The Gloomforest Spawn: An unofficial AoS faction

I like a lot keep going

 

@Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl

How do you / are you managing to edit Warscrolls? Looks like you have the graphic template but can somehow edit all the stat numbers and words???

 

With the magic of Jar Jar Binks.

Right @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl ?

 

This. It’s quite a nifty Warscroll maker I discovered when searching to see if a Warscroll maker actually existed on the net, and it gives pretty accurate results and saves a huge amount of time compared to doing the whole thing manually.

And don’t worry @NIGHTBRINGER there have been no Jar Jar-esque accidents going on while I’ve been using it... (yet)

 

Hello again one and all, I've been a bit busy of late what with my Birthday and all, but here is another warscroll I've cooked up for you, for the Bloodcopse Armiger teased in the previous Warscroll entry.

Bloodcopse Armigers are the kings of the individual Gloomforests they dwell in, and all of the Gloomforest Spawn who inhabit an Armiger's Gloomforest have to pay homage to him, or else risk being either slain or driven away by the Armiger's servants. Sometimes paranoid, often arrogant and always brutal, Armigers detest any creature, living or undead, that enters their domain without their permission, and will quickly call their Bloodcopse bodyguards to arms. As they embark to punish the interlopers, they are joined by many hundreds of lesser Gloomforest Spawn, all of which worship them as the chosen of the Triple God. In battle Armigers crush their way through any who dare to resist them, slicing their finely-carved blades through ranks of lesser troops like an axe through a tree trunk, while even mighty beasts are seen as nought but irritants as they too are cut down with ease.

Enjoy, and any feedback as always is much appreciated!

P.S. The values for the Damage of the Vorpal Sword and the To Hit roll for the Scythe of the Triple God are supposed to be asterisks in the style of the sign of deteriorating values in GW Warscrolls, but they end up as being rather tiny on here.

 

I found the same when I was messing around with it. Awesome Warscroll!

 

Thanks - I try to make them as close to what GW would write as possible. Just to check, are any of the warscrolls I've released so far too overpowered or underpowered in any way? I just want these to be as balanced as possible to produce an unofficial army that can be strong but is also fun to play with and doesn't whitewash every opponent it meets.

 

I like the Bloodcopse, but he does feel like he needs just a little bit more (but what would his points cost be? I’m assuming around the 220-260 mark being a bigger guy?
Maybe bump it up a little and add a 1 use per battle ability - perhaps a small summon or attack boost? Especially as he’s not a spell caster.

 

You mean the Armiger? I'm intending for him to be a bit cheaper monster, so he won't be the best of the Gloomforest Characters in Open Play. I'm intending for him to be around the same as a Treelord pointswise in Matched Play, as he's really the evil counterpart of the Treelord - although remarkably different in profile - more or less what you mentioned in cost. I'm going to be introducing something even bigger later on, so keep your eyes on the treeline...

 

Ahhh I see, in that case I think he’s pretty balanced
I will be watching

 

It's been too long! Here's another custom-made Warscroll, and this time, it's for the Bloodcopse Preceptor!

Armigers are mighty champions of the Gloomforest Spawn, but even they have to bow to the Preceptors. A Preceptor rules over a collection of Gloomforests known as a Bloodcopse, and each of these Gloomforests is governed by an Armiger who has to pay tribute to the Preceptor. If they refuse, these challengers are more often than not turfed out by the combination of the Preceptor's far greater age and experience and the military strength of those Armigers who remain loyal to him. Some Preceptors have lived for over a thousand years, and remember the Mortal Realms before the rise of Chaos, and though selfish and often greedy, they still believe that the Realms were a better place before the abominations of the Pantheon of Five first materialised. Seen as the greatest servants of the Triple God, the Preceptors are honoured as living demigods by the many smaller Spawn that follow them, and each of these smaller creatures is willing to let their often merciless master steal their own Wilderessence souls to prolong his lifespan, for they see it as merely their duty to the Triple God, and nothing will sway them from such a mindset. Preceptors are not only huge creatures, standing over the height of five men, but are also brilliant combatants, powerful magicians and cunning generals, who advance into the fray knowing exactly how they will lead their smaller kin to victory.



Just so you know, I'm intending the Preceptor to be around 350-450 points, as he is an incredibly tanky character with not only a 4+ Armour Save and a 5+ Ward Save but also a spell that allows him to sacrifice smaller minions to heal himself during the game, making him incredibly durable.

 

As I'm feeling generous, I'll present to you another Warscroll, this time for the Gloomforest Unjoined that were teased in the Preceptor Warscroll:

Gloomforest Unjoined represent the vast majority of Gloomforest Spawn. Little more than gangling pale humanoids in appearance, the Unjoined all live for the one moment in which they are selected for the Rite of Joining, the ritualised practice of magically fusing Gloomforest spirits into a suit of hardened armour made from one of the many long-deceased trees in the Gloomforest and elevating their status to that of Blight-Revenant. Of course, the fusing process is not without danger, and indeed some lose all semblance of intelligence from their minds and have only the savage desire to torture and kill remaining, becoming vicious Spite-Revenants. Others become too infused with the power of the Triple God and begin to meld with the darkness in which the Rite of Joining occurs, becoming stealthy Night-Revenants.

Because there are so many Unjoined in even a single Gloomforest, the Gloomforest Arbiters have no choice but to select only a few Unjoined to undergo the Rite in order to ensure that the crafting of the Revenant armour suits is done sustainably with respect to the Gloomforest, and in every Rite there are those spirits that fail to measure up to the standard required for joining. These particular individuals have no choice but to remain Unjoined for the rest of their days, a fate seen as a humiliation by all other Spawn. As a result, they are particularly bitter towards not only intruders, but also other Spawn. However, when their home is threatened by interlopers, they willingly join together with those who have not yet been tested to form seething masses of malevolent eyes and grasping clawed hands that surge out from the hidden depths of Gloomforests to seize unwary trespassers. They then drag their struggling foes back into the depths, where they vent their anger upon their stunned and transfixed prey such that they are never seen again.



The Unjoined, as you can probably guess, are the chaff unit of the Gloomforest Spawn, designed to be taken in large units and just generally to swamp the enemy and be an expendable nuisance. They can however be useful as a shock unit if you either keep them in a Gloomforest or just behind one so that if an enemy unit strays too close, they could be immediately swamped with bodies in your turn as the Unjoined unit surges across the Gloomforest and into combat when your opponent would think that they are at a safe distance away from their unit. A really sneaky tactic would be to keep a big mass of them by a Preceptor at all times, so that the Preceptor can kill a few of them with Steal Wilderssence to heal himself whenever he takes a big hit and can then respawn them with his Mortis Stave. This, coupled with his 5+ Ward Save and 14 wounds would make him extremely resilient.

 

Here's an interesting Grand Alliance thread about a Revenant-based Sylvaneth army:
https://www.tga.community/forums/topic/2729-sylvaneth-revevant-themed-army/

I'm imagining evil versions of the converted Treemen as the Gloomforest Armiger and Preceptor but with the branches on the head hanging down like a beard rather than sticking up like hair, and of course different equipment.

 

Wow, it's been a long time! I apologise in advance to all those who showed interest in this unofficial army project in the past only for me to stop halfway through, but in between working on two other unofficial AoS armies (both of which I'll be showcasing some Warscrolls for in the future), the interest returned to this project. Here's a new Warscroll for the Spawn detailing the Night Revenants, a missile unit that can pull some nifty tricks on an unsuspecting opponent:

Night-Revenants are rarely spoken of in any voice other than a harsh whisper among the Gloomforest Spawn, for other Spawn see them as individuals who were recipients of the Triple God's anger and contempt. In reality, however, Night-Revenants are the victims of nothing more than accidental calamities that occurred during their Rite of Joining. Perhaps they endured their Rite beneath the glare of a malevolent moon, were saturated with too much Wilderessence or reacted badly with the magic used to complete the joining. Regardless, all now are permanently trapped between the states of the physical and spectral, and are never able to remain fully within either. At times they are almost fully visible, the only thing distinguishing them from Blight-Revenants being the long Darkthorn Bows they use to stalk intruders from afar, while at other times they almost completely meld into the perpetual darkness of night and shadow, their glinting red eyes being the only sign they exist at all. For their part Night-Revenants possess a haughty, egotistical disposition, for once they become used to the perpetual shifting of their forms, they see their condition as an additional blessing from the Triple God himself, rather than an affliction, for it has often saved them from sword blows and arrows at crucial moments. They view Spite-Revenants as being far worse off than themselves, knowing that they are little more than mindless predators, and while they look upon Blight-Revenants with more respect, they are ignorant of how useful the Night Revenants' gifts can be. On the battlefield Night-Revenants lurk behind cover, sniping the unwary from afar with their bows and using their wicked claws to rake any foes that get too close. Sometimes, if their regiments all begin to slip from reality together, they can even use this to pass directly through intervening terrain to ambush enemies under a false sense of security and quickly end their unspoken terror.

 

My first impression of this army was more like this:






(link)

 

So the theme (?) of this Army:

In a dark, decayed, tulgy wood, Beware! ...there an army of twisted, rotten, black-hearted trees lurks and lurches.

19 words.

Does that do a fair job summing it up, have I left out anything important?

 

That’s certainly a great-looking unofficial army, although my army list has more different tree units and no Elf units - it’s a direct evil version of Sylvaneth that moves the Revenants into an army with more fitting background for them, as they just don’t mix well with the Wood Elf models like the Dryads and Treeman, and those based on them like the Branchwych.

Pretty much

 

As all AoS armies today have Allegiance Abilities (akin to Warhammer Fantasy army special Rules), I’ve developed one for the Spawn:

Gloomforest Spawn Allegiance Ability

Harvest Wilderessence: Each unit with the Gloomforest Spawn keyword that ends its turn within 6” of a Gloomforest receives a Wilderessence Point, which is added to its own pool of Wilderessence. A unit can spend Wilderessence Points from their pool in the Movement phase by adding 1 to their Movement Value for every Wilderessence point they spend. Alternatively, it may spend them in either the Shooting or Combat phase by adding 1 to all wound rolls for one of their missile or melee weapons for every Wilderessence Point they spend. If a unit has no Wilderessence Points, it may not use this ability until it receives at least one. If a unit is within 6” of multiple Gloomforests, it receives a Wilderessence Point for each one at the end of its turn. Each unit may spend one or more Wilderessence Points in only a single phase per turn, and may only spend points from their own pool.

Given that they’re not going to be teleporting around the place like their Order cousins the Sylvaneth, the Spawn need something else to make them viable in the tournament scene. From reading allegiance abilities of other armies shared on Warhammer Community with preview articles, I wanted to continue to revolve the main tactics of the Spawn around the Gloomforests, so I developed this points system that can give greater boosts to their movement, missile and melee capabilities the longer they stay near their beloved Gloomforests. I’m going to be reworking some of the abilities in existing Warscrolls I’ve added in this thread to work more closely with this mechanic, so keep your eyes peeled, and future Warscrolls will also be influenced by this mechanic to help tie the whole army together.