Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Thursday, 30 October 2025

A Halloween Ghost Story

It was a night like this one, a long time ago. 

Back before the plague, before the tech bros, before the red caps and the boss babes, back when we were all wandering the face of the earth wondering what to do, a whole world full of lost little children. 

I was driving that night way out past those hills on the horizon there. Those hills are a funny place I tell you what. Some folk say there's something in them, something old and strange that calls to men, draws them off their path. The stats sure back it up, the crash rate along those roads is crazy. I've seen more than a few cars off the road in my travels round there and the way they looked, the way they had crossed past the barrier and over the side, the way they had come to their final rest, like a faithful horse carrying its rider to the very end, something just so damn uncanny specific about those wrecks when I seen 'em, well... 

... well I just can't help but think about those stories. 

And after that night, well... 


It was late, coming up to midnight. I had gone out for a cruise, to clear my head I suppose. I needed to get away, to run away, to fly away, to run to the edge of the world and never look back. I wanted to put my past as far away behind me as I could, and I had kept it in the rear view mirror at 80ks an hour since the sun had started painting the world one colour at a time. I had gone to the edge of the road, right to the sea, and since I had a car not a boat, that meant the end of the line. Only trouble was, I had done such a good job of outrunning my demons, I couldn't remember the way back. 

And it's the damndest thing, no matter how sure I was that I was turning back towards home, I kept ending up further and further into the hills. I tell you, those hills out there are funny things, they like to play tricks on you at night. 

The car's clock was coming up on 3AM by the time I got out of the hills, and I was a long way off the main roads. I decided to pull over and check the map to see if I could get a bearing. 


That was when I saw the school. 


I had come to a stop across the road from it, that desolate archipelago of buildings rising from the endless open countryside, still and empty and gaping like a dollhouse for giants. I had just turned the engine off when the moon caught the sign outside, a blazon of bright flowers and shiny blue ocean as vivid and colourful as the day it was first painted. It's funny how signs can outlast their buildings like that. The school itself, well I have to say I don't think that place had been teaching kids for years. 

Maybe it never did. 

The buildings seemed to huddle and grow close as I glanced across them. Their windows were still and black, their timbers blue in the forsaken night, but I swear in that moment my appreciation over the place weren't a two-way street. I looked into that deserted lost place, and it looked straight back at me with those gaping black holes of windows. 

And then I noticed the library. 

It was the biggest building, in the centre of the huddle. When I looked hard enough I could just make out the rows of bookshelves through its windows, a tiny other world at the end of a long dark tunnel. 

Why did I think there would be anything valuable in there? I don't know. Maybe I just couldn't leave a stone unturned if there was a chance a treasure of forgotten lore was under it. Maybe I wanted to believe I could escape back to that island of time when I could lose myself in the picture books in my old school library, paint whole worlds from just the pages, and live a whole afternoon in them without a care in the world. 


All I know is I locked the car behind me, dashed the road and jumped the chain at what used to be the gate. 


It was a wild night that night. The wind roared across the fields, clouds swam before the wheeling stars. But as I got closer to that place, everything got dead quiet. Even the wind seemed to leave it well enough alone. 

Maybe once that school had been a kind place, with its rows of white buildings. But the flowers painted on the walls had faded to a bone-like pallor, and one or two of the classrooms sat with their white painted walls clawed and mangled with deep dark scorching, the charred blackness behind their windows almost still smoldering to the eye. Through one window rows of desks stood with chairs neatly folded up, another they sat open before the desks as if in anticipation. A handprint sat in the corner of one window, a tiny footnote of darkness upon the darkness behind it. 

The only thing that moved besides me were a pair of swings on the far side of the concrete lake these islands of wood and darkness were set upon, twisting and rocking without a sound. There wasn't a damn noise in all the world as I walked through that place. 

Just the sense that something bad had happened here a long long time ago. 

The door to the library threw itself open with a crash that split the night like a meteor. Rust crept around its lock and hinges like mould. I made for the vast towering maw of darkness that lay beyond, daring it to swallow me before the future did. If the noise of the world was timid around the school, the light was just as meek inside it. It was only after a minute of careful, purposeful snaking through black upon black that I was finally able to make the open inner doorway, and that cold barren maze of shelves beyond. I pressed through, past shelves of  glossy hardcovers and tattered shambles of desecrated pages. 


And then right at the heart of that damn room I'll never forget what I saw. 


As soon as I laid eyes upon it the door smashed shut with another cleaving thunderclap. All at once the back of my head burned with anticipation, like a thousand eyes were staring down on me, judging me for ever daring to trespass that god-forsaken ruin that claimed them as their home forever. My own heart was silent. My own head was silent. My own soul was silent. The darkness smothered like water overhead. 


That was when I heard the yowl. 


A howling preening cry that cut through the suffocating silence like a sword. I wrenched my head to where it came from, a cat on the open window, its shapely tail curling up and back and beckoning me to where I was before. I needed no further invitation. I bolted for the window, not squandering a second to look back. The beast turned and leapt as I reached it, lunging behind me in an arrow of fuzzy darkness and brilliant iridescent eyes that shone like gold. I threw myself out the opening and ran, ran until my chest screamed and my hands hit familiar metal and glass. 

I got in the car and drove like the wind, until I glanced that darting serpentine shape of paws and ears and arrow-straight tail bolt right across the edge of my lights. I turned after it at the next intersection and as the moon broke through again I finally found myself coming towards the marching army of lights that cordoned the motorway. 


But I'll never forget what I saw that night in the heart of that damn room. 


It looked like this. 


Oh. OHHHHHHH! Oh I finally get it now! It's supposed to be a chained up tome of evil! All these years I thought the cover was just some kind of chain-gimp fetish shoutout


Ever since first learning of its existence I've tried very hard to understand and appreciate Wraith: The Oblivion. Its reputation as being the ultimate apotheosis of edgy grimdark, the shining jeweled cherry of pure distilled edgy grimdark misery on top of the already mountainous sundae of edgy grimdark drenched with hot edgy grimdark misery sauce that is the Old World of Darkness, has intrigued me because being already familiar with both Warhammer 40,000 and the golden child of the OWOD Vampire: The Masquerade, the idea of there being a tabletop game even more grimdark than those two is something I just have to see for myself - I'm fascinated by Kult for very similar reasons. 

Of course, the other big drive behind my fascination with Wraith is its other reputation as the neglected spat-upon Zoidberg of the OWOD, and as something of a Zoidberg myself I cannot help but naturally relate to such a product. One does not spend 15 years as a Tau player in online 40k fan spaces without developing at least a little empathy for a good outcast no-one likes (it's either that or internalise the hatred and become one of those Tau players that's not like Those Other Girls Tau fans)

Unfortunately, for a long time no matter how hard I tried I just fundamentally did not get Wraith. The trouble was that its dense world of Shadowlands and Stygia and Acranoi and a million billion assorted eternal realms of afterlife was all just noise to me, a sea of bizarre concepts that I just fundamentally could not get my head around enough to fully care about. 

And I suspect that's one of Wraith's biggest problems. At least when it comes to cultivating an audience and being successful. 

It's telling that until very recently the game's biggest moment in the spotlight, the time where it came closest to reaching a mass audience, was in one of the best sequences of the video game Bloodlines... that did not even bother to so much as mention a single thing about Wraith's background worldbuilding and instead focused down on classic ghost story staples with laser precision to masterful effect. 

What's also telling is the breakthrough that finally managed to pierce the cloud and start bridging the gap between me and Wraith. It was many years after I had first learned of Wraith, and I was revisiting the TVtropes page for the game in some idle web-browsing when I came across this buried gem: 


It's possible to permanently yield some power to your Shadow in order to reenter your body and become one of the Risen until you take care of some unfinished business. Yup; you become The Crow. 


Now THAT, that right there. THAT, is a concept. That is something I could comprehend having fun with. The stuff about a million billion afterlife realms and cliques politicking in them and also apparently all the stuff is made out of other ghosts now for some reason? That was all still largely illegible alien nerd gibberish to rival the Voynich Manuscript, but "You get to play as The Crow in the OWOD" was a concept with serious potential. 

And it was an angle that stuck with me just long enough to remember it right when I needed it most. 

It was 2020, and the climactic final act of the Vampire adventure that remains my magnum opus as a GM was coming up to high gear. In the sexy glitzy nights of central San Francisco, my PCs had just rescued an important personal friend of the local Tremere coven and an expert in ritual enchantments. In doing so they had finally learnt of the presence of a hard-as-nails veteran vampire hunter, hot on the trail of the defecting Sabbat VIP the PCs had been tasked with guarding and now packing an arsenal of custom tailor-enchanted anti-vampire stakes that she had forced the aforementioned Tremere hostage to make for her. 

(and as it turned out, also the daughter of the Final Girl that helped the Gangrel PC take down a Tzimisce operation back in the day) 

One brief car-motorcycle chase later, and two of the PCs had managed to narrowly apprehend said vampire hunter and get her unconscious ass back to their hideout. Between the difficulty in actually apprehending her and a cursory examination of the absolute arsenals found in the two duffel-bags on her person, the PCs quickly came to the (correct) conclusion that Ghouling her would make a formidable ally. 

Unfortunately the attempt to make a Ghoul out of her fell through when two sets of character prime directives violently collided with each other. See, the PC who had taken on the Ghouling plan as a pet project had this whole thing about only ever turning people into Ghouls and Vampires with consent ("I'm going to give you the choice I never had"), but what the players did not know was that Ms Vampire Hunter had her own whole thing about not becoming the very monsters she hunts at all costs. The resulting impasse might have been resolved with a sufficiently impressive feat of persuasion (which I was actually low-key rooting for the PCs to pull off), but the PC was the party's muscle and very much a fighter not a lover, and for whatever reason the player behind him never thought to break out and switch over to the much more socially inclined Ghoul they already had at their disposal (which I was actually low-key rooting for them to do), so the impasse was ultimately only resolved with terminal neck trauma. 

Yet it was not the end. The almighty puppeteer god that ruled over their world from behind the shadows was not yet ready to let go of such a promising NPC. Not least because it would make the job of putting together more session content easier if a few more sessions could be squeezed out of her. 

And it was in exploring ways to salvage the character that I remembered that little line from the TVtropes page, and the concept of Risen in the OWOD. It seemed like the perfect solution, so I went over to the White Wolf Wiki to at least get a cliff-notes understanding of what Risen were and how they work. 

And that was how I discovered the next big breakthrough with Wraith. 

See, it turns out that one of the special things Risen get access to is a couple of unique sets of powers. One of those unique lists of powers is called Serendipity, and the Wiki describes it as having power over coincidences that a Risen can use to- 


Wait. 


Hold up. 


Wait. 


Wait wait. 


Wait hold up. 


Wait hold up here a minute. 


Lemme just. 


Lemme just backtrack a little there and.. 


Those who master Serendipity can make coincidences work in their favor.


Make coincidences work in their favour. 


The power of coincidence. 


Coincidence. 


Coincidence, random chance. 


Random chance, coincidence. 


Like in Final Destination


The power of coincidence, like in Final Destination


Wait. 


Wait wait wait wait wait. 


Hold the fuck up here a minute. 


 Just hold the fuck up here a minute White Wolf. 


You're telling me, White Wolf, that in this Wraith game of yours, this whole time, I could have been going fucking full Final Destination on motherfuckers?  


Holy FUCK White Wolf! Why in god's name did you not open with that? That's the most metal thing I've heard all month! That's rock as hell! Fucking sign me up right there, that's the sale of the century! Bringing back this badass Vampire hunter as pissed off revenant with motherfucking Final Destination powers is exactly the kind of cool fun out of leftside challenge for my PCs I'm looking for! I can have ALL kinds of fun with that concept! 

Right that settles it, we're breaking out this Wraith stuff, we're making this girl a Risen and we're going to be busting out ALL the Final Destination powers, here we go, it's gonna be wild, it's gonna be rad, crank up that Within Temptation and lesh go! 




Alright here we go, I'm all fired up on Within Temptation, I'm feeling this in my bones, I am READY for these Final Destination powers, come on White Wolf hit me with every one of these Serendipity powers you got! Let's do this! Here we go! 


Oh. 

Oh. 


What the HELL White Wolf. How the HELL do you screw up Final Destination powers? I was promised an arsenal of kickass Final Destination powers and instead you give me a bunch of pissy little fee-fee kumbaya kombucha rubbish? What the hell am I supposed to do with any of this! I'm trying to make a paranormal supernatural horror story here not start a bible group! 

Just, just just go. Just get out of here White Wolf, just get the hell out of here. Go sit in the corner with Marmite, you deserve each other. This is why no-one likes you. 


So needless to say I almost immediately threw all the stuff on the wiki page out the window and exercised my awesome omnipotent might as GM to come up with some real Final Destination powers instead. And it was awesome. 


My point here is that this whole story is illustrative of Wraith's big framing problem and what I believe has held Wraith back from finding the same kind of success that Vampire did - Deep inside Wraith: The Oblivion is a mass of potential for a truly brilliant game, but it's hideously mismanaged and buried under 700 tons of clomping nerd bullshit for nerds, and the clomping nerd bullshit is placed front and centre as the star attraction which is the Tabletop Game marketing equivalent of going to a first date with a girl and then immediately asking her for graphic lewd descriptions of her feet and what they can do- it's the sort of thing you have to work up towards. 

That's not to say that this is all Wraith's fault specifically. The exact same problem plagues just about every single OWOD game that's not Vampire: The Masquerade, to varying extents, and again is a not insignificant factor in why none of them have ever really been able to replicate the same level of success and popularity that Vampire did. They all have this bad habit of trying way the hell too hard to make themselves their own distinct unique OC Do Not Steal IP, and in doing so they all end up overthinking everything and becoming dense and out there, and thus off-putting to a lot of people who would otherwise probably quite like their concepts. 

In contrast, Vampire never tried to be its own distinct unique completely original IP. It got there by accident while trying to be the ultimate general purpose vampire RPG. And when it comes to drawing in a big audience, that general purpose nature is a very powerful advantage. Being a general-purpose genre melting pot is a very effective survival strategy for a work of fiction, because leveraging existing familiarity allows preceding works to do half the work for you in priming people to like your content. If you've already grown up with westerns, adventure pulp, knight and samurai fantasy and war movies, then you're already primed to understand and like Star Wars. If you've grown up with 20th century sci fi like Aliens, Star Trek, Star Wars and so on, then you're already primed to understand and like Starcraft

And it's fundamentally the same with Vampire: The Masquerade. You're not playing in minutiae of fancy edgy goffik latinicus words, you're playing with sexy vampires. Or classic aristocratic vampires. Or classic hissing Orlock style vampires. You start by picking a classic vampire archetype and working out from there, and all the fancy gothic names are just window dressing that's mostly there as lawsuit repellant. And it works because if you're looking at Vampire: The Masquerade then you've probably already been weaned on a steady diet of Buffy, Anne Rice, Blade and Bram Stoker Francis Ford Coppola and know exactly what to expect and exactly what you're here for going in. 

With the other OWOD titles? Not so much. With them, the out-there OC IP is the central framework, and there's not really the same kind of ready-made onramp. 

In a lot of cases this is due to being victims of circumstance, in particular bad timing preventing them from piggy-backing off the cultural zeitgeist. Mage: The Ascension and Hunter: The Reckoning both suffer badly from this rotten luck - the former coming out three years too early to ride the Craft to Charmed Wicca pipeline, and the latter coming out six years too early to ride the Supernatural wave. And I suspect in both cases they were somewhat forced to improvise something to fill the gap, and resorted to doing so with varying degrees of clomping nerd bullshit that is often just really Out There man. Vampire, in contrast, was blessed to come out at just about the perfect time to be able to pick up on the experimental Lost Boys - Fright Night era of vampires and then slingshot off the Sexy Vampire Renaissance of the 90s, and thus never needed to try that hard. 

And that's not to say that really Out There niche stuff can't be good - the cult followings a lot of the non-Vampire OWOD titles have cobbled together is proof that people clearly do get invested in it - but it is going to have a lower ceiling on just how popular and successful the IP can get. As the old adage goes, not everybody drinks wine, but everybody drinks water. 

And this whole issue is probably most visible with Wraith, and most tragic because, when you dig down to that bedrock, Wraith is actually weirdly just about in the best possible place to replicate Vampire's success with the same survival strategy. 

It's not something you notice often, but when you sit down and really look at things, there's almost as many classic ghost stories in popular culture as there are vampire stories, and unlike the vampire stories, a lot more of those ghost stories actually centre ghosts themselves as protagonists. That means you don't even need to work as hard blending in out-of-subgenre elements. 

Those pop-culture influences are already enough to build a cool fun OWOD Wraith game off of. You don't need reams and reams of nonsense metacosmic spirit world politics, you don't even need a spirit world (seriously, why did White Wolf start confining their OWOD games to weird otherrealms?). You can just set players down and say "Alright, you're all ghosts, you have unfinished business in this life and there's some bad guys over there. Go Final Destination some motherfuckers. Go Beetlejuice the fuck out of them." and have a compelling fun game doing that. 

Because again, that's what Vampire: The Masquarade does, just with vampire pop culture. 

What do players do each night, you might ask? Well that's a great question, and the other great strength of Wraith is that it already has a really good solid answer for that too - just, again, buried under 700 tons of clomping nerd bullshit. 

The players try to transcend. 

It's been pointed out by some that Wraith for all its grimdark moping is ironically one of the most optimistic OWOD games because the ghostly ambition of resolving all the remaining lose ends tying them back and moving on to a better genuinely blissful afterlife is a goal that's actually viable in gameplay - you can practically achieve that over an adventure, in a way that you just can't with something like, say, riding yourself of the dark unholy thirst of the beast in Vampire. 

I'm compelled to agree, but I would go a step even further. That goal right there is on its own a perfect organic core story hook for you to base RPG sessions off of. That, right there, is the answer to the eternal question, as a wise blogger long ago once put it, of "what shall we do tonight Brain?" 

You try to work through your remaining life baggage so you can transcend to a final blissful existence. When in doubt, start exploring memories. 

Because ghosts, fundamentally, are MEMORIES. That's all a ghost is, a memory with an attitude and agency. That's why they're always tied to haunted places and objects, because that's how memories work - a thing or a place or a time reminds you of the memory. It's also why you can be haunted even by ghosts of people who aren't even dead, like when you're haunted by memories of an ex-girlfriend around an old anniversary. 

Someone on the Wraith team seemed to get this, because there's a good solid infrastructure in place already for that with all the fetters and tethers and such, but again, it's mismanaged and used as a footrest for 700 tons of unnecessary clomping nerd bullshit. 

Baddies you say? Well we'll get to those in the companion piece to this one. Oh yes, don't you worry about that, I have big plans all about playing stone-cold baddies galore. 

Oh wait, you mean bad guys, antagonists to fight? 

Ah well yes they're important too. We need someone to use those rocking Final Destination powers on. But I'm still not convinced you need a dark cosmic primordial evil with an army of evil spirits for that. After all, Vampire: The Masquerade - remember, the most popular OWOD game by a fair margin - does just fine without all that. In that one the bad guys are just a combination of antagonistic humans in your way and other vampires that are even worse than you and don't even pretend to care about humans or humanity. And that works. That 'hell is other people' concept works just fine, you don't need to go dragging in cosmological dark lords to justify it. 

And I feel like that formula would work much better for Wraith. Forget Oblivion and Spectres and all that, the bad guys in your way are just antagonistic humans and bad ghosts - no big cosmological reason why they're bad, they were just assholes in life and now they're assholes in death. People do be like that sometimes. Now go, get out there and Final Destination those motherfuckers. Go Beetlejuice the fuck out of them. 

See taking those kinds of antagonists, combining them with the core gameplay loop of exploring memories and resolving the loose ends holding your ghosts back from moving on, and a framework of classic ghost stories, produces a really focused, compelling tabletop RPG, with a focus on personal stakes and storytelling. No it doesn't have any grand sweeping cosmological battle of good and evil, but that's OK not every OWOD game needs one of those. In fact quite a few of them would probably be better off without it. You can have a fun cool and compelling game about a bunch of ghosts trapped in the real world (well the OWOD real world) cleaning up their memory baggage so they can move on to the better place they're supposed to be. With awesome Final Destination powers. 

And that, is what would make a Wraith game work for me at least. 


Cultural Touchstones 

So what are the pop culture touchstones that White Would should be drawing on for Wraith? What classic ghost stories should be the basis for its DNA? Well looking through my wall of VHS tapes, these for starters. 


Final Destination -  the reference that started it all. Raving about how excellent a source for game powers the film is, it's also a really really great classic example of a ghost story, at least of sorts. Final Destination is ultimately a classic ghost story without the ghost, with the characters instead being haunted by death itself. If you're wanting a good classic touchstone for what it's like to be haunted, this one is an excellent first pick. 


The Frighteners - gotta support the home team! As well as being a criminally underrated gem in its own right, The Frighteners is a great example of a ghost story with ghosts as... well not really protagonists but deuteragonists or deutragonist-adjacent at least. The dynamics between the main characters also give a good suggestion for what an ensemble party of ghost PCs might look something like, and while the surface design and concept of the antagonist is similar to what I think they were aiming for with the Spectres in the old game, the ultimate twist about the antagonist is a perfect example of the "hell is other people" type of antagonists that a good fresh Wraith game really should be focusing on more. 



Beetlejuice - it just wouldn't be a list of classic ghost pop culture without Tim Burton's magnum opus (yeah die mad about it old Batman fans) somewhere near the top. Beetlejuice, in case you are not familiar, is a tragic tale of achieving the ultimate pinnacle of the highest heaven, being cloistered up in your hobby room for all eternity with a 32 year old Geena Davis who utterly loves you, only to then have it all agonisingly ripped away by a couple of obnoxious yuppies and an immature edgelord who is summoned with the invocation "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" (repeating it also sends him back). Oh and Winona Ryder is there too. 

But I digress. The key thing about Beetlejuice, and what makes it such a key ingredient in what Wraith should be aiming for as a ghost RPG, is that Beetlejuice is probably the classic modern ghost story that's actually centred around ghosts. The protagonists are ghosts, one of the main antagonists is a ghost, and the central focus of the story is about ghosts navigating and adjusting to life after life. That makes it perfect bedrock to build a ghost-focused RPG on. 

I suspect this might be another case of someone on the Wraith team having the right idea, because I suspect that a lot of the nerd baggage in the game came about as an attempt to riff on the afterlife politics that also crop up in this film. But if that's the case then they also sort of missed the point completely, because the story here isn't about the afterlife politics, the story is about two newly ghostified people trying to make sense of their new existence and find their new place in the world. And that is exactly the sort of story that Wraith should really be focusing on. The rest is just garnish. 

Oh and there's also lots of rich inspiration for alternative powers to Final Destination too. 


Ghost - OK so there's two classic quintessential ghost stories centred on ghost as protagonist, and I need to throw in both of them if I want to avoid having my pop culture guru license revoked. But that's OK because I was going to do it anyway. Ghost is of course THE classic ghost movie, it is for ghost stories what Dracula and Interview are for vampire stories, but it's also EXACTLY the sort of personal stakes, personal-level story about exploring memory and tying up loose life baggage in order to ascend to the right place that should be Wraith's bread-and-butter. Give me a game where I play out something like this, and your game will be very popular and successful. 


Corpse Bride - Yet another ghost story with a ghost as deutragonist sort-of, and a focus on ghost characters navigating unresolved life baggage. A lot of what applies to the other entries above also applies here. It's almost like there's a common creative influence it shares between one of the others...


Thirteen Ghosts - while the other entries on here are all strong ingredients for what Wraith's story focus should be, this one is a key ingredient for what Wraith's aesthetic and visual design ought to be taking cues from. The story of the film itself is transparently threadbare and largely just an excuse to get characters exposed to freaky visuals, but those visuals themselves are on point. The look, design and character backstories of the titular ghosts are what has carried this film since its release, and are exactly the sort of place to look for when working out what Wraith characters might look like. Heck take the titular 13 ghosts from this film and you've already got a pretty respectable gallery of Wraith NPCs and/or pre-built PCs right there. 


Ghosts - rounding out the core lineup is this fun little gem of a TV show, as a good example of how ensembles of ghost characters can work over a serialised arc not dissimilar to the average RPG adventure, all delightfully framed by the charming charisma and dynamic magnetism of star actor Rose McIver who is a treasure to watch and a credit to every production she's in. 

Oh and there's also some obscure UK derivative of the show too I think. I suppose that's probably worth a watch too. 


Ghost Chips - Again, gotta support the home team! 


An astute observer will probably have noticed one recurring pattern across all these titles. None of them have the same sort of roof-top leather katana fighting action of Vampire, nor do they have the low-down gritty blue-collar brawling action of, say, Werewolf: The Apocalypse. The basis for a white-knuckled action game this is not. But that's OK, because not every OWOD game has to be like that, and in some cases it's a mistake for every OWOD game to try to be. It's OK to just be a personal game about personal character stories with personal character stakes. 

There's room in the OWOD for that. 


Ah ha haha.. 

YEEE-HOOO! 

Ah hahah hah hah! 

Ha hahahah hah hah hah, YEEEE-HOOOO! 

Hav'n trouble with the nerds? 

You tired of having your tabletop games neglected? 

You wanna get rid of them pesky profit losses once and for all? 

WELLL come on down to see me folks, 'cause I'm the nerd world's leading upcoming writer! 

Yessiree, come on down here and I wanna tell ya, 

I'll do ANYTHING! 

... 

I'll scare 'em REALL BAD, the POINT IS folks, I'm gon' do anything to get yer business! 

Hell! I'll possess MYSELF if I gotta! 

WOAH! YOWWWWWWW I got deemons runnin' all through me, ALL THROUGH ME! 

Come on down here and see it! 

And hey, if you act now, you get a free golden new game concept with every critique! Ah now you can't beat that can you. 

And bring the lil' parts down here! Hell we got plenty of snakes an' lizards for 'em to play with, there's no problem with that at all! 

So, 

Say it once! 

Say it twice! 

Third time's the charm! 

And remember! 

I'll eat anything you want me to eat, 

I'll swallow anything you want me to swallow, 

So come on down! I'll... 

I'll chew on a dawg! 

AWOOOOOOOOOOH!


A Halloween Witch's Tale

Hubble bubble, toil and trouble, 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble, 

By the clicking of my Friday Night Stilettoes, 

Something wicked this way goes... 



I was only in primary school when I first became aware of the existence of Charmed, the unhinged lunatic spiritual sister-series to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. For a long time my entire exposure to it was in the television ads that made their way to me while I was watching other shows, but as the years went by I became increasingly intrigued by this strange mysterious show about three sisters fighting demons or wizards or something. This was not least because by that point I was starting to experience strange funny feelings around girls, and the show featured Rose McGowan in a lot of slinky outfits. 

And then, just like that, it was gone. The show ran its course, vanished from broadcast, and the ads vanished with it, and I turned to other more pressing interests, leaving the strange mysterious sister magic show to fade from memory. 

From time to time over high school I was reminded of it when I came into contact with goth girls who were fond of the show, and from there I was able to piece together what Charmed was actually supposed to be about - a Buffy-style paranormal drama about 3-4 witches who fought demons and/or evil wizards with magic, with a lot of melodrama ensuring. So far so good, but my attention for supernatural drama quickly became dominated by Buffy, Angel and Supernatural, leaving Charmed to once again fall by the wayside. 

Then just recently I finally got around to reconnecting with and finishing watching through Allison Pregler's acclaimed chronicle of the life and times of Charmed, which currently stands at twelve volumes and a little over 11 hours of footage. I discovered much along that journey, learning of the tortured history of the show both in and out of its universe, and I can understand both why it never reached the same heights as Buffy and why the goth girls I knew in high school still loved it dearly all the same. 

But most of all, my single biggest impression was of just how fundamentally, quintessentially OWOD the whole thing was. The more I saw of it, the more I kept thinking "Oh my god! This is SO OWOD! This is just like the OWOD! That is EXACTLY the sort of thing that you would expect from the OWOD!" 

(and also the accompanying thought, "These characters could be a lot of fun to roleplay in an OWOD environment")

And the more I thought about that the more another thought began to slowly creep in - wait a minute, why isn't this in the OWOD? Sure Charmed might have never been a tremendous cultural phenomenon, but it did still have enough traction to net 8 seasons, 2 comic book sequels and enough of a cult following to warrant a reboot 10 years later. And it came off the tail of The Craft and a general undercurrent of fascination with all things wicca by the new age and goth movements in the 1990s. That sounds like exactly the sort of thing that White Wolf would have tried to cash in on with an OWOD game about cool sexy gothic witches hanging out in covens and getting into melodrama and fighting stuff with magic and riding around on Ducati motorcycles wearing slinky leather outfits. 

Yet it was nowhere to be found. 

Going through the various OWOD game lines I could think of, not a single one of them matched that description. But wait! That's right, wasn't there that one OWOD game about magic and shit? Surely that one would have to have a big thing all about cool sexy witches getting into antics, after all, it was an OWOD game about magic and magic practitioners in the wicca-flavoured era of the 90s. I remembered discovering that one a long time ago and then promptly writing it off when the masses of dense nerd baggage it presented me with made my brain hurt, but maybe I had been too hasty in writing it off completely. Maybe it was worth another look. 

So I opened up TVtropes and the White Wolf Wiki for some cursory research, and sure enough.... well.... I mean there was sort of kind of something like that in Mage: The Ascension, if you squinted... but it was still buried under 500 tons of nerd baggage about weird cyberpunk tesla magitek civil war stuff that still made my head hurt reading about it. 

So that leaves with a roughly Charmed shaped niche, almost completely unoccupied, with Mage partially covering it from one side, and Vampire: The Masquerade's Tremere partially covering a little bit of if from another end, but in both cases with a bunch of superfluous hoops to jump through and a focus on other dense nerd baggage, and neither one really being a peg that conforms to the hole well enough to scratch the Charmed But Make It OWOD itch perfectly. 


And that, then, is why I not-so-secretly yearn for a hard reboot of Mage: The Ascension that burns down "the lore" to make room for an additional new game fully rooted in a bedrock of wicca fantasy with a focus on playing out Charmed grade melodrama among witch covens in the OWOD. Look I'm sorry Mage fans, but it doesn't matter how hard you try to push it on me, at the end of the day I just can't get into Cyberpunk Magitech Civil War. That concept just does not make my brain go brrr on a fundamental level. 

But you know what does make my brain go brrr? What makes my brain brrrr hard? That's right, Charmed but Make It OWOD. Give me a game where I'm a sexy petty vindictive high-drama witch with phenomenal cosmic power, hanging out in a coven of other sexy petty vindictive high-drama witches with phenomenal cosmic power, getting into all kinds of wild soap opera shenanigans with vampires and werewolves and mortals over demon hexes and mimosas, and I am fucking there. THAT, that right there, is my idea of a good time tabletop RPGing. THAT, is a premise with potential. THAT, would be an OWOD game that works for me. 

What. Don't look at me like that. We all know perfectly well that wild trashy soapy melodrama is the lifeblood of the OWOD. The OWOD runs on wild trashy soapy melodrama. We're ALL here sliving for the wild trashy soapy supernatural melodrama, I'm just man enough to be honest about it. 

And given how much of a cult following Charmed and The Craft both have, enough that the CW tried to revive Charmed despite the infamy surrounding it, I feel confident in saying I'm not the only one out there who feels that way. I have zero doubt that there is a viable audience for that. I have every confidence that the premise I just pitched, a well-made storytelling game of demon hexes and mimosas, would sell like wildfire with the right marketing. 

I mean, just look at that tagline right there - A storytelling game of demon hexes and mimosas. That is a world-class tagline right there. The game almost writes itself from that tagline. Throw in some fun sexy artwork along that vibe and you're away with the races. 

The trick, of course, is that it would sell like wildfire among a completely different audience to what White Wolf has traditionally targeted. It's very obviously NOT going to sell like wildfire amongst your archetypal old-school 90s 'hArDcOrE' nerd RPG Gamur type, the sort of archetypal basement rocker who plays D&D to punch dragons in the face as an axe-waving barbarian and reacts to mimosa nights like a vampire to a church. That sort is obviously the sort that is much more likely to appreciate some industrial edgy cyberpunk magitech civil war premise instead, which is why the Mage game we got did so well with them. I am aware that as far as archetypal old-school 90s hardcore nerds go, I am in the minority in this regard. 

But here's the thing. You don't have to pitch or sell all your tabletop games to that one demographic. There are other demographics you can make tabletop games for instead, especially in this post-Gamergate, post-nerd culture world, and those other demographics pay just as well as the traditional nerds do. 

And this is important because marketing some tabletop games to those other demographics is an awesome way to grow your revenue, since it taps into streams of money that aren't already going into your coffers. If you make Wicca: The Craft, a storytelling game of Demon Hexes and Mimosas, those old-school nerds are still going to buy Vampire: The Masquerade and have fun chopping bad guys to bits with katanas while wearing sunglasses in it. The difference is that now in that hypothetical, you have the old-school nerds pouring money into your game company AND a whole new audience of goth girls also pouring money into your game company, leaving you with double the money streams and thus double the cha-ching-a-ling-ling. 

Yes, yes, I know that Vampire's primary audience is already 50-60% comprised of goth girls. The actual breakdown of this hypothetical demon hexes and mimosas game's core audience would probably be a similar sort of intersection of goth and LGBTQ as the one which fuels the Rocky Horror phenomenon. But my point here is that making different OWOD games to different and diverse audiences is not necessarily a bad idea. It's not going to cost White Wolf or whoever any serious loss in revenue, and actually has the potential to net them a whole lot more revenue overall. 

And also that Wicca: The Craft, a storytelling game of Demon Hexes and Mimosas is a million dollar concept premise for a tabletop RPG with serious legs.


It also fits in amongst the other OWOD games as a perfect little antidote for all the unrelenting grimdark misery that goes on in those lines. Had enough unrelenting misery and despair playing Vampire? Just break out Wicca: The Craft, a storytelling game of Demon Hexes and Mimosas enjoy a good bit of free sexy lighthearted fun playing Mean Girls with black magic. Then, when you've had your fun there and you're ready for more heavier stuff, break out Wraith or Werewolf or Hunter or something instead. 

It works on so many levels. 


Now, I know what you're thinking right now - "But Millitant, all the best OWOD games have some kind of solid core gameplay loop based on the nature of their supernatural protagonists and what motivates them, what are these sexy witch characters going to do each night?" Well my brainworms around this concept are a step ahead of you right there! Try this one out for size: 

Witches want to keep their sisterhood together against a world constantly trying to tear them apart. 

Not bad huh! Yes sure OK it's almost certainly a little bit very rough and unpolished but hey, it's a first outline scribbled down on a napkin straight off the top of my head from pure brainworm energy alone. As a starting point, I'd say it's not too shabby at all. At the bottom line your characters in Wicca: The Craft are trying to keep together as a sisterhood in the face of a world constantly pulling them apart with various temptations and dangers. That's the common goal they're all trying to achieve. 

What are those temptations and dangers you might ask? Well the exact specifics would be up to the GM, picking from a broad range of heart-throbs, exes, life opportunities, dickbags, rivals, rival covens, demons, evil wizards, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, monster hunters and so on. You know, the sort of dangers that haunt the OWOD every night plus the sort of temptations people get exposed to every night in most worlds. I guess you could maybe throw in some sort of league of evil witches too, but I'm not sure it's strictly necessary - if you're really in need of a big overarching cosmic doom for your cool sexy witches to fight against then you're already pretty spoiled for choice with any one of the dozen or so big overarching cosmic dooms that already populate the OWOD. Besides, the focus here is really supposed to be on the more personal melodrama side of things. Personal character-driven stakes. Remember, this is supposed to be a storytelling game of demon hexes and mimosas after all. 


Core concepts? Well I think the one I'd want front and centre on everyone's minds the most is 'Sisterhood'. That's usually the keystone theme in the source material, and the magic in the source material is always fueled by coordination and cooperation amongst a sisterhood - there's always a Power Of Three or a Four Element Ensemble thing going on. I like the idea of certain dice pools changing depending on party character relationships, to really hammer home the collective sisterhood spirit and really incentivise players to fully explore and have fun with inter-character dynamics. 

Maybe even have certain dice pools be transferrable, with players able to lend each other extra dice for certain things depending on the relationship between their characters. Maybe with some risks and consequences for holding onto too many dice for too long (dangerous to hoard too much magic power up for one's own selfish whims you see), just as a failsafe to make sure no-one gets too greedy. 

Speaking of dice, I'm liking the classic V5 Vampire two-colour dice combination, but obviously witches are not vampires and I'm feeling a different sort of duality in the dice pools would be required, with negative dice being not so much strictly worse in the way that hunger dice are in Vampire, but more a case of different, with different opportunities and consequences attached. The idea here is based on the whole classic sort of 'no light without darkness' magic concept where the two sides are a sort of yin-yang duality to be explored, balanced and harmonised rather than mitigated and contained like vampiric hunger. 

Now exactly what that would look like in game mechanics terms, well that's one area that's still a bit of an open question. Maybe one colour of dice is more consistent, more safe, while the other colour is more high-risk/high-reward. I dunno, I don't have all the specifics ironed out here yet. There's only so much room on the back of this napkin before you start running into grease blotches. 


Well, I think it's a pretty fun concept anyway. And that it's enjoyed rent-free living in my head all week is a sign that it's got some kind of potential at least. I think there's room there in the OWOD for something like it, a place of hellspawn and heartbreak, of lamassu and lip gloss, of ghouls and glitter. The place where the falling Violet Orlandi meets the rising Sabrina Carpenter. 

A place of demon hexes and mimosas. You know, in addition to the tesla cyberpunk magitech civil war.  

Thursday, 26 October 2023

Living Dead Girl

 And so at last, on the eve of all Hallows night, the climax of International Goth Month, we come to the final scary Warhammer army I've wanted for a long time but will likely never be. And you best believe I saved the best for last, the most Halloween of armies, one that by without even trying is a near perfect fusion of ghoulish fiends and beautiful women in sexy monster outfits. 


What else could it be? 



Living Dead Girl - Millitant's Vampire Counts 


Vampire Counts are another of my top 3 favourite bad guy armies in Warhammer, and jostle with Beasts of Chaos for the number 1 spot. They were indeed for a long time one of the leading frontrunners to be the first ever Warhammer army I started with, until Dark Passion Play and Diablo III happened and changed everything forever. In fact they even followed a similar trajectory to my path towards the Wood Elves. 

It all began by coincidence when I ended up getting, in early 2007, one of the White Dwarf issues covering the release of the new army book for The Empire in 7th edition Warhammer. In particular, this one featured a battle report showcasing some of the new Empire units and characters. Now, the Empire models were very exciting and managed to break me out of my 'Sci-fi Ride or Die' mentality and get me interested in fantasy briefly, a feat that had at that point been accomplished in Warhammer only by the Dwarfs (it was the flintlocks and clock-punk you see). 

But then a funny thing happened. The army being pitted against the shiny new Empire models also grabbed my attention. It was a collection of various classic spooky Halloween monsters all lead by some Vampires. And that concept caught my interest in a way that it never should have. See this was when I was still in the grip of my science fiction only phase. The level of coolness in these kinds of narrative concepts was directly proportional to the amount of technology they contained, and INVERSLY proportional to the amount of magic and Halloween monsters they contained. Horror films were just barely in the cool zone, and even then it was only Silence of The Lambs type ones where the monster was a serial killer or something with no supernatural elements in sight. At this point in time, those kinds of fiendish ghosts and ghouls were in my eyes the exclusive domain of lame dumb little kids stuff, the very bottom of the coolness barrel. 

But this Warhammer army, these so-called Vampire Counts, they somehow managed to make it work. 

It was likely the models that carried it, but something in the game faction's soul managed to somehow make these elements cool in a way that they never really had to me before. I was fascinated by them. Everything seemed to somehow click. And it was this discovery that not only made me reconsider supernatural themes for the first time ever, but also kept that nascent interest alive until another big milestone a few years later that, again, happened entirely by coincidence. 

One night, as I was looking for something to watch on TV while I painted models, I flipped over to C4 on a whim. What I beheld would stay with me for decades to come. I arrived right in the middle of a horror film, but unlike any I had seen before. It featured magic and Halloween monsters, specifically vampires, but they were very different to the caricatures I was familiar with. There were no red and black capes or white frilly bibs in sight. Instead, this vampire film was dark and brooding and violent and blood-soaked and honestly pretty metal. It had (who I learnt later was) Winona Ryder all breathy in corsets, and (who I learnt later was) Monica Bellucci naked from the waist up crawling all over a hapless guy, and I was around 16 at the time so that was a big factor too. 

I didn't know it yet, because I had missed the start of the film, but I was for the very first time watching Bram Stoker's Dracula

And I was hooked. I was hooked from the moment I first saw half-nude Monica Bellucci crawling all over some helpless guy (again, this was when I was about 16), and watched the entire rest of the film utterly enthralled. That film was a total game changer. At long last, vampires had started to become kind of cool for me, and that film paved the way for Van Helsing and the Old World of Darkness that were soon to follow. Needless to say this had only improved the standing of that weird Halloween monster vampire army in Warhammer, and I was now seriously considering a Halloween vampire Warhammer army of my own at some point in the future. 

While this string of coincidences had built my desire for a Vampire Counts army of some kind, the specifics of its nature would be shaped by my increasing contact with the goth girls at high school and another, far less fortunate game changer - the apocalyptic fallout of my first attempts at dating some of them. The full horrors of those dark times are now best left undisturbed, and certainly are not appropriate for this blog, but the important thing here is that it left the imprint of the darkly beauteous sexually confident villainess who uses her wiles as much as her weapons forever burnt into my psyche as an iconic character type. 

Then later on I discovered that they also happen to be a lot of fun to write. So when I (re)discovered that in Warhammer there is actually a whole vampire bloodline of just that character it was a natural first choice for what flavour of Vampire Counts are my favourite. Discovering Victoria Frances along the way helped too. 

And that's why if I had enough 2002 era GW Zombies and Vampire Counts metal models, the result would look something like this: 



The House of Favole (Lahmia Bloodline)

Colours: Black and red dresses on characters, natural colours for creatures (decaying flesh for zombies, dark fur for bats and wolves etc.), dark garments and corroded metals for wights. 


An off-shoot of the Lahmian dynasty that has long since assimilated into the Old World and abandoned much of their Nehekharan traditions. They are still fiercely loyal and deeply close with their fellow Lahmian sisters however and frequently cooperate with Neferata's schemes. 

Lords Ladies

Elize Favole: Level 3 Vampire Lady with Seduction, Wristbands of Black Gold and Biting Blade, mounted on a Zombie Dragon - 730 pts 


Monica: Level 2 Vampire Countess with Seduction, Beguile and Tomb Blade - 340 pts 


Solomon Crowley: Level 4 Master Necromancer with Spell Familiar, Cursed Book and Ring of The Night - 315 pts 


Heroes Heroines Villains Villainesses 

Jeanette: Vampire Thrall Battle Standard Bearer with Hell Banner - 170 pts 


Darla: Vampire Thrall with Beguile and Sword of Unholy Power - 130 pts 


Salma: Vampire Thrall with Blood Drinker - 130 pts 


Delphine: Vampire Thrall with Innocence Lost and Sword of Might - 125 pts 


Mina: Vampire Thrall with Innocence Lost and Sword of Battle - 130 pts


Necromancer: Level 2 Necromancer with Power Familiar - 150 pts


Necromancer: Level 2 Necromancer with Skull Staff - 140 pts 


Wraith: Wraith with Obsidian Amulet, mounted on a Barded Ethereal Nightmare - 147 pts 


Wight Lord: Wight Lord with Heavy Armour, Sword of The Kings and Enchanted Shield - 99 pts 


Core 

Zombie Horde: 25 Zombies with Full Command - 165 pts


Zombie Horde: 25 Zombies with Full Command - 165 pts 


Zombie Horde: 25 Zombies with Full Command - 165 pts 


Zombie Horde: 25 Zombies with Full Command - 165 pts


Ghoul Clan: 10 Ghouls with Ghast - 90 pts 


Ghoul Clan: 10 Ghouls with Ghast - 90 pts


Bat Swarm: 5 Bat Swarm bases - 300 pts 


Dire Wolf Pack: 10 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf - 110 pts 


Dire Wolf Pack: 10 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf - 110 pts 


Dire Wolf Pack: 10 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf - 110 pts 


Dire Wolf Pack: 10 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf - 110 pts 


Special 

Grave Guard Regiment: 20 Grave Guard with Hand Weapons, Shields, Full Command and Banner of Doom - 340 pts


Grave Guard Regiment: 20 Grave Guard with Halberds, Shields, Full Command and Banner of The Dead Legion - 355 pts 


Grave Guard Regiment: 20 Grave Guard with Halberds, Shields, Full Command and Screaming Banner - 370 pts


Black Knight Regiment: 10 Black Knights with Barded Nightmares, Full Command and Banner of The Barrows - 335 pts 


Fell Bat Flock: 10 Fell Bats - 200 pts


Fell Bat Flock: 10 Fell Bats - 200 pts 


Fell Bat Flock: 10 Fell Bats - 200 pts


The Oblivion: 5 Spirit Host bases - 325 pts


Rare

Banshee: 1 Banshee - 90 pts


Banshee: 1 Banshee - 90 pts


Banshee: 1 Banshee - 90 pts


Black Coach: 1 Black Coach - 200 pts 


Spoils 

Damsel Swain: Level 0 nubile doe-eyed Ingenue Damsel to-be held in the clutches of unholy temptation - 19 pts 


TOTAL: 7000 pts


The first crucial element of this list is the Bloodline Powers. Vampires in Warhammer can take a bunch of special abilities that reflects their supernatural Vampire abilities, with each bloodline getting a unique set. The only catch is that at least one of the army book's writing team was a sour prude who hates fun so they compete for points with magic items. But right now the important thing to note is that Lahmians get access to the single best vampire power in the entire book, and easily one of the best special abilities in the entire game, Seduction, which causes opposing characters to fall so madly in love with your vampires that they switch sides mid-fight and do your bidding for a turn. It is glorious and worth every single one of its 55 points. 

Seduction was always going to be going on the head vampiress of the army, and for Elize Favole it is paired with some Wonder Woman-grade magic wristbands to deflect shooting attacks with style and elegance. This doesn't leave a whole lot of points left over for weapons, but there is just enough to squeeze in a magic sword. 

Which brings up another important element - with the exception of the standard bearer every single vampire in the army is carrying some kind of magic weapon, because no self-respecting Lahmian queen of the night would degrade herself by getting her hands and fingernails dirty fighting unarmed, and no Lahmian queen of the night worth her dresses would settle for any mere piece of dull metal for a weapon. The only reason the standard bearer has to go without one is because the rules won't let me take one along with a big flashy magic standard. I can only conclude that the rules for Battle Standards were written by the same fun-hating sour prude who wrote in the part where Bloodline Powers are not a separate points budget to Magic Items. 

Elize is joined by a right-hand Vampire Countess who also packs Seduction, because having two characters with it doubles the chances of it happening each turn. She also has Beguile, because I want to get some of the other Lahmian manipulation powers into the army too, and the best magic sword in the Vampire Counts army book, the tomb blade which revives those mortals slain by it as mindless slaves to serve their new mistress for all eternity. 

Completing the trinity of high-end characters is a master necromancer held in check by his obsessive lust over Elize herself. He gets a spell familiar because having more spells to choose from is always good, and the Cursed Book because every good wizard needs either a magic staff or a magic spellbook and the Cursed Book was the only magic book available that didn't compete with the spell familiar. 

The low-end character selection is dominated by a quintet of Vampire Thralls that comprise much of the army's fighting power. One carries the Hell Banner because the only thing better than a unit that causes Fear is a unit that causes Terror. Another has Beguile because as established I love Presence powers in Warhammer as much as I love them in Vampire The Masquerade. 

Rounding the characters out are a pair of Necromancers for a little bit of magic support and to sustain larger numbers of undying minions, and a Wight Lord and Wraith to give me at least one of every available character type. 

The Core units consist of at least one of every available option except one. The key theme for this army, besides sexy vampires. is No Skeletons. At All. No units of them bought, no units of them raised or summoned, just none in the army whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, I love a good skeleton horde as much as the next fantasy nerd, but the thing is if I want a skeleton horde I can go to a whole other Warhammer game faction called the Tomb Kings just for that specifically. If I want other flavours of undead, I have no alternatives besides the Vampire Counts. So for the Vampire Counts army I'm bringing every single other variety of undead horror I can, besides Skeletons. 

This is also the key reason why I'm not using the Lahmian list and instead defaulting to the regular army book list. Giving up swains is unbearable, but being stuck with a boring troop unit is even more so. I can only hope that the fun-hating sour prude behind all these decisions gets what's coming to them. 

Instead of Skeletons there are 4 nice big units of Zombies to give me a dependable source of rank bonuses for my vampires that I don't have to roll magic dice for, and plenty of Wolves and Bats for roaming the land far and wide and being my eyes and ears. There's also a couple of packs of Ghouls to tear apart any defiant mortals who displease me. 

For Special units there's a trio of Grave Guard regiments to provide a solid battle line and a unit of Black Knights to act as a mobile reserve to help push through a decisive breakthrough or plug a hole in a troubled sector. There's also a healthy-sized Sprit Host to tie down a key area and plenty of nice giant bats to both spy on my enemies and conduct general harassment of opposing armies. 

Finally, every self-respecting vampire needs a magnificent Black Coach to whisk them away from danger, and the metal GW one is one of my favourite models in the Vampire range, so naturally I'm taking as many as I'm allowed. It shares the Rare section with a trio of Banshees for troubleshooting particularly tough adversaries. 


And that's what I'd do with masses and masses of 2000s Vampire Counts models.  If you wish to see this army on the tabletop then you are welcome to donate any NIB 2002-2004 NIB Vampire Counts models to me free of charge, especially NOS 2002-2004 Zombies. 


Otherwise have a spooktacular sugar-fueled Halloween!

Wednesday, 18 October 2023

I'm a Mouse! Duh!

 With all this talk about 40k, it can be easy to forget that I'm also partial to Warhammer, and just like 40k I had a great many plans for Warhammer armies that will most likely never reach the table now. I desired an army of pretty much every game faction in Warhammer except maybe Ogres, and unfortunately GW stopped selling all the Warhammer models I want some time ago. 


But that doesn't stop me from talking about some of the most Halloween Warhammer armies I wanted as a shameless tie-in for International Goth Month. 


Now quite often when we talk about Halloween we talk about the old superficial things like spooky monster mashes and candy. But, there is another side to Halloween. A side that happens after hours just for grown-ups who are still young at heart. It tends to be less visible in the public mind, but it is always there, just below the surface in the slinkiest of outfits.... 


.... and it's this aspect of Halloween that is embodied by this next army list. 



Nymphomaniac Fantasia - Millitant's Cult of Pleasure 



Dark Elves have for some time been one of my top 3 favourite evil armies in Warhammer. I first got curious about them after seeing a White Dwarf battle report featuring a siege game between them and some Bretonnians with Wood Elf allies and thought the Hydras were pretty cool and the whole 'Tolkien Elves but bad' thing was kind of neat. While they never quite managed to break into the shortlist of frontrunners for my first Warhammer army, my interest in them did steadily simmer away in the background. 

Within the Dark Elves themselves I've always been drawn to the Khainite elements in particular, because I just can't pass up a horde of cocaine-fueled murder vixens and the models are ace, especially the awe inspiring Cauldron of Blood from the 6th edition release. 

So between that and Slaanesh being my favourite single Chaos God it's a pretty natural fit that the Dark Elf Cult of Pleasure from Storm of Chaos would be my second favourite Chaos army in Warhammer. 

Unfortunately it was not until recently that I was really able to cement down what I wanted the army to be like, which means its backstory and character lore is almost completely unfiormed, but if I had the models it would look something like this: 



The Cult of Pleasure 

Colours: Lots of blacks on clothing with electric blue and purple accents. Standard silver-metalic weapons. Pale tones for skin. 


This Cult of Pleasure is born from the fallout of the tangled obsessive love dodecahedron between the characters in my related planned Dark Elf army. Once the Sorceresses become jilted a few too many times they break off and seek revenge with Morathi's uprising. 



Lords 

High Sorceress: Level 4 High Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh, Tome of Furion, Crystal of Midnight, Crown of Black Iron and Blade of Spite, mounted on a Steed of Slaanesh - 420 pts 


High Sorceress: Level 4 High Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh, Soulstone, Black Amulet and Sword of Battle - 380 pts


High Sorceress: Level 4 High Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh, Black Staff, Heart-stone of Darkness and Crimson Death - 380 pts 

Heroes 

Sorceress: Level 2 Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh, Darkstar Cloak and Seal of Ghrond - 195 pts


Sorceress: Level 2 Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh and Wand of the Kharaidon - 190 pts 


Sorceress: Level 2 Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh and Staff of Sorcery - 200 pts 


Sorceress: Level 2 Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh and Rubric of Dark Dimensions - 200 pts


Sorceress: Level 2 Sorceress with Mark of Slaanesh and Ring of Darkness - 195 pts

Core 

Devoted of Slaanesh: Mistress with Speed of Slaanesh, Standard Bearer with Soul Shadows Standard, 22 Devoted of Slaanesh with Musician - 378 pts 


Devoted of Slaanesh: Mistress with Speed of Slaanesh, Standard Bearer with Banner of Murder, 22 Devoted of Slaanesh with Musician - 373 pts 


Devoted of Slaanesh: Mistress with Speed of Slaanesh, Standard Bearer with Standard of Slaughter, 22 Devoted of Slaanesh with Musician - 363 pts 


Devoted of Slaanesh: Mistress with Speed of Slaanesh, 23 Devoted of Slaanesh with Full Command - 328 pts


Devoted of Slaanesh: Mistress with Speed of Slaanesh, 23 Devoted of Slaanesh with Full Command - 328 pts


Devoted of Slaanesh: Mistress with Speed of Slaanesh, 23 Devoted of Slaanesh with Full Command - 328 pts 


Devoted of Slaanesh: Mistress with Speed of Slaanesh, 23 Devoted of Slaanesh with Full Command - 328 pts


Special 

Mounted Daemonettes: 12 Mounted Daemonettes - 360 pts 

Mounted Daemonettes: 12 Mounted Daemonettes - 360 pts

Rare 

Reaper Bolt Thrower Battery: 2 Reaper Bolt Throwers with Mark of Slaanesh - 210 pts


Reaper Bolt Thrower Battery: 2 Reaper Bolt Throwers with Mark of Slaanesh - 210 pts


Reaper Bolt Thrower Battery: 2 Reaper Bolt Throwers with Mark of Slaanesh - 210 pts 


Spoils 

Captive Maiden Princess - 1 bound captive maiden princess of exceptional beauty, charm and kindness - 64 pts 


TOTAL: 6000 pts 


This is not a subtle list. 

The entire army is of course centred around no less than seven full regiments of Devoted of Slaanesh, one for each mortal sin and not at all because I started aiming for 6 and then needed an extra Core unit once I broke the 5000 point threshold. Now, normally infantry units in Warhammer are at their best in units of 20 or 25 so that they can form into nice even symmetrical ranks of 5 models, but Slaanesh's sacred number is 6 so these units needed to be in multiples of that. 

The solution is in units of 24 with organic character support. Normally this is also something unwise since units generally need to be capable of fully independent action in order to properly function in the chaos of the battlefield, but I had enough spare points and character slots floating around to bring in some extra villainesses to lead them. 

Speaking of, the army is led by a trio of High Sorceresses, because when it comes to magical leadership nothing beats a good trinity of mages. If it's good enough for Charmed then it's good enough for me here. They are backed up by 5 regular Sorceresses with an array of powerful magic items to create what is probably the single most magic-heavy Warhammer army I will ever devise. 

Acting in support are two healthy units of mounted Daemonettes for a manoeuvre element and for some shooting cover six Reaper Bolt Throwers - the only mechanical compromise to the all-female all-nude murder orgy, and you damn well better believe they're getting some alternate crew figures to conform to the theme. Probably adapted from the Cauldron of Blood crew figures. 

Finally all this leaves me with just enough points left over for a captive princess to have some fun corrupting. 


And that's what I would do with a glut of 2000s Dark Elf and Daemonette models. If you wish to see this army on the tabletop then you are welcome to donate any NIB 2002-2004 Witch-Elf, Mounted Daemonette, Sorceress, Steed of Slaanesh, Cauldron of Blood or Reaper Bolt Thrower models to me free of charge. 

Otherwise come back next week for the final spooky Halloween list for International Goth Month...

Friday, 13 October 2023

Under Black Flags We March

One of the classic staples of Halloween is the slasher, the monstrous depraved serial killer that roams the night pouncing on and dismembering helpless teenagers one by one with an arsenal of sharp rusty pointy implements and whatever other potentially deadly items happen to be around. Even after they've been outwitted by a plucky heroine they return again and again in ever more death-defying comebacks. They're iconic unrepentant villains of the highest caliber. 

So naturally it would be pretty Halloween for this month's International Goth Month themed post to be... 



... AN ENTIRE ARMY OF HORROR SLASHERS (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!) 



But also with power armour and rocket guns. If I were to ever come into enough 2002 Chaos Space Marine sculpts, including enough 2002 metal Night Lords bitz packs, this would be the result. 




Under Black Flags We March - Militant's Night Lords 


Chaos Space Marines, much like their loyalist cousins, were one of the 40k armies that I never quite clicked to for a long time. I appreciated them as bad guys for my Tau to save the day from (especially in Firewarrior), but never really had any serious desire to actually build an army of them myself. 

Despite this they did remain a solid army that I loved to hate, because it kind of is hard to go past them for good pure evil villains when you need a change of pace from the Imperium. And within the Chaos Space Marines there were certain Traitor Legions that stuck out to me as more interesting villains. This was driven a lot by the spectacular intro pieces for each Traitor Legion posted up on the Games Workshop website, which in hindsight appear to be condensed and paraphrased from the Index Astartes series in White Dwarf. 

At first I gravitated towards the Death Guard, because their colour scheme was the greenest and the delightful cancer analogy in their intro blurb was amazingly creepy. Then I started to be pulled by the World Eaters, because I was 9 years old and they were described as being the toughest deadliest fighters in all the Chaos Space Marines and they were called the WORLD EATERS and their logo was a literal earth being eaten by metal jaws. I also drifted towards the Iron Warriors for a bit because as a... well basically Calvin but in real life and with parrot toys instead of a tiger, I had rather an affinity for guns and explosions. 

But all throughout this there was a more or less constant fascination with this other Traitor Legion of scary bad guys with a cool blue colour scheme and awesome bat-wing helmets. A lot of the stuff about weaponised horror went over my head at this early point, but their iconic war cry of  "WE'VE COME FOR YOU!" made an unforgettable impression. 

Things began to change some years later when I became a horribly depressed teenager. A byproduct of this (and of befriending the goth girls at high school) was acquiring a taste for heavy metal and horror films. This in turn led me to reevaluate the prospect of a Chaos Space Marine army at some point in the future - after all, my Tau will need some bad guys to fight, and having an opposing force to loan out to people for games couldn't hurt. 

And it was during this that the aforementioned love of horror films cemented the Night Lords as my favourite Traitor Legion. It is hard to go past an entire Traitor Legion of horror film villains after all. 

Discovering the awesome Night Lords Hero model - easily be best Chaos Space Marine character sculpt Games Workshop ever made - only sweetened the deal. 

Perhaps one day tables might quake under the dread might of this: 


The Fell Legions of Lord Herod 

Colours: Traditional Night Lords colour scheme. Dark blue armour, brass/dark gold trim, red bat wing helmets. Copious gore splatter applied to key models. Dark Grey urban basing. Firefly Reaver decorations applied to vehicles. 


Little is known of the origins and mortal life of Herod. What little record survives indicates that he once belonged to the nascent Adeptus Arbites on Nostramo, where he roamed the perpetually dark streets of the planet's morbid cities at the forefront of Imperial justice. It is also known that he was among the many of Nostamo's law enforcement to gleefully embrace corruption, and abused his powers without remorse. Like many of his fellow corrupt arbitrators, Herod thrived in the cut-throat atmosphere of Nostraman society and in time was duly inducted into the Night Lords Space Marine Legion. 

As an Astartes Legionnaire Herod enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks during the Great Crusade, as much due to his astute grasp of politics and power as his tactical acumen in battle, and he soon found himself commanding a sizeable host of warriors. These Herod used to leverage power over the worlds they subjugated for humanity, directly exacting heavy bribes and tributes directly from the conquered populations for their own profit and patroning officials who were especially loyal and compliant with Herod's own interests. Soon an underground shadow empire began to take root in the sectors reclaimed by the Night Lords, with Herod himself as its ultimate ruler. 

Herod had always chafed under Imperial oversight, and when the Horus Heresy broke out he jumped to Horus's cause early and with relish, taking part in the Night Lords' terror campaigns across the Eastern Fringe and orchestrating savage and grotesque atrocities across the Ultima Segmentum that many worlds still have not recovered from over ten thousand years later. 

In the Aftermath of the Horus Heresy Herod and his warband carved out an empire of terror and corruption in the outer darkness of the galactic east, separate from but closely aligned to the main body of the legion under the monstrous Daemon Primarch Night Haunter. Herod managed to retain this empire even after Night Haunter's assassination, and to this day it remains a festering scar in the Ultima Segmentum. Dozens of systems have fallen under Herod's shadow, and those few refugees that manage to escape speak of unending horror under the merciless jackboot of their superhuman oppressors. 

Thus far all Imperial efforts to snuff out Herod's realm of darkness have ended in catastrophe, and while its eastward expansion has been contained by the Tau Empire, contact is lost with another world deeper into the Ultima Segmentum every passing year... 



DETACHMENT I - LORD HEROD'S OWN (Night Lords Legion)

HQ 

Lord Herod: Chaos Lord with Master-crafted Power Fist, Combi-flamer, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Daemonic Rune, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept - 213 pts 


The Devil's Rejects: Chosen Aspiring Champion Sorcerer with Gift of Chaos, Plasma Pistol, Warp Focus Power Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Teleport Homer, Warp Talisman, Daemonic Aura, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

2 Chosen Aspiring Champions with Bolt Pistols, Power Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

 Chosen Aspiring Champion with Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

2 Chosen Aspiring Champions with Bolt Pistols, Power Fists, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

3 Chosen Aspiring Champions with Lightning Claws, Frag Greandes, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept - 801 pts 


Elites 

Black Vultures: Chosen Aspiring Champion Sorcerer with bolt pistol, Warp Focus Power Weapon, Bionics, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, 3 Minor Psychic Powers, Warp Talisman, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

1 Chosen Aspiring Champion with Combi-flamer, Bionics, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept

2 Chosen Aspiring Champions with Combi-flamers, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

1 Chosen Aspiring Champion with Combi-melta, Bionics, Frag Grenad7es, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

2 Chosen Aspiring Champions with Combi-meltas, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

1 Chosen with Lascannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

2 Chosen with Missile Launchers, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept - 654 pts 


Troops 

The Craven: Aspiring Champion Friedrick Kraeger with Master-crafted Lightning Claws, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Daemonic Essence, Daemonic Visage, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept

1 Chaos Space Marine with with Flamer, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Meltagun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolt Pistols, Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept - 351 pts 


Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion Jhar-sun Vhoors with Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Power Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Daemonic Essence, Daemonic Strength, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Flamer, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Meltagun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolt Pistols, Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept - 345 pts


Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion Mikael M'yers with Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Aura, Daemonic Essence, Daemonic Resilience, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Flamer, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Meltagun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolt Pistols, Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept - 349 pts 


Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion with Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Bionics, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Lascannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Flamer, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolters, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept - 324 pts 


Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion with Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Bionics, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Missile Launcher, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolters, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept - 294 pts


Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion with Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Visage, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Heavy Bolter, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Meltagun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolters, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept - 305 pts 


Fast Attack 

Black Cataphracts - Chaos Biker Aspiring Champion with Master-crafted Power Weapon, 2 Chaos Hounds, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Visage, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters 

1 Chaos Biker with Meltagun, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters 

1 Chaos Biker with Flamer, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters 

7 Chaos Bikers with Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters - 510 pts


Night Cataphracts - Chaos Biker Aspiring Champion with Master-crafted Power Weapon, Bionics, 2 Chaos Hounds, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Visage, Furious Charge, Night Vision and Skilled Riders 

1 Chaos Biker with Meltagun, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Night Vision and Skilled Riders 

1 Chaos Biker with Flamer, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Night Vision and Skilled Riders 

7 Chaos Bikers with Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Furious Charge, Night Vision and Skilled Riders - 515 pts


Raptor Squad: Chaos Raptor Aspiring Champion with Lightning Claws, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge and Night Vision 

Chaos Raptor Icon Bearer with Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge and Night Vision 

1 Chaos Raptor with Meltagun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge and Night Vision 

1 Chaos Raptor with Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge and Night Vision 

1 Chaos Raptor with Flamer, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge and Night Vision 

5 Chaos Raptors with Bolt Pistols, Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge and Night Vision - 480 pts 


The Furies: 10 Furies - 150 pts


Heavy Support 

Reaper-6 (Hell on Wheels): Chaos Land Raider with Blasphemous Rune, Dirge Caster, Dozer Blade, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher, Pintle Combi-melta, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers - 329 pts 


Global Effects 

Day-for-Night: An eerie blue-tinged gloom at all times -  10 pts 

Mist Screen: A sinister haze of misty fog at all times - 10 pts 


Provisions 

Roast Victory Feast: Full post-battle feast of 26 Roast Cattle, 26 Roast Swine, 26 Roast Bantam-Fowl, 26 Roast Ducks, 26 Roast Geese, 26 Roast Turkeys, 4992 Roast Potatoes, 4992 Roast Parsnips, 4992 Roast Kūmera, 4992 Roast Pumpkins (chopped), 4992 Chopped Butter/Garlic-sautéed Carrots, 500 tons of Rosemary-oregano-sage-garlic-bacon-breadcrumb stuffing, 10,000 gallons of gravy - 60 pts 


DETACHMENT II - HEROD'S HARBINGERS (Night Lords Legion)

HQ

Hannibal: Chaos Sorcerer with Gift of Chaos, Wind of Chaos, Warp Focus Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Personal Icon, Teleport Homer, Familiar, Warp Talisman, Minor Psychic Power, Daemonic Essence, Daemonic Rune, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Infiltrate and Night Vision - 244 pts 


Elites 

The Death Hand: Chosen Terminator Aspiring Champion with Combi-bolter and Master-crafted Chainfist, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Strength, Daemonic Visage, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters 

1 Chosen Terminator with Heavy Flamer, Power Weapon, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters 

2 Chosen Terminators with Reaper Autocannons, Power Weapons, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters 

1 Chosen Terminator with Combi-flamer, Power Fist, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters 

1 Chosen Terminator with Combi-flamer, Power Weapon, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters 

1 Chosen Terminator with Combi-melta, Lightning Claw, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters 

1 Chosen Terminator with Combi-melta, Power Weapon, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters 

2 Chosen Terminators with Combi-bolter, Chainfist, Furious Charge, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Tank Hunters - 586 pts 


Possessed Chaos Space Marines: Possessed Aspiring Champion with Daemonic Talons, Personal Icon, Spiky Bits and Mark of Chaos Undivided, 9 Possessed with Daemonic Talons and Mark of Chaos Undivided- 315 pts

Mounted in 

Hell Knight-1: Chaos Rhino with Blasphemous Rune, Dirge Caster, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher, Living Vehicle, Pintle Combi-melta, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers - 144 pts 


Troops 

Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion with Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Bionics, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Missile Launcher, Frag Grenades, Krak Greandes, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolters, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept - 298 pts

Mounted in: 

Hell Knight-2: Chaos Rhino with Blasphemous Rune, Dirge Caster, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher, Living Vehicle, Pintle Combi-melta, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers - 144 pts


Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion with Bolt Pistol, Power Fist, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Visage, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Autocannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Meltagun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept 

7 Chaos Space Marines with Bolters, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Siege Specialists and Stealth Adept - 266 pts

Mounted in: 

Hell Knight-3: Chaos Rhino with Blasphemous Rune, Dirge Caster, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher, Living Vehicle, Pintle Combi-melta, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers - 144 pts


Chaos Space Marine Squad: Aspiring Champion with Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Mutation, Daemonic Visage, Counter-attack, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Heavy Bolter, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

1 Chaos Space Marine with Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept 

6 Chaos Space Marines with Bolt Pistols, Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Counter-attack, Move Through Cover, Night Vision and Stealth Adept - 276 pts

Mounted in: 

Hell Knight-4: Chaos Rhino with Blasphemous Rune, Dirge Caster, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher, Living Vehicle, Pintle Combi-melta, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers - 144 pts


Fast Attack

Death Cataphracts - Chaos Biker Aspiring Champion with Master-crafted Power Weapon, 2 Chaos Hounds, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemonic Visage, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters 

1 Chaos Biker with Meltagun, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters 

1 Chaos Biker with Flamer, Close Combat Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters 

7 Chaos Bikers with Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Night Vision, Skilled Riders and Tank Hunters - 510 pts


Raptor Squad: Chaos Raptor Aspiring Champion with Lightning Claws, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Personal Icon, Spiky Bits, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Counter-attack and Night Vision 

1 Chaos Raptor with Meltagun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Counter-attack and Night Vision 

1 Chaos Raptor with Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Counter-attack and Night Vision 

1 Chaos Raptor with Flamer, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Counter-attack and Night Vision 

6 Chaos Raptors with Bolt Pistols, Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Counter-attack and Night Vision - 470 pts 


The Furies: 10 Furies - 150 pts 


Heavy Support 

Chaos Havocs: Aspiring Champion with Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Bionics, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs, Spiky Bits, Daemon Armour, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

2 Chaos Space Marines with Lascannons, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept 

2 Chaos Space Marines with Missile Launchers, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Night Vision, Tank Hunters and Stealth Adept - 277 pts


Wight-1: Chaos Predator with Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons, Blasphemous Rune, Dirge Caster, Dozer Blade, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher, Pintle Combi-melta, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers - 204 pts


Wight-2: Chaos Predator with Twin-linked Lascannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, Blasphemous Rune, Dirge Caster, Dozer Blade, Extra Armour, Havoc Launcher, Pintle Combi-melta, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers - 209 pts 


Strategic Reserve 

The Butcher: Chaos Dreadnought with Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon (Power Scourge), Plasma Cannon, Blasphemous Rune, Mutated Hull and Smoke Launchers - 158 pts 


Followers 

Forsaken Children: 2 eerie forsaken small girls with jump ropes, hopscotch, archaic toy strollers and haunting giggles - 3 pts 

Lecherous Jock: 1 Reckless athlete convinced there is no danger at all - 2 pts 


TOTAL: 10,000 pts 



The list is considerably less complicated than it first seems. Everyone starts with a core package of Veteran Skills consisting of Infiltrate and Move Through Cover - the better to pounce on helpless prey from nowhere in a sudden jump-cut - and the Night Lord staples Night Vision and Stealth Adept. From there, they also get one or two special Veteran Skills to reflect their history and preferred fighting styles. The exceptions are vehicles obviously, and Terminators who can't get half of those skills, and the few units with a Mark of Chaos because Marked units only get a single Veteran Skill plus any Legion freebies. This, incidentally is a major reason why most of the army has no Chaos Marks, because why settle for just 2 special bonuses when you can get 4-6 special bonuses instead? That's like twice or three times as many. 

Then all the Characters and Aspiring Champions get a core wargear package of all the thrown explosives, plus Spiky Bits because there is no way in hell I am not taking such a gloriously meta upgrade at every opportunity. Some particularly battered veterans here and there have bionics on top of that, and Daemonic Visage to ensure that this army of Night Lords retains terror superiority. 

Moving into the units themselves we start with Lord Herod himself and his hand-picked retinue of elite Black Vulture veterans, tooled up for maximum close combat carnage and featuring a Sorcerer with Gift of Chaos to enact the ultimate punishment on anyone who dares to double-cross Herod. 

Speaking of the Black Vultures, there is also a standalone unit of Lord Herod's elite, equipped with an arsenal of combi-weapons and Spiky Bits for seizing objectives and a battery of heavy weapons for holding them. 

The stars of the Troops section are 3 aggressively-kitted Chaos Space Marine squads each led by an icon of Horror, but there are also plenty of bolter-slinging Chaos Space Marines supported by a variety of heavy and assault weapons too. 

The Cataphracts are the elite enforcers of Lord Herod's will across his domain of terror, and are ever at the forefront of his assaults. In addition to their iconic adamantium kill-sabres the Champions of this shock cavalry corps are bestowed with a pair of Chaos Hounds for sniffing out runaway slaves and hiding women and children. As bikers they also can't take Infiltrate or Stealth Adept, but they have Skilled Riders instead as befitting of expert biker troops. 

There are also a couple of Raptor bands for some variety in the Fast Attack selection, with the Mark of Chaos Undivided and corresponding icons so that I actually have somewhere to summon the Fury packs I also included for terrorising defenceless families. 

The single Heavy Support slot in the core force is filled by a Land Raider. If you're running Chaos Space marines, don't have them in any transports, and can take only one Heavy Support unit, make it a Land Raider. The ability to redeploy any unit of foot troops that will fit inside is invaluable, and the armour and guns are a juicy bonus too. 

I WAS going to leave everything in a nice neat little package, but it turns out that all the Chosen in an Elites Choice get lumped together in a single blob if they're not part of an HQ retinue. So out of sheer spite I took the Sorcerer and Possessed I had planned as a secondary commander and third Elites unit and spun them out into a whole other second detachment just to circumvent that and get a discrete unit of Chosen Terminators. I also took the chance to turn this detachment into an armoured manoeuvre group since I love playing with vehicles in 40k and wanted lots of Rhinos with crazy robot buzzsaw arms just like the one in the 'Eavy Metal studio Black Legion army that I've been obsessed with for 20 years now. 

Then finally to really punish Pete Haines and show him that MY INEVITABLE WILL CANNOT BE DENIED I opted not to use the special Night Lords Force Organisation chart and took a few extra Heavy Support units to play with in the form of a stealthy tank-hunting band of Havocs and a pair of Chaos Predators to escort the Rhino column and spearhead its advance through treacherous areas. 

There wasn't an awful lot of points left over for feeding 206 Chaos Space Marines after all that, but I managed to squeeze in a regular post-battle feast as an extra treat to keep everyone loyal too. 


And that's what I would do with all the Chaos Space Marine models. If you wish to see this army on the tabletop then you are welcome to donate any NIB or NOS 2002-2004 Chaos Space Marine models to me free of charge. 

Otherwise be sure to come back throughout International Goth Month for more ghoulish and spooky army lists.