Massacre at the Ruins of Kalkor

Mike (Dwarfs) vs Tim (Orcs & Goblins)

And finally the day came when the eyes of evil looked upon the Ruins of Kalkor with growing lust for power; filthy greenskins whose bodies had once been the bodies of men: the Orcs of Gaping Jaw.

But the defenders of the Kalkor; the brave Dwarfs of Karak Hirn, were waiting as they always waited, standing in stout defence as they always had; waiting only for this day.

The Orcs were not the builders of Kalkor but they were almost as deadly, and if this fell place became theirs then they might use it to put cracks in the earth deep enough to swallow the realm of the Dwarfs.

Gunna Gorrasson, Runelord of Karak Hirn prepared the anvil of doom to let fly its cataclysmic power against the animalistic attackers, knowing that the raw power at this dangerous site could only add to its devastating effects.

But all around the ruins, the raging forces of the Orcs closed in, surrounding the ancient edifice, their shaman's tuning into the throbbing energy rising from the earth.

Before they could clamber into the ruins themselves though, Dwarfen warriors uncovered hidden Flame Cannons and hurled burning incendiaries at the howling greenskins, driving them back to the water nearby.

And as they fell back the lightning of the Anvil of Doom incinerated the filthy wretches, turning them to screaming dust as Thunderers let fly their handgun fire.

The attack of the Orcs faltered, and no matter the sudden flood of sorcerous power their Shaman's had, the Orcs had little practise in such might. They were as nothing before the stubborn preparations of the grim garrison. 

At the waterline, the warboss rallied his troops, bellowing for them to charge on, back toward the ruins.

But awaiting them now were the finest warriors of the Dwarfs, a concentration of skill and strength seldom seen, lead from atop his shield bearers by the Dwarf king, Durak Grund himself!

The Orcs had little chance, floundering to remanoeuvre as the lightning of the Anvil of Doom shattered their ranks.

Nothing would allow their filthy claws to close on this most precvious and powerful place. Nothing would stop the Dwarfs defending it.

The Orcs were scattered and fled or they were slaughtered and Gunna Gorrasson struck the anvil once more, not in attack this time, but in triumph.

The Ruins of Kalkor were safe for now but the Orcs would come again.

And someday something far far worse.

The Dead Fall, The Dead Rise & Chaos Blossoms

Tim (Spider Goblins) vs Gill (Tomb Kings) 

And in the south west as Nagash's dread magics had brought down meteors from the baleful green moon, a storm of magic swept the plains before Barak Varr. There the Chittering Horde descended on the Tomb Kings, wiping them out once more as the final battle between these forces drew closer. Every fight had been won by the goblins and this was no different.

Even as unholy sites were imbued with the power of Arcane Fulcrums, the wizards of both forces took command of the eldritch might, throwing devastating spells in all directions. 

It mattered nought. The Chittering Horde won as they ever had, crushing bone and banishing magic. 

The dead could no more stand against them than they could breathe again.

Tim (Skaven) vs Tomb Kings (Mike) 


And in the midst of the Border Princes, as Tomb Kings closed their skeletal claw around Spike Hole, the Skaven fought hard and bitterly. Again the power of the Arcane Fulcrums cascaded from the ground but again, the defending force were pressed to maintain control of it. The Tomb Kings tried to hurl the ratmen back from the field of blood but their power was not great enough.

Biding their power and not allowing their greed to risk losing control, the Skaven slew each enemy wizard, gaining the fulcrums and hurling the Tomb Kings back in turn.

Mike (Tomb Kings) vs Tim (Spider Goblins) 

But again in the south, scant miles from the gates of Barak Varr, the Chittering Horde finally outstretched itself. Drawing might from a new tome of ancient knowledge (the new Tomb Kings army book), the undead legion suddenly recovered the might that they had once used to slay every last dwarf in the Dwarfen City of the sea.

The Spider King and his unnumbered  crawling lackeys were more powerful than any living foe but this close to their fortress, the legions of death could not be defeated. It did not matter how great their strategy and how powerful their magic, the skeleton warriors showed no mortal weakness and an immortal strength.

In time, they drove off the goblins and their spider mounts, signalling their first defeat in this lengthening war and blunting at last their seemingly unstoppable surge to capture Barak Varr.

Chaos Daemons (Tim) vs Wood Elves (Gill) - Massacre

And so evil battled evil, waxing and waning as the fates decried and in the north, the spiteful Elves of Linwe  skipped into battle with those most unholy of enemies, the Daemons of the Pernicious Gate.

But pure evil cannot be destroyed and undiluted malice lay at the heart of the daemons, where once, millennia before the Elves had known goodness. Bloodwood Drakes soared into the air to destroy the things before them but flames cast high brought the first one low before it had even the chance to roar.

 As the other Drake neared the Daemon lines, fire ripped the Wood Elf lord from its shoulders and the throng of unholiness brought the beast down, surrounded on all sides by the devilishly clever creatures of chaos.

The bloodletters hurled themselves into the onrushing ranks of Dryads and Treemen as Seekers of Slaanesh ran ranpant behid then Elven lines. And soon only daemonic flesh stood amidst the blood and corpses. Only daemonic voices screamed of victory.

Spotlight On... Official Arcane Fulcrums: The Balewind Vortex & Storm of Magic Review

And here's the other one! 

Man, I had trouble with this. The stone effect was easy enough using the three shades of grey. The bronze effect was laborious and fiddly but straightforward (Tin Bitz | Dwarf Bronze).

The funnel was a nightmare.

First off I filled the gaps with all-purpose filler but didn't get it smoothed off perfectly. Then I started on a blue colour scheme that I just couldn't get to look right.

Eventually I switched to yellow, starting from scratch and suddenly it started to look better. I went Blazing Orange | Golden Yellow | Sunburst Yellow | White.

So I mentioned on my other Arcane Fulcrum post that I might mention my reservations about Storm of Magic...

In principle I think it's great. The background is cool; the book is very exciting; and I love the idea of GW releasing supplements again (the General's Compendium changed my life).

I also regarded the magic system as broken insomuch as there were nowhere near enough magic dice to go around which severely limited my army lists. Suddenly having double the number of magic dice seems like the ideal solution, however I, my friend Mike and my wife have all found that the extra dice and spells REALLY slows the game down. With so many more options the game seems to descend into a lot more umming and ahing.

Because wizards are so critical to stay on the fulcrums and win the game I found after a couple of games that I was very reluctant to risk the exciting high-powered spells anyway for fear of miscasting. Which goes against the point rather...

And the Arcane Fulcrum capturing seems a bit samey game to game. 

Having said all that, it is still early days and I needto play a lot more games with it. Once I've gone beyond the point where I'm more familiar with the spells and rules tweaks it should become more fluid and easy.

And I do love the ideas and imagery. 

We'll see. Perhaps I'll comment more after I've played again.

Spotlight On... Official Arcane Fulcrums: The Magewrath Throne

Well in my exuberance to get some quick wins I’ve finished my official GW Arcane Fulcrums.

First up, the Magewrath Throne.

 

I painted this to match my other skull-related scenery and I’m very pleased with how it came out. One step closer to my complete Valley of the Skulls! 

I decided to do the throne completely in stone (largely to speed things up)

Now it looks very cool on top of the temple of skulls, especially because I pained it using the same Red Gore | Blood Red colour scheme.

I’m not a huge fan of Storm of Magic so far (as it drags on a bit) but I do like this scenery piece. Sometimes it’s nice just to have such a good piece as this.

Maybe I’ll go into my reservations about Storm of Magic another time…

Alternative Arcane Fulcrums

When Storm of Magic came out, I was very excited. My wife took me on a walk in the country and I had my Storm of Magic rulebook with me. When we stopped for a romantic rest on a bench overlooking the sea, out it came! 

Heh heh. 

But I couldn't initially stretch to the price of the Arcane Fulcrums. Added to the price of the rulebook it was a little too much of a squeeze for my bank account. So my mind started working on what scenery pieces I already owned that I could use instead!

And here we go! 

First up is the old Games Workshop gravyard. With a new paint job, this is one of the nicest scenery pieces ever, though is fairly hard to get hold of nowadays. It's a bit on the big side for an Arcane Fulcrum but what the heck! It does the job!

Now this is a lovely piece I found at a car boot sale years ago. The throne on top is a separate piece I got as a present. Now I didn't use this for a long time as it had a big hole at the back, but then I had the inspiration of adding bushes and trees to cover that up.

Hey presto!

Colonel Shofer kindly commented below that this piece came from the boardgame: Dark World. I checked this out and to my delight saw that this is actually the upper layer of a bigger piece. Check it out.

The throne is from Warzone.

(Giggle)

This piece was homemade, one of the first things I ever built almost twelve years ago now. I made it as a Mordheim scenery piece but rarely used it, packing it away in the shed. But actually it makes a darn good Arcane Fulcrum and is the right size!

it's just blocks of wood glued together into a spiral. They were just all bits I had lying around. The pillars are actually the corner brackets from an old wooden fruit box.

And finally... 

That old classic: the Arcane Ruins! There must be many a poor player out there using these to sub for Arcane Fulcrums and who can blame them? It's a lovely compact piece.

Just look out for giant spiders!!!!!