So it has been a while since I updated on the progress of my hobbies and in particular painting. Whilst I have many painted models for each pained model i have two or three unpainted models and, to be honest, I struggle to dedicate time to that part of the hobby.
Painting models it generally the last thing I think of when I consider my options for what to do in my downtime. But, this weekend I made a shocking amount of progress. 80% done on 20% of my current Skaven army. Some grander details and basing is still yet to be done but I am happy at how the theme and look of these lowly clan rats is shaping up.
The kickstart for me is always seeing the progress in my fellow local gamers painted army and wanting them to have a more immersive have when playing against me. So I give you an unnamed clawleader (the leader of a unit of clanrats) and his clawpack, with a select few models I painted this weekend.
The clawpack
Unnamed clawleader
Banner bearer (design on banner pending)
Bell ringer
‘nearly trusted clanrat’
Well thats the small update I have for my painted Skaven so far. Hopefully I can ride this momentum out and produce a fully painted army this year.
If you have an idea for the name of the Clawleader let me know, I’d be keen to hear any and all suggestions and I’ll take my favourite from the suggested ones!
Don’t forget to look out for the end or month write-up that should be out tonight too and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
Hi all a brief note before I get stuck into it. This is the post game thematic view of the skaventide vs Fyreslayer game I had tonight with a mate of mine.
Army lists will be down below.
Lord Shrilleck mighty grey seer, second to only Thanquol (for now-now) swung atop his glorious clamouring-screaming bell.
Looking over the great hall of carved stone he screeched threats of a painful death at the clan rats that pushed and pulled his altar over the stone.
“Lord Shrilleck, we have found-found dwarf things. Not many but they have a monster of fire with them. They sound the horn-horns or war and march-march towards our forces.” Lord Verseks chittered from below the screaming bell.
Breathing in deep the warpstone from the brazer below he drew in power from the chaos stone before shrieking out “to war! Kill-kill, stab-stab. Leave none alive!!” He called as he beat the bound rat ogor that was chained to his altar driving him to ring the bell faster and harder.
The three clawpacks pushed forward whilst twitching manic plague monks pulled the plague furnace as the three plague priests chanted their prayers in the name of the great horned rat.
Giant rata darted around the screaming bell, nipping at clan rats and the tormented rat ogor excited to just be there as three plague claw catapults were moved to take up position overlooking the battlefield to gift these fyreslayers the gift the great horn rat felt them deserving; a bubbling, writhing miasma of filth.
The horns reverberates through the halls as lord Veseks skittered leapt around the battlefield throwing down a seed of power, a crystalline seed of dark power that could creat rifts in the warp, tunnels in reality which the clever skaven could use to move and shift around the battlefield.
The front lines could be seen now and the skaven forces moved into position before the clamoring of bells and screeching of bloodlust rippled forth and the battle began.
Grasping at the winds of magic Lord Shrilleck tried to pull arcane energy to form a wall of protection around him but the winds slipped from his grasp this far below the surface and the spell failed with an audible crack that splintered lengths of wood from the altars frame chasing him to fumble and lose his place in the spell.
The plague priests weren’t much better, their prayers of worship and evoking the horned rats power were met with disapproval as their dark lord tested their resolve by causing great sloughs of flesh to bubble and peal off them. Lord Veseks was the only one to snare power and drifted through the realm again with a skitterleap, appearing on top of an dias of some kind, a place of tactical advantage but as he tried to drain the life force from the massing fyreslayers the magic was whipped away from him. His loyal, well loyal enough, clawpack ran to form a protective ring around him trying to curry favour with the grey seer. As piles of filth rained down on the dwarves causing several to drop to the ground, recoiling as disease and bubbling toxic waste was launched at them from the plague claws.
The dwarves marched on, their priests calling out their own prayers and bright flashes lit up the dim light as runes of ur-gold burst aflame as their power was released. Then the dwarves charged forward, a wave of battle crying dwarves crossed the distance between the rats and them in a blink of an eye. As fire rained down towards Lord Shrilleck and the clawpack surrounding him he snarled ay the globes of magma as they missed and bubbled menacingly on the ground around him. Then they charged. Lord Veseks out as much distance between him and the charging dwarves as possible while a fyreslayer priest appeared from a tunnel.he carved from solid rock with.a detachment of warriors who charged at an exposed plague claw. Lord Shrilleck snarled in frustration at the poorly spent resources as he turned his back on the warmachine that surely wouldn’t survive the onslaught.
As the magmadroth, a beast of fire and lava charged over the dias and crashed into the clanrats ranks the onslaught that awaited those rats was swift and deadly, none survived. At the bottom of the dias plague monks screeched out challenges as prayers were read from scrolls and books. Turning towards the right flank lord Shrilleck was surprised to find the plague claw being defended bravely by its crew who appeared to be doing well against the veteran warriors.
The fyrelayers pressed their advantage, pushing further forwards crashing into the monks with a shattering downhill charge as magmadroth and fyreslayer dwarf cut their way through skaven. Seeing an opportunity Lord Shrilleck ordered his rat ogor to pull his altar away but the rats he left behind to defend him were quickly cut down to half their size. The plague monks threw themselves with reckless abandon as axes bit into their chest, leaving large wounds in magmadroth and dwarf alike. Still onwards did the plague claws crew fight and somehow their warmachine, and them, were stil alive.
Now the magic whipped through the air Lord Shrilleck turned just in time to see Lord Veseks skitterleap just as an axe cut down through the space he occupied a moment ago. Coward! Lord Shrilleck pulled ay the winds of magic, trying to use the chaotic energies to rip the earth under the dwarves apart and send them into the fire they worship so dearly, this time it was more successful and he managed to catch the runeson and cause a grievous wound. He then pushes forth a pestilent wave at a host of hearthguard beserkers causing diseases to infect their ranks but nome fell to the spell.
The plague priests chanted prayers to the great horned rat and a crippling curse was placed upon the Priest on Magmadroth, the clanrats, monks and plague priests themselves fighting with more fervour as eventually their cuts brought it down.
However a invocation made from living magma erupted from the battlefield and stated to splash molten rock at the skaven nearby. As the lines began to fold lord Shrilleck jumped from his altar and slipped through one of the nearby gnawholes watching just long enough to see his altar, the plague furnace and the remaining skaven rout – a solitary figure, one of thr plague priests darted towards another gnawhole but as lava was shot through the Sky towards Lord Shrilleck he dove into the chaotic energies and moved through the tunnels in reality swearing vengeance on the fyreslayers. Despite slaying the magmadroth more skaven was needed. Perhaps clan skrye or moulder would be able to spare him some of their creations so he can kill the dwarf things and rid them out of the tunnels the skaven have use for.
Armies.
Skaventide
– Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence LEADERS Plague Priest On Plague Furnace (235)** – Artefacts of Power: The Fumigatous – Prayers: Curse Grey Seer (140)** – Artefacts of Power: Suspicious Stone – Spells: Skitterleap Plague Priest (85)** – Prayers: Heal Grey Seer On Screaming Bell (265)*** – General – Command Traits: Cunning – Spells: Plague Plague Priest (85)**** – Prayers: Heal BATTLELINE Clanrats (130)* – Rusty Spear Clanrats (130)* – Rusty Spear Clanrats (130)* – Rusty Spear ARTILLERY Plagueclaw (135)*** Plagueclaw (135)**** Plagueclaw (135)**** OTHER Plague Monks (170)*** – Pair of Foetid Blades Plague Monks (170)*** – Pair of Foetid Blades Giant Rats (40)*** TERRAIN 1 x Gnawhole (0) CORE BATTALIONS – *Hunters of the Heartlands – **Command Entourage – ***Battle Regiment – ****Grand Battery TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000 Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App
Fyreslayers
Army Faction: Fyreslayers – Army Subfaction: Greyfyrd – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Indomitable
LEADER
Auric Runefather (125)* – General – Command Traits: Fury of the Fyreslayers – Artefacts: The Daemon Slayer
Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (340)* – Forge Key – Artefacts: Volatile Brazier – Mount Traits: Flame-scale Youngblood – Prayers: Ember Storm
Hi all and welcome to fight night where tonight I am getting ready for a warhammer game against an old friend and rival who has requested that I bring my Skaven once again to the front lines and do battle with his noble Fyreslayers.
But, tonight being fight night and I did say that I would bring some more Soulbound this week I wanted to explore combat and the “Creature Stat Blocks” for Soulbound.
So I will take you through some of my beloved Skaven models and do my best to explain the concept of these stat blocks (as I am still learning how the system works).
So without begging forgiveness for any mistakes I made, let’s roll on!
Skaven in Soulbound
213FrSS
The Clanrat
Second only to labourers and slaves, Clanrats are the most numerous and low ranking of the Skaven. Despite this, like all Skaven, every Clanrat is convinced of its superiority and the inevitability of its ascension to greatness. They clutch rusted arms stolen from dead rivals and seek any opportunity to advance their station. Individually, a Clanrat is no match for a prepared hero, in fact, a lone Clanrat is just as likely to squirt the musk of fear and flee than stand and fight. Yet Clanrats rarely fight alone, instead swarming together in hordes of frenzied fighters that throw themselves at their foes in a smothering wall of stinking flesh and chittering savagery.
So first things first, it looks a bit different to a Dungeons and Dragons stat block but there are a few things to go through so we will go from top to bottom.
The Clanrat is classified as a minion, they are lowest fodder on the battlefield and really only strong in numbers, as true to Skaven on the tabletop as possible.
They have Poor Melee, Accuracy and Defence (but rated as average with a shield). This relates to the ladder I mentioned in my first glance of the system. If you have poor defence then the Clanrat will need to have a Difficulty Number (DN) of 4 Body (Weapon skill) where from the dice pool they create from both their Body attribute (down the bottom of the block) and the levels in training they have in their Weapon Skill skill they need to roll 4 or better to beat your defence of poor. But, if you have Average defence then they will have a DN of 5 which means from your dice pool you need to roll a 5 or better to hit. If the Clanrats target has good or better defence then only a 6 on the dice roll will hit.
Having an armour of – means that any damage that is dealt (the number of successful hits + any damage modifiers from the weapon) isn’t stopped by armour. Armor reduces the damage dealt to the creature by 1 for each point in armour.
Toughness is the stamina before the creature takes damage through to their wound. Having a toughness of 1 means that they can have 1 point of damage allocated to them before they stat suffering wounds. The neat thing about toughness is that it will recover outside of battle if you spend a few minutes (I think 10) having a short break before charging into the next throng of enemies.
A wounds of – means that they are truly weak creatures and that by reducing their toughness to 0 that they will suffer a mortal wound and die.
Mettle is a resource which Characters and strong enemies have that enables them to push past the normal barriers in ones physical or mental training and or one moment gain and advantage. Having no Mettle is common for creatures.
Now Speed. To understand speed we need to understand how the game field is laid out in what we call Zones. A zone is an area of space, generally seen as 15ft but its broken up by natural barriers like a wall, fence, trees, door, a incline or decline (trench or parapet). The area where your Character stands is called “Short Range“, the zone adjacent to your zone is “Medium Range” and the zone adjacent to that (2 zones from you) is called “Long Range”
So if your character is in a room and you hear skittering outside the zone you are in now (the room) is short range, the space outside the door, a small field where a fence divides the wheat field and mill from the yard around the building you are in is Medium range, the field is Long range and the mill within the Field is “Extreme Range“. This helps to imaging distance as something relative rather than having a grid to move your character along 6 squares at at time which represents “30ft”.
Now back to Speed. If you have a Slow speed you can move anywhere in your move action to move within their current zone (short range) and must use the run action to move into the zone adjacent (medium range). A Normal speed, such as our Clanrat, means it can use a free action to move within the current zone “Short range”, use a move action to move to the zone adjacent (Medium range) and the run action to move into the next adjacent zone (Long range). Most creatures have a Normal speed but you can encounter creatures with a Fast speed which can move as a free action within their current zone and use the move action to move up to the two zones adjacent (Long range). See simple right?
Ok maybe not simple, its a big change to D&D but I think it does make sense.
Initiative is your Mind attribute and your the levels in training in the Reflexes and Awareness skills. I love this. No longer is it just who is quickest of body strikes first but those who are aware and keen of mind also can think and react quickly to danger. So our little Clanrat has an initiative of two.
Natural Awareness is really Soulbound’s version of Passive Perception.
Skills are shown here in their training level. Training level is represented by xd6 where x is the level the creature is trained in. This little rat has awareness (+1d6), Stealth (+1d6,+1) and Weapon Skill (+1d6). You may notice that out little Clanrat has a Stealth skill of (1d6, +1) which represents that he is trained in Stealth 1 level and that he has 1 point in Focus. Focus is really a floating 1 value that you can apply to any one dice roll made. An example is needed I feel.
This Clanrat is sneaking up through the wheat field and wants to make sure he is not found, mainly so one of the other Clanrat’s around him takes the first arrows and not him. he rolls DN4:1 Body (Stealth) he has 1 point in Body and 1 level of training in Stealth so he rolls 2 dice. He gets a 5 and a 3 but has 1 point in focus so he turns that 3 into a 4. This grants him 2 successes (nice!).
The next is traits. These are little things that the creature can do that make it.. it really. In this case this poor little Skaven Clanrat feels stronger and braver with friends and begins to fight as one horde of seething, chittering rat-men when he has friends! When he is joined by buddies they become a swarm of Clan rats where you attack as one when they are in the same Zone. This is reflected by gaining +1d6 to their attack pool and having +1 toughness (where each damage dealt kills 1 Clanrat per toughness decreased). However, area of affects (spells, weapons with a spread property, cleaving strikes and the like) deal double damage to a swarm.
Now attacks. This creature has two attacks and can pick one or the other. In this instance the rust blade or the rusty spear *(note it’s not trusty.. its definitely rusty) these attacks are both poor, have 2d6 in their dice pool (1 from body and 1 from weapon skill) and deal x+S damage.
The Rusty blade deals 1+S Damage which is 1 damage base + the number of successes. The Rusty blade is one handed so the Clanrat can wield a shield with the stabby-blade an bring his defence up to average from poor). The Spear deals more damage (2+S) but is just as bad as the rusty blade but is two handed – so no shield (watch out little rat!)
Finally we are down to attributes.
Attributes are simple in Soulbound – Body, Mind and Soul
Body represents your physical strength, your reflexes and coordination, and your overall body awareness. Characters with a high Body tend to be able to hold their own in a fight and rarely balk at manual labour.
Mind represents your intelligence, your awareness and perception, your deductive reasoning, and your ability to think on your feet. Characters with a high Mind are often inquisitive, quick witted, and studious, and are adept at thinking their way around a problem. Mind is also important for wizards and practitioners of the arcane arts.
Soul represents your inner being. It is your sense of self, your spirit and determination, and your ability to resist the influence of Chaos. Characters with high Soul are frequently spiritual leaders or champions, and are absolutely assured in their beliefs.
All attributes feed into Defence, Accuracy and Melee effectiveness as well as toughness, mettle, initiative, natural awareness and skill tests. Each test will be based off one of the three attributes and then a skill. The attribute may change from time to time (so Awareness may sometimes be related to a Soul (awareness) check instead of a Mind (awareness) check if something is trying to overcome your resistance to chaos.
These also form your basic pools in combat. Body for Melee dice pools, Mind for ranged pools and spell checks (Mind (Channelling) test).
Now, I wont go through it all again but lets look at the brutal muscle of the Skaven forces – the Rat Ogor
The Rat Ogor
Stitched, grown, and mutated under the claws of Clan Moulder’s most demented fleshcrafters, then sold to the highest bidder, Rat Ogors are the horrific fusion of Skaven and Ogor. Hulking masses of muscle and claw capable of ripping entire battalions to shreds, the Rat Ogors are singularly violent monsters, who’s only drive is to kill. While effective in the right circumstances, Rat Ogors are brutally stupid beasts, incapable of comprehending even the simplest of orders or using any weapons aside from their own teeth and claws. Yet with the symbiotic grafting of a secondary, and always unwilling, brain into the proceedings, a Rat Ogor is somewhat elevated. While the creature will never gain true intelligence, the parasitic brain can enforce its will upon the Rat Ogor, allowing it to follow commands, and more Importantly, wield weapons.
As you can see the Rat Ogor is a champion with exponentially better in melee a whopping body of 6 with weapons training (+2d6), a bunch more toughness (with Armor!) and a few other traits and attacks that make it a lethal killing machine.
I could go on and on giving more examples but, frankly, I don’t have that much time left in me for tonight and this would turn into a book rather than a blog post.
I am excited to bring some adventures through to you for Soulbound and hope to have a few games to build up interest for my local gaming group (and maybe beyond).
Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content including the end of March writeup (yes its April already.. but I will wrap up March first!). And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 