The Devotees of Elazar - Tale of Fantasy Painters 2009/10

Just thought I'd post this. A quick photo of the Hellcannon, crew and Vela together, took it for the Tale of Fantasy Painters on Warseer to show my progress so far.

Vela The Performer

Once a great performer in the Altdorf theatre, his true name since forgotten. He possessed some magical talent that charmed the minds of his audience in a harmless way, indeed he knew not of this gift of his. Like all performers he had many patrons in the nobility, it was the way of the rich to try and enhance their standing by supporting the arts. This one performer though had a patron of a different nature altogether.
One night after a grandiose performance of a play entitled ‘The Merchant of Marienburg’ the performer returned to his quarters to find all the usual lavish gifts left for him by his supporters. Amongst them was a curious glass case within which stood a scarecrow marionette. Intrigued the performer reached into the case and picked out the strange puppet.
The next day he did not show up for the play and when the angry theatre owner went to his quarters to rebuke the performer he found a scene of devastation. Untouched in the destruction of the quarters was a glass case and next to it a card signed ‘Elazar’.

The performer next turned up deep in the northern wastes where he’d wandered aimlessly until he was picked up by a Diatchi raiding party who took him captive. As is the way of the Diatchi and most of the other Kurgan races they made some of their captives fight to the death. Those they deemed blessed by the gods were spared and given a new life amongst the tribes. So it would be for this man as Elazar had developed a great love of his star performer and would see no harm come to him. He slaughtered a number of stronger slaves, showing a startling sorcerous ability that earned him the fear and respect of the tribesmen. They spared his life and he took the name Vela. It soon became clear that he was inseparable from the strange marionette that he carried with him. He spoke to the puppet and often fought with it. Worse for the tribesmen he often embarked upon strange performances for their ‘enjoyment’ sharing the lead roles with the being of wood and string that accompanied him. However, when at war he proved to be an invaluable ally. The puppet seemingly a focus for his power and his sorcery. Capable of controlling the minds of his enemies and making them do his bidding; his brand of warfare has proven invaluable in the wastes. An insane megalomaniac and egoist, Vela is now a favoured servant of Elazar and his presence can be found alongside the champions that his daemonic patron favours at that time.

Special Rules
Eye of the Gods

Sorcerer of Elazar: Vela is a Level 2 Sorcerer who chooses his spells as normal from the Lore of Slaanesh. His Mark makes him Immune to Psychology.

Daemonic Patron: Elazar still watches over Vela, taking great interest in his career and keeping him from harm. Vela is immune to Killing Blow and Poisoned Attacks.

Insane Puppeteer: The Northmen respect Vela's power and know that he is truly loved by Elazar but an insane southman with a puppet doesn't inspire their confidence. Friendly models can never take advantage of Vela's leadership even if he is the army general.

Magic Items
The Marionette: This scarecrow marionette was given to Vela as a gift by his patron Elazar. The marionette is a focus for Vela's sorcerous power and a tool for his power of manipulation. The marionette has its own cruel intentions though and longs to break free of its controller. Indeed, at times the puppets will wrestles with Vela's, trying to reverse their roles and trap Vela within the confines of wood and strings. The puppet allows Vela to add D3 to his casting roll once per turn. This cannot cause a miscast or irresistible force. However the malevolent spirit of the marionette attempts to assume control and Vela must test for stupidity in his next turn whilst puppet and master battle wits.
The puppet also allows Vela to modify any rolls on the miscast table made by any wizard on the battlefield. Vela can modify the result up or down by up to the result of D3. This doesn't cause Vela to have to test for stupidity in his next turn.

*

A ball of fire flew past Amador and impacted the ground a few metres behind him. It burned itself out in an instant and dust and ash were strewn everywhere by the force of its landing. Amador turned to see where Vela was. He’d mounted a rocky outcrop and to the bemusement of the tribesmen around him was reciting lines from a play. The marionette he carried was ‘acting’ along too.

Amador didn’t dare even mutter a curse under his breath. He knew the Performer was a favourite of his daemonic patron, privileged over even himself in that respect.

The wizard ally of the southmen hurled another fireball across the battlefield, this time it whooshed clean over the Mad Puppeteer’s head. Vela’s attention was snapped from his recital for a moment and he glared across the battlefield with contempt for the weakling wizard. He concentrated his gaze for just a few moments as the wizard summoned the raw energies for another spell. Suddenly the focus of power back lashed on the southman and he exploded in a sphere of bright light, the energy of which seared the skin of the men who’d been acting as his bodyguards.

Vela switched his attention then to a large group of heavily armoured cavalrymen charging towards Amador’s silently marching Warriors. With a violent jerk of the marionette the legs of the steeds became tangled and they fell sending their riders hurtling to the ground with jarring force. Another movement of the scarecrow marionette and the Knights leapt upon each other, blades drawn. They slaughtered one another in a screaming orgy of violence.

Then Vela was locked in a bitter argument with the silent marionette and paid no further heed to the enveloping battle around him.

Amador made a silent promise to his patron that the souls he reaped today would be in his honour. With that he ordered the charge…

*

Vela The Performer, The Mad Puppeteer, Sorcerer of Elazar
195pts

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Vela	4	5	3	4	4	2	5	2	8

Equipment: Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Marionette

Special Rules: Eye of The Gods, Sorcerer of Elazar, Deamonic Patron, Insane Puppeteer

The Devotees of Elazar vs. Woc - 4000pts

Now I was going to do a battle report, but I forgot to take pictures or make many notes and to be honest I don't think it'd be that interesting as a battle report so instead I'm going to make a summary of a few points from the battle and a couple of things I have learnt. The Devotees lost, it was a solid victory for my opponent. Hopefully the below will explain why.

Theoryhammer, mathammer, etc. I've never put any stock in them. I know probability is a science and all but I'm kind of like the northmen I play. I'm superstitious and lady luck is the biggest killer in Warhammer which is what makes the game fun. I rarely pick my army to match the advice given in all the tacticas (I guess this is a given because I play mono-Slaanesh!). My army is built around cool models and a theme I like.

A case in point of the above is Chaos Warrior units. Halberds are the preferred weapon of choice. I personally prefer my warriors with additional hand weapons. I had a unit of each in this game (and another unit with Great Weapons). Both came up against identical blocks of Tzeentch warriors 15 strong with hand weapons and shields. The Halberdiers basically bounced right off whereas my Warriors with additional hand weapons slowly whittled the opposing unit down until they fled. Now this isn't theoryhammer or anything else. I'm not saying that makes them better before people comment arguing the point. I'm just saying my experiences always go against the theory it seems!

Luck really does play a massive part in all of this. This is best shown with the Additional Hand Weapon Warriors. I cast Hysterical Frenzy on them once they'd charged into the opposing Warrior unit. This gave my front rank a whopping 24 attacks! Awesome I thought, 4s to hit and 4s to wound, I fancy my odds of forcing a good few armour saves. My amazing dice rolling abilities saw me hit with 4 out of 24 attacks. Not my to wound roll. My to hit roll. Of these two wounded. My opponent failed his armour saves with both which was quite funny but one was saved by his ward save. The Warriors stayed in combat and then got the upper hand in the next turn but on the charge with frenzy I'd expected them to have at least forced a difficult break test. However, this was still better than my Halberdiers who were woefully ineffective against a unit the same.

My opponent had a Chaos Lord on a Dragon. Not sure why he put a chaos lord on as he seemed unwilling to enter into combat with it until the end of the game. I'd have gone for a Sorcerer Lord so at least it could have been earning some of its points back in the mean time. The breath weapons seemed largely ineffective against the mass armour of my army. I didn't really have a great deal to throw at the Dragon. My Dragon Ogres might have fared well against the beast but they never got near it. They were taken out by a unit of 6 Nurgle Ogres with an Exalted BSB with the banner of rage. Very brutal! Anyway, back to the Dragon. It killed a unit of Warhounds (I kept it busy with them for a turn after my warhounds passed their terror test and charged it) caused another unit to flee with terror. It killed 2 Marauder Horsemen, 2 Knights and at the very end of the game took out Endika Fleshtearer in a challenge. (Endika was already wounded from fighting Wulfrik so didn't stand much chance in this one).

My Hellcannons would actually have been the perfect weapons for bombarding the dragon. Sadly as indicated already I have an ongoing grudge with the Dice Gods. My Hellcannons failed the majority of the Rampage checks and spent the game caught up behind my other units or in pointless long drawn out combats with units of Forsaken. I got two shots off with 1 Hellcannon but the Dragon was well out of sight when I got these so used them against another unit of Tzeentch Warriors that failed its panic test, fled, failed to rally and got to within a few millimetres of the table edge before they rallied and turned around. They got shot again but didn't flee the next time. Was disappointed with the Hellcannons really, but that's the way of them, they're a gamble and when they do work out (which with Ld9 on the Dwarfs should be more often than what happens for me!) they're brilliant.

Endika Fleshtearer was a monster! He led the army in Amador's absence. He absolutely brutalized Wulfrik in a challenge (and Endika was Wulfrik's chosen enemy or whatever the rule is). After that he moved onto Scylla the Khorne Spawn and took him out in a challenge, his Steed of Slaanesh scoring the final wound with a 6 to hit for its poisoned attack. He then got charged by the Dragon Lord and met his match but he was invaluable against some heavy hitters and helped take out a couple of annoying Marauder Horsemen units in between as well as his leadership proving very helpful on a few occasions to boot.

Vela also rocked the socks in this battle. He was my only Sorcerer to make it to the end (him and Neron the BSB were the only characters to survive) and his two spells proved quite useful. The puppet wasn't brilliant as my opponent had one too so it was always cancelled out but more than anything Vela was using up my opponent's dispel dice, with Conjoined Homunculus he's a reliable caster and his casting was allowing my Sorcerer Lord and other Sorcerer to get their spells off. He also managed to cast Hellshriek with Irresistible Force. This was the last act of the last turn of the game and led to some very tense (but with Will of Chaos very safe) panic tests for two units of Warriors and a Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch on a disc!

I saved dispel scrolls for Infernal Gateway for the first few turns. Another turn my opponents sorcerer was stupid and failed to cast it on another. He did get it to go off once and aimed it at the Hellcannon. He only rolled strength 4 for it though so the Hellcannon was completely unfazed. It's a brilliant psychological weapon the Gateway. But I found dispel scrolls were as well! My opponent was very frustrated as I managed to keep his magic phase mostly locked down with my dispel dice for the rest of his spells.

The Daemon Prince.... what can I say. This guy owes me a good performance. He failed to cast Titillating Delusions in my first turn and my opponent used the Black Tongue to force a miscast. I promptly rolled a double 1. My puppet allowed me to add 2 but my opponent got 3 on his puppet so the Daemon Prince got sucked back to whence he came. 520 VP gone just like that before he'd had a chance to do anything! Very disappointing. I wasn't going to take this guy. But I didn't finish making the other unit of Marauders so they were left out leaving me to shuffle out a Sorcerer Lord and the Daemon Prince was shuffled in, in his place. Won't be rushing to do that again. I think I need to wait for the new Daemon Prince model so that Elazar can have a proper representative on the battlefield that might serve him better!

I think that's all the points I want to make. I really cannot stress enough how broken my dice are though! I want some more of the Space Hulk ones. I seem to roll extremely well for Space Hulk with those dice (and they have a lovely complimenting colour scheme to the Devotees!). Might have to take them with me next week....

My next game is 3000pts vs. Dark Elves. I hate Dark Elves. I have a lot of losses against their kin to avenge...

P.S. Vela won the fantasy category of the painting competition. Was really pleased with that. I'll get some better pictures taken of him if it brightens up any here and then will post a little story extract and updated background etc. for him.

Vela The Performer - Quick Pic

Vela The Performer - The Stage Is Set

A very hastily assembled mock-up of Vela's base. A mobile stage from which he can inflict his plays on the Old World! Let me know your thoughts!

Vela The Performer - A few more WIP shots

As Noeste guessed. The mini for Vela is a converted Sigvald The Magnificent.
I've done a bit more since these were taken but still got lots to do. Needs a lot more work on shading etc. One question mark I have is the mask. I want him to have it to hide the minis face. I'm unsure whether to add a creepy nose to the mask or leave it as it is. Does anybody have any opinion on that?
The mini is Sigvald, with an Empire Wizard hand for the book (which is Vela's copy of 'The Merchant of Marienburg'), and a flagellant hand holding the marionette 'control bar' (oh yes, I've been researching marionettes!).

Vela The Performer- Sneak WIP Peek

Nice easy one, who can guess the base model used for this conversion? No prizes other than pride in your Warhammer mini knowledge I'm afraid. Oh and I might post a couple more WIP pics as an added bonus!

Vela The Performer, The Mad Puppeteer, Sorcerer of Elazar

A special treat for you. I figured I'd let you see the first draft of this character.

Once a great performer in the Altdorf theatre, his true name since forgotten. He possessed some magical talent that charmed the minds of his audience in a harmless way, indeed he knew not of this gift of his. Like all performers he had many patrons in the nobility, it was the way of the rich to try and enhance their standing by supporting the arts. This one performer though had a patron of a different nature altogether.
One night after a grandiose performance of a play entitled ‘The Merchant of Marienburg’ the performer returned to his quarters to find all the usual lavish gifts left for him by his supporters. Amongst them was a curious glass case within which stood a scarecrow marionette. Intrigued the performer reached into the case and picked out the strange puppet.
The next day he did not show up for the play and when the angry theatre owner went to his quarters to rebuke the performer he found a scene of devastation. Untouched in the destruction of the quarters was a glass case and next to it a card signed ‘Elazar’.

The performer next turned up deep in the northern wastes where he’d wandered aimlessly until he was picked up by a Diatchi raiding party who took him captive. As is the way of the Diatchi and most of the other Kurgan races they made some of their captives fight to the death. Those they deemed blessed by the gods were spared and given a new life amongst the tribes. So it would be for this man as Elazar had developed a great love of his star performer and would see no harm come to him. He slaughtered a number of stronger slaves, showing a startling sorcerous ability that earned him the fear and respect of the tribesmen. They spared his life and he took the name Vela. It soon became clear that he was inseparable from the strange marionette that he carried with him. He spoke to the puppet and often fought with it. Worse for the tribesmen he often embarked upon strange performances for their ‘enjoyment’ sharing the lead roles with the being of wood and string that accompanied him. However, when at war he proved to be an invaluable ally. The puppet seemingly a focus for his power and his sorcery. Capable of controlling the minds of his enemies and making them do his bidding; his brand of warfare has proven invaluable in the wastes. An insane megalomaniac and egoist, Vela is now a favoured servant of Elazar and his presence can be found alongside the champions that his daemonic patron favours at that time.

Special Rules
Eye of the Gods

Sorcerer of Elazar: Vela is a Level 2 Sorcerer who chooses his spells as normal from the Lore of Slaanesh. His Mark makes him Immune to Pyschology.

Daemonic Patron: Elazar still watches over Vela, taking great interest in his career and keeping him from harm. Vela is immune to Killing Blow and Poisoned Attacks.

Insane Puppeteer: The Northmen respect Vela's power and know that he is truly loved by Elazar but an insane southman with a puppet doesn't inspire their confidence. Friendly models can never take advantage of Vela's leadership even if he is the army general.

Magic Items
The Marionette: This scarecrow marionette was given to Vela as a gift by his patron Elazar. The marionette is a focus for Vela's sorcerous power and a tool for his power of manipulation. The marionette has its own cruel intentions though and longs to break free of its controller. Indeed, at times the puppets will wrestles with Vela's, trying to reverse their roles and trap Vela within the confines of wood and strings. The puppet allows Vela to add D3 to his casting roll once per turn. This cannot cause a miscast or irresistible force. However the malevolent spirit of the marionette attempts to assume control and Vela must test for stupidity in his next turn whilst puppet and master battle wits.
The puppet also allows Vela to modify any rolls on the miscast table made by any wizard on the battlefield. Vela can modify the result up or down by up to the result of D3. This doesn't cause Vela to have to test for stupidity in his next turn.

Vela The Performer, The Mad Puppeteer, Sorcerer of Elazar
195pts

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Vela	4	5	3	4	4	2	5	2	8

Equipment: Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Marionette

Special Rules: Eye of The Gods, Sorcerer of Elazar, Deamonic Patron, Insane Puppeteer


Now WoC players and the eagle-eyed amongst you may have worked out already but this character is just a perfectly legal build of chaos sorcerer. I've just re-written his background and rules in a different order to create this character. He is in fact:

Chaos Sorcerer
Mark of Slaanesh
Level 2 Wizard
Infernal Puppet
Bronze Armour of Zhrakk
Conjoined Homunculus

He's a rather useful support wizard and I'm looking forward to getting a mini to represent him finished. It's a rather ambitious conversion (well by my standards any way) so I'm hoping it will turn out alright. Any feedback you have on what I've written here would be greatly received as this is just a first draft and corrections are almost certainly going to be needed.