Orlygg Creates his Oldhammer Day Slanneshi Warband:

I have turned my back on Khorne.

There, I said it.

I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to piece together a force for Gormund Clawrender, but I was just not feeling the passion. It seems that after my last RoC campaign, the pleasure god has rooted himself deep into my soul and refuses to ease his grip.

I think the fact that I have been working on a Khorne army is also a factor, painting red, black and brass starts to get you down after a while.

Hence the defection.

I also have a shed load of painted Slannesh beastmen and thugs (all old school) so work should be minimal.

Now, the generation of this warband is going to take place in real time. Well, real time for this particular blog. All I have is the name of the champion, Lewdwhip the Thrice Perverted (inspired by a similar character inside Slaves to Darkness) and an idea that his followers are going to be known as the Soulshrivers.

One of the great attractions of Slaves to Darkness is the extreme variables that often come out of creating character and warbands. I have absolutely no idea what I am going to end up with. From the race of my champion, his level or the nature of his warband. All this will be decided by the whim of the dice, so Slannesh, guide my hand!

Lewdwhip the Thrice Perverted Champion of Slannesh

First I need to establish his race, so I roll my D100 and I get... 27. A dark elf. Now his level, so another D100 and I get... 57. A level 10 warrior.

That gives him a standard profile of;

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
5	6	5	4	4	2	7	3	9+1	9	9	8

Not bad at all. I'm pretty happy with that, as he should be able to hold his own against most enemies, though with only two wounds he's going to be pretty easy to kill off. A quick tangle with a large monster, or spell, and he'd be pushing up chaotic daisies, so a defensive approach may be in order.

He receives a +1 WP bonus as he is a follower of Slannesh as part of his conversion to a champion, so I'll add that to his profile shortly. Let's now find out what his two attributes are going to be.

Attribute 1: So I roll my D1000 and get... 301. A crossbreed! Great, I foresee the terrible challenges of a complex conversion ahead, hopefully not something involving a horse or some other crap animal. I am required to roll a D6 first, to choose my animal table, and a D12 to choose the creature itself. Right, here we go... 5 and 7. A cross between a elf and spider! Next, I have to test to see which parts of the model's body are most affected by this crossbreeding, namely head, body, arms and legs. Head gets 5, body, 2, arms 1 and legs 2. So the head of the model will be nearly all spider with a lesser effect running through the rest of his dark elven body. Later on, I will need to merge the two profiles (dark elf and spider) to create a new profile!

Attribute 2: So I again roll me D1000, heart in my mouth... It's quite exciting really, isn't it? I get... 207. Blood subsitution. I need to roll a D6 to discover what my blood will be exactly. A 6! Electricity for blood, which bestows a +1 T. Useful, as with his low Wound score it may help keep him alive for longer.

So here's his new profile. As Lewdwhip is a crossbreed spider, I need to add his profile to that of a spider and divide the result by 2. His profile is on the top, the spider's in the centre and the new profile at the bottom, I have to round any halves down.

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
5 5 5	6 3 4	5 0 2	4 5 4	4 4 4+1	2 4 3	7 1 4	3 2 2	9+1 8 9	9 3 6	9 6 7	8 2 5+1

So, Lewdwhip has weakened in his fighting capabilities, but has more wounds. Hmm, the chaos gods give but them they give away. I also need to take into account the special rules of a giant spider, as these rules now become relevant to Lewdwhip. With this in mind, and with all the changes in place, his final profile is going to look like this. I also changed his name to Lewdweb

Lewdweb the Thrice Perverted 

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
5	4	2	4	5	3	4	2	9	6	7	6

Special Rules 
1) Immune to all psychology, but dislikes fire. He must take a panic test if he moves within 4" of any fire, or is attacked by a firespell.
2) Causes fear in all creatures under 6 feet tall.
3) One attack can be a poisoned bite which adds +1S to the attack with -1 to any saving throw. Any wounds from this attack will see the opponent removed from play, paralysed.
4) Chitinous armour over his body gives him a saving throw of 4,5 or 6
5) Can move through wooded areas without penalty, can climb trees too!
6) Electricity for blood, causes a S3 hit when wounded by a metal weapon. S6 if enemy is wearing metal armour.

Chaos Weapon (to be established before his first game)

In conclusion, Lewdweb could be a dangerous enemy, especially in close combat with that bite and a good toughness coupled with a saving throw of 4, 5 or 6. However, he is slow to respond and has an average weapon skill, so I will be using that additional bite attack of his a lot. Fire could also be a problem. One well aimed fireball spell and he'll be running for the hills. Luckily, Khorne don't like magic very much so it may not be a problem for the mega battle come summer. Tactics with the rest of the warband may help here, so here's hoping that Slannesh provides plenty of thugs or beastmen to act as a human shield until we get into close combat.

Okay, time to move things on and find out who will be following Lewdweb around. As he's a level 10 champion, he gets 3 rolls on the retinue table or three D100s. Lets go...

Roll One: 40 a chaos warrior. I need to roll a further D6 to find out which type he (or she) is... 6! A fully forged warrior of chaos! Woah! Now readers who may be unfamiliar with chaos warriors in Third Edition there are three types; thug, marauder and warrior. The warriors being practically champions themselves, so this model will be another character with his (or her) own profile.
Roll Two: 37 a chaos sorcerer. Oh, bugger! I was hoping for masses of troops to throw at the enemy and I have attracted but two followers with two rolls. I need to roll a D6 now to establish the level of this sorcerer... 5! So he's level 10, like his master! Again, this model will be a character and will need a profile of his own.
Roll Three: 81 D4 ogres. Now this is more like it! Some big, bully boys to soak up any fire spells that may wing their way towards Lewdweb. I roll.. 2. So I have two ogres in my service.

In conclusion, my warband will consist of 1 champion and 4 other models!

That is certainly NOT what I was expecting at all. To be honest, I don't really know how this is going to affect me in game until I test out the Soulshrivers on another warband. Ogres pack a punch in Third, as do chaos warriors and sorcerers, so combat and magic are going to be important to me, but I cannot help but feel that the centre of my warband is weak. I am vulnerable to large numbers and fire, and could easily see my forces surrounded by battle hungry Khornates if I am not careful.

Jorlune Nipplegnaw 
Chaos Warrior

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
4	6	6	4	3+1	1	4	1	9+2	9+2	9+2	9+2

Right, my chaos warrior is a stout follower of Slannesh and starts with the profile above. According to the WFB3 rulebook, a character chaos warrior needs D6-2 personal attributes so I roll a 3 and get one. 780 is the number on the table and that gives me resilient, +1 to toughness. He is also protected by chaos armour.

Dieter von Wittgenstien 
Human Chaos Sorcerer level 10

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
4-1	4	3	4	3	2	4	1	8+1	9+2	8+1	10

Creating a sorcerer requires stealing the stat line from the WFB3 rule book and following any special rules that may be there. It says that sorcerers have D6-2 attributes at level 10. I roll a 4 so its 2 attributes. Two D1000s later I have 594 and 832. So I have magic resistant and silly walk, so +2 to WP and -1 to movement.

Next I have to consider his spells. Hmmm... I'll leave them until my first game.

Karl the Uncouth 
Ogre 

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
6	3	2	4	5	3	3	2	7	4	5	7

D3 attributes leaves us with 2, so one D1000 roll here. 270 is the score, so cloud of flies which causes -1 to all to hit rolls.

Ken Tzuki Headpeeler 
Ogre 

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
6	3	2	4	5	3	3	2	7	4	5	7

4 is rolled for Ken, so two attributes. 220 and 477 gives us brightly patterned skin and a horrible stench. The first is merely cosmetic, the second causes -1 to all rolls at 4" as well as +2 to all rout tests.

To conclude, this was far from what I was expecting. Five models! I knew warbands were small, but this is extreme. But, I have to work with what I have now. My next trip will be to the lead mountain to see what I have to use. I am a RoC purist, so all models will need to be period and Citadel. My largest problem is what to do for my champion. I don't think I have and spider models lying around.

Thoughts and comments welcome.

 Orlygg.