Halpi's Rift: Capture the Chroneas

 Having been transported through the portal last week onto the Abyssal Plane both sides sent out their Vanguard forces to try a tame a nearby Chroneas, with the hope of turning the powerful monster to their own uses.

The aim was to wear down the Chroneas and accumulate enough victory points over the 5 turns in order to be able to field it in the next battle.

Once more Burke the leader of the Undead Company took the field along with his trusty veterans of the last battle, Radolf despite being felled had shown remarkable regenerative powers and suffered no long term ill.

Undead

1 * Burke the Necromancer

3 * Skeleton Archers

3 * Leonard, Tasha & Turner the Revenants

1 * Pascal the Soul Reaver

1 * Radolf the Werewolf

And also as before, Senban the leader of the KoM Company declined to take the field and sent a lieutenant instead. The KoM also sent a berserker instead of their Ogre to this battle.

KoM

1 * Leader

1 * Akatasos the Hunter (Skirmisher)

1 * Skirmisher

2 * Foot Guard

1 * Foot Soldier

1 * Wizard

1 * Berserker

The first turn saw the Men push up and loose some shots at the Chroneas whilst for the Undead Radolf made use of his superior speed to charge and cause damage on the target, this gave Burke a 3-0 VP lead at the end of T1.

Rolling for the direction that the Chroneas moves is always a tense moment in this scenario and the first move was away from both forces so caused little damage, with only Radolf taking a wound. Turner the Revenant was shot away by the Men however. It also meant that both sides could get some melee units into contact. Both sides managed to cause an equal amount of wounds so it remained 3-0 to the Undead.

The Turn 3 movement was less kind to the KoM as it took the Chroneas through their forces killing their Foot Soldier, it did mean however that the Chroneas was a long way from the Undead forces. The turn also saw Radolf being floored once again by Akatasos the Hunter making good use of his Pound ability. Whilst Radolf was able to survive the fire from the other Skirmisher and the KoM Wizard he was finished off by the Berserker. So once again Radolf perished though this time he had killed a Foot Guard before he died.

With the Undead unable to cause any wounds on the Chroneas the Leader of Men had a free swing to gain 3 VP's, unfortunately that free swing entirely missed so whilst the KoM got 1 VP for the death of Radolf the Undead still lead 3-1.

Start of T4

On Turn 4 the Chroneas again crashed through the KoM and knocked several down, the Undead also managed to concentrate enough fire on Akatasos to kill him and revenge the death of Radolf. The KoM Berserker charged into Pascal the Soul Reaver and despite causing a wound was then knocked to the ground to be finished off by Tasha the Revenant. Pascal then killed the other Foot Guard straight out and this left the Men with only 3 men left. The positioning of the Chroneas did mean however that the Undead could not cause any damage on it and the remaining KoM skirmisher managed to cause a couple of wounds on the Chroneas so they took the lead 4-3 going into the final round.

Start of T5

During the last turn the Undead knew they could at least get a draw by killing the KoM Wizard so the Skeleton Archers threw everything into the effort and managed with the final ranged shot to take the Wizard out, tying the scores at 4-4. The KoM where unable to get into position to put any damage on the Chroneas so with a Surge and then a charge Leonard the Revenant was able to make contact with the beast and get 5 solid hits, victory beckoned!

Unfortunately the beast made all it's saves so the scenario ended in a tie 4-4, though the Men had suffered significantly more casualties than the Undead who had lost Radolf and also the Revenant Turner.

After a fierce battle both sides rolled for their wounded, Radolf with the help of Leonard the Company Healer once again made a full recovery and Turner was left in a weakened state. The KoM did not fair so well with Akatasos the Hunter who had caused so much trouble to Radolf dying of his wounds. The KoM also had a Foot Guard who whilst trying to evade capture after the battle was cut down. The Wizard managed a full recovery though so it was not all bad news for Senban.

Chroneas

Quick update as I have completed the Chroneas model. I have added a couple of piles of 'rock' onto the base and some black flocking.

I have extended the light effect from the model onto the base to add some colour onto what could be a flat looking area otherwise.

This has been a fun model to paint with lots of detail and plenty of recesses to get into (and miss) during the process.

He's a big model so should stand out in any army that he takes the field with.

The Pile of Shame

Every wargamer has a pile of shame sat in the corner waiting to be painted up. This week I realised that my pile was growing rather short as I've been making steady progress over the summer through all the mini's I have outstanding. At present it looks pretty small but I have several Kickstarter projects due to arrive over the next couple of months and into the new year so it should start to grow again.

No game this week meant that again I could concentrate my efforts on painting so first off the blocks is a unit filler for my Herd Horde. The model is a cheap import from Russia with a pack of 4 54mm figures costing about £9 including P&P.

The quality isn't amazing as you would expect for the cost but being hard plastic they are pretty good and have enough detail to make a decent model.

I also completed the Minotaur for Mythic Battles and mounted him on a 50mm square so he can also be used either as a stand alone monster or a unit filler.

His specializes in attacking groups of enemies who have unwisely clumped together within his charge range.

The mighty hunter Orion has also been painted up he is as you would expect an accomplished monster hunter so would go well in a force if your opponent has gone monster heavy,

As I don't plan on using him in any other games he has remained on his standard round base.

Lastly I have also been working away on the Chroneas and the arrival of several new metallic shades to fill the gap between Bronze and Rough Iron has allowed me to build up a gradient on the metallic parts of the model.

I have also been trying to build up a reflected light gradient on the metallic parts close to the magical energy plumes. I happy with the result so far and can now start working on the base.

Spirit Animal(s)

Spirit Walkers are a staple of Herd lists along with Stampedes, being fearless and packing a mighty 40 attack dice they provide a real punch. My infantry Horde is made up from the Frostgrave Gnolls box which is excellent value.

As I wanted the unit to stand out I created a hole with a metal plate in the bottom so I could add 50mm centrepieces for the unit, in this case one of my Brutox models.

I am currently painting a large Centaur to use as another centrepiece and may well create a couple more as time goes on.

I took the chance to put out the initial 1500 point armies I have planned to introduce Mick back into KoW. At present I'm not entirely sure about the Herd list so it isn't completely nailed down as I'd really like to include a Stampede as well.

The Basilean list is pretty straightforward as it consists of the two formations and then a couple of chaff units added on.

Work on the Chroneas also continues with the model feeling like it is starting to come together.