Plague Fleet (now with battle report and pictures from it)

[Pictors Studio]

I finally got the ships for my Plague Fleet done.  I was planning on doing 6 but looking at the figures I have I think 5 is more viable as the guys would look pretty thin on the ships with 6.  The Beastmen Gor ship right now is the only one that is pretty full of crew.



For the scenario we are going to be doing with them I need two of them to have at least 9" of space clear of any Nurgle models.  That way the Stormcast can lightning strike onto the ships still and we can have a game at all.

The assault will have to begin on the big ships, as that is where they will have the space to land.  Of course Prosecutors and the Knight Venator will be able to land pretty much anywhere as they can fly, but they will still have to be the requisite distance away from any enemy model.  



It is possible to move from ship to ship, and the Stormcast will have to do this to take all of the ships.  The Nurgle forces will probably want to do this too to reinforce the troops they have on ships that have been boarded.

To move to a new ship you simply use all of your movement to do it and it counts as a run as well.  If there are enemy blocking the way then it counts as a charge.

Repelling boarders will be something you can do by moving to the side of the ship where you expect the enemy to be coming.  If you are trying to board a ship and there are any enemy models blocking the path to the ship you are trying to board you count as charging them.  

Any attempted boarding actions will take place outside the normal back-and-forth close combat turn sequence.  

Instead all other fights on the board will take place as normal i.e. the side with the initiative picking the first unit to fight and then the other side picking a unit and so forth.

When that is all done, then the boarding fights go.  The side repelling the boarders always goes first.  Then the boarders get to attack back, if any survive.  Boarding models are lined up along the side of the ship and can take the place on the ship of any model that they kill.  

Once a single boarding models has made it onto the ship the action no longer counts as a boarding action and the defending models are moved away from the side of the ship to make room for the models who have successfully boarded.



Ultimately the Stormcast will have to take and defend the helm of four of the ships.  The Ungor ship is under tow so if they can take the ship towing it, it isn't going anywhere either.  

There will be two units in the Stormcast army that will count as sunderers.  These will be the two Paladin units, the Retributors and the Protectors.  If they are on a ship in their hero phase they roll a d6, on a 6 the ship is so badly damaged it cannot continue to sail so counts as destroyed.  

We will be playing this at Phantom of the Attic on Craig St. in Pittsburgh on Sunday (August 14) starting at noon.  You don't have to bring anything, all models, rules, dice etc. will be provided.  

All the pictures can be seen at the link below:

http://imgur.com/a/Z7c1J

[Globlin]

They're great! Should be an excellent game.

[von Lucky]

They look the part. Look forward to some action shots from Sunday's game.

[syrinx0]

Great looking work! That sounds like it will be a fun game.

[Pictors Studio]

I hope so.  I've put a lot of work into making the scenery and thinking up the scenario. 

It should be interesting to see how people position their units.  Both sides have, at least for the duration of the game, unlimited reinforcements the big question will be how to position them so that the enemy can't get theirs. 

The Chaos forces will be unsure about when to swing reinforcements over to threatened ships, as leaving the others ships might make them vulnerable too, while the Stormcast will have to be careful with their hardest hitting units, the two units of Paladins.

It should be interesting to see what the players do with their forces. 

[warburton]

Impressive!

[Brummie Thug]

They look awesome I was expecting it to be Man o war but this is even better!

[Humorous_Conclusion]

When I clicked on this I was expecting to see Man O'War models. Those are incredibly ambitious and look great. I hope it plays well.

[Pictors Studio]

Glad you guys liked it.  It did play pretty well.  Here is a narrative AAR for the battle we did:

The foul wind that blew behind the ships caused them to move forward through the water but the movement could in no way be described as beautiful.



The biggest of the ships lurched forward through waves. It smashed through the water. The ship had once been designed to move more gracefully through the water but now the rotten boards did not fit together correctly, stinking fluids poured through the open cracks in the ship and it was only the pressure of this continual oozing that kept the ocean waters out.

Their movement was like an assault on the water itself.

Behind the helm of his flag ship Carcingetorix looked out over the coast line getting larger before him. He could just make out the mouth of the river that was his destination. The sun beat down on the decks of the ships and the blistered skin of his men withered in the light. A braying could be heard from the ships containing his Beastmen allies even over the throaty warbling song that came out of the mouths of his men.

Suddenly and from no where though storm clouds gathered overhead. Only briefly did Carcingetorix consider this a blessing, a relief from the sun. He knew they were too close to the land now for a storm to seriously trouble their passage, at least a normal storm.

In less than a minute though he realized this was no normal storm and he yelled to his men to be ready. His warning came too late.



With three quick flashes of lightning the Sigmarites were there. The massive bows of the ones on the prow of his ship and the ship to his port side were already bent when they landed. Far off to the port side the glimmer of light showed him where some of the damned flying warriors were attacking the Beastman ships.

Soon arrows were falling among his men. The bows of the Stormcasts were like wheels they reloaded and fired so quickly. Soon the decks were cleared of the sailors of both boats, those not successful in seeking shelter below decks being killed. On the flag ship there was no shelter below deck and the men who fled their instinctively were swallowed up in the contagious fluids that were leaking from ever part of the inside of the ship.



Carcingetorix nodded his head and out of every hole big enough to sprout them poured forth a gibbering, chanting horde of nurglings. They took up the song that the men had left off singing when the Sigmarites attacked. Their shrill voices sounded out and drowned out the curses of the Eternals as the small daemons swarmed over the shinning warriors, besmirching their armour.



Using hammer and short sword the two units of warriors tried to fight off the virulent tide but it was impossible.
Cancingetorix laughter echoed out of his full face mask and he did not even send his body guard forward to deal with the threat as only the occasional glint of steel could now been seen under the mass of nurglings.
He trained his attention on his other plague ship, where he saw his warriors mover forward into a line. Their lurching gait belied their discipline and soon the warriors were hacking at the Sigmarites cutting down enemy warriors and forcing the invaders back.



Soon the ship was cleared of the enemy.
More flashes of light appeared, this time behind Carcingetorix.



The ship to his port was towing a small barque with the weakest of the beastmen in it. This, now, was the target of the Stormhosts wrath and gleaming armoured angels fell on it from all sides.



Quickly the ungors lay shattered on the deck or abandoned the ship to take their chances in the water.
More flashes of lightning saw the ship covered with armoured warriors and as the Prosecutors flew away from the ship, the Eternals moved the rudder of the towed ship pushing it towards Carcingetorix and his flag ship.
The Plague Lord started to yell for the warriors in his next ship to cut the chains that held the boat in tow. His command was cut short as the armoured warriors leapt on board his flag ship.
The Sigmarites moved their weapons so quickly that the glaives seemed like gleaming circles as they cut through the Blightking bodyguard.
The fight became general and spilled from the weather deck onto the main deck with might blows exchanged by both sides.



Too late did Carcingetorix realize that his men were not the main goal of the Stormcast Eternals. Their blades bit through the ropes holding the sails in place. Even seeming misses by the Protectors were aiding Sigmar's cause. The rotting cloth fluttered in the wind, no longer taut the ship started slowing almost immediately.



Bellowing in rage the Nurgle commander buried his axe in one of the warriors, shattering the armour of the Sigmarite.

He looked around at the other ships and saw the steel forms swarming over the back of one of the Beastmen ships. Bestigor bodies went flying off the sides of the boat and were battered to the ground as the brownish mass that had been at the rear of the ship was now replaced with a gleaming metal one.



The Beastlord Kharos sprang up the stairs to face the force that had slaughtered his bodyguard and, although he was able to injure one of the warriors he was quickly dispatched himself and the Plague Lord saw his massive furred form drop into the water.

Hard pressed, he was falling back from the helm when he heard a buzzing over the sound of metal on metal.

The daemon flies interposed themselves between him and his enemies, giving him a chance to look at the overall situation.



His face mask again muffled his shout, this time of glee as he realized it was too late for the forces of Sigmar. He could see the two remaining ships passing into the mouth of the river even as the momentum of his ship had left it and he drifted.

They were clear of enemy impediments. Soon the Living City would ground zero for a host of the most virulent diseases to ravage an unsuspecting population.




You can see more pictures here:

http://imgur.com/a/3Hqul

And here:

http://imgur.com/a/9MRSU

[Globlin]

Great AAR! Reminds me of the Elric of Melnibone story where he fights the chaos fleet.

[syrinx0]

Great AAR.

[Pictors Studio]

Thanks, guys.

Elric was a big inspiration in my fantasy gaming over the years.  I even have the boxed set of Eternal Champion figs that Citadel put out years ago with Hawkmoon, 2 Elrics, Moonglum, Corum and so forth. 

I painted them back in the day when I didn't really know what I was doing but years ago stripped them.  So far only the Elric in armour is painted and we used him as a Chaos champion in the Path To Glory game I put on a few months ago.  I need to get the whole crew out, or at least Elric, Hawkmoon, Corum and Erekose out to do a fight against these guys and go all Vultron on the Chaos forces.  Maybe I'll do that when I get my Glottkin finished. 

[Bunny]

Very, very cool!