Friday 7 March 2014

Fantastical Fencing Fornication!

Apologies for the title, I'm just making a title more interesting than plain old scenery ideas. This post is not even about a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Apprentice Racketeer either.

Recent games of Warhammer have come up with some frequent results. One item that seems to be rather more frequent in the Realm Of The Dice Gods & Deities Of Arbitrary Probabilities (scenery division) that it should be is (or are) obstacles. This has forced my thinking cap on and thusly here are some new ideas for linear sceneric goodness for your perusal;

Cursed Barrier

Over the years many evil wizards & clerics of suffering built towers and temples dedicated to the pain of others, when the forces of order encountered this buildings they were oftentimes destroyed. Although centuries pass the evil magics that seeped into the stones remained. Ignorant peasants uncovered these stones and used them to make walls to keep livestock in. These barriers count as hard cover. Any unit from The Forces of Order attempting to assault a unit over the barrier suffers a -1 to hit penalty in hand to hand combat.

Daemonic Barricade

Occasionally when daemons of chaos are destroyed they are not sent back to the realms of chaos, they sometimes manage to leave a small portion of their essence in the physical world. They can inhabit living creatures but oftentimes this is of minor enjoyment to a daemon (after all, who wants to spend years as a daemonic rabbit?). So they attach themselves to inanimate objects in the hope of returning when there is sufficient magic to sustain them. In game terms, any magical spell that crosses over (draw a line between the mage and target unit, if the line comes within 2" of the terrain it is considered to cross it) one of these obstacles roll a d6, on the roll of a 4+ on a d6 D3 lesser daemons materialise within 3" of the Daemonic Barricade. They will attack the nearest unit even if they are daemonic.

Obsidian Pallisade

Sometimes artisans build walls with the express purpose of thwarting witches and other magic users, by putting small amount of obsidian in the wall. This gives the benefit of Magic Resistance (1) to any model within 3" of the wall, in addition to the standard benefits gained from standing behind the wall.

Spiked Rampart

Generally a mound of earth with sharpened stakes driven into it to deter unwelcome physical contact. Any unit charging an enemy unit defending a spiked rampart must make an Initiative test, failure results in d6 hits each one wounding on a 4+. Normal armour saves apply.

Water Filled Ditch 

This is simply a shuck filled with rainwater that the unit uses to delay charging opponents. As someone who has had the misfortune of falling into 2 feet of ditchwater, then floundered around trying to climb out of the ditch, I can tell you it's not a good place to be, particularly if you were fighting heavily armed Orcs (I wasn't at the time, thankfully). Any unit attacking a defended water filled ditch gains the Always Strikes Last special rule for the first round of combat (and wet pants too).

Poisonthorn Hedge

Venomthorn is an unpleasant plant that exudes a poison from its thorns (hence the name), any model attacking a unit defending the hedge are at -1 to hit trying to avoid the thorns, in addition any attacks that roll a natural 1 to hit inflict a ST2 poisoned attack on themselves. In addition any model fighting over a Venomthorn Hedge gains the poisoned attacks special rule for the first round of combat. 

 So there are a few ideas to spice up your Warhammer games (if they weren't spicy enough!). Now all I have to do is make these obstacles. Until next time.

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