Gone, but not forgotten - old Chaos rules

Mordax - Great Imperial Dragon

Background | 3rd edition rules | 5th edition rules

Mordax, Great Imperial Dragon was a dragon model cast in the 80s by Citadel. I was lucky to get mine about 4-5 years ago for 5 (yes, right - five :) dollars. Here is a picture of my model - dragon itself is not a conversion, although beastman, rock, base, pile of skeletons and Chaos Lord riding him are add-ons. Personally, I use my model as one of the "normal" dragons (it's painted green anyway, and Mordax is red).

"This really isn't necessary" it rumbled, "I'm not going to destroy your village or steal your maidens," - a plume of blue-black smoke rose from it's nostrils as it grunted with ironic amusement - "I got all that business out of my system before there was even a village here."

The knight stopped short, trying to control his nervous horse. he wasn't at all sure about what to do. Everyone knew that dragons destroyed villages and stole maidens, and knights killed dragons, and he was keenly aware of the villagers watching him expectantly. For want of any better idea, he sat still and listened as the dragon continued, casually picking it's teeth with the lance.

"I just want some information," the dragon went on, "And I'm willing to pay for it. One puts together a fair-sized treasure over eleven thousand years, and if you will help me, I'll direct you to a cave where you'll find a few odds and ends. Five or six tons of gold, I would think," the dragon paused, and seeing that I now had the knight's undivided attention, resumed its speech.

"I'm looking for a dragon called Kegox," it said. "He's a juvenile, about three and a half thousand years old, and he looks a lot like me, except that he has two heads and two tails. All I want to know is whether you have seen him - or any dragon that looks a bit odd, for that matter. That's all. No burning, no devouring, no tricks. I promise." The knight paused. His experience of dragons had not prepared him for dealing with a beast which was quite so reasonable as this one.

"Er... do you mind if I ask you a question!" he asked at last.

"Not at all, feel free." The dragon replied.

"Um, why do you want to know, exactly!" The dragon stopped picking its teeth for a moment, and settled slightly on its haunches.

"Well, that's a bit of a long story. Seven thousand years ago, I was involved in the first wars against the things that came from the north - I believe you call them Chaos these days. Everybody joined in then. There were Elves and Dwarfs fighting side by side - even some of you Humans, with your stone spears. Anyway, I was struck by a spell at one time, and it had a rather peculiar effect on me..."

"You mean you're cursed to destroy your own kind!" the knight put in, somewhat incredulously.

"No, no, nothing like that," replied the dragon, "and please don't interrupt. No, the spell got my... er... bits and pieces somehow, and every dragon I've fathered since then has been warped in some way, and has been a creature of Chaos. Most died shortly after hatching, but there are a few that have lived and grown. Well, I said to myself, we can't have this. Other races might put up with it, but after all, we are dragons. So I'm trying to do something about it."

"Now don't get me wrong," ventured the knight, "But couldn't you just stop, er..." "Be serious," retorted the dragon sternly. "Could you? I see that you are a male, and you know as well as I do that some things are always the same, no matter what race you are. And seven thousand years is a long time. You know how it is, you start thinking that this time will be different, that maybe the spell has worn off, and so on. So there have been a few little... accidents over the centuries. All I'm trying to do is sort it all out."

"Well," the knight said, "I've never heard of a two-headed dragon hereabouts," - the dragon sighed, scorching all the moss off the cobbled main street - "But they do say that there was a great knobbly dragon with a short head and a mouth wider than a hut, down in the Black Mountains." The dragon's eyes were half closed.

"Baradax," it almost whispered. "The Black Mountains, you say!"

"That's right," replied the knight hopefully. The Black Mountains were a long, long way away. The dragon launched itself into the air.

"Er, you mentioned some treasure..." the knight called after it, hopefully.

"I lied."

Points value: 1250

Special rules:

Flies as lander.

Causes terror in living creatures under 10 feet tall, and fear in other living creatures.

Attacks with 4 stomps, 1 bite and 1 tail-lash.

Tough skin - armor ST4.

Breathes fire - range 12", 2d6 automatic hits at S7. Cannot breathe fire in combat, cannot breathe fire and bite in the same turn.

Although it has dedicated the rest of its painwrecked life to hunting down and destroying its Chaos-warped offspring, Mordax may sometimes be found fighting alongside various armies. Sometimes the promise of gold has been enough to arouse its Dragon lust, and sometimes it fights in exchange for information on the whereabouts of one of its offspring.

Mordax has no Wounds score as such, since one effect of the Chaos spell has been to ensure that it can never die. In a battle, whenever Mordax suffers 2 or more Wound points of damage, it must make an immediate Cool test; if the test is failed, the pain of the wound, coupled with the never-ending pain of all the old wounds it has suffered, has become unbearable, and Mordax moves its full movement allowance in a random direction, stomping anything in its way for 4 automatic S10 hits. It is allowed another Cool test at the start of each subsequent turn in order to master its pain and re-enter the battle. If it moves off the table, it is removed from play, and may not re-enter the battle.

Points value: 850 (?)

Special rules:

FLY - Mordax has wings and can fly up to 24" as described in the Warhammer rulebook.

TERROR - Mordax is a huge dragon that causes terror as described in the Psychology section of the Warhammer rulebook. Remember that creatures which cause terror also cause fear.

SCALY SKIN - Mordax has extremely hard scales which act like armor, protecting him from attack. Mordax, therefore has an armor saving throw of 4+ on d6. Because his scales are extraordinarily hard, saving throw is not modified by usual saving throw modifier for Strength. Only if attack discounts saves altogether is this saving throw ignored.

BREATHES FIRE - Mordax uses teardrop-shaped flame template, any model lying under the template is hit on a d6 score of 4 or more. Each enemy hit suffers a Strength 7 hit. Damage and saving throws are worked out normally (remember that fire causes extra damage to targets which burn easily such as Treemen and Mummies). Other rules for Dragon's Breath can be found in Warhammer Battle Book.

Although it has dedicated the rest of its painwrecked life to hunting down and destroying its Chaos-warped offspring, Mordax may sometimes be found fighting alongside various armies. Sometimes the promise of gold has been enough to arouse its Dragon lust, and sometimes it fights in exchange for information on the whereabouts of one of its offspring.

Mordax has no Wounds score as such, since one effect of the Chaos spell has been to ensure that it can never die. In a battle, whenever Mordax suffers 2 or more Wound points of damage, it must make an immediate Leadership test at the end of combat round; if the test is failed, the pain of the wound, coupled with the never-ending pain of all the old wounds it has suffered, has become unbearable, and Mordax moves its full movement allowance (6") in a random direction, stomping anything in its way for 4 automatic S10 hits. It is allowed another Leadership test at the start of each subsequent turn in order to master its pain and re-enter the battle. If it moves off the table, it is removed from play, and may not re-enter the battle.

Palanquin of Nurgle

Background | 3rd edition rules | 4th edition rules | 5rd edition rules | Citadel Journal rules

Citadel's Palanquin Of Nurgle model can still sometimes be found in internet auctions and sales. I have 3, and since I will never field more than one in battle, I might be persuated to sell other two if you offer me large sums of money. As for the third one, you can see it here. It's a pretty complex conversion, especially the rider part. I only added severed orc heads and an extra nurgling to the palanquin itself. Rider started his life as a Nurgle champion with technological weapons. I cut of his arms and added 3 new arms, shield, tentacle and horn.

Great Unclean Ones are daemons with a sense of dramatic. They enjoy the decorative trappings of power almost as much as they enjoy power itself. The Palanquin of Nurgle is an ornate and mobile throne that allowes the Great Unclean One to be carried aloft by a tide of surging Nurglings. The tiny creatures proplel the Palanquin wherever their master wishes. From his elevated position the Greater Daemon is able to speak to his slaves, or strike at his foes. The Palanquin itself is decorated with mouldered finery, while the Great Daemon rider sits casually upon a mound of decaying cushions. Palanquins may also be gifted to Champions and Plaguebearers.

From Realms of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned.

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
Palanquin	6	-	-	-	5	3	-	D6S3	-	-	-	-

Points value: 50

Special rules:

CLOUD OF FLIES - The Palanquin is surrounded by a cloud of flies which buzz and swarm around it. If the Palanquin is carried into hand-to-hand fighting the cloud of flies will buzz into the eyes and ears of all engaged enemy models, reducing their D6 to hit roll by -1. If the rider is a Plaguebearer, then his own cloud of flies merges with that of the Palanquin, but the combined effect is still to reduce the D6 to hit roll by -1.

The cloud of flies has another effect, for each insect embodies a tiny fraction of protective magic. The cloud thus represents a considerable protective spell. The Palanquin and it's rider cannot be affected by a magical spell of any kind. Both are affected normally by a hand-to-hand combat blow struck by a magical weapon, but not by spells cast by such a weapon.

MOVEMENT AND COMBAT - During a turn, the Palanquin moves up to 6" and can charge into combat just like any normal model, doubling it's maximum movement to 12" as it does so. The rider can fight from Palanquin and strike the enemy in any direction, whether they lie to the front, sides or rear. The Nurgling bearers also fight in hand-to-hand combat, automatically causing D6 hits with a strength of 3. The Nurgling bearers cannot be struck as such, indeed their numbers would make that a futile business, but the Palanquin can be attacked. The attacker has the choice of striking blows or aiming missles at either the rider or the Palanquin. Blows against the Palanquin hit automatically. The Palanquin has a Toughness of 5, and once it has sustained 3 wounds it is completely destroyed, dissolving into an unpleasant slippery mass along with its attendant Nurgling bearers.

STICKY POOLS - As the Nurgling bearers move across the battlefield, small pools of something unpleasant and sticky form behind the Palanquin. These pools of filth contain pus, excretement, urine and other foul substances which are produced by the Nurglings. The sheer quantity of Nurgling bearers makes these pools very dangerous! Roll a D6 when a Palanquin moves, and on the roll of 6 the Nurglings have produced a sticky pool as described. A sticky pool is represented on the games table by a card circle 1" in diameter. These pools reamin in place for the reminder of the game. Any model moving over a sticky pool may be unfortunate enough to catch Nurgles Rot as described already under Nurgles Rot.

- From Realms of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned

Points value: 30

Nurgle character can ride upon a palanquin carried by Nurgling base - this is costed as a Nurgling base and enables both Nurglings and rider to fight.

I use 4th edition rules for palanquin, and it seems balanced enough for 5th edition too. It is not really different than having a Chaos champion join the unit of Nurglings.

I am not going to risk getting sued for reprinting Citadel Journal copyrighted materials, so I'll just point you to Citadel Journal #12 in which these optional rules were printed. Citadel Journal rules treat it as a chaos reward for special character - Plaguestrangler Vilestench.

Chaos thugs

Background | 3rd edition rules | 4th edition rules | 5rd edition rules

Citadel used to produce many Chaos thug models, with variety of weapons. I have about 50 models in some 30 different poses, with different weapons, mutations and armor. You should be able to find various thug models with all the miniatures sales and auctions going on on internet. Otherwise, Empire flagellants make good thugs (blasphemy!), and a number of other companies makes models that make good thugs. Heartbreaker has a line of barbarian models, that can be converted or painted apropriately to resemble Chaos Thugs, especially their line of Dark Barbarians. Harlequin, also makes interesting barbarian models.

When a Chaos Warband breaks apart following the death or daemonification of its Champion, former followers often join bands of brigands or mercenaries. These warrior brigands owe little to Chaos, but are no longer welcome in normal human society. Some will have gained attributes while serving their Champion, others may be physically unchanged but too exhilarated by their experiences to lead normal lives. Thus they find themselves drifting from battlefield to battlefield, taking up arms for whatever Chaos Army has need of their services. Many will join up with Warbands after the battle is over and return once more to the service of the Powers of Chaos, perhaps even becoming Champions themselves in time.

From Realms of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned.

Chaos thugs - 3rd edition rules

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP
Chaos thug	4	4	4	3	3	1	4	1	7	7	7	7

Points value: 8

Armed with hand weapon and light armor

OPTIONS:

Any unit may have:

Shields..................1
Heavy armor..............1

One unit may have:

Additional hand weapons..1
Double-handed weapons....2
Flails...................1
Spears...................1
Bows.....................2
Long bows................3
Throwing axes............1
Pistols..................2

Chaos thugs - 4rd edition rules

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Chaos thug	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7

Points value: 5

Armed with hand weapon

OPTIONS:

Any unit may have:

 
Shields..................1
Light Armor..............2 
Heavy armor..............3
Additional hand weapons..1 
Double-handed weapons....2
Flails...................1 
Spears...................1
Bows.....................2
Pistols..................2

Chaos thugs - 5rd edition rules

Either 3rd or 4th edition rules can be used in 5th edition too, as they seem pretty balanced. Personally, I prefer 4th edition which has statistics for average human.

Send all questions and comments to srdan@bastaic.com.

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