Along with the usual additions of thematic battleplans, Paths, and enhancements, the upcoming Path to Glory supplement Blighted Wilds will enable you to erect your own Landmark of Ghyran – a mystical monument, floating metalith, or ironclad bastion that supports nearby units with special abilities of your choosing.
This is an excellent place to flex your creative muscles and try out a new hobby experience that’s markedly different from regular army painting. The sinister shrine below, for instance, was custom-made by the Warhammer Studio by combining parts from the Nexus Chaotica, the Feculent Gnarlmaw, and all sorts of knick-knacks from around the workshop to create a Nurgle-aligned altar.
Giving your creations appropriate rules couldn’t be easier, as Landmarks of Ghyran use a system similar to the Anvil of Apotheosis found in your battletomes. Setting your destiny point limit gives you the terrain’s general size and points cost when used in games, and you then select from a wide range of abilities that can drastically change how the terrain piece functions.
Our Nurglite shrine, as an impressively large nexus of decay, is a Spectacular Edifice that can spend up to 20 destiny points for the battle profile cost of 70 points– you can go even bigger with a Breathtaking Monolith. The Plague Lord’s natural resilience makes it a good fit for the Artisan-Crafted Altar form – raising its health from 8 to 12 for a comfortable 4 DP – and it can be further bolstered by the Toughened Exterior origin that reduces the Rend characteristic of incoming attacks by 1. Nice and hardy, as Grandfather Nurgle would want it. If you want to save some DP you can also give your Landmark a flaw, like making it Decrepit and Crumbling so it slowly falls apart and takes damage during battle.
We could choose to make our altar a platform for a chosen Infantry Hero to stand upon, turning them into a Curator for that particular piece of terrain and granting unique abilities, such as improving their casting and chanting rolls, or an escape tunnel that lets them pop up somewhere else on the battlefield.
CURATOR TUNNEL
Once Per Battle, Enemy Movement Phase
An escape tunnel is a sensible option for any discerning Curator.
Effect: If this terrain feature has a Curator that was not placed on it this turn, set up the Curator on the battlefield, wholly within 3" of a terrain feature and not in combat. That unit is no longer the Curator.
Instead, we’re envisioning it as a portal to Nurgle’s realm that belches forth malevolent energies. These bolts of entropic decay manifest as a ranged attack we add to its warscroll for 3 DP, before spending the rest of our points on the powerful Hidden Within ability – letting reinforcements warp right onto the field once per battle.
LANDMARK OF GHYRAN
The following universal terrain abilities apply to this terrain feature (Terrain, 1.2): Cover, Impossible
KEYWORDS: FACTION TERRAIN [GRAND ALLIANCE], [FACTION]
RANGED WEAPONS
Magical Bolts
Crit (2 Hits), Companion
Rng: 12”
Atk: 3
Hit: 4+
Wnd: 3+
Rnd: 1
Dmg: D3
TOUGHENED EXTERIOR
Passive
This landmark is formed of highly resilient materials.
Effect: Subtract 1 from the Rend characteristic of weapons used for attacks that target this terrain feature.
HIDDEN WITHIN
Once Per Battle, End of Your Turn (1)
More warriors pour forth from your Landmark of Ghyran.
Declare: Pick a friendly non-UNIQUE unit that has been destroyed to be the target.
Effect: Set up a replacement unit with half the number of models from the target unit (rounding up) wholly within 7" of this terrain feature and more than 3" from all enemy units.
If the target is a HERO, WAR MACHINE or MONSTER, you must spend an additional command point to use this ability. If you do so, set up a replacement unit with a number of damage points allocated to it equal to half its Health characteristic wholly within 7" of this terrain feature and more than 3" from all enemy units instead.
This is only one of the ways you can build a terrain piece, and the more creative you are, the more ways you’ll find to personalise your Path to Glory army even further. How about a giant floating conch that powers up your Idoneth Deepkin wizards as it drifts around the ethersea, or a hastily assembled watch tower deployed by your Cities of Sigmar’s Castelite formation? The Gloomspite Gitz would love a hidden tunnel entrance inside a stone effigy that spirits their heroes around the battlefield, wouldn’t they?
The tinkering doesn’t stop at terrain features, either, as Blighted Wilds also lets you create entire custom, personalised Regiments of Renown to augment your forces. By using generalised profiles for different kinds of infantry, cavalry, and support units, and simplified custom heroes to lead your regiment, you can really let your imagination run wild and envision companies of warriors never before seen in the ranks of your faction.
Frankly, there’s far too much to cover there for one article, so you’ll have to pick up your own copy of Path to Glory: Blighted Wilds to see the enticing options available to your Regiments of Ghyran. It goes up for pre-order this Saturday, so you won’t have long to wait – and make sure to show us what you’re cooking up!
