Below is the painting scheme for it and also the house rules that will be tested out on the battlefield.
The Mortis Engine
Once dead (properly dead), the remains of powerful Necromancers are enshrined within the Mortis Engine and borne to war by a host of spirits bound to the infernal device. A chariot of twisted bone surrounded by wailing Banshees and pulled by Undead revenants, it is a terrifying sight to behold. The Mortis Engine is a pure ethereal madness. Ghostly, and occasionally armoured, tendrils stretch upward at an angle, at the head of which are skeletal riders on armoured horses. At the centre of the engine stands the sinister, cloaked Corpsemaster, who is surrounded by a swarm of howling Banshee spirits.
Painting scheme
- Basecoat in Chaos Black.
- Drybrush entire model, except for the Corpsemaster, in Skull White.
- Paint the bone carriage in a succession of drybrushed layers of Baneblade Brown, Rakarth Flesh, Pallid Wych Flesh and finally, very lightly in Skull White.
- Paint the Black Knights and the Skeleton figurehead, also beneath the engine where it attaches to the ground, and the cursed ground directly below it, in Nihilakh Oxide and allow to dry. This will take some time.
- When its dry, wet brush the Black Knights and the Skeleton figurehead in Badab Black wash. DON'T let the wash run on to any of the connection point of the Mortis Engine or the cursed ground beneath it).
- When dry, drybrush the Skeleton figurehead very lightly in Skull White to add a highlight.
- Drybrush the base of the Black Knights in Ice Blue.
- Drybrush some of the Black Knights armour and shields in Tin Bitz.
- Paint the Spirits in watered down Temple Guard Blue (use a 2 to 1 ratio of paint to water).
- When this is dry, paint the recesses on the Spirits with watered down Naggaroth Night (again using a 2 to 1 ratio of paint to water).
House Rules for Warmaster
TROOP Type Attack Range Hits Armour Command Unit Size Points Min/Max
Mortis Engine - Machine 4/3 30 5 5+ - 1 300 - / 1
The Mortis Engine is a Machine for the sake of determining movement.
Mortis Engines cause Terror.
Special Rules
Blasphemous Tome: Vampire Counts spellcasters within 12cm of the Mortis Engine gain +1 to all die rolls when casting spells due to the presence of the Blasphemous Tome.
Banshee Swarm's Ghostly Howl: the spirits swarming around the Mortis Engine are Banshee's. During the Shooting Phase of the VC Players turn, the Mortis Engine can make a ghostly howl shooting attack at a single unit up to 30cm's away. This attack cannot be used for Stand and Shoot (the Reliquary covers this situation). No armour saves are permitted against this attack.
The Reliquary: At the start of the VC Players turn, roll 2D6 and add the current turn number to the result of the dice roll. The result is the range of the Mortis Engine's dark aura in centimetres. All enemy units within this range automatically take a shooting attack from the Mortis Engine due to the dark energies of the Reliquary. The shooting attack is the same value as the Ghostly Howl value (i.e. 3 shooting attacks), but armour saves are permitted against this attack. Moreover, due to this dark power, all friendly units within the dark aura's range ignore the first hit scored against them in the Combat Phase from melee. Finally, if the 2D6 result is a double, then the fell energies prove too powerful for the Mortis Engine to contain. The Mortis Engine explodes doing the 2D6 (plus the turn number) result in shooting attacks to all units, friend and foe, within that 2D6 (+ turn number) range in centimetres. Armour saves against this attack. For example, on turn 3 the 2D6 roll result's is two 2's, all units within 7cm (2+2+3 = 7) immediately take 7 shooting attacks. If a hero is attached to a unit that is destroyed by the explosion, that hero becomes a casualty and is removed from play. Also, with the exception of the VC General, all VC heroes within the explosion's range are overcome by dark energies and are required to roll a saving throw to determine if the fell sorcery that makes them is destroyed by this overpowering dark energy release. Roll a single die, on a roll of 1 to 3, the hero is overcome and removed from play as a casualty, a roll of 4-6 means that the hero is unaffected.
Update Note 15Dec14: The Mortis Engine is a Machine as defined within the Warmaster Rules.
