40k Friday - World Eaters 2024

 

I've been working on these guys a lot this year after slowly building up a force for years and learning some lessons along the way. I've had a lot of parts sitting around, some of them painted, but it didn't feel like a cohesive army. After their line update last edition I had to think through how I wanted to handle some things and if I wanted to reallocate or replace anything. Thoughts below:

• The Lord of Skulls is painted and it's still a current and useful model so yes, I'm keeping it in my Khorne force and not moving it to the Iron Warriors - my "normal" chaos army for 40K
• The Maulerfiend is still current and still has a place - now I just need to finish him. I may add a second one too as things like this I like to take in pairs, at least, as it means you might actually get to use them in a fight.
• The Defilers - I have two of these in a scorpion configuration that was a popular option a few years back. I like them, I think they help build out the "daemon engine" options for the army and I think two is enough. I know the model is old at this point but it's one of those things that helped build up the "legend" that is chaos in 40K - especially when this almost goofy/kinda creepy spider-walker-thing showed up in Dawn of War. I like them whether they're "meta" or not so I will keep them and try to finish painting them.
• Heldrake - I have one, it's painted in Khorne colors and while it could use a bit more finishing I love the way the things look. I'm keeping it, even if flyers seem like a forgotten unit in this edition of the game. I've thought about getting a second or even a third at times over the years but I haven't yet. For now it can look good in the display case.
• Helbrutes - Another unit that seems out of favor with the competitive types these day and another case where I don't care. The idea of a chaos marine army without dreadnoughts is just dumb to me so my 3 painted helbrutes from various editions and with various levels of conversion will remain a well-loved part of this army.
• Rhinos - I built and base coated 3 of them years ago as I started putting this force together and now I may finally have time and the motivation to finish them. I bought extra bits and some special bling for them and everything. They are still useful and still the same model so yes, 3 rhinos - another thing defining feature of a chaos marine army.
• Land Raiders - I picked up two of these a year or two back when I saw a bargain deal. They are mostly built and mostly painted but it's not all good work and they have some damage so they need some TLC before I will be happy with them. The big tanks are still useful though, and they can haul any of the infantry in the army and with two of them I am in the sweet spot of "enough" but not "too many or too few" for most battles. 

• Juggerlords - I have a few from old school Rogue Trader versions to the 2E metal ones with the plasma pistol rider to the newer plastic ones - though not the latest Lord Invocatus version. Right now I'm thinking of using the painted plastic one as him and finishing some of the metal ones to use as generic juggerlords.
• Kharn the Betrayer - I have the old metal model built and primed and that's probably what I'm going to use for now. He's a mixed blessing at times, occasionally killing his own troops, but the World Eaters don't get many characters in these newer editions so I feel like he has to be an option. Plus he's been around forever so he's kind of a legend. So yes he will probably be leading the berserker squad that gets left out of having a master of executions.
• Master of Executions - These guys are one of the newer "power" units in the army. Everybody takes at least one and you could take up to three. Considering they  are a solid melee character that grants their unit Fights First ... well, I have 3 of them. I just need to get them finished.
• Daemon Princes - well they split them into "flying" and "not flying" now and while the flying one adds speed and hitting power it doesn't do much else. The walking prince is also mean in combat and adds an invulnerable save aura to buff nearby units which is a fairly big deal - so I built a new ground-pounder for this army and will be painting it shortly to add to the collection of 2-3 flying princes I already had. Daemon princes are fun - I liked the old metal kit (not the original one - that was awful - but the 3rd edition one), I liked the previous plastic kit a lot, and I like the newer plastic kit too. The good thing is that they're all close enough in scale you can use them in the same army and it's no big deal.
• Angron - I have him, he's built and primed but not painted. He's actually the first - and for now only - primarch I own. He will definitely see both the painting and the playing tables.

• Chaos Spawn - I have a few uncommitted models sitting around. I will probably dedicate a pair to the force as they do have some utility as objective-achievers in the later versions of the game.
• Jakhals - don't have any of the new kit and have had a long-standing policy of "I don't play chaos marine armies to run normal human cultists" but I can see some utility here considering they are ridiculously cheap points-wise. I am leaning towards converting some AoS Blades of Khorne troops I've had sitting around for years to build a couple of squads as they look suitably barbaric and are already in-hand. 
• Eightbound - this was the hot new unit they introduced for 9th and there are two versions - Eightbound and Exalted Eightbound - which are way too similar looks-wise and game stats-wise to get really excited about as separate miniatures but they do look suitably gnarly and they are definitely "meta" for this edition so I have two boxes I will probably be building as Exalted. I have not even started this yet.
• Terminators - the other Elite type squad for the World Eaters they are in a weird place. The other two god-specific armies have special terminators but the world eaters do not. I don't know if they will stay that way, or if special termies will be coming along later, or if the eightbound are supposed to fill that role entirely. Much like the helbrute situation I don't like the idea of a chaos marine army with no terminators so I'm going to build some, probably 10, and then I suppose they will potentially become Iron Warrior auxiliaries if we get some special Khornate terminator squad later in 10th or in 11th. 
• Finally - Berserkers! - The heart of the army! The most melee of melee marine options ... if you're running a World Eaters force without berserkers you're doing it wrong! This month I finally finished 30 of them that I had been working on this year. I am using the old berserker kit because I have a bunch of them so I decided to rework them to remove the power fists  - no longer an option - and add on some 3rd party eviscerators that I liked since that's the new heavy melee option. I had to rejigger the number of plasma pistols in a squad too since that changed. Hopefully, since GW has locked in on making squad options tied directly to the kit options, this mean I should be good for at least a few years.
  
  The new kit looks fine but I already had these so I did not want to replace them all. Besides the 30 I finally finished, I have about 20 more of the old ones and then one more squad of converted loyalists, mostly space wolf parts, that should make for a good squad too. That takes me to 60 total once I finish them and that's the most you can take in the latest editions of the game so I am done after that. 

Things in the army that I do not have yet:

• Predators - I have some spare predator tanks on the shelf so I've been thinking about adding one to the force. I don't know how long they will remain a part of the army rules-wise but it's not always about the current edition and more guns would be handy.
• Forgefiends - I do not have one for this army and I am not really sold on adding any. I think the maulerfiend is a better fit here but you never know. 

The shelf is filling up

The other consideration here, one I have been paying more attention to lately, is that I don't care that much about rules for the current edition. Editions come and go but I keep my armies so as I build or rebuild them I am trying to keep them usable in pretty much every edition. base sizes may change here and there but if that's the biggest issue it's really not that much of a problem. If a unit disappears from the codex I'm not going to toss it - I may play 5th edition again someday and it will be waiting on the shelf when I do. It's just something to think about if you plan to make something a "lifetime" army. 

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk - Session5: In the Dungeon of the Moathouse

 

We begin with a round of stew and stories back at camp as the ranger and the paladin and the fighter all utilize their backgrounds to buff the rest of the party - this is a Tales of the Valiant thing where some backgrounds get a nifty ability to add temp hit points by various means. Beyond the mechanics this has added some fun during exploration and combat as party members speculate on what's going in to the Paladin's chili pot next.

Note: This is the DM's take on the session. For an in-universe player's perspective on the thing click here.

As we sit in camp the party eventually realizes that there is an 8th figure seated at the fire - Inigo Vulnstack, a roguish elven associate of Braeden's (the ranger) - has appeared seemingly out of nowhere and offered to join the group's expedition. With the ranger vouching for him, the rest of the group accepts - another sword will no doubt prove useful.

This was the session where one of my regular  players who has thus far been absent was finally able to join us and so we worked him in as quickly and simply as possible, which turned out to be pretty damn appropriate for the character he created. The relationship with the ranger was invented on the spot to be fleshed out later. This was probably the least painful way to bring in someone new and a bit of a surprise to my players as I have dropped in new characters in far more complicated ways such as being carried off in a sack by beggars, as the only intact statue outside a basilisk's lair (where a convenient stone to flesh scroll was discovered), and via the traditional found chained-to-a-wall-upside-down-and-naked approach  - but I went easy this time.

As the day dawns Bubo the Owl familiar plays recon drone again and surveys the moathouse from the air. They poke around the upper level a bit more finding an empty tower and an abandoned hideout of some kind in the main hall but soon enough it's time to head down the staircase and into the dungeon.

The familiar thing may turn into a serious annoyance at some point as it feel more like a Shadowrun rigger thing than typical D&D fantasy as there's no limit on duration or distance like there would be with a spell. Basic 5E familiars were only good out to100' or so - this came up in a prior campaign - but ToV's ritual makes some significant improvements. In general I play with an attitude that the bad guys don't care about your pet rat or bird or whatever until it attacks them but I will probably be keeping an eye on this one for AoE spells and things to interrupt Bubo's ridiculous efficiency - he ain't flying 100' overhead in a dungeon. There is also a lot of humor tied to him now too as it was noted that if he just had a printer option he could spit out a map after doing recon of an area ... then the dot-matrix sounds start coming out and the whole group cracks up. 

My party managed to completely miss the giant spider hiding in the ruined tower because they were very careful about opening the door to it, looking in, but never stepping in, and then closing the door and walking away - even after noting that they saw shiny coins on the floor!

They also let the bandits get away as I had the main bandit lair close and lock the main doors as they saw the group approach. My guys did not try to force them, and then left overnight so I had the bandits sneak out using their escape route. I do have them lurking in the area for a hopefully fun ambush next session but right now as far as they know whoever was in the moathouse just ran off.

Heading on down into darkness various light spells are cast and stealth is employed here and there and a trash pile briefly investigated but as they begin exploring a set of dungeon doors and torture chamber they spot zombies - then more zombies, and more zombies! Reinforcements appear from behind each door until they have fought 12 zombies in all! Recovering from the fight and searching the area they are also apprehensive about what might come through the other door but they do find a secret door and ladder down hidden side one of the columns. 

I could have adjusted the zombie encounter to spring all of them at once but I stuck with the original script of two more zombies from each cell in succession each round because I just like it and it's a little more memorable. With a 8 PC's no, they were not likely to be in serious danger but i wanted to play it out as written. I did use the Monster Vault version where they have a chance to stay standing unless hit really hard and some of them did manage to last longer than they should have.

They do eventually press on though and find a small room with a very slippery floor and ... another door. After some moments of physical comedy here involving bad rolls and heavily-armored-low-dex fighter types they do eventually get themselves organized and open up the other door into the bedroom of a large, angry ogre. Battle commences!

But poor, poor Lubash only lasts two rounds as Xyzzifax the wizard pulls out the Lesser Wand of Petrification he looted in the dungeon outside Saltmarsh and zaps the ogre with it. Lubash promptly fails his save - a Con save no less - and is now Restrained. Undaunted he throws javelins at the party in the doorway as they take shots at him. Then at the end of his turn he fails his save again, and on round 2 he fails it yet again and turns to stone before their very eyes.

Now this was a bit disheartening for the DM as he is supposed to be a tougher encounter but this wand took him out fast. Even if he had made a save or two he was running out of hit points fast as that condition gives attackers Advantage on all attack rolls and gives him Disadvantage on all attack rolls. So it was turning into a very one-sided fight regardless of his actual petrification. Thankfully this item only has 1 charge so it's a 1/day item with a small chance to crumble after it is used but what can I say - they picked a dangerous target and with a little bit of luck they managed to neutralize an otherwise dangerous opponent. 

After this there was exploration and looting and more poor word choices as the heroes discovered another secret door with a staircase and landing ... and some prisoners! Information is gathered and thanks are offered, and they decide to escort the new acquaintances back to Hommlet and safety. 

So far it's so good though I will say there can be a lot of overhead running 8 PC's ranging from 1st to 3rd level. It's manageable for now it just means we run a little slower than we would with  4-5. Right now I am not dramatically changing up encounter numbers even with this many characters in play - I am just working in the Monster Vault versions of the creatures and I will probably work in some other monster book sources as well as the game goes on. I expected more variability in turnout but so far that has not happened. I may tweak some wilderness encounters - since they are mostly later additions anyway - but  once they get to the temple proper I probably won't need to as they don't do stealth well and will probably be pulling in chunks of each level as they start fighting through them. If it gets too stupid I will make some changes but I don't want to punish them for doing well - I just may need to do something to balance out the numbers a little more evenly. Back in the early days 8 PC's was not terribly unusual but 8 5E type PC's are quite a bit more capable then what we had back then. I'm not doing anything yet but I might as things develop.

There was a ton of laughing this session as it felt like we finally had the whole band back together and we were cracking up at inappropriate humor all through the run. It was a lot of fun and that helps to keep these things going.

Book Review - Defining a Galaxy

 

I only became aware of this book  a year or two ago, picked it up last year, and finally read it this summer. Bill Slavicsek is one of the names that jumps out at me when I see it on a game because he has worked on some that I really like. He is mainly known for working on the d6 Star Wars RPG - the first one - and that alone would be enough to earn a spot in my personal RPG hall of fame so the chance to read his memoirs, in effect, of working on that one and the subsequent Star Wars games was an easy sell here.

I will go ahead and say it: I was a little bit disappointed with this one. I was expecting or at least hoping for a fair amount of detail on the process of developing that first set of rules and the first sourcebook - which set a pretty high standard and influenced everything that came afterward from names and locations and Star Wars lore in general. It's hard to over-state the impact that sourcebook had on the Star Wars universe we came to know and it's hard to overstate the eye-opening impact those first d6 rules had on RPGs. In this retrospective though I think we suffer from it being written 30 years after the fact - a lot of the details get fuzzy after that much time and I totally understand that but it was a little less than I  had hoped. There's a fair amount of "what" but I was hoping for more "why".

That said this is still definitely worth a read if you're at all interested in d6 Star Wars the game, West End Games,  or in the history of RPGs in general. The stuff about how the game to be, the licensing effort, the ads, and Greg Costikyan working through versions of the rules are still quite interesting. There was time pressure to get a certain amount of material out during the tenth anniversary year of 1987 which is something people may not think about decades after the fact but deadlines always have an impact on creative works like these. 

The research process for the Sourcebook is pretty well laid out and he  does call out how this was before the internet so a lot of it was  physical in-person work at Skywalker Ranch which is also interesting.  There is a long chapter about the various  sections and entries in the book and this is probably the author's greatest contribution to the setting so this is where we get the most information. 

There is some discussion of the early adventures and the Galaxy Guides and this is also rewarding for the true fan. 

Then we move into other work at West End - including Torg - and eventually we get into a move to WOTC and the new license for a new Star Wars RPG. I played a fair amount of d20 Star Wars so this was interesting to me as well. This part of the book runs up until about 2011 and then we close with some notes about subsequent Star Wars  things including Bill's tweaks to the d6 system he made for a con game he ran in 2017!

So there is a lot of good information here. It has a generally positive tone and doesn't spend much time with any personal axe-grinding or disparaging other designers or co-workers - it's a pretty upbeat  account of a career tied very much to Star Wars in various ways. 

I was hoping for a little more but it's definitely worth your time if you're a fan.