Sludge - Royalist Faction: The Barony of Pyrmia II

 The Archsentinel, Duke Galerik, sixth of his name, Warden of the Hallowsraad. 

Duke Galerik is a haunted man who has seen much in his lifetime. After a decade of service in the Fensguard in distant Q'wara he returned home to find his native Pyrmia on the verge of collapse.
Rising quickly through the ranks of the Barons court he oversaw the restoration of the Harakan and the re-mustering of the Chimera Thrones armies.

It was Duke Galerik who led the defense of the Zimhausen Gates, the razing of the cult temple of Elaos and the scouring of the Jontalbahn hinterlands. But for his many glories he is cognizant of the withering Royal tithe numbers and the rising tide of the Manticores creeping aggression. Still he holds true to the Chimeric disciplines in the face of doom.

An ancient Pyrmian epitaph in the hilt etching of his family greatsword reads:

 "Conquered by none, I will be free."   

 

Sludge - Royalist Faction: The Barony of Pyrmia I

     Beyond the Scattered Plains and the bleak northern barrens, the Barony of Pyrmia has stood loyal to the Chimera Throne for centuries past. Its solemn networks of fortified cities and towns hold bulwark against the onslaught of the raiding hordes from the Elucian archipelago.

In those wild lands beyond, foes of the Chimera gather in the Broken Steppes. Each winter the glow of camp fires from the hill lands grow ever brighter in the night skies. The baleful gaze of the Manticore is cast across this ancient realm.

But the claws and horns of the Chimera are still sharp. The resolute armies of the Barony are made of a variety of corps of professional soldiers such as the 12th Royal Marines. From their garrison at the strategic mountain aerodrome of Witrburg they stand ready to be ferried by fleets of dirigible airships riding on the swift updrafts to the beleaguered strongholds in the lowlands below. Their actions in the lifting of the Siege of Fusehill in 611CE is still sung in the old Marine hymnals.

 Added to this are the Pyrmian bannermen and royalist tithe troops who wade into the battle mire alongside the marines with pike and shotte. It is by their stoic deeds that the Harakan Wall still holds back the terrors of that cursed pass.

                   Pyrmian infantry at the Battle of the Valkern Fields, early 655CE

 At the fore the Barons court would employ loyal servants of Chimera Throne and the Royal Academy to lead their ranks into dire warfare. Royal Officers are often men of distinction and veterans of campaigns past, often found barking orders over the din of battle or in the bloody press of melee.

 

Captain Geopauldus and a Chimeric Chaplain bearing a reliquary of Ste.Austina  

 Defenders of the ancient faiths, sanctioned Royal Chaplains accompany the Barons armies as they march to war. For those about to face the horrors of battle, the prayer dirges and sacred incenses bring hope and conviction to the living and comfort to the fallen and dying.    

The aristocratic Royal Magicians can be seen among the ranks, extolling mystic courage and fury to men amidst the storm of gore and lead with arcane rites in the name of their monarch.

Coveted by many of the Barons warlords, the squadrons of the volunteer 11th Royal Hussars "Arnauds Finest" are an elite regiment of light cavalry. With a reputation of renegade bravado, many a tide has been turned by the timely charge of the 11th. The thundering hooves of raucous mustangs and flashing razor sharp sabres heralding their arrival.  

     

 

 "...It was in that moment that the Vostermach Freikorps spearwall broke that all hope seemed lost, then with bugle-cry the 11th Royal Hussars burst from the thicket woods. They cut into the Red Viziers flanks like the wickedly curved sabres they carried. With vengeful cry we knew the day was won...."
-Excerpt from Van Ruzes Commentaries on Pyrmia.Volume 5.Chapter 11.

Sludge - Foreword

               in another thread of time - there was A DARK AGE OF NIGHTMARE, AN Age of

The following installment brings us to the world of Sludge - a fantasy war game set in an ahistorical black powder age apocalypse from Metal King Studios. 

A great cataclysm has shattered the world. Black storms blot out the sun and churn the dying earth. Great armies languish in the land like locusts. They greedily consume the now scarce resources. Barons, dukes, and princes gather warriors to scavenge what they can as they conduct bitter warfare to settle ancient grudges.

The cruel wars of men compound the nightmare and death
would be a small mercy. But for fear or hate, the warriors will not yield. The latent magic of the
world tree spurs cycles of endless violence.

Dark worlds beyond our own merge into the sludge mire. The great exposed roots of the world tree will heal any wound at a price, and men have turned to the dark practice of harvesting its vital fragments. It is a dark age of sludge and doom...

{{{ An excellent indie tabletop war game from 2020, followed by Sludge Nations released in Blaster Magazine Vol4 in 2022 which introduced 4 individual factions; The Imperial, Royalist, Free Peoples and Cult Factions.

The game itself features fielding points matched armies of individual units. Players alternating activating units to perform actions like moving, shooting, charging melee. D6s, D10s, an a inch measure and some tokens is the only materiel needed.

Metal King Studios does have a number of great official figs, but also encourages kit-bash converting of historical & fantasy lines to create your own unique army (Kits from Perry Minis, Wargames Atlantic, Frostgrave for some examples).
The artwork is dark and brooding in a stylized martial way and very eye catching. 

 Black powder armies of infantry, cavalry, artillery, beasts and heroes clashing in mud and gore soaked battlefields of an alternate historical time of doom.

Great room to let the hobby imagination run wild and free. -Ak }}}

Necromunda - Hive War Ikarus - Scavengers

 Somewhere in the polluted depths of Hive Ikarus - two gangs converge on a black market trading post belonging to the Black Sun tech syndicate. Underworld intel rumored that these traders carried caches of off-world tech looted from a downed voidcraft in the badlands and a hefty amount of credits. 

For the Gilded Serpent (House Delaque) and the Vendetta Vixens (House Escher) The rare promise of such lucrative riches was impossible to ignore. 

(+++ The following is a Necromunda (N18) match - House of Blades Escher vs standard Delaques, mission is Scavengers - Book of Ruin. Objective to steal the loot counters (7 in this case).

  

              Judex Tul and his henchmen begin shaking down the locals for the void tech loot.

From the shadows of the south viaducts a group of cloaked gangers emerged, agents of the Gilded Serpent. Others snuck along the catwalks overhead and side corridors. The emergence of Vendetta Vixen gangers one shop stall to the west exploded the trading post into chaos.

The west alleyway exploded as stun grenades were lobbed in. Gilded Serpent gangers descended from the catwalks above, several gangers fell in the vicious close quarters struggle as sharpshooters picked away at the combatants.

 The Death Maiden - Nyxa duels with Spider Khot. He missed the twisting assassin and was struck by lasfire.

The Gilded Serpent controlled the trading post but the Vendetta gangers had already made off with three loot boxes. There was only one left to claim victory for both sides, to the northern alley.

The Gilded Serpent gangers swarmed toward the objective, blazing las shots at the Death Maiden about to claim the final tech loot. She seemed guarded by some unearthly ward preventing her from being struck by the red hot bolts stitching the alley.

Her luck held and the assassin escaped with her prize into the maintenance tunnels below. Tul vowed revenge as his gangers slinked back to the shadows with a significant amount of the void tech in tow.
He would have his chance again.

Vox Extremis - Gladiators of Xothu II

(+++ The following is a demo of a custom scenario I created again using a simple set of Necromunda (N18) rules. The 12 Gladiator characters are created as Venator champions (variety of the stat sets), maximum 200pts each. Equipment was restricted to close combat weapons, armor and black market chems. One main book skill per gladiator.
The Hounds represent Sumpcroc beasts. Arena size is 24"x18". Deployment 7" apart.

This can be played as single player mode as well, numbering each fighter 1-12 and drawing from a dozen numbered cards to activate. Multiplayer could easily be converted into small co-op squads.

 Good easy dice game for a lazy Sunday afternoon).

  

 Somewhere in the cavernous depths of Xothus palace, the Heliodrome fighting pit. Eight figures emerged from the shadows of the blast doors. The roar of the spectator mobs rose like a festering storm in filthy air thick with the stench of cooked meat and strong intoxicants. The cacophony thundered into the pit below.

 From a gang plank on the edge of the pit a gnarled animal horn was sounded and a rusted grill raised up, ejecting forth a pack of snarling Hounds of Xothu. It was begun... 

Into the center, the alpha beast struck out at speed. The large mutant Volos was blindsided, gored and savaged. The second beast loped along the wall towards Tetsu, the pikeman stuck the creature but was wounded by its sweeping tusks. The veteran knew to defend his back, well enough to parry the serrated teeth of the twin blades of Cytus.

The fighting quickly spilled into the center courtyard between the spike racks. The mutant barbarian Jungir in the depths of chem frenzy rushed forth, spiked and hooked flails swinging for Ithlans throat. The warriors armor held and he countered with a crushing hammer blow, sprawling Jungir into the racks to his end. He swung the heavy maul again, this time shattering the body of the third charging hound.   

The swordsman Tyros, a warrior of the bleak thorned forests of Paleon entered the fray, slaying the alpha hound with hacking thrusts that sprayed the arena floor red. He however failed to see the servo claw of the badly mauled Volos close around his throat and was then hurled several feet away.

 Tetsu was slain by Cytus who approached the melee raging in the center where the heavy warriors now dueled. The fortunes of Ithlan turned ill as he was struck down by a massive blow from the roaring chain cleaver of the workganger Sarvog in a slash of gore. 

Heavy footfall thundered across the arena floor. The lumbering brute Olrik strode forth, his chain axe and spiked knuckleduster wove a bloody path of destruction through Sarvog and Cytus before turning his wrath on a dying Volos, finishing him.

The mono hole of the giant gladiators helm now fixed on the remaining survivor; Tyros. Though badly wounded, the swordsman leveled his blade in challenge to the deafening howls of the crowds. The fighters closed the distance, Olriks chain axe carving sweeping arcs of certain death at the swordsman.

 Ignoring his own wounds, the Paleonnian flanked and swept low, feeling the whirling teeth of the chain axe shearing into his scrap shield. Tyros lashed out with viper thrusts of his blade catching Olrik in the chest. The massive warrior collapsed to the floor with a heavy crash.

The mobs howled into the arena with fury for Tyros now stood alone, badly wounded but victorious. The newest champion of the Heliodrome.

(+++ This proved to be a entertaining small scenario for some figs I have converted. The fighters Skill abilities really came into play for each gladiator; parries, dodges, crushing blows really adding to the action. 

The victor Tyros won only by the narrowest of margins, having killed a hound and then hurled nearly into a spike rack with a Serious Injury. Remained down for two turns on the brink of death. He then regained consciousness to face Olrik who had just slaughtered three other gladiators.

He parried a blow that would have meant certain death and landed multiple sword wounds through Olriks armor to win. -Ak)

  

Vox Extremis: Gladiators of Xothu I

 

Under the depraved rule of the rogue pysker lord Xothu the world of Helius-117 would languish for many years. With the liquidation of the planetary governor, control of the settlements was appointed to local chieftains and satraps. These were indigenous Heliusi - a brutal Iron age people with new found access to advanced technology and an enslaved populace at their will.

All but cut off from the galaxy at large, the screaming mobs were entertained by the ways of old, before the time of the off-worlders. When blade and axe sang songs of death across the howling Heliusian wastes and stone walls. In the great fighting pits, the Gladiators of Xothu would do mortal combat in the ancient ways for the prize of survival...

The ranks of the gladiators were myriad; savage tribesmen, condemned bandits, prisoner voidsmen - any who might entertain the baying masses and their overlords with blood and violence. Fighters would don whatever crude armor and weapons that could be pried from the dead. Many imbibed of the exotic chem elixirs provided by renegade alchemists, cocktails of combat drugs to further fuel the fighting.  

Many of the arena pits kept stocks of things other than man or mutant; wild ravenous beasts from the far hinterlands of Helius.117 would also take part in the fighting, voracious pack predators with a taste for man flesh.

Vox Extremis - The Baleful Call

 

Helius.117, a bleak world of harsh broken hills, blasted wastes and storm wracked oceans. Despite its low value in resources its high importance was attributed to the psychic beacon tower located at its northern pole. For centuries voidships navigating the Voltarnus Cluster relied upon its signal to navigate the shifting stars. 

In [REDACTED.iSi82].M41 deep survey teams in the fog shrouded northern mesa ranges discovered ancient ruins of an unknown origin. The purpose of the strange geometric designs and esoteric rune columns eluded the techno-archaeologists and scholars who studied them in extensive detail. After decades of research the sites were marked Ex Anomalous, catalogued in the Imperial archives and passed into obscurity.

 

Many years later marked by the passing of a rogue celestial body - the space hulk Pryies Lament; a mass wreckage of lost void ships hammered together and ejected by the warp. In its wake a cloaked figure emerged from the ash desert levitating ominously above the ground. The figure was that of Xothu, an alpha-class psyker of ghastly telepathic power.

Able to reach into the unprotected mind with ease, he gathered an ever growing flock of devotees. One by one the settlements of Helius.117 fell under the grip of Xothus dark influence. As the planet was overrun frantic messages were sent from the psychic beacon tower before its link to the Astronomican was extinguished. In a single night of terror the cultist militias of Xothu besieged the beacon tower and put the entire facility to the torch and axe. 

The final defenders - a group of Navigator guildsmen attempted to fortify themselves in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the complex. These Astropathic guardians hastily erected a null shield to thwart the relentless nightmare visions assailing their senses. When the shield eventually failed the final navigators bodies cracked and contorted by some fell power, amalgamating into a protean mass of mutated horns, clawed limbs and snarling visages. A beast that should not be; the Horror of Gan'gora was born at Xothus foul behest. 

So it was that Helius.117 fell under the grip of the dark psyker, retiring to his lair in the mountain crags of Vonsalva to feed off the enslaved populace.