Double Misfire

@Kramer I agree with @dekay about merging the Executioner units. The Venomfang Blade activates on wound rolls not hit rolls and is generally a bit pap, so I'd swap it out for the Drakescale Cloak on the Dreadlord for on average a third extra wounds, and give the dragon Jutting Bones instead of acidic blood. Also a lance and a shield if you can model them on, but if you think two weapons looks cool then stick with two weapons. I'm not sure how an artefact benefits your Sorceress, so you might be better off being illicitly dealt extra command points. Reliably getting Vitriolic spray off every turn is crucial, so I'd' definitely want to think about dropping something (perhaps the Fleetmaster and Corsairs) for an Umbral Spellportal and 10 Dreadspears.

Legions of Nagash with the Nighthaunt units they're able to use 😉

Morning all, I've resurrected an old article series I tried out back in the Season of War: Firestorm days (admittedly only producing a single article for), examining how to get the most mileage out each of the different city allegiances, kicky off with my much beloved Greywater Fastness: https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide-greywater.html Feedback very very welcome, I'd love to know how informative and/or entertaining this guide was, and if I've missed anything obvious out.

'Sup Greycaps, I've put together a new blog post delving deep into getting the most out of our (next to Hallowheart's) pretty so-so pile of allegiance abilities. Check it out in the link below if you fancy it, and please let me know if you think there's anything obvious I've left out. https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide-greywater.html

Figuring I'd take a break from writing about Teclis and get some actual Cities of Sigmar content up, presenting the first instalment of the Cities of Sigmar edition of The Lonely Realmsphere Guide, resurrecting a feature I'd started on TGA in the pre battletome days of Season of War: Firestorm, on getting the most use out of each Free City's allegiance abilities, kicking off with my preferred environmental disaster, Greywater Fastness. Why collect a Greywater Fastness army? You could have seen the duardin on the start collecting box and thought I'm having a bit of that, be a true artillery aesthete (to the continued exasperation of your gaming group), already have a lot of models painted up in Averland colours dating back to before Averland's status as protoplasmic goo, straight up hate Wood Elves, or in my case be afflicted by a combination of the above. Patrician taste in Free Cities assured, how are you supposed to get the best mileage out of a set of allegiance abilities, that let's face it, ain't exactly Hallowheart? When thematic 'chapter trait' options are given to an army, it's sort of the rule one set shines head and shoulders above the rest, and Cities of Sigmar are a comparatively fortunate exception, in that their stronghold choices are pretty evenly divided into a two tier system. Perhaps less fortunate for Greywater Fastness, Anvilgard and the Phoenicium, all squarely stuck at the bottom, but hey, at least we don't have a Petrifex Elite. Despite Greywater Fastness not getting doubled in value wizards or a fight twice command ability, I'm not the type to say my army's from Hallowheart but wearing loaned Greywater uniforms, and see squeezing as much mileage as I can out of the hand of relatively grounded traits, artefacts and spells they do get as a fun challenge. Empire Great Cannons. Don't exist anymore, but you get my point DISCLAIMER: S.A.D. ARMIES: A term popularised by players of the original Warhammer in the early 2000s, S.A.D. or Shooty Army of Doom, doesn't need a lot of explanation, with an acronym perfectly eunicating its intent, being that while 'gunline' armies cramming in as many artillery pieces and long range missile units, might seem an appealing prospect to collect and play with, by contrast provide a pretty bleak experience for anyone unfortunate enough to play against them, and are commonly regarded as all kinds of boring to play against, but also requiring very little skill. Because let's face it, games where your shiniest, best models are get shot off the board before you've had a chance to do anything with them ain't fun Not only burdening regular opponents to the point of not wanting to play/talk to you anymore, S.A.D. armies are also deliberately curbed against by many tournament organisers, with the practice of ensuring that at least one game played over the course of an event will use a range reducing Realmscape Feature from the Realm of Shadow, resulting that in addition a guaranteed sports score of zero, a S.A.D. army taken to an event will be certain to loose at least one game. While I'll be covering all of Greywater Fastness' abilities and options available in full, obviously a lot of them lend themselves to improving the S.A.D. capacity of a lot of already S.A.D. inclined units, and reading this article you may find that I've given disproportionate attention to achieving victory through other means, potentially saving both you social life and tournament career in the process. Pony conferring no additional in-game bonuses. Probably rolls more 1s to run than he would on foot BATTLE TRAITS We're off to a great start with Rune Lore, and the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, giving the Runelord, already an indispensable utility character in Dispossessed heavy lists (able to buff units offensively and defensively, ward off hostile spells and dispel your own souped up endless spells free of charge to free them up to be recast), an extra function free of charge in giving a nearby unit Ironweld war machines +1 to hit in addition to the prayer he'd normally be able to cast. Fantastic when cast on a unit of three Gyrocopters with steam guns early game, and then used to support a Steam Tank moving alongside a block of Hammerers, or an artillery piece camped out with Irondrakes, Rune Lore effectively being free means that if you're weighing up whether to build your Greywater Fastness army around a core of Freeguild, Disposessed, or one of the various aelf factions, the duardin lead by a hair's breadth. Salvo Fire is a solid, if uninspiring command ability, further boosting a unit of Irondrakes or Freeguild Handgunners' status as CoS preeminent shooters with +1 to hit, and comboing nicely with the generic Volley Fire. However, if you're inclined to max out on those units (both typically hitting on a 3+), you're probably going to be looking at running them alongside a Celestial Hurricanum, which will already max out their to hit rolls, and facing up to the fact that the Tempest's Eye command trait Hawk-eyed gives +1 to wound bonus for largely the same effect, doesn't cost a command point and stacks with the Hurricanum. Hawk-eyed alone means Tempest's Eye probably has the ability to make better conventional gunlines than GWF, and so we've really got to get what we can out of the few advantages we do have, bringing us nicely to... Home of the Great Ironweld Guns, adding 3" to the range of Ironweld war machines, is easy to disregard when the first place your mind goes is Helstorms Rocket Batteries and Helblasters, but affords a nice boost to a Steam Tank's steam gun, and even repeater handgun, and significantly ups the game of steam gun armed Gyrocopters (conceivably the only way to build the Gyrocopter/Gyrobomber kit), allowing them more flexible placement when incinerating the largest hordes. COMMAND TRAITS Consistent with the previous battle traits, none of Greywater's command traits offer anything in the way of game breaking combos, but all three are solid, offering neat bonuses when tailored to the right force. Seat on the Council is my personal favourite, and when combined with an adjutant can turn a general into a veritable command point farm almost up there with Hammerhal - command points, you can never have too many. Drillmaster's reroll 1s to hit aura works best on a Cogsmith supporting multiple Helblaster Volley Guns (typically in an Artillery Company battalion), as each Helblaster is an individual unit. A large block of Irondrakes or Handgunners may be better off with a Seat on the Council general and accompanying adjutant firing off Volley Fire to reroll 1s when needed. Though that said, a well applied Knight-Azyros circumvents the need for either. Ghoul Mere Ranger's a funny one, and a command trait I wish I had the painted models to necessitate using, if only for the cool narrative image the name inspires. Allowing units near the general to run and still shoot, it's a little pokey due to most CoS shooters being granted conditional bonuses on standing still, meaning they're only going to want to move through a Soulscream Bridge most of the time. I can imagine it would prove handy in helping a Steam Tank heavy force capture objectives and still shoot early game. ARTEFACTS OF POWER (or Ranald's whiskers, why don't we have pigeon bombs?!) Of Greywater Fastness' trio of artefacts, there's a standout winner in the Steam-piston Platemail, transforming a Steam Tank Commander, a less thematically inclined (but arguably much more useful) Freeguild General on Griffon or Dreadlord on Black Dragon, or even Stardrake into a literal tank with a 2+ save and enough wounds to capitalise on. Runic Munitions would be wonderful if any of Cities of Sigmar's component subfactions still had access to a hero with the ability to volley off a large volume of damage 1 shooting attacks like the former Wanderer Waywatcher hero, but as it stands is still an appreciable option in the hands of a Knight-Venator. The incontestable best named artefact in the game, Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope is probably what I'd go for to pick up an extra command points if I lacked a behemoth hero or Knight-Venator to slap either of the aforementioned artefacts on, and didn't fancy any of the Ghyran options. Like the Runic Munitions the Macroscope would be great if we had more dedicated ranged heroes. Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope! Greywater Fastness armies are restricted to Realm artefacts from Ghyran because er, that's where they're from. Nothing immediately jumps out, but in games I'm without a behemoth hero I like to run Ghyrstrike on a Warden King general who's bodyguard can protect him enough to let him get stuck in, the Hypersnare Seeds can throw a serious fly in the ointment of enemies infringing on your ranged units if you get lucky, and the Jadewound Thorn compliments a Freeguild General on Griffon with a Sigmarite Runesword and his command ability active nicely for five chances to do a mortal wound on a 5+. THE LORE OF SMOG I love the imagery the name of this spell lore evokes. Descending Ash Cloud is the standout here, offering a -1 to hit modifier that's culmative with the Sorceress' Word of Pain and Hysh Battlemage's Pha's Protection, giving you multiple opportunities to force negative hit rolls on your opponent's biggest, baddest unit or monster, often stacking. Eroding Blast and Choking Fumes are fairly similar in function horde killers; personally I'd veer towards Choking Fumes, as Eroding Blast's scenery requirement feels situational. Both may work best on a behemoth mounted wizard, more likely to be on the front lines, and covering a larger range footprint. THE GREYWATER ARTILLERY COMPANY BATTALION If you're going to hand out only a single battalion to each city, it only stands that Greywater Fastness' should have an Ironweld focus, but why S.A.D., why did it have to be S.A.D.?! We could have had a brigade of Steam Tanks, or even a formation of Gyrocopters acting as spotters for artillery, having to get up close and personal in order to give shooting bonuses, at least making it dynamic S.A.D., but nope, straight up garden variety cluster of artillery deleting anything hapless enough to deploy opposite it S.A.D.. Personal hangups aside, the Greywater Artillery Company is about the only time Ironweld artillery is going to outperform the equivalent points spent on Freeguild Handgunners, and so if you're going to use what's already quite a pricey battalion, it would be prudent to go all in on it, fielding the maximum four artillery pieces available and building the rest of your list around it. With the battalion's Gunmaster as your general with Drillmaster, Helblaster Volley Guns become the infinetly preferable option for your four artillery pieces; you'll want to include a Lord-Ordinator or Celestial Hurricanum for a bonus to hit, and consider a Soulscream Bridge (cast by a Sorceress sacrificing minions to guarantee it happens on turn 1), with plenty of minions to screen your artillery on the other side, to be hitting on a rerollable 2+ on your double shooting first turn. If Greywater Fastness had a better range of artefacts and/or heroes to use them on at its disposal, then a 'minimal' artillery battery with only two Helblasters, coming in at 420 points might be a viable way to stock up, but as it stands doesn't quite past muster. UNIT SELECTION As you can see in the preceding parts of this article, Greywater Fastness has a narrower spread of units to grant benefits to than the 'one size fits all' allegiance abilities of say, Hammerhal, or Tempest's Eye, and I've collated a few options and combos that I think stand out: Gyrocopters with steam guns Steam guns are the main beneficiaries of Home of the Great Ironweld Guns' extra 3" range, and work great both a cheap solos, and in discount squadrons of 3. Though obviously running on a situational curve, the steam gun is still frighteningly potent when used against large units of multi wound models, and a unit of three Gyrocopters with +1 to hit from an early game Rune of Unfaltering Aim, or Hurricanum aura will on average take out a third of a unit of Brutes, and almost half a unit of Chaos Warriors, allowing you to capitalise on battleshock. Always remember to fire your steam guns at a target before any other missile troops to capitalise on casualties mind! I have yet to figure out how Gyrocopters with brimstone guns or Gyrobombers are worth their points by comparison. Runelord The Rune of Unfaltering Aim on its own obviously isn't enough of a reason to take a Runelord, and so it comes a huge relief that the guy's a 90 point Swiss Army knife, and probably my favourite warscroll of all time. The reliably cast defensive Ancestral Shield and rend boosting Forgefire can not only be used in the same turn as the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, but also stack, meaning that if you're running a Dispossessed heavy list you can add as many 6+ special saves or points of rend to a large unit of Hammerers or Irondrakes as you have Runelords. The best unbinding bonus this side of named characters who are also gods means he'll be able to throw a spanner in your opponent's best laid magical plans; and being able to dispel endless spells for 'free', without having to give up casting anything in the same way a wizard would, with a +2 to modifier lends to great defensive and offensive applications. Defensively shutting down threatening endless spells speaks for itself, but the ability to dispel spells offensively might require some explaining. Dispelling an endless spell you've cast in a previous turn frees the spell up for you to cast and activate it again, giving you a second activation of the spell for twice the mortal wounds or Emerald Lifeswarm heals. Dispelling happens at the start of the hero phase, so obviously remember to do it before you do anything else! A Runelord's also unlikely to stray too far from the side of a Warden King if you're running one, making him a great adjutant candidate. Knight-Venator and Knight-Azyros Unlike the other six cities with allegiance abilities, Greywater Fastness doesn't have a named Stormhost in residence, whether there's one planned, or the Changeling didn't leave room for a Stormkeep when he was mapping the city we have yet to find out. Regardless, Greywater Fastness armies can still field Stormcast, so I assume they do at lest visit, and the duo of winged heroes both fill solid niches in a Greywater force, working in conjunction or alone. The Knight-Azyros is a zippy objective grabber, with a lantern possessing a short range aura that negates the need to for a Drillmaster general, and a one time mortal wound bomb to make opponents wary of committing too many units to him. The similarly speedy Knight-Venator's bow is the best spot available for Runic Munitions, doubling its normal damage output, and giving a small boost to the Star-Fated arrow. With the Knight-Venator's 2+ hitting shots directly benefiting from the Azyros' lantern, it makes sense to run them as pair, and they have the makings of a solid general/adjutant duo, with the Azyros, who's inclined to be that little bit closer to the enemy in order to be in lantern range as general, protected by an Honoured Retinue of Dark Riders or similar speedy cavalry. Seat on the Council would be the command trait to go for here for maximum command point farming, though I'm not sure what kind of chair he'd be able to park on with those wings. Other Useful Units The Celestial Hurricanum and its +1 to hit aura are the Cities of Sigmar equivalent of HP Sauce, going well with just about everything. If you're considering a Lord-Ordinator for your artillery, stump out 50 points more than he and the wizard you would have taken anyway cost for a +1 to hit bubble that doesn't just extend to your gunline, and a bunch of mortal wounds to throw out. A mobile Hurricanum could also be used to support steam gun Gyrocopters especially with the increased range GWF offers them, and it's something I fully intend to explore when I've finished converting and painting my Hurricanum. Steam Tanks are a trademark Ironweld Arsenal, and by extension Greywater unit, and a pretty weird warscroll, falling into the trap so many hybrid melee/missile units do of not being particularly great at either, and bizarrely probably being better off in Living City lists than under any other city. They get incrementally better the more of them you field, with at least one Commander, allowing them to take advantage of Target Sighted en mass. I'm not trying to make out that the Hurricanum fixes everything, but I can imagine a Steam Tank cosied up to one for a bonus to hit in melee and shooting ain't half bad. A unit you'd be in less of a hurry to associate with Greywater Fastness would be Shadow Warriors, but without access to allied Tree-Revenants, if you're going to build your list around shooting it sure is nice to have some backfield objective grabbers, and hitting on 2s when set up in cover they're made to take advantage of Drillmaster otherwise. MERCENARIES AND ALLIES If you find it frustrating that Greywater Fastness is all about cannons, has visible cannons on its city walls in the only piece of art ever specifically created for it, and not somehow is only able to take cannons when they're mounted on the front of a Steam Tank, then fret no more, Greywater Fastness can in fact take actual cannon cannons (of the Olde Worlde Dwarf variety), courtesy of the Blacksmoke Battery mercenary company with rules in the pages of The General's Handbook 2019. The Blacksmoke Battery has a whole bunch of shared keywords and synergies with Cities of Sigmar, Greywater Fastness in particular, that I've already written an entire blog post about, which if you're interested you can find here. While their respective movement enhancing and healing spells mean Gotrek is probably better suited to a Hammerhal, Living City or Hallowheart list, I've used him to great effect in several games alongside a Greywater Fastness army, and he's no slouch. Gotrek runs (and charges) on command points, and a Seat on the Council/adjutant combo suits him fine. Be sure to include an Emerald Lifeswarm, and a Runelord to dispel it, and if you're really worried about him shedding wounds consider the Ghyran artefact Wand of Restoration. No small part thanks to their penchant for deforestation, Greywater Fastness lack access to the current allied backfield objective redeployer du jour in Sylvaneth Tree-Revenats, but that might be a blessing in disguise, freeing up the spot for the actually-quite-good new Grundstock Gunhauler warscroll, in 2,000 point games able to be fielded either as a pair, or carrying half a dozen Skywardens or Endrinriggers, able to deal damage from deal damage from the most distant objective. I can't wait to get mine painted up and try them out. Well, there you have it. Probably competing with the Phoenicium for city with the least going for it on the table (contrary to popular opinion I will maintain to my dying day that Anvilgard are utter filth), but certainly the one with the most panache in their codpieces. I hope this article has at least entertained, and if it's persuaded even only one of you to buy three Gyrocopters and crack open the Averland Sunset, then it's done more than its job. If you feel I've made any obvious omissions, or have any other feedback, please get in touch. Until next time!View the full article

Figuring I'd take a break from writing about Teclis and get some actual Cities of Sigmar content up, presenting the first instalment of the Cities of Sigmar edition of The Lonely Realmsphere Guide, a resurrected tactics feature I'd started on TGA in the pre battletome days of Season of War: Firestorm, on getting the most use out of each Free City's allegiance abilities, kicking off with my preferred environmental disaster, Greywater Fastness. Why collect a Greywater Fastness army? You could have seen the duardin on the start collecting box and thought I'm having a bit of that, be a true artillery aesthete (to the continued exasperation of your gaming group), already have a lot of models painted up in Averland colours dating back to before Averland's status as protoplasmic goo, straight up hate Wood Elves, or in my case be afflicted by a combination of the above. Patrician taste in Free Cities assured, how are you supposed to get the best mileage out of a set of allegiance abilities, that let's face it, ain't exactly Hallowheart? When thematic 'chapter trait' options are given to an army, it's sort of the rule one set shines head and shoulders above the rest, and Cities of Sigmar are a comparatively fortunate exception, in that their stronghold choices are pretty evenly divided into a two tier system. Perhaps less fortunate for Greywater Fastness, Anvilgard and the Phoenicium, all squarely stuck at the bottom, but hey, at least we don't have a Petrifex Elite. Despite Greywater Fastness not getting doubled in value wizards or a fight twice command ability, I'm not the type to say my army's from Hallowheart but wearing loaned Greywater uniforms, and see squeezing as much mileage as I can out of the hand of relatively grounded traits, artefacts and spells they do get as a fun challenge. Empire Great Cannons. Don't exist anymore, but you get my point DISCLAIMER: S.A.D. ARMIES: A term popularised by players of the original Warhammer in the early 2000s, S.A.D. or Shooty Army of Doom, doesn't need a lot of explanation, with an acronym perfectly eunicating its intent, being that while 'gunline' armies cramming in as many artillery pieces and long range missile units, might seem an appealing prospect to collect and play with, by contrast provide a pretty bleak experience for anyone unfortunate enough to play against them, and are commonly regarded as all kinds of boring to play against, but also requiring very little skill. Because let's face it, games where your shiniest, best models are get shot off the board before you've had a chance to do anything with them ain't fun Not only burdening regular opponents to the point of not wanting to play/talk to you anymore, S.A.D. armies are also deliberately curbed against by many tournament organisers, with the practice of ensuring that at least one game played over the course of an event will use a range reducing Realmscape Feature from the Realm of Shadow, resulting that in addition a guaranteed sports score of zero, a S.A.D. army taken to an event will be certain to loose at least one game. While I'll be covering all of Greywater Fastness' abilities and options available in full, obviously a lot of them lend themselves to improving the S.A.D. capacity of a lot of already S.A.D. inclined units, and reading this article you may find that I've given disproportionate attention to achieving victory through other means, potentially saving both you social life and tournament career in the process. Pony conferring no additional in-game bonuses. Probably rolls more 1s to run than he would on foot BATTLE TRAITS We're off to a great start with Rune Lore, and the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, giving the Runelord, already an indispensable utility character in Dispossessed heavy lists (able to buff units offensively and defensively, ward off hostile spells and dispel your own souped up endless spells free of charge to free them up to be recast), an extra function free of charge in giving a nearby unit Ironweld war machines +1 to hit in addition to the prayer he'd normally be able to cast. Fantastic when cast on a unit of three Gyrocopters with steam guns early game, and then used to support a Steam Tank moving alongside a block of Hammerers, or an artillery piece camped out with Irondrakes, Rune Lore effectively being free means that if you're weighing up whether to build your Greywater Fastness army around a core of Freeguild, Disposessed, or one of the various aelf factions, the duardin lead by a hair's breadth. Salvo Fire is a solid, if uninspiring command ability, further boosting a unit of Irondrakes or Freeguild Handgunners' status as CoS preeminent shooters with +1 to hit, and comboing nicely with the generic Volley Fire. However, if you're inclined to max out on those units (both typically hitting on a 3+), you're probably going to be looking at running them alongside a Celestial Hurricanum, which will already max out their to hit rolls, and facing up to the fact that the Tempest's Eye command trait Hawk-eyed gives +1 to wound bonus for largely the same effect, doesn't cost a command point and stacks with the Hurricanum. Hawk-eyed alone means Tempest's Eye probably has the ability to make better conventional gunlines than GWF, and so we've really got to get what we can out of the few advantages we do have, bringing us nicely to... Home of the Great Ironweld Guns, adding 3" to the range of Ironweld war machines, is easy to disregard when the first place your mind goes is Helstorms Rocket Batteries and Helblasters, but affords a nice boost to a Steam Tank's steam gun, and even repeater handgun, and significantly ups the game of steam gun armed Gyrocopters (conceivably the only way to build the Gyrocopter/Gyrobomber kit), allowing them more flexible placement when incinerating the largest hordes. COMMAND TRAITS Consistent with the previous battle traits, none of Greywater's command traits offer anything in the way of game breaking combos, but all three are solid, offering neat bonuses when tailored to the right force. Seat on the Council is my personal favourite, and when combined with an adjutant can turn a general into a veritable command point farm almost up there with Hammerhal - command points, you can never have too many. Drillmaster's reroll 1s to hit aura works best on a Cogsmith supporting multiple Helblaster Volley Guns (typically in an Artillery Company battalion), as each Helblaster is an individual unit. A large block of Irondrakes or Handgunners may be better off with a Seat on the Council general and accompanying adjutant firing off Volley Fire to reroll 1s when needed. Though that said, a well applied Knight-Azyros circumvents the need for either. Ghoul Mere Ranger's a funny one, and a command trait I wish I had the painted models to necessitate using, if only for the cool narrative image the name inspires. Allowing units near the general to run and still shoot, it's a little pokey due to most CoS shooters being granted conditional bonuses on standing still, meaning they're only going to want to move through a Soulscream Bridge most of the time. I can imagine it would prove handy in helping a Steam Tank heavy force capture objectives and still shoot early game. ARTEFACTS OF POWER (or Ranald's whiskers, why don't we have pigeon bombs?!) Of Greywater Fastness' trio of artefacts, there's a standout winner in the Steam-piston Platemail, transforming a Steam Tank Commander, a less thematically inclined (but arguably much more useful) Freeguild General on Griffon or Dreadlord on Black Dragon, or even Stardrake into a literal tank with a 2+ save and enough wounds to capitalise on. Runic Munitions would be wonderful if any of Cities of Sigmar's component subfactions still had access to a hero with the ability to volley off a large volume of damage 1 shooting attacks like the former Wanderer Waywatcher hero, but as it stands is still an appreciable option in the hands of a Knight-Venator. The incontestable best named artefact in the game, Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope is probably what I'd go for to pick up an extra command points if I lacked a behemoth hero or Knight-Venator to slap either of the aforementioned artefacts on, and didn't fancy any of the Ghyran options. Like the Runic Munitions the Macroscope would be great if we had more dedicated ranged heroes. Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope! Greywater Fastness armies are restricted to Realm artefacts from Ghyran because er, that's where they're from. Nothing immediately jumps out, but in games I'm without a behemoth hero I like to run Ghyrstrike on a Warden King general who's bodyguard can protect him enough to let him get stuck in, the Hypersnare Seeds can throw a serious fly in the ointment of enemies infringing on your ranged units if you get lucky, and the Jadewound Thorn compliments a Freeguild General on Griffon with a Sigmarite Runesword and his command ability active nicely for five chances to do a mortal wound on a 5+. THE LORE OF SMOG I love the imagery the name of this spell lore evokes. Descending Ash Cloud is the standout here, offering a -1 to hit modifier that's cumulative with the Sorceress' Word of Pain and Hysh Battlemage's Pha's Protection, giving you multiple opportunities to force negative hit rolls on your opponent's biggest, baddest unit or monster, often stacking. Eroding Blast and Choking Fumes are fairly similar in function horde killers; personally I'd veer towards Choking Fumes, as Eroding Blast's scenery requirement feels situational. Both may work best on a behemoth mounted wizard, more likely to be on the front lines, and covering a larger range footprint. THE GREYWATER ARTILLERY COMPANY BATTALION If you're going to hand out only a single battalion to each city, it only stands that Greywater Fastness' should have an Ironweld focus, but why S.A.D., why did it have to be S.A.D.?! We could have had a brigade of Steam Tanks, or even a formation of Gyrocopters acting as spotters for artillery, having to get up close and personal in order to give shooting bonuses, at least making it dynamic S.A.D., but nope, straight up garden variety cluster of artillery deleting anything hapless enough to deploy opposite it S.A.D.. Personal hangups aside, the Greywater Artillery Company is about the only time Ironweld artillery is going to outperform the equivalent points spent on Freeguild Handgunners, and so if you're going to use what's already quite a pricey battalion, it would be prudent to go all in on it, fielding the maximum four artillery pieces available and building the rest of your list around it. With the battalion's Gunmaster as your general with Drillmaster, Helblaster Volley Guns become the infinetly preferable option for your four artillery pieces; you'll want to include a Lord-Ordinator or Celestial Hurricanum for a bonus to hit, and consider a Soulscream Bridge (cast by a Sorceress sacrificing minions to guarantee it happens on turn 1), with plenty of minions to screen your artillery on the other side, to be hitting on a rerollable 2+ on your double shooting first turn. If Greywater Fastness had a better range of artefacts and/or heroes to use them on at its disposal, then a 'minimal' artillery battery with only two Helblasters, coming in at 420 points might be a viable way to stock up, but as it stands doesn't quite past muster. UNIT SELECTION As you can see in the preceding parts of this article, Greywater Fastness has a narrower spread of units to grant benefits to than the 'one size fits all' allegiance abilities of say, Hammerhal, or Tempest's Eye, and I've collated a few options and combos that I think stand out: Gyrocopters with steam guns Clarified in the CoS battletome's errata, Steam guns are the main beneficiaries of Home of the Great Ironweld Guns' extra 3" range, and work great both a cheap solos, and in discount squadrons of 3. Though obviously running on a situational curve, the steam gun is still frighteningly potent when used against large units of multi wound models, and a unit of three Gyrocopters with +1 to hit from an early game Rune of Unfaltering Aim, or Hurricanum aura will on average take out a third of a unit of Brutes, and almost half a unit of Chaos Warriors, allowing you to capitalise on battleshock. Always remember to fire your steam guns at a target before any other missile troops to capitalise on casualties mind! I have yet to figure out how Gyrocopters with brimstone guns or Gyrobombers are worth their points by comparison. Runelord The Rune of Unfaltering Aim on its own obviously isn't enough of a reason to take a Runelord, and so it comes a huge relief that the guy's a 90 point Swiss Army knife, and probably my favourite warscroll of all time. The reliably cast defensive Ancestral Shield and rend boosting Forgefire can not only be used in the same turn as the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, but also stack, meaning that if you're running a Dispossessed heavy list you can add as many 6+ special saves or points of rend to a large unit of Hammerers or Irondrakes as you have Runelords. The best unbinding bonus this side of named characters who are also gods means he'll be able to throw a spanner in your opponent's best laid magical plans; and being able to dispel endless spells for 'free', without having to give up casting anything in the same way a wizard would, with a +2 to modifier lends to great defensive and offensive applications. Defensively shutting down threatening endless spells speaks for itself, but the ability to dispel spells offensively might require some explaining. Dispelling an endless spell you've cast in a previous turn frees the spell up for you to cast and activate it again, giving you a second activation of the spell for twice the mortal wounds or Emerald Lifeswarm heals. Dispelling happens at the start of the hero phase, so obviously remember to do it before you do anything else! A Runelord's also unlikely to stray too far from the side of a Warden King if you're running one, making him a great adjutant candidate. If you'd like a more detailed look at the Runelord and his Dispossessed compatriots, then hit up my Lonely Realmsphere article delving into them in detail. Knight-Venator and Knight-Azyros Unlike the other six cities with allegiance abilities, Greywater Fastness doesn't have a named Stormhost in residence, whether there's one planned, or the Changeling didn't leave room for a Stormkeep when he was mapping the city we have yet to find out. Regardless, Greywater Fastness armies can still field Stormcast, so I assume they do at lest visit, and the duo of winged heroes both fill solid niches in a Greywater force, working in conjunction or alone. The Knight-Azyros is a zippy objective grabber, with a lantern possessing a short range aura that negates the need to for a Drillmaster general, and a one time mortal wound bomb to make opponents wary of committing too many units to him. The similarly speedy Knight-Venator's bow is the best spot available for Runic Munitions, doubling its normal damage output, and giving a small boost to the Star-Fated arrow. With the Knight-Venator's 2+ hitting shots directly benefiting from the Azyros' lantern, it makes sense to run them as pair, and they have the makings of a solid general/adjutant duo, with the Azyros, who's inclined to be that little bit closer to the enemy in order to be in lantern range as general, protected by an Honoured Retinue of Dark Riders or similar speedy cavalry. Seat on the Council would be the command trait to go for here for maximum command point farming, though I'm not sure what kind of chair he'd be able to park on with those wings. Other Useful Units The Celestial Hurricanum and its +1 to hit aura are the Cities of Sigmar equivalent of HP Sauce, going well with just about everything. If you're considering a Lord-Ordinator for your artillery, stump out 50 points more than he and the wizard you would have taken anyway cost for a +1 to hit bubble that doesn't just extend to your gunline, and a bunch of mortal wounds to throw out. A mobile Hurricanum could also be used to support steam gun Gyrocopters especially with the increased range GWF offers them, and it's something I fully intend to explore when I've finished converting and painting my Hurricanum. Steam Tanks are a trademark Ironweld Arsenal, and by extension Greywater unit, and a pretty weird warscroll, falling into the trap so many hybrid melee/missile units do of not being particularly great at either, and bizarrely probably being better off in Living City lists than under any other city. They get incrementally better the more of them you field, with at least one Commander, allowing them to take advantage of Target Sighted en mass. I'm not trying to make out that the Hurricanum fixes everything, but I can imagine a Steam Tank cosied up to one for a bonus to hit in melee and shooting ain't half bad. A unit you'd be in less of a hurry to associate with Greywater Fastness would be Shadow Warriors, but without access to allied Tree-Revenants, if you're going to build your list around shooting it sure is nice to have some backfield objective grabbers, and hitting on 2s when set up in cover they're made to take advantage of Drillmaster otherwise. MERCENARIES AND ALLIES If you find it frustrating that Greywater Fastness is all about cannons, has visible cannons on its city walls in the only piece of art ever specifically created for it, and not somehow is only able to take cannons when they're mounted on the front of a Steam Tank, then fret no more, Greywater Fastness can in fact take actual cannon cannons (of the Olde Worlde Dwarf variety), courtesy of the Blacksmoke Battery mercenary company with rules in the pages of The General's Handbook 2019. The Blacksmoke Battery has a whole bunch of shared keywords and synergies with Cities of Sigmar, Greywater Fastness in particular, that I've already written an entire blog post about, which if you're interested you can find here. While their respective movement enhancing and healing spells mean Gotrek is probably better suited to a Hammerhal, Living City or Hallowheart list, I've used him to great effect in several games alongside a Greywater Fastness army, and he's no slouch. Gotrek runs (and charges) on command points, and a Seat on the Council/adjutant combo suits him fine. Be sure to include an Emerald Lifeswarm, and a Runelord to dispel it, and if you're really worried about him shedding wounds consider the Ghyran artefact Wand of Restoration. No small part thanks to their penchant for deforestation, Greywater Fastness lack access to the current allied backfield objective redeployer du jour in Sylvaneth Tree-Revenats, but that might be a blessing in disguise, freeing up the spot for the actually-quite-good new Grundstock Gunhauler warscroll, in 2,000 point games able to be fielded either as a pair, or carrying half a dozen Skywardens or Endrinriggers, able to deal damage from deal damage from the most distant objective. I can't wait to get mine painted up and try them out. Well, there you have it. Probably competing with the Phoenicium for city with the least going for it on the table (contrary to popular opinion I will maintain to my dying day that Anvilgard are utter filth), but certainly the one with the most panache in their codpieces. I hope this article has at least entertained, and if it's persuaded even only one of you to buy three Gyrocopters and crack open the Averland Sunset, then it's done more than its job. If you feel I've made any obvious omissions, or have any other feedback, please get in touch. Until next time!View the full article

Don't go and make Gyrocopters better in another city than they are in GWF. THEY WERE ALL WE HAD DAMN IT, ALL WE HAD 😢

Two isn't enough. I'd motion for either three or lots.

A Destruction playing friend was bemoaning none of the classic Orc and Goblin characters having survived the transition to Age of Sigmar in the same way Order, Chaos and Death's biggest players had, and between that and the 40k Ghazkul teases I now feel like one of those Morglum Necksnapper grognards who didn't like Grimgor back in the day, wanting Grimgor to wake up under a big rock, having reunited his head and neck (do orcs even have necks!?) through sheer 'ardness, and smack Gordrakk around so hard he's demoted to a generic Megaboss on Maw-crusha weapon option. Also Grom, because if there's anything right on GW's fans will accept them embracing, it's probably body positivity.

Grimgor has a twin brother?! 😳 PLOT TWIST!

The title says it all. I've missed out on the chance to buy one of these kits twice (didn't even realise it had been discontinued again until just now), and am desperate to buy one. If you've got one you're willing to sell for less than the kidney ebay's asking for, or even keen to trade then hit me up. I'd prefer painted/unassembled, but am happy to buy one that's already been painted/put together for the right price. Based in the UK, but happy to pay for shipping from anywhere. Thanks for looking. EDIT: FOUND ONE, SHUT THE THREAD DOWN

@Sorrowlol @Acid_Nine Aw shucks, thanks guys, you're way too kind. Riding on the Lumineth hype, I've got a series covering both Eltharion and his nemesis Grom planned next, though it may be a while, as I've got three novels and the entire End Times left to cover for Teclis. 😳 When I originally had the idea for the series, I was going to cover Archaon, but looking at the reading material (in the spoiler below) I may put out shorter articles on his supporting cast of rival, hype man and older brother with severe adult learning difficulties in Valten, Crom and Be'lakor while I work my way through. Part 5 and Part 6 of Great Canon: Teclis are now live, covering Teclis' appearances in two editions of WFRP, and the new origin he Tyrion got in 2008's Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos: https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/great-canon-teclis-part-5-founding.html https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/great-canon-teclis-part-6-new-origin.html As always, feedback and errors more than welcome.

Welcome to the sixth instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. This time Teclis and Tyrion receive a new origin story predating their original rise to prominence ahead of the Battle of Finuval Plain in the unlikeliest of sources... Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos. Best remembered for its unforgivable power levels driving the game's other armies to redundancy, Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released in May 2008, for the 7th edition of the game was the first of its kind, and a strange sort of beast. Daemons had spent most of their former existence in both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 as part of a larger spread of Chaos troops, and while the option to field entire armies of them had existed sporadically, few players had done so, largely owing to the lack of variety in daemon models and units, especially when accounting for most folks' unwillingness to include daemons aligned to different Chaos Gods. Warhammer Armies Daemons of Chaos, and 40k's Codex: Chaos Daemons, released at the same time, did a heel turn on all that, bringing armies of polytheistic daemons to the fore, with no option to field them alongside anything else in conventional games. In Warhammer's previous background daemons would only show up outside of the Chaos Wastes in significant numbers if things were starting to look undesirably think, like bordering on the apocalypse undesirably thin. Matt Ward, the book's author does a great job with its background, presumably having been instructed with finding a way to work the new party line on daemons into Warhammer's then fairly watertight history, solidly peppers the setting's 8,000 year timeline with significant daemonic incursions, many building on previously existing events, characters and locations; giving examples of entire armies of daemons aplenty, but ensuring that their presence in the mortal world is a big deal, and not something that's always sort of around the corner like orcs or beastmen. One of the new timeline events chronicled in detail, is N'kari's Revenge, in which N'kari, the Keeper of Secrets defeated by Aenarion early on during the Great Chaos Incursion, and future recurring foe of Teclis and Tyrion would claw its way back into reality 10 years into Finubar the Seafarer's reign in IC 2173, over a century before the Great War Against Chaos, to wreak vengeance on Aenarion's heirs, Teclis and Tyrion included. Bill King had, in their vaunted and oft reprinted introduction in White Dwarf 156, referred to the twins 'youths' at the time of the Great War Against Chaos and here they're described as 'scarcely beyond childhood by the exacting standards of Elves'. King has since stated that it was his original intention for the twins to have been very young and untested heroes at the Battle of Finuval plain, but hey, shared authorship and who knows how elves age. Opening as a great black storm wracks Ulthuan, and as elves are slain by fallen masonry and lightning bolts, the great waystone atop Mount Antorec, with a cloud of Chaos Furies, followed by N'kari himself clawing their way out of the wound rent in reality. N'kari siphons the magical essence of the Storm to both gorge himself on, and summon a host of daemons to do his bidding. His first target is the nearby provincial holding of Tor Annan, Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers making a quick mess of the defenders, and all but Eanith, the local lord and his household guard not fleeing in disarray. N'kari easily snaps the elf lord's sword and devours the Eanith's still beating heart before his dying eyes as the town is left a bloody ruin. From there N'kari and his army use the tides of magical energy present on Ulthuan to cross the continent, laying siege to Tor Yvresse, with the fortresses defenders able to hold the daemons at bay with aid from neighbouring Cothique and Hoeth, N'kari withdrawing his forces at the battle's height and retreating to the Annulii Mountians. Over the next month, N'kari develops a pattern of attacking outposts across Ulthuan in Averlon, the Dragonspine Mountains and beyond, suddenly abandoning each battle almost at random, often when about to achieve a crushing victory. Finubar orders his seers to meditate on the greater daemon's motivation, eventually realising it to be the same Keeper of Secrets who had lead Ulthuan's invasion 6,000 years prior, believing it to be reborn a being of pure vengeance, consumed by the need to enact terrible revenge on the descendants of Aenarion; the seemingly random nature of his attacks actually being precision strikes against members of Aenarion's bloodline, allowing his targets to be spirited away to be eternally tormented by Slaanesh while the towns and fortresses of their residence are under attack. Many of Aenarion's line have fallen from status over the years, allowing the true nature of N'kari's attacks to have gone unnoticed, for what's one vanished and otherwise unremarkable elf on a battlefield of hundreds slain? Finubar's seers determine that the majority of Aenarion's known descendants are accounted for, either having already fallen victim to N'kari, or not currently on Ulthuan. The only two heirs remaining on the island continent are a very young Tyrion and Teclis, described as twin princes, respectively a warrior born, and weak of body but adept at magic. Mentioned for the first time here is the twins hailing from the woodlands of Cothique, a quotidian outer kingdom in northern Ulthuan (it ain't exactly Chrace or Saphery), made reference to in many of their subsequent appearances. A significant unmentioned oversight here is the presence or lack thereof of the Everqueen, who also carries the blood of Aenarion, being descended from an unbroken line of firstborn daughters, dating back to Yvraine, child of Aenarion and the first Everqueen Astarille. While she can easily be No Prized as having been overseas at the time, the Everqueen seems like too significant a descendant of Aenarion not to get at least a passing mention. Teclis and Tyrion are hurriedly summoned from Cothique and taken to the Shrine of Asuryan, where an army of Ulthuan's finest is waiting to protect them. Quite why the normally fractious High Elves would go to such lengths to protect two (then) relatively inconsequential juvenile nobles isn't made clear. Within a day of Shadow Warriors initial reports of daemons within the Eataine mountains, N'kari is in sight of the Shrine, sending intoxicating visions to the elven defenders, causing many to throw themselves from the battlements, or march blindly forward to be torn apart by waiting daemons. Lords of Change under N'kari (implying this is a pretty impressive daemonic horde) throw spells around, as Furies and Nurglings do... whatever Furies and Nurglings do, and Daemonettes and Plaguebearers battle against valiant Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters of Hoeth in hand to hand. As hard as the elves fight, the Shrine's gate is eventually breached by a Beast of Nurgle, that proceeds to tie up the Captain of the Phoenix Guard in combat as Bloodletters burst through. Within the shrine, elves desperately fight back to back, as the cleansing power of Asuryn's flame weakens and banishes many daemons. N'kari however, isn't phased, and climbs the Stair of Eternity to the Shrine's inner sanctum. At the centre of the Shrine, only a thin line of Phoenix Guard stand between N'kari and the twins, quickly dismembered and incinerated by the greater daemon's claws and spells. Watching the last Phoenix Guard fall, Tyrion realises it's up to him, mouths a quick prayer to Asuryan and charges in. Despite Tyrion being faster, it's a one sided fight, with N'kari parrying every blow against him with ease, and revelling in taunting Tyrion. Fully engaged with Tyrion, N'kari fails to notice Teclis summoning a bolt of 'all the sorcerous fire he could muster' which blasts the greater daemon off its feet. Tumbling an catching an arm in the Flame of Asuryan itself, N'kari's entire body to blackens and crackles, giving Tyrion the opportunity he needed to wail on the Keeper, his sword taking up Asuryan's flame, and each new cut opening up fresh wounds. Overwhelmed by agony, there's little N'kari can do but scream a lot and stagger back from Tyrion, eventually being driven through the Shrine's great arch overlooking the Sea of Dreams, and plummeting into the ocean thousands of feet bellow. N'kari's strength no longer holding them together, the daemonic army's hold on reality quickly dissipates in the presence of the holy energies of the Asuryan. As the elves celebrate their victory and mourn their losses, Teclis and Tyrion are silent, knowing that their destiny has been forever altered, and that one day they will both have to face N'kari again. Given N'kari's prominence in not only the army book, but also Warhammer and 40k's histories (he boarded the Vengeful Spirit and fought the Emperor with Horus, read all about it here), it stands out that he didn't receive rules as a special character in Daemons of Chaos' original army book and Codex - especially when Slaanesh was the only Chaos God to not receive a greater daemon special character in those books. Maybe he wasn't deemed significantly different enough from the baseline version in the way Skarbrand or Kairos Fateweaver are, but by contrast is Teclis really anything more than a much more powerful High Elf mage with a fancy backstory? Every subsequent daemon or Slaanesh release N'kari fails to be a part of feels like a missed opportunity, and I'd love see what he was getting up to under Slaanesh's absence during AoS; but hey, we got Shalaxi Helbane I guess. Give it up for Shalaxi Helbane everybody! Late 2009 would mark the release of a third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, licensed by Games Workshop to Fantasy Flight Games. Universally reviled by fans of the two previous editions for its seemingly dumbed down card based mechanics, and feeling too heroic for a system who's previously most popular class had been a Rat Catcher, WFRP 3rd ed nonetheless contained some fairly solid background. Tome of Mysteries, one of the four rulebooks included in the game's Core Set at launch focused on magic from an Imperial perspective, and frequently made use of the term 'Teclisian' when describing laws, theory and technique taught to humanity by Teclis; as well as including several extracts on the various lores of magic from an in universe book written by Teclis titled The Founding of the Eight Orders. Not pictured: Twister™ mat included with book Warhammer's 8th edition came out in September 2010, and despite the High Elves facing off against Skaven perhaps the strangest starter box matchup ever put out, GW were content to keep the release of the edition's army books slow, with High Elves not seeing a new one for two and a bit years. Summer 2011 saw Warhammer: Storm of Magic, a supplement for with additional rules for fighting special battles in borderline apocalyptic conditions as the Winds of Magic wracked the battlefield. Failing to make much of an impact, Storm of Magic was dismissed by background aficionados as an outlandish cashgrab inconsistent with what had come before, and largely ignored by the playerbase due to the host of new options introduced being restricted to use in fixed 'Storm of Magic' games. These included special arcane scenery, bound monsters, cataclysm spells, and the option to form 'Sorcerous Pacts' allowing for an allied contingent of undead or daemons to be included in any army fighting in a Storm of Magic game. Which would lead to... ...this; featured in an article in White Dwarf 380 highlighting players' ability to do exactly that. While a baffling choice, Teclis teamed up with a Bloodthirster is obviously intended as an example of what players could do writing army lists for Storm of Magic games, and probably shouldn't be taken as canon by anyone's standards, but I thought it was a funny enough footnote to include. A snapshot of what most people would look back on as Warhammer and Games Workshop's 'Dark Age', the issue also featured another example of a Sorcerous Pact where Tancred of Quenelles (the Bretonnian character with a mad-on for undead) had allied with the Red Duke, and a battle report where Balthasar Gelt a had summoned a small contingent of Khorne and Tzeentch daemons to help the Empire fight Vampire Counts on the Sylvannian border. I hope you've enjoyed this instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If Teclis throwing his lot in with the servants of Khorne seems bleak (if only for the purpose of an article on army lists), then fear not, as Part 7 sees Bill King's triumphant return to the character, with Blood of Aenarion, the first in a trilogy of novels centred on Teclis and Tyrion's adventures leading up to the Battle of Finuval Plain. If you've got any feedback, feel I made any mistakes, or think I was just too plain harsh on Storm of Magic, feel free to get in touch. Until next time, thanks for reading!View the full article

Welcome to the sixth instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. This time Teclis and Tyrion receive a new origin story predating their original rise to prominence ahead of the Battle of Finuval Plain from a unlikely source... Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos. Best remembered for its unforgivable power levels driving the game's other armies to redundancy, Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released in May 2008, for the 7th edition of the game was the first of its kind, and a strange sort of beast. Daemons had spent most of their former existence in both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 as part of a larger spread of Chaos troops, and while the option to field entire armies of them had existed sporadically, few players had done so, largely owing to the lack of variety in daemon models and units, especially when accounting for most folks' unwillingness to include daemons aligned to different Chaos Gods. Warhammer Armies Daemons of Chaos, and 40k's Codex: Chaos Daemons, released at the same time, did a heel turn on all that, bringing armies of polytheistic daemons to the fore, with no option to field them alongside anything else in conventional games. In Warhammer's previous background daemons would only show up outside of the Chaos Wastes in significant numbers if things were starting to look undesirably think, like bordering on the apocalypse undesirably thin. Matt Ward, the book's author does a great job with its background, presumably having been instructed with finding a way to work the new party line on daemons into Warhammer's then fairly watertight history, solidly peppers the setting's 8,000 year timeline with significant daemonic incursions, many building on previously existing events, characters and locations; giving examples of entire armies of daemons aplenty, but ensuring that their presence in the mortal world is a big deal, and not something that's always sort of around the corner like orcs or beastmen. One of the new timeline events chronicled in detail, is N'kari's Revenge, in which N'kari, the Keeper of Secrets defeated by Aenarion early on during the Great Chaos Incursion, and future recurring foe of Teclis and Tyrion would claw its way back into reality 10 years into Finubar the Seafarer's reign in IC 2173, over a century before the Great War Against Chaos, to wreak vengeance on Aenarion's heirs, Teclis and Tyrion included. Bill King had, in their vaunted and oft reprinted introduction in White Dwarf 156, referred to the twins 'youths' at the time of the Great War Against Chaos and here they're described as 'scarcely beyond childhood by the exacting standards of Elves'. King has since stated that it was his original intention for the twins to have been very young and untested heroes at the Battle of Finuval plain, but hey, shared authorship and who knows how elves age. Opening as a great black storm wracks Ulthuan, and as elves are slain by fallen masonry and lightning bolts, the great waystone atop Mount Antorec, with a cloud of Chaos Furies, followed by N'kari himself clawing their way out of the wound rent in reality. N'kari siphons the magical essence of the Storm to both gorge himself on, and summon a host of daemons to do his bidding. His first target is the nearby provincial holding of Tor Annan, Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers making a quick mess of the defenders, and all but Eanith, the local lord and his household guard not fleeing in disarray. N'kari easily snaps the elf lord's sword and devours the Eanith's still beating heart before his dying eyes as the town is left a bloody ruin. From there N'kari and his army use the tides of magical energy present on Ulthuan to cross the continent, laying siege to Tor Yvresse, with the fortresses defenders able to hold the daemons at bay with aid from neighbouring Cothique and Hoeth, N'kari withdrawing his forces at the battle's height and retreating to the Annulii Mountians. Over the next month, N'kari develops a pattern of attacking outposts across Ulthuan in Averlon, the Dragonspine Mountains and beyond, suddenly abandoning each battle almost at random, often when about to achieve a crushing victory. Finubar orders his seers to meditate on the greater daemon's motivation, eventually realising it to be the same Keeper of Secrets who had lead Ulthuan's invasion 6,000 years prior, believing it to be reborn a being of pure vengeance, consumed by the need to enact terrible revenge on the descendants of Aenarion; the seemingly random nature of his attacks actually being precision strikes against members of Aenarion's bloodline, allowing his targets to be spirited away to be eternally tormented by Slaanesh while the towns and fortresses of their residence are under attack. Many of Aenarion's line have fallen from status over the years, allowing the true nature of N'kari's attacks to have gone unnoticed, for what's one vanished and otherwise unremarkable elf on a battlefield of hundreds slain? Finubar's seers determine that the majority of Aenarion's known descendants are accounted for, either having already fallen victim to N'kari, or not currently on Ulthuan. The only two heirs remaining on the island continent are a very young Tyrion and Teclis, described as twin princes, respectively a warrior born, and weak of body but adept at magic. Mentioned for the first time here is the twins hailing from the woodlands of Cothique, a quotidian outer kingdom in northern Ulthuan (it ain't exactly Chrace or Saphery), made reference to in many of their subsequent appearances. A significant unmentioned oversight here is the presence or lack thereof of the Everqueen, who also carries the blood of Aenarion, being descended from an unbroken line of firstborn daughters, dating back to Yvraine, child of Aenarion and the first Everqueen Astarille. While she can easily be No Prized as having been overseas at the time, the Everqueen seems like too significant a descendant of Aenarion not to get at least a passing mention. Teclis and Tyrion are hurriedly summoned from Cothique and taken to the Shrine of Asuryan, where an army of Ulthuan's finest is waiting to protect them. Quite why the normally fractious High Elves would go to such lengths to protect two (then) relatively inconsequential juvenile nobles isn't made clear. Within a day of Shadow Warriors initial reports of daemons within the Eataine mountains, N'kari is in sight of the Shrine, sending intoxicating visions to the elven defenders, causing many to throw themselves from the battlements, or march blindly forward to be torn apart by waiting daemons. Lords of Change under N'kari (implying this is a pretty impressive daemonic horde) throw spells around, as Furies and Nurglings do... whatever Furies and Nurglings do, and Daemonettes and Plaguebearers battle against valiant Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters of Hoeth in hand to hand. As hard as the elves fight, the Shrine's gate is eventually breached by a Beast of Nurgle, that proceeds to tie up the Captain of the Phoenix Guard in combat as Bloodletters burst through. Within the shrine, elves desperately fight back to back, as the cleansing power of Asuryn's flame weakens and banishes many daemons. N'kari however, isn't phased, and climbs the Stair of Eternity to the Shrine's inner sanctum. At the centre of the Shrine, only a thin line of Phoenix Guard stand between N'kari and the twins, quickly dismembered and incinerated by the greater daemon's claws and spells. Watching the last Phoenix Guard fall, Tyrion realises it's up to him, mouths a quick prayer to Asuryan and charges in. Despite Tyrion being faster, it's a one sided fight, with N'kari parrying every blow against him with ease, and revelling in taunting Tyrion. Fully engaged with Tyrion, N'kari fails to notice Teclis summoning a bolt of 'all the sorcerous fire he could muster' which blasts the greater daemon off its feet. Tumbling an catching an arm in the Flame of Asuryan itself, N'kari's entire body to blackens and crackles, giving Tyrion the opportunity he needed to wail on the Keeper, his sword taking up Asuryan's flame, and each new cut opening up fresh wounds. Overwhelmed by agony, there's little N'kari can do but scream a lot and stagger back from Tyrion, eventually being driven through the Shrine's great arch overlooking the Sea of Dreams, and plummeting into the ocean thousands of feet bellow. N'kari's strength no longer holding them together, the daemonic army's hold on reality quickly dissipates in the presence of the holy energies of the Asuryan. As the elves celebrate their victory and mourn their losses, Teclis and Tyrion are silent, knowing that their destiny has been forever altered, and that one day they will both have to face N'kari again. Given N'kari's prominence in not only the army book, but also Warhammer and 40k's histories (he boarded the Vengeful Spirit and fought the Emperor with Horus, read all about it here), it stands out that he didn't receive rules as a special character in Daemons of Chaos' original army book and Codex - especially when Slaanesh was the only Chaos God to not receive a greater daemon special character in those books. Maybe he wasn't deemed significantly different enough from the baseline version in the way Skarbrand or Kairos Fateweaver are, but by contrast is Teclis really anything more than a much more powerful High Elf mage with a fancy backstory? Every subsequent daemon or Slaanesh release N'kari fails to be a part of feels like a missed opportunity, and I'd love see what he was getting up to under Slaanesh's absence during AoS; but hey, we got Shalaxi Helbane I guess. Give it up for Shalaxi Helbane everybody! Late 2009 would mark the release of a third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, licensed by Games Workshop to Fantasy Flight Games. Universally reviled by fans of the two previous editions for its seemingly dumbed down card based mechanics, and feeling too heroic for a system who's previously most popular class had been a Rat Catcher, WFRP 3rd ed nonetheless contained some fairly solid background. Tome of Mysteries, one of the four rulebooks included in the game's Core Set at launch focused on magic from an Imperial perspective, and frequently made use of the term 'Teclisian' when describing laws, theory and technique taught to humanity by Teclis; as well as including several extracts on the various lores of magic from an in universe book written by Teclis titled The Founding of the Eight Orders. Not pictured: Twister™ mat included with book Warhammer's 8th edition came out in September 2010, and despite the High Elves facing off against Skaven perhaps the strangest starter box matchup ever put out, GW were content to keep the release of the edition's army books slow, with High Elves not seeing a new one for two and a bit years. Summer 2011 saw Warhammer: Storm of Magic, a supplement for with additional rules for fighting special battles in borderline apocalyptic conditions as the Winds of Magic wracked the battlefield. Failing to make much of an impact, Storm of Magic was dismissed by background aficionados as an outlandish cashgrab inconsistent with what had come before, and largely ignored by the playerbase due to the host of new options introduced being restricted to use in fixed 'Storm of Magic' games. These included special arcane scenery, bound monsters, cataclysm spells, and the option to form 'Sorcerous Pacts' allowing for an allied contingent of undead or daemons to be included in any army fighting in a Storm of Magic game. Which would lead to... ...this; featured in an article in White Dwarf 380 highlighting players' ability to do exactly that. While a baffling choice, Teclis teamed up with a Bloodthirster is obviously intended as an example of what players could do writing army lists for Storm of Magic games, and probably shouldn't be taken as canon by anyone's standards, but I thought it was a funny enough footnote to include. A snapshot of what most people would look back on as Warhammer and Games Workshop's 'Dark Age', the issue also featured another example of a Sorcerous Pact where Tancred of Quenelles (the Bretonnian character with a mad-on for undead) had allied with the Red Duke, and a battle report where Balthasar Gelt a had summoned a small contingent of Khorne and Tzeentch daemons to help the Empire fight Vampire Counts on the Sylvannian border. I hope you've enjoyed this instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If Teclis throwing his lot in with the servants of Khorne seems bleak (if only for the purpose of an article on army lists), then fear not, as Part 7 sees Bill King's triumphant return to the character, with Blood of Aenarion, the first in a trilogy of novels centred on Teclis and Tyrion's adventures leading up to the Battle of Finuval Plain. If you've got any feedback, feel I made any mistakes, or think I was just too plain harsh on Storm of Magic, feel free to get in touch. Until next time, thanks for reading!View the full article

In Part 5 of my series exploring the aelven god of magic's prior existence, Teclis' founding of the Empire's Colleges of Magic is expanded on in a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and he makes a cameo in another global narrative campaign. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or WFRP to aficionados is Games Workshop's cult Warhammer World set roleplaying game, which having previously been licensed out to various publishers in relative obscurity for over a decade was relaunched to great fanfare with a brand new edition in March 2005, by Black Industries, a short lived subsidiary of Games Workshop's Black Library. WFRP's 2nd edition was distinctly set in a post Storm of Chaos Warhammer World, with the modern version of the setting explored through it in more detail than ever before. Realms of Sorcery, the game's appropriately titled magic supplement was released the following November, and included an expanded history of the founding of the Colleges of Magic, also detailing Teclis' part in the Great War Against Chaos. On traveling from Ulthuan to the Old World with Magnus the Pious' ambassador Pieter Lazlo on the ship Sigmar's Hope (known to its crew a the Folorn Hope), Teclis, Yrtle and Finreir are taken to Talabheim, where Magnus is gathering troops to his cause. Immediately establishing himself as a font of sage advice, Teclis explains to a sceptical Magnus that the men of the Empire need to be taught to wield magic with skill and safety in order to be able to combat the Aethyric horrors they'll be facing in the north. Magnus is convinced by Teclis, and requests the three Loremasters promise to destroy any human students showing even the slightest hint of Chaotic corruption. Teclis replies in a chilling tone that any tainted creature going near him or his colleagues would be obliterated beyond human understanding. Authorised by Magnus, and with begrudging support from the rest of the Empire, Teclis and his fellow mages, through magical and mundane means put the word out across the Empire of amnesty, pardons and training offered to any and all hedge wizards and petty magicians able to answer the call. Teclis politely opts to leave alone the clergy of the Empire's various faiths, able to channel magic into what they call prayers and miracles bestowed upon them by their gods (much to Yrtle and Finreir's amusement) - later on in the book a quote ascribed to a lecture given by Teclis to human students details Teclis' discrete, nonetheless dismissive view of the prayers of human priests being subconsciously channelled spells by priests who didn't realise they were Aethyrically sensitive, in line with Warhammer's approach at the time to gods and daemons being subconscious reflections of sentient races collective psyche. Many of the human magic users making their way to Talabheim already show signs of corruption, handing themselves over to Magnus and the elves authority as a desperate last hope, and only meeting swift annihilation at the hands of Teclis and his fellow mages. As the elves begin to instruct their new students in the ways of spellcraft, many of the Empire's templar orders, particularly the infamous Witch Hunters look on in horror, but are powerless to do anything, the elves having received Magnus and the Grand Theogonist's blessing. The three elf mages teach their assembled human pupils relatively simple offensive spells in the form of fireballs, lightning bolts and loud noises, as well as healing magic to aid the wounded. Teclis' two standout students are Volans, who would go on to become the first Patriarch of the Light College and overall Supreme Patriarch; and Friedrich von Tarnus, the warrior mage previously established as having crafted the Silver Seal for Magnus, and his own Armour of Tarnus, here expanded upon as the shamed former commander of the Carroburg Greatswords, and future first Patriarch of the Bright College. At the forefront of the Empire's armies in the coming battles, the newly trained human wizards and the elf mages themselves show a willingness to spill their own blood defending the Old World from Chaos, Yrtle himself being beheaded in battle by 'some clawed fiend of Chaos' as he incinerated it with magical fire, and being buried in Ostermark with full honours. The forces of Chaos thoroughly beaten back to the Northern Wastes, Magnus and the new human Magisters are heralded as the saviours of the Empire, and on ascending to the office of Emperor, Magnus asks Teclis and Finreir for their assistance setting up an institution where Imperial citizens can be properly trained in the now invaluable battlefield art of spellcraft. Consistent with his White Dwarf 156 characterisation, Finreir is resistant, with Teclis agreeing with Magnus and arguing that the safety of the Old World, and in the long run Ulthuan lay with the the Empire, as the most populated and powerful nation on the continent. After much private debate Finreir relents, and in the summer of IC 2304 Magnus announces that Aldorf would house the nascent Orders of Magic (Aldorf, though usually thought of as the Empire's capital was not at the time, with Magnus' seat of power residing in his home city of Nuln - chosen for good reason should something go wrong and Magnus wish to distance himself). Riots erupt on Altdorf's streets, and are only put down by martial law as Teclis and Finreir alter the fabric of the city's reality to accommodate the new College buildings, rendering it permanently unmappable, with locals forever more forced to rely on landmarks rather than any conventional means of urban navigation. The buildings of the eight Colleges being erected by Teclis and Finreir or the Empire's human citizenry is unclear, and while I won't detail them here, all are ostentatiously prenatural by Warhammer's potato sack low fantasy standards, and at first glance might (appropriately) feel more at home in the Mortal Realms. September 2006 saw the 7th edition of Warhammer hit shelves. The only noteworthy piece of Teclis content in the game's hardback rulebook would be the above photo of a High Elf army, with Teclis' original Jes Goodwin model used to represent him (having previously turned up in White Dwarf articles simply credited as 'Mage'). This would be a publication quirk and not a new precedent though, with Gary Morley's 6th edition model continuing to represent Teclis for the foreseeable future. Teclis would play a very minor part in The Nemesis Crown, summer 2007's (significantly lower key than the previous Storm of Chaos) global campaign, involving the Warhammer World's various factions slugging it out across the Empire's Forests in order to track down the titular magical crown, hewn from warpstone in order to contain the power of the almighty Rune of Ages by the Runelord Alaric the Mad thousands or years prior, a source of great shame to the Dwarfs, and thought lost until now. The High Elves' agenda in the campaign was to secure the Nemesis Crown to use as a bargaining chip with the Dwarfs in order to negotiate the return of their own Phoenix Crown, taken by the Dwarfs as a trophy at the end of the War of Vengeance, with Finubar dispatching Teclis to patrol the Sea of Claws and stave off Dark Elf and Chaos invaders (apparently on account of him being so well travelled). The High Elves did not discover the location of the Nemesis Crown, with the Dwarfs winning the campaign and claiming it unassisted, placing it under lock and key in Karaz-a-Karak. If you were worried I'd forgotten about Lileath watch, then don't be, as the following September's ecclesiastic WFRP supplement Tome of Salvation would see her named Lileath the Maiden, Goddess of Dreams and Fortune for the first time outside of Warhammer 40,000, as well as describing her as prayed to for clarity, prophecy and foresight, and worshipped as part of a triumvirate alongside Isha and Morai-heg. If your name isn't Bretonnia, new editions usually herald a new army book, and the High Elves' would drop in November 2007, with the background section consisting of mostly recycled content from the original 1993 Warhammer Armies: High Elves, and you guessed it... Bill King's White Dwarf 156 article introducing Teclis and Tyrion. Reprinted with a twist this time, King's story received a few minor editorial tweaks, to reflect the subsequently established Dark Elf background, with instances of the Dark Elves worshipping Slaanesh and Chaos replaced with overall more ambiguous depravity. Along with the rest of the High Elves, Teclis' 7th ed rules were far more conventional than his 6th, with Sariour, Charoi and the Curse of Aenarion jettisoned entirely; and the conventional ineffective combat statline of a wizard - with the bonus demerit of Strength and Toughness 2, to reflect that he was/apparently still is pretty feeble, I guess...? Warhammer's players stigma against special characters being fielded in pickup tournament games was starting to thaw with 7th edition, and with Teclis' High Loremaster special rule and the War Crown of Saphery taking all the usual randomness out of spell generation and the magic phase, he was a regular source of of groans and mumbled 'beardies' from anyone unfortunate enough to be on the opposite side of the table. Included on Teclis' rules page is an informative bit colour text about Lileath, who is described as the eternally young daughter of Isha, with the Moon Staff apparently once bestowed as one of three gifts by Lileath to the elves of ancient past, with the universal vision granting Star Crown, and cleansing Amulet of Sunfire having been lost to history. The most significant development for Teclis and Tyrion in 7th edition's High Elf army book is a timeline snippet dating to the 10th year of Finubar's reign (IC 2173), 128 years before the Battle of Finuval Plain, detailing N'kari running amok across Ulthuan, in an attempt to eliminate the descendants of Aenarion, before being eventually put down in a climatic battle at the Shrine of Asuryan, with survivors telling of the bravery of a pair of young elf twins. This would be expanded upon in great detail in Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released the following year, and the subject of my next post. I hope you've enjoyed what has been a comparatively mundane instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If you're concerned that the rest of the series will be this humdrum, then please don't fret. Part 6 sees Teclis and Tyrion receive the aforementioned brand new origin story, predating their earliest adventures. If you have any feedback about this or previous instalments in the series, or have spotted something I've got wrong or omitted then please contact me. View the full article

In Part 5 of my series exploring the aelven god of magic's prior existence, Teclis' founding of the Empire's Colleges of Magic is expanded on in a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and he makes a cameo in another global narrative campaign. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or WFRP to aficionados is Games Workshop's cult Warhammer World set roleplaying game, which having previously been licensed out to various publishers in relative obscurity for over a decade was relaunched to great fanfare with a brand new edition in March 2005, by Black Industries, a short lived subsidiary of Games Workshop's Black Library. WFRP's 2nd edition was distinctly set in a post Storm of Chaos Warhammer World, with the modern version of the setting explored through it in more detail than ever before. Realms of Sorcery, the game's appropriately titled magic supplement was released the following November, and included an expanded history of the founding of the Colleges of Magic, also detailing Teclis' part in the Great War Against Chaos. On traveling from Ulthuan to the Old World with Magnus the Pious' ambassador Pieter Lazlo on the ship Sigmar's Hope (known to its crew a the Folorn Hope), Teclis, Yrtle and Finreir are taken to Talabheim, where Magnus is gathering troops to his cause. Immediately establishing himself as a font of sage advice, Teclis explains to a sceptical Magnus that the men of the Empire need to be taught to wield magic with skill and safety in order to be able to combat the Aethyric horrors they'll be facing in the north. Magnus is convinced by Teclis, and requests the three Loremasters promise to destroy any human students showing even the slightest hint of Chaotic corruption. Teclis replies in a chilling tone that any tainted creature going near him or his colleagues would be obliterated beyond human understanding. Authorised by Magnus, and with begrudging support from the rest of the Empire, Teclis and his fellow mages, through magical and mundane means put the word out across the Empire of amnesty, pardons and training offered to any and all hedge wizards and petty magicians able to answer the call. Teclis politely opts to leave alone the clergy of the Empire's various faiths, able to channel magic into what they call prayers and miracles bestowed upon them by their gods (much to Yrtle and Finreir's amusement) - later on in the book a quote ascribed to a lecture given by Teclis to human students details Teclis' discrete, nonetheless dismissive view of the prayers of human priests being subconsciously channelled spells by priests who didn't realise they were Aethyrically sensitive, in line with Warhammer's approach at the time to gods and daemons being subconscious reflections of sentient races collective psyche. Many of the human magic users making their way to Talabheim already show signs of corruption, handing themselves over to Magnus and the elves authority as a desperate last hope, and only meeting swift annihilation at the hands of Teclis and his fellow mages. As the elves begin to instruct their new students in the ways of spellcraft, many of the Empire's templar orders, particularly the infamous Witch Hunters look on in horror, but are powerless to do anything, the elves having received Magnus and the Grand Theogonist's blessing. The three elf mages teach their assembled human pupils relatively simple offensive spells in the form of fireballs, lightning bolts and loud noises, as well as healing magic to aid the wounded. Teclis' two standout students are Volans, who would go on to become the first Patriarch of the Light College and overall Supreme Patriarch; and Friedrich von Tarnus, the warrior mage previously established as having crafted the Silver Seal for Magnus, and his own Armour of Tarnus, here expanded upon as the shamed former commander of the Carroburg Greatswords, and future first Patriarch of the Bright College. At the forefront of the Empire's armies in the coming battles, the newly trained human wizards and the elf mages themselves show a willingness to spill their own blood defending the Old World from Chaos, Yrtle himself being beheaded in battle by 'some clawed fiend of Chaos' as he incinerated it with magical fire, and being buried in Ostermark with full honours. The forces of Chaos thoroughly beaten back to the Northern Wastes, Magnus and the new human Magisters are heralded as the saviours of the Empire, and on ascending to the office of Emperor, Magnus asks Teclis and Finreir for their assistance setting up an institution where Imperial citizens can be properly trained in the now invaluable battlefield art of spellcraft. Consistent with his White Dwarf 156 characterisation, Finreir is resistant, with Teclis agreeing with Magnus and arguing that the safety of the Old World, and in the long run Ulthuan lay with the the Empire, as the most populated and powerful nation on the continent. After much private debate Finreir relents, and in the summer of IC 2304 Magnus announces that Aldorf would house the nascent Orders of Magic (Aldorf, though usually thought of as the Empire's capital was not at the time, with Magnus' seat of power residing in his home city of Nuln - chosen for good reason should something go wrong and Magnus wish to distance himself). Riots erupt on Altdorf's streets, and are only put down by martial law as Teclis and Finreir alter the fabric of the city's reality to accommodate the new College buildings, rendering it permanently unmappable, with locals forever more forced to rely on landmarks rather than any conventional means of urban navigation. The buildings of the eight Colleges being erected by Teclis and Finreir or the Empire's human citizenry is unclear, and while I won't detail them here, all are ostentatiously prenatural by Warhammer's potato sack low fantasy standards, and at first glance might (appropriately) feel more at home in the Mortal Realms. September 2006 saw the 7th edition of Warhammer hit shelves. The only noteworthy piece of Teclis content in the game's hardback rulebook would be the above photo of a High Elf army, with Teclis' original Jes Goodwin model used to represent him (having previously turned up in White Dwarf articles simply credited as 'Mage'). This would be a publication quirk and not a new precedent though, with Gary Morley's 6th edition model continuing to represent Teclis for the foreseeable future. Teclis would play a very minor part in The Nemesis Crown, summer 2007's (significantly lower key than the previous Storm of Chaos) global campaign, involving the Warhammer World's various factions slugging it out across the Empire's Forests in order to track down the titular magical crown, hewn from warpstone in order to contain the power of the almighty Rune of Ages by the Runelord Alaric the Mad thousands or years prior, a source of great shame to the Dwarfs, and thought lost until now. The High Elves' agenda in the campaign was to secure the Nemesis Crown to use as a bargaining chip with the Dwarfs in order to negotiate the return of their own Phoenix Crown, taken by the Dwarfs as a trophy at the end of the War of Vengeance, with Finubar dispatching Teclis to patrol the Sea of Claws and stave off Dark Elf and Chaos invaders (apparently on account of him being so well travelled). The High Elves did not discover the location of the Nemesis Crown, with the Dwarfs winning the campaign and claiming it unassisted, placing it under lock and key in Karaz-a-Karak. If you were worried I'd forgotten about Lileath watch, then don't be, as the following September's ecclesiastic WFRP supplement Tome of Salvation would see her named Lileath the Maiden, Goddess of Dreams and Fortune for the first time outside of Warhammer 40,000, as well as describing her as prayed to for clarity, prophecy and foresight, and worshipped as part of a triumvirate alongside Isha and Morai-heg. If your name isn't Bretonnia, new editions usually herald a new army book, and the High Elves' would drop in November 2007, with the background section consisting of mostly recycled content from the original 1993 Warhammer Armies: High Elves, and you guessed it... Bill King's White Dwarf 156 article introducing Teclis and Tyrion. Reprinted with a twist this time, King's story received a few minor editorial tweaks, to reflect the subsequently established Dark Elf background, with instances of the Dark Elves worshipping Slaanesh and Chaos replaced with overall more ambiguous depravity. Along with the rest of the High Elves, Teclis' 7th ed rules were far more conventional than his 6th, with Sariour, Charoi and the Curse of Aenarion jettisoned entirely; and the conventional ineffective combat statline of a wizard - with the bonus demerit of Strength and Toughness 2, to reflect that he was/apparently still is pretty feeble, I guess...? Warhammer's players stigma against special characters being fielded in pickup tournament games was starting to thaw with 7th edition, and with Teclis' High Loremaster special rule and the War Crown of Saphery taking all the usual randomness out of spell generation and the magic phase, he was a regular source of of groans and mumbled 'beardies' from anyone unfortunate enough to be on the opposite side of the table. Included on Teclis' rules page is an informative bit colour text about Lileath, who is described as the eternally young daughter of Isha, with the Moon Staff apparently once bestowed as one of three gifts by Lileath to the elves of ancient past, with the universal vision granting Star Crown, and cleansing Amulet of Sunfire having been lost to history. The most significant development for Teclis and Tyrion in 7th edition's High Elf army book is a timeline snippet dating to the 10th year of Finubar's reign (IC 2173), 128 years before the Battle of Finuval Plain, detailing N'kari running amok across Ulthuan, in an attempt to eliminate the descendants of Aenarion, before being eventually put down in a climatic battle at the Shrine of Asuryan, with survivors telling of the bravery of a pair of young elf twins. This would be expanded upon in great detail in Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released the following year, and the subject of my next post. I hope you've enjoyed what has been a comparatively mundane instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If you're concerned that the rest of the series will be this humdrum, then please don't fret. Part 6 sees Teclis and Tyrion receive the aforementioned brand new origin story, predating their earliest adventures. If you have any feedback about this or previous instalments in the series, or have spotted something I've got wrong or omitted then please contact me.View the full article

DOGS OF WAR PLS

Obviously because Mannfred von Carstein had kidnapped the Everchild, the High Elves had travelled the world failing to get her back a bunch, and cut of from their allies were making a last ditch attempt to rescue her from the vampire's fell clutched before he could sacrifice her in a ritual to resurrect Nagash, sheesh. 🙄😉

Part 4 of my Great Canon series exploring Teclis' every appearance is up, this time covering what he got up to during the Storm of Chaos, as well as this adorable Warmaster model: https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/great-canon-teclis-part-4-storm-in.html Feedback welcome as always.

Continuing from our titular Loremaster's 6th ed revision in Part 3, Great Canon: Teclis ventures forth into the edition's ongoing narrative, building up to the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign and its aftermath, with Teclis gaining an unusual new miniature in the process. The most notable (fondly remembered) of the bold new directions pioneered by 6th edition Warhammer would be it's commitment to advancing the setting's previously pretty static timeline. From the decapitation of fan favourite Averland Elector Count Marius Leitdorf by an orc warlord in the pages of the edition's very first army book kicking off that this wasn't your dad's Warhammer with a bang, the game's designers at time (helmed by Gav Thorpe) were committed to pushing forward the history of the setting, with ongoing story threads carried across army books and White Dwarf articles. If you're interested in the stop/start/rewind nature, or history of Warhammer's timeline, then check out the article I've previously written covering it in detail here. Easily the most prominent of 6th edition's ongoing plots was the impending invasion of the Old World at the hands of Archaon, who had claimed the Crown of Domination, been anointed Everchosen and was ready to bring the Empire to it's knees; eventually climaxing with the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign in summer 2004. Not having received any status update's in the previous year's Warhammer Armies: High Elves, Teclis would join 6th ed's rolling plot in White Dwarf 280, released in April 2003, the same month Giantslayer hit shelves (though probably slightly earlier as White Dwarf had a habit of releasing in the penultimate week of the preceding month back then), in a narrative article titled The Conclave of Light, by Gav Thorpe. The Conclave of Light saw the Emperor Karl Franz, worried about the growing threat of Archaon to the north following Grand Theogonist Volkmar the Grim's death on a failed crusade to him, nipping a potential invasion in the bud, call a council of Elector Counts, mages and clergy in early IC 2522; eventually joined by ambassadors from the Dwarfs, Kislev and Marienburg, on exactly what to do in the face of the largest Chaos incursion since the Great War Against Chaos. The council rattles along unproductively for almost a month, with many concerned at Karl Franz's apparent inaction, until on the morning of the thirtieth day the Emperor summons the various attendees to the ramparts of his palace facing the river Reik, where the dawn mists part to reveal a single elven Hawkship, from which a solitary Teclis disembarks. The other parties in attendance are taken aback, not having known a message had even been sent by the Emperor to Ulthuan, and there are a few derisive snorts from the dwarfs present, as Karl Franz introduces Teclis, who proceeds to give a speech on how despite Ulthuan's current woes (owing to a coexisting narrative Teclis had no involvement in, featuring Malekith upping his invasion game), no race can hold back the tide of Chaos alone, and they must all stand united. Teclis gets a bit of an earful about wrongs remembered from Snarri Thungrimsson, the senior Dwarven ambassador present, before the dwarf agrees to put aside past wrongs, at least for the time being, and march to war at the side of the elves. Plans made, the High Elf fleets agree to patrol the Sea of Claws against Norse fleets, while the Old World prepares for war. Teclis would next appear during the Storm of Chaos proper, in its accompanying supplement Warhammer Armies: Storm of Chaos, released in June 2004. Since the Conclave of Light, most of the Storm of Chaos buildup had centred around Valten, a sort of messianic Fabio groomed as an adversary for Archaon who'd risen up from obscurity in the Empire, and may or may not be the reincarnation of Sigmar,. Valten's an interesting character, significant footnote in Warhammer's history, and dead cert for a future Great Canon, but this article's about Teclis, so I'll keep his coverage brief. A young blacksmith with a twin-tailed comet birthmark, Valten single-handedly fought off a horde of beastmen set on burning his home village down on his 18th birthday; attracted an army of fanatical followers, was taken to Altdorf and presented to Karl Franz, who he recived Ghal Maraz from, somehow ageing about 20 years in the process. The staging ground for the Storm of Chaos would be the fortress city of Middenheim, home to the cult of Ulric, the Empire's other warrior god, which Archaon intended to sack, corrupting and extinguishing the Flame of the Ulric, and bringing about the End Times. While Archaon's horde hacked its way through the northen Empire, Karl Franz and Valten would lead a united Imperial force to Middenheim by way of rendezvous with reinforcements in Talabheim. Over the course of a year or so Valten had received a planned progression of three miniatures, all sculpted by Alex Hedström. The glamorous one on the right comes about when encamped outside Talabheim, the Imperial army would is met by two small contingents, one of dwarfs, the other Teclis, at the head of 500 High Elves (both equally uncomfortable in the other's presence). Teclis then gifts Valten with a glistening elven steed named Althandin, the foal of Tyrion's steed Malhandir. Not to be outdone, the dwarfs present Valten with a suit of bespoke gromril armour commissioned for and never collected by Sigmar himself; and the dwarf and elf forces join with the human army and march on Middenheim. Before we get to Teclis' role in the Storm of Chaos's outcome, special attention's gotta be drawn to this 10mm Storm of Chaos tie-in model released at the time for Warmaster, Games Workshop's then Warhammer World set mass battle game (equivalent to 40k's Epic), alongside several other models representing prominent characters in the campaign. None of these models would receive unique rules, with accompanying Warmaster Magazine and website articles telling players to use them to represent their garden variety equivalents. While it may seem significant that Teclis' Warmaster model adheres more closely to the design of his original Jes Goodwin model than the 2002 Gary Morley resculpt, this is more likely coincidence than design, as there are several inconsistencies between the other Warmaster Storm of Chaos characters released and their appearances during the campaign (Tyrion got a model didn't even feature in the Storm of Chaos!). Running over summer 2004, the Storm of Chaos campaign itself took place across an impressively designed web page, where players could post victories in various territories on Archaon's route through the northern Empire to Middenheim, intended to merely delay, and not halt the Everchosen's advance, with excellently written news bulletins coming in from the front each week reflecting the results of the campaign. Unfortunately for GW's designs, the playerbase were on the whole pretty attached to Middenheim and the Empire, and didn't want to see either destroyed, with well coordinated placement of large amounts of results for the forces on the defence meaning Archaon's armies never made much of an inroad, and would never have 'officially' reached the walls of Middenheim, had the results conditions not been fudged in the last couple of weeks of the campaign to allow them to climatically do so. An overwhelming victory for the Empire and its allies, which as anyone even passingly familiar with Warhammer knows, doesn't come without a cost... Even though the global campaign had ended in autumn, we wouldn't see the conclusion of the Storm of Chaos until White Dwarf 301, in January the following year (because print lead ins and wow I'm old). An article called the Siege of Middenheim, by Gav Thorpe opens accounting for the mishaps of Archaons various lieutenants, most of whom never reach Middeheim, before getting to the siege proper. On the third day of the siege, Valten and his personal retinue of a few hundred devoted warriors are torn asunder by Hellcannon fire, Valten himself taking a direct fusillade, only being saved by his runic armour, and blasting apart his elven steed - Althandin we hardly knew ye. On the west of the battlefield Be'lakor (going through one of his Archaon-agreeable phases for the duration of the campaign), at the head of an innumerable daemonic legion has managed to isolate Karl Franz's army from Valten's massively outnumbered force, and is about to close in on the Emperor, when 300 Swordmasters of Hoeth cut their way through the daemons, Teclis at their centre. In one of his most impressive ever magical feats, Teclis drinks from a shining phial (a reference to Sariour?), and unleashes flames of white energy, in a half sphere around him, which expand outwards into the daemonic horde, nuking it in its entirety back into the Realm of Chaos (Be'lakor included), saving Karl Franz's life and allowing his army to rejoin the main fight. Valten proceeds to dual Archaon, getting cut up very badly in the process, only for the exhausted Everchosen to be humiliatingly smacked down by... Grimgor Ironhide, Orcs and Goblins having registered their results separately to the campaign's main players, and having performed much better than expected. Beating Archaon to his knees and inexplicably sparing him, Grimgor then departs the battlefield. Mannfred von Carstein then turns up late, and is politely told to go away by Volkmar (who had resurrected by Be'lakor, possibly to emasculate Archaon); Valten dies of injuries sustained on the battlefield and a bunch of skaven-inflicted stab wounds; and Teclis plays no further part in the story, presumably returning to Ulthuan. The Storm of Chaos leads into a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, set in an Empire reeling from the devastation inflicted, but is mostly pushed to one side from thereon, with the status quo largely restored, and the events of the campaign being paid lip service to for a few years, before being removed from the timeline entirely in later editions. Released in 2005, Darkness Rising: A complete history of the Storm of Chaos by Phil Kelly and Anthony Reynolds was one of several 'coffee table' books written from an in universe perspective released by the Black Library in the wake of the spectacular Liber Chaotica series. Recounting the Storm of Chaos in flush detail through the eyes of 'Old' Weirde of Altdorf, an Imperial scholar and historian previously established through the White Dwarf feature Olde Weirde's Incunabulum. Teclis not exactly having been the star of the Storm of Chaos, doesn't get much more of a showcase in Darkness rising than than we've already seen in the sources previously detailed in this post, but the book does add a few neat flourishes, in all eight patriarchs of the Colleges of Magic immediately kneeling on Teclis' arrival in Altdorf; Be'lakor realising what Teclis is doing and going straight for him as he casts his nuke spell; and Old Weirde's son Stefan not knowing where Hoeth is. The Warhammer World's annihilation at Archaon's hands fended off for a decade or so, be sure to come back in time for Part 5, where Teclis' origin and history are greatly expanded by new authors in very unexpected sources... As per, errors pointed out and feedback for this article always welcome! View the full article

Continuing from our titular Loremaster's 6th ed revision in Part 3, Great Canon: Teclis ventures forth into the edition's ongoing narrative, building up to the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign and its aftermath, with Teclis gaining an unusual new miniature in the process. The most notable (fondly remembered) of the bold new directions pioneered by 6th edition Warhammer would be it's commitment to advancing the setting's previously pretty static timeline. From the decapitation of fan favourite Averland Elector Count Marius Leitdorf by an orc warlord in the pages of the edition's very first army book kicking off that this wasn't your dad's Warhammer with a bang, the game's designers at time (helmed by Gav Thorpe) were committed to pushing forward the history of the setting, with ongoing story threads carried across army books and White Dwarf articles. If you're interested in the stop/start/rewind nature, or history of Warhammer's timeline, then check out the article I've previously written covering it in detail here. Easily the most prominent of 6th edition's ongoing plots was the impending invasion of the Old World at the hands of Archaon, who had claimed the Crown of Domination, been anointed Everchosen and was ready to bring the Empire to it's knees; eventually climaxing with the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign in summer 2004. Not having received any status update's in the previous year's Warhammer Armies: High Elves, Teclis would join 6th ed's rolling plot in White Dwarf 280, released in April 2003, the same month Giantslayer hit shelves (though probably slightly earlier as White Dwarf had a habit of releasing in the penultimate week of the preceding month back then), in a narrative article titled The Conclave of Light, by Gav Thorpe. The Conclave of Light saw the Emperor Karl Franz, worried about the growing threat of Archaon to the north following Grand Theogonist Volkmar the Grim's death on a failed crusade to him, nipping a potential invasion in the bud, call a council of Elector Counts, mages and clergy in early IC 2522; eventually joined by ambassadors from the Dwarfs, Kislev and Marienburg, on exactly what to do in the face of the largest Chaos incursion since the Great War Against Chaos. The council rattles along unproductively for almost a month, with many concerned at Karl Franz's apparent inaction, until on the morning of the thirtieth day the Emperor summons the various attendees to the ramparts of his palace facing the river Reik, where the dawn mists part to reveal a single elven Hawkship, from which a solitary Teclis disembarks. The other parties in attendance are taken aback, not having known a message had even been sent by the Emperor to Ulthuan, and there are a few derisive snorts from the dwarfs present, as Karl Franz introduces Teclis, who proceeds to give a speech on how despite Ulthuan's current woes (owing to a coexisting narrative Teclis had no involvement in, featuring Malekith upping his invasion game), no race can hold back the tide of Chaos alone, and they must all stand united. Teclis gets a bit of an earful about wrongs remembered from Snarri Thungrimsson, the senior Dwarven ambassador present, before the dwarf agrees to put aside past wrongs, at least for the time being, and march to war at the side of the elves. Plans made, the High Elf fleets agree to patrol the Sea of Claws against Norse fleets, while the Old World prepares for war. Teclis would next appear during the Storm of Chaos proper, in its accompanying supplement Warhammer Armies: Storm of Chaos, released in June 2004. Since the Conclave of Light, most of the Storm of Chaos buildup had centred around Valten, a sort of messianic Fabio groomed as an adversary for Archaon who'd risen up from obscurity in the Empire, and may or may not be the reincarnation of Sigmar,. Valten's an interesting character, significant footnote in Warhammer's history, and dead cert for a future Great Canon, but this article's about Teclis, so I'll keep his coverage brief. A young blacksmith with a twin-tailed comet birthmark, Valten single-handedly fought off a horde of beastmen set on burning his home village down on his 18th birthday; attracted an army of fanatical followers, was taken to Altdorf and presented to Karl Franz, who he recived Ghal Maraz from, somehow ageing about 20 years in the process. The staging ground for the Storm of Chaos would be the fortress city of Middenheim, home to the cult of Ulric, the Empire's other warrior god, which Archaon intended to sack, corrupting and extinguishing the Flame of the Ulric, and bringing about the End Times. While Archaon's horde hacked its way through the northen Empire, Karl Franz and Valten would lead a united Imperial force to Middenheim by way of rendezvous with reinforcements in Talabheim. Over the course of a year or so Valten had received a planned progression of three miniatures, all sculpted by Alex Hedström. The glamorous one on the right comes about when encamped outside Talabheim, the Imperial army would is met by two small contingents, one of dwarfs, the other Teclis, at the head of 500 High Elves (both equally uncomfortable in the other's presence). Teclis then gifts Valten with a glistening elven steed named Althandin, the foal of Tyrion's steed Malhandir. Not to be outdone, the dwarfs present Valten with a suit of bespoke gromril armour commissioned for and never collected by Sigmar himself; and the dwarf and elf forces join with the human army and march on Middenheim. Before we get to Teclis' role in the Storm of Chaos's outcome, special attention's gotta be drawn to this 10mm Storm of Chaos tie-in model released at the time for Warmaster, Games Workshop's then Warhammer World set mass battle game (equivalent to 40k's Epic), alongside several other models representing prominent characters in the campaign. None of these models would receive unique rules, with accompanying Warmaster Magazine and website articles telling players to use them to represent their garden variety equivalents. While it may seem significant that Teclis' Warmaster model adheres more closely to the design of his original Jes Goodwin model than the 2002 Gary Morley resculpt, this is more likely coincidence than design, as there are several inconsistencies between the other Warmaster Storm of Chaos characters released and their appearances during the campaign (Tyrion got a model didn't even feature in the Storm of Chaos!). Running over summer 2004, the Storm of Chaos campaign itself took place across an impressively designed web page, where players could post victories in various territories on Archaon's route through the northern Empire to Middenheim, intended to merely delay, and not halt the Everchosen's advance, with excellently written news bulletins coming in from the front each week reflecting the results of the campaign. Unfortunately for GW's designs, the playerbase were on the whole pretty attached to Middenheim and the Empire, and didn't want to see either destroyed, with well coordinated placement of large amounts of results for the forces on the defence meaning Archaon's armies never made much of an inroad, and would never have 'officially' reached the walls of Middenheim, had the results conditions not been fudged in the last couple of weeks of the campaign to allow them to climatically do so. An overwhelming victory for the Empire and its allies, which as anyone even passingly familiar with Warhammer knows, doesn't come without a cost... Even though the global campaign had ended in autumn, we wouldn't see the conclusion of the Storm of Chaos until White Dwarf 301, in January the following year (because print lead ins and wow I'm old). An article called the Siege of Middenheim, by Gav Thorpe opens accounting for the mishaps of Archaons various lieutenants, most of whom never reach Middeheim, before getting to the siege proper. On the third day of the siege, Valten and his personal retinue of a few hundred devoted warriors are torn asunder by Hellcannon fire, Valten himself taking a direct fusillade, only being saved by his runic armour, and blasting apart his elven steed - Althandin we hardly knew ye. On the west of the battlefield Be'lakor (going through one of his Archaon-agreeable phases for the duration of the campaign), at the head of an innumerable daemonic legion has managed to isolate Karl Franz's army from Valten's massively outnumbered force, and is about to close in on the Emperor, when 300 Swordmasters of Hoeth cut their way through the daemons, Teclis at their centre. In one of his most impressive ever magical feats, Teclis drinks from a shining phial (a reference to Sariour?), and unleashes flames of white energy, in a half sphere around him, which expand outwards into the daemonic horde, nuking it in its entirety back into the Realm of Chaos (Be'lakor included), saving Karl Franz's life and allowing his army to rejoin the main fight. Valten proceeds to dual Archaon, getting cut up very badly in the process, only for the exhausted Everchosen to be humiliatingly smacked down by... Grimgor Ironhide, Orcs and Goblins having registered their results separately to the campaign's main players, and having performed much better than expected. Beating Archaon to his knees and inexplicably sparing him, Grimgor then departs the battlefield. Mannfred von Carstein then turns up late, and is politely told to go away by Volkmar (who had resurrected by Be'lakor, possibly to emasculate Archaon); Valten dies of injuries sustained on the battlefield and a bunch of skaven-inflicted stab wounds; and Teclis plays no further part in the story, presumably returning to Ulthuan. The Storm of Chaos leads into a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, set in an Empire reeling from the devastation inflicted, but is mostly pushed to one side from thereon, with the status quo largely restored, and the events of the campaign being paid lip service to for a few years, before being removed from the timeline entirely in later editions. Released in 2005, Darkness Rising: A complete history of the Storm of Chaos by Phil Kelly and Anthony Reynolds was one of several 'coffee table' books written from an in universe perspective released by the Black Library in the wake of the spectacular Liber Chaotica series. Recounting the Storm of Chaos in flush detail through the eyes of 'Old' Weirde of Altdorf, an Imperial scholar and historian previously established through the White Dwarf feature Olde Weirde's Incunabulum. Teclis not exactly having been the star of the Storm of Chaos, doesn't get much more of a showcase in Darkness rising than than we've already seen in the sources previously detailed in this post, but the book does add a few neat flourishes, in all eight patriarchs of the Colleges of Magic immediately kneeling on Teclis' arrival in Altdorf; Be'lakor realising what Teclis is doing and going straight for him as he casts his nuke spell; and Old Weirde's son Stefan not knowing where Hoeth is. The Warhammer World's annihilation at Archaon's hands fended off for a decade or so, head on over to Part 5, where Teclis' origin and history are greatly expanded by new authors in via couple of unexpected sources... As per, errors pointed out and feedback for this article always welcome!View the full article

If you enjoyed the first two, the next part of my Great Canon series exploring Teclis' full tabletop and publication history is up, covering 6th edition and his first Black Library appearance in Giantslayer: https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/great-canon-teclis-part-3-mage-trios.html Feedback as always welcome. Edit: @PiotrW, I've just seen your post and realised that the first couple of articles in my series give a pretty solid basic overview of 1/3 of what you're asking for in Teclis, with more to come on his involvement in the End Times, and AoS appearances to date coming in future installments: https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/01/great-canon-teclis-part-1-origins-1992.html?m=1

Foundations laid in Part 1 and Part 2, Great Cannon: Teclis continues, as the High Loremaster's life gets colourful, with a controversial new model, overhauled rules, his first Black Library novel appearance, a starring role in the Storm of Chaos global campaign narrative, and even a 10mm Warmaster miniature. 6th edition Warhammer launched in 2000, and would give both the setting and game the most cohesive direction they'd ever seen, pioneered by Tuomas Pirinen, and continued the stewardship of Gav Thorpe. The artwork got moodier and more atmospheric, the background gloomier and more grounded, with a real sense of a world holding out on a knife-edge against its inevitable doom, and the game became more focused on armies of rank and file troops than the derided herohammer of previous editions; largely in line with what had proved successful for Warhammer 40,000 at the time. A lot of the game's wackier units and concepts, like the Empire War Wagon and Forest Goblin Spider Riders were jettisoned entirely. Looking back it was very much moody teenage Warhammer, which as an moody teenager at the time, I easily thought was the best thing Games Workshop had ever done. Photo taken from limited-edition-warhammer.blogspot.com Before we get to the 6th edition High Elf army book, and the light revamp that awaited Teclis inside, it's work quickly mentioning his this 5" tall resin collectors model of him, released by a nascent Forge World in 2001. In Forge World's dim and distant past preceding their current incarnation as Space Marine and Space Marine accessory specialists, and even the years they spent flogging super heavy vehicles and titans, they were once a fledgling branch of Games Workshop exclusively producing Imperial Guard tank turrets and, collectors busts and oversized display models of Warhammer and 40k characters. Their version of Teclis was sculpted by Simon Egan, and you can find out more about it and view better photos over on Limited Edition Warhammer Models. Released in 2002, the third Warhammer Armies: High Elves, is easily the most elegant publication Ulthuan's ever headlined, with, owing to 6th ed's trademark combination of style and substance, with beautiful new art seamlessly merging with the layout, and background written from an in universe perspective. Benefiting its new direction, 6th ed would pioneer a lot of bold changes, many of which would become staples, while others would be less well received and dialled back or forgotten about in subsequent editions - most of the work done with the High Elves falling into the latter category. Thankfully I'm not here to talk about Intrigue at Court, and Eltharion's the planned subject of my next Great Canon - beyond a new model and some novel rules, not a whole bunch changed about Teclis, who once again saw his and Tyrion's introductory story from White Dwarf 156 reproduced within the army book's pages. Like many returning characters in 6th edition, Teclis was treated to a new look and miniature, courtesy of Gary Morley, and would also grace the cover of the army book in his redesigned duds, in a piece by Geoff Taylor. Gary Morley's a sculptor who picks up a lot of slack, largely owing to some of the earliest Undead sculpts he did for Games workshop in the mid 90s, and the seemingly at random gulfs of quality between the models he put out; in my opinion he gets a bad rap, and he's probably my personal overall favourite Games Workshop sculptor of all time (I mean he sculpted the entire 3rd edition Blood Bowl range!). Teclis' 2002 mini is a very competent sculpt, but is might as well be George Lazenby when put up against the iconic impact of the original that preceded it. The vibe of 6th ed's High Elf rules can be summed up as quirky by no demand, and Teclis' were no exception - with his dependence on potions (made redundant by his use of the staff of Lileath, according to his White Dwarf 156 backstory, reprinted a few pages prior...), and Elric influence brought to the fore, with the first and last named appearances of Sariour and Charoi, a pair of medicinal libations, which on swigging would respectively focus Teclis towards magic or melee. As well as the above inspirations, being able to switch up Teclis' battlefield role could also have been a result of the changes made to wizards' profiles in 6th edition; in 4th and 5th lord level wizards came with pretty meaty combat profiles (though nowhere near that of a melee lord), but in 6th most of them were curbed to the stats of a rank and file trooper with a couple of extra wounds (and a point of toughness if they were lucky) - perhaps the two potions offered a solution to allow Teclis to maintain his previous melee prowess when combined with his powerful sword, but also be kept in line with other wizards at the time? Teclis' (and Tyrion's) rules also gave us the first insight into the effects of the indeterminate Curse of Aenarion, in a special rule of the same name that... bestowed a 2+ ward against their last wound suffered - damn, the elf gods dole it out harsh! The four magic items from previous editions carried over, their rules working differently than previous in line with 6th's revised mechanics, but all doing more or less the same thing, and combined with Teclis' High Loremaster and Channeller special rules, solidified him as hands down the best wizard in the game (at least until Lord Kroak turned up). In Lileath news, Lileath, according to the description of the Moon Staff, is also apparently the goddess of the moon, which makes perfect sense given the regalia adorning both Teclis and the staff. Tangential, but too way too good not to pass up reproducing here, the 6th ed High Elf book also included this Karl Kopinski piece of Aenarion facing down the Keeper of Secrets from his fated battle to secure the creation of the Great Vortex (later named as having been N'kari), which as well as being maybe one of the best artworks GW have ever put out, is also hows us what N'kari looks like (if retroactively), which is neat. April 2003 would see Teclis make his first appearance in a Black Library novel in a supporting role in Giantslayer, Bill King's final Gotrek and Felix book. In future instalments of Great Canon, I'm not likely to give too much coverage to characters' Black Library appearances, as they are intended to be supplementary to the established background, as presented in mainline GW publications, and often unintentionally contradict it; but as Giantslayer and Teclis' subsequent trilogy of staring novels (shared with Tyrion), are authored not only by not only his original creator, but also the definitive and, in my opinion greatest all time Warhammer writer, they're A-canon in my eyes. King's most illustrious (and most commonly associated with him) creations, Gotrek and Felix first showed up in 1989 in Geheimnisnacht, a pre Black Library short story the anthology Ignorant Armies, and from there would go on to star in fiction featured in anthologies, White Dwarf, and army books under King, and eventually headlining their own series of novels when the Black Library launched in 1999, beginning with Trollslayer. For reasons unknown, Giantslayer, the seventh novel in the series would be King's last, and his penultimate work staring the characters. King's departure felt pretty abrupt, and Giantslayer didn't read remotely like a climax to the stories he'd developed around the pair, just another rambunctious and very absorbing adventure. King's Gotrek and Felix novels take place some time between Imperial Calendar 2502 and 2505, in what at the time of the duo's first appearance was Warhammer's 'present day', placing them roughly 200 years after Teclis and Tyrion's rise to prominence during the Great War Against Chaos. Giantslayer is a very good novel, though is perhaps ignominiously best remembered for its opening scene, in which Teclis wakes up from a prophetic nightmare in the bedroom of his mansion, in the arms of a pair of twin elf courtesans, one of whom on disturbing he proceeds to magically roofy. In Teclis' dream, after witnessing a scene of Ulthuan sinking into the sea, he's warned by the spirit of Caledor Dragontamer that something called the Paths of the Old Ones have opened, and that Caledor and his fellow vortex-trapped mages are struggling to hold back the ensuring waves of magic weakening the barrier between reality and the Realm of Chaos. Caledor tells Teclis to seek out the Oracle of the Truthsayers, the drudaic leaders of the human tribes of Albion, an infrequently featured island off the coast of the Old World roughly analogous to Celtic Britain, and close the ancient pathways before they can further imperil the world. Named as such and greatly expand upon in Giantslayer, the Paths of the Old Ones, are the network of smaller interdimensional gates introduced by King in the 4th ed High Elf army book, that Caledor's creation of the Great Vortex was intended to shut down. Here they offer 'safe' pathways through the Realm of Chaos, allowing for near instantiations travel from one side of the Warhammer World to another, operating in a manner conveniently similar to Warhammer 40,000's Webway; and though more likely through accident than design, feeling like the foundation for Age of Sigmar's Realmgates, a connection I'd be eager explore in a future blog post. Teclis muses on the growing tide of Chaos and anarchy in the world, including the recent siege of Prague featured in preceding Gotrek and Felix books, and worries at the weakening of the magical waystones keeping Ulthuan afloat, tracing this to a growing concentration of Chaos energy in the far north, brought about by the weakening of the Great Vortex, and capable bringing about the apocalypse narrowly avoided under Caledor and Aenarion. After a quick exchange with Tyrion, shown here as effortlessly suave, capable and everything Teclis isn't - provoking the smallest hint of jealousy; Teclis then takes an uncomfortable griffon flight across Ulthuan, where he muses on his feeling of separation from other elves, and even going on to ask himself if they should be superseded by the younger races. Eventually landing at a remote site in the mountains, Teclis is confronted by stone gates forbidding any elf to enter on pain of death, which he immediately proceeds to ignore, easily dispelling the wards and heading inside. Finding himself in a chamber of seemingly Lustrian design, where after mediating his way through more defensive wards, Teclis ends up on the Paths of the Old Ones, where on encountering and proceeding to battle his way through his way through a warband of Chaos Warriors and beastmen, apparently marching towards Albion, he eventually chances upon Gotrek and Felix, who have unwittingly stumbled down a similar entrance to the Paths of The Old Ones while on a misadventure in Sylvannia; and helps the duo battle a gigantic Chaos Spawn. It's fun seeing Teclis's take on Gotrek and Felix and vice-versa, with Teclis analytically fascinated by Gotrek and his axe, Gotrek bombastically distrustful and with a lot of scorn, and Felix taken aback on meeting what to him is a historical figure from the Empire's reunification 200 years prior. Truthsayers of Albion by Dave Gallagher From there, Teclis takes a considerably more backseat role, steering Gotrek and Felix on a whirlwind tour of Albion, giving the most expansive window into the out of the way island since the appropriately irreverent 1986 scenario pack The Tragedy of McDeath. Along the way they encounter and befriend several of Albion's natives, including the aged Truthsayer Murdo Mac Baldoch, who agrees to take them to the Oracle. On our heroes and a small band of Murdo's tribespeople eventually reaching and rescuing from orcs the Oracle of the Truthsayers, revealed to be an elderly blind woman, it is revealed that Kelmain Blackstaff and Lhoigor Goldenrod, powerful twin Tzeentchian sorcerers and recurring Gotrek and Felix villains, last seen masterminding the siege of Prague, have sized control of the Paths of the Old Ones' central nexus, and are using them to launch flash invasions all over the globe, unwittingly threatening the stability of the entire planet in the process. Journeying to the ancient temple-city in which the nexus is housed, Felix observes Teclis having struck up a potentially romantic relationship with Siobhain, captain of the Oracle's maiden-guard (no relation to Alarielle's), and catching looks from a lot of the tribeswomen travelling with them. This is a nice touch, inverting the almost obligatory female attention typically handed out to Felix and other King's other protagonists; showing that even an apparently unexceptionally handsome elf is the opposite to humans; and giving an interesting window into Teclis' character and sympathetic fascination with humans - why did Teclis choose to spend 20 years in Altdorf, and why did he take so much persuading to stay in Ulthuan on his return...? Getting to the temple-city Teclis, Gotrek, Felix and their native companions find themselves caught in a battle between Kelmain and Lhoigor's Chaos Warriors and beastmen, and a massive horde of orcs and goblins, sneaking their way to the central chamber with the aid of Teclis' magic, though not without a few fights along the way. During these skirmishes Teclis is shown enjoying combat with a bloodlust he speculates originates from the blood of Aenarion; and to be as graceful as any elf in battle, the effects of his various potions (and not the staff of Lileath?) rendering him with only a barely noticeable limp on his left side. He's also no slouch in hand to hand combat either, apparently dropping roughly a quarter as many foes as Gotrek (in line with the heroic 4th and 5th edition statlines King may have been more familiar with from his time at the design studio, or even his 6th ed stats under Charoi). Confronting the Lhoigor and Kelmain, Gotrek gets his title drop in, felling a colossal giant the pair have mutated and bound to their will, while Teclis finds himself surprised to be deadlocked in a magical dual with the Tzeentchian twins, observing a bond between them similar to his own with Tyrion, only much stronger. This is eventually brought to a halt when Gotrek minces Lhoigor, allowing Teclis to make short work of Kelmain. Realising the temple, and Paths of the Old Ones are about to collapse, Teclis sends Gotrek, Felix, Murdo and the surviving tribespeople down the Paths, and begins a ritual to seal off the nexus, cauterising the flow of corrupted energy into the world. On being told by the spirits of the nexus's mummified Slann guardians that he must give up his life and spirit to do so, Teclis unhesitatingly agrees, only for Murdo to conveniently reappear, having guided the others to safety through the Paths of the Old Ones, and to volunteer himself up in Teclis place, arguing he knows a lot more about the Paths of the Old Ones, and has a lot less years of life left in him. Teclis performs a particularly gory ritual (in keeping with everything we know about Slann) involving cutting out Murdo's heart (how he would have done this to himself I don't know), which he finds secretly satisfying, coming from a culture where blood sacrifice is alien and looked down upon. There's a pause for dramatic effect, and the day is saved, though with Teclis having imparted from the Slann spirits that this has likely only bought the world 20 years or so of dormancy. Looking for a safe spot to recover his powers and plot his journey back to Ulthuan, Teclis speculates on what future the events that have just taken place may precede, imagining he's likely to return to Albion in 20 years time with an army and a host of mages. This may be a nod to Dark Shadows, a global narrative campaign from a couple of years prior in 2001, which had seen (a then unnamed) Be'lakor escape his incorporeal madness and attempt to corrupt Albion's magical network, that the High Elves performed rather well in (with no mention of Teclis mind) set in IC 2520 (Warhammer's 'present' had rolled on a few years with the launch of 6th edition), though it was never directly followed up. Talking about global campaigns usually begets something, and in the same month as Giantslayer's release, Teclis would join the plot build up to the Storm of Chaos, Games Workshop's most ambitious and best remembered player driven narrative, to be covered in full in Part 4. Until then please let me know if you feel I've made any errors, or have any feedback for the series so far!View the full article

Foundations laid in Part 1 and Part 2, Great Cannon: Teclis continues, as the High Loremaster's life gets colourful, with a controversial new model, overhauled rules, and his first Black Library novel appearance. 6th edition Warhammer launched in 2000, and would give both the setting and game the most cohesive direction they'd ever seen, pioneered by Tuomas Pirinen, and continued the stewardship of Gav Thorpe. The artwork got moodier and more atmospheric, the background gloomier and more grounded, with a real sense of a world holding out on a knife-edge against its inevitable doom, and the game became more focused on armies of rank and file troops than the derided herohammer of previous editions; largely in line with what had proved successful for Warhammer 40,000 at the time. A lot of the game's wackier units and concepts, like the Empire War Wagon and Forest Goblin Spider Riders were jettisoned entirely. Looking back it was very much moody teenage Warhammer, which as an moody teenager at the time, I easily thought was the best thing Games Workshop had ever done. Photo taken from limited-edition-warhammer.blogspot.com Before we get to the 6th edition High Elf army book, and the light revamp that awaited Teclis inside, it's work quickly mentioning his this 5" tall resin collectors model of him, released by a nascent Forge World in 2001. In Forge World's dim and distant past preceding their current incarnation as Space Marine and Space Marine accessory specialists, and even the years they spent flogging super heavy vehicles and titans, they were once a fledgling branch of Games Workshop exclusively producing Imperial Guard tank turrets and, collectors busts and oversized display models of Warhammer and 40k characters. Their version of Teclis was sculpted by Simon Egan, and you can find out more about it and view better photos over on Limited Edition Warhammer Models. Released in 2002, the third Warhammer Armies: High Elves, is easily the most elegant publication Ulthuan's ever headlined, with, owing to 6th ed's trademark combination of style and substance, with beautiful new art seamlessly merging with the layout, and background written from an in universe perspective. Benefiting its new direction, 6th ed would pioneer a lot of bold changes, many of which would become staples, while others would be less well received and dialled back or forgotten about in subsequent editions - most of the work done with the High Elves falling into the latter category. Thankfully I'm not here to talk about Intrigue at Court, and Eltharion's the planned subject of my next Great Canon - beyond a new model and some novel rules, not a whole bunch changed about Teclis, who once again saw his and Tyrion's introductory story from White Dwarf 156 reproduced within the army book's pages. Like many returning characters in 6th edition, Teclis was treated to a new look and miniature, courtesy of Gary Morley, and would also grace the cover of the army book in his redesigned duds, in a piece by Geoff Taylor. Gary Morley's a sculptor who picks up a lot of slack, largely owing to some of the earliest Undead sculpts he did for Games workshop in the mid 90s, and the seemingly at random gulfs of quality between the models he put out; in my opinion he gets a bad rap, and he's probably my personal overall favourite Games Workshop sculptor of all time (I mean he sculpted the entire 3rd edition Blood Bowl range!). Teclis' 2002 mini is a very competent sculpt, but is might as well be George Lazenby when put up against the iconic impact of the original that preceded it. The vibe of 6th ed's High Elf rules can be summed up as quirky by no demand, and (after a quick blub putting him on par with Nagash) Teclis' were no exception - with his dependence on potions (made redundant by his use of the staff of Lileath, according to his White Dwarf 156 backstory, reprinted a few pages prior...), and Elric influence brought to the fore, with the first and last named appearances of Sariour and Charoi, a pair of medicinal libations, which on swigging would respectively focus Teclis towards magic or melee. As well as the above inspirations, being able to switch up Teclis' battlefield role could also have been a result of the changes made to wizards' profiles in 6th edition; in 4th and 5th lord level wizards came with pretty meaty combat profiles (though nowhere near that of a melee lord), but in 6th most of them were curbed to the stats of a rank and file trooper with a couple of extra wounds (and a point of toughness if they were lucky) - perhaps the two potions offered a solution to allow Teclis to maintain his previous melee prowess when combined with his powerful sword, but also be kept in line with other wizards at the time? Teclis' (and Tyrion's) rules also gave us the first insight into the effects of the indeterminate Curse of Aenarion, in a special rule of the same name that... bestowed a 2+ ward against their last wound suffered - damn, the elf gods dole it out harsh! The four magic items from previous editions carried over, their rules working differently than previous in line with 6th's revised mechanics, but all doing more or less the same thing, and combined with Teclis' High Loremaster and Channeller special rules, solidified him as hands down the best wizard in the game (at least until Lord Kroak turned up). In Lileath news, Lileath, according to the description of the Moon Staff, is also apparently the goddess of the moon, which makes perfect sense given the regalia adorning both Teclis and the staff. Tangential, but too way too good not to pass up reproducing here, the 6th ed High Elf book also included this Karl Kopinski piece of Aenarion facing down the Keeper of Secrets from his fated battle to secure the creation of the Great Vortex (later named as having been N'kari), which as well as being maybe one of the best artworks GW have ever put out, is also hows us what N'kari looks like (if retroactively), which is neat. April 2003 would see Teclis make his first appearance in a Black Library novel in a supporting role in Giantslayer, Bill King's final Gotrek and Felix book. In future instalments of Great Canon, I'm not likely to give too much coverage to characters' Black Library appearances, as they are intended to be supplementary to the established background, as presented in mainline GW publications, and often unintentionally contradict it; but as Giantslayer and Teclis' subsequent trilogy of staring novels (shared with Tyrion), are authored not only by not only his original creator, but also the definitive and, in my opinion greatest all time Warhammer writer, they're A-canon in my eyes. King's most illustrious (and most commonly associated with him) creations, Gotrek and Felix first showed up in 1989 in Geheimnisnacht, a pre Black Library short story the anthology Ignorant Armies, and from there would go on to star in fiction featured in anthologies, White Dwarf, and army books under King, and eventually headlining their own series of novels when the Black Library launched in 1999, beginning with Trollslayer. For reasons unknown, Giantslayer, the seventh novel in the series would be King's last, and his penultimate work staring the characters. King's departure felt pretty abrupt, and Giantslayer didn't read remotely like a climax to the stories he'd developed around the pair, just another rambunctious and very absorbing adventure. King's Gotrek and Felix novels take place some time between Imperial Calendar 2502 and 2505, in what at the time of the duo's first appearance was Warhammer's 'present day', placing them roughly 200 years after Teclis and Tyrion's rise to prominence during the Great War Against Chaos. Giantslayer is a very good novel, though is perhaps ignominiously best remembered for its opening scene, in which Teclis wakes up from a prophetic nightmare in the bedroom of his mansion, in the arms of a pair of twin elf courtesans, one of whom on disturbing he proceeds to magically roofy. In Teclis' dream, after witnessing a scene of Ulthuan sinking into the sea, he's warned by the spirit of Caledor Dragontamer that something called the Paths of the Old Ones have opened, and that Caledor and his fellow vortex-trapped mages are struggling to hold back the ensuring waves of magic weakening the barrier between reality and the Realm of Chaos. Caledor tells Teclis to seek out the Oracle of the Truthsayers, the drudaic leaders of the human tribes of Albion, an infrequently featured island off the coast of the Old World roughly analogous to Celtic Britain, and close the ancient pathways before they can further imperil the world. Named as such and greatly expand upon in Giantslayer, the Paths of the Old Ones, are the network of smaller interdimensional gates introduced by King in the 4th ed High Elf army book, that Caledor's creation of the Great Vortex was intended to shut down. Here they offer 'safe' pathways through the Realm of Chaos, allowing for near instantiations travel from one side of the Warhammer World to another, operating in a manner conveniently similar to Warhammer 40,000's Webway; and though more likely through accident than design, feeling like the foundation for Age of Sigmar's Realmgates, a connection I'd be eager explore in a future blog post. Teclis muses on the growing tide of Chaos and anarchy in the world, including the recent siege of Prague featured in preceding Gotrek and Felix books, and worries at the weakening of the magical waystones keeping Ulthuan afloat, tracing this to a growing concentration of Chaos energy in the far north, brought about by the weakening of the Great Vortex, and capable bringing about the apocalypse narrowly avoided under Caledor and Aenarion. After a quick exchange with Tyrion, shown here as effortlessly suave, capable and everything Teclis isn't - provoking the smallest hint of jealousy; Teclis then takes an uncomfortable griffon flight across Ulthuan, where he muses on his feeling of separation from other elves, and even going on to ask himself if they should be superseded by the younger races. Eventually landing at a remote site in the mountains, Teclis is confronted by stone gates forbidding any elf to enter on pain of death, which he immediately proceeds to ignore, easily dispelling the wards and heading inside. Finding himself in a chamber of seemingly Lustrian design, where after mediating his way through more defensive wards, Teclis ends up on the Paths of the Old Ones, where on encountering and proceeding to battle his way through his way through a warband of Chaos Warriors and beastmen, apparently marching towards Albion, he eventually chances upon Gotrek and Felix, who have unwittingly stumbled down a similar entrance to the Paths of The Old Ones while on a misadventure in Sylvannia; and helps the duo battle a gigantic Chaos Spawn. It's fun seeing Teclis's take on Gotrek and Felix and vice-versa, with Teclis analytically fascinated by Gotrek and his axe, Gotrek bombastically distrustful and with a lot of scorn, and Felix taken aback on meeting what to him is a historical figure from the Empire's reunification 200 years prior. Truthsayers of Albion by Dave Gallagher From there, Teclis takes a considerably more backseat role, steering Gotrek and Felix on a whirlwind tour of Albion, giving the most expansive window into the out of the way island since the appropriately irreverent 1986 scenario pack The Tragedy of McDeath. Along the way they encounter and befriend several of Albion's natives, including the aged Truthsayer Murdo Mac Baldoch, who agrees to take them to the Oracle. On our heroes and a small band of Murdo's tribespeople eventually reaching and rescuing from orcs the Oracle of the Truthsayers, revealed to be an elderly blind woman, it is revealed that Kelmain Blackstaff and Lhoigor Goldenrod, powerful twin Tzeentchian sorcerers and recurring Gotrek and Felix villains, last seen masterminding the siege of Prague, have sized control of the Paths of the Old Ones' central nexus, and are using them to launch flash invasions all over the globe, unwittingly threatening the stability of the entire planet in the process. Journeying to the ancient temple-city in which the nexus is housed, Felix observes Teclis having struck up a potentially romantic relationship with Siobhain, captain of the Oracle's maiden-guard (no relation to Alarielle's), and catching looks from a lot of the tribeswomen travelling with them. This is a nice touch, inverting the almost obligatory female attention typically handed out to Felix and other King's other protagonists; showing that even an apparently unexceptionally handsome elf is the opposite to humans; and giving an interesting window into Teclis' character and sympathetic fascination with humans - why did Teclis choose to spend 20 years in Altdorf, and why did he take so much persuading to stay in Ulthuan on his return...? Getting to the temple-city Teclis, Gotrek, Felix and their native companions find themselves caught in a battle between Kelmain and Lhoigor's Chaos Warriors and beastmen, and a massive horde of orcs and goblins, sneaking their way to the central chamber with the aid of Teclis' magic, though not without a few fights along the way. During these skirmishes Teclis is shown enjoying combat with a bloodlust he speculates originates from the blood of Aenarion; and to be as graceful as any elf in battle, the effects of his various potions (and not the staff of Lileath?) rendering him with only a barely noticeable limp on his left side. He's also no slouch in hand to hand combat either, apparently dropping roughly a quarter as many foes as Gotrek (in line with the heroic 4th and 5th edition statlines King may have been more familiar with from his time at the design studio, or even his 6th ed stats under Charoi). Confronting Lhoigor and Kelmain, Gotrek gets his title drop in, felling a colossal giant the pair have mutated and bound to their will, while Teclis finds himself surprised to be deadlocked in a magical dual with the Tzeentchian twins, observing a bond between them similar to his own with Tyrion, only much stronger. This is eventually brought to a halt when Gotrek minces Lhoigor, allowing Teclis to make short work of Kelmain. Realising the temple, and Paths of the Old Ones are about to collapse, Teclis sends Gotrek, Felix, Murdo and the surviving tribespeople down the Paths, and begins a ritual to seal off the nexus, cauterising the flow of corrupted energy into the world. On being told by the spirits of the nexus's mummified Slann guardians that he must give up his life and spirit to do so, Teclis unhesitatingly agrees, only for Murdo to conveniently reappear, having guided the others to safety through the Paths of the Old Ones, and to volunteer himself up in Teclis place, arguing he knows a lot more about the Paths of the Old Ones, and has a lot less years of life left in him. Teclis performs a particularly gory ritual (in keeping with everything we know about Slann) involving cutting out Murdo's heart (how he would have done this to himself I don't know), which he finds secretly satisfying, coming from a culture where blood sacrifice is alien and looked down upon. There's a pause for dramatic effect, and the day is saved, though with Teclis having imparted from the Slann spirits that this has likely only bought the world 20 years or so of dormancy. Looking for a safe spot to recover his powers and plot his journey back to Ulthuan, Teclis speculates on what future the events that have just taken place may precede, imagining he's likely to return to Albion in 20 years time with an army and a host of mages. This may be a nod to Dark Shadows, a global narrative campaign from a couple of years prior in 2001, which had seen (a then unnamed) Be'lakor escape his incorporeal madness and attempt to corrupt Albion's magical network, that the High Elves performed rather well in (with no mention of Teclis mind) set in IC 2520 (Warhammer's 'present' had rolled on a few years with the launch of 6th edition), though it was never directly followed up. Talking about global campaigns usually begets something, and in the same month as Giantslayer's release, Teclis would join the plot build up to the Storm of Chaos, Games Workshop's most ambitious and best remembered player driven narrative, which I've covered in full in Part 4. Please let me know if you feel I've made any errors here, or if you have any feedback for the series so far!View the full article