The forests of the Eightpoints are twisted and terrible things, and even you fear to tread beneath those branches. Yet there are places where nature once thrived, and the spirits of the land may persist there still. You follow the dim song of these spirits until you discover a clearing claimed by another warband. They cover the land in their filth, tormenting the weakened spirits further. Water the ground with the interlopers’ blood and you may energise your kin enough to see them aid you.
This was the first convergence for the Nature's Byrches called the Crimson Downpour. I was a bit antsy to get rolling, so we rolled off for all the normal stuff, only to half way through realize that convergence have their own terrain, and victory rules. Vanquish was the victory conditions, attackers trying to kill off all of the models in the hammer deployment. Where as, we used Assassinate, attackers trying to take out the enemy leader. Similar enough for me.
I decided to use my Slaves to Darkness warband for this game, as narratively it seemed to fit better. They won't be receiving experience at the end of the game, but Rachel's trees will be. Then when we switch, I'll get Rachel to make a Khorne themed warband for the Brass Gods? for their convergence, as they are trying to hunt down a follower of Khorne that had fled a battle. Giving me experience for that battle. Seems even enough to me.
First turn, Rachel and I both bank our wild dice to use next turn. We rolled off to determine who would be attacker, Rachel won the roll off, picking to be the defender. I would need to force her to the edge of the board or kill her outright to win. The twist was Foreboding Location, which was fitting, all dice values were reduced by 1, making it impossible for us an ability higher then 5.
We both rolled 2 doubles and two singles for initiative, rolling off, Rachel took the first turn. Daonti takes off 4 damage from the crab arm with her long bow. Ove, the maurader beside the fence, runs through the crypt. Hoping to tie up Daonti in combat next turn.
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The board somewhere in the midst of turn one.
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| Halvdan Plax (Crab Arm) shows off the new damage tokens. |
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| Scophulis (nurgly head Leader) and Lepus (downward sword) starting position |
Otta was eager to get into the action, trying to take cover behind on of the crypts. Tossing a javalin at Thronrir, only about to deal 1 damage, from the reduction of the dice values from Foreboding Location. I guess Otta must have seen a ghost of his ancestor. Thronrir the Hunter didn't take his eyes off the marauder horseman, sticking the horse with an arrow, taking 4 damage off him.
Scophulis "runs" as far as he can go, for a heavily armored nurgle chaos warrior that only walks at 4 inches, he moves 8" towards the dryads. The leader on the card has two weapons instead of a shield, so it's a bit deceiving when the model can deal out 5 hits but has a toughness of 5 instead of 6 like the regular shielded Warriors.
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| Spyrath clashing with Scopulis, wounding him for 1 damage. |
Got into the game and didn't take any pictures of turn 2, not a whole lot that happened besides the Slaves to Darkness advancing into the middle of the battlefield. Loralith walked the spirit path, tunneling underground and popped up in front of Scopulis beside Spyrath. From the previous battle, Loralith found Serpent Venom to coat her claws with, striking the leader with poisonous scrapes, leaving deep gashes in the chaos warrior's black armor. Lepus was stuck with a couple of arrows, as well as Ove who ran down the middle.
Once turn 2 was finished, turn 3 our reinforcements arrived, Rachel's on my side of the board, and mine on the opposite side. Close to her leader.
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| Maudelith Bloomwych and Sventa form Rachel's Dagger deployment. |
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Three Mauraders, Guthroth, Jorg fell hand and Styr flank the Sylvaneth from behind.
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Islalith protects Daonti, blocking off Halvdan from attacking her, letting Daonti aim into unsuspecting Chaos Warriors. Thronrir the Hunter loosens two arrows into Ove, piecing the Marauder's gut, slaying the dark god worshiper. Halvdan would slay the tree revenant with an onslaught. |
| | Otta engages Daonti (Leader), trampling her for minimal damage before fighting. Hoping to keep her in combat so she won't be able to shoot her powerful twice next round. Meanwhile, Flytt locks up Ove and Slothi (the second marauder by the fence) to prevent their Leader from taking more damage. |
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Slothi's skeleton jumps out of his skin as Flyt shrieks, forcing him to become immobile, but still can attack
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Scopulis is out numbered by the Spite Revanants, Dvon and Loralith, both able to chip off health from the Leader. Lepus waddles slowly up to the fight, still out of reach to help his commander out.
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"Don't start the fighting without me!"
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"Psych!"
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Lepus climbs the fence, barely able to make it into combat with Thronrir the Hunter. Barely cutting into the bark of his arm. Doanti disenaged from Otta, seeking strength in numbers. At this point the Sylvaneth Leader envokes the Envoy of the Everqueen ability, giving all Sylvaneth within 6" +2 toughness and +2 Strength, making it much harder to damage their Leader.
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| You can't keep a good horseman down, Otta crashes into Daonti. |
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| Scopulis takes out Dvon, Loralith, Spyrath (not pictured) his putrid blood pooling on the snowy wastes as he falls over the fence. |
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Slothi is assailed from behind by Sventa, Halvdan watching on.
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In the middle of the fenced off area, there is an exchange of blood. Daonti, who disengaged from Otta and hopped over the fence, shoots at Lepus, a serated arrow punching through his bulky tower shield and into his chest dealing 7 damage to the Chaos Warrior. Enraged by his feeling death's cold hands around his throat. Lepus' rusty bastard sword cleaves off Thronrir's paldron like shoulder bark for 10 damage. Thronrir, trapped between a Chaos Warrior and a marauder (which must have went early but didn't do enough damage to be written in the notes.) unleashes his bark-knuckles on Lepus punching him twice for one damage.
Just as Scopulis manages to scale the fence, an arrow from Daonti catches the Leader in head, dropping him onto the ground.
Thronrir protects Doanti from charging marauders, he also punches a horse, which I assumed looked like this....
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Halvdan Plax moves in on Daonti, but only able to inflicted 2 damage on the Leader. |
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| Jorg and Styr slash strips of bark of Thronrir, but not enough to kill the mighty tree warrior. |
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After slaying Slothi, Sventa faces Guthroth between the fence.
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What a game that was! Rachel had killed my leader, and 1/3 of my warband as well as won the match. With her 3 previous Glory Points, she had enough for a dominion, gaining her an extra 50 points to add to her warband next game. No one was slain in the aftermath step, needing a 2 on 2d6. Rachel rolled low on the Artifact table, giving her nothing, but the Serpent Venom retained it's power.
Next on the Hobby Desk!
I have another Crusade battle against Pilon to write up, as well as the backstory for the "Divine Twilight" Cawdor gangers. The Barracades are mostly done, just need to work on the objective markers to finish it all off.
