in man. Rumpolt catalogues the daemon's glories and in his maddened state shares them with the world. There are some who listen and find themselves drawn to the worship of the daemon and Elazar's power grows within the Realm of Chaos. His own mad ambitions slowly being realised...

*

Rumpolt journeyed north. He knew his steps would be dogged by the Witch Hunters but he knew that there was nothing they could do to him that would match the eternity of torment he’d be subjected to if he failed his daemon master. Along the journey there were those that helped him, they offered food and shelter from his pursuers. He preached his warning to any who passed him but they though him mad for the most part. Mad he might possibly be, but he knew the truth. Soon the forest roads gave way to open plains. Fevered dreams haunted Rumpolt’s nights so he gave up trying to sleep and continued walking in the darkness. He knew he had to bear witness to the Storm God’s reawakening. It was both his privilege and his curse.
As he journeyed ever northwards the landscape became barren and featureless. He knew he drew near to the wastes. To an observer he might have looked like a lost old man but despite there being no landmarks and having never seen his path before, Rumpolt knew exactly how to get to where he needed to be. His journey was halted though. In the distance he heard a shout go up, and then others followed suit. They’d finally caught up with him. He was too old and weak to put up any fight now. He tightened his grip on the stick he walked with. He whispered a plea to the daemon and stood silently, ready to face the wrath of his pursuers…

*

That brings the fluff up to the point the where the first scenario will start. Rumpolt alone, amongst mortals at least, knows the path through the wastes to where the Storm God slumbers. Obviously, this makes him exceptionally valuable (alive!) to anybody who seeks Aaracturious and Arnaldo's fabled crown. So at the point we'll kick off the armies have spotted his silhouette in the distance as dark clouds start to fill the sky.

The Storm God - A Mini Narrative Campaign

Most enlightened Sir,

I write with grave and worrying news. The heretic Rumpolt Staudinger has somehow escaped his imprisonment. His trial was still ongoing and upon a routine inspection his jailors found his cell to be empty and the only evidence that it had ever been occupied was this scrawled warning on the wall.

‘A storm approaches. The heavens will be ripped asunder and the thunderous racket will awaken the slumbering Storm God. Dread Sharunock, Aarakturious. Glorious Elazar rouses his immortal servant for the war to come. Fear the storm!’

The man's insane rambling never seem to cease... I have dispatched riders as news reached me today that he has been sighted journeying north, sharing his mad prophecy with all who will listen. I pray that Sigmar will guide my men in recapturing the so-called Prophet of Elazar! Then I shall turn my attention to the distressing question of how a man as old and weak as Staudinger was able to escape...

Yours,
Aldebrandt Veit
Witch Hunter Captain

*

Krakanrok The Black made a bargain with the Chaos Gods to buy his race's immortality, in exchange they offered their eternal servitude to their Gods' armies. Aarakturious, kin of Krakanrok and his children was present that fell day and played his own part in the outcome. Aarakturious has long since returned to his slumber, rousing occassionally after the most destructive of storms, ready to make war at the dark gods' calling.
The name of Aarakturious appears in the histories of the old world on numerous occasions over the centuries. The most well-known mention though is in the legend of King Arnaldo…
Arnaldo was a Tilean who like so many sought a new life in the Border Princes. Of relatively high birth and upbringing he quickly rose to prominence in the colonies there. In the aftermath of a particularly brutal raid by Norscan pirates Arnaldo was made King of the budding port city of Gaderloc, on the Black Gulf. Whilst the legends all differ on its source, they all agree that the crown set upon his head was made from the purest gold and decorated with the most prized gems and also that it was magical in nature. Arnaldo went from a gifted young thinking man to a wise and powerful king. Indeed when the Norscan Hamund Gorebeard returned the next spring to raid the port Arnaldo met him in combat and bested him. Soon after, Arnaldo led an expedition north into the wastes. The stories say he wanted to subject the Norscans to their own devilry but the truth is unknown now. Whilst in the bitter lands of the north Arnaldo and his force had the misfortune of encountering the ancient Shaggoth, Aarakturious. Arnaldo was slain by the titanic beast and most of his army too. Those that returned told tales of the crown and the beast that had slain its wearer. They told of how the Shaggoth had taken the crown and wore it on his belt as a trophy.

Spies and informants whisper of Rumpolt's insane prophecies. Most write his words off as madness. But amongst some, the fires of ambition are stoked. The legend of King Arnaldo speaks of the value of his crown. Slaying the beast Aaracturious would be a deed to match the greatest heroes of legend. The wealth and power such things could bring a man are too hard to ignore...

*

This is the intro fluff for the narrative campaign I'm running in the new year at my gaming club. More on this soon...

Updated Fluff & WIP Chariot

Well there's not a massive update today. I have lots of painting to do but I thought I'd show a quick pic of something I put together the other day.








Now you may recognise that this is my long standing WIP chariot given a new lease of WIP life! I decided that with Luken The Sixth Born already planned in my head I wanted to differentiate the unit chariots from the character chariots a bit more and with the fluff I've already written the Marauder Chariot fits so much better!
For xmas there's supposed to be a chariot race at my gaming group so I'm trying to decide whether to enter this one or to slightly fast track getting Luken's chariot built. Decisions, decisions.
I've made a slight update to the first Devotees post on this blog now. Mostly it's just to tidy things up but I've also put some new fluff there. I'll post it here as well so people get to see it without having to hunt all over the blog for it!

*

“Rejoice,” he told me, “for I am Elazar.” For his fell deed Slaanesh gave the gift of immortality. He was elevated to Daemonhood and I stood in awe for I had witnessed the birth of the death of man. He rose into the sky on feathered wings, radiant, more glorious than the sun, it’s light paling in the Daemon’s aura. His harmonious voice filled the skies as he spoke to me then. My heartbeat froze, desperate not to besmirch the wondrous sound with its crude thudding.
“I am temptation, I am vanity. I am the voice that says yes when all other say no. I am the dark ambition that broods at the core of every man. I am your salvation and I am your doom. Love me or fear me, it matters not, you will be my slave.”

The mad writings of Rumpolt Staudinger who impossibly claims to have been present at the massacre at the Hospice for the Insane at Sensfeld. Staudinger’s insanity is matched only by his heresy. May this document provide further proof against him in his ongoing trial and may Sigmar’s righteous fires free him from his ravings!
- Witch Hunter Aldebrandt Veit

*

Elazar The Glorified is a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Such is his standing in the eyes of Slaanesh and indeed his arrogance that he is worshipped by many as a god in his own right. In the far north the Diatchi worship him in part as a proxy for Slaanesh but in part as a separate deity. The Diatchi are a collection of tribes of predominantly Kurgan stock, the tribes exist in a state of war with eachother but at times a High Zar is able to bring the lower Zar's of the tribes into line and lead them to war all the while the Daemon Prince watches over his Glorious Host...
The followers of Elazar are not confined to just the northern tribes. In the darkest depths of the forests of the Old World an ascending Beastlord is starting to gather the rival herds in the name of the Daemon.
And worse still in the heart of the Empire's cities the Cult of Elazar continues to attract more followers.

*

There's a lot more to come on this and a lot more detail to go into for a lot of things mentioned above so take note!

I was going to post a battle report for the huge 7000pt vs. Skaven battle. However, we only got to my opponents turn 3 before we had to start packing up. It was advantage Skaven at the time but I hadn't had my 3rd turn yet and I had a few rather juicy charges lined up including Harkaitz and a unit of Knights had managed to close in on a stranded Thanquol and then would have been able to turn into the flank of the Skaven army We're going to redo the battle when we have less of a restriction on time and then I'll be sure to post a battle report worthy of a 7000pt game!

Painting Competition & Warhammer Doubles Tournament

Painting Competition

There were 3 Categories for this:
Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer Fantasy
Youngbloods

The WFB and 40k categories required you to paint either vehicle, war-machines monstrous creature or a mounted character. The Youngbloods had to paint a single mini. Pictures courtesy of Patch.

40k

Winner - Malzeth



Runners Up

Slackman


One


Buzz


Fantasy

Winner - Elazar



Runners Up

Patch


Kevin


Andrew


Skippy


Youngbloods

Winner - Jack



Lots of great looking minis in the end. There were more than these but this is all the pictures I've been able to pinch so far, if I get any more I'll add them up. Was really proud of my son Jack for winning the youngbloods. He did great for his first properly painted mini too!

Fantasy Doubles Tournament

Going to do 10 points on this.

First game vs. Bretonnians - Massacre Against

1. Steam Tank! Didn't really have a great deal in our army that could deal with the steam tank. Luckily for us it was largely ineffective. It turned out that my two units of Warhounds kept it tied in combat for 3 or 4 turns. Still not sure how they both passed their terror tests when they were miles away from the army general. Would have loved to have had my Dragon Ogres to charge at this thing.
2. Orcs and Goblins are unreliable! I know that's not news but it's a recurring theme on these points. Our overall army strategy was faulted on this point. It relied on Jack's O&Gs being the main line of the army and keeping things busy so my cavalry could cause problems on the flainks. Sadly squabbling results etc meant that the battleline became very staggered and the Bretonnian and Empire cavalry were able to deal with the infantry units one at a time with a few combined charges.
3. A unit of Pegasus Knights kept the Chaos Knights marchblocked for the first part of the game. I sent the Marauder Horsemen to make use of their throwing axes against them so that I could continue with my plan of sending the knights up the steam tank's flank. However I really should I have just charged Endika in to combat. He could have pinned them in place for the Horsemen to charge the next turn if they were needed. In the end my Chaos Knights got blocked off by the Warhounds who I hadn't expected to pass their terror tests so went after the Pegasus Knights and wiped them out.
4. The Chaos Knights once they got into combat were as expected very effective. The were able to break the Empire Knights (which re-captured the Goblins standards!) and with the Rapturous Standard they were able to get Insane Courage a few times against the static res. heavy unit of Bretonnian Knights that charged their flank.
5. The Fanatics caused the death of 1 Empire Knight in this game.

Second game vs Ogres and Khorne Daemons - Massacre Against

1. Again the Orcs and Goblins when relied upon couldn't hold their lines and so were able to be picked off although not quite as easily as the cavalry army had previously. My Chaos Cavalry managed to go up the flank so they could get behind the opponents army but when the Orcs and Goblins were beaten quite early the enemy were able to turn to face the Knights before they were able to do anything and the Knights were charged by a unit of Bulls. The Knights quickly dispatched the Ogres but after this they had to be very cautious about the fights they picked.
2. A unit of 50 Bloodletters including Skulltaker spent most of the game out of combat for our opponents. The turn they were in combat they broke the Orcs after killing the Big Boss. Without anything to help against these I didn't dare charge Endika and the Marauder Horsemen into these without and so spent the game harrassing them with throwing axes and blood curdling roar but didn't really cause much of an impact against those pesky ward saves. Took a rank or two off but with a unit that big it didn't matter a great deal!
3. The Leadbelchers decimated the Forest Goblin unit and the other two Goblin units panicked at different points of the game and ran away. The only thing Goblins can be trusted to do is flee. This meant the Ogres and the big infantry block were able to turn and face my Chaos Knights. This stopped the Knights from having any juicy charge targets and I also have to admit to being far too over cautious by this point. Really I should have just taken a risk with both cavalry units as the game was lost anyway.
4. The Fanatics killed 1 Bloodletter in this game. They really did nothing to help in either game and my son has a real ability to throw doubles for them!
   
5. Both games were good fun despite the rather awful results. In the end we finished second from bottom. It seems to be my tournament finishing position of choice at the minute! Learnt a lot from the games though and will certainly rethink the armies a lot if there's another doubles tournament!

The Glorious Host, The Future, Decisions and Plans...

I did a quick and as a result quite poor pic of the bits of the army that I'm happy with at the minute (the marauder horsemen need some more shading on their armour and bases need the rims done on quite a few things).



My army looks like an all cavalry force with the exception of poor Vela the footslogger and the Hellcannon. My army is actually quite infantry heavy though. It might not be as competitive to do so but to me cavalry should be the elites in an army and so shouldn't ever outnumber the infantry regiments. So that gives a clue about what my current priority is now!

Also I'm debating over the Chaos Steeds..



This is a reminder of how they look currently but I'm tempted to repaint the horses to look like Gentza:



Need to decide by the time I get to painting the next regiment of Chaos Knights. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

As for my plan of action. Still taking part in the Tale of Fantasy Painters so that directs a lot of how I plan my painting out for the minute. But my rough plan is currently.

December: Chaos Warriors w/ Additional Hand Weapons
January: Chaos Marauders w/ Hand Weapons and Shields
February: Chaos Sorcerer (Isidro Devante) + Warhounds
March: Warshrine
April: Chaos Warriors w/ Halberds
May: Chaos Knights
June: Marauder Horsemen
July: Exalted Hero on Chariot (Luken The Sixth Born)
August: Hellcannon

This way I'll have started the Tale on a Hellcannon and will finish on one. Also by August I should have the motivation to paint that second Hellcannon! Through this month and next I'm going to be painting the Mordheim Warband as well, they'll be easier to do alongside the Warriors and Marauders as a lot of the painting being done on them can be applied to the Mordheim gang also. They'll make up for my used joker easily enough too!

Of course this plan is very rough and completely overlooks the fact that there's christmas to come yet which may well completely change the direction of some of these plans and also in February there's the new Beastmen. You can be certain that they will start to make an appearance on here soon and I'll have to do some tidying around this blog. In particular in regards to the fluff etc. Would like it to all tally up. Everything will fall under the heading The Devotees of Elazar but there will be a clear split within that between The Glorious Host, my Warriors of Chaos, and the forthcoming Beastmen who I'm going to reveal nothing about yet!

Anyway, so the next things you'll be seeing on here are my Warriors with additional hand weapons. Will start posting WIP shots soon but my priority this week is to finish building a few of the minis for later in the Tale as I have my 7000pt game vs. Skaven on Sunday and they will be greatly needed!