Rhas Zhoqar

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Here's some pictures of Rhas Zhoqar, my chaos lord, with two of his pet spawn.

New Beginnings

Since reading ADB's Betrayer, my Word Bearers fluff has changed extensively. Evidently, the Word Bearers sent with Kor Phaeron and Erebus to Calth were the most reckless and uncontrolled of Lorgar's son. The Aurelian had chosen to send them to Calth, where hopefully they would get themselves killed while venting their hatred on the Ultramarines. With that in mind, I created a new Word Bearers chapter, the Ashrakhan, to participate in a campaign for the planet Asteria. I'll include the fluff in another post, but for now, here's some photos of the counts-as plague marines I'm working on.

Aspiring Champions

Here's a quick pic of my two CSM aspiring champions. Obviously, they're both from the Dark Vengeance set. The Dark Vengeance chosen are a bit of a pain to paint, but they make great squad champions in my opinion. This will probably be the last post for a while, as I won't have access to my models for the next four months.

Battle Highlights: Aelohym vs. Ultramarines 9th Company (2)

Squad Taeron, originally a heavy weapons squad, had undoubtedly been rewarded for their diligent worship. For their service, each man had become a living fusion of weapon, armor, and flesh. The ground near them shook beneath their slow, trodden pace, but their massive forms allowed them to bear even the heaviest of weapons as easily as an astartes carried a bolter. Val Kothar watched as the mountainous warriors leveled their lascannons at the Ultramarine land raider speeding towards the right side of the battlefield, stopping it in its tracks.

The Dark Apostle’s upper lip curled in contempt however, as the Ultramarines vanguard hit his left flank. Fully armored warriors in tactical dreadnought armor, each one almost the size of two astartes, came barreling out of the enemy Land Raider and towards Squad Gahl Dro. Gahl Dro’s warriors laid down a desperate wave of bolter fire, but the cataphracti merely shrugged off the rounds as they charged into the Word Bearers ranks. Val Kothar saw Gahl Dro leap at the Ultramarine sergeant in a futile attempt to blunt their advance, but his right lightning claw stuck in the sergeant’s right shoulder plate. In return, the Ultramarine sergeant impaled Gahl Dro on his power sword.

The damned Ultramarines continued to persist, despite the significant losses the Word Bearers had inflicted upon them. Val Kothar realized now that Kor Phaeron had underestimated the tenacity of the sons of Guilliman. The Ultramarines were a hateful foe. They had destroyed Monarchia merely to satisfy the false Emperor’s whims. They were lapdogs to be reviled for furthering the deceitful agendas of humanity’s cruel master. Yet, they were a stubborn foe all the same, and the Dark Apostle could not help but feel an iota of respect for their determination. The primordial annihilator would certainly reward the Word Bearers once they delivered the souls of the thirteenth legion.

Val Kothar sprinted towards Squad Gahl Dro’s position, drawing Voidborn from its sheath in one fluid motion. He uttered a prayer to the Blood God and smiled as he felt the beast within Voidborn wake from its slumber. For a moment its hunger threatened to overcome him, but the blade’s resistance melted away as it bit into the first Ultramarine’s neck. He could sense his retinue was far behind him, but he cared little as he reveled in the slaughter.

A second Ultramarine reared back to punch its colossal gauntlet into the Dark Apostle’s chest, but he was far too slow. Val Kothar ducked under the swing and sliced the warrior’s right leg off right above the kneecap. He spun the blade as he moved, impaling the falling cataphracti through the eye with a vicious stab.

By then the third and fourth members of the squad were on him. Val Kothar sidestepped a powerful strike from the closer of the pair, spun behind him, and raked his blade diagonally across the warrior’s back. The final warrior feinted with his power fist and instead struck with his left palm, catching the Word Bearer off guard. He struck the Dark Apostle viciously with his power fist, but Val Kothar turned at the last second, catching the blow on his right shoulder. Using the force of the attack to spin him around, Val Kothar struck upwards, bisecting the warrior’s head from the left side of his chin to his right ear. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the cataphracti sergeant kill the sergeant of his retinue. In his bloodlust, Val Kothar could not even remember the warrior’s name. He casually drove his blade into the Ultramarine’s back, returning the favor for Gahl Dro’s death.

Across the field, Squad Taeron finished the enemy land raider, causing it to erupt in flames. Val Kothar focused his vision on the wreck, spotting Captain * and a squad of his brethren shifting out from behind it and into superior cover. The Dark Apostle took off at a run, not caring that he had outpaced most of his retinue. He had spotted his target and nothing would dissuade him from killing the Ultramarine. 

---

This battle involved five objectives; two on the Ultramarines side and three for the Word Bearers. I started off with my land raider and obliterators stunning the land raider in the center of the field. The Ultramarines captain and his veteran tactical squad disembarked to hold the objective behind the big piece of terrain on the left.

The raider on the left side of the picture then hit my lines. The terminator squad aboard it disembarked and killed all but one member of the objective-holding CSM squad. I moved my raider up and counter-charged with my Chaos lord and possessed. The lord killed all of the smurfs except for the sergeant, who was in a challenge with my possessed champion. The lord killed the sergeant in the next turn.

My havoc squad in the right piece of terrain pinged shots off the tactical squad the entire game but failed to do anything. The 3+ armor, 4+ cover, and 5+ FnP (from the attached apothecary) saves really made them a tough nut to crack. Luckily, I didn't need to, as I had three objectives in my backfield.

I blew up the shaken raider with my obliterators, then assaulted the remaining raider with my Chaos lord and possessed. They didn't even scratch the thing, due to a misunderstanding regarding meltabombs and ceramite plating, but that was alright. I used that assault to slingshot me forward towards the Ultramarines captain and his squad the following turn. That raider later died when my raider shot it to pieces.

I charged the captain's squad, not realizing that by moving my models over the tiny corner piece of the terrain's board I was charging through cover. Those little pebbles on that corner must have been crazy slippery. Lost a few models to overwatch and entered a challenge with the captain. We both take wounds, but survive. His squad kills off my possessed.

On his turn I roll a 1 for my daemon weapon, making me WS1. My chaos lord dies, giving up the Slay the Warlord VP, but I still made out 1 ahead due to first blood and the three objectives I still held. Another victory for the Aelohym!

Battle Highlights: Aelohym vs. Ultramarines 9th Company

Val Kothar stood atop a slight hill overlooking the smoking aftermath of the battlefield. An army of cultists picked over the corpses of Word Bearers and Ultramarines alike, salvaging any equipment tat the Aelohym would be able to put to use. Although he and his brothers had defeated the Ultramarines 9th Company, the victory felt hollow.

He had fought in single combat with Trajan. He had imagined the moment for years, but the reality of it had failed to calm the hatred in his hearts. Val Kothar had nearly bested the Ultramarines Captain, and had even managed to take off his left arm. For a fleeting moment he felt joy as Voidborn tasted Trajan's blood, but the feeling was quickly snatched from him when Trajan plunged his own blade into Val Kothar's abdomen.

Although the strike had failed to kill the Dark Apostle, it bought Trajan's retinue enough time to drag him from the battlefield. The Ultramarines had retreated into the tunnels, losing many of their warriors in the process. It was not the sweeping victory Val Kothar had hoped for. The Aelohym would now have to begin the long and arduous process of dragging every last Ultramarine from those tunnels.

---

No pictures for this one unfortunately, but the stars of the battle were probably the helldrake and the obliterators. The helldrake wiped out about three quarters of an assault squad, probably saving a squad of CSM as well as my chaos lord and possessed retinue. It also forced the Ultramarines storm raven to focus on taking it down, instead of carrying its cargo of captain and terminators to my objective.

The possessed died just like any other marine. Their 5++ did very little to save them. But, they're fluffy, so for now I'll continue to keep them in my list. The chaos lord was pretty awesome when he finally got into combat. He killed the Ultramarines captain, but he died from a lucky 6 on the captain's paragon blade. 

I ended up winning the game by 3 points. I held my objective uncontested, earned first blood, slay the warlord, and linebreaker, and contested my opponent's objective.

Havoc Squad

Finally got around to painting my havoc squad. I converted these guys a few months before the Chaos codex came out, but then I dabbled in heresy-era Space Wolves, so these were on the backburner. I'm a lot happier with their paint jobs than with the ones on my old squads.

Aelohym Fluff

Here's some fluff I put together today for the Aelohym:

---

Dark Apostle Val Kothar stood before the altar and looked out upon the warriors assembled before him. Each member of the Aelohym knelt on one knee, their helmeted heads returning his gaze as they awaited his word. A feeling of anticipation hung in the air, surrounding the Word Bearers gathered within the room. The Aelohym had spent the better part of three years preparing for this moment, and now that it was here, it seemed surreal.

The air was silent, save for the occasional moan of pain from the figure bound to the altar. Ever since Lorgar's pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror, the Aelohym had embraced the Primordial annihilators with open arms. Through their deeds they had earned the recognition of their primarch and the dark powers, and it was their chapter that would model the way for the future of the Word Bearers. It would not be long before each chapter answered directly to their chaplains, who would assume the rule of dark apostle and leader of their host. Most would carry their defiled crozius arcanum into battle, but Lorgar had allowed Val Kothar an exception to this rule. Instead of a crozius, Val Kothar bore the daemon sword Voidborn.

The blade had been named Numinus, before the Dark Apostle had trapped a greater daemon within it just a few days ago. Captain Valerius Trajan of the 9th Ultramarines Company had given it to Val Kothar as a mark of respect and a token of the friendship the two had forged during their three year campaign in the Agemon system. In actuality, Val Kothar's friendship had been a sham, a burden which he had gladly accepted at Lorgar's behest. It was not easy to live the lies that had earned the Ultramarines' trust, but the Urizen had deemed them necessary in order for the assault on Calth to succeed. Now, with the Word Bearers poised to strike, Val Kothar would betray that trust and punish the sons of Guilliman for the shame they had wrought upon the Word Bearers at the city of Monarchia.

Val Kothar tightened his grip on Voidborn, feeling the daemon stir at the prospect of bloodshed. He recalled the cultists he had killed in order to bind the daemon to the weapon, but quickly pushed their terrified faces and tormented screams from his mind. The weapon would imbue him with strength beyond that of a normal astartes, but that strength came with a price. The cultists' souls were mere tools for the Word Bearers to further the will of the dark gods, and Val Kothar had had no choice but to sacrifice them. At one point he would have been horrified by such actions, but the Word Bearers had passed that point long ago.

In one swift motion Val Kothar drew Voidborn and plunged it into the Ultramarine on his altar. Blood gurgled from the Ultramarine's mouth, dripping onto the altar and the floor beneath it. Val Kothar pushed Voidborn back into its sheath, ignoring its cries for more blood, and stepped back from the corpse. The body began to swell and raise up from the altar. A blinding haze spewed forth from the wound in its torso, but Val Kothar stared into it and smiled as the warp rift began to expand.

"Rise, my brothers," Val Kothar's voice boomed throughout Dawnbreaker's flight deck. "For three years we have knelt, hiding beneath the guise of friendship. For three years we have sewn the seed of revenge. Now, the Urizen has granted us the honor of exacting vengeance for the destruction of Monarchia. It is time for us to begin our harvest, We will set the entirety of Calth ablaze, and claim it for the glory of Lorgar!"