The Ashrakhan

[Fair Winds]

Hello all,
 
I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I thought I would finally get around to it and start a project log for my Word Bearers chapter, the Ashrakhan. I had my first battle with them today. I don't have any pictures, but here's a brief batrep followed by the fluff for my army, for those who are interested. I apologize in advance for the long post.

 

Battle Report:

 

My army:

 

Chaos Lord w/ MoN, Jump Pack, Murder Sword, Sigil of Corruption, VotLW

Spawn w/ MoN x2

Plague Marines x6, Plasma Gun x2, VotLW, Rhino

Plague Marines x6, Plasma Gun x2, VotLW, Rhino

Cultists x10

Havocs x5, Autocannon x4, VotLW

Obliterators w/ MoN x2, VotLW

 

 

Opponent's Army (Ultramarines):

 

Librarian ML2

Sternguard x9, Combi Plasma x2, Combi Melta x2, Rhino

Tactical Squad, Vet Sarge w/ Combi Grav, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher, Rhino

Tactical Squad, Vet Sarge w/ Combi Grav, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher

Devastator Marines x7, Missile Launcher x4, Vet Sarge

 

We played a 1,000 point game and rolled the Will of the Emperor mission. Both our mysterious objectives turned out to be just plain old objectives. My opponent made a crucial error in the deployment phase by deploying his devastator squad on the objective and not one of his tacticals. He won first turn and I failed to seize the initiative. I rolled the infiltrate warlord trait and he rolled the one that causes fear.

 

Turn 1:

 

The Librarian casts invisibility on his guys and he proceeds to hunker his tacticals and sternguard in cover. His devastators wreck my infiltrated rhino, forcing the Plague Marines inside to disembark. My now walking Plague Marine squad casually strolls into cover with the remaining Rhino close on their heels, followed by the Chaos Lord and his two spawn. My obliterators take out half his devastators while my havocs fail to do anything.

 

Turn 2:

 

Devastators kill a few cultists while the tacticals team up to pop my remaining Rhino. My first Plague Marine squad takes a casualty to small arms. My Plague Marines then exchange fire with the tacticals while my Chaos Lord and Spawn move in for the assault. The Obliterators shoot enough of the devastators to force them to fall back, while the havocs again fail to do anything. The tactical squad closest to my Chaos Lord and spawn falls back due to a failed morale test, but the gods smile upon my Chaos Lord as he chases them down and kills half the squad in close combat.

 

Turn 3:

 

Librarian casts invisibility on the squad in combat with my Chaos Lord and spawn. Devastators regroup and kill more cultists, who fall back off the objective and eventually off the table. One Plague Marine squad is whittled down to one man while the other squad takes a casualty. My lone Plague Marine makes a mad dash for the now open objective in my deployment zone. My Chaos Lord and spawn kill off the tacticals. Havocs kill the remaining devastators and the obliterators shoot up the sternguard, killing most of them.

 

Turn 4:

 

One tactical squad runs to the objective. Sternguard shoot the second Plague Marine squad down to two members. Rhinos move up and block my LoS to the Ultras. Chaos Lord separates from spawn and moves on the Librarian and remaining sternguard. Spawn converge on the tacitcals holding the objective. Havocs kill one rhino and obliterators kill more sternguard. Chaos Lord charges, challenges the Librarian, and murders him with ease. 

 

Turn 5:

 

Tacticals and spawn duke it out, basically tie. Chaos Lord kills the last sternguard. Rhinos try to harass and get blown up for their trouble. I hold one objective, the Ultramarines hold none. First Blood and Slay the Warlord cancel each other out, while I scoop up 1 more point due to Linebreaker. End result, 5-1.

 

Overall thoughts:

 

Obliterators rock. They and my Chaos Lord were the stars of the game. A lot of people hate on the Murder Sword, but I found it to be very effective for what I needed it to do. Even playtesting against Calgar, my Chaos Lord can do some serious damage and sometimes win. Plague Marines are resilient as hell. I don't see why people rave about cultists, they died so easily even with a cover save and going to ground.

 

---

 

And now the fluff:

 
The Ashrakhan
 
The Ahsrakhan is a Word Bearers chapter known for several brutal campaigns against the forces of the Imperium. The chapter took its name from one of the many constellations seen in the skies of Colchis, before its obliteration at the hands of the Ultramarines. While Anguished Beacon is the literal translation, a more accurate translation is “Tormented wail that guides mortals beyond the veil”. The host numbers at least one thousand strong and commands three mighty vessels: the Gloriana-class Battleship Voidborn, and two Wayfarer-class cruisers Unto Darkness and Pilgrim’s Path. The fleet also claims several smaller frigates, many of which had been stolen at the onset of the Ultramar betrayal.
 
Commander Rhas Zhoqar, a cruel and twisted demagogue, rose to lead the chapter during the Word Bearer’s tumultuous pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror. He is often seen leading his host from the front, where his daemon-infused armor and weaponry instills fear in his victims. But his terrifying  visage pales in comparison to the horrifying warp creatures that follow him into battle. Unconfirmed reports indicate that these creatures may actually be the mutated forms of foes Rhas Zhoqar defeated, forced to fight against their former comrades at the Word Bearer’s bidding.
 
Rhas Zhoqar, Commander of the Ashrakhan, Soul Reaver
 
By the time the Horus Heresy began to reach its apex the Word Bearers were no strangers to war. The Word Bearers had successfully turned half of the astartes legions against the Emperor and were preparing for a brutal war that would shake the foundations of Ultramar. At the same time however, key Word Bearers began to wage a second war within their own legion.
 
The shadow war, then in its nascent stages, was intended to shape the future of the legion, placing its leadership firmly in the hands of the Word Bearers’ chaplains. The Ashrakhan, led by Lord Rhas Zhoqar, was to be one of the first battlegrounds for the primacy of the chaplains. Chaplain Dolos, under orders of First Chaplain Erebus, completed a dark ritual that bound a daemon to Rhas Zhoqar against his will, forcing the Ashrakhan chapter master to serve as a puppet to Dolos’s whims while the daemon fed upon the souls of Dolos’s enemies.
 
At first the changes in Rhas Zhoqar were subtle. His desert-worn face slowly shifted to a paler complexion and his irises appeared red in certain lighting, but it was not long before the change came upon him in full force. During the events leading up to the Istvaan massacre the change overtook him completely, bonding his armor to his skin in a horrifying amalgamation of flesh, metal, and mutation. At times his fingers would form scything talons or wings would rip forth in a shower of blood and oil from his power pack. Other times he would be able to shrug off a lascannon blast or his face would morph into a snarling daemonic visage. The entire time Rhas Zhoqar was helpless against the daemon and was forced to watch as it used his body to perform acts of brutality.
 
At the climax of Istvaan the daemon found itself sated on the souls of the betrayed astartes. It was then that Rhas Zhoqar struck, regaining control of his body only after a terrible struggle of wills. Rhas Zhoqar then turned on Dolos, feeding his soul to the daemon within and taking possession of his vast library of forbidden tomes. From those books Rhas Zhoqar learned various rites that allowed him to maintain control of his body despite the daemon inside him, the strongest of which required the consumption of tortured souls.
 
 
Rhas Zhoqar took to the battlefield once more as the Soul Reaver, earning a reputation for violence that left even some of his fellow Word Bearers uneasy. His defeated foes provide fuel for his dark rituals, allowing him to utilize the power of the daemon inside him while maintaining control of his body. Often he would capture a foe, subject them to the depredations and mutations of chaos, before finally consuming their soul as a panacea for his curse.
 
In the aftermath of the heresy Rhas Zhoqar refused to bow before the will of the Dark Apostles. The Lord of the Ashrakhan recognized the authority of only one priest, his daemon primarch Lorgar, who had moved beyond the petty concerns of the material world. Even so, Rhas Zhoqar sought to continue the work Lorgar began during the heresy, hoping to reap the benefits of the dark gods while refusing to bend entirely to their whims. Some would question the success of Rhas Zhoqar’s efforts, often in whispered voices beyond the reach of the Soul Reaver, but not even they could question his prowess in battle.
 
The Silent Contagion

The Ashrakhan had held a small number of their brothers in disdain even before they were known as the Silent Contagion. Before the heresy they formed the Ashrakhan’s Destroyer Company, led by Captain Khartaes, and were responsible for ensuring the total annihilation of worlds inhabited by vile xenos and humans who refused to submit to the Imperium. Despite the animosity the Destroyer Company endured, Khartaes’ men wielded their weapons with stoic professionalism and exacting efficiency. Their standing amongst the legion changed, of course, once the fires of betrayal spread throughout the traitor legions.

When the Word Bearers openly turned traitor Rhas Zhoqar unleashed the Destroyer Company upon Imperial worlds, where their terrible weapons could inflict the most devastating and inhumane deaths possible. Repeated deployment of these weapons resulted in increased exposure to the weapons’ after effects, causing many of the destroyers to begin displaying symptoms of radiation and chemical poisoning. Khartaes ordered all of his men to rotate through use of the weapons in hopes that this would prevent any one individual from lethal exposure to the toxins.

With little time to rest and refit between the campaigns, the destroyers eventually gave up any attempt to repair their equipment or maintain training drills. Eventually the unthinkable happened. When Rhas Zhoqar ordered the destroyer company to salt the earth on Warton, a small planet in the realm of Ultramar, one of Khartaes’ men experienced a grievous weapons malfunction, accidentally releasing the contagion upon himself and his fellow Word Bearers.

By some miracle, the weapon killed only half of Khartaes’ men. Those who survived however, would be forever changed. The yet-unnamed experimental virus changed the physical makeup of their bodies, forever melding their flesh and armor. Their forms were more resilient, and could withstand wounds that would kill even a normal astartes. They were able to spread their contagion at will, ensuring their enemies would suffer a fragment of the torment that they and their brethren had suffered. Their minds, however, were slower, shortening their attention span and lengthening their reaction time. Worst of all, due to the inhalation of the virus, each brother’s esophagus was destroyed, preventing all verbal communication.

The degeneration only worsened over time. Any attempts at introducing mechanical augmentations failed as each of their bodies rejected the bionic modifications. In a desperate attempt to save his warriors, Rhas Zhoqar ordered the chapter apothecaries to outfit Khartaes and his men with devices that would constantly inject low doses of radiation into their bodies. By luck, the will of the dark gods, or some combination of the two, the experiments were largely successful. In time, Khaertas’ company would be known as the Silent Contagion. They pledged their lives to Rhas Zhoqar, promising to serve his will and to spread their misfortune to others.

[Trevak Dal]

I would like the Murder Sword more if after you take out the initial Target, you could do a 'rite' roll, where you do something like roll a d6 and on a 3+ can nominate a new 'Target', but on a 1 your guy takes a wound-like a Daemon Weapon, and 2 there's no effect.

[the jeske]

Even playtesting against Calgar, my Chaos Lord can do some serious damage and sometimes win.

An opponent has to be realy bad to let you use the murder sword for anything else then a power weapon .

 

 

Did the marine player say why he took an army like the one he did ? a lot of the choices seem a bit odd.

 

 

 

I don't see why people rave about cultists, they died so easily even with a cover save and going to ground.

 

4 units of cultists for fewer points then 4 units of csm or pms give the same number of troops one needs to play in 6th ed , but for fewer points. Because neither the pms , nor the csm are able to be "kill" units , the less points we spend on troops the more points we have to buy stuff that does.  Also 1k points is a points range few people play , it wasn't widely played even in 5th.

[Fair Winds]

We decided to play 1k just because of time constraints and table size. I doubt we would have been able to fit anything bigger on the table. The marine player didn't say why he chose the units he did, but he could probably have swapped out the stern guard for something a little more killy. He was able to avoid the murder sword almost the entire game, but since he had no CC units he had nothing to stand up against my chaos lord. Mostly I think he chose what he did because he thought it would be fluffy.

 

I suppose if I had held my cultists in reserve they would have been better suited to hold the objective mid to late game, but for me, the PMs far outstrip the cultists in terms of reliability. It would probably be different if I spent the points on baledrakes, but that's just not for me.

[hushrong]

I really like the fluff. The name and it's translations sold me, everything else was extra gravy on top!

[Fair Winds]

Thanks! I hope to have some decent WIP pictures up soon for the Silent Contagion.

[the jeske]

I suppose if I had held my cultists in reserve they would have been

better suited to hold the objective mid to late game, but for me, the

PMs far outstrip the cultists in terms of reliability. It would probably

be different if I spent the points on baledrakes, but that's just not

for me.

how many units of pms will you get in a standard sized army and how many points will it cost . If your not loading up on stuff that kills the opposing  armies troops and kill units , pms [no matter how tough] will not see an end game .

 

Imagine your opponent took an actual list that runs sternguard . 2x5 las tacs , two pods units of sternguard with combis and pedro . After turn 1 you wouldn't have any troops or you would have troops , but lacked the options to kill his 38 meq models .

[Fair Winds]

 

I suppose if I had held my cultists in reserve they would have been

better suited to hold the objective mid to late game, but for me, the

PMs far outstrip the cultists in terms of reliability. It would probably

be different if I spent the points on baledrakes, but that's just not

for me.

how many units of pms will you get in a standard sized army and how many points will it cost . If your not loading up on stuff that kills the opposing  armies troops and kill units , pms [no matter how tough] will not see an end game .

 

Imagine your opponent took an actual list that runs sternguard . 2x5 las tacs , two pods units of sternguard with combis and pedro . After turn 1 you wouldn't have any troops or you would have troops , but lacked the options to kill his 38 meq models .

 

I certainly won't deny that ours are not the most cost effective options. Luckily my opponent isn't a huge optimization type player and we have more friendly type games driven by fluff. I'm fairly confident that neither PMs nor cultists would carry the weight in a tournament setting. 

[Fair Winds]

It's been a while, but I've finally gotten around to taking pictures of Rhas Zhoqar, my chaos lord, along with two of his pet spawn.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nZsv29YqZ6Q/UoaOZVFxaHI/AAAAAAAAAYI/uLxPPF0d9uc/s1600/Rhas+Zhoqar+++Spawn+(1).png

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vbnbZzsgGCM/UoaOYE6wEUI/AAAAAAAAAX8/wmwtQKQlwsE/s1600/Rhas+Zhoqar+++Spawn+(2).JPG

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xfrR5lJ4TJ8/UoaOXwsaecI/AAAAAAAAAX4/BLKaCAdoHdY/s1600/Rhas+Zhoqar+++Spawn+(3).JPG