Rasetra City Guard Battlescroll

Right around the time I finished the last End Times book, a converstation started on the Tomb Kings Forum about Battlescrolls and what some possible Tomb King ones would look like. I think a defense of the Black Pyramid taken from the battle during the last End Times book would be sweet. I also think one that references the conflict in the southern part of the continent would be awesome. Therefore I made the following battlescroll. I could add more background information for the Necrotect. The total points cost starts at 1190 and could go up from there depending on how you equip the skeleton warriors and how many you add. What are your thoughts on the scroll? Do you have any ideas for your own Battlescroll?

Rasetra City Guard

Background Lore

Rasetra is a city of Nehekhara. It is located in the south-eastern corner, roughly one thousand three hundred miles from Khemri and is surrounded by jungles.

It was once a large city established by King Rakhash of Khemri as a defensive stronghold. Due to its distance from the centre of Nehekhara it was often the last city to be conquered by the major kings of the Nehekharan past. It was conquered by Khetep, as was all of Nehekhara, but joined in the attack on Khemri during the reign of Nagash. Unfortunately, the alliance which had overthrown Nagash collapsed and the cities warred with each other. It was then conquered by Alkharad and Alcadizaar. Finally, Settra, in his second coming, took the city and commanded the kings back to their chambers, awaiting his call to arise. (this is all standard history of the city that can be found multiple places online)

In life the men of Rasetra were known for their skill and savagery in battle, from years of fending off Lizardmen raiders. Their chariots were pulled by great jungle lizards, and they were known to use Thunder Lizards as beasts of war in larger battles.

The City Guard of Rasetra has battled the savage lizard cohorts for thousands of years. Over time the Kings and Princes of the city have come to realize that the smallest blow dart or javelin could lay low the mightiest of constructs if the weapon had been dipped in poison. The Necrotects were ordered to find a way to shape stone so that it would resist this cowardly weapon of the lizards. It has taken hundreds of years but the constructs that are magically carved from stone glow with a green fire in their eyes are able to resist all but the most lethal of poisons. The Necrotects hid this secret well, none but the Tomb Kings that command them know the secret of how the stoneshaping methods have changed. With Rasetra so close to the jungles, the City Guard has moved away from using cavlary based units. The jungle has proven too thick for the quick moving Horse Archers or Horsemen to be of much use. More often than not, the skeleton steeds will become entangled in vines or mud, or break their legs on a hidden hole in the ground. Chariots are too wide to effectively maneuver in the dense vegetation and were frequently trapped and cut down before their use was diminished. On the other hand, Warsphinxs are big enough to trample any obstacles in their way and Tomb Scorpions are able to use their multiple legs to quickly traverse even the densest jungle.

The City Guard prefers to fight hand to hand with their enemies. Long wars against the Lizardmen and their numerous Skink cohorts have taught them that arrows are often wasted against the fast moving Skinks and can be rendered useless by the dense canopies of the jungle. While catapults and archers guard the walls of the city, the main strength of the Guard lies in it’s Skeleton Warrior legions and the mighty constructs that back up these legions.

Special rules

All constructs  have a Poison Resistance of 2. Calvary or monstrous cavalry, or chariots may not be taken if this Battlescroll is used.

Units

1 Necrotect- “”Zhar the Gifted”

• all units within 12 inches of Zhar have hatred
• Magic Item: the Chain of Rasetra, Bound Spell Lvl 3, Souls of Rasetri: Target unit gains D6+1 wounds, Large Targets and Constructs may only recover 1 wound.

2-4 units of Skeleton Warriors

Each unit must have at least 20 models

4 Scorpions

2 Warsphinx’s

Breath weapon is poison, not flaming

1 Necrolith Colossus

2500 points of Tomb Kings at Pack Rat Open

I went to Pack Rat Open last weekend and took the Tomb Kings I was working on. The list looked like this:

Lords

• Liche High Priest
  Lore of Death, Wizard Level 4
  •   Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon, Talisman of Preservation
     
• Liche High Priest
  Hierophant, Lore of Nehekhara, Wizard Level 4
  •  Earthing Rod, Talisman of Endurance

Heroes

• Necrotect
  • -Obsidian Amulet 
• Tomb Prince
  Great Weapon
  • Armour of Destiny

Core

• 19 Skeleton Archers 
  Champion, Musician
• 12 Skeleton Archers 
  Musician
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archers 
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archers
• 48 Skeleton Warriors 
  Champion, Musician, Standard Beare
  • Light Armour 

Special

• Khemrian Warsphinx 
  Fiery Roar
• 5 Necropolis Knights 
  Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

Rare (490pts)

• Casket of Souls 
• Hierotitan 
• Screaming Skull Catapult 
• Screaming Skull Catapult 

I used a bone giant and a scratch built bone giant as the catapults, both have skulls in their hands that they are throwing. I used Titan-Forge crocodiles for the Necroknight mounts. I also converted up an old metal giant for the Hierotitan. 

It was also the first display board I had made. It was simply a cork wall board/bulletin board that  I glued a bunch of sand too and used cork pieces to create the hills or rocks in the back. One thing I learned from making the display board is that it is much easier to spray paint the sand on a display board than to try and use a brush to paint it. 

In the picture below you can see the Necroknights. 

In the next pictures you can see the converted catapults and the Hierotitans. 

All in all, I am pretty happy with the army. I ended up getting best painted at the event (out of 24 people). I don't think I am a great painted but there are some things that I think helped me take home that prize. 

1. There is a clear color theme throughout the army. 
2. Everything is painted and based. 
3. The board and bases have paint, flock, and on the board and bigger/important models either extra bits or more than one type of basing. 
4. I used a color that stands out. Some armies are really well painted but look really dark and dull from fair away. This one doesn't.

Current State of the Army

Here is a group shot of everything that is completely painted and based.

All together it is:

1 Liche Priest

1 Tomb King/Prince

1 Necrotect

1 character that can serve as a Tomb Prince or Liche Priest

40 skeleton warriors with hand weapons and shields

58 skeleton archers, two sets of full command

10 skeleton horse archers

6 chariots with full command

2 Warsphinxs

1 Tomb Scorpion

1 Casket of Souls

1 bit made Bone Giant/Screaming Skull Catapult

Here is a closer picture of the characters

Here is a closer one of one of the Warsphinxes

Here is a closer picture of the other side

And here is what is currently on the paint bench. The crocodiles will end up as proxies for Necropolis knights. I have a Khaldia model I am working on getting painted. The Bone Giant will also serve as a Screaming Skull Catapult (I dislike the model that GW makes).

There is a one day event I am going to at the end of April that I need to have the Bone Giant, about 8 more skeletons, a Hierotitan, and 5 Necroknight proxies painted for. After that, the goal is to get the scorpion and remaining characters painted in May, Tomb Guard painted in June, and Ushabti painted in July. At that point I should be pretty satisfied with the army.

Doubles Tournament and Tomb Scorpion

Last weekend was Slanneshfest 2014, the first round of the Circle City Circuit 2014. It was a 2000 point (1k each) team tournament. My team mate and I decided to both bring Tomb Kings. His list was: 

Lvl 2 Liche Priest

18 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musican

18 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musican

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar

Hierotitan

My list was:

Lvl 2 Liche Priest with Earthing Rod

18 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musician

5 Skeleton Horse Archers

5 Skeleton Horse Arches

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar  

Casket of Souls  

 

 

We played three games, going 2-1. There were 10 teams in the tournament and despite winning two games we ended up in sixth place. We both learned a lot about positioning the Warssphinxes so that they could charge on turn one (the free wheel isn't all the best idea). Warsphinxes also struggle against cavalry and high armour saves. People are deathly afraid of a Casket and throw as much at it as they can to kill it. Finally, we both thought that we should have taken a dispel scroll instead of the earthing rod (it was never used).

I think the main reason we scored so low was because we forgot to get bonus objectives a lot of the time. I think we were separated from 3rd place by less than 5 points (which we could have easily gotten if we had played for the objectives a bit better.  All in all, it was a lot of fun

In painting news, I finished up the Tomb Scorpion below and have one more to do. I tried to give it similar highlights to my Warsphinxes but because of the edges and lack of "muscles" it was a bit different when painting.

 

With the next one I am going to be less heavy with the highlights on the tail, I think those look too prominent. 

In Search of Our Warsphinx Instruction Tablets

Queen Kalidha has decided to lead an expedition North to reclaim the long lost tablets of construction that continued the methods for stone shaping Warsphinxes. These tablets were chiseled by Grand Necrotect Iago. It is believed that the High Elves of ShoeLand traded a dragon egg to some Border Prince of little note for these tablets. Khalidha has sent Prince Jafar and Priest Razoul to recover the tablets.

They take with them a grand host of skeleton warriors and animated constructs from ages past. Their vanguard is composed of

Lords

• Liche High Priest
• Hierophant , Lore of Neht, Wizard Level 4
• Earthing Rod
• Liche High Priest
• Lore of Light, Wizard Level 3

Heroes

• Tomb Prince
• Skeleton Chariot
• Spear
• Enchanted Shield
• Ironcurse Icon
• Talisman of Endurance

Core

• 19 Skeleton Archers
• Champion
• Musician
• 19 Skeleton Archers
• 7 Skeleton Chariots (415pts)
• Champion
• Musician
• Standard Bearer

Special

• Khemrian Warsphinx
• Fiery Roar
• Khemrian Warsphinx
• Fiery Roar
• 8 Ushabti
• Champion
• Musician
• Standard Bearer

Rare

• Casket of Souls
• Screaming Skull Catapult

The pesky Shoeland elves were first encountered on the edges of their realm on a field dotted with a few stands of trees, a couple of hills, and a ruin of some sort (Pesky elves can’t build anything to last, they should come look at our pyramid cities!). In Queen Khalida's haste to send forth Prince Jafar and Priest Razoul she neglected to allow for time to assemble the Horse Archer Scouts from their fields where they feed on dust and dried reeds. This would prove to be a costly mistake in the first battle.

Arrayed against them was what appeared to be a High Elf Border Patrol. Jafar could see at least two giant eagles, and two small groups of knights. The elves also appeared to have a number of those infernal bolt thrower machines along with archers and a core of elite infantry. Razoul should see the magic emitting from two points in the main elf column, they had brought wizards with them as well.

As the leaders of the Tomb King expedition looked across the field they realized the Elves were starting to deploy to the flanks of the Tomb King column, Prince Jafar quickly ordered the two Warshpinxes to secure each flank and protect the center of the Tomb King Line. Meanwhile, the the skeleton archers took up firing positions at the center of the line. As Prince Jafar’s chariots rolled onto the field the High Elf archers took up position opposing them on the far hills. The Ushabti took up positions on the other side of the archers. As the casket of souls and catapults were drug into place the high elf infantry formed up opposite the Ushabti. As Jafar surveyed his lines the high elfs drug their bolt throwers onto hills across the width of the field. 

As the Elven horse started to probe the flanks and their infantry started to move forward there was little time to take further stock of what was happening. The battle had begun. The Elves seemed to be probing the Tomb Kings lines while the bolt throwers, archers, and mages hurled bolts, shafts, and spells towards the Khemerians. Jafar knew his troops wouldn’t last long out in the open, taking this much fire. He ordered the Warsphinxs to engage the Elven horse and sent his chariots and Ushabti towards the Elf lines. Meanwhile, Priest Razoul ordered the catapults to begin firing resulting in one immediately cracking under the strain of the payload and being taken out of action for the day. The casket managed to unleash its tormented souls but was unable to cause significant damage on the enemy lines.

Things were not going much better for the Khmerian melee troops, the Warsphinxs were unable to catch the Elven horse as they kept retreating. The chariots had found a weak spot of ground and were practically stuck in place. They tried over and over to charge the Elven archers without success, and without much movement. On the other side of the battle, the Ushabti were engaged with Elven infantry wearing the hides of lions and wielding great axes. Priest Razoul and Priest Iago were unable to aid them in combat with any spells, the Elven mages were countering anything the winds were willing to give the Tomb Kings. Meanwhile, the Elves were being favored by the winds of magic and their troops fought like lions.

Under hails of bolts and shafts, the chariots were soon almost all gone. The lion elves made short work of the Ushabti and soon caught Priest Razoul by surprise, destroying his unit and wounding him to the point of unconsciousness. The Tomb King archers were able to deal a smattering of wounds to the Elves but not enough to cause any of their units to rout. One eagle became quite brave and as it closed the distance to the archers, was cut down by arrows. One Warsphinx was able to catch a group of fleeing Elven horse and crushed the squirming bodies under its jade stone paws. However, the bolt throwers and archers soon found the weak points in the constructs and shattered them on the field.

Prince Jafar looked around the battlefield in dismay, the elves had suffered minimal casualties while most of his host was scattered among the dirt of the field. His chariot was still stuck in the mud and as he turned back towards the Elf lines he saw a bolt coming straight at him. With his last breath he cursed the damn machine and the pointy eared bastards crewing it. As the bolt took off his legs and crushed his chariot he had the satisfaction of seeing the bolt thrower enveloped in a swarm of beetles. With the collapse of their generals chariot the few remaining skeleton archers crumbled to dust as the elves closed in. 

It was dark when Razoul came too. He had to lay amongest the dried bones of skeleton archers while he concentrated on spells learned long ago to restore his health. Once he was able to stand he slowly picked his way over the battlefield. He walked past the corpse of a giant eagle towards what remained of the chariots. Not much was left of Prince Jafar's chariot, but once he looked under it Razoul realized most of Jafar was still intact. He would have to re-construct his legs but Razoul knew he would be able to wake the Prince once more. As he set to the task he thought to himself, "it was almost as though the Elves had read the tablets and knew the weak points in our constructs. The bolts and shafts made such quick work of the Sphinxs, that must be it!" Razoul knew the tablets were in the possesion of the Elves, they had to be!

Things I Learned from this game

- I had 7 drops to  Aaron’s 9 or more drops. This made it really hard to put combat blocks where they needed to be.  I really needed redirectors and if I took this list again, would drop the Prince and split the chariots into two units of 3 for this purpose.

-I think I took an extra catapult, but it blew up on turn one so it didn’t really matter.

-Elves didn't fail a terror or leadership test all game except for the first casket test. Even with it failed, they have a high enough leadership that it didn’t do many wounds.

-Aaron did a good job of spacing his units so the casket spell couldn’t jump to war machines.

-The Ushabti combat was silly on my part, but if I hadn’t charged they probably would have been charged the next turn. I should have cast Net of Amorek (sp?) on one of his combat blocks a lot earlier than I did.

-Chariots failed a ton of charges with really low roles meaning they never got into combat. I probably should have just moved them the second turn and then tried to charge.

-If I was to take this list again, I would either take the chariots as smaller units to hunt chaff or take skeleton horse archers (2 or 3 units of 5) and then a block of skeleton warriors with a prince in it. I would also put a necrotect in to give one of the animated constructs a 5+ ward and give something hatred.

-High Elf shooting hurts a lot more than I thought.

-High Elf magic is pretty good too.

Two Warshpinxes Complete!

Got the two Warsphines done. Second one doesn't quite look as good as the first. Mostly because I didn't have a good system for remembering the color ratio on the highlight. So that I remember, the jade is a base of orkhide shade from GW (old color) then Army Painter Greenskin, then close to 50/50 of the Greenskin and any white you have. The bronze was painted over an old gold with Army Painter Weapon Bronze, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade and then liberally dry brushed with Citadel Hashut Copper (current color). 

 

 

I was feeling rushed with the second one (there is no way I'm going to get stuff ready for CincyCon and used to much of the GW Hashut Copper on my drybrush layer and also was too heavy with my jade highlight on the howdah. The riders are also super hard to paint because of all their bandage lines that kind of blend into the bones.....

Warsphinx #1 finished

First one done. One more to repaint. Took the pictures with my tablet and got rid of the white background. I think the white backing may have been the issue with the darkness. I will try a different color background next time. I feel like I did well with the cat but the crew was a bit sloppy. I learned a little about using washes with the howdah and with the crew. Some parts of the crew models run together and you are not sure where the wrappings end and bronze mail begins. Hopefully, the next one I will do better with them.