The Bitterscales, part 1

I've been meaning to get some Black Ark Corsairs for about a year and I finally got round to pulling the trigger a couple of weeks ago. I've built most of them "out of the box", with just a couple of heads from other kits. The Black Ark Reaver is a Blood Bowl Dark Elf with Corsair weapon hand-swaps.

I kind of wish I had put them all on 32mm bases though as they "spill over" the edges of the bases a bit too much for my taste. The kit is also showing it's age and was a bit fiddly to assemble. The parts are not brilliantly divided up and a lot of them don't fit together well, like more modern kits do.

I'm definitely a little bit disappointed with them. But they are on the painting table and won't take long. They will be in the same colour scheme as my aelves from last year.

They will be led by Illyana Draketooth, a Black Ark Fleetmaster. They will be the corsair crew who stayed loyal to her after their defeat in the Prime Dominion (in Animosity III). These 11 models plus Draketooth come in at just under 1000 points in Warcry.

The Harrowmark Twisted Oak - part 8, game 5 - The Bitter Harvest

Hundreds of crows filled the trees - they constantly cawed and flapped about noisily, fighting amongst themselves occasionally, but also taking flight in massive flocks whenever something startled them.

The light faded as the day once more drew to a close. Noises other than crow-calls started to creep into the woods. Rowdy songs and gruff voices, drifted on the winds. Unusually upbeat songs for the area with a distinctly nautical theme.

Kapitan da Leeva, Bold Rikk, Percy Percy and Francot moved through the twilight forest in a fairly careless way. Having spotted the shipwreck nearby from the vantage point the skydock afforded that morning they were confident that this was the remains of The Grieving Princess, a sky-vessel that had come down in a storm some months ago, while its captain was searching for the Twisted Oak. The talk in the inns was that she still had a detailed map of the area aboard, and that the location of the Oak was marked on it!

The Kapitan was only slightly annoyed by all the singing.

The orruks shut up quickly when they realised Kalyustar and his creations had followed them. The Soulchemist set his skeletal minions to work, searching for the map.

They found a log book and a sheaf of letters.

With a new sense of urgency the Kaptain hurriedly collected a bundle of letters that was lying on the musty earth.

Bold Rikk found another book and tied it to his belt.

Percy Percy and Bold Rikk spotted the Soulchemist and took pot-shots at him at long range. They didn't really hope to hit him but they loved the noise and the smoke.

Dragante, Dudoso and Awkwardo caught up with the Kapitan and immediately started trying to deal with the undead in a more proactive way.

Dragante felled a halberdier with a furious flurry of attacks.

Dudoso hefted both his double-shot loaded pistols and blasted at the skeleton carrying the papers. He missed.

Awkwardo and a skeleton Gor traded blows over the fence of the little farm.

The Kapitan and his band repositioned themselves to get a good run-up at the Soulchemist.

With a roar, da Leeva charged!

He left Francot and Percy Percy to guard the loot. A skeletal champion emerged from the trees behind them.

But he disturbed the crows and Francot span around and fired his pistols. One pistol-ball scored a grazing hit.

Kalyustar sent his skeleton duardin to face the Kapitan but the hulking orruk impaled him with a flourish of his kutlass.

Dudoso moved to face the skeleton who now had two piles of papers and books stuffed in his ragged jacket.

Kalyustar reanimated the duardin and sent him against the injured Bold Rikk!

The relentless axe blows were too much for the poor orruk pirate. The duardin stole his treasure!

Awkwardo and the Gor continued hacking away at each other.

Until the Gor's friends arrived.

Dragante dealt with the rotting duardin again and recovered the loot he had snatched from Bold Rikk.

El Doctoro, Bortagno and Tambor arrived on the scene, almost too late to make any difference.

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The Rotmoons ended the day with two bundles of paper, letters, log books and charts. But Kalyustar’s Cursed Company also had possession of a similar quantity of salvaged paperwork.

As both warbands withdrew into the darkness to study what they had captured, they all knew only one of them would have the vital map!

In the darkness, the sea-shanties started again.

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This was our first game of the restructured campaign. Last week's game was just a (very enjoyable!) warm up.

The warbands clashed around the remains of a failed expedition, rumoured to have followed a detailed map to the Twisted Oak. If they could find it among the wrecks, their way to the Twisted Oak would be opened. As they both ended the game with two treasure tokens it was a draw - the Rotmoons had caused one more casualty than the Cursed Company though.

Terrain: Crow Wood
Deployment: Strike from the Shadows (Symmetrical)
Victory: Realmstone Hunt (Symmetrical)
Twist: Dusk
Reward: none… yet!

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Viktor’s version of the tale is here.

The Harrowmark Twisted Oak - part 7, game 4 - The Vantage Point

"The compass is wrong." said El Doctoro.

"How can both compasses be wrong?" asked Bortagno.

"The same way the maps are wrong." said Kapitan da Leeva.

The three of them looked at the charts and maps spread out between them, across the top of a barrel.

"Something is pulling them out of true. Something powerful. " El Doctoro took a compass bearing on three landmarks on the horizon and drew lines on the chart. Then he marked the direction of the Nadir, according to the compass - thaumaturgic north. But it was still wrong.

"It's no good scribbling and squinting at that device. We have to get up high and have a proper look at our surroundings. There's no other bearings that matter." rumbled the Kapitan. "I have an idea where we can go."

Bortagno and El Doctoro looked at each other. El Doctoro folded up his maps.

Deep in the forests of the Harrowmark, a skydock stood tall, above the tree tops. The Rotmoons knew that if they were going to find the Twisted Oak first, they would be better placed if they could get a good view of the surrounding forests.

In the gathering twilight Kapitan da Leeva and some of the Rotmoons moved towards the skydock to control the vantage point it afforded. Percy Percy and Bold Rikk bickered and argued as they walked but they soon shut up when the Kapitan pointed out what was happening on the far side of the tower.

Even in the gloom they could see a band of figures - moving with strange jolting actions.

The Rotmoons started climbing as the first Deathrattle skeletons approached. The fallen sorcerer, now Necromancer; Kalyustar the Soulchemist was close behind them.

Dragante and his companions, Dudoso and Awkwardo, appeared through the trees to the south-west.

Bortagno and Tambor approached from the north.

More skeletal warriors shambled out of the trees to the east, and north-east.

The Kapitan reached the top of the skydock first, only a little out of breath. He chuckled to himself and swished his kutlass ostentatiously.

A skeleton stepped out of the shadows beneath the stairs and attacked Percy Percy.

A furious fight erupted - the pirate crew did their best to hold up the first wave of dead-unz.

Another skeleton attacked Bold Rikk.

El Doctoro took a position on the balcony and started cracking skulls with short-ranged arcs of green lightning.

One undead hero broke through the pirates and got to the vantage point to face the Kapitan.

Tambor was set upon by another.

Bortagno joined the fray with a roar, his kutlass flashing in the last of the setting sunlight.

The undead champion dealt Kapitan da Leeva a mighty wound.

More dead-unz trudged slowly through the forests toward the tower.

The Kapitan replied in kind and smashed the undead hero to pieces.

Another skeleton made it to the top deck, but so did Bortagno and as darkness fell the orruk pirates secured the skydock and victory!

Bortagno muttered to himself, "What was the point of all that? We can't see a thing now its dark!"

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This was our first face-to-face game in almost exactly two years! It felt so good to roll dice together again.

In our pre-game chat we decided to use everything that had been added to Warcry over that missed time (including new fighter types, points changes and campaign frameworks) and we quickly restructured the campaign on the fly. But as this game was a warm-up fight, we just used a random draw of Battleplan Cards (see above!) - but they turned out to be a perfect re-introduction to the story anyway.

We can't wait for more games now! Roll on next week.

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Viktor's side of this story is here.