CCXXV. Witch Hunters: Completed Warband

The other half of my Witch Hunter Warband is armed and ready.  

WITCH HUNTER CAPTAIN

 

Driven by fanaticism, Witch Hunter Captains are obsessed with cleansing Mordheim and bringing the justice of Sigmar to all. Carrying the edict of the Grand Theogonist himself, they have the divine right to judge and execute warlocks, witches, Chao sworshippers... in fact all who dare to oppose them.

The head of the warband was converted from a last generation plastic Empire state trooper with Perry knight arm swap. The hood and beard were sculpted, keeping him in theme with the rest of the guys.

*

WITCH HUNTERS

 

Witch Hunters are members of the grim Order of Witch Hunters, dedicated to eradicating Chaos and all its minions. Usually they prowl the Old World individually trying and executing the enemies of Sigmar, but the situation in Mordheim requires them to band together.

Like their leader, these are state troop bodies with Perry arms, and sculpted heads.

*

WARHOUNDS

 

Witch Hunters often keep packs of ferocious hunting dogs. With their huge jaws and powerful bite, they are perfect for hunting down (and tearing apart) any heretics, mutants, deviants and witches.

The warband's hounds are three metal Warlord mastiffs and one Celt warhound.

*

GAOLER

 

Like my Flagellants, this is a reworked older mini. The big guy was a Folda Ghoul Gaoler in his former life.

Rules profile for the Gaoler, written by Tuomas Pirinen for our MordheimMMXIX campaign:

30 gold crowns to hire +15 gold crowns upkeep

Servants of the Church, the Gaolers have the duty of extracting confessions from witches, heretics, soothsayers Chaos worshippers, idolators, fornicators and blasphemous poets in the cells under the great temples of Sigmar. Forbidden by the scriptures to spill blood, the gaoler instead is a master of inflicting terrible pain with fire, iron rods, and ingenious devices of persuasion that break bones and internal organs of those put to question. The are taught how to inflict excruciating pain with just their own massive bodies.
Gaolers are recruited as children and brought up with absolute loyalty to the Church and firm faith that their terrible methods of interrogation are for the greater good. Massive men (and it is rumoured, even a few women) are selected for their size and strength in youth, and they are an imposing, forbidding sight. By decree of the Grand Theogonist, they are fed from the kitchens of the church and encouraged to gain massive bulk and strength, which is useful for their grim work. Gaolers’ faces are hidden by hoods or bay forbidding masks, as the Holy Law decrees that the justice facing the heretics must be faceless and impartial.
In Mordheim, the services of Gaolers are much in demand by the grim order of the Witch Hunters, who have many heretics to try and interrogate. Few have survived the terrible embrace of the Gaoler and lived to tell the tale.

May be hired: The Witch Hunters can hire a Gaoler

Rating: Gaoler increases the warband’s rating by 18 points, plus 1 point for each experience point he has.

Weapons/Armor: Gaoler can be armed with a heavy chain of keys and locks (counts as a flail) or with two hammers/clubs. Gaoler wears no armor.

SPECIAL RULES

Torturer’s Grapple: Gaolers are experts at inflicting pain and restraining heretics. Instead of using his normal attacks the Gaoler can make one grapple attack that deals no direct damage in melee. Instead, if the attack hits, the target must roll under his or her strength (with -1 penalty) or become immobile and writhing in indescribable agony, unable to do anything at all (fight in melee, use items, cast spells or shoot) until in the beginning of the next melee phase provided he rolls under his strength with -1 penalty again to see if escape is possible. If successful, the model can act as normal (though it still counts as being in melee with the Gaoler).
Other models in Gaoler’s warband can attack the grappled enemy as normal, but the Gaoler cannot do anything else except hold the target. Enemies not alive and/or immune to pain (such as Undead or Daemons) are not affected by this attack, and neither are any Large models who are too large to grapple.

Devout: As long as there is a Sigmarite Priest in a warband, the Gaoler will not leave it even if he is not paid his upkeep cost, though he will not fight in the next battle until he is paid, as he has to pass on a tithe to the Church of Sigmar.

Inured to pain: The infernal heat of the torture chamber, devout self-mutilation and the massive bulk of the Gaolers give them a degree of resistance to pain. All Injury rolls against the Gaoler suffer -1 penalty. Ignore Injury results of 0 as if no damage was done at all.

Hatred: fired by the sermons of the senior priests of the Cult of Sigmar, the Gaolers hate all the members of Skaven, Possessed, Carnival of Chaos and Undead war bands.

*

Making of this warband coincided with me discovering some thematically fitting music. If you like the idea od metal heavily infused with medieval flavour, check out Apocalypse Orchestra's The End is Nigh. Went through the album several times while converting and painting the Witch Hunters (with some, also fitting, sinister dungeon synth in between).

* 

Mordheim MMXIX logo was designed by Tammy Nicholls.