Where is he now - Berserker

One of the special troop types presented in the 3rd edition rule book is berserkers. Their descripsion says that they are units of troop that can enter a wild and uncontrollable frenzy. The berserker frenzy resebles the psychological effect frenzy but is something a bit more.

Berserkers are found in Norse armies, both in the mercenary contigent and in the WD107 published full Norse army list. The are available in both human and norse dwarf form. Chaos dwarf berserkers can be fielded as part of a chaos mercenary contingent. Chaos dwarf berserker units are also available for Khornate armies as ppesented in Slaves to Darkness.

Once again I´m supported by LM´s apparently infinite

collection of miniatures. Norse berserkers with 2H axes.

Before a battle the berserkers work themselves into a battle-fury by clashing their swords, chewing their shields and singing ´berserkers songs´. Al this will turn them into frothing homicidal maniacs with foaming mouths and glazed eyes. They will attack anyone or anything that gets in their way. Berserkers are so battle-crazed that even deadly wounds won´t necessarily stop them.

THE RULES (p. 96)

1. Berserkers never wear armour, but may carry a shield. They may be armed with any hand-to-hand and throwing weapon, such as a throwing spear or axe. Many berserkers carry two hand weapons, choosing to forego a ´namby-pampy´ shield in favour of offensive weapons.
   
   All this suits the berserker style quite nicely. One could of course squable about the throwing weapons being not very berserky but hey, you don´t have to take those if you don´t want to. 3rd edition rules for wielding two hand weapons are pretty harsh. The +1 to hit bonus from frenzy helps with that but it´s up to you if you want to go that way. If I were facing goblins or other troops of low WS, two hand weapons could be a choise for norse dwarf berserkers.
   
2. Berserkers automatically enter frenzy the first time they charge or are charged. No dice test is made. Once berserkers are frenzied they remain so for the rest of the battle.
   
   Nicely in line with the general description of the berserkers and their lust for battle.
   
   Don´t forget the effects of frenzy: +1 to hit and to wound rolls, +1 to any saving throw, never take rout tests, cannot be routed and ignore psychology tests.
   
3. Berserkers cannot be pushed-back in hand-to-hand combat, nor can they be routed as a result of hand-to-hand combat. They will refuse to give ground and will fight to the death regarless of circumstances. They must always follow-up in close combat regarless of the circumstances.
   
   This is a very good trait. It means that even if you lose a round of combat your enemy won´t get that +1 to hit bonus for pushing you back. As you are not pushed back. These guys can be used as an anchor point of your battle-line. They will not run a away from combat allowing your other troops to take on enemy flanks and rear.
   
4. If a unit of frenzied berserkers finds itself not in hand-to-hand combat at the beginning of it´s turn, it must charge the nearest enemy troop. If there are no enemy troops within charge range, the berserkers battle-lust is such that they will charge any friendly troops in charge range! If no troops are in charge range they will move at double rate towards the nearest visible enemy.
   
   In my opinion this is not as bad as it might initially sound. Just make sure that there are no on units in front of the berserkers and you are out of harms way. The rule doesn´t state what to do if there is no visible enemy. Perhaps then the berserkers would manouver towards nearest friendly unit in order to get in charge range. I would propably GM it that way.
   
5. Berserkers must always pursue routing enemy, including previously friendly units! Once they have entered frenzy they do not need to reform after pursuit or a charge, but are concidered insantly reformed and must attack or move towards any enemy of friendly unit as described above.
   
   Very well in line with everything above. And a good clarification about reforming.

Berserkers cost an extra +5 points, added after points for equipment. A normal human berserkers is therefore worth 10 points and a norse dwarf costs you 13 points.

NORSE MERCENARY CONTINGENT

Quite logically you get a smaller number of higher quality troops, in this case norse dwarf berserkers. Being pretty tough by themselves the berserkers can do with a lvl 5 hero. In my opinion double-handed weapons are a must for berserkers. With frenzy you then get +2 to to-wound rolls and that is a lot.

On odd side is the weapons option differences. Why throwing weapons for dwarfs but not for humans?

WD 107 NORSE ARMY LIST

First thing that sticks out is the missprint on human berserker profile. Numbers have shifted one column to right. Not a big deal.

But a bigger thing is the change in unit sizes!

Now the human unit size is only 5-10 and dwarf 10-20. Can´t follow the logic here. Like someone had been thinking: "The Norse dwafr berserkers are really tough - let´s let the players take a bigger unit of them to make them even tougher".

There are no seperate rules for berserker characters. I´m assuming that you can take them if you pay the extra 5 points. But I would limit their use to leading berserkers units. Just like with were characters.

Norse dwarf berserkes unit by LM.

CHAOS DWARF BERSERKERS

With maximum unit size of 20 models and a lvl15 hero this can be one tough unit. And a pretty expensive one too. With full unit with double handed weapons, standard and a hero costs 455 points. As mentioned before the two handed weapons is a must for chaos dwarf berserkers too.

A pair of LM´s chaos dwarf berserkers.

MODELS

The Perry sculpted Norsemen and Norse dwarfs ranges have a couple of suitable models for berserkers. The norse dwarf slayers make perfect berserkers too. From norsemen I would choose the models with bare upper body and dynamic pose. SoL will help you out here, here, here and here.

Foundry has still in production the ex-Citadel Vikings including berserkers. You may want to check out their other viking models too.

CP models has a range of vikings including berserkers. Don´t know how these scale with old Citadel ones.

V&V miniatures too produces 28mm viking models. Their berserkers look a bit chubby for my taste but that´s propably just me.

Chaos dwarf berserkers can be found in the Citadel D3 Chaos dwarf series.

WHERE ARE BERSERKERS NOW?

Sadly the Norse as an army were left out of the 4th edition.  And with that the berserkers ceased to exist. The Norse came back with 6th edition of WFB as part of forces of chaos and new fluff was written for them. In this new setting the berserkers became devotees of Khorne which actually makes some sense. Battle-lusting warriors slipping to the dark side.

What is sad is that berserkers in my opinion became just another type of chaos warriors. Where´s the originality? If the berserkers (and all Norse) had to be turned to chaos why not make use of the tragic side of that. I´m thinking about slow degeneration. Perhaps understanding that everything has gone wrong but not being eble to do something about it. Hating oneself for the blood-lust and not being able to control it.

In the 40k there are Khorne Berzerkers described as: "Driven into battle by the frenzied need to kill, Khorne Berzerkers slaughter everything in their path and leave nothing but twitching corpses in their wake. These murderous lunatics have been ritually lobotomised to remove all trace of fear or compassion. In place of these emotions, they receive cortical implants that heighten their already fearsome aggression to psychotic levels". How original. 

And in the AoS they have Vulkite Berzerkers. Google at your own responsibility.

The greeny vs. The skweeky

Yesterday I had a chance to play for the very first time with the new O&G army I've been painting. Just a normal pitched battle vs. LM's skaven with 2000 point limit. I didn't have much choise of troops as I have just a tad over 1000 points of rank & file ready.

We used full deployment rules and as I had my wolfboys as an advance force I was able to make the skaven set up first. It also allowed me to designate a flanking force. 

All pictures by me and LM.

The situation after scouting moves and skaven turn 1. The skaven line from bottom to top: beastmasters with giant rats, ally chaos dwarf mortar, clanrats, a jezzail, slaves, clanrats, slaves, ally chaos dwarfs, behind trees a jezzail, stormvermins and scouts.

On the top right behind the trees is the main orc unit of 28 boyz. On the other side of that forest is the orc general and his three troll bodyguards. The light green area marks the orc baggage train. Next the the yellow field is unit of goblin stickas. Then in thin line orc arrer boyz and in deep formation gobbos. Another unit of orc arrers and a goblin chariot are just outside of this picture.

Here´s the end on the long goblinoid line with chariot and arrers facing the giant rats. My mecrenary giant and a orc shaman were sent to flanking action. They would enter on turn 3 from skaven right flank. My plan was to try to hold the center with a weak force and try to crush the flanks with my main units.

 First combat occurred between the goblin wolfboys and stormvermin. I charged with the wolves as I didn´t want them to be shot to pieces by that jezzail and skaven scouts. I also wanted to give time for my orc boyz and general and his trolls to ove in. Gobbos lasted for several rounds though being pushed back multiple times and not winning a round of combat.

To my suprise the skaven center didn´t push hard in the beginning. Only the chaos dwarfs moved forward to counter my boyz and trolls.

The chaos dwarf mortar managed to score a direct hit on gobbos killing 5 and forcing a panic test but the brave gobbos held on.

Gobbos before being mortared.

Gobbos after being mortared.

On the orc far left goblin chariot charged the giant rats and their handlers and managed to push them back.

On my turn 3 the flanking force entered the battle. Mercenary giant stayed loyal to the orcs and was now threatening the skaven right flank. Orc shaman cast a mystic mist on the mortar and the closest skaven clan rat unit.

Around turn 4 our centers started closing on each other. A total of two plague cencer bearers and two fanatics were released clogging the battle field effectively. The cencer bearers decimated 12 goblin stickas and the rest did the only reasonable thing and fled the field. My fanatics fell short of their target but were blocking the slaves pretty effectively.

Goblin stickas after being hit thrice by cencer bearers.

On turn five everything went terribly for the orcs. First both my fanatics died by rolling snake eyes. Then the wolfriders who had fought the stormvermin for so long finally broke. And because of that the boyz mob panicked. Just when everything would have been ready for them to charge the skaven. Then skaven scouts managed to sling shot down a troll and the orc general broke. My right flank vanished in seconds.

At that point more than half of my troops in points value were either killed or running and that was the break point we had agreed on. Orcs and goblin fled the field. The skaven were victorious.

Thank you LM for a good game once again. I´ll be back!

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This was my first time playing 3rd edition WFB with green skins and I learned a lot.

- Goblins are not as bad as you would think

- Orc arrers are pretty useless as missile troops, I´ll use

them as bow wielding boyz in the future

-  I sould have contested the center with my best troops,

it takes a way too much time to march from the flanks

to get to where the action is

- Don´t expect your orcs to manouver like elves

Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB: The Oddities and random loose ends

This is the final part of ´Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB´ -series of articles. Please click here to find the other arcticles.

In this one I´ve tried to bring forward the more esoteric stuff that really don´t fit under the other part of this series. 

CHAOS DWARF BEAST MASTER

We met this guy earlier in the dark elf part of this series. He is a really odd one as the chaos dwarves of 3rd edition WFB exist only as part of chaos ally contingent or as part of a Khornate army. And there is no chaos dwarf beast master unit to take in either of those.

A chaos dwarf handler with four chaos hounds by LM.

If you have the model and wanted to use it in your chaos army I would just change the profile line on the chaos animal hadler to match that of a chaos dwarf and adjust the points value accordingly.

I´ve been trying to find a full 3rd edition chaos dwarf army list - fan made or something but with no luck.Sound out if you know of one.

Me and LM discussed the chaos dwarf handler model a bit just the other day whem LM had sent me these pictures. He pointed out that there is a certain resemblance in him to the 90´s big hat CD´s. And I have to agree - the face is just the same. Only the hat and beard have grown. Conclusion was that as the big hats are Perry sculpts this guy has to be too.

SEA ELF ANIMAL HANDLERS

Sea elf handlers and their... um... creatures. From

this facebook posting by Richard Irvine.

I usually link my postings to Oldhammer community group on facebook to give them added visibility. One article from this series raised some discussion and the picture above was posted to that discussion thread by Richard Irvine.

Sea elves are mentioned both in the 3rd edition rulebook and WFB: Armies. There is no official army list for sea elves but they are well present (or actually included) in the high elf list in WFB: Armies. High elves don´t have animal handlers in their army list but in true Oldhammer spirit I would see no harm done if someone used them.

But what pack animals for sea elves? As per rules the sea elves can swim. Therefore I would be tempted to look for such creatures that can both swim and move on dry land. A giant crab perhaps? Let´s see what the bestiary can offer us.

A giant leech can swim and move on land but can only survive in tropical conditions and is in every way very unelfy thing. For being unelfy I would not use a giant leech.

A giant frog is an amphibian and a lot more suitable to elven style than a leech. But for some reason it can´t swim as per rulebook. A funny things is that a swarm of frogs can move through water, bogs, swamps etc. with no difficulty. Frogs generally don´t live in salt water but require fresh water instead. For reason mentioned before - no giant frogs for sea elves.

Giant snails live in the forests of Bretonnia. In the real world there are sea snails that live in saltwater and can grow pretty big. A giant snail presented in the bestiary is a pretty worthless piece on a battle field with it´s M2. But they are cheapish and a have a slime attack that will put any enemy not killed by it out of action for D3 turns. Perhaps giant sea snails could be used to tie down a valuable enemy unit in some situation. A giant sea snail could be seen as somewhat seaelfy.

There is no giant crab in WFB 3rd ed. bestiary. If you wanted to create one for your sea elf animal handler I would suggest using a giant scorpion profile as a starting point. Poisoned attack would have to removed and no-negative-bonus for terrain changed to water movement. In my opinion crabs are even better armoured than scorpions so I would perhaps give them a basic saving throw of 3+ to compensate for losing the poisoned attack. Points value would stay the same.

Snakes exist in WFB 3rd edition only in the form of a serpent swarm. A serpent swarm can cross narrow bodies of water and in real world snakes are usually pretty good swimmers. And there are sea snakes too. As we are talking about a fantasy setting I could imagine a giant sea snake that can act on dry land too. One could use a 1st ed WFRP stat line for a giant snake as a starting point to creating one for WFB.

Another creature that could be used and even has a model produced is the dragon turtle. Appearing in the Tragedy of McDeath campaing for 2nd edition WFB a dragon turtle is a powerfull creature. Perhaps a bit too powerfull to be a beast pack animal. Realm of Chaos 80´s blog has nice pictures of a painted one.

You could of course create what ever you wanted with guidelines given in the rulebook. Sea mammals could be interesting to make. Imagine a group of walruses or sea lions!

PAN-TANGIAN TYGER HANDLERS

From the Collecting  Citadel miniatures -site:
"In the mid-1980s, Citadel Miniatures held the license to produce figures based on fantasy author Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series of novels. These figures were nominally produced for use with the STORMBRINGER! fantasy roleplaying game. When Citadel lost the Eternal Champion license, many of the Melnibonean figures were recycled into the Citadel High Elf range and some of the Pan Tangians briefly appeared as part of the Citadel Chaos line. A few of the Melnibonean Personalities figures were recycled into the Empire line."

Part of that Eternal Champion series was this Pan-Tangian Tyger Handlers set we´ve already seen with the Slann. 

In Chaosiums 1991 adventure pack "Sorcerers of Pang Tang" the Pan Tangians are described as being: "...a foul people, of unbridled cruelty and misogynism".

In the city of Hwamgaarl there is a "University of lucid perversity". A name that suggest strong Slaaneshi influence on teaching. Or how about "The Gallery of the Quivering Flesh". How Slaanesh does that sound?

Later on under the headline of people and culture it is clearly told that: "The Pan Tangians have embraced Chaos as the means of their success".

Interesting thing is that there are demonic powers listed in the adventure pack and those power resemble a lot certain chaos attributes.

What is really suprising is that a tiger is described in the encounter tables to be the holy animal on Pan Tang that goes where ever it wants and does what ever it wants. We are told that if a tiger enters a city and eats someone there will be no one to prevent that. So having a handler with a whip and leash to lead a Pan Tangian tiger sounds like something that´s pretty much against that goes-and-does-what-ever-he-want tiger, doesn´t it.

But then the tiger handlers are found in the Pan Tang Digest part of the book. There we learn that the handlers are usually encountered alone. If they are in a band they should have a number of tigers with them. And they should be eager for a fight. As by the book the handlers wear light clothes and move bare footed. The models produced don´t match with this that well.

Under the creatures part the tigers are described as huge orange felines with black stripes. They are never encountered in packs but that propably counts only for wild tigers. Being sacred animals has taught them not to fear humans.

TheOttoVonBismark´s colorful sabre-toothed tigers.

 

So how to use Pan Tangians in WFB 3rd edition? Perhaps just the way Goblin Lee is doing. He is building a chaos army using Citadel´s Pan Tang line of models. Lee seems to planning a seaborne paint theme for his army. Don´t know how Slaaneshi colors would sit on those models but University of Lucid Perversity and The Gallery of the Quivering Flesh would just sort of push me that way.

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But is there a better way to end this article and at the same time this series of articles than with some heavy metal. At least the name of both the band and the song go with the theme. Here is Tygers of Pan Tang: Hellbound