Reavers Subfaction

Some Baneplague-victims are still recognizably human are spoken off broadly as Reavers. Over the centuries since the pandemic, these creatures have formed into primitive tribes and can be encountered on all subcontinents of Ghorn. Reaver tribesmen display their mutations with pride, and are extremely susceptible to undergoing new mutations caused by the magic of Banebrood shamans.

These almost-human barbarians possess sadistic and unbalanced personalities, prone to acts of sudden aggression and generally eccentric behaviour. Unlike Beastspawn, Reavers have a coherent language and can cooperate well towards the mutual good of the tribe, possessing a mentality closer to human than their bestial cousins. Reavers are degenerate, violent people who live by the law of the wild. Their debauchery includes cannibalism, consuming the souls of enemies to enhance their own power and sacrificing victims life-force to the gnashing maw of the Urghast. During this practice they cut out the beating heart of the victim while still alive, and carve it with occult symbols. Reavers are so savage that during battle, packs of them will drag an enemy to the ground and eat him alive in a frothing, red feast.

Reaver Tyrant

Background: Sprawled upon the hide-skin throne and surrounded by a carpet of bones, the Tyrant dominates his clan from the village’s Cadaver Court. A Tyrant’s power stems from a combination of beneficial mutations, natural strength and experience in battle. In time the power from his kills accumulates in the Tyrant’s body, coursing back and forth in rippling muscle spasms. In battle he wields a heavy two-handed axe which can also be thrown at nearby enemies Suckled on raw savagery and educated in dazzling ignorance, he is an intractable slaughterer who constantly stabs at the tender heart of civilization.

Game Role:

As with many wave-1 warlords, the Tyrant is a combined melee-buffer warlord. Whereas the Gorelord is 70% melee warlord and 30% buffer, the Tyrant is more like 60% buffer and 40% melee warlord.

Being heavy infantry means he can only move 9 inches per round, but if speed is important for your particular strategy this can be compensated for by giving him advanced deployment through the Bloodgut Ravager’s Raider ability. This is a good idea if a large portion of your warband consist of fast Beastspawn.

In a lot of cases it makes sense to use the Tyrant for buffing first and then throw him into the melee later, in which case it is not an issue when he lags behind. This is especially the case if most of your warband is composed of Reaver sub-faction models.

The Tyrant has several great tricks to support your warband, firstly he can give units Tenacious, which reduces all damage received by 1; secondly he can give models relentless which allows them to reroll damage rolls and make free attacks on fleeing models; thirdly Tyranize allows models to benefit from a charge bonus at all times in any attack.

Barbarous Strength allows him to reroll damage rolls, and Resilient gives him a 5+ protection roll when suffering mortal damage. With MEL 8 and POW7, the Tyrant is a decent melee fighter, but in addition, he has a basic armor of 9, so enemies need to have really high-power attacks to take him down, because he also has the possibility to heal D3 life points by spending an action token. Potentially he could spend 6 action tokens every round on healing when he gets in a bad shape.

So the Tyrant is a really tough nut who can both support the warband and deal out some decent damage.

Bloodgut Ravager

Background: Ravagers are champions of the village, expert in all the arts of hunting, scouting, shooting and of course personal combat. In Reaver society, all serious disputes are settled by sanctioned duels fought according to traditional rules, and witnessed by the populace. So accustomed are Ravagers to the tribal tradition of challenges that they continue this practice even on the battlefield, calling out champions and heroes of the enemy, then butchering them if they accept. Years in the wild teach Ravagers the abilities of scouting and stalking which they employ in order to close with the enemy and steal the initiative. Silently they slide through the misty forests and tall ferns, emerging on the enemy’s doorstep, then howls and horns echo beneath the forest canopy as they charge.

Game Role:

The Ravager is more of a solo mean-guy but has aspects of buffing.

His fighting skill highlights include MEL7, with POW6 attacks, and a DEF of 14. In addition to this, the Ravager comes equipped with a range 8 (16) bow, so he can be useful even before he gets to grips with the enemy.

As a medium infantry character, he can move at the normal speed of 12 inches per round, but he also has the ability Woodwise, allowing him to pass through forest terrain without penalty.

On the buffing side, he can give units Resilient, which is a 5+ protection roll against mortal wounds. One of the greatest advantages of the Ravager is his ability to be placed with advanced deployment (up to 10 inches forward from the deployment zone), along with a unit or other model. So with 2 Ravagers, you could advance deploy a large portion of the warband.

The Ravager is a de-buffer as well, able to challenge unit leaders or musicians, and then if he kills them, the unit must pass a horror test or flee.

Reaver Tribesmen

Background: The continent of Ghorn is teeming with brutal, head-hunting, cannibal Reavers. The ancestors of these savages were once human but the Baneplague tainted them with physical mutations and left a cruel, twisted viciousness where a personality should be. The lowest members of a Reaver village are the tribesmen who form the community’s over-eager militia. In Banebrood society, the next battle is never far away, and these Tribesmen are ever itching for a fight. The fact that they possess poor armor of furs and leathers does not deter them. Neither does the lack of a formal weapon since their common, everyday tool – the axe – does the job perfectly. Their helmets are fashioned with a large mouth hole to enable the Reavers to rend the enemy’s flesh during hunting and battle.

Game Role:

Tribesmen are a cheap militia-level unit which is ideal for assembling as a horde or used in a bait/decoy role.

At 10 points per model, they are even cheaper than Mongrels, but they lack the speed of Mongrels.

On the plus side, they have better DEF and ARM than Mongrels so they will last longer in melee, and they have their sub-faction ability allowing them to heal life-points by expending action tokens. Even better, they have the possibility to regain life-points for free by eating enemies alive.

Eaten Alive is their signature tactic. By surrounding an enemy, the Tribesmen can pull him down, overpower him and eat him alive (causing direct damage). So 4 tribesmen can easily pull down a warlord, and do 4D3 direct damage to him, completely ignoring the warlord’s DEF and ARM. Two Tribesmen against one enemy model is already excellent odds to pull down a regular trooper, so heavy infantry like Legionnaires in testudo can be taken down and destroyed without worrying about their super armor.

The other great thing about Reaver Tribesmen is that they benefit from a bonus for mutation spells cast on them, making it really easy to buff a whole horde of them with nasty mutations.

If you want to overwhelm the enemy, why not take 30 Tribesmen for 309 points. This is an insane amount of killing power for the points.

In a mixed subfaction Banebrood warband, you could take a Tribesmen unit and use them to control forest terrain (due to their Woodwise ability), flushing out pesky archers and spell-casters using forest for cover. Or use them to launch flank attacks on your enemy through the trees.

Skulleaters

Background: These barbarian-mystics are considered frightening and depraved even by their fellow villagers. These savages, the burliest warriors of a village, form the elite infantry whose role is to break the enemy line and topple monstrous creatures. It is their right by custom to claim the brains of any of the tribe’s kills. Hence they are known as the Their howling charge hacks and smashes the enemy front line and their ferocity continues as they slam through into fresh enemies behind. Should their bestial energy waver, they rip out the hearts of their enemies and drink the thick warm blood, reinvigorating themselves for greater acts of brutality. Their hall glows dimly with the embers which heat the sweating-stones, upon which blood is poured, creating a reeking, humid atmosphere. Narcotic herbs place the Skulleaters into an alteredstate of consciousness during which they consume the brains of the slain. This debauched narcosis opens doors in the minds of these barbarians allowing them to re-experience the memories of their victims.

Game Role:

Skulleaters are the heavies of the Reavers. So heavy in fact, they are classed as Heavy Infantry. For most factions that is a disadvantage, but your Bloodgut Ravager can give them advanced deployment, or your shaman can give them MOV4 with the Long Legs spell or even upgrade them to MOV4 and light Infantry! Either of these ploys is advisable because the Skulleaters are melee Killers, and the more time they spend in melee during the game, the better your chances are of winning.

Melee is what they excel at, with MEL7 and POW6 attacks. Not only that, they also have the tactic Carnage which gives them Slay Movement (a free MOV action and a free attack if they kill the model they charged).

These boys will not only dish out the pain, they can also take it. With ARM8, they are not easily damaged, and they have 7 life points each. But their sub-faction ability allows them to heal life-points by spending ACT, and they even have an ability which gives them free action tokens when they destroy a unit leader, character, creature or warlord. If you have a Shaman in your warband, you could cast Exoskeleton on them, increasing their ARM to 10. And why not order the Tyrants tactic Callous to them, making them Tenacious (reducing all damaged received by 1 points).

They have other bells and whistles but this should be enough to convince anyone of their great value.

Balescorch Cyclops

Background: Cyclopses remained underground for millennia following the rebirth of the cosmos and emerged only when the Baneplague was unleashed – its sweet song of savagery calling to them. Drawn by the amplified taint of the Urghast, they climbed out from the womb of the world, bolstering the ranks of the Banebrood, and incidentally becoming a key factor in the demise of contemporary civilization. During their entombment the Cyclopses lost their regular vision but they gained a new type of sight, perceiving the magical weave of reality itself, enabling them to see through objects. They also learned how to reverse this magical influx, expelling sorcerous blasts of power from their single eyes. Despite this dire ability, it is for their size and brute strength that Cyclopses are prized by Banebrood. Standing 25ft (6m) tall and weighing 20,000 lbs (10,000 kg), the Cyclops is a thundering mountain of flesh.

Game Role:

Blast your enemies with the Cyclopse’s Balefull Eye missile attack or pound them to death with a POW7 attack with his melee weapon. Or make up to 6 attacks per round with his POW3 fists. Although he is not the most efficient killer in the BAnebrood arsenal, his Death Ray makes him versatile,

His 33 life points makes him difficult to take down. Basically you need to hit with a handful of elite troops together or a full unit of militia troops, and pile on the attacks as a many as possible in a single round, otherwise he could use his ACT next round to heal up to 6D3 life points.

So the Cyclops is awesome if you can dictate how many models to engage, but when the enemy has lots of spare models to throw at him, he will go down fast. However, the enemy will probably need to commit 100 points of troops for a round to effectively take care of your cyclops threat, while the cyclops only costs 52 points. You can even deploy 2 of them in a regular warband!

Bugstalk eyes is a good spell to cast on the Cyclopses because to improve their poor DEF to 13, and why not upgrade the spell, making them immune to charges!